Hmmm… 23.8 million women who’d rather make a few mouse clicks than load up the minivan and drag the kids to the mall.

And don’t forget, moms make most of the purchasing decisions for items that are bought frequently (clothes, food, supplies) and they’re co-decision makers for big-ticket items.

So if there’s any way you can market to moms specifically… do it!

We’ve interviewed several web business owners who market to moms in our Secrets ToTheir Success online magazine. Here are some mom-centric marketing strategies that work for them.

Offer valuable information
Of all those online moms online, 67% use the Internet to research their purchasing decisions. If you can provide the information they’re looking for and relate it to family needs, there’s a good chance you’ll connect. Make it clear in your PPC and banner ads that you offer advice, facts, and tips. Same with the meta description in your code, which is often used to describe your site in the search results. Add articles to your site that will help them make purchasing decisions.

Be social
Moms are huge users of social media. They join groups; they connect with friends, family, and other moms who share their interests; they read — and write — blogs; they Tweet. Those social networks are where they seek advice on purchases too, so if you’re already there talking to them and giving good advice without hype, you’ll get their attention.Build relationships
Our Secrets ToTheir Success interviewees told us that they let their customers in on their personal lives… and those customers respond. In your emails, on your blog, in your social networking, don’t be afraid to talk about yourself and your family.

Concentrate on customer service
Word of mouth is the biggest factor in purchasing decisions for online moms. They look for recommendations from people they trust, and they stay away from businesses if other people say they’ve had bad experiences with them. So don’t let word of mouth work against you. Make sure your customer service is impeccable. And go a bit further. Include a “thanks for buying from us” note in physical packages, or offer a special deal or further valuable information for downloaded products.

Basically, moms want one thing — to simplify their lives. The Internet is the tool they use to do it.

In our last post on social media, we talked about how “social” and “community” have become huge buzzwords in Internet marketing — and how you can make the buzz work for your business.

There’s no doubt that social networking sites offer unique opportunities to build relationships and credibility — but did you know that you can use them to drive traffic to your website and improve your search engine ranking at the same time?

And blogging — the granddaddy of all social media activities — actually offers one of the best ways to build the quality inbound links that search engines love, and bring targeted visitors to your website.

The key is to provide lots of free, valuable content on your website or blog, and then repurpose or distribute that content across the Web through RSS, content syndication sites, social bookmarking and social networking applications.

RSS Feeds and Promotion

Create your feed. An RSS feed is a unique URL that your readers can paste into their preferred RSS reader to allow them to receive your content. You can create an RSS feed through your blog software. It’s easy to find out how to do this through their respective websites.

Or you can use services like FeedBurner (Feedburner.com) or FeedForAll (Feedforall.com) to generate a piece of HTML code you can insert in your blog template. Just go to your blog provider’s “Help” pages to find out how.

Promote your feed on your site. Once you have a feed, you have to show your readers how to subscribe to it. All you need to do is add a small piece of code that adds the universal RSS button to your blog. When a reader clicks on the button, they can subscribe to your blog’s feed, regardless of the feed reader they use.

Be sure to insert a short line of text above your feed icon encouraging people to subscribe. Include directions such as, “Subscribe to receive all the latest news by clicking the button below!”

Promote your feed on the Web. RSS isn’t just a way for your regular readers to access your content, it’s also a way to promote your blog to a wider audience by making sure that you are listed in some of the many RSS directories that exist online.

Some popular RSS directories include:

• 2rss.com
• w.moreover.com
• Syndic8.com
• Newsisfree.com

Content syndication/distribution sites

Content-syndication sites provide news and articles to thousands of other sites. Getting your article posted with them can be a great way to increase your visibility, and drive scores of visitors back to your site. Plus, the SEO benefits of thousands of sites posting your article will make writing the articles well worth your time.

To make this strategy work for you, simply include a link back to your website or blog in the signature file at the end of your articles.

Other sites offer you the opportunity to be a “resident expert,” offering how-tos and advice to people who search the sites for information. Your author bio then contains a link back to your website or blog.

This strategy benefits you in two ways: first, you get a top quality inbound link to your website; and second, if you use your targeted keywords in your advice and responses, your name will show up twice in search engine listings… once for your own site, and once from your post on these high-traffic, well-known sites!

Here are a few of the more popular content syndication and distribution and “how-to” sites that we recommend you check out:

• EzineArticles.com
• FreeSticky.com
• IdeaMarketers.com
• HubPages.com
• Suite101.com
• eHow.com

Social bookmarking sites

At social bookmarking sites, people save links to their favorite websites or articles, the same way you might save bookmarks in your web browser. With social bookmarking, however, they’re able to share these links with others using the bookmarking.

These sites also give you the opportunity to discuss and comment on links. When you do that, you can include a link to your personal profile, which can contain a link back to your own site.

So whether you’re sharing links or commenting on other articles, you’re always directing traffic back to your site or blog!

Some of our favorite spots to share links include:

• Squidoo.com
• Yelp
• Stumbleupon
• Delicious
• Reddit
• Digg
• Sphinn

One more note: Sites like Digg receive millions of visitors a day — so if someone shares your link and others enjoy it, you could end up with tons of traffic headed your way!

Social networking sites

Finally, don’t forget to link back to your website on social media sites like Facebook or Twitter!

You can link to new content on your blog or website in your Twitter updates, or add an RSS feed to your Facebook profile. That way, all your “friends” on these sites have the opportunity to click through and see what you have to say.

Search engines count these links as relevant inbound links to your content — AND, since the folks clicking through have already formed a connection with you, they definitely qualify as quality, targeted traffic to your site!

Well, over the next few months you are going to see this site rapidly evolve into a massive resource of everything Internet Marketing related.

So whether you are a seasoned Internet Marketer or a rank beginner, you will need to pay close attention to this site because there will be something fom everyone! I am talking about…

Website conversion tools and strategies

• Copywriting training
• Niche market research
• Product sourcing and development strategies
• Email marketing training and tools
• Social Networking
• Blogging & Micro Blogging
• Social Bookmarking
• Video Marketing
• Search Engine Optimization
• Pay-Per-Click Marketing
• Affiliate Marketing
• Content/Article Marketing
• eBay training

… And the list could go on!

Point is, in January 2009 the blog you are reading will move to a new home on InternetMarketing.com and the homepage will be replaced with the ultimate Internet Marketing portal for small to medium sized businesses!

In the meantime, make sure you subscribe to my blog and/or check back often… I promise it will be worth your time!

To your success…

Derek Gehl – CEO
The Internet Marketing Center
http://www.InternetMarketing.com
http://www.MarketingTips.com

In fact, the headline is the most important element of your salesletter because it’s key to grabbing your readers’ attention — and keeping it! And you only have a matter of seconds to do this. If you don’t instantly excite, inspire and intrigue your audience, they’re unlikely to read on. So a headline can have a HUGE impact on sales.

But here’s a professional copywriting tip to help you grab your readers: Certain "power" words and phrases consistently outshine other words, and you can tailor these to the needs of your target audience — and have them scrambling to find out more!

When you sit down to write your next sales letter, try incorporating the following power words…

1. Do You Struggle With…
2. Discover…
3. The Untold Secrets to Making…
4. Who Else Wants to…
5. 10 Ways to…
6. Learn Exactly How…
7. 7 Amazing Strategies to…
8. Boost Your…
9. A Guide to…
10. Why Aren’t You…?
11. If You Had Just One Opportunity to…
12. If You Want to Learn How to…
13. 7 Sure-Fire Tips For…
14. How to Attract More…
15. Uncover…
16. How a "Regular Guy" from (Place)…
17. Want to…?
18. READ THIS: If You Are Truly Serious About…
19. Do You Wish There Was An Easier Way to…
20. Tips on…
21. 8 Deadly (Insert Topic) Sins…
22. Learn How to Start…
23. How to Make Your…
24. Are You At Risk of…?
25. 3 Direct Reasons Why You’ll Be Kicking Yourself if You Don’t…
26. Double Your…
27. More Tips to Improve…
28. Exposed for the First Time Ever…
29. Learn the Secrets to Becoming…
30. How to…
31. Instant Strategies Anyone Can Use to…
32. How to Find…
33. 5 Big Reasons to…
34. 10 Steps to…
35. Tired of…
36. Techniques That Enable You to…
37. Watch This "Shocking" Play-By-Play Underground Video…
38. 5 Action Ideas to Get…
39. Discover the "Insider" Strategies That…
40. How to Make a Life-Changing…
41. (Insert Topic): 3 Things You Must Know…
42. The 7 Secrets of…
43. Skyrocket Your…
44. The 5 Ugly Lies About…
45. Finally Revealed!
46. Uncover…
47. Get an Instant 20-50% Increase in…
48. Discover How We…
49. Proof That…
50. The Truth About…
51. How This Surprising Little Secret…
52. 10 Simple Steps to Catapult Your…
53. Discover How YOU Can…
54. How I (Insert Accomplishment) in Record Time…
55. Learn How to EXPLODE…
56. Three Quick-Start Tips to…
57. Discover the *Secret Formula*…

If you can attract the attention of your market with your headline, you give them a reason to keep reading the rest of your sales letter… all the way to the sale. But don’t take my word for it. Try them out for yourself, then test your response.

On Monday morning, hurricane Gustav blasted across Louisiana and surrounding states, leaving behind a trail of destruction estimated to be in the billions of dollars

But despite the extensive damage, the one thing people feared MOST never happened…

New Orleans was spared.

Gustav made landfall 100 miles to the south, and the city avoided a repeat of the devastation that Katrina brought three years ago.

But it’s not like the city wasn’t ready for the worst!

In the days leading up to Gustav’s arrival, over a million people were evacuated, and massive emergency shelters were set up in surrounding areas.

Drawing on everything they learned from Katrina, New Orleans planned for the worst… hoped for the best… and were rewarded with the best possible outcome.

Now, without minimizing in any way the human and financial costs of Gustav, it’s a lesson we can ALL take away for our own businesses.

Plan for the worst. Hope for the best.

You’re probably already planning for success, right? We all spend a LOT of time projecting our future sales and revenue, figuring out how to improve our business processes, and generally making sure we continue to profit.

And obviously, that’s good! Hoping for the best is what makes us successful as entrepreneurs.

But how much time do you spend preparing for unexpected surprises?

Do you have a plan in place for things that could go wrong? When the market you’ve been successfully selling to suddenly dries up? Or there’s another major change in the search engines and your traffic DIES?

Here are FIVE things you can do to make sure YOUR business is prepared for the worst… and sails through nearly any crisis:

1. Pursue Multiple Markets Using Small Niche Websites

Say you own a website, and with it, you’ve pretty much cornered the market for your single product. Sales are excellent, and the money is rolling in day and night, without you barely needing to lift a finger.

You’re in the perfect position, right?

Well, assuming that nothing EVER changes, then yes, you’ll be fine…

… but what if there’s a sudden shift in the market, and the product you’re selling, which was HOT just a few months ago, is suddenly something you can barely GIVE away? (Think it can’t happen? Just ask anyone who sells large SUVs for a living!)

So how do you prepare for the worst?

I always tell people that the BEST way to protect yourself against fickle markets is to have MULTIPLE small niche sites up and running.

Get one started, and once it’s converting, use everything you learned from that process to start another. And another.

Before you know it, you’ll have multiple sources of income, so if one of your products goes out of fashion, or falls out of favor, you won’t take a BIG hit to your revenue.

But remember: slow and steady wins the race. Don’t try to put together five different websites for five different niches all at the same time.

Work on one, get it converting, put it on "auto pilot," and then move on to site number two.

2. Target Multiple Markets Within Your Niche, Using Custom Landing Pages

Just as it’s a good idea to have multiple niche websites in place, it’s ALSO a good idea to make sure each individual website is targeting many different keyphrases using custom landing pages.

Don’t just create a single landing page for your best keyphrase, then call it a day!

You may get good traffic initially, but some day, that particular keyword or phrase is no longer going to be popular, or competitors will move in and start targeting that same keyword… and your sales will be LOST.

But if you do your research, and understand ALL of the main keyphrases your visitors are using to find you, you can create custom landing pages for each of the main phrases.

That way, if one of the keyphrases stops being productive, you’re still getting plenty of traffic to the other pages.

So to prepare for the worst, stay on top of your keywords — they often change over time — and make sure you’re always targeting as many as possible.

3. Make Sure Your Traffic Is Coming To Your Site From Many Different Sources

Are you getting most of your traffic (and sales) thanks to one or two #1 rankings on the search engines?

There’s NOTHING like free traffic from the search engines, right?

But have you considered what would happen if Google (or one of the other big search engines) suddenly decided to make significant changes to their algorithms (the formulas they use to rank websites), and, without warning, you found yourself on page 37 in the search results?

It would literally be the END of your traffic!

And if you think that will never happen, it already has! Not that long ago, Google made some significant changes to the way they rank sites, and there were a LOT of websites that literally fell off the radar!

So if you’re depending solely on the search engines to drive an endless stream of traffic to your doorstep, right NOW is the time to diversify.

Of course, you can always turn to pay-per-click advertising if there’s a sudden change in your free traffic, but that can be costly, and to be honest, you won’t get as many visitors with a paid listing as you would from a top ranking in the natural search rankings.

So make sure you’re always thinking about other ways to drive FREE traffic (both online AND offline).

Submit your site to as many relevant web directories as you can… participate in online forums (and make sure there’s a link back to your site in your signature line)… give away LOTS of free content (again, with links back to your site)… issue press releases… and so on.

What’s really cool about all of these strategies is that, not only will they help you get traffic from other sources, they’ll actually help you in the natural search rankings, too, so now you have TWO good reasons to do it!

4. Actively Recruit Multiple Affiliates

Got a super-keen affiliate who is responsible for a BIG chunk of your sales?

That’s great, but what happens if that affiliate decides to retire, or try her hand promoting someone else’s product.

You could see your sales dry up literally overnight, and it can often take a LONG time to find another affiliate with the necessary skills (and customers) to replace the lost income.

Don’t wait until you NEED another good affiliate to find one!

Instead, start recruiting a stable of affiliates, so you’ll always have a few solid earners, no matter WHAT happens.

And while it can be tempting to open your affiliate program to anyone who’s interested, you may find that you’ll have more success hand-picking specific candidates.

That’s because a wide-open affiliate program can often draw a LOT of people who don’t really have experience selling online.

So to make sure you always have TOP affiliates working for you, start with a web search of sites that cater to your target market.

Focus on the sites that appear right at the top (or near the top) of the results. These are the savvy marketers, and chances are, they’ll have what it takes to sell for YOU, too.

From there, it’s just a matter of contacting them personally to discuss the possibility of promoting your product.

5. Find Multiple Suppliers For Your Product

What would you do if you discovered one day that the drop shipper or wholesaler who supplied you with your top-selling product could no longer get it? Or they’d gone out of business altogether?

If you haven’t been planning for the worst, chances are you’ll sit there in disbelief, as your revenue drops to zero within DAYS!

But if you had been preparing for the worst, you’d be fine…

… because you’d have backup suppliers for these same (or similar) products. so that the transition from your old to new supplier would be seamless.

Your customers will never know the difference, and your revenue will continue to flow uninterrupted.

Hoping for the best AND preparing for the worst is actually something POSITIVE you can do for yourself and your business. It’s the BEST way to prevent surprises, stay calm when potential disasters hit, and react to income-threatening situations quickly!

To your success,

Derek Gehl

You’ve got your site up. NOW what?

"Derek, there’s so many things I need to do to my website… I don’t know where to start! What should I focus on?"

I agree — the list seems ENDLESS!

You need to drive traffic… grow your opt-in list… make sales… improve work on your SEO…

Okay, step back for a minute and realize it’s just NOT POSSIBLE to do everything at once!

So once you’ve built your website, here’s the FIRST THING you should do:

Make your sales process watertight!

There’s no point spending cash on pay-per-click ads to drive targeted traffic to your site if none of those visitors buy anything.

Here are the top 3 ways to make your site a sales machine — BEFORE you spend a bundle on attracting visitors.

1: Get your salescopy in top shape

You’ve got under five seconds to convince people to stay on your website… so your headline has to grab them by the eyeballs and compel them to read on!

The best headlines tell visitors they’ll find exactly what they’re searching for, and intrigue them enough to keep reading.

Don’t let your readers slip through your fingers once you’ve grabbed their attention with a hot headline.

Salescopy is the most important part of your website — because it turns visitors into customers!

So make sure it smoothly guides people through a streamlined process that:

• Identifies with their problem and builds your credibility
  
• Engages them — and explains why you can help
  
• Tells them how they’ll benefit from your product
  
• Overcomes any objections they may have
  
• Compels them to take action — and tells them what to do!

Give people a clear call to action that motivates them by re-stating the biggest benefit they’ll get from buying now.

Instead of saying, "Click here to buy now!" go for something like, "Click here for instant access and start changing your life for the better in the next 30 minutes!"

Funnel your readers through a tight sales process — and don’t give them a reason to click away. If you do, they probably won’t come back!

2: Collect testimonials

What’s more trustworthy than a personal recommendation?

A good testimonial can persuade even the most skeptical potential customer to buy from you.

Testimonials prove that your product really works — it DOES do exactly what you promise. And if you run a small business and haven’t built your reputation, testimonials are absolutely indispensable

You NEED testimonials when you’re getting started.

Here’s how to gather quality testimonials and benefit from them immediately:

• If you don’t have any customers yet, give your product away to a group of people in your target market, in exchange for their feedback.
• If you have some positive feedback from customers,
  ask permission to use their comments on your site.

• Don’t be afraid to ask for testimonials! Invite customers to give you their vote of confidence with an email link that says: "Click here to tell us what you think!"
• Email your buyers after they’ve purchased your product to ask them how they’re enjoying it.

Make sure each testimonial has a first name, last name, and location to prove they’re from real people.

Aim to get testimonials that are packed full of concrete benefits telling your customers exactly what they can expect to gain from buying your product.

Use them on your homepage, within your salescopy, and on a special testimonial page, and on relevant product pages.

3: Make it easy to buy!

I’m always amazed how many sites make it difficult for you to buy from them.

According to market research from the Gartner Group, more than 50% of web sales are LOST because visitors can’t find what they’re looking for!

Don’t make that mistake.

• Name your navigation buttons clearly so it’s obvious what people will find when they click on them.
• Keep your site’s navigation simple and consistent throughout your site, so people don’t have to click any more than necessary. Ideally, it someone should be able to buy from you in two clicks at most.
• Use "Buy Now" buttons that link to your shopping cart or order page every time a product is shown– especially if you have a catalog site.

And when people click to your sales page, make things easy for them!

• Provide a range of payment options — PayPal is a great place to start because it gives you an easy way to accept credit cards — an absolute MUST.
• On your order form, ask ONLY for the information you need. For example, if you sell an eBook, it’s unlikely you’ll need a home address.
• And here’s an extra tip… don’t underestimate the power of including a phone number people can call if they have any questions.

As you work on your sales process, feel free to use our monitoring and testing tips to see which changes are most effective, so every element you add is an improvement.

If you DON’T test your site, you can be sure your visitors will be testing it anyway! So make sure there aren’t any leaks in your sales process for them to find.

Build a solid sales process first, and then prioritize more advanced business-building strategies.

Once you’ve got these three crucial parts of your sales process shipshape, you can drive targeted traffic to your site — and ramp up your sales even more.

It’s the only way to keep track of what you’re doing right with your online business, and what you need to improve.

For example, let’s say you want to make some changes to the layout of your web site. Obviously, you don’t want to make changes just for the heck of it. Any changes you make should be for one main purpose: to do a better job of converting visitors into customers.

But if you don’t test the new version vs. the old version, how will you know if the changes you make actually DO improve the performance of your website? And if you don’t track the results of your testing, how will you be able to know exactly which changes had the greatest effect?

Simply put, if you don’t test and track every single change you make to your site… every promotion you run… and every traffic generation strategy you try… you’re going to be shooting in the dark every time. And there’s absolutely no way of knowing what you’re going to hit.

So here’s my list of the top 5 things you absolutely MUST know about testing to keep your business on target.

1. Only test ONE thing at a time

The most important thing to remember is this: KEEP IT SIMPLE.

Test one thing at a time. It’s the only way you’ll ever know exactly which change is causing which effect.

Let’s say you want to increase the number of opt-ins from your site. There are lots of different things you could test to make this happen.

You could try putting your opt-in form in a different location. You could change the wording of your opt-in offer. You could try offering a free gift instead of just a free newsletter.

But if you made all these changes at ONCE and your opt-in numbers began to skyrocket, how would you know which change was responsible? Besides, one of these changes could actually be having a negative impact — and you’d never even realize it!

If you have no way of knowing, then the next time you change your opt-in offer, you’re back to square one.

2. The MOST important numbers you need to know

You need to know TWO main numbers to keep on top of your website performance: the number of visitors you get and the number of sales you make in any given period. That way, you can figure out exactly how many visitors you need to attract to your site in order to make a sale.

Here’s how you do it:

Let’s say you got 300 visitors to your site in one day and you made 12 sales. Simply divide the number of visitors by the number of sales like this: 300/12 = 25.

For every 25 visitors you got that day, you made 1 sale. (Expressed as a percentage, this means your conversion rate was 4%, as 1/25 = 0.04)

If that conversion rate remains steady, then you can expect to make one sale for every 25 visitors. If you get 100 visitors, you’ll make 4 sales. If you get 1000 visitors, you should make 40 sales.

It’s a simple conversion — something everyone should know. It tells you EXACTLY how well your website is doing its job.

If that conversion rate drops for some reason, it could mean there’s a problem with your website — and you should do a thorough examination of it right away.

On the other hand, if it spikes, then you should try to figure out why more visitors are suddenly buying your products — so you can repeat this success!

3. Test the most important things FIRST

Don’t start off trying to track 30 things at once! Focus on your money makers first, as they’ll have the greatest impact on your business.

If your site sells more than one product, then you should be tracking the conversion rate for each product separately. Maybe your site is doing a great job at selling one product, but a lousy job at selling another. This is something you need to know, so you can figure out what’s going right in the first case and what’s going wrong in the second.

4. Think in terms of RATIOS as opposed to ABSOLUTES

Think in terms of percentages, not whole numbers.

Instead of thinking, "Hey, I made 25 sales last week!" — think, "Hey, I made 25 sales per 1000 visitors last week!"

Knowing you made 25 sales is nice — but it doesn’t tell you anything by itself.

If you know you made 25 sales per 1000 visitors, however, you know your conversion rate is 2.5%. (In other words, 2.5% of all your visitors last week bought something from you.) If it was a normal week, then going forward you can expect that 2.5% of all your customers will probably buy something.

This kind of knowledge is ESSENTIAL if you want to forecast how much revenue you’re going to make in any given time period. It also gives you a baseline number that you can refer back to when testing different elements of your web site in order to grow your income bigger.

For example: imagine if you changed the headline of your sales page this morning — and you ended up making 25 sales, just like you did yesterday. Does that mean that the change to your headline had no effect on your sales numbers?

Not necessarily.

Maybe you only got 100 visitors to your site today, instead of 1000. That means your conversion rate today is actually 25% — which is HUGE! That means 1 in every 4 people is taking action on your site. Wow. That must have been some headline you wrote.

(However, you really should find out why you only got 100 visitors to your site today. Once you bring that number back up to 1000, then if your conversion rate stays the same, you’ll be making 250 sales a day!)

5. Track your conversions by SOURCE

It’s not just enough to know what your conversion rate is. You’ve got to know where your best-converting visitors are coming from.

For example, are your most qualified visitors coming from pay-per-click ads you’re running through Yahoo Search Marketing? Or are they coming from your organic listing on Google — or maybe your affiliate network?

This is something you need to know! It’ll help you understand where your most lucrative stream of traffic is coming from — so you can focus your efforts there and work on growing those high-converting traffic numbers even bigger.

I’m interested in hearing how your testing is performing… please leave me a comment.

So the other day a shopping bag appears in our hallway, and on the side somebody’s scrawled in felt pen, FREE PANTS.

Well they might as well have written DEADLY POISON or LIVE RATTLESNAKES.

People would approach this bag and lean over it and peer inside. They’d talk about the mystery of the free pants with other people in the hallway. Were they men’s or women’s pants? What size were they? Were they new or used? Were they clean? Who left them? Why would anybody give away pants?

Nobody knew.

But what was really interesting was that nobody found out!

Nobody took a pair of pants out of the bag and checked them to see what condition they were in or what size they were. The bag of free pants sat completely untouched in the hallway until the cleaning crew took it away.

This strange little non-event reminded me of some valuable lessons about online marketing.

1. Grab the attention of your target market. These aren’t just pants. They’re men’s pants with a 32 waist and a 36 inseam. Only men with those measurements (or women with men with those measurements) would be even remotely interested.

Effective online marketing depends on identifying a small market that wants something specific… and then telling them you’ve got it.

Our pants benefactor needed to grab the attention of the people in his small target market with something like this:

FREE PANTS: Men’s W32, L36

When people find your website, you need to tell them right off the top that they’ve found exactly what they were looking for so they’ll keep reading.

That’s what your website’s headline does.

2. Explain the benefits. One of the biggest mistakes you can make in online marketing is to list the features of your product without explaining how they will benefit the buyer.

It may seem obvious to our pants philanthropist that free used pants will be great for any W32/L36 guy who wants something he can wear when he’s lying under his car changing the oil…

… But the reader can’t make that logical leap without help.

It’s up to the marketer to make the potential customer see himself using and enjoying the product… like this:

FREE PANTS: Men’s W32, L36. Great for painting or gardening! Get ‘em dirty and don’t worry.

Demonstrating benefits is one of the most overlooked aspects of online selling.

3. Overcome objections. I’m pretty certain the reason nobody would dig around in that bag of pants was the “gross” factor: “Ewww, what if they’re dirty.”

It’s natural for people to come up with objections when you’re offering them something. So let them know that you’re already aware that this could be a problem… and you’ve solved it.

The people who wouldn’t touch the pants with a barge pole needed to be told something like this:

FREE PANTS: Men’s W32, L36. Great for painting or gardening! Get ‘em dirty and don’t worry.

Used but very clean. Been through the wash so often they’ll never shrink.

“Oh, OK then! I can touch these without getting a disease. And they’re my size! Hmmm, maybe… ”

Answer questions and objections before they come up.

4. Build value. There’s a ton of competition out there for almost everything (well, maybe not free pants). That’s why in every salesletter you’ll see bonuses on top of the product offering. As an online marketer you need to add value to your product to make it stand out from all the similar ones out there.

Often it’s just a matter of offering information that helps the buyer use the product better. Doesn’t cost you anything, but if nobody else is offering it, it’s enough to tip the potential buyer in your direction.

And as I saw this week in our hallway, you even have to add value to something that’s free! So maybe someone would have taken those pants home if the bag had read:

FREE PANTS: Men’s W32, L36. Great for painting or gardening! Get ‘em dirty and don’t worry.

Used but very clean. Been through the wash so often they’ll never shrink

BUT WAIT — THERE’S MORE: Keep this EXPANDABLE shopping bag!

Added value is something you need to build into every offer you make.

Now you might think that’s a lot to get on the side of a shopping bag, but that brings up one last point:

5. Long salescopy works. At the Internet Marketing Center we’ve tested every possible length and format, and long salescopy wins time and time again.

The salescopy on your website should take visitors through the whole selling process: getting their attention, telling them what they’ll get and how it benefits them, overcoming their objections, and then tossing in something extra so they won’t be able to resist.

And you know, what works for online selling would have worked just as well for a bag of free pants. If you want to sell, you have to tell!

A lot of the heavy hitters in Internet marketing have been flocking to it like magpies, claiming it’s the “next big thing” in Internet marketing. They say if you don’t base all your marketing efforts on it, your business is DOOMED TO FAIL. Yikes!

Before you get caught up in all the hype, let’s just take a moment to consider what Web 2.0 actually IS, and whether it’s worth two seconds of your time.

Web 2.0: The secret weapon that’s going to help you “strike it rich”? … Or just another hammer in your toolbox?

There seems to be a lot of confusion around the term “Web 2.0″ and what it really means.

Simply put, Web 2.0 refers to the rise in popularity of websites that encourage user input and interactivity, and place heavy emphasis on community and shared experiences.

For example, well-known Web 2.0 sites include…

Wikipedia — The world’s most popular online encyclopedia, in which all the content is contributed and edited by its users (as opposed to paid experts)

Facebook — A popular social-networking site, where people can find old friends, post pictures of themselves, and share information about their lives with other registered members.

Digg — One of the best-known social bookmarking sites, where people share links to their favorite articles, videos, or images. Users then vote on the offerings, and the ones that get the most “Diggs” rise to the top and are seen by the most viewers.

… And that’s just a few! Basically, any site that features a blog or forum, or encourages input and feedback from its users, falls under the definition of “Web 2.0.”

But what does this mean for marketers?

According to all the current hype, Web 2.0 means TRAFFIC — and lots of it.

The theory is that the more you interact on Web 2.0 sites like those mentioned above, the more you can expose potential new customers to your brand, and encourage them to visit your site.

And the more links you get pointing to your site from popular, high-PageRank sites such as these, the higher your site will appear in the search engine standings.

… Which means even MORE traffic to your site!

In practice, this is mostly true. Kind of.

Yes, you can drive a lot more traffic to your site from social media and bookmarking sites.

But — and here’s something the majority of Web 2.0 fanatics neglect to point out — it takes a LOT of TIME and EFFORT to get that traffic.

And on top of that, a question that must be asked is: “What KIND of traffic do you get???”

They can smell a pitch from a mile away

To understand the true value of Web 2.0-style marketing, first you need to understand the type of people who spend a lot of time hanging out at Web 2.0 sites.

These are people seeking diversion and entertainment. They want to socialize with their online friends, watch an entertaining video, or read something interesting or informative.

… In other words, they’re looking for FUN — not for something to buy!

So if you think you can just waltz into an online community and start talking about your product and how great it is — and then drive swarms of interested buyers to your site — you are DREAMING.

The fact is, they’ll probably tar and feather you — then run you out of town on a rail!

If you want to get any traction whatsoever out of Web 2.0 sites, you have to invest a LOT of your time in them.

You need to carefully observe how people interact with each other on the site, and then follow their example. You need to provide lots of useful free advice or other interesting information, so people appreciate your input.

And — unless people ask you about it — the ONLY place you should mention your business or your site URL is in your signature and/or your profile page.

Your sole objective should be relationship building, NOT selling.

As people begin to know you and trust you, they might become interested in checking out your site, in order to learn more about you.

But even if you DO manage to lure a bunch of new visitors to your site from a social site like Facebook or Digg, you have to remember that they’re clicking through mostly out of curiosity…

… NOT because they’re in a buying frame of mind.

And that means your “Web 2.0 traffic” isn’t going to convert at the same rate you’d expect from the traffic you get from your affiliates, joint venture partners, or pay-per-click ads.

But does that mean “Web 2.0 marketing” isn’t worth your time?

That depends… on you.

Is your business ALREADY a proven money-maker… Or still just a “twinkle in your eye”?

If you have a well-established, profitable business that’s doing a great job of turning traffic into sales… And you’re getting hundreds, if not THOUSANDS, of high-converting visitors to your site each day…

… Only then should you even consider getting into “Web 2.0 marketing.”

Even though Web 2.0 traffic doesn’t convert as well as traffic from other sources, putting your name and business brand out there on such hugely popular sites really IS a great way to introduce your product to new audiences.

It’s just that it takes a whole lot longer to connect the dots between the effort you put into it… and the eventual sales you get as a result.

So if your business is still in “blueprint mode”…

… Or if you do have a site, but it’s not getting much traffic yet and few of your visitors are converting into customers…

… Then the truth is, there are probably a LOT of things you should be working on that will yield far more tangible, profitable results than spending hours each day on a site like Facebook or Digg!

Before you invest a lot of time on “Web 2.0″ marketing, you absolutely MUST do the necessary research to make sure people actually WANT to buy your product!

Make sure your salescopy and site design are doing the BEST possible job of converting visitors into buyers!

Optimize your site for the search engines — which, contrary to some marketers’ claims, are STILL the greatest source of free traffic available online!

Use proven traffic generation strategies — such as pay-per-click advertising and article marketing — to drive more qualified visitors to your site (Yes, the old “tried & true” methods still work best!)

Partner with other successful businesses and do joint ventures to put your product in front of new groups of interested visitors

Once your business is making good money — and you’ve maximized all the proven ways of driving qualified traffic to your site — THEN AND ONLY THEN should you turn your attention to “Web 2.0.”

… Because otherwise, I’m afraid you’ll find yourself digging WAY too many holes in the ground — but never striking gold.

Am I reading this wrong?

Here’s a quick sample of the comments I received…

"I am sick of my fears and I want 2008 to be an overcoming year for me and my family" – Sharon

"This is my year and I am ready to get ‘er done" – Jim

"I have made a commitment to make 2008 the year that I get online and start making money so I can quit my present job and be my own boss" – Bob

"I have been trying hard for months but with no results, I’m ready to achieve big things for 2008" – Alan

"I’m your number one British fan, and I cannot wait to see what you have to offer on the 24th" – Ken

"I cannot wait until Jan 24th, 2008, I want this to be the year for all people trying to make it on the internet to achieve their goals" – Marie

… Do you see a theme in these comments?

Sounds like there are more than just a few people who are ready to use our complete turn-key solution — which is designed to help 250 people at any skill level start a profitable Internet business in 30-60 days! 

I know that there are people who want this NOW… but we need 10 more days to make sure that our system has every piece you need included, and our beta testers have signed off (Plus the "few" additions I keep throwing at the team).

If you’re serious about getting your business up and running, and haven’t registered for this opportunity, click here now … www.marketingtips.com/success2008/

… it will only take two minutes of your time, and could change the way you do business in 2008!

To your success,

Derek Gehl