10 THINGS I WISH I HAD KNOWN WHEN I WAS A NEWBIE!
Boy, getting my Internet business started was
harder than I had expected! When I started researching a web-based line of work, I seemed
to find mostly ads and articles about making 6-figure incomes, and instant success on the
internet! Looking back, I feel like I must have been in the "twilight zone!" I
think the reality is that internet "marketeers" want to paint the brightest
picture they can of internet commerce
possibilities, otherwise, you would not be encouraged to buy their SECRET, WINNING,
GUARANTEED SUCCESS biz opportunities and marketing tools! (Therefore, you find all these
"get rich quick" promises which are not exactly the honest truth!)
Well, there must be SOME validity to these promises, because
I am now also making a living as an internet marketeer. Problem is finding out what works!
I switched from my initial business efforts in 1) web
page design (too much competition from FREE services) and 2) selling European Collectibles
(too hard to make a profit with shipping costs and customs duties from my home in Germany)
over to providing effective, affordable internet marketing tools. Why did I pick that
arena? Well, that's another story, but the short answer is that on the internet,
information is POWER. After all, data sharing is what the web is all about!
But, I'm getting off the track. If I had known about the following 10 "truths" when I started my initial businesses, I could have saved a lot of time and money! These are my opinions, based on information I have received from smart cookies widely recognized as marketing "pros" and from personal experiences. I've found http://bizweb2000.com (Jim Daniel's site) very helpful as well as http://members.home.com/success- doctor (Dr. Michael Fortin's site)!
(or USE CAUTION WHEN TAKING ADVANTAGE OF FREEBIES)! I'm sure your mother said "you don't get something for nothing." This is true. There are many FREE offers on the web, and lots of them may immediately help you - but there are almost always costs to use them. Maybe not in money, but certainly in your TIME. Strike a balance between what services you should pay for, and which ones you have the time to do yourself!
For example, posting to FFA link sites and FREE classified ad pages sometimes works very well. Usually, though, you spend hours and hours of your time posting ads and links - to sites which may not really be HEAVY HITTERS with lots of traffic. Was this really a good investment of your time?
If you want to try this technique, some of the better Classified Ad Sites and FFA Link Sites are http://accusubmit.com (Accusubmit - FREE), and http://www.hitekhosting.net/cgi-bin/club_click.cgi?ID1793 (Online Classified Club - $29.95).
Another example of the COST of a FREEBIE is this - many companies give away free services to give you a teaser, or taste, of their "real" product, which will cost money if you upgrade. Nothing immoral or illegal about it, it's just a standard business tactic. But, I had a bad experience with a FREE AUTORESPONDER offer. Sure, the free responder worked great - it actually was TOO good an idea! The problem was, so many people signed up, that the owner had to take the site down for maintenance and upgrades! This was disastrous for my business - all of a sudden, my autoresponder follow-up capability was gone and I lost sales because I couldn't stay in touch with my clientele!
They are absolutely crucial once you start to develop your opt-in list. A good reliable autoresponder service is http://www.aweber.com for $15/month (discounted if you pay annually). These neat tools are necessary to keep in touch with clients, follow-up your initial offers (7 seems to be the magic # of follow-ups most likely to get a sale!) Autoresponders make possible the VOLUME of e:mail traffic your business needs to thrive on-line - only 1-3% of contacts buy, so you need to get your hit rate up! You can also use autoresponders to give instant gratification.
You can distribute free reports, take payment information, immediately direct your responders to the appropriate site so they can get what you offered them. The autoresponder is like a tiny mechanical employee who never needs coffee breaks, vacations, or sleep - he works while you are gone - 24 hours a day!
It is very easy to get side-tracked on the web. There is a glut of info everywhere. Despite your intentions of doing only 1 task, without a focus you'll soon find that you are off on a site 5 pages away from where you started, and asking "what was I supposed to be doing?" Put a plan in writing, and FOLLOW IT to concentrate your efforts (and money)!
Another key to your success is finding your target market and directing advertising to people who WANT TO READ ABOUT WHAT YOU HAVE TO OFFER! This is, quite simply, the difference between the success and failure of your business! Keep track of EVERYONE who responds to your offers, SENDS you THEIR offers, subscribes to your ezines, etc.
THESE ARE YOUR WARM CONTACTS WHEN YOU WANT TO SEND OUT A MASS MAILING ABOUT YOUR GREAT NEW IDEA OR PRODUCT! Keep any and all info you have about them (of course, you MUST have their e:mail addresses) because you may need it in the future for a new marketing tactic! Some examples of opt-in list generators are:
- Ezines where you can submit articles for exposure, and place ezine ads (http://www.powerpub.com/adrates.htm is a good one - only $4/line) to generate marketing leads for your offer. A good source to learn about marketing via ezines, and to get listings of newsletters that accept advertising, both paid and FREE is at http://www.lifestylespub.com/cgi-bin/ezines.cgi?10609 (Directory of Ezines - $29.95). You can list YOUR OWN ezine in the directory for FREE for some good exposure.
- News groups (http://www.dejanews.com). Post an announcement about your business or product, in a category related to your offer.
- Mailing lists (http://www.onelist.com). Post more announcements in an appropriate category.
- Remember, if the rule-of-thumb holds true, you are only going to get sales from 1-3% of your visitors. You need a HUGE volume of traffic! This is one important fact that those optimistic marketers trying to sell you products don't usually mention!
There is no concrete definition of the term, but it's unsolicited/unrequested e:mail. I know it's tempting to try all sorts of questionable tactics to drive more traffic to your site, but SPAM is
most definitely out of fashion and may cause your ISP to terminate your account! It's not even worth a try anymore! Be wary of buying names and addresses on "hot lists" or "targeted e:mail lists" unless you are sure you are dealing with a reputable vendor!
You will lose approximately 60-70% of your business if can't! Internet shoppers are impulse buyers, and they want IMMEDIATE satisfaction. If you can't sell them what they want easily and quickly, they will move on to your competition, who can! This may represent your biggest start-up expense, but you can try SGM Distributing (http://www.cardhost.com), which charges
a $19.95 one-time start up fee (last time I checked), plus a per sale transaction fee. This is a good way for new businesses to accept credit cards for minimal cash outlay! On-line check acceptance is a good idea, too. See http://www.quick-checks.com.
Educate yourself - subscribe to any Ezines which seem to have good info about topics related to your product. Find them by searching for "[your topic] ezine directory" or "[your topic] ezine list" from a good search engine. Ezines are also a great source of RECIPROCAL LINKS - other site owners who may accept your ad, banner or link for a return favor (the good old "you scratch-my-back, I'll scratch yours" philosophy is a good, FREE promotion tool). Or, share your information with others - for FREE and get LOTS of exposure. Here's a good promotion tool which combines exposure for your report and free exposure. Check out :
http://www.special-report-network.net/specialreports.cgi/TM3702
for more info and to get 6 FREE reports for yourself, immediately!
Unless you are designing web pages, or selling graphics, the way your site LOOKS is less important to your visitors than how it WORKS. Light or white backgrounds with dark text are good; flashing and moving objects are bad (in general terms). Load speed is important, as is ease of navigation, and how well your page attracts your visitors' attention and compells them to action (i.e. buying your offer). You only have your guests' attention for a few seconds. If you don't entertain, entice, and inspire a desire to buy quickly, they will "click you off", never to return. And, please, please, run a spell check, grammar check, and make sure your page loads as fast and looks as good on others' browsers as it does on yours!
Good resources for this are:
(these first 2 will send you a FREE site analysis with tune-up suggestions each month)
* http://www.websitegarage.com
* http://siteinspector.linkexchange.com/
* http://www.scrubtheweb.com/abs/meta-check.html (meta tag check)
* http://www.webposition.com (improve your position in search engine rankings)
All of these (above) were recently offering FREE services as promotional offers.
Do not choose one simply based on cost. Compare the features offered by many vendors and make an informed decision. Remember, if your web host's server(s) goes down, you are temporarily OUT OF BUSINESS! Check out http://www.web2010.com if you are on a budget for good, basic, dependable service, or Virtualis Systems at http://www.virtualis.com/vr/tmunn if you want all the bells and whistles of a full-service package at a competitive price.
Most of them will let you join for free or low cost. Many have free reseller programs which allow you to generate revenue, or get extra banner or link exposure. Here are a few to try -
http://dynamic.icat.com/icat/affiliatejump/index.icl?affiliate=munnwks
(iCat Mall - stores w/less than 10 items are FREE);
http://www.linkexchange.com; and http://linksrx.com.
(Yes, this tip is extra - 1 more than I promised in the title!). In spite of the words of caution in tip #1, many web experts suggest giving away about 70% of the items you offer on your site. Then, your profit is made with the remaining 30%.
The key here is GETTING VISITORS TO COME TO YOUR SITE, instead of your competitor's page! For instance, give away one of the neat software tools you got as a FREEBIE from someone else. Or, give a away a FREE SPECIAL REPORT (write your own for more exposure), or a downloadable Ebook. You can also link up to a giveaway site such as http://www.leadcentral.com (vacation giveaways) or any of various others (use your search engine to find tons of different ones!).
Well, I believe I have hit the "high points" on this subject. I hope you have found some helpful information to assist you in your web endeavors! This was by no means a comprehensive text on marketing success techniques, but should at least get you started in the right direction, with realistic expectations for your internet business!Article by Teresa Munn ceomunn@bunt.com, or munnjt@munnwerks.com
Publisher, Munnwerks Web Promotion Tips Ezine http://www.munnwerks.com/ezinearchive.html
President, Munnwerks Web Promotions http://www.munnwerks.com/index.html
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