================================================================ More4you Newsletter ... more tips, training & tutorials for webmasters & entrepreneurs. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Everything you need to make your website & business a success! ******************************** Issue 82 - April 01, 2003 ******************************** Published & edited by Frank Bauer www.add2you.com www.add2it.com & www.add2it.de www.million-mall.com & www.million-mall.de ================================================================ The More4you Newsletter is delivered by subscription only. Subscription and removal instructions are located at the end of this newsletter. Table Of Content: -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- 1) Good Morning... ! 2) Sponsor Of This Newsletter Issue 3) First Article: "How and Where to Advertise Your Small Business on the Internet" by Jim Daniels 4) News & Changes At Add2it, Add2you & Million-Mall! 5) Second Article: "How to Audit-Proof Your Business" by Collin Almeida 6) The Question & Answers Section 7) Recommended By The Publisher 8) Newsletter Notes & Policies ================================================================ 1) Good Morning... ! -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- I also like to welcome you to the 82nd issue of the "More4you Newsletter"! Today is Tuesday, the 01st of April, 2003. The current number of subscribers is: 5017 There are a whole bunch of news I would like to tell you about this time... First, out of respect for the readers of our newsletter, the More4you Newsletter does not offer paid classified ads anymore. I believe that you subscribed to this newsletter for the valuable information included and not for the ads. If you prefer to read the ads, just contact me and I can email you some personally... ;) Second, starting now I am giving away gifts for subscribing to the More4you Newsletter. To be fair I wanted to offer them now and here also to all current subscribers... Please download your FREE copy of the Add2it Notes Free software tool at: http://www.add2it.com/go/to.pl?l=pif (558 KB) It's a cool tool to jot down your notes, just like the yellow paper version. Plus it has a bunch of features, that the original version doesn't have... :) It works on Windows 95/98/ ME/NT & XP. Additionally you can download only now "Stephen Pierce’s SmartPage Tip #1" report at: http://www.add2it.com/go/to.pl?l=SmartpageTipSPG (579 KB) It will show you how to drive 100% relevant traffic to very specific and targeted products and services of your own, as well as the products and services of affiliate programs that you are part of. Third, starting this month there will be a monthly plus an annual giveaway... it's too much to explain it all here, so please check it out at: http://www.add2it.com/giveaway.shtml or at http://www.add2you.com/giveaway.shtml Just so much... there will be seven prizes each month, plus seven annual prizes for seven of the monthly winners. And the total value of the 71 prizes is over $1,600! Finally, during the month of March several updated scripts plus one new script have been released: On the 7th of March Add2it Mailman Free & Standard 1.83 have been released. To read about the changes, please visit: http://www.add2it.com/scripts/mailman-free-history.shtml & http://www.add2it.com/scripts/mailman-standard-history.shtml Then on the 10th of March a new script called Add2it ReferThem Pro 1.00 has been released. This is an ad free version of Add2it ReferThem Free and it additionally works closely together with Add2it Mailman Pro. To so what other additional features it has, please visit: http://www.add2it.com/scripts/referthem-pro.shtml Additionally on the 10th of March Add2it Mailman Pro 2.62 has been released. This has basically just been a release to work closely together with Add2it ReferThem Pro! To read about all the other changes, please visit: http://www.add2it.com/scripts/mailman-pro-history.shtml OK, now let's get started immediately ... ... have fun, relax and enjoy! Frank Bauer Publisher & Editor of the "More4you Newsletter" ================================================================ 2) Sponsor Of This Newsletter Issue: ´´~`` ( o o ) +----------------------.oooO--(_)--Oooo.----------------------+ | Get the mailing list management script that every publisher | | and webmaster needs to be successful and don't just take my | | word for it... read what many other say about it and | | get your own copy of Add2it Mailman Pro today at: | | http://www.add2it.com/go/to.pl?l=mailman-pro | +-------------------------------------------------------------+ ================================================================ 3) First Article: -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- "How and Where to Advertise Your Small Business on the Internet" by Jim Daniels -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- This takes a lot of the mystery out of where you should be advertising online. I've tried dozens of methods and hundreds of resources and my results are in this tutorial. Actually, I'm a bit of a cheapskate when it comes to marketing. But I also realize that in order to succeed in business, you must spend SOME money advertising. So I've been advertising my site, www.make-a-living-online.com all over the web lately and today I'd like to share my results with you so you'll know exactly how and where you should get started advertising online. For starters, keep your wallet securely in your pocket. There are three things you must do BEFORE spending ad bucks online. And here they are... 1. Get a handle on how well your site does its selling. Figuring out how good a job your site does selling is simple. Just look at your stats and do a little math. You are after just one number... how much a website visitor is worth to you. Or more simply, how much you should PAY for a visitor. To figure this out you need to first find out how many visitors it takes you to get a sale. If you get 1000 visitors a week and 10 sales in that same week, then your visitor to sales ratio is 100-1. If you average 20 sales from those 1000 visitors, you are closing one sale for every 50 visitors. Once you know your own number, you will be able to determine approximately how much a visitor is worth to you. You simply take it one step further... Let's say you close 1 sale in every 50 visitors and your average profit is $50. Simple math tells you that you could pay up to a dollar per visitor and break even. So a good goal would be to pay LESS THAN a buck per visitor. Any ad buy that averages out to less than a dollar per visitor should be profitable, provided the traffic is targeted. If you aim to spend fifty cents per visitor you can double your investment every time. Of course there are lots of variables. Things like opt-in email members you may receive from an ad buy and the repeat visitors that your list generates. But you get the idea. Until you know the above numbers for your site, you cannot spend money wisely on advertising. Once you have a handle on how much a visitor is worth to you, the next step you must take before your first ad buy is... 2. Set up your email address capture strategy. If your site is closing one sale for every 50 visitors, you may be satisfied. But if you are not offering a way for the other 49 visitors to 'stay in the loop' you are making a huge mistake. And it is simple to keep them from getting away. Just offer them something of value in exchange for their contact information. An example of one way to do this is offering a free gift at your site and getting their name and email address when they request it. Your gift can be a free ebook, an email course or anything else your visitors would want. You can get as many as 20% of your visitors to leave their contact info if you do it right. That's a lot of email addresses when you start advertising and getting lots of traffic. But what do you do with the addresses? You treat them like gold. Regularly publish an email newsletter to your growing list of addresses. Contact them and offer your expertise. Give them more free, valuable information related to what they requested originally. Make them feel special and grow a community. This is how long-term profits are made online. Once you have tackled the two items above, there is one last step before you actually spend money on advertising... 3. Make sure you have a way to measure your results once your advertising starts. I do this simply by copying my main entry page and using the new URL in the ad. For example, I have started advertising at many pay per click search engines, like overture.com and FindWhat.com. Every link that is clicked through those sites is tracked automatically so I know where every visitor comes from. When I check the stats my web host emails me I can easily see how many visitors came from each ad I placed. Here are a few ad tracking tools you can try... Add2it Go-To Free or Pro: http://www.add2it.com/scripts Adminder: http://www.bizweb2000.com/adminder The RoiBot Ad Tracker: http://www.bizweb2000.com/roibot OK, once you have tackled the three items above, you're all set up to do some ad buys. (If you're not ready to spend ad dollars yet, save this issue so you can refer to it when you are ready. You'll save lots of time and money by starting with this list.) I have tried many strategies online and here's the straight scoop on what works and what doesn't. I've ranked nine online advertising strategies as follows... Poor: Don't waste your time. Fair: Worth a try at least once or twice. Good: A solid way to spend ad dollars. Excellent: Should be a regular staple in any online marketing budget. OK, here they are... 1. FFA submissions (Free for all links pages) You know, those interfaces that say 'submit to 50,000 websites' for a few bucks. Well, save your few bucks. FFA's had their time in the sun. They worked great when they were first introduced. Now they are not worth a dime. Heck, even if you can do a free submission it's probably not worth your time. The last three tests I ran submitted my URL to nearly a half a million sites. I got four visitors. 'Nuf said. Rating: Poor 2. Bulk email Most of you know my take on this. Sure, you CAN get website traffic using bulk email. You can do it yourself or hire a company to hide behind. But the fact is, you risk your business reputation and you'll anger a ton of folks. Your domain will end up blocked by many ISPs and could even get sued. Unsolicited bulk email is not worth the trouble. Rating: Poor 3. Safe lists This is a twist on opt-in email marketing where you pay for the privilege of being able to send email to a list of other marketers who have done the same. While I have not tried this personally I can comment on it simply because lots of my subscribers have tried it. And I have not heard one good thing about it other than from people reselling it. The folks that have used it have found that while safe list 'members' have agreed to be on the safe lists, most never actually read messages or buy anything. Rating: Poor 4. Banner Advertising This is an 'old school' advertising strategy that I have been testing again now that prices are lower. And early indications are that there is a solid reason for the still-declining prices of banner advertising. My own click-through rates been less that 1% so far, with a few exceptions. But I do have some decent size banner ad runs planned for the coming months at some busy, targeted sites. Time will tell if I'll continue with this strategy. If you DO want to try banner advertising, ask the site you plan to advertise at what the average click-through rates are and what banners perform best. That may get you up to two or three percent. If that will take you into profit, give it a whirl. But most small and home businesses may be better served using one of the four advertising methods remaining. Rating: Fair 5. Opt-in list rental There are plenty of companies that will rent you email addresses that have opted in to receive commercial email. And if the recipients are not being paid to read the messages, that is they are genuinely interested in the offers they signed up to receive, this strategy can be profitable. The problem is you'll pay from ten to twenty cents per address and mailing to a list large enough to get results from can be quite expensive. But if your budget can handle it, you can generate some great targeted traffic. Rating: Good 6. Paid Search Engines Submissions While I highly suggest submitting to all the major search engines that are still free (AltaVista, Lycos, Google, HotBot, DMOZ and Direct Hit) today's tip is about paying for advertising. And there are two paid search engine services I have had very good luck with... Inktomi's Search/Submit at $30 a year, which gets your URL into AOL, iWon, MSN and the Looksmart directory within 48 hours. Yahoo! Business Express and sponsored site listings. The business express service costs $299 for non-adult sites, and gets you Yahoo! consideration. I got my www.make-a-living-online.com site in within a week by simply following the detailed directions at my companion site. While $299 is a little pricey for some small business owners, a good listing at Yahoo! brings quite a bit of extra traffic. Once you are listed, consider taking advantage of the 'sponsored site' offering for an additional monthly fee. I am sampling this currently and it paid for itself within the first few weeks. My results may decline as more sites are added into the sponsored sites area but I'll keep an eye on things. Rating: Good 7. Pay per click search engines This advertising model offers a way for you to bid on search terms and pay only when someone clicks through to your site. I've been advertising with www.overture.com and findwhat.com using this method and have had decent results. It's easy to control costs and your visitors are targeted precisely. If you are not in a super-competitive keyword arena you can do well with pay per click engines. For example, if you sell web hosting, good luck getting traffic for less than a few bucks a click. But if you have a smaller niche, this strategy represents a great opportunity and is worth trying. And if you DO find that this model works well for you, more than 75 additional 'Pay per Click' search engines can be found at Alan Gardyne's super-duper directory... http://www.payperclicksearchengines.com Rating: Good 8. Ezine Advertising Still the one. Some people think I recommend ezine advertising because I have an ezine and I'm trying to sell my own ad space. On the contrary, I've been trying NOT to sell my ad space for the last few years. That's why my own rates are so high! I can run my own offers or affiliate offers and make much more than I can selling the ad space. Many other ezine editors are finding the same thing. While this has resulted in rising ezine ad costs over the last few years, one fact remains... ezine advertising is still one of the most effective ways to get targeted traffic -- cheap. Just visit an ezine directory and search for ezines in your niche market. Subscribe to a bunch and start reading them. Look for larger circulation ezines that have a good following. If you like the content then the thousands of other readers probably do too. Place an ad and you'll make a profit, nearly every time. Top sponsorships work best if you can swing it. Rating: Excellent -- Interested in more? I have done lots of ad buys lately and have many more planned. I'll be uploading the exact results soon. Where is all this fresh info going? Into my companion site for my 'Make a Living Online' members. And this stuff is about 1% of what's there. Members go to: http://www.make-a-living-online.com/private/ezineads.htm Non-members can join at: http://www.make-a-living-online.com/page5.shtml ================================================================ 4) News & Changes At Add2it, Add2you & Million-Mall: -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- This section will keep you updated on all important news and updates regarding: www.add2you.com www.add2it.com & www.add2it.de www.million-mall.com & www.million-mall.de Below you find out about the 8 most important news & updates during the month of March. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- English / Englisch: 03/01/03 - The latest issue of the "More4you Newsletter" is now online available in the back issues section at: http://www.add2it.com/news/issues.shtml 03/07/03 - Add2it Mailman Free & Standard V1.83 have been released. For complete lists of new functions, please visit: http://www.add2it.com/scripts/mailman-free.shtml http://www.add2it.com/scripts/mailman-standard.shtml 03/10/03 - Add2it Mailman Pro V2.62 has been released. For a complete list of new functions, please visit: http://www.add2it.com/scripts/mailman-pro.shtml 03/29/03 - Starting this month there will be a monthly plus an annual giveaway... there will be seven prices each month, plus seven annual prices for seven of the monthly winners. The total value of the 71 prices is over $1,600! Please check it out at: http://www.add2it.com/giveaway.shtml or at http://www.add2you.com/giveaway.shtml 03/31/03 - iDownline, a brand new, highly recommendable (see: Recommended By The Publisher) downline building group has started and been added to the "Business Tools Mall" section at: http://www.million-mall.com/business-tools.shtml -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- German / Deutsch: 07.03.03 - Add2it Mailman Free & Standard V1.83 wurden veröffentlicht. Um die kompletten Listen der neuen Funktionen zu sehen, besuchen Sie bitte: http://www.add2it.com/skripte/mailman-free.shtml http://www.add2it.com/skripte/mailman-standard.shtml 10.03.03 - Add2it Mailman Pro V2.62 wurde veröffentlicht. Um die komplette Liste der neuen Funktionen zu sehen, besuchen Sie bitte: http://www.add2it.com/scripts/mailman-pro.shtml 31.03.03 - iDownline, eine brand neue, absolut zu empfehlendes (siehe: Recommended By The Publisher) Downline Building Gruppe hat den Betrieb aufgenommen und wurde zum "Business Tools Center" hinzugefügt: http://www.million-mall.com/business-tools-d.shtml ================================================================ 5) Second Article: -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- "How to Audit-Proof Your Business" by Collin Almeida -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Police and auditors have one thing in common: they make even the most honest, law-abiding citizens nervous. After all, who hasn't felt their heart jump at the sound of a police siren close behind them even if they are obeying all traffic rules? Generally, the same feeling comes over people when the topic of an IRS audit arises. Most taxpayers fear an audit because they don't know if they are adequately prepared. You may ask yourself: Did I save the right documentation? Are all my deductions legal? Can I answer all of the IRS's questions? For the home-based business owner, however, these questions are even more pressing, so waiting for an audit to test their preparation is not the best option. By following some easy guidelines, they can take the guesswork out of keeping records. Obviously, every deduction claimed needs to be documented, but many taxpayers aren't clear on what is adequate proof. The IRS does require more than just a few jottings in a notebook, but not much more. First, each deduction must be recorded with a copy of an invoice or bill. For example, if you are claiming your utilities expenses as a deduction, you need to keep a copy of each month's bill. In addition to proving the expenses were incurred, you must also prove they were paid. So along with that utilities bill, you may want to staple the canceled check or credit card statement that covered the charges. Receipts, bank statements, and even invoices stamped "paid" also count as evidence that the expenses were have been taken care of. Along with documenting business expenses, all deposits must also be adequately documented to prove that you are reporting your profit correctly. If the funds are from payment for a service or product rendered by your company, you should attach a copy of the payment to the invoice it covers. Not only will this serve as documentation for the IRS, it will also help you keep track of paid and outstanding invoices from customers. Loans and other sources of company income must also be accompanied by all related paperwork. Additional documentation is also required when a home-based business owner keeps his or her children, spouse, or other relatives on staff in order to claim their wages as a tax- deductible company expense. For the record, always pay every staff member by check and have each person keep a written record of their work, including total number of hours, date of work, and type of activity accomplished. In addition, you should also request a written estimate from a professional for the same services. For instance, if your spouse maintains your company's web site, you need to find what a professional Webmaster charges in order to substantiate your spouse's salary. Besides keeping track of expenses, income, and wages, you must also have proof that your company intended to produce a profit. A business plan can serve as evidence that you are serious about generating revenue with your company. The plan will also provide written documentation of the expenses you plan to incur and will help keep you organized. Overall, the best way to ease your concern over an audit is through preparation. By keeping records and documentation on everything, you'll have nothing to fear if you are one of the .5% of taxpayers selected for an audit. -- Discover little known but highly lucrative tax advantages you can legally claim as a home based business owner by visiting http://www.homebusinesstaxsecrets.com Get the FREE REPORT: "5 Hidden Tax Dangers..." that shows you how to save $1000's in taxes and avoid costly audits. ================================================================ 6) The Questions & Answers Section: -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Each issue, we are going to post a new question of interest for all marketers and the best answer(s) to the question of the previous issue. The question for the next issue: -------------------------------- This time I have some very interesting questions for all webmasters and entrepreneurs. Please be so kind and answer a short survey in regard to advertising places, ezine growth & publishers approach at: http://www.add2it.com/news/more4you-survey.shtml The result will be published in the next issue. You have an interesting question you would like answered? Please submit it also at: http://www.add2it.com/news/more4you-survey.shtml -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- The question of the last issue: ------------------------------- Last issue I asked you to answer a short survey in regard to ad types, click through's, opens, roi and affiliate program url's. The results of the survey: -------------------------- 1. What type of ads are you most likely to read? (Question submitted by: Charles Miesel) Wayne Sloan: "Solo ads, but only if the headline catches my eye. I subscribe to alot of ezines. I also publish one. But I have seen 'Dying Millionaire whispers..' so may times I could quote it by heart. I look for new opportunities. So I scan through the urls at the bottom. If something new catches my eye, I stop for a closer look. BTW: People need to get original with their advertising. Most people these days just cut and paste an ad written by someone else, hoping someone will click on their ad. Most people have become desensitized to all of the power words and professional copy, that it is no wonder the response rates have gone down for most of those ads. We need to put a little of our own effort into writing our own ads. I think we will get a better response. jmho" Joe Rouse: "PC educational. How to use the Web for making money, etc." Dennis K Howard: "Ads which come up in response to a query or search I have initiated. I pay very little attention to pop ups or pop unders. In fact, I have used several shareware products that claim to stop such ads. I haven't found one yet that does what I want without some other problems. When I find one, I will use it." David Miller: "Small on top right hand corner." Marsha Hirschhorn: "The types of ads people are most likely to read are Health and wellness for there well being. Business opportunitys to have a second income." Mark Sordahl: "Low key ads that don't use garish stuff." Asesh Datta: "Developments to individual, family, society, nation, global and universal, in this orders." Connie Robertson: "I personally enjoy reading ads pertaining to promoting my programs. There have been times when I get tired of surfing and just go and read ezine ads... Sometimes there is something new I like to investigate." Warren Contreras, warren@wii-fm.com: "Very few. I would be more interested in a trusted source making personal recommendations ot me." Hanne Andersen: "I am more inclined to read an ad that is original, not the same ones over and over. These are given as a guideline more or less, but do put your thoughts into an ad to make it different. As for content, I prefer to read ads that offer me something that is going to be making my online business run more efficient, faster, better automation." Mal Robertson: "Those received from people or groups or companies that I have requested info from. Those that have my name in the subject line. Those that are from an email address rather than a 'safelist' or similar." Bernard: "No ads. Just my own recommendation. It works much better!" Joel C. Penco: "I will be more influenced to read a advertisement if it shows some sort of incentive in the subject line or a free great opportunity." James M. Booth: "Short ones." Douglas Nelson: "Short and to the point. No gloss, no hype and no 'unbelievable' promises. Though I like HTML ads many just waste my time because the 'sender' is uneducated on this topic." CHIN C.H.: "Opportuniy ads that give fast profits!" Comments: This is one of the questions where you will get 5 opinions, if you just ask 3 people. :) I personally would read only ads, that: a) don't look like ads, b) address a need that I have, c) are believable and not exaggerated and d) don't look like I have read them already. 2. What percentage of click throughs, opens, and roi are you running? How many addresses are on the list that this applies to and where do you obtain your list? (Question submitted by: Emilie Boyles) Dennis K Howard: "My advertising is almost 100% click throughs." Asesh Datta: "Question not understood, particularly 'roi'. Anyway the percentage, as understood by me is 5%. Address list is purely collected personally either through personal interactions, newspapers,television programs, magazines and books etc." Warren Contreras, warren@wii-fm.com: "My last email campaign was to 6,800 personal contacts resulting in 292 clickthroughs and 7 sales. The investment was nothing so the ROI was infinite. Hardly meaningful data without the full story. My list is with FREEnetleads. BTW: You should publish a contact link of some kind so other subscribers could ask more questions about our responses." Hanne Andersen: "I'm running at approx. 8% right now, with a list of 1200+ of which I obtained personally over time as an opt-in to 3 different autoresponders that I target to specifically with different products/services. I also have an FFA site that I send to only once when they submit an ad, of which I do receive some opens... but not much, as most are deleted before they are read." Joel C. Penco: "The percentage rate will be around 35%, the list are about over 100 people and I get my contacts from safelist programs." Bernard: "On a 15.000 opt-in list, I get almos 15% of 'opens'. I have obtained my list from my own site and with pop-unders on the most 5-10 visited pages." Comments: ROI stands for "Return Of Investment" and shows the revenue returned on a business investment. For business Web sites, ROI is a common metric for determining whether it is a money loser, it pays for itself, or it is generating a profit. Warren, I agree with you and also added now an additional field to the survey form so everybody can decide if he/she wants his/her email address listed. Thanks for the feedback. :) 3. How to make people buy from my affiliate program url? (Question submitted by: Codrut Turcanu) Dennis K Howard: "That is a tough question. First you have to establish a quality reputation so that your affiliates will recommend your site with confidence." David Miller: "Add an incentive." Asesh Datta: "Leave it to the customers. Only show them that you have these products and which are upgraded continuously." Connie Robertson: "PROMOTE PROMOTE PROMOTE... Everywhere!" Warren Contreras, warren@wii-fm.com: "Pay them to." Hanne Andersen: "My suggestion would be to target your ad to certain groups of people, find a niche market. When you find a niche market, by finding out what their needs are, filling that need through your offer, making your offer better than anyone elses' by showing the benefits... not all the goodies you have to offer, but how your goodies will benefit them when they purchase from you. It all really begins from that all important opt-in list and building trust with your list over time. If they trust you, they will buy from you more so than the next person. BTW: In my many years online, I too followed the same path as do all new people to the Internet... using the same ads, advertising like crazy anywhere and everywhere I could. But eventually, if you don't give up, you learn that it truly is important to have a list of your own...over time you will make money. There are no get-rich-quick businesses, unless you're a scamster... patience wins over all." Mal Robertson: "How long is a piece of string? Target your advertising! You must make your product/service irresistable, convince your audience that this is for them. Promote your site honestly, don't make outrageous claims or try to appear as something you are not." Bernard: "Be personal and sincere. Buy the product (get it free ;-)!) before recommending it." Mr. Billz: "Only after establishing a good honest relationship through my e-zine or e-mail connection." Joel C. Penco: "The most I could say on this is the way the subject line is written, to really capture the audiences attention and also the type of affiliate program you are promoting. Some affiliate programs offer low incentives and their products are a waste of time." James M. Booth: "Oh, how I would love to know the answer to this question! No, I believe you need to check wind speed and direction, phase of the moon... be genuine, aware of holidays and religious observances, time of day for your reader's location, target your ad best you can, share a worry that will strike a chord... and when you are done with all that, be creative, include your contact info, and pray for rain." Douglas Nelson: "You can't make them buy. You can only set the tone for them to be responsive to your offer. There is much about 'freebies' to offer and sometimes some of them will take the 'bribe'. If your message is personalized i.e. what YOU got from the program (besides the info on HOW TO market it) it will make others more responsive. BTW: There is so much on the Net about marketing and making money. It is rather like the Bible, you must seek the 'nuggets of gold' to gather the message. One cannot incorporate all that is there or one will overload. I know! Find the right program to become affiliated with and FOCUS on that one thing. Once you have it working move on to another." Comments: Thanks for all this great answers. .. :) I also believe the best way is to first get the product yourself, use it, test it and then... if you like it, write your own ad text / web site to recommend it to others. And don't just give them the affiliate link, especially if the link looks like an affiliate link! Better send them first to your site... or use a link forwarding tool like Add2it Go-To Free / Pro to hide the affiliate link. 4. Are you a subscriber of the More4you newsletter? Yes - 94.55% No - 5.56% Don't know - 0.00% ================================================================ 7) Recommended By The Publisher: -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Whenever we find a great product or service and tested it inside out, this will be the place where you will hear about it. If you know about a great product or service that you have already tested inside out, please let me know about it. Also if you own a great product or service, send a sample and a detailed description what makes it so great to: Again... only if we believe after testing it inside out that this product or service is really of a great value, it can be mentioned right here. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- This issues recommended service: iDownline http://idownline.add2it.com Bruce Gibson invited me on the 23rd of March to take a closer look at iDownline... he did it a smart way that caught my attention: He thanked me for the script he received and mentioned another program that I am involved it... very smart. :) When I checked out iDownline I noticed right away that they offer a lot of products for all members (up to $1,300 value). What they are trying to archive is to build a 100,000+ members. At the same day I signed up as a free member to take a closer look at the members area. Their members area is impressive... Besides the usual option to edit your profile, you can find a detailed stats & commissions area, several downline tools to communicate with your downline and sample texts, ads, banners etc., a news section and an area to access the membership products. And more features are being added. The membership products area gives access to... FREE members receive: - AutoSubmission System for building your downline - Ebook Download Area with resale rights - 100 meg Website and Page Builder for building a website - Follow Up Autoresponder System for marketing anything - Online Replicating Website and Members Area with tracking - Advertising Money: $10 to advertise your offer to members - Paid Offers Area to earn Cash Daily Additionally GOLD members receive: - Ad Tracking and Rotation System for tracking anything - 500 meg. Website Domain Hosting Account for your own domain - Advertising Money: $50 to advertise your offer to members Additionally PLATINUM members receive: - AutoSubmission System for any website *5 URLS - 100 meg Website and Page Builder* for building a website *Unlimited Accounts - Follow Up Autoresponder System* for marketing anything *Unlimited Accounts - Ad Tracking and Rotation System for tracking anything *Unlimited Accounts - 500 meg. Website Domain Hosting Account for your own domain *2 Accounts - Software Package includes a Windows IP Messenger Blaster! - Advertising Money: $100 to advertise your offer to members Additionally VIP members receive: - AutoSubmission System* for any website Info *10 URLS - 500 meg. Website Domain Hosting Account for your own domain *10 Accounts - Advertising Money: $500 to advertise your offer to members Please note that iDownline is still in pre-launch, not all is available yet, but I noticed that they are adding products & features almost daily. Next I took a closer look at the commissions they pay: - Free Members get paid commissions on 5 levels for referred Gold, Platinum & VIP members, plus a bonus for personally referred members - Gold Members get paid commissions on 8 levels for referred Gold, Platinum & VIP members, plus a bonus for personally referred members - Platinum Members get paid commissions on 12 levels for referred Gold, Platinum & VIP members, plus a bonus for personally referred members - VIP Members get paid commissions on 20 levels for referred Free, Gold, Platinum & VIP members, plus a bonus for personally referred members Once I saw that VIP members get paid even for referring other Free members, I right away upgraded (still the same day) to an VIP membership. BTW: I noticed that they handle email request fast and efficiently. I had a small problem after upgrading and they fixed everything very fast to my satisfaction. Another great benefit is how they handle their sign-in form data... If you visit them at http://idownline.add2it.com you will see right away a check that asks for your name and email address. Those names and email addresses will be send right away to the member of that page! I am sure you understand the potential of this for every member... members can follow up on their own and build their own mailing list this way. :) What I do is to thank them for checking out iDownline, ask them to let me know if they have any questions... plus let them know that I will keep them updated through my monthly newsletter... it's brilliant. :) Now let me show you what happened after I joined iDownline as a VIP member on the 23rd of March... The next morning, I had 8 people in my downline... (I didn't start to promote it yet!). On the 25th I had 19 in my downline, on the 28th the total downline size had grown to 72 (Commission Earned: $75.55). On the 29th I reached $107.10 in commissions and requested the first time a pay-out... it arrived in less than 24 hours in my StormPay account. Currently I have a downline of 90 members and earned $115.25... and all that after only 9 days... Summary - I highly recommend to check out iDownline at: http://idownline.add2it.com ================================================================ 8) Newsletter Notes & Policies: -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- a) Please feel free to forward this newsletter in its entirety to your friends and associates. This information may not be electronically or otherwise transferred for any other reason. 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