Typically you do not ask favors of random strangers. You do not expect strangers to hand you cash just for the sake of it. If you need something, you generally ask your friends and family. You have a relationship with them, and because of that they are more likely to help you.

Yet, in business we expect that consumers will just open their wallets and tell their friends to do the same… just because we are a business. Consider starting a relationship with your customers and clients. Just like with any relationship, it has cycles. Learning how to make these cycles work for you will help your relationship grow, which in turn helps your business.

The best part of this cycle is that once it’s started, all you need to do is maintain it. The customers and clients in this relationship help keep the business moving forward and growing. A long-term arrangement like this is designed to provide both of you with mutual benefits.  In Ryan Garey’s article today, you will learn essential techniques on how to build relationships and why you want to start to grow that relationship marketing now.

Talk soon!

Lee Collins
Managing Director
StomperNet, LLC

“If you can get an edge based on how customers feel about your company, it’s a much stickier–sustainable–relationship over the long haul.”
~ Bob Thompson ~
CEO, CustomerThink Corporation

Consumer Lifecycle

By Ryan Garey

In a rapidly changing environment spotting and capitalizing on trends can become more and more difficult. Especially if you are a bootstrapping entrepreneur, the idea of “trends” or “forecasting” becomes laughable. Yet, regardless of the shifting “trends” something that will never go out of style (if you’re building a real business) is relationship marketing, and in a way that still makes you money!

So despite your current level in your business, let us capitalize on the atmosphere of reflection, and take a step back to see the life-blood of your business: your consumers. More specifically we will focus on the relationship between you.

The aim: higher conversion rates and cultivating better clients.

Clients that actually help you build your business with repeat sales, referrals, and glowing social media reviews rather than burying you with support issues, refunds, and scathing complaints in the social sphere for all to see!  It can be much easier than you think when you have a good framework.  So today I am going to reveal to you the “Three Critical Phases of The Consumer Lifecycle”.

If you have any one reason to give your Consumers Lifecycle serious attention, it is this:

“If you don’t have a process for what you are doing, you don’t know what you are doing.” W. Edwards Deming

A path that ensures you make the most of every opportunity, while giving you accurate information with which you can refine a water-tight funnel; building your business with efficiency and scalability!

The stages themselves are:

Each one of these stages has a number of stages within them that I have identified in the complete cycle, but it is important for YOU to build out according to your unique business model.

Generation to Conversion

Do you sometimes feel as though you have the best product in the world? If only more people could find out about it, then you’d be set! I think everyone goes through this “phase”, until they start generating serious traffic that is!

It doesn’t matter if you’re in a strip mall, a business complex, or online; you will always need traffic in one form or another. The more the better, however, it is not just the amount that matters, but also the quality of the visitors (how closely what they want is aligned with what you have). Bottom line: traffic is great, but leads are better!

When put into a choreographed process, leads can “move along” a pipeline toward becoming actual customers!

During this phase it’s important to educate your leads and, while educating them you can watch their behavior and find out towards which they gravitate. By focusing on relationships, their behavior, in addition to surveys and market testing, you will find that getting sales conversions become natural and easy! You will get more than just buyers; you will get the Right buyers! Buyers who actually use your product or service enough to get value!

Adoption to Causation

Basically, it doesn’t matter how great your product is, unless people actually DO something with it, they will most likely not be coming back to you for more products, let alone give you a referral, a testimonial, or positive review online.  And why should they?

It is through better adoption of your product that your consumers naturally become a causative force for you in the marketplace. This leads to more natural repeat sales, upsells, referrals and testimonials.

As more and more business are struggling with diminishing email open rates, lower quality leads, and diminishing sales, you will find more and more businesses realize the value of each and every lead and customer. So DO NOT make the mistake of thinking that just because the deal is ‘closed’ that the relationship has ended!

Affiliation to Ascension

Entire empires have been made from affiliates and affiliate marketing, but despite the vast opportunity many business owners still struggle with how to 1) Get affiliates on board and 2) get them to actually DO something! But while there is nothing wrong from going straight to affiliate networks, it would be reckless to ignore the greatest affiliate goldmine you may have: your happy customers!

As you can see, the third stage relies heavily on the efficiency of the second stage, much like the second relies on the first. Thus, if you get the right traffic (which generally comes from good affiliates, which you can grow inside your own organization) you will easily get higher-quality leads.

Higher quality leads makes getting sales much easier. With the right clients on board, they will naturally use more of what you sold making it easier on your support team. When people see actual realized value, it makes it MUCH easier to get authentic testimonials. Likewise, it is now much easier to get a referral from someone who gave you a testimonial. At this point it is surprisingly easy to turn your referral sources into full-blown affiliates!

Finally, with the right kind of motivated affiliates on board, they will see their traffic turned into a goldmine. It soon becomes easy for them to become super-affiliates who flood your sites with the perfect visitors for your products! It is actually quite easy and takes relatively very little effort to take someone to this level of ascension when you plan and act deliberately with a holistic process in mind! It may seem complicated, but it also seems complicated to have to date a person before asking them to marry you. Thus you build a relationship, which is exactly what you need!

STOMPER Speed Boost

Introducing “The Net Effect” Interactive Digital Magazine!

This is the magazine you need, with training and content that improves your business and makes you money now.
With multiple ideas to help your business each month imagine what 12 issues can do for your bottom line!

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Secret Sauce Checklist

Tips for a Strong Consumer Lifestyle

• Have a process for what you are doing
• Remember Relationships
• Generate traffic and convert them into buyers
• Get buyers to adopt your products (this is part of your relationship)

Stomper Buzz

Next Week’s Focus: Web Design

Stompernet Blog

These days, when people want to find a local business they go to the Internet and use a search engine. Not a phone book. Phone books are mostly obsolete – well, except as booster seats. Or if you want a cheap way to bullet-proof your car (but that’s a subject for another email).

If you have an actual brick and mortar offline business, or if you work to help retail locations get more business, you need to be on the Internet. And not just with a brochure website, you need to have a regularly updated website preferably built on WordPress or some other CMS platform. And you need to be on Facebook, and LinkedIn, and…

Whoa. I’m getting ahead of myself.

This week we’re excited to bring you true experts in the field of local marketing who will show you two things: 1) if you’re a local business, how to get more customers by leveraging the power of the Internet, and 2) if you’re a marketer, how to really help these local businesses (the right way).

When you join us LIVE this week (yes, it’s a real live webinar, not some pre-recorded stuff) you’ll discover tried and true strategies from people actually in the field helping local businesses every day. It’s a subject near and dear to our heart and we hope to see you on the calls!

Talk soon and enjoy the resources below!

Ryan Taylor
Director of Operations
StomperNet, LLC

IMPORTANT:  Some of the resources shown are only available to members. With our all-new tiered benefit levels you can join us today for as little as $49.00and get instant access to the world’s largest SEO and Online Business community plus all the tools and resources you need (including upcoming free webinar replays) to enhance your existing business or start, build and grow a thriving Internet-based business!

Curriculum Resources

• Become A Local Business Superhero: Ross Denny

• Forum Post What’s the best way to get a local business to show up in local search results?

New Media

• Video Marketing:  A Thousand Foot View with Vin Montello

• License To Print Money With Access To The World’s Largest eProducts Library with Mark Nathwani

* Free Live Webinars This Week

MONDAY September 12, 2011 ~ 7:00 pm Eastern

“How to build a $250,000 local marketing firm and succeed all the way to the bank!” with Blake Goodwin

Blake Goodwin has landed 100′s of deals in over 40 different vertical market segments and is thy guy that knows how to get the businesses owners begging you to sign up and hand you checks for5k, 10k, and 15k all day long… What are the questions you should be asking, what markets are working, what’s hot and what’s not…

From eHarmony to Donald Trump to major national franchises like Rotor Rooter, Blake has landed all these contracts and will show you how easy it is for you. What’s a “BUT” flip, what is the best way to open up a new client, is it better to prospect over the phone or in person, how to get your phone ringing and the techniques to over deliver every time! Register Now

WEDNESDAY September 14, 2011 ~ 8:00 pm Eastern

“Advanced Lead, Prospect and Client Acquisition Strategies for a Local Internet Marketing Agency” with Scott Gallagher

This Webinar provided by Scott Gallagher from Local Marketing Source, LLC will include strategizes acquired over 20 years to win new business from local companies. Initially developed in 2006, Scott will teach his SEO Sales Trail, a systematic solution selling approach earning the right to do business with local companies, including questioning techniques, closing techniques and after sale service strategies. The webinar will cover strategize in lead acquisition, prospect meetings including pain creation using SEO reports such as the Rank and Link Popularity reports and finally closing techniques such as effective proposal creation and closing questions. Register Now

*NEW* “StomperNet Open Forum” Fridays at 11EDT

We know everyone has questions about their business or different stumbling blocks. Well we invite you to bring them to the table during our Open Forum. With the combined training and experience of our Coaches you will get the direction you need to get you back on your road to success!

The next StomperNet Open Forum Call with our Professional Coaches happens next Friday at 11am EDT and we hope to see you there! These calls are intended to be live Q&A sessions and playback will not be available.

Special Announcements

TUESDAY, Sept 13th @ 9pm Eastern

“How To Cash-In Building Mobile Apps” with Jeff Mills

Jeff Mills will show you live how to build an app in just a few minutes, without even knowing how
to do any programing language, plus how you can profit from this major breakthrough in technology to build apps for local businesses in only a couple of hours instead of weeks or months.  Register Now!

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!

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’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

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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.

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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

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

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Stompernet Blog

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!

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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!

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Stompernet Blog

Directories are old school when it comes to the Internet, and there’s been some questions about them. Are they still valid? Should you bother? What directories are good/bad or don’t matter?

If you’ve been wondering… We’ve got some thoughts…

Lee Collins
Managing Director
StomperNet, LLC

“The five essential entrepreneurial skills for success are concentration, discrimination, organization, innovation and communication.” ~ Michael Faraday

Are Link Directories Still Relevant?

When the Internet was still fairly new, the best known site for typing keywords that applied to what you were looking for was Yahoo.com. It was organized into different categories, and you could either pick a category that you were interested in learning more about or type a search term in to find different category listings.

Though it had a search element, Yahoo didn’t move to crawler-based results until around 2002. Before that, it was most definitely more directory than search engine.

That was in the mid-90s and since the inception of Yahoo, many other directories have popped up on the Web, both good and bad.

Five years ago, it was cool to add your link to any directory that existed. All backlinks — free or paid — were good links, and no matter where they came from, they boosted your place in the SERPs.

Fast forward to 2011, and things have changed. Though Yahoo is still a well-respected force online, and Google isn’t the ONE big dog that it used to be, it’s still making heavy ripples throughout the Web — when something happens there, everyone still pays attention.

With recent changes, we have reason to wonder — are link directories so yesterday, or do they even matter?

Google did one thing with the recent Panda update, and that was to make low-quality, poor content sites targets for devaluation. But even some of the big dogs were howling. We saw respected sites like Ezine Articles, Mahalo, and HubPages suffering severe ranking and traffic damage. And we know that the issues that these sites faced was the duplicate content issue.

But other sites, which Google considers to be “low-quality,” suffered from lack of content of any kind — the scrapers, the squeeze pages (which never really ranked anyway), and maybe… online link directories?

How are they stacking up? You’d think that since they have little content, aside from site descriptions, that they might have been impacted negatively. For some of them, that’s true, but for others, their traffic actually increased dramatically. Panda loved them! Check out these stats, recently gathered from SEMRush.com:

Apparently, Google found value in some directories and not in others. The traffic differences before and after were astounding!

Notice that its own DMOZ.org dropped almost 300,000 visitors after Panda, whereas Yahoo improved by more than 45.5 million! Other directories fared in differing amounts of traffic, up and down, across the board.

But the shakeout is not over. In April, Business.com dropped like a stone to around 99K visitors, a mere 1/10 of the traffic the site was getting.

So, what happened?

We can only guess. However, directories returning lots of 404 links would definitely not be viewed favorably. Sites offering sitewide linking was another consideration, which has always been something Google frowned upon, even when buying links hadn’t been demonized by the search giant a few years ago..

It’s easy to sit back and make assumptions, but the fact is that directories that improved in traffic are the type you’ll want to target if part of your SEO strategy is to include them in your backlinking process. But if you’re just going for potential traffic, remember that things have changed. Entering your site could be a total waste of time these days.

So, how do you decide whether to bother at all, and if you do want to add your site to any of the online directories, what criteria should you follow before shelling out any amount of cash?

Here are three tips for making sure your one-way backlink is valuable:

1. Find only human-edited directories. If the directory is a paid option and says that sites are reviewed, be sure that the sites it has registered are quality sites and that they really are looking for sites with great content to improve the Web. Also check their refund policy if your site is rejected. Some of them do refund partial or entire fees paid.
2. Make sure that there aren’t too many ads running on the site. If there are, it’s a sure bet that if it hasn’t happened already, the site will lose impact over time.
3. Can you find a category that is 100% relevant to your site? Make sure that a local directory listing category is in line your niche, too. Don’t just submit to be included without evaluating the value of doing so first.

Gaining one-way links from quality directories is still a great start-up strategy for getting a new site going. Solid directory backlinks are still valued by all of the search engines and are a good basis to build upon. However, if you don’t continue to gather backlinks for a page, the effect will decrease over time, so if you’re in it for the long haul, create a system to keep the backlinks flowing.

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SEO SECRET SAUCE

Now that you know how directories can still be beneficial, here are some tips about what NOT to do when considering your options:

1. Do not use the same anchor text in every directory link. Make things look more natural, as if other people are recommending or “voting” for your site.
2. Remember that Yahoo or DMOZ can be worth 20 of the lower echelon links combined.
3. This backlinking strategy tends to work best with Yahoo and Bing in terms of it having a SERPs impact, but you can still get directory traffic from Google if your site is listed in a highly visible directory.
4. Regularly updated and respected blogs in your niche will tend to drive more traffic, if that’s what you’re looking for, so guest posting would be a better way to go than paying for a $300 listing that has minimal traffic itself. Check Alexa rankings and other indicators of overall site traffic to find out.
5. Most directories online are nothing more than link spam. Be very careful about the directories you choose. Just because a site is free and seems like a good deal doesn’t mean that it won’t hurt your SEO more than help.

THE STOMPER BUZZ

“We have web pages and web sites on the first page of Google for nearly every keyword that we are interested in having that for, and that’s because of StomperNet.”

Otto Collins

FREE LIVE WEBINARS NEXT WEEK:

ENCORE PRESENTATION: “Step-by-Step Mobile Marketing” with Wilson Mattos & Dan Hollings, Thurs, May 5th @ 3pm EDT

“Your Secret Ranking Weapon” with Phil Chavanne, Thurs, May 5th @ 8pm EDT

Stompernet Blog

You’re looking for GOOD offers to promote, either to add-on to your back end, or to increase your core affiliate business.

Because the affiliates that get the best offers make the most money, period.

Here’s the link, go check it out

Here’s the back story . . .

Mike Filsaime and Joe Holland have been hard at work for over six months to create “The Ultimate Affiliate System.”

And what a great idea — it’s basically a CPA network for the “little guy” or anyone who wants to be a Super Affiliate but isn’t – yet.

I know you’ve heard stories about some Super Affiliates who make 6-figure PROFITS per DAY.

And the stories are true — BUT . . . they’ve been doing it all with CPA (Cost Per Action) networks where companies pay affiliates for getting people to take ACTION.  And it’s usually really simple — just filling out a form. Visitors don’t even have to buy anything, and you get paid.

But until now, it’s been pretty difficult (for beginners, it’s almost impossible) to get into ANY of the CPA networks unless you already had a massive amount of traffic at your command.

Basically, it was an insider’s club, and they kept it that way.

Good for them; bad for you.

But now, Mike’s AffiliateJump changes all that.

If you want to hear him explain it, just go here.

Since there’s no sale to make, you don’t have to be a killer copywriter or use fancy marketing tactics.

It’s an AMAZING model. This is the fastest growing and most profitable way to make money online right now for affiliates.

And TODAY is when AffiliateJump starts accepting affiliates into the program.  So if you want to see what this is all about, or if you’ve tried getting into CPA and have been shut out by the big boys, now it’s your turn.

Go here for the details.

Talk soon,

Brad Fallon
CEO
StomperNet

P.S. If you missed my short video interview I recorded with Mike Filsaime last weekend, you can see it here.

But the main link you need is this.

Stompernet Blog

Click here to watch a video that will teach you to swim against the CPA current and profit from everyone else who is going with the flow.

CPA (Cost Per Action) is a hot topic in the internet marketing space right now, and it doesn’t have ANYTHING to do with accounting.

(We got a TON of comments on the previous blog post we did with my Mike Filsaime interview about CPA marketing, just this past weekend.)

This is exactly what the landscape looked like when PPC hit big before people had even heard of a “Google Slap”.  I think that just like PPC, the early adopters are going to get the biggest slice of this pie.

But today I want to tell you about someone else who is using CPA networks in a really unique way (that no one else is talking about yet).

That’s why I think that it’s important for you to check it out even if you’re not going to take part in the CPA gold rush that’s happening right now.

See, that reason is that when everyone zigs, this guy went out on a limb and ZAGGED instead.  And being the fish that stands out of the school is paying off for him.  Big time!

He’s been quietly making $25K for a 1 day consultation to teach people how to stop “pushing” traffic to sites the way your or I have done for so long now.

Instead, he’s showing how to get people to send you THEIR hard earned traffic by leveraging the power of the CPA networks and the never-ending flood of CPA affiliates that grows literally hourly.

Think about it: You have the best affiliates in the world using CPA networks to find offers.  You have a ton of smaller but extremely enthusiastic affiliates that are ready to hustle.

Massive Traffic with:
– No PPC Skills
– No Search Skills
– No Lists!

And don’t think that this is complicated or has a steep learning curve. Most likely, you’re already able to do everything that you’ll need to.

If you can make one or two webpages to drive all the traffic to, you’re set.  He is leveraging the buzz in the market in order to put that eager, free workforce to work building HIS business for him.

But you don’t need to pay his $25,000 consulting fee because today, he’s teaching you how to do it totally for free.

Seriously. See it for yourself here, and you’ll be convinced too.  He’s not leaving anything out.

It’s a looong video, but that’s good.  It’s not just a little short tease like most of these things have been lately.  It’s good to see solid material being put out by people who walk the talk.

So watch this video TODAY when you get a chance.  I think you’ll really like it. And I think it’s a great example of how if you you can look at a market and see opportunities for growth that no one else can see because they’re following the hype of the herd.

~Brad Fallon

P.S. I would love to hear what you think of this, and if you’d like to see more.  Like I said, you’d have to have been living under a rock for the past couple of years to not know about CPA, and it’s only JUST NOW opening up to the “little guy”.

Leave us a comment below and tell us what’s on your mind.

Stompernet Blog

Would you like to listen in on a free live interview between me and a guy who has built a $25 Million per year business selling Information Products online?

Eben Pagan, on stage at StomperNet LIVE

On Tuesday the 19th, at 3 PM Pacific / 6 PM EST I’m going to be hosting a live teleclass with Eben Pagan, the creator of the “GURU MasterMind” training program for authors, speakers, coaches and others who want to learn how to publish and make money with Information Products online.

Eben has spoken to our StomperNet Elite at our LIVE Events several times, and I’ve even had him do special presentations for StomperNet affiliates – the stuff he shares is THAT good.

In fact, you know that whole “give away something great for free and make a bunch of money” thing I’ve been talking about for weeks?

We call it “moving the free line” and I learned it from Eben.  So there.

On this teleclass, Eben is going to share:

• The 3 Information Product “Mega-Niches” that make money consistently – and will for years into the future
• How to name your product so that it literally “sells itself” – and hits the “hot button” of your customer with just the name alone
• How to create an opt-in page that converts visitors to subscribers at VERY high rates
• How to organize your ideas into a book or other product QUICKLY (this formula you’re going to learn will make your information far more understandable to your customers – and more VALUABLE as well)
• How to write email newsletters and do email marketing… and get 50% or MORE of your newsletters written for free

…and much, much more.

You’re going to be listening in on a live conversation with someone that runs a $25 Million per year “Guru” business – who successfully sells Information Products in several different niches (with some products selling for as much as $10,000).

This teleclass is STRICTLY limited – and will be on a “first come, first serve” basis.

If you want to sign up, just go here and register NOW

If you’re ready to learn how to launch and grow your online “Guru” business, then join me for this live interview.

Register now, and I’ll talk to you on the teleclass!

Until next time,
Keep Stomping!

~Andy Jenkins

Stompernet Blog