Can you help me evaluate?

My "coach", Gordon Alexander, whose 10-day program got me this far with my ebook, has suggested I ask this question to all who have visited my site (URL below) and looked at the sales pitch for my book.

A little background: According to my site counter, I've received over 100 hits at Make Up Tips for Teens (http://www.seatoskyzine.com/makeup)in the past 5 days, and many have come from you dear people at sowpub. Yet, with all these hits I've had no sales of my ebook. As Gordon puts it, "people have not voted with their wallets". As part of my learning process, he wants me to ask you, dear friends, why not?

Be honest. Why didn't you buy the book? Why didn't you vote "yes" with your wallets?

I'm learning how to create a product and market it successfuly. You can help me, and possibly others who want to do the same thing, figure out what makes something sell or not.

I need to know why I didn't succeed in selling my product to any of you. Was it the site? Was it the "sales pitch"? Was it the price of the ebook? Was it the cover?

And no, I'm not trying to guilt anybody into buying it! I just want to learn, so I need your feedback. Help me complete this part of my "homework", by giving me an honest evaluation.

You have my gratitude!

Thanks,
Anya.




Make-Up Tips for Teens

Hi Anya,

I had a look at your site (I must have been one of your "hits"!).... But I'm not really in the market you want, since I don't have any teenage children, for example (I'm still unmarried, for one thing)....

I think the most likely reason is because probably "Sowpub" types may not be the best fit for the kind of market you seek, since most of us here are interested in business, writing, investing, and all that stuff.... :)

What I would suggest is try to promote it in some places where people who are looking for this product would buy it.... For example, maybe places where parents might talk about problems of having teenage daughters. (This is just a guess, you probably have a better idea than I do where the target market you seek might hang out....) I don't know precisely where, but I'm sure there must be forums like that somewhere.... You could participate in any makeup related discussions (which would establish your credibility), and always leave a link to your site at the end of your posts after your name....

I think it's probably mostly a matter of approaching the right target market, and trying to make sure that target market is aware of your product....

That's my 2 cents. :)

- Dien Rice

Anya, I agree with Dien. With the right market, it'd work well. It's a very interesting subject for teens.
Alexander
JV Specialist


The More Debts You Have, the Faster You Can Get Out

> Hi Anya,

> I think the most likely reason is because
> probably "Sowpub" types may not be
> the best fit for the kind of market you
> seek, since most of us here are interested
> in business, writing, investing, and all
> that stuff.... :)

Yes, you're absolutely right! :)

> What I would suggest is try to promote it in
> some places where people who are looking for
> this product would buy it.... For example,
> maybe places where parents might talk about
> problems of having teenage daughters. (This
> is just a guess, you probably have a better
> idea than I do where the target market you
> seek might hang out....) I don't know
> precisely where, but I'm sure there must be
> forums like that somewhere.... You could
> participate in any makeup related
> discussions (which would establish your
> credibility), and always leave a link to
> your site at the end of your posts after
> your name....

Thank you for that, it is a challenge, I've discovered, to find such forums that will let you provide a link with your signature. I've gotten in trouble in the past for doing that at ivillage.com, which is where all the ladies hang out. Darn!

> That's my 2 cents. :)

And it's worth a thousand times that. Thank you!

Anya

Hi Anya,

Like Dien, I was one of those who visited your site. I have a son who is 19 and a daughter who is 5. As Dien pointed out, this isn't where you will find your target market... not really.

100 hits?

There are 7 images and one web page on your homepage. Each of these produces a call on the server and counts for a hit. So 100 hits means about 12 visitors, providing they only looked at the home page.

If what you had received was targeted traffic, rather then general traffic, in all reality if your sales copy is successful you might have gotten 2 sales. When I use to sell off-line, the average was about 1 sale out of three leads. These leads were all targeted to a certain degree. Carl Galleti, who is IMHO a brilliant marketer says you can make two sales off-line for every one, online. So, with great ad copy, you might make 1 sale out of every 6 visitors.

Dien and I were two, untargeted visitors, Gordon, possibly a third. With a random audience it isn't a surprise you didn't make a sale.

You need to offer a commission to other site owners who offer content and products targeted towards teens, and submit articles to publishers who send regular newsletters to your target market. You need to add some stickiness to your website and offer your own newsletter. These things would be a good start.

Then once you're sure your audience is targeted, you can start trying to determine a conversion ratio of visitors to buyers.

Let's not stop there though. If you can make two sales off-line, to every one online, have you considered putting something together that you can sell off-line as well?

Best Regards,
Steve MacLellan




homebusiness-websites.com

> Hi Anya,

> Like Dien, I was one of those who visited
> your site. I have a son who is 19 and a
> daughter who is 5. As Dien pointed out, this
> isn't where you will find your target
> market... not really.

Yes, that's very true!

> 100 hits?

> There are 7 images and one web page on your
> homepage. Each of these produces a call on
> the server and counts for a hit. So 100 hits
> means about 12 visitors, providing they only
> looked at the home page.

Actually Steve, it's a "visit" counter, not a "hit" counter. I should have specified that in my post. The stats show that every single hit has a different IP address and host name. So they are all unique visitors.

> Let's not stop there though. If you can make
> two sales off-line, to every one online,
> have you considered putting something
> together that you can sell off-line as well?

Well, I haven't gotten that far yet, but it's certainly something I should think about. Thanks so much for all your helpful input!

Anya.

Hi Anya,

Besides just trying to sell, you can use the web to do Competitive Intelligence research and find out what, how and where your competitors are selling. I was asked last year to write an article about "Competitive Intelligence Resources" so if no one minds, I will just copy and paste it here. Perhaps this will give you an insight into some other ideas to improve your marketing. Here is the article:

Competitive Intelligence Resources



There are all kinds of tools to assist you to keep updated with your competitive intelligence status. I say status, because as far as I see this is a never ending process. Not only will you have to look for new competitors, you need to stay updated on what new things your old competitors are implementing.

One tool you might want to have a look at is called Website Watcher. It checks an unlimited number of web-sites for updates and changes with a minimum of time and online-costs. When changes in a website are detected, WebSite-Watcher saves last two versions to your hard disk and highlights all changes in text. This program offers a 40 day free trial but must be registered for $20.

http://www.webspector.com/downloads.htm#webspectorWebspector is a similar program you can look like. They offer a free download too. I didn't download this one to look at so I don't know if free download is really just a time limited demo or not. I couldn't find this information on their site.

There are some free services and programs that can help on a limited basis. Informant is a web based service that searches web for you based on search algorithms from Alta Vista, Excite and Infoseek. Copernic is a free software program that can be useful. There are more powerful features available to paid users, but the free version can serve up some useful information as well.

You might also be interested in having a look at Easy Seeker. You can use it to search over 100+ search engines and filter out duplicates. This software, although free is ad supported.

Further research on the net shows there is a lot of places to learn more about competitive Intelligence:

ADLAW Source for information on legal developments in advertising, marketing and media, including newsletters, cases, a guide to legal issues in advertising, and cyber law information. Ad Facts Provides customized competitive advertising and publicity tracking in print media (trade and consumer publications) and on the Internet. Offers reports on ad spending, publicity coverage, media placement, and analysis of the competitors' advertising strategies over time. Advertising Age Advertising Age, known for its top rated coverage of the advertising industry, offers this site with daily news, archives, plus listings such as top advertisers in various categories and a variety of lists such as 50 best commercials. Advertising Media Internet Center AMIC sponsors a vast collection of advertising-related websites, including links to companies, organizations, conferences, research institutes, media and the law. Advertising World University of Texas offers this abundant, collection of advertising and related links to companies, organizations, conferences and sports an excellent advertising-specific directory of topics. Advertising Worldwide Information AWI - an international database of useful information including: advertising agencies, market research companies, conventions, professional associations, audiovisual producers media resources and rates, legal issues, research and universities. Advertising and Marketing Publications Links to Advertising and Marketing publications. Adweek Online Subscription-based current, weekly and archived advertising-related articles and industry updates. Also includes classifieds. American Association of Advertising Agencies Newsletter, events, membership roster, abstracts of publications; some available free of cost, others for purchase. FindexOnline The worldwide directory of market research reports, studies and surveys; search and purchase full-text market research reports. Internet Advertising Bureau IAB events, news, membership information and research about the use and effectiveness of advertising on the Internet. Marketing Lists HTMARCOM Marketing lists on the internet. Media Central Daily and weekly advertising and promotion, marketing, television and cable, newspaper and radio news. MouseTracks: The List of Marketing Lists An extensive list of marketing related e-mail discussion groups. The Advertising Research Foundation A corporate membership association performing research in advertising, marketing and media. Their website offers information about the organization, ARF-sponsored events and links to recent issues of The Journal of Advertising Research. Web Digest for Marketers A free current issue of links to marketing-related sites and also a searchable, fee-based archive of links. Yahoo!'s Advertising News Advertising-specific news from Reuters, Business Wire, and PR Newswire. Yahoo!'s Advertising Sites A useful collection of advertising-specific organizations.

One of the greatest tools for Competitive Intelligence is your ability to look ahead and see where a competitor may be going. To do this you would want to look at such things as:

Academic publications Help-wanted ads Access to Information Act Industry regulators Annual reports to stockholders Industry research reports Business school cases Media quotes Company home pages Patent filings databases Court cases Press announcements Directories Securities and Exchange Commission Environmental Protection Agency Financial analyst reports Government filings (10Ks, 8Ks) State Uniform Commercial Code Trade Press Trade associations

You would also want to keep abreast of the news. By keeping abreast of your competitors involvement in things like:

Community meetings Professional meetings Financial analysts meetings Trade shows and exhibits Government hearings Professional meetings

This information you can use to your benefit and by employing strategies to study and learn more about your competitors, you can be far ahead of the competition. One government site claimed that:

Canada and the United States have very different CI systems from these countries. In Canada, no university offers a degree in CI; existing legislation prevents the sharing of strategic information; and our culture focuses on information as power with the hoarding of it seen as a way of differentiating the individual -- we do not share. Canada's intelligence service (CSIS) is not mandated to collect commercial intelligence, in fact, the service's mandate prevents it from doing so. CSIS is not allowed to share findings with Canadian companies should commercial intelligence be uncovered. At the executive level, few see the value of an integrated competitive intelligence system and North Americans certainly do not devour information in the same way that others do.

As for the United States, despite a growing number of university and executive programs in CI, the country is still far behind the rest of the world in CI. A study by the New-York-based Conference Board reveals that fewer than 5% of US corporations had full-fledged intelligence systems in place, only a marginal improvement of the 1988 findings of 3%

I guess we are a little too relaxed in North America. This attitude is NOT reflected across the entire globe. For example, Sweden is among the world leaders in CI. Collaboration among banks, academe, associations, government, and industry has helped create an impressive CI infrastructure with a large percentage of Sweden's top 500 firms having world-class CI departments. At the educational level, universities offer courses and degrees in CI, and there is even a high-school CI course that has been given to students throughout Europe. Within the Swedish business environment, there is much information sharing, and Sweden has relied on cartels, mergers, personal relationships, and so forth to maintain this system. Intelligence is gathered through tightly linked government, banking, business, and association networks around the world.

If you need some studying material off-line to pursue this topic a little further you can find all kinds of books on data mining at Amazon.com.

There is another free web based service offered by Excite that you can use to sort and filter through more than 300 online newspapers for late-breaking articles. Among these 300 or so, includes searches through Asia Week, Economist, London Evening Standard, Los Angeles Times, Forbes Digital, Advertising Age, and Russia Today.

I'd like to point out before this article goes to much further that although a lot of information and software ideas are being presented to you here, that you REALLY have to be prepared to do your homework. You will need to set up a system on your computer and really study this information and plan your intelligence process. You are not going to be able to rely solely on software or web based services...

Cambridge, Mass.-based constancy Fuld & Co. published a study, titled "Intelligence Software Report 2000."

Fuld reviewed more than 170 software packages for the competitive intelligence market. Of the 170 products reviewed, only a dozen were found to offer enough functionality to warrant immediate consideration -- and none of those provided complete support for a company's competitive intelligence program, according to Fuld.

And part of the problem that lies with the small entrepreneur is that a lot of these software packages are designed to pull information from major databases on the web about companies that sell stocks and are traded publicly. Interesting to note though, that once you have a strategic plan, much of what you may wish to discover can be done on your own. William E. Rothschild said, "Most major companies have developed World Wide Web sites to communicate directly, inexpensively,and efficiently with their customers, investors, suppliers and the public. In doing so, they inadvertently provide strategic and operational intelligence to Net-surfing competitors." In an article he wrote you can read how one of his clients, was able to use the Web listings of a key competitor...

When and if you do try to compile data yourself, information on other environmental trends such as industry trends, legal and regulatory trends, international trends, technology developments, political developments and economic conditions are important considerations. The relative strength of the competitor can be judged accurately only by assessing it with respect to the factors listed above. It's no secret that all the dot.com lay-offs, and the increasing knowledge of "proven to fail" business models is going to increase the interest in gaining accurate and reliable information about those competitors who have established their successes.

One of the best places to start your research is at Siteowner's. Use Siteowner's free services to find out how popular your competitor's sites are and how the search engines rank them. If you feel your searching skills need to be updated you can take a tutorial that will show you how to research companies online. There is also a CI Resource Index where you can read lots of articles about Competitive Intelligence.

While looking for more software that might be able to offer some assistance I ran across a demo product from Answer Chase. The software demo is only enabled for 60 days, but that should be long enough to learn how to use it to your benefit. For pricing it appears that the price is about $30 per month or $1 per day to keep using it.

I would have liked to download it and try it before I reported on it, but I am limited to the amount of time I can afford to spend. Time is a precious commodity. This product promises to free some of YOUR time.

One handy little tool I found that doesn't help a whole lot with compiling any type of intelligence reports but it does allow you to monitor competitors websites for changes in URL's at URL's you specify is called C4U. Here are some of the things it can do:

Example 1 ? Let?s say you?re a Cardiologist, a Doctor of the Heart, and you wish to keep updated with the recent developments in the new research after the causes of Heart Attacks orchestra ted by Dr. John Smith in Washington DC. All you have to do in this scenario, is add the main page of http://www.medicalmag.com/ to your C4U Page List, and type in the keywords ?Heart AND Research OR Dr. Smith AND Washington? . The next time an article with these words will appear, C4U will let you know of it, and present it to you in an accessible convenient way.

Example 2 ? You?re looking for a date on the Internet, and you?re checking out a dating service site. The problem is that you?re very selective, and you want a person who?s at least 5?11 or has green eyes, however, you?ve yet to find the right person in the current lists, and you?re waiting for new entries to show up In this case all you have to do is add the Web Page where the list appears, and if necessary, add a password and a username, and set C4U to detect new text and links in this page. The next time a new person comes along, you will be the first to know before he or she is already taken.As C4U will alert and keep an eye open for more people with added to that list.

Example 3: Using Internet Search Engines ?You?re a great fan of Elvis, The King, and you wish to keep track of fan sites added to Yahoo!. All you have to do is look for ?Elvis? in Yahoo! and add the ?Results? to your C4U Page List. When you do,make sure you check the options to notify you when a link is added or text is added, and that way, the next time Yahoo?s collection of Elvis Fan sites is expanded, you will surely be the first to know.

Example 4 ? Interested in the latest news for PCs and World Computing? Add www.pcmag.com to your C4U Page List and ask C4U to let you know if Text or Graphics have been added to the main page. If you?re anticipating a review of recent software of hardware, simply type it in as a keyword, and C4U will let you know when the PC Magazine personnel will review it.

You can download this freeware tool from C4U

A similar and free web based service can be found from NetMind.

A free service I use and recommend is available from Tracer Lock. It monitors the Web for sites matching your interests, and sends you email when it finds a new match. A recent upgrade in this service made some improvements to the format of the TracerLock notification emails. Now, when TracerLock emails you a list of URL's that match your search query, it also looks at the contents of each URL and includes the portion of the Web page text that matches your query. This makes it easier to tell whether a given match is actually relevant, without having to view each Web page and look for your search term.

Best Regards,
Steve MacLellan

PS:
Keep in mind I wrote this article over a year ago, so some of the links may not work.






Risk Free Web Development

Steve,

You've shared a lot of valuable information here. I know I'm not the only one that will find this useful. Thanks so much for sharing this.

Anya.

> Hi Anya,

> Besides just trying to sell, you can use the
> web to do Competitive Intelligence research
> and find out what, how and where your
> competitors are selling. I was asked last
> year to write an article about
> "Competitive Intelligence
> Resources" so if no one minds, I will
> just copy and paste it here. Perhaps this
> will give you an insight into some other
> ideas to improve your marketing. Here is the
> article:

> Competitive Intelligence Resources
> There are all kinds of tools to assist you
> to keep updated with your competitive
> intelligence status. I say status, because
> as far as I see this is a never ending
> process. Not only will you have to look for
> new competitors, you need to stay updated on
> what new things your old competitors are
> implementing.

> One tool you might want to have a look at
> is called Website Watcher . It checks an
> unlimited number of web-sites for updates
> and changes with a minimum of time and
> online-costs. When changes in a website are
> detected, WebSite-Watcher saves last two
> versions to your hard disk and highlights
> all changes in text. This program offers a
> 40 day free trial but must be registered for
> $20.

>
> http://www.webspector.com/downloads.htm#webspector
> Webspector is a similar program you can
> look like. They offer a free download too. I
> didn't download this one to look at so I
> don't know if free download is really just a
> time limited demo or not. I couldn't find
> this information on their site.

> There are some free services and programs
> that can help on a limited basis. Informant
> is a web based service that searches web
> for you based on search algorithms from Alta
> Vista, Excite and Infoseek. Copernic is a
> free software program that can be useful.
> There are more powerful features available
> to paid users, but the free version can
> serve up some useful information as well.

> You might also be interested in having a
> look at Easy Seeker . You can use it to
> search over 100+ search engines and filter
> out duplicates. This software, although free
> is ad supported.

> Further research on the net shows there is
> a lot of places to learn more about
> competitive Intelligence:

> ADLAW Source for information on legal
> developments in advertising, marketing and
> media, including newsletters, cases, a guide
> to legal issues in advertising, and cyber
> law information. Ad Facts Provides
> customized competitive advertising and
> publicity tracking in print media (trade and
> consumer publications) and on the Internet.
> Offers reports on ad spending, publicity
> coverage, media placement, and analysis of
> the competitors' advertising strategies over
> time. Advertising Age Advertising Age,
> known for its top rated coverage of the
> advertising industry, offers this site with
> daily news, archives, plus listings such as
> top advertisers in various categories and a
> variety of lists such as 50 best
> commercials. Advertising Media Internet
> Center AMIC sponsors a vast collection of
> advertising-related websites, including
> links to companies, organizations,
> conferences, research institutes, media and
> the law. Advertising World University of
> Texas offers this abundant, collection of
> advertising and related links to companies,
> organizations, conferences and sports an
> excellent advertising-specific directory of
> topics. Advertising Worldwide Information
> AWI - an international database of useful
> information including: advertising agencies,
> market research companies, conventions,
> professional associations, audiovisual
> producers media resources and rates, legal
> issues, research and universities.
> Advertising and Marketing Publications
> Links to Advertising and Marketing
> publications. Adweek Online
> Subscription-based current, weekly and
> archived advertising-related articles and
> industry updates. Also includes classifieds.
> American Association of Advertising
> Agencies Newsletter, events, membership
> roster, abstracts of publications; some
> available free of cost, others for purchase.
> FindexOnline The worldwide directory of
> market research reports, studies and
> surveys; search and purchase full-text
> market research reports. Internet
> Advertising Bureau IAB events, news,
> membership information and research about
> the use and effectiveness of advertising on
> the Internet. Marketing Lists HTMARCOM
> Marketing lists on the internet. Media
> Central Daily and weekly advertising and
> promotion, marketing, television and cable,
> newspaper and radio news. MouseTracks: The
> List of Marketing Lists An extensive list
> of marketing related e-mail discussion
> groups. The Advertising Research
> Foundation A corporate membership
> association performing research in
> advertising, marketing and media. Their
> website offers information about the
> organization, ARF-sponsored events and links
> to recent issues of The Journal of
> Advertising Research. Web Digest for
> Marketers A free current issue of links to
> marketing-related sites and also a
> searchable, fee-based archive of links.
> Yahoo!'s Advertising News
> Advertising-specific news from Reuters,
> Business Wire, and PR Newswire. Yahoo!'s
> Advertising Sites A useful collection of
> advertising-specific organizations. One
> of the greatest tools for Competitive
> Intelligence is your ability to look ahead
> and see where a competitor may be going. To
> do this you would want to look at such
> things as:

> Academic publications Help-wanted ads
> Access to Information Act Industry
> regulators Annual reports to
> stockholders Industry research reports
> Business school cases Media quotes
> Company home pages Patent filings
> databases Court cases Press
> announcements Directories Securities
> and Exchange Commission Environmental
> Protection Agency Financial analyst
> reports Government filings (10Ks, 8Ks)
> State Uniform Commercial Code Trade
> Press Trade associations You would
> also want to keep abreast of the news. By
> keeping abreast of your competitors
> involvement in things like:

> Community meetings Professional
> meetings Financial analysts meetings
> Trade shows and exhibits Government
> hearings Professional meetings This
> information you can use to your benefit and
> by employing strategies to study and learn
> more about your competitors, you can be far
> ahead of the competition. One government
> site claimed that:

> Canada and the United States have very
> different CI systems from these countries.
> In Canada, no university offers a degree in
> CI; existing legislation prevents the
> sharing of strategic information; and our
> culture focuses on information as power with
> the hoarding of it seen as a way of
> differentiating the individual -- we do not
> share. Canada's intelligence service (CSIS)
> is not mandated to collect commercial
> intelligence, in fact, the service's mandate
> prevents it from doing so. CSIS is not
> allowed to share findings with Canadian
> companies should commercial intelligence be
> uncovered. At the executive level, few see
> the value of an integrated competitive
> intelligence system and North Americans
> certainly do not devour information in the
> same way that others do.

> As for the United States, despite a growing
> number of university and executive programs
> in CI, the country is still far behind the
> rest of the world in CI. A study by the
> New-York-based Conference Board reveals that
> fewer than 5% of US corporations had
> full-fledged intelligence systems in place,
> only a marginal improvement of the 1988
> findings of 3% I guess we are a little
> too relaxed in North America. This attitude
> is NOT reflected across the entire globe.
> For example, Sweden is among the world
> leaders in CI. Collaboration among banks,
> academe, associations, government, and
> industry has helped create an impressive CI
> infrastructure with a large percentage of
> Sweden's top 500 firms having world-class CI
> departments. At the educational level,
> universities offer courses and degrees in
> CI, and there is even a high-school CI
> course that has been given to students
> throughout Europe. Within the Swedish
> business environment, there is much
> information sharing, and Sweden has relied
> on cartels, mergers, personal relationships,
> and so forth to maintain this system.
> Intelligence is gathered through tightly
> linked government, banking, business, and
> association networks around the world.

> If you need some studying material
> off-line to pursue this topic a little
> further you can find all kinds of books on
> data mining at Amazon.com .

> There is another free web based service
> offered by Excite that you can use to sort
> and filter through more than 300 online
> newspapers for late-breaking articles. Among
> these 300 or so, includes searches through
> Asia Week, Economist, London Evening
> Standard, Los Angeles Times, Forbes Digital,
> Advertising Age, and Russia Today.

> I'd like to point out before this article
> goes to much further that although a lot of
> information and software ideas are being
> presented to you here, that you REALLY have
> to be prepared to do your homework. You will
> need to set up a system on your computer and
> really study this information and plan your
> intelligence process. You are not going to
> be able to rely solely on software or web
> based services...

> Cambridge, Mass.-based constancy Fuld
> & Co. published a study, titled
> "Intelligence Software Report
> 2000."

> Fuld reviewed more than 170 software
> packages for the competitive intelligence
> market. Of the 170 products reviewed, only a
> dozen were found to offer enough
> functionality to warrant immediate
> consideration -- and none of those provided
> complete support for a company's competitive
> intelligence program, according to Fuld .
> And part of the problem that lies with the
> small entrepreneur is that a lot of these
> software packages are designed to pull
> information from major databases on the web
> about companies that sell stocks and are
> traded publicly. Interesting to note though,
> that once you have a strategic plan, much of
> what you may wish to discover can be done on
> your own. William E. Rothschild said,
> "Most major companies have developed
> World Wide Web sites to communicate
> directly, inexpensively,and efficiently with
> their customers, investors, suppliers and
> the public. In doing so, they inadvertently
> provide strategic and operational
> intelligence to Net-surfing
> competitors." In an article he wrote
> you can read how one of his clients, was
> able to use the Web listings of a key
> competitor...

> When and if you do try to compile data
> yourself, information on other environmental
> trends such as industry trends, legal and
> regulatory trends, international trends,
> technology developments, political
> developments and economic conditions are
> important considerations. The relative
> strength of the competitor can be judged
> accurately only by assessing it with respect
> to the factors listed above. It's no secret
> that all the dot.com lay-offs, and the
> increasing knowledge of "proven to
> fail" business models is going to
> increase the interest in gaining accurate
> and reliable information about those
> competitors who have established their
> successes.

> One of the best places to start your
> research is at Siteowner's . Use
> Siteowner's free services to find out how
> popular your competitor's sites are and how
> the search engines rank them. If you feel
> your searching skills need to be updated you
> can take a tutorial that will show you how
> to research companies online. There is also
> a CI Resource Index where you can read
> lots of articles about Competitive
> Intelligence.

> While looking for more software that might
> be able to offer some assistance I ran
> across a demo product from Answer Chase .
> The software demo is only enabled for 60
> days, but that should be long enough to
> learn how to use it to your benefit. For
> pricing it appears that the price is about
> $30 per month or $1 per day to keep using
> it.

> I would have liked to download it and try
> it before I reported on it, but I am limited
> to the amount of time I can afford to spend.
> Time is a precious commodity. This product
> promises to free some of YOUR time.

> One handy little tool I found that doesn't
> help a whole lot with compiling any type of
> intelligence reports but it does allow you
> to monitor competitors websites for changes
> in URL's at URL's you specify is called C4U.
> Here are some of the things it can do:

> Example 1 ? Let?s say you?re a
> Cardiologist, a Doctor of the Heart, and you
> wish to keep updated with the recent
> developments in the new research after the
> causes of Heart Attacks orchestra ted by Dr.
> John Smith in Washington DC. All you have to
> do in this scenario, is add the main page of
> http://www.medicalmag.com/ to your C4U
> Page List, and type in the keywords ?Heart
> AND Research OR Dr. Smith AND Washington? .
> The next time an article with these words
> will appear, C4U will let you know of it,
> and present it to you in an accessible
> convenient way.

> Example 2 ? You?re looking for a date on
> the Internet, and you?re checking out a
> dating service site. The problem is that
> you?re very selective, and you want a person
> who?s at least 5?11 or has green eyes,
> however, you?ve yet to find the right person
> in the current lists, and you?re waiting for
> new entries to show up In this case all you
> have to do is add the Web Page where the
> list appears, and if necessary, add a
> password and a username, and set C4U to
> detect new text and links in this page. The
> next time a new person comes along, you will
> be the first to know before he or she is
> already taken.As C4U will alert and keep an
> eye open for more people with added to that
> list.

> Example 3: Using Internet Search Engines
> ?You?re a great fan of Elvis, The King, and
> you wish to keep track of fan sites added to
> Yahoo!. All you have to do is look for
> ?Elvis? in Yahoo! and add the ?Results? to
> your C4U Page List. When you do,make sure
> you check the options to notify you when a
> link is added or text is added, and that
> way, the next time Yahoo?s collection of
> Elvis Fan sites is expanded, you will surely
> be the first to know.

> Example 4 ? Interested in the latest news
> for PCs and World Computing? Add
> www.pcmag.com to your C4U Page List and ask
> C4U to let you know if Text or Graphics have
> been added to the main page. If you?re
> anticipating a review of recent software of
> hardware, simply type it in as a keyword,
> and C4U will let you know when the PC
> Magazine personnel will review it.

> You can download this freeware tool from
> C4U A similar and free web based service
> can be found from NetMind .

> A free service I use and recommend is
> available from Tracer Lock . It monitors
> the Web for sites matching your interests,
> and sends you email when it finds a new
> match. A recent upgrade in this service made
> some improvements to the format of the
> TracerLock notification emails. Now, when
> TracerLock emails you a list of URL's that
> match your search query, it also looks at
> the contents of each URL and includes the
> portion of the Web page text that matches
> your query. This makes it easier to tell
> whether a given match is actually relevant,
> without having to view each Web page and
> look for your search term.

> Best Regards,
> Steve MacLellan PS:
> Keep in mind I wrote this article over a
> year ago, so some of the links may not work.

>

Great website/like the colors, graphics
etc...

Now what confuses me: are you selling an
ebook "directly to teens" or "to their
parents?". It's been my experience teens generally
don't do what their parents want them to do
when it comes to personal grooming(there are
exceptions to every rule)

I would do research to find out if teens are
interested in makeup tips and if they are ordering
online. As teens are sensitive to the criticism
of others I don't think I would mention the
frustration their parents have with their
makeup UNLESS you are going to aim your ebook
to the adult population(parents of teens) But
that poses a problem because most teens and pre-
teens seek advice from magazines and their
peers.

As you know from your personal experience with
modeling schools: teens want tips to look like
a model or help them to become one...Perhaps
you could do an online e/book with these secrets
and leave out any negative references to how
teens look...

I think you should hang out in the area of the
internet where teens communicate with one
another and find out if you have the tips
they want and if they buy online and market
your tips to them...but change the title
and the orientation of your copy on both pages
and aim it at teens directly instead of any
reference to their parents or what their
parents think of the way they look.

Just my .02

p.s: my analysis is not a negative critique
of your copy but just a suggestion to focus
more on your market

I commend your hard work, focus and courage
to open yourself to the public.

> Great website/like the colors, graphics
> etc...

Thanks :)

> Now what confuses me: are you selling an
> ebook "directly to teens" or
> "to their
> parents?". It's been my experience
> teens generally
> don't do what their parents want them to do
> when it comes to personal grooming(there are
> exceptions to every rule)

> As teens are sensitive to the
> criticism
> of others I don't think I would mention the
> frustration their parents have with their
> makeup UNLESS you are going to aim your
> ebook
> to the adult population(parents of teens)
> But
> that poses a problem because most teens and
> pre-
> teens seek advice from magazines and their
> peers.

Yes, that's an interesting and very valid point. I have to drag Gordon into this issue, and I hope he doesn't mind..... you need to know that I wrote the copy for the first page on the website, while Gordon wrote the copy for the 2nd and 3rd pages. When I wrote the ebook, I wrote it to and for teens. The only mention of parents in the book is a gentle nudge to not go against their better judgement. It was Gordon, however, that wrote the articles (2nd & 3rd pages on the site) from a parents perspective, and I think (I may be wrong) that he feels that the book will be marketed to parents rather than teens. I'm not sure about this, as we haven't actually started the marketing part of the program yet, and we have to bounce this idea back and forth. But I believe that's where this confusion lies - of who we are marketing to - teens or their parents.

> I think you should hang out in the area of
> the
> internet where teens communicate with one
> another and find out if you have the tips
> they want and if they buy online and market
> your tips to them...but change the title
> and the orientation of your copy on both
> pages
> and aim it at teens directly instead of any
> reference to their parents or what their
> parents think of the way they look.

Yes again, that will have to be looked into. Thanks so much for pointing that out!

> Just my .02

It was worth more!

> p.s: my analysis is not a negative critique
> of your copy but just a suggestion to focus
> more on your market

> I commend your hard work, focus and courage
> to open yourself to the public.

Thanks :)

Anya.