Over the last month or so there has been a lot of chatter about the “new” FTC rules concerning marketing and advertising. And just this last week I saw a couple of blog posts concerning guidelines from payment processing companies.

To start with I would suggest that you read these blogs, and the FTC rules. A lot of marketers seem to be upset with these things. The links are at the bottom of this post.

Although there are some things that I consider to be going a bit too far in these things, the way I look at it over all is that, if you are running your business in an ethical, and honest way, you really don’t have much to worry about. But it would be wise to take a look at these changes and guidelines as they are released so that you know what is going on and are prepared for any changes that my affect you and your business.

After reading through all of this, it’s my opinion that the ones being targeted here are the ones that are using deceitful practices that do harm the consumer.

Bottom line? If you’re working in the Network/Internet Marketing arena, the best practice is to be up front, honest and ethical. I’d be willing to bet that even those that use shady practices don’t like paying for something they did not authorize. Or to be scammed them selves. Although I’m sure that there are those out there who just don’t care. They are the ones that have only one thing on their mind. Money. They are just greedy in my opinion.

Either way, if these are the rules that we have to operate within, then it’s in our best interest to know about and understand them.

Having money and attaining your dreams and goals is not a bad thing. And there are plenty of honest, successful people out there that are willing to help others and share information. But keep this in mind. You see, it comes down to knowing and trusting the people you work with. That holds true for your customers as well. Most people will buy from someone they know and trust before they would a total stranger and sometimes, gladly pay more for what ever it is they are buying because of that trust. They know that if something goes wrong, they will be taken care of. Or they know they will get that extra attention that every one likes.

Treat your online business as though it were a typical brick and mortar business. Most things that apply to an offline business as far as general practices and principles also apply to an online business. I see a lot of people who don’t treat it as business and then wonder why they don’t succeed.

Being in business is all about providing a solution to a problem. Either by supplying a product or service. Being deceitful or dishonest isn’t going to go very far in helping someone. And once they find out what’s going on, and they usually do, you will loose that customer forever. Not to mention ruin whatever reputation you may have had.

A mentor of mine has a definition of marketing. “Marketing is the art and science of communicating, empowering, and building a relationship with another human being based on their needs. Not mine or yours.” If you build your business using this definition as a model, it will take you a long way towards achieving your success. And help you keep more loyal customers.

I think a lot of people are not sure what is going on with these so called new rules and practices that are being laid out. Don’t be afraid of the big bad wolf. Just play the game on his playing field. You can still be successful using the Internet.

Here are some links that will help you understand the guidelines and rules.

Best practices post 1
Best practices post 2 (Bill M has some links to the FTC documents so be sure to check those out as well.)
Interview with an Assistant Deputy at the FTC

Have a great day and an even better tomorrow!

Bill

P.S. I see that my friend Rex Harris has a blog post on the same subject. Check out his take on these rules and guidelines at: RexHarrisLive

Jay Rockefeller wants to shut down the Internet!

I’ve re-posted the video here.

Now if the isn’t the most ridiculous thing I have heard in a long time!

It seems to me that these people have no idea what the Internet is, how it functions, or how it is used. Enough with these scare tactics already!

I remember when we communicated with computers using the telephone system through analog lines. The advances in technology now let us do the same thing using digital signals with much faster speeds that are increasing constantly. The bottom line is it’s still people communicating with people. Only now we can do it faster, more productively, and for the most part more securely that in the past.

Yes, we have viruses and hackers who have nothing better to do than try and disrupt things. But consider this. The amount of people using computers to communicate now as compared to years ago, when people first started using computers, has increased by astronomical rates. So due to the sheer volume of activity, we hear more about those attacks than in the past. As our technology increases so does the technology of the hackers.

Try to imagine the amount of people using the Internet and how we are all connected. It’s not through one single server or computer. It’s through tons and tons of them. So if anybody thinks that they can just shut the internet down, or stop people from communicating with each other, I say good luck. I can’t even imagine the man power, time, law suits, etc that it would take to even come close to shutting it down.

Anti virus programs and hardware are constantly being developed and updated to keep up with what I call nothing more than a common thief. If it were ever to get bad enough, that it would shut down the bulk of the servers and computers, people would find another way. It’s called ingenuity!

Now if Jay really wants to try and shut down the Internet, I say knock your self out!

Let me analogize this another way. How about we all just shut ourselves in our houses, put up electrical fencing and other deterrents around the house, and just become hermits. Do really think that that is going to stop a thief who has the determination to get in from doing so? Or how about we close down places like Wrangler, and Calvin Klein. Remember the things that went on with other companies stealing secrets from others to try and get an advantage? Or how about those that cheat the speed limit. Ok, well lets fix that as well. Lets just ban the automobile. Well then we still have the roads and thieves hiding in the bushes waiting for the stage coach or innocent horse rider to come by. I know, lets close the roads.

Look folks, the world is full of people who lie, cheat and steal! It has been since Adam took the bite of the apple or since the beginning of time depending on your belief system. And it will always be that way. I mean it just seems to me that people nowadays are looking for short cuts.

How about getting up, and doing what ever it takes to overcome the fears and obsticles that are holding you back. Start by telling the obiously ingorant people who try to change and rule our lives by thinking that they know better that we how to do so, to sit down and sut up! There are scare tactics being used by a lot of people in power. And that’s all they are.  Scare tactics. We have a choice. Either we fall into their trap and accumulation of power, or we tell them WE THE PEOPLE are going to decide for ourselves.

All of that being said, we still need rules and guidelines to follow. Those that are ethical and truthful know this and do follow these rules. It’s sad that things like viruses, theft (even in the brick and mortar world), murder, etc happen. When it happens to you personally you get fired up and mad. Well as far as the Internet goes, its no different. Use the tools and rulse to protect yourself. They are out there. But so are the bad guys, and they always will be. It’s ultimately up to the individual to protect themselves and to also create their successes or failures.

Have a great day and an even better tomorrow!

Bill

Here is the link to :  Rex Harris Live that triggered this post.

Thanks for stopping by.

Have you ever been out on the Internet doing research, reading blogs, etc and read blogs with poor grammar and spelling?  When I start reading an article and see misspelled words, things that should be capitalized and aren’t, my mind starts correcting the mistakes and it takes away from the reason I went to that article. The information I went there to get.

I have done that in the past. You know, gotten in a hurry and just wrote my article on the fly and posted it only to find out from one of the readers that there were errors in it. Kind of embarrassing. And in some cases irreversible.

There is an easy way to fix that. What I do is use Microsoft Word, (any good word processor will work), to initially type out my document or content. By doing this, with the spell checker and grammar checker active, it shows me where I have misspelled words or grammar issues. And in most cases, will automatically correct the error on the fly. I then copy and paste the article, or content where I will be using it.

At a minimum I would recommend proof reading my content before I post it. It makes for a better read for the people reading and makes understanding what you are trying to say that much easier. If you are using a blog as a place to do business or sell something, doesn’t it make sense to make it as easy for people to understand as possible? And not only that, but by making sure your spelling and grammar are as good as they can be, it will look professional and be more appealing to the readers.

Even after I have created my document in the word processor, I always go back and read through it. Word processors are great and catch a lot. But they don’t catch everything. And then once I have it posted, I usually have someone else read through it just to make sure. That way, I get another opinion on things and sometimes even a suggestion or two as how to best phrase things.

This is not only good to use for blogs, but with any article you may be writing to post to things like ezine directories, advertising sites, promotional web sites. Really, anything you do online.  People will find it much more pleasurable to read your material without all of the misspelled words and poor grammar.

Another nice thing about using word processors is that it doesn’t take that much more time to type an article, ad, or any other content, than doing it directly from the blog site or wherever you are going to put your content. The only time difference is the copy and pasting. And that only takes a couple of seconds to do.

So do yourself a favor and take the extra time, use a word processor to create your document before posting it to the web. If you have good content that people want, you will increase your followers and readers considerably.

Happy Blogging, Article Writing, Etc,

Bill

So the first thing is to have a title that captures the attention of your audience. If the title does not capture their attention, your message will most likely get the old delete key treatment. The only way to really find out what works and what doesn’t is to track your results. So make sure you test your email campaigns by tracking them and only using the ones that get you the response you’re looking for.

Next comes the body of your message. The one thing I can say here is to keep it short and to the point. Especially if you’re using that email to send them to a link that will lead them to a splash, squeeze, or capture page.

By the way, another tip is to not send them directly to a sales page. Get them to a capture page so that you can use that to build your list.

Too many people tend to want to write a sales page in their email message. It just gets way too long and your readers lose interest and move on. I see a lot of messages come through my email box that do this. They try to sell from the email itself. And then fill the message up with links making it so long and noisy that I just delete it and move on. If you’re sending them to a splash, squeeze or capture page, your readers will get the information there.

There is a formula that you can use when doing email marketing. It goes like this. “Why, What, How, What if“. Use the “Why” for your title. Why do you want them to read your message. Then in the body, “What” are you offering. “How will it benefit your readers. Use the “What if” to provide a call to action or urgency. For instance, if you don’t act by a certain time, or if you don’t act you will not get the benefits of the offer, etc. This can be done using one or two sentences for each part of the formula, keeping it short and to the point. Offering an incentive for the “What if” is a good way to get your readers attention and a click through to your blog, splash, squeeze or capture page.

Peak the readers interest with your email message and let the web site do the selling. After all, your goal is to get them to that sales page where they will buy your product or service. A savvy reader will recognize a sales type email and unless it is something they are really looking for will probably just delete it.

These tips are particularly handy when using safelists. Most people who use this type of venue don’t really read the message. Sorry, but it is the truth. They only open the email long enough to find the credit link and click that to build their credits for sending their own emails. So a lot of the time if the title doesn’t catch their attention or if the message is too long and they have to scroll for a mile before they find the credit link, they just move on.

Oh and when these safelists allow it, be sure to use personalization. By seeing their name a reader will be more likely to open that message before they would any other.

Look at it this way. Your readers time is valuable just like yours. So don’t waste their time or yours by creating an email no one will read.

I hope this helps in creating a successful email campaign for you.

Have a great day and an even better tomorrow!

Bill

We really love it when she comes over but being 3 years old, she can be a handful at times. It’s all good though because do we love her very much. They have so much natural energy at that age and are constantly on the go. It used wear us out a bit when she would be with us. But with the Energy Matrix, it’s not a problem keeping up with her. Like she say’s in the video, “Energy Matrix Rocks“.

I get a consistent level of energy that lasts for hours. And it’s not like an instant sugar high and then the crash after the sugar wears off like you get with other high energy type drinks. And after doing a little research, I found out that a lot of those high energy or sports drinks have some things that just aren’t very good for the body.  Here is an article from Global Healing Center on the Dangers of Energy Drinks .

Now a lot of people like it because of the fat burning characteristics in it. For me that’s an added benefit and it will be interesting to see if that spare tire I’ve been carrying around will have the air let out of it. I can say that since using the product I have noticed a decrease in appetite.  We go out to eat at the ‘all you can eat buffet’ sometimes. I had always figured I may as well get my money’s worth at a place like that. But now if I try to eat like I used to I just feel bloated and over stuffed. I’m not one that checks the scales very often but I know I could probably stand to lose a pound or ten or twenty and based on the decrease in appetite, I probably am. I might have to check the scale more often to see if I am losing any weight.

You can find out more about Energy Matrix and more here…..  GBG page

Thanks for stopping by!

Have a great day and an even better tomorrow!

Bill