I will be doing live, virtual evaluations of home pages, using principles from my book Home Sweet Home Page during my Virtual Housewarming Party next week. If you’d like to put your name in the hat to win one these insightful critiques of your home page, enter this week’s Twitter contest. Full instructions can be found here:

Evaluations will be recorded via conference call and a live chat will be available for audience questions. Three evaluations will be awarded during this week’s contest. Another two contests will run for the next two weeks and five more winners will be chosen.

What is a home page evaluation?
I’ll take a look at the winner’s home page and assess whether or not it is helping the owner achieve their goal for the page. The winner will gain valuable … and actionable … advice on how to improve the effectiveness of their home page.

In addition, those listening to the evaluation will also pick up on juicy bits of information they can apply to their home pages, as well.

What is the value of this prize?
I could say priceless … but that might be tacky, and this isn’t a VISA commercial. I provide full home page evaluation services for between $199 and $249. This prize is a sub-set of that service valued at $75.

What if I can’t make it?
I’ve scheduled three dates for the live evaluations. If you are the prize winner and can’t make any of those times, then I’ll have to select another winner.

If you’re a spectator, then you can always pick up the mp3 recording later, which will be made available.

This subject is familiar to many solo entrepreneurs. Yet you will rarely see it discussed openly. It is a side effect of selling a good product. Sort of a “bonus” that comes with being successful.

Once in a while I get an e-mail that reads along these lines:

“Send me your product first. If satisfied, will pay. Too many scams out there. Prove that you’re not.”

or

“Help me make it happen for me, then I will send you my payment.”

or better yet

“I am a poor man from South Africa. Praying to God that you will send me ALL of your products for free. I want you to be my guide, my coach, my mentor… and have it in your heart not to charge me until I start making money.”

At first, I thought, what the heck – his $40 will not make me any richer, and would send the person my products free of charge. Especially since these e-books didn’t cost anything to deliver.

But after a while, as my online business grew and traffic to my web sites increased, I started getting similar e-mails about once a week. People would ask me to send them my products for free, and when they start making money on the Internet, they would send me their payment.

What is going on? Can you imagine writing to Bill Gates, asking for a free PC, promising to pay as soon as it starts turning profits?

Or how about a free college tuition? “Let me go to school for a year, if I learn something new, I will pay”.

Now, some of these claims may be true and sincere. Many people do not have the money to start their online venture. What should they do if that’s the case?

The answer is easy: self-education. That is how I started, and that’s how most successful but low-budget ventures begin.

• Subscribe to 10-15 different web marketing e-zines published by reputable authors, and read each issue thoroughly, with a marker in your hand.
• Visit popular Internet Marketing forums, participate in free teleclasses offered by gurus, download and read free e-books on the subject.
• Spend a few hours a week browsing the Internet for web sites of companies in your target area – learn what the competition is doing.

Always keep in mind – it’s either TIME or MONEY. If you don’t have one, invest the other.

In December, I launched the website for my new book Home Sweet Home Page and started a simple campaign rooted in article marketing that has taken my website from an Alexa ranking of 1,970,427 on Dec. 23, to 446,678 as of Feb. 28.

How did I do this? Well, let me share:

Step One: Write an article and post it to EzineArticles.com.

First I took my book and came up with several topics for articles based on it’s content. I started with knowing your Website’s target market and wrote this article: Home Page Design – Know Your Website’s Target Market. Once it was posted, I created a link to it from my website.

Step Two: Create an audio version of the article and post to AssociatedContent.com.

About a week or two after the article went live on EzineArticles.com, I created an audio version of it using FreeConferenceCalling.com. I added some music and posted it to my AssociatedContent account. You can listen to it here: www.associatedcontent.com/audio/13551/home_page_design_know_your_web_sites.html?cat=35. Once it was live, I added a link to it on my website.

Step Three: Create a video version of the article and post it to YouTube.com.

While I was creating an audio version, it wasn’t that much more work to import it into iMovie, add a few pertinent images and create a video version of the article. You can watch the video version here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=HydZtCkUIGc. Once it was live, I added a link to it on my website.

There you have the basics. But, I didn’t exactly stop there. Once I had about four articles posted, I started creating Squidoo lenses using the articles. Here are a few of them, in case you want to see how I did that:

• Be Clear On Your Website’s Purpose
• The 5 Deadly Mistakes of Home Page Design
• Home Page Design: Make a Professional First Impression

But the point of this article is this: Did you see how I took one article and created three different ways for people to access the information in that article? You can do this, too, broadening your article’s reach and SEO benefits.

The April Article Marketing Marathon is now forming. The deadline to sign up is March 19.

What is an Article Marketing Marathon?

For one weekend, you’ll focus on writing 20-50 articles … but you don’t do it alone nor unprepared.

You’ll have all the tools, resources and support you need to do so before you even start!

The week before your Marathon, I’ll do your keyword research for you — find those key words and phrases that will bring you more action-oriented and engaged readers.

Even better, I’ll write a selection of headlines for you that will draw readers in and give you the focus of your articles.

But the support I provide doesn’t stop there … During your Marathon, I’ll be available for both telephone and email consultation.

And, after your Marathon I’ll submit up to 20 of your articles to up to two directories for you!

Up-selling means to be able to sell more than what the customer intends to purchase. An effective way of making a more profitable sale, up-selling can be considered a vital skill for the sales personnel. Up-selling does not require one to be pushy, but just convincing enough to encourage the customer to take advantage of the suggested product or service by the sales person. There are numerous strategies on how to up-sell.

Strategies to up-sell:

1. Practice up-selling with the employees: you can encourage your employees to practice up-selling by taking part in the drill. You can set goals and guidelines for them and allow them time to role play.

2. Take into account the customers’ needs: it is important to take into consideration the needs of the customers. There is no need in wasting time over a customer who does not require a specific product. Although you may have set goals to up-sell a particular number of customers per day, that does not mean that you should take unnecessary time and waste it on customers who are not going to need that product.

3. Different levels of products or services: having different levels of products or services makes it easier to up-sell. This means that in the case where you offer three different levels of service to your customers, the least service will be provided for the cheapest offer. You may then be able to convince the customer and up-sell them to a higher level of service.

4. Explain the uniqueness of the product or service: if you are trying to up-sell a product or service, always mention the uniqueness of the product or service and even compare it with other brands.

Thus up-selling is a skill that can be developed with time and practice. However it is important to be able to differentiate between customers to whom products or services can be up-sold. It is not that up-selling has to be tried on each and every customer.