March 14, 2002
Table of Contents
Welcome
Quote of the Week
Administrative Stuff
Staff Article - The
Real Cost of Free Marketing
Tax
Tip of the Week - Tomorrow's Deadlines!
Guest Article 1
- Seven Sure Fire Recipes For Internet Failure
Guest Article 2
- The Best-Kept Marketing Secret!
Parting Comments
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Quote of the Week
It is surprising what people
can do when they have to, and how
little most people will do when they don't have to.
- Walter Linn
Administrative Stuff
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Staff Article
The Real Cost of Free Marketing
by:
Cary Christian
Free marketing is good. Free
marketing improves your bottom line by saving you money on the expense side.
Free marketing brings you visitors that others might have to pay for. Free
marketing is easy to find on the web. Free marketing is everywhere, free
marketing is wonderful! Free marketing is NOT free!
Say what?
Free marketing will almost always cost you more in terms of your time than
will similar paid marketing options. For example, let's say you decide not
to invest in an ezine ad or bid on keywords on a PPC engine. Instead you
decide to join 30 to 40 free safelists that allow you to post every day.
(Yes, you can find that many that will allow free members to post every
day). So instead of spending a few minutes placing an ad
or bidding on some keywords, you spend 45 minutes every night posting to
these lists.
Extend this example a little and assume that you build your entire marketing
effort around free advertising. You use start page programs, surf for hits
programs, viral ad sites, classified ads, FFA page postings, and anything
else free you can find. It can be done, but you might find yourself spending
six to eight hours per day just taking care of your marketing chores. Using
paid advertising you could accomplish more in
less than one hour per day.
How much "free" marketing actually costs you depends on how you value your
time and what you can do with the money you save. It also depends on how
effective "free" is versus its "paid" counterparts.
Are there other revenue producing activities you could be taking care of
with this additional five to seven hours? If you have employees working
these free programs, could their time be more profitably spent? If you
market online on a part time basis and you are a parent, how much is an
additional five to seven hours with your children worth? Or time with your
spouse, girlfriend, parents, friends, or whoever else? If you do other work
on the side as a consultant, how much revenue are you potentially losing by
using your time "working" free marketing
programs?
Your time is very valuable. An additional five to seven hours a day to take
advantage of all these free opportunities could be costing you anywhere from
$350 to $3,500 or more per week in opportunity cost.
What are you doing with the money you save? Are you reinvesting it in your
business to make it grow? If you are, are the returns from this investment
higher than the potential returns from paid advertising?
What kind of sales numbers are you getting from your free advertising
efforts? If you've ever tried paid advertising, how do your results from
free marketing compare?
A properly planned paid advertising program should bring you at least three
times your investment in revenue (and often much, much higher). This makes
paid marketing efforts actually LESS EXPENSIVE than free!
Am I saying you should ignore free options? Absolutely not! Even if
you can afford to pay to have everything done for you, you will still want
to take advantage of EFFECTIVE free opportunities. But you have to be
mindful of the real cost of "free" and you have to be able to track and
discern what works and what does not.
Many people who give up trying to make money on the Internet do so because
they become frustrated spending so much time to earn so little. Most people,
understandably, start off relying very heavily on free marketing methods.
Most free marketing methods do not produce results like paid alternatives
do. So people give up thinking they can never make it online. Most people do
not have the patience to build slowly, and reliance on free marketing means
you WILL build slowly.
A word of caution is appropriate here for those of you who have not used
paid advertising before and are ready to try it. All paid advertising is not
equal. Some paid advertising is no better than free advertising. Do your
homework and invest wisely.
If you absolutely cannot afford to incorporate any paid marketing into your
business, then approach using free alternatives with the right frame of
mind. Realize that building your business will take longer. Learn what to
expect, how to track your results, and how to change your strategies as the
situation dictates.
Here are some guidelines for using free marketing that we have developed
based on our own test experiences:
1. BE MINDFUL OF THE LIMITATIONS
Free marketing methods are very rarely going to result in a direct sale. Use
them strictly to get people to your website, to get them signed up on your
mailing list, to get them to accept a free product that will bring them back
to your site, to get them to subscribe to your autoresponder offering a free
course or free report, or something similar.
2. TRACK YOUR RESULTS
Use some form of ad tracking that will allow you to see exactly where your
hits are coming from. If a form of free marketing is doing absolutely
nothing for you, drop it and replace it with something else.
3. BE BRIEF WITH ANY FORM OF EMAIL MARKETING
Free email marketing, such as posting to safelists, will go largely ignored.
Work on creating a catchy, but honest, headline that stands a chance of
creating enough interest to get read and then tease them into visiting your
site in the body of the message with as few words as possible.
4. MAKE YOUR FREE MARKETING RUN ON AUTOPILOT
Use your free marketing efforts to build your downlines in your free
marketing programs. For example, if you build downlines in surf for hits
programs you will reach the point where you don't have to click your life
away for traffic. You don't want to spend the rest of your life clicking for
visitors when the response rates are so low. It is easier to get signups for
free programs when using free marketing sources than it will ever be to
generate a sale.
5. SIMPLIFY
Always be on the lookout for tools or methodologies that will save you time
when using your free marketing programs. Remember the value of your time. If
it costs you a few bucks to purchase a product that will save you hours of
time daily it is well worth it.
6. CONCENTRATE YOUR FREE EFFORTS ON VIRAL MARKETING
Wherever possible, invest your time in setting up free marketing that is
viral in nature. For example, if you give away a free ebook or report, make
sure it is customized with links to your site. Allow the people who accept
it to give it away freely, thus spreading your links to many more potential
customers. Over time, your website could be advertised to
thousands at no cost.
Free marketing definitely has a place in your marketing portfolio. Use it
wisely and make it work for you but always be aware that nothing is totally
free.
Copyright (c) 2002
Tax Tip of the
Week
There are two major tax deadlines for
corporations coming up TOMORROW! March 15, 2002 is the original
deadline for filing corporate tax returns, including S Corporation returns,
for the calendar year ended December 31, 2001. If you need an extension of
time to file, get Form 7004, Application for Automatic Extension of Time to
File Corporation Income Tax Return, complete it and mail it to the IRS
before March 15. You will receive an automatic six-month extension of time
to file until
September 15, 2002. You will NOT increase your chances of audit by extending
your return.
If you desire to make an S Corporation election for the calendar year 2002,
you need to file form 2553, Election by a Small Business Corporation, on or
before March 15, 2002. If you are late and make the election AFTER March 15,
2002, it will be effective for your tax year beginning January 1, 2003. You
can complete the form and fax it to the IRS if you prefer. See the
instructions to Form 2553 for the fax number to use.
To get copies of Forms 7004 and/or 2553, go the IRS Forms and Publications
webpage at:
http://www.irs.gov/formspubs/index.html
Guest
Article Seven Sure
Fire Recipes For Internet Failure
By Terry Dean
This article is quite a bit
different from our usual publication. Instead of showing you how to succeed,
today I am going to show you how to fail.
Below are seven recipes for the surefire failure of your web site. I will
show you how to cure each of these faulty recipes underneath each listing.
Once you know the steps that cause failure, you can avoid them.
Failure Recipe #1: Sell Something You Don't Understand.
Do you want to know one of my pet peeves? It is when someone comes to me
asking how they should sell the new book they wrote on "Internet marketing."
My question is...If they wrote the book on it, why are they asking for my
advice?
This is a Surefire recipe for Internet failure...You shouldn't be trying to
sell something you don't know, understand, and aren't an expert in.
In other words, don't sell an Internet marketing product if you haven't made
money in Internet marketing.
Don't jump on a business
opportunity just because someone you know is promoting it. Find something
that you love. Then, build a business out of that.
If you love gardening, then find a way to develop a web site and product
around that. If you love mountain bikes, then create a web site about that.
If you are always on the golf course, then create a theme out of that.
Review golf courses and golf clubs. Sell golf videos on your site. Joint
Venture with a travel company and offer golf getaways.
The most successful online sites are not in the "business opportunity"
field. They are special interest sites built around specific themes.
Failure Recipe #2: Don't Add Your Personality.
Don't try to compete with corporate sites with your little $100 domain. They
have the huge advertising budget to overcome their site mistakes, but you
don't. You must use your secret weapon...YOU.
Many people are ashamed to do this, but you absolutely have to add a little
bit of you into your web sites. Your visitors are not looking for another
corporate site. They are looking for real solutions to their problems, and
they want them to come from a real human being.
Include your name on your site. Give your phone number and personal email
address. Tell them facts about why they should listen to you. What
experiences or credibility do you have in the field?
When you write something for your site, let it include your personality.
Include your opinions. In other words, be interesting to the people who
visit you.
Failure Recipe #3: Ignore Your Traffic Stats.
Where does most of your traffic come from? Ask that question of 90% of the
webmasters out there, and they will just give you a blank look. They have no
idea where their traffic comes from.
This is a serious mistake and one you will have to correct if you have any
ambitions for your site at all. Virtually every hosting company you could
possibly purchase your site from comes with some type of tracking features.
If you don't know what your hosting company currently offers, ask them.
Examine your stats to find out where your traffic is coming from. What
search engines do they use to find you? What keywords did they use? Who else
is linking to you?
Which pages do they visit first? Which section of your web site do they go
to the most after they visit the front page? These are the types of
questions your traffic stats should be telling you.
Once you have a chance to look at them, increase promotion in whatever areas
are working. If you notice that you are getting a lot of hits from a
specific search engine, increase your promotion on that engine. If you
receive most of your hits through links on other sites, then work more on
creating links.
If you notice your traffic surges every time an ezine publishes one of your
articles, then send out more articles for ezines to use. Keep on doing
whatever is currently working for you! Cancel the rest.
Failure Recipe #4: Don't Collect Email Addresses.
Sites which only have one shot to sell their visitors are eventually going
to fail. You have to create a sales system where you can follow up on them
again and again.
The best way to do this is to create your own ezine. You could also offer a
special series of reports which are sent out to your prospects by email
every couple of days or every week. Either method will increase your
web site sales and increase your profits.
Think about it this way. If you can't get a prospect to commit to you by
giving you their email address, then there is no way you can sell something
to that prospect. So, focus on collecting the email address when someone
visits your site.
Offer your ezine (or your special series of reports) on every page your of
site. Give free ebook bonuses for subscribing. Offer other incentives
for subscribing. Build the list and at the same time make your first product
offer to them. So, you are still doing a sales presentation, but you get to
follow-up at the same time.
I will venture to say that your actual web site serves two primary purposes.
It is there to give you the basic credibility so that they subscribe to your
email publication, and it is there to help you take online orders. For most
businesses, those are the two most effective purposes of the entire site!
Failure Recipe #5: Sell Shoddy Products.
If you are out to fail, then sell some shoddy products. It used to be said
that if one customer had a bad experience they would tell 10 of their
friends about it. Now, with the global efficiency of the Internet, instead
of them just telling their friends, they may tell thousands of people about
it.
When you sell a really good product, the news gets around. When you sell a
poor product, the news gets around even faster.
So, make sure any product you sell is your best work. Figure out a way to
add additional bonuses to it. Give the customer more than they expected. You
have to "WOW" them.
Give them faster shipping then they expected. Purchase reprint rights to
someone else's product to throw in as a bonus. Call them up and ask them if
they need anything else. Go beyond the call of duty and your name will begin
to become well known around the Internet.
Failure Recipe #6: Build It and Sit on It.
The phrase "Build It and They Will Come" is a great statement to use in a
movie, but it doesn't work on the web. Too many webmasters spend thousands
of dollars building a web site, and then they sit on it. They don't do
anything with it.
If you want traffic, then you have to go out and get the traffic. There are
two commodities that you can use to build traffic to your site:
#1: You can spend money building traffic through offline advertising, banner
ads, ezine ads, and the like.
#2: You can spend time writing articles to submit to ezines, participating
in forums, exchanging links, etc.
Spending your time is actually more productive in 90% of cases then spending
your money, but either way it does cost you something. If you want traffic,
you have to advertise.
Failure Recipe #7: Do What Everyone Else is Doing.
Most Internet marketing methods only work until everyone knows about them.
Innovations only last so long on the web. For example, it used to be really
easy to get top positions on the search engines. Now, you really have to
work to get those positions because every market has thousands of
competitors who know the secrets to search engine marketing.
You have to do something a little bit wild and unique to build your traffic
bases in most cases. You have to come up with your own ideas and not just
rely on what a few select gurus are telling you.
If a guru tells a method for building traffic, then you can rest assured
that thousands of marketers will soon be using that exact method for
building traffic. Although the method will still work, it won't work as well
as when it was first invented because of the increased competition.
Learn to use your mind...and then success in your business will follow.
-----------------------
Terry Dean, a 5 year veteran of Internet marketing, will Take You By The
Hand and Show You Exact Results of All the Internet Marketing Techniques he
tests and Uses Every Single Month" Click here to Find Out More:
http://www.peakconsultinginc.com/nbt.htm
Guest
Article 2 The
Best-Kept Marketing Secret!
by Anthony Stillwell
You've been kept in the dark
for far too long.
It's time you understand that the easiest and most profitable way to get
things done in business is to get help. It's all about the contacts you
make. Trying to make it alone and fighting against the odds is what you've
been taught, but it's wrong. You need help.
How often do you take the time to build relationships online?
The answer to that question will determine how far you get.
I constantly search out new friends and business associates because I know
that there will come a time when I will need or want their help and vice
versa.
When you actively seek out relationships with others in your market you
automatically open yourself up to opportunities that the average business
person would routinely miss.
Examples:
* There are a lot of products I didn't have to buy because their creators
who happen to be friends of mine gave me access so that I could help them
with any design and marketing strategy questions they had.
This also puts me in a position to work with these same marketers on future
projects which is always a good position to be in.
* Joint Ventures are extremely easy to get going because I can always
contact the people I've worked with in the past to do more deals. Having to
constantly search out new people to work with costs you time that you could
have been using to make money.
* There are many services that others routinely pay for that I get for free
because of the contacts I've established over the years. My contacts know
that when they need ME, I'll be there.
That's why they'll perform services for me without the need for money
exchanging hands. They know that when my area of expertise is needed... I'll
gladly help.
The right relationships mean more money. You see having contacts just for
the sake of having them is worthless. You need to make the *right* contacts.
You need to build relationships with people who can help you get to where
you want to be.
But... in order to do that YOU must have something valuable to offer in
return. There's only so much a friend will help you do. You will need
to offer a valuable service in return for the one YOU want from your
contact.
That's just the way it works.
If you don't have the money to get things done then you need to get
creative. You don't have to do everything yourself. Search for people who
know how to do what YOU want done and strike up a conversation with them.
Find contacts here for starters:
http://www.forumone.com/index/display/
See if you can make a deal. There are actually people out there who love to
create products, but don't care too much for marketing and people who love
marketing and don't care much for creating products.
There are things that YOU do that other people either don't know how to or
care to do on their own. This is where you step in and form a mutually
beneficial relationship.
An added benefit of making the *right* contacts is that even if you can't
find someone to do what you need done for free, some of your contacts will
know where to get quality work done through "hidden" channels at prices not
revealed to just anyone.
You have to be on the "inside" to get this kind of info.
Bottom line: Once you have good contacts in place you can easily get
projects off the ground while those who are trying to do everything
themselves struggle for months if not years. It's the difference between
having to spend $1,000 to get something done and having your contacts offer
to do the exact same work for almost nothing.
I guess it really comes down to one question... "Do You Want To Put Yourself
Ahead Of The Competition Or Not?"
-------------------
Anthony Stillwell is the author of "Unlimited Free Traffic" and publisher of
the EnterNet P R O F I T S newsletter where you'll get the hottest tips and
the coolest resources to give you the advantage.
http://www.getfreeadvertising.com
Parting
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