eBook Review: The MindValley Way to Ecommerce Success
July 12th, 2006
The MindValley Way to Ecommerce Success offers mentoring wisdom based on the real-world experience of its authors. Covering 40 eCommerce Tactics modular enough to be read on their own, this ebook will provide any e-business newcomer with an excellent source of advice.
Much advice offered by experts on web marketing is theoretical and difficult for a newcomer to apply. By contrast, the MindValley Way is almost completely applied information. With only a rudimentary knowledge of Internet technologies, a reader will be able to apply and test much of the tactics offered. Many of the tactics presented here will also help marketing veterans to see a new approach or hone their existing procedures.
The main subject areas covered are:
- Creating products that sell online
- Setting up your site for success
- Pay-per-click advertising secrets
- Turning browsers into buyers
- Closing the sale
- Profiting from untapped channels
- Growing into a million dollar business
What I Learned
Pay-Per-Click Advertising Needs Focus
Though I found the whole book to be of value, several subject areas were especially helpful to me. Time and again, I have made attempts at using pay-per-click advertising to send traffic to client Web sites. However, I have rarely showed a measurable gain for these clients. While many factors are relevant to this short disclosure (should a professional ever admit failure? … publicly?) I now have a better understanding of some key shortcomings of my Google Adwords campaigns. Edit: See my comment on this post for some relevant information that this eBook does not address, and notice a more thorough discussion here.
These factors that cause a pay-per-click campaign to fail include:
- too broad a range of keywords for each ad group
- reluctance to create landing pages for each ad group
- a focus on quantity of traffic generated rather than the specificity of the keywords that drive traffic
While I was aware of these issues while running the campaigns, I didn’t have the language to communicate my concerns clearly or troubleshoot effectively. Thanks to this ebook, I am now more equipped to discuss these issues with clients and to plan more intentionally for success.
Copy Writing Is Key
The MindValley Way also discusses sales copy writing for the Web in various contexts including pay-per-click campaign landing pages, advertisements, Web pages, and email messages. Through repetition and many examples, the basic concepts of quality sales writing are reinforced and clearly demonstrated.
In addition to their own experiments and advice, the authors present valuable copy writing advice from experts and often link to Web sites, ebooks, and other resources to expand on their presentation.
What Did I Think of It?
Though every tactic presented here is worth absorbing carefully, the two areas of pay-per-click campaign management and sales copy writing are worth the price of the book when looked at as a business investment. If you do not have an experienced mentor to guide you, this book could stand in for many of the questions you would ask.
- How can I select or create a product that will sell online?
- Is there a way to get more site visitors to contact me or buy my product?
- How can I attract more keyword targeted visitors to my Web site?
- Can I improve my customer service without increasing my workload?
There are some possible drawbacks to this ebook. First, if you don’t like reading lots of information on your computer screen, you will find it necessary to print each tactic as you read the book. Second, though there is plenty of information here to help sellers of physical products that require shipping, most examples provided refer to digital downloads. The challenge of setting shipping rates and finding the best distribution methods will need to be addressed elsewhere.
Still, this resource is in a class of its own due to the breadth of time-tested advice it provides. I hope my review does not sound like any magic bullet solutions are offered. It will require testing and a great deal of thought to successfully apply the principles and examples it contains. However, it is the most comprehensive repository of online marketing knowledge I have ever seen in one place. As such, I recommend The MindValley Way to Ecommerce Success to newcomers and eCommerce experts alike as an investment in their business marketing plan.
Entry Filed under: Book & Software Reviews, Internet Marketing
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2 Comments
1. Harvey Ramer | July 18th, 2006 at 6:36 pm
A Word of Warning About Landing Pages
Based on my experience, Google may assess a pagerank reduction to your home page if pay-per-click landing pages are not included in a sitemap or the site navigation.
Unless you are prepared for your landing pages to function within the rest of your site structure, I strongly advise against using them!
2. Clive Fernandes | May 26th, 2007 at 9:14 am
Nice book review Harvey, these guys are definetely good. We just did an interview with them and they came out as really intelligent people. Check out the interview here - http://www.loscreador.com/2007/05/26/vishen-lakhiani-michael-reining-mindvalleycom