Solicit Feedback from Customers

Customer feedback is easily and cheaply implemented online. Sometimes something simple is killing your conversion rates and sales. Heat Map tracking combined with customer feedback can uncover a major flaw in the conversion chain. Feedback tools you can use include: SurveyMonkey, UserVoice and GetSatisfaction.

Prioritize Problems to get the Best ROI

A/B multivariate testing is a fancy name for making two pages and testing them against each other. The best way to get the most out of A/B testing is to identify a few big problems and then test a limited number of variations using Google’s website optimizer. Concentrate on solving the biggest problems. Increasing conversion rates by just 3% translates into real value overtime.

Using the tools mentioned above will give you the edge over most websites. Remember persistence and hard work are the basis of every successful business. On the Internet these tools just make all that work a lot more fun!

Google Analytics is Your New Best Friend

Google In-page Analytics is perhaps the best free tool for measuring your customer’s behavior. Google Analytics tells you when your customers are coming to your site, how long they are staying and what they are buying. Then it collects and tracks all this data for you over time. Using Analytics allows you to directly track and correlate website changes with sales. On the Internet making a sale is known as a “conversion.” Google Analytics is easy to implement and use. Google Funnels and Google’s Website Optimizer are also excellent tools that will help you optimize your website and increase your sales.

Beat the Competition with the Heat

Heat Maps are the next level in consumer tracking. Heat Maps are excellent for telling you all the things you can’t see with Analytics. Heat Maps use visual tracking tools placed within the site that show you exactly what your customers are doing once they get to your website. Click Density, CrazyEgg and ClickTale are some of the best Heat Map providers on the Internet. For example, ClickTale actually provides videos of your customer’s behavior making it possible to experience your website through a viewer’s eyes. An awkwardly placed action point is easily seen using Heat Maps.

I’ll have another post shortly with some more great tools.

Premise:  Savvy Internet Entrepreneurs vs. Corporate America.  These smart, young entrepreneurs are cream skimming the most profitable products and services away from the bottom line of Corporate America.  How are they doing it and how can corporate America position itself against such a threat?

Below are ten things Corporate America can learn from the new wave of Internet Entrepreneurs and Internet Marketing Firms.    It’s a classic David vs. Goliath story and David, armed with the latest tools, APPs, Websites and the reach and speed of the internet is quickly stealing market share away from Corporate America.

1.  Faster Product Creation. Internet Marketing entrepreneurs taught me an amazing concept.  They will interview me today, send the audio tape of that interview to India for transcription or even translation and have a completed transcription of the interview in their inbox by 7:00 a.m. the next  morning!   They immediately post that interview as an audio, video or Webinar online and are able to make money with it less than 24 hours after the initial interview.

2. CRM & Database Marketing. Corporations have invested millions of dollars in setting up systems and infrastructure.  They have invested in sophisticated CRM or Customer Relationship Management programs to manage every “touch point” with the customer.  Where there was once a huge competitive advantage in corporate America with their sophisticated CRM tools, it has all but disappeared.   While firms invested tens of thousands in complicated CRM products, the technologies of today allow small 1 and 2 person firms to compete by efficiently and quickly meeting the demands of the customer!  They use software such as InfusionSoft, Constant Contact or aWeber and have most of the CRM functionality that your CRM product delivers for a small fraction of the cost.

3. Technology Savvy: Internet entrepreneurs use technology at every level of their company – even if they are a one person company working from their apartment.   Many have nothing more than a laptop, a cell phone and an apartment.   Sorry, some have no cell phone and borrow a friend’s laptop.  Add to that a digital camera and knowing the right websites to help them create a simple website (or sell products via their Facebook or Twitter Page) and they are armed and ready to go to market!   As the former Ma Bell executives will attest to, an alarming number of these young people don’t even have a home telephone anymore electing instead to use their cell phone for all communications.

4.  Cellular Phone and PDA Savvy. I have 5 teenage daughters, and I learned the hard way- talk to any person under the age of 25 and you see they often can’t talk for a long period of time without turning to their PDA or cell phone for one reason or another.  These young people are ALL comfortable with surfing, texting, buying and communicating via their PDA – and do these things much more often than using a phone to make a phone call.    My daughters and their contemporaries all grew up with these ever changing and evolving instruments and utilize Facebook and Twitter to share new ideas and the latest “cool APP” on an hourly if not minute by minute basis.  They are also not afraid of change, which is often a hurdle for those of us “set in our ways” or many large corporations with set practices and old school methodology.

5. Sell Your Products or Someone Else’s: Internet Entrepreneurs learn quickly.   They have learned that the best time to increase their margins is to do it at the time of sale.  Hence, they sell, upsell and cross-sell when that first order is being taken.     They have learned that once a sale is made, they get that name into their database, which is often more valuable than the product itself.  They are coded as a “buyer” and then the real fun begins- finding ways to get more blood from the turnip.  Savvy Entrepreneurs either create more products to sell, private label someone else’s product or service or have an “Affiliate” relationship with another website or service provider where they receive a commission for the sale and have zero investment at risk.

6. Outsourcing, Less Infrastructure & No Risk: Most internet based firms have far fewer people and infrastructure than traditional firms.  They often turn to Websites like 99Design.com for logo, graphics and website creation, and Guru.com or eLance.com for outsourcing any number of tasks such as accounting, bookkeeping or even virtual assistants.  Smart entrepreneurs often have ZERO inventory and sell online from nothing more than a photo.  Once the sale is made, they often have the product “dropshipped” directly to the buyer and pay the supplier 30 days later eliminating any inventory risk.

7. Quick Answers & Surveys:  While a corporation could take weeks or months to choose the best name for a product or the best headline for an ad, savvy internet entrepreneurs will take the different names or headlines today, run ads on Facebook or Google AdSense tonight and have hundreds if not thousands of “clicks” that show them which ones worked best and which ones failed the next morning!     Many turn to sites like SurveyMonkey.com or SurveySpot.com or post the questions to their internet marketing friends on their Facebook or LinkedIn page to get answers quickly to their marketing, advertising, promotion or sales questions.

8. Digital Based Products.   Many internet based marketing firms create and/or sell digital based products and services.  They turn to firms like Clickbank.com to manage such offerings.   With a digital based product, these sales machines have almost no cost of sales so the item can have a 50%, 60% even an 80% commission to the selling firm or website!    Clickbank.com manages that offer, sends the buyer their commission then sends the seller the difference less a small fee for handling the transaction.

9.  PayPerClick and LeadGen.  These entrepreneurs quickly become experts in how to make a sale or get leads via the internet.    They are savvy in how to use search engines like Google and Yahoo or sites like Facebook and YouTube to get large quantities of highly targeted leads at a very low cost.      These entrepreneurs don’t spend much money to learn the game, know how to get the leads inexpensively and convert those leads into sales quickly turning prospects into clients.   Of course, they also know that the moment they sell them something, that buyers name goes into the database and from then on, that customer will receive offers for a slew of products and services the entrepreneur hopes to sell them in the future.

10. Domain Names and Keywords -  FACT #1 -  “Domain Names are Internet Real Estate”.    FACT #2 – Marketing via the internet is driven by “Keywords.”   Many marketing executives have figured out that instead of continually buying the proper Keywords for their internet marketing efforts, they also buy a host of related domain names for their products, services or industry category and simply point those eyeballs or “traffic” to their website.   Think of it this way.  How many sales a year does your firm need to make to pay for a $7.95 domain name?    Consider buying as many “keyword centric” domain names as you can find in the marketplace and if you get the opportunity to buy a one or two word, “generic” domain name for your industry like MutualFunds.com, Photographer.com or BeautyProducts.com, you might want your accounting department to run the numbers because the firm gets 100% of the traffic, it can depreciate the asset and best of all, by owning the digital asset (domain name), the firm keeps its competitors from getting that customer.

Now that you have some buzz built up about you and your charming handmade goods, get yourself and your website set up with a shopping cart service and start posting there, let your former customers know about your new store.  Be sure to keep posting items on etsy because that will generate new customer’s to your personal store.  Keep your customers happy, send items quickly.  Maybe even start a twitter account that will let your followers know when you have a new product line out.

Maybe some of you are thinking, ‘great idea Marc, too bad I’m not crafty.’  Use one of my other Get Rich Click techniques: hire your weakness.  This doesn’t necessarily mean you have to spend money.  Almost everyone has a crafty sister, mother, aunt, brother, friend …  You get the idea, don’t let hurdles stop you, hurdle them!

From a fellow Get Rich Click member:
At my High School in suburban Colorado we had a Belgian exchange student by the name of Benji, he was and is one hell of a guy. Very smart and very observant. I visited him in Belgium back in 2007 and stayed at his parent’s house. I noticed that he had his eBay account opened up on his computer. At the time I was quite the little eBay salesman myself so I asked what products he was moving. Benji cracked a smile and described to me his DIY drop shipping model. He was selling on eBay Belgium Chinese MP3 players, the knock-off ipod variety at the rate of about 4 or 5 a day, I forget what he was charging but it was something in the neighborhood of 30 Euros. Having done a bit of Chinese electronics importing myself I asked him who his supplier was and what the minimum order quantity was, he then told me his great trade secret. Benji had noticed that the price of “almost ipods” on Hong Kong ebay was way less than they were in his country, so he began listing these Chinese products without ever having bought them! As soon as one sold on his account he would quickly get onto eBay Hong Kong and purchase the product and have it shipped to his buyer in Belgium! He never touched a product, but was making money hand over fist, just because he kept his eyes open and noticed price inequities in the global auction market!

The Internet is growing at an alarming pace, and with that growth comes enormous opportunity—opportunity that is available to everyone, regardless of background, education, and experience.

While that statement is absolutely true, in reality only a small number of people will pursue that opportunity. Far fewer will achieve success as online marketers.

And of course, everyone wants to know why—what is it that successful Internet marketers do? What mistakes prevent so many others from becoming successful online?

In our years working with thousands of vendors and affiliates within the ClickBank network, it’s become clear that the most successful Internet marketers share something far more fundamental, and much more powerful, than effective marketing strategies.

They share a mindset that allows them—propels them, even—toward success.

Here are the 9 fundamental traits of the success-oriented mindset shared by today’s most effective online marketers:

• They work hard. To be successful online, you don’t need a university degree, or even a resume.  But if you’re just starting out, you do need to be prepared to work really, really hard. It can be very rewarding, but it is hard work. The fact is, fifteen new vendors launch on ClickBank everyday, and most of them don’t make it because they treat online marketing like a field of dreams, believing in the idea that if you build it, buyers will come. That’s not how online marketing works. Yes, there are a select few who can vacation while making huge online profits, but those people can afford that lifestyle now because they put in a huge amount of work upfront to achieve that success.
• They follow their passion(s). Enjoying your work is something most people aspire to, but pursuing your passion can also translate into good business. The most successful online vendors are passionate about what they do. That passion is critical to success, because if you’re going to work this hard, you need that passion to keep you motivated.
• They persevere through hardship. Most successful affiliates and vendors have failed several times. Instead of allowing failure to discourage them, they use it as a learning experience. The knowledge they gain is valuable, and their ability to persevere through hardship allows them to continue working toward the success they eventually achieve.
• They seek out information, and enjoy learning. Whether it’s reading articles, networking, or attending industry events, successful marketers understand the power of information. The Internet is constantly changing, so even very experienced online marketers constantly seek out new knowledge. Rather than seeing learning as a chore or a threat, they appreciate and enjoy the opportunity to get advice from peers, improve their strategies, and find new ways to grow their business.

Find out the other 5 traits of successful marketers in the next volume of Get Rich Click with ClickBank. Or for more articles involving out partnership with ClickBank go to www.getrichclick.com/withclickbank

2. While I was doing the final edits for this very page, The New York Times ran a major article about Ethan Nicholas and his wife Nicole who were having trouble making their mortgage payments and medical bills. Nicholas heard about Steve Demeter and decided to write an iPhone app himself. The 30-year-old had zero experience in iPhone apps but years of java programming experience. After six weeks of working “morning, noon and night,” he created an iPhone application called iShoot.  The first day, the $4.99 app made $1,000, and he thought he had won the lottery. The second day, $2,000. The third day, he made $5000, and this earning level persisted for several weeks. Then he retooled the app and gave out a “free” version with fewer features but with an upsell to a paid version. So far, he has earned $800,000, called his boss and quit his job. He plans to “milk the gold rush as long as I can.”

3. A Greek entrepreneur and two of his friends invested a week of their time and created an iPhone app called iSteam. It makes the face of the iPhone look like a fogged up bathroom mirror. They made $100,000 in 90 days.

4. Bart Decrem created Tap Tap Revenge, a music rhythm game, and within two weeks of release hit the 1 million download milestone. The game was free to download, and Decrem looked to finance his application through advertising and a premium paid version of the game.

The iPhone and Apple’s Development Kit open the market to those who would like to Get Rich Click; you don’t need substantial capital, simply talent and time. Many liken the iPhone landscape to the early days of the Internet, when excitement was high and the sky seemed the limit.

Remember, if you want to have an iPhone app created, get competitive bids at iPhoneAppQuotes.com.

You might also ask your friends and family to buy from these links. It’s a great way to start to profit from the Internet immediately. Be aware, however, that some merchants have restrictions on this type of buying. Make sure you read the fine print on your affiliate agreement.

Generate more income per sale by choosing affiliate programs that pay higher commissions. Some of the categories that pay the most include:

• Loans
• Surveys
• Insurance
• Casinos
• Credit card sign ups
• Financial
• Digital products offered at ClickBank