I have a dilemma.
(As I’ve written this, I’ve changed my mind a couple of times but I think I’ve made my mind up.)
Here’s my problem. Every week I generally buy at least a couple of products.
Sometimes it’s a learning product, sometimes PLR, more often it’s a tool of some sort, and occasionally I sign up to a new service or membership.
I think I *might* have “a bit of a problem” and thank goodness there’s no online equivalent of the home shopping channel.
Anyway…
At least most of the stuff I actually look at I don’t buy as it’s a newbie / sucker purchase. Looks pretty but holds no value, kind of thing.
(Okay I sometimes fall for one, and did this week, but you’ll never hear about it. It was PLR for an ebook that fell in line with something that I’ve been thinking about and I thought there might be at least some useful information in it. It was total junk, clearly written by someone who knew how to use Google but knew nothing about the actual subject matter and kept using stilted phrases like “one can always tell…” I guess I can use the graphics and ecover after editing.)
Once I’ve purchased something, I then make a decision as to whether I want to tell you about it and give a recommendation to buy.
My guess is there’s on average one or maybe two products each month that I think “float my boat” and actually make the grade.
But I STILL may not send an email out about it.
And then *sometimes* there’s SEVERAL products all at once that are REALLY good, and I’m left with the dilemma of either telling you about all of them, or choosing the best of the bunch.
But *sometimes* there’s no “best” because they all provide different things.
They’re all equally as good in different ways. It’s a dilemma.
For example, this last week or so, I’ve told you about
1) A cracking WordPress theme called OmniPress.
2) How to get your videos to convert.
3) How to generate free traffic in HUGE niches – I love this and want to tell you more about it as I think it’s a licence to print money.
4) And yesterday about 2 mobile products.
Build your own mobile apps.
Mobile templates.
It’s madness!
That’s way more than I feel comfortable promoting in such a short period.
Worse still is I was going to tell you about something else that is incredibly cool until I spotted it only works in Google Chrome. (I’ve written to them about it, so hopefully they’ll get that fixed soon.)
And then last night I bought SOMETHING ELSE that is BLOODY FANTASTIC!
So I thought to myself “What do I do?”
I’m already feeling the embarrassment of sending out too many promotional emails in too short a period, but this is great stuff that I know at least some people reading this will like.
If not one, then another.
I know we’re all different and you may not agree with everything I write about, but key for me is that I think ALL of these products are really good, but in different ways.
Some of it is about selling. Some of it is about traffic. Some (last nights) is about list building. Some are one or more of the previous and are also useful tools. It’s all stuff I’m interested in, and as you read my ramblings I think you’re probably interested in it too.
You know what?
Writing this has (I think) helped me sort this out in my head.
I feel like I have a duty to tell you about the good ones, no matter if they all appear in a lump like this last week.
If we were down the pub having a drink, we’d definitely be talking about them.
And I’ve just realised that here’s the acid test. ALL of these I’ve immediately told family members about and even showed them, either my wife or one of my sons.
Now thinking logically (ahem), if I’ve been excited enough to tell my family about them, then I should be telling you too.
I hope that makes as much sense to you as it does to me.
I actually feel a bit emotionally exhausted writing this, so I’ll sign off now saying that I would genuinely appreciate any comments on this below.
Thanks for reading.
-Frank Haywood
Hi Frank
I don’t mind promo mails as long as there is a reason and there is a value add. But I do have issue with some marketers who basically every day this is the latest and greatest new product and why I am supposed to buy it.
Where is the value in that? And it means all they care about is making a buck on my dime I might add…
Hi Lynley,
Thanks for that and I agree. I’m on lots of lists and I find it interesting to see what’s being promoted. Many times, I’ve seen that the product that is promoted the hardest is the one that has least value or is even junk. That’s what I refer to as a newbie/sucker purchase, especially if it’s a “secret system” of some sort.
I’ve always said that if someone comes up with a genuine method of making money that’s relatively easy, then they’re never going to tell anyone. They’ll just outsource it and scale it up. There have been exceptions when there’s clearly a market so big that it’ll never become saturated, but it’s fairly rare.
-Frank
Frank,
I suggest there could be value in your promoting all which you think is worthwhile but flagging in the subject line of the email the sector it is appropriate for eg. list building, video sales letters. This would help email recipients to decide whether it’s of interest to them.
I’d also like to suggest that there’d be value in publishing your assessments of those products that you as assess as being “total junk”.
Some products will fall between bloody fantastic and total junk……a sliding scale of 0 to 5 with an associated star rating on a posting on one of your sites could be the way to go?
Kind regards,
Chris.
Hi Chris,
I just read your email that goes with this comment and I really like your idea, thank you. I’ve had a test site up since December which is a copy of this site with a different theme, plugins etc, and I’ve kept the design as clean and simple as this one because I think most people like it like that (I certainly do). I’ve been tweaking and testing things on it, and putting off the work of migrating it all here. 🙄
It would be fairly straightforward to create a new category called reviews and do what you’ve suggested there. Or I could just build a standard review page format using the Profit Builder plugin (which I like a lot) and use that for the reviews. I’ve always preferred a 10-star format to a 5-star, but I think it’s more “standard” to do 5-star especially for micro-HTML rating formats – I need to find out more about that I think.
As for the sliding scale…
I’m not trying to wimp out here, but it’s difficult to say something is total junk if I haven’t bought it, and I can usually tell well in advance. (Apart from the very odd occasion that I do accidentally buy.)
I guess what I could do is say what sales pages I’ve looked at and then say why I didn’t buy it. In other words offer my careful opinion as to what turned me off the sale.
As an aside, there are actually some standard reasons that I get turned off from buying things. I’ll think harder about this and do a write up for reference, but here’s a few off the top of my head.
#1 – It looks too good to be true. It almost certainly is. Not always.
#2 – It’s a “loophole” or other temporary solution. In other words it *might* work until it becomes general knowledge, ie about a month from you reading about it.
#3 – It has screenshots or videos of proof of earnings. Easily faked and they always set my alarm bells going.
#4 – It has gushing testimonials, either from well known marketers or people you’ve never heard of – it doesn’t really matter. There’s no denying the power and general day to day usefulness of social proof, but it lets you down 1 in 5 times. I ignore them but in my head I mark the page down.
#5 – Too much hype.
#6 – Over emotional and generally wooly sales copy.
For me, those are the main reasons I don’t buy.
Reasons I DO buy in no particular order are.
#1 – A nice looking sales page.
#2 – A well presented and calm explanation of a problem and what the product does to fix it.
#3 – A “how to do something” that I would like to know about.
#4 – A particularly well done tool that looks at least as good as something I already have.
#5 – Time based scarcity works well on me, and I really don’t mind that at all. 😉
#6 – A friend or someone I generally trust (or find interesting) told me about it.
And that’s pretty much it. Each of those are cumulative and if all the boxes are ticked, then me being me, I’ll probably buy it.
I think I should take this and expand it all into a more explanatory article as I’ve only really scratched the surface.
Thank you again for the ideas, I’m going to do this. 🙂
-Frank
If you have purchased the product (or if you would purchase the product, and haven’t yet, for one reason or another) and if you are recommending the product to your family and friends, then by all means, let your loyal subscribers know. If I was in that pub with you, then I would want to know.
If the product is just another product coming down the pike, that all the other marketers are talking about, then let us find out about it from one of the other marketers.
And that is a good lesson for the rest of us. Thanks for bringing it up.
Are you thinking of promoting that recent Popup Product which will remain nameless here?
The question you need to ask yourself is this:
Is the entire product Mobile Friendly or Mobile Responsive, or can parts of that product be made to be Mobile Friendly or Mobile Responsive? And that means does the product work on iPhones and iPads? Products can often work on Android phones and tablets but NOT on Apple phones and tablets.
I will save you the trouble of checking. That particular product is not Mobile Friendly or Mobile Responsive.
At least 50% of the traffic that arrives at my website is from Mobile Devices, and most of those seem to be Safari Users.
Since that is the case, it is now time for all programmers to start making their Internet Products compatible with Apple iPhones and iPads. It is as simple as that.
I realize that is a little harsh, but I for one, do not want to lose my valuable visitors because I wanted to use a snazzy new plugin or theme that is NOT Mobile Friendly or Mobile Responsive.
I was at the electronics store yesterday purchasing a new webcam. Do you think I could find a review site that was compatible with my iPhone? No.
I was forced to zoom in and out and do a rediculous amount of scrolling side to side and up and down, until I found what I wanted.
Do you think if I could have found a review site that was compatible with my iPhone that I would have given them my email and signed up for their newsletter, just so I could use them again next time?
You bet I would.
OK. I am getting off of my soap box now, but you understand what I am saying.
I for one am NOT going to purchase any more Internet Products that are not Mobile Friendly or Mobile Responsive and that do not at least offer a Developer Version during the launch.
Frank, I invite you and your readers to demand the same from your programmers and developers.
(Frank feel free to shorten this Comment if you feel it is too long. Just try to keep the main points intact. I might have gotten carried away. LOL )
Hi Edward,
Phew! Thank you. 🙂
It’s very rare that I recommend a product that I haven’t purchased and tried for myself. Even rarer that I get a review copy – I never ask for them. On those very rare occasions I do, I always say up front why I didn’t buy, but why I’m still giving it a mention. (No I can’t think of one off the top of my head, but I think I did this just before Christmas.)
As for widely publicised products, one of the things that I’ve found is that not everybody is on a list that is going to hear about it. Me included. While I’m on a lot of lists, I *have* missed some major launches somehow. Profit Builder was one of them, and as I said in my reply to Chris, I really like that plugin, and I think I paid full whack for it when I eventually spotted it. Well worth every penny.
Also as Chris has intimated to me, if I do truly useful reviews of truly useful products then everyone benefits and I don’t have to bug people so often. Following on from his private email to me, he’s put “product of the week” into my mind and I think that could well be the way to go. But… It doesn’t really cater for when things like this week happen when there are lots of goodies all coming out at once, and all are on launch specials. I still have that resolution process to complete in my mind to decide if that’s the way to go. (I DO like the idea though.)
Your experience with software and web sites on Apple products are thought-provoking. I think we could have a big noisy and friendly argument about it and josh each other over what’s what, but I reckon that’s already being done right now in lots of other places.
I’m not trying to trivialise what you’ve said, and I appreciate you taking the time to pont out some of the problems, because I didn’t know that some sites won’t work well on Apple products. Being an “ignorant-of-Apple-products” Windows desktop and Android mobile user, I never see any of those particular difficulties.
I’m sure you realise how difficult it is to get mobile / responsive / adaptive right (and can consume a LOT of budget), and for a long time I wasn’t that bothered about it, but slowly the message is getting through.
Personally I still see any kind of mobile or tablet device as a consumer toy used on the sofa or on the train and I think it’s that attitude that’s holding me back from taking it all totally seriously.
If Apple and Google could talk to each other and at least agree to abide by the same “standards” then it might not be such a hurdle having to develop tools and sites for both Apple and Android devices.
As the typical consumer of Apple devices is well-heeled (they would have to be, hehe), then anyone with a site selling high ticket physical goods would be dumb not to take special measures to make sure that iPhone browsers get a good experience.
But…
Oh what do I know? I take on board what you’ve said and I’ll let it stew. 🙂
I’ll probably get there in the end.
-Frank
Like Chris said, I do love your reviews (and your plugins) and that is why I have subscribed to your list ever since before I started in the Internet Marketing field 5 years ago. It has been a wild ride too.
As far as Apple Products, I have been the luckiest guy in the pub. And if you keep your eyes open, you too can get lucky.
I too was a die hard Windows guy forever, especially ever since I was a Windows Specialist working in my own business, helping Mary Kay Ladies and Real Estate Agents with their home office computer needs. I easily spent over $15,000 for all my Windows hardware and software, so you really could call me a windoze fanboy.
Then I purchased my first Android Phone and had nothing but trouble with it. For some reason, the darn thing kept shutting off and restarting, even during very important phone calls. Can you imagine using a mobile phone to make phone calls? Well I did, and it was so frustrating to be speaking with an important client and having your phone simply shut off with no warning.
I too could not afford a million dollars for an Apple iPhone 5, so I looked on Craigslist for a used iPhone 4. I was lucky. I found an ad on Craigslist which was submitted by a woman who lived in the rich part of town. Then when we met at the coffee shop, she drove up in a $80,000 Mercedes SUV and she looked rich and famous, lots of jewelry, the right clothes, $200 hairstyle, perfect teeth, you know the drill.
When she got settled at the table, she took out her new Apple Laptop, her new Apple iPad and her new Apple iPhone 5 and set them on the table. Then she took out her Apple 4 so she could show it to me.
I asked her why she was selling her Apple 4 for $100 and she said because she had the new iPhone 5, and she did not need two phones. Made sense to me so I bought it with cash. That was over 2 years ago and my iPhone 4 is still working like a champ.
I knew if I owned an Apple iPhone, that I should also own an Apple iPad, so I could share the App Licenses between the two devices, so I set out to find a deal on a iPad.
Then one day I attended a webinar promoting an expensive training. The Leader of the webinar told us to pay attention to the webinar because at the end, he was going to ask a question and give away an iPad mini to the first person to type the correct answer into the chat box.
Before he even finished asking the question, my fingers had typed in the winning answer. 🙂 It took him two weeks to send me the iPad mini, but it was worth it.
I submit to you that you don’t need to be rich to own Apple Products. But if you want something bad enough, you will find a way to get it.
So the moral of the story is that there are plenty of rich and poor Apple owners, and we all need to have programmers and developers to provide Mobile Friendly and Mobile Responsive Themes, Plugins, websites, popups, and we need to have this going forward.
That is my story and I am sticking to it. LOL
PS Frank if you ever need someone to test your new Themes and Plugins on a real iPhone 4, which is the lowest common denominator, (since everyone else is on iPhone 5 and now iPhone 6), and an iPad mini, just let me know. You don’t actually need to buy Apple products yourself, as long as you have someone like me, to help you out. 🙂
I can take screenshots and email them to you so you can get your new products Apple Ready, before you send them out into the world. Just grab my email from this comment, and reach out to me, whenever you decide to come over to the dark side.
Hi Edward,
See, now that’s a great story. You need to get that on your personal blog as it humanises you and makes you seem more of a “real” person. 😉
Interestingly (for me anyway), while reflecting on where I’m going this year a few weeks ago, one of the things I realised I wasn’t doing any more was the “mind stuff” to encourage, enthuse and interest people. How did that happen? I know I’m good at it too – I know how to make things more interesting than they would be at first glance.
Telling interesting stories like the one you just have is part and parcel of it all. And the wonderful thing is, it doesn’t even feel like work does it?
As for your offer, okay I might take you up on that, thank you. I’ll have a think about it. 🙂
-Frank
Well Frank …
You can always do like a friend of mine does. Top of email is new info. Then sectioned off from next area (simple as using “=” in a row. The next section is where you have a heading of “Items I Purchased And Recommend”.
Then, simply list what it is, simple info line(s), then a link.
Then in next promo email move last recommendations to lower section. Trust me, your list will get used to the idea. Now suppose someone on your list remembers something you mentioned in an email. The won’t have to go searching. They can merely go to latest email and access link.
Win – Win
.
Hi Arthur,
Yes I’ve seen that format and it doesn’t take too much getting used to. I might do that too, so thank you for the suggestion. I particularly like the idea of putting recent promos right at the bottom for easy reference – that would help me find things too.
You’ve just triggered another thought…
As an aside, this is something I don’t think I’ve ever shared and that surprised me when I saw it happening for the first time.
I send an email or two out promoting something. Some commissions are made. A few days later some additional commissions occur – no new emails have been sent out – and then another week will go by and there are some more. It’s the strangest thing. I’ve checked calendars to see if it’s near pay day or a certain part of the week or something similar but there doesn’t seem to be any pattern.
The only idea I have that might explain it is irregular income based on sales of products or services to others. I guess we’ll never know for sure.
-Frank
Nah …
It just means you probably use Aweber as they are notorious for “late” email deliveries. LOL
*You don’t have to post this comment.*
Hehe.