My Updated Muse - Ready for Testing by You!

[HalfSwede]

Hi Folks:
I posted a thread to the sales copy of my muse a few days back and got some good feedback.

Now, though, the site is pretty much functional at least for more robust testing.

Would anyone care to test out the site a bit?

Here's the link: www.MaxFundraising.com (http://www.MaxFundraising.com).

The "Click Here Now" links towards the bottom of the site will take you to a form to fill out (name, city, etc.), but then a screen is displayed that says the product is being re-written and will be available in 3-4 weeks.

If you fill out the form on the home page, and confirm your email, you will ACTUALLY get Lesson #1 in my free fundraising mini-course. Let me know what you think. (Lesson #1 is written pretty much in stream of consciousness, so has not yet been edited.)

I would appreciate it greatly if some of you would test this out. All I would need is a first name and email. If you put something in the Last name field (e.g. 'remove'), I will make sure I remove you from my mailing list. Promise!

Thanks for testing it out.

HalfSwede

[mfornas]

I am not (by far) an expert but if it serves to you here are my 2 cents:

The website domain has a good name MaxFundraising. Its clear and to-the-point.

It looks like the layout should get dinamically centered but when I resized the window (to simulate users with smaller screens the image did not re-center. It stayed at the right.

The backcolor you chosed its just a bit too high for me (I can't read very well the text).

I don't know if you can change the font (or is decided by the browser) but the actual font gets a bit difficult to read

The copywriting is quite convincing to me.

Hope it helps,

Miquel Fornas

[HalfSwede]

I am not (by far) an expert but if it serves to you here are my 2 cents:

The website domain has a good name MaxFundraising. Its clear and to-the-point.

It looks like the layout should get dinamically centered but when I resized the window (to simulate users with smaller screens the image did not re-center. It stayed at the right.

The backcolor you chosed its just a bit too high for me (I can't read very well the text).

I don't know if you can change the font (or is decided by the browser) but the actual font gets a bit difficult to read

The copywriting is quite convincing to me.

Hope it helps,

Miquel Fornas

Thank you, Miquel, for the comments.

As far as centering, yes, I will have to figure that out (don't really know HTML). I also heard about this issue from a friend who took a look.

Does anyone know how to dynamically recenter the page?

The backcolor is easy to take care of. I'll do that. And I can easily change the font.

Did you happen to get "Lesson #1" from the autoresponder?

Anyone else want to provide some feedback?

Cheers,
HalfSwede

[webgal]

Make this a subhead. The one about If you answered "yes" is just not as compelling as this one. THAT is going to touch that visceral nerve.

Are you sick and tired of all of the “nickel and dime” fundraisers that your school or non-profit organization has to do.

I'm also wanting to see the testimonials run down the right side or as blockquote float lefts or rights. I know you don't know what that means but it allows the copy to flow around it and be less of an interuption. But your page width is so narrow. Can you make it 760px? We can look at the centering last.

It's not as key as some other things. We can work on beauty later.

Can you get to the html code? If you can, add this. And add it before the part I highlighted in blue. It will open up some vertical spacing. It's too squished. You can adjust the number and try 1.7em or 2.0em to open or close it up.

p
{
line-height: 1.9em;
}

-->
</style>
<meta name="keywords" content="fundraising fundraise fundraiser walk-a-thon serve-a-thon">
</head>

I signed up for your mini course. I'll see what your confirmation is and get back to you. Make this part bigger.

You must click on the confirmation link in this email in order to start receiving your 7-part mini-course.

I'd say more but I've got to do a post check and I'm hot on the NCAA tournament.

[jonparker83]

I'm supposed to be having a quick break from my work at the moment so I'll keep it short and check out the rest of your site another time

To get the page centred, you need to do the following (take a copy first in case something goes wrong!):

At the very top of the html, change:

body {
background-color: #0033CC;
margin-left: 380px;
margin-top: 0px;
}

to

body {
background-color: #0033CC;
margin-top: 0px;
}

Then slightly further down, change:

<body>
<table width="650" border="2" cellpadding="12" cellspacing="0" bordercolor="#000099" bgcolor="#FFFFFF">

to

<body>
<div align="center">
<table width="650" border="2" cellpadding="12" cellspacing="0" bordercolor="#000099" bgcolor="#FFFFFF">


and finally at the bottom of the page, change:

<p style="margin-top:0;"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:15px;">&nbsp;</span></p>
</body>

to

<p style="margin-top:0;"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:15px;">&nbsp;</span></p>
</div>
</body>


Hope that works for you!

Cheers

Jon

[HalfSwede]

WebGal, MFornas, JonParker:
Thank you for the feedback and assistance. Yes, I can get to the HTML. I'm totally comfortable editing the HTML as long as I can find the right place to insert the code.

I adjusted the vertical spacing (1.7em), the background color (a little less bright, I think), got the page being dynamically centered, and set the page width to 760px...all of this just for the home page at the moment. I'll adjust the other pages later.

Still need to work on the sub-heads later today.

Thanks...and Go TarHeels!

Cheers,
HalfSwede

[Thor]

excellent work Halfswede the changes look great!
just a couple of pictures and you're pretty might spot on as far as i'm concerned.

mind you after doing all the hard convincing selling, only one thing threw me off balance:
"i will be increasing the price very soon and don’t know where the price will end up... it could end up at $299, or $899, or maybe even higher!"
perhaps those numbers could be a bit lower? i'm not sure what the true value of this product is but those $ seem very high and i feel it would have the opposite effect to what you're looking for.
anyway keep up the good work :thumbsup:
:)

[FrozenCanuck]

Herb - I thought the site was well done.

Regarding THor's comments on "I will be increasing the price very soon", I have to tell you that whenever I see that kind of thing, it IMMEDIATELY screams at me, "This guy is an EFFING liar and I cannot trust him".

I have NEVER seen one of these "the price will go up" letters turn out to be true. My opinion is people do not trust them. I would not do this. In fact, when I write copy, I may end up doing the opposite and telling people that I won't try to "insult their intelligence" by suggesting that the price will go up. Something like, "I'm already charging more than average because the product is far BETTER than average. And you get what you pay for. This is not a sale, and I'm not jacking up the price later. Besides, you are fully protected by my guarantee and I take all the risk by giving you this guarantee. I do this because I'm THAT confident in the results you'll get."

[HalfSwede]

"i will be increasing the price very soon and don’t know where the price will end up... it could end up at $299, or $899, or maybe even higher!"
perhaps those numbers could be a bit lower? i'm not sure what the true value of this product is but those $ seem very high and i feel it would have the opposite effect to what you're looking for.
anyway keep up the good work :thumbsup:
:)

Actually, I'm still kicking around the whole pricing issue.

First, generally, I see two purposes for this muse:
1. Capture some of the market at the lower end of the price spectrum for my particular niche
2. Use the muse as a feeder for the consulting part of my business so that I can be more selective on who I consult for (i.e. upsell opportunities)

As far as the price and value of the product...
When I have done consulting in the past, most of the schools I have worked with have had HUGE increases in the amount of money they have raised. For example, one school used pretty much the same concepts, and even the same pledge letter (!), but only raised $30,000 on their own (a school of about 450 students). Once we started working with them they went from $30,000 to $80,000-$90,000...a 3-fold increase. You could say that I brought at least $50,000 of value to that school...and that was just for 1 year; I actually worked with them for 3 years, so their net gain was probably closer to $150,000! That's why my muse program truly is a steal at $87.77! :)

Another school I worked with, just as a quick example, went from $8,000 to $30,000, and I worked with them for 3 years so the net gain was in the neighborhood of $60,000...and I have many other examples like those two.

The other issue though is to make sure I hold enough information back to justify my consulting clients still paying me $5,000-$15,000 per year and not feeling as if they are getting "ripped off" because someone else got my program for $87.77 (or $299 or $499 or $899 or whatever).

As I see it, what justifies the consulting relationship and the related fees of $5,000+, is the telephone consultation and on-site meetings that I conduct with a client. In other words, I can share a lot of my "secrets" for fundraising, but if a client actually has someone holding their hand, encouraging them, motivating them, kicking them in the pants whey they get off track, etc...that is when they are going to see the biggest increases in their fundraising. Plus, I can offer advice that is "customized" to each client's unique fundraising situation (whereas my muse product obviously isn't customized to each individual client.)

Let me give a quick analogy...
I can buy a diet book for $29.95, read it, and follow the plan and lose weight. The key is FOLLOWING the plan. Now, if I get someone to come alongside me to encourage, motivate, kick me in pants when needed (when they find a McDonald's Big Mac wrapper in my trashcan), etc...I'll likely lose more weight, faster.

Someone else had another thread on this forum about the role of a consultant. The point was made that often the consultee knows what to do, but they just need help implementing the program.

Does that make sense? In other words, with my muse I'm kind of saying "Here's my fundraising program..." (for $87.77 or $499 or whatever). Now, if you need help implementing it, you can hire me as a consultant for $5,000+.

A long response, I know, but maybe someone can add some insight on how to differentiate between the muse "product" and the consulting side of the business and provide a good answer as to why there is such a significant difference between the price of the muse product and my consulting fees.

Cheers,
HalfSwede

[HalfSwede]

Regarding THor's comments on "I will be increasing the price very soon", I have to tell you that whenever I see that kind of thing, it IMMEDIATELY screams at me, "This guy is an EFFING liar and I cannot trust him".


Point taken. Thank you.

See my previous post and the "dilemma" I'm facing with respect to pricing my muse product vis-a-vis the consulting side of the business.

Cheers,
HalfSwede

[Thor]

Does that make sense? In other words, with my muse I'm kind of saying "Here's my fundraising program..." (for $87.77 or $499 or whatever). Now, if you need help implementing it, you can hire me as a consultant for $5,000+.

A long response, I know, but maybe someone can add some insight on how to differentiate between the muse "product" and the consulting side of the business and provide a good answer as to why there is such a significant difference between the price of the muse product and my consulting fees.

Cheers,
HalfSwede

ah-ha i see where you're coming from.
thats a really tough call! and unfortunately i don't have much insight... except that perhaps you price it a bit higher (dare say after you explaining it i'd be going for your top dollar) and direct market to schools/org's that are out of your physical reach and then send them to the website (this is whilst you consider the 100% of 0 is 0 rule).

[Marcie]

Thanks...and Go TarHeels!



Sorry to hijack the thread a little, but, thanks! ditto that :) I'm a (part-time) student there right now :D

[webgal]

Here we go Tar Heels, here we go.

[HalfSwede]

Sorry to hijack the thread a little, but, thanks! ditto that :) I'm a (part-time) student there right now :D

My claim to fame is that I was a Geography graduate student in 1984-1986. No big deal, right? Well, Michael Jordan was a Geography major and turned pro in 1984. Anyway, during the summer he would come back to Chapel Hill. The chair of the department thought all I was supposed to do was work in the department and study. Well, one summer day I bumped into Michael on the golf course. Evidently someone saw us, because the chair was really p.o.'d that I was, quote "out golfing with your buddy Michael!" :)

Cheers,
HalfSwede

[webgal]

That is hilarious. I actually went to UNC from 1980-1984. Those were sweet years for an enormous basketball fan like me. Sam Perkins' hands were as big as toilet lids. I had him in a class and I just could not believe his hands were that big. I'm so pumped over the game right now I can't sleep. Final Four!

I don't think your offer is overpriced. And if you have a list of 5 thousand of spa folks, you need to work that one for sure.