An Exclusive Interview with Internet Marketing "Guru" Sam Robbins

For over a decade, Sam Robbins has been one of the top marketers
both on AND off the Internet. He has many successful businesses
and websites, has consulted small home-based businesses as well
as Fortune 500 companies ... and most importantly he's the first
to admit he's made a million mistakes along the way.

Anyway, this little introduction is not about Sam Robbins ...
but rather what Sam can do FOR YOU. I had the rare opportunity
to interview Sam recently ... and he has allowed me to make the
entire transcript available to our associates, FREE of charge.

Not only is this interview extremely valuable and informative
(Sam reveals the biggest keys to his success), but it's VERY
RARE! This is the first interview that Sam has done in over
two years, so pay close attention and listen to his wisdom!


Q. Sam, I know you've been involved in the launching of many very
profitable websites so let me ask you ... how do you know if a
site is going to be profitable? What "precautions" do you take to
increase the odds of success?

A. Well, there a million things that one needs to keep in mind
before starting a new project. But let's just keep it simple.
The main thing I keep in mind is to find or create a product
or service where a MARKET and a DEMAND for it already exists.

This reduces your risk tremendously ... and there is less
effort and money spent.

For example, we recently launched an awesome marketing tool at
Adminder. It's VERY successful
mainly because it's something that ANY and ALL businesses need.
If your goal is to make even $1, AdMinder will help you do it.

We don't have to go looking for customers ... they come to US
because they need AND want to use it to make more money online.

Q. Right, excellent point. Now, once you've setup a new site
what's the very next thing you do?

A. Once we've designed a new site, integrated the order
processing system, etc. and everything is working properly, we
prepare to start advertising (the marketing campaign).

No matter how we promote (free or paid sources), the MOST
IMPORTANT factor is we make sure we have our tracking systems
in place so we know what's going on once the promotions begin
and the traffic hits.

We are spending valuable time and money on this and we aren't
going to do any guess work. We want SCIENTIFIC numbers telling
us what's going on, what's happened and what we need to do to
increase sales and profits.

Q. Ok right, you mean you setup some type of log analysis system?

A. That's what most people do, but no, that's not what I mean
at all. From a marketing standpoint, log file analysis is only
half the battle. Analyzing your server logs will tell you how
visitors are navigating your website, and what they do when
they arrive, but it won't give you the rest of the information
you need.

And generally speaking, for most people, it's very difficult
to really make good sense out of your log files. I know for
us, as our sites grow, the log files get more confusing and
less accurate.

Like I said, you logs only give you a small fraction of the
real information. For example, which of your ads and
promotions are generating the most traffic, and even more
importantly, the most sales (what's making you money - plain
and simple).

These are just a few that come to mind, but without this
information you're really just flying blind and wasting your
time and money.

Q. That's a good point and I'm glad you brought that up. So tell
us, exactly what kind of stats and other information do you
track?

A. In order to maximize the return on our investments (ROI) in
advertising, we carefully monitor a whole bunch of things.
Such as:

* Unique visitors generated by each ad or promotion

* Number of sales generated by each ad or promotion

* Which ads are generating the most traffic and sales

* Cost-per-click, cost-per-sale, and clicks-to-sales
ratios for each ad or promotion

* Return on investment, or ROI, for each ad or promotion

Those are the most important bits of information that we
monitor on a minute-by-minute basis. Aside from ROI, my
favorite stat is the clicks-to-sales ratio because it gives a
great indication of the "quality" of traffic that is being
generated by each ad or promotion.

For example, just last week I ran the same ad in 2 different
but supposedly "targeted" e-zines. One of the ads is resulting
in an average of 1 sale per every 36 visitors, and the other
ad is only generating 1 sale out of every 152 visitors. You
tell me, which of these e-zines would you prefer to advertise
in? =)

Q. Yeah, that would make a big difference especially when you are
dealing with numerous ads.

A. Right. EXACTLY! See, if you are only doing one or two ads,
you can track everything manually. It's not that big of a
deal. It's not that stressful. But as your ads grow and your
"repeats" ads, you're going to go crazy trying to track
everything. Before you know it, it becomes too much of a
hassle and you stop.

Q. Hehe ... good point. We hear that all the time. And you know,
it's very true. If things are complicated or too difficult to do,
people just won't do it.

A. Simplicity, that's the key! We are all too busy these days
to be doing "monkey work".

Q. What about general promotions and non-paying advertisements.
How do you deal with those? Do you even track them?

A. Yes! Most definitely. Heck, we make just as much money off
of our "free" promotion tactics as we do with our paid (maybe
more). It's not just about saving money, it's about saving
time as well.

That's why we track ever and any type of promotion.

For example, let's say you have a newsletter or e-zine and in it,
you have links for various affiliate programs or articles at
your own site that sell something indirectly. You can track to
see which TYPE of article or promotion did the best.

If an article about e-zine advertising was 3 times more
effective at bringing traffic BACK to your site then an
article on banner advertising, you will know to spend the
majority of your time posting and distributing the e-zine
article.

Does this make sense?

Q. Yes it does. We tried to do this with some "viral marketing"
type of promotions in the past. But after a few weeks, we were
overwhelmed and didn't know what was working and what wasn't. We
knew that we had an increase in traffic and sales, but just
wasn't sure how.

A. Right. Well, live and learn. We all make these mistakes.
But the problem is that someone reading this article will
realize it, but WILL NOT DO ANYTHING about it.

That's not making a mistake. That's just being stupid. There
are specific ways and reasons why people make money ... and
others do not. Now that you know tracking is vital, DO IT!

Q. I guess "change" takes longer in some people than others. But
the sooner you welcome "change", the sooner you will free up time
and make more money.

A. Yup. Well said!

Q. Sam, the word on the Internet is you're the one who invented
the "Automatically Double Your Profits Every Month" tactic. It's
a fantastic business plan. Simple and proven. How did you come up
with it?

A. Oh yeah, that formula rocks! But I didn't come up with it.
I'm probably the first to present it to the Internet world,
but I learned something similar to it years ago when I did
consulting for infomercials. I added my own twist to it. But
no, I don't think I've ever invented anything. =)

Q. How does it work exactly?

A: Well, I've already presented the exact "formula" at our
site -- Adminder. So, best for
your readers to just go there since I don't like to repeat
myself and bore those that already have read about my formula.

But I'll give you a simple explanation of it and a different
"twist" for those that already use the formula.

Frank Bettger, a phenomenal salesman of the 1930s, shared the
secret of his success in his classic "How I Raised Myself From
Failure To Success In Selling". After analyzing his first
year's sales, Bettger discovered that 70% were made on the
FIRST interview, 23% on the second interview and only 7% on
the third.

His greatest revelation was that he spent HALF of his time
going after that last 7 percent! When he realized this, he
began concentrating his efforts on those FIRST interviews and
nearly DOUBLED his income overnight!

Q: Wow... great story. That's a great way to explain your system
to other people. I guess the key to it all was that Mr. Bettger
kept records and "tracked" everything and then analyzed it.

A: Yes, precisely! Heck, with all of the great technology that
we have today, not many people track their promotion efforts.
Just imagine if Bettger didn't track anything. YEARS would go
by and he would continue to make the same mistakes ... wasting
valuable time and money.

Yet, by analyzing his work, in only a few minutes he realized
exactly what he needed to do to increase his sales, make more
money and save time.

Q: Yeah, it's pretty amazing. Once you have a good tracking
system setup, it only takes minutes to analyze the results and
know what's working, what isn't and WHY!

A: Right. Now, the hardest part is just doing it. Getting
started seems to be a problem for most. They think it will
take a lot of time and effort setting up a tracking system.
But if you know where and what to look for, it's simple, fast
and almost free.

Q: Okay, so let's say you are new to all this or you've been
wanting to setup some tracking system in the past, but got lazy
and procrastinated. What would you tell people? How or where
should they start?

A: Well, there are a million ways of doing something. Let me
go over a few of the options and you can decide what's best
for you.

You can buy special software that will do all the tracking for
you. The problem is that they are VERY expensive and very
difficult to use. Most people aren't "tech" smart and won't
know how to use all the features of a program.

Your next option is to purchase a script. This is good. But
the problem is that most are just glorified "hit" counters.
They don't track the important stuff ... the specifics that
you would need to know. I have found a couple that were pretty
good, but they were also very expensive and the installation
was crazy. Multiple scripts needed to be installed and your
server had to have some special settings and so forth. The
server had to be strong enough to also handle all the data
being processed. Again, most people just don't have the "tech"
knowledge or the time or the money to do it on their own.

Your last option is to use a web-based service. There are a
few. As with everything, a few are horrible, a few are okay
and a couple are good.

Because it costs you no setup time or hardware or programming
knowledge or special servers or any of that stuff, I'd
recommend for most to do a web-based service. At the very
least, give it a try for a few months and just see how it
goes. There are no contracts or anything like that. You get to
test things out, risk free.

Q: I totally agree that the web-based versions would be best
suited for 98% of the people reading this. Now, who do you
recommend?

A: I'm not going to recommend anything to anyone. I'm
biased and I'm not going give my opinion on any specific
company. But all I can say is that whatever was out there,
I did NOT like and am NOT using. That's why we designed our
own custom system and that's why some of the much larger
companies on the Net are now using our system.

It's precise, complete, proven and guaranteed. Let me ask you,
what do YOU like that's out there?

Q: Oh no ... don't put me on the spot. =) Okay, I'll be honest
with you. I really love Adminder -
it works the best by far, it's the simplest to use, it's got the
most features for tracking, analyzing and managing all of your
promotions. And ... here's my favorite - it's the cheapest!

A: What else do you like about it?

Q: Okay, let's not forget who's giving the interview here
(laughing!) ... I'm the one in charge. =)) In all honesty, this
is why I did the interview to begin with ... I was very impressed
with all of your sites and how your run your businesses. I've got
a million other questions to ask you. But I think we'll save it
for another time.

A: Sure, sounds good and thank you for the kind words.

Q: Thank you very much for your time.

A: My pleasure. Bye.