Petey's
Pipeline E-zine
Issue #13
December 16, 2003
Contents
Business
First Editorial
Guest Writer, Not Ghostwriter
Random Ramblings & Miscellaneous Musings
Affiliate Programs:
Perspective
Write Thinking Why
Don't They Edit?
Preview of coming distractions
Business
First (Editorial)
As
the third year of the new millennium draws to a close and we
prepare to begin a fourth, now is a good time to take a parting
glance at the year just past and reflect on all that happened.
From
a personal perspective, 2003 was a year of experimentation and
learning, and forging on-line relationships with some truly
wonderful people. Theresa
Cahill, Ginger
Geracitano, dr.
jl scott and Edward
Thorpe were among those who proved themselves to be friendly,
knowledgeable and willing to give good advice.
Although
2003 wasn't exactly a banner year for me in terms of on-line
profits (the bulk of my income still derives from a combination
of local clients and off-line activities), it was extremely
successful in regards to knowledge gained, contacts made and
projects started. The Perfect Text Web site launched in January
and the first issue of Petey's Pipeline E-zine made its debut
on-line in June. Both of these are integral parts of a much
larger business entity that's still in the planning stages.
2003
was the year the Internet began to emerge from its "unruly
childhood" phase. Soon, not too many years from now, the
Internet will come of age, with government regulations and self-regulation
forcing the issue. Many people now doing business on-line will
discover, too late, that it's become an entirely different place.
Finally,
along with triumphs that made indelible impressions on my mind,
2003 delivered tragedies that left permanent wounds on my heart.
Enough said.
•
• •
Founded
in 1947, the Marine
Toys for Tots Foundation conducts Christmas toy drives in
more than 400 communities nationwide. Last year, they distributed
13 million toys to 5.7 million needy children. The Toys for
Tots program keeps its operating costs low, meaning that most
of your tax-deductible donation is spent on children's gifts,
not on fund-raising and promotion.
Highly
regarded by organizations that investigate and rate charities,
the Marine Toys for Tots Foundation also gets Reader's
Digest Magazine's endorsement as one of the best charities.
You can check them out for yourself at ToysForTots.org,
Give.org and
CharityNavigator.org.
Don't
be a Grinch! Send in your donation in time to make a positive
difference in a needy child's life this Christmas. It's not
too late to put a smile on some kid's face; by doing so, you'll
almost certainly put a smile on your own. Just click on the
Toys for Tots banner, left, to get started.
•
• •
Whether
you celebrate Hanukkah, Christmas, Boxing Day or any other holiday
at this time of year, I hope your holidays are safe and happy
ones. See you next year!
Phil
Guest
Writer, Not Ghostwriter
Due
to time constraints, no guest-written article appears in this
issue.
Random
Ramblings & Miscellaneous Musings
Affiliate
Programs: The Customer's Perspective
by Phil Hanson
We've
already learned (Petey's #11) how various groups of people who
are involved with affiliate programs might see those programs
in terms of their own businesses. Now, it's time to look at
affiliate programs through the eyes of the consumer.
Who
are the consumers of affiliate programs? Realistically, they
can be divided into two camps. In one camp you have the people
who use affiliate programs for commercial purposes, such as
promoting or reselling a product for pay. In the other camp
are the people who are possible users of the product that's
being promoted by the affiliate program. These are the potential
paying customers.
How
members of either group respond to a particular affiliate program,
or to affiliate programs in general, depends on several factors.
Individual motives, goals, needs, interests, education and experience
all exert varying degrees of influence in determining how people
arrive at their personal perspectives on a given subject.
Impressionable
people who rarely indulge in deep analytical thought leap aboard
every opportunity bandwagon that rumbles by, oblivious to the
possibility that the bandwagon may be about to plunge off a
cliff. They haven't yet caught on to the fact that if an offer
sounds too good to be true, it isn't true.
Deep
thinkers characteristically weigh all factors present before
making a decision to buy, or not to buy. Whether it's an opportunity
to buy the latest information e-book, tutorial or trick software,
or a chance to promote the latest affiliate program or network
marketing scheme, savvy 'Netrepreneurs always scrutinize
every offer carefully before they whip out their
credit cards or enter personal information into a sign-up form.
The
way an affiliate program delivers its offer can color a potential
consumer's perceptions, not only about the affiliate program,
but also about the product that's offered. For anyone who wants
to sell a product or promote an opportunity on-line, credibility
is an essential ingredient.
Sales
messages delivered via unsolicited commercial e-mail (spam),
false claims, misleading statements, withheld information, obvious
marketing hype, shady practices and lack of contact information
are some of the things that might cause on-line sellers to lose
credibility and arouse suspicion in the minds of their targeted
buyers.
When
a half-dozen newsletters and e-zines arrive in my "in"
box on the same day, all of them using identical sales letters
to pitch the same program, I know it's already too late for
me to make any money by signing on as an affiliate. Saturation
has killed the program's effectiveness. Sure, super-affiliates
will probably convert a few sales, maybe even lots of sales,
but most of the smaller affiliates will not. I've learned from
experience that joining mass-marketed affiliate programs is
a waste of time for those whose Web sites don't get lots of
traffic, and for those who don't have large mailing lists.
Seasoned
on-line professionals make it a point to find out who's behind
every affiliate program before they begin promoting the
program. Several on-line marketing gurus have sullied their
reputations and destroyed their credibility through unethical
business practices; those who promote dishonest programs, whether
knowingly or not, will likewise have their reputations tarnished.
The
thing I find hardest of all to believe is that so many people
who profess to be on-line business and marketing experts are
willing to jeopardize their businesses and their reputations
by jumping aboard that cliff-bound bandwagon. Are they that
hard up for money? Or are they just hard up for brains?
Copyright
© 2003 by Phil Hanson
All rights reserved.
================================================================
If you have ideas, opinions or commentary
of your own regarding this subject, why not share them with
Petey's Pipeline readers?
Submit
your thoughtful, thought-provoking comments in body of e-mail
addressed to editor@perfecttext.com.
Don't forget to include your signature file or resource box.
================================================================
Write
Thinking
Why
Don't They Edit?
by Phil Hanson
One
thing I'll never understand is why so many people who claim
to be newsletter and e-zine editors and publishers don't edit
before they publish. Is it because they have no clear idea of
what is involved in the editing process? Is it possible they
don't know that publishers have responsibilities to their readers?
Or, are they just too lazy to clean up the mistakes?
Although
I don't have the answers to these questions, I do have some
dire predictions about what will befall those so-called editors
and publishers who fail to take their jobs, and their responsibilities,
seriously. History does repeat itself, and it's about to do
so, again.
Print
media publishing came of age in the late 19th and early 20th
centuries when newspaper and book publishers adopted standardized
spelling, punctuation and typographical style conventions. Those
who failed to conform to the conventions or otherwise get it
right went the way of T. Rex.
Unlike
T. Rex, they were not reborn on an island off the coast of Costa
Rica. They were reborn on the Internet, where they will meet
the same fate as that experienced by their hapless predecessors.
As
the Internet comes of age and matures, on-line readers will
become more discerning, and more demanding. One of the things
they'll demand is error-free written content.
Writers,
editors and publishers all have responsibilities to the readers
they serve. They also have responsibilities to each other. Professional
writers, editors and publishers do whatever it takes to ensure
that their readers have a good reading experience. As professionals,
they have already succeeded or they are poised for success.
Those
who take a less-than-professional approach to their publishing
efforts are only pretenders, after all. They will persist in
their belief that quality has no value and that their readers
are too illiterate to know the difference, anyway. When their
readers desert them they will, like stars in a cloudless pre-dawn
sky, gradually fade away.
Just
as professionals have risen to the top in every area of activity
in which they've become involved, so, too, will professionals
dominate Internet publishing. Amateurs may get in the game from
time to time, but it's the professionals who get paid.
Copyright
© 2003 by Phil Hanson
All rights reserved.
Preview
of Coming Distractions
Petey's
#14 will be on-line no later than mid-January, 2004. However,
our oracle is in a snit and refuses to tell us what's in store.
Guess we'll just have to wait to find out.
Disclaimer
The
articles appearing in Petey's Pipeline E-zine are based on information
believed to be true at the time of publication.
Neither Perfecttext.com, Petey's Pipeline E-zine nor their publisher
assume any liability or responsibility as to the accuracy or
efficacy of any information, products or services that are submitted,
advertised or rendered by contributors to Petey's Pipeline E-zine.
While we make every effort to screen out scam artists and bogus
offers, you should still do your homework. Caveat emptor!
