Does Your Advertising Cry Wolf?

Are you familiar with the story The Boy Who Cried Wolf? It's a classic Aesop fable about a young shepherd, who fraudulently called for help by repeatedly shouting "Wolf!"

Local villagers who came to his aid several times discovered that his cries were bogus, and he had wasted their time.

Finally, when the boy was actually confronted by a wolf, the villagers ignored his cries for help, and the wolf ate the flock of sheep, and the boy himself.

The moral of the story is:

"Even when liars tell the truth, they are never believed."

That's the problem with a lot of advertising. It's crying wolf. It can't be believed, or trusted. And that's a shame. Because in my opinion, it's wrong to use advertising to mislead customers about the virtues of a product, when you know for a fact, the product is not what it's represented to be.

Just imagine how you would feel if someone did that to you. You wouldn't like it very much would you? See my point?

Look, I'm a marketing guy. So, I understand hype in advertising. Heck, I use it myself, on occasion. But if you're going to hype your product to the moon and beyond, you'd better make darn sure that it can deliver on all the outlandish claims and promises presented in your advertising.

Unfortunately, few products ever do, and that's disappointing.

Now if you happen to be one of those "boy who cried wolf" marketers whose advertising is at best exaggerated, and at worst a pack of lies, your days are numbered. Why?

Because while "you may be able to fool some of the people some of the time, you can't fool all of the people all of the time." And once people discover that you're nothing more than a slick charlatan - a con artist, if you will, they will avoid you and your company like the Bubonic Plague. Even worse, they'll tell others to avoid you as well. And that will be the death knell of your reputation.

Because a bad reputation is like viral marketing in reverse. It will take your business down faster than the Titanic!

If Your Article Marketing Results Suck...Do Something About It!

Let's cut to the chase. You already know the many benefits of article marketing:

1. Articles Give You Credibility. Writing articles allows you to present yourself as an expert in your field - provided, of course, you really are an expert. Or, at the very least, have above average knowledge of the topic you're writing about. This not only gives you instant credibility, it also gives you a leg up on your competition. Because the more people trust you, the more likely they are to favor you with their business.

2. Articles Allow You to Target Your Audience. People generally read information that focuses on the subject matter they're interested in. For example, pet owners will read information related to their pets. Photography enthusiasts will gravitate towards information related to photography, and so on and so forth.

This means readers of your articles are already targeted. And if what you're selling is related to the subject matter of the article (which it should be), you have a better than average chance of making the sale. And research has shown, the more targeted your traffic, the higher the conversion ratio. And the higher the conversion ratio, the greater your profits!

3. Articles Are Viral. This means if people find value in what you write, they will voluntarily pass along your articles to others. You can't buy that kind of publicity. I can't even begin to count the number of times friends and colleagues of mine have e-mailed articles to me they thought I might be interested in reading, and vice versa.

If your articles are well-written and present valuable information, they could be passed along and seen by hundreds of thousands of potential prospects. This not only adds to your reputation, it enhances your financial bottom line. In other words, increased income!

4. Articles Have SEO Benefits. It's been proven, time and time again, search engines love articles. As a result, if your articles are interesting and well-written, you can expect to get linked to by many important high-profile, high-traffic websites, thereby increasing your search engine ranking and traffic as well. And more targeted traffic equals more sales!

Like I said, you already know the many benefits of article marketing. But, you're struggling with the process, so you need to learn how to make those benefits work to your advantage, right? So, let's not waste anymore time... Click Here To Learn How To Do Article Marketing The Right Way!

Newbies...Are You Overreacting to Your Marketing Stats?

I'm a member of several small business forums, and I'm constantly reading threads where newbies are freaking out, because their marketing stats aren't performing up to their expectations. Unfortunately, in most cases, their expectations aren't based on methodology or fact. They're based on whimsical fantasies of riches, and a quick buck.

In fact, in most cases, newbies don't give their marketing campaigns enough time to actually work, before they start making all sorts of unnecessary wholesale changes.

For example, many newbies start bouncing off walls when they don't get a few conversions out of every 100-200 click-thrus. Here's why that's a mistake: There are far too many variables involved to be able to gauge whether or not a marketing campaign is working after only a couple hundred click-thrus. Not the least of which is traffic quality, and the competency of your marketing materials. I always tell my clients, wait until you've received a minimum of 1000-2000 click-thru's, before you make any adjustments.

Here's why: It's possible you might not get a single sale in the first 100-200 click-thru's. But in the next 100-200 click-thru's, you could get 10 sales. That's marketing. It's like golf, sometimes it will drive you absolutely nuts!The point is you just never know in which traffic groups those sales are going to be in. Again, assuming everything else is in order. That's why it's important not to overreact.

Also, when you do need to make adjustments to your marketing materials, don't change everything all at once. Make one or two changes at a time, and carefully monitor those changes to see if they improve results, before you make any additional changes. The reason for this is simple. If you change your marketing materials in one fell swoop, you won't know with any degree of certainty which changes were responsible for the improved results. For example, sometimes, just changing the headline of your ad or sales letter, and nothing else, can improve conversions significantly.

You also shouldn't overreact to website traffic fluctuation. Traffic goes up, traffic goes down. It happens to all websites to some degreee. It could be because of economic downturns, the season, weekend, holidays, summer vacations...a variety of things! The point is don't worry about traffic peaks and valley's. The main thing you want to look for is consistency with your traffic. That's why when you read your stats, it's important to look for consistent patterns and trends - not temporary peaks and valley's.

In closing, the main point of this article is not to overreact. Because many times, when you think there's a problem, there isn't one.

NOTE: This article is also available in video version on my YouTube channel.

No Skills? No Experience? No Problem! Anyone Can Make Money on the Internet!

Let's face it. When it comes to making money on the Internet, it's hard to know who to trust. There is so much B.S., it's easy to become jaded and disillusioned about the whole Internet Marketing process.

Well, I'm going to recommend a product that will definitely help you make money on the Internet - no bull!

The product is called, "The Super Affiliate Handbook," and it was written by Super-Affiliate, Rosalind Gardner. I purchased The Super Affiliate Handbook, several years ago, and I can assure you, it's as good as advertised.

In fact, I was so impressed with The Super Affiliate Handbook, I started selling it, and recommending it to others. For those of you new to the Internet, an affiliate is a person who enters into a business arrangement with a company for the sole purpose of compensation and/or profit. In other words, to make money.

Affiliate programs are without question the easiest way for newbies to make money online, because you don't need any money to get started. Heck, you don't even need a website!

Being an affiliate is the perfect way to start a business without the expense or hassles of a regular business. You don't have to worry about stocking inventory, accepting credit cards, collections, customer service or complaints. That's all handled for you by the merchant. Basically, all you have to do is promote the program and take your checks to the bank. That's it.

Would you like to make money with affiliate programs? You can!

Rosalind Gardner will guide you through the entire process in The Super Affiliate Handbook. It's definitely worth every penny and then some - especially if you are just starting out in affiliate marketing. For example:

You get 236 information-packed pages of practical tips and real-life examples."How To" strategies to save you money, time, and effort while building your affiliate marketing business.

Get an easy-to-understand 5-step overview of the business-building process.

- Learn why 1-page 'micro sites' don't work in affiliate marketing.

- Discover the top 25 mistakes that 'normal' affiliates make, and how to AVOID them.

- How to create a web site that keeps visitors coming back for more.

- 32 ways to market your affiliate sites online and off.

- Why you must stay away from the 'flea market' approach to Internet Marketing.

- How to assess a market for profitabilty.

- Discover which products are actually being sold online.

- Learn which programs to avoid and when to drop others.

- Where to find free software that saves both money and time.

- Learn how to negotiate a raise in your affiliate commissions.

- Discover exactly which qualities and actions set super affiliates apart from their less productive counterparts.

The information that Rosalind discusses in The Super Affiliate Handbook will help guide you toward success without any of the nonsense, fluff or filler as is the case with so many e-books these days.

Rosalind gives you the "nuts and bolts" of what it takes to succeed in affiliate marketing. She gives you the "meat."

The Super Affiliate Handbook is an outstanding tutorial which takes you step-by- step to creating an online business using affiliate programs. You won't find any B.S. What you will find is a detailed and precise process that is very successful, and it could make all the difference in the world for you.

That's why I'm wholeheartedly recommending The Super Affiliate Handbook. Go get it!

Expand Your Advertising Universe with "Your Town" Business Journals

In addition to advertising online, smart Internet Marketers expand their advertising universe to include offline advertising as well. And depending on where you live and what business you're in, you may find your local Business Journal a perfect compliment to your online marketing efforts.

For example, in Albany, New York where I live, the local business publication is called The Business Review. I've advertised in it on multiple occasions, and to this point have been very happy with my ROI. Boston, Massachusetts has a similar publication called Boston Business Journal. And in Dallas, Texas the publication is called Dallas Business Journal.

Unfortunately, the Business Journals aren't available in every city, but they're in many of the largest U.S. cities. The publications are all part of a group of business newspapers called BizJournals, with a national readership of 4 million. And are published by American City Business Journals, the nation's largest publisher of metropolitan business newspapers.

What I like most about the journals is besides the obvious advertising benefits, the newspapers are absolute goldmines for lead generation. Anyway, here's the website, in the event you'd like to check and see if BizJournals are available where you live.

How to Write a Keyword Balanced Article

In order to get the absolute maximum potential out of your articles, they must not only be appealing to potential readers, they must be appealing to search engines as well.

This means sprinkling searchable keywords throughout your articles (including your title) that attract search engine spiders. This will give your articles keyword balance.

By the way, when interspersing keywords throughout your articles, be careful not to repeat them so often they looked forced. Overdoing it with keywords (known as keyword stuffing) will make your articles read unnaturally, and will lead to an unpleasant reading experience for your readers.

In addition, if search engine spiders discover too many of the same keywords in your articles they will penalize your articles for spamming. This will adversely affect the search engine ranking of your articles. It might even get your site blacklisted, if the spiders detect a pattern of keyword stuffing on your site.

So, what is the correct density of keywords for an article? Personally, I don't think keyword density even exists as a calcuable numeric constant. In other words, don't worry about the correct keyword density. And don't worry about counting keywords. Just write.

Speaking of writing, I need to clarify what I meant at the beginning of this article when I said:

"In order to get the absolute maximum potential out of your articles, your articles must not only be appealing to potential readers, they must be appealing to search engines as well."

I feel it's important to explain what I meant by that statement, because it could easily be misconstrued. When I said your articles must be appealing to search engines, I wasn't implying you should write for the search engines. That's the last thing you ever want to do. You should always write with readers in mind first - ALWAYS.

That being said, if you want your pages to rank high in the search engines, you have to give the spiders something to latch on to. You have to give them relevancy. The keywords you use must be as relevant as possible to the page they're on.

And the best way to do that is to establish keyword relevancy right out of the gate with your article title. Whenever possible, you should use your primary keywords in your title. No, not for the benefit of the spiders, but for the benefit of readers. You see, if you write articles focused on attracting a specific audience, you will automatically attract the search engines. Funny how that works, isn't it?

Establishing keyword relevance right from the start also means using your primary keywords in the first paragraph of your article. And then, throughout the rest of your article, including the closing paragraph.

Again, don't force anything. Never place a keyword somewhere it doesn't belong - where it doesn't fit. Just write naturally, so your article has a nice rhythm and flow to it. After you complete your article, in addition to reading it yourself, let others you trust look it over to make sure it reads naturally. If it does... congratulations!

You've achieved your goal of writing a keyword balanced article without spamming.

9 Quick and Easy Ways to Improve the Trustworthiness of your Website

The trustworthiness of your website - or lack of, will have the greatest impact on your sales conversions, and ultimately, the success or failure of your site. Following are 9 ways you can improve the trustworthiness of your website:

1. Purchase a "real" domain name. For example DavidJacksonsWebsite.com, as opposed to DavidJacksonsWebsite.blogspot.com, or DavidJacksonsWebsite.homestead.com. Having your own domain name makes you look more professional, and enhances your trustworthiness.

2. Display your contact information. If you sell products directly from your site, it's important to display your contact information, as opposed to using a contact form. If privacy is a concern, you can use a service like the UPS Store for a physical shipping and mailing address.

3. Personalize your website. Provide an "About Us" page. Also, provide the names of the owner(s) and employees, if you have any. Be sure to include pictures and brief biographies. The worst thing you can do is give the appearance you want to be anonymous, which obviously generates suspicion.

4. Become verified. If you use PayPal for payment processing, make sure to display the "PayPal Verified" logo.

5. Make sure your payment processing is secure. This includes a secure server, and a secure gateway. Make sure your customers payments are as secure as possible.

6. Use testimonials. Ask your clients for testimonials and permission to use their full name on your site. Also, testimonials that have contact information such as a website or e-mail address are a lot more credible than just "Sara J.", New York, which looks bogus.

7. Offer a guarantee. If you offer a money back guarantee on your service or product, say so. Conversely, if you don't, say so. Clearly spell out the length of your guarantee, what it covers, and any other pertinent details.

8. Clearly explain your privacy policy. If you collect personal information, tell people what you're going to do with their information. They have aright to know.

9. List your professional qualifications. This includes professional certifications, awards, published articles and books, etc.

This article is also available in video version on my YouTube channel.

14 Website Design Tips That Will Help You Convert More Prospects Into Buyers

If you've ever wondered what it takes to build a website that converts prospects into buyers, this article is for you. While I've seen poorly designed websites make money, those types of sites are more the exception than the rule. It's been my experience, most successful websites share common design characteristics that make them appealing to prospects.

Following are 14 website design tips that will help you convert more prospects into buyers:

1. Make sure your website loads quickly. Nothing is more annoying to visitors than a website that take forever to load. You may have the greatest website in the world, but if it takes too long time to load, visitors aren't going to wait around to see it.

2. Have a crystal clear identity. Have you ever landed on a website and didn't know what it was about? How did you feel? You didn't like it did you? And I'll bet you probably clicked out of there pretty quickly. Well, your visitors don't like it either. Don't let your visitors have to try and figure out what your website is all about. Make it crystal clear, right from the beginning. Having a big, descriptive headline on your home page is an excellent way to announce what your website is about. Also, choose relevant keywords for your pages, as opposed to trying to trick people just to get eyeballs. Keep your keywords relevant to your web pages.

3. Keep it simple. Don't worry about trying to impress with all kinds of unnecessary whistles and bells. (Does anyone really need flash?) Focus on usability, sales and conversions. Simple website designs convert.

4. White space is a good thing. Stay away from clutter. Have a clean, user-friendly site that makes it easy for visitors to find what they're looking for. Remember, white space is a good thing. Also, if your website has a lot of content and/or pages, add a search box, to make it easier for your visitors to find what they're looking for.

5. Have compelling copy that sells. Ultimately, conversions come down to sales copy. If you don't have the ability to write effective sales copy that sells, hire someone that does. It's well worth the investment.

6. Don't give prospects too many choices. While variety can be a good thing, giving your prospects too many items to choose from can often backfire. Why? Because giving prospects too many items to choose from can confuse them. And confused prospects don't buy. Limit product options to no more than three choices.

7. Make it easy for people to subscribe to your content. Remember, out of sight, out of mind. Keep your website in the uppermost of prospects minds with your content via newsletters, RSS feeds, etc.

8. Update your content regularly. Give visitors a reason to return to your site with regularly updated content. Besides, search engines like fresh content also. So updating your content regularly will help with your SEO efforts as well.

9. Use strong call to action language. Tell your visitors what you want them to do. If you want them to subscribe to your newsletter, tell them. If you want them to buy something, tell them. Don't ever make your visitors have to guess what you want them to do. Tell them.

10. Make your website readable. Do you remember the nearsighted cartoon character, Mr. Magoo? He always walked around with his eyes in a permanent squint, trying to visually decipher things that were right in front of him.

Well, that’s exactly how I feel when I visit some websites. I find myself squinting like Mr. Magoo, because the font size is so tiny. When that happens, guess what? Click…I’m outta there. Do your readers a favor, and stay away from tiny font sizes. Stick with the standard 12-point font size, whenever possible.

Conversely, it’s not a good ideal to use overly large font sizes either. It’s just not reader-friendly. Another thing, use ALL CAPS and fancy fonts in moderation.

11. A picture is worth a thousand words. If you sell physical products, make sure you have clear pictures of those products to help close the deal. People enjoy looking at pictures of things they're considering buying. More importantly, using pictures ogf products has been proven to increase conversions.

12. Avoid reverse type. I’m absolutely amazed at how many websites I’ve visited that are written in reverse text. What’s reverse text? Reverse text is light colored or white text on a dark or black background. If used correctly, reverse text can produce an impressive visual impact.

The problem is many websites don’t use it correctly. And if you have a whole web page of reverse text, it’s extremely difficult on the eyes. Why? Because according to readability studies, reverse text is not suitable for reading because of its poor legibility even in normal lighting conditions. It’s hard on the eyes, and just not reader-friendly. That’s why newspapers, books and magazines have always been printed on white paper with black text.

When designing your website, it’s best to use black text on a white or light-colored background, for optimum readability. However if you decide to use reverse text, use it in moderation.

13. Make the buying process easy. Make it easy for prospects to get from your home page to the product page or the checkout page. Don't make your prospects jump through hoops, clicking thru page after page after page to give you their money. Or else you'll lose them.

14. Display your contact information. The trustworthiness of your website - or lack of will have the greatest impact on your sales conversions, and ultimately, the success or failure of your site. If you sell products directly from your site, it's important to display your contact information, as opposed to using a contact form. If privacy is a concern, you can use a service like The UPS Store for a physical shipping and mailing address.

Note: This article is available in video version on my YouTube channel.

5 Common Facebook Tactics – That Don’t Work!

There are about ten common Facebook marketing tactics. (You can probably think of more, but most are a derivative of one of these ten.) It may surprise you to learn that five of these tactics don’t even work — that’s fully half!

Now, no Fire God will suddenly appear to smite you if you happen to have done one of the following things. They are definitely mistakes, but they aren’t irreversible. In fact, they’re really only mistakes in one sense of the word. Continued...

Article Source: http://www.sitepronews.com/2010/07/08/5-common-facebook-tactics-that-dont-work/ Author: Tinu Abayomi Paul

An Online Business Plan That Really Works

You want to start your own online business, and to begin with you must build it with limited time because of your existing job, life or family situation - sound familiar?

I was the same way - the last thing I wanted to do is use my hour each day to work on a dead-end project or worse yet, work my butt off only to put money in someone else's pockets without putting me in a better situation.

The fact is that most unsuccessful attempts to start an online business fail because they a) Don't follow a plan of any kind - instead taking the shotgun approach or b) Follow a faulty plan that is designed to make other people money - not you.

When I first started out online 8-years ago, we hit some dead-ends pretty fast - but in doing so found one specific online business plan that really works no matter who puts it into action.

It works mainly because YOU have a product that can be controlled and sold 100% by you - you are not relying on making someone else wealthy, but instead can leverage your product to finally achieve the time and financial freedom we all seek as entrepreneurs.

There are 10 steps to this proven online business plan, and while this may seem like a great deal of work, the fact is that you can master this entire process in as little as 6-weeks while still working away at your current job.

So here is the plan.

1. Uncover a hot desire within a target market by visiting forums, discussion groups, blogs and social networking sites that clearly indicate a niche market with an interest in a subject area. Then, pull out the biggest frustration, challenge or desire from withing that market - this will tpyically be a question like "How do I keep 10-pounds off for more than 6-months" or "What investment plan should I follow given today's highly volatile economy?"

2. Publish a blog on your topic posting daily for a few weeks to build traffic. By blogging and submitting to various blog directories as well as social networking sites you will get more traffic along with some backlink advantage from authority sites improving your search engine position over time. You are "putting up your sign" for your new online business.

3. Start building your list right away by putting an opt-in forum with a bonus download on your main page(s). List building is so important because...

a) 8 out of 10 visitors will not buy on first visit to your site

b) You can double (and often triple or more) your conversion of visitors to sales by exposing them multiple times to your sales page

c) You can survey your list for further ideas, case studies, or sell them other people's products and make affiliate commissions

d) You'll have an eager group of customers highly motivated to buy from you in the future

4. Create your own book, ebook, manual, course, guidebook or formula in the form of either a digital written, audio or video product OR in the form of a physical print or Audio/Video shipped on CD or DVD. Address the major desire you researched in step 1 and structure the information as your own solution system. You can see an outline on how to structure your information product business in the complimentary video: http://www.infomarketerszone.com/public/254.cfm?sd=2

5. Write your compelling sales letter by targeting specific desires within your marketplace and turning those desires into benefit statements. For each compelling question your market has explicitly asked or is thinking about you should have a solution in your infoproduct and a benefit statement on your sales page.

6. Generate traffic by using multiple techniques such as writing articles submitting them to high authority article directories, publishing to your blog on a daily basis, advertising using pay-per-click, becoming active on leading social networking sites and emphasizing your affiliate program.

7. Seek out JV partners and super affiliates. Setup your affiliate program using the capability built into Clickbank or using other affiliate tracking software - then actively seek out top affiliates within your marketplace. Make it a part of your system to seek out at least 3-4 top JV partners each month.

8. As you begin selling your products (or giving away early review copies) work with your customers to build PROOF that your information and system works. This will build momentum and result in many more ebooks being sold. The entire process of building proof around your product should be built into the original design - for example, you can't hope to get proof if you haven't structured your infoproduct as something that is testable or usable.

9. Monitor and improve by building in an ongoing testing and monitoring function into your business system. What is working, what is not and make adjustments. For instance, you may be getting a TON of traffic, but conversion sucks - so you make changes to your sales letter. Or, you may suffering for traffic, so work a little harder at writing more (or better) articles, blog posting, and recruiting affiliates who can flood your site with traffic. It's a plan-do-review process that leads to top selling sites.

10. Finally, structure your communications to your subscribers and customers in a way that they guide your business toward the best opportunities. By allowing comments to blog postings, surveying your subscribers and customers, speaking with your customers 1:1 and running frequent brainstorming or coaching calls your customers will tell you exactly what they want giving you the biggest advantage of all to stay ahead of your competition.

We know this plan works, we've applied it to multiple markets and have coached using this system for the last 5-years and now you can apply it to your own desire for an online business plan.

There's no doubt that owning the rights to your own product is the BEST business model to make money online. Uncover the ULTIMATE SYSTEM for turning information into your own highly profitable, easy-to-sell products online - visit http://www.infoproductcreator.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jeff_Smith

The Pervasion of Disrespectful Marketing

Question: What's the best way to lose potential customers?

Answer: Piss them off.

Yet, that's exactly what many Internet marketers are doing...pissing off potential customers. How? By using disrespectful marketing methods. Unfortunately, there seems to be a pervasion of intrusive and disrespectful marketing on websites across the Internet.

So, why is this happening? Well, mainly because we're letting it happen. By not protesting loudly or often enough. And also because, as much as I hate to admit it, intrusive marketing works. After all, if it didn't work, Internet marketers would have long ago abandoned this controversial and disrespectful method of marketing.

Okay, so intrusive marketing works...so what? What about the moral aspect? Don't we as Internet marketers have a moral obligation to always be respectful to website visitors? I mean, just because something works doesn't mean that we should use it, right? After all, steel-jaw animal traps are also very effective, but they've not very humane. Sometimes the end result doesn't justify the means.

I Was in the Mood to Buy, But...

Studies have shown, the majority of U.S. households have some sort of pop-up blocker on their computer. Do you understand the full import of that statement? Do you know what it means? No? Let me explain it to you.

Since 204.3 million people in the U.S. have access to the Internet, according to a Nielsen/NetRatings survey. That means tens of millions of people don't like intrusive marketing. And can you really blame them? Just imagine for a moment that you're alone with your spouse, and you're both in the mood for some long overdue intimacy...and so the sensual foreplay begins...

Suddenly the telephone rings...or the baby starts crying. Kinda kills the mood, doesn't it?

Well, that's exactly what intrusive marketing does. It pours cold water on your prospects buying mood. It kills their desire to buy from you. Here's what marketing expert Joseph Carrabis wrote in his article, Intrusive Little Windows or "DeBranding Made Easy":

"Imagine yourself in that buying mood. You've made up your mind you want something, you've done your research, you've found it, you want it, you want it right now, you want to spend money and there it is right in front of you and one click from now you can rest assured you'll have it...

...and then an intrusive little window shows up, right between you and what you want."

That intrusive little window is the equivalent of a telephone ringing, or a baby crying. Either way, you just lost a potential customer.

Let me ask you a question: Knowing there are tens of millions of consumers out there who don't like intrusive marketing, why on earth would you ever utilize it on your site? Why risk pissing off and losing even one prospect, if you can avoid doing so?

People Don't Hate Advertising; They Hate Bad, Intrusive And Annoying Advertising

Here's what blogger and marketing expert Mike Masnick wrote on his Techdirt blog, in a post titled, People Don't Hate Advertising; They Hate Bad, Intrusive And Annoying Advertising:

"More than half of U.S. households use some kind of ad-blocking technology, such as a spam filter or a pop-up blocker. However, that hardly means that people hate advertising. It just means they hate totally annoying, intrusive and unwanted advertising."

Is Intrusive Marketing Disrespectful?

Look...don't get me wrong, I'm all for aggressively marketing your products and services, as long as you do so legally. That's called free enterprise, and aggressive marketing is perfectly acceptable.

And there's certainly nothing wrong with using various marketing tricks and techniques to try to get visitors to stay on your site a little longer. After all, research has shown, the longer you can get visitors to stay on your site, the greater your chances of converting them into customers.

That being said, at what point do aggressive marketing methods cross the line? At what point does it become disrespectful?

By now, it should be obvious to anyone reading this article, I don't like intrusive marketing. And I would never consider using it on any of my sites. Morally speaking, I consider intrusive marketing to be disrepectful, and I would never dream of disrespecting my visitors in that manner.

Conversely, if I choose to visit your site, I don't want some intrusive floating window requesting my subscription to your newsletter, the moment I land on your site. At least give me the opportunity to look around your site a little first to see what you have to offer.

Perhaps, after I've done that, I'll subscribe to your newsletter, or request your free report, if I like what your website has to offer. But don't get in my face!

Hey, Advertisers! How Do You Close This Darn Thing?

And it's not just Internet marketers who are guilty of disrespecting their visitors in this fashion. Corporate websites are equally culpable.

For example, the other day I was reading an article on The Huffington Post website, when suddenly, a giant advertisement opened up like an accordion and literally started pushing the article I was reading further and further down the page. I couldn't believe it.

Now here's the diabolical part. The way the ad was designed, I couldn't figure out how to close the darn thing. As a result, the ad just kept getting larger and larger and larger, until it finally closed itself. But only after it was done playing.

Think about that for a second. The ad was intentionally designed to be difficult to close. That's what made it so diabolical. True, it was only a 30 second ad, but that's not the point. The point is the ad was forced upon me. It was intrusive. It interrupted my reading enjoyment. I have a problem with that.

About.com received so many complaints from it's customers about intrusive advertising, they were forced to reduce the number of intrusive advertising on its sites. That should be a lesson to us as consumers, as well.

Perhaps, if more of us complained about intrusive marketing methods, other websites might follow suit and reduce or eliminate intrusive marketing on their sites. Writing this article is my way of doing just that.

In closing, I think marketing expert Frank Reed probably said it best, when he recently wrote on his Frank Thinking blog in a post titled, Hey Advertisers! I Can’t Find the Close Button Fast Enough!:

"I don’t care enough to look at your ad, especially because you are trying to trick me into seeing it. That’s pathetic. Get creative and make me care about your brand. Steamrolling your way through my web experience will not get you a customer. Instead, you’ll get "reviews" like this one."

How to Use the Amazing Power of Pre-Selling to Increase Affiliate Sales

For newbies, or anyone else who may not know what pre-selling is, it basically involves warming up your website visitors and getting them in a "buying frame of mind," before you send them to your affiliate merchants website.

You can pre-sell using a variety of marketing methods, including reviews, articles, press releases and e-mail. Following is an example of effective pre-selling:

The Amazing Psychological Secret Behind the Power of Article Marketing

Notice how in the example, the pre-selling is more fact-based than hype? Also, notice how I strongly support my case for recommending the product with facts?

Remember, a pre-sell page is not a sales page. Let the affiliate merchant's website do the selling. You do the pre-selling. And while pre-selling works for selling your own products and services, it's especially effective if you're an affiliate marketer. Here's why: Most sales pages for affiliate products are weak and ineffective, and quite frankly need all the help they can get.

So, if you send your website visitors directly to those types of sales pages without pre-selling them first, the chances of converting them into customers are slim, to say the least. Pre-selling can dramatically boost the conversions of a weak sales page.

Conversely, if you pre-sell your website visitors before sending them to a strong, well-written, sales page, your chances of making the sale are greatly increased. That's because pre-selling can also boost the conversions of a strong sales page.

Pre-selling is sort of like reading a positive review in the newspaper about that new restaurant that just opened up. That positive review carries much more weight and credibility, than if you saw that restaurant's advertisement in the same newspaper or on television.

In closing, whatever you do, don't take this article lightly and don't underestimate the power of pre-selling. It truly can make or break your affiliate marketing business.

Why Everything You Know As a Marketer Might Be Wrong

All of us have a belief system that governs our behavior.

Most of these systems are not rooted in the way the universe actually operates. They are, instead, propelled by:

Myths

Rumors and gossip

Fuzzy logic

Unexamined assumptions

And lots of guessing.

Almost every single consultation I've ever been paid for included an extended session where I had to beat the assumptions out of the client.

"No," he'll say, "I didn't try that tactic, because I just assumed that..." is what I hear the most. Followed by complete nonsense pulled out of thin air, backed up with rumor and myth.

Start paying attention to the nonsense flying around you.

Hollywood is one of the worst offenders. Screenwriters for generations have been writing about stuff they have zero real clue about.

(So you keep seeing heroes getting shot, slugged in the head with bats, and falling twelve stories to the sidewalk... only to shake it off and go back to win the fight. For example.)

Congress is a mix of fools and geniuses. Both engage with their constituency at the lowest intellectual level possible. One group just does it on purpose... but they're still playing to the myths and rumor mills.

(Time after time, researchers have discovered that average -- and otherwise good-hearted -- Americans will recoil and reject the Bill of Rights when it's presented to them without explaining what it is. Scary. But if you're gonna succeed in politics, you gotta understand how the voting brain functions.)

And my favorite example (cuz I come from this kind of family): Your arrogant, know-it-all brother-in-law will get so angry discussing what he "knows" about the world that he will insult you, offer vague threats, and feel totally justified calling you an idiot if you disagree.

Or if you have the gall to ask where he gets his facts.

"Just look it up," is what I heard at family functions growing up. "It's a fact. I guarantee you it's true."

The kicker: Nowadays, you can simply Google any question and get immediate expert-supported facts.

Growing up, I used to pull out the dictionary and encyclopedias and triumphantly present the actual correct answer to what was being angrily discussed.

What I learned: Presenting facts -- even unimpeachable stacks of figures, statistics, quotes and conclusions -- couldn't dampen the enthusiasm another person had for what he "believed" to be true.

When selling something, you cannot leave anything out of your pitch.

Or your prospect will fill in the gap from his vast internal storehouse of misinformation, rumor, myth, "common sense" and -- worst of all -- his own guesses at what "should" be in your sales argument.

Great marketers and copywriters use long copy formats (in written ads or websites, auto-responder email series, videos, and speeches) because they know they're supplying "buying reasons" for both the rational side of their prospect's brain...

... and his irrational side (which often dominates the internal conversation).

The next time you try to persuade someone to do something -- buy what you offer, leave his name and email, come to an event, whatever -- just throw in a few nods to the roiling nonsense you suspect is inside his brain.

What you know -- for a FACT -- is true about what you offer...

... may (in fact) be utterly polluted by what your prospect believes is true about it.

So you need to know what he's thinking... and you need to address it in a way that is satisfying to his need to fill in the gaps.

Remember: People are actively looking a reason -- factually true or not -- to say "no" to your offer.

Saying "no" means they can relax and get on with their day, continuing to believe there is no good solution to their problem.

This is why you explain -- with vivid stories and action-oriented case studies -- stuff like return-on-investment, the outrageous value being offered, the limits of the opportunity, and all the wonderful ways his life is about to change.

Including lots of sound-bites he can use to remind himself, his doubting spouse, and his skeptical neighbor why this was such a great decision.

When you leave gaps in your sales pitch, you lose control of the process.

Rookie marketers and copywriters do this all the time. They take for granted that their prospect understands the offer and product the same way they do.

And so they leave too many easy outs for the prospect to say "Oh, that's not for me, because..." followed by whatever belief sways them.

When you control the conversation, he can't assume anything, or go anywhere in his head you don't want him to go.

Side note: When you get really good at understanding the mindset of your prospect, you CAN leave vast holes in your pitch.

It's called going blind, because you're purposely avoiding explaining things in too much detail. The prospect has to order and receive the product to relieve his curiosity.

This tactic has as many iron-clad rules as the more common straightforward pitch.

A blind ad is all about managing the void. You control the "gaps" presented to your prospect much like great musicians control the "spaces" in cool jazz.

You block all exits and direct your prospect's imagination in the direction you want it to go.

You know he's going to fill in the gaps. So you give him plenty of good ammo to do so, by playing on the myths, gossip and other flotsam and jetsam in his mind.

It's all about self-knowledge -- understanding what you do not yet have covered, and going after it.

We'll have to do this again, soon.

John Carlton's 25-year career is legendary... as an expert copywriter, a pioneer in online marketing, and a teacher of killer sales copy. He knows marketing inside and out. To read more from John (including accessing the 5-years-deep archive of hard-core tactics and insight and advice, for free) just dive into his globally-read blog:

http://www.john-carlton.com.

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