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Marketing humour from The Onion. Because sometimes you need to laugh. Read the full article here.

OK, might be as big as Google one day. Internet entrepeneur Adam Blair has created a search engine called Windizzi, and he’s giving everyone a free share if his site goes public!

Is it possible for Windizzi to become as popular as Google? I really don’t know - it will definitely be a challenge, but the idea itself is genius… think of the viral marketing potential. (After all, I’m telling you this, right? And somebody told me about it… so the “virus” is working!)

I also tried the engine itself and the search results seem to be of high quality. Why not give it a try for a few days, and see what you think? (Don’t forget to bookmark this site first.)

Gobala Krishnan decided to split test his marketing campaign for his Wordpress Adsense System. He sent 100 clicks to one version of his sales letter (A), and 100 to another (B).

The results shocked him. Letter A generated 0 sales, while letter B generated 4.

The difference between the two headlines was a single word!

“In other words, just changing one word in my salesletter is going to increase my profit by 400%. Amazing, isn’t it? The old version of the headline already made me $9,000+ so I can only imagine what the figure would be if I had done this earlier.” You can read his full post here.

It’s crazy, isn’t it? - that a single word can have such an effect. You can and should start testing your headlines right away - it could be costing you lost sales.

As I explain in my e-series, if you’re not getting a whole lot of traffic, then use a multi-step split test, so you’re not measuring sales.

Seth Godin writes one of those short, straight-to-the-point posts that will keep you (and me) inspired for many months to come.

I’m not going to blink, Seth.

A fascinating discussion has been taking place recently on a couple of marketing forums regarding the concept of giving customers the opportunity of paying whatever they like for a product!

It may seem a bit alien to us in the marketing world, but it’s a concept that’s been around a while, and some of the results I’m seeing are proving to be fascinating. The Seattle Times recently reported on a real-life example of this:

“With its blood-red walls and black leather sofas, Kirkland’s Terra Bite Lounge looks like any other coffee shop — until you get to the menu. There are no prices listed. Terra Bite doesn’t have them. You read that right: No prices. Customers pay what and when they like, or not at all.”

As marketers, this might sound crazy… but how’s it been working out for them?

“So far, Terra Bite has served up to 80 customers per day, averaging about $3 per transaction, he said. When the shop brings in a steady flow of 100 customers a day, Peretz figures, he will more than break even.”

Could this work on the Internet? I think so… here’s one example we’ve been discussing:

Leonard Payne sent an email out to a list of 1,311 subscribers. Of the 283 unique visitors to his sales page generated from that mailing, about 33% paid him less than $1, about 33% paid him between $1 and $5, and last third paid between $5 and $20.

Now, I can hear you thinking… Hang on, Paul… what about those $0.01 customers? Aren’t they just a bunch of freeloaders?

Well, to a certain extent, yes - but here’s something that, once you understand it, will boost your marketing tenfold*:

KEY POINT: The person who spends even just $0.01 with you is now a customer. They have given you money, pulled out their credit card for you. Your relationship with them changes.

* Your boosting “fold-age” may vary.

You see, there could be any number of reasons why somebody paid only $0.01.

(a) Maybe that’s all they could afford at the time,

(b) Maybe they didn’t appreciate the value of what they’d just purchased,

(c) Maybe they were just freeloaders.

It doesn’t matter… you see, if you deliver as promised, regardless of what they spend with you today, who’s to say the person who spends $0.01 with you today, doesn’t become the person who spends $50 on your software three months down the line, or $1,000 on your mentoring package a year from now?

Later on I’ll share more results from these Pay Me What You Like experiments. (I also discuss this concept in more detail in my e-course.)

But for now, just think about it… won’t you?

Which of the following sites would you say is more successful? Which site would you prefer to be?…

Site A has 1,000 visitors a week, and converts 4% of these visitors into customers.

Site B has 4,000 visitors a week, and converts 1% of its visitors into customers.

Site C has 100 visitors a week, and converts 1% of these into customers.

Personally, I’d choose Site C, because they’re selling fighter planes at $10 million a pop, and so even with just 1 sale a week, they’re turning over half a billion dollars worth of product a year. (And I hear the commission payouts are excellent on fighter planes!)

OK, so I didn’t tell you about that little fact when I asked you to choose…which is kind of  my first point - it isn’t always about how much traffic you get. Often its about the kind of traffic you get.

After all, the site with 100 visitors a week was doing just fine, thank you very much.

Now let’s eliminate Site C and re-phrase the question more fairly:

Assuming both sites sell the same $100 product, which site is better off?

Site A - 1,000 visitors a week, 4% conversion.

Site B - 4,000 visitors a week, 1% conversion.

Actually, they both make 40 sales, so they’re both selling $4,000 worth of product - sounds like a dead heat, doesn’t it?

Not quite… there are always other factors to take into consideration before we decide who’s making the most money. With more visitors, Site B could be building a bigger email list to make more money in the long run.

On the other hand, Site A is making $4 a visitor, while Site B is making just $1 per visitor.

So if it costs $0.50 for each site to generate one visitor through Pay Per Click advertising, then Site B is making a 100% profit on its ad spend, while Site A is making a 700% profit!

All it takes is for Site A to roll out a wider advertising campaign, and - assuming it maintained the same conversion ratio - it could steamroller Site B!

What’s my point? It’s this…

Traffic is essential to have - but if your site converts well, you’ll always be able to buy more of it.

The same is not necessarily true in reverse - you may have lots of traffic, but if they don’t convert well, will you be able to pay for more?

Bottom line… convert as many of your existing traffic stream as you can, and then you’ll be able to afford to pay for more visitors!

How can you do this? Keep reading my blog to find out. (Or if you want immediate answers, sign up for my e-series).

Thanks for stopping by! This site is devoted to helping you turn your visitors into hungry buyers - and hopefully even fans!