Probably you’ve heard about all the money that can be made on the Internet. Maybe you’ve tried Internet Marketing and been unsuccessful. I very much doubt that anyone reading this has been successful because most of the talk about how you can make your fortune on the Internet is hype to take your money.
What you want and need is a way of bringing in large volumes of visitors to your site, most of whom are interested in buying your chosen product.
The following are the most common methods offered to the aspiring entrepreneur and none of them work. We thought it best to share them with you first of all.
What Doesn't Work?
Mass Mailing Programs: These are programs which you load into your computer and which then enable you to mail thousands of addresses per night with a sales letter. They do not work because you cannot ordinarily obtain good addresses. You have to buy the program to learn this of course.
Mass Mail (Spam) Lists: These are sold cheaply by the million for use with the programs above. People do not realise that not only are the addresses random rather than targeted-by-interest but they are all mailed thousands of times by everyone who purchases either the Mass Mailing Program or lists. Expect one per ten thousand with a good letter and appealing, cheap product. And your ISP will shut down your Web Site.
Opt-In Lists: These rented mailing lists are much more expensive and hardly any better than those above. The names on the lists have allowed incoming mail in a certain subject in return for some other benefit. This does not mean they are interested in buying anything and they usually get 500 offers per day. You never see the names but have to trust the list owner that the names exist and are mailed. You have no recourse following a negative result. And a negative result is what you will get.
Banner Advertising: For a set (and hefty) fee your advertisement appears a certain number of times on the screen of a number of computer users. (Allegedly) The ad can be slightly targeted but, again, there is no reason to suppose the viewer wants to buy anything. Banner ads do not give a cost effective return for anyone other than the person who sells the banner space.
Affiliate Programs: These are where you recruit and set up people to sell your product for you on the Internet. The system has part of an idea which works and which we will examine elsewhere, affiliates in principle are a very good thing, but normally it involves other people trying, hopelessly, to do what you cannot - find clients on the Internet. You end up with a large recruiting bill and lots of affiliates doing nothing. (Unless you know how to sell on the Internet and can tell your affiliates. See below.)
News Groups: There are tens of thousands of news groups on the Internet where people meet to exchange ideas on all manner of subjects. Some are concerned with marketing. If you post an advertisement on a news group which is not related to your business the members get really cross and do not buy - they shut you down. If you post to a group which accepts marketing your ad is buried under thousands of other ads which people post and no one ever reads. Expect zero results.
So What Does Work?
Targeted Emailing: This is similar to direct mail by post with one vital exception - The % take-up rate is lower. Delivery is cheap but the rental lists are still quite expensive. Rental prices are coming down and there are now some "fair" lists around.
This will improve as the Internet gains acceptance amongst the population and people become more used to buying directly from an email approach. The advantages are that return on investment is already much higher than snail-mail and it is much quicker and more amenable to automation.
Internet Two-Step Is Currently By Far The Best Way To Sell Effectively Using The Internet.
This is how it is done: You have to use a web page as a sales brochure and run it like "Two-Step" in a conventional mail order business. We call this - strangely enough - "Internet Two Step". Using this secret, known only to a few marketing professionals, is how you can make your own fortune and keep the money rolling in for the rest of your life.
What Is Conventional "Two Step"?
In conventional mail order there are two ways to sell a product: Either "Off the page" or "Two Step". Off The Page involves a large and expensive advertisement in a magazine or newspaper. It includes the order form and asks for payment with order after "selling" the product. The disadvantage is the size of ad-space, and therefore expense, required to explain and sell a product. The advantage is that with low cost products, say under $200, it "pulls" well and avoids the immense amount of administration and expense necessary to handle many thousands of enquiries.
Two Step is where a much smaller, cheaper ad is used to attract the potential client’s interest and he is asked to telephone for free details. The disadvantage is that there is a great deal of expense and administration involved in collecting names and sending out a sales brochure to each enquirer. The advantage is that the ad is much cheaper. With conventional media it’s a case of "Horses for courses."
How Does "Internet Two Step" Work?
First you set up a web page as your "sales brochure". The Internet is extremely well suited to this use with full color display and also sound and movies available. An Internet web site can be immeasurably more appealing and effective as a sales tool than can a printed brochure. Your potential market for the right product is the entire civilised world and you can offer your web page in translation to reach everyone.
You doubtlessly know it is possible to collect money over the Internet by credit card. Be aware that many people still prefer to send cash or cheque so you might offer this facility with a "print out" order form if your product is appropriate. The hurdle which stops most businesses is that, having put up their Web Site Brochure, they then try to use the Internet to drive clients to their site: This is difficult to do cost effectively as you have seen above so do not try.
Instead, run the same type of ad in conventional media that you would use to attract enquiries for "Two Step" but ask the reader to visit your Web Site instead. A huge number will if your ad is right. You gain the same advantage of a far lower advertising spend and combine it with zero brochure production and distribution costs.
You also obtain a much higher conversion rate on enquiries because a well designed site sells the product better than a brochure ever could. Once your site is set up you just have to get an advertisement in front of your target audience and the orders will flow in as fast as you can process them. And orders can be processed automatically with the right product and set-up.
A few (pounds or dollars) invested in advertising can bring in tens of thousands of (pounds or dollars) worth of orders.
Internet Two Step is the future of mass marketing and you are among the first entrepreneurs to learn of it. Use it well and make your fortune.
The beauty of the Internet combined with the power of computers is that just about everything can be automated.
Running a shop you have to be there or get a headache employing staff.
Running a direct snail-mail program you spend all your time chasing mailing houses and fretting over delivery and responses. There is also masses of work to handle a successful response - orders to process, cheques to bank and orders to ship. There is more work than an outsider would credit.
Selling from a web site, however, is a different animal entirely.
Yes, you do have to get the site set up in the first place and complete the following once-and-for-all tasks:
- Choose the right product
- Design your Web Site
- Arrange to accept payment by credit card
- Arrange for the automatic despatch of the information-based product
- Publish your site
- Place your advertising and recruit your affiliates
When this list is completed you have little else to do because the advertisements or affiliates bring the visitors to your site. The site sells and ships your product automatically. You can check your bank account over the Internet from any beach in the world. You can even re-book advertising from your deck chair.
Do you know a better way to make money?
No comments:
Post a Comment