Note: Please don't use any hotmail, yahoo, zwallet addresses nor autoresponders. These will not subscribe you. Also, by subscribing to our Pathway To Success Ezine you expressly request to receive our regular newsletter and agree to in-house and third party advertising contained therein.

Publishing dates:
'Pathway To Success' is published every other Sunday.
Next Issue is supposed on 3rd June 2007.

Hot Internet Opportunity!

The Potential to Earn Like a CEO Without the Stress Are you ready to make the income you really want? Serious, motivated, & driven only. Click here: http://PureFreedomandAbundance.com

Today's Feature Article

The top 10 questions you NEED to ask if your site isn't making any sales
Derek Gehl

Imagine: After weeks of hard work, your website is finally live. You've officially been open for business an entire week. And yet you haven't made any sales.

Not. One. Single. Sale.

Arggh!

Don't despair -- we've all been there before. In fact, it's one of the most common problems people ask me to solve for them.

Here's something that'll help ease the pain of turning a "dud" site into one that rakes in the profits: Derek Gehl's surefire "My Website Ain't Making Money!" troubleshooting checklist!

If you recently launched a new web site and aren't getting the results you expected, you need to ask yourself every single question on the list below, starting at number one.

Once you're able to answer "yes" to all ten questions, I guarantee the sales will come rolling in.

Print out the following checklist and start your troubleshooting right now:

Is there actually a market for your product? By that I mean, are you POSITIVE you're selling a product or solution people are actively looking for online -- and not finding? That's the formula for a successful business.

The best way to answer this question is to do keyword research and confirm whether people are using search engines to look for a solution to the problem your product addresses -- but not having any luck finding one.

(Our favorite keyword research tool is Wordtracker. You can learn more about it here:
http://www.thecassiopeia.com/wordtrackertool.html)

Are you getting enough traffic? Before you can really judge your website's effectiveness, you need at least 1,000 unique visitors (not pageviews).

If you've only had 100 visitors and haven't made a sale, be patient! You just need more traffic. Once you've had 1000 visitors, then you can begin to assess how effective your site really is.

Are you getting targeted traffic? If you've had 1,000+ visitors to your website and you still haven't made a sale, find out where your visitor traffic is coming from. That'll help you know if it's targeted or not.

The best way to get top-quality traffic to your site is by bidding on extremely targeted keywords in the pay-per-click search engines.

(By "targeted," I mean, keywords that speak directly to the people who are most likely to buy your product.)

If you drive 1,000 visitors to your site -- using targeted keywords in your PPC ads -- and you still don't make a sale, then we know the problem isn't the quality of traffic you're getting.

It's your website.

So let's take a look at that next...

Is your headline effective? If your site doesn't have a compelling headline that clearly communicates a powerful benefit, your potential customers aren't going to stick around for your offer.

Writing a better headline is typically the easiest way to fix a floundering website. If you get more people to stay on your site and read your offer, more people will buy your product.

Are you distracting your visitors from your main sales message? You need to get rid of everything that encourages your visitors think of something other than your main offer.

This includes: links to other websites, Google Adsense ads, banner ads for other products, free articles that don't support the sale... the list goes on.

Keep your visitors focused only on buying your product -- and your sales will go up.

Are you using testimonials effectively? Like I said in last week's editorial, testimonials are one of your most powerful selling tools.

Nothing says, "Buy it now!" like an unbiased third-party recommendation.

If your site is brand new and you don't have any testimonials yet, give your product to a few friends and ask them to provide you with testimonials on how well it worked for them.

Does your guarantee take away the risk of buying? A good guarantee is an essential selling tool -- especially on the Internet.

Unless you're a major brand (like Sony, Walmart, Pepsi) that your customers inherently trust, you need to let them know you'll stand behind your product.

Reassure them that if they're not 100% satisfied they can send it right back for a full refund. And remember, a longer guarantee usually results in more sales -- and fewer refunds!

Is your price too high? Or too low? Most people know that if you price your product too high, you'll hurt your sales. But this can also be true if your price is too low.

People get suspicious when the price is far below their expectations. They think it's probably "too good to be true" -- and as a result, they don't feel confident making a purchase.

Is your ordering system easy to use? Just because you can figure out how to navigate through your ordering process, it doesn't mean your average customer can.

If you want to make sure your ordering system is "user-friendly," find a few friends who aren't very Internet savvy and get them to order your product.

Watch over their shoulders and take notes. Where did they get stuck?

Make sure you fix whatever problems they encountered -- because your potential customers are encountering them, too!

Do you have good salescopy? If you aren't using well-written salescopy to sell your product, then you'll never achieve online success. It's that simple.

It doesn't matter whether your particular site needs short copy or long copy, the fact will always remain: Your product isn't going to sell itself! You need to find the right words to do the job. So there they are... the 10 questions I ask whenever I look at a website that's not turning visitors into sales. Once I'm able to answer "yes" to all 10 questions, I always see a substantial improvement to the site's conversion rate.

Now, if you're scratching your head, wondering what a good sales letter looks like... how to test pricing... how to write a headline... or how to use the pay-per-click search engines -- then I have to be honest and tell you, you need more help than I can provide in a single article!

If you want detailed, step-by-step training on everything I mentioned above, visit the site below and check out my best-selling Internet marketing course, The Insider Secrets to Marketing Your Business on the Internet:
http://www.thecassiopeia.com/marketingcourse.html

********************************
Derek Gehl is Leading Internet expert who regularly reveals proven strategies for starting your own Internet business!
Get free strategies here: http://www.thecassiopeia.com/marketingcourse.html

Today's Motivational Reading

How To Attract Success in Your Life
Rene Godefroy

Do you find yourself butting your head against the wall of success? Are you caught up in a revolving door going around and around? When you look at where you are in life, do you think you should be further ahead?

Not long ago, I reviewed my goals. If you know me, you might realize that I am a dreamer. I have BIG dreams. But there are days when I, too, am frustrated. I feel like I am spinning my wheels of success in one place.

On the outside, many people think I have it all together. They think I am so successful and I have arrived. Don’t get me wrong, I am happy with the success I have had so far in my life. I am living my dream in America. I am blessed! I face everyday with excitement and passion.

I am doing something I truly love. My vocation is my vacation. I have friends in high places. I am way ahead of many. Life is wonderful compared to what it was. I am successfully pressing on to greater things. But I have had my share of frustration along the way.

Well, unlike many who are too busy trying to make a living instead of designing a life, I took the time to examine what I might be doing wrong. And my findings are really astonishing. I discovered that my doings are not in alignment with my being. And that may be your problem, too. Let me explain.

Imagine for a moment that your mind is a garden. It is impossible to grow mangos from a watermelon seed. But it seems as though that is exactly what we are trying to do when it comes to aligning the seeds in our minds versus the harvest we want as a result.

Seeds of doubt and fear planted in our minds can reap their own sort of crop. If you wake up doubting whether you will make it or not, it doesn’t matter how much you have done for the day, you will not make much progress. You must believe!

That’s why you and I can’t afford to let others dump their negative opinions in our heads and take them as the gospel truth. It’s dangerous to our success! Most people will not utter one sentence without injecting some kind of fear or doubt in us. And keep in mind that the more influence others have on you, the more damage you allow them to do.

One seed of fear is like a weed. Once allowed to enter our minds, it can grow wild and suffocate the good in you. I am sure you have heard that success is an inside job. We must first create it in our minds and intensely believe it is ours before it can become a reality. God never lets us down. We let ourselves down. Does that make sense to you?

Until we meet again, take a good look at your own personal garden (your mind), and notice all of the weeds that may have overtaken it. Do you know how those weeds got there? Five years from now, if you are not careful, you may become what the people around you believe instead of what you wish for yourself. Be sure to always surround yourself with positive and successful people..

********************************
Rene Godefroy has a passion for empowering others to excel and succeed. His personal story of struggle, grit and perseverance epitomize triumph and the American dream. Learn more here: http://www.villagehero.com/bio.htm

Today's Subscriber Article

Choosing Decent Internet Marketers: Why Most Marketing Gurus Waste Your Time And Money!
Chris Taylor

Visit a website looking for some great internet marketing information to help with your online business. Find what you require, purchase the book or cd and then the barrage of emails start. And the emails aren’t the useful type… here’s another tip on internet marketing which will be in the new improved edition coming out in February… or just thought I would send you this great tip which I have run some stats on and been receiving great results.

Instead, you are bombarded with a steady stream of the newest amazing marketing books on the net that will not only build you business automatically but also keep your wife happy and drive your kids to school in the morning! And it goes on and gets worse with more offers of products and services that will break the bank and make you millions overnight.

So the big question: Why has it become like this?

1. We, the business people have made it so!

There are so many people and small businesses online that are so desperately trying to make money with little or no effort that they are willing to buy anything. And especially any type of marketing product that this promises to be the case.

2. Marketers follow the trend.

Marketers knowing the above now put a lot more emphasis on the money they make in their sales and promotional material as this gets sales.

3. Introduction of the ebook.

Ebooks have made it easy for anyone to publish an online book whether it is good, bad or indifferent.

4. Greed by far is the biggest factor.

Marketers no longer spout about the quality of their work. What they do spout about is the number of copies they sold and how much money they make.

Where real success lies.

For some reason, I have always looked at success in a different manner. When I am old and grey I am certain that I will look back on my life and think about the people I have helped rather than the money I have made.

If at a given time I sold one thousand products and only helped one person achieve their goals I would not call that successful.

If however I can look back at the time I spent in business and say that I honestly tried to really help every person I came across achieve maximum results I will be happy.

And if that means that I only helped a few thousand properly rather than helping a few and making a mountain of money so be it.

Finding the right marketer.

Although some Internet marketing professionals will suit your personality better than others, here are a few guidelines I generally stick to and watch out for.

1. Does the material they sell actually give you step by step information on how to go about achieving results?

I have purchased many books and videos that give general details about marketing a business but never get around to the important information of the exact details of how a task is done.

2. After purchasing, are you then either bombarded with sales pitch type emails, every second email is pitching a new product or every monthly selling more products?

3. The emails that are sent, are the full of decent “how to information” or just plain common marketing knowledge all webmasters know even if having been online for a short period?

4. Does the marketer or company always get back to you with useful answers no matter the degree of difficulty?

In many cases it is the least difficult, most easily answered questions that are replied to in a useful, prompt and non judgmental manner that tells the worth, morals and ethics of a top marketer.

5. Does the marketer ask for a fair price for their products and services given the quality of what they are offering?

In other words, is that ebook or one piece of software really worth $99, $150 or even $300?

The last piece of advice I would offer is to also take a good hard look at what you are trying to achieve online.

Are you trying to make a quick buck like many of the marketers themselves or build a lasting business that has quality in mind for your own customers?

********************************
For more information on building a great online business plus a few marketers I recommend try our home based business web site guide. Or for simple tips on all Internet marketing principles, try our Internet marketing video course and tutorial. Click here!
http://www.greatinternetmarketingtips.info/
http://www.catdynamics.com/

To listen to a new Top Show, click the picture.

To Get FREE Tips, Books, Software,
Subscribe below!

Read Our Weekly Column
http://www.thecassiopeia.com/Guide/DrEBiz.html

Subscribe to 'Pathway To Success' Published every other Sunday, our FREE Ezine helps Subscribers to succeed in their online home business providing them with hot marketing tips, top webmaster resources, articles, motivational reading, FREE Ads, Subscriber Corner, Web Lions Library, Bonuses and more. Check current visitor Issue. Click here!   Click for Free Sign Up! Don't forget to collect YOUR FREE Bonuses! Get Your Special Motivational and Big 2007 Contest Calendar, Insider Tips PLUS More Bonuses! Note: Please do NOT use any aol, hotmail, yahoo, zwallet addresses nor autoresponders. These will NOT subscribe you. Also, by subscribing to Pathway To Success Ezine you expressly request to receive our regular newsletter and agree to in-house and third party advertising contained therein. Privacy Guarantee: Your privacy is 100% guaranteed. We never share any personal data incl email addresses with any third party, we do not even store email addresses on third party servers. Privacy Policy HOT! Now you can get the full RSS Reader bringing you all the news from Pathway To Success Ezine Portal. Click the image on the right to download.

Any fact facing us is not as important as our attitude toward it,
for that determines our success or failure.
Norman Vincent Peale

NEW! Install our new toolbar, get special business information fast and be informed the minute hot items are out, incl Articles in Subscriber Corner, new Pathway To Success Issues and much more. http://www.thecassiopeia.com/WebLions/theCassi1.html

Note: Download the above file, unzip and install. When you open a new browser window, the toolbar should be there. If not, please go to 'View', 'Toolbars' and you will see 'theCassiopeia's' - click on it and the toolbar will display.

Whenever there's a new item, an icon will blink. Click on it and it will take you straight to the information.

Important: you can have a toolbar of your own below. It's an amazing tool: easy to create, easy to use, easy to update, unobtrusive, bringing unbelievable results PLUS endless makreting and other possibilities limited only by your imagination. Definitely a tool of the future. I even created several for my own use containing the information I need and use regularly.
http://www.thecassiopeia.com/toolbar/

*******************************

Get one of the Feature Ads in our Ezine:
http://www.thecassiopeia.com/WebmasterMall/EzineAdPrices.html

"Retirement"... Time To Do Life Your Way. What Will You Retire TO? Learn by clicking here!

Administration

***************************************************** The articles published here may be reprinted or used freely as long as it is in its entirety incl the resource box of the author *****************************************************

If you want quality sticky content for your site, put the below piece of code to your page where you want the current Pathway To Success Issue to appear - copy and paste:

<script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript" src="http://www.thecassiopeia.com/content1.js"></script>

Note: check what it looks like Click here

Get my RSS feed to your site - copy and paste the code into your page where you want fresh content to appear:

<SCRIPT LANGUAGE=JavaScript SRC=http://jade.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/feed/rss2js.php?src=http://www.thecassiopeia.com/xml/thecassiopeiaweb.xml&chan=yes&
num=0&desc=yes&date=yes>
</script>

Note: check what it looks like Click here

For All Information For Free Syndicated Content for Your Site Click here

<%@ page import="java.net.*"%> <%@ page import="java.io.*"%> <%@ page import="javax.xml.parsers.DocumentBuilderFactory"%> <%@ page import="javax.xml.parsers.ParserConfigurationException"%> <%@ page import="org.xml.sax.SAXException"%> <%@ page import="org.w3c.dom.*"%> <%@ page import="java.util.*"%> <%! // The following code was graciously provided by Armond Avanes (http://www.armondavanes.com) private String tla_ads( HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response ) throws IOException, ParserConfigurationException, SAXException { // Number of seconds before connection to XML times out // (This can be left the way it is) int CONNECTION_TIMEOUT = 10; // Local file to store XML // This file MUST be writable by web server // You should create a blank file and CHMOD it to 666 String LOCAL_XML_FILENAME = "local_95577.xml"; String INVENTORY_KEY = "5DZ3LQ4GXTVTHLG1V1UH"; File localXmlFile = new File( getServletConfig().getServletContext().getRealPath(LOCAL_XML_FILENAME ) ); if( !localXmlFile.exists() ) { return( "Text Link Ads script error: " + localXmlFile.getName() + " does not exist. Please create a blank file named " + localXmlFile.getName() + "." ); } if( !localXmlFile.canWrite() ) { return( "Text Link Ads script error: " + localXmlFile.getName() + " is not writable. Please set write permissions on " + localXmlFile.getName() + "." ); } if( localXmlFile.lastModified()<(new Date().getTime() - 3600*1000) || localXmlFile.length()<20 ) { String request_uri = (request.getRequestURI()!=null) ? request.getRequestURI() : ""; String user_agent = (request.getHeader("User-Agent")!=null) ? request.getHeader("User-Agent") : ""; URL url = new URL("http://www.text-link-ads.com/xml.php?inventory_key=" + INVENTORY_KEY + "&referer=" + response.encodeURL( request_uri ) + "&user_agent=" + response.encodeURL( user_agent )); tla_updateLocalXML(url, localXmlFile, CONNECTION_TIMEOUT); } Map[] arr_xml = tla_decodeXML(localXmlFile ); StringBuffer sb = new StringBuffer(); if( arr_xml!=null && arr_xml.length>0 ) { sb.append( "\n

\n" ); for( int i=0; i" ); sb.append( map.get("BeforeText") ); sb.append( " " + map.get("Text") + " " ); sb.append( map.get("AfterText") + "\n" ); } sb.append("

"); } return sb.toString(); } private void tla_updateLocalXML(URL url, File file, int time_out) throws IOException { file.setLastModified( new Date().getTime() ); String xml = file_get_contents_tla(url, time_out); if( xml!=null && !xml.trim().equals("") ) { FileWriter fw = new FileWriter(file); fw.write( xml ); fw.close(); } } private String file_get_contents_tla(URL url, int time_out) throws IOException { URLConnection urlConnection = url.openConnection(); //urlConnection.setConnectTimeout( time_out * 1000 ); //urlConnection.setReadTimeout( time_out * 1000 ); InputStream is = urlConnection.getInputStream(); StringBuffer content = new StringBuffer(); int ch; while( (ch=is.read())!=-1 ) content.append( (char)ch ); is.close(); return content.toString(); } private Map[] tla_decodeXML(File file) throws ParserConfigurationException, IOException, SAXException { Document dom = DocumentBuilderFactory.newInstance().newDocumentBuilder().parse( file ); Node linksRoot = dom.getFirstChild(); NodeList links = linksRoot.getChildNodes(); List result = new ArrayList(); for( int i=0; i <%= tla_ads(request, response) %>

Read what others say about Pathway To Success by clicking here!