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We have a new governor here in Kentucky, and I think his win had something to
do with his signage.
I don't watch tv or read the local newspaper, so the only way either candidate
really had of reaching me (besides inviting me over for dinner) was through yard
signs and bumper stickers.
Fletcher, the winner, had far superior signage. His slogan was "Restoring Hope,"
and every bumper sticker and sign had a picture of a child looking hopefully out
at you, hoping that you would vote for Fletcher. I know this was an effective
campaign because I have no idea what Chandler's slogan was.
I don't know if Fletcher would have won without such effective marketing, but
I do know that I remember his message. Branding matters. Branding works. Know
your market and craft your messages accordingly.
I omitted Larry Freed's author bio from our last issue. Please visit his site
and consider his services:
| In This Issue: |
| » Top Article: 586% Sales Growth:
Lessons From Vitacost.com
» Related Article: Lessons from LearnKey: What the CEO
Needs to Know
» Poll: How Long Have You Run Your Online Business?
» Site Review: HairSupply.biz
» Feature Posts
» Meet The Readers: ewowbiz
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Larry Freed, an expert on Web effectiveness and Web customer satisfaction, is
president and CEO of ForeSee Results, a market leader in online customer satisfaction
measurement and management, which utilizes the methodology of the American Customer
Satisfaction Index (ACSI). He can be reached at http://www.ForeSeeResults.com.
I emailed our shopping cart submitters yesterday to make sure they're willing
to give a shopping cart free and clear to the reviewers. I'm eagerly awaiting
their responses. I'll leave it to the reviewers which one they want to review.
Today's feature article, by PR expert Margie Fisher, is an interview with an online
company that's been in Inc Magazine's top 500 fastest growing companies for the
past
three years in a row. Margie wanted me to let you know
that you can receive free publicity opportunities from her at
http://www.margiefisher.com.
| Reader Testimonial: |
» Reader: Jean
Suarez
First off I would like to start by saying the WebPro News is the onenewsletter
I not only read but actually look forward to receiving. You havemanaged to achieve
a wonderful mix of informative well written articleswithout making the reader
dodge through and weed out piles of unnecessaryadvertisements and sales pitches |
Don't miss today's "from the forum" section! Brittany's the editor for that section
and you can welcome her to WebProNews by clicking on her name below.
I hope you find today's issue useful. Do you have any requests for future issues?
Let me know!
Best Wishes,
Garrett French
WebProNews Team
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586%
Sales Growth: Lessons From Vitacost.com
 While
most dot com companies have gone the way of stock options, a few shining stars
remind us that there are still real, living, growing dot com companies. One such
company is Vitacost.com.
This is the third year in a row that Vitacost.com has earned a place on the annual
Inc. (Magazine) 500 ranking of the fastest-growing private companies in the country.
A leading direct-to-consumer catalog and online discount retailer of vitamin,
nutrition and low-carbohydrate diet products, the company ranks #303 on the list,
with five-year sales growth of 586%.
Founded in 1994, the Boynton Beach, Florida-based firm carries approximately 6,000
health and nutrition products provided by nationally known brands (such as Atkins
and Twinlab) as well as products developed by its wholly owned subsidiary, Nutraceutical
Sciences Institute (NSI).
The CEO of the company is Wayne Gorsek, a serial entrepreneur who taught himself
about natural health alternatives when he was still in high school. He decided
to research natural alternatives to help his grandmother, who suffered from diabetes
and high blood pressure. Ultimately Wayne's advice on nutrition and supplements
helped her, and he was hooked. After running another company, Wayne hooked up
with Dr. Allen Josephs to create the fast-growing Vitacost.com.
Allen S. Josephs, M.D., is a practicing neurologist, Section Chief of St. Barnabas
Hospital in Livingston, New Jersey and President of Vitacost.com. He commutes
several times a year from New Jersey to the firm's operations center in Boynton
Beach, FL. Dr. Josephs is on the phone several times a day with Wayne and his
management team.
For most of his life, Dr. Josephs was a die-hard "anti-vitamin" doctor. So much
so that he refused to let his wife take prenatal vitamins. He met Wayne in 1992
and Wayne spent several years faxing him articles and abstracts from various journals
about the benefits of vitamins. Eventually Dr. Josephs came around and is now
a vitamin advocate.
Recently I spoke with the two men about what it took to create a three-time Inc.
500, dot com company. Here's what they said:
Click
Here to Read the Full Article
About the Author:
Margie Fisher is president of Margie Fisher Public Relations in Boca Raton, FL.
Her company offers products and services for every public relations need -- from
her Do-it-Yourself Public Relations Kit and workshops to full-service public relations.
Get free publicity opportunities and more free articles at www.doityourselfpr.com
or contact her at margie@doityourselfpr.com.
Lessons
from LearnKey: What the CEO Needs to Know
LearnKey founder and CEO John Clemons decided early on that his company could
not be all things to all people. That’s why he decided his company would be the
best e-learning production company in the world. This decision bears out in the
breakdown of employee function: only ten percent of their 100 or so employees
are in sales and marketing, while 75 percent work on scripting, directing, filming,
editing, design, programming, and other aspects of production.
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HairSupply.biz
Hello everyone and thank you in advance for you feedback. I'm looking for ideas
and suggestions to help make my site look and feel more like an industrial strength
store rather than a spare time hobby.
Any help that you can provide would be greatly appreciated. Design tricks etc!
...
 Review/Comment
on Site
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Note from Brittany
 By
Brittany
Wish upon as many stars as you want, but for many e-Businesses, it’s an
uphill struggle to the top... of the search engines, that is.
Today, we feature some insightful posts from your WebProWorld forums, regarding
reciprocal links and PageRank.
Hopefully, these posts will help answer your questions and point you towards success.
Enjoy
Making
Sense of the Links Question
 By
Duncan
Pollock
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think many of us … are faced with particular
difficulty in getting any incoming links. For example, I can't for the life of
me see a bank, mortgage broker, lawyer, home inspection, or similar sort of site
linking to me in preference to all my local colleagues. And never mind that I'll
send business their way and even include one or two outgoing links in their direction.
Thus, matching what other websites of my kind do, I submit to innumerable search
engines and directories, many of which ask for -- and get -- a reciprocal link.
… But I do wonder whether this approach gives me much if any chance of
improving my Google ranking. … I likely to derive any (ranking) benefit
from what I'm doing?
PageRank
and Top Listings
By rlrouse
PageRank is only one factor (and a minor factor at that) in determining the ranking
of pages in the SERPS.
The SERPS are full of pages with lower PRs ranking higher than pages with higher
PRs because of other factors:
- Link anchor text with the keyword/phrase in it.
- Density of the keyword/phrase on the page
- Keyword/phrase used in header tags and page title
among others...
In short, PR has relatively little impact on the SERPS for specific search
terms. Linking strategies and on-page factors play a much larger role.
Stumped
by Google… Again
By Tenyque
Increasing the number of links is one part of the battle, with the other being
to include the proper keyword phrases on your page. Increasing the links is bulding
your "off-the-page" relevancy while tailoring your copy around certain
keyword phrases would be considered building "on-the-page" relevancy.
Building up both are parts of successful seo.
There are many different methods to build up link popularity, you could do
all or none. Some include submissions to free general directories like DMOZ.org,
submissions to your own industry's online resources/portals, or perhaps even looking
advertising opportunities that include text links. Looking in these forums and
others you should find many discussions on what may work for your site.
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