Issue #2273
- WEALTHY: The real estate bust all over again? (Rick Pendergraft)
- HEALTHY: Cut 200 useless calories from your diet (Craig Ballantyne)
- WISE: Christopher Lasch on apparent success
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:
- Is your dream of massive website traffic really a nightmare? (Patrick Coffey)
- A winter getaway and all the answers to your biggest marketing questions… (MaryEllen Tribby)
- It’s Good to Know… about pay-as-you-wish restaurants
- Add "viscous" to your vocabulary
The Billionaire Way
I would recommend "The Billionaire Way" program to anyone who is contemplating a new enterprise or business start-up, or is already in business for themselves. It enabled me to look at my life, attributes, and habits in a refreshing new way. I was delighted to discover that I too have a number of the traits and qualities that many who are successful in business possess, which I hadn’t realized. I am very excited to apply the principles that were presented in the program to my new business ventures.
A tremendous benefit was to be able to talk with the author of the program, Bob Cox, about my own business strategies and ideas. Bob spent an hour on the phone with me after I finished the program, and his personal insights and suggestions were very helpful and inspiring.
I know that I will often refer back to the information provided in "The Billionaire Way" to enhance my chances for success!
- Catherine McNeil, Monte Vista, Colorado
Buying the Hype
At the tail end of the real estate boom, the smart money was long gone. In-the-know investors could see the bubble stretching itself thin, and sold their properties at the top of the market. The buyers, many of them first-timers caught up in the media’s "can’t-miss" condo-flipping hype, were left holding the bag – or condos that are now worth far less than their purchase price. You know the rest.
Inexperienced stock investors fall into a similar trap.
In January 2007, for example, Intuitive Surgical was trading at $90 a share, and in late October 2007 it traded around $330 a share. A quick look at the company’s chart made it look like a "can’t miss." Needless to say, word got around and, as a result, many folks bought in near the top. The stock is now in the $250 range. That’s a swift 25 percent loss in a little over three months.
Google went from $440 a share in March of 2007 to $740 a share in early November. The media hype machine kicked in right around September, pushing the stock from $520 to $740 in two short months. It is now back down to $600 a share.
Always keep in mind that when the media has finally caught wind of a "sure thing," the time to own it has passed. When you see a company featured on magazine covers, you know the clock is ticking.
Money isn’t made by buying at the top. Sometimes it is hard to ignore the hype. But to be a successful investor, you have to tune it out and base your buying decisions on solid research.
[Ed. Note: Rick Pendergraft, a two-time winner of the "Top Trader" award at Schaeffer's Investment Research, is a contributor to ETR's free e-zine, Investor's Daily Edge . Learn how to protect your portfolio and multiply your money - in any market - by clicking here.]
"Nothing succeeds like the appearance of success."
Christopher Lasch
How to Get a Bunch of Useless Traffic to Your Website
The Internet has been buzzing with praise for "social media" as the way to drive traffic to your website. By "social media," I’m talking about sites that (1) allow you to submit content and (2) allow other people to comment – and even vote – on it. The higher they rate your submission, the more exposure you get, with lots of people clicking on your link.
But today, I’m going to show you that this massive traffic isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
So far, some of the major players in the social media world are:
Digg – digg.com
Stumbleupon – stumbleupon.com
Sphinn – sphinn.com/
Reddit – reddit.com
Del.ico.us – del.icio.us/
Myspace – myspace.com
Facebook – facebook.com
These sites – and dozens and dozens of others that I’m sure I’m forgetting – have quickly become behemoths in the online world. In fact, many of them are getting even more traffic then the all-powerful Google.
At first, this might seem like an online marketer’s dream…
"If I could only get my article or blog post on the home page of Digg or Stumbleupon, my site will be flooded with traffic."
It’s easy to see why so many marketers are foaming at the mouth over the idea of tapping into all that traffic. But real online marketers understand that traffic does not mean anything without conversion. In other words, if you can’t turn your traffic into sales or e-mail sign-ups, it’s pretty much useless.
You may have heard of website traffic referred to as HITS. I’m sure you’ve been to websites that have a little counter at the bottom that tells you exactly how many HITS the site has received.
Well, this is my definition of HITS: How Idiots Track Success.
Just think about it. What should you really care about? How many people visit your site? Or how many people buy from your site?
Now you might be thinking, "Patrick, how do you know the traffic you get from social media is useless?"
This thing is, Alexis Siemon, ETR’s resident Search Engine Marketing Specialist, has been experimenting with trying to drive traffic via social media channels.
You can see how this is done by looking at the funny little logos at the bottom of each Early to Rise issue. These logos allow you to submit our content to various social media sites. And they have been helping us get "free" traffic. Through some trial and error, Alexis was able to help our natural health e-letter site get a boatload of traffic from Stumbleupon. In fact, in the last month, one page generated over 28,000 new visitors.
When I heard this, I thought it was great news. You see, when we get traffic from outside sources, we can generally convert at least 10 percent of it into e-mail sign-ups.
So how many of these 28,000 social media visitors do you think signed up for our natural health e-letter?
500? 1,000? 1,500? 2,800?
No! Try 80. That’s a conversion rate of just over 0.2 percent.
Compare that to the conversion rates we’re getting from search engine optimization (SEO), e-mail marketing, website advertising, pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, and even direct mail. I’ve seen traffic from these sources convert to e-mail subscribers at rates of up to 50 percent.
That’s not the only reason I say social media traffic isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
Recently, several of the top marketers here at Early to Rise and I went to the Webmasters World Conference in Las Vegas. We wanted to learn directly from many of the world’s top search engine marketers and see what they made of all the buzz surrounding this supposed traffic goldmine.
When I looked at the schedule, I was excited to see a panel discussion titled "Monetizing Social Media Traffic." After all, isn’t making money the point of getting website traffic? So we all attended this session with great anticipation…
The consensus of the panel was that it’s difficult to monetize social media traffic. For whatever reason, this traffic is resistant to advertising and tends not to stay on the site very long. In fact, it appeared to them that one of the only ways to monetize this traffic is by using a CPM (cost per thousand) advertising model. This is where you sell ad space on your site and charge the advertiser based on the number of people who see their ads. Certainly not a good model for those of us who run direct-response websites – because not only are these visitors not buying from us, they’re also not clicking on our advertisers’ links.
Even worse, this heavy influx of traffic can put a strain on your hosting servers and cause your site to crash. So you have a bunch of people visiting your site who don’t buy, don’t subscribe, and wind up crashing your server. Talk about turning your social media traffic dream into a nightmare.
But I don’t want you to think social media is all bad. Of course, we are delighted to allow our readers to share ETR articles that they think are good. And we are very grateful that, in one case, 80,000 people read our extremely valuable content as a result of this free traffic.
Many of the top stories on Digg and Stumbleupon get picked up by blogs and other websites. And when an article from your site is being bounced around the Internet this way, you’ll get inbound links from various sites. These new links help you get direct traffic from the linking sites. Plus, they help you with search engine optimization, which can, in turn, lead to more converting traffic and more subscribers.
At Early to Rise, we will continue to test social media and use it as a link-building tool. But if you’re looking to build your online business, it’s better to focus on the proven direct-response marketing methods we’ve been telling you about. Don’t be afraid to pay for traffic through e-mail list rental, text-link ads, and pay-per-click advertising. These methods might cost a little bit of money… but you’ll be attracting targeted visitors who will buy from you.
[Ed. Note: Patrick Coffey is ETR's Internet Marketing Director. He is also a contributor to ETR's Internet Money Club, which shows you how to build an online business within the next 12 months. The Club's membership was 100% filled last month - but we've just opened up a handful of slots for a very limited time. To check on availability, click here.]
Use This Automatic Marketing System To Make Millions, Without Your Own Money Or Credit
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ETR Insider Report: The Ready, Fire, Aim Video Contest Has a Winner!
By MaryEllen Tribby, ETR’s CEO and Publisher
Dogs, leprechauns, stunts… even two shower scenes.
Elaborate costumes, camera tricks, and special effects…
No, I’m not talking about Super Bowl commercials. You will find all this and more in the videos submitted to our Ready, Fire, Aim video contest, which ended last week.
It was a tough decision, but the ETR team has chosen the winner.
All the videos, of course, featured Michael Masterson’s new book, Ready, Fire, Aim: Zero to $100 Million in No Time Flat. But the similarities ended there. If you haven’t seen them, trust me. We got some crazy stuff.
You can check them out here: www.youtube.com/group/readyfireaim.
We genuinely enjoyed all the submitted videos, and can tell that a lot of time and effort went into each one. But there can be only one winner. So…
Congratulations to Robert McEvily, creator of "A Tale of Two Books." Robert, we’re going to fly you to Florida for a business lunch meeting with me and Michael Masterson. You will be able to ask us anything about marketing, online business, or even how we grew Early to Rise into a $26 million + company.
And we’re going to put you up for the night at a luxury beachfront resort just down the street from our offices. How’s that for a winter getaway?
Of course, nobody is going home empty-handed. Our four runners-up will receive the Michael Masterson "Marketing Genius" DVD set. They are: Stephen Snyder, markefitzz, portableprofessional (we had to use these YouTube usernames because we don’t have their real names yet), and Kia Ricchi.
And everybody who submitted a video, including the prize winners, will receive a copy of Ready, Fire, Aim signed by Michael Masterson himself.
So, again, I want to thank everybody who submitted a video. We didn’t know what to expect when we announced this contest, but you surprised us with your creativity and resourcefulness.
Keep an eye out. You never know when we might have another contest.
The Drink That Can Burn 20 Pounds Per Year
If you are trying to burn fat, get rid of the sodas and juices and drink water.
Researchers from the University of North Carolina had 118 overweight women substitute water for their normal sugary drinks. As a result, these women consumed fewer calories over the course of the day. In fact, they eliminated a total of 200 calories per day by drinking water instead of sweetened sodas or juices.
Two hundred fewer calories per day adds up to almost 21 pounds of fat that you can lose in a year!
[Ed. Note: Fitness expert Craig Ballantyne is the creator of the Turbulence Training for Fat Loss system. For a free online source of information, motivation, and social support to help you improve your health, lose weight, and get fit, sign up for ETR's free natural health e-letter.]
It’s Good to Know: Pay-As-You-Wish Restaurants
It may sound like a recipe for disaster… but several restaurants around the world are doing a brisk (and profitable) business by letting customers decide how much to pay for their meals.
The owners of these places – Der Wiener Deewan in Vienna, Lentil As Anything in Melbourne, One World Cafe in Salt Lake City, and So All May Eat Cafe in Denver – consider themselves to be "social entrepreneurs," doing something to help the community. They have found that most diners pay a fair price. Some even pay extra to cover for those who take advantage of the system.
(Source: Springwise)
The World Is Shrinking… and the Opportunities to Make Money With This “Global” Economy Are Nothing Short of Staggering! If You Know How…
Imagine how well your business would be doing if you could slash your costs by more than 49% while boosting your profits by more than 57%.
You can do it… if you know how.
Today, as a matter of fact, all the Fortune 500 companies are doing just that, and they’re posting record-breaking profits by taking advantage of the “Global Economy.”
Unfortunately until now, only big companies could even think of doing this. But not anymore. Now it’s your turn.
Click here to find out how you can put the “Global Economy” to work for you.
The global borders are shrinking… The world’s becoming a smaller place… Will you just stand there watching opportunity go by or will you seize the moment and put the “Global Economy” to work for you? Click here to read more…
Word to the Wise: Viscous
Something that’s "viscous" (VIS-kus) is thick and sticky, like honey or oil. The word is derived from the Latin for mistletoe.
Example (as used in Beautiful Children by Charles Bock): "The neon. The halogen. The viscous liquid light. Thousands of millions of watts, flowing through letters of looping cursive and semi-cursive, filling then emptying, then starting over again."
[Ed. Note: Become a more persuasive writer and speaker ... build your self-confidence and intellect ... increase your attractiveness to others ... just by spending 10 VERY enjoyable minutes a day with ETR's new Words to the Wise CD Library.]
Copyright ETR, LLC, 2008
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