Issue #2378
- WEALTHY: Saying thank you isn’t enough (Yanik Silver)
- HEALTHY: How to blast past the plateau phase in your fat-loss program (Craig Ballantyne)
- WISE: Michael Masterson on being in business
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:
- "Blank screen/blank mind" syndrome and how to cure it (Ilise Benun)
- An easy grammar rule that’s trickier than you may think (Suzanne Richardson)
- It’s Fun to Know… about the world’s most-translated authors
- Add "Potemkin village" to your vocabulary
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"As businesspeople, it is our job to provide more and better products and services to our customers, to help them solve their problems, meet their needs, and achieve their ambitions."
Michael Masterson
An Instant (and Overlooked) Income Producer
By Yanik Silver
Here’s a profitable idea that you should immediately put into action. If you don’t, hold a mirror up to your face to see if you fog it. The technique? After every single transaction on your website (i.e., opt-in, registration, or purchase), you should be controlling where your customer goes next.
The concept is extremely simple. Yet, most of the time, overlooked. I see so many people missing out on this golden opportunity for additional profit. And you could be missing out too.
For instance, what does your thank-you page say? If your website is like most of them out there, a customer orders a product and then gets a thank-you page that merely says "Thank you for your order. It will be shipped out soon."
Dumb… da… dumb… dumb… DUMB!
Where’s that customer going to go now? I doubt that it’s back to another part of your site where they can spend more money with you. The thing is, your customers could (and will) spend more money with you if you give them the opportunity.
What about after someone opts in to one of your e-mail lists – maybe a priority notification list? Your thank-you page probably says "Thank you. Please look for _____ in your e-mail inbox shortly."
Dumb… da… dumb… dumb… DUMB!
Another opportunity lost. Hopefully, you’ve got my drift by now. There are dozens of tiny "profit leverage" points on your website. And taking advantage of them is one of the easiest ways to turn any transaction into more cash.
Just so you understand how many places you can use this technique, here are a few examples…
Thank-You Page After an Order
If a customer just whipped out his credit card, he is far more likely to spend again if you give him an opportunity and an incentive. I know it seems to go against common sense, but the old-school direct-marketing formula of RFM (Recency, Frequency, Monetary) holds true.
Your "hotline" names are the people who’ve most recently made a purchase from you. And on the thank-you page, you’ve got those people at their hottest point.
So, on the thank-you page for my Public Domain Goldmine product, I offer a discount on another product. The customer has already spent $497, and now he’s got a $200 discount for a related product. It only takes a few paragraphs to persuade 10.5 percent of my Public Domain Goldmine customers to buy an additional $497 course.
Okay. That’s well and good for a physical product – but what if you have a digital product? Not a problem. I’ve done thank-you page offers for digital products two different ways – with pop-ups and on the page where they download the product itself.
A word of caution: If you make an offer on the download page, be sure to make the link to the offer open up in its own new window. You don’t want customer service issues with people not being able to get to the product they ordered.
What if you don’t have another product to sell? Again, no problem…
Thank-You Page for Affiliate Products
Your thank-you page could easily be used for affiliate offers. My buddy, John Reese, has a five-page thank-you that explains his story and then recommends my 33 Days to Online Profits product and Derek Gehl’s course. (Yes, I said five pages!)
And here are two more…
Thank-You Page After Opt-In
An overlooked spot for an additional offer is the opt-in confirmation/ page. Almost every e-mail autoresponder company allows you to specify what the confirmation page will say. So once a visitor opts in to receive your e-letter or other information, you can have her directed to a thank-you page. And that’s where you make another offer.
This works incredibly well for any type of Priority Notification or "Early Bird" list, where the page asks people to sign up to be first in line for the upcoming launch of a new product or service.
Don’t waste this opportunity.
Thank-You Page After Registration
This is one of my favorite Underground secrets, and something I’ve heretofore revealed only at my $5,000 per person "Info Marketing Player’s Workshop": You can do a big push for a free event or product – such as a teleseminar or e-book – and then make the offer.
There’s no reason to squander this opportunity by, for example, just putting the call-in number for your teleseminar on the thank-you page after people sign up. Whenever I’ve offered a free teleseminar to my readers, I’ve put an offer for a free trial to my Secret Society newsletter right there on the thank-you page. It has been a big success!
Go back through each of your sites to see where you have overlooked profit opportunities on the thank-you pages, opt-in pages, and registration pages. I promise this one idea could drastically improve your sales.
[Ed. Note: Internet marketing expert Yanik Silver holds annual seminars where attendees pay $2,000- $5,000 to hear secrets for getting the most money out of their online businesses. Learn more about his money-making formula here...
And make sure you visit Yanik's site, www.InternetLifestyle.com, and check out his latest book, Moonlighting on the Internet: 5 World-Class Experts Reveal Proven Ways to Make an Extra Paycheck Online Each Month.]
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Reader Feedback: "Thanks to Michael Masterson, I made more than $3 million this year!"
"I first met Michael Masterson back in 1993, when I was an idealistic and very poor poet. Realizing that my fortune would not be made in rhyming couplets, I decided to get a proper job, and was fortunate enough to be personally mentored by Michael.
"Inspired by his no-nonsense Ready, Fire, Aim approach, I went on to enjoy a very successful career as a copywriter and publisher.
"Today, I run my own publishing business with my wife. This year, it will make more than $3 million net profit. I own a beautiful $2.5 million home in London, England and a property portfolio worth a further $1.37 million.
"I owe a very large part of my success to Michael’s inspiration, encouragement, and guidance over the years.
"If anyone is seeking to learn a mindset and business strategy that really works, then I strongly urge you to sign up for Early to Rise, read all of Michael’s books – and, if you get the opportunity, meet the man in person!"
Nic Laight
CEO Canonbury Publishing Ltd. (UK)
[Ed. Note: How has ETR changed your life? Let us know at ReaderFeedback@gmail.com.]
Networking Mistake: Neglecting to Follow Up
By Ilise Benun
You already know that you must follow up with people you meet at business functions. This is Networking 101. But it bears repeating, because no matter how well we understand the importance of follow-up, few people actually do it.
Maybe you think you’re too busy to follow up. Or you lose new business cards (they are tiny and easy to lose) in the piles on your desk. Or maybe you suffer from blank screen/blank mind syndrome.
The fact is, it takes no more than a few minutes to compose a short e-mail to a brand-new contact. Yes, it’s possible that the other person won’t remember what you discussed. He may even have forgotten talking to you at all. But don’t let those "what ifs" prevent you from making contact. When you’re sitting in front of a blank computer screen with a stack of cold business cards, push yourself to make the effort to write a short note. That way, your e-mail address and message will be in the other person’s inbox to jolt his memory.
Set the foundation for follow up while you’re talking. Note anything unusual about the other person or the work he does, any details or specifics that you might forget. As soon as your conversation ends, jot down a few notes on the back of his business card – ideas about what to say when you follow up, the link you promised to send or the resource you want to pass along.
And then say goodbye to blank screen/blank mind syndrome.
[Ed. Note: Networking is one of the best ways to find new clients, meet potential partners, and discover people who can help your business grow. For ideas about how to accomplish your networking - and all your other personal and professional - goals, check out ETR's Total Success Achievement Program.
Marketing expert Ilise Benun is the author of The Designer's Guide to Marketing and Pricing. Get more self-marketing strategies with Ilise's free e-newsletter, Quick Tips from Marketing Mentor.]
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Nutrition Tip to Boost Fat Loss
You bust your butt in the gym – and it’s working. You lose weight, drop a few inches, and are feeling good. Then, suddenly, you stop seeing results. The plateau phase of any fat-loss program may be normal, but it can be frustrating. Fortunately, a little change in your diet can get you back on track: Simply stop eating foods from a bag or a box and start eating more fruits and vegetables.
Now I don’t expect you to wake up tomorrow and completely change your eating habits. That wouldn’t be realistic. It’s best to make little changes every day. Start, today, with one new item from the produce aisle to help control your appetite, regulate your blood sugar, and burn body fat.
If you want to lose fat, live longer and healthier, and have more mental and physical energy to get through the day, you need to put premium fuel in your body’s engine. Not grease. Not sugar. Not quick fixes. You have to plan ahead. But don’t worry, it doesn’t take much time.
Combine more fruits and veggies with short, convenient strength- and interval-training workouts and you’ll feel (and look) like a million bucks.
[Ed. Note: You can lose your excess weight - just by making a few simple diet and exercise changes. Learn how to boost your metabolism, increase your fat loss, and burn belly fat right here.
And get a free source of advice on how to lose weight, stay fit, and eat better right here.]
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Tough Grammar: Unusual Plurals
Making a singular noun into a plural one is first-grade grammar. Usually, you just stick an s (or es or ies) on the end. Right? Unfortunately, it’s not always that easy – especially when you get involved with compound nouns.
Instead of just slapping on a final s, pluralize only the principal noun or base element of a compound noun. So if you saw former Attorney General John Ashcroft and former Attorney General Janet Reno at a party, you would have seen two former attorneys general.
Here’s a list of the most common tricky compound nouns and their plurals:
|
Singular |
Plural |
|
board of directors |
boards of directors |
|
point of view |
points of view |
|
mother-in-law |
mothers-in-law |
|
passerby |
passersby |
|
notary public |
notaries public |
|
chief of staff |
chiefs of staff |
|
bill of fare |
bills of fare |
|
attorney general |
attorneys general |
|
cul-de-sac |
culs-de-sac |
This rule doesn’t apply to words like spoonful, bucketful, or cupful, which aren’t compound nouns in the same sense as the ones above. Just tack the s on the end of those words to get the plural.
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It’s Fun to Know: The World’s Most-Translated Authors
UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization) maintains a list of the world’s most-translated authors. The current top 10, with works that have been translated from and into English and hundreds of other languages and dialects, are:
- Agatha Christie
- Jules Verne
- William Shakespeare
- Vladimir Lenin
- Enid Blyton
- Barbara Cartland
- Danielle Steel
- Hans Christian Andersen
- Stephen King
- Brothers Grimm
(Source: National Geographic)
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- Charlie Byrne
Associate Publisher, Early to Rise
Word to the Wise: Potemkin village
A "Potemkin village" (puh-TEM-kin VIL-uj) is a false front. The word is derived from the elaborate fake villages that Russian general Grigori Potemkin purportedly had built to impress Catherine the Great when she toured the Crimea in 1787.
Example (as used by Kevin Sullivan in The Washington Post): "It’s a lie, a huge Potemkin village designed to give North Korea the appearance of modernity."
[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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Yanik Silver’s point is well taken, and I know it “works,” to some extent, but I would advise you and your readers to be careful with this. As a customer, I’ve got to tell you, nothing annoys me more than additional sales pitches and come-ons at every opportunity. If I ordered something, then immediately got a 5-page “thank you” that was really a push to sell me something else, it would turn me off to the point at which I would seriously consider canceling the original order. I would think, “this isn’t a thank you. This is ‘we’ve got a sucker! Let’s see if we can take more of his money!’”
Frankly, I wouldn’t want to be sold on anything further, especially high priced programs like this, until and unless I’ve had a chance to judge the quality of the initial purchase. (Now, after I’ve had the item for a while, OF COURSE you should come back to me and try to sell me something more—IF and ONLY IF you have something of value to sell me).
I realize you have data that shows that this kind of thing works. What you DON’T have data on (and can’t, really) is the number of people that you turn off from buying your product/service in the future. So yes, you might make some more short term sales this way. But you take the risk of pushing away a long term relationship.
Yes, you are in business to provide products and services to your customers. And yes, you are in business to make money. But you need to be careful not to cross the line at which the customer perceives it’s all about maximizing YOUR opportunity—not THEIRS.
Allen
Allen’s feedback to Yanik’s guide not doubt adds value and balance to the difficult equation of “business is business” and relationship marketing. On one hand, “seizing the opportunity” is appropriate.
On the other hand, being sensitive to the market’s needs and wants is like having a firm grasp on an empty sack.
I can’t write to tell you I agree or disagree with either gentlemen’s approach but it begs further analysis–when you see Yanik’s approaches applied by many other successful websites like Amazon, etc.
Since timing is everything, seizing a marketing opportunity, carefully executed with meaning, makes a difference between profits and losses, dollars and cents.
After all, in the end, the best way to cross a marketing minefield is…after someone…like Yanik.
Best to all—
Myles
Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
I have to agree with Allen. I’ve signed up with quite a few ‘guru’ programs over the years, only to get disgusted with the constant pushing to get me to buy more. I add those folks to the ’spam’ filter and be done with them. Once in a while, a follow up is very good. Even a frequent email newsletter is welcome, as long as it provides useful tips. A useful tip is NOT an offer to buy something else. A short,simple sales pitch can come along for the ride, but only if I like the rest of the content.