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Annoying Internet Marketing Business Practice Number 1

Sunday, September 26th, 2010 at 1:00 pm

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Since I'm in "rant" mode lately (too many days at the "happiest place on Earth," perhaps?), here's something that annoys me sometimes and just out-and-out pisses me off other times.

Not putting the price on the sales page.

I "get" why. But it still pisses me off. It's almost like the IMers doing this are so unsure of their price that they just want their potential buyers to get just that much closer to pushing the "BUY" button that they become more committed to making a purchase that they'll later regret…

Why not just put the price there in bold at the bottom of the page, right above the "Buy" button?

Seriously?

I've gotten to the point that I just click the damned "Buy" button right away, check out the price, and if it's more than I want to pay, I leave.

Alternatively, if I'm in a really pissy mood, I just leave if there's no price. It's almost as if "Hey, no price means free, right?"

This is not a deceptive practice but it just really pisses me off. Thanks for your time today and for reading another rant of mine. Have a nice day

List Building Blocks #5 — How to Add Subscribers Using Affiliates

Sunday, October 18th, 2009 at 5:50 am

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As you work on getting new subscribers, remember that there are two types of lists you should build:

A prospect list. These are the folks who voluntarily subscribe to your free newsletter list.
A customer list. This is your proven list of buyers, which tends to convert considerably better than your prospect list.

When you use affiliates to get new subscribers, you get to build both types of lists.

Now, there are multiple ways to use affiliates to build your lists, including:

Pay per lead.This is where you offer your affiliates 25 cents, 50 cents, a dollar or more for each person they send to your page who joins your list.
Viral report with backend sales. This is where you create a viral report (perhaps something controversial) where you sell something on the backend. Affiliates use their affiliate links to send visitors to download your report, and they make commissions whenever someone takes advantage of your backend offer.
Sell a product. This is where your affiliates use their affiliates links to direct visitors to a sales page. When someone buys the product, the affiliate gets a commission and you get to add someone to your customer list.

You may also build a prospect list by including your newsletter subscription form on the sales page or via an exit pop up that appears to those who don’t buy the product.

This last method is one of the most popular ways to build a list, so let’s look at the steps in detail…

Step #1: Create an attractive affiliate offer

If you’re selling a digital product (such as a downloadable ebook, video or even access to a membership site), then you should offer at least 50% commissions. However, if you’re primarily interested in list building, then you may consider offering up to 100% commissions (especially if your product is priced low). That way, you get the list and your affiliates get the front-end profits.

Step #2: Recruit Affiliates

The passive way to get affiliates is by joining Clickbank.com and adding your product to the marketplace. While you should take that step, that’s not the only step you should take to get affiliates. You should also:

Tell your list and your other visitors about your affiliate program
Encourage your customers to join your affiliate program
Look for partners by listing your opportunity in the JV forum at www.warriorforum.com
List your affiliate program in affiliate directories
Ask your existing JV partners to promote
Contact your social media network to look for affiliates
Join a JV list in your niche (such as www.jvnotifypro.com)
Seek out new partners, give them access to your product and ask them to promote
- Tip: You can find potential affiliates by going to Clickbank.com and seeing who’s selling products in your niche. Each of these sellers is a potential affiliate. You can also run a search in Google for the names of the top products in your niche, which will help you uncover some of the top affiliates. Contact these affiliates and ask them to promote your product.
You may also hire a JV broker or affiliate manager, which is someone who finds and recruits affiliates for you. Ask on niche forums for recommendations. Choose people who are well-connected (i.e., they know all the other marketers in the niche) and have a history with successful brokering/managing.

Summary

Building your list with the help of affiliates is a fast and powerful way to get new subscribers. Even a marketer with a small audience in your niche can send you a few dozen prospects.

The largest marketers – your super affiliates – may send you hundreds or even thousands of prospects and customers.

All you need is a good product, a good affiliate offer (commission rate) and the ability to contact and recruit your niche superstars. Today is the day to start!

That concludes our 5-part series. In case you missed any of the other parts, sign up below. All I need to get you started is your first name and email address.

“A” Is for “Affiliate”

Thursday, August 27th, 2009 at 6:55 am

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A Is For Affiliate

Affiliates are an important part of the Internet marketing world. If you don’t already know by now, they not only help drive traffic if you have your own products, but becoming an affiliate can be one of the easiest ways to get started making money by promoting other people’s products.

What is it?

An affiliate is an individual who sends traffic to a product creator’s website. They are given a special website URL, called an affiliate link, which tracks how much traffic they send to the product website. They receive a commission for each sale that is made for their affiliate link.

There are many types of affiliate programs available. As an affiliate you can find programs for physical products, digital information products and even for services and membership sites. Affiliate programs are listed in affiliate networks like Clickbank, Commission Junction and Paydotcom, among many others.

What are three keys to being a successful affiliate?

Affiliate marketing is one of the most profitable ways to make money online. You don’t have to worry about creating a product, paying for graphics, developing a sales letter or following up with buyers. You’re only in charge of driving traffic. Here are three keys to being a successful affiliate.

1. Product.

Choosing the right product to promote as an affiliate is your first key step. You have a wide range of products to choose from as an affiliate, but that doesn’t mean that all of them will make you money. Before you put your time and energy into creating a marketing campaign for affiliate program, you should do some niche research. Is the niche popular? Is there a lot of competition in the niche or will you be able to establish yourself pretty quickly? How does the sales page for the product look? Would you buy from the site? Carefully evaluating the niche and the product will help you find a product that will actually sell.

2. Prospects.

Building YOUR own list of potential customers is an often overlooked part of affiliate marketing. Yet it is of paramount significance. Product creators will build lists from the people who buy from their sales letter. As an affiliate, you should be building a list as well. Before you direct your visitor to the sales page for the product, you should offer them something free in exchange for opting into your list. You can create a short report on the niche and give it away on a squeeze page before forwarding the visitor on to the sales page. By building a list, you can create a long term relationship with the visitor and offer them additional value and product offers.

3. Promotion.

Setting up your own blog is one of the best ways to promote affiliate programs due to the variety of ways you can use a blog. Smart affiliates know that their long term income comes from sales of multiple products in the same niche. One of the best ways to sell multiple products is to start a niche blog. Your blog can link to several different affiliate products so you have many opportunities to make money.

Can you give me an example?

After doing some research, you discover that solar energy is a hot (pardon the pun) topic. You start a blog on do it yourself solar energy. On the blog, you can write articles related to solar energy and link to the several solar energy products available on Clickbank. You can also give away a 5 Tips to Smart Solar Energy report on your blog to build your list.

Sales Page Basics in 11 Simple Steps – Part 7: “Don’t Hang Up Yet” Subheadlines

Wednesday, August 26th, 2009 at 9:31 pm

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In our last installment, we went over giving your customers more. We found out if they want more. Now we’re going to talk about “sub-headlines” and how they get people to (drum roll please) BUY!

Your primary goal for a prospect in reading your sales letter is for her to make a purchase. Right? In order for her to whip out the ‘ol credit card and buy, she’s going to need to make it through your sales letter.

One of the major problems in sales letters is they get boring along the way. Unless your sales letter is well crafted (most aren’t – but yours will be because you’re reading this ) the attention span of the reader tends to drift after about 30-45 seconds.

But wouldn’t you like to know how to keep leads interested until they read the sales letter in its entirety? Here’s how you can do it…

You just found out one of the tactics that I love to use to refocus the reader’s attention to what I am saying. It’s known as a “subheadline.”

You see, headlines aren’t solely reserved for the beginning of your sales letter. They can be used effectively throughout the sales letter. In fact, I recommend that you use them.

A subheadline does several important things…

It pulls back the attention of a reader who is about to drift away.
It introduces a new idea or train of thought.
It works as a stand alone major benefit of your product.
It solves more of the reader’s problems and answers more of her questions.
It basically does whatever you want it to do.

I love to use subheadlines about 3 times per sales letter (more or less as needed — just don’t go overboard). You want the subheadline to accomplish similar goals as your main headline. A subheadline should be written in such a way that it grabs the attention of “browsers.” Some readers will quickly skim through your sales letter — you want them to stop and take a closer look when they come to your subheadlines.

I like to do a couple of things with subheadlines that effectively re-grabs the attention of reader…

3.7.1 Ask a question. That’s what I did in the above example. “But wouldn’t you like to know how to keep leads interested until they read the sales letter in its entirety?” A subheadline is a great place to ask the reader a question. Interaction = involvement = interest = I’ve still got a shot at making the sale. ) And whatever question you ask, follow up by leading them into the next paragraph…

Here’s how you can do it…

Learn more…

Find out all the details…

Let me show you…

You will after reading this…

3.7.2 Make an “If” statement. Another great way to use subheadlines is to make an “if” statement. “If” you’re willing to do this, then here is what will happen. It lets the reader know that THEY determine the outcome. They are in charge. Results are based upon their response. Here are a few examples…

If you’re willing to invest 5 minutes of your time, then I’ll show you exactly how to pull in 500 new subscribers each month…

If you can follow simple instructions, then there is no reason why you can’t do this…

If you can write a shopping list, then you can create your own information product to sell online…

Up next, Part 8: But wait! There’s more. There is ALWAYS MORE!. Ginsu knives beware!

Sales Page Basics in 11 Simple Steps – Part 6: You Want Fries with That?

Tuesday, August 18th, 2009 at 4:39 am

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In our last installment, we went over benefits. We told the reader what results they might expect if they purchased our product. Now it’s time to see if they want more.

I’ve never been to McDonald’s or any fast food place (or even a restaurant for that matter) where they didn’t ask me “What else do you want?” It comes in various forms, of course…

Would you like fries with that?
Would you like a drink with your order?
Are you saving room for dessert?
Would you care for some appetizers to begin with?

Basically, what they are asking is, “What else do you want?” Ad copy isn’t much different, only you provide the answers to the question before the reader even asks.

In other words, your ad copy spells out clearly what the reader wants…

…and then promises to deliver it.

In your ad copy you want to explore as many of the things people want that can be obtained from your product. Actually sit down and write out a list of as many different things your leads would like to receive as it relates to your product. Let me give you an example. Here is a short list of things that you might think your prospects would want from an information product about newsletters…

All of the information that they will need in order to launch and profit from an Internet newsletter.
Answers to all of the questions they have about publishing an Internet newsletter.
Not a lot of fluff, just the information they need.
Specific instructions for beginners and little known advanced tactics for seasoned veterans.

Knowing that your product DOES in fact deliver those things, it is easy to write a few lines of copy addressing those very wants…

In Profit Pulling Newsletters, I cover everything you need to know to rake in profits from your very own ezine. In fact, I compiled a list of the 25 most frequently asked questions about publishing an ezine…
…and I answered every single one of them! That’s right, in Profit Pulling Newsletters you’ll discover the answers to those burning questions that everyone wants to know. Everything is covered in these 80 pages of nothing but the facts…

Do you see how easy it is to deliver in your ad copy exactly what your reader is wanting? All you need to do is THINK like your website visitor. Get into his mind.

You can even set up a survey or poll with a free prize and let them TELL you what they want in a product before you even begin writing the ad copy! Or, visit some forums and ask questions. Contact your friends and associates online. Ask your mentor. Read the popular ezines in your target field — there are lots of ways to find out what your visitors are looking for.

There are a few questions that I like to ask in order to think about what your visitor is probably wanting that you can use yourself in developing ideas for your own ad copy…

What are some intangibles that are important to my prospect? Possible answers: Step-by-step instructions, answers to her questions, personalized assistance, input from “experts,” scientifically proven results, sympathy for his situation, someone who’s been in her shoes, etc.
What are some problems that my visitor is facing, and how will my product solve them? HINT: Use your ad copy to PRESENT a problem the reader has and then offer a solution. Here is an example…

One of the biggest problems that most eBusiness owners face is generating traffic to their website. It seems like everyone has “ideas” — but these “ideas” don’t seem to be producing results. Have they worked for you?
Finally, someone is going to show YOU some tactics that really produce. Here are thirteen easy ways you can attract more visitors to your website…
What might happen to the prospect if her problems remain unsolved? Spell it out…

I’ve seen way too many people develop a great product, put up a perfect website and sales letter, and then watch it just sit there because they didn’t know how to attract visitors. They invest all of their time and money into opening their cyber-doors only to realize that they have no customers walking in. And so they quit in failure.
But that’s not going to happen to you! Because you WILL generate traffic to your website. Here’s how…

Explore the mind of your visitors. What do they want? Do they want fries? How about dessert? An appetizer? Something to drink?

Let them know that they’ll get exactly what they are looking for when they order your product.

Up next, Part 7: Bringing back the reader. (When interest fades, use sub-headlines)