3. Buying ezine ads

This is a paid method of advertising, but it works, because it is most targeted of these approaches. Write a concise ad for your business, and link to either a lead-capture page or directly to your autoresponder. Then, begin contacting ezines to place your ad. (Do a search for “ezine directories,” and you will find enough lists to keep you busy.) When you contact an ezine, look for rates for both classified ads and solo ads. The advantage to a solo ad is that your ad goes out by itself in a separate email, but they can be more expensive. Because these ads are targeted (you should NOT advertise in an unrelated ezine), you will definitely see traffic, but you will need to track your results to see which ezines bring you most and best traffic.

These three sources of traffic will keep you busy and will bring you all traffic you need.

The site where I experienced an overnight increase in conversion rate can be viewed at ezWebBusinessBuilder - notice how I worked testimonials into copy. They not only help answer potential customers' questions, they flow with copy as well.

And yes, even I was surprised at how effective they were. I've never been a big fan of blending testimonials into copy, but that little experiment convinced me that I was stubborn about that for far too long.

If you are not using plenty of testimonials at your site already, I suggest you start. If you don't have any, just drop your customers a line and ask them what they thought of X product or Y service. If you've been in business any length of time you surely have some happy customers who would be willing to write letters.

And if you're brand new to business, fear not. You WILL get testimonials. I suggest you use a follow-up autoresponder to contact customers a month or so after they make any purchase from you. You don't need a long questionnaire, just a simple, "what did you think" message will suffice. You'd be surprised at how much a customer will tell you when you leave it up to their own imagination.

Here are five tips on using "customer comments" at your website...

1. Make sure testimonials at your site are specific and not generic in nature. Generic testimonials are not as believable as detailed comments. So ask your customers to elaborate on their comments if possible.

2. Be sure to get permission from your customers to use testimonials.

3. Include customer's full name and geographic location. A good sprinkling of customers across globe shows that your product/service works everywhere.

4. Use customer comments throughout your websites and newsletters. Set up a whole page of letters like I have here - and then take your very best one or two testimonials and put them on your most prominent pages.

5. Consider top three or four reasons your potential customers may be hesitant to order. Then post customer comments that address those issues.

OK, let's wrap today's tip up with a quick summary...

The web is still like wild American west 100 years ago -- full of snake oil salesmen. If you want to establish your web business and earn steady, reliable income, you need to earn trust of your potential customers.

Letting potential clients read comments from your best customers is still best way to do that. So do it, and do it over and over. You may be surprised at results.