10 Surprising New Ways
to Make Being Online Profitable
...or how history may
be stopping your web site from earning money...
© 1998,
by Copy/Cyberwriting Expert Joe Vitale
Let me guess: I bet you have a web site
and I bet it isn't making the money you expected.
Right?
The most common complaint I hear
from clients is either, "I have a web site and no one visits
it," or "I have a web site and no one buys anything
from it."
And then I hear these clients
make the sweeping conclusion, "The Internet doesn't work."
Saying the Net doesn't work is
like saying advertising doesn't work. Advertising most certainly
works if your ad is right. Far too many people
write an ad, place it, get no calls, and then declare that advertising
doesn't work anymore. They don't stop to consider that the problem
may be with their ad, not with advertising in general.
I've also seen people write their
own sales letters, send them out, and watch as nothing happens.
Then they moan, "Direct mail doesn't work." Not true.
Direct mail can make you rich. But if you send out a weak sales
letter, or send a good letter to the wrong list of prospects,
the only result you can expect is no result.
In other words, when people try
marketing and get little results, they tend to blame the media
when they should blame their message.
The Net may be the same. Just
because you have a web site that isn't atracting traffic or making
sales doesn't mean the Net itself "doesn't work." Many
people are making money online. But the Net is new. Most of us
still haven't found the secret code to unlock its treasures.
But that's only part of the problem.
Let me explain:
Because of all the research I
did to write my book, The
Seven Lost Secrets of Success, on 1920s advertising genius
Bruce Barton, and because of all the research I performed to
write my forthcoming book on There's
A Customer Born Every Minute: P.T. Barnum's Secrets for Business
Success, I'm in a unique position. I've been able to
see how people in the past tried to use new technology to market
their businesses. What I've noticed is that we tend to apply
known methods to unknown media.
For example, when radio came
around in the 1920s, no one knew what to do with it. A few daring
souls treated it like a vocal newspaper: They read stock reports
over it. They took the known (newspapers) and applied it to the
unknown (radio).
The same thing happened in the
1950s when television began to get popular. Many radio stars
went on TV. Some made it (Jack Benny); some didn't (Fred Allen).
Again, we applied the known (radio), to the unknown (TV).
Now we have the Internet and
we don't know what to do with it. We put our ads, brochures,
radio and TV spots on our web sites, and we hope for the best.
We are again applying the known to the unknown. In most cases,
that isn't working. And that's why so many people are complaining
that their web sites aren't producing anything for them.
So what can you do? How can you
make the best use of this new media? Here are my ten suggestions
for making being online a profitable experience:
1.
You must have a web site.
There's no way around this today.
You need a site if only for added credibility. Last weekend I
attended a marathon seminar with 17,000 other people. One of
the speakers was Dr. Ted Broer, a nutrition expert. I liked what
he said and wanted to know more about him, his products, and
his services. When I got back here to my computer, I went online,
typed his name into one of the search engines and -- nothing!
Broer does not have a single web site on the Net. Right there
he lost all credibility. He may be an expert, but without a web
site he appeared to be just another vitamin promoter.
You must have a web site for
marketing. For most of us, the Net is great for marketing but
lousy for sales. I think fewer people would complain about poor
online sales if they didn't expect a gold rush in cyberspace.
If you hadn't heard all the hype about people making millions
of dollars online, would you be disappointed if your site just
generated a few sales now and then? Look at it this way: You
have to have business cards, but do you expect direct sales from
your cards? Not likely. You have to have brochures, but do you
expect direct sales from your brochures? I hope not. Again, you
need your web site for credibility, as a marketing tool, not
as your only sales tool.
2.
You must give people a reason to visit your site.
Why in the world should anyone
take the time to see your web site? If you have your picture
there, or your brochure, or a cute saying, who cares??!? People
only care about themselves. If you don't give them an appealing
reason to zip over to your site, why complain if they don't visit
it?
The Net still has a "gift
culture" mentality. They expect freebies. What they appreciate
more than anything else is information. I load my own site with
special reports, book excerpts, and original articles on marketing,
selling, advertising and publicity. All of this information is
free. It's the bait I lay out to reel in prospects. When they
read my articles, they learn about my books and services. If
they like what they read, they may buy my books and services.
But if I didn't give this information out, I couldn't really
expect anyone to visit my site. Why would they?
3.
You must give people options to buy.
If you don't list your products
and services at your site, with different ways to make purchases,
you will miss sales. Remember that people are still extremely
nervous about buying anything online. Be sure to give a toll-free
number, street address, FAX number, etc. I often hear of a product
online, but then drive to a local store to buy it. That sale
doesn't count as a web site sale, but if the web site didn't
tell me about the product, there would have been no sale. Start
thinking your web site has to support sales, not necessarily
make them.
4.
You must constantly change your site.
You may get people to visit your
site once, but how will you get them to return? There are millions
of sites for them to visit. I keep adding new articles and special
reports to my site, at the rate of about one a week. Again, these
reports are free. And adding new ones keeps people interested
in coming back next week. If you don't change your site, why
expect anyone to return to it?
5.
You must stop worrying about registering with search engines.
Everyone with a web site frantically
tries to get registered with every search engine around. As a
result, they waste time and money on every offer to "register
your site for $49" that comes their way. Forget it. There
are only six to twelve search engines that really count, and
virtually all of them use spiders, or robots, that go out and
find your site. You can and should manually register your site
with Yahoo, Lycos, Alta Vista, etc., but you don't even need
to do that. They will eventually find you. Focus more of your
energy on creating a web site worth visiting.
6.
You must use your sig file to promote your web site.
As everyone online should know
by now, your "sig file" is that 4 to 8 line paragraph
at the end of every one of your email messages. The Net allows
you to promote yourself in your sig. It's your opportunity to
list your web address and give people a reason to visit it. Since
your email messages travel the net, get seen by potentially thousands
of people, and are usually archived at giant databases like http://www.dejanews.com where
they can be retrieved, you never know who will see one of your
messages or when. If your sig has your URL in it, you just promoted
your web site to them.
7.
You must print your web site URL on everything.
That means everything. Every
ad you run, commercial you air, business card you hand out --
everything! -- should have your web site address on it. Use the
off line world to promote your online presence.
8.
You must participate online.
Join email discussion groups
where your target prospects gather. Do a search at http://www.liszt.com
to find the groups for you. Lurk to get a feel for the nature
of the group, and then post relevant responses to the list. As
you do, you will be promoting yourself and your business. And
if your sig has your URL in it, every time you post a message,
you will be promoting your web site.
9.
You must particpate with other web sites online.
We call it networking and co-op
marketing off-line. You can do the same thing online. Find web
sites that serve the same market you do and join forces with
them. Maybe advertise on their site. Maybe exchange links. Create
online allies to help you make money online.
10.
You must experiment.
Again, the Net is new. Most of
us are applying everything we have ever learned about marketing
to this new media. We have to think out of the box, stretch our
minds, and create new ways of doing business online. We have
to be willing to take risks and try new ideas. Some of this may
cost money. Or time. But as Flip Wilson said, "You can't
expect to hit the jackpot if you don't put a few nickels in the
machine."
- © 1998 - 2000, Joe Vitale, all rights reserved. If you really
want to exhaust all the ways to market your business online,
get Joe
Vitale's Confidential
Online Marketing Strategy and grab a copy of his latest book,
CyberWriting:
How to Promote Your Product or Service Online (Without Being
Flamed), a bestseller at http://www.amazon.com.
Joe is our "Copy/Cyberwriting Expert.". For reprint permission contact Joe Vitale at jgvitale@ix.netcom.com.
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