It's the middle of summer and I suspect your concentration level might be a tad low, what with altered schedules, vacations, and the heat. So this month's information is a collection of quick tips to browse and file away for when you have more time to follow up!

• The three most effective ways to build website traffic and sales is through professional search engine marketing, solicited e-mail advertising, and offline promotion
• Once their websites go live, most businesses do nothing to improve their ranking on the Internet other than submitting their URL to the primary search engines.
• Sending out spam can do terrible damage to your reputation and get you blacklisted. Since so many businesses do it, the tendency is to think, "Well, it must pay off eventually!" Don't succumb! Stick to a non-intrusive approach such as offering a newsletter, free information, etc., which offers your recipient an opt-in choice and lets you offer a "service."
• Search engine promotion, if it's done well, can dramatically decrease the amount of money you spend on advertising. More importantly, it can target your ad dollars directly to the market you want to reach.
• If you can only embrace one concept of Internet marketing, make it "keywords." Sit down and come up with at least 50 words (a hundred is better!) related to your business. Think of every possible word or phrase that someone might use when looking for your product or service-including plurals, misspellings, or logical mistakes (straw instead of hay, for example), then use them throughout your website.
• If your business has any kind of regional connection or connotation, milk it for all it's worth! Research has proven that the more specific you are in describing your product, the higher your website is ranked.
• Consistently check out your competitors' websites. You might discover new keywords and marketing ideas you haven't thought of!
• Check your own website on a regular basis to make sure your links are working. And be choosy about whom you link to. Joe might be a friend, but if Joe's website is full of errors and dubious jokes, you really don't want that association.
• You have about a half second to catch people's interest with the subject line of an e-mail, so make it count. Instead of "Have we got a deal for you!", try "Get 50% off through Friday!"
• Statistics show that the best time to send out an e-mail about your product or service is mid-day on a Tuesday or Wednesday. That's when people are likely to be least busy and most receptive to new information.
• Well over half of shoppers (57%) who put items in a shopping cart on a website abandon the transaction and never make it to check-out.
• 71% of online shoppers don't believe retailerd can protect them from fraud, so anything you can do to increase a shopper's level of trust is well worth your effort and expense. Displaying logos that verify your membership in organizations such as the local Chamber of Commerce or Better Business Bureau, accolades such as "Business of the Year" or "Little League Sponsor," and security certification seals from companies such as Verisign will raise people's confidence and give you an edge over the next guy.
• Customers with complaints may be your most valuable customers--if their complaint helps you discover a glitch in processing, a flawed product, or a shortcoming in your customer service. It may be embarrassing to have an error brought to your attention, but it could be a blessing in the long run.