John Cow dot Com » How To Make Money Online

Prune & Water Your Money Tree – How to Make More Money Without Increasing Traffic

Jason Katzenback — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 10:29:32 +0000

To which you react with horror and suspicion….

How could it be possible to increase my sales without driving more people to my site?

And the answer to that is simple:

convert more of the visitors that are already visiting your site!

Yes. Mr Cow, you say, that would be great. But do you have any actual helpful tips to, maybe, you know, help me do that?

At this point I realize that my imaginary reader is quite sarcastic today, and I might want to lighten up, because it obviously says something about my own issues.

Anyways, fear not, imaginary reader, because I certainly do have advice for you on how to improve your conversion rate without spending money on additional traffic.

The secret is: make simple changes to your website to improve its overall performance. The best part about this is, unlike buying traffic, which is a short-lived benefit (i.e. only for as long as you’re paying for it) the changes you make to optimize your conversion rate is the gift that keeps on giving.

The first thing that you need to do is figure out your list of priorities, and I can’t tell you what these should be. Look at your metrics, and find out if there’s an obvious place to start – i.e. a page where the drop-off rate is drastically higher than anywhere else on the site. If there is, then start with that page. If there isn’t an obvious place to start, then I would start with your checkout process and work out from there.

You need to identify where people abandoned the buying process, and try to figure out why. Go over those pages. Is there something that would turn a buyer off, or lose trust in you as a seller. Are you asking for too much information, or is the buying process not transparent? Look at things from a buyer’s point of view – what do you look for when you’re buying something?

Here’s a list of simple things that are easy to do that could help improve your conversion rate, without much effort on your part:

Make sure your ‘buy now’ button looks like a button
You’d be surprised how many people miss this. Your purchase button should be the most prominent thing on the page, and make sure that it’s obvious that it’s a button.

Give security assurance at the point of purchase
People want to know that they’re buying in a secure place, and that your site is a safe place for them to buy. Don’t assume they’ll see the https://, tell them about it on the page.

Make sure you’re providing what your ad promised
Even if you’re offering the same thing, if you word it differently, people may think that you’re not proving what the ad promised. (Eg. – Ad says buy one, get one half off! Website says buy 2, get 25% off both! It’s the same thing, but it sounds like a different offer.

Be clear about the whole buying process if it includes multiple steps
People don’t like thinking that they’re almost done, only to have to keep filling out page after page. By letting your customer know how long the process will take, and what information they will give and get at every stage, they’ll be less likely to drop out in the middle of the process.

Be clear about shipping charges as soon as possible, if you have any
If you’re shipping out physical product, let people know what the shipping charges are before the final checkout screen. Surprise shipping charges are the cause of a lot of mid-checkout abandonment’s.

If you’ve already done all these things, then great. Start testing other elements to see what else you can do to improve you conversion rate. If you haven’t then start now! The true benefit of these improvements is seen over a longer period of time, so the longer you wait, the less money you’ll be making.

How To Do It: Indirect Marketing

Jason Katzenback — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 11:54:07 +0000

This post is written by Mattaw of Moneybites.com and BlogGears.com. Moneybites shares tips, tricks, and ideas to make money online.

Indirect marketing is a great way to get some excellent promotion and coverage on websites or blogs. It is a type of creative marketing that is cheap BUT very effective.

What is indirect marketing?

Indirect marketing is when…

“products and services are sold through third part distributors (versus direct marketing)”

I’m not talking in this case about selling products or services through a third party though. Instead, I’m talking about getting your product or service promoted by using the help of a third party to get at the place where you want the promotion to occur.

How to do it

Indirect marketing can be done fairly simply. The first step you need to take is researching your target. Find out about friends and family (family is best) and their habits. Next send the friend or family your promotion along with a promotion for the person you want to target.

What this does is gets the friend talking to the target about your company, and your target is already happy because they got something for you. Also, it can show the target that you cared enough to do some research and be kind to people around them (if they look at the indirect gift first as well).

For example, if my target was Mr. X, I’d research Mr. X first and find out everything about him (in this case let’s say he has a son). I’d then send Mr. X a promotional package along with something extra for his son. What this would do is get his son on your side (he just received a gift out of the blue) and get the target thinking about you. Mr. X might be so impressed (or nagged crazily by the indirect person) that he may give me some exposure on his website or blog.

A real life example

John Chow (yeah, I know a lot of examples involve him), at one point received a promotional package from MarketLeverage (A CPA company). Inside this package was a host of stuff for his daughter as well as a few treats for John.

What MarketLeverage did here was appealed to John’s fatherly sense and also did something nice for a loved one. In response (and probably motivated slightly by the kindness), John wrote about it on his blog, not too shabby.

This is a classic example of indirect marketing. They appealed to someone close to the target and as a result got the promotional “bang” they wanted.

Wrap up

Indirect marketing can really help you make some “noise” for your product. It can get people talking if done right and really get you some good exposure. So, before your next marketing attempt, find a website you like, do a little research and perhaps extend a well thought out promotion attempt to the webmaster and owner (and the indirect target). You might just get the “bang” you’re looking for.

So what are your thoughts about the idea of Indirect Marketing?

Planning Contest Criteria – Part 5 of AnAudLife dot Com

Jason Katzenback — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 00:02:34 +0000

In the previous post “Planning a Contest to Get the Buzz Going” we talked about deciding on what the best prizes would be for your market and today we are going to talk about planning the criteria that participants are required to perfrom to be entered to win.

One of the challenges of holding a contest is how do you make it viral so it gets loads of attention. People that enter the contest usually do not want to talk about it with others since it will decrease their chances of winning. With http://www.anaudlife.com, my goal of the contest is to get exposure for the blog and in order to do that I want the contest to encourage participants to talk about the contest in other places and personally I am a fan of the “Ticket” system for allowing participants the opportunity to earn more chances to win by spreading the word.

There are many people who are not big fans of the multi ‘Ticket’ system but the problem is if you have a new blog and you do not already have a significant reader base, having a contest or giveaway that is just a simple “subscribe”, is not going to get you any extra exposure.

Now do not get me wrong, contests with simple one step registrations can be very successful but you need to already have lots of traffic coming to your site to take advantage of it.

For our case study blog we are going to use the multi ‘Ticket’ system and now we need to plan out the criteria.

This can prove to be somewhat of a challenge for people, especially in non “IM” (internet marketing) related niches. One of the great things about the IM niche is you can be pretty sure that most people in the market own a website or blog, have accounts at social networks, know what digg, twitter and squidoo are and the list goes on and on.

You need to be able to take advantage of systems that the sites market will be familiar with and it can not be done in such a way that would appear to be spamming someone. One thing you will want to consider is providing small little video instructions of each criteria that your readers may not be familiar with, this way you can help those that want to participate but do not know how.

Criteria 1: Subscribe to RSS feed via email: This is the top thing that I want people to do. Getting someone opted in to the sites list means repeat traffic. It is important that you also mention that they must remain opted into the list in order to win.

Possible optional criteria:

The optional criteria are the extra things the participant can do to get more chances to win. You will want to award points based on effort and so something that is very easy to do would earn a few points but something that is more difficult would earn more points. Before you worry about the points however, you need to figure out what optional steps to use. Some ideas for our case study blog is…

Vote for Video on YouTube: We would need to create a video about the site but most people know what Youtube is and it would be easy to make a quick video about how to vote the video up and comment on it.

Facebook and or Myspace: You can be pretty sure that a lot of people are familiar with these sites and have accounts at one or both of them. You can create a group or page and have them join and write on their wall about the contest.

Content Creation: Some people love to write and you could have them create content for you that you can use. Ask them to write a 400 word article about your contest and blog, you can then submit this article to a site like ezinearticles.com to get some exposure. You can even offer to link to their site with the article as well, this way you both get a good quality backlink.

Link to Your Blog: I can guarantee you that the majority of your readers will not own a blog but a lot of them will have some way of adding a link to your blog. It never hurts to ask.

Stumble the Page: This is one of those things that a lot of people will not have accounts with but you can provide instructions and hope for the best.

Comment on Other Blog: This one you need to be careful with and provide detailed instructions but is an easy way to get some links via comments. Explain that the comments must be worthwhile and relate directly to the post they are commenting on and are not to enter a link in the comment but simply enter your sites name and url in the asked for comment fields. Make sure that the blog they comment on is at least remotely related to your market.

Cow Brained Idea –> Hmmm…. thinking outside the box here but maybe you could get a little script made that you prefill with blogs you would like them to comment on and the post randomly shows one for them to comment on. Damn I think I am going to get that made… it is freakin genius bwa hahahaha.

Once you have decided on the criteria you are going to use, you will then need to figure out the point values.

Your Help is Wanted –> What other ideas do you have… please comment below and share other possible ideas you have for a non IM “arthritis” blog.

In the next post of this series, I am going to about protecting yourself with your contest.

Part 1 – Planning Your Promotion Strategy
Part 2 – Understanting the How and Where of Your Promotion Strategy
Part 3 – Planning the Subscriber Traffic Strategy
Part 4 – Planning a Contest to Get the Buzz Going
Part 5 – Planning the Contest Criteria
Part 6 – Protect Yourself Before You Start a Contest
Part 7 – Rule of the Contest Prize Delivery

Get Off The Make Money Online BandWagon & Make a Fortune!

Jason Katzenback — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 17:26:06 +0000

I need to be completely honest here and I am just going to say it like it is. If you are just starting out online and want to create a blog and choose to create a ‘Make Money Online’ blog… you are missing the BIG PICTURE!

When I started online I did absolutely nothing in the “Online Business” niche… instead I had websites on health, parenting and so on. The reason I got into this business (Make Money Online) is because 3 years ago we were able to take what we were successfully doing with our business and teach others how to do it successfully… and we made a lot of money doing that. It was also what made me realize that I LOVE to teach people about running a business online –> “It is my passion”. This is why I jumped at the opportunity to buy JohnCow… i wanted to have a blog like this for over 2 years now.

So, when I see someone that is working for minimum wage and has no clue about Making Money Online and wants to start a blog and immediately jump on the bandwagon because they see that some others are making money here it frustrates me to absolutely no end.

If you want to make money online then you need to get this through your head right now…

“FOCUS ON WHAT YOU ARE PASSIONATE ABOUT HELPING PEOPLE WITH”

Since i have taken over ownership of JohnCow, I have walked through building two blogs with you and I hope you notice that neither of them had anything to do with the MMO (Make Money Online) niche.

OK, now I do not want to sound like a hypocrite but Yes there is money to be made in practically any niche.. including the MMO niche but it is a lot harder if you are not passionate about it.

Want proof… well I will show you proof.

I just got off the phone with a guy whose name I will with-hold until a little later (just because I want to make this fun and interesting), but I called him because I recieved an email from a reader of JohnCow who wanted me to check something out… and DAMN am I ever glad I did. This is exactly the type of stories I love because it backs up exactly what I want people to understand.

You see this guy (lets call him Mr X for even more fun.. oh and he was recently featured in Young Money magazine, so if you are bored you can probably figure out who he is) tried doing this the way others were doing it… not following his passion but following what looked to be working for others.

Well guess what???

That was going no where!

Then suddenly he decided to follow something that I preach over and over again…

“Make a plan and MAKE IT YOUR OWN PLAN”

Mr X decided that he was going to follow his passion and put a plan together that was modified to be completely his own plan.

NOTE –> This is so important to understand that it is not that he did not listen to others but he took from others what he wanted to and made it into his own plan. Do not take anything I give you here at Johncow as the one and only way… you need to look at it as a guideline and modify it to be your own personal plan.

So how has this worked out for Mr X?

Well 4 months ago he made $9,000 in one month, then the next month $15,000, then last month $45,000 and with less then half of this month gone through he is already at $30,000 (looks like a $60,000 + month for him)

Want to know how he did it and how you can do it?

Well I am going to be doing a podcast with Mr X on Monday and I will reveal all about it them. His name, website and everything. I promise, there is nothing to buy, nothing to opt in for or anything. This is purely 100% content and I am doing it to prove to you that following your ‘passion’ and making your ‘own’ plan works!

So, What Questions Do You Got for Mr. X?

(the call will not be live but will be recorded and uploaded this coming Monday… so please ask away)

Oh there is one catch… I m going to be getting a written transcript of the call but that will only be made available to those that are subscribed to JohnCow via email and I promise you this is going to be KICK BUTT content!