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He'd
Have Called Them Crazy -Or Worse!
With
the Internet, it's now possible to spend no more than a few
dollars, write a couple of very basic ads, and have instant
access to millions of potential customers all in a matter
of minutes
If
anyone had told Jim Sheridan he could bank thousands in just
24 hours... without any product of his own... without spending
a penny on getting it or promoting it, he'd have justifiably
said they were nuts.
But
Jim made a decision that he would overcome his skeptical
nature and give it a go. Boy, is he glad he did! That one
deal alone banked him $187,296 in one day.
The
great news is - you can copy Jim's plan exactly. The program
is called Instant Internet Income and I guarantee it does
exactly what it says it does.
Take
a look at how Jim brought in over $175,000 in a single
day!
-
Patrick Coffey
What's
the Difference?
By
Charles Delvalle
There
are three basic ways to take advantage of the current precious
metals bull run.
1.
Bullion: The safest way to invest in the commodities market
today is to buy the hard metal itself. As the price of precious
metals moves up, so does the bullion. Buying bullion is very
straightforward and easy.All you have to do is call a company
such as GoldMoney.
They have very reasonable fees and a knowledgeable staff.
2.
Mining Stocks: This is one of the trickier ways to invest
in today's precious metals market. The potential to make
money is greater than with bullion - especially when investing
in the newer mining companies - but the risk of losing money
is also higher. There are many factors that go into evaluating
a mining company. Invest only if you know how to do the analysis.
Andrew Gordon's current issue of The
Wealth Advantage about a uranium mining company with
triple-bagger potential - would serve as a great primer.
3.
Coins: When you buy gold, silver, or platinum coins, you're
actually investing in collectibles. Coins tend to lag when
the price of precious metals goes up, but they also move
up further than bullion or stocks. And they hold their value
better if the metal price falls. Don't depend solely on what
the coin seller tells you about a coin. Read up on the collectors'
market for it before you buy. And when you're ready to buy,
just call up GoldMoney.
Now
that you know the difference between these three investments,
my advice is to put two to three percent of your invested
wealth in each of them. Diversification is key if you want
to make money safely in this market.
[Ed.
Note: Charles Delvalle is the Managing Editor of ETR's free
newsletter Money
Insight.]
"Choices
suck. They are inherently limiting."
-
Craig Armstrong
Sticking
With It
By
David Cross
"Just
throw it against the wall."
Most
cooks prefer to taste-test a single strand of spaghetti to
check its doneness, but not this one. She'd scoop out a strand
of spaghetti from the boiling water and, with a deft flick
of the wrist, chuck it against her kitchen wall. If it stuck,
it was done.
Reminds
me of an outdated online marketing technique that's still
being used. Because of (1) the negligible cost of sending
e-mail, (2) the "if you build it they will come" website-development
mentality, and (3) the apparent lack of usable metrics, online
businesses have been throwing money at the wall and content
at consumers for at least 10 years. Whatever stuck has been
deemed a "success."
But
online business has changed and will continue to change a
great deal. And what seemed to work in the past works less
well now - and, eventually, could (read "will probably")
harm your online business.
The
reason is simple. Everyone is vying for consumers' attention,
both offline and online. Every year, it seems to take a little
longer for them to sift through all that data to find the
useful, interesting, relevant, and timely ideas and information
they're looking for.
Our
Own Worst Enemies
Consumers
- yes, that means you and me - know what we want. More choice!
And may we have more features, options, colors, flavors?
And could you add soy milk, skip the cinnamon, then top it
off with ice cubes ... to go, please?
And
that's just to get a cup of coffee. Don't even get me started
on cars, laptops, and safety seats for children. My head
is spinning just thinking about the options.
Perhaps
we don't need so many choices. But we still want them, right?
Maybe
not.
The
popularity of sites like epinions.com, CNET.com,
and Amazon.com's user reviews indicates that although choice
seems to be important, most of us just want a good recommendation
from a credible source. We simply don't have the time to
completely research every new purchase we want to make.
Meanwhile,
the average marketer feels his website must offer choices
galore to try to answer the needs of all the people all the
time. And Mom and Pop's small online store has to compete
with big businesses that have pockets deep enough to do it.
What's
a small Internet business to do?
Very
often, if you look close enough (or stand far enough back),
the solution lies within the problem.
While
choice is not a bad thing in itself, the attempt to offer
every option to all the people all the time is counter-productive.
Having too many options is confusing for the customer. Paradoxically,
it makes it more difficult for him to make a choice. As a
result, a website that takes this approach will have an overall
response rate that, in terms of the size of its target audience,
is low.
It's
easy to understand why this happens. When you market every
one of your offers to the same large group of people, only
a small percentage of those people - a subset within your
target audience - can possibly be interested in them.
You
would never send out a print direct-mail marketing campaign
in such an indiscriminate way. The cost alone would be prohibitive.
But even if you had unlimited funds, sending a sales letter
to an audience without having data that supports their probable
interest in your offer would be considered bad marketing
practice.
The
Future of Online Marketing
The
old way says you need a one-size-fits-all website serving
10 million visitors - and that the numbers have to be big
to make it work. But a website can't be successful if it's
nothing more than a glorified brochure that treats every
visitor the same.
Websites
that work well these days have to be smarter. They have to
help guide you to what you are most likely looking for, and
maybe even customize the content and pathway through the
site as you use it.
You
can already see this in practice. Sites like Google and Yahoo
offer personalized home pages where the user decides what
information should be presented to him.
How
can you apply this kind of thinking to your online business?
Here are a few ideas to get you started ...
1.
In E-mail
-
An
e-mail campaign can be used not to push content at your
audience but to learn what type of content they actually
want to read. The
Daily Reckoning e-letter now includes a survey in
every issue to solicit reader feedback. Those comments
help create and focus the e-letter's ongoing content.
- Metrics
(like open rates and click-throughs) can show you what
your readers are actually looking at. These are like
footprints that people leave behind - giving you information
that can help you find better ways of providing content
that is timely and relevant to your readers' interests.
2.
On the Web
My friends and colleagues Bryan and Jeffrey Eisenberg (authors
of the excellent book Waiting
for Your Cat to Bark), who run the consulting firm Future
Now, have developed a unique method for developing websites.
They call it Persuasion Architecture. It allows you to develop
your site from the perspective of anticipating and satisfying
a customer's needs and expectations, while still accomplishing
your marketing goals.
3.
Offline
Eventually, we'll stop thinking of "online" or "offline" marketing
as being separate. Both will be equally useful within an integrated
marketing approach.
My
longtime friends Jonathan and Mary Hinde run a small aromatherapy
business from their home in Cambridge, England. The greatest
strength of their business is the wide range of products
they offer - over 1,300. Their greatest weakness is ... you
guessed it: too much choice.
Not
long ago, I suggested they try an experiment. I had them
think of about five or six broad personality "types" their
customers might fall into. (This had to be an educated guess,
as they don't meet their customers. Orders come in via phone,
mail, fax, and the Web.) The next step was to decide which
of their best-selling products could be applied to each defined
customer type.
They
ended up with a grid of six typical customer profiles and
about 100 best-selling products, with checkmarks indicating
where a product was likely to match a customer type.
Over
the last month, they've tried to guess which "type" each
new customer would fall into, judging by what he or she ordered
or sounded like on the telephone. They've then sent the customer
a "Thank you and welcome" letter, along with a
recommendation for three or four best-selling products that
match his or her grid profile.
The
initial results are encouraging. Jonathan said this test
has already resulted in 25 percent more repeat sales and
37 percent more income from new customers.
An Army of One
Whenever
I bring up the concept of targeting discrete groups within
their overall customer list, many marketers with big lists
say it's too "fiddly." That it's simpler to just
point and shoot. And small business owners complain that
they don't have enough customers to make segmentation worthwhile.
But the fact is, every customer is already a segment ...
of one. Target that one, and you win every time.
I
admit that you could continue throwing spaghetti against
the wall, and some of it will stick. But wouldn't it be smarter
to figure out what your customers really need?
[Ed.
Note: David Cross is Senior Internet Consultant to Agora
Publishing in Baltimore. Meet him in person at ETR's Information
Marketing Bootcamp in November. He and other Internet marketing
experts will show you how to build and/or dramatically grow
your business. Sign
up now to reserve your spot.]
Today's
Action Plan
There
are many opportunities online - in e-mail and on the Web
- to learn what makes your customers tick. Ask yourself how
you can get to know your customers. How you can use that
knowledge to better serve them. And how technology can serve
rather than enslave this important process.
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A
Few Health Benefits of Wine
By
John Forde
As I said in my ETR article on Tuesday,
I've had wine on my mind lately. Here are some of the wine-related
news stories I've been thinking about that I thought you'd
be interested in:
-
First,
the Swedish study. Turns out wine (a little, not a lot)
is good for helping you keep rhythm. In your heartbeat,
that is. Especially if you're a woman. But only wine.
Not beer or spirits, which don't have the same positive
effect.
- According
to a Spanish study, moderate wine drinking also cuts
the risk of lung cancer by 13 percent. (But quitting
smoking works even better.)
- And,
say the Canadians, did you know that drinking wine can
help prevent gum disease? Might stain your teeth, though.
And, uh, it's not a replacement for the brush-n-floss
routine.
[Ed
Note: John Forde is an AWAI board member [link to copywriting
program]. To get his sharp insight into the world of copywriting,
sign up for his free weekly e-zine Copywriter's
Roundtable.]
Notes
From Asia: Useful Confucian Sayings
By
Michael Masterson
While
in Asia, I've been reading a little booklet called "A
Collection of Confucius's Sayings," and have found
a few maxims you might find useful:
- He
who is able to put five sorts of morals into practice
in this world may be called good. The five are courtesy,
breadth, good faith, diligence, and clemency.
- The
great man understands what is right. The petty man understands
what is profitable.
- When
you see a good man, think of emulating him. When you
see a bad man, examine yourself.
- When
honesty overbalances refinement, crudeness results. When
refinement overbalances honesty, there is superficiality.
Only when refinement and honesty are duly balanced will
the great man emerge.
- Set
your heart upon the Way, support yourself by virtue,
lean upon goodness, and seek distraction in the arts.
- With
coarse food to eat, cold water to drink, and the bended
arm as a pillow, happiness may still exist.
- The
true gentleman is conciliatory but not accommodating.
The common man is accommodating but not conciliatory.
- The
demands that a great man makes are on himself; those
of a petty man are upon others.
- There
are nine things of which great men must be mindful: to
see when they look; to hear when they listen; to be gentle
in appearance; to be respectful in manners; to be faithful
in words; to be earnest in service; to inquire when in
doubt; to think when in anger; to be just when they have
an advantage.
It's
Good to Know: When You're Traveling Overseas
By
Michael Masterson
You've
made a reservation for your flight to Shanghai, and you show
up at the airport, ready for the trip. Your travel agent
has assured you over the phone that "everything is okay" and "you'll
have no trouble." Don't believe it.
I've
been frustrated too many times at the ticket counter when
my reservation has mysteriously been cancelled or altered
without my say-so. I've spent frantic hours rushing to get
everything straightened out, only to have to buy a second
ticket at the last moment so as not to miss the flight.
A
copy of your itinerary or a hand-scrawled confirmation number
isn't going to get you on that plane. Always get printed
confirmation for your international flights from the carrier
that is taking you. This rule goes for hotel rooms, trains,
tours, and any other reservation-only service.
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Word
to the Wise: Moiety
A "moiety" (MOY-uh-tee)
is a small portion or share. It is derived from the Latin
for "middle."
Example
(as used by Mark Twain in The
Adventures of Tom Sawyer): "Tom divided the cake
and Becky ate with good appetite, while Tom nibbled at his
moiety."
