For over
a decade, Sam Robbins has been one of the top marketers both on AND
off the Internet. He has many successful businesses and websites, has
consulted small home-based businesses as well
as Fortune 500 companies ... and most importantly he's the first to
admit he's made a million mistakes along the way.
Anyway,
this little introduction is not about Sam Robbins ... but rather what
Sam can do FOR YOU. I had the rare opportunity
to interview Sam recently ... and he has allowed me to make the entire
transcript available to our associates, FREE of charge.
Not only
is this interview extremely valuable and informative (Sam reveals the
biggest keys to his success), but it's VERY
RARE! This is the first interview that Sam has done in over two years,
so pay close attention and listen to his wisdom!
Q. Sam, I know you've been involved in the launching
of many very profitable websites so let me ask you ... how do you know
if a
site is going to be profitable? What "precautions" do you
take to increase the odds of success?
A. Well,
there a million things that one needs to keep in mind before starting
a new project. But let's just keep it simple. The main thing I keep
in mind is to find or create a product or service where a MARKET and
a DEMAND for it already exists.
This reduces
your risk tremendously ... and there is less effort and money spent.
For example,
we recently launched an awesome marketing tool at
http://www.adminder.com/go.cgi?id=alpha.
It's VERY successful mainly because it's something that ANY and ALL
businesses need. If your goal is to make even $1, AdMinder will help
you do it.
We don't
have to go looking for customers ... they come to US because they need
AND want to use it to make more money online.
Q.
Right, excellent point. Now, once you've setup a new site what's the
very next thing you do?
A. Once
we've designed a new site, integrated the order processing system, etc.
and everything is working properly, we
prepare to start advertising (the marketing campaign).
No matter
how we promote (free or paid sources), the MOST IMPORTANT factor is
we make sure we have our tracking systems
in place so we know what's going on once the promotions begin and the
traffic hits.
We are
spending valuable time and money on this and we aren't going to do any
guess work. We want SCIENTIFIC numbers telling
us what's going on, what's happened and what we need to do to increase
sales and profits.
Q.
Ok right, you mean you setup some type of log analysis system?
A. That's
what most people do, but no, that's not what I mean at all. From a marketing
standpoint, log file analysis is only half the battle. Analyzing your
server logs will tell you how visitors are navigating your website,
and what they do when
they arrive, but it won't give you the rest of the information you need.
And generally
speaking, for most people, it's very difficult to really make good sense
out of your log files. I know for us, as our sites grow, the log files
get more confusing and less accurate.
Like I
said, you logs only give you a small fraction of the real information.
For example, which of your ads and promotions are generating the most
traffic, and even more importantly, the most sales (what's making you
money - plain and simple).
These
are just a few that come to mind, but without this information you're
really just flying blind and wasting your time and money.
Q.
That's a good point and I'm glad you brought that up. So tell us, exactly
what kind of stats and other information do you
track?
A. In
order to maximize the return on our investments (ROI) in advertising,
we carefully monitor a whole bunch of things.
Such as:
* Unique
visitors generated by each ad or promotion
* Number
of sales generated by each ad or promotion
* Which
ads are generating the most traffic and sales
* Cost-per-click,
cost-per-sale, and clicks-to-sales ratios for each ad or promotion
* Return
on investment, or ROI, for each ad or promotion
Those
are the most important bits of information that we monitor on a minute-by-minute
basis. Aside from ROI, my favorite stat is the clicks-to-sales ratio
because it gives a great indication of the "quality" of traffic
that is being
generated by each ad or promotion.
For example,
just last week I ran the same ad in 2 different but supposedly "targeted"
e-zines. One of the ads is resulting
in an average of 1 sale per every 36 visitors, and the other ad is only
generating 1 sale out of every 152 visitors. You
tell me, which of these e-zines would you prefer to advertise in? =)
Q.
Yeah, that would make a big difference especially when you are dealing
with numerous ads.
A. Right.
EXACTLY! See, if you are only doing one or two ads, you can track everything
manually. It's not that big of a
deal. It's not that stressful. But as your ads grow and your "repeats"
ads, you're going to go crazy trying to track everything. Before you
know it, it becomes too much of a hassle and you stop.
Q.
Hehe ... good point. We hear that all the time. And you know, it's very
true. If things are complicated or too difficult to do, people just
won't do it.
A. Simplicity,
that's the key! We are all too busy these days to be doing "monkey
work".
Q.
What about general promotions and non-paying advertisements. How do
you deal with those? Do you even track them?
A. Yes!
Most definitely. Heck, we make just as much money off of our "free"
promotion tactics as we do with our paid (maybe
more). It's not just about saving money, it's about saving time as well.
That's
why we track ever and any type of promotion.
For example,
let's say you have a newsletter or e-zine and in it, you have links
for various affiliate programs or articles at your own site that sell
something indirectly. You can track to see which TYPE of article or
promotion did the best.
If an
article about e-zine advertising was 3 times more effective at bringing
traffic BACK to your site then an article on banner advertising, you
will know to spend the
majority of your time posting and distributing the e-zine article.
Does this
make sense?
Q.
Yes it does. We tried to do this with some "viral marketing"
type of promotions in the past. But after a few weeks, we were
overwhelmed and didn't know what was working and what wasn't. We knew
that we had an increase in traffic and sales, but just
wasn't sure how.
A. Right.
Well, live and learn. We all make these mistakes. But the problem is
that someone reading this article will
realize it, but WILL NOT DO ANYTHING about it.
That's
not making a mistake. That's just being stupid. There are specific ways
and reasons why people make money ... and
others do not. Now that you know tracking is vital, DO IT!
Q.
I guess "change" takes longer in some people than others.
But the sooner you welcome "change", the sooner you will free
up time and make more money.
A. Yup.
Well said!
Q.
Sam, the word on the Internet is you're the one who invented the "Automatically
Double Your Profits Every Month" tactic. It's
a fantastic business plan. Simple and proven. How did you come up
with it?
A. Oh
yeah, that formula rocks! But I didn't come up with it. I'm probably
the first to present it to the Internet world, but I learned something
similar to it years ago when I did consulting for infomercials. I added
my own twist to it. But no, I don't think I've ever invented anything.
=)
Q.
How does it work exactly?
A: Well,
I've already presented the exact "formula" at our site --http://www.adminder.com/go.cgi?id=alpha.
So, best for your readers to just go there since I don't like to repeat
myself and bore those that already have read about my formula.
But I'll
give you a simple explanation of it and a different "twist"
for those that already use the formula.
Frank
Bettger, a phenomenal salesman of the 1930s, shared the secret of his
success in his classic "How I Raised Myself From
Failure To Success In Selling". After analyzing his first year's
sales, Bettger discovered that 70% were made on the
FIRST interview, 23% on the second interview and only 7% on the third.
His greatest
revelation was that he spent HALF of his time going after that last
7 percent! When he realized this, he
began concentrating his efforts on those FIRST interviews and nearly
DOUBLED his income overnight!
Q:
Wow... great story. That's a great way to explain your system to other
people. I guess the key to it all was that Mr. Bettger
kept records and "tracked" everything and then analyzed it.
A: Yes,
precisely! Heck, with all of the great technology that we have today,
not many people track their promotion efforts. Just imagine if Bettger
didn't track anything. YEARS would go by and he would continue to make
the same mistakes ... wasting valuable time and money.
Yet, by
analyzing his work, in only a few minutes he realized exactly what he
needed to do to increase his sales, make more
money and save time.
Q:
Yeah, it's pretty amazing. Once you have a good tracking system setup,
it only takes minutes to analyze the results and
know what's working, what isn't and WHY!
A: Right.
Now, the hardest part is just doing it. Getting started seems to be
a problem for most. They think it will
take a lot of time and effort setting up a tracking system. But if you
know where and what to look for, it's simple, fast and almost free.
Q:
Okay, so let's say you are new to all this or you've been wanting to
setup some tracking system in the past, but got lazy
and procrastinated. What would you tell people? How or where should
they start?
A: Well,
there are a million ways of doing something. Let me go over a few of
the options and you can decide what's best for you.
You can
buy special software that will do all the tracking for you. The problem
is that they are VERY expensive and very
difficult to use. Most people aren't "tech" smart and won't
know how to use all the features of a program.
Your next
option is to purchase a script. This is good. But the problem is that
most are just glorified "hit" counters. They don't track the
important stuff ... the specifics that you would need to know. I have
found a couple that were pretty good, but they were also very expensive
and the installation was crazy. Multiple scripts needed to be installed
and your server had to have some special settings and so forth. The
server had to be strong enough to also handle all the data being processed.
Again, most people just don't have the "tech"
knowledge or the time or the money to do it on their own.
Your last
option is to use a web-based service. There are a few. As with everything,
a few are horrible, a few are okay and a couple are good.
Because
it costs you no setup time or hardware or programming knowledge or special
servers or any of that stuff, I'd
recommend for most to do a web-based service. At the very least, give
it a try for a few months and just see how it goes. There are no contracts
or anything like that. You get to test things out, risk free.
Q:
I totally agree that the web-based versions would be best suited for
98% of the people reading this. Now, who do you
recommend?
A: I'm
not going to recommend anything to anyone. I'm biased and I'm not going
give my opinion on any specific company. But all I can say is that whatever
was out there,
I did NOT like and am NOT using. That's why we designed our own custom
system and that's why some of the much larger
companies on the Net are now using our system.
It's precise,
complete, proven and guaranteed. Let me ask you, what do YOU like that's
out there?
Q:
Oh no ... don't put me on the spot. =) Okay, I'll be honest with you.
I really love http://www.adminder.com/go.cgi?id=alpha
-
it works the best by far, it's the simplest to use, it's got the most
features for tracking, analyzing and managing all of your promotions.
And ... here's my favorite - it's the cheapest!
A: What
else do you like about it?
Q:
Okay, let's not forget who's giving the interview here (laughing!) ...
I'm the one in charge. =)) In all honesty, this is why I did the interview
to begin with ... I was very impressed with all of your sites and how
your run your businesses. I've got a million other questions to ask
you. But I think we'll save it for another time.
A: Sure,
sounds good and thank you for the kind words.
Q:
Thank you very much for your time.
A: My
pleasure. Bye.
Ken Brayton
is the publisher of the Sit, Stay, Learn! Newsletter and owner of Sit,
Stay, Learn!. SSL features free Viewlet tutorials on a wide variety
of software. http://www.sitstaylearn.com/viewlet/