As an Internet marketer, it’s important to understand the factors that induce people to fork out their credit cards to buy things online.

Jim Edwards, a highly successful Internet marketer, shares what those factors are.

Everyone has a mental “switch”, which when flipped, would make him or her pull out his/her credit card to buy.
There are 2 basic emotions and one (or more) of 4 basic buying motivators that entices people to make purchases online.

The 2 basic emotions are:
1. Fear
Offline retailers try to invoke fear of losing out by holding sales (deadlines with financial incentives), but they hold sales so often that they lose much of their effectiveness.
Online retailers can effectively use fear of losing out by threatening to increase the price at any time, or only make an offer good until a certain period, or offer a limited quantity of bonuses.

2. Greed
Greed will also intensify the buying motivation by giving people a self-serving reason to buy now rather than later. This can be done simply by telling them how much money they can make or save as a result of buying now as opposed to waiting. This is especially effective in multi-tier marketing.
Greed can manifest in a more emotional form where customers covet the feeling they’ll get by making a purchase before anyone else. Whether it’s the good feeling from buying a loved-one that coveted gadget or the feeling of smug satisfaction of snagging the most popular gift, consumers are greedy for both material and emotional gain. Imagine the iPhone…Explain to them how they’ll be the first people to own that coveted item and you have a winner!

The 4 basic motivators are:

1. People buy because of money.
They buy based on how much money they can make or save by making the purchase. As a matter of fact, making money is the number one reason people buy just about any “info-product” online.
As an Internet marketer, you could put a spin on how your product could help people save or make money.
For example if you sell stuff related to golf (apparel, videos, equipment, etc.) you could add a report that explains how to get more
business by playing golf with clients. Businessmen, investment advisers, Realtors would buy your products just to get the bonus report about making money while playing golf.

2. People buy products that saves time and effort
People are always saying they don’t have enough time. So they buy products hoping to save effort and time in doing mundane tasks.
Software is popular because people hope (sometimes in vain) to offload tasks to their computers.
Show how your products saves time and reduces effort and people will help increase your sales.

3. People buy products to escape either physical or mental pain
Online pharmacies do well even though they represent a risky proposition, because people with physical problems need medicine.
One way to position your product or service to alleviate pain is by explaining how you take the risk out of the transaction. Explain how others put all the risks on the customers while you actually remove them through your guarantees, testimonials and proof that your products deliver as promised.

4. People buy products that promise increased popularity and social status

Why do you think people buy perfumes, books on how to pick up women, stylish clothes, acne treatments? So they can feel better about themselves and be more confident in social situations!

In summary, you can increase your online sales just by shifting the emphasis off what the product or service does (features) and onto what it does for the person buying it (benefits), along with putting in context as many of the 4 motivators for people to buy as you can.
Then, by intensifying your prospects’ desire through effective use of fear and greed, you can truly explode your sales.
All it takes is a little bit of careful thought, some basic explanation to your prospects, and the motivation to do a tiny bit more than others are willing to do in their marketing.

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Apple has so many innovative designs which captures so many hearts. And their products are some of the easiest to use. So I’m wondering why Windows still has the major market share. Price?

But they are the king of MP3 and portable media players. Maybe they can capture a bigger share of the pie in the mobile phone market with their iPhone. Not this or the next generation of iPhone…not just yet. Check out the video below to see what the current iPhone can do. It’s a “sweet” video.

A short post today.

Happened to come across this funny how-to video clip on how to do a podcast. Actually, this website was publicized on the TV and decided to check it out.

The video shows how to do a podcast using a Mac and its software. But I guess there are Windows versions for the rest of us non-Apple users out there. My next laptop will be the Macbook ‘cos it’s so cool.

Here’s the video clip.

An Inspiring Dance - He without a leg and She without an arm

You must watch this! Very inspiring and touching. It’s a video clip sent to me by my remisier (an equities dealer).

What you are about to see was seen at a Chinese modern dance competition, broad-casted on one of China’s TV stations.

One extraordinary couple won one of the top prizes. The lady has only one arm and the guy has only one leg. They performed gracefully and beautifully. The lady, in her 30’s, was a dancer and was trained as one since she was a little girl. Later, she got into some kind of accident and lost her entire right arm. She was depressed a few years. Then someone asked her to coach a children’s dance group.

From that point, she realized she could not forget dancing. She still loved to dance and wanted to dance again. So she started to do some of her old routines. But by her losing an arm, she also lost her balance. It took a while before she could even make simple turns and spins. Eventually she got it.

Then she heard some guy in his 20’s had lost a leg in an accident. This guy also fell into the usual denial, depression and anger type of emotional roller coaster. She looked him up (apparently he was from another province) and try to  him to persuade dance with her. He had never danced, “Dance with one leg? Are you joking with me? No way!” But she didn’t give up.

He finally, reluctantly agreed. “I have nothing else to do anyway.” She started to teach him dancing 101. The two broke up a few times because the guy had no concept of using muscular control of his body, and a few other basic things about dancing. When she became frustrated and lost patience with him, he would walk out. Eventually they came back together and started training again. They hired a choreographer to design dance routines for them. She would “fly” high (held by him) with both arms (a sleeve for an arm) in the air. He would bend horizontally, supported on one leg and she leaning against him, etc. They danced beautifully and they managed to beat others in the competition.

What has this dance got to do with internet marketing?
It’s living proof that a strong, never-give-up spirit can conquer any physical (and even emotional) limitations. This dance gives me inspiration to strive on when things seems daunting and impossible. Just like the couple who must have suffered sweat and tears, to not give up.

Internet marketing is not an easy venture for most of us. There’s always some stumbling block we must overcome before tasting some appetisers of success. Sometimes, after trying our best, when things seem doomed to failure that we give up. Not knowing that we are right at the edge, where, if we push just a little further, we can peek over the edge and see success.

The first time I heard about Vince Tan was when I attended the Internet Millionaire Incubator 2 in October 2007, him being one of the speakers. However, I missed his presentation, which was on the second day because I couldn’t attend.

My buddy, who was at the event, called me after Vince’s presentation. She was excited by his story about how he had only recently embarked on his journey in Internet marketing and is already one of the speakers of the Internet Millionaire Incubator 2.

That got me curious and started reading Vince’s blog and got on his mailing list. Admittedly, I didn’t find his email marketing that impressive. After the first few email, I noticed a trend. Practically all his email messages were promoting sales of certain products.

Then recently, I happened to notice a certain email of Vince’s. It was another sales-promoting email about some confession by Mike Filsaime. Have heard of Mike but wasn’t too sure what he was about. Decided to check out the sales page…

The sale copy was simple and neat enough for fast browsing. Confession of an Internet Millionaire was a half-hour interview recording with Mike Filsaime that Vince had conducted. The price wasn’t high, only $9.90 and includes a PDF transcript of the interview. Nothing great, I thought but it also came with FULL MASTER RESELL rights and a reseller website.

The sales copy mentioned that what Mike Filsaime said during the interview, helped Vince plan his course of action over the next 18 months. Now that got me really curious and decided to fork out a “princely” sum of 9.90 USD to find out what it was that Mike had said that helped Vince. Figured I got nothing to lose, since there’s a 100% 30-day money back guarantee.

Now, I’m not sure what it was that Mike said that helped Vince. But there was something Mike Filsaime said that made ME sit up and realized something.

It has been a year since I started knowing Internet marketing and hasn’t had much of a result. I’ve been trying to find as much useful information as I can, taking baby steps. Sure, I got a couple of squeeze pages up and running, but I haven’t done much to promote them.

What was it that made me sit up and realized something? Mike said that he wasn’t a fan of learning and learning and not do anything. There’s a lack of success for many people because they were not prepared to get out of their comfort zone. They did 90% of the required steps and then slowed down or stopped. They were afraid they would actually get customers and have to set up support and other work to service the customers.

I have been learning and learning but not taking further steps to build an opt-in list. I’m not sure if I’m afraid of success on the sub-conscious level but yes, what Mike said about not taking immediate, massive action certainly hit a chord in my heart. I’m sabotaging my own success by not taking immediate, massive action. Another thing Mike said rings somewhat true for me. Many people want free software or service and not willing to pay for them. Sometimes that’s what stops them because free stuff usually means a longer and more tedious way of doing things. Things become too much of a hassle and we end up not doing them.

I’m certainly glad that I got Confession of an Internet Millionaire because it woke me up. It might just be the waking-up call for me to take more immediate and effective action.

I recommend it for those who’s been sometime in Internet marketing and not getting much success. It may just be the key that opens that stubborn lock in your head.

I must state here that what I’m about to elaborate is my personal experience and is not meant to dis-credit anyone.

A few months ago, I had intention to start a website selling an eBook “Advanced Selling on eBay”, from eBookWholesaler. Like a good student, I follow the “gurus” advice and tried to select a domain name related to my eBook. Unfortunately, advancedsellingonebay.com was taken. I settled on the next best one, www.ebayadvancedselling.com

With www.ebayadvancedselling.com, I went to my favorite Netfirms to register it. A couple of days later, my registration was declined, due to the word “ebay” being in the domain name. Undaunted, I went to godaddy.com to register. The registration was successful.
“Hmm…maybe Netfirms is no longer my favourite. Maybe Godaddy has more clout and got around the problem”, Or so I thought…

A few weeks ago, I received an email purportedly from eBay. The email said I had infringed on eBay’s trademark with my domain name. I was told, “not to use the domain name for any purpose, do not sell, offer to sell or transfer the domain name to a third party, and instead simply let the domain registration expire”. Otherwise, further legal action will be taken. Sheeesh!
When I incorporate the word “eBay” into the domain name, I’m termed cybersquatting, if I intend to transfer or sell the domain name at an inflated price.

One thing about online business, is that I want to avoid any form of legal action like the bubonic plaque! It’s just not worth it.
Being ignorant of certain business practices can lead to rude awakenings…if you’re lucky. Legally sued, if you’re not.

I tried asking Godaddy for a refund, just for the heck of it. To see what’s their response. They replied something like, “Sorry, its not our responsibility to exercise good judgment and due diligence in researching any marks that you intend to register. Just give us your money and we will register whatever you want”.
Erm…that last sentence was NOT what they said. But that’s the impression I got after reading their reply.

Oh, did I forget to mention that they “must respectfully declined” my request for a refund?

It can be seen how 2 domain registrars handled my issue of registering www.ebayadvancedselling.com.

I’ve also heard about how Godaddy has shut down several domain names for unverified claims of spam.

So…Netfirms is again my favorite domain registrar. Not only it’s a responsible corporate citizen, it’s also $4 cheaper to register a domain name than Godaddy.

Oh oh…just received an email update from Netfirms. They are having their Christmas promotion for their Business hosting package for only $9.95/month, a discount of $5. That’s for 300GB disk-space, 3000GB month bandwidth, unlimited websites and 5 free domain names!

Magicians go on stage and perform magic tricks, mesmerizing audiences with their slick, smooth moves. They perform seemingly-impossible tricks and yet seems “real” because its happening right in front of our eyes in a live audience.

The audience never see the preparation work that went on behind the scene, that enabled them to execute the “impossible” tricks. There’s more than meets the eye.

Come to think of it, aren’t Internet marketing “gurus” like magicians? They go on stage, write an attractive headline, create some killer sales copy, set up the auto-responder, hit the “Enter” key to send out the email message, and…Viola! Money start showing up in their accounts after a short while.

Similar to magicians, there is a lot of preparation work that went on. The sweat and effort that goes into building the list of names and email addresses of their subscribers that brings in the truck-loads of cash, are not seen by the public.

On the other hand, some “gurus” go on stage and give a slick, enticing presentation and pulls in the crowds. But behind the scene when they have to deliver in terms of their training package, its LESS than meets the eye. These “gurus” are NOT like magicians.

On a lighter note, enjoy this very interesting and enlightening video clip of a magic trick.

Guess what? I signed up Ewen Chia’s Super Affiliates Inner Circle Membership Club yesterday.

Before I signed up, I was wondering if I’ll get all the 5 modules at a go or each module a month. So I told myself to commit for at least 6 months.

Know what? I’m glad I signed up. There are TONS of stuff at the membership site. Not only all the 5 modules were there, the bonuses were there as well. I must say in all fairness that its the most comprehensive in terms of all areas of Internet marketing being covered. At least that’s my first impression. I’ve yet to explore all the links. All these for a mere $47! USD of course. But even if its in British £, it’s still a steal!

I started downloading all the files and videos at 11.30pm last night and at 2.30am I’m still downloading the stuff! Ok, maybe the server is not the fastest there is but there’s really helluva lot to download. I was tired since I had a long day, and left the computer on to download the rest of the files while I tried drifting off to dreamland.

My body was tired but my mind was still pretty much awake. From the brief perusal of the Super Affiliates website, its great for a beginner as the range of topics covered is really comprehensive with the basic stuff to the more difficult stuff. I’ll spend the next few days exploring and will post more details as I uncover them.

I’ve stayed up to catch the launch of Ewen Chia’s Super Affiliate Inner Circle Membership Club.

It’s US$47 per month as a member with a 56-day refund policy.

In a nutshell, there are 5 modules:

Module 1: 15-step Top Secret Super Affiliates Blueprint –> 120 page PDF file

Module 2: Super Affiliates Step-by-step Video Tutorial Training

Module 3: Super Affiliates Monthly Expert Audio Training

Module 4: Super Affiliates Commissions - Live Video Case Study

Module 5: Super Affiliates Mystery Instant Business-In-A-Box

If you sign up there’s video and webinar training bonuses. You will also get a first passive income stream set up and ready to go for you automatically.

Sounds great…But don’t they all? Any “guru” worth their salt will have great sales copy that tempts you to sign up.

Am I gonna sign up? I’ll check with my buddies first…