Make More Money From Your Ideas

"How much information/detail should I put on my Web site?"

This depends very much on your business and the purpose of your Web site.

The broad answer to your question is, "As much as it takes to convince them to take the next step". For example, if you're selling a product directly from the site, give them enough information about the product to satisfy them and encourage them to click the "Order Now" link.

Most Web site owners don't put enough information about their products and services. This makes it really hard for the reader to make an informed buying decision.

There's a debate about whether to use long copy or short copy. In fact, both can work, but they both rely on making sure they answer the reader's question. As a general rule, most Web site owners could benefit by writing longer copy. But ... That only works if the longer copy is interesting to the reader.

Labels: copywriting, sales letter

"What is the best and quickest way to build an opt-in list with a brand new site and online business?"

The quickest way, by far, is to pay to get traffic to your site, and then offer those people something of value in return for their e-mail address.

For example, you could buy some Google advertising to lead people to the newsletter page on your Web site. Offer them a special report, e-book, checklist, survey or something else of value in exchange for them signing up to the newsletter.

You can do the same thing by buying an ad in an e-mail newsletter that serves the same market as you do. Or you can buy "exit traffic" from somebody (An example of exit traffic: After somebody buys a product from a Web site, they get taken to a thank-you page. The "exit traffic" is the link that they click on this thank-you page).

Labels: e-mail newsletter

"How do I promote my site in search engines, without a great time-lag between new pages uploaded and returns from the engines?"

Use Google AdWords.

This is by far the quickest way to get listed in Google. It does mean that you're paying them, but it also means that you get an extremely high level of control over your listing. Typically, I find that my ad gets listed within 5-10 minutes of me creating it! It also means that if the ad is not working, I can take it down within 5 minutes as well.

I think that perhaps you were asking about getting listed fast with the free listings. The trouble is that you have less control over the search engine "spiders" that crawl the Web regularly. That doesn't mean you're completely helpless, though. For example, if Google already knows about a page that's changing regularly (your blog, for example), it will visit that page more often. So you can add a link from that page to your new page, making it more likely to be listed quickly.

Labels: Google advertising, search engine listings

"How do I make my website hit the top ten or 20, when searching say in
Google (1ST WOULD BE BETTER). Is it to do with maths, in the construction of the site?"

The #1 factor that will get you to the top of search engines is to write valuable information that people would like to read. The search engine's job is to serve the searcher, not the Web site owner. The more relevant and topical your information, the better its chances of getting a high ranking.

After that, you can consider various techniques for adjusting your page to increase your ranking. There are a number of simple things you can do to enhance your Web page, and thus boost your ranking.

Labels: Google advertising, search engine listings

"Developing a website and associated newsletters that can be readily and easily transmitted to clients. At the moment I send out a monthly newsletter in Adobe format as an attachment that results in a long download time."

Adobe format (PDF) is excellent for e-books and special reports, but yes - I wouldn't recommend it for a regular newsletter.

If you'd like to write an attractive newsletter, it's best to send it in "HTML format" (this simply means that it looks like a Web page). Some people still like receiving plain text e-mail, though, so ideally you would offer them both options. Make sure that you use a tool that makes it easy to publish in both formats.

Labels: e-mail newsletter

"I have a grea idea for an Ebook! Nothing like it on the web. How do I sell it, put it into ebook form, etc.?"

First, are you sure that your idea is unique? Many entrepreneurs who have original ideas find that others are doing the same thing. So first do a quick Google search to see what else is around that solves the same problem.

Assuming your idea is unique and worth pursuing, the next step depends on your faith in the idea. If you really think it's going to be a winner, and it won't require you to mortgage your house and work 25-hour days to produce it, then go ahead and write the e-book.

If you'd like to be more cautious rather than diving in head first, I suggest that you do some simple market research first to determine whether people are searching for that topic area. Then, if you'd like to be even more sure, buy some Google advertising and run a free survey to find out what your customers are interested in.

Labels: market research, survey, Web strategy

"I would like to learn more about meta tags and other ways to optimize for search engines. What they are, where to find them, where to put them. I read articles all the time that tell you to use meta tags but no one says where to go to and put the keyword or whatever there for the meta tag. I see meta tags on the html for my website but is the information there not supposed to be there? Do I replace it or do I create my own?"

You've been slightly misinformed about meta tags, or perhaps you're reading material that is out of date. Search engines used to place a high emphasis on meta tags, but they don't do so any more because they are so easy for the Web site owner to manipulate.

Nowadays, search engines primarily look for high-quality content on your Web site. There are ways of adjusting your Web pages to attract the search engines, and it is important to know how to do it.

Labels: Google advertising, search engine listings

"My question is how to work out whether it would be worth putting all the time and effort into creating a particular product. I work within a fairly small target market, and have no idea whether or not they would bother to buy or read the sorts of things I am thinking of producing. They are busy people and tend to put all their time into money-making activities and their reading is mostly in their specialist area. I know you will say I need to do some research, but I am not even sure how to start this - what questions to ask. People can say that they would buy certain things or that they have certain problems but still they might not actually buy."

The good thing about people who spend all their time in money-making activities is that they are interested in making money! So, in some ways, it's easier to convince them to buy your stuff than to convince other people.

The real question is whether you have something of enough value to them.

I've fallen into the trap of writing e-books that I thought the market would buy, only to find that they are not interested.

So my suggestion is to write a brief but high-value e-book and offer it to them free, but get their name and e-mail address in return. If they take up the free offer, it doesn't necessarily mean that they will buy, but at least you have some idea that you're on the right track. But if you find that they don't even take up your free offer, it's an early warning signal!

What should go in your e-book? Stuff that's of high value to the reader, but also promotes yourself and your services. This is exactly the thinking behind my own free e-book, so download that as an example.

Labels: market research, providing value

"How do I drive the punters to the product/site?"

First, stop referring to them as "punters" :-) No, just kidding - I know that you don't mean this literally. However, there is something important here - make sure that you do think of them as valued customers when they visit your site.

Anyway, your question was about getting them there in the first place ... First make sure that you target the right market.

Then direct people to specific pages of your site, relevant to what they are interested in. I looked at your site, and I would recommend that you do not send them directly to the front page, which is just a useless splash page. Rather, get some Google advertising that takes them to specific pages.

Labels: Google advertising, market research, search engine listings

"Hello I am in the process of setting up a website. I am a facilitator / speaker / trainer in Ireland and wish to know whether to use my own name as a domain name or to come up with a catchy name for one of the products I provide."

First, whatever else you do, because you're a speaker, I strongly recommend that you do get the domain name matching your own name. It's becoming a standard practice now for speakers.

If your Web site is mostly about your speaking business, that might be enough. However, if you plan to do some serious work promoting your products, it's worth getting a separate domain name for each product. But only do this if you're really serious about promoting these products actively (for example, through Google advertising); otherwise, don't bother with the other domain names.

Labels: niche marketing

My Profitable Information Products Master Class is starting next month in Sydney. I've also been running a free 21-day mini-course on creating information products. This is one what one of the course participants had to say:

"I can really see why you say now that creating an e-book can be quite easy and simple. You have opened another world of possibilities here!"
--- Jasbindar Singh, Business Psychologist and Executive Coach, SQ Executive Management Consultancy Ltd, New Zealand

Sign up for the mini-course here (it's free!) or find out more about the Master Class.

You can also fast track the process of writing your own e-books.

Labels: e-books, writing

"What is the easiest type of eBook to use? And is also user friendly for the reader."

There are a number of e-book formats available, but I still think that Adobe Acrobat's Portable Document Format (PDF) is the best. It works on PCs and Macs, doesn't require the user to "install" the e-book (some other formats do!); and doesn't get blocked by virus checkers.

There are some good reasons to use other formats in certain situations. But they are generally less user-friendly. If you're planning to write and sell e-books, the last thing you want is to spend all your time supporting customers who can't open their e-book!

Labels: e-books, pdf

"How do I convert a small list of people who do not join or buy anything into a list that does both?"

First, convince them to join your list. You have to offer them something of value regularly in order to convince them to join your list and stay on it.

If your group is skeptical, make sure that you keep offering them lots and lots of value - at no charge - until they begin to trust you.

Then you can offer them products for sale. But do it gently! I recommend the 80/20 rule in all your mailing list communication: At least 80% free value, at most 20% advertising.

Good luck!

Labels: e-mail newsletter, providing value

"How do I make and manage an Affiliate Program for my site?"

You require some affiliate program software. You either install it on your site, or you use affiliate software that is installed on the vendor's site.

The affiliate program that most of the big-name Internet marketers use is called 1ShoppingCart. It's also available under different "private label" names, but in effect they are all the same. I am a customer, under the private label Web Marketing Magic.

Labels: affiliate marketing

"How do I get listings to promote my products/services/website? I have products (e.g. e-books), I have services (e.g. coaching), I am getting a website. How do I get my message to people?"

There are three types of people who visit your site: Let's call them "strangers", "friends" and "neighbours". Strangers are people who have never heard of you before; friends are your existing clients; neighbours are somewhere in between (i.e. they have heard of you but have never bought from you).

There are obviously more "strangers" than "friends" in the world, but it's also a lot harder to sell to strangers, especially when you're an unknown person and you're selling services rather than products. For example, most people will only work with a coach they trust, so it's very difficult to sell coaching services directly on the Web.

I recommend that you start by publishing an e-mail newsletter, where you consistently deliver value to your readers. This is the way that you keep in touch with your strangers and neighbours, so that they eventually become friends.

If you're looking to get more strangers to your site, get some Google advertising to lead them there. But still make sure that you offer them your e-mail newsletter rather than trying the "hard sell" right away.

It is possible to sell things like e-books directly on the Web, but it requires some work. You require:

• a clear idea of your market;
  
• targeted traffic looking for your product; and
  
• powerful sales letters that convince them to buy
  

Labels: internet marketing, traffic generation

"how do I promote my services on my website to the right market? for example i get a lot of weird inquiries from people that are clearly not my market or on the other side of the world so it wastes a lot of my time and they are not genuine buyers."

There are two parts to your question.

I guess you would first like to know how to eliminate the people who are not genuine buyers. My guess is that your Web site doesn't offer enough information for them to eliminate themselves. Is that the case? For example, if you don't work with international buyers, say so. If you're getting lots of enquiries from people who can't afford you, list your prices. If you're answering too many e-mail queries, ask for a phone number.

The second part is then how do you find the right market? There are some simple market research tools to narrow down your market, and exactly what they are looking for. Do that first, and then buy some cheap Google advertising to reach that market.

Labels: niche marketing

"How do I create a website that mimics the big companies offering the same types of services at affordable prices since I am doing my business out of pocket without traditional sources of financing?"

First, I recommend that you do not try to match the big companies. They have big advertising budgets, deep pockets, and frankly sometimes they really don't care whether their Web site is profitable. So do the things that the big companies are not doing.

For starters, whatever your market, can you find a niche market within it? It's easy to go broke trying to reach everybody on the Net! It's far better to find a smaller market and create products for that niche.

Next, don't spend big bucks on a Web site. Instead, start small and then do small things to improve it.

Also invest $100 or so in highly targeted Google ads. Do a simple survey, asking people what they would like to learn, and collect their e-mail addresses.

Only then should you start creating a product for that market.

Finally, start small and build on your success. In other words, if you can make $100, invest $50 of that in more Google ads. When you make $1,000, invest $500 in an affiliate program. And so on.

Labels: Google advertising, niche marketing

"how do I promote my site in search engines, without a great time-lag between new pages uploaded and returns from the engines?"

The simple solution is to pay for it! Sign up with Google AdWords and start driving traffic to your site.

One of the best things about Google AdWords is that you get almost instant exposure. Within a few minutes of submitting your ad, it will start appearing. You can also suspend the ad just as quickly, so if you find that getting traffic to your site is not creating the response you require, you can quickly stop it and re-work the site.

Labels: Google advertising

"How do I make a compelling marketing message, especially on a landing page?"

Steal it from somebody else!

Seriously, the best marketers and copywriters write their marketing messages by copying what they have done in the past, or copying bits and pieces from others. Of course, you have to do this in an ethical way, so that you're not copying somebody else's marketing material entirely (which probably won't work anyway)!

I write most of my marketing messages by dipping into a collection of successful sales letters from leading marketers. I recommend that you do the same.

Labels: copywriting, sales letter

"I'm interested in producing photographic e-books on a wide variety of subjects but especially on popular tourist destinations such as Broome, Canberra etc. What is the best way to market these e-books through my web site?"

Hmmm ... First, do you know whether there is a market for these e-books? In other words, are you sure that people are interested in buying an e-book with photographs of Broome, Canberra, etc.? If you're not yet sure, I suggest you invest in some low-cost market research first.

If there does seem to be a market, I suggest you start by creating just ONE e-book first, then give it away. Yep, that's right - start by giving it away free.

Do this by buying some cheap Google advertising to drive traffic to a page on your site. On that page, ask the person to give you their name and e-mail address in return for downloading your free e-book.

Then sit back and wait a while. You will soon find out (a) whether people are interested enough to visit your site, and (b) whether they are interested enough in the e-book to give you their name and e-mail address.

If you find that there is enough interest, great! You can now start charging money for it and start producing more e-books.

On the other hand, if there isn't enough of a market, consider whether you can spin off your idea into other products instead. For example, instead of just photographs, can you create downloadable wallpaper files for PCs? Or what about calendars? Or attach a quotation to each photograph and create an on-line course?

Whatever you do, I do strongly recommend that you do your research first and test it with a "pilot project".

Labels: e-books, free products, market research

"How much information/detail should I put on my Web site?"

The golden rule of writing Web pages is this: You can put as much detail as you like, as long as it's not boring.

Most Web site owners make the mistake of providing too little information, which makes it difficult for site visitors to make a decision (so they figure that it's too hard, and go somewhere else).

The solution is to provide as much information as you can, but always keeping the customer in mind, and always with a focus on the benefits of your products and services.

I write my sales letters by modelling them on other successful sales letters.

Labels: copywriting, sales letter

"I have noticed many personal development sites on the web how do I make mine stand out from the rest and making me money?"

This is a great question, and it applies to every field, not just personal development.

First, the fact that there are many such sites on the Web is a good sign, because there is obviously a high demand for it.

To stand out from the rest, you have to be offering something that people want. Note: I didn't say that it has to be something different from everybody else; but it does have to be something in demand.

If you're not sure what people want, you do have to start with some market research. Find out what people are searching for, what they would like to know, and what sort of people are looking for this information.

Then you must collect e-mail addresses and publish an e-mail newsletter or on-line courses. Keep sending them information of value so that they remain on the list. Also consider publishing an e-book of value to your market.

Labels: e-mail newsletter

"I already have a web site which is specific to my name - which is also the name i trade under. When i type in my name to google, the response is always other peoples web sites first. If my web site is specific to my name, why do other sites come before mine and how do i raise mine to number one?"

The simple answer: Pay for it. Buy some Google advertising that is based on your name. Chances are you won't have to pay a lot for these ads (unless you're famous or share the name with a famous person)! So this is a very cost-effective way of getting a high place in Google for your own name.

Labels: Google advertising

"What are the hottest sellers on websites?"

There are a number of tools for finding out what topics are current "hot sellers". For example, one such tool is inventory.overture.com, which allows you to type in some words and see how many times they have been searched in the last 30 days.

This tool is just one of the ways to do Internet market research. Other ways include checking the Amazon.com bestseller lists, checking PayPal merchant lists, and using Google advertising to find popular topics. Find out more here about finding hot topics and responsive customers.

Labels: niche marketing

"How do I discover how many people are searching for our products via search engines?"

Start at inventory.overture.com, a free tool for finding out what people are searching for, and how many times they search for something in the last 30 days. This tool is just one of the ways to do Internet market research.

By investing a few dollars in Google advertising, you can also find out exactly what search phrases people use in Google.

Labels: Google advertising, market research

"I do search engine marketing (SEO) and am having trouble marketing my services. How do I find new, larger clients?"

Hmmm ... First, be aware that if you're marketing on the Internet, you're marketing in the most competitive market on the planet! By definition, you're competing with the best search engine marketers in the world.

That said, there's still more demand than supply for this service, so you can certainly succeed.

I suggest that you start with a free e-book, something like Seven Internet Marketing Mistakes That Could Cost You Thousands of Dollars, and use that as a marketing tool to open the doors for clients. In other words, give it away free as a way of demonstrating your credibility.

It's easy to write and publish this e-book on your Web site, then give it away.

Labels: e-books, free products, internet marketing

"How do I make my website selling hair care products stand out from all the rest, are there any key words I should use?"

One of the best places to start is inventory.overture.com, a free tool for finding out what people are searching for. Type in the key words and phrases for your products and see what comes up. You might find that some phrases are more popular than others, so make sure you use those phrases on your Web site.

This tool is just one of the ways to do Internet market research.

Labels: niche marketing

SecurePay, an Australian e-commerce provider, has an on-line payment form that forces the customer to convert their payment amount into cents:



How crazy is this??? I mean, how hard is it for a computer to convert a dollar figure into cents? Why force the user to jump through hoops, especially when they are paying you money!

A good e-commerce system should, of course, accept amounts in dollars!

Labels: shopping cart