(This article is one of twenty-five(25) contained in Tayo Solagbade’s Ebook titled "25 Articles/True Stories On Self-Development, Entrepeneuring & Web Marketing To Help You Succeed More Often")

I Offer These Ideas As A Business Owner Who Uses Them

Think of this article as a letter from a friend who maintains a website for his own business, and wants to share with you some time/cost-saving methods he employs - at zero cost - to get more value from his website. In my work as a Self-Development/Performance Enhancement Specialist, one of my key objectives is to actively challenge(and support) individuals and businesses to cut down on their expenses, by learning how to use their own websites - in their work - to get more of the results they want, at less cost, in less time and using less effort/resources.

By daily using my own website to demonstrate how to do it, and also gaining credibility in terms of my proficiency in web design(and more importantly web marketing strategy development) via successful execution of commercial web design projects, I expect that my target audience will find the advice I offer credible, and therefore apply it for their purposes.

Through CB Solutions - the digital products and services delivery arm of SDAc, I help individuals and businesses incorporate the ideas featured in this article on their websites.

Even If You Make No Sales, Your Website Can Still SAVE You Money

Every single method, tool, feature or strategy I describe in this article is one that I have personally tested and proven to work for my own business, using my website(s). When it comes to evaluating the value of a website, I always ask my audience to look FIRST at the worst case scenario in determining how to measure the ability of the website to meet the owners' expectations/needs.

Let me explain. With a good plan(or strategy), any website owner can ensure that even if no sales are recorded via the website, it still helps to reduce overall expenses on marketing and operations in a way that helps maintain (or even increase) profits retained.

The Important Role Of YOUR Website Copy

Many people do not know that there is a big difference between Website Content and Website Copy. Michel Fortin, a highly respected web copy writing specialist once noted that "Content informs" (about the benefit you are offering your prospect) while "Copy invites"(the prospect to take action to do business with you based on the offer you've made).

Web copy is designed to make a visitor to your website decide to take ACTION to do business with you instead of your competitor. It communicates the unique, exclusive benefit that you offer, which your competitor cannot duplicate readily. That benefit, is what can make you the preferred choice of the customer - IF your web copy helps her see it!

You are in business to make profits - and that depends on how many additional sales your website generates, or how much avoidable expenditure it saves you. The visitor counter on your website may show 1,000 visitors to your website(nice to know!), but if none end up doing business with you, those visits are useless and your money(used to build, host and maintain the site) goes down the drain!

Whether it's with your website, email or both, you can make your messages more results focused! Learn to compose messages that turn readers into respondents who are more likely to become buyers. If you think you can't do it well enough to get the results you need, find someone who can.

Use Appropriate Website Performance Metrics

But let's get one thing straight. Not everyone who reads your copy will contact you. Even for newspaper ads, not all who see your ad will find it relevant to their needs. So how do you know your website works? Simple, setup your own website performance metrics. Consider these two:

a. What is your Website Leads Generation Ratio ™ (WLGR™)? : One effective way to asses how well your website is doing is through the measurement of a parameter I use called Website Leads Generation Ratio™. If an expected percentage of visitors to your website do not contact you(giving you the opportunity to convince them to do business with you), then your website is wasting money! WLGR™ is calculated as follows: Website Respondents divided by Website Visitors(%).

If 100 people visit your website in a month, and only 5 contact you, then your site’s WLGR™ is 5:100 = 2%. You can actively work to increase your WLGR™ by developing/adopting a custom web-marketing strategy. I believe that every single company that owns a website needs to have a web strategy, suited to its peculiar needs, aimed at getting more of its target audience to contact it with the purpose of ultimately doing business with it.

b. What is your Website Conversion Ratio (WCR)? : Read my article titled "How To Choose The Right Web Design Company" to learn what a Website Conversion Ratio is, how it is computed, and why monitoring it can help you fine tune your marketing efforts to get more of the results you want.

The Following Tools/Methods Can Make Using Your Site Easier/Less Expensive

In considering the resources featured here, you should keep in mind the fact that your ability to use them on your website may be determined to some extent by the type of web hosting package/functions you have purchased from your host. For those whose web hosting packages do not permit the easy use of these tools, I describe the very useful alternative of Remotely Hosted CGI Scripts and Resources towards the end of this article.

DISCLAIMER: Please note that I provide descriptions of the resources featured in this article for your information only. I cannot guarantee they will meet your requirements in any way. If you choose to download and use them on your website, you will be doing so at your own risk. I have however used them all at least once, and currently use most of them/have done so for over 2 years - which is why I can recommend them.

1. Automated Website Membership Subscription Management

Resource: Membership Manager LITE
Source: http://www.membership-manager.biz

Membership is a feature that allows visitors to your website become members by completing a simple registration web form. Registered visitors will subsequently be able log in to restricted areas of your website using login details they would have specified when signing up. You can even have two or more levels of membership(for instance Free/Basic and Paid/Premium).

Using this feature, you can enable your website provide member specific content like special offers, articles, email newsletters, and other interactive content. Offering membership on your website will definitely set it apart from many others which do not.

One nifty CGI script I have found quite useful to easily and securely offer membership on my websites is called Membership Manager. This programs uses HTACESS browser based login authentication(regarded as the most secure form of password protection on the Internet) to protect your restricted members-only directories from unauthorised access.

Membership Manager, comes in two variants - LITE(Free) and PRO.

A. It allows the owner to use a control panel to administer user accounts of members (who will also be on their automated newsletter mailing list).

B. The members have login ID and Password of their choice automatically used in creating a website membership account for them when they signup.

C. Paid Subscription Management is possible. If someone has paid for one year access, you can setup a 1 year member account access to a password restricted members area on your website where some premium content may be accessed.

D. Also, the system at the expiration of the 1 year subscription period, automatically disables the appropriate member's account – and notifies the member and the owner.

E. In the PRO version, members can automatically retrieve lost passwords using a link provided on the site.

You can download the 30kb zipped folder containing the LITE version of the script from http://www.membership-manager.biz and follow the very useful installation instructions provided in the accompanying "Setup Instructions" HTML file.

2. Dynamic Website Contact Forms

Resource: All Purpose Form Handler
Source: http://www.BigNoseBird.Com

This is an amazingly flexible/customisable script that allows a user to quickly implement HTML based forms on different parts of a website. It is configured by information you provide in the form itself, giving the user a unique advantage of making the script handle data submitted in the web forms in a variety of ways without changing knowing ANY Perl programming or having to change the code/script.

The following can be done in any combination using forms that call the SAME script:

A. Web form completed by the user submits an e-mail to a specified person(s) - say the website owner - and CC to say other employees(e.g. marketing manager), or even another email address used by the owner.

B. The EXACT text of the title that appears in the subject line of the email the script sends to the site owner, can be specified in the code for the web form. This makes it very easy for you to know which contact form on your website was used to send you EACH message you receive.

C. The script sends the data submitted via the web form to a file for easy import into a database program. You, the owner will be able to locate the file(s) on your server in the cgi-bin.

D. The script automatically sends a response to the person who submitted the form. The content of the response can be varied for each web form. This is made possible by creating a text file(given a unique filename extension) to contain your message whose name you then place in the form code, so it is used by the script.

E. The order in which the data submitted via the web form appears in the email received by the website owner can be specified in the code for EACH web form.

F. The completion of required fields can be enforced by specifying such fields in the code for individual forms.

G. To increase user-friendliness, code for each form can be modified to call a unique "Thank you" or an "Oops!" page after the form is submitted.

How I Use It: I have found this script extremely useful in determining quite accurately what people who visit my website are interested in. For instance, on my website, I created a separate contact form(all outwardly similar) for EACH of the different services I offer, providing links to each web form from the body of text/web copy where the service is described. This way, I am able to quickly establish, from the title of the email sent by the script, exactly which service the enquirer was considering when s/he decided to contact me.

3. Tell-A-Friend Automated Website Referral Form

Resource: BigNoseBird.com's Birdcast Site Recommendation Script
Source: http://www.BigNoseBird.Com

This is a very simple, yet powerful script that you can use to help promote your site. Easy to install, and to customize. It has a number of very useful features including the following:

1. Name/Email Address fields that can be duplicated for an unlimited number of target recipients per recommended page.

2. A multi line text entry area for the user to send a personal note with the e-mail.

3. Automatic page recognition (i.e. the script inserts the full url of the page being recommended in the e-mail that is sent).

4. Automatic Return to sending page (i.e. the script returns the user to the recommended page when upon successful submission of the form's contents.

4. Domain validation. An editable line of code in the script allows the website owner specify whether this feature is enabled or disabled on installation. You would enable it to prevent it being used from any other website/domain other than yours i.e. protection against off-site abuse (Also available in the all purpose form handler script described above).

5. E-mail address and page capture log. Once the script is in use, you will be able to periodically check a log file of date/time, calling page and e-mail information automatically generated and updated by the script on your server. This can be quite useful if you want to know who is referring what page on your site and to whom.

Visit this mini-site I built for Lubita Creche(a child care service) hosted on a sub domain of my main website, and click the "Refer Us" navigation button towards the top right, to see this referral script at work.

4. Form For File Upload From Web page To Server

Resource: Upload Lite
Source: http://www.perlscriptsjavascripts.com/perl/upload_lite/index.html

This script works via a file upload form to allow anyone upload files to a folder on the website server. When this happens, the owner of the site automatically gets an “Upload Notification” email with a download link(s) which can be clicked to instantly download the file(s). The website visitor, who uploaded the document is in turn taken to an upload success confirmation page that you can customise. For instance, on my website the confirmation page displays a "Thank You - Your submission has been accepted" message.

Possible uses: The owner can invite job applicants to upload their applications and resumes using this form. A magazine publisher could have contributors/writers send in their write-ups(in various possible electronic formats(.pdf, .doc, .rtf etc) from any location in the world so long as Internet PCs are available.

How I Use It: On my Excel Heaven Custom Workbook Automation Mini-site, an upload form is provided to enable clients upload workbooks they want me to automate for them using Excel Visual Basic. Click here to view/test it.

5. File Mailing (Alternative to downloading)

Resource: MailFile
Original Source: http://www.command-o.com
Latest Version Available At: http://www.FreeScripts.com

MailFile lets you require visitors to submit their name and email address in order to retrieve a file(s) from your site. It is a CGI script that works via a form which allows visitors to choose(by clicking checkboxes) specific documents from your site to be sent to the email address they specify in the email address field of the form.

When the form is submitted, the visitor is taken to a "File(s) sent!" page while the selected file(s) is sent to the visitor via the email address s/he provided. Apart from the fact that this method prevents third-party linking of your files, you also get to use the retained names/email addresses to build a mailing list with which you can follow up visitors for possible sales.

The script can also be useful when you want to give your busy visitors a time saving alternative to downloading.

Corporate visitors to your site, whose mails are stored on the company mail servers will find this particularly useful. Here's why. Assume a busy executive - with only 5 minutes left to attend an important meeting - discovers your site's offering of five interesting PDF reports totaling 13 MB in size. He can easily choose to use the MailFile web form's checkboxes to select the files and click the "Send File(s) To Me" button. All the selected files will be delivered to his mail box on the company's servers, and he would be able to return to view them without going back online at a later time or date.

There is no limit to the number of files that can be sent using this form. Additional checkboxes only need to be added to the form, and the appropriate filenames included in the form code. Click here to see(and test it) on my main website.

Similar Resource: File Mailer
Source: http://www.downloadfreetrial.com/scripts/php/file_upload_&_download4.html

Related Resource: Attachment Mailer
Source: http://www.perlscriptsjavascripts.com/perl/attachment/index.html

6. Get Your Target Audience Discussing On Your Site - Discussion Boards/WebLogs

You can install a discussion board(where people can register and discuss various topics in "discussion forums") on your website. You can also use it to provide first level user support/problem solving services to customers.

For instance an IT/Telecoms company can invite customers to post questions or requests for help regarding problems they have with specific products/services supplied or supported. Answers will then be provided by the appropriate personnel online saving time/cost of going out – until it becomes absolutely necessary to visit the client physically to resolve the problem.

Some web hosts offer a discussion board as part of their hosting package. Most of the popular ones are however FREE to download/install, (being open source), two good examples being: PHPBB at http://www.phpbb.com and YaBB(Yet another Bulletin Board) at http://www.yabbforum.com . I have successfully installed and used phpbb in the past, and found it quite user-friendly.

Another benefit is that future similar enquires or requests can be easily referred to previous posts/answers in the database. Many websites uses this feature quite effectively - http://www.aplus.net for instance maintain an online Knowledge Base that serves this kind of purpose. The savings in time, effort and monetary resources can be very significant.

By building/nurturing an discussion forum on your website , you would gradually gain credibility before your target audience. Increased patronage and word—of-mouth referrals - of your site are likely benefits. Also, as your membership grows, the board would also be a good place to make promo offers, announcements etc.

Web Logs: My website host offers an easy-to-install phpbb board in my control panel, which I intend to install on my website in future. I however do not currently use a discussion board on my website, due to my decision earlier this year to discontinue its use, in line with a modified strategy. In its stead, what I use is a web log. I like to think of a Web LOG as a dynamic website which functions as an online diary allowing the owner make postings on any subject of interest, which her visitors can in turn read, and post comments on/responses to.

My personal web log facility is provided as part of my website hosting package. In hunting for a web host, you might look out for a similar feature, if you consider it relevant to your purpose. You can however get a more or less equally functional but FREE blog to use at http://www.blogger.com.

7. Automated Business Marketing CDROM Promos

CDROM promos are a one-time expense, and they cost a fraction of what a decent newspaper advert does, while offering more targeted impact to the "right" prospect for a longer period. They are less expensive and you can mass produce them. I personally recommend the use of auto-run business marketing CD ROMs as an offline complement to other business marketing efforts/resources.

Not all of your target audience will have access(or time) to visit your site online. Nor will they all see your paper, TV and Radio adverts. But a professionally created automated CDROM presentation gives you a low cost but highly reliable alternative means of delivering your message to your prospects, clients/customers. Think of it as your Marketing Manager everywhere you cannot be :-).

Not only does it let you say more(via audio-video input) into over 600MB of CDROM storage space, it also enables you do so in a way that increases the impact of your branding(e.g. custom CDROM labels to match your website design). Creation of auto-run CDROM presentations requires a comparatively low, one-time expense BUT they can deliver long-term useful shelf-life value. This becomes obvious when you consider that they can be mass-duplicated very cheaply.

You can get excellent software for creating auto run business marketing CDROM presentations from a variety of sources on the net. One that I have used, and can heartily recommend that you try is CRE:8 MULTIMEDIA. This software enables you to create very impressive auto-run business marketing CDROM presentations quickly and easily. It has a very user-friendly visual interface, and easy-to-understand HELP documentation that enables users begin producing professional looking presentations in minutes. You can download a FREE 21 day trial from http://www.presentware.com.

8. A Web Marketing Strategy = Money Well Spent

Why stop at just having a website built for you? As a cost-conscious, value-focused decision maker, you will want to explore every legitimate avenue to squeeze out as much benefits (monetary/otherwise) from your website as possible. If you want a website, you would be better off invest some time also in putting together a PLAN (or Strategy) that you will use to make the website achieve your intended purpose which is : to dramatically cut down your costs while increasing your marketing/advertising reach to your audience.

A website marketing strategy will make MORE of the right kinds of people(i.e. those who fit the profile of your target customer) visit your site. Without it, you might have the wrong ones, who do not fit the profile of your intended customer, and who will therefore see no need(or will be unable) to do business with you, visiting you online.

If you choose to place an advert in a newspaper only for instance, it faces one or more of the following challenges:

(a) “Expiry” due to between 1 day to 1-week newspaper shelf life.

(b) Difficult odds of getting read by your target audience due to over 80 pages of news/competing adverts in the same paper.

(c) Not everyone who reads that paper will fit your client profile.

(d) Also not all who fit your client profile will read that paper – or see your advert.

If however, as part of a comprehensive web strategy, you place the newspaper advert, complete with your website URL, and put on your website additional tools/features to get visitors to subsequently contact/do business with you, then your money would have been well spent. And you would have maximised your chances of getting the results you want at optimal cost.

Without a web marketing strategy, you will soon find yourself struggling to justify what you've spent(or are spending) on your site. Read my article titled "How to choose a web design company" to learn more about why you need to have a Web Marketing Strategy.

9. Article Syndication

Article syndication is an excellent way to attract new visitors to your website, while at the same time boosting your credibility as an authority in your area(s) of expertise.

One place you can post your articles and be reasonably sure(if they offer useful real-world relevant information and are well written) of widespread syndication is http://www.ezinearticles.com Other options you can pursue of course exist, such as visiting and manually posting articles to different websites offering related content to yours or using automated article submission services - some of which are FREE. You can also contact owners of e-zines and online newsletters, who deal with target audiences similar to yours, offering your FREE articles for publication in their media or on their websites, in exchange for exposure.

If you do a good job of posting your (useful real-world relevant/well written) articles across the net, people interested in your area of expertise, who read your writings, will eventually come to perceive you to be a credible professional with something to offer. If you take care to invite them - in the body of your writing - to get an additional report or other useful information by visiting your website, for instance, you stand a chance of getting them to part with an email address or other contact information.

Also, by using the various automation tools earlier described in this article(many of which require the visitor to your website to give her email address in exchange for your useful extra information), you will over time build up a mailing list of pre-qualified prospects. These would be people who have demonstrated an interest in what you have to offer, and are therefore likely to make a purchase in future, if you follow up properly with something that interests them enough.

Assuming you have also set up a follow-up autoresponder system, you might be able to stay in touch with them via some follow up messages (or an e-course) aimed at gradually convincing them to return and do business with you - order a product, engage your services etc. You would also be able to send them periodic notifications about new goodies you are offering - latest articles, products or services for sale etc. A FREE follow-up autoresponder account can be setup within minutes at http://www.getresponse.com.

10. Website RSS Feeds

RSS, stands for "Really Simple Syndication" or "Rich Site Summary". It is an XML standard that is used by content owners(e.g. newsletter/website publishers) to distribute content to their target audience. Many companies today have RSS feeds that announce latest content updates made to their websites.

Thanks to the EXCELLENT "Step By Step Guide To Creating Your Own RSS Feed" written by Arun Agrawal(www.SEOtop10.com), a software developer based in Calcutta, India, I decided to add an RSS Feed to my website some time back. My decision was influenced by the knowledge that visitors can use either the content aggregator built into their My Yahoo! Page, or other RSS news reader software to retrieve and read the feeds.

So, if you would like to make it easy for your visitors to keep track of changes taking place on your website that may be of benefit to them, add an RSS feed to your site. Click here to see the "Feedburner" button(top of each page) that visitors can use to access an interface provided by www.feedburner.com for adding my website RSS feed to any of a number of RSS readers or content aggregators.

FREE REPORT! If you would also like to learn more about why RSS can be good for YOU and HOW to add RSS feed to your own website in less than 2 hours, get your FREE Rebrandible copy of Arun Agrawal's report by requesting it using the file mailer form on the free resources page of my website.

Important Notes About CGI/Perl Scripts

Some of the tools I have described in this article are third party CGI/Perl scripts(files with .cgi and .pl filename extensions), which you may need to clear with your web host before using on their servers. The installation of these scripts requires some basic familiarity with server types, setting of file permissions(via CHMOD'ING), Perl scripting among others. I am not a Perl programmer and only two years ago knew absolutely nothing about CGI scripts, web design, server types etc.

Yet, by spending time on the Internet I was able(by intensive self-tutoring) to get the requisite knowledge about these subjects(through myriads of websites offering FREE tutorials), such that I became comfortable with doing what the authors instructed in their scripts. Today I am able to use many powerful yet mostly FREE CGI/Perl scripts on my website with tremendous benefits. By knowing HOW to install and use the scripts by myself, I am able to save a good amount of money and try my hands at any other one(s) that catch my fancy without worrying about cost! That's why this article's title starts with the words "Zero Cost".

If you wish to acquire similar proficiency using my approach, simply "Google" any unfamiliar words (such as CHMODING, CGI/Perl scripting) you encounter while reading the README file or Installation Instructions of a script to discover potentially useful learning resources. Then diligently study the tutorials provided and practice what you learn. You only need to have an enduring interest in learning - no special qualifications are required to become proficient at installing/using these scripts.

CGI Scripts Installation : Usually, to run CGI/Perl scripts, all you need is any executable folder ( cgi-bin ). Some of the scripts can even run in any folder. I suggest however, for ease of management, that you use a cgi-bin.

CGI Scripts Configuration : All the scripts require you to configure them before uploading to your server, though some have additional settings that will have to be specified AFTER uploading usually via a control/admin interface or panel. You can re-configure, re-upload and overwrite the scripts as may be necessary. Typically you would open the script in a text editor(I use notepad, and sometimes wordpad, when text wrapping is a problem in the former). If an edit facility is provided in your web host's control panel/file manager interface, you can also use this to make /save changes you want online post-installation. This latter option makes it unnecessary to re-upload the modified script.

CGI Scripts Upload: If your host has provided you a file manager interface in your control panel, you will be able to use that to upload the scripts. Alternatively there are a good number of nifty FTP - File Transfer Protocol - tools like CuteFTP(which has a free time limited trial - see http://www.cuteftp.com), and SmartFTP(which is FREE for life - see http://www.smartftp.com). These FTP clients work in "auto" mode by default, making it unnecessary for you to have to set them to upload your scripts in ASCII mode, and your images or pre-complied programs in Binary mode. I suggest you refrain from changing their default settings except you know what you are doing.

Keep in mind however that whatever manner of upload you employ, you will still need to set file permissions(via CHMOD'ING) for the scripts and the files/folders they will be located in or working with.

Use Perl Diver To Quickly Get Your CGI Scripts Up And Running

The Perl Diver is a CGI script(perldiver.cgi) you can use to easily get details about your installed server modules, server paths, Perl configuration settings etc. This can save you having to contact your host support team, or digging through their recommended knowledge base - for various bits of information needed for successful scripts installations.

You will install it by unzipping and uploading all files extracted from the zipped folder into your cgi-bin. Download the program and follow the instructions provided in the accompanying README file.

Download Perl Diver : http://scriptsolutions.com
Get Support For Perl Diver : http://scriptsolutions.com/support/

Note: I actually have not used this program more than once(largely out of curiosity in late 2004), mainly because by the time I came across it, I had become quite familiar with how to find the needed information. To elaborate, within weeks of learning to install CGI scripts for instance, I had done so successfully for clients whose websites I built and hosted with http://www.hostway.com, http://www.hostingu.com etc. I still did not use it when installing all these featured scripts( in May 2005) on my own website which is hosted by http://www.aplus.net.

Find Someone To Do It - If Necessary

Even if you cannot spare the time to learn to do it yourself, you can easily find someone appropriately skilled to do it for you. Also, your website host should be willing to provide you any information you may be required to verify/obtain in order to successfully install the scripts.

Can't Run CGI/Perl Scripts On Your Site? Here's An Alternative That Works!

Remotely hosted CGI scripts/resources(some of which are FREE) are available for those who may find they cannot use some of the tools described here directly on their websites. One very good service, that I used for over a year prior to purchasing a complete hosting package, is offered by Black Fire Networks at http://www.bfndevelopment.com. Not only do they provide you access to free, customisable, remotely hosted scripts, but they actually do so with ZERO advertising. So, if you have designed you website, but lack access to a cgi-bin via your web hosting package, this service might just be for you. Among other things, you will be able to make your website dynamic, so it has a more professional"feel" to it, without spending any additional money.

Summary - Use A Combination Of Methods On Your New Or Existing Website

The best part of all the tools, features and strategies/methods described here is that you can have them integrated - at ZERO cost - into an existing site or added to a new site from the start. Either way, you get to maximise the potential value you expect from the website.

To get the best results in today's marketing, one will often need to use a combination of methods. Using your business website in conjunction with a well thought out marketing strategy, facilitated in implementation by custom, value adding automation/features will increase your chances of marketing success, while ensuring you do not spend more than you need to.

This article's recommendations can be summarised in form of the points outlined below.

a. Ensure "action-inducing"/"response-generating" web copy is written on your website, to effectively communicate the unique benefits you offer.

b. Develop and implement a web marketing strategy to ensure you maximize returns on your investment, by (i) making more of the right kinds of people visit your site (ii) seamlessly integrating your offline and online marketing efforts in such a way that they complement one another.

c. Make it easy to implement your web strategy for the long term, by incorporating zero/low cost automation tools on your website, and adopting value-adding features/methods. Examples include email marketing, article syndication, and information product publishing(ebooks etc).

Do the above, by adopting a suitable mix of the specific tools, methods and strategies featured in this article, and you should be able to clearly achieve one or more of the following: INCREASED sales and/or REDUCED expenses on marketing/advertising - which in turn will help you record reasonably stable or INCREASING profits.

Related Article: How To Choose The Right Web Design Company