Interview with Kevin Bidwell who has an Alexa Top 5% Site By Cort McCadden Mar 16, 2006

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Cort: With me today is Kevin Bidwell, a former motivational trainer who earned enough money from his Internet marketing business his FIRST year which enabled him to retire! I know that you are one of the “hotshots” in Internet Marketing; however I would like to know what you did before your Net involvement. When was this? What got you interested in the Net?

Kevin: From the mid-80’s until 2000 I did motivational training, sales and marketing consulting (offline). When my wife became seriously ill in 1999 we began to realize I needed to work less and be closer to home (we have two boys who were teenagers at the time.) I decided to take my business on the web and launched All-In-One-Business.com in January, 2001.

I am still constantly amazed at the power of the technology we use every day. One person with no previous experience and a $400 computer can start a business and retire a year later. Anyone who has attempted to start and run an offline business knows how difficult offline business can be. The technology readily available to almost everyone now “lowers the bar” so that virtually anyone can be financially independent.


Cort: And Kevin's site is in the top sites on the Net too according to Alexa! Did you see the value of Email Marketing almost immediately after it appeared? What made you get involved with Email Marketing?

Kevin: Email marketing was firmly in place when I entered the scene in 2001 and I adopted it immediately. The biggest chore I had then was determining how I would maintain and mail my growing house list.

The appeal of email marketing (then and now) is the low cost. When I used to do direct mail it would take weeks to go from concept to printing to mailing. With email I can contact 40,000 people with a marketing message instantly—allowing me to put up a promotion in a day or two and be making money from it in minutes.

I have also found renting bulk email list drops is a great way to generate leads and sales. I am often surprised how few people tap into this powerful resource.


Cort: Kevin, shed some more light on email list drops.

Kevin: Bulk email list rentals are a great way to generate high volume sales for relatively low cost. There are hundreds of email list owners who will allow you to send a mass mailing to their list for a fee—anything from $1 per thousand mailed to as much as $100 per thousand. Depending on the targeting and quality of the list this can be a great way to generate new leads and sales.


Cort: We all know that here in the States Congress is trying to get tough with Spammers. Do you think that they have gone far enough? If not, what should they do? Do you think that there will ever be an INTERNATIONAL Spam Law? If so, would you be in favor or opposed. Why?

Every time the government makes spam laws tougher my business grows. Here’s why: In-boxes are clogged with email, some from aunt Mabel, some from me, some from my competitors. When the laws toughen, the weaker competitors in the market place drop out—they fear what might happen.

Those of us who are doing ethical email marketing don’t have to worry.

Have the spam laws gone far enough? I suspect the spam laws have had a very small impact on the amount of spam compared with the impact of filtering and white-listing. Most of what is called spam isn’t really spam—it’s email the recipient (at one time) agreed to receive, and now doesn’t want. You can’t legislate against people’s fickleness.

I think it makes sense to put a mailing address, a legitimate opt-out link and a “real” return address on email—and I have been doing that since 2001. Most legitimate email marketers have been.

International spam laws may be a future issue, but I’m not overly concerned. If you do things ethically you are unlikely to run into problems.

One area I AM concerned about is the regulation and taxation of Internet commerce. As the Internet becomes a more and more common shopping medium, states and countries are losing a piece of the sales tax pie. It is only a matter of time before the there will be state sales tax required from online sellers—even when delivery is to another state. I suspect we will also see a move to tax Internet commerce on a federal level.

Collecting the tax from buyers won’t be a problem, the cost to Internet businesses will mostly be in terms of compliance—paying someone to keep track of all the forms you have to file.


Cort: What are your feelings about Plain vs. HTML Email Marketing? What about the Audio and Visual Email?

Kevin: I’ve not tested audio/visual email, so I don’t have any basis for comment.

When it comes to Plain v. HTML it would depend on the recipients, the message and the intended response.

For emails sent to a rented, bulk list, HTML is the ONLY way to go. You can see an example of an HTML we send out regularly with good results here:

http://seminarbonuses.com/cp/mailer.html

I favor sending HTML for newsletters and other rapport building emails. This allows you to establish a professional appearance and include the 25+ links you need to increase click-thrus to your site. You can see a sample of one of our newsletters here:

http://www.All-In-One-Business.com/imm/20041022/mailer.html

We also send a companion plain text email for people who have their email set up to read everything in plain text, but I doubt it gets much exposure.

For promotional emails to my house list I tend to use plain text. Plain text is the most common form of communication between friends and I have found a brief “note” in plain text increases response to email promotions to people who “know” me.


Cort: What have been your biggest successes in your business and why? Failures? What would you do differently if you could do things over?

Kevin: My biggest success—by far—is my Success Secrets course. Without reservation I believe the current edition is the best get into business resource online available anywhere. We update it constantly (last update was two weeks ago) and there is nothing on the web like it.


Cort: Kevin, tell us more about Success Secrets course. Did you use email to market it?

Kevin: Email marketing has been key to the success of the course. I collect email addresses from my visitors and over time a large percentage of them take my course. I have done various types of promotions to “get the word out”—including direct mail—but have found email marketing has been the most cost effective way to generate sales and profits.

My biggest failure has been making more of a commitment to someone else’s success than they make to themselves. I tend to believe people are really trying when all evidence points to the contrary. While I am learning to be more discerning about who is working and who isn’t, it’s still an uphill battle for me.

One thing I would do differently WHEN I start over—I am in the process of reinventing my business now—is to create an anonymous business anyone can run rather than “expert based” businesses.

An expert-based business is one where the customers do business with the company because the “expert” is there to help them. An anonymous business can be run by anyone and is not dependent on a particular expert as its “pull.”

I have two sons who I would like to have inherit my business. I want to make sure they can inherit something of intrinsic value—not something built around “me.”


Cort: What would be your advice to Internet newbies concerning Email Marketing?

Kevin: Use a professional autoresponder service from day one. Don’t fall prey to those who encourage you to do it yourself. Don’t think you are “saving money” by buying a script and putting it on your own server.

My advice: Start your business like you are going to be successful. An autoresponder service will cost your around $20 per month to start but will make you a ton of money in the long run.


Cort: Thanks, Kevin for some great tips and advice! Kevin has agreed to discount his newly updated 2006 Success Secrets course by 70% for DEMC readers. You can check out the details of the course here:

http://www.All-In-One-Business.com/index6.php

BUT DON’T ENROLL THERE! Instead, go here to enroll:

http://www.All-In-One-Business.com/demc


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Cort McCadden is the co-founder of a new AV/TV production company called Avmagination that will be specializing in producing HDDVD – High Definition DVD – for “edu-entertainment” info products like his soon to be released Barter Wealth.

You can reach him at cort@avmagination.com and visit the website at http://www.usprepared.com to be on his mailing list to receive his newly updated FREE Ebook Survival Manual for the Third Millennium.

In this ebook you will find preparation for hurricanes, earthquakes, tornadoes, etc. Cort is a recognized authority on survival and has made appearances on Art Bell Coast to Coast.

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