Entrepreneurs-Journey.com

My friend Gideon Shalwick zapped me on skype yesterday suggesting I check out a video that is “funny and a bit different” to quote Gideon.

Is the Internet marketing world ready for Ron Goodwave?

I wonder what Marlon Sanders has to say about this one .

For more from Ron check out InternetMarketingNews.tv

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One of the most powerful forces in marketing is a deadline.

Like other skeptical observers of the techniques Internet marketers pull to land more sales, I feel a sense of discomfort when told that a product is going off the market at a certain date. Yet, at the same time, I feel compelled - if I really want this product, and that isn’t necessarily today, but any time in the future - shouldn’t I buy it now so I can lock in the cheaper price or secure my order because there is “very limited supply” on offer?

Now that I am an Internet marketer myself, I sometimes sit on the other side of the fence. I’ve played with the scarcity trigger like the best of them, telling my audience that there is only so many days or hours before a deadline comes, at which point things will change forever.

And wow, is it ever powerful.

Just last month I was faced with a decision. I knew Blog Mastermind, my membership site for bloggers, needed some changes made to the back-end that handled the membership and the affiliate system. During this time it would make things a lot easier if I did not let new members sign-up. There were also other elements that needed considering because of my plans for 2008 and the evolution of the Blog Mastermind program itself.

Needless to say, due to a variety of reasons, some I can’t talk about at this time because details are not cement, I decided the best plan of action was to close up shop to new members. I told my team the deadline so they could prepare for the technical changes and then proceeded to construct a plan for a mini-push to drive new sign-ups before the deadline.

Having been a participant, victim, casual observer and customer in many product launches dating back to the Butterfly Marketing launch in January 2006 and then conducting my own launch in June 2007, it’s safe to say I know product launches in the Internet marketing industry pretty well. Oh, and of course, I bought Jeff Walker’s Product Launch Formula home study course too (you can read my review here).

I never had a second thought about doing some promotion for my membership site once a deadline was in place, it was simply a matter of brainstorming what to do and then doing it. If you read my blog in early December or subscribe to my newsletter, then you already know what I did to convince people to join Blog Mastermind before the deadline, perhaps you even joined and are working your way through the program right now (hi students!).

Here’s how I rolled out closing doors promotion…

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I came to know Mike Sonders through Blog Mastermind, after he joined my program to learn how to use a blog as part of his marketing mix. Mike recently launched a brand new start-up and asked if I would tell my readers about it. I responded with a suggestion that instead he tell us how he came up with his business idea and explain his start-up story.

Mike’s business is called Lootist, a site where you can discover the best products by hobby or interest with guidance from real-life specialists. Now here’s Mike explaining how his idea turned into a business…

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I’ve met two types of entrepreneurs. There are those who have always known that they wanted to start a company, but they just needed to find the right idea, and then there are the people who stumble upon an idea compelling enough to convince them to start a business. I happen to fall in the latter group.

Based on my experience, one type of entrepreneur is not preferable or superior to the other. Chances for success are much more dependent upon the quality of the idea, a little bit of luck, and a lot of spot-on execution.

A good business idea (or a bad one) can come from anywhere: the classifieds sections of magazines like Entrepreneur, trends in industry-related or mainstream news, or the recognition of some “pain” in your day-to-day life, whether it’s at your job, at play, or at home. Many pains have a remedy (that you can monetize) if you’re resourceful and creative enough.

In mid-2006, a couple of months after graduating with my MBA, I needed to buy a gift for my then-roommate for his birthday. He was (and is) a DJ, and I wanted to get him something really cool that he’d appreciate and enjoy… but I didn’t know the first thing about DJs or the stuff that they use.

Web sites like Amazon and Epinions weren’t much of a help. They’re very useful when you know what you’re buying, but all I knew was for whom (an amateur DJ) I was looking to buy. Since I do everything online, I wanted a Web site that would help me find a great gift for someone with a particular interest or hobby.

And that’s how a pain in my everyday life sprouted an idea. Through my frustrations as an average online consumer, I had identified a genuine market need which I thought I could address.

Things Change

I’d argue that there’s no bad source of ideas, just bad ideas. For instance, if the market you’re considering is saturated with competitors, and your idea isn’t significantly differentiated, then you probably have a not-great idea on your hands. But that’s not necessarily a sign to give up; it’s a cue to ask yourself whether another, better idea can address the pain you’re trying to solve.

Initially, I envisioned a site where users would tag product reviews with keywords describing a hobby or interest. For example, users might tag a camera lens or a tripod with “photography.” That way, a visitor could search by hobby or interest and find a variety of products related to that topic.

As I conducted a competitive analysis, however, I discovered several product review sites already taking a very similar approach.

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This is going to sound somewhat contradictory to my advice to “ignore your email” in my article 4 Tips For Becoming A More Productive Entrepreneur - but hear me out, this is a very important point and so many businesses get it wrong.

If you think about it, it’s BECAUSE so many businesses get this wrong that when you even make a tiny attempt to get it right, you really stand out from the crowd.

What am I talking about? I’m referring to responding to emails from customers and prospects as if they were your closest friend. The fine art of providing personal contact over email.

During last week when Blog Mastermind closed doors I had many emails come in from people asking questions about whether they should join, or after joining having problems or questions about certain things in the program or about their blog.

Normally with email I follow my rule and if I have more important things to do I will let the email sit until I can batch process them all at once (as per my other article). However, during last week - and most of the time in general - my focus is my clients in Blog Mastermind. They pay money to join my program and thus I feel a sense of responsibility to be there if I can.

Life doesn’t always let you respond immediately, but usually during a launch period you are in front of your computer working to keep things running smoothly, so when an email comes in you can shoot off a reply quickly. Nothing impresses people more than receiving a response a few minutes after sending a question, however you don’t have to even be that speedy.

In today’s attention starved Internet world, people have fairly low expectations that they will get a personal reply, especially from the “owner” or the “guru” behind the business. I always have a laugh when an email comes through to me beginning with “I expect this won’t get through to you Yaro, but I just wanted to say…”. Imagine the surprise when it not only gets through to me, but they also get a response!

Sometimes a day or three can pass before I reply, but even then most people are impressed that a personal reply was forthcoming. This demonstrates that most people are used to being ignored (and amazingly, how much trouble they have getting some attention from someone they are paying money to), but it also presents an amazing opportunity for a business owner with the time to respond personally.

First Impressions Count

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I have to hand it to Edmund Loh and Vince Tan for coming up with a slightly different spin on the traditional namesqueeze page for their new Internet marketing newsletter launch - IMGuerilla.com.

If you are not familiar with the namesqueeze, it’s a very common technique in the Internet marketing world for capturing (squeezing) the contact details of people who show a predisposition for what you offer and/or in exchange for information about a topic. You can read my more in-depth explanation of a namesqueeze page here - What Is A Namesqueeze?.

David DeAngelo’s (or really Eben Pagan’s) namesqueeze page at DoubleYourDating.com is considered the de-facto benchmark for a successful namesqueeze. It’s been tested and tested and tested and performs amazingly well, so well that there are hundreds of copy-cats (me included) who replicate David’s techniques. You shouldn’t just copy it blindly, although I expect you will still do okay if you do - it’s that powerful (elegantly simple is more like it).

That being said, the namesqueeze is undoubtedly becoming boring and stale, especially in the Internet marketing niche - it’s everywhere. Which is why when I went and had a look at what Edmund and Vince had come up with that I actually stopped and read the page from start to finish.

These two Asian Internet marketers have used a comic strip instead of copy (well they used a little copy) to capture opt-ins to their squeeze page, and I think they have done a great job. It’s interesting, entertaining and best of all - stands out from the crowd as different and hopefully sets the tone for a unique newsletter launch too.

Here’s a quick sample…

You can read the whole comic at http://IMGuerilla.com/.

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