May 2003

The following are FYI NOTICES for all CEWebsite Clients.

Domain Registrations: In the past few months, several CEWebsite Clients have recieved Domain Renewal Invoices from "Domains of America". If you have received this e-mail, fax, or letter, please forward it to us at cewebsites@mybluelight.com .

Please, DO NOT pay for the domain renewal. CEWebsites covers all your Domain Renewal Fees (unless otherwise specified--such as for multiple Domains). This is part of our Services. Payment to "Domains of America" or any other such company not only is wasted money, but can cause difficulties in managing your site.

Search Engine Submission Services: This is another marketing tactic that you might receive. Most offers seem too good to be true--and usually are. For Example: Paying an annual fee of $30.00 when most if not all the Search Engines to be submitted to offer free submission.

Again, Search Engine Submissions is a Service automatically provided by CEWebsites. We submit your site to all the major SEs (which provide free submission services) roughly every 6 months. We also routinely research additional SE and directories specific to your industry or product. We than either submit your site to these entities or if they are a Paid Inclusion SE or Directory pass this information on to you.

If you receive offers for Search Engine Submission, please forward them to CEWebsites. We will review the offer for you. We will let you know if the offer is a redundant service of what we already provide or something different. If Search Engine Placement is a priority for your company, please contact us and we will provide you with several avenues to pursue.

Net Profits: Shopping Around for a New Way to Attract Clients? Try Joining a Price Comparison Site.

Especially in today's economic climate, netpreneurs are always looking for creative ways to find new customers. Many have found success by joining price-comparison sites such as BizRate.com, DealTime.com, ePinions.com, MySimon.com and PriceGrabber.com

Most of these sites use e-commerce robots, or bots to scour a myriad of Web sites in order to list price comparisons on everything from books to digital cameras. They also allow merchants to sign up and pay for their listings. In general, paid listings usually get better placement.

Some sites offer even more than just price comparisons. Many also help shoppers determine the best merchant for a product or service based on reputation, product availability and service. Some also aggregate customer feedback to generate merchant ratings based on quality, delivery and other customer service metrics.

Comparison sites are free and easy for shoppers to use, and they operate much like search services. The sites don't sell anything; instead, they simply link shoppers to the places that do. The best part is, comsumers are visiting these sites in droves. According to a 2001 Jupiter Media Metrix hokiday consumer survey, 30% of respondents said they expected to visit a comparison-shopping site during the holiday season.

"These sites are widely used, and traffic to these sites has been growing fairly dramatically over the past two years," says Ken Cassar, a senior analyst at Jupiter Media Metrix. "They're easy to use, [they] put on a lot of information in one place, and [they] make it easy for people to comparison-shop." In fact, the most popular comparison-shopping sites say millions of consumers visit them regularly every month. As a result, analysts say these sites are perfect customer-acquisition tools for netpreneurs.

"Comparison sites are ideal for small companies that can ship products nationally and that are trying to acquire market share," says Cassar. "[These sites] regularly expose them to millions of prequalified, ready-to-buy shoppers. There is really nothing but an upside."

Sites to Behold
One company that uses comparison sites is Zappos.com, an online shoe store with more than 120 well-known footwear brands. Co-founded in 1999 by Nick Swinmurn, the San Francisco company raked in $10 million in 2001 and expects sales to reach $30 million this year.

Incomparable Value
While the sites themselves--and how they work with their merchant partners--are very similiar, there are subtle differneces between them. Bizrate.com's unique draw, for example, is its proprietary merchant rating system based on real consumer feedback. DealTime.com lets consumers sort their searches by store nqame, store rating, and price. PriceGrabber.com's home page design speeds comparison shopping by showing the best price for the most popular items, while MySimon.com allows one-click comparison shopping for popular items.

Although Swinmurn says these sites work especially well for price-driven businesses, they can also work for retailers like Zappos.com that aren't discounters. "It helps us get our neame in front of people and show off the fact we have a better selection than our competitors, who are primarily discounters," he explains.

Cassar says the only sites potentially threatened by comparison sites are established dominant companies like Amazon.com "Comparison sites can alert customers to other companies with less expensive products," he says.

Moreover, Cassar says these sites work well for growing businesses, even if those companies aren't able to offer the lowest possible price. "The fact is, consumers tend not to buy from the lowest-priced merchant," Cassar explains. "They'll shop with [the merchant with] the lowest-price reputation. [When] consumers see that your prices are competitive with--or maybe a bit higher than--a national retailer, they may still be inclined to purchase your product."

Dare To Compare
Especially for growing businesses, comparison sites also offer virtually risk-free exposure--after all, retailers only pay to participate when an impression is generated. "Most sites have a cost-per-click pricing model, so merchants do not have pay unless someone comes to their site," says Cassar. "The only risk is that a shopper will come to your site and not purchase something." Some merchants set price caps as well to ensure they don't spend, say, more than $1,000 on the service per month. When customers have logged enough clicks to equeal that amount, they get pulled from the site. In general, it breaks down to companies paying about 10 cents to $1 per click; there is usually a nominal set-up fee as well.

Still, Swinmurn says comparison sites aren't Zappos.com's primary means of finding potential new customers. "We do a lot of advertising online, and we believe it's best to use a mix of marketing and advertising techniques [in addition to] customer-acquisition tools," Swinmurn says, "Comparison sites aren't our best-performing tools, but they're not our worst-performing, either."

Moreover, comparison sites alone shouldn't be looked upon as a customer-acquisition panacea, according to Swinmurn. "To stand out on comparison sites, you must diffentiate yourself from the competition, whether it's through pricing or by having the largest selection," he says.

Whether you decide to use them or not, comparison sites can offer growing businesses a major advantage: the ability to compete with larger, more established competitors on a basis other than name recognition.

You're practicing good opt-in etiquette by asking for permission to contact site visitors: "Check here if you'd like to receive special offers via e-mail." But with this yes-or-no style of permission marketing, you're losing sales opportunites. Instead of an on-or-off option, why not offer a "volume dial"? Let visitors choose the degree of communication they want from you, and more will tune in to get your e-mail.

It's becoming harder to get consumers to accept opt-in offers. Unsolicited e-mail, also known as spam, discourages people from subscribing to e-mail. Nobody wants their e-mail address passed on to companies that send spam. A 2002 study by MessageLabs, an e-mail security company in the UK, found 1 in every 12 e-mails was spam. It's no wonder customers are leery.

Plus, there are simply more opt-in offers available today--leading to opt-in overload. You can still offer an opt-in program, but if people aren't signing up, try the following:

• Offer a One-Time E-Mail. Customers are more likely to accept a single e-mail from you. If it's a good coupon, a free report or a newsletter, they'll opt in for more. Let them know they'll receive the e-mail within 24 hours and have the option of subscribing at that time. Use an auto-responder to automate the process.

• Include Special Offers. When customers place an order, you have two opportunities to communicate with them through e-mail: payment confirmation and shipment notification. Both are great occasions to include a coupon or a newsletter tip, and then request sign-up. Customers are now receptive. Remove or revise the second offer for customers who do subscribe the first time. Otherwise, they'll get teh offer twice and may become irrated.

• Address Their Concerns. If you don't sell or distribute customers' e-mail addresses, tell them so. Also state how often you will send e-mail. These two simple actions will encourage your Web site visitors to say yes. Take your sign-up process one step further by providing a "double opt-in." This means sending subscribers an e-mail inviting them to confirm their subscription.

A few years ago, I subscribed to Garden.com's on-line newsletter. Each colorful HTML e-mail included a substantial savings on seasonal plants or flowers. I bought several flower bulbs from those e-mails. And I'll confess: I didn't even have a garden or a backyard. but the newsletter didn't come too often. Nor did I notice a flood of spam from other companies after subscribing. And the photos showing beautiful flowers at exceptional discounts sold me. Your opt-in program can generate sales, too.

Opt-in e-mail is a low-cost way to reach customers and site visitors. And it works. According to a 2001 study by Opt-in News, 50% of participants claimed they were more likely to buy on-line from opt-in e-mail. Of the survey participants, 37% preferred newsletters, and 13% chose direct e-mail. These statistics indicate they are willing to listen; we just need to encourage them to dial in.