An often heard complaint of initiates fighting to achieve e-commerce success is, “I'm tired of making money for uplines and nothing for myself.” Could I use this expression of frustration in my project?
When I hear such frustration expressed, I am reminded of one person's famous refusal to give up in a fight. General Anthony C. McAuliffe, refusing to surrender during the WWII Battle of Bastogne, said, “Us surrender? Aw, nuts!” This statement was formalized in the final answer to the enemy as, “Nuts!” McAuliffe's answer is also fit for online marketers who work hard, do all of the right things, make very little e-commerce cash—often after considerable “buy-in” payments to uplines—but refuse to give up the fight for success. Nuts! Could I use this famous answer in the project?
When soldiers are surrounded and defending an objective, one option they have is the “breakout.” Likewise, novice online marketers—and sometimes veteran marketers, too—look for a better marketing opportunity as a way to “breakout.” Could I use the idea of a “breakout” in the project?
In keeping with these ideas, what kind of an opportunity would lead a striving marketer to a breakout? A 5-star opportunity, of course. In the US military, there is no higher rank than 5-stars; and in online marketing, there is no better opportunity. Could I somehow use 5 stars in the project?
The correct answers to the four questions above are yes, yes, yes, and yes. I defined the core design components of the project as follows:
- “NUTS! BREAKOUT NOW!” — the headline and banner,
- “TIRED OF EARNING A PAYCHECK FOR SOMEBODY ELSE?” — the sub headline,
- “Make Money Now Online” — the breakout opportunity,
- a 5-star graphic, and
- a statement recommending the opportunity and offering more information.
I used Illustrator to create the first four components. I then opened the Illustrator artwork with Photoshop CS2 and made separate web-optimized images for each component. I created the banner ad from the headline. Component 5 was created in Dreamweaver8 during the creation of the HTML web page, although I did do a mockup in Illustrator, first.
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