HawkinzWeb Blog

Many people believe that I am against list building because of my general opposition to list builders. This is actually slightly inaccurate, what I have reservations about is specific aspects of list building, namely the way and why of list building.

Too often I see people being taught and sold List Building as though it is the end in itself – if you have a big list, you will have big sales. This sadly is a mis-conception that benefits only those selling the list building, not the person doing the building.

The list is nothing more than a means to acheiving an end, to think it is anything more than that is to be setting yourself up for disappointment. Once you understand this, you’ll understand why I distinguish between list building and list builders.

While it is true a bigger list will give potentially a bigger return, it is not guaranteed.

A list is an opportunity to get to know like-minded people better, it is not a short cut to instant profits.

A list can be created in a variety of ways, and the way you generate your list will influence the effectiveness of the list.  The most common methods are:

• By offering people a freebie to subscribe to your list
• By selling a product or service
• By joining an opt-in list program
• By buying a commercial list

All these methods have strengths and weaknesses, and this will affect how effective they are.

By offering people a freebie to subscribe to your list
You will often see this done where someone says “get xyz for free” and require you to send your name and/or email address to receive the gift.  This can seem a very effective way of building a list if the freebie has apparent value, but a lot of these people will only be after the freebie and have no interest in you or what else you may be offering, and so will either
a) unsubscribe
b) block your mail; or
c) report you for spamming because they do not believe that requesting the freebie was giving you permission to continue to email them.

By selling a product or service
This is a very common method where a person provides an ongoing service, eg traffic exchange, web hosting; or sells a product or service, eg web design, e-book.  This method of list building has been used for years by companies working off-line to develop massive mailing lists, although in recent years the trend has increasingly been for companies to offer an opt-out/opt-in option to customers.  It has the advantage that the members are more likely to be interested in what you are offering as they have demonstrated a proven interest in the past, but can still leave you vulnerable to claims of abuse if members feel you’re sending too many emails or that you did not make it clear that you were adding their details to a list.

By joining an opt-in list program
This is where I have the most concerns about the reasoning of people joining and using the list.  Many of these programs advertise themselves as offering you the chance to send your advert to 1000’s of people.  What they omit to mention is that you will be receiving counter-offers from 1000’s of people.  99% of the people on the list are there to sell you what they are offering and not to buy what you are offering – after all that is why you joined – to sell something!  As a result many members start to filter the list emails out, so your offer is being ignored by most of the membership, so the list has suddenly effectively shrunk in size.

By buying a commercial list
This is by no means cheap, but hopefully the members of the list will have been pre-screened and opted in to receiving emails.  The effectiveness of the list will be largely dependant on how well the screening process was carried out.  The closer the screening process is to matching list recipients to your target market, the greater the chance of getting a good response, but this comes at a price.

If you understand that the effectiveness of the list you build is directly related to how you built it, and how you interact with it, then you will be better able to make your list more responsive.  Every list will be different because the membership will be different from person to person, but if you start by remembering that the list is comprised of real people not gaping wallets, you will be starting on the path to building an effective, responsive list.
When addressing your list, start by asking yourself “what do the recipients want?” and then once you have identified their needs, then ask “how can I supply a solution to that need?”
If you are selling refrigeration equipment, and your list is eskimos – you will struggle to make sales.  If you believe that eskimos want a secure storage facility for fish they have caught, and you have a lockable fridge – now you have a selling point to your offer.  Don’t be afraid to ask your list what they want, even if you can not supply it, you have more information about what they are thinking – plus you build credibility, as you now give them the opportunity to enter into a dialogue with you and develop your relationship.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Mirror, Mirror on the wall,
What kind of marketer is coming to call?

The way you go about marketing yourself, and your products, will have a big impact on the way your customers, and potential customers, will view you.

If you come over with a brash, agressive sales pitch, your customers will, rightly or wrongly,  assume that you are brash and pushy too.  Likewise if you are too timid and appologetic with your marketing, your customers will assume that you are too.

So, you need to decide what kind of image do you want to convey to your customers, and what kind of image are you actually conveying with your marketing material?  If you are using a pre-formatted sales copy, then you are stuck with the company image – which is fine if that is the image you feel is appropriate to you, but disasterous if you do not.  Remember, you may respond well to one style of marketing, but this may not be the image you wish to project.

Using your own material will give you far more control over what you are saying, and how you are saying it – plus it will help you differentiate yourself from other people promoting the same company – branding YOU and not the COMPANY ie.

Now you do not need to throw away everything that you have been given, often the material will contain useful information and if nothing else will act as a clue to what the company sees as its best selling points.  Use the material as a starting point, and adapt it to suit you and your marketing methods.  If the company has a long sales page and you are promoting it on Traffic Exchanges, especially one like Traffic-Splash,  where your actual exposure is going to be a few seconds if you are lucky, then take 2 or 3 key points (or things that make the company/product stand out) and Highlight them in a splash page.  If you do not know how to make splash pages, or do not have the time, then get someone to do it for you.  If you want a free splashpage maker, with hosting and built in roatator and tracker, the TEToolbox is a great solution. Alternatively consider an independent Web Design provider, such as HawkinzWeb Designs

Once you have identified your style, adapt it to the medium you are going to be promoting in:-
if you are sending out emails, you want to have a snappy, attention grabbing subject line that is still accurate (nothing more frustrating than mis-leading subject lines) Put the Key point you want to emphasise in the first paragraph.
if you are promoting on Traffic Exchanges or Paid to Read/Click then the simple fact of life is that most people will be viewing several pages at once, so you need again to get their attention FAST, splash pages are good for this – they are short and to the point.  You can use either as a lead capture page, or as a lead-in page to your main sales page.  Your initial page needs to be attention grabbing and ‘different’ to the run-of-the-mill pages they normally see.

Remember YOU are are what your customers SEE on the internet, so make sure your IMAGE says what you want it to be saying.

Popularity: 58% [?]

I recently came across the following item, and it raised the question of Exercising Due Diligence when online -  Truth About Internet Marketers

Now, you will often hear ‘experts’ telling you to “exercise due diligence”
but what is it, and how do you do it?

Due diligence is nothing more than taking the time to research the company / individual you are planning to do business with. The amount of research will be in proportion to the amount of money and time you intend to spend. (remember – time is money)

One of the more bizarre phenomenon is that often the same people who are advocating due diligence will be the same people who then send a mass email asking you to join their latest program, and that “you want to get in now before everyone else does”

Having done your due diligence – Act on it!
If you were invited to join a program and your research reveals something of concern to you, share it with the person who invited you – this is the essence of relationship marketing – a 2 way dialogue.  Ultimately, you will have to make the decision – not everyone will share the same criteria and requirements of a ’suitable’ business opportunity.  If you decide not to go ahead with a business opportunity, and someone else does – this should not of itself necessarily be a stumbling block, although it may ultimately impact on your future decisions.

Popularity: 82% [?]

There is an old saying that “there is no such thing as a free lunch” and this holds true in the Traffic Exchange industry.

Sadly, this basic concept is often over-looked or mis-understood, not only by Traffic Exchange members, but more importantly by Traffic Exchange program owners!

Many people mistaken believe that because a credit does not cost any money to create it is therefore without cost. This is to totally fail to appreciate that the currency of traffic exchanges is credits not cash. If an exchange ‘charges’ a free member 3 page views to receive 1 page view (one credit) then every credit that is given to a free member that they do not ‘earn’ is actually 3 page views that have not been delivered.

This leads on to the whole concept of credit stock or inventory, and stockpiling. While there is no problem with a little stockpile, or reserves, on either side – it is when it gets too large that problems can occur. If a member has too many unused credits then there is a reduced incentive to surf. This then leads to a reduction in traffic delivery, and so these credits take longer to be converted and so last longer, reducing the incentive to surf, and so a vicious spiral begins. To break the spiral, the excess credits need to be taken out of the system by inducing the member to use them on non-traffic delivery items eg banners, text ads, competitions, etc. Often a program owner will introduce measures to prevent members from stockpiling credits by introducing either limits on the total amount of unassigned credits or enforcing a minimum level of credits being assigned.

Often these problems are triggered by program owners giving away too many credits, either as sign up bonuses, or as competition bonuses.

Likewise if a Program Owner has too many credits that are not being used on sites for display then you can get the “seen that” syndrome, where members are seeing the same sites repeatedly.  This can be resolved by releasing more credits back to members either in the form of bonuses or in credit sales.

A good, vibrant exchange should have a good selection of sites in rotation, with prompt and reliable delivery.

Popularity: 80% [?]

A lot of traffic exchanges ban so called ‘investment surfs’ and auto-surfs, and with reason.

BUT, and this is a big BUT, many are confusing facts with perceptions and heresay.

Before I explain, I want to clarify what I mean by certain terms, so that there is no mis-understanding.

Autosurf – sometimes called non-click surfing, are traffic exchanges that automatically rotate advertised websites in your web browser without requiring any additional intervention by the ’surfer’
Manual Surf – sometimes called click surfing, are traffic exchanges that rotate advertised websites in your browser when the surfer ‘interacts’ with the page – either by clicking on something, or hovering their cursor over something.
Investment Surf, sometimes (inaccurately) called Paid-To-Surf or autosurf, are traffic exchanges (Autosurf OR Manual surf) where to earn money surfing, members must pay a fee and are then promised a certain return on their fee. The “investment” is claimed to be a membership or upgraded membership fee and the “return”, a per-site commission.This fee can usually vary from a few cents to tens of dollars, and the minimum and maximum is set by the site operator. The program then offers a commission based on the member’s account level for viewing a minimum number of sites, for example, for a period of X days, every day that the member views Y sites, Z% of the upgrade fee will be credited and can be withdrawn from the site. The product of Z% and X is always over 100% to ensure that the member makes a profit.

Now, the problem with this model is that in order to generate the funds necessary to make this payment, the program owner has to get the money from somewhere else. If the program is not generating enough non-membership fee revenue to meet these payments, then the only options are to not pay, or use the fees from newer members to pay older members and so heads straight into the realms of ponzis and pyramid schemes.

However, it is possible to generate enough revenue from other, non-member fee sources to cover this. Possible sources of revenue are:

• Banners
• Text Ads
• Upgrades
• Credits
• Non-Member adverts

The other aspect that will affect the feasability of the payment structure is the amount and frequency of payments made – it is going to be harder to maintain a 110% of investment every 10 days than it is to maintain 105% of investement every 50 days.
The problem being, the first option is going to attract more people than the second one, even though the first one is less likely to be sustained.

So, to run an investment surf over a longer term, you need to actually discourage the traditional ‘quick buck’ member, for one who is prepared to look longer term and accept lower payments, as in addition to meeting the members payments you will also need to pay for the normal running costs of a online program. Ironically this is actually the type of member often found on the traditional non-investment surf traffic exchanges, yet often these are the members who are frightened off by the tales of scams and failed programs.

Now I started by saying that many exchanges ban investment surfs with reason, and that is because many owners do not plan how to grow their exchange in a sustainable manner, and so the exchange runs into cash-flow problems and fold leaving members unpaid. Which creates bad feeling, and bad publicity, for the Traffic Exchange industry as a whole.

So, in summary:

A investment surf, if carefully managed, with sustainable investment and payment models can survive and prosper amongst other non-investment surf models.
Many investment surf programs will fail due to poor management.
Because of these 2 facts, a newcomer to the traffic exchange industry would be advised to avoid starting their first exchange on the investment surf model until they have more experience of how traffic exchanges work from an administrative perspective.

Popularity: 85% [?]

mis-conceptions of internet marketing

Many new-comers enter the world of internet marketing lured by promises of ‘riches to be made on the net’. Firstly let me make it clear, some people are working exclusively online, and making a very comfortable living doing so; but the majority are not!

So what is going wrong – what happened to those fabulous riches for all that we keep hearing about? The majority of these programs are designed to make themselves appealing (it’s called marketing folks) but the reality is not quite the same – it is possible for anyone to acheive the results promised, but they have to be extremely dedicated, and know what they are doing! Lets face it – virtually anyone can learn to read, but if you are not taught how to do it – the chances of acheiving it just by looking at a book are pretty small.

There are some programs which are sadly designed solely to attract as much money as possible for the program owner, with no intention of sharing that wealth – the old adages of
“buyer beware”
and
“if it looks too good to be true, it probably is”
are just as true online as they are offline.

More interesting is the case of the ‘offers’ where they tell you that this ebook, or program is worth $57 or $89 (or whatever price they pluck from the air) but they are offering it for only $9 but you have to buy RIGHT NOW or you will miss this fabulous offer! Next time you see one of these offers, STOP and think – if I buy a burger for $1 and tell you I would normally sell it to you for $5 but as a special, one time only offer, I will sell you it for $2 how much is this burger worth? If you said anything other than $1 then you have been hoodwinked!

Too often people lead with their wallets and not their common sense – a “great deal” is only a great deal if it is actually worth it to you. Do you need what they are offering, or could your time and money be better spent learning to use those tools you already have more efficiently?

I often hear people saying that they are leaving online marketing because they are making no money at it, and yet when you examine what they have been doing, too often you see that what they are experiencing is a lack of realisation of a dream because they were not understanding what they were doing, or what they needed to be doing to change things; or just simply had unrealistic expectations.

Remember, in all business there will be a hierarchy – some businesses will be bigger and do better; and some will do not so well; and some sadly will fail. Many times these failures are due to poor preparation or unrealistic expectations.
Again consider your realistic expectations – a corner store is not going to have the same turnover that a giant supermarket chain will have. In the same way – be realistic about what you can expect; both from yourself, and from your programs. Have a plan, work at it, review it, and be prepared to adapt your plans and expectations based on your results.

Popularity: 82% [?]

In the previous post I looked at email contacts from the customer perspective, in this one I shall look at it from the company perspective.
As well as owning a web hosting service, I am also one of the support team on StartXchange.

I recently sent an email to my customers advising them of am upgrade to their account, only to find 10% of the emails were returned as undelivered. This means not only will they not be aware of the extra facilities on their account, but they face the prospect of having their account suspended when their renewal fee comes due. This is not something I want to to do, but sadly I am running a business not a charity.

On StartXchange we are constantly having to deal with non-delivered and automated response emails which takes time away from helping members.

So how can companies and customers work together to keep lines of communication open and both sides happy?
Customers:

• Keep your email address up to date, make a list me who has what email address.
• Allow plenty of time to change address over if you do change addresses.
• Keep your mail and spam filters up to date.
• Check spam / held mail folders regularly.
• Make sure your inbox is not full.

Companies:

• Make sure new members know what address to expect mail from.
• Remember, access to your customers email address is a privilege not a right, treat it with respect.

Popularity: 87% [?]

You know the feeling – Every time you join a program, or sign up to a site, they want your email address to ‘keep in contact’ with you, and , quite often, send latest newsletters, offers and information – not to mention invite you to join / sign up to another program.
The problem is every time you share your email address with someone else you increase the potential for being spammed.

Contrary to popular perception, you DO want to remain in contact with these companies, but still retain control over your email.

So what can you do to protect yourself? The simplest answer to many people, especially given the vast number of free email service providers, is to use a ‘disposable’ email address to confirm the sign up, and never return to afterwards. This solves the problem of people getting hold of your ‘personal’ email address and filling it with unwanted emails.

The problem is that this is actually potentially storing up a time-bomb for future misery, and possibly even financial loss.
Why? Because this is the only “authorised” point of contact the company has with you!

• If you forget your password, where will the company send the reminder?
• If you need to discuss your account, where will the company send the information?

Correct – to that ‘disposable’ email address!
Plus, many companies now require members to maintain a “working” email address. By “working” they mean one that:

• does not have an auto-responder when they send you information
• does not send back a “can not deliver email” message because the mailbox is too full, or does not exist at all
• does not send back a “I have an anti-spam system that requires you to confirm your identity” message.

Put simply – when they send you an email, they do not want to get any automated response from your email account!

So, we return to the question – What can you do to protect your email account from being spammed, and yet still maintain ‘contact’ with the company?
There are 3 possible solutions, which for maximum effectiveness can be combined.

1. Use a ‘public’ email address which you then forward to a private email address to actually read and reply to – for maximum efficienciency set the “from” address to match the public email address if you download the email, or reply from the public email address if using web-mail. If necessary, you can delete unwanted emails periodically to keep the account clean.
   This means that if a company abuses your email address, it can be blocked at the public address keeping your private address secure.
2. Use advanced mail filtering rules to filter incoming mail by both to and from address – so if the ‘correct’ sender does not send mail to the ‘correct’ address it gets blocked. The only real drawback is that initially when signing up to a new company their email will be blocked until you can add their details to your mail filters, and if you are dealing with a large number of companies it can slow down mail delivery as each company will have to have its own filter rule, and it can take longer for all the additional rules to be checked before the mail is passed.
3. Use a spam filtering service to process your incoming emails, and forward the ‘cleaned’ emails to you. Remember, that many companies will penalise you if they receive ’spam check’ responses; so either disable challenge responses when signing up, or if you know the email address / domain that the email will come from add this first to the spam service.
4. Do NOT add the sender to your email provider spam list, unless you are sure what this really means – see Tim Lindens post for why this is a BAD idea.

As I said earlier, combining these methods can vastly reduce the unwanted email you have to check.

Popularity: 100% [?]