Flat Tires, Slow Leaks, and Online Marketing

Flat Tires, Slow Leaks, and Online Marketing
By Richard
Kraneis

Does your online marketing campaign have a flat tire? Or is it
more like a slow leak?

Today my 16 year old son Fritz called on the cell phone from
high school. Mom took the call. “Could Dad fix my flat tire
during the day?” Of course I would fix it.

And then it hit me. Knowing you have a flat tire is a lot
better than not knowing. Unfortunately, when your online
marketing campaign has a flat tire or a slow leak, it may take
a while before you realize it or fix it.

My e-book website has had a few flat tires and a few slow leaks.
Bad e-book cover, slow website loads, advertising to people
who would never buy, and other problems. But I think I’ve
repaired the flats and the slow leaks. I hope.

Here’s my first online flat tire. When I first published my e-
book on the Internet in November of 2003, my e-book cover was
running at a loss. As I remember, I was making a dollar for
every 3 dollars I spent on advertising. What was the flat tire?
Please take a look at my original e-book cover. It’s below.
It was horrible.

http://www.theworldsshortestexcelbook.com/HorribleBookCover.jpg
(http://www.theworldsshortestexcelbook.com/HorribleBookCover.
jpg)

Actually, my website didn’t have a flat tire; it was more like
a car wreck. But if you looked at my e-book cover on the link
shown above, I definitely had an online flat tire. (There’s a
reason why I earned only passing grades in art classes). I
went cheap on the e-book cover and built my own. I took a
fishing photo of myself and put it on a book cover. Not only
did I have a flat tire, I had slashed all my tires with a
knife, to save pennies.

Then I found Vaughan Davidson at http://killercovers.com/covers
(http://killercovers.com/covers) and he did a professional e-
book cover for me. Visit my new e-book cover shown below.

http://www.theworldsshortestexcelbook.com/BookC.gif (http://www.
theworldsshortestexcelbook.com/BookC.gif)

I think I changed the e-book cover in mid-December 2003, turned
off my Google advertising, and took a holiday break. It was
nice being away from email for a change. When I checked my
email on January 2, 2004, I had sold 3 e-books.

Using Excel to measure my conversion rates, my conversion rate
during late 2003 was about .003. I was selling 3 books for
every 1000 visitors. That was selling at a loss. After my new
e-book cover from http://killercovers.com/covers (http://
killercovers.com/covers) and a week of web page changes, my e-
book conversion rate rocketed to .009. A 300% increase. A
profit.

So keep a good lookout for the flat tires and slow leaks of
online marketing. Using Excel to track your online marketing
successes (or not so great successes) would be a great idea.

Paul White is a 42 year old former teacher. He now helps people
all around the world to become wealthy online. Whatever you
are selling, visit the popular site: http://www.profitmountain.
com (http://www.profitmountain.com) and if you subscribe to
Profit Mountain`s FREE wealth building newsletter, you will
also receive FREE advertising for the next 12 months! (Worth
$200!) as well as loads of other things!