05.12.07
About Internet marketing
Internet marketing must be the most written-about and hyped-up subject on the internet. There are hundreds of self-styled gurus who will sell you information about how to market on the Internet - in many cases at greatly inflated prices. A few even know what they’re talking about. But think hard before you lay out hard-earned cash on get-rich-quick systems. They don’t exist. They’re cons!
At Shed 18 we’re dedicated to the art and skill of building websites, but necessarily we are involved with marketing, as we sell a range of software concerned with websites; building, maintaining and promoting. You may have the best website ever, but it’s not much use if nobody visits it.
So we subscribe to a number of marketing newsletters, from a cross-section of internet marketers, and have learned to pick out the good from the bad and downright misleading. Often the best is free. We’ve seldom paid cash for marketing information and when we’ve done so, with the promise that we can resell the item and make a fortune, we’ve not done so as we’ve thought the ’secret knowledge’ not worth passing on.
So what should you be looking for? General advice on internet marketing is the same as marketing in the High Street; an appealing shopfront (webpage), interesting stock, good prices, value for money, customer satisfaction, clever advertising, budgeting and so on. These principles have never changed and never date. Words written in 1900 are still true today. In fact some entrepreneurs have rehashed public domain books of that era. If you need this sort of information we suggest you try your local bookstore, online bookstore or your local library to get a hard copy.
What’s left that you need to know? Information specific to the Internet such as:-
*how and when to use autoresponders,
*how to accept payments online,
*the best ways to advertise,
*about affiliate marketing,
*trading in online actions.
things like those. But if you’re patient you’ll find excellent ebooks on these subjects that are given away free.
We would suggest that you ignore offers for general information about how to make a fortune by applying ’secret’ methods. These are always very appealing, have a sales page a mile long, loads of bonuses and are written by skilled copywriters who’s job is to fool you. You have to be aware that there are associations of marketers who sell each other’s work for a commission and provide recommendations on demand, even if they’ve never used the product. It’s a world of ‘caveat emptor’, buyer beware.
Many ingenious arguments are put forward as reasons why you have to buy the product now and many dubious methods are used to try to force a sale. One of the daftest in our opinion is the ‘dime sale’ where a product is put on the market and its price goes up, say, every hour by 20 cents. Another is the time limited sale, where a product is put on the market for, say, 5 days or until 200 have been sold. Yet another is the OTO, or One Time Offer, where you’re offered something once only.
These schemes, and many others, are intended to get you to buy NOW or you’ll lose the opportunity. Don’t be caught. Make your own considered decision as to whether the product is what you want at the right price. We’re always looking for good deals but mostly in software which is often good value. Modern hosting companies offer plenty of capacity. There’s no need to take offers down except as a marketing ploy. The same product will be recycled, renamed and offered again in a few weeks.
If you do decide to buy, consider the price. In our experience these gems of knowledge can cost many times that of a hard copy book sold in a bookshop. Some entrepreneurs offer massive packets of audio-video presentations bundled with ebooks and offers of free club membership at vastly inflated prices. I’ve seen them up to $1000.
That’s our rant about Internet marketing Gurus, so how do we at Shed 18 differ? For starters we have a range of reasonably priced, easy to use software that is on offer 24/7, always at the same price, with no time limit. Just like in a High Street Store. And we try to add a piece of software each month. Sometimes we may withdraw software or replace it with something else, and we reserve the right to alter the prices but that’s not likely. No gimmicks, no gimmicky bonuses; our software can stand on its own!
We try to give good information and provide free ebooks etc. as a thank you for those who subscribe to our newsletter. This is written fresh and published about every two weeks, unlike some that we subscribe to that appear in our inboxes 2 or 3 times a week, sometimes every day, even twice a day. We must unsubscribe from some that offer little value and are no more than advertising spam.
There are some excellent people dispensing marketing information and making a good living doing so. You can learn a lot from these people and they’re often generous with really useful information. Search for Internet Marketing on Google and sign up to a few free newsletters.
And don’t forget Shed 18 News. If you sign up for our newsletter you’ll get some useful free software plus free entry to the Member’s Zone. Why not do it now?
http://www.shed18.com/subscribe.html