One of the ideas that Eben Pagan (Internet marketing star and founder of the infamous DoubleYourDating.com franchise) espouses is the idea of giving customers something of immense value and ask for relatively little in return.

I like to think of this as providing customers with a big return on their investment (ROI). And the benefit of doing so is that it keeps them coming back for more, which in turns yields a big ROI for you.

This idea covers everything from providing customers with a lot of stuff for free… to only charging a fraction of what something is worth to them.

Now let’s clarify something - none of this means that you should charge ‘low’ prices or rip yourself off. What it means is that what you ask for in terms of dollars is actually very low compared to what the customer gets out of the product or service you offer them.

In other words, you can charge whatever you want. You can charge a ‘high’ price… as long as it’s still very low compared to the value of the product or service to the customer.

And the benefit of wowing the customer so much that they think the price you’re charging is ludicrously low?

Well, they become more likely to jump on your offer for one thing. And the law of reciprocity also kicks in: they feel so privileged that they are much more likely to commit to you and buy from you again.

And there are other major advantages too.

I should also add that giving your customers what they perceive to be of immense value may actually cost you very little. For example, it costs very little for a coffee shop owner to give a customer a free cup of coffee on their birthday. Yet, to the customer, it’s a gesture worth much more than the cost of the coffee. A gesture that is likely to attract them back to the coffee shop again and again.

Jack Humphrey has published an article that explains, simply and succinctly how to make your blog popular. He gives 6 tips, which I’ve put my own spin on below:

1. Create ‘marketable’ blog content that readers don’t just enjoy reading but also feel compelled to forward to others.

2. Write for two (2) audiences - readers and other bloggers.

Notice that Jack does NOT mention writing for that third audience… search engines? Here’s what we’ve learned since we began publishing the Kikabink News Internet marketing blog/newsletter just a few months ago: write for people and the search engines will follow.

If you regularly write about topics you want to be known as an authority on, sooner or later the search engines will begin treating you as such. If, on the other hand, you try to write specifically for search engines and stuff your articles with an unnaturally high level of keywords… you’ll turn off readers, bloggers and eventually the search engines.

3. Link to other relevant blogs and content. Remember the days when we were all told to get inbound links… without giving out links in return? Didn’t that strike you as a little… um… selfish? Well, those days are gone. Not only can you get “trackback” links when you link to other blogs, but the search engines are increasingly taking a holistic view at who is linking to whom. They’re actually starting to favor blogs that link TO (not just get links from) other related, authoritative blogs.

4. Network with other bloggers by linking to them, commenting on their blogs and doing them favors. If it isn’t obvious, doing nice things for others will result in others doing nice things for you.

5. Post early and often. Jack Humphrey recommends posting every day. Ideally, a few times per day. Why? In Jack’s words:

“Because every post is an opportunity to hit the search engines with another long tail keyword phrase. Every post is a new chance at turning on another blogger and making them link to you. Each post you make is yet another “touch point” for you and your readers. Readers are interested in different things at different times. More posting ensures you are hitting more hot button topics with more readers with varying interests at any given time.”

6. Work out how to “hook” your readers. Ideally, you want to work out how to write such content as to get your readers coming back again and again. My husband, Simon, writes the DomainerIncome.com blog. He tends to write funny, politically incorrect posts and, in terms of attracting readres and getting comments (supportive and not-so supportive) it works.

Another example is Clayton Makepeace. Clayton is an A-list copywriter who recently let loose his rather strong political views. Well, you should see the comments he’s drawn for his political posts. I’m guessing many readers just can’t wait to see what bloggers like these guys are going to say next!

Source: Jack Humphrey, “Making Your Blog Popular”, Friday Traffic Report, November 7, 2008

It’s never been easier to download images, movies and music from the Internet. Which means you can literally pull images, videos and music off all kinds of sites - from royalty-free sites to torrent sites – and use them in your marketing.

Except that… you may be breaking the law.

Just because you can readily download and repurpose content doesn’t mean you have the legal right to do so. That may seem obvious when it comes to downloading images off just any site or movies off torrent sites… but even where it appears possible to, for example, buy royalty-free content, there are typically terms and conditions that apply.

For example, when you purchase content from a royalty-free site you are really purchasing a ‘license’ to use that content. That license is typically limited, the limits of which are described in the license terms – you know, all that stuff you ‘click’ your agreement to when you buy the content.

As an example, many standard royalty-free licenses enable you to use the given content for promotional purposes, but do not allow you to resell the content in question. There are often other restrictions on how you use that content too.

So… read the terms and conditions before you make assumptions about what you can do with the content!

Now, let’s not all panic. There are sometimes implied licenses to use certain content. For example, on sites such as YouTube, video contributors must specify if they don’t wish to allow others to embed their videos. If they don’t disable the embedding feature they are taken to have agreed to letting others embed their movies. But again, read the YouTube terms before assuming anything!

1. In fact, if I could offer three final thoughts, they would be these:
2. Always read terms and conditions;
3. Assume nothing; and

Ignorance of the law is no defense!

Today at 12 noon EST, Rich Schefren will release his latest report on the state of Internet marketing - ‘The Uncertainty Syndrome’ report.

If The Uncertainty Syndrome report lives up to the hype - and there’s been a LOT of hype (just check out the video on this page) - it should be a ripper of a read. And hopefully Rich Schefren will share a nugget or two… or three or four… or more… that we can directly apply in our Internet marketing businesses.

Make no mistake - The Uncertainty Syndrome is a precursor to another big product launch. Rich Schefren plans to introduce a brand new coaching program next week. But, unless I am sorely mistaken, the program will likely be cost-prohibitive for many people, so the free report may be the next best thing from Rich Schefren you can lay your hands on.

I think Rich knows his stuff - he is not only a ‘big picture’ thinker, but he is a keen strategist and tactician as well. I was mightily impressed with his previous reports and also had the pleasure of seeing him present at conference here in Australia last year.

As such, I’m an enthusiastic affiliate for the launch. So you’ve been warned! Having said that, I’ll be publishing an objective review - or as close to an objective review as is possible - of Rich’s report either tomorrow or Friday. Look out for it then.

In the meantime, sign up to get The Uncertainty Syndrome report as soon as it’s released by clicking here:

==> Click here to sign up for your free copy of The Uncertainty Syndrome

There seems to be a view that unless you have a bunch of testimonials on your website or in your sales letter, you just won’t be able to sell anything.

Well, as someone who has sold stuff without testimonials… and has most certainly bought stuff without testimonials (especially in the offline world)… let me reassure you that you do NOT need testimonials to sell things.

You just need… PROOF!

Very few people will buy from you unless you convince them of the merits of your product or service. To convince them, you need proof that what you say is true.

Testimonials are just one kind of proof. They’re not the only kind, and in some cases they’re not the best kind either. In fact, they may be totally redundant.

Consider istockphoto.com. Any testimonials on the home page saying how wonderful the istockphoto is? Nope. And yet this site is brimming with proof: it’s all the photos!

Same with most online stores. Who cares if Barbara Peabody thinks froggy-tea-towels-online.com has lovely froggy tea towels. I just want to see pictures of all the froggy tea towels so I can see for myself.

Take software products… What’s more powerful: a testimonial… or a DEMO… or an independent review? Sure, testimonials may be a plus… but I’d really like to test the software out for myself. And I’d like to see what others like me have said about it too.

What about services?

No question, testimonials about your quality, professionalism, etc. are good to see. But let’s also see some examples of your work!

Okay, but what about information products and services where you can’t show examples? In this case, testimonials are invaluable. The more abstract your product - where you can’t easily show or let people experience the benefits of your product or service - the more beneficial are testimonials from other people. But samples (if possible) and case studies may still be better than just testimonials. And I’d still like to see an attempt at translating the abstract into the tangible e.g. by showing a graphic of the ebook cover.

What should you do if you’ve got, say, an abstract information product and don’t have any testimonials?

Well, the first thing to do is to post a request for reviews on the Warrior Forum!

If, for some reason, you fail to get any responses, there are other techniques you might try to build proof. One such technique is to quote research studies and highly regarded publications and, simply by association, let them add weight to your product or service.

For example, if you’re selling a no-food diet ebook you might include a reference to, or quote from, a study that supports the ideas in your ebook:

“People on no-food diets are more likely to lose weight faster than people who eat food.”

– Professor I. Knowitall
Ivory Towers University

As long as you are providing an accurate quote, not taking it out of context, nor trying to mislead people into thinking the quote is about your product, you should be safe.

Hope this is helpful!

If you’re like many small (and in some cases mid-sized) Internet business owners, you probably do as much as you can yourself.

Makes sense doesn’t it? After all, why pay someone else to do something when you can easily do it yourself? Especially if you can do it better…

While “bootstrapping” has its place, doing everything yourself will almost certainly limit the growth of your business. You’ll simply reach a point where you physically can’t do everything that’s necessary to grow your business any further.

However, the need to delegate and outsource arises long before you reach that point. You could say you reach it the first day you start your business. Why? Because while your time is limited, the return on your time will vary depending on how you make use of it. And you should always be spending most of your time on the activites that generate the highest return.

Now, don’t get me wrong. “Return” doesn’t always mean a short-term monetary return. In some cases, the “return” is actually a long term return and may be generated by time spent learning, researching, preparing products, beta testing new services and other activities.

Which indicates pretty clearly that you should start thinking about the kind of return or returns you want to generate, and how to best spend your time to generate them, right now!

So if you’re spending most of your time on activities that give you the greatest return… who’s doing all the other stuff that needs to be done?

Do you have to pay someone else to do it? What if you can’t afford to pay them?

Think again about the return on your time. If it’s higher than what you’d pay someone else to do the other stuff, then yes, you’re better off paying them to do the other stuff!

BUT… and this is a big but… in some cases your efforts are generating a long-term return and you won’t have the cash flow to pay someone to help you.

That’s life. In this case, I urge you to systemize everything as much as possible so that when you do start seeing those long-term returns, you can quickly delegate or outsource the other work to someone else.