Entries Tagged 'Increasing Sales' ↓

There’s a question that everyone wants answered these days (I’ve heard it repeatedly at the recent conferences I’ve attended)…and it is:  “Who’s making money using social media?”

I’ve been asking that question of my friends lately and one guy stood up and said:

“Well, I am.”

Mitchell's Monthly Royalties From Twitter

His name is Mitchell Cogert and you should listen to him because he’s built a profitable little business selling poker books primarily through the free traffic he’s acquired using Twitter.

Mitchell is a veteran of marketing strategy having worked with Proctor & Gamble, Hewlett-Packard, Intuit and other leading businesses.

Read on to enjoy his thoughts on such topics as:

• Does Twitter make money?
• Who else makes money using Twitter?
• The six steps of how Mitchell himself makes money with Twitter
• How to find customers on Twitter

…here we go:

How To Make Money On Twitter

Q: Hi Mitchell. Before we get to your poker book business, let’s look at the rest of the world — first off, does Twitter make money yet?

There is an article entitled Twitter is Said to Be Profitable in Bloomberg that stated Twitter earned $25 million in 2009. The revenue came from deals with Google and Microsoft to get access to tweets for their search results.

At the Chirp conference (the Twitter developer conference) last week, Twitter announced a plan to earn money from ads. If you do a search on Twitter, you may see an ad as a tweet at the top of the results.

Q: Do you know of anyone else who makes money off Twitter?

Here are a few companies: DellOutlet, the Coffee Groundz, Zappos, Souplantation, NakedPizza.

You can learn more about success stories on Twitter by going to these Twitter Case Studies.

Q: Let’s get back to you your poker book business — do you make money on Twitter…is it profitable for you?

The cost to be on Twitter is $0. The cost for my Google blog is $0. The revenues from my poker books are priceless…lol.

Actually, using Twitter is very profitable! The most expensive thing I do is the time cost to write posts for my poker blog.

But that is fun to do, because it is my hobby.

Q: Would you break down the steps through which your poker business makes money using Twitter?

It’s a process:

1. awareness–>
2. followers–>
3. effective tweets–>
4. clicks to website–>
5. valuable content–>
6. sales

Q: So, “all in,” as they say in poker, how much money does it cost you to operate your combo Twitter/Blog sites per month versus how how much you think Twitter generates in book sales?

Out of pocket cost is for twollow at $7 per month and the websites on Homestead at $20 per month.

The royalties from my poker book sales average at least $1,000 per month.

Q: Do you have any other tips on how to make money using Twitter?

Yes. Let me give you one tip on how to get followers who are the most likely to buy from you.

The trick is to find followers who have “lists” that define your consumer.

For example, let’s say you are selling books to moms on parenting advice. Check out Twitter users who have lists they define as “moms.”

Now, just click the “follow this list” and you have created awareness about your business.

The moms that like what you have to say (tweeted) on Twitter, will follow you back. These followers are prospects!

Q: Thanks again, Mitchell

Thank you again!

Note: see How to Get Twitter Followers (Ones That Buy!) for Mitchell’s thoughts on that subject and for his contact information.

I believe the new payment application SquareUp, which allows anyone to accept credit cards in person, is a game-changer in business.

I just bought a book using it from author Dom Songalla (pictured below) at a conference we both attended — it was simple yet powerful.

Author Dom Sogalla Shows Rob Kelly the SquareUp-Enabled iPhone

Dom simply popped his credit reader reader  into the phone jack of his iPhone; and then swiped my credit card for $20.

A Square-Up Enabled iPhone

Here’s the receipt I received via email (note that it shows me the location of my purpose):

The whole thing really took just three steps:

1. The author swiped my credit card on his iPhone
2. I signed my signature with my finger on his iPhone screen
3. He typed in my email and emailed me my receipt

And the beauty is that SquareUp does not require you (the seller) to have a merchant account to accept credit cards — and there appears to be just one fee (2.9% of the transaction amount).

Others, including PayPal’s new Bump iPhone App, are also getting in the market of exchanging money between phones.

I like SquareUp’s chances as much as anyone’s as it has smart folks like its co-founder Jack Dorsey (creator of Twitter) and Board member Gideon Yu (previous executive at Facebook, YouTube, Yahoo) behind it.

Click here for tweets from some SquareUp advisors.

And since SquareUp is still in beta, you’ll have to go to the bottom of SquareUp’s home page and give your email address to get in line to receive the card reader.

Pam White has helped affiliates sell millions of dollars of  products…and those sales were made at little risk to the affiliate marketer’s she managed, as they were primarily performance-based (they didn’t layout any cash until the products were sold!)

She generously agreed to answer some questions to help us understand the affiliate marketing business.

Q: Welcome, Pam. A lob-ball question first: What is online affiliate marketing?

A good description, I believe, is “selling other people’s stuff” on the Internet and receiving a commission for doing so.

Affiliate Marketing Expert Pam White

Q: If you’re a business, and you have products to sell, how do leverage affiliate marketing?

Determine the financial benefits of handing over the marketing expertise of a “staff of affiliates”, versus the cost of marketing the product through your own marketing department’s expertise.

Does the competitor have an affiliate program?  Maybe you should consider it as well.

Q: If you want to run a business, but don’t have any products of your own, how do you leverage affiliate marketing?

1. Learn all you can about affiliate marketing – in general.  SEO, PPC, etc.

2. Research products or services of which you have expertise and are passionate about.

3. Analyze keywords and quantity of searches performed for the   niche.

4. Realistically analyze your budget and ROI goals

Q: You mentioned earlier that the top affiliate marketing programs are offered by Commission Junction (CJ), Sharesale and LinkShare — please tell us more about each of them?

Commission Junction /LinkShare/Shareasale and many other networks, contract with hundreds of merchants selling products, and for a fee, handle the management, tracking internal listing of the Merchants Affiliate program.

Those interested in joining an affiliate program within the network can peruse the various products offered once they have completed the signup and approval process.

Generally speaking, however, the affiliate must have a domain name and website or blog to be approved to sell the merchant’s product.

Q: You also mentioned, that if you’re selling a service you can utilize Clickbank: how do you make money with Clickbank?

Clickbank is similar to CJ, in that there are several merchants listed in the Clickbank Marketplace and you can choose which products you wish to promote.  With most merchants offering up to 75% commission per sale, it’s very popular for those wishing to sell digital products or membership site offers.

Q: What’s the “Clickbank Elite”?

Clickbank Elite is a program sold by a 3^rd party merchant that extracts the “hot” selling products at Clickbank as well as cloaking the Clickbank generated hoplinks.

Q: I understand that Google has entered this space — what are your thoughts on the Google Affiliate Network?

I must be honest and say that I’ve not had the opportunity to search their offers or speak with any Merchants who are currently using the Google Affiliate Network.

Q: Speaking of Google, I hear stories about affiliate marketers who receive “Google slaps” — What’s a Google Slap?

A Google Slap occurs when Google views your website’s content and the Adwords keyword used to drive traffic via that ad to your landing page as not relative, or of poor quality.

This will result in an increase in your PPC costs to as high as $10.00 per click.  Additionally, your page rank, and thus your Quality Score, will be adversely affected.

Q: How do you avoid getting Google-Slapped?

Consider the keywords you are bidding on and the landing page and Adwords Ad group to make sure that they all “relate” to the content on the landing page as well as offer value to the visitor.  Be sure the page has adequate “original” content.

A great place to learn all the basics of Google Adwords is from the Google Adwords Learning Center. You can also view the Youtube videos published by Google.

Q: I hear that Pay Per Click (PPC) is key to affiliate marketing — would you elaborate on that, including defining a PPC Affiliate?

A Pay Per Click affiliate bids on and pays for each click on his targeted Sponsored ad at Google, Yahoo, Bing or any PPC network.

PPC is the key to gaining an immediate presence for your brand or campaign in the search results.

Q: What do you consider to be the best affiliate marketing program of all time?

I don’t know that I’m qualified as an expert on that question, so I’ll go with Amazon, since they were one of the first to enter the space.

Q: Who do you consider the best affiliates in the marketplace?

Not to hedge that question, but “the best” I believe, would be relative to the vertical.   Best CPA, Best CPL, Best CPM.  I haven’t worked in all those verticals.

Q: What’s a super-affiliate?

Again, this is relative to the vertical.  A “super-affiliate” may be an individual, an agency, or a network.  It’s any affiliate that has the ability to drive high volume sales (consistent with the niches expectations) which outperform the “average” amount generally produced over a given period of time.

Q: What’s the best way to recruit super-affiliates?

Network, know the competition, review who is the top PPC advertiser in your niche, identify them through various online tools, contact them, present your offer and metrics and invite them to join your program.

Q: What’s the best way to learn affiliate marketing?

Forums, Blogs, E-books, Industry leaders, Google Learning Center, Articles, Mentors, Coaching programs, trade shows like Affiliate Summit. Twitter, Facebook

Q: What’s a good affiliate marketing website to check out for beginners?

Affiliate Tips owned by Shawn Collins, who is also the co-founder of Affiliate Summit.

Q: In our last conversation you mentioned ABestWeb.com — would you describe the affiliate marketing forums they provide?

Basically, almost any network you choose to join will have a corresponding forum at ABestWeb where you can discuss openly any issues, complaints, questions, or accolades you wish and have it viewed and answered by a moderator/associate of that particular network.

Q: Thanks for sharing your perspective, Pam. If someone were to want to get in touch with you, how might they do that?

You’re more than welcome.  Those who wish to reach me may do so by contacting me at my e-mail address pam.white@gmail.com.

I’ve been teaching someone on our team recently about how a sales pipeline works — and so I thought I’d summarize my sales approach here for you (I’ve used this for straight up sales as well as for partner sales).

Note: I’m going to refer to the party I’m selling to as a “customer” but it could easily be a partner in the case of partnership sales.

There are any number of sales pipeline stages you can use: I’m going to use Leads, 10% Opportunities, 50% Opportunities, 90% Opportunities and Closed Won/Lost. I first adopted this methodology when I began using Salesforce.com which mapped well to how my mind works.

Stage 1: Leads

First you have to get leads in the door.  What is a lead?

A lead is a potential customer at its earliest stage.

Some people call this a sales “prospect.” So, what is a prospect and what’s the difference between lead and prospect?

I think using either “lead” or “prospect” is fine, though in sales I tend to prefer to use lead to define my earliest stage potential customer. I then use prospect more as a verb as what I have to do to find leads (e.g. when I read about a potential customer in the newspaper or on a Web site I am “prospecting.”).

For example, here are the criteria I used for qualifying sales leads (qualifying leads may be quite different based on what industry you are in):

• I have their first and last name
• I have their company name
• I have a quantity metric helping me to understand that they have enough value to merit me working for them (examples of a quantity metric might include the number of employees they have, the amount of revenue they generate or their Web site’s traffic ranking).
• I have a quality metric helping me understand if they are the type of lead I’m looking for (examples include: the vertical market they are in or the title of the individual)

Prospecting sales leads is a full-time job. There are two main types of leads:

1) Inbound Leads

To generate inbound leads, you can simply run advertisements (leaving your phone number, email or Web site information) or it may be as simple as you have a Web site with a “Contact Us” link that leads to a sales lead form (which of course would ask for the type of information (such as their size, type of business, etc.) that helps you define whether someone is a good lead.

2) Outbound Leads

Outbound lead generation consists primarily of having an outbound marketing program or outbound sales (such as outbound telesales). The point is that generating outbound leads consists of proactively making a day to day effort to find leads.

The next stage after qualifying a lead is turning it into what I call an “opportunity.” I have three stages of opportunities: 10%, 50% and 90% — let me explain each.

Stage 2: Opportunity (10%) (“We have connected with the right people at the right business”)

I define a 10% Opportunity as having the following qualifications:

• I have made contact with them
• I have confirmed that the quantity is there for my type of customer (for example, they have a top 1,000 Web site if I’m looking to sell to the largest Web sites in the world).
• I have confirmed a quality metric such as they are in a vertical market that has worked for me in the past or another example is that the person I’m talking to is the proper decision-maker for closing a deal with me).
• Finally, and this sounds obvious, but I define a 10% Opportunity as one that has a 1 in 10 chance of closing — duh!

Stage 3: Opportunity (50%) (“We’re in the ballpark on this deal”)

I define a 50% Opportunity as having the following qualifications:

• The details of the product or partnership have been discussed and it’s agreed it’s a good fit for both sides
• The pricing of the deal is in the ballpark (within 20%)
• The rough timing of the close of the deal has been discussed

Stage 4: Opportunity (90%) (“Negotiations are complete”)

I define a 90% Opportunity as meeting the following criteria:

• Agreement on pricing
• Agreement on product specs
• Agreement on closing date
• Agreement on delivery date of product
• Contract has been reviewed (just not signed  yet)

Stage 5: Closed Won (or Lost)

Finally, when you close a deal you have two scenarios:

1) You closed the deal meaning you won it. That means that you have the contract in hand and you’re off to the races!

2) You closed the deal because you lost it. This is ok. Think about the old story of the vacuum cleaner salesman who sold vacuums for $100 but had to knock on 50 doors to get a sale. Well, each “Closed Lost” deal of his was worth $2 each, right!?

Salesforce Automation

Finally, there are plenty of customer relationship manager software prorams (aka CRM software) available to help you with the stages above. Most include the basics of:

• Sales pipeline management
• Sales pipeline templates
• Sales pipeline reports

I happen to use Salesforce.com and I’m quite happy with it…but there’s plenty of other good sales software out there.

And don’t forget to check out my favorite book on Selling — read my article on it here: SPIN Selling.

The purpose of Purchase.com is to help businesses grow, profit and organize.

And I’m noticing a lot of Classifieds-related searches on Google lately, such as the following list from April 2009 (the parentheses are an estimate of the monthly searches):

• Classified Ads (90,500)
• Free Classified Ads (74,000)
• Free Classifieds (60,500)
• Community Classifieds (12,100)
• Free Local Classifieds (3,600)
• Business Classifieds (1,300)
• Free Classified Ad Posting (720)
• Business Opportunity Classified (480)
• Free UK Classifieds (480)
• Free Classified Ads in India (320)

That’s a lot of searches!

People seem thirstier than ever for the ability to post classified ads (perhaps due to the economy) –  and they usually prefer that they are free.

New Place to Post and Search Free Classifieds

Towards that end, I employed a friend of mine to help create a simple free business classifieds application that allows anyone with an email address to post a product or service for sale.

To post a free business classified, you simply go to the home page Purchase.com or specifically to Add a Free Business Classified.

Other classified Web sites, such as Craigslist (which I’m a big fan of), allow you to post most classified ads for free; however, Purchase.com plans to differentiate from them.

Such difference might include focusing on business to business classifieds, small business classifieds, free local classifieds and some other items (more on that later).

For now, go experiment with your free classified ad posting on Purchase.com — you can do it in just a few minutes.

We have kept the design very simple so please be forgive its ugliness…but the functionality should work.

And, as always I’d really like to hear what you think.

Cheers!