Get More Clients Online

Pricing Strategies: How Much Do I Charge for My Service?

"I'm not sure what to charge my clients" is one of the most common refrains I hear from new online service business owners.. It's a problem that plagues even the veteran business owner as she becomes more aware of her competition and what monetary value her skills hold in the marketplace.

How do you decide how much you're going to charge? Here's the bottom line -- you have to charge enough to be able to sustain yourself in business. Make sure that you're a "true" business owner netting a decent take-home pay each month without depending on savings, another job, or a spouse's income to make ends meet. This rate easily enables you to pay for your overhead and business expenses, ongoing professional training and development, and benefits you had while working for someone else -- things like vacation time, health insurance, life and disability insurance, for starters. And remember, you'll need to factor in what you'll pay in self-employment taxes and state income tax (as applicable) and pay those as scheduled to prevent the tax man from knocking at your door.

When you determine your rate, realize that if you're billing hourly, you'll probably only bill 20-30 hours per week, rather than 40. Why?  Because you're running a business, which means that you'll spend part of a day engaged in non-billable tasks, like marketing activities, meetings, consults with prospective clients, lunches with friends, etc.

If you decide to use pricing as a strategy to undercut your competition by charging less than everyone else, in the long run you're not doing yourself or your clients any favors.  You'll soon discover that your low prices make it impossible for you to afford to stay in business after the first year.  This means that you've put your clients in a bind, as they have to go now and find someone else to provide the service for which they hired you. Ultimately, this low pricing decision will probably result in you closing the business and returning to work for someone else, as you need some income to pay the bills as they arrive. So, who's won in this scenario? I frankly don't see any winners here.  In the long run, low pricing strategies only work for high volume businesses and make service business owners go out of business quickly.

"Emotional price points" are another key issue that will frequently hold an online business owner hostage. A service business owner will set a price that she'd like to charge, but in her heart of hearts, she truly doesn't feel she's worth that rate. How can you "convince" your inner critic that you're worth what you need to charge to make a decent living? Play around with your pricing structure until you've found a rate that you can comfortably discuss with potential clients without stammering or stuttering. Trust me, if you don't believe you should be charging what you say you charge, potential clients won't believe it either. And, if that price point falls below that minimum standard that you need to be successful, seek the counsel of a business coach, friend, or colleague for support. You deserve to make a decent living and be successful in your business, but you have to be willing to set yourself up for success to make that happen.

If you still have difficulty with this concept, here's what John Ruskin, a very successful Victorian-age entrepreneur said in 1890 about this subject: "It's unwise to pay too much, but worse to pay too little. When you pay too much, you lose a little money -- that's all. When you pay too little, you sometimes lose everything, because the thing you bought is incapable of doing the thing is was bought to do. The common law of business balance prohibits paying a little and getting a lot -- it cannot be done. If you deal with the lowest bidder, it is well to add something for the risk you run. And if you do that, you will have enough to pay for something better."

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR EZINE OR WEB SITE? You can, as long as you include this blurb with it:  Internet Marketing for Introverts Coach Donna Gunter helps independent service professionals who are introverts learn how to authentically market their business and get found online without sacrificing their introverted soul.  Would you like to learn the specific Internet marketing strategies that get results for introverts? Discover how to increase your visibility and get found online by claiming your FREE gift, TurboCharge Your Online Marketing Toolkit, at ==>http://www.TurbochargeYourOnlineMarketing.com

How to Create an Ecourse That Will Triple Your Prospect Conversions

For years, I've been giving away a PDF ebook as my client attraction device to entice prospects to sign up for my list.  This strategy has served me well as a way to grow my list. However, what I've discovered during that time is that many people download my ebook and then never open it. So, as you might imagine, my rate of converting a customer prospect to a buyer isn't as high as I'd like.

Just like the people who join my list, I, too, often don't open a PDF ebook when I download it. What I have noticed, however, is that when I subscribe to an ecourse that someone is giving away as a client attraction device, I'm much more likely to pay attention to it, since I'm getting emails every day with new information in them.  And, all indications are that the conversion rate of prospect to customer is higher, as well, for this same reason.  Your mini-course helps you automatically build a relationship with subscribers and drive sales of your products and services.

Here's how you can create your own client attraction ecourse to help you triple your conversion rate:

1.  Buy autoresponder system.  In order to create your email mini-course, you need to purchase an email marketing system that has autoresponder capability, which is the ability to pre-set emails to go out at a periodic interval when someone opts into a list.  My recommendation is GetMoreClientsAutoresponder.com.

2.  Determine your theme and catchy name. Your ecourse needs to have a theme or subject.  What is it that you want to teach your prospects?  Once you determine the theme, your ecourse needs to have a catchy title.  Typically, you'll want to focus on solving a problem or the result someone receives by enrolling in your mini-course.

3.  Create content.  Your ecourse should consist of 8-12 emails.  The bulk of these emails need to contain valuable, actionable content that will help your prospect solve her problems.  In a couple of the emails, you can break up the content delivery by introducing your prospect to other resources you offer that will help them, as well.  In my new mini-course, I simply repurposed a number of articles I had already written, paring them down to 400-600 words each, in most cases.

4.  Add your soft sell.  Rather than hammering a prospect over the head with sales hype, I did three things in each of the followup emails.  First, I included a resource box at the end of the email with a link to the call to action I want my prospect to take or a postscript (P.S.) that included a link to the call to action.  Secondly, in the body of the email, I made a natural transition based on the content of the email to ask people to buy the product I wanted them to buy. Thirdly, at the end of each lesson, I added, "In our next lesson, we'll talk about..." to keep the reader engaged and anxiously awaiting the next email.

5.  Format and upload your ecourse.  In order to best track your open rates of each segment of the ecourse, you'll want to format each email as HTML.  This means that you'll want to have a header designed and template created so that you can simple copy and paste the content into a properly formatted HTML template.  To increase the likelihood that your ecourse will reach its destination, also format a plain text version of each segment of the course, as well. Next, create a catchy subject line to entice your reader to open that email. Lastly, copy your ecourse into your autoresponder system and create the followup sequence.  Ideally, you want your prospect to receive one email from you for a 8-12 days.

6.  Design your opt-in box.  Your email marketing program should provide instructions on how to create an opt-in box for prospects to join your list.  Typically, all that you want to request of your prospects is a first name, last name, and email address.  Once you have created the opt-in box, copy the code you'll need to add the opt-in box to your web site.

7.  Create a graphic.  To make your email mini-course more appealing, have a graphic designed that visually represents the ecourse.  I simply had a spiral book cover designed that contained my name and the name of my ecourse.

8.  Create your landing page.  To entice prospects to sign up for your ecourse, you'll want to create a landing page that "sells" the mini-course.  In today's world, you have to "sell" free just like you do something for a fee, so create a short list of the benefits that someone will receive by signing up for your course, and add the code for your opt-in box.  Since anyone opting in for my ecourse is also added to my ezine list, I make sure that all prospects know this at the time they sign up.

9.  Copy the course content to your web site.  To prevent your prospects from emailing you that they are missing some number of lessons in the ecourse, copy the content to your web site.  Then, at the bottom of each email lesson, you can add a note that if they have missed any of the lessons, they can read them on your site.  You can create one page for each lesson, or a couple of pages containing a few lessons.

10.  Track and measure. The only way to realize the success of your mini-course is to track and measure.  Create a simple spreadsheet with the open rates of each email and the unsubscribe rates. If you notice over time that many prospects are unsubscribing from your list when they receive a certain lesson, you need to review the content of that lesson and change it until your unsubscribe rate diminishes.  And, of course, you need to track how many sales result from your ecourse. 

Create an email mini-course to help you establish a relationship with your prospects and lead them to taking the action you desire.  You'll discover that a mini-course is the most effective way to convert a prospect into a paying customer.

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR EZINE OR WEB SITE? You can, as long as you include this blurb with it:  Internet Marketing for Introverts Coach Donna Gunter helps independent service professionals who are introverts learn how to authentically market their business and get found online without sacrificing their introverted soul.  Would you like to learn the specific Internet marketing strategies that get results for introverts? Discover how to increase your visibility and get found online by claiming your FREE gift, TurboCharge Your Online Marketing Toolkit, at ==>http://www.TurbochargeYourOnlineMarketing.com

5 Secrets to Creating an Email Newsletter That Gets Results

At almost every meeting I attend, I get really positive feedback about my email newsletter, Get Clients Online.  People generally tell me they love it, or they ask some question about something I've written about in a previous issue.  All in all, it's pretty cool--I kinda feel like a celebrity!

In everything that I do, my goal and my focus is to get subscribers to my newsletter.  I'm not trying to sell them a coaching program, nor am I trying to get them to buy some product.  I just want them to get my weekly email newsletter.  That's it. Just get a little dose of Donna on a weekly basis (pun fully intended).

My rationale behind this comes from my philosophy that people have to know, like, trust and respect you before they'll decide to buy anything from you.  I've finally acknowledged and embraced that I'm a pretty good writer and have decided to lead with that gift and use that as my marketing tool for my business.

Back in 2003, I decided that I made some serious changes to how I published my email newsletter, and I'm now starting to see the results of the writing I do each week.  The results include readers calling or emailing me for coaching, to sign up for a program, to sit in on a teleclass, or to form a strategic alliance with them.  Just exactly what I'd hope would happen!

Here are the five secrets to newsletter publishing that I learned through the "school of hard knocks" that have helped successfully market my business through email newsletter publishing:

1.  Publish consistently on a weekly basis. I initially published my newsletter on a not-so-regular basis initially because I didn't see my newsletter as a serious marketing tool (silly me!).  I then went to a regular monthly publication about a year later and then to a twice-a-month publication, and finally ended up publishing weekly in 2003  Now, if I miss a week, I'll get a couple of emails wanting to know what happened and where the newsletter is.

2.  Let your "voice" permeate your newsletter. My first newsletters had some great resources that a busy business owner would find helpful in the management of his/her business.  The only thing about me was a short paragraph about my business at the end of the newsletter.  What I realized was that the newsletters to which I best responded were those in which I got to know the writer and liked what s/he had to say.  Resources were great, but lessons through personal experiences were incredibly more valuable and were the things that I remembered about the newsletter. I definitely put more "me" into my weekly newsletter now.

3.  Show how you can help clients resolve problems.   I could just kick myself for letting almost 3 years slip away by doing such a slip-shod job in demonstrating my expertise.  Again, resources are useful, but stories of what I'm experiencing or what clients have experienced in their businesses and decisions that have been made to change the way we're doing business are much more helpful to my readers. Hence, in every newsletter, there's now a "Business Gym" article in each issue to help my readers run a better business.

4.  Set aside time to write your newsletter. Finding space in my calendar to set aside time on a weekly basis exclusively for this marketing activity isn't always easy.  There are many times I want to fill that time with "profit generating" activities (i.e. work with clients) rather than holding onto this time as a business development activity.  Since I now publish weekly, it takes me about 2 hours to write the main article for the newsletter.  I now set aside time from 9 AM – noon each Wed. morning and knock out the newsletter copy.  Some weeks the process flows more easily than others.

5.  Repackage and re-purpose your articles. One of my primary motivations now for doing my newsletter is that I've now got a personal article bank of roughly 50 articles that I can reuse, tweak or re-purpose when I need to.  I submit my newsletter article each week to various online article banks through an article distribution service, place it on my website, and have it available to use to create a special ebook or report that I can sell as another income stream, or re-purpose as a special report for a give-away on my website.

What I’ve now discovered is that by having this client “reservoir” in place (my email newsletter subscribers that I go out and “tickle” on a weekly basis), my marketing has gotten so much easier.  On a regular basis one of my readers will wake up and decide that they've had enough and can’t do it this way any longer and decide to hire me.

If you don't currently have a newsletter in place that permits you to reach out and "touch" potential clients regularly, I encourage you to start one.  I realize that not everyone likes nor enjoys writing.  Perhaps there's someone you can team up with who could ghostwrite for you based on some conversations you've had or on some training or other kinds of workshops you deliver. If you currently have an email newsletter, pay more attention to its care and feeding so that it grows a healthy prospective client base for you.  It'll be one of the best investments you'll make for your business.

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR EZINE OR WEB SITE? You can, as long as you include this blurb with it:  Internet Marketing Automation Coach Donna Gunter helps independent service professionals create prosperous online businesses that make more profit in less time by teaching them how to automate their businesses, leverage their expertise, and get found online.  Would you like to learn the specific Internet marketing strategies that get results? Discover how to increase your visibility and get found online by claiming your FREE gift, TurboCharge Your Online Marketing Toolkit, at ==>
http://www.TurbochargeYourOnlineMarketing.com

5 Proven Tactics to Uplevel Your Client Base

I hear from clients constantly who say that their clients can't afford to pay them, or that they're constantly besieged by requests for "pro bono services."  Don't get me wrong -- helping those in need is an admirable part of any business plan and business philosophy. However, if your entire client base is filled with people who can't afford to pay you what you need to charge to stay in business, then you've got a major problem.   You are working with the wrong segment of your target market.

Most of my clients are in the helping professions and feel a great sense of guilt and remorse that they cannot help the many people who truly need what they offer but are unable to pay for the service.  The only way that you can stay in business long enough to offer pro bono services on a selective basis is by finding that segment of your target market who can easily afford to pay what you charge. 

Many of my business-to-business (B2B) service provider clients get a different kind of request from other business owners who claim any number of excuses about why they can't pay the full fee or request free help -- they're a non-profit, they're just starting out, they just went through a divorce, etc.  Here's one thing to remember if you're a B2B service provider:  It is not your responsibility to subsidize another business that has not made adequate financial preparations to be in business.  Period.

Here's how you can uplevel your client base to get in front of more affluent clients:

1.  Raise your prices.  There is an inherent value associated with price.  Are your prices putting you at the bottom, middle, or top of other service providers in your category?  You can offer the best service for a premium price, or you can give your services away very cheaply.  I usually urge moving toward the middle of the pack, but not always.  Regardless of the reality, low prices often connote poor service or tell your clients you're not worth it.  And, by increasing your prices, you get yourself out of the segment of the market who could just barely afford to pay you into a more affluent segment who can more easily afford your rates.

2.  Create a packaged value or system.  Rather than offering time for dollars, try to find better ways to serve your clients through a variety of package options or through creating a system. By doing so, you give the customers options so that they focus on the value of what you offer rather than on the amount of time your spend offering the service.  When your rates reflect this value, you increase the likelihood that the customer will stay with you for a longer period, or will return to you repeatedly.  And, people love to invest in a step-by-step system that makes it easy for them to get their needs met and their problems solved.

3.  Offer a variety of price points.  As your business grows and develops, you'll have more latitude to be able to develop ways to serve clients at all price points, from the very low to the very high.  Many times you can help others by offering information products at lower price points and reserving your higher prices for packages and systems that incorporate some 1:1 time with you.  Develop your upsell funnel so that you have a clear vision of how someone comes into your marketing funnel (typically by signing up for something you offer free of charge) and how the upsell process works to get customers to flow into higher and higher price points as they continue to work with you. 

4.  Make sure your marketing materials are top-notch.  Does your web site, blog, or social networking profiles have a customized, quality look to them, or does it look as though you threw these things together with a minimum of money and effort?  When you have an online business, your online reputation depends upon creating a "wow" factor when someone visits your storefront, i.e. your web site, your blog, your video channel, etc.  Andrew Lock of the "Help! My Business Sucks!" web television show says, "Everything is marketing and marketing is everything."  Don't let a sloppy online presence cost your business.

5.  Clearly articulate the benefits and results of working with you.  People rarely buy a service just to buy a service.  What they're buying are the results of the service.  Do your clients understand the benefits and results gained when they work with you?  Even if you offer a service where the results aren't often quantifiable, you can still look at the impact your service has on every part of your client's life, from health to money to satisfaction to relationships.

If you're not attracting the clients you want to attract, try at least one of these strategies and watch how your client base is transformed!

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR EZINE OR WEB SITE? You can, as long as you include this blurb with it:  Internet Marketing Automation Coach Donna Gunter helps independent service professionals create prosperous online businesses that make more profit in less time by teaching them how to automate their businesses, leverage their expertise, and get found online.  Would you like to learn the specific Internet marketing strategies that get results? Discover how to increase your visibility and get found online by claiming your FREE gift, TurboCharge Your Online Marketing Toolkit, at ==>
http://www.TurbochargeYourOnlineMarketing.com.

Copywriting Tips: How to Market Benefits vs Features

One of the most difficult concepts to grasp for online business owners who are writing their own sales copy is to write about the benefits of your product/service, rather than the features. Even though this skill is critically important, I would guess that less than 10% of business owners truly understand it.  Not surprisingly, it's also the primary reason that so many marketing campaigns fail.

Think about the products and services that you buy.  Why did you purchase them?  One of the reasons I go to the local Firestone auto servicing center to buy my tires and get my oil changed and my car maintained (despite the fact that it's 30 miles from my house) is because Dale, the customer service manager, told me when I first visited this center, "We take care of you so you don't have to worry about breaking down on the side of the road."  That sealed the deal for me -- no other explanation was necessary.

I'm no different than you are.  It's taken me a long time to begin to write about the benefits of what I offer, because, like you, I always assumed that prospects will understand why they should buy the product or service just because I've told them about it.  After all, isn't listing the marvelous features of what I'm offering enough?  Unfortunately, the answer is no.

When you try to sell the features of your product or service, you're making the customer do all the work to figure out why they want the feature. As the seller of your products and services, it's in your prospect's best interest to draw the connection for them. In order to do that, however, you have to know the results yourself.

So, then, what's the difference between benefits and features?  A feature is a factual statement about the product or service being promoted. However, it's not the features that entice customers to buy. That's where benefits come in. A benefit answers the question "What's in it for me?"

The best way to understand the true benefit that your product or service offers is to focus instead on the results that your customer will receive when using said product of service. It is the customer's perception of each feature's result that will attract a prospect to buy a particular product or service.

So, for example, if you were selling a car, one of the features might be "all wheel drive". While your advertising might include that information, you'll fare better in your sale when you focus on the benefits of that feature, such as greater safety when driving on poor surfaces, ability to drive places other vehicles can't, and minimizing the likelihood of getting stuck in the winter. If the prospect says "so what?" when hearing of an aspect of the product, then that aspect is a feature. The answer to the "so what?" question is a potential benefit. 

Let's play this out:

Car ad says: This car has all wheel drive.

Customer reads and says: So what?

Salesperson responds: This means that you're much less likely to get stuck in the snow in the winter.

Ideal customer response: I hate when that happens! That's something I need!

If the response to the answer is another "so what?" or a shrug, then the answer did not nail a benefit for that customer (maybe they live in an area of the country where getting stuck in the winter isn't an issue). Perhaps they would respond better to the "ability to drive places other vehicles can't" or something else.  The key here is knowing and understanding your customers and what they need.

To help you create your list of benefits for your product or service, create a Features and Benefits Sheet. Take a piece of paper and draw a line down the middle. On the left hand side write a list of the features of your product or service. On the right side write the corresponding benefit that goes with that feature. answering the "so what?" question (what problem are you solving) in the process. Once you have completed this exercise, share the sheet with colleagues who will give you honest feedback about your benefits listing.

Remember, success in sales and marketing in your business is all about the benefits to your audience rather than the features you're going to deliver.  It's all about selling the sizzle, not the steak.

Members of OnlineBizU.com can download the Features and Benefits worksheet here.

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR EZINE OR WEB SITE? You can, as long as you include this blurb with it:  Internet Marketing Automation Coach Donna Gunter helps independent service professionals create prosperous online businesses that make more profit in less time by teaching them how to automate their businesses, leverage their expertise, and get found online.  Would you like to learn the specific Internet marketing strategies that get results? Discover how to increase your visibility and get found online by claiming your FREE gift, TurboCharge Your Online Marketing Toolkit, at ==> http://www.TurbochargeYourOnlineMarketing.com

Cyber Monday Deals

Had I not been so addled with cold medications, perhaps I would have remembered that the online alternative to Black Friday for brick and mortar stores is Cyber Monday for online businesses. Of course, this didn't stop Amazon, who ran Black Friday deals all last week and Cyber Monday deals this week.

When I opened my email this morning, I had 10 Cyber Monday offers, with more arriving each minute. Amazingly enough, however, was the fact that all of these email were from ecommerce businesses (selling consumer goods online) rather than from independent service professionals.  So, I guess other solo service professionals like me forgot about this trend, as well! LOL

However, it's not too late to put your special deal together and offer it to your list.  If I had not just run another promotion, I would have quickly put something together, as well.

Happy shopping on this Cyber Monday!

How to Promote Yourself Without the Slime

Q:  How do I market my web site with a non-intrusive manner? So that people feel welcome but not obliged to visit my site?

Marek

A:  Hi Marek -- I think the real question you may be asking is how to promote yourself without feeling like a slimy salesperson.  You do need to send people to your site, for if you don't, how will they ever buy from you?  Unless you have a trust fund that's helping you pay the bills, you need to make sales in order to be profitable.

The best way to sell without selling is to do what I call "educational marketing," or where you share your expertise freely with your prospective customers.  The best way to educate your prospects is by writing a content-rich article each week for your email newsletter, or by posting 2-3 content-rich blog posts each week.  When you do this, you demonstrate to your prospects that you are the expert in a particular arena, and then you can send them to your site for more info on how they can "buy" more of this expertise themselves.  This additional expertise may come in the form of a membership site, an information product, or hiring you for some 1:1 coaching or consulting.

You can get more detailed tutorials on creating ezines and blogs, downloadable audio, and how-to articles to implement any of these strategies with a membership to OnlineBizU.com.

If you think 1:1 marketing coaching might better help you, check out my individual coaching options here.

Got an Internet Marketing question?  Ask it here: AskDonnaGunter.com.

Upsells for a membership site

Q: Can you help me think of ways to upsell, cross sell and reduce refunds for our software membership website?  We do upselling, cross selling and saving refund/cancellation via inbound calls of our existing members who has questions regarding billing, technical concerns and other inquiries. 

Frances Meris
Izonetech-ph.com

A:  Hi Frances -- Great question!  You've already got a good start in that you handle much of this though your inbound call center.  Here are a few more ideas:

1.  Use your shopping cart to create a special one-time offer for another product/service when:

• someone signs up for your software
• someone signs up on your prospect list
• someone purchases another product

2.  When someone calls to cancel their service (if they have been a short-term subscriber), give them a "rural refund".  This is a trick that I've seen other Internet marketers use for physical products.  When a customer calls to return a physical product, they will ask the customer is they live outside a city where it might be troublesome to get to a post office or mailing center to return the product, or just ask if the return process would be troublesome regardless of location.  Assuming the customer will say yes, they offer to refund the customer half of the purchase price if they'll try the product another two months before returning it. If they want to return it at that time, they can do so and get the remainder of their money back.  I'm told this decreases cancellations.

This could also work for a membership subscription by asking the customer to continue to try the membership for an additional 2-3 months at no cost (you extend their membership at no charge).  This also decreases cancellations.

The key in any of these upsells/conversion tactics is to not to try and fool the customer.  Make sure that they fully understand what/if they're being refunded and how much they're being refunded, or if it's an upsell, what additional charges will appear on their card.  By being transparent, you'll avoid having nasty chargebacks levied against your merchant account.

Got an Internet Marketing question?  Ask it here: AskDonnaGunter.com.

How to Use Your Ezine Thank You Page to Create a One Time Offer

Many times, when you sign up for a free giveaway or purchase an item, you are taken to an OTO (One Time Offer) page, where you'll be given the opportunity to purchase a "never to be seen again, one time offer," which is a product that has been discounted for one time only during this one particular transaction.  In this transaction scenario, you have two choices: either buy the product now at the special discounted price, or continue on without buying the product and lose access to the special pricing opportunity. However, you can usually buy the product later, but at a higher price.

Normally, these types of offers drive me crazy because there are usually 3-4 "one time offers" bundled together.  When you decline one, another one pops up.  Sometimes it feels as though the one time offers will never end!  However, after watching several videos recently as veteran Internet marketers touted the benefits of the OTO, I wondered if I might be able to use these in my business without being slimy.

Here's how I decided to implement this strategy:

1.  Determine the offer.  One "one time offer" is quite sufficient for my needs at this point, so I looked through my inventory of products and made a decision on what to offer as a one time unique deal.

2.  Name the price.  Your OTO needs to offer enough of a price reduction to make it truly attractive to your prospect. In many cases, that means a savings of 40-60% off of the regular pricing.

3.  Outline the order of the offer.  In many cases, the OTO is attached to another purchase.  You'll need to determine if your shopping cart can be configured to handle such an offer. In my case, the most natural place for this one time offer is on my ezine subscription thank you page. I have 2 thank you pages created when someone subscribes to my ezine.  The first gives instructions on how to opt into the list.  The second, called a "confirmation success page," gives the visitor access to my free giveaway, or client attraction device, once the visitor has confirmed her email address and opted into my list. For simplicity, I decided to keep my confirmation success page intact, and tie the OTO to my opt-in thank you page.

4.  Craft your copy.  On your ezine thank you page, give your subscriber instructions on how to get on your list, and below, create your OTO that fully describes what you have available, why it's a great deal, and the special price that you're offering.  I also use some OTO graphics that I purchased inexpensively to help me get the message across. Be sure that you give your prospect the option of opting out of this offer.

5.  Test your conversions.  You can test your conversions in many ways -- by changing headlines, graphics, or even at the point you are making the offer.  For me, the conversion calculation was pretty simple -- was it making me sales?  I don't have the figures yet, as I've just started this process, but I'll keep you updated on how I do.

How much money are you leaving on the table by not using one time offers?  Give it a shot, and test to see if it increases your sales.

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR EZINE OR WEB SITE? You can, as long as you include this blurb with it:  Online Business Coach Donna Gunter helps baby boomers create profitable online retirement businesses by demystifying the steps needed to successfully market a baby boomer business online. Would you like to learn the specific Internet marketing strategies that get results? Discover how to increase your visibility and get found online by claiming your FREE gift, TurboCharge Your Online Marketing Toolkit, at == > http://www.TurbochargeYourOnlineMarketing.com

Top 8 Signs of ECommerce Fraud: How to Detect Fraudulent Credit Card Transactions

When you have an online component of your business, experiencing ecommerce fraud is becoming the rule rather than the exception. No longer is it a matter of "if" this will happen to you but "when" it will happen to you. I did some quick research and was astounded at the extent of fraudulent transactions, especially given the poor state of the current U.S. economy.
 
 My first major case of ecommerce fraud happened this past week. I was running a special promotion with my affiliates to see how this marketing strategy for additional sales might work out for me. Unfortunately, I got results I never expected in the way of too many sales happening in a short period of time, which made me suspicious.
 
 After getting additional sales over the weekend, I decided to begin to call the people who were listed as purchasing a membership to my site. Just as I suspected, none of them had heard of me nor my site. In fact, my phone call to some of them was the first indication they had of their credit card information being stolen. This guy (I'm assuming it was a guy, based on how he registered his affiliate account with me) was very thorough in that he had the COMPLETE credit card record for the victims of this fraud, including name, complete address, phone number, credit card number, card expiration date, and credit card security code (verification number).
 
 Even though I had address verification turned on as well as the credit card security code verification turned on in the settings for my online payment gateway, this did me no good. My merchant account provider informed me that when the thief has complete information, there's essentially nothing a merchant can do to prevent fraud. Setting your address verification at maximum may block legitimate sales, especially when the sales are outside the U.S. This leaves many online merchants stuck between a rock and a hard place.
 
 One upside to this situation is that I didn't ship out physical products but was selling virtual items like ebooks and site memberships. I've heard horror stories of merchants losing tens of thousands of dollars in goods shipped to a fraudulent account. My thief's goal in this scam was in collecting affiliate commissions. He was hoping I'd pay out affiliate commissions on his "sales" prior to discovering that all of this sales were fraudulent. Fortunately, I didn't fall prey to that, as I would have been out even a greater amount of money than I already am.
 
 The second upside in this situation is that my thief wasn't bright enough to enter fake telephone numbers. Because he generously provided me with the correct phone numbers of the other victims in this scam, I was able to contact them and let them know what was going on. Otherwise, I would have had to resort to direct mail to reach them if I wasn't able to find a phone number through directory assistance.
 
 So, what were the indicators that these transactions might not be valid? Here are the 8 clues that tipped me off to the possibility of ecommerce fraud:
 
 1. Emails don't resemble the name of the purchaser. I require an email address for a purchase. In the vast majority of cases, the purchaser's email addresses resembles some portion of her name or business. In my case, none of the emails from the recent purchases mirrored the given name of the purchaser. One or two I could count as an oddity -- 5 or 6 in a row made me very suspicious. In this case, all of the emails were valid, as the thief opted into my email marketing system with each email address. However, they weren't the valid email addresses of the people whose names were on the accounts.
 
 2. Sales are exclusive to one affiliate. In this campaign, all of my sales were linked to one affiliate. I suppose he thought I would have other sales, as well, and his would blend in unnoticed with the others. However, he didn't realize that this was my first affiliate campaign, so his sales stuck out like a sore thumb.
 
 3. Sales are all to one gender. By and large, I have more female members than male. All of the sales that I was making last week were from men. Again, one or two is expected, but not multiple ones consecutively. I'm assuming my thief stole card information from some company whose customers are exclusively male.
 
 4. Too many sales of a particular product in too short of a time period. I know the sales pattern for my site. Sales typically trickle in unless I do a special promotional campaign to encourage buying. Granted, I was doing a special promotion at the time, but to sell the number of yearly memberships that I did in a short period of time wasn't usual, as most people choose to purchase the monthly membership option when they join.
 
 5. Transactions occur from same IP address. Fortunately, my merchant account provider and online payment gateway provider capture the IP (web) addresses from which the purchases are made. When I logged into my merchant account, I quickly realized that each of the transactions of the day were all coming from the same IP address. The IP address changed the next day, however, so this won't be a very valuable tool to track the thief. However, I still had my web host block access to my site from these IP addresses as an additional precaution.
 
 6. Too many declined transactions in too short of a period of time. Normally, if someone tries to join my site and their transaction is declined, I don't receive any notification of this. I'm not sure I can change that fact, but I'm certainly more motivated now to regularly log into my merchant account to check my number of declined transactions. Had I been doing this regularly, I would have realized the fraud that was taking place on my site much sooner.
 
 7. Affiliate is in another country. Some countries have a reputation for being a hothouse for online fraud. As I checked the info my affiliate provided in his affiliate account, his address listing didn't seem quite right, and he listed himself as a resident of a country nearby to those known for online fraud. This fact added to my ever-growing list of suspicions.
 
 8. Big ticket items. The sales that were made were consistently my highest-priced item. As mentioned earlier, that sales pattern is unusual for me, so it tipped me off, as well. My thief apparently wanted to rack up the greatest amount of sales in the shortest period of time by repeatedly "buying" my highest-priced item.
 
 I'm still sorting out this mess. Because the card holders have all canceled their cards, I'm unable to refund the money from the fraudulent sales. I'm working with them and their credit card companies to try and rectify the situation from my end and prevent nasty charge backs from being issued to my account (too many of these puts your merchant account in jeopardy, as you then appear to be an unreliable business). My merchant account provider also encouraged me to provide all the info I have about this scam to the Internet Crime Complaint Center.
 
 If your Spidey sense is triggered by unusual sales activity on your web site, don't delay in checking it out. At best, if your suspicions are groundless, you'll make a personal connection to your customers and they'll know you're diligent and you care. At worst, you'll nip this scam in the bud before it gets out of control.
 
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