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Interview with Sam Robbins.
For over a decade, Sam Robbins has been one of the top marketers both on
AND off the Internet.
He has many successful businesses and websites, has consulted small
home-based businesses as well as Fortune 500 companies ... and most
importantly he's the first to admit he's made a million mistakes along the
way.
Anyway, this little introduction is not about Sam Robbins ... but rather
what
Sam can do FOR YOU. I had the rare opportunity to interview Sam recently
...
and he has allowed me to make the entire transcript available to you, FREE
of charge.
Not only is this interview extremely valuable and informative (Sam
reveals
the biggest keys to his success), but it's VERY RARE! This is the
first
interview that Sam has done in over two years, so pay close attention
and
listen to his wisdom!
Q. Sam, I know you've been involved in the launching of many very
profitable
websites so let me ask you ... how do you know if a site is going to
be
profitable? What "precautions" do you take to increase the odds
of success?
A. Well, there a million things that one needs to keep in mind before
starting
any new project. But let's just keep it simple. The main thing I keep in
mind
is to find or create a product or service where a MARKET and a DEMAND
for
it already exists. This reduces your risk tremendously ... and there is
less
effort and money spent.
For example, we recently launched an awesome marketing tool at
http://www.adminder.com.
It's VERY successful mainly because it's
something that ANY and ALL businesses need. If your goal is to make
even $1, AdMinder will help you do it.
We don't have to go looking for customers ... they come to US because
they
need AND want to use it to make more money online.
Q. Right, excellent point. Now, once you've setup a new site what's the
very
next thing you do?
A. Once we've designed a new site, integrated the order processing
system,
etc. and everything is working properly, we prepare to start advertising
(the
marketing campaign). No matter how we promote (free or paid sources),
the
MOST IMPORTANT factor is we make sure we have our tracking systems
in
place so we know what's going on once the promotions begin and the
traffic
hits. We are spending valuable time and money on this and we aren't
going
to do any guess work. We want SCIENTIFIC numbers telling us what's
going
on, what's happened and what we need to do to increase sales and
profits.
Q. Ok right, you mean you setup some type of log analysis system?
A. That's what most people do, but no, that's not what I mean at all. From
a
marketing standpoint, log file analysis is only half the battle. Analyzing
your
server logs will tell you how visitors are navigating your website, and
what they
do when they arrive, but it won't give you the rest of the information you
need.
And generally speaking, for most people, it's very difficult to really
make good
sense out of your log files. I know for us, as our sites grow, the log
files get
more confusing and less accurate. Like I said, you logs only give you a
small
fraction of the real information. For example, which of your ads and
promotions
are generating the most traffic, and even more importantly, the most sales
(what's
making you money - plain and simple). These are just a few that come to
mind,
but without this information you're really just flying blind and wasting
your time
and money.
Q. That's a good point and I'm glad you brought that up. So tell us,
exactly what
kind of stats and other information do you track?
A. In order to maximize the return on our investments (ROI) in
advertising, we
carefully monitor a whole bunch of things. Such as:
* Unique visitors generated by each ad or promotion
* Number of sales generated by each ad or promotion
* Which ads are generating the most traffic and sales
* Cost-per-click, cost-per-sale, and clicks-to-sales ratios for each ad or
promotion
* Return on investment, or ROI, for each ad or promotion
Those are the most important bits of information that we monitor on a
minute-by-
minute basis. Aside from ROI, my favorite stat is the clicks-to-sales
ratio because
it gives a great indication of the "quality" of traffic that is
being generated by each
ad or promotion.
For example, just last week I ran the same ad in 2 different but
supposedly
"targeted" e-zines. One of the ads is resulting in an average of
1 sale per every
36 visitors, and the other ad is only generating 1 sale out of every 152
visitors.
You tell me, which of these e-zines would you prefer to advertise in?
=)
Q. Yeah, that would make a big difference especially when you are dealing
with
numerous ads.
A. Right. EXACTLY! See, if you are only doing one or two ads, you can
track
everything manually. It's not that big of a deal. It's not that stressful.
But as
your ads grow and your "repeats" ads, you're going to go crazy
trying to track
everything. Before you know it, it becomes too much of a hassle and you
stop.
Q. Hehe ... good point. We hear that all the time. And you know, it's very
true.
If things are complicated or too difficult to do, people just won't do
it.
A. Simplicity, that's the key! We are all too busy these days to be doing
"monkey
work".
Q. What about general promotions and non-paying advertisements. How do
you
deal with those? Do you even track them?
A. Yes! Most definitely. Heck, we make just as much money off of our
"free"
promotion tactics as we do with our paid (maybe more). It's not just
about
saving money, it's about saving time as well. That's why we track ever
and
any type of promotion. For example, let's say you have a newsletter or
e-zine
and in it, you have links for various affiliate programs or articles at
your own
site that sell something indirectly. You can track to see which TYPE of
article
or promotion did the best. If an article about e-zine advertising was 3
times
more effective at bringing traffic BACK to your site then an article on
banner
advertising, you will know to spend the majority of your time posting
and
distributing the e-zine article. Does this make sense?
Q. Yes it does. We tried to do this with some "viral marketing"
type of
promotions in the past. But after a few weeks, we were overwhelmed
and
didn't know what was working and what wasn't. We knew that we had an
increase in traffic and sales, but just wasn't sure how.
A. Right. Well, live and learn. We all make these mistakes. But the
problem
is that someone reading this article will realize it, but WILL NOT DO
ANYTHING
about it. That's not making a mistake. That's just being stupid. There are
specific
ways and reasons why people make money ... and others do not. Now that
you
know tracking is vital, DO IT!
Q. I guess "change" takes longer in some people than others. But
the sooner
you welcome "change", the sooner you will free up time and make
more money.
A. Yup. Well said!
Q. Sam, the word on the Internet is you're the one who invented the
"Automatically Double Your Profits Every Month" tactic. It's a
fantastic
business plan. Simple and proven. How did you come up with it?
A. Oh yeah, that formula rocks! But I didn't come up with it. I'm probably
the
first to present it to the Internet world, but I learned something similar
to it years
ago when I did consulting for infomercials. I added my own twist to it.
But no,
I don't think I've ever invented anything. =)
Q. How does it work exactly?
A: Well, I've already presented the exact "formula" at our site
at:
http://www.adminder.com.
So, best for your readers to just go there since I
don't like to repeat myself and bore those that already have read about
my
formula.
But I'll give you a simple explanation of it and a different
"twist" for those that
already use the formula. Frank Bettger, a phenomenal salesman of the
1930s,
shared the secret of his success in his classic "How I Raised Myself
From
Failure To Success In Selling". After analyzing his first year's
sales, Bettger
discovered that 70% were made on the FIRST interview, 23% on the
second
interview and only 7% on the third. His greatest revelation was that he
spent
HALF of his time going after that last 7 percent! When he realized this,
he
began concentrating his efforts on those FIRST interviews and nearly
DOUBLED
his income overnight!
Q: Wow... great story. That's a great way to explain your system to
other
people. I guess the key to it all was that Mr. Bettger kept records and
"tracked"
everything and then analyzed it.
A: Yes, precisely! Heck, with all of the great technology that we have
today,
not many people track their promotion efforts. Just imagine if Bettger
didn't
track anything. YEARS would go by and he would continue to make the
same
mistakes ... wasting valuable time and money. Yet, by analyzing his
work,
in only a few minutes he realized exactly what he needed to do to
increase
his sales, make more money and save time.
Q: Yeah, it's pretty amazing. Once you have a good tracking system
setup,
it only takes minutes to analyze the results and know what's working,
what
isn't and WHY!
A: Right. Now, the hardest part is just doing it. Getting started seems to
be a
problem for most. They think it will take a lot of time and effort setting
up a
tracking system. But if you know where and what to look for, it's simple,
fast
and almost free.
Q: Okay, so let's say you are new to all this or you've been wanting to
setup
some tracking system in the past, but got lazy and procrastinated. What
would
you tell people? How or where should they start?
A: Well, there are a million ways of doing something. Let me go over a few
of
the options and you can decide what's best for you. You can buy special
software
that will do all the tracking for you. The problem is that they are VERY
expensive
and very difficult to use. Most people aren't "tech" smart and
won't know how to
use all the features of a program. Your next option is to purchase a
script. This
is good. But the problem is that most are just glorified "hit"
counters. They don't
track the important stuff ... the specifics that you would need to know. I
have
found a couple that were pretty good, but they were also very expensive
and
the installation was crazy. Multiple scripts needed to be installed and
your
server had to have some special settings and so forth. The server had to
be
strong enough to also handle all the data being processed.
Again, most people just don't have the "tech" knowledge or the
time or the money
to do it on their own. Your last option is to use a web-based service.
There are a
few. As with everything, a few are horrible, a few are okay and a couple
are good.
Because it costs you no setup time or hardware or programming knowledge
or
special servers or any of that stuff, I'd recommend for most to do a
web-based
service. At the very least, give it a try for a fewmonths and just see how
it goes.
There are no contracts or anything like that. You get to test things out,
risk free.
Q: I totally agree that the web-based versions would be best suited for
98% of
the people reading this. Now, who do you recommend?
A: I'm not going to recommend anything to anyone. I'm biased and I'm not
going
give my opinion on any specific company. But all I can say is that
whatever was
out there, I did NOT like and am NOT using. That's why we designed our
own
custom system and that's why some of the much larger companies on the
Net
are now using our system. It's precise, complete, proven and guaranteed.
Let
me ask you, what do YOU like that's out there?
Q: Oh no ... don't put me on the spot. =) Okay, I'll be honest with you. I
really
love http://www.adminder.com
- it works the best by far, it's the simplest to
use, it's got the most features for tracking, analyzing and managing all
of your
promotions. And ... here's my favorite - it's the cheapest!
A: What else do you like about it?
Q: Okay, let's not forget who's giving the interview here (laughing!) ...
I'm the
one in charge. =)) In all honesty, this is why I did the interview to
begin with ...
I was very impressed with all of your sites and how your run your
businesses.
I've got a million other questions to ask you. But I think we'll save it
for another
time.
A: Sure, sounds good and thank you for the kind words.
Q: Thank you very much for your time.
A: My pleasure. Bye.
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