DEADLY HOME BUSINESS MARKETING MISTAKES - PART 1
by: Cary Christian

Do you have a lot of money to waste? I didn't think so. Anyone who doesn't mind wasting money is not likely to do very well in the business world. Yet home businesses waste tons of money on ineffective advertising every single day. Let's look at some examples and how you can avoid waste.

1. THE "S" WORD

Using s*am (sp*m, spa*, word masked to prevent filtering of this newsletter!) to grow your business is the single biggest mistake you can make. Let's forget about the outrage, flames and mailbombs you are likely to receive and concentrate on the effect on your reputation. Use sp*m to build your business and you will be immediately labeled unprofessional and many other things I can't say here. Forget about anyone wanting to do business with you. The more you do it, the more you harm your business. Do it long enough, and you won't have a business.

2. WRITING LONG SALES COPY IN EMAIL MARKETING

People simply do not have the patience or the time anymore to read long, drawn out email correspondence. They'll get bored just looking at it. Always write short subject lines that grab attention. Likewise, keep the body of the message short and tease the reader into visiting your site. Do your selling on your website which is much better suited to the task.

3. INEFFECTIVE USE OF GUARANTEED HITS AND SURF FOR HITS PROGRAMS.

It could be argued that using these types of programs is a waste in and of itself, and often it is. But if you want to try them or use them as supplemental advertising, don't just send the hits to your home page or directly to a product sales page. Create a special page just for these programs and don't try to sell directly. Get people to sign up for an informational autoresponder or to a newsletter so you can use more effective marketing techniques on those who respond.

You'll also have better luck if you use a script-based subscription technique that automatically captures the visitor's information without them having to enter it. You'll get more signups and better email addresses this way.

4. PURCHASING GUARANTEED HITS FROM A COMPANY THAT SUPPLIES THE HITS USING POP-UPS, POP-UNDERS, LOTTO VALIDATIONS AND SIMILAR SOURCES.

No matter how well you prepare yourself for using guaranteed hits programs, your campaign will not be effective if the hits come from these sources. Most surfers use software that suppresses pop-ups and pop-unders so you might be paying for phantom hits. Hits from lotto and other gaming sites are not targeted and do not represent hits from visitors who have the slightest interest in what you're selling. Always know the source of the hits you're buying and let common sense be your guide.

5. THINKING YOU CAN MAKE A LIVING ONLINE WITH NO MARKETING BUDGET.

Free advertising and marketing is good and everyone should use it as much as possible. However, free advertising is not enough to build a business. Even if you have to start with a small budget, you need to set aside something for paid advertising. The pay-per-click engines are an excellent place to start. You will be able to control the costs easily and still manage to generate good, targeted traffic.

6. THINKING YOU DON'T NEED A WEBSITE BECAUSE YOU'RE ONLY SELLING AFFILIATE PROGRAMS.

You need a website, period! It doesn't matter what you're selling. If you only represent affiliate programs, you still need a website or mini-site to prequalify and presell your visitors and set yourself apart from all the other thousands of affiliates selling using the same standard website. It's not that difficult or expensive to build your own site anymore. An Internet marketer without a website is like a carpenter without a hammer!

Are you making any of these mistakes? If so, commit to fixing them over the next few days. Stop wasting money! Next week we'll give you some additional things to work on.


Copyright (c) 2002