Firefox vs IE the never ending battle
By Mike Paetzold | July 23, 2008
Want to start World War III?
Go to a marketing forum and take sides in that battle. Only the Mac people will stay out… No they won’t they will tell you how good Safari is.
The good thing and the bad thing with Firefox is the plugins.
I know the Old Bald Guy is talking both sides of the argument again 
Here is the problem. If you are a marketer and I will do that bad thing and ass/u/me that if you are reading this blog you are it is costing you. Not because the pugins are bad but…
Because people don’t know how to use them.
The Truth About Firefox Addons
Ever have someone tell you they couldn’t buy your product, your sales page doesn’t have a button, the order page is blank?
This is caused by a certain plugin being used improperly.
Nothing wrong with the plugin but people don’t know how to use it.
Sunny Suggs has put together some excellent free reports that show people step by step how to avoid these problems.
The Truth About Firefox Addons
This is information you need to know and need to get into other peoples hands too. Go grab it right now.
The Truth About Firefox Addons
I have . As always your commnets are appreciated.
Mike Paetzold
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WordPress and blogging Q and A tonight
By Mike Paetzold | July 22, 2008
If you have questions on blogging and WordPress I am having a free call tonight. You ask - I answer.
EVENT: WordPress Q and A
DATE & TIME: Tuesday, July 22nd at 8:00pm Eastern
FORMAT: Simulcast! (Attend via Phone or Webcast — it’s your choice)
TO ATTEND THIS EVENT, CLICK THIS LINK NOW…
http://instantTeleseminar.com/?eventid=3664803
You can leave your questions now at the link above.
Mike Paetzold
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Week In Review - July 19, 2008
By Mike Paetzold | July 19, 2008
Well another week is past and it has been busy.
Lets take care of the important stuff first. Maddie’s blog has been updated with her pictures from her first trip to the beach. Family always needs to come first. Isn’t that why we do what we do?
Today Soren Jordansen and I will be doing a seminar on “Using Web 2.0″ at Affiliate Funnel seminar at noon. If you are a member login and get the conference room link. If your not check it out - it’s free.
Tweet My Blog launched this week. It is a free WordPress plugin that allows you to combine the power of your blog with the power of Twitter. You can see my feed on the sidebar here and as soon as I post this it will post on Twitter automatically too. If you are not using Twitter you should be.
I am sure that you got bombarded by Traffic Secrets 2.0 this week. If you are looking to take advantage of the buzz you may want to check out Rob Toth’s Buy Now Wizard close out sale. Not only does it improve your conversions but… if you look closely, one of the 4 products included in this “Final Sale” of his is the “How Can I Get Visitors To My Website: Traffic Generation Techniques Explained” course. And he is offering Master Resell rights for it.
You can have your own product and a way to improve your conversions at the same time.
Finally WordPress released a new version - 2.6 this week. It has some great new features and there are a couple posts over at WordPress Made Easy that explain more.
Hope you are having a great weekend and as always your comments and questions are welcomed.
Mike Paetzold
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The key to winning with your business
By Mike Paetzold | July 18, 2008
Sometimes we try and make things too hard. We ignore the obvious and don’t do the little things regularly that it takes to get where we want to. Unfortunately it is the combination of little things done regularly that makes us successful or not.
John Taylor wrote a good article today that you should check out called “Whatever You Do Today.. Do Something!“.
Take the time to readn and apply it to what you are doing today. I did.
Mike Paetzold
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Need some leverage for traffic? Check this out
By Mike Paetzold | July 17, 2008
Leveraging various Web 2.0 sites together can be very helpful. There was a new free plugin released today that weds Twitter with your WordPress blog.
It will automatically post your new posts on your blog to Twitter for you plus add your latest tweets to your blog side bar with their widget.
Now I have not been promoting my Twittter page in my emails (a mistake I will be fixing but adding this and having my Tweets on my sidebar has tripled the number of followers I have been getting over the last few days.
Hopefully you can see the power of this. It took me a bit to understand the power of Twitter but adding this to the power of your WordPress blog is an absolute no brainer.
Yes there are other services that will post your blog to Twitter but this is the only one I have seen that supplies the widget for your blog and is free too.
Also make sure you check out the offer Soren and John have put together once you sign up to download the plugin. It is perfect for any serious blogger and will help you incrementally increase your traffic.
As always your questions and comments are welcomed.
Mike Paetzold
Follow me at Twitter - see I am learning too
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Automate and duplicate - the final step
By Mike Paetzold | July 15, 2008
This is the final post in the business building series. Testing and tracking was the most important piece but this is where you get the leverage from that effort.
Now that you are testing and tracking you can develop the information to really leverage what you are doing.
You should have these figures now available to you.
- How many page views to get a signup
- How much your initial email series makes for you
Now you can start to automate the process. In this case we will discuss traffic exchanges but the process is the same if you are using ezines, article marketing, blogs etc.
You should have a number of page views per signup so divide 1000 by that number. Divide the answer into the cost of 1000 credits at the te you are using to get that rate. That will be your cost per subscriber.
Example - 120 pages per signup - cost of $8 per thousand
1000/120 = 8.33
$8.00/8.33 = $0.96 your cost per subscriber
Now take the number of subscribers you got last month divided into the commissions you received from the programs in your warm up series. This will be your income per subscriber.
Example - 320 subscribers - 396.80 income
396.80/320 = $1.24 your income per new subscriber
In this case every time you get a subscriber you net $0.28 after they go through the warm up series. Now some of your credit purchases will be more and some may be less but you now have a system that can consistently return all your money spent advertising through your warm up series and then some.
Now it is just a case of keeping track of your results each month and spending more each month to generate more subscribers.
Here is the key though you now have the time to start working and tweaking a new offer or a new product to sell to those people you already have. You have created the first relatively hands free system now it is a matter of rinse and repeat.
Now you can spend your time doing things to expand your business rather than spending your time generating traffic.
This series of posts will be turned into an ebook and expanded a bit. If you would like a free copy when it is done make sure that you have signed up for the notification list on the upper right.
As always your questions and comments are welcomed.
Mike Paetzold
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Teleseminars can drive traffic - a guest post
By Mike Paetzold | July 13, 2008
Hey Guys I am away because of a death in the family and will be back on Wednesday. In the mean time I have this guest article from Bob Jenkin’s. Hope you enjoy it.
3 Ways To Get More Traffic To Your Website With Teleseminars
By Bob Jenkins
The number one issue faced by any business person with a website today is getting traffic.
Without visitors to your website, how will you ever be paid for your products and services (or through your affiliate recommendations)?
One solution to this problem is holding a teleseminar.
A teleseminar is simply a phone call where somebody (i.e., you) talks to somebody else (i.e., a guest expert or just the audience) about a specific topic of interest.
You don’t have to have any specific educational background or be some kind of certified expert to hold a teleseminar – just the courage to hold an intelligent conversation for about an hour about something you enjoy.
Marketing with teleseminars gives you over a dozen ways to get traffic to your products and services. Let me highlight 3 of them for you right now.
Teleseminars can…
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Provide a live event for people to get immediate answers to their questions
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Turn into articles and blog posts which are magnets for search engine-traffic
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Connect you with new affiliates who share your teleseminar with others in exchange for a commission
Let me describe how each of these 3 could work for you.
Attract Traffic With A Live Teleseminar
When you host a teleseminar, you provide a specific time and date for a group of people to gather together. At heart, most people are still social animals. Because of that fact, if people know they can get together with other people like them at the same time and date and learn or discuss their favorite topic, they’ll show up.
And if you provide a way for your listeners to ask you a question that you answer during the teleseminar then they’ll definitely want to connect with you after the call is over.
Create Traffic Magnet Articles And Blog Posts
A second way teleseminars can generate traffic for your website, products, and services is by turning into text.
Most people talk at about 200 words per minute, and within an hour, you can create a 50 page transcript. Simply by breaking apart that text, you can create a dozen articles and many more blog posts with just a single teleseminar.
You then submit those articles to article directories and ezine publishers to spread your message. Each article becomes a traffic magnet by connecting readers back to your website through a link at the end of the text.
You can “write” weeks worth of search-engine friendly content by taking the same articles and breaking them up into blog posts you publish on your own blog or on someone else’s.
Get Affiliates To Send You Traffic
My favorite method of getting traffic with teleseminars is by creating an affiliate program for the sale of your teleseminars, their transcripts, or additional calls you do in the future.
Even before you hold a call, people are willing to pay in advance for the transcripts and/or the recording of your teleseminar. And once you start selling something online, you can invite affiliate marketers to promote your teleseminar product for you.
In exchange for sending you traffic, you agree to pay a certain percentage of the profits – a simple arrangement that’s made very easy with software available today (ranging from free to quite expensive).
Affiliates then spend their time and energy sending you traffic and you can spend your time concentrating on holding an excellent teleseminar.
Start Getting More Traffic With Teleseminars
These are just 3 methods of getting traffic with teleseminars that you can put into action immediately. And once you get started, you’ll quickly realize that your traffic problems are suddenly not so large anymore!
Bob Jenkins is the creator of TeleseminarFormula.com, an in-depth training program teaching business owners how to use teleseminars to magnetically attract better customers, get more sales, and accelerate their growth using their phone. For your free copy of “The 7 Secrets To Success With Teleseminars”, visit TeleseminarFormula.com today.
As always your questions and comments are welcomed. Please allow a bit extra for comments to be approved.
Mike Paetzold
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Week In Review - July 12, 2008
By Mike Paetzold | July 12, 2008
Lots going on this week. There will be one more session of the business building series and it will be finished. Look for that mid week. Will be away for a few days after today due to a death in the family. Support and updates may be a bit delayed.
Now to what is hot.
Lucid SEO will be pulling the bonus sessions from their relaunch. The monthly plan makes it affordable and you can easily use this to gain more free traffic to your site.
Firepow has changed the way that niche blogging is done. It can save you a ton of time and has some features you won’t find anywhere else. Niche blogging can be extremely profitable and this will save you time.
Teleseminar Formula from Bob Jenkins is a great free book that will show you how to use the phone to create a product. This is not a cheap giveaway but has real value. If you haven’t grabbed it do it now. Don’t overlook his upgrade as that can really turbo boost your business.
Had a good post yesterday that included my turtles. Yep I have learned a lot from those three cute critters. You can too.
That is all for this week. Have a great weekend.
As always your questions and comments are welcomed.
Mike Paetzold
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3 turtles can teach you a marketing lesson
By Mike Paetzold | July 11, 2008
Let me tell you a tale about 3 small cute little turtles. They are named Gizzy, Gizmo and Gizzard. The picture to the left is Gizzard the last addition.
For Mother’s Day, Maude, my better half (and I would be dead if I said it any other way wanted a turtle. She had seen these cute little turtles at a local pet shop.
Being the softy and peace loving person I am we went to the store and came home with 2, Gizzy and Gizmo. You need a home so we bought them one of those cut little bowls (it even had a palm tree) and a jar of food.
This was going to be easy and watching them could be fun. After all how hard can it be to feed and care for two little turtles.
We had not done any research on turtles before we made the commitment. We quickly learned that it wasn’t really all that easy. Now that we had turtles we figured we should learn a bit more. Big surprise.
These weren’t just turtles but red ear slider turtles (Trachemys scripta elegans) and you think some of the marketing language is tough These cute little turtles will grow to about 10 inches across eventually. First surprise.
First Lesson - Do a bit of research first before jumping into a business model. You will still have surprises but they hopefully won’t be as big.
Now we got a used aquarium, went out and bought a ramp for them to get out of the water and figured now we are set.
Then came surprise #2. Turtles are extremely dirty creatures. They can cloud a clean aquarium with a standard pump in about a day and a half so you can’t see the other side. Hmmm. Back to researching in more depth.
Second Lesson -Even research won’t stop all the surprises. Be prepared to add more investment into your business that you were not expecting.
Out to the pet store and get a second filter made for turtles and a 10 gallon tank. Problem solved. Until 4 days later when the water was cloudy again.
Now with 3 filters running, a cleaning maintenance schedule set and a separate feeding tank we are hoping to have a clean tank to watch the cute turtles do their thing.
Will it work? Don’t know for sure but each step has improved the process and we now have a much better idea of not only what we are doing but what we will need in the future.
After finding other turtle owners and seeing the set up they have we know that we have to prepare for. (Don’t be surprised if I run a new Turtle Home Sale in the future.)
Eventually this small $30 initial investment to get Maude her Mother’s Day gift will end up in over $500 and probably closer to $1000 of expense for the new home in the future. Not exactly what I signed on for when I paid the initial $30 (That does not count feeding or God forbid a vet trip. Just the gas to get to the closest turtle vet hurts forget the vet fee.)
How does all this apply?
You need to do research before you start something new.
Take action. Yes I probably would not have bought the turtles if I had researched them properly. I have adapted and learned what was needed.
Be prepared for the unexpected. It will happen no matter how well you research. That is why action is the most important.
You won’t get it right the first time. Learn from it and continue to improve.
Are you taking action? Have you goofed it up the first time and adapted? (I do it all the time)
Leave a comment and let me know.
Mike Paetzold
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Testing and tracking - the real money maker
By Mike Paetzold | July 9, 2008
Getting back to the business building series.Today is probably the most important piece of the puzzle and the one that separates the winners from the losers.
Testing and tracking
Hey I’ll be the very first person to tell you that this isn’t fun. It is where the money is though. See I am not smart enough to guess exactly what will work and what won’t. Too many personal prejudices. To easy to think like a customer and not a business person.
You need to be constantly improving your process and updating it. First you need some tools to do that. Here is what I use and what will be mentioned in this post.
- Google Analytics - A free resource
- Google Website Optimizer - A free resource
- Hits Connect - A paid service
- AWeber - A paid service
You can also grab a copy of my report Tracking Your Way To Profits.
For this discussion we will talk about your squeeze page first. After all that is the key to your business.
AWeber will allow you to add a tracking code in your form. Create a different form for each page you are testing and you can see which page got you the results.
Now you need to be sending traffic to your site. Hits Connect will allow you to see which source sent how much traffic and if you add the pixel on your thank you page you can see which source actually converted into a subscriber.
Hits Connect will also allow you to set up a rotator so you can test two pages and use the same link to send half the traffic to each. This also allows you to make changes on the fly at one place and not have to go change each traffic resource. A great time saver.
Now what do we want to test. Start with your headline. That will usually make the most difference. If your headline doesn’t catch people the rest of your copy doesn’t get read.
Keep going until you have a clear winner. Get rid of the loser and create a new test. Each time you keep the winner get rid of the loser.
Once you have a good headline you can test other parts of your page. It is important in this type of testing to only test one thing at a time so you know what made the difference.
In the meantime you are also testing your traffic sources. If you were using 5 traffic exchanges in this example my experience has shown that 2 will probably be head and shoulders above the rest. You can keep to 5 but keep changing your bottom source of traffic to test a new one. Just like the headlines keep the winners and replace the losers.
This can very easily increase your response as you test but this is a never ending process. Traffic sources change and your best source today may stink 6 months from now.
With traffic exchanges you should be able to get your squeeze pages to one signup per hundred page views or better. That should be your goal.
Now you want to be testing the same way in your email series. Take advantage of the stats you get at AWeber and use their tracking to see which offers are getting clicked on.
Also keep track of where people unsubscribe. If you are marketing correctly you will be getting unsubscribes so don’t let that part bother you. Not everyone will like your style not even affable Old Bald Guy’s like me.
What you do want to be tracking is places where the unsubscribe rate jumps. If you are seeing a significant increase in unsubscribes on email #5 and (this is important) it is not converting significantly higher then you need to look at that email.
Sometimes a really strong call to action will generate more unsubscribes but will also convert into more cash too. Look at both sides and remember what my mentor Robert Puddy says “Give them quality but ultimately the purpose of the list is to make you money.”
Likewise if certain calls to action aren’t being clicked then that needs to be addressed too.
If you are using sites like blogs to get organic search traffic or if you are using PPC you need to use Google Analytics to understand which posts are being indexed and which terms people are searching for that send them to you.
For our process we won’t get into Google Website Optimizer but it will allow you to do Taguchi testing on your squeeze pages and sales pages. Once you have gotten comfortable with the A/B testing described here it can be worth your while but there is a learning curve in using it.
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