How to increase revenue per thousand emails sent
The Mequoda Email Performance Report measures your split tests to help maximize email revenue and profit
… Continue Reading »
Mequoda unlocks archived landing page reviews
We are happy to announce the release of more free content. Yes, now everyone will have access to content formerly part of the members only Mequoda Library.
One of the most popular topics searched at Mequoda.com is “Landing Page Templates”. In particular, our landing page reviews have become timeless guidelines for creating successful landing pages. Over the last five years, the Mequoda Research team has reviewed over 40 sales letter landing pages using the 12 essential elements set out in the Mequoda Sales Letter Landing Page Scorecard. … Continue Reading »
Make sure your landing pages answer this question for your users: “what’s in it for me?”
… Continue Reading »
Marketplace landing pages are the gateways to sales
A landing page is any webpage where a willing buyer and seller can start a transaction. It’s the first page on your website where a visitor enters the ordering process.
A dedicated landing page is an indispensable part of your online marketing campaign. It is dedicated to converting traffic. It’s only reason for being, is to get that order. … Continue Reading »
Glossary Index landing pages capture user’s interest with specific terminology
A landing page is the first page a user sees when entering your site, and a user can enter and “land” almost anywhere. Therefore, every page on your website is a potential landing page, even the glossary index.
The glossary index landing page, as the name suggests, is a glossary on a website that lists dictionary-like definitions of words, phrases or concepts. … Continue Reading »
The priority code landing page lets you know where sales leads originate in order to control advertising expenses.
The priority code landing page is a hybrid dedicated landing page that’s part of the online order flow. A publisher might drive users to a priority code landing page where they can enter a proprietary combination of letters or numbers (alphanumeric code) in order to qualify for a special discount or express service. … Continue Reading »
Copywriter and Contributing Editor, Mequoda Group, LLC
Robert W. Bly is an independent copywriter and consultant with more than 20 years of experience in B2B, high-tech, industrial, and direct marketing. Robert has written copy for over 100 clients including Network Solutions, ITT Fluid Technology, Medical Economics, Intuit, Business & Legal Reports and Brooklyn Union Gas.
Robert is the author of 60 books including The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Direct Marketing and The Copywriter’s Handbook. He writes sales letters, direct mail packages, email marketing campaigns, websites, and other marketing materials for his clients. He consults on marketing strategy, mail order selling, and lead generation programs.
Robert has presented marketing, sales, and writing seminars for various associations, including the U.S. Army and the American Marketing Association. He also taught B2B copywriting and technical writing at New York University.
Please visit his website for more information. … Continue Reading »
10 Criteria for Increasing Open Rates and Conversions on Your Email Newsletters or Promotions … Continue Reading »
Harvard has opted not to use a traditional landing page to sell the Harvard Health Letter.
Instead, the main sales page for the Harvard Health Letter is a minimal transaction page with the barest of copy and graphics, and is devoid of the selling effort one would normally expect when promoting a paid subscription publication online.
Knowing the smart marketers at Harvard, we have to believe that this is a deliberate choice. As we recall, they don’t use this “bare minimum” approach in print promotions: their paper direct mail that we’ve seen consists of strong, long-copy sales letters that sell the publication and its benefits, and sell it hard. Why then would they opt for this “bare bones” approach online? This review really addresses a broader, more important question: are online and offline copy fundamentally the same or fundamentally different? … Continue Reading »
Mequoda Group provides research, training and educational services exclusively for the publishing industry. Our mission is to help publishers succeed online by providing them with free daily tips, free reports, online seminars, live events, consulting services and software services.
We have brought together publishing industry veterans and information architecture experts to create a unique road map for creating successful websites. We combine the benefit of 30 years of experience in periodical management with a cutting-edge knowledge of Internet marketing and publishing.
Mequoda Educational Services: Discover the best practices for online media management and Internet marketing strategy through private and public training workshops.
Mequoda Consulting Services: Transform your business into a profitable online publishing company in 12 months or less with intensive coaching from Don Nicholas and the Mequoda Research Team.
Mequoda Software Services: Outsource your website system design, development and support to Mequoda’s software team for a fast and economical strategy for building your online marketing program.
Mequoda Clients: Learn more about the publishers who have chosen the Mequoda system to help them make more money on the Internet via the sale of information products, sponsor revenue and lead generation.
Contact Us: Please reach out to learn how we could help you launch your online publishing and marketing initiative. … Continue Reading »
From the desk of Don Nicholas — Managing Partner, Mequoda Group, LLC
Dear Colleague:
In August 1999, Rosemary Gardner* was a successful author, newspaper columnist and newsletter publisher. At age 47, she had worked long and hard to be recognized as an expert in the field of gardening — and to make a good living doing what she loved.
Rosemary was terrified the Internet would spoil it all.
From what she had read — her beloved books, newspapers and newsletters were all going to be replaced in a matter of years by the Internet — a vast offering of information that would soon be available for free to every man, woman and child in America.
She asked me what she should do to protect her life and her livelihood?
“Embrace the Internet,” I told her. “Use your knowledge of gardening and reputation to build a new media empire that is platform agnostic — one that can prosper even if print dies, one that does not rely on any single medium, channel, publisher or partner to build your brand and marketing your information products.”
“Take control of your publishing future by building direct relationships with your most loyal customers,” I told her.
The Internet did not destroy Rosemary’s life.
To the contrary, the Internet is the nexus of Rosemary’s media empire.
Her email newsletter, Gardens Daily, ended 2005 with 2.7-million opt-in subscribers in 41 countries. While her email newsletter is free, the average Gardens Daily subscriber spent $25.48 direct-to-publisher on Gardens Media Group books, newsletters, memberships and tours in 2005. In addition, Gardens Media Group sold another 235, 403 hard cover books at retail bookstores and garden shops generating $5.9M in retail sales in 2005 and exposing Gardens Media Group to thousands of new customers.
A Mequoda Marketing Parable: Rosemary Gardner is a composite case study based on the 35 clients we’ve taught the Mequoda Marketing System over the past 12 years and the hundreds of publishers we’ve interviewed over the past three years for the Mequoda Daily & Library.
How Rosemary transformed her book and newsletter into a $75-million media empire is a process I’ve been studying, testing, refining and teaching publishers since 1995.
We call the process the Mequoda Marketing System.
1. Making Money Online Private Seminar & Workshop
In just one day, I’ll teach you the seven business strategies that make up the Mequoda Marketing System and I’ll scope the time, budget and resources that would be required to implement the system. We’ll build a simple three-year business model that will forecast revenues, costs and profits that you could expect the system to produce for your organization.
2. Mequoda Marketing System Training & Support
At your and my option, we can enter into a six to 12 month coaching relationship, where we will work on:
3. Mequoda Marketing System Architecture & Design
The Mequoda Marketing System Design Team, led by Aimee Graeber & Michael Phillips, can scope, architect, write, and design a complete Mequoda Marketing System and Website Network for your organization that may include:
I am available to teach Making Money Online privately 12 times a year or about once a month. We’ll spend three hours in the morning teaching you and your team the seven Mequoda Marketing System best practices and sharing in-depth examples of how other publishers use the system to double their online revenues every 12 months.
Then in the afternoon, we’ll explore exactly how the Mequoda Marketing System can work for you. We’ll walk the whole process on starting and running a Mequoda Marketing System including a three-year business forecast using the Mequoda Internet Marketing Model which will be yours to keep at the end of the day.
Then you and your team can decide how to proceed:
To apply for a private presentation of Making Money Online, email or call Julie Ottomano, our Consulting Services Manager. If you and Julie agree that your organization and ours can benefit from the day, Julie will schedule a FREE 30-minute conference call with me to discuss your online opportunities, organizational needs and information marketing strategies.
I encourage you to join Rosemary Gardner and the elite group of media entrepreneurs who have embraced the Internet and are now generating 20, 30, 40 or 50-percent of their revenues on the Internet.
You can double your online revenues every 12 months using the Mequoda Marketing System just as dozens of other savvy publishers have done before you.
I look forward to hearing from you.
All the best,
Don Nicholas
Managing Partner
Mequoda Group, LLC
PS: If you’re the type of person who wants to do lot’s of research before reaching out for help, consider buying the Making Money Online Video Seminar. It’s the next best thing to having me as your personal Internet marketing coach.
PPS: Still not yet convinced that you can double your online revenues every 12 months? Then consider these comments made by some of the Internet’s most successful publishers and authors:
Ask the Builder currently sells about 400 e-books and 200 checklists monthly, ranging in price from $6.95 to $47. This is equal to nearly $1,000 in daily sales of downloadable content.
“The Internet has completely turned upside down the old publishing model where the publishers made all the money and the writers had no power. Now, writers can instantly become publishers, and they need to do that. Anybody can be a publisher on the Internet. And if you take your time and publish really good content, it will be found. Most people don’t want to work. So if you decide to put your nose to the grindstone and you pick a niche and become the expert in that niche, it will pay off. There is just so much opportunity out there. There is this never-ending conveyor belt of people who need to learn about things. They don’t have a clue what to do. Find out where those markets are, where people need information and tap into it.”
— Tim Carter, Author and Publisher, Ask the Builder
Agora Financial Group, powered by the 500,000 circulation The Daily Reckoning, generated 73 percent of its total annual revenue online in 2005, primarily by selling print products linked to DailyReckoning.com.
“We actually think of DailyReckoning.com as an e-communication website. It is the ‘front door’ through which all our business activity passes.”
— Addison Wiggins, Publisher and Editorial Director, The Daily Reckoning
Jay Conrad Levinson, author of the 25-year best-selling Guerrilla Marketing series, said it best in an interview in How to Become Both Published and Profitable:
“Someone once asked me how much I made for my first Guerilla Marketing book. The answer I gave was $10 million… The book, itself, only paid me about $35,000 in royalties, but the speaking engagements, spin-off books, newsletters, columns, boot camps, consulting, and wide open doors resulted in the remaining $9,965,000.”
— Jay Conrad Levinson, Author, Guerrilla Marketing
For GoalsGuy Learning Systems, Inc., the Internet and search engine optimization are key to driving revenue and profit growth.
“We sell a lot of products. This just happened two days ago. We had a human resources executive for a large oil company who was looking for some material to teach their employees. As a result of searching the words ‘goal setting’ they came to our site, asked us to overnight a package, and anywhere from 30,000 to 40,000 books will be sold as a result. And that’s not a fluke.”
— Gary Ryan Blair, Author and Publisher, Goals Guy Leaning Systems
Some six million visitors per year show up on the Cook’s Illustrated website which has been the primer driver to grow Cook’s Illustrated paid circulation to more than 700,000 and facilitates the sales of more than 40 branded information products.
“We feel the publishing business is increasingly becoming a database business. Ultimately, that’s how we view the business side of what we do. But we don’t view our various businesses as separate universes. We have a single database of people with a strong interest in cooking. It’s a large database with lots of names from lots of sources, and we have lots of ways of sorting through them.”
— Chris Kimball, Publisher and Editor, Cook’s Illustrated
Schedule a 30-minute call with Don today!
Our Mequoda consulting team led by Don Nicholas provides coaching to some of the most prestigious publishers in the industry. We provide our clients with a plan for online success.
Using the Mequoda Method, which is a system derived from decades of experience working with publishers, we are well versed in turning single print brands into multiplatform online publishing empires. To do this, we conduct usability tests, provide in-depth project plans, do keyword research, brainstorm product ideas and editorial schedules, train your staff, and provide unrivaled research and best practices.
We are proud to say that we’re one of the most sought-after consulting groups in online publishing.
Mequoda Consulting team: Don Nicholas, Kim Mateus, Laura Pittman, Julie Ottomano
Contact us for more information and to schedule a FREE 30-minute conference call with Don Nicholas to discuss your online opportunities, organizational needs and information marketing strategies.
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How to create a white paper outline that answers the right questions, targets the right audience and sends the right message. … Continue Reading »
Leveraging Content and Keywords to Drive Targeted Website Traffic, Build Email Circulation and Sell Information Products … Continue Reading »
12 Webpage Templates Used by Today’s Top Publishers to Convert and Monetize the Most Visitors … Continue Reading »
An effective Internet marketing strategy means anticipating customer hesitations and removing obstacles … Continue Reading »
The key to creating successful sales letter landing pages is writing keyword-rich copy that Google ranks highly
Uploading a sales letter landing page to a website without regard to search engine optimization is a sure way to not be found. No matter how great the content, if Internet users can’t find it, it does not exist for them. … Continue Reading »
How to keep smart shoppers happy and provide them with a thorough, yet user-friendly online shopping experience. Normally, we don’t recommend shopping carts to our users, because we see the highest conversion rate on sales letter landing pages. However, we realize that many publishers have too large of an inventory and feel that shopping carts work for them. That’s why today we’re talking about shopping cart optimization. … Continue Reading »
Paid media programs balance your Internet marketing system
While patience is a required virtue for earned media programs, paid media programs offer the Mequoda Marketing System operator the opportunity for quick results with a reasonable ROI (return on investment). Each of these programs involves finding and buying traffic by spending money to buy advertising, leads or lists. … Continue Reading »
The Internet Hub is a one of seven Mequoda Website Archetypes discovered by reviewing more then 2000 media websites. Like all Mequoda Website Archetypes, it has a limited set of core functions that make it efficient for completing a limited group of user tasks that are key to the success of an online publishing operation or Mequoda Marketing System. … Continue Reading »
The same high quality copywriting and design elements can be used for online, email and postal mail sales pitches.
Multiplatform publishing in the 21st century means offering users many products on many platforms, and using the Internet to recycle, reuse and republish information in many different formats.
This involves taking the same information and turning it into any format a user could possibly want—from e-books to streaming video to email newsletters. Publishers not only save on material costs, but the same information is being cheaply repackaged and sold in a multitude of formats to maximize customer satisfaction and revenue. … Continue Reading »
Sell more products, at higher prices and great profit margins, with dedicated upsell landing pages
“Would you like fries with that?” is a simple, familiar hamburger stand upsell. The online version is a little more complicated, and requires a well-crafted, dedicated upsell landing page.
An upsell landing page is a conversion landing page. Like the sales letter landing page, the objective of the upsell landing page is to get the user to take the next step. It is designed to move the user along an order flow where an additional sale can be made. … Continue Reading »
Sales letter landing pages pre-date the Internet in that they resemble traditional direct response sales letters.
A sales letter landing page is a conversion landing page. Its objective is to convert the casual visitor into a paid customer.
Sales letter landing pages are traditional direct response sales letters designed to maximize the conversion rate for a paid product. Often, the very same sales letter landing page, with minor but significant modifications, can be used in both email and postal direct marketing programs. … Continue Reading »
Glossary and directory landing pages succeed when they provide users the information they seek—either a definition or a link to an article or product.
A glossary landing page, as the name suggests, is a glossary on a website that lists dictionary-like definitions of words, phrases or concepts.
Glossary landing pages attract traffic and include conversion architecture that urges users to subscribe or engage in some other transaction. Like the article landing page, the objective of the glossary landing page is to capture the user’s interest in the editorial content and lead him to a transaction. … Continue Reading »
Every website landing page should be designed with a complete organization, labeling, and navigation scheme that enables users to fulfill their goals effortlessly. But where do you start?
Learning how to increase landing page conversion rates can mean the difference between the success and failure of your Internet marketing program.
You can have first-class products and create a beautiful website, but if your site is difficult to use, it will be nearly impossible to get casual visitors to become loyal buyers. … Continue Reading »
You’ll write strong, engaging headlines when you use proven power words
The ideal headline for your sales letter landing page, print ad or email promotion is a statement of your product’s unique selling proposition or the promise that it’s going to satisfy a need or solve a problem.
The headline is an advertisement for an advertisement. It must grab the reader’s attention with such force that she can’t resist reading the next sentence. … Continue Reading »
The newest free report from the Mequoda Group
Looking for a crash course in landing pages? How about for free?
Well you’re in luck, Mequoda has a new free special report: 8 Master Landing Page Templates and When to Use Them. Just follow the link, submit your email address and the report is yours.
Landing pages are a vital component to any Internet marketing system. If you’re not optimizing your landing pages, the time to start is now because you are losing conversions. … Continue Reading »
Use this simple process to make your Internet marketing system a continuous improvement machine that produces ever-increasing revenue and profit
About 80 to 100 times a year, I get hired to audit or review the Internet marketing strategy for a publisher who has a website that is making money. The goal of the review is to find five to ten changes to their current Internet marketing system that will make more money. … Continue Reading »
Online Publishing Jobs
Strategic Profits is looking for a Director of Marketing to take responsibility for this rambunctious group, help them grow, and continue getting the outstanding results we are used to.
We are looking for someone that can handle acquisition and retention marketing efforts designed to drive website traffic and sales. These include paid and natural search, affiliate programs, partnership marketing/content integration programs, email marketing acquisition, and retention programs. … Continue Reading »
Send visitors to the front door, not the window
There are dozens of goals shared by Internet marketers across the globe.
Somewhere at the top of almost everyone’s list is “increase visits to the website.”
It is probably on your list, but is your website ready for a surge of visitors?
As we discussed yesterday, not every website is.
To ensure that your website is ready, a system has to be in place that directs users to webpages that are designed to answer their needs. … Continue Reading »
Today, most would-be travelers start their journeys online by researching destinations, carrier schedules, accommodations and free web mapping services.
In order to compete with travel agencies and agents, travel information publishers, who traditionally published books, magazines and newsletters, have migrated to the Internet and become online publishers. Some have created retail websites whose primary objective is to sell traditional hard-copy books. Others are focused on publishing travel reviews on their sites, and derive revenue from advertising and affiliate links. … Continue Reading »
Attend SIPA’s June conference and take home practical methods to make your company more profitable.
SIPA’s 31st Annual International Newsletter and Specialized Information Conference is set to be three days of discussing the most powerful industry trends and best practices. It is being held from June 3 to June 5 in Washington, DC, and will feature more than 45 sessions and 56 roundtable discussions on the latest online publishing and newsletter information. … Continue Reading »
How email newsletters, conversion architecture and incentives will help build your audience.
Online marketing expert and ecommerce guru Andrew Palmer ran a campaign last year to build subscriptions to Agora’s free email newsletter, The Daily Reckoning. Palmer tested a self-titled “free on free” offer that gave every user who signed up for The Daily Reckoning a free special report titled Real Asset Explosion: Make Ten Times Your Money in the Astounding Resource Boom of 2006-2007. … Continue Reading »
Any one of these Internet marketing mistakes can doom your online sales
There are plenty of ways to fail at Internet marketing, but six of the most common mistakes are these:
1. Wrong product—If no one is looking for the product you sell, your Internet marketing strategy is fatally flawed and you won’t make many sales. … Continue Reading »
Looking back on an expert’s claim that website usability testing proved promotional language imposes a cognitive burden
It’s nearly a decade now since website usability expert Dr. Jakob Nielsen proclaimed that “that 79 percent of our test users always scanned any new page they came across; only 16 percent read word-by-word.”
“Users detested ‘marketese’—the promotional writing style with boastful subjective claims,” said Dr. Nielsen in 1997. … Continue Reading »
The Internet is a constantly evolving medium. Websites get redesigned, either owing to new graphics, new content, or because the essential architecture is inadequate to serve the site visitors.
If the human factors haven’t been properly addressed — if visitors can’t easily find what they’re looking for or can’t order your product easily — you’ve got insurmountable problems that mandate you to re-engineer your website. The issue here is website usability.
In the time since we first published a review of the landing page for Andrew Harper’s Hideaway Report, some elements have been redesigned, but some have only gotten worse. … Continue Reading »
As an online publisher, part of your job is to make information easier to manage for your subscribers
The majority of membership websites and email newsletters are instructional. Members join or subscribe in order to access content that is not available to non-subscribers. Much of this proprietary information is of the how-to variety.
If you’re a publisher of an email newsletter, and you’re stuck for a story idea, think checklist. You’ll almost never run out of ideas and you’ll provide your subscribers with valuable tools that increase your credibility as an expert. … Continue Reading »
Every Retail Media Website has two business goals. First, the website must allow users to buy products. Second, the website must begin a user relationship with both buyers and non-buyers that will lead to future sales. … Continue Reading »
A membership website is a user driven, content-based website satellite that generates the majority of its revenues from user access fees. This website business model is similar to a book club, professional association or user group that accepts little or no advertising, relying primarily on user support. … Continue Reading »
Mequoda views Internet Hubs as one of the most important website archetypes available to a publisher. Without a well-designed, well-marketed Internet Hub, an online publisher is forced to rely on other websites and other media to drive targeted website traffic. … Continue Reading »
Copywriter reveals why many online sales letters fail to deliver
The Internet creates new challenges for marketers and wordsmiths, but a fundamental principle still applies
Experts tell us that in print ads, 75-80 percent of all buying decisions are made by reading the headline alone. … Continue Reading »
In Psychology 101 we all learned the basic principles of attraction and avoidance. Pleasure and pain. Reward and punishment.Boiled down, I think of it this way: You either want something you don’t have, or you have something you don’t want.If you suffer with back pain, you have something you really don’t want, and you’re not alone. … Continue Reading »
Our Mequoda editor-at-large, Peter Schaible, says he has identified three types of seminar attendees.
The prisoner doesn’t want to be at the event; the boss has assigned him to attend, but the prisoner is too arrogant to think he should learn anything new.
The vacationer is physically in attendance at the workshop, but he’s not fully engaged. He enjoys visiting new places and having a few meals out on the company expense account, but he is too lazy to learn new skills that challenge his old habits or take him out of his comfort zone. … Continue Reading »
What is a landing page?
Some say “it’s the first page someone sees on your site”. Others say “it’s a webpage viewed after clicking a link in an email.”
We’ve also heard it referred to as “a specific page a visitor reaches after clicking a search engine listing” or “a location a user is directed to or ends up at after clicking on a link or typing in a command.”
All of these definitions are true. … Continue Reading »
Every good wordsmith approaches the task of writing a little differently. Some writers start with an outline or by making copious notes. Others write numerous disparate paragraphs at non-stop speed and then revisit their first draft, cutting and pasting to arrange them in a “logical” order. Still others agonize over the lead or headline and feel compelled to get them perfect before they can write a single second sentence. … Continue Reading »
A bulleted list of “secrets” that your product or service promise to reveal can sometimes be the strongest element of your online sales letter. In fact, the words copywriters most often use are practically a textbook lesson in how to create interest in a product. … Continue Reading »
The Writer’s Store is an extremely competent site serving a tightly-focused niche market.
Although competent in most areas, a few, relatively easily-implemented changes—described in the Recommendations section at the end of this review—could increase sales by building a stronger emotional bond between the store and its customers. … Continue Reading »
When we review landing pages, it’s common for us to come across letter copy that’s competent but average, and there are many things in the copy that our copywriters would change.
For example, on www.26-Feng-Shui-Secrets.com, a landing page dedicated to selling a Feng Shui book, there is no bio of the book’s author. So we don’t know his credentials or qualifications as a Feng Shui expert, except for some mention of learning Feng Shui from his grandmother. If that’s his only credential, more should be made of that story; maybe grandma should be positioned as the Feng Shui master. … Continue Reading »
We were first introduced to InvestmentU.com when we interviewed John Phillips, who heads up search marketing for the website. He and his team have done a very impressive job of bringing visitors to the InvestmentU.com site with a combination of organic and paid search. In this review, we look at the landing page that InvestmentU.com uses to convert these visitors to customers for its lead product, The Investment U Course. … Continue Reading »
The first rule of the Mequoda Internet Marketing System is to make it as easy as possible to start a customer relationship—and give something away. Don’t ask for the money right away. But BusinessWeek.com gives away volumes of priceless content without even asking for an email address in return. … Continue Reading »
Agora Financial Network: Understanding the Seven Strategies that Drive the World’s Most Successful Special-Interest Website Network
The Mequoda Group estimates that the Agora Financial Network will post top-line revenues for 2006 of $55 million, with $41 million being generated online. This makes each of its 500,000 domestic subscribers worth about $82. … Continue Reading »
