Table Of Contents

• Make A Donation ... I'LL PAY FOR IT!
• HomePage Charities ... IT'S FREE!
• Sponsor Ad #1: FREE Month Of AdMinder
• Frequently Asked Questions (Part 1)
• Sponsor Ad #2: How To Start & Expand Any Online Business!
• Frequently Asked Questions (Part 2)

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I've gotten well over 2000 "hits" to my site and still no sale. How come? I'm running out of patience and ideas and I'd like some advice from someone who has the experience.

Well, I can't answer that completely because I have no idea what your site or business is selling. You might have a horrible product that nobody would ever buy or even want if you were to pay them! But, we get similar questions from some of our affiliates at times for our different programs. So allow me to answer this question based on one of our own affiliates because I know for sure that our products work and so does the sale mechanism.

One of the biggest reasons for poor results or conversions from "hits-to-sales" is the fact that the target market is just really bad. The better you can qualify your potential customer, the better your results will be. Heck, you might only get 200 hits rather than 2000, but because they are better qualified and targeted, you'll get more sales out of it.

Using things like Free For All (FFA) links or free classifieds usually only qualify SPAMMERS and people who are NOT serious. It's like trying to sell a $1000 product to people who only have $200 in the bank. It may be the greatest product in the world and everyone you approach will say "yes, give it to me ... I want it". But because they can NOT afford it, you get ZERO sales.

Another reason for a bad conversion is your sales copy. When you place an ad (either in a newsletter or a banner or wherever), you have to make sure the advertisement and ad copy is NOT misleading or confusing. Your ad may say one thing and yet, your product is totally different. The potential customer clicks on your ad, comes to your site and are completely confused and LEAVE. So, you may get a lot of visitors, but you'll convert none into customers.

I think ad copy or a sales letter or the words you use to promote your product or service is probably the MOST important factor. If can't get them in the first couple sentences, you've lost a potential customer. If you confused them in any way, you've lost a customer. Read our article on "How To Sell Anything, To Anyone" for more information on this topic.

How come nobody is subscribing to my newsletter? I've got a box on my home page that says "free newsletter" and yet, nobody really subscribes. How come?

Well, the first thing you need is to get some traffic to your site. Obviously you can't get any subscribers if nobody is coming to your site. So, let's assume that you are getting a decent amount of traffic.

The problem is most likely one of "who cares". I went to your site and I did see the box and all it said was "free newsletter" ... first thing that came to my mind was "so what". These days, there are THOUSANDS of online newsletters and 99% of them are all free. So, I ask you ... WHY should I subscribe to yours and not someone else's, like a competitor of yours?

A few years ago most newsletters were off-line and you received a hard copy of it. Therefore, the editor can charge money. Then, a few people got smart and noticed that by giving away the same newsletter online, it would cost them nothing (no printing or mailing) and they can get thousands of names and sell ads to people.

But now that marketing tactic is over played. So, you have to come up with a new idea or tactic to persuade people to subscribe. Give them a reason. Give away a free marketing report or an ebook or something.

Also, just because you say "subscribe" doesn't mean people will. You have to give them a REASON and make them TAKE ACTION. Take them by the hand and tell them to "fill in your email address and then click the subscribe button". People are lazy. You have to tell the customer what to do step-by-step or they won't do it.

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I took your advice in your Cash Flow Reporter eBook and started my own newsletter and all of your other recommendations. So far so good and my subscriber count is up to 4300 in just 6 weeks because of a couple of your tips (thanks!). Now, my question is what's better - text newsletters or HTML newsletters?

This is actually a question that we've been debating ourselves for a few months. In fact, the other day I was speaking to a marketing friend of mine about this and at the end of the conversation, we were both still unsure as to "what's the best". But here are a few thoughts.

Most people are use to receiving their newsletters via text format directly to their email box. This is how it was done at the very beginning and since "old habits are hard to break", most people still use this method to distribute.

The good thing about a text newsletter is that you can print it out and it takes up less size than a HTML newsletter. Also, you don't have to worry about it looking too much different in a Eudora email program versus a Hotmail account or an Outlook program. Text is text, so you really won't run into "formatting" problems.

The problem with text newsletters is that they are boring. You cannot add in images or bolds or colors or anything. So, the reader can get bored easily. It's much harder to keep their attention. And with the THOUSANDS of newsletters these days, keeping the attention of the reader is very important (or else they'll drop your newsletter and go somewhere else).

Now, your other option is to send out an HTML newsletter. Most of the big sites are using these now. Sites like Amazon.com and Yahoo.com and Macys.com and so forth. Basically, the editor would design a web page and send that to your email box (that's the simple explanation).

The good part is that you can add in images and all the other things needed to grab and keep the attention of your readers. As well, if you are using a tracking service like AdMinder, you can track things better as far as click throughs and sales and how many people are actually reading your newsletter and so forth. These are VERY IMPORTANT numbers.

I'm not going to get into the importance of tracking as we've discussed it in our last issue. But those are the main benefits of an HTML newsletter. The ONLY real negative (and a big problem actually) is that not all email programs can read HTML correctly (or the same) and even when they do, the actual page always looks different.

This is similar to viewing the same web page through Netscape and then Internet Explorer. More often then not, the pages will look different. Sometimes only a little, but other times a LOT. Now, with all of the dozens of different email programs, this problem is magnified many times.

And actually, the real problem is with the free web-based email companies such as hotmail or juno. They REALLY screw up the HTML. And of course, our dear friend AOL tends to screw up everything - HTML and TEXT. One other negative with HTML is that the file size going out can be very large and some email programs may reject an email after a certain size.

So, what should you do? Well, what we do is use the best of both worlds. We send out a "teaser" text email notifying our subscribers that the newsletter is available online (which is in HTML format). This way, they simply click on a link and go to a special page (like this one).

When they arrive, if they wish, they can simply print it out as well. Now, we've had a few people complain that it's "too much trouble" for them to simply click on a link and go to our site and read it online. You can't please everyone and the truth is that if clicking on ONE simple link is too much of a hassle for them, then so will reading the newsletter to begin with.

Nobody said success was easy and if you are going to quit because you don't feel like clicking on a link, then that's a subscriber that really isn't very serious about their online business or marketing efforts (that's my opinion of course).

Now, if you really have the time and drive, you can send out a text email newsletter and at the top, you can also tell them that they can view the same issue online at a special link you have created. This way, the people who wanted text will receive it and those who would rather read it online have the option as well.

We've done this many times in the past and it works well. But, if you start sending out newsletters often and you just don't have the time, then this WILL become a lot of work in the long run.