It All Starts With Traffic
If youre getting 20 leads a week now from AdWords, its hard to imagine what 200 leads a week would look like. From your current perspective, it would probably look just like 20, except 10 times more.
But when volume and velocity and quality of traffic increase, lots of things change. Big time.
You can get much pickier about the leads you accept as clients. You can create hurdles to prescreen and prequalify, and to give you the power and authority in the relationship. You can create waiting lists to generate the perception of great demand. You can raise your prices. If you sell products, you can start to source them at a cheaper rate. You can negotiate deals with your suppliers. You can increase your profit margins.
What all this means is that you make more money while expending less of your life energy (time and emotional angst) to get it.
When youunderstand your prospects, andwhat keywords they search for, andwhat they want when theyre searching, and how to engage them in your ads and landing pages - you start a process that can end with you being the biggest player in your market.
[Ed. Note: Howie Jacobson is the expert on Google AdWords and driving traffic to your website. Get his complimentary AdWords ER Report "Why Most AdWords Campaigns Fail - and How to Make Yours Succeed" atwww.AskHowie.com.
Pay-per-click ads are just one of the many elements of a successful online business. For a complete, step-by-step guide to starting and growing your own profitable Internet venture,check out the Internet Money Club: Independent Learner Edition.]
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One Websiteâ?¦ or Many?
One of my readers, DH, writes:
When selling information products on the Internet, what are the pros and cons of having a home website with more than one product and having micro-sites only for the more expensive and lengthy products vs. having a micro-site for every product?
I told DH that he would need a separate micro-site for every product.
A micro-site, also known as a landing page, is a long-copy sales letter posted on the Web. The copy on your landing page describes the product and its benefits, and links to a form where visitors can order it online.
The reason information marketers should have a separate micro-site for every product is that each one of those products is unique. The reader hasnt heard of it before, so he has to be sold on buying it. To make that sale, you need a long-copy sales letter.
By comparison, if an Internet user goes to Amazon.com to order the new Harry Potter book, she already knows what shes buying. Thats why Amazon.com sales pages for books are relatively brief vs. the long copy we use on our landing pages to sell information products.
Each of your product landing pages should have its own unique domain name rather than be an individual page on a central website. And you should choose domain names that are easy to remember. For instance, the landing page for my e-book on how to write and sell your first e-book is at myveryfirstebook.com.
The only thing the visitor should see on the landing page is the sales letter copy selling the product. Dont add a menu bar with a lot of options. And there should be no navigation. The visitor can either order the product or leave the site. There should be no free content for him to read or download. You want him to focus on one thing only: the reasons he needs to buy that product right then and there.
However, as effective as single-product landing pages are for selling information online, theres one thing they dont do very well: They do not attract a lot of organic search traffic. The reason is that Google recognizes them as sales letters - and Google doesnt rate sites with sales copy very high.
The solution? Create a portal site for your Internet information publishing business.
Have links to all your individual product landing pages on this portal site. And in several places on the site, encourage visitors to opt into your e-list by subscribing to your online newsletter or downloading a free report.
Then, add one or more sections to the portal site where visitors can find and download free content - articles press releases special reports videos audios content-rich Web pages.
Why are you adding all this free content to your portal site? Because Google loves content, and will, therefore, rank the portal site much higher than it will rank your product landing pages. That way, youll benefit from organic search traffic and get lots of visitors.
A percentage of those visitors will click onto one of your landing pages and buy a product. Or they will click on a box or banner that lets them opt into your e-list. Result: You sell more products and build your list organically instead of having to buy traffic.
Another reason I like having a portal site is because when people ask me what products I sell, I cant remember them all. But I can remember the URL for my portal site. I tell them that they can find every product I sell atctcpublishing.net.
The portal site serves one additional function for the information marketer: It further solidifies your credentials as an expert in your niche.
There are lots of Internet marketers selling info products on every conceivable topic. The ones that sell info products on the same topics you write about are your competitors.
Often, the reader perceives little difference between all the available info products on a given topic. What helps differentiate them and close the sale is the reputation of the author/publisher as a guru in the field. Your content-rich portal site gives you an instant online presence that sets you apart - and gives readers enough trust in you to buy your products.
[Ed. Note: Bob Bly is a freelance copywriter and the author of more than 70 books. To subscribe to his free e-zine,The Direct Response Letter, and claim your free gift worth $116,click here now.
Ready to get started with your Internet business, but don't know how?Find out how simple it can be right here.]
The Fatal Flaw in â??Winningâ?? Deals
Years ago, I spent several months backpacking around Guatemala. As my Spanish improved, I enjoyed going to markets to bargain for Mayan souvenirs or fresh fruit. My goal was to pay the same price as a local.
I was having fun playing this little game until my new Australian friend witnessed me in action, bargaining for a beautiful hammock. As I was walking away because the vendor wouldnt lower her price a little more, my friend said, You realize that you are getting all worked up over what is about 10 cents. At home, you would pay 50 times that much for a hammock like that, so this is a great deal.
I suddenly felt a bit silly. But it helped me learn an important lesson that I try to remember when doing real estate deals.
As soon as your negotiation becomes about winning, it becomes emotional and good judgment goes out the window. If youre not rational, you are much more likely to enter a bad deal for the wrong reasons. And youre quite likely to miss out on a good one.
I was trying to win by buying at the same price as a local, just like many people negotiating real estate deals try to win by selling at the absolute highest price or buying at the absolute lowest price.
Instead, figure out what would be a good deal for you before you enter the negotiation. If, for example, a house is listed for $325,000, anything under $300,000 might work for you. So if you can negotiate the price of that house down to, say, $295,000, consider it done. Dont feel that you have to try to force the seller to take just a little bit less. Leave the emotion, specifically the desire to be a big winner in every deal, out of it.
[Ed. Note: For more insider strategies for getting started as a real estate investor, sign up for real estate expert Julie Broad's free monthly newsletter.Get your free report for making money with real estate here.]