One Step 4 Income (week 2)

So, it's Sunday and here I am fulfilling my promise to report my experiences with OSI.

Earlier in the week, whilst looking at all the Forum comments about other marketing programmes, I acknowledged that in this report I may contradict myself. 

Having spent my lunch time in the company of several hundred French, English, Dutch and sundry other countrymen celebrating the fête de cepes in a local village, together with several glasses of Bergerac rouge, I know I am.

The Need for Focus (excuse the irony)

In my view, the principal reason I have not yet achieved the sort of success with marketing on the internet for which I strive is... I'm not focused. 

I too receive all those offers of "Get Rich Quick" schemes, "Do This Now", "Pre-Launch", etc., etc., and it all seems very tempting. 

I find myself flitting, like a moth, from one hot light bulb to another... and each time I do... "ow, that hurts" (my wallet, if not my psyche).

I have read several times that "The Money is in the List".  One marketing guru says that 0.84% of his web site generates sales, but that mailing to his list converts 4.37% to sales.  So, in April this year I decided that I would stop all my "selling" activities and concentrate on "building" my list of contacts. 

From a financial view, I'm classed as "asset rich" but "cash flow poor"... this in living day to day terms means that I have the means, but not all at once... I have to use my cash flow judiciously.  No wonder I am attracted to OSI!

In April I joined a programme proposed by Mary Jo Adams called OSS Traffic .  This is not actually a programme in the computer sense - there is no software to download, nor is it an e-book.  Nor does it require an investment of money.

Much like OSI, it is a business programme to develop contacts with people who, themselves, are trying to develop an on-line presence... but using Traffic Exchanges (TE's).  Mary Jo proposes a list of TE's to join and I marry that with the information that I get from Traffic Hoopla

Each morning I spend 1 hour surfing (my First Wife says I look ridiculous in board shorts)... I then do my OSI mail.  Then in the evening I surf again for an hour (by the end of which it's not just the shorts that are bored).

Six months down the road I have potential down line prospects in several TE's, numbering from less than 10 in one exchange to several hundred in another.

What do I do with these "prospects"? 

I write to them.  Not every day... nor every week; I write from time to time and I always try to send them something useful.  I've never tried to sell anything.  I just provide information.

And guess what? 

1. People on the internet are looking for information... the WWW is just a big "Yellow Pages" in the sky.
2. People buy from people they trust... so build your list in trust.

What and How?

I write just like this... and I use an Auto-Responder.  I import all these contacts to the Auto-Responder and then broadcast a message.

Organisation is a Key Factor

Confused by now?  Well I would be if it weren't for a little data base management.

I've previously mentioned the benefits of RoboForm ... but I also use a little data management programme that I downloaded from Detlev Reimer called PromoBuddy .

If you join all the Safe Lists on OSI and all the TE's on OSS Traffic ... this data base management programme is invaluable.

This week... Get to it!

Ok... Ok... I'm nearly there... but there is one other important topic.

If you don't know  where you are going... any road will get you there.

Membership of NPN entitles one to use their Multi Ad Tracker.  It is very important to know from where your leads come, otherwise you could be mailing out to a Safe List that produces very little in the way of results.

Last week I used my NPN tracker... but short of counting and recording the individual hits, I couldn't tell which Safe List produced the best results.  As my intention is to send out a different email to all the lists each week, the numbers of tracking codes are going to grow and grow and grow.

In future I'm going to use TrackThatAd .

The advantage of TrackThatAd is that one can generate a code for a particular mailing, say http://2-b.us/?i=131549/ ... then by adding "RealValue" on to the end of the code, so that it reads http://2-b.us/?i=131549/RealValue, I will know that you read this article and Clicked Here  (please).

TrackThatAd  reports how many people clicked on that particular variation of the tracking code.

This Week, at last...

This week I sent an email that had previously attracted my attention... the subject line reads:

TheBig Safelist...? Usually I Delete Their Emails!

Replacing "TheBig" with whatever was the name of the Safe List to which I was about to post, I sent the following content:

So I sincerely doubt that any of my emails have ever been read as I can only imagine that everyone else does the same.

Now why is that?

Is it because no-one wants to spend any more money on programmes that just don't deliver? Or even if it is you that is the problem, you still don't want keep losing money.

The face of the internet is changing, and there are many programmes out there that only require a small membership fee and no work, or, as in this case, the only investment is a small amount of time for really great returns and very little work.

Try this for a breath of fresh air:

http://thenpn.com/at/?id=8099

It could be what you are looking for... that is if you read the email!

Stay well,

Kevin Phoenix

The Results (at last)

Safelist Mailing ... less mail than last week because of problems with some of the safe lists and their turing codes, but I estimate 0.45% - which is better than last week.

List Bandit  where I have a down line of 103 - 1 hit = 0.97%.

WebBizInsider  A mixed result!  Matthew Graves, the owner and web master did not like my subject heading, he felt it was derogatory to his exchange members.  Fair enough!  At least he does check what is being sent out.

On the upside, I won an increase of 25 additional members to my downline by participating in a promotion of Matthew's.  That, together with new members joining this week, means that my down line at WebBizInsider has grown from 275 to 379 in one week.

So... WAS IT WORTH IT??????

Yes!  I now have 8 members in my OSI down line - of which 4 have been produced by one of my team members' activities.  Let me say here "Richar, mon bon pote... fantastique- well done" (he knows who he is).

Phew!... That's it till next week.

Here is my hand in your success... now where is that bottle of Bergerac?

Comments

[Phil]

This is a great post! Very well thought out and well said. I'm happy I ran accross it...

Phil

[Richard Avon]

Hi Kevin

Good post 'Me old mate'

I seem to building my own list with

http://www.tripleyourlist.com/index.php/dikvon

Whis is wehre two of the four yo mention have come from.

Well wroth adding to yoru armoury

Regards

Richar'

[Richard Avon]

Which just shows it's a good idea to read your own message back before you press the post button!!!!!!!

Richard