Anything that has become popular, be it movies or great books or the Shoemoney blog has gotten that way by word of mouth.

Great analogies. I especially liked the part about the upsell. I’m part of the non-buying percentage (I usually know what I want before I hit the counter and I stick to that), but I have been tempted because it’s just 25 cents more.

“There will always be complainers.” “Always, always, upsell.” good stuff.

Good post Colin. I worked in a movie theater in college and I remember all these lessons. One other lesson to learn is that it’s all about presentation and experience. In the theater business that refers to cleanliness and friendliness, but in the web world that relates to good design and navigability. Guess that’s web development 101 though.

Excellent analogies, I always dismiss the upsell because that is just too much coke and popcorn, but because I’m a captive audience I do buy the smaller versions.

Good post. I like this “There is no finish line.”

This was a very good post! I always try to express that same theory to those who want to start any business that they may have in mind. Too many people become dependent of what others think of them to the point that they no longer have a unique product or service but rather something that’s created by the public. Criticism is at an all time high from those who choose not to seek new levels of doing business.

Dwayne
http://www.dwaynelattimore.com

I think you can learn about marketing from every industry.

This is a great post. I used to work at a movie theater years ago–you’re right about upselling those drinks for a quarter. Who wouldn’t pay the extra 25 cents when they already shelled out 4.75 for a medium drink.

It’s true, you want passionate people to “evangelize” your product or brand for you–this type of thing creates incredible word of mouth and more sales. good post

Great post again. Word of mouth is most important in every business. Thats becuase most scams have a lot of advertising. So people want to find out if its the real deal from someone they trust.

Good points in this post, and it’s true, people do talk shit

It’s good thing if people are talking sh-t about you, any publicity is good publicity (most of time!).

As always, great article! I think word of mouth is sometimes underrated when, as you say, it’s probably the most powerful/effective form of advertising!

Dom

Cool post Collin. I especially like the upsell part.

Nice post! Word of mouth is king!

Loved this post. I always forget about the upsell, thanks for the reminder.

I also remember doing a case study in college on a chain of movie theaters, and finding out that they make almost all of their profits from the concession stand. To tie that into this post, I would add that there are many ways to make money, and sometimes you can make the most profit from your “sidelines.”

This is SO true. And it is true in almost any business. You can go through all of the work of getting a new customer or a new sale and then multiply that profit if youonly master the art of upselling. People won’t buy what they can’t afford, and the worst answer you can get is no!

[...] by email. Thanks for visiting!Welcome Shoemoney.com readers, I hope you enjoyed my guest post about things internet marketers can learn from a former movie theater employee. If this is your first time on my blog, I would like to introduce [...]

Thanks for the positive comments everyone. If anyone is wondering about the 30-67% statistic, I just want you to know that I found it from Google. I do not know if this is completely accurate, but I can personally tell you that the majority (more than 49%) of people I personally upsold while working at the theater did it in a heartbeat.

Thanks for the guest post publicity Jeremy!

I don’t know about this post … but what I do know : Collin, you need to redesign your website. It looks like it was made in the 80’s during disco fever

Very strong title. It caught my attention and made me read your post. This post is also a lesson in the value of great titles - something I always struggle with.

Word of mouth is great, but continuing to educate yourself on correct marketing methods for your mlm biz will do wonders for building leads! Many Melaleuca distributors have great results following various marketing methods.

Thanks for the informative guest post Collin! And for the record, I like your site design!

Word of mouth / word of forums is king.

Rule 5; Never run a broken movie. (broken links, non-working video clips, payment systems) which do not work are just as annoying.
Rule 6; If the movie does break during a viewing, offer a bigger and better deal immediately. If the customer cannot buy from your website or misses a deal, make them a better one right away.

2007-12-03 was my 31 birhday . I forgot to post DAMN !!!

Always complainers - its so true. Some people will complain even if everything is perfect, its just their nature. I’ve worked retail long enough to know that the customer is not always right but you still have to be nice to them.

Nice read. Good relevance to the subject too!

Great read - thanks alot!

I have a Melaleuca blog that not only gets the word out (sort of like word of mouth as people will post), but they post not only about my product, but we also discuss MLM techniques and marketing news, such as what is hot and what is not.