And we love it! After all, every question we receive is an opportunity. It is a chance to help out fellow Internet marketers and in process, further develop our expertise and reputation as an expert.

But each inquiry is something much more than that. It is also an opportunity to sell a solution. These solutions can be in form of instruction, a software solution or maybe even an opportunity.

And most of us ezine publishers have our replies down to a science. Of all ezine publishers I've asked, every effective one processes each new inquiry in a similar fashion. We field so many messages each week that we have to have a reply system down pat, or we'd be buried in email!

Here's a quick flow chart most of us publishers use when replying to inquiries...

First, we reply quickly and personally, then...

1. Offer any free help we have available on subject 2. Suggest one of our proprietary solutions 3. Suggest a solution we've plugged into our site 4. Send them to a 3rd party website if necessary

Now, it's important to realize that we've been through literally thousands of messages. This means we've developed some great solutions to almost every inquiry.

For instance, lets look a three popular questions every ezine publisher has faced at one time or another. Along with each question you'll see action publisher took to secure a new, long term income stream...

Inquiry #1: What software did you use to build your website?

This is one you'll come across quite often. And it turned into a gold mine for one publisher I know. (She preferred to remain nameless.) She's one of best webmaster's I've seen and her site is amazingly sharp, fast-loading and professional. As inquiries began growing she would tell folks how she built site and tools she used. But smart marketer that she is, she decided to use this as an opportunity to grow her income.

She emailed companies who created software she used to build her site. She got them to look at her site by telling them it was done with their software, and they too loved it. Then she told them she was receiving a growing number of inquiries from other webmasters and would be interested in offering their design tools at her site. After a little finagling, she was able to offer their software at a discounted price.

Now, every email enquiry she receives about design of her site gets met with a pre-formatted email reply. It takes her all of 10 seconds to reply by pasting message in and personalizing it, and nearly every webmaster tries free demo programs then goes on to order software at her special discount price.

Web surfing is a fast-paced sport. Some surfers (including myself) can hit 10-20 sites in a ten minute span. Yikes! That leaves each site about a minute (and sometimes much less) to reach three objectives EVERY business website should be after...

1. A unique and positive image 2. An irresistible reason to stay past that minute 3. A lasting relationship

Here's exactly how you accomplish those objectives in that tiny time frame...

#1: Impress your unique and positive image in your visitors' minds immediately, by showing off an "attractive" home page.

C'mon, "attractive?" What is this a beauty contest?

Well, sort of. You see, a HUGE percentage of visitors judge your entire business within those first 10 seconds of visiting your site. If they are presented with a handsome page that loads quickly and looks professional, they may be compelled to stick around. (At least long enough to see what's in it for them.)

Let me ask you this... How many times have YOU clicked away from a site even before it finished loading? Yeah, that's what I thought. Me too. Web surfers looking for something in particular not only want right info, they want it from right source. If your site looks like it was designed by a 12 year old, you're in big trouble.

And no, you do not need fancy graphics, java and like. Just make sure your home page is a place that YOU would be impressed by. You do this with a professional logo, a crisp, fresh look and simple navigation links.

#2: Get right to point and give your visitors an irresistible reason to stay past that minute...

Be sure first thing your website displays is a reason for visitors to stick around. When someone comes to your site it needs to be glaringly obvious how site can help them. Remember, they probably came looking for something in particular. If they are forced to "search" for how your site may help them, it's too late, they're gone.

You can pull this off by displaying a few lines of text prominently, where your visitors will see it right away.

Examples...