| © Dale
Armin Miller
Part A: Example
Yahoo! still gets the
most --sometimes, second-most-- hits of any site. So the
thing they're doing must work. So why did they start
advertising on TV? Why did they mess with their secret
formula?
They didn't mess with
it!
The "secret
formula" is to do EVERYTHING that will bring people
to your site over the long term.
Sometimes airplanes
crash. When they do, you'll hear it on the news because
the event is so rare. Sometimes people get rich from a
single act. When they do, you'll hear it on the news
because the event is so rare.
Success USUALLY comes
from doing a lot of little things that work.
Here is a not-so-little
thing that works for me and others online.
I have a point to make
(actually, two points) that should MAKE YOU MONEY! But
you won't get that point unless you first read ...
+++++++++++++ Stalking
The Internet Cash Hose +++++++++++++
© Dale Armin Miller
Most people using the
Internet live in the United States. We have attention
spans of ... Hey, you've stopped reading already? And we
want what we want when we want it -- which is always
yesterday. That makes us world-renowned consumption
addicts, and suckers for a great pitch. But if your
pitch is a great one, you'd better have a way of getting
whatever you're selling to us yesterday. Which is one of
the marketing virtues of the web: instant downloads and
other kinds of immediate gratification.
But if you're
marketing, you want money in return for that download.
Up front. And your manner of collecting that money had
better be as quick as the download. Or else you are
losing money.
Now, if you're
promoting someone else's program, they have
almost-certainly solved the instant-pay problem for you.
But, if you really want to make a killing on the web,
you have --or are at least working on-- your own
program. And that means *you* have to solve the
instant-pay problem: How do you funnel money from other
people's bank accounts into your bank account before
they forget having ever read your great pitch? How do
you get your turn at the Internet cash hose?
In other words, how do
you accept check and credit-card payments over the
Internet?
I tried selling a
reasonably good service on the web. I even started out
with a few hundred visitors to my website the first
couple weeks. But people had to mail me a check or money
order. I never made one sale. (I should also mention
that, at the time, despite a few decades of successful
marketing experience, I had yet to realize how to adapt
that to the Internet.) So I set about trying to arrange
accepting credit cards over the Internet.
With hindsight, I
should have anticipated the problem. I have been online
since 1984, and used the Internet from the beginning. So
it seems well-established to me. But it only began to
enter public awareness in late 1995, as the world-wide
web aspect developed. And, to a banker, that's
yesterday. Not to mention that, since there can be no
signature received nor is the a card present to be
swiped, this would be lumped together with telephone
sales -- which bankers have learned to distrust.
I still don't think
that gave my banker the right to laugh at me!
Eventually, savvy
marketers began to convince a couple bankers that there
is an untapped, hungry market. Us! We were --and are--
desparate enough that the banks could charge higher
processing fees in return for what they perceive as a
higher risk.
And credit-card
acceptance began infiltrating the Internet. (Strangely
enough, that's about the time advertising began to sweep
the Internet. Strangely enough, that's about the time
the Internet began to be promoted in the popular media.)
Savvy marketers --the
same ones, for the most part-- realized that we wanted
more than just banks to accept our submissions. We also
need a way to collect the card information in the first
place. And a way to transmit that information to the
bank. So full-service merchant-account providers were
born. They arrange bank approval (for
"anyone," they claim). And they have software
for collecting the credit-card charge submission,
securely transmitting it to the bank, transferring the
money to your bank, and keeping records of the
transactions. The marketers make money by selling or
leasing the software to us, usually on their server.
I'm simplifying
somewhat. This is more and more what it looks like to us
clients. But usually there is a conglomeration of up to
six companies needed to make this all work seemlessly.
(I am mentioning this for a reason.)
As soon as I became
aware of one of these full-service merchant-account
providers, I signed up. All my savings as downpayment,
all my earnings each month until the year 2175, and my
first-born child. (I'm exaggerating: I don't have any
children.) I was that convinced it would make a major
difference in my online marketing.
(Fortunately, I was
correct. On my very next Internet venture, I made $2,000
the first eight days. Although I like to think that's
not entirely due to my ability to accept credit cards
and checks.)
Almost as soon as I was
approved, however, another full-service merchant-account
provider sprang up. And less-expensive! I could have
kept my first-born child. Then another that paid
commissions. And another cheaper still. And another with
more benefits.
At first I got
depressed. But I hate being depressed. It depresses me.
So I collected the URL's (Internet addresses) of the
companies and let my friends know about the various
providers. At least *they* would benefit from the lower
prices and variety of services.
Lately, people have
made available some free (!) Perl code that solves a
piece or two of the puzzle. If you know how to knit
scripts into your web pages, this can leave a whole
company out of the loop ... and save you money.
My list of online
e-commerce resources grew past a dozen. Someone said,
"Why are you sending that by email? This is the
world-wide web. You could just set up a site with that
information on it and refer people to that. Plus,
everyone would have access. Don't you wish *you* would
have had access to something like that?" (Actually,
I said it -- but I don't want you to know that I talk to
myself.)
So I did.
I set up a free site.
It's called GetPaidOnline.com [tm]. Naturally, you are
cordially invited to stop by and check out the resources
for yourself.
I also bought the
resale rights to a software program that allows you to
take checking-account information given to you by your
customers, and print a check right from your printer.
Your bank will actually accept it! For the moment, I am
*giving* that software away. Just download it at the
site. (No catch. No one else to pay. You don't even have
to sign up for the newsletter. Just free.)
_____________________________________________________________
Part B: So What?
At what point did you
first realize that article was promoting something?
When I was only 18,
Zero Population Growth made me Director of Public
Relations. They did that because I was so successful at
getting TV and newspaper coverage, at --at root--
writing press releases. I'm not telling you that so
you'll think I'm cool. (Well, who knows?) I'm telling
you that so you know that I really do know what a proper
press release is.
And what you just read
AIN'T. It breaks many of 'the rules' for writing a press
release
In fact, it breaks many
rules of just plain writing -- good grammer, for
example.
Yet, it is a press
release. Advertising GetPaidOnline was my whole purpose
in writing. More importantly, it is a SUCCESSFUL press
release; and here's why I say that:
Results
I submitted it to one
ezine, in which it was published. Another editor saw it
and asked to put it in his ezine. A third --with 40,000
subscribers-- published it without even asking. My home-
page accesses went from zero per day to a hundred per
day.
And that was just the
first week!
In fact, seven months
after I wrote it, it's STILL generating hits! Other
ezines published it. People put it on their sites. Just
last week, a bartering system asked if they could add it
to their members-only section.
Will all that make me
independently wealthy? No. Was it a productive use of
those few hours? Hell, yes! (So much so that I did it
some more.)
Will doing that
yourself make you wealthy? No. Can doing SEVERAL things
like that make you wealthy? YES:
If you do only 20
things --one small step at a time-- that each bring you
only 50 INTERESTED visitors per day, you will have 1,000
INTERESTED visitors per day!
Even better, do 100
things that each bring you 100 interested visitors per
day. Then you will have TEN THOUSAND *INTERESTED*
VISITORS PER DAY.
(If it wasn't clear
before, that should clarify why the Arsenal! is so
wide-ranging.)
This technique can not
only be one of those things, it can be *most* of them:
_____________________________________________________________
Part C: How YOU Can Get
That Attention
Step One
Write SOMETHING. Ezine
publishers are really picky about this. They will not
publish something that doesn't exist. The same with
webmasters.
"But I can't come
up with what to write."
YES YOU CAN.
DO THIS: Open Notepad;
stare at the white space. No music; no TV. You'll get
bored. (Ten seconds?) Just stay there. Eventual- ly,
you'll get SO bored that even writing is better than
staring at that white space. That's why Notepad: Just
white space -- no cute little icons or dancing paper
clips to enter- tain you. Your subconscious will
eventually come up with something, just like it does
when you're trying to get to sleep. (You can identify
with that, can't you?)
You may need to try
this more than once, but it will work!
That's part of why I
gave you that example. Not because I think it's
particularly good. But it came out all at once, at one
sitting, pretty much the way it looks now. I sat down
every day for a week TRYING to write something ... but
once anything came out, it all came.
Absolutely do not edit
anything that does come up; save editing for a different
day altogether.
Be yourself: "At
first I got depressed. But I hate being depressed. It
depresses me."
"But I don't write
as well as you."
Oh, come on: "At
first I got depressed. But I hate being depressed. It
depresses me." You can do better than that! (Your
mind will say with anything to avoid writing.)
Step Two
Start your editing of
the result of Step One so that it has something to do
with your product or service. (If this turns out to be
impossible, start again at Step One.) If you thought
this was already implied in Step One, you're making Step
One too hard.
Step Three
This is the only rule
for writing press releases that I care about:
Who wants your product
or service? What do they want to know about? What do
they want? Start editing the result of Step Two with
them in mind. (If that's impossible, start again at Step
One.) This will automatically make it of interest to
editors of ezines and other publications that cater to
your audience.
Step Four
Now --only now-- start
checking for things like, "Is this a
sentence?" "Does it make sense?" Spell
check. Have someone else read it.
Step Five
Submit to editors.
(Look in the Arsenal! section Ezines, for example.)
Submit. Submit. Submit.
Step Six
Whether or not that one
gets published, start again at Step One.
DO IT.
...or not. It's your
life. You can spend all of it looking for THE NEXT BIG
THING that "works" (the killer app, the killer
program), but doesn't. Or you can start spending all of
your working time doing little things that actually do
work ... like the people at Yahoo! do.
-------------------------------------
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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