Internet Success Story Interview: Mark Joyner

Marty Foley of ProfitInfo.com and AffiliateProfitInfo.cominterviews Mark Joyner, one of the true pioneers of online marketing.Among other things, Mark was instrumental in sparking thee-book marketing craze, wrote an e-book which has beendownloaded millions of times, and is responsible for one of the greatest success stories in Net history: the building ofSearchHound.com on an ad budget of $0 - and selling it formillions.[Marty]: Mark, can you give us a little background on youronline business operations?[Mark]: Well, I started on the Net back when I was a very youngman and the Internet was then called the "Arpanet." My uncle hadan Arpanet teletype machine in his house and from that point onI was hooked.In 1994, when e-commerce was just starting to happen on the Net,I opened my first business and acted as a software reseller. NowI own my own Internet software company - Aesop dot com.Our latest project is called ROIbot. With this, we started outby asking "what does everyone doing business online really needto be successful?" and we built tools that answered thatquestion. [Marty]: What are some keys to Internet success that you'vediscovered? [Mark]: Two things: Testing and persistence.There is so much advice out there... Some of it's very good,some of it's horrible. To make matters worse - some of it may begood advice for someone else, but bad advice for you.So what do you do? You can test!When you test, you know exactly what's working. And when youknow what's working, you can duplicate that success again andagain.Try some simple math. Imagine you have a website that isgenerating one sale of your product for every 300 visitors. Younet $50 per sale.If you get 3,000 visitors per month, you're making $500 permonth in net profit.Then you test out 5 new websites and find one that gets you onesale for every 50 visitors.For the same traffic level, 3,000 visitors per month, you arenow earning $3,000 per month, rather than $500.Here is where persistence comes in. You have to be willing totry out different things and accept that most of what you trywill fail. If you keep trying, sooner or later you'll hit onsome winners.Many make the mistake of trying out one thing and then giving upwhen it doesn't work. You should just assume that your firstround out of your gun is going to be a dud. Accept it and keepfiring!One problem with the Net is this - what may be working one daycould soon become obsolete! The only thing that stays consistentis testing.[Marty]: What specific types of online tools are you usingsuccessfully?[Mark]: I mentioned ROIbot above. One of the many tools that ROIbot gives you is a detailed tracking system that will allow you to track and measure the results of your marketing - withoutquestion.I don't do any marketing at all without using our ROIbottracking tools. I honestly can't sell a product that I don't usepersonally. With ROIbot it's not a problem, as it's simply anessential part of good marketing.You're invited to check out the powerful Internet marketingbenefits that the collection of ROIbot tools offers by visitinghttp://www.roibot.com/r.cgi?IM10766_mji-1[Marty]: That's great advice, Mark. I'm always glad to runacross other marketers who appreciate the power of testing. I'malso a ROIbot Pro user and know how helpful those tools can be.As an Internet marketer myself, I've become very serious about testing, and have created a different type of testing tool; one that allows split run testing on web sites. It can be used in tandem with ROIbot, and is described at:http://ProfitInfo.com/catalog/v4.htmWhat major mistakes do you see Internet entrepreneurs make? [Mark]: Wow - there are so many. The biggest one is: "makingyour site for you rather than for your customer." So many peoplebuild sites that are shrines to themselves. Who cares, right?People in general don't care about you - they care about themselves. You've got about 2 seconds to get your visitor'sinterest - or he will turn around and leave![Marty]: Do you have any other advice to those wanting to buildsuccessful online businesses?[Mark]: You bet - you're probably going to hear from everyone that you're crazy. Don't listen to this!I can't begin to tell you all of the "authoritative" statementsI've heard from nay-sayers: "Your business model will never work.""It's too late to start a new business on the Internet." (Iheard this early this year when I started ROIbot.)"It costs millions of dollars to do business online" (A lieperpetuated by those charging millions to set up onlinebusinesses! Doing business on the Net is cheap if you do itright!)If I had listened to any of these statements I wouldn't havenearly as much money as I do now. And those that have said such things to me are making just whatthey've always made.