Issue # 71, 24-Feb-2004
ISSN 1447-4956
Copyright 2004 Jason Anderson. All rights
reserved worldwide
http://www.achievenetprofits.com/
Welcome to another issue of the Achieve Net
Profits Letter. I hope you and your family are
fit and well, and your online business profits
are continuing to grow.
I managed to do a really dumb thing earlier
in the week, that may serve as a warning to you.
At least, I hope you don't make the same
mistake.
I noticed that I was getting some spam at the
email address son@achievenetprofits... This
struck me as odd, because I've never actually
used that address anywhere. But, since it had
obviously been added to some spammers list, I
decided I wanted to stop it.
So I set up a mail filter on my web host to
delete all mail that had the email address
"son@..." in any of the email headers.
(If you have your own domain name, you may
not have looked at what mail filtering they
offer. Most give you a few basic options, so it
may be worth checking out).
I did this late Sunday night, and then went
to bed.
I woke up Monday morning, checked my mail,
and was surprised to find that I didn't have any
messages at my main email address
(jason@achievenetprofits...)
Then it hit me. My email address is
jaSON@...
The email filter I had set up was deleting
all my email!
Needless to say, I quickly deleted the
filter, but the damage was already done. I'd
lost all email to that email address over the 12
hours before.
So if you emailed me and haven't received a
reply, I might have accidentally deleted it.
Sorry!
So take the lesson I learned to heart -
always double (and triple!) check any sort of
spam filter you put in, to make sure it isn't
deleting emails you want!
(Of course if you have a filter like that,
you probably can't read this because it was
already deleted. Oh well!)
Just a reminder about the great contest I'm a
part of. The Great Creative Fountain.Net eBiz
Contest has a huge selection of prizes up for
grabs, and the lucky winner is going to be very
happy indeed!
Who knows, it could even be you. But only if
you enter!
http://www.creativefountain.net/ct/index.html
Jumping to a totally different topic, as you
know many experts online recommend that you
create your own product, as its the only way you
will ever be in full control on your
business.
While the most common answer is to create an
ebook, have you ever considered creating
software?
Before you protest "but I'm not a
programmer!", remember that you can always hire
other people to do the programming for you.
How do you think Armand Morin comes up with
all his software products? :-)
Adrian Ling is someone who can and does
create (and market) his own software. He's been
very successful online, with many big name
marketers recommending his products. I have been
interviewing Adrian about selling software
online, and how it differs to selling
ebooks.
(The full interview isn't finished yet -
we're in the final stages now - so it hasn't yet
been added to the membership site. It should be
up shortly.)
During the interview I asked him if he had an
tips for people who couldn't write the software
themselves, and were considering hiring someone
to do it. This was his answer:
I think the most important thing to
look for before hiring any programmer is to
ask for references - preferably of someone
whom you know, and not just the reference
provided by the programmer.
Talk with the programmer. A friend of mine
actually hired a programmer to create some
simple software to see the quality of his
work before giving him the real job.
You should also have the programmer sign a
contract that says the source code belongs to
you, and that under no circumstances can the
programmer use it elsewhere or sell it.
Please consult your lawyer on this, I'm not
qualified to give legal advice.
By the way, I did toy with the idea of
getting programmers from elance or
scriptlance, but I was always afraid they
will run away with my ideas. But I came to
realize that my fear was unfounded.
The main problem isn't in creating the
software - it's in marketing it. It has taken
me over 2 years to build a solid reputation
as someone who creates quality software and
provides excellent customer support.
Many people have asked me, aren't you
afraid people will take your code and
reverse-engineer it? I was, but now I'm not.
I've built a solid reputation and trust
online, and I believe most people will want
to do business with someone whom they trust
and believe in.
-- Adrian Ling, http://www.easybiztools.com
(To read the full interview when it is
finished, you need to be a member of the Achieve
Net Profits membership site. You can join now by
visiting http://www.achievenetprofits.com
).
Speaking of the membership site, I have a
great tip to pass on that I've been trying on my
own site, and a somewhat scary statistic that
I've found after using the tip.
First the tip. I've heard both Marlon Sanders
and Alex Mandossian talk about it, so it's
certainly not something I've come up with. But
it IS effective, and if you aren't doing it you
REALLY need to.
What I've done is add a popup to the site
that shows up when the visitor leaves the sales
letter, but ONLY if they are leaving the page
without clicking the order link. In the popup, I
ask the visitor why they have decided not to
join the membership site.
As an incentive, I offer a free download (the
report I wrote on mini sites) for giving me
their answer. And so they don't think I'll email
them to death afterwards, I don't ask for their
name and email.
I ask them to type their answer, but you
could give them a list of possible answers via
radio buttons if you preferred.
Why is doing this useful? Because it allows
you to find out what objections people still
have to your offer after they have read your
sales letter. If you find a common pattern, you
can then modify the sales letter to answer those
objections.
(For example, one person commented that the
price seemed high for getting only four
interviews a month. Obviously I need to better
show that joining the membership site gets you a
LOT more than just the interviews).
Now the scary statistic. I decided to add
some tracking code to my main page and the popup
page, to see how many times each of them were
displayed.
(What you do is you have a 1x1 pixel image on
your page, where the location of the "picture"
is actually the link to whatever ad tracking
software you use).
In theory, the number of times the popup is
shown should be fairly close to the number of
times the main page is shown.
What I've found is that the number of times
the popup is show is between 50% and 66% LESS
than the number of times the main page is
shown!
In other words, over half of the people
visiting my (and your) site will never see any
popup on the site!
While there are a couple of reasons why the
number could be low (they have Javascript turned
off so the popup doesn't display, or they have
clicked on the order link to see the order
page), without a doubt the main reason is popup
blockers.
Many people have been saying that the days of
the popup are numbered, and I guess I'm going to
have to start agreeing with them.
On the plus side, another tracking link I've
added tells me that the popover I'm using is
always being displayed. So not many people seem
to be using software to block those yet.
(Despite the claims by some gurus that
popovers can't be blocked, some software is
starting to become available that will block
them. I don't know how well it works, but I'm
sure it will get better and more common).
If you want to add a popover to your site,
but don't have the money to buy one of the
various programs out there to do it for you,
there is a free script available. It doesn't
have all the options of the bought programs, but
the price sure is good :-)
http://www.dynamicdrive.com/dynamicindex17/dropinbox.htm
I hope this tip (and link) proves useful for
you!
Till next week, I wish you all the best with
your online business.
Cheers,
Jason
"Don't wait for a light to appear at the end
of the tunnel, stride down there and light the
bloody thing yourself." -- Sara
Henderson
Legal Stuff
Copyright 2004 Jason Anderson. All rights
reserved.
We accept no responsibility whatsoever for
the content, profitability or legality of any
published articles or advertisements contained
within Achieve Net Profits.
And, although all of the articles have been
selected for their content, the publishing of
such articles within this newsletter does NOT
constitute a recommendation of the products or
services mentioned or advertised within those
articles.
Be responsible! Always do your own Due
Diligence before responding to any offer.
