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What Small Change Did You Do This Year That Made Big Money

by Ryan David
12 replies
Instead of a big idea, just out of curiosity, is there anything you did this year that made a big impact on sales. I'm not talking about any big project you finished, but small things like making the "Buy Now" button bigger.

And also, maybe throw in WHY you thought that worked.

For me...I'll cheat and give 2 big things.

1) Product Reviews--I have an ecommerce site and I basically just followed the Amazon model. I sent out an offer to prior customers that said they could get an exclusive coupon for giving me a review on a product they purchased. Then after that, I had the autoresponder go out and ask people. Once the reviews starting showing up, it was helping people make a decision about WHICH product was most popular (without having to ask or guess). It also gave them confidence in me and the product. The result was a HUGE increase in conversions. Literally a 30% jump from the same period last year.

2) Scheduled Email--I'm more of a seat of the pants type of guy when it comes to email marketing. But I actually took the time and wrote out 12 weeks worth of short emails that I was going to send to customers each Tuesday. No surprise, the sales started coming faster and furious during that period.

How bout you?
#big #change #made #money #small #year
  • Profile picture of the author barbling
    I've started sharing bigtime my knowledge of 14+ years marketing...and more and more people are buying the products on my site.

    Such a small thing, yet so valuable!!
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  • Profile picture of the author Thatgirl
    Awesome thread. Looking forward to more responses...
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    Passive Income Girl Guide: Watch Me Make 100K in 1 Year
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    • Profile picture of the author Tom Ryan
      Started treating this like a business instead of a hobby. And also started getting into product development.
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  • Profile picture of the author TopKat22
    I focused on one thing, building lists for my niches and quit jumping from one thing to another.

    It took less than a week and things started to change. This helped me in a number of ways.

    First, I realized this IS a business and like a business, needs focus.

    It actually got me making money in the shortest time AND it is building a relationship with people for more long term benefit for them and myself.

    It makes me feel much better because I am in more control of what I'm doing and I feel like I'm contributing a lot more to help people in my different niches.

    So, in summary, I focused on one thing and am just doing that.
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    44 days in and we broke the $10K a month recurring bench mark.

    Guaranteed 60% Opt In Rate Traffic-Real People-Fresh Today-High Quality Biz Opp traffic![/URL]
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  • Profile picture of the author gapmarketing
    I partnered up with someone who specialised in the off-line sales side of things and subseqently I earnt more money than I ever have this year (6 years full-time online). Unfortunately I have just pulled the plug as it were on that because as things developed the guy for some strange reason thought that I should now do all of his tecky work for virtually nothing plus it's really difficult to work at all with someone who really is technophobic. Sorry for the rant :-)
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    • Profile picture of the author jrpt
      Declutter and get visitors to the purchase area ASAP. The more layers of pages and forms and signups, the less likely someone will actually get to a payment page. The stats on this amazed me. I thought my conversions were fine but decided to remove some clutter that I THOUGHT was important for sales...it wasn't.

      Simple reality that an advanced IMer passed along to me: If someone makes their way to your website, they want to buy something. Don't give them time to change their mind!

      JR
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  • Profile picture of the author jgant
    This year I went from a few hundred per month to hitting my first 5 figure month in October/11. I did 3 things:

    1. Focused on 2 sites for the bulk of the year. This alone increased revenues to mid 4 figures. Moreover, I focused on a handful of offers that are products I use and like. I promoted them like crazy.
    2. I ramped up my list building. It's still a smaller part of my business, but will increase in importance in the future. It's part of my long term strategy.
    3. I started lead gen / referrals at the local level. This is turning to be a great business model within 1 month (took 3 to 4 months to negotiate deals and launch).
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    How I hit $10,000+ per month very fast w/ 1 niche blog - Click Here to learn more (no opt-in).
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  • Profile picture of the author JennSpencerIM
    I think I started this last year but anyhow, I'll answer!

    ** Creating an upsell!! I was scared to do this at first but it gave us a HUGE boost in sales from the very first day we started it. I work primarily outside the IM niche so I wasn't sure if upsells would really work but they do and we consistently have 25-30% of our customers who take them!
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  • Profile picture of the author Jasonmona
    Hi yes there have been a lot of small things that have helped me
    A reveal page in my facebook page to get more facebook likes.
    An awesome intruiging title that captivated readers big bold fonts.
    A great offer for an otp in such as an ebook that is direct to the point and helps the person
    setting up a google analytics to see results
    Using Market samurai for beter keywrords than google keyword reseach tool
    Hoped i helped
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    Hi everyone this is my blog to learn strategies http://jasonmonachini.com
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    • Profile picture of the author Rick88
      Tested subject lines in my emails. They do make a big difference.
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  • Profile picture of the author Nathan2525
    Originally Posted by Ryan David View Post

    Instead of a big idea, just out of curiosity, is there anything you did this year that made a big impact on sales. I'm not talking about any big project you finished, but small things like making the "Buy Now" button bigger.

    And also, maybe throw in WHY you thought that worked.

    For me...I'll cheat and give 2 big things.

    1) Product Reviews--I have an ecommerce site and I basically just followed the Amazon model. I sent out an offer to prior customers that said they could get an exclusive coupon for giving me a review on a product they purchased. Then after that, I had the autoresponder go out and ask people. Once the reviews starting showing up, it was helping people make a decision about WHICH product was most popular (without having to ask or guess). It also gave them confidence in me and the product. The result was a HUGE increase in conversions. Literally a 30% jump from the same period last year.

    2) Scheduled Email--I'm more of a seat of the pants type of guy when it comes to email marketing. But I actually took the time and wrote out 12 weeks worth of short emails that I was going to send to customers each Tuesday. No surprise, the sales started coming faster and furious during that period.

    How bout you?
    For me it was focusing on just 2 of my website bringing
    in the most sales. I almost doubled my income in 3 months.

    Less is definitely more!
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