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August 15th, 2003
Hello guys and gals;
A couple of weeks ago I wrote about my experience with a shopping cart
service that put a bad taste in my mouth. I also mentioned I was using
a new service and would tell more about it after I had used it more.
I received more comments that issue than any other issue. So there must
be a demand out there to learn more about shopping carts and such.
Well after a couple of weeks of putting the new service through the
paces it has performed flawlessly and the support has been excellent,
at least what few times I had to contact them.
First let me explain that I currently use 5 different systems as far
as autoresponders, shopping carts and affiliate tracking and management
systems.
Two of them I have used for about four years in most of my major marketing
efforts and selling products.
Now, over the past few years I have used a slew of various services
trying them out in hopes of reducing some of my costs, and fully integrating
everything into one system. Or at least most everything.
(Before I go further though, let me go on a rant)
...grin...
[Climbs on soap box begins ranting and waving his arms]
Hey I don't care what anybody tells
you, internet marketing is NOT always free and cheap to do. You have
to invest some money for some services. Sure there are some free services
you can use, however most likely somewhere that company's name will
be plastered in the free autoresponder, free shopping cart, free website
or whatever the free service may be. Folks it's not entirely FREE.
Now I'm sure you are saying what's wrong with free. Nothing except for
example: when a potential customer visits your "free website"
and 15 gazillion popups hit the screen screaming "HOSTED BY FREE......",
then many times they are going to politely just click away.
So what does that mean?
Well it means you may have lost a potential sale, so if that is the
case and your product would have netted you let's say $25.00, then that
free website just cost you $25.00. Where as, if you were using a paid
hosting service that cost you maybe $9.95 a month, then you might would
have been ahead $15.05. And there are many hosts even cheaper than that.
Well gee whiz Gary, big deal, $15.05 was lost.
Well my friends it is a big deal if that happens several times a month,
or week, or how about even each day. I mean sure free is good, but free
can also be bad and costly!
Just think at the rate of losing one sale of $25.00 a month equals $300
a year you lose. Now figure $15.05 net profit for twelve months and
you made an additional $180.60 for the year. That's the difference in
only one sale per month. What if you are losing 2, 3, or 5 sales a month
because of your free service??
And that's only the beginning, that's twelve potential customers that
you would have on your customer list that would be much more likely
to buy from you again, after buying from you the first time. So if we
figure in the life time value of what that lost customer would have
been, then free gets pretty expensive!
It goes back to two things:
1. Perception - How people perceive you and your business.
If people perceive you as cheap on their first impression then this
will flow over into their thoughts of your product or service. It can
make them question what kind of support you may be able to offer after
the sale if they need it. It makes them wonder just how serious are
you about your business. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying everybody
will think this, but many will.
Let's face it, what's the main reason behind most of the free services?
Very good people, yes the reason is to turn you into a buying customer!
Obviously a buying customer has long term value, otherwise why would
they give you the free service?
2. Conversion/Testing - How many visitors you turn into paying
customers.
Talking about conversion can be a book in itself, much less an article.
But in a nutshell higher conversion means more sales, more profit, more
paying customers for back end sales, and all without any additional
cost. NOW THAT'S free!
Don't over look the importance of turning current visitors into buying
customers. I made one simple change on a web site a couple of years
ago that resulted in a 30% increase in sales. I only changed one word
on the website.
I changed 30 day guarantee to 90 day guarantee. The result was 30% more
visitors bought my products, and my return rate even dropped lower than
it already was.
I mean you hear increase traffic, get more visitors, everything is always
about traffic. Conversion rates are just as important as traffic and
can even mean more net profit with less effort in some cases. But you
do have to test, test, test to improve your conversion rate. I'll stop
here on that. I'll discuss testing in the future.
An after thought, this newsletter will probably never make it through
the spam filters so you will probably have to read it online. But I'll
be doggone if I'm going to censor my newsletter with * and what not
for the filters because of the word free. But that's another rant for
another day...grin...
[Jumps off soap box, ends rant]
Anyway let me get off my rant. The new service I'm using is called ProfitAutomation.
Yes it's a private label service of a very popular shopping cart. One
of the reasons I chose it is because my good friend Wille Crawford owns
ProfitAutomation.
I know and trust Willie and that's the reason I chose his service over
some of the other private label services of the same system. Obviously
theirs is good too, but it goes back to building relationships and spreading
your hard earned money among your friends and business associates you
know and trust.
I know Willie is a man of integrity and very dedicated to pleasing his
customers.
As I said earlier, it performs great and does offer several features
all combined into one system. So I hope now in the coming future I can
eleminate some of the other separate systems I'm using and of course
that will save me money.
I do recommend you take a look at it as a possible choice for your autoreponders,
newsletters and lists, tracking and testing ads, managing affiliates
and a full shopping cart that will handle mutiple products and electronic
downloads.
Yes the below is my affiliate link, hey I gotta eat too...(...grin...):
http://www.profitautomation.com/app?pr=36&id=43568
Oh by the way you can also get a 30 day free trial, AND it's not loaded
with ads for the service either. Check out the free trial...geesh there's
that word again.
I'll also be testing another new shopping cart being released by a close
friend which offers enhanced conversion features for getting higher
conversion rates. I'll let you know how it works as well in the next
couple of weeks. I'm hoping to talk him into contributing an article
on conversion and testing...grin... I know he is reading...
Ok, onward we go.
Next week I'll be doing a free interview-teleconference radio show at
my http://www.CrazyWebGuy.com
site with marketing genius Anthony Blake, you can read more about Tony
at:
http://www.Internet-Marketing-Teleseminars.com
(Just scroll down to his profile)
Unfortunately I can't say just which day it is yet, only next week.
Don't you just love cold hard facts..grin..
I just finished chatting with Tony via ICQ and we tenatively set it
up for next week. I'll know better on Monday when I speak with him.
He will be speaking about:
"Why online marketers should market offline".
To get details of the show shoot me an email AND PUT Tony-Show in
the subject line. Once I know the specific details I'll send the
number to call and details to you.
Send it to:
showtime@crazywebguy.com
You will get a confirmation of your email.
I hope all of you in the northern power grid have gotten your lights
back.
I hope you have a great weekend, may you and your family have a very
blessed weekend.
Thanks for joining me and my ramblings!
See ya next week, same place.
:-)
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Last but not least, please send any comments, suggestions,
tips, hints and so forth to:
gary@crazywebguy.com
I do appreciate your comments and input.
Till next week;
May you and your family have a blessed
and safe week.
Thanks for joining me;
Gary Knuckles
Crazy Web Guy News
http://www.crazywebguy.com
BudgetWare, Inc.
5531 Youngville Rd.
Springfield, TN. 37172
PS: If you enjoy my events and crazy ramblings
please ask a
friend to join us. Send them to my CrazyWebGuy.com site to
sign-up for my newsletter.
Thanks again!!
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All rights reserved. Copyright 1999-2004
BudgetWare, Inc. Any and all
trademarks mentioned are property of their respective company,
and does not imply or represent any affiliation of
BudgetWare, Inc. to those companies.
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