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Stop Wasting Time and Money by Promoting the Wrong Thing
PUBLISHERS: You may use this article in your online ezine or on your web site provided you do not change the article. You must also include the resource box at the end of the article.
Any links that appear in the body of the article or in the resource box must be hyperlinks and should be made active if they are to appear on a web site or in any archive available from the Internet.
Rights are not granted to use this article in any e-book or any compilation of articles without the express written permission of the author. Please contact the author if you would like to use this article in any other manner:
mailto:davidson@rapidbizsuccess.com
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THE VICTORY LAP by Charles Davidson
Today's Track: Stop Wasting Time and Money by Promoting the Wrong Thing
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Hi there! Welcome to another issue of The Victory Lap. Here at the Victory Lap, you'll learn how to kick your business into overdrive.
There's no hype or fluff here. Just down and dirty, white knuckle advice to steer you toward the fast track. No advertising. No gimmicks. No shameless promotions. Just the stuff you really need. Plus a kick in the seat to get you to shift into high gear.
Sit down . . . buckle up . . . here we go . . .
FORGET EVERYTHING ELSE
Your opt-in list is THE most important marketing tool you will ever have. It is the foundation for everything else you do on the Internet.
Forget about affiliate programs. Forget about web sites. Forget about advertising. At least for right now.
If you are starting out in online marketing - or if you've been doing this for a while - you need to spend time focusing on your opt-in mailing list.
Here's why:
THE DOWN 'N' DIRTY MBA
Here's all you need to know about business . . .
Business profits depend on a transaction between a business and a customer. In order to make money online, you MUST have customers who make purchases from you.
Whether you sell products or services, you need customers. If you promote affiliate programs or network marketing opportunities, you need customers. If you are going to make money online, you need customers.
Get the point? You gotta have customers. 'Nuff said.
Most people understand this concept, but they still make some major mistakes when it comes to Internet marketing.
CHRYSTAL: A CASE STUDY
Let me tell you about my friend, Chrystal.
Chrystal heard about how easy it is to make money online. She started surfing for money-making opportunities and stumbled on a
few affiliate programs she thought she could promote and make some good money.
So far, so good.
Chrystal copied some of the pre-written ads from the affiliate program web site to use in her advertising campaign.
She changed all of the URLs to include her unique referral ID number and then started placing free classified ads all over the Internet. The first few days, she threw everything into it. She spent hours at the computer typing in her ads.
Every day for three weeks, Chrystal checked her stats. Every day, she was disappointed that her hit counts were not getting bigger and bigger. Worse yet, her sales remained at zero.
You can imagine how Chrystal felt at the end of those three weeks. She was about ready to give up. Her hopes of an Internet fortune seemed to vanish right before her eyes.
Sound familiar? Many people take this exact same approach to Internet marketing. No matter what affiliate program you choose, no matter what advertising copy you come up with, the results are the same. Nothing.
ABOUT TO GIVE UP
When Chrystal came to me, she was ready to give up. I listened to her story and I was glad she hadn't thrown any money at her online marketing. At least she had focused on free advertising sources.
Would her results been much different if she had spent money on advertising? Maybe. But probably not.
Chrystal and I sat down for a long talk about different approaches to Internet marketing. As I explained about opt-in lists, I began to see a light bulb go on in her head. She began to make the connection.
She had been doing it all wrong.
STARTING OVER WITH A NEW STRATEGY
That night, Chrystal went home and started putting together an online ezine she could use to build her opt-in list.
It only took her about an hour to create the template and put together a few bonus gifts she could giveaway as an incentive to subscribers. After that she spent another couple of hours promoting her brand new ezine.
When she launched her ezine, she only had about 20 subscribers.
She advertised her ezine all over the Internet - even to many of the same places she had advertised before. Her list began to grow. Slowly and patiently she grew her list until it had a few thousand subscribers.
Now, this didn't happen overnight. Overnight success only happens when people don't see the days, months, or years of hard work that happened before.
It took Chrystal many months of hard work and constant dedication. She worked hard at putting together her ezine. She tinkered and fine-tuned it. She made it something unique and special. She was proud of her effort and she enjoyed telling people about it.
And then something happened.
In each issue of her ezine, she promoted her affiliate programs and recommended products and services to her loyal subscribers. Every week she made contact with the people who joined her list.
As she did, her affiliate commissions started growing. The more people that joined her list, the more money she made.
THE MORAL OF THE STORY
So, what was different this time around?
Chrystal advertised at many
of the same places. She didn't spend that much more money on advertising. She still promoted her affiliate programs?
So, what did she do differently that allowed her to be more successful?
Chrystal made one slight change in her marketing methods and it allowed her to start making money.
The difference was in her email list.
Here's why . . .
THE MAJOR MISTAKE MOST INTERNET MARKETERS MAKE
Promoting an affiliate link through ezine and classified advertising is a major mistake.
Think about it. If I'm sitting at home looking through my email and I find an ad that looks interesting, I'll click on it and see what it has to say.
When the web page comes up, I'll spend a few seconds skimming the text. If anything grabs my attention, I may hang around a little longer and read a little more carefully.
If I don't like what I see, then I click off and go somewhere else.
And that is probably the last time I ever visit that web site again.
The owner of that website spent a lot of time and money to promote their website and the only thing I did was come in and look around for a few seconds. Once I leave, you can bet that I will forget all about that website.
Doesn't seem to make any sense to advertise like this.
And that's exactly what happened to Chrystal. She put out a lot of ads. She even got some hits, but once they clicked away, she lost that prospect forever.
RADIO SHACK BUILT AN EMPIRE ON A LIST
I remember many years ago, whenever you went into a Radio Shack, whenever you bought something, the sales clerk asked you for your name and address. It didn't matter if you were buying a battery or a stereo system.
By simply taking a few moments to get a customer's name and address, Radio Shack was able to build one of the largest mail order catalog businesses in the United States.
They've since stopped collecting this information in order to respect their customer's privacy. They still have an opt-in email list, however, that customers can request to be added to in order to get their catalogs. They just don't ask for it at the cash register.
GENERATE CUSTOMERS NOT SALES
The main reason you should be promoting your opt-in mailing list rather than an affiliate link is so that you can continue to send your offers to your customers.
You should focus all of your marketing efforts on generating customers and future prospects, not on immediate sales.
If you have a list of people who want to receive information from you, you can send them information on a constant basis about your affiliate programs.
They'll become familiar with you and what you have to offer. Pretty soon, they'll start to buy.
REPEATED EXPOSURE CREATES SALES
The first time someone visits your affiliate link, they may not want to buy. But if you keep promoting it to everyone on your list, then pretty soon, they'll want what you have. You may not catch them today, but you may catch them tomorrow. It's as simple as that.
It's common knowledge in the advertising industry that a prospect will probably not buy from you on the first exposure to your offer. You must constantly expose them to what you are trying to sell. As they build trust in you and begin to recognize your product or service, the walls of objection will start to come down. When they become more confident in you and your offer, they will start to think about buying.
Mmost people agree that the magic number is between 7 and 10. This is the number of times people will need to see your offer before they will even begin to consider putting their cash on the line.
Only through repeated exposure to your offer can you expect your prospects to become customers.
When you own a list, you have a base of customers that you can continue to market to month after month and year after year.
Instead of an unknown person who clicks on your affiliate link and then disappears into the abyss of the Internet, you will have a customer who will grow to trust you over time and begin to act on your recommendations.
You will have the ability to generate income at any time simply by sending an announcement to your opt-in list.
The success of your business lies in your list and in how you continually market your offers to your list.
If you're still promoting affiliate links and websites, then you need to stop now and focus your time and money in the right place.
SHIFT TO HIGH GEAR
You'll get nothing if you do nothing!
Here's are your Victory Lap action steps to help you shift your business into high gear . . .
DECIDE - once and for all - that you will no longer promote programs and affiliate links except to your opt-in list. No exceptions. Stop wasting your time and money. Capture those names and email addresses starting today.
CREATE an opt-in mailing list. Below you'll find a link for a free autoresponder that you can use to host your opt-in list. It's easy to set up. It's free. There's no excuse.
http://www.rapidbizsuccess.com/recommended/get-response.htm
EMAIL ME to let me know you've done it! Let me know you're taking the steps to kick your business into high gear. I'll be happy to subscribe to your opt-in list. Maybe we can even talk about some joint ventures. mailto:victory-lap@rapidbizsuccess.com?subject=opt-in-start
About the Author
The Victory Lap Copyright 2003 Charles Davidson
Charles Davidson is a violence prevention educator and victim's rights advocate working in the field of sexual assault and domestic violence. He also runs an online publishing business. If you want to put your business into overdrive, then subscribe today to IMPACT: The Online Journal of Home Business Success. Send a blank email to:
mailto:impact-subscribe@topica.com
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