This is an exert from my mini reports email series on internet marketing strategies. It is relevant to writing and publishing, as you want to get your websites noticed after all your hard work at writing and publishing them, don’t you.

A successful web site combines appealing looks with meaty content that keeps potential buyers exploring your site. The longer they stay in your domain, the more likely they are to buy! Follow these tips for hanging your web site in the stratosphere of success.

• Go easy on the graphics. Yes, images and flash presentations look great – but in most browsers a graphics-heavy page takes a long time to load, and buyers won’t hang around to wait when there are plenty of other options available, especially those on dial-up (yes there are still some around; I’m one of them [not by choice!]).

• Choose a font style that’s easy to read. If you’re selling a book on relationships, putting all your web copy in Edwardian Script ITC will not get the romance juices flowing. It will, however, cost you sales.

• Teach them something. Provide more than just thrilling monologues about how great your product is. Write articles on your topic or reprint articles from internet databases. After spending half an hour reading through exciting and informative pieces of your topic, they will want to learn more.

• Show your marketing savvy by providing a sign-up box or link for your newsletter, e-zine or autoresponder (*gasp* - you don’t have any of those? You need one!) right on your front page. Repeat for subsequent pages.

Get the keys to unlock your web site’s full potential.

You can see an example of one of my opt-in forms on this web log. Spend a moment to go to angelcuddleswriting.com newsletter to see it. This is a working sign up form for receiving the Angel Cuddle Publishing Newsletter.

I use and can recommend GetResponse.com for the autoresponder. That was what I used here.

Angel Cuddles,

Sarah

Next Tuesday dawned cold and rainy.
Still, I had promised, and reluctantly I drove there.
When I finally walked into my daughter Carolyn’s
house I was welcomed by the joyful sounds of happy children.
I delightedly hugged and greeted my grandchildren.

I told my daughter, “Forget the daffodils, Carolyn!
The road is invisible in these clouds and fog, and
there is nothing in the world except you and my grandchildren
that I want to see right now. I don’t want to drive another inch!”

My daughter smiled calmly and said,
“We drive in this weather all the time, mother.”

“Well, you won’t get me back on the road until it clears,
and then I’m heading for home!” I assured her.

“But first we’re going to see the daffodils.
It’s just a few blocks,” Carolyn said. “I’ll drive. I’m used to this.”

“Carolyn,” I said sternly,

“It’s all right, Mother, I promise.
You will never forgive yourself if you miss this experience.”

So we went!
After about twenty minutes, we turned onto a small gravel road
and I saw a small church. On the far side of the church,
I saw a hand lettered sign with an arrow that read,

“Daffodil Garden —->”

We got out of the car, each of us took a child’s hand,
and I followed Carolyn down the path.
Then, as we turned a corner, I looked up and gasped.
Before me lay the most glorious sight.
It looked as though someone had taken
a great vat of gold and poured it over the mountain peak
and its surrounding slopes.

The flowers were planted in majestic,
swirling patterns, great ribbons
and swaths of deep orange,
creamy white, lemon yellow, salmon pink,
and saffron and butter yellow.
Each different-colored variety was planted
in large groups so that it swirled
and flowed like its own river with its own unique hue.

There were five acres of flowers!

“Who did this?” I asked Carolyn.
“Just one woman,” Carolyn answered.
“She lives on the property. That’s her home.”
Carolyn pointed to a well-kept A-frame house,
small and modestly sitting in the midst of all that glory.

We walked up to the house.
On the patio, we saw a poster.

“Answers to the Questions I Know You Are Asking”
was the headline.

The first answer was a simple one. “50,000 bulbs,” it read.

The second answer was, “One at a time, by one woman. Two hands, two feet, and one brain.”

The third answer was, “Began in 1958.”

For me, that moment was a life-changing experience.
I thought of this woman whom I had never met,
who, more than forty years before, had begun,
one bulb at a time, to bring her vision
of beauty and joy to an obscure mountaintop.

Planting one bulb at a time, year after year,
this unknown woman had forever changed
the world in which she lived.
One day at a time, she had created something
of extraordinary magnificence, beauty, and inspiration.

The principle her daffodil garden taught me
is one of the greatest principles of celebration.
That is, learning to move toward our goals and desires one step at a time.

“It makes me sad in a way,” I admitted to Carolyn.
“What might I have accomplished
if I had thought of a wonderful goal thirty-five
or forty years ago and had worked away at it
‘one bulb at a time’ through all those years?

Just think what I might have been able to achieve!”
My daughter summed up the message of the day
in her usual direct way.

“Start tomorrow,” she said.

She was right.
It’s so pointless to think of the lost hours of yesterdays.
The way to make learning a lesson of celebration
instead of a cause for regret is to only ask,

“How can I put this to use today?”

The Daffodil Principle.

Stop waiting…..
Until your car or home is paid off
Until you get a new car or home
Until your kids leave the house
Until you go back to school
Until you finish school
Until you clean the house
Until you organize the garage
Until you clean off your desk
Until you lose 10 lbs.
Until you gain 10 lbs.
Until you get married
Until you get a divorce
Until you have kids
Until the kids go to school
Until you retire
Until summer
Until spring
Until winter
Until fall
Until you die…

There is no better time than right now to be happy.
Happiness is a journey, not a destination.
So work like you don’t need money.
Love like you’ve never been hurt,
and, Dance like no one’s watching.

If you want to brighten someone’s day,
pass this on to someone special (like I did to you!)

Wishing you a beautiful, daffodil day!
Don’t be afraid that your life will end,
be afraid that it will never begin.

- Author unknown

Isn’t that beautiful?

Angel cuddles,

Sarah

]]> http://angelcuddleswriting.com/index.php/a-story-that-could-inspire-you-for-the-rest-of-your-life/feed/ http://angelcuddleswriting.com/index.php/how-to-get-your-webpages-and-yourself-highly-ranked-in-search-engines/ http://angelcuddleswriting.com/index.php/how-to-get-your-webpages-and-yourself-highly-ranked-in-search-engines/#comments Fri, 30 Jan 2009 18:00:10 +0000 Sarah http://angelcuddleswriting.com/?p=28 SEO (search engine optimization) is a bit of a science.

What is search engine optimization?

SEO is utilizing tools and methods in making your site top ranking in the results of search engines. Getting yourself in the first page, and better yet in the top half of the page, will ensure that your site will generate public awareness of your site’s existence and subsequently generate more traffic, traffic that could lead to potential income and business.

After you have published your writing online, you want people to see it, don’t you.

Search engine optimization requires a lot of work to be fully realized. There are many aspects you have to change in your site or add to get search engine optimization.

I don’t know about you, but I really haven’t got the time to devote to SEO. That is why Angel Cuddle Publishing presents Angel Smart Ads

This is a completely different form of advertising and an SEO alternative.

When I came online yesterday morning, I was greeted with congratulations on being nominated for Person of the Year over at Adlandpro.

What a lovely surprise.

I am thankful for being nominated. What a lovely way to start the new year. Superduper stuff!!!!

Here is the link for the voting forum if you feel inclined to vote:

http://community.adlandpro.com/forums/thread/1178513.aspx

Don’t forget that you need to login to be able to vote.

Angel cuddles,

Sarah

I wish you all a Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year.

May it be a new year of abundance in every sense, a year of adventures and discoveries, and of comfort and love.

Angel cuddles, love and light,

Sarah

Angel Cuddle Publishing

That means that it is now nominated, along with 9 other forums for Best Forum of the Year.

There is some stiff competition.

If you think that my forum merits your vote, please pop over and vote here!

Angel Cuddles,

Sarah

p.s. This blog is nominated for Best Literary Blog on Blognetawards. You can vote and comment. You may win in the comments contest (I did!!!)

Blog Update

I’ve neglected all my blogs. There are a number of reasons.

I was at St Nazaire, South France, on the Mediterranean. I used a wifi passcard. This isn’t a secure system, unfortunately. My computer caught a virus and when I returned home, at first I couldn’t get IE or Firefox to work, but Crazy Browser worked. Then, that wouldn’t work and gradually my computer died. It didn’t know that it was a computer anymore! My son managed to save some data, but I lost a great deal of data.

My son re-installed Windows, but it is now Vista instead of XP and I’m having to learn how to use it. Certain things that worked before, don’t now, but I’m coping and gradually improving the situation.

Take this as a warning to always backup. I had planned to buy an external hard disk to save everything on when I returned from St Nazaire, but I was unlucky and got the virus at St Nazaire.

I’ve got a hard disk now and save everything as I go along. It is a very slow process getting things back to ‘normal’ (especially on dial-up).

Focus has been put on setting up Angel Cuddle Publishing on and offline. That isn’t completely done yet but I’m slowly sorting that.

I’ve also been doing some travelling and exploring. I went to London and Bunratty, Ireland. Earlier in the summer, I went to Rome. I plan to visit and explore as many places as I can on this planet, starting with Europe, but setting my sights further afield.

What else has happened?

I was one of the winners in a short story competition, an event run by Jim Green on Facebook, at Creative Writers Hangout. Click here to take a look.

I’ve been nominated for the Just Perfect Award at Adlandpro.  This isn’t the first time I’ve been nominated. I guess I’ll have to work on being more perfect, if I want to win. LOL.

Who is it that said that there is no such thing as a perfect person, just people with perfect intentions? Anyway, being nominated makes me feel good.

I’ve signed a world peace solution petition and have actually set up a petition for you to esign. If you wish to sign a petition for world peace, please go to http://angelcuddlesforpeace.com

Well, I’ll sign off now. I intend to keep my blogs more up to date, now that my computer is more sorted.

Oh, before I go, if you feel that I should have your email address, then let me know at address@sarahp.earthgreenmail.com as I lost my address book when the computer went down.

Angel cuddles,

Sarah

How Does The Widgeteers Super Viral Ad System Work?

A: The Widgeteers website provides widgets, ad blocks, fly-in ads and exit ads that you can display on your website.

You earn ad credits whenever visitors see a widget (or other ad unit) on your web page, i.e. each time your page loads.

Your ad credits enable your own ad to appear in widgets on the websites of other members in the network. The more ad credits you have, the more often your ad appears in other people’s widgets. Your ad impressions will grow, virally and exponentially.

Also, when anyone you refer to The Widgeteers joins and displays widgets on their web site, you receive additional credits. As others sign up below them, you earn even more credits. This continues for a full ten levels deep, making your ad impressions so viral that they are literally unstoppable.

Because of the viral nature of the system, your ads will soon be displayed on thousands of websites all over the Internet, with very little work on your part.

You can join with me here and start building your viral system.

Angel cuddles,

Sarah

Is this you?

Spamming is against the law.

This is a message I posted in a friend’s forum.

“I was just posting in my forum and you popped up with this great discussion and I couldn’t resist putting in my pennyworth.

Spam, what is it?

When sent as an email it’s also known as “junk” mail. No matter where the spamming takes place, the important word here is “junk”.

I looked it up in the Oxford English Dictionary:

1) discarded articles, rubbish

2) anything regarded as of little value

3) slang for a narcotic drug especially heroin

4) verb– discard as junk

Associated with “junk” is junk food, junk mail, junkie, junk shop……

So, junk is useless. We throw it away, so that there is room for the useful or valuable things. If we are good “friends” we do not put our rubbish through their physical letter box, and should therefore be just as considerate when posting in emails, forums etc online.

I don’t believe spam works. Just as I would not appreciate my neighbour dumping their rubbish in my garden, I do not appreciate junk in my emails or being dumped in my forum. I delete the emails without reading them. In my Mother Earth forum I was very upset when someone posted their junk which had nothing to do the theme. I deleted that immediately too. It is a form of abuse really, in my mind.

Voila Scott. I think I’ve actually put two pennyworth!

Angel cuddles,

Sarah”

The title of the forum thread is:

Would you read your ads and posts?

This is a very interesting topic and Scott wants us to create a spam free internet.

Here’s the forum link where there is quite a discussion going on:

http://community.adlandpro.com/forums/thread/941397.aspx

Look forward to seeing you there.

BTW, if you are not a member of Adlandpro and wish to make a comment in Scott’s forum, I invite you to become a member here

Angel cuddles,

Sarah