Saturday, February 26, 2005

Setting Up A Website

Introduction
I'm not going to talk about the ins and outs of website design or adertising on the web in this post. This is purely a mechanical step-by-step guide to setting up your own website so that you can use it in a website-autoresponder system.

If you don't like the website here then you can always change it later - it's simple enough once the initial setup is complete. In all honesty though, I wouldn't waste too much time on this. Keep the design simple and quick to load and you can't go too far wrong.

I'm using www.myweboffice.com to set up the site. It has a nice HTML editor with a WYSIWIG option and is free. After you've set up the site you can move it anywhere you like simply by cutting and pasting the code. Always keep a copy of the code on your hard disc - you never know when you might need it.

There are plenty of options for hosting a website, either free or low cost. Most of the free ones cover their costs by putting adverts at the top or the bottom of your webpage and that can put some people off. However, you can get a single page with an email address for £10 a year ad free. Don't forget, your ISP will probably provide some inclusive webspace and that will be ad free as well - and it won't cost a penny over and above your normal fee.

I've had some problems detailing the code for the website. Unfortunately I can't just paste it in here as blogger recognises it as HTML and then reproduces the webpage! So please go to www.utilityteam.co.uk , right click anywhere on the page and then click on "view source". The code will appear and you can copy it wherever you like. Alternatively just drop me an email and I'll send the code to you. In fact, if you tell me the name of your autoresponder I'll even personalise it for you!

Seting up Your Site

  1. Go to www.myweboffice.com
  2. Click on "Get started FREE Build Website"
  3. Complete the form and choose a username and password.
  4. Check your email. Login using the activation link and enter your username and password,
  5. Click on "site wide design"
  6. Select "Plain" for website design and "without buttons" for "Website Design Color". Click "Save and Continue"
  7. Leave website title blank, ignore the other two options and click on"Save and Continue".
  8. Ignore the "Add Theme/Logo Image" (unless you really want one that is) and click on "Save and Continue"
  9. Ignore all items on the next screen. Click "Save and Continue".
  10. Initial setup is now complete. Click on the "Manage Pages" tab at the top of the page.
  11. Click on the "HTML" radio button. Select all the text you see and delete it.
  12. Copy and paste the HTML source text from www.utilityteam.co.uk (see above) into the now blank HTML editing screen. When the text is loaded scroll down to near the bottom of the screen and you will find a line that says INPUT type = hidden value=hamishhayward. Replace hamishhayward with the name you chose for your GetResponse autoresponder (just the bit before the @ sign).
  13. Click on "Save Changes".
  14. Click on "Preview and Publish" and view the website. If you're happy with it then click on the "Publish Web Site" button at the top.
  15. If you don't like something then you can go back and edit it in the "design mode". You don't need to use the HTML editor anymore if you don't want to.
And that's it. You can now decide whether to stick with Myweboffice or whether to transfer the HTML code that you have generated elsewhere. There are plenty of options available and I'll talk about some of them later.

Sunday, February 20, 2005

Getting Traffic To Your Website

Traffic Exchanges
Some of you may already be using traffic exchanges - also known as hit exchanges, start page exchanges, click exchanges... - to advertise your T+ business. If you don't know what a traffic exchange is then it's simply a club that you join and, in return for viewing other people's websites, your website will be visited. The logisitics vary from one exchange to another but the fundamental concept remains the same.

Traffic exchanges are free to join, so the traffic that you generate to your website is free. Of course, you will need to spend time clicking to view other peoples sites so that you can accumulate credits and have them view yours.

There are many who say that traffic exchanges don't work - and if you're new to the concept then you may find it hard to see the logic behind it. However, I can categorically state that they do work - certainly they may work more slowly than paid advertising but some of my best distributors (you know who you are) have joined T+ after having visited one of my sites on the traffic exchanges.

Normally I surf five or six traffic exchanges at once. This is a lot easier if you use a tabbed browser such as Avant browser (there are other tabbed browsers available - just pick one that you like). Have a look at Avant browser by clicking the link below:
http://www.avantbrowser.com/

For those of you who are new to traffic exchanges I have listed a few of my favourites below. If you're already using traffic exchanges but haven't joined some of these then you should definitely check them out - as I said earlier, I have recruited distributors using these.

Traffic Swarm
This is the best, and most visited, traffic exchange on the planet and you will get results if you use it. Based on my results it has a reasonable number of UK users. Hits are delivered very quickly and you can set a limit on how many credits you use every day.

I always pause my account at the weekend and allow my credits to build up. I turn it back on on Monday evening and I find this gets the best results. I also pause my account for a few weeks from time to time and allow my credits to build up before releasing them in a splurge (a campaign if you prefer) - you get a higher priority if you have a large number of credits and this can be a very effective tactic.
Click here to visit Traffic Swarm


StartXchange
I like this exchange as it rewards you for surfing by giving you referral credits even if you don't have referrals. Basically you get a proportion of the credits of those who are surfing just a little bit less than you. As you surf you can see your "rank" in the message bar. it can be quite addictive trying to get up the rankings. Hits are delivered fairly quickly.
Click here to visit StartXchange


Mystical Maze
This exchange rewards you for completing a maze which is shown every 10 surf pages. It stops you getting bored.
Click here to visit Mystical Maze


HitsUK
The clue is in the name here - it's a UK based exchange, although it does show international sites. You will probably see a few other T+ websites if you surf here.
Click here to visit HitsUK

HitAli
This exchange is run by Harry Wood a T+ distributor in our team. It delivers a steady flow of hits to your site and is nice to surf if you like an Irish theme. As you surf you will find that you regularly win random prizes and these soon mount up.

Harry also has a number of other sites that could be used to advertise your T+ business. You can investigate these once you visit HitAli.
Click here to visit HitAli

Other Traffic Exchanges
There are plenty other good traffic exchanges on the net, but the ones above should get you started. If you have a particular favourite that I've left out then just email me the details along with your referral link and I'll publish it in a future post - or leave a comment below if you prefer.

Superstars and Flying Pigs

Congratulations

Have you seen the latest Hot News? If so, you will have noticed that David Baker-Townsley had his name in lights not once but twice. Firstly for his promotion to Senior Executive and secondly as his team were in fifth place in the Senior Executive Top Team section! That's amazing!

And of course, it was a team effort - so it's no surprise to learn that Mick Draper, one of David's star performers, recently made it into the Flying Club. Watch out for him winging through the skies if you're in Southend-on-Sea! Huge congratulations to both Mick and David.

Who's going to be next I wonder?

Wednesday, February 02, 2005

Setting Up An Autoresponder

Introduction
If you haven't read the previous article "Internet Advertising - A System That Works" then I suggest that you do this before you read this article on setting up an autoresponder. If you have read the article then today's missive describes the first step towards getting your own system - which is setting up the autoresponder. Don't worry, this isn't a lengthy process - the email messages are already written so it should take an hour or two at most. If you don't like the messages then you can always edit them later - it's still better than starting from scratch!

An autoresponder is simply a piece of software which sends out prewritten emails at specified intervals to correspondents who have given you their email addresses. If you go to Google and type in "autoresponder" or "free autoresponder" you will find a large number of hits - there are plenty to choose from.

For the purposes of this exercise we will be looking at the free version of GetResponse, which is generally acknowledged to be one of the two best autoresponders available on the web. The other good one is AWeber and I think you will do well using either of these. If you want to change to another reponder later, or upgrade to a pro version that's fine - it'll be very easy once you have loaded the messages.

But in the first instance try this, especially if you haven't used an autoresponder before. It's free, the messages are preloaded for you and there are some good tutorials available to get you into the swing of things. Definitely sign up for the seven day email course on autoresponders, it will teach you most of what you need to know.

On with the show:


Step-by-Step Instructions



  1. Go to www.getresponse.com.
  2. Click on the "Sign Up For Free" tab (second from the left at the top).
  3. Input your name, your email address, your country and your GetResponse "name". Your autoresponder address will then be name@getresponse.com - so if you select tplus for example, your autoresponder address will be tplus@getresponse.com.
  4. In the "OPTIONAL" field enter jameela. This will load prewritten messages relating to Telecom plus into your autoresponder.
  5. Check that everything is okay and click "submit" at the bottom of the page. Do this only once.
  6. You will then be asked "Are you sure you want to sign up for Smart Responder FREE?". Scroll down and click on the lower of the two buttons "Click for Smartresponder FREE".
  7. You should now be looking at a page entitled "Congratulations". Check your email to pick up your account information. You should have a message with the title "Welcome to GetResponse.com".
  8. Open the email and check your login information. Click on the Member Site link and login using your name and password as supplied.
  9. OPTIONAL - Position the mouse pointer over the "Account" tab and click on "Edit Settings". Then click on "Change your password" and change the 5 digit autogenerated password to something more memorable for you.
  10. Position the mouse pointer over the "Messages" tab and then click on "Edit Messages". You should see a total of 9 messages numbered from 0 to 8.
  11. For each message in turn click on "Edit" and amend the message to suit. Click "Save" when you're finished editing. For most messages all you will need to do is change the signature at the bottom to include your name, your email address and your freephone number. You should also check the delivery interval is suitable. However, pay close attention to the following two necessary changes:
  12. Message 1 - Insert your six digit ID ref at the end of the storeplus web address http://www.storeplus.co.uk?exref=XXXXXX - replace XXXXXX with your ID number.
  13. Message 8 - Insert your email address into the second paragraph.
  14. Your autoresponder is now set up. Place the cursor over the "Messages" tab and click on "Test Messages". Type in the email address where you want the test messages sent to. Select "All messages" in the "choose message" field if this is not already selected and click on "Send Test Message".
  15. Check your email and make sure that all the messages have been delivered. This may take a few minutes. Don't worry if they're not in strict numerical order. Make sure that you're happy with the look and content of all messages. If there are any errors, or if you just want to change any of the content, go back to step 10 and amend.
  16. That's all folks!

Coming soon: Step-by-step instructions on how to set up a gateway page in order to load leads into your autoresponder.

Web Signups, Broadband & Browser

Signups From The New Recruiting Website
A couple of weeks ago I mentioned the method in which I was using the new recruiting website. The experiment is going well and I managed to sign up another two new distributors using the new site last weekend.

I'm very pleased with the way it's going. It's saving me a lot of money on postage and, more importantly, reducing the time it takes to go through the process.

However, for those of you who are also using the site in a similar manner, be aware that you can only sign up IDs using this method. There is no option to sign up as a CGA. Anyone who tries will be automatically designated as an ID and you will then have to contact Exec Services in order to get them made a CGA.

Broadband Problems
I was interested to read Wes Linden's article on the Extranet - the one about everyone wishing they had started when he did and his attitude to teething problems. I know that some of you have had problems with the new broadband services and David Baker Townsley recently contacted Wes to discuss some of the broadband related problems that three distributors in his team had experienced.

I was very impressed by the swift action that Wes put in motion - contacting Exec Services directly and getting something done. I don't suppose we've seen the last of these problems - and there will probably be a few others to come with some of the other services - but it is gratifying to know that someone as senior as Wes is prepared to muck in and sort things out when problems arise.

Alternative Browser
Some of you may already be surfing traffic exchanges to advertise either T+ or other websites that you have. I normally surf 5 or 6 exchanges at once and I use a "tabbed browser" for this. It has several advantages over Internet Explorer and you can download one free by clicking on the link below:

http://www.avantbrowser.com/

This browser is more stable than IE, has its own pop-up stopper, can block flash animations (if you want it to) and will automatically reopen all surf windows when you restart (again only if you want it to). Give it a try you might like it!