Was I lucky? It took me just seconds to get my FaceBook URL. I was expecting a slow crawl and crashed servers. Instead, it was smooth and quick.

ClickBank just released a blog post with a link to my video about how I increased ClickBank sales 22.8% using a simple 5-minute tactic that I teach in my QuickieProfits site.

As ClickBank says, “There are no tricks or gimmicks here: Jeff’s technique just increases customers’ willingness to buy by increasing their level of trust and making sure they know what to expect throughout the sales process.”

http://www.clickbank.com/blog/2009/05/22/an-easy-way-to-convert-more-sales/

Or go directly to the video at:

http://www.quickieprofits.com/public/186.cfm

According to a recent Advertising Age Article Read here Microsoft plans to spend between $80 and $100 million on an ad campaign slated to start in June of 09. The idea is to boost Microsoft’s search share up from the paltry 8.2% of all consumer searches as measured between February 2008 to February 2009. During the same period, Google grew its share 7% to 63.3%, and Yahoo was up 5% to 20.6% share, according to ComScore.

What does that mean to you? If you can do some SEO to help out your results on MSN search - now would be a good time to plan ahead. If you haven’t advertised there, it might also be a good time to experiment so you can benefit when the ad budget kicks in.

Will advertising pull Microsoft out of the cellar?

That remains to be seen, but Microsoft is betting $100 million that it will. Probably not a bad idea to make some plans to capitalize on that.

I just got this email:

I’ve seen a couple of these come through, and these are NOT LEGIT.
Notice the email address in the FROM: field.

I have no doubt that if I opened it and unzipped the file, I’d be installing a virus on my PC.

This is an especially easy scam to fall for if you are a marketer and you do actually send product through UPS. I do, and it almost got me.

Marketing Quickies 3 is a “business in a box” that gives you, for a significant investment, the rights to sell memberships to a site that provides marketing quickies similar in concept to my own QuickieProfits.

Owners get a complete membership site set up and ready to go, plus three new videos each month.

The sites look like this.

Some people treat Twitter like they are speaking from a stage. Some like they are talking to friends in a booth at the local bar. And some like they are whispering in your ear.

How do you Tweet?

As I look at those I’ve followed and unfollowed, I think the ones I like best are the bar booth types. They treat Twitter like a conversation among not-so-close friends. Sometimes its a bit personal. Sometimes it’s a good joke. And sometimes they tell me something valuable I didn’t know before.

Audience tweeters seem to talk like they are on stage. Big statements. Authoritative pronouncements. Like they are trying to get quoted or retweeted with every post. Gets a bit tiring. Like the guy who monopolizes conversation at the PTA meeting.

Whisperers are too personal for me. I’m interested in you - but not that interested. I like to know what you are working on, what good resources you use, and every once in a while something funny you come across.

I don’t really care where you drink what coffee or what time you go to bed (every night). Not worth the mental bandwidth I have to spend to read it all.

But the interesting thing about Twitter is that what works for me might be different for you. That’s fine. We each find our own path.

I do think it bears some thinking as to what path we take, and that some consistency is good.

What do you owe the people following you? I think you owe them some time, effort and attention. Finding the balance that works for you is the challenge, and I think it’s different for everyone.

Are there other kinds of Twitter users I’m missing?

I am frequently asked by beginners, “What should I do in internet marketing?”
In this 7-minute interview with Ryan Lee, I talk about the first things a beginner should think about.

Note: The first thing is NOT to run out and buy the next shiny new product out there. Think first.



One of the most important parts of creating a
strong offer is risk reduction. And the higher
the price, the stronger the risk reduction
component must be.

You’ll find a good example of that here:

http://CBmall.com/detail/lower-risk

A strong risk reduction may include:

* Money Back Guarantee

A 30, 45, 60 or 90 day guarantee is pretty
ho-hum these days for many products. But still
important.

* Results Guarantee

When accompanied by a money back guarantee,
this becomes much more powerful. For example:

“Here’s my vow to you: You must agree that
product XXXX has put at least FIFTY TIMES your
first payment to your bottom line, or send it
back for a 100% Unconditional Refund.”

Now doesn’t that seem much more powerful?
Obviously, this person believes in their
product enough to take all the risk.

* Proof of Performance

Positive proof of performance is another risk
reduction method. If you can state clear
performance benefits and prove them with credible
testimonials, prospects have another strong
data point for their decision-making process.

It’s also more powerful to have a range of
different types of results. If you were
selling a golf product, you might have a
testimonial from a young guy who now hits 350
yard drives. Great. But also include one from a
small woman who went from 150 yards to 180
yards. That’s just as important for her.

Or if you are selling a marketing product,
having testimonials from established businesses
is great, but also share results from beginners
to demonstrate that your product helps all
types of businesses.

* Creative Restatement

Saying, “Money back guarantee” is fine. And
important. But consider stating your guarantee
in more creative ways.

Example: “Use it to make all the money you want
between now and March 15, 2009. Then you decide
…”

This reinforces the fact that the buyer can’t
possibly lose, because if they don’t profit
from the investment, they can decide to return
the product. And they’ve got plenty of time to
try it and see results.

* Payment Reduction

Accepting payments over time is another great
risk reduction strategy, especially in
difficult economic times like we are in now.

Many people who can’t come up with a big
upfront payment may be able to invest a couple
of hundred dollars a month if the rest of your
risk reduction is powerful.

If they believe your powerful guarantee, and
you compound that power with a creative
restatement and then finally make the initial
investment a fraction of the total through
payments, you’ve made it a much easier “buy”
decision.

Here’s a beautiful example of risk reduction:

http://CBmall.com/detail/lower-risk

You won’t find a much better sales letter, and
you can tell they have spent a lot of time on
risk reduction.

You might want to file away this email for the
next time you are working on a sales letter.
These risk reduction techniques have a huge
impact on the effectiveness of any offer.

Techsmith, the guys who develop Camtasia, have a great free service called JingProject. It lets you do quick screen captures, both still and video, and it hosts them for free.

This makes it very easy to do a quick video and easily share it. The free account gives you 2 gig of storage and bandwidth, enough for a lot of videos and views.

The downside is you can’t edit. But it’s a great way to quickly demonstrate something. I don’t use JingProject for marketing purposes because I have Camtasia and my own hosting, but I use it to explain things to my support people, partners and developers. For anyone just starting out, it’s an excellent service.

Goodbye PC Magazine.

Yesterday I received the last print edition of PC Magazine, which I had I started reading shortly after it was first published in 1982.

PC Magazine was one of the best places to learn about PCs, software and accessories. They have great articles on technology, user tips, software reviews, etc.

At one point the magazine had over 600 pages. This last issue in my hands has 98.

PC Magazine will still publish in an online version, but I’ll miss the print edition. I feel like I grew up with it.

I wonder if PC Magazine was a victim of its own trend toward covering the general industry, with more articles on cell phones, gadgets, MP3 players and the like along with a trend to commoditization of PC equipment.

I find it interesting that a huge publishing company like Ziff Davis is closing a venerable print edition like PC Mag when individuals like Yanik Silver, Mike Filsaime and Andy Jenkins & Brad Fallon have all successfully introduced print editions of newsletters targeting the online marketing world.

Seems there’s a lot to be said for a tightly focused niche.