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10 Surprising New Ways to Make Being Online Profitable
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Jim Moore
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Dec 22, 2002 21:36 PST
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10 Surprising New Ways to Make Being Online Profitable
by Joe Vitale 9-14-00
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. (For
quick proof that advertising works, see my article on Dr. Frank
Robinson.)
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
P.T. Barnum, There's A Customer Born Every Minute (available November,
1997), 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."
Marketing specialist Joe "Mr. Fire!" Vitale is the author of nine books,
including "Hypnotic Writing", which answers the question, "What will
*you* do when you learn to hypnotize people with the power of words
alone and get them to obey your commands?"
Hundreds of time-saving, money-generating tips and stories from
AMerica's largest online newspaper - TennTimes-the News.
<p align="center"><a
href="http://westviewnews.virtualave.net/sitemap.html">TennTimes - the
News</a>
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