Revelations Of A Successful Internet Marketer
How I generated $750,000 in internet revenues with virtually no advertising costs, not even so much as a business card. Originally the Cell-West story written in September 1999. How two people went from basement beginnings to an internet mega store in less than a year, selling thousands of inventory items to thousands of customers.
This fourth edition has been completely revised, expanded and updated for the year 2005 and beyond. These days, it would be more aptly subtitled.... How I generate over $200,000 a year in pure profit with affiliate revenue strategies... without touching any physical inventory. Either way you choose to go, this ebook will help you. Enjoy the journey my friend!
By Michael Campbell
President & CEO
Dynamic Media Corporation
http://www.dynamicmedia.com
PREFACE - Personal requirements and essential tools
To be successful, love what you do
If you really want to be successful on the internet, love what you do. If you want to be successful in life, really, really enjoy what you are doing, and get a real thrill out of doing it, the money will come, success will follow. Don't worry if there are already a lot of people doing the same thing as you, no one else is YOU. You have your own gifts, your own God given talents and no one sees the world quite like you do.
Start today with a single step. Write a list of things to do and prevent the feeling of overwhelm by taking steps each day. Plan each day, instead of running around taking care of the urgent, you can look after what's truly important. Stay focused on your goal, let others laugh, let others ridicule, let them say it can't be done, let focus and perseverance be your guide. And when all is said and done, you'll be standing ahead of the rest, with a smile on your face and money in your pocket. So let's get to work, shall we?
There's no one thing that will make your business successful on the internet. It's a combination of everything you are about to learn that will make it a success. The appearance of your online store, your sales message, your email contacts, your search engine positioning are all important factors. You want to build a real sense of confidence and credibility in the mind of the consumer.
I'm going to show all the techniques I used to propel a small business, from one guy working out of a basement, into an international internet mega store. At the time of this writing they have over 330 active pages, over 38,000 unique visitors and over $70,000 in sales every month.
And I did it in less than one year. Using only the internet as the sole marketing medium. Yes, I said SOLE marketing medium, they did not do ANY "dirt world" advertising at all. No radio, no TV, no magazines or newspapers, not even a business card.
The techniques are easy enough but they do require work, "sweat equity" as I've heard it called. If you're willing to put in the effort, buy the tools, follow the examples in this book, I'm confident that you too will have a successful internet venture. And if you're like me, make a lot of money and have fun in the process!
I will focus most of this book on what have proven to be the most effective tactics. I will give you leads and links to the finest marketing tools available. Here are some of the exciting topics we will be covering. What I've experienced to be the most powerful internet marketing tactics.
Knowing what keywords people use to find a product or service.
Knowing how people use the search engines to find things or buy things.
Understanding how the search engines work and what enhances your positioning.
Creating home pages that achieve top placement in search engines for your keywords.
Hook pages or doorway pages that achieve top 10 placement in search engines.
Pages inside your web site that achieve top 10 placement in search engines for your keywords.
Using more than one web site to cross link to each other, each selling the same or a related product or service.
Writing letters to search engine editors requesting they add your site to their portal or directory service.
Opt in email lists where people ask to receive email, newsletters or offers from you.
Creation or sponsorship of web sites on popular topics just to advertise your other products or services.
Joining affiliate programs and getting a commission on all products that you sell.
Starting your own affiliate program where others advertise your products and get a commission sales.
Links from other web sites, endorsements, recruiting others that are passionate about your product.
Putting your web address and toll free number on everything, from email correspondence to all dirt world advertising.
Writing your own newsletter whether free or subscription based.
Newsgroup postings announcing new products, services or items for sale.
Banner advertising for related products and running them through affiliate programs.
Writing an article that you're passionate about for inclusion in a newsletter.
Advertising in or co-sponsoring someone else's newsletter.
Direct email marketing to your opt-in list with stand alone or co-sponsored ads.
Paid search engine listings where you bid on keywords.
Paid directory listings to get your site reviewed and listed.
Replicating dirt world catalog shopping conditions on your web site, in everything from your sales messages to building consumer confidence.
About this book, what it is and is not
This book is an ongoing study course that suits everyone from entrepreneurs, to small business, to the direct marketer, all the way up to large public companies and their entire marketing department. I have taught this course to university professors, webmasters, graphic designers, secretaries, homemakers, writers, programmers, stock promoters, advertising agencies, retailers, manufacturers and more.
Marketing a company, product or service on the net is not rocket science, it's easy! Believe me, if you can use a computer and a word processor, you can do this stuff. I'm providing you the same information I used to teach in my $800.00 four hour seminar. You will find this book to be a living lab, a work in progress, and just like your marketing efforts, it will never be finished, it continues to be alive with excitement, to change and grow, just as the internet itself changes grows on a daily basis.
Everything you read here is tested daily and continues to be refined and improved on daily basis. These are the marketing tactics I use every day to promote companies on the internet and I know they work. If you follow what I describe in these pages, and if you purchase the software tools required, you too can become a successful internet marketer and may very well be on your way to making more money than you ever thought possible using the internet.
A note to employers; Find someone on your staff that's a bit of a propeller head, a curious person, a self starter, a go getter. That is to say, someone who might be doing a little desktop publishing, creative graphic design or comfortable using computer. They will take to the tools presented here, figure out how to use them and will get a genuine thrill watching your company web pages go to the top of the search engines.
A note to entrepreneurs; Marketing on the net is becoming more difficult and challenging than it used to be, it has in a sense become a full time job. Some of you will become internet marketing consultants using the knowledge you get from this book and take on clients. Depending on how good you get at doing this stuff, you expect to earn anywhere from 75K to 200K per year.
Some of you work for large companies that want to expand onto the net or improve sales from your online stores. Others of you are working from your kitchen tables or basements and want to expand from the dirt world into the virtual world, knowing that there's a lot of money to be made on the internet. You know what? You're right. I'm going to show you the tools and give you the knowledge you need.
Some of you want to set up an online store. It is possible to do everything yourself. You can take the orders, pack the boxes, do the books, do the inventory, and the marketing, but it may be easier to partner with someone who has in-depth knowledge and is very passionate about a product.
Essentially two people can create a very effective team. One person is the web master, graphic designer, copy writer, marketing person. The other is a product person who does sales, order taking, fulfillment and shipping.
Depending on how large you want your company to be, each task described above might have their own department, but on the internet you decide how big your company will be and how fast it will grow. On the internet you can compete with any company, regardless of size. The most important thing to remember is not to grow faster than your customer service capabilities.
If you do not have a product to sell on the net, you can find one. And it doesn't have to be a dirt world product made out of atoms. It can be a digital product consisting solely of bits, virtual zeros and ones, simply an idea or information.
Just think of something you're really passionate about, identify a key problem area, think of a solution to the problem. Think of something that will save time, save money, relieve pain, or cause pleasure. By solving the problem you come up with a solution. It's the solution to the problem you can sell over the internet.
The amount of money you make will depend on the size of the problem you solve. The more common the problem, the more money you will make by solving it. Be careful about creating something that caters to the rich. People who cater to the rich are called maids and butlers.
Think about catering to the common people, think of things like paper clips and envelopes and cell phone batteries. Solving the problems of everyday people is what will make you rich.
Just a side note here, you will see plenty of references in this book to cellular phones and accessories, as I'm using my old client as my main internet marketing success story. They continue to be the living laboratory for many of my virtual experiments and we will be using them as our role model throughout this book. The same internet marketing I use to promote them can be applied successfully to any product or service.
Personal requirements for internet marketing
A web site that is up and running. The fastest way to get a web site is to take a night or weekend course at the local high school. Most of them have you set up a five page site as a project and cover the basics. If you do have a web site, please be prepared to take a good hard look at it, and possibly rework it from the ground up, based on the information you'll discover in this book.
Ability to use a personal computer and a fair working knowledge of the Windows operating system. Note that this is not a knock against other computing platforms. (I use a Mac for all my graphic production and daily operations.)
It's just that many of the software tools we require for internet marketing are programmed to run only on a Windows operating system. No worries though, if you have a Mac, you can still run Windows in an emulator, like Virtual PC.
Familiarity with most common computer operating system and word processing terminology. You will need to know how to install software, open and work on documents, and understand the organizational structure of your hard drive and it's sub folders.
It always amazes me how many people save a file but have no idea what folder they saved it to. This becomes critical when uploading files to the internet and announcing web pages to the search engines. If you save to the wrong folder or announce the wrong "path" or "folder hierarchy", people simply will not find your pages.
Familiarity with most common internet terminology such as server, search engine, directory, portal, dial up, service provider, links, etc. If you are not familiar with common internet terminology you can find a glossary just by typing the phrase "internet glossary" in any search engine. Alternately you can use the whatis.com web site to find the meaning of anything technical.
Previous experience sending and receiving email over the internet. Other than your 1 800 number, email is the primary method of communicating with your customers and prospects. Done correctly, email will be responsible for a large amount of sales and branding of your company name.
Familiarity navigating the world wide web with web browser software, and experience using the search engines. It's a good idea to go and poke at the search engines. Using your browser, click on any of the search engine links and type a couple of words related to your product or service. Look at the search results that come back, this is how people will find you on the internet. Millions of people do searches just like that every day. I'll show you the tools and give you secret tips on how to get your pages to the top of the listings.
Ability to write html code or use simple html page layout software. I personally own over $2000.00 worth of html page layout software. I have a $500.00 html editor, a $100.00 editor and everything in between.
The one I use daily is Adobe GoLive. Most professional designers use Macromedia Dreamweaver or Adobe GoLive for their html work. You can use whatever you want. You can even download Netscape Composer for free from netscape.com. It's a very good basic html editor.
A good command of the English language. I know from experience that 90% of sales go English speaking countries. If you want to sell to this market, you will need to be able to write effective ad copy, build trust and consumer confidence with every contact.
Access to a computer after reading the book to practice learned material. You'll need it for running various marketing software packages. Be sure to proof all the web pages on the PC, in various versions of Navigator and Explorer, before they get uploaded and "go live" on the internet. Remember if you design on the Mac, your web pages will look very different on the PC. Try to stay Mac and other platform friendly, but design for the PC market as they are the largest internet viewing audience.
Essential tools for successful internet marketing
Just like the first day of school, the teacher hands you a list of things you'll need to buy. There's the usual pens, pencils, erasers, workbooks and a few gizmos you're not sure what they're for. Everything gets revealed as the training begins.
We also need tools, in the form of a computers and software. I'm just going to briefly introduce the software I use and recommend. I strongly advise that you buy each one of these software titles if you want to be as successful as I have been. I will go into more details on how I use each piece of software throughout the book.
A reasonably powered computer with a high-speed modem. Get the best computer you can afford and don't skip on the RAM memory. 56K dial up service is just too slow for professional marketing. Look at getting a cable modem, ADSL, or other permanent internet connection.
Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Explorer world wide web browser software. Yes, it's important to "proof your work" with both browsers. How your web pages behave and draw on the screen can be very different, depending on the browser being used.
Email software, either stand alone or built in to your browser. Just be sure it can check your spelling. I recommend Eudora Pro as very few people are programming viruses or other nasties for it. A word of safety here, be careful not to open attachments from strangers... especially if you use Outlook on a Windows computer.
Personally, I use the Mail application that came with my Mac. It has powerful spam filtering capabilities and has never been infected by any virus.
A database program to do everything from recording sales to creating email lists. I use FileMaker Pro because it is super easy to learn, and the data files transfer seamlessly between Windows and Mac. I showed a staff member how to use it in less that an hour.
A subscription to WordTracker, and access to the Overture "Search Term Suggestion Tool." Both of these tools show what keywords people actually use, while searching for your type of product or service in the search engines.
OptiLink link analysis and keyword density analyzer software. It lets you reverse engineer the top scoring sites, to see exactly how they are linked, what they say in their links, and determine what keyword percentages or densities, are being used by the top scoring pages.
http://www.cdzn.com/opl
WebPosition Gold monitoring software, to track where your web pages are positioned in the search engines, and if they are rising or falling in position. The Generator will help you make web pages quickly. The Critic will help you make pages the search engines love.
http://www.cdzn.com/wpg
Planet Ocean's winning the search engine wars book, which includes monthly updates in a newsletter subscription. This is the leading authority on search engines and is essential reading, to keep track of ongoing changes.
http://www.cdzn.com/pob
Planet Ocean email marketing course, for safe and effective - spam free - permission based email marketing. This is the same course that fortune 500 companies are using to train their employees. You email list is your most important business asset. Done correctly, you can profit from it for years to come.
http://www.cdzn.com/poe
GoLive, Dreamweaver, or equivalent html page layout software or ability to write HTML code with a text editor. Or as I mentioned earlier, you can download Netscape browser for free, and use their Composer software to make your web pages.
FTP (file transfer protocol) software to upload and download finished pages and graphics to and from your server. I use FTP Voyager on th PC and Fetch on the Mac.
Minimum of two web sites (preferably five interlinked with each other) with domain names of your very own ie: www.your-keywords.com and www.yourcompanyname.com. The best place to register domain names is godaddy.com. They are very inexpensive and give the option to register your domains by proxy. That way, no one knows who owns the domains (web sites) that are interlinked together.
Ok, this is the just the list of essentials. There are many other important pieces of software and sources of information that I will introduce you to. Even though you don't need to buy them to get started, they will turn you into an internet marketing mastermind.
More information about each piece of software and tool is provided throughout this book. Or you may skip ahead to the Resource Section at the end, to learn more about the same tools I use, and where to buy them, if you like. For the rest of you, grab a snack and a beverage, curl up and relax. Your journey is about to begin!
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