Their branding message goes deeper then most companies ever try to go with their customers.

Again, excellent post, and some great comments.

Well, obviously you’ve done a great job yourself of creating an online culture….just look at how many comments you have to this article. It’s all about capturing attenting and then getting people involved!

One great way we’ve found to keep people involved once they are Members of our monthly membership program is via contests. We’ve done everything from giving away a free cruise based on bringing in new members, to writing the best “bad” poem for our leads sale. People like to feel involved, they like to have fun and they love recognition and prizes.

I love the quiz idea too mentioned by Fran, comment # 3 above. Funny thing, we’ve been working on a quiz for our site for the past 2 days. People love to see how they measure up!

Thanks for the thought provoking articles, Rich. You’re awesome!

Tracy ‘Power Gal’ Monteforte
Co founder
www.wtpowers.com
www.thepowerline.typepad.com

As a newbie and working on putting up my blog and work on advance posts I have gathered important and surely effective ammunition to do justice to my XanGo nutritional health juice and my excitement in being involved with it.

Thanks to Rich and all the above commenters to educate me.

Incidentally, even though my own coffee tastes just as good, I have thought about investing in a cup and sitting in a Starbuck’s with a bottle of XanGo in front of me arousing people’s curiosity. You think that would work?

I do think arousing people’s curiosity is a good way to hold their attention.

Thanks, guys!

Britt

“Bells and whistles catch people’s attention, but the functionality holds it.”

Rich, you did capture my attention with your trademark presentation slide that showed “YOU” in the centre of a hundred internet-marketing tasks in the Google video, but what retained my attention in your emails was consistent delivery of information that had REAL value.

Plus, your information keeps getting better and better. At least that’s what I am perceiving.

Internet marketers who tell me about their personal lives in the emails but seldom give something that is valuable to ME have never retained my attention. That’s why you are only one of two gurus whose email I read. I simply skip all the rest most of the time.

An Apple Mac is desirable to me, but I now still choose the PC because of its functionality and flexibilty - most software and games still run solely in Windows, and I can upgrade my PC hardware easily, anytime.

An iPhone is cool, but touchpad buttons can never replace the traditional buttons simply because …a little about ergonomics here… humans need to have the sense of touch to type messages efficiently. Or else the “touchpad keyboard” would have replaced the tradtional keyboard a long time ago.

I have an iPod, and I bought it not just because it’s a “cool” thing to have, but more so because of its functions - the ease of using the scrollwheel, portability, etc. These were the factors that got Apple my money.

Starbucks? I’ve only been there thrice (reluctantly) with my friends. I prefer the coffee at Coffee Bean.

So in my opinion, FUNCTIONALITY and consistent delivery of VALUE THAT MATTERS are the factors that retains attention.

We send them back the retouched image and usually they are very pleased, sometimes almost ecstatic, that the “bad” thing is gone. We frequently receive some very personal thank-you’s from clients, and that feels good.