Your Route Plan For Internet Marketing Success – Part One! - August 2009
Hello and welcome to the August edition of the APD Newsletter.
If, like me, you are in the U.K, you will have noticed that the Met Office retracted their promise of a B-B-Q summer last week.
Talk about stating the obvious. It hasn’t stopped raining since mid June! It’s apparently due to the fact that, for the third year in a row, that naughty old jet stream has failed to “go north”.
So, it’s sitting right above us dropping one low pressure system after another on top of a wet and soggy U.K. If they ever talk about droughts again!!!
Add this to the recession, and as usual the press are having a field day peddling the doom and gloom.
And, this was the subject I was talking to a friend about a couple weeks back. He was fed up with his job and the weather and was looking for a way out. Now the interesting thing is that he had totally ridiculed my Internet marketing efforts when I first got started!
However, he had come to realise that I was having much more fun than him so, given his own situation, he started asking some questions.
In the end, he asked for a route plan he could follow to get started online, so…this is what I gave him! A step-by-step guide to getting your online business up and running…I am good to you :>)
Firstly, a plan is vitally important. Failing to plan is planning to fail! O.K, I know it is awful, but it is true…it’s vital you have a proper strategic plan.
This is where most people starting out fail. I have said many times, and I repeat, there is so much information out there (most of it not very good) that it is very easy to fall into the information overload trap.
If you have a plan, this problem is immediately overcome, you can read my Hub on this issue here, just click the following link Internet Marketing Pitfalls.
The first thing I advised my friend to do was to make the best of his knowledge and interests. Maybe look at a specific talent or experience. List them out.
Then go and have a look in Clickbank and see what products match your areas of experience or interest. Look for products that you have experience in, or a passion about. This is key as you will already understand some of the motivations and mindset of the market.
Having researched Clickbank, pick the first niche you are going to go for!
Then, having decided on your niche, list all of the products and pick the best three based on…
Sales page effectiveness (hint…does it sell to you?)
Gravity (higher the better)
Percentage Commission (at least 50%)
Commission payout (ideally at least $25).
Next, you need to register a domain name that is relevant to the niche. I recommend Namecheap, as the name suggests, it’s cheap - $8.96 If you can’t afford $9 for a domain, then you shouldn’t be here.
Despite what some might tell you, you definitely need a domain. Having a domain name that is relevant (like www.instant-social-traffic.com) helps in so many ways!
It keeps your PPC costs down, increases your quality score and generally helps get you recognised by the search engines (and added PR) because relevancy pertains throughout!
Is this message starting to sink in? The thread through your entire campaign MUST be common! Even down to keyword level (more on this subject in Part 2).
So if we have a site about German Shepherd Dog Training, the domain www.germanshepherdtraining.com would be ideal (no idea if it exists by the way). I tend to use hyphens if the domain I want is not available, as in www.instant-social-traffic.com
There is a lot of argument about this and many people say using the hyphenation harms your effectiveness. I have not found that, and it does allow me to create keyword rich domains that might otherwise have been taken.
Having got your domain, you now need to get it hosted.
I use Hostgator and Hosting Bay for all of my sites. They are both good as recommended in last month’s newsletter, I’ll say no more on this subject.
Both are really easy to use and give you explicit instructions on how to transfer your domains to them. Generally two or three fields to fill in and click the button!
Now, the bit most people dread…you have to put up a website, or at very least a squeeze page to promote your products. Make sure you have a mechanism for collecting names and email addresses. (You will need an autoresponder for this – more in a minute).
Three years ago I couldn’t have built a website if my life depended on it! However, as with all things Internet marketing, there is a learning curve…and you simply MUST make that investment in learning unless you can afford to outsource.
Initially I learned to use Dreamweaver, which is a fair task for a technical bonehead (that’s me by the way).
Nowadays I use Blue Voda. This is a free download product and is so easy to use my Mum can do it! It took my Mum three years to learn email and she still rings me to ask questions about it! So, that gives you an idea as to how easy it is to use Blue Voda. If you can use Word, you can use Blue Voda with about an hours learning – maybe less.
If you can afford to outsource your web build, great go for it.
I use the following outsource sites when Lee or I don’t have the time to do our own web work…
There are others, but I have built good relationships with service providers at all of these sites.
They can be a bit “hit and miss” to start with and I had some horror stories, but over about 6 months, I have found a number of providers who have done excellent work and I can now trust. If I need work done, I turn to these trusted suppliers.
It’s the same as everything, you have to start somewhere and you can’t expect everything to flow right away. As long as you learn and gain experience from the setbacks, it makes you more effective in the long run.
I’m sure I have said before every negative has the seed of at least an equal or greater benefit within it. Sometimes you just have to look a little!
Back to autoresponders. You need one. I use Aweber.
It’s the best for the budding Internet marketer! There are free autoresponders, but…beware, many of them are blacklisted so your delivery rates will be poor.
Aweber is $19.95/month and worth a bundle more than that for the functionality you get. It’s a professional, well-respected service that will stand you in good stead in the market.
An autoresponder will automate all of your communication with your customers and potential customers.
Why do you need one?
Well, research has proven that it takes seven contacts for people to buy. After years in sales I can confirm this is true. Your customers need to trust you before they will buy as a general rule…and that takes around seven contacts from you. So, if you do not follow up with people who show an interest, you are leaving money (lots of it) on the table!
I like using the seven part free course that allows you to market the products subtly and build trust at the same time.
Again, Aweber is so easy to use. If you can point and click you can do this. And…Aweber now have extensive video training so nothing is left to chance. Everything is demonstrated in fine detail.
Now you need to enter information into your autoresponder.
As I said, at least a seven message sequence.
This is where I think it’s important that you have an interest and understanding of the niche you are attacking. If you have that understanding, then you’ll be able to write your messages as an “insider”. People will relate to you and you’ll be on the “same page” as your readers.
This is so powerful when you are trying to sell – that you can sell from your prospects “point of view”. That you’re seen as an “insider” who understands their problems and troubles.
Yes, you can outsource the writing of your content and autoresponder series, but I don’t like doing that. I like to have intimate knowledge of what I post online so that I can respond effectively to any questions. I think that is important and show’s you are serious about your niche.
There is a lot of information in this month’s missive! I still can’t believe I give all this away free to you every month! I was reading about the Red Hat business model this morning (they give their software away free), but I am convinced that if I keep giving all this great free stuff away…I will be rewarded in full (plus some) for the products I do sell.
Plus, I enjoy writing the newsletter, it’s my subject and it’s fun – and so we come full circle!
One final thing, Lee and I have upgraded the Instant Social Traffic free members area. There is now at least $497 worth of freebies in there that show you how you can start to profit from “social traffic”.
The product itself has been delivering some spectacular results for paid members. I’ll be putting a video up with some case studies soon. Keep an eye out for that.
O.K, that’s it for this month, I’ll be back with part two of the IM plan next month when I look at configuring your autoresponder, the sales process, keyword research and a few other sneaky marketing methods!
Until then, as always…to *YOUR* success.
Cheers now.
Derek
Instant Information Product Ideas
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