Things are not always sweetness and light in the world
of Internet Marketing.
Sometimes things go wrong.
We put an email out last week (or the week before)
offering unrestricted PLR to a new product.
It was a subscriber only offer and I thought it would
sell out really quickly as most - actually ALL - the
PLR we offer to subscribers does.
Boy was I wrong.
I'd like to tell how setting silly deadlines can cost
you thousands! I now know that in 99% of sales
situations, the email will always wait until tomorrow!
Because I'm sure it WOULD have sold out quickly had we
not been rushing to get the email out for a certain
time on a certain day.
Here's what happened.
We decided to send a broadcast email offering the above
product and for some reason set ourselves a deadline. I
think we were pretending to be efficient.
We ended up running behind and I was writing the email
as Tony was uploading the files via FTP to the website.
Once it was finished we clicked 'send' in the Aweber
account and the email went out to over 10,000
subscribers.
We usually see the first sales coming in within minutes
but on this occasion nothing happened.
not a thing.
We continued to wait.
A little later a few sales trickled in but it was
obvious nothing was really happening. We went through a
mental checklist of everything we'd done and started by
checking the website we were selling the PLR from.
It looked fine.
Then something made me press the F5 key on my laptop to
refresh the page. Again everything was OK.
I pressed it again and to my absolute horror the WRONG
sales page appeared.
I had been seeing the 'cached' version of the webpage -
the one that was stored in my laptop's memory for quick
access. And it was totally different from the one that
was live on the net.
The 'live' one was another, older version that we had
decided not to use, and we thought we had overwritten
with the new one.
It seems not.
Not only that, but we'd also uploaded a HALF FINISHED
version of this excellent PLR package that included a
pdf with non-clickable links, the wrong graphics and
completely mis-formatted website.
We'd sent out an absolute PIG of a package that could
seriously damage our reputation.
Because it was so...well, CRAP, to be honest, we'd only
attracted a handful of sales and even luckier, the code
for the Paypal button didn't seem to be working
properly either.
Not many people had seen the bad version.
This means that we had time to email, personally, every
person that had received the wrong package to apologise
and send the correct one.
Phew!
We then made sure the correct webpage was uploaded and
the payment button was changed and tested.
We also made sure that the package was up to date, bug
free and contained the new (and excellent) sales page,
pdf's and Word source files so the purchaser could
change the whole thing as he liked, put his name on as
author etc - a ready-made product.
Once all was working we decided to send out a SECOND
email explaining the problem and letting our
subscribers know that everything was now fixed and they
could finally get their hands on the PLR.
Now this wasn't an easy decision to make because it's
quite well known in Internet Marketing that sending out
a 'sorry there was a mistake - here is the correct
link' - email is a complete con. Just an excuse to send
a spammy email promoting the same product.
We were gambling that our subscribers would realise
that we'd only ever done this once before (a mistake
then too) EVER and so was a legitimate mistake.
Luckily our subscribers are intelligent and loyal so we
didn't get too many complaints (although there were one
or two)
I wrote the email and, still shaking slightly, sent it
out. Again to just over 10,000 people.
We waited and watched the stats.
Nothing.
Surely this time people would see the new sales page
and jump at the chance to pick up this excellent value
PLR.
It was unrestricted, had a unique sales page and,
well....it doesn't come much better.
We waited.
No sales.
No sales.....
NO SALES.........
We checked the website and payment button. All fine.
We checked the test email that we'd sent to ourselves.
And felt our stomachs fall through the floor.
At the end of the URL (the link in the email that we'd
sent out telling people where they could click to buy
the PLR) was a full-stop.
A period if you're American.
And it stopped the URL being clickable in most people's
email. Even worse if you cut it and pasted it into your
browser without noticing the full-stop then it wouldn't
work either.
The full-stop made the browser think we were trying to
run some sort of code and gave an error page
automatically!
Very few people even noticed the fullstop and those
that did, didn't know how to fix the error.
By now it was time to open the wine and pour a BIG
glass.
We gave up.
We had some emails asking why the link wasn't working
and could they have the correct one, and made some
sales.
But most people clicked the link, got the error page
and didn't bother with it any more.
And rightly so - I do the same when I get dead links in
emails sent out to me by various gurus and experts. It
happens more than you think.
So the moral is to realise you're a moron.
Every time you send out an email, whether it's to your
list or to a business contact, make sure you check it.
If there are any live links in it, send yourself a copy
and test that too.
The same goes for payment buttons, download pages and
the whole package you're offering.
Check it ALL, EVERY time.
And again, realise that you're a moron. We have.
The good news is that we have quite a few licenses
available for this excellent UNRESTRICTED PLR package
available from http://www.sara-brown.com/shovels
But if the link doesn't work please don't email me to
let me know - I don't think I could stand it!
