Internet Business and Marketing

Freds Inverse Law of Marketing Intelligence (the cream, as well as, the crap rises to the top)

July 3, 2008

You've heard the old sayings: "The cream of the crop", or "The cream rises to the top". Well, I'm here to tell you that both the cream rises to the top and that the crap does too!

Henry Louis Mencken (1880 - 1956) is often quoted as saying: "No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public." However, his actual quote was: "No one in this world, so far as I know, and I have searched the records for years, and employed agents to help me, has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people."

He also said: "It is a sin to believe evil of others, but it is seldom a mistake." He was a pretty smart guy!

Dumb, Dumb, and Dumber!
You read and hear a lot (ok, maybe not a lot... it depends on what you read and listen to) about the dumbing down of America. It's true. For all our advances and progress, we're drowning in not-so-smart people. Some people say this is an intentional process created by our own government to make us easier to govern. I don't know if that's true or not, but just taking a trip to the mall is enough to rattle any faith that we'll still be around in 100 years. Just sit and watch people at any public place and it won't take long to really question if, taken as a whole, we're any smarter than the apes.

The Rich Get Richer, the Smart Get Smarter, and the Not-So-Smart Breed Like Crazy!
...And the poor get poorer and the dumb get... well, dumber. It's sad, but it appears to be true. It looks like, and I'll admin that I'm not quoting any scientific studies, just my own observations, that the more progress we make and the more we learn, the more intellectual distance we put between those with education and knowledge and those that just don't give a rat's rear-end about anything. Again, sad but seemingly true. I think it's historically accurate to say that the population of less affluent, less educated people tends to propagate and expand faster than the wealthier and more educated. Social proof is big on the Internet these days, put it in action offline and just look around and you'll see what I mean.

Put Your Thumb in the Dyke.
Don't even try; the pressure will blow it off your hand! I don't know what the answers to these observations are, but don't try to fix it alone, it'll kill you.

That's the Law Son!
So what does that have to do with marketing? Simple. If you're writing copy, or even if you don't consider yourself a copywriter and you're just making a simple web site to sell whatever it is you want to sell, you're automatically in the upper groups I refer to. Why? Because you're trying to improve your position in life and better yourself. That puts you into a different segment of the population than most people. You therefore think a little differently than most people, perhaps the people you're trying to sell something to. Talk to them on your level, or, even on a semi-formal level and you've lost them from the first sentence. You have to make your message match the natural language and thoughts of your target.

So, here it is:
Fred's Law of Inverse Marketing Intelligence: Simple Sells, Smart Fails.

For example: If you're selling a new sport shoe, you could make an ad stating all the technical specifications, all the research and development that went into creating a new inner and outer sole material that gives 80% better energy recovery, and how it also deflects angular momentum into vertical energy with 75% efficiency, blah, blah, blah. Now people like me want to know all that, but I don't buy that many sport shoes. You're much more likely to sell more shoes with a simple ad showing a sports star using the shoes and a strong but simple headline.

I'm not saying that you shouldn't have the details available for those that want to know, but generally speaking: most people simply don't care.

So there you have it. I know, it's sad, but it's true. Even those long, well thought-out sales letters that people like Clayton Makepeace create, and charge their clients thousands of dollars to create, are simple. They're not scientific papers. Even if he's writing copy for a health supplement, the benefits of the product are spelled out in simple to understand terms that the average guy on the street will relate to, not the language off the back of the label on the bottle.

You might feel smart writing a really intelligent sounding sales letter, but wouldn't you feel smarter putting bushels of cash in your bank account? I thought so!

Until Next Time,
Fred

P.S. This whole post was written as a reminder to me, so that I can read it over and over. This is my biggest problem when trying to sell something!

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Are You Failing Miserably or Miserably Failing?

July 1, 2008

No, you can't sleep: get up and go to work! You take another swat at the alarm clock and after 30 more minutes of "snoozing" you finally drag your tail out of bed and head to the shower. After you dry off, you check your inbox to see if you have any of those ever-so-rare emails "you have money". Nope... not today.

Funny, that $3999 you spent last month on the sure fire millionaire package is not working. Are you sure they only sold 300 of them? What was that fine print about anyway?

That wasn't the first one you've purchased either.

You say it's just too much. You drive to work kind of numb, like usual. You feel like there must be something you're missing. You can't ever seem to get ahead, and each time you have an idea that you think will work, you find that someone has already done it, and, done it much better than you ever could.

You work all day and spend most of the evening and half the night reading forums and product ads trying to figure out what you're doing wrong and what you're missing.

Rinse and repeat. Day after Day.

This is what I call "Miserably Failing". You're failing and you're miserable.

It does not have to be this way.

It's better to be Failing Miserably! What?!? Yes, by this I mean that you try something, it fails miserably, and you learn from your failure and try the next thing. Each thing you "fail miserably" at will increase your knowledge of what does not work and therefore will increase your chances of success on the next attempt. You wouldn't really expect to win a marathon, much less even finish it, if you've never trained for long distance running. The same is true for an internet business.

For starters, most people who post in forums are not doing any better than the above. So take what they say with a huge grain of salt. Better yet, just ignore what they say and stop reading the forums. Read high quality blogs, like I list in my Blog Roll instead (my blog roll is in the right column of this blog).

Work on creating a product to sell. It's doubtful that you'll actually sell many, or, make any real money from it, but it's possible. The real purpose of your first few products is to get your feet wet, to get all the things in place you need to actually succeed and get comfortable doing it. Get my free course to learn the basics: Making Money Online. This will give you enough information to get started. And, it's free.

Work on setting up a web site and a blog. I have two other free products that teach basic html Web Site Creation and beginning Interactive Web Site Scripting. No matter what blogging platform you use, or what type of web site you want, these courses teach fundamentals that will help you get an understanding of how it all works. Look at the items in my Products I Use and Recommend section in the right column: they can help you succeed.

Don't expect to go from broke to millionaire overnight. Remember, those sales letters where you read how Joe's System filled his bank account like he had a cash pump, are optimized to get your mouth watering and your trigger finger clicking. Maybe Joe's system did do that, but what you don't realize is that Joe tried for 3 or 4 years to get it right. There are always exceptions, but they're rare: that's why they're exceptions. Keep your expectations in check and you'll be much happier as your small steps yield small gains.

The big gains will come as the small steps accumulate. So get out there and fail miserably: just be sure to learn something from it!

Until Next Time,
Fred

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Know Yourself

June 26, 2008

This is the 4th guest post from my Grandfather, Clyde Kirkman (1915 - 1989). The photo at left was taken in October, 1944 and is of him and his mother, my Great-Grandmother, Ada Chrisco Kirkman before he left home for WWII.

These guest posts are from a set of articles he wrote for the company newspaper where he worked (Burlington Industries).

Know Yourself
Before we can succeed in any relationship, we have to know and understand ourselves. That means knowing and understanding the emotions that churn inside us, the desires and needs that motivate us, the fears we must cope with, how we want to spend our hours and days, and what activities will bring us the most satisfaction. It also means that each of us must learn to know and understand another person and to function in relationship to that person - in friendship or love. We can learn all our lives from our successes and from our failures.

Individuals who remain vital to their community have learned not to be imprisoned by fixed habits, attitudes, and routines. We build our own prisons and serve as our own jailers. If we build the prisons ourselves; we can tear them down also. If we are willing to learn, the opportunities are everywhere. We learn from our work and from our friends and families. We learn by accepting the obligations of life.

By suffering, by taking risks, by loving, by bearing life's indignities with dignity we learn to live with the things that we cannot change. We learn to avoid self pity. We learn that most people are neither for nor against us, but rather are thinking about their problems. We learn that no matter how much we try to please, we will not always succeed. Among our obligations is an appointment with ourselves. Take a complete inventory of yourself. One of the most valuable things you will learn is that ultimately you are the one who is responsible for you! So take charge - and if you are going to keep on learning, your best allies will be high motivation and enthusiasm!

Some people, somehow keep their zest until the day they die. They care about people around them, they reach out, they enjoy life, they love - above all they know how important it is to have meaning and goals in their lives. People can achieve meaning only if they have made a commitment to something larger than their own little egos. Whether made to our loved ones, to our work, or to some moral or religious concept, by doing any legitimate job the best one can is, in itself, an admirable commitment. People who strive for such excellence, whether at public work or at home binging up a family, make the world a better place just by being the kind of person they are. So always remember when making decisions that it is not wealth or prestige that count - instead strive for love and contentment, and with them you will achieve happiness.

Clyde W. Kirkman

See my Grandfather's previous guest posts here:
- The Greatest Sale in America
- Have We Forgotton.
- Progress Never Begins for Any Man until He Substitutes Dreams and Talk with Action.

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Are You Putting Cash in the Trash?

June 23, 2008

I wrote a guest post for Darren Rowse over at Problogger.net that was published over the weekend. My guest post is http://www.problogger.net/archives/2008/06/21/are-you-putting-cash-in-the-trash and deals with bloggers missing advertising revenue. Visit Problogger and read it!

Fred

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Behind Bars: Could the New FTC CAN-SPAM Rules Land You In JAIL?

June 17, 2008

FTC Approves New Rule Provisions Under The CAN-SPAM Act

On May 12th, 2008, the Federal Trade Commission approved four new rule provisions under the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act of 2003 (CAN-SPAM or the Act). The provisions are intended to clarify the Act's requirements.

If you or your business sends bulk email you should be aware of these changes to the FTC rules regarding SPAM. I've provided some translations from legal speak to regular southern English where necessary. I'm not an attorney, so don't take my comments as such! These new rules will not affect most legitimate businesses; however, if you send bulk email, it's a good idea to be aware of the rules so that you don't mistakenly violate them and end up getting fined, jailed, or both.

The new rules are:

1. An e-mail recipient cannot be required to pay a fee, provide information other than his or her e-mail address and opt-out preferences, or take any steps other than sending a reply e-mail message or visiting a single Internet Web page to opt out of receiving future e-mail from a sender; Fred's translation: make it easy for someone to opt out of your email list, use a clickable link for example that just does it. Don't make them jump through hoops. I'm pretty sure this makes requiring a login and/or password to opt out a violation.
2. The definition of "sender" was modified to make it easier to determine which of multiple parties advertising in a single e-mail message is responsible for complying with the Act's opt-out requirements; Fred's translation: the person in the "from" address is considered the sender of the email and must comply with the FTC CAN-SPAM rules for opt out links, physical address, etc.
3. A "sender" of commercial e-mail can include an accurately-registered post office box or private mailbox established under United States Postal Service regulations to satisfy the Act's requirement that a commercial e-mail display a "valid physical postal address". Fred's translation: you can use a P.O. box now.
4. A definition of the term "person" was added to clarify that CAN-SPAM's obligations are not limited to natural persons. Fred's translation: unnatural persons now have to follow the rules too! This includes businesses, groups, non-profit organizations, BigFoot, etc. So you unnatural persons, and you know who you are, shape up!

In addition to these rule changes, they also issues additional opinions that may become rules, or changes to the rules, in the future:

• CAN-SPAM's definition of "transactional or relationship message"; the Commission's decision not to alter the length of time a "sender" of commercial e-mail has to honor an opt-out request; Fred's comment: current length is 10 days.
• The Commission's determination not to designate additional "aggravated violations" under the Act; Fred's comment: stop bugging the crap out of 'em.
• The Commission's views on how CAN-SPAM applies to forward-to-a-"friend" e-mail marketing campaigns, in which someone either receives a commercial e-mail message and forwards the e-mail to another person, or uses a Web-based mechanism to forward a link to or copy of a Web page to another person. The SBP explains that, as a general matter, if the seller offers something of value in exchange for forwarding a commercial message, the seller must comply with the Act's requirements, such as honoring opt-out requests. Fred's translation: refer a friend emails and related ways to get email addresses added to your list should also follow the same rules for providing opt out links, physical address, etc.

Here's the link to the document on the FTC's web site: http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2008/05/canspam.shtm.

If you're not sure what these new rules mean or how they affect you or your business, then please consult with a legal professional.

Until Next Time,
Fred

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Who Cares?

June 16, 2008

Want to write better copy? Who Cares?
Want to write more effective Headlines? Who Cares?
Want to write text ads that get more clicks? Who Cares?
Want to make more money? Who Cares?
Who Cares?
Who Cares?
Who Cares?
No One, that's who!

No one cares about you. I've had to learn some things the hard way, and this is one of them. If you're selling product or service xyz, no one and I mean no one cares about you.

What about my Mother?
Sure, your mother and family probably care, and a few friends, but how much can they buy? You want thousands, tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands customers. You want people who don't know you, who in all likelihood will never know you, to purchase something from you or your company. Well guess what, they don't care about you. The faster you learn this fact; the better off you'll be in your efforts.

What do People care about?
They care about themselves, their problems, their lives, their issues, their successes, and their failures. Yes, you heard it here: people are selfish creatures!

Sing Your Song...
Depending on how much of this blog you've read, you may or may not know that I'm an aspiring songwriter as well. In songwriting, there are songs that are written to help the songwriter deal with a situation, and not really with the intention of creating a great song: a kind of therapy if you will. On the other hand, there are songs that are written with the idea of writing a great song in mind. The former may mean something to the songwriter and his or her close friends and family, but its scope is limited and will probably not mean much to anyone else outside that small group. To them it may well be the best song they've ever heard. To others, it's just a song, and maybe not a good one at that. However, if the songwriter takes the second path, using the same subject material, and makes the song into a more generally appealing song, one that more people could identify with, it could well be a hit.

What's' the Difference You Ask?
The difference is in who cares. Only one, two, or a few people care about the first song. By shifting the focus to include others, and making the song something more people can identify with and relate to, more people will say "I do" when asked "Who Cares?".

Long Sales Letters and Infomercials
But what about those long sales letters or infomercials that ramble on and on telling a story about the person selling the product? Good question. If they're successful, the story is one that a lot of people can relate to, therefore they see themselves in the shoes of the author, and they become the person in the story. If the author is successful with that transfer of identity, the person reading the ad is much more likely to make a purchase.

Always ask "Who Cares?" as you're writing and make sure the answers includes more than just you!

Until next time,
Fred

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