There is something very cobwebby about Internet Marketing. There are so many strands to it that it is very easy to be diverted from your primary focus. At least, that’s my excuse for this second part of Willie’s article taking so long to appear. In reality, I stumbled across a higher priority. I needed the SKILLS to prepare myself as a contributor to a JV Giveaway event. And am I glad I refocussed? You Bet. I will try and publish a post on what I learned when the final part of this article has been aired again.

This is what he says…

My Ads Aren’t Working! part 2 by Willie Crawford

The KEY to writing an effective ad is telling the customer “what’s in it for him.” Spell out specific benefits in both your headlines and in the body of your ad. Talk directly to your customer in your ad, telling him what you are going to do for him. Don’t list product features - list benefits!

Many ads don’t even tell the customer WHAT they are selling. Instead they hype how much money can be made with the “ground floor opportunity” or “proven program.”

Others yell about how many will already be placed in your “downline.” Why would anyone respond to such an ad? Many online people are sooo fed up with trying different hyped up opportunities. If yours is different, at least tell the customer *how* it’s different and *what* it is. More importantly, tell the customer “what your product or service is going to do for him.”

After you have a good headline and good body copy, you need a call to action. You need to tell the customer what action you want him to take. Do you want him to: visit a website; request more details; download a trial copy; get a sample chapter; vote? Tell the customer what he should do next. Your ad may have him marginally interested but he often will not take action unless you tell him to.

Give the customer several ways of taking advantage of your great offer if appropriate. For example, you may want to give both a website url and an email address.

Consider what you want him to do AND the medium you are using. For example, if your ad is in an ezine that is sent out via email, you may not want to force you prospect to open a browser and visit a website. Maybe he doesn’t want to open his browser at that time, and maybe an autoresponder message would better serve your purpose.

If your ad will be posted on a webpage, maybe you don’t want to force your prospect to open his email program to respond to your offer. The preferred method of having the customer contact you depends upon a lot of circumstances including what you are ultimately trying to accomplish with you ad.

While on the topic of methods of contact, a lot of ads turn the customer off with the email address or website urls used.

If your ad offers a free email address for contact (such as Hotmail) or a website hosted at a free site (such as Freeyellow) a major percentage of qualified prospects will not respond to your offer. They will reason that if you are not serious enough - professional enough - to invest a little in your business, you probably are not stable enough to risk doing business with.

If you don’t have your own domain name at least use the email address provided by your ISP. People who have been online for a while associate many of the free email addresses with fly-by-night operators. Regardless of how fair this assessment is, you will loose many potential orders if you don’t acknowledge this point.

Having your own domain name makes sense for the same reason. Many people who have been online for a while, associate websites on free hosts with fly-by-night operators, or those not really serious about their business. They reason that if you will not invest a few dollars in your own domain name, how serious and credible are you?

Domain names are dirt cheap!

Professional web hosting comes in a range of prices - depending largely upon the amount of customer support and website capabilities you want. (N.B. My favourite, and I’ve signed up for a 2 year deal, is IX hosting based in Kentucky I’m hopeful it’s a better export than fried chicken!! Ray). If you want readily available customer support, then the web host needs to charge enough to have technicians standing by. If you can wait a day or two to have someone respond to your email when your website is down, then the web host doesn’t need to have technicians standing by and they can charge less. If you want to run cgi scripts, have a shopping cart, have a database or other such features, you will be using more of your web host’s server resources. He needs to charge more to afford greater capability.

Proof positive that having your own domain name, professionally hosted, dramatically increases your chances of online success is readily available. Simply log online and visit a few successful online businesses. They will ALL have their OWN professional-sounding domain. If YOU don’t do this, your ads referring people to your website will NOT pull.

In my next post of Willie’s article he explains a final crucial piece of the marketing jigsaw. On reflecting about what’s contained in this section and my first year or so’s effort, I can see where many of my marketing messages were so wide of any known effective mark, it’s almost embarrassing. However recognising the shortfall and skilling up to meet it are rather different beasts. Copywriting is without doubt an art form and there is a lot of psychology and skill to grasp…

And just to remind you of some resources you might find helpful; any good book on copywriting will give you more of these terms so I won’t elaborate on that here, but if you want a good ebook on how to write using language that excites a customer get a free copy of “The Net Writing Master’s Course”

Here’s a useful blog by Ron Castle on the noble art of copywriting. He’s also a bit of an SEO expert.
Good luck with your marketing everyone and don’t forget, your prospects are going to say, “What’s in it for me?” and ,”Is the guy a pro or a t+@ser?” Make sure they get the right answer for you.

When I look at the image so many people like to project; of the sports cars, luxury yachts and sunny beach lifestyle, I find it grates - at first. I sometimes think many people (myself included all too frequently) miss the real point of all the hard work we do, to have our own businesses. It goes much deeper than the material manifestations of wealth. Time freedom and the ability to be there for the ones you love are the key things for me. And … eventually, I am sure, financial freedom! To me those kinds of freedoms are worth far more than the big house, the Merc or the yacht. And then, when I wind my inverted snobbery down a notch or two and look carefully at the message that the “flash car photo” entrepreneurs are putting out; it’s actually the same as mine. We’ve all got dreams of an ideal lifestyle and we project a picture to catch people’s attention. It doesn’t necessarily define our values.

When I left my job and was able to see my kids out to school regularly, I knew I had found the start of my own road forward. I was looking at a pretty scary fall from high power assistant headteacher to unemployed and broken down ex teacher. I was ready for the change though and the initial “poverty” has been very “motivating”.

You might be amused by my tag of CosmicRay and it might surprise you to know that there isn’t a shred of hippy in me! It’s all the fault of a friend from York 25 years ago, who spotted me strung out on the crux of a hardish rock climb in the Lake District, when I was an aspiring hard(?!)man. “Blood*@ hell,” he shouted up in his wry way, “You’ve got better! You must be getting cosmic Ray!” He was shocked to see I’d progressed onto scary routes. Not too helpful at that precise moment, as I was looking at the prospect of taking a big fall, because I couldn’t work out the sequence to get around a steep nose of rock. When he realised I was in trouble, he quietly told me about the “secret” hold around the corner - I breathed again and an eighty footer onto a ledge was avoided (in contrast to a lad from our club the previous weekend, who had missed the hold). Fortunately he was young and bouncy and got over his battering in a couple of weeks.

This marketing game is a bit like trying to tackle a climb that’s harder than you have previously attempted at the sharp end. Jumping off the career carousel was just as scary in its own way because more was at stake - it wasn’t just me any more, I now had children in a disintegrating marriage to look out for. But now, as then, the quiet word(s) from a friend (and a competitor of sorts) was enough to see me on the road to success and safety. It’s turning out to be a rerun of that same tale, as people give me little pointers and go out of their way to steer me round some of the more obvious pitfalls. I have been amazed at the constant help that is available - we only have to ask. It is very difficult for a person upline of you to know whether your lack of success is due to inaction or a misunderstanding of a new technique you’ve been trying. At the moment I am trying to get to grips with advertising on Craigslist and I am running into all the problems that are mentioned, a bit too quietly in that new course you bought!! BUT I will succeed, I will put into action all the tips that I hadn’t absorbed from my course materials and the new information I am turning up in various blogs. In my next posting, I will try and explain how I have gotten around the difficulties of using Craigslist, without hopefully having broken the rules or misused the resource.

My measures of success may be different to yours, but whatever it may be I am here to help you achieve it, no matter how material or “Cosmic” it may be. What I can’t answer myself, I can soon point you towards an answer, because that’s the way we become successful - by networking and building up relationships with each other. It’s a relationship game! Just like the day when a pal who was very competitive about his climbing realised there was a real problem and was there with a ready answer, a “secret” key that those in the know had access to. If you are looking for a business where help is constantly available from myself and many more experienced folk, I’ve listed some character sketches of my main focus. I’m sure there will be one of these busineses that suits your individual approach.

CosmicRay and the NorthernView bring you a range of opportunities from fast money start ups for beginners to high commitment, serious long term earners.

Prosperizer - a great opportunity with all your tools in one place. Join a superb community populated by individuals who are committed to helping and guiding you to success

eLottery - the ultimate system for playing the UK lottery and EuroMillions. With a little effort you even play them for FREE. If you are looking for a more sensible way to have a flutter, with a business that has an extremely low initial investment then this could be the one.

Plug in to Profits with NorthernViewWealth this is one of many turn key full on solutions. It is almost the legendary “business in a box” that many people need.

uVme - this is going to be the standard by which all on-line skill game web sites are judged. Pure fun and games with a built in business plan, which avoids any gambling connections. :wink

Join me in any of these ventures and we will build strong supportive teams that last.