Issue # 105, 7-Apr-2005
ISSN 1447-4956
Copyright 2005 Jason Anderson. All rights
reserved worldwide
http://www.achievenetprofits.com/
Hello again, and welcome to this weeks
letter.
I think I must be getting old. Time seems to
fly past at an accelerated rate these days. At
least, that's my excuse for not sending out a
newsletter in the last two weeks! :-)
The lack of a newsletter has meant I haven't
had another chance to thank everyone who has
taken advantage of my "renovation sale". (If you
only joined recently, some large overruns in the
budget while doing some renovations at home made
me put all the products I have on sale.)
Things aren't quite so bad now, and the
plumber is happy (he has his money), so it's
probably time I end the sale. But to give
everyone a last chance at the specials, I've
decided to let the sale run until the end of
Sunday (the 10th of April).
There are quite a lot of discounts available,
and you can check them out by visiting http://www.achievenetprofits.com/special/reno.shtml
Once the sale is over I'll take the page
down, and everything will be back to its normal
price. I hope you find something there that will
help you with your business.
* * *
Speaking of business, the unreliability of
email has caused my business problems recently.
I had someone who bought a product from me
decide they wanted a refund recently. Fair
enough - that's why I offer a guarantee, and I'm
happy to comply.
The only problem was, their emails asking for
the refund didn't reach me!
Needless to say, I had a rather irate
customer (who contacted PayPal, who contacted me
- he quickly got his money back, along with an
apology).
But this problems has hilighted for me the
problems with running an Internet business these
days. You no longer know if your customers are
receiving your emails, or even if you are
receiving their emails.
One possible solution for a business owner is
set up a support system, where your customers
raise "tickets". I did it a while ago (see
http://www.achievenetprofits.com/contact
), and it does work well. It ensures that you
will get their message.
(If you want to know how to set one up
yourself - the software is free - Louis Allport
has a great set of videos on it called "How To
Run Professional Online Customer Support For
Free"... which you can get for 50% off the RRP
at http://www.achievenetprofits.com/special/
).
But it still doesn't do anything to ensure
they will get your responses.
I don't know that there will ever be a 100%
reliable solution for the problem. My only
suggestion is to ensure you offer people as many
ways as possible for them to contact you.
A ticket system is one obvious option, but
another is listing a phone number on your site
(if you don't want to list your home phone you
could look at getting a cheap pre-paid mobile,
and keeping it just for business). Or check out
one of the instant messaging systems like AOL
Instant Messenger, ICQ, or even MSN Messenger
(which comes pre-installed on most Windows
systems).
Sure, the customer may not want to call, or
may not have a messaging program themselves. But
hopefully there is *something* that they can use
to contact you if needed!
* * *
This weeks interview snippet comes from Ian
Herculson. Ian found himself in a rather bad
situation a few years ago - after building up a
list of 18,000 or so subscribers, he lost it all
due to a computer failure at his web host!
After a few days of depression, Ian realized
that to rebuild his list he would have to do
some quick work. And work he did - in only a few
weeks he rebuilt his list to a stage were it was
*more* profitable than his old one!
His trick was to partner with several other
publishers, and offer a great incentive for
people to join his list. In his interview he had
a few tips for people who want to build their
own list from scratch.
Let me start by saying I obviously
understand what it's like to be a newbie.
Every Internet marketer started at that
stage. And these three things are very simple
to do... actually, Internet marketing is easy
to do.
What makes it seem so hard is that there
is INFO OVERLOAD on the net. Everyone seems
to know how to make you a million dollars.
You have to know who actually knows what they
are talking about and who doesn't.
Stick around and you will find that the
same names keep popping up over and over.
Listen to those guys and gals first!
Number 1. If you want to build an opt in
list from scratch, you HAVE TO have something
of value to offer to your potential
subscribers. Subscribers probably don't know
you so they will be reluctant to just join
ANOTHER ezine.
You can bribe them with something GOOD
right off the start and they will let their
guard down right away. This will get you a
great start for subs. Just treat them well
from this point on and they will stay on your
list.
Number 2. Have a good autoresponder. This
is so important I would put it number one,
but if you don't have subscribers, what good
is an autoresponder.
Being able to manage your subscribers with
ease saves so much time and headache's.
You'll want to be able to send broadcasts
messages, filter out bad email addresses,
track results, personalize, queue ads, and
more. You need a good autoresponder to do all
that.
I am a LIFETIME user of Auto Response
Plus. I have used almost every autoresponder
and this one has more features and benefits
than any of the others. It's absolutely hands
down, the best autoresponder on the market.
And it's not too pricey!
http://www.autoresponseplus.com/link.php?a=culsons
Number 3. Have a nice looking web site. If
you have a web site full of cheap graphics,
neon blinking signs and spelling mistakes,
people won't want to take you seriously. So
just try to have a nice site. There are many
free web site templates out there. Just go to
any search engine and type in the words
Website Templates Free.
-- Ian Herculson, http://www.thegurumarketer.com/
They may seem like simple tips, but they are
very powerful when used (and in the case of #2,
extremely important).
Well, that's it for me this week. Don't
forget my "renovation sale" ends this Sunday, so
be sure to check it out at http://www.achievenetprofits.com/special/reno.shtml
Till next time.
Cheers,
Jason
"Everything is a secret until you know it"
-- Mike Litman
Legal Stuff
Copyright 2005 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
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