I have been a full time web entrepreneur for just over 4 years now. In that time I have I had to deal with dozens of separate companies. Some good and some not so good. However, the really frustrating thing is dealing with companies that have previously provided exceptional service and then fall far short. So, today I am going to talk about a bad experience I had with GetResponse (They provide e-mail newsletter and autoresponder services) and what fellow entrepreneurs can learn from it.

When I first got into internet marketing, I was told e-mail marketing was a good way to make money. So, I signed-up with GetResponse (over 5 years ago) both because they were cheap and all the reviews I read had good things to say about them. Lesson #1 Reputation and price matter for attracting new customers.

Over the next year or so, I found that e-mail marketing just wasn’t for me. I couldn’t make it work in a way I enjoyed. I had built a few somewhat profitable lists but wasn’t really sure what to do with them. I hated sending regular updates, which is what is required to get the most out of a list. Lesson #2 Make your business work around your strengths (at least at the start). You can always outsource/hire people to do the things you don’t like later.

Yet, since GetResponse was pretty cheap I decided to keep paying my annual subscription fees. I thought I may want to use them later and it wasn’t costing me a whole bunch. The lists I had built made just enough money to cover the cost anyway. This was good for GetResponse because I kept paying my annual subscription fees each year. Lesson #3 Recurring subscription based businesses can be a goldmine if you are the one selling them.

What follows next really impressed me. At some point (I am not sure when exactly) GetResponse significantly raised their prices, but kept all existing customers on the old pricing plan. What was even better was that my subscription lapsed for 4 months around this time. This was due to me not paying attention to a credit card’s expiration date. When I contacted them and told them I wanted to renew, they not only allowed me to do so at the old rate, they still had all my data. I was very impressed by this and recommended them to people looking for a newsletter and/or auto responder service. Lesson #4 Treat existing customers well and not only are they more likely to stay loyal, they will tell others about you as well.

Now we come to my recent problems with them. My account was renewed at the start of December. Like most years I didn’t really think too much about it and probably would have let it slide. However, a the end of December I got charged for my renewal again, plus the cost of the more expensive package. They did quickly send and e-mail to apologize for the mistake, but instead of refunding the money they said it would be used for future purchases (about 2.5 years worth of renewals in my case). There was no offer of a refund. Lesson #5 When you make a mistake it is not always good enough to admit it. You should make sure you do what you can to make it right. For example, if you bill someone accidentally, make sure to offer a refund.

At this point I realized that dealing with GetResponse was not worth the trouble anymore. I was irked that they did not immediately offer a refund when they changed my card for 2.5 years worth of service. So, I decided I was going to cancel my account. I sent them an e-mail asking to do just that and for a refund for the extra money they charged. I did immediately get a refund for the accidental charge and they did apologize. However, I wanted them to cancel my account and refund the unused balance (the 11 months worth of service I still have left). Lesson #6 Pay attention to angry or dissatisfied customers. If happy customers will tell a few people about a good experience, angry ones will tell everyone about a bad one.

Now, if they had refunded the last bit of money you would not be reading this. When GetResponse refunded the extra charge they forgot that I had already paid for another full year of service at the start of December. So my account went into suspension mode. I didn’t really care too much at the time, just as long as I got the rest of my money back. So I e-mailed them yet again and asked for the last of my money back and told them my account was not working. They fixed my account and then told me they were not going to refund my money because the terms of service state you can only cancel an account no less than 2 days before the renewal date. This is different from most online services which will give you a refund up to 30 days after renewal (which I was still just within when I started the whole refund/cancellation process) Lesson #7 Have an easy and clear refund/cancellation process. It sucks giving refunds, but you are never going to please all your customers all the time. How you deal with the unhappy ones will determine the impact they have.

Thus, GetResponse is technically in the right for not canceling my account. I did agree to the terms of service when I signed up 5 years ago. Therefore, I will not attempt a chargeback with my credit card company. However, by not simply canceling my account and refunding the 11 remaining months of service they have encouraged me to tell as many people I know not to use them. If I convince even one person not to use them, then it will cost the company money. And keep in mind with subscription based businesses you can easily keep customers for years. For example, I have been a customer at one webhostng company for 6 years and just renewed for my 7th. Lesson #8 If you are going to lose a customer anyway, don’t make it worse for them and drag it or by hiding behind terms of service agreements. It will just make the soon to be ex-customer frustrated. Any additional money your business gains is likely to be offset against the potential loss of future business.

TL;DR – Had a previously good relationship with GetResponse, but because of their recent actions I would advise other people to stay away from them. There are better and cheaper alternatives out there. The good news is that the way they conducted themselves provides some good lessons in what one should and should not do in business.

I would love to heard what other entrepreneurs think about this.

Me: I should probably do some work now.
Me: Well… maybe I’ll stumble for a few more minutes.
45 minutes pass
Me: Maybe I should get to work now.
Me: But, first I’ll check my e-mail
1 hour later
Me: Maybe I’ll get some food
1 hour later
Me: Maybe I’ll do some work now.
Me: Hmm… actually I should go out for a run while it is still light out.
2 hours later
Me: I am too tired to do any work now, I’ll just do it tomorrow.

You get the idea I have lots of stuff that needs to get done and I feel like I can always put it of until tomorrow. The problem of course is that tomorrow never comes.

Lesson: If you want to be successful in online business you need to keep taking action everyday. Once you fall into the trap of the false promise of tomorrow you are far less likely to be successful.

Not sure what that says about me….  I guess we will have to wait to find out.

Very simply, I don’t make my money online through this blog. It currently represents only about 1-2% of my total online income. I assume that this proportion will rise somewhat as it becomes more popular, but I never expect it to be more than about 10% of my total online earnings.

I enjoy writing this blog because it helps me to think through my own ideas about Internet business and because I want to help people improve their lives by starting their own Internet business. Obviously, if I can make money from this blog so much the better, but the earnings from it could disappear tomorrow and I would hardly notice.

OK, enough about me for one post, what does this have to do with you? In fact, I think this point is extremely important, because it is the biggest single mistake I see people online making online.

Why Do People Think Writing or Even Creating Products About Making Money Online Will Make Them Money?

I think the simple answer is that they see other people doing it and decide to copy them and do it themselves. For example, they see supper bloggers like John Chow who report incomes as high as $30,000 a month, writing about making money online and think well that looks like a good idea, so they copy it.

If that sounds like you, you need to read what I am about to write next. John Chow and other Internet marketers and bloggers like him are the exception not the rule. Most people who blog about or even create products about making money online are not nearly as successful as the top people in the field.

The Internet marketing and make money online fields are very good examples of a winner take all market. A few people at the top do really, really well but most people don’t. To illustrate this point  think of popular music. Bands and artists like U2, the Rolling Stones, Celine Dion, Jay Z etc. do very well for themselves. However, the vast majority of musicians do not make millions of dollars and most end up struggling for their very livelihood.

The few people at the top make most of the money and everyone below struggles to earn enough just to scrape by on. Contrast this with other fields where there is far less disparity. The best neurosurgeon in the United States, probably earns more than the 500th best one, but the 500th best one still earns a very good living.

You can try if you like to make money in the Internet marketing/make money online field but there is another important reason why I don’t think it is a good idea.

You Need A Huge Volume Of Traffic to Be Successful

The fact is visitors to make money online or Internet marketing sites are actually not that valuable. Again using John Chow as an example in February he earned $29,643.01 from 134,931 visitors, which means his average visitor was worth about 22 cents.

Now, nearly $30,000 in a month (over $1,000 a day) certainly sounds impressive (certainly far better than I am doing) but it was only archived by having an even larger number of visitors. I am not trying to belittle John Chow’s achievements, in fact I suspect the amount he earns per visitor is much higher than the average in this field.

Nevertheless, 22 cents per visitor is still not that much. I have some websites (admittedly with far less traffic) where each visitor earns me roughly $1.50. Moreover, I run some Pay per click campaigns where each visitor is worth $5. Note, none of these campaigns or sites has anything to do with making money online or Internet marketing.

In my experience, Internet marketing and make money online affiliate programs are among the worst performing. This is also, why Internet markets have to create such huge e-mail lists. Selling 600 ebooks at $47 is not that difficult if you have an e-mail list of 60,000 people. It’s creating an e-mail list of 60,000 people that is the difficult part.

It is very hard to generate lots of traffic because of competition. Sure there is a demand for these types of products but there is even more competition. I also think this is why visitor values tend to be so low for make money websites and blogs. Visitors get confused and often give up because everyone just wants to make a quick buck off them.

When you have 10,000 websites all trying to do this people naturally get suspicious and are reluctant to buy. Finally, many people who search for make money online are both cheap and lazy. They want to make money with no effort and no cost. Well I have news for people like that, that is not the way business works.

If you are just starting out why would you want to get into market like that?

Starting An Internet Business Versus Making Money Online

For these reasons I urge you to start and Internet business and not focus so much on just making money online. The two may sounds similar but the mindsets are totally different. If you are looking just to make money online you will always be looking for the next hot trend, product, ebook, etc. On the other hand, if you start an Internet business you want to create real long term value (or you should if you want to be successful).

However, I am sure that there a few cynical people out there who think that I am only saying all this to avoid more competition. Let me assure you that there is more than enough competition out there and you deciding to enter the market will have pretty much zero impact on me.

Save yourself the hassle and create an Internet business in an area other than Internet marketing and/or making money online. You will be able to make more with less competition and less hassle. At least this has been my experience maybe I am just a really bad Internet marketer.

Have your own story to tell about making money online or starting an Internet business? Tell us below in the comments section. (Comments have to be manually approved because I get too much spam)

I suppose it is better to have too much to write about, rather than not enough. But, it is still taking up a fair bit of my time and effort. Moreover, despite the fact that I said that this blog was going to be more about me and less about just making money online; I have found that I have a lot of tips and advice that I enjoy sharing with all of you.

So, it looks as though this blog will continue to be updated on a regular basis, my aim is to post 5-7 new posts a week. Also, once the traffic numbers pick back up again to their fall 2007 level, I am going to start asking you what kind of articles you would like to read about. If you have any questions please feel free to put them in the comment section below.

I think that’s about enough out of me. Plus, you probably want to get back to work working on your own Internet business, rather than read any more from me. Just remember you have to take consistent action towards your goals for you to have any chance of reaching them.

So, I decided I would create a list of 3 common mistakes that I seem to constantly come across. There are definitely dozens more than these out there, but these are the three that annoy me the most. Both new and experienced website and blog owners make them; although I think newer ones probably make them more frequently.

Try to avoid these mistakes when making a new site or blog and you will be way ahead of the game. Moreover, you will stand out from everyone else who is making them.

1. The biggest problem I run across are websites that have too much advertising. I find that this is problem with sites big and small, old and new alike. In fact a great example is super Blogger John Chow whose blog is filled with ads. But he makes great money with his blog so I should just copy him, right?

Wrong! John Chow and other owners of authority websites, can put many ads on their sites because people know and trust them. People want to read the content on the site and thus put up with the ads. Unless, you are an authority site you should not even think about putting up a ton of ads that get in the way of your content.

Work towards building up a solid base of people who like your site and then slowly put more ads on. However, you never want your ads to make your site more difficult to navigate. Again using John Chow’s site as an example you can see that even though there are a lot of ads they do not make it that much more difficult to navigate his site (see point number 2).

Furthermore, this is why I have relatively little advertising on this site. I only include AdSense units inside the posts themselves. I do admit that having the large rectangle does make the posts look a little ugly and I may even change it at some point. Once this site gets more popular I will probably try and put a few more ads up, but until that time I will try to keep it simple.

2. The second mistake I hate are websites or blogs that are difficult to navigate. To my mind this is even more annoying than a website with too many ads. You need to have a clear and recognized way for people to find other content on your site. This should be easy and intuitive.

To my mind there are a few ways you can go about this. You can put a navigation side bar on either the left or right hand side of your site. You put one at the top or bottom of your site. You can link to related content from each of your pages. And finally, you can include a search engine for your site. Ideally, you should use some combination of these methods, but again don’t make it too complicated

For website navigation simpler is usually better. You want to direct people to your most profitable pages and then once people are there, take action. This is how almost every single successful website should work. You don’t want people to leave your site before they have done what you want them to do (e.g. Buy your product, sign up for your newsletter, click on your ads etc.)

3. Finally another mistake I really hate are websites that require you to register before seeing any content. Now I am not talking about joining newsletters or mailing lists to get something of extra value. What I hate are websites that require you to register, just to read their content. The reason many website owners do this is because registration information is valuable, and they can use it to market to you later.

Websites big and small have been doing this for years. From the website of the New York Times on down. In virtually all cases when a website requires me to register I just hit the back button. I am sure my information would have been valuable and nice to have, but instead they get nothing. Moreover, if I know a website requires registration I will probably just avoid it in the future.

The only possible exception is a website whose content I really really want to have access to. For example, I registered to use the Economist online because I already had a access to a print subscription and I knew I wanted to read what they had online. However, I only did this because I knew I was going to read the content anyway. If you require me to register before I have seen your content I will just leave and probably never come back.

The lesson is that it is valuable to have people’s name, email addresses etc but it is more valuable to have people actually visiting your site. You can usually get this information anyway, if you want, by offering something extra such as a Free report that people can get, only get if they register. You have to build trust before you can do this. At least that is my opinion.

What really annoys you about website and blog design? Share your thoughts in the comment section below. (Note comments held in moderation due to the huge volume of spam received)