Internet Interaction with
Your Visitors

Volume III, Issue 9
ISSN: 1547-7754
February 2006
printable version

Chris King, Editor
By subscription only, this monthly e-newsletter is loaded with short, "down and dirty" tips to help you with solving the everchanging and growing puzzle of the Internet. This e-zine serves as a place to ask your questions and find the answers. So, send me your burning questions.

In this issue of the Internet Tips E-zine, I am going to discuss one of the most exciting and useful tools I have been using for the past seven months. There are many different survey, assessment, polls and testing tools on the Internet. I am going to tell you why to use them – the pros and cons - and where to locate them.

First and Foremost – be aware that a huge number of surfers love to take tests, fill in surveys and take self assessments, so you can create a captive audience by offering these tools.

Why should we use these interactive tools on our website or in our e-mail newsletters?

I. List Building – Pros

• When someone takes the test and/or assessment, he or she is asked to fill in their name and e-mail address.
• I have it set to thank them and also let them know that they will be receiving a complimentary copy of my bi-weekly, eclectic e-newsletter.
• They can unsubscribe at any time, but I have found that the majority stay on the list, which has doubled since I started offering the assessment.
• This also introduces them to my websites – even if they don’t remain on the list.
• Depending upon the type of survey, test, and/or assessment, you are creating a targeted list.

II. List Building – Cons

• Several sign up with bogus names and/or bogus e-mail addresses. I just feel that these people won’t be good prospects as clients, anyway.
• Because I personally handle my list at this time, it takes some time and organization to make it work properly.

III. Information Gathering – Pros

• I am working on a book proposal on having and handling a “Portfolio Career” (many different careers at the same time). My first assessment is called, “The Portfolio Career Self Test or Am I Someone who Would Love to Have One?” (click HERE to see the assessment). I have discovered that a large number of both men and women are interested in this topic.
• I am also discovering the areas about which they are interested and those they worry about.
• I am now ready to put up some “Ask the Expert” assessments that deal with my other topics, so I will have ideas about what to cover in my future e-newsletters, my articles and my info-products.

IV. Information Gathering – Cons

• I realize that some of the answers may be “skewed” a bit. I also realized early on that some were miss-reading the statements, or just didn’t know the definitions of the words.
• I did send out a Follow-up Feedback Assessment (you can find it HERE) after I had received about 100 completed forms, and learned a lot more specifics.

Where can I find assessment, survey, test and polls tools? And what should I look for?

• The First Step is to make a list of what you are planning to use the tool for. What kind of questions – from simple to complex – you want answered and how flexible do you want the tool to be? I use www.assessmentgenerator.com and have found it to be easy to use, delivers the information to my e-mail box, and resides on my website(s) with my logo.
• There are a huge number of tools available. One that is often used and many are quite happy with, you will find at www.surveymonkey.com and if you go to their page on pricing you will find their description along with links to many of their competitors. The list is huge.
• One other quite popular tool is Alex Mandossian’s www.askdatabase.com. You can try it for $1.

So, happy hunting! I know I have just scraped the surface, but hope that you will consider adding this kind of interactivity to your website. It will not only be fun for you, it will be fun for your visitors.

Have a terrific and productive month!