The last option we looked at was building the site yourself. We’re going to look at how to do that in more depth.

Before we get started let’s do a quick review…

To build a Web site you need to have a domain name (1&1) and a Web hosting account (Blue Host and HostGator links).

You also need software to be able to design and create the Web pages that are part of your Web site; I recommended KompoZer – it’s HTML editor freeware.

After you have that here is what you do…

We’re going to do 2 things, look at making a Web page and learning a little bit of HTML so you can understand enough if you come up against problems.

Note, that this isn’t going to be a detailed tutorial on KompoZer (click here if you want that)

Getting Started with KompoZer

But let’s look quickly at KompoZer.

When you first open KompoZer you’ll see something like this:

You can start creating your page immediately; just start typing in your content. I’ve put a few things to show you, see this screen shot:

You will immediately see 5 things: 

1. A big heading at the top
2. A smaller heading under it
3. Several paragraphs
4. A link to the free gift
5. An image that was placed on the page

 It took me all of 1 minute and 42 seconds (I timed it) and half of that was finding a nice picture.

(Very) Quick Intro to HTML

I now want to take that and show you the HTML code behind it but first a very quick primer to help you learn about HTML and how to create an HTML Web page.

It is the language of the Web, it is the instructions or blueprint to make a Web page look the way it does, including the page you’re reading this on!

HTML is a “markup language” – that’s what the M and L start for and it means that your “markup” the contents of a Web page so that the Web browser understands how to display it properly.

If has a bunch of “tags” that are used and almost all tags are paired with a start tag and an end tag; the end tag using the same tag name but with a forward slash “/” in front of it.

Each tag starts with a less than sign “<”, has the tag name, has some optional attributes and ends with a greater than sign, here the format of a starting tag:

<TagName attribute=”value”>

and an ending tag:

</TagName>

So every Web page is just a whole lot of <TagName>some content</TagName> groups (let me make up a name “tag groups”) and since the tag groups can be nested inside other tag groups to an unlimited depth you can make a pretty sophisticated Web page.

I know it is rushing it but let’s look at the HTML behind the page above and I think it will be clearer:

If you aren’t at all familiar with HTML code it probably looks pretty intimidating but it fairly easy to understand with just a little knowledge but, you know what, in general, you won’t need to understand but it always helps if you know a little bit.

Okay let’s start with the code that reads:

You see on the screen it makes the words bid and bold and on a line by itself…

Notice that the tag part of it (which doesn’t show on the screen) using our less than sign-tag name-greater than sign: < then h1 (which is the tag name) and then > followed by the content and then the ending tag.

This tag is called a “header tag” and there are 6 header tags named h1 to h6 (each smaller than the previous one); you can see the h2 tag above and see that it products smaller text.

Next, let’s look at the HTML code that made the link:

This tag, called an anchor tag (don’t ask!), creates the link like:

He’ll you see our first use of an attribute with the “href=FirstFreeGift.zip”; this says ‘when the link is clicked load the file name FirstFreeGift.zip’ which, in essence, starts downloading the .Zip file but if the file name had been a Web page then it would have loaded the Web page.

A little bit down the page we see this code:

It displays the picture on the Web page:

This tag has 4 attributes and NO closing tags!!!

The attributes are the “alt text” which display if someone hovers their mouse over the picture (and it read out by the screen readers that people that have trouble seeing use.

BUT the alt test is also the place to put some of your keywords, Google uses it as part of their ranking algorithm.

The other 3 attributes of the image tag are about the picture itself: it’s name and location (the src or source attribute); it’s height and it’s width.

There is one more prominent tag on the page the “break” tab (<br />); it’s like hitting the Enter key when typing in a word processor (like Word) or a text editor (Notepad).

So you’ll see that there are 2 break tags to separate the paragraphs.

One final thing I want to point out is that the image tag (<img>) and the break tags (<br>) do not have closing tags as it makes no sense to have them in situations like this because there can’t be any content in between.

Conclusion

It isn’t that hard to create a Web page or an entire Web particularly with a tool like KompoZer. 

HTML isn’t that hard to learn and use unless you need to get real fancy or complex. For the average sales page or Web site though something like KompoZer with some HTML tweaking if necessary is more than sufficient.

Knowing how to use a tool like KompoZer and learning HTML at least a bit is very useful even if you hire people from places like Elance and Rent-a-Coder or if you start with a Web template and you need to fill it in.

If you want to jump start your learning of how to build a Web page, particularly KompoZer tutorials, you can go to How to Make Your Own Free Website

Of course, if you have an online business you are an Internet Marketer and you shouldn’t be spending a lot of time creating Web pages and writing HTML code!

Leave me a comment below.

Talk soon,

The “Shameless” (but “Ethical”) Marketer
http://www.Twitter.com/DavidHusnian
http://www.MadMondaySale.com

O.Y. My friend John Delavera has something that can quickly and easily create complete Web site; smaller ones of course, it’s not going to create a great 1,000 page Web site , check it out at his Web page.

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This post from: From The Desk of David. To read more post like this, head over to From The Desk of David

How to Build a Web Site, Part 2

Every Web site is made up of Web pages, so everyone who wants to market online needs Web pages; without cash-sucking, profit-pulling Web pages you’ll soon be out of business.

I get a lot of questions about Web pages and how to make your own free website.

So I’m going to do a short series on how to make your own website, one Web page at a time.

It will be for people who don’t know how to create a Web site or who have a Web site and want to be able to make changes to it without have the trouble and expense of hiring someone to do it.

It will be kept simple and basic and afterwards you should be able to get regular sales pages and Web sites done including formatting text, adding pictures and other graphics, and having links to other Web pages (like a shopping cart!); you’ll be making your own website in no time.

If you’ve checked at how much it cost to create a Web site you’ll see people charging less than $100, many charging thousands of dollars and, for large complex sites, it could cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars or more; I’ve charged close to $100,000 for complex, custom-made Web applications.

So being able to make your own free website can save you a lot of money, particularly for new online business owners or those still struggling.

If you want to have a Web site there are 4 main ways to get one:

1. Hire someone to do it for you
2. Use a Web template
3. Use a free Web building tool
4. Build it your self.

Hire Someone to Do It for You

The advantage of this is that you can get a really nice customer Web site done and you don’t have to spend time struggling to get one done.

The disadvantages are it can be more expensive and you have to find someone to do it; reasonably priced people can be found at places like Elance and Rent-a-Coder just be sure to check the individuals out first.

This can be the best choice because you can spend you time marketing and growing your business not fumbling around trying to make a Web page.

Just beware it is easy for unscrupulous people to take advantage of your lack of knowledge; be sure you have planned out exactly what you want,

Use a Web Template

A Web template is a Web page (or a mini-site) that is already created but is incomplete.

You take a Web template and finish it by adding your content and images.

It’s sort of like an unfurnished apartment, you’ve got the basic structure but you need to decorate and furnish it on your own.

The advantage is that you get a professional Web page or site much more quickly and for less cost than hiring that same professional.

The main disadvantage is that you still have to know enough to “furnish” the Web site.

Use a Free Web Building Tool

Some companies provide free “wizards” to lead you through the process of creating a Web site; they usually come with free or paid Web hosting.

The main advantage to this Web site builder software is you really don’t have to know much about how to create Web pages as you just answer a series of questions and the software builds your Web site.

The main disadvantages are you are usually stuck with the style and types of pages they offer and you have to have the pages on their computers.

In general, I don’t recommend free website making software to online marketers.

Build It Yourself

Many people, particularly people who haven’t had much, if any, success online, are interested in creating your own website to save money.

While, it may not be the best use of your time, if that sounds like you then there are some things you need to know to easily build your own website.

First, there are a number of tools to help you create Web pages from the high end tools like Microsoft’s Visual Studio and Adobe’s Dreamweaver to a mid-range tool like Microsoft’s Expression Web (formerly FrontPage) and Adobe’s HomeSite down to free Web page editors like KompoZer and NVU.

Whatever you do, use a tool.

Hand coding HTML using Notepad, while possible, is not something a marketer needs to be doing.

Truthfully, I own all the above tools and more but, for a free and simple tool, I like KompoZer the best because it’s been around for many years and handles a lot of the other tasks besides creating the actual Web pages.

The main advantages of building your own Web pages are that you get total control and you have minimal cash outlay.

The main disadvantages are that you may be losing opportunities to make more money than the cash outlay and it is easy to get sucked into spending days, weeks or months creating perfect Web pages particularly if you don’t know much about how to do it.

Conclusion

Virtually all successful online businesses and Internet Marketers has at least one Web site, so you need to have one too.

There are 4 main ways to create a Web site:

1. Hire someone to do it for you
2. Use a Web template
3. Use a free Web building tool
4. Build it your self.

Each ways has pros and cons, although I do not recommend #3.

While #1 requires you know certain things, places like Elance and Rent-a-Coder help protect you with information and other means.

For #2 and #4 you need to have some additional knowledge of how to build a Web page.

In the next part we’ll look at details of how to do just that, so if you want know how to make your own website then watch for it.

If you want to jump start your learning of how to build a Web page you can go to How to Make Your Own Free Website

Leave me a comment below.

Talk soon,

The “Shameless” (but “Ethical”) Marketer
http://www.Twitter.com/DavidHusnian
http://www.MadMondaySale.com

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This post from: From The Desk of David. To read more post like this, head over to From The Desk of David

How to Build a Web Site

It lists rules every direct marketer, online or off, needs to follow if you take credit cards as a form of payment.

I’ve blatantly stole this from Ryan Lee’s blog, sign up for his Webinar while you’re there.

Direct Response Best Practice Guidelines for Merchants

Trial Offers

Marketing models that employ “Free-Trial”, “Deferred Billing” and/or “Shipping Only” are considered trial offers for purposes of this communication. Consumers must be receiving a tangible good or contracted service in exchange for charging of payment cards. Incentivized discount offers are acceptable when the cardholder is receiving goods or services in exchange for payment; however we will be unable to support accounts engaging in hidden or delayed charges and ‘free’ offers that are not truly free.

1. Avoid using terms in your marketing and offer presentation such as “Free”, “Risk Free” or any similar and potentially misleading phrases when consumers will be enrolled in a monthly continuity program at the end of a trial period, or will be paying a deferred charge for the trial period. The phrase “Free Trial” is prohibited unless there is truly no cost or obligation incurred by the consumer.
2. “Shipping & Handling Only” offers must be a fair and accurate shipping charge reasonable to be accrued by the merchant for providing the product.
3. Trial offers must be extended for a minimum of 10 days.
4. Trial periods should not begin until the product is shipped to the consumer.

Marketing

1. Avoid creating a ‘false sense of urgency’ for the consumer. Unless the consumer’s ability to order is genuinely taken away after a specified timeframe or order count is reached, this practice is prohibited. Use of applications such as countdown clocks, tickers, or language such as “Offer Expires Today!” is also prohibited.
2. Product claims, by law, must be truthful. Claims regarding effectiveness must be substantiated by clinical research conducted to support the claims, and consistent with the formulas and ingredients in your product
3. Qualifications for trial periods of a product should follow pre-determined rules disqualifying consumers who do not meet parameters, including but not limited to: Age, Weight, Height, and Location.
4. Unreasonable claims or guarantees are prohibited. Examples of claims considered unreasonable are:

“Flushes Pounds”, “Flushes Toxins”, “Builds Muscles”

• Stating that use of a product will result in permanent weight loss
• Stating that a product will cause the consumer to lose a specified amount of weight in a specified timeframe
• Stating that a product will cause substantial weight loss no matter what or how much the consumer eats.
• Stating that use of a product can cause weight loss (or muscle growth) in specific body parts

“Free Money”, “Instant Money”

• Stating that the product can substitute the income of a full time job
• Stating that money can be earned with little to no effort or investment
• Stating that use of a product will earn you hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars

Additional examples include:

• Stating that the product has been successfully used by an unrealistic or unsubstantiated number of people
• Stating that a product will secure the consumer a job, either at the product’s company or another company
• Stating or implying that a product is endorsed or in any way associated with President Obama or a government entity

Endorsements/Testimonials:

1. Endorsements and testimonials of user experiences must reflect the true and honest opinions of the endorsee(s).
2. Endorsements and testimonials provided must present a clear picture to consumers of realistic results of using the product. If advertisers do not have substantiation of a specific claim or endorsement, then generally expected results must be clearly disclosed and backed by substantiation of any claims.
3. Blogs used for promotional purposes must be in compliance with published FTC guidelines, representing an accurate and full representation of the endorsee, or clearly designated as a fictional story if developed internally for marketing purposes.
4. News Sites published in marketing materials must be in compliance with published FTC guidelines, and must be clearly presented to the consumer as an advertorial. Written consent should be obtained from a media outlet prior to using the logo.
5. Implied celebrity endorsement by use of an image in your marketing is prohibited without express legal written consent.

Affiliate Marketing (CPA) Networks

A significant contributing factor to Historical Excessive chargeback violations has been the utilization of CPA Networks. Transactions generated from internet traffic and all other lead sources must be managed and monitored for potential fraud using an approved system. Third Party service engagement may be a requirement for account approval.

1. CPA Networks should contractually be held accountable for monitoring traffic generated from participating marketers.
2. Merchants must have monitoring plans in place to detect suspect traffic and monitor Affiliate and Sub-Affiliate performance.

Billing Terms Disclosure

The FTC has recently published guidelines regarding “Negative Option” enrollment programs and is taking a very aggressive position against merchants utilizing/employing this business practice. Recommendations taken in part from the FTC’s website may include but are not limited to the following:

1. Negative Option disclosures must be clear and conspicuous to the consumer and comply with published FTC principals.
2. The full price of products sold must be within reasonable “fair market value”
3. Under no circumstances should consumers be billed for a product or service not disclosed.
4. Consumers must be required to validate understanding of the terms of the offer twice during order submission. The first validation can take place with the initial offer presentation prior to submission of credit card information, and the second during the checkout process. The confirmation order page must also require consumers to acknowledge that they agree to the Terms & Conditions and authorize the merchant to charge the credit card for the disclosed dollar amount. Terms must be displayed adjacent to the “submit”, “confirm” or any other “call to action” button confirming the order. The price must be within 100 pixels of the “submit”, “confirm” or any other “call to action” button.

• Terms must be in a minimum 12-point “easy to read” font.
• Avoid visually distracting graphics from the display of terms.
• Pre-checked boxes must never be used.
• Consumers should be required to actively and individually select each offer or bonus during the checkout process when there are multiple offers or up sells presented. No offers or up sells should be pre–selected or pre-checked.
• Consumers should not be able to move forward in the offer or checkout until the box acknowledging the terms is checked.
• Verbiage must clearly disclose the enrollment into an ongoing membership with no distraction. An example of an acceptable disclosure is: “By clicking “Submit” you acknowledge that you understand you are being enrolled in a 10 day trial for $4.95, and after expiration of the 10 day trial period you will be charged $59 per month until you cancel your service”
• All products or services purchased when the call-to-action button is clicked should be billed as a single charge unless the order is fulfilled at different times requiring multiple charges.
• Shipping and Handling should not be billed separate from charges for the product or service.

Billing Timeframes

1. A merchant may not bill a consumer the full price twice in a 30-day span. An acceptable billing cycle example would be:
   • Day 1 – Consumer signs up for a 10 day trial offer with paid shipping of $4.95 charged at the time of order.
   • Day 11 – The first monthly order is shipped and the consumer is billed the full price of $59.
   • Day 41 – The second monthly order is shipped and the consumer is billed the full price of $59.
2. Consumers should not be billed prior to shipment of products.

REFUND POLICIES

Merchants must not make it difficult for consumers to exercise the disclosed cancellation procedures and all cancellation requests must be honored in accordance with the stated terms of the transaction.

1. Refund policies must be disclosed prior to the sale completion. Establish a clear, concise statement of your refund and credit policy. Your policy should be consistent with the objectives of your business and the products or services sold.
2. Merchants must not require return of any trial offer product samples in order for the consumer to receive a refund, or cancel their ongoing subscription.
3. “Full Money Back” or “Full Satisfaction” guarantees are considered false and prohibited unless the offer provides a full refund on all products, including but not limited to Shipping & Handling charges.
4. Refunds should be for the full amount charged including shipping and handling
5. All future billing to a customer should be canceled when a refund is issued.
6. All future billing to a customer should be canceled when a chargeback is received.

Back End Offer, AKA Up Sells or Cross Sells:

All sales should be directly between the business entities (merchants) processing the transactions and the consumer, with consumer authorization for all purchases.

1. Under no circumstances can consumer data be shared with another company as this is a violation of Brand Regulations, including but not limited to the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard.
2. Forced and hidden up sells are strictly prohibited
3. Up Sells with recurring charges are prohibited, regardless of consumer opt-in or acknowledgement of the offer.
4. A one-time bonus offer may be extended to the consumer for an additional product offered by the same company as the initial transaction. The price of the bonus offer must be clearly disclosed and the consumer must acknowledge the terms of the sale prior to providing credit card information for completion of the sale, and again at order confirmation/ submission.

Descriptors

1. ALL MERCHANTS DEFINED AS OFFERING A DIRECT MARKETING PRODUCT WILL BE ASSIGNED A DESCRIPTOR FORMATTED TO COMPLY WITH VISA REQUIREMENTS, TO INCLUDE AN *.
2. Billing descriptor should be consistent with the website name, marketing materials, purchase confirmation, and shipping notification (if any) sent to the consumer.

Fulfillment

1. Orders must be fulfilled in a timely manner. It is recommended that all products be shipped within 48 hours (2 business days) from the date of order.
2. A confirmation email should be provided for all online orderswith physical shipment, within the prior 5 days to shipment or 2 days following shipment, including the following information:
   • Merchant contact information (at minimum a consumer service phone number)
   • Order information including purchaser’s name, unique order or customer ID, summary of item(s) purchased
   • Terms of the order, including initial amount billed and future billing schedule (this should be stressed)
   • Cancellation and refund policy
   • Delivery confirmation / tracking information
3. An invoice should be included with the product including the following information:
   • Merchant contact information (at minimum a consumer service phone number)
   • Terms of the order, including initial amount billed and future billing schedule
   • Cancellation and refund policy

Customer Service:

1. Multiple methods of cancellation must be provided for consumers to cancel or request refunds, including at least two options of contact. Example of acceptable service channels include: phone, email, mail, and online chat. Phone support is strongly recommended as one of the options.
2. “Contact Us” information including contact methods and hours of availability should be prominently displayed in all marketing, offer and payment pages, as well as included in purchase confirmations, invoices and any other communication with consumers.
3. Customer Service must be easily accessible and available during reasonable business hours
4. Refund and Cancellation Policies must be followed as disclosed to the consumer at the time of order
5. Hold times to reach Customer Service must be less than 2 minutes.
6. After hours voice mail should include a greeting that properly identifies the merchant to the consumer, provides hours of Customer Service availability and an expectation for call back.

Not all merchants will require exactly the same rules but I bet almost all of them will be about the same.

This affects you and it WILL make things better and easier for us ethical marketers.

Now you have the information, act on it!

David Husnian

The Shameless (and Ethical) Marketer
http://www.Twitter.com

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This post from: From The Desk of David. To read more post like this, head over to From The Desk of David

New Direct Marketers Rules You MUST Follow

Some people think lack of focus causes more business failure than anything else.

I’ve recently read numerous e-mails and blogs posts from people saying how important focus is and how they are really going to focus this year.

In fact, there have been a rash of Internet Marketers, big names and small, selling off existing, money making, Web sites to “focus”; nothing wrong with that and I applaud them but without explanation and understanding it just confuses us people.

I expect to see products released talking about focus and helping you focus and [fill-in-the-blank] focus.

In addition, one of the things I hear most frequently from people is they have trouble focusing on just one thing.

Now, I am not against focus.

In fact, I’m highly for focus; HIGHLY.

I understand how it can be hard to focus because entrepreneurs like us have lots and lots of “great ideas” and can have trouble picking one idea over the other or sticking to just one and seeing it through to completion.

Believe me, I understand.

So focus is the answer de jour and everyone is jumping on that bandwagon.

The problem is that focus just isn’t enough, just like taking action isn’t enough. Do you know why?
Lots of action takers fail miserably; I’d bet that most action takers are failing miserably and never succeed.

They are all taken in by the concept of “Ready, Fire, Aim” which, if you study it and truly understand it, works well but most don’t do that and so they do it wrong (and fail).

Lots of focused people fail miserably; I’d also bet most focused people are failing miserably and never succeed.

So you might ask, if everyone says how great being focused is (and above I even said it) why do people still fail?

They fail for the same reasons most Ready, Fire, Aim people fail; those people fail because you can’t just fire anywhere.

I know some 7 and 8 figure marketers who have lost hundreds of thousands of dollars each by just “firing”. I know this to be true because these people, all of whom I like and respect, have told me this directly and in private.

Now they practice “Ready, Point in the Right Direction, Fire, Aim”

The thing is, you need to have some idea of where to fire.

Sure, you don’t need to wait for that perfect, clear shot, and in marketing you shouldn’t, but you do need to have a general idea where firing might do some good because otherwise it is just a waste of good “ammunition”; ammunition to a marketer is time, money and reputation.

Being focused is the same thing.

Just being focused isn’t enough, no matter how focused you are, you need to be focused on things that are the “right things”, things that actually have a purpose and support your strategies for success.

Otherwise, it is another waste of time and money and you will continue to fail.

If you know anything about this topic you’re probably saying “duh!” if you even got this far.

None of this is new.

None of this is secret.

Heck, most, if not all, of it is even common sense.

Yet, most people don’t really know it and the many that do, don’t really do it.

Both of those things are equally harmful!

How to Focus?

So, what should you do? How should you focus on the right things?

It’s easy but it’s hard.

It’s easy because there are many, long proven ways of creating objectives to focus on, it’s hard because it does take some work and usually takes some changes by you.

The first thing you need to do is understand what to focus on and a good way to do that it to have strategies in place to give boundaries to your focus; in fact, creating strategic plans can be helpful is keeping focused.

But to make strategies you need to actually and honestly understand what is important.

Instead of explaining that, I’ll direct you to Paul Lemberg’s video on getting that understanding by answering for yourself 10 questions that will help you know what objectives you should be having.

The questions are about a third of the way through it but understanding the context (the first part) is important before you answer the questions.

If you can honestly answer those questions you should be prepared to develop a strategy to achieve your objectives.

Developing Your Strategy

This is where focus comes in.

You develop a strategic plan by deciding what to focus on; what will have the best chance of achieving your objectives, given the information you have now; DO NOT wait until you “know” everything because that will never happen and you will never succeed.

There are whole books written on how to strategize, how to develop a strategic plan, and focus for strategic success so I certainly can’t do that justice here but basically just find the areas where you can best apply focused action to achieve success.

Making Goals

Now, for many people all that is too nebulous to help them and they need something more concrete.

Fortunately, there is something you should do, whether or not you find the above clear enough or not.

That is, make goals.

But, like action and focus, they need to be the right goals.

Fortunately, since you know what objectives to focus on you can more easily define true success goals.

Those goals and goals planning should be solely focused on the objective and if they are not getting you closer to the objective you need to throw out the goal and if you have goals that do progress but too slowly then you need to replace them with other goals.

These goals are how you will be measuring success and successful completion of all goals should get you your objective.

If you’ve ever done any business strategy planning in big companies or with people who know what they’re doing, then you know that the finished goals are frequently called “the plan” and your will periodically be comparing results “to the plan”.

It sounds weird but it is a good thing because the goals are where you want to (eventually) be, you know where you are (or you should know!) and you should frequently be assessing your progress towards those goals (with an eye to changing them as needed as you gain more information).

How to Achieve Your Goals

The next question you probably have is “goals are nice but they are still just thoughts, how do I actually achieve my goals?”

You do this through what are called initiatives. You’ve heard the word in the political/government and business world; there are “this government initiative” or “that corporate initiative”.

Really what they are is defining what set of actions you will need to take to achieve the goal, that is, what you are going to actually do as opposed to goals which are what you want to achieve.

They are how you will get from “point A” (where you are right now) to “point B” (where you want to be; your goals and objectives).

This is where taking massive, focused action is where you will have massive success.

You decide what specific actions that are the highest priority, critical path actions to achieving your goals.

Any actions outside of that are wasted and harmful so this helps you make sure you are “firing in the right direction.”

Setting Time Limits

Of course, this is all well and good but if you don’t have a well defined timeframe for achieving your objectives then it’s very likely the initiative will drag on and on.

Objectives define the timeframe for goals which, in turn, define the timeframe for initiatives.

ALWAYS have a timeframe defined, preferably with firm, measureable milestones if the initiative will take longer than a week or two.

Otherwise, when you get close to the end and you’ll probably find out there are big problems which can create bigger problems and ultimately lead to failure of the objective; this is something milestones help fix.

Conclusion

What we looked at were not only the importance of focusing but how to properly focus to have a much better chance of success.

To be able to build a strategy for success you need to truly understand how you will define success.

After you know that you can decide what things to focus on that will bring about the greatest chance of success.

That focus will lead to specific goals and you can decide what initiatives (set of actions) you need to take to achieve the goal.

Everything else should be rejected.

Lastly, you should have timeframes for success, usually with interim milestones (like mini-goals with mini-initiatives).

Be sure to constantly measure your progress and look at your goals and make changes are necessary.

Remember, most people do NOT do this, even though most think they do, and it probably is one of the major reasons for business failures.

Look at yourself, what you are doing and how you are doing it and make changes, possibly drastic changes.

Do you have focused goals and initiatives?

How do you define them and how to you track and measure them?

Do you have any other questions or comments?

Leave me a comment below and let me know. Thanks.

Talk soon,

The Shameless (and Ethical) Marketer
http://Twitter.com/DavidHusnian

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This post from: From The Desk of David. To read more post like this, head over to From The Desk of David

Why Focused, Action Takers Fail

That’s a question lots of people, including myself, ask.

Some people say no, what do you say?

To answer that question I decided to put on my thinking cap, do some research and see if there are any good ways to use the list feature in Twitter.

The good news is, I found lots of ways how using lists would make my life and Twitter better, here is my list my top 5 ways:

1. The “I Recommend These People” List

The first list I thought of was a list people you recommend other people follow.

I always wonder this and I’ve answered the question from others lots of times so this seems like an obvious one.

For example, you could create a public list of the people you most respect in your particular niche or area of interest then people who follow and trust you will have a nice, easy to find list of people they would probably want to follow also.

Or they could take advantage of the feature to follow lists and just follow your list without having to go and follow each person.

I’ve heard of some people creating #FollowFriday lists and linking to them in their #FollowFriday tweets.

Doing this makes it much easier for you to maintain the list of people you are most interested in on a single topic and, as mentioned, it makes it easier for other people to know who to follow (and to follow them).

Plus, your recommendations won’t get pushed down in your tweets.

2. The “Sort of Interesting People” List

Similar to the list of people you recommend, this list is a list of people who you have some level of interest in, so your followers may also.

However, they don’t clutter up your main timeline with lots of not great tweets (or just lots of tweets or off topic tweets).

The main advantage to me is it cuts the clutter and makes Twitter much more valuable.

I can look at the “Sorta” list sometimes while focusing on my “a list” and my main timeline.

3. The “Get Good Web Content” List

Some people (like myself have great content in their tweets.

Stuff that is interesting and important and things I want to know about.

If I add those people to the list I can then show them on my Web site, blogs, etc. as constant content.

The obvious advantage is that you have lots of fresh content that is highly relevant to your niche or topic.

A disadvantage can be that if the people in the list aren’t putting out good stuff it’s making you look bad and drive your visitors away.

If you need content for your website or blog, just create a list based around a specific topic, fill it with people who provide good posts, then add the feed to your site.

In effect, this allows you to use the list feature to aggregate the messages of certain people and display the real-time results on your site.

It’s a good alternative to displaying your own tweets on your site, especially if you don’t tweet that often.

Just make sure that you select the people on your list carefully, as their output will be published straight to your site.

4. The “Keep Up With Important News” List

I spend part of every day keeping up with the trends and happening in my niches.

I use some software to help do this but more and more people are using Twitter to communicate important niche/industry information.

It occurred to me that if I put all these people I usually listen to into a list then when they made a Tweet it would be easier for me to keep track of things and quickly focus in on the most important things.

5. The “Best Buds” List

This actually started as a way for a group of friends to easily stay in touch without the junk.

But it has evolved into having a variety of specific lists related to something.

For example:

A list of tennis playing partners, who is available when things are scheduled, etc.

A list of people in an organization I am a member and officer of. Actually this broke into two list one for the officers and board members and another for members.

It could be a list of really anything where a small group of people need to communicate directly, and privately, on some shared topic, event or organization, close family members, people working on a specific project, etc.

Conclusion

Once I started going I thought of lots of uses for Twitter lists but I narrowed it down to the top 5 I’m using now. They are:

1. The “I Recommend These People” List: this is a list of people I recommend other follow. It helps me focus on my most respected sources.
2. The “Sort of Interesting People” List: this is a list of people I get something from but not all the time and it’s not as important. It keeps the clutter out while still letting me benefit at times.
3. The “Get Good Web Content” List: A list of people who consistent create interesting, valuable, on topic Tweets that I can then display on my Web properties. It give me frequent, fresh quality content.
4. The “Keep Up With Important “News List: A list of people who provide important niche/topic/news. It helps me keep up to date with little work
5. The “Best Buds” List: A list when friends, family, organizations, people with shared hobbies, etc. can communicate easily and privately. Make it easier to keep track of the various aspects of my life

How are you using Twitter lists?

What is the best list idea you can think of?

Leave me a comment and let me know.

Talk soon,

The “Shameless” (but “Ethical”) Marketer
http://www.Twitter.com/DavidHusnian
http://7FigureCode2.com
http://GetYourBonusesNow.com
http://www.8-8-8Sale.com

O.Y. Don’t forget to retweet this! Use the button below or just copy and paste this into Twitter (or send it out to your list):
What Good are Twitter Lists? My 5 Best Uses for Twitter Lists http://fromthedeskofdavid.com/blog/tips/twitter-lists (via @DavidHusnian).

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This post from: From The Desk of David. To read more post like this, head over to From The Desk of David

What Good are Twitter Lists? My 5 Best Uses for Twitter Lists

Well, I just found out they’re adding something that is an amazing leap in functionality for them and gives them a big advantage over competing vendors, at least as far as I know.

They actually worked with some Internet Marketers and other online business experts to design and develop this new fantastic new addition to their product.

Their goals were to:

• Increase your revenue by letting you capture more sales from each customer by increasing the order size of each order.
• Be able to immediately market to new customers.
• Have a return on investment (ROI) so high that their customers would flock to it.
• Make it work for all of their customer no matter what they sell.

What they came up with is called Upsell Express and from what I can tell it is a great first attempt and will be a very valuable addition to their service. So much so that if I wasn’t a 1ShoppingCart customer I’d strongly consider becoming one.

Before I explain further, here is a short video showing some of the benefits and features.

What is 1ShoppingCart?

Just in case you don’t know what 1ShoppingCart is, let me give you a quick overview.

1ShoppingCart is probably the most popular all-in-one system for running an online business.

It includes a pretty decent shopping cart that is integrated with an autoresponder. It also allow you to send broadcast emails, has a built-in, if quirky, affiliate management system, among other things that online merchants typically need.

It’s a reasonable choice for any marketer and, in fact, I know that some big name people like Dan Kennedy use it (not exclusively but do actively use it).

The negatives are: it’s user interface isn’t great, it is pretty slow, it’s affiliate program has some quirks that you need to work around and it’s autoresponder isn’t as full-featured as places like Aweber (or the private label of Aweber like Turbo Autoresponder, ProFollow, and ProSender).

By the way, you might have also heard of it as other names, the Marketer’s Choice is one of the most common ones.

What is This Fabulous New Feature?

1ShoppingCart has added a feature, it you saw in the video above, called Upsell Express.

In short, it allows you to have an unlimited number of up-sells and down-sells.

Sure you’ve been able to manually create those and they aren’t that hard to do but it is still extra work and the customer has to start a new purchase each time.

One of the best things about Upsell Express is that it is completely “1 click to purchase”; that is, your customer never has to enter any information (name, address, email, credit card, etc.) again.

They just click on the buy button and it is automatically and immediately purchased.

What is an “Upsell” is and Why Would I Want to Have One?

Up-sells and down-sells are offering your customer additional products in addition to the product they’ve purchased.

Extensive research has shown that if you offer a customer something to buy immediately following their purchase they are more likely to purchase that if they are shown that before purchase.

Obviously that’s good for you because it mean you get more money from the same number of customers.

Let me give you a real example.

I have an electronic book that sells for $47 on how to have (plan) a “dream wedding” on a tight budget.

After each purchase the customers are shown a page where they can purchase an additional product. I switch these around to do testing but they are things like how to write the groom’s speech, creating stunning party favors, proper wedding etiquette, etc.; they cost $17 to $37.

A nice percentage, about 40% if I recall, purchase the up-sell and those that don’t are shown a “down-sell” (which is really just one of the other products) and I think about 25% purchase that.

So, worst case, every purchase goes from an average of $47 to an average of $58.05 which means, for the same 100 customers I get $5,805 instead of $4,700 with no extra traffic or work on my part; best case I get $7,105 instead of $4,700.

That should explain why you want to have them

The bad thing is that, unless you get some custom programming done, each purchase means that the customer has to enter all their information again which does cause some loss of sales (look at your cart abandonment on the up and down sells to get an idea of how much – it won’t be completely accurate but gives a rough gauge).

As I said, Upsell Express adds 1-click buying so that is a thing of the past.

What Does It Look Like?

When someone buys via 1ShoppingCart they enter their information and hit a green “Submit Order” button.

Product Purchase Page

You used to either go to your custom page or the default 1ShoppingCart thank you page but with Upsell Express you can go to an Upsell page.

While it resides on the 1ShoppingCart servers, you have almost complete control of this page including all text, uses of images, video and audio, and even using your own style sheets.

The page can be of any length, you do have control remember, and can have any number of (default or custom designed) buy buttons on it.

Here is a simple example:

Upsell Product Sales Page

It’s simplistic but it shows the use of custom images, a video, text and has a buy and “no thanks” button.

If the customer clicks the “Buy Now!” button, 1ShoppingCart will automatically purchase the product and go to the next up-sell, if you have more defined or to the thank you page.

If the customer clicks the “No thanks…” button, 1ShoppingCart will show the down-sell product (if you’ve defined one). Here’s an example

Downsell Product Sales Page

This can go on for as long as you want.

Eventually they will end up on the thank you page.

It can be your custom download page or it can be the default one; if it is the default one it will list all the products they purchased.

Each one will have its own section and you can add custom HTML code to each section so you can show them an image, video, instructions, even unadvertised bonuses.

Note: I’m could to test using an Aweber opt-in form there just to see if it works!

Anyway, you can add what you like there and here’s an example of what it looks like when you do…

1ShoppingCart Thank You Page Showing Main Product

Here is the individual up and down sell products purchased section.

Individual Up and Down Sell Products Purchased

The part inside the yellow box is where your custom HTML appears.

Notice each individual product can have a custom HTML section.

How Hard Is It To Set Up?

It follows the standard 1ShoppingCart way of doing things so if you are familiar and comfortable with that then it should be easy.

You just do 3 things:

1. You Create Offers: Offers are the individual up and down sells you want to have.
2. You Create Funnels: Funnels are one or more offers that you have put together into a sequence.
3. Assign Funnels: You need to assign a (sales process) funnel to the appropriate product.

Here’s how it works.

Creating Offers

Creating Offers

You click the “Create Offer” button.

Set Offer Settings

On the first tab, you can see you give it a name, description (optional) and you can let 1ShoppingCart display the offer (click “Use Cart Look and Feel”) or you can add your own HTML (click “Full HTML Page”).

If you want to have custom HTML on the 1ShoppingCart thank you page then enter it here also.

Then you create the actual offer page.

Create Offer Page Top Half

Create Offer Page Bottom Half

On the Offer HTML tab you create/add your offer HTML. Again, it can be just about anything you want it to be.

Then you select the product, from your 1ShoppingCart products, that this offer will be for, that is, what product the customers will be purchasing if they click the buy button on the up sell or down sell page where this offer appears.

Assign Product to the Offer

This is a pretty standard 1 Shopping Cart selection page and you save the offer when you are done.

You continue to create offer for more products until you’ve made all the ones you want to have as up and down sells.

Creating Funnels

Now that you have offers you can put them together into one or more sales process funnels.

Creating a Funnel

Go to the Funnels tab and click “Create Funnel”.

Set Funnel Settings

Enter the funnel name, the optional description and any HTML you want to the top and bottom of the default thank you page.

Then define each step in the sales process funnel.

Select “Up-sell” Offer

For each step you define (pick from the list of offers) what the up-sell is, that is the product they initially see (this is done on the far left side of each row – the column heading is “Offer Name”) and then, if you want one, what downsell the customer will see of they click no thanks (this is done in the middle under the column named “Downsell Offer Name”); click the Save button on the row to save the funnel step.

Select “Down-sell” Offer and Save

Then you keep adding as many steps as you want.

Note that you can reorder the steps by click the up and down arrows in the “Offer Steps” column.

Finally assign a funnel to a product on the “Assign Upsells” tab.

Assign Funnel to a Product

Again, a pretty standard 1 Shopping Cart selection page and, when you are done, save the funnel using the Save button at the bottom.

Create as many funnels as you want.

Creating Multiple Funnels

Now for Something Special

If all that wasn’t enough 1ShoppingCart went above and beyond by letting you do A/B split testing of your funnels.

For those who don’t know what that is, A/B split testing is testing 2 different versions (of a sales page, a squeeze page, anything – in this case a sales process funnel).

You show either “version A”, unusually called the control, or “version B”, usually call the treatment, to see which one performs better (gets more sales, get more opt-ins or however success is defined by you).

The winner becomes the new control and you test again.

This is one of the big “secrets” of highly successful marketers; the old saying is “if you’re not testing, you’re guessing” and, no matter what your success level is you would be more successful, maybe much more successful, if you used testing, even simple A/B split testing.

Anyway, 1 Shopping Cart knows this and they built A/B split testing of funnels into Upsell Express.

Okay, funnel split testing is pretty rough but it’s a start and much better than nothing! It would be interesting if you could integrate it with Google’s Website Optimizer (a much better split testing tool – it’s free, use it!); www.google.com/websiteoptimizer.

To use 1 Shopping Cart’s split testing check the “Enable Split Testing” check box on the funnel page just create another funnel like we did above.

Enable A/B/ Split Testing

After you save your funnel, when someone buys the main product they will be put into the sales process funnel you define.

If you are split testing the A and B funnels will be shown alternately, that is, the first customer will see funnel A, the second will see funnel B, the third will see funnel A and so on.

HowamIdoin?

You’ve got the offers and funnels and all that which is great but wouldn’t it be nice to know exactly how each offer and each funnel is doing, which are converting and which aren’t so you can make some changes to improve.

Well, 1 Shopping Cart provides some reports that show you an offer level view, a funnel level view and the a funnel flow view.

Offer Level View

Funnel Level View

Funnel Flow View Top Half

Funnel Flow View Bottom Half

Finally there is a history view of all offer and funnels.

History View

Benefits of Upsell Express

Let me summarize the benefits that Upsell Express adds to 1ShoppingCart.

Brings up and down sell capabilities to 1 Shopping Cart.

Adds a 1-Click capability on the up and down sells so the customer doesn’t have to re-enter their information.

Offers and funnels are easy to create and use with full control over the look of the offer pages.

Each offer is a distinct transaction so if people abandon the sales process or their credit card is declined everything before that is still a sale to you.

Adds funnel split testing

Provides useful metrics to allow you to analyze and fine tune your offers and funnels.

Seamless integration with 1ShoppingCart products

Questions Answered

While I don’t know everything about 1ShoppingCart’s new Upsell Express product I do know the answer to some questions so here is a list of questions with answer you might have:

Q: When will Upsell Express be Available?
A: December 9, 2009

Q: How much will Upsell Express Cost?
A: There are 3 tiers of Upsell Express:

You’ll note that if you have the top-of-the-line professional version, currently $99/month, you can create up to 10 funnels with one up-sell and one down-sell each for no additional cost.

Q: Can I Create a Long Sales Copy Offer Page?
A: Yes, you can put as much HTML on the offer page as you want.

Q: Can I Put More Than One “Buy Button” on the Offer Page?
A: Yes, you can put more than one “buy” and “no thanks” buttons on an offer page.

Q: Does it Work with 1ShoppingCart Recurring Payments?
A: Yes, it works with all 1Shopping Cart Products

Q: Does it Work with Bundles?
A: No, currently it does not work with bundles so you’ve have to make a product out of the bundle if you need that

Q: Can I Use Discount Coupons on the Offers?
A: No, because of the name of the automatic 1-click purchasing there is currently no place for people to put in a coupon code for the offers; if you wanted to provide a discount you’d have to create a product or change the product sale price..

Coupons codes would still work on the primary sale product though.

Q: Does it Work with PayPal Payments?
A: Yes, but since PayPal is not integrated with 1ShoppingCart the 1-click functionality wouldn’t work. This may change in the future.

Q: Does it Work with PayPal Subscriptions?
A: No, currently 1ShoppingCart does not support PayPal subscriptions in any way. That, however, is expected to change in 2010.

Q: Can an Up or Down sell to a “Higher Version” of a Product Override a Previous Offer or the Original Product?
A: No, since each transaction is unique and happens immediately there is not way to “undo” or “override” a previous transaction in the sales process funnel.

You could, however, make an “upgrade” product and price it so that it is the difference between the original product and the premium product.

For example, if you sold a $47 e-book and wanted to sell a Private Label Rights version for $77 you could create a new product for the Private Label Rights upgrade and price it at $30.

Q: Can the Offer Be Hosted on My Website?
A: No, because the sales process funnel is part of a secure environment transaction it must be hosted on the 1ShoppingCart servers.

But since you have near absolute control over what is on the page, including the ability to upload images, videos, etc., this shouldn’t cause a problem.

The only things that can’t be used is scripting because of the potential for security abuses.

Q: Does it Work with Digital Download Products?
A: Yes, absolutely. The download link for each offer will appear on the final thank you page (assuming you are using a 1ShoppingCart thank you page not your own custom page).

Q: What Happens if a Credit Card is Decline Within the Funnel?
A: The funnel is immediately terminated and the thank you page is displayed.

Remember though that since each offer in the funnel is a separate transaction and is paid for immediately every successful offer charged to a credit card will remain a sale to you.

Q: Can I Split Test Within an Offer?
A: No. While it would be good to be able to have different offer appear inside a single funnel, currently only complete funnels can be split tested.

Q: Will it Work with AMember?
A: Yes.

Q: Will it Work with Google Analytics?
A: Yes.

Q: How Do I Request New Features?
A: 1ShoppingCart has create a “New Ideas” forum where you can suggest new features and also vote on existing requests.

1ShoppingCart has publicly stated that they will be using the requests and votes in the New Ideas forum as a major part of their future development plans.

Q: I am Not a 1ShoppingCart Customer, How Do I Sign Up?
A: Go to http://FromTheDeskOfDavid.com/Recommends/1ShoppingCart

Q: Does 1ShoppingCart Provide a Free Trial?
A; No, you can get a 30-day trial of the top-of-line Professional Package for only $3.95 by going to http://FromTheDeskOfDavid.com/Recommends/1ShoppingCart and clicking the yellow “Signup” button in the top menu bar.

Scroll down and select the last option “Trial”

Conclusion

Everyone should be doing back-end up and down sells, if you aren’t you are leaving money one the table, money that could be in your bank account.

Many people make the bulk of their money from that and use their front end product to get people to buy.

You can see this in some of the really successful 7 and 8 figure Internet Marketers.

The truth is that if you have something you really think will be of value to people who just bought one of your products you are doing them a disservice if you don’t tell them about it.

1ShoppingCart has a winner in it’s new Upsell Express and the saving in time, money and effort that alone is enough to justify signing up even if you aren’t a customer.

If you are a customer you probably should also consider upgrading your service to include Upsell Express.

Are you using up and down sells as part of your sales process funnel?

Are you finding you are getting a nice bump from offering them?

Have you struggled to use them?

Leave me a comment and let me know.

Talk soon,

The “Shameless” (but “Ethical”) Marketer
http://www.Twitter.com/DavidHusnian
http://GetYourBonusesNow.com
http://www.8-8-8Sale.com
http://www.MusicForInternetMarketers.com
http://www.SecretsOfGoogleAdwords.com
http://www.MadMondaySale.com
http://www.2ForTuesdaySale.com

O.Y. Don’t forget to retweet this! Use the button below or just copy and paste this into Twitter (or send it out to your list):
The Amazing New 1 Shopping Cart Upsell Express http://fromthedeskofdavid.com/blog/other-stuff/1sc-upsell-express (via @DavidHusnian).

O.O.Y. It is after November 30, 2009 so I need to remind you that I’ll be getting a small commission if you sign up for 1ShoppingCart from the above link.

.

This post from: From The Desk of David. To read more post like this, head over to From The Desk of David

The Amazing New 1 Shopping Cart Upsell Express

In previous installments, we’ve looked at what business models and why you should know what yours is and 2 proven-successful business models; that is, 2 different ways you WILL make money online if you do them right. They were: (1) Selling Physical Products and (2) Affiliate Marketing.

Both of those have made multi-millionaires and boatloads of people make a good living from them and you should seriously consider doing one of them (or more if you’ve already established yourself).

But, there is another online business model that is better than either of them.

More people profit from it and virtually all of the most successful Internet Marketers use it.

The statistics I’ve seen say that this business model generates multi-multi-billion dollars a year.

If you aren’t doing it, ultimately, you should be; here’s what it is and why…

Selling Your Own Information Products

Face it, every day millions of people go online looking for information and being in the business of selling information is a huge opportunity.

Even if you are a physical store or provide services or whatever you can also sell your own information products and make more money than you were.

Many times you’ll find that the information products become the largest and most profitable part of your business.

You might know I am a huge fan and follower of Dan Kennedy. One of his most successful students found out first hand just what I’m saying.

He was a mortgage broker in a good time to be a mortgage broker. He made hundreds of thousands of dollars a year.

He decided to start selling his knowledge and create his own information product. It didn’t take long for that product to make more for him, with virtually no effort, than he made as a mortgage broker.

He soon realized that he was losing money as a mortgage broker because if he devoted the time he spent doing that to his information business he’d make more money so he quite being a mortgage broker and is now a successful multi-millionaire all due to creating his own product.

How It Works

It’s pretty simple really, here are the most basic steps:

1. Do research to find a product that would be in demand
2. Create or have created a product that fills that demand (create it from scratch or use a Private Label Rights package as the basis for your product)
3. Create a sales page to sell the product (click here to learn more about how to do that). I would also suggest create a squeeze page to get prospects onto your mailing list.
4. Get traffic to your sales (or squeeze) page using the many ways to do that (click here for some ways to do that)
5. Collect you money

The steps are simple but they do take time and effort. Internet Marketing is NOT a get rich quick method but it is probably a “get rich quicker than any other way short of winning the lottery!”

Virtually all the steps can be done by other people and once it is set up the “engine” just runs without you spending a lot of time on it.

Benefits of the Selling Information Products Model

One huge benefit is that you own and control the product so you can do whatever you want with it in what ever way you want to.

Of course, unlike affiliate marketing, a big benefit you get 100% of the money earned and, unlike selling physical products, another big benefit the cost of manufacturing, distribution and delivery is negligible.

You do have to have some type of way to accept payments but with places like PayPal, ClickBank, 1ShoppingCart, 2CheckOut, PayDotCom and the rest this isn’t hard. It isn’t even that hard nowadays to get your own merchant account.

You also have to provide customer support but if you have a good product, a good sales letter, and good payment and delivery system then that shouldn’t be a problem either.

Business Model Components

Partners: You’re key partners are the people who help you create the products – the writers, the designers, the technical people, etc. – and, if you use affiliates (and you should) then your affiliates.

Other, additional, partners are those who provide you products and services for the online component of your business. Examples include: Web hosting companies; Autoresponder companies; etc.

Key/Core Activities: This business has 2 core activities that you need to be successful, they are creating high quality products that people want and getting prospects to our sale page, that is, traffic generation.

Key/Core Resources: Key resources will be you ad copy writers and your traffic generation team.

Costs: You’ll have costs for the following things:

• Product research
• Product creation, including writers and graphic designers
• Sales page creation, including copywriters and graphic designers
• Webmaster to take the sales page and prepare it for the Web and put it on the Internet as well as other miscellaneous tasks
• Payment processing like PayPal or 1ShoppingCart
• Web hosting services like HostGator and Blue Host
• Customer management, usually an e-mail management/autoresponder company like Aweber
• Advertising cost, either paid traffic or the things you need to do to get “free” traffic
• Commissions, if you use affiliates to drive traffic.

Offer: You have complete control over the offer and it is a very important aspect of how many sales you make.

Client Relationships: You will need to manage this but, as I mentioned above, if you’ve created a great product and have your other things in order then the primary thing to do is to build a strong relationship with them.

Distribution Channels: You distribute through the Internet, although having affiliates or joint venture relationship is a form of distribution.

Customers: Your customers are potential from almost anywhere in the world.

Revenue: Your revenue will not be tied to your local economy or the limited number of products and services you can offer. You can also easily have multiple streams of revenue that were impossible to do with just an offline business.

Conclusion

Selling your own information products is probably the most lucrative business models for an online business.

Creation, manufacturing and delivery cost are very low, yet revenue is higher than will generally receive with physical products.

There are more costs than you will find with the affiliate marketing model but you received money revenue per sale than more than offsets the additional costs.

It isn’t tied to a market segment/niche, it isn’t tied to a geographical area, it isn’t tied to the type of products, it is a very flexible and powerful model to base the foundation of your business on.

Remember it is as simple as:

1. Do research to find a product that would be in demand
2. Create or have created a product that fills that demand (create it from scratch or use a Private Label Rights package as the basis for your product)
3. Create a sales page to sell the product (click here to learn more about how to do that). I would also suggest create a squeeze page to get prospects onto your mailing list.
4. Get traffic to your sales (or squeeze) page using the many ways to do that (click here for some ways to do that)
5. Collect you money

The best information products are those with great demand in an area that you are passionate and know a lot about.

Do NOT create products that you haven’t researched to see if there is a demand no matter how interested and passionate about it. That is not a business model than is a hobby at best.

Do you sell your own information products?

Have you found the distinct advantages? If no, why do you think you haven’t?

Leave me a comment and let me know.

Talk soon,

The “Shameless” (but “Ethical”) Marketer
http://www.Twitter.com/DavidHusnian
http://www.8-8-8Sale.com
http://www.MusicForInternetMarketers.com
http://www.SecretsOfGoogleAdwords.com
http://www.MadMondaySale.com
http://www.2ForTuesdaySale.com

O.Y. Don’t forget to retweet this! Use the button below or just copy and paste this into Twitter (or send it out to your list): Best Online Business Models, Part 4: Your Own Information Products http://bit.ly/2azqqm (via @DavidHusnian).

.

This post from: From The Desk of David. To read more post like this, head over to From The Desk of David

Best Online Business Models, Part 4: Your Own Information Products

You’ve probably heard of Google’s PageRank; well duh!

In my opinion, it hasn’t been important for a long time — I’ve found it distracting at best but now it’s mostly so 2005 – but many people swear by it and make one of their main goals to get a high PageRank.

I lost faith in it when I kept seeing pages with low PageRank on the first page of Google.

I mean who cares what your PageRank is if you aren’t ranking high on the search results for your keywords.

For some reason though, PageRank continues to be associated with high rankings and I just didn’t see it but if people wanted to waste their time achieving it that just made it easier for me to get a high ranking (which I do care about).

Well, that’s all over with.

It finally seems “official” as Google has, without fanfare (that tells you what they’ve thought of it), removed PageRank from its Webmaster Tools. Is this the first step into Google deep sixing it?

A spokesperson, Susan Moskwa, said this, “We’ve been telling people for a long time that they shouldn’t focus on PageRank so much; many site owners seem to think it’s the most important metric for them to track, which is simply not true. We removed it because we felt it was silly to tell people not to think about it, but then to show them the data, implying that they should look at it.”

Need more proof, pop over to this Google FAQ page (http://sites.google.com/site/webmasterhelpforum/en/faq–crawling–indexing—ranking#pagerank) and see that it says you shouldn’t even bother thinking about it. It also says that PageRank is “just one of over 200 signals that can affect how your site is crawled, indexed, and ranked.”

I liked their subtle “dig” about using Google Analytics which can be insanely useful and everyone should be tracking (and, ultimately, split testing).

Weirdly, it does remain on the Google toolbar. I don’t know if that is politics or a big company just needing time to become consistent but who cares (okay, yeah, it can give you a little interesting information but don’t obsess).

If you’ve been focusing on PageRank, it’s past time you focus on search engine results positioning (SERP).

That’s all I’ve got to say about that…

What’s your reaction?

Leave a comment below.

That’s it, short and sweet today.

Talk soon,

The “Shameless” (but “Ethical”) Marketer
http://www.Twitter.com/DavidHusnian
http://www.8-8-8Sale.com
http://www.MusicForInternetMarketers.com
http://www.SecretsOfGoogleAdwords.com
http://www.MadMondaySale.com
http://www.2ForTuesdaySale.com

O.Y. Don’t forget to retweet this! Use the button on this page or Tweet this:
It’s Official, Google’s PageRank is Dead http://bit.ly/FjMKu (via @DavidHusnian)

O.O.Y. An SEO tools I’ve used for a while now and really like it SEO Elite, you can go here to find more about it: http://FromTheDeskOfDavid.com/Recommends/SEOElite

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This post from: From The Desk of David. To read more post like this, head over to From The Desk of David

It’s Official, Google’s PageRank is “Dead”!

Personally, I don’t think there needs to be so much concern about this and here’s why.

I did some further research, I read other opinions, I read the FTC example scenarios, I read lawyers opinions and I don’t see why people are so freaked out about this.

Is it serious? Yes.

Is it something you need to be concerned about? Sure.

Is it an opportunity? Absolutely

Before I go further into why, I want to remind you that I’m not a lawyer and I don’t know anything about anything! You should check with yours to see how this impacts you, but here is my layman’s view…
First, remember these things:

1. These are new guidelines, they are NOT laws, and have yet to be enforced in any way or proven they are even enforceable so nobody actually knows what will really happen.
2. The FTC has published scenarios which help strip away some of the fear being put into the marketplace.
3. The point of the guidelines is to stop marketers from over hyping their products to help make sure that prospects have a reasonable expectation of what results they will get; the key word is expectation, don’t be misleading in the expectation (something that is an all to common marketing practice because, it sells and typical results don’t).
4. The FTC has said it will not be fining any first-time offenders, they will issue a warning and, if that is ignored, they will issue a cease and desist order. If that is ignored then things get more serious and fines may apply.
5. The FTC has said that it won’t have a horde of “testimonial police” out looking for offenders and will mostly look into cases where there are complaints filed.
6. The FTC will go after the bigger players and “authorities” first because there is more potential harm they can cause.

When asked, Mary Engle, associate director for advertising practices, said,

“All bloggers aren’t the same and we are not saying that all bloggers are marketers. Most of them are ordinary folks musing or sounding off.

“The question as we put it in the notice we published today is whether, viewed objectively, the blogger is being sponsored by the advertiser. (We list a number of factors to consider.)

“Independent product reviewers, whether offline or online, would not be viewed as sponsored by the company whose products they are reviewing.”

She also said.

“But if bloggers regularly receive free products from a company, the blog audience might view their reviews differently than if they went out and bought the products on their own. Under those circumstances, bloggers should disclose they got the products from the company.

“This is consistent with the WOMMA code of ethics. And, companies who use bloggers to generate buzz about their products by sending free merchandise should have a policy that their bloggers should disclose.”

Still you might be confused about what’s what and what to do.

Here’s what I think and what I’ll do.

Along with what I talked about last time in Are the New FTC Rules the Death of Internet Marketing? I will…

Provide Context

Couple your testimonials with other facts to give context.

For example, in my “I lost 53 pounds in 10 weeks following…” excerpt, just add some other facts that put the results in perspective.

You could say that before or after the testimonial something like:

“Mary also cut out sweets and high fat foods, started walking 5 miles a day and doing strength training 3 times a week.”

Or even build the testimonial into the sales copy like:

“One of our big success stories is Mary, she cut out sweets and high fat foods and had this to say ‘I lost 53 pounds in 10 weeks following…’ Mary was also happy to tell us she started walking 5 miles a day and is proud of the improve muscle one in her body from her 3 times a week strength training sessions.”

Case Studies

Another way you can continue to use the powerful testimonials is to create case studies from them.

This is a method I recommend in general and can actually make them stronger than the testimonial itself, as I mentioned in my blog post Explode Your Sales by Building Trust with Testimonials, and frequently this will improve your sales.

Show “Failure”

Again, going back to giving realistic expectations, I think that including some examples of people who didn’t get good results would go a long way towards following the guidelines.

Including something like this does help bring back the truth in “truth-in-advertising”:

“Of course, not everyone has the same results as Mary, for example, Paul only lost 5 pounds in 10 weeks …”

Other Commentary

There has been a flood of talk about this topic, more than was necessary but if you have continued interest in this topic here are some interesting places to look:

• An open letter to the FTC by the CEO of the Interactive Advertising Bureau
• Additional questions raised in an open letter by blogger Ron Hogan

Some sources of actual legal opinions are:

• Joel Comm’s attorney has posted his opinion on Joel’s blog
• Attorney Mike Young has a report on his opinion of the guidelines and, having some good marketing chops himself (or at least good advice), at the end of the report he’s selling a product of legal forms including those to help you with these new guidelines.

If you think you don’t want to possibly risk it or just need a good set of legal forms for your Web properties (always a good idea) then my friend Jason Anderson says Mike’s product is good so here’s Jason’s affiliate if you want to check out: http://JasonAnderson.me/blog/legalforms.

Conclusion

Ultimately, each person has to decide what the price for their integrity is and I’m not here to judge that but the FTC has raised the price you may have to pay if you decide to violate.

While I feel I might have even helped fuel the problem, the bottom line is don’t be scared about this, don’t be taken in by the marketing hype and use it too your advantage.

While everyone else is wringing their hands and gnashing their teeth, go out and use some of the techniques discussed here and previously and make more sales than before!

As always your comments are greatly appreciated so leave me a comment and let me know you views and what you’ll be doing.

Talk soon,

David
The “Shameless” (but “Ethical”) Marketer
http://www.Twitter.com/DavidHusnian
http://www.8-8-8Sale.com
http://www.MusicForInternetMarketers.com
http://www.SecretsOfGoogleAdwords.com
http://www.MadMondaySale.com
http://www.2ForTuesdaySale.com

O.Y. If you want to read the new guidelines for yourself just go to http://ftc.gov/os/2009/10/091005endorsementguidesfnnotice.pdf (the “good parts” start down around page 55)

O.O.Y. Don’t forget to retweet this! Use the button on the blog page or Tweet this:
Don’t be afraid of the FTC, here’s the truth http://bit.ly/4iAdW9 (via @DavidHusnian)

O.O.O.Y. Remember, I am not a lawyer (and don’t even know how to spell legal) so you need to talk to your own lawyer to see how these guidelines affect you and what you should do about them.

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This post from: From The Desk of David. To read more post like this, head over to From The Desk of David

Don’t Fall for the Scare Tactics Brought On By the New FTC Guidelines

I promised to follow up when there was more information.

On October 5, 2009, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) approved finals revisions to some guidelines that will have an impact on Internet, and other, marketers; guidelines that haven’t changed since 1980 – almost 30 years ago!

The changes can have a SERIOUS affect on marketers who use testimonials; at least those who use specific types of testimonials, a well as those who get/do reviews and endorsements; with hefty fines involved.

The World As We Knew It

So many people use testimonials from customers that say they got good, specific results from one of your products. Maybe it was:

• I earned $13,284 in just 4 weeks using …
• I lost 53 in 10 weeks following …
• My son raised his grade point average 1.6 points after getting …
• I got 38,912 new Twitter followers just by …
• etc.

Sounds familiar?

I know you’ve seen them and, if you’ve been marketing for any time at all you’ve used them because they attract people and they improve your conversion rates.

Under the old guidelines just including a “results not typical” statement was enough to protect you; it was something that was called the “safe harbor”.

Well, my friends, there is no more safe harbor.

A Brave New World

The new FTC guidelines now say that a safe harbor does not protect you.

They say, “advertisements that feature a consumer and convey his or her experience with a product or service as typical when that is not the case will be required to clearly disclose the results that consumers can generally expect.”

Before you say that you never say those are typical let me tell you that first, you’re halfway fooling yourself (truthfully, don’t you want the prospect to think that the results are typical and you only use the “results not typical” because you had to not because you wanted to).

Second, the FTC doesn’t care.

If you use any specific information from a “consumer”, it will be presumed to be conveyed as typical; guilty without presumption of innocence.

What you need to say is what typical results might be, for example:

• I earned $13,284 in just 4 weeks using … Of course, the average person doesn’t even look at the product and just wastes their $997.
• I lost 53 in 10 weeks following … Paula’s results were the best we ever heard of and most people actually gain 10 pounds as they sit around eating high fat, high calorie foods while skimming through our products
• My son raised his grade point average 1.6 points after getting … Bobby is so rare that we don’t even believe it and anyway, that was just for one quarter and now his GPA is below what it was.
• I got 38,912 new Twitter followers in 1 month just by … Great job Shelly, too bad you got banned. Fortunately, most people don’t get banned getting their 6 new followers in a month.

While it’s obvious I’m being facetious in those examples the truth of the matter is that you’ll need to specifically say what a typical consumer can expect.

This means 2 things:

1. You actually need to know that information
2. You need to be honest and brave enough to show the real results

Otherwise, you’re going to be paying a 5-figure fine per violation.

What Can You Do?

There are several things you can do, each with advantages and disadvantages.

Say “Let ‘em Find Me”

Just keep using the testimonials and let the FTC find your ads and then find you.

Advantages are that you’ll continue to reap the benefits and it actually may be hard to find and prosecute you.

Disadvantages are that, well… they’ll find and prosecute you and shut down your business and strip you of all your worldly possessions.

Not the option I’d choose.

Keep Using the Testimonials and Comply

If you can show consistently good “typical” results this is a great option.

It can still be a powerful conversion technique to be able to say something like “John earned that $13,284 in 4 weeks but, to be honest, most people don’t do that well. The average person earns $2,533.79 in 4 weeks but imagine how you’d feel doing that (and, who knows, maybe you’ll be the next John!)”

Advantages are that you still have a great tool in your sales tool box and the honesty may actually get you more sales.

Disadvantages seem to me to be that you may lose sales and that, over time, the FTC may require you to keep that “typical results” updated; I really don’t know if they will but it makes sense they would or the guidelines don’t really have much meaning and would be easy to get around.

Definitely an option I’ll use where applicable,

Stop Using Those Testimonials

You can stop using those types of testimonials.

The guidelines don’t have a problem with general testimonials “I’m very happy with mu purchase” or other general comments about your product or you.

They can be powerful, particularly when used strategically and some people don’t think those specific testimonials are that helpful anymore in our more jaded society.

Advantages are you don’t have to worry about these new guidelines.

Disadvantages is that if specific testimonials were a key part of your sales pitch you’ll lost sales or need to rewrite your sales copy (hmm, that may not be a negative).

I’ve always used general testimonials and certainly will continue using them.

Figure Out How to Get Around the Guidelines

I am sure there are loopholes that could be exploited.

You and your lawyers could figure out what they are and use them.

Advantages are you’d still get the benefits, at least until the loopholes are available.

Disadvantages are that you’re wasting time trying to scam the system rather that marketing and you may spend a lot of time and money in court even if you win.

To me this is foolish, like all those people who spend time fighting progress instead of using it to propel them forward.

Use Testimonials as Icing Not Cake

Ultimately, as Gary Halbert said, it is the offer that is the most important thing.

Make sure your offer is so good that you don’t even need testimonials.

Over deliver on the value and while testimonials might help a little the percentage will be small and you won’t need to violate the guidelines.

Advantages are that ultimately you’ll make more money in the long run and build a stronger business.

Disadvantages are that it will take more work on your part to create and maintain a high value offer.

I love this option because it is what I have been doing and preaching.

Quit Marketing

Yeah, this is a weird option but one that some people will take.

Fortunately, most of those people weren’t honest, ethical marketers just people muddying the waters so having them gone will benefit people like you and I who are out to try to screw people around.

Advantages are … umm … hmmm … they don’t have the hassle of picking one of the other options (sorry that was the best I could come up with

Disadvantages include the loss of business and income.

I am NOT quitting but will be taking advantage of this opportunity to improve what I do.

That Isn’t All

The guidelines also made changes to another common method marketers use: the paid or celebrity testimonials.

While a “material connection” between a endorser and an advertiser had to be disclosed, although it wasn’t always, particularly with Internet Marketing, it is now more explicit so that even bloggers who write reviews, or make other endorsements, for some kind of payment (cash or “in-kind” payment) must explicitly say that there was “payment” for the review.

So, if you write a review/endorsement for a friends product and they write a review/endorsement for yours or if you give someone a free product to review or endorse then that must be disclosed.

Don’t disclose and you’re liable.

The FTC also made clear that “celebrity” endorsements must be particularly careful to disclose any “material connection”, even if they just mention your product in a blog post or Squidoo Lens or even a Twitter Post.

Beware if you use this type of connection between colleagues and friends.

Questions, Questions and More Questions

Some questions you might ask yourself are, what if you comply but some (or even one of) your affiliates don’t, are you liable?

What if you are an affiliate? There is an indirect material connection in that you get paid for your, essentially tacit, recommendation but only if a sale results.

Does that apply in this case?

What if the offender is not in the U.S., will you be held liable even though the FTC can “get” the other person?

What if you are not U.S. based, should you comply anyway?

Or, if you are U.S. based, does it put you at a disadvantage to competitors that are not U.S. based since they may be able to continue to use specific testimonials that could lead people astray whereas you can’t?

Will the prospects buy the “made $13,284” instead of the “made $13,284 but…”?

I don’t know any of the answers to these and other questions but you should be thinking about them and finding out your own answers.

Conclusion

The unanimous approval by the FTC on these issues means they’re pretty serious about them and you’d be wise to be sure you comply; particularly if you are a successful direct marketer; you can read the FTC press release here.

Either don’t use specific testimonials or back them up with actual data.

And be careful to disclose any “material connection” when you review a product or explicitly or implicitly endorse one.

The FTC is serious and the fines can quickly add up.

So is it the “death of Internet Marketing?” Despite some of the hype it isn’t, in fact, it should make it easier for honest and ethical marketers.

How does this impact affiliate marketing?

How does this balance the scales between U.S. and non-U.S. based people?

How does this impact you?

What changes will you make?

Did the FTC mess up?

Leave me a comment and let me know.

Talk soon,

David
The “Shameless” (but “Ethical”) Marketer
http://www.Twitter.com/DavidHusnian
http://www.8-8-8Sale.com
http://www.MusicForInternetMarketers.com
http://www.SecretsOfGoogleAdwords.com
http://www.MadMondaySale.com
http://www.2ForTuesdaySale.com

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This post from: From The Desk of David. To read more post like this, head over to From The Desk of David

Are the New FTC Rules the Death of Internet Marketing?