CMPS Postcard Marketing

If you have read my Squidoo Lens about the GCFN, you know that I received 500 postcards and mailing labels from the GCFN office in August. These postcards were to be used to drive prospects (highly targeted leads, supposedly, with the mailing labels) to your website.

Well, I have heard that summer-time is the slowest time of year for people who are looking for a home business. Basically, people are more concerned with vacation than they are with making money. (Obviously that didn't apply to me, since I went on my home-business buying spree in July!)

So let's say I am trying to stay positive about this whole postcard thing.

Based on the GCFN Back Office system, which tracks who has entered their name in my autoresponder, it appears about 8 people (out of 500 postcards) responded to my mailing.

And none of them signed up.

An 8/500 response rate is a 1.6% response rate. I know from other research I've done in the past on direct mail marketing, this isn't that unusual a response rate. If you get 1-2%, that's pretty typical.

But the fact that I didn't make any money from it, after spending $130 on postage is a bit disappointing.

And I just got another bundle of postcards and labels today, delivered by FedEx. You get at least 250 postcards to send per month included free as part of the program.

Will I send them out? Probably yes (it did generate some traffic, and some of the traffic did put their info into my lead-capture form). But I'm doing a lot of this just because I'm stubborn, not necessarily because I think it's going to generate more income for me at this point.

Did I mention I'm starting a part-time job next week?

Anyway, if the prospects who responded to my postcards read this blog - it may explain why they haven't signed up. Sad to say, I have not been exactly doing the best job here of selling the Global Cash Flow Network as a great way to make money.

But that's only because I don't know yet if it IS a good way to make money.

I certainly haven't made much money from it yet. Just $110. No more checks received so far.

On the bright side, I am learning gobs of stuff about internet marketing and media placement techniques. From that perspective, the CMPS program really has delivered as promised. For a sampling of what I've been able to learn so far (admittedly, not just what I got from the CMPS program, but mostly from the CMPS program), you can see my other Squidoo Lens on media placement in multiple channels. I actually wrote that lens a month ago, so I should probably update it a bit.

But the GCFN as a great home business? Not so far. Of course, my whining about it here isn't helping me make any money with the program. But at least I have a clean conscience about it.

You know, if I hadn't spent that $4400+ on the "guaranteed traffic program" I think I would be a raving, highly satisfied customer. I really have been learning a lot of great stuff about marketing and using the internet to market information and sell product. The $4400+ I spent on "guaranteed traffic" is supposed to deliver 10,000 highly qualified visitors to each of my 2 GCFN webpages over a 3 month period. They have been providing the traffic (it's up to about 4400 now per site, with about 1 month to go), but none of that traffic has turned into a sale.

So, like I was saying, I have a rapidly dwindling bank account as I manage my credit card balances...but a clean conscience.

Anyway, I am growing suspicious that the way the system works may not be properly crediting me with referral bonuses from applications to the Certified Media Placement Specialist program through my "24hourwebcash" web page. I plan to call customer support tomorrow and make sure my links are all working correctly and crediting me properly with any signups. Though I'm not sure I'll ever know until I confirm someone has actually signed up for it (and if I get a check from it or not).

Maybe I'm just paranoid. That tends to happen when you spend, er..., invest $5000 and aren't sure if you'll ever get it back.

I did notice that the eBay, Amazon, and Google Adsense links on mywebcashstore are all working properly. So that's good.

But I'm not sure I'll really be making any money from the affiliate links on mywebcashstore based on the way it's been set up.

I'll probably have to establish another website or blog somewhere else to try and cash in on affiliate profits separately using the techniques the CMPS program is teaching me.

Wish me luck. And stay tuned.