################################ THE ABC'S & 123'S OF ONLINE MARKETING ################################ <<<>>>> By Leon Brickey & John Ellis (C) Copyright 1999, Leon Brickey, Appalachian Online Marketing & John Ellis, J.E. Circle Marketing. All rights reserved. No parts of this work may be reproduced, redistributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. No part may be changed or altered. Published by: Appalachian Online Marketing PO Box 670 Pound, VA. 24279 (540)796-5190 mailto:webmaster@appalachianmarketing.com http://www.appalachianmarketing.com J.E. Circle Marketing "helping you achieve the success YOU deserve" 66 West St. Albany, NY 12206 1-877-428-8606 office@je-circle-marketing http://www.je-circle-marketing.com *Traffic Junkie* (TM) is a registered trade mark of J.E. Circle Marketing. This book is distributed with the understanding that the publisher is not engaging in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional services. If legal advice or other expert assistance is required, th services of a competent professional should be sought. We do not and will not make any claims or guarantee of earnings or any specific amounts of traffic resulting from the use of methods described herein. Every effort was made to make this ebook as accurate as possible. All information, resources, links, etc. were correct and functioning at time of publishing. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> We would like to welcome to the net! We would also like to thank you for downloading a copy of "The ABC's & 123's of Online Marketing". Are you new to the net? Have you thought about starting an online business? Have you already been online for a while, but it seems you're not having any success? Well you have made the first steps towards YOUR solution, when you downloaded this ebook! Because inside "The ABC's & 123's of Online Marketing" you'll find simple and easy tools, tips & techniques that will help you promote and run a profitable and successful online business! No matter if your are a beginner to the net or you feel you are an expert. This book will help you too! How do we know? Because we are going to share proven tips & tricks that we are currently using in our online businesses everyday! We are going to show you techniques that we have learned from our failures, successes and our years of experience in marketing and online marketing! This book will show you how to: * How you can setup and operate a profitable online business! * How to create KILLER websites that are guaranteed to sell your products or services! * How to setup your site to take in orders for YOU 24/7! * How to write powerful ads & sales letters that pull responses! * How to make money online; even if you're on a free server! * The tools you need to drive HUGE traffic to YOUR site! & much, much more! As you can see, this ebook will save you the time and money that would be wasted trying to learn all this information on your own. Instead you can profit immediately and learn from our mistakes! Be sure that you read completely through this ebook, but more importantly that you implement ALL of these ideas into your online business. This is the only real way you can benefit from this information; by doing it. So once you have finished reading completely through this book; Start NOW! If you get stuck on an idea or your need more help; you can use this book as a personal reference. Read and refer to it over and over again. If you would like to find other resources and tools to help your in your online business or download the newer and updated versions of this book; please visit our sites frequently. We will always be updating and adding more valuable information to this book. So remember to check in and download the newer version frequently. But incase you don't have the time to visit, but you would still like to receive fresh, current and up-to-date advice, tips, and techniques in marketing and online marketing; you can subscribe to our FREE ezines: Absolute Internet Marketing Resources Ezine http://www.appalachianmarketing.com The *Traffic Junky* Report http://www.je-circle-marketing.com Oh yeah..... If you found the information in this ebook very useful or resourceful; please feel free to redistribute it to your downlines, friends, uplines or business associates. You can even give it away to your visitors or ezine subscribers as a free gift! If you do pass this book along; the only requirement we ask is that you do so in its entirety. You may not alter, edit or change any information within (including links). You must leave everything as is. If you wish to redistribute this ebook; all you would have to do is add the following link to your webpages: http://www.je-circle-marketing.com/download/abc123.zip This way your readers will always download the newest version of this book. We thank you once again for giving us the opportunity to share "The ABC's & 123's of Online Marketing" with you. We wish you the very best in your online future! Leon Brickey & John Ellis P.S. - Don't forget to drop us an email and let us know how this book has help you! Leon Brickey Appalachian Online Marketing PO Box 670 Pound, VA. 24279 (540)796-5190 mailto:webmaster@appalachianmarketing.com http://www.appalachianmarketing.com John Ellis J.E. Circle Marketing 66 West St. Albany, NY 12206 1-877-428-8606 office@je-circle-marketing http://www.je-circle-marketing.com ######################################################################## &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& The Woes Of A Hosting Service! Find out what you should do before choosing one. &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& By John Ellis Hello Everyone! How's your business? Fine I hope! As you may have already noticed, my site was down for the past couple weeks. I was in the process of moving my site to a new server and today I would like to share with you some valuable lessons I've learned from this experience. First of all I would like to repeat some advice I shared with you many times in the past. Be sure that you make back up copies of all your webpages. You can store them on disks, on your hard drive, or even on one of those free servers. This is just in case if something happens to your hosting company's server; you'll have back up files. May be their server isn't ready for the Y2K epidemic or may be a fire may break out at the hosting company or something, the point here is you'll have your back ups. If you have a site that consist of 800 pages, you'll probably be quite angry if the server goes down and you lose all of your work. But if you have your back up files, this will make it much easier to get things back up and going. The problem I encountered these past couple weeks was much different. But the thing is.... It may also be happening to you right now and you're not even aware of it. When transferring or registering a new domain name to any server, a request must be submitted to the Internic Company (Network Solutions - http://www.networksolutions.com ). Each request is then sent to all contacts of the domain name for verification before it can be processed. If any of the contacts deny the request, your registration will be rejected. The main contacts of a domain usually consists of the Administrative Contact and the Technical Contact. The Administrative Contact is usually the person or company who owns the domain name. The Technical Contact may be the person who handles the technical aspects of your site, (designing, hosting, programing, etc...) What's the big deal, you asked? Well, both of these contacts have equal authority to modify or change information to your domain name. If this information isn't correct, you may experience the same problems as I did or even worst. My request was also submitted and a verification was sent to all contacts of the domain. I did accept the changes, but the Technical Contact (who was my hosting company) denied the request; so my request was rejected. Yes, I thought the same thing, "If you're the Administrative Contact, don't you have full authority to override their decisions?" Apparently not. My request was rejected several times. Why would the hosting company insist that I remain their client? Why would they try to keep my domain? I couldn't figure this one out either, but the situation only became worst. Now I had to spend money making long distance calls to the Internic Company to resolve this problem. I had to send several faxes. Not only that, but I was missing $100's or even $1,000's in business for each day my site was down. Now I'm very upset, because this is a normal process that should taken 3 to 5 days, but has now been extended to 14 days. A once happy client of 1 1/2 years, is now a disgruntle client. I felt betrayed and swindled. But this is what you should do to assure you don't fall into this same trap..... Got the the Internic Company - http://www.networksolutions.com Search for your domain information. Be sure that this information is correct and the right names appear as the contacts. Also be sure that your name appears as the Administrative Contact and not your hosting company. This will assure that no one can change any of your information without your approval. If your hosting company appears as the Administrative Contact of your domain name and if for some reason you wish to move your site to a new server. You won't be able to, because you don't own the domain name. If your name doesn't appear here, I suggest that you submit a request now to change this information or call the Internic Company to find out what you should do. Which brings us to another point.... Find out how to register, modify and submit requests to the Internic Company yourself. This can also save you from future frustrations. In some cases, you may consider putting your name as all contacts. Then if you ever wanted to move your site to a new server, you wouldn't have any problems because no one will be able to reject your request or change your information. Many hosting company have used these tactics to steal domains. By checking this information now, will save you all these headaches. *This article may be reprinted and used only in its entirety in your newsletters or ezines. Only requirement is that you also include the resource box below. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- **Article by John Ellis. John has helped hundreds to promote their online businesses. His desire is to assist other businesses in achieving the success YOU deserve! Check out his newest book, "Net Marketing Made Easy!" Subscribe to the FREE bi-weekly ezine NOW! http://www.je-circle-marketing.com #############################END OF REPORT################################ To Look For A bargain Or NOT To Look For A Bargain ---------------------------------------------------------------- By Leon Brickey Studies have proven that online and offline shoppers are VERY price conscious. I call it the "Wal Mart mentality." (Certainly no negative reflection on Wal Mart.) These people find the absolute lowest price on whatever it is that they are buying. You know the type?. They buy at the very cheapest price they can find on EVERYTHING. They buy the cheapest "off brand" grocery items, the cheapest TVs, the cheapest cars, the cheapest clothes, etc. Even if it's a lower quality; they always buy the cheapest. Buying the cheapest is an EXCELLENT idea often times, but not always. One place you REALLY want to be careful about "bargain shopping" is when it comes to your business. The cheapest is not always what's best. And free??. SOMETIMES just doesn't cut it. As an entrepreneur sometimes you have to be willing to pay extra for a service or product if it is clearly superior to the less expensive or free version of the same product or service. It's not easy, but you really need to learn where you CAN cut corners and where it's best to NOT cut corners. Often business owners trying to save money NOW actually COST themselves money on down the road. Or worse yet they sabotage their business' success by pinching pennies in the wrong areas. This isn't necessarily the business owner's fault. With all the slick advertising these days so many folks get misled unknowingly. We've got information coming towards us from all directions at the speed of light. With all the "gimmick" advertising, false information, and downright scams it's easy to get "taken." The smart business owner has to do research (not just read advertising) to find what suits their needs best. As a business owner you've just GOT TO keep up with what's new in the business AND advertising community. If you don't you're doomed for failure. A really good rule of thumb to start with is "Be very, VERY careful taking advice from someone who has something they want to sell you." If you email a colleague with a question and they reply with a two sentence response using words like AWESOME and GREAT; followed by a link to something they are selling, be very cautious. Better yet; get really skeptical really fast! On the other hand if you email a colleague with a question and they reply with a personal email and a detailed explanation to your question? that's different. This person may be able to recommend something that will help you out. They may have experience with products and services you are not even aware of. Just be REALLY cautious when dealing with anyone who you have not known long enough for them to establish credibility with you. Here are a few areas you should NOT look for the bargin in: 1) Your website. There are literally hundreds of places to get free websites these days. Free websites are OK for personal, novice level websites but NOT for the business owner. -You need your own domain. (Even if you are promoting affiliate program web pages.) -You need e-commerce capabilities. -You need to be able to add features to your website as you go along and technology progresses. -And you need a sophisticated statistics system to track the visitors to your site and evaluate the effectiveness of your advertising. Unfortunately websites with these type of capabilities are usually not free. They usually cost in the $40 to $100 per month range. To build a business and run it effectively you've GOT TO HAVE your own website with these capabilities. Be very, very careful of anyone offering you 300Mb of web space and unlimited EVERYTHING for $8 or $10 per month. You may not be getting quite what you think! Enough said. 2) Customer service / Customer support It's not enough to sell your customer a product or service. You've also got to be able to give instructions and support on how to use that product or service; as well as how your customer can get the maximum benefit from their recent purchase. On top of that folks expect guarantees and ongoing support till they master the new product or service. THIS is one thing that gets you repeat business. 3) Advertising Whether you are talking about a free or paid classified ad, a press release, a brochure, your website, or a TV commercial THIS is what gives your prospect their first impression of you and your business. So this area is very, VERY important! Look at what businesses that you KNOW are making money are doing. Look at their web pages, press releases, sales letters, business cards, billboards, radio commercials, etc. You'll be able to see what's working for them. Research business articles, books, and teaching tapes, etc. to find out what works and WHAT DOESN'T. If you are computer savvy and have access to self-publishing software; incorporate some of these ideas into YOUR business. If you do not you will have to pay to have these things done. DO NOT hand out flimsy, cheap-looking marketing materials offline and DO NOT attempt to draw traffic to a poorly designed, ineffective website online. The same goes for email communications. Get help till you learn the dos and don'ts. These things can be learned if you don't already have the knowledge and skills but you can't learn everything your first month! In the meantime get help or hire a professional. One quick point? If you are gonna pay someone to build a website or design marketing materials INSIST on SEVERAL references you can contact. If they are honest and as good as they say they will be more than glad to give them to you. If not?? NEXT! The fact is that there are some things you can do yourself. There are even some things you can get for free. But if you are gonna REALLY succeed in business at some point you are gonna have to pay top dollar for quality products and services. It's your job to learn when. Don't always look for the bargain! I hope this helps. Thanks, Leon Brickey mailto:webmaster@appalachianmarketing.com --------------------------------------------------------------------- Leon Brickey is webmaster and owner of Appalachian Online Marketing at http://www.appalachianmarketing.com At Appalachian Online Marketing you can find everything you need to turn your struggling business into an explosive moneymaker! Free subscription to Absolute Internet Marketing Resources Ezine containing the most current, up to date online marketing resources on the planet. Any email: *Article may be used freely as long as the entire article appears along with this sig file. #############################END OF REPORT################################ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ 10 Things YOU CAN Do Right NOW to Increase Traffic To YOUR Site! @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Hello Everyone, I have been reading a lot of posts in discussions groups and receiving emails from individuals who have just started a business on the internet, who have just finished designing and posting their websites, but now would like to know what's the next step? I thought I would share "10 things YOU Could Do Right NOW That Will Drive HUGE Traffic To YOUR Site". I know ALL these ideas work too. How? Because I am personally using them every day in my online business and they WILL work for YOU too! 1. Become a *Traffic Junky* ****************************** The #1 reason why over 80% of the businesses online are failing is "TRAFFIC"! You have to start to thinking traffic, eating traffic and sleeping traffic. You must always try to find ways to drive more traffic to your site. You must become a *Traffic Junky*! You can't just post a site, sit back and expect mobs of visitors to come. You MUST advertise, market, promote and then promote. But this won't happen overnight. Traffic is one of those things you have to work at everyday. 2. Post Every Day ******************* You MUST post your ads, send out your sales letters every day. A day shouldn't go by that you haven't posted your ads or sent out your sales letters. You should make it your objective to send out at least 35 sales letters a week. That's only 5 sales letters a day. 3. Post to classifieds sites ******************************** You should try to post your classified ad to at least 5 to 10 sites a day. If you want to find free classified links; just go to a search engine, type in the key words "free classified sites". You'll end up with a list of thousands. Now lets begin to post your ads.... As you begin to post your ad, recourd the name of these sites, the URL's, maximum words allowed for ads, the time limit, and any other information you think may be helpful. This list will be use for future references. After posting for a while you'll see that you have a long list of classified sites. You may also use this same technique to submit your information to search engines and link pages. You can start by placing your FREE classified ads to this list: List of FREE Classified Sites http://www.je-circle-marketing.com/freeclassfieds.html Appalachian Marketing Free Classifieds Sites. http://www.appalachianmarketing.com/classifiieds.html 4. Trade Links ***************** This is a method of online marketing that most advertisers don't like, (trading links). In all actuality, this is the one of the best things you could do; especially if you're new to the net. Most fear trading links opens the door for prospects to purchase from your competitors. But this may not be true.... This can work more to your advantage because it gives your prospects the perception that you care only for their best interests and desires, you're really here for them and to satisfy them. Besides you can't control who your prospects wil purchase from, any ways. If they want to buy a particular product from you competitors, they will and it they want to purchase from you they will. Trading links can work more to your advantage. Think about this.... How many visitors are coming to your site now? 2, 3, 10 or 15 per day? Imagine if you traded liks with another site who was receiving 100 or 200 hits per day? You have now increased your site's hit count potential from 2 or 3 visitors, to 203 visitors per day! What if you traded links with 10 other similar sites? (That's 2,003 hits per day!) Now can you start to see the benefits of trading links? Not only can trading links increase your hit counts; it will also give your prospects the perception that you care only for their best interests and desires. That you're here for them and to satisfy them. Another benefit from trading links, is that now you can keep an eye on your competitors new products, tactics, techniques, prices etc... or even copy. Yes, you can COPY an idea your competitor is using, but in your own way. (I've done it and will continue to do it.) This is one of the keys to success. Don't reinvent the wheel. Find something that's already working and use it, but in your own way. Everyone does it. Remember when one of the major car dealers was the first to come out with the mini van? At first everyone else thought it was going to bomb, but once they realized that families were purchasing the van; because it was smaller than the customized van, but was still able to transport a whole family. Now look, almost all car dealers have a mini van or a similar type model. I'm not saying to go out & trade links with anyone. You do have to screen the websites to see if it fits in to your targeted market, if it has a similar theme to your site. If your site's theme is internet marketing, it may not be beneficial to trade links with a site that sells children toys. Choose sites with similar interests. We are always willing to trade links. If you are interested, you can submit your link here: Trade Links Here http://www.je-circle-marketing.com/otherlinks.html 5. Build A Prospect List *************************** Do you know who visited YOUR site today? You don't know, right? YOU MUST start building a prospect list TODAY. "How?" Start by collecting your visitors email addresses and ask them if you could send them more information about your products or services. Start a contest or something the key is to collect your visitors' email addresses. Once you have the email addresses, send this list your sales letters, specials, coupons etc..., but DON'T use this list to spam. (I know I hate receiving spam and I wont even read it; if I didn't request the information. So Spamming this list will only be a waste of your time. Plus there are too many repercussions from using. Not only will most of your messages be deleted and unread; but if this is reported to your ISP that your are using spam, your account can be terminated. And it can ruin your business reputation online. You'll see that ost of these prospects won't be converted to customers after receiving your first initial offer. It said that most people will have to see your offer between 7 - 10 times before they will decide to make a purchase. But eventually you'll see that many of these prospects will become buying customers. Since you don't have many visitors coming to your site right now; how can you still start building your prospect list? Do you receive spam? Every day, right? Instead of trashing them right away, save the email addresses and send them information about your offers. Most of these address will be dead addresses, but this can still be an effective way to market your products or services. Another way you can use spam mail to drive traffic to your site, is by setting up an auto-responder. Now when you receive spam, your message containing your offer will automatically be sent. Auto-responders can also be beneficial when your prospects request more information. The auto-responder will automatically send the information. This is a major concern when prospect request information instantly. The promptness of your responses. You can also set up your auto responders to do automactic folow ups. Have you ever requested information and never received a response or received the information? Then a week or 2 later when your receive it; by then you have forgotten why you've requested it. Answer your emails and your phone calls ASAP (AS SOON AS POSSIBLE)! Try to answer all request within 1 to 2 days at the most. This will also add to your prospect perception that you're here for them and your really concerned about their interests and their desires. 6. Post to Discussion Boards, Opt-In Mailing Lists, Message Boards and Discussion Groups ****************************************************** You should try to post to these types of forums frequently; even if you're just posting a question. Post it any ways. It wont hurt you. In fact it may help you. This will give individuals the opportunity find out who your are, about your company, your products or services, the theme of your site, opens the door for networking, bartering, trading links and ads etc... It can also allow you the chance to add to your prospect list. When you're answering a question posted, this can also be beneficial too. This will give others the perception that you're an expert in your field or that you know your stuff. If the information that you supply is helpful; the next time when someone has a problem that relates to your area of expertise, YOU will automatically come to mind. They'll come to YOU for more advice! I try to participate in my favorite discussion forums every day. I have sold alot of products and services in the past just from participating on these forums. They are effective, but please DON'T use these types of forums to blatantly blast your ads. This is considered spamming and you will be flamed and probably banned from participating in the group or from future posting. You may be able to attach a SIG file at the end of your posts. In your SIG file you can enter a brief description of your products or services you offer and include a link to your site. Here are a few Daily Discussion Groups you can start posting to: Profit Talk http://www.profitalk.com *Traffic Junkie's Online Marketing Forum http://network54.com/Hide/Forum/28682 Prime Profits http://www.primeprofits.com List of Forums: http://www.je-circle-marketing.com/discuss.html 7. Start an Ezine ******************* This is one of the BEST method being used today in internet marketing. You can find ezines about any subject all over the web; so you can see the effectiveness or everyone wouldn't be using them. You wouldn't be reading this one. : ) It goes back to what I stated earlier "Don't reinvent the wheel, but find something that works and do it in your own way or better". Ezine marketing works! Ezines give you the opportunity to send your offers and information about your products or services legally and without spamming. You could distribute your ezine daily, weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, bi-monthly, quarterly, annually or whichever you prefer. The more frequent, the better. This can help to keep your offer fresh in the minds of potential prospects. You can also keep visitors updated about changes to your site, about your products and services, specials, discounts, new products, etc... Not only are they effective, but it can create another way to generate income; because you could sell ad space. OK, you're saying, "I like the idea of starting an ezine, but what if you can't write articles?" Don't let this discourage you. There are many sites & ezine publishers that will allow you to copy and reprint their articles in your ezine. You can also use articles from our archives. Only requirement we ask, is that you use the articles in their entirety and also include the attached resource box (SIG file). This is that so that the author of the article, will receive the proper credit. You could pay someone to write your articles for you. It could be expensive, but the investment will be well worth it. If you do choose to write your own articles, submit them to other related ezines. This is free advertising! (*Traffic Junkies* love free!) This will also help to bring more traffic to your site, create more prospects and add to the perception of you as an expert. You may add your ezine to our ezine publishers directory FREE: J.E. Circle Marketing Ezine Publishers Directory http://www.je-circle-marketing.com/ezine_direct.html You may copy articles here: Achrives of Articles http://www.je-circle-marketing.com/articles.html 8. Subscribe to ALL Ezines Related to YOUR Industry or Targeted Market ************************************************************************ Reason in 9. 9. Research, Research, Research There are many reasons you should subscribe to ALL ezines related to your targeted industry or market. One reason is that you MUST become better at what you do. You don't know it all, but you can always learn how to become better. David Ogilvy, stated, "Advertising people who ignore reaseach are as dangerous as generals who ignore decodes of the enemy signals." You have to read everything you can get your hands on. Success requires work, it wont come easy. So you have to find the paths to it. If you had a chance to come to my office you will see my desk covered with books about marketing, copies of ezines, magazines, shelves filled with books related to business and internet marketing etc..., my mailbox is filled every day with several 100 ezines I have subscribed to. There's not a day that goes by that I don't at least read a few pages from a book or read an ezine; because I'm determined to become better and the best at what I do. Not all ezines are good, but most of them do provide good, resourceful information that you can implement into your program and to help you become better at what you do. Plus if you don't like a particular ezine, you can always unsubscribe. No lost to you, it's FREE. When I first started out on the web, I was just like you. I posted a website I thought mobs of people would come to visit my site, but it never happen. I felt frustrated, depressed, discouraged and thought the internet thing was a "big hype". Then I started subscribing to ezines and I read many books, subscribe to magzines that related to marketing & internet marketing; they have helped and are helping me to run a profitable and successful business online. Plus now that your prospects consider you as an expert in your field, you have to stay 1 step ahead of them. They'll look to YOU to help them solve their problems. Here's a list of ezines that you can start subscribing to: J.E. Circle Marketing Ezine Directory http://www.je-circle-marketing.com/freeezines.html I have also compiled the, "Traffic Junkie's Hit List!" This list contains several of the top ezine online that you can subscribe to and promote your products and services and get real results! To find out more: http://www.je-circle-marketing.com/trafficjunky.html 10. Start NOW! **************** Don't procrastinate or you'll NEVER do it. I can name 100's of things I'm stilling waiting to do and I know I'll never do them. So Start NOW! What's the worst thing that can happen? You implement these ideas, they work, you receive more traffic to your site and you make more money! Then again you could just continue to do nothing, but as we say "0 hits = $0, but MORE hits = MORE $$$! *This article cotains exerts from, "Net Marketing Made Easy!" For more info. about book; please send an email or visit site. To order; send $24.99 (Shipping included.) Outside the USA add $3.00. Send To: J.E. Circle Marketing, 66 West St, Albany, NY 12206 http://www.je-circle-marketing.com/trafficjunky.html#eb1 *This article may be reprinted and used in its entirety in your newsletters or ezines. Only requirement is that you also include the resources box below. ------------------------------------------------------------ **Article written by John Ellis. John has helped hundreds to find effective ways to promote their businesses. His desire is to assist other businesses in achieving the success YOU deserve! Subscribe to the FREE bi-weekly ezine NOW! http://www.je-circle-marketing.com ===================End of Report======================= %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Headlines: The Single Most Important Component of Marketing On the Net! %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Today I want to talk about something you can do to start an explosion in your business! I'm not bluffing. I'm absolutely serious! If you can grasp hold of the power of headlines and the role they play in online marketing you can revolutionize your business. Many top advertising agencies worldwide agree on this. You can multiply responses to ads, follow-up emails, press releases, etc. by as much as 500%-1000% or more if you will use a shocking, attention-grabbing, desire creating headline. Or you could use a so-so one...?.. The number one most critical part of your ad or sales letter is what?....... YOUR DEADLINE or YOUR TITLE! Look at it this way for a second. When someone reads the subject line in your commercial e-mail messages, they are reading a HEADLINE of sorts for that email message. Is your subject a shocking, attention-grabbing, desire creating headline?? If it's not you need to make it that way! Right away! In fact; pack this attention-grabbing headline with benefits for the customer or prospect and watch things REALLY get busy! I'm NOT talking about unbelievable claims to instant wealth for doing nothing. Nobody in their right mind believes those anyway. What I AM talking about is TELL THE READER WHAT YOUR OFFER WILL DO FOR THEM!! What does a headline do? An effective headline is important for many reasons. It attracts attention; Communicates a strong benefit; Appeals to the self-interest of the reader. It answers the question, "What's in it for me?"; Sets the tone for the offer. A headline acts like a marquee does for a movie theatre and selects the right audience. Which ad would you respond to? "A&G Tax Services" or "Wage Your Own Personal Tax Revolt at A&G Tax Services" or how about "Business Opportunity 3x8 forced matrix" or "One of the Few Ways Left For Little Guy to Get Rich!" (email autoresponder xxx@yyy.net for instant free info) Those are just a couple quickies off the top of my head but you get the picture. For you that post in newsgroups and discussion forums. It's your headline that MUST make them want to read more!...... When your site comes up in a search engine listing is it a real attention grabber or is it just OK. Do people surf in full of interest and expectancy or do they scroll on by to a stronger more exciting site? Which would you do?? Let's be real. As online marketers; we are as much ADVERTISER as MARKETER. Almost everything you advertise on the net will be dependent on how well your headline grabs the attention of the reader. If the headline doesn't grab them; they won't be reading the ad, salesletter, webpage, or whatever! I'm here to tell you that a headline change in the right direction can cause a 1000% increase in responses to the SAME IDENTICAL AD! Headlines seperate the "heavy hitters" from the average web marketer. Give much thought to this and don't take it lightly for your sakes. Many articles have been written about the importance of headlines; not because writers ran out of things to write about, but because of their extreme importance! Pack your headlines with customer BENEFITS (not features) and watch responses boom! Leon Brickey ; ------------------------------------------------------ **Leon is webmaster and owner of Appalachian Online Marketing at http://www.appalachianmarketing.com. At Appalachian Online Marketing you can find everything you need to turn your struggling business into an explosive moneymaker! Free subscription to Absolute Internet Marketing Resources Ezine containing the most current, up to date online marketing resources on the planet! mailto:ezine-subscribe@appalachianmarketing.com *Article may be used freely as long as the entire article appears along with this sig file. ################End of Report############### <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> What Should YOU Do If They're Still Not Coming? <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> By John Ellis Hello Everyone! How's your business? Fine I hope! Have you been doing business online for a while now? Or have you just started your online venture? What type of marketing have you tried? Has it been effective? Why not? I bet you have tried everything, right? You thought for sure the mobs would beat a path to your door; but you only came away disappointed. Now you're thinking the net is a 'big hype' and that it's impossible to run a successful business or make any money online, right? But the opposite may be true. You can run a successful online business! You can make a living from the net! I receive emails and I read post everyday from individuals who say that they've tried everything and listened to the advice of all the 'top gurus' of online marketing; but still nothing has happened. Your online business is still not bringing you results. Today I'm going to show you a few things that you can do right now, that will bring you more traffic, leads, prospects and more sales. 1. Develop A Marketing Plan & Commit To It This may be the #1 reason why your business is currently failing. One day you try submitting your links to search engines. Then the next day (after finding out that your inbox isn't flooded with orders), you figure it didn't work; so you jump to the classifieds. If this doesn't work you jump to press releases, then discussion forums and this just keeps going on and on. This is the wrong approach to online marketing. This is a sure way to failure. Not only can this be very confusing, but this also shows your lack of commitment; because you're so soon to give up on something if it doesn't bring you instant satisfaction. If you think your going to get instant satisfaction; you might as well start packing your bags now. I don't really blame you though.... Our whole life evolves around instant gratification. We want fast internet access, faster modems, faster downloading, instant oatmeal, we cook our food in microwaves...... But when it comes to marketing on the net, it's essential that you develop and commit to some sort of marketing plan. If your going to submit your links to search engines, concentrate only on that. If you want to use other promotional methods, set a time aside for that also. Write out your plan. Whether it's a to do list on a sheet of paper or on your calendar; write it down. Let's say that on Monday you're going to submit your links to search engines and on Tuesday you wanted to send out press releases; write it on your calendar. This will help you organize your marketing efforts. You'll soon see that you'll get more accomplished and you'll receive better results. 2. Don't Be Afraid To Change Or Try Something New Ok, you've set up your plan and you have an idea now what you're trying to accomplish. But you're not done yet..... Why do you think visitors are leaving your site? Why don't they send you their orders? It's because they don't recognize a good deal, right? Wrong. It may be that outdated website design, or they're having problems viewing your site on certain browsers. May be your content is outdated. May be your ads and sale letters are poorly written.... Whatever the case if you're currently using ads or any other promotional materials that are not bringing in responses or sales; it may be time to go back to the drawing board. I know you're hesitant to make changes, because you believe your ads or products are hot and one day they'll bring in the 'big one'. But it's time to realize that, maybe this won't happen and it's time to make some changes. But don't think of your fear of change as something foreign or uncommon; because we all fear change to a certain degree. When it's suggested, we naturally throw up a defense. We figure, "If it ani't broke don't fix it". We have been doing it for this long, it's no need to change it now. This attitude is totally wrong when it comes to marketing. You'll always have to make changes or adapt. Let's say you're selling a widget that comes in blue, but all of your customers have requested it in red. What will you do? Will you insist that they buy it in blue? Or will you start manufacturing the red widget? Of course, if your want to stay in business for a while, you'll make this change. As you can see change isn't always bad. I'm sure you have heard the stories of those who businesses were failing miserably because their ads or sales letters weren't bringing in sales. Then when they change a few words, the ads brought in millions! So you may only have to change a word or two. Maybe it's only a few typos on your site. May be you should stop relying on free resources and start investing some of your own money to promote your business? You can't always expect something for nothing. Maybe you should start doing some offline marketing to promote your site? Whatever your case may be, do whatever is necessary to bring in sales. Don't let a color or a couple words stand between you and your success. We mentioned earlier about those who seek instant satisfaction from the net. When marketing online, you should try to look at it from a long term perspective. What you do today, may not bring you results until next month or next year. Some prospects will have to become familiar with who you are, your company, your products and services. This may require some time. Because things change so rapidly on the net. What was useful and effective yesterday may be obsolete today. So be sure that you continue to stay up-dated with the newest marketing techniques and technologies. *This article may be reprinted and used only in its entirety in your newsletters or ezines. Only requirement is that you also include the resources box below. ------------------------------------------------------- **Article by John Ellis. John has written many articles, manuals, and books about online marketing. His desire is to assist other businesses in achieving the success YOU deserve! Check out his newest book, "Net Marketing Made Easy!" Subscribe to the FREE bi-weekly ezine NOW! ; http://www.je-circle-marketing.com ####################End of Report################## @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ 4 Steps To Make YOUR Classifieds Sell! @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ We've all heard the saying, "It takes money to make money." They really should have went on to say, "It takes BIG money to make BIG money." The local car dealership that has those commercials on TV every night during the national news may be spending a million dollars or more just to get those ads in that desirable time slot. So what is the small or home business owner to do? Most small business owners don't have a million dollar advertising budget. How can you get advertising that really works for little or no money? If you are on a limited or non-existent advertising budget use classified advertising. Classified ads come in a variety of sizes and costs. Many are free or inexpensive at least, and can be quite effective. Classifieds appear everywhere from neighborhood newsletters to huge national newspapers and magazines that reach tens of millions of viewers per month. I can attest personally the fact that CLASSIFIEDS DO REALLY WORK! You can get customers and prospects; as well as sell your product or service. But, ONLY if you know how to use classifieds to your advantage. Here are four basic steps you can start using today to make your classifieds work for you. #1 Target your best prospects. "Targeted prospects. Target market." I wish I had a dollar for every time I have heard or read those words this year. Sounds cliché doesn't it? It's not! It's hands down the best way to make your ads work! Every newspaper, ezine, and website has it's own particular kind of audience. Hear this folks: Your ads will not sell unless your product or service is something THAT PUBLICATION'S particular audience would buy. To understand what type audience a particular publication is reaching, look at their articles and ads. What are they selling? What kind of folks would buy these items? Consider age, lifestyle, gender, income, and education level. It won't take very long at all and you'll have a good idea of what kind of audience that particular publication reaches. "USA Today" attracts a very large international audience primarily of very well paid business people. Your local bargin shopper newsletter probably focuses on working class folks looking for a bargin. The local daily or weekly newspaper tends to do best with local homeowners and citizens. A mail order tabloid often goes after thousands of opportunity seekers at a time. The internet by it's very nature tends to appeal to well educated, up-scale audiences in their 20s, 30s, and 40s. #2 Write a good headline. Definitely one of my "pet peaves." With any classified the headline makes or breaks the ad. I've told many of my downline members this over and over?" If you don't have a real attention grabbing headline your ad will never even be read." This is true folks. Very briefly put as much key information in your headline as you can in 3 to 6 words. This means your headline has to get the prospects attention and tell him enough about the ad to make him want to read the rest of the ad. For example if I had a computer I wanted to sell in my local weekly newspaper what should I write??..It could vary somewhat, but I would primarily be dealing with a local family type audience. I could write: COMPUTER FOR SALE! POWERFUL! CHEAP! In 5 words I've told the prospect what the item is, something about it's quality and benefit (POWERFUL & CHEAP), and at the same time given a clue about the price. If I advertised that same computer in a newsgroup that had an audience of computer enthusiasts; I would need to change the headline to reflect their more advanced understanding. PENTIUM II, 333, LIKE NEW, UNDER $1200! You want to show your prospect what your product, service, or opportunity will do for them, but DO NOT MAKE OUTRAGEOUS CLAIMS. No get rich quick. No millionaire in 60 day programs. You know the kind I'm talking about I think. Small business owners can build a financial empire in business on the internet or off for that matter; but unless you are a super motivated, marketing superstar with hundreds of contacts it's not gonna happen in 30, 60, or 90 days. Do NOT make unbelievable claims. #3 Keep the body of your ad short. Shorter ads usually cost less. Even if you are somewhere that allows 50 or 100 words per classified, make your writing concise and to the point. No need to write in complete sentences in classifieds as long as you make sense. A good rule of thumb with classifieds is; if it can be said with less words effectively, use less words. Lay out the essential info about your product or service and SHOW THE PROSPECT HOW IT BENEFITS THEM! Give all your contact info. A name, mail address, phone number, email address, and website url add so much credibility. In summary: 1)Essential info. 2)Incredible Benefits. 3)Urge prospect to mail, email, or call now! Words like free, new, amazing, now, how-to, discover, method, plan, reveals, advanced, and improved always work well in ads. Use the word YOU very often as you talk about the benefits of your product or service. Some expert copy writers capitalize the word YOU in their ads. #4 Track your ads. You are throwing your money out the window if you don't know which ads work and which ads don't. Key your ads and run them in only a few places at first to see how they work. The real pros always code their ads so they know which publications and which ads work. Not every ad will do as well as you might expect. When you come up with a really good one that brings good response. PLASTER IT EVERYWHERE and don't stop till it stops pulling. Many of the higher traffic, online classified boards notify you when you get a response from their site. This is a nice feature and makes it easy for you to know how many responses came from that particular site. I promise you that the few days it will take you to test some various ads will be nothing when compared to the response you will get from one really good headline and ad. Just try it and see for yourself. By using the above 4 techniques in your classifieds you will reach more of your best prospects, sell or recruit more, and reduce the time and money you spend on classifieds. Good luck, Leon Brickey mailto:webmaster@appalachianmarketing.com ----------------------------------------------------------- Leon is webmaster and owner of Appalachian Online Marketing at http://www.appalachianmarketing.com. At Appalachian Online Marketing you can find everything you need to turn your struggling business into an explosive moneymaker! Free subscription to Absolute Internet Marketing Resources Ezine containing the most current, up to date online marketing resources on the planet! mailto:ezine@appalachianmarketing.com?subject=arsubscribe *Article may be used freely as long as the entire article appears along with this sig file. #######################End of Report#################### ############################ Signature Files: How to Sign, Seal & Deliver Them! ############################ Hello everyone! How's your business? Fine I hope! In this report we are going to talk about one of the greatest marketing tools online. Singnature Files (or Resources Boxes). Right away I know your reaction; you're saying "I already know about SIG files and how to use them; I'm using them everyday." It's funny how many other marketers online feel the same way and jump to conclusions when you mention the topic of SIG files. They feel it's nothing major like publishing your ezine or copywriting your ads or sales letters. This reminds me of the little termite. When you view it with the eye, it seems very harmless or that it can't do very much damage. But let a bunch of them get into the foundation of your home. You'll have major problems! The foundation of your home will be ruined, and this can cause the value of your home to depreciate. The same applies when using SIG files in your online marketing arsenal. You shouldn't over look them or take them lightly. The same attention you give to writing ad copies and sales letters; should be the same energies used for your SIG files. Because writing a bad SIG file can ruin your responses to your ads, sales letters or any other marketing tools you may use. What is a SIG file or a resource box? If you look at the end of almost any email you've received you'll see a SIG file. IE: John John CEO xyz company xyz@abc.com http://www.xyz.com The sender use their SIG file to give you a brief description of who they are and what products or services they have to offer. You can also find SIG files being used on messages boards, opt-in mailing list, discussion groups, guest books and everywhere else on the web. They're sort of used as your electronic business cards. You pass them one to everyone you come in contact with If your SIG file is used to give the reader information about your website, products or services; then you can consider it sort of like an ad, right? And as I always ask, "What's the purpose of any type of advertisement?" It's only purpose is to inform? It's to entertain or show off? It's to let everyone know you are the CEO of the xyz company, right? Wrong! The only purpose for any type of advertisement is to make the sell! That's it! If you're in business not to make money, then you're in the wrong business. The only purpose for your SIG file is to lure the reader to your site, so that they will make a purchase. Now let's take another look at the SIG file. John John CEO xyz company xyz@abc.com http://www.xyz.com Will this SIG file motivate you to visit the xyz site? It doesn't do anything for me. I wouldn't visit the site. But now let's take a look at how you should wirte your SIG files. You are aware or have heard of the A.I.D.A. formula, right? This formula states that any ad you write should Attract its reader attention. It should create and Interest and the Desire to Act upon your offer immediately. Commit this simple formula to memory. You can use it when you write your ads, sales letters, SIG files or any other type of advertisment. By implementing this formula into your SIG files your responses will increase dramatically. But before you can effectively use the A.I.D.A. formula, your ads or SIG files must answer the most important question to its reader, "What's in it for ME? Why should I visit your site? What benefits will I receive from visiting your site? etc..." This means your SIG file must be packed with "client centered" benefits. The SIG file above won't be effective because it fails to answer any of these questions. If you are using similar SIG files as the one above; your SIG file will also fail. Now let's try to rewrite the SIG file. This time we are going to use the A.I.D.A. formula and pack it with "client centered" benefits. John John Do YOU need MORE traffic to YOUR site? Click Here NOW! FREE resources & marketing tools! Send for FREE Report NOW! http://www.je_circle-marketing.com I know what your first reaction was when you saw this new SIG file. "But he didn't let them know what position he holds at the company, or his title. He didn't even give them the name of his company. What's the use?" You're absolutely right. I excluded that information. Not that it wasn't important, but it has no relevance in your SIG file. It is said that most of your ads will only have 30 seconds to capture the attention and interest of its reader. If you fail to catch their attention in this time frame, you might as well hang it up. So it's essential that you eliminate useless words and only use effective words that show "client centered" benefits. Also your SIG file should be very brief, not wordy. Only contain 5 or at the most 6 lines of text. We will discuss the reasons for this later. But for now let's look at our new SIG file. Does it contain "client centered" benefits? Does it answer the A.I.D.A. formula? Does it answer the "What's in it for ME?" questions? Does this SIG file catch your Attention? - If you're a webmaster and you want more visitors to your site, yes it does. Does it create an Intrest? - "MORE traffic". The webmaster knows that the more visitors they can get to their sites the more sales they'll make. Yes, this ad does create Interest. Does it create a Desire to act on this offer immediately? - Yes, it does create a sense of 'urgency'. If you want more hits to your website you must "Click Here NOW!" or "Send for FREE report NOW!" Does this SIG file call the reader to Action? - Yes, it tells the read exactly what to do next to take advantage of this offer. "Click Here NOW!" or "Send for FREE Report NOW!" "What's in it for ME?" - Free reports, free promotional tools, more traffic and more sales. Overview: 1. Your SIG file should be concise. No more that 5 or 6 lines. Don't write a SIG file with a long list of all the programs you're involved in. This is a turn off. It's just like visiting a site with a long list of links to all the webmaster's associate programs. This is ineffective and can also confuse the reader; because they wont be able to determine which link to click. Provide a link to one of your main pages where they'll be able to find your other links. Eliminate useless and irrelevant words. Remember to use and test several SIG files. You can use a different one for each advertising medium. 2. Remember to use the A.I.D.A. formula. Your SIG file should Attract and grab the reader's attention. Create an Interest and a Desire to act on your offer now (sense of 'urgency'. Tell the reader specifically what Actions to take next, if they want to take advantage of your offer. "Click here" or "Send for report". 3. In order for you to successfully use the A.I.D.A. formula you must pack your SIG file with "client centered" benefits. Answer the "What's in it for ME?" questions. *This article contains exerts from, "Net Marketing Made Easy!" For more info. or to read exerts, please send an email or visit site. To order send $24.99 (Shipping included) Outside the USA add $3.00 To: J.E. Circle Marketing, P.O. Box 6476, Albany, NY 12206 http://www.je-circle-marketing.com/trafficjunky.html#ebk1sigart *This article may be reprinted and used in its entirety in your newsletters or ezines. Only requirement is that you also include the resource box below. ----------------------------------------------------------- **Article written by John Ellis. John has written several articles, books and manuals on online marketing. His desire is to assist other online businesses in achieving the success YOU deserve! Subscribe to the FREE bi-weekly ezine! http://www.je-circle-marketing.com ##################End of Report############### ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ How YOU Can Get More Hits From Yahoo Classifieds. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ As web marketers we all have more than likely ran many, many classifieds. Classifieds are tough to say the least. Many classified sites just don't get enough traffic to send you or anyone else very many hits….not the case with Yahoo. Yahoo gets millions and millions and millions of hits! Yahoo can send you hundreds of hits per week if you work them consistently. Yahoo has without a doubt the busiest classified site on the internet. If you own an online business or are just starting an online business Yahoo can definitely by one of your best advertising avenues! And best of all it's free! At least for now. Here's what you do: First go to http://www.yahoo.com. Click on the classified link. The classified link will be seen on the first screen to appear in your browser. If you aren't a registered Yahoo user you will need to register at this time. You must be registered to place classifieds. Once you are registered return to the classified main page. 1) Click "submit ads." If you have any ads in Yahoo delete them all before starting to place your new ad. 2) Choose your category. This is important. If you choose a wrong category your ad may not be placed. If your ad relates to a business opportunity go ahead and go into "business opportunities." This is a broad category so check it out first. 3) As you start to place your ad you will be given two sets of subcategories. The first is the most important. Let's address the first category. Do not SPAM these subcategories, but see how many you can work your offer into. You can submit a maximum of 10 ads at one time. You may need to reword your headline and ad a little bit, to qualify your ad for 10 of the 12 categories. Usually with online marketing business opportunities you can qualify for 10 of the 12 subcategories. If however you don't qualify for 10 only use as many as apply to your offer. If you abuse this service by placing ads in non-applicable categories a) your ad won't get placed and you may get banned from Yahoo classifieds, b) Yahoo will make it harder for everyone or worse yet Yahoo will discontinue the free classifieds altogether….it is a free service you know! Now the second set of subcategories. These should be chosen wisely. Simply choose the one that MOST applies to your ad. These are subcategories for the FIRST set of subcategories. This isn't difficult. Once you've been through these categories a couple times you'll be fine. ? Yahoo has recently upgraded their free classified service to post ads within 24 hours of the time they are submitted. With the traffic Yahoo gets your ads pull best during the 24 to 48 hour window after you place you ads. It doesn't get posted for about 24 hours then it is highly visible till the next day; which is about 48 hours after you placed your ads. So, you MUST go back to Yahoo every 2 days, delete ALL your ads and place ten new ads exactly as you did two days ago. I can do this in 30 minutes or less and it's well worth my time I assure you! You may need to perfect your headline and ad copy as you go along to improve response. Not being cold, but if your ads in Yahoo don't pull some response…….it's your ad! One of the main keys to classifieds is to post consistently. You must repost often! Thanks for your time. Best of luck to you! Leon Brickey ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Leon is webmaster and owner of Appalachian Online Marketing at http://www.appalachianmarketing.com. At Appalachian Online Marketing you can find everything you need to turn your struggling business into an explosive moneymaker! Free subscription to Absolute Internet Marketing Resources Ezine containing the most current, up to date online marketing resources on the planet. mailto:ezine@appalachianmarketing.com?subject=subscribe *Article may be used freely as long as the entire article appears along with this sig file. ##########################END OF REPORT########################## %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Autoresponders: The RIGHT Way To USE Them %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Autoresponders, also called "mailbots" or "infobots" are basically small programs used in emailing that will cause a service provider to automatically send a document to any user who sends an email to that autoresponder's email address. Autoresponders are an absolute MUST for doing business on the internet. They are a powerful tool you can use to help automate your business. The problem is that they are misused or not used to their full potential by many online marketers. I'm sure most of you are somewhat familiar with autoresponders, but just for those who aren't let me very briefly cover the basics. ALL autoresponders are NOT created equal! In addition to that; the cheapest price may not be best choice! Here are a few key points to keep in mind while shopping for autoresponders; 1) You MUST have control over your autoresponder documents at all times. In other words you must be able to upload a new document any time you want or need to. 2) Your autoresponder should be user friendly. Some autoresponder services require you to enter a particular email subject or email body in order to retreive the document you are requesting. These autoresponders will work, but they are more difficult for the user to understand and if the instructions aren't followed precisely your prospect gets NOTHING! Why take a chance on losing a prospect or a sale? *Keep it simple. Remember K.I.S.S. keep it simple sweetheart or keep it simple stupid; whichever the case may be. Set your autoresponder to send the document back to the person requesting it no matter what is in the subject or body of the message. When I advertise info on an autoresponder I say "Send any email to:". Most saavy marketers automatically recognize this as an autoresponder email address. This type of autoresponder will require you to have a separate email address for each various message you wish to offer. *For example: healines@yourbiz.com (headlines report) and banners@yourbiz.com for info on banners. These are not true email addresses. They are just an example. *With the autoresponders that ARE NOT user-friendly one email address can control more than one document. Here is how they work: To get info on headlines you may email the address abc@yourbiz.com and enter HEADLINES in the subject. You may also get the info on banners by emailing abc@yourbiz.com, but you must enter BANNERS in the subject to get the banners document. However what happens if the prospect or customer enters headlines or banners in small letters? What if they put an exclamation point or a period? NOTHING! They get no info and you lose a contact.(ouch!) Again these email addresses are just made up to illustrate the example. *Many autoresponders limit the size of your document/message. Be careful. If your AR will only send 15K or 30K messages maximum; that's gonna place limitations on how you use it. Get autoresponders that allow you to send unlimited size messages or at least very large messages. Also be sure you can send attachments; this will allow you to send more complex documents as well as graphics, etc. *Be sure you find out how quickly you can update your messages, set-up additional autoresponders, etc. as you need them. I think most of the more modern autoresponders allow you to change them yourself as needed, but I can tell you from experience there are some providers who have to change your message for you. A good rule of thumb is…STAY AWAY! *Does the autoresponder log and save every email address that contacts it? Even better; does it forward the contacting email to you? This is critically important! If you get the email addresses you have a way of following up. If you don't get the email address….what's the point? Bottom line; be sure you get at the very least the requesting email address and even better the requesting email message which of course also has the date and time of the contact. If the autoresponder you are considering doesn't get the email address or message to you…KEEP LOOKING! Now…….THE DOWNSIDE. Stay away from autoresponders that: a) charge high set-up fees (more than $25 is unacceptable.) b) charge more than $10 per month for the service. c) charge you "per hit" or every time someone requests your document. d) require you to send your document to some sort of service provider and THEY will take care of uploading your document for. You lose your ability to control and change the document. Been there. Done that. FORGET IT! Most marketers use autoresponders for sending out articles, sales letters, press releases, etc. They post their ads in classifieds, message boards, newsgroups, FFAs, discussion groups, forums, etc urging readers to email the autoresponder for more info. Once you learn these basics and fine tune your ad copy you will get requests and sales. OK, that's enough for now. There you have the basics. Within the next week I'll have part 2 of this article finished. I'm working on some ideas that are a little more advanced that can really unleash the power of autoresponders! Stay tuned….. By Leon Brickey mailto:webmaster@appalachianmarketing.com The RIGHT Way To Use Autoresponders (pt 2) *Have you ever heard the words "back end products" or "back end sales?" Many of you have, but let's look a little closer. We need an example to illustrate this, so I'm gonna use a business opportunity that I am somewhat familiar with. Just for this article let's say you are involved in reselling telecommunications type services. A VERY lucrative type product or service to market. Let's say you sell long distance, calling cards, toll free 800/888 numbers, internet service, internet based fax services, internet phone telephone service, etc. And let's say you have a customer who decides to try your long distance service. Usually, you will receive email notification immediately of every sale or order. You can simply set-up an autoresponder to send a very polite thank you note to the email address of the person placing the order. In addition you could include some valuable info regarding the product or service the customer just placed. (specials, updates, changes, etc.) After the thank you and the valuable info you can now offer a product or service that is pertinent to the product or service the customer just signed up for….. So you have a small business owner as a long distance customer. You acknowledge him as a customer, thank him, give some valuable information which is pertinent to the service, and include some info on toll free 800/888 toll free numbers, internet based fax services or internet phone telephone services. These are all products that your new customer may be interested in. You know that because the customer just purchased telecommunications services from YOUR website. So the chances the customer may be interested in other telecommunications services is pretty good. At the end of the email tell the customer that you will keep him updated regarding any special offers or new services from time to time. Then give them remove instructions in case they prefer not to receive anymore email from you. What this does is send a sales letter for your OTHER products and services along with the thank you and free info that pertained to their recently purchased service. Keep this email short; one to two pages at most. So how can I do this Leon? It's as simple as putting your autoresponder address in the recipient list of the submission form the customer signs up on. If it's your own product and your own form; no problem. About 10 seconds work and it's done. If you are working someone else's associate program you will have to ask to see if you can get your AR address in the recipient list of the submission form used from your website. I can tell you it's no problem with some associate programs to make this modification, but I can't speak for all. A very small percentage of these customers will ask to be removed. Don't worry about that. Just kindly remove them and thank them. The good that will come from this is that you now have "white hot" qualified leads for your other telecommunications products and services. When the customer signs up for 800 numbers and internet based fax; these are what marketers call "back end sales." This is not theory this is PROVEN to be quite effective. Anyone with past experiences in business opportunities (offline or online) will probably be familiar with the value of "back end sales." Back end sales will cause your profits to skyrocket! *Another way you can make autoresponders work for you is by using them in conjunction with your website. I've had a couple of my ezine subscribers ask me if they could capture email addresses from all the visitors to their site. Unfortunately no. The browsers folks use to visit your website will tell you what domain they are from, what the last url they visited was, but it will not give you the email addresses. Here are a few ways to get the email addresses of your visitors. First, guest-books have been popular on the web for some time. An electronic guest book; no different than a guest-book in a hotel except it's on the internet and it's electronic of course. Visitors sign in and leave their email addresses along with some feedback on your website. If the website is yours and it's your guest-book you may be able to modify the guest-book to hit your autoresponder and send the guest-book entry a follow-up email. However even if you can't configure the guest-book with your autoresponder you still get the email address; which is what you wanted anyway. Secondly, you can offer a free newsletter. This is VERY POWERFUL! Allow folks to sign up for your free ezine/newsletter from your site. You can easily set-up an autoresponder to send a thank you and confirmation of their subscription as soon as the visitor subscribes. Of course your sig-file will be at the bottom of the "thank you/confirmation email." After that you get to regularly send the subscriber information regularly by email which costs you NOTHING except your time! The third method would be to offer any reports you have displayed on your website in email format via autoresponder. This way folks can save the report for future reference or they can print the report and lie on the couch and read it instead of sitting in that tiring office chair. ? You get the email address of anyone requesting a report from your site and can follow-up. I've had very good luck with this method. If you write decent reports folks will read them. Let me inject one point about autoresponders and email. Many of us in the US have "unlimited" internet access for a flat fee of $20-30 per month. Not so in most other countries and not always true in the US. Many folks pay by the hour in 15 minute increments. By offering your sales information/ newsletter/ article in email format you allow the individual to download the email in a couple seconds and read it at their convenience. This is a tremendous help to those folks and I guarantee you they will more likely read it in email format than if they had to stay online to read it from your website. Enough said…. * Next I want to touch on the autoresponders that do automatic follow-up. These type autoresponders have been popular for the last 9-12 months. The concept of "following-up" is great. Lots of studies to prove it's value. AWeber http://www.aweber.com/ offers these auto follow-up autoresponders. They aren't cheap, but they do have value in marketing online. Also you can get a free autofollow-up autoresponder from email super-guru Sanford Wallace at http://www.smartbot.net/. The only requirement to receive one Sanford's autoresponders is to be on his mailing list; which is a serious mailing list. These autoresponders do work. Let me inject a very brief point about the autofollow-up autoresponders. The idea is great; it's proven that you close a MUCH HIGHER number of sales by following up. However, you have to have good copy writing to do this. Actually several other marketing strategies come into play here such as sweetening the offer, placing a time deadline on the offer, etc. In the last couple months I've hit many of these auto-follow up autoresponders just to see how they designed the follow-up emails. Some were horrible! I received one that in the subject said: Are you dead?!!! In the body of the message they made the reader feel like a fool's fool for not already responding to the offer. I'll tell you this, 6 or 7 follow-up emails like that and you'll never make a sale to any of your prospects. Along with all the ideas any marketers are willing to share with you NONE will help you any more than being able to write good headlines and copy writing! It's a must! As I said earlier I like the idea of getting my autoresponders through my web host which is Virtualis http://www.virtualisys.com/vr/lbrickey. This way the autoresponders have my domain name appalachianmarketing.com. A very good place to get quality autoresponders outside your webhost is Infoback.net at http://www.infoback.net/. I've used their services in the past and they are affordable and top notch. I'm not a reseller for Infoback so this is an unbiased opinion. However, if you need more than a few autoresponders you would benefit more from a web host that offered unlimited autoresponders for the flat fee. That's it for now. I welcome your feedback. If you have any good autoresponder techniques feel free to let me know and we'll discuss them also. I hope this has helped you in your marketing efforts. It really doesn't matter what you are selling; whether it's books, software, golf clubs, vacations, or automobiles you can incorporate many of these ideas into your marketing programs. Thank you, Best of luck! Leon Brickey webmaster@appalachianmarketing.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Leon is webmaster and owner of Appalachian Online Marketing at http://www.appalachianmarketing.com. At Appalachian Online Marketing you can find everything you need to turn your struggling business into an explosive moneymaker! Free subscription to Absolute Internet Marketing Resources Ezine containing the most current, up to date online marketing resources on the planet! mailto:ezine-subscribe@appalachianmarketing.com *Article may be used freely as long as the entire article appears along with this sig file. ############################END OF REPORT############################## ######################## Where Are YOU Fishing? ######################### John is very happy because he has just finished creating his first website. He's excited, anxious and has great anticipation that mobs of visitors will come to his site. John begins to place his ads on free classified sites, submit his URL to search engines, link pages and he has joined a few banner exchange programs, but to John's surprise nothing happens. John commits to place his ads and submit his URL everyday, but 6 months later he receives very little results from his marketing efforts. Sounds too familiar, right? Why does it seem that when we try to do everything in our power to promote our online businesses, it appear that it still comes to nothing? In the end it seems that you have only wasted YOUR time and YOUR money? There could be many reasons why marketing efforts fail: You could have a poor ad copy, promoting the wrong products or services, capital, etc... Many of us are like John we just think if we put it out there, people have to come. But this attitude is totally wrong! If you continue to think this way you'll continue to waste more of your time and money! I was once told that marketing is like fishing. If you only have one line in the water, you'll catch a fish here and there. But the more lines you throw out, the more fish you'll catch. Which meant I should place more ads on classified sites, in more ezines, in more magazines, submit my URL to more search engines and link pages. This also meant that I should try to plaster my ads everywhere when given the opportunity; because the more people to view my ads, the more responses I will receive. As marketers isn't this our attitude already? We want everyone in the world to see our ads and purchase our products or services; so why does this perspective also fail? Although the internet is one of the greatest mediums that gives us all the advantage and the ability to market our products worldwide; let's face it, the world is not interested in your products. Let's say that one of your ads brought in 250,000 orders in one day. Will you be able to handle these orders? Most small businesses wont. Casting many fishing lines into the waters may sound good, but this can be your guaranteed road to failure. Let's look at marketing as if we all were fishermen. We hear that big fish bite down at Prospects Lake. We all gather at Prospects Lake and throw out our 5, 10, 20 fishing lines everyday in hope of catching all these big fish. We figure the more lines we put out there, we are bound to catch all these fish. But what do you think will really happen? With all those lines out there the fish will probably become confused. The lines will probably tangle. Most people will probably be using fake bait and this will discourage the fish from biting; because they wont be able to tell the fake bait from the real thing. So what should you do? How can you compete in such a vast market place? The first thing you must do is start targeting your marketing efforts. You must totally change your "cast out many lines" attitude and concentrate on what really works. Yes, you may have some success fishing at Prospects Lake, but why only accept the crumbs when you can have the whole. Before we all flock down to Prospects Lake, we must first determine if fishing here will be to our benefit or not? You can start by asking: * What type of fishermen are you? * What type of fish do you want to catch? * What type of fish are at Prospects Lake? * Are these the type of fish you want to catch? * What type of bait do they like? * Can you catch enough fish to sustain you for years to come? * Can you catch enough fish to support you for a life time? * Does fishing at Prospects Lake, guarantee catch? * Is Prospects Lake the only place to fish? * Are there too many people fishing here? Prospects Lake may appear to be a fishermen's dream, just as the internet may be to the marketer, but this may not be always true. The internet like Prospects Lake has too many fishermen. They're all attempting to reach the same prospects, offering similar products and services, using the same techniques and cliches etc... Prospects are bombarded with 100's of ads everyday; so they too become very confused and can not distinguish your ads from the next persons offer. You also lack a USP (Unique Selling Position). You fail to show prospects the benefits that make your offer stand out from the rest of the crowd. Prospects only see your ad as just another ad. It is essential the you develop your USP. This will help you determine who and what your targeted market will consist of. What if you were only interested in catching cat fish, but at Prospects Lake there were only salmon? You will be wasting your time and effort fishing there. On the other hand, what if there were 2 large ponds and another lake where you would be sure to catch cat fish? You would receive better results fishing in them. Now let's say your online business was wholesale merchandising. Your targeted market may consist of other wholesalers, retailers, distributors. Instead of trying to market your products to the world, you now begin to target where and to who you market your products. You find classified sites, ezines, opt-in mailing lists, magazines etc... that relate to your targeted market. To some this may seem that we are trying to cut down our targeted market or lessen our chances for better results. When first trying to only reach your targeted market, you may feel that you are not doing your job as a marketer or that you are lessening your chances of growing or expanding, but simple targeted marketing will increase your chances of growth. There are many successful online businesses that only cater and service there local areas. They never try to promote and market their products to the whole world; they only concentrate on trying to reach this smaller market. To many of us they may seem "small time", but many are making 6 - 7 figure incomes. Trying to be "bigger" may not always be better. By reaching this smaller market they receive better results and can build better relationships. Plus targeted marketing saves you time and money. So where will YOU be fishing next time? Will YOU be down at Prospects Lake, throwing out "many lines"? Or at the lake where YOU will be guaranteed to catch more fish? *This article may be reprinted and used in its entirety in your newsletters or ezines. Only requirement is that you also include the resources box below. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ **Article written by John Ellis. John has written several articles, books and manuals on online marketing. Check his newest book, "Net Marketing Made Easy!" His desire is to assist other online businesses in achieving the success YOU deserve! Subscribe to the FREE bi-weekly ezine! http://www.je-circle-marketing.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Successful Email Marketing Without Losing YOUR ISP Account! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I like many if not most online marketers work with a small advertising budget. To be honest I hate to spend my hard earned money on advertising. Especially if I can get as good or better exposure through free or very inexpensive advertising mediums. During the last year I've learned some pretty good ways of doing just that. Right now I'd like to share some of those ways with you. Calm down now. I'm not going to tell you to spend days, and days, and days running free classifieds, although classifieds do work if you have an exceptional ad. But in general what I want to share with you is much more powerful than free classifieds alone. So how does a low budget online marketer get the best free and inexpensive advertising. Easy. All you have to do is utilize the BEST free advertising tool ever invented to date… Email! There are many ways you can utilize email marketing to promote your businesses or websites. To keep things simple let's break email marketing down into two distinct categories. Targeted and Untargeted (ie. SPAM). UNTARGETED EMAIL: We will discuss this first and expose why it is a total waste of time. Unsolicited Commercial Email, Spamming, or sending bulk email to "unqualified" email addreses is bad netiquette. What kind of credibility and online presence can you establish if you have to hide behind a false email address or a false name anyway? I'm certainly not going to give my Visa # or checking account # to anyone who lies about their name, email address, etc. and I think a great many folks would agree with me. If you send unsolicited email to addresses that do not want commercial email, not only do you risk the reputation of your business, you can get into more trouble than you would expect. What kind of trouble Leon? For openers many ISPs do not allow this activity and they will discontinue your account as soon as the inevitable complaints start to trickle in. In addition several states are now threatening to take legal action against senders on UCE. Still want to spend $400-$500 on that fancy bulk email software? If you want better results without the risk, consider the following alternatives... TARGETED EMAIL Targeted email really works! Truly targeted email means getting your email to recipients that HAVE approved of it. Not only do your get better results, you won't have to worry about ISP cancellation, legal action, and more importantly, the reputation of your business. Here are the best targeted email marketing methods I've found. (Listed from most expensive to least expensive.) a) opt-in email list rental b) ezine advertising c) ezine publishing d) email discussion group participation Here are the details on how to utilize each one: Opt-In: You may or may not be aware of the fact that you can actually rent email lists of people who have approved email about certain topics. Just about ANY topic imaginable a to z and everything in between! This method is not the cheapest form of targeted email marketing, but it works! On average, you'll have to spend about ten to fifteen cents per address. The companies that rent the addresses even do the mailing for you. You email your sales letter to them and just sit back and wait for the orders! There are tons of companies that offer legitimate opt-in email lists. I will give you a few good ones to get started. These come highly recommended from some experienced online marketers. PostMaster-Direct at http://www.postmasterdirect.com/ Bulletmail - http://www.bulletmail.com Htmail - http://www.htmail.com/customer.html Targ-It - http://www.targ-it.com/ Ezine Advertising I'm a huge fan of ezine advertising and regularly utilize this low budget method of advertising. I'm not just saying that to bring in advertisers for my own newsletter. Quite simply, email advertising works! It has a proven track record! I'm telling you first hand a good ad in one of the major ezines that have 30,00-40,000 or more subscribers can bring YOU hundreds of subscribers or hundreds of hits in just a couple days! Ads in the major ezines will run any where from $30 to $200 or more. Many of the larger companies have just started to realize this and are entering into this exciting new advertising medium. Compared with the high costs of web site banner advertising (check around and you'll be shocked!), ezine advertising is a bargain. Ezine Publishing One step better than "advertising" in ezines, is actually publishing an ezine of your own. If you are not already publishing your own e-newsletter, I highly recommend it! I have made more sales and signed up more reps(resellers) as a result of my ezine, and other ezine advertising, than all other advertising media I've tried combined. Your customers, downlines and prospects will constantly be "in touch" and your ezine can keep them informed of new products and services as you make them available. You can also generate income offering classified or sponsorship advertising if you wish. Unlike traditional newsletters that are printed on paper there are no printing or postage costs. Because of this you can offer free subscriptions, thus insuring a steady flow of new prospects. If you want to get started publishing your own ezine, you do not need to pay for list management at first. You can manage and deliver your ezine yourself with a good email program. I personally use MS Outlook'98 which was given to me for free. I understand Eudora Pro and Eudora Lite are both excellent. There are many more excellent email programs around. Many of them can be downloaded free on the net. Once you have your email program installed, practice mailing to a few people at once by using the BCC (blind carbon copy) feature. It's important to use the BCC field when mailing to a list. This insures that everyone on the list does not see other email addresses on the list. No one wants their email address publicized all over the net. If you want to make my blood boil and be sure not to get me even look at what you are offering; just send me an email with my address displayed with others. This is very unprofessional and will make folks not like you! Email a few friends several times till you are able to email correctly using a list and using BCC. After you've perfected your emailing skills, all you need is some subscribers. That's easy, simply post a message announcing your newsletter to the "NewList Announcement List". Full details on posting are here: http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/scout/new-list/format.html. Discussion Group Marketing An email discussion group can be delivered via email like this email newsletter you are reading right now. But a discussion list differs from an email newsletter in one major way -- you are allowed to voice your opinion. Many are moderated and many are unmoderated. What way can a discussion group help you and your business? Discussion lists also allow you to ask for help from others in that same particular area of interest. What's more, you can assist people in need while your sig file (the footer you include at the end of every email message you send) invites readers to your site. Discussion group marketing works because the posts are delivered directly TO a targeted audience. Once again, push marketing at it's finest! In addition to posting to discussion groups you should consider advertising if the group you join offers it. This is targeted email marketing at it's best. No matter what you are marketing online, participating in discussion lists makes sense. Not only will you learn some valuable information, it's is a great way to soft-sell some of your wares. Hard selling is not allowed in many discussion groups. Very often these lists are quite large. If you hard sell or do blatant advertising; there is a pretty good chance you might get flamed. Flamed to the tune of 20 or 30 thousand flames as soon as your blatant advertising is posted. So be careful. Sig files are fine. It's often good to check things out for a couple days before starting to participate in the discussions. To find some discussion groups on your particular area of interest, go to http://www.e-groups.com/. After a while you may want to start your own! You really can use email marketing without getting in trouble with your ISP and the courts. Enough for now, but remember, whatever email marketing method you choose, be sure that everything single email you send out includes your URL and a brief description of exactly how YOU can be of service to anyone who may be reading that email! By Leon Brickey --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Leon is webmaster and owner of Appalachian Online Marketing at http://www.appalachianmarketing.com. At Appalachian Online Marketing you can find everything you need to turn your struggling business into an explosive moneymaker! Free subscription to Absolute Internet Marketing Resources Ezine containing the most current, up to date online marketing resources on the planet. mailto:ezine@appalachianmarketing.com?subject=subscribe *Article may be used freely as long as the entire article appears along with this sig file. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Stop The Cloning! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Hello Everyone, How is your business? Fine I hope! This week we are going to discuss something that may ruffle a few feathers. But this information will be very detrimental to the success of your online business. What type of online business do you operate? Internet marketing, computers, software, wholesale merchandising etc... Do you know how many other businesses online that are competing with you to fill this market? Have you ever went to one of the major search engines and keyed in the keywords associated with your targeted market? How many other sites came up? Thousands? Millions? What does this mean to you? Is this good or bad for your business? Will this effect your online business? These were some of the questions I have been pondering recently. For the past couple weeks I have been doing some research in my market (internet marketing and promotions). I am still conducting my research, but I have already discovered a few things that we will discuss in this issue, that are very important in the development and assuring you online business success. I started my research as I suggested above, I did a search by keying in the keywords associated with my market (internet marketing & promotions). The search results were thousands and millions of sites related to this industry. The next thing I did I visited most of these sites to view their content, products, services, offers, messages boards, discussion groups, subscribed to their ezines etc... Most of these sites were designed very well and had very useful and resourceful content and information. It tempted me to bookmark these sites and come back later. Many of the other sites, I only viewed the first couple of pages and left. No, I didn't leave because they didn't offer useful information, but because it was a "me too" site, a cloned copy. They were like the many other sites I visited. I didn't bother to subscribe to their ezines or join in their discussion groups. These "me too" sites lacked what we call "A Unique Selling Position". They did not offer me anything that would make me think, "Wow! Now this guy is offering something to me that is different or more beneficial than the last site I visited." They offered the usual free resources, promotional tools, articles etc..., but something was missing? I compared them to the sites I really liked. I also compared their ezines. I tried to determine, why did I like these sites and why did I dislike the others? The one thing that differentiated the "me too" sites from the sites I liked; was "PASSION"! You may be asking, "What does passion have to do with anything?" Passion is everything! The ezines and sites I disliked did not seem to have heart. I felt they really did not believe in or love what they were doing. They did not really believe in their products or services. They were not really knowledgable of their products, services or their industry. Most appeared to only be out for money. Their sites and ezines were a big sales pitch. It left the impression of someone trying to force me to buy. They did offer free marketing resources and articles, but it seem and though they weren't put together with much thought of the visitors, they were just something thrown together. Many of the articles were written by everyone else, they were promoting everyone else's products or services, had links to all the associates programs they were involved in, but lack the most important thing heart, passion, empathy. The articles they chose to display on their sites, did not offer the reader anything. It was like the webmaster was saying, "I don't know that you want or need and I don't care. I'm not willing to find out either. Just take what I give you and be happy." You are probably subscribed or receiving their ezines right now. I hate to even see their ezine in my box, I just delete it or unsubscribe. They are only sales letters. Every sentence is only about joining their company or their program. Send your money now! What happened to, "What's in it for me?" They offer no valuable content. I look at them as just another way send me their spam. On the other hand the sites I liked were the total opposite. I felt they had heart. They were really concerned about me, my dreams, my goals etc... I also felt the webmaster of these sites knew their products and services and believed in them. They really knew what they were talking about. Their articles and ezines offered information that would bring me closer to attaining my goals. Now if this was the perception I received from visiting these sites; do you see how valuable this information can be? You now get an idea how visitors may be viewing your site? No, you can't please everybody all the time, but you can try! Because passion is transferable. It will be passed on to your visitors. Just by viewing your webpages, sale letters or your ezine they will be able to tell if you are real or just pulling their leg. So how can you avoid becoming a "me too" site? How can you stop the cloning process? First you must find and develop your passion. You can start by asking yourself the questions: * Do you like the job or business you are currently doing? * Can you start to like it? * Would you do whatever is necessary to become the best at this? One way to find out if you are in the right business or doing what your really like, is by asking: * Would you do this for free? * If there was something you could do all day, what would that be? Finding your passion is very important to attaining and assuring your success on the net. This passion will motivate you to find solutions to your prospects questions, "What's in it for me?", "What will this product or service do for me?", or "Is the business really concerned that I accomplish my goals and achieve my desires by using their products and services?" Yes, you can copy articles written by someone else, but your passion for your prospects will make sure that the article will benefit the reader. It will answer all their questions as well as bring them closer to achieving their goals. Passion will also make you go to great extent to do the research to find solutions to these questions. You will do all you can to become knowledgeable of your products, services and your industry. The best way to develop your passion is by being "Yourself"! Do and say what your really mean. You can copy everything all great marketers have done, but you will never be them. Did you ever try to wonder why so many are failing in achieve success from their associate programs? Most participants in these programs only joined because they thought they could make a "quick buck". They don't really believe in the company, products or services, they don't posses the passion. Many give up after they find out they can not make a $1,000,000.00 over night. Because of this lack of passion, the "me too" sites will also fail or give up once the money stops. What is really bad about this whole thing is that these "me too" businesses are ruining everything for all those who are serious and genuine about what they are doing. Did you ever notice how everyone "claims" to be an internet marketing expert? What perception does this give to visitors? That everyone can't be an expert; so they are all probably bluffing and just want me to spend money. Now prospects can't tell the real genuine and sincere from the fake; so we all suffer. Let's just stop the cloning and develop our passion. Create a your own "Unique Selling Position". Show YOUR prospects that you really have something to offer that is different and beneficial from all the other "me too" sites. Find out what it is that you really love to do or what you are very good at. Implement this passion into your online business. Loose the "me too" image. Once you find your passion, this will be the door to your success! *This article may be reprinted and used in its entirety in your newsletters or ezines. Only requirement is that you also include the resources box below. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- **Article written by John Ellis. John has written several articles, books and manuals on online marketing. Check out his newest book, "The Complete Online Marketing Course". His desire is to assist other online businesses in achieving the success YOU deserve! Subscribe to the FREE bi-weekly ezine! http://www.je-circle-marketing.com/jumpstart.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Importance of Promoting YOU On the Internet! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Have you noticed the tremendous amount of information on the internet about how to promote "your product," "your service," or "your opportunity?" It's incredible! Some of it is good solid advice and some of it is pure trash. What I would like to discuss here is the importance of promoting YOU on the internet. Not your website, not your affiliate programs, etc?. YOU! If you promote YOU your business is guaranteed to grow! Here's the proof?. Look at a few of the top online marketers. The ones we all know the names of if we've been involved in internet marketing for any length of time. Jim Daniels of bizweb2000, Jeffrey Lant of Worldprofit, and Allen Says of the Internet Marketing Warriors site are all quite well known in most internet marketing circles. They have large mega websites, they all write articles for their sites and ezines, they all have multiple business programs and interests. Besides these things what ELSE makes them stand out??? People know who THEY are!! They have a large following. Their names are known more than their website's url in most instances. The people who are involved in their programs or downlines feel like they know them. When these guys join or start a new associate program they bring hundreds if not thousands of downline members with them right away. How would you like to have influence over several hundred or several thousand people who trusted your judgement enough to want to be in business with you? What if you had a following with such loyalty to you that if you told them all to start selling?.Barbie dolls; they would do it. There are people in business who have that kind of credibility. It's not a gift. It's earned! And if it's abused it will be lost forever. Folks may forgive, but they rarely forget. If folks don't trust you they just won't buy from you or get involved with you. OK Leon, "so how do I promote myself as a credible person?" Don't come across as someone trying to sell something just for the sake of profit. If you will feely give help and advice as you participate in message boards, discussion groups, and forums you will gain a reputation as someone who is there to help others to succeed! Believe me, you will definitely gain from this! Your readers and business contacts will be MUCH MORE likely to buy from you or join your programs if they see you as someone who is honest, dependable, helpful, and open to suggestions. If they see you as sarcastic and selfish; you may become successful to a point, but it will eventually backfire by negative word-of-mouth advertising. As marketers, when our program isn't working as well as we would like it to; we wonder what's wrong with the program? Instead of wondering what's wrong with the program; look into why your prospects don't believe your offer is as good as you say it is! If you are marketing anonymously for some reason behind a fake name and/or email address you have NO CHANCE to build credibility. You may make some sales for a while, but eventually things will fizzle-out on you. I know there is some concern about using your real name or address on the internet. If you are talking about a 15 year old child in a chat room they definitely should NOT use their real name or tell where they are. But as a business owner you've got to have a name, phone number, email address, and mailing address. Just that lends SO MUCH credibility. If you ran an ad or article in a newspaper you would give contact info. If you printed up business cards you would put contact info on them wouldn't you? It's no different on the net. Just for the record when I say contact info I'm not talking about only a Hotmail email account. You need to use at least 2 sources of contact and 3 is even better! In addition to being as honest and sincere as possible, other ways to promote yourself include testimonials, partnerships, and personalization. When people are satisfied / happy with you and your products, they will send you testimonials to thank you. Show your appreciation by posting them on your site and in your related publications! They will respect you even more and are more likely to recommend you to their friends and associates! Word-of-mouth advertising is a very effective way to promote yourself so please take advantage of it. Lastly, personalize your email/fax/letter communications with other marketers as much as possible. Use sincere compliments when replying to other marketers and include your name as much as possible. When emailing offers, try to personalize the ad by addressing it to your prospect by using his or her name, when possible. This does not apply to broadcasting an ad to opt-in lists. However it does apply to replies to business offers. A significant percentage of my downline has came from personal contacts that I have made during the time I have been marketing on the internet. Thanks, Leon Brickey ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Leon is webmaster of Appalachian Online Marketing at http://www.appalachianmarketing.com. At Appalachian Online Marketing you can find everything you need to turn your struggling business into an explosive moneymaker! Free subscription to Absolute Internet Marketing Resources Ezine containing the most current, up to date online marketing resources on the planet. mailto:ezine-subscribe@appalachianmarketing.com?article. *Article may be used freely as long as the entire article appears along with this sig file. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The 3 P's In Success ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ It's high noon and there are two cowboys standing in the middle of the town. They stare into each other eyes. Then there are two shoots fired. The smoke clears and and only one man is left standing to fight another day. That's a familiar scene from a western film, right? But if you could be one of the cowboys in this story; which one would you choose? All of us would choose the victorious one. Now let's relate this story to online marketing. Replace the 2 characters, one being your competition and the other will be you. When the smoke clears, who do you what to be left standing? Today I will show you the 3 ""P"s to online success. After all the "hype" on the internet starts to subside, will you still be able to compete or will you business survive? These simple 3 elements will determine the outcome of your online business. If it will fail or if it will succeed. 1) "P"ick a niche I know you have probably heard this a thousand times. But how many times have you went to someone's site and you saw links to all their associate programs, banner exchange programs and you couldn't determine what was the site's theme, what was the main product or service or what the webmaster was trying to offer? This can be very confusing to you visitors and will turn them away. Webmasters who create these pages, want you to guess what they are trying to offer or what site's theme may be. They may not know themselves. But this is not the job of your visitors. Your job as the webmaster is to make each visit experience to your site as smooth as possible. You can't just post a page with a list of links and hope visitors click the right one. Pick a niche. Choose a theme for your site and build your products and services and everything else around it. If your site's theme is wholesale merchandising don't include links and content that are irrelevant to your sites theme. You wouldn't include links to your family's pictures. This looks very unprofessional and hints right away that you're a novice. You can have several sites with different themes, but never try to mix them all together. 2) "P"lan Where do you see your business in the next 5 years? How much do you want to be making then? What are the necessary steps that will bring you closer to achieving your goals? How can you start today? It's amazing how often when I ask other business people these questions, it seems they some how get speechless. It's like this is a foreign subject to them or something they wish not to think about. But if you can envision where you want to end up; you are doomed for failure. I'm not talking about writing a business plan. It's as simple writing down a "to do" list of daily goals and objectives. Your list could contain goals for the month, the next 6 months, the year or the next 5 years, etc... And just because you create a plan doesn't mean that it has to be edged out in concrete. Things change so frequently; so your goals may also change. The main point is to have something that your are aiming for. Not your shooting for the moon and maybe you'll hit the stars. Be specific and write it down. "You want to make $25,000 this month." Don't generalize your goals, "You want to make a lot of money this month." Some things seem to have more importance when you write them down. As you achieve certain goals cross them out. This will give you a feeling of accomplishment. That you are moving closer to your main goal. Everything you do in your business should be something to move you closer to achieving your goals. I have a saying, "Everyday MUST count!" You can't waste time. 3) "P"ersistence Success won't come over night. It will require hard work, diligence and perseverance. Many started out on the web for the wrong reasons. They believed that starting their own business would be the sure way to ease or that things will just fall in place for them. But the opposite may be true. Especially if you are a single person operated business. Many have even turned down a regular 40 hour a week jobs or may have quit their jobs; to start their business. But running your own business you may have to work longer hours (60 to 80 hours a week). You will be bringing your work home. Until your business really gets off the ground, you will rarely have a day off or a vacation, You may have to work days, weeks or even months before you ever see a pay check or receive an order. You will be responsible for your taxes. You still have your living expenses and other business expenses. Everything falls on YOU. Running your own business may not be for everyone. If you thought you'll be making a million dollars next week, you have to consider this again. Because tough times will come. But it's how you react to them. When problems arise, you have to persevere and keep your focus. Never give up. If I had to add another "P" to success it would be, YOU must to have "P"atience! *This article may be reprinted and used in its entirety in your newsletters or ezines. Only requirement is that you also include the resources box below. ----------------------------------------------------------------- **Article written by John Ellis. John has helped hundreds to find. effective ways to promote their businesses. His desire is to assist other businesses in achieving the success YOU deserve! Subscribe to the FREE bi-weekly ezine! http://www.je-circle-marketing.com/jumpstart.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Getting the "Fear of Loss" to Do What the "Promise of Gain" Cannot!! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The "fear of loss" is one of the greatest motivations to buy or join a program there is. In fact many marketers have made an art of using the "fear of loss." Some folks just won't commit to buying or joining a program no matter how many advantages or features the deal offers. The "fear of loss" will often motivate better than cost, better than value and even better than quality. How many times have you seen sales announcing "TODAY ONLY" or "DAY AFTER THANKSGIVING ONLY!"? How about this one…"and if you order in the next 24 hours we will throw in the new _ _ _ _ (whatever)." Price, value, and quality are all important, but unless your prospect/customer is actively seeking you to buy your product or join your biz-op, you must have a compelling motivating factor to propel them to buy or join! A time-limited offer of perceived savings or added value will do just that. Late at night on the Home Shopping Network when they are in full swing of promoting a particular product they have a counter on the screen showing how many of the items are left and a clock showing how much time is left to get that item at that price. That's tremendously effective! Now things get really good……selling on the Internet gives you an even greater advantage when using a time-limited, "fear-of-loss" offer. You can FOLLOW UP with your prospects numerous times before the offer expires. Simply post a brief ad in your sig-file, e-zine, on your website, or in someone else's with a soft offer. Follow up with your prospects/customers with your hard offer - product, price, and time frame. Follow up with them every 12 to 24 hours reminding them when the offer expires, sweetening the offer if needed. One of three things will happen as a result of this. 1) Prospect/customer will buy or join. 2) Prospect/customer will tell you they are not interested. 3) Prospect/customer will not respond. So divide your Prospects/customers into three equal portions or thirds (1/3 x 3). You can use this to swing sales and recruits into your favor. 1/3 of the sales/recruits you will get. 1/3 of the sales/recruits you will NEVER get. 1/3 of the sales you may still get IF you are a savvy internet marketer. Here's what you do: Soft offer………. response, hard offer(with expiration), probe, follow up, probe, follow-up, probe, follow-up, you get the picture... Here's an actual ad ad-copy I've used with some success: If I Could Show You What Works 100x More Effectively Than Running Ads Would You Be Interested? Please go to: http://www.marketingtips.com/t.cgi/6148/ As the responses start to come in I then follow-up with a slightly harder offer: Comprehensive Guaranteed Internet Marketing Course Comprehensive Guaranteed Internet Marketing Course. Don't let the title Marketing 'Tips' fool you - this is a comprehensive, extensive two-volume course of proven strategies to make your business successful. Plus, there is a double money back guarantee, so if the strategies don't work, you can still make money by failing! Go to this site for information: http://www.marketingtips.com/t.cgi/6148/. If you respond in the next 48 hours you will get one free ad in Absolute Internet Marketing Resources Ezine emailed to 3,000 subscribers. A $30 value! Then follow-up every 12 hours or every 24 hours and drill the customer benefits in deeper and deeper. Remember talk BENEFITS not features. At the same time make the contact feel like the mentioned benefits are slowly slipping through their fingers and they are on the verge of losing out. Thus the "fear of loss." If they respond that they need more time, ask for a specific date, and pin them to that date, and NO LONGER. Get back to the prospect 48 hours before offer expiration and 24 hours before contract expiration. Keep the lure of the offer before the prospect's eyes! Use this tactic consistently on every prospect/customer, and you'll see more and more closes, more and more profit! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Leon Brickey is webmaster and owner of Appalachian Online Marketing at http://www.appalachianmarketing.com At Appalachian Online Marketing you can find everything you need to turn your struggling business into an explosive moneymaker! Free subscription to Absolute Internet Marketing Resources Ezine containing the most current, up to date online marketing resources on the planet. ezine@appalachianmarketing.com?subject=subscribe *Article may be used freely as long as the entire article appears along with this sig file. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ TOO Far To Turn Back NOW! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Hello Everyone, How is YOUR business? Everything fine, I hope? I am starting to see something that is occurring frequently in many businesses on the net; and I thought I would try to share my thoughts and leave you some words of encouragement. The new trend I'm starting to see, is that many internet marketers and businesses are "bailing out" off the web, they're giving up on the net. You attempt to visit their sites, it's no longer there, you send emails and get no responses, they have given up on their associates programs, stop publishing their ezines, stop networking, submitting articles to ezines, unsubscribing to ezines, stop marketing etc... This situation disturbs me deeply because most of these individuals were great friends, associates and had great potential to succeed on the internet. If YOU don't receive another point from this article; please take heed to this advice; NO matter how hard things get, NEVER give up. DON'T QUIT! YOU MUST retain persistence and perseverance. I hate when adversities gets the best of an entrepreneur or a netrepreneur. Have you ever went to the mall or went downtown and you were looking for your favorite store; only to find out that it went out of business or was closed down? How did you feel about this? This just does something to me. It's like part of me was taken. I guess it's because I'm a entrepreneur and a netrepreneur as well and my passion is to help individuals and their businesses achieve the success you deserve; because I even feel this way if it was one of my competitors. On YOUR road to success there will be many problems, obstacles, conflicts and adversities that will arise, but you can't give up! You MUST be persistent and persevere, adhere to your course, stay focussed on your goals and objectives, and surround yourself with successful people. In doing this success will come. Persistence is one of the strongest characteristics an individual can possess. I have a very good friend who is very successful, she wasn't always. She was one of those people who had a hard time getting through school, she failed many classes. Even now she will openly admit that she wasn't the smartest student, but she possessed the greatest characteristic, persistence. Even though she had failed classes, she NEVER gave up or just dropped out of school; she continued and graduated and then went to college. Because of her persistence she was the only one in her family to receive a high school diploma and the only one to go to college. One year after graduating from college, she was making $35,000 and year (was good then because she was singled). I talked to her recently and she told me she just received a promotion; so that means she's making more money. This person inspires and has inspired me because of her persistence. Now when problems arise in my business, family life, marriage or any other aspect of my life that may cause me to feel discouraged or feel like giving up; I immediately think of her and her unwillingness to quit. I am also reminded of the results of her struggles, how she became better. Start to view your adversities with a positive attitude and allow them to bring out the best in you. I'm not saying when something comes up, ignore it. No address the problem, but with a different attitude. Success or perfection can only be attained from your persistence to go through your adversities and sufferings. It's like gold when it's refined by fire. The more intense the heat; the purer the gold will become. (Adversities + Persistence = SUCCESS) Recently I was reading in an ezine, a individual said that he has been on the web for 3 months now; he has submitted URL to search engines, placed ads on classified sites etc..., but he complained the he wasn't seeing any results from his marketing efforts. Three months, WOW! Maybe he thought he did everything that could be done and expected traffic to just run him over? Or maybe he was feeling discouraged, and was thinking about quiting also? Maybe he was looking for someone to tell him to give up, the net is a big "hype", or your wasting your time? I don't know what he wanted, but I remember when just starting on the net, I didn't start making money or attracting a constant flow of visitors to my sites for about 8 or 9 months. Now because of my persistence and my perseverance and after ducating myself, consulting with other successful netrepreneurs; I can say with conviction, that YOU CAN make money on the net. This is why I feel obligated to assist others in achieving your success from the web. When I see these businesses that have given up on the web, I feel as if I failed to do my job; because I know it CAN be done! I'm doing it everyday! I always say, "Success won't come over night. It requires hard work and persistence." Yeah, you might even make many mistakes or mess up everything on the way, but don't worry because we all have and we will make many more mistakes before we're done. It's said that a good man will fall 7 times, but he will rise again. He remains persistent. Don't YOU give up! NEVER quit! "Quitters NEVER win, WINNERS NEVER quit!" *This article may be reprinted and used in its entirety in your newsletters or ezines. Only requirement is that you also include the resources box below. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- **Article written by John Ellis. John has written several articles, books and manuals on online marketing. Check out his newest book, "The Complete Online Marketing Course". His desire is to assist other online businesses in achieving the success YOU deserve! Subscribe to the FREE bi-weekly ezine! http://www.je-circle-marketing.com/jumpstart.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Giving Visitors a Reason To Come To YOUR Site! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Web surfers these days don't appear to be doing a lot of in depth reading. We tend to skim and scan until we find something interesting. In fact, you could be losing important business, if your site doesn't have compelling text that motivates the prospect to move. If your website copy is poorly written, uses really bad grammar, or is just plain dull, you won't be getting their attention or their business. Do this for just a minute…… Get online and go to your web site's first page. Imagine you are a visitor to your site. Look at the first screen you see. Is there enough quality in what you see and read to make you want to read deeper into the site? Be totally honest with yourself. I think most every web designer dreams of achieving a fantastic presentation of their web site! Your web site may look awesome. It may download in a flash on your new super fast, super powerful PC with the 19" screen. However, experts say that between 40- 50% of Internet users have more modest systems with 640 x 480 resolution, older versions of Netscape or Explorer, or even a creaky old version of AOL. You may wonder why don't these folks just upgrade their browsers ( the newer versions are free anyway), buy bigger monitors and faster modems. But quite often these computers have enough hard drive space, memory, and modem speed for the day-to-day needs the user may have. Let's say you applied your efforts in designing your web pages with the above parameters in mind. You coded correctly, avoided the "bells and whistles", and optimized your few sparse graphics. The next thing to address is what you are going to put on your web page. How good can you write? Would anyone besides a close friend or family member read on? Does your copy run from margin to margin without interruption, or did you break things up with (bullets, block quotes, tables, etc.) for readability? Does white space break up solid blocks of copy? Is the most important text at the very beginning of your main page? It better be! Are your most important points repeated clearly on each page? People don't read Web pages in the same manner they read books. They jump around. Are your fonts and type sizes easy to read? Have you checked spelling, punctuation, and general grammar use? Here is something that has been emphasized by many writers….white space. This is not a microscopic component of the human body :-) According to web design expert Grant Crowell, white space is the open space between design elements, and an important layout technique. Text is a design element. I like to think of placing text the same way Ritz-Carlton chefs present fine food on exquisite tableware. If we offer lots of good text on our sites, but without order and organization, no one may read what we have to say. Do you feel comfortable knowing whether to use "its" or "it's," or "whose" or "who's." How about "due to" vs. "because of." Do you know the difference between active voice and passive voice? Can you use "affect" and "effect" effectively? Do you know when to lay something down and when to lie down? Whether you think it's fair or not these things lend credibility and make you appear to know what you are talking about. But what if you don't know how to use some words? Don't worry. If you are serious about your business and serious about your web site then you probably care how your copy represents you. Visit a couple forums or message boards and you will easily find someone who is willing to help you; probably free. Before long it will not even be a problem. Webgrammar's area is but one of many places on the Internet where you can visit and ask questions without fear of ridicule. The Internet is breaking down into some incredible communities. These communities consist in part at least of people who before the Internet would be quite expensive to consult. These people are often business owners who work their businesses full time, but choose to help others because it helps raise the standards of the entire Internet community. Almost any good website is always under construction. This is so very important. A great website is not a destination, it's a journey. New concepts, rules, and guidelines appear almost daily. Welcome change, and the availability of those of us who offer help. Great Web sites deserve great design - including great grammar and style! By Leon Brickey ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *Leon is webmaster and owner of Appalachian Online Marketing at http://www.appalachianmarketing.com. At Appalachian Online Marketing you can find everything you need to turn your struggling business into an explosive moneymaker! Free subscription to Absolute Internet Marketing Resources Ezine containing the most current, up to date online marketing resources on the planet! mailto:ezine@appalachianmarketing.com?subject=arsubscribe *Article may be used freely as long as the entire article appears along with this sig file.