Winning Ware

I’ve been meaning to write this review for a while, but unlike most cheeseball marketers who just use “canned copy” provided by the product owner and try to pass it off as a “review” in the name of making a few bucks affiliate commission, I needed to find the time to actually do a detailed review of what is a very comprehensive and powerful product.

So what is Sales CSI?

Sales CSI

Well, the product creator, Rick Braddy, has taken the “CSI” detective theme and applied it to e-commerce. You become a “sales detective” during the course. In his product, CSI stands for “Conversion Success Investigation”. Basically, the course is for people who are making sales and want to identify ways to improve their conversion rate by reverse engineering the source of the sales (both the referring website or search engine keyword and the content they views on your site) and using that knowledge to generate more sales.  While these are advanced Internet marketing strategies, they are worth learning and applying as soon as you start making sales because it’s a lot easier to improve your conversion rate by a percentage point or two than it is to double or treble your traffic. Let me illustrate with an example…

If you get 1,000 visits per month at a 1% conversion rate, you make 10 sales. If you improve the conversion rate to 2%, you’ll double your sales to 20 per month. If you went in search of more traffic INSTEAD of improving your conversion rate, you’d have to double that… which means getting 2,000 visits per month instead of 1,000. Ouch!

In order to improve your conversion rates you need to install tracking tools to let you measure what’s happening at your site. “You can’t improve what you don’t measure” is an old marketing axiom.

The course is delivered as a series of online videos, along with the MP4 video files to download if you wish. It would’ve been nice to have PDF transcripts and perhaps the slideshow slides, but as a video course, it works just fine.

Sales Detective

Module One consists of five videos and explains the “nuts and bolts” of tracking, including how to install both Analytics and Adwords to track signups, leads, conversions and sales. From what I understand, you can use Analytics or Adwords, you don’t have to use both. Further tracking tools such as Open Tracker and Affiliate Prophet are covered to go “way beyond” Google Analytics and track real-time visitor actions on your website including the path they take through your site and their site interaction metrics. I like how Rick takes you through actual data from his main websites… there aren’t many Internet marketers willing to do that. A good example is the attention and conversion stats from his Affiliate Prophet account, which illustrates what you can do with the tool.

Module Two consists of four videos (almost another hour of tutorials!) and goes into far greater detail for Analytics (goals and funnels, big picture and segmented views), Affiliate Prophet and Open Tracker for detailed analysis.

Once you’re able to gather all your data and know how to generate the most useful reports, the five videos in Module Three take you through “forensic analysis” of the data you’ve acquired to back-track from the sale or lead to the source of the sale or lead such as how they found your site and which content they viewed, so you can determine your most effective marketing methods. When you’ve identified what piece of content resulted in a “buying decision”, you can focus on that as your primary content creation method and also direct other traffic on your website to the pieces of content that generates buyers. Similarly, you can see which pieces of content don’t result in sales, and down-grade your use of that content.

Module four is just one important video which takes you through the important decisions you can make based on the data and analysis you’ve done so far. As I said above, you can amplify, reduce and another option, fix (for if something is discovered to not work properly on your site).

Module five (three videos) takes you through the fine-tuning of your decisions and re-evaluation of the effectiveness of your decisions. These modules also walk you through using Google’s Website Optimizer to do A/B and multi-variate split testing.

Finally, Module six (two videos) look at the best practices associated with increasing conversions such as modelling the best practices in your industry such as your competitor’s homepages and squeeze pages and the key elements on those pages that most affect the conversion rates.

Overall, this is a very complete course for intermediate and advanced Internet marketers who want to learn how to increase the conversion rates of signups and sales. It’s an easy-to-follow set of videos done by a conversion expert who explains advanced concepts easily. I highly recommend it.

Click here for more information on becoming a Sales Detective with Sales CSI!

As a follow up to my earlier review of Traffic Grab, I made a video inside the member’s area to show you around. You’ll see how extensive the product is, and my thoughts about the value for money it offers. Take a look…

To watch the four free Traffic Grab videos, click here. (no optin required)

What do you prefer, text reviews or video reviews from inside the member’s area? Let me know, below… I’ll leave comment open for a few days…

Traffic Grab is a massive digital product explaining how to generate visitors to websites as a means to increase the profits for those websites.

Traffic Grab

The product information is delivered as videos (streaming and downloadable), MP3 audio files, PDF transcripts and slides. Basically, whatever media helps you learn best is available, apart from having James fly to your house and coach you!

Why I’m Qualified To Review Traffic Grab

A few months ago, I launched my Fast Traffic Blueprint ebook. In it I described taking a brand new blog from domain registration to over 100,000 free visits in 12 months… so I know a thing or two about generating traffic… and I know how to quickly and easily tell the difference between QUALITY information about traffic generation and RUBBISH released by people trying to make a fast buck.

Is Traffic Grab Any Good?

I’ve been lucky enough to be allowed to review Traffic Grab, the traffic-generation course by James Schramko, and I have to say, this is a hugely impressive product. It’s like the “big daddy” to my Blueprint, yet is easily affordable for everyone.

James Schramko

While James and I covered similar topics, we come at them from different angles. My ebook followed the timeline of WHAT I did at my blog and was laser-focused on the step-by-step blueprint of getting targetted free traffic, fast.

James takes a much more long-term approach to traffic generation. He takes a “top down” view looking at the big picture, and then zooms in to each traffic-generating technique individually. A great example is his “spaghetti bowl” diagram, showing how he inter-links websites…

Spaghetti-Bowl

When you look at it from the “top down”, it looks crazy, but then James takes you through each part and the overall system starts to make sense. By the end of the course, you’ll be slapping your forehead and saying, “AHH, so THAT’s how it works”!

What’s In The Course?

As I said, Traffic Grab is a monster course which easily rivals the best courses but at a fraction of the price. Here’s a breakdown of the modules inside Traffic Grab…

Free Modules:

• Intro, Research, Content, Site 

Main Course Modules:

• Article Traffic, Web 2.0 Traffic, Video Traffic, Affiliate Traffic, Bookmarking Traffic, Press Release Traffic, Blog Traffic, RSS Traffic, Facebook Traffic, List Traffic, Twitter Traffic, PPC Traffic, CPV Traffic, Forum Traffic, Ezine Traffic, Media Traffic, Podcast Traffic, Classifieds Traffic, Webinar Traffic, Word Of Mouth Traffic, Ping Traffic, Conversions, Leverage 

Who Should Get Traffic Grab?

Well, it would be a bit of a cliche to say, “anyone wanting more traffic should get Traffic Grab”, but that’s really the bottom line. I guess, if you’re a super-ninja traffic master who knows everything there is to know about getting visitors to your sites, you won’t need this product. Frankly, everyone from newbies to experts will learn something new from Traffic Grab!

What Should I Do Next?

James has put the first three modules of Traffic Grab, and the introduction, online for you to view for free… no opt-in required. So there’s no risk in checking it out and seeing if you like James’ style of presentation before you decide to learn from the rest of the course.

Let me know what you think of Traffic Grab and James’ professional style, below. I really like it. It’s great to see honest, quality advice from an expert instead of nonsense from a shady “guru”. What do you think?

Paul Smithson and the guys at Intellimon have gone a bit loco and have bundled their best-selling website creation product, XSitePro, with another of their quality products, “The Complete Guide To Website Building“. The good news is that for a limited time you get a $100 discount when you buy both!

Normally the two products together would cost $394, but the $100 discount offer brings that to just $294.

Be fast if you want this, I think the offer ends soon…

Back in December 2009, Martin Avis started selling an ebook called, “One Tip” which was a collection of best “success tips” from 25 Internet marketers including Martin and myself. All proceeds from the sales of One Tip went to charity.

I read today that Martin’s making the One Tip ebook available again and, as before, all proceeds will go to charity. Here are the details, direct from Martin’s Kickstart newsletter…

Hi ,

I had planned to tell you about something today that, had you
bought it, would have put some nice commissions into my PayPal
account. It is a good product and I will no doubt talk about it
in the future. But something has happened over the last few days
that has changed my mind and my plans for today’s Kickstart.

Long-time readers will know that I’m a member of my local Rotary
Club – the Rotary Club of Sidcup – and that each Christmas teams
of ten of us at a time go out almost every evening in December
with Father Christmas and a brightly-lit sleigh playing Christmas
carols. The aim is to knock on every single home in our town to
ask for donations to our annual Christmas collection.

It has become a local tradition. People who remember the Rotary
Santa’s visit when they were children now eagerly wait at their
doors with their own wide-eyed little ones.

All of the money raised (as a Rotary Club, everything we do is
voluntary, so there are zero admin costs or overheads) goes to
help charities and worthy causes all over the world.

But this year there has been a problem.

The Siberian snow that has gripped most of the UK for the last
week has forced us to cancel all the collections so far. The
sidewalks and many of the roads in Sidcup are still sheets of ice
and with many of the collectors being over 70 it has been simply
too dangerous to risk Rotarians falling and breaking bones.

And that means our collection is going to be way down this year.
We don’t expect to be able to even start our appeal this year
until the end of this week and there is no way that we can catch
up financially.

Of course, being Rotarians, many will put their hands in their
own pockets to try to help. And I’m sure that we will organize
extra fundraisers in 2011 to try to plug the gap as best we can.

But the sad fact is that we are already thousands of pounds down
and if we don’t have the money, we can’t help the people who need
it most.

* People like the 40 or so seniors who have nowhere to go at
Christmas so we pay for them to have a Christmas lunch and a few
hours in the company of their peers.

* People like the local athletics club for disabled children who
we donated a lump sum of cash to in 2010.

* People like the charity that helps get unwanted, unloved
children off the streets of Columbia so they won’t be dragged
into a short life of crime and may be able to have a productive
future.

* People like the survivors of the Haiti earthquake or the
Pakistan floods who have benefited from the many Shelter boxes
that our club has sent in 2010 – many of them paid for by the
funds we raised last Christmas.

The list is huge. In 2010 we have made donations to dozens of
charities amounting to many thousands of pounds and all because
we had the money to do so thanks to last year’s Christmas Appeal.

Last year, in order to boost our appeal, I made a very special
book. In fact, many people said it was the most valuable book
they bought in 2009.

In it, 25 successful Internet marketers each wrote an article
that explained their one tip for success. Success for online
marketers, offline businesses or for life in general.

It was a labor of love for all concerned and it raised a lot of
money for the Rotary appeal as 100% of the price went directly to
the Rotary Club’s PayPal account. There are no affiliates.

The plan was to sell One Tip for one month only and then to
retire it forever.

The dire situation we find ourselves in now has forced me to
rethink that plan. So I have taken the decision to offer ‘One
Tip’ again this year.

Every word in One Tip is good, useful, current and vital to
your success. There is no waffle, no hype or flim-flam and
absolutely no pitching.

And at just $17, it is likely to be the best value thing you’ve
bought all year!

If you were not a Kickstart reader last year and so didn’t know
about One Tip, now is your chance to find out what all the fuss
was about!

And if you did buy it last year, please buy it again! You could
send it to a friend!

Either way, please consider the $17 price tag to be a small
donation that will have a huge impact on the lives of many people
who are seriously in need.

You can read all about One Tip and see the list of contributors
at http://onetip.org

Or, if you would simply like to make a donation, please PayPal as
much as you are comfortable with to paypal@rotary-sidcup.org

Please note that if you make it a Personal payment and check
‘gift’ in the panel at the bottom of the Send Money page, there
will be no commissions taken by PayPal.

I’m sorry to have hijacked this issue of Kickstart, but I hope
that you’ll agree it was in a very good cause.

Please help us at the Rotary Club of Sidcup to help thousands of
people in need this coming year.

Thank you.

Martin

Good luck with the fundraising, Martin!

Why not pick up a copy of “One Tip” and help raise money for charity while expanding your Internet marketing knowledge? No affiliate links were used in the above post.

If you sell any kind of digital product online, you’ll know all about “digital thieves” and the loss of revenue they cause. The more you try to “lock down” your products to prevent thieves from stealing and redistributing them, the more you aggravate your genuine customers who want simple, easy product access.

So what can you do? Well, the methods for dealing with the thieves depends on what type of thieves you’re dealing with. Are they the “professional refunders“, the “unaware it wasn’t a free ebook” downloaders or the “all information deserves to be free” freeloaders? Each type has different counter-measures.

My long-time friend, Dr Mani, the heart surgeon (yes, he is a genuine friend… we wrote about his Heart Kids Blogathon back in 2006 at this blog and have known him for far longer than that) has written a series of reports called “Don’t Get Mad” which describe the counter-measures you can take to deal with the different kinds of digital thieves.

I particularly liked the strategies to gain positives from any refunds. Anyone selling anything dislikes refunds, but they’re just a normal part of doing business. By implementing Dr Mani’s strategies when people ask for refunds, you could potentially save some sales, and generate new business in the future.

I have to admit, I read the refund report particularly closely because I shot myself in the foot in the early days online by saying people could ask for a refund “for no reason and with no questions asked”. The only problem with that guarantee was that I NEEDED to know WHY people asked for refunds so that I could potentially prevent future refund requests perhaps by improving the product or sales process. I ditched the “no questions asked” part of the refund policy so that I could ask the reasons behind the refund requests. I know for a fact, you get some very, very useful and profitable replies!

Get Dr Mani’s “Dont Get Mad” reports from here. Yes, he’s selling them. Yes, it’s a very low price. No, I’m not using an affiliate link.

My recommendation for today… download and read this Free Traffic Report. It’s a 139 page report by Paul Smithson who got boffins from the University of Bradford to analyse survey answers from thousands of people about how they’re generating traffic and building businesses online.

As you know, I’ve been heavily involved in generating free traffic this year, with some great results… including affiliate sales in multiple niche markets… but this report was still an eye-opener for me!

You’ll find out answers to such questions as…

“Does social media really work for business?”

“Do you need to be educated to make money online?”

“Can you really make it part time”?

“Do you need experience to succeed”?

“Which traffic generation tactics work best in the early years?”

“How long does it typically take to achieve success online?”

So if you want to know what everyone else is doing, if they have the same problems as you, and what they’re doing about them, check out this report… all it will “cost” is your email address.

http://www.neilshearing.com/traffic/
This report could easily be sold for a small fortune as “competitive intelligence”, and would be worth the money. Don’t be fooled by the fact that Paul’s giving it away… it’s a very valuable report. Grab your copy now… download it to your desktop and enjoy the info!

One of the Internet marketing newsletters I love to read (and there aren’t many!) is called Online Marketing Today by Duncan Carver. I’ve been getting the newsletter for years and Duncan is a canny Kiwi who always provides top-quality information in the free newsletter.

Check out these examples…

How We Doubled The Income From Our Niche Website…

How To Find Niche Market Ideas & Products That Actually Sell Using Amazon…

Social Bookmarking & Networking Plugin For WordPress…

All that is from just the latest newsletter!

Be sure to sign up for what is one of the best free Internet marketing newsletters.

My friend Gauher recently took an enforced hiatus from his online marketing because his 4-year old son, Shaan, was diagnosed with Leukaemia.

Fortunately, Shaan is in remission and home from hospital, allowing Gauher to get back to marketing. One of the first things Gauher set up was an offer on his CPA Quantum course, which is about traffic generation in many different ways. But, as a special angle, which shows why Gauher is one of just a few dozen online marketers I respect, he announced that the proceeds of sales of CPA Quantum are going to the hospital where his son was treated. What’s more, it’s very reasonably priced, unlike some over-hyped products. So, head over to this page, and check it out.

(that’s not an affiliate link and I don’t know how long Gauher will leave the special pricing, so check it out now)

Here’s the scoop on “Dominating Niches” by Chris Freville…one of the best value-for-money products I’ve ever seen.

The product is a step-by-step system for researching profitable niches, creating and promoting websites, building lists, and earning money from niche websites.

It’s an “all in one” product for making an income online.

When I reviewed the product I was *stunned*. Honestly. Chris has put in such a huge amount of quality info, I didn’t know where to begin… and I figured that the ONLY problem with Dominating Niches is that you may feel overwhelmed too… so I took several pages of notes of the most important bits and made a movie giving you an overview of the product and the “Core Concepts” to show you where everything is, and how it all hangs together.

The movie turned out to be 37 minutes long! That’s because there’s SO much in this product… like the 151-page PDF, the 43-page PDF, 10 movies, software and software guide.

So, if you grab a copy of Dominating Niches from 12 noon EST today (Tuesday) and check that on the payment page it says “affiliate ID = scamfree”, I’ll personally email you a link to my 37-minute “Core Concepts” movie and PDF notes to get you started. [offer ends 2nd July 2009]

By the way, my “review access” was to only the PDF’s and 4 of the 10 movies. I didn’t see the software or the other six movies, which is probably a good thing or my movie would’ve been an hour long!

Chris has just shown me the customer download area and I can see that the PDF’s, all 10 movies and the software are all ready to be downloaded. I tested the software and it worked perfectly.

Other marketer’s would’ve charged $497 for this product, but the amount Chris is asking for leads me to call it “one of the best value-for-money products I’ve ever seen”.

BTW, there is an offer after you buy for the “Dominating Niches Private Club” which I’ve just seen inside, and it maintains the same high value. I suggest grabbing that too. It will save you a lot of time implementing the Dominating Niches system.