Internet marketing can sometimes feel like a very lonely venture.
You've probably felt the frustration -- you're in the middle of writing yet another blog post or an article you plan to submit to a directory, when suddenly, it hits you. You stop writing for a moment, and wonder, "Why am I even bothering with this? No one is reading what I have to say anyway."
This is the curse of new internet marketers who have not yet had the chance to see their efforts come to fruition. Unfortunately, this is when many people give up, leaving their dreams to stagnate with a handful of blog posts and a couple of poorly distributed articles.
Perhaps you are at this point right now.
It is important, however, to understand that solid internet marketing takes time. If you have recently launched a website that you are trying to promote, your first few months may be spent writing to no one but the search engine spiders, wondering when and if the traffic will come.
During this time, you may have to convince yourself that you are writing to an audience of thousands, and that you are just one post away from enormous success. If this is what it takes to make that next blog post or that next article happen, by all means, do it.
The traffic will come. If you have a solid product, and you are using every resource you can get your hands on to learn how to refine your internet marketing techniques, the traffic has no other choice.
Can you imagine what it will feel like when you receive an email that tells you that you've just made your first sale? If you haven't imagined it, stop and do it right now. That sale will come, followed by many others, and you'll get to see all of your efforts finally paying off.
Write one more article. Compose one more blog post. Make one more comment on someone else's blog. You never know where that first sale will come from, and the catalyst for that sale may well be hidden in your next action. You just have to make sure that you do take that action.
The weeks or months of writing to no one are not pointless or a waste of time. They are periods when your business is building energy so it can take off. Even if no one is commenting on your blog or downloading your articles, this content is still fuel for your business.
Any successful marketer has been there, probably many times. The difference between successful marketers and the rest is that successful marketers always take that next step.
To Your Success,
Lee Rowley
Java Joint Media
http://www.javajointmedia.com/
Monday, October 22, 2007
Saturday, October 20, 2007
Are Squeeze Pages a Bad Idea?
I received an email this morning from a client that asked whether or not she should use squeeze pages as part of her list building strategy. Since this is a question I receive quite often, I decided to share my thoughts on squeeze pages with our readers.
In case you aren't familiar with this marketing tool, squeeze pages are dedicated pages (and often, a dedicated website) that uses long copy to entice readers to subscribe to the owner's email marketing list. Squeeze pages usually have few or no outbound links, to minimize the reader's temptation to click away from the page.
Squeeze pages also often use incentives, such as free reports, email mini-courses, or web-based tools, to get visitors to give up their email addresses.
I can't really discount the value of squeeze pages -- a number of internet marketers are very successful with squeeze pages, and have built impressive marketing lists by promoting them along with their full websites and other marketing tools.
Squeeze pages have a few distinct advantages. First, they are fairly easy to build. If you use dedicated URLs for your squeeze pages, you won't have to worry about checking your links or making sure that multiple pages compliment each other visually. You can use a website creation tool such as PageBreeze to easily create squeeze pages in just a couple of hours each.
Second, squeeze pages are easy to optimize because of the long copy style and the level of description you will need to use to convince visitors to opt in to your email marketing list. Once you have selected your keywords, you can quickly write copy for your squeeze pages around your keywords, without having to check the keyword density for multiple pages.
Third, squeeze pages allow you to easily segment different product groups you may have available on your main website. You can use squeeze pages to put your visitors in the correct mindframe to be receptive to product offers, and once they have subscribed to your list, you can use email marketing efforts to further entice your prospects to buy certain products. Once they have decided to buy, you can redirect them to the correct page on your main website. After the sale, you can introduce them to other products on your website, or direct them to new squeeze pages to promote other products.
My one reservation about squeeze pages is that many marketers load them with content similar to strong sales copy. When I land on squeeze pages and see long, drawn-out copy loaded with Impact font headings, bullet points, and testimonial boxes, I find the benefits (the free products) as quickly as I can. If I can't find them right away, I find something else to do. I don't have time to read tomes of website content lauding some free product that may or may not be worth reading.
Maybe I've just seen so many squeeze pages that they're beginning to lose their effectiveness. I know I'm not alone in losing my patience with squeeze pages -- I'm hearing from more and more internet users that are starting to groan every time they see one.
As effective as squeeze pages have been for internet marketers, I have to wonder if more and more people are going to burn out on squeeze pages over the next few years. If that happens, marketers will need to quickly drum up some other way of building opt in lists.
My short answer is that I don't see anything wrong with squeeze pages right now, but I'm not sure they're a good long term strategy. While squeeze pages are not jet on their collective deathbed, I'm cautious about relying on them as a permanent marketing tool.
To Your Success,
Lee Rowley
Java Joint Media
www.javajointmedia.com
In case you aren't familiar with this marketing tool, squeeze pages are dedicated pages (and often, a dedicated website) that uses long copy to entice readers to subscribe to the owner's email marketing list. Squeeze pages usually have few or no outbound links, to minimize the reader's temptation to click away from the page.
Squeeze pages also often use incentives, such as free reports, email mini-courses, or web-based tools, to get visitors to give up their email addresses.
I can't really discount the value of squeeze pages -- a number of internet marketers are very successful with squeeze pages, and have built impressive marketing lists by promoting them along with their full websites and other marketing tools.
Squeeze pages have a few distinct advantages. First, they are fairly easy to build. If you use dedicated URLs for your squeeze pages, you won't have to worry about checking your links or making sure that multiple pages compliment each other visually. You can use a website creation tool such as PageBreeze to easily create squeeze pages in just a couple of hours each.
Second, squeeze pages are easy to optimize because of the long copy style and the level of description you will need to use to convince visitors to opt in to your email marketing list. Once you have selected your keywords, you can quickly write copy for your squeeze pages around your keywords, without having to check the keyword density for multiple pages.
Third, squeeze pages allow you to easily segment different product groups you may have available on your main website. You can use squeeze pages to put your visitors in the correct mindframe to be receptive to product offers, and once they have subscribed to your list, you can use email marketing efforts to further entice your prospects to buy certain products. Once they have decided to buy, you can redirect them to the correct page on your main website. After the sale, you can introduce them to other products on your website, or direct them to new squeeze pages to promote other products.
My one reservation about squeeze pages is that many marketers load them with content similar to strong sales copy. When I land on squeeze pages and see long, drawn-out copy loaded with Impact font headings, bullet points, and testimonial boxes, I find the benefits (the free products) as quickly as I can. If I can't find them right away, I find something else to do. I don't have time to read tomes of website content lauding some free product that may or may not be worth reading.
Maybe I've just seen so many squeeze pages that they're beginning to lose their effectiveness. I know I'm not alone in losing my patience with squeeze pages -- I'm hearing from more and more internet users that are starting to groan every time they see one.
As effective as squeeze pages have been for internet marketers, I have to wonder if more and more people are going to burn out on squeeze pages over the next few years. If that happens, marketers will need to quickly drum up some other way of building opt in lists.
My short answer is that I don't see anything wrong with squeeze pages right now, but I'm not sure they're a good long term strategy. While squeeze pages are not jet on their collective deathbed, I'm cautious about relying on them as a permanent marketing tool.
To Your Success,
Lee Rowley
Java Joint Media
www.javajointmedia.com
Thursday, October 18, 2007
"Six Secrets of Sizzling Sales Copy" is ready!
I mentioned a few days ago that we would soon be offering a free sales copywriting email course on our site.
It's here, a whole two days early!
"Six Secrets of Sizzling Sales Copy" gets to the bottom of what it takes to put your visitors in the right frame of mind to buy your products. Use these secrets in your sales copywriting, and you will see your conversion ratios increase dramatically.
And you won't pay a single penny for it. Not ever.
In fact, feel free to forward the email course to your friends and business associates. We don't mind. All we ask is that you leave our text and website links intact. After all, even though we're not charging for this information, we did put quite a bit of time into making sure we included only the best and most useful tips. We wanted to make sure that if you are willing to trust us with your email address (and don't worry, we won't share it with anyone), you should get information that has real value.
While we're on the subject of value... you know how some internet marketers give you something for free, and then tell you it has a value of $XXX, to make it look like other people really pay hundreds of dollars to obtain what you're getting for free?
Frankly, I don't have any idea how much "Six Secrets of Sizzling Sales Copy" is worth to you. We've never sold it, and we're not planning to. If you put the tips and techniques to work in your sales copy (or hire us to do it for you), it might be worth tens of thousands of dollars -- maybe more. If you casually read the email course and decide to go get a beer and a cheeseburger instead, it might be worth nothing at all. That sounds harsh, but it's the cold truth. You decide the value by what you choose to do with the information.
However much money it makes you, it's yours for the taking.
If you're ready to take your business to the next level... to stop wondering why your visitors are browsing but not buying... to start seeing sales pour in while you're out with the family, golfing, or taking a long afternoon nap... then I invite you to take advantage of this offer.
Visit the Java Joint Media home page to get started learning the "Six Secrets of Sizzling Sales Copy" right away!
To Your Success,
Lee Rowley
Java Joint Media
http://www.javajointmedia.com/
It's here, a whole two days early!
"Six Secrets of Sizzling Sales Copy" gets to the bottom of what it takes to put your visitors in the right frame of mind to buy your products. Use these secrets in your sales copywriting, and you will see your conversion ratios increase dramatically.
And you won't pay a single penny for it. Not ever.
In fact, feel free to forward the email course to your friends and business associates. We don't mind. All we ask is that you leave our text and website links intact. After all, even though we're not charging for this information, we did put quite a bit of time into making sure we included only the best and most useful tips. We wanted to make sure that if you are willing to trust us with your email address (and don't worry, we won't share it with anyone), you should get information that has real value.
While we're on the subject of value... you know how some internet marketers give you something for free, and then tell you it has a value of $XXX, to make it look like other people really pay hundreds of dollars to obtain what you're getting for free?
Frankly, I don't have any idea how much "Six Secrets of Sizzling Sales Copy" is worth to you. We've never sold it, and we're not planning to. If you put the tips and techniques to work in your sales copy (or hire us to do it for you), it might be worth tens of thousands of dollars -- maybe more. If you casually read the email course and decide to go get a beer and a cheeseburger instead, it might be worth nothing at all. That sounds harsh, but it's the cold truth. You decide the value by what you choose to do with the information.
However much money it makes you, it's yours for the taking.
If you're ready to take your business to the next level... to stop wondering why your visitors are browsing but not buying... to start seeing sales pour in while you're out with the family, golfing, or taking a long afternoon nap... then I invite you to take advantage of this offer.
Visit the Java Joint Media home page to get started learning the "Six Secrets of Sizzling Sales Copy" right away!
To Your Success,
Lee Rowley
Java Joint Media
http://www.javajointmedia.com/
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
The Tao of Email Marketing
The sale that can be experienced is not the true sale,
The pitch that can be perceived is not real.
Without selling, the sale can be experienced,
Without the pitch, the profits can be known.
I’ll admit it – I’m a sucker for opt-in forms. As a copywriter and an internet marketer, I can’t resist the opportunity to learn more about internet marketing. So every time I run across a website that offers an email course or a free report, I can’t help but give up my email address.
Sadly, I almost always end up regretting it.
Why? Because most of the emails I get are non-stop sales pitches that are thinly veiled with useless information. Many marketers assume that once you’re on the list, you’re a sale that just hasn’t clicked the “Order Now” button yet. A sheep that just needs to be herded into the pen, and quickly shorn.
It doesn’t take long for me to unsubscribe from these marketers’ lists. Sometimes I keep the emails as examples of bad internet marketing, but once I’ve gotten two or three emails packed with hyperbole and affiliate links, I’ve seen all I need to see.
If I subscribe to an opt-in list, I want to see good, useful content. I want tips and techniques that I can use to make my own business more successful. I want to read an email and say, “Man, I’m glad I didn’t miss this!”
Of course, you don’t build an email list without the intent to sell something to your subscribers. That’s just business – without money coming in the door, there’s no reason to give up your evenings and weekends creating content for your readers. There are plenty of other people around to do that.
Therein lies the paradox of email marketing. You have to have sales to stay in business, but pushing for the sale isn’t going to get you where you want to be. People can smell a sales pitch instantly, and when they see an obvious pitch, the walls of resistance go up.
Like the Tao, successful internet marketing is not what it seems.
In order to build a successful email marketing campaign, you simply cannot turn every email into a sales pitch. In fact, only one out of every three or four emails you send out should be about a product you’re selling.
Your other emails should be about building trust and loyalty, and about establishing yourself as an expert in your field. Give your subscribers solid, useful information – not just vague theory, but real tips that they can start using today to improve their lives.
Ask yourself, “Would I pay for this information, if I were in my subscribers’ shoes?” If the answer is “yes”, give it away in your emails. Don’t worry– you’re not going to run out of useful information. You could write an entire library of content about any topic imaginable. Some of it, you will sell; the rest, you should give away to make subscribers want to buy your products.
Give away useful information, enrich your readers’ lives, and you will build loyalty and trust that will significantly increase your sales figures.
To Your Success,
Lee Rowley
Java Joint Media
http://www.javajointmedia.com/
The pitch that can be perceived is not real.
Without selling, the sale can be experienced,
Without the pitch, the profits can be known.
I’ll admit it – I’m a sucker for opt-in forms. As a copywriter and an internet marketer, I can’t resist the opportunity to learn more about internet marketing. So every time I run across a website that offers an email course or a free report, I can’t help but give up my email address.
Sadly, I almost always end up regretting it.
Why? Because most of the emails I get are non-stop sales pitches that are thinly veiled with useless information. Many marketers assume that once you’re on the list, you’re a sale that just hasn’t clicked the “Order Now” button yet. A sheep that just needs to be herded into the pen, and quickly shorn.
It doesn’t take long for me to unsubscribe from these marketers’ lists. Sometimes I keep the emails as examples of bad internet marketing, but once I’ve gotten two or three emails packed with hyperbole and affiliate links, I’ve seen all I need to see.
If I subscribe to an opt-in list, I want to see good, useful content. I want tips and techniques that I can use to make my own business more successful. I want to read an email and say, “Man, I’m glad I didn’t miss this!”
Of course, you don’t build an email list without the intent to sell something to your subscribers. That’s just business – without money coming in the door, there’s no reason to give up your evenings and weekends creating content for your readers. There are plenty of other people around to do that.
Therein lies the paradox of email marketing. You have to have sales to stay in business, but pushing for the sale isn’t going to get you where you want to be. People can smell a sales pitch instantly, and when they see an obvious pitch, the walls of resistance go up.
Like the Tao, successful internet marketing is not what it seems.
In order to build a successful email marketing campaign, you simply cannot turn every email into a sales pitch. In fact, only one out of every three or four emails you send out should be about a product you’re selling.
Your other emails should be about building trust and loyalty, and about establishing yourself as an expert in your field. Give your subscribers solid, useful information – not just vague theory, but real tips that they can start using today to improve their lives.
Ask yourself, “Would I pay for this information, if I were in my subscribers’ shoes?” If the answer is “yes”, give it away in your emails. Don’t worry– you’re not going to run out of useful information. You could write an entire library of content about any topic imaginable. Some of it, you will sell; the rest, you should give away to make subscribers want to buy your products.
Give away useful information, enrich your readers’ lives, and you will build loyalty and trust that will significantly increase your sales figures.
To Your Success,
Lee Rowley
Java Joint Media
http://www.javajointmedia.com/
Saturday, October 13, 2007
New Email Course Nearly Complete!
Every internet marketer worth their salt has a subscription form on their website. It's no secret that in order to build long-term relationships with clients, an online businessperson needs a marketing list, so they have an audience to tell about new products, enhanced services, and special offers.
That said, think about how many emails find their way to your inbox each day. Do you really need another email newsletter, unless you can be sure it will contain information that is useful and relevant to you?
For this reason, we began working on an email course several weeks ago, to reward our new subscribers for inviting us to send them the Java Joint Media newsletter. Carla and I felt that if people were going to trust us enough to subscribe to our newsletter, we had better provide them with top-notch information that they could start using right away.
We talked and debated about it for a few days -- we only wanted the best tips and techniques, instead of rehashed, vague information that could be found on a thousand other websites.
Then early one morning, over a cup of dark roast (big surprise), we hit on an idea for an email course that would send our subscribers lightyears ahead of their competition! That's really what any internet marketer should really give you for the privilege of having you on their email list -- information that lets you leave your competition in the dust.
Now, we can't give out details just yet, but we can tell you that the email course will be ready by the end of next week. If you're already a subscriber, don't worry -- we'll send you an email with a special link so you can get your hands on this information, too.
Be sure to check back early next week for more details on this exciting email course -- we can't wait for it to go live, so our subscribers can start seeing their sales numbers explode!
To Your Success,
Lee Rowley
Java Joint Media
That said, think about how many emails find their way to your inbox each day. Do you really need another email newsletter, unless you can be sure it will contain information that is useful and relevant to you?
For this reason, we began working on an email course several weeks ago, to reward our new subscribers for inviting us to send them the Java Joint Media newsletter. Carla and I felt that if people were going to trust us enough to subscribe to our newsletter, we had better provide them with top-notch information that they could start using right away.
We talked and debated about it for a few days -- we only wanted the best tips and techniques, instead of rehashed, vague information that could be found on a thousand other websites.
Then early one morning, over a cup of dark roast (big surprise), we hit on an idea for an email course that would send our subscribers lightyears ahead of their competition! That's really what any internet marketer should really give you for the privilege of having you on their email list -- information that lets you leave your competition in the dust.
Now, we can't give out details just yet, but we can tell you that the email course will be ready by the end of next week. If you're already a subscriber, don't worry -- we'll send you an email with a special link so you can get your hands on this information, too.
Be sure to check back early next week for more details on this exciting email course -- we can't wait for it to go live, so our subscribers can start seeing their sales numbers explode!
To Your Success,
Lee Rowley
Java Joint Media
Thursday, October 4, 2007
Welcome to the Java Joint Media Blog!
Hello, and welcome to our company blog! Over the coming months, Carla and I will be posting information on how to use your website content and print materials to build your business. We will explore sales and marketing techniques, article marketing, pay-per click advertising, and many other techniques you can use to increase your traffic and make people hungry to buy your products!
We hope that you find our posts both interesting and useful. Our goal is to help you make your business more profitable, while working less. One way we do this is by giving you information to streamline your marketing operations, and to automatically tap into your audience's needs through compelling content. Of course, we can also create the content for you -- you can focus on other areas of our business, knowing that we are putting 20+ years of copywriting and editing experience to work for you!
Also, if you haven't done it already, make sure you sign up for our newsletter at www.javajointmedia.com -- we save the most powerful techniques and tips for our subcribers. You'll also receive discount offers on our services, and bonuses you can't get anywhere else!
For example, we're putting the finishing touches on a program that will make you money just for referring clients to us. We're not talking about some tiny referral fee here -- we're talking about a referral percentage of each and every project fee we earn from a client you sent us! You will find more details about that in our newsletter in the coming weeks.
To Your Success,
Lee Rowley
Java Joint Media
We hope that you find our posts both interesting and useful. Our goal is to help you make your business more profitable, while working less. One way we do this is by giving you information to streamline your marketing operations, and to automatically tap into your audience's needs through compelling content. Of course, we can also create the content for you -- you can focus on other areas of our business, knowing that we are putting 20+ years of copywriting and editing experience to work for you!
Also, if you haven't done it already, make sure you sign up for our newsletter at www.javajointmedia.com -- we save the most powerful techniques and tips for our subcribers. You'll also receive discount offers on our services, and bonuses you can't get anywhere else!
For example, we're putting the finishing touches on a program that will make you money just for referring clients to us. We're not talking about some tiny referral fee here -- we're talking about a referral percentage of each and every project fee we earn from a client you sent us! You will find more details about that in our newsletter in the coming weeks.
To Your Success,
Lee Rowley
Java Joint Media
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