June 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

Website Technique
Exit Pop Ups

Exit pop ups are great tools to help you convert more visitors into buying customers or subscribers and they are considered less intrusive than entry pop ups.

An exit pop up in its most basic form simply pops up when someone leaves a webpage. They are used to try to get ezine subscribers, sell additional products, test headlines, offer specials and a variety of other things.

Cookie based exit pop ups are even less intrusive because they can be set to recognize the visitor and not show at all if the visitor has already seen the pop up that day/week/month, etc.

This article is going to concentrate on a specialized use of an exit pop up that I'm currently using in two places.

I DON'T WANT THE POP UP TO POP UP

One of the specialized exit pop ups I'm using can be found at http://www.antion.com/click.htm which is the sales page for Click: The Ultimate Guide to Electronic Marketing for Speakers. You don't see the pop up when you visit the page. You ONLY see it if you LEAVE the page without clicking on the order button. So, I really don't want you to see the pop up because that meant that you were leaving without buying my ebook.

When you do see the pop up it offers you free samples and the Table of Contents. Another crazy thing I'm going to try is to put a "You Pick the Price Deal." The pop up would say something like, "Tom has lost his mind! He's going to let you pick your own price." I'll have links to pricing maybe at $87.00, $77.00 and $67.00. Even if one person picks $67.00, I'm $67.00 richer than I was before. It's a digital product so I don't have any printing or delivery costs. AND the money is coming from someone who had already decided NOT to purchase.

Another way I'm using the same exit pop up is to offer a finance option to those people who already have decided NOT to purchase my Wake 'em Up Video Professional Speaking System.

Check this out. Visit http://www.antion.com/speakervideo.htm and then leave the page. You should get the exit pop up that has a three payment option. Again, the person had already decided NOT to order and for many people the offer to finance could be just the thing they need to get them to change their mind and decide to purchase. It certainly made me a happy cybercamper when I got my first "three pay" sale after only 17 people had seen the pop up.

Here is a link to a course by Jonathan Mizel that teaches you many other advanced ways to use pop ups and also gives you the coding to paste into your website to make it happen for you.

http://www.amazingpopups.com/power

Traffic Generation Technique
Trafficology

Now that I've got lots of good websites in place that are catching Internet traffic, I'm starting to put more effort into tracking the effectiveness of things that I do.

For instance, when I put a pop up box on http://www.public-speaking.org I noticed an immediate increase in ezine subscribers. What I was not able to determine with accuracy was whether an entry pop up or an exit pop up was better. It just took too much watching and counting to suit me. The answers I would get would be rough at best and maybe not even good enough to help me make decisions.

The same thing is happening to me in my pay per click search engine efforts. Yes, I can assure you it's effective, but no I don't know exactly how effective. And I'm absolutely positive that I'm wasting money on certain keywords, but again I can't tell you which ones. (I'm doing something about this and will report later how it worked out).

I read an article by a person who I occasionally use as a consultant, Brian Alt. Brian was talking about different ways to track the effectiveness of each of your signup areas for your ezine. Since I use a list management company, I was very interested in how this would work because the list management company provides the signup form that I put on my websites and in my pop up boxes.

I will be working on this very issue this month, but I thought I'd give you a jump start in case you want to start working on it too.

When you know which signup area is getting the most signups you can attempt to duplicate it at other places in your site. You can also take a form on the left side of the page and track it to see if moving it to the right side of the page gets more signups.

MASTER SUBSCRIBER PRO

This is a cgi script produced by the same guy that I got my recommend form from. This script allows you to key each signup area of your website to see which ones are getting the most subscribers. You will most likely need to get help on the installation because it requires access to your cgi bin on your web server. It's most likely something you don't want to mess with. Get the guy from subscriberpro to do it for you. He's fairly inexpensive.

http://willmaster.com/master/subscriberpro/ Check this out thoroughly before you buy because it requires a certain type of web server to run on.

PRO LINKZ

This is another script you would have to get installed before you begin using it. Pro Links lets you put tracking links in many different areas of your site. There are many ways to use this script which are explained beautifully at their site.

http://www.prolinkz.com/

STATISTICS PROGRAMS

You can also use some of the better statistics programs to track specific areas of your website. Stats packages like WebTrends http://www.webtrends.com let you pick what areas of your site you want to track.

FORMS

You can also install a simple form in your signup area that emails the subscription to the list management company and collects the signups on a certain page on your website or emails them to you. If you have multiple signup areas you would collect the signups on different pages so that you could count them later and compare which signup areas get the most subscribers.

IT MUST FORWARD THE SUBSCRIPTION

The important part about this entire thing is to be sure whatever you use will still forward the subscriber to your list management company. Most good list management companies have an email subscribe option. Behind the scenes your signup form or tracking link must send the subscription on to the list management company normally via email. Get with your list management company to find out the email address they assign that subscribes people to your list.

Copywriting Technique
Creating Scarcity
by Tom Antion

Hmmmmm. Creating scarcity. If a product or service is so good it seems like scarcity should create itself shouldn't it? Well not in copywriting and not in sales. Yes, it can happen sometimes, but a good copywriter can create it with specific words and situations.

Let's consider some situations where there is true scarcity and then we'll look at some situations where we create scarcity.

TRUE SCARCITY
Here are some examples:

• Beatles reunion concert

• Van Gogh paintings

• Brains in the corporate world (especially my list management company)

CREATED SCARCITY

• Everything else

Just think about it. How much do you think tickets for the Beatles concert would be? $500.00 .. . . sure if you want to be in a remote  auditorium to watch a simulcast and you don't mind having lousy seats. $1,000.00,  . . . $5,000.00 . . ..  Who knows how high it would go. Scarcity is the reason.

It's the same thing with rare paintings, artwork, rare coins, etc.

Most of the copy you see written regarding scarcity has been created.

• "Our allotment was only 12 of this model,"

• "Only three to a customer,"

• "Only 12 left," are all generated and concocted scarcity techniques.

They just happened to forget to say the allotment was for this week and next week they get 12 more. And why is there "Only three to a customer?" Is it because the seller is only worried about being fair? There are "Only 5 left." This conveniently omits the fact that the seller can order more any time.

I'm not saying any of the above statements are untruthful or unethical (sometimes they are). The statements are simply appealing to basic human nature. When something is scarce, people want it more, they buy it faster and pay more for it. If you want people buying more of your stuff faster and paying a high price for it, then you may want to implement scarcity into your business model and most definitely into your copy.

Work some phrases like this into your copy:

• We only have space for 12 participants

• These are the last 5 available.

• We only have 2 available dates open in June

• I can only take on two new consulting clients

• We have only 4 appointments left

• Bridge line space is limited.

DON'T LIE

I am not suggesting you lie. I'm suggesting that actually limiting your availability can get you a much higher price for your products and services and make them even more in demand.

Next month we'll mix a little scarcity in with "urgency" to really slamdunk the people that read your copy.  . . .Now of course I can only sell 12,000 more memberships to this website before it reaches capacity, so don't unsubscribe or you probably won't be able to get back in for any amount of money. . . .  Yeah right! hahahahahahhaha

Search Engine Tips
Keyword Placement Part II
Top of the Page

The next place you want to put keywords is near the top of the page, within the first visible screen if you can. Why? First, you don't want people to scroll too much on your main pages. If they were searching on that keyword, then they expect to come to pages that include that keyword. If it isn't readily visible when they hit the page, then you have disappointed that visitor and they are very likely to leave immediately. You want the keyword to pop up and give them the information.

Second, search engine spiders read your page from the top down. Therefore, you need to put these keywords above any graphics that you have, especially because the spiders have a tough time with graphics. If you go to my home page, http://www.Antion.com , you'll see that I specifically write text at the top of the page so I can stuff keywords in there.

When I say "stuff," I'm not saying "spamming. " Don't get the bright idea to simply write your keyword over and over again at the top of the page. This is called "keyword spamming" and will get you banned from search engines. I'm just saying I'm putting extra keywords near the top of the page. I find an excuse to do it. I made up two little sentences and put them near the top of the page to direct people to different parts of the site, but I used keywords in them.

Also, don't put invisible words at the top of the page. In the old days, people would make the text the same color as the background of the page so that the people wouldn't see the words, but the search engine spiders would. Again, this was the old days. Today that will get you banned from the search engines.

I must emphasize. You must have keywords easily accessible to the search engine spiders near the top of every important page in your website page. The spiders have to sift through millions of pages in milliseconds and they are smart enough to skip a page entirely if they don't start finding the right keywords as they look from the top of the page down.

Send me your suggestions for future Search Engine related articles for this section. mailto:tom@antion.com  

Cool Software and Gadgets

Software

http://www.wordweb.co.uk/ Super thesaurus

http://www.winbundle.com TimeSlice. Software for anyone who has to keep track of  billable hours.

 

Need TRAFFIC? Click Here for Tom's 3d animated introduction to Zeus, the amazing TRAFFIC BUILDING ROBOT!

The Zeus Internet Marketing Robot is a . . .

. . .Web Traffic Controller
Generates new and return traffic into your web site, while controlling those exiting by providing an organized exit path. A totally new concept in generating web traffic. Zeus features and benefits enable this revolutionary software product to create traffic to your web site, in numbers beyond your wildest dreams. 

. . .Automatic Reciprocal Link Generator
Effortlessly increases your web site's traffic! One good reciprocal link can give you the same traffic as a major search engine and, with a Zeus robot, you can have thousands of reciprocal links.

. . .Link Directory Creator
A search engine for every web site. Why worry about search engine listings when your web site can have it's own Link Search Directory? A comprehensive, vertical-themed Link Directory keeps your visitors coming back again and again.

. . .ThemeSite Email and Contact Coordinator
Zeus will automatically send reciprocal link requests, custom messages or Link Directory listing verification to some or all webmasters belonging to the ThemeSites stored in his database. This gives you a great reason to announce new Themed awards, product or web site reviews or any announcements about your web site.

click here

 

Gadgets

http://www.e-corporategifts.com/gadgets.html

http://www.adstech.com/ USB Instant DVD

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/mira/  Grab your monitor and take it in the bathroom

Useful Websites  

http://www.siteowners.com/ Lots of resources for running your own site.

The sites below are all advanced list management companies. Keep this list handy in case those of you at PostmasterGeneral AKA Mindsharedesign have to jump ship. I have not thoroughly reviewed all of these sites.

http://www.cooleremail.com

http://www.gotmarketing.com

http://www.constantcontact.com (decent pricing and HTML templates)

http://www.verticalresponse.com

http://www.emaillabs.com

http://www.emailfactory.com (decent pricing and has some viral marketing tools)

http://www.cheetahmail.com

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

Computer / Automation Technique
Autoresponders Part 2
More techniques

Miscellaneous Stuff You Need to Know

• If you are have a little trouble with your eyesight or with eyestrain which is certainly a possibility when you spend lots of time in front of the computer doing Internet marketing, try using the Windows magnifier tool. Click on "Start," then "Programs," then "Accessories," then Magnifier. You'll get a pop up box with settings and you'll see that the top of the screen is magnified. Move your mouse on the regular screen and see a magnified version at the top of the screen.

• Avoid email attachments as much as possible. People are scared to death of them because of viruses. Sometimes you may have to email them or call the recipient telling them that you are sending an attachment and that the document has been scanned for viruses and is clean.

• Is your computer secretly hiding software put there by advertisers to track your Internet usage? If you have Windows 95/98/2000 you can get a free program called Ad-aware. It will search your computer for "spyware" and remove the problem. Get a free copy at http://www.zdnet.com/downloads

• You will have better luck selling things on your Internet site if you tell customers what to do. Example: "Read the following description and then click at the bottom of the paragraph to order."

• Many people never finish buying your product because they have trouble or get cold feet at your order page. We'll have articles coming up on how to fix up this page to convert more customers.

Case Study
Joan Stewart
AKA "The Publicity Hound"

Stick with what you know best. Find a niche. Then market like crazy, preferably to the same target audience.

That’s what I’ve learned after four years of joys and frustrations in Internet marketing. I spent the first four years building The Publicity Hound brand and promoting myself as the Number One expert in how to create free publicity. I started a print newsletter called The Publicity Hound, followed by an entire series of 5-page how-to special reports.

The reports were conceived about three years ago as my way of making money from my eventual book without having to set aside several months to write it.

I’d write a chapter, call it a special report, make it available at my website at http://www.PublicityHound.com , then send it to customers electronically. Once I had written 20 or so reports, I reasoned, I’d have my book, which I could then peddle to a major publisher or self-publish.

Each report focuses on a different and very narrow media relations problem, then gives in-depth information on how to solve it. I call it going “an inch wide and a mile deep” and the formula has worked beautifully.

So beautifully, in fact, that I scuttled plans to package them into a book. Instead, I kept cranking them out at the rate of sometimes four in one weekend. I now have 43 special reports that sell for $7 each. Work the numbers and you’ll soon see why I scrapped the book idea. In a major bookstore, my book would sell for little more than $25. The special report concept keeps customers coming back and encourages them to keep spending. In other words, it turns them into lifetime customers.

Last year, I made about $20,000 revenue just on special reports. This year, I am concentrating on tape-recorded telephone seminars which I then turn into CDs and audio tapes and use to upsell customers who buy the reports. The CDs and tapes will be bundled with other products to create even larger product packages.

My success with products is due, in large part, to my e-zine, which now has more than 7,200 subscribers. When I started the e-zine a year and a half ago at the urging of Tom Antion, a top Internet marketer and friend, my product sales immediately quadrupled. Building the list is my second goal this year because the e-zine has led to numerous full-fee speaking engagements, invitations to appear in other authors’ books, invitations to write articles and opportunities co collaborate with other experts on products. I have attended Tom's "Butt Camp" for Internet marketers three times and am religiously using his hand-outs as my "to do" list.

If I have one regret, it’s creating three products on employee recruitment and retention and using them as an entrée into companies that are looking for ways to use free publicity to position themselves as employers of choice. The problem is that I must market these products to human resources professionals, not to the public relations people who already are my core audience. And that means doubling my marketing efforts. I’ve decided to put all my energies into promoting my expertise and selling to the people in my biggest target audience. That includes marketing and PR people, authors, speakers, small-business people, schools and non-profits, and anyone who wants to self-promote.

Things I wish I had known three years ago:

• Get your products into the hands of as many people as possible who can resell them for you. Quit thinking of these people as your “competition” as I once did. Start viewing them as money in the bank.

• If you’re a sole proprietor, stick with one target audience and work like crazy penetrating the niche. Choose two or three different target audiences and you may have to double and triple your marketing efforts.

• Create products in a wide variety of price points and give your customers as many different options when it comes to buying them.

• Make tele-seminars available in CDs and audio tapes, for example. Turn a series of audio tapes in an e-book.

• Be relentless about building your e-zine list.

Sign up for Joan Stewart’s free e-zine, The Publicity Hound’s Tips of the Week, at her web site at http://www.PublicityHound.com , where you can also download a free sample chapter of her e-zine, How to be a Kick-Butt Publicity Hound, which she co-authored with Tom Antion. Get a free sample and the Table of Contents at http://www.antion.com/publicityhoundTOC.htm

To Contac Joan Stewart a. k.a. "The Publicity Hound" 3930 Highway O Saukville, WI 53080 Phone: 262-284-7451 Fax: 262-284-1737 Speaker, trainer, consultant, and expert in media relations and employee recruitment/retention "89 Reasons to Send a News Release" is yours free at http://www.PublicityHound.com

TRENDS

• Digital camera sales rose 25% in the first quarter of 2002 as compared to the first quarter of 2001.  . . .Do you have one? Do you know how handy they are when it comes to taking product photos? How about taking shots of conference participants the night before your speaking engagement and incorporating them into your presentation the next day?

• The US economy rose at an annual rate of 5.6% in the first quarter of 2002. . . . This is a great time to sell in and the US market!

• The newest way to shop online uses one of the oldest payment methods: cash.
  Convenience store chain 7-Eleven, which is testing out interactive kiosks in nearly 100 stores, plans to allow those kiosks to accept cash for online purchases later this year. The company plans to add its so-called Vcom kiosks to up to 3,500 of its stores during the next 18 months Full Story from Wired http://news.com.com/2100-1017-921821.html This means people with no credit cards can order your online products. . . . I hope they don't spill their Slurpees on the keyboard.

• The Yankee Group surveyed 550 business DSL users by telephone. 65% said that their DSL service would be one of the last things to go if they had to cut costs. 91% said that the productivity increase far exceeded the cost.....Are you on a  high speed connection yet? I couldn't live without it.

• Orbiscom who has deals with Discover and MBNA is testing single use credit card numbers and the initial results are showing that people are willing to spend a much greater amount online because the security risk has been lessened.

• Talk about getting in bed together.  . . . Soon you will be able to pick up your purchase from Amazon.com at a Borders Book store near you.

• List management companies are cracking down on list owners because of pressure from AOL, Hotmail, and Yahoo to reduce spam complaints. You better keep your list squeaky clean or you may not have anywhere to host it.

You will have to print out the following reference pages separately. They are included in each issue, so there is no need to print them out every time. Do, however, check them frequently because I will put new additions to these pages at the top of each page until the next issue comes out.

Recommended Learning Tools

Search Engine Resources

Suppliers

Back to June 2002 Index page