Fundamentals of Internet Markteting

I reprint this article with Paul Myer’s permission. It comes from his newsletter Talkbiz.

His newsletter is one of the rare email pieces I miss when I do not get it.

But just read this issue by yourself:

“The Portable Voyeur”
===================

In the last issue, I put out the idea of looking at your online networks and niches as “virtual neighborhoods.” Nothing especially new in that concept, except that almost no-one in the marketing field talks about them that way. That discussion is mostly left to forum operators and social networking geeks.

In this issue, I want to talk about something closer to home. Literally IN your home. People spying on you using your own electronics.

Let’s start with the least intrusive, and work up to stuff you may not believe is happening. The last few are downright creepy.

….

There’s a thing called “IP geolocation,” which uses a database of IPs (numbers locating your computer on the network) and physical areas to show where a computer is located. There are a bunch of these, and the accuracy can be anything from very close to wildly off the mark. The good ones can narrow it down to a few blocks, in most cases. Sometimes to a specific building.

You can see this most often when you notice an ad on a site that’s used by people all over the world, but mentions your city by name. “[YourCity] mom discovers…” or “Man in [Hometown] loses 47 pounds using…”  That’s IP geolocation in its mildest form.

Twitter has offered the option for a while to attach your IP address to a tweet, basically trying to tell people where you are. You have to opt into that, though. It’s turned off by default.

Facebook’s new “Places” settings options enable a more advanced function by default. The idea is to make it easy for your friends to know where you are. Unfortunately, it also makes it easy for people you might not want to share your location with to find you. Or know when you’re not home…

It’s easy to disable this option, if you know it’s there and what it’s called. John Williams sent me a link to the instructions. You can read those here:

http://lifehacker.com/5616395/how-to-disable-facebook-places

Why would this matter? Well, maybe you don’t want your friends to know where you are every minute that you’re online. Or maybe you don’t want
world+dog knowing when you’re not home. Or maybe you don’t want your employer knowing you’re logging onto Facebook from work. Or from the park when you called in sick.

Just how much info should be distributed about you automatically?

But wait… There’s more!

….

There are applications on some portable devices and phones that can transmit the data from a GPS system to other sites. This can be used to pinpoint your exact address, and your location to within a few feet.

That’s how the “Places” function on Facebook works. And, with the default settings, your Facebook “friends” can “check you in” if they’re with you. Handy, if you’re careful about who your “friends” are, and who you allow to share the info. Given the default settings, though, it’s an announcement to the world every time you log in from a mobile device.

That can get into the realm of the dangerous. With it set to “Friends of friends” able to view the info, you could be broadcasting your location to burglars, stalkers, ex-employees, your employer, or even just that annoying person
you’d rather not see right now.

Given recent comments from CEOs Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook – “Privacy is dead”) and Eric Schmidt (Google – “If you have something that you don´t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place”), there is every reason to believe these services will be used as aggressively
as possible.

Both companies have said the comments were taken out of context. That could be easily believed of Zuckerberg’s remark. Schmidt’s is a bit less dismissable. None of that matters, though, when you look at the way their firms actually treat their users’ private data. Facebook set this option to “On” by default. Google initially opted every Gmail user into their social networking platform, Buzz, and created significant and foreseeable problems for some users.

I’m pretty sure I don’t want those sorts of decisions made for me without my knowledge or consent. How about you?

And it gets (potentially) much, much worse.

….

Apple has applied for a patent that has some deeply disturbing implications: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/08/24-0

The summary: They want a patent on software that, in mobile devices, would let them listen to your conversations and/or take pictures of you or your surroundings, without any way for you to know it’s happening. Just remotely activate those functions, at their own discretion.

It would also let them monitor biometric data and all of your online activities while using their devices. Ostensibly, this would be developed for purposes of preventing theft, or catching thieves. It’s even been suggested to me that Apple may want the patent to keep the idea from being used by others.

I don’t buy it. But that doesn’t really matter.

First, it’s nearly certain that, if this technology is deployed and not made illegal for use by private citizens, it will be abused. The theft-prevention rationale was offered, for example, by the Lower Merion school district, in their program giving laptops to every high-school student. “Only to enable recovery in event of theft,” they said. That didn’t stop people at the school from using it to spy on students in their homes.Yeah. Really.

One kid was disciplined for “improper behavior” that occurred at home, in his bedroom. The Vice-Principal used a photo taken using the webcam in the laptop as his evidence. According to a forensic analysis commissioned by the district, the school took 66,503 screenshots and photos using these systems. The school admits these include pictures of the kids in their bedrooms.

If teachers will do that, what would a corporation do?

….

So, if you have one of these portable devices, where do you use it? In what situations do you simply carry a cell phone, iPad or other portable computing device? Do you want people able to spy on you in all those places, at any time, without warning?

It’s been suggested to me that there is prior art that might cause the USPTO to reject such a patent application, or be used later to invalidate it if granted. That raises other challenges. Specifically, anyone at all could include it in
their systems.

Google has a cell phone OS. Just how much do you want them to add to their collection of data on you?

Then there’s the “social networking” phone, which is designed specifically for use with Facebook and Twitter. Do you want your kids to have one of those broadcasting their location to the world at every moment the phone is on?

This isn’t science fiction, folks. We’re not getting into foil fedora territory here. This stuff is real.

….

And then there are the outright criminals. There is already malware code in the wild that lets remote operators turn on the webcam on infected computers. That’s not a big deal if you use a desktop machine and don’t keep one connected, or disconnect it when you don’t intend to use it.

But what about the laptops and netbooks, and even some monitors, that are sold with a camera and microphone installed in the machine itself? The last two portables that I got have them. Where do you, or your kids or employees, use laptops?

This isn’t especially difficult stuff to do. And the market isn’t restricted to criminals. For instance, on the first related search I did, I found someone asking how to remotely activate the webcam on his wife’s laptop without her knowing.

Some of these devices come with GPS systems installed. Anyone who can access those will know exactly where you are, what you’re doing or discussing, and with whom.

Anyone want to market sound-proof phone carriers, with built-in Faraday cages? A month ago, I would have considered that a ridiculous idea. Now, I’m thinking it’s a niche.

….

Electronic security isn’t just about data protection any more, folks. It’s gotten very personal, and it’s about to get more so.

You can take steps to reduce your exposure to this kind of invasion of privacy. First, make sure you have proper security software on all your computers. That’s good policy anyway, so that’s not too extreme.

With the social networking sites, it’s a matter of watching your preferences. Also just common sense. And easy. Don’t leave external webcams attached when they’re not in use, if you have any objection to what you do in the same room with them being seen by someone else. Using a USB hub makes
disconnecting them easy, and it’s a reasonable precaution, with the amount of trojans running loose online.

With laptops and netbooks, just be aware that this stuff is possible, and take whatever precautions you may feel are appropriate. That might be nothing at all, for many of you. It could mean turning the thing off when it’s not in active use.
Or putting tape over the camera lens. Or, if you have the need or desire to be especially cautious, having a physical switch installed to prevent remote activation of the camera or microphone.

I can’t begin to guess what level of security will work for you. Some people won’t consider it an issue at all, and they may well be right. For them. For others, these are real concerns. It’s getting very easy to install this kind of
monitoring code, and there are too many people with incentives to do it. Employers, co-workers, competition, family members, and various less savory types. Brings new meaning to the word “spyware,” yes?

Make sure your kids are aware of the potential issues, too.

….

I’m told that law enforcement agencies have had the ability to turn on cell phones remotely as listening devices for a while now, with a proper warrant. I consider that a very different thing than random strangers being able to access these kinds of info at will.

As of this moment, I am not aware of this being a problem for cell phones and similar portable devices. Just keep this in mind, and pay attention for it.

Whether Apple gets that patent or not, it’s coming.

….

If it’s installed or used by any corporation, I have a suggestion that seems appropriate: The top officers and all members of the board(s) of directors should be required to carry one of the devices with them at all times, with the audio and video enabled 24/7, and streaming to the web for the whole
world to view.

Hey, if we don’t get to decide what we can keep private, why should they?

….

The idea here isn’t to scare you, or create some sort of conspiracy buzz. If that was the goal, I’d point you to an even more extreme, and equally current, example of invasive observation: http://talkbiz.com/r/iris.php

As you can see, this stuff is real. The technology exists right now, and most of it is already in use. It may not pose much of a threat to many of us, but it’s something to be aware of and to watch out for.

Knowing it’s possible is 90% of the battle.

Be careful out there.

Paul

—–===(*)===—–

Find this useful? Buy me a beer…
http://www.buy-paul-a-beer.com

Tell your friends about us. Send them to…
http://www.talkbiz.com/

Copyright 2010 TalkBiz Digital, LLC

An online event can act as important building block in your marketing system. It can help you to develop a campaign capability, which involves the capacity to send hundreds or thousands of visitors to a single page in a short time span and ask them for a specific action like registering for a mailing list or buying a product. This capability is essential if you want to earn money by participating in product launches as an affiliate, and much more so, if you want to launch your own product.

What Is an Online Event?
Online events take most often the form of teleseminars (conference calls or webcasts in a variety of formats) and webinars. A webinar contains visual and audio elements, while a teleseminar or webcast focuses on audio. A printed document may be added, and especially for the pure audio event it is very important to provide a clear structure to the listener in a printed format. The visual portion of an online event may be a power point presentation, or a transmission of the presenter’s computer screen.

What Is so Special with Online Events?
First of all a written text contains only a fraction of the information which gained by listening to the voice of a person. By Talking and listening it is much easier to create a bond of trust. If you want to learn more about this aspect of an online event, do a web search for “Arthur Joseph”. In this article I want to concentrate on more formal aspects of marketing with an online event.

Natural Reasons to Send Follow Up Messages
You get naturally a number of natural occasions to contact your audience through email, twitter etc: Announce the event, remind them to attend, when the replay is put online, when the replay is going offline. You can add a deadline to register, or to ask questions in advance. You can contact them this way. You can send five, six, seven messages in one campaign without being or sounding spammy.

Urgent Need for Action
You have at least two deadlines inherent in your online event which create automatic urgency: The events date and time, when it’s over, it’s over. And the second deadline is the time when you remove the replay. If you choose, you can add a third deadline by asking to register for the event or request a certain topic to be covered latest at a certain date.

Project Scarcity
Every direct mail copywriter will tell you to create a sense of scarcity. Your online event does that elegantly: You have only 200 phone lines available. Seats are awarded on a first come first serve basis. The more you have been able to become known as an expert in your field, the ability to ask you a question and interact directly and publicly with you will be seen as a scarce and valuable opportunity.

Sense of Belonging
To belong to a select group is a powerful motivator for humans. You can use this fact of course with your online event by making a special offer exclusively to the group attending the event. But you can even go a step further by doing events for your customers only, or for your twitter followers, Facebook friends and mailing list subscribers. If you do this properly, you can strengthen your relationship with your audience with each and every event you do.

Recommended Resources:

• Teleseminar Secrets by Alex Mandossian

If you want to grow your business, you need to get more sales. By definition, there are only three ways you can get that:

1. Get more customers
2. Sell more often to each customer
3. Sell more in each transaction

Get More Customers
If you do not want your business to die, you need to acquire new customers all the time. In truth, you lose customers all the time. To grow your business and get more sales, you need to find more new customers than you lose current ones.
Finding new customers is expensive and can be difficult. Many businesses do not earn a profit and even make a loss on their first sale to a new customer, the so called front end sale. They need to go a long way to find a prospect, make him aware of the offer, get his interest, nurture his desire and finally induce him to act on the offer. You need lots of effort and high expenses to guide him through his decision making process.

Sell More Often to Each Customer
It is much easier to get more sales from an existing customer, because you have built already a trustful relationship with him. You can get his attention, and it is easier for him to act on his desire, because his risk to be disappointed or look like a fool is now much lower.
How often you can sell to each customer depends on your product or service, and on your effort. The best scenario you could dream up is a product which needs to be replaced or serviced every couple of months, and you can approach your customer at the right time to remind him about the need. One simple example would be your dentist. He will send you a letter to remind you that it is time for a new checkup and ask you to call for an appointment.
The same system lies behind the riches of Gillette, Procter & Gamble and Coca Cola. In these cases, the body reminds you that you need more razor blades, detergents or drinks. To get more sales the providers of these products need just to be present in your mind as well as in the store.
In internet marketing we use social networks and email to be present in the customers mind. It is a bit more difficult to come up with products which need to be replaced on a regular basis, because we sell typically immaterial products consisting of information. But still, information needs to be up to date, which opens the door for membership sites providing a steady stream of news about a certain topic.
It may also be a good idea to drop feed your information product to your customer. This approach may increase usability in a big way. And every time you deliver the next installment of the product, you have the chance to get more sales by offering him a related product or service. If you deliver too much information at once, the consumer may feel overwhelmed, and your product may end up collecting dust on your customer`s hard disk.

Sell More in Each Transaction
If you have made a sale you have got already your customers attention and interest. He is in the mood to act. The simplest way to get more sales from your existing customers is to offer them another related product, which may increase the usability of the product they just bought. One example would be the sales man for shoes, who will inevitably offer you a shoe polish as soon as you have bought your new boots. This is absolutely legitimate, and your customer has every right to be angry with you, if you do not offer this shoe polish, travel insurance, video tutorial etc. He wants the full value of the product you just sold him, and it is up to you to offer him complementary products and services.

Recommended book:

Tell a Friend Scripts are internet tools to ferment word of mouth marketing. They can be very powerful, if you use them correctly. But if you do not know how to use them, they can be just without any impact, or even create big problems for a business.

Basic Functions
We use our “Tell a Friend” script for motivating people to inform their friends about an offer. The script makes it easy for our customers to spread the word. They need to fill only their own name and email plus the names and email addresses of their friends into a form, then press a button and, wow, the news goes out to 3, 4, 5 friends. Our script allows us you to offer an incentive if somebody sends the message out. We can also configure a campaign to reward senders if their friends take action after receiving the email, and we have control over the message which is passed along.

Why it Works
The basic power behind our tell a friend script comes from the fact that people love to share new and useful stuff with others. If the information they share is indeed new, surprising and helpful, it is like sharing a secret. And you all know that a secret must be shared with the “best friend”. If we add a carefully crafted reward into the picture, the system becomes even more powerful.

The Motivation
People share useful information and secrets (not readily available information) with several goals in mind. They may hope to …

• provide value to a friend
• strengthen a relationship
• shine as an experts, who knows more than others about a certain field
• earn an additional incentive
   
• but, if not done correctly, a reward can devalue the information and act as an disincentive

The Message
Our tell a friend script allows us to control the message which is sent out. We limit the script always to send a message written by us, because otherwise people could use it as a platform for sending spam. This could spoil our name create trouble with our internet service provider and even with governments around the world. The message need also to conform to the FTC’s disclosure requirements related to product endorsements.

Message Attributes
How does a perfect message for word of mouth marketing look? Here are a few points:

• It must be short and easy to understand
• It must be interesting, even surprising
• It must provide value to the recipient, even if he does not follow up with an action
• It must induce a follow-up action
• It must not feel and taste like spam, and neither be a hidden product endorsement or sales pitch

Composing a message for tell a friend scripts is copywriting. Every internet marketer needs to hone his copywriting skills continously in a cycle of testing and improving.

Message Examples
The program comes with a readymade message. Take that message as a placeholder. It may sound like

Hi [friends name]
I just found an incredible website offering the cheapest air tickets you can find anywhere, online or offline.
Check it out, click now on this link:
[Website URL].
You will not regret it.

I wish you all the best

[Sender's name]

The Test
Would you like to send this message to your trusted friends? Could you hope to gain their respect as an expert, and to strengthen your friendship? And if you received such a message, would you act on it? As far as I am concerned: no and no. If you plan to use a tell a friend script with such a placeholder message, better save the purchase price and use the money to dine with your wife.

Another Example

Dear [friends name],
did you know that there are a few airlines out that allow you to reserve your seat for your family visit next Christmas already in January and then to wait with the ticket purchase until September.

I got this information from Johannes Stockburger.
You find the details at

[website URL]

I hope this information will allow you to reduce the fare of your next holiday flight.

All the best

[sender's name]

The Same Test
Would you feel good to pass this message to a friend who travels frequently to see his family during the holiday season?
And would you mind to receive such a message from a friend who knows about your recent holiday travel adventures?

Follow the Rules
Our tell a friend script adds an opt-out link under this message, and we leave it there. It is just a sign that we and the person sending the message through the script accept the right of everybody else to decide which information they want to receive.
If the letter contains an endorsement, and the script offers at the same time an incentive to send the letter, we must disclose it. But we avoid endorsements and sales pitches in this message.

Conclusion
We try to craft a message providing immediate value to the reader. We avoid open or hidden sales pitches and endorsements in tell a friend messages. Otherwise we would have to include information about any reward offered for sending the email.
We take care that the system cannot be used for spamming, add an opt-out link to the end of the message and we do not allow the sender to change the message. Finally we safeguard the form with a CAPTCHA to prevent abuse and protect our reputation.