“The
challenge of any organization is to build a feeling of oneness, of
dependence on one another - because the question is not how well each person
works, but how well they work as a TEAM!”
“HELP!"
"I’m
Not Getting Any Sales!”
Big
Dogs is NOT a good program!
It
is a GREAT one!
And
I say that in all humility. You
don’t have to take MY word for it! Just
read a few of the hundred or so testimonials we have from satisfied
purchasers of the “Secrets of the Big Dogs” ebook.
You can find their comments in Part IV of the Big Dogs Training
Manual.
If
THAT’s not enough, find out what successful Alpha Dogs think about the
program in Part V of the Training manual.
Or
take the word of ClickBank.....
As
credit card transaction agent for over 100,000 affiliates of various
programs, ClickBank’s Internet-wide reputation speaks for itself.
In
the “ClickBank Marketplace” ALL of these programs are ranked – from
most popular to least popular, in their individual category - by their
"productivity score". To preserve the integrity of the system
ClickBank does not publish the exact formula for the score, but it is
a function of three factors:
- The number
of sales of that product generated by affiliates.
- The number
of affiliates who made those referrals.
- The total
dollar volume earned by affiliates on those sales.
All
factors are combined, and adjusted such that more recent sales activity is
given greater weight.
I am VERY proud to say that ever since it’s inception back in March of
2001, “Secrets of the Big Dogs” has maintained a # 1 ranking in it’s
category TO THIS VERY DAY!
You
can check it out yourself by clicking the link below. (Then click your browser’s back button to return to this
article.)
http://clickbank.com/marketplace/?r=xxxxx&c=money.bizops&s=1&i=10&t=ClickBank_Marketplace
So
here’s the bottom line…..
…..our
people are selling the Big Dogs program as successfully TODAY as they were
when we first started!
Nevertheless,
I consistently receive emails, the wording of which are almost identical!
For example…..
“I’ve
been working the Big Dogs program for four weeks now, and I’ve only sold
three ebooks. Yet I’m doing
everything EXACTLY the way I’m supposed to!
Help!”
Now
the key phrase here is, “…I’m doing everything EXACTLY the way I’m
supposed to.” ARE you? Are you REALLY? Are
you SURE? Or do you just THINK
you are?
Frankly,
it is almost impossible to answer this question with 100% accuracy.
It’s because there is a minor problem with Internet marketing.
This problem is this: it
is simply unfeasible to have a mentor - someone with experience - sitting
right at our elbows. It’s
just not possible to have someone staring at the same monitor screen we are,
watching what keys we’re pressing, to make sure that we are doing things
PRECISELY the correct way. There
is no one there to make sure you are reading, studying, and LEARNING the
material we make available to you.
Let
me attempt to make an example. I
could be a world-class swimmer (a “water guru,” if you will), and send
you books on how to swim, or emails on proper swimming techniques. You could even watch videos on how to swim.
But unless you had a coach RIGHT THERE to actually SEE the tiny,
little mistakes you might be making, it’s going to be very difficult for
you to become an Olympic class swimmer.
Naturally,
this same analogy applies to almost all fields of endeavor, and especially
to the Internet. You can very
easily THINK you are doing everything “exactly” the way you’re
supposed to, but be missing (what you THINK!) is a very minor or even
irrelevant point. The fact
remains, however, that…..
If
you ARE doing things EXACTLY the way you’re supposed to, then you WILL
make sales! The fact that Big
Dogs has become – AND TO THIS DAY, CONTINUES TO BE - one of the
most ENDURINGLY successful programs on the Internet proves it!
Even
though we can’t be right at your elbow, there is still a whole LOT we can
do to assist you and point you in the right direction. Our experience has shown, in fact, there are Ten Common
Errors that “little-dogs-who-wanna-be-BIG-dogs” make.
The purpose of this article, then, is to deal with that age-old
question, “why am I not making sales?” by covering these Common
Errors…..
Common
Error # 1:
“You’re not using the CORRECT ClickBank hoplink in the CORRECT
manner!”
In
the Big Dogs Training Manual are sixteen “Fast Track” tutorials to
assist you in getting up and running with all of the C.H.I.P. programs in a
minimum amount of time. The
very first tutorial in the series is the ClickBank tutorial.
It’s first in the series because it is by far the most important.
Unless
you have this first step down pat, even total perfection in the use of the
C.H.I.P. programs will only result in failure.
Have
you thoroughly STUDIED this tutorial? Have
you UNDERSTOOD it? Can you say
with complete and total confidence that, “I AM using my hoplink in the
correct manner?” If the
answer to these three questions is not a definitive “YES!” then this is
quite probably one of the main reasons you’re not making the number of
sales you feel you should be making.
Even
if you are positively CERTAIN that you are using your hoplink correctly, go
back now, and thoroughly review this most important of Fast Track Tutorials.
Remember:
If you ARE doing things EXACTLY as you should be, you WILL make
sales!
Common
Error # 2:
“You’re not using subject lines and ad copy in your sales messages that
are DIFFERENT from everyone else!”
I’ve
said it once. I’ve said it
twice. I’ve said it a hundred
times. I’ve tried to hammer
it home until I’m blue in the face…..
“If
you want to be successful with the Big Dogs program – or ANY program on
earth! – you must learn to write your own subject lines and ad
copy!”
If
you want to achieve your goals, you must learn to write your own sales
messages. There are no
shortcuts – there is no easy way. You
MUST do it yourself! No
Internet marketer who is a consistent winner ever uses the “proven” ads
that are usually supplied by an affiliate program’s Home Office.
Yes,
the vast majority of affiliate programs on the Internet offer you tons of
“proven” ads, and “proven” banners, and “proven” sales copy.
And yes, they are “proven” to work – proven for somebody else!
But understand that while good quality programs never go out of style
and never become saturated, ad copy DOES become saturated – and on the
Internet this happens very quickly. A
“proven” ad is simply one that has already run it’s course and is no
longer effective. YOU my
friend, have to be different!
There
is a very good reason why Madison Avenue advertising agencies are paid
billions of dollars each year by companies to design new and different
ad campaigns for them…..
Good
products never go out of style or saturate the market, but even the best of
ads DO become saturated. Coca
cola is Coca Cola is Coca Cola. It’s
the top selling soft drink in the world, and EVERYONE knows what it is.
Yet the Coca Cola company alone spends millions each year on NEW
advertising ideas. Even the
most successful of ads eventually become “invisible” to the consumer,
and new ad ideas must always be forthcoming.
That wildly popular series of “where’s the beef!” ads may have
worked splendidly twenty years ago, but they would fail miserably if used
today. Despite the fact that
those roast beef sandwiches promoted in those ads are the same today that
they were two decades ago.
I
had a phone call recently from a gentleman who had just purchased and read
the ebook. He had a lot of very
good, very incisive questions, and it was obvious that he was an experienced
marketer. Finally he asked if
we had specific ads that we were required to use. When I told him that we
did not, and why, he chuckled and said,
“Good! If we had
been required to use pre-written ads, I would never even CONSIDER becoming
an Alpha Dog!”
The
interviews with successful Alpha Dogs in Part V of the Training Manual give
several examples of THEIR winning sales messages, and our article on
Saturation in Part III gives additional pointers along these same lines.
Remember:
If you ARE doing things EXACTLY as you should be, you WILL make
sales!
Common
Error # 3:
“You’re not performing your marketing
chores on a CONSISTENT basis!”
This
is a topic we covered in the “Secrets of the Big Dogs” ebook, but it
certainly bears repeating. As
an Internet marketer, you are 100% in charge of your life.
You work from the comfort of your home, you work according to YOUR
schedule and desires, and you have no boss breathing down your neck to make
sure you are “on the job.” But
this freedom is a two-edged sword, isn’t it?
The
fact of the matter is that MOST PEOPLE SIMPLY CAN’T HANDLE COMPLETE
FREEDOM!
To
be a SUCCESSFUL business person you must steel yourself to being harder on
yourself than ANY boss could ever be! Your
must be RUTHLESS with your time and RELENTLESS in the pursuit of your goals.
The
really beautiful thing about being an Internet marketer is that, when you
get down to it, it takes so dog-gone LITTLE time to do our actual marketing
chores. But you have to devote
that “LITTLE” time on a consistent, daily basis.
A
marketer who does not do his basic daily duties on a regular, daily basis is
effectively unemployed!
Remember:
If you ARE doing things EXACTLY as you should be, you WILL make
sales!
Common
Error # 4:
“You’re not tracking your ads!”
DESPITE
the fact that we include probably the best ad tracking program on the
Internet (AdMinder) in the C.H.I.P., and DESPITE the fact that in the
“Secrets of the Big Dogs” ebook we devote three full pages to the
importance of tracking your ads, I am constantly amazed that OVER 75% OF
MARKETERS DO NOT USE ANY TRACKING PROGRAM!
Ad
tracking is how you “keep score,” my friends, and if you’re NOT using
it, it is the same as attending a football game where they don’t add up
the goals! How do you know if
you’re winning or losing – whether or not your ads are effective – if
YOU don’t “add up the goals” (i.e. track the results)!?
There
are not just one, but TWO basic reasons why you need to track your ads.
The first, of course is to determine which ads are working and which
ones are duds. But there is a
SECOND reason that is just as important…..
HOW
DO YOU KNOW YOUR ADS ARE ACTUALLY BEING SENT OUT!?
Most
of the C.H.I.P. programs use a “S.A.F.E.” (“Set And Forget
Emailing”) system, whereby you merely input your ad copy, your subject
line, and a desired delay. Then
the system takes over and sends out your sales message for you
automatically. Thus, IN THEORY, you never have to return to that site until
you wish to change your ad information.
Notice
that we capitalized the phrase “IN THEORY.”
Always,
always, always remember, my friends, that we are dealing with computers and
the Internet. Glitches CAN and
DO and WILL occur. Count
on it!!!
Let’s
take a simple example. Let’s
say that that you have the twelve of the fifteen C.H.I.P. programs that
directly generate traffic all set up. You
have them set up with the same sales message, the same subject line, and the
same delay. You conscientiously
check your AdMinder stats each day and you find that you are getting exactly
20 hits each day from each of those twelve C.H.I.P. programs.
(We told you this was a SIMPLE example.)
This goes on for some time, but then one day when you check your
stats you find that although eleven of the C.H.I.P. programs are, as usual,
generating twenty clicks each day, ONE of them generated ZERO clicks!
Your check your stats again the next day and find the same situation
– eleven programs each generated twenty clicks, but that same twelfth
program once gain generated zero clicks.
What’s
goin’ on!? What happened!?
Well,
it could be any number of things. Perhaps
it’s just a simple case of the owners of that particular program taking it
offline for upgrading, or perhaps the servers were down for a period of
time. If, after a day or so,
your clicks return to the normal five per day, then that’s all it was –
a TEMPORARY glitch. But what if
they DON’T return to normal? Let
me relate to you two actual experiences that happened to ME…..
I
had set up one of the programs using the S.A.F.E. system and, like
clockwork, I was getting a substantial number of clicks each day. Then - for over a week – NOTHING! I went back into the site to check my input information for
my ad and guess what? There was
nothing there! Who even KNOWS
what weird Internet “gremlin” erased my data!
It’s just one of those things that can happen.
Now, it was no big deal – I just input my ad, subject line, and
delay once more and my clicks returned to normal.
BUT…if I had not been tracking my ads I would never have known
anything was amiss…other than I was getting fewer sales!
On
another occasion the program manager of one of the programs sent all members
an email explaining that they had added a few more “bells and whistles,”
and that they recommended that we all go into our admin page and re-install
our ad data. No big deal.
I re-installed all my ad info, but THIS time I decided I wanted to
make my subject line stand out a little better – just a little fancier.
So I took the plain subject line I had been using…..
The
Deal of A Lifetime!
And,
to emphasize it, I added…..
>>>
The Deal of A Lifetime! <<<
Sure
enough, over the course of the next week, because of my ad tracking,
I found that this program that was previously giving me VERY good responses,
was now giving me NO responses to my ad!
I’ll make the story short. Suffice
it to say that when the program managers added those “bells and
whistles,” there was a very, very small glitch: Those little “>>>” and “<<<” that I
was putting before and after my subject line to make it stand out were being
interpreted by the program as HTML markers, and were simply screwing up the
system. (HTML – Hyper Text
Markup Language – is the code that is BEHIND the web page that you and I
see on the Internet, and it just so happens that > and < are signs
that are used to “set” the HTML coding.)
I informed the program managers and the fix was an easy one.
But once again, I would never have known had I not been tracking my
ads.
Another
common mistake that a LOT of folks make is simply to forget to hit the “Upload
Ad Info” button…..
Although
each of the C.H.I.P. sites has slight variations in how you input your ad,
subject line, and delay, all of them have some type of “Upload Ad Info,”
or “Change Ad,” or “Accept Changes” button at the bottom of that
page that you MUST click on after you have input your sales message info.
Many marketers take the time to input their data but, instead of
scrolling down a little further to click that button, they just close the
site and move on! If you
DON’T click on that important “change” button, then your data will NOT
be changed – your data just reverts to the way it was. So, if you want to change your ad from a dud to a new
“firecracker” ad, you could have the system revert to the old,
non-producing ad. Even worse,
if this is your first time setting up your ad data and you forget to click
the change button, then of course, NOTHING will be saved!
You won’t have an ad of ANY kind going out to prospects!
I
could sit here all day, my friends, and give more examples, but I think you
get the point. When dealing
with computers and the Internet you can take NOTHING for granted!
Remember:
If you ARE doing things EXACTLY as you should be, you WILL make
sales!
Common
Error # 5:
“You’re not using ALL of the
facilities of the C.H.I.P. – as well as some that are NOT!”
All
too many marketers make the mistake of setting up the FFA networks in the
C.H.I.P. but putting TopEzineAds and SafeListWorld on the ol’ “back
burner.” They set up their
FFA pages to automatically send out their sales message and tell themselves
that they’ll get back to TopEzineAds and SafeListWorld “later.”
Far too frequently, “later” never comes.
Friends,
we did not include these two programs into the C.H.I.P. just to fill up
space! There are very good
reasons why they are there.
You
see, each form of advertising, whether on the Internet or off the Internet
appeals to a different “target audience.”
Let’s use OFFline advertising as an example…..
There
are consumers who never pick up a newspaper or magazine – but they’re
glued in front of the TV four hours a day.
There are consumers who disdain watching TV and are avid readers.
Then there are consumers who, perhaps because of hectic schedules,
don’t have the time for either printed material or TV, but love to listen
to the radio in their cars. This is why successful companies, in order to target ALL
consumers, invest in all possible forms of offline promotion.
The
same holds true of the Internet. There
is a HUGE portion of the Internet who post their ads to FFA networks, and
thus, in turn, receive YOUR sales message in return.
On the other hand, there are folks who have never even heard of FFA
pages, but read their ezines religiously.
Then there are the “opt-in aficionados” who rely on safelists for
their marketing.
We
included the TopEzineAds directory into the C.H.I.P. so that you, too, can
take advantage of that vast market of ezine subscribers which is A TOTALLY
DIFFERENT GROUP OF PROSPECTS THAN THE FFA POSTERS.
And we included SafeListWorld in the C.H.I.P. to provide you with a
means of sending your sales message out to HUNDREDS of safelists at a time
with just one click. Once
again, these safelist prospects are a completely separate group of prospects
than the FFA posters.
Of
course there is an additional cost associated with ezine advertising and
safelist posting. But you
don’t have to spend thousands of dollars a month on these two areas.
Set yourself up on a monthly budget on top of the base cost of the
C.H.I.P. For example, you may
be able to invest an additional $50.00 or $100.00 per month.
So set up a goal of joining “X” number of safelists and placing
“X” number of solo ezine ads EACH month UP TO that $50.00 or $100.00.
Not
only will this procedure open an two new audiences for your promotion, but
it will also give you experience in two more facets of Internet marketing.
And
what about methods of promotion OUTSIDE of the C.H.I.P!?
As we stated in the “Secrets of the Big Dogs” ebook itself…..
“The
C.H.I.P. is not, and was never designed to be, the
‘end-all-and-be-all’ of your Internet marketing tools.
Rather, using solid, proven techniques, the C.H.I.P. is designed to
give you a SOLID FOUNDATION upon which to build your overall marketing
strategy.”
So
just what other methods of promotion outside the C.H.I.P. are we talking
about? As we stated above, the
tools and techniques that comprise the C.H.I.P. constitute a SOLID
FOUNDATION. These are programs
that have stood the test of time and will be valid advertising techniques
for the foreseeable future. However
there are other, LESS stable techniques that may come and go, but while they
are popular can yield enormous benefits.
The fact that they may only be short-term techniques is the reasons
they are not included in the C.H.I.P., but that doesn’t mean that they
don’t offer some benefit NOW.
For
example, banner advertising used to be a very popular and very worthwhile
form of Internet advertising. For
the most part those days are gone, but while it lasted banner exchanges DID
work well. Likewise, so-called
“pop-ups” and “pop-unders” and “pop-overs” hit the Internet like
a storm and yielded very good results.
People quickly became irritated with their intrusiveness, and there
are now programs you can use to eliminate ever seeing this form of
advertising. In fact by the time you read this, pop-up advertising may be
a thing of the past. Nevertheless,
pop-ups DID work well.
Following
the directions outlined in the Big Dogs Training Manual you can effective
use the C.H.I.P. programs to send out your sales message in as little as ten
minutes a day. Your job as a
professional Internet marketer is to use your OTHER time to investigate
alternative methods of advertising. These
alternative methods may be blazing hot today but brutally cold and dead
tomorrow, but while they last they can offer you enormous advertising
results!
Remember:
If you ARE doing things EXACTLY as you should be, you WILL make
sales!
Common
Error # 6:
“You’re not reading the
directions!”
I
know, I know, I know. This
sounds like real grade school stuff, but nevertheless it remains the single
most prevalent reason that an Internet marketer “ain’t cuttin’ it.”
Understand
that each of the programs in the C.H.I.P. are completely independent
entities owned and operated by individuals and companies which have no
connection to Big Dogs. Likewise,
Big Dogs does not own or have direct control over any of the
programs/companies making up the C.H.I.P.
In other words, each of the fifteen C.H.I.P. programs was designed by
it’s creators to be a stand-alone program.
As such, each of the programs has it’s OWN easy-to-follow tutorial.
In
addition, of course, the Big Dogs Program offers the award-winning Big Dogs
Training Manual which, among a host of other training aids, contains the
“Fast Track Tutorials” to assist you in dealing with each of the C.H.I.P.
programs.
Thirdly,
the “Secrets of the Big Dogs” ebook itself underwent at LEAST a dozen
revisions during our first year – revisions designed to continuously
simplify the program. As an
example, Chapter 7 – “Questions and Answers” – increased in size a
whopping 400% during the first year as we added more and more material to
deal with commonly asked questions.
So
with all of the above material at your disposal, we can unqualifiedly state
that ALL of the answers to ALL of your questions have already been answered
– you just have to take the time and the patience to look for it.
Don’t be surprised that a re-reading of material you hurriedly went
through weeks ago, leaves you saying, “Huh!
Why didn’t I see that before!?
NOW I know what I’m doing wrong!”
To
give you a brief example of what I’m talking about, we recently ran a
contest in the Big Dogs Bulletin that was sent out to the membership on a
Friday afternoon, the prize being a monetary reward for the first Big Dog to
email us the answer. Now, in
the past when we ran contests like this members in certain time zones always
had an advantage because of when they opened and read their email. So to put things on a more even basis, we stated this in the
contest rules:
“Email
your entry to the Big Dogs Home Office with ‘I have the answer!’ in
the subject line. But do
not email it to us BEFORE Saturday, at 9:00 AM Eastern Time, USA.
Entries received BEFORE that time will be automatically
disqualified.”
So
what do YOU think happened!? That’s
right. Within a few hours of
the Bulletin going out (remember, we emailed it on Friday afternoon) we had
over two HUNDRED entries come back with, ‘I have the answer’ in the
subject line. Almost every one
of these initial entries was followed by ANOTHER, follow-up email (from the
same people) with, “Oops!” or “Sorry, I jumped the gun” or something
similar in the subject line.
If
it’s been some time since you read all of the material (and you’re not
making the number of sales you’d like) go back to square one and review
everything. Start with the
“Secrets of the Big dogs” ebook. Then
go through the Training Manual, and then, finally, review each of the
C.H.I.P. program sites. You’ll
be amazed at what you missed the first time through!
Remember:
If you ARE doing things EXACTLY as you should be, you WILL make
sales!
Common
Error # 7:
“You’re not delaying sending out your
sales message!”
This
advice also seems like common sense since we discuss it so much.
But you would be amazed at the number of marketers who do NOT delay
sending out their confirmation/sales message from the time they receive
their list of prospects.
So
for those of you who may be new or for those of you who may not be doing
this, let’s talk about this all-important subject in depth…..
Most
of the programs in the C.H.I.P. are FFA (“Free-For-All”) networks.
In exchange for being permitted to post THEIR ad on a particular FFA
network site, each of these ad posters (our prospects) agrees to accept
return emails from OTHER members (that’s us) of that FFA network.
Naturally, we Big Dogs are not the only ones who are members of the
FFA networks – in fact we make up a very small percentage of their total
membership. Now the way that
these FFA networks are set up, IMMEDIATELY upon the posting of an ad, an
autoresponder sends them back an email containing a confirmation/sales
message from other members. The
operative word here is, of course, IMMEDIATELY.
Within seconds of posting his or her ad to the FFA network, the ad
poster begins receiving HUNDREDS of confirmation/sales messages from other
members.
But
not from us Big Dogs! We’re
too smart for that (at least we’re supposed to be!).
We know that with hundreds of emails hitting that poster’s email
box, the chances of OUR ad being seen is greatly reduced. How do we avoid our ads getting lost in that initial
“blizzard” of other sales messages?
That’s right. By
DELAYING the sending out of our own sales message.
Virtually
all of the C.H.I.P. programs that are FFA networks allow you to delay
sending out your sales message until that initial snowstorm of sales
messages has subsided, giving YOUR ad a much better chance of being seen.
How
long should you set your delay? Well,
philosophies on that differ, but you should set your delay for no LESS than
two days, and no MORE than ten days. (A
shorter delay may not insure that your message misses that initial blizzard
if the prospect doesn’t open his email box right away, and a longer delay
increases chances of spam complaints.)
In
addition, I recommend “staggering” your delays. In other words, if you have TrafficWave set up to send out
your sales message after two days, set up MultiLinks to send it out after
three days, EmailPromoter to send it out after four days, and so on.
Since it is a physical impossibility to have a completely unique list
of prospects, some of these folks will be on the lists of two or more of the
FFA networks. Thus, by
staggering your delays, you’ll be “nailin’ ‘em” with your sales
message multiple times, but on different days.
Remember:
If you ARE doing things EXACTLY as you should be, you WILL make
sales!
Common
Error # 8:
“You’re not taking into account WHEN
you are promoting!”
Yes,
it sounds like “Internet sacrilege,” but despite the Internet being a
24/7advertising medium, there ARE times when your promotional efforts will
yield fewer results.
This
has mainly to do with just WHERE the majority of your prospects and
customers are located. You will
find that, at this stage of the Internet’s evolution at least, 75% of your
customers will come from the good ‘ol USA.
This means that a majority of your prospects will be celebrating the
same holidays. They will also
be taking their extended vacations at roughly the same time – when the
weather is nicer and the kids are out of school – June through August.
In other words a majority of your potential customers will be on the
same psychological calendar.
Now,
don’t get me wrong; you
should never completely CEASE your marketing efforts, but there are times of
the year when you should EXPECT your marketing efforts to yield lower
results. Let’s go through the
entire calendar year and you’ll see what I mean…..
A
lot of people use the holiday season (Christmas – New Years) to take extra
time away from their jobs. Although
a huge percentage of the population is off just on New Year’s Day
(January 1), many folks also take extra days off after that. Thus the main promotional period of the year starts around
the second week of January. People
are broke from their holiday spending sprees and actively seeking ways to
make extra money. In addition,
the start of a new year finds folks in that “rebirth” frame of mind
saying to themselves, “THIS is the year I’m gonna make some money!”
With
a few, short exceptions here and there ( i.e. memorial Day – the first official
holiday of the Summer season in the States, etc), this period continues
uninterrupted through the end of June.
Although summer vacation for the kids usually starts around the first
week of June, the REAL summer vacation - complete with everyone going on
vacation, wanting to enjoy the fine outdoor weather, camping, etc. –
starts only with the Fourth of July. You’ll
generally find a dip in your sales from the Fourth of July through the month
of August.
Now
the end of Labor Day week, the first week of September and the LAST big
holiday period of the Summer, is a signal for everyone to “get back to
work.” The kids go back to
school at this time as well, so this gives parents a LOT more time to get
back into the swing of things. This
time begins the Fall selling season which lasts until Thanksgiving week. (Thanksgiving is the third Thursday of November)
During this entire week, people’s attention is riveted on the
upcoming Christmas season. In
fact, the biggest retail shopping day of the year in the United States,
known as “Black Friday,” is the Friday after Thanksgiving when EVERYONE
is at the malls! So, once
again, during this week, you will find a downward trend in your sales.
Things
bounce back again for a while, however, and continue “business as usual”
until around the third week of December.
After this, although sales will still be there, you won’t be
setting any NEW sales records. Everyone
is spending their money on gifts, NOT on your program or product. The kids are once again off school and everyone’s mind is
on the holidays, partying, eating, and presents.
This trend continues until the first week of January when the cycle
starts all over again.
For
the record, let me repeat what we said above.
NO time of the year is an excuse to completely cease your marketing
efforts. BUT…you simply need
to be prepared for the inevitable decline in sales during certain times.
Since the C.H.I.P. programs are paid on an ongoing monthly basis
whether you use ‘em or not, well, why NOT use them – even if you know
you’ll get fewer sales during certain times.
Doing otherwise would be very foolish indeed!
On
the other hand, keeping in mind the above schedule can prevent you from
making costly mistakes with PAID advertising – i.e. ezine advertising.
Because you are paying EXTRA for an ezine ad, I certainly wouldn’t
place one so it comes out during the Christmas-New Years holiday season or
the Fourth of July weekend, and so on.
Remember:
If you ARE doing things EXACTLY as you should be, you WILL make
sales!
Common
Error # 9:
“You’re not sending out your sales
messages YOURSELF (using a PC-based mailing system), instead of having them
sent out FOR you (using a S.A.F.E. mailing system)!”
Most
of the C.H.I.P. programs make available some version of a
“Set-And-Forget-Emailing” system. And
what could be easier than simply inputing your ad, subject line, and delay,
and letting the program do all your marketing work FOR you?
You can do your marketing chores in just minutes a day!
But
recall what we said in the “Secrets of the Big Dogs” ebook…..
“Although
I like the convenience of the web-based type of emailer, and the
completely "hands-off" feature of the SAFE system, I personally
prefer the PC-based system. A PC-based system puts YOU in complete control
of your mailings so you KNOW exactly what's going on. It reassures
me when I can actually SEE the email addresses of my prospects, and
actually SEE my Group Mailer sending out my sales messages - that way I
KNOW they're going out. In testing all three types of systems, I
invariably get better results using the PC-based system. And
apparently I am not alone in my feelings; in recent surveys, half of
all Internet marketers indicate they still prefer the PC-based emailing
system.”
Just
WHY are results significantly better using a PC-based emailing system?
Who knows? I will be the
first to admit I am no “techie,” so I can’t offer a technical
explanation. But just being
familiar with the Internet and various software applications I know that
glitches and bugs and all sorts of “gremlins” crop up.
That’s simply an established part of our computerized world.
Who really KNOWS just how consistently reliable the S.A.F.E
systems are!
If
YOU are not getting the sales results you feel you should be, then try
converting your promotional efforts from web-based mailing to PC-based
mailing. Use the same ads,
subject lines, and delays, and see if YOUR clicks don’t increase
substantially.
Remember:
If you ARE doing things EXACTLY as you should be, you WILL make
sales!
Common
Error # 10:
“You’re not corresponding with your
downline on a regular basis!”
This
is not an error in generating initial sales for the ebook, of course, but
rather an error in proper handling of the folks who HAVE purchased the
ebook. It is just as important,
however, and over the long term even MORE important.
After all, an ebook sale generates a ONE-TIME paycheck for you, but
when those ebook purchasers upgrade to Alpha Dog you begin receiving an
ongoing, RESIDUAL paycheck, month-after-month.
This
process begins just as soon as someone purchases the ebook using your
hoplink. ClickBank makes it
easy for you since immediately upon purchase you are sent a notification
email. You can also login to
your admin site at ClickBank and get ALL of the information you need about
that purchaser – the ClickBank receipt number, date and even time of the
purchase, country of origin, email address, and of course the purchaser’s
full first and last name – all the information you need to set up your own
database in your Group Mailer. You
can then send a regular email newsletter or bulletin to your entire downline
with just a press of a button. This
of course comes AFTER you initial letter of introduction that you should be
sending to each purchaser just as soon as they buy the “Secrets of the Big
Dogs” ebook.
TO
A MAN,
every Alpha Dog who consistently brings in a higher than average number of
other Alpha Dogs is using this simply method!
In
that initial “welcome-to-the-team” email, are you congratulating them on
their purchase? Are you letting
them know that you are a living, breathing human being who genuinely CARES
about assisting them? Are you
providing them with your name, email address, and phone number?
Are you reminding them of the tools (i.e. the Training Manual, the
Bulletin, etc.) that Big Dogs makes available?
And
AFTER your welcoming email, do you keep in WEEKLY contact with your entire
group? Do you let ‘em know
how you’re doing (not necessarily from a business point of view, but
rather from a personal perspective)? Do
you continually remind them of the benefits of upgrading to Alpha Dog?
Do you give them little pointers and recommendations? (Remember: No
matter how much of a newbie YOU are, these folks are even NEWER newbies!)
Each
and every ebook purchaser you have – whether you have just one, or you
have a hundred – should be treated like gold, because that’s what they
are. If you’ll recall, I
started my Internet marketing career with FFANET, and I was far from being
an overnight success. In fact I
had a grand total of just two or three members after two months!
But I still sent every new member a welcoming email the same day they
joined, and I was sending out my own little bulletin every week.
The organization started to grow, and within ten months I had the
second largest organization in FFANET!
Then, when it came time to launch Big Dogs, I announced it in my
bulletin. Two days later I had sixty ebook sales, and eventually FORTY
of them upgraded to Alpha Dog. That
is the seed upon which our entire international Big Dogs organization was
built!
Personal
contact! A simple, commonsense
marketing technique that OFFline marketers take for granted, yet so many
ONline marketers ignore because they feel that the “magical” Internet
does not require it!
Remember:
If you ARE doing things EXACTLY as you should be, you WILL make
sales!
Do
YOU have a personal story or anecdote about an error that YOU were making?
Perhaps a silly, little mistake that made you smack your palm
against your forehead when you found the problem.
Let us know about it! We
may very well include it in a future update of this article to assist your
fellow Big Dogs. Send your
stories to ThePowerTeam2000@cs.com,
with “Here’s a mistake I was making, Stan” in the subject line.
Below
is a checklist of the top ten mistakes we discussed above.
If you’re not making the number of sales you think you should be,
why not go through the list and ask yourself if YOU are making them!
Common
Error # 1:
“You’re not using the CORRECT ClickBank hoplink in the CORRECT
manner!”
Common Error # 2:
“You’re not using subject lines and ad copy in your sales
messages that are DIFFERENT from everyone else!”
Common Error # 3:
“You’re not performing your marketing chores on a CONSISTENT
basis!”
Common Error # 4:
“You’re not tracking your ads!”
Common Error # 5:
“You’re not using ALL of the facilities of the C.H.I.P. – as
well as some that are NOT!”
Common Error # 6:
“You’re not reading the directions!”
Common Error # 7:
“You’re not delaying sending out your sales message!”
Common Error # 8:
“You’re not taking into account WHEN you are promoting!”
Common Error # 9:
“You’re not sending out your sales messages YOURSELF (using a
PC-based mailing system), instead of having them sent out FOR you (using a
S.A.F.E. mailing system)!”
Common Error # 10:
“You’re not corresponding with your downline on a regular
basis!”
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