From Chris Kilian, Stealth Promotions
Austin, Texas
email: mailto:chris@stealthpromotions.com

Welcome to the 5th Issue of Secrets for Success.

Remember: All of you have indicated that you wish to receive this publication, which is sent by email. You have entered a contest, asked for our award, used our services, or sent a subscription request directly to us. To stop delivery of this newsletter and have your information removed, send any email to mailto:unsubscribe@stealthpromotions.com, and you wish will be followed. We are VERY interested in your feedback. Make suggestions, give us comments, good or bad. Share your thoughts with email to mailto:spezine@stealthpromotions.com

Our growing subscriber list is OUR list. Not for rent. Never sold. Your privacy is jealously protected and always will be.

Welcome to all the new faces this week. We will make some room for you at the table. Pull up a chair. Get comfortable, and lets get started.

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Contents:

1. Guest Article
2. Useful Sites
3. My $.02
4. Worthy Newsletters
5. Mixed Bag
6. Links For Your Consideration
7. Guest Article

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Guest Article:

"Effective Internet Advertising Techniques"

Although the medium is new, some of the rules have
NOT changed. To effectively market your products or
services on the internet, you should seriously
consider the BIG 3...

1. TARGET AUDIENCE

2. GOOD AD COPY

3. KEY EVALUATION.

The first and foremost thing to consider in advertising
is selecting the proper location for your ads. You must
concentrate your efforts on your target audience. Once
you have decided who you are trying to reach, find out
what types of publications they are most likely to read.

Instead of focusing solely on large sources with their
very high advertising rates, look into smaller
publications like specialized online newsletters and
magazines. There are many very specialized publications
available pertaining to just about every business,
occupation, sport and hobby. The advertising rates are
substantially lower and even though the circulations are
not as large, the readers of the smaller publications
consist almost exclusively of your target audience.

Here’s an example...

I ran the same exact ad for a business opportunity in
two online newsletters, or ezines. The ad ran for one
issue in each publication. The first one had a
subscription base of over 250,000. The other had roughly
8,000. The results are below.

Newsletter one: 151 inquiries. 2 sales.
Newsletter two: 49 inquiries. 7 sales.

Why were the results so different? Easy. The first
newsletter went to a large number of people. Obviously,
not many were interested in business opportunities. Of
the 151 that were, many were just curious and not
serious enough to spend money. The second newsletter,
however, had a subscription base made up solely of
people interested in business opportunities. Therefore,
a good percentage of inquiries turned into actual sales.
This is an extremely important example of why you need
to reach your target audience.

Once you've found your target audience, it's time to sit
down and concentrate on your ad copy. Here are a few tips
on developing good classified ad writing skills.

First of all, you should develop a wide variety of
classified ads. Since an important part of successful
advertising is trial and error, you need to run different
ads to find the ones that work best. Although this trial
and error is necessary, there are some good guidelines
to follow when writing classifieds. Here are some of them...

-Attract your reader with a catchy word or phrase right up front.

-Study other classifieds. If you see them repeatedly it’s
because they work.

-Keep your classifieds brief and to the point, using
phrases, not complete sentences.

-Use simple words, not long ones. Don’t confuse the reader.

-Tell the reader exactly what they are getting.

-Don’t try to sell the product in a classified. Simply try
to get interested people to respond.

-Use energetic punctuation, such as exclamation points
instead of periods.

The last important factor in classified advertising is
the "key". Keying an ad is a simple yet powerful way to
determine which ads and publications are working best for
you. An easy way to do this with email, is to ask people
to enter something in the subject box. When you receive
a response to an ad, you will know exactly where the
prospective customer saw it. This information will be
invaluable to you. This is the type of information that
you must focus on to hone your marketing skills.

There you have it. The three most important factors in
advertising. Reaching your target audience, good ad copy
and ad key evaluation. They all hold an importance place
in traditional advertising, and they have certainly carried
their importance over to the internet! Once you master
these three skills you’ll be on your way to bigger profits!

* Article by Jim Daniels of JDD Publishing. Jim's site has
helped 1000's of regular folks profit online. Check out
their FREE "how-to" cybermarketing assistance, free
software, business opportunities, manuals, web services
and more! Real money is being made on the net -- get in
on it at: http://bizweb2000.com - Subscribe to their FREE,
weekly BizWeb E-Gazette:
mailto:subscribe4free@JDD-Publishing.com

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Useful Sites:

Is that credit card your order form just accepted going to make a "boink" sound after it is checked by the issuer? Get a credit card checker that claims to catch 90% of the bad or faked numbers before you submit it. Don't deal with chargebacks, catch it before. Get you copy of this shareware for yourself at: http://www.xequte.com/cardchck.html

Free tracking statistics and NO visible banner and NO cost? Impossible? Not now. Drop by http://www.gumball-tracker.co.uk/ You will still need to stick your stats into software to make it meaningful, but those kind of programs are available and this webmaster has links to let you find a couple.

Poll your traffic. Let visitors participate with your web page. Give them a chance to be interactive with you.
I have been wondering where people are finding my suggestion service page. There are several choices: newsletters, other pages, and search engines. I am trying a new polling service which I picked up for free at http://www.insta-poll.com/ Simple HTML inserted into your page lets you ask up to 3 mutliple choice questions. The results are displayed immediately afterwards (along with a banner - what you want it free and no ads too?). The script will screen for multiple votes, so no one can vote twice.
On the bad side, I hate pop-up anything, but I am curious to see the results. Pop over for yours, if you want. Find out what your visitors think.

Don't you wish search engines would tell others about your site. One does.
If you would like to drop by What's New, you can add your URL, and it will mail an announcement to people who have opted in for announcements about your category of site. Add your web page, follow the rules, and get your share of the traffic from this interesting idea. Find it at
http://www.whatsnu.com

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My $.02:

To Get It Back (Traffic), Give It Away

By Chris Kilian, Stealth Promotions

I have been surfing quite a bit over the last few weeks, and I have been struck by something that seems, at first, not a logical way to add traffic to your websites.

I have been looking for webmasters who are willing to add our latest service, a free "Suggest This Site" service. With simple cut and paste HTML, webmasters can add the ability to attract more traffic to their web pages. Visitors can simply enter their name and email and the email of a friend or associate who might like the page they are visiting into a form created with the code. A CGI script, hosted on our server, will send a message that invites others to that same page.

Webmasters who have added the code to their pages have been getting great results. This service, given freely to the webmasters, has been adding 5-50+ visits . . . per day to site with the HTML code installed. You can get no obligation details about this traffic generator with a quick email to suggest@stealthpromotions.com . As I looked and evaluated sites to contact regarding this service, I noticed that the sites with more links seemed to have more traffic.

That does not seem right, does it? Would you try to drink from a cup with hundreds of holes in it? No.

As I made my visits, sites that had few links did not seem to be worth my time, either to suggest the addition of my resources or as a resource to add to my own pages. The result? Those site loose traffic from my links to them and they loose traffic from others who are looking for my kind of resources.

In our case, without counting, I am sure that we must have thousands of holes on our pages. There are links to free advertising, free for all pages, awards, affiliate sites and even to smarter folks who have contributed to our article library. It is possible to run off our website on almost every page. (We do hold visitors for ransom on our secure order forms - after all we like to eat too.)

What we are finding is that the more we have to offer, the more frequently others come to see us. Our suggestion service, used most often by people on free space without CGI access, has led to an explosion in our own traffic. (There is a line of text about our service in the email suggestion sent and in the page created after the suggestion is made.)

We have been linked more often (thanks very much) on more sites for our FREE things than we could ever expect to get links for our services alone.

We are adding traffic by giving it away. The more effort we put into giving away traffic, the more it comes back to us. Whether it is Karma or Fate or, as I suspect, just good business sense, the more we can be known for the cool things we do for free and the more we offer in the way of links to other sites who do the same, the higher our traffic counts go.

I was taught as a child to study monkeys at the zoo. The monkey holding the most food was the one who was hungry. Why? Because he spent all his energy gathering and holding food. There was no way to eat because to do so would require he release some of the food gathered into his grasp. Refusing to risk the loss of some of what he wanted contributed directly to the exact opposite of what he needed. To eat.

What do you need? Duh, right? What do any of us need. More site traffic.

Are you being a monkey with your site traffic?

Do you hide exits on your site. Do you jealously guard your cyber real estate, refusing to add valuable resources available elsewhere on the net?

That is not the answer.

That is the same as trying to satisfy your thirst with a cup that is closed . . . at the top. When I hit a site with one-way naviagtion or a "me only" attitude, I use my emergency exit plan, the "Back" button on my browser. Betcha others do too.

If yours is a site that traps and holds surfer hostages, you better make your sale on the first visit, because you are not likely to ever have a second chance.

Todays surfers are web wise. They know that there are thousands of places to get the information they want. If you don't want to give it to them, either because you create it or link to it, your visitors will find it elsewhere.

I strongly suggest you add links that compliment the subject matter of your site. If you ALSO have internal, home-made content, you will get your fair share the results you want.

Like the kid who takes his bat home when the baseball game is not going "his" way, trying to control your traffic will only repel it. And unlike the old days, there are many, many other bats available, just a click away. If your site projects a self-centered attitude, rest assured that you won't be bothered by most of us. No one will complain, because no one will visit a second time.

Traffic, like anything good, comes back to you in multiples of what you give away.

Copyright © 1998 Stealth Promotions
Chris Kilian operates Stealth Promotions.
(http://www.stealthpromotions.com )
Stealth Promotions will create
your internet presence from scratch or
improve the effectiveness of existing web sites.
Subscribe to his newsletter by sending an
email to subscribe@stealthpromotions.com

This article can be copied and used in your publication or on
your web site at no charge. All we ask is that you publish
the article in it's entirety, including the footnote above.

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Worthy Newsletter:

A. What a goof I am sometimes. Last week, I was pleased to be able to share one of my favorite sources for online, no bull information about marketing online or off. The goof? I completely forgot to mention the goldmine of information that Gary Lockwood has already gathered for you at his site. I felt so silly about it, I asked him if he wouldn't mind me mentioning his site again. As a smart marketer, he said... well what do you think he said.. He's at

FREE E-Zine: HOW-TO grow your business, make more money and have more fun. BizSuccess Breathroughs is for business owners, entrepreneurs, and professionals. Practical ideas and thought-provoking concepts for getting breakthroughs in your business.
Subscribe (free) - send any email to: subscribe@bizsuccess.com <mailto:subscribe@bizsuccess.com> OR subscribe directly at http://www.BizSuccess.com/newsletter.htm

B. I am going to suggest you drop by Jim Daniels website to add yourself to his subscription list.
Jim is a consistenly good source of information about design and marketing websites.   His methods have been used successfully by many online marketers.  You will not regret the time spent with his newsletter.

Publishers: Go get your Ezine listed at this, so far, uncluttered/undiscovered newsletter listing site: http://bizx.com/newsletter.html
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Mixed Bag::

Most suggested site this week?  http://members.tripod.com/~Iggy_Pop/halloween.html
Visit this site. Look at our free service live. Then do yourself and your visitors a favor and add some simple HTML to your page that lets one visit become two or more. I refuse to lower the price anymore. Details with any email to suggest@stealthpromotions.com

The was not enough interest in a group effort at this time with the non-profit site. You will recall, I asked last week if you would be interested in helping the pastor/webmaster with some of the less visible aspects of building a website. Thanks to those who responded, but we may have to wait a bit before we share our efforts and results here in public.

If you have articles that you would like us to consider for publication, send them to us at articles@stealthpromotions.com . No promise to use every submission, but we are looking for your imput.

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TARGET A NICHE MARKET TO

INCREASE YOUR SALES AND PROFITS

Copyright 1998 By Bob Leduc.

Contrary to what you may want to believe, the whole world is not your market. Even if everybody CAN use your product or service, there is a specific group with an intense need or desire for the benefits you offer. Find that "niche" market and commit your efforts to getting business from it. You'll soon discover how profitable your business can be.

A niche or target market is a group of potential customers
who share common characteristics making them especially
receptive to your product, service or opportunity.
I have a good friend in the life insurance business who
happens to live near 2 large US military bases. Almost all
of Frank's sales are to career military personnel at these 2
bases. He tells me the US military provides an excellent
group life insurance program for military members but no
life insurance for their spouses. This creates a potential
financial problem for military families with children. If
the service member's spouse dies, it will be expensive to
provide care for the children when the member is on remote
assignment or on extended training duty. By targeting
active duty military families and providing a solution to
their "special" life insurance problem, Frank became one
of the top sales agents in his company.

BENEFITS OF TARGETING A NICHE MARKET

Identifying a target market makes it easy for you to plan
effective marketing activity. It also makes it easy for you
to develop a winning sales message. When you know the
specific concerns of your market, you can tailor your
message to focus on solutions to those concerns. You can
even create different sales messages for different target
markets.

For example, one of the books I wrote is a manual about how to
use simple postcards to generate inexpensive sales leads. The
information and examples in it apply to all businesses. However,
one of the most profitable target markets for this manual is
businesses that use a network marketing or MLM distribution system.
The promotional material I developed for that market emphasizes the
special advantages postcards offer for recruiting new independent
distributors. That's the #1 concern of every network marketer. I identify
their biggest problem and offer a simple, low cost solution to it. As a
result, a high percentage of the orders for this manual come from
network marketers.

HOW TO FIND A NICHE MARKET

If you've been in business for some time you're probably
already targeting one or more niche markets with your sales efforts.
If you haven't or if you're just starting your
business, here are some things you can do to uncover
profitable niche markets for your business.
Start by listing all of the benefits offered by your
product, service or business opportunity. Be sure you're
listing benefits, not features. You must know the
difference between benefits and features to market anything successfully.

A feature is what something is. A benefit is what it does.
For example, my favorite donuts are now delivered in a re-
sealable box. That's a feature. The donuts stay fresh for
a week after I first open the box. That's the benefit.
Understanding this difference is important. People never buy
something to get a feature. They always buy to get the
benefit produced by the feature.

After listing all the benefits you can think of, list some
of the characteristics of prospects whose current situation
would be dramatically improved by those benefits. You
should begin to see a definable group emerging as a niche or target market.

Next, you want to determine if the group you've identified
is a market you can reach and develop profitably. If it is,
you will be able to answer "yes" to all of the following
questions:

1. Can I identify individual prospects within the group
including contact information to communicate with them?

2. Do prospects in this group have a strong need for (or a
strong desire to have) my product, service or opportunity?

3. Do the prospects in this group have the money to pay for
what I'm offering?

4. Can I deliver my sales message to these prospects under
favorable circumstances?

5. Is this group large enough to produce the volume of
business I need?

Don't waste your time on this market if there is a "no"
answer to any of these questions. It's not a niche market
for you.

Be sure to use the information you developed in finding your target
market to create the sales material for it. You
already know the overwhelming benefit(s) you offer to this
market and why it's so important to them. Just build your
advertising and sales material around this benefit and
you'll soon enjoy the profits of successfully targeting a
niche market.

Bob Leduc retired from a 30 year career of recruiting sales
personnel and developing sales leads. He is now a Sales
Consultant. Bob recently wrote a manual for small business
owners titled "How to Build Your Small Business Fast With
Simple Postcards" and several other publications to help
small businesses grow and prosper. For more information...
Email: BobLeduc@aol.com Subject: "Postcards".
Phone: (702) 658-1707 (After 10 AM Pacific time)
Or write: Bob Leduc, PO Box 33628, Las Vegas, NV 89133