Commitment And Consistency In Action

I wanted to share a brilliant use of the psychological principle of ‘commitment and consistency’ in action. I recently saw this influential technique employed in a very novel way by a non-profit group looking to build a new base of donors for their cause.

The core concept behind the ‘commitment and consistency’ trigger is that people are pre-disposed to continue doing something once they made a commitment to start. Years ago, companies like Columbia House would give you 10 CD’s or cassettes (this is pre-iPod) for a penny – if you agreed to join their music club for 6 months or a year. They knew that a significant percentage of the people who got the initial deal would continue on as customers and earn them back all of the costs of the initial offer plus a profit.

The non-profit group’s plan to engage new donors involved taking funds provided by existing large donors and using them to underwrite the issuing of credits that could be given out to non-donors who had some interest in the organization’s work. The recipients of these donation credits would then be able to use those credits to make a donation to any of the specific projects currently underway through the company. In essence, the major donor supplies the cash and the new potential donor gets to choose where to spend it.

The beauty of this approach is that, even though they don’t have to give their own cash, the new potential donors are actually making a commitment to become donors when they decide to participate in this arrangement. They are becoming invested in the support of a specific non-profit project and they are more likely to continue to support it in the future with their own resources. The donation credit lowers the barrier of resistance to becoming involved and makes it easier to persuade them to take the first steps as a new donor. It is the closest thing to giving out a ‘free sample’ that can be done in a non-profit environment.

If implemented well, I can’t see how this would fail to bring in a significant base of new donors. They will, in turn, provide the social proof required to convince others to join in as well. As the new donors study the various opportunities for giving they will learn more about the work of the non-profit and as they get feedback on the results of the project they chose to support, they will grow to like and trust the group even more. This will continue to reinforce the relationship and create a new base of financial support.

This is a great example of how implementing the basic tools of influence can amplify the results of a promotional project. It takes the initial focus of the new donor relationship off of the money and redirects it to the various projects underway. This same thing happens in the for profit world when a business gives away a gift certificate. The recipient immediately shifts from a mindset of ‘do I want to buy anything from this company’ to a mindset of ‘what should I buy with my gift certificate?’ Once the commitment to buy something is made, it is much easier to add extras to the sale and start moving the new customer into being a repeat customer.

Do you know of any examples that show the psychology of influence at work in a well integrated fashion? Leave a comment below and let us know more.

If you are listening to the podcast version of this article, we encourage you to visit the website at www dot go-to guy enterprises dot com.

Product Launch Secrets: The Big Picture

The recent Product Launch Formula 2.0 promotion, which followed on the heals of Frank Kern’s big Mass Control launch (I purchased that one) has got me taking a lot of notes about event style product launches. I have a couple products in the works and would like to take advantage of these strategies and tactics to make the most impact with my products and begin building a business around them.

I’ll be posting on the topic of product launches as I get further into studying and planning my own. To start off, I wrote this product launch ‘big picture’ article to define the essential elements of a product launch and the related objectives that a marketer should achieve during a successful launch.

DISCLAIMER: I am not the ultimate Product Launch Guru. That title (in my opinion) belongs to Jeff Walker, author of the Product Launch Formula training course and guys like Frank Kern, John Reese, and Mike Filsaime. My biggest launch to date had 1 JV partner and sold about $3500 in total (it was a limited release product, but I had no list of my own and no track record outside of a small forum community.) This is a work in progress by a student of the process.

With the background and disclaimers out of the way, let’s take a look at the big picture and learn about the phases of a product launch, some of the strategies and tactics at play during these phases, and the overall objectives of the product launch process. I fully expect that I am missing some things, have poorly defined others, and might even be embarrassingly mistaken about a few. So, if you would like to correct, clarify, or enlighten me on this topic, please leave a comment below. (Hey, you can leave a comment if you just want to say hello!)

So, here’s the good stuff:

3 Phases for Launching a Product

Pre-Launch – This is the time where you are planning your launch schedule, starting to create promotional materials and also when you actively recruit JV partners and affiliates. This phase will very likely involve a mini launch of its own that is directed exclusively at potential affiliates and JV partners. When you come out of the pre-launch phase you will have a list of JV partners and affiliates ready to promote your launch and the core planning for the launch sequence and some or all of the promotional content that will be used in the launch. You should also have a JV blog and a launch blog up and ready to go.

Active Launch – The active launch begins with the first communication you make to your potential customers. Very often it is a free video or report that offers some really amazing content related to your product and designed to build buzz (usually, the product to be launched isn’t even mentioned at this point. There might be a passing reference to the fact that the information shared was discovered ‘while I was working on a cool new project’ – but that is it!)

The JV’s and affiliates start driving people to the new content which is designed to get people to opt-in to a launch mailing list. To see this process in action, check out THIS PRODUCT LAUNCH.

As the launch progresses, these new list members will be asked to join at least one ‘early notice’ sub-list and might possibly be offered a free tele-seminar/webinar the day before the product is available. That tele-seminar/webinar will be focused on describing exactly what is included in the course, how customers will benefit, what the special early purchase bonuses will be and other topics designed to prime them for purchasing.

Communication During the Active Product Launch

The active launch phase includes two separate lines of communication – one aimed at the potential customers and one aimed at the JV’s and affiliates. The customers will get a sequence of emails and content that, at various stages, is designed to catch their interest, create a personal bond between you and the them, describe the product, offer social proof and establish the value of the product, and finally coach them on exactly what they should do on launch day to make their purchase.

Throughout the launch sequence, every one of the 6 psychological triggers that influence people’s decision making process will be touched on – repeatedly.

The whole active launch phase concludes when the product ‘goes live.’

Post Launch – The product is usually promoted actively for no more than 7 days. In fact, for really big product launches, it is common to sell-out in 24-48 hours or less.

It is hard to keep people interested once the ‘new’ has worn off and affiliates and JV’s usually move on to fresher projects to promote. Immediately after the go live date, you start a post launch process to keep momentum up among the JV’s and affiliates. There will be a series of follow-up communications with the potential customers to announce ‘news’ about the launch and push those on the verge of purchasing to order.

The post launch period is also a time to re-enforce the purchasing decision that new customers have made and start encouraging them to use the product and establish new habits based on it. There will also be more bonding with affiliates, customers, and the non-buyers on your new list.

Most marketers will also start doing some targeted affiliate promotion and/or cross-selling to their new list to generate more income. They might also run some special sales and, if they are smart, they will also start planting the seeds for their next launch.

These three phases will be clearly marked out on your product launch calendar and serve as the foundation for planning the timing of all of the specific tasks and tactics to be used during the launch.

5 Critical Launch Goals

Generate Traffic – You need to get people coming to your product website. But, in a product launch you don’t go after the traffic yourself. You go after partners with established mailing lists and let them drive the potential customers to you. In exchange you will give them a 50% cut of every sale. This commission buys you a small army of promoters who will blanket the marketplace for you while you focus on the other elements of the launch.

Establish Authority – If the people coming to your site don’t already believe you are an authority, selling a product or service to them will become significantly more difficult. But, if they have already experienced and benefited from your expertise through the great free content you give away and you have the endorsement of other people they respect (your JV Partners and affiliates), you won’t have to sell them as much as show them where to pay.

Build Buzz – Critical to success on opening day is getting people in your target market talking about and anticipating the release of your product. Your JV partners and affiliates will not only build excitement through their lists, they will also be participating in forum discussions and writing blog posts, creating videos, writing special reports, and using social media tools that talk about the benefits of your upcoming product.

Build a List – A list of interested potential customers is golden. It is only bested by a list of actual customers (who you will sell other products, services, and upgrades to later.) Launches help you build a business and each successive launch adds to the results of the ones that came before.

Recruit Affiliates – When your product is finally launched, your affiliates are going to be out there multiplying the effect off all of your promotional efforts. Finding affiliates with large mailing lists and good relationships with their lists will have an exponential effect on your sales (and many of their members will ultimately end up on your lists as well.)

Oh, I Almost Forgot. Make A Bunch Of Money Fast! –

What’s Next?

There are many specific tactics and techniques that fit into this basic framework. They all get organized into precise sequences designed to move people through the buying decision before the product is available and then build up pressure to buy quickly once the product goes live.

Jeff Walker refers to a launch as a ‘sideways salespage.’ Instead of a visitor getting one big sales page and reading through each part, the content is fed to the people on the launch list one section at a time. So, all of the same sales copy concepts remain in effect.

In future articles I will be looking at the 6 psychological triggers that get utilized during a product launch along with some examples of how they can be implemented in your product launches.

I will also start to map out some of the strategies and sequences I develop as I launch my own products.

Learn more about Jeff Walker’s Product Launch Secret System by Clicking Here!

Are Your Download Pages Secure?

How do you protect the download pages for your digital products? A surprising number of digital publishers seem to be relying on some very weak solutions.

A common approach to download page security that many beginning marketers use involves choosing names for download directories and pages that include a random string of numbers. Something like, “/download17826/”. The idea being that digital thieves trying to guess the url to the download page would not be able to do it easily. An extra measure of security that is often used is to employ ‘no-index’ tags in the robots.txt file and the individual HTML pages on the site to ensure that the search engines didn’t include the pages in their index.

The logic behind this simple solution is, “If you can’t find the page in the search engines and it is nearly impossible to guess, the download page is safe from casual thieves and all but the most determined hackers.” But, will the search engines really obey your ‘no-index’ tags?

If this is how you have your download pages protected, I have some very bad news for you. One of the major search engines is ignoring your ‘no-index’ tags and including your download pages in their search results for anyone to find.

I first became aware of this after reading the promotional copy for a recent product offer. I couldn’t believe it would be as easy as conducting a quick search to sneak directly onto a download page without paying – but, it is! A little more research revealed that this information on how to steal digital products is pretty widespread online. You don’t have to be a hardcore black-hat hacker to figure it out.

I’m not going to give details of the exact search engine and search methods that will expose these vulnerable download pages because I don’t want to encourage digital theft. But, when I learned about how easy it was to locate and access ‘protected’ download pages, I decided to test some of the hottest information products on the market and searched for their download pages. The results were astonishing.

In my tests, I was able to successfully locate and access over a dozen download pages for some very well known products. The search engine made it easy to locate the download pages and the sites offered no resistance to my visits. Ironically, one of the products whose download page I was able to access was for a software product promising to protect your download pages (either the software isn’t very good, or they don’t use it on their site.)

The lesson here is this, if you aren’t using a software solution to protect your download pages, you could be getting robbed blind by digital thieves. Hackers know how to exploit this vulnerability and they talk about it openly on their forums. Some malicious individuals even locate download pages and publish the links on forums and newsgroups to encourage theft. If your product isn’t well known yet, you might be safe. But, if you start seeing success, you will be targeted – count on it.

There are several products available to secure your download pages: DL Guard, Digital Product Guard, and Download Defender XT are three popular options that work. DL Guard is one of the best solutions available.

In my testing I uncovered several download pages that were secured with DL Guard (a unique bit of text shows up in the URL for the download page) and every one of them successfully blocked access to the download page. I personally know several marketers who use (and swear by) the DL Guard solution.

The download protection approach that I use involves employing a 3rd party system to process orders and deliver the digital goods. The service I use is E-junkie. I upload my files to the E-junkie servers and they process my orders and deliver the products automatically. The files are protected through their site and I don’t have to worry. They never offer a direct link to the files and product links can be set to expire after a specific time or number of downloads. E-junkie also manages my affiliate program and has a number of other valuable features built in. The costs are very low and the benefits are very high.

Whatever solution you choose, just make sure and implement it ASAP. Don’t leave the core of your business unprotected. Stop the digital thieves in their tracks using software like DL Guard or services like E-junkie.

If you are listening to the podcast version of this article, we encourage you to visit www dot go-to guy enterprises dot com and explore our other online marketing articles.

SRD: Search Result Domination

You hear a lot of talk in the marketing world about Search Engine Optimization (SEO). It is an entire industry online. But there is an even more powerful strategy you can use to get traffic to your websites. I call it Search Result Domination (SRD) and don’t hear nearly as many people talking about this idea.

When you apply SEO techniques to your website you find yourself getting one or two pages from your website showing up in the top 10 results. Even if you have lots of secondary pages on your domain that are relevant, Google will filter them out of the results. Search Result Domination techniques work to place web pages whose content you control into many or all of the top 10 search results. Imagine the increased traffic and sales you would get if 5 of the top 10 results on a search pointed to pages you controlled. The pages would all be on different domains, so Google wouldn’t filter them out. Each page would point back to your primary site and pre-sell people on the content being offered.

Dominating the Search Results isn’t that hard in most markets. You write some content on the topic (or hire a writer) and use that to create lenses at Squidoo, marketing articles on eZineArticles, blog entries at www.Blogger.com, WordPress.com, MySpace, Facebook, ScribD, Hubpages, Wikidot, and a host of other sites. Create a video on the topic and blast it across the Internet using services like Traffic Geyser (these can be simple slide shows with narration if that’s all you can do.) Create a podcast from your blog posts using a service like Odiogo (or by recording the audios yourself) and then list your podcast in every podcast directory you can find. Turn the articles into a free report and list it at every ebook directory site you can find.

The end result of working this way is that a searcher will go looking for your keywords and the results page will come back with mostly your pages. Those pages will steer people to your main site where you can capture leads and make sales. They will act like a giant net that you throw into the Internet to scoop up prospects and pull them into your site where they find the answers they were looking for and the products they need.

I’ve used these tactics to quickly get sites I’m working with ranking for my primary keywords. First the offsite pages get listed (I got a Squidoo page to number one in Google in 3 days this way) and then later the target page slowly overtakes the pages on 3rd party sites. Over the long term, I have several related pages on various domains which are all promoting my main page. Coupled with videos, this can happen in hours rather than days.

Give this tactic a try and let us know your results (or, if you already practice SRD, share a few tips from your experience.)

Don’t neglect your SEO work. But, once you have your page titles, headlines, page link structures, and header tags properly set up, move on and start dominating the results pages.

If you are listening to the podcast version of this article, we invite you to visit us online at www dot go to guy enterprises dot com. Leave a comment and let us know what you think about this topic.

Mass Control In Action: The Product Launch Formula

Jeff Walker is launching the 2.0 version of his “Product Launch Formula” and you can be sure that he is employing the principles of “Mass Control”.

One of the things that has become appearant to me as a student of Frank Kern’s “Mass Control” course is that he is very closely connected with the biggest names in the Internet Marketing world and people like John Reese (Traffic Secrets) and Jeff Walker (Product Launch Formula) come up frequently in the conversations. These guys all seem to work with each other on their launches and their personal marketing processes are interconnected. As a matter of fact, one of the bonus videos I got as a student of “Mass Control” is of Frank Kern presenting the core concepts of “Mass Control” at one of Jeff Walker’s “Product Launch Formula” seminars.

So, you can be sure that Jeff Walker will be using “Mass Control” techniques during his launch (he’d be crazy not too!)

You can learn a lot from watching the launch sequence he uses and then reverse engineering the process. I recommend you sign up for his lists and save any emails he sends you in a swipe file (one of the training resources that Frank Kern uses in the “Mass Control” course are the email sequences he used for some of his big launches – very enlightening.)

Like a lot of launches you have seen recently, the first public communication in the process is a free video designed to stimulate your desire for the results promised by the “Product Launch Formula” course. His core affiliate/JV network (I’m an affiliate myself) quickly blasted emails out to the Internet Marketing community driving visitors to the video and encouraging them to sign up for the mailing list to get more case studies and free info about the “Product Launch Formula.”

In all honesty, I was disappointed with this first video. The Stomper launches and Frank Kern’s “Mass Control” launch all gave very practical and actionable content in their desire building videos. Jeff Walker mostly focussed on case studies and talking about results. I was waiting for him to drop a big insider tip and it never came.

Watch the first video in Jeff Walker’s launch promotion and sign up for the mailing list. Then, study the emails and videos that follow. There is a very specific and well thought out sequence happening. Every email and video has a specific purpose. As you watch and read the launch information, ask yourself what Jeff is trying to do with this email. Is he stimulating your desire for the product, is he revealing his personal side so you feel like you know him (and get to like him), is he reminding you how many people are waiting to get the few copies available, is he giving proof that his system works? Each communication is designed to stimulate a psychological sales trigger and move you through a decision making process that leaves you making up your own mind that you ‘must have’ the “Product launch Formula” course.

This is precisely what Frank Kern did during the “Mass Control” launch and it was the reason why I felt I ‘must buy’ the course when it went live. This stuff works.

If you are a fellow “Mass Control” student, Jeff Walker’s “Product Launch Formula” launch will give you a chance to see the process in action. If you are not a student, I recommend you purchase a copy of the “Mass Control Revealed” interview that I have for sale on this site. Listen to Frank Kern explain the core concepts behind “Mass Control” and then study the “Product Launch Formula” launch sequence and look for the techniques that Frank Kern talks about at work. Chart out the sequence and what each email and video is doing. Then, when the launch is over, you’ll have a good outline to use to build your own launch sequence.

Be sure that there is much more to the “Mass Control” training and Jeff Walker’s “Product Launch Formula” than what you will learn through this reverse engineering exercise – but you will experience a massive shift in your marketing knowledge just the same.

So, go watch the “Product Launch Formula” free video and sign up for the mailing list so you start getting the emails. Then, study what you get. Remember, no matter what the emails say, nothing ‘just happened’ and nobody ‘just thought of something’ to tell you. Every communication you get is part of the plan.

If you are listening to the podcast version of this article, we invite you to visit our website at www dot go to guy enterprises dot com for more valuable Internet marketing insights.

Product Launch Formulas

How I Made My First $100 With Online Marketing

My personal Internet marketing story can be traced back to a blog entry I read back in December of 2005. Professional blogger Yaro Starak had written about how you could make money creating niche content websites with Adsense ads on them.

I had been toying with the idea of creating some sort of Internet based business for several years, but hadn’t figured out how to get started. Yaro’s article laid out a logical and accessible approach that seemed attainable. So, with no market analysis or research I bought a couple domain names and started experimenting.

At the same time I setup a blog and wrote about my experiments.

After one year of researching and experimenting with my niche sites, I had earned less than $30 from my efforts and spent at least that much money trying to earn $30. I was not a raging success in the world of marketing.

As depressing as my initial results were, those experiments were not wasted. I learned a huge number of valuable Internet skills which became foundational to my later success. I learned about web design, SEO, ad optimization, how to setup a WordPress site and more. I also discovered that the blog I created to document my experiments (and also to write about other projects I was doing and advice I was giving) was far more popular than any of the niche sites I had created.

Along the way I had also found a number of excellent e-books on various aspects of Internet marketing. I had to wade through a lot of junk to find the gems, but I found them. The pivotal book for me was “5 Bucks a Day”, by Dennis Becker. I discovered it during a special offer sale he was running at the Warrior Forum (the 800 pound gorilla of Internet Marketing Forums.)

I had been learning dozens of business plans that seemed like legitimate methods for earning money online, but I hadn’t focused on any one thing long enough to get real traction in my business. Dennis’ book is all about focus and breaking down your efforts into small manageable projects designed to earn a little profit consistently. Over time, you build a portfolio of profitable projects that adds up to significant income.

My newfound focus wasn’t the only benefit I got from Dennis’ e-book. He also started a membership forum for all of the people who bought “5 Bucks a Day.” And, it was there that I experienced the first of many $100 paychecks.

As a member of the forum I got very active helping other members and sharing my personal experiences in the world of marketing. All of the knowledge and skills I had aquired became the foundation for helping others. I answered questions about adding video to websites and how to record better audio. I jumped in with tips for people building WordPress sites. And, I offered detailed reviews of new e-books and software I purchased.

All the energy I put into giving valuable information to fellow forum members paid off in the excellent reputation I was earning. I became a respected member of the community and struck up a few friendships as well.

I continued seeking out new information about Internet marketing. One e-book I came across was “Niche Marketing on Crack,” written by Andrew Hansen. One night I bought the book, devoured it, and jumped on the forum to offer up my opinion of the content.

Dennis is very generous toward the members of his forums. If you provide valuable information in a review and include a non-affiliate link to the sales page, he doesn’t have any problems with members including an affiliate link as well. I included an affiliate link in my review of “Niche Marketing on Crack.”

Over the next several days I answered many questions about the e-book. Some people I encouraged to buy it and others I recommended look elsewhere for the help they needed. As with any product, it was not right for everyone. As a result of the helpful information I provided and the good reputation I had built up, the majority of the forum members who decided to buy the e-book used my affiliate link.

That review earned me $206.80 US in commissions over the first 48 hours after I wrote it in February of 2007. Over the next 4 months I earned an additional $129.25 US. That was my first real taste of marketing success.

For a guy who hadn’t earned a fraction of that amount for all of the work he had done over the previous year, the experience was an adrenaline rush – I was really hooked.

A short while later, Dennis opened another membership forum called “Earn 1K a Day.” I joined in a heartbeat and put the same kind of energy I had spent at the “5 Bucks a Day” forum into this new venture. It was the foundation for my biggest success to date, my “Rapid Website Development” video training series which has generated more than 10 times that first success before it has even had a public launch.

Due to the increased focus on specific aspects of my business, even some of those initial bumbling efforts at marketing have begun to generate small but steady profits and have opened up new opportunities. This blog is an offshoot of the work I did on my first blog. And, of course, I continue to invest in my education to help push me to the point where my publishing business generates enough revenue to support my family. I invested in a copy of John Reese’s “Traffic Secrets” course, Mike Filsaime’s “7 Figure Code”, and (most recently) Frank Kern’s “Mass Control” course.

The most satisfying aspect of all of this is the fact that I’m funding the growth of my business and my ongoing education with revenue from my business and not credit cards and income from my ‘day job!’ (Okay, technically I did charge Frank’s “Mass Control” course on a credit card before I had the money, but I’m hard at work finishing up 2 projects which should earn me all of the money I need to pay that one off – and what I’ve learned is definitely worth the effort.)

So, that’s the story of my first $100. How did you earn yours? Leave comment below and share your story.

If you are listening to the podcast version of this article, we encourage you to visit us at www dot go to guy enterprises dot com. Make sure to share the story of how you made your first $100 doing Internet marketing.

Review: DigiMemo L2 Electronic Memo Pad with OCR

Since I first made the decision to start building an information publishing business, I have constantly looked for techniques and technology that would take my normal everyday methods of working and capture the information that I share. This information needs to be in a format that can be easily adapted to create new products. One early change I made was to buy a voice recorder and record conversations whenever I explain things to friends and co-workers. Now, instead of tutoring one person, I can have the audio transcribed into a tutorial to publish online. I didn’t have a similar solution for capturing my handwritten notes

This past Christmas I got my hands on one of the coolest new tools for my information publishing business – the DigiMemo L2 by ACECAD.

===> CHECK OUT MY VIDEO DEMO OF THE DIGIMEMO L2

In spite of the fact that I have a Palm Pilot, a laptop, a voice recorder, several desktop computers, and lots of other little technological gizmos, I still tend to do a lot of my work with good old-fashioned pen and paper. Some of my best ideas come this way and I can often rough out an idea faster than with any other method. The struggle I have is that I rarely type up my notes on the computer and, instead, I end up with notepads full of ideas and product outlines that get lost in the shuffle and forgotten. So, I’ve been on the lookout for some technology that gives me the experience and convenience of writing on paper with a pen, but digitizes the results quickly and easily so that my notes can be converted into the raw material for new information products, blog articles, and anything else I can think of.

One early attempt to solve this dilemma involved scanning my notes into the computer and using OCR software (Optical Character Recognition) to convert the images into text that could be edited in a word processor. The process was cumbersome (which significantly reduces the chances that I’ll actually do it), the OCR software was expensive, and the resulting texts required so much editing to clean up the conversion mistakes (my handwriting is not very neat and OCR software seems to struggle deciphering it) that it just wasn’t worth the effort. I had no intention of trying to change the way I write to please the OCR software and it was faster and easier to just type the notes directly rather than edit the converted files. Not a good solution!

On a business trip last year I was reading the Skymall catalog that the airlines put in the seat-backs of the planes when I came across an ad for the DigiMemo L2. The ad promised that I would be able to write on normal paper using an ink pen and then this device would capture everything I wrote as a graphic. Once captured, the pages could then be quickly downloaded to my computer using an ordinary USB cable and converted to text using their OCR software. Essentially, the DigiMemo L2 digitizes as you write – no scanning required.

From that moment on, I wanted to get my hands on the DigiMemo to see if it would live up to the hype. I tore the ad from the catalog and stuck it to the refrigerator door as a Christmas gift ‘hint’ for my wife. We tend to spend our Christmas money traveling to visit family and keep our gifts to each other more modest, so this one was a combo Christmas/birthday gift – but, I got it! (The combo gift is one of the few benefits to having a birthday right after Christmas!)

So, after months of anticipation, did the DigiMemo L2 live up to the hype? In a word: Yes!

The DigiMemo device is basically a Wacom Tablet with a pad of paper between the pen and the tablet. The pen itself has a ball point cartridge which triggers a pressure sensing mechanism inside when you push down to write. The tablet records the strokes of the pen as you write and builds an image of the page in an internal memory bank. When you flip to a new sheet of paper, there is a button on the side of the tablet to flip to a ‘new digital page’ which starts a new recording.

One great feature of the device is that it does not need to be connected to a computer for you to use it. There is enough memory to store dozens of pages (and you can use an SD memory card to increase the storage space.) So, you can take the pad with you anywhere you would normally use a pen and paper. Then, you can quickly download the pages into your computer using the included software.

Having digital copies of my notes is great, but the real benefit to me is the ability to convert the pages into text. This was the real test of the value of this solution.

I purchased the optional OCR software (a trial version of the software is included, but it’s a ‘must have’ option for me, so I bought it with the DigiMemo.) Once you download the pages to your computer, you can send them to the OCR software for conversion. The conversion software can work with text only and also text with images (which will clean up your drawings.) Straight out of the box, the OCR software converted my chicken-scratch handwriting with about 90% accuracy. This is better than any other OCR software I have used. But, there were still corrections to be made and this was where I was most impressed with the whole system. The OCR software displays the image of your hand written page along side of the OCR results. This enables me to quickly read through the OCR texts and, when I come across something that doesn’t look right, glance over to the original to see the hand written text. A few quick strokes on the keyboard and I have a corrected page ready to save.

The DigiMemo L2 fits right in with my normal work flow and makes it easy to convert my writing into editable texts. Using the device requires very little change to my normal work methods which means that I will actually use this device. The only thing I can imagine being more convenient would be to have a personal scribe who follows me around taking notes and typing up everything I think and say (a man can have a dream, can’t he?)

One add-on that I did not get (but plan to add soon) is a portfolio case to hold the pad and pen. The pen is designed to clip onto the tablet when not in use, but is very easy to knock loose. Without the pen, the tablet is useless except as a very expensive clipboard. I also want a little extra protection for the whole thing. So, another $40 will get you a fancy portfolio style holder that zips shut and will keep everything in place and protected.

There are a few other cool little features on the DigiMemo L2. The most significant one is that it will serve as a drawing tablet for your computer when it is plugged in with the USB cable. If you don’t already have a graphics tablet, this is a nice little bonus feature.

The DigiMemo L2 has already proved its worth to me. I’ve been using it to capture notes for new reports, e-books, and web content. I take it with me everywhere I go and know that everything I write is captured and ready to use to build my information publishing empire (cue the evil laughter.)

If you are listening to the podcast version of this article we invite you to visit us at www dot go to guy enterprises dot com for more Internet Marketing Insights.

Mass Control – 4 Day Cash Machine Experiment Part 3

My 4 Day Cash Machine experiment has run its full course and I’ve got the results.

Much to my disappointment, Frank Kern’s 4 Day Cash Machine is not magic (my results might have been better if I had implemented it like this!) The cold, dead, untargeted list I used it on did not suddenly start beating new life and buying products as fast as I could process the payments. But, there were some surprises that give me confidence that it will be useful in the future when I am better prepared to take advantage of it. (My list building efforts are underway!)

Download The Exact Email Sequence That Generated $8260.51 in 5 Days…

Before I give you my detailed assessment of the 4 Day Cash Machine in action, let me break down my results.

Mailing # 1:

  • 377 emails sent in total
  • 34 emails bounced giving an effective delivery of 343 emails delivered
  • 7 people unsubscribed from the list
  • 2.6% open-up rate based on delivered emails* (open rates are highly unreliable measures these days, but I decided to go ahead and include them)

Mailing #2:

  • 361 emails sent in total (I did not remove bounces but did scrub out some duplicates I found)
  • 35 emails bounced giving an effective delivery of 326 emails
  • 2 people unsubscribed from the list
  • .6% open-up rate based on delivered email*

Mailing #3:

  • 359 emails sent in total (I continued to leave in the bounces)
  • 40 emails bounced giving an effective delivery of 319 emails
  • 2 people unsubscribed from the list
  • .003% open-up rate based on delivered emails*

Mailing #4:

  • 356 emails sent in total (I continued to leave in the bounces)
  • 39 emails bounced giving an effective delivery of 317 emails
  • 0 people unsubscribed from the list
  • .0% open-up rate based on delivered emails*

Final Results after 4 mailings:

  • 1305 total emails delivered
  • 11 unsubscribes – 3.2% based on initial deliverable list size of 343
  • 6 page views on the special offer sales page – 0.46% based on total emails delivered
  • 0 orders
  • $0.00 earned

My Evaluation of the Results

While I was disappointed not to make any sales with this promotion, I was not surprised by the result. This was a very cold list that hadn’t heard from me in many months and wasn’t particularly responsive in the first place. The vast majority of the names had come from JV Giveaway events where everyone is signing up for dozens of lists in order to get freebies. A significant portion of the names you get during these events are either temporary accounts setup for the event, or secondary accounts that don’t get checked very often (and usually just mass deleted.)

Surprising Positive Outcomes

I was braced for massive unsubscribe rates with every email. This list was full of people who probably had no idea how they ever got connected with me. Before I even said hello, I hit them with a bunch of sales pitches. I was sure the number of unsubscribes would climb with each mailing (specially the last one with a ‘FINAL NOTICE’ subject line), but that didn’t happen. As a matter of fact, the unsubscribe rates went down over the course of 4 days. I’m confident that a promotion like this will not have much negative effect on my list sizes (I always worry that intense promotions will scare off the subscribers, but that doesn’t seem to be an issue. Other markets may have different results.)

The other thing I noticed was that the page views for the sales page tracked with the first and last mailing. I got a couple after the initial mailing in the promotion (as one would expect) and then the rest came on day 4 after the ‘FINAL NOTICE’ email went out. This demonstrates that the urgency created by the promotion’s deadline does have an effect on response rates.

Overall Analysis

I think that the ‘4 Day Cash Machine‘ approach would generate a spike of sales in a well targeted and maintained list. The persuasion tactics employed are founded in the fundamental principles of human decision making – a reason why, urgency, scarcity. The materials provided would certainly help to assemble one of these promotions quickly and the training provided helps you to resist the urge to ‘fiddle and fine-tune’ the promotion and just get it done.

Since first learning the details of this promotional strategy, I discovered someone doing an amazing version of the process. He automates everything (so each new visitor gets their own unique ‘mini promotion’) and ties in some powerful tactics to amplify the psychological tactics used. Check out this video – it explains the whole process in detail.

The sample webpage content I got from Frank Kern was provided in HTML and was relatively easy to modify. The sample emails, however, were provided in a PDF file. That made them a real pain to cut and paste. I wish they had come in a simple text file – I have them that way on my hard drive for future promotions.

If you have any specific questions about my experiment with ‘4 Day Cash Machine’, leave a comment below and I’ll post a reply.

If you are listening to the podcast version of this article, please visit us on the web at: www dot go to guy enterprises dot com.

Mass Control – 4 Day Cash Machine Experiment Part 2

Today is the second day of my ‘4 Day Cash Machine’ test promotion. ‘4 Day Cash Machine’ came as a bonus module when I purchased Frank Kern’s Mass Control course (check out this video of a wicked automated implementation of the 4DCM).

The second email in the 4 email sequence went out just after midnight last night (eastern standard time.) Continue reading “Mass Control – 4 Day Cash Machine Experiment Part 2”

Mass Control – 4 Day Cash Machine Experiment Part 1

In an earlier post I mentioned that I planned to put the ‘4 Day Cash Machine’ bonus module (check out this video of a wicked implementation of the 4DCM), that came with Frank Kern’s Mass Control training program, to a hard test. Well, that test started in the early hours of this morning. Anyone who has signed up for the updates list on this website should have already seen the first email in the sequence (the sign-up box for the list is in the right hand side of this page.)

Download This Email Sequence That Generated $8260.51 in 5 Days…

I’ve made this a very hard test. I’m mailing to a small list of people and the majority of them are from a ‘very cold’ set of names that I haven’t contacted in months and who have already received a promotion for the featured product about 8 months ago. These leads came mostly from a couple ‘Fire Sale’ events (not sources of high-quality email leads.) To give you a sense of how cold they were, I had 34 hard bounces out of the main list of 360 – that’s a bounce rate of 9%.

Part of the reason I went with this list is that I wanted to really test the capabilities of this technique to motivate sales. If it works with this group, it should be a huge success with higher quality lists that I have a better relationship with. The other reason is that the primary list I’m building right now is for my first big product launch. I’ve had successes with the pre-launch and I don’t want to hit this list with tangential promotions until after the launch.

It took me a few hours to set everything up. Even though there is a cut and paste template to use for the sales page and the emails, I still had to pick 5 bonus products and write blurbs about them, and customize the emails before loading them into my email broadcast cue. In addition, I had to do some maintenance work on the older list to make sure that everything would go out smoothly (I have switched to Aweber for my email marketing since the list was created, but didn’t move this list due to the low quality of the leads.)

My immediate results are 34 bounces, 5 unsubscribes, 1 page view on the special sales page, and 0 sales. But, it is important to remember that the email only went out a few hours ago and many people have not had a chance to open it yet. I’m expecting that a significant number of the people on the mailing list gave a secondary email address to begin with – so they might not check it as frequently. There are 3 more messages in the email cue ready to go out before the end of the promotion.

My ‘4 Day Cash Machine’ promotion ends at midnight EST, February 14, 2008. Given the quality of the list, I’ll consider the experiment a success if I get even 2-3 sales. More than that and I’ll be stunned!

Look for a full debriefing when the promotion ends and additional updates when I have more results.

If you are listening to the podcast version of this article, visit our website at: www dot go to guy enterprises dot com.