Internet Marketing

Business Models That Work

By Ben Hart

Transcript of “Internet Marketing Seminar”

You cannot be in business in any serious way without a website.

 

If your customers and clients cannot find you and your business on the Internet, they will assume you are not real. 

 

So, at an absolute bare minimum, your business needs a basic general site that acts as your online brochure – that tells your prospects, customers and clients what you do and how to reach you . . . and that also impresses your friends, relatives and in-laws so that you don’t have to keep explaining to them what you do.

 

But the Internet is so much more than that – so much more than just an online brochure.

 

Americans today are spending a big chunk of their day, looking for things that interest them.  A recent survey my company conducted shows that, among Internet users in America:

 

21.5 %  spend 1-2 hours a day online.
60.2 % spend 2-4 hours online a day.
18.3% spend 5 or more hours online a day.

 

The Internet is the entertainment media of choice for many people today.  More and more, people would rather surf and play on the Internet than watch TV.

 

When people are searching information or something they want, 8 out of 10 will first go to the Internet, and will spend an hour or more looking for what they want and researching.   If you and your business are no where to be found, your business is dead, or will be very soon.

 

People watch video on the Internet.  They watch TV shows and movies that are produced just for the internet.  They listen to their radio shows on the Internet.

 

They attend seminars on the Internet. They download music. They watch live concerts. They go to the Internet to meet people. 

 

We communicate over the Internet.  Our phone service now comes over the Internet.

 

Hi-quality camcorders now allow us to use the Internet as a video phone.  We play video games on the Internet. We download our software, movies and music from the Internet. We get college degrees over the Internet.

 

We meet our mates over the Internet. We socialize over the Internet. We do our Christmas shopping on the Internet. We use the Internet to telecommute. We run our entire  businesses over the Internet.  More and more, we are trading in our costly brick and mortar offices for super-cheap (almost free) virtual offices on the Internet.

 

We hold conferences, webinars, meetings, training programs, tutorials and help our kids with their homework – all on the Internet. We check the weather, get our maps and directions, book our travel and order pizza delivery over the Internet.

 

With the Internet, there’s almost no reason to get off the sofa anymore – except to go to the toilet, take a shower, get something to eat and do some exercise now that we have this device – a computer with an high-speed Internet connection – that will keep us entertained, informed, connected and supplied 24/7.

 

So if your entire marketing strategy on the Internet amounts to just putting up a static online brochure on what you and your company do, you are short-changing yourself.

 

Ideas and Brains (Not Money) Are The Currency of the Internet

 

But here’s what’s fantastic about the Internet.

 

You don’t need money.  You don’t need capital

 

All you need is a great idea and you can be an overnight multi-millionaire.

 

It costs almost nothing to put up a website.  It costs almost nothing to put audio and video on your website.  You don’t even need any technical or programming knowledge any more.

 

Money and capitalization had nothing to do with building YouTube.  You could have built Craigslist, Ebay, Yahoo, Napster, eHarmony, MySpace, DrudgeReport  – or any one of the thousands of ultra-profitable online businesses.  You don’t need money.  You just need an idea.

 

If you want to produce and direct your own movie you can.  No need any more to submit your idea to a movie studio and hope to get interest. Make your own movie. 

 

If your movie tells a good story and is compelling, you’ll have no trouble finding a big audience for it on the Internet, if you understand some basic marketing principles.  And distribution of your movie is a non-issue on the Internet.  Anyone who wants to see it can just pull it up instantly on their computer screen. 

 

Or maybe you’ve written a book. 

 

Forget going through the old-fashioned New York publishers.  If your book is even accepted by a New York publisher (highly unlikely, unless they have commissioned your book to be written in advance), you will have to wait a year or two for your book even to appear.  The traditional publishers are dinosaurs. 

 

They have absolutely no idea how to market and distribute a book in the 21^st Century.

 

But you can publish your own book using the Internet.

 

You can offer both digital and printed versions.  And you can have hundreds of thousands of readers of your book almost instantly – again, for almost no outlay of cash.

 

By the way, this is a big part of how I make my money on the Internet.  I write, publish and market all my own books.  Instead of taking the 12-15 percent royalty the commercial publishers offer me, I take a 100%. 

 

Instead of relying an incompetent publisher to market and distribute my books, I do it all myself with my laptop computer and Internet connection.  And I have tens of of thousands of readers.  As importantly, I am able to generate almost unlimited income every month.  I don’t even need to bother with going to the bank and depositing checks.

 

The money just shows up in my bank account, everyday, automatically from all the credit card transactions that are happening for me literally every minute all day long, 24/7.

 

I generate this income from my books, my articles and seminars – which are recorded and can be replayed over and over again.

 

My initial cash investment for building my Internet business was almost zero.

 

I’ll explain my own business model in detail later.

 

The big point here is that money is not the main currency of the Internet world.

 

Creativity, imagination and brainpower are the currency of the Internet.

 

You don’t need money, as you would to capitalize your brick and mortar store.  You don’t need money to hire employees.  You don’t need money for a lot of heavy equipment.  You don’t need inventory.  You don’t even need much in the way of office supplies.

 

All you need is a laptop computer, a high-speed Internet connection, and your brain.

 

Your website is almost free.  Your email communications are almost free, or can be almost free.  And your marketing and advertising are free, or almost free, if you understand viral marketing, how search engines work, and how to build a an e-mail list of people who are interested in what you are doing or selling.

 

The Biggest Mistake People Make With Their Website

 

The biggest mistake people make when designing their website is not having a specific purpose in mind for the site.  Almost always people want their site to do too much.  They want their site to do all things.

 

They want their site to build their brand and image.  They want their site to sell products and services. They want their site to find and capture leads. They want their site to inform. They want their site to entertain.

 

So what you end up with is a hodge-podge site.  I have a tough time figuring out what I’m  supposed to do on most business sites on the Internet.  I have no idea what I am supposed to buy, or even what the business is offering.

 

Keep in mind that people spend an average of 3 seconds on a web page. And that might be generous.  So you have less than 3 seconds to grab the attention of your visitor and to give your visitor a reason to stay, and then a reason to do something – whether it’s to fill out your sign-up form, buy something, read something, watch something, listen to something, or contact you.

 

A web page (and usually an entire site) should be designed to get your visitor to do one and only one thing.  Your site should be designed with one and only one purpose in mind.

 

You know what you are supposed to do when you go to YouTube.com – watch videos on topics that interest you.  When I go there I like to watch videos of classic rock groups from the 1960s and ‘70s.

 

When you go to Google’s home page it’s instantly clear what you are supposed to do – type in your search terms so you can find what you are looking for on the Internet.

 

Take a look at Google’s home page.  It’s so simple and clean.  No fancy graphics – just that search box in the center of the page – along with a few hyperlinked lines of text nearby that will take you to the other parts of Google’s business if you are interested.

 

But mainly what Google wants you to do when you go to its home page is use its search engine.  Google’s entire multi-billion-dollar business is built around getting people to use its search engine.  There are many other aspects to Google’s business – including Google AdWords, Google AdSense, Google Maps, Google Earth, Google’s free email service, Google news, and the list of services that Google offers goes on.  Google also bought YouTube.

 

But Google understands that it’s business is built on getting people to use its search engine.  Everything else Google does flows from that – because the search engine is how people find their way around the Internet.

 

Underneath that super-simple home page, Google’s business is vastly complex and multi-faceted.  But Google knows the power of projecting simplicity to the world – of asking the world to do one and only one thing when arriving at Google’s home page.

 

Contrast Google’s simplicity to Yahoo.

 

Yahoo used to be the #1 search engine. 

 

But Google passed Yahoo as the #1 search engine and now leads Yahoo by a wide margin in that arena.

 

Compare Yahoo’s home page to Google’s.

 

You are not really sure what you are supposed to do when you arrive Yahoo’s home page.  It’s a jumbled mess.  It’s got just about everything on it.

 

Now, this has not turned out at all badly for Yahoo.  Yahoo used to be known primarily as a search engine.  But it lost that marketing battle to Google.  Yahoo is still the #2 search engine, not bad.  Today, most people think of Yahoo as is a portal, not a search engine as much.

 

It’s a place where you can find just about anything.  You can read news. You can shop.  You can find a date.  You can watch video.  Anything you can do on the Internet, you can do it on Yahoo.  What Yahoo as evolved into is a major media property.  And it’s very doing well as a media property – making a boatload of money selling advertising.

 

Yahoo’s took in $6.4 BILLION in 2006 and has a market cap of $43 BILLION.

 

But Google is now in a different league altogether.

 

Google took in $10.4 BILLION in 2006 and has a market cap of $143 BILLION. So investors are three to four times more bullish on Google moving forward.

 

So Yahoo lost the search engine battle to Google.  But it is the Internet’s #1 portal.  It’s become a jack-of-all trades site – packed with news, information, entertainment and things to do – games, dating, chat rooms, classified ads.  You name it, you’ll find it at Yahoo.

 

So that’s not bad.  Yahoo survived and prospered by remaking its brand.

 

But I would argue that Yahoo succeeded at this because it was one of the first general portals.  They now have the ad revenue and money to make this model work.  But it is not a good business model for someone starting out right now. It’s probably not a good business model for you.

 

You will do much better on the Internet if your focus is very narrow – like Google – and not general, like Yahoo.

 

Take Ebay.

 

Everyone knows that Ebay is the place you go for online auctions.  Now, Yahoo has online auctions also, but few people know that.  Yahoo’s online technology is vastly superior to Ebay’s, in my view.  It works better. It’s easier to use. You can find things easily.

 

But EBay dominates the online auction market.

 

People don’t think of Yahoo when they want to participate in an online auction. They think of Ebay.  Ebay is known for one and only one thing – online auctions. 

 

Actually, you can just bypass the auction process and just pay for what you want on Ebay, which is what I do. But the niche EBay carved out in people’s mind is as the online auction site.  And the more Ebay deviates from its brand and evolves into just a conventional shopping site, the more it will dilute its brand in people’s minds.  It will begin to lose market share.

 

Google understands the power of simplicity and staying true to its mission and its brand.

 

“Narrow is the gate to paradise” in Internet marketing.

 

The more laser-like and focused your mission and marketing, the better you will do.

 

Look at Google’s home page again.

 

Stare at it for a while.

 

Gaze at it in awe.

 

The simplicity and power of it is breathtaking – at least it is to me.

 

Almost this entire seminar (and course) is an argument for striving to achieve this kind of simplicity with your websites, with your business and with your marketing.

 

So when you design your website, ask yourself these questions:

 

1) Is the purpose of my website crystal clear?

 

2) Am I asking my visitor to do one and only one thing?

 

3) Will it take my visitor longer than 2 seconds to understand what my site is about and what I am asking my visitor to do?

 

4) Will it take my visitor longer than 2 seconds to see the benefit of sticking around and doing what I ask?

 

If your answer is “No” to any of these questions, go back to the drawing board for your site.

 

Go back to staring at Google’s home page some more, and see if that gives you some inspiration.

 

“But Ben! but Ben!” some of you will say. “I want my site to do many things.  I want it to build my brand.  I want it to sell things.  I want it to collect and sort my leads.  I want to provide valuable information to my prospects and customers.  I want it to be a fun place to be.  I want people to stick around on my site and come back over and over again.”

 

Yes, everyone wants to be a portal like Yahoo.

 

You will lose that battle.  Yahoo has already staked out that territory.

 

What I will argue here is the need for most businesses to have more than one site – perhaps many sites, each designed with a specific purpose in mind.

 

I have many websites, each with a specific job to do:

 

1) I have a general website that promotes my consulting business.  This is really just an online brochure that tells people who I am and what I do.

 

2) I have lead generation sites – that is, sites whose only job is to attract and capture leads for what I am selling.

 

3) I have selling sites – that is, sites that are essentially sales letter sites designed to sell something to all the leads I am collecting with my lead generation sites.

 

So these are the various categories of sites that I have – each site designed with a specific job to do.  And there are many more categories of sites than just this.  These are just the categories of sites that I have for my business – which is to provide marketing advice and consulting to entrepreneurs, business leaders and non-profit organizations.

 

        I don’t want my site to be like a Swiss Army knife.

 

Don’t get me wrong.  A Swiss Army knife is a neat little tool that can do many things for  you in an emergency if you are out in the woods.  But it does not do any one job very well.

 

A real screwdriver will work much better than the one in the Swiss Army knife

 

A real pair of scissors will work much better than the one in the Swiss Army knife.

 

You want your website to be a precision tool.  You might have many websites, but each website should be designed with a specific narrow purpose in mind, with a specific job to do.

 

Don’t jumble all the jobs you want done onto one website.  That will just confuse and frustrate your visitors.

 

Really, this is a key principle in all your marketing – whether you are marketing online or offline.

 

When you write a sales letter, your letter will perform much better if you sell one and only one thing.  Don’t ask your reader to choose among a variety of products you might be selling.

 

Make the case for buying one product and one product only.

 

General Motors is selling many different kinds of cars and trucks.  But the ads feature just one model.  Your website needs to be like that.  It needs to make the case for your visitor to do one and only one thing.  It’s purpose must be instantly clear.

 

And if you have many jobs for your websites to do – just create more websites, each with its own unique job to do.

 

Here are some possible purposes for a website:

 

1)      Build your brand and image. Project professionalism

2)      Capture leads

3)      Close sales

4)      Sell advertising space

5)      Provide a service that people pay for

6)      Provide customer support

7)      Be an online catalogue or store

8)      Profit as an affiliate marketer

9)      Recruit affiliate marketers

10)   Provide news and information

11)  Provide training and education for staff and customers

12)  Distribute digital products (i.e. books, software, audio and video)

13)  Save money by cutting transaction, distribution, staffing and advertising costs

 

We will get into how you can achieve these purposes as we move forward with this seminar and course.  The point to take away here is that you should design your site with a specific primary purpose in mind.

 

Your site might also achieve other worthy goals besides it’s primary goal. 

 

Think of other goals you might have as spin-off or secondary benefits.   But a site should have one primary goal.  Google is many things besides a search engine.  But all the other benefits and features Google offers flow from its core business of being first and foremost a search engine.

 

The General Business Website

 

After listening to me for the last few minutes, you might think I am a denigrator of the general business website.

 

Nope.  I’m not – anymore than I am a denigrator of the Swiss Army Knife.

 

A Swiss Army knife serves a wonderful purpose, and so does your general business website.

 

In fact, if you were restricted to having just one website and that’s it – your general business website is the one to have.

 

This is the site you have on the front of your business card, along with all your other contact information.  This is the site you send your personal contacts to who want to know more about what you do.  This is the site you would probably have as part of your signature line in your personal emails to your customers, friends and personal contacts. 

 

Your general business site is mostly for those who already know you, or who have met you – who have had some personal contact with you or who have some knowledge of you.

 

When someone is looking for you or the specific name of your company on a search engine, they will probably end up on your general business site – not on one of your specialty sites.

 

So your general site is for those who are specifically looking for you.

 

Every business needs a general business website.

 

The purpose of this website is to project a professional image for you and your company.

 

When people want to learn about you and your company, the first place they will go is to the Internet to check out your Web site.  If you have no website, or if your Web site is poorly designed and unimpressive, people will assume your business is not real. 

 

You will be judged, in many cases, by your website.

 

But your general business website can make your small business look as big and powerful as the world’s largest corporations.

 

So, what should you include on a general business website?

 

This will depend on what business you are in.  But most general business websites should include these basic elements:

 

A clear simple statement on what you do.

A simple statement about what you do can be a very tough thing to come up with for a general business website – especially if your business does a number of different things.

 

Back to the Google example.  Google does many different things.  But the main thing we think of is a search engine. What is the one thing that you want your customers and prospects to know about you and your business?

 

If you cannot fit what you do on a bumper sticker, you are in trouble as a business.  I want people who go to my site to see that  I am “One of America’s Top Direct Marketing Copywriters.”

 

What you don’t want is for visitors to your site – even your general business site – to have to hunt around to figure out what it is that you do.

 

Your Credentials and Track Record.

Once your visitors understand what basic product or service you are offering, you’ll need to establish your bone fides.  You should describe what your service or product has done for others who have bought it.  On my site, the first headline people see in big 26 point print is this: “Ben Hart’s direct mail letters and marketing programs have generated more than $500,000,000 in sales and donations over the last 20 years.”

 

This headline is designed to impress those who are looking for direct mail copywriting and consulting. Including “Case Studies” on your site can also strengthen your claims.

 

Testimonials.

Simply making claims about your track record is not enough.  You must then prove the truth of your claims.  You do this with testimonials from ecstatic customers or clients.  It’s great if your testimonials are from experts and authority figures.  It’s also powerful to include video and audio versions of testimonials.  Be sure your testimonials are exactly on point with what your are selling.  Testimonials should not be so much about you, but about the results your product or service has achieved for those who have bought it.  The more specific the testimonials, the better.

 

Products or services to sell.

You need both small and big ticket items.  If you are a consultant, not only should you be selling your consulting services, but also offer relatively low-cost books and special reports written by you that are precisely in the area of the service you are selling.  Not only will these publications (written by you) help position you as a leading expert in your field, but these low-cost items will help you more quickly find your buyers, those who are truly interested in the main product or service your are selling.  Your website is like a store.  The products should all be on a narrow, focused theme.  You would not expect to buy a car at the grocery store.

 

Many ways to contact you.

I am amazed at how difficult it is to reach actual people through most websites.  Most websites don’t tell me who the people are behind the company or even the location.  The only way to contact the business is with an email inquiry.  People don’t want to do businesses with a website.  They want to do business with people.  Don’t use your website as a way to hide from your customers and prospects.  Be easy to reach.  On every page, include all your basic contact information that any real business should have. Include your phone number, email address and physical address.  Perhaps the #1 question on the minds of your visitors is: “Are you real?”  You need to look, act and in fact be real.

 

An “About” page or section

“About” pages or sections usually include biographies of the principals and a company mission statement.  Photos of the principals and key staff help communicate that this is a company with real people.  Your customers want to do business with real people and real businesses, not “virtual” businesses.

 

A Frequently Asked Questions FAQ section

Once your visitor has decided she’s interested in your product or service, she will want to begin her study of what you can do for her.  She will have questions.  The questions people have follow a pattern.  You know what these questions are because you field these questions from your customers and prospects all the time.  Include these questions and answers in a FAQ section.  Your FAQ section accomplishes two goals. Your prospect can study your company and what you can do for her at her own pace, without any selling pressure from a salesman.  Your FAQ section also saves you and your staff time. You end up talking only to your most qualified prospects, those who have mostly likely already studied your website and FAQ section before making the decision to call you.

 

An  Articles Section

This should be updated regularly—daily if feasible.  Not only will this section help reinforce your status as an expert in your area, but it gives your visitors a reason to return to your site on a regular basis. More importantly, articles rank high on search engines. When people go to the Internet, they are looking for information on a specific subject.  The search engines want to take people to articles because that’s what people value – unbiased solid information what they are looking for.  If your website includes articles on the subject of someone’s search, your site (or these pages on your site) will rank high on the listings that come up for that topic.  This creates free traffic for your general site.

 

An easy way to order what you are selling

Make sure your Web site is ready to do business.  Have a shopping cart and merchant account that can take orders.  Make sure you include an [Order Here] link or button wherever you are promoting a product, a link that takes your customer directly to the order form.  Make it very easy for people to order.  Don’t ask your buyers unnecessary questions.  Make your order forms as easy as possibly to complete.  People abandon order forms and shopping carts out of frustration with the process.

 

Detailed information about your products and services

Your main product or product list should be easy to find.  Think of your home page as like a full-page display ad in a magazine or newspaper.  Your ad will probably feature one product prominently.  Remember, you want to keep your main ad simple.  But your other products should be easy to find.  You might for example have a catalogue style page with products displayed in thumbnail fashion with a few words of description that are linked to a full page on each product that contains the full description.

 

Pricing and “how you charge”

Your prospects want to know how much your product or service costs.  Yet this is often the most difficult piece of information to find on many websites.  I assume that if I can’t easily find out how much the product or service costs, it must cost a lot.  I’m turned off when the only information on pricing is a form I must fill out asking the company to send me an estimate.  When will that show up?  Later today?  Tomorrow?  Sometime next week?  People surf the internet because they are looking for something now.  And they want all the information now.  Don’t hide how you charge.  Be straight forward, upfront, clear.  Pricing and how you charge is one of the most important pieces of information your visitors want to know.

 

A Sign-Up Form with a Valuable Free Offer

Your website should prominently feature a sign-up form on every page of your site because the key to successful marketing on the Internet is to capture the names and e-mail addresses of your visitors – perhaps other contact information as well.  And you should offer something of value that’s free as incentive for your visitors to fill out your sign-up form – perhaps a free e-book, or “white paper” or a free subscription to your ezine.  Your free offer should line-up exactly with the products and services you are selling.  This is how you build your list of leads.

 

The sign-up form is so central to my Internet marketing strategy that I include one on just about every page of  all my websites. That’s because the starting point of my marketing strategy on the Internet is to capture the names and e-mail addresses of visitors to my sites so that I can follow-up with my ezine, with valuable information and, of course, with promotions.

 

More on this all-important point later.

 

Now here’s a key piece of advice.

 

Have a professional design your general business website

 

Yes, you will save money if you do it yourself, or if you have your cousin Earl design it.  But, unless you or your cousin Earl are professional website designers, you are not going to have a good looking site that projects professionalism.

 

The purpose of most small business websites is to make the business look professional and cutting edge.  Spend a little money to hire a professional to design your site.

 

Examples of General Business Sites

 

Big Businesses

 

www.IBM.com

www.Deloit.com

www.ATT.com

www.verizon.com

www.bain.com

www.Microsoft.com

www.Exxon.com

www.Ford.com

www.PG.com

 

 

Notice that these big corporate sites don’t include a lot of fancy graphics.  No explosions or spinning tops. These are just good clean sites that project a professional image. AT&T has a very simple home page.  These sites are designed both to reinforce the brand of these enormous corporations and to provide comprehensive information on the company.  Behind these simple, clean home pages, you can find a lot of information.  Some of these sites are thousands of pages deep.

 

Here’s a site that goes too far toward minimalism.

www.arthurandersen.com

 

All that’s there is something that looks like a business card – no links to more information.  The image Arthur Andersen is trying to communicate here is that this company is too important to bother supplying information to those who don’t know who they are.  “If you don’t know who we are already, we’re not interested in having you as a client,” is the message of this site.  This is not a good approach for most businesses.  I don’t think it’s a good approach for Arthur Andersen.  Who wants to do business with someone that is this arrogant and unfriendly?

 

Small and Mid-Sized Businesses

 

Here are some examples websites for small and mid-sized businesses.  They don’t look too different from the websites of the big businesses.  That’s part of what great about the Internet.  The Internet is the great equalizer.  For a very small investment of money, your general business site can make you look as big as IBM.

 

www.lawncare.com

www.pinnaclecare.com  (one of my clients)

http://www.envisionemi.com (one of my clients)

www.StephenClouse.com (one of my clients)

 

Categories of Sites

So Many Ways To Make A Fortune on the Internet!

 

Online Stores

 

Most online stores look about the same and follow the same proven, time-tested formula. 

 

What most of them do is feature a particular product prominently on the home page – usually one of their high-demand products.  The marketing model here is to heavily promote the hot selling product with their advertising.  Their ads drive them to their general shopping site which features the product being advertised.  Not only is the business hoping you will buy the featured product, but will also make some impulse purchases along the way.

 

Here are some good examples of online stores:

 

www.Amazon.com

www.Dell.com

www.BestBuy.com

www.Staples.com

www.WalMart.com

www.Target.com

www.CarMax.com

www.Ebay.com

 

If your business is a store that offers many products, follow this proven model and you will do well.  The reason you want to feature one big selling product on the home-page prominently for your online store is that you need to provide your reader a focus point for their eyes.

 

If a visitor to an online store is greeted with 1,000 items to choose from, with no one item featured prominently, the reader won’t know what to do, or where to go.  There’s nothing to grab the attention of the eyes.  So if you are selling 10,000 items, feature one on your home page. And then have hyper-linked text by category for the rest of your online store.

 

And be sure to have a good search function so your shoppers can easily find what they are looking for.

 

By the way, this formula is no different from traditional department store advertising.

 

Advertising for department stores promote one product at a time in their ads – or one line of products.  The ads won’t cover all that Bloomingdale’s is selling – just one item per ad.  The advertising is driven by the hot product.  We could buy this product at other stores, but Bloomingdale’s wants us to buy the product at their store.

 

Now, this formula is different for a company like Dell.

 

Dell does not have the Bloomingdale’s marketing problem.

 

Dell manufactures and sells, essentially, one line of products – computers, computer accessories and some other electronics.  Everyone knows the kinds of products Dell sells.  So Dell’s home page features a few major categories of products you can click on, with a photo representing each major category. 

 

I like Dell’s site.  It’s a hybrid site.   It looks a little more like a general business site than some of the other shopping sites.

 

General Portals

 

The biggest general portal sites are Yahoo.com and AOL.com. 

 

These sites try to be all things to all people.  They are news sites, meeting places, shopping areas and are supported mostly with advertising revenue.

 

These sites want to be your home page.

 

AOL is both a free services and a subscription service.  The monthly subscription side of AOL’s business is collapsing because AOL was so slow to get into providing a high-speed connection.  People don’t see why they should pay both AOL and their high-speed service provider a monthly fee.  Yahoo is becoming the home-page of choice for a plurality of people.

 

AOL is inferior to Yahoo as a general portal (a media property) and inferior to other options as a high-speed connection to the Internet. AOL’s big strength is its email service, which is better and has more features than Yahoo’s or it’s other competitors.

 

The big three portals are Yahoo, AOL and MSN.

 

Others include Go.com, Excite.com and Netscape.com

 

Portal sites usually double as search engines – though 90 percent of searches are powered either by Google or Yahoo.

 

It would be tough sledding to compete with the big general portal sites.

 

To be a successful portal site, you would want to target a niche.

 

Of course, then you would not really be a general portal anymore.  You would be more of a specialty site.

 

News and Commentary Sites

 

These are kind of like portals, but are more strictly news and commentary.

 

The DrudgeReport.com is one that I visit everyday.  The site is a conservative-leaning site, but is also packed with gossip and unusual “man bites dog” type articles.  He does not write many of his own articles.  His site just links to the most interesting articles he has found for the day.  The site is a one-man-band – the product of Matt Drudge.

 

His site succeeds because you know you’ll always find an interesting article there to read. And it’s updated throughout the day.

 

The layout is ugly.  Almost no graphics – just a list of headlines linked to articles.

 

But he gets millions of visitors every week because the articles are interesting.

 

Matt Drudge is a major multi-million-dollar media property on the Internet.  He knows that content is king on the Internet.  If you have consistently interesting new things on your site everyday throughout the day, you will build traffic. Matt Drudge is supported by ad revenue, as are all the news sites.

 

Some news sites are general news sites, like FoxNews.com and CNN.com.

 

Some are news and commentary sites –usually coming from a left or right point of view.  For example, NationalReviewOnline.com, NewRepublic.com, Slate.com, Salon.com, MotherJones.com, NewsMax.com, WorldNetDaily.com

 

Just like the news sites and portals, these are supported with ad revenue, though some also sell their own products.

 

When you advertise on a political commentary site, you know you are reaching a particular audience.  If you are advertising on NationalReviewOnline.com, you know you are reaching well-educated conservatives.  If you are advertising on NewRepublic.com, you know you are reaching well-educated liberals.

 

Personality Sites and the “Law of Polarization”

 

Some sites are built entirely around a personality – usually a high-profile controversial personality.

 

Examples include RushLimbaugh.com, AlFranken.com, AnnCoulter.com, MichaelMoore.com, HowardStern.com, Hannity.com.

 

These sites usually work best if you have an regular radio or TV show you can use to build your audience and use your show to drive people to your site.

 

Usually these personalities are selling their own products on their sites.

 

Rush Limbaugh wants people to join Rush 24/7 for  $49.90 per year plus $3.96 S/H.

 

This gets you 24/7 access to his radio show – so you no longer need to listen only what he’s actually on the air.  You can listen anytime that’s convenient for you.  And you get a pile of bonus items. Throw in an extra $10 and you get Rush’s printed monthly newsletter.

 

So that’s not a bad offer if you are a Limbaugh fan – who he calls a “dittohead.”

 

On the site, you can also buy Rush Limbaugh coffee mugs, neckties, tee-shirts and even a “Rush Baby on Board” sign for your car.

 

So that’s how personality driven sites make money.

 

If you are a polarizing figure, like Rush Limbaugh, who has a big following and a huge radio show, this business model works very well.  Rush’s site is one of the better personality-driven sites, clearly designed to make money.

 

Rush is a capitalist.  Nothing at all wrong with that.

 

Rush, by the way, is cashing in on the “law of polarization” in marketing.

 

This is a well-established marketing principle.

 

You will attract an audience if you stand for something controversial – and if you have the talent to express strongly held views shared by a large number of people.

 

Not that conservatism is all that controversial. Roughly half the country is conservative.  The other half is liberal.  Well, there’s a group in the middle that have no opinions on politics.  But the point is, the country is divided between two groups who hold polar opposite views on many subjects.

 

Rush not only polarizes by having strongly held views.  He polarizes by having an arrogant personality that drives liberals insane and causes his fans to cheer.

 

You could not build a personality-driven website around your standard network news anchor – not even the most famous news anchor of all-time, Walter Cronkite.

 

Why?

 

Because everyone likes Walter Cronkite.  He’s not controversial. He mostly keeps his political views to himself. And even when he expresses them, he does not do it in a way that causes a large group of people to hate him.

 

You need to be polarizing figure for your personality-driven website to be a commercial success.  “You will never stand alone if you stand boldly and loudly for something.”

 

That’s how you build a cult-like following.

 

Ann Coulter and Michael Moore have managed to do this without a radio or TV show of their own.  They have both built careers on stating positions, and in such an outrageous and provocative way, that cause ordinary people to say “Huh?? What was that she just said??”

 

They are attention-getting. They are provocateurs.  They have built their careers entirely by using the “law of polarization.”

 

Like Rush’s site, Howard Stern’s site also promotes being able to listen to Howard Stern’s program on your computer.  In fact, you have to subscribe to Sirius to listen to his show at all.

 

I happen to believe this is the trend of the future.  People are so fed up with the non-stop barrage of ads on regular TV and radio that more and more people will pay a subscription fee or a membership fee in order not to be interrupted all the time by ads.

 

Specialized Information Sites

 

            When people conduct a search on the Internet, usually they are looking for information on a specific subject.  They type keywords and keyword phrases into their search engine or into their browser having to do with whatever they are looking for.

 

            The search engine then delivers a listing of web pages and websites dealing with the topic.  The search engines don’t want to deliver just snippets of information on the topic to the searcher.  The engines want to deliver comprehensive information – unbiased information.

 

            The search engine does not want to deliver ads. The search engine wants to deliver articles – and if possible an entire website and archive on the subject.

 

            So a site that is all about a specific topic is a goldmine for a search engine, because that means the engine can deliver of something of value to the searcher.

 

            So a general news site is not so valuable to the search engine because that’s not valuable to the searcher – though the search engine might snag articles off a general news site if they are exactly on the topic being looked for.  But the search engine would much prefer to deliver an entire site with an extensive archive that’s entirely on the subject of the search.

 

            So a powerful marketing strategy on the Internet is to build a site around a specific narrow topic – one that includes an extensive archive of articles all on that topic.

 

            To do this most effectively, you need to imagine the keywords and phrases people will be typing into the search engine to find the topic you want your site to address.  And then write your articles and build your site with these keywords and phrases in mind.

 

            Why?

 

            Because those are the keywords and phrases the web crawlers will be looking for.

 

            When the robot or crawler bumps into the keywords and phrases that have just been typed into the browser, the engine will include the article or site in it listing.  Your rank in the listing will depend on many factors.  And I’ll get into these factors in some detail later.

 

            But the biggest factor is the actual content of the article and the overall site.  How close is the match between the content of the article and site and the keywords and phrases typed into the engine?  The closer the match, the higher your site will rank in the listing for the search.

 

            Here are some examples of specialized information sites:

 

www.cancer.gov

www.skiracing.com

www.doityourself.com

www.edmunds.com

 

          But better than building a site around cancer, would be to build a site around a particular kind of cancer.  When people are searching on the Internet for information on cancer, they are looking for information on a specific type of cancer. 

 

            So even a site that is just about cancer is too broad.

 

            On the Internet, the more specialized and narrow your focus, the more targeted your traffic will be and the better chance you will have of getting your visitors to fill out your sign-up form to get your valuable book or newsletter on the subject.

 

            In other words, the more narrowly focused your site is, the more loyal your visitors will be, the more your visitors will want to return to your site over and over again, and the more qualified your leads will be for whatever it is that you are selling.

 

            All this assumes, of course, that the information on your site really is good and really is valuable to your visitors.

 

Hosted Service Sites

 

One of the fastest growing business sectors on the Internet is the third part hosted software service.

 

These sites are not designed  to sell anything or market anything.  They are the service.

 

Examples include online website builders, bulk email broadcast marketing services, offsite data storage, podcast creation and hosting services, and web-based conferencing,merchant accounts, shopping carts, electronic banking.  Microsoft is offering more and more of its office applications as hosted online services.

 

The great advantage of the hosted service is your software never goes out of date.  Your software is updated all the time.  And you always have instant technical support and help.

 

If your data and your files are backed up and stored elsewhere and professionally, its far more secure than if all your files are in your computer – even if you are diligent about always backing up your files (which most of us are not).

 

The online website builders are getting better and better.  They are easier to use than your desktop Microsoft Word program – and much easier to use than FrontPage or Dreamweaver.  You just put up web pages and edit them using a Word-style editor.  You can choose from thousands of templates the online site builder provides, or use your own graphics.  After working with the online site builder for one hour, you’ll have a professional looking site.

 

As more and more software applications, data, and files are hosted online, this might also go a long way toward solving the virus problem.  Online service hosts are more expert at protecting against viruses than the average consumer.  They’ll have to be to stay in business, because their business clients especially want data to be secure.

 

The disadvantage of the hosted service is that its functionality can be slow if your Internet connection is slow, or if the server hosting the service is slow due to heavy traffic. Also, the web is an inherently less stable environment than the operating system on your computer. But all this will become less problematic as we move forward in time.  And fiber-optic cable provides internet connections that are 20 times faster than even the already-speedy traditional cable.

 

Bill Gates predicts that it won’t be long before most software applications are hosted services on the Web. He’s calling Microsoft’s initiative in this arena “Live Software.”

 

Here’s a beta test version of Microsoft Office Live:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/officelive/default.aspx

 

Features include:

 

o       Online website builder

o       Free domain name and web hosting

o       As much storage space as you need

o       Your own company branded email system

o       Online workspace to share information

o       Storage and management of your customer lists

 

Other examples of hosted service sites include:

 

www.citymax.com (online site builder)

www.IntelliContactPro.com (bulk email marketing)

www.ConstantContact.com (bulk email marketing)

www.UpStreamNetworkscom (streaming audio and video for your site)

www.attonlinevault.com (data and file storage)

www.ETrade.com (securities trading and banking)

www.oe.quickbooks.com (online accounting and book keeping)

 

The further development and expansion of hosted Internet-based services will make the traditional brick and mortar office even more obsolete than it already is.  And you won’t need a big lumbering desktop computer anymore or a bulky network server connecting the desktop computers of your employees. All this will be done off-site, with a third-party hosted service. Everyone will just have laptops. Your laptop can now be your entire office.

 

Entertainment Sites

 

As internet connections get faster and faster,  your television and computer will merge and becoming interchangable.   The boob tube used to be the main distraction in the hoping preventing us from getting anything done.  Now it’s the Internet.

 

www.Games.com

www.YouTube.com

www.ClubPenguin.com

 

Are you an aspiring movie producer or director?  Are you creative?  Do you have a great story to tell?  If your answers to these questions are yes, then the podcast revolution that’s still in its infancy on the Internet is a potential goldmine for you.

 

Some of the super-low-budget movies and TV programs that are now being made for the exploding podcast audience are surprisingly good.  Most are awful.   But the frontier here is limitless for a creative and enterprising aspiring movie producer to completely bypass the big Hollywood movie studios.

 

You can make a good feature length film now for almost no money.  You just need a decent digital video camera.  Remember “The Blair Witch Project”? 

 

That was a great movie.  It cost just $35,000 to make and looked like it cost $10 to make. The entire movie was intended to look like it was shot with a video camera.  It was intended to look amateur.  They certainly achieved that. But the story was riveting and the movie brought in $150 million at the box office.

 

That’s what happens when you have a good story to tell.  You don’t need all the Hollywood special effects and big name actors.  Just have a good story to tell and people will flock to your movie.  Nine out of ten movies that Hollywood churns out are unwatchable.  Most of the rest are barely tolerable.  HBO, Showtime and the pay-per-view movie channels re-run the same movies over and over again.

 

The world is starved for something new.  As much as I love Clint Eastwood, how many times can I really watch Dirty Harry and The High Plains Drifter?

 

I love these movies, but enough already!

 

They keep showing these movies (and a few others) over and over again because there is nothing much else worth showing. 

 

Hollywood is so brain dead that the keep remaking the same movies over and over again because they can’t think of anything else to do.  I hope they don’t try to remake Casablanca . . . but I’m sure they will.  They even remake the movies that were awful the first time out.  Example: The Hills Have Eyes. 

 

And now they’re coming out with a remake of The Hills Have Eyes Two.  So now they are even remaking the sequels. That’s how lazy and contemptuous of the viewing public Hollywood has become.

 

The podcast revolution holds out the promise of saving us from the mind-numbing, boring crap Hollywood shovels into the movie theaters every week.

 

If you are an aspiring movie producer or director, money is now no barrier for you.

 

It costs you almost nothing to distribute your movie or your TV show on the Internet.

 

 If it’s good, word of it will spread like wildfire across the Web and you will become an overnight sensation  Remember, money is not the currency that counts on the Internet.  Imagination, creativity and brainpower is what’s rewarded on the Internet.

 

This is true capitalism – a free market of ideas that can’t be held back for lack of money.

 

Because money is no barrier anymore to promoting and distributing your movies, your TV shows, your radio shows, your books, or your products and your services.

 

The big advantage that Hollywood and the big corporations had over you is gone – the advantage of money.  The free market really is free to work on the Internet.

 

It’s not “If you build it, they will come.”  It’s “If it’s good, they will come.”

 

The cream really does  rise to the top on the Internet.

 

I just can’t wait for the podcast revolution to overwhelm Holywood and regular TV by putting some good material out there into the marketplace.

 

It’s not quite happening yet.  The field is wide open.  Why shouldn’t it be you who pioneers the really good movie that’s created entirely for and distributed to the podcast market?

 

What a wonderful breath of fresh air that will be!

 

Podcasting might even put Hollywood out of business.  Probably not.  But at least the public will have more choices than what’s now coming into the theaters and over the boob tube.

 

I believe the podcast is the next huge money-making frontier for anyone who has the imagination to go for it.  I’m hoping the next Stephen Spielberg is a podcaster.

 

Dating Sites

 

More than 55,000,000 Americans visited an online dating site in 2006. The revenue generated per year by the online dating industry is estimated now at $600,000,000.

 

Is there room for more?

 

Heck, yes.

 

eHarmony was launched in the year 2000 and passed the $100,000,000 per year in sales mark in 2006. 

 

eHarmony did this by establishing itself as the site for those who are interested in a serious relationship. eHarmony also made heavy use of off-line traditional advertising, offering the free compatability test.

 

eHarmony founder Dr. Neil Clark Warren, a 35-year clinical psychologist, found in his research that some people are just not compatible for each other and should not be in a relationship with each other.  He believed you can test in advance for this, and that a compatibility test could be used as a screening device for online daters.

 

Dr. Warren’s twist in the online dating arena is a great illustration of how a relatively small chance in your positioning can make an enormous difference in your success.

 

The safest path to marketing and business success is to enter into a well-established market.  That is, offer a product or service that you know for certain people want.  And then figure out a way to differentiate yourself from the crowd.  As yourself: “What is it that makes you different from your competitors? Or what little change can I make that will make me different and make me stand out?” This is called offering a Unique Selling Proposition (USP) in marketing. eHarmony struck gold by creating an online dating service with a difference.

 

And of course finding romance is among the most powerful human desires in life.

 

Business Networking Sites

 

If you have worked in an office in recent years, chances are you have received emails from business contacts asking you to update your information.  One of the big companies behind those emails is called Linked In – www.LinkedIn.com

 

Linked In offers people in business and easy way to make sure all their contact information is up to date and to reconnect with people you might have lost track of.  Members post their profiles on Linked In, which are a goldmine for both recruiters looking to hire and job seekers looking to be hired. Tech giants such as Google and Microsoft say they use Linked In to find the best and brightest employees.

 

Linked In helps those in business and in sales build and maintain their prospect and contact list. It’s also a brilliant strategy by Linked In to build it’s own network, which now has nearly 20,000,000 users. 

 

Linked In makes its money by offering its users a variety of premium services.  Posting a job listing is run your $95 per month.

 

The site’s 60,000 personnel recruiters pay an average of $3,600 per year to be able to send email messages to members outside their own person network of contacts

 

Link In launched in 2003 and is projecting revenues to hit $100,000,000 in 2008.

 

Other business networking sites include Spoke.com, JigSaw.com and Jobster.com

 

The key to the success of all these sites is that they provide a solid reason for people to put their profiles and contact information in the databases of these sites. That reason is to build your own list of contacts and leads, which will lead to more sales.  Everyone in business knows that contacts and building your network is a big key to success.  So that’s what these sites offer.

 

The people on these data bases tend to be more motivated, higher net-worth people than the average citizen. So this makes these databases extraordinarily valuable to a marketer, especially if you are selling to business.

 

Social Networking Sites

 

MySpace.com is the #1 social networking site. 

 

61% of young people between the ages of 13 and 17 have profiles on MySpace.com, Friendster or Xanga.  Traffic on MySpace grew 367% in 2006.  MySpace is now pulling in about $300,000,000 a year in ad revenue. 

 

MySpace has also teamed up with Cingular to market a MySpace mobile phone. And MySpace is now #2 on the Web for online videos, #1 being YouTube.

 

FaceBook.com is another rapidly growing social networking site, aimed more at college students.

 

The business model for a social or business networking site is to target a specific demographic, or an audience that shares some common interest.  Money is generated with advertising and by selling products and services of interest to your target audience.  You have both a media property and a highly targeted list.  The profiles on your social or business network allow you to precisely segment your list into categories so that you can deliver highly targeted offers.

 

The field is still wide open for more social and business networking sites.

 

IGolf.To is a social networking site for golfers, but it doesn’t look very good to me.  Plenty of room for more competition here.

 

The easiest path to success in this arena is to narrow your target market. 

 

Create a social networking site for golfers, for skiiers, for tennis players, for outdoor enthusiasts, for sailboat owners, for duck hunters, for stamp collectors, for wine enthusiasts.

 

The possibilities are endless.

 

Develop a social networking site around your hobby or your enthusiasm.  That way you can get rich quickly by doing your hobby – something you love to do anyway.

 

Combine your love of your hobby or sport with the profit motive that Linked In has done so well.  A business networking site for golf fanatics could be huge.  You develop your business contacts while doing what you love – all at the same time. 

 

How about a business networking site for duck hunters?

 

This way you have a double-affinity (this is key) working for people who join the network. They are in business and love to golf.  So you get not just any golfer – but high net-worth, success-oriented golf fanatics – a goldmine for advertisers and target marketers.

 

What’s terrific about this model is that members of the site create much of the content of the site. They post their profiles, their videos, their photos, their comments and insights. And they are easily able to find people near where they live who share their enthusiasm.

 

Social and business networking sites can be free, or something you charge a monthly fee for.

 

 

Classified Ad Sites

 

Craig’sList.com

 

In 1995, Craigslist.org started out in San Francisco as a bare-bones bulletin board site for people looking for almost anything, such as apartments, dates or baseball tickets.  Its founder Craig Newmark started the site originally as just a way to inform friends about upcoming art and technology and as a place to post his resume.

 

Today, Craigslist brings in about $20,000,000 a year and EBay recently bought a 25% in the company for $15,000,000.  I could have put Craigslist in the social networking category of site.  But most people think of it more as a mostly free classified ad service, so that’s why its here. 

 

Oddly, Newmark seems not at all focused on revenue or profits.  Currently, Craigslist charges $25 for job postings in six of its largest U.S. cities and $75 for job listings in San Francisco. Craigslist also charges a $10 fee for apartment listings in New York City.

 

That’s how Craiglist makes money – period.  End of story.

 

All the other postings on Craigslist are free. Craigslist is like a 21^st Century supermarket bulletin board.

 

For Newmark, Craigslist remains more of a hobby than a business.  He does not allow banner ads or Google AdSense text ads on the site.  When asked why, since this would clearly be an enormous source of ad revenue for Craigslist, Newmark answer “because our users have not asked for them” – as if that’s an answer.

 

Here’s a facscinating excerpt from an interview with Criag Newmark conducted by InternetNews.com that gives you an insight into the mind of the Craigslist founder:

 

Q: What kind of business model did Craigslist create

 

A: We really don't have a business model. We are a community service, and we found some years ago that we could provide a really good service to employers and recruiters.

Then we asked our community, "What is the right thing to do along these lines?" They told us to charge the people who would otherwise be paying more money for less effective advertising. And that has helped set our moral compass. We are charging recruiters and employers in San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York.

 

Q: With eBay holding a 25 percent stake in Craigslist, do you still consider the online auctioneer a competitor?

 

A: We overlap a little bit, but we do similar good things for the community. Right now there is plenty of classified business for everyone, and we really don't think we are competing with people.

 

Q: We hear a lot about how Google's business model is actually built on the concept of others creating its content. The same is true for Craigslist. So would that make you a really smart aggregator?

 

A: I wouldn't put it that way. That would involve a change of mindset I'm not capable of right now. We provide a community service that helps people. Google has a very different business model.

 

Q: To what would you attribute the success of Craigslist?

 

A really good culture of trust, and we are a simple and effective site. We are kind of like a flea market, and flea markets have a social aspect, as well as a commercial aspect.

 

Q: Is keeping it simple something you've been conscious of from the outset in 1995?

 

A: Yes. I only know how to do things simply. We're lucky that I have no talent with Web design. Initially, we only had two links: us as we existed and the other was my resume. Then at some point it became four links plus my resume. There were events, jobs, apartments and everything else. It just grew from there. So what we have today is a direct evolution of what we had all that time ago.

 

Q: How have you managed the growth of your site?

 

A: It was very gradual. When I saw something that needed work, I would just write some code to make it much easier. That's what we do today.

 

Q: It has been reported recently that Craigslist is costing newspapers in the Bay Area $50 million to $60 million in advertising revenue. Do you see Craigslist competing with newspapers for ad dollars?

 

A: I don't know if I believe that about the $60 million. And again, I keep saying that there is a lot of classified business out there that newspapers could get.

 

Q: What is the next big thing for Craigslist?

 

A: I don't think there is a "next big thing." We are just talking about incremental improvements continuously.

 

Q: People have offered to buy Craigslist. Would you ever sell it?

 

A: No. I've done well enough. The fundamental question for any human is how much money do you need to make.

 

Monster.com

 

Monster.com is a jobs listing site that currently brings in about $1 BILLION a year in revenue, and is yet another business built on the model of putting buyers together will sellers. 

 

For example, if you want access to resumes for two weeks of people living within a 100 mile radius and up to 400 viewings, that will cost en employer $650.  If you want nationwide access for two weeks, that will cost an employer $950.  Employers can also pay an annual fee of about $10,0000 that will by them nationwide access to Monster’s resume database for a year. It will cost an employer $475 to list a job opening, with discounts for bulk order job listings.

 

 So that’s how Monster’s business model.

 

Jobster

 

Jobster.com has an interesting business model that could eat into Monster’s share of the market.

 

Unlike Monster, Jobster allows employers to list job openings for free. Employers are also instantly alerted to potential candidates (based on tags that are part of a job seeker’s profile).  Job seekers will also be alerted to opportunities that fit their profile.  Jobster’s business model is ad revenue.

 

Jobster is more of  hybrid site – part classified ad-style  listings and part networking, similar in that respect to Linked In.   Jobster has also partnered with Facebook – which primarily targets college students.

 

Overall, classified ad sites are a booming industry on the Web, generating about $3 billion in 2007 and growing at a rate of about 15% per year. 

 

When you think about it, the search engines have organized the Internet like a giant classified ad service or directory. When people are looking for something, they type keywords and phrases into search engines.  The search engine then retrieves web pages and sites that best match the search terms being used.

 

Directory Sites

 

Enormous money can be made in the director business.

 

Directories are compiled lists organized by category.   Directories are another way people find things they are looking for.

 

The Yellow Pages and Super Pages are directories.  The phone book is a directory that is organized alphabetically and by town or region so that you can easily look up a phone number.

 

Industry Associations usually maintain a directory of its membership – which you can access usually only by being a member of the association.

 

A directory can be very valuable.  For example, let’s say I am trying to reach realtors because I have a product that would interest realtors.  I would pay money, perhaps a substantial sum, to gain access to a directory of practicing realtors.

 

Some directories aim to be comprehensive.  A directory might include all licensed drivers in Manhattan.  Another directory might just include paid member of the American Automobile Association in Manhattan.

 

Directories are essential for marketers.

 

One of the most valuable sites on the Web for me is SRDS.com

 

SRDS is in the list research and information business.  SRDS stands for Standard Rates and Data Service.  SRDS produces all kinds of directories designed to help target marketers find their most likely buyers.

 

One of the SRDS directories that I use the most is the SRDS Directory of Lists for rent.  This is a 1600 page directory that lists more than 30,000 different lists that are available for rent for your direct mail or direct marketing program.  These lists are organized by subject.

 

I pay $695 per year to have access to this and other SRDS directories.

 

Another SRDS directory I use is the SRDS Directory of Business Publications – enormously useful for my B2B marketing campaigns.

 

I will spend hours studying the SRDS directories as I plan my strategy for reaching a specific target audience with my marketing message.

 

Without the SRDS List Directory and other directories, I would have a very difficult time reaching my target audience of likely buyers.  We could not conduct direct mail campaigns without lists of people who have a history of buying products similar to what we are selling.  Specialized lists, complied according to subject matter or certain criteria, are the same as directories.

 

The point is, directories are an essential tool for navigating life.  We need a way look things up.

 

Compiling a directory can be an enormously lucrative business.  The Yellow Pages has been an enormous business now for more than 120 years.  A dictionary is a directory of the words we use.

 

Here’s Google’s directory of topics and categories: www. directory.google.com

 

Here’s the site for the Open Directory Project: www.dmoz.org

 

Here’s a health and wellness directory: www.standardlife.ca/en/health/directory/index.html

 

The list and cataloging business is a multi-billion dollar industry. It’s how we organize information.

 

One of the nation’s biggest data bases is InfoUSA.  One of its products you might have heard of is SalesGenie.com. You might have seen Sales Genie’s Super Bowl ads, or one of its other ads.

 

What the salesgenie.com program does is supply sales people with qualified leads. It’s able to do this because it’s data base includes:

 

·   14 Million U.S. Businesses

·   2.6 Million New Businesses

·   13 Million Executives & Professionals

·   600,000 Manufacturers

·   250,000 Big Businesses

·   5 Million Small Businesses

·   210 Million U.S. Consumers

·   75 Million Homeowners

·   15 Million New Movers

·   4 Million New Homeowners

·   8.5 Million Bankruptcy Filers

·   13.4 Million Homes with Children

 

InfoUSA collects a lot of information about each name on its data base, including credit history, estimated net worth, buying patterns, profession and more.

 

This information is a goldmine for marketers who know how to use it.  I’m in the list compiling business myself, so I know.

 

The InfoUSA product was once geared toward big mass-marketers. 

 

With it’s relatively new salesgenie.com product that’s delivered over the Internet, targeted leads are now available to the small business and average commissioned salesperson. 

 

A list of likely buyers of the product or service you are selling is just about the most valuable information there is for a commissioned sales person or a business. 

 

As a result, the salesgenie.com product is making a fortune for InfoUSA – a company that I use for some of my own list work.

 

If you have a way to compile and organize information in a way that is useful, you can make a fortune in the directory or list compiling business.

 

Google AdSense Sites

 

Google AdSense is a program where Google pays you to run Google AdWords pay-per-click ads on your website.

 

Here’s how it works.

 

If you have ever run a Google AdWords campaign, you will have no trouble following this.

 

What Google does is take the ads of its Google AdWords customers and puts them on sites that match the content of the ads, as defined by the keywords connected with the ads. 

 

You are paid each time someone clicks on a Google AdWords ad that’s running on your site.  The more clicks on the ad, the more money your make.

 

Google’s goal is to match Google AdWords ads to the content of sites and to maximize the number of clicks on it ads.  The more traffic that comes through your site, the more clicks you’re likely to get on the contextual ads that Google is running on your site.

 

Your general business site is probably not a good candidate for your Google AdSense program.

 

The best sites for AdSense are built around a specific topic and that are comprehensive on that topic.  It’s also best if the site is purely informational and is not a sales site.

 

Why?

 

Because when people conduct searches on the Internet, they are searching for information. 

 

Google wants to deliver information to searchers, not ads.  So information sites rank higher in search engine listings than sites that are clearly commercial or advertisements.

 

As a result, information sites are higher traffic sites.

 

The size of your wallet is not what Google cares about when deciding where to place the ads of its AdWords customers.

 

All Google wants to know is which sites have content that is most relevant to the ad.  It you deliver this, Google will bring traffic to your site of people searching for the topic that your site addresses.

 

What counts with Google is matching the ad to the right content so that content searchers will encounter ads related exactly to their area of interest.  Google does not reveal the sophisticated algorithms is uses to achieve this.

 

But this is a great way for you to build an information site around a hobby of yours, or a subject that you love, and make a boatload of money from Google AdSense.

 

This is one of the easiest ways to make money on the Internet.

 

I’ll get into more of the details of how AdSense works later.

 

Online Auctions

 

As everyone knows, Ebay is the 800-pound gorilla in this space.  Ebay’s revenue was $5.9 BILLION in 2006 – up 24% from 2005.

 

It would be as tough to compete head-to-head with Ebay nationally and globally in the online auction market a it would be to compete with Crest toothpaste.  Yahoo and Amazon are trying.  

 

Some say Yahoo’s and Amazon’s online auction technology is superior to Ebay’s.  But Ebay has hammered out a place in our brains as the place to go for online auctions.  That’s Ebay’s brand.

 

But if you were to try to get in the online auction business, the way to do it would be on a local level.  The case you would make is that your buyers and sellers could meet in person to complete the transaction, and the ability to do this helps protect your from fraud.

 

That would be a strong argument for doing business on your online auction site rather than Ebay’s – where you have to trust you aren’t being ripped off by someone you have never met and probably could never find if you are not satisfied with the product you bought.

 

Being the local service is always a strong reason for people to do business with you.  They can find you.  They can walk into your store if they are not happy with what they bought. They can track you down.

 

In addition to being local, another twist you might add that would further differentiate yourself from Ebay is not to call yourself an auction site.  Consider positioning yourself as a local online flea market or a local trader site – where you put buyers and sellers together.  Ebay also keeps jacking up its fees.  So there is plenty of opportunity to challenge Ebay in a local area. 

 

The key is to differentiate yourself from Ebay.  “Differentiate or die,” as we marketers say.

 

Getting just tiny piece of the multi-billion-dollar online auction business – as in your local area – could still make you a fortune.  Then, if you are successful in one local area and ambitious, you replicate your success in another local area. And you do it again and again – just like McDonalds and Starbucks build stores, one store at a time.

 

Media and Software Download Sites

 

Anything that’s digital is downloadable – including music, audio, print, software.

 

What’s great about selling a downloadable digital product is that you have no inventory.

 

Inventory can be a big cost to a business. 

 

In fact, miscalculating inventory is a major reason businesses go under. 

 

If you over-estimate demand and are stuck with a big inventory of an unsellable product, that’s like having a big pile of money sitting on your warehouse floor that you can’t use.  Or if your product is selling more slowly than you expected, your inventory creates a cashflow problem for your business.

 

On the other hand, if you underestimate demand for your product and can’t fill orders quickly because you have too little inventory, not only is that leaving money on the table, but you have an army of frustrated buyers out there who can’t get what they want from you. This creates negative “word-of-mouth” for you, which can spread like wildfire and also kill your business.

 

Managing inventory and accurately estimating exactly how much inventory you need to keep up with demand is one of the most vexing problems in business.

 

Dell manufactures computers and accessories.  Michael Dell was so successful because he perfected a process of precisely managing his inventory. 

 

In fact, Dell does not build the computer until the order comes in. Dell’s assembly lines can snap together a computer is about 12 minutes. So he has eliminated a big part of his inventory by being able to assemble a computer after the order comes in. 

 

But Dell still has an inventory of parts.  The number Michael Dell tracks most closely is not sales, it’s inventory.  The ships carrying the parts arriving from Asia and India have to be precisely timed and need to be carrying exactly the right parts in exactly the right number, or Dell has an inventory problem.  Dell’s success is due, in large part, to its process of managing and estimating its inventory needs more precisely than any company on the planet.

 

But if you are selling products that are downloadable, you eliminate your inventory problem.

 

Personally, I don’t want to have big warehouses full of stuff.  I don’t want to build factories that manufacture products that I then have to sell.  I don’t want to have to deal with banks and investors to capitalize all this infrastructure that’s needed to manufacture and store inventory.

 

I want to sell something that’s almost free to deliver and store – something digital.

 

I happen to be an Information Marketer.  I sell books, seminars, articles, newsletters, audios and videos designed to help entrepreneurs improve their marketing.  All this can be delivered digitally.  Yes, I do have some inventory of my printed books.  But I try to keep that to a minimum.  My big profits are made with my digital downloadable products.

 

I’ll explain my own business model in more detail later.

 

Here are some examples of media and software download sites:

 

www.ITunes.com

www.CNet.com

www.Napster.com

www.podcastalley.com

www.Rhapsody.com

www.MovieFlix.com

www.CinemaNow.com

www.DownLoad.com

www.ShareWare.com

www.ebookmall.com

 

 

Content That Creates Itself

 

Some of the most successful sites have content that creates itself.

 

That is, the users of the site create the content.  Examples include: Google, Yahoo and all the search engines, Ebay, Craigslist, all the classified ad sites, Amazon,  Match.com and all the dating sites.

 

What’s great about the users creating the content is this take a big burden off the site owners. 

 

AOL, a Time-Warner property, creates much of its own content.  And its content, frankly, stinks.  AOL’s content on its home-page is incredibly inane and should insult the intelligence of anyone with half a brain. Even worse than the stunningly stupid articles AOL treats its subscribers to all the time is that AOL is increasing the practice of feeding it’s susbcribers paid advertisements that masquerade as articles.

 

As a result, AOL is losing subscribers in droves.

 

One reason AOL has this problem is that it’s difficult to create new and interesting content all day long, everyday – no matter how big a staff of writers you have.  Not only is this very expensive, but most of AOL’s writers clearly just graduated from college (if they are that old) – which explains the mind-numbing stupidity of the writing at AOL.

 

But sites like EBay, Craigslist, MySpace, YouTube, the search engines and the dating sites don’t have that problem. On these sites, the content creates itself.  In the case of search engines, the content is out there. The search engines just have to crawl the web, find it and retrieve it for its searchers.  For the classified ad sites and dating sites, the users create the content.

 

These sites are enormously profitable because they don’t require a lot of staff to run. The site simply acts as a facilitator for what the users want to do. Craigslist has 12 employees and brought in about $25,000,000 in revenue in 2006, or about $2.1 million for each employee (including the janitor and the receptionist).  Not bad.

 

Google had about 8,000 employees in June 2006 and brought in $10.4 billion that year – which is $1,250,000 per employee (right down the janitor).  By contrast, media giant (and content creator) AOL-TimeWarner had 90,000 employees in 2006 who generated $44 billion in revenue, or about $488,000 per employee (a third of Google’s profit per employee). Time-Warner’s profit margin was 14.2% in 2006, while Google’s was 29.4%.

 

Both businesses are clearly great.  But which is better?  One that requires a lot of employees to create content?  Or one that just uses the content of others – in Google’s case, the world’s content.

 

Yahoo is a hybrid – provides a lot of content for it news sections and uses the content of others. Yahoo’s search engine, dating area, classified ads and chat rooms are a big reason people go to Yahoo.  Yahoo’s 10,000 employees brought in $6.4 billion in 2006 – or about $640,000 per employee – so (as we would expect) about half way between Google (uses almost all content created by others) and Time-Warner (creates almost all its own content).

 

It’s expensive to create all your own content.  It’s more profitable to be a facilitator – a middleman. The Charles Dickesn character, young Oliver Twist, had a great line on this.   Oliver’s adoptive father Mr. Brownlow asks Oliver if he might like to write books someday.  Oliver’s answer: “I think I’d rather be a bookseller, sir.”

 

Even young Oliver Twist knew that it would be far more profitable to sell other people’s content than to create it all yourself.  And it’s a whole lot easier.  Just set up the system or mechanism – i.e. YouTube, Google or Craigslist.  The content then just creates itself.  Others do all the content creation work for you.   And it’s far more interesting content than if all the content you are selling comes out of just you, or the few people working at your company.

 

Affiliate Marketing Sites

 

Another great Internet business model is to sell the products of others.

 

There’s really no need to bother creating your own product or products – which can be a costly, time-consuming and risky proposition. 

 

Instead, find the best, most profitable products . . . and sell those.

 

Affiliate marketing sites are a huge business on the Internet.  What companies do is offer a commission to those (“affiliate marketers” or “associates”) who sell their products for them.  Commissions for sales range from 10% to 60%.  So you are paid by your performance. Why go to the bother of creating your own products when these kinds of commission payouts are available – and for excellent, hot-selling products?

 

There are many ways to be a successful affiliate marketer.

 

But one of the best ways is to set up a terrific information site on a specific subject. And then, in and around the great articles you’ll running, you include ads on the products you are receiving a commission on.

 

The useful, informative articles bring in your traffic. 

 

You make money when someone clicks on the ad on your site that takes them to the site where the product can be found.  The way most automated affiliate marketing programs work is that code is placed in the links that lead to the product seller’s site.  This code allows the main marketer to track the origin of the customer and pay the commission.

 

Commissions can also be paid just on the click-through to the site – regardless of whether the person buys anything.  This is how the Google AdSense program works.  If you are running Google AdSense ads on your site, you are paid whenever someone clicks on the ad that’s running on your site.

 

The key to it is that a code, unique to your site, is embedded in the link.  That’s the tracking mechanism for the payout of affiliate commissions.  In addition, the better affiliate programs will also insert a cookie into the computer of the visitor you brought to the main marketer’s site, so that if the visitor does not buy anything on that visit, but returns again later by some other route, the affiliate marketer will still get credit for the sale.

 

Many sites are set up for the sole purpose of earning affiliate marketing commissions.

 

websitebuildersreview.com is an example of such a site.

 

If are searching the Internet for online website buildling tools, you might stumble across www.websitebuilderreview.com. If you click on one of the links on this site, end up on the website of the product seller and buy the product, the owner of websitebuilderreview.com receives a commission on the sale.

 

Another example is the ezine Web Marketing Today (www.wilsonweb.com).  This is actually a quality publication with a lot of useful information. The site is supported by ad revenue and affiliate commissions.

 

Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon.com, is one of the pioneers of affiliate marketing on the Internet.

 

The story goes that Bezos was chatting with a woman at a cocktail party who told him that she would like to sell books on her site.  So this started Bezos thinking. Why not just give this woman, and others like her, a commission on books she’s able to sell through her site?

 

Amazon would do all the work -- fufulfill the order, ship the books, etc. 

 

All she would need to do is bring her people to the books she’s recommending on Amazon. 

 

She would then not have to carry any inventory.  Soon after this conversation, so the story goes, Amazon in 1996 rolled out the Amazon Associates Program. Under this program, Amazon Associates would simply place banner or text links on their site for the books they are recommending, or to Amazon’s homepage.

 

When visitors click from the Associate’s site and buy a book at Amazon, the associate is paid a commission.  The Amazon Associates Program played a big role in making Amazon the Internet behemoth it now is. Though Amazon’s affiliate program is one of the most famous, the first known affiliate marketing program of this kind was launched by CDNow.com in 1994.

 

Some affiliate programs don’t rely on code, but are performed manually – just like a traditional referral program or standard commissioned sales program.

 

Under these programs, the affiliate marketer (or sales person) simply supplies the names of people he’s sending to the site, perhaps also with email addresses.  The names and email addresses are then preserved in the company’s data base, linked to the affiliate.  When ever one of these names buys something, the affiliate marketer gets the credit.

 

Another powerful method of tracking the performance of affiliates is to offer a special discount at the main marketer’s site for anyone who comes into the site by way of an affiliate.  The visitor is then asked to plug in a discount code.  The code is unique to the affiliate marketer so that the affiliate marketer can then get the proper credit.

 

So affiliate marketing programs can be run in many different ways.

 

Some affiliate marketing programs use a combination of these methods.

 

I will get into much more detail on affiliate marketing, and it’s power both for the main advertiser and the publisher, later on in the seminar on Affiliate Marketing.

 

Blogs

 

Blog is slang for Web Log. 

 

I won’t cover blogs too much here.  I’ll get into blogging more extensively later.

 

A blog is is a website where entries are made in journal style, are dated, and are in reverse chronological order. a blog is usually a long scrolling web page, win one article after another. Most blogs are one-man bands. The best ones reflect the distinct, sometimes quirky, personality of the blogger.

 

Blogs can be on any subject.  A typical blog is mostly texts, but can include images, links to other blogs and sites, and other media related to its topic.  Blogs usually allow for readers to post comments on articles.

 

As of November 2006, blog search engine Technorati was tracking 60 million blogs.

 

Blogs are often thought to be little more than online diaries – vehicles for self-expression.

 

But with Internet-like speed, blogs have gone from self-indulgent hobbies to flourishing businesses.   Real businesses, with real revenue streams from real advertisers are becoming major media properties.  Advertisers spent an estimated $40 million to run ads on blogs in 2006 – double what it was in 2005

 

Blogging is quickly becoming one of the most powerful marketing vehicles on the Web.  Blogs allow advertisers to reach highly-targeted niche audiences.

The big revenue source for bloggers is Google AdSense, which is expected to generate sales of $5 billion in 2007

A big reason for the success of blogging is that search engines tend to reward blogs with high rankings on listings because blogs are newsy, educational and full of content. Search engines like lots of text – especially if its focused on a specialized topic.

 

Here’s a listing of the top 10 most widely read blogs:

 

1)      Endgadget.com

2)      BongBoing.net

3)      Techcrunch.com

4)      Gizmodo.com

5)      TheHuffingtonPost.com

6)      Lifehacker.com

7)      Dailykos.com

8)      PostSecret.blogspot.com

9)      Arstechnica

10)  MichelleMalkin.com

 

The most popular blogs are on technology.  The #2 category is politics.

 

What’s great about blogs is how easy they are to create. You can easily create a blog on a third-party hosted site such as www.Typepad.com, www.Blogger.com, www.MovableType.com.

 

This is perfect for those who are not the least bit tech savvy. Adding articles to your blog requires no more than typing into a field and then hitting “send.”

Word of the most interesting blogs travels like wildfire in the blogosphere.

The way blogs can make money is no different from any other website.

Advertising is the main source of revenue for the most popular blogs.  Many blogs participate in the Google Ad Sense program.  Blogs also sell the products and services of the blogger.

The best sway to bring traffic to your blog is to focus your blog on a specific topic.  Search engines will reward a blog like this by ranking your blog high on the search engine listing for those searching for the topic of your blog.  Search engines like blogs because blogs have lots of articles.  Some of the best blogs feature both articles and podcasts.

An easy and highly effective way for any commissioned sales person to gain traction and set himself apart from his peers is to start an interesting educational blog – like one of these.

Once your blog is up and running, let your customers know about it. If it’s good, strangers will stumble into it  through word of mouth or search engines.  A big key to success in blogging is to update it all the time – everyday, even twice a day.

I believe every business needs a blog, or at least should consider launching a blog.  A great blog is one of the most powerful marketing tools to deploy on the Internet.  Many business would be better off having just a blog instead of a traditional business website.  Blogs are inherently more interesting than a general business website because blogs are updated all the time, or should be.

A general business website is more like a brochure.  A blog is more like a daily newspaper.  People read newspapers.  They don’t read brochures.  So if you want people reading your website, and if you want people to return to your website everyday to find out what’s new, start blogging.  But if your blog is to be successful, it needs to be good, really good.

More later on why blogging is such a powerful marketing tool.

Lead Generation Sites

 

Some websites are designed to capture leads.  They are list building sites.

 

That’s their only purpose.  In fact, that’s how I design my lead generation program.

 

My lead generation program is the foundation of my Internet marketing business model.

 

My Internet business generates about $100,000 is sales per month.

 

What I sell are information products and coaching programs aimed at helping entrepreneurs grow their businesses by improving their marketing.

 

The first step is you must have a way to build an enormous list of subscribers to your online newsletter or ezine.

 

To do this you need four things. 

 

1) You need a landing page that has a form on it that people fill out to give you their name and email address.

 

2) As an incentive to fill out your form, you must offer something of value for free -- something that is exactly in line with the other products you are selling.  I call this an "ethical bribe" . . . because no one will fill out your form unless you give them a good reason to fill it out.

 

3) You must have a way to bring people to your landing page (i.e. ads).

 

4) And you must have an email broadcast system that stores the names and email addresses of all your opt-in subscribers and that allows you to send follow-up emails to your now growing list of people who have expressed interest in what you are selling or what you are doing.

 

You'll find a sample "Landing Page" here at:

www.FreeSalesLetterBook.com

 

Notice my domain name. It says exactly what the offer is and it’s easy to remember – important for my radio ads, which say as the call-to-action:

“Just go to FreeSalesLetterBook.com”

 

It's best to show a “Landing Page,” not just describe it.  People learn by seeing.

 

Now, this "Landing Page" I’ve put up is certainly no work of art. Let’s be honest, it’s pretty ugly.

 

I'm not a graphic artist or a techie.  I'm a marketer.

 

But it gets the job done.  And in all head-to-head tests, this page I put up myself has performed far better than the "Landing Pages" (also called “Squeeze Pages”) given to me by professional graphic artists and professional web designers who were supposedly Internet marketing experts.

 

They thought they could improve my "Landing Page" by making it look better.

 

Wrong.

 

The better the page looked, the worse it did.  Ugly almost always works better than pretty in direct marketing – whether offline or online.

 

All I'm interested in is performance, not winning a beauty contest.

 

This kind of a "Landing Page" or “Squeeze Page” has been incredibly effective for me in building my opt-in email list of leads. 

 

I have built an opt-in email list of about 43,000 leads just in 2006-07 with "Landing Pages" that look a lot like the one I have at FreeSalesLetterBook.com

 

This “Landing Page” strategy has been a huge key to building a profitable Internet business for me.

 

So here are the essential elements that make my "Landing Page" or “Squeeze Page” work:

 

1)    I offer something of value FREE as a strong incentive for a visitor to my site to leave me their contact information.  

 

Here I offer a book.  You can also offer a FREE Special Report.  The word "FREE" is just about the most powerful word in marketing and advertising. FREE is the right price for everyone. 

 

2) Make sure the headline on your "Landing Page" includes the key benefit and a strong "call-to-action."

 

That is, tell your reader exactly what to do.  Your offer and "call-to-action" must be super simple and easy to understand. Your reader will give you three seconds at most to communicate your message.  A big headline that screams the main benefit at your reader is critical to your success.

 

3) Make sure your FREE offer is exactly in line with the advertisement that brought your surfer to your "Landing Page." 

 

One ad I run is a pay-per-click ad that I run on Google AdWords, Yahoo Search Marketing and other search engines with a headline that reads "Great Sales Letters, FREE." So the offer in the ad is identical to the offer on the "Landing Page"  or “squeeze page” as some call it.

 

It’s essential that the ad and the landing page are a seemless continuation.  In other words, the landing page must be a continuation of the ad – which might be little more than a headline.

 

I also run classified ads in Entrepreneur magazine and other places that make essentially this same offer, bringing those interested to my "Landing Page." 

 

And I run ads on radio shows that are aimed at entrepreneurs, again bringing people to this landing page.  

 

I don't use 1-800 numbers much anymore.

 

I just bring people to this landing page – FreeSalesLetterBook.com. – which is much more efficient than a phone number.

 

May “Landing Page” also includes an audio version of the message -- and emphasizes the “call to action.” That is, it tells my reader exactly what to do, and why.

 

I do this because audio is attention-getting.  I'm not counting on my visitor to go to the trouble of reading my message.  I'll also say it so my visitor is greeted with a multi-media presentation.

 

I tested a video version, but a lot of folks still have slow computers and slow internet connections.  So audio still works best for this purpose.

 

My "Landing Pages" also requires a minimum amount of information -- just the email address and the name of my visitor.

 

I do ask for more contact information (because it's good to have), but I don't "require" it.

 

That's because I want to make it as easy as possible for people to fill out the form and get their book.  Also, people are leery about having to give out too much personal information to a stranger.

 

The more information your require, the more your opt-in rate will drop.

 

So just require the bare minimum of information.  You can collect the rest later. Just get your visitors on your list.

 

The FreeSalesLetterBook.com landing page is just one example of a "Landing Page."  There are many variations.

 

But this formula has worked very well for me.

 

So that's how you convert visitors to your website into good solid leads for what you are selling.

 

In my case, I am selling marketing advice and marketing consulting. So that's one method for how I compile my list of super-qualified leads over the Internet. 

 

Now, once you have captured the lead, your next job is to convert your lead into an actual buyer.

 

You do this by offering your leads a steady stream of useful and interneting information on this subject mixed in with offers -- no longer free offers, but offers that require your leads now to pay something.

 

To be successful, your follow-up offers must (once again) be exactly in line with the offer that prompted your visitor to fill out the opt-in form to get you free offer on your "Landing Page."  Your follow-up offers must be a continuation of the same conversation.

 

As you do this, you will need to calculate:

 

1) How much it's costing you to get a visitor to your site.

 

2) What percentage of visitors fill out your form to get your FREE offer.

 

3) What percentage of your opt-ins then become actual buyers.

 

4) What is the long-term value of a buyer on average?

 

You need to know these numbers in order to know how much you can spend on advertising, whether it's pay-per-click advertising on Google AdWords, or another form of advertising.

 

This, in a nutshell, is how I’m able to generate more than $80,000 per month in sales across my websites.  Follow this approach, and you can do the same.

 

The key to building any business is have a way of building a list of qualified leads or "prospects" – and then converting your prospects into buyers.

 

The process is really this . . .

 

First you find your "suspects." 

 

These are the folks who visited your web site, so they have some level of interest in what you are doing or offering. But they have not yet taken the next step of filling out your opt-in form.

 

Second, you find your "prospects."

 

These are people who filled out your opt-in form, but have not bought anything yet.  Your big job then is to covert your "prospects" into first-time buyers.

 

Converting leads into buyers is another big topic I’ll cover later in this book.  And that part of your business model is essential because if your "lead acquisition" program does not lead to actual sales, it's all for naught.

 

Here are some more examples of websites designed to attract and capture leads:

 

www.FreeCreditReport.com

www.investorsdailyedge.com

www.DoubleYourDating.com

www.stockmarket7keys.com

www.mattfurey.com

 

Sales Letter Sites

 

After you capture your leads, you will then want to take your leads to your sales presentation – which can look very much like the good old fashioned printed sales letter..

 

The entire site is constructed very much like a traditional direct mail sales package.

 

There’s the main cover letter, and order form, and perhaps some enclosures.  The equivalent of the enclosures on your sales letter website are your tabs in the index.  You’ll find one of my sales letter-style websites at www.MarketingRocketFuel.com.

 

On my website I include and audio message with my sales letter. In this case my audio message is fairly lengthy – about 25 minutes.  It’s really more of a lecture.   I do this because I am selling a course, and I want to give my prospect a sample of what they will be getting in the course.  As with sales letters, audio messages can be long or short.  Length depends on its purpose and how much you have to say. As with your sales letter, it can be long if what you are saying is interesting.

 

My audio message plays automatically for anyone who lands on this page.

 

Whether you have your audio message play automatically, again, depends on the purpose of your site.  I want to get the attention of and make an impact on my first-time visitor.

 

But it would probably be annoying to have your audio message play every time on your general business website, or on a website that you want and expect your customers to return to over and over again. 

 

If you are running an online magazine that is updated with news everyday, or a portal that you’d like to be the home page of your customers, you would certainly not want to have an automatically playing audio message or video.

 

Your automatically playing audio message is more appropriate for those who have never bought from you – that is, for your prospecting sales letter website, or for your site that is specifically designed to sell one and only one thing.

 

 I have found that audio usually significantly boosts sales on this kind of site.

 

As in direct mail, a sales letter site should sell one and only one thing.

 

Here, I am asking my visitors to test drive my Inner Circle coaching program for 14 days for a cost of $1. So this is a prospecting sales letter website.  “Prospecting” means, I am speaking mostly to people who have never bought anything from me before.  So I am making a risk-free proposition to my visitor.

 

Many of the rules for a successful direct mail sales letter apply to your sales letter website.  For more on this, read my book How To Write Blockbuster Sales Letters.

 

This book applies both to your offline and online sales letters.

 

My sales letter website also has many hidden pages – pages that are not in the index and that you can’t see.  Some of my emails to my opt-in subscribers will take my readers directly to the main offer on the home page.  But most of my emails will promote a new article that’s on a hidden page – a page that can only be accessed by a link in the email.

 

Even though it’s the article is hidden (except to those who have the link), the article is connect to the site.  So the site’s index can be seen by readers of the article, and they can hit the Inner Circle tab in the index and read the main sales letter.  At the end of the article, I will also encourage readers to go to the main Inner Circle sales letter with a line that says something link this: “Now click here if your a really serious about growing your business exponentially by improving your marketing.”

 

What I am doing with the articles is giving a reason for my opt-in subscribers to come back to my sales letter website.  This is how I create repeat traffic to my site from my opt-in subscriber list. Many who read the article, will then hit the Inner Circle tab and read and hear my sales presentation again.

 

After about 21 days, I will stop taking my opt-in subscribers to this sales letter site if they don’t bite on my offer.  I figure if they don’t bite within 21 days, they aren’t interested.  I will then take them to another one of my sales letter websites that’s selling something else.

 

If that fails, I will take them to my Marketing Blog that contains Google AdSense ads and ads offering products that are not mine, but where I earn a commission as an affiliate marketer.

 

Here are some more examples of sales letter or sales presentation websites:

 

www.77milliondollars.com

www.optimumanabolics.com

http://www.marketingrights.com

http://www.mattfurey.com/furey_inner_circle.html

http://buildit.sitesell.com/main/home.html

http://winninginthecashflowbusiness.com

http://www.newsmax.com/blaylock

 

Dual Purpose Sites – Capture Lead and Sell at the Same Time

 

Some prospecting websites try to sell and capture the lead the same site.

 

I, myself, don’t favor this approach.  I prefer my prospecting sites to do one and only one job.  My #1 goal for my visitors who have never bought anything from me or filled out any of my sign-up forms, is to get them to fill out a sign-up form, so that I can then follow-up.

 

But others prefer the dual purpose prospecting site – a site that makes a sales pitch to buy and also a free offer aimed at getting visitors to fill out the sign-up form.

 

Some of these sites stress the offer you have to pay for. Failing that, a pop-up, pop-under or hover ad might pop-up when you hit the exit button saying something like : “Wait!  Before you leave this page, fill out this form to get your FREE___________.”

 

Some stress a free offer to capture the lead and make the product you pay for the side show.

 

One of the best examples of the hybrid site is American Writers and Artists, Inc’s site at www.awaionline.com. This site is aimed at primarily at writers, and showing writers how they can use their writing skill to maximize their income with their writing skill.  This site primarily emphasizes the free offer (lead capture) with it’s ad that pops up over its main sales letter site.  This is an enormously successful online business that sells educational programs and information products.

 

The advantage of a hybrid prospecting site like this that attempts both to capture leads and to sell is that it will make more sales to first-time visitors.  So this site will generate money quickly.

 

The risk of the hybrid dual-purpose site is that your reader becomes distracted and is more likely to end up giving you nothing – no money, no email address.

 

The www.awaionline.com site is worth studying. It’s very skillfully done.

 

The reader is hit first with the pop-up lead generation ad that hovers over the site.

 

The reader is likely to click the “X” button before filling out the form in order to first read the general presentation. Many will want to read all the information before filling out any forms for the free newsletter offer. The site does include other prominent opportunities on its site for visitors to fill out the form for the newsletter.  But getting readers to fill out this form is not the sole purpose of this site.  Though I have no test results to prove it, my bet is that this site is not capturing as many leads as a site that is focused on that job and one job alone – like my own site at www.FreeSalesLetterBook.com

 

The downside of my site is that no money comes in the door right away.

 

But I believe in a two-step process.  That’s the classic direct marketing model.

 

I believe a site should be designed to achieve one and only one job. It should be designed with a specific narrow purpose in mind – unless it’s your general company brochure-style site which is designed more to build image than to close sales.

 

I want my lead generation site to be only about capturing the name and email address of the lead. I then follow-up up with offers that cost something later. In fact, the first offer comes at them a few hours later -- the 14-day Inner Circle trial membership for $1 offer.

 

Both approaches work.  You can test both approaches to get a definitive answer as to what will work best for you.