Entries in "August, 2008"

Mom and Pop Money System...

I've been talking about a new product that I'm developing for the last several months. This isn't some new software package (well, it sort of is) but it's an entirely new informational product and I am putting the finishing touches on everything now...

Announcing... The "Mom and Pop Money" system.. TA-DA.

*cough*

Seriously though, the product is getting ready for launch next month. Here is a quick run down of what's included...

Mom and Pop Money eBook - Nearly 100 pages of "meat and potatoes" revolving around a lead generation system that I've been using for some time. I've even written about it on this blog before.

Lead Management Software - I spent good hard money to have this software produced. It makes managing the entire system an absolute breeze. It will be included in the product.

Free Templates - Some free website templates that I have actually used do work this system. I might be using them right now!

Video Tutorials - Tutorials that are easy to follow and show you how to install the lead management software and upload the free template that's also included.

Phone Consultation - I will personally spend some time on the phone with you to discus this system and how you can set yourself up to start making a profit a.s.a.p.

If you're interested in reading a bit more about it, head over to the product website at MomAndPopMoney.com. If you subscribe to the waiting list you get a bunch of free goodies and a nice discount when the system is released (like, less than $20 total nice!)

Check it out here...

Technorati Tags: business, internet, internet marketing, make money online, marketing, mom and pop money

Geek or Marketer or What The ...

I've been wondering lately if I am alienating myself from my readers by covering many different topics on this blog. My posts range from software development to money management to internet marketing. It's hard to build up a dedicated readership when my topics don't seem to stay on any certain topic ;)

So should I stick to a single topic? I don't think so. This is a personal blog and it should reflect the things that interest me or the events going on in my life right now. That is why I will write an article on how I created the software that runs this blog to an article on how to increase your website conversions.

To me, being able to use many different skills to earn a living online is very useful information. In the end, this blog is not designed or intended for me to make money off of. Just an outlet for me and a way to get my ideas out there.

Love it or hate it...

Technorati Tags: blog, development, internet marketing, marketing, software

Provide Value To Your Customers And Forget About The Price

The other day I was reading a question from a frustrated internet marketer on a web forum. It read something like this (paraphrasing here)...

How are people selling products for $50 or more? I can barely sell my eBooks for $5 each. In the last 6 months I have ONE affiliate sale for a product that is more than $50! What am I missing?

The answer is actually very simple. He is not building, or even offering, any real value. In marketing terms, this would be called Perceived Value. Either he's doing a bad job at relaying the value of his product, or the product he is promoting, or that product does not offer any real value. Real value has to be present, other wise you are just a liar.

How do you relay the perceived value?

It's simple, forget about the price! What I mean is, don't worry about the price for now. While you are presenting your product, for example on your sales page, you need to build up the value for the product first! Give enough value and the price really isn't that much of a factor.

Here is a quick example. Let's say you are selling a piece of software you wrote. Say it took you 6 hours to create this software. Now say you are able to bill $100 per hour had you wrote this software on a contract for some company. This piece of software now has a value of $600.

Now, to help build up the value of this piece of software, you should create a video (or screen cast) of how to setup, install and use this software. This adds another $100 of value (it took you an hour to create it).

As a bonus, why not write a special report on how to effectively use this software in whatever business niche you are targeting (or whatever). It doesn't have to be a huge report — 10 pages is plenty. Just make sure you give valuable information to help improve your customers business or quality of life. In other words, you are making their life easier some how. Add another $100 of value for this special report.

So you're looking at around $800 of perceived value. On your sales page, you need to properly convey this value. Present it cleanly, use bright colors, bold headlines & sub headlines. Maybe use fancy graphics or create a nice display table on the page to show the various extras that are included and why they are worth the extra $100 each. You need to make sure that your reader understands they are looking at possibly purchasing something worth at least $800 (in this example).

Make sure they are at ease when purchasing from you. Offering a 30 day no questions asked money back guarantee is absolutely required. More and more marketers are offering 60, 90 or even 365 day money back guarantees! Your visitors have to feel that their money is safe and if you are offering a money back guarantee they will feel like you really are offering something of value. If you weren't, you wouldn't be offering a guarantee right?

Now you can ask them to buy your product and give them the cost of it. Do yourself, and your customer, a favor. Make the price so low that they CAN'T SAY NO! It's simple, sell the item for $49. That's less than 10% of the perceived value and if you present it right, it will be a no brainer purchase for quite a few of your website visitors.

There are so many methods to build value it's way beyond the scope of a single article. Maybe I will work on a series of articles for this blog.

The point is, if you want your item to sell like hot cakes then you need to build up the perceived value to be so great that your visitor will have no choice but to purchase your product.

Now go make some money...

Technorati Tags: internet marketing, marketing, perceived value, sale conversion, sales, value

Site Was DOWWNN

I am embarrassed to admit this but this site was down for about 24 hours. Mainly because I just didn't check anything and never got around to setting up any sort of monitoring. Luckily I got a phone call from a friend, and reader, who wanted to know what as going on. That was yesterday and I forgot to check the site last night.. Oops! Sorry about that..

I also want to apologize for the lack of posting lately. Been very busy with some new developments in my life. I recently sold my interests in a web hosting company I was involved in. So yet again, I am working from home. I still am involved with SmartJabber and have been spending a lot of time working on that software as well.

I'm also doing some contract work with a buddy of mine. Nothing to fancy, just some Python + Django development. Of course I am still working on my internet marketing and I have a great idea for an entirely new product. I am working on creating that product now and it will include many things, including custom software, video tutorials, etc. As far as I know, it will be an original product for a specific niche.

So that's it. A quick update. I have some larger articles in the works I just haven't had much time to work on them. I will sit down this week and hammer some out!

Technorati Tags: business, downtime, internet marketing, marketing, update