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Date: August 15, 2006 It is a question being asked every day, with the advent of internet marketing. It is quite easy for anyone with a computer and internet connection to get into business. There are plenty of opportunities out there to get set up in business. Unfortunately, set up is the dominant theme here and not business. Just because you are in business, does not mean you know how to operate a business. And the most important question everyone should ask themselves is how will I get customers? Do you know anything about selling? Do you know how to run a business? What about marketing, advertising or recruiting. The picture is painted all so rosy for you by the MLM gurus that anyone can just put up a website and make money. It just isn’t true. You have to have a lot of knowledge and a lot of persistence to succeed in business. It may be harder to succeed in business on the internet than in the brick and mortar world, if the truth were known. However it is not impossible for the little guy to make it, but people certainly deserve to know the facts before they jump in. I would describe myself as a dreamer. I have tried many business opportunities inside and outside the internet and I always look for a way to succeed. Like you, I have been disappointed many times, but I have had success a few times as well. The dreamer never stops looking forward for an opportunity that will work for him or her. I just want you to keep your eyes open and do nott be afraid to ask questions. Most of the junk you see disguised as a business opportunity is just plain fraud and lies. So how do you work around all that? By being very skeptical and asking a lot of questions. The people, who are afraid of your questions, usually have something to hide or they just don’t have any answers. From these people you should certainly run. Click away fast as you can. Why is it that even the good programs don’t seem to work for everyone? You are presented with a great product and a good marketing plan, as least on paper, but when you try it no one wants to hear it. Your friends and family certainly do not welcome your phone calls and emails. They just want to be left alone. They do not share your dreams. So do not try to impose them on them if you want to keep them as friends? Coastal Vacations, PAS and other programs require a large investment of money up front. It is true that these programs have proven to be legitimate, legal and successful for many people. However it is also true that many people fail at these programs too. Why is that? Well the simple reason is that not everyone knows how to sell, or even where to start. The internet has given us many great tools to give us all an equal chance to easily enter the marketplace and that is a good thing. However it does not guarantee success. Most businesses still end up failing within the first year. I am constantly looking for ways to improve my marketing methods and therefore improve my business. There are many fine articles and training courses on marketing available. If you are going to try a home based business, you should start with educating yourself in all areas that you will need. Don’t be duped into thinking it is an easy task, and all you have to do is sign up and all your problems will be solved and you will be making $1000 a day by next Wednesday. Please do not fall for that line anymore. Free Vacation Offer
Author Terry L. McGee resides in West Virginia with Wife Valerie. He is an internet marketer and writer. For more information call 304-210-2297 of email tmcgee@charter.net. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Terry_McGee
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Bryan Thorby
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webmaster@home-business-and-marketing.com
http://www.home-business-and-marketing.com
In This Issue:
Thoughts of the Day
Article 1: Using Squeeze Pages to Encourage Registration
Article 2: Creating Perceived Value
Article 3: Why Do People Fail In Home Business
Resources
Disclaimer & Privacy Statement
I hope all is well with you and your home based business.
This last week I've had a couple of days break from the computer
and given myself time to refresh my mind. I need a short break
from time to time so that my business doesn't become my sole
purpose in life.
That doesn't mean that the emails stop coming in unfortunately.
The folks over at SFI have been revamping the website and
affiliate resources. If you are not an SFI affiliate perhaps
you would like to check it out at
ezinfocenter.com
SFI was the first affiliate program I joined when I got online.
This was my initial training into the world of Internet Marketing.
A few days ago I got my hands on some free graphics that I'll
be using on my websites. To get yours go to
www.graphicsfrog.com
There is a One Time Offer if you want a lot more graphics.
To your Online Success,
Bryan
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THOUGHTS OF THE DAY
Dreams are renewable. No matter what our age or condition,
there are still untapped possibilities within us and new
beauty waiting to be born.
-- Dale E. Turner
If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more,
do more and become more, you are a leader.
-- John Quincy Adams
ARTICLE #1
Using Squeeze Pages to Encourage Registration
By Cody Moya
It's being seen more often these days: you go to a website, but before you can do anything an opt-in form page pops up. All they want is your name and your email address, but it slows you down and annoys you. Why do these people persist in serving up these pages?
In the case of these squeeze pages it's because, according to those who use them, you can get as much as a 40% increase on the number of signups in comparison to the number you get without a squeeze page.
This is a significant change to your newsletter circulation, and can make a huge difference in customer retention and in your newsletter circulation.
But how do you get them to sign up? Simple: you offer something of value in return for their email.
For instance, if you run a natural-health website, you can create a report basically a small e-book that informs your customers about the properties and benefits of herbs that you sell. (If you're not a writer, that's not a problem; you can buy private-label rights articles for example at www.YourOwnArticles.com that you can build into an ebook.)
The Trick to Using Squeeze Pages
There are two basic types of squeeze pages, and if you want to use them on your website, you should experiment with both to see which gets a better rate of signup.
The first is a small, undersized interstitial. These are often used by newspapers and magazines to get people to subscribe; but you can turn it to your own purposes. It can pop up every time, and say something like: "To get our free monthly newsletter, enter your name and email address here."
This kind of squeeze page is by its nature optional; it's open in a second window with your regular website beneath, and it can be easily bypassed.
The second type of squeeze page is more intrusive, but according to many it works very well. This is a regular page that comes up and won't let you bypass it much like a required registration page for a newspaper.
With this sort of page, you can put in a short note about what the customer can expect to get from his or her experience on your website, and ask them to please register for free in order to use your site.
The second sort is much more intrusive and demands much more trust from the customer than they may be willing to give. Though sites promoting squeeze pages claim that they dramatically increase the number of people registering on your page, it's probably a good idea to experiment with it, perhaps on a secondary site, before dropping it on your page.
It's possible that it works for some communities and not others; it's also possible that sites promoting squeeze pages are exaggerating the potential for their own purposes.
What you can do with a squeeze page is "personalize" the visit of your visitor refer to him by name at the tops of pages, pre-enter name and email on any forms you'd like them to fill out past the squeeze page, etc.
This, too, is of dubious universal value. It's possible that certain communities would eye personalization like this with distrust and loathing, sort of like the salesman who's too friendly, pats you on the back too many times, and makes a point of using your name too much.
Squeeze Pages Versus Building Trust
Squeeze pages are probably an adequate solution if you're building websites that probably serve one-time customers; for instance, if you're selling a single piece of software, or if you're running a quick one-time promotion.
However, if you're planning to have a long-term relationship with your customers, it's probably better to captivate them with excellent content and an opt-in signup for your emailed newsletter.
Great content builds trust, over time. A squeeze page may force limited trust, but it's so annoying that it may damage your ability to initiate trust with your customer.
After You Capture Your Audience
Getting your potential customer to sign up for a newsletter is only the first step. You really want to turn them into an actual customer. One way to do this is to use a serial, or pre-planned series of articles, to market to them, instead of a normal periodical newsletter.
The difference is a newsletter is sent out to all your subscribers at the same time; each subscriber sees the same articles each week. A serial is more like an e-course; the customer first receives Article 1, then at a pre-planned interval subsequent articles until you're ready to close the sale.
This means that the first article each customer sees, whether they subscribe in December 2005 or August 2006, is the same article. It's similar to a tutorial; you're "educating" your customer into purchasing your product.
Alternatives
Nevertheless, the concept of a pop-up window trumpeting, "Sign up here!" is a seductive one. It's easy for your customers to miss the link to their newsletter page.
It's also easy for them to procrastinate signing up until later and then forget, clicking off your page to go elsewhere and never returning. A happy medium might be a small interstitial or pop-under that requests your customers to sign up for a free newsletter.
Or you can have the sign-up form prominently displayed on your home page. If your customer signs up from there, a cookie is deposited to tell your site not to generate a pop-up page.
But if they leave your site without signing up, a small interstitial pops up, asking, "Thank you for visiting Buck's Popsicles. Did you forget to sign up for our newsletter?"
By popping up at the end, you don't alienate a customer who just got to your site. And when the pop-up does appear, your customer has probably done one of two things not signed up for your newsletter because he or she is not interested, or not signed up because they didn't see the registration form or they simply forgot to.
A polite reminder at the end of your customer's visit is a good way to catch the absent-minded customers while not irritating anyone at the beginning of the visit.
Here For Your Success
Cody Moya
P.S. Get Your Private Label Articles Now
P.P.S. My free courses http://freeinternetmarketingcourses.com
----------------------------------------------------------------
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Cody Moya writes about Article Marketing in his free 50 parts
course on Article Marketing. You can sign up for his free
Article Marketing Course and get additional information at his
ARTICLE #2
Creating Perceived Value
Regardless of whatever it is you are selling, you have to create what
is called perceived value. In other words, if somebody sees your
resale rights package, after reading the description they have to walk
away from their reading saying to themselves, "This is something that
I believe will be very valuable to have." So, how do we do that?
There are a few ways to create perceived value. One way is to load up
your package with a number of extras at no cost. This is not to
suggest that you give the customer a ton of useless junk. People will
see through this in a heartbeat. You want to give them things that
will compliment the main part of the package.
For example. Let's say you are giving somebody simple resale rights to
an ebook on how to make money online. This book teaches people the
basic steps of creating their own web site, how to promote it, how to
build a subscriber base and so on. What you may want to do is give
them a few things in addition to the book itself that will help them
accomplish these tasks. You might want to consider throwing in a book
on effective ad writing so people can learn how to write good ads.
Maybe include a book on web site design for the person who doesn't
know anything about HTML for creating his own site. This would be
something that he would normally have to pay for elsewhere and now you
are giving it to him for nothing. If you throw in enough of these
items the potential customer is likely to feel that he is getting more
than his money's worth and will be more likely to purchase your
package. Many of today's sites have as many as 5 or 6 of these add on
products.
Another thing you can do to create perceived value is through real
testimonials. Obviously if the product is new you're not going to have
any testimonials. That is an easy problem to solve. Simply contact a
few people and tell them you are giving them your product to test,
free of charge. All you ask in return is that if they like the way it
performed that they submit a testimonial to use on your sales page.
Most people will jump at the chance to try out a new product. Once the
testimonials start coming in, you can put them up on your site. When
people see these they are more likely to believe the product is legit
and valuable.
But the most important thing to creating perceived value, believe it
or not, is the actual look of the product itself, especially with
ebooks. It has been tested and proven that a 3D shot of your ebook
cover, suggesting that it is a real book and not just a PDF file,
makes people feel it has more value because they believe that a real
hard copy of this book exists. There are a number of software programs
out there that can create these covers, many that are very
inexpensive.
Just these three simple things can add more perceived value to your
product than anything you can do with the actual product itself. Try
it. You won't be sorry.
Warmly.
Ken Mathie
Ken Mathie is the publisher of PMCezine and founder of the
Members only website, HomeBizNiche.com...
I'll Personally Show You How I Run My Own Online Business And
Together We'll Follow A Plan Of Action You Can Use To Start And
Build A Successful Online Business In Only 21 Days...
Visit: http://www.kenmathie.com
ARTICLE #3
Why Do People Fail In Home Business
By Terry McGee
RESOURCES
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