(10 Ways on How You Can Write More Effective Ads)
Copyright © Isusu Alphonsus
http://www.MoneyCashTrace.com
(What is advertising?
Is it something to be regarded as a work of beauty or art? Is it clever slogans or amusing prose? Is it workmanship to be judged for an award or recognition?
It’s none of the above.
Advertising is salesmanship multiplied.
Nothing more.
And advertising copy, or copywriting, is salesmanship in print.
The purpose of a copywriter’s job is to sell. Period.
The selling is accomplished by persuasion with the written word, much like a television commercial sells (if done properly) by persuading with visuals and audio.
As Claude Hopkins wrote in his timeless classic, Scientific Advertising:
“To properly understand advertising or to learn even its rudiments one must start with the right conception. Advertising is salesmanship. Its principles are the principles of salesmanship. Successes and failures in both lines are due to like causes. Thus every advertising question should be answered by the salesman's standards.
“Let us emphasize that point. The only purpose of advertising is to make sales. It is profitable or unprofitable according to its actual sales.
“It is not for general effect. It is not to keep your name before the people. It is not primarily to aid your other salesmen. Treat it as a salesman. Force it to justify itself. Compare it with other salesmen. Figure its cost and result. Accept no excuses which good salesmen do not make. Then you will not go far wrong.
“The difference is only in degree. Advertising is multiplied salesmanship. It may appeal to thousands while the salesman talks to one. It involves a corresponding cost. Some people spend $10 per word on an average advertisement. Therefore every ad should be a super-salesman.
“A salesman's mistake may cost little. An advertiser’s mistake may cost a thousand times that much. Be more cautious, more exacting, therefore. A mediocre salesman may affect a small part of your trade. Mediocre advertising affects all of your trade.”
These points are as true today as they were when they were written nearly one hundred years ago!
So the goal then becomes: how can we make our advertising as effective as possible.
The answer is to test. Test again. And then test some more.
If ad “A” receives a two percent response rate, and ad “B” receives three percent, then we can deduce that ad “B” will continue to outperform ad “A” on a larger scale.
Testing takes time, however, and can be expensive if not kept in check. Therefore, it’s ideal to start with some proven tested known ideas and work from there.
For example, if testing has shown for decades or more that targeted advertising significantly outperforms untargeted advertising (and it does), then we can start with that assumption and go from there.
If we know based on test results that crafting an ad that speaks directly to an individual performs better than addressing the masses (again, it does), then it makes little sense to start testing with the assumption that it does not. This is common sense.
So it stands to reason that knowing some basic rules or techniques about writing effective copy is in order. Test results will always trump everything, but it’s better to have a starting point before you test.
So this starting point is the essence of this book.
The ten tips expressed here have been generally time-tested and known to be effective.
But I can’t emphasize enough that when using these techniques, you should always test them before rolling out a large (and expensive) campaign.
Sometimes a little tweak here or there is all that is needed to increase response rates dramatically.
And with that, let’s move onward…
Focus on Them, Not You
When a prospect reads your ad, letter, brochure, etc., the one thing he will be wondering from the start is: “what’s in it for me?”
And if your copy doesn’t tell him, it’ll land in the trash faster than he can read the headline or lead.
A lot of advertisers make this mistake. They focus on them as a company. How long they’ve been in business, who their biggest customers are, how they’ve spent ten years of research and millions of dollars on developing this product, blah, blah.
Actually, those points are important. But they should be expressed in a way that matters to your potential customer. Remember, once he’s thrown it in the garbage, the sale is lost!
When writing your copy, it helps to think of it as writing a letter to an old friend. In fact, I often picture a friend of mine who most closely fits my prospect’s profile. What would I say to convince this friend to try my product? How would I target my friend’s objections and beliefs to help my cause?
When you’re writing to a friend, you’ll use the pronouns “I” and “you.” When trying to convince your friend, you might say: “Look, I know you think you’ve tried every widget out there. But you should know that…”
And it goes beyond just writing in the second person. That is, addressing your prospect as “you” within the copy. The fact of the matter is there are many successful ads that weren’t written in the second person. Some are written in the first person perspective, where the writer uses “I.” Other times the third person is used, with “she,” “he,” and “them.”
And even if you do write in the second person, it doesn’t necessarily mean your copy is about them.
For example:
“As a real estate agent, you can take comfort in the fact that I’ve sold over 10,000 homes and mastered the tricks of the trade”
Although you’re writing in the second person, you’re really still focusing on yourself.
So how can you focus on them? Glad you asked. One way is to…
Emphasize Benefits, Not Features
What are features? They are descriptions of what qualities a product possesses.
• The XYZ car delivers 55 miles per gallon in the city.
• Our ladder’s frame is made from a lightweight durable steel alloy.
• Our glue is protected by a patent.
• This database has a built-in data-mining system.
And what are benefits? They are what those features mean to your prospects.
• You’ll save money on gas and cut down on environmental pollutants when you use our energy saving high-performance hybrid car. Plus, you’ll feel the extra oomph when you’re passing cars, courtesy of the efficient electric motor, which they don’t have!
• Lightweight durable steel-alloy frame means you’ll be able to take it with you with ease, and use it in places most other ladders can’t go, while still supporting up to 800 pounds. No more backaches lugging around that heavy ladder. And it’ll last for 150 years, so you’ll never need to buy another ladder again!
• Patent-protected glue ensures you can use it on wood, plastic, metal, ceramic, glass, and tile…without messy cleanup and without ever having to re-glue it again—guaranteed!
• You can instantly see the “big picture” hidden in your data, and pull the most arcane statistics on demand. Watch your business do a “180” in no time flat, when you instantly know why it’s failing in the first place! It’s all done with our built-in data-mining system that’s so easy to use, my twelve year-old son used it successfully right out of the box.
I just made up those examples, but I think you understand my point.
By the way, did you notice in the list of features where I wrote “steel alloy?” But in the benefits I wrote “steel-alloy” (with a hyphen). Not sure off-hand which one is correct, but I know which one I’d use.
Here’s why: you are not writing to impress your English teacher or win any awards. The only award you’re after is your copy beating the control (control being the best-selling copy so far), so take some liberty in grammar, punctuation, and sentence structure. You want it to be read and acted upon, not read and admired!
But—back to benefits…
If you were selling an expensive watch, you wouldn’t tell your reader that the face is 2 inches in diameter and the band is made of leather.
You show him how the extra-large face will tell him the time at a glance. No sir! He won’t have to squint and look foolish to everyone around him trying to read this magnificent timepiece. And how about the way he’ll project success and charisma when he wears the beautiful gold watch with its handcrafted custom leather band? How his lover will find him irresistible when he’s all dressed up to go out, wearing the watch. Or how the watch’s status and beauty will attract the ladies.
Incidentally, did you notice how I brought up not squinting as a benefit? Does that sound like a silly benefit? Not if you are selling to affluent baby boomers suffering from degrading vision. They probably hate it when someone they’re trying to impress sees them squint in order to read something. It’s all part of their inner desire, which you need to discover. And which even they may not know about. That is, until you show them a better way.
The point is to address the benefits of the product, not its features. And when you do that, you’re focusing on your reader and his interests, his desires. The trick is to highlight those specific benefits (and word them correctly) that push your reader’s emotional hot buttons.
How do you do that? Read on!
Push Their Emotional Hot Buttons
This is where research really pays off. Because in order to push those buttons, you need to first know what they are.
Listen to this story first, and I’ll tell you what I mean: Once upon a time a young man walked into a Chevrolet dealer’s showroom to check out a Chevy Camaro. He had the money, and he was ready to make a buying decision. But he couldn’t decide if he wanted to buy the Camaro or the Ford Mustang up the road at the Ford dealer.
A salesman approached him and soon discovered the man’s dilemma.
“Tell me what you like best about the Camaro,” said the salesman.
“It’s a fast car. I like it for its speed.”
After some more discussion, the salesman learned the man had just started dating a cute college cheerleader. So what did the salesman do?
Simple. He changed his pitch accordingly, to push the hot buttons he knew would help advance the sale. He told the man about how impressed his new girlfriend would be when he came home with this car! He placed the mental image in the man’s mind of he and his girlfriend cruising to the beach in the Camaro. How all of his friends will be envious when they see him riding around with a beautiful girl in a beautiful car.
And suddenly the man saw it. He got it. And the salesman recognized this and piled it on even more. Before you know it, the man wrote a nice fat check to the Chevy dealership, because he was sold!
The salesman found those hot buttons and pushed them like never before until the man realized he wanted the Camaro more than he wanted his money.
I know what you’re thinking…the man said he liked the car because it was fast, didn’t he?
Yes, he did. But subconsciously, what he really desired was a car that would impress his girlfriend, his friends, and in his mind make them love him more! In his mind he equated speed with thrill. Not because he wanted an endless supply of speeding tickets, but because he thought that thrill would make him more attractive, more likeable.
Perhaps the man didn’t even realize this fact himself. But the salesman sure did. And he knew which emotional hot buttons to press to get the sale.
Now, where does the research pay off?
Well, a good salesman knows how to ask the kinds of questions that will tell him which buttons to press on the fly. When you’re writing copy, you don’t have that luxury. It’s therefore very important to know upfront the wants, needs, and desires of your prospects for that very reason. If you haven’t done your homework, your prospect is going to decide that he’d rather keep his money than buy your product. Remember, copywriting is salesmanship in print!
It’s been said many times: People don’t like to be sold.
But they do like to buy.
And they buy based on emotion first and foremost. Then they justify their decision with logic, even after they are already sold emotionally. So be sure to back up your emotional pitch with logic to nurture that justification at the end.
And while we’re on the subject, let’s talk a moment about perceived “hype” in a sales letter. A lot of more “conservative” advertisers have decided that they don’t like hype, because they consider hype to be old news, been-there-and-done-that, my customers won’t fall for hype, it’s not believable anymore.
What they should realize is that hype itself does not sell well. Some less experienced copywriters often try to compensate for their lack of research or not fully understanding their target market or the product itself by adding tons of adjectives and adverbs and exclamation points and big bold type.
Whew! If you do your job right, it’s just not needed.
That’s not to say some adverbs or adjectives don’t have their place…only if they’re used sparingly, and only if they advance the sale.
But I think you’d agree that backing up your copy with proof and believability will go a lot farther in convincing your prospects than “power words” alone. I say power words, because there are certain adverbs and adjectives that have been proven to make a difference when they’re included. This by itself is not hype. But repeated too often, they become less effective, and they take away (at least in your prospect’s mind) from the proof.
Which brings us into our next tip…
Incorporating Proof and Believability
When your prospect reads your ad, you want to make sure he believes any claims you make about your product or service. Because if there’s any doubt in his mind, he won’t bite, no matter how sweet the deal. In fact, the “too good to be true” mentality will virtually guarantee a lost sale…even if it is all true.
So what can you do to increase the perception of believability? Because after all, it’s the perception you need to address up front. But of course you also must make sure your copy is accurate and truthful.
Here are some tried and tested methods that will help:
• If you’re dealing with existing customers who already know you deliver as promised, emphasize that trust. Don’t leave it up to them to figure it out. Make them stop, cock their heads, and say, “Oh, yeah. The ABC Company has never done me wrong before. I can trust them.”
• Include testimonials of satisfied customers. Be sure to put full names and locations, where possible. Remember, “A.S.” is a lot less believable than “Andy Sherman, Voorhees, NJ.” If you can also include a picture of the customer and/or a professional title, that’s even better. It doesn’t matter that your testimonials aren’t from somebody famous or that your prospect does not know these people personally. If you have enough compelling testimonials, and they’re believable, you’re much better off than not including them at all.
• Pepper your copy with facts and research findings to support your claims. Be sure to credit all sources, even if the fact is common knowledge, because a neutral source goes a long way towards credibility.
• For a direct mail letter or certain space ads where the copy is in the form of a letter from a specific individual, including a picture of that person helps. But unlike “traditional” real estate letters and other similar ads, I’d put the picture at the end near your signature, or midway through the copy, rather than at the top where it will detract from your headline. And…if your sales letter is from a specific individual, be sure to include his credentials to establish him as an expert in his field (relating to your product or service, of course).
• If applicable, cite any awards or third-party reviews the product or service has received.
• If you’ve sold a lot of widgets, tell them. It’s the old “10 million people can’t be wrong” adage (they can be, but your prospect will likely take your side on the matter).
• Include a GREAT return policy and stand by it! This is just good business policy. Many times, offering a double refund guarantee for certain products will result in higher profits. Yes, you’ll dish out more refunds, but if you sell three times as many widgets as before, and only have to refund twice as much as before, it may be worth it, depending on your offer and return on investment. Crunch the numbers and see what makes sense. More importantly, test! Make them think, “Gee, they wouldn’t be so generous with returns if they didn’t stand behind their product!”
• If you can swing it, adding a celebrity endorsement will always help to establish credibility. Heck, if ‘ol honest Abe Lincoln recommended your product and backs up your claims, it must be true! Ok, you get the idea, though.
• When it makes sense, use 3rd party testimonials. What are 3rd party testimonials? Here’s some examples from some Web site copy I wrote when there weren’t many customer testimonials available yet:
“Spyware, without question, is on an exponential rise over the last six months.”
- Alfred Huger, Senior Director of Engineering, Symantec Security Response (maker of Norton security software)
“Simply clicking on a banner ad can install spyware.”
- Dave Methvin, Chief Technology Officer, PC Pitstop
A deployment method is to “trick users into consenting to a software download they think they absolutely need”
- Paul Bryan, Director, Security And Technology Unit, Microsoft
Do you see what I did?
I took quotes from experts in their respective fields and turned them to my side. But…be sure to get their consent or permission from the copyright holder if there’s ever any question about copyrighted materials as your source.
Note that I also pushed an emotional hot button: fear.
It’s been proven that people will generally do more to avoid pain than to obtain pleasure. So why not use that tidbit of info to your advantage?
• Reveal a flaw about your product. This helps alleviate the “too good to be true” syndrome. You reveal a flaw that isn’t really a flaw. Or reveal a flaw that is minor, just to show that you’re being “up front” about your product’s shortcomings.
Example:
“You’re probably thinking right now that this tennis racket is a miracle worker—and it is. But I must tell you that it has one little…shortcoming.
My racket takes about 2 weeks to get used to. In fact, when you first start using it, your game will actually get worse. But if you can just ride it out, you’ll see a tremendous improvement in your volleys, net play, serves, …” And so on.
There’s a tendency to think, with all of the ads that we are bombarded with today that every advertiser is always putting his best foot forward, so to speak. And I think that line of reasoning is accurate, to a point.
But isn’t it refreshing when someone stands out from the crowd and is honest? In other words, your reader will start to subconsciously believe that you are revealing all of the flaws, even though your best foot still stands forward.
• Use “lift notes.” These are a brief note or letter from a person of authority. Not necessary a celebrity, although that can add credibility, too. A person of authority is someone well recognized in their field (which is related to your product) that they are qualified to talk about. Lift notes may be distributed as inserts, a separate page altogether, or even as part of the copy itself. As always, test!
• If you are limiting the offer with a deadline “order by” date, be sure the deadline is real and does not change. Deadline dates that change every day are sure to reduce credibility. The prospect will suspect, “if his deadline date keeps changing, he’s not telling the truth about it…I wonder what else he’s not telling the truth about.”
• Avoid baseless “hype.” I discussed that in my previous tip. Enough said.
The Unique Selling Proposition (USP)
Also known as the unique selling position, the USP is often one of the most oft-misunderstood elements of a good sales letter. It’s what separates your product or service from your competitors. Let’s take a quick look at some unique selling propositions for a product itself:
1) Lowest Price – If you’ve got the corner marketed on budget prices, flaunt it. Wal-Mart has made this USP famous lately, but it’s not new to them. In fact, selling for cheaper has been around as long as capitalism itself. Personally, I’m not crazy about price wars, because someone can always come along and sell for cheaper. Then it’s time for a new strategy…
2) Superior Quality – If it outperforms your competitor’s product or is made with higher quality materials, it’s a good bet that you could use this fact to your advantage. For example, compare Breyers Ice Cream to their competitor’s. From the packaging to the wholesome superior ingredients, the quality is evident. It may cost a little more than their competitor’s ice cream, but for their market, it sells.
3) Superior Service – If you offer superior service over your competitor’s, people will buy from you instead. This is especially true with certain markets that are all about service: long-distance, Internet service providers, cable television, etc.
4) Exclusive Rights – My favorite! If you can legitimately claim that your product is protected by a patent or copyright, licensing agreement, etc., then you have a winner for exclusive rights. If you have a patent, even the President of the U.S. must buy it from you.
Ok, what if your product or service is no different than your competitor’s? I would disagree, because there are always differences. The trick is to turn them into a positive advantage for you. You want to put your “best foot forward.” So what can we do in this scenario?
One way is to present something that your company has devised internally that no other company does. Look, there’s a reason why computer store “A” offers to beat their competitor’s price for the same product by X%. If you look closely, the two packages are never exactly the same. Company “B” offers a free scanner, while company “A” offers a free printer. Or some other difference. They are comparing apples to oranges. So unless you find a company with the exact same package (you won’t…they’ve seen to that), you won’t be able to cash in.
But what if you truly have the same widget for sale as the guy up the road?
Unless your prospect knows the inner workings of both your and your competitor’s product, including the manufacturing process, customer service, and everything in-between, then you have a little potential creative licensing here. But you must be truthful.
For example, if I tell my readers that my product is bathed in steam to ensure purity and cleanliness (like the cans and bottles in most beer manufacturing processes), it doesn’t matter that Joe’s Beer up the road does the same thing. That fact that Joe doesn’t advertise this fact makes it a USP in your prospect’s eyes.
Want some more USP examples?
• We are the only car repair shop that will buy your car if you are not 100 percent satisfied with our work.
• Delivered in 30 minutes or it’s on us!
• No other furniture company will pay for your shipping.
• Our recipe is so secret, only three people in the world know it!
As with most ways to boost copy response, research is the key with your USP. Sometimes your USP is obvious, for example if you have a patent. Other times you must do a little legwork to discover it (or shape it to your target market).
Here’s where a little persistence and in-person selling really pays off. Let me give you an example to illustrate what I mean:
Suppose your company sells beanbag chairs for kids. So you, being the wise marketer that you are, decide to sell these beanbags in person to prospects before writing your copy. After completing twenty different pitches for your product, you discover that 75 percent of those you visited asked if the chair would eventually leak. Since the chairs are for kids, it’s only logical that parents would be concerned about their youngster jumping on it, rolling on it, and doing all things possible to break the seam and “spill the beans.”
So when you write your copy, you make sure you address that issue: “You can rest assure that our super-strong beanbag chairs are triple-stitched for guaranteed leak-proof performance. No other company will make this guarantee about their beanbag chairs!”
For a really in depth look at how to perfect a better USP checkout http://www.informativebooks.com
The Headline
If you’re going to make a single change to boost your response rate the most, focus on your headline (you do have one, don’t you?).
Why? Because five times as many people read your headline than your copy. Quite simply, a headline is…an ad for your ad. People won’t stop their busy lives to read your copy unless you give them a good reason to do so. So a good headline promises some news and a benefit.
Perhaps you’re thinking, “What’s this about news, you say?”
Think about the last time you browsed through your local newspaper. You checked out the articles, one by one, and occasionally an ad may have caught your eye. Which ads were the ones most likely to catch your eye?
The ones that looked like an article, of course.
The ones with the headline that promised news.
The ones with fonts and type that closely resembled the fonts and type used in articles.
The ones that were placed where articles were placed (as opposed to being placed on a full page of ads, for example).
And the ones with the most compelling headlines that convinced you it’s worth a few minutes to read the copy.
The headline is that powerful and that important.
I’ve seen many ads over the years that didn’t even have a headline. And that’s just silly. It’s the equivalent of flushing good money spent on advertising right down the toilet.
Why? Because your response can increase dramatically by not only adding a headline, but by making that headline almost impossible to resist for your target market.
And those last three words are important. Your target market.
For example, take a look at the following headline:
Announcing…New High-Tech Gloves Protect Wearer Against Hazardous Waste
News, and a benefit.
Will that headline appeal to everyone?
No, and you don’t care about everyone.
But for someone who handles hazardous waste, they would sure appreciate knowing about this little gem.
That’s your target market, and it’s your job to get them to read your ad. Your headline is the way you do that.
Ok, now where do you find great headlines?
You look at other successful ads (especially direct response) that have stood the test of time. You look for ads that run regularly in magazines and other publications. How do you know they’re good? Because if they didn’t do their job, the advertiser wouldn’t keep running them again and again.
You get on the mailing lists of the big direct response companies like Agora and Boardroom and save their direct mail packages.
You read the National Enquirer.
Huh? You heard that correctly.
The National Enquirer has some of the best headlines in the business.
Pick up a recent issue and you’ll see what I mean. Ok, now how could you adapt some of those headlines to your own product or service?
Your headline should create a sense of urgency. It should be as specific as possible (i.e. say $1,007,274.23 instead of “a million dollars”).
The headline appearance is also very important. Make sure the type used is bold and large, and different from the type used in the copy. Generally, longer headlines tend to out pull shorter ones, even when targeting more “conservative” prospects.
Some other sites online where you can get great headlines (from master copywriter John Carlton, no less) are:
• http://www.otsdirect.com/products.html
• http://www.trsdirect.com/product.php
• http://www.ohpdirect.com/product.php
On each page, click on the individual products in order to view the ads and headlines.
It should go without saying that when you use other successful headlines, you adapt them to your own product or service. Never copy a headline (or any other written copyrighted piece of work for that matter) word for word. Copywriters and ad agencies are notoriously famous for suing for plagiarism. And rightfully so.
The More You Tell, The More You Sell
The debate on using long copy versus short copy never seems to end. Usually it is a newcomer to copywriting who seems to think that long copy is boring and, well…long. “I would never read that much copy,” they say.
The fact of the matter is that all things being equal, long copy will outperform short copy every time. And when I say long copy, I don’t mean long and boring, or long and untargeted.
The person who says he would never read all that copy is making a big mistaking in copywriting: he is going with his gut reaction instead of relying on test results. He is thinking that he himself is the prospect. He’s not. We’re never our own prospects.
There have been many studies and split tests conducted on the long copy versus short copy debate. And the clear winner is always long copy. But that’s targeted relevant long copy as opposed to untargeted boring long copy.
Some significant research has found that readership tends to fall off dramatically at around 300 words, but does not drop off again until around 3,000 words.
If I’m selling an expensive set of golf clubs and send my long copy to a person who’s plays golf occasionally, or always wanted to try golf, I am sending my sales pitch to the wrong prospect. It is not targeted effectively. And so if a person who receives my long copy doesn’t read past the 300th word, they weren’t qualified for my offer in the first place.
It wouldn’t have mattered whether they read up to the 100th word or 10,000th word. They still wouldn’t have made a purchase.
However, if I sent my long copy to an avid die-hard golfer, who just recently purchased other expensive golf products through the mail, painting an irresistible offer, telling him how my clubs will knock 10 strokes off his game, he’ll likely read every word. And if I’ve targeted my message correctly, he will buy.
Remember, if your prospect is 3000 miles away, it’s not easy for him to ask you a question. You must anticipate and answer all of his questions and overcome all objections in your copy if you are to be successful.
And make sure you don’t throw everything you can think of under the sun in there. You only need to include as much information as you need to make the sale…and not one word more.
If it takes a 10-page sales letter, so be it. If it takes a 16-page magalog, fine. But if the 10-page sales letter tests better than the 16-page magalog, then by all means go with the winner.
Does that mean every prospect must read every word of your copy before he will order your product? Of course not.
Some will read every word and then go back and reread it again. Some will read the headline and lead, then skim much of the body and land on the close. Some will scan the entire body, then go back and read it. All of those prospects may end up purchasing the offer, but they also all may have different styles of reading and skimming.
Which brings us to the next tip…
Write To Be Scanned
Your layout is very important in a sales letter, because you want your letter to look inviting, refreshing to the eyes. In short, you want your prospect to stop what he’s doing and read your letter.
If he sees a letter with tiny margins, no indentations, no breaks in the text, no white space, and no subheads…if he sees a page of nothing but densely-packed words, do you think he’ll be tempted to read it?
Not likely.
If you do have ample white space and generous margins, short sentences, short paragraphs, subheads, and an italicized or underlined word here and there for emphasis, it will certainly look more inviting to read.
When reading your letter, some prospects will start at the beginning and read word for word. Some will read the headline and maybe the lead, then read the “P.S.” at the end of the letter and see who the letter is from, then start from the beginning.
And some folks will scan through your letter, noticing the various subheads strategically positioned by you throughout your letter, then decide if it’s worth their time to read the entire thing. Some may never read the entire letter, but order anyways.
You must write for all of them. Interesting and compelling long copy for the studious reader, and short paragraphs and sentences, white space, and subheads for the skimmer.
Subheads are the smaller headlines sprinkled throughout your copy.
Like this.
When coming up with your headline, some of the headlines that didn’t make the cut can make great subheads. A good subhead forces your prospect to keep reading, threading him along from start to finish throughout your copy, while also providing the glue necessary to keep skimmers skimming.
The Structure of AIDAS
There’s a well-known structure in successful sales letters, described by the acronym AIDA.
AIDA stands for:
• Attention
• Interest
• Desire
• Action
First, you capture your prospect’s attention. This is done with your headline and lead. If your ad fails to capture your prospect’s attention, it fails completely. Your prospect doesn’t read your stellar copy, and doesn’t order your product or service.
Then you want to build a strong interest in your prospect. You want him to keep reading, because if he reads, he just might buy.
Next, you channel a desire. Having a targeted market for this is key, because you’re not trying to create a desire where one did not already exist. You want to capitalize on an existing desire, which your prospect may or may not know he already has. And you want your prospect to experience that desire for your product or service.
Finally, you present a call to action. You want him to pick up the telephone, return the reply card, attend the sales presentation, order your product, whatever. You need to ask for the sale (or response, if that’s the goal). You don’t want to beat around the bush at this point. If your letter and AIDA structure is sound and persuasive, here’s where you present the terms of your offer and urge the prospect to act now.
A lot has been written about the AIDA copywriting formula. I’d like to add one more letter to the acronym: S for Satisfy.
In the end, after the sale is made, you want to satisfy your prospect, who is now a customer. You want to deliver exactly what you promised (or even more), by the date you promised, in the manner you promised. In short, you want to give him every reason in the world to trust you the next time you sell him a back-end offer. And of course you’d rather he doesn’t return the product (although if he does, you also execute your return policy as promised).
Either way, you want your customers to be satisfied. It will make you a lot more money in the long run.
Use Takeaway Selling to Increase the Urgency
When you limit the supply of a product or service in some way (i.e. takeaway selling), basic economics dictates that the demand will rise. In other words, people will generally respond better to an offer if they believe the offer is about to become unavailable or restricted in some way.
And of course, the opposite is also true. If a prospect knows your product will be around whenever he needs it, there’s no need for him to act now. And when your ad is put aside by the prospect, the chance of closing the sale diminishes greatly.
It’s your job, therefore, to get your prospect to buy, and buy now. Using scarcity to sell is a great way to accomplish that.
There are basically three types of takeaways:
1) Limiting the quantity
2) Limiting the time
3) Limiting the offer
In the first method, limiting the quantity, you are presenting a fixed number of widgets available for sale. After they’re gone, that’s it.
Some good ways to limit the quantity include:
• only so many units made or obtained
• selling off old stock to make room for new
• limited number of cosmetically-defected items, or a fire sale
• only a limited number being sold so as not to saturate the market
• etc.
In the second method, limiting the time, a deadline is added to the offer. It should be a realistic deadline, not one that changes all the time (especially on a website, where the deadline date always seems to be that very day at midnight…when you return the next day, the deadline date has mysteriously changed again to the new day). Deadlines that change decrease your credibility.
This approach works well when the offer or the price will change, or the product/service will become unavailable, after the deadline.
The third method, limiting the offer, is accomplished by limiting other parts of the offer, such as the guarantee, bonuses or premiums, the price, and so on.
When using takeaway selling, you must be sure to follow-through with your restrictions. If you say you only have 500 widgets to sell, then don’t sell 501. If you say your offer will expire at the end of the month, make sure it does. Otherwise your credibility will take a hit. Prospects will remember the next time another offer from you makes its way into their hands.
Another important thing you should do is explain the reason why the offer is being restricted. Don’t just say the price will be going up in three weeks, but decline to tell them why.
Here are some examples of good takeaway selling:
“Unfortunately, I can only handle so many clients. Once my plate is full, I will be unable to accept any new business. So if you’re serious about strengthening your investment strategies and creating more wealth than ever before, you should contact me ASAP.”
“Remember…you must act by [date] at midnight in order to get my 2 bonuses. These bonuses have been provided by [third-party company], and we have no control over their availability after that time.”
“We’ve obtained only 750 of these premiums from our vendor. Once they are gone, we won’t be able to get any more until next year. And even then we can’t guarantee the price will remain the same. In fact, because of the increasing demand, it’s very likely the price could double or triple by then!”
Remember when I said earlier that people buy based on emotions, then back up their decision to buy with logic? Well, by using takeaway selling, that restriction becomes part of that logic to buy and buy now.
Conclusion
Great copy is made, not born. It is derived from proven test results designed to do one thing and do it well: sell.
Effective advertising doesn't always use "grammatically correct" English. It uses short sentences, fragments. Like this.
It convinces you to buy, and buy now. Period.
It talks about benefits, not features. It sells on emotion and reinforces the decision to buy with logic.
It paints a compelling picture and irresistible offer that forces your prospect to act and act now! And if it doesn't, then you drop that ad like a hot potato and go with one that does.
Effective persuasion is like your top salesperson--the one who continues to break all your sales records year after year--on the job 24 x 7, multiplied by thousands or millions! Just imagine if that salesperson, the one with proven results, could be multiplied as much as you wanted.
Now that would be effective (and cost-efficient) marketing!
And that's the kind of proven marketing you need to employ.
)
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Friday, September 12, 2008
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
10 Fundamentals of Starting Your Online Business
(10 Fundamentals of Starting Your Online Business
)
Copyright © Isusu Alphonsus
http://www.MoneyCashTrace.com
(
Starting an online business can seem either simple or difficult…and this depends on your perception of the Internet. For many, the task at hand will come naturally because they’re comfortable maneuvering the ‘Net with ease. For others, it’s an entirely new idea requiring heavy guidance.
Everyone who has ever looked out for legitimate business opportunities online has may be scoured the Internet for sites that offer both direction and devices to make their journey easier.
Most people are searching for a place where Internet Marketers can make a single stop to gather and implement all of the information they need to carry them from A to Z and a turnkey marketing system that supplies everything they need for success.
There are ten basic steps to initiating and cultivating your dream of starting of your very own Internet-based business. The steps begin the moment you first conceptualize your dream and they culminate with continued revenue from your customers.
1. Motivation and Goal Setting
If you’re going through this write-up, then you have already instilled some of the motivation needed to be a successful online entrepreneur. But are you ready to invest the time and money needed to realize your vision?
Before you ever start the first formal step of starting your cyber-business, you have to have the right mindset and a list of goals that you plan to accomplish one step at a time.
First, you need to get the support of those who will be closely involved with you in your endeavor. It may be a work partner or your spouse and children if you’re working solo from home.
Even if you’re interested in sign up with an established affiliate program…you should still set and try to maintain your own personal goals. While some seasoned marketers have long-term success, those who sustain their victories in the marketplace know that they have to put in equal effort to building a successful affiliate network.
Hey, you may have to sit down with a list of things you hope to accomplish with this business and be as specific as possible. This may help convince others (and even yourself) if you map out a simple business plan to show them how your idea will come into play.
If you run into opposition, or self-doubts, then you may want to take some time to thoroughly review your business plan and try to solve any areas of concern before you start investing too much time or money into your operation.
If you’re considering joining an affiliate program, look at it carefully to determine what its drawbacks are, (if any)…if you still have concerns, contact the sponsor of the program and enter a dialogue with him/her so that you can find out for yourself if these problems really exist, and if so, how they are solved.
In line with the plan itself, you should have several stages of goals that you hope to reach and the time lag to accomplish them. Too many people sit down one day and decide to start a business with no direction to go. Such people wind up off the path very quickly, and all the time and funds they devoted to their business goes down the drain. Of course this can be quite painful…
Don’t bite off more than you can chew with your goals. Start small and remember that goals are to be viewed as a living list, and can be altered at any time depending on the success rate of your business.
You might want to set monetary goals – such as hoping to make $3,000 per month within the first three months. Recall that most new businesses don’t even see a profit until after the first year, so don’t panic if yours is slow to grow.
On the Internet, your growth rate will be much quicker because your audience is global, not limited to your city, state, region or country. Another bonus with online selling is that many products are informational, and don’t require the standard upfront investment that other companies do.
When you find a business opportunity that interest you…you need to make sure that there is a system in place that offers plenty of member support and training to get your own enterprise underway.
For example, PlugInProfitSite is not only a site that houses one of the largest affiliate member on the ‘Net, but it’s also has a forum…a community where members can interact with one another and get answers on issues that are important to them.
Look for a company that doesn’t stop at just putting the facts and figures out there. You want one that takes an active interest in your success, offers a turnkey marketing system, and wants to make sure that your growth brings more growth within the industry.
2. Time Management Control
If you’re working from home or doing this business as a part time until it firmly gets on its feet, then you’ll have to set and meet your schedule in order to cautiously control your online enterprise.
You don’t want to fall at one end of the spectrum – investing too much or too little time into your business. Rather, you want a healthy balance where you’ve spent enough time working toward your goals and plenty of time to spend enjoying family time or recreational life in general. “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.” You may have heard the saying.
It rings true for many whose lives are soaked by their business. Hey, don’t let this happen to you! If you fall into the trap of working yourself to death, your business will suffer in the end because you’ll become too frustrated to think clearly and make sound business decisions.
If your online business is your only job, then you can afford to spend 7-10 hours a day working toward its success. But if you’re working at home, those 7-10 hours a day might be marred by constant interruptions and personal pauses that so easily take precedence over your work life.
If you have a family at home, remind them that you’re going to be putting in formal work hours and that even though you might be available to temporarily stop and help them when they need it, they must respect your efforts to build your business.
Your time is precious! You know the saying, “Time is Money” and you’ll find that to be especially true online where you can spend hour after hour on repetitive tasks that deliver marginal results. Don’t fall into the trap of doing the same thing over and over again without results. Look for a true “turnkey system” that finds, sorts, and sells to your prospects, while you’re spending time doing things that contribute to the long haul, like building relationships with your customers.
How many affiliate programs on the ‘Net have you found who promise a turnkey investment? Just set it up and it runs itself. When it comes down to it, not many make the grade – then you eventually end up unwilling to spend the necessary time – and failure closes in.
PlugInProfitSite knows the difference between hype and truth, and makes promises that are kept by providing actual step-by-step instructions and a turnkey system that will help you make the most of your time.
3. Product Conception
Many people go through life wishing they could sell something and become instant millionaires. Far from it! But the possibility still tugs at us and we’re always looking for the “magic solution” to our financial stresses.
In order to develop a good product line, you have to look at the marketplace. What are consumers buying? What’s being heavily advertised? You know it takes money to market your products, so the successful companies will be advertising greatly because they can afford to.
Is there a need that’s not being met? Many success stories come out of regular consumers who couldn’t find a particular product to solve their own problems, so they invented one themselves to helping others!
Many thriving online businesses do nothing but sell information on the ‘Net. Information is the hottest commodity, and almost anyone can do it with very little upfront investment of money.
Think about your own personal experiences. What skills do you have that cause people come to you for help? Are you a wizard at writing? Do you have a knack for investing or real estate solutions?
You can write an eBook to sell on the ‘Net and rake in a lot of money –just for sharing your knowledge with others! Why are eBooks so popular? For several reasons, including the fact that they can be purchased and read in seconds from the comfort of your own home.
No bookstores. No traffic. No-hassle returns on most sites. Plus, eBooks usually come with a package deal, so customers get bonus materials just for ordering. This can be an extra eBook, a teaser eBook (a shorter version of the same book, highlighting a few excerpts), or a membership to a free Ezine.
If you aren’t confident in your writing skills, but have an idea you’d like to see in print, consider hiring a professional to do it for you. Writing consultants can research and write about topics quickly and gear them toward consumers for about $20 per page.
Products that are already created can be sold in affiliate programs. The advantages of marketing someone else’s products or services are many, including time savings, low monetary investment (and risk), and less work. If that appeals to you, at least as a stepping stone to “bigger and better,” then the perfect starting place is www.PlugInProfitSite.com/main-24136
4. Site Structure
The structure of your website can mean the difference between a stalled business and a flourishing one. If your website isn’t built for the consumer, then the consumer will steer clear.
Have you ever entered into a store and found it messy or crowded and hard to maneuver? Did you ever go back to that place? Maybe not. The same thing goes for your online business.
Some websites are not built for the average customer. They use large graphics that take hours for a 46K modem to download, or their links don’t work. If you don’t know how to build a website yourself, then hire a professional who knows how to do it for you.
Your site needs to be user-friendly so that customers keep coming back –not only for their first purchase, but also for follow-up sales once they’ve devoured your initial product.
Some basic tips for building a better website include using professional colors and fonts. You don’t want a rainbow site with happy faces and flowery lettering trying to sell your serious eBook on Investing for Seniors.
You also want to make sure you have a separate domain for your business.
You can register your very own dot com at Godaddy.com for only $8/month, and the investment is well worth it for the professionalism it gives your business.
Once the designer drafts your site and your content is in place, ask a few friends or family members to make a test run through it and tell you if they notice any areas where the user would run into problems, like dead links or layout trouble.
Sometimes, something as simple as the browser the customer is using will distort the website and make it appear as if an amateur has launched an online business. Any reputable designer knows how to appeal to the masses, so you shouldn’t run into any trouble if you check references and hire someone who’s been in the business for at least 4 years.
If you’re not quite ready to hire a website designer, there are companies that offer low-cost, ready-made templates that you can customize. Empowerism will give you 35 templates and teach you what to do with them. You will have a wide variety of options so that your enterprise is created with a personal slant –designed however you choose. These types of tools reduce the usual worries that plague other first time cyberpreneurs. Turnkey!
5. Constructive Content
Content can make a big difference if you fail to urge the audience to take action on your site. You have to create words that provoke the reader to continue reading until they are convinced to buy your product or sign up for something on your site.
The world seems to think that ‘Technology Rules’ or Images Sell.” Wrong. “Word are of course the most powerful drug used by mankind.” Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936).
Some websites run on for pages, causing the reader to scroll forever. Others use a mere paragraph or two to make their point and hope for the best results. What length you require depends on the product you’re selling and how much convincing needs to be done to make the sale.
Many websites are sheer sales propaganda, and it often works! Your sales strategy should reflect the customer and how they approach buying on the Internet. Many people like and expect to see testimonials sprinkled throughout your home page, for instance.
Whenever you work on your content, make sure that you answer the 5 W’s: Who (who the product is for and who you are as well); What (what the product is exactly, along with any other bonus materials included); When (when the offer expires – an often crucial element in making the sale tonight as opposed to never); Where (where they can reach you in case they have any questions or need assistance); and Why (why they need your product above any others selling on the ‘Net).
You might want to write your online sales content like a personal letter, complete with an image of your signature at the bottom of the page. Don’t forget your Postscripts (P.S.) – you can have up to five Postscripts where you sum up the important facts and urge the client to purchase now or miss out on the deal altogether.
Your content will play a key factor in your search engine placement, so you will need to learn how to “write for the search engines” and incorporate that whenever possible. If that’s something you’re not familiar with, Empowerism offers a full training module on keyword and keyphrase integration for search engine optimization.
Content isn’t confined just to your website! Email marketing is a vital aspect of Internet Marketing, and the content of your communications to your prospects and customers must be professional, with a good blend of relationship building, soft-sell, and hard-sell copy.
6. Search Engine Support
Without aiming for a decent search engine ranking, you might have difficulty in achieving the kind of sales results you’re after. In addition to content, addressed in the previous section, there are several tools you can use to help you boost your search engine placement.
While many engines have their own criteria for developing their unique ranking system, most rely on a combination of keywords, relevancy, and even link reciprocation. In order to move into the top ten, most coveted positions, you have to know how to play their game.
First, sit down and brainstorm the keywords most used to describe your product. Google has a keyword tool that helps you determine the most widely used search terms for your business.You can find it at:
https://adwords.google.com/select/main?cmd=KeywordSandbox.
For example, if you enter “investing,” the tool will return the following terms to you: Real estate investing, online investing, socially responsible investing, value investing, stock market investing, stock investing, investing online, gold investing, drip investing, & investing money – and these are only the top 10 out of 50+ terms it returns.
How do you use these search terms? You use them both behind the scenes and on center stage. Your web developer will want to include many of them in your META tags, which allows search engine spiders to classify your site more easily.
You’ll also want to use them in your keyword content when crafting the home page of your website. When the spider crawls onto your site, it scans the keywords to make sure the site is really relevant to that particular subject matter, and not just a scam to get traffic in the door.
You will need to continue recreating your search engine strategy, since many engines change their formula to keep everyone on their toes. Google and others, for instance, now factor into the ranking formula the number of other sites who have a link to your site. This is known as link reciprocation.
7. Advertising Issues
Advertising will be the lifeblood of your business, so this is where the majority of your time, money, and effort will be spent. Your goal is to build a database (list) of prospects and customers you can sell to time and time again.
In the ever-changing (and challenging) world of online advertising, there are two primary categories: Free and Paid. The basic rule of thumb is that if you have much more time than money, Free advertising may be your most logical choice. However, if you have even just a little room in your budget for advertising, Paid advertising, combined with effective free methods, will save you bundles of time and is the most direct route to success.
The entire goal of your advertising efforts should be to drive targeted traffic to your website, where visitors are encouraged to add their name and email address to your database. Plain and simple. Database Marketing 101.
Free online advertising methods include (but are not limited to) posting to free safelists, engaging in message board discussions and including your tagline on each post, posting to free classified ad sites, using traffic generators (surfing/clicking for credits), submitting your website to search engines, banner exchanges, reciprocal linking with similar sites, submitting free ezine ads, writing articles and including your byline at the end, and writing a press release about the launch of your site or a new product and submitting to online news media.
These methods can be tedious and frustrating, but when you’re starting off, with no extra funds, if you can choose two and stick with them religiously, you will most likely generate enough profit to form a Paid advertising plan.
PlugInProfitSite.com can help you get started with any of these, as well as teach you how
to test and track your results, which is vitally important to your sanity! Paid advertising methods are virtually endless. Some of the most popular include renting opt-in lists, buying opt-in leads, placing ads in reputable ezines, using pay-per-click search engines, buying banner ad space, and buying targeted traffic.
Just because you have an online business, that doesn’t mean all of your advertising has to be on the Internet. However, online advertising is usually less costly than offline avenues. You don’t have to pay for pricey prime time placement, but you do have to spend more time figuring out where your prospects are so that your dollars are not wasted in your efforts.
8. Customer Service
Everyone knows that keeping a customer is ten times harder than getting one initially. We can all recall numerous times when we’ve purchased something and vowed never to return.
You don’t want to be labeled one of those businesses that doesn’t seem to value its customers. Word on the Internet spreads rapidly. If you burn one customer, he or she might post that experience on an online message board or mention it in an email discussion list, and no one else will want to do business with you, either.
What does customer service mean? Does it mean the customer is always right? If you want it to! But more often than not, it means that you are willing to listen to a customer’s complaints and work toward a mutual resolution.
Sometimes the only resolution that will work means a full money-back guarantee. Yes, even if you know the consumer is only doing this to scam you out of your money.
But other times, the customer is lodging a legitimate complaint, and this can be very helpful to you when it comes to satisfying the needs of other customers. Say a customer emails you with a request for a refund because many of the links in your eBook were dead links (they no longer worked).
First of all, you need to thank this customer profusely because he’s just done you a big favor. He’s saved you money. Why? Because you can instantly refund his money, fix the dead links, and avoid dozens of other returns.
Then you should happily refund the money for this sale and promise him that you’ll be repairing the problem and ensuring it never happens again. As a result, you might have salvaged his business for your release of the next edition of your informational eBook.
No matter what the situation, always be courteous and friendly when dealing with a customer – even those who are furious with you for no good reason (that you can see). Remain calm and gently take care of the problem.
The biggest complaint online consumers have in working with customer service departments is their slow reply. To combat this problem, make sure you stay on top of customer contact so that you can resolve any issues before they grow into larger ones.
By aligning yourself with a company with an unprecedented reputation for integrity and fast, friendly service, you will garner the experience to serve your clients with the respect they expect.
9. Recurrent Marketing Efforts
Don’t think that once you launch a single ad campaign, your efforts are finished. Marketing your products is a never-ending task that has to be factored into the continued growth of your business. Even after you’ve made the sale, the show must go on – your goal is to keep these customers for life, if not longer!
Whenever you create a product to sell on the Internet, you must have a way to capture and store the contact information of your customer – preferably through email – and let them know they will hear from you from time to time. So long as you provide a way for them to opt out of receiving your emails, this is standard procedure.
When someone becomes your customer, the next time he hears from you will be right after his first purchase – thanking him for becoming a valued customer. From that point on, you can occasionally contact him to alert him to other special offers, upgrades, or complementary products that are available to him at a special discount because he’s an existing customer.
Your new best friends will be an auto-responder and your mailing list software. Auto-responders usually come with a mass mailing function, which is very convenient. With auto-responders, the “after-the-sale” marketing is done for you automatically – contacting the customer periodically with various “drive ‘emback” messages. You can either write these messages or hire a professional.
Your mailing list software (or the mass mail feature of your autoresponder) allows you to contact your customers “on the fly” with up-to-the minute information that would not typically be loaded into an auto-responder.
This can be in the form of special reports or a newsletter you send out regularly.
Keep your eye on the media – newspapers, television, even radio – and send your customers a message whenever you find information that could benefit their lives in some way, relevant to their relationship with you. These reports can be drafted in a matter of hours, and can be anywhere from one to five pages long.
For example, if you sell an eBook on lowering telecommunications costs, and you see a story about it on the 5 o’clock news, whip up a short report and send it to your customers. They will appreciate knowing you’re on top of the situation and looking out for their best interests. At the same time, you’ll be positioning yourself as an expert in your field.
PlugInProfitSite.com provides its members the ability to plug your name and URL into existing material that you can give away to future prospects and customers. The data is already there – you just substitute your contact information, and you’ve instantly produced a quality product. These are marketing tools to help you grow your business.
10. Necessity of Reinvention
From time to time, once your business becomes an established entity, you’ll want to reinvent your methods or your products. If your approach in selling begins to weaken, and you notice a decline in sales, you may have to try something new before you change your entire product line.
It may be that your audience is now gathering somewhere else online and you have to find them so that you can begin your new marketing campaign. It could be that your marketing efforts themselves need a boost or a facelift!
If so, you can find a professional to help you create an ad campaign – banners, killer content, auto-responders, and more. What if all of those efforts still don’t reap any rewards? Then it’s time to reassess your products.
Is what you’re trying to sell outdated? Has technology taken over and demanded a newer approach to solving a problem than what you’re touting as the “next big thing?” Is your product or service overpriced when compared to the competition? Stay abreast of current events in your industry and begin developing a strong affinity to continuing education.
Are you simply tired of selling eBooks based on real estate options and want to tackle a fresh subject matter? You can do it, but that doesn’t mean you have to throw away your current enterprise. In fact, if you’ve built a formidable reputation on the ‘Net as an honest businessperson who provides excellent information to his or her customers, that will aid you in any endeavors you pursue online!
Finding your groove in the online community will eventually come naturally as your products and selling mechanisms begin to harmonize with your customers’ needs. To keep your business fluid (changing with the times) and growing, your challenge is to stay organized, focused, and in tune with hot topics emerging on the Internet.
Keep in tune? How? The best way is by having conversations with people who are doing the same thing you are! Network with fellow entrepreneurs, customers, service providers, gurus – ask questions, solicit opinions, be a sounding board, don’t stop learning. You never know what contacts you might make or information you’ll learn that could be the key to taking your business to the next level. Even the shyest among us can send an email to another business owner to strike up a conversation! No phone required!
This eBook has outlined and described the basics of successful online entrepreneurship. Now it’s up to you to take the next step. No matter who you are, your level of formal education, or your financial situation – armed with the tools available to you, you can be as successful as you are committed to being.
Start NOW – don’t waste another day!
You may click www.PlugInProfitSite.com/main-24136 for more infomation.
)
About the Author:
-----------------------------------------------------------------
To find the best home based business ideas and
opportunities so you can work at home visit:
http://www.MoneyCashTrace.com
-----------------------------------------------------------------
)
Copyright © Isusu Alphonsus
http://www.MoneyCashTrace.com
(
Starting an online business can seem either simple or difficult…and this depends on your perception of the Internet. For many, the task at hand will come naturally because they’re comfortable maneuvering the ‘Net with ease. For others, it’s an entirely new idea requiring heavy guidance.
Everyone who has ever looked out for legitimate business opportunities online has may be scoured the Internet for sites that offer both direction and devices to make their journey easier.
Most people are searching for a place where Internet Marketers can make a single stop to gather and implement all of the information they need to carry them from A to Z and a turnkey marketing system that supplies everything they need for success.
There are ten basic steps to initiating and cultivating your dream of starting of your very own Internet-based business. The steps begin the moment you first conceptualize your dream and they culminate with continued revenue from your customers.
1. Motivation and Goal Setting
If you’re going through this write-up, then you have already instilled some of the motivation needed to be a successful online entrepreneur. But are you ready to invest the time and money needed to realize your vision?
Before you ever start the first formal step of starting your cyber-business, you have to have the right mindset and a list of goals that you plan to accomplish one step at a time.
First, you need to get the support of those who will be closely involved with you in your endeavor. It may be a work partner or your spouse and children if you’re working solo from home.
Even if you’re interested in sign up with an established affiliate program…you should still set and try to maintain your own personal goals. While some seasoned marketers have long-term success, those who sustain their victories in the marketplace know that they have to put in equal effort to building a successful affiliate network.
Hey, you may have to sit down with a list of things you hope to accomplish with this business and be as specific as possible. This may help convince others (and even yourself) if you map out a simple business plan to show them how your idea will come into play.
If you run into opposition, or self-doubts, then you may want to take some time to thoroughly review your business plan and try to solve any areas of concern before you start investing too much time or money into your operation.
If you’re considering joining an affiliate program, look at it carefully to determine what its drawbacks are, (if any)…if you still have concerns, contact the sponsor of the program and enter a dialogue with him/her so that you can find out for yourself if these problems really exist, and if so, how they are solved.
In line with the plan itself, you should have several stages of goals that you hope to reach and the time lag to accomplish them. Too many people sit down one day and decide to start a business with no direction to go. Such people wind up off the path very quickly, and all the time and funds they devoted to their business goes down the drain. Of course this can be quite painful…
Don’t bite off more than you can chew with your goals. Start small and remember that goals are to be viewed as a living list, and can be altered at any time depending on the success rate of your business.
You might want to set monetary goals – such as hoping to make $3,000 per month within the first three months. Recall that most new businesses don’t even see a profit until after the first year, so don’t panic if yours is slow to grow.
On the Internet, your growth rate will be much quicker because your audience is global, not limited to your city, state, region or country. Another bonus with online selling is that many products are informational, and don’t require the standard upfront investment that other companies do.
When you find a business opportunity that interest you…you need to make sure that there is a system in place that offers plenty of member support and training to get your own enterprise underway.
For example, PlugInProfitSite is not only a site that houses one of the largest affiliate member on the ‘Net, but it’s also has a forum…a community where members can interact with one another and get answers on issues that are important to them.
Look for a company that doesn’t stop at just putting the facts and figures out there. You want one that takes an active interest in your success, offers a turnkey marketing system, and wants to make sure that your growth brings more growth within the industry.
2. Time Management Control
If you’re working from home or doing this business as a part time until it firmly gets on its feet, then you’ll have to set and meet your schedule in order to cautiously control your online enterprise.
You don’t want to fall at one end of the spectrum – investing too much or too little time into your business. Rather, you want a healthy balance where you’ve spent enough time working toward your goals and plenty of time to spend enjoying family time or recreational life in general. “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.” You may have heard the saying.
It rings true for many whose lives are soaked by their business. Hey, don’t let this happen to you! If you fall into the trap of working yourself to death, your business will suffer in the end because you’ll become too frustrated to think clearly and make sound business decisions.
If your online business is your only job, then you can afford to spend 7-10 hours a day working toward its success. But if you’re working at home, those 7-10 hours a day might be marred by constant interruptions and personal pauses that so easily take precedence over your work life.
If you have a family at home, remind them that you’re going to be putting in formal work hours and that even though you might be available to temporarily stop and help them when they need it, they must respect your efforts to build your business.
Your time is precious! You know the saying, “Time is Money” and you’ll find that to be especially true online where you can spend hour after hour on repetitive tasks that deliver marginal results. Don’t fall into the trap of doing the same thing over and over again without results. Look for a true “turnkey system” that finds, sorts, and sells to your prospects, while you’re spending time doing things that contribute to the long haul, like building relationships with your customers.
How many affiliate programs on the ‘Net have you found who promise a turnkey investment? Just set it up and it runs itself. When it comes down to it, not many make the grade – then you eventually end up unwilling to spend the necessary time – and failure closes in.
PlugInProfitSite knows the difference between hype and truth, and makes promises that are kept by providing actual step-by-step instructions and a turnkey system that will help you make the most of your time.
3. Product Conception
Many people go through life wishing they could sell something and become instant millionaires. Far from it! But the possibility still tugs at us and we’re always looking for the “magic solution” to our financial stresses.
In order to develop a good product line, you have to look at the marketplace. What are consumers buying? What’s being heavily advertised? You know it takes money to market your products, so the successful companies will be advertising greatly because they can afford to.
Is there a need that’s not being met? Many success stories come out of regular consumers who couldn’t find a particular product to solve their own problems, so they invented one themselves to helping others!
Many thriving online businesses do nothing but sell information on the ‘Net. Information is the hottest commodity, and almost anyone can do it with very little upfront investment of money.
Think about your own personal experiences. What skills do you have that cause people come to you for help? Are you a wizard at writing? Do you have a knack for investing or real estate solutions?
You can write an eBook to sell on the ‘Net and rake in a lot of money –just for sharing your knowledge with others! Why are eBooks so popular? For several reasons, including the fact that they can be purchased and read in seconds from the comfort of your own home.
No bookstores. No traffic. No-hassle returns on most sites. Plus, eBooks usually come with a package deal, so customers get bonus materials just for ordering. This can be an extra eBook, a teaser eBook (a shorter version of the same book, highlighting a few excerpts), or a membership to a free Ezine.
If you aren’t confident in your writing skills, but have an idea you’d like to see in print, consider hiring a professional to do it for you. Writing consultants can research and write about topics quickly and gear them toward consumers for about $20 per page.
Products that are already created can be sold in affiliate programs. The advantages of marketing someone else’s products or services are many, including time savings, low monetary investment (and risk), and less work. If that appeals to you, at least as a stepping stone to “bigger and better,” then the perfect starting place is www.PlugInProfitSite.com/main-24136
4. Site Structure
The structure of your website can mean the difference between a stalled business and a flourishing one. If your website isn’t built for the consumer, then the consumer will steer clear.
Have you ever entered into a store and found it messy or crowded and hard to maneuver? Did you ever go back to that place? Maybe not. The same thing goes for your online business.
Some websites are not built for the average customer. They use large graphics that take hours for a 46K modem to download, or their links don’t work. If you don’t know how to build a website yourself, then hire a professional who knows how to do it for you.
Your site needs to be user-friendly so that customers keep coming back –not only for their first purchase, but also for follow-up sales once they’ve devoured your initial product.
Some basic tips for building a better website include using professional colors and fonts. You don’t want a rainbow site with happy faces and flowery lettering trying to sell your serious eBook on Investing for Seniors.
You also want to make sure you have a separate domain for your business.
You can register your very own dot com at Godaddy.com for only $8/month, and the investment is well worth it for the professionalism it gives your business.
Once the designer drafts your site and your content is in place, ask a few friends or family members to make a test run through it and tell you if they notice any areas where the user would run into problems, like dead links or layout trouble.
Sometimes, something as simple as the browser the customer is using will distort the website and make it appear as if an amateur has launched an online business. Any reputable designer knows how to appeal to the masses, so you shouldn’t run into any trouble if you check references and hire someone who’s been in the business for at least 4 years.
If you’re not quite ready to hire a website designer, there are companies that offer low-cost, ready-made templates that you can customize. Empowerism will give you 35 templates and teach you what to do with them. You will have a wide variety of options so that your enterprise is created with a personal slant –designed however you choose. These types of tools reduce the usual worries that plague other first time cyberpreneurs. Turnkey!
5. Constructive Content
Content can make a big difference if you fail to urge the audience to take action on your site. You have to create words that provoke the reader to continue reading until they are convinced to buy your product or sign up for something on your site.
The world seems to think that ‘Technology Rules’ or Images Sell.” Wrong. “Word are of course the most powerful drug used by mankind.” Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936).
Some websites run on for pages, causing the reader to scroll forever. Others use a mere paragraph or two to make their point and hope for the best results. What length you require depends on the product you’re selling and how much convincing needs to be done to make the sale.
Many websites are sheer sales propaganda, and it often works! Your sales strategy should reflect the customer and how they approach buying on the Internet. Many people like and expect to see testimonials sprinkled throughout your home page, for instance.
Whenever you work on your content, make sure that you answer the 5 W’s: Who (who the product is for and who you are as well); What (what the product is exactly, along with any other bonus materials included); When (when the offer expires – an often crucial element in making the sale tonight as opposed to never); Where (where they can reach you in case they have any questions or need assistance); and Why (why they need your product above any others selling on the ‘Net).
You might want to write your online sales content like a personal letter, complete with an image of your signature at the bottom of the page. Don’t forget your Postscripts (P.S.) – you can have up to five Postscripts where you sum up the important facts and urge the client to purchase now or miss out on the deal altogether.
Your content will play a key factor in your search engine placement, so you will need to learn how to “write for the search engines” and incorporate that whenever possible. If that’s something you’re not familiar with, Empowerism offers a full training module on keyword and keyphrase integration for search engine optimization.
Content isn’t confined just to your website! Email marketing is a vital aspect of Internet Marketing, and the content of your communications to your prospects and customers must be professional, with a good blend of relationship building, soft-sell, and hard-sell copy.
6. Search Engine Support
Without aiming for a decent search engine ranking, you might have difficulty in achieving the kind of sales results you’re after. In addition to content, addressed in the previous section, there are several tools you can use to help you boost your search engine placement.
While many engines have their own criteria for developing their unique ranking system, most rely on a combination of keywords, relevancy, and even link reciprocation. In order to move into the top ten, most coveted positions, you have to know how to play their game.
First, sit down and brainstorm the keywords most used to describe your product. Google has a keyword tool that helps you determine the most widely used search terms for your business.You can find it at:
https://adwords.google.com/select/main?cmd=KeywordSandbox.
For example, if you enter “investing,” the tool will return the following terms to you: Real estate investing, online investing, socially responsible investing, value investing, stock market investing, stock investing, investing online, gold investing, drip investing, & investing money – and these are only the top 10 out of 50+ terms it returns.
How do you use these search terms? You use them both behind the scenes and on center stage. Your web developer will want to include many of them in your META tags, which allows search engine spiders to classify your site more easily.
You’ll also want to use them in your keyword content when crafting the home page of your website. When the spider crawls onto your site, it scans the keywords to make sure the site is really relevant to that particular subject matter, and not just a scam to get traffic in the door.
You will need to continue recreating your search engine strategy, since many engines change their formula to keep everyone on their toes. Google and others, for instance, now factor into the ranking formula the number of other sites who have a link to your site. This is known as link reciprocation.
7. Advertising Issues
Advertising will be the lifeblood of your business, so this is where the majority of your time, money, and effort will be spent. Your goal is to build a database (list) of prospects and customers you can sell to time and time again.
In the ever-changing (and challenging) world of online advertising, there are two primary categories: Free and Paid. The basic rule of thumb is that if you have much more time than money, Free advertising may be your most logical choice. However, if you have even just a little room in your budget for advertising, Paid advertising, combined with effective free methods, will save you bundles of time and is the most direct route to success.
The entire goal of your advertising efforts should be to drive targeted traffic to your website, where visitors are encouraged to add their name and email address to your database. Plain and simple. Database Marketing 101.
Free online advertising methods include (but are not limited to) posting to free safelists, engaging in message board discussions and including your tagline on each post, posting to free classified ad sites, using traffic generators (surfing/clicking for credits), submitting your website to search engines, banner exchanges, reciprocal linking with similar sites, submitting free ezine ads, writing articles and including your byline at the end, and writing a press release about the launch of your site or a new product and submitting to online news media.
These methods can be tedious and frustrating, but when you’re starting off, with no extra funds, if you can choose two and stick with them religiously, you will most likely generate enough profit to form a Paid advertising plan.
PlugInProfitSite.com can help you get started with any of these, as well as teach you how
to test and track your results, which is vitally important to your sanity! Paid advertising methods are virtually endless. Some of the most popular include renting opt-in lists, buying opt-in leads, placing ads in reputable ezines, using pay-per-click search engines, buying banner ad space, and buying targeted traffic.
Just because you have an online business, that doesn’t mean all of your advertising has to be on the Internet. However, online advertising is usually less costly than offline avenues. You don’t have to pay for pricey prime time placement, but you do have to spend more time figuring out where your prospects are so that your dollars are not wasted in your efforts.
8. Customer Service
Everyone knows that keeping a customer is ten times harder than getting one initially. We can all recall numerous times when we’ve purchased something and vowed never to return.
You don’t want to be labeled one of those businesses that doesn’t seem to value its customers. Word on the Internet spreads rapidly. If you burn one customer, he or she might post that experience on an online message board or mention it in an email discussion list, and no one else will want to do business with you, either.
What does customer service mean? Does it mean the customer is always right? If you want it to! But more often than not, it means that you are willing to listen to a customer’s complaints and work toward a mutual resolution.
Sometimes the only resolution that will work means a full money-back guarantee. Yes, even if you know the consumer is only doing this to scam you out of your money.
But other times, the customer is lodging a legitimate complaint, and this can be very helpful to you when it comes to satisfying the needs of other customers. Say a customer emails you with a request for a refund because many of the links in your eBook were dead links (they no longer worked).
First of all, you need to thank this customer profusely because he’s just done you a big favor. He’s saved you money. Why? Because you can instantly refund his money, fix the dead links, and avoid dozens of other returns.
Then you should happily refund the money for this sale and promise him that you’ll be repairing the problem and ensuring it never happens again. As a result, you might have salvaged his business for your release of the next edition of your informational eBook.
No matter what the situation, always be courteous and friendly when dealing with a customer – even those who are furious with you for no good reason (that you can see). Remain calm and gently take care of the problem.
The biggest complaint online consumers have in working with customer service departments is their slow reply. To combat this problem, make sure you stay on top of customer contact so that you can resolve any issues before they grow into larger ones.
By aligning yourself with a company with an unprecedented reputation for integrity and fast, friendly service, you will garner the experience to serve your clients with the respect they expect.
9. Recurrent Marketing Efforts
Don’t think that once you launch a single ad campaign, your efforts are finished. Marketing your products is a never-ending task that has to be factored into the continued growth of your business. Even after you’ve made the sale, the show must go on – your goal is to keep these customers for life, if not longer!
Whenever you create a product to sell on the Internet, you must have a way to capture and store the contact information of your customer – preferably through email – and let them know they will hear from you from time to time. So long as you provide a way for them to opt out of receiving your emails, this is standard procedure.
When someone becomes your customer, the next time he hears from you will be right after his first purchase – thanking him for becoming a valued customer. From that point on, you can occasionally contact him to alert him to other special offers, upgrades, or complementary products that are available to him at a special discount because he’s an existing customer.
Your new best friends will be an auto-responder and your mailing list software. Auto-responders usually come with a mass mailing function, which is very convenient. With auto-responders, the “after-the-sale” marketing is done for you automatically – contacting the customer periodically with various “drive ‘emback” messages. You can either write these messages or hire a professional.
Your mailing list software (or the mass mail feature of your autoresponder) allows you to contact your customers “on the fly” with up-to-the minute information that would not typically be loaded into an auto-responder.
This can be in the form of special reports or a newsletter you send out regularly.
Keep your eye on the media – newspapers, television, even radio – and send your customers a message whenever you find information that could benefit their lives in some way, relevant to their relationship with you. These reports can be drafted in a matter of hours, and can be anywhere from one to five pages long.
For example, if you sell an eBook on lowering telecommunications costs, and you see a story about it on the 5 o’clock news, whip up a short report and send it to your customers. They will appreciate knowing you’re on top of the situation and looking out for their best interests. At the same time, you’ll be positioning yourself as an expert in your field.
PlugInProfitSite.com provides its members the ability to plug your name and URL into existing material that you can give away to future prospects and customers. The data is already there – you just substitute your contact information, and you’ve instantly produced a quality product. These are marketing tools to help you grow your business.
10. Necessity of Reinvention
From time to time, once your business becomes an established entity, you’ll want to reinvent your methods or your products. If your approach in selling begins to weaken, and you notice a decline in sales, you may have to try something new before you change your entire product line.
It may be that your audience is now gathering somewhere else online and you have to find them so that you can begin your new marketing campaign. It could be that your marketing efforts themselves need a boost or a facelift!
If so, you can find a professional to help you create an ad campaign – banners, killer content, auto-responders, and more. What if all of those efforts still don’t reap any rewards? Then it’s time to reassess your products.
Is what you’re trying to sell outdated? Has technology taken over and demanded a newer approach to solving a problem than what you’re touting as the “next big thing?” Is your product or service overpriced when compared to the competition? Stay abreast of current events in your industry and begin developing a strong affinity to continuing education.
Are you simply tired of selling eBooks based on real estate options and want to tackle a fresh subject matter? You can do it, but that doesn’t mean you have to throw away your current enterprise. In fact, if you’ve built a formidable reputation on the ‘Net as an honest businessperson who provides excellent information to his or her customers, that will aid you in any endeavors you pursue online!
Finding your groove in the online community will eventually come naturally as your products and selling mechanisms begin to harmonize with your customers’ needs. To keep your business fluid (changing with the times) and growing, your challenge is to stay organized, focused, and in tune with hot topics emerging on the Internet.
Keep in tune? How? The best way is by having conversations with people who are doing the same thing you are! Network with fellow entrepreneurs, customers, service providers, gurus – ask questions, solicit opinions, be a sounding board, don’t stop learning. You never know what contacts you might make or information you’ll learn that could be the key to taking your business to the next level. Even the shyest among us can send an email to another business owner to strike up a conversation! No phone required!
This eBook has outlined and described the basics of successful online entrepreneurship. Now it’s up to you to take the next step. No matter who you are, your level of formal education, or your financial situation – armed with the tools available to you, you can be as successful as you are committed to being.
Start NOW – don’t waste another day!
You may click www.PlugInProfitSite.com/main-24136 for more infomation.
)
About the Author:
-----------------------------------------------------------------
To find the best home based business ideas and
opportunities so you can work at home visit:
http://www.MoneyCashTrace.com
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Friday, August 29, 2008
PIPS Affiliate’s Profit Tools
(PIPS Affiliate’s Profit Tools
)
Copyright © Isusu Alphonsus
http://www.MoneyCashTrace.com
(I’m not going to beat about the bush here. Ask ANY PIPS affiliate and they’ll tell you the following BASIC tools are vital to them making
real money from their affiliate programs.
You see, just as running an offline business where you’ll require an office space, fax machine, telephone lines, etc. – You need certain essential tools for an online BUSINESS (yes, treat it as such) to excel as well.
These are the basic requirements if you want to earn much more profits from your affiliate promotions :
- Your own website and domain name
I don’t care what you’ve heard or what so and so ‘guru’ said :
You need your own website and domain name to make it online,
even if you’re just an affiliate marketer.
This is the first critical step in seperating success from failure online.
Your own domain name and personal website (not those on
freeservers please) are needed to establish your online presence,
build YOUR identity, brand your name and profit from your internet
business in the long run!
It’s easy AND cheap to register domain names now.
If you can get one at $8-$10 (for a 1 year registration fee),
why don’t you?
Here are reputable registrars that charges less than $10 for a domain name!
namecheap.com
registerfly.com
godaddy.com
iPOWER.com
This is the cheapest registrar I could find - at just $5.95 per domain name.
But be careful, registering your domain name there automatically ties you in to a 30 day free trial of their hosting / search engine submission service. So bear in mind to cancel your trial before the 30 day period if you do not want to be billed after that.
You’ll need a good quality hosting company with big features to host
your site next. While they’re too many to name here, I can vouch for the following as I use them personally:
Homestead
Host 4 Profit
eHosting4U.net
Host 4 Profit is hosting company that pays you. It’s such an awesome place to host your website. Hey, this is not to say you MUST use it. Research on others and you’ll find the ones that you may desire more.
- GetResponse Autoresponders
A GetResponse autoresponder is a software or script (web or desktop based) that essentially performs follow up marketing for you with your prospects automatically.
It works this way –> prospect A fills in name and email for more information from your website -> details are sent to your autoresponder -> autoresponder instantly delivers an email to prospect A with the requested information -> autoresponder continues to deliver follow up messages to prospect A over a period of time -> prospect A enjoys the information and decides to order -> you’ve made a sale + an opt-in subscriber!
Now it’s been said that if you’re not utilizing email marketing, you’re not really doing business online. Hey, come to it of it, even spammers use email to spam exclusively : )
Of course I’m not asking you to spam (no way!), but it goes to show just how powerful and essential email marketing is.
If you forget everything here, just remember one thing – you must start building an opt-in list of potential customers no matter what you’re selling!
Put the control into your own hands, not the affiliate site.
All successful internet marketers and PlugInProfitSite (PIPS) affiliates have THEIR OWN opt-in list – that’s how the bulk of their income is made anyway.
Get this right and you’ll be on the right track to internet profits.
Now I won’t recommend you using free autoresponders if you’re serious and want to be professional. But if you need to for some reasons, here are 3 good ones you can use (though you should really upgrade once your situation permits) :
freeautobot.com
sendfree.com
rapidreply.net
- Ad Tracking And Testing
Every successful affiliate marketer have one thing in common – they track and test extensively.
Tracking and testing are keys to building profits in absolutely any business, online or off. This definitely applies to affiliate marketing too.
How else would you know specifically what’s working and what’s not…and wasting you money?
I won’t be going into details here but there are 2 main types of ad tracking programs, CGI Scripts which run at your own website, and Web-based Services.
Here are some examples of such programs :
CGI Scripts :
adtrackz.com
proanalyzer.com
prolinkz.com
Web-based Services :
hypertracker.com
adminder.com
clickalyzer.com
If you want to become a high-earning affiliate, remember the importants of tracking and testing in all areas.
Now thousands of dollars can be made with the above resources
if applied correctly and used together.
Before we move on to link cloaking, I want to highlight a perfect service for your needs. It’s where you get professional webhosting, autoresponders, ad tracking service and more, all in one place.
- Affiliate Link Cloaking
It’s imperative to mask or cloak your naked affiliate link if you do not want to lose commissions for nothing.
Potential buyers can simply switch your affiliate id to theirs and get a discount from their purchase of the affiliate product you’re promoting. For instance, a naked affiliate link from ClickBank :
hop.clickbank.net/?nickname/alphykool
Anyone can insert their own ClickBank nickname in place of yours and get both a commission and discount!
It’s what’s commonly known as commission theft or hijack, and it robs you of your hard work and rewards.
Masking this same link using various cloaking tools helps prevent such theft from occuring. The masked affiliate link will now be displayed as:
turnkeymoney.com/AFFILIATEPROGRAM.htm
(the above is just an example)
This will discourage commission theft, though prevention is not 100% foolproof (nothing really is).
Here are some cloaking tools for you :
1. Tiny Url
A web-based service that’s easy to use and does the job relatively well. Tiny Url also shortens your affiliate link for you.
2. ClickBank Affiliate Link Protection System
Download this toolkit containing two cloaking tools, Affiliate Link Encrypter and Affiliate Link Cloaker.
Remember to cloak your links!
)
About the Author:
-----------------------------------------------------------------
To find the best home based business ideas and
opportunities so you can work at home visit:
http://www.MoneyCashTrace.com
-----------------------------------------------------------------
)
Copyright © Isusu Alphonsus
http://www.MoneyCashTrace.com
(I’m not going to beat about the bush here. Ask ANY PIPS affiliate and they’ll tell you the following BASIC tools are vital to them making
real money from their affiliate programs.
You see, just as running an offline business where you’ll require an office space, fax machine, telephone lines, etc. – You need certain essential tools for an online BUSINESS (yes, treat it as such) to excel as well.
These are the basic requirements if you want to earn much more profits from your affiliate promotions :
- Your own website and domain name
I don’t care what you’ve heard or what so and so ‘guru’ said :
You need your own website and domain name to make it online,
even if you’re just an affiliate marketer.
This is the first critical step in seperating success from failure online.
Your own domain name and personal website (not those on
freeservers please) are needed to establish your online presence,
build YOUR identity, brand your name and profit from your internet
business in the long run!
It’s easy AND cheap to register domain names now.
If you can get one at $8-$10 (for a 1 year registration fee),
why don’t you?
Here are reputable registrars that charges less than $10 for a domain name!
namecheap.com
registerfly.com
godaddy.com
iPOWER.com
This is the cheapest registrar I could find - at just $5.95 per domain name.
But be careful, registering your domain name there automatically ties you in to a 30 day free trial of their hosting / search engine submission service. So bear in mind to cancel your trial before the 30 day period if you do not want to be billed after that.
You’ll need a good quality hosting company with big features to host
your site next. While they’re too many to name here, I can vouch for the following as I use them personally:
Homestead
Host 4 Profit
eHosting4U.net
Host 4 Profit is hosting company that pays you. It’s such an awesome place to host your website. Hey, this is not to say you MUST use it. Research on others and you’ll find the ones that you may desire more.
- GetResponse Autoresponders
A GetResponse autoresponder is a software or script (web or desktop based) that essentially performs follow up marketing for you with your prospects automatically.
It works this way –> prospect A fills in name and email for more information from your website -> details are sent to your autoresponder -> autoresponder instantly delivers an email to prospect A with the requested information -> autoresponder continues to deliver follow up messages to prospect A over a period of time -> prospect A enjoys the information and decides to order -> you’ve made a sale + an opt-in subscriber!
Now it’s been said that if you’re not utilizing email marketing, you’re not really doing business online. Hey, come to it of it, even spammers use email to spam exclusively : )
Of course I’m not asking you to spam (no way!), but it goes to show just how powerful and essential email marketing is.
If you forget everything here, just remember one thing – you must start building an opt-in list of potential customers no matter what you’re selling!
Put the control into your own hands, not the affiliate site.
All successful internet marketers and PlugInProfitSite (PIPS) affiliates have THEIR OWN opt-in list – that’s how the bulk of their income is made anyway.
Get this right and you’ll be on the right track to internet profits.
Now I won’t recommend you using free autoresponders if you’re serious and want to be professional. But if you need to for some reasons, here are 3 good ones you can use (though you should really upgrade once your situation permits) :
freeautobot.com
sendfree.com
rapidreply.net
- Ad Tracking And Testing
Every successful affiliate marketer have one thing in common – they track and test extensively.
Tracking and testing are keys to building profits in absolutely any business, online or off. This definitely applies to affiliate marketing too.
How else would you know specifically what’s working and what’s not…and wasting you money?
I won’t be going into details here but there are 2 main types of ad tracking programs, CGI Scripts which run at your own website, and Web-based Services.
Here are some examples of such programs :
CGI Scripts :
adtrackz.com
proanalyzer.com
prolinkz.com
Web-based Services :
hypertracker.com
adminder.com
clickalyzer.com
If you want to become a high-earning affiliate, remember the importants of tracking and testing in all areas.
Now thousands of dollars can be made with the above resources
if applied correctly and used together.
Before we move on to link cloaking, I want to highlight a perfect service for your needs. It’s where you get professional webhosting, autoresponders, ad tracking service and more, all in one place.
- Affiliate Link Cloaking
It’s imperative to mask or cloak your naked affiliate link if you do not want to lose commissions for nothing.
Potential buyers can simply switch your affiliate id to theirs and get a discount from their purchase of the affiliate product you’re promoting. For instance, a naked affiliate link from ClickBank :
hop.clickbank.net/?nickname/alphykool
Anyone can insert their own ClickBank nickname in place of yours and get both a commission and discount!
It’s what’s commonly known as commission theft or hijack, and it robs you of your hard work and rewards.
Masking this same link using various cloaking tools helps prevent such theft from occuring. The masked affiliate link will now be displayed as:
turnkeymoney.com/AFFILIATEPROGRAM.htm
(the above is just an example)
This will discourage commission theft, though prevention is not 100% foolproof (nothing really is).
Here are some cloaking tools for you :
1. Tiny Url
A web-based service that’s easy to use and does the job relatively well. Tiny Url also shortens your affiliate link for you.
2. ClickBank Affiliate Link Protection System
Download this toolkit containing two cloaking tools, Affiliate Link Encrypter and Affiliate Link Cloaker.
Remember to cloak your links!
)
About the Author:
-----------------------------------------------------------------
To find the best home based business ideas and
opportunities so you can work at home visit:
http://www.MoneyCashTrace.com
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Secrets To The Right Affiliate Program
The internet opportunities abound…and the questions that often come up is…which one is appropriate. Why? Because, there’re thousand of affiliate programs promising you everything on earth but delivers little or nothing. Hey, are you troubled with this? You don’t have to as I’ll show you some of the things you may have to consider before sign up to any affiliate programs.
The first step would be to determine what affiliate products AND which program to promote. This will affect how much money you make as an affiliate at the end of the day!
This step though pretty obvious is important and choosing the wrong programs should and can be avoided. It leads to loss of time, resources and more, so get it right!
Select your affiliate programs carefully. Here are some criteria you must take into consideration:
Your targeted markets
The quality of the affiliate product
The conversion of the product’s sales page
The availability of instant marketing tools
The incentives you’re paid
We’ll now look at each criterion individually. You’ll understand why there’re very important in your selection of the right affiliate programs…
Your targeted markets
Before even deciding to promote affiliate products, decide on the market you want to target at.
It’s best to decide on a market you want to stick with for the major time, as this will enable you to build a business around as you continue offering products and building your list.
As an illustration, there’s not much sense in selling an affiliate product for hair loss to a group of young teenagers!
Or how about choosing to sell watch batteries, you’re gonna cry at the tiny profits (if any) you earn: (
In other words, choose a market based on its relevancy to your business.
Choose a market based on its size and profitability.
It would also help if the target market you chose is aligned with your interest or knowledge; it makes everything all the more enjoyable and motivating.
A good way to select your target market is based on two necessary factors:
1. Demand And Profitability
Here are the basic tools Internet marketers are using for finding profitable markets:
- Good Keywords
goodkeywords.com
Good Keywords is a terrific free software that shows the searches for any keywords (markets) you type in. For example, ‘weight loss’ was searched 400,864 times in a given month. This is a huge market!
- Word Tracker
Another great keyword research tool is wordtracker.com
This will be adequate if you know exactly what you’re targeting at.
Registering for their service also entitles you to a report listing the top 300 most frequently searched words in the last 24 hours, plus the top 200 most frequently searched words for the last 60 days!
So for example if the term ‘auto’ was searched for 200,000+ times in the last 60 days, won’t you want to target this huge demand?
- Keyword Sleuth
marketing-make-money.com
An amazing tool that will list up to 5,000 (yes!) popular search phrases on the topic you want. It’s not free but a demo is provided. This really digs into the keywords and keyword phrases, more so than the above two.
- ClickBank Marketplace
Clickbank is the Internet’s biggest marketplace (more than 10,000 products currently) for digital products such as ebooks, software, digital audio recordings, etc.
Clicking on ‘Shop The Marketplace’, which is the first link from the bottom, takes you into their marketplace. This area provides a good idea as to what’s selling well in terms of digital products. There’re various categories ranging from Business, Entertainment to Sports.
Let me explain, ClickBank ranks the listed products based on their popularity (largely determined by the sales volume done and the number of active affiliates promoting it).
Checking the types of products constantly on the first two pages in a category gives an indication that it’s ‘hot selling’ status. There must be a good demand for them thus!
- Overture.com
Again, you can further research market demand at Overture.com.
It is currently the biggest pay-per-click search engine on the internet.
The simple method of checking the bids for any keyword will give you an idea of just how popular the demand is!
A general guideline would be the higher the bids placed on certain keywords, the greater the demand for them.
- eBay.com
You can also check out eBay for research. This is the world’s busiest and biggest online auction site with millions of sellers – a massive marketplace no doubt.
Looking at the “featured items” listings on the homepage and individual categories provide a general indication of what’s selling.
Sellers are paying $99.95 for these premium listings and short of having excessive spending money; it’s safe to assume their products
to be converting at a high rate and receiving good bids in the first place.
As a warning, huge demand does not always automatically equate to huge profitability.
It does depend on WHO you’re marketing to, and how much money they have to spend.
A very simple illustration would be that working professionals will
have more money than young kids, thus being a more profitable
target group!
2. Market Supply
The lower the market supply for the demand, the more profitable it’d be.
This may seem very obvious, but you’ll be surprise how many people ignore this basic economic principle.
- Search Engines
The easiest way to check the availability of products targeted to your market is through the search engines.
For example, a search for ‘weight loss’ at google.com showed an average of 2.83 MILLION competitors out there!
However, if you just narrow down your market for example, ‘weight loss tip’ has just 300,000+ competitors. This is a huge difference which will play to your advantage.
The bottom line’s to focus on specific, niche markets instead of the overall general industry. You’ll see more sales and money coming in this way.
- Yahoo! Shopping
Another simple trick to check the supply of a given product or market is through the net’s biggest shopping network – Yahoo! Shopping :
Doing a search for say ‘digital camera’ returned the following :
Wow! 1,412 competitors marketing 53,806 products, now that’s an idea of over supply.
You’ve got to balance the demand and supply to decide if the market you want to go after is profitable. This will help you in determining affiliate products to promote.
The quality of the affiliate product
It has often been advocated that one should know and use the products they endorse, and I couldn’t agree more. This is especially critical if you’re planning to run a serious business online.
Recommending a bad product hurts your credibility and destroys trust almost immediately. Only promote products that you feel comfortable with, knowing they’re of good value.
I’ve seen countless ezine publishers, even the famous ones promoting affiliate products that either just plain suck, or does not even seem relevant to their market. What do you think happened next? I hit the unsubscribe button.
Don’t chase after the quick buck – aim long term.
The conversion of the product’s sales page
Before promoting a product, check out the sales page. Does it have
a killer web copy that converts visitors to customers well?
Does it make you want to buy? Does it load fast? Are there many payment options (this may hijack your commission) etc. etc…
You get the point.
It’s NOT your job to sell the products, that’s the affiliate owner’s role. Your responsibility as an effective affiliate would be to send qualified traffic to the main sales page by PRESELLING to your prospects.
This is again why knowing and using the products you promote is essential, it’s only when you’ve experience it that you’ll be able to presell well.
Promoting an affiliate product that just doesn’t sell itself is a major mistake many affiliates are making…don’t fall into this trap!
The availability of marketing tools
Good affiliate programs tend to provide affiliates with a range of marketing tools for their promotion campaigns. These may include cut-and-paste solo ads, classified ads, banners, articles, samples, rebrandible ebooks, ecourses, etc.
It would be advisable to join only those programs that do offer such tools. First of all, creating these tools show a certain sincerity and seriousness of the affiliate program owner. Secondly and ultimately, they save you time and headaches. More importantly, you’ll be able to use them to compile your ebooks.
All affiliate owners should make it EASY for their partners to promote their products.
The incentives you’re paid
Make sure you’ll be paid! That’s the entire point of promoting affiliate programs, or doing anything with effort anyway.
Check the credibility of the owner, the domain name (how long it’s registered for) and other signs that indicate it’s a genuine business. If it smells fishy, you may end up losing all your commissions (trust me, there’re such people around).
Coming back now, look at the overall incentive package, rather than just on the direct commission you receive.
Questions to ponder include…
Does the affiliate program offers extra incentives, contests or benefits to motivate YOU to promote it? Do you get additional rewards upon achieving certain sales volume?
As in offline sales, companies who value their sales person often dangle ‘carrots’ in the form of higher commissions, lump sum bonuses or free holidays simply as motivations to achieve sales targets. It’ll be much more exciting and fulfilling if the online affiliate programs have such incentives too.
In terms of commission, you’ll want at least a 50% cut to make it worth your time and effort. A program that pays out more means higher profits in your pocket! This has to be balanced with the selling price of the product. Promoting a higher end product will be more rewarding than one that sells for just $27.
In an example of these two components of commission rate
and selling price, a program which pays out 70% is high,
but if the product sells at just $10, you’ll only receive $7.00
for all your efforts! On the other hand, promoting a $200
product which pays out 50% means more profit for you, to
the tune of $100 for the same amount of effort you put in!
Another important factor to consider : is this a two (or more) tier affiliate program? Essentially a deeper tiered program rewards you with extra earnings from your personally recruited sub-affiliates. You make money from their sales too. This converts to greater leverage with the same amount of effort!
I would encourage promoting a residual income opportunity.
This can be in the form of service-oriented programs such as web hosting, membership sites. Such programs allow you to continue earning recurring or lifetime commission, which is much more logical and profitable in the long term.
The first step would be to determine what affiliate products AND which program to promote. This will affect how much money you make as an affiliate at the end of the day!
This step though pretty obvious is important and choosing the wrong programs should and can be avoided. It leads to loss of time, resources and more, so get it right!
Select your affiliate programs carefully. Here are some criteria you must take into consideration:
Your targeted markets
The quality of the affiliate product
The conversion of the product’s sales page
The availability of instant marketing tools
The incentives you’re paid
We’ll now look at each criterion individually. You’ll understand why there’re very important in your selection of the right affiliate programs…
Your targeted markets
Before even deciding to promote affiliate products, decide on the market you want to target at.
It’s best to decide on a market you want to stick with for the major time, as this will enable you to build a business around as you continue offering products and building your list.
As an illustration, there’s not much sense in selling an affiliate product for hair loss to a group of young teenagers!
Or how about choosing to sell watch batteries, you’re gonna cry at the tiny profits (if any) you earn: (
In other words, choose a market based on its relevancy to your business.
Choose a market based on its size and profitability.
It would also help if the target market you chose is aligned with your interest or knowledge; it makes everything all the more enjoyable and motivating.
A good way to select your target market is based on two necessary factors:
1. Demand And Profitability
Here are the basic tools Internet marketers are using for finding profitable markets:
- Good Keywords
goodkeywords.com
Good Keywords is a terrific free software that shows the searches for any keywords (markets) you type in. For example, ‘weight loss’ was searched 400,864 times in a given month. This is a huge market!
- Word Tracker
Another great keyword research tool is wordtracker.com
This will be adequate if you know exactly what you’re targeting at.
Registering for their service also entitles you to a report listing the top 300 most frequently searched words in the last 24 hours, plus the top 200 most frequently searched words for the last 60 days!
So for example if the term ‘auto’ was searched for 200,000+ times in the last 60 days, won’t you want to target this huge demand?
- Keyword Sleuth
marketing-make-money.com
An amazing tool that will list up to 5,000 (yes!) popular search phrases on the topic you want. It’s not free but a demo is provided. This really digs into the keywords and keyword phrases, more so than the above two.
- ClickBank Marketplace
Clickbank is the Internet’s biggest marketplace (more than 10,000 products currently) for digital products such as ebooks, software, digital audio recordings, etc.
Clicking on ‘Shop The Marketplace’, which is the first link from the bottom, takes you into their marketplace. This area provides a good idea as to what’s selling well in terms of digital products. There’re various categories ranging from Business, Entertainment to Sports.
Let me explain, ClickBank ranks the listed products based on their popularity (largely determined by the sales volume done and the number of active affiliates promoting it).
Checking the types of products constantly on the first two pages in a category gives an indication that it’s ‘hot selling’ status. There must be a good demand for them thus!
- Overture.com
Again, you can further research market demand at Overture.com.
It is currently the biggest pay-per-click search engine on the internet.
The simple method of checking the bids for any keyword will give you an idea of just how popular the demand is!
A general guideline would be the higher the bids placed on certain keywords, the greater the demand for them.
- eBay.com
You can also check out eBay for research. This is the world’s busiest and biggest online auction site with millions of sellers – a massive marketplace no doubt.
Looking at the “featured items” listings on the homepage and individual categories provide a general indication of what’s selling.
Sellers are paying $99.95 for these premium listings and short of having excessive spending money; it’s safe to assume their products
to be converting at a high rate and receiving good bids in the first place.
As a warning, huge demand does not always automatically equate to huge profitability.
It does depend on WHO you’re marketing to, and how much money they have to spend.
A very simple illustration would be that working professionals will
have more money than young kids, thus being a more profitable
target group!
2. Market Supply
The lower the market supply for the demand, the more profitable it’d be.
This may seem very obvious, but you’ll be surprise how many people ignore this basic economic principle.
- Search Engines
The easiest way to check the availability of products targeted to your market is through the search engines.
For example, a search for ‘weight loss’ at google.com showed an average of 2.83 MILLION competitors out there!
However, if you just narrow down your market for example, ‘weight loss tip’ has just 300,000+ competitors. This is a huge difference which will play to your advantage.
The bottom line’s to focus on specific, niche markets instead of the overall general industry. You’ll see more sales and money coming in this way.
- Yahoo! Shopping
Another simple trick to check the supply of a given product or market is through the net’s biggest shopping network – Yahoo! Shopping :
Doing a search for say ‘digital camera’ returned the following :
Wow! 1,412 competitors marketing 53,806 products, now that’s an idea of over supply.
You’ve got to balance the demand and supply to decide if the market you want to go after is profitable. This will help you in determining affiliate products to promote.
The quality of the affiliate product
It has often been advocated that one should know and use the products they endorse, and I couldn’t agree more. This is especially critical if you’re planning to run a serious business online.
Recommending a bad product hurts your credibility and destroys trust almost immediately. Only promote products that you feel comfortable with, knowing they’re of good value.
I’ve seen countless ezine publishers, even the famous ones promoting affiliate products that either just plain suck, or does not even seem relevant to their market. What do you think happened next? I hit the unsubscribe button.
Don’t chase after the quick buck – aim long term.
The conversion of the product’s sales page
Before promoting a product, check out the sales page. Does it have
a killer web copy that converts visitors to customers well?
Does it make you want to buy? Does it load fast? Are there many payment options (this may hijack your commission) etc. etc…
You get the point.
It’s NOT your job to sell the products, that’s the affiliate owner’s role. Your responsibility as an effective affiliate would be to send qualified traffic to the main sales page by PRESELLING to your prospects.
This is again why knowing and using the products you promote is essential, it’s only when you’ve experience it that you’ll be able to presell well.
Promoting an affiliate product that just doesn’t sell itself is a major mistake many affiliates are making…don’t fall into this trap!
The availability of marketing tools
Good affiliate programs tend to provide affiliates with a range of marketing tools for their promotion campaigns. These may include cut-and-paste solo ads, classified ads, banners, articles, samples, rebrandible ebooks, ecourses, etc.
It would be advisable to join only those programs that do offer such tools. First of all, creating these tools show a certain sincerity and seriousness of the affiliate program owner. Secondly and ultimately, they save you time and headaches. More importantly, you’ll be able to use them to compile your ebooks.
All affiliate owners should make it EASY for their partners to promote their products.
The incentives you’re paid
Make sure you’ll be paid! That’s the entire point of promoting affiliate programs, or doing anything with effort anyway.
Check the credibility of the owner, the domain name (how long it’s registered for) and other signs that indicate it’s a genuine business. If it smells fishy, you may end up losing all your commissions (trust me, there’re such people around).
Coming back now, look at the overall incentive package, rather than just on the direct commission you receive.
Questions to ponder include…
Does the affiliate program offers extra incentives, contests or benefits to motivate YOU to promote it? Do you get additional rewards upon achieving certain sales volume?
As in offline sales, companies who value their sales person often dangle ‘carrots’ in the form of higher commissions, lump sum bonuses or free holidays simply as motivations to achieve sales targets. It’ll be much more exciting and fulfilling if the online affiliate programs have such incentives too.
In terms of commission, you’ll want at least a 50% cut to make it worth your time and effort. A program that pays out more means higher profits in your pocket! This has to be balanced with the selling price of the product. Promoting a higher end product will be more rewarding than one that sells for just $27.
In an example of these two components of commission rate
and selling price, a program which pays out 70% is high,
but if the product sells at just $10, you’ll only receive $7.00
for all your efforts! On the other hand, promoting a $200
product which pays out 50% means more profit for you, to
the tune of $100 for the same amount of effort you put in!
Another important factor to consider : is this a two (or more) tier affiliate program? Essentially a deeper tiered program rewards you with extra earnings from your personally recruited sub-affiliates. You make money from their sales too. This converts to greater leverage with the same amount of effort!
I would encourage promoting a residual income opportunity.
This can be in the form of service-oriented programs such as web hosting, membership sites. Such programs allow you to continue earning recurring or lifetime commission, which is much more logical and profitable in the long term.
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Welcome to my blog!
I've just launched my new blog! Stay tuned...
Best regards,
Isusu Alphonsus
http://www.moneycashtrace.com
Best regards,
Isusu Alphonsus
http://www.moneycashtrace.com
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