Posted by:
Wendy Montes de Oca
February 22, 2008
Issue #360
"We can believe that we know where the world should go. But unless we’re in touch with our customers, our model of the world can diverge from reality. There’s no substitute for innovation, of course, but innovation is no substitute for being in touch, either."
– Steve Ballmer
You’ve probably heard about Web 2.0. It’s all the rage these days. But do you really know what it is? More important, do you know how to use it to your advantage?
Today, I’m going to reveal one Web 2.0 technique you can use to help attract targeted, qualified prospective customers to your website. But first, here’s the 411.
Web 2.0 isn’t a newfangled Internet technology or software. And it’s not a marketing tactic, per se. It’s simply the evolution of the Internet into an environment of interactivity, reader participation, and usability. This, in effect, changes users’ Web behavior. As Tim O’Reilly – founder of O’Reilly Media and the guy who coined the term "Web 2.0" – puts it … it’s "harnessing collective intelligence" through user-generated content.
Web 2.0 opens up the dialog between user and website or blog. This connection can help generate traffic and a viral buzz. Patrick Coffey pointed out in a recent ETR article – How to Get a Bunch of Useless Traffic to Your Website – that not all Web 2.0 traffic is a good thing. But from a search engine marketing (SEM) standpoint, the benefits are clear and measurable: More traffic and frequent interactivity (or posts) equal better organic (free) rankings in search engine results.
Getting good organic rankings is a powerful way to find qualified prospective customers. A recent eye-tracking survey of people doing an Internet search showed that 70 percent of the time their eyes go to the upper-left side of the search results (the organic listings). Their eyes go to the right side of the search results (the paid listings) only 30 percent of the time.
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Posted by:
Patrick Coffey
February 21, 2008
Issue #359
"Every company’s greatest assets
are its customers, because without customers
there is no company."
– Michael LeBoeuf
There’s no denying that one of the best ways to build a profitable online business is by having your own e-mail list.
But how do you get started if you don’t even have a website?
Today, I’m going to show you how I built a list of over 100,000 subscribers without one. If you follow these steps, you’ll be able to do it too … without ever hiring a designer.
I discovered this strategy just over two years ago when I wanted to start building an e-mail list for a new e-mail newsletter called Internet Marketing Rant. The newsletter was just an idea and our resources were very limited when I started this project. Plus, I didn’t know if people would respond to it.
I figured there had to be a way to avoid the expense, time, and energy of creating a full website for a concept that might or might not work. After all, we believe you should test your business ideas and prove them before you devote too much of your resources to them.
Just think about what goes into a typical website. You need to create a design and graphics. You need a header, homepage, "contact us" page, site map. Plus, you have to create pages and pages of content just to fill it out. You can easily do these things yourself or hire someone to take care of them for you. But I was impatient. I wanted to get started right away, not spend a week or two putting together a full website.
Then lightning struck. I thought, "Why don’t I skip all that website hassle and just create one small Web page?" If I could get that one small Web page to work, I knew I could always go back later and create a full website.
Now, the Web page I created wasn’t just any page. It was something called a "squeeze page." If you’ve been to any of the Early to Rise (ETR) Internet marketing conferences or are a member of ETR’s new Internet Money Club, you’re already familiar with this concept. If not, I’m going to give you the 20-second crash course.
Put simply, a squeeze page is a single Web page with the sole purpose of capturing an e-mail address. It’s often formatted like a small sales page, with several paragraphs of sales copy listing the benefits of whatever you want people to sign up for.
Instead of an order button, your squeeze page should have a small sign-up box. Your goal here is to entice people to simply give you their e-mail address. You may want to create a small bonus report about your subject matter to get your website visitors to sign up. But you can also present the e-mails they will receive from you as the "bonus" they’ll get for doing it.
When I started to write my squeeze page, I hit a wall. I thought to myself, "If I’m going to go out and market this e-mail list, I definitely need something to sell." But I didn’t have a product. At first, this looked like a really big problem.
At the time, Early to Rise didn’t have any products related to Internet marketing (the subject matter of the e-mail newsletter I was creating). The only thing we offered was our yearly conference. But a conference was not going to help me acquire brand-new customers.
That’s when I had another revelation. "Why not sell somebody else’s product?" I thought. I knew plenty of people who were selling Internet marketing programs. I just needed to make a deal with one. This is called affiliate marketing. You direct customers to buy someone else’s product, and you get a portion of their profits.
I took that idea a step further. When interested customers visited my squeeze page and gave me their e-mail address, I’d then send them directly to my affiliate’s product page. The product page had already been created by my affiliate, so I had to do very little work. And if some of the people who signed up for our e-mail newsletter bought my affiliate’s product, I’d instantly be making my first sales.
It looked like a win/win situation: I’d build my list, and the share of the money I’d receive from sales would offset some of my costs.
When I put this concept into practice, it worked out even better than I expected. I tested it by investing $1,500 in an advertisement in someone else’s e-mail list. The results blew me away.
Don’t quote me on the numbers, but here’s what happened …
1,200 subscribers signed up for my new e-mail newsletter. And some of them bought the affiliate product I was advertising, bringing in over $4,000 in sales. My share of the sales not only paid for the cost of the ad, but actually turned a profit.
Sounds pretty amazing, doesn’t it? I had no existing product and no website, but there I was, getting paid to build my e-mail list.
I repeated this formula hundreds of times, testing a variety of different e-mail lists and online ads. Some worked really well, and some didn’t. I stuck with the ones that worked, and my list continued to grow.
By the end of the year, I had a list of over 100,000 people. It was an incredible feeling. But the best part was that this list has allowed me to market the new Internet marketing programs we’ve been creating at Early to Rise. Programs that are helping the people who buy them build an e-mail list … partner with JVs and make a fortune … develop their own million-dollar products … and much more. And with the sales of our Internet marketing products, I’ve helped add plenty of money to ETR’s bottom line.
Think about how you can apply this strategy. Here are the steps:
- Find a product in your area of interest that you can sell as an affiliate. (That was my last step, but I know better now.)
- Write your squeeze page. Focus on the benefits the customer will get from your e-mails. And be sure to allude to the product they’ll be offered after they sign up.
- Post this single Web page by registering a domain name and opening a hosting account. (This will cost you less than $10 using a site like GoDaddy.) Start testing. Google AdWords could be a good place to start.
If you’ve wanted to start an online business but think you must have a product or website first, just remember that it’s not necessary. If you start today, you can begin building your e-list tomorrow morning.
Contributed by Patrick Coffey
Guest Contributor
THE TOTAL PACKAGE
Patrick Coffey is the Internet Marketing Director for Early to Rise (www.earlytorise.com). Early to Rise is a free, daily, online newsletter full of useful ideas about marketing, business building, investing, natural health, and much more. Click here to sign up for this unmatched free resource, and learn new ways every day to make yourself healthier, wealthier, and wiser.
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Posted by:
Daniel Levis
February 20, 2008
Issue #358
In this issue:
- The 2,500-year-old secret I believe Gene Schwartz used to wipe the floor with other copywriters …
- A simple exercise that forces you to think with your whole brain, making you smarter and infinitely more creative …
- How to turn your mind into a mental magnet that makes instant recall of hundreds of powerful selling ideas easier than you ever dreamed possible …
- And much more!
Dear Web Business Builder,
The ancient Greek’s worshipped the Goddess MNEMOSYNE as the wellspring of the creative intelligence. She lay with father ZEUS for nine consecutive nights, and soon gave birth to nine daughters – the creative Muses.
Like all myths, this one is a metaphor. MNEMOSYNE represents the faculty of memory, and her nine daughters the expression of the creative imagination: eloquence, epic, poetry, joy and pleasure, tragedy, hymn, music and dance, comedy, astronomy and astrology.
The Greeks had a very practical reason for worshiping MNEMOSYNE. Throughout history, it can be seen that the possession of an excellent memory is a pre-requisite to positions of power and influence. Worship consisted of the development and practice of highly efficient systems for the enhancement of memory.
Later, in Rome, privileged senators learned these secret techniques and used them in rhetoric to intimidate other politicians, and impress the public with their seemingly phenomenal powers of intelligence and learning. Aided by the remembrance of thousands of facts and statistics relating to the empire, their persuasive powers were no match for mere mortals. And they became the rulers of their time.
I’m telling you this because you can use these same secret techniques to increase the quantity and quality of your creative output as a copywriter.
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Posted by:
Troy White
February 19, 2008
Issue #357
In this issue:
- Computers are destroying everything! Discover what is running through your potential customers mind in an average day – and why it means an incredible opportunity to you as the entrepreneur …
- The S-O-M formula that puts you heads and tails above everyone else in your field …
- 3 key factors that make today’s buyers decide to buy from you …
- How to help your best customers weed through the confusion in their mind … and the 3 different models you can re-design your marketing around …
- And Much More!
Fellow business builder,
It has been slowly creeping up on us, many still unaware it is such an ominous force.
It has been lurking in the shadows for quite some time, snatching away wanderers who venture off the beaten path. And now it has poked its head out, and shown its face to everyone. And you as a marketer had better be paying close attention.
What is it?
It is the real reason people are buying from you and your competitors. It is the real reason people make decisions. And it is the scary fact that most people have no clue what it is that they really want.
Don’t get me wrong here; we all know we want something.
Maybe more money, more love, more friends, more material things – but deep down, below the physical aspects of what we say we want, is something that burns. A deep passion that is needing to be fulfilled – but unsure of how.
Advertising and marketing helps customers see some of the areas our products and services can help them with … But not all.
In fact, based on what I have been seeing, the big thing people desire is not being fulfilled.
Our world is in a state of turmoil and people are trying to find deeper meaning with those they befriend, by the products and services they buy, and by the state of mind they find themselves immersed in.
Imagine what would happen, what could happen, if you could peek inside your customer’s mind and see the exact thing they are looking to fulfill with your product. It may be a one word sentence that is bouncing around inside their mind, and when verbally stated, makes everything crystal clear.
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Posted by:
Clayton Makepeace
February 18, 2008
Issue #356
Dear Business Builder,
So many readers have weighed in on my partnering idea that we’re working 20 hours a day to find answers for all of you.
And in next week’s issue, we’ll begin walking you through the process of finding, qualifying and structuring your working relationships between copywriter/marketers – rainmakers – and the companies that hire them.
First, however, I want you to read – and think about – two articles that first appeared here in the last few months.
Both of these articles deal with the single most crucial quality of the kind of company and company owner that makes a great partner: The company’s organizational structure and the owner’s business philosophy.
This is an absolutely essential consideration for you because the first discussion you have on the subject of partnering is most likely to occur between the Rainmaker and the owner of the business with whom the new partnering agreement will be structured.
We’ll talk more about that conversation next week – but in preparation, please take a few minutes right now to consider how the organization and business philosophy of a business owner can either limit growth or help accelerate it.
And be sure to leave your comments and questions in the blog at the end of this issue – and check in daily for more insights, answers and personal advice.
– Clayton
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