Slow Down and Learn the Basics. 3 Ways to Be a Success With Information Marketing

Slow Down and Learn the Basics. 3 Ways to Be a Success With Information Marketing
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There are certain topics that the seasoned information marketers take for granted and when communicating with newbies, they tend to forget the advantages they have. Welcome to the third installment of Common Knowledge among Internet Marketers.

When you're a newbie to internet marketing, you come on full bore with the "I'm gonna make a boatload of money from the web" attitude.

You think you can do it all, make a killing, and be on easy street in, say, six-twelve months.

The best advice?

Slow down and learn the basics.

Here are the last three subjects in this series that you should seriously look at to ensure your online success.

1. Drive traffic:

Learning how to drive traffic to whatever website you are promoting, whether it's your own, an affiliate product, or AdSense ads, is the most important thing you need to learn.

If you were in college to get a 4 year degree in 'Successfully Making Money On The Internet', the subject of marketing would be covered 3 out of the 4 years. It's that important.

What's the point of spending all your time creating a fantastic product and website if no one knows it's there and no one visits or buys it?

That's like throwing a New Year's Eve Party in Central Park and not inviting your guests.

Take the time to look at and learn the many ways to drive traffic to your website(s) and product(s).

Some methods are completely free but some can drive you to the poor farm rather quickly. Decide which ones appeal to you and give you the best results while taking up the least of your time.

Here are just a few ways to drive traffic:

Use Pay Per Click (PPC) (can be spendy) Buy ad space in newsletters (not quite as spendy) Have an affiliate program and let them drive traffic for you (cheap) Comment on blogs (free) Comment on forums with your link in your sig (free) Article marketing (free, depending on which you submit to) Participate in giveaways (free, unless you upgrade)

2. Have a mentor.

When you're a newbie to information marketing, you can, like most, struggle, trying to figure out what to do and how to do it.

One way to speed up the learning curve is to have a mentor. This can simply be another person whom you have gotten to know who also does information marketing that you respect and have been following.

Watch what they do, what they say in their emails and how they say it, how their websites are set up, what business model they follow, etc.

Another option for a mentor is to contact a favorite online marketer and ask them a few questions.

Pick someone who's emails you have been reading and who you believe is approachable, not someone who is so successful that they won't have time to talk to you. Perhaps that person has a coaching program that you could invest in.

Many newbie marketers use this particular method and find that their successes come much quicker.

3. Outsource.

It's not so hard to get things done when you're first starting out. But what happens if you run into something you don't know how to do?

Should you spend (waste) countless hours trying to figure it out? Or spend (invest) $25 to have someone set it up for you in 10 minutes?...

Read the rest at http://www.ron-barrett.com/general/slow-down-learn-the-basics-part-3-of-common-knowledge . In his Internet Marketing Journal, Ron writes about acquiring the Knowledge, Applying it, and realizing the positive Results with Internet. Be sure to sign up for hie K.A.R. newsletter where he provides more inside information on the Information Marketing business.

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Take your conversion rates to a whole new level with split testing

Take your conversion rates to a whole new level with split testing
Copyright © 2008 Paul Smithson
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Split testing is critical to almost any business. If you're not doing it - you really should be - and if you are doing it, the chances are that you should be doing it even more.

Without split testing, you are leaving massive amounts of money on the table every single day. I say this with absolute certainty. You're not 'possibly' leaving money on the table, you are 'definitely' leaving money on the table. It sounds like a bold claim, but it's absolutely true.

Whether it's a single page sales-letter site, a mini site, an AdSense site, a blog, or a mammoth content site, there are always ways to tweak things and increase the percentage conversion rate if it's a product that is being sold, the sign-up rate if it's a membership site, or the number of click-throughs if it's a site that earns revenues from advertising.

So, what exactly is split testing?

Split testing is simply the process of testing out different versions of something to see which one performs best. It could be a direct mailing piece, a billboard advertisement, a TV commercial, a web page, an e-mail, or anything else where you want to find out the differing results based on one or more changes to the original.

From an Internet Marketer's perspective it could be two different web pages you are testing to see which design works best. It could be testing one headline on a sales letter against another, or finding out which of two or more banner adverts brings in the most orders.

Ideally, split testing is done with a fairly large number of visitors. If you get very low traffic, your split testing numbers may be inaccurate, but split testing even with low traffic is usually better than not doing it at all, it can just often take longer to get a statistically valid result.

You can perform split testing in several different ways.

If you're running pay-per-click adverts through Google AdWords, you'll find there's a split testing system built in! If you're split testing things like sales page copy, a form on a squeeze page, or the CTR (click through rate) of various placements of ads on your pages, then you'll need to develop your own methods.

There are many scripts and online services available that can help you deliver different versions of a web page to visitors, and then measure conversions from each version. If you don't want to use a script or online service (some of which can be quite expensive), you can do the same thing yourself by rotating pages on your own.

You'll probably want to leave a page up for about a week or longer and record conversions. Then put up a different page and record the conversions from that version. Just keep in mind the fact that conversions may be different, simply because of the day of the week or the time of day, so if you take a page down in the middle of the day, or the middle of the week, your results may be skewed inaccurately.

The importance of split testing can't be over-emphasized. Something as simple as changing a single word in your headline, or changing the color of your order button might change conversions by several percent.

There have been stories of a single word doubling the conversion rate of a product. Sometimes changing something seemingly very trivial, such as the color of the words 'Buy Now' on an order button can drastically increase conversions and sometimes more fundamental changes, such as using a different font for the body copy on your web site, can make an amazing difference.

It's worth testing almost all the elements on a website from page backgrounds through to different header graphics and different navigation menus. Some of your changes might consist of just minor tweaks whereas others might mean a major change in the overall style of your site. Pretty much anything and everything is worth testing to see if has an impact on conversions.

And don't kid yourself that you know best, because even the experts get it wrong sometimes.

A famous offline advertising agency was working on a major ad campaign for a product. They developed several different versions of the ad, and then asked each of their ad executives to give their guess as to which one would perform better, and why.

After each executive had picked which they thought would be the winner they ran the complete series and gauged the results. The results proved a huge surprise. Of the dozen or so executives they asked, not a single one guessed the ad that actually performed best!

Even these high-paid ad executives with years of experience were unable to judge which ad would perform best. This is why split testing is so crucial. No matter how well you think you know your market, there will always be things you can't judge on your own.

Over time split testing will ensure that you are using the highest converting version of your site possible. It can be a long and drawn out process, but it is one that can reap massive rewards.

Imagine you had a web site that was converting at the rate of 1%. If you ran a series of ten tests consecutively that managed to increase the response by just 20% each time, what do you think the final response rate would be.

It would be a staggering 6.2%.

This demonstrates the incredible power of split testing. Just by running a series of small tests that each had a minor impact, the response was multiplied by over 600%.

So, get testing, then test some more, and continue testing until you can't think of anything else that could possibly improve the response rate.

Paul Smithson is the founder of Intellimon and the driving force behind the best-selling XSitePro web site development tool (http://www.xsitepro.com). Paul has set up five multi-million dollar companies, one of which is now owned by the BBC. His areas of expertise include business strategy, e-commerce, on-line and off-line marketing, software development, and maximizing the potential of on-line businesses.

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6 Ways to Keep Visitors Coming Back to Your Website

6 Ways to Keep Visitors Coming Back to Your Website
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To maintain a successful business website, you have to keep your visitors coming back. Unless you offer them something to come back to, then chances are they will not. You will need content on your website that not only interests them, but also changes regularly.

1) Articles- Articles give your visitor something to read. Undoubtedly, sometime in the future, you customer will have a question, or want more information about the product or service that they received from your business. If the articles pertain to your business and the products and services that you offer, then they will be able to access the information.

You do not necessary have to write these articles yourself.

You can post information about your products directly from the package, or makers website.

There are several article directories online that provide good, quality content at no cost to you. It is as simple as visiting the directories, searching for articles that suit your business, and then copying them into your website. You are only required to provide a link back to the original authors website.

2) Contests- Who does not want to win something? By offering contests (especially if they change frequently) gives your visitors something to come back for. When the visitor signs up for the contest you may also want to include a link to your newsletter.

The key is to change the contest frequently, whether it be weekly, monthly, or semi-annually. Just remember, the more you change your contest the more times your visitors will come back to your site.

3) Coupons and Discounts- You may want to provide coupons or discounts for your previous clients to entice them to return to your website.

You can use the coupons a number of ways. A few ideas are:

-A buy one get one free.
-A specific percent discount (such as 10%)
-Free or discounted shipping

Discounts are easy to administer, provided you have a shopping cart. The typical way discounts are given is by code. A code word such as “springtime” allows customers with the code word to receive a discount.

Alternately, you may want to provide a printable coupon on your, and accept it at your physical location.

4) Forums- Forums provide something that everyone craves: conversation. If a forum is provided on your site, the visitor will have a reason to visit your website frequently, whether it be to ask a question when help is needed or to keep up on a conversation.

You can host your forum from your site, or choose to use a third party forum, whatever your prefer. Both have their pros and cons, it just comes down to what is best for your business.

5)Blog-- Believe It or not, people are interested in what you have to say! A blog will not only allow you to update your clients on your business and life, but it also gives you a great opportunity to add those much needed keywords to your website.

There are quite a few free applications available that make blogging easy.

6)Newsletter- A newsletter is one of the best ways to keep your visitors coming back time and time again.

You will want to include part of a unique article or tip in your newsletter, and then a link to the rest. This will force your viewers to visit your site to get the remainder of the story.

Once again you do not have to write all the content yourself. Using free article directories will cut the time it takes to put a newsletter together in half.

Brought to you compliments Global Entrepreneur-100's of Great Articles & Informaive Videos

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Seven Unique Advantages of an Information Marketing Business

Seven Unique Advantages of an Information Marketing Business

Have you always wanted to start your own business since the days of your childhood lemonade stand? Not sure what business to focus on especially in today's market? Did you know that the Information Marketing Business has seven unique advantages over any other proven business models?

Unique Advantage 1: There is a low barrier to entry. You can start with very little money.

When I was in the restaurant business, each store cost us about $150,000 to $200,000 in equipment and tenant improvements for the location. It was a lot of money just to get in, and none of it was guaranteed to succeed. We never knew whether the location would be a winner and we'd be able to break even or recoup our money. We were only hoping we would make a profit.

There is a very high barrier to entry for traditional, brick-and-mortar businesses. With information marketing, you can start profiting virtual within the next 24 hours. You can turn the faucet on and profits start coming in. It won't be much at first, so don't quit your day job, but it's possible to start generating revenue extremely fast.

Unique Advantage 2: Tremendous leverage.

You can replace a lot of manual, repetitive tasks that you would traditionally have to do with things that can be automated and delegated in this business. This is unlike the restaurant business where working with customers and answering their questions is done every day. In the information marketing business, this can be totally automated.

And the best part is as your business matures and becomes more sophisticated the easier it will be to handle most of the things automatically.

Unique Advantage 3: Low amount of customer interaction. You don't have to spend much time responding to clients.

In group and product programs, you can create an extremely successful and profitable business and impact a lot of people. This is the key. Many of you have a passion for what you do. You want to change the world and help a lot of people. You can help a lot more individuals when you are not bogged down solving the problems of one specific, problematic customer who demands a lot of your time. You can never satisfy them.

With an information marketing business, you can minimize or eliminate customer interaction. Only your best customers will be getting access to you. Another benefit is that your income doesn't stop when you stop working with clients. This is a big issue for many professional consultants, coaches, speakers and therapists.

Unique Advantage 4: You don't need a staff.

This is one of those misconceptions. I will tell you that most successful information marketing businesses do have employees. The more successful they get, the more employees they have. Some have actual employees and others have virtual assistants or independent professionals working with them. They build large teams that allow them to grow faster.

But you can start in your spare time with just one staff member. You. And when you grow, and hopefully you will grow fast, you can add additional people to your team. They don't have to work with you in your office. They can work remotely.

Unique Advantage 5: It can be done out of your home office. You don't need to rent space.

When I first started my business, the most comfortable place to work was my couch. I had my laptop on my legs, my legs on an ottoman, and that's how I was typing my messages and did the recordings for my first few products.

Picture me sitting on my couch in my living room just enjoying my environment and creating something that, to this day, generates revenue. I didn't have to get up and go to work, drive in traffic, or deal with unruly coworkers or rude and demanding bosses. It was all out of my home office.

To this day, I run my business out of my home office in Irvine, California. My in-house team consists of myself, my wife and my assistant and I have a team of virtual assistants, audio technicians, and web designers.

Our business is very big and sophisticated, but we didn't start this way. It started very, very small. My goal is to show you exactly how to do it, assuming you don't know anything, you have very limited resources and you don't know technology. That's how I want to help you get started, step-by-step.

Unique Advantage 6: Huge profit potential.

This happens for two reasons. First, information products and programs have humungous markups. Something that costs you $1 can be sold for $10, $20, $100, and in some cases even $1,000. Your hard costs are very low and your profits will be very high.

We used to call my restaurant a "penny" business. You have to watch every single penny that's spent or wasted because the profit margins are so slim. In information marketing, you can afford to make big mistakes because you will still make a profit. That's a huge advantage.

You don't have that luxury in any other business. The service business definitely doesn't have it because you employ other service professionals who may be delivering some of the work to the clients. If a mistake is made, who gets paid to fix it? None of this happens with information marketing.

Unique Advantage 7: The information marketing business is scalable.

Once you build the formula and platform, it allows you to skyrocket the business. It's almost like revving the engine of a car. It may take a while but once you get it going, it will take off like a rocket.

Once everything is built and you know how to drive it, you can rev it up, pedal to the metal, and the business will skyrocket. Why? It's leveraged and not dependent on you. It's dependent on duplicatable formulas, systems, automation and delegation. This allows you to quickly rev up your business and scale it.

How do you duplicate yourself? I know many of you often think to yourself, "I wish there was another me. I wish I could somehow clone myself." It's not that easy when you're solo professional. Hiring another professional of your caliber, education, personality, characteristics and skills is virtually impossible. It's hard to team up with more people.

Information marketing doesn't have the traditional barriers most conventional startups have; instead it has amazing potential for growth, profitability, and success. Here's to your success!

The author, Adam Urbanski, teaches service professionals and business owners how to develop better marketing plan and strategies to increase sales and profits. His website offers more marketing how-to articles and free tips to create a winning marketing action plan at http://www.themarketingmentors.com

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