Dexter Rich Financial

Are you losing money with FREE?

When I got into marketing, the top priority for me was saving cost. As a result I quickly found myself lost in this world where everyone was offering free this or free that and all of this "special" priced stuff and the list goes on.

I quickly found myself joining affiliate programs and marketing links and trying to drive traffic and getting tons of emails about the next great joint venture. The sad reality is that a lot of people, who would have been qualified customers, are scared of being scammed and losing their shirt.

It's really overwhelming for everyone involved, especially nowadays where everyone claims to be an expert. Let's face it, everywhere you look you'll find tips, advice and articles claiming "this really works" and "I made x amount of money in x amount of time using these simple steps" and a bunch of hype.

When in fact it's a front - they're not making any money, they haven't studied anywhere so we know they aren't experts, and the majority of the time they don't even have a product or service of their own.

At this point I'm going to stop and let you all know exactly who I am. My name is Dexter Nelson, (yes that's my real name, not some alias) and while I don't claim to be an expert, I have seven years experience operating two businesses (which were self-starters), I have further education and certified in several fields including programming, engineering and business.

I'm also a certified PMP (Project Management Professional) and have special studies in economics. I am a published author, composer and a music teacher, (one of my businesses is music-based). And yes, all of it is verifiable information.

Ok, back to the topic at hand, losing money with free. So are you?

No one would contest that free adds a certain value to a product or service. What I'm talking about though is your value or that x factor to the customer or client in reference to you that makes them say, "Ok, I can take out my wallet and spend it on you."

There is this big misconception that the more value to a product the better it will sell, which is true, but not true by itself.

Have you ever noticed that people almost always look up a seller before they buy? There is a reason why EBay and Amazon and most other services keep track of seller and buyer ratings. People want to know who they are buying from and if they can be trusted to deliver.

What does your potential customer feel about you? Are you projecting the same value of whatever you're selling onto yourself or your business as well?

If you're not, you're losing money.

Put yourself in a customer's shoes. You go to a website and it's one of those free sites with advertising banners everywhere, filled with affiliate links and sales pitches would you buy? You probably wouldn't. You know why?

In your mind, just from visiting that website you already have an idea about the person behind the site you just visited.

Now look at it from the other side of the coin. You go to a website and it seems decently done. It's organized, but not totally professional. There is some advertising on it, an affiliate link or two, but not all over the place. Overall it's straight forward, detailed, and has information about the owner, even a couple genuine pictures and more contact information than an email address. I would buy, and have on many occasions from such sites.

So what's the point?

When it comes to making a first impression on your customers, it isn't the product or service that they buy so much as it is you that they buy. The headlines may get them to your site; however it's your first impression that will more often than not be the deciding factor whether those leads turns into a sale.

This is where free can hurt you. Like I first mentioned, one of the most important things for me was saving cost. The mistake I made was to go with free. Free hosting, free tools, free advertising, free this and free that. Trust me, I paid for that dearly.

As I said I quickly became side tracked into buying advertising software, joining affiliate programs, and promoting everything else but my own business. It seemed that almost everything took attention away from my business.

I won't lie, there were times that my family paid the price for it. So now I'm here to help you avoid making the same mistakes that I did, so you don't have to pay the price like I had to.

Points for Success from Experience:

First, avoid the "free" hype out there and invest in the core of your business or website with quality before you sink money into trying to bundle up your product or service. This is your first impression. Ultimately you are the one that qualifies customers with your first impression, so it's on you. When someone goes to your website what are they going to think?

Secondly, put your effort into your business and don't get side tracked! I can't stress this enough. You have to learn to throw out and filter out all of the junk that's floating around out there. The next time someone advertises "Grow your business fast!" and you click on that link and they're not talking about growing your business or trying to get you to buy a product or buy into a system that has nothing to do with your business? Close the page!

Learn that you don't need some fancy software package, "revolutionary system" or "hidden" tactic or "secret that they don't want you to know about" to make your business work. You don't!

Know that when you go to a site like that, those people are marketers by trade. It is how they make their money - when you buy their product or service – marketing. They're in the business to sell marketing, not to help you make more money from your business.

Thirdly, joint ventures work, but only when they compliment each other. People are smarter than many realize. Do not… I repeat, DO NOT promote or market or try to sell something that doesn't fit with your business. "Hey I'm a web developer, we've got great affordable solutions that can help you, now click on this link and buy some cosmetics!"

Don't do it. It is business suicide, plain and simple.

Fourthly, people can smell hypocrisy a mile away. They really can. I know this because you can and I can. If you don't use the products and services yourself, don't expect anyone to put out money on it.

This goes back to your value. You are the best representative for what you advertise. If you don't use it yourself, why would I spend money on it?

Fifthly - save your money and spend it wisely. When setting up your business or website, save both time and money and do it right. Here are a few suggestions to help you do that.

1. Pay for a real hosting account. This is the most basic requirement. There are tons of free website tools where, if you put in the time, you can build your own website. The one I recommend is a company that, when all others couldn't handle the traffic and grow with my businesses, they upgraded to meet my needs.
   
   They aren't the cheapest out there, but they have the quality and value that's my business deserves. Here is my referral link for them. They have a 90 free trial, it's worth it.
   https://ssl.jumpline.com/order/?c=56Y3QR8C
   
   
2. Get a real merchant account. When starting off, free services like PayPal and others have their benefits but they also have their vices. For example those services are not banks and your money isn't protected by Federal Banking Regulations. If something happens your money is gone, you have no recourse to get it back.
   
   Also, those services will often have a much higher discount rate and you lose more money per transaction. Then you have annoyances like third party services holding your funds without notice, taking money from your account and a few others.
   
   I use PayPal too, but for business I use GoEmerchant. They are a very versatile and they add value to my business. Most importantly they are A+ accredited by the Better Business Bureau. I also highly recommend them.
   
   They also have a free demo available. It is really worth a look.
   http://echomerchant.evsholdingco.com/

I sincerely believe that the most important factor is communication. It is an annoyance when I try to contact someone and all I get is voice mail, automated email replies with no follow up, and it really is very disrespectful to your customers to do that to them.

At the same time I know the need for spam prevention, so putting my money where my mouth is, I've spent a lot of time and effort designing a web-based messaging system that you can use for free.

It'll protect you from having to put our email out there and save you the trouble of programming yourself or having to spend money on a programmer. I absolutely use it myself and I keep adding business-appropriate tools to help you manage your customers.
http://business.techdex.net

So, we're here at the end of my first newsletter and it was a long one at that. It is my hope that you all will find the information useful. I really want to hear your stories of success and your stories of failure. The first gives everyone higher hopes to continue pushing forward, and the latter teaches us how to avoid the pitfalls.

In my next newsletter I'm going to pick back up where this left off. We've barely begun to scratch the surface and in the near future I'm going to interview financial experts, tax consultants, other business executives and more to give you truly expert advice and strategy that you can use in your business.

Best Regards,

Dexter Nelson
Entrepreneur, Business Executive
(919) 989-9304