In the field of Internet marketing, there have been many strategies that are espoused by the so called experts to work.Every consultant seems to have the best strategy to promote your business on line or help you with your existing Internet marketing.So how to make head or tail of what is being thrown to you by all the Internet experts?Which strategy works and which does not?How to avoid pitfalls of Internet marketing?It is good to review the methods that have failed so as to avoid them. I have created a list of 10 reasons why some strategies have failed for your benefit. You should take heed and make sure you do not make the same mistakes. Only then will you have better success with your Internet marketing.1. Insufficient knowledge and lack of effort in Internet marketingMany newbies who are keen to start tend to get into the action without sufficient knowledge or know-how. They approach Internet marketing from a bare bones knowledge of how it works. Such newbies will often achieve little success.A lack of effort in acquiring new knowledge will also result in failure. The Internet is a dynamic arena and to be successful, you have to put in the time and effort to learn. There are many good e-books, on line videos, audio, forums and websites that you can obtain great information.The Internet itself is a great resource for such information. It is also wise to sign up for courses and one way I find useful is to look at testimonials or recommendations from people.2. Lack of a Unique Selling Point (USP)The product you are promoting may lack a unique selling point. This refers to website that differentiates from your competitors. A USP will help to make your website more attractive to a specific niche.3. Bad web site designThis does not refer to the aesthetics of a website. Good website design means ease of finding information.Navigation is key. Your website is bad if it is hard, complicated or confusing for people to locate the information they want. Before designing a website, it is crucial to draw out a bubble diagram to see how all the links work.Categories related items and avoid links that are too deep or intertwined. A clear system of navigation will allow visitors to find information quickly.4. Failure to know your target audienceIt is a common flaw in Internet marketing to ignore the targeted audience. You need to focus on the type of customers you are tar getting so that you will know what excites and attracts them.On line marketing allows one to be very focused as search engines are used to find information. It pays to make sure you know who you are targeting and to make your product and website suited for your market.5. Poor payment methodsThis means unsecured payment or order forms. It frustrates a customer when the page they are ordering from does not seem legitimate or secure. The customer will not feel safe to enter his credit card details and it is the biggest stumbling block for Internet marketing during its early years.However, there are many free, trust-worthy and secure methods and forms that are available today. Make sure you use a reliable form for payment and you will realize this is one of the best investments you make.6. Insufficient back linksBack linking is a very effective strategy to successful Internet marketing. It refers to creating links to your web page so that it will bring more traffic to your site. More traffic means more customers to your site. There are many methods to do this – using blogs, forums and social book marking are all effective ways.7. Poor opt-in formThe opt-in form is the main method to building a list. The form have to be clear and easy to find. A rule of thumb is to not ask for too much information – name and email is usually all that is needed.8. Poor follow-upA follow-up system is essential for all Internet marketers. It is usually done through an auto responder. It is always a good idea to get a reputable and reliable auto responder as it will the best means of collecting and collating leads.9. Poor quality of productWhen the customers finally purchase the product, make sure it is a quality product. This may seem rhetorical, but building trust is important. And making sure your products actually worth its meat will mean repeat customers.And of course, selling to people who have bought from you before is always easier than to new ones.10. Lack of persistenceThe persistence factor is important. Internet marketing is an ongoing process. Results only come with persistence. So continue to work and develop your Internet marketing and if you follow the right strategies it will not be long before you achieve success.
Digital Product Creation System
Digital products are everywhere you look. Even “physical” products like CDs and DVDs are, in essence, digital because the tracks and other information stored on them is in digital format. But increasingly products like books are being turned into digital products with devices like the Kindle.
Digital products have the advantage that they are cheap to deliver, costing only a few cents in bandwidth.
But if you want to create them, you need a system otherwise they will be chaotic and you won’t be likely to get repeat orders.
Here are the basic steps for your digital product creation system:
1. Make an outline
This can be in any format you want. A Word document, a spreadsheet or a mind map.
Play with each one and see which works best for you. Personally, I find spreadsheets easy to work with as each section of the product can be in a column with the subsections in the rows below it.
For more complicated products, I find a series of mind maps is also easy to use and can be more “at a glance” than a spreadsheet.
2. Decide on a format
This may sound as though I’m teaching you to suck eggs but take a step back and think how your information is best presented.
A PDF book can be good if your subject matter is fairly complicated. But in common with its physical counterpart, it tends to be the lowest retail price.
Audios are next in price value and can be convenient for your customers as they’re not locked into using their computer to listen to your product.
Videos are typically highest price and with screen capture programs such as Screencast-o-matic they’re inexpensive to produce. Or you could use your webcam or the video on your phone.
3. Create your product
Using your outline and preferred format, start creating your product.
Especially if it’s a written product, treat the writing and the editing processes as entirely separate. They use different parts of your mind and if you succomb to the temptation of editing as you go along, you’ll reduce the creativity of your product and it will run the risk of sounding more like a text book than something people want to read.
Save the sections of your product with different file names. Ideally ones that will make sense in a few months time when you go back to create an updated version!
4. Create a sales page
The complexity of your product and where you’re selling it will jointly determine how long and how “flashy” your sales letter needs to be.
There are free sites out there which will help you to create a passable sales letter without too much blood sweat and tears. There are also software programs available which will take this to a higher level. Or, if your product is likely to sell in quantity, you may prefer to use a copywriter.
Once your sales letter is written, you’ll need to upload it to your web host along with any associated images.
5. Upload your product
Use the control panel in your web host or WordPress or an FTP program to upload the files to your website host.
Depending on how paranoid you are about people stealing your product, you may or may not decide to include some form of protection for this. Remember that Hollywood have a much bigger budget than you and they can’t stop piracy so don’t put in so much protection that you annoy your purchasers.
6. Promote your newly created digital product
Promotion of your product is essential!
You can drive traffic to it in lots of different ways including articles like this one, forum posts and signatures, a Facebook page, your LinkedIn profile, pay per click advertising, affiliates and much more.
3 Reasons Why Newbie Internet Marketers Should Only Focus On Building A List
Let’s be real here. Newbie Internet marketers have it rough. They come into an industry that is glamorous for promising riches in 30 days or less and they are told they can push a button and let the system do all the work for them. They arepromised lifestyles of sitting on a beach with their laptop running their multi-million dollar empire with nothing but an Internet connection and maybe a phone.Plus, there’s also a lot of bad information out there telling Internet marketers they need to be doing this strategy or that strategy… and ultimately none of them work. The real problem is newbie Internet marketers don’t get told the truth and they don’t get a full understanding of how the ‘big picture’ of Internet marketing really works.Here’s the reality. Succeeding in Internet marketing comes down to 2 basic things… building a list and selling products or services to that list.So what happens after a newbie realizes this is they spend all their time doing one or the other instead of doing both. But here’s the good news. When you’re just starting out, you should only focus on building a list, and that’s it.Here’s why…You don’t need to focus on creating products in the beginning – Until you understand how to create a product, just use ones that are already created. Yes, I’m talking about affiliate products. Pick 3-5 affiliate products that are related to your niche and use those in your emails that you send out to your list.One of the things newbie Internet marketers do is they spend time creating a product, but once it’s done, they don’t have anyone to sell it to. That’s not what you want to do. You always want to have an audience to sell to, thus you should always start with building a list.Relationship marketing always pays more in the long run – As you build your list and you send out emails, make sure the emails are filled with content that provide true value and true insight. Why? Because when you give people good stuff, they will like and trust you. When this happens, they will buy from you time and time again.Think about it. How many products have you bought from people you didn’t know versus people you’ve followed and who you trust? I bet I already know what the answer is.Ask people what they want, and give it to them – Once you’ve built a relationship with your list, ask them what they want to learn about. When they like you and trust you, they’ll tell you what they want to learn. When you find that out, create a product based on what they want to know.Here’s an example. After you ask your list what they want to learn, take every response and organize the questions into a logical order. Use the questions as an outline to your product. Make the product about answering their questions and you’ll give them exactly what they want.As you can see, it’s far more important to build your list first before you create a product so you know exactly what they want to learn.