In the real world of dating, before you go on a first date, you probably know:

Sure, you cannot tell a lot about a person from information such as this, but you can sure tell a friend these things in the event that something goes awry on your first date. It is always better to be safe than sorry.

Your friends are able to know something real and truthful about the person you are about to go on a date with, because you are able to learn that information before you go on your first date.

But, when you are doing the online dating thing, you can chat or email back and forth with a potential date, and even after several months of talking, you could potentially still not know the first thing about the person you are ready to meet. For all you know, they could be pathological liars.

With online dating, it is difficult to really know anything about the person you want to meet, UNLESS, you join a dating website that has systems in place to verify the information that a person gives online. For example, does he or she really work where they say? Do they live where they say? Is that picture on their profile really what they look like in person?

But, if like me you have been around online dating for a number of years, it is really difficult to find a website that offers systems to enable the dating website’s management team to verify any kind of information about their members.

When I took the decision to start an online dating site, I wanted to set up a system that would allow our management team to verify information about our members, so that we could offer our members a safer online dating environment. On our website, with our latest service upgrade, we finally have the ability to verify information about our members, providing our members a much more honest and safe dating community.

Although members are not required to verify their personal information, we do give our users several ways to verify their personal information. When a member verifies their personal information, we show our other members a logo which identifies what information has been verified in the user’s profile.

Online dating should lead to fun and fulfillment, and hopefully, we have been able to introduce an element to our site that will let you see our dating community as one of the safer dating websites available online.

This article published here.

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Lance Metzger writes about relationships, offline and online dating. Our no-strings-attached dating site has become a popular adult online dating destination, due to its large membership base of people looking for relationships of all kinds. Learn more at: http://www.nsadatingsite.com/

Read more articles written by Lance Metzger

One of the most important numbers we need to always be mindful of is the “Cost of a New Customer” or “Cost of Customer Acquisition”.

Understanding Customer Acquisition Costs

If you are unfamiliar with this concept, let me give you a quick tutorial on this advertising metric.

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Suppose you run an advertisement in your local newspaper for your furniture store. Suppose for the sake of this example that you paid $1000 for your display ad in the newspaper.

Now, suppose your advertising brought 4 new customers into your store, who bought from you. Suppose also that the average spend for each customer was $1500.

With the example I am drawing, your $1000 display advertisement in the newspaper brought in 4 customers who spent a total of $6000 in your store.

I am going to keep this example simple, so that more people can keep up with the numbers.

On the basic premise of our example, you generated 4 customers after an outlay of $1000 in advertising. So your basic Cost Of Customer Acquisition was $250 per customer.

If your business received fewer customers, from your outlay of $1000 in advertising, then your Cost Of Customer Acquisition is more expensive.

But, if your business earned more customers who spent money, then your Cost Of Customer Acquisition would be much smaller.

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In its simplest form, the Cost Of Customer Acquisition is the money spent to get the customer to your store divided by the number of new customers acquired. We will look at this in more detail, later in this article.

The Best Way To Measure Sales And Marketing Performance

Entrepreneur Magazine in a 1999 article reflected on the Cost Of Customer Acquisition in the dot com world. The article suggested, “the cost of new customer acquisition is one of the best ways to measure sales and marketing performance.”

In 1999, the Cost Of Customer Acquisition for the following companies were:

On the surface, these numbers may seem small. But, Amazon’s Average Sale is in the $17-range! This makes the challenge that Amazon and other major retailers face fairly transparent. If these retailers could only count on one purchase from the newly acquired customer, then these businesses would be losing money by the truckload.

Fortunately, Amazon continues to perform well in Repeat Business from a single customer. The following calculations reflect additional numbers that we business people should also factor into our Cost Of Acquisition metrics.

The Real Value Of A Customer

Amazon’s first-sale may only be $17, but in 1999, Amazon’s Average Sales Per Customer was $116, up $10 from the previous year. Unfortunately, Amazon isn’t very forthcoming with these numbers, so after two hours research, I was unable to come up with more up-to-date numbers for you to consider.

The point of mentioning this is that it is important for business owners and managers to recognize that the Value Of A Customer is not how much sales revenue is derived from the initial purchase, but more importantly, from the Lifetime Value Of A Customer.

If we looked at Amazon’s Cost Of Customer Acquisition only in terms of that first sale, then they will be losing money hand-over-fist. With a Cost Of Acquisition of $27.60 and the first sale of $17, Amazon could not stay in business long if they were continuously producing numbers at that level. However, once you factor in the Lifetime Value Of A Customer, then Amazon is spending $27.60 to acquire a customer that is worth $116 in sales for them. Therefore, by measuring the Lifetime Value of a Customer, Amazon is spending only 24% of their revenue in order to acquire one customer.

Few businesses invest 24% of their revenue in advertising, but Amazon hopes that the Lifetime Value of a Customer will eventually exceed the $116 value, known to have existed in FY2000.

As the Lifetime Value of a Customer increases, the overall Cost of Customer Acquisition will fall, as an overall percentage value of Cost Of Acquisition divided by the Lifetime Value of the customer.

The Compounding Lifetime Value Of A Customer

If you have a hair-cutting salon and your advertising budget for one month is $1000, and you get 30 new customers through the door, who will spend an average of $20 for a hair cut, then your basic Cost of Customer Acquisition is roughly $33.34 to gain $20 in new sales.

But if only half of your 30 new customers become regular clients, then you can anticipate 15 of those customers coming to your hair salon at least once a month for the remainder of the year. Therefore, the first 15 customers will be worth $20 each, and the next 15 customers will be worth $240 each over the course of one year ($20 x 12 months). All told, your first 15 customers will put $300 in your cash register, and the next 15 customers will put another $3600 in your cash register.

Thus, in the hair salon example, your $1000 in advertising could generate new customers that will generate $3900 in new sales. Once you start to consider the Lifetime Value of a Customer, within the Cost of Customer Acquisition, then you will realize that the Cost of Customer Acquisition – although it might be higher than the initial sale – holds out the possibility and promise reducing itself as the Lifetime Value of a Customer increases over time.

As the end of the year winds down, you will be able to see that a $1000 expenditure was turned into $3900 in new revenue. In essence, for every dollar you spent on advertising that month, your return value was $3.90 over the course of one year.

In the second year, if only half of the original 15 regular customers or roughly 8 people stay with you for the full course of the second year, then the $1920 in revenue (8 people X $20 each X 12 months) you can expect from those customers could almost be considered free money. Of course, you will still have service fulfillment costs, but that second year will give you nearly $2000 in revenue that you will not have to chase.

Even if half of the customers drop off during the following calendar years, then a 50% customer attrition rate will allow you to have customers that could stay with you up to five years. Calculated against a 50% decrease in customers over each calendar year, your $1000 investment in advertising may translate into $7500 in revenues over five years ($3900 $1920 $960 $480 $240 = $7500), from the initial investment of $1000 in advertising.

The interesting thing about this scenario is that it is based on an advertising budget of $1000 ONE TIME. But, most businesses will continue the advertising process every month in every year. Therefore, the above example could compound month-after-month. Every month should bring the same or similar results to your business for the month and year.

Advertising Is A Process, Not An Event

Many small business owners have a dire misunderstanding of the nature of advertising and the value to be received from the advertising.

When business owners or managers fail to track and measure the new business generated from the advertising, then the business owners and managers will fail to see that advertising is an expense that can return huge dividends to the business.

When businesses fail to track and measure advertising successes, people tend to only see the money leaving the business without every seeing the reward coming back into the business. As a result, many business managers will employ advertising for a short time, then cancel the advertising, under the false belief that the advertising was not returning value to the business.

When businesses fail to understand the Lifetime Value Of A Customer, it is hard to appreciate any advertising method that fails to pay for itself in its first cycle. If Amazon was to only look at the initial sale generated by a new customer, they would quickly cancel all of their advertising efforts. Fortunately for Amazon, its management understands that the initial $17 sale is not the measure to use to determine the value of Amazon’s advertising efforts. Amazon’s management understands that the true Cost of Customer Acquisition should not be measured by the initial sale, but by the Lifetime Value of a Customer. In doing so, Amazon has ensured that it will continue to be one of the largest and most successful retail outlets on the planet.

When business managers fail to understand the Lifetime Value of a Customer, it is hard for them to appreciate and understand the compounding nature of the revenue stream for a business. It is hard for them to understand that money invested into advertising today, can deliver huge rewards over the next several years.

A Wake Up Call For Small Business Owners

According to Scott Shane, author of “Illusions of Entrepreneurship: The Costly Myths that Entrepreneurs, Investors, and Policy Makers Live By“, only 29-in-100 businesses will remain in business after ten years. That means that a full 71% of businesses started in any calendar year will be out of business in only ten years.

It is sad to say, but the reason most businesses fail is that business owners and managers fail to understand the nature of advertising, the importance of tracking and measuring advertising results, the Lifetime Value of a Customer, and the compounding nature of the revenue stream.

I don’t want to see your business on the trash heap of yesteryear. So, it is my hope that you will take this article as a wake-up call, as to the importance of advertising and its potential to lift your business into profits.

Editor’s Note: Article previously published here.

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Hunter Waterhouse has been helping business owners advertise their businesses online for nearly a decade. He is ready, willing, and able to put his experience to work for Main Street Businesses that seek to generate walk-in traffic to their stores, from the online exposure of their business. To learn more about how Hunter can help with your local business marketing, visit: http://onlinemarketinglocal.com/

Read more articles written by Hunter Waterhouse

The first tip that will help you to increase the readability of your articles is to write with the reader’s concerns in mind. If you are unsure of exactly how to do that, you may want to look into article ghostwriters who understand article marketing and who only focus on writing articles for Internet audiences. When you work with article ghostwriters, you can focus more on your business and know that someone else is working hard on your behalf to write articles that will be read.

Getting The Best Results From Your Article Marketing Campaigns

Still, if you want to keep article writing within your company, rather than outsourcing it, here are some tips for getting more out of your article marketing campaigns:

1. Hook your readers from the start. Article writing is a lot more effective for marketing your business when people will actually read the articles. The best thing that you can do is to catch their interest right away. Your article title will determine if people will open your article, and the first paragraph will ensure that people keep reading the article.

2. Avoid the temptation to overwhelm your readers with a lot of information. Article writing is not about telling the reader everything that there is to know; it’s about sticking with a central focus and giving your reader an introduction or overview of the information they want and need to solve their problems. In an article that probably won’t be much more than one thousand words, you will never be able to tell the reader everything they need to know to solve a problem, but you can help put your reader on solid footing for moving forward towards a workable solution.

3. Break up information into digestible chunks. Writing articles is about expressing some key points. When it comes to writing articles for the internet, what you are going to find is that many readers skim rather than read your articles. Using numbered lists (like this one) will help you to present your information clearly, and let readers find what they are looking for quickly. Similarly, if you use bullet lists or break up your text with subheadings that are in a larger font and bolded, you can be sure that after reading your article, the article’s key points will be easily recalled.

4. When it comes to article writing, particularly when you are working to establish yourself as an expert, it’s important to show that you know what you’re talking about. A great way of doing that – and to break up the text of your article – is to include quotes from more established experts. If you are writing articles and are more established, you too should quote other sources, possible letting the readers know why you disagree with another writer.

5. Focus on spelling and grammar. Just as someone who is hiring article ghostwriters should take the time to find ghost writing services that are well versed in your point of view, it’s also important to be sure that you’re writing in the native language of your target audience. American English is different from that spoken and written in England and India. Paying attention to your spelling and grammar shows that you care about what you are saying and that you are a professional.

A good example of the difference between the usage rules in British English and American English is the story of Paul Marshall from Dallas, Texas. When Paul was running his mortgage business, he had hired some Indian writers to develop content for his website. When he received the copy from his ghostwriters, the copy used the word “mortgage scheme” in the text eleven times. Paul was pissed, as you might well imagine. In British English, “scheme” does not carry any negative connotation. Yet, as you may well realize, “scheme” in American English is one of the most negative words that can be applied to any business model. It denotes “dishonesty” and “fraud” in American English. His Indian writers could not understand his anger with their choice of words, but you can understand his anger.

Professionalism In The Article Writing Process

Professionalism, unfortunately, is frequently overlooked when it comes to article writing. Great writing flows, not just for the writer whose aim is to get the words and message out, but also for the readers who are consuming the information.

Because of this, one key element of an effective article is not the writing itself: it is the readability of that article. Take the time to look at the articles that grab your attention and jot a few notes about each of them. Specifically, focus on the following:

Article marketing when used well can help a company establish itself as an expert in the field, and it can help show a reader why hiring the author’s service might be better than a do-it-yourself project. As an example, with the resume advice article, once the reader sees how comprehensive your knowledge is and how detailed a resume should be, the reader may just decide that using your resume writing service will be much more productive than the do-it-yourself resume.

Just Like Lawyers, Writers Specialize Too

Beyond the cost of labor, content development is usually the second most expensive expenditure made by the online vendor. It is important to note that just as there are lawyers who specialize in one area of law, there are also ghostwriters who specialize in certain types of content creation.

People who write sales copy are referred to as “copywriters.” Copywriters are people who understand the nuances of how to make people buy what you are selling.

They understand that replacing a single word in the sales copy could mean the difference between lukewarm sales numbers and red-hot sales numbers, and they know which words to change.

Some professional copywriters have a proven track record of writing sales copy that has generated millions of dollars in sales – people such as Frank Kern, Dan Lok, and Joe Vitale. These guys know the value of their copywriting skills, and they charge accordingly. If you ask them to write sales copy for you, don’t be surprised when they quote you a price in the range of $5-20 per written word.

Other writers might specialize in writing books, brochures, and articles. Some writers specialize in the smaller word counts, like the folks who write greeting cards and book jackets.

Finding The Best Writer For Your Needs

The kid down the street who writes part-time for the newspaper may or may not be the best person to write your online articles for you. One reason is that people who write for offline publications seldom appreciate the importance of keywords in an article for search engine marketing purposes.

Note this article for example. Our purpose is to show you how you can use article marketing as a successful marketing tool for your business. We also want to show how the articles should appeal both to the reader and the search engine algorithms.

With these thoughts in mind, when you are finished reading this article, read it a second time to see how many variations on the following SEO keyword phrases can be found in this article: article marketing, search engine marketing, keywords, advertising, content creation, writers and copywriting. Of course, copywriting is not the kind of writing we do, but people who do not understand the specialization of writing skills might type “copywriting” or “copywriters” into their favorite search engine to find someone who writes informational articles.

One never knows precisely what the public will use as their search keywords when they go to the search engine to find information. That is the very reason why a good online article writer must strive to showcase a range of similar keywords within the context of an article.

Your Article Marketing Strategies Influence Your Overall Success

We know that some people tell you that the only reason to write an article is to get a link back to your website. What most of these people don’t tell you is that most websites that accept reprint articles do so, only after a human has reviewed or at least scanned the article.

An article that does not read well will never be published on a top-tier website. Yes, some websites may accept a poorly written article, but more sites will only accept well-written articles.

A reader who is not impressed with your article will seldom reach your resource box, so the link back in the resource box can only give value to your website from the search engines – maybe. The search engines generally only give value to articles on good websites or those placements that have lots of links pointing to the article within the website. Bad articles don’t get published on good websites, and they do not attract links.

As the Marketing Rule Of Seven should indicate, multiple articles generate a long-term wave of new links and potential visitors to your website.

Consistency is also important to a successful article marketing campaign, in that releasing weekly articles will enable your readers to see your marketing message regularly.

Finally, the smart use of a variety of related keyword phrases will strengthen the ability of your article to appeal to the search engines and the people who use them.

If you can balance the needs of your article’s audience against your need for search optimized content, then you can benefit handsomely from your article marketing campaigns.

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Hunter Waterhouse has been ghostwriting and building websites
since 1999. He is ready, willing, and able to put his experience to work for Main Street Businesses that seek to generate walk-in traffic to their stores, from the online exposure of their business. To learn more about how Hunter can help your offline business, visit Online Marketing Local at http://onlinemarketinglocal.com/local-services/

Read more articles written by Hunter Waterhouse

We have to get our products or services exactly right.

Then we have to figure out how to explain them to others through our website.

We understand the reasons people should buy what we are selling. But can we successfully explain that to our website visitors in convincing language they relate to, instead of jargon and lingo related to our industry?

Finally, we have to develop an action plan to market online and within our budget, which is often limited when first starting our business.

And how do we develop that marketing plan? Where do we get the information necessary to formulate marketing techniques that will actually work for us? The number of sources out there is simply overwhelming!

This is when getting feedback from a professional outside our own industry can be valuable. You can turn to an affordable Online Marketing Consultants who understands and specializes in small businesses and new business start-ups.

What about Getting Internet Traffic to Your Site?

Some start by using pay-per-click marketing, like Google AdWords. The trouble is that AdWords can get expensive quickly. And it takes a LOT of time to set up and manage over time.

Starting out it may make sense to use AdWords. Plus, it can be a great way to test your keyword search phrases to find out which ones convert best. You can use AdWords for this purpose before beginning search engine optimization (SEO).

But ultimately…sooner or later…most businesses need to optimize for the search engines (SEO).

SEO can provide you qualified Internet traffic without per-visitor costs. Think of it almost as free advertising…well, free after the SEO costs in either time, money or some of both.

You should also utilize article marketing, getting your message in front of article directory visitors and ezine newsletter subscribers. This can generate faster sales, while you’re waiting on your SEO efforts to pay off.

Lastly, for most Internet businesses, they should use blog postings or opt-in email marketing to stay in touch with their prospective buyers, using a soft-sell method, over time. If ALL you focus on are people who make a buying decision the very first time they come to your site, you’re missing out on the great majority of sales you can make!

How Much Traffic Do You Need?

Here are some questions you’ll need to consider when making decisions about AdWords and SEO:

1. What is your monthly sales revenue goal from your website?

2. How much traffic to your website on a monthly basis will you need to meet your sales goals?

3. What is (or will be) your click-through rate, whether from AdWords impressions or organic SEO listings?

You need this number to determine the total number of monthly impressions or search queries you’ll need (for your AdWords ads and your organic SEO listings to be seen by searchers), to arrive at the monthly traffic number you need to your website.

4. What is (or will be) your conversion sales rate from your traffic? Again, you need this number also to determine the amount of monthly impressions or search queries you’ll need.

Especially when first starting up, finding this type of data, evaluating the accuracy of it and then implementing a plan can be very time-consuming and can almost drive a person crazy!

There are a lot of so-called experts you can follow. But how do you know if they know what they’re talking about?

And without having these numbers (at least good estimates), starting AdWords or SEO is like throwing darts with a blindfold on!

Again, this is where talking with 1 or 2 Online Marketing Consultants can help light your path. Your result can be more sales, MUCH faster.

Which Keyword Search Phrases are Right for Your Business?

Think of keywords as the windows or doors to your website. Without using the right ones for YOUR business, your website is like a house without windows or doors — no one is coming in. Kinda the opposite of what you’re going for.

What makes good keywords for your business?

My advice to clients I coach is your keywords should:

1. accurately match what the search engine users INTEND when they type in their keywords to the services or products you offer (get inside their heads);

2. bring you enough traffic to be worth the AdWords or SEO effort;

3. offer affordable enough AdWords bid prices, if you’re using AdWords;

4. have obtainable first or second page SEO results;

5. contain words in the phrases that suggest a searcher who is ready to spend money (unless you’re offering something that is truly free);

6. CONVERT directly to a sale, a sales lead, a sign-up…whatever your goal is.

Wrapping it Up

Be open to the value affordable Online Marketing Consultants offer you. Someone who has already gone down the road you’re on can help you avoid the potholes along the way. And those potholes can be very expensive…

There are talented advisors out there who understand small businesses and new business start-ups. And they price their services for these businesses.

Using someone talented, you’ll almost certainly make more sales, more quickly.

And following that advice and the other suggestions in this article, your Internet marketing plan should be off to a great start!

Author’s Note: Also published here.

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Marketing online since 2004, Paul Marshall can help you market on a budget. He’s an Online Marketing Consultants expert offering marketing services (and d-i-y Coaching). You can learn more about Paul on his Search Engine Marketing LinkedIn profile and at Strategic Web Marketing.net.

Read more articles written by Paul Marshall

Basically, what a favour bank is based around is the fact when you do someone a favour they will want to return the favour at some stage in the future.

For instance, if a mate comes over to your house and fixes your car, you might buy them a beer at some time down the road.

Now the same concept applies to business and marketing.

Of course, the best way to give is with no expectation of receiving anything.

That goes without saying.

At the same time, there is a law called the ‘law of reciprocation’ which Robert Cialdini refers to in his book “Influence.”

In fact, he gives an example at some stage in that book of how the Hare Krishna’s increased their donations.

Essentially what they did to increase donations was hand out a flower to people walking by. They followed this up with “And a donation to the Hare Krishna Society would be appreciated.”

It worked.

So how can this concept work for you?

Well, you can start giving away information and educating your customers about your product or service on a regular basis.

You can become the trusted expert.

You can pick out particular “target clients” or large clients and send them a book they might be interested in… or offer them some complimentary advice… or whatever.

You see, there’s the bank we can see.

The money in the bank. It’s hard. It’s real. You can see it…you can touch it… and you can feel it.

But there’s also a bank which you cannot see.

It’s based on relationships.

And the deep relationships you generate with your customers and prospects turns into money in the bank in the future.

Don’t neglect your favour bank.

Of course, you need to first find the people you can help and build up your favour bank with.

The first lesson of http://www.morecustomersmadeeasy.com/ shows you how to find them and start building up that relationship.

Virtually any business can use it.

And it makes selling easy because the biggest thing you need to overcome in every selling process is trust.

And there’s no better way to build trust than building up the size of your favour bank.

Author’s Note: Article published here.

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Scott Bywater is a direct mail copywriter and the author of Cash-Flow Advertising. To get access to his highly prized complimentary copy of ‘7 Ways To Get More Customers” (valued at $29.95) and to join his controversial and insighful “Copywriting Selling Secrets” newsletter where you’ll uncover the truth about why most ads and sales letters don’t work (and how to make yours stand out from the rest) head on over to his web site at http://www.copywritingthatsells.com.au/

Read more articles written by Scott Bywater

As an Internet Marketing Coach, I hear all the time from new clients how they’ve wasted hundreds to thousands on Internet get-rich-quick schemes before coming to me.

Desperation and inexperience are the breading grounds that allow these scammers to prey.

Just this last week, one of my colleagues replied to a guy on a forum who wanted to start earning $5,000 each month — oh, and within the next 30 days. And he had $80.00 to invest, a whole eighty dollars!

I’m sure the guy is nice, but he also sounds desperate. How is anyone going to start earning literally thousands of dollars a month within 30 days on just an $80.00 investment?

Isn’t this scenario as realistic as saying ALL the employees at your local fast food restaurant earn $100,000 per year?

Yes, Saint Nick is gone and did I mention that The Tooth Fairly is on life support?

Let’s get real.

Are You Real about Internet Earnings and the Business Costs Required?

Back to my big spender above who has just $80.00 to invest…where did he get the idea he could be a successful Internet marketer on an $80.00 investment?

My guess is he probably got that idea from some forum.

And that may bring up a good point: are you likely to get good advice going to forums?

Me personally, I’m too busy to participate in forums. Although to be fair, I do have successful SEO (search engine optimization) colleagues who do. But while you could encounter a talented person to give you — free advice — on a forum, my best advice to you is you are more likely to encounter people with — free time.

If they have so much free time to participate in forums, how busy are they with paid work?

And about free advice…how many people do you personally know who work for free? How would they pay their bills?

Do YOU work for free now?

Are you going to be working for free with your online enterprise? If you’re not, then why should someone else?

If you want to earn $100,000 per year form your Internet business, do you want your advice coming from someone offering free advice OR only charging $20.00 per hour?

OK, You’ve Got Some Money to Invest in Your Internet Business, What’s Your Next Step?

Well, protect it and spend it carefully! Watch out for “blue sky” promises of anything that sounds too good to be true.

Compared to conventional advertising and marketing, you don’t need that much money to market online. But you do need some.

You need money for a Web site and you need some for marketing, likely PPC (pay-per-click) and SEO.

The more cash you have to invest, the less time you have to invest. You can hire an Internet Marketing Company to perform much of the work for you.

OR, the less money you have, the more of your time that will be required. This can be a very good time to considering hiring an Internet Marketing Coach, to save you money and speed up the timetable for you to earn income.

The problem is the people with no money to invest OR with unrealistic expectations are the ones who fall prey to the Internet marketing scammers. Often, these are the same people who don’t have the skills to do any of the work themselves or the desire to develop the required skills (sigh).

An Example of what To Do…and what NOT To Do

Consider another one of my clients who paid $1,000 for a well-known Internet marketing program. My client was told all sorts of inconsistent things, including that the course was for people new to online marketing, which that wasn’t the case.

And he was told to market something online that he didn’t know anything about or have any particular interest in.

Huh??

How does THAT make any sense?

But at that moment, that was what he wanted to hear, because it was easy and didn’t require much effort or time from him.

Here’s the real deal: there are dozens, hundreds or thousands of people and companies marketing the same or similar product or service to yours. You have to do it BETTER.

That requires time and effort. It requires making an effort and using one’s brain.

And this is where a qualified Marketing Coach or a Search Engine Optimization Firm can help you.

If you select well, the money you spend you will more than save in increased profits, much faster and avoiding the potholes and pitfalls that come with Internet marketing. Those pitfalls can be very expensive (and time consuming).

And there are actually Internet Marketing Coaches you can begin with for only a few hundred dollars, which could be money very well spent.

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Marketing online since 2004, Paul Marshall can help you market on a budget. He’s a Marketing Coach expert offering marketing services (and d-i-y Coaching). You can learn more about Paul on his Marketing Coach LinkedIn profile and at Strategic Web Marketing.net.

Read more articles written by Paul Marshall

It was a book written by a web 2.0 search engine fan and he was saying there was going to be a death of advertising and everything would be done via search engines, social media, etc. going forward.

Now that’s partly true.

Things have shifted.

Twenty years ago the media was dominated by television and newspapers.

And that was the only way to get your name out there on a mass level.

And that’s certainly all changed.

But I was thinking the other day about some of my larger clients.

There’s an 80 / 20 rule in business that… 80% of your business comes from 20% of your clients.

Now I haven’t crunched my numbers enough to know if this is absolutely true in my case, but here’s what I’ve noticed about four of my top clients which generate a large percentage of my business.

One was generated by a referral.

And three were generated by picking up the phone or sending these guys letters / emails directly to get them on board.

And NOT because they suddenly fell across me online via search engines, blogs, social media, etc.

The message: Don’t fall for all the hype.

If you know who your target market is then go after them.

Don’t just rely on search.

Because with search you cannot control who you attract.

Sure, you can control via keyword.

But you cannot say I want a business who is turning over a minimum of a million dollars a year in the manufacturing industry for instance.

You can with direct mail.

Of course, you need to use the strategies you’ll find in http://www.copywritingthatsells.com.au/cashflow to make sure you do it right and hit the nail on the head.

But once again, as with my last email you need to zig when they zag and not just follow along blindly according to what everyone else is saying and doing.

Also published here.

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Scott Bywater is an advertising copywriting expert and the author of Cash-Flow Advertising. To gain access to all of his copywriting tips on how to get more customers via his eye opening “Copywriting Selling Secrets” newsletter, simply head on over to his web site at http://www.copywritingthatsells.com.au/

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Don’t send a letter, pop it on an email.

Don’t mail the customer anything, pop it in an email.

In fact, let’s forget about letters altogether and do everything electronically.

I’m as guilty of this as the next person.

But recently I received a thank you card and it made me think a little differently.

You see, I receive (and appreciate) a bundle of emails every week thanking me for the emails I send out.

And nothing makes me feel better than knowing that as I write these emails from my lonely office, someone is reading them and hopefully applying them.

However a couple of weeks ago I received something in the mail which really stood out.

It was a thank you card from a guy called Greg Kumanovski from Global Pictures. All it said was…

“Thank you for your regular emails with all the helpful ideas. Have a great day”

But I’ve had that card sitting on my filing cabinet ever since he sent it to me.

And I think there’s a lesson here for all of us.

Whether it’s thank you cards or anything else, consider sending the hard copy version over the soft copy version.

In other words: when everyone else is zigging, why not zag and stand out from the crowd.

After all, mail order should be far more effective these days because nobody else is doing it.

For instance, yesterday I was chatting with a guy who sent out his proposals via email.

He was getting a lot of proposals requests coming in every week and would pretty much churn back a standard response with a quotation.

I suggested he set up a system where he could send them out via mail instead.

We worked out that all he would need to pay for the cost of the mail is a 1% increase in response.

My bet is that he would get it.

Especially when all of his competitors are probably doing everything via email as well.

So take a moment now to think of how you can do things differently… and use alternative strategies to stand out from your competition.

Editor’s Note: Article published here.

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Scott Bywater is a direct response copywriter with extensive experience in B2B and B2C writing. Mr Bywater is the author of Cash-Flow Advertising and More Customers Made Easy. You can gain access to his copywriting and marketing tips via his entertaining and eye opening “Copywriting Selling Secrets” newsletter available at http://www.copywritingthatsells.com.au/

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He was telling me about how you can give EXACTLY the same trading system to one person and they’ll go and turn it into a fortune, achieve their dream lifestyle and all that sort of good stuff.

Another will do nothing with it and claim it doesn’t work.

It doesn’t make any sense, does it?

But I know how true it is.

Because the reality is the same thing happens with advertising and marketing.

I can write an ad for one person. And they won’t even place it.

Another person will use that same ad to make millions of dollars, like David Warne from A Crown Roast did with an advertisement I wrote for him.

I remember creating an ad for a real estate agent years ago.

The ad worked. The phones rang. People were interested.

But he claimed they were all dud leads.

I know for a fact they weren’t.

They just weren’t followed up properly.

He didn’t send them newsletters. He didn’t invite them to seminars. He didn’t take the time to forge a relationship. In essence, he threw away a six figure system simply because he wouldn’t put the work into follow the system. (and I know this to be true because I do it myself and have seen plenty of others succeed with this same system over the years).

I’ve seen this happen over and over again throughout the years.

The number one element to success is psychology.

You’ve got to believe a strategy can succeed. And you’ve got to be willing to follow the system.

It’s true in the stock market. It’s true in marketing. It’s true in advertising. It’s true in sport. And it’s true in virtually every area of life.

So before you get your hands on any information product – yes, even my http://www.morecustomersmadeeasy.com/ program – or begin any marketing or advertising strategy, make sure you…

a. Believe you can succeed.

and

b. Commit to following the system.

Otherwise you’ll just be wasting your time and money.

I’ll leave you with this quote from writer and economist, Stuart Chase

“For those who believe, no proof is necessary. For those who don’t believe, no proof is possible”

and one more from the inventor of the electric starter, Charles Kettering:

“Believe and act as if it were impossible to fail”

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Scott Bywater is a direct response copywriter and the author of “Cash Flow Advertising” and “More Customers Made Easy”. Although Scott is accepting very few clients, he generously shares his experience on copywriting at his web site at http://www.copywritingthatsells.com.au/

Read more articles written by Scott Bywater