The mentality of put up a sales page and expect to make a sale boggles the imagination. People think that's all it takes. Logical right? You see the product, like the product, buy the product. Simple, clean and easy. Unfortunately, Internet marketing is nowhere near that easy. If it was, everybody would be doing it and making a fortune doing it. That is why the saying "follow up or fail" is one of the most important things you MUST learn when running a business online. Otherwise, you are opening yourself up to heartbreak the likes that you can't even imagine.

For starters, NEVER try to sell somebody something right away. Why? For one thing, the Internet has become such a hangout for crooks that
most people online have already been the victims of a scam at one time or another. Because of this, they are very leery of buying anything, especially from somebody they don't know. You have to gain their trust. And believe me, this isn't an easy thing to do.

Okay, so how do you gain a subscribers trust? By doing just that. Make them a subscriber to begin with. Don't sell them anything. Give them something for free, most preferably, information. A newsletter series on Internet marketing might be a good start. Educate them on what it takes to properly run a business online. Teach them advertising methods that work. Show them how to use these techniques. Then, after they see that your information has actually produced results, they may actually write to you and tell you.

But, they may not. That's why follow up is so important. After you've given them your whole series, write to them. Ask them what they thought about the series. If it was helpful to them, they may write
back and tell you. They may also ask if you have anything else that can be of help to them. This is where you can start suggesting things
that they would have to pay for. Their thinking at this point is that you've already helped them this much for free so maybe this other product will really make a big difference in their results. You've already shown them you're honest so they are more likely to trust you. Once somebody trusts you, that is half the battle won.

But what it they write back and tell you that the information you gave them didn't work at all. This can lead to two things. Maybe, if you are able to get into a conversation with them, you can find out a step
in the process that they misunderstood, or maybe something really doesn't work anymore. This is vital information to your business and you can use it to make much needed changes to your newsletter and maybe even to your product itself.

The bottom line is this. Without follow up and feedback you are working in the dark. Working in the dark can only lead to failure.

That's why we say, "follow up or fail."

It's a good motto to live by.