3 -- Fill-in-the-Blank or Multiple Choice Form

You can design a "fill in blank" or "multiple choice" form in HTML or in text. HTML is easier to complete yet it can take too long to download if they are long and some international browsers also take long to download HTML.

You can send form through an auto responder system before or after completing something. They make purchase before/after you automatically send them form. The form makes submissions easier for them to complete and will increase response rate.

There are software packages and vendors who will set up this form and track results for you.

Resources:

How to Write HTML forms: http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/forms/ http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/interact/forms.html#h-17.1

3. Web Survey Collecting

Use web surveys to gather their recommendations. There is software to help you create surveys and track results. Survey hosting can be an online based or PC-based product.

Web Survey Software

Perseus Software: Free trial offered, several versions available, price range $495-$995 http://www.perseusdevelopment.com/softwareprod/download.html

Survey-Said software http://www.surveysaid.com/survey-software-introduction.html

Hosted Software http://www.hostedsurvey.com/ Survey Pro http://apian.com/ $1195

Survey Vendors

SurveyMonkey.com http://www.surveymonkey.com. Basic is free, upgrade is $19.95. They offer a great comparison chart that I found very interesting.

Free White Papers, Articles, and ebooks on Survey How-tos.

How to conduct a web survey: http://www.websurveyor.com/create-an-online-survey.asp

Top-10 Web Survey Issues and How to Address Them http://www.digitalbiz.com/pages/library/research/top_10.html

Set Your Web Survey Goals http://www.workz.com/cgi-bin/gt/tpl_page.html,template= 1&content=1326&nav1=1&

Perseus offers seven different white papers that will expand your knowledge on taking surveys. http://www.perseusdevelopment.com/surveytips/whitepapers.htm

*** BONUS ***

Four areas that will increase quality of your testimonials:

1. Ask them what their goal was for using product/service. 2. What positive emotions did they experience by using product/service? 3. Did they experience any reduction in fears and concerns after using product/service? What worries were removed from their lives? (Before and after picture) 4. How did _______ help other people in their lives?

13. At speaking engagements, pass around a clipboard with a manual way they can register for your e-newsletter. Start passing board around before you begin speaking. Place a small different piece of paper with a short letter from you to them explaining topics, frequency, and objectives of e-newsletter as well as opt-in option.

14. Send out a press release regularly to organizations you belong to about what's been going on in your e-newsletter. I began mine by sending out a short press release whenever an article was published. When I began getting published 10 and 20 times a month, that no longer seemed practical. Thus, I moved over to a once-a-month press release with a list of where articles were published. Add a press release section to your web site and post them there as well -- at least last six releases.

15. Find sites that give out awards for e-newsletters and keep applying until you receive one. When you do, send out a special announcement to your list as well as post it in a few issues of e-newsletter and rewrite your bio paragraph at end of your articles.

16. Don't add people on your list without asking for permission first. Always offer an opt-in/out option. Give them a personal greeting if you are responding to a particular networking group or other particular groups. Some web hosts only need one s*p*a*m complaint before they shut your e-newsletter down. And it isn't worth problems caused by not respecting this.

17. KISS your subscriber form. Meaning, "keep it short and simple." Ask for their e-mail and first name only. You can even simplify it more by just asking for their e-mail address.

18. Set up a section for past issues of your e-newsletters. I recommend just listing their main topic or name of article and not by date. People don't like to read things that they consider "old" easily. If you create pdf files for past issues, remember that it does save space but it also doesn't allow you to use unique meta page tags so that they show up in search engines.

19. Add your e-newsletter bio line to all your e-mail signatures.

20. Send out your e-newsletter articles as content for reprinting into other media.

21. Offer targeted subscribers a special report when they refer your e-newsletter to three or more colleagues. Add a price to special report to give a perception of added value. A special report is 3-10 pages on a very focused topic.

22. Offer your readers high-value content for them to read. Content they can't find easily or ever somewhere else on Internet and they will keep coming back. This is new wave for 2004. Subscriptions to e-newsletters are going down because content is too general.