Thursday, January 28, 2010

Micro Site and Membership Site Strategies

Hope all is well on your side of the screen. Like most of the
country, we're about to get clobbered with more bad weather,
starting first with ice and then snow. They predict up to an inch
of ice followed by 8-12 inches of snow. Funny thing is it was 62
degrees and sunny yesterday. I decided I best write this
newsletter before the power goes out. The power always seems to
go out the second the ice hits the trees and power lines, and I
am not looking forward to it. Last time we had weather like this
was in December 2007 and my wife was vacationing in Kauii while
my kids, my Mom and her dog camped out in my office with the
doors closed and fireplace roaring. For three days!

So the New Year has started off very busy for me. I was actually
very surprised. Leads came in from all over the world, not just
in Tulsa. I've begun working with some local start-up companies
who competed in the 2009 local SpiritBank Entrepreneurial Spirit
Awards. I was asked to be a coach during the final round of
reviews before the winner was announced, and I got a chance to
meet several cool new start-ups. I'll let you know about them in
the weeks ahead, but I am very hopeful that I will be able to
help them grow. It's exciting to work with fresh, new ideas and
many talented people.

Those of you who were subscribers last year know I spent several
months in 2009 talking about the top ten mistakes businesses make
with their web sites. Well, I just published an extended article
on this subject in MAGIC Magazine which is a full color print
magazine that goes out to about 10,000+ magicians around the
world. Yes, magicians need marketing advice, too! I added a
resource page that lists many tools that you can implement to
improve your site. I thought you mind find these resources
helpful, too, so here's the link to it:

http://www.schneiderman.net/resources.htm

I am receiving lots of emails from authors of niche ebooks who
want to know how they should promote their ebook. I use a rather
formulaic approach. First you get a domain that uses keywords
from the ebook title or topic. Then you build a micro site
focused on the topic and make sure it has a compelling sales
letter touting the features, advantages and benefits of your
ebook, and it should have attention-getting graphics including
the ebook cover.

Add an exit pop up to get non-buyers to subscribe to your
related newsletter and then start dripping them an email series,
one per week, that continues to tout your expertise, and provides
compelling reasons for them to return to your web site to make
the purchase. Support this effort with article publishing with
backlinks to your site, and publish a well written press release
that tells a good story and is not blatantly self-promotional in
nature.

Using this combined approach will typically enable you to recoup
your investment and begin to make a steady profit. Don't forget
to use FaceBook advertising to zero in on your audience. How much
for a turnkey solution for something like this? Probably around
$2,500.00.

There's another way to make money with your knowledge besides
trying to sell an ebook. Repurpose your content using video and
drip the content monthly through a subscriber-based membership
site. In this fashion, you can essentially sell the ebook,
chapter by chapter, month by month for multiples of the ebook's
selling price.

Look, most low end info products sell for $27.00 and upwards.
Which would you rather do: sell 100 copies of your niche ebook
during the course of a year or have 100 members paying you a $27.00
monthly fee to access the same information? Do the math. That's
$2,700.00 for every 100 ebooks you might sell, or that's
$2,700.00 every month for as long as your members subscribe to
your site.

So how do you build a membership site? There are many membership
software packages out there. I suggest Easy Member Pro:

http://www.cooltoolawards.com/software/business/easymemberpro.htm

It is available in two low-cost versions: a hosted version for
$27.00/month or $127.00 for an unlimited site license. I own an
unlimited site license version. My development and design
partner, Adeel Arshad, and I are working on launching our first
membership site and we're very excited.

Adeel and I met about 6 years ago and we worked together to
create many very cool software tools that can help make your site
more successful. Well, after talking about it for two years,
we've finally broken ground on our first membership site. We're
going to start selling all of the products we have developed with
reseller rights and private license rights. There will be two
levels of membership and PLR members will also receive discounts
on all of our services. We're very excited and hope to launch by
March. If you are interested in participating as a joint venture
partner and want to promote our site to your list and visitors,
please drop me a line at info@schneiderman.net. There will be a
generous affiliate program enabling you to earn recurring monthly
revenue. Let's make money together!

If you are interested in developing your own membership site, I
recommend starting with the Easy Member Pro package. It is
amazingly complete and very powerful. It does almost everything
the higher priced packages do and it is well documented and
supported, too.

If you need help customizing your membership site with custom
graphics or functionality, product shots, sales copy, anything at
all, contact me. We're currently working with multiple clients on
the creation and support of their membership sites.

And don't forget, there's no reason to re-invent the wheel when
it comes to graphics. There are a ton of ready-made,
professionally designed graphics collections available. Here's
the newest one that I like and use:

http://www.cooltoolawards.com/software/multimedia/imwebgraphicspack.htm

Wondering how you're going to survive this year? First, remember
you are not in control. Relinquish that concern to God. He will
provide a roof over your head and food in your belly. Things will
get better. Then calmly and honestly review your strengths and
weaknesses. What do you do best? What do you understand better
than the next guy? how can you combine your knowledge and
experience to create an info product or membership site to
generate monthly recurring revenue? I'm telling you -- there are
thousands of people out there doing it -- and you can do. Talk to
me. I've got your back.

Until next time,


Steven

P.S.: Have a friend you'd like to share this newsletter with?
Click the link to do so now:

http://getresponse.com/forward.html?x=a62b&m=9oz3&s=BM46r&y=w&

Micro Site and Membership Site Strategies

Hope all is well on your side of the screen. Like most of the
country, we're about to get clobbered with more bad weather,
starting first with ice and then snow. They predict up to an inch
of ice followed by 8-12 inches of snow. Funny thing is it was 62
degrees and sunny yesterday. I decided I best write this
newsletter before the power goes out. The power always seems to
go out the second the ice hits the trees and power lines, and I
am not looking forward to it. Last time we had weather like this
was in December 2007 and my wife was vacationing in Kauii while
my kids, my Mom and her dog camped out in my office with the
doors closed and fireplace roaring. For three days!

So the New Year has started off very busy for me. I was actually
very surprised. Leads came in from all over the world, not just
in Tulsa. I've begun working with some local start-up companies
who competed in the 2009 local SpiritBank Entrepreneurial Spirit
Awards. I was asked to be a coach during the final round of
reviews before the winner was announced, and I got a chance to
meet several cool new start-ups. I'll let you know about them in
the weeks ahead, but I am very hopeful that I will be able to
help them grow. It's exciting to work with fresh, new ideas and
many talented people.

Those of you who were subscribers last year know I spent several
months in 2009 talking about the top ten mistakes businesses make
with their web sites. Well, I just published an extended article
on this subject in MAGIC Magazine which is a full color print
magazine that goes out to about 10,000+ magicians around the
world. Yes, magicians need marketing advice, too! I added a
resource page that lists many tools that you can implement to
improve your site. I thought you mind find these resources
helpful, too, so here's the link to it:

http://www.schneiderman.net/resources.htm

I am receiving lots of emails from authors of niche ebooks who
want to know how they should promote their ebook. I use a rather
formulaic approach. First you get a domain that uses keywords
from the ebook title or topic. Then you build a micro site
focused on the topic and make sure it has a compelling sales
letter touting the features, advantages and benefits of your
ebook, and it should have attention-getting graphics including
the ebook cover.

Add an exit pop up to get non-buyers to subscribe to your
related newsletter and then start dripping them an email series,
one per week, that continues to tout your expertise, and provides
compelling reasons for them to return to your web site to make
the purchase. Support this effort with article publishing with
backlinks to your site, and publish a well written press release
that tells a good story and is not blatantly self-promotional in
nature.

Using this combined approach will typically enable you to recoup
your investment and begin to make a steady profit. Don't forget
to use FaceBook advertising to zero in on your audience. How much
for a turnkey solution for something like this? Probably around
$2,500.00.

There's another way to make money with your knowledge besides
trying to sell an ebook. Repurpose your content using video and
drip the content monthly through a subscriber-based membership
site. In this fashion, you can essentially sell the ebook,
chapter by chapter, month by month for multiples of the ebook's
selling price.

Look, most low end info products sell for $27.00 and upwards.
Which would you rather do: sell 100 copies of your niche ebook
during the course of a year or have 100 members paying you a $27.00
monthly fee to access the same information? Do the math. That's
$2,700.00 for every 100 ebooks you might sell, or that's
$2,700.00 every month for as long as your members subscribe to
your site.

So how do you build a membership site? There are many membership
software packages out there. I suggest Easy Member Pro:

http://www.cooltoolawards.com/software/business/easymemberpro.htm

It is available in two low-cost versions: a hosted version for
$27.00/month or $127.00 for an unlimited site license. I own an
unlimited site license version. My development and design
partner, Adeel Arshad, and I are working on launching our first
membership site and we're very excited.

Adeel and I met about 6 years ago and we worked together to
create many very cool software tools that can help make your site
more successful. Well, after talking about it for two years,
we've finally broken ground on our first membership site. We're
going to start selling all of the products we have developed with
reseller rights and private license rights. There will be two
levels of membership and PLR members will also receive discounts
on all of our services. We're very excited and hope to launch by
March. If you are interested in participating as a joint venture
partner and want to promote our site to your list and visitors,
please drop me a line at info@schneiderman.net. There will be a
generous affiliate program enabling you to earn recurring monthly
revenue. Let's make money together!

If you are interested in developing your own membership site, I
recommend starting with the Easy Member Pro package. It is
amazingly complete and very powerful. It does almost everything
the higher priced packages do and it is well documented and
supported, too.

If you need help customizing your membership site with custom
graphics or functionality, product shots, sales copy, anything at
all, contact me. We're currently working with multiple clients on
the creation and support of their membership sites.

And don't forget, there's no reason to re-invent the wheel when
it comes to graphics. There are a ton of ready-made,
professionally designed graphics collections available. Here's
the newest one that I like and use:

http://www.cooltoolawards.com/software/multimedia/imwebgraphicspack.htm

Wondering how you're going to survive this year? First, remember
you are not in control. Relinquish that concern to God. He will
provide a roof over your head and food in your belly. Things will
get better. Then calmly and honestly review your strengths and
weaknesses. What do you do best? What do you understand better
than the next guy? how can you combine your knowledge and
experience to create an info product or membership site to
generate monthly recurring revenue? I'm telling you -- there are
thousands of people out there doing it -- and you can do. Talk to
me. I've got your back.

Until next time,


Steven

P.S.: Have a friend you'd like to share this newsletter with?
Click the link to do so now:

http://getresponse.com/forward.html?x=a62b&m=9oz3&s=BM46r&y=w&

Monday, January 18, 2010

New Year - New Tools

Good day, and I hope the New Year has started off on the right
foot for you and yours. Here in Tulsa business has been brisk and
so has the weather. We're in the middle of a "hot" spell now of
pleasant 40-50 degree days with blue skies but just last week we
had a freak mini snow storm that caused many horrible car
accidents on the way to work.

Last time I wrote, I suggested it was time to make a plan for
2010. How is that coming along? Anything I can assist you with or
you need to talk about or brainstorm about? How can I serve you?

I'm trying hard to break new ground and break old habits. It's a
challenge for sure, and at times it is frustrating, anxiety
ridden, and excuses proliferate to encourage my procrastination.
It seems so easy to just try to limp along doing what you've been
doing even when you know continuing down that path is doomed to
certain failure. We need, collectively, to break our bonds with
the past and focus on the future. Here's some things that might
help you:

IM Web Graphics Pack:

Recently, I came across a great collection of web graphics that
you add to your web sites to create more impactful web pages and
stronger sales letters. If used appropriately between paragraphs,
supporting graphical elements can help move a visitor through
your sales letter more quickly and help drive home key points.
The more professional those supporting graphical elements look,
the better your message sounds, and the more credibility you and
your offer project. I suggest you take a look at them here:

http://www.resellerproducts.com/imwebgraphics/index.htm

ShoeMoney System:

There's a lot of Internet gurus out there. I tend to only follow
a few who are proven experts in key areas to eliminate redundant
information. I was recently introduced to somebody new who
greatly impressed me. While he does not have a product to sell at
this moment, in exchange for subscribing to his free newsletter,
he will grant you access to a series of videos he has made about
different marketing tactics.

I must confess, I've seen a lot of these guru sites and tend to
dismiss the majority of them. This guy is different, and I urge
you to run -- not walk or skip -- to his site and subscribe to
his newsletter just so you can gain access to these videos.

Right before I left town last Friday I invested about 20 minutes
to watch a video where he mentors a client through the use of
Facebook advertising. He opened my eyes to a world I never knew
existed. Having developed a jaded opinion about Google AdWords, I
never thought I would consider pay per click advertising again,
but his insight into how to use Facebook's advertising system is
great. His name is Jeremy Schoemaker and you can sign up for his
newsletter right here:


http://www.shoemoneysystem.com/its-coming/?c=jvopps


Until next time,


Steve

P.S.: If you know someone who might benefit from this newsletter,
please click the link below to share it:

http://getresponse.com/forward.html?x=a62b&m=9I2C&s=BM46r&y=e&

Tuesday, January 05, 2010

Time to Plan the Plan!

Happy New Year, my friend. Steve Schneiderman here, and boy, am
I glad 2009 is behind us. Surely things have to start getting
better, don't they? Let's face it: 2009 sucked for most of us. It
was a challenge just to get out of bed in the morning. I'm still
feeling the after effects and many of my friends are, too.

So do you have a plan for 2010? I hope so. Things always tend to
go better when you have a road map in hand. What's your plan? I'm
not talking some silly New Year's Resolution either. I am talking
about a solid plain to help get you and your company from Point A
to Point B.

Let's say your goal is to increase your annual revenue by X%.
Stating that goal is fine, but how are you going to realize that
goal? Saying it aloud may sound nice, but it is not enough.
What's the plan?

For 2009 my revenue was down by about 25%. For 2010, my goal is
to stop the bleeding and give myself time to heal. I'm going to
reset my revenue goal back to what I earned in 2008. I'm being
very conservative and realistic rather than project double the
revenue during troubled economic times. So setting a realistic
goal is the way to start planning.

I'm also raising my hourly rate by 33%, too, from $150.00/hour
to $200.00/hour with the goal of working less hours and shorter
days, so I will earn approximately the same revenue as I did two
years ago. That's one of my tactics for achieving my goal.

I've looked at what didn't work in 2009 and I'm avoiding wasting
additional time and money on those activities, most notably,
advertising through professional associations and trade shows.
Just doesn't work for me. Tried to tackle various niches last
year by joining associations in those niches with the belief that
business would come through networking and advertising to those
associations. I wasted $1,000.00 on that effort and countless
hours working the system and got nowhere. So avoiding what I've
learned doesn't work is also one of my tactics for achieving my
2010 goals.

I'm also going to focus my activities on larger clients. While I
will still do the small micro site every so often for fun, I will
focus on small to mid-sized companies who have a vacuum in either
marketing or operations. These people already have a level of
pain that I can fix, and they are willing to pay my rate without
argument.

I'm also doing more competitive analysis so I understand the lay
of the land better. In my backyard there are many consultants and
many claim to do what I do, but I've discovered very few of them
provide all of the same services. In fact, my combination of
skills and experience is actually a very rare combination. So
this tells me I can ask a premium for my services and target
larger clients who I know can afford me -- and need me.

I found a great tool for performing some online competitive
analysis. It's called WebComp Analyst by Jonathan Leger. It
enables you to save endless hours of search engine analysis by
quickly performing keyword searches and showing you those sites
that rank high for them. Not only that, it also does deep-link
analysis to show you the text links the sites use to help them
rank so high. Armed with this knowledge, you can tweak your web
site to out-perform your competitors in the organic search
results of the major search engines. Here's the review and some
screen shots of the tool in action:

http://www.cooltoolawards.com/software/utilities/webcompanalyst.htm

Continue thinking about your 2010 goals and your tactics for
delivering on those goals. If you want to bounce your ideas off
me, just send me an email to info@schneiderman.net. I'm happy to
help.

Until next time,


Steve Schneiderman

P.S.: Do you have a friend who might enjoy reading my
newsletter? Please pass it on! Click the link below to send them
a copy of this email:

http://getresponse.com/forward.html?x=a62b&m=JgSB&s=BMayh&y=z&