The other day I talked about using free hosted services such as blogs and I’m not done yet. I mentioned that it’s hard to take any one seriously when they are using free services, least it is for me.

Today some one followed me on Twitter, who touted themselves as a Success Coach, who teaches Internet secrets to grow ones MLM business. They could very well be and do all of the above, but I had a little trouble believing it when i found out their web site was  a Myspace page. Myspace has it’s uses, but not as your business home on the web.

Think about it, would you pay some one to be your success coach, when it seems their biggest success is making a Myspace Page? What kinds of internet secrets will you learn? How to add stuff to your glitterized  MySpace page?

Yes I am being a jerk.. come on people! Do you really expect anyone to take you serious and want to do business with you when you can’t even fork over measly $10 a month and make your own web site? Would you hire a lawyer who set up shop under the local underpass tunnel? Of course you wouldn’t.

Spend some money on your business, you’ll be happy you did.

/rant

I promise my next post will be more positive

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Cooking for a family can be tough. My wife and I often run out of ideas, seems like we always have the same-o-meals over and over. Lucky our kids are not too picky, except for our son, he could live on mac-n-cheese and nacho’s if we let him.

The reason I bring up cooking is because I just happened to think about it, kinds makes sense, that cooking is like running your own business. It really is… stay with me a second…

To try and come up with something new or different for dinner, I often visit foodtv to search out recipes. What I’ve noticed, there could be 10 different recipes just for Empanadas, for example. They don’t vary greatly but usually have some differing ingredients from chief to chief. While they might put different stuff in the pot, it still comes a tasty meal.

See where I’m going?

You don’t have to do exactly like the Latest Joe Guru and his million dollar, can’t live without, money making plan. Simply put, if you use enough of the right ingredients, you’ll come up with a success. It’s doesn’t always work on the first try. My wife is a great cook, but there have been some less than edible meals in the past, not many though.

The first step is to get your ingredients and get cooking! The meal is not going to make itself and it’s not going to make it’s way out of the fridge without your help.

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I joined a giveaway recently, you know the events where you have access to all kinds of freebies such as just for the price of your first name and e-mail address. Later I regretted it as I sure don’t need to be on any more lists, I know I am on far too many as it is. One of my time wasters I’m going to take care of, but that is another story and post in itself.

Back to the subject.

One thing I noticed was the number of marketers who are giving away quite a few freebies just for my email. I believe one person was giving away six ebooks for my information.

This gets me to thinking. For one, this person “seems” desperate to me. Feeling the need to give away so much to grab some of the gold. I am also thinking, what kind of subscriber is this person attracting? We all know there are freeloaders out there, people who only want the free stuff and never intend to buy anything. Naturally it’s part of the business, but why attract them in the first place?

I know marketers that use no giveaways to get an email address. These same marketers don’t even offer “bribes” to help sell their products.

What if your product was good enough to stand on it’s own?

What if you did’nt have to give away the farm to get the sale?

What if you did’nt have to bribe some one to buy from you?

What if…

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The other day I posted a rant about support. A couple people wrote asking if the post was about a certain product. While it was my experience with a particular product, I wanted to make sure readers understood why I made the post.

While I was not happy with the support for the product I purchased, my article was meant to stress the importance of properly supporting your product. More a first hand perspective from a customers point of view, something I believe many marketers don’t seem to think about often enough. In reality the post was not to made to put the spot light on any one business or person. It was more a wake up call, least I’d had hoped it would be.

We’ve all purchased something at some time and some of those purchases did not go as well as we’d have liked. We all know what it’s like to be unhappy after the sale, so why don’t we think about that possibility, when we put a product on-line to sell?

Something else that does’nt seem to cross all marketers mind is that a bad situation can often be turned around if handled correctly. A unhappy customer can often be turned into a prized free word-of-mouth marketer for your product or service.

Here’s a great example. Recently I purchased an e-book and after paying through paypal, I could not get back to the merchant to download my e-book. I was’nt upset, I merely e-mailed the marketer and explained what happened. Not only did I get a reply very quickly with a link to the product download, this marketer also gave me a free e-book for my trouble. It was no trouble to me, but just the fact he went out of his way to make sure I was taken care of, says volumes. As I write this I feel his support was so superior, I should mention his name, he goes by Sean Mize.

Who do you think I’ll buy from next time? Who do you think I will trust next time?

Moral of the story, this post and the previous one, step out of your marketing shoes and think like a customer from time to time. What a difference it can make.

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If the shoe fits that is.

Recently I purchased a Internet marketing type book. I am always looking to learn and add new income streams. You do know how wise that is right? Multiple Streams of Income. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.

The e-book was written about marketing on a certain social network. Although the idea’s where pretty good and some what sound, these same tactics could only work with certain tools. Tools that I found out no longer even worked.

I realize things happen, somethings are beyond our control. When we rely on others tools that is.

Needless to say I contacted the sellers to voice my concerns, my money bought a plan that did’nt seem to work.

The only course of contact was an e-mail address, that was the only solution. My e-mail seemed to go unanswered, or it never made it to it’s destination.  The entire thing ended up a mess on a forum, I should have known better. I did get my problem solved in a round about away.

So my question to you, if you sell your own products, what type of support do you provide? You do realize e-mail is not 100% perfect right? You do realize that by only having a e-mail contact for support that some of your little concerns could turn into major public problems right?

I was taken care of, problem solved. I learned from the “episode”. I am still wondering if another person learned. The jury is still out.

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