I was reading a blog post today talking about why my blog or my site may not be making as much money as it could.

One of the things that struck me was the idea of just giving away something for free and that is it.

In the post Danny mentions

In chain of conversion terminology, prospects aren’t converting into customers.

source

which is something I struggle with constantly. Most of the time it is not enough to just give something away for free in hopes that people will come back and buy.

We need to look at the converstion process in a little more detail. One of the things he talks about in the blog post is to do the following

You’re selling what they need instead of what they want.

It’s in the wrong format.

The price isn’t right.

You don’t ask for the sale.

There’s no urgency.

No social proof.

No guarantee.

You don’t optimize (again).

source

You will have to read the post to get the details, but as I read the main points and was thinking about the whole converstion process.

Why not create all of those points in a simple call to action durning the sign up process.

What I mean is find a way to create an optin box that useses all the points above to help the potential sign up even more ready to recieve what you have to offer then build your follow up email sequences using the following criteria above.

This is a simple way to know that you are maximizing your conversions with your potential prospects.

Why not do it using an exit pop. Create a compelling call to action using the major conversion points Danny talk about above that you can create with this fantastic exit pop . Then just WOW your prosepect with every email.

Over deliver with information, content and value.

I was surf-in the Internet as I do everyday (Apologies to the time management Gurus). I goofed up today…

In my surf-in, I found a great article today by Seth Godin. As a business owner, this guy makes complicated marketing just plain old simple.

His article really played home the point of keeping things simple and working on what matters to your customer or client.

Focusing on results, thrills and ego just makes a whole lot of sense. Design your marketing around it, and I can only imagine that the ROI is huge every time.

Original post is here on Seth Godin’s Blog

1. Results. If you can offer a return on investment, an engineering solution, more sales, no tax audits, a cute haircut, the fastest rollercoaster, a pristine beach, reliable insurance payouts at the best price, peace of mind, productive consulting or any other measurable result, this is a great place to start.

2. Thrills. More difficult to quantify but often as important, partners and customers respond to heroism. We are amazed and drawn to over the top effort, incredible risk taking on our behalf, the blood, sweat and tears that (rarely) comes from a great partner. A smart person working harder on your behalf than you’d be willing to work–that’s pretty compelling.

3. Ego. Is it nice to feel important? You bet. When you greet us at the door with a glass of white wine, put our name in the lobby of the hotel, actually treat us better than anyone else does (not just promise it, but do it)… This can get old really fast if you industrialize and systemize it, though.

After reading the post you may still be wondering what this has to do with anything… Well, if you are in business perhaps with a website or you have a bricks and mortar business then I think this message is to the point.

If everyday you work on your business focusing on Results, Thrills and Ego, you are developing habits of a successful business.

Take any successful business out there and tell me they are not doing one of those three things really, really well.

Cool tutorial on creating a settings page within wordpress. Posting it here for future reference for me.Jarkko Laine wrote:

Creating your own theme for WordPress is a great way to give your blog or other WordPress powered web site an original touch. But even the nicest looking theme is not that nice if you have to get under the hood and edit …

Thesis Videoz Review

I got an email the other day from a fellow marketer, Mark Acutt who create Black Belt Live Case Study and now Thesis Videoz

He is the one that finally convinced me to buy the Thesis Theme. Only because  his bonus was what I needed (a pimped out custom.css file).

I had no idea how to do php or css so if it was something I could just copy and paste, then great.

Mark has just release his 2.0 verstion of his files called Thesis Videoz.

He has created 5 videos that show you how to set up wordpress to optimize for seo and also for better functionality.

He includes his beefed up custom.css file, a footer file and a wicked 404 error code.

The css file is just killer as there a lot of great ways to use the code and create killer sales pages and posts and pages as all the h1 tags are formated for great visual appeal.

Then there are all the great color boxes that you can then create focus on different aspects of your copy etc.

No, I have yet to implment the css on this site, so sorry this post is a little boring, but I first wanted to let you know about the thesis videoz package before I add the custom.css code.

The first thing you need to get is a copy of the Thesis Theme. If you don’t already have a copy then click here for a great review as to why you should get it.

When you have got thesis then go and click here to the Thesis Videoz page to get your copy of the files.

Step 2 is to go buy a domain

Lets say “make money online” was a good keyword. You will want to go get a domain at Go Daddy. Lets say www.makemoneyonlineblog.com or something like that.

Step 3 is to get a hosting account

Go buy a hosting account either at HostGator or HostDime. These two hosts have CPanel hosting and make it much easier for the steps below.

The above two steps require you to spend money, I have a page on free ways to make money online which is written if you don’t have any money to spend.

Step 4 is to point your domain to you host and log in to you host

Steps 5 is once logged into your host go find FANTASTICO and install a wordpress blog

Step 6 is finding a theme and getting the plugins for the blog.

Just type in “free wordpress themes” into google and find a theme that you like. The one I am using rate now is a premium theme called thesis

I have a post on this blog that outlines my suggested plugins to get started

Step 7 watch the video I did on customizing your blog

Step 8 load up my recommended ping list, which you can find by clicking the best blog plugin list

Step 9 Search on google for affiliate programs for your website, sign up to them then get your affiliate links and images from the affiliate website and load them up to the Maxblogpress banner plugin

Step 10 Make a commitment to yourself that you are going to make a post to your blog every other day or some frequency that is consistent and that you can commit too. Don’t make my mistakes of laziness.

Step 11 When writing your post to your blog do it in a way that you can make it and article then submit it to ezinearticles.com, goarticles.com and articlemarketers.com

Step 12 keep repeating step 10 and you will slowly start developing traffic to your website.

This is the bear bones of what I do with all my blogs, some have adsense, and some have actual affiliate programs. The point is to get started.

As the weeks and months go on I will add to this post in hopes to make it more details. Feel free to add comments and let me know what your strategies are to make money online. As this grows, I hope this will be a one-stop shop of information on how to make money online.

Very interesting post on the use of twitter to get your content listed quickly on google. Potentially abusive I think, but another reason why any marketer should probably also have a twitter account.Costa wrote:

Getting to the number one ranking for their keywords in Google Search Results is the dream of all Internet M