Not Just Another Ezine

Issue Number 98 In this issue: Welcome Featured Article: Affiliate Marketing: When 20% is More than 50% Subscriber Comments Featured Article: An Internet Marketing Secret: Using Tie-Downs to Increase Sales Link: Members' Lounge "Forget the Hype" ~ It's Downright Amazing! Get this Brand New 2005 eBook that's packed with tips and resources that are sure to make running your business so much easier ... and cheaper to boot. See if you don't just love it. Visit now. http://annamarketing.com/FTH WELCOME back to top Welcome to all, old and new! :~) I hope all of you are enjoying the summer weather as much as I am! It's STILL gorgeous here, which is really strange for this part of the world. We usually get tons of rain, but the past few years have just been getting hotter and sunnier during the summer months. It's great! Of course, the kids started their 6 weeks summer holidays today, so it rained half of yesterday and today, hahaha, it's just so typical. We've been promised more nice weather over the next few weeks, so I'm sure me and the kids will be out and about lots :~D I finished my new book last night, it's called Focus: The Key To Success. It's a short and concise self-help book all about focus, self confidence and self discipline. I used my "Confidence Booster" ebook (which is no longer available) as a basis for it. I offered it to a few people for review before it was totally finished and the feedback was great. The price is set at $14.97, but I'm doing a special "launch" offer for NJAE subscribers. Check out the page HERE, and if you decide you want to buy the book send $9.70 via paypal to admin@annamarketing.com, put "Focus" in the paypal comments box and I'll send you your copy a.s.a.p. Please do not order from that page unless you feel like paying full price ;~) I've also started accepting ads for the ezine again, so check out the prices below. Our subscriber base is now at 847 with no duplicates and no bounces. Until next time, get those votes in, get those interviews in, come visit me in my conference room and above all... Enjoy Reading! May you be happy and prosperous in everything you do! Anna-Marie Stewart =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- This weeks download/ebook is Supercharge Your Web Images: Benefit by 'supercharging' your pictures. Visit the Members Lounge for the download link, and don`t forget to get your votes in for next weeks e-book while you`re there. Not Just Another Interview #66 is posted this week. Keep them coming. Feel free to send us YOUR interview, we love to hear what you're doing and we really enjoy getting to know you better. (Remember to add your website url too.) If you`re unsure of how to send one in, the form is in the Members Lounge, along with all the other forms and stuff ;~) As always, the link to the Members Lounge can be found at the bottom of this page EVERY week. If you need your password to update the info I have for you, please request it here: http://annamarketing.com/lostpass.php -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Advertise with NJAE Top Sponsor Ad (archived) upto 6 lines, 65 characters per line, including url and/or mailto link. ONLY $5 Bottom Ad (archived) upto 6 lines, 65 characters per line, including url and/or mailto link. ONLY $3.50 Middle Ad (archived) upto 6 lines, 65 characters per line, including url and/or mailto link. ONLY $2.50 Group mailings (3 ads in each mail) upto 6 lines, 65 characters per line, including url and/or mailto link. ONLY $5.50 Solo ads ONLY $7.50 Send ad and paypal payment to admin@annamarketing.com Please include name and type of ad you are purchasing. On a budget? Try our SlotAds. Only $2 for a week, or only $5 for 4 weeks. Go here for more info Slot Ads True to our subscription policy, NJAE advertising IS limited, so all ads are sold on a first come, first serve basis, amounting to no more than 5 ezine ads per issue + 4 solo ads and 2 semi solo ads per month. (SlotAds = Virtually Limitless). -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Leverage your training time with Hot Conference! Smart network marketers use this super-simple, one click software instead of expensive “in person” training one-to-one. Train an unlimited number of people personally, in real time, with no cost to your trainees. No more “tele-conference” long-distance charges, or the awful “beep” when folks join the call… Hot Conference  back to top Featured Article: Affiliate Marketing: When 20% is More than 50% Copyright 2005 Saul A.J. Burton Let’s say you’re an affiliate marketer, and you want to choose which product you want to promote. You’ve searched a lot and now you have to choose between two products, that sell both for $100. The main visible difference is that product A has a 50% commission, and product B only 20%… Which would YOU promote?? Most people would obviously answer product A… the commission rate is more than double the one product B gives - so why even bother asking?? Because a lot of times the commission rate has nothing to do with how much money you’re going to make… there’s a much more important factor to consider: Conversion Rate (CR). The CR of a sales letter is a number that says how many visitors become customers. The average standard in offline direct marketing is 1%. On the internet it can easily be much more (a webpage can be far more effective than a paper letter ;) The conversion rate depends mainly on how well the copywriter did his job. Good copy - high CR, bad copy - low CR. That’s why copywriting is so important when you’re selling online. So, let’s make an easy example to see how much difference a better CR can make… I challenge a friend of mine to see who can make more money online. We are promoting two products: both product A and B sell for $100. Product A has a 50% commission and has a visitor/buyer Conversion Rate (CR) of 1%. Product B instead has a 20% commission but a CR of 7%. Who would promote A and who B? Most people (without thinking about conversion rates) would jump on the product A train. 50% against 20%? Who are we kidding? Of course 50% is better, it’s more than twice the commision of B… but is it really that much better?? Let’s do some maths :) Let’s say my friend spends $10 to send 100 visitors to the sales page of product A. One of them buys (1% CR) so he makes his first $40 of profits (50 minus 10 that he spent in advertising). I instead spend $10 to send 100 visitors to the sales page of product B, and 7 of them buy (7% CR). With a 20% commission, I just made $130 (140 minus 10 for the ads). Promoting a product that had less than half the commission of product A I made more than three times what my friend did - his $40 against my $130… and I sent the same number of visitors that he did. Same effort, triple profits. With a product (B) that had less than half the commision of product A… So is the commission rate value all that useful to decide what you should promote? Not really ... in my non-guru humble opinion! Commission rates can be incredibly deceptive, so when you make your choices keep it in mind! -=-=-=-=-=-=-Resource Box-=-=-=--=-=-=-=- Saul A.J. Burton Chief News Editor http://www.HowToSell.info ============================================= This article is available for reprint in your opt-in ezine, web site or ebook. You MUST agree not to make any changes to the article and the RESOURCE BOX MUST be included. Self-Service Direct Marketing VerticalResponse is a fast, effective and affordable solution essential for growing your business. Create, send & track HTML email and direct mail postcards campaigns online in minutes, with no technical expertise. No contracts or monthly fees - simply pay as you go. Take a FREE test drive today. www.verticalresponse.com  back to top ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Subscriber Comments, Keep Em Coming :) ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Hey Anna, That article on colour is right on the money. Before I design a site I usually decide what feelings I want to evoke from the reader. Actually, a lot of my sites end up being shades of blue.. but recently I did one that was a lot of earth tones that produced a really warm response. Here's a site that helps people who may have a difficult time coming up with an overall colour scheme. It is tres cool. http://www.colormatch.dk/ Sabrina http://u4tips.consorts.net Unlimited URL Rotators and more. Valuable, professional - but no fee. Find out why. Hi Sabrina. Thanks so much for the comments and the brilliant link. I checked it out and played around with it, pretty easy to use, and VERY easy to understand. ;~). For those of you who missed the article on colours, you can still read it in Issue 96. (Hi guys, this is where i need your feedback, send it on in so I can post it here. Include your link in your sig for that extra bit of free advertising, ok?) Got something to say? Drop me a line. Know of a cool site? Drop me another line. Got any ideas for making the ezine even better for you? You know the drill: Drop me yet another line... I really enjoy hearing from you all. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++  back to top Featured Article: An Internet Marketing Secret: Using Tie-Downs to Increase Sales Copyright 2005 by Mike Adams If you could get your prospective customers nodding their heads in agreement with every major point in your sales copy, that would be likely to increase your sales, wouldn't it? If you could get people saying "yes" to almost any marketing statement of your choosing - long before they even get to the close - that would be valuable to you, right? Did you find yourself agreeing with the last two questions? You've just experienced a sales technique called "tie-downs." One very old direct sales principle is to get people to say yes to multiple little questions. This gets them agreeing with you and also gets them used to saying yes. Psychologically, they will then be more likely to say yes when you ask for the sale. One sales technique for achieving that is the tie-down. Why use a technique from direct sales in direct marketing? In a famous advertising and marketing story, Albert Lasker was a junior partner at the Lord and Thomas advertising agency in 1905 when he read a note from John E. Kennedy declaring that Kennedy knew the secret of what advertising is. Kennedy, a former Canadian mounted policeman, was new to copywriting and not yet known in advertising circles. But by an interesting quirk of fate, this was the question Lasker had been trying to figure out. Lasker met Kennedy, and Kennedy declared that the secret is, "Advertising is salesmanship in print." Lasker and Kennedy went on to revolutionize advertising and marketing forever with those words, and Lord and Thomas became one of the most famous advertising agencies of the day. No matter how many people are visiting your website and reading your marketing material, you are still talking to only one person at a time. You are still selling one person. This sounds like a simple concept, but many advertising and marketing people still don't get this secret. That means that if you understand this, you have an advantage in Internet marketing. You understand that advertising is salesmanship in print. And you know that you just need to talk with this one person and get their agreement to purchase your product. And with the power of the Internet, you can do this with dozens, hundreds, even thousands per day. Tie-downs are one of the first tools to add to your new salesmanship toolbox. A tie-down is a short phrase that can be added to a statement to turn it into a question. You use a tie-down to turn a point that you want to make into a question that your prospect will agree with. It's one way of getting your prospective customer to start saying yes long before you go for the close. A few examples of common tie-downs include: Isn't it? Wouldn't it? Wouldn't they? Wouldn't you? Aren't they? Aren't you? Wouldn't you agree? Don't you agree? Can't you? Couldn't it? Doesn't it? Right? If you have been marketing for very long, you have heard about the concept of "features versus benefits." Features are what your product has or does. Benefits are why your prospective customer would want those features. What will your product do for them? For example, if you have something that is metal instead of plastic, metal might be a feature. But the benefit might be that it is more durable, longer-lasting, or unbreakable. A common practice on web pages that are written as sales letters is to use a bullet list to present features or benefits. Let's just imagine a couple bullet points for some imaginary "tie-down creator" software. Most people would write the bullets as features. A couple features might look like this: - Creates tie-downs automatically - Adds tie-downs to the end of every statement in a list of statements Not very exciting bullets, are they? (Wow... there's an example of a tie-down that I want you to say "no" to!) Now let's imagine how someone might write a couple bullets as benefits: - Get your prospective customers nodding their heads in agreement with every major point in your sales copy! - Get a prospect to say "yes" to almost any marketing statement of your choosing - long before you get to the close! That's an improvement over writing the marketing bullets as features, isn't it? But although that might get their interest and even get them thinking of how they could use the product, it doesn't build agreement yet. Let's try wording them a little differently: - If you could get your prospective customers nodding their heads in agreement with every major point in your sales copy, that would be likely to increase your sales, wouldn't it? - If you could get people saying "yes" to almost any marketing statement of your choosing - long before they even get to the close - that would be valuable to you, right? Would you agree those bullets do a better job of building both interest and agreement? (And did you catch that example of a tie-down at the beginning of a sentence?) Now for your homework. It's time to go look at your website with a critical eye, while this article is still fresh in your mind. Are you selling features or benefits? Are you using tie-downs on marketing statements where they would help build agreement that will lead to sales? If not, you know what you need to do! -=-=-=-=-=-=-Resource Box-=-=-=--=-=-=-=- Mike Adams has been building web sites and playing with Internet marketing since 1996. Visit his site for Internet marketing tips, tools, news, articles, and resources: http://www.timberway.com/ ============================================= This article is available for reprint in your opt-in ezine, web site or ebook. You MUST agree not to make any changes to the article and the RESOURCE BOX MUST be included. Increase Your Sales Now - Here's How Does the thought of losing thousands of potential customers scare you? It should, because that's what could be happening right now if your sales copy isn't getting the right kind of attention! Strategy Ad Service has been creating effective and affordable copy for small businesses since 2001. Visit today! StrategyAdService.com Ever wanted to know how to create your own graphics? Learn from a master! Video Tutorials, Photoshop Video Tutorials. The easy way to learn! www.graphics4marketers.com  back to top MEMBER LOUNGE