May 01, 2002
Table of Contents
Welcome
Quote of the Week
Administrative Stuff
Featured Resource - PEOPLE'S CHOICE ACCOUNTING
Staff Article -
SURVIVING TOUGH TIMES
Marketing
Tip of the Week
Guest Article -
THE THREE WORDS YOUR WEB SITE CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT
Parting Comments
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Quote of the Week
To know even one life has
breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Administrative Stuff
NEWSLETTER ARCHIVE ONLINE
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Featured
Resource
People's Choice Accounting is accounting software that is flexible enough to
grow as you grow. Recently granted five stars by the CPA Software News, this
accounting system is, in our opinion, superior to QuickBooks Pro with the
added benefit of being able to expand as needed via simple upgrades. Visit
their website at
http://www.safechoice.com or call 888-983-4402 for a free evaluation
copy of People's Choice Accounting. Check it out for yourself before
spending a dime.
Staff Article
SURVIVING TOUGH TIMES
by: Cary Christian
Tho' much is taken, much
abides; and tho'
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
-- Alfred, Lord Tennyson
To me, the above is one of the most inspirational paragraphs ever written.
It also holds the key to surviving tough times.
Frequently, the only weapon we really need to succeed in life is the will to
do so and the perseverance to continue through the darkness that sometimes
envelopes us. Sure, talent and knowledge can't hurt, but with perseverance
we can gain considerable amounts of both of those qualities.
When business starts to slow it is very easy to pull back and become more
defensive in your approach. It is natural to take cost-cutting steps, be
less aggressive in your marketing and to generally adopt a more low-key,
hunker-down-and-wait-it-out attitude. Sometimes this works. More often than
not it just weakens, and possibly destroys, your business. So just what
should you be doing?
TO STRIVE . . .
I have often watched my favorite football team, leading in the fourth
quarter, start playing a "prevent defense" only to find it prevents nothing
and they lose the game. Why do they lose?
They have adopted the stance that they will give their opponents the short
gains and focus all their abilities on preventing the one big score that
will lose the game for them. The opponents, with nothing to lose, take what
they are given and strive to make more out of it. More times than not, they
make enough out of it to win.
When you're down, it is not the time to lay back and play it safe. When
you're up, but not by much, it is also not the time to lay back and play it
safe. You must always be striving for the best you are capable of. This is
even truer when your business is going through tough times. Be more alert to
opportunities, and when you see one, make an aggressive move to exploit it.
TO SEEK . . .
Opportunities are everywhere. When your business is down, the businesses of
all your competitors will probably be down also. It is usually a function of
the economic environment and affects everyone in similar fashion.
But downturns in business always produce opportunities for those who are
actively seeking them. Any downturn could be your opportunity to step
forward and capture market share from your competitors, and maybe even
DOMINATE your target market. So keep your senses finely tuned and study your
market. Ask yourself:
o Why are customers buying less frequently?
o Why have some customers dropped out of the market altogether?
o What would it take to bring them back or get them to spend more?
o What can you do to make purchasing from you easy and risk free for your
customers and potential customers?
Think outside the box here. Do not let yourself be limited by the things
your industry has always done. BE A PIONEER! This may be your chance to
change the way your industry does business.
If your industry generally does not offer credit terms, offer them!
If your industry does not provide leasing options, get with a leasing
company and develop a leasing program!
If your industry generally does not offer services bundled with the
products, find some unique and valuable services to bundle that will set you
apart from the rest!
This is nothing new, of course. It is called finding your own USP, or Unique
Selling Proposition. Nothing new, but all too often overlooked. When times
are tough, seeking your own USP is just that much more important.
TO FIND . . .
If you seek long enough and hard enough, you WILL find the angle you need to
exploit a tough market. Once you find the opportunity, don't be afraid to
commit your resources to take advantage of it.
As I said in the beginning of this article, when times are tough there is a
tendency to cut costs, and there is nothing inherently wrong with this. But
do not, under any circumstances, let cost stand in the way of taking
advantage of an opening you've worked so hard to find. Commit to your new
killer strategy and go for it! You can cut costs elsewhere if need be.
Divide your costs mentally into two categories: overhead and income
producing. Cut overhead everywhere you can and put these savings to work in
the execution of your new market strategy.
AND NOT TO YIELD
And so we're back, full circle, to perseverance. You cannot yield to a poor
economic climate, or fear, or naysayers, or anything else that will stand in
the way of your growing your business and executing the strategies that will
help you capture a larger share of a shrinking market.
Life is what you make it. Your business is what you make it. Make them both
good regardless of your current environment! Repeat to yourself every
morning when you wake: To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield!
Copyright (c) 2002
Marketing
Tip of the Week
Here's a sneaky one for you! There are several
places online now where you can go to see what other people are searching
for in real time. An example would be
http://www.metaspy.com/
Thousands of people watch these searches looking for good keywords and
search phrases to use on their web site or to bid on in the PPC engines.
Those people spying can actually click on the searches they see presented.
Go to the search engine being spied on and type in your own search for your
business. Let's say you sell garden tools, so you type in "ABC Gardening
Company, the best source for hard to find garden tools."
You've just placed an ad that will be seen by thousands of people during the
day who think it is nothing more than a search by someone who knows your
company is the best source on the Web for hard to find gardening tools.
Believe it or not, this actually works. And it's free!
Do you like sneaky ideas like this one? You can subscribe to TRAFFICOLOGY
and get a bunch of these ideas in your inbox every month. It's free and it's
fun! http://www.trafficology.com/
If you want to check out the back issues, they're here:
http://www.traficology.com/backissues.html
(Note: as of February 15, 2003, the Trafficology site has apparently moved
or is down).
Guest
Article
THE THREE WORDS YOUR WEB SITE CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT
By Terry Dean
There are three words which
are major keys to success of any web site. Understand these three words and
you will find yourself halfway to success on the Internet. Disregard them,
and you will always be struggling to find any type of financial success
through online marketing.
1. Free
The key word that the entire Internet is built on is the simple word "Free."
It is a word that you will need to get to know if you want to create a
successful Internet business.
The easiest way to get people to visit your site and to keep coming back is
to offer something for free there. It can be a free report or a free service
such as a free-for-all links page or a free search engine submission
program.
Although everyone out there is trying to tell you exactly how to get
traffic, the secret to getting traffic is contained in that one word...Free.
You have to come up with something interesting that is full of benefits for
your targeted market and give it away for free on your site. This will be
your hook for fishing out the right prospects continually 24 hours a day 7
days a week.
Here are some "hooks" I have used very successfully to constantly get
traffic to come to my site and to keep coming back: Free Reports, Free
Electronic Books, Free-For-All Links Page, Free Classifieds, Free Discussion
Group, Free Newsletter, Free Real Audio or Real Video, Free Recommend a
Friend Script, Free Postcard Site, and Free Search Engine Submissions.
The best free thing that you can provide though for most markets is a free
report that leads into your product. For example, create a free report on 11
Traffic Generating Tips if you sell a Internet Traffic Generation report. Or
create a report on how to get dogs to stop chewing up your stuff if you sell
dog training courses.
If you create a free report which is a natural lead-in for your main
product, you can use one of the automated follow-up systems and create an
automated follow-up system for your sales letters to follow-up on those who
requested your free report.
So, you would put your free report on the multi-responder as the
autoresponder's first message. Then, you would have it programmed to
automatically deliver your sales letter the next day to anyone who requests
your free report. Each of your next 8 or so follow-up messages would then be
programmed to complete the sales process.
The Free Report which is on the first autoresponder message will be the key
to getting the hits on the autoresponder. The follow-up sales messages will
be the keys to getting automated sales for your site.
2. Lead Product
A key to any successful site is that they have one main product as a lead
product. You DO NOT want to focus on all of your products to each new
visitor to your site.
Too many choices will confuse the average prospect. Give them one main
choice that you focus on continually throughout your site and all of your
materials.
I have tested both methods...offering one product mainly and having a web
site which resembles a catalog approach. The one product approach actually
outsold the catalog approach by around 2 to 1.
Too many products only caused confusion for my visitors, and confused
prospects that can't decide what they want usually don't buy anything.
Although a few major companies have been able to get away with the catalog
approach, it is just too difficult for the average small business.
Use your other products as backends for multiple streams of income.
3. Backend
The principle of the backend sale is so neglected by most businesses that
many people don't even realize how powerful understanding it can be.
If you develop a good backend product which many of your first time
customers go on to purchase, you almost have an unlimited money machine for
your business.
For example:
Let's say you are in an information business selling a low cost audio tape
set and a larger video package. The first product you have sales for $50.00
(and costs $25.00 for dropshipping from the owner) while your second package
sales for $300.00 (and costs $150.00 dropshipping from the owner).
If the first product you sell to customers sells for $50.00 and costs you
$25.00 to fulfill, you have $25.00 potential earnings from it where you have
to pay advertising expenses from. If it costs you on average $20.00
advertising expense for each new customer, you would only be earning a $5.00
profit on every new customer.
What would happen though if you included a sales letter for your $300.00
course in every $50.00 package people bought?
If 1 out of every 5 customers you brought in on the first product would also
buy your second product for $300.00, you would be earning an extra $150.00
off of every 5 customers. Your front end profits would have been $25.00 for
these 5 customers and your backend profits would have been $150.00 without
spending more than a couple of cents extra for the sales letter included in
the packages.
The money is in the backend sale. Don't forget about it.
Successful Internet Marketing can be accomplished by just understanding
these three words: Free, Lead, and Backend. It may sound a little too
simple, but these words are the three major keys to creating a profitable
Internet business.
The more you understand about each of them, the closer you will come to the
dream business you are continually creating online...
-----------------
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
Parting
Comments
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