ProBizTips Newsletter
** ISSUE #239 **
April 21st, 2003
** ProBizTips Top Sponsor ** |
FINALLY! A Series Of Professional
Interviews With Internet Marketing Heavyweights!
Professional voice-over artist goes in-depth and interviews
the TOP Internet experts - Let the 'Masters Of Marketing'
speak directly to YOU through streaming audio and reveal
the money making machinery of the Internet!
You can hear every sentence and enjoy the experience of
learning from over seven hours of professional interviews!
So What's In The Interviews?
Hey!
Good Day to you and I hope your day is going well so far! :)
Welcome to all our new subscribers this week and I hope you grow
to love us as so many have ... we couldn't do this without you!
Hope everyone had a good Easter yesterday! :)
Mine was pretty relaxing except for the Easter egg hunt...
It's tough to hide those eggs and remember where you hid them!
I've been desperately trying to get motivated to finish some projects I've started and never finished. It seems much harder these days to get myself going. I think all the online work, being a wife and mother, cook, and maid -- are all taking their toll on me. :)
In the meantime ... sit back, relax and enjoy today's issue!
Your Friend,
Diane Hughes
ProBizTips Weekly
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| ProBizTips Feature Article |
Six Useless Ideas Most Sales Programs Teach
by Len Foley
I'm a professional sales trainer. Every day I'm on the front lines, experimenting and testing every principle I teach. If something doesn't work, I toss it aside and look for something that will work. I can't afford to waste time on useless ideas. Here are just a few of the "useless" ideas that most sales courses teach:
Useless Idea #1: You need to become a "Motivated Seller"
Take an idiot and motivate him. What do you have? A "motivated idiot."
There is nothing worse than a really bad salesperson with a lot of motivation. Have you ever heard the phrase: "Nothing will make a bad product fail quicker than good advertising"?
If you don't know what you're really selling, if your technology is outdated and you're headed in the wrong direction with almost every person you speak with, why would you want to become "more motivated" and move yourself into the wrong direction faster?
It amazes me how many people will work really hard doing all the wrong things right! They spend years tinkering with outmoded systems and wonder why they keep getting second-rate results.
Useless Idea #2: You need more "sophisticated" sales techniques.
I've spent eleven years and countless thousands of dollars studying all the best sales courses I could get my hands on. I read all the books, listened to all the tape programs, and have been to many seminars. I studied each program like a detective, methodically pulling out the best techniques from each system and applying them immediately into every situation I could imagine.
But the more I studied these programs and practiced the various techniques, the more frustrated I became.
Nothing I found seemed to work!
In fact, most sales training programs aren't designed to work. And if you need proof, try using a fancy closing technique with one of your kids or try "information gathering" with your spouse! If you can't get away with those so-called "skills" with the people you love the most, why on earth would you use them with your customers?
Yet that's precisely what most salespeople do.
They employ manipulative strategies and "techniques" on their customers that they wouldn't dare use on their families and friends.
It's no surprise that the profession of selling ranks just above postal workers and tax collectors!
Useless Idea #3: You need to learn how to "close" people.
The "sales close" is one of the worst inventions to enter the domain of professional selling.
Closing techniques are nothing more than an assault on human intelligence. Using a hard close is like using a sledgehammer to pull out a delicate fossil. People aren't machines-they don't have particular buttons to push in order to get them to respond a certain way.
If people were really that predictable, if sales were really nothing more than finding the correct "lever" to pull and then tugging on it with all your might, then selling people would be a lot like sticking money in a slot machine (and just as disappointing).
Useless Idea #4: You need to find the "perfect" product or service.
A lot of people blame their products or services for poor sales performance-and sometimes they're right. But even the world's most fantastic product won't move if it's preceded by an offensive, self-centered pitch.
Useless Idea #5: You need to learn how to "handle objections."
A poor salesperson is an objection waiting to happen. Learning how to "handle" these objections is like learning how to bail out a rowboat after the boat is sunk.
Knowing how to correctly sell eliminates all objections because your client, customer, or loved-ones have absolutely nothing whatsoever to object.
Useless Idea #6: You need to work harder as a salesperson.
Even people with extensive training and university degrees get it wrong. (And yes, even people with six figure incomes and half-million dollar homes-who could be making much more, get it wrong, too).
They think selling is hard work and they think the harder they work, the more sales they'll make. In my system, the exact opposite is true. The less you work, the more the system works for you.
If you're curious about a few more "useless" ideas that you
should NEVER to do in sales, check out my free article:
"The Top Five (Most Idiotic) Sales Techniques" for more info:
http://www.21stcenturysalestraining.com/idiotictechniques.htm
---------------------------------
Also if you'd like to learn how to *effortlessly* convert
25-30% more prospects into PAYING CUSTOMERS, check out my
Free Report: "How Any Ordinary Business Professional Can Turn
Into An Unstoppable Selling Machine!"
http://www.21stcenturysalestraining.com/mail.htm
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BizTips by Dr. Kevin Nunley |
Search Engine Strategies
Search engines are the best way every invented to reach millions of targeted prospects. To get listed high you need to know how search engines work. But keeping up with all the changes search engines go through can be a full time job.
For years, Jerry West of http://WebMarketingNow.com has made understanding search engines his full-time profession. This week I checked in with Jerry to find the latest. Here's what he said:
"As you may have heard, search engines have really changed - and they have taken a major change in the last 30 days. Yahoo! listings are not as powerful anymore, Google's market reach is now 78%, Alta Vista is making a strong comeback, etc."
"Optimizing websites, while important, does not carry the weight that it once did. For example, if you type in the keyword "pizza" in Google, the top two results are Pizza Hut and Dominos. Neither site is optimized for the keyword "pizza", but they got there through brute force of link popularity."
"Google has a system called "PageRank" which plays a very important role in ranking. You can't achieve it overnight, but through diligence and hard work, you can literally dominate your competition - and there isn't anything they can do about it."
------------------------------
Kevin WRITES your professional copy--web site copy, sales
letters, ads, press release and more! See http://DrNunley.com.
Reach Kevin at kevin@drnunley.com or 801-253-4536.
True Tales of An Infoproduct Entrepreneur
by Jeff Smith
Every Tom, Dick and Harry has the **secret** to earning a personal fortune online.
Some products claim to "lead you by the hand and help you create your own eBooks" or "give you the complete suite of A to Z on marketing your products over the internet.
Some of these deliver the goods while many others do not. What you will NOT find in any of these products is a down-to-earth, honest and black-as-night list of what you REALLY need to have to succeed marketing your own information products.
Here is a list that comes straight from direct experience.
1. Burning Desire.
You need to start with a yearning to tell the world, or at least those who care, about what you know in a way that they will want to hear it. Your desire may come from a desire to write, it may come from a desire to improve someone's life with your knowledge or it may come from your desire to create an infoproduct publish ng empire. Anything that has ever amounted to a hill of beans started with a passion to proceed.
2. An Idea Based on Something You Know is In Demand
It's not good enough to market information that appeals to YOU - you need to find information that touches and helps other people get where they want to go. You've beat a medical or mental illness, then tell others how you did it. You've run successful fundraising campaigns, share your techniques. You've survived divorce, let others know how. Maybe you have raised 4 kids - there is TONS you could share with the world. Put yourself in your customer's position - what would you have wanted to know if you could have asked someone? Need some help creating In-Demand ideas, visit:
==>http://www.infoproductcreator.com/
3. Complete Your Product Quickly
Most of the people I know who had the desire and had a great idea, but are still working their full-time day jobs have given up on their dream because they were trying to be writers when all you need to be is a communicator. Develop a list of questions your customers want answered about your idea and get it done - focus on a few weeks at most, most of the infoproduct TOP GUNS complete their products in weeks, not months or years.
4. Develop a Kick A** Title
Your title will be your main marketing vehicle, will separate you from the crowd, will usually be the title of your website, and will dictate keyword selection in search engines. Use action words and focus on the most important benefit you can provide your customers.
5. Simple Web Design with Powerful Copy
The old adage that words, not pictures sell is largely true on the internet. Your headline, sub-head, and first few paragraphs will make a HUGE difference to the success of your products. Don't be afraid to get help here from professional copywriters. Best of all, study successful copy - you can use methods (not plagarise actual copy) from the best in the business. One of the best copywriters on this planet is Gary Halbert - you can luckily access much of his stuff for free at: http://www.thegaryhalbertletter.com
6. Have enough to go with Quality Hosting and Back Office Systems
Your office on the internet is your website. Do you close in the middle of the day? Do you leave the office unattended for 3 or 4 days at a time? Do you kick people out just as they are ready to buy? Do you move your office every few months? Take time to select the proper webhost - if you don't it WILL come back to haunt you, and you'll have much more to lose later on - TRUST ME, I have the bruises to show. You'll also need to put in place strong autoresponders, (I currently use Proautoresponder), and affiliate management systems (Highly recommend Ultimate Affiliate from Groundbreak: http://www.infoproductcreator.com/groundbreak/)
7. Reviews, Testimonials and Joint Ventures
As soon as your product is in presentable shape, begin to select vely give it away to customers and leading ezine publishers/web page owners within your niche. You are looking for any or all of the following: constructive feedback which can lead to "fine tuning", reviews with testimonials so important to your sales page, and to open the door to potential joint venture partnerships which will make the difference between a "trickle" of sales and a "flood" of orders.
8. Focus on Building Your Prospect and Customer List
Less than 3% of visitors will buy - even if they are well targeted. Many of the non-buyers can be converted to customers of your current product or other products if you focus on offering them value to stay on your announcement list. Add value through providing a series of e-course lessons, ongoing newsletter, news updates, etc...
9. Have a Thick Skin!!
Understand that you WILL get criticism, product returns, many refusals for joint ventures, and even the odd piece of hate mail. Know that you will have software problems, webhost challenges, pc problems, and pretty much anything else that can go wrong, probably will. Internet infrastructure is still relatively new and is prone to hiccups - you'll need to take your lumps and move on. If you have trouble overcoming these challenges, move on now, for the sake of your own sanity.
10. Build For Next Year, not Next Month
This ones a toughie, especially when you first start out. Dedicate yourself to your business for at least 12 months. All out massive action for 3 months will bring in some sales, but the REAL impact will be felt 6-12 months out when people re-visit your site, partners look you up to for alliances with, lists grow and begin to respond to your newsletters, and your business moves into a comfortable automatic mode. When you get to this point, KICK IT UP A NOTCH - you are on your way to building your own infoproduct empire, take it to the next level.
It's not a bed of roses, but building your own infoproduct business can be incredibly rewarding, astonishingly fun, and best of all, you get to pee in your own bathroom, spend time with you kids when YOU want to and do business with some of the best people in the world.
---------------------------------
**NEVER BEFORE SEEN** Insider Tips on How To Find Hot Selling
Topics For Your Next Information Product. Jeff Smith helps you
discover how Internet Marketing TOP GUNS consistently create
Information Products that Sell Like WILDFIRE! Find out here:
==>http://www.infoproductcreator.com/
ProBizTips Tip of the Week |
Editorial Calendars: A Key to Publicizing Your Business
by Bill Stoller
What is the one thing that all of the best public relations agencies do every year?
They research and compile editorial calendars from publications that are pertinent to their client's business.
You should too.
What's an editorial calendar?
Editorial calendars are schedules of what topics a publication plans for cover for a particular month. For example, the INC. editorial calendar for July 2003 http://www.inc.com/advertise/magazine/calendar.html states that they're writing an article on various business services.
Bingo!
If you feel that you can contribute to this particular topic, call or email the editorial department at INC. (try to "speak" to the managing editor) and find out who (which reporter) has been assigned to write the story. Email or call the reporter and explain how you can contribute. It's that simple -- it takes less time than writing this article - and is much more effective than blast-faxing a garbage bound press release to inappropriate reporters.
Final thoughts: Many publications post their editorial calendars on their Web sites -- usually they're found in their advertising media kits. Otherwise, contact the publication's advertising departments and ask for a calendar. Check for editorial deadlines - many publications work 6 months in advance.
You can find a list of 2003 editorial calendars for the largest publications at: http://www2.ragan.com/media/pr/edcal2003.pdf
---------------------------------
Bill Stoller, the "Publicity Insider", has spent two decades as
one of America's top publicists. Now, through his website, eZine
and subscription newsletter, Free Publicity: The Newsletter for
PR-Hungry Businesses http://www.PublicityInsider.com/freepub.asp
he's sharing -- for the very first time -- his secrets of scoring
big publicity. For free articles, killer publicity tips and much,
much more, visit Bill's exclusive new site:
http://www.PublicityInsider.com
I have a question I hope you can help me with. I am in the process of building an internet-based business opportunity. We expect to receive a TON of hits to our replicated sites (especially considering the popularity of advertising on hit exchange programs)and we're concerned about finding a host that can handle our traffic. Our reputation is extremely important to us and we don't want to end up being shut down or forced to change servers (and look like amateurs) in order to provide our membership with the promised product.
We have already experienced the fact that some hosting companies' idea of "unlimited" definitely ISN'T! My question to you is simply: Do you know of a website hosting company that provides REAL unlimited bandwidth so we can be certain of not getting shut down?
Thank you very much your time!
Lynne Homewood
President, Global Epro
Global Epro: The BEST Income on the Internet!
http://www.GlobalEpro.com/
----------------------------------
Lynne,
If you are expecting tons of traffic and tons of business, I HIGHLY recommend you getting your own server. You don't have to set one up yourself in your place of business to do so ...
Rackshack is a service I myself use and have used it for over a year now. Although they are a bit costly for most for hosting, I host every one of my domains on one dedicated server for $129 a month. I have TONs of space and bandwidth. I haven't come CLOSE to overextending either of them.
http://www.rackshack.net/
Hope this helps!
Diane
---------------------------------
**We're interested in your comments, questions, and suggestions.
Do you enjoy this ezine? Do you have an Internet marketing or
e-commerce related question? If so, feel free to submit it to us.
We may publish your question and response in the next issue.
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