You’ve all seen my profile picture.

Therefore, it’s a fair assessment to say, that I already know what you’re thinking.

Even without a vodka martini in hand, or me brandishing a Walther PPK you are probably thinking…

That man looks exactly like James Bond!

It’s okay…

It’s the English thing.

You may even think it’s hilarious, the way people are always stopping me on the street to comment on how much my rakish good looks, remind them of the fictitious suave secret agent, however, at times I find it rather more than a bit embarrassing!

I do find it odd that somehow they never seem to agree on which “actual actor” that played James Bond, I most resemble. Alas, the only solace in this predicament is that by virtue of my “natural manly swagger”, I have never been compared to Pierce Bronson.

Chalk it up to vanity if you will, but the strange fact is – that I do often feel like 007, although I have never shopped at jamesbondlifestyle.com. Perhaps it’s the internet technology, at my fingertips, that makes me feel this way.

You see, I appreciate the fact that much of what I use on a daily basis would stymie the likes of “Q” during the “Shawn Connery” era.

In all actuality, my guess is that my daily reality would dumfound any screenwriter attempting to create new fiction that outpaces, or is “wilder” than the covert tools at my desktop’s disposal.

Of course, at the moment, I’m thinking about Heat Map technology.

Among the other services like SpyFu.com, which we have mentioned before, Heat Maps is yet another “must-have tech-tool” for conducting advanced, high stakes, covert Internet espionage for profit!

Heat Maps are especially useful. They work in much the same way, as installing tiny micro cameras into the private rooms of people visiting your website, only better.

For instance, there is no need to rappel onto their balcony from the roof and remove the cover of their ventilation systems, to install it.

In most cases, you can perform your covert surveillance by simply adding a snippet of code to your website while you are making other routine changes. Once it is set up, you can log into your control panel and watch your users in real time, even from a monitor in the dash of your Austin Martin – if it is “web enabled”.

If you are not familiar with Heat Maps, or how to use them, then this post will open your eyes.

In fact, I believe that by the end of this post you will be both visibly “shaken” and emotionally “stirred”!

You may even want a Vodka Martini yourself, as you read on…

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Question:  I’m working on my first membership idea. I plan to test and track everything I do and would really like a benchmark to aim for so I know when I’m doing well…what are your typical conversion rates (salespage and free to paid member upgrades)? Also, what are the best strategies to retain members?

First of all let me say how happy I am you plan to test and track everything – Not doing that is where too many marketers and site owners go wrong… 

Unfortunately it’s hard to say what a typical conversion rate is (I don’t know the market you’re in and that can make a sizeable difference for a start)

But let’s look at a typical funnel in the “Internet Marketing” niche – Where you’d be asking a visitor to opt-in to a free site and then upgrade to a paid membership… Read the rest of this entry