Just launched basic Muse. Your feedback is needed.

[msafi]

Hey there,

Just launched this Muse: http://www.infoaboutdubai.com

Feedback on the copy and style is really appreciated.

Thanks,

[JET]

Good looking basic site. Few thoughts:
1) is this information one couldn't find for free on the Internet? If so, maybe state so, etc..
2) maybe some good photos of dubai, etc?
3) maybe some testimonials from happy purchasers/readers?

[msafi]

Good looking basic site. Few thoughts:
1) is this information one couldn't find for free on the Internet? If so, maybe state so, etc..
2) maybe some good photos of dubai, etc?
3) maybe some testimonials from happy purchasers/readers?
Thanks a lot for the feedback, JET.

1) Yes, the advice and method are my own creation and haven't seen them any where else online. The 50 agencies are all available online but collecting their information would require a few hours of labor. i'm not sure where i should mention that though. it seems kind of implied from the copy. furthermore, even if the information was available online in its entirety, if the visitor decides to go waste some more time on search engine, that's one type of buyer i'm glad to only have to put up with electronically.

2) where do you suggest i put those photos?

3) i have given the book to a few people to read it and give me their feedback. i will use any positive feedback i get as testimonials. i think i will put it in a pop-up window like the "table of content" now, which you can view by clicking on the book-cover.

[insidethenewrich]

hey,

i think you have a nice basic site. what kind of research did you do to see the market? do you have analytics in place on your site to monitor traffic and where that traffic comes from? i would definately expand the copy on your site and would most definately do some keyword research to make the site seo friendly. and it would really be in your favor to include some testimonials on the page of "satisfied" customers. and finally, i would test this item at 19 bucks. after that i would jack the price up. if you indeed have quality info to sell here make people believe it by increasing the price. remember, people really do believe you get what you pay for. good luck with this site and let us know how you do! if you have any further questions or comments feel free to private message me.

regards,

rob

[msafi]

hey,

i think you have a nice basic site. what kind of research did you do to see the market? do you have analytics in place on your site to monitor traffic and where that traffic comes from? i would definately expand the copy on your site and would most definately do some keyword research to make the site seo friendly. and it would really be in your favor to include some testimonials on the page of "satisfied" customers. and finally, i would test this item at 19 bucks. after that i would jack the price up. if you indeed have quality info to sell here make people believe it by increasing the price. remember, people really do believe you get what you pay for. good luck with this site and let us know how you do! if you have any further questions or comments feel free to private message me.

regards,

rob
A couple of weeks ago, I tested the market by creating this site: http://www.infoaboutdubai.com/Old_stuff As you can see here, it's a registration form. I drove some traffic to this registration form by using AdWords. I got like 5 registrations in 2 days.

After that, I got too excited, I couldn't wait, so I built the product and this new website and launched it yesterday.

Google Analytics is installed on the website's pages. Google AdWords Conversion Tracking is installed on the 3rd party's page that handles the delivery of my digital product. That way, I know exactly which ads and texts are converting. Unfortunately, Google Analytics Goal's installation with PayPal's Website Payments is kind of tricky, so I skipped that for the time being.

You said I should expand the copy, what other issues do you think I should address in the expanded copy? I should probably do like JET suggested, which is emphasizing the fact that this is original information and cannot be found else where. I should add testimonials. I could put a couple of testimonials on the sidebar, and if the buyer is interested in reading more, they can click "More..." and a pop-up window would open with more testimonials...

I think the idea of increasing the price to improve the perception of the product is valid.

It's a 20-page, 2,300 words guide. I have used the information in this guide to get in touch with CEOs and seriously engage people in my job search, so how much do you think a product like this is worth?

Thanks a lot for your help, Rob

[msafi]

Based on the feedback that I got here and to enhance the perceived credibility of the website, I have expanded on it a little bit. http://www.infoaboutdubai.com no longer takes you to the product page, but it takes you to the "homepage" of the website. On the homepage, there is a prominent link to the single product that I now offer.

I changed the destination on all my AdWords ads to http://www.infoaboutdubai.com/gettinghiredindubai

This new page is the product page. Also based on the feedback here, I added some more information on the product page, such as FAQs and "Guide Details"

[msafi]

It's not as easy as I thought
I'll try to keep a record here of my experience with this Muse. I have given some details above as to what I did for market testing and thereafter.

After reading 4HWW for the 3rd time, and having failed in my first attempt in creating a business (a real big business with thousands of dollars in investment), I finally convinced myself of the feasibility of a Muse.

My thinking is that with the advent of the Internet and new communication technologies, it's become very easy to get paid for information or goods, and it's become easy to find a large enough pool of buyers however specialized the information that you are providing is.

After a little bit of brainstorming during my work commute, I decided that I will specialize in providing information to people outside of Dubai city who are looking to move to Dubai. I guess this is too broad for a single person's undertaking. I thought I'd start small, anyway.

Two days ago I launched my first proper Muse at http://www.infoaboutdubai.com/ and so far I'm $20 deep in Google AdWords with zero sales.

It's too early to think about giving up though, especially while the only other option being having to work for a living...

[msafi]

Looking forward to the first sale

As I said above, my Muse have been running for 2 days. I have had about 80 visitors coming from Google AdWords alone. I haven't managed to convert a single visitor.

Currently, the website for my product is very quick and basic. Being a standalone site in the world wide Web is very different from selling from within a market community such as eBay, Yahoo Stores, etc. It's harder. But on the other hand, this approach is more flexible, and it allows you to have your unique identity.

Since InfoAboutDubai.com is a standalone website, it needs to work harder in establishing trust and authority with the buyer.

Here's my plan for the next actions for this Muse. I will take the advice of 4HWW and upgrade my Muse from Internet cafe to boardroom.


I will have proper contact us, about us, terms of use, privacy policy and those kinds of pages on the site.
I will register the company in the U.K. (you can do that online in 5 minutes) and refer to it on the website as Info About Dubai Ltd.
I will install a content management system (CMS) on the homepage of the website and then aggregate news about Dubai from different news sources to give an official and lively look and feel to the website.


There is no excuse not to have good copy on the product page
I think my current product page sucks. The copy isn't compelling enough for the visitor to buy. There isn't enough information about the product, and I don't think the visitor even knows what exactly they are buying. I don't think it's enough for me to tell them what they can accomplish by buying this guide, I got to speak broadly about the methods and techniques that are utilized in this guide.

Here's the improvements that I'll add to the product page:

Testimonials: I have one testimonial from one friend who said "This is a real book. It'll change the readers life"
Expanded copy: the product will only sell if I provide more powerful copy and more benefits, success stories, etc...

I decided to implement these changes after the feedback that I received here.

That's enough work for the next couple of days. I have turned off my AdWords for now until I have made these changes.

[msafi]

I decided to put things on hold for a couple of days because I'm chasing a well paying, fun and relaxed position with a big local media company.

Once I get hired, I'll have some cash to pour into this Muse and have it be done more quickly and professionally.

[insidethenewrich]

msafi, i have some ideas for you that are kind of lengthy to get into here. feel free to pm me to speak about them. good luck with the new job!

[msafi]

It Is All About Sales And It Is Not As Easy As The 4HWW Made It Out To Be

A single page lazy website like I had in the start didn't make a single sale. I took it down after a couple of days of 100 something visitors and 0 sales.

The new exciting approach:

* Fully beefed up and stronger copywriting. I'm now convinced that strong sales copywriting is what generates the sales. I have been reading an excellent tutorial that you too can use to improve your sales writing. Find it, here (http://www.adcopywriting.com/).

* Corporately themed website. My single page that didn't have enough exciting information deserves to make no sales. The new website has Terms of Use, Privacy Policy, Contact Us page, About Us page with mention of company presence globally, an assuring refund policy page, articles section, news section, more than one product with each product having strong sales copy, and personal consultation service offering.

* Two of the three products that I will be offering on my website, alongside my own product, aren't owned by me. I can sell those products on my website and make 50% commission on every sale. It's a good deal and having those products on my website enhances my offering. That's why I'm more than happy to be able to sell these products. This affiliate marketing is done through ClickBank. Online affiliate marketing can help people on this forum in many ways. And it is definitely one of the ways that you can make a living online. But like a Muse, it requires dedication and commitment to build.

If you would like to see what the culture and spirit is like for online information selling, check out www.clickbanksuccessforum.com/forum/

* I also downloaded a lot of very useful and informative eBooks on Internet Marketing from PDFGeni.com. Hopefully, with the techniques in some of these books, I'll be able to generate traffic to my new website once I launch it with more than just Google AdWords.

We'll see. I'll try keep this record updated.

[webgal]

Hello fellow copywriter! Nice to have you on board. I'm cruising through in mod mode right now and only had time for a quick look. There are too many lame and unfocused headlines on the internet.

[Mr. T]

Sorry for asking but i am new in this business, but how can you earn money on a page of that kind ? I mean is it the attractions that you are linking to such as hotels and so on that you can earn your money from ? Cant see any commercials as well... :-)

Hope it is not a too stupid question....

Cheers and thanks!

[msafi]

Sorry for asking but i am new in this business, but how can you earn money on a page of that kind ? I mean is it the attractions that you are linking to such as hotels and so on that you can earn your money from ? Cant see any commercials as well... :-)

Hope it is not a too stupid question....

Cheers and thanks!

When you say "a page of that kind" what does 'that' refer to? Are you talking about the homepage of www.infoaboutdubai.com? Info about Dubai is intended to ultimately have the image of a business, and, in its current phase, it is not the best example of how to make money on the Internet.

Many people make money on the Internet by doing Internet Marketing. Many of the Internet Marketers market informational products. For example, on IaD I will have a few information products that I could earn money from if I marketed successfully.

When I say informational products, I mainly mean eBooks. For more information, Google "eBook Marketing"

Best,

[Spyder]

Msafi, I think you are being too hard on yourself! 2 days doesn't seem like long enough to decide to dump it. I hope you continue with this muse because I think it is a very good idea. The pages I have seen are great. Today the main one is unavailable, so I suppose you are working on it.

I didn't find out if this is an e-book or a published book. If it is published, you could also offer it as a download. You are right, even though somebody who was interested in moving to Dubai could do a lot of the research themselves, you are still offering first hand observation and experience. That is valuable!

Good Luck!

[msafi]

@Spyder

Thank you so much for the encouraging words!

I will continue to work on it and improve it.

This is a new page that I just finished working on today for one of the products: http://www.infoaboutdubai.com/dubaijobsecrets (notice the expandable links at the end)

Compared to the old one: http://www.infoaboutdubai.com/gettinghiredindubai

I think the new, longer, and more informative page with the stronger sales copy is much better. I will re-write the old stuff entirely, including the product itself.

[msafi]

After a week of sitting in front of the monitor for a full day, the website is finally up at www.infoaboutdubai.com

I just setup 4 AdWords campaigns for the 4 different products and services that I offer on the site.

I made a mistake with one AdWords campaign that immediately cost me $20 (and still counting) in PPC cost. I set the bidding price too high for the Content Network. It displayed my ad in a bunch of worthless sites (I'm assuming) and people clicked on it, and I got charged that much. I then reduced the bid from $0.60 to $0.05 for the content network.

As for the search bid, I'm leaving it at $0.60 since I'm bidding for highly targeted keywords.

I'll see how this goes...

[msafi]

Turns out AdWords is not as simple as it sounds, especially for a competitive market such as the one I'm at. I guess that's my fault for not researching a proper niche from the start.

Currently, AdWords is not generating the desired ROI. I'll leave it on for the time being and revisit it later.

Now I'm experimenting with other methods of traffic generation, such as: article marketing, directory submission, blogging, link exchanges, press releases, etc...

[blackhatontherocks]

Learning adwords takes time, msafi. Especially if you want to get a good quality score and get top rankings for paying low per-click prices.

But judging from the low pricing of your products, you might be having a hard time making it work, regardless. If even 5 Dollars is too much to pay per sale in adwords costs for the product to run profitable, adwords is hardly a valuable option for beginners and it will probably be an unneccessary pain in the rear end for advanced adwords marketers as well. Reason being, even if they are just doing affiliate Marketing, there's too many successfull 50-99 Dollar ebooks they could promote for 50%+ comission as well.

SEO traffic will usually take a lot longer.

I think the problem with making adwords work is twofold - a) Your pricing.
b) Your PRICING.

With 10 Dollars to gain per product TOPS, after sales tax and payment processing costs, you'll harldy make more than 7-8 Dollars anyway per sale.

Btw, 100-Something visitors to your website not buying anything is HARDLY an indication of the qualitiy of your site. Especially since the sales letter isn't on the front page, you loose a lot of your visitors on the first clickthrough. With an Eye-Catcher header and/or Headline, you loose even more in the first few seconds.

I think there is no single "real" niche that you can't sell a 37+ Dollars ebook to, if it's really a buying market to begin with. For me personally, 9 Dollar ebooks implies begging for money rather then providing value. Which is a stupid attitude of course, some of the best content is for free or costs less then a meal at mcdonalds, but the thing is - this is one of the most common attitudes your prospect will have!

You try to get the prospect to go down the "Uh well, 10 Dollars aren't much, let's give it a try" route rather then actually getting them to *want* what you're offering, building value and then delivering the goods at a decent price.

In order to achieve that, you need to make some changes to your website.
A: Get A catchy headline into the header asap and throw away that double-website-name stuff. I don't know where you've read that you need to look like a company, but this applys solely to the area of having more than one page (which isn't even neccessary at all if the salescopy is compelling and the buyers are emotional about the thing they are looking for, btw), not to the way how your Home-page looks like.

So push a real good, attention-getting Headline into the header Pic in form of a subhead. NEVER EVER use your own URL as a subhead in anything that's on your side. People ARE already on that page, they see it in the browser-url-line, so theres no need whatsoever to actually tell them again which page they are visiting.

And put a REAL Salesletter-Style headline and some good testimonial-heavy salescopy at the beginning of your homepage instead of this tiny blue box that's hardly readable and even less likely to actually invoke interest in the page.

Even the good old "You're about to discover...[Magic Bullet Solution to Prospects Problem/Need/Want]" Type of Intro-Headline for the main text area will convert far better then what there is now.

Of course, if you really want to keep the blog on the front, the "what we do" section must go as well. Visitors don't give a damn about me or you or what we are about, they want to know what's in it for them.
That said, having a blog on the front page is a great thing, but only good if you're actually willing to put in the work to make this a blog people read by writing at least 3 valuable, entertaining posts per week, including tutorial-style post series covering specific topics to get more backlinks.

Then you need to put in the work to social bookmark every post you write, and write digg- and propeller-storys for the most informative ones. And of course you have to indulge yourself into the niche, do google blog-searches on topics you've covered to find other blogs and articles similar to yours to leave comments with backlinks on etc. pp.

You'll need to keep this up for about 1-2 months before you'll actually get recognised in your area, and get some traffic if your blog is well optimised for a some good, decent but not to good competition with large amounts of traffic.

Right now, you're page trys to be everything for everyone. A Blog, but with a company-layout, 3 Semi-Salesletters without actual bullet-points (you kinda avoid them with the lines, but they are what people are used too), eye-catchers, no obvious testimonials (only linking through is baaad) and a massive lack of actual compelling sales copy.

The line:
"This useful guide for Dubai job seekers describes ten steps to get a job in Dubai faster." says it all. Please don't take this perso

And please, by all means, throw out the idea that selling 3 products right of the bat is good thing to do. Instead of trying to build value and sell 3 guides that barely yield any profit to you, and where one of them is just an adress-list for sheik's sake, sell ONE product with a title similar to Dubai job Secrets and actually work on one GREAT, compelling salesletter rather than on 3 that are hardly going to work.

Offer a complete guide, advertise it's features as benefits, and put a decent price tag on it. If you really can provide people with the knowledge neccessary to get a well payed job in dubai, you can easily collect a lot more than 20 dollars. Moving to dubai even temporarily is a huge thing for people, and if they are really considering it, everything that's cheaper then the plane ticket will probably be in their "willing to pay" range if you make sure your product looks like it really will solve all their problems.

I would for example structure your course in for modules, like Preface: How to know if working in Dubai will be for you and make you happy before you even set a foot on the plane
1) How to find your Dream Job
2) How to get payed extraordinarily well and live like a sheik (the last one is there just for marketing reasons, obviously ;)
3) How to prepare for making the leap - Everything you need to know
4) Making Dubai Your Second Home - First Days in Paradise you'll never forget

BONUS MODULE: 5) Dubai Insider's Secrets - How to make even more money While Having the Time of your life.

You NEED to tell a story on your page, msafi, there's SOOO much potential wasted here it's hard to believe. You can even copy most of what tim did for the 4 hour work weak and just apply it to the setting and prospect type. (The living on the beach with perfect weather while getting payed huge amounts of money, lot's of respect for your specialties etc. story is what people dream about - and you can use this site to deliver a breeze of that feeling and make them want it even more).

Anyway, whatever you do, you really need to decide for one direction and then head down that road in focused way. Direct Sales copy works if you're solving a problem and can drive cost-efficient traffic to the site, blogs work if you offer value and information for free, get recognised for it, and then offer a product to get complete and comprehensive information in one place.

For blog marketing, try yaro starak's http://www.entrepreneurs-journey.com/.
For actually learing how to write compelling copy, storys, and stuff like that, try all the free stuff from frank kern on http://masscontrolsite.com and also the free videos on http://masscontrolgiveaway.com.

Godspeed on your path,
cheers
BHotr

EDIT: Uh, and for *real, less biased* internet marketing information, head over to http://warriorforum.com and indulge yourself there rather than spending more time over at clickbank. No offence, but that forum you currently hang around is more "one-eyed leading the blind" than anything really useful. Their ppc-sticky is half unintentionally funny, 49% god-awfully outdated and about 1% usefull ("get your own domain" being that one percent, and maybe "make subpages with your keyword as the name of the .html-file" if they would actually come out and say it rather then the "www.domain.com/page1" stuff). Really, that's just painful to look at.

[msafi]

BHotr,

That was an extremely informative and useful post for me. I kept this log on this thread in the hope that someone would come along and show me the light. And you did.

I agree with almost everything you said. There are, however, some things that I need to clarify.

Dubai Job Secrets isn't my book. It's somebody else's. I get around $9 commission on it. The other two ebooks are mine. They are very basic and took me like 6 hours of work to put together. That's not to say that the information in them isn't unique or original.

I didn't write the copy for Dubai Job Secrets. I got it from the publisher's page, with the publisher's permission. Here: http://www.thatsdubai.com/jobs/?hop=0

Internet Marketing and making money online is really NOT easy. Do you agree that 4HWW is spreading misinformation with how he portrays the stories of Sherwood and Johanna, and the overall portrayal of a Muse?

Anyway, I'm experiencing a little bit of a burn-out after a lot of work and basically zero gratification. But that's partly because of my overly optimistic thinking.

I'll now sit back and relax a little then I will try to see how I can apply the points that you mentioned in your post.

[blackhatontherocks]

1) I know that it's not yours. That doesn't matter, really. But With the copy, you changed EXACTLY THOSE PARTS that where halfway decent and rewrote them to be totally boring - Sorry if I be so blunt.

The authors' page is by far not very good copy, but it's actually decent enough to sell something.

Some simple points that make it work that you've dumped or rewritten poorly are
the whole

"Dear Dubai Job Seeker," part before the bullet points. It's personal and it invovles the reader directly.
The "Are you looking for a job in Dubai" thing in the Very beginning. Way more intersting than your headline and you don't even have a subdhead.
The Headline. Your's is actually BETTER this time around (just extend it a little, it's a good part to have in the headline though), but again you changed what worked about it - the read color grabs immediate attention. Use something similarily eye-catching.

I could go on and on about this, from the bullet points to the actual color-scheme, and the original site + salesletter isn't even halfway decent.
So you show you're talent a little, but don't go all the way here.

Regarding the "Tim Spreading Missinformation" Thing, I know what you mean - kinda - and will make a dedicated post about the underlying issues within a few hours. I'll edit in a link in here as soon as this is finished.

Before I leave, a few more points.
a) You don't need to have an ebook finished before you advertise it, just know that you can write the content you advertise (it's easy if you have 3 books about a topic and just mix them together and add some of your own stuff).
b) I don't argue the quality of your ebooks at all - how could I, I didn't read them - I argue the price and the fact that you go out and sell them as seperate products!

It would be much easier to put all three together in one product, advertise only one product and also get much better roi-rates because of the higher pricing of the one product.

EDIT: Here's the link to the other thread:
http://fourhourworkweek.com/vBulletin/showthread.php?p=15788#post15788

[msafi]

That's very inspirational and informative.

I'll adjust my approach by taking what you said into consideration.

I'll continue to keep this log.

Thanks a lot,

[nysee]

An 'info' site doesnt sound like something i want to pay for. you should call it something more catchy.

'Dubai Secrets'
'Underground Dubai' or 'Dubai Underground'
'Secrets to Hacking Dubai'
'Hacking The Doob'

Show value. I am interested in Dubai, but there's tons of free info out there. On first glance (which is all you have in web marketing) I dont see any info that I potentially wouldn't be able to acquire on my own.

Good luck!

[msafi]

An 'info' site doesnt sound like something i want to pay for. you should call it something more catchy.

'Dubai Secrets'
'Underground Dubai' or 'Dubai Underground'
'Secrets to Hacking Dubai'
'Hacking The Doob'

Show value. I am interested in Dubai, but there's tons of free info out there. On first glance (which is all you have in web marketing) I dont see any info that I potentially wouldn't be able to acquire on my own.

Good luck!

Haha @ the Doob. That's very catchy.

I'm worried about how much Google will like the name. Google loves exact keyword matches. If you can't get exact keyword matches, at least make sure the phrase is in there. Even www.infoaboutdubai.com is crappy when it comes to that. So I'm ditching it.

I definitely agree that the word 'info' makes it something that people would expect for free.

At any rate, I have learned A LOT in the past few days. Currently, I'm doing the thirtydaychallenge.com. Must see for anyone who's serious about making money online. Even if you're technically savvy, the Internet Marketing tips and tricks here are a wholly different game.

I'll report back later...

[blackhatontherocks]

The domain name is mostly irrelevant to google for adwords and a medium to minor-factor for seo. Aside from the fact that you can use subdomains or page-names in adwords' display url's for secondary keywords if your main keyword is in the url, there is no real neccessetiy to it.

What's more important than having the exact words in there is that it's either a good description of your content that the human google rater can immediatly grasp or a name for your promoted service or your company.

[msafi]

I'm logging the rest of the story in a new thread here: http://fourhourworkweek.com/vBulletin/showthread.php?t=2335