Hi Everyone,
I sincerely apologize that
this edition is late, my publishing schedule is not like
this normally. My mother is in intensive care due to complications
from surgery so I have been 'otherwise engaged' so to
speak, all my personal and business projects are essentially
shut down but will resume soon. From your point of view,
the only thing that is different is this 'one-time' delay
in publishing this edition. The next edition will be published
in 10 days or so.
I will publish this issue
on the website as soon as possible.
My apologies for any inconvenience
for the delay due to the circumstances my mother and my
family are dealing with.
Thanks very much for your
understanding.
Karl
Issue: March 18,
2004
"Identifying
What 'Conversion Rates' Really Means When Evaluating Potential
Solo Ad Joint Ventures".
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Smart" because a friend sent this issue to you, get
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Hi,
Welcome new subscribers,
thanks for being here! Without you, none of this would
be worth a hoot.
As I sat in the hospital
with my mind bouncing back and forth with confused conjecture
about what would happen to my mom, I realized that there
are lots of things that never get explained that people
use to get what they want rather than giving the 'real
deal' explanation everyone deserves.
Just tell it to me straight,
right?
Trying to get information
from the hospital staff can be more than challenging because
they fear letting out details because people sue them
for anything they can find. Its unfortunate but true and
I've gotten an education the past 2 weeks on why hospital
operations are like they are and what you can try to do
to get real info.
And, when you're in a situation
like my family and I are in, where there is a doctor for
every organ that needs treated, arranging all the information
into a form that can be disseminated by a non-medical
professional, can be extremely frustrating to say the
least.
The same thing holds true
in Internet marketing. You just never know who is telling
the truth, half-truths, just sending you a message to
sell you something rather than help you, etc.
Sometimes Internet marketers
just do things for 1 reason, to make money. Sometimes
they don't care if they truly help, sometimes their motivations
are completely self serving. Sure, every Internet marketer
is out to make a buck, but do they need to give sketchy
details or partial pictures of what's really going on?
Needless to say, my mood
worsened and this thought process that my family and I
went through in the hospital sparked the following article.The
article will be the extent of this issue, no plugs of
any products, and, as usual, no paid advertising.
Thanks for being here.
Karl Augustine
"The
Regular Guy"
*Featured Article:
"Identifying What 'Conversion Rates' Really Means
When Evaluating Potential Solo Ad Joint Ventures",
by Karl Augustine
Of the major pieces that
make up a successful online business, high conversion
rates can be one of the most coveted. A solid product,
strong sales copy, targeted traffic, effective advertising,
and other factors all contribute to the highly important
business metric, the "conversion rate".
The term "conversion
rate" is simply the ratio of people that visit your
site versus the number of people that visit your site
and buy something from your site. If you have 100 people
visit your site daily and 4 people buy from you, essentially
your daily conversion rate is 4%. That's obviously an
unqualified number because you don't have all the information
about those visitors for that day.
There is no real standard
definition that everyone adheres to and agrees upon and
there is no governing body that says online marketers
must define "conversion rate" the same way.
The "conversion rate"
metric can take into consideration any of or more of the
following:
* A 1st time visitor to the
site versus 1st time visitor who buys your main product
on the 1st visit.
* A visitor who reviews your
site but doesn't buy on the first visit but does buy on
a subsequent visit.
* A visitor who doesn't buy
but joins your list and buys later.
* A visitor who doesn't
buy your main product but joins your list and buys another
product of yours.
* A visitor who buys a product
from you not associated with the main site which is where
they were originally referred.
* A visitor who buys your
main product in a bundle that includes other products
the visitor is interested in.
*And so on...
Take the above scenarios
and add in the fact that most of the time the source of
the traffic isn't given, and you can easily get an 'ambiguous
at best' definition of what "conversion rate"
means.
Many successful online marketers
with lists are bombarded with joint venture proposals
that include some sort of conversion rate metric designed
to build intrigue and desire to the list owner to make
them seriously consider going ahead with the solo add
joint venture proposal.
While the conversion rate
metric is a necessary piece of the potential joint venture
package, it can be misleading if not properly qualified.
So, what questions do you
ask to properly qualify what 'conversion rate' means and
how do you verify it?
Short of looking at the other
marketers web log, you really can't verify the metric.
The best thing to do is to review the product yourself
if possible and take a look at the sales copy of the product.
Take a look at the Alexa ranking to see what type of traffic
the site is getting, at least from a volume standpoint.
Remember, Alexa rankings measure volume
of traffic not the quality of traffic. Go to Google or
some other search engine and see what types of sites link
to the site of the product.
If there are professional
well traveled sites that link to the site that fit well
within the niche that the product caters to, and the sales
copy, price point, and delivery are professional and fitting
to the product offering, maybe the conversion rate is
comparable to what you're being told it is.
But, just because the conversion
rates maybe close to truthful, it doesn't mean that sending
a solo ad to your list will work well.
You have to decide for yourself
if the product could pull in the type of conversion rates
that are being 'sold' to you by the proposer of the JV.
Remember that the source
of traffic is one of the main factors that will determine
what type of conversion rate any JV will obtain. Ask yourself
if your list will respond well to a solo ad JV. Only you
as the list owner will know whether the product will be
useful to your list and purchased by your list.
Be humble, work smart, keep
it simple.
Karl Augustine
"The Regular Guy"
(c) Karl Augustine
http://www.9mistakes-online.com
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*Welcome New Subscribers!
For those of you just joining,
welcome!
Your time is valuable and
I'll do my level best to make this "read" time
well spent. I am just a regular guy, just like many of
you out there...I stuck with it, and now am having a blast
doing what I love to do. Keep a positive attitude and
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