"Imagine"

I have recently been amused by a very clever marketing ploy that seems to be working involving an internet marketer who has built something of a name. The new strategy involves announcements that this person is ‘going to college” and thus “letting go” of some “prime properties” and, some other promotions which are rather in the line of having a “firesale” and selling off some “secret weapons”. Lol. Usually when people go to college they are concerned with financial aid, costs of education, cost of living and etc. So, if you have a working, viable business going that actually makes you money, the LAST thing you are going to do is get rid of it!

Have you even looked at the COST OF GOING TO COLLEGE these days? Not to mention, living expenses, (even dorm living is pricey.), car, entertainment, cloths, fun….well, you get my drift. Even with scholarships and student loans, you need at least a part time job AND help from mom and dad. Yep. Expensive. So, you have a going and profitable online business you keep it to support your way through college. The last thing you do is “sell it off”. Besides, it is not like you have to quit your job because you are moving away to a new state or whatever. Your job, company, is in cyperspace and GOES WITH! Lol.

Now, the fire sales I can rather see as the selling of “secret weapons.” You need to earn cash for some venture, or in this case, to “go to college.” So, you have a sale to do this. Cool. Call it that. Don’t wrap it up in a bunch of nonsense.

Usually, I have found out through experience, whenever people start having “firesales” and/or giving things away when you sign up for something else it is because those things are becoming obsolete. A great example of this are adblasters. I obtained a number of them over the past few months through signing up for other sites and etc only to find that these sites have “left the building.” Lol. I did get a month or two emailing done through them, only to log on to find messages like this: “Our list has become unviable and we have discontinued it.” Usually this is accompanied by a sales page where you can go and purchase the new, viable and oh-so hot list.

So, I am now rather skeptical of fire sales and give aways of this nature. This rather ties in with things you need to look at when considering a “long term” business opportunity. Let’s face it, you do not build a business overnight! Period. There are no “fast track” road to riches, easy money, or “no work” venues out there. Repeat that over and over again.

And, there is NOTHING WRONG WITH YOU IF THAT SO CALLED HOT OP DOES NOT WORK FOR YOU! Yep, repeat that over and over again. As far as I can see, the majority are pre-designed to fail for the average affiliate and benefit only the program owner/s. Does that mean you stop looking! Absolutely not!! There are some great ops out there, great sites, great marketing resources, great business and products. You just have to learn how to sift through things to find them.

So, my top “run away” from phrases. Meaning, these are sites I run away from quickly whenever I see these phrases:

1. Imagine… yeah I can imagine all my money going into the pocket of someone else.
2. What if… what if? What happens if it doesn’t work out they way the ad hype implies it “will”?
3. You Could… uh-huh, I could also run away very fast keeping my money firmly in my pocket or bank account.
4. Letting go of properties: usually there is a good reason for that. One does not just “let go” a profitable business. You keep those for sure.
5. YOUR INBOX CAN LOOK LIKE THIS, NO ADVERTISING REQUIRED!
Right. Since when? Usually these phrases are associated with “Randomizers” which is still synonymous with: “gambling.”

Top phrases/words which make me sit back and think about before running aw from quickly:

1. Firesale: why?
2. Giving Away: ditto

Top phrases/words I analyze in conjunction with that specific site to ensure they add up:

1. Free: Hey, I love free, am all for free, thrive on free. I join sites free to find out if this is a good fit for me. I upgrade or purchase when it is. What I do not buy or participate in “free” sites which are NOT!!!
My all time favorite was a safelist which toted itself as THE (as in only) free safelist on the net and then had like 2 payment processor buttons prominently displayed. Lol. Hate to break it to them but they were not the only safe list on the net to offer free membership option, and, paying for a membership is not free. Hello!

2. Free: again, only to find you get sent free sales literature. Yeah, that is supposed to be free.
3. Free to join, no benefits, you buy all those. Hello again, not free.
4. Free… did I mention this already? If a site is free, great. Offering free incentives is a tried and true marketing tactic. It is good, solid business practice. Just, make sure it is actually free before signing up. If the site was deceptive about this up front, you can be assured that it will be deceptive in other matters.

In fact there is one thing about logic statements in general that need to be applied to all on line marketing and opportunity sites: you must have all true (tested and verified true) components in a statement to equal a true statement. T + T + T = T. T + F + T = F. So, if you are looking at a site, make sure all the statements about that site add up. Otherwise, rafq.

- Cherie Halliday
XtreamSurf
Xtream Submitter
Xtream SAL

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How to Promote Online, Lesson number 1

Promoting online is a hit and miss thing for most of us….Often when people start, they don’t use good testing techniques for our advertising – or scientific methods to determine what is working and what is not.

I believe a little science in our method is essential for good results.

First of all, I highly recommend that everyone get a good result tracking service for email advertising and any advertising that you are hoping to start – or are already doing.

You MUST know if your paid advertising is effective. YOU must NOT waste money following false dreams…but even more important is your time…you must test your free advertising sites too….or waste time – and tons of it – advertising through ineffective methods.

I recommend using Results Tracker – and anything short of a pro membership is a waste of time to be totally blunt. If you are hoping to promote anything online effectively – you will need to spread your advertising around using different methods and continually adding to it.

Tracking is a great way of testing not only if emails are getting delivered, but also if certain subjects are working, while others are not…and this testing takes time but time well spent.

It can also test how many of your FFA (Free For All) advertisements are getting clicked on, and if any of the blaster sites are actually delivering your mail to people – or to just to online machines. Yes – you can track where your clicks are coming from – and how many are from the same address (revistitors!) (all of these methods will be covered in future articles).

One of my early lessons….. I spent money on a site that got me all excited about delivering millions of emails by one click blasting to them all. I looked quickly at my results tracking information – which said they were getting clicks, (people opening (click) my URL)– and off I went promoting it.

I was making a very nice income from it –(*Off of my Downline…Not from actually selling anything to new people)- thank you very much….only to go back to my results tracker weeks later to find a function I didn’t know existed – a way to see where I was getting these 20-30 clicks from – and lo and behold – I was getting clicks when the blaster was submitting my ads to other blaster sites – which in turn were giving me not one click of real business, (In other words…all the clicks were from auto-click programs from some other marketer’s box of tricks!)

In order to retain my integrity, credibility, and online reputation … I had to write to my lovely profitable downline and tell them all to cancel their monthly membership subscriptions to me and the site. Short term profits online that rip off others, will mean you will have no LONG TERM career online.

Results Tracking is the only way to protect yourself from promoting scam advertising methods.

So for this first step – find yourself a great Results Tracking method – and learn it thoroughly. Then get ready for step 2 – how to use it!!
- By Clare
* * * *
Among her many talents, Clare is an active marketer with such sites as Quantum Gold and XtreamSurf. She uses ResultsTracker to see what works and what doen't.