How To Make Money With This Guide
First, you need to know that there’s no fluff in this guide. If I can say something with two
words, I never use three. It’s not about quantity: It’s about quality. The more someone
goes on and on and ooooon about a subject, the less experienced he usually is. But I
have written this manual in a “do this, do that, go here click that” manner. No time to
waste.
As you read each section of this guide, note down the facts that are interesting and offer
new knowledge to you. You can use a piece of paper, or even your computer’s
“NotePad” (whatever you like best). That way, you will create a smaller “mini report”
with all the highlights of the original report.
People remember only 10% of what they read. Most don’t remember what they had for
lunch. This is especially true today (with the great amount of information we are trying to
absorb). So, do the smart thing and take notes.
After you read the whole guide once, you can then refer back to your “mini report”
whenever you like. So, open a new text file right now (NotePad or Word or whatever).
Or, take pen and paper and place it next to you. This is your financial future and your
life we are talking about here. It’s in your best interest to read, understand, absorb and
then USE this information.
I understand that people have varying degrees of expertise in online marketing. I will try
to be detailed enough for the newcomers – but not so detailed that the more advanced
users get bored. And I will include some of the stuff that will keep the really advanced
“users” pretty damn happy too ☺. So, let’s get started!
Introduction
I don’t want to write 30 pages doing an introduction. That’s what the other manuals do.
Let’s just get to the good stuff, ok?
Just my promise to you: When you have finished reading this guide, you will be able to
make a steady income from your home – in a SAFE way. Nobody wants to gamble
money on expensive advertising that may or may not work. So, we’ll use methods that
are a “safe bet.”
Let’s keep things simple.
Making money online can be distilled down to this:
You need to find a quality offer that people will be willing to buy.
And:
You need to be able to send QUALITY traffic to that page so that people will actually
see that offer.
Basically that’s what it all comes down to.
Before I get into the meat of things, I need to say this:
Don’t treat this as a hobby or else you’ll get hobby results. Yes, this is a business where
you CAN work just a few hours from home for yourself rather than working for 8 hours
for the man. But you still need to take things seriously.
How To Start With No Money Or You Are Broke
First of all, let’s see if we can put your financials in order:
Stop buying everything new and fancy that comes out unless it will specifically enhance
a part of the process you already follow.
Unsubscribe from all paid monthly membership sites and services you don’t use. Stop
bleeding cash.
Stop spending all your money on things that only give you temporary pleasure. If you
can put aside $300 for example, put them aside. Don’t go out and spend it on things that
most people would (like alcohol and cigarettes for example). I’m not going to tell you
how to live your life. But you may want to cut back on some “extras” for now so that you
can have many more extras down the road. You are on a mission.
You can even sell things that you don’t need. Do you have a guitar that you don’t play
with? Comic books from your childhood? Whatever. See if you can put them up on
http://www.ebay.com and get rid of them in exchange for money.
If you currently have previous unsuccessful websites, you can sell them. You can even
sell successful websites you have, just so you can improve your focus. If you have 10
Adsense sites, why not package them up and sell them? You can usually sell them for
1224 times the amount of profits they make per month. Or, if you have created an
information product in the past, you can sell resale rights, master resale rights and
private label rights to it.
Some good places to look for in order to sell these deals are
http://www.warriorforum.com (special offers section – make sure you make people
there a good deal – don’t just try to “sell your stuff”) and
http://www.sitepoint.com/marketplace .
How to Promote Other Peoples Products
Let’s say that a website sells a product for $50. That website can have an “affiliate
program” and allow you and others to promote that product and receive a percentage of
the product’s price in commissions, every time you refer someone to that site who ends
up buying that product.
Commissions can be as low as 5% for some hard goods but can go as high as 75% or
more on instantly downloadable products – like ebooks or software.
Here are some ideas on how to find affiliate products to promote:
A) Search on affiliate NETWORKS like http://www.Clickbank.com/marketplace ,
http://www.cj.com and http://www.linkshare.com
B) Join the email lists of competitors in your niche and see what products they
promote. Some of those products will be in affiliate networks like the ones
mentioned above. Others will have an independent affiliate program
C) Something else you may want to look into is promoting products of what I call
“network/company hybrids.” These are big companies who have products in
several different niches (mainly pills) and they have their act together. They
typically pay 30-50% commissions plus 5-10% 2nd-tier commissions. Plus, they
have good salesletters, content for affiliates, they pay on time etc…
This is great because once you promote one of their products and see that they pay on
time, you have that much more assurance that you will get paid when you promote their
other products.
You will also be getting one check or paypal payment for all the products of the same
company you promote – this helps keep things focused.
You will also save time. Instead of searching for the next niche, just pick the next
program in the company’s list to promote. These companies don’t create products
unless the demand is there. If you don’t believe me, just do a search on Overture for the
categories their products serve and you will see very healthy search volume and Cost
per click.
Every time you signup for one of these affiliate programs, you don’t need to signup
again in order to promote their other products. You just grab your links (maybe even
create a tracking campaign) and you are good to go.
One of the companies you should at least look into is: http://www.joebucks.com
I haven’t purchased the products they sell (mainly pills) – but they always paid in time. I
have used a company with similar products but they never paid up.
How to Promote Affiliate Products
Promoting someone else’s product as an affiliate is one of the best ways to get your feet
wet in online marketing. But you have to do it the right way or else you’ll start wondering
why you are not seeing success.
So, here goes:
Treat your affiliate business like YOUR business. Because someone else fulfils the
product, this doesn’t mean that he is the “be all and end all” in this process. If you are
the one who refers and presells the customer, you are at least 50% responsible for the
success of this process – and you should be rewarded for this! (No – not by being
“promised” 50% of each sale you make).
Let’s say that a new information product has just launched and it has a link to “Join Our
Affiliate Program” at the bottom. Naturally, many affiliates will be interested in promoting
it. Now, I will tell you the right way and the wrong way to go about this:
The wrong way: (this does work but not as well as what I’ll share with you next): Grab
your affiliate link, maybe set up a redirect page on your site like
yoursite.com/AffiliateProduct.html and then promote that page. The job of a redirect
page is to look like it’s a page on your site (and it is) – which will then immediately
redirect your visitors to your affiliate link for the product you promote. Using redirects
helps make your links “prettier” instead of them looking like ugly affiliate links.
So, instead of your link looking like this:
http://merchantsite.com/affiliateid=12345
It would look like this:
http://yoursite.com/AffiliateProduct.html
This will look more professional and can earn you more commissions. But it’s far from
perfect.
Now lets discuss the RIGHT WAY:
Register a domain that is very similar to the merchant’s and that includes the product
name. For example, if you wanted to promote a site called TheSuperEbook.com, you
could register domains like:
The-Super-Ebook.com
TheSuperEbook.net
www-TheSuperEbook.com
www-The-Super-Ebook.com
Visit the merchant’s salesletter, and save the page to your hard drive.
Open the page with your favorite HTML editor like Dreamweaver or Frontpage
Delete the “join our affiliate program” link at the bottom. That way, people will not be
able to click it, sign up for the merchant’s affiliate program, get their affiliate link, click on
it, buy through that link and then get commissions on their own purchase (while you get
nothing).
If there’s an optin form on the page, subscribe so you start getting the messages. Then,
replace the merchant’s form with one that points to YOUR autoresponder. An
autoresponder is simply a piece of software that sends email messages at
predetermined intervals. Some good autoresponders are http://www.aweber.com and
http://www.autoresponseplus.com
In your autoresponder, include the first messages of the merchant in your follow up
sequence -or modify them, if needed. Then, add messages that promote OTHER
RELATED affiliate programs you want to promote.
If the merchant uses a processor that can be hijacked (ie: people can create their own
affiliate link and buy through that instead) quite easily (like Clickbank) and he points to
the order form like so: http://www.clickbank.net/sell.cgi?merchant/1/The_Super_Ebook,
change the link to point instead to a page called order.php. Then, create a PHP page
with this code:
< ?php $URL=”http://www.clickbank.net/sell.cgi?merchant/1/The_Super_ Ebook”; header(“Location: $URL”) ?> Click here to order
The Super Ebook
And please, don’t freak out when you hear the term PHP. Here’s what you need to know
about it in a paragraph:
PHP stands for Hypertext Pre Processor. It’s just a way for the server to show some
dynamic elements on a page – don’t worry about it now. To create a .php page, just give
it the extension .php (instead of .html).
I prefer using php redirects because they make redirections more “invisible.” Again,
don’t worry about it. Just do it.
This will make it even harder for people to figure out how to steal your commissions.
This page will “secretly” redirect to the Clickbank order form without exposing the
merchant’s Clickbank nickname. If for some reason the visitor isn’t redirected
automatically, she will just see the message “Click here to order The Super Ebook”.
“Hardcode” your affiliate id on the page by putting this at the bottom of your page (just
before the tag): . For
example:
That way, everybody who visits this page will be tagged with your affiliate id – even
though it will not be so obvious (which is a good thing for you).
If you think that the merchant’s site could be improved, make the modifications you
should.
For example, if the salesletter headline says something like: “Use This SEO Software
To Rank High on The Search Engines”, you could replace that with something more
compelling like: “How I Consistently Average Over 4,700 Unique, Free Visitors A Day
To My Site And How You Can Do It Too – Just By Clicking a Button!” I think you get the
point.
If you are not a copywriter, don’t worry about it too much. You don’t have to rewrite the
entire salesletter (heck, if the salesletter is good, you don’t need to touch it). But, a great
headline can pull a good number of sales – so it’s worth looking into it.
If you want to really be hard-core about it, you can even start split-testing two different
headlines. You can use a service like http://www.Hypertracker.com . Read their website
for more info.
Now we are talking. This set up will give you much higher chances of success!
Most of the times, the merchants will be ok with you doing this since you are bringing
them business that they otherwise wouldn’t have.
Unless the merchant is an idiot like the one I came across the other day…
I had done something similar with his site and had started promoting it. Next thing you
know, I receive an email from my host saying that they had made my page unavailable
to the public because I had “stolen” someone else’s design.
Apparently, the merchant saw the salesletter and thought I was selling his product
through my site (and keeping all the money). He didn’t even bother to hover his cursor
over the order link. He would have seen that the order link was HIS Clickbank order link
with HIS nickname.
I admit that this annoyed me.
That’s why I redirected my traffic to his biggest competitor and started making sales for
THEM.
I cannot forgive stupidity. I was sending this guy business and he shut me down! Hope
he buys and reads this manual.
Ok, ok, I don’t want to be harsh. I know we need to be tender and understanding with
the uninformed, weak, young and old – because at some point in our life we will have
been all these – but I’m human and I got angry at the time.
I didn’t even bother emailing that merchant because I was so pissed off at the time. If
this happens to you, email the merchant and tell them what you are doing. This should
make them “get it.”
Anyway…
Registering a very similar domain to the one of the merchant, is a good way to make
money for less than $10 (the cost of the domain).
For example, I did this with the Adwords site AdwordsMiracle.com. The site said
“Adwords Miracles” on it and yet the domain “AdwordsMiracles.com” wasn’t even
registered.
Is it my fault that I registered the domain AdwordsMiracles.com? And that I copied the
salesletter and hosted it on my site? And that I deleted the “Affiliates” link at the bottom
of the site? And that I then hardcoded my affiliate link on the page?
Is it also my fault that IMNewswatch.com picked up my site and said that
“AdwordsMiracles.com just launched” and I made 15-20 sales that I wouldn’t have
made?
Tell me, is it my fault?
Chris (the owner of AdwordsMiracle.com) later mentioned my site in his product
“Affiliate Project X” as a case study. See, he was a little annoyed by what I did – but he
recognises that creativity needs to be compensated. Chris has excellent products so
definitely check them out…
I did something similar with Affilorama.com. When the site launched, I received a
special report that talked about this new site called “Affiliorama” (note the extra “i”). I
went to the site and the domain was Affilorama.com. So, again, I ask you: Is it my fault
that I registered the domain Affiliorama.com and hosted the page on my site? I started
making sales (for which I still get commissions) -and I never even promoted the damn
thing!
For those worrying about lawsuits from merchants: I live in Greece and people generally
don’t sue each other. I hear that this ain’t the case in USA. Some people have no other
hobbies and so they just want to sue their fellow Americans. I’m obviously no lawyer
and I can’t give legal advice. But I would be surprised if a merchant sued you over doing
this. They would email you before they move legally. Besides, YOU ARE MAKING
THEM MONEY.
Still, if you are paranoid about it, you can email the merchant and let them know.
If the merchant uses a name squeeze page (a very short landing page asking for name
and email before someone is even able to see the salesletter) and you don’t like it, “no
problemo.”
Just clone the squeeze page (or create a better one) and tie it to YOUR autoresponder.
Then, redirect to the salesletter of the site you promote. In order to get affiliate credit for
the sales, just use the image trick I mentioned earlier and hard code your affiliate id on
the squeeze page you created.
Here are some good squeeze pages from different industries that you can get ideas
from:
http://www.doubleyourdating.com
http://www.adwords-revealed.com
http://www.FattyFatty-BumBum.com http://www.marketingmakeovergenerator.com
http://www.superaffiliatecoachingclub.com http://www.marketingwithpostcards.com
Or if you don’t want to create a squeeze page at all, just hardcode your affiliate id to
your landing page (whatever type of landing page you have) and then link directly to the
salesletter of the merchant. (MerchantSite.com/Salesletter.html)
If you don’t want to set up a landing page, or a squeeze page, or clone the merchant’s
salesletter – but you want to send your traffic to the merchant’s salesletter bypassing his
squeeze page, just create a redirect page and hardcode your affiliate id on that redirect
page.
Here’s an example of the code you could use to do this:
second, please click here to go to our
site…
Got it?
How To Get Top Treatment From Merchants
Once you start making sales for the merchant, send him and email or call him on the
phone and ask him to increase your commissions. That sounds rude at first, right? – but
here are some things you need to keep in mind:
You are in this business to make money. I hope this doesn’t come as a shock to you.
Higher commissions will allow you to make more money per sale.
Even if the merchant doesn’t want to increase your commissions, you still lost nothing. I
have never heard of a merchant saying “WHAT? YOU DARED ASK FOR MORE? I
WILL NOT PAY YOU EVEN THE BASIC COMMISSIONS I OWE YOU!”
That’s the stuff that bosses do. Remember them? Those Nazis that suck your blood.
That’s why I never had the nerve to ask for a raise in my earlier job (pharmacy clerk).
The moment I managed to gather all my inner strength and say so (I thought I’d have a
stroke), “that was all she wrote.” I left a few weeks later.
BUT THIS IS YOUR HOME BUSINESS – the merchant is not your boss. HE needs you
way more than you need him. Keep that in mind! Worst-case scenario, you will just keep
getting paid as much as you used to. Nothing to lose.
There are smart ways to phrase the “raise request.” For example, you can say things
along these lines:
“I have been promoting your product for the last 2 weeks and have already made 17
sales. My affiliate id is so and so (so they can verify the sales). This means that I have
made $510 in commissions.
However, I have spent $330 in advertising to make these sales. So, I’m only left with
$180 in profits. At this point, I have figured out that it’s not really worth it for me to
continue promoting your excellent product unless I somehow increase my profit
margins.
I was wondering if you could increase my commissions from 50% to 65%. That would
make it worth it for me to continue promoting your product. Differently, I’m afraid I
cannot justify promoting your product.
You would still keep making profits by sending back end promotions to the customers I
send you – so you are not really losing that much.
Thanks and looking forward to hearing from you,
Your_Name.”
At this point, the merchant will have to decide. “Do I want to continue making money
from this affiliate? Or am I not interested in making money anymore?” Most merchants
will be OK with it – especially if you are one of those affiliates who make business
happen (and there are not that many of those).
Note that the merchant will have no idea how you drive traffic to his site. You may well
be promoting his product only with free methods (see later). So, you saying that you
want a raise because advertising is expensive makes total sense to the merchant. It’s
your choice how much you want to stretch the truth.
People who “ethicologise” (I just invented a new word) all the time have obviously no
idea how competitive the game has become and how challenging it can be to survive.
They probably have a trust fund that they inherited from their parents and they have
never fought “in the field.”
Ok, here’s another way you can shakedown (ahem, I meant “convince”) a merchant to
give you higher commissions:
Instead of saying that advertising doesn’t leave you with much profit, you can say
something along the lines of:
“I was interested in entering your market. That’s why I started promoting your product. I
basically wanted to test the waters. Now that I see that prospects in this market buy, I
have decided to create my own product and enter the market as a merchant. I’ll create a
product, start sending all my traffic there and create even more competition for you and
your affiliates. Got it?”
If this doesn’t scare the hell out of them, nothing will.
Then tell them that you are a nice guy and that you want to work together. So you won’t
create your own product, if the merchant is a good boy and he increases your
commissions substantially.
If the merchant uses Clickbank and he gives you BS like: “I’d love to do it man but I use
Clickbank and there’s no way for me to set a different affiliate percentage for you.”
… then tell them something like: “I don’t care ‘MAN.’ Create a second Clickbank account
and use it only for me. And don’t even dare put that thing on the Clickbank marketplace
for others to discover or I’ll know and I’ll visit your house at night while you sleep.”
Or: “Then set me up with a different affiliate platform and pay me with Paypal.”
Are the creative juices flowing yet?
Good.
YOU are in charge. You have to understand it. Say it to yourself: “I rule.” “I’m it.”
If you want to survive (and thrive), in today’s environment, these are some of the things
you should seriously consider doing.
Most people won’t do them of course. But that’s ok. Because, as I like to say, natural
selection can be a bitch – and those who don’t treat their affiliate business like THEIR
business, will become extinct sooner or later.
You don’t have to believe me. Just wait and see how much more competitive the game
will become in the next months and years. If you do the above, you will be kicking
everyone’s ass and bringing home the bacon.
Something else you can do, is ask the merchant to send you the details of the customer
(full name and email). Mind you, not all merchants will do it (because they are closedminded).
But many will – especially if you have started making sales for them.
Of course, if you promote a Clickbank product, you can see in your account the names
and emails of the customers you referred.
You can just click on their email address and send them a short thank you message.
You can thank them for buying. Then, give them a link to a page that has some special
reports (or full products) on it (the salesletters for them). Then, tell them to email you
and choose 1 or 2 of the products. I always do this with my customers. Yes, each and
every one. I exchange real emails with them. Automation is good but in my opinion it’s a
little overrated.
Exchanging “real” emails with your customers and offering them extra value builds
relationships like nothing else I’ve seen.
Now, if you did all the naughty things above, I can guarantee you that you would do
much, much better than if you had just promoted the “straight” site. You would make
much more money than the other affiliates who promote this product and they wouldn’t
be the wiser.
But, can we do even better? Of course. Can we be even naughtier? Hell yeah…
At this point, let’s not judge the ethics of the next method. If you feel uneasy doing this,
then don’t. I’m not saying that I have done this or that I approve of this. But I have heard
of people doing this and this technique is available to you.
Let’s say that you want to promote a specific information product because you know it’s
good stuff and your market will like it. What you can do is something like this:
– Buy the product and read it. As you go through the product, note down the main
techniques mentioned in it. Note down the good stuff in a text file. If a technique is there
just to fill up space (most merchants do it), just ignore it. You only want the best
techniques.
– You will create your own product. Rewrite the parts that were worth it, in your own
words. If you know of even more techniques, include them in your new manual as well.
Many people feel uneasy doing this. They think along the lines of “I would never read a
product and get ideas from it – I would rather hire a ghostwriter (and he can copy
other’s ideas all he wants).” Can you see the irony?
– If you need to brush up on some of the techniques, you can search your favorite forum
or search engine.
– You don’t need to create a 200-page mammoth. A 40-page guide full of valuable
content and “do this, do that” tips will have a much higher perceived value.
– If the original product was selling for $47 and was paying 50% commissions, you can
sell your product for $27 or $37. Your visitors will pay less, they will get more value and
you will get more money in your pocket as well. Plus, “affiliate tracking” will be 100%
since the sale will have to go through you.
– For the salesletter, you can write a short one – just write like you talk. You can get
ideas from the original product’s salesletter. You can even get ideas from salesletters
promoting similar products in your industry.
– If you want a shortcut, you can even buy resale rights to a product or private label
rights and then put your name on the product.
– Post on your favorite forums saying that you have just finished a product and that you
are looking for 10 people who will be willing to give you a testimonial in exchange for a
free review copy. Mention shortly what your product is about (or, just point them to your
mini salesletter). Say that they should be able to provide the testimonial within 3 days.
As soon as you receive the testimonials, add them to your salesletter. This will increase
its “pulling power.” Some freeloaders will not give you a testimonial even if they love the
product. Don’t worry about it.
– And of course, you can even start an affiliate program for your product so that others
can start sending you their traffic. You can put your product on Clickbank.com or
PayDotCom.com so affiliate marketers can find it and promote it.
So, that pretty much covers it as far as the “offer” part of the equation goes. The things I
mentioned are creative but not tough to do at all. But they will increase the money you
put in your pocket substantially.
Later in this manual, I will talk about how to get dirt-cheap (or “dirt-free” ☺) super high
quality traffic to your site.
But, before we start driving visitors to your site, I need to talk about email marketing.
How To Make Money On Auto Pilot
Email marketing is one of the easiest ways to make money on the internet. You can
make profits quite literally with the push of a button. An entire encyclopaedia could be
written on email marketing. But here are some of the things I have come to realise over
the years:
First of all DO use follow up: Even if you only get a 10% optin rate, you will still make
more money as you pile on more and more offers over time.
Follow ups allow you to move your visitors down the prospect timeline. They make your
visitors hotter and hotter for your offer(s). Set them up and they’ll never quit. You can be
on the beach and your autoresponder can be sending the messages on complete
autopilot. Even if someone doesn’t buy immediately, she may buy a few days later just
because you reminded her. Or, she could purchase a completely different product than
the first one you recommended.
So, how do you create your email follow ups?
Some merchants offer you ready-made articles hosted on their site and automatically
tagged with your affiliate id. You can just send a short email to your subscribers with a
link to that. If the merchant doesn’t offer “affiliate content”, see if they have content on
their sites and “borrow” it (modified). Give value to your visitors and then link to your
recommended resource.
It ain’t just about saying “gimme your money”. That can work only if you have built a ton
of value in the past. But in this case, you will be dealing with “targeted strangers”. Be a
sport and educate these people. You will be well rewarded.
Here’s a good trick to get ideas regarding followup: If you are an affiliate for a specific
front-end product, search for your merchants’ product on Google. Find the affiliates who
promote it.
Join their list. See what they say. “Borrow” their system and ideas. You want to let other
people and “systems” do the heavy lifting for you as much as possible.
Use personality, because you’ll be more memorable, likable and profitable. Don’t overdo
it, but be human. People are tired of “plastic communication.” They are not just “leads.”
REAL people read the emails you send out. So, make your emails for real people.
Use a memorable name related to the market. For example: “The Fat Exterminator”, if
you are in the weight loss market. Or, just use your name.
Use ideas from the follow-ups of your competitors. What do they send? What do they
promote? What do they say? Send tips, product recommendations, videos, testimonials,
updates, articles etc. Always educate and give value – but don’t be afraid to push some
goods as well. That’s what your list is there for.
Here’s a great tip: Let’s say that you offer people a free report for subscribing. You can
also just tell them to consume your free report. For example:
Day 1: Give them the report. Tell them to download it to their desktop.
Day 2: Ask them their opinion on the report or if they have any questions
Day 3: Make them consume part of the report. “Do you know what are the three foods
you can eat at night and not gain any weight? Open the special report and read from the
middle of page 11″
Day 4-10: Repeat day 3 with other parts of your report.
And of course, there’s no reason why you can’t create a second pdf report and do your
consumption thing all over again.
Have a conviction that your prospects NEED the products you offer or they’ll suffer. How
many autoresponder messages would you have in that case? 1? 2? How about 300?
Until your conviction and belief reaches a 10, you will just go through the motions. It’s
your responsibility to find these people and help them. Ask yourself:
WHAT’S THE PAIN THEY WILL GO THROUGH IF THEY DON’T GET MY PRODUCT?
Create a folder in Outlook Express that “houses” all the emails from great email
marketers like Mat Furrey, John Alanis, Alex Mandossian, David De Angelo etc. Create
an email swipe file and borrow the ideas you like.
The faster you get questions, the faster you can understand your market and maybe
create a product. Ask for feedback any chance you get. You need to gather market
intelligence and see what these people want so you can sell it to them. Ask your
subscribers what their biggest problems are. Ask them what type of product they would
buy and give them a multiple choice. For example:
Weight loss through Yoga Weight Loss through Hypnosis Weight Loss for busy people
etc…
Later, I will give you some alternative ideas to find out what problems your prospects
have – without asking them (keep reading).
You can also presell the need for the product you are about to promote. For example, if
you want to promote a new nutritional supplement that helps with the digestion of food,
you can send a few emails prior to that talking about how many people have digestion
problems and they don’t even know that.
Something else that works great is what I call a “sellathon in a box.” Basically, you can
have one of your emails say: “For the next 3 days only, you can buy this product at 40%
off. Here’s the special link”. Then, two days later, say something like: “Today is the last
day where you can get product so and so at 40% off. Here’s the special link”.
This is sneaky of course since the “special link” will be there for ever. And every new
subscriber will be seeing this “3-day special.” If you think that this is “manipulative”,
change your mindset. Your subscribers just got a great deal. 40% off. Plus, if they didn’t
want the product, why would they buy it in the first place? Plus, you made some extra
money. There are no downsides to this anyway you look at it.
If you KNOW that you will take good care of your customers, it’s your damn DUTY to do
whatever possible to get their money and sell them the product that will benefit them.
That way, you also protect them from other business owners who may not be as ethical
or have good enough products. If you know you can provide products (as a merchant or
affiliate) that will help your customers, do it with all your might.
Try sending your subscribers a surprise now and then. A special report you just wrote
for example. Even 2 pages will do. Just make the content unique. Or, you can just
purchase resale rights to products that your customers would enjoy and give them for
free.
Here are some specific tips on what you can include in your messages (no need to use
all of them in each message – just copy these ideas and use them whenever you like):
At the end of the message, you can add a PS and say: “In a couple of days I’ll let you
know about whatever.” Many of your subscribers will be anticipating your next message.
keep your people glued to your messages.
Another thing you can do is tell people what YESTERDAY’S email was about:
“Yesterday I shared with you two simple things you can do during your workout to
double the amount of fat you burn.” If they didn’t read yesterday’s email, many people
will say: “Damn, this is valuable info. I need to check it out.”
Have “today’s date” in the message. Every decent autoresponder can insert “today’s
date” in an email. This will make your message look more up-to-date and “current”.
At the end of the message, say something like: “Please forward this message to your
friends because thy will appreciate it . They can subscribe by visiting this URL.”
Engage your reader. Tell them to email you and ask questions. Or tell them that you are
available. For example, you can say something like:
“If you have any questions about this, feel free to rely to this email. I will reply personally
in less than 24 hours.”
Start your email with an interesting paragraph and tell them that you will show them how
to do this and that. Mention the benefit early.
For example, instead of saying “Hi John”, you can say something like:
“How To Lose 23 Pounds of Fat in 4 Weeks With Only 5 Minutes Of Exercise a Day.”
Try having more than one link in the email (for the same offer). Ask people to click
several times. Your email’s purpose is to get people to check out the salesletter or offer
you have on your website.
Something that builds a sense of loyalty and “community” is to say: “I received this
question from Mike from California.” Then, you answer the question in your email
Regarding pushing affiliate programs in your follow up, tell your prospects about a good
idea that they can benefit from. But they will need the product you promote to bring the
idea to fruition.
For example, if you promote a heart rate monitor, tell people that they can lose twice
more fat if they are exercising at a specific heart rate – and that they will need a heart
rate monitor for that.
When you start your email, you can say something like: “Hi Mike,
I have been busy as a bee. My wife just gave birth to twins!
Anyway, I just wanted to tell you about…”
I hope you find these email marketing tips useful. One thing I need to stress is that the
most important thing you do is START.
Don’t think that you need to have 100 messages set up before you start your campaign.
Just having a couple initially and adding more as you go can work great…
Now, let’s talk about driving traffic to your site on a budget. And no, “sending an email to
your list” doesn’t count. You may not even have a list. I get mad when someone says
“it’s easy to make $12,345 in commissions. Just send an email to your list!”
Anyway…
Every day I read forum posts from people saying that they have tried everything and
nothing seems to work.
PPC (Pay Per Click) seems to be too expensive, SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)
seems to be too complicated and not offer “instant results”. And other methods require
technical know-how and are very complicated.
Forum Marketing : Endless Riches
Forums are big authority sites that get tons of traffic and have many loyal members.
Forget trying to build all that from scratch. Just tap into it! But you need to be respectful
and not an ass, ok?
Posting on forums is a great way to make money. Sure, you could reach many of the
same prospects with Search Engine Optimisation and Pay Per Click advertising – but we
will use this alternative channel here.
Many people know how to market online pretty well – but they have trouble getting that
initial traffic that will kick-start the process. Some initial traffic so they can do split tests
on their sites. Some initial visitors who will buy the product and offer feedback and
testimonials.
Guess what: Forums can provide all that! You don’t have to do Pay per Click and go out
there “in the cold cruel world” and try to “hunt” for your first prospects.