Could you make the sale?

In business, whether it is online or off, sales of products and services are crucial to the success of the business – without sales, the business doesn’t make any money and therefore will not thrive. All very straightforward and obvious you might think, but sometimes there is more to sales than meets the eye, and any person in business worth their salt will always be looking out for ways to increase their sales.

Anyway, I received this amusing little story about an extraordinary young salesman in my email this morning, so I thought I would pass it on:

A young guy from Minnesota moves to Florida and goes to a big everything under one roof department store looking for a job.

The Manager says, "Do you have any sales experience?" The kid says "Yeah. I was a salesman back in Minnesota."

Well, the boss liked the kid and gave him the job. "You start tomorrow. I'll come down after we close and see how you did."

His first day on the job was rough, but he got through it and after the store was locked up the boss came down. "How many customers bought something from you today?" he asked.

The kid says "One".

The boss says "Just one? Our sales people average 20 to 30 customers a day. How much was the sale for?"

The kid says "$101,237.65".

The boss says "$101,237.65? What the heck did you sell?"

The kid says, "First, I sold him a small fishhook. Then I sold him a medium fishhook. Then I sold him a larger fishhook. Then I sold him a new fishing rod, a tackle box, and fishing line. Then I asked him where he was going fishing and he said down the coast, so I told him he was going to need a boat, so we went down to the boat department and I sold him a twin-engine Chris Craft, and told him if he didn't want to get lost, he better buy the latest navigational equipment too. Then he said he didn't think his Honda Civic would pull it, so I took him down to the automotive department and sold him that 4x4 Lincoln Navigator."

The boss said "A guy came in here to buy a fishhook and you sold him a BOAT, a TRUCK, and all the rest?"

The kid said "No, the guy came in here to buy Tampons for his wife and I said, 'Dude, your weekend's shot, you should go fishing.

Some people are just natural-born salesmen eh?

Til next time, remember;

People who cherish understanding will prosper Proverbs 19:8

Making Blogs Pay Their Way

If you have read My Rich Pickings before then you will know that I have a keen interest in making money online, and that includes income from my other websites and indeed this very blog. This is achieved primarily from website advertising and promotion of affiliate programs. But which ones are the most successful?

As I have been maintaining My Rich Pickings for almost a year, I am now in a position to offer some practical advice about which ones work and which ones don’t. But please bear in mind that there is a certain amount of experimentation involved; and just because something doesn’t work for me doesn’t mean to say that it won’t work for anybody else. And ALWAYS remember that very basic rule of web advertising; i.e. keep it on topic! (I know there are exceptions, but on the whole it pays to keep your adverts in line with the subject matter of your blog.)

Now I’m not going to make a big song and dance about exactly how certain advertisers have performed, and I don’t want to single out any particularly bad performers, but suffice to say that the 2 website advertising / affiliate programs consistently at the top performance-wise for me are Google Adsense and Commission Junction. There has been some sporadic success for others, but these are my top 2 and I will keep on promoting them on my sites.

Admittedly, Commission Junction takes more work to get right than Adsense, which is basically a ‘plug and play’ solution for any content based website, but with a little experimentation the results from CJ can be far more rewarding. I suggest that if you don’t see immediate results on your own blog then it is worthwhile checking out the huge diversity of different advertiser’s banners and text links and finding the ones most suited to your blog. It is worth noting that if an advertisement offers something of value to your visitors it will get clicked on.

I believe that the ‘secrets’ of making blogs pay their way are experimentation, monitoring, updating and refinement. Never be afraid to make changes, but remember to monitor the results of any changes to see if they are positive or negative and then adjust accordingly. Once you find a winning formula then milk it, and above all, enjoy!

Make A Start

I overheard a strange and quite amusing conversation yesterday about Monday mornings. To save any possible embarrassment I will call the 2 guys Bill and Ben. It went something like this:

Bill: “I hate Monday mornings.”
Ben: “Me too, the start of another week of the rat race.”
Bill: “Yep, another week in hell.”
Ben: “Wouldn’t it be great to win the lottery and give up working?”
Bill: “I dream about that!”
Ben: “Me too.”
Bill: “I fantasise about collecting the cheque, telling my boss to stick the job up his arse, and booking a world cruise.”
Ben: “Wouldn’t that be fantastic?”
Bill: “Too right!”
Ben: “The only problem is I never buy a lottery ticket. Let’s face it; the chances of winning are millions to one.”
Bill: “I know. To tell the truth, I never seem to find time to buy a ticket.”
Ben: “It’s a mug’s game anyway...”

I swear this is a completely true story and the conversation above really did happen.

But what has this got to do with making or saving money online? Not a great deal really, except a little reminder that just like the lottery; you’ve got to be in it to win it. The best thing you can do is make a start - do it, and do it now!

New Stealth Promotion Tools Available

Just a quick update today for anybody who may be interested in becoming an affiliate for Stealth Income Secrets.

I have added a couple of new promotional tools this morning. So there are now ready made banners, email, tell a friend, and forum sigs available so that anybody promoting the package won't have to work too hard ;o)

And don't forget I pay you 50% for each and every sale you make! How could you refuse an offer like that? Check out the sign up page HERE now!