Hi,

Aaron had an excellent post about audio interview suggestions a few weeks ago, one of the things he touched on was a good way to record the interview.  He received some great responses to the post.

So here is the scenario – you’re out somewhere, perhaps golfing or taking a leisurely stroll along the ocean, or on your way to a tropical destination and you get a fantastic idea for a new product.  Where do you note it down, so that you don’t loose it?

There are a couple of options for you.

• Pocket PC – these things are great!  I have one that is about 3-years old, and can do pretty much everything with it.  You can record notes on these as well, as they are multi-purpose they are great tools.
• Digital recorder – these are a great tool also.  They are small, and compact and will cost 10% to 15% of a PDA.  If all you need is the ability to make a note of thoughts without anything fancy, then the digital recorder is the way to go.  Many MP3 players have built-in digital recorders, or you can purchase a “dedicated” digital recorder.  Most of the recorders come with USB connections and some may even include the ability to use SD or micro-SD cards to expand the available memory.

I have my Pocket PC, which I find an indispensible tool and my MP3/digital recorder to record quick thoughts on the go.

Regards,

Mohamed

Technorati Tags: Internet Business, internet marketing

Hi,

You are loosing money right now.  Yes, and I can say that with firm conviction.

I know you are.

Do you know how I can tell?  When I buy something from your site, and either right before I’m asked to confirm the sale OR right after I’ve purchased I get back to your main page.

You just lost a great opportunity to sell to me, without EVEN TRYING!

When you’ve finally converted that visitor to a customer, there is a very good chance that they will make more purchases from you.  So why not try right away?

Ideally you should be presenting them with some type of special purchase that may be related to the product that they are purchasing.

For example – I’ll use an excellent example of the current 24 hour special that James Brausch is running for his Blog Carnivals 2008 procedure (and yes, I did buy it).  Now a caveat that perhaps because the system he is using (Kunaki) may not support custom return variables i.e., ability to return back to the site that sent you there but to a different URL (PayPal does support this, as does ClickBank).

Ed Rivis has a post about back-end offers on his blog as well – you should also check it out.

So anyway… how I would do this is like this, I’ve drawn it out to make it easy to follow:

This should be easy to follow.

Once the visitor has clicked the “buy now” button you should try and capture their e-mail address.  Someone who has purchased from you in the past, will purchase from you again — you want to know who your hot prospects are.  This is done in sales all the time.  The manager of the dealership where I bought my last car sends me brochures every year of the new models and even gives me a call about a week or two later to follow-up to me.

After you’ve taken their e-mail address down, you may want to try and sell them a related product or service.  This is entirely optional.

The purchaser then makes a decision.

If they decide not to, you send them to the payment processor and if possible the payment processor should send the customer back to your site.  You can now give them one more chance to buy the product/service or just give them a thank you page.

If the purchaser decides to buy the product, send them to the payment processor and process the order and if they can be sent back to your site just present them with a thank you page.  You don’t want to be pushy if they’ve already taken advantage of an additional offer you’ve given them.

This is called back end selling, and it is very easy and presents an additional method of selling to your customers.

Regards,

Mohamed

Technorati Tags: backend selling, how to sell, Internet Business, internet marketing, selling up

Hi,

Just a personal post today.  It’s my birthday.  I’ve been around the block a few times, and am loving it.

I’ve got a wonderful wife, and handsome young son who is bright, eager and always ready to try something challenging everday.

I work as a Director of Customer Support and Operations, and love what I do.  I like the people I work with, and I like being able to solve our merchants and customers problems.

I live in a nice home, and drive a nice car.

I live in a beautiful part of Canada (the West Cost).

My health is good, and so is the health of my family.

I have good friends, and great in-laws.

I’ve got a lot to be thankful for.  I’m sure you do as well.

Do you take time out to look at what you have versus what you don’t?  Do you spend time to consider where you want to go?  Do you have goals, and ambitions in life? 

Are you taking positive steps to reach those goals?

Really, it’s very easy.  The path may be as easy or as difficult as we want to make it, but if you’ve got a goal in sight then nothing should detract you from that goal.

Here are a couple of quotes:

• Set a time for your tasks & stick to it.  Humans are by nature creatures of habit, if you are conscious of this you can use it to your benefit. 
• Set a deadline for yourself.  Deadlines are created for the sheer fact that humans are procrastinators.  If there were no deadlines no one would do anything.  It is that simple.  The deadline you set needs to be realistic.

A friend said them.  Well, I like to think of him as a friend although I’ve never met him or spoken with him and only really conversed with him through his blog.  He is someone who I’d eventually like to meet.  He has seen the extremes of live on both ends, but has come through shining.  Some people think he is harsh and judgemental, may be — but he does get people ACTING.  In all honesty, if I had not found his site and followed along I would still be chasing the next big thing…

So what are you thankful for?  What else do you want from life?  Are you taking the steps and actions necessary to get what you want from life?  If you are not, then what are you waiting for?

Regards,

Mohamed

Hi,

Yesterday we looked at getting your message through and touched on copywriting.  Today we’ll cover whether to use a third-party provider or do it all in house.

Do you currently run your e-mail campaigns “in house” – meaning using your Yahoo account (or other free e-mail account).  Do you use your domain?  Or do you make use of e-mail marketing services like AWeber (I am not recommending AWeber or any service, and only use names as examples) or the other quality companies out there?

Here are some reasons why you might want to consider a third-party e-mail marketing service.

1. E-Mail marketing companies are usually “approved” as bulk-mailers.  Meaning services like SpamCop, SpamArrest and others will not flag messages coming from legitimate e-mail marketing companies as “spam”.  This also ensures that a higher number of e-mails get delivered.
2. These companies will follow professional mailing practices.  Meaning they will make use of double opt-in, and provide unsubscribe links.  They will take care other little things like ensuring that your list of 1,000 people DO NOT show up on the CC list (a big no-no).  The will also provide newsletters, hints and tips to ensuring that your e-mails go through and get read!
3. They provide the list hosting, and the list management services including things like providing statistics on the number of messages sent, how many were delivered and how many may have been read or how many had links clicked.  Important information that is needed to guage the effectiveness of your campaigns.
4. You don’t need to be technically savvy, nor do you need to build the infrastructure needed to develop your own in-house service.  The marketing company take care of all these details for you.
5. Their application handles all the formatting.  Whether the e-mails are text or HTML.  They are configured so that they look good on the users screen.  This allows you to create good looking e-mails.  They provide the tools necessary to create stunning, eye-catching e-mails that are rich.
6. Marketing companies depend on you, so they keep their tools up-to-date providing frequent updates and enhancements.  They enable you to stay on the cutting edge, since their existence depends on staying ahead of the curve.
7. COMPLY WITH E-MAIL LAWS.  You’ve heard that “ignorance of the law is no excuse”.  This is a good reason to consider a e-mail marketing service.  They stay on top of the laws, so you don’t need to.  Do you know all about the U.S. CAN SPAM law?

Here is a list of well known companies – please note, that I am not promoting any via affiliate links.

1. www.constantcontact.com
2. www.aweber.com
3. www.icontact.com
4. www.verticalresponse.com

These are four that I am familiar with.  When I did a search on Google for email marketing, I was greeted with 77,000,000 results!

Some resources for you:

1. Here is another article I found on WikiPedia – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Email_marketing.
2. Reviews of 10 e-mail marketing firms – http://email-marketing-service-review.toptenreviews.com/

Regards,

Mohamed

Technorati Tags: build your e-mail list, choosing an e-mail marketing provider, e-mail list, e-mail marketing, Internet Business, internet marketing

Hi,

Are you a packrat?  I am.  I keep everything.  When we moved from Edmonton, AB to Vancouver, BC I had to throw away a lot of good junk!  I mean, who knows when that XT era 20mb  hard drive will come in handy?!?!  I begged and pleaded with my wife, but to no avail.  It was tossed out, like all the other good junk I had.

So let me ask you this – how many domains are you dragging around, not doing anything with? 5? 10? 20? 50?  MORE???

Why are you not doing anything with them?

I recently purged over 50 domains that I had been keeping for several years.  I figured that that alone cost me around $500/year.  None of them ever generated any money for me. 

Do you have domains that fall into this category?

Why not try and sell them?  If they are good names, you might be able to get a few bucks for them.  At least, you will have tried.

You can try selling them on E-Bay, you can buy virtually anything there.  You could get creative and try to sell them on CraigsList also.  Why not try some of the domain reseller markets around the web?

Domains that are a few years old can be sold for decent money — you won’t get rich, unless you own something like “sex.com”.

But this leads to two questions:

1. Are you still trying to make a quick buck using the latest “get rich quick” / “make easy money online” game?
2. When will you shed old habits and get rid of those things which are COSTING you money?  Surely you’ve heard the saying “cut your losses”, right?

People – get rich quick schemes do not work.  You may make a few dollars initially, but in the end you will not have built anything.  You need to follow a plan to get from A to B — side stepping might be fine but not for the latest MLM or whatever the gurus are selling.

James Brausch posts on this regularly on his blog, read this article about how TV distracts from your goals…

In the end, it comes down to letting go of things that did not work for you in the past.  Concentrating your efforts on goals you set today to ensure a brighter future for you. 

You can do it.  You can follow me, and we can work together or visit any of the individuals on my blogroll who are already there.

Regards,

Mohamed

Technorati Tags: Internet Business, internet business blog, internet marketing

Hi,

Once you’ve built an enviable mailing list, you will want to sell to them or promote others products.  Chances are by the time the visitor has elected to receive your newsletter or e-mails, they have added you to their white list.  But there is also a chance that you have not been added to their white list — in fact, if they’re using Google Mail, Yahoo, Hotmail or any one of the other dozens of free e-mail services then your message could be missing the mark.

The more mails that don’t get through, the lower your reach and potentially the less you will be sell (and less you will make).

This post covers a couple of points — first, that your e-mails MUST get through and a quick discussion on copywriting.

Lets work the numbers.

Your e-mail list is comprised of 1,000 individuals.

You are able to sell to 15% consistently – so roughly 150 people buy from you each time.  On a $50 product this means $7,500 each time you release a product.

However you begin to notice that 25% of your e-mails are bouncing, or worse yet you’ve been hit with a “spam” warning for an entire domain!

If 25% of your e-mails are not going through, that means only 750 e-mails are getting through to the intended individuals.  If we assume a 15% purchase rate, you are now selling potentially only 112 packages.  At $50 per package, this means you’ve made $5,625 — a difference of $1,875 — you’ve “lost” almost $2,000!

Now imagine if you release 2, 3 or 4 products per year and you are loosing $2,000 each time.

It adds up, doesn’t it?

So how do you ensure your message goes through?

Have a read of this article http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/428/How-To-Win-The-War-With-Spam/.

This isn’t the only thing you need to look at.  A hard-hitting title/subject is also essential.  You want to push the right buttons to ensure that your readers open that e-mail, not just glance at it.

Try this.  Next time you go to the grocery store, take a look at the tabloids and look at the titles of the articles.  You don’t even need to go that far. 

Listen to the radio – probably the best source to gain some insight about copywriting.  On the radio, the broadcaster knows that a listener will change stations on a whim.  They need to keep you on their station.  You will find that before they introduce any story in full, that they do what they can to give you a clincher so that you do not change stations.

Usually the headlines are short, and give you just enough information to pique your interest.

You need to do the same with your e-mail marketing. 

Why not do the same for your blog posts as well?

Here are some headlines.  I’ve run these through Glyphius.

• “Top 10 Reasons To…” – scored 224
• “The Shocking Truth About…” – scored 167
• “Satisfaction Guaranteed” – scored 240
• “Professional results with minimal work” – scored 203

Here are some winning headline words:

• Proven
• Winning
• Guaranteed
• Secrets
• Achieve
• Accomplish
• Benefit From
• Profit From
• Tested
• Proven
• Improved

When you see these words think about what they mean. 

People like systems and processes that are proven, winning, and even guaranteed.  Everyone loves secrets.  Who doesn’t want to benefit from or profit from something?  Especially when it has been tested or proven.  In particular people love something which has been improved (if they didn’t, new cars would not sell).

Tomorrow we will take a look at in-house e-mail marketing versus third-party services.

Regards,

Mohamed

Technorati Tags: build your e-mail list, e-mail list, e-mail marketing, Internet Business, internet marketing