Don’t you wish you could do one thing over in your online business?
When you first enter the world of Internet marketing, the amount of things you have to learn in a short time can be overwhelming! Because there are a so many things to learn, it’s easy to make mistakes early on that could hurt your ability to make money online.
In this post, I am going to talk about a huge mistake we made when we first got into business online, and hopefully help you avoid the error that probably cost us thousands of dollars in sales.
Here we go
When I started our first website, I was so focused on getting my logo right, designing the nice looking website, and perfecting my SEO that I didn’t even pay attention to the most important component of any business: my audience (the customers)!
I started a digital download service for teachers where they could submit and share worksheets and other activities for free. My goal was to put ads all over the pages where the activities were found. The plan was for teachers to come to the site, download a worksheet, and maybe click on an ad that paid us on a per click basis.
The site was a moderate success and actually helped us earn our first money online.
Hundreds of visitors started coming through the site, downloading content, and occasionally clicking on ads.
One night I received a comment from a visitor that said, “Do you sell lesson plans that go with these worksheets?“
At first I thought, “What a great idea! They come looking for the free content and there is a related product to buy!”
Selling products is way more profitable than ad clicks, this could be a whole new way to earn money online.
The Mistake
I started looking at the numbers.
I noticed that hundreds of people had downloaded a particular activity.
If only a fraction of those visitors had bought a $10 product instead of clicked on a $1 ad, it could have meant hundreds, maybe even thousands of dollars in income!
Then it hit me… I could just go ahead and make the product and send it to all the people that had downloaded the related worksheet!
I knew they were interested in the subject. I had their attention and good will by giving them a free product. Now I just had to give them more of what they already wanted!
There was a HUGE problem though.
I didn’t know who any of my visitors were.
Hundreds of people had been through that page, but they were just random people jumping on my sight from Google. Anonymous web surfers who got what they want and left without even thinking there was more there for them to see and buy.
I was sick. How could I have made such a huge mistake. All these people walking into my online store, practically begging to buy something… and I let them leave without even asking for their name.
The Solution
I started looking for ways to gather information about my visitors. As I began to look for solutions, I discovered a powerful saying in the Internet marketing world:
“the money is in the list.”
I needed to gather the names of my visitors, a way to contact them with offers (email, phone, etc.), and keep the information in a permanent customer list. That way when I had something to sell, I’d have people to actually sell it to!
But how could I do that?
A simple contact form and manually enter them into a spreadsheet? That would take forever!
And how could I convince people to give me their information without seeming too pushy?
Our answer to the first question is a powerful tool called Aweber.
Aweber lets you create simple, easy to use forms that collect information about your visitors. You can get a visitors name, email, phone number…anything you want.
Then, also using Aweber, you can create mass emails that contact everyone on your list at once! So when you have a new product for sale, you can just notify your list and people will come and buy it!
Aweber revolutionized our business.
We went from making hundreds of dollars a month, to thousands of dollars a month almost overnight. Once we had a list of people who were already interested in our products, selling those products became easy.
But how do you convince someone to give you their name and email?
Easy. You give them really awesome stuff for free!
People were already coming to my website for the free content. The only thing I changed is I required those visitors to give me their information in exchange for the free stuff. Then I created products to support the free content, and sold those products at a premium to the people that downloaded the freebies.
Collecting emails with Aweber is what took our online business to the next level. It drives me crazy to think about how much money we left on the table by not collecting emails from the very beginning of our business.
When Jocelyn started her first website, she put the email form on it from day one. In a month she had collected hundreds of names and emails.
When she launched her first product, she notified her list and made more money in a week than we made in a month at our day jobs!
Now, whenever we launch a new website, the first thing we do is put up an email opt-in form with a free product, even before we post the first article or piece of content.
It really is THE most important thing you can do when you work online!
So don’t make the same mistake we did.
If you are just getting started in online business, get started with Aweber today before you miss out on hundreds or even thousands of dollars in sales like we did.
Remember: “The money is in the list.”
What is a mistake you made when you first started your online business?
Share in the comments!
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If you have comments or questions, please be sure to leave them below in the comment section of this post. See y’all next week!
Glen says
My greatest mistake was going into partnership with someone. Partner involvement is minimal but still takes half of profits. Wish I had heard the quote, “The only ship that doesn’t sail is a partnership.”
Shane Sams says
Agree Glen, our my only partner is Jocelyn haha. Now we hire content creators, contract people t do things…but the business has our name on it and nobody else! 🙂
Ryan says
How do you hire content creators? How do you pay them?
Tina says
Thanks for this great tip as we are in the very beginning stages ,this is most helpful to us. Working smarter not harder !!
Jeff says
Great blog post.
My greatest mistake was the same. I have a custom drumsticks company at customstix.com and have over 4000 paying customers over the last 5 years.
I have never gotten their email address from an opt in form, only from the actually sell, which is a totally different story, as you know I am sure.
My wife and I are getting ready to re-launch her teachers website in Jan. 2015 and will not make that mistake again.
Also, my drumsticks site is relaunching in Nov. and will have all of the bases covered this time, for sure.
Ray Hofstedt says
Great ideas. I heard your interview with Pat Flynn and now I’m a huge fan. Thanks for sharing the inspiration. I like the easy email form and giving stuff away.
Best Wishes!
-Ray
Shane Sams says
Awesome Ray! Glad to have you as a fan!
Sheryl Jones says
Hi,
I just found out about you guys from Smart Passive Income. I am so excited about your success. Thank you for the free series. I will start a podcast in 2015 and I am praying I can have the type of MIND BLOWING success that you have encountered. Thank you for sharing your life for others to learn.
Sheryl Jones-Queen of Hearts
Jun Han says
Hi all,
I found you from SPI. I really like your podcast.
Those are something I can relate to.
This is a great post.
Keep up the good work.
Thanks.
Jun from Korea
Mike says
As a teacher, I am super inspired by your story. Thanks for the information. I am getting up every morning at 4:30 before school working on ideas for my own products.
Rob Garcia says
Thanks for writing this. I have owned a life coaching company in San Diego that also has a small clothing line and books. I have been a fan of what you guys do and commend your generousity in helping others. My biggest problem is completing the cycle of what to do next to make profits. I have written seven books and have developed modules teaching life coaching. I have the auto delivery set up and a paypal. I think my problem is finding an audience.
Mike says
Hi guys!
I, like many people, first heard of you on SPI and I was so inspired by your story. I am a teacher like you guys were and am wanting to have success selling e-books or other digital products online.
I recently launched my website and after hearing many of your podcasts, quickly learned my BIG mistake. I DON’T have anything to sell! I am thinking about joining your community and getting advice. I could really use some direction!!
Thank you for all you do!!