12 Point Marketing Guide

Prologue

One of the first things to realize in any marketing program, regardless of what program you are promoting, there are NO HIDDEN, MYSTERIOUS SECRETS that only the "Marketing Guru's" have access to.

There are certain fundamental truths and procedures that if followed RELIGIOUSLY, will not only lead to success on the Internet but will be rewarding on a personal level as well.

I say religiously because that is exactly what I mean. If you are going to make money on the net, as with any business, you have to realize that the buck stops at your desk. If you don't work, you won't make any money with our programs or any other program. Everyday, you receive email that promises thousands of dollars per week, without doing anything, and all you have to do is to join their program.

I know, and I hope you do, that these programs are just so much hype. They are trying to mislead you into believing a lie! They are trying to part your hard earned cash from your bank account, your wallet and any other source they can find. They will tell you that the gold is just around the corner and all you have to do is invest. Just send so much money, to someone you never met, remove a name from the list, add your name, send out so many emails and then wait for the money to roll in. BULL!!!!!!!!!!

If you believe that line then the best thing to do, and I say this with compassion, DO NOT go into business for yourself on the net or anywhere else. Keep your computer for playing games and communicating with friends and stick with your 9 to 5 job, working for someone else, funding someone else's dreams.

There are going to be times, while you are reading this that you are going to feel like I am being harsh and maybe even rude. Please understand that is not my intent. My only intent is to be a straight shooter with you and present you with the facts, as I know them.

I have, at my disposal, more than thirty years marketing experience, mine and the expertise of proven money making marketers. So, when I tell you something, it is information that has been gathered through EXPERIENCE and not just some vague theory that has been pulled out of the air or some body location that is much less desirable.

In this guide you will find truth, unvarnished procedures that work, direction to tools and resources that have been proven to work, and most important of all, honesty! Let's get to it!

ESSENTIAL POINTS…

KEEPING IT SIMPLE…

#1 The very first thing you must realize is that the Internet, and computers in general, is NOT 100% reliable! There are those of us who would, at times, settle for just 51% reliability.

#2 You absolutely MUST have patience with your computer and the Internet. Secondly, and more importantly, you must have patience with your business itself! If you honestly think that there is some magical program available on the web that is going to make you an overnight success, you are living in a dream world. Our advice, in such cases, would be to save YOUR time, OUR time, and rush down to your local lottery outlet and purchase a couple of tickets because your chances are much better winning the lottery than they are in having that kind of belief.

1. You have to make a decision - right here- right now-exactly what kind of business or service you wish to create and market on the Internet. Because this guide is being read, by people who have already answered that question, more than likely,, the only question you need to answer is "Are you serious about what you are trying to do?

2. If you have been honest with yourself and have decided to build your business, no matter what it takes, you must, I repeat MUST, treat it like a business and make an investment of time!

3. Remember this critical point….."90% of your success will be from just showing up and doing certain things on a consistent basis!"

4. Internet Marketing MUST be done on a DAILY BASIS! If you are willing to commit one hour a day, that means commit one hour a day! It does NOT mean committing one hour every other Friday. If you run your business any other way, it is a hobby and not a business!

5. As important as it is to know when to be on your computer, it is every bit as important to know when to get off the darn thing! If you haven't already discovered it, working on the Internet is addicting. Believe me, you will be a much better human being if you know when to QUIT and devote time to the really important things in your life, like your family.

6. Rapid change is a fact of life on the Internet. You need to accept this fact right now and get used to that incontrovertible fact, it never changes. The Internet moves at the speed of light and what works today may not work at all tomorrow! It is this very fact that makes this business so exciting, challenging and satisfying when you win!

7. The old adage that "It takes money to make money" is just as true on the Internet as it is in any off line business. You are going to have to invest in tools to build your business. A carpenter does not build many houses without the tools needed to do the job.

#3 Find, invest in and use marketing programs, paid advertising, opt-in lists and anything else that will help you get the message out, whenever possible. Remember, if a service or program is worthwhile at all, the only way any real value is derived from it is by PAYING for the privilege or use of the program! If it doesn't cost anything it is probably worth the same amount to your marketing efforts!

1. If you concentrate your efforts on programs that designed to generate traffic, it solves the biggest of the problems, of generating traffic to YOUR website, and it gives you the opportunity of a very nice income by sharing, selling, these methods with other Internet Marketers.

2. If you aim your advertising and marketing efforts at "One Shot Wonders", you may very well make some money this month but what about next month, the month after that? You would be starting your business all over again each and every month. Is this what you want? I think not.

#4 The conventional wisdom is that search engines offer Internet Marketers an unlimited amount of FREE traffic. This hype tells you that "all" we have to do is achieve a high ranking or placement, close to the top of the list, on a number of important search engines, and we will never have to worry about paying for advertising again. This is NOT the truth!

1. Search engines were designed for Research tools, NOT marketing tools. To find "stuff" they carry out their function rather well. As a means of marketing a product or program, trying to use a search engine for marketing is lunacy at it's best.

2. At 10 listings per page, a recent search under "Business Opportunities", on AltaVista, returned 214,498,812 results! That is more than 21,449,881 pages of business opportunities. If you are not listed on the top 3 pages, you might as well save your valuable time because 90% of the Internet population will never see your site!

3. Search engines account for LESS THAN 7% of all the traffic to E-Commerce sites. The bigger the Internet becomes, the more sites that come on line, the less effective traditional search engines become.

4. Bottom line, if you must use search engines, use the pay per click variety where you buy the key words, you pay so much every time someone clicks on your site link because the keyword you bought led them to your URL. Do a search, using the search engines what they are good at, for pay per click and you will find more than enough sites to investigate.

#5 Seriously consider the use of electronic magazine, eZine, advertising. They are the Internet version of the good old fashion magazine. Ads placed in "Targeted" eZines are probably the most effective form of Internet advertising available today!

1. The only basic type of eZine advertising, where you really get your money's worth, is through the use of "Solo Ads" where your ad is sent separately form the eZine and is, instead, sent as a solo ad to their database. Even though these are the most expensive of the ads, they are also where you will get the "Most Bang for The Buck!"

#6 "Opt-In Lists" or safe lists are the oldest form of communication and mass promotion on the Internet. The first such program was a list for Science Fiction Lovers. Obviously, given the fact that and opt-in list is a list of people with common interests who band together to exchange ideas via email. There are two varieties of opt-in lists, the FREE and the PAID variety.

1. The FREE lists are marginal in their response, at best. Our research has shown that, in most cases, your email will go to a dump account, where they are deleted as they come in or they will be deleted "en masse" by the owner of the account. The typical PAID list requires a minimal fee to join, generally a fee of 10 to 30, on a one time or yearly basis. The average member of a paid list is, for the most part, a much more serious marketer. Keep in mind you get what you pay for. Cheap is cheap and it usually means marginal results.

2. The owners of PAID lists, especially the more expensive ones, go to great lengths to keep their lists clean. That means honoring remove requests when they come in and removing email addresses that bounce or are shown to be from auto-responders. If YOUR email bounces, mail you receive from some else on the list, you are done - you are removed from the list!

3. This can be said of PAID lists, especially, as a rule, the more expensive ones, "They are, without question, absolutely, worth every single dime you can invest!"

#7 FFA sites and FFA network classified sites are worthless. Don't waste your time submitting to them.

1. FFA sites will be one of your most valuable traffic generating sources! You are probably thinking "What? You just said they are worthless!" We are not talking about POSTING to those sites. We ARE talking about HOSTING your own FFA site. HOST, DON'T POST!

2. If you have ever posted to one of those sites, you know about the ton of mail you get in return. You want to be the one sending mail to the people who post to FFA sites. It is called reverse marketing and it is effective. Get an FFA site and put YOUR ad in the AutoResponder so posters get YOUR AD in return.

3. IMPORTANT NOTE****Just because someone agrees to receive mail from you as part of the agreement for posting to your site does not mean that they are not going to cry spam! It can and does happen, no matter what agreement they agree to because most of them don't even read the agreement before they click on the "I Agree" button.

4. Bottom line, use PAID advertising whenever your budget will allow it. Look at it this way: if free advertising was that effect, why would PAID advertising even exist?

#8 YOUR AD COPY, NO MATTER HOW SLICK AND POLISHED, CANNOT CREATE A DESIRE FOR THE PRODUCT! The copywriters' job, his or her only job, is to focus already existing wants and desires toward a particular product. His or her only job is to not to create desire-but to focus it, channel it and direct it toward the market that wants it! That last bold statement is critical: read it again! The market has to want it. It does not matter why!

1. 1. The product must meet a need of some sort or be an impulse buy, the best kind of all.

2. 2. Next to the creation and or selection of the subject matter for your targeted audience and the placement of your ad in the proper Internet promotion "area", the subject line is the most important part of the ad. Period!

3. 3. Good ad copy is effective because it is specific, let me repeat that "Good Ad copy is effective because it is specific!"

4. 4. Begin with targeting the wants and needs of the prospect, NOT attributes of the product or service! The information must be important, interesting or fascinating and LIMITED. Yep, I said LIMITED. It must generate additional curiosity and get them to NOT reject your claims outright. It must convince them to go to YOUR web site for more information.

#9 Great Web site content addresses the readers concerns, needs, desires, fears and problems. The things are MORE IMPORTANT than your product, your company and your goals. Good advertising and web content is "Client Centered." Here are three things important to your client, in the order of priority.

1. The client is number one. What you have must solve a problem, meet a need or want.

2. The product you are marketing is second. It is only of concern if it relates to a need, desire or problem the reader has that needs to be fixed or has a benefit that he or she has been looking for.

3. Dead last on the list is YOU! They could care less if you or any member of your family is healthy and normal. They do not care where you came from, what your present station in life is or what problems you have. DO NOT include any of that in your web site or ad content. It will distract them and cost you money!

4. If you do  have an additional web site, besides the one you get from your program, get one! DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT fill your web site with lights, bells, whistles, needless colors and music. Stay away from FREE sites that require you to host other people's banners. They give your client the chance to be distracted and to leave your site. You want them to go to your PRIMARY site, not someone else's.

#10 Write your ad or web site content in a plain, simple, conversational style. It MUST NOT be written in a manner that gives the impression you are talking down to the reader.

1. Keep in mind what you want the reader to do next, make it easy for them to do it and then ask them to do it.

2. Even though it may seem obvious, you MUST tell the reader what you want them to do next. You would be amazed at how many people miss this fundamental point. If you do not tell them what to do, they will NOT do it!

3. Always, always, give them a way to respond to your ad. Emphasize this throughout your web site, make it easy for them to get in touch with you! Even if your ad is not a response type of ad, and I cannot imagine why you would not want them to respond to you, make it easy for them to do so.

4. Include your Name, Address, e-mail address and, if you feel comfortable doing so, your phone number.

#11 When writing web site or sales letter content, you MUST know as much about the kind of person who is going to be reading what you wrote. Ask these types of questions:

1. What is important to my prospective client or member; why did he or she come to us in the first place?

2. What problems will this product or service solve for them and how will it do it?

3. What will happen to them if they do not solve their problem? Will the problem remain static or will it grow?

1. Write out a list of the most important emotional reasons why a person would buy what you are selling. DO NOT think that you will remember them. WRITE THEM DOWN, writing crystallizes thought!

2. Once you have that list written down, look for the most powerful of the emotional reason. Is it going to answer the most driving of their reasons for answering your ad, your email or going to your web site. Remember this, WE ARE NOT TALKING ABOUT LOGICAL REASONS HERE. The ONLY thing we are concerned with is what really moves the prospect emotionally!

3. Use the single most powerful reason you can find. Begin your sales letter, or web site content, by creating a powerful, attention grabbing, grab them by the ears, subject line. Use a bold statement or "how to" subject line for this so that, if nothing else, the prospect is going to at least look at or open the e-mail, or take the time to look at the web site you are presenting.

4. Understand this, if you understand anything else that has been written here, more than 85% of the power of any sales letter or ad is what they see in subject line. Make sure you use a powerful one, make sure it is a moving and emotional statement.

#12 One final thought, if you do nothing else, do this. Set aside a specific amount of time each and every day to advertise, market and work your programs. It does not matter if you set aside two hours, the recommended minimum, one hour, one half hour or fifteen minutes.

Whatever time you set aside for this purpose, stick to the schedule like your life depends on it! You MUST do this because, in fact, the life of your Internet Business depends on it! Use the tools we supply, seek out new tools and, most importantly, use them!