SuperTips Ezine: Issue 25
IN THIS ISSUE
2. "An Alternative and Very Innovative
Way to Market Your Product" 3. Readers Forum
4. "Write for Publicity"
5. More "Super" Tips 6. Next Issue
1. Greetings! Hello Folks, Today we're publishing two success stories from Corey Rudl's web site. Corey is one of the most well known netrepreneurs and these extracts contain fascinating ways of making money on the net. We also have some great advice from Shelley Lowery about submitting an article to an ezine - notice how she uses the very tips that she recommends. And at last I've found the answer to my mouse problem. In the process I've picked up some valuable tips which appear in the "More Super Tips" section. Regards, Harvey
2. "An Alternative and Very Innovative Way
to Market Your Product" A client of mine put a business strategy to use about 4 months ago and was astounded by the crazy results. After reading this you will be stunned at the "funny" things that actually make money. He was selling a $995 "Computer Business Package". It was a set of instructional video tapes that show you how to start your own home-based business and turn your personal computer into a $4000 a month income generator. He also gave over 500 business ideas to use. He was getting thousands and thousands of leads every week online. Because of the price of the package, we both knew that the conversion rate to sales would be very low (it always is with high-priced packages). I recommended that he use "three step" advertising. He ran an advertisement offering free information on his program. Thousands of people would request this information from an autoresponder. The letter from the autoresponder outlined what he had to offer in about 3 pages. He then stated that it would take over 20 pages of information to show you what was available with his package. And much of that was almost impossible to explain on paper. If you were interested and could afford the $1000 investment it would take to get your business operational, he would be more than happy to send you a video outlining everything and showing all the details of what was included and how it works. All he asked was that you place a $20 "good-faith" deposit on the video tape to cover his costs in case it was not returned and to weed out the non-serious people. The customer would just have to return the video tape once they had reviewed the material, and he would happily refund their $20 "good faith" deposit. He had orders for about 200 tapes a week. These tapes cost him approximately $5.00 to produce (including shipping). And he collected $20 (by credit card or check) for every tape sent. Out of the 800 tapes he sent out every month, only 240 would be returned for refund of their "good faith" deposit. That means that 560 people did not return the tape (for which he collected $20 each). Let's do the math: 560 tapes X $15.00 profit per tape = $8,400 per month in PURE PROFIT! He was making $8,400 just from the "good faith" deposit on the tapes. This does not include the 5-7 people who bought his $995 business package. Wow, that's a good chunk of change! He was actually making more money on the introduction video tape than he was selling the Computer Business Package. You may ask, "if most of these people did not buy his $995 course, why didn't they return the tape?" 1. He got the initial sales a lot easier than selling the tape because it was presented as a "good faith" deposit, not a purchase. 2. He added some interesting tips on starting a new business on the tape so that even if people did not want the $995 course, they were tempted to keep the tape for the tips. 3. He made it clear that you must be able to afford a $1000 investment before you order the tape (most people who can afford this are not worried about $20). 4. He did not remind the customer when he sent the tape that they get their $20 back if they returned it. Most people just plain forgot. This example just goes to show you that there are sometimes interesting ways to make money.
Update on the "Wheelchair Lady" Success Story: As I mentioned in a previous "success story", there is a 43 year old woman who wrote a report on how to get a free wheelchair from the government. All she did was document how she went about doing this for her elderly mother. She proceeded to sell this report for $20.00 on the internet (her cost was approx. $2.00). At last report, she was making $30,000 a month! It is hard to believe that such a simple thing has such a market and so much profit potential. Because of her success on the internet, she proceeded into advertising in newspapers and magazines... and actually lost money! The report only made money (and a very healthy income at that) on the net. If you take a reverse look at this... in many cases (such as with two of my other products) you can take a product that has not been successful with traditional marketing (direct marketing, newspapers, magazines, radio, etc.) and make money with it on the net. Although this is a rare case (making $30,000 a month from a simple report), it does happen. I thought you might want this update... it's another example that the simplest (and sometimes strangest) ideas work on the net.
--------------- For his FREE internet marketing newsletter, or to learn how to triple your current profits in 90 days GUARANTEED, please click here.
3. Readers Forum 3.1 Compliments from our readers
Just wanted to thank you for your site at http://www.supertips.com
Rosanne Dobbins @ http://www.promotiontools.net
Rosanne is referring to the autoresponders I use for sending out my Internet
marketing articles. You can see an index of all these articles by sending
an Email a00@sendfree.com You are welcome to use these articles for your own publications or to bring more traffic to your website. If you've not tried this technique before then read the article "How to boost your website traffic"
3.2 Search engine query And now a request for help from our very first subscriber. It's me ! Open directory (www.dmoz.org) is a new popular search engine or rather directory (like Yahoo), especially important as it feeds other search engines such as Lycos and Hotbot. When I try to submit my site www.supertips.com it says that it has already been submitted. But when I search for my site it says it's not there ! Do we have any search engine experts who can answer this conundrum ?
4. "Write for Publicity" Designing a great website is only the first step towards creating a successful web presence. In order to succeed, you must develop a steady stream of traffic to your site. The first and most important step is getting your website listed in the search engines. Keeping your website ranked in the top 30 positions is a never ending battle and shouldn't be solely relied upon for developing traffic. If you've been on the Internet for a while you've probably subscribed to a few ezines (newsletters). Most ezines will include a feature article written by the editor or a guest author. If you've ever read an article written by a guest author then you've probably noticed, at the end of the article, a few lines of text about the author, referred to as "bylines" or "resource box." The writer gives the publisher permission to publish their article free of charge in exchange for the publisher including the author's bylines. The bylines are basically just an advertisement for the writer. They usually contain a couple of lines about the author and a web address. By writing articles and allowing them to be published free of charge, your articles will have the potential to be viewed by millions of Internet users. They may be published by several ezines with subscriber bases of a few hundred to several thousand. In addition, they may be displayed in ezine archives or on high traffic websites. Most ezine publishers prefer short articles between 500 and 750 words. Short "tip" articles of just a couple of paragraphs are also very popular. Articles should be formatted to 65 characters per line or less including spaces and written in short paragraph sections. When you begin writing your article, avoid using your standard word processing programs, as they do not allow for proper formatting. Instead, use a text editor such as NotePad. It should already be installed on your desktop. When you begin typing your article, use a hard carriage return (hit enter) when your text reaches 65 characters, including spaces, and leave a space between your paragraphs. This will enable the publisher to easily copy and paste your article into their publication and significantly increase your chances of being published. Most publishers receive many article submissions each week and only select a few to be published. Here are some basic guidelines to help you increase your chances of being published: - Your article must be properly formatted. Publishers won't take the time to format your article, they'll simply use another article that is properly formatted - Keep your bylines down to 6 lines or less - Select a descriptive title to intrigue your readers - Use proper grammar and spelling - Avoid articles that are nothing more than a sales pitch, as your chances of being published will be minimal - Avoid referring readers to an affiliate URL as this will make your article appear to be biased and untrustworthy - Write your articles with a sincere desire to teach and inform. Talk to your readers and share your expertise Once you've written your article, you'll need to develop a list of publishers that may be interested in publishing it. Visit the following site to help you locate ezine publishers: http://www.meer.net/~johnl/e-zine-list/ Search through the database for publications that may be interested in the type of article you've written. Contact the publisher and ask them if they accept article submissions. Here are some additional promotional resources to help you get published: http://www.web-source.net/article-announce http://www.web-source.net/links http://www.ideamarketers.com/http://www.e-zinez.com/writers.htm Writing and distributing free articles on the Internet will be one of the best promotional decisions you'll ever make. Not only will it provide you with free publicity, but if your articles are good, you'll become a trusted professional in your area of expertise.
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5. More "Super" Tips 5.1 Put a sparkle on your screen If you get weary after spending hours at your PC and start reaching for the off button then try this. Go to the Desktop Themes panel which you will find via Start -> Settings -> Control Panel Select the theme 'Nature' (possibly only for Windows 98 users). The result ? Your screen will now be bathed in lovely shades of gold, the egg timer symbol becomes an animated yellow flower, the 'My Computer' icon is a red butterfly, the cursor transforms to a striking green arrow. Now you can't wait to get back to your PC every day, but just in case you leave it for a few minutes then when you return your screensaver will show pretty caterpillars munching their way through the green leaves. I suppose I could have titled this tip 'Make your screen sparkle' or 'MYSS' but that abbreviation is reserved for what has been acclaimed as the best book ever on Internet marketing. Read on.
5.2 Ken Evoy's book - now in print If there are any of my readers out there who have not yet purchased Ken Evoy's astounding e-book "Make your Site SELL!" - there can only be one reason. You downloaded the free preview (over 100 pages), you were happy with the price (17 dollars !), BUT all in all you prefer to read a printed book. Your wish has come true. The printed version is now available - and you'll get a reduction if you have already purchased the electronic version or if you want to buy both. Visit this page to get the free trial or to make your purchase.
5.3 Mouse problem solved
Remember my mouse problem ? The solution ? It simply needed the latest version of the mouse software. Now, when installing the new version the instructions stated that the previous version should be deinstalled. Well I had what proved to be an unfounded fear that if I deinstalled it the mouse would stop working and I'd be unable to carry on. So I thought I'd take a shortcut and simply install the new version. There was no problem with the installation, the control panel settings indicated that the new version was now in operation and the mouse functioned correctly. So to check if the scrolling problem was resolved I put the PC on standby and ... to my horror ...it went dead. Logitech support suggested that I should always deinstall first as per the instructions. So I tried it and ... problem solved.
Two lessons learned here However this was just about one of the few things that Logitech got right as I'll explain in the next section.
5.4 How NOT to provide customer service In order to report the mouse problem I went to the Logitech web site , found the form used for submitting problems and went through a lengthy process of filling in details of my PC hardware configuration and contact information. I omitted a field marked as optional but on submission the form was rejected saying that this field was indeed required. OK - no big deal I thought - I'll just add it in. But when the form was redisplayed all the fields had been cleared out instead of being retained to allow amendments. So I had to re-enter all the fields. I hit the same problem with another supposedly optional field and had to repeat the whole process.
Finally I was able to submit a correct form only to get the message I repeated the whole exercise only to get the same message, this time with different codes. Now these days the provision of a web form for data submission is a quite basic feature - there's no need for errors like this or for sloppy design where all the fields need to be reinput. When I decided to report the error I searched in vain for an Email address. Have you noticed how some sites seem to deliberately avoid providing an Email address or make you trawl through page after page to find one ? I eventually came across a webmaster Email address which stated that it was only to be used for comments about the web site, not for technical problems. So I mailed a report about the failure of sending mail from the site and asked for an Email contact address. There was no response to this mail or a repeat one which I sent a few days later.
Time now to speak to Logitech support in person. I pointed out 3 things I was assured that my complaints would be answered and I gave my phone number and Email address. I asked if there was a reference number for the call but was simply given the name of the support person. A week went by and no response. I called again and spoke to another person. I gave the name of the original person and my details but he could not immediately find a record of the call. So I had to run through the whole saga again. Finally after 10 minutes he came across my record and advised me of a customer number that I could use for the future. Now why hadn't the first person given me this information ? Quite a catalogue of disasters as you can see. Doubt if I'll be buying another product from this company.
6. Next Issue SuperTips Ezine will be with you again on December 22nd. If you have any suggestions to improve this newsletter so that we can make it a great resource for all our readers please drop me a line. Thanks, Harvey
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