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Gabcast! africa news today #2

10 Essential Elements Your Site Must Have

Whenever business dies down a bit or you find yourself with some time on your hands, take advantage of the lull by going through your site with a fine-toothed comb. The simpler and more user-friendly your site is, the more sales it will generate. It’s as simple as that. So you should always be thinking about how you can remove any unnecessary clutter, confusing links or visual eyesores to let your sales copy stand out.

In order to figure out what works and what doesn’t, below you’ll find a list of the 10 critical elements your site should include:

Essential Element #1: An Attention-Grabbing Headline. The first thing people see when they visit your site should be a compelling headline that describes the most important benefit your product or service offers. The headline is the key element of your site. It’s what will persuade visitors to stick around and check out what you have to offer.

Your headline should be well-written: It should be clear, concise and to the point. It should also be enticing-you want to pique your visitors’ interest and make them eager to learn more about what you’re selling. You can do this by emphasizing what your product or service can do for them.

Once you’ve crafted a compelling headline, format it so that it stands out from the rest of the text. It should be the first thing that catches your visitors’ attention. Use a large font size, bolding, italics, a different color-whatever suits the style of your site.

Essential Element #2: User-Friendly Navigation. Nothing will drive customers away faster than confusing or complicated navigation! Your customers should be able to know where they are on your site at all times, and should easily be able to find pages they’ve already visited.

Make sure your navigation bar or menu is clearly accessible and easy to understand. It should be exactly the same on every page of your site, and be located in exactly the same place. Your customers shouldn’t have to hunt for it.
Remember: When it comes to navigation, consistency is the key!

Essential Element #3: Effective Salescopy. The words you use to describe your product and its benefits are the key to the success of your business. Your salescopy is the only contact you’ll have with the vast majority of your visitors. That’s why you have to make the most of it!

Your salescopy should:

• Immediately draw the reader in with exciting benefits and enticing copy so you can lead them toward the sale.
• Establish your credibility-nobody will buy from you if they don’t feel they can trust you.
• Describe the benefits of your product or service and explain why your visitors need it.

Essential Element #4: A Clear “Call to Action.” If you want people to buy your products or services, you have to tell them how to do it. Don’t leave them guessing. You have to explain exactly what you want them to do, and you have to make it easy for them to do it.

If you want them to buy a product, present them with a call to action like this:
“CLICK HERE NOW to order your six-month supply of Product X.”

Provide your customers with clear, easy-to-understand instructions on how to make a purchase, and let them know what they can expect when they click on the link that leads them to the order page.

Essential Element #5: Well-Chosen Images. Images can really help people visualize your products or services and their benefits. Be sure to include photos of every product you sell. Attractive product shots can really boost your sales.

If you have a lot of products for sale, use “thumbnails” that link to larger images. This will make your pages load more quickly. If you’re selling electronically delivered products such as ebooks or software, you may want to create simulated product shots to represent them. This makes your product more tangible to your visitors.

Essential Element #6: A Strong Opt-In Offer. Most first-time visitors don’t make a purchase. However, the fact that they’ve come to your site in the first place means they’re at least curious about what you have to offer.

In order to pursue a relationship with these potential customers, you should collect their e-mail addresses by encouraging them to subscribe to a free newsletter or a free download. This will give you the chance to send them updates and information, develop relationships with them, and enable them to trust you enough to buy from you.

Opt-in offers like this are a great way to turn visitors into customers and really maximize your sales. Your opt-in offer should be clearly linked to each page of your site or, if possible, actually included on each page. One less click means losing fewer potential subscribers.

Essential Element #7: Testimonials. The best way to establish credibility is to provide evidence that your product or service really works. And the best way to do that is to include testimonials from satisfied customers that explain how your product or service has helped improve their lives.

Be sure to include the names of your satisfied customers as well as where they live. You should also post a small picture of them beside their testimonials. This will personalize their messages, add credibility to their statements and demonstrate that they’re real people who’ve enjoyed real benefits from your product.

For instant credibility, it’s a good idea to have a few of your best testimonials featured right on your homepage. However, you should also have a separate testimonials page as well. The more satisfied customers you can show to reluctant shoppers, the better.

Essential Element #8: An “About Us” page. People are often hesitant to buy things online because they miss the personal interaction of doing business face to face. The best way to overcome their reluctance is to include an “About Us” page that provides information about you, your staff and your business. Be sure to include pictures of yourself and your staff members. This shows your customers they’re doing business with real people and will help ease any worries they might have.

Essential Element #9: An FAQ Page. It’s a good idea to include a “Frequently Asked Questions” page on your site. This is where you’ll list the questions most commonly asked by your customers and provide answers to them. It allows your visitors immediate access to the answers they need before they’ll consider buying your product or service.

Essential Element #10: Your Contact Info. In order to close sales and establish your credibility, you have to provide full contact information on your site. This includes your mailing address as well as fax and phone numbers. Businesses that only post e-mail addresses on their sites come across as unprofessional and possibly even disreputable.

And make sure your contact information is clearly visible on every page of your site. This will make it easy for customers to know how to reach you if they want to get more information or buy a product.

Final Thoughts

To keep your site in top form, it helps to review your site every now and then and create a list of “must do” actions you can take to optimize its performance. Figure out where you can get rid of nonessential clutter and simplify the sales process. Don’t forget, streamlined sites generate more sales.

Also take the time to browse through other sites (including those of your competitors) to see how your site compares and get ideas for improvement. What do you like about these other sites? What do you find annoying about them? These visits will help you get an idea of what to include and what to avoid on your own site.

After you’ve made some improvements to your site, ask some friends to go through it. How hard is it for them to get from page to page? Can they easily find their way back to pages they’ve already visited? Are they confused by any aspect of your sales process? Do they find your site appealing? Remember: You can never do too much testing.

Gabcast! africa news today #1

8 Opt-In Offers Your Visitors Can’t Refuse

These days, consumers know that their personal information is gold, and they won’t give it to you unless you give them a really compelling reason to opt in to your list. And it’s definitely worth your while to give them the incentive because a good opt-in e-mail list will start generating profits for you immediately–and continue to do so well into the future.

Your opt-in incentive should:

• Offer specific benefits
• Relate to the reason people are visiting your site in the first place
• Give visitors a reason to look forward to your e-mails or keep returning to your site

There are tons of different incentives you can use to encourage people to give you their personal information, but not every offer will suit every website or business.

Most people think of newsletters right off the bat, for instance. But for some businesses, a free newsletter just won’t work. Suppose, for example, that your site sells washers and dryers. You’re going to be hard pressed to come up with interesting, relevant information about laundry for your free newsletter every month.

Before you start a newsletter, think about how much relevant information you can deliver to your audience and how much time you have to put it together so it can be delivered regularly. If it turns out that a newsletter isn’t a good fit for your business, here are eight other ways to collect your prospects’ e-mail addresses:

1. Offer a free course.
If you have a lot of know-how in your field, you can turn your “expert” status into a free multipart course. Ask yourself what kind of information visitors are seeking when they come to your site and what you can teach them.

Your course can contain text, audio, graphics–even video–whatever suits the material you’re delivering. Just send your subscribers a link to the web page where your course can be found. Unlike e-mail, your website doesn’t put any restrictions on how much rich media you can feature.

Once you’ve developed the course, you can use delayed autoresponders to e-mail it to your subscribers at specified intervals, exposing them to your business and your offer repeatedly. And the best part is, you’re contacting them with information they’ve specifically requested.

2. Offer a free e-book.
An e-book doesn’t need to be hundreds of pages long to be useful. An information-packed e-book can be as short as eight to 10 pages and still provide major value for your opt-in subscribers.

You can also make your e-book viral by encouraging your customers to send your e-book to others. Your message can spread like wildfire–and help you attract tons of highly targeted, potential customers.

3. Offer downloadable articles.
If your site contains a lot of useful, original, content-rich articles, one of the best ways to collect e-mail addresses is to require that visitors to your site opt in to your list if they want to download those articles in full.

As long as you offer useful information and as long as the downloadable articles contain something that people can’t get for free in the version you’ve posted on your site, you can expect to get a ton of sign-ups using this strategy.

Now maybe you’re not comfortable writing, or your business isn’t suited to a written opt-in incentive. The following opt-in offers don’t require much writing at all:

4. Offer other “downloadables.”
Articles aren’t the only items you can offer for download on your website. Why not offer e-cards, screen savers, desktop wallpapers or templates that your visitors can use in exchange for their opt-in information?

For instance, if you sell books about pet care, you can offer e-cards or printable greeting cards with photos of cute animals. Or if you sell beach home rentals, you could easily create a screen saver with pictures of some of your most beautiful destinations.

You can even offer a free monthly subscription or members-only area for these special items.

5. Offer a regular contest, puzzle or game.
Depending on the kind of business you run, there’s a multitude of different options for this type of opt-in incentive. Some examples include:

• A contest to win one of your products. But remember, don’t offer to give away the primary product you sell. People will enter the contest hoping to win–and leave your site without considering an actual purchase.
• A contest to win an item (or a coupon for a percentage off an item) related to your product. Say you sell party favors–hats, toys and streamers. You could hold a contest to win a free birthday cake from a bakery in your area or a coupon for a party rental place.
• A weekly puzzle, game or quiz. The type of puzzle is up to you. You can set it up as a contest and draw a name from the winning entries to award a prize, or you can require that people give you their opt-in information to get the answer.

6. Take a survey.
Surveys give you a good excuse to appear in relevant newsgroups, forums or related newsletters and provide a link to the survey page on your website. Let participants know you’ll send them the results if they give you their name and e-mail address. Because participants have to come to your site to fill out the survey, you should be able to take advantage of all that new traffic and generate a significant number of new opt-ins.

7. Offer a members-only forum or discussion board.
Members-only forums and discussion boards can be a major draw for people in niche markets. You can step in and provide a place where like-minded people meet and discuss their hobbies or their concerns.

Besides attracting opt-ins, this will also give you a great opportunity to learn more about your customers and what kinds of products or services you can develop to further meet their needs–and grow your business. You’ll need to establish some community rules and moderate the forum, but in the meantime, your subscribers will be creating valuable content for you.

8. Offer members-only specials.
One of the easiest ways to encourage visitors to opt in with their personal information is to offer them a chance to save money. It can be as simple as something like this: “Do you want to receive our special MEMBERS-ONLY offers? Every month we bring exclusive deals to our subscribers that you can’t get anywhere else! To start saving now, just sign up below.” This is a great way to drive opt-ins and sales and to make your potential customers feel appreciated before they even buy your products.

There are many different opt-in incentives available–you just need to apply a little creativity to choose the one that’s right for you and your target market. The first step in creating a solid opt-in strategy is to consider the people you want to opt in to your list. Just as the best businesses are created in response to the needs of a specific niche market, so are the best opt-in offers. With some customizing, any one of these ideas could build you a highly targeted opt-in list.

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ucked in an alley off Manhattan’s financial district is a darkened storefront dotted with eight futuristic-looking white pods. Reclining in the capsules are two Wall Streeters who’ve ducked in for a quick $14 noontime snooze at MetroNaps. The startup operates two New York locations and an outpost in Vancouver, British Columbia, and is expanding to Australia and the United Kingdom. It also leases sleep pods to companies offering nap rooms as the latest fringe benefit in a 24/7 world.

Some call it the sleep economy – a burgeoning $20 billion business of aromatherapy pillows, high-tech beds, face masks, biorhythmic alarm clocks, and, yes, naps. The market is growing because, frankly, we’re exhausted and sleeping less each year.

The National Institutes of Health recommends seven to eight hours of sleep a night for adults. But we typically get just 6.1 hours of shut-eye. Why? Our always-on, BlackBerryed, bad-news-continuously-streamed-to-your-desktop world keeps us up at night. “It’s hard to wind down and fall asleep,” says Michael Breus, WebMD’s resident sleep expert. “From terrorist threats to overwork, people are stressed out. When you’re stressed out, you don’t sleep.”

MetroNaps is just one of hundreds of companies emerging to profit from sleeponomics. The ZZZ-deprived are a huge market: An estimated 40 million Americans suffer from some sort of sleep disorder.

Sleep is the new sex, it’s said, with Ambien filling in for Viagra. (No surprise that drug companies raked in nearly $3 billion last year on 43 million prescriptions for sleeping pills.) The economic toll of all this tossing and turning is $50 billion in lost productivity and $16 billion in health-care costs, according to the National Institutes of Health.

It’s an epidemic, and while beds and meds may drive the sleep train, there’s plenty of room aboard for innovative players.

The idea for MetroNaps hit founder Arshad Chowdhury while he was working long hours at a New York investment bank. “I saw a lot of my colleagues falling asleep at their desks or sneaking off to the bathroom to sleep,” he says. “My instinct was that people obviously weren’t sleeping enough.” By 2001 he’d escaped to Carnegie Mellon’s MBA program, where he toiled for two years on a napping business plan. The first MetroNaps, a six-podder in the Empire State Building, opened in 2004.

Chowdhury’s hunch was backed up by more than two decades of studies showing that napping can sharpen job performance. Still, Chowdhury says his most difficult obstacle is overcoming the stigma associated with napping, especially in hypermanic New York. “It’s like opening a gym in the ’70s or selling bottled water in the ’80s,” he says.

But that hasn’t stopped wannabe Gordon Gekkos from forking over $65 for monthly memberships. “After lunch, I would fight the sleep for a few hours,” says bank examiner Jose Stevenson, describing his pre-MetroNaps routine. Now he’s a member and follows up a working lunch with a 20-minute snooze two or three times a week. “Once my body became accustomed to it, I got addicted,” he says. “Now I feel awake and refreshed in the afternoon, like I do at 9 a.m.”

New York MetroNaps franchisee Robert Carrillo insists he’s hit on the perfect business opportunity – providing a safe haven to catch 40 winks, a break from workday stress. “We’re going into a completely untapped market, and napping truly benefits people,” he says. “It’s just a matter of time before this really catches on.”

It remains to be seen whether napping ends up being 2006’s version of the oxygen bar. But Chowdhury has already opened a MetroNaps at Vancouver International Airport and taken orders for second-generation nap pods at $6,950 a pop from companies like Madison Avenue advertising firm StrawberryFrog. The Savannah College of Art and Design in Georgia even ordered four pods for napping students. MetroNaps also aims to attract franchisees, for a $25,000 fee, in other urban markets. Carrillo, meanwhile, says so many drowsy denizens of Wall Street are dropping in for impromptu catnaps that he might have to start offering pod time by appointment only.

The MetroNap model of affordable siestas is on the relatively low end of the sleep scale. Toward the high end, there’s the Gravity Zero, a five-figure bed made by Israeli firm Hollandia International. The company hired Philadelphia consultant Kanter International this year to market the Honda Civic-priced beds in the United States. With fully adjustable positioning, a microprocessor, aloe vera fiber, body massage, and even stereo speakers, the beds retail for $10,000 to $20,000. Think Craftmatic for the nouveau riche.

After Kanter tried out the beds, tested the product with more than 100 consumers, and took a close look at the high-end market opportunities, it decided to run Hollandia’s U.S. subsidiary. “Without exception, everyone who tried the bed said it transcended any sleep experience they’ve ever had,” says Kanter president Mark Stuart.

Hollandia sold 30,000 beds worldwide last year. Stuart says luxury beds’ U.S. retail market share quintupled between 2003 and 2005, to 2.5 percent, and could reach 10 percent or more in the next few years. Top-quality mattresses alone are a $1.4 billion wholesale market in the United States, according to the International Sleep Products Association.

Stuart expects that Gravity Zero beds will appeal to households with incomes of $125,000 and up. To reach those buyers, Hollandia U.S. opened its first store in August at Philadelphia’s Marketplace Design Center, where decorators bring clients to choose furniture for their homes. The company sold its first bed on just its third day open and is in negotiations with luxury malls across the country for additional retail locations. Next up: a $50,000 “bed system” later this year.

Napping and expensive beds, however, simply can’t do the trick for more serious sleeping problems like insomnia, narcolepsy, and sleep apnea. That’s where sleep centers come in. There are already more than 2,800 U.S. facilities that monitor patients and prescribe treatments. But most sleep centers just diagnose, handing treatment to outside providers.

Two former venture capitalists saw a gap in the market and last year launched REM Medical to provide one-stop shopping for sleep disorders, a sort of Betty Ford Clinic for the chronically tired. “We want to go beyond research and diagnosis, getting the patient on therapy and then managing that therapy,” says REM CEO Russell Benaroya.

With a $225,000 initial investment from the founders and some angel investors, REM landed a respected sleep physician to lead clinical development and established two sleep centers outside Phoenix. They’ve seen more than 2,600 patients so far, with each typically spending about $4,000 for their first year’s treatment. Market researcher Frost & Sullivan expects sleep center revenue to climb to $4.4 billion by 2011. REM hopes to open 20 other locations during the next five years.

REM prefers to enter a market by partnering with a large local cardiology lab or clinic, because that kind of office often sees patients with sleep-related disorders and can provide a steady stream of referrals.

When a patient enters a REM center, she’s usually monitored overnight, then diagnosed by an attending physician who prescribes a treatment. Many treatments are sold directly by REM. By comprehensively managing the patient, Benaroya says, REM can count on repeat business.

Opportunities still abound for sleep entrepreneurs. Of the 40 million Americans who suffer from chronic sleep problems, as many as 95 percent go undiagnosed. “It’s a wide-open market,” says WebMD physician Breus, whose own sleep advice book, Good Night, was released in September. Assuming you don’t fall asleep at the switch.

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Most people know that they have a credit score, that magic number that lenders rely on to determine whether or not to extend credit, but don’t really understand what a credit score is, what factors influence their credit score, or how to improve their credit score. Here is a basic primer on what credit scoring is, how it works, and some tips on improving your score.

What Is a Credit Score?

In short, credit scoring is a system many lenders use to determine how likely you are to pay back the money they lend to you. Your credit score is a snapshot of your credit risk at a particular point in time. The higher your score, the more likely you are to repay your debts on time, and the more likely you are to receive credit on favorable terms.

How Is a Credit Score Calculated?

The most widely used credit scores are based on the Fair Isaac & Co. (FICO) credit scoring model. FICO develops scores based solely on information contained in credit reports; it compares the information contained in a consumer’s credit report to the patterns of information contained in thousands of other credit reports, and calculates a score that predicts the level of future credit risk for a particular consumer.

While FICO is the most well known type of credit score, it’s not the only one out there – some check approval services also develop risk models and scoring that are based on check writing patterns in order to predict the risk of a particular check being returned. You may also have more than one FICO score as each of the three major credit reporting agencies collect and report information in slightly different ways; since your credit score from each agency only uses the information contained in that agency’s report, it’s possible to have three different scores.

What Factors Influence the Credit Score?

Your credit score takes all factors into consideration; no one piece of information or one factor will determine your score, although some factors are weighted more heavily than others.

* Payment History – Your payment history determines approximately 35% of your total credit score. This factor looks at whether you pay your bills on time, or late. If they’re late, how late are they? How often do you pay late? How recent are your late payments? How many accounts show no late payments? Have you had accounts turned over to collection or a judgment entered against you? Have you filed for Bankruptcy?
* Amount Owed – How much you currently owe determines approximately 30% of your total credit score. This factor looks at the total amount you owe, and on what types of accounts. How many accounts have balances? How much of the total credit line is owed? How much is owed now in relation to how much you borrowed originally (i.e. for auto loans)?
* Length of Credit History – The length of your credit history determines approximately 15% of your total credit score. In general, a longer credit history will increase your score. This factor also looks at how long you’ve had certain credit accounts, and how long it’s been since you used certain accounts.
* New Credit – Approximately 10% of your score is based on how many new accounts you’ve established. This factor looks at how many new accounts you have, how long it’s been since you opened them, how many recent requests for credit you have made, and the length of time since credit report inquiries were made by potential lenders. Rate shopping should not affect this factor because the inquiries will be made for a particular type of credit during a short period of time.
* Overall Credit Mix – Approximately 10% of your score is based on the overall mix of credit cares, installment loans, mortgage loans, etc. The more balanced the mix, the more likely this factor is to improve your overall score.

Checking Your Credit Score

You can order your credit score, for a fee, through any of the three major credit reporting agencies, or through various online services, including MyFico.com, which offer to get your report and score from each of the three credit reporting agencies for a combined fee. It’s important to check your score approximately six months before a major purchase in order to give you time to improve your score, if necessary.

Improving Your Credit Score

There are several things you can do to improve your credit score, both in the short term and over time.

* Pay your bills on time.
* Pay down your debt.
* Check your credit report and correct any inaccurate items.
* Limit how frequently you apply for new credit and how much you charge on existing credit.
* Don’t close old accounts – this can shorten the length of your reported credit history.

Understanding your credit score can help you make smart credit decisions and improve your overall financial situation.