Frank and Cathy  

One of the things that amazed me when I entered the field of online marketing is the way the Internet fit my background. I just found so many perfect fits that I knew I had found a new home.

The way I found that this was most true is in the field of video. I have been involved in producing videos as a hobby for more years then I care to admit, and when I came to online marketing, I saw that video plays a HUGE role in online sales. Imagine my surprise when I found that all the skills I had sharpened just for my personal fun could now make me money!
That is kind of an unfair advantage, but let me tell you, it is such a switch for me to be actually on the favorable side of an unfair advantage. I am sure you can relate.

Video is a complicated topic. Software writers have done their best to make it as simple as possible, but even at that, its not that easy. It takes a lot of thought, planning, and patience, and most people do not have that. So I have made it my mission to help others learn video.
It is true that television advertising has always been a key tool in boosting sales, and with the spread of broadband access, video has migrated to the web quite nicely. The considerations for online marketing are slightly different from television, and this is part of what I want tot talk about.

Television advertising is dictated by the presence of the sceptre of the couch potato, the remote control. If the viewer is in any way less then thrilled by what is before his or her eyes, a simple wave of the hand and a push of the button removes it from view. In the same way, the mouse rescues the computer geek from exposure to boring video content on the web. But that’s where the similarities end.

Television advertisers have a unique advantage, in that their ads sit in sort of a hammock. Standing at the beginning and end of the television ad is the television show, the content that the viewer is seeking. If the show is compelling, the viewer will be drawn back, and watch some more. If the show is VERY compelling, the viewer may just sit through the advertising, and maybe, just maybe, the ad will actually register. I know from my own experience that I have seen the same television ad more then 7 times on occasion when suddenly the message will click in my head.

Internet advertising is slightly different. Almost all Internet viewership is a deliberate choice. Content that is presented to the surfer in an unexpected manner is incredibly irritating. Marketers on the Internet started in the early days by assuming that people would react to pop-ups and Spam in the same way that they reacted to an unwanted television commercial....they would simply glaze it over and tune it out. To follow this line of reasoning further, Internet marketers also assumed at one time that the cure for this reaction would be the same as television, repeated exposure until the message stuck.

This line of thinking is VERY WRONG, and has led to a major backlash concerning online advertising. Now I have to admit, irritation advertising works on television, and I cant help thinking of that commercial that I hated so badly, but may never forget.....that one that kept repeating "Head on- Apply directly to the forehead!". Internet advertising cannot be irritating; it just will not work for this medium.

Modern Internet advertisers must embrace the concept that people use the Internet to seek information or content by choice, and they must find ways to encourage the surfer to choose their video voluntarily. Unexpected or unwelcome messages are just simply rejected.
The surfer must be led gently to the video using some enticing bait, and once the video is clicked, the content must hold their interest for the duration of the presentation for the message to be effective.

Now, let me talk a little about effectiveness in advertising. This is yet another way in which video for television differs from video for the web.

In television advertising, the advertiser can rely on sheer repetition to convey the message...if fact, the medium has gotten to the point where this is necessary Television commercials are so pervasive that viewers rarely watch them, even when they stare directly at them. More frequently, the viewer will use the restroom, grab a beer or some chips, or exchange a few comments with the other viewers during commercials.

In video, we get one shot, period. We will almost NEVER get a second chance to make that good first impression. This is because, again, all viewership on the web is voluntary, and if the message does not hit the first time, it will not get a second look.

Which puts another requirement in the lap of the Internet marketer, the need to strike a chord with the viewer. The content of your ad must be visually acceptable, and must also address a need the viewer has. It must do both of these things clearly and compellingly the first time it is seen.

I want to share what has been my definition of art for some time now. I have heard it said, "I don't know what art is, really, but I know it when I see it". Well, that quote has led me to my personal definition of art. You will know it when you see it because it makes you FEEL something. As an example, a song will make you want to dance, a book will take you into its reality, a movie will make you laugh or cry, and a picture will make you think.
Well, you might not accept my definition of art, but you would be well served to heed the advice that your video should make the viewer feel something. Because you are only getting that one shot, you need to make sure that the viewer does more then watch, ideally, they should feel the message that you want to convey.

In summary, video for the web may LOOK the same as video for broadcast, but do not make the mistake of thinking that they are the same. The way that they are received by the viewer is totally different, and if you don't pay attention to those differences, your videos will have much less impact then they should. Video isn't easy to produce and distribute, so try to make sure that your effort is not wasted.

Here are F & C's Links:
Do you like to travel? How would you like to make all your vacations a business expense?? Check out how !!
Ann Seig, the author of the book "The Renegade Network Marketer"
Our business homepage
Or Visit our Capture page
Our Press room
Frank & Cathy's Direct Matches Site
Shop online with Aisle 19 over 600 stores to choose from , and better yet get CASH BACK too !! Find all kinds of FREE things at Freebie Force You can Join Free
Check out this private invite from F & C
Video Links :
Check out all of our video's on UTube You can view all of F and C's videos here, please feel free to leave comments.
Blog Links:
Blogger.com
Mybloglog.com

This time I wanted to dwell on a way to make closing deals much easier. It is a two edged sword, because at the same time you are making the deal closing process easier, you are making the marketing process harder.

So I do not want to confuse you right off the bat, what I am talking about is establishing a massive web presence. Let me start by explaining how useful it can be, and then I will explain how it is done. Believe me, its not easy.

It starts with a phone call to the prospect. You would be calling someone who had opted in to your landing page, and your initial mission is to establish contact, lower the defenses, and begin the process of having them trust you.

Now that is a topic all by itself, but let’s hit some of the highlights. You would first introduce yourself and explain the reason for your call. The important thing to remember when you are doing that is that the person you called is already interested in Internet marketing, or they would not have opted in.

So that should be your premise....you understand that they are interested in marketing, and the reason is quite likely to be that they need more money. You may begin to explain how everyone needs more money, how at one time you did too, and how even now, the crazy money you make is not enough to meet all of your needs. The key is to identify with the prospect so that they will open to you.

Once you begin to connect with the prospect, its time to talk about your opportunity. This is where I frequently make the mistake of talking too much. I am starting to believe that mystery is better then understanding at this point. If you explain too much, it is very likely that you will trip a defensive mechanism in the prospect, providing them with an excuse to reinforce their resistance.

Just hit the highlights, especially the potential to make money. Do NOT explain how the program works at this point, concentrate on the benefits. If the prospect asks pointed questions, it is important to develop ways to provide an answer without saying much. If you have ever listened to a political speech, you will understand how this is very possible. Politicians develop this technique into an art form, and can easily talk for two hours about something that could be covered in 30 seconds.

Let me explain how to distill the benefits of your online opportunity. The benefits can be derived by taking the features and asking the question "Which means?" Let me give you an example.
The feature of your program is that it provides residual income. You take that and ask the question "Which means?"

Hmmm...What does that mean? It means that the prospect could easily be making pretty good money for very little work at some point in the future; it means that the job will allow the prospect to transition from sales to management smoothly and automatically at some point in the future. It means that this promotion is awarded automatically, not based on politics or the approval of a supervisor, but rather based on the prospects hard work alone.

Let’s take another example. Let’s suppose that a feature of your program is that the prospect would get shopping discounts. Now ask yourself the question "Which means?"
Again....what does that mean? It means the prospect can buy that "thing" they always wanted for less. It means there will be lower budget totals to plan for in purchasing, and higher income figures at the same time. It means that the purchasing costs are going down, for the prospect AND their friends too.

OK, now the prospect should be interested in how this happens. Do not answer that one...let the website info take care of that. Just take the prospect to the website while you are on the phone...most of the questions will be answered right there.

So far, so good. Now comes the part that trips up so many marketers. The question sometimes comes up..."How well are you doing with this business?" If you are doing well, that question is not a problem. But if you are struggling, that question can be a definite problem. DONT PANIC!
Here is the proper mindset to have. In your own head, you must remember that if you make sales, you will be doing fine. You have a prospective sale, and if you make it, that is a step in the right direction. So ASSUME the sale has been made, and tell the prospect that things are going well.

But no, the prospect is not happy with that answer. Again DONT PANIC. Here is where the massive web presence kicks in. Ask the prospect to open a search page, and search for you. If you have done your homework, your name will fill page after page of the search.

Does that tell the prospect that you are doing well? Not directly, but most people have never seen something like that. It is impressive, and it makes it difficult to believe that someone as big as that on the Internet could possibly be struggling.

If the prospect persists, you are well within your rights to sidestep direct questions about your income. Just say that you wont discuss real figures, but you are making CRAZY MONEY, and you aren't about to go back to working a regular job.

Now....how to generate that massive web presence? There is no other way except massive work. You have to generate a lot of content, blogs, articles, podcasts, videos, press releases, and hub pages. This is such an important concept that I feel its necessary to explain how we do it..
We start with a couple or three marketing topics each week. How we decide on them is the result of being blessed with a blog-talk radio show each week. Usually, we pick topics that the guest we have has talked about. Sometimes we pick topics independent of the interview. But always, we need to fill our hour with content, so we have to find something to talk about.
Once we have picked three topics, we write blogs on them. From those blogs we develop monologues that we record. Those recordings then become podcasts, and radio content. Then we go over the blogs, reinforce the points with quotes from experts, and expand on the thinking. We then submit those results as articles.

We usually record a couple radio commercials each show to promote our own businesses, or the business of our guest. Once those have been recorded, we frequently have the material to develop video advertising.

Now, there are many good services to submit through for free, and I'm going to name a few. The best for video is Tube Mogul, which will submit to 15 sites, once you have set them all up. However, a new favorite of ours is called Bubble Ply, which submits clickable links embedded in video to social networking sites all across the web.

For articles, we use Article Submitter, which yields marginal results, but it is the best we have found so far. For press releases, we love prlog.org, we think it is the best free press release service on the web. And finally, for Blogs, we get great coverage through Mybloglog.

All of these submission systems require some set up, and a few require a LOT of set up. However, just remember the payoff at the end. When you have a prospect on the telephone, and you are being asked tough questions about how well you do in your online opportunity, there is a very powerful tool you can fall back on to get through it.

Is it deceptive to have the prospect believe you are doing well when you are struggling? Not entirely. Remember, if you make the sale, you are telling the truth. So what it amounts too is positive thinking. And besides, the same will be true of the prospect if they just maintain the proper mindset.

Here are F & C's Links:
Do you like to travel? How would you like to make all your vacations a business expense?? Check out how !!
Ann Seig, the author of the book "The Renegade Network Marketer"
Our business homepage
Or Visit our Capture page
Our Press room
Frank & Cathy's Direct Matches Site
Shop online with Aisle 19 over 600 stores to choose from , and better yet get CASH BACK too !! Find all kinds of FREE things at Freebie Force You can Join Free
Check out this private invite from F & C
Video Links :
Check out all of our video's on UTube You can view all of F and C's videos here, please feel free to leave comments. ( Good comments we hope)
Blog Links:
Blogger.com
Mybloglog.com

There is a VERY important aspect of online marketing which sometimes even the most successful of marketers neglect. There is a significant portion of the online business community, which seems to believe that sales can be fully automated, and that no human contact is necessary.

In my view, this is a dangerous viewpoint, and a marketer pursues this route at his or her own risk. Undeniably, some sales will be possible this way, but the conversion rate will be quite low. A conversion rate, as you know, is the ratio of prospects to actual successful sales, and with a low conversation rate, the only way to really make money is with an enormous number of prospects.
This of course, opens the door to possibilities...if you can get enough website traffic, and enough opt-ins, you can close a lot of sales even with a low conversion rate. However, it is very obvious that with a higher conversion rate, you could be making much more money from that wonderful level of website traffic and opt-ins. No matter what level of website traffic you can generate, you NEED to push the conversion rate as much as possible.....get those interested people to BUY.

If you are really fearful of human contact, and possible rejection, and you can generate enough traffic to be successful with automated sales, then good for you. What I am about to say will not have any bearing on you.

But if you are interested in making as much money as possible from your efforts, you will need to find ways to get those prospects to actually decide that they want to be a part of your organization. Now, let me repeat that.....you will need to find ways to get those prospects to actually decide that they want to be a part of your organization. Notice that I did not say that you need to sell them on your online opportunity.

Let me explain briefly. All online opportunities are different, but they are the same in one respect. Each of them represents the potential to make money, as well as the potential to lose money. And in the final analysis, this is almost the entirety of what the prospect is really interested in. Yes, the product is important, and the prospect has to be excited about what they are doing, but bottom line is that if the potential to make money is not there, there will be no sale.

Further, all prospects are individuals, with different circumstances and different problems, but in one respect, all prospects are the same as well. Every one of them is convinced, somewhere inside, that they each have what it takes to make money in the online world, if they could just find the right fit.

And where those two commonalities intersect, we find the key to high conversion rates. It is not going to be the product, the compensation plan, the history of the company, the perceived market potential, the stellar qualities of the company’s founders, or what other people are doing with the business. Its going to boil down to how much the prospect believes in your leadership as the sales person.

What exactly does that mean? It means does the prospect believe that they can make money under your guidance. EVERYTHING ELSE becomes a secondary issue.

So, let us start bringing this thing in for a landing. It starts at one single point....trust. The prospect needs to trust your leadership...to trust in the concept that you can show them how to succeed. So, the key to high conversion rates is building the prospects trust in you.

Automated sales systems are NOT the way to build trust in the prospect. They can help, there is no doubt of that, and as I said before, that will be enough for a small percentage of prospects to buy. But there is no substitute for one on one, personal contact with the prospect. There is no better way to build trust in the prospect then to get them to know and understand you personally. And also to get to know and understand them personally...their needs, wants and desires. It’s critical that the prospect comes to believe that you want to help them meet that primary goal of making money on the Internet, and also that you understand and can solve their personal difficulties.

Once you have reached that point, nothing else matters....the prospect is ready to buy almost anything from you. But reaching that point is a process of relationship building, and that’s the point, which will separate the successful online business people from the unsuccessful ones. Some people are fearful of rejection, and fearful of relationships in general, and those people won’t be able to do the trust building that I referred too.

In reality, I actually enjoy building relationships with people. If it weren’t for the fact that I can actually help people with their problems, this business wouldn't mean very much to me. Each day that I spend mostly on the telephone, and writing emails, making contact with people, is a day that I consider well spent.

There are two important aspects of trust building. The first is availability, as I have said, but the second is authority, or expertise. Building an aura of knowing what you are doing is an art in itself, and that is NOT something I will be discussing....on any blogs or on the radio program either. In order to get that information, you will need to log into our home page.

Trust me.

Here are F & C's Links:
Do you like to travel? How would you like to make all your vacations a business expense?? Check out how !!
Ann Seig, the author of the book "The Renegade Network Marketer"
Our business homepage
Or Visit our Capture page
Our Press room
Frank & Cathy's Direct Matches Site
Shop online with Aisle 19 over 600 stores to choose from , and better yet get CASH BACK too !! Find all kinds of FREE things at Freebie Force You can Join Free
Check out this private invite from F & C
Video Links :
Check out all of our video's on UTube You can view all of F and C's videos here, please feel free to leave comments.
Blog Links:
Blogger.com
Mybloglog.com

In the past, I have talked a lot about the difficulties and problems in this industry, so I think its time for a little optimism. One of the most amazing and positive things about Internet marketing is the market itself.

The market is, of course, the people you market too, but even more positive than that, really is the sheer size of the market.

Our market is not Main Street in your hometown, or one end of the big mall. Our market is not the collection of people who read the yellow Pages, or who happen to be on a mailing list. Our market is not people scanning the local newspaper for classified ads, or people who happen to drive down a particular road. Our market is not people who enjoy a particular kind of music, or watch specific television programming.

Our market is the WORLD. Well, not quite the entire world, but that portion of the world that has access to the World Wide Web. Believe me, my friends, that is a large and growing number of people, and it stretches to every corner of the globe.

This is a wonderful thing for two reasons. Number one, the people who would like to make money at home, become their own boss and have a higher standard of living make up a HUGE number of people. People of every sex, race, creed, color, and national origin. Virtually everyone wants a higher standard of living. Beyond that, almost everyone believes that they are capable of running a business, and that they could do so better then the supervisor that they are working for.

These two beliefs form the cornerstone of our sales efforts, and the foundation of our success. These two desires are precisely what we are trying to fulfill with the online business we intend to present to this worldwide market. It is true that every individual is different, and that every one of them will react in a different way to our presentation, but rest assured, we have what the market wants.

There are other common beliefs that I have not mentioned, as well as a WIDE ARRAY of individual needs, as individual as the people themselves are. All of this works in our favor, as it provides us a greater and greater range of sales options, but the point is that it’s exciting to have such a huge marketplace to promote our opportunities too.

In addition, the second reason why the worldwide marketplace is a wonderful thing is economic conditions. The economic conditions of the United States of America is not as healthy as it once was, and not as healthy as it should be, And if the United States was our only marketplace, as it is in so many businesses, that would represent a serious problem. Fortunately, that is not the case for we Internet marketers.

For us, the United States represents only a fraction of our potential market. Now, do not get me wrong, it is a large and very significant fraction of our market, and one, which we cannot ignore. However, if the market in the United States drops off, we do have other alternatives.

And...That is not all of the good news. The fact is that if the economy worsens in the United States, more people will be turning to the Internet as a supplement to their current earnings strategies. It gives me little comfort to be profiting from other peoples misery, but it is a HUGE comfort to know that in so doing, I am providing them with a viable alternative to going broke.
I am opening that very same worldwide market to them. I am providing them with a pathway to success, a pathway to truly unlimited earnings potential. No, I am definitely not providing them with a guarantee of success; I do not think anyone can do that. I know I certainly cannot. Bu I am providing them with an option, an alternative, and a pathway to hope.

That is the worse case scenario anyway. It is entirely possible that the United States economy will turn around and avoid the downturn that so many experts are predicting. If that happens, we may not get the large increase in online business startups that I have been talking about. In that case, we will be relying on the steady growth of Internet commerce that is certain to continue throughout at LEAST our lifetimes.

As a percentage of the total economy, Internet commerce is still a small portion of the total picture. However, when measured year over year, the growth is nothing short of astounding.
It makes sense, doesn't it? As more young people mature and take their place in the total economic picture, they are individuals who have grown up using computers and the Internet all of their lives. These are people who have little or no hesitation tapping into the Internet for their entertainment, their social connections, their banking, comparing cars, apartment hunting, real estate, even dating! Therefore, it is natural that seeing the Internet as a way to make a living would be a natural thing for these people.

Have no fear, the Internet marketing industry will grow no matter what happens. The only real question is how fast. The other question is will you be in position to profit from all this growth. That is why F and C marketing was founded in the first place, to help new Internet marketers succeed.

Here are F & C's Links:
Do you like to travel? How would you like to make all your vacations a business expense?? Check out how !!
Ann Seig, the author of the book "The Renegade Network Marketer"
Our business homepage
Or Visit our Capture page
Our Press room
Frank & Cathy's Direct Matches Site
Shop online with Aisle 19 over 600 stores to choose from , and better yet get CASH BACK too !! Find all kinds of FREE things at Freebie Force You can Join Free
Check out this private invite from F & C
Video Links :
Check out all of our video's on UTube You can view all of F and C's videos here, please feel free to leave comments.
Blog Links:
Blogger.com
Mybloglog.com