Steve Wagenheim’s Home Business Blog

Okay, let me start off this article by saying this. I do NOT condone spam. It is an abomination that is destroying email marketing. Okay, maybe destroying is a harsh word. But it is certainly making email marketing a lot harder than it has to be because of all the safeguards put in place that ultimately end up hurting the legit email marketer more than the spammers. Having said that, you can learn a lot from all the spam that comes into your email box.

For starters, check your spam folder. Thanks to George Sepich for reminding me about this. If an email ends up in your spam folder, that means that the person who sent the email put something in it that caused it to end up there. Read the email, especially the subject. See if you can figure out what caused it to end up where it did. Run it through an online spam checker. It’ll point out all those bad words in it that triggered a high spam score. By doing this, you ultimately figure out what NOT to do.

But you can learn more than just how to keep your emails out of the spam folder. Sadly, a lot of these spammers have some excellent writing skills. I have actually read some emails that had excellent sales pitches in them. In fact, I’d say that the sales copy was written by a pro. I’ve seen excellent uses of mystery, scarcity and a killer offer at an unreal price. Hey, let’s face it. If spam wasn’t profitable, these guys wouldn’t do it. So some of them MUST know something about marketing. Too bad they don’t use their smarts for good rather than for evil.

Point is, as bad as spam is, and as much as I personally hate it (You should see my in box) you CAN learn something from it. It does serve a rather twisted purpose if you’re a marketer and have the time to go through it all. That’s the problem though. You get so much of it, and so much of it is pure garbage (one line ads) that finding the quality spam (is that an oxy moron?) isn’t so easy to do. But if you have a few extra minutes, like maybe during your lunch break (if you eat lunch at your PC like I do) go through some of your spam and see if you can’t find something that gives you a few ideas. At the very least, make sure you do a spam check to see why it ended up in your spam box. Then you’ll know, at the very least, what to stay away from doing when you compose your legitimate emails.

For example, some people will spell the word “free” with special characters. Believe it or not, this will trigger off the filters more than if you just left the word free in. There is actually nothing wrong with this word. Problem is, people have been conditioned to believe it’s a bad word, so they don’t use it. I use it all the time and my emails get through with no problem at all.

Yeah, spam sucks…but by at least learning something from it, you can make it suck less.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

Tired of not getting your emails delivered, read or opened? Sick of not making any sales from your email marketing efforts? Visit my site at http://www.stevewagenheim.com/emailmarketing/index.html and get your hands on 5 years of my personal experience with email marketing…experience that has earned me tens of thousands of dollars yearly.

If you follow my articles regularly, you’ll probably notice that this is the first one I’ve written in well over a week. Yes, that should sound surprising as I usually write one or two a day. In this particular article, I’m going to explain why it’s been so long in between and why you sometimes need to take a step back from your everyday marketing activities.

About two weeks or so ago, I noticed something…I was getting burnt out. It doesn’t happen often, but I was definitely on the verge of taking my computer and tossing it through a wall or a window…whichever was closer. This isn’t because my business was suffering or anything like that. It was simply because I was getting tired of the whole grind. Hey…I’m human.

For a while, I started to think that maybe it was time for me to retire. After all, the money is secondary these days. I’d much rather play video games, magic cards and write some songs…or so I thought. But after I took a step back from things and stopped my regular activities, I realized that the problem was that I was in a rut. I wasn’t being challenged and I didn’t really feel like I was getting through to anybody. I felt like I was just wasting my time.

So I stopped everything and sat down and thought to myself…”What am I really trying to accomplish here? Is it JUST to make a buck? If that’s the case, there are a heck of a lot easier ways to do it.” That’s when I realized that I just wanted to make a real difference and I wasn’t doing what I SHOULD be doing in order to make that happen.

Ultimately, I decided to open up a limited coaching program to just a few people at a ridiculously low price. Needless to say, it sold out in less than a day. Suddenly…I was excited again. I was setting up a membership site for these people to get their materials, setting up affiliate tools, providing them with instruction and flat out having a blast.

Internet marketing was fun again. I’m back to working full time days like I did many years ago and loving every minute of it. This isn’t work for me…not when I’m doing something I really love. And it shouldn’t be work for you either. If it is, maybe it’s time for you to take a step back and think about what you’re doing.

Is it REALLY what you want to do?

You might discover that it’s not and that you’d rather be doing something else. That’s okay. Not everybody is cut out for this Internet marketing stuff.

But if it IS what you want to do, then find what it is that excites you and do THAT. Don’t let yourself get distracted by the mundane. Let somebody else do the tedious stuff.

It’s time to have fun again.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

Sick and tired of spinning your wheels trying to make a buck online? Visit the products page of my blog at http://stevewagenheim.com/blog/products and get a 6 figure education for pennies.

I have no doubt that a lot of people aren’t going to agree with what I’m saying in this article. In fact, I expect to get a lot of negative feedback because of it. However, there is one thing I have learned from 8 years of marketing online and it’s this…if you don’t stick to your guns, you’re nowhere man. Okay, what am I talking about? Well, keep reading and you’ll find out.

Let me start with an example. It should clearly explain what I mean by sticking to your guns. Just recently, I launched a coaching program. It’s closed now so don’t even try to get in. Anyway, I made it very clear on the sales page that there was a conditional guarantee. I explained the condition in detail. If the prospect wasn’t happy with the condition, they didn’t have to get the coaching.

Well, just a few minutes ago, somebody emailed me with a request for a refund. They explained their reasons. Unfortunately, the reasons did not meet the criteria for a refund. Now, I could have been a “nice” guy and refunded the purchase. But if I did that, what would it say about my credibility as far as my word on something? Why would anybody have to believe anything I say if I so easily go back on my word?

While I emailed the person saying that I would “consider” refunding them if I filled the spot, I probably will not. Why? Again, it comes down to credibility. If I say one thing and do something else, no matter what the reason is, my credibility is shot. This way, when somebody purchases something from me and I say “these are the conditions” they better darn well know that I mean what I say.

Like I said up top, a lot of people aren’t going to agree with this. They’ll believe that exceptions should be made. But then where do we draw the line? Let’s take refunds for example.

Your refund clearly states that no refunds are given unless you use the product, show me that you used it and did everything it says and still didn’t make any money.

Now the customer writes to you and tells you that they had a death in the family and they need the money for funeral expenses. While I can sympathize, what does that have to do with the guarantee? Where does it end? My cat died? My pet mouse died and I’m distraught? Where do we draw the line as to a valid excuse?

What if somebody doesn’t use the product at all? Well, that’s not my fault. If you weren’t sure you could use it when you got it, you shouldn’t have gotten it.

In all my years of buying products online, I asked for ONE refund. Why? The piece of software literally didn’t work at all. In fact, it was so fraudulent that I reported it to ClickBank and eventually, that product was removed from the marketplace.

But if I buy something and, for whatever reason, I don’t use it…that’s on me…NOT the product creator.

Again, many people won’t agree with this. That’s fine. You can send your hate mail to any one of my many email addresses that you’ll find online.

In this business, you have to stick to your guns or nobody is going to believe a word you say.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

Have you been going the “learn everything for free” route and not getting anywhere with your marketing? Well, maybe it’s about time that you invested in your education. Too radical for you? Well, check out my products page at http://stevewagenheim.com/blog/products and see if maybe you can’t find something that’s just right for you. It just might mean the difference between success and failure.