Kickstart #974: A Grand Experiment - the results…
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Kickstart Today
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Friday October 24th 2008: Issue #974
Kickstart Today is published three times each week for opted-in
subscribers only. Publisher: Martin Avis. Your comments are
always welcome - to respond to anything you read here, please
click ‘Reply’
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Greetings!
Because of my visit to the hospital today I don’t know when I’ll
be home, or how I’ll feel when I get back, so I’m writing this
for you yesterday.
To be more accurate, if less clear, I’m writing this today and
you are reading it tomorrow. So in effect, one of us is time
traveling. Either I’m communicating with the future or you are
communicating with the past. Or to be a bit more quantum about
it, the present, now, is in two places at the same time.
So for today, or yesterday, or tomorrow only, Kickstart is in a
superposition of states.
How exciting! I’ve never tried a superposition before - now I
know how Schroedinger’s cat felt!
#~#~#
In Wednesday’s Kickstart I ran a small experiment, where I asked
readers to email me back to confirm that they had opened and read
Kickstart.
It was a fascinating experiment and a real eye-opener.
After accounting for an estimated 150 duplicated email addresses
in the list, Kickstart was sent to about 6211 individuals.
Of those, my autoresponder service reported that 2193 bounced as
undeliverable (their ISPs block Kickstart, but at least have the
courtesy to tell us that they’ve done so) with the vast majority
of those being Yahoo addresses. Yahoo seem to variously (some
would say vicariously) have a problem with either my
autoresponder, or with my personal email address, which adorns
every issue of Kickstart. But annoying ISPs is a story for
another day.
It is unknown just how many more were blocked by ISPs that don’t
send notifications, or by people’s spam filters that are set at
too high a sensitivity level.
Discounting those ‘unknowns’, we can say that Kickstart was
potentially delivered to 4018 email addresses.
Some industry statistics say that the average open rate for
newsletters is 3-5%. That may sound very low, but it is a
realistic estimate given the sheer volume of emails people
receive and the many calls on their time. There will be a long
tail of people who open their emails days or weeks later, but the
initial 24-48 hours is the critical period that we are examining.
On that basis, Kickstart should have been opened by between 120
and 200 people.
Now, before we go on, let’s consider the difference between open
rate and read rate. All autoresponders can give you an open rate
figure if you are prepared to send out your email in HTML format.
They do so by embedding something in the email that the receiving
computer has to access from the autoresponder’s server. They can
then count up the number of accesses.
There are problems with this method.
First, many email clients block emails from ‘calling home’ and
treat HTML emails are plain text - rendering the tracking code
useless. My own email client, Thunderbird, does this as standard.
Second, HTML emails are more likely to be flagged a spam, and so
are likely to experience a poorer delivery rate.
A third problem is that even if we know someone has opened an
email, we have no idea if they have then read it, or just
consigned it to the trash.
By asking people to respond to Kickstart, I was attempting to
measure the read rate, not the open rate. After all, in order to
respond, they will have to have at least read the opening
paragraphs!
It isn’t perfect - no method can be - and I’m sure a lot of
‘readers’ will have ignored the request, or decided to act on it
later, and then forgotten. But it is the best I can do!
So, what happened to Kickstart #973 then?
Up to now (3.30pm on Friday, 52 hours after it was sent out), 380
people have replied - a very encouraging 9.5%
I’m delighted by that figure, and know that it will grow as time
goes on as people get to their issue later. I’m sure it will end
up over 10%.
You may have noticed a second email I sent out yesterday,
Kickstart #973a. The subject of that supplementary email was to
explain to readers how you can stop receiving duplicate copies of
Kickstart if that is happening to you. But the real reason for
sending it out was that it was the first time an edition of
Kickstart has been sent tin HTML format (did you notice that my
name was in bold and blue?). That meant that my autoresponder
company could track the open rate - the number of times that the
message was opened in someone’s email program.
It isn’t a perfect measure because some email programs don’t play
ball, but enough do to get a feel for the open rate.
In that extra issue’s case it is currently 14.2%, and rising all
the time.
In fact, as I mentioned, Kickstart is spread across 6 different
mailing lists and they individually varied from an open rate of
13.4% to a staggering 35.7%!
All told, it has been an excellent experiment and one that has
given me a lot of useful data. So thank you very much for
everyone who took part.
#~#~#
Incidentally, many people took the opportunity of emailing me
with questions. I’m working my way through them, and will answer
every one - so please be patient as you will hear back from me
shortly.
#~#~#
Today is the last day that you can get the pre-launch special
deal on Michael Green’s incredible Money Tree - $30,000 in 30
Days Challenge. Tomorrow is launch day and after that, although
you’ll still be able to buy it, you won’t get the huge package of
extra bonus products.
Michael Green is one of the UK’s top Internet marketers and a guy
with a great track record for teaching what he knows. His methods
work incredibly well - he uses them himself - and he has that
rare talent of being able to explain things in ways that are
really easy to understand.
The Money Tree Challenge has grown out of his phenomenally
successful $20,000 in 20 Days product that he sold last year. He
has taken on board comments made by his students from 2007,
clarified sections that some people had a problem with, added
whole new sections to make the process he teaches even easier,
and rewritten and updated everything to make it bang up-to-date
for 2008 and onwards. I’ve seen a sneak preview of what is
included and can tell you that it will be another blockbuster.
Will you make $30,000 over the next 30 days? I don’t know and
neither does Michael, but here is how confident he is that you
stand the very best chance of achieving that goal with his
course: his double guarantee states that if you are unhappy or
unsatisfied you can ask for all your money back AND keep all of
the products that he provides for you to sell. You really can’t
lose because whatever happens, you win!
I don’t think you will ask for a refund because the Money Tree
Course is that powerful, but it nice to know, going in, that your
back is covered. I can personally vouch for Michael Green as he
is a personal friend of mine, so I know he is a 100% genuine guy.
Or should that be 200%?
I’ve had a few people ask me if they need to buy the Money Tree
course if they already own last year’s $20,000 in 20 Days
product. The answer is a resounding yes. This year’s course is
bigger, better, easier to follow and easier to make money with.
And a huge plus point is that unlike last year where you had to
go and find products to sell, this time Michael is giving you a
HUGE package of saleable products at no extra cost (and even more
if you buy before the launch tomorrow). So you’ll be able to get
started right away.
For anyone who is just starting out in Internet marketing, or
plans to do so at some time in the future, Michael’s Money Tree
Challenge is the ideal program to follow. Even for intermediate
or experienced online marketers who have yet to experience a
really big payday, it is a great way to learn from a guy who has
them every day - and is happy to teach you exactly how he does
it.
This one is very highly recommend, but you’ll have to be quick to
take advantage of the extra bonuses:
http://www.urlnex.us/moneytree/
#~#~#
In case you haven’t heard it yet, I interviewed Michael Green a
few weeks ago - you can listen to the audio here:
http://www.kickstartdaily.com/michaelgreenmoneytree.mp3
#~#~#
A question of language.
I’ve many times read books on writing for the Internet that say
you should write to the reading level of a 12-year old American
child. There are various ways to assess what you write (Microsoft
Word uses something called the Flesch-Kinaid Grade Level) but the
basic principle is to check average word length, number of
syllables per word, sentence length and number of sentences in a
paragraph. Broadly, the more any of those metrics scores, the
more ‘difficult’ your writing is to read.
Or to put it more concisely, don’t use $40 words when $5 ones
will do and never use two words when one will get the job done.
To some extent I agree that writing needs to be kept readable,
but I worry that too much concern over using simplified language
leads to a dumbing down of what we are trying to say.
I don’t shy away from using ‘difficult’ words in Kickstart,
although I hope the overall communication style is reasonably
easy to follow. I like to think that you are intelligent enough
to understand the odd $40 word, or guess at what it means from
its context. I call that respecting my reader.
The great communicators use language as a tool. Their choice of
words informs, amuses and, sometimes challenges. But hopefully,
always delights.
I don’t profess to be in that number, of course, but I do enjoy
reading things that use language effectively, and strive to
emulate where I can,
It seems to me that people who tell us to dumb everything down do
us all a great disservice. After all, it is to be fervently hoped
that the average 12-year old American child will one day be a
rather more erudite American adult - or at least will be if his
or her mental capacity is fed and encouraged by a beautiful diet
of effective and exciting language.
#~#~#
Finally, thanks to everyone who sent me well wishes for my visit
to the throat specialist. It wasn’t a particularly pleasant
experience, with tubes and cameras being poked up my nose and
down my throat, but the initial result was encouraging. At least,
nothing bad was obvious to him.
I have more test to endure, but he is pretty certain he can rule
out the scarier possibilities! And that’s a great relief - I feel
better already!
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http://www.kickstartdaily.com today!
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The Quote of the Day
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Marcus Annaeus Seneca said,
“What must be shall be; and that which is necessary to him that
struggles, is little more than choice to him that is willing.”
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Today’s Power Thought
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I was talking to my Uncle the other day and told me that he has
bought a GPS direction-finding computer for his car. A Sat-Nav.
(This is a man who can’t even use his cell-phone, so I was
impressed!)
He has to drive around a lot and is always getting lost, so the
computer, which calculates his journey and gives him clear
directions in a charming female voice is a godsend to him.
He told me that the computer was great, but that he’d hit a snag.
One day last week he had to visit someone on the other side of
the River Thames. The computer took him there via a tunnel under
the river called the Blackwall Tunnel. No problem - he arrived in
good time without once getting lost.
Coming home was where the problems hit.
The GPS navigation computer dutifully re-traced his route and got
him back to the approach road to the tunnel, but there had been
an accident and the tunnel was now closed.
Of course, the computer didn’t know this.
So my Uncle decided to try to find another route, knowing that
the computer can track his location and adjust its
recommendations accordingly.
So he drove several miles eastwards and then started following
the computer’s directions again.
It found him a very circuitous route (that part of London is a
maze) that took nearly an hour to get him right back to the
closed entrance to the Blackwall Tunnel again!
Undaunted, and with complete trust in his technology, he set out
again. This time driving West.
An hour later he was back at the closed Blackwall Tunnel for a
third time!
In his frustration, he turned off the computer and followed the
road sign to Central London before picking up a route home that
he finally recognized.
He felt that his computer had failed.
What has this story got to do with motivation or business or
Kickstart or anything?
Everything.
At some time or other, all of our routes to success are beset
with difficulties. Life has a way of throwing obstacles in our
way to make the going tough.
If we act like my Uncle’s navigation computer and ONLY look at
where we are now in relation to where we need to get to, then we
will have the same problems that he had - sooner or later we will
hit a brick wall that we just can’t get through.
My answer to my Uncle was this:
“When you realized the Blackwall Tunnel was closed, why didn’t
you reprogram the computer to tell it you wanted to get to the
Dartford Tunnel, or Tower Bridge (the nearest alternative river
crossings)? Pulling over and changing the desired destination
would have taken thirty seconds, but would have saved you several
hours of frustration.”
He admitted that he hadn’t even considered that.
And THAT is why so many people fail on their road to success.
They don’t realize that when they do hit that brick wall, the
best thing to do is to go around it. Hitting your head against it
just hurts your head and demoralizes your spirit.
Sometimes the longer route is the fastest one.
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The Foolproof, No-Nonsense,
Kickstart Guide to Making Money Online
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*** Catch up with parts 1-28 of the Foolproof, No-Nonsense,
Kickstart Guide to Making Money Online
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Fascinating Facts
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Because so many people learn English as a second language (and in
my experience often speak it better than many native-speakers!)
we tend to assume that English is the most commonly spoken
language in the world. But that isn’t true.
Based on native-speaking populations:
* Chinese Mandarin is first
* Spanish is second
* English is third
* Bengali is fourth