Free Internet Marketing Newsletter

Free Internet Marketing Newsletter Analyzes Latest Ad Spend Numbers

2009-10-12T06:52:00.000-07:00

Is the ad downturn coming to a close?

US online ad spending revenues were down 5.3% year over year, to $10.9 billion in the first half of 2009, according to figures from the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).

David Hallerman, eMarketer senior analyst, expects Internet ad spending to continue falling during the second half of the year, but believes the ad market is bottoming out. “While our preliminary estimates point to another decline in the year’s second half, expect that to be less than the first half’s 5.3% drop,” he said.

Indications are that the economy is starting to move forward, with recent upticks in consumer spending. But it may take months before unemployment drops, and turning the corner will be a slow process.

It was no surprise that spending—even on the Internet—had been soft.

What was a surprise: Banner ad spending was down only slightly, dropping by just 1%. While The Nielsen Company also reported a similar first-half decline for display spending, that firm includes only CPM-based advertising in its research—and therefore is missing part of the banner ad market. In contrast, the IAB/PwC data shows that only 38% of online advertising was sold through the CPM pricing model in the year’s first half, as compared with 58% sold on a performance basis.

“Steady spending for banner ads—along with the rise of performance-based ad sales—suggests that ad networks are becoming increasingly important for both advertisers and publishers,” noted Mr. Hallerman.

“For advertisers, the relatively lower costs of banners bought through networks has continued to attract significant budget shares,” he continued. “For publishers, the competition for ad dollars has only accelerated, with more and more pages and visitors across the Internet. Ad networks are becoming essential for selling a higher percentage of their available inventory.”

On the positive growth side, search spending was up to reach 47% of the total online spend. And online video ad spending, though still small in absolute terms, was up 38%

The Future of Social Shopping

2009-10-06T09:41:00.000-07:00

Paul Dunay

Global Managing Dir. of Services, Social Marketing
Avaya

Paul Dunay is global managing director of services and social marketing at Avaya and author of “Facebook Marketing for Dummies.” He talks to eMarketer about the future of social commerce as it shapes up on brand Websites, Facebook and Twitter.

FIMN: How do you define social commerce?

Paul Dunay: Social commerce is working with or using your social graph, which is defined as your followers or your friends, and allowing them to help you make buying decisions.

FIMN: What role does Twitter play in social commerce?

Mr. Dunay: Social commerce can be anything from a buying suggestion or recommendation—perhaps a tweet from a Dell outlet saying, “Hey, we have a special on this”—to something like Facebook Connect.

Facebook Connect would allow you to go to a Website like Dell.com and authenticate yourself using your Facebook profile, allow your identity to be known and access your friends so you could spark up a chat. So I could say, “Hey, Jeff, I’m looking at this new fancy laptop or this netbook. I heard you bought something. Would you recommend this to me?”

“You could almost take your friends shopping with you.”

So you could almost take your friends shopping with you. That is the potential with this example.

We’re in a period now where we’re all starting to get comfortable with Twitter and get comfortable with using Facebook and LinkedIn and a lot of these other tools, and now we’re about to expand.

In the next 12 to 24 months, you’re going to see things that you’ve never seen before and uses of the Facebook platform that you’ve never seen before.

I call these new social commerce events life-changers. No. 1 is the combination of search and your social graph—social search.

FIMN: What is another life-changer?

Mr. Dunay: Another potential life-changer is what I like to call “Amazon going social.” When I look at my book on Amazon, I see it says, “Customers who bought this also bought...” It’s not exactly personal, because I could be at my wife’s computer seeing books she bought. Now, how personal is that?

“Amazon could easily turn on a Facebook Connect where they would allow you to import content from your social graph.”

But Amazon could easily turn on a Facebook Connect where they would allow you to import content from your social graph to say, “Your friends who also bought this bought some other item.” And that would carry a lot more weight with me.

The full version of this interview is available here, to Free internet marketing newsletter Total Access subscribers only. Every day they have access to new interviews with digital marketing leaders and trendsetting entrepreneurs.

Pros and Cons of Online Ad Networks

2009-10-06T08:58:00.000-07:00

Convenience and reach come at a price

Ad networks hold wide appeal for both publishers and advertisers. On the content provider side, they offer an easy way to sell a large amount of inventory—even if the revenue per impression is typically less than with direct sales.

On the advertiser side, according to a worldwide study by Econsultancy and the Rubicon Project, the main benefits of using ad networks are increased reach, flexible payment models and lower costs.

There are also challenges, however, associated with giving up full control over ad placements. Nearly two-thirds of respondents (65%) said they worried about their ads appearing next to inappropriate content. Almost as many (62%) complained of discrepancies between their own data and that from networks.

Still, the benefits of reach, flexibility, cost and targeting cannot be ignored. Respondents told Econsultancy that 30.61% of their display ad budgets were spent via ad networks, and 31.91% of media plans included networks.

What’s more, about one-half of marketers said they were working with a greater number of ad networks than a year ago, with 37% holding steady. And many expected to be working with ad networks even more next year. Relatively few had cut back on work with ad networks, or planned decreases for the future.

Savvy advertisers will keep in mind the trade-offs associated with network buys.

“ Ad networks might be more effective for filling in holes in an online campaign than for the main efforts,” said David Hallerman, senior analyst at our Free Internet Marketing Newsletter. “The lack of control over placement can reduce ad effectiveness, even if the content is not inappropriate.

“In that light, you get what you pay for,” Mr. Hallerman continued. “Lower costs need to be balanced off against the sometimes-reduced ad impact.”

Social Network Users Depend on Their Networks

2009-10-06T08:45:00.000-07:00

Social Site Users Depend on Their Networks

A trusted resource

Social networking is one of the most important activities—online and offline—among US social network users, based on results of Beresford Research’s “Use of Online Social Networks” white paper.

Among online activities, only e-mail was more popular than social networking. Chatting and even Web browsing ranked lower than social networking sites.

When asked to compare online social networking with several offline activities, social network users only found going out with friends more important. That put social networking ahead of real-life activities such as playing games, reading, watching TV and playing sports.

Beresford reported that posting photos was the top social networking activity, with 81% of respondents taking part, followed by responding to the posts of others and posting their own thoughts or activities. One-quarter linked to a company, product or service on a social network, and, notably, 38% reported clicking
on paid advertisements.

Users put great trust in their social networks. One-half of Beresford respondents said they considered information shared on their networks when making a decision—and the proportion was higher among users ages 18 to 24, at 65%.

“This is a particularly important finding,” according to the report, “in that it suggests that these younger users have integrated social networks into their lives to such an extent that it has become a trusted resource for their decision making.”

While the results refer to decision-making in general, not just purchase decisions, they suggest a much greater reliance on social networks than earlier surveys. A March 2009 study by Knowledge Networks, for example, found that between 10% and 24% of US social media users turned to social networks when making purchase decisions about various categories of products and services. Less than 5% said they “always” did so.

Online’s Slice of Ad Online Spending Grows Worldwide

2009-09-30T08:41:00.000-07:00

Web ad growth to reach double figures in 2010

Online Ad spending GroupM forecasts put the online spending about 17% of total ad spending in 2010, compared to 15.4% this year and 13,9% in 2008.

"Interaction 2009" report predicts 4% growth in U.S. online ad spending in 2009, to $ 22.77 billion. Growth will come at 7% next year. Worldwide, online spending is projected to increase 9% in 2009, returning to double-digit growth in 2010.

The growth of online spending worldwide to $ 58.17 billion this year will mean online is 13,2% of the total advertising budget. GroupM predicts that the proportion will increase to 14,6% in 2010.

According to the report, the increase in the cost of search and mobile, along with a reduction in traditional media, fed by success on the Internet. GroupM found online spending has surpassed all other media channels in an economic downturn. Video, which the research firm said was the subsequent social media as "new digital Darling", is also the driving force of online spending in the United States.

"Search is a critical component of paid media, but the turning point was reached," said Rob Norman, CEO GroupM interaction. "For several years the focus was almost entirely on the rapid growth of Google and the effects of market-based auction for the advertising industry. But now the shift is now to return the world" intention "marketing" of paid search, to allocate investment and the return of more fully in several disciplines. "

Mr. Norman said the combination of paid and organic search, as well as mobile and social marketing media, will "fulfill the promise of the original search engine."

Watch the latest trends in our blog about online spending.

Hopes and Fears of Social Media Marketing

2009-09-30T08:29:00.000-07:00

This is not news to online stores that adoption of social media is on the rise. Three-quarters of U.S. retailers surveyed Web E-tailing group and PowerReviews in August and September of 2009 for "Community and Social Media Study" said that they thought brands accelerate their use of and commitment to, social media.

More than half of surveyed Web retailers have been using five of the 10 communities or tools of social media, and only a tiny percentage are not planning to use in the future. Facebook fan pages are most popular, and then Twitter and customer feedback.

But fears still abound. E-stores still worried about their own competence in the use of social media and lose control over their brand.

Their concern also showed that retailers understand the importance of social media: one of their biggest fears is that customers will abandon their sites in favor of one that was more socially interesting. The use of social media can be scary, but to avoid it becoming less option.

The main purpose of the social media of surveyed retailers is to increase the participation of the client by increasing brand loyalty, and encourage word of mouth among brand advocates.

Responding retailers consider references from customers were the best tool for community interaction management and also better for sales.

"Customer engagement has become the metric to be reckoned with, where there is no deal to consumers through community and social media will have a brand and bottom line impact," said Lauren Freedman, president of E-tailing Group. "All traders should try and understand how to effectively place it on their brand, retain customers, drive sales and to prevent abandonment of competitors who have already embraced the best of its marketing potential." Social Media is big power!

Internet Is Top USA Banking Method

2009-09-28T07:37:00.000-07:00

Mobile has a niche preferences

Internet is now the number 1 Methods of banking, in accordance with the August 2009 survey of consumers in the United States, the American Bankers Association (ABA).

A quarter of respondents preferred online banking through branches, ATMs or any other channel.

Online banking is not only popular among young consumers: it was a response to Top of all those under the age of 55. Previously, the Bank's clients still prefer their local offices (26%) and ATMs (17%), but the popularity of branches and ATMs decreased in all age groups since 2008.

"This tells us that for the first time, more and more consumers prefer the speed and convenience of conducting their banking online than visiting their local branch, said Nessa Feddis, ABA senior counsel and expert retail banking services." It also tells us that Consumers now have the confidence in the accuracy and security of online banking. "

Consumers were much less confident, however, mobile banking, only 1% reported that it is their favorite method.

According to May 2009 data from Cloudmark and Harris Interactive, only 8% of American users of mobile content held mobile banking.

More than seven out of 10 respondents to the survey Cloudmark, which should have been concerned about the safety of mobile said that they avoided the banking or pay bills via mobile because of their fears.

What's in a Retail E-Mail???

2009-09-28T07:33:00.000-07:00

From a social media presence is rapidly becoming mandatory for online stores, e-mail data source and the Goodmail system studied retailers, as was often including Social Media Marketing links in their email campaigns.

The vast majority of the top 100 companies according to Internet Retailer have a profile on Facebook (79%), Twitter (69%) or both (59%). Previously Hyped technologies such as blogs and RSS-feeds were much less popular among the leaders of these online retailers less than one-fifth use.

But many of those that were Facebook or Twitter account does not encourage it. Slightly more than half of social media include links in their email campaigns. In addition, less than 30% mentioned their Facebook and Twitter accounts to their company's Web site clearly.

Internet-shops, which is associated with their social pages of the media in e-mail campaign were somewhat more likely to also contribute to their Web site. Nevertheless, the majority of the Internet Retailer Top 100 sites (63%) did not link to the social presence of the media.

E-retailers, often involve less social, but perhaps more practical function in its email campaigns: Store locators. More than three-quarters of Web retailers that have been studied include the physical presence of the locator tool in their marketing e-mails, compared with 70% in 2008 and 60% in 2007.
Links to social networking sites may be rising quickly—appearing in 20% of marketing e-mails in July 2009, up from just 2% in February—but the majority of leading online retailers have yet to jump on the bandwagon.

Industry Research from IBISWorld

2009-09-28T03:12:00.000-07:00

If you want to find everything you can about an industry, IBISWorld is a great place to start. IBISWorld provides hard-to-find industry data like market size, major players in the industry, market share, geographic spread, keys to success, and more.

IBISWorld covers 700 industries. Here’s a list of the most popular industry profiles that were downloaded here at UB last month (hmm… video games, beer, fast food – that sounds about right!):

Rank Industry:

Video Games in the USA
Casino Hotels in USA
Pharmaceutical & Medicine Manufacturing in the USA
Beer Production in USA
Jewelry Stores in the USA
Furniture Stores in the USA
Computer & Peripheral Manufacturing in the USA
Fast food Restaurants in the USA
Domestic Airlines in the USA
Leather Goods & Luggage Manufacturing in the USA
Cigarette & Tobacco Product Manufacturing in the USA
Car & Automobile Manufacturing in the USA
New Car Dealers in the USA
Chocolate Confectionery Prodiction
Search Engines in the USA
Wine production in the USA
Farm, Lawn & Garden Equipment wholesaling in the USA
Hand Bags, Luggage & Leather Accessories Stores
eCommerce & Online Auctions in the USA
Comemercial Building Construction in the USA

Here’s a sample market share table from the fast food report:

So, go give IBISWorld a try (it’s much quicker and more reliable than Googling!).

Jim Clawson's Blog on Leadership & Career Management

2009-09-28T01:36:00.000-07:00

The financial events of recent weeks - which saw the dissolution of Lehman Brothers, absorption of Merrill Lynch, saving AIG, and related events - were compared with the fall of 1929. By any measure, these events are catastrophic and far-reaching consequences. My concern is that they too are unlikely to be discussed in business school curricula.

The main business schools rather intense curriculum development, which usually include basic courses in finance, marketing, operations, decision analysis, accounting, economics, strategy, management, and, perhaps, ethics and management communications. Coursework in these courses may or may not be agreed upon, but even if they are, of course designers often assign readings and cases that create a huge amount of material on a daily basis. Students learn to say "drink from a fire hose." The volume and severity of these combined tasks, ironically, as a rule, students of the disc from some of the activities that are necessary for their long-term professional success, health and welfare.

One of the victims are often in step with the business media. When students are in class for five hours a day and prepare for classes the next day after midnight, leaving little time for exercise, family, leisure time reading. Ironically, MBA candidates can go to school and because of their curricula, finding little time to keep up with current developments in the business world.

Some argue that the pressure in the curriculum of business schools to prepare students for an intensive schedule of the working world, where they will have to cut the time of their busy working day to read The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times, Business Week, Fortune, The Economist, "Far Eastern Economic Review, and so on. Perhaps. I still find it ironic, in places where we want students to learn as much as they can about the business world, we do what we drive them from their stay current and relevant.

One way to fix this would be included in the compulsory program of core courses in business activities. This class can be held once a week in groups of 30 to 60 years. Assignments can read something from the array of media business, or for reading a single source more carefully. Or they may include some directions from time to time to find out everything you can about any issue or company from all sources, including the Internet. Class time will be devoted to discussing the events of the week and what they mean. Students come to class with a variety of information they will share with each other in such a way as to enrich the understanding of each. Students will gain valuable experience calibrating editorial slants of various publications and are beginning to settle on reliable sources. They will be pressed to sift through volumes of data and provide the current and important. More importantly, they would increase their skills in identifying trends and patterns.

I was in two institutions where such courses were offered and both were rejected as not being strict, is not academic, as well as too personal (as opposed to learning to run the business). The argument goes that in the same way that we are not going to teach a course in Personal Finance, we do not have to teach a course on current events business. Students should, detractors say, do it on your own.

The problem is, they are not, mainly because of the volume and structure of our essential programs.

The student first year said today that his peers in other schools, writing and Texting ask each other about the conversations that were or were not, due to the current financial crisis. Interestingly, the review of this survey will be visible. In one school, students have been lobbying the administration created a discussion forum. If a group of students to lobby at the Department created the group to discuss the big business once in a century, the events must be wrong with our educational programs. Perhaps student clubs will be considered discussion. Maybe some teachers would be on an ad hoc basis on the day of the drop material and discuss the most important events. Again, if our regular training programs do not make a place for contributed, they reasoned, active, participatory discussions on current business activities, how can we say, a graduate of the people who know what they are doing? Master of Business Administration, in my opinion, reading is designed to Keep-Up the habit by the time they graduate and do not develop it in the workplace.

The Web Analytics Headache

2009-09-24T12:46:00.000-07:00

Understanding and integrating data

To prove the success of their campaigns, marketers need analytics. But many report frustration with understanding and using the Web analytics tools necessary to prove their success to management, according to “The Web Analytics War Reader Survey” by Unica.

The biggest challenge for marketers was integrating Web analytics with other marketing solutions, cited by 46% of respondents. Verifying the accuracy of data was a problem for 41% of marketers, while 32% reported trouble with analytics that were not comprehensive and 29% complained of budgets that were too small.

What makes analytics accuracy hard to verify? An inability to drill down into the data bothered 42% of respondents. Marketing attribution issues plagued 32% of those polled, and one-quarter complained of problems with campaign tracking codes.

While difficulty using analytics tools frustrates many marketers, they also recognize the need for more resources and expertise. Fully 72% of respondents to the Unica survey had no full-time worker devoted to analytics.

In January 2009, when Webtrends surveyed marketers worldwide about how to close the gap between data analysis and business action, their top answer was more knowledgeable staff (42%), followed by more training and awareness (23%). Significantly fewer respondents cited more comprehensive data (8%) and better analysis programs (6%).

Women More Cautious About Spending

2009-09-24T12:45:00.000-07:00

Household finances remain a concern

In April 2009, men and women were feeling equally pessimistic about their finances, with 53% of each reporting their financial situation was worse than the previous year.

But by July, men had become more optimistic, while women remained cautious, according to the “2009 Online Buyer Economic Trend Study” conducted by ROI Research for Performics.

More than one-half of female online buyers (55%) said they expected to spend less overall in the next two months, compared with 37% of males. When it came to online purchases, 46% of female respondents said they would spend less, while just 34% of men said the same.

Almost three-quarters of female online buyers (73%) said the recession had “fundamentally changed the way they think about saving and spending money,” according to the report. Their male counterparts were much less likely to feel that way, at 57%.

“Despite some improving economic and market signals on Wall Street, women on Main Street continue to act cautiously,” said Michael Kahn, SVP of marketing at Performics. “Given that women are still the primary purchasers in many households, their views and plans on spending will have a material impact on how quickly and to what degree we rebound from this recession.”

Overall, 53% of respondents to the Performics survey said their household’s financial situation was the same or better than a year before.

The “American Express Spending & Saving Tracker” similarly found in late August that 40% of Internet users planned to spend less in the next 30 days. American Express reported the desire to save money and reduce debt, along with caution among those who have money to spend, were the top reasons for the planned decreases.

Online Ad Spending Slows but Grabs Market Share

2009-09-23T06:00:00.000-07:00

US ad spending expected to recover slowly in 2011 and 2012

Print will lose even more US ad spending share than previously forecast but remain on top, while online is set to grab the second-largest slice of the ad spending pie this year, according to estimates by Myers Publishing.

2009 will be the first year that ad spending online is greater than local and national spot TV, with online expenditures rising from 10.6% of the total in 2008 to 12.2% this year. The rise in market share will occur despite a 0.5% drop in spending forecast for online in 2009, to $24.55 billion.

Myers predicts online’s share will continue to climb, hitting 13.4% in 2011—when it will surpass print to become the top medium—and reaching 13.6% of total ad spending in 2012.

The fastest growth in 2009 is expected to occur in video game advertising, at 12%, followed by mobile (9%). Branded entertainment/product placement and satellite radio advertising will inch upward.

Internet ad spending will start climbing again in 2010, with 0.7% growth, picking up the pace to see 5.1% and 7.2% gains in 2011 and 2012, respectively.

The picture is much less rosy for total US advertising spending, expected to drop 13.3% this year. Myers’ previous forecast, from May 2009, projected only a 12.1% decrease. The firm pegs next year’s decline at 4.8% (revised upward from a 5.1% drop), with recovery beginning in 2011, at 1.1% growth. US advertising spending is expected to increase by 5.3% in 2012 to nearly $205 billion.

The rebound will be led by strong growth in Internet, TV, satellite radio, mobile and video game ad spending. In the online sector, video/social network spending is projected to post the fastest growth rates, followed by search.

eMarketer projected in April 2009 that total US ad spending would drop 8.2% this year, and that online spending growth would stay positive, rising 4.5%.

Keep up on the latest digital trends. Learn more about an eMarketer Total Access subscription, today.

Check out today’s other article, “Customer Acquisition and Retention Top Priorities.”

Mobile Ad Spending to Gain Momentum

2009-09-23T05:58:00.000-07:00

US ad spending expected to recover slowly in 2011 and 2012

Print will lose even more US ad spending share than previously forecast but remain on top, while online is set to grab the second-largest slice of the ad spending pie this year, according to estimates by Myers Publishing.

2009 will be the first year that ad spending online is greater than local and national spot TV, with online expenditures rising from 10.6% of the total in 2008 to 12.2% this year. The rise in market share will occur despite a 0.5% drop in spending forecast for online in 2009, to $24.55 billion

“As an emerging advertising channel, mobile will continue to see lofty growth rates through 2013,” said Noah Elkin, eMarketer senior analyst and author of the new report, “Mobile Advertising and Marketing: Change Is in the Air.” “Mobile will grow considerably more quickly than online ad spending as a whole, more in line with emerging online formats such as digital video.”

Like many research firms have done in the past year, eMarketer has revised downward its projections for mobile advertising in the US to account for the realities of the global economic downturn. But based on extensive interviews with marketers and agency executives, the overall long-term outlook for mobile remains optimistic.

Estimates for mobile ad spending span a broad range. At the low end, Yankee Group predicts $184 million in 2009 spending, while the Mobile Marketing Association forecasts spending will reach $1.7 billion this year. This disparity reflects the relative immaturity of the channel, particularly for non-messaging-based advertising and marketing formats.

In terms of spending share for various mobile formats, eMarketer foresees a rise for search, from 18% ($57.6 million) of the total in 2008 to 37% ($577.2 million) in 2013. Over the same time period, eMarketer also projects a decline in share for SMS, from 60% of the total ($192 million) to 28% ($436.8 million), while display will grow from 22% ($70.4 million) to 35% ($54.6 million).Of all mobile ad formats, eMarketer believes search will see the steepest growth through 2013, yielding a CAGR of 58.6% between 2008 and 2013.

“Disparate hardware and software platforms, competing app stores, rival search engines and a large, fragmented universe of agencies and service providers make the mobile ecosystem more daunting than the desktop environment,” said Mr. Elkin. “But overcoming this complexity pays dividends.”

Mobile has an additive effect on other advertising and marketing efforts, and can bridge the gap between digital and traditional campaigns. It is also flexible, lending itself to both direct response and brand reinforcement and awareness campaigns.

For answers to these key questions, purchase the “Mobile Advertising and Marketing” report today:
What is the outlook and growth trajectory for mobile advertising and marketing?
What formats are available to marketers, and which show the most promise?
How is the mobile marketing landscape changing?
Where can marketers turn for help?

Total Access subscribers, log in and read the report now.

FCC Chair Leads Charge on Net Neutrality Battlefield!

2009-09-21T14:15:00.000-07:00

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski made clear his stance on Net neutrality Monday, proposing to transform the guidelines that the commission currently operates under into official FCC rules. He also advocated greater traffic management transparency. Net neutrality advocates cheered the chairman's position; Internet and wireless companies say government intervention will slow innovation.
For so-called Net neutrality advocates, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski's Monday morning speech at the Brookings Institution must have reached their ears like sweet music -- legally downloaded music, that is, delivered on a very fast wireless connection.

Genachowski told the Brookings audience that he will begin the process of transforming the agency's current guidelines for managing Internet policy into official FCC rules. Those guidelines include the current principles known as the "four freedoms," as first proposed in 2004 by then-chairman Michael Powell.

"These principles can be summarized as:
Network operators cannot prevent users from accessing the lawful Internet content, applications, and services of their choice, nor can they prohibit users from attaching non-harmful devices to the network," Genachowski said.

Case for Transparency

However, Genachowski is adding two more principles that promise lively debates between neutrality advocates and telecommunications companies when the public comment process begins: non-discrimination and transparency.

"[Service providers] cannot block or degrade lawful traffic over their networks or pick winners by favoring some content or applications over others in the connection to subscribers' homes," Genachowski said. "Nor can they disfavor an Internet service just because it competes with a similar service offered by that broadband provider. The Internet must continue to allow users to decide what content and applications succeed."

As for the issue of transparency, as the chairman sees it: "We cannot afford to rely on happenstance for consumers, businesses and policymakers to learn about changes to the basic functioning of the Internet. Greater transparency will give consumers the confidence of knowing that they're getting the service they've paid for, enable innovators to make their offerings work effectively over the Internet, and allow policymakers to ensure that broadband providers are preserving the Internet as a level playing field."
Adding Wireless to the Net Neutrality Mix

The non-discrimination aspect of the issue relates to the FCC's actions in summer 2008 against Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSK) . The cable service provider slowed down some file-sharing traffic on its networks as a way to manage heavy user volume, only to face sanctions from the FCC. Comcast has sued the agency in a federal appeals court, claiming it had no right to punish the company for how it runs its networks. Although individual agency commissioners like Michael Copps have previously said they believe wireless companies are also subject to Net neutrality principles, consumer advocates say Monday's speech was the first time that a sitting commissioner has tied the rapidly-growing wireless space to the open Web issue.

"In considering the openness of the Internet, it is also important to recognize that our choice of technologies and devices for accessing the Internet continues to expand at a dizzying pace," Genachowski said. "New mobile and satellite broadband networks are getting faster every day, and extraordinary devices like smartphones and wireless data cards are making it easier to stay connected while on the go," he added.

"It's one thing to have Copps and other commissioners say the same principles that apply to wireline access also apply to wireless," Free Press Policy Counsel Chris Riley told the E-Commerce Times. "It's another thing, and a really positive step, for the chairman to say we're developing rules and wireless will be a part of those rules. We think that is a real hallmark for progress."
Widespread Reaction

Free Press is one of several consumer advocacy groups hailing Genachowski's speech and plans for codifying Net neutrality. "The debate over Net neutrality at times has felt like a marathon, but today the finish line is in sight," said Free Press Executive Director Josh Silver. "Chairman Genachowski's speech today shows the FCC intends to follow through on President Obama's pledge to protect the free and open Internet."

Other media statements were also flying to reporters' email in-boxes and trade group Web sites. T-Mobile referred a request for comment from the E-Commece Times to the Cellular and Telecommunications Industry of America (CTIA). A statement on the CTIA Web site from its Vice President for Regulatory Affairs Chris Guttman-McCabe raised concerns about "unintended consequences" of additional Web regulation and the potential for stifling the growth of unique wireless devices and applications.

"Unlike the other platforms that would be subject to the rules, the wireless industry is extremely competitive, extremely innovative, and extremely personal," Guttman-McCabe said. "How do the rules apply to the single-purpose Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) Kindle? How does it apply to Google's (Nasdaq: GOOG) efforts to cache content to provide a better consumer experience? How about the efforts from Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) and Android, BlackBerry and Nokia (NYSE: NOK) , Firefly and others to differentiate the products and services they develop for consumers? Should all product and service offerings be the same?"

"Consumers face incredible barriers switching from one wireless provider to another," answered Riley, bringing up the issues of termination fees and the inability to take phones with them from one carrier to another. "No matter how you look at it, the wireless market is not effectively competitive. CTIA is right that we do not want a complete system that makes all service offerings the same. We want to allow for differentiation, and properly designed Net neutrality rules will do just that."
Pro-Consumer or Anti-Competitive?

The Competitive Enterprise Institute was not impressed with Genachowski's plans, to say the least. Calling Net neutrality "anti-competitive, pro-bureacratic," CEI Vice President for Policy Wayne Crews said that "the so-called 'principle' of regulated non-discrimination is an incoherent abhorrence. It advances the aims of regulators and transitory special interests, not consumers -- sparring behemoths like Google, Apple and AT&T (NYSE: T) can take care of themselves," he added.

"Wireless industry players are disciplined by intense competition," information policy analyst Ryan Radia told the E-Commerce Times. Radia follows the wireless industry for CEI. "Virtually all U.S. consumers can select from four competing national carriers and dozens of regional carriers. Carriers are investing tens of billions of dollars annually to upgrade their networks to offer faster speeds and better coverage. In the next few years, several carriers are set to launch Long-Term Evolution (LTE) networks, also known as '4G,' which promise vastly increased speeds and capacities. Price competition among wireless carriers is also cutthroat, as evidenced most recently by Sprint's (NYSE: S)

Defining Your Business Identity In 6 Steps

2009-09-21T12:29:00.000-07:00

Businesses struggle with one major point which, in reality, is the KEY to their success
whether it is online or offline it makes no difference, the problem is still the same.

The problem is this.
Who are you?

Now this sounds like a simple question, but is it? Do you know who you are as a business? Chances are probably not. Don’t feel bad, I was in the same position as you not too long ago. I knew I had a business because I made money. The question I had is exactly what do I do?

I’m not talking about day to day activities. But really what do I do as a business. This
question caused me to do some soul searching and I had to ask myself some important questions. I asked myself 4 important questions which explained everything to me in about an hour. It was almost like a miracle cure.

Here Are The Six Questions
You Need To Ask Yourself

1. What do you do?
This sure sounds like a simple question but do you really know the answer?
To answer this question you must ask yourself what is the primary focus of your company.

• Are you an information publisher?
• Are you a training company?
• Are you a software company?
• Are you an affiliate marketer?

What is the primary focus of your company? The reason why this is such an important question is because once you find the answer to this question, this is where the majority of your time should be spent. If you find yourself dividing your time among things which are NOT your primary function of your company then quite possibly you haven’t answered this question yet.

2.) What Makes You Different?
Simple enough. No matter what you answered to the first question, there is no doubt you have competitors in your marketplace. What makes you different from your competitors? Essentially what is your Unique Selling Proposition (USP)?
Knowing what you do is one thing, but what differentiates your from your competitors is another.
Once you have the answer to this, then you should be pushing this differentiation in all of your marketing. Let people know why you are different then give them the reason. Shout it out, don’t hide it. This is a primary reason why people should be doing business with you. Let them know it.

3.) Why Should I Care?
This is really an add-on to question #2, but it’s extremely important for you to answer this. Basically, now the customer knows you’re different, now what’s in it for them?
Why is this differentiation significant to make a prospect do business with me?
To answer this gives you a clear path to winning over more customers in record time.

4.) What Would Make Me Buy From You?
What are the reasons a customer should spend their money with you rather than one of
your competitors? With each answer we give, we’re one step closer to defining our place in the market. What I’m doing here is making you think as a customer which is something most business owners rarely do. In reality, this is where your thinking should be 95% of the time. The answer to this question is not a one shot answer. It’s a list. List every reason why a customer should buy from you. I hope you have a huge list, the bigger the better.

5.) What do you better than anyone else?
You have to know your strengths and your weaknesses. Too many people focus on their weaknesses, so much so that they totally ignore their strengths which is of most importance to helping them define themselves. Everyone does something great, something that they are proud. What is it?

6.) Why Is This Important?
Ok, we’re back to thinking like a customer again. Why?
So you pride yourself with this one great strength which you do better than anyone else, but why should your customers care about it. Many people look at what they do best and in reality it’s of no benefit or use to the customer. In other words they’re wasting time on something that really doesn’t matter. They’re kidding themselves into thinking this one thing is of any kind of importance.
In business we are not here to make ourselves feel good. We are here to turn a profit. You can leave your ego at the door. Answer these 6 questions and you’ll definitely be headed in the right direction to define to yourself and to your customers who you are.

Explode Your Sales With Other People’s Traffic.

2009-09-21T10:05:00.000-07:00

Ask virtually any website owner to name their #1 problem and invariably it comes back to one word – “Traffic!” How do you get more traffic to your website without breaking the bank? Well, the most immediate source for website traffic is actually quite simple and it’s called “OPT” - Other People’s Traffic.

Other people have the targeted website visitors you need right now – you just need to
persuade them to funnel some of it your way. Your mission is to find people who can refer you their traffic either for a flat fee, as a trade for services, for a commission, or on a pay-per click basis.

The quickest way to find people to refer traffic is to take inventory of who you know (and who they know) that runs a site getting the targeted traffic you need. Once you exhaust that list, go to the search engines and search using the keyword phrases that would bring the ideal prospects to your site. Make a list of the websites that rank well in those searches and approach them about a traffic deal.

Try to work all your agreements on a per-sale basis first so you won’t have to pay any cash up front. They get paid only after a sale is made and you have the money in your hand. If they don’t want to work a deal on commission, then you should negotiate a pay-per-click deal. This means you only pay when a visitor comes to your site. However, make sure you closely track the visitors coming from the site so you can spot any funny business (click fraud) where the owner might try to inflate the actual click through numbers to increase their commissions.

You have 4 choices for funneling another site’s traffic to yours: endorsed mailings, hover ads, text links, and banners. Endorsed mailings are the best way to funnel
traffic from another site. A well-written endorsement letter by a list owner or publisher
with a good relationship with subscribers who can buy from you is worth its weight in gold. An effective endorsed mailing can result in traffic, sales, and money in your pocket within minutes of sending it. “Hover Ads” represent the next fastest way to funnel traffic to your site. When used incorrectly, hover ads create an annoying distraction for web surfers. Make sure your hover ads are relevant to exactly what visitors want by providing focused content (and only showing up once per session).

The next way to funnel traffic from other sites is trading or buying “Text Links” – which simply means you get someone else to link to your site from their site either by paying them or linking back to them from your site. TIP: Make sure you negotiate a high profile spot for your link on the other person’s site so you get maximum opportunity for people to click through to you.

Banner ads are making a surge in the marketplace as a viable traffic source. Don’t expect nearly the same click-through rate on a banner as for a text ad However, banners can result in traffic if you only buy them on a per click basis or negotiate a very low cost per thousand impressions ($5-10 to start). When negotiating with other websites to steer some or all of their traffic your way, make sure you create win-win scenarios that make them want to work with you.

Online Audio A Little History.

2009-09-21T10:04:00.000-07:00

My name is Mike Stewart and my passion is helping marketers use audio and video to improve their businesses online and make more money.

I have been online for over 10 years, but in professional audio and video production for
over 30 years. I have been branding myself for years now as the Internet Audio & Video Guy pulling from those 30 years of advertising and corporate communication production
experience, I made a commitment to learn how to bridge professional quality production skills with internet marketing to create improvements in the performance money making websites. It was obvious to, me in 1995; the internet was the new technology of broadcast. This was the night I got it. I saw Bill Gates on a David Letterman episode talking about the then, brand new internet.

LETTERMAN: I can remember a couple of months ago there was like a big break-through announcement that on the Internet or on some computer deal they were going to broadcast a baseball game, you could listen to a baseball game on your computer, and I just thought to myself, does radio ring a bell? You know what I mean?

GATES: There is a difference.

LETTERMAN: There is a difference?

GATES: It's not a huge difference.

LETTERMAN: What is the difference?

GATES: You can listen to the baseball game whenever you want to.

LETTERMAN: Right. Oh, I see. So it is stored in one of your memory deals?

GATES: Exactly.

LETTERMAN: And then you can come back a year later and –

GATES: That's the ram thing you talked about earlier.

LETTERMAN: Yeah, yeah. Do tape recorders ring a bell?

You see, Dave was like everyone else in broadcast world as he did not get the big
picture of how the internet was going to be the future of broadcast of audio, and obviously video to follow as it did a just few years later.
He was making fun of Bill’s vision. But when Bill said there is not a huge difference between radio and the internet, I heard him say in my mind, the internet is the new radio and TV. It was at that point, I wanted to learn how the internet could broadcast audio and video. I wanted to know what tools made broadcast quality content. I have lived to see the internet is radio and TV that anybody can learn to create and benefit their businesses, lives and pocketbooks. All the marketing strategies that worked in years of advertising on radio and TV do work online. With testing done over the last
few years, myself and other marketers have discovered powerful tactics that combined with direct response marketing, audio and video messages crafted correctly can get increased responses in cases up to 300% better than without audio or video.

In 1995, I had a 486 Acer computer and a 56K dial-up modem. But I after the Bill Gates
interview, I noticed it was not a computer monitor, but a TV set. It had speakers for
sound. Why were people not using the audio visual power of this device to communicate, teach and sell?

Because not many people at that time thought of that old computer and slow connection as broadcast. It was primitive and unusable for marketing they thought. In fact, most people put those annoying MIDI files on their web pages, the ones you could not shut off and did absolutely nothing to help the website get a response, except how to do I get away from this page!
They were the people who invented our medium of broadcast, - streaming
media. Rob Glaser worked at Microsoft and broke away in 1995 to form Real Networks.
Real Media was the first way to broadcast real time and recorded audio over the internet, even at dialup connections speeds. It was in August 1995 when Rob broadcast the ballgame between the Seattle Mariners and the New York Yankees that Bill Gates and David Letterman were talking about on his show.
I quickly learned, if you could make recorded digital audio, anyone could have an internet radio station.

This was unbelievable! I knew to have a “real” radio station would have meant you needed millions of dollars of capital for equipment, an FCC license, music licensing and a huge staff requiring salaries, programming issues, and no way to make money instantly unless you could prove tens of thousands of listeners to sell advertising.
But with internet radio, you could have just a few listeners or unlimited, you could broadcast when you felt like it, the content was timeshifted or on-demand, and the cost was owning a computer, a microphone, recording software, internet connection and webhosting account. Your call letters were your .com name! Who could be your advertiser if you got listeners? Duh… YOU, ME!

You see the same model that makes money in radio and TV works on a micro level online. The cost of entry is pennies today; the production tools have never been easier or cheaper. (I paid $25,000 for my first Pro Tools Digital audio editing system in 1993, and SonyAudio Studio does more than it ever did for $79)
The road I saw for people was to get over the fear and intimidation of creating the content. Get the tools, see how easy they are to use and create programming that builds an audience. Those who have taken action, including myself, have seen so many benefits that would have been impossible without streaming media.

I am the David Letterman to my niche. Dave needs 10 million viewers plus to make money or CBS would cancel his show. I am the network, I am the producer and I am the star and advertiser of my shows. I am in control of my broadcast success. It works when I take action. Oh, I forgot to mention, my broadcast area is the world and it is growing bigger every day.

In this column, I plan to cover the tools, software and case studies of how our new
medium of internet broadcast works. I plan to answer your questions about pro-audio and pro-video solutions for the web. Just submityour questions to me and I promise to get those answers in future articles.

Reverse The Flow For Profits.

2009-09-21T08:53:00.000-07:00

Information comes to you in multiple formats. You're listening to teleseminars, replays,
watching webinars, reading email, ebooks and articles. There is rarely a moment when you are not consuming some type of information.
Information coming in is great when you are just starting. All of us have had the experience of getting excited about a new topic – then consuming everything we can get our hands on to learn more about it. It may have been your new puppy, your new car or your new computer. Regardless of the topic, you recognize the symptoms - insatiable curiosity and appetite for information.
The problem with that behavior comes when you don't step out of the learning mode into the action mode. You see the symptoms in every area of interest - someone becomes a Learner - but never seems to take action. Particularly in money-making endeavors like real-estate investing, business opportunities and making money online, this is a self-defeating pattern seen in a lot of frustrated would-be entrepreneurs. So what is the cause of this problem – which someone continues to learn but never earns?
In fact, it seems that the longer they are in a topic, the less action they take. Their information pipeline is full. And until they can clean it out and "reverse the flow" they are
stuck.
Your information pipe is a certain size. When you first start learning a topic, new information is flowing in. But it doesn't fill the pipe, so you still have some information trickling out in the form of action.
But when your actions don't yield the results you want as soon as you like, you go looking for more information. The cycle repeats until your pipeline is so full of incoming information - that there is no space for outgoing information.
The best thing you can do is stop the input! Stop reading emails, stop buying products,
stop reading sales letters, stop listening to new ideas - just until you reverse the flow. You cannot move forward until you have stopped the influx of new information.
Once you have stopped the flow inward, start the outward flow. Write an article. Write a blog post. Post to a forum. Answer a question. Get into the habit of sharing *your* information with others. The information doesn't have to be perfect - it just needs to be outgoing information.
When you begin to practice flowing information out, you will be amazed at the results. You'll get more traffic to your website, generate more leads, and find people who want to do business with you. You'll start to make money.
The key to this process is to step out of your comfort zone. You are comfortable learning and absorbing information because you've been conditioned for years to be a good student. You're in the learning zone. But no one pays you to learn. No one pays you for being a walking encyclopedia of knowledge on a topic. It's only when you begin to share your knowledge that you get the recognition you deserve - and the money along with it.
Clean out your Information Pipeline and watchthe profits flow.

Marketing Starts with Great Customer Service

2009-09-21T08:47:00.000-07:00

It doesn’t matter how great of an Internet Marketer you are. Without customer care, you
have a business that will not survive. I don’t care what your product or service is, your main business function is service excellence — period! It's a strategy that all successful business owners understand and pay careful attention to.
A great company, one that customers always talk about, is characterized by superior customer service. Many businesses offer excellent products and services, but the company that is willing to provide above average client care will be miles ahead of its
competition.
Customer Service has to be the backbone of your marketing plan. Why? It’s a basic
business truth — No Customers, No Business. No Business, No Money!
Customer service is your least expensive, yet most effective piece of the puzzle in your
marketing mix. Customers want to be treated as people. If you truly understand this, then you are halfway to truly understanding the heart of online customer care.
A recent study commissioned by the White House Office of Consumer Affairs shows that 96% of dissatisfied customers do not complain and 90% will never come back. Another scary statistic of that report says that an unhappy customer tells at least nine to ten others. If you tick someone off in the online world, you not only have to worry about them telling a few friends, you now have to worry about them blogging about it or posting comments on other people’s blogs. This can be devastating to your
online business. Here’s the thing, being better than your competition in the customer service arena isn’t that hard. Unfortunately, service excellence seems to be perceived as an afterthought to sales and profit.
We have all been victims of customer service being pushed aside for a higher profit margin. When was the last time you were able to get a real person on the phone to discuss a bill without getting a headache?
I just experienced this with the phone company. Actually, I was trying to enlist more
of their services — I was trying to give them more business. It took me 10 minutes to get to a real person, and it felt like a whole lot longer. Once I got someone, I questioned why it was so hard and was told they had had cutbacks and were short staffed so everyone was getting stuck in voicemail jail. I actually felt sorry for the reps. You could tell they were dealing with many irate customers who were feeling the same way I was. I felt like a number to this company. They were very indifferent to me, and certainly had no respect for my time. It is sad to say, but today this is not the exception, but the rule with many companies.

We are in an unpredictable economy. Many businesses are experiencing declining
budgets, and with those smaller budgets, come less staff and diminished services. So what do many companies do — they cut out customer service.
To me, it just doesn’t make sense. Think about this — most interactions with displeased
customers are not the result of a poor product, but instead, a bad customer service experience. During these downtimes, hanging on to our loyal clients must be a priority, so customer support must be at the forefront of our budgets.
Providing excellent customer service for an online business means that you have to
embrace the traditional principles of great customer service while adopting new practices to fit the online world.
Next month… Bring on the Gripes!

Reading the Mind of Your Market

2009-09-21T08:04:00.000-07:00

When developing a product or service, it must be assumed that you’ve done your homework. At this point, you should have determined what people are searching for, what thoughts they have when they are searching, and the many ways in which they think while searching. But if you think that’s it, you’re dead wrong. Lucky for you, this most important concept is overlooked by most marketers, but we’re going to lay it out for you here. As with any internet-based business or product, you need a strong, competitive edge.
You literally need to be able to read the mind of your market. Believe it or not, that isn’t so hard to do - you just need to understand how to do it. This concept is known as multi-dimensional keyword research. And it will, literally, enable you to predict how people will perform searches in the future.

Preliminary Legwork
Introducing the concept of multi-dimensional research assumes that you’ve done the
preliminary legwork of research associated with your product or service. This would
include:

Standard Keyword Research
A general indication of how many times your generalized keyword (such as weight loss) was searched for.

Vertical Research
A more in-depth look at the types of "end-use" terms used in conjunction with your
generalized keyword (such as weight loss pills, weight loss diets, weight loss surgery, etc.).

Horizontal Research
Horizontal research will expand your generalized term into the variety of alternate terms associated with your general keyword (such as Atkins Diet, low carb diet, losing
weight, weight loss pills, etc.). After performing the above research, you should have an amazing list of search terms. But, in reality, what are these terms telling you? It’s no secret that, when done correctly, the above types of keyword research will produce thousands upon thousands of results. Unfortunately, many marketers stop at this point, and attempt to determine their target market based off of this information. When they do this, they are wasting valuable time and energy targeting consumers who WILLNEVER BUY THEIR PRODUCT.

The Secret to Hitting the Bulls Eye
Here’s where we get into the meat of it. Any successful, savvy marketer will tell you that
while the three methods of research described above are essential, they are merely scratching the surface. Hidden within are the hungry consumers; previously ignored and
uncaptured, these consumers are ready, willing and able to purchase your product or service. The secret is how to find out specifically who they are, and how to reach them.
Believe it or not, it can be summed up in one simple sentence...

You need to think like your market.
We know you’re thinking that isn’t anything new. However, there is an enormous difference in thinking as your target market actually thinks and thinking like you expect
your target market to think. You need to be in the shoes of your consumer, and begin to think as they do. And in this process, you should make lots and lots of lists.
For example, referring back to the weight loss analogy, we could look at the variety of popular diets available (Atkins Diet, Green Tea Diet, South Beach Diet, etc.). We could include the many types of diet pills available (Ally, 72 Hour Slimming Pill, HydroxyCut, etc.). You could build upon this further, with fitness equipment, exercise regimens…the list goes on. When you come at your topic from a wide variety of angles, you will immediate see the endless possibilities. But you may be asking yourself "WHERE do I find all of this information?"

Finding Hidden Resources
As we are all aware, the Internet is an invaluable resource. But to truly locate a plethora of useful information, you need to think outside of the box a bit.
Wikipedia, as an example, has a wonderful compilation of lists. If you were to go to Wikipedia and type in "list of diets", you will notice a nice, long list of popular diet programs. Simply copy, paste and clean up the text, and your multi-dimensional list has
begun. You can continue to build your list by doing a Google search with the terms "list of (your topic)", and continue building your multidimensional research. You want to keep in mind that you need to stick to your main search term, without any "extra" keywords.
Once you have a nice, long list compiled, make sure to remove any apostrophes, extra
characters and the like, and that's it - you have a targeted list from which to delve into your multi-dimensional research. But you aren't done yet...
You will now take these lists, and narrow them even further. By using one of the many, lowcost keyword research tools available on the Internet (just remember, however, they are NOT all created equal!), you will import your new list, and research the terms.
A good keyword research tool will provide you with valuable information, such as how many searches per day are conducted per term, enabling you to determine their relevance and popularity. With your new list, you'll take this one step further. You'll begin combining your terms (again using the example of 'diet plans'), to create even more relevant terms, such as "diet program", "fat burning", "South Beach diet program", etc. This can, however, be a long and laborious task to do manually. Again, there are many inexpensive tools available on the Internet which can save you lots of valuable time, and perform this task for you much quicker and efficiently. Once this list is complete, you will need to return to your keyword research tool, and import your new
terms.

Predicting the Future
The end result, regardless of the method used, should be a core list of the top 500 relevant, highly searched terms relating to your market.
This list should be extremely focused towards your target market, informing you of the top terms that are relevant in the minds of your consumers.
Armed with this multi-dimensional research, you have a powerful method of effectively and profitably reaching your target market, and converting consumers to customers.
To learn more about this powerful and profitable method of targeting customers, please visit our site later for more info.

Discover How One Conversation Can Dramatically Boost Your Sales Overnight

2009-09-21T06:31:00.000-07:00

It’s easy to understand why having an affiliate program can be one of the most exciting aspects of running an online business. Other people eagerly send you tons of traffic,
help build your list and of course make you lotsof sales. The best part is you only pay themwhen a sale is made.The partnership between an affiliate and a product owner can be extremely profitable which is why so many Fortune 500 companies are now doing everything they can to get their affiliate programs up and running. The Gap, Staples, Best Buy, Target and even Wal-Mart all have affiliate programs. So if it’s so profitable, why haven’t more small business owners incorporated an affiliate program into their marketing mix? There are always a multitude of reasons but one of the most common mistakes is thinking that you need to have thousands of affiliates in order to make it worthwhile.
Let me be clear here…

One Single Affiliate Can
Transform Your Business…
Sometimes Overnight

It doesn’t take thousands of affiliates. In fact, it doesn’t even take hundreds of affiliates.
One affiliate, sending a well crafted promotion to a targeted email list can instantly start filling your inbox with “You Made a Sale” notifications.
For example, in Armand Morin’s recent promotion for the Internet Marketing Explained course (that generated over $1 million dollars in collected sales), a whopping 78.35% of the sales came from affiliates. That means if he didn’t have an affiliate program he would have missed out on almost $800,000 of sales.

INSIDER INFO: Even though this campaign had just over 60 affiliates participate, $365,451 came from the top 10 affiliates. To add to that, the top affiliate generated over 6-figures in sales! So to put that in perspective, one relationship was responsible for over $100,000 in sales. Remember, you don’t need thousands of affiliates. Ten, five or even one affiliate can make a significant difference in your business. Here are a couple more examples… When product launch expert Jeff Walker released his Product Launch Formula 2.0, it was anticipated that he would have a very big launch (after all, he is the product launch expert!). However, in a private email interview, he shared some impressive numbers. First, this launch is arguably the second largest product launch in the internet marketing industry (for privacy reasons the specific numbers are kept confidential but it was in the multi-millions).
With that in mind, I asked what percentage of sales came from affiliates. The response was eye opening. He said that over 91% of all new Product Launch Formula 2.0 sales came from affiliates.

Yup… 91%!
Then I asked what percentage came from the top 20 affiliates.
His response: 64%.

So it’s fair to say that over a million dollars of
sales were generated by 20 people. The next example comes not from a product launch per se, but from someone who uses their affiliate program to continuously generate sales on a monthly basis.
His name is Charlie Cook and he sells marketing training and information products to
small business owners. When I asked Charlie about his affiliate
program, he shared that 60-65% of his monthly sales come from affiliates. Then I dug a little further. I asked him how many of his affiliates promote his materials on a regular basis (month after month). His response: 3.
Although he has hundreds of affiliates, three affiliates are generating the lion share of his monthly revenue.
The first lesson is clear…
Start your own affiliate program ASAP. If you don’t, you’re leaving a lot of money on the
table.
The second lesson is that you don’t need thousands or even hundreds of affiliates to
have a successful affiliate program. Remember, Armand generated $365,451 with 10 affiliates, Jeff’s top 20 affiliates did over a million dollars in sales and a mere 3 affiliates contribute to roughly 60-65% of Charlie Cook’s monthly revenue.
So the next time you are looking to do give your business a major boost, remember that
one conversation with a high powered affiliate in your market could immediately transform your business overnight.

Deadly Copywriting Mistakes That Kill Sales!

2009-09-21T06:13:00.000-07:00

Chances are that you are making many, if not all, of these 5 copywriting mistakes. I call them“deadly” because they’re killing your sales and your profits.
Let me make you a bold promise: examine your own sales copy and eliminate these copywriting mistakes, and you will see an instant improvement in your sales.
Let’s get started:

Deadly Mistake #1: Being Focused On You,
Instead Of On Your Market
This is the easiest mistake to make, and themost common. Most ad copy is focused on theadvertiser, not on the consumer. Big mistake.When you read copy that says things like,“We’re the best in the industry… we’ve been inbusiness since 1979… we have the welltrainedassociates… our facility has won manyindustry awards…” what is your reaction?
Most likely, your reaction is, “So what? Whatdoes that mean to me and my life?”If you’re using copy that says “we”, “us”, and“our” a lot find a way to change that copy sothat it says “you”, and “yours”. Speak about thethings that matter to your customer.
Here’s a hint: those things are probably notwhat you think they are. Why not ask yourcustomers? They know the answer, and they’llbe glad to share it with you if you’re wiseenough to listen.

Deadly Mistake #2: Using a Weak, Wimpy,or Just Plain Bad Headline
In the beginning, you only have one chance tograb the reader’s attention. That chance is theheadline. Make sure your headline is strong,aggressive (without being pushy), andcompelling.
Think of your headline as the sales pitch to getthe prospect to read the whole ad it has to becompelling enough that the reader thinks,“Hey, if this is true, I need to know about it…”You get one shot. You can’t afford to blow it.A poor headline for an automotive shop: “OurExperienced Staff Can Tend to Your EveryAutomotive Need, And Are ASE Certified withthe Guaranteed Lowest Prices.”A much better headline for the same client:“Are Hidden Mechanical Problems with YourCar Threatening the Health and Safety of YourFamily? Our 9-Point Safety Inspection CouldSave Their Lives And Give You Peace ofMind…”

Deadly Mistake #3: Not Using Enough Bullets
Bullets break up your copy into short, readablebursts. Especially on the web, people tend toscan copy before they read it; breaking yourbenefits into bullets increases the chancesyour copy will “catch the eye” and thus getread.
To recap the benefits of bullets:They break up copy (just like this) into shortpieces.

 Makes the copy easier to scan.
 Makes it easier to pick out keywords
and phrases.
 Gets more of your copy read.
 Makes you more sales.
 The more the better.

Deadly Mistake #4: Using big words and jargon.
Copy should read like conversation; it should flow naturally and be easy to process.
Using big words and jargon might sound impressive, but it won’t get you sales. Which would you prefer? Use strong, punchy words.Write simply and clearly.Read Strunk & White’s Elements of Style and follow its advice. Avoid jargon.

Deadly Mistake #5: Using Weak, Wimpy, or Just Plain Bad Sub-Heads
You should use subheads every 3-4 paragraphs in your copy.
Make subheads strong and compelling; think of them as headlines for each section of your
copy. If read in sequence, your subheads should sound like an abbreviated version of your sales pitch (which is what they are). Sub-heads done correctly are a way to “stop the eye”, catch the
readers interest, and get him to slow down enough to read that section.
What to Do Now Here’s your “takeaway” from this article: Grab your own current sales copy, this list of copy mistakes, your favorite beverage, and go through your copy line-by-line.
Ferret out these mistakes and eliminate them from your copy.
Do it now, and don’t put it off. You’ll be glad you did. And if writing is “not your thing” hire a
professional. Having great copy is the single most important tool you have at your disposal
to sell your products or services.