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trial and effort. I did not mention earlier but not only will you save
dollars you would have wasted but you also save a lot of time by
taking advantage of my experiences.
Internet Marketing – All it really means.
You look up the definition on Wilkipedia and you will read the
following clip that best summarizes my points.
Effective Internet marketing requires a comprehensive strategy that
synergizes a given company's business model and sales goals with its
website function and appearance, focusing on its target market
through proper choice of advertising type, media, and design.
Basically, marketing is the format used to display a product or service
for sale. If you are a great marketer then you will be able to develop
a brand. That means someone will have such a positive perception
of your product versus other similar products that they are willing to
pay a premium for it. The internet itself is no different than any
other economic environment so the basic rules apply. You need the
elements of:
● product or service to sell,
● website to sell it from,
● customer group to sell it to,
● communication to inform the customer,
● means to inform/attract the customer.
At this point, I will ask you to try and consider a different mind frame
when reading further. Begin to picture everything in this basic
format and you will start to recognize internet marketing in all its
forms. I am in finance so I simply picture everything in dollars and
cents. When a pop-up shows up on an internet store I am in, I
think my e-mail goes to website, website e-mails me offers with sales
pitch, I purchase that offer, and cha-ching, they made money.
So, what happens when inevitably we are lured into this world
thinking how hard could it be? I can tell you one thing; you learn a
new respect for those who have figured this out although it makes
me wonder how much it cost them to get there. Now we get to the
heart of what frequently happens and later what learnings you can
take away.
How do I get in the game? - Pain Point #1: I call this
the barriers to entry or risk aversion if you will. I would
guess that since you purchased this book that you have either
crossed this threshold or you have gotten very close to the line.
The first thing to avoid is to buy a website because you are too
scared to go it alone. You probably think it is safe because they
advertise their traffic and sales figures, right? You probably think
purchasing a site avoids the technical gap you might feel as it can
appear daunting at first. Trust me, if someone advertises an
automated website bringing in loads of cash selling for 3 to 6 months
earnings, run for your life. The cheaper the website is selling for the
more scared you should feel. It all goes back to that saying if it is
too good to be true, then it probably is. Odds are that this person
could have made the mistake of jumping in and are now trying to
pawn it off to the next person in line. So, do not let that next person
be you. There are legitimate websites for sale but you will see that
they are generally higher in price and go for a much larger sale price
to earnings, usually greater than 1 year. There are also people who
simply design and sell their designed website over and over again. If
these websites are so great, why do they not operate them?
The other area that scares me at this stage is to fall for the dime a
dozen "get rich quick" guys on the internet. I am sick of seeing
pictures of people chilling out on the beach or standing in front of
their expensive cars while they display how much money they are
making. They simply made their money by selling unsuspecting
newbies a great sales pitch and no real product to go with it. I can
attest first hand as I purchased 2 of these great pitches with one
being a membership and the other one an ebook. Well, I came to
find out after spending $49 for the membership and $10 for the
ebook (I got a discount!) that they told me basically nothing. The
membership was a load of links on places to buy traffic, links, seo,
etc. The ebook was the equivalent of what I would picture if I tried
to explain internet marketing to my 6 year old. The only thing I will
point out for your benefit is that you can learn a good tactic by
reading their advertisements (sales pitch) which we will get into later.
Time to make $ or is it? - Pain Point #2: Alright, let us
say you are all setup with a website along with a product/service
to sell (don't worry, I will cover off how to get there once we get
through the pain points). The next thing not to do is to completely
focus on monetizing the website. In other words, don't ignore the
content by plastering your website with every money making banner
and product you can find. As you can imagine, the point is to market
a product, not just throw it in someone's face. When you are able to
picture each website as a money making machine, you will
understand that the best marketers hide the monetary aspects very
effectively. I will discuss this aspect in more detail when we
get down to research.
The other pain point here that could be more damaging is to not
have a "draw" for your website. A "draw" is basically a way to
capture your viewer’s attention and suck them in. The most popular
"draws" will be the sales pitch for the new product, the free offer that
comes when you sign-up for the e-mail list, or even the discount popup
that entices you to take advantage of the offer right away. I like
to call it draw but you will frequently hear the term "squeeze" (i.e.
squeeze page). Trust me, we have professional advertisers and
marketers out there who know exactly how people cannot help but
fall for them.
I will also honestly point out that this pain point was the one I
overlooked the most. I was so proud of myself when I had that
website up, poured money into advertising it, and sat back waiting to
become a success. I was a little more than shocked when I had a
load of visitors and not a single sale. That experience demoralized
me so much that I did not return to the internet marketing game for
over 5 years. I spent almost $300 on that experience trying different
forms of marketing not realizing I failed to draw people in to my
website. That is why I recommend picturing all these for the
marketing ploys they are, you will not be drawn into it and actually
learn to appreciate the knowledge later on.
Also, while we are on the topic of website design, this is about
making money so I will not tell you that content means you have to
be some insightful expert on the product or service you sell. You
need to understand enough that you can effectively market the
benefits to others. The internet is so saturated with "experts" it
makes you wonder who isn't one.
Where do I go from here? - Paint Point #3: Where you
do not go is the bank if you get into this hardcore and then try to
figure out later where it was supposed to go. I am the perfect
example of this mistake and I am not ashamed to share it. I bought
my internet marketing website (that is right, I fell for pain point #1
as well) and immediately redesigned the heck out of the thing which
was a fun process. However, my products were ebooks designed for
people to resell yet my website image was to provide internet
marketing tools. Then I had the brilliant idea to setup the site to do
both at the same time by signing up as an affiliate with internet
marketing service sites. So, by the time I got to advertising, I
couldn't decide if I should label the site for money makers or for
internet marketers. Needless to say, I was not successful with either
customer base. The point is to simply look at this based on your
goals before you get in too deep. There is a large difference in
commitment and planning between one person who wants to make
$50 a month off their site and the one who wants to make $500 or
more a month. If you are the latter, do not limit yourself to the initial
website business but how you can expand that website into new
money making areas. My personal goal with the site mentioned
above is to expand out into specializations within internet marketing
from my broad starting website.
So, if you have not been scared away, I will now offer the correct
approach and some insights on how to get there.
Plan some goals: Yes, this is not a change your life self help
book here but I did say goals. You need to understand your
motivations, mine is the money and challenge aspects. So, I would
not be satisfied making $50 a month as it is not going to change my
life. If I was satisfied with that, I could setup a nice little informative
site with some well placed Ad Sense banners and organically grow
enough traffic over time to make $50 a month. However, to make
my $500+ a month means I need multiple forms of income and I
need to use every trick in the book to sell them. I look at this
process as a simple list of self questioning.
Do I know what I want to sell and is it popular?
Do I have a lot to sell or do I have to create my own income stream?
How engaged in the process am I?
Do I want to spend 1 hour a week or 1 hour a day or more on this
project?
How much money do I want to spend?
Do I want to spend $0 a week on this or $100 a week?
Can I or do I want to take this project further?
Do I have a natural expansion opportunity or can I create the
expansion myself?
Research: I consider this the most important step as there is no
better way to learn than steal from what already works. This process
can also help you answer some of your goal setting as it is not
always easy to simply select your goals without some information.
As you are probably aware, the top websites that show up in a
search engine list are the most popular so start there. However, I
would go down the list and check out some of the more remote
websites. It becomes clearly apparent the gaps between the top and
the bottom in terms of website design and marketing draw. The
ones I find the best are the sites that mask themselves as
informational but are marketing genius in disguise. They draw in
users who return to the site and are willing to purchase from the site
due to the "brand" image it invokes. On the other hand, the worst
sites generally are those that fall prey to our pain points above,
either too many products or sloppy content. Those sites offer
nothing to a viewer due to the subconscious revulsion they inspire
from the layout or the obvious sale listings which makes a viewer
suspicious. You need to make sure you do not look like those
websites but mimic the top websites.
The other point of this research is to figure out how your product will
compete. If you are selling something relatively easy to find then
consider how you will differentiate yourself - sales pitch, price,
unique content, newsletters, etc.
Websites: The services have caught up to the point where
anyone can setup and even design their own website. You have
to be careful here as there are usually multiple tiers of service
(storefront, affiliate manager, etc.) so that goal planning comes in
handy here. You can always upgrade later so start with the basic
service and save yourself a little money until you are ready
for advanced services. Personally, I use websitewizard which
offers me everything I need but you can find other sites similar to
that one. In your research, I would check out some of the little
things that make a website look more unique such as a logo for the
site. The basic point as I feel you will find in your research is that
your website has to be pleasing to the eye. In other words, keep it
simple so the content will flow. It seems counterintuitive as you
might feel more graphics and unique format will make it seem more
professional. Do not make this process a work of art, just add some
minor but unique finishes to it.
Draw: I would consider draw the most difficult area were you to
do from this scratch. Fortunately, so many others have gone
through this learning process so learn from them. Here are a few
pitch pages worth checking out - pitch 1 and pitch 2.
You see all the great elements of marketing at work and in the right
order to show them.
First, inform the customer what it is and who it applies to.
Second, let the customer know how the product benefits them
Third, offer them some type of a bonus - another item or a discount
In pitch 1, notice the e-mail sign-up for the free newsletter? Why
does he do that and offer his products below? He knows that
you are a much less likely to select a product from someone you
don't know or trust. If he gets your e-mail, he will gain your
trust and eventually get that sale. He also added the nice touch of
placing the photo and biography off to the side so you are not buying
from a faceless name. His initial message is short and sweet
covering all 3 points above.
In pitch 2, we see a much longer draw but effective in its own ways.
Just read the first section and you see that everything else is just
there to sweeten the deal. It is simple but easy... the convenience
is highly emphasized and at the same time you learn what the
product itself is.
How To Use Private Label Content To Create A Line Of New Products
Without Writing A Word, And Build A Profitable Online
Business At The Same Time... ... Fast And Easy!
I really chose this one because if you read the message then you see
that this is an offer that explains some very true points about
marketing your website. I got both of these through free ebooks I
picked up while stocking my website.
I will bring up another good point here, you should seek to build an
opt-in e-mail list but do it with some integrity. Place that sign-up
pitch along with some free but useful information you can offer. For
$3, I purchased 50 articles for my own website with my e-mail signup
telling users that these articles would not be free for nonmembers
in the near future. The only extensive category selection I
have ever purchased from is master-resale-rights.
I do not personally like pop-ups as they irritate me but if used in the
right way, they can be effective. For example, I was on a site
reading through the product offer and a pop-up came up. This popup
offered me a 20% discount if I purchased within the next 10
minutes. You guessed it, a little countdown timer started ticking
down from 10 minutes. I give it points for effort.
I think by now you see where I am going. You can get through all
the steps but bombing here means it was all for nothing.
Advertising: I know this topic has probably been thrown at you
from all directions so I will keep it to some practical points.
1. Traffic Driving - This has to be one of the easiest methods and
the one I use most frequently myself. You can buy in
bulk packages targeting your category through sites such as
revisitors. I prefer this method as I find pay per click (PPC) sites to
be very unreliable. I am also uncomfortable with creating my own
pitch for the ad and then worrying did I do it well enough.
2. SEO - Unless you are a real hardcore marketer or exist in a new
category, I don't see a lot of value for you here. I do think
you need to design your keyword / meta-tags appropriately.
However, we have to face the facts that only the top few sites
that show up in the search results will get the traffic from the search
engines. I am not saying to ignore this topic altogether, just focus
on targeted traffic at this time more so than search engine rank. If
you want to get some hands on experience in this area, go to
ibusinesspromoter. They have a free tool you can download
which I personally have found useful.
3. Links - I love this one, the evolution of internet marketing at
work. Basically, when the internet was young a site's traffic
dictated its popularity. Then, along came the traffic providers and
the picture got fuzzy. So, now we have links. The links that a site
has going to its website dictate its popularity. By popularity I mean
how search engines will rank the page. A big one these days is the
Google Page Rank. Personally, I see the value here but guess what,
you can buy links as well nowadays. I have purchased 3 links
through text link ads to websites in my category that have high
traffic and page rank. So, I am basically leaching off of them to
boost my own site's ranking.
If you really want more detailed information on this topic, click on my
link to that site to get more facts. Like SEO, I do not completely
discount their use but I am really just trying to get potential
customers to my site.
4. Articles - This one is probably the most interesting as submitting
articles allows for you to get noticed in search engines while
promoting your site. The best way I can communicate is to
summarize the important elements:
Title: Use keywords related to your website first (i.e. Internet
Marketing Tools Made Easy).
Body - 4 main points to make this successful. Continue using your
keywords in here but don't go overboard.
1. Recap your Title
2. Attention getting
3. Get to the point
4. Reason to visit your site
Resource Box: Your name, a short statement is a nice touch and of
course, a link to your website landing them right into
your sales pitch.
A good site to learn more and receive free training tips would be
ezinearticles.
My final recommendation for continued internet marketing education
would be the Warriors Forum. I am a member of this free site and
will admit that it is somewhat scary to navigate at first. Once you
understand this monstrous forum's layout, you can learn new internet
marketing techniques every time you visit or post to boards and get
some educated feedback.
I do not want to be anti-climactic but we are at an end for now. I
hope you got some practical information out of me. Just remember
that avoiding the pitfalls is crucial in terms of money, time, and
ultimately motivation. There are always going to be hard learnings,
especially on the internet. If you learn from others and stay
engaged, you greatly increase your odds. As a recap, just remember
to….
NOT
- Buy a cheap website
- Fall for the scams
- Overly focus on monetizing the site
- Ignore the sales pitch & content
- Fail to think through your goals
I will put my shameless marketing in now like I am
supposed to. I hope you have enjoyed reading this and will
sign-up for my e-mail list to receive free downloads of
marketing software that will help you in reaching your goals.
Please click here to sign up now.
I hope you also enjoy the free ebooks I provided as they will
help expand on some of the topics I covered here.
Thank you and good luck in your online marketing efforts.