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How To Sell More Products By Adding These 5 Words To Your Sales Pages

by tmdassc
48 replies
Why You Should Use These Five Words

Did you know there are five words you can add to your sales letter or sales pages that will sell more of your products? Well there is, and it's based on internet usage access. Whether by choice or not, statistic show that 22% - 31% of internet users access the internet using dial-up connection.

So how does this affect your sales you may wonder. It's simple because 22% - 31% of your potential buyers are unable to download your products because your download files are too large. Here's an example. Joe Buyer arrives at your sales page for your fantastic offer of 40 plr ebooks in pdf and doc. form, ready made web sites to sell them with, and psd and graphics... all for less than $25.

Now this is a fantastic deal, and Joe Buyer would like to jump all over it like white on rice, but there's one problem... your product download file is 200 megs. Guess what? You just lost a sale because your download file is too large for Joe Buyer's dial-up connection.

However, if you break your downloads into smaller files, you can increase the sales of your products. And no, you do not have to create an additional special download page for this. Simply add 4 download files of 50mb, or 8 download files of 25mb each to your current download page. You can even add 10 download files of 20 mb each if you like because the the smaller the size of your download files, the easier and better it is for Joe the dail-up user buyer.

Sure, there are free download accelerators available to dial-up connection users to download and install for handling large files... however, this makes dial-up users jump through too many hoops just to buy your products. The easier you make it for people to buy and download your products, the more sales you're going to make... period!

There are some sellers that do this on their download pages already, but they do not make that fact known on their salesletter or sales page... thereby, losing sales from "ready to buy" dial-up users. Does this all make sense to you?

The Five Words

Here are the five words to add to your salesletters or sales pages. "Dial-up connection speed download available" or "Dial-up speed connection compatible download" or "Download is dial-up connection compatible". You can choose any wording you can think of, just let it be known on your salesletters or sales pages that you make is easy for buyers on dial-up connection to obtain your products.

Your Call To Action And Summary

Something else to be noted here is the fact that not only will this simple no cost technique can have you selling more of the same products that others may be selling, but you can also sell the same products at slightly higher prices because you are more thoughtful of, and provide a better service for dial-up users.

Tell me what you think of this simple technique and let me know if I should continue writing the full report/ebook of more simple no-cost techniques like this to offer as a Warrior freebie, and maybe for sale later. If you decide to implement this technique, send me your feedback, and permission to use for testimonials and/or reviews.

At any rate, just for grins and giggles.... give it a try anyway, you have nothing to lose... but more money, respect, and credibility.
#22% #31% #add #make more money #make more sales #more money #products #salesletter #sell more products #sells #words
  • Profile picture of the author LegitIncomes
    You know, I might have agreed with you 5 years ago.

    But now we have the majority on broadband connections.

    And really, if someone is set on purchasing your product, a product that is going to change their life for the better in some fashion, are they really concerned about the file size?

    I just don't see it being an issue...but perhaps I'm wrong, it's happened before.
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    • Profile picture of the author tmdassc
      Originally Posted by Josh Kulp View Post

      You know, I might have agreed with you 5 years ago.

      But now we have the majority on broadband connections.

      And really, if someone is set on purchasing your product, a product that is going to change their life for the better in some fashion, are they really concerned about the file size?

      I just don't see it being an issue...but perhaps I'm wrong, it's happened before.
      Howdy Josh,

      I agree with you that the majority are on some kind of high speed internet connection, however, the facts don't lie... there are still 22% - 31% who are unable to get high speed connection or choose not to.

      For instance, I live in a rural area, and there was not even cable service available until January this year. There is only one satellite service that that even provides internet connection for this area. No this is thousands of homes affected just in this small area alone. Multiply this by the number of small and rural areas in the U.S.

      The one satellite service that does offer internet connection provides it at a three-figure monthly cost. The cable service still doesn't offer it yet, and may shut down cable all together because they can't make it profitable.

      So, as I stated, whether by choice or not, there are still 22% - 31% not using high speed connection, and more are terminating the service because of it's cost during this economic downturn and recession.

      For someone on dial-up connection, it would take 7 to 16 hours to download a 200mb file depending on the connection speed available... that is if there was absolutely nothing to go wrong during downloading.

      So yes, 22% - 31% are concerned with file size, and it is a big issue to them. You can actually look at this crowd as being in the desperate buyers group, and just going a simple one step further in catering to dial-up users can mean a 22% - 31% sales increase in your products. This can aslo make you the go-to person for dial-up users for other large file products they are looking to buy.

      If you are in a position where you are personally making so much money that it's not a big deal to you, that it great. However, for dial-up users and those not so financially fortunate as yourself when it comes to making sales... it is a big deal.
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  • Profile picture of the author Derek Pankaew
    Is this tested or is this theory?

    The conversion boost will definitely not be 22% - 31% IMO.
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    • Profile picture of the author tmdassc
      Originally Posted by Derek Pankaew View Post

      Is this tested or is this theory?

      The conversion boost will definitely not be 22% - 31% IMO.
      Howdy Derek,

      This is not theory, this is tested, and probably can be attested to by internet marketers right here in the forum if they would choose to share their stats about the number of buyers that have asked for smaller download files and the numbers of those who have bought because they are given the smaller download files option.

      And yes, you're right, you probably will not see a 22% - 31% sales increase overall, but you would see that increase in sales as far as the market and buyers you're leaving on the table or neglecting.
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  • Profile picture of the author JoshuaWriter
    Hmmm.. Not sure I believe that it would increase even close to that amount. Here is a screenshot for the last month from just one of my websites. This is a google analytics screenshot from the connection speeds tab. As you can see, Dial up is a very low majority.

    This screenshot covers over 1.4 million unique visitors for the last month.
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    • Profile picture of the author ExRat
      Hi tmdassc,

      catering to dial-up users can mean a 22% - 31% sales increase in your products
      With respect, I disagree as well, and I'll explain why.

      It's important in a selling environment, when dealing with numbers, to get your maths right - otherwise, if you were to use them on a salespage (for example) you could instantly lose the trust of the prospect.

      Reason 1 -

      To get the increase you have stated, you are assuming a 100% conversion rate from the dial up users. To simplify, instead of saying 22%-31% let's just call it 30% (for the purpose of the example).

      If 30% of prospects are on dial-up, to get anywhere near a 30% increase, 100% of them (every prospect on dial-up) needs to buy.

      Reason 2 -

      If 30% of the market are suddenly added to the pool of potential buyers (as in your example - if the download is made dial-up friendly) that doesn't equal a 30% increase in profits as you have stated - not because of the 100% conversion reason in 1) above, but because your mathematical use of percentages is not correct.

      If every one of those 30% did buy, it would actually be a much bigger increase than 30%.

      Reason 3 (none mathematical reason) -

      Some markets require a faster connection. The best example is the bizopp (IM) market that most people here sell to. There are many products out there that either teach or help the buyer to start an online business and for most of these, a broadband connection is virtually a pre-requisite.

      Have I explained those points enough to make them clear? Hope this helps.
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      • Profile picture of the author tmdassc
        Originally Posted by ExRat View Post

        Hi tmdassc,

        With respect, I disagree as well, and I'll explain why.

        It's important in a selling environment, when dealing with numbers, to get your maths right - otherwise, if you were to use them on a salespage (for example) you could instantly lose the trust of the prospect.

        Reason 1 -

        To get the increase you have stated, you are assuming a 100% conversion rate from the dial up users. To simplify, instead of saying 22%-31% let's just call it 30% (for the purpose of the example).

        If 30% of prospects are on dial-up, to get anywhere near a 30% increase, 100% of them (every prospect on dial-up) needs to buy.

        Reason 2 -

        If 30% of the market are suddenly added to the pool of potential buyers (as in your example - if the download is made dial-up friendly) that doesn't equal a 30% increase in profits as you have stated - not because of the 100% conversion reason in 1) above, but because your mathematical use of percentages is not correct.

        If every one of those 30% did buy, it would actually be a much bigger increase than 30%.

        Reason 3 (none mathematical reason) -

        Some markets require a faster connection. The best example is the bizopp (IM) market that most people here sell to. There are many products out there that either teach or help the buyer to start an online business and for most of these, a broadband connection is virtually a pre-requisite.

        Have I explained those points enough to make them clear? Hope this helps.
        Howdy ExRat,

        Your points have been explained clearly. I think my title was not clear in explaining as my reply to Derek about the percentage increase pertaining to the dial-up users rather than overall sales.

        Maybe I should change the title to something like "how to increase sales by adding five words...." and word topic a little differently... that way it would be less misleading and not cause argument of overall sales increase.
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      • Profile picture of the author rosetrees
        Originally Posted by ExRat View Post

        If 30% of prospects are on dial-up, to get anywhere near a 30% increase, 100% of them (every prospect on dial-up) needs to buy.
        Only if 100% of the prospects on bb also bought. If only 10% of people on bb bought, and all of the people on dial-up bought that would result in an increase in sales of over 400%

        If the proportions stay the same then the increase would, indeed, be 30%.
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  • Profile picture of the author JoshuaWriter
    I still am curious where you see that 20-30% of internet users are on Dialup?
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  • Profile picture of the author TheMagicShow
    Originally Posted by tmdassc View Post

    Why You Should Use These Five Words

    Did you know there are five words you can add to your sales letter or sales pages that will sell 22% - 31% more of your products? Well there is, and it's based on internet usage access. Whether by choice or not, statistic show that 22% - 31% of internet users access the internet using dial-up connection.

    So how does this affect your sales you may wonder. It's simple because 22% - 31% of your potential buyers are unable to download your products when your download files are too large. Here's an example. Joe Buyer arrives at your sales page for your fantastic offer of 40 plr ebooks in pdf and doc. form, ready made web sites to sell them with, and psd and graphics... all for less than $25.

    Now this is a fantastic deal, and Joe Buyer would like to jump all over it like white on rice, but there's one problem... your product download file is 200 megs. Guess what? You just lost a sale because your download file is too large for Joe Buyer's dial-up connection.

    However, if you break your downloads into smaller files, you can increase the sales of your products by 22% - 31%. And no, you do not have to create an additional special download page for this. Simply add 4 download files of 50mb, or 8 download files of 25mb each to your current download page. You can even add 10 download files of 20 mb each if you like because the the smaller the size of your download files, the easier and better it is for Joe the dail-up user buyer.

    Sure, there are free download accelerators available to dial-up connection users to download and install for handling large files... however, this makes dial-up users jump through too many hoops just to buy your products. The easier you make it for people to buy and download your products, the more sales you're going to make... period!

    There are some sellers that do this on their download pages already, but they do not make that fact known on their salesletter or sales page... thereby, losing sales from "ready to buy" dial-up users. Does this all make sense to you?

    The Five Words

    Here are the five words to add to your salesletters or sales pages. "Dial-up connection speed download available" or "Dial-up speed connection compatible download" or "Download is dial-up connection compatible". You can choose any wording you can think of, just let it be known on your salesletters or sales pages that you make is easy for buyers on dial-up connection to obtain your products.

    Your Call To Action And Summary

    Something else to be noted here is the fact that not only will this simple no cost technique can have you selling 22% - 31% more of the same products that others may be selling, but it has also been shown you can sell the same products at higher prices because you are more thoughtful of, and provide a better service for dial-up users.

    Tell me what you think of this simple technique and let me know if I should continue writing the full report/ebook of more simple no-cost techniques like this to offer as a Warrior freebie, and maybe for sale later. If you decide to implement this technique, send me your feedback, and permission to use for testimonials and/or reviews.

    At any rate, just for grins and giggles.... give it a try anyway, you have nothing to lose... but more money, respect, and credibility.
    You are making a good attempt, but dial up is not much of an issue these days. From my analytics, majority use fast connections these days, this was not the case a few years ago though.
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  • Profile picture of the author kurtgeer
    I have to disagree.

    Folks don't have a clue as to how big the file size may be before they download a product from your website.

    It is a matter of choice to break up certain files [IE graphics] on your download page

    INHO the words that increase sales after you have created desire and trust on your website are [Instant Download]

    Well that's my two cents
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    • Profile picture of the author tmdassc
      Howdy Kurtgeer,

      Folks are not as ignorant as they were just a couple of years ago. Folks have learned from experienced as well as word of mouth that files containing, audios, videos, DVDs, graphics, and large numbers of ebook or whatever... are large files to download.

      Also, some marketers do post the size of the file, or give a warning to potential buyers beforehand... which I think is a good thing. However, that means a loss of a sale from someone on dial-up connection. Personally, I think not giving a warning or telling the size of a file prior to a sale leaves a bad taste in the mouth of a dial-up user and they become gun shy about future purchases... which means loss of sales.
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  • Profile picture of the author tmdassc
    Howdy All,

    For the sake of argument as to percentage of overall increase in sales of products, I have changed the title of the topic and took out any misleading words that may have lead others to believe that I was trying to say that you will have a 22% - 31% increase on overall sales.

    As far as dial-up users stats, simply put "percent use dial up" in your browser. Stats will show and range from 22% - 31% of internet users access the internet through dial-up connection.

    Yes, agreed, it is very low when it comes to overall number of internet users, but when taken into account the tens of millions not on high speed connection and the percentage of sales missed because your download files are too large... the bottom line is you'll make more money going the extra mile for dial-up users.

    Even if means just making an additional 1 or 2 sales a week, multiplied by number of weeks, and months... wouldn't it worth it to make this simple little no-cost change and offer this service to dial-up users?
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  • Profile picture of the author Bert Ritz
    OK, I'm on dialup, in a rural area. Yes, it factors in on alot of what I do and can't do. You may not be seeing many dialup visitors on your stats because your page loads so incredibly slow for dialup users, they leave before the stat generator picks them up. I know I've left plenty of sales pages that still had a white screen after 2-3 minutes.
    It does take forever to download some files. I attempted to download openoffice...it was going to take over 15 hours and, of course, it timed out at about 2 hours. Fortunately, someone sent me a disk. Videos are also out! Even if I wait for it to download, when it plays it goes for 45 sec, stops for 30, goes for 15, stops for 45 and so on.
    If you have a vbulletin forum, also a pain. I usually only view the first page of this forum because it's just too hard.
    IM is a challenge, yet I keep going. What would take you, a broadband user, an hour or two, takes me 6-8 hours. It's frustrating.
    I'm waiting for someone to contact me and make me there 'stooge' for there money generating program. In another words, "If Bert can make $3,000 a month on dialup, think what you can accomplish!" Any takers???

    Rant over. Thank You!
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    • Profile picture of the author tmdassc
      Howdy Bert,

      Thanks, great reply which reiterated and it further proves the gist of the topic. With the majority being on some sort of high speed internet connection, they fail to realize there is a buying segment of the market which is being neglected. This equates to loss of sales.

      As more and more are convinced by the gurus and others that web 2.0 is the way to go using videos, audios, DVDs, and such, more and more sales are being lost from those on dial-up connections.

      So, bottom line still remains unmoved... you will increase sales of products when you offer, and let it be known that you have taken the extra little step and time to cater to, and provide a badly needed service and convience to dial-up users.
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      • Profile picture of the author Magic Johnson
        Originally Posted by tmdassc View Post

        As more and more are convinced by the gurus and others that web 2.0 is the way to go using videos, audios, DVDs, and such, more and more sales are being lost from those on dial-up connections.
        What you lose in one area, you may gain up in others.

        Meaning, If I could increase my revenues by focusing soly on broadband and fast connections, then I'm out to do it.

        Results are what matters. A good example is Frank Kern's videos, before on my old computer I couldn't watch 2 minutes from them. Even on a 10MB broadband connection.

        Today I still have to stop the Frank Kern videos to let them load for 15 minutes.

        Do you think Kern cares about his lost sales on Dial Up, nope. The high quality video makes up for it in sales.

        Something to consider.
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  • Profile picture of the author Justin Kim
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    • Profile picture of the author tmdassc
      Howdy Justin,

      Thanks for your input. Another good point made too I might add. Maybe as more folks start hearing from dial-up users and those like you who already make it a practice of breaking their downloads into smaller files... the naysayers will start putting this into practice themselves and see the increase in sales and profits.

      As I said, you have nothing to lose, but much to gain by making this one small no cost change.
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  • Profile picture of the author hmigroupllc
    Hmmm, interesting, but ... if those 22% or so are on dial up, is it because they can't afford anything else? I suspect, that for many of them, particularly in the US and Canada, that would be the case. And, if that is the case, then they probably can't afford your products either.

    Similarly, my stats on my websites don't match those numbers as far as visitors and hits go. So, I am not sure I agree.
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    • Profile picture of the author tmdassc
      Howdy Hmigroupllc,

      Did you see the reply by Bert? he's one of the millions who is on dial-up not by choice and just as well can afford to buy your product if he desires to. Also, in my reply to Josh, you see that I too reside in an area where there was no high speed internet connection available until recently, and the one option that we have is a costly three figure a month expense.

      Wouldn't really make sense for me to pay $120 a month just to be able to download a $24.95 or $49.95 product would it? Though I could very well afford whatever the one time price of your product, the on-going monthly cost of having that access ability is not logical... unless that ability is an investment in a internet business which is making me money rather than just costing me money as an unnecessary expense.
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      • Profile picture of the author Nick Brighton
        Originally Posted by hmigroupllc View Post

        Hmmm, interesting, but ... if those 22% or so are on dial up, is it because they can't afford anything else? I suspect, that for many of them, particularly in the US and Canada, that would be the case. And, if that is the case, then they probably can't afford your products either.

        Similarly, my stats on my websites don't match those numbers as far as visitors and hits go. So, I am not sure I agree.
        Precisely,

        I would doubt that people still using dial up are actually the best "prospects" at all, particularly if you're selling info related to computers/internet etc.

        But even if you were selling digi products that cured heartburn, I'd still doubt whether a dial up user is going to be savvy enough to deal with such large downloads...

        ...I mean, what does it tell you if a person is still using dial up? Either they hardly use their PC, don't have much money to spare (probably the primary cause of the no-sale), don't understand it, or they simply are not able to get it.

        Either way, those are all tell tale signs of somebody who is probably not your ideal online customer.

        Now, offline (direct mail) is a different matter. Can still use the net to get their home address, right?
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        • Profile picture of the author tmdassc
          Howdy Nick,

          I guess you haven't read all the replies. Did it ever occurr to you and others that high speed internet connection is not available everywhere? So what do you do in a situation like that, take your pc or lap top a few cities away to plug into high speed connection jus to be able to download a large file product? Are you aware there are areas where high speed internet connection is in the three figure monthly cost, not the 40 or 65 bucks others may pay?

          Do try to understand that all things available in many areas are not so readily available in many other areas. And when something IS available in limited quantity(such as one), it isn't cost effective, even though you can well afford it.

          I wonder how many thinking this way who have some sort of high speed internet capability they pay 50 or 65 bucks a month for would be jumping all over it for $155 a month... even though they can afford it?

          Probably the same percentage of dial-up connection folks use their computers as much as high speed connection folks do. Something to think about.
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      • Profile picture of the author Bert Ritz
        Originally Posted by tmdassc View Post

        Howdy Hmigroupllc,

        Did you see the reply by Bert? he's one of the millions who is on dial-up not by choice and just as well can afford to buy your product if he desires to. Also, in my reply to Josh, you see that I too reside in an area where there was no high speed internet connection available until recently, and the one option that we have is a costly three figure a month expense.

        Wouldn't really make sense for me to pay $120 a month just to be able to download a $24.95 or $49.95 product would it? Though I could very well afford whatever the one time price of your product, the on-going monthly cost of having that access ability is not logical... unless that ability is an investment in a internet business which is making me money rather than just costing me money as an unnecessary expense.
        Thank YOU! You are correct. The only thing available in my area is satellite at about $139 a month AFTER the installation. And, the few people who have it, tell me it can be spotty. If I could get broadband for the $19-$40/month you Yahoos get, I would in an instant. It's arrogant to assume just because someone doesn't have the fastest speed, the newest equipment, etc, etc, that they are beneath you and your product and "probably couldn't afford it anyway". With an attitude like that,...well, I'll let you make your own opinion.
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        • Profile picture of the author hmigroupllc
          Originally Posted by Bert Ritz View Post

          Thank YOU! You are correct. The only thing available in my area is satellite at about $139 a month AFTER the installation. And, the few people who have it, tell me it can be spotty. If I could get broadband for the $19-$40/month you Yahoos get, I would in an instant. It's arrogant to assume just because someone doesn't have the fastest speed, the newest equipment, etc, etc, that they are beneath you and your product and "probably couldn't afford it anyway". With an attitude like that,...well, I'll let you make your own opinion.

          Having an opinion that simply reflects facts is not arrogance. I am sorry you live where it is difficult to use the net. But unless you are marketing products that are in demand in a rural area, it makes no sense to focus on one or two people - in a manner of speaking - at the expense of 98% of your market.

          If I were in building an online business in a rural area, and I knew I could generate the targeted traffic and profits, quite honestly, I would pay $120 a month for the access. The profit return would be worth it.

          Option 2, I would move. For me, location to run the business I desire is far more important than any historical or family attachment I have to a particular location.

          These are just facts, not arrogance. If your opinion is different, I respect that, but I don't think it is arrogant.

          Have a great Christmas

          Your great.

          Wayne Sharer
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          • Profile picture of the author Tina Golden
            Honestly, what does it hurt to offer both the one large file and the separate files on the same page? Some people in this thread act like you can only do one or the other. Or that it is some big thing they have to do. Of course, if the product is a large video, you won't have the choice and will just have to live without the ones who may lose out on the download. But it only takes a few extra minutes to set it up to be easy for either broadband or dialup. Heck, if it saves you one sale you are ahead.

            I didn't have broadband until this past year at my location on the coast of MA. I used to skip a lot of the videos and huge downloads because of it because it would take so long to do anything. This wasn't because I couldn't afford it but because broadband wasn't available. And I'm not in a very rural area, either.

            The OP is just tossing out an idea that is easy to implement, doesn't cost you anything but a few minutes of time and may get you additional sales. You don't have to do it, of course.

            ADDED:
            But unless you are marketing products that are in demand in a rural area, it makes no sense to focus on one or two people - in a manner of speaking - at the expense of 98% of your market.
            I don't understand how this would be at the expense of the rest of your market? How would this affect the rest in any way?

            Tina
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  • Profile picture of the author quiescen
    Excellent post. Now, where are the websites that will actually help download speed?
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    • Profile picture of the author tmdassc
      Howdy Quiescen,

      If you're in an area where high speed connection is not available or so costly there's not much you can do about connection speed. Even the so-called download accelerators will not do you much good because you will only be able to download at whatever capability the phone company has made available for your area.

      The best advantage to having one of the download accelerators on dial-up connection is the ability to be able to resume the download where it left off after timing out or disconnecting. The amount of time is still the same or more when you factor in rebooting or reconnection times, and relocating the download page.

      You can type in "download accelerator" or "pc speed boost" in your browser, and that should give you many options if you on dial-up connection. However, in the future, before buying a product, just ask the seller what size the download file or files. If it is above 20mb, you may want to pass on it unless you want to chance waiting for 6 or more hours waiting for it to download.

      Who knows, maybe this topic may help more internet marketers realize they really are losing money by not taking the time to consider dial-up users who are looking to buy.
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  • Profile picture of the author jasonl70
    Less then 10% of active internet users in the US aare on a dial-up, according to Nielsen..
    I found the info here:
    US Broadband Penetration Breaks 90% among Active Internet Users - July 2008 Bandwidth Report
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    • Profile picture of the author Colin Evans
      What the report doesn't show is the type of broadband service...

      Many areas are covered using wireless broadband. In some areas wireless connections can be as slow as dialup during the evening hours and slower during peak hours.

      The only people who benefit from true high speed broadband are those living close to fibre optic communication networks. A copper cable network is only 100% effective for true high speed broadband for a few miles from each exchange.

      Originally Posted by jasonl70 View Post

      Less then 10% of active internet users in the US aare on a dial-up, according to Nielsen..
      I found the info here:
      US Broadband Penetration Breaks 90% among Active Internet Users - July 2008 Bandwidth Report
      Not that I agree with the OP, I've never seen any test results to back the statement... Most dialup and wireless users I know use download managers.
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      • Profile picture of the author marciayudkin
        You know, I might have agreed with you 5 years ago.

        But now we have the majority on broadband connections.

        And really, if someone is set on purchasing your product, a product that is going to change their life for the better in some fashion, are they really concerned about the file size?
        I live in a rural area (my town has 920 people). Until about two months ago, we had satellite Internet from Hughesnet. We now have DSL. My neighbor two miles away cannot get DSL because she is too far from the whatever (switching station?).

        When I was on satellite, which in the statistics some people are quoting was probably counted in the broadband category, I could not download videos. I could not even watch videos online. Why? Because we had a daily download quota of 200 MBs. If we went over that, the system put us on crawl-like speed for 24 hours (worse than dialup) and no amount of pleading would help us.

        If you think that only very poor people in very poor states like Arkansas or Mississipi are unable to get broadband, you are dead wrong.

        I live in Massachusetts. There are still more than 30 towns in the state where there is no broadband or broadband available only to certain sections of town. Our governor is working on this, but it is a fact.

        Even now that I have no daily download quota, I am not interested in downloading videos. I will buy videos only when they can be sent to me in tangible form. It would not make a difference to me if the download files were split up into small pieces.

        So someone who wants to sell me videos has to mail them to me. I will happily pay extra for the service. Several times I have asked the seller and most of the time they agree to send me the product even though they normally deliver it online.

        I suggest that people selling large download products offer an option to send the materials by mail. Charge more for it. You'll see a good number of people taking you up on this, especially in niches where buyers are not technically savvy.

        Marcia Yudkin
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        • Profile picture of the author tmdassc
          Originally Posted by marciayudkin View Post

          I live in a rural area (my town has 920 people). Until about two months ago, we had satellite Internet from Hughesnet. We now have DSL. My neighbor two miles away cannot get DSL because she is too far from the whatever (switching station?).

          When I was on satellite, which in the statistics some people are quoting was probably counted in the broadband category, I could not download videos. I could not even watch videos online. Why? Because we had a daily download quota of 200 MBs. If we went over that, the system put us on crawl-like speed for 24 hours (worse than dialup) and no amount of pleading would help us.

          If you think that only very poor people in very poor states like Arkansas or Mississipi are unable to get broadband, you are dead wrong.

          I live in Massachusetts. There are still more than 30 towns in the state where there is no broadband or broadband available only to certain sections of town. Our governor is working on this, but it is a fact.

          Even now that I have no daily download quota, I am not interested in downloading videos. I will buy videos only when they can be sent to me in tangible form. It would not make a difference to me if the download files were split up into small pieces.

          So someone who wants to sell me videos has to mail them to me. I will happily pay extra for the service. Several times I have asked the seller and most of the time they agree to send me the product even though they normally deliver it online.

          I suggest that people selling large download products offer an option to send the materials by mail. Charge more for it. You'll see a good number of people taking you up on this, especially in niches where buyers are not technically savvy.

          Marcia Yudkin
          Howdy Marcia,

          Thanks for another great supporting reply, and a suggestion to sellers about offering a tangible product option of whatever they are selling... which you say, and I'm sure others would be more than happy to pay extra for.

          It is saddening there are people here in the forum who are so close-minded to things which do not affect them directly, and demeaning and inconsiderate to those affected.
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  • Profile picture of the author JamesMSpacey
    Back in the day when I used to be on dial-up (and some might argue that living where I live with some of the slowest broadband in the world I'm not a lot better off) I just did what I did and got used to the slow download speed. It didn't stop me from downloading something I wanted and I reckon that a lot of those 20% would be in the same boat, so they shouldn't be counted.
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  • Profile picture of the author Bert Ritz
    Terrific suggestion, Marcia!
    There is another factor with dialup that hasn't been mentioned. Back when most internet users were on dialup, the scripting (if that's what it's called) of websites and such was tailored to dialup users.
    Now, what I've been noticing, particularly since the first of the year, is websites are more difficult to download for dialup, some worse than others. I don't know the technical stuff, so I hope you figure out what I'm saying.
    Again, thanks Marcia for your input!
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    • Profile picture of the author tmdassc
      Howdy Bert,

      I don't get exactly what you're talking about as far as downloading web sites. Could you clarify please? I do know that when most were on dial-up, there was limits on how much one could upload. However, with high speed connection being the majority, there's not much restrictions on file uploads and downloads with all the videos, graphics, audios, file sizes, etc...
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      • Profile picture of the author marciayudkin
        Originally Posted by tmdassc View Post

        Howdy Bert,

        I don't get exactly what you're talking about as far as downloading web sites. Could you clarify please? I do know that when most were on dial-up, there was limits on how much one could upload. However, with high speed connection being the majority, there's not much restrictions on file uploads and downloads with all the videos, graphics, audios, file sizes, etc...
        It's explained in my post, which is three or four up in this thread.

        With satellite Internet (considered broadband and for several millions of people in the US the only broadband option they have) there ARE download restrictions. See details in my post.

        Marcia Yudkin
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  • Profile picture of the author Bert Ritz
    I just found this really interesting article about folks going back to dialup to save $.

    See it here: apnews.mywayDOTcom/article/20090217/D96DFKGG0.html]My Way News - Recession could lengthen the twilight of dial-up (Sorry about the DOT, I can't post a link until I have 15 posts)
    In it was this quote, which may explain what I'm trying to say:

    "Talking to Hester, who says he's been bugging his own provider, AT&T Inc. (ATT), about a fiber-optic connection for two years, it's not hard to see why.

    "Dial-up - it stinks. All the pages that are being written for the Internet now are moving to more and more graphics, more and more pictures, more and more movies," he said. "With dial-up, you can forget about it." (AT&T couldn't comment on Hester's service for privacy reasons but said expanding broadband access is a priority.)"

    It takes me forever to go through my Yahoo mail. I sell a lot on Ebay, the listing page may take up to 15 minutes to load, even though 'it' says it's 'done'. Forget newspaper sites, TV station sites and anything that has tons of links, graphics and what not.

    I am not very technical, so it's hard to explain. My apologies.
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    • Profile picture of the author tmdassc
      I've got it Bert. Marcia cleared it up for me.
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      • Profile picture of the author Kate Davies
        Oh where to start on this? So much to say....

        I recently spent some time in the Far East, where in the high tech cities you would expect everyone to be on broadband. Well they are on broadband in lots of places, but the reality is that everyone is dashing around with laptops and gadets and gizmos, and they can link in to the internet from loads of places - such as wi-fi in cafes or using USB broadband dongles.

        But there lies the problem ... these broadband dongles are using 3G, which, in a city has loads of contention; so actually the connection speed is really poor. Similarly, in cafes with wi-fi, there's loads of people using it and everything is really slow.

        I did some experiments at home in the UK to see what the effect of putting several PC's on my broadband connection was. With 1 pc on a wired connection to my router I had ok download speeds (228kbps - much less than the half meg that's published by my ISP, but ok), but when I added a laptop on wireless (same router), they effectively shared the same broadband, giving approx 110kbps each. And then I added a third, which again shares the same bandwidth.

        So imagine this ... you're working at home in the evening, your 2 kids are on MSN / Facebook etc on their own laptops. You end up all sharing the available bandwidth. Effectively, you're all on connections of - not much above dial-up.

        Maybe some of the stats don't show actual dial-up connections, but rather, people connecting at what would typically be considered a broadband speed. If so, these could be people using 3G datacards or shared Wi-Fi with contention issues. In which case the stats are probably correct (not 22-31% dial-up users - but 22-31% users connetcing at dial-up speeds - get the difference)

        I don't know whether this adds anything to the equation ... but I truly believe that broadband is rarely as good as we expect it to be and is never as good as our ISPs would like us to believe. I do think that as internet marketers we should be aware of this fallacy and should design our sites and downloads as efficiently as possible.

        Just my $0.02

        Kate
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        • Profile picture of the author tmdassc
          Originally Posted by digileaf View Post

          Oh where to start on this? So much to say....

          I recently spent some time in the Far East, where in the high tech cities you would expect everyone to be on broadband. Well they are on broadband in lots of places, but the reality is that everyone is dashing around with laptops and gadets and gizmos, and they can link in to the internet from loads of places - such as wi-fi in cafes or using USB broadband dongles.

          But there lies the problem ... these broadband dongles are using 3G, which, in a city has loads of contention; so actually the connection speed is really poor. Similarly, in cafes with wi-fi, there's loads of people using it and everything is really slow.

          I did some experiments at home in the UK to see what the effect of putting several PC's on my broadband connection was. With 1 pc on a wired connection to my router I had ok download speeds (228kbps - much less than the half meg that's published by my ISP, but ok), but when I added a laptop on wireless (same router), they effectively shared the same broadband, giving approx 110kbps each. And then I added a third, which again shares the same bandwidth.

          So imagine this ... you're working at home in the evening, your 2 kids are on MSN / Facebook etc on their own laptops. You end up all sharing the available bandwidth. Effectively, you're all on connections of - not much above dial-up.

          Maybe some of the stats don't show actual dial-up connections, but rather, people connecting at what would typically be considered a broadband speed. If so, these could be people using 3G datacards or shared Wi-Fi with contention issues. In which case the stats are probably correct (not 22-31% dial-up users - but 22-31% users connetcing at dial-up speeds - get the difference)

          I don't know whether this adds anything to the equation ... but I truly believe that broadband is rarely as good as we expect it to be and is never as good as our ISPs would like us to believe. I do think that as internet marketers we should be aware of this fallacy and should design our sites and downloads as efficiently as possible.

          Just my $0.02

          Kate
          Howdy Digileaf,

          Another good point made and one which hadn't been addressed... depending on the usage and conditions, even high speed connectors can be affected in a negative way when it comes to downloading large files.
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        • Profile picture of the author DogScout
          Originally Posted by digileaf View Post


          I did some experiments at home in the UK to see what the effect of putting several PC's on my broadband connection was. With 1 pc on a wired connection to my router I had ok download speeds (228kbps - much less than the half meg that's published by my ISP, but ok), but when I added a laptop on wireless (same router), they effectively shared the same broadband, giving approx 110kbps each. And then I added a third, which again shares the same bandwidth.

          So imagine this ... you're working at home in the evening, your 2 kids are on MSN / Facebook etc on their own laptops. You end up all sharing the available bandwidth. Effectively, you're all on connections of - not much above dial-up

          Just my $0.02

          Kate
          There are routers that break up the speeds according to how many computers are connected to them, but most of the newer ones do not.

          My nephew worked in an African village where the nearest health-care was a 2 day bus trip away. There was NO water, it was trucked in weekly. They had broadband!
          That there are places in the US and Canada without it is amazing.
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  • Profile picture of the author Chris Lockwood
    I think this would only apply (if at all) to very large products. If I'm selling something that is 1 meg or less, that's not big enough to be a big deal for most dialup customers, so I doubt that wording would make any difference.

    I do agree that you should warn people on the sales page if your downloads are especially large.
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    • Profile picture of the author tmdassc
      Originally Posted by Chris Lockwood View Post

      I think this would only apply (if at all) to very large products. If I'm selling something that is 1 meg or less, that's not big enough to be a big deal for most dialup customers, so I doubt that wording would make any difference.

      I do agree that you should warn people on the sales page if your downloads are especially large.
      Howdy Chris,

      Good point made, which has also been addressed in other posts. So where do you think the line should be drawn as far as what a large file is for dial-up, and warn visitors or potential buyers? Should it be 20mb, 25mb, 30mb, more, or less?
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  • Profile picture of the author Mark Dulisse
    Very interesting thread. That is a lot of extra work, especially if you have videos already developed and edited.
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  • Profile picture of the author skorpion
    thank you!!!!!
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  • Profile picture of the author Steve Brown
    Hmmm. Let's think about this. If adding 5 words opens up 20% more people who might consider purchasing from me. And only 10% of those people convert that's only 2% more sales, basically for free, for giving them the ability to download in sizes they can handle. I think I'll add the words. And give them smaller bites to download. Who knows, if they've gone that far into the letter I might have a 50% conversion, 10% more sales.
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    • Profile picture of the author tmdassc
      Originally Posted by eaglewingmd View Post

      Hmmm. Let's think about this. If adding 5 words opens up 20% more people who might consider purchasing from me. And only 10% of those people convert that's only 2% more sales, basically for free, for giving them the ability to download in sizes they can handle. I think I'll add the words. And give them smaller bites to download. Who knows, if they've gone that far into the letter I might have a 50% conversion, 10% more sales.
      Howdy Eaglewingmd,

      Good to see you're open minded enough to give it a try. As it has been said, you have nothing to lose and much more to gain. Even just a few more $30 or $40 sales a week is icing on top the cake and adds that much more to your bottom line when it comes to profits, right?
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  • Profile picture of the author Daniel E Taylor
    Sorry but this is pure bullsh*t.

    You are assuming so much it's not even funny.

    If I had an hour to waste I would pick apart this ridiculous post.

    Just because the overall statistic is 20%-31% of internet users on dial up
    doesn't mean in every niche there are 20-30% dial up users.

    How you even came up with something so ridiculous is beyond me.

    Then to post it as if it is fact is even more ludacris in my opinion.

    Moral of story. Struggling business owners shouldn't
    post business advice in my opinion.

    Daniel
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  • Profile picture of the author Sean Ski
    It's funny how many people actually still have dial-up... But I don't see how adding that would make that much of an increase... I think many people with dial up know they can download a simple pdf book... If you're selling videos, just say videos are available in the members area and you don't have to download them... I hate when people make you download these large video files in a zip file... Just make them available online in a members area.
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