FACT!  Most potential customers are now searching online for relevant horse facts and information.

FACT!  Most directories charge a fortune for a listing and only allow you to enter the most relevant information about your site.

FACT!  Our horse website directory allows you to provide as much information as you like, including graphics. It is interactive with potential customers, features Web 2.0 and integrates with social networks.

Best of all, it’s totally free!

Visit Our Horse Directory At: http://www.greenhorn-horse-facts.com/horse-directory.html

Can people find you on the internet?

There are a vast amount of web sites that get little or no traffic simply because their owners don’t have the time, the budget, or understand what it takes to get the kind of ongoing visitor traffic to make the most of their business. We do! We get lots of visitors, our biggest problem is where do we send them?  We know our website provides basic horse facts and information on caring for horses , however, we recognize that many of our visitors need more than that.  As such we try to support the industry by referring them to experts who list in our Greenhorn Horse Facts Horse Directory .

Why should you list in our Horse Website Directory?

IT’S FREE!  Why not make the most of free exposure. By investing the small amount of time it takes to list in this directory you will be rewarded with free exposure and more clients. Your company or website will get a full web page that you can customize however you like. Add as much info as you want, even a photo or your logo! It’s interactive, this is a really cool feature that allows people who visit your listing to leave a comment or testimonial about their experience with you.

If you want to be really creative, you can turn your profile page into your very own mini blog. Be sure and set the notifications on the form to notify you when a new comment is placed on your page.. Again this is all part of the free service. So what are you waiting for?

Submit to our new directory  to get your page live now.  Be sure and include lots of information about your site and most importantly, your contact information.

Check It Out Now! http://www.greenhorn-horse-facts.com/horse-directory.html

Guest Article by Melinda Westrope of Greenhorn Horse Facts; email: info @ greenhorn-horse-facts. com (remove spaces)

Would you like to see your guest article posted on this site? Learn more here: Suggest a Guest Article for Publication

Advertising on the Internet can easily be a success or a bust. Several factors come into play in building a successful advertising campaign on the Internet. The first and foremost is making sure you reach the right audience for your products or services.

You cannot just place ads in the vast Internet world and expect the orders to start rolling in. You have to have credibility, good ads, good website and reach the right audience, multiple times, to have a successful advertising campaign.

In our busy world, and today’s soft economy, people buy when they have a need and they want to find what they want *now*. You need to be in their mind, bookmarked, or front of them when they are ready to buy. You need to make it easy for them to buy from you.

The buying public on the Internet does a lot of comparison shopping. Most are typically ready to buy when they start their search and find the right product or service that meets their need. During their search they may visit some websites multiple times making comparisons. Not only is your product or service important but also how you present yourself and your call to action are very important. During their search, or visiting some of their favorite websites, some see items that may be of future interest they will click to visit the website if the landing page tells them what they want to know they will bookmark it for future reference.

The more your ads are seen on multiple websites the more credibility you build. This increases your probability that a prospect will buy from you today or when they are ready to buy what you are offering in the future.

There are *thousands* of horse related websites on the Internet. So how do you find the ones to advertise on that are right for your business? Do you need an advertising sales person? How do you get maximum exposure for your products or services while controlling your costs? How do you build credibility? How do you build your website visibility on the Internet to support your sales efforts? All questions you are faced with when considering the Internet as a marketing and sales vehicle.

Setting your expectations is the first step in establishing a successful advertising campaign. Expectations should include:

1.    What return on my advertising investment do I expect? How fast?

2.    Am I advertising for immediate sales? Long term sales? Both?

3.    Am I advertising my products or services to support Internet only sales, direct sales, store sales or to support 3rd party sales?

4.    What do I expect someone to do when they see my ad or visit my website? How do I get them to take the action I want?

5.    How do I build credibility?

Your expectations should then be used to determine the types of ads you develop, your website content, your landing page and what advertising vehicle(s) you will need to use to reach your target market to fulfill your expectations.

This is the first step you need to take to lay the groundwork to help insure you have a successful Internet Advertising program.

Our next email will cover designing your ads and your landing page.

Future articles on Horse Advertising Network will cover:

·         What is an ad network and how does it work. How is it cost effective and how does it help build online credibility, branding and sales.

·         Advertising Campaign Management with an eye on your goals, message, ads, budget, return on investment and website.

·         Tracking results; website visitors and what they do when they visit your website, ad views, clicks to your website and conversion rates.

·         Internet Marketing for your website to increase your website visibility and credibility.

If you would like information on some of our future topics today, a free consultation on your website, your expectations or help designing your ads feel free to contact us anytime. Our mission is to help you make money.

For more information contact:

Cheryl Erpelding
CEO Riding’s Publications Inc.
Sales Consultant Horse Advertising Network
President American Horse Publications
http://www.horseadvertisingnetwork.com

Horse Advertising Network is a great program for advertisers and for website publishers.

Horse Advertising Network – Reach 85,000 plus Horse Enthusiasts

Introducing the Horse Advertising Network (HADN) for the Horse Industry (Carson City, NV – July 7, 2009) The easiest, most effective Internet advertising solution dedicated solely to the Horse Industry.

HADN is an online match maker uniting horse related advertisers with multiple horse related website publishers. The Horse Advertising Network, provides the vehicle for banner type ads to be uploaded automatically to horse related websites directly by the HADN advertiser. The ads are then displayed by website owners –“HADN publishers”- who provide ad space to HADN in exchange for payment; realizing additional income at no additional cost.

The Horse Advertising Network

HADN simplifies the act of buying and selling for both advertisers and web publishers in the horse industry.

While HADN is the first of its kind ad server solution for the horse industry, the vertical ad market concept we use is well proven and promoted by top marketing professionals.

The HADN core technology currently serves over 150,000 websites and servers over 300 BILLION ad views per month. HADN technology is continually updated to keep it current with general ad serving capabilities.

Become a member of HADN today and start seeing results tomorrow.

YouTube video – The Horse Advertising Network http://snipurl.com/rqoc1

About HADN:

The Horse Advertising Network is a Biz Strategies, Inc. solution.

For More Information Contact:

Renae Dudley
renaedudley @ horseadvertisingnetwork . com (remove spaces)
Phone: 816-289-5555

About Renae Dudley:

Renae Dudley is a horse industry professional. She is a life long horse breeder, certified judge and equine appraiser. She has developed software products for horse farms. Renae has been a sales professional in the horse advertising business for over 12 years. renaedudley @ horseadvertisingnetwork . com (remove spaces)

The Horse Advertising Network (HADN) http://snipurl.com/nael2

Note from Joni: If you are using this service I would love to hear your option on it. Please leave a comment below. Thanks!

Horse for sale videos increase sales

I just did a search on YouTube for “Horse for Sale” and 6,300 horse videos pop up in the search results! That is a lot of ‘horses for sale’ videos on one site. One video received 72,447 views! Since YouTube now receives twice the page views as Google my guess is that many people are finding and buying horses because of these posted horse videos. People are successfully selling horses using video — Are you?

In fact I bet that if you are just using still photos and text on your site or posted to one of the horses for sale listing sites that you are not exposing your horse to as many potential buyers as you possibly can. Marketing tests prove that video does a much better job of showing off your product and motiving a person to purchase. Videos have increased conversions by nearly 50 percent! Isn’t it time you start marketing your horse business with videos?

Why Video to Sell Horses?

When selling your horse on the web, quality videos are essential to provide potential horse buyers a clear idea of your horse’s form, movement, manners, and personalty. Good video production takes time and work, but properly made videos help sell horses in a completive marketplace and help you receive the top price for your horse.

The time to make videos of your horse is not when someone requests to view one. You should plan ahead and make the videos a major part of your marketing plan. In fact videos should be the most important part of your horse marketing.

It takes time and money to make DVD copies of the final videos to mail out to prospective customers that request them and some people request videos just because they enjoy watching videos of horses. You could charge a refundable deposit fee that covers the cost of the DVD and shipping.

Web videos

Post your horse videos online — instantly viewable 24 hours a day, 7 days a week from any computer on earth with an Internet connection. If you post them on sites like youtube and the other free video posting sites you don’t even have to worry about bandwidth costs either.

Increase sales with online video ads 2008

Video Equipment and Knowhow

Top of the line video equipment is not required to begin creating video for web display. In fact some people shoot decent video footage with their cell phones and digital cameras that have video options.

If you are on a tight budget and like small, simple to use video cameras then you should consider one of the Flip Video Cameras.

Review: Pure Digital Technologies’ Flip Video Camera

Videotaped with the Flip Video Camera

Of course if you have top dollar horses for sale and have a decent marketing budget, then I highly recommend having professional video shot by someone that specializes in horse video productions. Make sure to check references and view past client videos before making your selection of which video company to hire. Some professional horse photographers are now shooting video too. Does your local photographer shoot video? Find out!

What to Video

Your video presentation should cover important points of interest to a horse buyer. Some areas to consider videotaping are…

• Under saddle or harnesses: dressage, jumping, cross country, reining, trail riding — whatever skills in whatever discipline your horse it trained for and good at.
• Horse Show; include footage of any past trophies or ribbons.
• In hand segments; include close-ups of the horse’s conformation without tack
• Free Lunging, to show the horse’s true movement
• Lunging: under your control with changes in gait and direction
• Free Jumping
• In hand Obedience: tacking up and untacking, leading
• Horse care Obedience: vet visit, farrier, worming, shots, bathing, clipping, trailer loading, etc…

You don’t have to put everything in one long video. In fact is better if you make a few short videos that cover different areas — one showing the horse under saddle, one showing the horse’s ground manners, and one demonstrating the horses movements when free lunging or jumping. You want to cover enough in the videos to give someone a good overview of your horse’s training and abilities. This will help them feel confident in making an appointment to meet your horse or to even decide to purchase online just from the videos and reading your horse’s description (your sales copy). Specially if you offer a good guarantee or trail period. Don’t forget to have a good sales contract made and signed.

Make a video blog of your horse for sale and embed the videos into your blog or website pages. Update your site with new video clips as your horse learns more.

Audio Sales copy: the video sound track

Words

Write out all that you want to say in your video to make sure you cover all the selling features of your horse. You can add the voice over to the video (recommend) or talk while videotaping. Also put this the horse’s info on text on the page too.

Here is the sales copy for a horse for sale on the internet. Read it for ideas of what you may want to include in your audio and text for your horse for sale listing:

White Gelding Cepillo, this gelding is good on the street, trails, ring, and wherever else you want to ride. He does not spook at any of the parks nearby, not even with gun shots. My son is only 7 and he rides him anywhere. He is safe enough for him to ride around our neighborhood and in parades. Walks, Trots, Canters on commands. Neck reins or direct reins. Loads, clips, bathes, saddles with no problems. Safe for kids. Used to dogs, cats, goats, chickens, and OK to work with cows. He is 9 years old. He is dead broke and kid safe. This versatile horse is great for anyone to ride. No bad habits. No vices. Pretty Mover.

Music

Music can deeply stir the emotions and you should take your time in its choice. You want the music in the video to add to the video, but not overpower the images. Uplifting and inspiring music that puts people in a good mood is best. Consider songs about horses to really heighten the emotional response of equestrians. If you are not ready to make videos yet you consider make photo slide shows with music. Check out sites like Slide.com that allow you to make photo slide shows for free that you can embed into your web pages.

Youtube Videos of Horse for Sale

Sporthorse / Dressage horse for sale : Southside Flyer

Note that they added a title clip at the begging and the end of the video that shows their website address (URL). You should always mark your videos with your URL for videos posted on video sites or that someone may download.

Reining horse for sale

Also consider posting videos or a video slide show of photos of the horse’s dam and sir, specially if a top breeding sir.

Argentinus the Legend

Video Resources and Tips

Shooting Video to SELL the Horse! Good step by step article with photos with the info you need to know to get good videos of your horse for sale. Print it out as a blue print or check list.

Traffic Secrets 2.0 Watch this video to learn what cutting edge video creation is. High quality video with some fantastic effects — and some great free tips on how to get more people to view your site’s content. A must see.

Making Money With Youtube Videos Video marketing tips

Make Money on Youtube by Uploading Your Video Tips on including your live clickable link back to your website from your youtube videos.

5 Ways to Make Money on YouTube NOW! Tips on posting videos to youtube and making some cash. Watch this with your horse business in mind and I bet you come up with some great ideas of your own.

How to get stinkin’ RICH on YouTube!!! Video posting tips – short videos, tag the videos right, allow video replies.

Best Way To Increase Website Conversions Again watch this video with your horse business in mind. What can you do to get people to want to return to your horse site again and again – maybe tell them you will be posting updated videos of the horses for sale as their training progresses.

How to learn to make video…

Stomper Vision – How web video will transform YOUR online business Watch the video case studies of how video improves sale conversations.

Make it easier for people to pay you

You can make it easier for people buying your horse to pay you by taking payments (or the purchase deposit) online through PayPal. You can add a buy-it-button under your video clip. I am seeing more off line businesses (like veterinarians) offering this payment option. I believe your horse buying clients would appreciate the convince too.

You can even set up payments over time with PayPal’s subscription payments.

When you make it easier for people to pay their bills you are more likely to see you money and faster too. PayPaloffers a fast, affordable and convenient online payment service for businesses of all sizes.

If you have had luck with selling horses with videos please leave a comment below and let us know about it. Thanks!

What’s Stacy’s success factors that has made her the bareback / bridleless reining Queen?

Stacy Westfall, the champion reiner, is in equestrian news, on TV, and people are searching for her on the web. I attribute her equestrian success to her goal magnifying actions, a few of which I will expose here so you can follow her lead and ride your equestrian dreams to greater heights.

But first a little introduction on Stacy and reining…

Stacy’s Accomplishments

In 2003 Stacy Westfall won the National Reining Horse Association Freestyle reining competition riding with with no bridle, not even a neck rope. For two years Stacy was undefeated in major freestyle reining competitions and in 2006 she won twice while riding bareback and bridleless.

Stacy Westfall, the first women contestant, competed and won the 2006 Road to the Horse Colt Starting Challenge and the sold out crowd loved her. The 2006 Road to the Horse DVD with Stacy is now completely sold out! Many horse people feel Stacy’s relationship with her horse is inspiring, beautiful, and total amazing.

Reining

Reining developed from the moves a ranch horse had to perform as part its regular cow horse duties. The American Quarter Horse dominates the reining field, but any horse can be trained to rein. Reining is is one of the world’s fastest growing horse sports and is growing in popularity around the world becoming a rising star in the horse industry.

A winning reining horse must be trained to a very high degree in its controlled movements. It has to go forward, stop, turn, spin, and back all to soft cues given by its rider. Only obedient, supple, and relaxed horses make it to the top. Reining is a partnership effort between an well trained horse and rider. The rider must be able to guide the horse and control his every maneuver from spins, sliding stops, to cantering. Reining is not the easiest horse discipline to train a horse well for.

Freestyle Reining

Freestyle reining is similar to freestyle dressage in that the riders are allowed to create their own patterns with some required movements, and choreograph them to music in a way that entertains and show off the horse and rider’s skills. Some freestyle reining competitions also allow the riders to ride bareback (without a saddle), or without a bridle, which increases the difficulty.

Stacy is the first women to win in the freestyle reining competition at Quarter Horse Congress. She is a NRHA champion freestyle reiner and 2006 Road to the Horse Champion that trains her own horses.

Horse Training

Stacy Westfall uses natural horse training methods she learned on her own and through other horse trainers to start her young horses. She and her training partner, husband Jesses own and operate the Westfall Training Center. She is also a mother of three young boys which makes her equestrian accomplishments even more astounding.

Horse Back Riding

Stacy started riding ‘Misty’, a Shetland Pony that was trained to rear on command. She trained her first colt at the age of fourteen. Like most horse crazy girls while growing up she rode any horse she could get her hands on.

Read more about about reining champion Stacy Westfall on her website www.westfallhorsemanship.

Stacy Westfall’s Blueprint to Success

Now on to Stacy’s Success Secrets and what you can learn as an equestrian and horse business owner to improve your chances of success.

Stacy has consistently taken actions that have lead her closer and closer to her goals. There did you catch the first success secret? ACTION! The repetition of the right actions is the golden key, knowing exactly what you want, planing the steps, then taking action on those steps time and time again. The power is in taking consistent action!

Since this blog is specially for horse business owners I will talk here about the actions Stacy has taken to build her equine business. If you want to learn her horse riding and horse training secrets then visit her site and buy her horse training DVDs and check her event calendar.

Equestrian Business Marketing Strategies

I discovered these marketing strategies Stacy is employing…

• Professional Help

She has a beautifully made and easy to use website that’s obviously professionally designed. People like to buy products and services from companies that look successful and professional.

You can not be expected to know everything so hire experts in areas where it really matters – like your business website creation and marketing. This is one of your best business investments. Your site has to do more than just look good, people have to be able to find what they are looking for fast and easy on it too – good usability!

I see too many horse businesses with websites that look like their child made it, and there is no excuse for this when you can have a professional looking website up in minutes with a free blog at WordPress or Blogger. But I do recommend that you go with WordPress on your own domain site. What first impression does your website say about your equine business?

• Quality products

Stacy sells Horse Training DVDs, Pocket Reference Cards, Rope halters, and Horse Lead Ropes on her site. If you have a horse boarding business you can sell some horse health and care products to your clients. You business’ long-term success involves selling quality products or services that meet the needs and desires of your customers. Don’t sell anything you would not be willing to purchase and use.

• Events Calendar

Her events page is more stuffed than a Clydesdale’s hay net! What a schedule! Dates, locations, and links to event websites. Do you put on any events? If not, why not, consider a few events that you can hold and then post them on your site. You don’t have to do it alone, you can join forces with other horse businesses or a charity to put on an event and make sure to get a few commercial sponsors.

• Media Gallery

You can find links to photos, videos, and article files on this page. But strangely missing is a link to her Press Release page where she should have posted the stories about her that have been published in the past and new press releases for current use. Maybe the press releases are posted on another page of her site that I missed. But don’t you miss adding Press Releases to your horse business site.

Don’t know how to write a Press Release?

I signed up for the Joan Stewart’s The Publicity Hound® Newsletter to learn more about business promotion. Horse business owners can get thousands of dollars in free publicity by following her tips, tricks and tools. Joan is a former newspaper editor, a small business owner, AND she was tapped by Entrepreneur.com as its public relations expert. Click here to read all the columns she wrote for Entrepreneur.com and check out her educational tools for business owners.

Short videos posted on your site and other video sites like YouTube can also help your business in multiple ways acting as sales brochures, and customer educational tools. The Road to the Horse website http://www.roadtothehorse.com does have a nice Media page http://www.roadtothehorse.com/media.shtml you can check out. They have past news articles posted and articles and hi-res photos and the Road to the Horse logo images for print use. This is another nicely designed website you can lasso web design ideas from.

Learn about what videos can do for your business. Hey it is 2008 and more and more people are watching videos online on a daily basis, so start making and posting videos for your business! One of Stacy’s reining videos has received more than 100,000 views!

• Newsletter

News from Westfall Horsemanship http://www.westfallhorsemanship.com/index.php?page=newsletter

Too many horse business really miss show ribbon on this marketing strategy. It is so important to collect the names and email addresses of your site visitors and have a way to stay in contact with them. Most people will not buy from you on the first contact – in fact it takes many contacts before most people make a purchasing decision.

• Members Only Content (Build a community)

You can sign up for, “The Herd” her members site for training tips and a weekly contests where you can win some of her Westfall products. Master mind and come up with your own membership site.

• FAQ Page

On Stacy’s site you will find a ‘Frequently Asked Questions’ page where you can find the answers to common questions on company location, horse training by Stacy, her products, clinics, apprenticeship course, and about her horse Roxy. In fact that page goes on and on stuffed full with more interesting info about Stacy, her company, and her products.

Not enough business sites add a FAQ page and it can be so helpful to your site visitors and help you gain more sales. Study Stacy’s FAQ page and start designing your own. It will save you time in the long run. One reason people search the Internet is because they are looking to research products. Give them the info they are looking for.

• Valuable Content

Content comes in many different forms from articles, videos, photos, case studies, press releases, FAQ page, product reviews, testimonials, to resource information and links. Keep value in mind when adding these.

• Contact Page

A contact form also helps stop you from receiving so much email SPAM when you post your email online. Full contact info and a contact page help build trust and confidence in your business.

• Belief

Last but not least, she believes in herself and is willing to take chances. You can see this by the actions she has taken. Stacy wouldn’t have attempted any of the actions that has helped her become a success if she didn’t believe that the chance of success was possible in the first place. But guess what, taking the right action steps helps you strengthen your belief as you build on one tiny success after another.

Summary

Success came to Stacy because she believed in her goal, made a plan and worked her plan. Taking consistent action is the key! She hired professional people when she needed help in areas beyond her expertise. Her website is well designed and has many of the items that helps build a business.

Are you ready to follow her lead? Study her site and work on yours. Get educated in marketing and design your own marketing plan. Then take action!

Another article on Stacy: Stacy Westfall First Woman Competitor at Road to the Horse

Stacey Westfall Bridleless Bareback Reining YouTube Video:

Stacy Westfall YouTube Video Search results – 65 Videos Listed!

You should also read my past post: Seven marketing boo-boos costing you business

P.S. Visit Stacy’s website to study it and take notes, then let me know what you plan to take from it to better your horse site. Please leave a comment below.

Resources for Business Building:

Free Press Release Tips
Strategies for Getting Media Coverage
Selling 101 for Equestrians – How to Quickly and Safely Sell Your Horse
The SEO Success Pyramid

Note from Joni: A few of the links on this page are to my affiliate sites. I only affiliate with sites that I feel give real value and will benefit my readers.

How to make your website profitable!

If you have taken the time and money needed to produce a web site you would love to have it benefit your business and add to your profits wouldn’t you? But with tons of info floating around the Internet on how to design a site that sells I still run across site after site that are less than profit-friendly. Is your site working for you as much as it could be?

Site owners start to believe that the web just doesn’t work for their business. But the sad truth maybe that people are not finding your site to begin with and/or poor design is driving people away the that do manage find your site. So what can you do to help build a site that works better?

A site’s success depends on a multiple of items done right, but the main one focusing on generating leads and sales. This crystallized focus can make a huge difference in a site producing income or not.

Climbing to the top of GOOGLE!

You can own a horse with the best sliding stop in the state but you will never see a single ribbon if you don’t get him to the horse shows! Same goes for your site – people will not be buying from you if they cannot find you. So make sure you choose a site designer that knows how to get ranked high in the top search engines.

If your site is a do-it-yourself project (nothing wrong with that if you have the passion for it, if not, hire someone that does) then plan to learn about SEO (search engine optimization).

Tip: If you don’t know the importance of key words and how to work with them, then you need to hire someone that does or get busy and educate yourself.

Speeding up your site!

You may have hired a designer that gave your site everything including the deluxe kitchen sink – flashing buttons, animated images, flash intro, and tons of fancy graphics.

But did you know that many horse people are still on slow dial-up and hate sites that load slower than a spooked horse going into a dark trailer. Studies show you only mere seconds to draw people in before they reach to click off your site – just a few seconds! So unless the images communicate important points about your product, service, or company drop them and optimize the loading time of the rest.

Speed Tip 1: CSS coded sites load faster than table and standard HTML coded sites with their nested tables and excess coding.

Speed Tip 2: Post small images linked to larger images. Let people decide which ones to view larger.

Add effective titles and headlines!

It is critical your web pages sport a benefit-oriented page title, main headline, and link titles to entice your visitors to read more or click to go farther into your site. They should also have your most important keywords in them.

Examples…

Instead of just putting something like…’Welcome to TrailRideHorses.com’ at the top of your web page, try a main headline like: ‘Wide selection of healthy trail horses with extensive trail riding experience at affordable prices! 100 mile endurance horses to safe children’s ponies’

Instead of just putting in a link that reads… ‘About our Services’, try one like, ‘Vanish the buck, bolt, and kick with our step by step horses training lessons!’ Or ‘From lame to in the game faster than ever with our nutritional joint products.’ Or ‘ Quarterhorse Weanlings to Yearlings optimized with the latest in mental and physical training, and nutritional breakthroughs.’

Stir people’s interest by stating benefits they are looking for in your headings and link text. Go over your whole site and check for effective and attention grabbing headlines – not there, then you have work to do!

Collecting visitor’s contact information!

How many times has someone whipped out their checkbook before you could lead the horse from the stall? Not often I bet. Normally people need time and multiple contacts before they make the final decision to hand you their hard earned money.

One of the best ways to gather their contact information so you can stay in touch is to offer them something they value like, information either in your newsletter, a free ebook or report, or even a chance to win a prize or a product discount.

Place a sign-up form on your site near the top and if your offer is good they will give you their name and email address. Learn more about working your list by searching the Internet for, ‘mailing list marketing’, ‘money in the list’, and/or ‘how to use auto responders.’

Tip: I use and love ListMailPro by Dean Wiebe (he is a nice caring person and that counts high in my book!)

Highlighting the benefits! Highlight the benefits!

Your web site visitors are always thinking: What’s in it for me! So give them the answers clearly, attractively, and repeatedly! Most are not looking to read how your company started or about the 14 ingredients that go into your horse feed products, unless your can word it so it tells them why it would benefit them or their horses.

Tell them how you, your service or your product can solve their problems and improve their lives. Display this front and center; don’t hide it where no one can find it.

• State the benefits that your service or product offers – display testimonials (as many as you can throughout your site.
• Display case studies with before and after images if possible. Video is even better!
• Make it easy to find your informative articles.
• Post forms, contracts, guides, maps, or event calendars for them to download.
• Provide links to more resources.

Make yourself useful and they will reward you with their business.

Developing trust and credibility.

Everyone likes to do business with people they know, trust, and like; so figure out ways that help people feel these just from visiting your web site.

You can try the following…

1. Post testimonials. People have an easier time believing what other people say about your company than what the owner says. Positive words from past clients can really give your credibility a boost. Place a few testimonials on different pages and have a testimonial page too. Testimonials also show that you have been doing business and that people are buying and are happy with their purchases.
2. Show case studies and articles. Providing useful information can help people view you as an authority on the subject.
3. Display your full contact information: address, phone and fax numbers (not just an email address) on every web page. People feel more comfortable purchasing from some one they
   feel is real and who they can get in contact with if trouble comes their way.
4. Post pictures of you and your key employees or partners. A bio is nice if you write it in a way that shows how your experience will be helpful to them. But a photo really helps people connect to you and if you met with you later they already have a feeling that they know you and you are not a stranger.

Home work = Home Page!

The single most crucial sales page of your web site is its home page! Nope, not the service or products page or the ordering page; the reason is that your home page is the page most people will land on.

If your home page is not right no one will go on to any of your site’s other pages – No second chances! Your home page must accomplish the following…

• Establish Your Brand – tell them who are you, what you do or offer and do it in such a way that they will be interested enough to click deeper or save the page and return later.
• Show them the goodies – they need to be able to quickly find what they are looking for – establish a clear path to other relevant pages.
• Generate Interest – copy and layout must be compelling and generate the desire to dig deeper. Study up on writing great Sales Copy!
• Impart Trust – reread numbers 3 and 4 above once again, yep they are that important.

Some of these little tweaks can have a major impact on your bottom line. These will give you a good start and I am sure that I will be giving you more info soon on designing your website to be a marketing magnet.

‘My mother said to me, ‘If you are a soldier, you will become a general. If you are a monk, you will become the Pope.’ Instead, I was a painter, and became Picasso.’ – Pablo Picasso

P.S. Please take action NOW to show your friends and clients you are thinking of them and wish them a great day by sending them a Horse eCard!

Profit Generating, website design, site design

Why have inbound links? Well in a word: traffic.

The more incoming links or one way links pointing to your website the better you will place in some search engines like Google, which leads to more people finding and visiting your site. Also you will receive direct traffic from the sites displaying your links. Hopefully if your site is set up right some of this added traffic will lead to higher sales and business profits!

Think of the links as ads and you know that having more ads displayed in more places can only improve your chances of building a successful horse business.

How to get links?

Ask and Given: You can solicit links and you can be given links.

I get people all the time asking me to put a link to their site on my site. It never hurts to ask, but it really helps if you ask in the right way. I will talk on that subject a little farther down.

You can also gain links from people that enjoyed your site and information and post a link back to your site unasked. The more interesting and informative your site the better your chance at gaining unsolicited links. So keep adding great content to your site on a regular basis. Content like, informational articles, photos, event calendars, free stuff, timely news, show results, and videos. For more info on unsolicited links and how can you get more of them check out: Effective strategies to generate incoming links (See I just gave that site a link because its info adds value for my readers – you.)

Ask Who?

First of all you should decide on where you want your links displayed. Horse business owners will want to display links on sites where horse people gather. There are a ton of equine sites with new one being foaled each day and they range widely in subject matter related to horses. You don’t have the time to go after them all so you want to choose the top sites that would be best for your horse business.

Making a list and checking it twice

If you are selling nail-on horseshoes you might want to cross off sites that specialize in information and products for barefoot horses, because you might not get to many clicks from your links on these sites. You probably will not get your competition wanting to display your links on their sites, so don’t add them to your list either. But web site about horse hooves and general horse sites might be the right spots for your links.

If you are selling products for Quarter horses or Arabian horses you would want to search for sites devoted to that breed and put these sites at the top of your list of places to contact. Do some serious trotting around the Internet and discover the best horse sites where the readers would be the most open to your product or service.

Horse Directories

There are a lot of equine directory sites and horse classified sites to consider. Many will post an ad and link to your site for free or low cost.

Don’t over look horse blogs

Blogging is growing by leaps and bounds and many more people are now blogging about horses. Horse related blogs are a GREAT place to consider for your links as active blogs show up in the search engines more than stagnate websites. Of course they range as widely as websites in their subject matter so you will have to do some work to figure out the best ones for your business. With blogs you can contact the owners about adding your link or get your link posted in the comments you leave after reading a posting. Don’t be shy, many bloggers want comments that add to their postings.

Equine elated forums

Contribute help and tips to others at online discussion forums. Many forums allow you to add a signature file with your site link at the bottom of the post.

Do’s and Dont’s of Asking for a Link

Do be polite and check out the site first. Get to know the content — the articles, information, and ads they display and how your business would fit in.

Add Value

Many sites welcome information in-line with their readers interest and which would add to their knowledge base. Consider writing articles with a link to your site posted at the bottom. In the horse directory sites and equine classified ads you can lead more people to your site with info give-aways, like e-reports, e-books, e-courses, and e-newsletters.

In the horse blogs read the articles that best fit with your equine business and add your thoughts in the comments. Remember to be polite even if you disagree with the posted article. Tell the readers about benefits they can gain and they will be more likely to want to visit your site for more info. Some blog comments don’t allow active links but you can post your company name and/or site address with a spaces, like this: Fit Right Saddles . com. Don’t just post comments that sound like a boastful ad – this can turn people off. It is not all about you; add something constructive to the posting that would help the reader; yep, it is all about them. The more that you can make them feel that way the more likely they will be to click and check out your site.

Summery:

Incoming links can boost your search engine rankings and site traffic. So search, list, contact, comment, and post your URL!

Here are a couple of other articles on this subject that you might want to check out:

Incoming Links – 12 Powerful Link Building Strategies

Incoming Links Aren’t Hard to Come By With the Right Content

Please leave a comment about how you get people to visit your website.

Now EquineAuctions.com protects it’s buyers and sellers with the Escrow.com escrow service.

EquineAuctions.com is the only Internet horse auction of its kind, has raised the bar once again by providing the safest and most secure on-line equine shopping experience with escrow service.

If you aren’t a member of the EquineAuctions.com community yet, now is the time to join! Every registered member will be entered in our drawing for a FREE laptop computer to be given away December 31st 2007. Use the promotional code shown below to save 50% off all sales fees when you sell your horse or equine items on EquineAuctions.com. For a limited time, listings, photo uploads, video uploads, and our pedigree generator are all still FREE! There are no fees until you SELL!* (Certain optional items have a small fee, please view the pricing information.)

Full details on the laptop computer give-away

Special Offer: Try EquineAuctions.com And Save 50% On All Of Your Sales Fees

For a limited time take 50% OFF all of your sales fees by using promotional code 319c6b677b20. This code expires December 31st 2007. Register today and start buying and selling horses, tack and more.

Watch The New EquineAuctions.com Video

Why try EquineAuctions.com…

Each registered user’s information is verified to ensure that only REAL buyers and sellers are doing business with you? Sure it’s a lot of extra work, but your security, and providing a quality online experience is very important to us.

You can set up your own on-line storefront on EquineAuctions.com and market your horses, tack, ranch, farm, and other equine services and products to verified horse lovers across the globe?

Equine Auctions has registered users all 50 US states, all the Canadian provinces & territories and 30 more countries around the world? Why not join one of the worlds broadest on-line equine communities? You’ll be glad you did!

EquineAuctions.com’s site is clean and modern looking and easy to navigate.

EquineAuctions.com has Tip Of The Month Articles :: How To Purchase A Pre-Owned Living Quarter Trailer

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Auction Listing Tips

When you do things right you have a higher chance at success with your auctions. So consider the following auction listings pointers to optimizing your to generate more profits.

Learn from Others

Visit and study the listings of the other sellers. Take notes on what they are doing that you like and work that into your listings. Be open to change and be willing to test your listings titles, prices, and sales copy.

Don’t skimp on the Item Description

It is the most important area of your listings, so describe your item in luscious detail and include the size, age, color, condition and any other thing that you might want to know if you were thinking of buy the item. Don’t forget the most important part: List the benefits of these features! What is this item going to do for the purchaser? You want to describe the item so that the reader can already see and feel these benefits in their mind and are ready to buy before they even get down to view the photos. Remember that people are going by what you say and the photos. They cannot view and check out the item in front of them so be complete with your descriptions.

Post More Then One Photo

Clear, sharp, closeup photos that are not too small are a must. Also display pictures of more than one side of your item. A good digital camera is wonderful to use as you can snap a lot of photos and then only post the best. Make sure the lighting is good and bright and no awkward shadows are falling across the item. Also keep the background simple and uncluttered. You want nothing to take away from their focus on your item. Good photos help draw in more and higher bids.

Be Nice

Don’t post negative statements like, “No deadbeat bidders wanted”, “Don’t bid if you have less then 10 positive feedback comments”, or “We will give you negative feedback it you don’t pay on time”. This just drives people on to someone nicer and who doesn’t treat them like a criminal even before they decide to buy.

Disclosure All Your Business Practices

People don’t like surprises when it comes to something they are buying. Post all the info they need, like: shipping charges, how you ship, when you ship, what payment methods you accept (Check, Money Order, Credit Card, PayPal, etc.) List your guarantees and your return policy and any thing else that they need to know.

The more information you give, the more comfortable a person will be and the more likely they will buy from you.

Encourage Multiple Purchases

The more you sell the more you make so let your readers know your specialty and the fact that you have more items listed. Offer them discounts on shipping costs for multiple items. If the auction site have a cross-promotion feature use it!

Please leave a comment if you have any other listing tips. Thanks!

Are you placing your horse business ads online?

I just read a news report stating that more people are posting their classified advertising on the Internet instead of in printed newspapers. So if you are still only posting your horses for sale in your local paper seriously reconsider the Internet as your top choice for horse ads.

News companies online revenue is going up each year and their print business is bringing in less money each year causing them to plan circulation cutting measures. This means less people reading your ads in the newspapers. Some newspapers will stop delivery to areas farther from the city’s heart.

You can read the whole news story here: Newspapers continue shift towards Internet as print business fades Wednesday, September 26, 2007 by: David Gutierrez

Old school newspapers — the kind printed on dead trees — are dinosaurs. Even TIME Magazine is slashing staff these days, and readers are abandoning printed newspapers in a steady march towards online information. — from another news story.

Some of the benefits of posting your horse business ads online are:

• More ad space for less money; use this room to post benefits and gain more sales
• Can post photos of your horses or your horse products
• Some sites let your post video clips! Show people how your product works or how your horse moves.
• You can find horse sites that let your post free classified ads; now that helps boost your ad budget.
• Some sites allow you to link to your horse’s breed pedigree
• You can lead people to your horse business website from the ad

I did a Google Internet search for “free horse ads” and received 8,140,000 results and 8,970,000 results for “Free Horse Classifieds”! Well it looks like you have a ton of sites to pick from. I would check out the top 10 or 20 sites and see what kind of traffic they receive each month and what they offer in free and paid ads.

“Trends, like horses, are easier to ride in the direction they are going.”
- John Naisbitt

“You must have mindshare before you can have marketshare.”
- Christopher M. Knight

“Customers buy for their reasons, not yours.”
- Orvel Ray Wilson

” People don’t want to be ‘marketed TO’; they want to be ‘communicated WITH.’”
- Flint McGlaughlin

“In marketing I’ve seen only one strategy that can’t miss — and that is to market to your best customers first, your best prospects second and the rest of the world last.”
- John Romero

Are you still reading paper newspapers or do you read your news and classified ads online? What are your favorite sites on the Internet to post your ads?

Everything-horses.net offers free directory listings to equine businesses and associations. Click on over to their site and complete their easy-to-use directory listing form to submit your contact information and select appropriate business categories. Your listing will be updated to the everything-horses.net online directory within 48 hours.

Everything-horses.net just opened May 1, 2007 and is an online directory in which businesses, associations, and other service providers can promote their horse-related products and services to the equine industry.

A Company with High Hopes

This site aspires to be the most extensive equine directory in the world. Their goal is to provide a useful tool by helping businesses and associations promote their equine products and services, and by helping horse enthusiasts find all the horse-related products and services they need, wherever they need them. They plan on expanding as the horse industry grows – being updated constantly to offer the latest equine business listings.

It never hurts to be more visible to horse owners and enthusiasts throughout the world and if you can do it for free, why not.

I am checking out their site and I see that they already have about 40 Equine Photographers listed and one wonderful horse artist is running a banner on their home page. So is your horse business listed? Don’t pass up great advertising opportunities like this one.

Hey, if you are getting contacts from listings in free equine directories post a comment about it. Thanks!

horse site, horse directory, equestrian directory, equestrian listings