Dear Friends,

Everyone says there is no Internet business model.

If that's true, then where are these billions and billions of dollars being made? They are being made by people applying the Internet business model their own way, custom tailoring their own solutions.

But people won't share their model; most of the so called "online gurus" teach others how they sold their specific product. Most times they have sold a book and maybe some information products. Great info if you want to sell what they offer, but how can you focus their advice on your specific product or service?

As a WebMaster who has helped many diverse businesses build their niche online, I want to open up my vaults and let my subscribers into the secrets I share with my biggest clients. But instead of trying to show you all the amazing things you could do, I want to keep things focused, to the point.

Last month I talked about going back to basics, and this month we continue by exploring the Conversion Process at your Web Site through the eyes of a total beginner to Internet marketing.

Instead of me outlining what I do, I'm going to share something very special. This summer I had an intern, Greg, who learned Internet marketing from the beginning. In the last weeks of his internship we put my Internet business model into action for him. This issue is the result of our work together, with input and development of an Internet marketing plan from someone who knew little or nothing about the Internet just weeks before.

Honestly, the guy still doesn't have a computer. But he knows how to use the Internet.

Our goal was to create an Internet Marketing Plan within three days, and start promoting the product without a Web Site.

Follow Greg's development and you can see how these techniques apply to any product or service that is offered online. Build trust in your customers, and reward that trust with the best effort you can make. I'll share the most important secret any business knows:

Remember your customers. By name. And reward them...immensely.

Instead of putting up a Web Site that reads like some catalog or print ad, treat it like an interview (the subject of next month's newsletter). Address their needs and forget about the computer, forget about your product, your service, and focus 100% on them.

A Web Site is where a live person comes to take an action. Ask them what they want, and guide them to the purchase decision. More importantly give them a way to keep in touch with you over the long term.

That way was, is, and will be email. If you are not emailing your clients, you are missing the chance to have long term customers. Few will remember you, or want to come back to your site again and again.

But many people like to be reminded by email, and even better to be remembered.

Do you remember the last time, someone remembered you?

Peace, Declan

How to Convert Customers to Buyers:
The Buying Decision

"How Can I Know If Someone I'm Talking To Is A Good Prospect For You?"
Bob Burg, Endless Referrals

Who are your best prospects?

I asked that to one client recently; he told me everybody. Everybody would be interested in his vitamins. We all want to be healthy, he said.

Now try to put a face on everybody; what does everybody do during the day? What do they think? What are their motivations? Why should they buy from you?

The funny thing about this common approach is the misconception that may kill his business. The client thinks it is just him qualifying the customers. Meanwhile, his customers are qualifying him, his Web Site, and his email. They want to know if he has done his homework, and if he knows what they want.

By copping out to the old, "I'll sell to everybody" routine, my client is killing his business.

I asked the same question to the president of a hot tub company recently. His company is one of the biggest, and you can see why by his answers:

1. They are homeowners in their second home.
2. They are most often between 36-50.
3. They are a married couple with two children. They both work, with household incomes exceeding $60,000 a year.
4. They appreciate relaxing and treating themselves with special gifts as rewards for working hard.

That is the sort of customer base you can define, target, and convert into long term customers. Instead of everybody, he has defined it into "somebody" with an identity.

He is not selling to everybody; he is selling to that small percentage of the population who are interested in his hot tubs...the small percentage who will keep him in business for years and years.

How Does This Relate To Your Internet Business?

Imagine someone comes to visit your Web Site, or reads your email. They have just arrived home from a long commute. Their children are getting rowdy in the back yard, or maybe that is just a neighbor. The numerous decisions they have to make are weighing down.

In the midst of all of this comes your email or Web Site headline. Instead of offering them something they are interested in, you offer them to:

A. Skip merrily around your online catalog without any guidance;
B. Shop in your store that is filled with so much information it could gag a professor;
C. Figure out just what it is you are trying to say with wit, cleverness, or trickery;
D. Determine just what it was that got them into your online storefront in the first place.

These sites can never hope to close customers, but it doesn't seem to matter. Many people commit these errors and tell me the same complaint:

"Declan, if I could just get traffic to my site, that's all I need."

That is not all you need, and the conversion process proves it out. Without a specific sense of what you are offering, who you are offering it to, and why they should buy from you, your customers are lost. Don't try to figure it out on your own; psychic marketing does not work because in the end, you are always just marketing to yourself.

Which is where most people get stuck. They sit in their business, in their Web Site, and know what they sell so well that they unconsciously try to prove how well they know it with everyone that visits them. All the customer hears is the ranting of facts, figures, and knowledge, but little if any reasons to buy.

In the center of this Conversion graphic are the three most important questions your customer asks:

You have the headline and maybe your first few sentences to give them a positive response to all of the above questions. If the email or Web Site is targeted to someone's specific interests, few if any will object.

Even if it is spam! (That's unsolicited bulk email for beginners; spam is when someone sends you an email without your "permission".) In a recent focus group study I worked with, the people overwhelmingly disliked spam, but they DID NOT MIND getting an email that was targeted to them...even if they did not request it.

The rule is simple; give people what they want and they are happy. Your headline in an email or Web Site should be directed the same way. Give them just a few choices.

Remember the computer rule of sixes; try not to give people more than six choices to make.

So if they come to your Web Site, let them explore, order, get proof that you can do what you say you can (testimonials), and view a few of your products. But don't do any more.

Lead them in, answer their questions, and they may decide to buy, or to let you contact them again. Most often they will wait a bit to decide, and getting permission to email them is crucial here. Give them tangible incentives (free reports, discounts, coupons, or special bonuses ) for keeping in touch with you.

If you don't, they may request you never email them again, which is your loss. The more emails you retain and benefit, the bigger your list. The bigger your list, the better your chance of survival, no matter what happens.

The real conversion is to get them to buy the right to be remembered by you.

When you remember a customer by name, when you address what they want, and do your best to deliver it, people can't help but want to hear from you again.

Most businesses are so stuck on selling their products, they forget about building trust and confidence in their customers. You will be ahead of the game if you remember the conversion process.

So let's ask the question again;

"How Can I Know If Someone I'm Talking To Is A Good Prospect For You?"

Bob Burg's question is so important. Define who your customers are. What do they like? What holidays and events have to do with what you are offering? Is this something they do alone, online, or with a group? If you cannot tell me why someone is a good prospect for you, how can you convince them?

Put a face, a motivation, and a defined need on your customer base. Set your objectives to deliver the best products and services that solve their problems, that fulfill their needs.

Then do it.

The key is to work together, to create a group of people whom you can bounce ideas off of, and whom you can learn from. These are your allies, not just your customers. The biggest secret to success is to keep focused, and to keep adapting.

In the Internet economy, those who adapt, survive. Those who try to do the same thing forever, won't. It is a challenge to keep learning. Your customers are the ones making the cutting edge of your business; they will tell you the shifts in their interests.

Like most of us, they aren't quite sure what they want; that is why your emails, your follow up, your questions, will set you apart. Listen to them and reward them for choosing your business.

Treasure them; the greatest gift anyone has are the people who like to work with you. Warren Buffett (Nebraska stock market investor and before Bill Gates, the continually richest man in the U.S.) said it so well; I only work with people I like to work with.

Your customers feel the same way.

Case Study: How To Quickly Target Your Market

Case Study: The following is a four part marketing cycle conducted within one week. It began with this letter, and proceeded to:

A. Defining His Niche
B. Targeting his Customer Base
C. Setting Up Check Lists to Evaluate his Success

An Open Letter To Any One, Marketing Any Product or Service On the Internet

Greg,

As you've seen the Internet marketing process takes some experience. And as you have obviously seen, we have given you some guidance, but you have been mostly on your own.

There is method to this madness, and in the next three weeks we are going to focus less on you surfing the Web and more on developing a system.

You have been introduced to:

1. Email marketing
2. Discussion groups
3. Ezines
4. Free areas to promote your site
5. Business Directories
6. Classified Ads
7. And, in a way, banner ads; since you have surfed so many sites, you can see how banner ads are used.

What we want you to work on this week are check sheets, outlining what is needed to keep a daily record for each of the marketing proposals listed above.

A. I also want you to explore the focus and purpose of each of these areas, and sum it up in a few sentences.

B. Finally, I want you to brainstorm how you would measure success.

Greg, we're not asking you to invent these things, but to consider them; go back to sites you have surfed, and take a look with a fresh eye. Pretend that you are selling a motorcycle part to someone, an unusual item that they can't find anywhere.

Use this as a case study as you go through each of the marketing ideas. Remember, this is more a writing exercise than a surfing exercise.

In the end, you should write up one sheet for each of the marketing methods listed above including:

1. Check lists for important factors concerning each.
2. Key frustrations you and others face
3. Systems that might be put into place
4. Ideas of what would help you out, what questions you have.

Just do one sheet per marketing idea, and work on this throughout the week. I'm sure that you are questioning what experience you have to do this. No one has experience, and you are the typical person we would be marketing to.

To begin, I want you to remember your key frustrations . What is the toughest part about your marketing? How can you best solve the problem? Think of a system that would take you from beginning to conclusion, and how you would measure success. Don't be afraid to be a bit creative here.

Here's how to do it:

1. Identify one frustration. Write it down. Don't jump to solutions too quickly.
2. Focus on what you can control and change.
3. Determine the underlying business problem. Ask questions, and keep asking; how can you measure success in each of the 7 areas listed above? As you keep asking questions, you'll discover the real cause of the frustration...most often lack of a way to solve the problem.
4. Identify a solution.
5. List the steps, the process, you would take with each of the 7 marketing steps listed at the beginning of this page.
6. How will you test this to measure if its working? How many units, i.e. motorcycle pegs, do you want to sell in each month?

The goal is not quantity, but quality. Print out your work at the end of each day and let me review it over night. We will meet each morning to discuss your findings, and to help you along the way.

Peace,
Declan

The First Steps

Objective: Given a custom motorcycle part for a specific market, go out on the Internet to:

1. Find who and where your customers are (on line).

2. Discover how to contact those customers.

3. Build a lasting relationship with our new customers.

Product Description: I am offering a cruise peg that is custom made for the top of the line Harley-Davidson motorcycles. A cruise peg can help an ordinary motorcycle look like an outlaw bike, bringing back memories of choppers without the danger. It is strictly an item to look at that retails for more than $200.

Target Market: The large touring bikes are typically owned by mature riders who have spent from $20 to $40 thousand dollars already and are predominately men who are over 40 years old with an above average income.

What Motivates them to spend so much on their Harley's? Prestige and power are two motivations. Many "bikers" will look down upon Japanese motorcycles, A.K.A. "Rice Rockets", and view the Harley as something made in the USA These people also own computers and use the Harley appeal to have some fun and get out from their lives on weekends to go for rides. The real appeal to a Harley is that of a cowboy, of freedom, of riding a powerful horse without th

Background

In order to achieve his goals, Greg was asked to work within his "natural market", something he had a passion about and felt good offering. His choice of product came from a friend who fixes his Harley and whom he would like to help. As you read this, notice how the core passion of a Harley is similar to any other consumer passion.

People love their Harley's, and are part of a special niche, a group interested in this particular brand, and in motorcycling in general. If some of Greg's comments offend some people, so be it; I'm sure not a Harley biker and have no clue what drives this market.

But I do know what works, and that is what works for your customers. Let's let Greg do the talking in his initial research.

Greg's First Steps

It is now 3:30 P.M. and soon will be the end of the day meeting. The focus of today was originally to find out difficulties that arose from research as well as identifying frustrations and get ideas that could be included in a marketing system. Today was very successful in gaining ideas on how to better target market as you can see by the amount of information that has been highlighted and set in bold print. Most of my frustrations were mechanical and stole valuable time and momentum. These may or may not be included but none the less are "real frustrations" that future clients may experience on line.

Time went more quickly than I would have liked it to and I was not able to cover all the area such as Ezines, but most were covered to some extent without even looking for them. I hope to again put my mind set as that of a entrepreneur marketing a different product, perhaps a bit more "High Tech" and again see what is similar and what is universal so we can focus on and include it in an effective marketing system.

Step 1. Find who and where your customers are (on line).

The first attempt to find where are customers meet is to go to Excite or any other search engine and search for discussion groups. One of the most widely known is www.dejanews.com and just have your key words ready to punch in to the search. I punched in Harley Davidson and was immediately brought to a large list of discussion groups. In fact, there were so many I narrowed my search to get to the market that I could sell to... touring! You could easily find many discussions on line and many already have a "no spam" attitude so you might want to tread lightly before pitching your product or service. But by now you have narrowed your search to the people who would be most interested and as long as your intro is reasonably intelligent and polite, the chances of getting flamed are nil.

On these initial contacts you want to invite potential customers to your site and have something of interest to show them. You already have an email address so you are half way there.

One thing I've noticed so far, be careful not to get caught up in all the cool stuff that is out there. When searching or looking for something, it is easy ( especially when it's in your field ), to let your research time of 10-15 minutes, turn into entertainment. And that don't pay the bills! But some fun is good especially if you are making good leads and contacts that will turn into sales later. So if you are able to become comfortable online with discussion boards, news groups, message boards, chat sessions, and classifieds your chances of making actual contact and receiving inquiries will greatly improve. Once you break the ice with a few key players, the information and contacts you will make from them will get your business going in the right direction.

There are many things that are passionate to this industry. The world of Harley-Davidson is a sub-culture within the motorcycling community and has the greatest loyalty of any other brand associated with motorcycling. One of the passions that are universal to all motorcyclists are laws and preconceptions. For years there has been debates on helmet laws. Many Harley riders are against them but some are proponents. The Outlaw biker image has been toned down by the new RUB's (Rich Urban Bikers) that have joined the ranks of the riding population. This is also a issue of contention within the community, yuppies posing as long time riders and causing the prices to rise on bikes, parts and equipment since it's now "fashionable".

Well that's where the businesses come in and cease the opportunity to capitalize on that newly developed market. Taking those passions and finding a niche to turn those opportunities into sales.

Here are a few examples:

1. When the California helmet law first broke there was a lot of unhappy bikers who were angry at Pete Wilson, California's governor, for passing this controversial piece of legislation. The Entrepreneurs came in with "Helmet Laws Suck" stickers and printed slogans that were popular and profitable. I know about this personally since I wrote Pete Wilson a letter of disapproval and protested this law on the road and in court. ABATE , a national bikers rights group, was formed to fight this legislation with a passion

2. One of the oldest and best known biker rallies is held annually in Sturgis, South Dakota. Until recently, this rally has been know around the world as a hard-core biker rally meeting of the clan, as the "old school" bikers would ride from thousands of miles around the country and the world to attend. The Harley fashion has caught on so much and brought so much attention that the "RUB" crowd has jumped the band wagon. People who don't really ride have trailored their $25+thousand dollar fancy bikes up to Sturgis and ride next to some guy who rode his bike across the country through rain, hail, cops, oil slicks, roadkill, blazing heat, breakdowns, drunk drivers, bugs, lightning, flash floods, and every hazard imaginable to get to the Black Hills of South Dakota.

   So you can see why there is a difference in riders. Some genius found a niche in this irony. He developed and sold a bumper sticker and T-shirt that proudly displayed..."I Rode my Bike to a Trailer Party!" Ironically, the only people who bought those shirts were the yuppies who trailers their bikes up! Another example along the same lines is the slogan "$15 thousand and 15 miles don't make you a biker".

   While these may sound like silly examples, its just a part of finding a niche by knowing the passions and interest of that industry and capitalizing on it, and online it can be done faster and more efficiently. It's all part of contacting and listening to your customer. For all I know, the person who profited from those slogans could have been a 16 year old Chinese student who had never rode a motorcycle in his life.

   Step 2. Discover how to contact those customers.

   The forms of making actual contact are simple and fairly limited: email, fax, mail, and phone. You had better do your homework and be up to speed before using any of these mediums. In other words, know what to say, ask, or suggest. In addition, if you want to promote your product or service it is important to have your information ready and waiting online before making that first attempt.

   You have to give them something for contacting you; I thought that a list of links to great Harley sites, or information on how to turn your regular Harley into an outlaw chopper would be ideal. We would also drive people to a Web Page that had a picture of the product, and more importantly, and picture of someone riding a bike before and after the peg was added.

   One live example I personally found while researching a discussion group was a conversation between a newbie (new rider) and a female rider who was giving some advice online to him. Not only was the information interesting to me as well but she left a link to her site. What the heck, so I clicked on it...Wow! It was like opening the door to the castle in the Wizard of Oz! She had photos, graphics, and most importantly lots of links to other sites. She was obviously savvy on the net and had built up a good site that probably has lots of traffic. Check it out at http://www.qro.com/yvette1.html. The first thing you see is a photo of Yvette and a directory of categories that deal with areas of interest to her. I found that some links were to commercial ventures like http://www.rally.sturgis.sd.us/headquarters/headquarters.html which is for promotion of the rally, the ABATE chapters, Harley-Davidson, other personal pages, and it also gives access to magazines online.

   The niche here is women riders and everything from fashion tips to motorcycles is available to be marketed. Keep in mind that you want to stay within your natural market, that is an area you feel comfortable in and will build a relationship online, with those you communicate with. Be legitimate and you'll probably do just fine.

   Searching deeper from Yvette's corner through the online "Asphalt Angel" online magazine I hit the jackpot...a link that took me to well known magazines, independent sponsors, products, classifieds, and banners. Everything a marketer with a new product could want! There were many links to many different shops, products, services, and sites that provide a built in network of leads, contacts, and partners to help get established. And it all started by opening up a discussion board.

   Step 3. Build a lasting relationship with your new customers.

   Now that you've had the chance to find out who and where your customers are online, and you know how to contact them (have something ready to give them to open the door), we hope you've given or sold them something so you can get feedback and build that long lasting relationship that is so valuable to our business. If you've created a list of potential customers, be sure to use those lists to keep involved and informed. This is done by closing the sale, whether you want your contact to

   1) Buy your product,
   2) add your link to his site,
   3) obtain a list of leads,
   4) barter or exchange some product or service.

   If you have offered the customer something and they have accepted and are responding it is important not to drop the ball and lose contact. Just like the fact that you only have so much time to sell someone who clicks to your website you have to keep that spark alive and keep you idea, product or service alive in your customers mind by keeping them coming back to your site...How?...Offer, surveys, contests, newsletters, articles, hot new links, free stuff and information that will keep them interested and over time build that customer loyalty. If you make them happy, they'll be there for you, and that, my friend, is how your success is measured.

   CONCLUSION

   Greg found that his market loved to hear about the latest news, political events, controversies, challenges to an existent community (hard core bikers vs. The RUBS), and liked to talk about their Harley.

   One more thing; they like to spend money on their toys, their hobbies, their Harley's. Can you think of any other markets that could benefit by targeting Harley riders (RUBs that is)?

   Research: Three Lesson System
   Outline Overview

   Greg Hulse       August 5th,1998

   Objective for today is to develop a simple follow-up plan that will be given to customers over specific intervals after the initial contact.

   1. The first contact/information will be the most basic and should be successful 100% of the time to encourage and motivate the customer. This will be offered on the third day after the original contact and will focus on finding where the customers are meeting, online, events, and passions of that segment of the population. Before doing this we must identify who the customer is by demographics. Then we want to include just a few questions to get them to respond to our first follow-up. We will encourage them to visit the Web Site and possibly order, but the goal is to ask them questions about themselves, and get some feedback, some emails.

   2. Secondly, on the 7th day after the original contact, a lesson will be sent out that will also be simplified in training the customer online how to use the peg on their Harley so we can begin a dialogue with that customer. It is necessary to have access to those potential customers via email and the lesson will focus on the conversion of contact to interaction, preferably a sale. Once again they will be directed to a Web Page to order.

   3. After the 14th day we will sent the 3rd and final message out and stress how to use the peg on your Harley and the look/feel that it will give your bike.. Here the objective is to build confidence and trust with that customer who will purchase more and give referrals. They will be put on our Harley ezine list, with notes on the latest political events, biker rallies, Harley specials, good places to shop for parts and Harley's online, etc.

   We will become the resource for Harley bikers online, but researching other Web Sites and guiding them once a month to these sites...and our peg. We can also look to joint venture at other sites that offer Harley motorcycles and parts.

   Contact 1

   We begin here by going online and putting on the customer's shoes, in other words pretending that we are the customer and wishing to find out where people such as ourselves with like interest and passions are meeting online. These often include discussion boards and message boards as well as business and personal or non-profit sites that give us the information we want.

   One of the first things to do before going online is to develop at least five or more keywords that will help you with your search. Of course they will be tailor made to your specific interest. For example, lets begin by being a Harley enthusiast, better yet, our interest is in motorcycles and old bikes or "choppers". We discover by searching with Yahoo that we use motorcycles as our beginning keyword we are lead to an array of sites; if we instead use Harley's our selection is narrowed down to a few specific businesses online that deal with sales of parts and units to information and links to other sites and radio programs.

   There is a good possibility that if your email one of these sites they will direct you to an online newsletter if they are not providing one themselves. This is an excellent way be in touch with what new information is being circulated currently, plus you can submit an article to be published and leave a SIG file and or a link to your site. You can always get in direct contact with people in that industry through the classified section. Many people are buying and selling used parts, and talking about their bikes. You can use your free report to distribute to these sites as well, focusing on the benefits of this peg without being an overt sales message. Simply request a link to your Web Page with buying information, and a link to your email address.

   It is a good idea to use an autoresponder as your email address, so they can get your information immediately. Just note that this is an automated response, and follow the three step follow-up cycle. This would be the initial response, before you follow-up in three days.

   In addition in finding out where potential customers meet, it is a good idea to seek out message boards and discussion groups that are established and credible sources for people in that field who wish to communicate online. These are people with a passion, and people like this, like to talk about their passion.

   You may find some of these by searching through excite.com and other search engines by typing in the subject or maybe a main company associated with that item. Often there will be links to magazines, classified ads, message and discussion boards as a service to their customers. There are also a collection of businesses that often network together to promote but not compete with each other's business, sort of a network for a specific niche. After searching I found that Forum One from Excite has over 1800 discussion groups listed but most require free registration to obtain access. Usually you go to the About Forum One page and just punch in your keywords and they take you to a listing of the related message and discussion board about that subject. By following the discussion groups the current events and issues will be revealed and give you more opportunities to find out who and where your customers are.

   Contact 2

   Now that you have spotted where your customers are gathering online, it is important to reach those people through some sort of medium. We mentioned above that often people will put in classified ads either for their business or personal reasons. You can go through these ads and respond with some sense that you did read what they offered, and that you have something of interest for them. This is not spam, because you have gone to an advertising medium and researched an interested market. Before doing this we need to have a good sales letter prepared in advance and use small selected segments of the market to test for result before going to mass marketing. That way if what you did is inappropriate, you do it without bothering many people.

   Listen to your customers, and find the best way to target them is a good rule.

   It is to our greatest advantage to have those prospects contact us first so we wish to make this possible by making our site as visible as possible. One way to do this is to have articles published in ezines and newsletters that our customer already subscribes to or has access to. We do this by submitting some unusual, interesting, obscure or rare information to those sponsors and ask if they would use them in their next edition. We must contact them by email and ask permission and see if there is a possibility of bartering to strengthen our network in that industry. After an article is available we will leave a email address at its conclusion and offer a free report or newsletter of our own. Email is the best medium but also included should be a fax, phone number and a mailing address just in case their access is limited in some way.

   The second contact should merge the content of the first, free report with more of an advertising message. You have to guide them to the conclusion, and giving them several ways to contact you is great.

   Having links from highly traveled site to our site is just as important and will bring prospects to our page. We need to register their visit and the best way is to have them volunteer their by rewarding them with a discount on the peg we are offering them. Banner Ads can be very beneficial to bringing people to our site and can also be bartered, bought, or leased. They must be attractive and make them want to contact your site and see what you have for them. Nice graphics and colors are best used as well as good irresistible content in using banner ads.

   If you use your banner ad on a page you have led them to from the second contact, you will be surprised at how many people click on it. If you have targeted your message well, make the banner ad one of the only graphics on the page, and make sure it looks like the Windows interface and says "Click Here".

   Contact 3: The Close

   Converting the list of leads you have now developed into a profitable venture involves testing through contact with those customers. Using a random sample of potential customers in the mediums we've suggested try asking the customers what they need or want most. After a while the responses you see will follow some sort of pattern and try to formulate a list of most frequently asked questions and make it available as a marketing tool. Encourage feedback as much as possible and keep trying and testing different methods to see where your most successful leads are coming from. This can be the result of surveys, contests, and other ways of establishing a relationship that will keep your people coming back to your site. This will be the beginning of customer service and will develop into an area that continually open the door for additional sponsors, resellers, network marketers, advertisers and a host of joint venture opportunities.

   Turning those contacts into long term customer is our final and most simple lesson. If your product is truly valuable to your customer and they know it, your task of keeping them will be simple. Using the power of networking and bartering will cement their commitment to you and a mutual relationship will continue to grow into more endorsements and referrals. It is up to you to use this new network to your advantage by partnering with non-competitive products and services and offering banner space, publishing their articles, and referring and exchanging the ideas and services of your customers. The exchanging of databases and mailing lists will strengthen your visibility and keep you from depending on the cold calling style marketing systems that you had to use originally. By keeping an open dialogue with your customers you will have your finger on the pulse of that industry and be able to adjust and adapt to the latest trends related to your field. This will properly position yourself in the market and soon your credibility and reputation will become widely known and respected online as a recognizable and legitimate professional.

   Even better, people will refer others to your site to buy. Which is the whole goal of the process any way. Give them good service, and encourage word of mouth. A commission program, so that other sites could act as affiliates for your product, would be a good idea as well.

   Why not reward other sites for being in my network? It is all about shelf space; if they have the customers, and can put my product on their shelves to increase my sales, of course I'll reward them.

   That's what a profit margin is for, encouraging profits for all the people you work with. Ezines and email is where the profits continue with long term customers.

   Developing Your Check Lists

   As you go out to market your product, you need to know how to judge the various forms of advertising you will run into.

   The following check lists were developed to help you best develop your Internet strategy and should drive your initial research.

   The task for today, Tuesday involved working on check lists. Developing a system in detail that will answer FAQ's for the person starting out, and provide an outline of simple techniques and procedures that universally show a step by step methodical approach to market and promote a business on the web.

   Search Engines

   Search engines are the simplest solution. Sometimes too simple. People just believe in these things, and I don't know why. It's not like you find anything half the time you are looking in. I've never been through so many dead ends to get where I'm going.

   Search engines perform a function of cataloging the Internet, but I use them for finding niche markets. Once I go there, there is no point in searching any more. Here's the criteria I developed:

   1. If you can name your product or service in four words or less, search engines are something to consider. Especially if your customers will use those words to search for you. One site sold books, and got on top of the search engines for online books. Meanwhile, his customers were searching for specific titles...morale of the story is, sometimes they are looking for words you have never thought of...yet.

   2. If you can afford to always focus on them and stay on top, they can be a powerful tool. Be prepared to fight this battle every week though; if your keyword is one lots of people want, beware!

   3. It is better to pay someone on a monthly basis, or a per click through (per lead) basis to test these out. Services run from $100 to $1,000, with clickthroughs costing anywhere from 5 cents to a dollar. Twenty five cents seems to be a norm.

   4. Places to visit are a good reason to use search engines as a form of advertising; when I searched for Sturgis, I found all sorts of info about the area.

   5. Vacations and investing are big online, and easy to search for.

   Banner Ads

   Banners are advertisement usually found on high traffic sites that lure the potential customer to click that banner and bring them to another site so they can sell or promote a product or feature. The focus and purpose is to first, arouse the attention of the prospect by making an attractive offering and reducing the resistance of that person, inviting them in. Methods used are the suggestion of incredible offers that sound too good to be true like "Websites only $10 per year". In addition, colors, graphics, and various visual stimulation are used in addition to or combined with content. Often many email addresses are captured from my understanding but research had shown that many of the people who have clicked on these Banner Ads were kids with no or little prospect to convert to sales! Measurement of success is always difficult unless you can track how many times your site was clicked on and of those clicks how many sales were made, and how many became a steady customer for future products or services.

   One benefit of banners is the relationships that are created business to business. Since Banner Ads are like selling or bartering space off your website, it is important to contact a related but non-competitive business that will attract the most amount of customers to your site. This is almost always a mutually beneficial situation. If you have lots of traffic to your site it can be most profitable and add credibility to your site if dealing with a well known, reputable company. On the other hand, linking with a sleazy fly by night company will destroy your credibility and you may get flamed and lose prospects.

   Here's things to check for:

   1. Figure out how to package your product or service into a condensed form of advertisement.

   2. Take a few bits of necessary info and formulate what you want customer to see.

   3. Write a 2-6 word headline; be sure to include the words, "Click Here". Make it a headline, a call to action as well.

   4. Keep it familiar. Emulate Windows; 90% of people use it, and by using what looks like drop down menus, check boxes, and scrolling bars, encourage people to use a behavior they are familiar with. Since they are familiar with Windows, this seems to help increase response.

   5. Search for other banner ads and see what styles you like and which ones work.

   6. Contact sponsors and check their success rates if possible.

   7. See if you can have a banner ad created by a professional for barter, low cost or free!

   8. Negotiate to see the profitability of putting your ad on another business's site.

   9. Test it out to see if it is working, try different sites and track where your responses are from.

   10. Drop the ones that have poor response, and try different related sites, and repeat.

   11. Do a bit of investigation and check for references to secure the credibility of that company.

   12. Ask your customers, friends, and mentors for feedback, and then modify and refine system.

   Why is a website worth looking at, what to look for when selecting a site for research and marketing possibilities:

   1. Search for related topics and words that deal directly with the item or subject we want.

   2. See that a site is professionally created and look for links that go to other credible sites. You are looking for the few players, the circles of influence, that have developed for a specific subject. For Harley's, there are circles around the traditional bikers, as well as the emerging hobbyists who use this more for recreation than a lifestyle...say, a temporary lifestyle change, at least for the weekend.

   3. Look at the main pages by shortening the URL to the minimum, review it and add to favorites if it looks good enough to save and is related.

   4. Does the site offer banners and deal with the same general subject matter e.g. How to Improve Your Harley's Performance.

   5. Look to see if they have an active directory and if it is one that would be viewed by our potential customers, then see what it takes to be listed on that site e.g., free, barter, or fee/commission.

   6. Review site and directory and see if noted people have been listed and this would be a good tip that the directory is worth being listed in.

   7. See if discussion boards are listed on site and review them if possible.

   8. Notice if there are offers to promote our business in the site.

   9. See if sites ask for exchanges of information and bartering.

   10. Notice if the format is similar to the one we have, the same ideas etc....

   E-zines

   The e-zine is just a fancy way of saying an article or collection of articles published online. Most of these come in the form of "newsletters" and consist of various information that will hopefully be of value to those subscribers and visitors. The focus and purpose of the Ezine is to attract attention to other sites and services or products that will be available to purchase at a profit for the company offering it. Information is always of value and is the best way to get the interest of the person. You must offer some idea or concept that they cannot find anywhere else, or at least give that impression. Then, after giving a taste, build the desire to form that mental need for more.

   To properly measure the success of an ezine is to record the responses from the replies of the customers. If you are promoting the website of a friend by sponsoring his information in your newsletter, perhaps an open dialogue with that friend will enable you to track your success through his response, and this may up the value of your newsletter to him and others, opening other opportunities.

   1. Always offer something for free to spark interest in the Ezine.

   2. Publish or Swap Articles in other Ezines if possible.

   3. Focus on Ezines that are related to your product or service.

   4. Build Business to Business relationships with publishers

   5. Gain access to ezine recipient list and offer yours.

   6. Use ideas from others in tailoring your offer.

   7. Search out for different and new Ezines and evaluate them. Did they have important information, are they sponsored by a company or and individual, what is their method of delivery, their topics, is it worth pursuing and contact owner to see how we can be published as well.

   8. You can use search engines to find access to ezines or you can go directly to related subjects columns and find a wealth of publishers, companies and individuals who are eager to provide this information. There is email, fax, and mail access available from most publishers.

   9. Sites to go to include:
   http://www.dominis.com
   http://www.bizweb2000.com/wwwboard/messages/1488.html

   Classified Ads

   One of the most popular forms of advertising in print for years has been the "classified section", but on the Internet the potential is yet to be tapped. Many customers are just trying to learn how to navigate the net and soon most of those folks will be savvy enough to check for deals using the medium of the Internet.

   To develop a system for using the marketing potential of the classified ads we should begin as before by first figuring out what we want to say and how to get out the message we want in the space available. You don't want to waste time in the wrong medium and there are many to choose from. For example, it would not be a good investment to advertise diet foods in a Hot Rod magazine, or investment opportunities to Fly Fishing subscribers. For this reason it is important to be selective on line just as in print. Now many print ads are going online as well to enhance their coverage area.

   The places that most people traditionally go to look for things is to four basic areas:

   1. Search Engines- Yahoo, Excite, Infoseek Alta Vista, and other popular sites.

   2. Magazines- Online magazines are often linked to companies in that industry.

   3. Newspapers- Almost every big newspaper can be found both in print and online.

   4. Internet Malls- Perhaps the poorest place to look since most are read by other advertisers.

   These sites are for the most part very similar to print advertisement. Besides the content of the item or service you are advertising there are a few important ingredients that should exist.

   1. An Email Address- essential link to make instant communication possible.

   2. A Website link- to show more info on your item at little or no cost!

   3. A Photo- not as important to non-tangible items but visual is great if applicable

   It may be wise to look at other classified ads for like item to see that you are fair with your ideas of value, fair to yourself and fair to your customer. Value is determined by many factors that should be appraised by a standard check list that you would have to customize to your certain product or service.

   1. Condition- a general description of that items workability, aesthetics, or future potential.

   2. Value- with regards to market value, is it obsolete, cutting edge, or just traditional.

   3. Resale-ability- Can the customer get his or her moneys worth out of it eventually.

   4. Popularity- Is that product or service accepted and credible, is it adaptable to similar items.

   The check list for placing your ads depends on the item you want to list. The first thing after putting your information as listed above together is to find the best medium to advertise and then do it and monitor the results. This is best done by the following.

   1. Research- find the best places to place your ad, the related mediums that are best suited

   2. Contact- you will be issued a password to protect your ad from unwanted modifications

   3. Evaluate- if free no problem but many cost $ so try to be sure its the best place to go.

   4. Test and Retest- monitor results and responses, many will share where the got your info.

   5. Modify- dump some and ad others, you'll have to try a few before the right one if found.

   6. Check out classifieds 2000 located at www.classified2000.com/ and they will get you in the right direction. This is seen in over 100 leading web sites and will be like getting the most exposure at once.