KitwanaAkil.com

By Jimmy D. Brown

You make a $97.00 sale and you say an emphatic “Yes!” as a smile breaks out on your face. This selling online thing is cool and it feels good to be getting sales.

Then, a few days later you get a refund request. The $97.00 is gone. And so is your smile.

Or, worse still, a month and a half later (after you’ve spent the $97.00) a chargeback hits you. Not only is the $97.00 gone, but you’ve also been zapped $20.00 in service fees.

Instead of making money, you’re losing money.

Now, to be sure, that doesn’t happen on EVERY single sale. If it did, we’d all be out of business. But, it does happen frequently, from 2-10% of the time depending upon your offer.

Regardless of how often it occurs, when it does, it takes money out of your pocket.

So much emphasis is placed on ways to “make money” that many people forget to focus on how to KEEP the money that you make.

In today’s article (with part 2 coming later) we’re going to talk about increasing your profit through the “backdoor” by identifying 10 ways to reduce refunds and chargebacks so you can make the most money possible from your internet business.

The best part is this: most of them take just a few minutes to implement and most of them don’t cost a penny.

1. Be Accurate In Describing Your Product.

Probably the most common “legitimate” reason for a refund is when the product or service doesn’t deliver what was described during the sales process. When you create advertisements and salesletters, it’s important that you be accurate in describing your product.

This involves both…

* “Avoiding hype” which creates unrealistic expectations that ultimately lead to disappointment with the order. Your advertising sets the tone for what “results” the customer feels they can accomplish. If your claims are found to be unreasonable (or downright false) then refunds will often follow.

* “Correctly Define” the components of your product including its type (I.E. digital goods vs physical goods), its size (I.E. 20 pages vs 200 pages) its delivery (I.E. Immediately after order vs within 7 days) its required skills or knowledge (I.E. For beginners vs experienced) its exclusivity (I.E. Common knowledge vs your unique offering) its compabibility (I.E. PC only vs Mac users welcome) and its freshness (I.E. Updated for 2006 vs last year’s news) to name a few.

Perhaps the easiest way to turn back refund requests is to be clear in what your product or service offers without raising false expectations.

2. Offer Several Unadvertised Bonuses.

After the sale has been completed, let the customer know that you’ll be sending them 4 or 5 “unadvertised” bonuses over the next several weeks via email. You can even list what those bonuses are and their delivery schedule.

Example: In exactly 7 days you’ll receive unadvertised bonus one, an 18-page report entitled “27 Ways to Attract Butterflies Year Round”.

These unadvertised bonuses can be extra reports, articles, audio/video, interviews, tools, etc. The important thing to remember is that they should be related to the original purchase (I.E. an extension of the base product or service being offered) and should be desirable enough to add real value to the order.

I recommend that at least one of your bonuses be a “list” report with more than 20 entries (I.E. “27 Ways to Attract Butterflies Year Round”, “Top 20 Shortcuts For Starting A Christian Bookstore” or “The 21 Best Homeschooling Time Savers”). When it’s over twenty entries, it has a tremendous perceived value.

And that’s the point here: add more value to the existing purchase. The more bang your customers get for their buck, the more likely they’ll be satisfied and NOT request a refund.

3. Clearly State The Billing Name.

For most people selling goods online, their name or company name WILL NOT be the one listed on a customer’s credit card invoice or checking account log. Generally, it will be a third party company such as CLICKBANK. Unfortunately, many vendors forget to tell the customer what the charge will appear listed as in their records.

What happens is this: A customer buys a product from Paula J. Brown. In a month or so, that customer gets their credit card statement in and sees “Clickbank / Keynetics” listed. They don’t recall doing business with Clickbank / Keynetics and instead of investigating to see what it is, they either refute the charge to their credit card (resulting in a chargeback - ouch!) or they contact Clickbank and say “I don’t recall ordering this - refund it now.”

Either way, you’re out of a sale.

Always make sure you clearly state what name the transaction will be listed under when the customer receives their statement. Do this on both your “thank you” page AND in your initial email message to your customer.

4. Be Specific In Your Guarantee.

There is a great debate on how to use guarantees. Some people argue that given a lengthy guarantee (I.E. 12 months or even lifetime) is the best option because it shows that you stand by your product and instills greater buying confidence in the customer. Bad news is, in six months when Christmas comes along and the customer needs some extra money to buy gifts, your guarantee comes to mind.

Other people argue that a shorter, limited guarantee (I.E. 30 days or “show that you’ve tried to use the product”) is the preferred way to go simply because it gives less time for refund requests and generally attracts a more quality customer who is less likely to want their money back. Bad news is, if the customer isn’t completely “wowed” with your product or service, they’ll likely ask for a refund very quickly after their purchase to avoid missing out on the guarantee period. And if you attach too many strings to your guarantee (I.E. You must PROVE you’ve tried to use the product without success), you’ll likely lose some sales.

Truth is, there is some truth to both options. And I’m not going to tell you which one is best for you. (Although, if you use someone like Clickbank, it takes the debate out - they REQUIRE a limited, 30-day guarantee period. If you process orders via a third-party, check for their specific terms on this).

But, at the bottom of the page, here’s the conclusion that I’ve come to based on my own numbers: a longer, liberal guarantee works best overall. That is, while you will have a few boneheads that ask for a refund three years after they’ve purchased it, generally you have MORE sales (because they have greater “trust” in you based on your guarantee) and actually have LESS refunds (because people forget all about you and your product after a few weeks).

5. Create A Frequently Asked Questions Page.

Setup a special page with the 10-15 most frequently asked questions (along with detailed answers, of course and make note of this page in your initial follow-up message with your customer (You know, “Hey, thanks for your order…”) AND on the order fulfillment page (I.E. “Download page”).

Just a few of the things you’ll want to include on this page are…

* How to retrieve passwords
* Tips for overcoming common errors
* How to download materials
* When “unadvertised” bonuses will arrive
* How to track orders (If applicable)
* Best way to contact you

How does this reduce refunds?

In a variety of ways, actually. Just one would be: considering the reliability (or lack thereof!) of email these days, you could miss a question from a customer altogether, resulting in frustration or a feeling of getting “scammed” which will result in a refund.

Not only will you reduce your refunds, but you’ll also dramatically reduce your customer support. A surefire winner.
Of course, there are MANY other ways to increase your profit! Check out “The Upsell Report: 24 Ways To Get Your Customers To Spend More Money” by clicking here . You’ll learn an amazing 24 different ideas for getting your customers to spend more money (sometimes 300-400 or 500% more!) Studies show as many as 1 in every 2 customers will automatically buy if you just offer one of these items.

photo credit: jeffk

Yesterday an Air Conditioner repairman taught me several life lessons about how to succeed in life and business.

First a short synopsis of what allowed our paths to cross.

This week I noticed a problem with my upstairs AC unit. So I called the AC company that I had used previously to send someone out to have a look before the problem got worse. Little did I know I was about to embark on a 2 hour lesson in success.

My first impression of Jim was that he seemed friendly. My only expectation was that he would hopefully solve my problem quickly. After exchanging cordial hellos, I showed him upstairs to have a look at the unit. He went straight to work. After about 10 minutes he announced that he had identified the two problems and proceeded to explain what they were and how much it would cost to fix them.

In my experience a typical repairman would have given me my options, let me choose one, and then start the process of fixing the problem. Jim is not the typical repairman. He explained that he wanted to give me enough information to make an educated and informed decision. So he proceeded to give me a crash course in how ACs work. He also extended an invitation to watch him do the repair once I made my decision, and he would explain to me what he was doing and why he was doing it.

Jim gave me two options. He explained the cost, time, and the pros and cons of both jobs. He also gave me his recommendation. Feeling really comfortable with the information that Jim gave me I followed his recommendation. Jim’s recommendation was the cheaper of the two options. This was not the major factor in my decision. The major factor was that the second option was not only twice the price, but more risky to fix. The bottom line is I could take the cheaper fix, but it would be a short term solution to my problem. The real solution would be to purchase a new AC unit. Because of the situation Jim suggested that I take the cheaper option and try to make it through the summer and winter. However, I need to purchase a new AC unit before next summer.

As he worked he explained everything. When I asked questions he would elaborate or simplify if needed. Jim explained that I was not special and that he did this for all of his new customers, because he did not want them to get ripped off in the future by other AC repairmen. Jim knows a lot about ACs and chemistry. He had my mind racing to remember the basics of college chemistry classes.

When Jim finished I knew exactly what had happened to cause my problem. What was needed to fix my problem. What I could do to prevent my problem, and how to continually monitor my AC to insure that it was functioning as it should on a regular basis.

I also asked Jim how much a new AC unit would cost. He gave me 4 options starting with the least costly of all and moving steadily to the higher end models. He advised me NOT to purchase the low end or the high end AC units and gave good reason for his recommendation. He then explained why the mid range AC units gave the best bang for your buck. Because of his thorough explanation it was easy to see for myself which unit would fit my needs and finances best.

Throughout his time at my house working on my AC, Jim received several calls from several other repairmen in his company seeking his advice on problems that they encountered. Like any good teacher Jim asked questions that lead the repairmen to find the correct answer on their own.

Here are the lessons that I learned:

1. Passion for your work is essential to your success. Jim had a passion for his work. It showed in the care that he took in making sure that I understood exactly what was going on. You could here the passion in his speech and the way he worked.

2. A good work ethic is crucial to being a success. Jim has been working with AC units for 20 years. He took his time, but he wasn’t rushed nor did he work slow.

3. You must constantly improve. Jim has patches all along the length of his sleeve promoting the fact that he is a specialist in his field. Jim told me that he attends training every 3 months to keep up with what is new in his field.

4. Service to others. The customer service that I was provided was exceptional. Any first time customer who gets Jim will be spoiled for life. It’s very hard to go back to mediocre service once you’ve experienced great customer service. People tend to be willing to pay more ( at least I do ) for reliable, excellent service.

5. Educating customers is essential. Once you educate a customer about your business or service it’s easier for you to make a sale. Because Jim took the time to educate me when I get my new AC unit, which will cost several thousand dollars, who do you think I going to call? Jim’s company without a doubt, and I’ll specifically request Jim to write up the sale.

6. Fun is important. I could see that Jim was having fun working and teaching me his customer as well as his fellow technicians. When you’re having fun it makes work not like work at all.

Each of us encounter many teachers on a daily basis. We just have to keep our eyes, ears, and minds open for the lessons that are out there for us.

If you would like to read a really good book on Success I’d like to recommend the following book:

By Jimmy D. Brown

I want you to add a new word to your business vocabulary -

The word is “specialization”.

A new age has dawned in information marketing. And it’s the age of “specialization”.

Before I explain how this will help you create information products that sell like crazy, let me give you a very brief history lesson.

(I promise, this won’t hurt a bit.

Information products online have evolved since I logged onto the Internet back in 1999…

1) THE SIMPLE AGE.

Times were simple back when I first came online. And so were the information products. Way back when, information products weren’t readily available online like they are today. If you could find ANY information on the topic you were interested in, you grabbed it.

2) THE SYSTEMATIC AGE.

As more and more people learned how to create and market information products online, a new era emerged: the “systematic” era. This was a time when huge information products were created with hundreds of pages. The idea was to create comprehensive courses on a particular topic.

3) THE SEPARATION AGE.

As “internet marketing” and other business-related markets became inundated with product offerings, the birth and rapid growth of “niche marketing” occurred. People began separating themselves from the crowd and focused on “tiny niche topics” of interest.

4) THE SPECIALIZATION AGE.

Again competition came - even in these small niches. While there is still money to be made by focusing on these tiny, untapped markets — the well is drying up at a fast rate. Now enters a new age … the “specialization” age of information marketing.

Which brings us to the lesson -

There is a LOT of money to be made by creating small, 7-15 page reports
on PRECISE topics.

Most consumers would rather NOT sift through 100 pages of information to find out how to do something they are interested in, nor would they like to pay for 100 pages of information when they only need chapter 3.

With more and more products available on the market, consumers are getting pickier and pickier. They want what they want and only what they want.

Perhaps the biggest untapped information gold mine lies in this concept of creating small reports on precise topics.

* 17 Ways to Find New Affiliates Using Google.com

* How To Walk Off 7 Pounds in 7 Days

* 3 Ways To Get Your Next Vacation Free Of Charge

* The 15-Minute Guide To Stalling A Divorce

* Top 7 Ideas For Starting A Homeschool Support Group

Specialized information.

7-15 page reports that sell anywhere from $10-$100, depending upon the information.

And the benefits of writing these small reports are staggering -

1. You can write a small report in just a few hours of one day.

2. The profit per page ratio is astounding - 10 pages for $10 is a dollar per page per customer.

3. Small reports are MUCH easier to write than full-length courses.

4. There is a never-ending supply of topics for small reports.

5. You maximize the lifetime value of your customer. In other words, you can sell report after report to the SAME customer.

6. A series or collection of your small reports can be bundled into premium-priced courses over time.

7. When “hot topics” emerge (almost daily!) you can quickly crank out a small report to strike while the iron is hot.

8. When other marketers are seeing success with their products, you can create a complementary report to offer for sale as a supplement.

9. Many people can’t afford to buy (or refuse to buy) high-priced courses - but virtually anyone can whip out $10-$15.

The list could go on and on.

I’ve been creating small reports for a long time. In fact, I make over $15,000 in PROFIT every month from just ONE of my sites.

I know this works.

And not just for me.

I had a customer recently email me to let me know he sold 420 copies of his VERY FIRST small report, during its first month.

So, what I want to convince you to do is this -

***TRY IT FOR YOURSELF****

Create a small 7-15 page report and begin selling it online and see what kind of results you see.

A new information age has dawned - the age of specialization!

Create your own “special” reports and get your piece of the pie.

Do you have an idea for a great Small Report, but need some help? Check out “How To Improve Your Information W.R.I.T.I.N.G.™” by clicking here . You’ll learn useful tips to help you in the writing process – so you’ll be able to create information products faster, easier and, ultimately, better — and that’s more money in the bank.

By Jimmy D. Brown

My wife laughs every time she sees me doing it.

At least once or twice every week, I’ll be at my desk (or at the dining room table) with my Franklin Covey planner open and a stack of laminated checklists in hand.

“What are you doing, honey?” she calls, already knowing the answer.

“I’m planning”, I reply with a smile.

She laughs and I get back to work.

She laughs because she swears I spend half of my time “planning”. But, if you ask me how I’m able to get as much work done as I do in only 3 hours a day, I’ll point to a black Franklin Covey planner with about a dozen laminated checklists inside.

Building an Internet business is easy. Seriously. I’m not saying that it’s not complicated, because it is. I’m just saying that it’s easy to accomplish if you just have a system in place.

There’s very little in this world that can’t be accomplished with the right set of action steps in front of you.

Today, I’m going to give you such a system for building your Internet business. There are only 4 steps…

1. Decide What You Want To Do. Do you want to run an eBay(R) business? Be an affiliate marketer? Buy and sell reprint rights? Get involved in niche marketing? While all of those things will likely find their way into your plan in time, you gotta begin with one thing at a time.

My recommendation: Choose a “broad” topic you are interested in and begin building a list of folks interested in that topic.

2. Determine A Weekly Action Plan. After you decide what you want to do, it’s time to determine how to get it done. What I do is this: I create a weekly set of action steps. That is, I have a set of things I do on Monday, on Tuesday, and so forth. Decide how many hours (as little as ONE) you want to work each day and schedule yourself a reasonable amount of things to get done in that time frame. Repeat this process week after week.

My recommendation: Begin writing ezine articles to promote your list … and affiliate programs. It’s the easiest way to get free traffic and build your list at the same time.

3. Devote Yourself To Staying On Schedule. The important thing here is to stick to it. The easiest way that I know of to make certain you develop discipline in your schedule is to NOT set unrealistic expectations. Give yourself ample time to do each day’s action step - don’t overschedule. Look for progress along the way to celebrate. Reward yourself when you’ve reached a milestone. And, remember, you’re GROWING a business. Just like physical growth, it takes time … it WILL happen if you remain committed.

My recommendation: Weave in simple activities related to the following categories - List building (ezine articles), product creation(conduct interviews or hire ghostwriters), site development (making your site convert more visitors into buyers),and education (continuing to learn new ways to grow your business).

And for more ideas on how to work more effectively and deliver your planned projects, read through the resources mentioned at http://www.topreports.com/effectiveness/

4. Develop Additional Shortcuts. As you get better and better at working with your lists, creating products and tweaking your site, you’ll want to continue to improve your business with new ideas, strategies, tools, and resources. The key is simple: never stop learning!

My recommendation: Visit forums. Read articles. Download reports. Identify sites and resources that CONTRIBUTE to your success in educating you. You want faster results, bigger increases, automated processes, and other ways to get more accomplished and more profit, with less work involved.

Everything depends on your developing a plan and sticking to it.

And that is the REAL secret to building a high-profit Internet business!

Believe it or not, there is a tremendous “operations manual” that you can download right here at SR Zone to help you create a plan that works for YOU. Check out “Homepreneur Habits: How To Run A Successful Home Business “ by clicking here . You’ll learn all the tools you need, how to setup your work space and how to create a day-by-day schedule of recommended activities to start and grow your business.

By Jimmy D. Brown

photo credit: ?

Are you a “traffic juggler”?

That is, do you attempt to get traffic to your site by doing all kinds of activities ranging from SEO to PPC listings to buying solo mailings?

In other words, do you “juggle” your traffic generation activities like multi-colored balls – never holding on to one for very long and always moving on to the next one?

As a recovering “traffic juggler” myself, I can tell you this with great certainty … you and I aren’t alone.

Sadly, most internet marketers wear the same hat. They complicate things by trying every new traffic strategy, buying ever new traffic tool and joining every new traffic program.

It doesn’t need to be that way.

In fact, what I want to suggest to you in this article will make your life a whole lot easier, and, as a direct result, will actually get more traffic to your site than ever before.

Brace yourself for a life-changing statement –

** If you have your own product to sell online,
you only need to focus on ONE traffic strategy! **

Yep, you read that correctly.

Instead of trying to do a gazillion things, there is a very simple, very effective approach: focus on the ONE thing that really matters, the ONE thing that produces the greatest results, the ONE thing that will get you all the traffic you’ll ever need.

And that ONE thing is to…

** Start, Strengthen and Spread Your Own Affiliate Program*

Let’s look at that statement in 3 steps for simplicity purposes…

Step 1: *START* Your Affiliate Program.

There is one major reason why you need to start your own affiliate program that stands head and shoulders above the rest: every traffic generation concept (past, present and future) can be done FOR YOU, BY OTHERS if you have your own affiliate program in place.

Let that sink in. Chew on that for a while. It’s such a paradigm shift that most people don’t even realize the tidal-wave-like power behind the concept.

Instead of you working with PPC ads and you working on the SEO stuff and you buying the solo mailings, you can get others to do this FOR YOU as a member of your affiliate program.

So, to begin with, you need to start your own affiliate program. A great place to do this is Clickbank.com.

Step 2: *STRENGTHEN* Your Affiliate Program.

After establishing your affiliate program, it’s important to “strengthen” it. That is, you will need to train your affiliates to do all of the marketing for you. You’ll also need to provide them with marketing materials such as brandable PDF reports, articles, advertisements, banners, etc.

But, let’s take this another step.

Instead of loading some marketing and training materials to your affiliate center and leaving it up to your affiliates to figure out how to use them, why not point out how to use them?

Example: List 10 great newsletters where they can purchase solo mailings to promote your offer. Put something in there for every budget. (What a nice treat it will be when one of your aggressive affiliates purchases a $500 solo mailing to promote your offer!)

You’ll be SHOCKED to see what this one additional step can mean to your bottom line.

But, you could take it even another step further.

How about offering to personally train 10 affiliates in how best to promote your offer? You could teach one how to use ezine advertising; another how to buy PPC ads in numerous engines; still another how to distribute ezine articles.

(Here’s an idea: how about you purchase a copy of the latest traffic tool or manual for one of your affiliates and get them involved in using it to promote you?!)

Can you imagine the impact?

Step 3: *SPREAD* Your Affiliate Program.

Finally, you want to continue growing your program by recruiting more and more affiliates. As your numbers grow, so will your results.

The bottom line is simple: instead of “juggling” a bunch of different traffic ideas, a much more effective use of your time is to focus on ONE source of traffic: your own affiliate program.

Juggling is great for clowns, but lousy for internet marketers.

Don’t be a clown when it comes to your business.

Wouldn’t it be nice to attract some Super Affiliates? You know — the type that can make hundreds or thousands of sales by sending just one mailing to their lists. Jimmy D. Brown has authored a report that you won’t want to miss. Check out “8 Irresistible Ways to Get Super Affiliates To Enlist In Your Sales Army” by clicking here .