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Stinky Firesales and Worthless JV Giveaways

May 17th, 2008Rants No Comments

It most be something foul burning in that fire sale I’ve been emailed about (and asked to JV for lol,) because I smell a rat.

I received some emails promoting a Firesale of Internet Marketing products by one of the latest up and coming young “gurus.” It seems he is a bit short of funds after moving into his new mansion. Give me a break. I’m not naming any names.

And on to another pet peeve. JV Giveaways. Now we’ve got marketers charging a fee for entrance into these “giveaways.” Yes I’ve used and recommended them for list building in the past. At the time there were maybe 50 participants in a nice effort. Now there are hundreds.

As a partner, after the giveaway is over, you might get an email summary of the event. You find that around six or seven thousand signed up in total. You were lucky and got maybe three hundred on your list because there were 300 other offers in the JV. Of course your people got on fifty other lists at the same time. Inevitably they get email overload and unsubscribe from most or even all of the lists they subscribed to.

The ones that are left on your list are mostly freebie seekers. My results with them have ranged from fair to dismal. I know there is a way to “groom” these freebie seekers and build a meaningful relationship. But I have better uses for my time.
At the end of a JV giveaway the sponsors of the event end up with all the email addresses. So the lesson in this is hold your own JV Giveaway event.

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Online Money Making Programs - A Recipe for Failure?

January 14th, 2008Rants No Comments

Online Money Making Programs.

This topic was posted to an online marketing forum where I am a moderator. The fellow was asking about promoting some “money making programs,” which I won’t name. He really had no idea about the programs concerned. His only desire was to make money from them.

Here’s my reply:

Investing in some program that you have no knowledge of or real interest in is almost always a recipe for failure. If you concentrate on a topic you are interested in, it makes the work seem like fun. If you are really passionate about it, so much the better. And if you can’t think of a topic you know, pick one you’d like to learn more about.

For some reason people think that because we’re on the Internet what people buy is somehow different. So there are thousands of “money making programs.”

If someone was sitting across from you in a restaurant booth, could you convince them to buy these programs? I don’t think the majority of the public even knows what ~~Forex~~ is.

But you probably could get them to at least look at something that solved a problem they were having; like training their dog, how to get a date, how to put some spark their marriage, or potty training their child, or ways to improve their credit - really the list of problems people encounter in their lives is almost endless.

They all need fresh information to help solve their day to day problems. Sell your own info or show them how and where to get the info from elsewhere.

One other tip: make sure there is money being spent on the topic. I just go into Commission Junction and start with the ones that pay the most. Somewhere in there will be something that pays well and holds my interest.

You’re welcome to comment. What do you think, are you really investing in these “money making programs,” or just throwing your money away?

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Nitty Gritty Marketing (Not)

October 24th, 2007Rants, Strategy No Comments

This isn’t a pitch to buy Jermaine Griggs’ Internet Marketing course. I don’t have a clue whether it’s any good or not, and that’s not the point.

I do know that Jermaine Griggs built his business over time, and that he was able, with the help of Corey Rudl’s IMC, and other resources, to make some major jumps in his business.

Repeat, over time. It wasn’t instant.

I also know that his business had nothing to do with promoting Internet Marketing info, although he’s doing it now. Jermaine’s business is teaching people how to play the piano by ear. He was able to take his talent and passion for this subject and make it into a really successful business.

You probably are wondering what this has to do with you, so here it is.

What are you passionate enough about, what talents do you have, what ideas of your own can you generate to make into your own successful internet business?

Time after time I see people start niche sites, ebay sales ventures, resell rights peddling, and other attempts at a business with no real idea about the subject, no real passion for the subject, and no real direction for their business. Their ventures fizzle.

But how many people thought that there was a real business in teaching people how to play piano by ear? At the beginning of Jermaine’s business I bet there weren’t many. They may have laughed when Jermaine sat down at the piano…..

I’m not promoting Jermaine’s course. I’m just asking you to do some soul searching and see if you aren’t missing something that could be really big, something you’re already good at, something at which other people already see you as an expert.

If so, forget about everything else for a while. Take your passion and run with it.

If you love your work it doesn’t seem like a job. And that can give you the energy to take it way farther than anyone thinks is possible. To me, that’s the lesson from Jermaine Griggs’ Nitty Gritty Marketing.

Is Your Email Address Professional?

September 26th, 2007Rants, Strategy 1 Comment

One thing that always gets me is what people call themselves online. At one of my offline jobs, it was my duty to field all email inquiries. I’d get emails from “badd*sscop (a real county sheriff,) cutesexyjulie (actually over 60,) etc. I got to know some of these people when they became customers, so these are real examples.

So here’s an earth shattering revelation for you. If you have an email address that you named in order to attract members of the same or opposite sex, or strike fear in the hearts of others, perhaps it isn’t the best thing to use as a business email address.

I shouldn’t have to elaborate, but for the sake of the clueless I will. If your email address is bigbadboy at whatever. com this isn’t professional. If your email is hotlittlechick or bighotmama at wherever. com this isn’t professional either.

Besides sex, other email handles to avoid - anything relating to games, your parenting status, bad habits, violence, religion, or politics. I know I’m missing some other no-nos, but the point is to have a professional sounding email address, as people will judge you by it.

So what’s a simple and professional email address? How about your name at your domain? How simple is that? Of course if you have a hate mongering or porn site you’ll need an alternative.

If you want to use a free web based email provider like Yahoo, Hotmail (urk!) or GMail (Yeah!) then you can still have your name at your domain forwarded into your webmail account. That way you can keep that hunky or babe-like email address for more personal use.

Or at the free email providers a little creativity (like inserting periods in your name) will get you a professional sounding name. Perhaps if it’s not too common, even your own name might be available.

If you just don’t want to put your real name online for some reason there’s always the defaults: webmaster, admin, siteadmin, etc.

As always, in your online business, my advice is to keep things on a professional basis, unless or until the person on the other end is your friend. Your friends may not judge you, but almost everyone else online certainly will. So if you don’t already have one, get yourself a professional email address. And use it.