1996 SECRETS OF INTERNET MARKETING ------------------------------------------------------------------ Hold on to your hat because you are about to enter the new frontier of sales and marketing. The Internet is the most extraordinary and cost effective marketing tool you could possibly imagine. If you are like me and you do not have an unlimited advertising budget read on because the dynamics of marketing are about to change in your favor - FOREVER! I had great success in 1995 marketing a variety of products on the Internet and 1996 promises to be even better. Due to my success I have been featured on two videos and in numerous national magazine articles concerning the subject of Internet Marketng. I receive orders from every continent, every day, even as I sleep. I am doing a thriving business with people I never would have been able to reach through traditional advertising. If you already realize the benifets of online marketing and would like to get started skip to the end of this report to see how you can be doing business on the Internet in days with my personal assistance. My monthly marketing costs now are negligible - less than you might pay for dinner for two and a movie. This success has come as a result of studying the Internet culture, experimentation and just plain hard work. I am still experimenting and learning even as you are reading this. I want to take this opportunity, in the course of this article, to pass along to you what I have learned. I will tell you why I think you should be using the Internet as part of your marketing campaign and what has worked for me. The time is right for you to begin marketing on the Internet if you have not started already. The Internet has attained critical mass and thousands more people are coming online everyday. These are people who have the power to spend. In the very near future, a little later in 1996, cable companies will begin piping the Internet to the huge masses who, let's face it, simply do not use a PC in their everyday life, for one reason or another. This high speed cable pipe will send information into a TV set top box at speeds HUNDREDS of times faster than a typical 28.8 modem (about three times the speed of a T1!). When that happens this incredible marketing vehicle will be even better and the floodgates will really open. The people who have established themselves on the Internet will reap huge rewards. REASONS FOR YOU TO BE MARKETING ON THE INTERNET Let's begin by discussing some of the advantages of marketing on the Internet. * One of the beauties of Internet Marketing is that you control the entire process from start to finish. You do not have to rely on printers, manufacturers, media people or anyone else. Marketing on the Internet is fast and it is effective. With some products you can bring you manufacturing and distribution costs to practically `zilch'. * You can support users on your terms for very little cost to you or the user. * You can establish one-to-one or one-to-many communication directly with the customer. In many cases the customer will approach you for information. * Your message can easily be tailored to meet the specific needs of the customer and much of this can be automated to minimize the work involved. * Your message can be delivered to your customer, or customers, by e-mail instantly. * The Internet is a great leveler. For the first time in history big corporations and small businesses are put on an equal footing. The clever businessperson no longer has to worry that he or she will not be able to compete because they do not have the resources to foot a multimillion dollar marketing campaign. * You receive immediate feedback from potential customers and can adjust your marketing campaign accordingly. * You can create order forms and receive orders electronically. I do it today even with all of the controversy about the insecurity of financial transactions on the Net. If customers do not feel comfortable sending credit card information over the Net they will certainly pick up their telephone and call your 800 number without any hesitation. I believe that marketing successfully on the Internet is more of an art than a science. It is an art that is well worth learning because the rewards can be enormous. Let's jump right in and see how you can take begin marketing on the Internet ADVERTISING IS WELCOMED ON THE INTERNET! Well, you might say, `I thought advertising on the Internet and the World Wide Web is a no-no'. Nothing could be further from the truth. Let's clarify this once and for all, advertising on the Internet is welcome. Netizens want information on useful products and have the capacity to buy lots of stuff. If businesses follow a few simple steps and abide by proper Netiquette they will be welcomed on the Internet and will reap tremendous rewards for little investment. I am living proof of this and you can do the same. Sure you might get a flame or two even if you follow all of the rules I suggest to abide by proper Netiquette but it is surely worht it considering the potenital of Internet Marketing. The secret to doing business on the Internet is to make sure that Netizens know about your business in a non-obtrusive manner. There are an over 30,000,000 million Internet users out there. But, it really is a small community in many ways. Word travels fast and if you have a good product or service Internauts will find out about it. It is also easy to get the word out to a large portion of the Internet population. If you use the proper techniques you can do great business on the Internet, but I must stress if you use improper techniques contrary to the philosophy of the Net you will receive a tremendous backlash that can paralyze your business. You must realize this. People who begin marketing on the Net blindly are in for a rude awakening. THE WORLD WIDE WEB IN YOUR INTERNET MARKETING CAMPAIGN By now, unless you were living under a rock for the past year, you have heard of the World Wide Web on the Internet. In all probability you have surfed the Web. 1995 was an EXPLOSIVE year for the Internet and especially the Web. The Web is the fastest growing section of the Internet and to the person who wishes to sell on-line it is a dream come true. The Web is making front page news in major newspapers and magazines every day. Time, Newsweek, The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal have all carried prominent stories extolling the popularity of the World Wide Web. Almost every major company is putting together a strategy on how they will eventually do business on the Internet. I believe that marketing successfully on the Internet is more of an art than a science. It is an art that is well worth learning because the rewards can be enormous. The Web is a very important part of your on-line marketing campaign, but contrary to popular belief it is only the tip of the iceberg. I will go a step further in stating that if you simply put up a page on the Web and do not effectively tell the world about it you will be sorely disappointed. One of the things that immediately grabs your attention when using the Web is it's ability to show graphics and handle video and audio files on the fly. It is the only portion of the Internet that has these capabilities. The Web is easily accessed with a browser such as the popular Mosic, Netscape, Microsofts Explorer or Netcruiser to name a few. Potential buyers accessing your home page can read your information on-line or print it to paper. Netscape is commanding an impressive percent of the browser world. In some estimations 75% of Web users are surfing with Netscape. Microsoft is sure to make inroads into that percentage but no one knows how much of the market they will be able to capture, certainly Netscape has a big lead but I would never underestimate Microsoft. In the 1995 Internet How-To Guide I had stated how some popular Web sites were getting in excess of 25,000 `hits' (accesses) per day! Well, has that number ever skyrocked for the really popular sites which now receive well over 1,000,000 hits a day. Even this number will rise dramatically in the coming year. We will discuss the value of hits a little later but suffice to say that a `hit' does not equate to an individual visitor. Even so getting a million hits certainly equates to a healthy crowd. Imagine having even 25,000 people reading about your product or service in a given day. Every day. And beside the direct accesses you receive from on-line buyers you also have the advantage over your competition as being perceived as `high tech' and differenciating you from the crowd. You can and will use your World Wide Web address in your conventional marketing literature. STRUCTURE OF THE WEB -------------------------------------- There is no central directory or official top to the Web. There is no one comprehensive index where everyone starts their browsing. There is no KEYWORD function from a pull down menu such as America On-line has. There is no FIND function such as in CompuServe. So, it is a bit more difficult for people to find your page on the Web. On the other hand, this can definitely be used to your advantage, especially since you luckily are reading The 1996 Internet How-To Guide. If you are a little more resourceful than your competition you can get the business. We'll talk about some of the things that you can do to generate interest in a little while. NO OFFICIAL TOP OF THE WEB --------------------------------------------- Although there is no official top of the World Wide Web. The unofficial top is the Web is the site at CERN wher it all started. The CERN Directory of Web Sites is one is the first directories in which you will want to list your Web site. Millions of people use this site as a starting point in there Web searches. Besides CERN you should also list your site with Lycos, Yahoo, the World Wide Web Worm, What's New on the Web and the World Wide Web Yellow pages. When I put new businesses on the Web I make sure that I list them in 25 to 100+ of the most popular Web directories. It is very important. Some of the popular directories get in excess of 1,000,000 accesses PER MONTH. Each of these directories and more are listed in the elsewhere in this Guide. This will insure you of maximum exposure. From the Main Menu of this guide you can access Finding Stuff on the Web. We list popular search engines that help you find resources on the Web. Your Web site should be listed in at least five of these directories and ideally 15 or more.This will give you a good start in making your Web page visible to the Internet community. And it doesn't cost you anything! If you are interested in quickly and easily getting your Web Site listed in 200+ Web Search Engines and Indices Read the Section entitled Instand Internet Publicity from the Main Menu of The 1996 Internet How-To Guide. HOW TO GENERATE WEB TRAFFIC USING USENET NEWSGROUPS --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A great way to generate traffic on your Web site or to sell directly to the Internet Community is by posting selected messages in appropriate Usenet newsgroups. As I mentioned earlier there are over 10,000 different newsgroups on the Internet so you have a broad choice of subjects to choose from. Step one is to make a list of the newsgroups you feel are appropriate for your posting. Depending on your product or service this may be anywhere from 1 to 10,000. Here is where you have to be careful. Whereas on the Web advertising is accepted, and expected, on Newsgroups it is controversial. Although no one can stop you from posting messages, if your posting is deemed as inappropriate you may get flamed by some readers. Flaming is the sending of nasty e-mail messages. That is not to say that you won't get many orders and inquiries as well. Maybe even thousands of orders. There have been numerous documented cases of companies which have spammed the Internet. Spamming is posting the same message in many newsgroups. The name spam originates from a famous Monty Python comedy skit. One company posted to over 5,000 newsgroups in one felt swoop. They were flamed incessantly but they also made a killing for one nights work - more than most people make in a year. No matter how much care you take you will probably offend someone. If you are playing by the rules and you get flamed don't let it concern you. It is just part of doing business on the Internet and the potential rewards are great. I am now using powerful technology tools to monitor hundreds of newsgroups simultaneously for posts which I think I can potentially convert into sales. I developed this newsgroup scanning feature out of necessity to maximize as much as possible the incredible potential of Newsgroups. I use this technology for my products and those of my clients to `listen in' on hundreds of newsgroups. I either reply to the interested parties directly with preformatted mail from my clients or forward the leads to my clients. This is my top of the line ongoing service and is really quite reasonable. it is detailed in the Section entitled Instant Internet Publicity. To try to do this manually would be all but impossible. SET UP LINKS AND THEY WILL COME ----------------------------------------------------- Links - hypertext links can bring a tremendous number of people to your Web site. In fact links are so important that some of the popular sites, such as Hot Wired, are selling link space on the their Web pages. Most people will do a reciprocal agreement for free. You place a link to the other persons site on your page and they will place a link for your page on their site. The link doesn't have to take up more than a line or two of space and it simply has to include a small description and the URL address of the site it is linking to. Here is a typical link:
  • VideoVu Home Page

    When the person clicks on the link they are magically brought to your Web page. Try to set up as many links as possible. Begin going through some of the sites listed in Best Web Sites on the Main Menu of this program. Find sites that you would like to be linked to and contact the owner of the site. Their e-mail address and/or telephone number will be listed on their Web page. Remember some pages generate in excess of 1,000,000 accesses per day so if you can be listed on a good site(s) you can instantly generate tremendous Web traffic. By listing other interesting sites on your Web page you are making your site that much more interesting and of value to your readers. KEEP THEM COMING BACK FOR MORE ------------------------------------------------------------- You want to keep people coming back to your site on a regular basis. Make sure your site is up to date and constantly changing. A real estate broker should have new houses on line and mortgage rates listed, a financial firm should have the latest market happenings. Lists are always good ways to keep people interested. Contests and games are other techniques that keep vistors yearning for more. TRADITIONAL MARKETING MATERIAL ------------------------------------------------------ Make sure that your URL and e-mail address is prominently placed in all of your traditional marketing material - brochures, letterhead and business cards. As more and more people begin using the Web on a regular basis you will be perfectly positioned to take advantage of your Web site. WHAT WILL YOU SELL ------------------------------- Ideally, you will already have a product in mind that you want to market on the Internet. If you do not yet have a product you can do a survey of available newsgroups and come up with a product that is appealing to popular groups already on the Internet. Start frequenting various newgroups and mailing lists. Learn about the culture of each group or list. Learn what is accepted and what is not. After you have selected the newsgroups you wish to post to, the next step is to decide on the type of message you are going to use. You have choices in the approach you can take. Experimentation on a small scale will help you to analyze which approach is best for you. The folks on the Internet love free information. So one approach which has worked well for me is to post a lengthy message which contains mostly free/valuable information. I also make sure that I include my contact information so that people know how to reach me. I have used this technique successfully with consulting services and books. I have seen others use it successfully with legal services, videos, reports and audios. The other type of message you can post is a short e-mail message containing your advertising pitch. If you keep it short people are much more tolerant than if you post a lengthy ad for your product. Remember, that in the prior scenario your message was lengthy but it contained lots of valuable free information. I recently used a short e-mail message successfully to let people know about a file which I had uploaded to the Internet. My messages resulted in many thousands of downloads of the file. I received a very positive reaction from the on-line community. The actual posting of the messages can either be done manually which, depending on the volume of newsgroups you will be posting to, can be time consuming. In many Windows Internet interfaces you can cut and paste the names of newsgroups one after another. If you wish to automate your postings you can use an automated program to post to hundreds of newsgroups at a time. Beware that indiscriminant cross posting is frowned on. There are times that cross posting is acceptable as long as your message fits the culture of the groups you are posting to. In fact, not posting to appropriate groups is bad net etiquete. WORK BACKWARDS ---------------------------- A powerful techique that I commonly use is to gear a section of my Web to something that I know will be appealing to a majority of the members of the large newsgroups. This is working backwards. In essence, I first deciding on the newsgroups I want to target and then creating the Web content or FTP file content. Because the Web is so flexible and can reflect changes in miliseconds it is easy to create offers that will appeal to a wide range of people. Taken to an extreme you could mold your Web Site to peak the interest of most of the users on the Internet. I know of one such person who posted a message on a popular newsgroup and created a flood of traffic for his serve in the proximity of 10,000 hits in one hour. Unfortunately, the server wasn't able to handle such an avalanche of users and locked up. MAILING LISTS --------------------- Marketing with mailing lists follows the same formula as newsgroups. Remember that by posting to one popular mailing list you can generate 30,000+ messages that will be sent directly into recipients e-mailboxes. And that is only using one mailing list. Imagine using ten, one hundred or one thousand lists. Again keep in mind that you may be subjecting yourself to flaming or other harassing attacks but the results can be very good. Post where appropriate. All told, using newsgroups and mailing lists can potentially make your marketing material available to over 30,000,000 Intenet users. And the cost to reach this huge market is minute compared with traditional advertising. START YOUR OWN E-ZINE ----------------------------------------- Another great way of generating interest, keeping in touch with Internet Users and generating income is by starting an e-zine. An e-zine is an electronic magazine. This can be a simple monthly newsletter that keeps people informed. It is acceptable to send people information which they request and if you have an interesting subject that appeals to lots of people if is relatively easy to build up a large circulation list quickly and inexpensively. For example, I started an e-zine this past year and build a circulation of over 1,000 in 4 days. This consisted of only three good postings in appropriate places. You can do the same. There are many e-zines with very large circulations that charge advertising fees and subscription fees in the hundreds of dollars. It is an untapped area most people do not even think of exploiting. SPECIAL WEB SPACE OFFER ----------------------------------------------- I would like to help you do business on the Internet. Physical location is no barrier concerning who you can work with. I have happy clients all over the world who love our service. You want to work with someone who has great references from CURRENT clients. On the hardware side I provide you with a virtual server so people can access you at: http://www.your domain name.com - You must look professional. You will be connected to the Internet on our fast T1 server. You need this wide bandwidth Most importantly, I am always available to you for telephone support and guidance concerning developing a strategy for your Internet Marketing Campaign. Setting up a Web site is the LEAST important aspect of marketing on the Internet. You must integrate this with other techniques to be successful. In the past year alone I have been interviewed by BYTE Magazine, Online Access, have starred in The Internet Marketing Video and am currently featured in AT&T Magazine's cover story on Internet Marketing which has a circulation of over 300,000. My clients love my pricing because of what I provide them with. I have chosen not to bring on a zillion clients at $50 a month and say `have fun' and see them flounder. My intention is to give you an individualized service and you as much as I possibly can to achieve your goals. I have a monthly price of $475. There is no set up fee and this includes development of HTML docs and CGI scripts. This includes original artwork from my graphic designer, listing in many search engines, assistance with linking and much more. As part of my services you will receive: ------------------------------------------------------- * Domain Name Registration (http://www.company name.com) - Internic registration fee not included - $100 * 500 MB traffic per month. * 10 Megabytes of Disk Space - more than enough for practially any sight $1 per megabyte over 10 megabytes * Fast T1 ACCESS To the Internet * Your own CGI-LOCAL Subdirectory * Detailed Web usage Statistics * FREE Internet Marketing Video / Software Suite - 2 hour video plus software * FREE Ongoing telephone support to help you build business on the Internet * Interactive order or feedback form * Counter * We have your site listed in the major search engines. * We help you properly publicize your business on the Internet. * We work with you to develop links to increase traffic. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Our mission at FCS, Inc. is to provide you with superior support and service at a GREAT price. This mission has enabled us to grow every year. We have very happy clients and love to build Web Sites. Please contact me if you need more info or would like to discuss your Internet Marketing goals. I look forward to working and speaking with you. Yours Truly, Marty `Mr. Internet' Fox President Future Communications Systems, Inc. (516) 496-7121 future@i-2000.com