Have you ever felt really peeved when a supermarket decides not to sell an item that you’ve tried from their store, liked it, and then incorporated it into your general shopping requirements? Or perhaps an own-brand item from a pharmacy that is not only cheaper than anything else on the market but also does the job so much better, and then the pharmacy decide to withdraw that product? Or maybe you’ve put yourself out to support a local farm shop and buy much of their produce which isn’t particularly competitive but nice quality and their home cured ham is exceptional, well worth the 20 mile trip every now and again, and then that shop replaces their home cured ham with ordinary supermarket ham at the same price?
If the answer to any of the above questions is YES then you will be among many thousands of shoppers who feel they have been let down by a company that they have supported.
Many big companies especially seem to have lost touch with their customers and actually treat their customers with contempt and really couldn’t care less about individual customers; the bottom line profit figure is the only thing that counts.
If a supermarket takes off its shelves an own-brand item that is popular with the local community because it is not producing as much profit as a well known brand, it will start to alienate its customer base; particularly in the supermarket business, there is a lot of competition around, and it only takes a few customers to become disenchanted with a supermarket they use and start trying out one or more other supermarkets, before the profits start to fall from the original supermarket. They will tell their friends about another supermarket and before long a small trickle of exiting customers becomes a stream.
A similar sort of thing has happened whereby big corporations have thought that they were being so clever by saving a lot of money by outsourcing certain services, for example call centers, to countries with cheaper wage bills; in the short term this policy does appear to be good, but what about the customers?
Pretty well anyone that you talk to will say that they get confused and frustrated when dealing with foreign call centers, not for any racist reasons but purely because most people at the foreign call centers may be able to speak their language pretty well but they still have a difficult-to-understand accent and they are not aware of the way of speaking, mannerisms, humor, etc in a particular country. It is pretty well universally agreed that people in call centers should be brought up and educated in the same country as the people they are supporting. Many banks in the UK are finally waking up to public reaction to call centers.
So these corporations using foreign call centers will eventually become losers, big time, when one or more of their competitors realize that satisfied customers are the corner stone of their business and that if their business is built on a shaky foundation of bottom-line profits, then a small tremor in public feeling and awareness could bring their whole corporation down.
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
MLM Internet Business Opportunity-Careful with Timing!
Many opportunity seekers are looking to generate passive income from a legitimate mlm internet business opportunity, work from home business opportunity, etc. They desire to become successful and make money from home so the current economic conditions won't seriously effect them.
However, before rushing to sign up for any business opportunity, whether it be some sort of internet affiliate program, multi-level marketing opportunity, direct sales opportunity, etc., the would be entrepreneur needs to always ask this crucial question. The question is, "Has the company I am considering passed the "early failure timeline?"
You see, any new home based income opportunity should be able to past the two year test. Why is this? It is because 99% of those new "ground floor" opportunities and start up companies don't last for two years. Therefore, it would not make good business sense to waste time and effort building something that will evaporate after a few years. So, there should be no rush for potential reps to get in a "ground floor" opportunity. After all, if a company is good today, they should be great tomorrow. It is important to not fall for all the hype that abounds on the internet. One needs to learn to see clearly through all the smoke and mirrors before decisions are made.
In addition, distributors should consider that profits usually come after two years. Most new companies do not make a lot of money the first two years due to "pre-launch" start-up issues.
On the other hand, it is good to avoid a network marketing opportunity or any company that has gone way past their momentum phase and are now household names. This is important to consider since the potential for big growth is long gone.
Another important point to consider with any online business opportunity, including a mlm business internet opportunity, is to never join a company with zero profit margin! For example, if a distributor joins a company whose products can be found in Wal-Mart for 50% less than what the company sells them for, the rep is set up to doomed to fail from the start!
There are many home business opportunities for people to choose from now days on the internet. It is crucial to consider the "timing in the company, timing in the industry" issues and if the company has passed the "early failure timeline". This will save all years of failure and frustration who are seeking to have a very successful mlm internet business opportunity or any other type of home business.
However, before rushing to sign up for any business opportunity, whether it be some sort of internet affiliate program, multi-level marketing opportunity, direct sales opportunity, etc., the would be entrepreneur needs to always ask this crucial question. The question is, "Has the company I am considering passed the "early failure timeline?"
You see, any new home based income opportunity should be able to past the two year test. Why is this? It is because 99% of those new "ground floor" opportunities and start up companies don't last for two years. Therefore, it would not make good business sense to waste time and effort building something that will evaporate after a few years. So, there should be no rush for potential reps to get in a "ground floor" opportunity. After all, if a company is good today, they should be great tomorrow. It is important to not fall for all the hype that abounds on the internet. One needs to learn to see clearly through all the smoke and mirrors before decisions are made.
In addition, distributors should consider that profits usually come after two years. Most new companies do not make a lot of money the first two years due to "pre-launch" start-up issues.
On the other hand, it is good to avoid a network marketing opportunity or any company that has gone way past their momentum phase and are now household names. This is important to consider since the potential for big growth is long gone.
Another important point to consider with any online business opportunity, including a mlm business internet opportunity, is to never join a company with zero profit margin! For example, if a distributor joins a company whose products can be found in Wal-Mart for 50% less than what the company sells them for, the rep is set up to doomed to fail from the start!
There are many home business opportunities for people to choose from now days on the internet. It is crucial to consider the "timing in the company, timing in the industry" issues and if the company has passed the "early failure timeline". This will save all years of failure and frustration who are seeking to have a very successful mlm internet business opportunity or any other type of home business.
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Change Is Not Always A Good Thing
It's easy sometimes when trying to develop a successful Internet business tactics to become dissatisfied with the results of your current efforts. When there are so many people talking about how easy it is to do so well, it's not hard to have doubts if you are still getting your bearings.
The only reason you are considering changing your Internet marketing tactics is because you do not think it's working for you. The only reason it would not work for you is if you have not been executing your tactics well, whatever that tactic might be. It makes no difference if you are trying to get ad revenue, sell content, or even sell a specific product. There is an effective way to do any Internet marketing, but you are not going to discover it overnight and it's not going to work unless you put forth the effort.
If somebody who's just starting out is sharing wild success stories, there are two possible things happening. One is beginners luck, yeah, right. The other is extensive preparation. If they aren't lucky, and they probably aren't, they did their homework, their due diligence, which means they started sticking with their tactics before they even carried out it.
By preparing, and then sticking with your Internet business model, you will ultimately begin to understand the ins and outs of your field, and how to make your marketing tactics an effective and profitable one. The rewards of experience can be priceless. Sticking with your tactics, and looking for ways to improve what you are doing without tossing the baby out with the bath water is only going to lead to long term success.
And all that experience is just another reason you do not want to try to jump horses mid race. These horses may not trample you, but the lost profit potential could be just as bad. If you've taken the time and energy to get your Internet business going why would you throw away that entire investment just because it has not instantly made you rich, Rich, RICH?
The truth is, making good money on the Internet is entirely feasible, but it is most certainly not effortless. Sure you can work from home in your pajamas if you want, but you are still going to have to do the work. From producing content, to answering customer questions, to receiving and fulfilling orders, you are going to have to work. Making money on the Internet is so easy anybody can do it, but that doesn't mean they are going to do it without putting in the required effort.
If you are struggling with your Internet business, try to locate some business forums and see if you can get tips and tactics from successful online marketers to help you improve your results. Look for the tools that will help empower you to enhance your tactics with more efficiency and greater success. But the last thing you want to do, especially if you are serious about succeeding, is starting completely over with some other Internet marketing venture. Do your due diligence first, find a reputable and honest business, stick with it, and work the business until you do become rich, Rich, RICH.
The only reason you are considering changing your Internet marketing tactics is because you do not think it's working for you. The only reason it would not work for you is if you have not been executing your tactics well, whatever that tactic might be. It makes no difference if you are trying to get ad revenue, sell content, or even sell a specific product. There is an effective way to do any Internet marketing, but you are not going to discover it overnight and it's not going to work unless you put forth the effort.
If somebody who's just starting out is sharing wild success stories, there are two possible things happening. One is beginners luck, yeah, right. The other is extensive preparation. If they aren't lucky, and they probably aren't, they did their homework, their due diligence, which means they started sticking with their tactics before they even carried out it.
By preparing, and then sticking with your Internet business model, you will ultimately begin to understand the ins and outs of your field, and how to make your marketing tactics an effective and profitable one. The rewards of experience can be priceless. Sticking with your tactics, and looking for ways to improve what you are doing without tossing the baby out with the bath water is only going to lead to long term success.
And all that experience is just another reason you do not want to try to jump horses mid race. These horses may not trample you, but the lost profit potential could be just as bad. If you've taken the time and energy to get your Internet business going why would you throw away that entire investment just because it has not instantly made you rich, Rich, RICH?
The truth is, making good money on the Internet is entirely feasible, but it is most certainly not effortless. Sure you can work from home in your pajamas if you want, but you are still going to have to do the work. From producing content, to answering customer questions, to receiving and fulfilling orders, you are going to have to work. Making money on the Internet is so easy anybody can do it, but that doesn't mean they are going to do it without putting in the required effort.
If you are struggling with your Internet business, try to locate some business forums and see if you can get tips and tactics from successful online marketers to help you improve your results. Look for the tools that will help empower you to enhance your tactics with more efficiency and greater success. But the last thing you want to do, especially if you are serious about succeeding, is starting completely over with some other Internet marketing venture. Do your due diligence first, find a reputable and honest business, stick with it, and work the business until you do become rich, Rich, RICH.
Thursday, June 4, 2009
What are Your Web Site Marketing Objectives?
Frequently small business owners spend hard earned cash for a web site and they get little return on the investment.
The first step in designing or redesigning your web site is to clarify the goals you want the web site to achieve. What is the purpose of your web site? What do you want your web site to do?
One of the goals of your web site should be to attract the attention of your target market. Most small business web sites fail to do this. Typically, these web sites are filled with information on the firm's services, products and credentials.
These types of web sites do little to attract new customers, simply because they are "me" oriented. In other words, they don't offer what the customer is looking for.
Most users of the Web are searching for information and solutions to problems. If your web site doesn't provide easily found solutions the customer will quickly leave for other options.
Is your target market searching for the content you have on your web site?
Many small businesses have web sites in order to establish credibility. The mere presence of a web site is not going to convince prospects you can help them. To establish trust you need to demonstrate your expertise and qualifications.
One method for establishing credibility is by featuring testimonials. Comments from others are perceived with greater credibility than descriptions of your features and benefits. This will help differentiate your business from the competition.
What are you doing to differentiate your web site and build credibility?
Generating leads is one of the most important objectives for a small business web site. If people come to your web site for solutions, you want as many of them as possible to contact you.
It is also desirable for your web site to differentiate people who are not ready to buy from people who are ready to make a purchase.
Visitors to you web site need to be given direction and incentives.
Does your web site prompt people to supply contact information and contact you? Is there motivation for them to give you their contact information?
Of course the most important goal of your web site should be to help make you money. If you sell services and products it should be easy for prospects to find them, along with comprehensive information about each product.
Ideally, you will want individual sell pages for each product or service. Again, you will want the content to discuss solutions to customers' problems.
Is your web site helping you sell more of your products and services?
It is your customers' problems that maintains your business. You need both customer problems and solutions to keep your business operating.
Customer problems are the fuel that provides the power to your marketing engine. Fueling your marketing engine requires a constant focus on customer problems. The better you can address customer problems the more powerful your marketing engine.
What are the concerns of your target market? What problems do they have that you can solve? What problems do they want solved?
Prospects want to see themselves and their concerns clearly identified in order to feel confident that you understand their needs. Don't start talking about features and benefits until you have identified the problems that the prospects want to solved.
Switch to using your prospects problems as the core to your marketing message and you'll be amazed at how quickly your marketing will accelerate your business.
The first step in designing or redesigning your web site is to clarify the goals you want the web site to achieve. What is the purpose of your web site? What do you want your web site to do?
One of the goals of your web site should be to attract the attention of your target market. Most small business web sites fail to do this. Typically, these web sites are filled with information on the firm's services, products and credentials.
These types of web sites do little to attract new customers, simply because they are "me" oriented. In other words, they don't offer what the customer is looking for.
Most users of the Web are searching for information and solutions to problems. If your web site doesn't provide easily found solutions the customer will quickly leave for other options.
Is your target market searching for the content you have on your web site?
Many small businesses have web sites in order to establish credibility. The mere presence of a web site is not going to convince prospects you can help them. To establish trust you need to demonstrate your expertise and qualifications.
One method for establishing credibility is by featuring testimonials. Comments from others are perceived with greater credibility than descriptions of your features and benefits. This will help differentiate your business from the competition.
What are you doing to differentiate your web site and build credibility?
Generating leads is one of the most important objectives for a small business web site. If people come to your web site for solutions, you want as many of them as possible to contact you.
It is also desirable for your web site to differentiate people who are not ready to buy from people who are ready to make a purchase.
Visitors to you web site need to be given direction and incentives.
Does your web site prompt people to supply contact information and contact you? Is there motivation for them to give you their contact information?
Of course the most important goal of your web site should be to help make you money. If you sell services and products it should be easy for prospects to find them, along with comprehensive information about each product.
Ideally, you will want individual sell pages for each product or service. Again, you will want the content to discuss solutions to customers' problems.
Is your web site helping you sell more of your products and services?
It is your customers' problems that maintains your business. You need both customer problems and solutions to keep your business operating.
Customer problems are the fuel that provides the power to your marketing engine. Fueling your marketing engine requires a constant focus on customer problems. The better you can address customer problems the more powerful your marketing engine.
What are the concerns of your target market? What problems do they have that you can solve? What problems do they want solved?
Prospects want to see themselves and their concerns clearly identified in order to feel confident that you understand their needs. Don't start talking about features and benefits until you have identified the problems that the prospects want to solved.
Switch to using your prospects problems as the core to your marketing message and you'll be amazed at how quickly your marketing will accelerate your business.
Monday, June 1, 2009
All you need to know Start Blog Marketing
Whether you are new to blogging or not we always want more ideas to drive readers to our blog pages. Marketing your blog the right way will give you the results that you are looking for. You are going to find that you can not just make a blog, post in it a couple of times, and then expect for the world to find you. That just will not happen how much you wish for it. However, you can market your blog effectively, and get the results that you are looking for.
To begin blog marketing you first need a blog. The next step is to ensure that your blog is updated frequently. Post content in your blog regularly for the best results. Some will post once a day and others once a week. Whichever it is, be consistent with it and know that it will pay off to continue posting as you should. This is a great way to get started with blog marketing. You wont have a blog to market if you do not post in it regularly.
While most free blogs all look the same, you can make sure that your blog design stands out. You don’t want your blog to look and feel like everyone else’s, so make it different. Having your own look is a huge plus in the blog marketing world. You will find that most blogs all look the same and you can have your own look by just using HTML and adjusting the code to suit your taste. You are going to see that this will truly make a difference with your blog as well as your readers. Try to get a theme that is going to match the market that you are promoting in your blog. Doing so will make it look even more professional. You don’t want your readers to confuse your blog with others do you? If this is something that you are concerned about, you will definitely want to make sure that you change yours to make more personable. However, if you are not worried about it or concerned about it in the least, you can leave the design as one of the free templates that you see so frequently used.
Something else that will help you with your blog marketing is exchanging links with authority blogs and websites that are in your same market is another great way to get the word out about your blog. The authority sites are going to have a higher page rank, and will also be listed high in Google’s search results. So do some searches and check those out and see if they are up to exchanging links. If they are not, you could always just add those into your blog roll. You do not need permission to do that if they are not into linking. However, in the world of blogs, most blog owners are thankful for all links, and are willing to return the favor. This is a great way to market your blog that some do not think about or use. If you use this technique to get your blog seen, you will not be sorry. It is a trick you can even use to market your website.
To begin blog marketing you first need a blog. The next step is to ensure that your blog is updated frequently. Post content in your blog regularly for the best results. Some will post once a day and others once a week. Whichever it is, be consistent with it and know that it will pay off to continue posting as you should. This is a great way to get started with blog marketing. You wont have a blog to market if you do not post in it regularly.
While most free blogs all look the same, you can make sure that your blog design stands out. You don’t want your blog to look and feel like everyone else’s, so make it different. Having your own look is a huge plus in the blog marketing world. You will find that most blogs all look the same and you can have your own look by just using HTML and adjusting the code to suit your taste. You are going to see that this will truly make a difference with your blog as well as your readers. Try to get a theme that is going to match the market that you are promoting in your blog. Doing so will make it look even more professional. You don’t want your readers to confuse your blog with others do you? If this is something that you are concerned about, you will definitely want to make sure that you change yours to make more personable. However, if you are not worried about it or concerned about it in the least, you can leave the design as one of the free templates that you see so frequently used.
Something else that will help you with your blog marketing is exchanging links with authority blogs and websites that are in your same market is another great way to get the word out about your blog. The authority sites are going to have a higher page rank, and will also be listed high in Google’s search results. So do some searches and check those out and see if they are up to exchanging links. If they are not, you could always just add those into your blog roll. You do not need permission to do that if they are not into linking. However, in the world of blogs, most blog owners are thankful for all links, and are willing to return the favor. This is a great way to market your blog that some do not think about or use. If you use this technique to get your blog seen, you will not be sorry. It is a trick you can even use to market your website.
Web Site Usability - What is it?
The primary thing that makes a web site usable is how well it enables someone to achieve what they want to do. To achieve this goal a web designer needs two things. First, you need to understand the basic principles of usability. Secondly, you need to understand the users of the web site and design the site with them in mind.
The International Organization for Standards (ISO) has a definition for usability:
...the effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction with which a specified set of users can achieve a specified set of tasks in a particular environment (ISO Standard 9241).
However, everyone has their own definition of usability, "If I cannot use it, it is not user friendly."
Usability expert, Jakob Nielson lists ten general principles for user interface design.
1. Visibility of system status - Always keep the user informed about what is going on.
2. Match between system and the real world - The system should speak the users' language.
3. User control and freedom - Support undo and redo.
4. Consistency and standards - Users should not have to wonder if different words or actions mean the same thing.
5. Error prevention - Eliminate error prone conditions
6. Recognition rather than recall - There should be no need to remember information.
7. Flexibility and efficiency of use - Allow users to tailor frequent actions.
8. Aesthetic and minimalist design - Extra information competes with relevant units of information.
9. Easy error recovery - Error messages should be in plain language.
10. Help and documentation - Easy to search.
You may be eager to jump right into the designing of your web site. You are excited about your ideas. While your ideas may be very good, you need to stop and take time to get feedback from others.
Before you can consider design solutions you need to have a solid understanding of the problems you are trying to solve, the business requirements, and the user needs. If you do not have this information you should not be considering design solutions.
Depending upon the purpose of the web site these initial steps can be determined very quickly or they may require significant input from business associates and end users. Extensive task analysis and scenarios may be needed. Personas can be developed to help facilitate this process.
It may be helpful to involve end users in the research phase of the design, depending upon the purpose of the web site. It is much better to have their involvement at the early stages as it will save you heartache later.
As the web site is designed, it is important to have usability reviews. As a designer, you must not think of these reviews as critiques of your design. The objective of the usability review is to make the web site design even better. Your budge may determine the extent of the usability review. But even with a minimal budget, a review by a few end users will be very helpful.
After your web site is online and live you still need to keep working on usability. Small improvements in the web site usability can result in significant increases in your desired results from the web site. If your desired results are measurable, you need to test if changes on the web site can improve performance.
The International Organization for Standards (ISO) has a definition for usability:
...the effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction with which a specified set of users can achieve a specified set of tasks in a particular environment (ISO Standard 9241).
However, everyone has their own definition of usability, "If I cannot use it, it is not user friendly."
Usability expert, Jakob Nielson lists ten general principles for user interface design.
1. Visibility of system status - Always keep the user informed about what is going on.
2. Match between system and the real world - The system should speak the users' language.
3. User control and freedom - Support undo and redo.
4. Consistency and standards - Users should not have to wonder if different words or actions mean the same thing.
5. Error prevention - Eliminate error prone conditions
6. Recognition rather than recall - There should be no need to remember information.
7. Flexibility and efficiency of use - Allow users to tailor frequent actions.
8. Aesthetic and minimalist design - Extra information competes with relevant units of information.
9. Easy error recovery - Error messages should be in plain language.
10. Help and documentation - Easy to search.
You may be eager to jump right into the designing of your web site. You are excited about your ideas. While your ideas may be very good, you need to stop and take time to get feedback from others.
Before you can consider design solutions you need to have a solid understanding of the problems you are trying to solve, the business requirements, and the user needs. If you do not have this information you should not be considering design solutions.
Depending upon the purpose of the web site these initial steps can be determined very quickly or they may require significant input from business associates and end users. Extensive task analysis and scenarios may be needed. Personas can be developed to help facilitate this process.
It may be helpful to involve end users in the research phase of the design, depending upon the purpose of the web site. It is much better to have their involvement at the early stages as it will save you heartache later.
As the web site is designed, it is important to have usability reviews. As a designer, you must not think of these reviews as critiques of your design. The objective of the usability review is to make the web site design even better. Your budge may determine the extent of the usability review. But even with a minimal budget, a review by a few end users will be very helpful.
After your web site is online and live you still need to keep working on usability. Small improvements in the web site usability can result in significant increases in your desired results from the web site. If your desired results are measurable, you need to test if changes on the web site can improve performance.
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
What Makes Great Eyeball-Grabbing Sales Copy
Selling services or products over the Internet can be done in two ways. You can either sell through catalog style e-commerce marketing or through direct response marketing. Catalog style e-commerce marketing involves putting a range of services or products with their specifications, functions and uses before the eyes of prospective buyers. Pretty easy. The buyer makes his choices based on the information he sees. But direct response marketing often involves selling only one product or service. The buyer has only two choices - to buy (or take some other form of action the seller wants) or leave. Not easy at all, but immensely rewarding if you can do it well.
In direct response Internet marketing, you must be able to move your reader to take action (often it is to buy your product) simply by communicating through the written word. Doing that successfully takes a very specific set of skills. You must be a master at writing eyeball-grabbing sales copy.
Here are three elements of great sales copy.
Firstly, your copy must have an attention-grabbing and captivating headline. It must stop the reader in his tracks so that he reads nothing else except your copy. There are two ways of doing that. Firstly, you write the main benefit of your product into your headline. Notice it's benefit, not feature that you must highlight. Suppose you are selling an automated blog post making software. Writing, "Introducing the World's Best Software that Makes Blog Posts to Your Blog Automatically" is writing about the feature. But writing, "Discover How You Can Update Your Blog on Autopilot and Never Have to Look at it again for One Entire Year", is writing about benefit.
Features of your product are important, but not in the headline. The second way to make a captivating headline is by writing something in your headline that puts a question into the mind or your reader. This makes him think that the answer must be in the body of your copy and he will continue reading. If you read the headline above, your most natural question would be 'How is this accomplished?' and you will likely read on. Once you get your reader thinking like that, then your headline has done its job. Now comes the body of your copy.
The body of your sales copy must be riveting and engaging. Every word must be written for the sole purpose of getting your reader to read the next sentence. Here's one simple technique to accomplish that.
Think about the old bucket system of dousing a fire. Each person in the line passes a bucket of water to the next person until it reaches the end of the line and the water is poured onto the fire. That is exactly what your sales copy must do. It must move the reader to read the next line and subsequently the next paragraph until he comes to the end.
To do that, your each sentence must lead on to something in the next sentence that your reader wants to know. And the last sentence of each paragraph must leave the reader with some missing piece of the puzzle such that he is compelled to read the next paragraph. Look at the last line of each paragraph of this article. They were designed to lead you to the next paragraph. Can you see how it is done?
Simple, by using certain words like 'if' or '...you must be a master at...' (as in the first two paragraphs), you covertly challenge the reader to find out something he does not yet know. Another way is by stipulating a certain number of points beforehand (as in the fourth paragraph) then your paragraph does not cover all the points you said you would bring up. The reader then concludes there are more points in the following paragraph and reads on.
Another way to write like a 'bucket system' is by using the last line of a paragraph to 'introduce' what's in the next paragraph (as in the 5th and 6th paragraphs). Yet another way is to pose a question in the last sentence (as in paragraph 8).
Finally, great sales copy must have a clear call to action at the end. Your call to action must be convincing and compelling enough for your reader to take the action you want of him (usually it is to buy your product). Your call to action can be made more convincing by answering your reader's objection, favorably comparing the price of your product with another similar product or challenging him to make a change by buying your product instead of remaining the way he is.
A clear call to action is a big topic by itself which can be written about in another article (can you see the 'bucket system' at work here?).
In direct response Internet marketing, you must be able to move your reader to take action (often it is to buy your product) simply by communicating through the written word. Doing that successfully takes a very specific set of skills. You must be a master at writing eyeball-grabbing sales copy.
Here are three elements of great sales copy.
Firstly, your copy must have an attention-grabbing and captivating headline. It must stop the reader in his tracks so that he reads nothing else except your copy. There are two ways of doing that. Firstly, you write the main benefit of your product into your headline. Notice it's benefit, not feature that you must highlight. Suppose you are selling an automated blog post making software. Writing, "Introducing the World's Best Software that Makes Blog Posts to Your Blog Automatically" is writing about the feature. But writing, "Discover How You Can Update Your Blog on Autopilot and Never Have to Look at it again for One Entire Year", is writing about benefit.
Features of your product are important, but not in the headline. The second way to make a captivating headline is by writing something in your headline that puts a question into the mind or your reader. This makes him think that the answer must be in the body of your copy and he will continue reading. If you read the headline above, your most natural question would be 'How is this accomplished?' and you will likely read on. Once you get your reader thinking like that, then your headline has done its job. Now comes the body of your copy.
The body of your sales copy must be riveting and engaging. Every word must be written for the sole purpose of getting your reader to read the next sentence. Here's one simple technique to accomplish that.
Think about the old bucket system of dousing a fire. Each person in the line passes a bucket of water to the next person until it reaches the end of the line and the water is poured onto the fire. That is exactly what your sales copy must do. It must move the reader to read the next line and subsequently the next paragraph until he comes to the end.
To do that, your each sentence must lead on to something in the next sentence that your reader wants to know. And the last sentence of each paragraph must leave the reader with some missing piece of the puzzle such that he is compelled to read the next paragraph. Look at the last line of each paragraph of this article. They were designed to lead you to the next paragraph. Can you see how it is done?
Simple, by using certain words like 'if' or '...you must be a master at...' (as in the first two paragraphs), you covertly challenge the reader to find out something he does not yet know. Another way is by stipulating a certain number of points beforehand (as in the fourth paragraph) then your paragraph does not cover all the points you said you would bring up. The reader then concludes there are more points in the following paragraph and reads on.
Another way to write like a 'bucket system' is by using the last line of a paragraph to 'introduce' what's in the next paragraph (as in the 5th and 6th paragraphs). Yet another way is to pose a question in the last sentence (as in paragraph 8).
Finally, great sales copy must have a clear call to action at the end. Your call to action must be convincing and compelling enough for your reader to take the action you want of him (usually it is to buy your product). Your call to action can be made more convincing by answering your reader's objection, favorably comparing the price of your product with another similar product or challenging him to make a change by buying your product instead of remaining the way he is.
A clear call to action is a big topic by itself which can be written about in another article (can you see the 'bucket system' at work here?).
Monday, May 25, 2009
Defining Your Niche Marketplace
The internet world is mine to infiltrate. A successful online business is the goal. Riches and vacations are the dream and the incentive. So why are the wheels spinning and getting nowhere fast?
If this pertains to you keep reading.
Are your e-mails taking up too much of your time? Are you plugging away at an impossible set of keywords? These are just two of the many things that get in the way of having a successful campaign. They were mine.
There are ways of rectifying any distractions. A good way to do that is by creating a to-do list. Once you have discovered the path, you are no longer lost. Follow it and you will escape the forest of distractions and enter the broad landscape of keyword fantasia.
Now you are ready to get to work. Let's find what works best.
To define a particular niche may sound easy, especially if the mind is set on a certain product or service, but it is not. The keywords can and will get in the way of your success if not researched properly.
Keywords are the web term used to define where your potential customers will look for your particular product or service in the search engines.
When specific keywords appear on a web page the search engines will then assume your page will be a good fit for someone typing in your keywords. Of course, there are many other factors coming into play, but keywords are the dominant force in getting your website discovered by your potential customers. Any word can and is a keyword if typed into your computer, but the keywords you choose must be those that your customers would think of when searching for a site such as your own.
It all boils down into how you aggressive you plan on attacking your phrase/keywords and how many competing keywords you face. If the phrase you chose has 5 million competing keywords, how well do you think you will rank? And how easy will it be to get to page one in Google? The answers for both are simple, that is why researching your niche before starting a website is really important. A good place to start is http://www.wordtracker.com. There you will be able to locate which keywords have great potential for marketing.
The niche marketplace is broad in spectrum, but unless you have a huge e-mail list to sell to, you should keep your attention set on a narrow path. Find that potential rose in the field of dandelions and you will be on your way. But don't stop there, once you have located your flower, pick it and take care of it, but by all means find another and another.
A niche market isn't something to be found, but rather a thing you define and create. It will take a lot of effort and time to get it right, but the rewards are well worth it. So rather than spending all your time playing with distraction after distraction, define your niche by finding a great keyword. Then get to work.
If this pertains to you keep reading.
Are your e-mails taking up too much of your time? Are you plugging away at an impossible set of keywords? These are just two of the many things that get in the way of having a successful campaign. They were mine.
There are ways of rectifying any distractions. A good way to do that is by creating a to-do list. Once you have discovered the path, you are no longer lost. Follow it and you will escape the forest of distractions and enter the broad landscape of keyword fantasia.
Now you are ready to get to work. Let's find what works best.
To define a particular niche may sound easy, especially if the mind is set on a certain product or service, but it is not. The keywords can and will get in the way of your success if not researched properly.
Keywords are the web term used to define where your potential customers will look for your particular product or service in the search engines.
When specific keywords appear on a web page the search engines will then assume your page will be a good fit for someone typing in your keywords. Of course, there are many other factors coming into play, but keywords are the dominant force in getting your website discovered by your potential customers. Any word can and is a keyword if typed into your computer, but the keywords you choose must be those that your customers would think of when searching for a site such as your own.
It all boils down into how you aggressive you plan on attacking your phrase/keywords and how many competing keywords you face. If the phrase you chose has 5 million competing keywords, how well do you think you will rank? And how easy will it be to get to page one in Google? The answers for both are simple, that is why researching your niche before starting a website is really important. A good place to start is http://www.wordtracker.com. There you will be able to locate which keywords have great potential for marketing.
The niche marketplace is broad in spectrum, but unless you have a huge e-mail list to sell to, you should keep your attention set on a narrow path. Find that potential rose in the field of dandelions and you will be on your way. But don't stop there, once you have located your flower, pick it and take care of it, but by all means find another and another.
A niche market isn't something to be found, but rather a thing you define and create. It will take a lot of effort and time to get it right, but the rewards are well worth it. So rather than spending all your time playing with distraction after distraction, define your niche by finding a great keyword. Then get to work.
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Niche Websites For The Longterm
If your looking for longterm, consistent income, then maybe you should look into creating a bunch of niche websites.
Most of the work is done up front, and then you just add to it every little while. If you're getting alot of traffic and/or sales, then you need to put all of your focus on that site to get what you can out of it.
Niche websites are little sites that you can setup using wordpress. Normally about 5-7 pages and promoting one product. They can bring you in a consistent income, sometimes for years! It all depends on how you tend to them through fresh incoming links and updated material. Some do nothing. Others do well. Your hope is that one (or more) does great!
Also, you need to "ping" after every post to your blogs, niche website, or even within your squidoo account. Pinging let's search engines know that you have fresh content on the net. The spiders then come to crawl your site.
Google "ping" to find out more.
Using the free Wordpress.org site means that you will need a host for your sites. There are a ton of hosts out there, but the host you want will support "Fantastico". This enables you to upload your wordpress software at the click of a button.
A host will cost you about $10 a month. Your other expense will be for domain names. For one whole campaign, you're looking at purchasing two domain names, one for your wordpress site and the other for your products affiliate link. This will cost you about $20 a year.
Before you read any further, let's just find out if creating niche websites is for you!
Can you see yourself focusing on one subject for a week or two and then switching gears and throwing all your attention into a new subject?
If you think you can, then maybe this is for you. Alot of people can't do this. They need something that they are passionate about and that's it. Of course, there's nothing wrong with that and actually I would advise you to search for topics that do interest you. Of course, you need to dig down deep into the subject to see if there actually is a market there.
Okay, let me give you a quick rundown on how creating niche websites work!
It's as easy as going to Clickbank, (which is a place where you can promote other people's products and get a percentage of the sale), searching and choosing a product to promote and then grabbing your hoplink(affiliate link). This link is one that you'll want to purchase a domain name for. Once you get that domain name, you forward that hoplink to it, you can do this at the site where you purchase your domain name. Hoplinks are generally pretty long and ugly. You want to look professional, so make them nice and neat.
When choosing your product, stay away from fad products and don't choose a product who's gravity is sky high! Yes, it's nice to know that affiliates are making some money off of the product, but that also means that the competion will be stiff.
We want to, kind of, fly under the radar. Also, before you grab your hoplink from the product your going to promote, go to google and type in "google keyword tool".
Click on it, it's free. Check to see if you can find some good longtail keywords for the product you're looking to promote. We want keyword phrases that are RELEVANT to what you will be promoting. VERY RELEVANT!
Enter a broad keyword. look for keyword phrases that have about 1,000 to 1,500 monthly searches and low competition. Dig down deep, try to find about 5 or 6 really good longtail keywords.
Think about what you want your site to look like, as far as the pages go and what you'd like each to say. I say that because you're site will be about 5 or 6 pages and each page will be optimized with one of those keywords. Title, first sentence of the first paragraph, the "about" page, and maybe 2 or 3 sprinkled throughout the rest of the page.
Now go grab your hoplink.
You're going to be sending people to that hoplink(which has been forwarded to the purchased domain name, which, by the way, should also be relevant to your topic, having the keyword phrase in the name would be ideal) from your niche website.
You're going to be sending people to your niche website from Squidoo via another domain name, this one being your niche website domain name. So, on Squidoo, you're going to send people to the niche website using that domain. But, on your main website, you're going to send people to the product sales page using the hoplink domain. Kapeesh? Did I even spell that right? Haha!
Google loves Wordpress and Squidoo. This is why most ALL of your links will go straight to your Squidoo lenses first.
Do the same thing with your Squidoo campaign as you did with your niche website; create a lens for each longtail keyword.
Now start sending traffic to each lens. Take each keyword phrase and write articles around it, send the links to your Squidoo lens page and to your niche website page. create a blog or two and link to your lens page and your niche website page. Go to Wetpaint and set up a page, you probably can guess where I'm going to tell you to link to, haha!
The bottom line is this; pick some ways to generate traffic and let that become your routine. Soon, you'll start pumping out these sites. Like I said before, some will stick and some won't. Don't fret over it. Just keep creating more and more.
Also, remember this; when one starts getting some good traffic or sales, stop everything else, go to that site and expand it. Do more articles, make more posts, post in more bookmarking sites, create some videos.
Oh and by the way, once you do start generating some steady cash flow; you can purchase some software and/or outsourcing to get these sites up even faster!
Have fun with this!
Most of the work is done up front, and then you just add to it every little while. If you're getting alot of traffic and/or sales, then you need to put all of your focus on that site to get what you can out of it.
Niche websites are little sites that you can setup using wordpress. Normally about 5-7 pages and promoting one product. They can bring you in a consistent income, sometimes for years! It all depends on how you tend to them through fresh incoming links and updated material. Some do nothing. Others do well. Your hope is that one (or more) does great!
Also, you need to "ping" after every post to your blogs, niche website, or even within your squidoo account. Pinging let's search engines know that you have fresh content on the net. The spiders then come to crawl your site.
Google "ping" to find out more.
Using the free Wordpress.org site means that you will need a host for your sites. There are a ton of hosts out there, but the host you want will support "Fantastico". This enables you to upload your wordpress software at the click of a button.
A host will cost you about $10 a month. Your other expense will be for domain names. For one whole campaign, you're looking at purchasing two domain names, one for your wordpress site and the other for your products affiliate link. This will cost you about $20 a year.
Before you read any further, let's just find out if creating niche websites is for you!
Can you see yourself focusing on one subject for a week or two and then switching gears and throwing all your attention into a new subject?
If you think you can, then maybe this is for you. Alot of people can't do this. They need something that they are passionate about and that's it. Of course, there's nothing wrong with that and actually I would advise you to search for topics that do interest you. Of course, you need to dig down deep into the subject to see if there actually is a market there.
Okay, let me give you a quick rundown on how creating niche websites work!
It's as easy as going to Clickbank, (which is a place where you can promote other people's products and get a percentage of the sale), searching and choosing a product to promote and then grabbing your hoplink(affiliate link). This link is one that you'll want to purchase a domain name for. Once you get that domain name, you forward that hoplink to it, you can do this at the site where you purchase your domain name. Hoplinks are generally pretty long and ugly. You want to look professional, so make them nice and neat.
When choosing your product, stay away from fad products and don't choose a product who's gravity is sky high! Yes, it's nice to know that affiliates are making some money off of the product, but that also means that the competion will be stiff.
We want to, kind of, fly under the radar. Also, before you grab your hoplink from the product your going to promote, go to google and type in "google keyword tool".
Click on it, it's free. Check to see if you can find some good longtail keywords for the product you're looking to promote. We want keyword phrases that are RELEVANT to what you will be promoting. VERY RELEVANT!
Enter a broad keyword. look for keyword phrases that have about 1,000 to 1,500 monthly searches and low competition. Dig down deep, try to find about 5 or 6 really good longtail keywords.
Think about what you want your site to look like, as far as the pages go and what you'd like each to say. I say that because you're site will be about 5 or 6 pages and each page will be optimized with one of those keywords. Title, first sentence of the first paragraph, the "about" page, and maybe 2 or 3 sprinkled throughout the rest of the page.
Now go grab your hoplink.
You're going to be sending people to that hoplink(which has been forwarded to the purchased domain name, which, by the way, should also be relevant to your topic, having the keyword phrase in the name would be ideal) from your niche website.
You're going to be sending people to your niche website from Squidoo via another domain name, this one being your niche website domain name. So, on Squidoo, you're going to send people to the niche website using that domain. But, on your main website, you're going to send people to the product sales page using the hoplink domain. Kapeesh? Did I even spell that right? Haha!
Google loves Wordpress and Squidoo. This is why most ALL of your links will go straight to your Squidoo lenses first.
Do the same thing with your Squidoo campaign as you did with your niche website; create a lens for each longtail keyword.
Now start sending traffic to each lens. Take each keyword phrase and write articles around it, send the links to your Squidoo lens page and to your niche website page. create a blog or two and link to your lens page and your niche website page. Go to Wetpaint and set up a page, you probably can guess where I'm going to tell you to link to, haha!
The bottom line is this; pick some ways to generate traffic and let that become your routine. Soon, you'll start pumping out these sites. Like I said before, some will stick and some won't. Don't fret over it. Just keep creating more and more.
Also, remember this; when one starts getting some good traffic or sales, stop everything else, go to that site and expand it. Do more articles, make more posts, post in more bookmarking sites, create some videos.
Oh and by the way, once you do start generating some steady cash flow; you can purchase some software and/or outsourcing to get these sites up even faster!
Have fun with this!
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