If you haven’t checked out James Brausch’s blog yet, you really should. It’s one of two that I drop whatever I’m doing to go read when I get a notice of a new post.

He runs an Intern Program in his business, and he has offered to answer any question about running a successful intern program. So here’s my question.

What criteria do you use to move a Level 1 intern up to a Level 2 intern?

Thanks,

Tim

A direct marketing Icon and the “Greatest Copywriter in the World” died last weekend. Gary Halbert was a genius and just a joy to be around (usually :-).

I was lucky enough to attend two of his seminars. One was the Fusion seminar where he spoke with Mark Joyner and a few other guys about the merging of online and offline marketing.

The second was a copywriting seminar with just him and 15 students including me. That was one I’ll never forget. He loved to teach, if you were willing to learn, and it sure came across there.

It was just us and Halbert for 3 solid days (well for Gary that meant 9 or 10 am to 5 pm :-) But it was gruesome! Both nights we went back to our rooms with more homework than we could ever get done. He said the only way we’d learn how to write, is to write! So he made us write.

And then we presented what we wrote the next day… everyone. So we knew we’d better have something done.

I feel really blessed to have been there and to have known Gary. May he rest in peace.

If you’d like to know or hear more about Gary, Ken McCarthy was just kind enough to put up some clips of him speaking at the System Seminar a few years ago. Thanks Ken!

Just go to: http://www.systemvideoblog.com/2007/04/gary_halbert_vi.html

Until next time.

Here’s to Your Success,

Tim

Today, I’m including an article by one of my favorite mentors, Jo Han Mok:

Is this scenario familiar?

You’ve launched your sales page and you are driving traffic right to its doorstep, but the sales just aren’t coming in the way you had anticipated.

Things are not performing as planned and you naturally turn your attention back to the sales page, looking for ways to improve it.

* You change the header.
* You adjust the headline.
* You alter the color scheme.
* You add another six p.s.’s

Nothing seems to be making a difference in terms of conversions.

You read and re-read the sales copy repeatedly.

You make edit after edit, hoping to stumble upon the fix for this disappointing situation.

Adjusting and tweaking your sales page is a great idea.

Making smart modifications and carefully testing them might turn what appears to be a loser into an impressive moneymaker.

However, there are times when the problem isn’t the sales page. All of the tweaking and adjusting of copy won’t fix a thing when that’s the case.

The trick, of course, is knowing when your copy is at fault and when something else is afoot. How can you tell when the problem is the sales page and when it lies elsewhere?

First, look at your traffic.

Who is coming to your page and are they “the right people.”

You need to be sure you are sending targeted visitors to the page and not just those who might be vaguely interested in your product.

If you are running a pay-per-click campaign, that is going to require returning to your keyword research and digging deep for answers.

If you are primarily marketing via your list, you’ll need to carefully consider whether list members’ opt-ins really pre-qualified them for this particular offer. Often, tapping into different traffic stream can make all of the difference in the world.

Second, look at the competition.

Is there someone out there who is doing a better job selling the same product or a similar product?

Might your problem be a matter of needing to be more competitive in terms of price, bonuses or some other factor?

If you are up against an army of tough competitors, you may have to find a way to make your page even stronger or some other means by which to regain an edge.

Third, consider the product.

Revisit your market research, look at other similar products and decide whether or not you are really bringing anything new to the marketplace.

If you are, make sure you are clearly illustrating what sets your offer apart from the others.

Top marketers will tell you that a good salesperson can successfully move any product, but the reality is that sales are more plentiful when you have targeted a real need among consumers.

Take a good look at some of the factors beyond your sales page.

They may inform you about why things are not going as well as expected. In some cases, you may learn your project’s shortcomings have nothing to do with your sales page at all.

In other cases, you may be able to use an off-page investigation to find ways to adjust your offer and tactics for more success.

It’s the simple things like these that can have the biggest impact on your conversion rate. Get started today and you’ll be surprised how quickly your profits begin to grow.

—
Jo Han Mok is the author of the #1 international business bestseller, The E-Code. Unlock the code for unlimited online profits for yourself by visiting his website today at:
==> http://www.GreatMarketingStuff.com/JoHan.php
—

I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.

Until Next Time.

Here’s to Your Success,

Tim

So, you’re an online marketer with a great idea that you know will be loved by your target market. You’re quite certain that it’s going to be a venerable cash cow once it is implemented properly.

The problem is, your resources are quite wanting at the moment. For starters, you have yet to establish a credible brand that could instantly win consumer confidence. You will not be able to sell your new product on the strength of your name alone. Also, your mailing list is composed of ten subscribers, and more importantly, you don’t have the financial capital to fund the production of your idea.

So, what should be done? Should you give up on your grand idea just like that?

Hold your horses, friend. There is a way for you to have your idea see the light of day.

It’s called joint venturing, or “doing a JV”, as it has fondly been called in the online marketing scene. Joint ventures are partnerships between two or more online marketers, who pool together their resources to ensure the success of a particular project. Once profit is realized, these partners employ a previously established profit-sharing scheme. Everyone who chipped in would be given his or her just share. And everyone would go home happy.

If you don’t have the resources for the idea you have in mind, you could seek out some online marketers who would be willing to enter a joint venture with you. Why would they want to partner up with someone like you? Well, there are many benefits that can be had with joint ventures which they will find pretty hard to resist.

* Since several people will pool together their resources for a joint venture, the risks can be minimized. Assuming the worst scenario that the project would fail, the losses would be less since it will be borne by several individuals, compared to the losses that can be incurred by one individual.

* Joint ventures allow online marketers to compensate for missing components in their portfolios. Don’t have a big mailing list? Partner up with someone who has tens of thousands of subscribers. Don’t have the cash to fund production? Seek out someone who has some extra money to invest. Don’t have an idea that can be profitably pursued? Seek out a creative soul beaming with novel concepts that are begging to be exploited.

* Joint ventures help build your brand in the online marketing community. If you’re an intermediate marketer who manages to enter a joint venture with a renowned guru, you’d be able to enjoy an instant boost to your reputation in the industry.

* Joint ventures foster great relationships between marketers. The experience of having worked with each other can blossom into future partnerships or even friendships.

There is no reason for an online marketer to refuse whatever helpful contribution you could provide for a project. He may be a well established personality in the industry, and you’re just a cub who’s starting out, but you may possess something that he does not have, and this would make you a valuable part of the team.

The trick, really, is in knowing where to seek out joint venture partners. If you have a great idea backed up by an equally amazing business plan, then finding willing partners would be easy, if you’re looking for them in the right places.

Here’s a tip. Join online business forums and start posting significant messages. Be a helpful member of the community and build your reputation. Then publish a thread that calls for joint venture partners. Explain to your respondents what you have in mind, and chances are, they’ll be more than interested in signing on for your endeavor.

Joint ventures prove that in internet marketing, there is no such thing as lack of resources. What can lead to failure in this field is a lack of imagination.

Often in our marketing, our efforts are focused on detailed descriptions of products and services. We see this all the time in advertising. The business goes into great detail talking about the great features of the product and the specific process of how they will do this for you. Sometimes these details are critical to the buyer’s buying decision and it does have merit.

However, don’t spend too much time describing the details when the customer really wants to know the results. They want to know what’s in it for them.

The old adage that you can’t see the forest for the trees may apply here. If you describe in detail the physical make-up of the trees of a forest, you might do so at the exclusion of adequately describing the entire beauty of the forest. If a beautiful forest is exactly what the customer is shopping for, you have now made an error in the way you are describing it by focusing on the trees.

It’s not just limited to trees in the forest, of course. Let’s talk about it in terms of products and services

Let’s relate that to a maid service. The specifics of what they do is not really that important. They do clean house, but that’s not necessarily what I’m interested in. What I’m interested in is having a great looking, clean, germ free house without lifting a finger.

Whatever your business offers, you need to tailor your marketing to communicate to your customers what your products and services do for them. You want to give a description of the product and a list of features, but you really want to focus on the benefits to the customer.

Until next time.

Here’s to Your Success,

Tim