Breaking into the international marketplace can catapult a company into increased profitability and growth more rapidly than when selling to a domestic market.

But how do you market your company successfully to overseas buyers? What can you do to provide the right information to prospective clients that is informative and engaging? How can you stand out from the crowd?

The most common promotional approach is to provide brochures. While brochures do play an important role, they can be uninspiring and ill equipped to convey a real feeling for what an organisation does and how they operate.

Furthermore, when brochures are translated into other languages it is commonly agreed that even the best translations are cumbersome and not reflective of how that particular language is used. This often means that international prospects feel less inclined to read brochures in depth.

So how do you show prospective clients how your product is made? What can you do to highlight your product range and its associated benefits?

A proven promotional method is corporate video production. The combination of moving vision with sound, allows complex messages to be communicated in a far superior way to that of any written information.

Research has found that video can be up to four times more effective than a printed brochure. Given that 80% of the information we recall is visual, it is understandable why audiovisual materials are so successful in getting messages across to viewers.

The best investment companies can make is by providing prospective clients with their corporate video on a VHS tape or a menu driven DVD disk or CDROM disk (which is like the menu option on a movie DVD).

CDROMs are particularly flexible as they can include video, brochures, documents and website links. They can even be produced as CD business cards which is perfect for travellers who wish to reduce the amount of marketing materials they need to carry.

Corporate videos can be downloaded from websites, which not only saves money in distribution costs, but provides 24 hour worldwide access.

A further advantage of corporate video is that it allows for voiceovers to be translated into a variety of languages. As visual cues are used in conjunction with the voiceover, the language sounds natural and appealing.

The winner of the 2002 Regional Exporter of the Year Awards, the Warrnambool Cheese and Butter Factory, strongly agrees with the use of corporate video production to boost export sales.

John Williams, Warrnambool Cheese and Butter Factory’s marketing manager, says “We are very proud of our Factory and our picturesque location. It makes a lot of sense to show our best attributes to their advantage and the way to do that is through a corporate video.”

“We’ve found corporate video to be extremely flexible. I can travel overseas and show a DVD quality video to potential clients on my notebook computer”.

“We had a short promotional video created that was slotted into our Powerpoint presentation which we presented to a large Japanese dairy importer. It really gave us the competitive edge and helped us win a large multi-million dollar contract”.

Justin Howden, an International Marketing specialist from Marketing and Investment Partners, also advocates using corporate videos when marketing overseas.

“For companies that are undertaking trade marketing, corporate video is critical. It is vital to get trade onside when marketing overseas and corporate video is irreplaceable when trying to get distributors involved,” he says.

“A successful corporate video is created by finding out what are the most important pieces of information that your target market wants to know. You need to unearth what 20% of information will give you an 80% kick in marketing terms. Once you’ve done this, you then need to focus on these important points in the promotional video”.

Corporate video production is a powerful, convenient and cost effective way for overseas buyers to see what you have to offer. It is an innovative method that can encompass video, brochures, documents and website/email links into one small CD business card.

By using a combination of the right promotional tools and a creative approach, the time-consuming and often difficult road to breaking into the global marketplace, can be made much easier.

(c) Marie-Claire Ross 2003. All rights reserved

Marie-Claire Ross is from Digicast Television Production. Digicast Television Production has helped many businesses win big contracts and projects by increasing more awareness and knowledge of their products and services. To get the FREE Digicast Ezine with marketing tips and the latest information on technology to help busy business professionals visit http://www.digicast.com.au to subscribe or contact 0500 800 234 (Australia wide).

So,you have a mlm network and now you need to build a downline.I will inform you about building a downline for your mlm network marketing. Mlm is a hard program to build a downline in.It takes a lot of time and work to build a downline for your mlm network.Once you get a downline built you can make a lot money.You will be a success.Be prepared to work hard than reap the rewards of your hard work.

Mlm network marketing is what is called multi level marketing.Mlm started with Amway years ago and now moved into the internet era.Network marketing is a business that markets a line of products or several lines of products through inpendent salespeople. An independent salesperson is recruited; she, in turn, recruits other people; these people recruit others, and so it goes. Each representative builds her own business with her recruits and their recruits under her, and she makes commission on the sales volume of her team. The people under the independent salesperson are called the downline.

The potential for increasing the downline and earning money is exponential.The mlm network marketing is open to a lot of scams.MLM is the Last hope in America for the little person to learn how to make money and actually do it.There is millions of people today earning a full time income with part time work.The idea behind multi-level marketing (MLM) is simple. Imagine you have a product to sell. A common MLM product is some sort of panacea, such as a vitamin or mineral supplement. You could do what most businesses do: either sell it directly to consumers or find others who will buy your product from you and sell it to other people.This is not to say there is no benefit to MLM membership. You get certain tax write-offs. You get to buy products, some of which you will be happy with. You get to go to inspirational meetings, some of which will make you feel good. You may meet new friends and you may even make a few bucks.It may be true that millions of people are online now.

However, it isn’t true that all you have to do is send them an email and they are just sitting their eagerly awaiting to send you cash and join your downline or buy products from your online mall. In fact it is harder to get someone to buy on the Internet than in a normal business environment.Network Marketers all over the globe have lost thousands of dollars after throwing up a website, doing a little advertising and expecting huge profits to start rolling in.This is why you need to build a downline.This is one of the most fun and rewarding businesses today.

To Build a downline will take a little time and effort.In your efforts to recruit others into your MLM business, you’ve probably encountered people who were rude to you and you’ve been rejected by friends, family and strangers more often than not. You’ve probably wondered what you could do differently, what else could you say, how could you get past that brick wall you keep running into?You can join a mlm downline club ,pay for a guaranteed downline,or you can buy mlm leads.A downline is a lot harder to build for mlm and takes work.Getting a downline for mlm is different than getting downlines for other programs.One way to build a downline for your mlm network marketing to cerate sales letters.Sales letters work the best for mlm.You can find samples of great sales letters all over the internet.You also need to make alliances for 4 reasons.They are

1) to generate awareness and develop targeted leads (internet traffic);

2) to expand your reach faster than you could alone;

3) to take advantage of the clout or customer base of another company (or another website); and

4) to distribute your products and services through another company (or website) to increase your sales and/or reduce your costs.

In conclusion just with any business endeavor, it is the unique and creative ways that a business uses the tools available that determines its success. I challenge you to stretch your imagination. Try some new things.

Refuse to view the internet primarily as a scientific, technology-driven tool, but instead strive to use the web in highly creative ways that set your company apart. Innovation and timing count for everything on the web.Recognize the importance of tracking, and make sure that you have a plan in place to track all of your future marketing activities. The simplest way to track is to ask each new customer where or how they found out about you. The importance of tracking, and make sure that you have a plan in place to track all of your future marketing activities. The simplest way to track is to ask each new customer where or how they found out about you.Please beware of the 7 common mistakes in mlm and they are

1.) ** Using “Institutional Advertising” **Institutional advertising is advertising that does not focus on your prospects. Rather on you, your company, your pay plan, your products, your bonus pool, your packaging, or the sales people at the home office.Anything that does not focus solely on your prospect is institutional advertising. Think of Coke-A-Cola. That’s institutional advertising. Their sole purpose is brand their name into your mind. That way when you get thirsty and want a soda, you buy a Coke.You must focus on your prospects ego and their desires. What they want takes priority over what you or the MLM company you’re with wants. Tell them what’s in it for them.Solution: Create prospect focused advertising and drop your ego and appeal to the prospects ego.

2.) ** Fell Into Management Mode **This one is a biggy. In order to make money in network marketing (or in direct selling) the life blood is new business. For the first 2-3 years new business is what drives your income.If you spend all of your time managing people and none of it actually acquiring new business you’ll fall into a mode where your income levels off or just drops. This is management mode and it will stop you dead in your tracks from making long term income from MLM.Solution: Always be moving forward, building your group. Leading by example. By building.

3.) ** Making MLM Your Business **One of the most sobering and completely real facts of MLM is that you do not own your own MLM business. At any moment in time the network marketing company you’re with could shut it’s doors, change it’s policies, cut the popular products (not likely, but happens) or any number of things that would instantly stop your income or cut it by 50%.Making MLM your business limits you. Stops you from seeing all of the possibilities outside the MLM industry. Instantly turning your income into something that is in reality, not yours. Make MLM a part of your business. Not the sole reason it exists.Solution: Expand your business into other areas. Not just MLM.

4.) ** Not Being Personal **MLM takes time, money, more time and more money to develop. As does any profitable business. However, in the day of emails, fax machines, web sites, online video, and super technology, it is easier than ever to forget you are working with real live people with real live problems and worries.Adding a personal touch to the process will build your credibility, and build trust with those you plan on working with.Solution: Add a personal touch and build trust

5.) ** Not Being Realistic **Technology makes it easier for you to contact more and more people at an ever growing rate. Which leads some people to hype up their claims. Hyped up claims are not always so outrageous they instantly appear full of hype.Some of them are subtle, like, “No direct selling.” Which seems like a benefit, because people hate to sell. In truth, direct selling is network marketing. You are not as aggressive about it. But you will, and always be selling something to someone.Solution: Be Realistic and understand network marketing is a selling business.

6.) ** Losing Focus **Losing focus is easy. Thousands of ways to advertise and reach your market exist. Pick 1 or 2 or 3 of them. Not all of them. Focus on what works, and drop what doesn’t. If you know it’s not working after a few weeks, don’t do it anymore.Solution: Focus only on one, two or three advertising strategies at time. And focus on them until they prove to be ineffective.

7.) ** Becoming a Computer Jockey **A Computer Jockey? What’s that? Computer Jockey’s are people who sit there in front of their computer and try to work their MLM business completely online. 24 hours per day, 7 days per week.I hope by reading this you have a better idea about how to build a downline for your mlm network marketing.Good luck and make money.
www.downline4all.com

About the Author

John Old is editor of Downline Builder - Focus on Downline Club, MLM Downline Leads, MLM Network Marketing and Downline Building :: Don’t Buy Downline, It’s Free to Swap Downline at Downline Club Forum

A few months ago, I was pulling out of a parking lot when a huge
van caught my eye. It wasn’t the vehicle so much as the fact that
there was a gigantic television screen attached to the back. I
was so wrapped up in watching the screen that when the van pulled
out of my view, I finally remembered that I was driving, not in a
position to be paying attention to anything other than the road.

No, I’m not going to give you a ten point guide to safe driving.
The idea here is that our society is becoming more attune to
electronic information everyday, whether it happens to be through
computers, the Internet, or traveling TV screens.

More people are getting their daily dose of news or information
from CNN.com, or the twenty four hour a day news channel, or from
the radio on the drive home. It’s imperative to remember that
while print can still be a great form of marketing or public
relations contacts, our minds are much more used to pulling in
sensory information from electronic sources.

Furthermore, the intimacy of radio, television, and sometimes the
Internet can give you the upper hand when it comes to selling
yourself to prospects. Seeing your face, hearing your voice, or
getting to view the actual product are big factors in easing the
natural anxieties many prospective buyers have when it comes to
purchasing.

By having your face or voice appear on television, radio
programs, or on a web site, people start to feel like they know
you personally, which ignites a sense of trust. This approach can
also throw a little bit of fame into the mix, especially if you
are a knowledgeable authority in your particular field.

If you have the means to purchase paid advertising on radio or
television, all the better for you. But, if you are like many
small business owners, finding the funds to take on such a big
project can be a little more challenging.

So, why not try to get booked as a guest on a local TV or radio
show? Find out who the producer is, because he or she, NOT the
host, decides who will appear for interviews and such. The key
thing to remember is that you need to be accessible if you really
want to get booked.

The advantages to using sensory media are really unlimited: you
can create a personable, friendly image while demonstrating your
product and setting enthusiasm about your business. Of course,
the best marketing and public relations attempts are far more
effective when a mix of print and sensory media are used.

Ana Ventura specializes in helping businesses, organizations, and
individuals get media coverage. She is a PR expert at DrNunley’s
http://FullServicePR.com , a site specializing in affordable
publicity services. She also writes for the Ezine Ad Package at
http://BizGuru.com Reach Ana at mailto:ana@fullservicepr.com or
801-328-9006.

Keeping your email lists fresh is critical to the success of your online marketing and e-commerce efforts. In the early days of the Internet, the novelty of web sites and free e-newsletters made acquiring customers online all too easy. With customers signing up in droves to hear your latest offers, there was no need to worry about email address attrition rates or errors during registration.

Unfortunately, those days are over! Due to error-ridden databases, privacy concerns, excess spam, and the high turnover of email addresses, many companies are now finding they are losing email addresses faster than they can gain them. Customer retention has reemerged as the key to profits.

Here is what you can do to bounce-proof your email lists and increase your customer retention rate:

DON’T LET ERRORS GET INTO YOUR LIST

Utilize a double-entry system during registration

This will reduce typos and help your customers recognize how important an accurate email address is to you.

Validate email addresses at the point of registration

Examine your current methods for validating email addresses at the point of registration. Consider upgrading your software or using a real time validation service so you can catch your prospects when they want you most.

Confirm your registrations

Present all new registrants with a confirmation page, which lets them review what they have typed and correct any mistakes made.

Implement a double opt-in process

Require visitors to check their email and click through on a custom link to confirm that your email was successfully delivered to them. Note: you may realize a significant drop off in your registrations and annoy some prospects, but it will ensure that only valid email addresses are introduced into your list. Decide if this trade-off makes sense for you.

Examine your off-line data entry procedures

Review the other ways that email addresses get into your database. Provide your data entry staff with a list of common top-level domains (.com, .net, etc.), domains (hotmail, yahoo, etc.) and standard email address formatting rules. If you do any significant off-line data entry, investigate implementing aggressive validation on these addresses at the time of entry.

IF ERRORS SNEAK IN, CATCH THEM ASAP

Send a confirmation message

Immediately email a welcome message to each newly registered email address. If there is a bounce, quickly implement an email address recovery attempt. The longer you wait, the greater the chance your customers will forget why they gave you their email addresses in the first place.

Utilize a list hygiene and correction service on a regular basis

List hygiene services can identify and correct a majority of the invalid email addresses that result from domain errors, formatting problems, misspellings, and typos. Again, the longer you wait, the more difficult it will be to reconnect with your customers and engage their interest.

EVEN GOOD ADDRESSES GO BAD - PLAN FOR CUSTOMER RECOVERY

Face the facts

People change their email addresses daily. 30% or more of your email addresses are going to need updating each year.

Determine how much a working email address is worth to you

Properly analyze the results of all of your online efforts. Be sure to separately analyze the value of a new customer versus a recovered customer. Loyal, repeat customers are the stable of every successful company. Don’t focus your efforts solely on new customer acquisition.

Put someone in charge of customer recovery

Many companies lose sight of the basics. Customer retention may be less sexy, but it will likely yield you a higher ROI. Make sure you have identified the resources, budget, and priority for your customer retention efforts.

Plan your email address acquisition methods to assist with later recovery

Consider collecting a name, an alternate email address, a postal address, or a phone number.

UPDATE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS LISTS

Provide email address update links on your site

Make it easy for your customers to update their email addresses for you whenever they are interacting with your website.

Put email address update links in your email communications

Enable your customers to update their email addresses with a simple click-through. Many companies require their readers to unsubscribe and then re-subscribe. This is too cumbersome for the visitor and often results in the loss of valuable historical data.

Utilize an ECOA (email change of address) service

ECOA companies provide you with current email addresses for your old or “dead” addresses. Moreover, they will update your list with your customers’ preferred email addresses, solving the problem of infrequently checked email accounts.

Utilize an email appending service

If you have names and postal addresses in your files, an email append service can help you find 25% or more of the associated email addresses.

Develop a customer recovery plan and follow it

Determine how much time you can let pass before your customers or prospects will forget why they came to you in the first place? How frequently are you planning to do your database updating? What is the most cost-effective process for recovering a customer? Review the costs and benefits of your options and decide what is best for you.

IT’S ALL ABOUT ROI!

The payoffs for bounce-proofing your email list are substantial: lower customer acquisition costs, increased response rates and sales, reduced messaging and support costs, and the decreased likelihood of winding up on some system administrator’s blacklist due to high bounce-back rates. Follow the basic suggestions above and you will maximize the return on your marketing investments. Isn’t today a good time to start?

Bill Kaplan
CEO
FreshAddress, Inc.

FreshAddress, Inc., The Email Address ExpertsTM, provides a comprehensive suite of industry leading database and email deliverability services to help companies increase their e-commerce revenues. For more information on how we can help “Build and Update” your email list, visit http://freshaddress.com/biz or email biz@freshaddress.com.

(c) 2003 FRESHADDRESS.COM

Bill Kaplan is the Chief Executive Officier of FreshAddress, Inc.

FreshAddress, Inc. is a privately held company, founded in 1999, helping business and individuals stay connected when email addresses change.

How many email messages do you receive a day? Do you read them all?

The average person is hit with nearly 300 commercial advertising messages per day. Three Hundred! Billboards, bus signs, taxi cab banners, television advertisements, radio advertisements, magazines ads, newspaper ads, direct mail…

Then they check their email.

The first thing they see and in most cases the only thing they see (if your message has gotten past their filters) is your subject caption.

Is it compelling? Does it say who, what, when, where, how, why now? Does it remind your subscriber why they signed up for your messages? Does it convince them to actually open and read it?

I don’t’ want to say for certain that it doesn’t - but chances are, many of your emails are being deleted without even being opened.

If you want your target audience to take action on your email message, that is open it and read it, you’d better have a compelling reason why that action must take place NOW.
A compelling subject line is KEY.

But you have to remember that the person you’re sending the email to has permissibly signed up and volunteered to receive your newsletter, eCourse, or whatever other free info you’re sending them. Treat them accordingly.

You need to keep in mind that your FIRST message to them needs to be very personal.

The subject line should always have their first name written in it. And make sure to describe what they signed up for in as short and descriptive of a sentence as you can. They’re interested in what they signed up for - not the product that they may eventually buy from you in the future.

Give a gentle, short reminder of how important and worthwhile your message will be for them to read. Once they reach the body of your email copy, they’ll remember exactly why they signed up. But it’s difficult sometimes to actually make sure your message will be opened.

Writing a compelling Subject Headline is an art, and it takes practice and constant testing. It’s OK to experiment. But if you do change formats, stick with it for a while - don’t change with each message.

Be it a new technology that will save them time or a process that will reduce their loss of money, or what have you, your subject line must to be timely, and it must be believable and you must spell out it’s urgency and it’s reason, it’s purpose, and it’s answer to “why in your subject caption”.

Most of all it must be believable.

I know I keep harping the importance of trust and building a relationship with your subscribers, and you’re probably thinking “Yeah, yeah…I got it! I understand. Now quit reminding me.” This is such an important aspect of email marketing that I want to make sure you have it written on every wall of your memory bank. Yes, every wall…heck, you should probably write it out on every corner, crevice and inch of your memory.

But making your subject line “believable” is not the end. You have to come through with your promise. If once they open your message and realize it doesn’t hold true to your subject line, they’ll quickly send it to the “Trash Can”. And your subsequent emails will all be deleted as well.

This is where many marketers stumble.

It’s the believable part and fulfilling the promise that many marketers stumble on because they fail to tie together the real, the now, and the why into the two seconds they are allotted before the reader hits the delete key.

Writing a compelling headline. It’s nothing new. All of us have heard of it’s importance again and again, but few of us has heeded the call. I know this to be true, because I delete thousands of pieces of email every day and millions of others do the same. You most likely do it also.

How do you make your message compelling?

Always compose your subject caption with this in mind.
People will do more to avoid pain than to gain pleasure. Like a good story, the first paragraph should entice you to read the second paragraph, and the second paragraph should entice you to read the third paragraph, and so on and so on and so on.
But it all starts with your email subject line.

As stated in an earlier post I believe every action you take in your marketing approach should motivate the reader to take another action, which takes them deeper into your sales process.
What has developed is that the same compelling reason must resonate throughout your marketing promotion to keep the reader involved until they take your final most desired action, buy your product or service.

That’s pretty much why we all do what we do.

But the profit only comes when people honestly believe your product will benefit them - when they are informed and convinced. In this medium they are informed and convinced by trusting what you have told them, and they will only read what you write when it grabs their attention at first glance. You can grab their attention with flash and glitz, with shock and awe, or with a compelling subject headline.

Establish an undeniable reason in that short 2 second period so that the reader will take your most desired action, opening your message and reading it.

The author, Matt Callen, has been working online as an Email Marketing Expert and Internet Marketer. He has experience consulting small online business owners by using advanced tactics he had taught himself and learned from the great marketers of our time. From this knowledge and expertise in email marketing concepts, Matt has recently developed a powerful marketing software that creates attention-grabbing, unblockable post-it-note style popups at InstantPopOVER.com. Check out the 40% discount just for reading this article, at http://www.instantpopover.com/articleoffer.htm

Learn more about building your email list and tapping into an undiscovered gold mine of profit. You can start with a few dollars and a good idea to make lots of money online! I did and I’ll show you how. To find out more and receive a 30% OFF DISCOUNT on my new popup creating software for reading my article, please visit http://www.instantpopover.com/articleoffer.htm

1: Original and Fresh Content

Present your visitors content they cannot find anywhere else. Not all your content
has to be 100% original, but a good percentage of your site should have original
content. People are more likely to read information they haven’t read before.
Add new content to your site regularly.

2: Surveys

Hold a survey/poll on your site. Or have visitors email their vote
or opinion. People love to give their opinion. They’ll also come back to check
the status of the survey and again to view the results.

3: Prize Draws

Hold a monthly prize draw on your site. The prizes should be something of interest
or value to your visitors and of course related to your site. Most people
who enter will continually come back to your site to check the results. Keep
it monthly don’y be lazy and make it tri-monthly or six monthly. You can also
list your site on a prize draw directory and draw even more traffic.

4: Quizes

Run a quiz or a series of trivia questions. Post the correct answers
weekly on your site. The people who take part will want to come back to
your site to see if they were right.

5: News

Supply news stories related to your site topic. People want current and up-to-date
news. If you can be their first source, they’ll become repeat visitors to your
site.

6: Jokes

Give your visitors a little humor. Don’t be so serious; tell them a joke now
and then. If they associate your web site with being happy they will keep coming
back. It will also make you seem more approachable and human.

7: Free Stuff

Everyone loves to get free stuff. List free stuff on your site. It could be anything,
software, services, sample products, e-books etc. The freebies should be related
to your site topic. Keep the freebies coming and your visitors will return regulary.

8. Directories

Tell your subscribers about sites related to your site topic. The sites should
be helpful and/or interesting. Become your readers site directory and they will
come back.

9: Forums

Set up a forum on your site. When visitors post they can request they are emailed
if somebody else posts to their post. They’ll come back to the site when they
get this email. Maybe post again or check other posts and post there. Essentially
they then also build you fresh new content.

10: RSS Feeds

Convert new content you add to your site into an RSS feed. Visitors can sign
up to your feed and your content will be permanently displayed in their RSS aggregator.
As long as you regularly update the feed visitors will come back to your site.

About the Author

About the Author

How to Make Money Online is a site dedicated to listing the many and varied ways of making money online.

This article comes with reprint rights. You are free to reprint and distribute as you like. All that we ask is that you do not make any changes, that this resource text is include, and that the links above are intact.

I have listed here 8 great ways to guarantee that customers and
potential customers will return to your site time after time.

The most important part of any business wether it be online of
off is to keep people coming back, follow the tips below and you
will be right there with the big boys.

1. Polls

Hold an interactive poll on your web site. Ask visitors a poll
question. Have them e-mail their vote or opinion. People love to
give their 2 cents worth. They would also like to read the
results the next day or week on your web site. 2. Prize Drawings

Hold an ongoing prize drawing on your web site. The prizes
should be something of interest or value to your subscribers.
Most people who enter will continually revisit your web site to
get the results. 3. Original Content

Give your visitors content they can’t read anywhere else. I’m
not saying all your content has to be 100% original, but a
portion of your web site should have original information.
People will usually read information they haven’t read before.

4. Quizes Give your visitors a quiz or a series of trivia
questions. Post the correct answers weekly on your web site. The
people who participate will want to come back to your site to
see if they were right. 5. News Supply news stories related to
your web site topic. People want current and up-to-date news. If
you can be their first source, they will become repeat isitors
to your web site. 6. Jokes

Give your visitors a little humor now and then. Don’t be so
serious; tell them a joke. If they associate your web site with
being happy they will visit again and again. 7. Free Stuff
People love to get free stuff. List free stuff on your web site.
It could be software, services, sample products, e-books etc.
The freebies should be related to your web site topic. Keep the
freebies coming and your visitors will return regulary.

8. Directories

Tell your subscribers about Web sites related to your web site
topic. The web sites should be interesting and helpful. Become
your readers web site directory and they will come back.

Writing and publishing a successful newsletter is perhaps the most competitive of all the different areas of mail order and direct marketing.

Five years ago, there were 1500 different newsletters in this country. Today there are well over 10,000, with new ones being started every day. It’s also interesting to note that for every new one that’s started, some disappear just as quickly as they are started - lack of operating capital and marketing know-how being the principal causes of failure.

To be successful with a newsletter, you have to specialize. Your best bet will be with new information on a subject not already covered by an established newsletter.

Regardless of the frustrations involved in launching your own newsletter, never forget this truth: There are people from all walks of life, in all parts of this country, many of them with no writing ability whatsoever, who are making incredible profits with simple two-, four-, and six-page newsletters!

Your first step should be to subscribe to as many different newsletters and mail order publications as you can afford. Analyze and study how the others are doing it. Attend as many workshops and seminars on your subject as possible. Learn from the pros. Learn how the successful newsletter publishers are doing it, and why they are making money. Adapt their success methods to your own newsletter, but determine to recognize where they are weak, and to make yours better in every way.

Plan your newsletter before launching it. Know the basic premise for its being, your editorial position, the layout, art work, type styles, subscription price, distribution methods, and every other detail necessary to make it look, sound and feel like the end result you have envisioned.

Lay out your start-up needs; detail the length of time it’s going to take to become established, and what will be involved in becoming established. Set a date as a mile stone of accomplishment for each phase of your development: A date for breaking even, a date for attaining a certain paid subscription figure, and a monetary goal for each of your first five years in business. And all this must be done before publishing your first issue.

Market research is simply determining who the people are who will be interested in buying and reading your newsletter, and the kind of information these people want to see in your newsletter as a reason for continuing to buy it. You have to determine what it is they want from your newsletter.

Your market research must give you unbiased answers about your newsletter’s capabilities of fulfilling your prospective buyer’s need for information; how much he’s willing to pay for it, and an overall profile of his status in life. The questions of why he needs your information, and how he’ll use it should be answered. Make sure you have the answers to these questions, publish your newsletter as a vehicle of fulfillment to these needs, and you’re on your way!

You’re going to be in trouble unless your newsletter has a real point of difference that can be easily perceived by your prospective buyer. The design and graphics of your newsletter, plus what you say and how you say it, will help in giving your newsletter this vital difference.

Be sure your newsletter works with the personality you’re trying to build for it. Make sure it reflects the wants of your subscribers. Include your advertising promise within the heading, on the title page, and in the same words your advertising uses. And above all else, don’t skim on design or graphics!

The name of your newsletter should also help to set it apart from similar news letters, and spell out its advertising promise. A good name reinforces your advertising. Choose a name that defines the direction and scope of your newsletter.

Opportunity Knocking, Money Making Magic, Extra Income Tip Sheet, and Mail Order Up-Date are primate examples of this type of philosophy - as opposed to the Johnson Report, The Association Newsletter, or Club-house Confidential.

Try to make your newsletter’s name memorable - one that flows automatically. Don’t pick a name that’s so vague it could apply to almost anything. The name should identify your newsletter and its subject quickly and positively.

Pricing your newsletter should be consistent with the image you’re trying to build. If you’re starting a “Me-too” newsletter, never price it above the competition. In most instances, the consumer associates higher prices with quality, so if you give your readers better quality information in an expensive looking package, don’t hesitate to ask for a premium price. However, if your information is gathered from most of the other newsletters on the subject, you will do well to keep your prices in line with theirs.

One of the best selling points of a newsletter is in the degree of audience involvement - for instance, how much it talks about, and uses the names of its readers.

People like to see things written about themselves. They resort to all kinds of things to get their names in print, and they pay big money to read what’s been written about them. You should understand this facet of human nature, and decide if and how you want to capitalize upon it - then plan your newsletter accordingly.

Almost as important as names in your newsletter are pictures. The readers will generally accept a newsletter faster if the publisher’s picture is presented or included as a part of the newsletter. Whether you use pictures of the people, events, locations or products you write about is a policy decision; but the use of pictures will set your publication apart from the others and give it an individual image, which is precisely what you want.

The decision as to whether to carry paid advertising, and if so, how much, is another policy decision that should be made while your newsletter is still in the planning stages. Some purists feel that advertising corrupts the image of the newsletter and may influence editorial policy. Most people accept advertising as a part of everyday life, and don’t care one way or the other.

Many newsletter publishers, faced with rising production costs and viewing advertising as a means of offsetting those costs, welcome paid advertising. Generally the advertisers see the newsletter as a vehicle to a captive audience, and well worth the cost.

The only problem with accepting advertising in your newsletter would appear to be that as your circulation grows, so will your number of advertisers, until you’ll have to increase the size of your newsletter to accommodate the advertisers. At this point, the basic premise or philosophy of the newsletter often changes from news and practical information to one of an advertiser’s showcase.

Promoting your newsletter, finding prospective buyers and converting these prospects into loyal subscribers, will be the most difficult task of your entire undertaking. It takes detailed planning, persistence and patience.

You’ll need a sales letter. Check the sales letter you receive in the mail; analyze how these are written and pattern yours along the same lines. You’ll find all of them - all those worthy of being called sales letters - following the same formula: Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action on the part of the reader - AIDA.

Jump right in at the beginning and tell the reader how he’s going to benefit from your newsletter, and then keep emphasizing right on through your “PS”, the many and different benefits he’ll gain from subscribing to your newsletter. Elaborate on your listing of benefits with examples of what you have, or you intend to include, in your newsletter.

Follow these examples with endorsements or testimonials from reviewers and satisfied subscribers. Make the recipient of your sales letter feel that you’re offering him the answer to all his problems on the subject of your newsletter.

You have to make your prospect feel that “this is the insider’s secret” to the success he wants. Present it to him as his own personal key to success, and then tell him how far behind his contemporaries he is going to be if he doesn’t act upon your offer immediately.

Always include a “PS” in your sales letter. This should quickly restate to the reader that he can start enjoying the benefits of your newsletter by acting immediately, and very subtly suggesting that he may not get another chance to get the kind of “success help” you’re offering him with this sales letter.

Don’t worry about the length of your sales letter - most are four pages or more; however, it must flow logically and smoothly. Use short sentences, short paragraphs, indented paragraphs, and lost of sub-heads for the people who will be “scanning through” your sales letter.

In addition to the sales letter, your promotion package should include a return reply order card or coupon. This can be either a self-addressed business reply post card, or a separate coupon, in which case you’ll have to include a self-addressed return reply envelope. In every mailing piece you send out, always include one or the other: either a self-addressed business reply postcard or a self-addressed return reply envelope for the recipient to use to send your order form and his remittance back to you.

Your best response will come from a business reply postcard on which you allow your prospect to charge the subscription to his credit card, request that you bill him, or send his payment with the subscription start order.

Next, you’ll need a Subscription Order Acknowledgment card or letter. This is simply a short note thanking your new subscriber for his order, and promising to keep him up-to-date with everything relating to the subject of your newsletter.

An acknowledgment letter, in an envelope, will cost more postage to mail than a simple postcard; however, when you send the letter you have to opportunity to enclose additional material. A circular listing other items available through you will produce additional orders.

Thus far, you’ve prepared the layout and copy for your newsletter. Go ahead and have a hundred copies printed, undated. You’ve written a sales letter and prepared a return reply subscription order card or coupon; go ahead and have a hundred of these printed, also undated, of course. You’ll need letterhead mailing envelopes, and don’t forget the return reply envelopes if you choose to use the coupons instead of the business reply postcard. Go ahead and have a thousand mailing envelopes printed. You also need subscription order acknowledgment cards or notes; have a hundred of these printed, and of course, don’t forget the imprinted reply envelopes if you’re going along with the idea of using a note instead of a postcard. This w ill be a basic supply for “testing” your materials so far.

Now you’re ready for the big move - the Advertising Campaign.

Start by placing a small classified ad in one of your local newspapers. You should place your ad in a weekend or Sunday paper that will reach as many people as possible, and of course, do everything you can to keep your costs as low as possible. How ever, do not skimp on your advertising budget. To be successful - to make as much money as possible with your idea - you’ll need to reach as many people as you can afford, and as often as you can.

Over the years, we have launched several hundred advertising campaigns. We always ran new ads for a minimum of three issues and kept close tabs on the returns. So long as the returns kept coming in, we continued running that ad in that publication, while adding a new publication to test for results. To our way of thinking, this is the best way to go, regardless of the product, to successfully multiply your customer list.

Move slowly, start with a local, far-reaching and widely read paper, and with the prof its or returns from that ad, go to the regional magazines, or one of the smaller national magazines, and continue plowing your returns into more advertising in different publications. By taking your time, and building your acceptance in this manner, you won’t lose too much if one of your ads should prove to be a dud. Stay with the advertising. Do not abandon it in favor of direct mail. We would not recommend direct mail until you are well established and your national classified advertising pro gram is bringing in a healthy profit for you.

Do not become overly ambitious and go out on a limb with expensive full-page advertising until you’re very well established. When you do buy full page advertising, start with the smaller publications, and build from those results. Have patience; keep close tabs on your costs per subscriber, and build from the profits of your advertising. Always test the advertising medium you want to use with a classified ad, and if it pulls well for you, go on to a larger display type ad.

Classified advertising is the least expensive way to go, so long as you use the “inquiry method.” You can easily and quickly build your subscriber list with this type of advertisement.

We would not recommend any attempts to sell subscriptions, or any product from classified ads, or even from small display ads. There just isn’t enough space to describe the product adequately, and seeing the cost of your item, many possible subscribers will not bother to inquire for the full story.

When you do expand your efforts into direct mail, go straight to a national list broker. You can find their names and addresses in the yellow pages section of your local telephone directory. Show the list broker your product and your mailing piece, and explain what type people you want to reach, and allow them to help you.

Once you’ve decided on a list to use, go slowly. Start with a sampling of 5,000 names. If the returns are favorable, go for 10,000 names, and then 15,000 and so on through the entire list.

Never rent the entire list based upon the returns from your first couple of samplings. The variables are just too many, and too complicated, and too conducive to your losing your shirt when you “roll out an entire list” based upon returns from a controlled sampling.

There are a number of other methods for finding new subscribers, which we’ll explore for you here, detailing the good and the bad as we have researched them.

One method is that of contracting with what is known as a “cash-field” agency. These are soliciting agencies who hire people to sell door-to-door and via the phone, almost always using a high pressure sales approach. The publisher usually makes only about 5% from each subscription sold by one of these agencies. That speaks for itself.

Then, there are several major catalog sales companies that sell subscriptions to school libraries, government agencies and large corporations. These people usually buy through these catalog sales companies rather than direct from the publisher. The publisher makes about 10% on each subscription sold for him by one of these agencies.

Co-op Mailings are generally piggy-back mailings of your subscription offer along with numerous other business offers in the same envelope. Smaller mail order entrepreneurs do this under the name of Big Mail Offers. Coming into vogue now are the Postcard Mailers. You submit your offer on a business reply postcard; the packager then prints and mails your postcard in a package with 40 or 50 similar postcards via third class mail to a mailing list that could number 100,000 or more. You pay a premium price for this type of mailing - usually $1000 to $1500 per mailing, but the returns are very good and you keep all the incoming money.

Another form of co-op mailing is where you supply a charge card company or department store with your subscription offer as a “statement mailing suffer.” Your offer goes out with the monthly statements; new subscriptions are returned to the mailer and billed to the customer’s charge card. The publisher usually makes about 50% on each subscription. This is one of the most lucrative, but expensive methods of bringing in new customers.

Direct mail agencies such as Publishers Clearing House can be a very lucrative source of new subscriptions, in that they mail out more than 60 million pieces of mail each year, all of which are built around an opportunity for the recipient to win a gigantic cash sweepstakes. The only problem with this type of subscription agency is the very low percentage of the total subscription price the publisher receives from these subscriptions, plus the fact that the publishers are required to charge a lower subscription rate than they normally charge.

There are also several agencies that offer Introductory, Sample Copy and Trial Subscription offers, such as Select Information Exchange and Publisher Exchange. With this kind of agency, details about your publication are listed along with similar publications, in full page ads inviting the readers to send $10 or $20 for trial subscription to those of his choice. The publishers received no money from these inquiries - only a list of names of people interested in receiving trial s ubscriptions. How the publisher follows up and is able to convert these into full term, and paying subscribers is entirely dependent upon his own efforts.

Most major newspapers will carry small, lightweight brochures or oversized reply cards as inserts in their Sunday papers. The publisher supplies the total number of inserts, pays the newspaper $20 per thousand for the number of newspapers he wants his order form carried in, and then retains all the money generated. But the high costs of printing the inserts, plus the $20 per thousand for distribution, make this an extremely costly method of obtaining new subscribers.

Schools, civic groups and other fund raising organizations work in about the same manner as the cash-field agencies. They supply the solicitor and the publisher gets 25% or less for each new subscription sold.

Attempting to sell subscriptions via radio or TV is very expensive and works better in generating sales at the newsstands than new subscriptions. PI (Per Inquiry) sales is a very popular way of getting radio or TV exposure and advertising for your newsletter or other publication, but again, the number of sales brought in by the broad cast media is very small when compared with the number of times the “invitation commercial” has to be “aired” to elicit a response.

A new idea beginning to surface on the cable TV scene is “Products Shows”. This is the kind of show where the originator of the product or his representative appears on TV and gives a complete sales presentation lasting from five minutes to 15 minutes. Overall, these programs generally run between midnight and 2 AM, with the whole program a series of sales presentations for different products. They operate on the basis of the product owner paying a fee to appear and show his product, and also from an arrangement where the product owner pays a certain percentage from each sale generated from this exposure.

Newsletter publishers often run exchange publicity endorsement with non-competing publishers. Generally, these endorsements invite the reader of newsletter “A” to send for a sample copy of newsletter “B” for a look at what somebody else is going that might be of especial help, etc. This can be a very good source of new subscriptions, and certainly the least expensive.

Running ads in the Mail Order Ad Sheets is not very productive, either in terms of inquiries or sales. About the best thing that can be said of most of these ad sheets (and there seems to be a million of them with new ones cropping up faster than you can count them) is that your ad in several of them will let other people in on what you’re doing. You will be able to keep track of a lot of the people trying to make a place for themselves in the mail order field.

Last, but not least, is the enlistment of your own subscribers to send you names of people they think might be interested in receiving a sample copy of your publication. Some publishers ask their readers to pass along these names out of loyalty, while others offer a monetary incentive or a special bonus for names of people sent in who be come subscribers.

About The Author

Want to learn how to start and grow your very own Home Business? If so, visit our internet home based business resource center at http://www.internet-based-home-business-ideas.com

articles@internet-home-based-business-ideas.com

It’s cheap, easy and fast, so e-mail’s a marketing tactic few can (or should) resist. But take care: on any given day, you may be competing against dozens - or maybe hundreds - of other e-mails, plus quick trigger-fingers poised over “delete” keys. Here are a few ways to increase the likelihood that your e- mail gets opened, read and acted upon.

Write clear, relevant subject lines.
The subject line is the first thing potential readers see as your e-mail is registered in their in-boxes. Anything that smacks of let’s-make-a-deal talk - with words such as “free,” “special,” “act now” and the like - screams “spam!” and is begging for deletion. Instead, identify yourself to remind recipients of your previously established relationship, and speak to the core message immediately, i.e., “Pet HQ’s winter prep tips for dogs”

Use a familiar “from” address.
People don’t like to open doors, or e-mail, from strangers. It’s best if your mail is sent from a familiar personality. At the very least, it should be from an address with your server/path, i.e., “jsmith@pethq.com.”

Make an offer, then make it again. And again.
Plan on including a hyperlink to your offer in at least three places in your mail: between the headline and the body; in the middle of the body; and at the end. The whole point of your e-mail is to get respondents to take action, so give ‘em plenty of opportunity to do so. Example offer link: “Schedule your pet’s check up and get our free winter health guide today.”

Move the particulars to your website. People like to skim their e-mail, so whittle your message to its bare-bone essence: your offer and how to get it. Move all the proof points and other elaborations to a page on your website readers can reach via links. Example: “For more information about pets and cold weather, see our Seasonal Guidelines.”

Don’t neglect the opt-out. Let your readers be in control. Always include a reminder that they can link to a page to be automatically unsubscribed from future messages. This simple reassurance can often remove the taint of imposition from your e-mails and dissuade recipients from cutting you off.

Jonathan Kranz is the author of Writing Copy for Dummies, http://kranzcom.com/book.html, and the principal of Kranz Communications, http://kranzcom.com, a marketing communications and public relations writing firm specializing in B2B and consumer services marketing.

Its hard to have a discussion about affiliate programs without mentioning Amazon.com. They are considered to be the pioneers of affiliate programs. And with over 300,000 affiliates, its hard to argue that point.

But affiliate programs are changing. Many, many companies are realizing that the best way to sell products and services on the Internet is to recruit affiliates. Along with this comes a form of competition. Affiliate program managers want you to sell their products, not the products of their competitors. How do they make sure that you stick with them and not defect to the other side? They do their best to make their program more attractive to you.

There are many ways to make a program more attractive to potential affiliates. They can offer a higher percentage of the profits, and/or they can offer more benefits. Benefits can come in many forms, but the topic of this discussion will be the benefits that come from the way sales and visitors are tracked.

Let’s bring Amazon.com back into the limelight for a minute. They are huge…everyone knows about them…everyone knows that you can create a site, add some good content, bring in a highly targeted audience, and sell them books! Simple enough…create a site with a good topic, drive traffic to it, send them to Amazon, and get rich. But…its been tried before…and guess what…not that many of those 300,000 affiliates even earn enough to get the minimum $25 check in the mail every quarter.

Why? Is it because you have 299,999 competitors out there selling Amazon.com books just like you are? I’m sure that plays a part, but the real reason is the way you are credited for a sale. You work hard to create a website full of content, and work even harder to promote it and bring visitors to your site. Then, what do you do with that coveted visitor? You wisk them off to Amazon to become their life-long customer, and never to return to your site again!

That may not seem fair to you, but can you complain? They give you a whopping 5% of the sale, maybe even 15% on some of the books if you are lucky. Or, worse yet, they bookmark Amazon.com, and go back to buy the books tomorrow and you don’t even get the 5%. Either way they are gone. That precious visitor that could have been a life-long customer of yours is now off to Amazon.com. They will buy a book or two to test out the process. Then after their books arrive, they will merrily open up their browser and type in http://www.amazon.com and spend their entire paycheck buying books.

How much do you get from this return visit? Well, it WAS your visitor after all, right? Unfortunately every penny of that visitor’s paycheck will fall into Amazon’s pocket. Of course you have to feel sorry for Amazon, though. They aren’t making any money after all (violin music playing in the background).

What happened? The same that happens with many affiliate programs. You get paid per click, per lead, or per sale. From that point on, they own that customer.

But I’m happy to report that times are changing! Companies are starting to look for better ways to compensate their affiliates for referring customers to them.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not condemning affiliate programs…my entire site is dedicated to the topic. I just want you to know that some companies are starting to look at new methods of rewarding you for sending them customers. After all, you are a salesman for them. How many brick-and-mortar companies do you know of that will have a salesperson make a sale, pay them their commission, and then never pay them another cent for future business from that same customer?

Why should the Internet be any different? It shouldn’t…and program administrators are finally figuring that out.

There are many companies that will track the visitor that came from your site, and credit you for the sale even if they don’t purchase something until the next day, or week, or month. Others will make that visitor your lifetime customer. If they come back two years later and buy something, you will get a commission for that.

A good example of this is Ken Evoy’s 5 Pillar Affiliate Program. If you sell one of your visitors a copy of his book: “Make Your Site Sell!”( http://www.sitesell.com/helpmakemy.html ), you will not only get a commission for that sale, you will also get a percentage of all future sales from that customer, no matter what product or service they purchase.

A new idea being offered by companies such as Vstore ( http://affiliatematch.com/vstore ), is to allow your visitors to buy products without ever leaving your site. This means that the visitor has the time to spend on YOUR site, and get to know what excellent content you have to offer, and to hopefully return to YOUR site for future purchases.

This concept allows you to sell products such as magazines, gifts, luggage, hats, cooking accessories from your site, without having to give up the customer that you worked so hard to get.

Here is an example of the power of this idea: I have a site that gives tips and hints for those hoping to become Microsoft Certified. An excellent product for me to sell from that site is books. Everyone studying for this certification will need books at some point or another to help them pass the exams. They come to my site for information, and I sell them a couple of books while they are there. Does pretty well for me, but can I quit my day job? Not exactly. I get a great deal of traffic…highly targeted traffic at that.

I should be rich! I’m not. Problem is, they visit my site, I do my best to sell them on the idea that they will need books to help them study for the exams, then I send them off to Amazon, and they’re gone. If I’m lucky, they might remember my site when they get ready for their next exam. But chances are that they will still have the Amazon shipping box sitting on their desk, and will go directly to them to purchase the additional books.

So what can you do about it? Look for programs that will compensate you for future sales, or give you credit for the sale the next day, or month after they first visited them from your site. Or, look for programs that allow you to sell products directly from your site, without the visitor ever having to leave.

About the Author

Chuck McCullough is the owner of http://AffiliateMatch.com offering FREE articles, tips, hints, and real-world advice on how to make money with your website. Visit his site or join his FREE newsletter, The AffiliateMatch Informer by sending a blank email to mailto:newsletter@affiliatematch.com