Interview With Ross Arntson of NetMillionaire Training By Cort McCadden Oct 5, 2006

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Cort: Today I have the pleasure of having Ross Arntson, one of the trio (Rob Hannley and Pamela Ziemann) of the very successful radio show NetMillionaireBuz Radio and the consulting business NetMillionaireTraining. I know that you are one of the new “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?


Ross: Oh man, good question. First of all, everyone needs to understand that the Internet IS the new marketplace. It has taken a very big planet and reduced it down to a 16” screen of pixels. Very cool.

Both of us have been self-employed business owners/ consultants for most of our adult lives. Our businesses taught us that as the phone and fax were becoming obsolete, we needed to catch up with the technology curve and learn about the true power of the Internet. The most amazing part, is how you can take a relatively local idea or product and WHAM! you are now an international company. I’m not talking about one or two shipments to Canada, but massive packages going out to Europe, Asia and Africa daily.

This was a serious lesson that kinda caught us by surprise when we did our first joint-venture with Brian Tracy. It just didn’t really dawn on us, until all of a sudden we were shipping 30% of our orders internationally. Talk about a quick eye-opener and crash course in world wide shipping.

It’s really amazing to have Internet phone calls with someone in France and Australia. And the real beauty of the Internet is that you can respond to questions and concerns immediately. If someone from Canada calls with a shipping question we can call AND email them back before their enthusiasm dwindles and the possibility of losing the sale is reduced considerably.


Cort: Ross, diid you see the value of Email Marketing almost immediately after it appeared? What made you get involved with Email Marketing?


Ross: ONE word sums it all up: Money! Saving it and making it. Simple as that. Have you ever done a bulk snail mailing? 50,000 postcards, the cheapest way to go, is over $7000 plus the printing. Now, on the other hand, an email blast is relatively free. Of course, it depends on whether your using your own list, renting one or joint venturing with someone. Basically a no brainer. Just do the math.

Since we created NetMillionaire Concepts we have continually provided our customers with the very best training resources we can find. We’ve used the power of Email Marketing to make that happen. It has been an incredible way to communicate the next guest on our radio show or promote a ground breaking idea from great trainers like Harv Eker, Robert Allen or Brian Tracy. We’ll show you about that in a little bit. http://www.netmillionairetraining.com/Special/BuzzOffer.

Just like that, we’ve communicated our intention to thousands and thousands with the push of a button. At the same time, it’s a phenomenal way for our customers to communicate back to us. They liked a show, they didn’t like it, what they want to hear next, etc.


Cort: What are you doing to avoid the ever present spam filters from putting your email in spam folders? Are you considering using PDF files to send your ezine like I have started to do?


Ross: We haven’t started anything like that yet. We utilize the power of others people’s lists, which are generally pretty good quality and can bypass most filters, since they’re optins in the first place.

From there we have developed excellent content for our own subscribers so they are more likely to keep us on their white-lists. This is crucial to continue your communication to your list. They can see an example at http://www.netmillionairetraining.com/Special/BuzzOffer.

Spam filters are a hassle, but nevertheless a fact of doing business on the Net. Our advice is to everyone is to stay on the up and up in your business dealings and don’t give your customers a reason to report you to their ISP. One million email addresses for ten bucks is a good indication that you are about to spam someone. Use some due diligence before you tarnish your rep or worse yet, your sites rep.


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


Ross: We use both text and HTML versions of our mailings. We’re currently using audio now and it’s fantastic. When we started promoting our radio show http://www.netmillionairebuzz.com on the Net, audio was another no-brainer. It’s a lot of added work, which usually falls on Rob’s shoulders because he’s so good at integrating it with everything else.

We have a production company putting together video clips for us right now, that we’ll be using on http://www.netmillionairetraining.com. As is audio, video is a must! It’s the true direction of the Internet.

People respond to pictures and video so much more then they do words and sentences. I think it’s a too much work kind of scenario. It’s just easier to watch and listen rather than read. I mean, people are already so conditioned to TV, that video is the next logical step.

We’ve listened to so many of the gurus talking about which way to go. “Don’t get too complex, you’ll lose half your market.” Or, “Bells and whistles, more bells and whistles, it’s what the market wants.” It can be really confusing and sometimes frustrating deciding who to listen to.

So we kinda stopped listening, and watched what everyone else is doing, took what we liked, learned it and threw away the rest. THEN you test it to see what YOUR market responds to.

It really comes down to what works for you. Test and check your numbers, test again and check the numbers again. Our philosophy is “If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.” Everything must be designed, created and implemented with the intention of being able to see the results in your conversion numbers.


Cort: More good advice especailly about testing!. Ross, what have been your biggest successes in your business and why? Failures? What would you do differently if you could do things over?


Ross: Persistence is our number one success. Never give up and never surrender to frustration and despair. There have been some joint ventures we’ve done that took months, almost a year to come to fruition. It’s incredible when they come together but can they just as easily never happen.

As for failures, we haven’t ever failed. We may not have gotten the results we expected, but the learning process can never be considered failing. This answers your other question about do-overs too. But if I had to answer that, I’d refer to our last answer about tracking from the beginning.

The beauty of having a partner is we support each other through the rough times. I’m not saying we sit up at night and cry on each other's shoulder, but certain situations come about and we get on the phone or go have coffee together and just let each other know where we are.

To those reading this, we strongly recommend that you have someone, you can talk to. Sometimes all you need is a sounding-board to clear your head and get back in the saddle. In the design of The Netmillionaire Training System http://www.netmillionairetraining.com, we added an Accountability Journal for users to learn the power of having someone to talk to, bounce ideas off of and hold them accountable for their intentions.


Cort: Cool, Ross! Do you have any ideas that could improve results from Email Marketing?


Ross: Ask questions. If you are doing a JV or renting a list, ask the list owner questions like: Is your list trained to receive offers? What do they respond to best? What promotions have you used in the past that worked? Is my price point something they’re use to? Do you use text or HTML? Will you work with me and edit my copy for maximum results?

Never assume you have all the answers and remember they (the list owners) want your offer to succeed just as much as you do.


Cort: What are the most important factors in Email Marketing?


Ross: Copywriting is the key to any marketing campaign. Matching the copy to the market is second. And third would be the creation of a strong followup/autoresponder program.

We laugh when we go back and look at the copy we used in the beginning. It sucked. But at the time we wrote it, we thought it was the bomb. 'Nobody can resist this offer,' we said to each other. Well, the truth is nobody wanted to read our crap long enough to know what they were turning down.


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


Ross: TEST, TEST, TEST! REWORK, REWORK, REWORK! TEST AGAIN, then maybe it’s ready to go.

Never assume a success or a deal until it’s finished and the money is in the bank. And if you haven’t started compiling a swipe file, do it now. Emails, headlines, magazine ads, etc.

The Internet technology is constantly changing and it is very important that you keep up with the changes. To what extent, you’ll have to decide. Trust us, it can be over-whelming at first but very much worth the effort.


Cort: You said earlier that you had something for our readers, can you share that with us?


Ross: We have created a very special offer for DEMC subscribers to get their own immediate access to the Ultimate Success Secrets that have Launched Lives and Businesses through the Roof and it’s Absolutely FREE (a regular $249 value) and it is critical that everyone pay attention to the entire step by step process.

"I absolutely believe these are the best "EXPOSE" interviews ever" - J. Michael Palka, Author of "Power Marketing"

The Secrets Revealed here created Millionaires and are the answers you’ve been looking for. Many have paid thousands for this information, now it’s yours at NO COST.

You're seconds away from accessing these Exclusive, Probing, Tell-All Interviews. If you’re really serious about your financial future, getting your hands on any of these is an absolute must: http://www.netmillionairetraining.com/Special/BuzzOffer

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Cort McCadden also known by his real name Hugh Simpson is a former consumer investigative reporter for Post Newsweek TV and the co-founder of the website http://www.moneywiselife.com and the new blog http://moneywiselife.blogspot.com where he shares up to date consumer awareness tips for especially seniors since he has reached 60 this year. He is also an emergency preparedness consultant and he encourages you to download the FR** Emergency Preparedness Guide at http://www.usprepared.com offering tips for preparedness on both man made and natural disasters.

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