I know I have readers who have more knowledge than I do, and others are probably just starting out trying to get their first venture off the ground and they only want basic tips. If I specifically catered to any one demographic, then the rest might become bored and stop reading. I know that when I started blogging, I wrote from the beginners perspective, because that was the level of entry that I was qualified to speak to… however, as my knowledge of the industry has increased, I’ve written about more sophisticated concepts and techniques.

Starting next week, I’ll be writing a Q&A series devoted to answering questions from my readers about internet marketing. I don’t presume to know everything on the subject… however, I do have a good amount of experience to draw on, and I’ve also made some friends in the industry who may be able to help out on difficult questions that I’m not able to answer out of experience.

Now’s your chance to get answers to your most important internet marketing questions!

If you’d like to participate, just contact me using my contact form. If you have any details that you want to remain private, please don’t include them in your question.

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Amateur marketers will sometimes fall into the trap of driving traffic directly to their sales page, and then be excited when their carefully crafted pitch converts two or three buyers out of every hundred. The problem with this mentality is that the sales page is failing to capture contact information for over 95% of the page visitors… and the marketer loses an opportunity to ever build a relationship with that person. This type of short term thinking will doom internet business owners who don’t understand the importance of building and filling the sales funnel.

Master marketers know that you can’t focus on the first sale. To build a successful sales funnel, you’ve got to understand one of the most basic principles in marketing, period… your customer may need to be exposed to your marketing message seven times before they’ll be willing to take action.

With that thought in mind, a good marketer would be kicking himself for focusing on landing the first sale at the expense of an opportunity to contact the reader multiple times… and possibly with multiple different offers!

What’s a squeeze page, and why do I want one?

A squeeze page is a page where you will drive your visitors so that you can capture their name, email address, and other pertinent information to your marketing campaign. After you’ve gathered that info, you can start to build a relationship with the visitor by following up with them with an autoresponder sequence that introduces and explains your marketing message. This is the time where you will present the sales page and give your visitor an opportunity to buy… they may or may not do so at the time, but you can always present your offer again later after you’ve spent more time building the relationship.

What are the main ingredients of a squeeze page?

A carefully crafted squeeze page will contain these critical elements:

• An attention grabbing headline - Something that captures your reader and compels them to look down the page.
• 4-6 teaser bullets - Build the suspense here without giving away any secrets… make your prospect want to opt-in after reading your teasers.
• The call to action - What do you want your prospect to do? Click for more info? Subscribe to a newsletter? Sign up for a teleconference?
• An opt-in form - This is where you’ll capture the contact information from your reader and get them into your sales funnel.
• An ethical bribe - Honestly, people have gotten tired of giving up their email addresses to marketers… it’s pretty much mandatory to give something away in exchange for contact info these days. Develop a product of your own, or offer something else which you have the right to give away as a trade. Popular things to offer are ebooks, videos, downloadable audios, or mini-courses.

Stay tuned for Squeeze Page Secrets!

Very soon, I’m going to offer a small package to my opt-in list subscribers called Squeeze Page Secrets… the package will include two sample squeeze page templates that you can use to create your own pages, and a 10 page report, appropriately titled, “Squeeze Page Secrets”. If you want to be notified immediately when the Squeeze Page Secrets package is ready, fill out this brief form and I’ll send you a free copy of Squeeze Page Secrets the minute it’s available!

Want to start your own newsletter? Sign up for AWeber’s email autoresponder service. You can manage your mailing list, schedule and broadcast messages, and generate opt-in forms for your site. AWeber is easy to use and has a 99.34% successful delivery rate.

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Thank your subscribers

This might sound like a no-brainer, but for some reason I rarely see bloggers tip a hat to their RSS subscribers. After you’ve convinced someone to subscribe to your feed, thanking them for subscribing is a great way to complete the connection you’ve just made… after all, if you had the opportunity to meet your readers face to face, you’d want to thank them personally for reading, wouldn’t you? The fact that feed subscribers can be anonymous online doesn’t have to deprive you of the opportunity to be courteous.

Present advertising

There are different schools of thought on monetizing your RSS feed, but if you choose to go that route, Feed Footer allows you to present ads at the bottom of your feed. If your subscriber count is high, you could consider selling ad space in your feed footer… John Chow sells text ads in his feed footer for $200 a month! Of course, you may not have 20,000 RSS readers like John does… if your subscriber count is low, you might have a hard time attracting paying sponsors. In this case, you could still monetize your feed by presenting targeted affiliate offers in your feed footer.

Offer bonus content

Special content that isn’t available to regular readers of your site might be a good way to encourage new readers to subscribe to your feed. You might think about putting a download link in your feed footer for an ebook (yours, or someone else’s that you have the right to promote). I’ve tossed around the idea of running a blog contest where the contest details are only available in the feed footer… people interested in the prize would have to subscribe to my feed to figure out how to win it!

What can you think of?

These are just three ways that you can use the Feed Footer plugin for Wordpress to juice up your feed. Have you got a neat idea or trick to share? Feel free to leave it in the comments!

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One thing that stuck with me the most was how many people knew who I was. I really wrestled with whether or not I should use my name as the domain for this blog, but because I have such a unique last name, it was easy for people to remember the time they had been over to read my blog!

Here are a couple of moments that I’ll always remember about Affiliate Summit West 2008.

Snapshot with John Chow at the Share-a-Sale party.

John’s reaction to seeing me at the invite-only event? “What, do they just let anybody in this thing?” Yeah, they sure do, John… read my blog and find out why!

Zac Johnson wasn’t so surprised to see me at the Share-a-Sale party.

I emailed him a week prior and told him I planned to kick the door down and crash the party to get a chance to meet him. Luckily for everyone, it didn’t come down to that… I scored my invitation about a half an hour before the party started.

I meet my favorite guest author, Michelle Gartner!

You can’t miss Michelle’s weekly Thursday articles on marketing. It was awesome to finally meet you, Michelle!

I make friends with Joel Comm!

Of course, this photo was taken before I won $50 in cash from a contest that promoted Joel’s Text Cast Live service. Looking forward to getting to know you better, Joel… I added your link to my blogroll.

Blue Man Group performance at Affiliate Bash!

The new BMG affiliate program launch was celebrated at Affiliate Bash in Tao nightclub at the Venetian Hotel. I recorded a minute or so of the performance from my digital camera.

I received over half a dozen job offers to work as a writer while I was at Affiliate Summit. I’m also following up on two different consulting jobs I was offered to assist with blog development and traffic building… it’s exciting to think that I might be considered for consulting work based on the credibility and strength of my own blog. If either of these jobs happen to pan out, I’ll be happy to share more about them.

Now? Sites set on Affiliate Summit East in Boston. ASE08 will happen in August, for those of you who might be interested in attending… this gives you tons of time to save your chips for a ticket, or you might consider going the press route. I’ll look forward to seeing you guys there!

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Jason’s speech showed promise as he talked about how early internet communities, such as Usenet, were ruined by over-aggressive marketers who introduced the very first affiliate spam… websites and links that were designed to make the affiliate money and provide very little value to the user. This type of marketing quickly alienated Usenet visitors, and the once vibrant community disappeared overnight. Jason went on to provide other examples of how people are gaming popular communities such as MySpace and Wikipedia with spam, because these communities allow anonymity and are therefore easier for spammers to infiltrate.

At this point, however, Jason turned his attention towards popular blogger/affiliates who publicly report their income, specifically displaying photographs of two affiliate marketers holding up six figure paychecks of affiliate income. Jason had this to say about these two marketers:

“You guys think small. Holding up a six figure check is just pathetic… is that your industry’s biggest success?”

Jason went on to say that he personally thinks that those same people who game search engines and social networks are among the smartest and most resourceful people he had ever met, advising them to “give up your life of crime and holding $100,000 checks… realize that you’re smarter than half the folks working at large internet companies and get to work creating the next Digg, StumbleUpon, Flickr, Google, or Paypal.”

Calacanis further said that affiliate marketers who pursue low effort/high reward models of making money on the internet were poisoning the web with affiliate spam. Of course, everyone is certainly entitled to their own opinion… but Jason’s semi-elitist view was insulting to a number of Affiliate Summit attendees that I spoke after the keynote. I also didn’t feel like Jason’s sour view of the affiliate marketing industry allowed much room for people’s own dreams or desires… I’m sure that many marketers would be thrilled to pull down six figures a year working from home!

All in all, this years keynote speech appeared to be the most memorable and controversial keynote in the history of the Affiliate Summit… it was definitely the talk of every table I sat at throughout the course of the event. While it certainly inspired a strong reaction from attendees, I personally didn’t find much of what Jason said from the stage to be very constructive. But hey… that’s only my opinion.

Have you tried Pepperjam Network yet? The next generation of affiliate marketing is here! Pepperjam Network is super easy to use and offers real-time chat with affiliate managers, industry leading tracking and reporting, and tools to suit both beginning and sophisticated internet marketers.

Download the WP Affiliate Pro plugin for Wordpress! It automatically translates keywords into affiliate links that you define… no HTML knowledge required.

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The “Meet Market” is a networking event that precedes the actual Summit, which starts tomorrow. After the Meet Market is a cocktail hour here at the hotel, and later tonight is the Share-a-Sale party at the Palms hotel. Apparently, the party at the Palms is by invitation only… however, I’m hoping to leverage my press pass a little bit and sweet talk my way into this exclusive event. Cross your fingers for me!

Monday is the first actual day of the Summit… the agenda for the day holds a keynote speech, two different breakout courses, a luncheon, and another networking party, Affiliate Bash at Tao, one of Las Vegas’s hottest nightclubs. There should also be time on Monday to explore the exhibit hall and meet some vendors and exhibitors.

On Tuesday, I’m looking forward to attending a panel called “Super Affiliate Strategies that Work”. John Chow and Zac Johnson, two marketers that I really admire, will be taking questions from the audience, so I’m excited to see the two of them presenting on the same panel together.

Stay tuned for pictures of the exhibit hall and the parties, plus blogging coverage of the breakout sessions and panels!

Have you tried Pepperjam Network yet? The next generation of affiliate marketing is here! Pepperjam Network is super easy to use and offers real-time chat with affiliate managers, industry leading tracking and reporting, and tools to suit both beginning and sophisticated internet marketers.

Want to start your own newsletter? Sign up for AWeber’s email autoresponder service. You can manage your mailing list, schedule and broadcast messages, and generate opt-in forms for your site. AWeber is easy to use and has a 99.34% successful delivery rate.

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Due to some major personal shake-ups, blogging has been slow this month at Chris Bloczynski dot Com (except for Michelle Gartner, who steams through faithfully, once a week on Thursdays… thanks a million, Michelle!). However, having been awarded a press pass to attend the conference, it’s time to get back to regularly scheduled blogging and get my head wrapped back around this exciting experience. No doubt, there will be plenty to write about during the event, and most likely for a week or two following!

So even though blog updates have been infrequent for a week or two, the details surrounding the trip to Vegas have actually come together pretty easily. Here’s an idea of some of the things I’ve been handling as I prepare for the event.

Plan for contingencies when you arrange your flight

The minute I made up my mind to make the scene at Affiliate Summit, I booked my flight. I chose a very early flight, giving myself a couple of hours of “just in case” time to accommodate traffic or flight delays… nothing would be more frustrating than getting jammed up at the airport and missing the opening hours of my first conference. You should always think about this, no matter where you’re traveling. If you’re early to arrive, then you can always try to get an early check in at the hotel, but getting delayed and arriving late will just send your mind spinning before the big day.

Stay at the host hotel

I’m staying at the Rio All Suites Hotel & Casino… the hotel that’s hosting Affiliate Summit. Even though I have a relationship at the MGM Grand from previous visits, staying at the hosting hotel is a good move. If I need to grab extra business cards or drop off an armload of schwag, I can pop right up to the room and do that instead of catching a cab and missing an hour or two of the conference. I suggest that you always choose to stay at the hosting hotel for convenience purposes, even if you’re inclined to stay somewhere else to save a little cash. You’ll probably find that your transportation costs back and forth will eat up any savings you think you’re getting by staying somewhere cheaper, anyways. Plus, if you stay somewhere besides the host hotel, you’ve got to wake up earlier to get ready and make it there on time… who wants to do that?

Bring business cards… lots

Affiliate summit is SOLD OUT. There were 2,500 passes available for attendees, and that’s not counting exhibitors, vendors, hotel staff, or cocktail waitresses (hehe) that you might want to make a connection with. I shared my views last month on why bloggers need business cards, and I specifically had Affiliate Summit in mind when I had them designed and printed. I’m bringing my entire box of 1,000 cards to Vegas with me… I figure that having too many would be better than underestimating and running out on the first day.

Be healthy!

I’m bringing multi-vitamins and protein shakes, and I’m going to be drinking water like crazy. Conference days can be long (and cocktail parties afterwards run even later!), so sleep might be a little scarce. I’m hoping to keep my edge by staying hydrated and keeping my body fueled with vitamins and protein bars so that I don’t tire out so quickly. If you can find an appropriate place to do it, boost your energy with a little stretching to keep the blood flow moving… this can help you avoid a mid-afternoon slump.

These are just a few tips that I think are important to share. I’ll pass on more as I work my way through the conference… in the meantime, does anyone have any conference travel tips to share in the comments?

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This weekend I will be actually meeting with Chris for the first time in person. He and I will both will be attending Affiliate Summit 2008 West in Las Vegas, February 24th- 26th. I feel very fortunate to be attending since this year’s conference is sold out. The only tickets now available are being sold on eBay. You might not know this, but after finding out Chris had applied for and been approved for a free press pass to Affiliate Summit, I immediately had to check out the Affiliate Summit website. When I saw all the great companies and speakers involved- I knew I had to attend as well. As I am writing this to you I have been receiving emails daily with opportunities to meet and greet both business owners and representatives from some of the other companies that will be in attendance. I am very excited about the prospect of meeting with so many companies and individuals in affiliate marketing and internet advertising- but did you know several years ago I didn’t enjoy networking?

Networking can be intimidating, not just for so called shy or introverted people. There are very few people I have found that have a lot of natural, innate confidence to just walk up to people and talk about their business or website. For some people it’s even very difficult to introduce themselves to others. Complicating this is the fact that when we do most of our work online- it can actually hinder our ability to effectively network and market our online business in person. However hard it might be for you to network offline it’s vital to the health of your online business.

If you recall from Chris’ Core Habits for Internet Marketers, Networking was #3 in his list. So, here are just a few tips I have learned over the years for better networking.

Be prepared to network wherever you are.

Networking opportunities don’t just happen at business events. Many opportunities to network occur when going about our day to day personal tasks outside of the home or office. Before going out in the world, think about your business and what you might say to someone with whom you might network with. It might seem elementary, but if you aren’t networking frequently it wouldn’t hurt to mentally rehearse what you might say to someone in regards to your business. Not only does mental rehearsal give you a clear plan of action- but it can help you over the hurdle of shyness or having a mental block when an unplanned networking opportunity occurs.

Have the necessary materials to network with you.

I can’t remember the last time I left my home without business cards. Too, my husband Jerry always has a stack of company brochures in the trunk of our car. Having materials with you at all times, insures that the person you contacted about your business can reach you or log on to your website in the near future. Not only does having marketing materials give your new contact a way to get in touch with you later, but handing out marketing materials can help you expound on the ideas you are verbalizing to the person you are networking with. This is especially important if you or the other person is pressed for time and the contact is brief.

When networking treat others as you would like to be treated.

Carefully listen to the person you are networking with it. People can tell when you are not listening to them or not interested in what they have to say to you. Reciprocate the interest they are showing you and your business. Don’t interrupt a person talking unless, you absolutely need clarification at that moment. Whatever you do please don’t rush the person through the conversation so that you can turn the focus to your business. Networking is about building trust in business and relationships- not about having your way and the last word.

There’s a vast wealth of information on the internet regarding networking. If you feel networking is not your strong point, it would be a great time to read up on networking or even public speaking. After reading more about business networking start putting what you’ve learned into action. First mentally rehearse what you might say about your business when networking. At the same time develop your print marketing materials to compliment your new skill set. Practice what you might say about your business on friends and family who are hopefully non-threatening. Graduate to small local groups and keep moving from there. Before you know it you’ll be making new connections and networking your online business to everyone you meet.

Get 440 PLR articles a month! Every article is written for you! Lots of bonuses included, like keyword research, potential affiliates, header images, and uploading software. This makes starting niche sites super easy! Limited memberships are available.

Have you tried Pepperjam Network yet? The next generation of affiliate marketing is here! Pepperjam Network is super easy to use and offers real-time chat with affiliate managers, industry leading tracking and reporting, and tools to suit both beginning and sophisticated internet marketers.

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This article was submitted by Michelle Gartner, of Gartner Web Development.

Last week I had the fortunate experience of having a vacuum cleaner salesman land on my door. This young man, though new to sales was quite the salesperson. He listened to what I had to say, had an inoffensive manner and seemed genuinely interested in my family. Needless to say he was winning me over. Now I really didn’t need a vacuum- especially a $2,000 one at that, but while he was talking I had begun to let the spender in me take over. I actually was mulling over my budget mentally and figuring out how much this would dent my wallet.

This particular vacuum had a million attachments, you could use it to unclog toilets, clean off fans, groom your pet- there wasn’t much it couldn’t do. I almost expected the salesman to tell me it cooked dinner. As you can imagine with all these features, it took a long time for the salesman to go through his entire pitch and show me every feature of this extraordinary vacuum.

At about forty minutes into his pitch, there was a knock at my door and his boss entered the scene. The boss had been sitting out in the cold, wondering what was taking so long. Once inside my house, I was informed that his boss is one of the top salespersons for this brand. Therefore the more experienced salesperson took over and launched into his pitch. After several minutes of him working the vacuum and laying down his sales pitch, I no longer enjoyed the intrusion. In my mind it felt like he was on autopilot and that I was just another prospect…

Going autopilot because we are enjoying some success is particularly easy to fall prey to in internet marketing. This happens for a variety of reasons- I believe the two biggest reasons we go on autopilot online are;

1. We no longer have the early enthusiasm we once had for our websites, blogs, or e-commerce sites.

2. Our analytics show rapid growth. We have increased visitors, RSS subscribers, or online customers buying our products or services. This leads us to believe we are doing things right and that there is no reason for us to adopt change.

When we find ourselves on autopilot online with our internet marketing we need to put on the brakes quickly and listen to what our prospects and customers have on their mind. I know it’s a difficult thing to “listen” online- but we do have plenty of resources that allow us to listen online. There are no excuses for alienating online visitors.

Here are some of the ways we can “listen” online;

• First of all always make sure you implicitly have permission to market to your targeted audience. Make sure it is easy to opt in or out of emails, both electronically or snail mail delivered newsletters, and other forms of sales communications.
• If you have a blog or forum that accepts comments read the comments carefully. If a commenter is asking for clarification or other help and it’s in your power to give them a quick response- do so.
• Use polls to monitor what your visitors are saying. Make sure they can comment or send you an email to further elaborate on why they voted for something.
• Make sure your website, blog, or e-commerce site has accessible contact information or customer service channels.
• Follow up with visitors and customers in a timely manner and hear them out.
• Attend networking opportunities in order listen to your visitors in person. Listen to other webmasters about how they listen to and engage their visitors.
• Brainstorm the ways- both simple and innovative that you can listen to and reach your online customers. No two websites will engage visitors in the exact same manner
• Advanced online marketers will want to develop and facilitate customer engagement or CE to better listen to and engage customers while building brand loyalty.

So, let’s wrap this up- did I buy the vacuum? No- I didn’t, I listened to the pitch given and felt like I was just another lead. One of the vacuum cleaner salesmen stated that he would be getting a vacation if he met a targeted sales figure. As you can imagine it didn’t leave me feeling too good to know I was just another prospective customer. Even less so when the more experienced salesman didn’t listen to what I had to say. No one likes to feel like they haven’t been heard – this applies both online and in person.

Are you really listening to your online visitors or are you on autopilot? If you know you are on autopilot, it’s time to snap out of it and listen to and engage your visitors. What can you do this week to better listen to your visitors? Check for accessibility to you or your company. Respond to comments and engage visitors in discussions. Find offline networking opportunities where you can listen to online visitors in person. In future posts we’ll shed some light on customer engagement and best practices.

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