The Online Lodge

When a prospect responds to your lead generation sales letter, how do you know if the prospect is a qualified lead or not? By qualifying them before they respond.

At my direct mail lead generation firm, our definition of a qualified lead is someone who meets four criteria:

Authority: They have the authority to buy
Readiness: They are ready to buy now
Budget: They have the budget to buy
Need: They need your product or service

Anyone who meets some of these criteria but not all is simply a lead that needs to be cultivated. This process is called lead development, lead nurturing and lead cultivation.

One way to discover if your prospect meets these criteria is to ask some qualifying questions on your business reply card or website landing page. That way, you know how much time, energy and money to spend on each inquiry.

Here are five questions that you can ask in your sales letter’s reply device or on your website landing page to qualify your leads, learning where they are in their buying cycle.

What is your role in the purchase of this product?
[This question determines their authority]

When will you make your purchase?
[This question determines their readiness]

Has a budget been approved to buy this product?
[This question determines their ability to pay]

How many employees or sites need this product?
[This question, or one like it, determines their need]

Alan is a business-to-business direct mail copywriter and lead generation consultant. As President of Sharpe Copy Inc. (http://www.sharpecopy.com), Alan specializes in helping businesses generate leads, close sales and retain customers, using cost-effective, compelling direct mail and email marketing. Alan also uses his direct mail advertising services to help charities raise funds and raise awareness of their causes, using fundraising letters.

Never before in the history of the business of writing have opportunities opened up and presented themselves on such a large scale and in such huge quantities for writers to easily win so much regular business and revenue.

If you know anything about writers of old you will know that they mostly starved, some to death. Yes, they often had to pay such a high price for their love of writing.

Today everything has changed so dramatically and so suddenly. Thanks mainly to the internet and the huge hungry market it continues to build at high every day, the business of writing has been changed forever.

Sadly however, many writers are yet to fully wake up to the new realties of the internet and the fresh and different business and revenue opportunities that are suddenly within such easy reach of any writer. Many offline writers are still stuck saying that they will never write $3 or $5 articles (see my article on this controversial subject at

http://100grandonlinewriters.blogspot.com/2005/06/
lots-of-extra-money-waiting-to-be-made.html

Yet the same writers had no problem starting off their careers writing 10-cents-per-word articles in the old days. Some even wrote for publications that pay in copies and others that don’t even pay (just to get clippings of their published work. And yet those clippings were not anywhere near as effective as “online writing clippings” - that is your articles posted free at article sites, can be today).

But for you to succeed as an online writer you must first understand that all online writing is business writing. In the bricks and mortar world business writing is writing about boring stocks and sometimes boring companies and trying to explain why they are so successful or why they have failed. Incidentally I personally find such writing fascinating.

In online writing, the business writing is different. You can write on any subject, giving a lot of useful details and advice but in the end, you must find a way of getting readers to do what you want them to do. Your objective could be to get them to visit your website or blog for more information and this win higher traffic, which gives you many possibilities. Or your objective could be to get them to head straight to your affiliate website.

In other words your writing is always business writing because the end objective is to sell something, even if it is just ideas. And yet the moment your writing looks like it is selling, it will be shunned and people will not want to come anywhere near your writing. A good example is this article that you are reading so eagerly. It is actually selling something. Get my point? The kind of writing articles do online is very different.

Any writer who understands that all online writing is business writing puts themselves in a very good position to make a fortune from their online business writing.

For example it will become much easier to attract clients because no website will assign you to write something that does not help them sell something.

This business writing that is done online has become even more interesting in recent times because a huge market has developed for writers who can write content to attract specific Google adsense advertisements. Let me explain in a little more detail for the sake of the uninitiated. Most people who carry Google adsense advertisements quickly notice that it is extremely important to attract higher paying ads. The way to do this is by using certain keywords. Usually common keywords in most subjects will attract low bids (because there are numerous sites where these ads can be successfully posted) meaning that the revenue Google shares with the site owner carrying their ads, for clicks will tend to be low. More unique and rare keywords will tend to attract ads that have much higher bids on them. There are actually certain Google ads that pay as much as $100 per click.

The kind of business writing required here is where unique keywords will be used without the content losing its’ original value and meaning. There are probably hundreds of thousands of sites that carry Google ads and many of them are not happy with their earnings and would like to earn more. Business writing from online writers who understand exactly what the client wants is in very high demand. By the way it is very easy for an online writer to quickly become an expert in this sort of business writing by simply setting up their own blog and applying to post Google ads and then learning and practicing their online business writing skills on their own site to start with. They can even use the same site to attract clients and writing business.

Christopher Kyalo earns a living writing for various online clients. Visit his blog http://100grandonlinewriters.blogspot.com to read the following article; How to get lots of business writing online articles. He can be reached at strongwallafrica at yahoo.com

We all know the adage “dog is man’s best friend” seem to run for ages now. But we have reasons enough to consider our dogs as vital parts of our daily existence.

They seem to have this special character to display love and loyalty, not to mention a unique fun that we can only witness from them. That’s why, as much as possible, we will do everything we can to give them the best treatment and best health care, just like we do for our family members. Come to think of it- we even provide them their own insurance!

In this article, we will tackle some important dog health guidelines. Though considerably generalized for all breeds, information here are helpful still in maintaining our best friend’s optimum health.

Dental Care. Swollen, inflamed gums and secondary infections often cause the existence of other major dog health problems. It must be observed that a young dog’s teeth are brushed once in a week. Older dogs must have a regular session of thrice a week.

There are especially designed toothbrushes for dogs that provide cleaning of the rear teeth. It is not a good practice to use human toothpaste for them, instead make use of enzyme toothpaste that will prevent tartar build-up. There are also dental cleaning pads that will complement for tooth brushing, if not regularly done. Such pads would cleanse your dog’s teeth by means of enzymes incorporated on their surface, which are effective in removing stuck-up dirt.

Ear Care. We often overlook the ears of our dog, however this practice might lead to wax and dirt build-up that can cause infection and inflammation. Regular ear care will help remove ear debris and drying the ear canal. Thus, prevention of some major conditions that might as well cause us to give especial attention to those parts.

Ear care also entails the extermination of ear mites that typically reside in the inner ear of our dogs.

Nutritional Supplements. Dog foods are often lacking in nutrients essential for the optimum development and growth of our pets. Thus, it is very vital to supplement them with vitamins and nutrients to prevent deficiencies that might cause serious dog health complications. This is especially true for older dogs who no longer has the appetite to eat heartily.

Those dogs that work hard during the entire day also need supplements. And also for those that have recently undergone surgery and sickness.

Irritated and Sored Skin. Not only humans get skin irritations and allergies. Some dogs have extra sensitive skins that make them susceptible for bacterial and fungus attack which in turn may lead to wounds, scabs and skin diseases.

Hot Spots. These are characterized by skin areas, which are moist and inflamed. These are typically due to irritation from fleabites, substance irritation or allergies. These spots are usually extremely itchy which cause dogs to scratch and lick on them. Thus, the aggravation of the condition that can lead to serious wounds.

The most vital step in healing hot spots is to reduce the frequency of scratching. Afterwhich, spraying of skin relief products may prove beneficial n stopping the pain and itchiness.

If your dog display symptoms of conditions as listed here, it is wise to consult a vet immediately. He may provide you with some guidelines, which will aid greatly in preserving your pet’s health. It is also likely that he will prescribe you with some medications that will ease the symptoms that your dog exhibits.

Khieng ‘Ken‘ Chho - Online Dog Health Resources. For more, visit Ken’s website: http://doghealth.1w3b.net/