Important New FTC Regulations Start Tomorrow
If you are an affiliate, a publisher, or a marketer of anything online, you need to read this important article. Really. I’m not kidding.
Because unless you’ve been hiding under a rock for the last two months, you have already heard about the new FTC guidelines that go into effect starting tomorrow, December 1, 2009.
But you may not know exactly what those new rules mean to you, if they matter at all, or what you need to change in your marketing in order to comply.
So today, I’m going to run down what I believe are the four most important parts of the new FTC rules. Please note that I am not a lawyer — I’m just summarizing the ruling as I understand them, and relating what I believe is important to you and me as online marketers.
You can (and should) consult your own attorney for a legal interpretation of the regulations as they relate specifically to your business. You should also read the actual FTC guidelines on their website, which you’ll find here:
http://www.ftc.gov/os/2009/10/091005revisedendorsementguides.pdf
The rules mostly apply to claims, testimonials, endorsements, and the revealing of any compensation paid as a result of these.
By the way: Whenever I mention a “product” I am also including services. So here we go: Read more
Niching Your Niche
You’ve heard me say lots of times before that understanding who your customer is, and why he’d buy from you is a very important first step.
Okay, let’s assume you believe me.
What then?
What do you do AFTER you know who your customer is? How does this knowledge of your customer affect what you do in your marketing?
Well, one of the great things about knowing who your customer is, is that you’re much more likely to realize that the market you’ve chosen has lots of little sub-markets inside of it.
For example, if you’ve got a product to help people lose weight, you might be thinking that your market is “all people who want to lose 10 to 100 pounds”.
Well, that’s a big niche with a lot of people, and it would take quite a lot of marketing to go up against the likes of Jenny Craig, Weight Watchers, and Nutri-System with your general, one-size-fits-all weight loss system.
Where, for example, would you advertise to find all people who want to lose weight? You could advertise just about anywhere to find heavy people. And it would cost you a fortune to do it.
But if you think about it a bit, inside of that large “weight loss” niche are so many smaller niches. If you don’t know this already, you ought to quickly learn that it’s far easier to gear your marketing towards a smaller niche, with its own specific needs, priorities, and world-views, than to a larger market.
It’s far easier to target your marketing towards a smaller niche, and you’re much more likely to make a big impact with all of your marketing. Read more
Why Listening to Your Customer is Not Enough
In a private consultation I had last week, I was talking with a very smart woman who happened to be new at online marketing.
We were going over her autoresponder series – a week-long series of lessons on selling real estate in this down economy – and we were talking about the words she was using in her text.
What I liked about what she had written was that the language was casual and “real” sounding, rather than the artificial, overly formal “corporate” style that most people end up writing their first time around.
In other words, she’d write things like “Do you remember back in the ‘good old days’ of real estate — just a couple of years ago — when all you had to do was list a home, and you’d get 5 offers to buy it? Well here’s how to go back in time as soon as tomorrow.”
That’s refreshing to read, and much better than Read more
The Most Overlooked Step in Business is the First Step
On a coaching call at the end of last month, one of the attendees sent in a question. It was “Okay, I’ve set up my blog. Now what do I do with it?”
If that strikes you as a good question, then I’ve got news for you.
It’s the worst question.
And that’s because it means that the woman who asked it was starting her online business the wrong way.
I’ve said this several times in lots of different ways, but it bears repeating so long as we keep getting new members in the club, and some of the older members haven’t gotten this message yet.
The right way to set up your online business is: Read more
A Free Ebook
Hi Folks
Just the other day I gave my mind a nice little break, kicked my shoes off, and read a short eBook that a dear friend recently shared with me.
Like me, you might spend most of your day squinting at a computer screen, so I find it is great to break things up a bit and relax. This eBook turned out to be just the ticket. I like to read as much as I can about the online marketing space, because you can never know enough. And frankly I’m still just learning and can never get enough!
It doesn’t happen often, but you know when you read a book that’s so good you want to share it with all your friends? This was one of them! It is called “The Triumph of the Stupid”. With a title like that it just begs you to read it! I read it in only 15 minutes and I immediately shared it with everyone in our office.
Then I thought since I am already sharing this with my co-workers, why not share it with you? We can never do enough for our TrafficSwarm Pro members. It sells for thirty bucks, but I’m sending it to you for nothing just because you are one of our valued Pro members.
Go ahead, give “The Triumph of the Stupid” a look - it’s yours to keep, no catch, just a ‘thanks’ for continuing to be a TrafficSwarm Pro member.
If you are already a Pro member, shoot me an email to get your FREE ebook
If not, join Pro today and send me an email for your FREE Ebook
www.trafficswarm.com
Enjoy!
Kaycee
TrafficSwarm Member Services
303-895-3575
Kaycee@trafficswarm.com
P.S. If you like the content, the author is Mark Widawer, the main coach for our Coaching program. I’m setting up some special pricing exclusively for Pro members to join the Club, so drop me a note or give me a call and I’ll tell you all about that.
How to Connect With Your Customer So That His Wallet Will Follow
The ‘official’ name for this month’s focus in the coaching club was going to be “Knowing your Customer.”
After all, it’s a critical part of online marketing.
But that’s not a catchy title. It’s down-right boring, unless you already understand the idea, and why it’s so incredibly important to your own personal success online.
“Knowing your Customer” is factually correct, but it doesn’t tell you anything at all about why you’d care. There’s no benefit in that title. No reason why. No attraction. No urgency.
No movement.
So we worked hard to find some other title for this month’s Coaching Club that would instantly appeal to someone like you. We wanted a title that would laser target itself into your brain so that your immediate response was “That’s for ME! I need that!”
The important thing about knowing your customer should be obvious, but it isn’t to many people. Especially new internet marketers.
Many new marketers think that there’s a river of gold online, and all they need to do is buy a pan and dip it into the river to get their share.
It’s not that way.
Internet Marketing is more like an ocean.
Lotsa fish. Lotsa people trying to catch those fish. Most of them using the wrong bait.
(You’ve heard me talk about stuff like this before.)
Its your job to use the right bait. Read more
