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The IMC Insider
Helping Real People create wealth and freedom with Internet businesses since 1998 |
| April 23, 2007
Issue #144 | Editorial:
How to tell if your goals are on target
By Derek Gehl
 When I wrote last week's editorial on time management, I had no idea it was going to spark such a frenzy of goal-setting!
Since then, 167 of you have posted comments on my
blog, stating what your top three 30-day goals are.
And let me say, your goals are pretty darned impressive.
As I promised last week, in this issue I'm going to provide a detailed critique of some of those goals.
I'm sorry, but I can't provide feedback to absolutely
everyone who commented on the blog. There are simply too
many of you.
(Which is good! It means that a lot of you are serious about taking your business to the next level.)
But I WILL give you some pointers on how to critique your own goals, and make sure they're specific and realistic enough for you to actually be able to meet them.
Then I'll take a closer look at the goals set by four different people, showing you where they hit the mark and where they need to sharpen their focus.
Finally, I want to point to a specific problem that a LOT of you seem to be dealing with -- particularly if you're just starting out, or have a web site that's not making any real money yet.
(And guess what... to help you deal with this problem, I'm going to be giving away another FREE eBOOK later this week! I'll tell you more about it at the end of this article.)
To start off, when analyzing your goals, you have to ask yourself some questions.
How specific are your goals? What "measurables" are associated with them?
For example, are there actual numbers attached to them? If not, how will you know you've actually reached them?
And are there any "how" statements in your goals?
Here's what I mean: It's not enough to say you want to increase your traffic. HOW are you planning to increase your traffic in the next 30 days? What specific strategies are you planning to use? And how many visitors are you expecting to get?
If you don't lay out a clear plan for yourself, you may end up going off in all directions, and never fully complete a single task.
All right... now that you have those questions in your mind, take a look at the goals listed below and compare them to your own.
What do your goals have in common with the ones I'm critiquing? And how can you make my feedback work for YOUR business?
Amy's goals: On the right track, but need a little more focus
Here's what Amy told us:
Okay, here are
my top 3...
1. Fix my site as discussed in recent newsletter
2. Increase traffic
3. Make $1,000
So, what do you think? Realistic?
Amy, you're off to a good start, but try to make your goals more measurable and specific. For example, "increase traffic" is pretty vague. Exactly how many visitors are you hoping to attract to your site?
Pick a number -- and then work your way toward it.
In terms of making $1000 in 30 days, that's certainly achievable -- so long as you're trying to sell a product to people who actually want to BUY it.
Far too many people base their business on a product, without EVER having done any research to find out whether
there's a market for it online.
That's not what we teach at IMC! We believe the secret to Internet success is finding a hungry market that's
trying to solve a problem but not having any luck doing it. THEN you find a product that solves that problem.
It's the only way to guarantee online success -- because you KNOW people are eager to buy your product before you
invest a dime in your business.
Mark's goals: Ambitious but achievable
Here's what Mark said:
Great challenge.
Thanks for the impetus.
My 3 goals for the next 30 days for http://romanticsaxmusic.com
1. Increase traffic to 500-600 unique visitors per day (from 60-70).
2. Increase sales to $150-200 per day (from $0-35).
3. Create and implement an organized and effective email campaign.
Thanks, again, for your efforts on our behalf, Derek. Any comments you might have are most appreciated.
Mark, you've got your work cut out for you. But if you're willing to burn the midnight oil, I'm pretty sure you
could achieve at least two of your three goals.
It'll take you a minimum of 10-20 hours a week though. Do you have that kind of time to spare?
(If it's at all possible, DO IT. You can always catch up on your sleep in 30 days' time, right?)
One question: Have you ever done any keyword research to discover whether people really are searching for "romantic sax music" online?
If you know the market is definitely out there, then I
think your next step is to get some traffic to your site using pay-per-clicks. Then you can work on improving your salescopy.
Your copy is already in better shape than most -- you do include some compelling benefits, and you've got some
great testimonials.
But now you have to take it to the next level.
Focus on your headline first. Right now, it doesn't have
any benefits in it. You need to make your headline speak to your visitors' needs.
How will listening to your music
improve their lives? That's what you need to be telling your visitors -- as soon as they land on your site.
The next thing I'd work on is your email opt-in form.
(It's great that you have one, by the way!) But right
now all it says is, "Join our email list."
You have to give your visitors a compelling reason to
join your list. Offer them a free download of one of your
songs. Or maybe a free report on the world's most famous
saxophonists.
Remember: if you want your visitors to give you something
(like their email address), first you have to give something
to THEM.
Julie's goals: Specific
and easily "do-able." But are they too easy?
Here's what Julie said:
Thank
you for the push.
My goals in the next 30 days:
1. Blog twice a week
2. Add compliments from previous clients about my product/services
to my website
3. Add a list of the last 5 states where client have come
from.
Hi, Julie. I think your goals are easily achievable. In
fact, depending on the time you have, you may even want
to dial it up a notch.
You talked about doing two posts a week on your blog...
Why not add another goal: spend one or two hours a week
commenting on other people's blogs? It's a great
way to build some name recognition for yourself and get
more visitors to your own blog.
To learn more about the different ways you can use a
blog as a traffic-generating tool, check out the advice
our Internet Entrepreneur Club experts have been giving
Peter Cunningham.
You can read about it here.
(Peter acted on their advice -- and got a #1
ranking in Google in less than 6 days!)
Bob's goals: Lofty but vague
Finally, I'd like to take a look at one of Bob's goals
because he offered me the best bribe -- the Nobel Peace
Prize of all things! (How did you know it's what I've
always wanted?)
Here's one of the goals he talked about:
"I would like to aim at high net worth individuals in
a unique way using internet marketing because the old
traditional ways of marketing are not working anymore."
Simply put, Bob, you want to have an Internet business
that caters to people who are relatively wealthy.
Okay.
That's a start... but you have to narrow your focus. Are
you talking about wealthy older people? Younger people?
Parents? Childless urban professionals?
All those "niche" groups have different needs... different
wants... and different problems they're trying to solve
in their lives.
What you need to do is focus on one of these smaller niches -- and find out what problems its members are trying
to solve.
Are they looking for off-shore investment advice? One-of-a-kind
designer jewelry pieces? Information on how to buy a summer
home in the country?
Once you discover what they're looking for, only then
should you build a site that gives it to them.
You might want to check out Wordtracker
to better define your niche.
This useful tool -- created
by a couple of guys in the UK -- allows you to discover
the words and phrases people type into search engines
like Google when they're looking for information.
It's hands-down the best way to start researching the problems people are trying to solve online.
(Now... where do I pick up my Nobel Peace Prize?)
All right, everyone. Good luck achieving your goals!
I look forward to checking back in with you in 30 days and seeing how well you've done.
In the meantime, keep your eyes on your inbox later this week...
I did a lot of thinking over the weekend -- and I've decided to give you another free eBook!
Why? Because it seems a lot of you are frustrated with the lack of progress you've been making with your websites. You've put a lot of work into your online businesses -- but still aren't seeing results.
I've taken a look at many of your websites, and I see a lot of you are facing a common problem. And you know what? It's the #1 problem why people FAIL with their online businesses.
I don't want that to happen to you!
The good news is, there IS a simple solution to that problem.
Coincidentally enough, a couple of months ago my team and I wrote an eBook outlining that solution in detail. And to help you rev up your site's income-generating capabilities -- I want to give that eBook to you for FREE.
It's just another way of saying "thank-you" for being such great subscribers -- and for sharing your goals with me.
I want you to REACH those goals. And this eBook will give you the knowledge you need to make that happen.
So make sure you watch for my emails later this week. You won't want to miss the information I'm about to give you!
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Split Test Your Headlines with the 'Net's #1 FREE testing
tool
By
Mitch Tarr
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote an article on the top 5
things you need to know about testing.
Then last week, Ric Mazereeuw (our Director of Mentoring)
wrote an article about headlines.
Today I'm going to combine the two topics -- and tell
you how to split-test headlines!
Here's why: after my article on testing went out, some
of you wrote in to say you just don't know HOW to test.
You don't know which software to use, or how to install
it on your site, or even where to go for that kind of
information.
So in order to fill in those blanks, I thought I'd walk
you quickly through the process -- using headline testing
as an example.
(After all, your headline is THE most important element
on your entire site -- so it's the first thing you should
test. You have to make sure you've got a good one!)
Okay. Here's what you do:
Step 1:
Sign up for a Google
AdWords account if you don't already have one. (I'll
explain why in a moment.)
Step 2:
Sign up for Google's Website Optimizer tool and install it on your site. (It's free,
but only available to people with an AdWords account.
Hence the need for Step 1.)
Step
3: Come up with two different headlines you'd
like to test. Make sure they both include your top-performing
keywords.
(Remember, you've got to write to your visitors' expectations.
If they're coming to your site via the free or paid search
engines, they're expecting to find something specific.
Make sure it's staring them in the face!)
The two headlines should use different angles to try and
"hook" your visitors. Make sure your audience
is able to perceive a real difference between them. If
they're too similar, you probably won't get very good
test results.
For example, if you sell a low-carb recipe eBook -- and
want to use the keyword phrases "eat as much as you
want" and "lose all the weight you need"
-- you might try testing the following headlines:
Discover the secret to eating
as much as you want, whenever you want
And still lose all the weight you need
While buzzing with the non-stop energy of
a 9-year-old kid!
-- versus --
Tired of trying one diet after another...
and never seeing any results?
(Guess what? There really IS a way to eat as much
as you want...
... And still lose all the weight you need!)
Discover how YOU can get off the "diet rollercoaster"
for good!
(What do you think -- which of these two headlines will
get the best results? You may have a theory... but you'll
never know for sure until you test!)
Step
4: Set up two "experiments" in Website Optimizer to run an "A-B" split-test on the
headlines you've chosen. (Don't worry -- Google will walk
you through the whole process.)
For as long as you run your two experiments, half of all
your visitors will see headline A, while the other half
will see Headline B.
Step 5:
Run the test for a week or so. Then look at your results.
The headline with the highest sales conversion rate (the
highest percentage of visitors making a purchase) is the
winner.
Okay... now here's where things get really crazy.
If your site is getting a decent amount of traffic, you
might want to test-drive Website Optimizer's multivariable
testing option. It allows you to split-test different
aspects of your sales process at the same time.
For example, while you're testing two different headlines,
you could also test two different price points.
Google will tell you which combination of headline and
price scores you the most sales.
(Pretty cool, don't you think?)
NOTE: multivariable testing works best if your traffic
numbers are reasonably good (say, 1000 visitors in a week
or less).
Otherwise, it'll take you too long to get any meaningful
test results.
But maybe you're not a big fan of Google for whatever
reason, and aren't interested in using the Website Optimizer
tool. You can still do some rudimentary testing without
it.
Here's how: Run one headline for one week, and count the
number of visitors you get compared to the sales you make.
Divide the number of visitors by the number of sales to
get your conversion rate.
Next week, change your headline and do exactly the same
thing.
Which headline has the best conversion rate? That one
is probably your winner.
However, other factors may influence your sales numbers
during the first or second week of testing -- and they
may throw your results out of whack.
For example, say you run a new pay-per-click ad during
the first week -- and it sends a lot of targeted visitors
to your site, boosting your conversion rate.
Or maybe your site gets dropped from Yahoo's listings
during the second week, resulting in a major fall-off
in traffic.
Either of these two things could have a huge impact on
your conversion rates. And that makes it almost impossible
to know for sure how your two headlines actually performed.
So if you're going to try testing without using Google
Website Optimizer, you need to pay careful attention to
whatever else is happening to your site during the testing
period.
One last thing: there's no point in testing your headline
-- or anything else on your site -- if you're not seeing
any traffic.
So your first order of business is to get those visitors
coming in!
If your budget permits, run some pay-per-click ads through
Google AdWords or Yahoo Search Marketing. That way, you
can start driving traffic to your site right away.
Then you can test your headlines -- and
discover the "magic words" that compel your
visitors to buy.
[Ed. note: Mitch Tarr is IMC's Vice President of Marketing.
When he's not busy helping Derek run the show, you can
find him hanging out and offering advice in The
Internet Entrepreneur Club.] |
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Case study: Site review winner sees revenues jump 25%
-- almost overnight!
By
Andrew Mallory
As an IMC mentor, I'm always delighted when people apply
our strategies to their business and experience phenomenal
results.
Chris Bryant is an excellent example of someone who's
doing exactly that.
He sells study guides that teach people how to pass the
high-level computer courses they need to take in order
to be certified to work in the information-technology
industry.
He got the idea for his business when he was taking those
very same computer courses. He thought the course materials
were far too complicated for the average student, with
too much "techno-babble" and not enough practical knowledge.
And the study guides available at the time were either
incomplete, out of date, hard to read, or way too expensive.
So like any good engineer, Chris looked at the problem
and found a better solution.
He created a series of study guides that are comprehensive
and easy to understand. And then he started selling them
online as eBooks.
(eBooks are great because once you've created them, it
costs absolutely NO money to reproduce them over and over
again -- so you keep nearly 100% of the profits. And you
can automate the entire process, so you can spend all
your time growing your business instead of running it!)
Last fall, Chris was the "$5,000 Site Review" winner for
the October issue of our monthly "Secrets
to Their Success" private members' e-zine.
Chris was already doing a lot of things right with his
site. For example, he...
- Was selling an in-demand product to a well-defined
niche market
- Was using a long copy salesletter to convince visitors
of the value of his product
- Had scores of great testimonials from satisfied
-- and certified! -- customers on his sales page
- Had written hundreds
of short articles and got them posted at free-content
sites (which is a great way of generating traffic
to your site)
- Was getting 1000s of visitors to his site each month
- Had started his own blog
- Had opened his own eBay store to promote his product
on the world's largest auction site
... And his efforts were paying off. In 2005, his site
pulled in $35,000 -- and 2006 was shaping up to be a MUCH
better year.
But when the IMC team of site design experts looked at
his site, they knew it could be doing a whole lot
better.
The team of experts -- including our head website designer,
a professional copywriter, and our senior editor -- went
to work redesigning Chris's site and overhauling his salescopy.
Specifically, they...
- Made the overall design cleaner and more professional
looking
- Simplified the navigation, reducing the number of
links
- Streamlined the salescopy, placing more emphasis
on Chris's unique selling proposition ("USP") and
the benefits his product offers
- Included an opt-in offer, so Chris could stay in
touch with his visitors and customers and persuade
them to buy more products over time
- Showcased his testimonials more effectively
- Created a catalogue page that features all his products
at a glance
- Advised him to automate his eBook delivery process,
so he'd no longer have to spend 30 hours a week fulfilling
orders
- Suggested he implement a linking strategy with his
giant article archive -- and include a link to one
of his salespages in every article
(It's a great way to improve your ranking with the
search engines and drive more people to your salespages.)
... And that's just scratching the surface.
Chris was so excited to act on our advice, he had the
new site up and running in less than a week.
And the difference was immediately noticeable!
His search engine rankings for his best keywords skyrocketed
to the top #10 (often #1 or #2!)... The number of visitors
he got from Google went up 200%... And his revenues shot
up by 25%!
(To see what the most recent version of Chris's site looks
like, click here.)
But Chris wasn't content to stop there. Last December
he joined our exclusive Internet
Entrepreneur Club (which is where I met him).
He was happy with the way his site was performing, but
he knew it could still do better.
(That's true of EVERY business... No matter how well you
think you're doing, by constantly testing and refining
your site... your salescopy... your offer... ...and your
sales process... you'll always find new ways to make your
site perform better.)
So Chris went back to the experts for advice. He came
to the Internet Entrepreneur Club forum bursting with
questions on how he could make his site even more effective.
In recent weeks, the IMC experts in the forum have been
giving Chris tons of advice on how he can improve his
site's performance still further.
You can read our recommendations -- and discover how they
might apply to your business -- by visiting this
week's featured thread in the Internet Entrepreneur Club
forum.
Simply click on the following link: IEC
featured thread.
After all -- the advice we're giving Chris may be the
key to unlocking higher profits with your business,
as well!
[Ed. note: Andrew Mallory is an IMC mentor and regular
expert contributor to the Internet
Entrepreneur Club forum.] |
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Meet
the IMC team of experts
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Upcoming Bootcamps:
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Ask
the Expert: SEO tip -- How to avoid the "duplicate
content" dilemma
By
Nicole Ephgrave
After last week's issue went out, a number of you
wrote in with questions related to search marketing. I've
asked my resident search marketing "wizard"
Nicole Ephgrave to answer a couple of them for you:
Question
#1:
I've been reading a lot lately about how publishing free
articles on sites like EzineArticles, GoArticles, etc.
can hurt your Google rankings for duplicate content.
Is this true? Is it better to make adjustments to each
article you submit in an attempt to avoid it being labeled
duplicate content - and if so, how much of an adjustment
is needed so that Google's software doesn't consider it
duplicate content?
Thanks,
Sherryl
Nicole:
Hi Sherryl,
A great question. Duplicate content is always a hot topic!
First, let's talk about how Google defines duplicate content:
"Duplicate content is substantive blocks of content within
or across domains that either completely match other content
or are appreciably similar."
It's not rocket science but now you have a clear picture.
Let's get back to your question.
Google wants to make sure that it gives a good mix of
different content when someone does a search. It does
not want your article to come up as all of the
first 10 results (too bad :o).
So it will cite a source for the article, and that will
get ranked while the rest of the versions usually don't
get ranked at all -- or end up in the supplemental index.
A good idea is to wait until Google indexes your article
and THEN submit it to other places. Otherwise someone
else gets YOUR rankings. Although it is still your article
with your details, it is always preferable to have them
land on your site.
As a side note, I would always go a step further than
just submitting to article directories. To increase your
exposure even more and get high quality inbound links,
you're better off writing individual articles for high-quality
web sites.
I usually have my clients contact websites individually
and form a relationship with them -- even as far as offering
customized content -- to get their content on pages with
has a higher Google Page Rank. You want to have really
high-quality links.
So when you are syndicating your articles, make sure you
put as much detail as possible in the resource box, including
a link to the original article and more information.
Some people will have two different versions of their
article -- one for syndication and one for their website.
These should be totally different. If there's just a small
percentage of different copy, Google will still count
it as the same article.
Hope that helps!
Question #2:
I own a website, www.fun4partyanimals.com, that sells
franchises in mainly South Africa. It also lists my rental
franchises in South Africa.
I have worked hard to get the site high in Google's rankings.
I feature high in the Google global rankings, but I am
struggling to get my rankings up in the region that the
site targets, namely South Africa.
Please can you give me some advice. I know I have registered
a dot com and not a .co.za, but surely if lots of local
sites point to me it should count?
Also my site is hosted in North America, does this matter?
I also have the same problem on MSN. (Global and local
that is.)
Please let me know if you have any advice that can help.
Regards,
Andrew
Answer:
Hi there, Andrew.
Wow -- your site looks like fun!
Some pointers when you are working with a local site:
- Try to put the city, state, and country in all your
title tags.
- On the footer of each page have the local address
information. That's also a great place to put your
keyword phrase (e.g., Jumping Castles 1234 South Africa
Street)
- Buy the country-specific domain name and redirect
it (do not put up a mirror site). Although it's not
necessary to have your website country code domain,
it doesn't hurt.
- Just as you suspected, your site should be physically
hosted in the targeted country (and the server IP
must resolve to that country) OR...
- Submit your site to as many local directories as
you can, e.g., Google Local, Yahoo Local, Ask City,
Local.com, AOL local, Any African yellow pages. SuperPages,
BBB, or local directories.
- Take advantage of PPC advertising. All the major
PPC services (Yahoo Google and MSN) allow you to specify
regions where you want your ad to show up.
You can also report to Google if your site is in the wrong
place. Here's where you need to go: http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?
answer=34450&query=country+&topic=&type=
I would also recommend updating your site without frames
and using keyword-rich, benefit-oriented headlines coupled
with all the useful on-page and off-page SEO optimization
factors.
That should get you pointed in the right direction. Before
long you should be in the right place!
Nicole
[Ed note: You can read more of Nicole's search marketing
tips on her blog or meet up with her in our exclusive
"members-only" Search
Marketing Lab forum -- it's her favorite online hangout.]
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Do
you have an idea or comment you'd like to share with the
IMC community?
Leave a comment on Derek's blog: http://blog.marketingtips.com/derek/
And let's get the conversation started! |
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If you would prefer to use postal mail,
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