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When Martin Pickering was downsized from his second job in three years, he decided that he'd had enough of working for someone else. Since he'd spent the last few years repairing satellite TV systems, he decided to stick to what he knew.

He started repairing satellite equipment out of his garage in 1995, and was easily able to make enough to pay the bills. But Martin wasn't satisfied with just getting by, so he decided to find out whether there was any money to be made using a new technology called the "Internet." (Remember, this was 1995!)

Martin learned that there certainly WAS money to be made online, but you sure had to work for it! Not long after spending $12 on his first ISP account, Martin was working 17 hours a day, seven days a week, and was starting to get burned out. Then one day, he decided to make a change... And now he's generating $400,000 in sales and earning $80,000 profit a year -- without lifting a finger!

QUESTION:

Martin, to start with, would you mind giving our readers some background on what your site is all about?

Martin:

Satcure.co.uk sells satellite TV equipment for customers in the UK and Europe. We've had a few orders from the USA and Australia, but obviously the shipping costs put most people off buying large items outside the UK. The site is full of free technical content, too, so we give even the least knowledgeable people the information they need to install, repair, or upgrade their satellite TV system.

QUESTION:

Can you give us some background on yourself? What was your experience before you first got started online?

Martin:

Well, I'm 53 years old, and I started a satellite TV repair business back in 1995 after being laid off for the second time in 3 years. This gradually changed from a repair business to mail-order sales of satellite TV accessories. As you can imagine, it's hard to make a fortune selling stuff from the UK because the market is much smaller than in the USA. However, by concentrating on Sky satellite TV systems, which had around five million subscribers (now seven million), I thought I could do reasonably well.

QUESTION:

You were laid off twice in 3 years? That must have been tough! Could you tell us a bit more about how this led to you starting your own online business?

Martin:

On leaving university, I got a job with GEC Telecommunications and remained in the telephone manufacturing industry for the next 15 years, transferring to Siemens in 1984 where I worked for 3 years. I spent another 3 years as a manager with a Japanese company before being laid off due to a recession.

I then got a job in a satellite TV warehouse, selling dishes and all the associated bits and pieces. I ended up doing repairs since I was the only one technically qualified (and I'd previously mended CB Radios as a hobby). Someone in the accounting department there decided that the repairs were not making a significant profit, so I was laid off.

However, that was the push that I needed to "go it alone" so I'm actually very grateful to them for giving me the opportunity.

Run your own business (and make lots of Money)

Don't just make enough to survive. Dump your day job and earn more money for a lot less work. Martin Pickering and Lou Franklin tell you how they were making $100,000 (£60,000) p.a. by the third year. Martin's brothers are also rolling in the cash. These are REAL stories - not just second-hand hints, tips and suggestions - including how to make over $100 extra "pocket money" each month from your web site for NO WORK. Everything you need to know. Martin admits that, until he was interviewed by an American Marketing company, he didn't realise that his annual business turnover was over $400,000. Are you fed up with your job? Stuck for ideas? Read the interview. Find out all the facts. Then "onegaishimasu" (Japanese for "please go ahead and do it!")

http://www.The-Cool-Book-Shop.co.uk

QUESTION:

So what did you do then?

Martin:

Well, I simply went home, cleared out the garage and set up shop there instead. I was basically thrown into the deep end, but it all happened so fast that I didn't have time to plan. I had a big mortgage and a car loan to pay off, so I simply had to keep on earning. The repair business was not bad -- I could earn $100 a day -- but I had ambition, which is why I got onto the Internet to find out how to run the business properly.

That's how I discovered Corey's site. I relied on his monthly newsletter for several years before I decided to invest in his “Insider Secrets to Marketing Your Business on the Internet course. By the way, I still can't believe that it took only four days to reach England from the USA. How do you do that?!

QUESTION:

Well, we've found that our international customers really appreciate not having to wait 6 - 8 weeks for their orders, so we make a real effort to get orders out the door the same day we receive them! Now, I want to ask you about your first site. How did you go about putting it together?

Martin:

A friend had been extolling the virtues of the Internet, so I phoned him and asked him how to get “connected." Getting hooked up was no small task back then, but I was finally able to connect long-distance to CompuServe via a 28k modem in 1995.

In the CompuServe "forums" I found numerous fairly high-ranking business people who were very willing to help me. In those days, access tended to be restricted to fairly wealthy people and a few computer "geeks". I fell somewhere inbetween. I certainly wasn't wealthy! It was amazing! Suddenly I had access to experts and advice that I couldn't have dreamed of a few months earlier. Unfortunately, CompuServe changed to an Internet-based system which I couldn't use - the software was terribly unreliable on my computer. So I bought a low-cost Internet "NewsReader" program and used that. From that point I was able to access USENET Newsgroups and get advice there. It wasn't as good as CompuServe and eventually people began to introduce discussion forums, which were much more useful. Unfortunately, the opening of the Internet to "the man in the street" has made it more difficult to find those people who are genuinely wealthy and able to give the right answers.

My ISP provided me with something called "web space", and it didn't take me long to figure out how to upload files using FTP. The ISP even lent me a book about HTML, so I started programming manually. There was no such thing as DreamWeaver back in 1995!

My first web site was born at http://www.netcentral.co.uk/satcure and it's still there now. (One of the first things I realized is that you NEVER delete a web page once it has been registered with a search engine. That would be like throwing away money!)

QUESTION:

When did you move your business from that site over to Satcure.co.uk?

Martin:

When satellite TV in the UK changed from analog to digital, I decided it was time to get my own domain name, so I bought www.satcure.co.uk and www.satcure.com and www.satcure.net

QUESTION:

Was the change from analog to digital technology a big challenge for you?

Martin:

It was certainly a wake-up call! All of a sudden, nobody wanted their analog receivers fixed anymore, and all of the digital receivers were under warranty. So I had no repair work coming in at all. Nor could I sell repair kits or upgrade kits!

When that change came about, I had to learn about digital technology pretty darn fast. It was at that point that I decided to sell accessories for digital satellite systems instead, so I looked for the items that go wrong and the items I could improve upon. After all, with a market of (then) five million satellite TV watchers, there had to be something that they wanted!

My sales ride on the back of my own technical knowledge. So as long as I can answer customers' questions and write articles, web pages, and eBooks about the technical aspect, the business will be able to grow.

The changes in technology generated another eBook called "Understanding Sky Digital TV", which I give away for free. The eBook contains a lot of information about our products and other eBooks, but our customers don't realize it is advertising. They compliment me on how useful the information is and how easy it is to understand.

QUESTION:

Sounds great, Martin! Can you give us a feel for the size of your site -- in terms of the number of employees, the number of offices, the annual revenues, and profits?

Martin:

Up until eighteen months ago, I worked by myself, and I was working from 8 a.m. until 1 a.m. every day -- with just a short break for lunch and another break to cook dinner for my wife and three boys. One day at midnight I found myself swearing at the computer because another order had arrived! At this point I realized that my customers were probably sensing a bad attitude in me since I obviously didn't welcome the orders.

I decided that this was all wrong. I should get excited every time an order arrived! So I phoned a small family business that specialized in mail order, and asked if they'd take over the order processing. After two weeks they arranged a meeting and agreed that they would handle all purchasing and shipping and pay me fifty percent of the profits. All I had to do was to look after the web site updates, look for new products, and answer customers' questions.

QUESTION:

So you've got a lot more time on your hands these days?

Martin:

Obviously, it has left me with a lot more free time to look at the business and to make improvements. In fact, 18 months after handing things over to the mail-order company, I'm now earning more than I was when I was running my business single-handed!

QUESTION:

How is that possible? Aren't you giving 50% of your profits away to the mail-order company you hired?

Martin:

That's true, but remember that, as soon as I turned things over to them, I was suddenly free to spend all my time growing the business, instead of packing and shipping orders.

I spent a lot more time rationalizing the web site layout, but I think the major factor was that I had a different mindset. I was no longer cursing each time an order arrived because I no longer had to buy inventory, stock it in my garage (and in the TV room, under the bed, in the shed, etc.), and pack and post the orders. Since an order now means more money for me -- and not more work -- it is a huge incentive to work hard at growing the business.

Before I got the company to handle my orders, I was earning around $4,500 a month. As soon as they took over, this dropped by 50% (to $2,250), but gradually crept back up to $4,500 after a year as I worked at increasing sales. After introducing a new shopping cart system, it increased to $6,750 a month!

So I'm earning $80,000 a year for no work at all right now. The $80,000 represents my income before tax, and is 50% of the total profits. The average profit margin is about 42% -- say 40% -- so that means that my $80,000 is 20% of the profits? I'm hopeless at math! So I guess the turnover must be about five times $80,000. So $400,000 annual revenue is what we're doing at the moment.

The best part about NOT having to deal with the day-to-day stuff like order processing is that I have time to look at what's working on the site and what isn't, and I keep making little improvements to increase my income.

QUESTION:

Could you give us an example of one of these "little improvements"?

Martin:

One really simple thing I did was to add check boxes to certain items. For example, we sell remote controls, but the batteries for them were on a different web page so nobody ordered them. When I added a check box that said "Include suitable batteries," that immediately made us another dollar profit on every other remote control sale! Sure, it's not going to make me a millionaire next week, but I'm working on it!

QUESTION:

How much time and money did it take for you to initially get the site up and running?

Martin:

It cost me a grand total of $12 to get up and running, which I paid to my ISP, monthly, for a dial-up account, e-mail, and web space. (Back then, the ISPs never specified how much web space you could use, so I filled about 30 megabytes).

In terms of the time I spent building the site, I guess it was quite a lot. I spent every evening on it for weeks and weeks, but keep in mind that the combined sites amount to well over 600 accessible pages, plus a few hidden ones.

QUESTION:

Did you design the entire site yourself, or did you hire a web designer to help you out?

Martin:

Back in 1995 there were very few "web designers" in the UK. I borrowed a list of HTML codes from the young technical guy who worked for my ISP. He was their web designer, but I couldn't have afforded to pay him.

Anyway, back in 1971, I had come top of my class in computer programming at university. In those days, the computer courses lasted just three weeks! Since I had written programs in machine code and in BASIC, I had a bit of a head start. Of course, there were no advanced HTML editing programs available, but I made do with what I had. In fact, I still use a version of the same HTML editor I was using way back in the mid-1990's!

My original web site was -- and still is -- a bit "rough around the edges", and my site still has that "Mom & Pop" feel, but remember that I'm not really trying to impress anyone. My customers don't want to be impressed by pretty artwork or fancy writing. They just want a quick solution to their problem. And that is what we offer.

QUESTION:

How difficult is it to keep up with the technology in your field? Is it a challenge to come up with new content for the site on a regular basis?

Martin:

Yes and no. I used to write regular articles about repairing equipment but, since I stopped doing repairs, I no longer have anything to write about from personal experience. However, I passed my repair business over to an excellent engineer who keeps me informed about new faults and cures as he discovers them, so I'm still able to update my receiver repair manual each month.

In addition, I receive feedback from customers about dish installation problems, so I can write about that, too. And I get media reports about channel changes, so I'm able to include all this stuff in my monthly newsletter, as well as on my web pages and discussion forum.

QUESTION:

Who is your target market?

Martin:

Anyone without a satellite TV system who needs one, and anyone with one who needs to fix or improve their existing satellite system is a potential customer. Quite often our customers simply want a replacement remote control -- dogs have an amazing appetite for those things!

Sometimes a lady has screwed up her husband's system while cleaning behind it and needs a quick answer. Sometimes a British citizen living abroad wants to watch English programs in a foreign land and needs our help.

QUESTION:

How much traffic are you seeing to your site, and where are your visitors predominantly coming from?

Martin:

If you believe "Web Trends", we get around 35,000 unique visitors each month to satcure.co.uk. Now, that's not bad, but what I'm most interested in are the results that I can actually see! I see that 30 - 40 people download a FREE eBook each day. And I see that 20 - 25 people download our online catalog each day. These people are mostly new visitors and, therefore, potential new customers. And if they like what they see, they'll be back -- or they'll tell their friends.

I would estimate that 80% of our traffic comes via Google. We used to get a significant number from AltaVista as well, but they changed their policies and people don't seem to use them much anymore. Of course Yahoo! uses Google so we get a ton of traffic directly from Yahoo! too.

QUESTION:

What are you doing to collect the opt-in e-mail addresses of potential customers?

Martin:

Whenever someone requests a free eBook, they receive an invitation to join our opt-in mailing list.

QUESTION:

How often do you make a point of following up with your leads and previous customers? What sorts of offers do you typically follow up with?

Martin:

I send out an e-mail promotion once or twice each month with the latest news about UK satellite TV, new products, and eBook updates. (I update the eBooks frequently with fresh information, and purchasers can get the updates free). The mailing list is my main vehicle for keeping in touch.

I did try a "win a prize" competition in the monthly newsletter, but this was not well received and created extra work for me without increasing sales. So what I do now is to encourage the girls at the mail-order company I work with to give customers a little discount if the profit on the order will cover it. This increases customer loyalty tremendously.

I tried offering free gifts once, but it's so difficult to provide something that every customer will want. Think of how many free pens and key rings you've received -- and then trashed immediately.

Dear Martin,

Not a question - most of the answers are already on your site - but a thank you for the most useful, most efficient newsletter of any organisation in my experience. I write for the Consumer's association, so it might be interesting for you to know that there's a permanent link to your main site from the Consumer's association site - Which? OnLine - and when queries arise in the specialist help forums on there, we inevitably refer folk to you.

Keep up the excellent work, Martin.

Regards

Ian

QUESTION:

In order of importance, could you please tell us about the top 4 marketing strategies that you use on a regular basis.

Martin:

1 Google: Google registration has to be number one. I spend a lot of time getting links from other web sites to ours because Google places this high on its list of ranking criteria. I tend to approach other web site owners personally. The time taken is relatively small -- maybe an hour each month. I know I should probably be doing more!

2 Content: Alongside Google registration must go content. It's a waste of time registering your pages with any search engine if there is nothing on them! I spend a lot of time adding content and Google seems to like pages where the content is updated fairly often.

Once you've gotten visitors to your site you need either to keep them interested or give them something to read later. My content keeps them interested but, in case they are in a hurry, I offer them a couple of free eBooks to download as well as my catalog. I know they read these and place orders months later, because we receive enquiries for items which have been obsolete for a year or more! I spend several hours each month updating these eBooks.

3 Newsletter: Next comes the opt-in e-mail newsletter. This reminds potential customers that we exist and lets us bring them up to date on our latest products and news. I try to add a paragraph to the newsletter every day or two. By the end of the month I've probably spent a grand total of two hours on it. I use the services of Mark David McCreary to automate my mailing list. http://www.mail-list.com

4 Articles: Finally, I write magazine articles and frequent discussion forums where I answer questions. I probably spend a couple of hours a month writing the articles, but I'm spending hours each day on the discussion forums! This can lead to a lot of new business for us.

For example, I discovered a design flaw in a satellite receiver which had been troubling users for over a year. Once I had the solution, I mentioned it in forums and newsgroups -- and the orders literally poured in. Now, this doesn't happen every day, and I'd be the first to admit that I probably spend too much time in the forums. However, unless I read them, I don't find out about the problems to begin with.

QUESTION:

How much emphasis do you place on search engine placement and optimization?

Martin:

For us it means everything. We don't advertise and my efforts in newsgroups and forums help a little, but it wouldn't break the business if I stopped. But, as I mentioned, a full 80% of our customers find us via Google.

QUESTION:

What steps are you taking to ensure that your rankings with Google stay high?

Martin:

I follow the reports of algorithm changes, and I'm continually changing my page content and improving the key words and phrases. Here are a few of my strategies:

• I have a search feature on my site that lets my visitors quickly find what they're looking for, but it also lets ME know exactly what my visitors are searching for. I can then use this information to include the most popular keywords in the content on my site!

• Content, content, content, and content. The more the better. Search engines LOVE content!

• Use optimization software. The one I use is VSE Be Found. Note that it's for Apple Mac only but I know there are similar applications for other platforms, like WebPosition Gold.

• List Google's homepage on your site. I've never proved that this helps, but it may be the secret that nobody else has found. If you check my web site you'll find I have a "search" page where I've listed the URL of every search engine I could find. Do you think a search engine will ignore you if you list it on your site?

• Get other people to add a link to your site from theirs. This has been covered by just about every search engine guru, but it remains VERY important for a high Google ranking.

• Never, never, NEVER delete a web page. It's probably already listed with search engines, so why waste it? Change its content, or link it to a new page, but DON'T delete it or change its filename -- no matter how irrelevant it might seem. Even the big sites make this mistake, and it's frustrating for would-be customers who think they've found what they want but end up with "404 Not Found" page instead. If you stop selling something, keep the page and redirect the customer to another page. Don't work to improve your ranking then throw it away.

• In fact, despite Google's recent algorithm changes which dumped many Internet businesses in the mire with horrendously reduced "rankings", my web sites have remained near the top. That suggests that the ideas in my book "Be Found" are still valid.

Click HERE

Be Found

by Martin Pickering

You want your web site to be found? The eBook contains a multitude of tips that I've picked up during the last five years of designing and using web sites. Many of these tips have never been mentioned previously, yet they are extremely important to the success of your web site!

The eBook is a compilation of notes that I wrote to help people who were new to web site design or who couldn't quite figure it out for themselves. (There's no shame in that. Heck, you can still see examples of bad page design on my own web sites where I haven't had the time or patience to correct them!)

I put my notes onto several web pages and they grew as time passed. Now I've decided to combine all those pages into a single eBooklet which can be downloaded and read at your leisure.

If you use my information you can create a HUGE increase in "traffic" (visitors) to your web site after only a few months - maybe even sooner.

Note: this eBooklet tells you how to design web sites that get listed in search engines. It gives brief details about designing web pages with text and pictures but it doesn't pretend to teach you how to design "killer web sites" with flashing lights, bells and whistles. Search engines don't usually care what a web site looks like. Your visitors will expect it to be neat, tidy and easy to navigate.

QUESTION:

Have you ever bought online advertising? If so, what kind and were the results successful?

Martin:

Until recently, no, but we've just signed up for the Google Adwords program. The way this works is that our ads appear in Google's search results (along the right side of the page). Our ad will also appear on other sites -- with relevant content -- who have signed up for Google's newest program, Google AdSense.

QUESTION:

Do you also participate in the Google AdSense program?

Martin:

I sure do! Just two months ago I signed up for Google s AdSense program, and I didn't think that it would do a darn thing. How wrong I was!

I should mention that placing AdSense code on your site isn't a way to advertise YOUR business, it is a way for other businesses to advertise on your site. It requires the addition of a couple of lines of HTML code on a your page. That code sends a message to Google each time someone views your page and Google then feeds ads to your site that are relevant to the page contents. It's magic! If the visitor clicks through the link, Google pays a few cents into your account.

Okay, bear in mind that my old analog web site is picking up hundreds or thousands of visitors each day, but it's not making me any money because I don't sell analog satellite equipment any more. I put Google's AdSense code on about 100 pages and they are earning me an average of $250 a month on click-throughs! So one hour's work on an otherwise useless web site will earn me $3,000 over the next year, and the next, and so on!

I've also coded some "exit pages" at Satcure.co.uk with the AdSense code. By "exit pages," I'm referring to the type of pages which say "Thank you for your order/enquiry", where people are about to leave the site anyway, so sales will be relatively unaffected by allowing customers to click away. I should add that, strictly speaking, putting Adsense code on "exit pages" is in breach of Google's terms but this is because exit pages are usually devoid of any useful text. Ours contain lots of information and are therefore suitable for use with Adsense. They are also places where people will be happy to click on any advert which looks relevant. So I see no reason why Google would object to the way we do this as it increases their advertisers' exposure to accurately targetted customers.

QUESTION:

Good idea! Advertising your competitor's products on your homepage is something you probably want to avoid :-)

Martin:

Definitely! And I DON'T have AdSense set up on my main site for this very reason.

Here's another piece of information -- which I can't prove and Google won't own up to -- but, in order to serve up relevant ads, the Google robots have to investigate your web pages. So my guess is that introducing AdSense virtually guarantees immediate inclusion in Google's database. Just my opinion!

QUESTION:

Do you promote your site offline as well?

Martin:

I don't pay for any offline advertising, but I do write articles for relevant magazines and, of course, I mention one or two of our products in each one, with my web site address included in the text. It's not an ad, and I actually get paid for writing the articles! But I'm amazed by the number of people who write or call me and begin: "I saw your ad in the magazine . I swear that I have never paid for a magazine ad in my life!"

QUESTION:

What have you done to automate your site?

Martin:

When I first began selling, I set up an order form on a web page. Customers would type in the details and the order would reach me as an e-mail message. I would then tediously copy all of the details into an invoicing program, and print it out on a sheet of paper.

This was pretty mind-numbing work, so I was frequently tired and bad-tempered when I was doing it, and I would miscopy the quantity or the order code or -- worse!-- the customer's name. The biggest insult in the world is to misspell someone's name, and I had a feeling that this was costing me customers.

One day I decided to set aside a few hours to automate the invoicing. This was not easy on an Apple Mac, but I managed to write a script in FileMaker Pro that transferred the e-mail order text to a database file, and then constructed the invoice from that. It also added the tax and shipping cost to the order and produced a total. So six hours work that day saved me a whole hour's typing every day since, AND eliminated the silly mistakes that had been costing me time and customers.

Since then, of course, I've introduced the shopping cart system, which passes all the information from the customers to the order processing department at my mail-order company, so I don't have to lift a finger!

QUESTION:

Martin, could you please tell us about a few online tools or web sites that you've found to be powerful resources for marketing your business or locating e-business strategies and information? What are they and how have they benefited you?

Martin:

Of course, one of the first sites I discovered was MarketingTips.com. I still keep referring back to it for new ideas -- and to remind me of old ones that I haven't gotten around to! The most useful feature is the newsletter archive. Why? Well, how many of us are in the mood to read when a newsletter arrives? In my case I often skim through then file it and go back to my work thinking, "I'll read that later", but never do. And then I need some information and think, "I read that somewhere!" So the archives are invaluable and, of course, I've copied that idea for my own newsletter, too! I use the services of Mark David McCreary for my mailing list. http://www.mail-list.com

I use Mal s Shopping cart system which, amazingly, is FREE. I had been quoted thousands of dollars by companies who wanted to sell me software or design a shopping cart for my site. Then I discovered Mal s e-commerce and it cost me nothing more than a few days of work to implement it!

The other useful online tool is PicoSearch. This enabled us to implement a local "search engine" just for our sites and it's completely FREE. We did try others (and paid for them) but they didn't work as well as this one. I can't overstress how important it is that people not only find your site, but also find what they want on your site!

QUESTION:

How many hours per week do you spending running your business versus growing it?

Martin:

Up until eighteen months ago, I spent ALL my time just running the business. I didn't have time to even think about growing the business, and I didn't want to because I already had more work than I could handle!

But now that I've outsourced everything, I can spend as much time as I like on improving the business, and as a result I've doubled the profits in eighteen months. I'm a bit of a workaholic, so I still sit for most of the day at my computer, but now it's something I enjoy! Now I can take a mile walk before lunch each day. I even watch TV occasionally! And, best of all, I get to have at least two holidays with my family each year. Previously that happened once every ten years!

QUESTION:

What are some of the challenges you have personally experienced building and growing your site?

Martin:

Some of the technical stuff has been really challenging -- but I grew up with that so it's nothing new. I think the most difficult thing -- and the most important -- has been forcing myself to establish a daily routine. Now that I don't HAVE to do any work to keep the business running on a day-to-day basis, it would be all too easy to kiss my wife goodbye in the morning and lie in bed until hunger forced me to move! I had to overcome that immediately!

QUESTION:

What would you consider to be your major achievements?

Martin:

Just before I was laid off, I developed alopecia due to stress. Every hair on my body fell out. That in itself was stressful. I had medical examinations, blood tests, and was interviewed but to no avail. There was no obvious cause for my problem. My immune system had suddenly woken up and attacked my hair roots. And nothing could be done to make my hair grow back. It was an enormous blow to my self esteem and quite frightening as doctors suggested a brain tumor and other possible causes. This could have been the final straw, but I bounced back and buried myself in work.

So overcoming the stress was a major achievement. Hanging onto my marriage and my sanity during the onset of alopecia was another. Achieving what I've achieved in business is, of course, very satisfying. Obviously, I'll never be fully satisfied, and I'll carry on improving the business -- but without the stress of having to do it to earn money! I must say that I owe a lot to my wife, Gill, for her continued support.

QUESTION:

What do you think has helped to make your site so successful?

Martin:

Without doubt the content has been of paramount importance. Most people can find the answer to their satellite TV problem by searching the web pages. If the answer isn't there, then it will invariably be found in one of my eBooks. I reckon that over fifty percent of the time I answer customers questions simply by giving a web page address or a book title and page number. It has reduced my workload and increased customer satisfaction.

The thing that has amazed me most is that people don't mind paying for information -- if it solves their problems. And even though I give a money back guarantee on my eBooks, can you guess how many people have asked for a refund in the last two years? One! And he was an American who had accidentally ordered a book about UK satellite TV systems!

Hi,

Just a note to say thanks for the FAQ - in particular, "how to force a software download". We are now no longer plagued by the box freezing after being on for five minutes, and I am the father of a much happier son who can once again watch MTV and WWE for 18 hours a day. Of course, that may not necessarily be a good thing.

Thanks again,

Cheers,

Dave

QUESTION:

Do you have an Affiliate scheme?

Martin:

Yes, we've just launched one (November 14, 2003). I love affiliate schemes because everybody wins. Your affiliates work hard to help sell your products and this increases your profits so you can pay them more money! They get other benefits, too. For a start, they learn about marketing (which should help them in their own business) and we are giving them a couple of FREE eBooks to help them as well. I'm really excited about this.

You can read about it and join up here! http://www.satcure.co.uk/joint_venture.htm

QUESTION:

What is the biggest mistake you have made since you first launched your site?

Martin:

Complacency! I delayed the acceptance of credit cards, and then I delayed the introduction of a shopping cart system, and then I delayed passing over my order handling to another company. I could have done ALL these things MUCH sooner in the business!

QUESTION:

Could you tell us about a "light bulb moment" that you've had? A moment when you've thought to yourself, "If only I'd known that earlier"

Martin:

Sure. I remember when I read that an eBook would sell better if there was a 3D "image" of it. I didn't really believe that, but I decided to give it a try, and searched for a software package that could create a 3D image of my eBooks. Unfortunately, everything available was for Windows, so I simply used Adobe PhotoShop on my Mac and created the images by hand in a few hours. The next day -- and every day since -- my eBook sales increased by 30 percent. Not a bad return on six hours work!

Another breakthrough moment was when I finally added a shopping cart and secure credit card processing. I'd put this off for years, but I finally "bit the bullet." It took a week to add the HTML code for each product. The day we went live, sales were actually double the normal number!

QUESTION:

You've talked a lot about eBooks in this interview. Have you ever considered charging a fee for the eBooks you are currently giving away?

Martin:

Good question! I agonized over this right at the beginning. I had published a book called "Satellite Secrets Revealed," which I updated to reflect the change to digital technology. I was really reluctant to give all this work away for free, and I had a technical problem in that it was a PDF file of nearly 4 megabytes. That's far too large for people to download reliably with a 56k modem connection, even if it is free!

I mentioned this to a friend, who told me the answer was obvious: "Split the book into four. Offer the first section free as a general introduction to satellite TV, and then sell the other three for $12 each". So that's what I did. So four eBooks were born: “Understanding Sky Digital TV , “Installing Sky Digital TV , “Repairing Sky Digital Receivers and “Piping TV Around the House." All of these books have been really well received and make me between $1,200 and $1,600 a month.

QUESTION:

What major mistakes do you see other Internet entrepreneurs making?

Martin:

Well, my own pet peeve is a page with errors in grammar, spelling, and punctuation. I can't believe how many BIG businesses seem to make basic mistakes with the English language!

Frequently I see mistakes that change the meaning completely. Only yesterday, I saw an advertisement that said, “Buy six for only $12", where it should have said "$12 each", but they'd omitted that vital word. Of course, they refused to sell me six for only $12, and they did so in such a way that I won't buy anything from them ever again!

The other BIG mistake is lack of content. Remember, people are searching for information. Even if they search for a specific product that they want to buy, the next thing they look for is information about how to use it, its suitability, its size, appearance and cost. If the answer isn't there, they may look elsewhere, regardless of your attractive prices.

Cost is not always high on the list -- many people simply want it NOW. So we offer "next day delivery" whenever possible and we give lots of information.

QUESTION:

What advice do you have for beginners who are interested in selling over the Web?

Martin:

Go for it! The costs are absolutely minimal, and the only thing you have to lose is your time. Look for ways to automate and aim towards the ultimate goal of not working. Either sell downloadable products that require no shipping, or plan to get someone else to handle the orders for you. And keep your web design simple!

Look for a niche market with a big potential customer base, but don't take on more than you can handle. When your business becomes a strain, employ someone else to do the work. That frees up your time to improve the business, even if your earnings take a dive for a while. Your goal should be to do NO work yourself.

Do accept credit cards. Do use shopping cart software, if appropriate. Do give away a "free gift," even if it's only a downloadable catalog. Do sell or give away eBooks at your site. People LOVE information, and you can include plugs for your products in each eBook.

These eBooks will stay on your potential customers' PCs for months or even years, so they'll keep coming back for more. It works much better than "bookmark this page" links.

QUESTION:

Finally, Martin, how has running satcure.co.uk impacted your personal and professional life?

Martin:

It has improved me as a person, as I've learned a lot both technically and professionally. I've learned how to deal with people in a more friendly fashion. And I'm getting better at relaxing and I'm making time to help people just because it's fun.

Case Study Summary:

Overview:

Featured Site: Satcure.co.uk

Owner: Martin Pickering

Launched: 1995

Traffic: 35,000 unique visitors per month

Revenue in 2004: Over $400,000 annually

Target Market: Satellite TV owners -- and prospective owners -- in the UK and Europe

Product/Services Offered: Satellite TV equipment and repair manuals

Strategies You Can Apply to Your Business:

Martin Pickering has had a lot of experience online -- he's been at it'since the mid 1990s! But he learned some of his most valuable lessons in the last couple of years. And considering that he has brought his business to the point where he personally takes home $80,000 a year without even needing to touch it, you might want to pay attention!

Content, content, content:

Martin's Satcure.co.uk site has over 600 pages -- all crammed full of relevant content. This not only keeps him well positioned in the search engines, it also ensures that when potential customers arrive at his site, they are likely to find exactly what they are looking for.

Martin reminds us that content and information are still the number-one thing that people are looking for when they go online. Even if they are doing a search for a specific product, they are probably looking to research that product, not necessarily to buy it. If you can do a good job of educating visitors to your site, there's a better chance that they'll make their purchases from you instead of your competitors.

Keep your site relevant:

Martin's site enjoys #1 Google rankings for many of his most important search terms, and he's got a few "insider tips" that he can share. One of his more valuable suggestions is to ensure that you continuously update your site with relevant, timely information. This helps you keep a high ranking (if you've got one), and can help you leapfrog your competitors who aren't being as diligent.

The best way Martin has found to keep his site relevant for his visitors is by implementing a search feature. Not only does this help his customers quickly find what they are looking for, but he is also able to monitor the searches that people have been conducting. If he discovers that a ton of people are searching for a particular subject, he can quickly add relevant content to his site to keep his customers -- and the search engines -- happy!

Consider outsourcing:

As successful as Martin's business was becoming, he was also getting overwhelmed with work-related chores. He found himself working non-stop from 8 a.m. to 1 a.m., and was starting to hate his job.

His solution: Get someone else to do the work for him! He outsourced his order fulfillment, customer service, and telephone sales tasks to a third party. Now, he has to pay 50% of his profits away to this third party, but it frees up 17 extra hours a day for him to work on growing his business.

Only 18 months after outsourcing these chores, Martin is making MORE than he was when he was doing it all himself -- and his sales just keep growing. If you are finding yourself too buried with the mundane chores of running your business -- packing orders, managing inventory, etc. -- consider hiring someone else to take care of it for you. Your profits will take a dive at the beginning, but you'll have lots of extra time to get them back up to where you want them.

Automate your site:

Martin freely admits that one of his biggest mistakes was not automating certain aspects of his site sooner. Only after automation was in place did he discover just how much time he had needlessly been wasting on mundane tasks.

For example, Martin used to spend countless hours each week copying information from his online order forms into his invoicing program. It wasn't a difficult job, but it was taking up FAR too much of his valuable time. When he finally automated this task, he was able to spend that time working on the more profitable aspects of his business.

As his product inventory grew, Martin decided to automate things even further by implementing a complete shopping cart system. Not only does this save him TONS of time, but it has instantly doubled his sales!

Establish yourself as an expert:

When Martin was first getting started, he knew an awful lot about satellite TV repair, but visitors to his site wouldn't have known that unless he had taken the time to fill his site with a TON of free, useful information about satellite TV repair. Once you've established yourself as an expert in your field, you have a tremendous advantage over your competitors, who are often forced to compete with each other based solely on price.

Think of an automotive mechanic. If you've found one that is knowledgeable and trustworthy, you keep going back to them again and again, even if the gas station down the street offers slightly lower prices. Try to build this same type of relationship with your customers. You'll be amazed at how loyal they become!

Martin also spends a few hours a month writing articles for satellite TV magazines. Of course, each article mentions his web site, so when people who have read his article arrive at his site, they are extremely targeted leads. See if you can find magazines or web sites that focus on your target audience and ask them if they would like you to contribute expert content. Since most publications and web sites are desperate for good quality content, you shouldn't have much trouble finding these valuable sources of free advertising!

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