This Is An Exercise In Words – ReubenRock.com

Sometimes I’ll click on an ad (usually a display ad that I know will lead to an affiliate site) out of curiosity. While I have not been actively working on my own business lately, I still like to keep up with what internet marketers are doing. Today I ran across something that made me set down my lunch and type this post:

It is important to note that this site and the comments/answers depicted above is to be used as an illustrative example of what some individuals have achieved with this/these products. This website, and any page on the website, is based loosely off a true story, but has been modified in multiple ways including, but not limited to: the story, the photos, and the comments. Thus, this page, and any page on this website, are not to be taken literally or as a non-fiction story. This page, and the results mentioned on this page, although achievable for some, are not to be construed as the results that you may achieve on the same routine. I UNDERSTAND THIS WEBSITE IS ONLY ILLUSTRATIVE OF WHAT MIGHT BE ACHIEVABLE FROM USING THIS/THESE PRODUCTS, AND THAT THE STORY/COMMENTS DEPICTED ABOVE IS NOT TO BE TAKEN LITERALLY. This page receives compensation for clicks on or purchase of products featured on this site.

This is a disclaimer I found on an affiliate site. My guess is that most people who read the disclaimers at the bottom (which is probably 0.1% of visitors) are not even going to process the real message. Let me rewrite it for you:

I’M LYING TO YOU. THIS IS ALL BULLSHIT. BUT BUY THIS PRODUCT ANYWAY BECAUSE I’M GETTING PAID A COMMISSION.

I almost have to chuckle to myself. This is so reminiscent of an incredible marketer I used to work with. It sounds exactly like something he would do and later laugh about with his friends.

Whatever you can sleep with at night. I’ve certainly done some things in the name of hype and money. I guess this guy is at least honest about it.

This site was rebuilt from the ashes of a site that was recently hacked. So be aware that most of the posts here were copied/pasted into this new installation. The timeline doesn’t make sense. Most of these posts are from well over a year ago.

Just wanted to give you a little insight into the “funkiness” of this site.

If you’re involved in internet marketing, you probably see tons of high-priced products all the time. Seminars for thousands of dollars. Huge video courses for $997. That sort of thing.

Let me first say that I DO NOT charge that much for any of my current products. Nowhere near that much. But I want to let you in on a little secret that I have been discovering in that 6 months…

Selling a $97 product is no harder than selling a $7 product online.

Let that soak in for a minute. How much happier would you be if you sold a $97 product every single day versus selling a $7 product every day? I’m not trying to equate money with happiness here, but it makes a difference. Last summer I launched 2 products at the $97 price point. One of those products has taken off. I have 0ver 1,000 affiliates promoting it. I make sales nearly every single day. Think about that – that means nearly $100 in extra income every single day.

If you think it was difficult to create that product, market it, recruit affiliates, etc…. you’re dead wrong. The process was the same as when I was creating 10 page ebooks on little niche topics.

So decide what you would rather do: spend hours creating a $17 product, or pump the product up a little bit and have a great $97 product. Which product is worth your time?

For an example of the my product creation process, check out Product Creation with Skype.

There’s my tip. Take it or leave it. Go make some more money!

Best of luck,
Reuben D. Rock

I still write articles and submit to EzineArticles.com. Why? Because it still brings me quality traffic that converts. It still delivers high rankings in Google. It still works for my business. The articles I wrote 2 years ago are still driving traffic to my products, and they are still earning me more money.

Despite the fact that this technique has been around for years and is still effective… many internet marketers refuse to take advantage of it. Why? All I can figure is laziness. Sure, there are folks who focus exclusively on PPC or whatever and make tons of money. I can understand why they aren’t writing articles. But the people who are struggling to get started online, who haven’t earned a single dime, and who are begging for a silver bullet… these are the people who aren’t writing articles. And that makes me sad.

Why are so few people using article marketing? Because it involves work – actual, honest to god work. People hate writing. And they think making money online is the result of some special combination of WordPress plugins or secret Adwords methods. So they continue to search for that one secret they need to learn. If they spent that time writing a couple articles instead of reading Warrior Forum, they might make a couple bucks. But most beginners just don’t do it.

There’s no real “hot tip” in my post today. Just a reminder that this old fashioned way of driving traffic is still an option. It’s just as effective as it was years ago. My articles regularly get click-thru rates of 30% and higher. Some of them as high as 60%. That’s money in my pocket, and it should be money in your pocket too.

If you really need an action plan, go build an affiliate site promoting my product at RecordingStudioProfits.com. The commission is about $29/sale. It’s converting really well right now, and my affiliates are starting to make more and more every month. Once you’ve built a quick landing page to promote the product, submit a couple articles to EzineArticles.com. Topics could be anything related to recording studios, home studios, sound engineering, etc. This niche has been getting high CTRs for me on my articles. You should be able to earn some quick commissions. Then I’ll send you a commission check and a note that says, “I told you article marketing still works!”

I just had an interesting experience. I was Googling myself (dirty) and found that my Slideshare profile had shot up to the top of the rankings. It overtook all of my various profiles, websites, blogs, etc. Basically, Slideshare just one-up’d Squidoo, EzineArticles, Myspace, Twitter, WordPress.com, and others.

Here’s the kicker – I set up my Slideshare.net account one week ago. It has one presentation uploaded (which was done for a graduate class). And I haven’t friended, commented, or taken part in any of the community behaviors they allow on their site. So I did a little investigation to see if others were experiencing the same thing.

I found this interesting article about Slideshare and SEO: http://www.socialseo.com/leveraging-slideshare-to-gain-rank-in-the-search-engines.html

From this little tiny case study, I’ve gleaned two hypotheses:

1. Slideshare.net can earn quick Google rankings.
2. Google likes Slideshare better than other sites, like Squidoo or Twitter.

Sure, those two ideas are related. If Google likes you, they rank you better. But I want to separate them because they should be investigated separately.

First, Slideshare seems to get quick Google rankings. This can be tested in a simple way. Create a few Slideshare accounts or presentations for specific keywords, send them on their way. Then watch and see how/when they rank in Google. Try keywords with varying amounts of competition. Obviously, my name (Reuben Rock) doesn’t have a ton of competition. So maybe Slideshare won’t get great rankings for keywords like make money, start a business, get pregnant, etc.

Next, Google seems to like Slideshare better than other sites. This can be tested by creating a Slideshare page and a page with another site, then coming back later to check their rankings. Yada yada yada… More importantly, why would Google like Slideshare better? Let’s think about it…

• Slideshare hosts slideshow presentations. It attracts academicians, professionals, and other educated people with something valuable to offer. That’s a heck of a step up from Ezinearticles, where any jackass can and does publish slop.
• These presentations are valuable and dynamic content for users to access. It isn’t a quick blurb about Topic A. It’s an interactive medium. People click through slides, learning as they go. It encourages CLICKS on every page. With a site like Squidoo, a visitor will scroll through it quickly and then hit the back button. Maybe they will click one link. Slideshare gets people clicking multiple times on one page. Then they will look at other slideshows from the same author.

What does it all mean? For the time being, Google seems to like Slideshare and gives them a nice pat on the back (in the form of rankings).

Should you be using Slideshare to get keyword rankings? Only if you have something valuable to say. Post crap, and people won’t read it or look through your slideshow. Quality is everything, as usual.

Hope that gets your gears turning!

Reuben D. Rock

I’ve been noticing a high rate of shopping cart abandonment on a few new products I created. After going through my checkout process, I think I have the problem nailed down. My receiving email address was wack. Yes, wack.

Consider this – you decide to drop $100 on an info product. Click the buy button, and suddenly you’re sending your cash to sk8rboi666@aol.com (not my email address, btw). How confident do you feel that your money is safe? Does it seem like you might get scammed? Probably. Or at the very least, the seller is incompetent.

So my quick suggestion for the day is to check out your Paypal emails. Make sure the payment is being sent to a related email. For me, payments are now being sent to 90minutebusiness (at) mydomain.com.

If you sell softballs, make sure the email is softball related. Trust me – it makes a difference.

Here’s to reduced cart abandonment!

What’s more valuable to you - a bit of cash or a couple of minutes? You might be surprised at the number of people who choose time over money.

I was reading a few articles about setting price anchors in your sales copy, and I realized there was very little mention of time. Comparing the price of your ebook to the price of your coaching is one thing… but what about the time investment? If you save your client some time, they may not care what price you are asking. Here’s an example:

“You Can Waste 14 Months With A Business Coach – If You Can Find One - Or You Can Spend 90 Minutes With Us. Same Results, Faster Return On Investment.”

That’s not a real headline that I’m using anywhere. It was just a quick, off the top of my head kinda thing. But do you see the big message in it? It’s 14 months or 90 minutes. How much time do you want to spend learning business? Most people don’t see 14 months as a reasonable time investment. They are just too busy to set aside months for anything.

If you saw that headline, how much do you think the product itself would cost? Do you care? If your alternative is months of your life down the drain, you probably wouldn’t care if the product was $47 or $1,000. The only real decision is, “Do I want it now or later?”

That is a powerful technique to implement in your sales copy. Lots of marketers work to justify their price or obscure it on their landing page. Why not force your customer to forget about the price instead? Present them with an easy decision. People want things now. Money isn’t always the big roadblock – even in this economy. Time is often the bigger roadblock.

Don’t let it stop you from making a sale! Start thinking about “time anchors” when you write your copy.

Good luck,
Reuben D. Rock

Have you ever created a product, watched it sell, then watched as it slowly faded away?Over time, a product can lose relevance and sales can dwindle. This is especially true in techy niches, which is where I will be revamping an old product in the next few days. Never fear – your sales don’t have to disappear. You can continue to renew your domain and breathe new life into a product. I’ll talk about that for a few minutes here today.

Around 2 years ago, I created a very popular product in a tech niche. It sold like fire, I made some money, and I ignored it for a while. Affiliates were driving tons of traffic to the page, and they still are today. But the product itself has lost some glitter and glory. It’s a bit outdated. And I was considering ditching the site so I could clean up my portfolio of sites. Terrible idea! Instead, I’ve researched and found everything I need to update the product and give it a brand new face.

You can do the same thing, too. If you have an old dog, teach it a few new tricks, and watch your sales spike back up.

Google search your niche, see what has been happening in the past few months or years. Decide what your product is missing. What are searchers finding online that causes them to pass up your offer? Whatever information they are finding elsewhere, you should add it to your old product. This is a simple process, but you should dedicate some time and effort to it. Once the product has some new content, you can move on to…

Revamping your sales letter!!! This step gets missed by a lot of marketers. Just because your product is current and people will love it, your sales letter may be sending a stale message. Something as simple as updating the firmware version you list in a sales letter can make a big difference. Go through your sales copy with a keen eye toward the outdated details it may contain. Update your message so it fits with what people want today.

Finally, tell your affiliates what you did. This is vital. Your affiliates may not even be thinking about your product anymore. If you redo the sales copy and product, they need to know about it. It might cause them to renew interest in promoting your product. Just send your affiliates a quick email, explain that you updated your product and copy, and send them a review copy if necessary. This can really help your affiliates deliver better leads and convert better for you.

Doing this for your products every now and then can only help – rarely will it hurt your sales. Remember that times change, and your site might need to change, too!

Good luck,
Reuben D. Rock

Humor me for a minute while I share a quick story with you. And yes – I promise there is a point to this little tale.

Last night, I was out and about taking care of some errands. I needed new floor mats in my car and the Netflix had to get dropped in the mailbox. My tires also needed some air, so I stopped by a gas station down the street from my house. Here is where my story begins.

As I parked my car by the air machine (whatever it’s called), I looked around confused. I wasn’t quite sure where the change machine would be. I knew there had to be a change machine, because these sort of car washes always have one or two. So I’m looking around, and a voice calls out to me. “The change machine is right over here.” It was a guy in shorts and a plain t shirt. He didn’t look homeless, but he didn’t appear well-off by any means. Living in a city like Memphis, you learn that poverty can look just like your friends and family.

I put in a dollar at the first machine and nothing happened. Suddenly the “out of order” light turned on. Great, it turned on after my money was already gone. A few seconds later, the light turned right back off. That’s sketchy – and it is probably fooling a lot of people out of their money. The same voice was behind me again. “Did it take your money? Somebody really needs to do something about that machine. You might try the other one, if you have an extra dollar.”

So I did. And it gave me 4 shiny quarters. I thanked the man for his help, then used $.50 to fill up my tires. While I was standing there, my new friend came back into view from around the building. “Hey, do you have any change to spare? I really need to get a sandwich or something tonight.”

He had me. And I handed over my leftover change.

That’s the end of my story. But I couldn’t stop thinking about it last night. This was one of those moments that writers like Robert Cialdini include in their books about persuasion. And I had to dissect it in my mind to figure out how it worked.

Two things happened that night. First, this stranger showed me a bit of kindness and sympathy when my first dollar was stolen. He was helpful and wasn’t intrusive the way some beggars can be. By the time he asked me for some change, I already liked him. I had to reciprocate his kindness, and I had to cough up the little bit of money.

Second, he “caught me red handed.” What I mean is this: after helping me FIND some change to put air in my tires, he was completely aware that I now HAD some change. He knew it, and I knew it. What was I going to say to this guy? “No, I’m keeping this 50 cents to add to my high-yield savings account.” Get out of here! Of course I was going to hand over the quarters.

Listen up marketers… reciprocation is powerful. Give and you will get. Even the smallest of niceties or a sign of compassion from a stranger can almost FORCE reciprocation. Always give freely to your customers or leads, because they will reciprocate the gesture and you will come out a winner.

Also, whenever you catch your customers “red-handed,” take advantage. Where can this be applied? How about upsells? You just spent money with me, your wallet is out, and I know you have the funds. Why not buy this product to complement your initial purchase?

Think about testimonials. If someone sends a quick email to say they liked your product, reply immediately. You have them trapped – ask for a full testimonial. You liked the product? Would you mind writing a few sentences about your experience?

So thank you to the man I met last night. Beggar or marketer? Who knows, but you reminded me of a couple great lessons.

Keeps your eyes open,
Reuben D. Rock

Every year around this time, I’m reminded of the seasonal nature of some of my products. Actually my top sellers are seasonal. Once winter sets in, sales begin to dwindle until spring. It leaves a tough couple months where my ad spending remains unchanged, but the clicks just don’t convert.

This is an example of when you should consider diversifying your product offerings. Getting into a new niche can really help you out in this situation. That’s what I’ve been working on in the last year.

My site, 90MinuteBusiness.com is a line of products that I hope will boost my income during the slow season for my physical products. When physical sales drop off, my 90 Minute Business products continue to keep me afloat.

What’s your experience with seasonal shifts in your sales? Have you been diversifying and trying new niches to combat the effect? If not, maybe it’s something you could work on in 2010.

Best of luck,
Reuben D. Rock