Belated New Years Resolutions

The beautiful thing about starting a new year is the opportunity to start fresh.  One of my favourite things too is that you can look over last year, where did we screw up, where could we have improved, what is going on in general with both life and also the industry going on.

It has been a mad year for my family and myself.  If you didn’t know, we moved out to Cyprus in February – which was an amazing experience.  We moved into a housing complex, where we had one of my biz partners on one side (Soren Jordansen) and my other living behind us (John Merrick).  It allowed us to have a total kick ass year, it’s amazing how much more productive you can be, when you can just turn to a person and talk to them, rather than send an email, wait for them to wake up, deal with it, and get back to you, after you have had some sleep (them being in Europe, and me in Australia).

But now, that time has come to a close.  If you are a Cypriot, please do not take offence, but… the schooling system in Cyprus just wasn’t up to our standards, so we have brought our kids back to Australia.  We ended up home schooling them for a chunk of last year, which was awesome, ’cause we also had the opportunity to SHOW them some amazing things, like taking them to places like the British Museum, Egypt, Vatican City and many more places.  I am pretty sure that they learned LOADS last year!  They are looking forward to starting school next week though, getting new friends etc (and I am looking forward to having days with an empty house.. yay!!!).

So.. NY’s resolutions?

As it turns out, NY’s is a great time for reflection – but many of the things that we were all gung-ho about changing on Jan 1st… by the time it gets to Feb 1st have been forgotten, or at least, relaxed just a little.

One of my NY’s resolutions which actually came into effect around October last year, was to just look at what is going on in this industry and stick to our moral guns.  NY flicked over – and it allowed me to draw a line in the sand and say.. that was how it happened then, this is now.  So, Soren, John and I are still talking about how to explain what has been going on in the office discussions, but if you weren’t aware – we are now reviewing every product that goes forward for promotion.  It used to be ok to just say ‘yep, i know you – your previous stuff has been good, this should be decent’ – it is sooo not the case anymore.

So, we have some announcements coming up soon about where we are heading this year, as you know, we take a huge amount of pride in anything we release and don’t put our names on half-assed, scammy products – and coming up this year, we are even more resolved to doing this.  We really do value all of our readers, and I understand that when you subscribe to our emails, you are placing trust in what we are sharing with you – so, this year, I look forward to bringing you a ton of awesome, tested options for learning, growing and increasing your online success.

Sheesh… Blab on much?  lol.

Catch ya soon!
Cindy

P.S. Another NY rez is to update this more often, let me know if there are things you want to learn more about, hear more about – or just wanna tell me off for not coming and updating here enough.

Affiliate Marketing Revised

OK, forget everything you know about affiliate marketing. Everything you’ve been taught is simply out of date. If you play by the old rules, you will lose this game.

The big lie

You’ve been told it’s easy to get started as an affiliate. This is partially true. There’s no doubt it’s easier than starting your own business. But starting your own business is really hard, so it’s all relative.

The cold hard truth

To top it off you’ve been given false information. You’ve been told to find quality products. Next to look for easy keywords to target. Then to use keyword-based advertising to send visitors to the product. And sit back and collect the profits. But, it’s all wrong.

Forget keywords

There was a time when this worked. But keywords are too expensive now. Adapt and change…

The NEW game

There is a light at the end of the tunnel. Here’s how to win at this game.

• Do CPA marketing instead of product promotion
• Instead of researching keywords, research demographics
• Market on display networks

Start using CPA marketing

CPA means Cost Per Action. It’s much better than promoting a product. Because your visitor doesn’t have to buy anything. You earn a commission for having them perform an “action”. Entering their email into a form, for example. Which is much easier than getting them to buy something.

Utilize demographics data

Don’t waste time researching keywords (see below). Invest your research time into demographics. First you select your CPA offer. Next, you go to Quantcast.com. And discover the exact demographics of your ideal prospect.

Do image ad marketing

So you know what your promoting and you know who will be interested. You can target these exact demographics on display networks. And use images as your ads. And there was no keyword research required. Plus you’re going to save a ton of money. Display networks charge a fraction for image ad clicks vs. keyword ads.

In closing

This is truly a quick cash concept. Because getting started in CPA is free. Image ads are cheap. Display networks let you do demographics targeting. And you get paid for having them take a simple action.

7 reasons why you MUST have your own info product

Think about this: What’s the biggest reason millions of people log onto the internet each day? The answer is simple – they’re looking for information. Google alone serves up 400 million searches per day! Why should you care? Well, this is an opportunity for your to provide what people want – information. And when done correctly, you can get paid for it, too!

Info marketing 101

First, understand that this is the simplest kind of business there is. You develop a product that is nothing more than information. And then sell it to people who want to learn the info in it. It couldn’t get much simpler.

How does it work?

We’ve established that it’s a simple concept. But to make it a successful business there has to be value in the info you’re selling. So you’ll need to find out what info is valuable. How do figure that out?

A super simple trick is to just to check “answer” sites. Visit answers.yahoo.com or similar sites and you’ll get a good idea of the kinds of things people need help with. You want to find something a lot of people are asking about. That people are having trouble solving. And provide the answer – in the form of an info product.

An encouraging word

If you’re worried about how to write and ebook. Put it this way: An info product is just a bunch of articles strung together. Don’t try to write a whole ebook. Just try to write one or two articles a day. And when you have a collection, refine and expand on them and put them together into an ebook.

So, what’s so great about ebooks? Well, that bring me to the tile of this article Here are 7 reasons for you:

1. Simplicity

As soon as you have the pieces in place, it’s virtually maintenance free. Custom support is all but non-existent. So it’s nearly a 100% hands-free business. It’s like having an automated cash machine.

There’s no inventory. There’s nothing to ship. It’s digital.

2. Repackaging

After you’ve created a few ebooks. You can put together bigger more expensive information products. It’s nothing to combine the content from several ebooks. And your new product will be able to carry a much higher sticker price. There’s greater perceived value in a single big course. Instead of several small ebooks.

3. Private label right /h2 p Since it’s your product, you can offer other people the resale rights. Recently, resell rights have become extremely popular, because most people simply don’t have the time, money and effort it takes to create their own products. Plus, you’re selling the same product . . . but for 3 times the price for the rights!

4. Leverage

Leverage your ebook by using the content in different ways. Use part of it to make an autoresponder series. You can use this to build a list that you can marketing to again and again.

5. More leverage

You can also take parts of your ebook and turn it into smaller eBooks. Then use these to generate leads for the main product. They can be free or low prices. Either way, you win because you’re feeding your funnel. And if you’re really clever, you’ll let your affiliate use these reports as marketing tools. Which brings us to…

6. An affiliate army

This is one of the biggest reasons of all. Once you have your own product. You’re able to let other people market it for you. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a bunch of other people doing your marketing for you? Well, you *need* your own product to get affiliates.

7. JVs

OK, this is by far the biggest reason why. The number one way to launch your success is through joint ventures. So, I’d say this is the most important reason to have you own products. Without your own products, you can’t do JVs.

Summing it up

If you don’t want to sell digital products by now, then you haven’t been paying attention. You’ll be the master of your destiny. Because it’s your business and you control it. So, decide to just start:

• Visit an “answers” site
• Find out what people need to know
• Write about the answers

The steps on how to write an ebook are really that easy. And in short time you’ll have the foundation for your own info product.

Using Web Audio for Success

It’s undeniable that if you add audio to websites it will increase your results. In fact, not using audio is a big mistake. It will boost your opt-in rate. Audio increases sales.

What makes it so effective?

There’s no real mystery. Audio breaks the silence of the web. It adds a human touch to your site. And makes people feel they’re dealing with a real person. In short, it makes your site come alive. Which fascinates greater interaction from your visitors.

Some more benefits

There are actually two profit boosts from using audio. You will close more sales. Secondly, you will not have to spend as much to make the sales. You won’t have to hire someone to write your sales letter. You can just add your own audio. An authentic message from you will do more than the best ad copy.

You’ll also get better conversions on your list opt-ins. Most people need to be led by the hand. So you just add a simple audio that says: Fill in your name and email and click submit. A simple message like this will increase your opt-in conversions by 305% or more!

Some ways to use audio

Put a welcome message that plays automatically on your site, Most people abandon a website within just a few seconds. Your welcome message could make them stay when they would normally leave.

A guided tour. It’s the same as when you use audio to increase your subscribers. Use an audio message to lead your visitors through a process. That includes filling in your order form!< /p>

Get testimonials for your services and products. A written testimonial is good. But what’s even better are audio testimonials. It’s much hard to fake an audio testimonial. Audio adds a level of higher believability. Which boosts your sales for sure.

Here’s a bonus tip

What about creating an entire product using audio? You’ll be able to produce audio products faster than any other kind. Plus people love audio products. Think about how popular podcast are. And you can get someone to transcribe them for very little money. This is the easiest way to “write” an eBook!

Is it hard to add audio?

It’s actually really easy. You can find a lot of programs that create audio buttons for you. There’s no knowledge required on your part. The software records the audio, creates the button code, etc. Just paste the code you copy from the software. So don’t let this stop you.

Summing it up

Just a reminder of why you want to start using audio. Using website audio will increase your conversion rates. You’ll enjoy more customer sales. You’ll get more subscribers. And don’t forget that you can easily create sales pages and products in a flash. It’s a less often used medium. But you’ll save a lot of time and money. Don’t be lazy! Add some audio today.

Sneaky Affiliate Tricks

Yes affiliate marketing rocks, but it’s really hard to get started. The reason is because there is a lot of competition. What you need to do is come up with methods no one else is using. It’s also hard to figure out what to do because there’s a lot of information out there. Here’s one trick that almost no one else is using.

Affiliate videos

No one would deny the power and popularity of video. Video online is everywhere because people love it. About the only thing that keeps people’s attention anymore is video. So using it in your is a no-brainer!

Examples of how to use video for affiliate marketing:

• Do a testimonial video
• Do a video walk-through
• Ordering
• Do a preview video

Record your testimonial

This is probably the easiest of all. Just click record on your web cam and start talking. It doesn’t have to be professional or polished. Listening to your honest endorsement makes your viewers feel comfortable buying. And the mess-ups or mistakes just make the video more real. So serious, just turn on the camera and talk. Use one of the other ideas if you’re feeling shy.

Record a walk-through

This is a great way to promote something without selling it. Basically you’re doing a tutorial on how to use the product. And while they watch you use it, they think, “I should buy that.” As long as the product is good, the tutorial makes them want it. So pick some really helpful aspect of the product and show how to use that.

Record the order process

This could be the most powerful method of all. Record yourself placing an order. There is nothing more motivating than watching someone buy something live. First of all it’s what’s called “social proof”. People will feel more comfortable buying after seeing you do it. This also makes your viewers trust you. Your advice is easier to trust if they can see you’re doing what you tell them to do. And finally, it creates envy. It’s simple – you have it. Now they want it. To really cap this one off, end your video with: If you want to see the inside, you’ll have to order it yourself.

Record a preview of the members area

This one is perfect for building up the value of what you’re promoting. What you do is record a tour of the back end. You show them the entire contents of what they get. It also reduces the reservations of skeptics. Once they’ve seen the back-end, they know it’s real.

You can do this!

No special skills are required. Anyone can create stunning videos with some easy-to-use software. All the work is done by the program. So please don’t let technical worries slow you down. Keep focused on the rewards:

• Increase sales You will increase your affiliate sales when you start using videos. People love video, so please use them.
• Reduce refunds Less of your commissions will be clawed back, too. Your customers will know what they’re getting into ahead of time. So they’ll be less likely to refund.
• Beat your competition! This is such a simple technique. But only a very small percentage do it. This puts you out in front of the rest.

Take your affiliate promotions to a higher level and getting started with this now. Not using video is detrimental to you business. So do it!

Email List Building Strategies

You need a list. That’s a given. It’s the one thing above all else that matters most. Once you have a list built, you can market to it again and again. It’s like a renewable resource that allows you to make money on demand.

 

OK, but how?

Here are the three components of list building:

• The Squeeze Page
• Your Bribe
• The Opt-in Success Page

The Squeeze Page – Your opt-in page is the page you send visitors to to build your list. It’s the page where you ask them for their email address. So, obviously it has to be well designed. It’s also got to be free from distractions. And have a clear call to action.

Failure to include a great “call to action” will result in failure. This is a definitive message that tells your visitor what to do. And if you don’t include it, they won’t opt in. It’s strange, but if you don’t tell people what to do, they won’t do it.

One way to really spice up your squeeze page is to make it a video squeeze page. Adding video will help keep your visitors attention. Plus it give you a chance to tell them to opt in multiple times. Then at the end of the video you can print “sign up now” on the video.

Now, don’t worry if you have no idea how to make videos. You can hire freelancers to do this for you for a few hundred dollars. Or you can get email list tools that include video squeeze pages.

Your Bribe – The second component is the reason they are opting into your list. You have to give people a compelling reason to give your their email. Email privacy is very important to most people. This means your bribe needs to be very attractive.

You have to provide value in your bribe for it to be good. That means you make it something people would actually want to receive. And can benefit from. A few ideas:

• A free report
• Software
• Training videos
• A multi-part email series

It all boils down to content. It’s got to be something helpful for your new subscribers. And of course it has to be free. Bottom line is it’s got to be worth more to them than their email address.

If you’re worried about creating this content, don’t be. It’s super easy to hire someone to create it for you. You just pick the topic and they create the training. For example, you could have them write a 5-part email course. Each email will cost between $20 and $25. So, a great premium will cost you around $100 – $150.

There are also list building products that include the follow up email series. Two things to keep in mind when writing (or buying) and email training series. First, it must provide value to your subscribers. And it’s nice if it earns you some money, too. The easiest way to do this is to market affiliate products in the emails. This is such a simple solution because you don’t have to create the product. And you can earn some commissions immediately from your emails.

The Opt-in Success Page – The “thank you” page is the final piece of the puzzle. This is the page your subscriber sees after they opt in. It’s nice to give them some great content right away. That way, they feel glad that they gave you their email address. And it helps you establish the relationship. So when they get your email, they’re happy to hear from you.

You can use a “done for you” email marketing system. Or you can go the DIY route. And do your own writing for this content. Or pay a freelancer to write the content for you.

Summing it up

Whether you decide to build your email funnel yourself. Or hire someone else to do it for you. Or go with a complete package. The important thing is that you build your own list starting now. Because once its built… You’re free to make money at the push of a button.

Affiliate Business Tips

If you’re not preselling, you’re losing money

The most important thing you can do to increase your affiliate commissions is to presell properly.

Before we begin, we need to first define what preselling is. There are two components to it – art science. It’s a process of taking your reader and getting them ready to buy. Then when they’re ready, refer them to the product website so they can buy it. When done correctly, your reader will not even notice.

In a nutshell, you provide value. And then refer them to the product website. In a second we’ll talk about how to do actually it. Before we get into that, you should understand what’s in it for you. Here are a few benefits of preselling:

• builds trust – And gaining the trust of your readers helps them want to click your links. Which obviously means you’ll make more sales.
• It disarms your reader – Nobody likes to be sold something. By not doing that to them, your reader is less defensive. Unguarded reading means they’re not filtering what you say. And your intention is conveyed more easily.
• It puts them in a buying mood – Your readers are now receiving your message. And in turn, they’re open to other messages, as well. For example, the sales message on the page you’re linking to. Sending them to the sales page in this state makes them more receptive to the actual pitch.
• You make more money – You’ve prepped them and referred them in the right state of mind. Open to the sales message and feeling safe. The only thing that can result is increased sales!
• It boosts customer loyalty – Plus, they feel they’ve made the buying decision on their own. Instead of being manipulated into buying. And this makes them feel better about the product they purchased.
• It boosts your profits – A satisfied customer doesn’t ask for a refund. And that translates to more commission staying in your affiliate business.

The need to presell is clear. You increase your profits. And increase your customer satisfaction. Everybody wins!

How does it work?

Now you know whey preselling is critical. And hopefully you’re convinced you need to start doing it. You’re ready to learn how to do it properly. Like we talked about before, it’s an art. And it’s a science.

Mastering the art

First, you have to gain the trust of your reader, so they let their guard down. Honestly, the only way to do this is to provide real value in you content. The art of this is to provide enough information to be of value, but not enough to satiate the hunger. The idea is that they want more and the sales page you send them to gives them more. Plus they’re not guarded, so they’re more open and likely to purchase the product.

It’s also a science

There are also several key elements that need to be included.

One of these key elements is the presentation of the information. You need to know where you’re going before you begin. Your end goal is to make a sale of the product you’re preselling. There are two ways to accomplish this with great content. One way is to give them enough info to whet the appetite, but not enough to satisfy it. Or you can give them so much information that it feels overwhelming to do what you’re talking about. In either case, the product you’re referring them to solves the problem for them.

Next, you have to use “convert linking” methods. You have directly to the home page of the product. When you do this, you’re click-throughs go way up. But how are you going to get credit for the sale, if you don’t include your affiliate link? Well, that’s part of the science of this whole process. You “pre-cookie” your reader before sending them to the sales page.

The next trick is to hyperlink specific words and phrases inside the content of the article you’re providing. It’s habitual to click on words and phrases that are hyperlinked. And if the words you hyperlink relate, your reader will naturally click them for more information.

Putting all of this together creates a powerful affiliate marketing formula for success.

Unfortunately…

It’s extremely difficult to do this correctly. Let’s talk about everything required to put this plan into action: Great content. The entire process depends on your being able to provide useful information to your readers. To do that you have to have enough information to be valuable and be able to present it in a useful way. Preselling skills. First, you have to give good information. You also have to present the info in a way that provides real value. And somehow also make them want to learn more. Or make the information so overwhelming they realize they can’t do it on their own.

Choosing your products. After that you have to figure out which products you want to promote. If you can manage to get the article written well. You’ve wasted all your effort if the product doesn’t sell well.

Technical skills. One of the keys to this system is using “covert cookies” for the tracking. This is actually pretty simple – just embed a 1 pixel X 1 pixel image and set your affiliate link as the “source” of the image. (Just don’t mess it up. Otherwise, you won’t get credit for your sales.)

Wrapping it up:

Now you know what it takes to be a Presell Pro. And doing this increases your affiliate commissions by over 500%! The important thing is to use these techniques for everything you promote as an affiliate. Please don’t be lazy. Make the extra effort required to propel your affiliate business to the next level.

Membership Niche Selection Tips

Let’s talk about niche selection. This is very important to ensuring the profitability of your membership website.

Number 1 – Discover Niches with Fanatics

The number 1 thing you have to do is find fanatics if you want a profitable membership website. Simply put, a fanatic is someone who’s willing to spend time and more importantly money on a topic they are interested in. OK, so we know what a fanatic is, but how do we find them?

• Here’s something you may not have considered – magazines! We’re so internet-based these days, it’s easy to forget about them. It’s becoming increasingly difficult to run a print magazine. So if you see one on the shelves you know they are making money, which means that there are enough people interested in what they’re saying to make it profitable. This is a very good indication that it’s a good niche for you to go into.
• Pay attention throughout the day in your regular activities. See what people are talking about on the radio, TV, at parties, in public, etc. If people are talking about it, they are interested in it. And that may also mean they’re willing to pay money to learn more about it.
• Again, looking in the physical world for clues you can tell there are lots of people interested in something if there are clubs and organizations around the topic. Conventions are expensive to hold and attend, so if one if going on that’s another strong indication of a good niche to go into with your membership website.
• And of course there are all the things you have an interest in, too! There’s a good chance that others are interested in these things, as well. Making money is fun and it’s even more fun if you can do it in a niche you’re excited about.
• One simple and easy way to find out what’s hot is Google Trends. Google Trends tells you the most popular current search terms. These topics are the hottest topics because lots and lots of people want information about them. Building a membership business around things people are actively searching for is a great way to ensure your success.

Second – Analyze the “commerciality”

After selecting a possible niche to build your membership site around, the next step is to find out if it’s a profitable niche to be in. The quickest way to find out is to determine if others are profiting in your potential niche.

Here’s a punch list for figuring out if anyone’s making money in your niche:

• First go to Google and type in the name of your niche followed by “blog” and “forum”. If there are blogs and forums related to it, that’s a good sign. This means there is a large group of people already assembled for you to market to.
• Search Amazon, Google shopping and eBay to see if people are creating and selling products in the niche. It’s a good sign if there are because it tells you people are making money here.
• Look at Google Adwords for the same ads are running over time. If people are running the same ad over time it means they are making money in the niche. They would not continue to spend money on the ads if there were not making a return from them.

Finally – Figure out your barrier to entry

After figuring out a good niche and determining that other people are making money in it, the last thing to do is decide if you will be able to enter the market. How do you gauge the ease of entry?

• Look at the product types in this niche. You want to find a niche where information products are being sold as the norm. Membership websites based on information are the easiest to start and maintain.
• The next thing to look at is the competition. You don’t want to try to break into a saturated marketing, so figure out how many people are already selling in this niche.
• Size vs. Competition. Some competition is good. It means that this is a profitable market. And as long as the size of the market is large enough to support the competition, you’re fine.
• How quickly do people in this market make buying decisions and are the ready to buy? Every market is different. Sometimes people are looking for information and are ready to pay for it right now. And sometimes it takes weeks, months or even years for them to make the decision to purchase.

In Summary

So far, we’ve talked about exactly what it takes to pick a great niche: One with a hungry crowd of fanatics, who are ready to spend money on information about their topic. And you’ve determined your barrier to entry is small enough to give it a go. If you’ve done your homework, your business will be a success because you already know your market is a profitable one with room for you. Learning how to run a membership website is a topic for another article…

Affiliate Marketing Secrets

Winning Affiliate Marketing Strategies

Affiliate marketing is by far the fastest way to get started making money online. What “affiliate marketing” means is that you just refer visitors to someone else’s website, they handle the sales, support and billing, and you get paid 50% or more

Here’s just a few benefits

1. You’re able to start right now without having to create a product, set up a website and sales page, design the website, develop marketing materials, or get a merchant account and CRM.
2. It’s completely hands-freefor you because they handle the billing, support, maintenance, etc.
3. You have nearly zero risk because you already know the product sells, because the product owner has already made sure the product sells. So if you send visitors you will get paid.

Looking at these benefits, it’s clear that affiliate marketing is the way to go!

There is one major drawback…

You work hard to send the traffic to the product owner’s website, but once you do that you will never see those visitors again. Most of them will not buy on their first visit, which means you’re losing over 90% of the traffic right off the top. That’s fine for the product owner because she can sell to them again and again, but you can’t.

What’s the solution?

What you need to do is capture the contact info of your visitors before sending them to the product website. This way you can follow up with them and keep sending them back to the sales page to increase your chances of making the sale. And if you’re really on top of your game, you’ll then send to a content mini-site in between.

Here are the benefits of doing affiliate marketing like this:

1. Owning a list of potential buyers gives you the ability to market additional products at the push of a button.
2. By providing great content without a sales pitch, you put them in a buying mood. So when you do send them to the product website, they’re much more likely to buy.

In order to set a system like this up, you will need the following affiliate marketing tools:

1. A lead capture page, preferably with video
2. At least a few pages of great content
3. A multi-part email series with at least 5 emails in it

You’ll use the squeeze page as the place to send your visitors instead of using the product website. It captures the name and email of your visitors and puts them into your autoresponder, which then begins sending out the 5-part email series. After subscribing them to your email list, it redirects them to your content mini-site.

The content pages provide valuable information for your visitors and make them more receptive to the sales message that you’ll link to from inside the content. While they’re reading the content you’ve provided, your email system is already following up with them to send them back to the product website again and again.

Putting all of these pieces together will increase your sales by 500% or more, so it’s obviously worth the time and energy to do it. After setting it up, you simply send visitors to your squeeze page instead of the sales page. And the rest runs on auto-pilot.

Setting it all up yourself requires some skill, and if you’re not up to it, you can use a service like Affiliate Silver Bullet. These kinds of services will build the whole system for you and then just give you a video squeeze page (with video), pre-written emails, content pages, etc. On the plus side, you’ll save a ton of time and money vs. trying to build this yourself. Plus you can get started instantly. One negative is that there will be other people using this same a href=”http://affiliatesilverbullet.com”affiliate marketing system/a. However, the odds of you and them both finding the same visitor are so small, that it doesn’t really matter.

Alternatively, you can use a service like Elance to “outsource” each of these compnents. Whichever way you decided to go, it’s critical to get an affiliate marketing system like this in place, if you’re at all serious about your business.