How Much Is Your List Worth?
By Tim Gross - Internet Business Blog |
People love to make blanket statements in response to generic questions. Unfortunately, those responses are usually misleading.
It’s like the old, “If you put one foot in a bucket of boiling water and your other foot in a bucket of practically freezing water, on average, are you comfortable?”
Anyway… the real answer is to the question of how much money you should be able to expect from “X” number of subscribers is, “There’s no way of knowing.”
It’s like asking, “If I were to run an ad in a magazine, how much money could I expect to make?”
What ad? What magazine? How big of an ad?
Lets look at just some of the variables…
You could build a list:
-Through a non-incentivized subscription form on your website
-Through a popup non-incentivized subscription form on your website
-Through a popup huge bribe subscription form on your website
-By buying another company’s subscriber list when they sell their business
-By paying for co-registration emails where they had to check a box to subscribe
-By paying for co-registration emails where then had to UN-check to avoid subscribing
-By buying 10,000,000 email addresses on a CD-Rom from a guy selling it on eBay with the username SpammerLolz
…and many other variations
Did the subscribers opt in for your niche, or did they opt in to be entered into a lotto drawing?
In addition to the list variables, there’s what you’re selling.
Then there’s the offers you’re making them:
-Are you trying to promote a product through an unproven sales letter that you wrote yourself?
-Are you promoting an affiliate product that’s already been promoted by everyone with a similar list 10 times?
I could go on, but I think you get the point.
Here’s why it’s so dangerous to make unproven assumptions about the value of the list you’re building:
If you took the suggestion at face value that the worst thing that could happen from building your list was to make $.25-$.50 a month per name, you might happily run off and blow thousands of dollars building that list, figuring you only have to wait 2 to 3 months for the initial investment you made in building the list to break even.
“After that, it’s all profit, baby!” you say as you chortle greedily…
…Three months later, it’s possible that you won’t have made back a dime. Or, maybe you’ve made a killing!
But there’s too many variables to make blanket statements. Start building a list, find out for yourself what it’s worth, and proceed from there.
Topics: Marketing | Add A Comment » Trackback URL
Why People Hate Marketers
By Tim Gross - Internet Business Blog |
Paul Myers just gave an eye-opening (to some people) list of reasons why people hate marketers. Some of them are what you’d expect, like “because they’re insincere and pushy”.
But some are less obvious, like when you purchase a product and then get another sales letter for an upsell before you can download it. Here’s Paul’s description:
Then you get a long sales page, with a link at the bottom for folks who don’t want to buy. It often reads like this:
“Yes, I know I’m an idiot for passing up this incredible deal, and that I’ll never get this offer again, but I just want my download.”
If you make someone click a link that says they’re stupid in order to get what they already paid for, you deserve only one thing: 100% instant refunds.
That type of language has gotten pretty common for a lot of aggressive marketers these days. They probably think it’s cute. It’s obnoxious.
Read the rest of Paul’s list here.
Topics: Marketing | Add A Comment » Trackback URL
By Tim Gross - Internet Business Blog |
Here’s a handy Postage Price Calculator that tells you how much a letter or package will cost based on zip code and weight, it gives international prices as well.
You can print shipping labels online based on your selection.
It’s about 100… no, 20,000 times more convenient than standing in line at the post office. 
Topics: Cool Tools | Add A Comment » Trackback URL
Answer To “How Much Money Can I Expect From My List?”
By Tim Gross - Internet Business Blog |
With the generic way that question is asked, the real answer is, “There’s no way of knowing.”
It’s like asking, “If I were to run an ad in a magazine, how much money could I expect to make?”
What ad? What magazine? How big of an ad?
Lets look at just some of the variables…
You could build a list:
- Through a non-incentivized subscription form on your website
- Through a popup non-incentivized subscription form on your website
- Through a popup huge bribe subscription form on your website
- By buying another company’s subscriber list when they sell their business
- By paying for co-registration emails where they had to check a box to subscribe
- By paying for co-registration emails where then had to UN-check to avoid subscribing
- By buying 10,000,000 email addresses on a CD-Rom from a guy selling it on eBay with the username SpammerLolz
…and many other variations
Did the subscribers opt in for your niche, or did they opt in to be entered into a lotto drawing?
In addition to the list variables, there’s what you’re selling.
Then there’s the offers you’re making them:
-Are you trying to promote a product through an unproven sales letter that you wrote yourself?
-Are you promoting an affiliate product that’s already been promoted by everyone with a similar list 10 times?
I could go on, but I think you get the point.
Here’s why it’s so dangerous to make unproven assumptions about the value of the list you’re building:
If you took the suggestion at face value that the worst thing that could happen from building your list was to make $.25-$.50 a month per name, you might happily run off and blow thousands of dollars building that list, figuring you only have to wait 2 to 3 months for the initial investment you made in building the list to break even.
“After that, it’s all profit, baby!” you say as you chortle greedily…
…Three months later, it’s possible that you won’t have made back a dime. Or, maybe you’ve made a killing!
But there’s too many variables to make blanket statements. Start building a list, find out for yourself what it’s worth, and proceed from there.
Topics: Marketing | Add A Comment » Trackback URL
The solution for getting more done in less time (seriously)
By Tim Gross - Internet Business Blog |
I’ve talked many times before about productivity, time management, and how to get the most done in your work day.
Studies show that white-collar employees only have 2 productive hours per day on average. (and that stat sounds completely credible to me)
If you’re an entrepreneur or small business owner, there’s a simple way to double, even quadruple your productivity…
(hint: doubling or quadrupling your productivity can double and quadruple your income)
- Set specific tasks
- Assign a time to devote to each task
- Use a timer, and work on a task until the timer goes off
- Move on to the next task
IF, and that’s a big IF, you can do that, your productivity will go through the roof. It’s almost like cloning yourself.
So, you’re welcome for changing your life by increasing your productivity and at least doubling your profits!!!
Oh, what’s that you say, you’ll probably
never get motivated to actually DO that?
Yeah, well that’s the problem, isn’t it?
Well, good news - I FINALLY discovered a software program that will handle everything for you. I’ve been checking out time management software for a long time, and this is the only one that gets my stamp of approval.
Watch the video half-way down the page to see how powerful and easy to use it is:
Click here to watch demo video
Plus, with the software you can run a variety of reports on it (daily, weekly, etc) to see where you spent your time.
If you’ve ever checked out time management software, your first inclination is to say, “bleh, I hate that stuff”. Me too. But this is different, created by an entrepreneur for entrepreneurs.
Ask yourself this:
- What is your time worth?
- What would it be worth to get twice as much done? Or triple?
- Where would you be now if you’d been able to finish your last 12 months of work in 6 months? Your last month of work on 2 weeks?
- What would you do with an extra 2 hours of free time every day that you used to waste unproductively?
Get the software and try it for yourself. As an entrepreneur or small business owner, you can’t afford not to: Watch the demo video here
Final thought: Being more productive doesn’t just make you more money, it also makes you happier. More fulfilled. When you relax at the end of the day you can RELAX, not stress about the things you weren’t able to get to. What’s THAT worth to you?
(If I’m coming on a little strong here, it’s because I believe this can be such a huge help for you.)
Topics: Cool Tools | Add A Comment » Trackback URL
What Simple Info-Products Are Really All About
By Tim Gross - Internet Business Blog |
Selling information is a wide field. It includes books, videos, seminars, home study courses, and more. It can be a great business, because you do the work once (create the product) and continue to make money from it over and over with little effort.
However, it’s also very intimidating for a lot of people, and I completely understand why. But the truth is, simple information provided in a very logical manner that you’ve found achieves proven results can be very valuable.
Here’s a good example, it’s a book how how to potty-train dogs. It’s called:
“Everything you need to know about house training puppies & adult dogs!“ (I’m linking to the book on Amazon.com, but it’s not important for this discussion that you look at it.)
I think this was a very good book, and even though there’s really nothing new to learn about potty training your dog, this got me to make some changes that improved the “accident rate” of my dog by about 95% immediately.
Here’s the main points of the book:
- Limit when your dog eats and drinks to specific times, and keep an eye on them afterwards until they go to the bathroom. Keep notes on what the average time between eating => pooping and drinking => peeing are.
- Don’t train your dog to go potty inside in a specific spot, it’ll just confuse them. Train them to go outside.
- You can’t leave a dog alone without being taken outside for more than a certain number of hours (I think it’s around 6? I can’t remember, but that’s not the point).
- If you have to leave your dog alone for longer than that, either get a neighbor or pay a dog walker to take your dog out during that time (like when you’re at work), or you should get rid of your dog because you’re not able to provide it with an appropriate level of care.
You probably won’t be surprised to learn that point #4 really upset some readers, who gave the book a one-star review.
Here’s what’s good about the book:
- It gave very specific steps to follow and explained WHY it was so important to do them.
- It gave references about where to get some supplies you might need
- It provided “tough love” to the buyer and told them that some of them weren’t treating their dogs well. That upset some of them and caused them to return the book. It also undoubtedly made some people think and change their behavior (ie, hire someone to walk their dog when they’re away too long, etc).
It’s a simple topic, and to some degree the reader already knows the information already. But it gives specific steps to follow, uses social proof to show that others have solved their problems doing the same thing, and makes it easy to start now… While also not pretending that pet owners can do exactly as they please, use a couple of tricks, and achieve success.
It’s nothing you can’t do with your own information product. You don’t have to tackle a whole topic. Just pick one sliver of one facet of one niche that you can help someone with, create a simple info-product to show people how to do it better, and you’re in business.
Speaking of which, for a measly $12 (at least for the moment) you can get my 1 Day Business complete video training about how to create your own info-product in as little as one day. Take a look here:
To your success, Tim Gross
Topics: Marketing, Product Development | Add A Comment » Trackback URL
When Is It OK To Refund Information / Training Products?
By Tim Gross - Internet Business Blog |
It was recently discussed about how some marketers feel awkward asking for a refund after they’ve purchased a marketing information product. Here are my thoughts:
Legitimate reasons to be disappointed with an info purchase include:
- An obviously poor quality product
- Sales letter was too “enthusiastic” and virtually impossible to live up to
- Sales letter cast too broad of a net looking for buyers and was sold to people who can’t benefit from it
Non-legitimate reasons to be disappointed include:
- You’re already familiar with a topic you purchased information on, and already know 90% of what’s presented, but the other 10% is new… and valuable if you apply it. Smart marketers consider a couple of tips that will make them money to be well worth the cost even if they know most of it.
- You’re accidentally discarding valuable information because you don’t recognize it as being valuable.
- You’re a serial buyer/reader and never apply anything to find out if something has value or not.
This is by no means an exhaustive list, and it’s all on a case by case basis. If you don’t refund on poor quality products that fall incredibly short of the sales letter, you’re a chump. And if you habitually refund well-made products because, *sniff*, “I’ve seen this before”, then that’s obnoxious and you should stop buying products on that topic and admit to yourself that you know enough about the topic to stop buying and start doing.
On a side note, I certainly know what it’s like to get an incredibly un-detailed description of how to do something that is so vague that it doesn’t appear to be of any use. You are allowed to request a refund for something that, in your judgment, is not of value to you.
However, when someone says they want valuable information “explained thoroughly”, that means different things to different people, and there’s a portion of people who will never be satisfied because they expect a product to be able to drive itself to the bank and deposit the money it made for them.
As a buyer, try to do your best to confirm that it’s the product’s fault, not yours. As a marketer, try to create a product that delivers on its premise, and market it towards groups who will benefit from it.
Topics: Marketing | Add A Comment » Trackback URL
I’ve Been Marketing Online A Long Time
By Tim Gross - Internet Business Blog |
I use AuthorizeNet as my gateway for my merchant accounts, and I had to call them today.
Another much newer AuthorizeNet gateway account I have has an account ID of something like 180,000, but my original account with them, which I’ve had for 10 years, is a 3-digit number that starts with a “2″.
When I called them today the woman asked for my ID, and I gave her the 3 digits. There was a pause, and then she said, “...that’s it?”
Heh.
It made me wonder how many AuthorizeNet accounts with 3 digits are still active, and what percentage gave up the ghost. As Dorothy said, “People come and go so quickly here!“
Topics: Personal | Add A Comment » Trackback URL
Customers Are Stupid (wait, maybe it’s you…)
By Tim Gross - Internet Business Blog |
There is a forum thread going on right now with online business owners laughing about how stupid their customers are. The initial example was about someone who was given a password to login that looked like this:
EHSKHEQW (Upper Case)
…But instead of understanding that it was supposed to mean that the eight letters were all capitals, the person entered the entire line as the password, including “Upper Case” in parenthesis.
Ha ha Ha, what an idiot - at least that’s what he was being called in the forum post by business owners, but I disagree. Because the flip side to that is that if someone doesn’t understand the instructions you are giving them, by definition you must be giving them poor instructions. If you don’t improve the instructions based on feedback you receive and instead just continue to be annoyed with the problems that it causes, then you are the real idiot.
With the large number of sales that my businesses have done, I have learned very quickly that anything that causes extra customer support problems need to be resolved quickly. In fact, once I crunched the numbers and figured out the average response time involved for each customer support question and divided that into how much I pay customer support by the hour, the dollar amount that each question costs you is very sobering.
My solution:
When we had issues with people having problems downloading products, I created short training videos showing step-by-step how to do it.
And here’s something else that I’ve never heard anyone talk about before:
Here’s your password: Il1O0I1
That’s the type of password that a random password generator will create. Upper case “i”, lower case “L”, the number one, a zero, upper and lower-case “oh”, etc.
How ridiculous is that? How many more problems are going to because there’s something so easily avoided? My solution is to take out those letters and numbers from the random password generator. Problem solved.
If you think your customers are stupid, that’s fine with me because it means you are out of touch with your target market. While you make fun of them and don’t do anything about it, you’re creating opportunity for smarter marketers to treat your customers better. Feel free to send them my way.
Topics: Oops (Bad Move) | Add A Comment » Trackback URL