Archive for the ‘Myth Crusher Monday’ Category

Most of us have heard the saying “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.”

According to Wikipedia: “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket is a idiomatic phrase meaning that one should not focus all one’s resources on one hope, possibility or avenue of success. It can also mean not to treat everything in one category the same, and not to view everything as the exact same.”

In many cases, it can apply to a variety of things in our life.  If we don’t have a backup plan, things can go badly. The phrase can also apply to our online businesses. For example:

• A website that relies solely on free search engine traffic can be in for a rough road when a lot of that free traffic dries up.
• A business that has only 1 single-purchase product and has nothing else for satisfied customers to buy.

These are definitely good examples of potential problems with eggs in a single basket. But have you ever considered that in many cases, multiple baskets can actually be BAD for your business?

(Disclaimer: These are general comments…every business is different, so consider these thoughts as they apply to your own unique business.)

Although, I’ve talked about it before (and my opinion has NOT changed based on experience working with many Internet marketers), I have to mention it again:

Beware the Pitfalls of Hyper-Niche Marketing:

You know this one…the idea that you try to get into as many hot niches as possible to cash in. Unless you run a large operation, with dedicated staff/contractors for each market/business, you’ll likely do much better by focusing one highly-targeted market that you can really go deep with.

When you dabble in so many markets, you barely touch the surface and you don’t really get to know your audience imtimately. And if you don’t know them, it makes it harder to eke out maximum profits. When you take the time to know your market and dedicate yourself to serving them…you’re results will be far greater with less work (i.e. fewer mailing lists, websites, ghostwriters, support centers, etc…to manage).

But realistically, for most of my readers, I’m probably preaching to the choir. You’ve taken note and worked to focus on that profitable market…but then I noticed another alarming trend:

Too Many Products, Projects & Pursuits:

Let’s get to the nitty-gritty here. If we only have one basket of eggs and we drop it, we’re in for trouble. But seriously, if you’ve got a ton of baskets to carry…how the heck are you going carry all of them? It’s tough to do THAT many things well.

My head sometimes spins at how fast some people churn out new products and projects. I know that some people may feel the same way when they look at what goes on at Internet Marketing Sweetie…but most of what has been developed here has been done over several years and for the most part (yes, sometimes I have my weak moments of wanting to do it ALL), are put together with a clear and controlled plan in mind.

Why People Try To Do So Many Things: I am not a mindreader, but I do have the opportunity to see behind-the-scenes of a lot of online businesses and I pay attention to what Internet marketers (in all markets) say and do…so here’s what I think:

• They think if they have more products/projects, they’re likely to sell more. It’s following along with the long-tail idea, but many Internet marketers don’t follow the logic fully. The long-tail is not about half-heartedly selling or putting in so-so marketing efforts and then moving on. Take a look at your own serial product/project manufacturing…have you left some gems behind?
• They need more products to sell their current customers. Yes, every business needs repeat customers, but there are ways to achieve repeat business without launching product after product.
• They get bored with what they’re doing. Yeah, I feel you…but online business isn’t about whims….at least it can’t be all about them. Sometimes you’ve got to stick with what works, breath new life into it and make it fun again. And if it ain’t fun, outsource it!
• They can’t say no. When people ask them to work on a product or project, they feel like they can’t say no. Or you might be like me and have a thousand ideas you want to explore. Ummm…you gotta get over this one. One person can only do so much and you have to be able to say no to yourself and others.
• They think the grass is greener on the other side. Going along with the inability to say no, some people think that if they take this new opportunity, try this new thing…that will be it. Doesn’t always work that way.

If any of these apply to you, take a long hard look at where you’re going and if you really want to go there (stress, working too hard, juggling too many things). Here’s a few tips that might help…

How to Get Your Eggs More Organized

• Take a look at what you’ve really got going on in your online business. In fact, here’s an easy way to put together your online business inventory (it’s an eye opener!).
• Find the gems, polish them and focus on them. Forget the rest. This does not mean 1 product, 1 website, etc….not at all. Just stop searching for the latest and greatest when it’s probably already under your nose.
• NEW -> Work on Promotions/Marketing Instead of Making New Stuff: Create new promotions for your products, advertise, motivate and get your affiliates into action.
• Add continuity. Create products and services that have your customers/clients paying you month after month.
• Get them to pay more. Create a product funnel for your customers that increases the value they receive and the profit you get in return. You have less work to do and your customers are more likely to be more satisfied.
• Learn to say no and look away. Decide what’s really important to you (ex. making maximum money with minimum effort, more time with family, etc.) and learn to shape your decisions around that.

How you manage your eggs and your baskets is completely up to you…but don’t make it harder than it has to be, k?

If you’ve been looking to grow your online business and have been searching for info, no doubt you’re still hearing all about social media and how gosh darned powerful it can be for your online business. You MUST be on Facebook. You MUST be on Twitter. You JUST MUST.

For goodness sakes, even P. Diddy told Ellen Degeneres about the power of Twitter on a recent show and she jumped on the bandwagon. And at time of writing, Ellen has a WHOPPING 175,107 followers on Twitter. Amazing! Following the celebrity lines, Ashton Kutcher has 357,236 – now that’s some marketing power for sure! Even our dear old (not really old, younger than me) Punky Brewster has over 17,000 followers.

So, why shouldn’t we jump all over it if the celebs are doing it too? Hey, go ahead JUMP JUMP JUMP! But should you be tripping over yourself and taking your precious time from other activities to do so?

I’m not so sure.

Let’s be serious. Do you think P. Diddy, Ellen, 50 Cent (sorry about the Fiddy man…it just rolls off the tongue) or even good ol’ Soleil Moon Frye spend their days looking for people to follow them or even obsess about what people are saying on Twitter. Certainly not (or they’ve got peons to do so)!

These people have a FOLLOWING…pure and simple. And a true FOLLOWING is POWERFUL stuff.

I see the power of Twitter for many reasons. It’s direct and I firmly believe users stay logged in much longer than they do on the other biggies like Facebook and MySpace…as Twitter is an ongoing CONVERSATION. And for celebs with star power, they can bypass the 5000 friend limits of Facebook (of course, they can make fan pages, but it’s something different altogether…Twitter just FEELS direct for its users) and there is no need to accept friend requests, the following is automatic on Twitter.

But spending your days following individuals, hoping they’ll follow you back is time probably better spent elsewhere. Sure, you can be a Twitter star and absolutely WOW these people in 140 characters or less…and become everything they ever dreamed of…but if you’ve got that kind of power, imagine what you can do more directly for your business.

Just sayin’. I could be wrong.

One and effective way to review products before promoting them as an affiliate is to ask for a review copy. After all, you want to ensure a product is good before you spread the word, right?

But have you considered that the customer experience goes beyond the actual product. There’s everything from the order process, delivery of product, customer care and attention after the purchase…and those things are often just as important as the product itself. If you only see the product, you haven’t seen everything your referrals will see.

Although it’s not likely feasible for each and every product, the only way you’ll get the full true picture is by being a customer yourself. Sure it costs money, but a few sales often recoup that. And if you find out customer service is not up to snuff, you’ve saved yourself an embarrassing situation.

If you can’t buy every product, but are able to secure a review copy, ask if you can be placed on the customer list so you can see the follow up. Also, ask questions of the support department if needed. That will help you get a better picture in the cases where you aren’t actually purchasing the product.

Have you every hired someone to do work for you and what was returned to you was complete garbage?

Sure, I have too.

Does that mean the contractor didn’t know what she was doing?

Well, in some cases yes…but often it goes deeper than that and it always comes back to communication.

I’ve been meaning to write on this topic for quite some time and it’s something I talk about at Outsourcing Sweetie, but recently this issue came up in some online coaching I was doing with a client. I thought it was a great example of the need for communication, so I’ll share it here. She needed a website header created and she requested one. She said it was for XX website and gave a simple instruction on what look she was going for.

The graphic artist didn’t ask any further questions and set to work. Obviously, at that point, the artist could have inquired further, but sometimes when working with graphics it’s just easier to give a client something to look at, so you can go from there.

Well, the first graphic produced was not to her liking. She simply said it was pretty, but quite plain. She asked if the artist was planning on adding something and that she was looking for a more professional look.

Again, not much detail. Instead, she might have looked at and gave instructions on things like:

• Color: Did she like the colors? Did she want one or all of the colors changed? To what?
• Text: Did she want additional text? In the original instruction, she didn’t even say what text she wanted, so the artist simply put the website name on the header.
• Font: Did she like the font? What about the size? What about the positioning on the graphic?
• Images: Did she like the images used in the header? Was there something in particular she’d like to see?

The more you can guide your contractor to what you want, the better. They aren’t mind readers and they need to know your vision. Tell ‘em exactly what that is.

Videos are everywhere these days. Internet marketers are praising them as the greatest things since sliced bread. They use them to sell products, to demonstrate software, to show how to use a website, etc. No doubt, this can be very effective…I don’t dispute that.

What puzzles me is when people slap up videos to demonstrate something and then they think their job is done. By doing this, you eliminate people who don’t want to or CANNOT view your videos. People may not have the patience to watch a video, they might have visual or hearing impairment, they might not have the Internet connection or computer equipment needed. ALSO video makes it difficult for your customers to go back and reference certain instructions contained in a video.

And note, I’m NOT talking about the selling process. If you want your sales page to be video online, then that’s all well and good. It’s clear up front who you want to be accessible to. I’m talking about teaching your customers how to use your website, your software, etc. If you don’t offer written/illustrated (i.e. with screenshots) instructions, you make it harder for a segment of your customers to use your product and that just plain old doesn’t make sense.

Also consider this, written/illustrated instructions are much easier to edit and update than videos. Software gets upgraded and websites improved. In some cases, you’ll be able to edit videos…but sometimes you’ll be starting from scratch.

Just a few things to think about.

If you’re hiring help for your business, the natural instinct is to look for low cost services to save money. And with all the big corporations outsourcing their customer support and other operations to other lower-cost countries, it seems this tendency might be what makes business sense.

Here’s the thing. You aren’t a big corporation with hundreds of employees…or if you are, I haven’t the foggiest what you’re getting from reading my blog.

You are likely or want to be a solo entrepreneur or partnership with a handful of people that work with you on a daily basis. Where a big corporation’s large staff is often disposable, yours is not…so why hire and treat people like they are disposable? It costs time and money to find new people, train them and all the while, your business suffers. When someone quits on you it leaves a much bigger mark on your business than if someone quits the 250-(wo)man customer service department for a large company.

See what I’m getting at?

Besides that, in our small operations, it’s not what we pay that matters that much – what matters are the RESULTS from the work we outsource and sometimes those results can take time to grow. When you first hire someone, there is a learning curve for both of you. You need to learn how to communicate exactly what you want, they need to learn the job and they will have a plenty of questions. As you continue to work together, your communication improves, their skills improve and they have the built-in knowledge to handle previously unknown situations accordingly.

To get that continued work, you need loyalty from your contractors. And how do you get loyalty? By treating them right. And a couple of ways you can treat your contractors right:

• Pay them well enough so they don’t have to take on all kinds of extra work to make ends meet.
• Give them regular raises to show that the experience and resulting improved work for your company is appreciated and valued.

I’ve been working with the same assistant for a few years now and when I look at our how our business relationship has grown, I’m amazed and know just how blessed I am. Communication is a snap because we have this history – she understands me and I know how she works. She knows my business well enough to make her own qualified decisions, make suggestions for improvements and can oversee my other contractors. I couldn’t get this if I was hiring assistant after assistant at $10 per hour.

So, do what you’d like with your outsourcing. Keep pinching pennies to keep your costs down…but realize that keeping costs down may be affecting your profitability and your sanity!

(Further Outsourcing Resource: Outsourcing Training and Full Service Online Business Help)

That statement may come as a shock to some people. After all my talk about passive income, working smarter and not harder and the like, it may seem almost hypocritical.

But let me explain…

It’s true…if you want to spend less time at your computer and truly have freedom in your online business, personally serving clients is probably NOT going to get you there. But that doesn’t mean that services don’t have their place.

If you need money now and can’t afford to wait for passive revenue streams, offering a service is a great way to start earning relatively quickly. Often, all it takes is one satisfied client who continues to work with you and recommends you to others.

Services are in demand. Whether it’s personal services or business to business services, people need stuff done and they’re willing to pay for it.

A service business can evolve into a less labor-intensive venture. Hiring contractors to deliver services reduces your need to directly service clients, but that’s just the beginning. Eventually hiring a manager (or manager) to manage your contractors and clients removes you even further from the grunt work…yet, you still get to make money!

As you establish yourself, you have more freedom to pick your clients and command premium prices. With few exceptions, clients with money (ahem…make sure you find clients WITH money. The ones without usually aren’t wortwhile ) are willing to pay for quality and reliability. That is to your advantage, so use the opportunity.

So please, if you ever got the impression that I’ve said offering services is a bad idea, it’s not the case at all. If it were, I wouldn’t be a part owner in a ghostwriting business, offer a website builder, affiliate management or provide online business services. Although I have provided personal service directly to clients in the past, now it’s mostly about leveraging the skills of others.

I’ll actually have more info on that in the next day or two because people have been asking why I’m offering more services…and I’ll be totally honest with you and give you the full details from a personal and business perspective. There is a method to my madness.

Killer Copy (n): Emotionally-based website sales copy designed to sell a product to as many prospects as possible.

Okay, the smart and ethical business person already knows that simply having good copy is not enough. Having a good product and customer service to match is important too.

But that’s not really what I’m talking about.

I’m talking about when the killer copy becomes the sole focus or main focus of the whole marketing process. You bet, copy is important…but it doesn’t stand on its own for long-term business success.

I’ve had the honor of learning copywriting from some of the greatest direct marketing masters out there, but I have to tell you, some of them scare me a bit. They share amazing techniques about increasing conversions to astronomical proportions and it’s very impressive. On the surface, it sounds like a very good thing. After all, who doesn’t want to sell more?

But selling more can mean a lot more unhappy customers.

Realize that many of these direct mail and online marketers simply sell products via direct response…they aren’t necessarily into branding, building a reputation, etc. If you’re running a business for the long term, you need to ensure your copy does a few things:

• Your target market should be clearly defined. Sure, killer copywriters are good at targeting a market, but because the copy is so emotionally based, they often sell a product to segments of the market for which it’s not really intended. If that sounds confusing, let me give you an example – Let’s take your garden variety Internet marketing product using killer copy. The copy usually is written to appeal to people who want to make easy money. Well, just about everyone wants easy money. The copy plays on the emotions of this group when realistically, they don’t want to set up an Adwords campaign, write articles or whatever the product teaches you to do.

• Your copy should match your offer. Killer copy often overplays the benefits of a product and that leads to disappointment by the prospect when they don’t receive quite what they were expecting. For example, things that are labeled as “push button” or promise “results overnight” often simply can’t deliver.

So, if killer copy is this dangerous, why do people to do this? Well, it’s simple. Even though they may have a high refund rate (and this is very often the case if they’re honest), the overall high conversions result in a lot more initial sales.

And remember, all they’re really interested in is the INITIAL sale.

But for the business working to build a brand and reputation, the initial sale is not enough. One of the important keys to your success are repeat customers and word of mouth. If your customers aren’t totally satisfied, they certainly won’t buy from you again and they won’t recommend you to others. In fact, they may spread the word, but the result won’t be positive.

Instead, stick with copy that effectively targets your prospect, matches your offer and inspires customer loyalty. If you need step-by-step help in doing that, you can grab your copywriting course here and of course, do share your thoughts below.