DonOmite Freelancer Gone Wild

Sending Encrypted Data via URL?

2010-01-29T13:21:00.002-10:00

Another lesson learned.

I am working on my PayPal Adaptive Payments application and I want buyers to be able to report when books are received or not received. Being the clever type of guy I am, I decided I should encrypt the data being sent in the email like the pay key that PayPal sends when first creating a sale through the AP. It is only good for a few hours after it is created for finishing the transaction but it is a great number for tracking payments. But I don't want it getting out to just anybody.

I tried doing a straight encryption but that ends up with all sorts of garbage that is not URL compatible. Being the genius guru I am, I figured I would just urlencode it to fix that problem.

Didn't work.

Turns out that it is pretty much impossible to reverse this process. Ends up with some garbage coming out. Oh well.

Just for everyones' enjoyment, the site I'm working on is at http://www.donomall.com. You can get to the book section from there. Anybody wanting to comment on the sites can do so. I have thick skin. Usually. I am NOT a designer. Keep that in mind. :)

Unexpected Action from ColdFusion Tag

2010-01-26T10:20:00.001-10:00

Don't you hate it when things don't work the way you think they should? Especially when you check and recheck trying to find a problem only to find out that something is not doing what you think it should be doing.

I just had this experience. I was working hard on a website but part of the layout was turning out totally weird. Somehow a table was ending up enveloping more than it should. This came about because a ColdFusion tag was not doing what I thought it should be doing. Even re-reading the documentation it seems that it should be working like I thought it should.

Okay, the tag? CFTRY. Now maybe this is something that is already documented but I've never seen anything about the problem I ran into. Matter-of-fact the documentation says it should be working exactly as I think it should. But it doesn't.

The documentation says that you put code that may cause an error inside cftry tags then use cfcatch to deal with errors. So what does this tell us? That IF there is ANY error inside the cftry area then it will go to the cfcatch without processing anything. Not so.

Here is what I had
< cftry >
< table >
[call API ] [ parse results ] [ display results ]
< /table >
< cfcatch >
No Results
< /cfcatch >
< /cftry>

Now I look at that if the API call or the parsing results in an error this will fail into the cfcatch and show "No Results". Not so. After much messing with the borders etc to see what exactly was being displayed, I found that the table tag was actually being processed. So inside a cftry tag everything will be processed UNTIL it hits an error. This is NOT what the documentation leads you to believe. So of course I just had to move the table tag after the parsing function and it worked as I wanted it to. But I burned a WHOLE lot of time figuring that one out.

Bring in the APIs!

2010-01-20T14:13:00.000-10:00

I am finally opening up my big project. Not pretty yet but it is functional so far. It has passed through months of testing and sobbing and pounding of head on monitor. But here it is. I'd love to see if you can break it.

What does it do? It combines shopping APIs from all over the place. eBay, Amazon, LinkShare, Commission Junction, Valore and many others to give the biggest internet comparison shopping site around. Is it slow? Not really. That took the most work but I did it with ColdFusion 8 and cfthread.

First thing I did was to build the API search functions into a CFC. Make the cfc an application object since it is used by everybody all the time. 1 function for each API. When run in sequence it was taking up to 1 minute to get any results. What was I to do?

Okay, I did threads. Each api call is a thread. This also helped if there was an error along the way in any of them it wouldn't jam up the whole thing. So this got results in around 15 seconds. What I did to take up the time was put an intermediate page in. You enter your search and you go to this "doing search" page where you see advertisements for other products. The searches themselves are actually happening in an iFrame that is 1px by 1px. When it is done loading it redirects the parent page to the results page.

BUT where are the results? To keep from jamming up my server memory I decided to jam up my database instead. Everybody who comes on the site gets their own temp table that holds the results of their searches. This way subsequent searches to narrow down the results are faster and easier. Of course this leaves the problem much like abandoned shopping carts. No biggy tho. Same solution. On session end the table is dropped. If that doesn't get it I have a scheduled task that runs every hour that clears out any tables that are over 2 hours old, which just happens to be the same as the session time out. I seriously doubt anybody is going to be searching on my site for over 2 hours. But if they are they will get a new table because that is the first check I do in the onRequest function.

Anyway, it is still a work in progress but it is doing great so far. It is also the foundation for my entry into the PayPal new Advanced Payment API contest. Wish me luck on that. I have my application submitted for approval.

The site of my most awesome project? http://www.donomall.com/

ColdFusion has the wrong time?

2010-01-12T09:50:00.000-10:00

My major bill paying customer has a variety of ColdFusion apps that I am upgrading to CF8 (and beyond!). One of them, the biggets and most urgent one, is on CFMX6.1 with JRE 4.

Monday I get told that the time is wrong. It is 10 hours ahead. I immediatly think it is the server time has lost the GMT -10 (Hawaii). Nope. It is fine. For some reason ColdFusion is NOT seeing the GMT -10. I tried restarting the JRUN server. Nope. I went through all the settings and couldn't find anything.

Finally somebody was kind enough to point me to this article which shows how to fix it.

BUT while I was checking everything I found that there were errors in the logs saying the file structure was corrupted. So we ran a reboot with chkdsk, scandisk, crashdisk ... :) This corrected the problems and the time was now correct.

Good thing we are working towards updating this application to a new CF8/Win2k3 server in the next few days.

Editors who are clueless

2009-12-30T08:21:00.000-10:00

Okay, I'm having a battle with eZineArticles.com. I have to tell everyone about this because it amazes me that they have an editor who is totally clueless about how URLs and websites work. My beef is not about the article that has been there for years and suddenly a clueless editor decides to ban it for "redirecting from a subdomain". What he actually means is redirecting from anything other than the root domain but that is the least of his problems.

I have a link that points to a tool people can use in one of my articles. Of course I want to keep track of the clicks on the link so I make it go to my own click tracker. Why pay for one if you can build one? lol

So the links look like this http://www.donomite.biz/?999 (that is a bogus one of course). Now he has been insisting that the ?999 makes it a subdomain. At first I was patient and explained what a subdomain is and what the ?999 is; a url query. Nothing doing. He came back and said it was a subdomain pure and simple. And now he reviews other articles I wrote and sees the same thing and says they are all subdomains too.

Now I have gotten nasty with him. I told him how he is stupid and needs to take an HTML 101 course. If this guy was not in a position of authority, it would not bother me in the least but he has the power to take down articles thus I have little patience with him. Anybody who declares themself an "expert" needs to have the knowledge to do the job. I am an expert with ColdFusion but I still learn things everyday about it and am not troubled by going and asking for help. That is what makes me an expert, knowing where to find out what I don't know. :) Even the people I turn to don't know everything and they are willing to learn also. This is how to handle these situations.

This editor should have gone to somebody and said "is this true?" and then apologized to me for being wrong. But instead he just keeps saying "IT IS A SUBDOMAIN". Thus he should be removed from his position and my article left alone.

Google Analytics and ColdFusion 8

2009-12-29T22:48:00.000-10:00

I have a customer who I built a tool to grab info from Google Analytics and insert data into a database. Why they wanted to do this is beyond me. They can actually get the exact same info from GA. But who am I to argue with a paying customer?
Anyway, back when I created this the only way to get the data was to have Google email it and then extract it from the xml file that was attached to the email. But then Google changed how they did the emails and it broke. But they didn't tell me for almost 8 months that it wasn't working. So when they did I told them we should upgrade to the new api. What a mess!

Thanks to Jen's Bits I got a good start on how to do it. I didn't have to figure out the authentication portion. After that tho, it became dicey. Jen's example shows how to get a list of the accounts and the overall visitor count but nothing more. I had to go back and wade through the GA documentation, which is not easy. They do things really squirrley like geeks gone mad trying to come up with a new way to do APIs. Please, geeks, stick with what is already known and make it easier on us working stiffs. I hate having to figure out what you are talking about when you say "segmentation" and "ids". Spell it out with examples. Then we have the problem of tacking on ga: to the front of all the variables.

First thing to figure out is there are 2 basic classes of queries you can run on the GA API, Metrics and Dimensions. Metrics you can probably figure out but "dimensions"??? Turns out you can mix and match what you want to pull up but only certain mixing and matching. Some metrics queries can not have certain dimension queries. And vice versa.

And then, you have to put in filters. They MUST be url encoded and they show you what those are in a table.

So to pull unique visits for a specific page you have to do something like this:
https://www.google.com/analytics/feeds/data?ids=ga:1234&metrics=ga:newVisits&dimensions=ga:PagePath&filters=ga:PagePath%3D%3D/blog/blogpage.cfm&start-date=#startDate#&end-date=#endDate#"

The dates must be formatted like yyyy-mm-dd.
The ids=ga:1234 That is the id for the website you are accessing. Where do you get that? From the basic call that you can find at Jen's Bits. It is in there, you just have to pull it out, which is not part of the code given there. But basic xml skills make it a no-brainer.

Now you see my metrics are newVisits so I tell it that is what I want by appending ga: to the front of it. There is a list of what you can call in the tech documentation. Notice how I had to say the "dimensions=ga:PagePath" and instead of having it simple like just "ga:PagePath=/blog/blogpage.cfm" (fictition page, just do a path from your root) it takes 2 steps. The next is the filters query to say what the path is. "filters=ga:PagePath%3D%3D/blog/blogpage.cfm". That is a "==" in there. You can do other filters of course.

Then I wanted to do the home page. index.cfm Do you think the path is just index.cfm? No. It is /index.cfm So you have to think of it like http://www.mysite.com/ and take the path with everything after the "m" in "com". So start with the "/" and go from there.

One key thing is that your page must have the GA code on it. Seems obvious but not so it seems from people doing this in php, java, ruby etc. Of course thn they are not in their right minds anyway since they are'nt using ColdFusion. :)

Finally, I noticed the results were not the same as what is in the actual GA website. Off but not by a whole lot. I can chalk that up to the data is not up to the minute accurate in the api call.

Changes

2009-12-18T10:30:00.003-10:00

I am switching this blog to ColdFusion and development work. I may still throw in some marketing techniques but I am so wrapped up in doing CF development that I haven't had time to write articles about internet marketing lately.

So let me get everyone up to speed on what I am doing and I will walk you through the processes and learning I am going through.

First, PayPal announced a new api that allows more flexibility in payments. Like parallel payments and string payments and much more. This is great! Or is it? Only downside I've seen is that it all has to be done in PayPal. No credit cards. BUT most people have shopped on eBay and have a PP account kicking around somewhere.

Along with this they have a $150k contest for best new application using the new api's. Submissions of ideas had to be in by Dec 16th. I entered 1 because I was already working on it and the new api fit in beautifully.

What am I doing? 2 things that are closely related but different. First is a shopping mall. This is more than just a comparison shopping site, I have stores with products, working on coupons, and of course advertisements. The comparison shopping part utilizes the api's of Commission Junction, LinkShare, BestBuy, Amazon, and eBay right now to search 1000+ stores for whatever you want. In addition you can go into the mall and see a tabbed page (ColdFusion 8 at work) showing stores like WalMart, Fujitsu, and others with their latest and greatest. I am currently trying to make the Linkshare coupons api work but they limit it to 50 calls per day. ughh. So I have to create "hard" copies of everything to put it on my site. Basically I do the call for 2 areas: by promotion type and by category. Then build cfm pages with that information and put it all in cflayoutareas. Right now it isn't working quite right but I seem to run out of calls before getting the testing done. I am thinking I just need to make the calls needed and store the info so I can then just pull that into my site.

That site is http://www.donomall.com/

Then I am doing a revision to my textbook site. Same basic concept but narrowed down to just books. I say it is for textbooks but you can search for any book in there. I use the same search cfc but limit it to books. Plus I have thrown in an ISBN look up function because ISBNs are much more exact when looking for a book.

That site is http://textbooks.donomall.com/

Now the textbook site is where I am using the new PP api. Basic idea is to give people the ability to list their own textbooks for sale and have them included in the search results. The first step is to sign up and list your book which costs a $5 refundable deposit (minus $1 service (PP) fee). If they sell the book through my site then they get $4 refunded. I take a small percentage of the sale price. Thus the string payment. If they don't sell it through my site then they forfeit the deposit.

That is still in development since it has to be approved by PayPal before it can go live. What I am throwing into place in the meantime is a simple $2 charge to list the book. This can be done with PP website basic so no need for approval.

I've learned so much about ColdFusion 8 while doing these projects and I will try to share as much as I can. Right now I am working on a Google Analytics piece for a customer plus still working as Adobe specialist at the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard.

Why the Salesperson Needs to Know the Psychology of Sales

2009-05-11T10:37:00.001-10:00

Every single step in the process of a sale is a mental process. The mental attitude and mental impression of the customer; the mental attitude and mental expression of the salesperson; the process of arousing the attention, awakening curiosity or interest, creating desire, satisfying the reason, and moving the will- all these are purely mental processes, and the study of them becomes a branch of the study of psychology.

The display of goods on the counters, shelves, or windows of a store, or in the hands of the salesperson, or the product shown in a banner ad, or a PPC advertisement, must be based upon psychological principles. The argument must not only be logical but must be so arranged and worded as to arouse certain feelings or faculties within the mind of the prospective buyer- this is psychology.

And finally, the closing of the sale, in which the object is to arouse the will of the buyer into final favorable action- this also is psychology. From the first glimpse of the product to the final. closing of the sale, each and every step is a psychological process. A sale is the action and reaction of mind upon mind, according to well established psychological principles and rules. Salesmanship is essentially a psychological science as all must admit who will give to the subject a logical consideration.

Elements of Personality in Sales - Enthusiasm

2009-05-11T10:28:00.000-10:00

Enthusiasm in a salesman is the quality that makes him talk in an intense and earnest way that carries conviction. The enthusiastic salesman spontaneously overflows with self- confidence and belief in the goods and the satisfaction they hold for the customer. Confidence can only be secured by knowledge; knowledge of one's own ability, of the customer, of the goods, and of the selling process.

Enthusiasm based on confidence begets confidence and enthusiasm in the customer. It is contagious. The salesmen with enough confidence in the product and themselves to become enthusiastic, soon bring others to see their point of view. Sincerity, reflected by enthusiasm, is impressive and will command the attention and respect even of customers unable to share in their belief.

Enthusiasm backed by facts is a combination of the spiritual and the material. The latter lacks life without the former, while the former is hollow hypocrisy without the latter. Enthusiasm cannot be faked. Without the background of knowledge and belief it stands forth in all its shallow futility. Counterfeit enthusiasm can never pass for the genuine for it lacks in weight, sound and appearance. Salesmen who attempt to be earnest and eager in their sales talk will fool no one except themselves. Only by intelligent observation, reflection and study can salesmen create a harmonious background for the efficient functioning of enthusiasm.

Not only does enthusiasm stimulate self- respect and enhance the customer's esteem for the salesmen, but it also develops loyalty for the brand and its methods. To be loyal to a sales institution salesmen must have confidence in its integrity and belief in its policies. Enthusiasm developed from knowing the goods will go far towards developing loyalty to the store that sells those goods. Further knowledge regarding the store's history, its aims and ambitions, will generate new enthusiasm which will form the basis for a broader and stronger loyalty.

Perhaps it is not too obvious to note that loyalty to a store can only be based on its honest and square dealing. Truthful advertising, honest representations by salesmen and sympathetic treatment of customer's needs are some of the foundation stones for the building of the loyalty structure. Some firms that deserve it don't get it from all salesmen, but no firm that doesn't deserve it ever, wins it from any salesman.

Elements of Personality in Sales - Enthusiasm

2009-05-11T10:15:00.000-10:00

How To Make Money From Passions

2009-02-08T09:30:00.004-10:00

To make money online many people jump right in before they are properly prepared. You know that to be a rocket scientist, a doctor, a brick layer, a construction worker, an office worker, a teacher there are prerequisites, things you must learn, before you can be successful, you don't just jump right in unprepared.
The same applies to the Internet marketing industry even though there are unsavory people out there who'd have you believe it's a "Walk in the Park" and requires no more than the belief that you can just do it.
And I'll have to admit, it is a walk in the park compared to what you have to put up with in the working world punching a clock being a subordinate to someone who does not have your interests in mind, but there are still rules you have to follow and pitfalls you must avoid to actually make Internet marketing work for you.
Most people will not make a dime online and yet there are others who will make more in one month than most people make in a whole year. Why is that?
My answer begins with the age-old chicken or egg question, "what comes first the chicken or the egg"? Personally I vote for, well never mind, each argument you or I make comes back to the same old conclusion - I have no clue and I don't think many of us do either.
But one thing I do have a clue about and know for sure is that to make money online you must first have Passion for the company products and/or service of any Internet business from which you expect to make money.
Passion in this sense simply means that you've researched and like the company and products or services. It is then that you translate that like (or Passion) into the education, excitement and work that usually accompany Passion.
I will have to say that many online entrepreneurs are so good at what they do that they ignore passion because they can sell anything. But I'm concerned about those of you who are not so knowledgeable at working an online business successfully.
Now, I'm not trying to make anyone believe that Passion is the only thing necessary. Because to be successful you must also have a good website, good marketing, widespread advertising, company support, effective keywords, and etc. Those things are often learned from the company you join - but sidestep Passion and you reduce your chances for success dramatically.
It therefore follows that, if you have no Passion for the company and the products and services provided by that company, again, you won't attempt to do the work you are being taught.
Internet marketing work is typically not all that difficult or time consuming but it does take motivation caused by Passion to get you off and running with a sustained effort so that you won't stumble.
You have a great resource in the Internet search engines to search about the Internet Marketing industry for business opportunities, USE IT!
Your research should uncover a company that you like and have confidence in. It should be solid, founded on great principles, and easy to understand with great products and services that are sell-able for which you can have Passion. If you don't find it move on,You can find the right opportunity containing the attributes identified above.
Comments like, well, that one sounds good and the compensation plan is excellent so I guess I'll start that business - does not sound like a decision based on anything near Passion. And remember when you hear that an Internet "guru" does that, don't be tempted, because as I said earlier they are experienced and can sell just about anything, without being Passionate about the company products and services.
Note: By the way it's your goal to get to the point where you can sell about anything online. That end skill and goal is a worthy one indeed.
Remember, there are other steps you must make before you step into Internet Marketing but if you don't first find the right company products and services to be passionate about, all of those other steps may just cause you a lot of frustration instead of bringing you great success.
Not being Passionate about a company and products and services that has market proof that it will sell is a pitfall you simply must avoid.
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If you want to make money online, join the society before it's too late.
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Attracting Customers

2009-01-05T07:11:00.003-10:00

There are always two lines of effort to be used by the salesperson: First, to help the uncertain customer, who doesn't know exactly what is wanted for the desired purpose, and second, to attract the desire, of the passing customer to the thing not thought about before. To be successful, in either of these directions, requires complete knowledge of the goods being sold.

The salesmanship that is shaky about the technical features of the products is going to be very weak about catching or holding the attention of the customer.

Every ambitious salesperson will be a constant and thorough student of the trade publications in his or her line of merchandise. In all lines of business these publications are usually subscribed for by the firm, or they will be subscribed for, as a rule, upon the proper request being made. Every merchant and manager will be glad to have salespeople request to see every issue of the trade papers, for it proves that they are earnest and thoughtful about their work, and desirous of improving their knowledge of the goods they sell and learning more about methods of selling them. If salespeople do not know the names of the various trade publications that they should read, they can get the information from the buyer or from the merchant.

In other words, even if you are just doing affiliate sales from a site like Clickbank, you need to have a knowledge of the products you are selling. You may be asked by a visitor to your site about some feature or even if it is suitable for what the customer wants or needs. If you have no answers, you have lost a sale.

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2008-12-02T09:55:00.003-10:00

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What Your Visitor Sees In Ads

2008-12-02T09:16:00.003-10:00

A two year series of experiments on the psychology of advertising utilizing actual ads and created ads was performed to test:

the initial attention value of text matter as against cuts,
relevancy and irrelevancy of each to the article advertised,
the effects of repetition on each of these four elements,
different colors,
different sizes of type
different parts of the page.

By means of answers to four sets of artificial advertisements, in which each article was presented in six different kinds of advertisements, an effort was made to get at the reasons, which influence buyers in their choices. Any differences in the sexes were kept in view throughout. From the three figures and twenty tables, mostly taken on college juniors and seniors, there resulted the following conclusions:

Attention:

Best gained overall by relevant words or text matter, next by relevant and then irrelevant cuts, and least by irrelevant words.
Through five repetitions, the relevant words increased steadily in value, while the cuts decreased, and the irrelevant words remained on their initially low level.
The female observers were attracted proportionally more than the males by cuts and by irrelevancy.
In colors, males were attracted mostly by black and green, females by red and green.
A progressive increase of attention within the sizes of type from 2 to 5 mm. high.
The left side of the page was seen more than the right.
The horizontal quarter above the middle was overall more effective than the other quarters, with the bottom quarter decidedly least valuable.

Only about half our informants seemed to be influenced consciously by advertising, the females somewhat more so than the males. However, a considerable amount of advertising acts upon people below the threshold of their conscious attention and memories.

The reasons given for choosing one advertisement over others as the place from which to buy were:

Decidedly foremost from the age or reliability of the firm; then from cheapness, statement of qualities, with statement of prices and style least effective.
For last choice cheapness was by far the main reason, either directly or under the brand of “fake” while an unanalyzable distrust and suspicion from too great claims or details was next operative.

Creating a New Want

2008-11-04T12:14:00.002-10:00

Advertising may be defined as the art of creating a New Want, for successful advertising does not stop with publishing the claims that are made for a product. The advertising must not only tell the possible consumer all about the product, but must create in his mind a desire to possess it-in fact, I am willing to go far enough to affirm that advertising which does not create a New Want in many minds is not good advertising.

It is not enough to tell an automobile enthusiast of the good, strong mechanical points in a particular machine. The advertising should not stop with giving information to those who are already interested in automobiles; it should create "automobile enthusiasm."

In other words, it should imbue the mind of the reader with a longing to participate in the pleasures and delights of driving that particular car, for if the sale of the particular machine which is being put upon the market is to be limited to those who are already enamored of it, the possibilities of the industry would not justify a very heavy or extended expenditure for publicity.

Take the safety razor as an illustration. There are now many safety razors on the market, but the man who made the first safety razor and ventured to put it on the market had to spend a lot of money creating a New Waat in the minds of men. He had to talk to that portion of the race which grows, a beard on its face and which was anxious to escape the tiresome thralldom of the barber shop.

He had to appeal to the universaI desire of man to escape the enslavement of the imperial tonsoral fiend who, with reckless disregard for his time and patience, makes him fritter away precious momemts, even hours, in his shop awaiting his turn.

In other words, the maker of the first safety razor had to lay the foundations for all future business with an educational campaign. At mch expense and through the tribulation of possible loss he blazed the way for the manufacturers of safety razors yet unborn. It was his lot to convince mankind that they could emancipate themselves from the despotism of the barber shop.

It was his mission to point out the avenue of escape. It was his task to convince bewhiskered humanity that the safety razor was a practical thihg; that it was a time-saver, a money-saver, a blessing to tender faces and that it was possible for the man who could not shave himself with the old-fashioned razor to scrape his face quickly and smoothly with this new device.

Thousands of other examples might be adduced to illustrate the fact that modern advertising must seek to create a New Want, and the man who knows best how to do this through the medium of the English language is the successful advertiser of today. So go out there and create a New Want for your product.

THE CREATIVE POWER OF ADVERTISING

2008-10-31T10:26:00.004-10:00

B EFORE advertising was developed into a fine art, and before it became a factor in the commercial world, the business of the manufacturer and merchant was to supply the normal needs and desires of the human family. Merchandising was bounded by man's necessities and by his meager knowledge of the luxuries which he deemed within his reach.

Modern advertising has made the luxuries of yesterday the necessities of to-day. It is something more than a "drummer" knocking at the door of the consumer--something more than mere salesmanship-on-paper. It is a positive creative force in business. It builds factories, skyscrapers and railroads. It makes two blades of grass grow in the business world where only one grew before. It multiplies human wants and intensifies human desires.

Advertising is not merely a method of diverting trade away from the merchant or manufacturer who does not advertise. Its function is not merely to pull business away from unprogressive competitors. It has "news" value as well as psychological power. It not only supplies regular information at stated periods concerning the best and most economical methods of supplying the needs of a normal 'and comfortable existence, but, operating through well-established psychological laws upon the human mind, it gradually implants in multiplied mentalities the idea that certain things are needed which were never before regarded as necessary to human contentment or happiness.

It enlarges and expands the horizon of man's daily life and experience by bringing to his attention new commodities designed for his comfort and convenience without which he would have been perfectly happy in his ignorance; but, having learned of their existence, he cannot find it in his heart to be happy or contented until he possesses them. It is the constant reiteration of the so-called "selling arguments" in connection with a product that convinces and finally impels the reader to purchase. The constant dropping of the water of publicity gradually wears away the stone of indifference. The human mind is so constructed that it is appreciably affected by repetition-and, after all, advertising is only repetition.

The Power Of Suggestion In Sales

2008-09-29T12:11:00.003-10:00

The strength of a suggestion depends in part on the degree to which it appears to be our own - to be of spontaneous, internal origin. A particular theatrical manager and producer, it is said, is particularly successful in handling obstinate employees. It is said further that he is accustomed, on broaching a proposition to which he does not expect the other person to assent readily, to remark, "It seems to me it would be well to do as you suggested the other day and . . .” The method is peculiarly effective although the manipulated person does not remember ever having any such suggestion. It is enough that the plan seems to be his own or is stated by another to be so. So in advertising, arrogance, domination, should not be attempted. It is at once resented and resisted. The more indirect the suggestion, the more it can be made to be an original determination or plan or conclusion on the part of the reader, the more its dynamic power
Suggestion Must Accord with Regular Habits and Instincts
The dynamic power of a suggestion will be the greater the more forcefully and vigorously the association is presented. This law is especially true when the suggestion is in line with pre-established habits and tendencies. When the suggestion violates life-long habits and instincts, attempts to be forceful and vigorous usually lapse into arrogance and thereby defeat their own purpose. The following head-lines on the one hand conform to, and on the other hand violate this law:
A forceful suggestion –
I WANT YOU TO CHOOSE BETWEEN THESE TWO SHAPES
A weak suggestion –
HERE ARE TWO SHAPES, TAKE YOUR CHOICE
Positive, Not Negative
It is more effective to suggest the desired response directly than it is to argue against a response that is not desired. Thus it is more effective to say to a child, "Put the potato peelings in the garbage pail." than it is to say, "Do not put the peelings in the sink." The positive feature of the association is always the most effective. In the one case the positive association is "peelings"-"pail." In the other case it is "peelings "-"sink." The negative suggestion always tends to defeat its own purpose. The attempt to dissuade from the use of substitutes is the classical illustration of the futile negative suggestion.
The customer should be asked, "Does the shoe feel comfortable?" not "Does the shoe pinch?" The cadet should be told "Stand erect with feet together" not "don't slouch". Passengers should be told “get off this way" rather than shown how not to get off. Thus a customer at your website should see “Buy my product” and not “Don’t buy their product”.

Take this with you as you approach people trying to get them to join your team or purchase your product. Lead people through the power of suggestion to believe they have come to the conclusion all on their own and make it positive not negative.

Some Links

2008-09-26T10:38:00.002-10:00

SECURING RE-ORDERS FROM A CUSTOMERLIST

2008-09-05T13:28:00.002-10:00

I came across this article in a book from 1914. So if you think that using lists is something new that these "gurus" have created since the internet came about, think again. Read this for some good tidbits on using your list. Just update the thinking to today's world of the internet. One of the key points I took away from this is that you need to keep track of more than just email addresses with your customers.

By J. Harry Selz President, Selz, Schwab and Company

AVERAGE clerks or department heads are inclined to regard the cabinet of names called the "house list" solely as a piece of modern ingenuity for the expansion of business. While this is showing the proper spirit of push and progress, it is a mistake to think that so valuable a tool as a "house list" can be put to only one use. The cabinet of cards containing the names of the current, former and prospective customers, is one of the most flexible pieces of filing mechanism ever devised, and the active head of any large merchandising house can well spend hours in its company.

Suppose it possible for him to assemble in one great •hall all the men at the moment carrying live accounts with him and all who had traded with him in the past. That privilege would instantly arouse his enthusiasm. But where this list runs ten to twenty thousand individuals and firms, the assemblage would be somewhat unwieldy, so far as actual results are concerned. There might be much poise and good feeling, but small opportunity for the wholesaler to learn definite and directly helpful things about his trade.

But what are his privileges with the "house list" in the card catalog drawer? With it he can assemble his whole trade and quickly interview each customer. And customers, thus approached, consume no time in comments on the weather. These cards will tell him the fluctuations of each customer's trade, from month to month and year to year.

In these quiet card conventions with his buyers the merchant learns how much may be done with a right business system, besides adding more customers to his list. The word expansion has been as popular in business as in politics. There is something else to be done in the course of sound business progress besides expanding. To solidify your business structure is quite as essential as to expand it.

This fact is enforced with emphasis by an intelligent study of any system that really puts before the eye of the executive a complete picture of his relations with each customer on his list. There is nothing in which you can better invest two or three days' time, at intervals of three or six months, than in a direct personal study of these cards. Handle them with your own hands, read them with your own eyes and make your deductions and conclusions from your personal contact with the list.

WHEN you go through the customer list

get in mind a way to strengthen weak purchasers

and a plan for enlarging small accounts with frequent re-orders.

But what should you have in mind as you go through the "cabinet," turn one card after another and scan each customer's relations with the house? Two things: First, how to develop weak customers into sound ones; second, how to build small accounts into larger ones without increasing the tension of credit. In my opinion the first object to be held in view is quite as important as the second. It is more vital to have a trade that is absolutely sound and closely knit than to have a big trade full of weak spots that are causing work and worry. Enough weak accounts will strain the credit of the best wholesaler and will absorb more time and high-priced energy than they are worth — ten times over ! A glance at each card tells you how much your customer bought last month, how much the corresponding month of the previous year; how he has made his payments; and the whole character of his transactions.

After picking out the weak points which need to be fortified, the shrewd manager will carefully formulate the general lines of a campaign directed wholly to making stronger the customers he already has, without regard to getting new ones.

This must be done in a thoroughly systematic manner to be effective. In fact, it would be wholly impossible to make even the preliminary investigation necessary to such a campaign without having in operation a modern system, which, at least to a degree, is analytical in its operation. In this sort of campaign it should be remembered that the object is not to load your customers up with a larger line of goods, but to make them so strong that they will need more goods and can take them with less credit than under existing conditions.

Tools you may not think of

2008-09-03T08:11:00.002-10:00

There are a number of tools out there that people bypass because of the stigma that has been attached to them.

Take the opt in mailout business. You sign up and you get to mail to the list. Of course in return you are being flooded with emails. The thing to keep in mind is that almost everyone on that list is trying to sell you a product in the "get rich" genre. This means that they will do like you; tune out the emails. You can only see the "make a gabillion bucks in 9 seconds" type headlines a few times before you just say "blah blah blah". And if you are doing it, so is everybody else.

BUT what if you go in with something else? I have gone in with my Salad book This throws them for a loop and they actually go look at it and amazingly a number will buy it. Afterall, everyone needs to eat.

On top of that, you need to make the subject something that catches the eye and is different. I talk about that in detail in "Psychology Of Advertising". Have you ever tried an email subject of 1 word? You will be shocked when you get a better response from a 1 word headline than from a longer one. Some of those gurus are starting to catch on to the "less is more" mindset. I have recently gotten emails with just my first name in the subject. Nothing more. But I then look at who is sending it and trash it.

So what word do you use? Something to grab the eyes and pique the curiosity. I did one that said "Toilet" in the subject. My open rate went to 50% on a 2 million person email blast where I had rarely gotten more than 1 or 2% before. Of course then you have to somehow tie the subject into the sales pitch.

This is how you use the email blasters and such. You have to sell something different and you have to get their attention. There are other things you can do like give something away just to get them to your site but the day of the squeeze page is long gone.

Finally I will leave you with a couple of the opt-in list sites that I've had fairly good reactions from.

Herculist Has a free option that is okay. But their Pro and Gold are not that expensive. I've had moderate success with this list but the flood of emails back is higher than most. That is probably a good thing because it means emails are FLYING out from them. I worry when one of these sites only gets me 1 or 2 emails a week. Have to wonder about those.

Web Traffic Marketing is fairly inexpensive. A 1 time fee allows you to blast to an outrageous number of people. Once again, they are all trying to sell YOU get rich quick products. Hit them with something different. If you have a tracker link or something you can use it on this one. Prepare to be disappointed if you try selling the same old garbage on this one. You can get no response at all from about 3 million members. You have to do something different.

Now how does this help your website? It gets traffic there. Not the best traffic but they are looking anyway. Hopefully they will at least click on your AdSense ads.

Keyword Research

2008-09-01T16:28:00.002-10:00

A lot of emphasis is put on keyword research and finding that little niche that you can occupy and be profitable. However, that isn't the end all and be all for marketing which so many try to convince you it is.

First you have to find a product that can sell and then you go find the best keywords or phrases that will bring in people looking to buy what you have without competing against the "big boys". Pretty foolish to try and out rank big companies like Microsoft, IBM, Amazon and so on. So you need to find how to get traffic from them whether it is PPC or organic.

One way is the old fashioned way of trial and error. Just take a guess at what you think will work and then go for it and see what happens. But here is another idea. How about looking at what other people are doing in the same general niche and then copying their campaigns?

Sound unethical? Not by a long shot. Why reinvent the wheel? If somebody is selling widgets using specific keywords and they are paying $x.xx per click, then why not use their ads, their keywords, and up the ante on the bid to bring people to your site? Do NOT copy their site tho. Well, there is an instance where you basically are doing that. When you are selling affiliate products and sending the customers straight to the product page. Then you will have copied the entire campaign. But this stuff happens all the time. Look at the emails you get whenever there is a "launch" of a "new killer .. gonna blow the internet marketing world wide open" product. I get 4 or 5 emails that are EXACTLY the same. From those "gurus". Still think they are smarter than you?

I can get into that more in another post but for right now I will stick with the subject of finding good keywords for your product.

What I used to have to do was actually use Google AdWords and a number of other sites to find a good idea of what might be good keywords. Then I would search on those and find the top PPC ads and copy them down. Top 10 usually. Then I would come back in a week and see if they were still there. If they are still there, then they are probably making money. Either that or the person is a fool.

This took a LONG time to find good keywords.

Now, I can spy on other people and see what they are doing. Even the big boys. How?

With Keyword Spy you can do this. If you are just trying to launch one product, use the free version. For serious marketers, you have to get the full version to find those gems in the rough. This gives you the edge on those other affiliates especially where ClickBank is concerned.

30 Day Challenge In Hindsight

2008-09-01T08:20:00.003-10:00

Have you heard of the 30 Day Challenge? If not, it is a training session that is free that walks you through making money on the internet. Or so they claim. I faithfully went along with them on their journey this year and found that it is not toooo bad for a rank beginner or if you are looking at finding some new tools to use.

One tool they relied on is Word Press Direct. This is supposed to be a Search Engine Optimized blog. Now even tho it has some problems, if you know how to edit the templates you can make it work very well. The good thing about it is the auto posting where it pulls content from different sources to put on your blog. You choose. As is the case everywhere, templates may not be very good and so you either have to fix them yourself or go get one that works. This is a problem with the whole CSS world of templates. They break very easily. Also AdSense does not work on WPD for some reason. It displays ads but I never saw the impressions in my account at Google.

Now one thing about blogs, if you want to get the attention of Google, maybe using Google's blog (this one) would be the better choice. I think I will do a test and put my TDC blog onto Blogger and see what happens. In the meantime if you want to see my TDC blog it is http://salads.brighterplanet.org

Probably the most vexing thing about TDC (Thirty Day Challenge) is their insistance of no links except to some stupid social thingy. Okay, I can see wanting to limit affiliate links but they go overboard. Do like a lot of discussion boards are doing, put one board for people to post affiliate links to their heart's content. Put a time limit on how often they can post so they don't go crazy. Like once a day or week.

But here are a whole bunch of people trying to follow along and you can't put up a link to your project so others can see it and critique it (in a constructive way). To me, part of market research is testing your advertising etc BEFORE going big time with it. Having built websites and been involved in marketing them for a very long time, we ALWAYS had people come in and test the sites and make comments and critiques. These people were a mix of potential customers and just surfers. So by limiting people in the TDC to doing it on their own, there is a fantastic chance of failure.

Okay, enough for this post. I'll go into things the TDC people failed to talk about in my next post.

Tips to Reduce Your 2006 Income Taxes in 2007!By Scott Sherrill

2007-02-24T08:14:00.000-10:00

Income taxes are a substantial burden for business owners and real estate investors. There are few actions which can reduce your 2006 taxes after December 31, 2006. This article summarizes four options for reducing your 2006 federal income taxes during 2007. These include reducing revenue, increasing real estate depreciation, increasing expenses by conducting a fixed asset audit and increasing expenses by converting capital expenditures into operating expenses.

The basic process for calculating income taxes is simple:

Revenue - expenses = net income, or taxable income,

Taxable income x tax rate = income taxes

The formula is not quite as simple as stated above. The tax rate for most taxpayers steps up as their income increases. Hence, the calculation of income taxes is usually taken from a tax table. However, the above concept is correct.

Two options for reducing income taxes are to reduce revenues or increase expenses. It is not possible to change the tax rate except through congressional action. It may be possible to reduce revenue for taxpayers on an accrual accounting system. Taxpayers may be able to increase expenses by increasing real estate depreciation, personal property depreciation or operating expenses.

Accrual accounting recognizes revenue when it is earned. For example, revenue for a project completed in December would be recognized in December even though payment was not expected until January. Cash basis accounting recognizes revenue when payment is received. Accrual basis taxpayers can review revenue which has been booked but not yet received. In some cases, it may be appropriate to increase the allowance for bad debt. There is little cash basis taxpayers can do to reduce revenue (after the end of the year).

Most real estate owners can sharply increase depreciation by obtaining a cost segregation study. Cost segregation is a more accurate method of calculating depreciation than simply separating land and long-life property. The IRS has developed detailed guidelines for correctly prepareing a cost segregation study. Real estate depreciation schedules are typically established by simply separating land and long-life property. Long-life property is depreciated over 27.5 years for rental residential property and 39 years for commercial property. Cost segregation can usually increase depreciation by 50% to 100% during the first five to seven years of ownership by allocating a portion of the cost basis to 5, 7 and 15 year property. Short-life property includes items such as carpet, vinyl tile, some signs, sidewalks, landscaping and paving. In addition, real estate owners can "catch-up" depreciation under reported in prior years without filing amended tax returns.

Fixed asset audits can be a cost effective means to increase operating expenses by removing phantom assets, removing operating expenses mistakenly coded as capital expenditures and correcting the depreciable life for incorrectly coded items. Phantom assets can include assets which have been lost, stolen or disposed of without removing them from the accounting records. The undepreciated basis of these assets can be converted to an operating expense after the error is discovered. In some cases, substantial operating expenses are incorrectly added to the fixed asset listing as capital expenditures. This could include items such as substantial roof repair or parking lot repair. Another example is extensive repairs to a massive chilled water cooling system; are these repairs or a capital improvement? Accounting professionals could vehemently argue both points of view. The undepreciated basis of these items can be converted to an operating expense and written off when the error is discovered. The fixed asset listing is massive for many companies, sometimes exceeding 1,000 pages. With so many assets, it is difficult to ensure all are accurate. For items added with an incorrect and excessive depreciable life, it is possible to revise the asset life and "catch-up" depreciation under reported in prior years without filing an amended tax return. Instead, a form 3115 is filed with the tax return.

The difference between capital expenditures and operating expenses is often subjective. Are substantial roof repairs a capital expense or an operating expense? Reviewing disbursements which were listed as capital expenditures in 2006 may uncover items which can be converted to operating expenses.

Federal income taxes are a substantial expense for successful businesses. However, since it is difficult to profitably operate a business, it is worth reviewing legitimate options to keep more of what you have earned. Tax planning is less glamorous than purchasing a new company or developing a new division. However, a modest effort focused on reducing federal income taxes can sharply increase net income.

Patrick O’Connor, MAI is president of O’Connor & Associates, a 180-person real estate services firm in business since 1974. Further information on reducing income taxes is available at: http://www.poconnor.com/federal_tax_reduction_overview.asp. O’Connor can be reached at 713 686 9955 or poconnor@poconnor.com.

Patrick O’Connor, MAI is president of O’Connor & Associates, a 180-person real estate services firm in business since 1974. He can be reached at 713 686 9955 or poconnor@poconnor.com.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Scott_Sherrill

THE PURPOSE OF AN AD CAMPAIGN

2007-01-01T17:28:00.000-10:00

Establishing Reputation

Advertising is not always required for the purpose of increasing the sales of a product, although that must be the final effect of the advertising if it does its work. It frequently happens that business organizations at various times in their careers need advertising for the extension of values along more general lines in connection with the organization and its market. Sometimes it is necessary to forestall difficulty by establishing relations of confidence with the public, not merely in connection with the product but in connection with the organization itself. It is frequently necessary to find other uses for a product and impress them upon the consumer.

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In the last 15 years of rapidly increasing activity along the internet lines, many concerns which have started and gained a considerable amount of business have been obligated to set themselves at work to devise advertising for the purpose of establishing an organization reputation. This has been particularly the case with organizations making a number of products, where the sale of the one product cannot altogether carry the sale of another product, but where an established organization's reputation can increase the sale of both. It is obvious that the plan of action will materially differ if this is to be the central idea. Every piece of copy and every piece of printed matter must be selected physically with the same idea so that type, border, illustration, the text of articles in the magazine, internet, or publication, and the whole atmosphere of the campaign will intensify the suggestion contained in the copy.

Extending Organization Values

Allied to this matter of establishing reputation is that of extending the value of the organization by suggesting not so much its repute but the individual character of its actions. This point of view has been necessary in a number of cases where it is difficult for the consumer to be able to determine from the appearance or general survey of a product, the value which it will possess for his purpose, and where consequently the discrimination is not exercised except in a negative way.

There are many products which to all appearances may be made to look equally good with a 50 per cent difference in cost. In such cases the only hope of the serious manufacturer is to extend his organization value to the public by showing the care that is taken in giving to the public a product which will fulfill the purposes required of it ant1 possess a value equal to the price which is asked for it. The plan which requires this point of view will not be effective particularly as to media, but it will be thoroughly effective as to copy and illustration.

Look at the clothing and accessories industry. Put a name brand on the same pair of pants and the price asked will skyrocket. This comes from convincing the consumer that the brand is worth more than other brands based on reputation and image set forth in advertising copy. Thus when you do your research into the niche market you are going for, you should have sufficient reason to ask a higher amount, if, in fact, you are setting a higher price. Much of that will be in selling your organization, which could just be you, as a superior producer of the product.

The Way Advertising Is Used

2006-11-30T08:25:00.000-10:00

Advertising is in reality the machine, or bulk, method of selling. It takes a large portion of the public and, directing them to matters of fundamental interest, turns these matters to the advantage of the product and firm involved. It is the mass action of selling, selling to the group, handling the sales question wholesale.

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It is used, therefore, either to supplant the personal selling force, to supplement it, or act upon it. In some cases the printed method of selling in bulk is the only method used. This is the method employed by the many internet companies, which secures its business by Pay-Per-Click advertising and through search engine optimization. In this case the personal selling force is eliminated, and the whole proposition is put up to the customer, his approval secured and his order placed without the personal representative of the seller having been called in at all.

In this case, the advertising is used by directing the consumer to the product in question, and instituting discrimination among the consumers in favor of the product being sold or their acceptance of its quality and reliability.

Advertising as a Control

That part of any business organization which comes in contact with the public is the one upon which the good-will of the business depends, and the one which can be controlled only with the greatest difficulty. The work of the agent or representative can be controlled only to a very minor degree, as his time is spent where there is no check upon his actual methods of doing business. He may exaggerate, change his arguments, guarantee and do other things not consistent with the house policy, and so long as these matters do not assume vital importance, may be allowed to continue.

Theoretically the principal is responsible for all the acts of his subordinates in business, but there are a great many small minded men, and the individual methods of each of these representatives cannot effectively be held to the policy which the principal desires. Advertising aids the central control upon the conditions of sale and does this very definitely. It takes the claims, the advantages, and factors of service, puts them into the most carefully worded phrases, and, by printing them gives them a definite .character and record, which may be quoted against the concern in question at any time.

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The statement of the salesman is no longer the only statement of the house; another statement is found in the printed messenger of the organization. This statement, moreover, is authoritative because it is printed, definite, and limited. A measure of comparison is set up by this printed message by which the statements of the representative and the character of the service can be equally measured. This measure of comparison acts as a control upon the condition of sale in all its phases by fixing the estimate placed by the principal upon the services of his product, and consequently obliging all other conditions to come to this.