Permission Marketing: Turning Strangers... By Seth Godin

According to Seth Godin, author of 'Permission Marketing' and VP of Direct Sales at Yahoo!, "The Internet is the greatest Direct Marketing medium ever invented."

While not many would argue with that, most people and websites are not making a dime yet. They're in the hole instead.

How many people do you know, personally, who have taken the time and money to set up their websites, then sit back and fervently hope and pray that they'll attract visitors and maybe even sell something?

Then after mom and dad, nobody else comes. Nobody told them they'd have to 'market' their website. Oops!

According to Godin, who specializes in direct marketing online, there are some 50 million visitors surfing the web everyday. That sounds like a lot, right? However, there were 2 million (!!) corporate Web sites up and running in 1999 (when he was writing his book). That means on average, there are 25 people per web site per day. Kind of like having 8 million TV networks instead of just 10 for you to choose from every night. Picture it. Think of the remote control you'd need (!).

And since it's costing all those companies (including lots of home based business people) about US$1 Billion to create, maintain and update their websites, according to Godin, you can see why almost nobody's making any money. Not with just 25 visitors available, on average, per day, for each website.

Now, you can guess the internet stats, yes? What % of the sites get the big traffic? Yup. Less than 1% of the websites get nearly ALL the traffic. Think Yahoo! or America Online, grabbing millions of those precious visitors every single day. Versus maybe yours, with 3 or 6 or even 25 visitors (not counting you). How can you make money on the internet, then?

So much for the bad news.

The good news is that your goal online is something you're familiar with as a Ms. Stud fan: find people for whom your business/product is the right thing to be doing and taking/using. No one else. Remember that? And to MAKE THE RIGHT ONES OF THEM COME TO YOU. Remember that too, yes?

Get this stuff if you need to review how this principle works in your business.

Well, we've discovered that we have big friends who agree with us totally, and who can show you how to do that very thing online.

Patricia Seybold, author of the Wall Street Journal best seller 'Customers.com' says that of the '8 Critical Success Factors' for marketing online, #1 is:

'Target the Right Customers.'

If she has to tell readers across the US to target the right customers, you can bet you're not the only one who's been getting the wrong people. Lots of people, in all kinds of businesses, have been.

And, she points out that the percentage of 'right ones' FOR ANYONE'S business is a tiny fraction of the total people out there. But, because the total numbers 'out there' are so big, if even just 1% of say, 5 million people, want your product or service, that gives almost anyone enough income to be more than comfortable. Figure it out. How much would you take in if 50,000 people (1% of 5 mil) bought your stuff?

So now, how do you find those right ones, in your lifetime, without being choked by the great mass of 'wrong ones'?

Well one (of several to come in next issues) outstanding source of internet marketing strategies is someone who's now a guru of marketing your business online, and, of helping you make money marketing the good things of others, online. I have reviewed this expert's entire site (on my Favorites list) more than once, and have bought and used all of his materials. His course, two fat binders, and now a CD, well, I consumed it like a ravenous beast two years ago. Every other page is highlited. By me.

This self-made, wildly successful entrepreneurhas an extremely useful and thought provoking website, which all by itself, taught me more about internet marketing that I ever thought I could process when I first started out online. Know that I am not a computer person. I had to read 2 baby books about how to even read the 'real' book which described in painful detail how to set up a website. Took me 3 months, day and night, to get that first one up. I survived that process in part because of this guy's insights. So I unashamedly offer them to you.

Be prepared for a treat of goodies, tips, and well kept secrets from the internet marketing world that teach you how to market your own business, AND shows you how to find and market products and services of OTHER people that work, for which those people will pay you commissions. Just like Amazon.com has done so successfully for its Associates and Affiliates programs. Every page has a wonderful insight or surprising tip you can do right now.

By the way, did you know that Amazon.com now has over 350,000 Associates/Affiliates who refer business to them? It is the singular strategy, they say, that has made them the #1 internet retailer in the world. Who wouldn't want to recommend a good book or CD to a friend and get paid a little for it? Now everyone does it. And no one ever hears no. Only the ones who want to do it, do it.

Where have we heard this before? Amazon.com and the rest of the web's companies with affiliate programs have become a giant networking business that's one (sometimes two) levels deep. What a wonderful way to earn income online. And this man's site, will show you, step by step, how to do it! Plus all of his online tips are free!

P.S. The site, Insider Secrets to Marketing Your Business on the Internet, gets over 5 million visitors a year. Online sales are over US$3 million a year. And he tells the most wonderful things you could want to know about how to do it. Plus, not a word is over anyone's head, regardless of how computer illiterate you think you may be.

So, go there, review and enjoy, and report back.

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