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Infinity author, Jane M. Martin, wanted to have her website included as the Good Housekeeping “Site of the Day,” featured in the Daily In Box sent out to 1.4 million subscribers. It took Jane several months before she was informed that her website www.breathingbetterlivingwell.com had been selected to be their featured website on Thursday, December 9, 2004. Good Housekeeping has a policy of not promoting books or commercial products in their Daily InBox; however, they felt that Jane’s website had enough helpful information for lung patients to justify the selection. Naturally, Jane’s book and ordering information is featured on her site. As of December 29, 2004, almost 2,000 visitors have come to her site as a result of the Daily InBox mention, and she has hundreds of new newsletter subscribers. At DailyInbox.com, they select the “Good Housekeeping Site of the Day” based upon excellence in wholesome, interesting and useful content. They exclude sites geared strictly toward commercial ventures. If you’d like to submit your website, they welcome all suggestions and submissions at: http://dailyinbox.com/gh/ss.html. You might like to look through their archives to get an idea of previous sites with topics similar to yours. Due to the volume of suggestions they receive, they’re unable to individually acknowledge submissions. Jane has some suggestions to help you make the most of this golden opportunity once your site has been selected. First, have your site ready before you submit it for consideration. Make sure that the content is up-to-date, and most of all, make sure it is simple. People do not spend much time in one place while surfing the net, and you have only a few seconds to make a good first impression. Initial feedback told us that visitors on December 9 were spending an average of 22 seconds on her website. Make sure that your webmaster (if you have one) is aware of the promotion so he or she won’t have your site down for remodeling on that day. Make sure you and your webmaster are ready to communicate on a moment’s notice to clear up any glitches once traffic starts up. If you have a bulletin board on your site, be ready to respond to posts from your new visitors. It’s important to have some current posting activity on the bulletin board. Also, be ready to respond promptly to email from your influx of visitors. Be ready to track the activity. Get your website hooked up to a site that tracks visits, page views, and other information about visitors to your site. Jane uses “Site Meter” and their basic service is free at: www.sitemeter.com. Finally, be realistic and patient –very patient! With all of those hits and page views happening, you may be expecting a phone call from Michelle telling you that you sold thousands of books overnight!!! Now wouldn’t that be great??? But even with lots of hits, people still have to think about buying your book, so be patient – and don’t call Michelle to ask how many orders came in. When it’s a significant number, she’ll call you. Remember, nothing ventured, nothing gained, and be patient when you’re looking for positive gains from your ventures. You’re planting seed that takes time to grow and yield a harvest.
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