Friday, February 16, 2007

This Is Your Wake Up Call


It's time for all internet marketers and internet marketer wannabes to Wake Up.

We are not in the 1990's any more. What used to work then just doesn't cut it any more.

We've crossed over into a new millennium. It's now the year 2007 where lizards sell car insurance, you can lose weight by having prepared meals shipped to your home and kids know more about what's going on than their parents. (OK kids have always thought they knew more but now they sometimes actually do!)

And if you've been sleeping or not paying attention you may not know that the internet and internet marketing have changed. No longer can you put a page online, optimize it with a few keywords and expect to get a decent ranking in any of the search engines. You can't entice people to join your "Make A Million Overnight While You Sleep" program by running an ad or using pay-per-click. You can't put your free affiliate page in a traffic exchange program and expect to make sales or get others to join under you.

It's time to wake up because none of these and most of the other things internet marketers used in the 90's work any more.

Why am I telling you this?

Because the 2 problems every internet marketer has and work on every day are:
  1. Getting traffic

  2. Getting conversions

And every year the "experts" comes out with a new way to solve the problem.

Do the new ways work?

Yes, most of them do. At least they work for awhile if you use them properly.

Over the last few years in the internet marketing niche we've had:

  • Giveaways
  • Free Membership Sites
  • Lock-in Your Price Sales
  • 100% Affiliate Commission

Now if you are awake can you answer this question?

What is the 1 thing all of the items in the above list have in common?

If you guessed affiliate programs you are 75% correct. (The 100% Affiliate Commission products don't usually have a managed affiliate program.)

If you guessed 1 time offers you're getting closer since all of them can have a 1 time offer however this option is not always used.

If you guessed getting signups then you're right on because very single one of those things was used to build somebody's list.

If you guessed "appealing to the visitor's greed factor" you are also correct. No one wants to buy anything, not even us. Everybody wants something for nothing. And if someone has to buy what you're offering the first time they see your site then it better be a really good deal that either saves or makes them money.

If you guessed "leveraging" you were also right. Every one of these items depended on having the information about item advertised by the receiver.

But you're not in the internet marketing niche so you think none of this applies to you?

If you're selling information, no matter what niche you're in, think again because it does.

Let me repeat myself. No one wants to buy anything. Everyone is looking for free information.

It's true that none of the above listed techniques may work in your niche however the reasons behind them are still valid.

You've got to offer good information and appeal to your site visitors' "greed factor." Give them a taste of what you're offering and then stay in touch with them so you can share additional information. Once they know and trust you they may then actually take your recommendation and buy something.

You've got to use leveraging to get word about your site out. The internet is a big ocean and your site is a very small minnow. Without the help of other minnows your site is lost in the middle of nowhere. So make your site known by having others help spread the word.

The successful internet marketers in the new millennium know they must stay awake and watch how the internet and it users are changing. They know they can't depend on what's working today to work tomorrow. To solve the problems of getting traffic and making sales the successful internet marketers know they must continue to learn and develop new solutions.

To Your Success,
Susan