Posted by:
Derek Gehl
December 2, 2008
Issue #558
"If you are not moving closer to what you want in sales (or in life), you probably aren’t doing enough asking."
- Jack Canfield
Dear Business-Builder,
Imagine: After months of hard work, your website is finally live. You’ve officially been open for business an entire week. And yet you haven’t made any sales.
Not. One. Single. Sale.
Argh!
Don’t despair. We’ve all been there. In fact, this is one of the most common problems new Internet entrepreneurs ask me to solve for them.
Here’s something that’ll help ease the pain of turning a "dud" site into one that rakes in the profits: Derek Gehl’s surefire "My Website Ain’t Making Money!" troubleshooting checklist.
If you recently launched a website and aren’t getting the results you expected, you need to ask yourself every single question on the list below, starting with number one. Once you can answer "yes" to all 10 questions, I guarantee the sales will come rolling in.
(more…)
Posted by:
Derek Gehl
September 23, 2008
Issue #509
Dear Business-Builder,
Today, I’d like to "bust" an affiliate marketing myth that’s been making the rounds since … well, since affiliate marketing started.
It goes something like this …
To be successful as an affiliate, just join any affiliate program, slap their banner ads onto a basic Web page - and presto, you’ve got an instant Web business that will make you money hand over fist!
For the record, yes, you can make a lot of money by marketing other peoples’ products on the Internet … but no, affiliate marketing is not a shortcut to instant wealth.
As with any other online business, building a successful affiliate site still requires research, planning, and - here’s that four-letter word I keep insisting on using - work.
It’s like building a house. The more solid the foundation is, the more stable the entire structure will be. So if you’re thinking of starting your own Internet business promoting affiliate products, here are four strategies you must follow to guarantee you’ll earn the maximum amount of commissions …
(more…)
Posted by:
Derek Gehl
July 22, 2008
Issue #464
Dear Business-Builder,
If you’re not already taking advantage of pay-per-click (PPC) advertising to pull qualified traffic to your site, now’s the time! PPC is hands-down the fastest way to get targeted traffic to your site.
But did you know it’s also a lean, mean testing machine?
That’s right. This HUGE ADVANTAGE comes from the ability to quickly test, track, compare, and tweak your ads.
Use your results to decide what new keywords to optimize your site for. Figure out what types of opt-in offers get the best results. Use it to help you write top-performing copy for your website and landing pages. You can even use it to optimize the text in your meta description tags — which Google displays with your URL in the organic search results.
You can harness the power of your own pay-per-click campaign in just five simple steps:
- Set up a Google AdWords campaign.
- Set up your PPC conversion tracker.
- Split-test versions of your ads.
- Find out which ad pulls the highest click-throughs and conversions.
- Use your top-performing campaign elements to optimize your website!
Let’s start by making sure the basic elements of your AdWords campaign are in place.
(more…)
