Posted by:
Clayton Makepeace
August 21, 2009
Issue #17
In this issue:
- Why the Internet will at least DOUBLE in size in the next four years …
- Why that’s not necessarily a "good" thing for Web marketers …
- Three "Waking Nightmares" stalking Internet marketers now …
- The one missing ingredient that can easily multiply the response to most Web promotions today …
- A one-second IQ test for Web marketers …
- And much, MUCH MORE!
Dear Business-Builder,
Hiya. Hope you’re doing great.
Me? Well, it’s 3:45 AM on a Saturday morning and I just woke up, made my way to the office and sat down to write this issue for you.
What a guy – right?
So what would you like to talk about today?
What’s that you say? "The Internet?" OK, what about it?
"… How business owners, marketing execs and copywriters could be – should be – making about ten times more money than they are now?"
Amazing how great minds think alike, isn’t it? That’s just what I was thinking about!
Alrighty then – here goes …
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Posted by:
Clayton Makepeace
August 17, 2009
Issue #738
In today’s special issue, Internet marketing legend
FRANK KERN grills me to discover …
- How I create e-mail sales campaigns that generate up to $80 million in online sales each year …
- Two essential components of every great e-mail sales campaign …
- The missing ingredient that makes my e-mail copy up to four times more profitable than even the top online marketing gurus’ …
- The massive business opportunity the biz-op experts are completely missing now — and how it could make you millions in the next 12 months …
- And much more!
Dear Business-Builder …
I’ve been hearing about and watching Frank Kern work for some time now and so has pretty much everyone else who works for me.
The guy is astonishingly prolific … a leading light in the Product Launch Formula arena … and a darned good copywriter in his own right.
Plus, Frank is known for having the most outrageous sense of humor in the entire online marketing space.
So when the great Frank Kern asked if he could interview me, I jumped at the chance.
And now, the recording of that interview is today’s issue of The Total Package!
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Posted by:
Daniel Levis
July 9, 2008
Issue #455
Dear Web Business-Builder,
The other day, my wife came home from shopping at Costco Wholesale. She saves so darn much money there it ends up costing me a bloody fortune.
This time, one of the bright shiny objects she couldn’t wait to take out of the box was a brand new water cooler. Not any old water cooler, mind you …
This one dispenses cold water … boils it … takes pictures … and turns the outside lights on and off while you’re away on holidays. And that means there’s a lengthy owner’s manual and endless instructions to follow before you can take a drink.
My grandson put it together, but before we could plop one of those big plastic jugs of water on top — dilemma.
Seems before you can install said water jug, you’ve got to clean the unit with a special cleaning kit available online at the manufacturer’s website.
I’m thinking, hey, now there’s a way to drive follow-on sales. Until I visit their website …
The link we’re given in the owner’s manual takes us to the company’s home page (first of three screenshots pictured at right) where we are confronted by a cornucopia of attractions. The cleaning kit, however, is nowhere in sight. We are forced to dig for it.
This is annoying to say the least. Why couldn’t they have sent us directly to the page with the item for sale so we could buy the darn thing?
Finally we find the page about cleaning kits (third image) and are presented with two choices. Trouble is, they seem identical except for the packaging. Confused … we become distracted … no order. Do you think it’s the first time this has happened? What a shame to lose sales so needlessly …
The lesson should be clear. When driving traffic to your website, don’t force people to navigate to find the item you’ve promised or leave them guessing about what they should order. Take them directly to the page that satisfies their needs, and tell them what to do and why to do it. This should just be common sense. But how often do you get this kind of runaround online? A lot!
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Posted by:
Troy White
July 4, 2008
Issue #452
Fellow Business-Builder,
Again, thank you for all the fabulous comments around the last two weeks’ lead generation articles.
Some of you had questions I wanted to help address. The way I see it, if I can help you double or triple the amount of leads you are getting, then convert them to sales, my articles have done their job.
First, lead generation ads done simple.
I am not a graphic design person (if you can’t tell :o) - - but I do appreciate an ad that is laid out properly. It helps draw in eyeballs and get them to at least start reading the headline. If the design is poor and the ad doesn’t stand out, your job just got harder.
Kari does my graphic and ad design, but I have picked up a thing or two about simple ad layouts for the average small business. The following references are from Word 2003 - they changed everything in the 2007 version, and I have not taken the time to figure out the differences.
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Posted by:
Julie McManus
May 9, 2008
Issue #414
Dear Business Builder,
Happy Friday and welcome back to In the ‘Net Trenches. In last week’s issue, we discussed an often overlooked opportunity for driving website traffic beyond Google and SEO. It’s paid Web media. We also took a closer look at several different types of paid media available for advertising your wares on the Internet.
Well, from that information, one big question arose. It’s simply the question of “where.” Where are you buying media? What websites are working for you?
Oh, wouldn’t you just like to know …
The inherent problem with the question of “where” is that my “where” may be very different from your “where.” And that’s simply because the products I market and my customers are likely different from your products and customers.
So rather than me taking the easy way out and making this week’s issue one big list of websites, let’s take a little closer look at my research process and see how you might make it work for you.
Web media research can be a painstaking process. It can take a considerable amount of time and testing to find the sites that will work for you. But don’t let that stop you, because once you find a few that work for your offer … finding others like them is as easy as breeding bunny rabbits.
Five steps to finding the sites that can work for you!
Step 1: Let your customer be your guide …
Knowing your customer is hands down the most important piece of information you can have when marketing your products and services online … and offline for that matter.
If you don’t have a clear picture of who your customers are, I suggest you start doing some research immediately. One excellent way to do that is by surveying your existing customers. A great tool for doing e-mail and online surveys can be found at www.surveymonkey.com.
Core survey questions should have to do with customer demographics. Demographics are simply the statistics of a population – age, gender, income level, geographic location, marital status, etc.
Armed with this information, you can then start thinking like your customers and looking for websites they might be likely to visit. A tool I like for researching a website’s demographics is www.quantcast.com. It will also tell you if a site accepts advertising and recommend other sites that have a similar demo to the one you’re researching.
Here’s an example of my demographic – rich, old, white guys that live in the United States, Canada and Europe. So when researching Web media, I think of where my rich, old, white guys might like to hang out – news sites, financial sites, political sites … I’m sure you get the picture.
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