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Why You Cannot Afford to Be An Anti-Social Internet

You may use this article for reprint, as long as it
remains unaltered and the resource box and author
information are included. - Isaiah Hull

Why You Cannot Afford to Be An Anti-Social Internet
Marketer

Anti-social internet marketing is a critical flaw that
will destroy even the best, most creative sales strategies.
If you do not build relationships and follow up on them
–through personal interaction and automation–you will
spend most of your time either a) repeating trivial tasks
that can either be completed exponentially faster with the
help of other people or b) plodding away on a course
that will never result in sales conversions.

Building and maintaining marketing relationships will
help you do the following:

1. Avoid wasting time and money on outdated products
and services that are no longer valid in the internet
marketing world.

2. Create massive contact lists of people who trust you
and want to buy your products and follow your advice.

3. Diversify and maximize your sources and quantities
of leads.

4. Setup joint ventures that will generate immediate
sales for you and add potential buyers to your long-term
customer database.

5. Explode your backend sales from follow-ups.

6. Increase your credibility with potential buyers.

Many internet marketers fail to realize that personal
interaction is in fact the catalyst that allows internet
businesses to make that jump from expensive to profitable.
Rather than seeking this medium to boost their sales, they
assure themselves that the internet is an isolated,
anti-social medium, where people do not need connections
to succeed.

Again, this is a critically-flawed system of thinking.
Without personal connections, you will not succeed with
any internet business.

Here are some ways you can increase your sales conversion
numbers by integrating personal interactions into your
marketing strategy (you may already use some of these):

1. Keep your reciprocal links directory–but also actively
seek links for your main page and your other content
pages. You can do this by finding related websites
on search engines and then personally emailing the
webmasters. Explain what you like about the website–and
how your link would fit in with what they sell. Also
include where you plan to link back to their site.

Make sure all of your emails are personal. Do not make it
look like you sent out some spam robot to hammer every
webmaster with flattering, form-letter reciprocal link
requests. This will not work.

One prominent link from a high-PR, high-traffic website
can potentially reap more sales conversions for you
than 100 reciprocal links that are locked away with
thousands of other link prisoners in the dark depths of
some website’s dungeon of a directory. Just
think of the time you could save! So do not be stingy.
offer partner sites good link positions. If your sales
copy is good enough to pull profits, then you do not
need to worry about links stealing potential sales
from you.

In addition to getting you more productive
reciprocal links, this strategy will also allow you to
develop important relationships that can later result in
profitable joint ventures or even free product exchanges.

2. Encourage your database of customers or mailing list–
or whatever you use to contact potential or previous
customers–to interact with you on a personal level when
you market a product or service to them. You need
to be very honest with your customers if you want them
to trust you. It is fair to say that people are generally
dissatisfied with programs they opt-in to and information
they purchase over the internet. If you have a product
that has actual value, then you should have no problem
explaining any questions they might have, which will
relieve the general queasiness related with internet
purchases. If you do not believe in the product you
are selling enough to field questions about it, then
find or make one you have enough confidence in before
you apply the ideas outlined in this article.

Scientific marketing tests have repeatedly proven that
an increase in contact (and therefore trust) correlates
with an increase sales. The more you personally contact
and talk to your potential customers, the better chance
you will have to make a sale. In the process, you will
also help people who are in your database by giving them
more information about the product or service you are
providing.

3. Join a large internet marketing community and
participate in the discussions. This is hands-down
the most effective way to shape a marketing plan.
You will get the chance to discuss important issues
with people who have succeeded and failed trying
the same exact plans you want to use. You will also
be able to quickly find out what methods are outdated
and which are still valid–which is direly important to
know when you own a business in the most dynamic market
place in the world.

In addition to this, you will be able to generate sales
by attaching a signature with a link to your website or
affiliate gateway below each of your posts.

Again, interacting with other marketers–whether it be
through emails or forums–can get you involved in
joint ventures and free product exchanges, which
will cut back your advertising costs and boost
your sales. Forums are one of the best places
to do this.

So, to reiterate:

1. You greatly inhibit your success by limiting personal
contact with other marketers and potential customers.

2. There are three major ways to improve your marketing
methods and results through personal contact: personally-
emailing webmasters for mainpage links; encouraging your
database to contact you–and then following up with
any questions they have; and joining a large internet
marketing community.

If you follow these simple steps to increase your
personal contact with buyers and marketers, you will
see an increase in growth and sales. I use these
methods to make money–and I encourage all my affiliates
to do the same.

Isaiah Hull is the CEO of an internet marketing and
business-building business. He is also the publisher
of Home Business Tips Newsletter and a member of the
top Internet Marketing Group in the world, the Internet
Warriors. To receive step-by-step training, a free
profit-pulling website, and a membership to the
Internet Warriors, click here to learn how you can begin
working for yourself by working with Isaiah:
http://www.workathomerightnow.net

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Eight Simple Ways To Use Promotional Products Online

With the increase competition on the Internet, it can be hard to find ways to make your company seem different from everyone else. One thing I believe Internet marketers are failing to utilize correctly is promotional products.

Promotion products are every day items that are printed with your company logo, slogan, web site address, or any other message you want to promote. The first thing that comes to most people’s minds are printed t-shirts but there are many other items you can use to make your company stand out from the crowd.

The following are eight simple ways you can use promotional products on the Internet.

Promote Your Company’s Website

This is the first thing that comes to most people’s minds when they think of how they should use promotional products. But some people over look this. Every item you choose to promote your business should include your web site address on it.

Find Promotional Items That Fit Your Niche

You can always find certain items that will compliment your type of business - items that you know your customers will use often! For Example: If you sell bicycles, it would be a good idea to include a free water bottle that has your logo on it every time someone purchases a bicycle. If you have an online drug store, you could give away pill organizers with your sites name and web address printed on them.

Free Contests and Drawings

A great way to get more people to sign up for your newsletter is to hold monthly, weekly, or daily contest drawings. The winner of the drawing would receive a promotional product with your URL on it. Since everyone loves to win stuff, more people would be willing to give you their email address. And if you make the product something that relates to your business, the people who sign up are more likely to be targeted.

Motivate Customer to Buy More

You can use promotional products to entice your customers to buy more products than they normally would have. How? By bundling multiple products a long with a promotional item. For example, instead of your customer buying 1 ebook, you also offer them a package deal of two ebooks and a free promotional item.

The promotional product can even be something related to the products you’re bundling it with. If you’re selling weight loss information, why not use a “step counter as a bonus? If you’re selling cookbooks, offer an apron. There are hundreds of products that you can put your logo on find one that compliments your products!

Reward Your Best Affiliates

Consider thanking your top affiliates by giving them a promotional product. This shows them that you truly appreciate the fact that they promote your products. You can send gifts to your affiliate partners when they reach a certain goal, or you can give gifts to your top affiliates during the holidays. By rewarding your affiliates, you build a stronger relationship with them. They will thank you by continuing to promote your business.

Thank Your Loyal Customers

Just like thanking your top affiliates, you should also consider thanking loyal customers. You can express gratitude to customers that repeatedly by your products, customers who buy your high-ticket items, or both! Promotional items remind your clients that the relationship you share with them is important to you.

Create a Competitive Advantage

Because of increased competition, it’s getting tougher than ever to compete online. You can use promotional items as a way to show your customers that you are different than your competitors. Instead of appearing as “just another company”, you can demonstrate that you are unique. When someone receives a promotional item from you they are more likely to remember you over your competition.

Promote a New Product

If you are launching a new product, you can capture your audience attention and publicize it by using promotional items. At the very least, you should send a promotional item to your top customers when a new product comes out. You might also want to consider sending items to your top affiliates too if you have a new product they can promote for you.

My goal is to get you to think of new ways to use promotional products. I hope you will implement some of the ideas I have laid out here and also brain storm different ways to use them. If used correctly, these little trinkets can help you say ahead of your competitors!

Nathan Allen is the creator of http://www.AvonPrinting.com - which is a huge resource for the printing industry. You can find a list of companies that sell promotional products at: http://www.AvonPrinting.com/promotional_gifts

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Entrepreneurs - 3 Ways You Can Profit From Newsletters Without Writing Them Yourself

I’m sure you have heard many online marketers touting the benefits of having a newsletter. I have used newsletters in the past for many sites. I’ve used them as a source of revenue by having advertisements embedded within the newsletter content. They are also effective as a means to keep a site sticky - to “anchor” clients and bring them back to the site. Newsletters can also be a great selling tool to provide free information, samples of your expertise or services, and as a taste of your full product/service. The lure of free content from newsletters can help you to turn casual surfers to potential customers and then finally paying customers.

I find the biggest problem for me personally is to consistently provide new content (which is strange since I have no problems writing a daily blog, go figure!). Consequently I have looked for methods to get around this problem.

Many of the sites I control I enjoy for the business management side of things and don’t actually provide the core services myself. For example at BetterEdit.com I don’t do any of the editing. I have professionals on staff that handle that aspect of the business. Consequently I have found it difficult to write newsletters that appeal to my target audience. Other times I’ve just grown bored of the subject matter and it becomes a chore to write a newsletter. If you don’t have enthusiasm your output is not going to be very good.

Over the years I’ve developed ways to make money from newsletters without writing them myself.

1. Hire Writers

The first and most obvious way is to hire people to do it for you. I did it this way for a community site I built with over 1000 members. In this case it was quite easy to find people that had experience and enthusiasm for the subject matter; I posted a news announcement looking for newsletter writers. I hired two people and paid cash on a per newsletter basis though at one point my writers were happy to write for free, they just enjoyed contributing to the community (though I made sure to pay them whenever there was advertiser revenue). To make a profit I just made sure I had more revenue from advertisers than I had to pay my writers. A simple equation but one that takes time to balance since you need an audience, advertisers and writers. If you have a popular site (the audience) the other two variables should come easily. Alternatively you could try searching for a freelancer to write for you.

2. Other People’s Content

Another method that I’ve utilised is to put together a summary style newsletter that simply links to content online. You take the time to find the quality articles and links for your members but you don’t have to actually do any writing yourself. IncWire is a good example of a newsletter like this. It provides links to great entrepreneurship articles that have been drawn from all over the net. The newsletter is free and sponsored by advertisers. Of course you can also make use of article repositories such as EzineArticles.com and simply use other people’s articles in your newsletter. This is a reliable and easy option since there is no shortage of great articles available for free publication everyday.

3. E-Course

You can also try an e-course style newsletter. This is a bit different to a traditional newsletter. Your visitors sign up and then over a period of time intervals they get sent the course via email. You can use plain text emails (this is the best method in my opinion - keep it simple stupid - kiss!), or HTML email or Adobe PDFs. You can send them out once a day for the next seven days or once a month for a year. It’s up to you but generally the sooner the better because you want to continually build up interest over a short period of time. Will Swayne at Marketing-Results.com.au recommends a consecutive seven day e-course.

While initially you do have to write the content yourself once it’s written your done. You don’t have to constantly provide new content and your course can be sent out to unlimited subscribers. The benefit of an e-course is that you can really focus on what your speciality is. Your course acts as a showpiece for your core competency, your skills, and allows people to try before they buy. You can monetise the course by inserting affiliate links, advertisements or selling your own services/products (or all three!).

Newsletter Software

You might be thinking this is all well and good, but how do I manage my newsletter. How do I handle an e-course being sent out every day for seven days to hundreds of different people without being blocked by SPAM blockers. What technology is available and what do I recommend.

Personally I use Marketer’s Choice to handle all email communications but if you just want a newsletter service it’s definitely way too expensive - it’s more of an all-in-one marketing tool.

I’ve tried a few different newsletter software packages. Some you install on to your own server and then manage online, others that are externally hosted subscriber based services and one that functioned a lot like an email client that sits on your desktop and sends out emails through your mail server. All of these have pros and cons. Of course it depends on your budget, but as I have stated you often get what you pay for so be wary of the free packages out there.

I recommend you try my favourite script source, The PHP Resource Index (http://php.resourceindex.com), in particular the Mailing List category should be your first port of call. You can try good old Google search as well.

Anti-SPAM

Before you commit to any newsletter software make sure you check how they deal with SPAM. Do they have an official policy and description of how your newsletters will be received? Are they just mass broadcast? Your newsletter software should provide double-opt in protection which means your subscribers have to opt-in and confirm their subscription via email before they receive anything. This helps to keep you from being accused of spamming.

One of the main reasons I chose Marketer’s Choice was because they have a very good system to make sure your mail is delivered to your subscribers. They have an in-built SPAM checker which reviews email you send out and tells you the likelihood your mail will be blocked by anti-SPAM software. It has the capability to personalise every email that is sent out so it appears with “Dear clientname” rather than just a generic “hello”. This is an important feature both as a sales tool (people tend to read emails that start with their name) and it’s more likely that your mail won’t be classed as SPAM by anti-SPAM software, which flag non-personalised email as potential SPAM. It’s the extra benefits that professional services provide that make them worth the cost, but you do have to go out there and test to find what suits your needs.

Newsletters Are Ace!

Really I can’t think of many reasons not to have some form of newsletter or e-course on your site. Yes it does take time to set things up but it’s worth the effort. I suggest you write it in your to-do list now if you don’t have a newsletter already!

By Yaro Starak
http://www.entrepreneurs-journey.com

Do you want to profit from your own successful home based Internet business?

Learn from Yaro Starak, a young entrepreneur from Australia. He works part time from home on several web based business that generate between $2,000 and $8,000 per month. Get your free articles and audio now - visit his Internet Business Blog.

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