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Welcome To The Tips Section
In this section my goal is to share some of the things I have learned
over my years of marketing that don't really fit into any one topic. You will find
a number of items there that I am sure at one time or another WILL be of help to you.
Maybe not right away or even in the near future but at some time or another you will
be thankful that you made note of these tips.
1. Tracking Commissions Owed To You and Paid To You
If you EVER get involved with an online program that pays you
commissions on a monthly basis, usually for members you bring in to the business
then you WILL need to keep careful track of them. This is why...
There is a BIG difference between commissions owed to you and commissions that have
been paid to you.
- Commissions Owed - Are commissions that you have earned through whatever activity
you performed in the business but have NOT yet been paid to you. Most programs of this
nature track commissions on a monthly basis and then when the month ends have a schedule
of payment that dictates WHEN you will actually get the money.
- Commissions Paid - Are those commissions that you have earned that HAVE been paid
to you either through check or deposit to an online account like PayPal or StormPay.
So why the need to track these commissions? Won't the companies pay you WHAT you have owed
WHEN you're owed it?
In a word...NO
The first thing you need to know is that every online company has a different pay schedule,
not only when you get paid but how much you have to earn before you get paid. For example,
one company pays around the 20th of each month and requires that you have earned a minimum of
$50 before they will send you a check. They do NOT pay via PayPal or StormPay. Another company
pays on the 1st of the following month via your PayPal account and there is NO minimum. And the
variations of when you get paid go on and on. So when your fiscal month ends and you've totaled up
ALL the money you have coming to you, if you deal with more than one company, you then have to mark
down on your calendar when you should receive payment and how much. Then every day you have to check
your calendar to see what money is owed to you that day. If you've reached the minimum and haven't
received payment then you MUST contact the company right away. Unfortunately the onus is on YOU to make
sure you get your money. Some companies are so lax in paying you that it could be months before you see
your money. Don't feel like a pest for writing to these people. They have no problem taking your monthly
membership fee so they should have no problem paying you on time.
My advice to you on how to track these commissions is with a simple Excel spreadsheet. You'll need 14 columns
and 2 sections. The first column is the company name. The next 12 are the 12 months of the year and the last
one is for a grand total for the year. The first section is for money owed to you and the second is for money
you have actually received. Fill in the data for each column as you get credited for the commission (but not
yet paid) and then eventually when you get paid in section 2. This way you have a visual right in front of
your eyes of all money still owed to you. When it gets past the date of when payment should have been made that's
when you contact the company.
It takes a while to get the hang of this but once you do it becomes second nature.
2. Setting Up An Autoresponder Series
One thing that I have learned over my years of marketing is that
you sometimes need to build some kind of trust before you can sell somebody your
product or service. So one of the things I do in almost all my ads now is tell
the person who is reading my ad that I can send them a free report on whatever
subject I am writing to them about. If it's on good advertising programs I tell
them I have a report that explains the various types of advertising online that
DON'T work and why. You'd be surprised how many people I have had subscribe to this
series and have consequently made many sales from this series. In order to do this
you need to do a Google Search for "Autoresponders" and try to find a company that
has a good monthly price. You won't want to pay a lot for this service as it doesn't
provide you with leads but just a means of sending out emails to someone when they
opt in for your report.
The one company I use for doing this is probably the best on the Internet as not only
do they provide you with multiple autoresponders but they even supply you with hundreds
of leads to contact each day. For $17.95 a month this is an amazing service.
If you're interested, here is the URL
Leads & Autoresponder
They even offer a FREE trial period. This is without a doubt one of the finest companies
on the Internet and my monthly commission checks from them are around $200.
3. Building An Ad Library
As I said in the ad writing section, ads get old on the Internet
VERY fast so you're constantly writing new ads. Having said that, there is a way
to build an ad library so that eventually you will NEVER have to write another ad
or at the very least will not have to write one very often.
With each ad you write you should be tracking how many clicks to your site you get
with each ad. Some ads will perform poorly and some will perform very well. The ones that
perform well you should place in a special text file. When you have reached the point
where you have 60 good ads you can then go back to the first good ad chronologically and
run each ad in sequence for 1 day. That will give you enough ads to run for 2 full months
so that you don't have to write another ad during that time. Believe me, 60 days from the
last time you ran that first ad nobody is going to remember you ran it. This way, during
the time you are rerunning your old ads you can work on new ones at a more leisurely pace.
You'll end up writing better ads. Try it. You'll see that it works very well.
4. Tracking Ads
While we are on the subject of ad writing there is a way to
track ads so that they are very easy to keep an eye on. First of all, each
ad should have its own URL. I know this can get a little crazy when you have
60 ads but there are free URL redirect services that will let you have unlimited
trackers. I suggest numbering each ad 01 through 60 or whatever number you
want to limit yourself to, or use a system like AdA1, AdA2, AdB1, AdB2, etc.
Just make sure you stay consistent with whatever system you use. That way when
you go to look at your statistics the URLs results will be what will stand out
and NOT the URL name itself. Then when you see an ad that did very well you can
make a note of the URL and place it in your saved folder of good ads to reuse.
By using this system you will NEVER have 2 good ads with the same URL. When an ad
performs well you RETIRE that URL redirect and ONLY use it when you reuse that SAME
ad. You only replace the ads for the URLs that DON'T perform. Eventually, hopefully,
you will have no URLs left to use because you will have 60 or 30 or whatever number
you want to limit yourself to, GOOD ads. Try it. You will LOVE this system.
5. Be Honest
If this sounds like a strange tip, it's not. Many people are
so desperate to make a sale that they lie. It's just a fact of nature. Well,
the problem with lies is that they are hard to remember, especially if you
tell a number of them. If you're only telling one lie to everybody it's not
so hard to remember one lie. But trust me, it never ends with one lie. Because
eventually you have to tell another lie to cover for the first one and the lies
start to pile up. Once the lies pile up they are impossible to remember. By always
telling the truth you don't have to worry about remembering things. And even with
telling the truth you don't always remember the answer. For example, you've been
marketing for 10 years online and somebody asks you how much you made your first
year. You may not remember that off the top of your head. Simply tell them you
don't remember exactly as it has been 10 years but you will look it up and get back
to them. Maybe you have some idea what it was. You can say something like, "I think
I made about $8,000 that year. I'm not sure. Let me get back to you." And then you
can add something like, "But I can tell you that so far this year (it's February)
I've made over $5,000. That number will impress them and that way it will make the
$8,000 income your first year seem reasonable instead of some pie in the sky number.
The truth is always easier to remember. Don't lie. It will come back to haunt you.
6. How To Follow Up
Okay, you've sent out your ad that contains your email address
and phone number and somebody actually writes to you or worse, calls you on the
phone. They have questions. How do you answer them?
The number of possible questions you could be asked is infinite, so obviously
there is no way I can go over them all here. But there are going to be some
common ones that you will get that you better know how to answer or you're going
to lose the sale.
- How much does it cost? - You NEVER put the cost of something in your ad. So if
they haven't gone to the web site yet to look at the product or service then they
haven't seen the page that contains the price info yet. So how do you answer this?
You DON'T tell them how much it costs. You ask them the following question. "How
much do you think something like this SHOULD cost if it's everything I said it was?"
If they quote a price that's higher than the actual price you then tell them. "Well,
it's only $X." They'll be surprised and most likely will become a buyer. If they
quote a price that's lower than the actual price you simply say this to them. "Then
no offense, you're dreaming. There is no way you're going to get something of this
quality for that price. If you think you can I suggest you do some shopping. You'll
see that I'm right." At this point one of two things are going to happen. They'll
either say, "Okay, I'll do that" and hang up. Or they'll continue asking questions
which means the price hasn't turned them off just yet.
- Can you GUARANTEE it will work? - There are only two ways to answer this. If it's
a product like, say a spot remover and it comes with a guarantee, you can tell them
that you can guarantee it. Most likely the product comes with a money back guarantee
so if it doesn't work they can get their money back. But what if the product is a
method for making money on the Internet. Nobody can guarantee Internet marketing success
even though so many products claim such guarantees or your money back. They do this
because they know that most people will not bother asking for a refund. And if they do
ask for a refund the company doesn't care. They make more than enough money off of the
unsuspecting new marketer. Those are the people those companies take advantage of. So in
your case the answer to the question is simply "No, I can't guarantee it but if you don't
get the results you want you can get your money back within x number of days."
- What success have YOU had with this product? - Another simple answer, though this really
should have been covered in the ad. Simply tell them your experience with the product. Be
sincere and don't over hype it. If anything, downplay it just slightly. If they say to you
that it doesn't sound like a glowing recommendation just tell them you didn't want to make it
sound like the greatest thing since sliced bread. You wouldn't believe a word of it. I'm just
trying to be honest with you. Trust me, at this point you practically have the sale.
- Will YOU help me if I need help? - This is not as easy an answer as it seems. If you're
selling web hosting as a third party then the truth is you CAN'T help them with their hosting
issues. They have to go through the hosting company. Tell this person that but also tell them
that if they can't reach the hosting company for any reason or there is a problem that is not
being resolved that you WILL contact the hosting company on the customer's behalf. In other words
you can only do what you can do. Just make sure you at least do that much. Sometimes just knowing
you're there to talk to will sometimes be enough. Get used to it. Customers are sometimes your
friend for life. At least for the life of the product or service. Of course if the product is
your own then you absolutely assure them that you will help them all you can, even as far as
set up and use of the product. This is where you need a lot of patience.
- Can I see documentation of your success? - If you have it, send it. If you don't, tell
them you don't actually have anything you can send but you can send them testimonials by other
customers. Don't fabricate proof. If they are that skeptical that they need to see something in
writing the chances of them becoming a customer are slim to none anyway. Don't knock yourself out
over this one.
- So, how does this thing work? - Strange question? Not at all. Many things you will sell
on the Internet are information products such as, "How To Cure Allergies." Trust me. You're going to
get the wise guy call you up and ask you how these allergies are cured. What's used? They're trying to
get you to TELL them what's in the informational product so they don't have to buy it. When you see
this coming there is only one way to handle it. You simply tell them that if you told them that they
wouldn't have to buy the product and that would be bad business on my part. They'll laugh, say okay,
tell you they'll check it out and at that point it's 50-50 if they'll buy. Don't sweat it. People who
try to con you out of your legitimate product are not worth your time. Be polite but don't waste a lot
of time with them.
- I've been lied to so many times. Why should I believe YOU? - This is probably the hardest
question to answer and if you think it won't be asked you better think again. I find the best way to
answer this is to take the focus off of yourself. Remind them of the product guarantee. Tell them if
they're not happy they can get their money back. Tell them that if you weren't on the level you
wouldn't have given them your personal phone number to call. Eventually your sincerity, without
actually answering the question, will convince them
You'll get other questions but these are about the hardest you will have to answer. You handle these
and the rest should be relatively easy.
7. How To Evaluate A Business Opportunity
This is actually very easy when you know what questions to ask.
- Evaluating A Product - There is only one way to do this. Buy it or get a
free sample if you can. If you try it and it's garbage you're not going to sell many
or what you do sell will be returned. If it's really great then document everything
you can about it for your ads. Sound like you're an authority on the product.
- Evaluating A Money Making Opportunity - This is harder to do but can be done.
If it's one of these web sites where you make money by getting people to sign up or
purchase an informational product that's not your own, you simply write to the company.
Tell them you are interested in signing up with their money making opportunity but before
you do you want to know how you're supposed to promote it to get customers. If the methods
of promotion they give you are the ones I mentioned that DON'T work then run for the hills.
These people have no idea how to market their product other than to get people like you to do
it for them and you'll never make any sales. The real crooks won't get back to you at all.
If they give you intelligent answers then most likely they are an intelligent company and
you may do very well with them.
8. How To Deal With A Company That's Providing YOU A Service
You're dealing with a company that's providing you a service. Maybe it's web
hosting or FFA hosting or an email service. You have a problem. Your site is down. Or
you're not getting your leads. Or your email is not working. Whatever the problem is,
you're paying for the service and are entitled to what you are paying for. So if after
initially reporting the problem and nothing is done in a reasonable amount of time, say
a day or so, you politely but firmly write to the company and tell them that you are paying
for a service that they are not currently providing and if they don't fix the problem you
will take your business elsewhere. Companies that are about to close their doors, unfortunately,
will not get back to you. At that point you have 2 courses of action. You can simply cancel your
service with them or you can take legal action and report them to the BBBOnline. I have found
from my own personal experience that it's just not worth the trouble. Cut the strings and cut
your loses. Find another service provider.
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