Untitled Document

BizTools Brief Archives

January 2003 - May, 2004

Click this link for more recent archives

May 21, 2004
April 9, 2004
March 12, 2004
December 1, 2003
September 12, 2003
August 28, 2003
August 8, 2003
July 15, 2003
June 24, 2003
June 3, 2003
May 17, 2003
March 19, 2003
March 14, 2003

May 21, 2004

Today's contents:

1. Price Negotiator Software

2. Sending real postal mail from your computer

3. PowerMarks Software

4. Overture Keyword Grabber

5. Email Experiment Yields $33.25 eCPM

6. Recommended Direct Marketing Books

As you can see, I've got a lot of items to share with you
today, so I'll try to keep each one short and to the point!

=========================
Price Negotiator Software
=========================

I did have one reader tell me she doesn't think my
email experiment is truly a "name your own price" deal,
since I imposed a minimum price of $10.00.

I maintain the person still names their own price, but
it has a restriction imposed (namely, a minimum). However
I can certainly see where this reader was coming from.

I just coincidentally stumbled on a piece of software that
MAY allow me to do the same kind of thing without these
kinds of objections. It's called "Price Negotiator" -- it
interacts with your visitor(s) to "negotiate" a price.

You can read about it here:

http://www.pricenegotiator.com

I haven't set the software up myself, but have tried it
out on a live site. It looks like you can set a
minimum price, and also specify certain price points
between the minimum and listed prices.

You can see it working on this site:

http://www.smokyjoes.com/pennystock/order.php

Note, this is a LIVE site . . . please don't enter your
credit card information unless you actually intend on
purchasing the product!

===========================================
Sending real postal mail from your computer
===========================================

A few years ago I wrote about an website called
"eletter.com" -- they allowed you to upload a
mailing list and document to their site, and
they'd take that document, copy it, and mail it
out to everyone on the list.

They've since changed their name to (or been bought
out by) ZairMail.com:

http://biz.zairmail.com/

However, USPS has their own service now:

http://www.usps.com/mailingonline/

If you'd like to generate traffic to your business
(online OR in the real world), this would be a
really EASY way to send out small quantities of
postcards without getting your hands dirty -- and at
a VERY reasonable price.

The cost for a regular size black/white postcard is
less than $0.25 each, including postage. That means
they're only charging you about 2 cents apiece to
print these postcards!

Now, if you're going to send out 10's of thousands of
postcards, you would probably save money by using a
mailing house . . . but for most of us "small fries",
this service is just about ideal.

===========================================
PowerMarks Software
===========================================

I may have mentioned this software before, but
it's worth repeating...

I have almost 3000 "favorites" in my browser, and trying
to find any particular one with the IE interface is
difficult at best.

That's why I've been using PowerMarks for over 4 years now...

I don't remember what it costs (I do know it's reasonable),
but they do have a free trial -- you ought to at least check
it out!

http://www.kaylon.com/power.html

========================
Overture Keyword Grabber
========================

If you're trying to come up with a list of good keywords
for your PPC (Pay-Per-Click) search engine listings, you
probably already know about Overture's search term tool.

However, if you want a copy/paste list, it's a pain to
have to remove the numbers in front of every line of
Overture's tool output.

So use this little utility instead:

http://www.hudsonscripting.com/seo-tools/overture.cgi

It give you a nice copy/paste keyword list -- with or
without the "number of serches" number for each one.

===================================
Email Experiment Yields $33.25 eCPM
===================================

eCPM is "effective Cost Per Thousand" -- in this case
I'm talking about revenue though, instead of cost.

I tried another "Name your own price" experiment (sent
to my BizTools Brief subscribers) and that email resulted
in revenue of $33.25 per 1000 subscribers.

Granted, it was to a small, underused (I don't email you
near as often as the experts say I should!) list of people
who are acquainted with the sender -- but it's still
encouraging, especially in light of the fact that even
$3.00 eCPM is hard for the big mailers to attain these days.

In case you missed it, you can see the email here:

http://www.biztoolsbrief.com/experiment/

You may want to try something similar . . .

==================================
Recommended Direct Marketing Books
==================================

A couple of "must have it, but it's out of print" books
have been re-released recently:

Boron Letters by Gary Halbert:
http://www.killercopysecrets.com/boronletters.html

Breakthrough Advertising by Gene Schwartz:
https://store.bottomlinesecrets.com/blpnet/offers/order_ba.html?sk=904193

(This one is said to be the most stolen library book in the
world, and used copies have sold on eBay for as much as $900!)

April 9, 2004

Today's stuff:

1. "What people want" research site

2. Quick Reference tool

3. Update on my SpamArrest experience

4. Watch for a special offer next week!

This is a truly "brief" issue -- I found a couple of neat sites
I know some of you will make good use of -- enjoy!

====================================
"What people want" research site
====================================

Here's a great site where you can find out exactly what
questions people have about a certain topic, and what they
are willing to pay for the answers.

http://answers.google.com/

It's even better than that though -- not only do you get
to see the questions people are asking, you get to see
the ANSWERS they paid good money for!

If you're thinking about putting together an "information
product", you can probably get some very good research
done on this site.

Hint: You can click on the "Price" header to sort the
questions by price -- click a 2nd time to sort from
highest price down to lowest.

Some people are paying $200 for these answers, and they
aren't paying unless they're satisfied it's worth their
money -- so you can learn a great deal about a topic
just by monitoring the topic of interest . . .

=========================
Quick Reference tool
=========================

I was on a news site the other day, reading a news story.
At the top of the page there was a header image that said,
"Double-click any word on this page for a definition"

Sure enough, when I double-clicked on a word, the
dictionary defnition of that word came up -- nifty!

The header also showed that this feature was powered by
"LookWayUp" -- so I went to their site:

http://www.lookwayup.com

It turns out you can implement this feature on YOUR site
by just pasting some Javascript code into your page(s).

The cost? Free. I like that! ;-)

They also have a toolbar for your browser, that allows
you to quickly look up the dictionary or thesaurus entry
to any word, even if the webpage you're looking at doesn't
include the LookWayUp features.

I'm frequently going to dictionary.reference.com to look up
different words, but this makes things much easier --
snazzy service!

======================================
Update on my SpamArrest Experience
======================================

It's been 3 weeks now since I started using SpamArrest. In
that period, I've received 62970 emails, of which 2024 have
been passed through to me. That means only about 3% of my
incoming email is non-spam.

I can't tell you how many hours I've saved by not having
to check and clean out all that crud in my email box!

I'm definitely happy with the service.

That's it for today!

Paul

March 12, 2004

On tap today:

1. Offline resources of interest to information marketers

CDROM Label printer
Color copies

2. Timesheet Constructor Software

3. How I've come to deal with 1500-2500 spam emails each DAY

Bayesian Filter
Challenge Response System

=========================================================
Offline resources of interest to information marketers
=========================================================

I've been putting together a "mega-package" of internet
marketing materials, and BOY, has it been a lot of work!

This isn't a digital download product, it's a big package
of 3-ring binders, comb-bound books, other printed
materials, videos, and 24 audio CDs -- it's huge, and a
royal pain to duplicate!

So I've learned a few things along the way.

The first thing I learned is that I would have saved $300
to $400 to have the printed materials duplicated at a
copy shop instead of at Office Depot. Unfortunately, I
didn't think to even call the copy shop until AFTER I'd
spent over $1000 at Office Depot. Doggone it!

It wasn't fun telling my wife about that! So learn from
my mistake . . .

Once I started calling around for prices, I found something
interesting -- color copies aren't any cheaper at the copy
shops than at Office Depot! At least not around here.

The quotes I'm getting locally are $0.79 to $1.00 per page.

Well, that adds up when each of my "mega-packages" has 29
color copies (for the CD cover inserts and book covers)!

I found a place online that will do color copies for just
$0.33 each. If you get 100 copies of each original, the
cost goes down to $0.21 -- and it's even less for higher
quantities.

Here's the web site:

http://www.nationalcolorcopy.com

I also found someone that makes CD labels (which are
applied to a recordable CD to make it look nicer) --
they're $0.36 each which seems high to me, but I couldn't
find anyone else that even does this!

Here's their web site:

http://www.disk.com/html/printing/labels.htm

If you know of any other sources for printing CD labels,
please let me know and I'll share the information with
everyone else . . .

=========================
Timesheet Constructor
=========================

Most of my income is from technical work and consulting.
Some of my clients have me on retainer, and some just
hire me on an "as-needed" basis at a higher hourly rate.

When you only have a couple of clients, you can do okay
by just using a spreadsheet (or even pen and paper) to
keep track of the hours. But when you have several
clients, this becomes impractical and time consuming.

I recently started using a software pacakge called
"Timesheet Constructor" -- it's great for keeping
track of how much time was spent on which client and/or
project.

Even if you don't have "clients", you ought to consider
getting this software just to see how well you use your
time -- I was really surprised at how much time I waste
on unimportant tasks!

The software has a 30 day trial and after that you can
purchase it for about $30 (as I recall) . . .

Here's the link:

http://www.entrysoft.com/Timesheet_Constructor.15.0.html

=========================================================
How I've come to deal with 1500-2000 spam emails each DAY
=========================================================

I never understood all the fuss about spam -- it was
always so easy to just hit "delete". In fact, I got to
where I could scan 500 "subject" lines and delete all
the spam in about 10-15 minutes.

That's fine if you're "only" getting 500 spam emails a day,
but lately the number has been 1500-2500 -- EACH DAY!

I had my Pegasus Mail setup with various content filters and
that worked okay, but this huge onslaught of spam was just
too overwhelming.

I then started using the "Spam filter" feature in Pegasus,
but I found it didn't really save me time, because I still
had to go read every subject line to make sure I hadn't
lost an email I wanted.

For instance, the Pegasus spam filter will banish an email
to the spam folder if it has a single instance of the word
"affiliate"! Since I RUN an affiliate program, that just
doesn't work!

Now, I CAN change the Pegasus filters to suit my needs, but
there will always be the need to read every subject line if
I'm to be sure a "good" email wasn't erroneously relegated
to the spam folder.

I also tried a free "Bayesian filter" program, called
"Spamihilator" -- you can get this free at this URL:

http://www.spamihilator.com

The idea behind a "Bayesian" filter is that you can "train"
it to recognize spam mails. It uses statistical analysis to
determine the "probability" that an email is spam.

I "trained" it with probably 30000-40000 emails, and after
that it was pretty accurate -- but NOT 100% accurate. That's
the nature of tools like this -- they just can't guarantee
100% accuracy, no matter how much they've been trained.

So again, I had to check every subject line to find the
"gold nuggets" in all the junk . . . so nothing had changed
from when I first started looking for a solution.

Finally, I decided to try a "challenge-response" system,
"SpamArrest". You can read about it here:

http://www.spamarrest.com

SpamArrest positions itself between your POP3 (standard email)
account and your home machine. Here's how it works:

1. SpamArrest downloads your email from your POP3 account

2. It checks each email against your list of approved senders, and

a. if there is a match, it puts that email in a "verified"
folder

b. if there is NO match, it sends an email back to the
sender (the person who sent the email to you). That email
asks the person to click on a link to verify they are
a real person and not a automated spam-spewing process.

c. The sender must look at an image of a word and type
that word in to verify they are a real human . . . if they
do this, their email is moved to the "verified" folder.

3. When your email program checks email, it is set to download the
email from the spamarrest.com server rather than your normal email
server -- so all you download is the "verified" emails.

What I really like is that I was able to upload almost 3000
email addresses to my "approved sender" list -- so anyone
I've corresponded with via email will automatically have
their emails put in the "Verified" folder without having to
respond to any challenge question.

There's also a place where you can enter newsgroup or newsletter
information to make sure those emails get passed through to you
unhindered.

So far, I like it -- A LOT. In the past 24 hours SpamArrest
has received 1770 emails and passed through 83 of them as
"Verified".

And I don't worry that an "important" email is not going
to get through to me -- because important emails are sent by
real people . . . most of whom will not mind responding to
the the challenge question.

I highly recommend it -- the first 30 days are free, and after
that it's between $2 and $7/month, depending on how many
months you buy in advance.

You may not need this if you only get a few junk emails each
day, but for me, the time saved will be WELL worth the cost.

December 1, 2003

Today's Contents:

1. Hello, is anybody out there?
2. Multimedia Product Reviews (ViewletBuilder and Camtasia)

1. Hello, is anybody out there??
--------------------------------

It's been several weeks since my last "BizTools Brief"-- the
reason for this is simple . . . I haven't really had anything
new and/or exciting to tell you about!

PLUS, nobody (not one single subscriber) in all that time
has sent me even a single request or question!

To tell you the truth, it makes me wonder if anyone is
really receiving these emails! So if you are reading
THIS email, please let me know -- just hit "reply" and send
me any message.

And as long as you're sending a message, why not ask me your questions about eCommerce, internet technology, resources, etc -- I'll answer any email I receive!

2. Product Reviews
------------------

The only "new tools" I've researched in the last few
of weeks are tools for building tutorials or multimedia
presentations:

-- ViewletBuilder: http://www.qarbon.com

This slick program allows you to take "snapshots" of your
computer screen and overlay animation, audio narration and
visual annotations to the screen shots. The completed
project can be saved as a "Flash" file.

This is perfect for anyone who wants to SHOW people how
to accomplish any task on the computer.

-- Camtasia Studio: http://www.techsmith.com

While ViewletBuilder takes screenshots (like a still camera)
of your computer screen, Camtasia Studio records full motion
video (like a video camera).

This is definitely cool, but it's probably more than you need
for most application tutorials, and because the files are
larger, it would be more difficult to deploy over the internet.

However, if you're going to distribute your tutorial on CD or
if all your customers/clients have high-speed internet
connections, this may be a better choice.

(I don't have access to high-speed internet where I live, so
my vote is for ViewletBuilder!)

Note: Qarbon just came out with a "ViewletCam" product,
which probably does much the same thing as Camtasia Studio,
but I haven't had time to fully the application.

September 12, 2003

In this Issue:

1. A penny saved? Hard to believe long distance plan

2. Split-test software

3. Auction Resources
DeepAnalysis Software
Auction Resource Alerts

4. Feedback Please

===================
A Penny Saved
===================

Everyone's heard Benjamin Franklin's oft-quoted saying,
"Penny saved is a penny earned". By the way, you'd be
surprised at how many other common sayings are
attributed to Benjamin Franklin -- just for kicks,
check them out here:

http://www.jokemonster.com/quotes/authors/b/a125661.html

Anyway, I stumbled onto something I believe is going to
earn me a LOT of pennies . . . if it proves to be true.

This isn't really an "online business" resource, but I
feel it's definitely worth mentioning and will prove
invaluable to any of you running your business from
home.

I learned about a new AT&T long distance plan that simply
blows everything else away. I'm not sure if it's available
in YOUR area or not, but call AT&T and ask them about
their "Unlimited PLUS" plan.

Don't forget the "PLUS" -- there's a separate "Unlimited"
plan that only works for calling other AT&T customers,
but the Unlimited PLUS plan is good no matter who you're
calling.

Now get this -- I still have a hard time believing it --
this plan is $29.95/month for UNLIMITED calls. It
really did seem too good to be true, so I really grilled
TWO AT&T representatives about it. According to them:

* It's good 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. (No Day/Night
rates . . .)

* It's good for any in-state or out-of-state calls,
including calls to Alaska and Hawaii (you need to be sure
you specify that AT&T will be used for local long distance
as well as state-state long distance)

* All the phones in a single household are covered by this
plan -- it's not $29.95 per phone, it's $29.95 for all long
distance calls made from any phone in your house -- as long
as all the phones are billed on the same bill by your local
phone company, they are all grouped together under the
Unlimited PLUS plan

Now, I got the impression this plan isn't available in all
parts of the country, so you'll just have to call them and
ask. The number to call is 1-800-222-0300 . . . according
to one of the reps I talked to, they don't advertise this
plan, it's only advertised by word-of-mouth . . .

===========================
Split-test Software
===========================

I just installed Duncan Carver's "SIMA" split test
software for a couple of clients and considering
it's free, I am happy with it.

Basically this software allows you to direct incoming
traffic to 2 or more different pages to test the
effectiveness of one over the other. Powerful stuff!

The installation was so easy I'm envious (the software
I develop takes longer to install!) . . .

In the short time I've used it, I did observe one
problem -- if you enter carriage returns in the
campaign description box, it messes up the campaign.

Big deal -- the software is free afterall, so how
can I complain -- I'm just careful not to include
carriage returns.

You can download the software here:

http://www.marketing-strategy.org/download.htm

=================
Auction Resources
=================

--- Auction Resource Alerts ---

If you want sources for deeply discounted merchandise
to sell at eBay (or wherever else you think you can
sell it), you really need to signup for the "Auction
Resource Alert".

I am frequently amazed at the deals this guy digs up:

http://www.auction-resource-alerts.com/sources.html

--- Deep Analysis ---

This is an amazing piece of software for anyone serious
about selling on eBay.

It allows you to "extract and analyze sales data and
statistics for any market sector"-- and for any eBay
seller. Use it to see who's making the most money and
exactly how they're doing it ... then you follow their
lead. Check it out here:

http://www.hammertap.com/deepanalysis/

===================
Feedback Please
===================

I would love to hear your feedback about BizTools Brief!

I'm still testing various formats -- how was today's?
Would you prefer HTML emails, or should I stick to text?
How about the content -- is it what you were expecting?

And ESPECIALLY, which topics would you like me to
address in the future? As little feedback as I've been
getting lately, there's a good chance YOUR request will
be granted in the very near future . . . IF you send it
in! :o)

Thanks all for now -- thanks again for reading!

Best,

Paul

August 28, 2003

Today's contents:

1. Online BizTools:
Advanced FTP,
Content Management,
eBook Software

2. Improving Your Web Copy

3. Email Marketing Book mini-review

4. Feedback Please

===================
Online Biztools
===================

-- Advanced FTP --

Last week I was looking for a way to movea few thousand files from one web server to the other without shell access.

I couldn't find anything, so I created my own server-to-server
FTP tool.

Well, it turns out there ARE a couple of software packages out
there already to do this, right from your home/office PC!

Here they are:

Flash FTP: http://www.flashfxp.com/
Morgul: http://www.barad-dur.cz/morgul/download/

Morgul is freeware, and I believe Flash FXP is shareware
with a $25 registration fee.

Now, for those of you who downloaded my software last week,
there are still good uses for it, such as automating the
FTP transfer of specific files from your server to a clients.

-- Content Management --

One of my clients is looking for a robust content management
system for managing a collection of online articles. After
spending considerable time looking for systems that met his
requirements (and not finding any) I posted an inquiry at
Tony Blake's discussion forum ( http://www.ablake.net/forum )

Here are a couple of very powerful recommended solutions:

Bricolage: http://www.bricolage.cc/

This is the same system built to run Salon.com, and according
to Al Hulaton (http://www.commandprompt.com/), it uses a
superior database system, "PostgreSQL". He says PostgreSQL is
more scalable than the more typically used MySQL . . .

Typo3: http://www.typo3.com

For most people, this PHP/MySQL implementation will be plenty
powerful, and in my opinion it looks simpler to administer.
Also, PHP/MySQL are pretty standard on most Unix web hosting
accounts.

-- eBook Software --

I hadn't originally intended on talking about eBook software,
but in the course of my review of Corey Rudl's latest eBook
(see below), I couldn't help but be impressed with the security
features.

If you want to publish an eBook but are scared to death people
will copy it and give it away to their friends, you really
should check out this software.

I frequently get inquiries about how to best protect digital
content, and in my opinion this is about the only way to do
it "right".

Ebook Pro: http://www.biztoolsbrief.com/ebookpro/

===========================
Improving Your Web Copy
===========================

A couple of months ago I surveyed BizTools Brief subscribers,
and the topic of most interest was "Products to help you write
better web and offline advertising". In fact, almost 50% of the
respondents listed this as one of their top interests.

I purchased a web copywriting course awhile back that I think
will help anyone to improve their web copy. It is, in my opinion,
excellent information no serious online business should be without.

http://www.biztoolsbrief.com/webcopy/

====================================
Email Marketing Book mini-review
====================================

I'm sure most of you have heard about Corey Rudl's new ebook
about email marketing, "The Insider Secrets to E-mail
Marketing -- Advanced Series"

As an affiliate, I was sent a time-limited review copy and
a "canned" message to send out to my subscribers.

I just can't send the canned message though, it just doesn't
sound sincere . . . it's not the way I talk and not the things
I would say.

However, I can recommend the information contained in this
book -- it's solid, accurate information and a thorough
treatment of email marketing.

I have been in the business awhile so none of the information
seemed "revolutionary", but it is sound . . .

I believe the price is going to increase by $40 after
August 31, so if you're in the market for this kind of
information, better grab it now!

http://www.biztoolsbrief.com/emailsecrets/

===================
Feedback Please
===================

I would love to hear your feedback about BizTools Brief!

I'm still testing various formats -- how was today's?
Would you prefer HTML emails, or should I stick to text?
How about the content -- is it what you were expecting?

Thanks all for now -- thanks again for reading!

Paul

August 8, 2003

Today I'm going to report on the results of a little marketing experiment I ran last week.

But first, here are a couple of resources I think may be
worthy of your time:

== Entrepreneur's Hotsheet ==
== http://www.sowpub.com/entrhotsheet.shtml ==

-- These guys scour the MANY business forums for worthwhile
posts and discussions, then send out a summary email twice
each week. It saves you a TON of time. This is one of the few
online publications I read every time.

== Spambot Buster ==
== http://willmaster.com/master/spambotbuster/index.shtml ==

-- This free script allows you to have email links on your
page without actually having your email address on the page.
It doesn't merely "encode" or "encrypt" your email address,
it just keeps it somewhere other than on your web page.

This prevents the email harvester robots from getting your
email -- there's just no way to get it from the web page
contents. Pretty nifty, and "free" is hard to beat. :o)

Okay, on to the experiment results!

I know I don't promote BizTools Brief as a "marketing" eZine,
and it really isn't. But if/when I have some interesting
results from my own experiments, I figure other business
owners will also find them interesting . . .

I have summarized the results below -- to see the original
emails, you can go to this page:

http://www.biztoolsbrief.com/experiment/results.html

(Note: The links on this page are live and if you want
to take advantage of the experiment and "name your own
price", feel free to do so)

The first email I sent was to my BizTools Brief subscribers.

This is a tiny list of just over 4500 subscribers -- here
are the results:

Delivered to: 4536
Orders: 10
Revenue: 70.00
Effective CPM*: $15.45

*"Effective CPM" basically means, "For every 1000 subscribers,
this experiment produced $15.45 dollars."

Now, this $15.45 CPM figure is not that spectacular when
considering this is my own "in-house" list. But I still
wanted to see how the offer would do when sent to a
larger list that was NOT "in-house".

So I sent a solo ad to a list of about 95,000 subscribers.
(I made a deal with the list owner to split profits, so it
didn't cost me anything up-front.)

Now, all the experts will scold you if you aren't
constantly testing things, so I did a split run test.

The first email was almost identical to the email I sent
my own list, and I changed the copy in the 2nd email
quite a bit.

I'm glad I did, because the modified version outpulled
the "original" by more than a factor of 3!

See for yourself:

=========================
== Results of Email #1 ==
=========================
==
== Delivered to: 55,542
== Opened by: 9228 (16.6%)
== Clickthroughs to Description Page: 89
== Clickthroughs to Order Page: 56
== Clickthroughs to PayPal Page: 36
== Orders: 8
== Revenue: 55.00
== Effective CPM: $0.99

=========================
== Results of Email #2 ==
=========================
==
== Delivered to: 40374
== Opened by: 4700 (11.60%)
== Clickthroughs to Description Page: 97
== Clickthroughs to Order Page: 32
== Clickthroughs to PayPal Page: 30
== Orders: 26
== Revenue: 141.00
== Effective CPM: 3.49

Note that the 2nd email went to 15000 FEWER people, and yet
it got more than 3 times the orders! The effective CPM was
3.5 times as high as that of the original email.

Very interesting indeed!

Those numbers may appear low to you, but from what the list
owner was telling me, $3.49 eCPM is pretty decent, especially
if you get that with lists of a million or more subscribers.

So what's the next test? I've got a couple in mind . . .

First, I'm going to send to a bigger list. Email #2 will be
the "control" email now, as you might have predicted.

This was a "name your own price" promotion, with a minimum
price of $5.00 -- and that's what 90% of the people paid.

I'm going to try to increase the average "revenue per order"
by testing variations of this minimum price. Here are three
variations I can think of right now:

1. Raise the minimum price

2. Keep the minimum price at $5.00, but tell people they'll
get a bonus if they pay $10.00 or more.

3. Keep the minimum price at $5.00 and tell people if their
price is in the "top 25", they'll get a bonus.

And of course there can be combinations of the above 3...

Well, that's it for this time folks -- thanks for reading
and PLEASE let me know if you have any topics you'd like
me to write about!

July 15, 2003

There's been quite a few emails going out lately about new
services and software for adding audio to your site. As is
often the case, the most advertised solution isn't necessarily
the best . . .

The idea itself has a lot of merit, in my opinion. I don't
recall the exact details, but I know studies have shown
people retain more information when it's presented orally
vs. just the printed word. One of the most powerful uses
would be to add audio testimonials to your site(s).

Here are two sites for you to check out:

Armand Morin's "Audio Generator"

http://www.audiogenerator.com

I believe the exact same service is being sold at this URL:

http://www.instantaudio.com

First I have to say I think the developer's idea of using the
phone to record the audio messages is brilliant -- it REALLY
makes things simple.

However, the thing I would object to personally is that you
have to pay $29.95 each month and once you start paying,
you're basically locked into that monthly fee forever -- or
you give up the audios you recorded with their service.

Still, if ease of use and minimal setup time are the most
important factors in your decision, it's a fine service.

Another option is offered by Jay Jennings:

http://www.sonicmemo.com

With this option you pay just once ($97), download some
software, and record the audio with your microphone.

There is a downside though -- if you want someone else
to record a testimonial (or anything else) for you, they
can't do it using your copy of this software, unless
they come in and sit down at your computer to do it.

You'd have to work with them to record the testimonial
using their own equipment and send you the file. In
this regard, Armand Morin's solution is much more
elegant.

Which is better? It all depends on how you plan to use
it. For me Sonicmemo is better because I really hate
paying something every month. But if you want to get
setup quick and want the simplest method possible for
getting recordings from different sources, AudioGenerator
is the way to go.

By the way, neither of the above links are affiliate
links . . . :o)

Well, that's all for this time -- I've got more to
talk about, but this IS supposed to be "brief", so I'll
save it for next week!

Best,

Paul

June 24, 2003

Instead of the normal BizTools Brief, I want to tell you about
a new software package that could bring in thousands of new
visitors and opt-in subscribers to your site . . .

I just released it, and I think the potential benefit to YOUR
site is tremendous!

You are among the first to hear about it . . .

You can read all about it here:

http://www.tafpro.com/?btb

(That's not an affiliate URL, this is MY site -- but I do
like to track the traffic I get from my BizTools Brief
subscribers . . .)

Don't wait too long, as I'm in "price testing" mode right
now and the price will never be lower . . .

Best,

Paul

June 3, 2003

Here are several links on unrelated topics
(but all related to your online business):

- Resources for your own eZine. This page has a wealth of
information and resources related to producing your own
eZine. It includes links to over 30 "content sites"
(where you can pickup articles to use in your own eZine),
and over 80 places you can go to list/promote your ezine.
Excellent resource-rich page!

http://www.wealth-spring.com/your-ezine.htm

- There's a new buzzword making its rounds on the internet,
you may have heard about it: blogs. This is short for
"Web Logs", and in its basic form is a "journal" of sorts.

The exciting thing (to marketers) is the possibility of having
your blog automatically picked up by Google and some other
content aggregators. Here are a few links related to
"blogging":

Blogging Network: http://www.bloggingnetwork.com/Blogs/Redir/Blog.aspx
Blogger Software: http://www.blogger.com
Articles about Blogging:
http://www.portal.eatonweb.com/wlm/cat/faqs/definitions/introspection

- There's a wealth of quality business-related articles, listed by
category on these web sites:

http://www.businesstoolchest.com/articles/ (my site)

http://www.marketingsource.com/articles/
(EXCELLENT high-quality articles)

- John Audette's "Sweet 16 - Principles for Building a
Successful Internet Business".

http://www.adventive.com/sweet16/index.html

- While you're at John's site, you ought to seriously
consider signing up for his I-Sales and/or other
publications (they're all free). Here's the subscription
page:

http://www.adventive.com/subscribe.html

- There has been quite a bit of commotion the past couple
weeks regarding required legal disclaimers on your web site.
Here's the relevant FTC page:

http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/buspubs/dotcom/index.html

- If you type on the computer much, there's a good chance that
sooner or later you'll suffer from carpal tunnel syndrome (or
wrist and elbow pain). Injections and surgery have a
not-so-impressive history of fixing the problem, but I think
this guy is on to something. I have some of his other products
and the quality is top-notch. He also reeks of credibility:

http://www.carpaltunnelfix.com

Well, that's it for today folks -- I'm always looking for new
questions to answer, so if you have any, please send them my
way!

Best,

Paul

May 17, 2003

Today's issue is about running your own online poll or survey.

Most information product developers fall into the trap of creating what we think is a nifty product (book, software, etc.) and THEN we try to sell it. According to several other bona-fide information product marketing experts, that's doing things backwards.

One of my favorite marketers is Marlon Sanders. He regularly preaches about using a "survey" to determine what product(s) your prospects and/or customers want. Once you KNOW what they want, you THEN go and create it with the knowledge that you'll have a market for it.

I finally got around to taking Marlon's advice last week. If you were on this list at the time, you received an email asking you to fill out a short survey.

I created a survey for three different "prospect pools" . . . one for subscribers of this eZine, one for Anthony Blake's discussion board, and one for another email list I have access to.

In case you missed it, here's the survey page I put up (the survey has expired though, so don't fill it out):

http://www.biztoolsbrief.com/survey/

I had over 100 subscribers respond to the survey and the results were interesting to say the least!

For example, here's a bit of information I found out about subscribers of this list:

- 50% use the internet primarily for RESEARCH (I had no idea!)
- 43% use the internet primarily for Marketing
- 51% have their own for-profit website
- The most in-demand product (of the 10 I desribed) was
"Products to help you write better web and offline advertising"
- The next most in-demand product was "eBooks to help you "Get Started" in your internet business"

Interestingly enough, the #1 product pick was the same for Anthony Blake's forum members as for subscribers of this eZine.

I thought people would be sick of "copywriting" books, but this survey shows how wrong I was! After the #1 product pick, the two groups differ significantly.

As you can imagine, this information will be invaluable as I try to determine what to promote to this list and to Tony's board members.

To implement my survey, I used "OneMinutePoll" (Affiliate link)

It just happens that I stumbled upon their site when I was thinking about doing the survey, so I signed up without really checking out all their MANY competitors.

But I don't have any buyers remorse because the service works great for what I wanted, and at a price much less than some others I've seen. Plus it only took about 15 minutes to get the survey up and running.

When I went looking for alternative survey/poll services, I was amazed at how many there are -- I only knew 5 or 6 of these existed!

Now, some of these sell themselves as "Poll" services, and others as "Survey" services. I'm not sure what the difference between the two is supposed to be -- I imagine they both function in a very similar manner . . .

Here's the list:

Polls

PollPro - http://www.pollpro.com/
EZPoll - http://ezpolls.mycomputer.com/
PollCat - http://www.pollcat.com/
PulsePro - http://www.pulsepro.com/
BPath - http://universal.bpath.com/plot/poll/qwz_info.dbm
SurveyWorld - http://www.surveyworld.net/framesgen.asp
Freepolls - http://www.freepolls.com/
Cool Surveys - http://www.coolsurveys.com/
Alxnet - http://www.alxnet.com/
Decide Polls - http://www.decidepolls.com/
InfoPoll - http://www.infopoll.com/
Sparklit - http://www.pollit.com/
Vicisoft - http://www.vicisoft.com/
Cogix - http://www.cogix.com/
SyncSurvey - http://www.syncsurvey.com/
MisterPoll - http://www.mrpoll.com/
Aborior - http://www.aborior.com/
Eshak - http://poll.eshak.com
Kavi - http://www.kavi.com
Torque - http://www.torque.3va.net/polls/
WebEnalysis - http://www.webenalysis.com/
One Minute Poll- http://hop.clickbank.net/?paulg66/oneminpoll/ (affiliate link)

Surveys

Several of the above services offer a free version of their service, but usually these freebies are very limited. For instance, one of them only allowed you 10 responses to a survey.

In addition to the above services, there are several Poll/Survey CGI scripts which you can install on your own web server -- you can then have an unlimited number of surveys. (For a list of web sites where you can find CGI scripts, refer to last week's BizToolsBrief.)

I could have gone that route (or even created my own survey software), but in the interest of time I signed up with a service -- I wanted to implement the survey ASAP.

Well, that's it for now -- this issue ran a little longer than normal because of all the links -- I hope you don't mind too much!

Best of success to you,

Paul

May 9, 2003

First some "Breaking News" . . .

Chances are you've heard about Armand Morin's new software product, "PopOver Generator" -- it's a way of adding unblockable "popups" to your pages, and it's got a lot of internet marketing experts gushing all kinds of praise . . .

You gotta give Armand credit for going commercial with this idea -- I think he's going to do very well with it! You should at least read about it here:

http://www.headergenerator.com (affiliate link -- opens in a new window)

HOWEVER, if you have a tight budget, you can implement this kind of mechanism on your site using freely available software.

That's not to say the free software has all the features as Armand's, (it doesn't) but you WILL be able to quickly create a basic pop-in window on your site. (Armand has trademarked "PopOver", so I only use that term when talking about his software . . . but it's basically the same thing as a "pop-in").

Here's the URL where you can get the free software:

http://www.dynamicdrive.com/dynamicindex17/dropinbox.htm

NOW, on to the topic I had originally decided to talk about before all this "PopOver" chatter started flooding my email!

CGI Scripts and Your Web Site

Today let's talk a little about adding some interactivity to your site. This is generally done through the use of "CGI Scripts" which run on your server.

For instance, when you submit an order form on a web site, your data is sent to a CGI script/program. The program logs your order information to a file, sends out a receipt email, and sends a "thank you" page to your browser.

More examples of CGI scripts are:

Tell-a-Friend -- visitors refer their friends to your site

Mail Form -- visitors fill out a form on your site and their information is sent to you via email

Guest Book - visitors leave public comments on your site

AutoResponder - visitors submit their name and email address and some information is then sent to them via email.

There are thousands of free CGI programs, and thousands more "for pay" programs. Sometimes the free ones are as good or better than the programs that cost you money, but you generally get better customer support with the programs you pay for.

Here are several places to find these programs:

http://www.hotscripts.com
http://www.scriptsearch.com
http://cgi-resources.com
http://www.freecode.com
http://www.willmaster.com
http://www.webmaster-resources.com
http://newmillennium.net
http://solutionscripts.com
http://www.freewareweb.com
http://www.lakeweb.com/scripts/begin.html
http://www.webthing.com/tutorials/cgifaq.html
http://www.boutell.com/faq/cgiprob.htm
http://www.extropia.com
http://www.speakeasy.org/~cgires/cgi-tips.html
http://www.worldwidemart.com/scripts

A CGI script must be "installed" on your web server. This usually requires you to upload files via your FTP program. Some of the files may need to be edited in your text editor (e.g. Windows Notepad) before you upload them.

If you don't feel comfortable doing the installation, the script developer often will do it for you for a nominal fee.

There are also a number of third parties who do CGI script installations for a very reasonable cost (many around $50, sometimes less). Here are a few to consider:

http://www.cgihub.com
http://www.webfresh.com
http://www.cheapscripts.com
http://www.installmyscript.com
http://www.applytools.com/install.html

While there are thousands of "off the shelf" scripts you can run on your web site, there may come a time when you want a script to do things a little differently -- or you may have an idea for a script which hasn't been written yet!

Don't worry, you don't have to learn programming yourself. There are a number of sites where you can solicit the help of programmers to create the software for you. These programmers "bid" for your job, and it's quite a competitive process. Here are three of these sites:

http://www.elance.com
http://www.rentacoder.com
http://www.emoonlighting.com

I've used elance.com myself and have been very pleased with the low cost and high-quality work that has been done on my behalf -- and things got done fast too!

Well, that's all for today . . . please keep sending me feedback about what topics you want me to discuss next time!

Best,

Paul

March 19, 2003

First of all, I want to thank everyone who wrote me with questions
last week -- please keep them coming! This eZine will be of the
most use to you if I'm answering the questions that are in your
mind . . .

Several people have written to ask me for advice about their
online marketing methods, or for recommendations to materials
that would help them in that area.

My expertise is with online business TOOLS, not marketing methods
and strategies, so I am not really qualified to give advice in
that area.

However, by virtue of my software development skills, I do
"rub shoulders" with some of the most successful internet
marketers around. I've done custom programming for several
of them, and a few of them also use my Synergyx software.

So I know who the guys are that are REALLY doing well . . .

Because I expect people to continue asking me about this, I
created a web page where I have recommended who I believe to
be the top experts in this area -- that way whenever someone
asks me questions of this nature I can just send them the
web address.

SO, if you want to know who the real experts are, or if you're
looking for high-quality materials about internet marketing,
here's a good place to start:

http://www.biztoolsbrief.com/experts/

Well, that's it for now -- what would you like me to talk about
next week? Please let me know!

Paul
paulg@biztoolsbrief.com

March 14, 2003

As I'm sure you have heard before, you have a much better
chance of being "profitable" if you can accept credit
cards.

It used to be the only way you could do this was to get
your own merchant account -- which was a time consuming
(and sometimes costly) pain in the neck!

However, there are now some very attractive alternatives
to getting your own merchant account -- in fact, there
are some distinct advantages to NOT having your own!

The problem with having your own merchant account is that
you're at the mercy of the issuing bank. If they decide
your chargeback or refund rate is too high, they can pull
the plug.

Even more alarming, if you really do WELL in your business,
your merchant account bank may become uncomfortable with the
volume of business you're running through your account, and
may "ask" you to get your merchant account elsewhere.

OR they may require you to put up a ridiculous amount of
money in a "reserve" account. I'm talking about $10000
to $50000 or more.

I've had some clients who have had to change merchant
accounts 3 or 4 times in a year's time, and it's a MAJOR
headache for them.

I've had my own merchant account for several years now,
but I have to admit I've been afraid to use it much!

I use it to manually process client charges for software
development and consultation, but I've been reluctant to
use it on any of my sites where I expected a large number
of orders . . . instead, I use "2checkout.com" to process
orders for my eBook sites.

2checkout is one of several companies that act as your
"distributor". From a technical legal standpoint, they
purchase your products from you and sell them to the end user.

There have been companies that did this for years, but in
the beginning, they were charging 10-15% of each sale for the
service -- ouch! NOW, however, there are several companies who
do it for around 5-7%.

These companies offer all the major credit cards (more than
you'd be able to offer with your own merchant account), and
they have very robust "fraud screening" technology which
significantly reduces your chargebacks. And you don't have
to worry about doing "too much" volume (imagine!) . . .

Here are some of the top companies, their rates, and my
comments about them . . .

http://www.paypal.com
2.9% + $0.30 per transaction

PayPal is one of the most recognized "Payment company" names
on the internet, and they keep getting better. They recently
added recurring billing options and the ability to post
transaction data to your own scripts on the "back end".

There HAS been some controversy lately about how they
treat their clients. There have been some horror stories
about them freezing accounts of legitimate merchants for
unreasonably long periods of time.

My personal experience, however, has been a good one.

http://www.paysystems.com
3.95% + $0.35 per transaction

I have clients using PaySystems and they're generally
happy with them. My experience with their technical
support hasn't been that great, but they eventually
answered my questions.

http://www.2checkout.com
5.5% + $0.45 per transaction

I've used 2checkout.com for quite a while now. They can be
configured to post data back to your own scripts. In fact,
I use them in conjunction with my Synergyx ecommerce software
and they work great.

They have an "AuthorizeNet" compatible mode too -- so if your
cart or ecommerce software is designed to work with
AuthorizeNet's "WebLink" method, it will also work with
2checkout.com

http://www.clickbank.com
7.5% + $1.00 per transaction

Clickbank's fees are higher than the others, but they do
have a couple of advantages. They offer a built-in affiliate
program, and THEY take care of paying all the affiliates.
The money comes out of your account of course, but you don't
have to worry about writing the checks at the end of every
month.

If you sell your product through ClickBank, then their entire
affiliate network can sell your products as well. If it's a
hot product with a high conversion and affiliate payout rate,
you'll do very well . . .

Well, that's all for this issue of BizTools Brief -- please
let me know if you need any clarification, and by all means
send in any questions you have about other business tools!

Click this link for more recent archives May 21, 2004 April 9, 2004 March 12, 2004 December 1, 2003 September 12, 2003 August 28, 2003 August 8, 2003 July 15, 2003 June 24, 2003 June 3, 2003 May 17, 2003 March 19, 2003 March 14, 2003

Polls

Surveys

May 9, 2003

First some "Breaking News" . . .

CGI Scripts and Your Web Site

Click this link for more recent archives

May 21, 2004
April 9, 2004
March 12, 2004
December 1, 2003
September 12, 2003
August 28, 2003
August 8, 2003
July 15, 2003
June 24, 2003
June 3, 2003
May 17, 2003
March 19, 2003
March 14, 2003