Has ETR Run Out of "Real" Content? Dear ETR Reader – If you've been following reader response to our recent format experiments, you know that in the beginning, we got plenty of letters telling us they liked the old format. Some of them were very pointed. A reader using the pseudonym Stellar Chance, for example, had this to say: "I have been an ETRer since 2004... The old format was simple to use and I was able to skim my articles, get my glicken and be about my biznes...why did you change it up? And what's with all the Adverts? You all talk about how important and useful your e-zine is and then you go dumping DUMB adverts for book products that everyone and their mother is trying to sell on some eCommerce site. I guess you are no different from any other nethogs out there...get as much from the public while you can... "Your e-zine use to be useful and full of content. Now it is almost useless and full of garbage! I am glad I saved all the old articles so I can go back and read some REAL CONTENT. It only shows me the MM is only out to get the CASH... he must be in a lot of debt cause anyone with bifocals can see that those links are lame and weak! I just can't believe you just repackage old crap and then try to sell it as new crap! What the CRAP??!? Did you EVEN read 'The Secret of Shelter Island'? Or did someone just give you a blurb so you could claim to have read it?" Yes, Stellar, I did read it. And I think it is a great book for individual investors, such as me. Alex Green has the best record of all Agora investment advisors. Industry watchdog the Hulbert Financial Digest (which recently featured Alex in its pages) has consistently ranked his stock selections third in the nation overall! As for the advertising, we have always advertised our own products and those of others that we like. We are a business and that is how we stay in business: by selling our customers products and services we think they will enjoy. As far as the format is concerned, I believe we were very clear about why we were experimenting with the changes. I thought the content could be improved a bit by having only one main very good essay that readers could focus on. It's my view that quality is much more important than quantity and by putting in fewer longer pieces we could encourage our readers to take action and improve their lives. But so many people wanted the brief articles back that we put them back in. The new format, that you have here, is the best of both worlds. Three or four useful briefs and one important and well-written essay by a true expert that you can put into action immediately. Here are just some of the other comments we have received about the new format: "My vote is a 'YES' for the new format. Much easier to read and navigate. Less color and odd borders in the graphic improves the readability." -D.S. "Excellent! I can easily read thru the entire newsletter in just a few minutes. I appreciate the time and effort you have put into the change." -R.C. "Awesome." -M.F. "Your new format is a huge improvement. I especially like the elimination of all the clutter (ads) along the sidebars. It is now a pleasant experience to read." -M.E. In today's issue: - Wealthy: A Sucker's Bet
- Healthy: Why Cavemen Didn't Need Tums
- Wise: Are You Collecting Water in a Leaky Bucket?
---------------------------------------------- Highly Recommended ---------------------------------------------------- ETR Reader Challenges Us to "Put Up or Shut Up" - Longtime ETR reader Peter Genot has taken our home-study courses and worked hard at building his Internet business. But he's not satisfied. And he's holding us to task. He says he won't come to this year's Bootcamp unless we can guarantee that he'll start making some real online income. Here's what we told him... --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- My wife strode across the yard from the chicken coop, clutching our sharpest kitchen knife. A rivulet of red ran down her forearm. Her hands were stained crimson, and a solitary feather stuck to her palm. "Hi, Honey!" she chirped. "I was just seeing whether the new chicks liked strawberries." Assumptions, I am reminded, are the mother of all screw-ups. And some of the worst assumptions are made by website designers who make it hard for people to find what they are looking for. The assumptions we make are all about our perceptions and how our brains interpret them. The human brain needs very little information in order to synthesize the bits and pieces in any scenario and immediately form a whole picture. Read on... In his book Blink, Malcolm Gladwell calls this ability of ours "thin slicing." Apparently, we developed it thousands of years ago. When our distant ancestors hunted and gathered and danger approached, they needed to make the decision -- in a split-second -- whether to fight or flee. At heart -- more correctly, "at brain" -- we are still hunters on a trail. But instead of food, we are searching for information. The prey has changed, but the way we hunt hasn't. When you're looking for something online, whether through search engines, within an e-mail, or on a website, you are tracking it. You forage, seek, scan, and click for clues to guide you. You ignore anything that appears irrelevant, and move on quickly. Very quickly. In fact, usability experts like Jakob Nielsen believe most people spend only a few seconds -- 10 to 15 seconds -- skim-reading something that looks like it might be useful. Understanding your customers and the assumptions they make when they're searching online will help you create a more user-friendly (and, therefore, more successful) business. But first, you have to make sure you're not making some incorrect assumptions. ---------------------------------------------- Highly Recommended --------------------------------------------------- ETR's 10-Pound Confidential Internet Marketing Playbook - When the Internet exploded 10 years ago, Michael Masterson was excited about its potential. But he predicted that the industry would develop very differently than the so-called experts were predicting back then. Since then he and all of ETR's top Internet marketing experts have been writing down their observations and discoveries in a private journal we called "the Playbook." It contained all our best secrets – everything we tested and proved – that helped us grow so fast so quickly. The playbook was meant to be for our eyes only, but now – for a limited time – you can get a peak at it. Read more... --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Many Web designers figure that when they put a certain label on a website button, its meaning is obvious. And they assume that if a visitor to the website doesn't understand it, that person must be stupid. But take the example of a button labeled "Programs." Does that mean educational courses? Or downloadable software? The problem is that most technical folk are probably not your average customer. What appears obvious to them probably isn't obvious to the people who matter most ... your customers. This is why, when improving the "usability" of your website, you must strive for simplicity. If anything on it requires an explanation from a webmaster, Web designer, or technical whiz-kid for you to understand it, it will confuse the heck out of your website visitors. A confused website visitor is a bad thing. He'll believe he's on the wrong trail. And guess what? He'll bail. He'll exit your website and take his money elsewhere. Businesses spend a lot of time and money driving traffic to their websites. But once they get them there, few consider the user experience. This is akin to collecting water in a leaky bucket. Don't assume there are no holes in your bucket. Have someone conduct an audit of every aspect of your online business. That includes your promotional e-mails, website, shopping cart, and order confirmations. An audit doesn't have to cost much or take long. (One hour can reveal a lot to a trained eye.) You don't even have to call it an audit. Call it "discovery." The main thing is for you to be open to accepting anything you find that may need changing. This means looking through fresh eyes at your existing business. Taking a step back and trying to forget the assumptions you made about what does or does not work. Trying to see what your customers see when they use your website, read your e-mail, buy from your shopping cart, and call your 800 number. Usability is something you can (and should) measure. Most analytics software -- like Google Analytics, WebTrends, and software most Web-hosting providers install for you -- provides usability statistics. This can help you determine the changes that should be made to your online business. Let's say your goal is to sell $10,000 worth of skateboard helmets a month, and you are currently at only $5,000 a month. You look at the reasons people are leaving your site without purchasing, and it appears that many are bailing during the checkout phase. So you modify the process to make it simpler, to make people feel more secure, or to allow them to complete the transaction in less time. You continue to make changes to the checkout process -- one at a time. And you measure the results. As long as the results are positive, you keep making changes. This is a worthwhile exercise for any online business. If you meet resistance when you suggest it, simply say, "Why don't we test XYZ and see what happens?" The main thing is not to be tied to a particular way of doing things. Results are what matter, not whether John's or Jane's approach works best. Remember what I said earlier: Assumptions are the mother of all screw-ups. An audit challenges the assumptions you've made about your online business and compares them to the assumptions your customers are probably making. Ultimately, you want to understand and predict the assumptions your customers make, and do everything you can to make it easy for them to do business with you. Here are some examples of what I mean: - By removing the top and bottom navigational menus (both of which contained multiple links) from a pay-per-click landing page, one client of mine doubled the number of sign-ups for their e-mail newsletter. Offering too many choices creates confusion. Focus on the action you want your site visitors to take and make it simple for them to take that action.
- An online company selling motorcycle jackets offered free shipping, promising delivery in five days. By giving customers the option to pay extra for expedited shipping, they significantly increased sales. The reason: Customers who wanted their jackets immediately were put off by having to wait five days.
- By changing the format of their e-mail newsletter to use predominantly text with fewer images, one business increased its monthly income from the newsletter by three-fold. Most e-mail programs and service providers do not turn on images by default. Yet website designers still create image- and graphics-heavy e-mails that conflict with the real world of e-mail delivery and display.
Ask yourself the following questions: What assumptions have I made about the way I've set up my e-mails, website, purchasing process, and telephone system that are actually quite complex, require explanation, or just plain don't make sense? How can I improve these things to make it easier for my customers to do business with me? Does that animation on my home page help or hurt my goals? How do my e-mails look in the preview pane in Outlook? (Studies suggest that's where 65 percent of people read their e-mail.) Do my links work in AOL? Hotmail? Yahoo? Gmail? Any online business willing to make changes can make significant improvements in its results. Enjoy turning over the stones ... and watch out for your assumptions. P.S. I've just shown you that your online sales can be directly affected -- in a big way -- by making it as easy as possible for prospects to navigate your site, read and understand your promotional e-mails, and get through your purchasing system. Each week, I reveal practical tips like these in my newsletter the Internet Rant. Go here to find out more about my "contrarian" take on Internet marketing. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- More from Masterson... Get Out While You Still Can I was golfing with my brother-in-law and Bob Irish, Investment Director for Investor's Daily Edge, last Sunday.
The conversation turned to the markets. My brother-in-law told us he had made back all his losses from last year. He loaded up on bank stocks at their lows. And his retirement account rose higher than ever before. His portfolio was up 115 percent since March, he said. Bob and I complimented him on his success. And then, simultaneously, we said, "Sell!" Your retirement account is not something to gamble with, Bob cautioned. Investing in banks early this year was a winning play. But the inherent risks are growing, not shrinking. Right now, banking seems to be an exciting market. But, as Bob says, it's a sucker's bet. ---------------------------------------------- Highly Recommended --------------------------------------------------- "But Marketing Bothers People, Right?" - Wrong, says Internet Rant editor David Cross. The best time to send a product offer to a new customer is right after they buy from you. And as David says, this isn't just some random "how are you?" e-mail. You say something very specific. One of David's clients just did this… and doubled their sales in months. Find out what they said... --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Going Against the Grain The medical establishment says cutting red meat from your diet will stop heartburn and even stomach ulcers, which are the result of too much stomach acid. That's bunk, says Total Health Breakthroughs Editor Melanie Segala. Red meat isn't the culprit. It's refined grains, sugar, and separated fats. All are highly acidic in the body. But you can regain your body's acid "balance" quite easily. Eliminate processed foods from your diet, she says. You should also add greens and other vegetables, as well as animal protein (organic and organically raised). Do this, says Melanie, and you can throw out your antacid remedies. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "I only wish more politicians would read ETR." "I am always glad to see sources of note promote production as a means to economic recovery rather than consumption. I only wish more politicians would read ETR and follow advice like this, we wouldn't be mired in high unemployment with no sign of recovery AFTER a large stimulus." D.P. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Today's Words That Work: Forage To forage (FOR-uj) -- from the Middle English -- is to rummage around in search of something, usually food. Example (as used by David Cross today): "When you're looking for something online, whether through search engines, within an e-mail, or on a website, you are tracking it. You forage, seek, scan, and click for clues to guide you." --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- We want your feedback! Let us know your thoughts on today's issue. Email us at: AskETR@ETRFeedback.com | 
No comments:
Post a Comment