Last week I read The Modern Fundamentals of Golf by Ben Hogan.  It’s widely considered a “bible” for golfers.  The use of the word “modern” in the title strikes me as interesting.  This book is hardly modern.  It was first published in 1957…over 50 years ago.  Yet 51 years later, these are still considered the fundamentals of golf.  Without these fundamentals it simply isn’t possible to be a good golfer.

The same concept applies to an information business.  The Internet might be a great new media enabling you to literally reach the world instantly…but at the end of the day it’s just another media, another way to generate leads or make sales.  The fundamentals of building a successful information marketing business have not changed.

The media used has changed over time (direct mail to telemarketing to fax to email) and new obstacles emerge over time like the lists of people who don’t want calls from telemarketers, don’t want broadcast faxes, don’t want “junk” mail delivered by the postman, and soon probably a list of people who don’t want “junk” email delivered to their electronic inbox.  The playing field changes constantly but the fundamentals do not.

So what are the fundamentals?  Well, you need a widget to sell (or to give away if you’re using a two-step process).  Then you need traffic.  You could use PPC, SEO, banner ads, etc. but traffic is essential because if nobody visits your “virtual store” then you won’t sell any widgets.

Third you need to convert the traffic into leads and/or sales.  What good is all that traffic if nobody buys a widget?  Conversion hinges on copywriting aka “words that sell.”  That’s a broad topic but it involves an attention-grabbing headline, an irrestible offer, and often a guarantee that takes the risk out of buying.  There’s a lot more to it than that but that’s a good start.

There’s more to conversion than copywriting though.  The only way you’ll know which sales letter or lead-generation ad (aka “squeeze page”) is most effective is to test and track the results.  Test headlines, prices, offers, bonuses, etc. to see which combination of variables produces the best results.  You can use a free tool like Google Website Optimizer for testing.  If you’re not testing and constantly trying to beat the “control” then you’re making a mistake.

Finally, you don’t want to find a customer to make a sale.  That’s a short-term strategy.  A better strategy is to make sale to find a customer.  Then you can maximize the lifetime value of that customer by offering other products and services through upsells, cross-sells, etc.  It’s exponentially easier to make another sale to an already satisfied customer who’s already predisposed to buying from you than it is to constantly be looking for new customers who don’t know you and have no previous relationship with you.

If you want more detailed information on the fundamentals, check out Jim Straw’s Power Tools for Entrepreneurs.  Jim has been making money offline (and now online) probably since before Ben Hogan figured out the “modern” fundamentals of golf…so I’d say Jim is well-versed in the modern fundamentals of making money.

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