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The MarketingSecrets.com Newsletter
Wednesday, August 13, 2003

Advanced Internet Marketing
Strategies, Techniques, And Ideas

From The Wacky Mind Of John Reese
=========================================

CONTENTS:

1. Latest News, etc.
2. Great! So Now Your Web Site *Sounds* Like Crap


"Latest News, etc."

--------------- DELAYS. DELAYS. DELAYS. ---------------

Sorry for the delay on getting out another newsletter.
It's been about 6 weeks since I sent out the last one.

As I previously stated, I am not publishing this newsletter on
any set schedule. I will just write an issue and fire it out
when I feel like it. :-)

To be perfectly honest with you, I'm not publishing this
newsletter to make money. In fact, my time would be
better spent working on my own projects than sitting down
and writing a newsletter.

Sure, I'll probably make a few bucks from occasionally
recommending some affiliate products in this newsletter,
but other than that I'm just doing this for fun. 

Yes, I honestly enjoy helping people. And what
greater responsibility is there than teaching people how
to make money for themselves and their families?

HOWEVER, with that being said, I'm not sure how often
I will continue to publish this newsletter. It's very
time-consuming. So please ENJOY the newsletter issues
that I do end up writing, but please don't kill me if (and when)
I decide to stop publishing this newsletter.

--------------- I STARTED A WILDFIRE! ---------------

The last newsletter issue had TONS of people talking!

I received a lot of wonderful email from people that read
the last issue. Many of you said that the last issue alone
was better than some PAID products.

I was very flattered. :-)

In case you missed the last issue where I went into detail
about my System Seminar presentation, you can read
the details here:

http://www.marketingsecrets.com/presentation.html

(It doesn't look pretty. I didn't take any time to format it.)

That last issue talked about some critical elements for
Internet Marketing success (such as testing & tracking)
but also talked about how I dropped a bombshell on the
industry with my findings about header graphics.

Be sure and read that last issue if you haven't read it.

--------------- MORE HEADER TEST RESULTS ---------------

I've received many test results from people testing the
no-header graphic VS. the header graphic site and it's
no surprise that the non-header versions are in almost every
case producing higher conversions.

If you've run any tests on your site with and without a header
graphic, I'd love to hear about your results.

Please email me at john@marketingsecrets.com


--------------- IT'S ALMOST BIG SEMINAR TIME ---------------

In about 10 days from now Armand Morin's "Big Seminar"
event is going to happen in San Francisco. It's really shaping
up to be an awesome Internet marketing seminar. I believe
at last count there were about 250 people registered to attend.

I'm headed to San Francisco (from Orlando where I live) next
Tuesday. I'll be there for about a week. I look forward to
Armand's event. I think it will be a lot of fun.

If you have any interest at all in going, I cannot urge you enough
to go right now and register for the event. Armand said he is
pretty sure it's going to sell out in the next few days and he
will have to start turning people away. 

I'd love to see you there. You can get all the details here:
http://www.marketingsecrets.com/bigseminar.html

--------------- BEST NEW PRODUCT IN AWHILE ---------------

If you know me by now, you know I don't "recommend" other
products lightly. Unless it's ROCK SOLID, awesome stuff,
you won't see me recommending you buy something.

But today I *am* recommending you buy a product. In fact, you
should stop what you are doing and go buy it right this very
second.

Wow, that sure sounds like a lot of "hype" doesn't it? ;-)

Seriously, I am THAT *impressed* with a new product that
just came out. Unlike most of the other CRAP in our industry,
someone finally released a quality product.

I'm talking about Jimmy D. Brown and Ryan Deiss' new,
"How To Create Best-Sellers Online"

It's such a unique and refreshing perspective on creating
and profiting from ebooks. I think they've really created something
special with this product.

Unlike most of the other "I'll teach you how to create an ebook"
products that are already out there, this product focus on
creating BEST SELLERS -- i.e. hot selling ebooks.

There's a big difference in just creating an ebook and creating
an ebook that WILL SELL.

Jimmy and Ryan do an outstanding job of focusing on three
major parts of the successful ebook process:

1. Finding a solid product idea for the ebook itself.
2. Creating great content for the ebook.
3. Increasing perceived value of the ebook.

And this sucker isn't just some quickly thrown-together product.
It's nearly *200* pages of tactics, strategies, and instruction.

They are only selling it for $47 (although I bet they raise the
price soon.) I told Jimmy the other day that they should charge
at least $97 for this thing. It really is a fantastic piece of
content. 

My hat's off to Jimmy and Ryan for putting this thing together.

You can get your own copy here:
http://www.marketingsecrets.com/bestsellers.html

-----------------------------------------

"Great! So Now Your Web Site *Sounds* Like Crap"

Unless you've been living under a rock, you've noticed that
Armand Morin's AudioGenerator service is taking the industry
by storm.

It's not just because it allows you to add audio to your
web pages. Heck, there are some much cheaper ways
to do that. It's because he's made it brain-dead-simple
to do it. You call a phone number, record your message,
and get code you paste to your site.

Whamo! You've got audio on your site.

For people that don't want to mess with all the techie stuff
involved with adding audio to web pages, his service has
made it really simple...

http://www.marketingsecrets.com/audio.html

BUT THERE'S A MAJOR PROBLEM NOW...

Everyone is rushing to add audio to their sites. They are
recording all kinds of little messages that their web site
visitors can listen to. I've seen some crazy stuff already.

But here's a REALITY CHECK.

Most of it sucks.

Not many people have taken the time to THINK about the audio
they are going to put on their sites. People think you can just
put any audio on the site and it will instantly increase sales.

Umm... no.

Audio CAN be very powerful for your marketing. It CAN
increase your sales. 

But it can also HURT your business if used incorrectly.
That's right, it can LOSE you business.

Don't just think because you add audio to your site that you
will start making more money. Unfortunately, it doesn't
work that way.

FIRST THINGS FIRST.

If you add ANY audio to your site, you need to split-test
the old version of your site and the new version with
the audio (regardless of what the first version of your audio
script sounds like.)

Unless you split-test your site you won't know which
version pulls better. You won't be able to tell if the audio
version FLOPPED. And believe me, I know for a fact
that some sites that have added audio are probably producing
MUCH WORSE since they added it.

So the first thing to keep in mind is you need to split-test
this just like ANY other change you'd make to your marketing.

The results will tell you if it improved your marketing or
made it worse. That's the beauty of direct marketing. The
results speak for themselves. It's all about Yes or No --
the "Maybe's" don't pay the rent.

CAREFULLY SCRIPT AND PLAN YOUR AUDIO *BEFORE*
YOU RECORD IT.

Before you go to record that audio file that you will add to your
site, you need to take some time and think about what you
are going to say.

Your audio should contain BENEFITS of whatever it is
you are marketing. The same rules apply with
copywriting.

Ideally, your audio should contain something that the
rest of your copy doesn't. Certainly, you can restate
some of the same benefits and points in your copy,
but ideally if you add some additional info it will make
it worth the prospect's time to listen to it.

TEST. TEST. TEST.

And just like everything else, test until it hurts. Test
different audio recordings. See how your prospects
react for each one. See which ones have a more positive
effect on your sales.

I hope to write more about the use of audio in your marketing
in a future newsletter. There are many techniques I have
discovered that are very powerful. Stay tuned.

I'll be in touch shortly with more ways to help
you make money from your business.

If you have any comments, suggestions, complaints,
feedback, etc. please feel free to contact me
and let me have it. 

Yours For Online Profits,

John Reese