It was clear from email that they had been online for a while (over 3 years) but hadn't seen any results from their efforts and were frustrated. Understandably so!

This person had created his own website in which to promote an online Opportunity. The purpose for having your own web site, rather than a static page, (one that you can't personally change, like ones most biz opps provide) is it to "Brand YOU".

After all, your site visitor is getting involved with something you recommend and in effect will want you to help them succeed.

Your site should not be to *sell* them ­ that's job of company you represent. The purpose of your site is to *refer* them.

Anyway, first impression of this member's site was lack of having it's own domain name, its own presence. Not a good start and that was even before I visited site. So before I arrived, my trust as a prospect was wavering.

On arrival I found that site "rammed" opportunity down throat of visitor, if anything site scared me into running away as fast as possible.

Also this member quoted their website "hits" as a picture of how many "visitors" there were. Let me explain why this can be misleading.

Hits occur from amount of files loaded when a visitor arrives to a web page. This means if a web page (which is 1 file) has 10 images (10 files) then they count as 11 hits; web page plus images. You can see that it can be misleading to quote hits.

It gets worse if visitor goes to more than 1 page because then any additional images (and next page) count as more hits. Make sure you always count "unique visitors" when assessing a conversion ratio or stating statistics.

I drafted a long email reply, explaining why I thought this site may not be effective, and is not getting results they wanted. I did my best to provide advice by explaining how to build a relationship between them and prospects and then how to refer prospect on company.

Around 24 hours passed when I received an answer formatted in all CAPS (which for anybody that is not aware, it's like yelling in an email). It seemed this member had taken offence to suggestions.

(Side note here: The suggestions were very constructive and aimed to provide support and help progress, nothing more.)

Here are five strategies for ensuring that your marketing is fully prepared for economic recovery:

Promote most optimistic tone possible. Now isn't time to hide your strength or to conserve your energy - show your industry leadership by promoting a tone of bold optimism in every written work that represents your company. Every word of every sentence should be carefully crafted to project good news that your company is doing well, growing strong, and standing ready to carry your customers' confidence to new heights in coming year. There's simply no room for doubt or even neutrality in words that represent you to world.

Stress growth, not survival. Your business survived recession - pat yourself on back, but not in public. Some companies begin an economic recovery by merely reminding old customers that they still exist; don't be one of them. Instead, demonstrate how your business grew, evolved and improved in recent years - and is now providing more value to your customers than ever. In communications that mention economic downturn, don't deny facts, but present them as historic opportunities for your company rather than ordeals to be survived.