3.
FEATURE ARTICLE:
* Exclusive *
== How To Build Your Own Successful E-zine ==
"Even If You're Not an Expert, You Still Can Succeed!"
By: Ganesan
In my previous article, I had mentioned that there are
two possible business models to bring your business
volumes to the level of critical mass. One, selling a
small number of high value items and two, selling a
large number of low value items. I outlined the
appropriate strategies to achieve the first one in
my last column.
I also promised that we would review what is involved
in selling low value items to a large number of clients
in the next issue.
So let's now see what is involved in selling small value
items to a large number of customers. This is the kind
of strategy most of us resort to on the net. If you read
1000 online ads at random. 999+ belong to this type.
Why is this the case? Most of us are ordinary people;
not quite experts at anything. Even if we have expertise
in some area, we feel quite diffident because we know
there are hundreds if not thousands of people out there
who, we know, are better experts in this subject matter,
and so we don't have a single reason why the prospects
should buy such high cost products or services from us
rather than from the better known experts.
Intuitively we feel, people may not mind parting with
$5 or $10 to lesser mortals like us. After all, aren't
there millions of people who buy these kinds of things
anyway, from someone or the other? Reason enough why
we feel more comfortable selling low value items.
What we fail to understand are 2 important issues.
One, even people who buy $5 items do a certain amount
of due diligence before making the purchase. It is
not just the price, but a whole lot of other issues
which are involved.
For instance, what they buy may be un-usable, it may
be incompatible with something else they have, it may
waste their time or cause some kind of damage, or the
buyer may lose quite a bit of money because of the
source of the purchase, in the form of misuse of credit
card info, etc. when they purchase online. On top of
these reasons, most people want to buy branded and
safe items rather than unknown ones, especially when
the price involved is low.
Two (- the more important issue), selling lots of
items is not a simple job, even if very low priced,
the claims of so many Net Gurus notwithstanding. It
is several times more difficult than selling a few
high value items.
Here, the key to success is following a lot of small,
yet important steps precisely, and repeating them
'ad infinitum'. In business terms, this is called
'setting up the process'. It is the critical success
factor - Designing a good and workable process, and
making it work, first time and every time. And
keeping on fine-tuning it, making the fine-tuned
process also work every time.
When it comes to designing and executing such a
process, there are very few of us who understand this
as a requirement, in the first place, and have the
competence to establish an appropriate process, and
make it work. No doubt, some do it, and these people
are the 'real gurus', and they do make money on the
Net. Lots of it, in fact.
The vast majority of the people (my guesstimate is that
they must be 99.99%+ of those who have a shot at online
business) who attempt to make money online, have no
clue what the process I'm talking about is, and why it
is necessary.
Here's just a partial list of all that you need to do to
succeed in selling small value items online.
Buy a good domain name.
Identify a good host.
Create a site (though this may not always be required).
Host your site.
Set-up multiple email ids.
Drive traffic through various means.
Identify multiple keywords.
Write powerful headlines, descriptions, etc. for keywords.
Customize listing for each keyword.
Place keywords listing in paid and free engines.
Continuously monitor and modify keywords listings.
Make link exchanges.
Write copy for e-zine ads.
Identify paid and free e-zines in which to advertise.
Correspond and insert e-zine ads regularly.
Reply to interested prospects.
Set up multiple autoresponders.
Create appropriate messages for autoresponders.
Run an e-zine or its equivalent in some form regularly.
Create and offer tutorials.
Make special offers.
Always be converting prospects.
Get testimonials.
Use testimonials in your sales letter, e-zine and site.
Handle complaints and returns.
Monitor what works for you.
Calculate costs and your return on investment.
... and the list goes on.
You not only have to do all of these activities, you
have to do them well. For instance, we all know that an
e-zine with a poor copy or a sales letter that doesn't
close properly can be far less effective than the ones
done professionally. Sometimes the difference between a
good job and a poor job could be a conversion difference
of 10% and 0.01%. A thousand times difference in
effectiveness, that is.
Many of the tactics I listed require learning, un-learning
and re-learning, re-doing things already done, and so on.
You may even need to have expertise to do some of the
activities.
Despite these realities, there are many lesser mortals
who half learn things, with half competence, and do to
the best of their abilities. They do make some money,
not enough to justify their entry into online business,
but not ignorable either.
I have an interesting observation to make here.
Apart from the 'all-knowing' gurus, most people who
succeeded online are those who are not net-savvy,
who know how to do very little if any of the above,
to begin with. Whatever they learn, they learned over
time. What they do to succeed is to focus on the
business side. They set up workable processes and
outsource all support, promotions and services. They
just mind their business.
In fact, I always felt, they succeeded because they knew
little to nothing about online marketing. They could
focus on the only thing they knew (or ought to have
known), that is, about the business and the processes
they need to establish to make their business tick.
Till the process gets routinized and automated, the
effort involved is quite large. Revenue flows only in
small trickles. You don't yet know if you are on your
way to reaching critical mass.
For the uninitiated, which really most people are, this
experience could be frustrating. But, for the ones who
know that these are processes to be gone through
before revenues start flowing in, it is the gestation
period.
The ones who have not developed any such processes and
yet made some money, as far as I know, have made only
small income online. The ones who have succeeded are
the ones who have established solid processes, and
ensured each arm of their process is working very well.
Most often, these gurus also appoint the uninitiated
apprentices as their affiliates. They don't make much
money from these apprentices (nor do these apprentices
make any), but the gurus get free publicity and reach
many, with little expense to themselves, as the
affiliates do the promotion and selling. Does it matter
to the gurus if these apprentices don't end up selling,
as they don't have to be paid anyway till they really
sell?
The long and short: If you want to develop your own
online business, to a respectable size, first identify
a very good product worth selling online. Preferably
have a long term commitment to the product. It could
be your own product, or you may have taken long term
dealership for it with your long term interests
protected, or something like that. Understand it
inside out. Then focus on developing just the
processes.
Outsource all possible services, at least to start
with. Don't try to do it all by yourself. It won't
happen that way easily.
Your next step is to learn a communication strategy
for selling large numbers of low value items. This
subject is what we'll discuss up in my next article.
###
Ganesan is the CEO of eZynes, India (http://www.ezynes.com ).
eZynes' comprehensive services in the area of e-zines
includes Content Development, Advertising & Marketing,
and managing client e-zines. mailto:enquiry@ezynes.com .
=============
4.
~/~ SOHO HELP DESK ~\~
http://www.demc.com
"Affiliate Marketing Tip"
Today's SOHO Help Desk is a tip from our affiliate marketing
specialist, Codrut Turcanu. Codrut shares a new tactic he has
tested that is increasing his affiliate commissions.
If you have any questions, feedback or insight for our
next issue just send your email to - mailto:helpdesk@demc2.com
=== Affiliate Marketing Tip ===
"Boost Your Affiliate Sales With a Profitable Domain"
By: Codrut Turcanu
When it comes to making money with associate/reseller
programs your job is to get quality traffic to the site(s).
One of the best ways to get traffic is through search
engines.
However, to be effective with the search engines you'll
need to have your own domain registered and hosted.
Thinking up and registering brand new domains for each
affiliate program with which you're involved is a good
long term strategy. However, if you want an immediate
and fast traffic boost from setting up your own domain,
I recommend looking for expired or deleted domain names.
Here are a couple of sources to assist you in finding
expired domains:
http://www.domainsbot.com
http://bm.BizMarketingSecrets.com
When looking for an expired domain, look for short and/or
easy to remember, catchy names. You also should consider
names that relate to the affiliate program you're promoting.
Once you've found a number of domains that look promising
visit: http://alexa.com to learn more about each particular
domain.
At Alexa.com you can find out how popular a domain is,
how many links it has back to it and how much traffic
it has received since it expired.
Once you've found a good domain for your program, that
already has traffic, register the domain. Then set-up the
domain with a host who will redirect the traffic to your
affiliate link.
Using this strategy you can hunt for a multitude of high
traffic domain names that are geared to your audience base.
Register and redirect those domains to the affiliate program
you're promoting. It's a great source of instant profitable
traffic!
Most affiliates don't make money because they fail to put
time and effort into their affiliate business. Take your
affiliate promotion seriously and acquire at least one
expired, busy domain name for your business. You'll be
pleased with the results!
Codrut Turcanu
http://www.BizMarketingSecrets.com
To keep up with the latest Internet Profit Tactics
Subscribe Free to my Monthly Newsletter.
===
Please keep sending in your feedback. The help and
resources we've been able to share has been terrific.
Send in your questions, answers and thoughts by
emailing: helpdesk@demc2.com
Be sure to include your SIG and contact URL with your
post as we'll be sharing any viable ideas/information in
an upcoming issue of DEMC E-Magazine.
=============
5.
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