A previous post I mentioned using ‘scarcity’ – this post I’m going to talk about my single, favorite psychological hot button I use in nearly every promotion. (Yes, it’s that powerful!)

I have found the subject of persuasion endlessly fascinated. It never ceases to amaze me that I can write words on paper (or the computer screen) and then have people send me money.

Side Note: In the current Underground Secret Society® issue I cover part I of 11 little-known secrets and triggers I’ve discovered for getting people to say “Yes” and open their wallets. You can grab a free 1-month copy with my compliments here. In order to protect the uniqueness of these ideas and resources the membership is strictly limited to just 925 (or less). And we won’t be releasing any back issues. There will be NO archives set up. So if you decide to come in at a later date (if there are any spots available) you’ll miss out on previous issues and interviews – including this BIG, 32-page issue with part I of the Psychological Hot Buttons.

I know not everyone who reads this blog is right for a subscription so I’m going to share with you an excerpt of the most important psychological hot buttons you can profit from immediately:

Hot Button #2: Reason-Why

If there’s just one thing I could use in my marketing – this would probably be it. I typically try to use ‘reason-why’ in nearly any promotion and you’ll see the inside scoop in just a moment.

Telling people the reason why you are doing something is one of the most powerful influencers of human behavior. Robert Cialdini, Ph.D. in his book “Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion” talks about an experiment by Harvard social psychologist, Ellen Langer, that concluded people like to have a reason for what they do.

Her experiment consisted of people waiting in line to use a library copy machine and then having experimenters ask to get ahead in line.

The first excuse used was “Excuse me, I have five pages. May I use the Xerox machine because I’m in a rush?” This request coupled with a reason was successful 94% of the time. However when the experimenter made a request only: “Excuse me, I have five pages. May I use the Xerox machine?” this request was only granted 60% of the time. A significant drop.

Okay now for the shocker…

It may seem like the difference between those two requests was the additional information of “because I’m in a rush”, but that’s just not the case.

Because in a third experimenter, the experimenter asks “Excuse me, I have five pages. May I use the Xerox machine because I have to make some copies?” There’s no reason mentioned or new information presented, just the words “because“.

This time a full 93% of the people said yes simply due to the word ‘BECAUSE’! And it didn’t even matter that there was no reason given. Just the word because triggered a magic response.

Using this psychological ‘trigger’ can massively increase your Marketing success. Maxwell Sackheim, famous for the long-running ad “Do You Make These Mistakes In English” and originator of the book-of-the-month concept, says this: “Whenever you make a claim or special offer in your advertising, come up with an honest reason why, and then state it sincerely. You’ll sell many more products this way.”

And this powerful strategy works just as well today.

Using this secret weapon for my Dad’s medical equipment company, I helped them produce a massive 1,073% return on investment simply using “reason-why” copy. (This was a huge breakthrough because typically you’d have to do one-on-one sales to doctors for items like this.)

The premise was how can we sell a product for the incredibly low price of only $447? (Regularly this product sells for about $695 – $895.) Then the ad went on to explain that the reason why the price was so low was because the manufacturer wanted to gain market share and get nurses and doctors accustomed to using their product. It was a huge winner and a big moneymaker for the client.

Here’s some of the copy if you can’t read the ad:

* * *
“The manufacturer, Huntleigh Healthcare, wants to gain significant market share by introducing their new Flexi Dopplex 3 MHz fetal Doppler and they are offering our company special discount pricing to push their sales.

But instead of buying these units for this special pricing and selling them later at regular prices and keeping the higher profits — we want to pass on the extra savings to you, right now! And we figured the best way to sell Dopplers is simply getting doctors and nurses into the habit of using a particular brand. Then we’re hoping you’ll continue buying more from us. Seems fair, right?

That’s why for a limited time, now through June 30, 1999, you can get the new Flexi Dopplex for only $447. That’s a savings of $ 103.00 off the regular price (and hundreds more off any competitor’s models).

* * *
Here’s another ad I wrote using the ‘reason-why’ concept that’s ultra simple to apply to your business. Simply jotting down “X” number of reasons why a customer should purchase from you is usually more than what most competitors do. It provides a logical crutch to an emotional buying decision.

You can come up with lots of reasons-why to have a promotion. Look at your calendar, if retailers and car dealers can use “made-up” holidays like Columbus day – you can do even better. There are lots of ways to use this idea. Keep brainstorming a reason why you are doing something. Let people in “behind the scenes” at your company…

Whatever the reason.

Here’s one I used a few years back – it was the “Save Yanik’s Marriage Sale”. The whole premise being Missy, my wife, was really annoyed at me for the basement being so overloaded with boxes. Truthfully, she WAS really mad and made a big stink about it – but I embellished the story a little bit. We totally cleared out all our inventory and made a tidy profit (pun intended).

Another sale I’ve had a lot of success with is a milestone type sale. When our first child, Zak, was born – I did a promotion for him. That promotion nearly tripled my expectations for what it would bring in (it made $4.60+ for every visitor who came). And more importantly people connected with me as a real person – you should have seen the dozens and dozens of congratulations notes. It was really cool.

Now in this case I didn’t just do email only. I thought it would be great to send out a “birth announcement” to our customers. I’m a big believer in using multiple types of media to hit customers/prospects. For this I really wanted it to look like a real birth announcement – here’s how it turned out:

When Zoe was born a few years later – I did the same thing and it worked even better so now she’ll have bragging rights forever on Zak.

For some reason everyone wants to be mysterious about their business. If you’re lowering the price nobody thinks you’re doing it just because you’re “such a nice guy (or gal)”. So let people in on the reason why.

I know this probably goes against every grain of business sense, but I promise if you give people a good, believable reason why they’ll respond with open wallets.

Side Note: In the current Underground Secret Society® issue I cover part I of 11 little-known secrets and triggers I’ve discovered for getting people to say “Yes” and open their wallets. You can grab a free 1-month copy with my compliments here.

* * *
Okay quick change of subject – with the Underground® 4 Seminar in LA over it’s been quite a whirlwind.

Each year the Underground® seminar gets bigger and better! It’s going to be pretty hard to top this year’s event since the speakers businesses totaled nearly $1B in annual online sales. Speakers ranged from Eben Pagen (a $20M virtual publishing empire) to Dr. Joe Mercola ($15M online and the most visited natural health site). Or how about Cameron Johnson, an Internet millionaire in his teens and now on Oprah’s primetime “Big Give” TV program? Mr. X#1 and Mr. X#2 (who won Underground Marketer of the Year) with their secrets to accidently building a $4M+ membership site.

Plus, a totally different take on online marketing from one of the leading wine eCommerce sites and insights on future trend of podcasting from Jody Colvard. And we had Dean Hunt & Barry Dunlop giving everyone the secrets they need to take advantage of the power of Social marketing. Or under-the-radar marketers like Jim Lillig and Mike Hill (who hasn’t appeared on stage since 1999).

We even had Tony Hsieh, the CEO from Zappos.com as one of the keynote speakers the first day. The cool thing is Tony was totally low-key and laid back. I don’t know why I continue to be surprised but most of the super successful people I’ve had the pleasure of meeting are incredibly genuine people. I think that’s part of the reason they got to where they are.

This year’s theme was “24” and it was interesting to see who was a fan of the show because they were super excited about the fact we had Carlos Bernard AKA Agent Tony Almeida there. But then a whole lot of the audience didn’t get it. It’s okay – I’m a fan of the show so sometimes I’ll just do fun things for myself. Actually, the real back-story on the theme is something some of you may remember. I originally wanted to have a 24-hour seminar based on the ‘24’ theme. Yep, we’d start at 10pm and end at 10pm the next day. We had like 7 people sign-up and I canceled it. Whoops. Not all ideas are good ideas.

Here’s me and Carlos Bernard AKA Tony Almeida from “24″ (btw – he wasn’t acting – Carlos actually was choking me pretty hard)

Each Underground® we do a fun VIP networking dinner and activity for the Early-Bird sign-ups and all the speakers. This year we did something totally different and sent everyone out onto the streets of LA for a SPY mission. We didn’t know who was in on the game and who was just a regular person on the street. Here are a few pics of my squad. “Team Bullocks” in honor of our overwhelming majority being from the UK including speakers and MasterMind members Dean Hunt and Barry Dunlop. Only myself, Michael Holland and Ryan Lee (Mr. X from Underground® II were the token Americans.)

I’ll let you make your own conclusions with these photos from some of our VIP guests, speakers and MasterMind members part of the infamous KONA boys team. Most definitely the loudest team we had that night.

I think it’s safe to say everyone had a great time and that was still the first day. The 2nd day we had more incredible speakers plus a Rock N’ Roll party for all the attendees with Mini KISS, an all little person KISS tribute band. (The party was sponsored by Icontact.com, Maverick Business Adventures™, Selby Marketing and InfusionCRM.)

Here are a few pics:

Here’s a little video footage:

Whoa!

The last few weeks have been absolutely crazy in preparation for my totally SOLD-OUT Underground Online Seminar® 4 that kicks off tomorrow morning.

This event really breaks all of the rules because we don’t bring in polished platform “salespeople” that you hear over and over again on the Internet speaking circuit. It’s not the same usual suspects – but real people making real money selling real stuff. (Definitely no Internet “get rich” folks allowed here.)

I’ve got a strong hunch this will be the biggest, baddest, most explosive event yet.

I can tell just by the few attendees I have passed in the hotel lobby already that the anticipation for tomorrow is like static electricity in the air.

Everyone is totally pumped up!

And rightfully so, with a speaker lineup that brings in over $906,000,000.0 (nearly a BILLION dollars of combined revenue)…this may be the most profitable weekend of their lives. And that’s why I figured – I’d like to try a little experiment…

I am going to do something I have never done before with any of my Underground® Seminars…I am going to let you get sneak a peek at the LIVE while it is actually going on just as if you were there yourself.

http://www.undergroundonlineseminar.com/live/

You heard right!

Twice a day during the event, I’ll allow my underground moles to tap into the video feed and broadcast their “bootleg” signal live and in real time for 12 minutes at a clip.

Remember, it’s totally LIVE and unrehearsed so just about anything can happen. I’m not going to edit or censor the footage. You’ll see and hear everything that’s going for those two, 12-minute clips just as if you were a covert agent who had infiltrated the event.

Synchronize your watches now because the very first broadcast happens tomorrow, Friday March 28, 2008 at 9am Pacific time (12 noon, ET) for the over-the-top, kick-off opening! And then the second broadcast will take place at 4:02 pm Pacific (7:02 PM, ET) with Agent “Get Smart” Eben Pagan. Plus, other broadcast times will be listed on this page along with all kinds of other uncensored Underground® surveillance videos appearing in real-time transmitted back from actual agents in the field.

That’s it for now – I got to get back to preparing. Let me know what you think once you check it out.

If you have not read Robert Cialdini’s monumental work, “Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion” – grab it now! Inside on of the major psychological triggers he explains is scarcity. Human beings have been hard-wired to want what is going away. Many more people are motivated by the thought of potential loss than potential gain.

Gary Bencivenga, one of the world’s best copywriters, summed this up perfectly at his “Bencivenga 100″ seminar in New York. I’m paraphrasing but he said something along the lines of, “If I called my neighbor at 3 AM and told him about a 2-for-1 sale going on at the local tire store – my neighbor would think I was crazy and probably be pretty annoyed! But if I called him at 3 in the morning and told him his garage was open and 2 kids were rolling 4 of his snow tires down the street. He’d jump out of bed and go chase them!”

That’s the power of scarcity. If you get this principle right you’ll be astonished at the sales results. A lot of people think they understand scarcity but that’s not the case. Simply saying “x” number of units will be sold. Or “limited time opportunity” or “Buy before midnight tonight” does not always translate to better sales. There’s more to it than just a thinly veiled attempt at influencing.

I know scarcity is one of those triggers that works on me. (Side note: It’s good to step back when you make buying decisions and see what caused it. You can rationalize it all you want – but many buying decisions on based on emotional, psychological triggers.)

For instance, my first sports car was a Honda S2000 when it came out in 2000. The car was impossible to get. My local dealer had an allotment of 2 or 3 cars for the year. Only 5000 were made and about 2000 came to the U.S. I was searching all over the country calling every dealership for this rare combination of Silver with a red interior. I found my S2000 about 800 miles away in upstate NY and drove it all the down to our place in Maryland in the pouring rain. Even today, I sold my Mercedes SL55 for something even more exclusive – an Aston Martin.

I like examples from diverse industries aside from info marketing since this is how breakthroughs happen. This is from Porthos.com, a company I buy a fair amount of wine from and I’ve got to know their owner, Hal Oates. They do an excellent job of using scarcity and making it believable. [Side note: Hal will be speaking at my sold-out Underground® 4 Seminar ]

The mention of how many cases (300) telegraphs exclusivity, rarity and scarcity without being over the top. Also, if you trust Hal and his recommendation (I do) he tells you this wine is most likely to hit $100+ cult status. Then notice at the bottom “NO SALES TO RETAILERS”. Yet another trigger to the scarcity here.

I think Porthos.com does an excellent job of using scarcity along with very solid reason-why in the sales copy for wine. He’s not selling to a starry-eyed crowd of biz-oppers, most wine collectors are considered affluent and sophisticated consumers. You can use this psychological trigger in an ethical way that’s not demeaning to your list’s intelligence.

Let me give you a few more examples…

Ferrari Enzo – Ferrari is a perfect example of scarcity and fueling a passionate marketplace. The Enzo is their $600,000+ supercar made in honor of Enzo Ferrari, the founder. They made exactly 399 cars and that’s it. Ferrari collectors know when Ferrari tells them its limited edition – it really is and they will not make any more.

Part of maintaining Ferrari’s prestigious heritage is making sure that not everyone can have one. Only a privileged few can buy a Ferrari hence the truly created scarcity. But just having a big bankroll still won’t let you drive an Enzo – Ferrari has traditionally made potential buyers apply to buy one of their limited-edition cars, placing various restrictions on what may and may not be done with the car. They enforce these restrictions by threatening to withdraw perks like factory tours and the chance to buy future Ferraris. I was talking to an owner of an Enzo at a car show in NY and he told me you had to have been a registered owner of 3 other Ferraris to have the privilege of applying for one of the Enzos.

You’ll see a lot of special editions created for collectible and high-end merchandise like pens, cigars and spirits. This pen site keep all the sold-out editions as proof they really are sold-out and scarce:

Okay guys, here’s your big SAT word of the day – verisimilitude:
verisimilitude \ver-uh-suh-MIL-uh-tood; -tyood\, noun:
1. The appearance of truth; the quality of seeming to be true.
2. Something that has the appearance of being true or real.

I think this is the key to making scarcity work for your business. eBooks don’t really have it. You can say you’ll only sell 500 copies of an eBook but there’s no “appearance of truth”. It’s just bits and bytes – why would it be truly limited? I’ve seen others use scarcity ploys that really had me wondering if they were true or not. If your customers question it – you’re done for.

The best advice I can give is combine scarcity with ‘reason-why’ for an extra comma in your bank account.

There are just 3 seats left for Underground® 4 so it’s a pretty safe bet it’s going to be sold-out tomorrow or the next day! I hope to see a lot of InternetLifestyle.com blog readers there because we’ve a lot of fun, surprises and perks lined up for you. Not only have we added even more content and speakers (including some I haven’t even put up on the site) but I’m out to make sure it’s the best event yet…

I just confirmed our celebrity guest from the hit TV show “24″. It’ll be Carlos Bernard AKA “Agent Tony Almeida”. If you watch the show at all – Carlos is a pretty big character and has a major role when season 7 finally starts shooting again. Attendees will get to meet Carlos and get a one-on-one pic with him.

And even more fun – we’re having a LIVE concert with Mini KISS. They are a band of little people KISS impersonators. Go get ready to rock n roll all day and party every night! Check them out:

It’s going to bad-ass…and I’ll fill you in on all the details after the event. Speaking of KISS – I’m going to meet the behind their incredible success the week after Underground®. At the Glazer-Kennedy Super Summit in Nashville I’ll be sharing the platform with none other than Gene Simmons. If you haven’t read Gene’s book “Sex, Money, Kiss” go get it. It’s a great example of someone who has constructed his life to fit his own rules.

If you want in before we close the doors - check out the site immediately!

Nearly everyone I talk to wants to know the big “secret” to success online. They want the next Internet marketing tactic, strategy or quick fix. But that’s usually not the critical factor…

I’ve found tremendous success by putting a ‘spin’ on successful models. In fact, I find it better to work with 2 or 3 successful models and pull them together. If your product/service is simply a “me-too” there is no point in being in the marketplace. You have to bring some point of differentiation to the table. (And it definitely cannot be just price.)

When I created Instant Sales Letters in 2000 – there were all kinds of other sales letter templates books (real ones) out there and there were copywriting courses but there was nothing that really let you ‘cut and paste’ to create the letter easily. I’m a firm believer in giving people the “fish” anytime I can. What I mean is people would rather be handed the fish than taught how to fish. The closer you can get to the ‘magic pill’ the better your sales will be if the offer is believable.

Another example is my own Apprentice program (Yes, well before Trump!). There were a whole lot of mentor or protégé programs floating around but once again I decided if I was going to do something – I’d do it differently. I wanted to keep the numbers small and personal (instead of just making a mass telecoaching program like some other people who promise individual attention). I really wanted to have a big impact on the Apprentices I accepted and get people to take action or to new levels if they were already successful. (In fact, I won a $100 gentleman’s bet with Dan Kennedy because I got the majority of my group to make a profit.)

The big twist was I’d give Apprentices one of my ideas out of my idea journal, they’d be allowed to promote (if appropriate) to my list and my affiliate list. And we’d jointly share in the profits with them keeping 78% and me getting 12% of the gross sales. This program was so good it was overbooked almost right away.

And the final example from my own business is my “Underground Online Seminar”. Don’t you think there are more than enough Internet seminars going on all over the place? Some good. Some not so good. It’s real tough to create a stir in the Internet space unless you have something different. Which is exactly why I didn’t want to do another ‘same-ole’ Internet seminar.

My big hook (which was true) is I bring in “Underground” and unknown speakers who were really making it in the real world online. It wasn’t the same usual suspects you’d see at other events. I took it all the way with making the promotions ‘spy’ themed to stand out. Sure, some people emailed us and said it was silly. But a lot more people got into it because it was different. It really worked! The first three Underground Online Seminar was extremely successful and completely sold-out weeks before the event took place. (We’re coming up to another sell-out for #4 in case you have not booked your spot yet!)

So your job is to stand out and give people a reason (hopefully) a big one to buy from you. One logical way of doing this is something I taught my Apprentices. It’s to make a spreadsheet of what every competitor is offering and how they are positioned in the marketplace. Look for their offers, their headline, their pricing, their guarantee, their USP, etc and then decide where you can leverage a differentiation point.

This gives you a more precise way of looking for “gaps” in your competitors marketing. And the bigger the gap or the more you really show people how your offer is different than the better you’ll do.

It’s too easy to be another ‘me-too’. Why would a customer buy from you? Frankly, there aren’t too many niches where nobody is selling anything in there and you can be the only one. In most cases you’re going to find competitors (and that’s a good thing because it proves the marketplace spends money).

Here is a quick summary thoughts on how to be different and unique:

1. Be first in the marketplace. Easier said than done today but still very possible if you niche. Obviously you can’t be the first site to sell flowers online but if you are BestTropicals.com, you were the first to sell Hawaiian flowers exclusively. You can cut up the marketplace and become the first at something.

2. Take existing success models/products and combine together. This is one of my favorites because you’re profiting from multiple successful and proven sources.

3. Take an existing successful product/service and add a twist to it. My apprentice program is a good example of that.

4. Give it a new name. I’ve done this many times with products I’ve licensed that have seen better days.

5. Change the location. If you see a successful business model in one place it can typically be transferred to another location, format, etc. Good example of this is Steve Pankhurst who developed www.friendsreunited.co.uk. He saw a site in the US doing very well able to track down friends, etc. (probably Classmates.com) and he couldn’t believe they hadn’t expanded it to the UK or beyond. Since it’s launch in 1999, Friends Reunited has become one of the most popular websites on the net, attracting over 10 million members.

And finally the big idea is not think every great idea or website has already been created or done. That’s the attitude of losers! Today, you’ve got even more opportunity because the Internet is an established commerce model and more and more people are getting comfortable making purchases online. It truly is the best time in the world to start or grow your online business!

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Side note: I know lots of people were hoping for some updates from the Baja trip. I got a lot of stories and things to share…I just haven’t caught up yet so give me a few more days. You’ll hear about everything from Jesse James, the whales, Super Bowl party, me wrecking my baja racer and more!

Good morning -

Your mission if you choose to accept it is to infiltrate a *all-new* gathering of Rogue Underground Internet “Players” to discover their unique (and never before publicized) moneymaking secrets…

You’ve probably never heard about these ‘Under-The-Radar’ successes banking mega bucks online! (And they would have been happy to keep it that way too – until I figured out a shocking and unexpected way to hold them hostage and let you “SPY” on their businesses!) This is definitely NOT the same “Usual Suspects” you see speaking everywhere else…

I’ve assembled an ALL-NEW group of real-world successes, collectively bringing in millions online each year. Check out the true identities and stories behind these new rogue agents:

•   Agent ‘Get Smart’… ($20M virtual info empire)
•   Agent ‘Doctor Zhiva-dough’…($15M health site)
•   Agent ‘Bad Mama Jama CPA MoFo’…
•   Agent ‘Fine Wine Millions’…
•   Agent ‘Podcasting Princess’…
•   Agent ‘Tycoon Tyke’…
•   Agent ‘Mr. X #1 and Mr. X #2′…($4M with their simple membership site) Note: They have agreed to show up under the strict condition we will NOT videotape their session.

Plus this year we’ve added 2 featured keynote speakers including the CEO of Zappos.com, an $800 Million business!

Truthfully, it was a gargantuan task to locate, uncover, convince and coax these “mystery” men and women to come forward and pull back the curtain. What’s more, I’m taking another extraordinary step to make sure our guest presenters really lay their cards on the table (you’ve got to see what I have in store for them – even better than truth serum).

Special extra bonus for Early Birds – there’s exclusive discounts and special bonuses not available to others (including a private VIP networking dinner with the rogue Underground agents and an *actual* SPY mission.)

http://www.UndergroundOnlineSeminar.com/go/

============
If you want to hone your spy skills there might a reward for you here:
http://www.UndergroundOnlineSeminar.com/game/

The agency has also intercepted this clandestine communication:

If you’re already selling anything online this entry is going to show you how to add extra revenue you didn’t even know you had “hiding” in your site without getting any more visitors.

1. An Upsell – If you’ve been in marketing for any time you’ve probably heard of “upsells” or “bumps”. Car dealers are excellent at using this technique. Once you have agreed to buy a car you then go into the finance office. This finance guy is really another place where they try to extract as much money as possible from you; dealer financing, extended warranties, rust coating, a low-jack security system, etc.  These additions will normally add as much, or more, profit to the dealer as the original sale. These are upsells or cross-sells.

Another great example is if you’ve ever called a late night infomercial you will be given an upsell. They will offer you a special deal on the third bottle of super grime cleaner if you buy 2 bottles. These upsells usually end up bringing more profit than the original item people intended to purchase.

Why not do the same online?

This little “magic trick” can instantly increase your profits 15-66% even without getting any additional business or website visitors. It works great because your prospect is all hot and heavy and ready to buy. They’ve got their credit card in their hand and they’ve already made the commitment. (If you read Robert Cialdini’s book “Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion” you’ll see commitment and consistency is a key psychological trigger.)

There are a couple ways I’ve successfully used upsells on my sites:

First you can use an “intermediary” page. Once prospects click on the order buttons they’re taken to a new page (and not the order form). This page tells people about a special offer that is for today only and that they can get a ‘deluxe’ or ‘gold’ version of the package for X dollars more. You can make the upsell a big dollar amount or a small insignificant little ‘bump’. I do this on InstantSalesLetters.com. We sell our product for $40 and then people click to order and they have an opportunity to get the “Gold” version for only $15 more.

They figure – heck, if I was going to spend $40 bucks on Instant Sales Letters I might as well spend $15 dollars more and get the whole shebang. The way I present the offer is that it’s only 15 dollars more. Not it’s $54.97. The $15 seems small in relation to the $39.97 they were going to spend anyway. My numbers have been quite good using this technique  – as high as 68%. So think about my additional profit margins just by inserting this one extra page. Awesome!

Another way of doing this is by “recommending” a product. Anytime you buy something from Amazon – that’s exactly what they do. Up comes a page that “Customers who bought __ also bought__” and then they have a slew of products.

Next, you can also have the upsell right on the Order page. I’ve even used something as simple as putting a check box on my order form. (We do that on InstantSalesLetters.com too). It could be that simple. On this checkbox we get anywhere from 10-35% upsell rate.

You have to play fair and let people get the original price and package you offered but there’s no reason you shouldn’t add a complimentary upsell immediately. The upsell is one of the easiest (and most profitable) techniques you can start implementing tomorrow. This is like the “would you like fries” strategy. Unless you’re offering “fries” you’re missing out on tons and tons of profit. You simply need to come up with a couple more compelling bonuses, packages or up-sells that people will get for the upgrade.

2. Thank You Pages – After upsells, I’d say ‘thank you’ pages are one of the most overlooked profit hot-spots. Once again, there are several ways I’ve used this technique. First of all, anytime somebody buys a product from you online – they are taken to some kind of thank you page. Most people will simply put “Thank you for your order” and that’s it. They leave the customer with their credit card in their hands to go off to some other website and give them money. Why not give people a special deal on the thank you page or at least give them links to your other products or other people’s products that you make an affiliate commission on?

Now if it’s a digital product – then they need to get their download but you can also put some recommended resources right on the download page. At the bottom of the digital download page for PublicDomainRiches.com  we have a recommendation for the new Public Domain Goldmine™ package.

“Here’s Your Chance To Cash In on The Booming Demand For ‘How To’ Info in 35 Different, High-Demand and High-Profit Potential Niches — Without Being an Expert or Even Writing a Word Yourself”

COMING SOON: Public Domain Riches Gold Mine
(Volume I-IX sold-out in weeks!)

Click here to sign up for priority notification to get the first chance when we release the next volume with all-new and totally different works.

Those aren’t the only thank you pages. Many people totally forget about the ‘thank you’ pages that come up after someone signs up for your list. Now where you want to send them will depend on where they are in the sales process – but you can have a list of recommended resources that comes up AFTER people subscribe to your email list. Why not? If that’s the last action you were expecting – you should look for ways to profit from this.
 

3. Using Pop-ups – Unless you’ve been living under a rock you’ve certainly been exposed to “pop-ups” online. Pop-ups have been losing effectiveness with more pop-up blockers and Windows Service Pack 2 upgrades, etc. but they are still effective. There are several ways you can be using pop-ups.

a. Exit pop-up – you can set the pop-up to “pop” after someone leaves a particular page on your site. I’ve used this to get people to subscribe to my email newsletter, make a special last-minute deal (a sell down). Or another variation is to have it pop-up after they leave the order form without submitting their order giving them more reasons to purchase. I’ve seen this work very well.

b. Delayed pop-up – Another type of pop-up is one which you can set a delay  interval from when someone hits your site. For instance on GetFitWhileYouSit.com I have a delayed pop-up that shows up after 30 seconds of a visitor coming to the site. It gives them a $10 discount which is only valid for 10 minutes. Then the countdown starts. (Actually a count-down timer is a feature you can incorporate in any pop-ups. It works like a ‘self destruct’ mechanism – great for scarcity!)

c. Pop unders – Pop-unders are sometimes called “polite pop-ups” because they don’t pop-up but they actually open up a new browser window underneath the main window. If you go to NoBSsalesletters.com you’ll see that another browser window is opened but it doesn’t show up until you close your main browser window. This allows you to put another sales letter and get just one more shot at selling something without aggravating most people.

d. “Hover Pops” – These are something somewhat new which are like a “layer” that goes on top of your website (technically DHTML windows). Aweber now has a ‘hover pop’ template. One of the biggest advantages is that “Hover Ads” cannot be blocked by pop-up blockers. However, the big problem with them is they can be only be set to “pop” on entry. You can’t use them as exit pop-ups. Some people have found this to work very well and others find it drops their conversion rate to have a pop-up on entry so the best idea is to test.

4. Thank You Emails/Confirmations – Don’t overlook the initial email confirmation you send back to your customers. We talked about making offers on the thank you page but your ‘thank you’ email is one of the most read emails. In addition to the ‘typical’ stuff you should include like customer service information, who will bill their credit card, etc why not add a simple P.S. to the bottom of the email like I do:

P.S. Check out these other best-selling resources from Yanik Silver:

“In Only 2 1/2 Minutes You Can Quickly and Easily Create A Sales Letter Guaranteed To Sell Your Product Or Service…Without Writing! http://www.Instantsalesletters.com

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“How To Find, Re-Package And Sell Public Domain Content As Your Own Moneymaking Information Product – Discover The Fortune That Lies Hidden in The Massive Stockpile of Public Domain Works — Yours FREE For The Taking Without Permission or Paying a Dime in Fees http://PublicDomainRiches.com

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5. Package Inserts – I’m going to cheat a little here because this isn’t really an online technique but so few online marketers do this that I wanted to include it here. If you’re selling anything online that needs to be shipped to the customer you may be overlooking a lucrative profit center with package inserts. You know for a fact, someone who ordered a product is going to open the box so a package insert will definitely get looked at it. It’s practically free money.

I don’t know why more Internet marketers don’t include package inserts with every box shipped. With nearly every physical product I have a little ‘ride-along’ or package insert for some of my other products.

Now if you don’t have any other products to sell you can put inserts in for other people’s products and make a commission. Once again all free money. Or if you really have a ton of packages going out you can even have a company like Leon Henry broker your package inserts and sell to other advertisers.

There you go. I guarantee you if you put these 5 overlooked and unexpected profit centers to work for your website you’ll see some significant increases to your bottom line. Let me know what you think.

**3 Quick Charity Updates ** 

1. The LitLiberation – DonorsChoose charity drive is ending on October 31, 2007. Please do me a favor and donate a few bucks to some of the wonderful projects teachers have for assistance. I’ve already committed $10k of my own money. Check it out.

2. Frank McKinney’s Palm Beach Experience – there are only a few seats left for incredible charity gathering that takes place November 14, 15, 16 and 17, 2007. I’m co-hosting this and you’ll get a chance to tour amazing multi-million dollar mansions and rub shoulders with some of the most exceptional individuals – including Rich DeVos, co-founder of Amway and owner of the Orlando Magic. All event proceeds will go directly in support of Frank’s charity, Caring House Project Foundation.

3. Last year I played in the “Freeze the Disease” celebrity hockey game to benefit cystic fibrosis. Unfortunately, I can’t make it out to LA this weekend for the game – but I’ve still contributed to their worthy cause. If you’re a hockey game – there’s some cool memorabilia that will be auctioned off. Or if you’re in the L.A. area – go check out the game. More info here.

I just got my new business cards for Maverick Business Adventures and I thought you guys would like to see this for some ideas yourself. I’ve had the company that does these cards bookmarked for 4+ years and have been waiting for a project to create an ultra-cool metal business card.

Check this out…

And here’s the backside…

On the back you can see the etching there and the spots that are cut-out a little better in this picture. The “a” (or hand) in “Maverick” and then “business adventures” is cut-out. They are from MetalCards.com and they cost a whole lot more than regular cards but they definitely make a big impact. The cards are really made out of metal (.010 stainless steel). When I re-order I will go for more rounded corners (my card is pretty sharp!) and I might go a tiny bit thicker. I have the American Express Centurion card and that’s a nice thickness…but maybe too thick for a business card.

Those guys did an awesome job and would be worth checking out (I don’t get anything for the recommendation). 

If you have a business that needs to get noticed – I really think it’d be damn hard to toss one of these cards. I normally don’t even have cards since I’m an “online dude” but I figured I’ll test these out and see what happens. (When looking for ideas I saw Steve Wozniak has a metal card too. So I guess I’ll settle for 2nd coolest card)

[Side note: For those of you following Maverick Business Adventures start-up there's an "online trip & membership preview" on Thursday, Oct 25th at 3 PM, ET. Here are details]

Today’s launch had it all…

Chaos!…

Excitement!…

Anticipation!….

People eagerly awaiting their chance to buy a copy…

Obviously I’m talking about…

…(it’s coming)

…(wait for it)

…(you’ll be surprised)

…HALO 3.

I mean really – who the hell are these guys at Microsoft are to try and compete with my launch of “Yanik’s Ultimate A-to-Z Information Marketing Brain-in-a-Box”? They probably beat my numbers today by like a gazillion dollars! Hmph…

Frankly, one of the best launches and build-ups had to be HALO 3…the final installment of the ultra popular Xbox game. You can read about a little of the chaos and what the scene looked like outside NY’s Best Buy before midnight last night here.

As my good friend, Jeff Walker says, “You have to make your launch an event.” These guys did that in spades.

What’s more, I loved (from a marketing stand-point) how this new HALO 3 drove sales for the Xbox 360 console. You *had* to have the new game console to be able to play this new game – essentially forcing the hardware sale. I wasn’t sure I was going to get a 360 but with HALO 3 coming out – I had to.

So now that my family has left – I can spend a little time with Master Chief. I just got a new plasma TV and entire home theater system so I’m excited to blast away the Coventry Covenant in surround sound!

Oh – one more thing. It’s my birthday for another 1 hour 54 minutes so I’m going to give away one more course. Here’s the deal – if you’ve seen my little preview video here for my “brain-in-a-box” course. In the first scene I’m drinking a glass of Pinot. First blog reader who leaves a comment and IDs the wine correctly gets the course that course I used for the video. It’s not quite brand-new and there’s a few bonuses missing since I didn’t have them in my hands at the time….but all the guts are there.

 * Update #1: we have a winner

 * Update #2: Some of you asked how I spent my birthday on this launch day – here I am in a closed-door meeting with my advisor checking the numbers:

Wow – I never expected this kind of huge outpouring of entries and comments! This morning we’re up to 359. That’s pretty crazy and from reading some of the responses already – I know it’s going to be really tough to pick just 2 winners tomorrow.

That’s why I’m going to pick 4 winners tomorrow!

And that also means we’re getting really close to Tuesday’s launch – I’m actually a little nervous looking at the countdown clock. Now I know during some of these “big” launches a lot of people feel rushed into making a decision.

Well, I’d rather you had some of the big details ahead of time so you can make up your mind without feeling pressured on Tuesday at noon when the doors open.

So with that said, I created a little homemade video with me combing through the big box and showing you what you’d get delivered to you.

Check it out here but don’t laugh too hard at the totally amateur camera work. I got Missy to shoot it during Zak & Zoe’s nap time. ;

Side note: I have no intention of making this blog one big promo piece for my launch so expect to see all kinds of other posts soon. But while you have your calendars out for Tue’s launch – you might want to pencil in January 30 – February 3, 2008. That’s the first Maverick Business Adventures trip. It’ll be a Baja racing trip out of Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.  Wait until you hear more about the trip – it’s really going to be awesome!