Posts by Bob Bly
Your 4 Toughest Competitors in Internet Information Marketing
There’s a lot of money being made in marketing information products online today. But there’s also a lot of competition – as I’m sure you’ve noticed.
Read MoreYour Intangible USP
Your business – whether you are an information marketer, retailer, catalog merchant, manufacturer, service provider, freelancer, or consultant – has not one but two unique selling propositions (USPs): the tangible and the intangible.
Read MoreInternet Selling Tips From the National Enquirer
American Writers and Artists Inc. (AWAI) co-founder Don Mahoney recently e-mailed me an article about the National Enquirer. In that article, Editor-in-Chief David Perel revealed the secret of the tabloid’s outrageous success:
Read MoreDoes It Pay to Complain About Bad Products or Services?
I always feel awkward when I have a bad meal in a restaurant and the server asks, “How’s everything?” I get the feeling that the question is no more sincere than the telemarketer who asks “How are you today?” It’s just polite talk. They don’t really want or care about the answer.
Read MoreWhat? No E-Newsletter?
There are a number of business models for making money on the Internet. Of these, my favorite – and the one I recommend to those who want to sell information products, dietary supplements, or just about any other product online today – is the “Agora Model.”
Read MoreHow to “Touch” Your Customers
Let’s face it. In today’s Internet world, it’s easy to stay in your hidey hole, avoid people, and just sit at your PC reading, writing, and thinking… which is what I’ve essentially designed my businesses to allow me to do! But the problem is that you become too isolated from the very people you are in business to serve.
Read MoreGive Your Self-Published Book the “Loose-Leaf Test”
How do you ensure that the information products you sell online give fair value to your customers? One way is to follow Internet marketing guru Fred Gleeck’s “10 times” rule. Fred says that the information products you sell should be worth at least 10 times the price you charge for them.
Read More5 Steps to the Perfect Guarantee
“Use a strong guarantee” is standard advice in direct marketing. Without a strong guarantee, your sales will slow to a trickle. Buyers are loathe to buy products sight unseen – over the Internet, by phone, or by mail.
Read More4 Steps to Creating Better Info Products
Before you can write, you need to have something to write about. This means acquiring in-depth knowledge – through a combination of research and experience – of a subject people will pay to learn.
Read MoreThe Worst Way to Make Marketing Decisions
“Why do marketers like ETR and AWAI send me 16-page direct-mail sales letters when the copywriter could have said the same thing in 1 to 2 pages?” Betty writes. “The prospect might even buy out of gratitude for not having to wade through those 16 pages, and breathe a sigh of relief instead of snarl a nasty expletive.”
Read MoreThe Easiest Way to Create Great Bullets
Most ETR readers know that a successful copywriting technique is to use lots of “bullets” in marketing copy – short sales points presented in bulleted lists…
Read MoreShould You Offer Your E-Zine Subscribers a “No-Advertising” Edition?
On more than one occasion, one of my readers has suggested to me that I publish two versions of my e-newsletter. The first would be the regular edition I offer now – a monthly online newsletter with pure content, supplemented by twice-weekly e-mails mixing content and product offers. The second would be an “advertising-free” edition. You’d get the monthly content e-newsletter, but none of the e-mail marketing messages between monthly issues.
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