Fly on the E-Commerce Cyberwall

One Stop Web Support Newsletter #60 Coming
The latest issue of my newsletter is due to arrive Sunday, November 11.

This issue will focus on developing a simple habit that is powerfully effective in building the successful business you want:

Why the First Hour Is Key to Your Success

If you haven't signed up for my newsletter, you can do so at www.onestopwebsupport.com/newsletter-signup.htm.



And I'll make it worth your while if you do. I'll give you $250 worth of free gifts for signing up!
Jeff

Labels: newsletter

Hot Offers for November 9, 2007

This week I've found two new offers worth sharing and one carryover offer that's still good:

• An invitation to check out an exclusive membership site where you can ask mentors who run businesses that have made over $60 million any questions about starting your business. Check it out for only $2.95.
• $200 home-study course on starting a business for only $2.95 (is there a theme developing here?)
• A 15% discount on the original--and still one of the best--keyword research tools

Click on the links to go to my Hot Offers page and find out more.

Your Invitation to "The Club"
If you've always suspected that successful online business people keep getting MORE successful because of "who" they know, not necessarily "what" they know, you'd be right...

Here's a chance to do something about getting to know the right people to help you get your business to the level you want it to be.

Find out more on the Hot Offers page

or

Find out what's happening direct from the source

$200 Internet Marketing Course for $2.95
I bet that title got your attention. From time to time, Internet marketing mastermind (I think that $60 million worth of sales qualifies him as a mastermind, don't you?) makes his classic course on how to start an online business available for one reason and one reason only...


Find out more on the Hot Offers page

or

Go sign up for your 30-day trial and see for yourself

Discount on Wordtracker Keyword Research
If you want to what your customers are looking for, there's no better way of making sure that they find you than by knowing what keywords they're typing into the search engines. Wordtracker was a pioneer in helping marketers find out those keywords and it's still one of the best.


Find out more on the Hot Offers page and pick up the discount code you need for this offer.



Those are my picks for this week.


Incidentally, you can still check out some ongoing bargains that give you great value for free or for next to nothing.



Enjoy!

Jeff

Labels: hot offers

Navigating Your Customers' Spam Filters
If you read my post from Tuesday, I'm happy to announce that my problem with my spam filter deleting my own newsletter has been solved.

Turned out that one persistent spammer I had blocked had created a little trap in his emails so that my filters would interpret any email from his email address as coming from mine. Thus, when I blocked him, I was actually blocking myself!

At any rate, along the way of finding a solution to this problem, I ran across a number of articles on email marketing that I thought might prove helpful to you in making sure your email marketing doesn't trip your customers' spam filters.

I'll link to them from time to time so you can check them out.

Here's one that warns about Six Ways to Screw Up a Customer Email.

Here's to more hassle-free emailing!
Jeff

Labels: aWeber, building relationships

Learning to Ride the Bike of Business
I got an email from Mike Kemski of BANABU fame the other day that had some great things to say about what we all need to move forward in our businesses and our lives.

Here it is:

I'm sitting here with half a case of the flu pondering my life. And when I'm sick I always feel a little vulnerable and weak.

So I started thinking about other times I've felt like this and how I was able to take
action even when I was scared and felt like I couldn't pull it off.

Then the question popped up...

How do you take action when you're scared and don't recognize your own value?

You need to surround yourself with people who can not only see your value but also
extract it.

Even leaders need leadership...

Everyone has breakdowns in confidence at some point in life.

And being around people who believe in you more than you believe in yourself sometimes is one of the best ways I know how to get through those slumps.

They don't last forever and they're perfectly normal (and even useful if you know how to use them) but even so, those times in life certainly aren't fun!

If you've ever helped a kid learn to ride a bike you've noticed a few things.

That bike is very scary at first and they have no balance. So you hold onto the back of the seat and give them the balance they need which provides them with the confidence they need to learn to ride on their own.

Then as your trotting behind the bike and you get moving a little you let go.

Amazingly the bike keeps going and the kid is doing it all on their own until...

They look back and see you're no where near the bike anymore and then they crash!

The only thing that changed is their belief in their own ability.

For some it takes a couple more attempts with you holding the seat and for others it takes another month... Either way they needed you their for the confidence until they built up enough of their own to believe in their own ability.

And guess what?

The process is the same for every single person on the planet.

See, I want you to know that just because people understand how things work and how to create results, it doesn't mean that they get to just skip the part where they have to learn and grow.

That process where they learn and grow takes time no matter how you look at it.

But learning is just the first step. Knowing something will NEVER substitute experiencing something first hand.

Learning is the easy part...

Implementation is the scary part...

Find people in your life that will hold your "bike seat". Build the correct support team in your life and you will do things you never thought you could.

And notice I said correct support team, not just any team of people. Not everyone is a good fit for you and it may take some exploring to find where you fit but once you do, you'll know.

Because you'll feel that sense of value that you get and contribute to the team which locks in a place where you fit and belong...

Mike

Who you have supporting you is essential to your growth as a person and as a business person.

So why do we so often go all Lone Ranger on our business? I think it's because we like to think we can do it all, DESPITE the fact that we harbor insecurities that we can't.

We'd rather struggle and fail than let others know that we aren't able to do everything ourselves. But even Superman had his support team who urged him on.

Take the effort to seek out those who can encourage you, inspire you, support you. We all need that person to hold that bike seat for us until we discover what we were capable of all along.

Now, get ready, get set, and get connected!
Jeff


P.S. I really enjoy Mike. He has overcome more in his life than most people could bear. And he shares the steps he took to beat adversity and build himself into the type of person he longed to be in BANABU. I urge you to check it out. I have found working on building a better me to be an essential part of building a better business.

Labels: mindset, motivation

Death to Overzealous Spam Filters!
No, I'm not going spammeister on you. But enough is enough. I'm fine with spam filters in theory. But sometimes they drive me crazy.

It's gotten so that my own spam filter is eating the test newsletters I send to myself. I always subscribe to my own lists so I can see my newsletters as my subscribers see them.

But lately, I find those emails that I send to myself from my own email address being deleted as spam by my spam filters. I work hard to create newsletters that grade out as completely free of spam red flags. I have a nearly perfect deliverability record.

BUT MY OWN STINKING SPAM FILTER HAS TAKEN TO SNACKING ON MY OWN NEWSLETTER.

I keep going through my spam filter settings and keep finding nothing that could trigger the filters on my newsletter.

It just goes to show how difficult email marketing is getting to be nowadays. That isn't a reason, though, to set followup on your customers or your subscribers aside. No, not all of your email will get through. But it remains essential to keep in contact.

Keep connecting with your customers!
Jeff


P.S. If you have concerns about your emails getting through to customers, check out the upcoming webinars on email marketing over the next few weeks at aWeber. The webinars are free and are being given by a company that has some of the best deliverability results in the business.

Check these webinar's out. aWeber KNOWS email marketing.

Labels: aWeber, building relationships

Yes, You Can Be a Hero in Your Business
I've been on this hero kick lately, so I might as well give it one more post.

I've compared facing up to your obstacles to the heroic actions of characters in your favorite movies, novels, or TV shows.

But maybe you're not convinced the analogy fits well with starting a business. How can you be a hero by being a businessperson?

The only reason we might think that, though, is because it is so easy to completely mess up the whole idea of what a business does.

Often, we think of business in terms of us. Providing money for ME. Giving freedom from the workaday grind for ME.

Doing that, though, is completely backward. Your business is not a one-way street with all the traffic going straight to you. A good business is totally two-way. It's an exchange of value between you and your customers.

You provide them with something they need and want. They reimburse you for your time and effort. The ONLY reason they're willing to pay you is because you are saving them the trouble of searching for something that you have laid out in front of them.

You are providing them something they need, something they now don't have to do for themselves. You are providing them that releases them from searching for a solution to a need they have. You are being a hero to them.

That's the core of what makes a good business--releasing your potential customers from some problem. It's not enough to offer something just because you want to sell it. You need to find something that they really want and need. You want to offer something that makes you a hero to them.

Oh, maybe they don't think of you as a hero like they'd think of Superman. They don't look up at you with adoration and say, "Oh, my hero! You have SAVED me!" But they walk away after a purchase satisfied. You've made their life better in some small way.

That's the best way to approach your business. Find out what will make you that kind of hero to them. It's the surest way to ensure that they reward you with what you were after.

Now go meet somebody's need.
Jeff


P.S. For some reason, writing this post brings to mind one of my favorite newsletters, Clayton Makepeace's The Total Package newsletter. Clayton is a top copywriter who approaches business, copywriting, and life from some very unique perspectives.

If you haven't already found him, check Clayton's free daily newsletter out.

Labels: mindset, start business