The new system was picked up at my most recent visit to the approved place for ‘Tim’s Toys’, (strangely enough an electrical retailer for whom I used to service the burglar alarm much earlier on in my working life), where I expressed a desire, not uncommon in cinema sound owners, to be able to hear the dialogue clearly without being completely deafened the next time any music started…

It was a problem, it turned out, that could be solved easily by the simple application of a chequebook

So I left with my several boxes of gubbins and what was a kind of sound meter, which, last weekend had me occupying all of the favourite reclining and relaxing positions in the lounge at Lowe Towers, taking readings and adjusted my cinema sound accordingly … and in considerably less time than I feared, we were able to settle down to an evening’s viewing without everybody for a two mile radius knowing what we were watching…

Of course, it doesn’t stop there … as a ‘hangover’ from my previous venture into cinema sound I have, as you would expect, all the gold plated cables and connections, but in addition I also have some small conical rubber stands to place under each corner of my speakers to cut down on vibration…

As a result of this ‘essential’ purchase the manufacturers send me what ‘She Who Must…’ calls my ‘Rubber Feet Catalogue’ a couple of times a year packed with extortionately priced gadgets and gizmos designed to improve my viewing and listening experience that extra 0.1%…

It is that same kind of expensive tweaking, testing and honing that will bring you the highest levels of success with your online projects, but one simple and vital thing you can do, probably for free, is to decide who your perfect customer or website member would be, who they are and what they are looking for, and just like me with the sound meter for my cinema system, adjust what you have specifically to their tastes …

For instance, if you had a weightloss product aimed at the younger and more fashionable lady, you might want to take a look at some of the top fashion house sites and ape their colour schemes and fonts, or go for a similar layout so it looks like the kind of site a person like them would want to visit…

Getting ‘inside the head’ of the type of person you want to attract to your online project is key to success in our industry, with those who have managed it standing tall, and those who fail to give their ideal customer something to relate to often falling by the wayside…

All The Best,

Tim Lowe
Publisher, Tim’s Business Lowe Down

Now, I won’t pretend I can teach you how to become an expert headline writer either in this email or in any size volume you could think of, but I must impress on you that the value of a well written headline on your squeeze page, sales page, or even as an opening line for your video will usually outweigh the cost of getting it written…

Rather than recount endless examples from long deceased websites, I would like to instead point you in the direction of this very powerful video, which I’m sure you’ll agree illustrates perfectly the difference that a good, emotive headline can make, and how it makes what you’ve done stand out from the crowd…

Just click on the picture of the video below to watch:

Share and Enjoy,

Tim Lowe
Publisher, Tim’s Business Lowe Down

First of all you are greeted with everything in a shade of pink I was actually unaware even existed, and has, for some otherworldly reason a picture of a kitten at the top … but it doesn’t stop there…

The written content is utter rubbish, and by that I don’t mean it’s not well written or the content is poor – it actually is utter rubbish … it’s a piece of text that has been force fed to an ‘article spinner’ (a not so clever piece of software that will take a piece of text and change a significant word here and there to give you a ‘new’ piece of writing) so many times any semblance to coherence has been long lost…

True, there are some randomly dumped keywords in an SEO graveyard of a right hand column, and links to a couple of products that (thankfully) have nothing to do with men’s swim wear, or heaven forbid, kittens. What you’re actually left with is some non relevant drivel of the type that provides Google with the excuse to change their rules every five minutes and make life difficult for the rest of us.

Sites like these were originally created to be content poor, but keyword friendly to get loads of traffic and then make a few pennies for the creators from the advertising as people clicked on anything to get away – but here, even the two spots for banner ads are left empty, so I can see no purpose at all for this website at all, other than to stand as a glaring example of exactly how not to do it…

To see the website in question for yourself, you’ll find it here:

http://www.thinkingspace.info/the-development-of-mens-swimsuits-and-its-really-ample-assortments/

Of course, the first thing I would say is don’t ever build a website like that, and the second … once you have gone to the effort to try and get people to your site … give them something worth their time – or you are not going to make the type of impression that will make people want to trust you with their details, then build the type relationship that will turn them into customers … in fact you’re more likely to have them clicking away, never to return…

Until Next Time,

Tim Lowe
Publisher, Tim’s Business Lowe Down

You see, as well as all the other things we currently have on the go … I am also working on an updated, more comprehensive version of my ‘Listbuilder’ manual…

Don’t worry, the current version you have is still completely useful … it’s just that the world has turned a bit since it was written, so a couple of bits will have changed, and I’ve decided  that there is so much more we can squeeze in to make it the most complete guide you can get … certainly for free.

One of the things I’ve tasked my minions with, is to put together a toolbox of completely free (or at least of a free version) of some tools you should find indispensible in your online endeavours, even if you’ve been online a while.

The updated version will be available in about a month’s time, rolled out to existing Lowedown readers first of course, but in the meantime I wanted to alert you to a much overlooked little program that will make up part of that toolbox, but I would strongly recommend, (especially as Google changed the way they do things AGAIN this week) that you might want to start using it right away…

Traffic Travis (http://www.traffictravis.com/) has been around quite a while, But I don’t remember being especially impressed  by what it had to offer, but since then it has upgraded to a fourth version and definitely seems like it’s got its act together.

Equally useful for those with websites and those without, Traffic Travis can tell you, for instance, where your site sits in the search engine rankings for any given keyword, who your rivals are for that coveted number one spot, and analyses how you can beat them.

If you haven’t got to the website stage yet,  you can use the information Traffic Travis gives you about the competition for any given keyword to augment the information you get from Google (using their keyword tool) when making a decision on niche and keyword selection.

But I’m really just giving you the highlights …Traffic Travis can do considerably more than just this, and each function comes with its own training video so you can make the most of it.

Remember, this is free to use – (there is a paid version ,  but unless you have a host of websites and are just looking for that extra 1% to get them to the top of the rankings – you really shouldn’t need it) you just go to the Traffic Travis website (http://www.traffictravis.com/) register to get an activation code and download the program.

Of course there will be many more tools just like Traffic Travis unveiled in the new version of the Listbuilder manual, which, as I mentioned should be ready on a few weeks, provided of course I can get it finished in time … now where did that pointy stick go …?

Until Next Time,

Tim Lowe
Publisher, Tim’s Business Lowe Down

Our American friend recently presented some fine examples of what I wanted to go into today … which is that, as much as it is essential to build a good relationship with your customers, there is also a certain wisdom in, as a customer, going out of your way to build a good relationship with those who you do business with…

Now, as  you can imagine, I am well known at our approved getaway spot as something of a character, so somebody with a slightly Machiavellian turn of mind (to be precise the girl in charge of the breakfast restaurant who goes shopping with ‘She Who Must…’ occasionally) suggested that rather than continue commenting daily on my sub standard omelettes  … why don’t I wander in to the kitchen and ‘teach’ chef how it’s done…?

So I am encouraged to take the Executive Chef by the paw and demonstrate the approved omelette making method…..an entertaining ten minutes ensues with several of the waiting staff (those who have experience in the hotel or restaurant trade will know that waiters and cooks are usually sworn enemies) videoing me in the kitchen teaching a Greek chef to cook…

To be fair, he plays along with it and explains, that whilst I might be a great gourmand, most of my fellow guests are rather basic and don’t appreciate the subtleties of omelette making and would whinge if there were ‘uncooked bits’ (but in my view, who likes fried eggs with hard yolks, so why cook an omelette till it’s like rubber?)…

Anyway, every morning for the rest of my stay, despite my new little friend encouraging me to ask for ever more complex fillings, I had a perfect omelette delivered to my table by ‘Exec Cookie’ in person … most of the girls who work there and one or two of the boys kiss now me every morning as well (it’s a foreign thing, and don’t worry, it’s under control) amidst stares from every other person present who wonders what exactly I’ve done to qualify for such special treatment….

Most notably among these is an American guest who looks, quite frankly, like he has a body in the boot of his car (or should that be trunk?)  I have dubbed him ‘Joey’ since he could easily star in ‘The Sopranos’, saying things, in strong nasal New Yoik/Brooklyn accent like “hey buddy, can I get a coifeee, make it decaf, capishe?”

He has also endeared himself to the locals by warning his children (equally rotund and socially inept by the way) about the tame cats that wander around Cyprus waiting for food scraps “loik, little Joey, dese tings are like WILD animals, so stay away…”

There are, of course, no prizes for guessing which of us would get the last remaining dinner reservation or the benefit of any complimentary extras that may have been on offer … and this is all due to the relationship I have built up with everybody there over time.

As much as I would love to think that some of the extremely good rates and prices I am able to negotiate are down solely to my killer haggling skills, I am more certain that any business done on the platform of a good relationship is far, far better than any done with some faceless contact and based purely on price, and over time will bring far greater benefits…

Until Next Time,

Tim Lowe
Publisher, Tim’s Business Lowe Down

Like so many others, I decided to escape for a while to my usual ‘approved’ destination over Easter, and by the time I arrived back, supervised the unpacking and got settled down to writing this, the evening seems to be upon me, and by the time I finally hit the ‘send’ button, it will, entirely coincidentally, be about the same time the original ‘Tim’s Business Tips’ would have winged it’s way to you…

There is much to tell about my brief getaway, but (unconnected) tales about ‘She Who Must…’ and I and an airplane toilet (though NOT in the way you think), soggy omelettes and upsetting one of the world’s richest families will have to wait until later in the week when I am more able to do them justice … Instead I want to share with you how you can turn the contents of your computers recycle bin into methods of generating traffic, lead magnets and even turn them into money…

First let me say though, that if something you have written, such as an email or article is sat in your recycle bin because it is truly awful … it needs to stay there (unless you can resurrect it with a quick re-write of course) What we are after are your slightly older pieces, things you have sent out to your list that you may think are of no further use, and just shoved in the bin…

Well, each of those emails, (or series of congruent emails if, unlike me, you like to keep them short) can be easily converted into an article and placed on each of the article directories to help generate traffic – they can be turned into PDFs and put on the PDF sharing sites (get in touch with the Minions if you want more details on how this works) again for free traffic generation.

The more ambitious can also turn that same work into a series of PowerPoint slides (I believe free Open Office equivalent is available) and using the free 30 day trial of Camtasia to create videos and upload them to YouTube and similar sites for more even free traffic generation.

A larger combined package of these emails or articles – about 2000-3000 words or as little as 1000 if it is really good quality stuff, will easily serve as new lead magnet or free report for your existing or future hub/squeeze pages.

Of course, you can also convert one or more of these collections of combined wisdom into a cheap(ish) eBook to generate some operating funds or release them via Amazon on the Kindle platform – (again, for further guidance on the whole ‘Kindle’ thing please feel free to bother a Minion)

Not everybody finds writing website content or emails easy, so it is important you get as much out of it as you possibly can, and by re-using that same content and converting it across several formats to reach people who would not normally have seen it you are getting the absolute most for your efforts and generating traffic, leads and revenue into the bargain.

Until Next Time,

Tim Lowe
Publisher, Tim’s Business Lowe Down

The reports presented to us in all forms of the media over the last week have been at best laughable and, at their worst, as we have seen, tragic. The time lost and inconvenience experienced by many people just repeatedly topping up their tank when they didn’t really need to, was probably much greater than if they had actually run out of petrol.

One of my Minions, not exactly renowned for keeping up with current affairs, pulled into his local petrol station to fill up as usual last Thursday morning only to find 40 other motorists in front of him, when normally the only company he has at that ungodly hour is the occasional discarded Mars Bar wrapper.

Obviously he mentioned this when he arrived at HQ, along with the news that one of the motorists in front of him filled up with just £8.62 of petrol – and in the days when it would seemingly be cheaper to post your car to any given destination than drive it there, you have to really wonder about the thought processes behind that kind of decision.

At the root of it all lies the often huge gap between the perceived size of the problem and the real size of the problem. I’m sure news reports liberally seeded with words like ‘standstill’ and ‘stranded’ did as much damage to peoples common sense as any ‘advice’ from more official sources (After all, we always do what MPs tell us to do the rest of the time don’t we?)

This kind of sensationalist clap-trap is something we’re very fond of in this industry too – if you’ve been online for any more than a few days you will have seen a headline about something or other ‘changing the face of the internet forever’. Now, whilst it is true that the internet is evolving on an almost daily basis, the amount of things that have changed it overnight have been minimal.

Changes to Facebook are only important to you if you actually use it to generate leads or revenue, as are changes to Google Ads and the like.

As for the emails you get declaring that you need to be part of this amazing new ‘something’ or get left behind forever may be perfectly valid … but I always would advise due diligence on your part to see if it is actually of use to you, rather than jumping in with both feet based on how much something is in the news rather than its business value.

Until Next Time,

Tim Lowe
Publisher, Tim’s Business Lowe Down

Once you have excluded the one ‘acquired’ by amusing but unrepeatable means from an Eastern Bloc policeman and the Kangaroo skin one, used primarily ‘Down Under’ for keeping the sun off and waving ineffectually at spiders … you will find the remainder are mostly supplied by ‘Tilly Endurables’ of Toronto, Canada.

These hats were selected not because they were ‘the best hats in the world’, in fact I found a dozen other manufacturers proclaiming exactly the same the thing … but I was attracted by the way it was made plain that what you were doing was so much more than merely buying a hat…

It seems Tilly hats are usually favoured by the more ‘outdoorsy’ types among us who go about both home and abroad and wander around exploring and prodding the local wildlife with sticks. This being the case, the website is packed full of the adventures that the folks have had with their hats, especially those from the more ‘windswept and interesting’ members of their clientele…

Whether it be the story of how a hat became an improvised ice bucket or inherited from the Grandfather that had worn it all round the world, a whole kind of mini folklore has been nurtured and allowed to grow around these hats, most centred, very cleverly, around their virtual indestructibility, (one most famously emerging unscathed after passing through the digestive system of a Elephant)

My favourite story though (I remember seeing it when I made my first purchase 6 or 7 years ago but can’t seem to locate it on the website at the moment) concerns a couple of Tilly hat owners, who were far away and slightly off the beaten track when they spotted some figures approaching them in the distance …  they were of course increasingly nervous as to what fate had in store for them, until they saw that the approaching group were also wearing Tilley hats and therefore had to be the ‘right sort’

In fact, now that it’s ‘gone public’ that I’m the owner of a brace of Tilly hats, I will almost certainly get emails from Lowedown readers who are also Tilley hat owners detailing their own experiences – it’s just that kind of thing…

I mention this, not because I think everybody should be buying a Tilly hat but because it is a perfect example of how you can inject some personality into products to make them more attractive to the potential buyer, and how introducing a story around them will create that ‘extra dimension’ and make them stand out from a mass of very similar products.

I really would encourage you to spend some time looking around the site to see for yourself the way the whole experience of obtaining a Tilly hat is built up so that you are not so much making a purchase as joining the club of other Tilly hat owners…

When you are building a relationship with your customers, it is important to use similar methods to add depth and substance to what you are telling them … though you must always be genuine … let people know the ‘story’ behind what is going on – it will create a lasting impression which can put you head and shoulders above those who are churning out the same generic nonsense…

Until Next Time,

Tim Lowe
Publisher, Tim’s Business Lowe Down

I can provide a host of witnesses to my ‘mere mortal’ status, foremost amongst them ‘She Who Must…’, who will go into great detail as to my shortcomings at the drop of a hat, freely quoting a certain passage in Felix Dennis’ ‘How To Get Rich’ to anybody and everybody who might want an insight into what makes Tim ‘tick’

Moving on from that however, one thing I did do early on that made a big difference, and I would encourage you to do also, was to teach myself to recognise an opportunity when I saw it … and by that I don’t just mean to dive in recklessly at the first thing I saw, I mean working out what was the right opportunity for me…

Usually the decision on whether to pursue an opportunity is based round the old favourites of ‘time’ and ‘money’  … however basing you decision purely around these two factors can be flawed as there are other, possibly more important factors which can affect your chances of success…

You see, the most common reason why people get no results at all is that they will order something and then never, ever do anything with it … which is why you need to be sure that before you commit that what you are looking at is the right type of opportunity for you…

For instance, are you the type of person who needs to know how it all works so will be better suited to either create or oversee the creation of websites and building of lists…? Or would you rather not get involved in all that kind of thing but instead want something more immediate which would involve watching a few training videos before you flip open the laptop and get on with it…?

I have found that another important factor in defining success is momentum … does the opportunity have the chance of an ‘easy win’ early on?

Not only is there the obvious benefit of a ‘few quid in the bank’, the enthusiasm and momentum created by an early success, can carry you over some of the inevitable hurdles you will encounter as you progress, and install a real belief that you can progress and really make the thing a success.

So, when deciding on an opportunity, don’t be guided by the same old ‘time and money’ criteria … as there are other factors that can make them almost irrelevant … for instance, if there is the chance to recoup most or all of your outlay quite quickly, the finance needn’t be an issue … and quite frankly, if you were going to make £50 or even £100 for ten minutes worth of effort … of course you’ll find time to do it…

All the Best,

Tim Lowe
Publisher, Tim’s Business Lowe Down

Say for instance that we were to open it on a page listing the vast array of plumbers available. Clearly the majority of them are getting some custom from their ad, so you, I and the rest of the Great British public are obviously not all ringing the same one.

Therefore, you must agree, there must be something about a certain ‘ad’ that makes it more appealing to some people than of any of the others … and the fact that not everybody chooses the same ‘ad’ means that what appeals to some people definitely does not appeal to others.

From this, you could draw the conclusion that any one of these plumbers could attract either a different or greater clientele simply by changing the look of their ‘ad’ … and of course this principle also works online too … let me recount an example from here at ‘HQ’…

One of the grand Minion experiments from last year involved creating an unofficial Facebook fan page for some chap called Jon Bon Jovi, who, as you may know started out his musical career in a rather loud and hairy manner, but these days is a touch more sensibly coiffured  and very much the housewife’s choice.

They originally ran an ‘ad’ for people to join this fan page with a recent photo of him, which worked really well until, as with all these things, all the people who were likely to respond had responded, and everybody else got used to seeing it, and started ‘filtering’ it out.

So, they ran the ‘ad’ again, keeping the text exactly the same as before, targeting exactly the same people as before (who, remember, had now stopped responding to the advert) … in fact the only thing they did change was to replace the picture of Mr Jovi with one from his wild and hairy days … and it again attracted a huge response, every bit as big as when we ran the ‘ad’ the first time.

Now, you can get those kind of results from simply changing a picture, but you can also achieve something similar by changing the way the ‘ad’ looks … either by altering the formatting, or the layout … in fact anything that changes the overall ‘feel’ of it.

I’m sure you will agree that the longest and most difficult part of any project is usually the writing of the ‘copy’ … whether it be for ‘ads’ or for full-blown sales sites, so I know you would certainly welcome any idea that means you can get at least twice as much longevity out of that advert it may have taken you forever to write, or paid somebody a fortune to write for you..

Until Next Time,

Tim Lowe
Publisher, Tim’s Business Lowe Down