Top 10 Things That Worked For Me In 2009 and 3 That Didn’t
Marlon's Marketing Minute
Top 10 Things That Worked For Me In 2009
and 3 That Didn't
December 19, 2009
Special Holiday Edition
Hello,
Marlon here.
First of all, that darned S. Mouse snuck onto my
keyboard and pecked out a holiday greeting.
http://www.marlonsanders.com/smouse
Today's issue:
==============================================
Top 10 Things That Worked For Me In 2009 and 3 That Didn't
==============================================
I read an inspirational post by my friend Terry
Dean today where he took a look back at what did
and didn't work in 2009.
I decided to do the same. You'll find value in this
issue and maybe reflect on your OWN year.
===> Cash For Christmas Contest
I'm having a 26-day reseller promo. I pay cash
daily via Paypal M-F, except Christmas and
the day after. That means you can send out a
promo today and get cash on Monday!
http://www.resellerupdate3.com
user: holiday
pass: promo
Best wishes,
Marlon
PS: The promo allows you to give a wonderful
piece of content to your list AND a chance to
win $300.
******************************************
Marlon's Marketing Minute
Electronic Newsletter
http://www.promotemarlon.com
Vol. 4, #50, December 19, 2009
******************************************
This issue contains:
A. S. Mouse Goes Crazy
B. Announcements from Marlon (Important)
C. Main Article: Top 10 Things That Worked For Me In 2009 and
3 That Didn't
D. Special Cash For Christmas Reseller Promo
Brought to you by: Marlon Sanders, Publisher
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
A. S. Mouse Goes Crazy
That darned S. Mouse, if he keeps typing stuff like this when
I'm not around and giving away the store, I'm gonna go bonkers:
http://www.marlonsanders.com/smouse
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
B. Announcements from Marlon
1. Do NOT email us for customer support
Do NOT email us for customer support. We are anxious to
serve you at: http://www.getyoursupport.com
We have LIVE CHAT to serve you better. Most people in this
business skimp on this. I don't. Tim is an award winning
customer service person.
2. Youtube Video Training Was Emailed. Did u get it?
If you bought the Video Secrets Revealed course and didn't
get the link to your Youtube training, go to:
http://www.getyoursupport.com and tell Tim.
Or log in at http://www.productlogin.com and you should see it there.
3. ATEAM 2010 is coming
Totally awesome things are ahead for Ateam in January.
Keep your eyes peeled. Also, I'm really behind on posting
the last few webinars. But we're completing revamping the
private site. That is why. You'll love what you see in Ateam 2010.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
C. Top 10 Things That Worked For Me In 2009 and 3 That Didn't
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
I just read a blog post by Terry Dean where he
analyzed what did and didn't work for him in 2009.
I thought I'd cover the top 10 things that worked
for me in 2009 and a few that didn't.
1. Ockham's Razor promoted in February of 2009
ended up selling well.
The concept was a bit unusual to my list so it took
some promoting for it to take off.
What's weird is it didn't convert well to a few of
my JV partners lists. I don't understand that.
2. Deadlined offers
As always, offers to my email list with a deadline work well.
What's unusual is that offers without a deadline have
declined in response. People seem to be more short-term
in their buying focus.
If you were on my Ateam call Thursday, you know how I'm
using the T-20 script to take this to another level.
3. Live chat
We did research on our live chat for customer support
that Tim does. There's an extremely high correlation
between live chats and sales.
I forget that exact number but it was 90% or something
like that. By the same token, offering live chat is a
substantial commitment and expense. Having someone like
Tim who is bright and conversant and excels at customer
support isn't cheap.
What I don't know is how many of the people we chat with
would have gone ahead and bought anyway.
4. SEO traffic
We get a lot of seo traffic from search engines to some off my sites.
The conversions aren't that great. I believe I need to
find a way to get these visitors on our list WITHOUT
messing up the page and ruining our Google rankings!
I plan on trying a large fly in ad.
5. Webinars
I did several webinars like Overwhelm Cure and Produce and Promote.
These did OK as far as sales but commensurate to the
effort they take on my part, I'd just as soon write
an ebook or create a product.
I always measure my time invested vs. dollar return.
6. Dashboards
Our Dashboards continue to sell well. I would have liked
to got out a Dashboard here at year end but we've been
working on revamping Ateam for 2010 and updating the
look of our sites.
7. Checkbox upsells
In the past I did checkbox upsells on our order forms
(where you check something off to add it to your order)
for 25% of the main product price.
I've increased this amount and the conversions are still
good.
I do better at this point on checkbox upsells than I do
post order upsells. But our post ordering upsell process
is a little clunky since we use Amember.
I'm planning on changing our back-end software this next year.
8. Dollar trials
One thing I tried that worked well is $1 three-day trials.
However, we haven't rolled these out because it's a hassle
to try to track affiliate commissions on them with my
current affiliate software.
I may only do these dollar trials via affiliates who
promote a special page via another affiliate software.
I was initially concerned about the refund rate on these
trials. But our Dashboard product line is so content-rich
and vastly under-priced that refunds aren't an issue.
It helps when people love the products.
9. Go To Webinar for Ateam
While I don't know if I'll be doing many more paid webinars,
I DO like them for Ateam calls. I plan on rolling these
out in the Ateam 2010 launch. There will be a commensurate
price alteration for the increased value and service.
10. PPC (early results)
Joel Peterson helped me set up a content network campaign
using Keyword Rockstar. This is bringing in cheap clicks
for our Design Dashboard.
Our conversions aren't where I want them to be for this
traffic source, so I plan to invest some time in tweaking them.
11. Systems documentation
We invested a lot of time documenting systems based on the
incredible inspiration of my friend Sam Carpenter from the
Work The System book and workthesystem.com
Sam is an amazing, wonderful person and a real inspiration.
12. Staffing
I have a Filipina who is just a wonderful person and has
assisted us a lot in handling details.
Lisa is back and I couldn't be happier. Her talents were
missed very much. Along with that Danny, Sean and Santos
moved on to their next opportunity.
They're all neat, talented people and will go far in life.
My team now is 3 people and I'm content with that, although
I plan to add several more filipinas using the outsourceplan.com
system over the next year.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Now, a few things that didn't work:
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
1. My Warriors WSO
I ran only one WSO on Warriors Forum for a 1/2 price
special on Push Button Letters. This didn't work. And
I think the reason is that even at 1/2 off, it's still a
pretty high price compared to almost all the other WSO's.
This wasn't a big deal. I think I made a sale or two
which was still a positive roi on my whopping $20 ad fee.
WSO's are great. I plan to find some time to focus on a
few good ones.
2. Lack of communication with my resellers
Due to the same issue in #2, I haven't sent many emails to
my affiliates. We had a major problem with the vendor I
send my affiliate emails through. The fault was NOT theres.
It was an employee who didn't follow directions and caused
us a lot of grief!
In fairness, it probably wasn't the employees fault. Sam
Carpenter would say my system was at fault. And he'd probably
be right.
We're in the process of fixing this right now. If you're
a reseller, check your email box. You JUST got the first
promotion of a new breed from us.
3. 1 click upsells with Amember
Doesn't work. Well, there are a few solutions but really,
Amember just isn't very ideal for 1 click upsells.
Automateyourwebite.com or Infusion are much better choices.
The biggest thing for us is you can't do them with a normal
Paypal account and that sucks. You can use Paypal Pro which
is basically your own merchant account.
Merchant accounts are dicey. You have to watch chargebacks
like a hawk. Some people think that if they charge back
vs. refunding because they perceive it as easier, it won't
hurt the merchant. That's not true.
———————————————————–
Marlon Sanders
The King of Step-By-Step Internet Marketing
Marlon is the author of “The Amazing Formula That
Sells Products Like Crazy”
Check out all my products here:
http://www.marlonsanders.com
(SIGN UP AS A RESELLER, put YOUR reseller URL and ID where
the above link is, post this on your web site and make some
dough for spreading a killer guide everyone will want to read.)
//////////////////////
REPRINT RIGHTS: You have permission to use the above
article without omission and including the resource box.
You have the right to insert your reseller URL for any
products I mention
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
C. “Reseller Promo With $300 Your Customers Can Win and
a GREAT Piece Of Content To Send Them”
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
You should have received an email from me with all the
details about the Cash For Christmas Promo. We pay daily
M-F via Paypal. So you can send this promo to your list
and have cash before Xmas.
Now, Tim is off Christmas and the day after. But if
you get your sales in before then, you'll get paid. Or
you'll get paid the following Monday.
Now, we have a BLOCKBUSTER promo that brought in 48 g's
or something like that mostly from our own list. We did
a few things with our resellers on it but not a lot. So
this isn't a promo that's been hammered to death.
Also, I have a recurring billing upsell that adds some
juice to it. I have a KILLER series of follow up emails
in place offering special bonuses that go to countdown
pages with timers that expire when the deadline is over.
These are lock tight and convert well. The bonuses are
highly attractive.
http://www.resellerupdate3.com
user: holiday
pass: promo
Marlon
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
E. Get the Evergreen Traffic System
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Tinu emailed and says she has added new info on social media!
Most All Her Domains Got Shut Down, She Can't Get Out Of Bed Some
Days, Her Hands Swell Up Like Balloons, Her Podcast and Video
Hosting Got Shut Down — And She STILL Snagged 3,579 Average
Visits Per Day In April 2008!
http://www.TurboProfits.com/tracking/go.php?c=7_25_tinue
Evergreen Traffic System is now sold and serviced directly by Tinu.
That link there would be a tracking link and NOT an affiliate link.
Tinu's seo stuff is BRILLIANT and evergreen. It STILL works awesome.
==============================
A closing tribute
I close out 2009 thinking of my friend Corey Rudl who left us
it seems just like yesterday but by Internet years long ago.
And for the others who left us this year, I leave with this Irish poem:
May the road rise to meet you. May the wind always be at
your back. The sun shine warm upon your face. The rain
fall soft upon your fields. And until we meet again, may
God hold you in the hollow of his hands.
— an irish blessing
