| © Dale
Armin Miller
Mystery
I've got an idea: Let's
all get on the Internet -- the money'll just roll in,
and we'll all get rich.
So I did. (Apparently
you did too.)
I even got an email
account. But nobody sent me their orders.
Then one day I got the
idea, "Why don't *I* send an email message to
someone?"
So I wrote to my
brother. (I think it went, "Can you see
this?") Still nothing ... not even from my brother.
Then some guy came up
with web pages. BIG print. Colors. Some use for pictures
other than in newsgroups. I knew this was the answer.
I made my first web
page. And this time I didn't wait: I wrote my brother
immediately. (I think it went, "Can you see this?
http://dip.stick.awol.com/Dale943567792/look@me/sendme$.htm")
I'm not sure my brother
really likes me. I thought, "Just to be safe, maybe
I need to tell somebody else about my brilliant web
page."
Eventually I got around
to trying free online classified ads. And ya know what?
They worked. People came to my web page. Except for my
brother ... or maybe he's still waiting for it to finish
downloading.
More importantly,
people gave me money at my web page!
(Well, not at my first
site ... but that's another story. Yes, Virginia, there
*is* a point to this story.)
So I posted more
classified ads. And more people came.
More classified ad
sites sprang up. Then more and more. So many that I
found it worth the $20 to send off for Mr. E's "Top
50 Free Classified Ad Sites" list. And that worked
so well that I finally contacted Mr. E about buying the
rights to his list.
At this point, a few
months ago, there are 12 zillion classified sites
[Zillion's Notta Word e-zine, Oct. '98]. So I thought
I'd have a field day selling Mr. E's --not his real
name-- list. But ...
A Funny Thing Happened
On The Way To The Cash Hose
I had taken several
months off from posting, to refine --and sell!-- another
approach to generating web site visits. Because I had
stopped paying attention to classified sites, another
test of Mr. E's list was in order; I wanted to advertise
up-to-date results.
But the response rate
was off. Down. Way down.
I did another test with
a valuable freebie, and compared the results to other
advertising. The Top 50 Free Classified Ad Sites, my
next big money-making project ... sucked. No way could I
ask people to pay money for that.
What had happened? (And
how can you profit from this?)
I'd done something I
vow to never repeat. This is *Internet* marketing. With
so many people coming online for the first time every
day, old patterns quickly break down. And I, "I had
stopped paying attention" to an online marketing
method.
Still, all I had to do
was remember what was going on just before I stopped
paying attention: "More classified ad sites sprang
up. Then more and more." Now that I was thinking
about it, what would happen next was obvious:
Software that helps
people post ads faster will be invented and/or become
popular. More and more people will use it. Competition
will spring up, forcing the price down, which will
increase the numbers using it...
I didn't need to look
to see if that was going to happen, I only needed to see
if it happened *yet.* (And my test results already told
me it had.)
How To See The Future
For Fun And Profit
This is especially
simple while the Internet's growth rate stays high:
Whenever you notice more and more people doing
something, you can be sure there will soon be software
to make that easier. So just imagine what things will be
like when large numbers of people are using that
software. Now you can see the future. Next, look around
in that future for marketing opportunities. Now you know
what's going to happen and you can be ready to take
advantage of it! (Isn't that what you've always wanted?)
Got it?
(Even better, you might
try what I'm doing: learn a scripting language so you
can invent the software yourself.)
Give you an example?
Funny you should ask. I
just happen to be finishing up a story that does exactly
that.
To recap: People in my
target market --online entrepreneurs-- used to go to
classified sites to post their ads, where they would see
my ad. But now fewer and fewer of them were even seeing
the classified sites. So I needed to change that
strategy.
Question: Is there
something that more and more of them *are* doing? Yes,
posting to classified sites automatically. Is there a
way to take advantage of that? How can I advertise to
them as a result of their automated posting? (What do
they want more and more of?)
One answer is to have a
free-classified site of my own. (Why stop at one?) And
when someone posts an ad to it, my autoresponder sends
them an email confirmation ... along with my
order-pulling, power-word-packed killer ad copy:
"Can you see this?"
Now, I've been talking
about free classifieds. But I needn't have been. If you
go back and replace "classifieds" with
"links page," for example, everything still
holds.
Get it? Let's see:
TAKE-HOME QUIZ (that
can make you money!)
1) [10 points] More and
more people are now getting their own free-classifieds
site. Come up with at least one marketing opportunity
that will result from the existence of software that
makes it even easier for them to do that.
2) [90 points] Notice
something else that more and more people are doing
online. Come up with at least one marketing opportunity
that will result from the existence (and falling price)
of software that makes it easier for them to do that.
3) [extra credit] Send
me the resulting profits.
-------------------------------------
This is from the Creating Value section of The
Internet Marketing Success Arsenal![sm] The
author is busy there stockpiling Internet- marketing
resources, tactics, and tools for small and home
businesses. You don't need a security clearance just to
visit -- but no smoking within 500 feet. http://successarsenal.com/wow/reprt3482a/index.html
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