Tuesday, June 26, 2012

A decade's worth of dumb

Hi, folks...



It's me again, coming to you straight from the international

headquarters of "Dummies-R-Us."



Story to follow. But first, let's look at how to...





"Sell More Stuff!"

================



Over the years, you've heard me bang the drum for testing, and

constant improvements. It's almost a mantra. Those are the

things that turn hobbies into businesses, and businesses into

empires.



I got reminded of that yet again this week. That prompted me to

re-open an offer I'd run back in February. A full-blown course

that will show you how to find those improvements, and get them

into action FAST.



It's pretty cool. It shows you how to write a killer sales

letter in a day or less, how to set prices for the best

results, how to find the little changes that can lead to big

profits, and - best of all - how to sell more stuff.



http://talkbiz.com/thehancoxfiles/?e=1



That's not for the "I want a magic button" crowd. If you're

serious about selling more, though... Get it.



If you want an example of how small a thing can make a huge

difference, read on.





"Boy, Do I Feel Stoopid..."

=========================



No matter how much you know, you won't get everything right.

That's a given. But when you've been at this stuff as long as I

have, you're not supposed to screw up the basics.



Not for 10+ years running, anyway. And I have been.



It's a story that might be useful, if only as comic relief.



....



I noticed recently that some very smart people link to raw

PDFs, rather than in zip archives, when they deliver reports.

I've always been of the opinion that people would be less

likely to save them to their computers that way, which would

mean they'd lose access to the product if they lost the email

with the link. Or if the link expired.



So, I always delivered them in zip files. Including the free

stuff. Saves everyone time and trouble, right?



Hmmm. Well, I thought it would.



When I let you know about the Skype room report, I decided to

take my own advice and test that theory. One link to the PDF

and another to the zip. Watching the stats was a little like

getting Gibb-smacked.



You preferred the raw PDF download by almost 5 to 1.



DOH!



....



Now I've had very few people complain about getting zip files,

especially since Microsloth added the feature in Windoze that

treats them like directories. So, this might not seem like

anything important. And, for paid products, it probably isn't.



Here's the thing. Overall, that report got more downloads than

most of my free stuff in the past few months. And I got more

feedback on it. A lot more.



Some of those increases might be due to the topic. I suspect,

though, that a big chunk it was because of the choice offered.

And as far as the feedback, a lot of it was probably because

people saw the thing open in Acrobat as soon as they clicked

the link, so they read it right away.



And let's not forget about smartphones and iPads. Accessing zip

files on them is a pain for a lot of people.



Whatever the reasons, anything that gets more people actually

using a product, free or paid, is a Good Thing. I have to

wonder how many more people would have read the other stuff I

give away if I'd done that from the start?



....



I talk a lot about testing, and I do a lot of it. Some is

behind the scenes, but some of it as right there in your face.

Whenever you have to choose between actions, that can be called

a test. It's a measurable result which can be changed.



You do more of what works and less of what doesn't. Easy

stuff.



Sometimes the most important things to test are not obvious.

That's why it's good to watch what the smart people do. Don't

assume they're right, but when you see a lot of them doing

something differently than you, test it. Sometimes you'll find

that it doesn't make a difference, or that you have the better

approach. And sometimes you'll find out you didn't.



In this case, downloads were about 20% over what I expected.

Feedback was up by more than that. That's big. Testing often

leads to those kinds of increases.



This is why I keep talking about testing, and making those

small changes that can lead to big profits.



That's how you learn to sell more stuff.



....



I won't be using that approach for products with multiple

files, but for single item downloads or the free reports...

Yeah. That will be an option. I mean... 20% more downloads?



That's a huge difference for such a stupid little thing.



That's why I push stuff like this:



http://talkbiz.com/thehancoxfiles/?e=1



Because it works... if you remember to use it. And it's sooo

simple.





Paul



-----===(*)===-----



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