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When I first arrived at St. Petersburg-Clearwater Airport in January, I already knew where I wanted to stay.

Before my trip, I had read the Tampa Tribune on line seeking a rental unit for under $500 a month (Good luck). What I found was worth the money, but more than I could afford.

The Howard Johnson Express on South Dale Mabry is everything I needed, and the weather was gorgeous that first night - 70 degrees and a clear, starlit sky compared to the frozen tundra of Cleveland, OH. Unfortunately, I misread the ad and it wasn't $500 a month.

This particular hotel is situated within a mile of a multi-screen movie theater, bicycle shop and several churches. It is also the closest to MacDill Air Force Base at two miles away. Also two miles away is a 9-mile walkway that runs parallel to Bayshore Boulevard. At the shopping plaza where the movie theater is located, you can catch a bus that will carry you across the Gandy Bridge to Pinellas County. (That is something else. Parallel to the Gandy Bridge is a pedestrian bridge that cyclists and walkers can use to cross the bay!).

Back to the hotel. This is a wonderful place with king size beds, microwave/refrigerator, hairdryer, coffeepot, iron/ironing board and safe in every room. There are family, jacuzzi and kitchenette suites, a large fitness room, outdoor pool (it's Florida) and complimentary breakfast with free newspaper. The service there is impeccable. I was able to keep my 18-speed road bicycle outside and it was never stolen. On my last day, the desk clerk called a cab at my request that arrived within five minutes!

North of the hotel are a library, fire station, Publix, Raymond James Station, Tampa International Airport. Busch Gardens is about 13 miles to the northeast, downtown Tampa is five miles away and Ybor City is six miles.

As you can tell, I want to go back and stay!

Personal Experience

If you are a serious Internet Entrepreneur, your top priority must be your website. Your website is a direct reflection of you and your business. Creating a professional website designed to sell will take a great deal of time and effort, as there is much more to take into consideration than design. You must look at a much broader picture and specifically design your website to sell.

1) You must have a professional looking website. Your website is the most important sales tool you have. Your visitor's first impression will almost instantly determine whether or not you're going to make a sale. A professional website should be pleasing to the eyes, well organized, easy to navigate and load quickly.

2) You must specifically design your website to rank high in the Search Engines. This involves much more than just including META tags. Your KEYWORDS, TITLE, IMAGE ALT tags, Text and overall design, all play an important roll in determining how your website will rank. You can learn more by reading our Optimization tutorial.

3) You must use effective sales copy. Your words are the entire foundation of your business. Most business failures are the result of ineffective copy. Whether it is your website, sales letters or advertisements, your words play a major role in determining your success. When writing your website copy, use the following formula:

A -Attention - Use a powerful headline that demands attention

I -Interest - Intrigue interest and create curiosity

D -Detail - Provide details about your product or service

A -Action - Call for action

4) Drive traffic to your site. In order to create a steady stream of traffic to your website, give your visitors a reason to visit and continue to visit in the future. You must provide your visitors with fresh content on a continual basis. Content comes in various forms, such as news, articles, tips, horoscopes, weather, etc. and is freely available on the Internet. Your content should blend in well with the focus of your website and be updated on a regular basis.

The following websites provide free articles for publication:

http://www.web-source.net/free_articles.htm

http://www.mega-success.com/

http://www.marketing-seek.com/

http://www.ideamarketers.com/

http://www.infobot.net/

Syndication services provide free content from a wide variety of sources. You simply place a small line of code within the HTML of your web page and each of the following services provide fresh content for you. The great thing about syndication services is that once you've placed the code, you don't have to worry about updating the content, as it is automatically updated.

Syndicator - Provides free syndicated articles and columns with photographs
http://www.web-source.net/syndicator.htm

isyndicate - Provides free headlines for news, articles, comics, weather and more.
http://www.isyndicate.com/

Moreover - Provides news headlines from over 1500 sources.
http://www.moreover.com/

ScreamingMedia - Provides free headlines from various resources
http://www.screamingmedia.com/

5) Provide free instruction. Your website is the storefront for your product or service. You must convince your visitors that they need the product or service you're offering. This can be accomplished by providing your visitors with free helpful advice and instruction in the form of an article, tutorial, free ebook or free autoresponder course.

6) Display your testimonials. You must gain your visitors trust. By displaying customer testimonials, you are boosting your potential customers confidence in you and your product or service. You can either create a web page to display all of your testimonials or use a script to rotate them on your main page. You can find a great random text script here:
http://willmaster.com/master/merrygoround/

7) Let your visitors know who you are. Provide complete information in regard to your company including, address, phone number and email addresses to request information and support.

8) Tell your visitors about their privacy. Create a page on your website called, "Privacy Statement," and let your visitors know exactly what you do with the personal information you collect.

9) Provide a sample or trial of your product or service. For example, if you're offering a Search Engine optimization service, provide a free META tag analysis at your website. Not only will this increase your sales, but it will drive more traffic to your site as well.

10) Remove the risk. To further increase your sales, you must remove the risk by providing a guarantee. A guarantee will boost your potential customer's confidence in purchasing your products or services.

A professional website specifically designed to sell is one the most important factors in determining your success. Take your time and make sure you're looking at the complete picture before you begin. If you're not secure in your abilities to create your own website, rather than risk the potential success of your business, consider hiring a professional web designer. Your success depends on it.

Copyright Shelley Lowery

About the Author:

Shelley Lowery is the author of the acclaimed web design course, "Web Design Mastery" (http://www.webdesignmastery.com) and "eBook Starter - Give Your eBooks the look and feel of a REAL book" (http://www.ebookstarter.com)

Visit http://www.Web-Source.net to sign up for a complimentary subscription to eTips and receive a copy of Shelley's acclaimed ebook, "Killer Internet Marketing Strategies."

You have permission to publish this article electronically, in print, in your ebook, or on your web site, free of charge, as long as the author bylines are included.