July 2002

Print and Go

Here is the entire ezine for you to print and take with you. Simply print this entire web page by using your "File/print" command. All of this month's articles are included and there is plenty of room in the margins for notes

Computer / Automation Technique
Autoresponders Part 3
More techniques

Case Study
Ann Wylie
 

I've been a professional speaker, writer and consultant for seven  years. Even in the first year, I was able to pay myself the equivalent to my previous full-time salary as a magazine editor.  (And you may know what journalists make. Let's just say this is not the profession my parents encouraged me to pursue!) Since then, my income has steadily risen in recent years to a multiple of six or seven times that full-time salary. (And seven times not much is ...)

So when I started subscribing to Great Speaking e-zine, coming to your Butt Camps, investing in your Click e-book, subscribing to http://www.GreatInternetMarketing.com , signing up for http://www.professionalspeaker.com  etc., I wasn't struggling. I was, as always, looking for new ways to ratchet things up a notch.

With the softening economy, my client business, too, has gotten a little softer. The silver lining to that, of course, is that I've had more time to develop my own stuff. Also, I had noticed that my product sales, without my putting much effort into them, have doubled every year. Last year they actually reached a tidy little income. So I wondered what would happen if I actually focused on product sales this year.

In short, I've seen the past six months as an opportunity to implement some of the info-marketing items that had been on my to-do list -- add some fresh products to my catalogue of eight or nine titles, hold a public seminar, test teleseminars, etc.

Here's what I did:
I took Tom's advice and learned how to update my Website myself. That has proved invaluable in terms of flexibility and timing. I've had a popular email newsletter for years, but after talking to Tom, I really put a lot of effort into building the subscription list. I'm humbled to express this as a success to a guy with what?100 million subscribers? but I now have 6,500 or so subscribers/"believers." (Check it out: http://wyliecomm.com/newsletter.shtml )

Product development and sales
This year I have introduced several new products. In May, for example, I introduced a new Web-writing manual in my e-mail newsletter and, without doing anything else, brought in $3,000 in a few weeks. With sales to clients, Back of Room sales, (BOR) etc., I expect to continue to get paid, get paid, get paid -- the Tom Antion formula!

Teleseminar
I also tested teleseminars for the first time this year with a partner (an association I do a lot of work with). The first one-hour program I presented (on "Think Like a Reader," or how to position your message in a press release, brochure, etc.) brought in 62 listeners who paid $99 or $199 each. After we pay the teleseminar company some small amount, the association and I will split the profits. Plus, I got the tape. So the next product: is a tape, workbook and special report package on the topic.

I was nervous about the format, so I had my client "interview" me. (I got tips on how to do it from Rebecca Morgan, who does a great job interviewing people for her SpeakerNet News teleseminars.) I felt comfortable that I wasn't going to have to talk nonstop until the first invitation for questions 30 minutes in. The program was high-energy, the attendees seemed happy, I promoted my Website and email newsletter, and the association is ready to schedule another program.

I'm really enjoying the partnership with this association, and I think I attracted more attendees and generated a higher fee than I would have on my own. I also got more exposure, which has led to inquiries about in-house programs. So for now, that partnership is working for me, and I'm seeking other such partnerships.

Public Seminar
In August, I'll be holding a public seminar. I've done this a couple of times before and ended up netting little more than I would have made presenting the program to a client. That didn't exactly encourage me to make time to produce public seminars again! But after thinking so much about info-marketing, I was excited to see whether I could generate better results using some e-marketing techniques.

This time, I'm holding a two-day program instead of a one-day program, with the idea that as long as I was going to the trouble, I might as well charge more per person.

A more important change: Instead of sending out a traditional four-page brochure, I wrote a 12-page sales letter and posted it on my Website.
(Check it out: http://wyliecomm.com/training/masterclass.shtml .) Then I published a short feature story in my email newsletter with some tips, a summary of the program and a link to the sales letter.

The result: We had money in the bank before we finished pressing "send."

I know, Tom, preaches that your email newsletter subscribers are "your people," the ones who will buy from you, but I was still surprised by the response. We also sent some wonderful, colorful, printed packages to local members of three professional associations I belong to, as well as to our house list of people who have bought products from me -- fewer than 1,000 mailings, I think. But the email newsletter has out-pulled all other marketing efforts combined by two to one.


A few other cheap, easy things I've done to promote the program:

• Placed articles in return for ads and buttons in other e-zines and on other Websites

• E-mailed my list of trade and association publication editors a quick announcement. That's resulted in articles and calendar listings

• E-mailed local communication managers I know personally a little note saying: "Did you hear about my program? I thought some of your staff members might be interested in attending" with a link to the url.

• Made my e-mail signature file a promotion of the event

• E-mailed leaders of some regional chapters of the professional associations I belong to, inviting them to promote my program and offering to pay them $50 for every participant they signed up. I've gotten some very enthusiastic partners that way! I set up Websites for them and e-mailed them coded pdfs of the marketing tools. They're printing the stuff out, mailing it, handing it out at meetings, making announcements, e-mailing their members, running articles in their newsletters, etc., etc., etc. No cost to me, unless I get a registrant. Plus, I'm getting an implied endorsement from the associations.

It's been four weeks since we first started promoting, and the program is still seven weeks away. We've already filled half the seats and have netted three times my per-day fee. I expect to double or triple that before the program is over -- maybe even more once BOR sales are incorporated. My secret fantasy is that the program will sell out, and I'll have to get a bigger room! (I sort of miss my secret fantasies about Leonardo DiCaprio!) And there's also been a side benefit: I've received five or six serious inquiries about bringing the program in-house to clients, and I've already booked one of them.

Note from Tom:
Congratulations Ann. You are a person who takes smart action and you are realizing the powerful results. I'm proud that you are a Butt Camp Graduate!

Ann Wylie
Wylie Communications Inc.
4618 Warwick, Ste. 7A
Kansas City, MO 64112

816/502-7894 (p)
816/502-7681 (f)
awylie@WylieComm.com
http://WylieComm.com/

Wylie Communications Inc.
Training / Writing and Editing / Publication Consulting

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Cool Software and Gadgets

Software

http://www.webmasterfree.com/software/2821.html Like money? Get a happy dollars screensaver for free.

http://getsmarter.webtrends.com/registration.asp?SourceID=n39&r=0
Free PDF ebook and webcast on using statistics on your website. Of course they are trying to sell their Webtrends product, but at least the Ebook is informative.

http://www.openwebscope.com/ Free trial download of a $99.00 statistics program. They have an affiliate program too.

http://www.extremetracking.com Free and paid live statistics

http://www.gotoast.com/ Manage your pay-per-click listings

Gadgets

Note: if links ares too long to work, copy it into your browser.

http://www.technoscout.com/general/product/product.asp?product=
1676&site=80565 Digital Camera, Video Camera and WebCam all in one.

http://cgsd.com/SonyHMDpages/ivisor.html Wear your monitor or TV on your head.

http://www.techtv.com/freshgear/reviews/story/
0,23008,3372332,00.html
Surround sound headphones

http://www.pocketec.net/  Extremely small, high capcity backup / portable hard drives and affordable too.

http://www.garmin.com/products/gps5/ Garmin GPS V portable. Never be lost again :)

http://www.4hiddenspycameras.com/700footwirsp1.html Boom box with hidden wireless video camera.

Copywriting Technique
 Creating Urgency
by Tom Antion

Last issue we talked about creating scarcity. Scarcity is one way to indirectly create "urgency" which is what we are talking about in this issue.

Did you ever hear the term "be back?" That is a term car salespeople use when joking about a person who says they'll "be back." The salesperson knows absolutely if that person leaves they, in fact, WILL NOT be back.

Why do you think they joke about it? It's because anyone who has ever sold anything has heard that phrase hundreds or thousands of times and the number of people who actually did come back is virtually zero.

This is the reason you must create urgency. You must create the excitement or desire needed to make people buy now or you can put a little animated character on your website to wave goodbye to the visitor.

Here are some terms you can add to your copy to create urgency:

• Don't miss out! (This implies the person must act now or they will lose something.)

• Don't miss this opportunity!

• Don't delay, you could lose out on the chance of a lifetime!

• Order now while there's still time!

• Time's running out!

According to Robert Cialdini, PhD, in his book "Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion"

". . . people frequently find themselves doing what they wouldn't particularly care to do simply because the time to do so is shrinking."

(This is a great book that you will hear me referring to frequently. Dr. Cialdini goes on to talk about how we HATE to lose things, hence, the power of the third bullet above and many others like it.)

Purists might think that it's not a good idea to talk somebody into buying something that they didn't really want. Well, purists are usually broke. Another theory is you might get too many returns by writing copy that stimulates buyers to buy when they really didn't want to.

My Response:
1. The must have had some interest or they wouldn't have read your ad copy and if you have a good product they will probably be happy the decided to buy.

2. Most legitimate marketers will tell you that if you DON"T get returns your ad copy is not strong enough.

3. If you have a return policy, honor it and no one should have a legitimate complaint as long as you did not lie in your copy about what the product or service will do.

4. The additional sales generated by using urgency normally far outweigh the returns.

DEADLINES
Most marketers use a deadline of some sort as a way to create urgency. It might be something like

• "Purchase by July 3rd to get this special price" or

• "Respond by July 3rd and get two free bonuses."

The reverse of this would be a penalty for not responding by a certain date. Here's an example:

• "Price will go up to $29.95 after July 3rd."

From the seminar industry that I'm in you see this all the time:

• Earlybird $295.00

• After July 3rd $350

• At the door $395.00

Put urgency in your sales copy and watch your sales soar . . . and do it by July 3rd or this article will disappear hahaha

Email Technique
Smart Email

As my birthday month rolls around again this year I'm starting to rethink the state of email delivery . . . now there's a sick thing to be thinking about when your birthday is coming up hahaha. I better get a life.

For large multinational ezines I still think plain email is best, but there are a number of companies growing in popularity that deliver three different versions of your newsletter.

• HTML

• PLAIN TEXT

• AOL

HTML is email that looks like a web page. It has it's pros and cons. One of the pros is that it looks nicer and more professional. One of the cons is that it either can't be seen by people with older email programs and some people just don't want (or they are not allowed to receive it by company policy) because it's too big and cumbersome.

Another thing about HTML is that it's generally much harder to produce and takes more technical skill on the part of the publisher. To counteract that con HTML email is very trackable. You can even tell almost exactly how many people opened it and when.

PLAIN TEXT email can be read by anyone which is good, it's cheap and easy to produce and distribute, but it doesn't give you the formatting capabilities that make for a really nice publication.

AOL is a different animal altogether and the older versions, which most people are still using, require you to jump through a bunch of hoops if you want the links in your publication to be clickable. (In all but the latest versions of AOL if you put a link in your ezine, the AOL member who is not usually a savvy Internet user, must copy and paste the link into their browser and click "go" which cuts down your overall response tremendously.)

To get around this AOL link problem you would have to put two links in your plain text email. One regular one for people reading the plain text version and another one so that the AOL people will be able to simply click instead of cut and paste as described above.

Here's an example:

Let's say I wanted to put in a link to my "Wake 'em Up Video Professional Speaking System"

In the plain text version of my email I would put http://www.antion.com/speakervideo.htm This link, however, would not be clickable in AOL. So right below the link I would have to put this in my plain text email:

<A HREF=" http://www.antion.com/speakervideo.htm ">AOL Users Click Here</A>

Which would then show up to AOL folks as

AOL Users Click Here

Doing this really junks up the look of your plain text email because the entire raw HTML code  . . .<A HREF= and the rest of it shows up in the plain text email.

SMART EMAIL
Now there are programs that will either reformat your HTML email into plain text or AOL format automatically or allow you to make several different versions that go out at the same time.

Many also give you HTML templates with fill in the blank areas to make your HTML email creation a snap.

Here are some of the ones I'm experimenting with now:

http://www.cooleremail.com

http://www.gotmarketing.com

http://www.constantcontact.com (decent pricing but no double opt in)

http://www.verticalresponse.com

http://www.emaillabs.com

http://www.emailfactory.com (decent pricing and has some viral marketing tools. No phone support.)

http://www.cheetahmail.com

http://www.imakenews.com (very expensive)

http://www.topica.com Inexpensive but lacks, double opt in and welcome letter capabilities. Template Interface is pretty easy. No phone support.

I suggest you try some of these out and please send me your comments. I'll report what you find and I find in a future issue. Send comments to: tom@antion.com

Miscellaneous Stuff You Need to Know

• You need to think CONVERSION, CONVERSION, CONVERSION in everything you do. I've only been seriously working on this for the past six months or so. If I would have known then what I know now there would be even more money in the bank. Conversion means that if you get someone to your site, do they do what you want them to do . . .buy, subscribe, call, or whatever.

• You can usually get a savvy teenager to help you by visiting one of the big computer stores like Microcenter or Comp USA. Go up to any one of the young people working there and tell them you need some part time help. It's almost guaranteed you'll find some takers, but don't be so blatant you get thrown out of the store :)

• I highly recommend you get a copy of the book mentioned in the Copywriting section this month. Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini and read it at least five times over the next year. I can guarantee you will sell more of whatever you're selling if you understand and put the ideas into play.

• You may have to upgrade your CD software if you upgrade to Windows XP. I had to buy Easy CD Creator again even though Windows XP has it's own basic lite CD software by Roxio the same people that make Easy CD Creator.

• If you're having trouble with any of your CD or cassette labeling programs, don't forget you must calibrate your printer. Most programs have you print a test page on a plain piece of paper. You then fold it over and note the numbers you see at the folds of the paper. These numbers are inserted into the software which tells the program exactly where to line things up for your printer.

• When making ebooks in Adobe Acrobat PDF format don't forget to thoroughly set the conversion settings and set the security functions. You want to make sure the links in the document are clickable, in most cases you want the document to open with a split screen clickable index, you have to make a decision whether people can print it or not, copy and paste, change the document or use a password to access.

Product Development Technique
Video Tapes Part III
Packaging and Duplicating

In Part I we talked about the mechanics of video.

In Part II we talked about scripting and laying things out in an orderly fashion to save you lots of money.

In this issue  we'll talk about packaging and duplicating your video product.

There are several ways to package a videotape depending on the number of tapes in the set and also on how fancy you want to get. The quantity you plan on producing also plays a role in the decision of how to package your video information product.

SINGLE VIDEO TAPES

Labeling the tape

If you are producing a single video tape you can make the labels for the actual tape on your own printer or you can get them printed elsewhere.

To print video labels on my own printer I use the Avery Deluxe label program http://www.avery.com and Avery VideoTape labels. A box of labels normally has face labels and spine labels included. You may have to order these if your local Office Depot or Staples doesn't have them in stock. Usually you can get them in a day or so.

I generally use this method when I need a small quantity or even one custom label for a client or speakers bureau.

If you want fancier labels you can usually stop in to your local quick print shop. Most of them have a catalog where they simply take your order, mark up the price 50% and order the labels for you. Plan on a week to ten days unless you pay extra for a "rush" order.

Using this method you can get many different colors of ink and really high quality foil or glossy labels stock. For a high quality info product, I suggest this over trying to do it yourself on your home printer. You don't want your product to look homemade.

Exterior packaging

For single tapes I use a hard plastic case that has a clear plastic pocket. I print out a high quality color cover and then have the cover duplicated on a color copy machine at Kinko's. I have the Kinko's people cut it to the exact size to fit in the pocket. Using this method you can create an extremely good looking package and make them one at a time if you want to. Pay attention to quality because I've seen some pretty lousy looking printed pieces put in the clear plastic cover which negates the quality look you were striving for.

I get my hard plastic covers at http://www.polylinecorp.com . I use white, but they also have black and maybe some other colors too. You'll have to check at the time you read this.

I use Corel draw to make the cover. I'm not very artistic, so I keep things simple. If you get a nice piece of artwork though you can surround it with simple text and still have a dazzling cover. Check out http://www.antion.com/teleseminarkit.htm . Even though this is an audio set, the same idea applies.

Sleeves

For simple packaging you can get white (chincy looking) or colored stock cardboard sleeves very inexpensively. Check out http://www.prolabel.com/Cases.htm to see some. They also have some of the hard plastic cases I mentioned above and softer plastic sleeves.

http://www.avccorp.com/  Click on the tiny link for "Video Sleeve Printing" to see some samples of custom printed sleeves. You normally have to do a pretty big quantity to make this cost effective.

MULTIPLE VIDEO TAPES

The labels on the actual tape itself are made in the same ways described above.

When you have multiple tapes you have to decide if you want them packaged individually and simply shipped together or if you want the exterior package to hold all the tapes. This is the way I do it. Check out http://www.antion.com/speakervideo.htm to see an example.

If you decide on packaging the tapes individually, you simply follow the directions above and name the cover Tape/Vol 1, 2, etc.

If you want to put all the tapes and maybe some additional written material in the package, then you generally use the big vinyl albums pictured at the link above. I get mine at http://www.polylinecorp.com and I get the color inserts from Kinko's.

In the bigger vinyl albums you usually can't print out a color copy big enough on your home office grade printers so you put the file on a disc or email the file to Kinko's for output.

My big covers are copied on a large sheet and then cut down to fit. The cut down area on some of my tapes is so big, I hate to waste it. So, I print on it too and when the paper is cut apart I get a cover and a color coupon out of the same piece of paper.

Other

There are some holders you can get that fit into a three ring binder, but I have never used them. You could use the same method for the outside cover though because you can get three ring binders that come with the clear pocket on the outside.

DUPLICATING

This is NOT something you want to do at home for even small quantities. Sure you can do one or two by hooking two VCRs together when you're in a pinch, but it's time consuming and the quality is generally poor.

Simply look for "Video Duplicating" in your online yellow pages and you will surely find several choices in your area. Try to get the duplicating done as close to your home/office as possible to save on shipping costs because videos are heavy. The place I use delivers them for free right to my door and puts the labels on for me.

PAL

If you are doing business internationally, you probably want to have some PAL versions of your tape(s) on hand. This is the video system used in Europe/Australia and other place around the world. This is a little less important because many new VCRs are able to play both the US system (NTSC) and PAL. The cheapest thing to do is get a PAL master made right at the start and then the duplicates are cheap. You don't want the duplicating house to have to do the actual "conversion" every time you order some PAL because that costs alot more.

Search Engine Tips
Keyword Placement Part III
Graphics

Use Graphic Labels for Keywords

Another place you could put keywords, which many people and web designers don’t know about, is in the alternative description of graphics. This is also called the “alt description” for short. Sometimes you see little descriptions come up when you run your mouse over a graphic. It might say “JPEG 2000 bytes.” You can use that area to enter keywords, which is perfectly acceptable to the search engine. You can take every graphic on your page and instead of it having a worthless “JPEG” label, or something that does not mean much to most people, you can use keywords.

This is a place where you can increase the number of keywords on your page without putting them in the visible text area. If you do this, don’t put your keyword a hundred times in a row. That is spamming and you will be kicked out of many search engines when they catch you.

Naming Graphics with Keywords

Search engines are getting so sophisticated now that you want to take advantage of any little boost you can get to beat the system. You can also name your graphics with keywords. Instead of making the file name of a photo “joe.gif” you would name it “presentation_skills.gif” or public_speaking.jpg. Anything you can do to boost yourself without spamming is a good idea.

Here's an example of what the HTML might look like if we named my headshot graphic presentation_skills.jpg and added the keyword phrase "presentation skills" to the alt description.

<img border="0" src="presentation_skills.JPG" alt="presentation skills Tom Antion" width="144" height="192"></p>
<p align="left">

src= means the source of the photo or to boil it down, the name of the photo is presentation_skills.jpg

alt= is the alternative description. I used "presentation skills Tom Antion"

I put the Tom Antion in there in case the search engines start hassling people in the future about the descriptions not matching the photo. That way I don't have to go back and change it.

As you look at my various sites you may see graphics that don't take advantage of the alt description and name of the graphic. This means one of two things. 1. I didn't care about search positioning on that page very much or 2. I had enough keywords on the page and I didn't want to overdo it.

If you are using Microsoft front page, you don't have to know any HTML stuff. Simply change the name of the photo in your folder list and then right click on the photo. Choose "picture properties" then choose the "general" tab, then look for the alt or alternative description text. Put your keywords there, click OK and you've added the words.

Go over your entire website and see where you can add keywords to your graphics.

Traffic Generation Technique
 Top 100

Nothing is stopping you from putting a top 100 sites in your industry or niche on your website. There are no government rules or regulations that I know of about this.

The way it works is that you announce your top 100 area to your industry and website owners list their site and link to you. The websites all vying to stay in the top100 must link to you and drive voters to your site where they can see how the results are stacking up in real time. The benefit to them is that other people see their site and click back to it. It's a good deal for everyone.

At the very least you'll get lots of traffic to that page where you can advertise your own wares or sell advertising space.

This idea has tons of potential and could likely drive more traffic in a day than your site has had in six months.

Also by requiring a link back to your site your link popularity which is important to many search engines should skyrocket.

Here's a script that does the counting for you: http://www.jmbsoft.com/software/arp/ This is not a do-it-yourself project unless you really know what you are doing.

TRENDS

• Speed is king. A recent Finnish/US study (Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab / Makovsky & Company) said the most important things when it comes to credibility of a website was 1. Speed of response for customer service, 2. Comprehensive information attributed to a Specific source 3. Lists the author's credentials.

• NFO Worldgroup says that overall consumer confidence is sliding, but ACNielsen and Yahoo report that consumer confidence in the Internet is growing.

• The Pew Internet & American Life Project reports that in June 2002 21% of American Internet users have broadband capability.  . . .This doesn't mean you should start loading your website up with graphics and other slow loading elements.

• According to Steve Butler writer for Emarketer website development initiatives have remained at the top of many companies' list of e-business priorities in 2002, as businesses large and small continue to see the internet as an important commercial channel. . . . .Are you investing time and money in your website development or do you not yet see the writing on the wall?

• More and more people are making their living on Ebay and other auction sites.

• The Consumer Electronics Association found that in 2002 22% of consumers are shopping online from work. This is up from 12% in 1999.

• The average price according to ARS Inc for cable rose to $44.95 per month and $51.82 for ADSL. (note: ADSL stands for "asynchronous DSL. That means your upload speed is not as fast as your download speed.

Useful Websites  

http://www.professionalspeaker.com The new ProfessionalSpeaker.com will be rolling out late in the first week of July. This is a joint venture between the original creators Jim Cathcart and Bill Brooks and yours truly. We'll have Streaming video, streaming audio and tons of downloadable reports and transcripts.

http://www.wedding-toasts.org Is an example of a one page website that was profitable from day one. I'll be giving figures on it and the method I used to identify the topic and create the site after it's been up at least a month.

P.S. I used both of the programs listed below to create the sites for almost nothing.

http://www.GreatInternetMarketing.com/forums Don't forget you have a free Internet marketing forum to supplement your paid information. Make use of it.

http://www.internetauctionlist.com/ Find specialty auction sites where you can sell your products.

http://www.online-auctions.net/ Roughly the same as the above link.

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