Julie from Advant... (1)Really Quick Web Copywriting Tips
By jeff | April 23, 2012
I have some really quick web copywriting tips for you. I have had actual success online after many years of trying and failing. One thing I failed a lot at was copywriting.
Copywriting is the art of writing in a way that sells products. The main goal of a copywriter is to have a good conversion rate which is the percentage of people who buy after seeing your sales page.
Even if you’ve never written a sales page before, learning the basics will allow you to start writing and meet your goals of reaching your target audience with materials which will help them.
This really quick crash course will show you how to use one of the oldest and most proven copywriting formulas in advertising history: Attention, Interest, Desire, Action (AIDA).
Web Copywriting Tips – Attention
The first and most important step in the copywriting formula is attention. Attention is the first impression. Can you catch your readers’ attention in five seconds or less?
The best way to catch attention is through a strong headline. Your headline should speak directly to your readers’ needs and make a bold promise that keeps them reading more.
Most copywriters spend an inordinately high amount of their copywriting time on the headline. Why? Because if you don’t catch their attention, nothing else you write matters. Your headline should get someone to stop whatever they’re doing and pay attention.
Sometimes it’s really good to include one of your most important keywords in the headline.
Interest
The interest phase is when you explain the problem and hint at a solution.
This is where you outline what their life is like right now and describe what their life could be like if their problem was solved.
During this step, your goal is to get them emotionally involved. Paint vivid pictures of what their lives could be like in the future. Use powerful and provoking words to hit emotional points home.
This one was really difficult for me at first because you really have to do your research and know what your market is thinking.
Desire
This is where you introduce your product and use rock solid proof to show that you can deliver on your promise.
Your product should be introduced as if it were the greatest thing since sliced bread. As if all their life, your reader has just been waiting for something like your product.
In order to back up this kind of claim, you need to have proof. Testimonials are a good start. Before and after videos are good as well. Proof videos can go a long way. Photos of your product in action can be very convincing.
Something I learned recently was having real photos next to each testimonial gives you a huge boost in credibility.
Action
There’s a big difference between getting someone interested and having someone take out their credit card and pay you.
The action step bridges this gap. In the action step, you bring the emotional desire back to a peak and end with a strong, specific call to action. You tell them exactly what you want them to do and reiterate exactly what they’ll get if they do it.
Tell them to place the order. Tell them to call the phone number. Tell them to take out their credit card and punch it in the next page. If they do, they’ll finally get “X” (benefit) in their life.
This formula has been used throughout the ages to launch highly successful companies worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Master the AIDA formula and your sales will soar.
The Best of All Web Copywriting Tips
My suggestion for you is to not delay. Start writing now. If you’ve been doing it for a while and have made some sales that’s great!
The next step is to keep testing these web copywriting tips until you achieve the conversion rate you are looking for.
Image: Master isolated images / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Topics: internet marketing, marketing, online marketing, web copywriting | 1 Comment »
Three Website Traffic Building Tactics That Don’t Work Anymore
By jeff | April 19, 2012
As online marketing progresses, certain traffic building techniques are going to stop working, while others will rise to prominence. Yet many marketers will still continue to employ old tactics even once they stop working.
Why? Because Google doesn’t announce when they change their algorithm. That is very annoying. The other annoying part is that even when it is found out these techniques don’t work anymore we still do it because we haven’t been told the correct way to do it.
This leads to more products we have to buy just to find out.
Here are three previously popular traffic building techniques that are now worthless. If you’re using any of these tactics, it’s time to pick a different approach and move on. Trust me on this because I’ve experienced the heartache and don’t want you to feel the same pain.
Website Traffic Building Fail #1 – Low Quality Articles Are Pointless
Article marketing used to be one of the most popular techniques on the internet.
Marketers would write or hire someone to write articles on just about any topic, whether they had expertise or not, and hope they could get that article to rank.
Once the article was ranked, they’d point a link to their website and get traffic from people who click through.
This tactic is very definitely dead today…sort of. Sites like EzineArticles and Article Alley have taken huge hits in traffic since the Panda update. Even eHow.com, a relatively high quality website, took a hit.
I still do article marketing and work on it every single week. Through my experience I’ve found that it must be high quality or you are wasting your time.
An example from my experience would be hiring someone to write articles for me for an adsense site. The articles were low quality and after the many Google updates it gets no traffic and no adsense clicks.
Article marketing still works but it must be high quality and in my case, written by me.
Website Traffic Building Fail #2 – Link Wheels, Linking Schemes and Structures
Linking schemes have existed ever since Google introduced PageRank. It started out with simple reciprocal linking, where marketers linked to one another to boost rankings. Then it moved to three-way linking and soon into fully-fledged link wheels.
Today, Google has pretty much shut down all these linking schemes. Even the most complicated linking structures involving many layers of link juice flows simply isn’t going to do the job.
Google has implemented sophisticated detection technologies that make this tactic more or less null.
I spent a lot of money on these link wheels for a few months in late 2011 and it flat out didn’t work.
Website Traffic Building Fail #3 – Directory Submissions
In the past, getting your website into various internet directories could be an easy way to boost PageRank and increase rankings. Today this tactic doesn’t really work at all.
There are still a few directories that can pull some weight. The DMOZ community sourced directory and the Yahoo! directory can still lend you some link juice. Guess what? I’ve never been able to get in the DMOZ directory so I’ve stopped trying.
That said, the amount of effort and money it takes to get into a quality directory just isn’t worth the effort. The same time and money could be put into other tactics that result in a much higher ROI.
Getting Better Web Traffic Rankings Has Changed
Basically, the overall search engine scheme is changing. Low quality links are being phased out more and more, to the point where they have virtually no impact.
The best way to get your name out there online today is to actually put out high quality content, then build links using connections with real people.
This takes longer than using instant gratification tactics. But it’s what works. It’s been said that in business, the one who wins is the person who’s willing to do what his competitors aren’t willing to do.
In SEO, creating high quality content with high quality backlinks is what it takes. If you spend your time and energy doing this while your competitors are looking for shortcuts, you’ll come out ahead in the end.
I’ve learned a few new website traffic building tactics just last week and it involves blog commenting which I’ll write a post on later.
Image: Master isolated images / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Topics: article marketing, internet marketing, marketing, online marketing, website traffic | 6 Comments »
How to Increase Website Traffic Once You’ve Exhausted Google AdWords
By jeff | April 16, 2012
Are you getting all the traffic you can get from Google AdWords? If you have a profitable AdWords campaign, chances are you’ve quickly scaled it to all the keywords you can.
You may have tweaked your ads for weeks or months already. In short, you’re squeezing all the profits you can out of Google AdWords.
So, what’s next? How can you keep on increasing your traffic and your revenues once the Google AdWords well is completely tapped?
Increase Website Traffic With One of These
Microsoft AdCenter
Microsoft’s AdCenter gives you access to both Yahoo’s search network and Bing’s search network.
These two networks pull in quite a different audience than Google’s and you may notice some differences in conversion rates. More often than not, however, people find their conversions are higher on AdCenter than on Google.
If you already have a successful AdWords campaign, moving them to AdCenter is as simple as exporting it from AdWords and importing it into AdCenter. You may have to do a little bit of editing on the ads, as the length requirements are slightly different.
Google Content Network
If you have a campaign working on search, it may be time to also test a campaign on the content network.
Getting the content network to work can take a lot of testing. Not only do you need to get your targeting right, but you also need to get your ads perfect.
The content network works by groupings of keywords rather than specific keywords. Your goal is to get your ad to show up on the right sites, which can take a bit of trial and error.
Facebook PPC
Facebook’s PPC network is still young, but it’s gotten a lot more solid and useable than it was just a couple years ago.
Facebook allows you to target your viewers by their age, their income, their location, their interests and a whole lot more.
Perhaps the most unique thing about Facebook is its demographic data. There is literally no other website on the internet where users have so willingly provided their personal information.
I personally use Facebook’s PPC and I really like the results I’m getting.
Second Tier Self-Serve Platforms
In addition to these “first tier” self-serve platforms, there are many, many other ad platforms that you can explore.
These include MySpace, which gets much less traffic than Facebook, but is still a player in the internet space. Plentyoffish, the largest free dating site, also offers a lot of cheap traffic on its self-serve platform.
Pulse360 offers small banner ads all over the internet. AdBrite is another platform that has been around for a long time.
Direct Media Buying
Finally, you can approach websites or ad networks directly and work out private ad buying deals. This kind of deal requires cash on hand as well as confidence in your conversion rates. If you’re ready to step up to this plate, however, you can really command some significant traffic. Think millions rather than thousands of impressions.
These are some of the many different places you can look once you’ve maxed out Google AdWords. Google AdWords is a great place to increase website traffic but you should try these other options too.
Image: Master isolated images / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Topics: internet marketing, marketing, online marketing, website traffic | 4 Comments »
Internet Marketing Outsourcing Tips – Cheap Options
By jeff | April 9, 2012
I’m not about to get into a debate about anything but I do have some internet marketing outsourcing tips I’d like to share with you.
I absolutely do love products made in the U.S.A. and I support those workers and products as much as I can. When it comes to online marketing though there are sometimes much better options and I’ll tell you why.
Internet Marketing Outsourcing Tips – The Reason Why It Can Be Cheaper
Work that might cost you $20 an hour in the United States, Europe or Canada could easily cost you just $2 in India. In the past, the geographical gap outweighed the price gap. The internet has changed that.
Today, with the help of the internet, you can find great outsourced work online extremely cheaply. You just need to know where to look.
Here are some of the top places to look for high quality outsourced work at a cheaper price.
- Amazon Mechanical Turk
The Amazon Mechanical Turk system allows you to outsource easy tasks for extremely low rates.
For example, you can ask any number of people to take a five-minute survey for pennies – literally. Many gigs on Mechanical Turk pay as little as $0.20 cents or less.
You can choose to accept only first world country workers, or global workers.
- Fiverr
You’d be surprised with what you can get for just five dollars on Fiverr. Fiverr is an online outsourcing site where people earn a set price of $5 for their services.
You can get all kinds of work done on Fiverr. You can get drawings, you can get 3D rendering, you can get animations, you can get voiceovers, you can get writing, you can get proofreading, you can get data entry.
If what you’re looking for is something that can be broken up into smaller tasks, chances are you can get it on the cheap on Fiverr.
I’ve personally used Fiverr many times for graphics and images to be made and my satisfaction level is around 99%.
- DigitalPoint
DigitalPoint is an online forum geared towards the internet marketing community. It has an extremely active trade section where you can hire people to do just about anything, from graphic design to web mastering skills.
DigitalPoint has a feedback system called iTrader that works very similarly to eBay’s. You can use it to gauge who’s trustworthy and who’s not.
- Elance, ODesk
Finally, you have the traditional outsourcing sites. Though these sites might be slightly pricier than what we’ve talked about above, especially since outsourcers have to pay about 15% to the site itself, it still often makes sense to use these sites.
On Elance and oDesk, employers are protected by a range of different systems, from payment escrows to public feedback systems. It’s much harder to get ripped off on these systems than through other systems.
These are some different places to look for cheap, quality outsourced work online. If you have any additional internet marketing outsourcing tips them please leave a comment down below.
Image: Master isolated images / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Topics: internet marketing, marketing, online marketing, outsourcing | 2 Comments »
My First Experience at a NAMS Conference
By jeff | February 14, 2012
I just got back from my first NAMS conference which was held in Atlanta, GA. I’m tired and exhausted in a good way. It was really nice coming home to my family, especially when my two little kids came running to hug daddy.
NAMS stands for Niche Affiliate Marketing System. I am really new to the group, but they have a membership program, workshops, products, a forum and an affiliate program.
It’s all geared towards helping people achieve their goals in the online marketing world, especially the entrepreneurial lifestyle that so many of us love.
I heard about it before from a few people on Twitter and Facebook, but my interest piqued about a month ago when I read all about the conference from the blogs and emails of Paul Evans and Bob “The Teacher” Jenkins.
I actually bought my ticket a little over a week before the conference and I’d like to add it was at a very reasonable price. Okay, way more than reasonable and I’ll tell you why in a little while.
NAMS Conference Highlights
I thought about exactly what I wanted to tell you about this during my drive home to Nashville. I decided there was way too many positive things that happened for me to write in just one blog post. I’ll do my best to give you a snapshot.
The first thing I noticed when I first walked in were the people. Everyone was smiling, I didn’t see any “cliques” in the corners of the room. It was a breath of fresh air.
Nobody was walking around with groupies and there were no gurus with fake laughs. I felt as though everyone was a level playing field.
Not one time did I feel uncomfortable.
David Perdew, the leader of NAMS, opened up the conference with his wife and they did a great job of making everyone feel welcome. I don’t know much about him but you can tell he really cares about people, wants to help them out and wants to see people succeed no matter what niche they are in.
There were four different tracks all geared towards different learning levels. I started and stayed in the 200s the whole time, but the great thing is that since I attended and stayed in the hotel I get all the audio recordings for every session. How cool is that?
None of the workshops where fluff. Every single session led me to immediate actionable tasks I will be able to carry out every day for the next few weeks and beyond. I want to do it all now but I need a little patience and need to properly test a few things.
I do have to highlight my favorite class and that was Karon Thackston’s live Web site copy writing reviews. I jumped all over the opportunity to have my sales copy reviewed from my kids exercise site and she was gracious enough to spend quite a bit of time on it.
The feedback I received from her and other students was probably 10 times the amount of the ticket to the NAMS conference.
NAMS Conference Speakers
Every teacher and speaker was great at the conference. No joke. They all taught extremely well, very clearly, very patiently and they were quite helpful.
There was not one speaker who was full of themselves and they all seemed to genuinely care about the students. Some of my favorites were Karon who I mentioned earlier, Phil Hollows and Bob “The Teacher” Jenkins.
There were also some very inspirational talks given and I can’t believe I was able to meet the following people:
Paul Evans of Nicheology.com
I recently bought one of Paul’s products and launched a recurring revenue product less than a week later.
I joined one or two of his email lists and have absolutely learned so much. His talk on success not being an accident was excellent. It was so cool meeting him.
His presentation was helpful and several of the things he said hit home with me and I really believe I was supposed to meet him.
Carrie Wilkerson of BlogBarefoot.com
She also gave an inspiring talk on progress being on purpose and it was actually quite convicting and because of it I’m making some major changes in the way I approach each and every workday.
Jimmy D. Brown of iRaize.com
I have heard a lot about this guy, I’ve actually been to many of his sites but in reality, I didn’t know much about him. Whenever I hear his name the term “legend” comes to mind.
He gave some excellent and easy-to-understand tips to move forward in your online marketing business and the stories he told were very inspirational.
My Final NAMS Conference Thoughts
I want to leave you with a few final thoughts. Not only were the teachers and workshops great, but the fellow students were great too.
Everyone was so helpful, eager to listen and willing to give advice. One person actually gave me some advice that could seriously raise the conversions on one of my sites tremendously and all she did was take 30 seconds to make a suggestion.
Besides the speakers I mentioned earlier, I wanted to mention how much I appreciate Bob “The Teacher” Jenkins because he went out of his way to invite me to lunch one day and encouraged me with my business.
I have a ton of confidence right now, a long mind map of plans for my small business, and the future is definitely bright. This would be all for naught if I didn’t attend the NAMS 7 workshop.
If I were you I’d sign up for the next NAMS conference as soon as you can. I’m going to sign up.
Topics: internet marketing, marketing, nams, online marketing | 6 Comments »
Hostmonster Review – The Place To Host Your Website
By jeff | January 19, 2012
After years of using this company, I finally decided to write a Hostmonster review. I always like to wait for a period of time before reviewing any product or service, whether it was a good experience or bad.
You never know, a bad beginning might turn into the best thing ever or maybe a great beginning with a company might turn sour after ownership changes or the product isn’t upgraded.
I don’t believe there is a clear cut winner as far as Web hosting goes. I’ve heard some really good online marketers give positive feedback about at least two other companies.
Sometimes it comes down to personal preference or maybe you read a review like this one and decided to try one particular company.
It’s very hard as online marketers because there are a ton of choices out there for everything, whether it’s a course on how to build a membership site, a popup to capture people for your email list or Web hosting. Here is my story and Hostmonster review.
Hostmonster Review – My Story
I remember the year very well. I was motivated and inspired to build a Web site and I knew nothing about Web hosting. Luckily I worked on the Web team for a company and all I had to do was ask one of the techie programmers.
I immediately received recommendations, but honestly most of them were recommended because they could receive a commission. That’s all good and fine because I’m sorta doing the same thing, but I really wanted to have a recommendation backed up with a personal experience story.
I wanted to know why they like their Web hosting. Most didn’t bother to answer me. Do you feel that way sometimes when someone recommends something to you?
I don’t want to go that route with you. Back to my story.
One programmer in particular gave me his own little Hostmonster review and he said they had really good customer service, hardly ever went down, were based in the USA and was a quality place to host multiple Web sites.
I signed up at a discount rate and I’ve been with them ever since.
Hostmonster Review – Why I like Them
I endorse products because they give me great results. I am 98% satisfied with them. I have several sites hosted with them and everything has gone smoothly.
It’s super easy to do whatever you need to do in their cPanel. That’s the place where you can easily install your WordPress blog, set up your email accounts for each site, access your Web site files and set up your FTP accounts.
There are other tasks you can do in there as well, but those are the main reasons why you’d even log into your account.
This is the process I usually take when adding a new Web site to Hostmonster Assuming you’ve already bought your domain name somewhere and set the servers for Hostmonster, you would:
- Login
- Click the add on domains button, enter domain name and click the add domain button
- You could then click on the install WordPress button
- Within minutes you will have your Web site up and running
It really is that simple. In my experience Hostmonster it has only been down for a couple of minutes two or three times since 2007. I’ve experienced no other technical issues of any sort.
Hostmonster Review – What About Customer Service
As I was thinking about writing this Hostmonster review I thought that if you’re like me customer service is huge! You can have a good product but if the service stinks then it’s never worth it.
I’m pleasantly surprised at how good the Hostmonster customer service has been. I expect large companies to outsource their customer service to foreign countries, but their support team is 100% US-based.
They have email support, live chat support and phone support. I have tried all three.
I’ve mostly contacted them through chat and phone. The chat is good if you have simple questions and you need a quick answer. They are really good about not leaving you hanging minute after minute.
If you have questions that are a little more in-depth then the best thing to do is call them. You don’t wait on hold very long and I’ve always been welcomed with a courteous greeting and thoughtful answer.
Even if they don’t have the answer right away, they will contact someone while you’re on the phone so they can get the proper answer you deserve.
My only negative issue with Hostmonster support is their affiliate department. They don’t have a phone number and I actually still have an unanswered support request email. This bummed me out a bit and that’s why my Hostmonster review is 98% and not 100%.
My Results And Hostmonster Costs
Oh yeah, let me get back to the results. I’m sticking with Hostmonster because they are US-based, reliable, affordable, have good customer service and I’m making money with my Web sites.
You can get hosting with them starting at $5.95 per month. This comes with:
- Unlimited space and bandwidth
- Host unlimited domains
- Unlimited email accounts
- Free domain
- cPanel control panel
- $75 Google Adwords Credit
- Free site builders
- WordPress and more
You can even access an online demo so you can try their product out before signing up with them.
In the end, I use them because they have a quality product, good customer service, an affordable plan and my Web sites are making money.
This Hostmonster review was intended to provide you with information to help you get your Web site up and running in no time, so check it out as soon as you can.
Topics: hostmonster, internet marketing, marketing, online marketing, web hosting | No Comments »
Overcoming Negativity And My Small Business Online Marketing Dream
By jeff | December 12, 2011
One of the biggest obstacles I’ve had to overcome, and still have to battle every week, is negativity as I’m in full pursuit of my small business online marketing dream.
What is this dream? It’s simply to be a work-at-home dad, marketing products and services I truly believe in and have a passion for. I really want to help people whether it’s related to kids’ health, baseball, clean water or a myriad of things associated with parenting.
I’m not a motivational speaker, positivity guru, or health and wealth guy, but one thing I do know is that negativity will drag you down and prevent you from coming anywhere near your dreams.
Ditch Negativity And Discover The Path To Your Small Business Online Marketing Dreams
I’m sure there are many of you reading this who are currently where I am or maybe you’re still stuck where I was at one time.
It’s been exactly one year since I was set free from the bondage of super negative co-workers and bosses at a dreaded nine to five job!
Some people love nine to five jobs and actually prefer the drama. They are okay with making tons of money for their bosses while bringing home a small salary, mediocre benefits and “job security.” This works for many people.
Once my entrepreneurial spirit was ignited in 2006, it was game over for me. My journey began.
I knew I had to stick it out at my job until I was making enough money for my family. That was the “safe” thing to do. More on that later.
What I didn’t expect was a barrage of negativity to follow. It really was a test of some kind. Sometimes I handled it well and other times I didn’t handle it so well.
I actually thought I could use my online marketing skills for my company and one of my five bosses (just like the movie Office Space) was very negative and said this:
“Jeff, you need to be honest with yourself … you don’t have ANY online marketing skills. Just stay where you are.”
This was mainly in regard to SEO and PPC as there was a new opening at the company. Actually, I was already well educated on these subjects and was making money through my Web sites, but he didn’t care. I then went up the ladder to boss number three and I asked her about it and in less than 10 seconds she said almost the exact same thing.
After that, every day was filled with negativity and people keeping me down. Finally, in December of 2010 I chose to leave the negative and dirty nine to five situation I was in.
The burden was lifted almost immediately and I plugged right in to some freelance work and being fully committed to my online marketing dream.
I was already making money online helping people and I felt it was the perfect time to expand. I did it!
Mistakes, Victories And My Small Business Online Marketing Dream
Telling you my story is exciting for me because I’ve been living my dream for one year now! I proved all the negative people wrong!
My whole point in this post is to encourage you and help you avoid my mistakes and pitfalls. If you have that fire burning in you to pursue an online business then don’t let anyone drag you down.
You see, I was pressured into staying at that horrendous job because they told me I’d be letting my family down if I left. Who told me this? Extended family, close friends and everyone else.
After the fact, I have realized that fear kept me around this negativity too long. I didn’t listen to my heart or common sense and I got burned a little.
My advice to you is that if you’re in a nightmare situation like I was in, you really need to evaluate what is truly best for you and your family.
Surround yourself with positive people. Hang around small business owners who are doing what you want to do. Trust me … they will have your back sometimes before extended family or friends will.
I didn’t do this the best I could. I could have done better in that area. Thankfully, my biggest fan and supporter was my wife and I give her all the credit in the world for helping me stay positive and moving forward with my business dreams.
Who are your supporters? Do they really want you to succeed? I’m not suggesting you “break up” with your family and friends.
I just want you to avoid negativity and those who will drag you down because many of these people are living unsuccessful lives and the last thing they want to see is someone else succeeding. Isn’t that sick?
I can’t sit here and tell you it’s time for you to quit your job and pursue your dreams. Only you can decide that.
You too can overcome negativity and become as successful as you want to be. I know that for sure!
I’m not finished with my journey but I’m fighting for it every day in the most positive environment. I have left the negative people behind to bring themselves down on a regular basis.
I overcame negativity and am in a full court press strategy of making my small business online marketing dreams come true.
Image: Master isolated images / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Topics: internet marketing, life, marketing, online marketing | 6 Comments »
PopUp Domination 3.0 Review – New Features And Themes
By jeff | November 30, 2011
PopUp Domination 3.0 is finally here after weeks and weeks of anticipation. If you are looking for a proven way to increase subscribers to your email list by leaps and bounds, then this is the ultimate plugin for your site.
I wrote a review on their previous version and I found it to be worth way more than what they were selling it for. Since that last review I have seen lots of sales from my list which was built in part by this plugin.
This popup has been wildly popular for one simple reason. It gets results. If you know me or have been a reader of my blog you know I don’t mince words.
I tell it like it is. You deserve an unbiased review because, frankly, there are so many scams in online marketing. This is my second review of this company so that should tell you a lot.
PopUp Domination 3.0 – What’s New
Many times when a software company comes out with a new version of something, they have spruced up the look and pass that off as something new so they can make extra money off of you.
One of my favorite new features of PopUp Domination 3.0 is being able to have multiple campaigns on one website. Yes! Before you had just one version on your site and now you can have as many campaigns as you want.
I can have one version for my blog, one version for my videos page, another for my FAQ page and the list goes on.
This is valuable because different people with different needs come to your site and it would be nice to meet those needs with different giveaways or just sending your same message in a different way.
Click on the image below to see a bigger version.
Another one of my favorite new features of PopUp Domination 3.0 is A/B split testing of campaigns on a particular page. I’m so happy they have this because instead of testing on popup per page or audience you can now run two at the same time.
We do this with our main sales page or opt-in page but now you can do it with version 3.0 of this plugin. You can test various headlines, bullet points, color schemes or even the freebie image.
It even allows you to track the percentage of conversion which will easily tell you which version won!
The final new feature of PopUp Domination 3.0 I want to tell you about is their new analytics feature. If you’re like me you like to keep track of certain metrics regarding your website.
I find it fun to look at the “numbers” each day, including sales, conversions, opt-ins and more. Successful online marketers know they must keep track of their numbers and document them.
It’s almost real time, which is cool, and you can track any of your campaigns. You can see the views and conversions for the month and even see last month’s and the last five months’ stats.
In addition to all these new features they have also come out with some new themes and even offer premium themes at a small cost.
In review, here are the new features of the PopUp Domination plugin:
- Multiple popups and campaigns
- A/B split testing
- Analytics
Popup Domination 3.0 – Why Am I Endorsing It?
I don’t endorse a whole lot of products and that’s either because they don’t work or I haven’t been introduced to them yet.
The main reason I endorse this plugin is because I own it and it has given me great results. I told you in my previous post that my opt-ins increased 700%. They advertise 400% but my results exceeded that by a long shot.
One of their banners says, “More optins. More Money.” In my own personal experience this is absolutely true. It’s so cool to look at one of my sales and find out if they are from my list or not and at least 50% of the time they are.
PopUp Domination 3.0 is incredibly easy to use so don’t worry that it’s another complicated plugin to operate.
All you really need to do is paste a little html code from your email marketing service, fill out your bullet points, add a picture and your popup can be on your blog in a matter of minutes. Very simple!
This product is of high quality and they seem to be an ethical group of people. I’ve interacted with their customer service on a few occasions and it went very smoothly which is something you can’t say about the majority of online marketers.
I know many of you have been on the fence about a popup for a long time and you should really consider trying it out because I believe you will be pleasantly surprised.
The price is only $47 for this great tool and it will pay for itself very quickly like it did for me. I have no idea if they plan to raise the price or not but I wouldn’t play any wait-and-see games. I’ve done that before and got burned.
Update 12-5-11: I’ve just been informed they are raising the price to $77.
Popup Domination 3.0 will change your online business for the better very quickly, so check it out as soon as you can.
Topics: build email list, internet marketing, marketing, online marketing, popup domination | 2 Comments »
Great Online Customer Service Should Be Top Priority
By jeff | November 17, 2011
If there is one area I see a huge portion of Internet entrepreneurs lacking it is great online customer service. In fact, I would say most online customer service ranges between poor and bad.
I’ve been wanting to write about this for a long, long time but I have waited almost a year to talk about it. I wanted to wait as long as possible because I have had a real hard time finding quality customer service online.
I don’t know about you, but nine times out of 10 I have a negative experience with this part of a person’s company.
I also wanted to study more companies or individuals who gave awesome customer service. I recently had a great experience and that’s what finally gave me the go ahead to write my post once and for all.
Don’t worry, this post isn’t all negative and sad. I really believe every entrepreneur can excel in this. I kind of liken this to eating healthier and exercising more.
Nobody is stopping us but ourselves. We can make the choice today to serve people better.
Online Customer Service – Great Examples
I’m not going to name specific people or companies either in my positive or negative reviews. But I will talk about successes and failures … even my own.
Here is one success story. It’s offline but I recently called an auto repair chain and asked them how much they charged for fixing a flat. The person who answered the phone was very positive and happy. Not cheesy or annoying like the waiter from the movie “Office Space.”
This person was pleasant on the phone and made me feel like I was their top customer. They said it was free so I took the flat tire to them immediately.
I popped the trunk and before I could even pick up the tire there was a mechanic literally running to my car. He picked up the tire and took it right in.
The customer service reps inside were nice, pleasant, helpful and treated me like a valuable human being.
I’ve listened to Zig Ziglar and other really successful entrepreneurs and they all preach awesome service for their customers.
It’s more than just that the customer is right. It’s all about treating your customers really well no matter if the purchase was five dollars or five hundred.
Another great online experience I had recently was when I emailed a software company about ten times and each time they responded promptly and courteously. They maintained a positive attitude and guess what? I most definitely will buy from them.
Bad Online Customer Service Examples
Like I said, I’ve waited almost a year to write about this and I have had many bad experiences. Maybe you can resonate with some of these examples.
These are things you should avoid:
- Do not make your customers feel bad and that a problem is their fault.
- Do not let customer emails sit in your inbox for days or weeks.
- Do not get upset with people who ask for a discount.
- Do not keep sending someone emails after they unsubscribe.
These are things you should strive for:
- Make your customers or potential customer feel as though they are really important.
- Answer emails asap.
- Give away free stuff and even create discounts occasionally.
- Interact with customers and ask them what they like and how you can better serve them.
These lists are just small examples. I hope you can sit back now and think of other ways you can treat customers and prospects better.
It’s not enough to have a comprehensive FAQ page. While nice, there are a large majority of questions that won’t be answered and sometimes people can make a better buying decision if they can email you and wait for your reply.
Sometimes the quicker you reply the more confidence people will have in your products or services.
If you’re an online entrepreneur, I’d love to hear what you’ve experienced. What has worked for you? Share in the comments below.
I really believe if we all improve our online customer service that we’ll feel good, our customers will feel good and we’ll make many more sales.
Image: Master isolated images / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Topics: customer service, marketing, online marketing | 4 Comments »
The Real Popup Domination Review
By jeff | August 15, 2011
Popup Domination is a plugin I use on all my WordPress sites that’s sole purpose is to capture more leads for my business. I remember when I first heard about them I was a little weary because, number one, I personally was annoyed with popups and, number two, I heard many people saying how much they didn’t like popups.
After it was recommended to me I think I waited several months before actually trying it out. It wasn’t because of the cost or the reputation of the company. It was because of my personal experiences and what others said. Many times that is all it takes and I am fine with my decision.
This time however, I was wrong. I was so wrong, in fact, that I regretted my original decision to avoid it.
How Popup Domination Works
Like I said, Popup Domination exists to get you more people on your email list so you can better market them towards your products. You want to build a relationship with those people and give them tons of helpful information and eventually sell them your product which is designed to solve their problem in a particular niche.
You buy it and it’s a simple WordPress plugin that takes only minutes to set up. Okay, so you remember how I said popups annoyed me? It’s because most of the time they were ugly, they literally popped up and the majority of the time they weren’t even relevant to what I wanted. I was just visiting a popular site today and they popped up two things and had nothing to do with anything!
What I like about Popup Domination is that they have really nice looking templates that are very professional and basically look better than the design of my sites themselves. You can actually choose from a large list of colors and even change the color of the buttons. If you’re good at Photoshop you can even get the PSD files and manipulate it anyway you want.
You can use any email list provider and the functionality can be manipulated. For instance, you can specify which pages on your site for the pop up to appear, you can make it an exit pop up, you can make it appear after a certain amount of time and even after a certain number of impressions.
I personally set it up to where after a user sees the popup they won’t see it again for seven days. You can add a picture, bullet points and even a description of your freebie giveaway.
My Popup Domination Results
On their web site they say, “Increase Your Subscribers By 429%…” and that top internet marketers use this product. I don’t know about other people’s results but I can tell you my results.
A little background information might be good for you. I first tested this on my kids exercise site where I was getting zero, one or two double opt-ins per day. That’s pretty pathetic considering I was testing multiple free offers each month. I added Popup Domination to my kids site and baseball site in February 2011.
I then began to get seven, five, six, eight and nine double opt-ins per day. The number of people who single opted in from the popup were in the dozens. Going from one opt in per day to eight is a 700% increase. Can you imagine what my list size would be if I was previously getting 50 per day!?
All that to say, I believe it was successful and I’ve been using it ever since. It has more than paid for itself because my list size is much larger and I’ve made several sales from my list.
I think the keys to using this plugin successfully is obviously having an offer that your niche likes and then writing compelling copy and bullet points. The final piece to the puzzle is having an image. People are very visual and having that image on there will put your offer over the top.
It costs $47, which I think it a steal and that’s saying something coming from me because I run a debt free business and I watch every single dollar. You can even put it on as many sites as you want. I currently have it on three of my sites.
If you want to build your list while not annoying people then I think Popup Domination is an excellent choice.
Topics: email list, life, marketing, online marketing | 2 Comments »