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- David in his den attempting to make a point about something or other…
Here is episode 5 of David’s Den…
Three weeks have passed since I last got around to writing up this column and I am trying to work out what has been achieved in that time.
I Like It!
- I “like” it!
One thing you may notice is the new Facebook LIKE button right bang smack below the page header. It has only been there a few days, but as you can see, people are responding to it.
Heck, if you like this post, please pop up there and “like” it on Facebook!
Thanks! 
Oh, and if you’d like a similar like button on your own blog… here’s where you can get a free one of your very own:
http://www.inboundnow.com/apps/facebook-like-button-generator/
Japanese Games Sales – From Buoyant To Zero!
June has been a rather trying month so far in terms of business sales. May was a good month for my Japanese games sales – one of the best for a long time – and the first two weeks of June continued with similar buoyancy. But then, all of a sudden, BAHM! Sales dried up – actually it was more like a tap had been suddenly turned off…
Zilch. Nada. Not a sausage for ten days or so…
Was It The Football?
Is it any accident that sales dropped off just as the Euro 2012 Football Championships began…??
Well, as an Englishman I can understand that… I sell a lot of my gear to customers in most of the countries in the Euro 2012 Championships so I guess they all gave up mahjong, shogi and all the rest of it to support their national teams… LOL
I must admit to going AWOL myself for a few days as well… Here in Japan most of the fixtures start at around half past three in the morning… And you can’t seriously watch England play football without turning to booze, if only to drown your sorrows…
My Recipe For Hangover Free Football Boozing…
But I’ve been drinking cleverly this month… Here’s my secret to watching football and boozing without suffering the next day… 
It works!
1. Drink a glass of tomato juice just before kick off…
2. Drink as much beer as you like during the first half…
3. Drink a glass of tomato juice during half time…
4. Drink as much beer as you like during the second half…
5. Repeat steps 1-4 if there is extra time…
6. When it’s all over drink a sports drink such as Aquarius or Pocari Sweat (the weirdly named Japanese isotonic drink)
7. Catch a couple of hours of sleep before getting on with your day.
It works!
SFI – Tripleclicks Sales Report
Sales had also been improving on Tripleclicks and I sold eight products in the first 16 days of June, for a grand total of $274, or about $230 net profit, which, when added to the $71 in SFI commissions, comes to a nice figure of $301, which covers my monthly expenses across the whole of my non-games-related online business.
In this way, I use SFI as a key recruiting and expense-recouping resource, although I expect with increasing growth and activity in my downline that SFI will be much more than that within the next year or so…
But then, Tripleclicks sales also came to a halt. Not a sausage for 10 days from 16th June until today when I received a welcome sales notification in my inbox. With a few days still left in June, there is a chance that I could make over $400 on SFI this month with another few sales…
Testing A New Splash Page
Meanwhile, with my supply of new SFI affiliates having been disrupted by Google Penguin (see David’s Den , I have been looking to other ways to recruit and have turned to a field where I have some experience of list building – safelists and traffic exchanges.
- My latest SFI campaign splash page
I created a new splash page specifically designed to recruit people directly into my SFI business by offering them a free copy of my new SFI Affiliate Success Handbook in return for joining my downline.
The splash page deliberately breaks some of the accepted “rules” of splash page design. It is too wordy, and it seeks to get people to join a free business opportunity as well as my mailing list, and then to post their affiliate number to me.
However, I think that it might be an effective way to get people to sign up for SFI, especially as the incentive – a free copy of a $35 ebook – is relevant and clearly a valuable offer for anybody interested in joining SFI…
The result of my first tests over the weekend were very promising, if you allow for the low opening-rates that you get with a lot of safelist email campaigns.
Preliminary Results…
I sent out a total of 114,265 emails to people on a range of safelists on Saturday morning here in Japan, and 24 hours later 339 had been opened with 84% unique views (i.e. 284 people have viewed my offer, some of them more than once)…
Result after 24 hours = 8 people joined my list and 5 joined SFI as my affiliates.
Not bad at all! Especially as it didn’t cost me anything to set up this test. I am a life member of several safelists and a free member of several others. I have a monthly subscription with about four good quality safelists as well.
Timing Is The Key
However, TIMING is very important when mailing to safelists. Open rates and response rates greatly vary, especially during the working week. I have not had such good results since the weekend. I have recruited another seven people to my list and had no more sign ups so far to SFI.
One reason for that is because quite people who join my list are already SFI affiliates (but not in my downline) who obviously want to get their hands on a free copy of my $35 SFI Affiliate Success Handbook to find out my money-making secrets!
A Question Of Strategy
The question is, should I give a free copy to everybody who joins the list, or only to those who fulfill the condition on the splash page that they join SFI in order to get the book?
What would you do? (Feel free to share your thoughts as a comment below this blog post)
At first I was going to limit free access to new recruits to my SFI downline. However, on further reflection, I think it is better to allow everybody on the list free access, and then offer everybody the opportunity to purchase rebranding rights on the splash page, ebook and email package…
I am actually waiting for a video response to my question from Evan Carmichael of EvanCarmichael.com and I will post a link to the video when it is ready.
Really, though, if you want to grow a responsive list, you do have to offer a high-value incentive to join and provide value in every single follow-up message. My SFI handbook is certainly a high-value incentive, being the culmination of the last two years or so of my active efforts to build my SFI business and to build an active downline and I think it is a mistake to refuse it to anybody who has joined my list just because they are not in my downline. That is not a great way to build a relationship with your subscribers!
More Football!
Earlier this month I received two complimentary tickets for a football match between our local team here in Hiroshima, San Frecce, and a team from Saitama called Omiya.
The game was on Saturday evening so I took my 9yo daughter along to see it. The result was a nil-nil draw, with hardly a shot on goal.
The game and the chanting of the fans, sometimes felt more like a tightly choreographed dance routine than a football match… Here’s a photo of me at the stadium, just to show that I have indeed crept out of my den this month…
- At “Big Arch” Hiroshima for the San Frecce v Omiya game.
I posted a few more pics on my personal blog over at: DavidPatrickHurley.com
That’s it for now folks…
David Hurley
P. S. If you’d like to join my SFI team Click Here and get rewarded for taking action as an affiliates in one of the most dynamic young teams in SFI.
By the way, if you’re new here then I’d like to invite you to join my friend list by putting your name and primary e-mail address in the little boxes below. Thank you! DH.
