How has the Internet really helped you?

[graham]

We all have heard these amazing stories of "The Internet Saved My Business!" and so on and so forth. People who mere months ago stumbled through this world wide web like Bilbo Baggins are now Internet gurus boasting thousands of dollars in sales every day. Were these stories less in frequency, I'd be sure that the Internet was full of more thieves and liars than a law school. As it is, I happen to know that web marketing and promotion have the power to turn a business around in a matter of weeks.

The Internet is not disimilar to Lassie appearing at the crucial moment to bark out just the right bit of charades to make business people climb out of that dank well. And double-negatives are more fun than I thought.

So my questions to you are these: What was your most successful web promotion? Was it amazingly creative and new, or something that's been done thousands of times? What is the one web secret you think you reeeeeally need to share?

You tell me yours, I'll tell you mine.

[AndrewCavanagh]

I think the most important principle you need to understand about internet marketing is that it is constantly changing.

Staying aware of your own behavior and the trends you see in the behavior of your prospects and clients online is vital to stay ahead of the loop.

Let me give you a practical example that's worth a whole pile of money to you if you use it.

I noticed that I'd stopped entering a genuine name and email address when I arrived at an internet marketing related squeeze page.

And it occurred to me that if I'm not entering my real contact details then a high percentage of other people must be entering bogus information too just to get through the squeeze page to see "what's on the other side".

So I tested putting up a second opt in form on my thank you page.

With a message "did you enter an email address where you might not get your download email like a Yahoo or Hotmail address".

If so enter your primary email address in the form below.


Not exactly earth shattering but 6 months later 40% of my double opt in subscribers had entered their contact details ON THE THANK YOU PAGE.

Since then that's dropped to 20% but a blind dog could see the significance of those figures.

What would it be worth to your clients to increase their double opt in subscribers by 20%?

So paying attention to your own behavior online can help you keep up or stay ahead of the trends online.


The other key suggestion I'd make is that online marketing is like any other kind of marketing.

The most valuable information you can have is an intimate knowledge of your prospects and clients.

Kindest regards,
Andrew Cavanagh
Online Copywriting

[jleister]

Graham,

I'm a little late to the show here, but...

I think one of the greatest things about the internet is that it increases your chances of "sticking with your market."

You can communicate more frequently... with more timely information. It makes it a lot easier to tie in to exactly where your market is at any one moment.

That's a big benefit over writing a package and having to take an educated guess about where you're market's gonna be in 3-4 months...

My biggest successes online have come from doing just what I describe. Those times when your marketing so closely matches exactly what your reader is already thinking that your sales message works like magic.

[John C. A. Manley]

It's still to early to give a solid number...

But I have a joint-venture deal with a local naturopathic clinic. We're doing marketing on all fronts, but have been regular with a weekly email column from the doctor (or sometimes the staff or his family) to the patients.

It's changed the dynamics of the patient-doctor relationship entirely. Patients are more "on board" when they come for an appointment. Less resentment over paying their fees. They're grateful for the attention.

It's also helped increased overall "sales" by 169%, including a 235% increase in supplements sales.

It's really strange that most small businesses aren't using email marketing. They generally are on tight budgets so email marketing should be a no brainer.

But, sadly, I remember one chiropractor I spoke to last year who was all ready to start a weekly ezine to his patients, until he heard he'd have to pay $20/month for a service like GetResponse to collect the names and broadcast the emails.

Then another doc told me how excited he was that he could start an email list for free with Yahoo Groups.

Shows the importance of working only with those who understand ROI, and not trying to educate them on it from scratch. Not unless they're gonna pay you for it.

[Tommy]

Graham,

The internet has broken the record for the use of the word secret.

believe it or not the basics work just fine online but there are some "soft spots" you can exploit in your favor

My best deal did 122k sales @$88 plus a $250 backend deal. All on the net...

Am I a genius? I don't think so. Yes I had a good product - it solved a problem.
I had strong copy (I am not a copywriter) but the honest to god reason I made so much money is this.

1. I had an offline marketing and sales company and this background allowed me to capitalize and build out my early success.

Once I knew my CPA I scaled it to the moon and quickly developed a backend

oh and one other big thing at the time I had this big winner the word spam didn't exist...I sent a ton of very strong emails at a very low cost (and so did my JV partners)

it helps to be at the right place at the right time...and be prepared for that moment

my experienced helped but email bombing helped even more

soft spot was email was cheap and I could send a boatload...I created a product that appealed to the masses and pressed send as often as possible

since that big win I have had several big wins but nothing like that first one...

the internet is full of gaps, soft spots that can be used to your advantage

I love Search Engines...nothing like targeted visitors

especially SEO (trust me I am not a tech guy)

It's not as hard as you might imagine

good site structure
content
and lots of good backlinks pointing to your site

now the first two are very easy and anyone can achieve this
the last however is not so easy

I solved that problem and now ranking for thousands of keywords in my niche is very easy (the competitive ones as well)

here's what I mean about soft spots

if you get a a high quality anchor text backlink pointed to your sites then you are going to see improved rankings

get alot of links and you will eventually get the top ranking

so how did I find high PR sites to give me links?

I bought them...i bought the site and gave the link to myself

this worked and worked well

to buy the amount of sites I needed I started a club and charged $250 per month for unlimited linking (I closed the membership to the club awhile back)

I used the clubs money to buy all the sites we needed and gave everyone in the club access to ALL the sites as well and everyone gets all the backlinks they need (I build word press blogs on the sites and the members can log in and post their content with the link inside the content)

we add 200 - 400 new sites per month for new links

I know this is the long way but I made money solving my problem and the problem of everyone else (a volume of quality links) and then used the tool to dominate a soft spot on the internet

and today I rank for any keyword I want in my niche

learning what sites to buy and where to find them took time but not impossible

I look at the money I make from my products and services as an asset

I use my profits to start buying sites then I used everyone else's money to grow it

I use all the basics of marketing

great product that brings real value to my clients ( I hate the word customer
- a client is someone I look after)

the basics of CPA, scale and building up lifetime monetary value of my client (solid back end...always a monthly continuity)

and I allow my site visitors to do more than read a sales letter...I allow them to ask questions in real time and to call

do the math

my goal on a product is to do 5 million a year

if the front end product is $295 (mine is...always pick a market where the client has money and lots of pain, fear, worry, concerns- and they are AWARE they have this pain - you can tell they know they have this by the keywords they type in the engines)

thats only 45 sales per day on the front end...very doable (I always shoot to hit my goal on front end sales alone)

lets forget for the monthly backend for the moment

focus on the 45 sales...@1% close rate thats 4,500 hits per day

with SEO and thousands of keywords to potentially rank for 4,500 hits is very doable

I also rank my keywords by category

in the market
entering the market
outside the market looking in

I give a different message to each

great product
targeted keywords for targeted visitors
Marry the message - put the right message (good copy) in front of the right visitor
drive traffic - track CPA
scale from profits
split test and track
great customer service
provide TONS of proof pre-sale
simple terms
upsells
backends that are continuities

Find a soft spot and the rest is all basic marketing

I hope this helps

Thanks for letting me share

Tommy

BTW soft spots are everywhere