MarketingSecrets.com Blog

Well, the countdown is under way for the release of my first (and maybe only?) Internet Marketing Workshop. All the details and registration form will be made LIVE at Noon (EST) on Monday, February 2nd, 2004.

I was pretty much forced to do a "countdown" and let everyone register at the sametime as I am expecting a quick sell-out and won't have room for everyone. So the only way I thought it would be fair is to do it "Ticketmaster style" and put seats on sale at a specific time.

If you have any interest at all in mastering advanced Internet Marketing strategies and techniques (which you can apply to ANY market) I cannot urge you enough to register for the workshop on Monday and make sure to be there. I am sitting here looking over what I am going to cover at the event and it's going to be truly awesome. Many things that no ebook, course, or other seminar has ever taught. It's really going to be a lot of fun.

Posted by John Reese at 12:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (11)

Too many entrepreneurs (especially online marketers) want to focus on FREE TRAFFIC. They want to get thousands of visitors from the search engines and suck down all the free visitors they can. There's nothing wrong with that approach. I use it myself. But that's not all I use.

I am a strong believer in BUYING TRAFFIC also. In fact, I will GLADLY pay for all the traffic I can find that will return a profit. I will gladly exchange $1 for $2 in return until the cows come home. YOU should have the same attitude and same "Advertising Plan" for your business. You should have no problem spending $5,000+/month advertising your business just online. Would you spend $5,000/month to net $5,000/month?

Have you tested ALL of the PPC search engines?

By now you should know what the targeted keywords are for your business. You need to BUY THEM on all the PPC search engines and track each one individually to see which ones return a profit and which ones don't. Then you happily continue to pay for the profitable ones.

Here's a site that lists 583 Pay Per Click Search Engines. I recommend you only use the top 10 or so. Most of the others won't bring you much traffic at all and will be a waste of your time in setting up an account.

Have you tested running banner ads and other creatives on targeted sites in your market?

Many people think "banner ads don't work!" This is SILLY. Millions of dollars in sales are being produced by banner ads every month. Ad sizes (and techniques) of all kinds CAN BE a profitable source of leads. You just need to test them for your market and your business. The good news is, once you find some that are profitable you just continue running those ads and making money. Many of the online sites where you can buy traffic get CONSISTENT and predictable types of visitors and can often lead to long-term profitable advertising. So do a search and find web sites that are targeted for your market and see if they accept paid advertising. Then test it out, but be sure to track that ad SEPARATELY from all your other traffic or you're an idiot. I say that in a caring way. :-) My point is, if you don't track it separately you'll never be able to tell if it was profitable, and I don't want you wasting your money.

A great source of banner advertising is actually on Microsoft's Small Business Network - bCentral. You should be able to buy traffic on their network by paying per click. I believe, right now for most markets the cost is 50 cents per click. Now that might seem high to you, but depending on your market, and how targeted you can make your ad placement (you get to choose exactly what types of sites for it to appear on) it's very possible that you can get it to become profitable. I've had several campaigns using their banners that have been profitable. You can also rotate banner ads to see which one pulls in the best results. But always remember to...

TRACK ALL ADVERTISING SOURCES SEPARATELY!

Posted by John Reese at 07:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)

In the past 10 years or so prices have increased 35-100%+ in almost every product category and industry on the planet. But why are many marketers stuck in an OLD pricing model for their business?

There was a CNN.com article just published that reports that the average price of a car is now over $30,000. That is amazing. I remember when most new cars were around the $10,000 range. Times have really changed...

But other prices have dramatically increased as well -- from consumer products to even real estate values. Things just flat-out cost a lot more than they did just 10 years ago. And average salaries are much higher also -- so people are cashing bigger paychecks...

BUT WHY ARE SOME MARKETERS USING *OUTDATED* PRICES?

The good 'ol direct marketing and "Mail Order" books that were published well over 10 years ago always told us that our "front-end" product should be priced very low, like between $15 and $39. Some marketers "could" make a profit on just that front-end product, but we were taught that adding back-end products to sell to those same customers would allow us to make even more profit in our businesses.

I believe those front-end "economics" are now OUTDATED. I think it's very hard for anyone thesedays to make much of a profit if they are selling front-end products using those old price ranges. The fact of the matter is this... consumers are now accustomed to buying EVERYTHING ELSE in their lives at 35-100% (and higher) prices than what they purchased them at 10 years ago. So entrepreneurs should change their prices accordingly.

It's in my opinion, (especially if you are selling infoproducts) that you don't sell a front-end product that's less than about $50. Ideally, I think you should position a front-end product that will be more in the $70 to $100 range. Especially when marketing something online, these higher front-end prices make more sense. Primarily if you run an Affiliate Program. Anyone that knows anything about "affiliates" knows that they are very FICKLE. They jump from program to program to program. There's no real loyalty to a certain product line. Their actions are usually based on ONE thing -- how much money they make. Even, though, the actual amount an affiliate makes comes down to NET VISITOR VALUE most affiliates are driven to take action to promote products with HIGHER PRICES because the commission per sale is higher. Psychologically, affiliates think in terms of one sale at a time. So unless you have higher prices than your competitors, it's going to take a lot more WORK to gain the mindshare of active affiliates.

There are other major advantages to having a higher priced front-end product online. It changes the entire marketing equation when buying traffic, such as from PPC search engines. (Especially if you have NO BACKEND like many entrepreneurs that are starting a new venture.) Average lead prices (i.e. average per click prices) have been steadily on the RISE as more and more companies are turning to the Internet to drive prospects to their sites. As a result of this rise, it's now harder and harder to turn a profit...

SO HOW DO YOU IMPROVE YOUR PROFITABILITY?

Well, there are only two ways to do it based on that front-end product you are trying to sell...

1. You increase your sales conversion ratio.
2. You increase your product price.

I can tell you from vast experience (over 14 years marketing online) that it's much EASIER to increase your visitor value by raising your product price and working to PILE ON MORE VALUE for the prospect. Such as adding more bonus items and improving the offer itself so you can get more people to buy it at a higher price. It's a lot harder to make the same net profit results by simply tweaking your site and improving your headline or other basic elements of your site.

So the next time you launch a new product, or try to improve your profits, I strongly suggest you consider RAISING YOUR PRICES and improving the PERCEIVED VALUE of your offer rather than trying to get your sales conversion ratio up to 10% with a lower priced product.

Posted by John Reese at 11:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)

There are two simple words in marketing that everything revolves around. Get these two words right and position your marketing for it, and you'll be incredibly successful. But get these two words wrong and your marketing is doomed...

The two most powerful words in marketing are...

END RESULT

End result is exactly what your prospect will get out of buying your product, service, "widget" or whatever else it is that you are trying to sell. HOW will their lives be different from owning your product? What will it create for them? i.e. what will the end result be?

There must be a strong desire for the end result that your product promises or it will be nearly impossible to sell. And you must also be able to communicate that your product will produce this end result in order for people to make the decision to give you their money for it.

End result is more than just "benefits" or what will it DO for them. It's all of that and much more. It's also about what will CHANGE for them in their lives as part of this end result that your product will create.

Let's talk about an example...

Let's say we are selling an infoproduct that teaches someone how to get rid of their backpain. What is the end result - no more backpain? Not entirely.

The end result is not just no more backpain, it's also about no more sleepless nights of tossing and turning and wincing in pain. It's also no more trips to the chiropractor or more trips (and expense) to fill a prescription that will hopefully alleviate some of the pain. It's also about being able to enjoy many facets of life that were taken away by the pain -- like being able to enjoy a nice jog, or picking up children, or tossing a ball with your son, or playing tennis with your old tennis buddies, and much much more. The end result is how their life will CHANGE for the better by owning the product.

The next time you sitdown to write a sales letter or create a rough plan for a new product, you must think about creating an "End Result Matrix" -- a chart that you can make go in as many directions as possible for how a product will CHANGE SOMEONE'S LIFE. Then you need to focus on the most emotional elements of that chart. Prioritize them by the ones that will most greatly impact the majority of your prospects' lives. Then position your marketing around them.

Sell the end result and life-changing elements of your product and not the product itself. That's the simple secret of selling anything like crazy.

Posted by John Reese at 03:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

After posting the entry on the "Flashback" to 1994, I had another flashback of sorts...

I remember back in 1995 that I started using the term "E-Business" long before IBM turned it into the well-known term it is today.

Here's PROOF that I used it before they did. :-) And I had actually been using it for several months before making that listserv announcement about the newsletter.

It's fun to "look back" and see what we can dig up. The Internet makes it easy.

Posted by John Reese at 06:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

I thought it would be fun to take a look back at what Internet marketing was like 10 years ago. I think it can teach us several things about where we might be headed and how to improve our marketing...

I started marketing online in 1990. Yes, back in the dinosaur online marketing days. I did most of my marketing on AOL, Prodigy, CompuServe, Delphi, and other online services.

But by 1994, things were starting to heat up (marketing-wise) for the Internet. Here's an actual photo of what the bedroom in my apartment looked like in 1994...

I was definitely in Super Nerd Mode back then. I had all those computers running, and each was doing a different thing. Some were being used for posting classified ads, others were being used to run little scripts that I wrote that would pull content from several sites I kept regular tabs on, and others were for just poking around online to see what other opportunities I could find.

My bed was actually about 3 feet away from those computers. It was easy access to just roll out of bed and get to work.

For any Mac fans, that little sucker on the far left is actually a Mac SE/30. I started one of the first autoresponders services for Internet marketers back then (just a little piece of trivia for you) and it actually ran on that computer. It initially ran on a 28.8 dial-up modem. I had a script that would run every 5 minutes to check and see if the modem had dropped carrier or not (i.e. disconnected.) If it had, the script would make the modem automatically dial the ISP back and log back in.

And let me just take a moment to once again say, "THANKS!" to my good friend, and super duper Internet marketer, Paul Myers of TalkBiz.com. Paul was actually one of my original autoresponder customers way back in the day. If it wasn't for Paul's 10 bucks a month, who knows, MarketingSecrets.com might not exist today. So thanks again, Paul. :-)

I eventually had a T1 line going into that room back then. I think it cost me almost $4,000/month with the router lease and everything. I remember when the Sprint techs would come out to service the line they would give me really strange looks -- like I worked for the CIA or something. It was actually really cool. :-) Geek power at its finest.

Back in 1994 and a few short years after that, you could put up almost anything on a Web page and people would respond to it. Heck, one of the most popular sites back then was a site called the "Big Red Button." It was simple an image of a huge 3D red button. That's it. Well, thousands upon thousands of people linked to this page, passed the URL around, and went to that web site. Just to see the big red button and click on it -- which would do nothing. It was a funny little piece of the Internet culture back then. But it had some very important implications for marketing...

Internet marketing (the most powerful form of direct marketing ever) is all about CALLS TO ACTION. In other words, what we want people TO DO. Whether that's opt-in to a list, download a PDF file, or even submit an order form to buy something from us. The list goes on and on. But back in 1994 and the early days of online marketing, it was EASY to get people to do anything you wanted them to.

But that eventually changed.

Now there are MILLIONS of web pages online. A gazillion distractions. Nearly every web site on the planet has a call to action of somekind. It's overwhelming for Internet users. Because of all the NOISE online, in order to get people to take a call to action of anykind, you really have to put a lot of work into it. You really have to use solid marketing fundamentals to get them to do it -- and that really brings AIDA (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action) into a fullswing like never before.

Here's a great example of "where we've been" and "where we are going" as online marketers...

Let's just take a look at OPT-IN email marketing...

In 1994 you could put up a form on any web page that simply said "submit your email address to get my free newsletter" and *TONS* of people would subscribe.

Then around 1996 or so, it started to become a little hard to get people to opt-in to a free list. So then you had to give more details about the newsletter. You had to say something like, "sign up for my free Gardening Tips newsletter and improve your garden."

But then that stopped working as well. Then marketers started giving their newsletters a VALUE and adding a line like, "join now, the newsletter is a $195 value."

Things continued to evolve. People started offering BONUSES and other "bribes" just to get people to opt-in. Marketers had to get more and more creative in order to get people to take that call to action and subscribe.

And it's only going to get worse.

But knowing this is a "good" thing for you. Because you'll know what you need to do for your own marketing to get people to continue to opt-in to your lists -- which is still a very critical part of making money online.

You need to write a SALES LETTER to "sell" your opt-in list. Thats right. A sales letter. It doesn't have to be very long, but it needs to have all the elements of a good sales letter. We are going to see more and more of this as time goes on. Marketers that are willing to take the extra time to write a little sales letter to "sell" their opt-in list will experience much higher subscribe rates than those that don't. A few savvy marketers are just now starting to use this technique.

In October 2002, I was on a panel at a seminar. All of the panel members were asked to mention something they saw coming in the future for online marketing. I mentioned that good marketers would end up using a sales letter to sell their opt-in lists in order to rise above the noise online and get more people to opt-in. Many people laughed. Some people looked at me like I was smoking crack. But, Paul Myers, who happened to be there and was also on the panel, looked at me and smiled. Paul knew that this was the future. In fact, Paul shared with the crowd that he had just had a client ask him to write a sales letter to sell an opt-in list.

Write it down and bank on it. THIS is the future of opt-in email marketing.

Here's a great example of what I'm talking about. Take a look at Jason Anderson's Achieve Net Profits newsletter page.

Notice how he has a headline. Testimonials. Bullets. A reason why. A compelling offer.

Start thinking about how YOU can do this for your lists. And, Yes, before someone smacks me in the head, I realize *I* haven't even done this for my MarketingSecrets.com newsletter yet. That's primarily because this site for me has been more of a hobby and more of a "fun" thing than a business -- since MarketingSecrets.com currently has no products or services for sale.

But that will change very soon. And even I will get MY act together. :-)

You can check out another example of this "selling the opt-in" with one of my niche projects -- my "Free Auction Course" about eBay.

You'll notice that example is a little different from Jason's. Some can be short while others need to be longer and more detailed. It's also something that you need to TEST for maximum opt-in rate.

Posted by John Reese at 12:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (15)

I want to address what I feel is the biggest MYTH about making money. It's time that someone that has "been there and done that" MANY MANY TIMES comes clean and gives the real scoop...

(And, yes, I felt inspired to make a 2nd entry for the new blog on the first day.) :-)

The Single Most Important Thing For You To Make Money Is To Make Sure You "Do Something You Are Already Interested In Or Know About!"

RIGHT?

WRONG! THIS IS A HUGE CROCK OF POOP.

I see this advice over and over and over. In home study courses. In ebooks. In marketing manuals. In how-to guides. Again and again and again. They all say it. "Start with something you're PASSIONATE about."

Sure, that's great advice if you want...

A HOBBY.

That's right. If you want to start a new business based on an existing interest or passion, you might as well throw in the towel and just realize that you are either expanding an existing HOBBY or starting a new one.

It is in my opinion (after many years of hard work, failures, anxiety, long nights, and insane mountains of debt) that this is the WORST advice someone can give an aspiring entrepreneur.

WHY?

Because in order to truly MAKE MONEY doing anything, there are things that are far more important THAN YOUR OWN SILLY INTERESTS.

Here are several reasons why trying to start a new business by doing something you are passionate about is BAD ADVICE...

1. "Too Close To The Forest To See The Trees"

When you're really involved in a hobby, or have a real passion for a specific market, you are often BIASED. You have already formed opinions about which brands in your market are "best" or which techniques are the "right ones" or which things you'd "like to buy" and so on and so forth. While these things CAN lead to some insight into what to sell to a certain market, more often than not your skewed views and biased opinions are NOT THOSE OF THE MAJORITY OF THE MARKET. And if you are not going to market to the majority of a target market, you're doomed before you even get started in almost every case.

2. "Just Because YOU 'Think' You'd Buy Something Doesn't Mean Others Will"

It's far to easy to think, "Hey, if this widget existed for my I know I'd buy it!"

Big Whoop. In order to be successful in marketing, you must understand that what YOU want doesn't pay the rent or the electric bill. What YOU want doesn't mean squat. That's right, no one cares what you want. The only thing that matters is what your market wants.

3. "When You 'Think' You Know What The Market Wants You Fail To Become A Great Marketer"

Great marketers don't just do research and find out what a markets want. They market to them, then take the results, then tweak their game plan, then market to them again using these results. Successful marketing is a constant EVOLUTION. It's the ability to blaze a trail based on EXACTLY what a market wants at any given point in time. You CANNOT successful evolve with a markets needs (i.e. BUYING NEEDS) if you are so passionate about something that you have already formed your own OPINIONS. This is very much like being too close to the forest. It's nearly impossible to separate your own feelings as a consumer in a market from what the market-at-large desires to purchase. SOMETIMES those desires are the same. But we're not in this game for the "sometimes." "Sometimes" can be the difference between success and failure with a project.

Before I continue I need to clarify something...

There are exceptions to all of this. For example, if you're interested in working on a project that has to do with financial success, YOUR STORY is going to be a critical element of that success. In other words, if you're trying to sell something that teaches other people to make money (such as with mail order, Internet marketing, trading stocks, real estate, etc.) then you will need to be very close to that market. You will need a STORY. If you don't have a story in those markets, you are most likely doomed. Think about it. How the heck can you sell "make money" advice to people if you haven't made money yourself doing whatever it is you're trying to sell? It's nearly impossible. In fact, it's idiotic in the first place, but that's a rant for another day. :-)

Clarifying things even more... (because I know some people will argue this entry) there are MANY markets where your personal story is going to make the difference (as in the example above about financial markets). For example, if you want to sell something about back pain, you'll have a much better chance selling that product if you can tell how you've had back pain and cured it -- if that's the solution (product) you are going to sell.

But this rant goes way beyond that...

In order to make maximum money from any market, you must force yourself into a mindset that you know NOTHING about a market. You must force yourself to use DISCIPLINE and FUNDAMENTALS to go and do the hard work, and due diligence, to fully investigate, research, and plan your projects. And this is very hard to do if you start on this journey and you are already BIASED about a specific market. Because again, what YOU want to buy is often not what others want to buy.

So the next time you go to start a new venture, my advice is to look for markets that have a buying desire *FIRST* rather than think of all the markets that you "know something about already." This way, you start from scratch and put in the homework to really find out what people are ready to buy. Because that's the name of the game.

Posted by John Reese at 10:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (17)

This is the very first entry for the new MarketingSecrets.com Blog. Check back often for new entries and expect to read all kinds of random marketing thoughts that come spilling out of my wacky brain. :-)

The first entry I want to make is a very important one. It's about something that I think is the most critical element of success. It's not only about a frame of mind, it's about the people you continue to surround yourself with.

It's a fact... You can have anything you want in life, and you can accomplish anything you desire for your business. All it takes is a positive mental attitude and the willingness to work to make it happen. But it also takes positioning yourself around other elements of positivity.

I really started to see my own success and my own business ventures really prosper and grow when I finally got something through my thick skull...

In life, there are two types of people that surround us: positive ones and negative ones. The most powerful thing in the universe is our ability to choose which people we continue to surround ourselves with. That's right. YOU have a choice.

We have all encountered friends, family members, and business associates that have expressed negativity, put doubts in our minds about what we feel driven to accomplish and do, and have done nothing but put us down rather than lift us up in our quest of chasing the dream we have for our own business.

It's a new year, 2004. There's no better time to make some profound changes in your life, and in your business, than in a new year. Heck, it's a great excuse for change. I would like to challenge you to consciously reduce some of the negativity that surrounds you. If you have people in your life that don't support what you are trying to do with your business, then STOP SHARING IT WITH THEM. Stop asking them what they think. Stop telling them about the progress. Stop bouncing new ideas off them. Kill the communication. Enough is enough.

The only way you are going to really succeed and continue on a positive path of revenue growth, increased profits, and greater success, is if you rid as much negativity as possible from that path -- and usually the easy way to do that is to make a conscious choice to cut negative influences out of the equation. So don't wait. Do it immediately. Stop letting others influence you in anyway unless it's POSITIVE.

And while you're making these changes for the better to improve your business, improve your own attitude as well. Treat your prospects and customers better. Treat your potential partners better. Stop putting others down (if you do) and make a real effort to be more POSITIVE in your thinking, communication with others, and in everything you do.

My father taught me something at a very early age and I try to follow his advice in everything I do...

ALWAYS DO MORE THAN IS EXPECTED OF YOU.

Too many people do the bare minimum. Too many people want to just barely do what they "have" to. Here's a little secret for you...

The people that make the most money in ANY market are the ones willing to do just a little bit more work than the rest of the competition.

So be positive. Stay positive. And encourage others around you to be positive. It will only have a positive influence on your business, your success, and your life.

Posted by John Reese at 08:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (27)