Jermaine Internet Marketing Success Story
Part 2

Read Jermaine Internet Marketing Success Story. Internet marketing guru Corey Rudl interviews Jermaine Griggs - a college student who earned $200,000 from his HearandPlay.com web site last year. Let's dive in and see exactly how Jermaine's doing it! (If you did not read Jermaine Internet Marketing Success Story Part 1 yet, just click here!)

Case study of a booming online cash-machine that earned $200,000 last year -- with a single product!

-- INTERVIEW CONTINUED --

QUESTION: You mention that you're tracking the visitor-to-sale conversion rate of your traffic, both from the pay-per-click search engines and your banner advertising... How do you do this, and how do you monitor your conversion rates?

Jermaine:
I just assign each banner or keyword campaign a unique ID in AssocTRAC, which lets me keep track of a person from their first visit to my site to any purchases they make. That way I know exactly where I'm getting my best customers, which is crucial to get the best return on pay-per-click campaigns.

For example, according to AssocTRAC, when someone clicks on my listing after searching for "piano lessons" in the pay-per- click search engines, one out of 33 will buy. So if the listing "piano lessons" costs me $.25 per click, it takes $.25 x 33 to get one sale. (That is, it takes $8.25 to get one sale, which brings in an average of $75).

So in terms of numbers, $8.25 yields $75 (but that's just for this particular listing). Now wait, $75 is just for their first sale. This person is now a lifetime customer!

QUESTION: Could you tell us about a "light bulb" moment that you've had? A moment when you've thought to yourself, "If only I'd known that earlier..."

Jermaine:
Originally, I was just focused on getting the sale. But I soon realized that my mission was to help musicians reach their music goals. After that realization, I added message boards, chat rooms, and the like, and sales skyrocketed! Why? Because members saw that we were a legitimate company willing to help them.

People have no reservations buying from a company they trust and feel helped by.

QUESTION: What have you done to automate your site?

Jermaine:
Well, pretty much everything is automated. I don't really do anything anymore other than look for new partners.

My shopping cart takes the order, confirms it, and sends it to my credit card processor. The customer then automatically receives a thank-you e-mail.

After two weeks, the customer automatically gets an e-mail asking how their course is coming along. Customers are thrilled at our customer service and actually believe that I sit down each time to send them e-mails.

QUESTION: What would you consider to be your major achievements?

Jermaine:
My all-time greatest achievement would be the fact that I took absolutely nothing and made something out of it.

I hope this encourages people not to give up because start-up capital may be low. Make the best out of what you have! With research, dedication, and patience, a "little" will eventually turn into a "little more," and a "little more" will turn into "some," and "some" will turn into "a lot" -- I know because I've been there, and I'm still working on getting "a lot"!

QUESTION: What do you think has helped to make your site so successful?

Jermaine:
It wasn't until I created a long, catchy information-packed salesletter (set up as one long piano lesson) and asked for the sale that my sales skyrocketed! No matter what I sell in the future, I will never ever use a simple "buy me" link again. People aren't online with the intention of buying, they are online for information -- and that's just what I give them! Lots of it!

Corey, you're my main influence and I like to use your structure (even though we're selling totally different products). I hardly ever got sales when I just listed a few points about the book and a picture of it. Now, despite what \ anyone says about people not reading long sales material, sales continue to pour in day after day.

QUESTION: What is the biggest mistake you have made since you first launched your site?

Jermaine:
Hmm... When I first got started, the biggest mistake I made was placing advertisements on my site because I thought they looked good.

Now I understand that this is one of the biggest mistakes a webmaster can make (especially with untargeted ads). I will never again show a banner advertisement on my site unless it is advertising another product of mine.

QUESTION: What major mistakes do you see other Internet entrepreneurs making?

Jermaine:
I think the number-one mistake Internet entrepreneurs make is not taking the time to make their site as professional as possible. Credibility is a huge issue on the Internet and if you can't convince your customer that you are a trustworthy company, then you won't get a sale from them!

QUESTION: What advice do you have for beginners who are interested in selling over the Web?

Jermaine:
You need a good product! And you also need good marketing, because a good product without the proper marketing techniques yields nothing!