Archive for September, 2009

Welcome to the third part of this article series, if you missed any or both of the first 2 then you can access them directly here Part one Part two

O.K in the last 2 articles we talked about reviewing the e-mails and comparing the different offers etc.

In this article we will go over some points why it is also important to make purchases.

One fact, and it is actually true is that when you get something free then you often don’t give it any value and it ends up somewhere collecting digital dust on your hard drive.

This is not to say that the product doesn’t have any value because it’s free, often they are excellent products or services but it’s a psychological factor that we tend to put more value on something that we have paid for albeit a few cents.

The fact that you have taken the first step in buying a product or service will encourage you to go on with the next step which is actually using it.

It also creates a certain sense of  obligation to ourselves because we have already made an investment.

Try it next time you see a Dime sale, buy it and see for yourself  how much quicker you use it even if you only paid 10 cents for it.

That is of course only one reason to make purchases and there are more to follow in the rest of this article.

Another reason to make purchases is because if you are not already making sales then eventually you Will do hopefully and you are going to get e-mails or support tickets from customers involving any problems they may have.

It could be due to technical errors or even human errors causing them not to be redirected to the download page etc, they may simply have a question to ask about something  that confuses them.

My point is that it is your job as a Marketer to be able to help those people and the best way to help them is to understand what they are going through.

By making a few purchases first, you then put yourself in the same situation as your customers and because of your own experiences it will make things a lot easier to help people, this will also increase your credibility as a Marketer.

There is nothing worse than not being able to answer a customers question properly, or worse still not at all.

When buying products there are a few things to consider and to make notes on.

First of all don’t go over your budget, before you  buy any product make sure you can afford it, if you are just starting out and on a low budget then try a few Dimesales etc because often you can pick these up for a few cents and you are still gaining the experience of knowing what your customers are going through.

Here are some points to take note of.

• When you click on the order button does it take you directly to the payment processor or does it take you to a page giving you multiple choices of payment?
• Which payment processors do the different marketers use? which seem to be the most popular? note them down.
• Where there any extra charges added by certain payment processors? some automatically add sales tax etc on top of the price. Which ones appeal to you?  again take notes.
• Once your payment transaction is complete are you directed straight to the download page or did you have to wait for an e-mail or confirmation, this is often the case when joining paid membership sites etc.
• Is there a One Time Offer before the download page? this is a common technique used by marketers including myself  involving selling a product at a low price and gaining it back on the One Time Offers.
• What is the One Time Offer? does it appeal to you? even if you can’t afford it would you buy it if you could?
• If you turn it down are you presented by a second offer at a usually lower price? what  do you think of it?

Make notes on the above points, this will help you by knowing how other marketers work and you could use some of the ideas when creating your own campaigns etc.

Once you arrive at the download link to your product take note of the following points.

• Is there a time limit on the download link? this is usually the case when marketers including myself use download protection.
• Do you just have to click on it or do you have to right click on it then select save to your computer? mostly you can simply click on them but sometimes as in the download of a single e-book it can be a pdf  file and this will require you to right click on it and save as.
• Always check usually right at the bottom of the download pages etc through the whole process because often you will find links to the service they are using, this can help you in deciding which services are best for you, if you found it a pleasant experience buying through  the system then chances are your customers will too.
• Is there a contact link on at least the download page? does it lead to a support center? does it give you an e-mail address? if  it’s a support desk do you need to create an account first? what do you find the most helpful? also is there anything you don’t like? so you can avoid submitting your own customers to it.

Once you have downloaded your files take a look at how they are presented,

• Are they zipped? are the file names clear to understand or are they all code names that you first have to search through to see what they are?

• Are there any other offers or advertisements contained in the zip files? are there any extra unmentioned bonuses? this is a trick I often like to use as a thank-you to my customers, everyone likes surprises
• Do you receive a follow up e-mail after your purchase from the marketer? most payment processors will send you a confirmation of your purchase which also serves as a receipt including the transaction details but how does the marketer self go about it? does the e-mail contain a download or contact link in case you encounter problems?

If you take the time to act on the points in this series of articles so far and do some research you should develop a good understanding of how the sales process and e-mail marketing all fits together and be able to come up with some of your own ideas involving some or all of the methods you will discover.

Don’t just note the good points but also take notes on any bad experiences you may have, these are things you will want to avoid for your own customers but also take into consideration that it is not always the marketers fault when things go wrong and try to be polite and professional when submitting or replying to a support ticket or help desk request.

I also promised in the first part of this series to give some tips on what you can do with all those products you have collected on your hard drive but that’s looking like part four now otherwise this article would go on for too long and be too much to digest in one go.

I hope you have enjoyed this series so far and found it helpful in at least some ways, if there is anything you would like to add or comment on, even if you just want to tell me how handsome I still look for my age   I would appreciate it if you could leave a comment below.

Until next time Success and Have A Nice Day

Ian Wilson

This song is called Sorry Joe! and the reason for this title is because when I first wrote it I shelved it for a while and about 6 months later Joe Satriani came out with a new CD and the main riff was very similar to mine so I altered it slightly.

After listening to the rest of his CD I noticed something else that sounded similar so I thought well “Sorry Joe!” but I’m not changing it again and that’s how the title came about.

Anyway it’s an instrumental with lots of guitar work and seems to be a favourite with a lot of people so I hope you like it.

For the musicians and technical geek’s

This song was recorded on a Fostex D80 8 track hard disk recorder and the drums and keyboards were recorded on a Roland MC50 midi sequencer synchronized to the HD recorder via midi clock.

The Drums were programmed in step for step to get it as human sounding as I could and the sounds were taken from a Boss DR5 drum machine.

The guitars were recorded with the same setup as last months song using my W.S. Custom Guitar and Marshall Jmp1 pre amp straight into the mixing desk for solo’s.

The distorted rhythm guitars were played on my Gibson Les Paul Standard.

The guitar solo’s were all in my usual sort of style, the main solo melody was played using a wah wah pedal for the sound and shaped with the whammy bar on certain notes and on the last part I threw a guitar harmony in the background to give it a bit of difference.

The middle section was played by tapping on the fingerboard with both hands over the top three strings, the right hand tapping arpeggios over the chords and the left hand tapping a scale melody lower down.

The weird stuff in the middle break was just pure guitar abuse.

Sorry Joe!

Click Here To Listen And/Or Download