Archive for Internet marketing
Are You Using This Marketing Technique?
Posted by: | CommentsI saw a commercial recently for a product that helps parents with their kids and the speaker said ‘Send us your feedback on how our product helped your children and I’ll refund your purchase price”. I thought this was a great idea on getting testmonials that can be used for your marketing.
But the more interesting idea is that you can get the product for free (after paying) so this will actually motivate people to buy the product, as well as getting you testimonials!
So how can we use this on the web? I’m thinking you could ask for a youtube video, blog post, tweet, Facebook post, etc. In my case I sell guitar lessons online so I can offer a refund if someone posts a video on YouTube, mentions my website and puts a link in the video description.
So the question is, are you going to use this marketing technique in YOUR business? Let me know!
US Job Satisfaction Down
Posted by: | CommentsJob satisfaction is down in the US and probably in most countries, that is if you even have a job!
In any case, it’s a great time to start your own online business!
It’s 2010 – Time to Take Back Control
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In Seth Godin’s post on the coming decade of change and frustration, he talks about baby boomers and mentions that “A lot of people ate their emergency rations during the last decade.”
The current recession has wiped out a lot of our savings, reduced property and investment values, removed jobs (that may never return), and reconfirmed our suspicions that the big corporations can’t be trusted and that there is really no job security (if there ever was). With these problems, comes a desire to take back control and make some extra cash to help us get back on track.
As bad as it is today, I prefer to see it as a blessing in disguise. I’ve been ‘out of work’ for over a year for the most part, and this has allowed me to finally focus on my passion, which is helping people by teaching them what I’ve learned whether that be how to play guitar, or how to start a website business online. I’ve made many mistakes and learned a lot over the last year.
To me, it’s never been a better time to start a business. This is because you can start one for almost nothing these days, especially if you do it using online tools. Instead of building the usual ‘brick and mortar’ business, which requires a large capital investment (for office space, equipment, employees, etc) you can start one with low overhead. Work from home, do everything yourself at first, or my preference – build an online business.
This can sound scarier than it is. All you really need is a website and something to sell. It doesn’t even have to be your own products. You don’t even need to incorporate, just start as a sole proprietor. A solo proprietor is basically the same as being an employee but you get to deduct your business expenses. Websites are incredibly easy to set up these days as things have progressed substantially on the Internet with many free software tools.
If you have a job and hate working there and commuting, or aren’t following your true passion, you can start this on the side after work and on weekends. This can bring in some extra cash to build back up your savings, pay off debts or for fun money. I know it’s hard to do this after a long day of work and commuting but it has to be done. But this is not a get rich quick scheme, you will have to put in some work!
If this sounds exciting to you, then stay tuned for future posts. If you have questions and can’t wait feel fee to contact me.
The Power of Leverage
Posted by: | CommentsI don’t think many entrepreneurs are taking advantage of the true power of leverage as much as they should be. You can leverage attention, technology, the influencers in your niche, existing communities, other people’s knowledge, affiliates, customer data, by taking advantage of what they’ve already accomplished (a large following, loyalty)
Leverage Attention
People used to read newspapers. Then they watched a lot of TV. Then they went online and searched. Now they spend hours on social networking sites. That’s where you need to be because that’s where your customers are.
Leverage the Technology
There’s an incredible amount of technology that you can use to help get exposure for your business. Facebook fan pages (to build a community and interact), WordPress blogs/websites (to create websites, receive comments on your blog posts), Twitter (to post links to useful content, engage with your customers), Ustream.tv (to do live video streaming), YouTube (to post videos educating your customers), etc. There’s never been a better time to build your brand and get awareness of your company.
Leverage the Influencers
Other bloggers have spent years building a large and loyal following. Can you leverage that following and also provide value to the other blogger? For example, offer the blogger a commission on sales of your product if he interviews you via audio/video and records it, or sends emails to his followers, tweets about it, etc. I see this all the time on teleseminars and blogtalkradio.
Leverage Existing Communities
There are many forums, Facebook fan pages, groups, Linked In groups, and so on where your customers are hanging out. Other people have built these groups and managed to get a large following of engaged people talking about your niche. Go there and be helpful to these people.
Leverage Affiliates/Joint Ventures
There are many affiliates who sell other people’s products online. They’ve learned how to sell, how to create landing pages, how to create Google ads, how to build an email list and so on. Why not leverage those affiliates for your own products/services? You could post your product on Clickbank or create your own affiliate program. Partner with someone who can do more marketing or create the content split the work and the profits/risk.
Leverage Customer Data
You can leverage the information that sites like Facebook and Google have acquired over the years. And yes you can still benefit from advertising. Some of the newer technologies can target what people are searching for (Google Adwords) or Facebook ads can target people with specific interests, ages, geographical locations and so. You can also see what people are buying by checking top selling Amazon, Ebay products.
Leverage is about taking advantage of existing communities, influencers and technology to make faster progress than you can by yourself.
If you can think of other categories not mentioned above please post them in the comments.
Online Income – November 2009
Posted by: | CommentsWell I was all set to report a disappointing November income because the sales of Learn and Master Guitar had decreased and I’ve been focusing on add new beginner videos lessons to my Online Guitar Coaching site (which is a membership site).
However, when I checked one of my affiliate sites for membership sites I found that I had made $407.71 in November! I haven’t added any affiliate links to Ryan Deiss’ site recently so it could be from an older blog post or sidebar link. But actually, Ryan does a lot of ‘back-end selling’ where he sells lower priced items to get people into his funnel, then upsells them later. Some of the products are recurring so I might have to try marketing them some more!
Another thing to note is that for the Learn and Master guitar affiliate sales I didn’t do anything new this month. So the existing YouTube videos and blog posts are still working for me (and should for a long time to come). So you put in the work and hopefully over time you get the rewards off of the single effort.
So we have:
$313.22 my guitar product/membership sales
$9.98 back pain site
$37.94 adsense you tube videos
$407.71 Ryan Deiss continuity products
$1.89 amazon affiliate sales (guitar books, ets)
$19.80 share a sale Learn and Master (they have 2 different affiliate products)
$29.10 Wishlist Products (membership site plugin for wordpress)
$1 Sponsored Tweet! (advertiser paid me to do a tweet about Microsoft!)
So the grand total in November 2009 was……..$820.64 there’s been no money spent on advertising these affiliate programs…just sweat equity! This is a new record, yahoo!!!!