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© Dale Armin Miller
Part A: Example
Yahoo! still gets the most --sometimes, second-most-- hits of any
site. So the thing they're doing must work. So why did they
start advertising on TV? Why did they mess with their secret
formula?
They didn't mess with it!
The "secret formula" is to do EVERYTHING that will bring people
to your site over the long term.
Sometimes airplanes crash. When they do, you'll hear it on the
news because the event is so rare. Sometimes people get rich
from a single act. When they do, you'll hear it on the news
because the event is so rare.
Success USUALLY comes from doing a lot of little things
that work.
Here is a not-so-little thing that works for me and others
online.
I have a point to make (actually, two points) that should
MAKE YOU MONEY! But you won't get that point unless you first
read ...
Stalking The Internet Cash Hose
© Dale Armin Miller
Most people using the Internet live in the United States. We
have attention spans of ... Hey, you've stopped reading
already? And we want what we want when we want it -- which is
always yesterday. That makes us world-renowned consumption
addicts, and suckers for a great pitch. But if your pitch is
a great one, you'd better have a way of getting whatever
you're selling to us yesterday. Which is one of the marketing
virtues of the web: instant downloads and other kinds of
immediate gratification.
But if you're marketing, you want money in return for that
download. Up front. And your manner of collecting that money
had better be as quick as the download. Or else you are
losing money.
Now, if you're promoting someone else's program, they have
almost-certainly solved the instant-pay problem for you. But,
if you really want to make a killing on the web, you have --or
are at least working on-- your own program. And that means
*you* have to solve the instant-pay problem: How do you funnel
money from other people's bank accounts into your bank account
before they forget having ever read your great pitch? How do
you get your turn at the Internet cash hose?
In other words, how do you accept check and credit-card
payments over the Internet?
I tried selling a reasonably good service on the web. I even
started out with a few hundred visitors to my website the first
couple weeks. But people had to mail me a check or money order.
I never made one sale. (I should also mention that, at the
time, despite a few decades of successful marketing experience,
I had yet to realize how to adapt that to the Internet.) So I
set about trying to arrange accepting credit cards over the
Internet.
With hindsight, I should have anticipated the problem. I have
been online since 1984, and used the Internet from the
beginning. So it seems well-established to me. But it only
began to enter public awareness in late 1995, as the world-wide
web aspect developed. And, to a banker, that's yesterday. Not
to mention that, since there can be no signature received nor
is the a card present to be swiped, this would be lumped
together with telephone sales -- which bankers have learned to
distrust.
I still don't think that gave my banker the right to laugh at
me!
Eventually, savvy marketers began to convince a couple bankers
that there is an untapped, hungry market. Us! We were --and
are-- desparate enough that the banks could charge higher
processing fees in return for what they perceive as a higher
risk.
And credit-card acceptance began infiltrating the Internet.
(Strangely enough, that's about the time advertising began to
sweep the Internet. Strangely enough, that's about the time the
Internet began to be promoted in the popular media.)
Savvy marketers --the same ones, for the most part-- realized
that we wanted more than just banks to accept our submissions.
We also need a way to collect the card information in the first
place. And a way to transmit that information to the bank. So
full-service merchant-account providers were born. They arrange
bank approval (for "anyone," they claim). And they have
software for collecting the credit-card charge submission,
securely transmitting it to the bank, transferring the money to
your bank, and keeping records of the transactions. The
marketers make money by selling or leasing the software to us,
usually on their server.
I'm simplifying somewhat. This is more and more what it looks
like to us clients. But usually there is a conglomeration of up
to six companies needed to make this all work seemlessly. (I am
mentioning this for a reason.)
As soon as I became aware of one of these full-service
merchant-account providers, I signed up. All my savings as
downpayment, all my earnings each month until the year 2175,
and my first-born child. (I'm exaggerating: I don't have any
children.) I was that convinced it would make a major
difference in my online marketing.
(Fortunately, I was correct. On my very next Internet venture,
I made $2,000 the first eight days. Although I like to think
that's not entirely due to my ability to accept credit cards
and checks.)
Almost as soon as I was approved, however, another full-service
merchant-account provider sprang up. And less-expensive! I
could have kept my first-born child. Then another that paid
commissions. And another cheaper still. And another with more
benefits.
At first I got depressed. But I hate being depressed. It
depresses me. So I collected the URL's (Internet addresses) of
the companies and let my friends know about the various
providers. At least *they* would benefit from the lower prices
and variety of services.
Lately, people have made available some free (!) Perl code that
solves a piece or two of the puzzle. If you know how to knit
scripts into your web pages, this can leave a whole company out
of the loop ... and save you money.
My list of online e-commerce resources grew past a dozen.
Someone said, "Why are you sending that by email? This is the
world-wide web. You could just set up a site with that
information on it and refer people to that. Plus, everyone
would have access. Don't you wish *you* would have had access
to something like that?" (Actually, I said it -- but I don't
want you to know that I talk to myself.)
So I did.
I set up a free site. It's called GetPaidOnline.com [tm].
Naturally, you are cordially invited to stop by and check out
the resources for yourself.
I also bought the resale rights to a software program that
allows you to take checking-account information given to you by
your customers, and print a check right from your printer. Your
bank will actually accept it! For the moment, I am *giving*
that software away. Just download it at the site. (No catch. No
one else to pay. You don't even have to sign up for the
newsletter. Just free.)
Part B: So What?
At what point did you first realize that article was promoting
something?
When I was only 18, Zero Population Growth made me Director of
Public Relations. They did that because I was so successful at
getting TV and newspaper coverage, at --at root-- writing press
releases. I'm not telling you that so you'll think I'm cool.
(Well, who knows?) I'm telling you that so you know that I
really do know what a proper press release is.
And what you just read AIN'T. It breaks many of 'the
rules' for writing a press release
In fact, it breaks many rules of just plain writing -- good
grammer, for example.
Yet, it is a press release. Advertising GetPaidOnline was
my whole purpose in writing. More importantly, it is a
SUCCESSFUL press release; and here's why I say that:
Results
I submitted it to one ezine, in which it was published. Another
editor saw it and asked to put it in his ezine. A third --with
40,000 subscribers-- published it without even asking. My home-
page accesses went from zero per day to a hundred per day.
And that was just the first week!
In fact, seven months after I wrote it, it's STILL generating
hits! Other ezines published it. People put it on their sites.
Just last week, a bartering system asked if they could add it to
their members-only section.
Will all that make me independently wealthy? No. Was it a
productive use of those few hours? Hell, yes! (So much so
that I did it some more.)
Will doing that yourself make you wealthy? No. Can doing SEVERAL
things like that make you wealthy? YES:
If you do only 20 things --one small step at a time-- that each
bring you only 50 INTERESTED visitors per day, you will have
1,000 INTERESTED visitors per day!
Even better, do 100 things that each bring you 100
interested visitors per day. Then you will have
TEN THOUSAND *INTERESTED* VISITORS PER DAY.
(If it wasn't clear before, that should clarify why the Arsenal!
is so wide-ranging.)
This technique can not only be one of those things, it can be
*most* of them:
Part C: How YOU Can Get That Attention
Step One
Write SOMETHING. Ezine publishers are really picky about this.
They will not publish something that doesn't exist. The same
with webmasters.
"But I can't come up with what to write."
YES YOU CAN.
DO THIS: Open Notepad; stare at the white space. No music; no
TV. You'll get bored. (Ten seconds?) Just stay there. Eventual-
ly, you'll get SO bored that even writing is better than
staring at that white space. That's why Notepad: Just white
space -- no cute little icons or dancing paper clips to enter-
tain you. Your subconscious will eventually come up with
something, just like it does when you're trying to get to sleep.
(You can identify with that, can't you?)
You may need to try this more than once, but it will work!
That's part of why I gave you that example. Not because I think
it's particularly good. But it came out all at once, at one
sitting, pretty much the way it looks now. I sat down every day
for a week TRYING to write something ... but once anything came
out, it all came.
Absolutely do not edit anything that does come up; save editing
for a different day altogether.
Be yourself: "At first I got depressed. But I hate being
depressed. It depresses me."
"But I don't write as well as you."
Oh, come on: "At first I got depressed. But I hate being
depressed. It depresses me." You can do better than that!
(Your mind will say with anything to avoid writing.)
Step Two
Start your editing of the result of Step One so that it has
something to do with your product or service. (If this turns
out to be impossible, start again at Step One.) If you thought
this was already implied in Step One, you're making Step One
too hard.
Step Three
This is the only rule for writing press releases that I care
about:
Who wants your product or service? What do they want to know
about? What do they want? Start editing the result of Step Two
with them in mind. (If that's impossible, start again at Step
One.) This will automatically make it of interest to editors of
ezines and other publications that cater to your audience.
Step Four
Now --only now-- start checking for things like, "Is this a
sentence?" "Does it make sense?" Spell check. Have someone
else read it.
Step Five
Submit to editors. (Look in the Arsenal! section Ezines, for
example.) Submit. Submit. Submit.
Step Six
Whether or not that one gets published, start again at Step One.
DO IT.
...or not. It's your life. You can spend all of it looking for
THE NEXT BIG THING that "works" (the killer app, the killer
program), but doesn't. Or you can start spending all of your
working time doing little things that actually do work ...
like the people at Yahoo! do.
The author is Master At Arms of the Internet Marketing Success
Arsenal![sm] "What works online ... guaranteed." Get free,
detailed, online-marketing strategies at
http://www.SuccessArsenal.com/wow/reprt5431a
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A Very Under-Used Method Of Getting Website Visitors
