Product Development For Bozo’s - February 2009
Hello and welcome to this month’s newsletter, February already! I am in apology mode once more…late again!
In my defence Lee and I have been hugely busy getting the new website up to speed and…it’s amazing how many bugs you find once you start testing! I was once told (many years ago when I was setting up a recruitment business)… ”large projects like this always cost twice as much as you expect and take three times as long”. It’s very true!
The bottom line we are now behind on just about everything! But we keep going! Persistence is the one thing failure can’t live with! If nothing else, I am a persistent old ********!
However, I promise that once everything is ready, it will be a much better “user experience” that you have when “interfacing” with APD :>)
So, moving quickly on, let’s get going.
I haven’t talked about the dreaded downturn for quite a while now. I’m sure you can see for yourself that this is not a normal “blip” now. If you can remember back, I first called trouble when I got home from Vancouver in August 2007. Go back and have a look if you don’t believe me!
I’ll be the first to admit it’s taken a while to really hit the world economy, but summer 2007 was when the sub prime crisis started to break in the U.S.
What I hadn’t realised was the extent of the mess the Banks had caused (mind you, none of my Banking chums knew either, says it all really). So, I hope you have been following Robert Peston for the inside track on this because you do need to understand what is going on. And, he is particularly good at breaking things down into words of a few syllables that we can all understand!
I admit that I got the scale of this thing wrong. I definitely said “in the great scheme of things it will only be a ripple”, but it is bigger than that. I should have guessed when I was told by an exotics trader that a bank (that has to remain unnamed) had posted profits of close to $1 billion in a quarter on derivatives trading. His exact words to me were, “Someone has to be holding the other end of the stick…I’d hate to see what happens when this all unravels”.
It’s unravelling!
I’m not going to explain how the Banks made this mess again, but never before have we had a Banking led recession. And the fact that there is now less than zero confidence in the world’s banks is hurting the global economy big time – even the most robust economies.
However, and I have said this before, the online world is still prospering. It is where you MUST take your business if you want to succeed.
The top ten retailers who operate online saw an across the board 37% increase in Internet sales over Christmas…while the high street squirmed, screamed and squealed (and kicked a bit too).
Nielsen Online reported Amazon was the most visited website in December 2008 with 15.6 million visitors 17% up on 2007 (I think that is a U.K figure). Is it no surprise that Zavvi (ex Virgin music and U.K CD/DVD retailer) is going out of business?
They can’t compete with Amazon in the more niche markets where Amazon clean up and make that incremental profit on the higher margin items.
The world is shifting and Amazon wins because of the economies of scale and variation they are able to supply. It is impossible for the high street to offer this breadth of product, they don’t have enough shop space. And, here in the U.K we see Tesco’s and Sainbury’s (and the other major supermarket groups) offering the top 50 CD’s and DVD’s at giveaway prices, the traditional music retailer is being squeezed out of existence.
Music and film was a large proportion of now defunct U.K retailer Woolworths, again, couldn’t compete with Amazon (they also had other issues as well, but you get the idea).
Littlewoods (a U.K catalogue operation) saw online sales increase by a massive 66% in December. What further proof do you need??
There is NOT a recession happening online! Taking your business online offers you numerous advantages over a traditional business model.
You should be seriously thinking about how you can productise what it is you do? Think about what you know that people would pay for? What do you find easy that others find difficult? What comes naturally to you?
Then…how can you turn that into a product? Ideally an information product that you can deliver via CD, DVD, Online audio or video download. Ebook or PDF report, all are great, cost effective delivery methods for information products.
I have heard it argued that you dilute your offering by not being personal - but that’s not true. You are making your valuable information available to a wider audience at a far lower price than you would be able if you were offering 1 to 1 consultancy.
This is, as they say, a “no-brainer” and is a great way to start your online “information empire”. It’s the only way to go…you know it makes sense!
Yes, there is a learning curve to getting online. But, it’s not that difficult. If I can do it, you can too! (I haven’t said that for a while).
Find a PLR product and get it online!
www.apd-marketing.co.uk/infoprods.html
This was a PLR eBook that I found, (paid very little for) re-hashed, added about an extra 30% and now sell online. Easy!
www.apd-marketing.co.uk/buildwebsite.htm
This one I got from Tom Hua’s excellent Ebook Wholesaler site. I haven’t changed one thing on this site or in this book, this is how the PLR package came. O.K, I know I need to make it unique, but I haven’t had time and it’s doing O.K.
Go to the new site and the free stuff page. If you don’t believe me download Armand Morin’s “An Obvious Truth” or just click this link. Armand is quite explicit about this. He re-enforces what I am saying here, so don’t just hear it from me…hear it from someone who has generated over $50 million worth of online sales.
Time to get tough on you…you have NO excuses. It’s true there is a lot of crap taught out there. And it is also true there is no such thing as a get rich quick scheme like some so called “Guru’s” would have you believe.
You have to make the effort and learn what you need to learn in order to suceed, Internet Marketing is a business like any other…which is where so many people fall down. They expect to read one $37 eBook and earn a million dollars – sorry.
But, if you are prepared to put in a little effort, learn how to do this, it’s not difficult, time yes, brain power…some required. I repeat…the online world is simply not partaking in this “alleged” recession. Whoops, I said the “R” word, not as bad as the “D” word though! If you haven’t been listening, Gordon Brown accidentally called the current recession “the depression”. Oh dear, Gordon. How not to rally the economy, he really has goofed big time with this one (unless he knows something he’s not telling of course).
I think that’s enough for this month. Please do explore the new site at www.apd-marketing.co.uk Let me if you find any “glitches”!
Also remember the new blog at www.apdinternetmarketing.blogspot.com
You can also now catch APD on YouTube under the name apdmarket and why not check out our HubPages at http://hubpages.com/profile/apd%20marketing - do give us the “thumbs up”!
Although, amusingly, Hub Pages haven’t quite worked out what APD is about yet…the Adwords ads on our home Hub are offering pictures of Anna Kournikova and bikini clad young ladies. I’m sure Google will work it out soon, but I did laugh when I noticed!
By the way, I hope you are paying attention to this new strategy I am implementing here! More of that very soon.
And finally…I was really hoping to have the new newsletter blog up and running. It’s coming along, but Lee and I simply bit off more than we could chew this month. You’d think at my age I would have learned, but hey…why not push yourself.
If you aim low and miss your goal, well, urghhh, what have you achieved?
However, if you shoot high and just miss chances are you will have achieved something very worthwhile.
With that thought I will wish you well. If you have any comments, please drop me a mail through the website.
As always…to *YOUR* success.
Cheers now…and have fun!
Derek
If you feel anyone else would benefit from this information, please feel free to pass it on.
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