My Buy Essay

Archive for July, 2007

1. Sell the reprint/reproduction rights to the product. You could make money selling other people the rights to reproduce and sell the product. People are always looking for new products to sell.

2. Giveaway the product for free from your web site. Just because it won’t sell doesn’t mean people won’t visit your web site to get it for free. They may see another product you sell and buy that one.

3. Try auctioning off the product at an online auction. You may make part of your investment back. If you’re lucky, you may even make a profit because people sometimes get into bidding wars and will bid a higher price than the product is worth.

4. Use the product as a free bonus for another product you sell. This will increase the perceived value of the product you’re selling. People will feel they’re receiving more for less.

5. Contact businesses with the same target market and see if they would be interested in using your product as a free bonus for their product. You could place your ad on the product and get free advertising.

6. Sell your product to businesses at wholesale cost as a promotional product. Businesses are always looking for products they can giveaway to their customers with their advertising on the product. You could make part of your investment back.

7. Barter your product to other businesses for things you need for your own business. You could trade for their products or services. This will save you money and help make up for your profit loss.

8. You could create an online contest so people could win your product. This will attract traffic to your web site. You also could get free advertising by listing it on online contest directories.

9. If you decide to giveaway the product for free, allow other people to giveaway the product for free. Place your web site ad on the product. This will spread your advertising and attract even more people to your site.

10. Ask businesses with the same target audience if they would be interested in combining your product with their product. You could then sell them together as a package deal and split the profits. You may have better results selling your product this way.

Internet marketing is one of the fastest-growing and profitable businesses today. It is an excellent way for anyone to start a small business with little investment, no overhead, and high profit margins. Anyone can get up and running with an online

business in hours. Sounds like an easy way to make money, doesn’t it? Compared to other offline small business ventures, it is.

Yet internet marketing failures still vastly outnumber those who have succeeded in internet marketing. For every story you hear of someone making $10,000 a month at internet marketing there are hundreds of untold stories of those who failed to

make a profit or only made a few dollars and then quit. Why do so many fail when the potential to succeed is high?

1. Failure to plan &ndash No matter what type of business you are running you need a business plan with well-defined goals. What are your short-term and long-term goals? What steps do you need to take to meet those goals? Write out your plan and review it frequently. You are running a small business. Treat it as one.

2. Failure to work the plan &ndash So you already have a business plan? Are the following it? A plan means nothing if you don’t follow it. Work the plan every single day. Revise it if necessary but don’t detract from it.

3. Making goals too big early on &ndash Many internet marketing failures try to do too much too fast. You are not going to create the ultimate web site for dog lovers overnight. Start small with dog training tips and add content daily. Those 1,000+ page web sites took months or years to build, so will yours.

4. Lack of knowledge &ndash Would you be a successful plumber without knowing anything about plumbing? No. Then to be a successful internet marketer you need to learn internet marketing. Find a successful mentor willing to help you and you will be way ahead of the crowd.

5. Not investing in your business &ndash You won’t get any support or very much web traffic on with a free web host. Many times, the best ebooks, scripts, and tools are the ones that cost money. You can run an online business for next to nothing but

you’ll achieve faster and more profitable results by investing in the right tools.

6. “If I build it, they will come” &ndash You can have the most comprehensive and informative website on natural healing in the world but if you don’t promote your site and work to drive traffic to it no one will know about it. There are many ways to drive traffic to your website. You should be using several of them.

7. Lack of patience &ndash You will not be making $10,000 a month when you start. Internet marketing is not a get rich quick scheme. It takes time and testing to build your web traffic and increase your conversion rate. In the beginning you might actually lose money and this is when too many people give up without giving their business time to grow.

8. Wrong niche &ndash So you wrote that ebook on underwater basket weaving and you’re wondering why nobody is buying it? Find a niche but make sure it’s profitable first. Too many times people create the product first then try to figure out how to sell it. Find out what the people want then give or sell it to them.

9. No Uniqueness &ndash There are a million low carb diet books out there, what makes yours so unique? Why should I buy your widget when Bob’s widgets are just as good and he’s been selling widgets a lot longer than you? Stand out from the crowd and get noticed. Know your competition and do what they do better or do something totally different.

10. Lack of commitment &ndash To be successful, you must be committed to success. Behind every success story there are many hours of work and dedication. You’ll need drive and determination if you want to be the next internet success story everyone is talking about.

Print out these ten reasons for failure and post it next to your computer monitor or tape them to your bathroom mirror.

Everyday review your online business and make sure you are not making any of these mistakes. Do this and you are well on your way to being an internet marketing success.

The lifeblood of any Internet marketer is their list. If you have an opt in email list then you are sitting on piles of cash, if you properly use your list then your earning potential is very high.

As many people ask “How do I build a list?” the following points describes some of the best ways for building your email list.

1) Newsletter / E-zine

We are in the Information Age and so people are desperate for information. Everyone is so busy with their lives they don’t have time to find the information for themselves. Publish a newsletter in your niche that is full of valuable content and you will get people flocking to you to sign up.

2) E-Courses

People are hungry for information, so a free e-course will persuade people to part with their email address. Create at least a seven part course that is delivered every few days into their inbox. Of course, the e-course also subtly sells your product!

3) Articles

Write articles and distribute them to article directories. Include your newsletter sign up in the resource box and if you have provided good quality content, you will get the visitors who will sign up to learn more.

4) Free Books

A free e-book is an excellent way to build your list. It doesn’t have to be an epic tome, just valuable information that people will exchange their email address for. You can write one yourself or get one ghostwritten for you. Make sure though that it is information that your visitors will want to have, and make sure you have included links to your products and sites in the book. You can also include affiliate links to further maximise your earnings.

5) Free Membership Site

Creating a free membership site is an excellent way to get people’s email addresses. Offer valuable content for free but only to signed up members. You can then upsell them other products or other levels of membership with more products and more resources available to them.

6) Squeeze Page

A squeeze page is a pre-sales letter page where you capture a person’s email address before they move on to view your sales letter. This is reportedly very effective and you can also personalise the sales letter with their name or other details from the squeeze page.

7) Pop Up

Pop up windows, particularly unique and different windows, can be very effective at persuading people to sign up for your newsletter. These can either pop up as the visitor enters your site, or when they leave, reminding them to sign up for more information.

Viral Marketing

Viral marketing is where you give away something of value that people want to pass to all their friends. It may be a video, a book, a game or anything similar. However, whatever it is, it has your web address in it so people can come and sign up to your newsletter and get more info.

9) Free Giveaways

A very popular new method of list building are the big Internet giveaways where lots of people submit products that are available for free in exchange for a newsletter sign up. These are excellent ways to rapidly build your list &ndash though be aware that freebie seekers may not make for the most responsive of lists.

10) Sign up bonuses

Offer your visitors a bonus if they sign up for your newsletter, e.g. “20% off XYZ for readers” or a number of e-books or reports that will be of interest to them.

Using these 10 simple strategies you can build your list and then leverage their earning power.

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6 Internet Marketing Myths – By: goalsetter

Every day thousands of people go online to make money but most of them fail miserably because they either truly believe one of the 6 Internet Marketing Myths or or all of them. You can read them below and discover the grain of salt in all of them.

Myth #1: Internet Marketing is EASY

This is probably the biggest myth of all, and let me tell you Internet marketing is hard, takes time, effort not mention money and anyone who suggests otherwise is trying to sell you a bunch of horse hockey. Granted that it’s comparatively easier to brick and mortar in that there’s no inventory to carry, no shipping of goods no sales staff and virtually no overhead, but a lot of work is still involved.

Myth #2: ANYONE Can Make Money Online

Folks, this is simply not true. Unless someone gets off their lazy boy recliner and download/read everything they can about internet marketing, and put an action plan in motion, they will never make a dime on the internet. DO NOTHING, MAKE NOTHING.

Myth #3: You Can “GET RICH QUICK” On the Net!

This is the trap that a lot of newbie internet marketers falls into including myself when I first started, why? because scammers make it sounds so easy and let me tell you, chasing “get rich quick scheme” is a WASTE OF TIME!, money and energy. It just won’t happen overnight, instead do some research and find out what people really want and need then give it to them especially a sense of reality.

Myth #4: It’s FREE to Do Business Online

This is one of my favorite myths because I believed it during my first year of internet marketing and it just wasn’t true then, it isn’t true today. Compared to opening your first coffee shop or gift shop in downtown Los Angeles, internet business start-up cost and maintenance cost is pretty low. Once you have your domain set up, you only pay for internet connection, advertising and ongoing educations, that’s it. You can’t expect to make money selling free stuff and ask others to do the same. Folks! it takes money to

make money.

Myth #5: It’s TOO LATE to Start an Internet Business

Most internet marketers would love to hear people say “It’s too late now, too many competitions, I should just pack my bags and go home, the internet is too complicated, etc…”. You know why? the less people they have to compete with the better which in turn will make them more money.

The fact is, it’s never ever too late to start anything and that includes internet business. I firmly believe that the internet is not going anywhere and you should too. Every year the stats will show you the number of people shopping

online are increasing, their spending dollars are growing and the number of people going online is increasing also.

Myth #6: The BIG Money Talk is JUST HYPE

As I’ve told you before, “it takes money to make money?” Well it’s true, although you will be hard pressed to find experienced internet marketers to tell how much they spend on promoting and advertising. Sometimes, you have to dig a little deeper to find the truth in every hype you read. It’s a fact that the people that makes alot of money online also spends alot of money on advertising, tools, resources and know how to get the job done.

If you are willing to take the necessary action to make ‘big money’ happen for you – it will. It takes time. You can criticize, be skeptical and sure that ‘big money’ can’t happen for you – and it won’t. Sit down and write a financial and a sound business plan. Local Chamber of Commerce can give all the info you need to get started.

If you believe that you will succeed you’re right, if you believe that it won’t work, you’re right also.

To summarize, you have heard people’s story how they’re making a fortune on the internet and how easy it is but the reality is some stories are NOT out of this world or unrealistic but it just doesn’t happen overnight. You just

have to apply a bit of common sense into it, find what you love to do, have a game plan, stay focus and you my friend might find the right opportunity to make all your dreams come true.

This article will teach you the basics of starting your first internet business. You’ll be introduced to some very useful products and services. You can also use this as a checklist to help stay focused and make it easier to set up and improve your internet business.

1) ‘Find a Market’ – Find a market before you decide on a product. If you pick a product first then find out later there isn’t a market for it, you will have wasted a lot of time and money. So be sure to look for the market first. Also try to find an area that inspires or excites you. If you find your passion then it’ll be easier to stay motivated when building your business. Use Google to search different keywords. Try searching with Yahoo to see what else is selling. Check eBay for all their different categories. And use ClickBank to look for interesting markets. When you locate a market and find out what people want, all you’ll have to do is sell it to them. After your first internet project is up and running, and is profitable, then you may want to start looking for your next market. Remember it’s very easy to jump from one project to the next before the first one is finished. So try to find a market or project that you really like and stay with it until its making money.

2) ‘Find a Product’ – After finding a market you’ll need to find a product to sell. You could search the internet to see what other people are selling to get some ideas. Or buy resale rights to a product. Maybe you can sell an affiliate product. Remember you don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Find a product someone else is selling and make it a little better, different, lower in price, or add a bonus whenever someone buys from you. If you choose to sell digital products you will find many extra benefits such as: no shipping or handling, low start up cost, your profit margin will be close to 100%, your customer will get their product right away. And a lot of it can be set up automatically so there’s less work for you. Make sure to take full advantage of the automation possibilities of the internet.

3) ‘Get a Domain Name’ – You’ll want to have your own domain name. Try to think of a few different names because your first choices may not be available. Choose a short name and it will be easier for people to remember. If possible get domain names ending with .com or .co.uk. You should also try to get a name to match your product. And maybe use keywords in your domain name to get a better listing on search engines.

4) ‘Hosting Companies’ – The purpose of hosting company is to keep your website running properly. They will make sure everything is working properly so your customers can navigate through it and buy your product or service. This is a very important responsibility. If your website isn’t working properly or not at all then you are losing money. You may find some free hosting companies, but you really do get what you pay for. So it may be better to use a paid hosting company.

5) ‘Create a Website’ – Create a website so your customers can buy your products 24 hour a day. You will be competing with lots of other website’s so try to make yours unique. If your site takes a long time to download your potential customers will go somewhere else. Graphics are nice to look at but slow to download so have more text and less graphic. Remember its words that sell products. To get ideas for you website search the web and look for sites that you like. Make sure your website is easy to navigate. And if you are short on time and have the money you could hire a professional to build your site. Or if you want to save money you could do it yourself.

6) ‘Payment Processor’- To collect money for your products you will need a payment processor. Make sure that you accept credit cards because most transactions will be made with them. You should also consider other options as well, like accepting cheques and postal orders. And you may want to use PayPal. The more ways you can collect money the more sales you’ll make. And if you’re selling a digital product you may want to use ClickBank.

7) ‘Auto responder’ – If you want to make your internet business easier, then you’ll want to automate as much as possible by using auto responders. You can automate a lot of your every day business tasks leaving more time for you to concentrate on more important things. Here are a few examples: send out email advertisements to everyone on your list at predetermined intervals. Automate the delivery of several different mini courses all at once. Send out sequential emails automatically whenever someone buys one of your products. Have all of your digital products sent out automatically. And with auto responders you can collect names and email addresses and add them to your list of customers and much, much more.

‘Free Advertising’ – This may be a good way to start out if you are limited on funds. But this will be slower than paid advertising and will take a lot more time. And time is money so figure out how much you’re worth and monitor your time. If you are spending a lot of time with free advertising and not getting the results you like, then you may want to try something else. Keep in mind when using free advertising someone else may also place their ad with yours and this is not very professional. Also when you join these free advertising lists it usually means everyone on that list can send free advertising to you. So you may get a lot of unwanted emails.

9) ‘Paid Advertising’ – You may get better results with paid advertising. And at first you may think blasting your ad to as many people as possible will make you the most money. But this really isn’t a good idea for a couple of reasons. First a lot of people won’t have an interest in your product so they’ll probably not even read your ad. And second you may be accused of spamming which is something you never want to do. So always try placing ads with your specific targeted group. And always test your results to make sure that its cost efficient.

10) ‘Collect a List’ – This gets 5 stars. Start collecting your list of names and email addresses as soon as possible, add to your list often, and cherish your list because it will make you money over and over again. Whenever you need extra money you can send an email promoting a product to your list. So you’ll want to collect names and emails addresses by offering free e-books or a mini course, by having them join your newsletter and of course whenever they buy your great product.

And remember to always invest in yourself. Invest your money for quality information that will help expand your business, and invest your time to thoroughly read the information.

1. Start strong: Your title and initial lines should briefly and directly convey what you want to say. Include the “who, what, where, when and why” in the lead of your press release. The remaining part of your press release should include supporting facts and examples.

2. Make it easy for the media: Some media agencies and journalists will grab your press release and carry it in their publications with slight editing or no alteration. But even if it’s not used word for word, journalists may use it as fodder for other stories or to create their own story ideas. The more information and details you include, the less work the media has to do.

3. Think like the reader: Your press release should be able to keep the reader’s interest. Put yourself in the reader’s shoes. Would you want to read your press release?

4. Make it relevant: Try to point out real examples to support the message you want to communicate. Show why your information is important and how it benefits the reader. If your release isn’t newsworthy, don’t expect anyone to read it.

5. Support your story with real facts: Facts make your point stronger and tell the journalist you’ve already done much of the research for them. If you pull facts from other sources, make sure you attribute them. Avoid fluff and add-ons. And never make anything up. If content seems too good to be true, tone it down or you could hurt your credibility.

6. Include company information: The press release should conclude with a short description of your company, including where your company is based, what products and service it provides and a brief history If you are creating a press release for more than one company, provide information for all the companies at the end of the release. Also include contact information, both phone number and e-mail, for each company’s spokesperson.

7. Be concise: Avoid using superfluous adjectives, extravagant language, or unnecessary clich

So you have a new sports betting site and you were hoping to compete with the established sports book sites, how do you go about letting the world know the site exists?

In the old days new sports gambling sites would simply just start aggressive Pay Per Click campaigns. With today’s Internet the search engines no longer allow gambling sites to advertise and that includes a ban on search engine PPC. Removing this type of advertising forced the online gambling providers to come up with other ways of increasing their popularity.

There are a number of strategies you can try in order to attract potential members to your sports betting sites.

1. Optimize your site for higher ranking in the organic searches. This is a tough one seeing as the competition is very steep. Don’t use questionable tactics, just be honest with your SEO and optimize the pages for the content that is actually on each page.

2. Generate topical content well in advance of the sporting event that you would like to promote. Generally speaking, search engines can take 3 to 12 weeks to find new pages so unless you are really up on how to get the pages indexed quicker, give new pages plenty of time to be discovered by the search engines.

3. Allow other sites to use your topical content in exchange for a text link back to your site. Doing this allows you to gain extremely valuable one way text links that will help to increase your link popularity. Just make sure you choose the text for that link carefully and the site posting your article maintains credit to you as the writer.

4. Post articles from other sites. Make sure that the article you post on your site is full of keyword rich text and optimize the page that contains that article for the contents of that article. When done properly this can greatly improve your chances of being found in a search engine for that articles topic.

5. Add a Forum to your site and create categories that promote the events that your site specializes in. For instance, if your site is based out of Europe you might want to make a bunch of categories based on Soccer such as Soccer Injuries, Soccer Trades & Rumors etc. Doing this will generate keyword rich, topical pages that eventually will be indexed by the search engines. The more active you’re Forum, the greater the chance of creating countless pages that the search engines will love.

6. Join forums on other sites and actively contribute to them. You see when posting to other forums your signature is added to the bottom of your post. In your signature you have an opportunity to place some text that could be used to promote your site. Also, some forums will allow you to place text links within the signature. Be respectful and do not stuff the signature with too many text links.

7. Add your site to as many directories as you can. Some directories can take a long time for inclusion, the DMOZ for instance, so you should apply to them as quickly as you can after launching your new sports betting site.

8. Reciprocating links can be helpful as long as you carefully search out potential linking partners. Make sure that the sites you are linking to are quality sites that you yourself would actually spend time on. A good rule of thumb is this &ndash if you would bookmark the site others would probably bookmark it as well and therefore, the site would be a good site to trade links with.

9. Offer affiliate programs to other webmasters. If you offer affiliate programs make sure that you actually pay your affiliates in a timely manner. You would be surprised at how many sites actually don’t treat their affiliates very well. Treat the affiliates like the limited partners that they are and that level of respect will more than likely result in your banners and text links gaining better placement on the affiliate’s websites.

10. Purchase banner space on sports related websites. This can be an expensive proposition so you really need to take care in selecting the sites you want to buy banner space on. Don’t base your decision on Alexa ratings alone as these can easily be skewed. Also be wary of sites stating Hits and Impressions as their verification on traffic. The best stat to base you purchase on is monthly unique visitors and don’t take their word for it, use an independent third party tracker for unbiased results.

Just like everything else in life there are no guarantees but if you adopt some or all of the above mentioned marketing strategies, your site should see improvements over a short period of time.

The hardest part about writing, is getting one’s self to actually start writing. Most writers usually hate to write but love it when they have finished writing. To be able to escape this process, what some writers do is procrastinate.

Having this attitude really does not get anything done. One of the basic reason why some think this way is because they are afraid to fail. They also put tremendous pressure upon themselves, thinking that whatever writing that they should do and produce must be brilliant.

The fact of the matter is that no writer, or person for that matter, is perfect. Everyone has flaws and having imperfections is the perfect reason why more writing should be done.

Discipline is important. Without this, nothing will get done or will get written. Having discipline causes any writer, especially those who write articles for the internet, to think clearly and go beyond his or her mundane concerns. When one has discipline, the focus is on the output and not on the ego.

Discipline serves as a guide

Having discipline enables anyone to think in a lucid manner. It also helps in coming up of ways to present the details and facts of an article. A disciplined mind gets things done easily.

Using a guide in numbering the characters that should be present on each line of a given article is an easy and controlled way to limit as well as define what it is to write about and how.

Observe how doing this and setting a limit to one’s self actually helps the writer compose the article thereby avoiding awkward breaks in each sentence. When this is done, readability of the article is achieved as well as the topic at hand becomes a whole lot clearer.

Discipline helps achieve focus

There are a million things to write about as well as there are a million things to say. Having discipline makes it a lot easier to select a particular idea or subject. A general issue could still be broken down in sub topics and start from there.

The words to be used for such an article must also be appropriate to the kind of reader targeted. Once this is decided upon, selecting the appropriate mood, be it serious, funny, etc. would be a lot easier.

Having discipline makes it easier to break a topic down

If it is simply too overwhelming to write an article in one get up and go fashion, the only solution is &ndash don’t write it.

Discipline yourself to think of the article in easy and convenient small chunks. Take each idea as one paragraph. Then think of another idea in terms of another paragraph. Then, make a simple outline of the article as well as the issues and topics that will cover it.

Discipline yourself to just let go

Writing is a process. It is best that writing be not forced. Such an attitude produces an article that is stiff, unreadable and &ndash most likely &ndash unlikable.

Discipline yourself to just write

A lot of things could crop up inside one’s head about the article one is intending to write.

It is easy to be distracted about other topics that could be included in the article, or other issues, as well as other subtopics.

It is best that one should just stick to the current topic at hand. Topics or issues that are off the main points must be avoided.

Remember that the objective is to write, complete and finish the article. Entertaining any and all forms of distractions will not be helpful.

Be disciplined to not edit — at least not yet

In any first drafts, the key to writing completely is to let the ideas just flow. Editing must and will have to come at a later part. Editing is not part of the writing process, at least in this stage where thoughts really just have to flow, so let it.

Be disciplined to re-read and review the article

After the writing is complete, this is the perfect and best time to start reading it as well as reviewing it. First time drafts must be proofread. This is also the best time to start editing.

Check and find out which parts seem to lag. Is there any weak idea that needs backing up? Are there no spelling errors in the article? Are there any errors in grammar? Such mistakes must be paid attention to as it could distract the readers from the idea and point of the article.

Discipline yourself to relax

After writing, let the article stand or sit on its own. Get up and eat, sleep, read, watch television or simply get out.

Make sure that you spend at least a day letting the article breath.

Discipline yourself to re-write

Getting back to the article after a considerable amount of time away from it enables anyone to look at it with fresh eyes.

Check the title. Review if the sentences are complete thoughts. Delete or re-write what needs to be edted or re-written.

Well-written articles should be satisfying and not leave readers wanting to have more.

Discipline yourself to make the article known

After all is said, written and done, it is now time to send the article out. Readers should be appropriately advised where the article came from, who wrote it or if there is any link related to the article and its source.

In summary, discipline helps anyone, especially in writing, start and finish a task with a process that is methodical and one that actually works. All one needs is discipline to carry it through.

Article may be freely published as long as the article, author’s name and Bio information with link remains in tack. If used for an e-course, please inform the author via email. The contact info can be found on her site.

The following are 10 simple yet very powerful ways to increase your sales significantly:

1. When you make your first sale, follow-up with the customer. You could follow-up with a “thank you” email and include an advertisement for other products you sell. You could follow-up with them regularly. The goal is to begin building a relationship with your customers so you need to keep in constant contact with them.

2. You could upsell to your customers. When they’re at your order page, tell them about a few extra related products you have for sale. They could just add it to their original order.

3. Tell your customers if they refer four customers to your web site, they will receive a full rebate of their purchase price. This will turn one sale into three sales.

4. When you sell a product, give your customers the option of joining an affiliate program so they can make commissions selling your product. This will multiply the sale you just made.

5. Sell the reprint/reproduction rights to your products. You could include an ad on or with the product for other products you sell. You could make sales for the reproduction rights and sales on the back end product.

6. You could cross promote your product with other businesses’ products in a package deal. You can include an ad or flyer for other products you sell and have other businesses selling for you.

7. When you ship out or deliver your product, include a coupon for other related products you sell in the package. This will attract them to buy more products from you.

8. Send your customers a catalog of add-on products for the original product they purchased. This could be upgrades, special services, attachments, etc. If they enjoy your product they will buy the extra add-ons.

9. Sell gift certificates for your products. You’ll make sales from the purchase of the gift certificate, when the recipient cashes it in. They could also buy other items from your web site.

10. Send your customers free products with their product package. The freebies should have your ad printed on them. It could be bumper stickers, ball caps, t-shirts etc. This will allow other people to see your ad and order.

There you go. The great thing about these powerful strategies is that you can implement them immediately. As I said, they are easy to start using but the outcome could be a substantial increase in your conversion and/or buy rate which is the ultimate goal. It is extremely important to make your customer and/or prospect feel special and to provide them with additional value-added items that will keep them coming back.

I don’t know everything and if I have learned one thing about doing business on the Internet it is that the more you learn the more you don’t know. However, I have been doing business on the Internet since 1999 and I’ve managed to carve out a successful enterprise for myself with several profit streams. The largest percentage of my marketing and promotional efforts has been conducted through one simple method-Ezine Advertising.

These are the 8 important lessons I’ve learned regarding Ezine Advertising and Marketing Success:

A common mistake many advertisers make is to attempt to do too much, or rather sell too much, in one ad. Sure you have lots of great products but you can’t sell them all in a few lines-at least not individually. Instead focus on the benefit your customer can achieve from all your products and promote that! People are much more likely to click on a link that BENEFITS them than a link that promises to sell them something.

For example, “Help your child reach their maximum potential” instead of “Try our many reading, writing, math, shapes and colors programs”

More importantly, tell the customer “what your product or service is going to do for him.”

It is important that you identify your Unique Selling Proposition before you begin your advertising program. This will determine which Ezines (or markets) you target as well as what you should include in your ad copy. Who will be interested in your product and why? What benefits does your product offer them?

Don’t go for the sale in your ad! You are at a disadvantage because you can’t list all your products’ wonderful benefits in the space allowed. Also, there is only a small percentage of any Ezine audience that is ready to buy your product at the exact moment they view your ad. Yes, maybe they should be, but most people today live in the moment and if this isn’t the time they want to buy then they aren’t going to buy, end of story.

But it doesn’t have to be the end of the story. If you go for the soft sell approach your target consumer is much more likely to click on your link and then you’ve got the chance to go for the hard sell-again and again!

Here’s an example. I’m selling a product called the Preschool Prep Power Pack. It’s an educational CD for preschoolers. Now I could go for the hard sell in my promotion and I would make some sales but a lot of people who really might be interested won’t even look at my site and product. However, I’ve chose to go the soft sell approach. Instead of selling my product in my ads, my ads offer two FREE items. I offer a free newsletter (Preschoolers Learn More) offering tips about preparing preschoolers for kindergarten. This is my target market for my product. The folks who subscribe also receive a free ABC-123 coloring book. Why wouldn’t the parent of a preschooler subscribe, right?

But what’s in it for me as a business person? A lot! Think about it. I now have the freely offered contact information for my target market. Now I can regularly email them information about my product. I’m confident they will buy eventually because my product provides a solution to something that concerns them-or they wouldn’t have subscribed in the first place!

Another common mistake is not giving your ad campaign enough time to work.

Studies show it takes prospects an average of seven exposures to your promotion before they take the bait. Even after they have clicked through to your site visitors may need to visit your site as many as three times before they buy from you. So make sure you keep that offer in front of them. That means it may well pay to take the long-term package versus a one-shot ad.

People run through their emails rapidly and delete things they wish they hadn’t. Make their wish come true! Give them a second, third, fourth chance. The formula is–when you’re sick and tired of it, the public is just beginning to hear it.

Just because you’ve bought ad space doesn’t mean you have to utilize every pixel or character-space. Short, punchy lines that do not use up every available space are more effective. Think about the reader scanning down the page or screen. What will catch their eye and make them stop scanning and actually read? White space is your friend so don’t squander it. Use it to set off your important message.

Make sure you apply the same principal to your urls and e-mail addresses as well. Nothing can make an ad look more cluttered than giant web addresses with a complicated string of numbers and letters. If you have to use an address like that (perhaps for your affiliate code, for example) then it might be wise to use a redirect. There are numerous free services out there (snipurl.com for exmple) although perhaps it might be a good idea to use a page from your own web site with a redirect programmed in

USE YOUR HEAD

Your headline is the most important part of your ad. This is usually the line that determines whether the skimming reader will stop or skip ahead.

Some of the proven headline formulas include:

1. Ask the reader a question: “Are you worried about filing your

tax return this year?”

2. Tell the reader how to do something: “How to buy a

car without getting a lemon.”

3. Provide a testimonial: “Big Al saved me $200 last month. Thanks, Cindy Lou from Paducah, Kentucky.”

4. Make a command. Turn your most important benefit into a commanding

headline. “Stop rushing through life.” “Make more money this month.” “Feel better about yourself.”

5. Important news makes a good headline. “Max Electronics just went international!”

6. Start the clock: “Buyers who act before midnight Tuesday will save an extra $50!”

7. Give the reader something free: “Free whatsit for the first 100 visitors!”

DON’T FORGET TO TELL THEM WHAT TO DO!

It sounds almost ridiculous, but simply giving clear, specific directions about what you want the reader to do can increase the response to your ads.

Click here to find out more: whatsit.com

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SET YOUR BUDGET

One of the most difficult things to decide for any business person is how much money to spend on promotion. There really is one simple way to determine the answer. How much is a customer worth to you? That tells you a great deal about how much you can afford to spend on advertising.

The simple formula to calculate the net worth of a visitor is: Net Profit divided by Conversion Rate.

First, what is your net profit on an average sale? Let’s say $10 to make it easy. (Hey, I’m an English professor, I need to keep it simple!)

Then consider what your conversion rate is for visitors to become customers. Let’s say one visitor out of 50 becomes a customer. (This makes your conversion rate 50 as you need 50 customers to make a sale)

With this example, a visitor is worth $0.50 to you. ($10 divided by 50)

So if you spend $100 on an advertising campaign that draws in 1000 visitors then you made $400 on that campaign.

SET REALISTIC GOALS

This issue is really about control. Yes, if you could control things that you would have a high sell through but that isn’t always going to happen. In fact, for most advertisers that isn’t going to happen. However, if your goal is to capture customers then you are much more likely to match your goal or even exceed it. And in the end a customer is worth a lot more to you than a sale because a customer can represent many sales over years to come-sales that were fairly easy to achieve.

As frustrating as it may be, advertising is usually about long-term versus short-term benefits. Your ad simply serves as a lure to draw people into your site or long-term promotion. Once you’ve pulled them in then you need to sell them. So it is not really fair to judge an ad campaign on simple sales.

The success of an ad campaign should be measured by one or two elements only-first, how many people followed up on your offer (click-through rate) and second, how many of those visitors were you able to convert into customers (conversion rate).

Over time you will be able to judge where the weak link in your chain of customer creation exists and work to fix it.

Low click-through rate? Then it is probably your offer. You are not giving readers enough incentive to follow through. What is in it for them to click on your offer? Remember you are selling benefits!

Low conversion rate? Then perhaps you are not attracting the right sort of visitor. Target your incentive (the free offer, for example) to match your target audience. See my example in SOFT SELL.