All too often we get caught up in “old sayings” that no longer apply. Like “everything that has been said has already been written”. That may have been true in the 15th century, but since that quote came into use the entire Universe has completely changed. Ideas have been dis-proven and even the mindsets of entire nations have been forever altered.

So now is the perfect time to write. We’re at the dawning of yet another evolution of the Information Age, where eBooks and Special Reports can carry more weight than ever. If done right.

Continue to learn how to do it right in Part 2 of “Grow Your Business With eBooks”!   (Missed Part 1? You can find it here.)

Lee Collins
Managing Director
StomperNet, LLC

“If there’s a book you really want to read but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.”
~Toni Morrison ~

Grow Your Business with eBooks – Part 2

By Suzanne Roese

Wednesday we discussed why you would want to create an eBook for your business…the easy way. Now that you have learned why and how to create your eBook, it’s time to take a look at what to do with your eBook once it’s finished!

BASICS

Editing Basics

It may sound basic, but you’d be surprised how many people forgo basic editing. No…spell and grammar check in Word don’t count. It’s a good starting point, but it’s NOT enough!! I always suggest sending your eBook out to another set of eyes before having it PDF ready for the general public. You are so close to the end, it can be hard to see simple mistakes that another set of eyes will quickly pick up. So get over yourself and let someone else read it.

ISBN

A lot of clients will ask me if it’s really important to get an IBSN for an eBook. My answer – YES!! For those of you who don’t know what an ISBN is, it’s that really long number that is above the bar code on a traditional book – on the back cover. It’s called an International Standard Book Number. It’s what identifies your book as uniquely yours.

It’s fairly easy to obtain. There is a cost to obtain one, about $250 and you have to get 10. If you want one, you can get an ISBN from a reseller for about $50.  Think about it this way though…it’s an extra incentive for you to write a few more eBooks and make some more money!!

Cover Art

Now that you’re convinced that you need an ISBN, you need to be convinced that you need cover art! It may seem unnecessary for an eBook, but it is indeed VERY necessary.

They say you can’t judge a book by its cover, but the fact of matter is your potential readers WILL often decide whether or not to read your book based on your cover. If potential readers are searching in an online bookstore, your cover art and title will influence their first impression. You need to spend the time, effort and a little money to have a professional design that conveys the message of your eBook.

The title should be able to be clearly visible in the thumbnail picture. You don’t have to go fancy with the art work – clean and simple is fine. The most important factor is to have a readable title that can be seen in the thumbnail for a reader to easily understand. Don’t go for a fancy clever title that leaves the reader wondering what your eBook is about…they will simply move on.

Pricing

Here’s what everyone really wants to know – “What can I sell my eBook for??” Of course the answer is the dreaded: It depends. Most eBooks typically sell for between $3.99 and $24.99. The information you have and your customer base together will determine the market price your eBook will bear.

Look for what other eBooks in the genre and in that size range tend to go for and price your eBook for the going rate. If you price your eBook too low for the genre, you will have a lower perceived value. An informational eBook that covers scarce or difficult subject matter will sell for a higher amount. I talked a little bit about this in Part 1. My point is – do your research. Make sure you are not writing an eBook that has 2000 other titles out there. Find a GAP in the market place and fill it.

MARKETING YOUR EBOOK

Now that you’ve written, edited, and priced your eBook, it’s ready to go… Time to market it! So many internet marketers make the mistake of thinking that the sum and total of marketing their eBook is to showcase it on the front page of their website. WRONG!! Of course we could write a whole article JUST on how to write a squeeze page for an eBook, but were going to run through a few tips on marketing your eBook quickly here:

Join An Online Affiliate Company

Sell your eBook on Clickbank, Ebay and Amazon. The more channels you have, the more money you can bring in. You went through the trouble to get your ISBN and have a great cover design, so you’d better put it to good use! E-readers are growing in popularity by leaps and bounds. It is VITAL that you get your eBook listed with the online bookstores. Do not lose this marketing opportunity.

Your Own Website

Just because we are talking about all the other opportunities doesn’t mean you should overlook your own website. Remember to create the buzz before you even release it. You should be building the anticipation for weeks by putting teasers on your website. If you have a newsletter that goes out to your customer base, be sure to let them know how excited you are about the upcoming release. Be sure to offer them a discount for being loyal customers if they pre-order.

A good eBook deserves its own sales page. If you’ve developed a quality eBook, show it some love! Sure, you can showcase it on your website, but give it a sales page of its own with a sales funnel that gives it a chance to prove itself on its own merit! Be sure to include all the benefits to the reader, as well as a strong call to action.

Ebooks are a fantastic way to grow your business. You just want to be sure you do it right. Take the time to research your niche and find out where the gaps are. Fill those gaps and write a quality eBook. Quite often you have material from previous articles you’ve already used in your business! If not, consider hiring a ghostwriter. Take the time and effort to edit, purchase your unique ISBNs, design a proper cover and price it appropriately. Then market like crazy to help increase your credibility and bring in some extra revenue!

STOMPER Speed Boost

SEO Pro Comes to San Francisco!

Finally: Discover How to Get and KEEP Your Website (or a Client’s Website) Ranked at the Top of the Search Engines by Attending the ONLY Workshop Backed by the 5-Year Reputation and Proven Track Record of the World’s Largest SEO and Online Business Training Company!

Register NOW!

SEO Secret Sauce

BASICS:

• Editing Basics
• ISBN
• Cover Art
• Pricing

MARKETING YOUR EBOOK:

• Join an Online Affiliate Company
• Your Own Website

Stomper Buzz

Next Week’s Focus: Local Marketing

Stompernet Blog

By Suzanne Roese, StomperNet Coach

As the first in a two-part series on creating ebooks as a way to grow your business, this first part of will cover the basics of why you would want to create an ebook, and how to create one. The second part of the series on Friday will cover how to self-publish, and how to make having an ebook really pay off for you and your business through several different opportunities and options!

Why Would I Want to Create An Ebook?

There are several really good reasons to create an ebook for your business, but for the sake of this article, I’m going to focus on three main reasons.

1.  It Adds Credibility to You Personally

When you have an ebook available on your website, as well as on Amazon and other online bookstores (you better be thinking big if you’re going to go through the trouble of writing an ebook, but we’ll talk more about that in Part 2 next month), congratulations! You have established yourself as an expert in your field. You’ve also instantly raised your credibility. Put yourself in the shoes of the customer who is visiting several websites or even just looking at the meta description in an organic search. They see you listed as “Author of (Make sure your title has a relevant keyword)”. BAM…instant credibility! You are the expert. You are the person they will trust.

2  It Adds Another Revenue Stream

It seems that some online business owners have gotten in to the habit of offering ebooks as a bonus or a giveaway. Sure…bonuses are great. But there’s no need to give away the farm and devalue your ebook. If you’ve actually created and written a quality ebook, it has real value to your customers. They are willing to pay for the information you have, so set your price point correctly. (I’ll discuss more about setting a proper price point in part two of the article.)

You can offer the ebook on your website for an added revenue stream. You can also have additional ads and landing pages to bring in more revenue. Moreover, you can offer your ebook on Amazon and other online bookstores. All of these can bring in additional revenue with little to no cost to you.

3. You Reach a Niche That’s Inaccessible in Traditional Publishing

I admit it, I still love going to a traditional bookstore. I love browsing through the rows of books and picking up books and flipping through the pages and looking at the back cover to get an overview of the book. While I do a lot of my research online, if I have a topic that I know I will need a significant amount of information on, I like to make a trip to the bookstore. I grab an armful of books and head to a squishy chair, or I go to the coffee shop, and sit down at a table with a cup of tea and start browsing through the books to find some information that will be helpful.

The other day I really needed a book about a particular subject on which I was going to do quite a bit of writing. However, there were no books on the topic at the bookstore. To me, it was an important subject. I realize that it was a fairly narrow subject. But when I visited an online bookstore, there were plenty of ebooks available.

Ebooks have opened up the doors of publishing on a broad range of subjects. You can talk to a target audience that a traditional publishing house would not have been willing to invest the time and money to produce a paper book. Ebooks and digital publishing has done for the literary market what digital music has done for the music market. Back in the day you had to get signed by a major music studio in order to have any hope of getting your music in hands of consumers. Similarly, you had to get signed by a traditional publishing house or spend the money to get your book self-published and printed in order to put your book in the hands of readers. In order to make it worthwhile, you would need to have a fairly large target audience for the publishing house to sign you, or to make a return on your printing investment.

With an ebook, there is either little or no cost to publish and print for the writer or author. A smaller audience can be targeted. It allows a specific target niche to be reached, which is good for both the author and for the reader. As a reader, I love the fact that I can find a book or several books on almost any topic in ebook format.

How to Write an Ebook the Easy Way

Once an online business owner decides that writing an ebook is indeed a good idea, a bit of panic tends to set in. The thought is, “okay, it’s a good idea, but I have NO IDEA how to do this”. Typically the idea gets shelved until they are more comfortable and guess then that is? Usually never. I’ve found two ways work best for an online business owner that is ready to take the plunge and write an ebook.

1. Use Resources You Already Have – Articles

Chances are you have a number of articles that you have either written or have had written for you. Articles that have been used for link building, blog content or other SEO purposes. Compile all the articles that possess, and put them in a logical order. These will form the chapters of your book. They may take a little re-working and may need a some transitional editing, but it has saved a tremendous amount of time and keeps you from having to start from scratch. Once you have the body coherently bound, write a strong introduction and a strong closing chapter, and voila! You have a great ebook that was quick and easy to put together from resources you already have!

I will say that this quick and easy ebook will probably be priced a little lower than if you had taken the time to write an ebook from scratch. Although it will depend on the quality of the articles that you’ve assembled. Just be honest on the worth when we look at pricing in part two. It’s a great way to get an ebook out the door, and get one under your belt, as well. You may want to tackle your first one using this method, and your next one using the following method…

2. Hire a Ghostwriter

Now remember, we’re talking about doing it the easy way. You can write the entire book yourself, but it’s very intimidating for most online business owners – it’s not what they know how to do. A ghostwriter is a great option. You’re still the author, and you can be perfectly clear that the ghostwriter doesn’t get credit.

Where to find a quality ghostwriter – You can find a quality ghostwriter through a number of avenues. Some authors like to find ghostwriters who are close in proximity and those who they can work well with. You can always find someone through Craigslist. This is especially a good option if you live in a college town. English majors in college can be a great value – but be careful because college students can be a little flaky.

There are online forums and Facebook groups where you can find ghostwriters. There are also professional organizations to find ghostwriters, but these ghostwriters tend to be quite expensive. Although they are usually (but not always) experienced. You can also hop on writer’s forums and ask writers for referrals for ghostwriters they have worked with that have been reliable and produced good work.

One of the most popular places to find a ghostwriter is on freelance websites such as odesk.com, freelancer.com and elance.com. Everyone seems to have their favorite freelance website from both a provider’s and a buyer’s perspective.

I will tell you as a freelance writer: I FAR prefer elance.com. I think the rates are much more fair for their providers. Something to think about as a buyer: I won’t even use odesk.com anymore because I feel the rates are far below what I’m worth. Granted, I only use freelance work as fill in work, but I’m still only willing to go so low!

Tips on working with a freelance ghostwriter – If you decide to work with a freelance ghostwriter, here are a few guidelines to make sure you follow:

Be clear and detailed in your job posting – You’ll have a better chance of getting a ghostwriter that is capable of meeting your job requirements if you are crystal clear in what you need. Be very clear in what your time requirements are. There is no use hiring someone only to find out they can’t get your ebook done in 3 weeks, if that is when you need it done.

Ask for samples – Make sure that their writing style compliments your tone. If you want a conversational tone, but all of their samples are very formal, they’re probably not a good fit.

Don’t be afraid to narrow down and ask for an interview – Remember, you’ll be working closely with this person and they will be your voice. Narrow it down to 3 people and ask for a brief conversation on the phone or via Skype. See which one best suits your tone.

Set clear milestones – Let your ghostwriter know what you expect in the way of milestones. Be flexible enough to allow for changes, but set clear milestones in the beginning that you are both shooting for.

It’s as important that you meet your milestones as you expect them to meet theirs – It’s a two-way street here. Make sure you get edits back in a timely fashion so your ghostwriter can do their job.

Start with an outline – Send your ghostwriter an overall outline to start. Include your overall concept and ideas for the major chapters that you want, and other ideas that you want to cover in the chapters.

Ongoing communication – Decide together how you will work together for ongoing communication. Will it be email, phone, text or Skype? Set clear guidelines on how soon you will return any communication.

Decide on the fill-in with your ghostwriter – This next part really depends on your topic, your knowledge, and the job posting requirements. Have you stated that the ghostwriter will have to do research themselves? Or will you be giving them the information? Here are some of your choices:

• Have your ghostwriter do the research and writing
• Send your ghostwriter the info you have gathered and have them polish it
• Dictate the information to your ghostwriter and have them put it in to a polished format

I have found dictation to be an increasingly effective way for authors to work with their ghostwriters. Most business owners have the knowledge in their head and don’t mind speaking it; they just don’t know how to make sense of it on paper. That is what a good ghostwriter will do well. Let them to do what they’re good at!

Hiring a ghostwriter can be a great way for a business owner to get their ebook written without taking too much time away from their normal day to day business needs.

Be sure and check out my second part in the ebook series when we will take a look at the next steps. Once you have written your ebook, whether from pulling together resources you already have or using a ghostwriter…what now? You’ll need to get it priced right and then get it marketed. There are several ways you can make money from your ebook, and we will explore those in part two…stay tuned!

by Suzanne Roese

Suzanne Roese is a former lead Coach at StomperNet and is also a freelance writer. You can email her at suzanne@firstpageconsults.com or visit her site at www.firstpageconsults.com for more information.

Stompernet Blog

by Mike Stewart

I never understood why, when the Internet first appeared on my radar, that when people look things up online…it was called “traffic.”

It’s not that I was exactly new to the marketing game. I owned and operated a successful recording studio from 1979 – 1999, producing advertising for radio and television for video producers and ad agencies in Atlanta. I worked for all kinds of clients. I created national, regional and local advertising for viewers and listeners of radio and TV.

When I first experienced the Internet, it – at first – seemed similar to radio and television. It was new broadcast medium, like radio was in 20’s and TV was in the 50’s. Except that the Internet is the most powerful broadcast medium ever created… and to make money you needed find viewers and listeners, or readers. The second step was to convert them to buyers. This was and still is a tough thing to do, with static, “text and images” only sites.

Yet I knew audio and video-driven websites were the next level coming “someday soon.” And that someday is today. It’s arrived! Thanks to faster computers and high speed internet connections reaching saturation in most homes of the world.

But no matter what kind of site they land on, when people are traveling around the Internet, it’s still called traffic. (Which I always found weirdly de-humanizing.)

Ok, we can call it traffic, but we’re still talking about human beings with eyes and ears. In the traditional broadcast industry, we knew that if you can prove you have an audience of viewers and listeners, you can make money by advertising to them. But that was reserved to the advertiser who had the budgets for production and airtime purchases, not the small business owner. Not anymore! The ability to use audio and video to build an audience is available to anyone willing to learn the steps.

Like you, right?

All the proven strategies of radio and television can help you build viewers and listeners to websites and video articles today area huge opportunity. Traffic, viewers, and listeners – it’s all the same thing: human beings who can find you online, decide to learn more about you and eventually convert to a customer. So here are my steps to use video articles to get traffic!

(Before I begin, I should quickly define a phrase you’ll hear me use a lot: Long Tail Keyword. A long tail keyword is a very targeted phrase that someone may look for online. It really narrows down the search to you, the more words you add to it. For instance, “lawyers” is not a long-tail keyword but “Atlanta DUI lawyer” is!)

1.List long tail keywords.

List all the long tail keywords you know could bring you a targeted viewer or listener. Long tail keywords can have high conversion rates if your businesses can solve the problems experienced by those visitors who are typing in those keywords. If people are searching Google for “lawyer”, that is way too wide and hard to optimize articles for that phrase. “DUI lawyer” is better, but “Atlanta DUI lawyer” is a long tail keyword that you could possibly get high rankings in Google for web pages, articles and video articles.

2. Write a title with long tail keywords.

Write an article with a title that includes those long tail keywords in the title. Using our example, something like “Atlanta DUI Lawyer –10 Ways to Avoid Jail in Georgia With A Skilled Atlanta DUI Lawyer” could rank you high when people search that long tail keyword phrase.

Make the content real, true, and compelling. If being an attorney was your business, an article with this information created with facts and passion could draw someone to visit your website for more information and possibly become a customer in the future. (They obviously have that problem if they were searching that phrase in the first place.)

3. Record as an audio.

Read your article aloud while recording the audio as an mp3 on your computer. There are many free programs available online that will allow you to do this. Combined with a USB microphone from an office supply store (or purchased online) you can easily use free software to record the information and save as an mp3 audio file.

4. Match with slides.

Once edited to a “perfect performance,” you can create slides of text to synchronize to the audio in Windows Movie Maker which comes standard on PCs or IMovie which is included on the MAC. Slides of text can be created in PowerPoint and saved out as JPEG stills that can be imported into the video-editing program and changed based on the timing of your reading. Just make bullet points from key points in your article and have the URL of your website at the bottom of the slide so that when someone finds the video, it is always visible how to find you online. The software will allow you to save the video as an AVI video file or a WMV video file which both can be uploaded to social video sites. We will talk about those in more detail later.

5.  Use software.

Another way to make a video article is use the software Camstudio 2.0, a free download from http://camstudio.org/, (PC only). Camstudio is a “screen capture video software” which simply means using a microphone, you speak and capture what is on your computer screen in real time. With practice, you can sync up PowerPoint slides to your speaking voice and instantly make video articles in just one take! Camstudio will save what you created as an AVI video file.

6.  Use a camcorder

Using a simple camcorder or netcam such as the Flip Digital USB netcam, you could look into the lens of the camera and recite your article in chunks for what is called a talking head video. With practice, you record the sections looking into the lens of the camera as close the camera’s microphone in a quiet room and you can get acceptable results recording the information.

Importing the video clips in to Windows Movie Maker or IMovie from your camcorder or netcam, you can then chain the clips into your article. The advantage here is you can overlay bullet points of text and have your website URL in the lower third of the video to build views and listeners to your websites, but more importantly, people are meeting and seeing you.

They are building a connection and relationship with you. They get familiar with you, and can begin to know, like and trust you. Now they are more likely to convert to a customer ready business with you. I know this to be true because in my own business as I have heard these real comments.

“ I met you on your website.” “I have been watching you for some time now, and I know you are someone who can serve my needs…I am ready to do business with you!” There is no way that would happen unless I had video online where people could virtually meet me.

7.  Hire a reader.

You also always could hire someone read and record your article. If that is your only option because you are not comfortable recording the audio yourself, you can easily find resources online for “voice talents.” But to keep the costs down, you can learn to do it yourself.

8. Upload to YouTube.

Take your video file and upload it to the social video sites like You Tube. You need to go to these sites and open up free accounts so that you can submit content to them. But once you do, you can get ranked high in search engines for long tail keyword phrases. It is worth reviewing uploading services such as TubeMogul or Traffic Geyser which are both services that will upload your videos to multiple video sites in one upload session. They save you time and gets you replicated all over the internet multiplying your chances of being found.

9.  Backlink!

Here is the magic and good news about video articles. Most video social sites allow you to create a link back to your website. It is important to include your URL of your website in the lower third of the video itself, but many sites like You Tube will allow you to have a clickable link back to the site you want viewers to visit.

What a huge FREE opportunity! You need to do both URLs, the one viewable in the video and the other that sites let you create the back link to your site from them.

Once they’re at your site, they can and will optin to your email lists… and more importantly become a paying customer for your products and services.

Video SEO

by Wilson Mattos

FLV

Stompernet Blog

By Jorgen Sundberg

Would you like to effortlessly attract more customers, business opportunities or even a new employer? How about being able to increase your fee or salary? Pick and choose what projects and what people to work with?

The solution is to have a strong and magnetic personal brand. I am sure you have heard about it, but today we’ll look at what it is exactly. Before we do this, however, we have to start with the origin, which is the brand.

What is a brand?

A brand is the unique experience that people remember about a product or service. We are all surrounded by products and services every day, and some of them are very similar – you try distinguishing Coke from Pepsi in a blind test. The reason marketers make use of brands for their product is so they can differentiate their brand from the competition. The goal is to position it as a premium brand so that consumers believe they are enjoying an exclusive product. We all know that adjectives like “premium” and “exclusive” are associated with higher cost. After all, that’s what pays for the entire branding exercise.

What is a personal brand?

A personal brand is the unique promise of value of a person. Simply put: it’s who you are and what you do – nobody else can be or do the exact same thing. “Be yourself; everyone else is already taken”, as Oscar Wilde famously said over a century ago. That message still resonates with profoundly accurate truth today; however, nowadays it’s important to tell the world around you exactly what that self is and what it can do for your target audience.

Just like a product, an individual can brand himself or herself to stand apart from the competition. In this day and age, consumers have no problem finding a dentist, plumber or realtor – they find lots of them online and they take their time to shop around. Skills and knowledge have become ubiquitous and commoditized, and the value of personal branding becomes more important now than ever. The person that has taken their time to build an excellent brand for themselves will not only be more visible but should also be able to charge premium rates for their work – a very enviable position to be in.

Look at business moguls like Richard Branson or Steve Jobs. Their strong brands have given them the Midas touch – effectively turning everything they are involved with into pure gold. But hang on; these guys represent company brands, you say. Yes, they certainly do. Imagine Richard Branson selling off Virgin tomorrow and Steve Jobs leaving Apple (again) – do you think they would struggle to find new projects? Your personal brand works very well alongside a corporate brand and can be the best insurance policy you have ever invested in.

What is personal branding?

This is the process of uncovering/creating, building and promoting your brand to your target audience and the greater world. Aristotle said, ”Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.” This certainly applies to personal branding. By going through this process you will have to engage in some serious introspection, the result of which is typically very useful for all aspects of life.

By branding yourself effectively, you ensure that you are no longer the “jack of all trades, master of none”. The aim will be to achieve an expert status in your chosen field. Once you become an expert, you will attract more business and employers. The choice will be yours! The law of supply and demand stipulates that you will be able to choose with whom you work with and what price or salary you expect.

5 Things you can do for your personal brand today

1. Create a personal brand statement

By taking a step back and examining exactly what value you provide to others, you’ll be able to construct an effective brand statement. It should be no longer than two sentences containing who you are, what value you provide (whether it’s a product or service), and how you do it uniquely (knowing your USPs – Unique Selling Points – will facilitate).

The statement represents your personal brands unique promise of value and is distinctive to you only. Once you do have the statement, you can use it to be more focused and targeted in your approach to customers and employers.

Here’s an example, which just so happens to be mine: “Jorgen helps people and companies attract more business online through effective use of personal branding, social media and blogging.”

2. Write a bio

The longer version of your personal brand statement is called a bio. It’s typically a three paragraph text that outlines who you are, what you do, your skills and experience as well as listing and quantifying your past achievements. Be sure to include any awards received, mentions in reputable media, and other personal endorsements at the end as it is proven to attract eyeballs.

Unless you are an executive, author or public speaker you probably haven’t written on of these. Here’s an example of a good (and slightly abbreviated) bio by Chris Brogan himself:

“Chris Brogan is an eleven year veteran of using social media and both web and mobile technologies to build digital relationships for businesses, organizations, and individuals. Chris speaks, blogs, writes articles, and makes media of all kinds at [chrisbrogan.com], a blog in the top 5 of the Advertising Age Power150, and in the top 100 on Technorati. He is co-author of the New York Times bestselling book Trust Agents, and the recently released Social Media 101.

He is president of New Marketing Labs, a social media agency. Chris frequently speaks at and attends marketing and social media events, sharing his passion for developing human business practices.

Chris won the Mass High Tech All Stars award for thought leaders for 2008. He has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, US News & World Report, The Montreal Gazette, Newsweek, and some other places.”

3. Achieve consistency

This is useful to do before you start hitting the market with your new personal brand toolkit. The cardinal sin in personal branding is having an inconsistent image. Avoid having the rock’n’roll profile on Facebook and the separate employee-friendly LinkedIn profile. Expect to be cross-referenced online as Google is at everyone’s fingertips, so stay consistent.

A good test is to ask yourself whether or not you would show the profile to your grandmother. Remain congruent in all that you do, whether it’s online or offline communications. Your target audience needs to know what to they can expect from you. Nobody wants to deal with people that shift characters or are outright unstable, so stay consistent at all times.

Gain social proof by connecting to industry authorities and, better yet, get recommendations from your customers, counterparts and peers. LinkedIn is the place to get endorsements, and the best way to get them is to volunteer and write them for others first. The old law of reciprocity dominates the social media space.

4. Create a marketing strategy

You will now create a marketing mix based on whom you want to reach out to. Look at your target audience. Where do they hang out? Do they read a certain magazine, go to a particular events or comment on a handful of blogs? You have to make sure you are seen there. If you have the time and resources, do it the proper way and conduct a marketing survey. If you are not that fortunate, just start doing your thing and see what works – the trial and error approach has helped launch the personal brands of many beginners.

5. Promote yourself

The sprint is over; now begins the marathon. Once you have your personal brand together and you have created your plan, it’s all about keeping it up. Whether you have decided to blog, to be a public speaker, write books or to attend networking events – make sure you do it regularly and become a reliable and trustworthy part of people’s lives. This will in turn build up your loyal fan base, the bunch of great people that act as your brand ambassadors and sales force.

There is no time like the present to start your personal branding journey. Most people only think about their brand when they really need it (e.g. looking for a new job), but this will probably be 12 months too late. Building and promoting a strong brand takes time and effort but it’s the best personal investment you will ever make. You may change industries, move out of the country, take a long sabbatical – but your name and brand will always be with you.

Don’t put this off, set some time aside in your calendar now to begin your branding journey and start reaping the rewards.

by Jorgen Sundberg

Jorgen Sundberg is a personal branding consultant based in London. He blogs at JorgenSundberg.net and his company is Personal Branding UK (personalbrandinguk.com). Jorgen is passionate about helping people with their online brands and would love to connect with you on Twitter @JorgenSundberg.

Scratch Your Niche

by John Jaworski

FLV / MOV

Everyone needs to start somewhere!

With our community, our training, our support,

and our NEW StomperNet levels,

you will find exactly what will help you take the next successful step in your business!

Become a StomperNet Member TODAY!

Stompernet Blog

If you’re an Internet marketer and haven’t embraced Mobile Marketing yet…you’re going to need to start dipping your toe in to the Mobile Marketing waters soon. You simply can’t afford to let this marketing channel pass you by and not take advantage of it. It’s NOT about sending out text messages to people…it’s far more than that.

If you’ve been to the phone store lately, you know that the flip phone options are shrinking. Smart phones that were “the latest thing” are now “just” a smart phone.  But…the smart phone users are savvy. They want there information in a format that looks like it’s MEANT for a smart phone. Not for a flip phone. So as a business person, you’d better be ready to deliver it looking good…as FAST.

It’s all about optimizing your web site for the mobile age.

If it sounds overwhelming, don’t worry. Read our Stomper Intelligence Report on Four Tips to Optimize Your Web Site for the Mobile Age. Then implement what you learn and get ready to take full advantage of mobile marketing for your business!

Lee Collins
Managing Director
StomperNet, LLC

“Numbers reveal mobile phone Internet usage trump PC web users – is your business moving in a direction to capitalize on this massive mobile usage?”
~ Sherman Hu

Four Tips to Optimize Your Website for the Mobile Age

by Bruce Hopkins

It’s no secret that effective Mobile Marketing will become the defacto standard for competing on the Internet in the future. There are currently more mobile devices on the Internet than there are personal computers. This will only grow over time as the technology improves.

The age of mobile computing has arrived and if you are not positioned to deliver your content to a wide array of devices, then you are not going to be in business. Now is the time to start thinking about how you will compete in a world full of mobile devices.

You must develop your ability to market to this audience, but you should also build out your infrastructure to support mobile marketing activities.

Setting up your infrastructure properly actually goes across your entire business. A properly optimized infrastructure can make the difference between being profitable or not. You need to be able to easily deliver your message across a variety of technologies, and the one thing that you must absolutely think about with delivering content to mobile devices, is speed.

You need to optimize all your web properties to deliver this content in a manner which is acceptable to your mobile users.

You can easily improve the experience of your mobile users with just a little optimization.

1. DEVELOP A BASELINE

The first step in optimizing your website is to take a bench line measurement. A very easy way to do this is to use the Site Performance Tool in Google Webmaster Tools. If you have not installed Webmaster tools on your site, do that first.

There is a lot of great information in Google Webmaster Tools which is critical to your understanding of how the Google Bot sees your page.

Once you log into Google tools and select the site you wish to optimize, take a look under the Labs -> Site Performance Option. This will tell you how fast Google thinks your site is. Google assigns a number to your site and gives you information on how your site ranks in terms of other sites.

They also recommend installing the Page Speed Plugin so you can optimize your site. You can find Page Speed at Google Speed. In order to use Page Speed you must also install the FireBug Plugin, which is available on the Page Speed page.

Once you install Page Speed, it will give you some suggestions on what changes you can make to your site’s resources to improve its page load time. These suggestions will vary according to site, but there are a few items which will be evident across sites.

One of the first areas to concentrate on is your image size. Most web images can be optimized to reduce the size without any loss of quality. Most advanced graphic editors will allow you to reduce the size of your images, even if you are not a graphic artist. It’s almost certain that almost every website can increase their load times by just optimizing their images.

Google Page Speed will almost certainly suggest you reducing image sizes to improve your rating. This is an easy fix which anyone can implement in just a few hours depending on the size of your site.

2. HANDLING WHITESPACE

A second item that will almost certainly be flagged is extra white space in your CSS and Java Script files.

Lots of times there are extra spaces or content added to these files which slow down the load time of every page on your site. To fully optimize your site, spend a little time going through these files and removing any items you are not using on your site.

This will not only simplify your site for future design changes, it will also allow you to optimize these files for the fastest download possible. Performing these two tasks will likely allow you to greatly improve the load time of your site, but let’s not stop there.

3. SPLITTING THINGS UP

The third area where Page Speed will give you a suggestion is to place your images and style sheets on another URL. The reason for this deals with a core element of web server technology.

A web server will only serve one file at a time, but the browsers can read multiple files. If you can place your images on another URL, then you will allow for parallel downloads of the various files within your site.

While this does not actually save any bandwidth like items one and two will, it will still allow your page to fully load in the browser much faster.

A great resource for handling this task is to place your images and style sheet files on Amazon’s S3 service. Amazon has very fast servers and serving these files from that location works very well. While S3 will mean you will incur an additional cost for bandwidth and storage on their servers, the cost is minimal and well worth the benefits you will gain in terms of your site performance.

4. FILE COMPRESSION

Another item where you can improve your server’s performance is in the realm of compression of your files prior to sending them to the browser. If you are on a shared host, your ability to control this may be restricted. One thing you should be able to do, even if you are on a shared host, is to add compression commands to your .htaccess file. Exactly how this needs to be performed will vary depending upon your server configuration.

There are some great tips on how to optimize your htaccess file to improve performance for an Apache webserver.

You do need some technical ability to properly optimize server configuration files, so if you are not sure about how to perform these tasks, hire your friendly neighborhood Server Administrator to help you out here.

If you have successfully performed all or part of the tasks listed in this article, you will notice a drastic reduction in the load times of your websites. Not only will you enjoy a better Page Speed ranking but you will also improve your ability to keep mobile surfers happy and coming back to your site on their mobile browser.

STOMPER Speed Boost

What’s in YOUR closest?

Our “closet” is busting at the seams…
so we’re cleaning house with an Inventory Clearance Sale!

Don’t let this once-in-a-lifetime chance pass you by.

Visit our Inventory Clearance!

SEO Secret Sauce

4 TIPS to Optimize Your Website for the Mobile Age

1. Develop a Baseline
2. Remove Extra Whitespace
3. Split Things Up – Think Amazon S3
4. Add Compression Commands to .htaccess file

Stomper Buzz

Next Week’s Focus: List Building

TUESDAY  August 2nd, 2011 at 3:00pm Eastern

Public Webinar: Legal…Ethical…and Profitable Hype in Your Copy with Vin Montello

Regulations have cut down on the hype in sales copy. They limit the reviews and testimonials that have long been standard. This is both good and bad, some people lacked ethics. Add in the legalize on guarantees and you might think copy can no longer be profitable.

But persuasion and story-telling is still in your copywriting arsenal. Vin will teach you how he is able to pull people into his sales copy and have them pressing the buy button over and over again. Register Now!

TUESDAY Aug 2nd, 2011 at 8:00pm Eastern

Public Webinar: Website Security: Even the Pros Get This Wrong with Dave Brandley

The number one issue among consumers on the web… is trust.  With all the scams out there and identity theft running rampant, people…especially uneducated ones…are very leary about inputing ANY personal information online…let alone Credit Card information. When customers purchase from your website, they expect their transaction to be safe and secure.

Although all websites have vulnerabilities, these “chinks in your armor” are really quite easy to protect.  Having a secure website is not only important to you but it puts a customer so much more at ease to know they are working with a secure site. Dave Brandley has learned the importance of securing the weaknesses in your website and delivering the confidence to your customers, which by the way, happens to increase your conversion.  Join Dave, the website security expert, as he discusses trust, conversion and security. Register Now!

Let us know your thoughts on today’s issue.

Post Your Comments Here

Stompernet Blog

By Vin Montello, StomperNet Faculty Member

Just the other day something happened in my house that convinced me snail mail’s days were truly numbered. I mean… we all know e-mail has taken a huge bite out of the old “rain, or sleet or dark of night” squad…

But part of me also felt snail mail was here to stay, at least for a little while longer. I mean… Sears catalog… Dear John letters… and, of course, birthday cards from Grandma. These are things that could never be duplicated online, I thought.

So… just the other day I’m engaged in a task that has become a semi-annual tradition for me… I’m filling out my Publisher’s Clearinghouse “prize packet.”

If you’re not familiar with PCH, think nationwide direct mail contest on steroids. Stamps to place on cards… boxes to check… magazine titles to peruse… envelopes to choose, seal, and mail back.

Then you sit back in anticipation that your block would be the block you’d see the “prize patrol” drive to during half time at the Superbowl. And your house would be the house they approach with the balloon bouquet and oversized $10,000,000.00 check.

Okay… I’m over-explaining this, but only for Stompers who may be from a country that doesn’t have a Superbowl, a prize patrol, or oversized checks.

Anyhoo…

Like I said, I’m filling out the packet, crossing “T-s” and dotting “I-s” when my wife walks in and this scene takes place…

(NOTE: I decided to write this next little section like a screenplay for no apparent reason.)

MARIA: Whatchya doing?

ME: (nonchalant) You know… filling out Publisher’s Clearinghouse.

MARIA:(Incredulous) Why don’t you do it online like I do?

*I stand there, not really sure what to make of this news.

ME: (dumbfounded) Onli—, What the— When did— Huh?

End Scene… Bow… Enjoy Applause… Soak Up The Love.

It turns out, for the last few years, while I’ve been filling out packets and sticking them in the mailbox, The Clearinghouse had already jumped into e-mail marketing!

I mean… come on… what’s next, an online Sears Catalog? Um… well, yeah Vin… turns out Sears has had that for a decade now.

So I sign up for the online version of PCH and start to get e-mails. And truth is they’re doing a great job not only getting me to open their e-mails and click on their links, but they’re also doing great at duplicating the offline experience.

Click here to transfer this stamp to that box… check this area to see more magazines and other items for sale… choose whether you want your prize in a lump sum or doled out over 30 years…

It’s all there. I fully expect if I win I’ll get an e-mail from Paypal with a subject line that reads, “You’ve got money!” I’ll open it and continue reading… “Hello Vin Montello. Just thought you’d like to know Publisher’s Clearinghouse has just sent you $10,000,000.00.

So… I always thought e-mail was great before, but there is no longer any competition. I now think when it comes to snail mail, the fat lady is warming up her pipes.

So… I decided this article is going to help all you business owners discover the awesome power of e-mail marketing… and learn a few secrets to getting it right the first time.

(Hint: The biggest secret is already buried in the text above. If you haven’t figured it out, don’t worry… I’ll get to that in a minute.)

Make Sure To Respect Your Potential Customers…

Put an ironclad spam free policy in place and follow it to the letter. That means you never, ever sell, rent, or lend your list to anyone for any reason. Your list will reward you for that loyalty with their own loyalty. Always use a double opt in system to collect your e-mail addresses. This means whenever someone signs up to receive e-mail from you, they get a confirmation e-mail they have to click on in order to agree to the opt in. This way there can be no misunderstandings.

Only send e-mails related to what you promised when you got them to opt in. If they sign up for a newsletter about dog grooming, and later you decide you’re also in the pizza recipe business, it is not okay to e-mail the dog owners to try to sell them a recipe book.

Always include a simple, easy to find “unsubscribe” link in every e-mail. When your list knows you’re not afraid of them unsubscribing, they’re less likely to hurry to unsubscribe.

Make Sure Your E-mails Get Opened…

Try to e-mail on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Mondays suck, so everyone’s in a bad mood. Thursdays and Fridays everyone’s already thinking ‘Weekend… Woooo hooo!” If you hit them mid-week, you have a slightly better chance of them being open to your pitch.

Mail consistently. Find the sweet spot for your market. Is it daily? Three times a week? Or just once or twice? No two markets are the same. Find your sweet spot and stick to the schedule religiously.

Ask your subscribers to add your e-mail address to their address book. This effectively “whitelists” you, keeping your e-mails from being seen as spam by the filters.

Work hard on your subject lines. This is your entire pitch to get them to open the e-mail. It’s like a teeny, tiny sales letter selling them your e-mail. Put yourself into your readers’ shoes. What would get you to open the e-mail? And stay away from dollar signs, the word “Free”, all capped subjects, and any punctuation that isn’t a period or question mark. That’s another way to keep yourself clear of the spam filters.

Make Money With Your E-mails…

Put your e-mails on a diet! Basically… make them skinny. Testing shows e-mails that are between 30 and 50 characters wide get the most click through response.

Use a compelling story that will lead you into the topic of your e-mail. Let’s say you’re selling—oh, I don’t know… let’s pretend it’s a book on e-mail marketing. You could start by telling a story about filling out the Publisher’s Clearinghouse prize packet, when you learn from your wife that they’re now doing e-mail marketing, etc… (Sound familiar?) Stories help your list see you as a real person, help you set up real world problems that your product solves, and even build a friendly trust with your list. Then you just transition from the story to the product you’re looking to sell, and you’re golden.

Use a real “call to action.” Just as in a sales letter, you want to tell your reader what to do next. At the bottom of your e-mail (maybe even a few times before the bottom) you want to put the link to your sales page, with words that literally say something like “Click here to learn more…” “Click here to read on…” or even “Click here for the rest of the story…” As long as your story dovetails nicely into the product, you’re guaranteed to start hearing cha-ching over and over again.

Well… there you have it: My quick and effective ways to conquer e-mail marketing. Use them wisely and religiously, because e-mail marketing is not only here to stay, it’s here to make you big stinking wads of dirty, sexy money, which reminds me of another tip…

When writing e-mails or any direct response marketing, you want to use hard-hitting, distinctively sensory words when describing things. Whenever you can, you want to show it, not say it. And that doesn’t mean use a picture. It means paint one with your words.

Oh… and one last thing…

Just today my Grandmother sent me an e-card with a digital Amazon gift certificate as a birthday present.

You know… I think when it comes to the future of the post office, the fat lady just started the second verse.

Until next time, Stompers!

By Vin Montello

Vin Montello is a former Hollywood television writer that brings his 20 years experience as a story-teller, to every direct response sales letter he writes. These days Vin’s responsible for crafting some of the most successful online marketing campaigns, and has earned the nickname “The Millionaire Maker.”

Vin invites you to his wildly successful marketing blog at Marketing Clambake.com. You can also learn more about him at Montello Marketing.com .

THURSDAY July 14th, 2011 at 3:00pm Eastern

Infusionsoft Email Marketing Tips That Will Save You HOURS of TIME! with Faculty Member Nicole Munoz.

As an avid user of Infusionsoft for the last few years, Nicole will teach you some of her time saving and organizing tips for creating a top notch email campaign in Infusionsoft. Don’t have infusionsoft? No
worries, you will learn how you can apply some of these same techniques with other providers such as Aweber and Icontact! StomperNet Members, Register Now!

How We Boosted Revenue with Simple Beef Ups to Email Marketing

by Eric Shannon

FLV

If you enjoyed this post and want more, give TNE a try!

You will get great tips like this…and more…every month – and you can start right now for just $1.00!

Stompernet Blog

Whether you realize it or not, most of what you do as an online marketer comes from the old-school tactics of direct marketers. These are people who deal directly with their customers. There is no middle-man, just as it is online. We work directly with our customers, so it makes sense that these tactics apply whether online or off.

As an example of direct marketing, you can think of telemarketers. They call the customer and speak to him or her directly to elicit an immediate response.

One method that direct marketers have found to be quite lucrative is direct mail. Though many offline marketers still use this method, online marketers often overlook the advantages to mailing the old, traditional snail-mail way, and they could be missing a ton of revenue in the bargain.

Let’s take a look at some of the advantages of direct marketing and how it can help you to boost your business and crank up your sales!

Lee Collins
Managing Director
StomperNet, LLC

“Avon invented the concept of direct marketing and direct selling beauty. And that’s still very valid to us. We’ll have a firm that will be around for another 114 years as strongly as it was the first 114. “

-Andrea Jung , CEO Avon Products, Inc.

Why being direct makes more sales…

Direct marketing has been around a very long time. We can trace its history way back to Aaron Montgomery Ward, who sold directly to his clients via catalog beginning in 1872. (Yes, almost a decade before Sears.) But since then, many marketers have made incredible advances in direct marketing and their names are familiar to those of us who have brought the concepts of direct marketing online.

You’ve heard the names — Joe Sugarman, Gary Halbert, Jay Abraham, Dan Kennedy, Bill Glazer, and so many others — all remarkable direct marketers who have made millions of dollars taking their marketing message directly to the people.

They did it in the form of print advertising in magazines and newspapers. They created television commercials and infomercials that drove people to a P. O. Box and then later, an 800 number to place orders. If you’re in the U. S., you’ve undoubtedly seen these methods still being used by guys like Billy Mays on your television screen every single day.

But something else these direct marketing icons did, which some see as the best form of direct marketing is to send direct mail. You know, the kind that you and I pull out of our mailboxes, hoping for something good every day? Yes, people call that “junk” mail. But if you’re really creative about what you mail and to whom, you’ll find that you can turn this “junk” mail into gold mail for you.

Why is direct mail so great?

What makes direct mail so amazing is that you can mail to a very specific type of customer. So, if you’re selling garden tools, you can rent a list of names and physical addresses for people that are specifically interested in gardening, and undoubtedly, sell more garden tools than you would to a general group of people. Or, if you’re a local business looking for walk-in trade, you can target your area and the age group, gender, and interest group that you want to see coming in your front door.

So, if you’re running a neighborhood pizza store, for example, you can target houses in a 10-mile radius that are middle-class and have families. Or, you can target college-campus addresses within a reasonable distance. You can go right to the people who already want what you’re selling and bring them to your business instead of letting them go to your competitor down the block.

Not as many restrictions

Sure, you can also target your advertising online. The difference is that with online advertising, you can’t just email anyone, if you’re in the U. S. You must have permission to mail people in order to be in compliance with the CAN SPAM Act of 2003. So, you can’t just email a bunch of strangers or buy a list or rent a list. Online, those activities make you a spammer and legally liable for thousands in fines and penalties or even jail time. Who needs that?

Plus, Internet advertising isn’t usually quite as targeted as direct mail. You can target keywords that will bring the right customers to your website because they click on your link on a Google SERPs page. You can advertise in an ezine that is focused on your niche, or you can write articles about your niche. but there’s something more powerful about that perfect customer taking hold of your ad, in their hands, and looking at it. Sure you can throw an ad away, but some physical ads can be so compelling that people will spend more time with them, just because they’re curious.

Ways to attract attention

For example, have you ever gotten “bumpy” mail? You get a envelope, but there’s something inside. You can feel it, just by holding the envelope. It might be a fake credit card, a penny, a key, or something else, but I know you’ve seen these types of ad. Did you throw them away, or take the time to peel the penny off the paper?

Bill Glazer, now in charge of the Dan Kennedy organization, wrote a book that was published in 2009 called _Outrageous Advertising That’s Outrageously Successful_, and in it, he gives some crazy ideas about how to grab people’s attention with direct mail advertising.

One way to do this is by making your ad look handwritten. Just scribble it on a legal pad, like he did, or any other postcard or piece of paper. You can add any copy graphics tweaks you like. Some things might be circled, have arrows pointing to them, or have crazy drawings on them. Of course, this can all be automated, but it should look like it’s coming right out of your pen.

Frank Kern did something like this couple of years ago, and when I got the envelope with “Super Secret Ninja Headquarters” in the return address area and my name handwritten on the front of the envelope, there was no way I wasn’t going to open that and see what he had to say. He got my interest with that one little technique, and in fact, I still have that mailing because it was just that cool. Inside the envelope was a piece of legal pad paper with “WOO-HOO It’s Party Time!” handwritten in big bold letters with stars around them. Who could put that down?

Bill Glazer wrote another ad on a placemat while he was having dinner one night. He even apologized to his customers for the coffee stain on it in his handwriting. He pulled people right into his world with that. In fact, he had the placemat made into a mailer, and sent copies to all of his customers just that way. Think that stood out in the pile of mail that people get every day?

How to get started

There are lots of ways that you can be outrageous enough to make people want to read what you send them. But where should you start?

Begin a direct mail campaign with your own customers first. They will be the most responsive. Then, move on to a rented list of subscribers that meet your perfect customer profile. And then, do some joint ventures with other folks who are in your market, but not your direct competitors.

For example, if you’re selling a course on dog training, you don’t want to approach other dog trainers, but you might want to approach a veterinarian or someone who sells pet food to joint venture with you. Send a mailing to that person’s customers and allow them to send a mailing to yours. It’s just like an email ad swap, but with real mail.

No matter what you decide to try, be sure to set an advertising budget first, and within that, start with about small percentage for direct mailing expenses. If your budget is small, you can even start with simple postcards. VistaPrint.com will give you 100 for only $24.99 plus shipping. Or, if yo have a very large advertising budget, you can start on a larger scale and work with a direct mail company to create just the type of ad you want to send.

But it’s definitely something you should try. Direct mail is also a great way to bond with customers that electrons just doesn’t provide. Make them think that you’re writing to them personally, and watch your conversion rates go ballistic!

STOMPER Speed Boost

Nothing says SEO like StomperNet! Join us for LIVE 11 and meet your fellow Stompers. Get three days of pure content, and learn all the cutting-edge tactics that you’ll need for competitive SEO in the coming months.

Join us at LIVE 11. Make your reservation today!

Get the full story (and find out how to attend) by clicking here.

SEO Secret Sauce

More ideas for direct mailing campaigns:

• Use an unconventional mailer shape. Anything goes as long as your post office will accept it. Just be sure that before you order 1,000 star-shaped mailers, you get their OK first.
• Create a piece of mail that looks official. You see this with Publishers’ Clearing House all the time.
• Use some type of invitation — to your brick and mortar store or to your website. A special sale invite with a discount on a particular day works very well.
• Use an unconventional color for your mailer that will stand out from the rest.
• Be sure that your mailing is unique and that it creates curiosity.

Try it and…

Let us know how it worked for you in a comment!

Free Live Webinars Next Week:

“How to Leverage the 7 Hidden Trends to Profit More on the Internet”
We will pull back the curtains on the ‘Age of Voice’, an unprecedented shift that has created the biggest opportunity in history for nearly effortless and massive money creation. Register Now

Let us know your thoughts on today’s issue.
Post Your Comments Here

Stompernet Blog

By Kevin O’Neill

Attention Online Entrepreneurs!

I’m about to tell you about a way to get more business that you don’t want to hear. Because chances are you like the ease, relative lack of expense and potential instantaneous results of marketing online. But if you are selling a product or service online with any level of success at all, you’re leaving money on the table if you aren’t using direct mail.

So you’re asking: “Direct mail? Like the Postal Service? Are you kidding?

Who still markets via direct mail?”

That’s the point, actually. Are you getting less mail? You’re not alone. According to The Washington Post, the Postal Service processed 213 billion pieces of mail as recently as 2006 but 170 billion pieces in 2010. If you’re someone dealing with low open rates on your e-mails and low click-through rates on the web, those are numbers that should catch your eye. Why?

You’re simply dealing with less competition to get noticed in mailboxes. The numbers show that online-savvy customers are juicy targets for direct mail.

Chances are, the customers you’ve developed online, being comfortable there, have transitioned things such as bank statements, credit card accounts and utility bills online. There are 10 billion less pieces of mail being sent each year, and the bulk of that is being replaced by online communication. That means a direct-mail piece sent to someone who is savvy online is even more likely to slice through the storm of marketing clutter and get noticed.

Your Direct Mail Has A Massive Thud Factor

In publishing, there’s value in bulk. Book publishers, magazine publishers and direct-mail practitioners speak of “thud factor,” in which the price the market will bear is directly proportional to the size. Consumers see more value in a 450-page book than they do in a 280-page book, even if the word count is the same.

If your potential customers don’t get a lot of mail and you’re the only one in your space using it, your letter or package has massive “thud Factor,” even if it’s simply a four-page piece in an envelope. Your thud factor increases substantially if your competition is online only.

Respect Postal Success.

As much as we all talk about split testing in online marketing, the dirty little secret is that a lot of the top online marketers don’t really do it, particularly in their e-mail marketing. There is a lot of lip service paid to testing but not as much action as you would expect. A lot of e-mail campaigns fail or succeed, and there’s no real way to record why they did, either.

Direct mail at the major mailer level, on the other hand, demands continuous attention and refinement. Direct mailers aren’t spending a fraction of a penny to send an e-mail. They’re spending real money, often a buck or two. Mail to a legit number of people and you’re looking at a substantial investment in each and every promotion. If you aren’t studying successful direct mail to uncover ideas for your own marketing, you’re not a terribly serious marketer.

A Buyer Is A Buyer. A Tire Kicker Is A Tire Kicker.

If you decide to test some direct mail, begin your experimentation with buyers, whether your own or others. Amazon’s direct-mail operations were profitable long before any other part of the company.

Why?

It was mailing to proven buyers, while online efforts were aimed at everyone. Don’t paper the universe Publishers Clearing House-style, mailing to anyone who moves. Experiment with direct mail by focusing on those who have shown a propensity to purchase and sending to small numbers of them.

Five Tiny Steps To Retro Success

If you’ve made it this far, maybe you’re actually willing to give direct mail a try. Let’s take a look at a five-step plan to experiment with direct mail that’ll cheaply and quickly tell you if direct mail is something you might want to work into your marketing mix.

And before you say “no, no, no, no, no,” realize that a lot of marketers have a ton of success with, of all things, postcards. So this can all be cheap, easy and doable.

1. Start Small With Proven Buyers. Take 100 of your best customers and send them a special offer available nowhere else. Put together an offer for them but one that is worth your while to convert. If that turns a profit:
2. Try expanding your horizons with the same offer to people who have spent less money or spent slightly less recently with you. If that works:
3. Make the same offer to those who have purchased other stuff in the same niche, either by doing a joint venture with the buyers of someone in your space, or by purchasing a small number of “hotline” names of recent purchasers of a similar product or service from a list broker. Success here would be huge, and you’re ready to move on from proven buyers and experiment with your own nonbuyers.
4. If you have postal addresses of your unconverted leads, mail them the offer. Maybe some who didn’t open the e-mail or click through to the offer will be engaged for the first time. It is a lot easier to stand out in a small (and shrinking all the time) stack of mail than it is to get noticed in their jam-packed e-mail inbox.
5. Analyze your results diligently, and see if a couple of the steps above show enough promise for further testing or even a full-scale implementation into your marketing campaign.

Successful direct response is successful direct response, and if you study successful direct-mail campaigns you’ll see a ton of overlap with the techniques used via mail, on the web, via e-mail, by PPC pros, on video sales pages and in all other media.

Now in these five steps I’m assuming a good offer, well presented, with solid copy and utilizing direct marketing techniques designed to boost response (deadline, bonuses, guarantee, etc.).

Why Not Give Direct Mail A Try?

People are getting more and more electronic correspondence all the time, to the point of being overwhelmed. Meanwhile, they are getting less and less physical mail. It’s easier than ever to get noticed through the mail. It is getting harder all the time to capture buyers’ attention online.

Getting diminishing returns with previously successful online efforts? There’s a solid chance that you’ll increase the volume and frequency of purchases by your customers and better prospects by implementing a direct-mail strategy in your business.

Kevin O’Neill is an Atlanta-based copywriter and marketing consultant.

Download:  Offline Advertising for Online Marketers

FLV / ZIP

If you enjoyed this post and want more, give TNE a try!

You will get great tips like this…and more…every month – and you can start right now for just $1.00!

StomperNet LIVE 11! – June 23rd – June 25th in Phoenix, AZ  Register Now

Stompernet Blog

By Todd Chism

As an Internet business owner I find that I’m constantly looking for new ways to drive traffic, to give the customers something they want or need. Or at least what they think they need.

The customer will always ask the inevitable question: What’s in it for me? We don’t realize how early in our childhood development we get this behavior, but gradually it becomes ingrained.

Do you remember doing chores as kid?

You got money or an allowance or that special thinga-ma-bob. That’s what was in it for you; incentive to do what you didn’t want to do to get what you wanted. This can be applied to customers as well.

Let’s face it, customers really don’t want to part with their money to get your product. Everyone, and I do mean everyone, wants you to give it to them. Something happens psychologically inside their head when they shop, especially if it’s for a luxury or frivolous item. They want the object. Their palms get sweaty, their throat goes dry, their eyes glass over, and their wallets tighten. Remember Gollum? It’s their precious.

Now, I’m being overly dramatic here, but the actual point remains. For people to spend their hard earned cash they want to know what in it for them. They go to work all week, something that most really don’t want to do, to get a check that they do want. Then come the things they don’t want again. They have to pay utilities, groceries, rent or a mortgage, and whatever’s left is their “spendin’ money”. And, before they give up spendin’ their money, they ask the question.

WII.FM is more than just what its name implies.

WII.FM More than a Radio Station

It’s a give and take philosophy that drives the business / customer dynamic. Both sides must employ the technique to get what they want. Your business is not a utility company that a customer MUST have such as water or electric. Those things a customer NEEDS and MUST pay for them even though they don’t want to.

But, just because you’re a business owner doesn’t mean you don’t have the same issues that your customers have. You have to pay bills. Maybe even twice the number if you have an office building that you work out of: double the rent, double the electric, etcetera, etcetera.

The customers don’t look at it that way. They don’t see you as a hard working stiff like themselves. Oh, no. You’re a business owner, part of the corporate machine that is out to profit from the lowly worker.

Wait a minute! I’m a working stiff! Come on, cut me a break!

No, evil business owner! I shall banish you to the lowest pit of Tartarus unless you give me the deal of a lifetime!

Sorry, Dungeons and Dragons flashback.

Here’s the give / take dynamic.

YOU sell something the customer wants. YOU want the customer to buy your product. YOU want the customer’s money. Well, really the only thing in it for you is a sale, the possibility of other sales through this customer’s word of mouth, and possibly gaining a loyal customer.

The CUSTOMER wants your product. The CUSTOMER doesn’t want to pay for your product. The CUSTOMER wants you to bend over backwards to give them something that they already want. This usually means a huge discount, some kind of free item, or some other profit-killing endeavor. In a nutshell, you give to take, they give to take.

The customer mentality of WII.FM is both a blessing and a curse for the business owner.

If you can come up with something that your customer will accept as a “freebie”, that doesn’t cost you an arm and a leg or bite deeply into your profit, then you could come out looking good. The problem is that thing you call a business is a profit deal.

Do you remember the movie “The Jerk” with Steve Martin? That movie has a great scene that directly applies to this situation. Steve is working at a carnival as a weight guesser. He thinks he’s not doing well so talks to his boss.

“I’ve already given away eight pencils, two hula dolls, and an ashtray, and I’ve only taken in fifteen dollars.” Steve says, bleakly.

The boss is smiling. “You have taken in fifteen dollars and given away fifty cents worth of crap, which gives us a net profit of fourteen dollars and fifty cents.”

You get the picture, but it’s not always this easy.

The quickest thing to jump on is free shipping. You buy my product and I’ll ship it to you free! While this is a good thing, all of your competitors are using the same gimmick. Darn. Okay, I’ll lower my prices. But now you have to deal with that stupid M.A.P.(minimum advertised price) agreement you have with your shipping source. Darn, darn, darn!

The playing field was leveled by forces beyond your control. The customer is still screaming what’s in it for me and you’re deciding whether or not you should order a headstone for your business.

So then you hit on the idea of offering a coupon. Yeah, that’ll work. But your competitors are also offering a coupon! Bah!

What then can my business give?

What can you give your customer that’s going to make them want to spend money with you? Remember that the customer sees it as 100% about them and nada for you. So whatever you do it’s got to blow them out of their socks.

Many of the tricks that websites use have been done to death. Free shipping, a coupon, a free e-book, and a monthly newsletter are just a few. Depending on your business, some of these things still work, but more and more you have to think outside the box.

So here’s one you can try. This will take a little bit of work on your part as you’ll also have to see what you can get from your supplier. Start a Twitter account for your business if you haven’t already done so. MONITOR that account. Most businesses will start an account and then forget the second they create it. Create, log out, and never come back. You have an internet business for Pete’s sake! Use the tools!

See what you can get from any of your suppliers at the deepest wholesale discount you can get.

Now, it doesn’t matter what you sell. Toys, furniture, stereos, cameras, they all will work with this idea. Once you have your Twitter account rolling and you’ve got a decent amount of followers advertise your “Word of the Week” contest. The first five or ten, or whatever number you choose that responds to your tweet get’s a free (insert your item here). The customers all of a sudden are getting the WIIFM. and you’re getting more customers.

Then it snowballs.

You’ll find that you get more Twitter followers as the word is spread that once a week you give stuff away. The upside is that these new followers may just be looking for the free stuff, however when you tweet about sales or new items, they know exactly what you’ve got and, should they need that item, will usually start their buying process with you. If you’re competitive, you’ll probably make the sale. This idea can also be applied to Facebook.

There are a lot challenges facing the web entrepreneur to build a successful online business. But to do so you’ve got to remember the customer also has a multitude, heck beyond a multitude of choices.

So giving them a little in a unique way can sometimes pay off in a big way.

But let’s not forget your side. What’s in it for you? Not from the customer, but from your vendors and suppliers. Now you’re the customer. Some vendors will cut you a special deal now and again and that’s good for you.

But here’s something you might try.

Let’s say you sell kitchen accessories. You sell kitchen accessories. There, I’ve said it. Make a trip to a local art show. Let’s say you meet a wood carver that makes intricately carved wooden serving bowls out of beautiful and exotic hardwoods. Find out if he’ll cut a deal with you to buy his products at a small profit. He becomes a supplier and you’ve eliminated a distributor.

Now you’ve got a beautiful and unique product that you can sell exclusively. This idea can cover a wide range of products. What’s in it for the wood carver? He sells more product than at the local art show and makes a buck. What’s in it for you? Good, inexpensive and unique product that ups your profitability.

I hope this has given you a few good ideas and a look inside the customer’s head. Now that you’ve read my post, I ask you: What’s in it for me? The hope that you’ll read my next one.

Entrepreneur Magazine chose Todd Chism as one of the top five “Emerging Entrepreneurs of the Year” in 2008.  He now owns over 40 niche domains, has four operational ecommerce websites, and has created a business consulting and coaching company.

===>  Download “Become a Local Business Superhero” here! <===

If you enjoyed this post and want more, give TNE a try!

You will get great tips like this…and more…every month – and you can start right now for just $1.00!

Stompernet Blog

How much time does it take to get started online?

How does 45 minutes sound?

Starting today, you can trade less than an hour of your TIME for proven strategies, techniques, and tips that will have your competition mesmerized and envious?  And oh yeah, this information is FREE.

Now…do I have your attention?

When I first started in internet marketing, years ago, if you wanted to find tips and techniques, you either had to experiment online and discover them yourself OR you had to pay thousands of dollars to attend conferences or seminars. Thanks to the recent shift in broadband technology and this cool little thing called {online video} — you now have the luxury to enjoy what would normally cost a round trip airfare, 2 nights in a hotel, and a $1,500 registration badge at YOUR home office for FREE.

Because today it is my pleasure to introduce you to: http://stomperwebinars.com/

We currently have 5 FREE webinars available:

1. Online Business Models (your options) plus Keyword Research -  In this webinar, StomperNet faculty members Erik Stafford and Todd Chism discuss the importance of selecting profitable online business models.  We are also honored to have Brent Hodgson and Anthony Fernando (creators of Market Samurai) on the call to talk about getting the most out of your Market Samurai experience when selecting your keywords.
2. SEO Basics – Stomper Style-  If you are new to the world of Search Engine Optimization (SEO), you may seem a bit confused or maybe overwhelmed.  While SEO seems like this extremely complex scientific formula, in reality it is just the exact opposite.  Spend about 45 minutes with Ross Goldberg, and you will have this SEO thing down, ready to dominate Google.
3. Getting Started With Social Media – While 95% of the world has heard of “Twitter”, in reality only 20% are actually leveraging this FREE Social Media Tool.  Whether you like it or not, Social Media is effectively changing the way business is conducted both online and offline.  If you ever wanted to know how Twitter can bring you more customers for FREE – spend some time with Dan Hollings during this FREE webinar.  (Notice the FREE trend here?)
4. Getting Started Right with eCommerce – If you are NOT selling something online TODAY – you are doing something wrong.  We can help you fix this.  And the beauty about eCommerce (wait………its coming….) — you don’t even have to house ANY inventory.  You simply buy a domain, put up a shopping cart (which is FREE with your StomperNet membership), and start to collect money.  Simple as that! Audrey Kerwood {our eCommerce Expert} will show you the quickest and easiest way to start making money online.
5. Blogging for Beginners – Do you know the TRUE POWER of online blogging?  Meaning…..Do you realize that a simple 250 word post about a subject in your niche — could be indexed by Google and sending qualified traffic to your website in less than 7 minutes?  Sherman Hu is considered the leading authority on Blogging, and will show you why YOU need to be blogging daily, if you are serious about your business.

If you won a FREE trip to Hawaii you would go wouldn’t you?

So what are you waiting for?  Here is your FREE first class {round trip} StomperAIR plane ticket, 2 FREE nights at the StomperNet Hotel, and a FREE $1,500 Registration Badge to check out http://www.stomperwebinars.com.

Brad Fallon

Stompernet Blog