Steal My Deal

Directory enquiries has historically till date been understandably, filed amongst the most accommodating and useful things to ever be thought of. Quite simply picking up the phone to ask for an address or a phone number when you didn’t possess the obligatory telephone directory with you has very much been a great support for individuals in these times of critical informational necessity. A quality directory enquiries service is only one click away at the 118 118 website.

But, as time moved on and directory enquiries became more commonplace, we realised that we spent more time waiting on hold and enduring adverts instead of the alternative, bagging the data which we required “quick and easy”. Because, this is the only function directory enquiries were supposed to perform. As a result, a good number of us commenced scanning for superior ways and means. Nevertheless, there was still no alternative that was anywhere near as good till the advent of on line directory enquiries. On line directory enquiries are not just better than standard phone in directories, they are very much better.

The best on line directory enquiries provide their services for free. There are no sign-up fees and no requisite listening to adverts. Consequently on line directories are clearly “free of charge” & “straightforward”. On-line directory enquiries are prepared to serve you throughout the year. You are able to just click to open an on-line directory enquiry and check into your long lost best uni acquaintances mobile phone number at half past midnight.

On-line directory enquiries lets you find out information about a good number of key pieces of information. UK directory enquiry services can provide train schedules & significantly assist you in your task of locating trains all the way from finish to source. You will of course need to learn about the new films being shown at the moment in your nearest cinema hall, absolutely no matter where exactly you live in the United Kingdom. Obviously, tracking down companies and their telephone numbers is a slice of pie and the best thing is that you furthermore get to learn people’s phone numbers. Every piece of this invaluable information is immediately available at your laptop with online business directories. There are also certainly no busy lines, certainly no annoyed operators, non-functional machines or prolonged adverts to listen to. So log on and enjoy!

Copyright © 2006 By Marige O’Brien. Reprint With Byline Inclusion Only

“IF YOU CAN GET THE MILK FOR FREE, WHY BUY THE COW?”

This rather crass question became popular in the late 1970’s, when many couples chose to live together without the benefit of marriage. Similarly, today’s affiliate marketers tend to favor programs that offer no sign-up fee, especially when so many include support, personalized websites, back-office marketing, etc.

And, too, there are programs that offer nothing more than an ID link and a few banner ads on a login page. In fact, seemingly sophisticated marketers are often offended by a program that requires an up-front investment. And for good reason: the marketer is already investing time, effort and their own marketing system (i.e., money) to promote a given program– an additional investment seems as if the company is taking advantage of them.

And some do. But not all of them.

In fact, online companies that offer affiliate programs can be divided into roughly three different categories: Those that offer free sign up; those that offer a free sign-up but require some kind of back-end fee; and those that require an up-front investment from their affiliates, as well as a back-end fee. The reasoning behind each strategy varies from program to program and should be considered along with the qualities of each. But, in general terms, these are the basic strategies behind them:

FREE SIGN-UP PROGRAMS This kind of arrangement is usually offered by those companies that offer little, if any, hands-on support for their affiliates. They supply the link and a login-secure page on their site with several advertising tools, possibly with an automatic payment system, such as through ClickBank or Storm Pay.

These companies are generally small — possibly only one or two people — and are hoping to capitalize on the affiliate marketing system with little or no effort on their part. Generally, too, they offer only one product or promotion. For the marketer, unless volume sales are huge, they can expect to make only a few dollars from these types of programs. But, if all they have to do is put an affiliate link on their website to generate sales, this is sufficient for the marketer. Also, a very small percentage of companies in this category offer an MLM system.

PRO: These type of programs are a quick and easy way to cash in on a new product or trend, provided one learns of it early.

CON: Once the market is saturated, sales reduce to the point where even the small space the link takes up on their webpage becomes a loss. Also, unless the company is sound — as well as responsive to its affiliates — there is always a chance it could fold up and disappear before the marketer ever sees any actual cash for his or her sales.

FREE SIGN UP WITH BACK END PAYMENT PROGRAM This is the most common type of arrangement and the companies that employ this seem to be trying to utilize the “best of both worlds” approach. Either the company will offer initial sign-up for free with incentives to upgrade, or they will charge for “extras” in lieu of sales or a downline (in the case of MLMs). Essentially, these companies are “straddling the fence”, that is, trying to find a way for the affiliates to cover their own expenses without making an “up-front” investment.

PRO: Programs like this often forego charges once a marketer creates a certain amount of sales or take the charge out of commissions, both of which give the marketer an incentive to make a minimum amount of sales. The companies that use this type of program usually offer adequate back-office support such as a support staff to answer questions, payment schedules that are adaptable to each marketer and regularly updated promotional materials. They also tend to be better established than the completely-free-program companies and often have a physical contact address and telephone number for questions or problems.

CON: Without sales or a downline, marketers are often paying much more in the long run than many up-front investment programs charge. Also, in the case of companies that ARE well-established, a new marketer may be unknowingly entering a field that is fully saturated with other, well-established and more experienced marketers. This makes obtaining the sales they need especially challenging, particularly for the newer marketer. Getting their foot in the door becomes a challenge of its own.

THE UP-FRONT INVESTMENT PROGRAM These are less common than in the past but still exist — and, in fact, are still being created — under certain, specific circumstances. The company that opts for this arrangement may use up-front investment as a way to “pre-qualify” its marketers, hoping to capture only the most professional and serious-minded marketers. They usually offer higher than average incentives and may also have a high-demand product in which the company has already invested heavily themselves. And, too, they may be budgeting for future advancements and product placements, as well as creating support teams specifically designed to help the marketing staff alone. These companies will often include — to help off-set the investment — many back-office features not usually offered to marketers in other programs. And, without exception, these companies offer higher-than-average commissions.

PRO: Programs such as this offer more promise to actually obtain the kind of income that has become infamous (not to mention synonymous) with internet marketing. Also, bonuses or other payment arrangements that allow the marketer to make higher than average commissions. Back-end support is usually top-notch including, in some circumstance, the marketer is treated as an actual employee. Some even include benefit packages and other employee-like perks. The product or product line is something in high-demand and/or has a high rate of sales.

CON: The up-front investment obviously causes start-up marketers to turn away. Also, competition from serious marketers who have well-established sites makes succeeding in this field challenging. Further requirements after joining the program that may increase the challenge of succeeding. Due to their inherent popularity, a short time-frame in which joining this type of program is viable in terms of ROI.

In choosing individual programs, a marketer must decide which type is best for them, regarding their resources, their own marketing strategy, the overall ROI (return on Investment), and based on their advertising campaign/budget. Many marketers choose a mixture of these programs in order to minimize their investment while maximizing their return.

Oh and, by the way? In case you’re wondering, many of those couples in the 1970’s that started out living together, ended up getting married after all. So, what does that say about getting the milk for free?–mo

Everyone talks about exceeding your customers expectations. It is true. It is no longer good enough to just meet their expectations, you DO have to exceed their expectations to succeed. Today’s customer is very well educated and demanding. The internet has opened up a whole world of possibilities. They want high quality, exceptional service and low low prices. I am reminded of a sign I once read at a printers office… “Fast, cheap, good..Pick two.” However customers don’t want to just “pick two”, they want the whole enchilada!

There is a simple way to exceed your customers expectations most of the time. And that is to manage those expectations. Be in control. To put it simply, it is like competing in a race, AFTER you decide where the finish line should be.

Often times you don’t know what their expectations are. It is almost impossible for you to win without this knowledge. If you help to establish the expectations you are far more likely to impress your customer.

Last week I was looking for some real estate in Chicago for my son. On Sunday I called a realtor. He told me he was at an open house, but would be back to his office later that afternoon and would email me some listings. He never sent me any emails that night and he didn’t call me back until the next day. Clearly he set up an expectation that he didn’t meet. Now the interesting part of this story is that I had no expectation about when he would get back to me BEFORE he set one in my head. At best since I was calling on a Sunday I assumed that he wouldn’t get back to me before the next day. But he set an expectation in my head and he didn’t follow through. He would have done better by saying ” I will email you the listings tomorrow” and then email them to me that night. He would have set up my expectation and then exceeded it.

My orthopedic surgeon, when looking at the xray of my broken ankle, told me that this was a “good” break and there was no damage to the ligaments and that when the bone healed there would be no other problems. Imagine my surprise to still be limping four months later. He didn’t manage my expectations well. If he had said “It looks like a simple break, but only time will tell how fast you get better” I would have been less unhappy with the outcome.

Think about what you promise your customer. Are you sure you can fulfill that promise? If not DON’T make it. Give yourself some wiggle room, give yourself some ability to “under promise and over deliver.” Set your customers expectations so that you can always exceed them.

Laurie Brown is an international speaker, trainer and consultant who works to help people improve their sales, service and presentation skills. She is the author of The Teleprompter Manual, for Executives, Politicians, Broadcasters and Speakers. Laurie can be contacted through http://www.thedifference.net, or 1-877.999.3433, or at lauriebrown@thedifference.net.

Having a successful member only, paid membership site is one of the best ways to make money online. A successful membership site can give you the steady income of a CEO ….but without the job!

For example if you had just 200 people paying you just $20 a month, you would have a steady cash flow of $4000/month, month after month, rain or shine. Many people accomplish this the first month or two their site is up. But that’s just the beginning. Some individuals have member only websites that generate 5-10x that amount of money!

But before we get ahead of ourselves, let’s discuss exactly what a member only, paid membership site is?

Whether you call them member only, membership, subscription, or mentor websites, they all have one thing in common. … they are bringing in steady, recurring cash flow for their owners, month after month, from a few hundred dollars to tens of thousands of dollars with an endless variety of topics.

Some of these sites provide mentoring or coaching, others contain useful articles or information in a particular field or product. Still others publish the results of tests and studies or product reviews. Finally some membership sites provide specialized service or act as a meeting place for people with a common interest.

But all these sites have one thing in common: to access the website (or the best information on the site) you have to pay for it!

Why Would People Pay for Information on the Internet?

The key to getting people to pay for access to a website, is to provide specialized information/coaching/data/service that is hard to find anywhere else, or would be time consuming to find on your own.

Here’s another way to look at it:

Have you ever subscribed to a newspaper, magazine, or newsletter? Have you ever bought a non fiction book that gave advice on a topic you were interested in? I’ll bet you have. I’ll also bet that you could have found almost all of the information these resources contained from free sources.

You paid for the information either to save time or because you thought the information would be better or more specialized for what you were looking for, isn’t that correct?

Just a few short years ago it was almost unheard of to charge for access to a website and almost no one was doing it. Today it’s not only much more acceptable but there are still relatively few membership websites. This makes it the perfect time to start your own member only site, since there is still little competition.

Choosing a Topic

This is the most critical decision you’ll have to make. Choose the right topic and you’ll have people clamoring to give you money to access your site. Choose the wrong topic and you’re doomed before you even start.

The first place to look for potential topics should be within your own world. The list of potential topics could come from your interests, hobbies, vocation, business training, or even your location.

Find a topic that you are passionate about, and the odds are that enough other people are also passionate about the topic to make it a successful membership site. Since you are going to be spending time building and maintaining your membership site, why not choose a topic that you enjoy?

Note: If you are already a speaker, consultant, writer, or “expert” on almost any topic, then you are in a perfect position to create a membership or mentor type of website which could double or triple your income. You should start a membership site today! In just 3-4 months, one of my clients turned his existing expertise and client base into a member only site that generates $40,000/month!

You wouldn’t believe some of the unusual ideas that people have turned into profitable paid membership websites. Topics include: unusual business ideas, fireworks, repairing guns, physical conditioning, marketing, specific makes and models of cars, digital cameras, dieting, dating, tall people, and 2nd wives clubs.

Setting Up and Running Your Member Only Website

Finally there are many tools to help you build and maintain your member only website.

At the most basic level, you can do much of the website creation yourself and use 3rd party services to help you with the administration. However, a quicker and even better way is to use one of the new all in one membership management software systems that helps you get your site set up quickly (even if you don’t know anything about programming) and automates almost all the administrative features. These membership software programs can reduce your workload by 75% as opposed to trying to do it all yourself.

Is There a Members Only Website in Your Future?

I hope this brief article has given you a glimpse into the tremendous potential that could await you with your own membership website.

All over the world, people are earning large sums of money online, on a regular predictable basis from the comfort of home, because they had the insight to start a paid membership site.

What are you waiting for?

Ron Ruiz
Copyright 2004 All Rights Reserved
http://memberstar.com

Want more information on membership websites? You can receive a FREE mini course by email with more helpful information. Just to http://memberstar.net.

Ron Ruiz is a product developer, marketer and newsletter publisher. He has extensive experience in all aspects of starting and running a membership/subscription/coaching website. His own membership website http://www.businessfastlane.com has been operating for several years and has members from over 26 countries. He has also developed his own all in one membership software system called Memberstar which makes it easy to set up and run a members only site. http://memberstar.net