No matter how much it makes you cringe, here’s something you must do on a regular basis. It’s vital that you know exactly what you are putting your customers through. What looks like a perfect sales funnel on your end could indeed be a house of horrors from the customers’ point of view.
That’s why you want to pretend to be your own customer. Go to your sales page, click the buy link and proceed all the way through.
Sure, you were quick to add lots of upsells, down-sells, cross-sells, recommended products and so forth. But what is it like from the customer’s point of view?
Does it take an eternity to get through to the download link?
Does every link go where it should?
Do your customers arrive at your download page only to find the recommended product is totally unrelated, no longer available or even the product they just bought?
Does the opt-in form obliterate the download links?
Do links to other marketer’s products on the recommended section lead where they should go? Or are they going to dead pages? Or worse yet, has that marketer changed the page to a squeeze page so he can steal your buyers?
Do the download links work properly?
And what about the wording on each page – are you noticing mistakes that are costing you money?
Going through this process can be painful but also highly profitable. You’ll find your mistakes and be able to correct them before another customer has to go through this maze.
This process is worth your time because your customers deserve the very best experience possible.
A lot of people think that to be a coach or consultant, you must have built a few million dollar businesses and have a ton of experience under your belt. Not true.
To sell coaching services, you have to be really good at ONE thing. Just one.
It’s up to you what that one thing is.
Maybe you have a unique traffic system. Or you’re really good at guest blog posting. Or you can make videos that set people’s hair on fire.
Whatever your one thing is, if you’re good at it, there are people out there that want you to show them what you know. And they don’t just want a 20 page pdf or even a set of videos.
They want one-on-one HELP.
And that’s where you come in.
True, in the beginning you might charge lower prices for your coaching.
But as soon as you can show you get results not just for yourself, but also for others, it’s time to raise your fees.
And don’t even let anyone tell you that you can’t coach. Don’t even let you tell you that.
People need your help. It’s selfish not to offer it.
It is a win/win for both you and your new clients to get them off to a fast start. Leverage your knowledge to help others, grow your business and create a new income stream through coaching.
One of the things we hear all the time is that we need to ‘avoid shiny object syndrome’ and focus on what we’re doing. And they’re absolutely right. Nothing beats focus and work for getting something done. That said, I’m going to make a case for the fad bandwagon – but not the case you might expect.
First, what do I mean by a fad or trend?
Simple – every time a new social media platform becomes popular, or a new marketing technique is the latest rage, it becomes a marketing fad. Everybody is talking about it. Some people are doing it. And a few people are profiting from it like crazy. These are the marketers who are creating and selling the products to feed the ‘fad frenzy.’ And they are making a killing.
The fact is, you can do the same if you choose to, without sacrificing your focus on your main objectives. Here’s how:
Keep an eye out for the next up and coming trend. When you see it, decide if you want to try it. Not in a super-serious, set-everything-else-aside way, but simply as something you do for fun to see if it works. If it interests you, then play around with it. See if you can make it work, and if so, how well.
Frankly just about every one of the latest greatest marketing techniques does indeed work. It’s just a question of do they offer a high enough return for the time and effort involved. If you’re short on time, outsource the experiment and have someone do it for you. Keep close tabs on the steps involved and the results achieved.
If you have success, record it on video or write it up in a pdf with screenshots. And sell it as a product.
That’s right – I’m going to tell you what a lot of big marketers already know but frankly don’t talk about – give the people what they want.
These products on the latest greatest marketing techniques sell like hotcakes. For example, a while ago there was hardly a TikTok marketing course to be seen. Now they’re everywhere. And the people who produced these courses are making bank.
Now to be clear: Do not offer something that you haven’t proven works. This is not a method to scam people – this is a method to give them what they want. If the technique doesn’t do what it says it will do, don’t make the product. Be 100% honest. And have fun.
Experimenting with new marketing techniques can be a blast. And now and then you’ll run across a new system or technique that you want to add to your own marketing arsenal on a permanent basis. Think of this testing of marketing techniques as a hobby that can pay off handsomely.
It’s a win-win-win because:
– You make a new product with proven results that sells like hotcakes.
– Customers get to buy exactly what they want, and you can feel good about selling it to them because you KNOW for a fact it works (you tried it!).
– And sometimes you learn a very valuable new skill for your own business.
So yes, if you’re interested and if it won’t interfere with your main business, by all means jump on the next new shiny object and see where it takes you!
I can’t stress the importance of what I’m about to tell you enough. If you look at entrepreneurs who have made fortunes – I mean SERIOUS wealth – in almost every case the money came not from inside the business, but from SELLING the business.
You’ve heard numerous news stories of internet companies selling just 1-3 years after their initial start-up. And the businesses you hear about sell for 7, 8 and even 9 figures.
If this sounds out of reach right now, picture this scenario: You start a business today, and in 6 months to 2 years you sell it for 6 figures. Would that make a great payday for you?
Now you might be thinking that selling your business is something you don’t need to worry about until long after you start it. Not so.
If you are starting a business right now, you should also be considering your exit strategy. After all, you could get bored with what you’re doing and want out. Or maybe you need quick cash. Or you decide to go in an entirely different direction. So you decide to sell your business.
If you’ve laid the groundwork, you should be able to sell quite quickly and for a very good price.
Here’s what you need to know:
– Don’t think of it as flipping a website. Think of it as selling a BUSINESS. That’s because buyers don’t want a website. They can build their own website cheap enough.
What they do want is a ready to go, money-generating cash-cow business, so make your plans accordingly.
– Make your business transferable from Day 1. Every product should be its own entity – after all, a single product can actually be an entire business.
Give it a website of its own, its own list, its own customer base, its own affiliate program and affiliate list, etc.
– Don’t brand it exclusively with your name. It’s fine to attach your name to your XYZ product, but don’t call it “yournameproduct.”
In other words, “Bob Smith’s Traffic Gorilla Mania Course” is fine. “Bob Smith’s traffic course” is not. In the first case, the product is Traffic Gorilla Mania, a name that anyone can sell. In the second case, the product is Bob Smith’s Traffic, a product forever branded as belonging to Bob Smith.
Imagine you’re Bob Smith, and you sell your traffic course business to someone else. That person then sells the course. Who do people ask for help? You. After all, your name is on the course.
Then let’s say the buyer alters the course and now it stinks. Who will people blame? You. Now you see why your name needs to be completely separate from the product name.
Yes, it’s a bit strange to think about your exit strategy when you’re just starting a business. But when it comes time to sell, you’ll be glad you did.
One more thing – what if you have a partner?
Write into your agreement what will happen if you sell. Just look at the possibilities and agree on how it will play out if one of you wants to sell to the other, or if you both want to sell to a third party.
You can make a good amount of money by making each of your businesses as stand-alone as possible, and then selling them when the time is right. In fact, selling your business can potentially earn you more than you made running the business.
So plan ahead, and make sure you are building your business-selling exit strategy directly into your business itself!
When I got started in online marketing, I was lucky. Someone told me exactly what to do, and I didn’t know any better than to follow his instructions to the letter. I looked at it this way – the guy was a self-made millionaire. I was broke. So what was I going to do – take what he told me and ‘fix’ it?
Somehow make it better? Improve upon it? There’s an old expression: If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it. I took his instructions as gospel and did what he said. Soon I was making so much money, I was frankly astounded.
The biggest mistake I see new marketers making is they try to innovate. They have a better idea. A better system. A better method. And they almost always fail.
Look, there is a place for innovation once you know what you’re doing…
… But not when you’re first getting started.
Imagine you’re teaching someone to drive, and they get a great idea: ‘Why not just beep the horn when they’re about to hit someone? This way that person can get out of the way, and they never need to step on the brakes.’
See how crazy that is?
But it’s exactly how new marketers tend to think: “Forget the old ways, I’ve thought of a better way no one has ever thought of before.”
Uh-huh.
Instead, if you want to meet success quickly in this business, take a system that is already working and copy it.
Yes, that’s right – I’m advocating that you flat out copy what’s already working.
Are you in the diet niche? Then do this: Purchase the top 5 or 10 diet information products. Pay close attention to every step of the funnel. Take screenshots and notes. Pour through the products and see what’s good about them and what’s missing.
Then create your own product based on what you’ve learned, and set up a sales funnel based on the funnels you went through. Do this and I almost guarantee you’ll have a good selling product.
Online marketing isn’t hard if you’ll simply do what’s already working. But being human, we tend to think we can do better. Or we think we should do better and that it’s not right to copy systems that others are using.
But all industries are built upon the knowledge of those who went before – even those that innovate like crazy.
I’ll give you an example: It’s July 2003 and you’ve just co-founded Tesla Motors with the intention of building cars.
Are you going to start from scratch, with zero knowledge of cars and engines and how they run?…
… or are you going to take all of the knowledge accumulated over the last century and a half of car making, and then BUILD UPON this knowledge to create your own cars?
See?
Even companies like Tesla don’t reinvent the wheel – they make it better AFTER they’ve learned everything they can about what’s working now.
When you’re just starting out, find a system you like that you know is working, and then copy it. Once you’ve got it working, then and only then do you start innovating.
There are lots of great ideas here so please pay close attention… Let’s say you write an email to promote a product. Your email is basically a review of the product, and with it you make lots of sales. Now you’re done, right? Not even close.
Take that very same email and repurpose it into a review. Post the review on your blog under “reviews” and optimize it for SEO. Don’t panic – you’re basically optimizing for just a couple of key phrases like “XYZ Product Review.” Done right, you’ll get steady free traffic to your reviews, and sales, too.
Capture the email addresses of these additional visitors when possible and of course capture your buyer’s emails addresses so you can sell them more stuff.
Now think about what you just did – you wrote one email, made some sales, put the email on your site, made more sales and got more people on your list. Not bad.
But we’re just getting started.
Let’s say you write a 35 page report on traffic strategies. You sell the report for $10, and you make lots of sales. It’s a good start. But you are leaving SO MUCH money on the table.
Here’s what you can do…
At the end of your report (which is a really great report, btw) offer the reader personal one-on-one coaching tailored to them, based on the report, and charge a whole lot more than $10. A LOT more.
And don’t panic. You already have the information you need – it’s in the report you wrote. All you’ll be doing is working with this client on-on-one to tailor a solution for their business. “Let’s do A, then B, then C.” You’re simply acting as a coach or consultant. They’re getting the result they want and you’re getting a nice 3 or 4 figure fee.
But we’re not done yet.
Take the content from your report and make a video course. Put the course on ClickBank and pull in more sales. Setup an affiliate program while you’re at it (super easy to do with ClickBank), and the sales will continue to flow without any additional effort on your part.
Now take the content from your report and create a webinar with it. At the end, offer your personal coaching service. Or an upsell. Or whatever you want that fits.
Are you getting the point?
These are just a few examples of how you can repurpose your best content to earn yourself 10 times more money. You don’t necessarily need more content. You just need to use the content you do create wisely, and repurpose whenever possible to reach more people and create more customers for your business.
As a youngster – around 8 years old – the alleys near my house in southern California offered new treasures every Saturday.
Saturday was trash day and getting an early start was the best way to get the best stuff that people had thrown away.
Trash pickin’ was a skillful art. You had to know how to pick the Best trash so you could sell it. I sold my products proudly and knew I would always have or look for something good to sell.
Having something important to sell made my life feel good. I loved that I was able to provide something that somebody wanted.
When I got older, I became a self-employed plumber after many years in the trade. Going into a stranger’s home and leaving an hour later with a check for a few thousand dollars to start my new project gave me that same exhilaration that I first experienced as a kid – an exhilaration I continually searched and yearned for since the early days of trash picking in the alleys.
Being a “ seasoned seller “, I met up with internet marketing head-on in 1998. So many new horizons to conquer came alive and were constantly emerging – Non-stop..all day long.
And as you might guess, confusion and bewilderment at all the new and shiny objects challenged my dreams of internet riches. So many seemingly beautiful and easy-to-master websites… So Why couldn’t I sell anything? Or promote a simple network marketing company?
There are a lot of answers to that question – like missing technical skills especially needed back then And Just all the know-how to recognize the profitable products and programs and specifically what it was that made A program stand alone and above the others.
Certainly, I was quite a long way off from being where I needed to be. But what I lacked in internet marketing experience, I made up for with a never-ending will of Determination to Succeed!
After a lot of the normal hard knocks and struggles of learning the Rules of internet marketing, I developed the ability to Discern Diplomatically the traits of a website and became an Ambassador to a wide range of claims about How to Make Money Online.
Don’t do like I and so many have done. You can bypass the malarky and avoid All the traps and pitfalls of making – or Not making – money online.
What’s the easiest way to make money online, without having to create a product or a sales page? Affiliate marketing, of course. 🙂
So, why is it that most affiliate marketers never make nearly what they could make? Anyone has the potential to make HUGE money in affiliate marketing, yet 90% or more of affiliates make a pittance (I’ll wager the number is closer to 98%, in fact.)
Think about this: If you earn an average of $50 on each sale in a sales funnel you promote, and you make 6 sales, you’ve made $300. Sounds good, right?
But guaranteed, there is someone else who made 600 sales and walked away with $30,000.
Why did they make 600 sales when you made just 6?
There are reasons why a handful of affiliate marketers do amazingly well, and everyone else barely makes a profit.
And marketers who understand this will always have a tremendous advantage over marketers who don’t.
1: Build a Relationship
I know you’ve heard it before, but are you doing it? People buy people, not products.
If you want them to open your email and click your link, or visit your Facebook Group and click a link, you’ve got to have a RELATIONSHIP with your people.
This is so simple to do, yet few marketers take the time.
Start with a blog post that is all about you, and then send new opt-ins to the post so they can get to know you. Make the post silly, funny and most of all REAL. Talk about the stupid stuff you’ve done, the mistakes you’ve made, where you live and so forth.
Do you have a strange hobby or unusual taste in food? Include that. Do you have 17 pets? Talk about them. Do you work until 3 in the morning and sleep until noon? Mention that.
Reveal the real you. Not the details people don’t want, but the ones that amuse and interest. You’re looking to make a real connection, not give a resume.
And above all else, don’t make your life seem like a series of magnificent accomplishments. No one is going to relate to someone who turns everything they touch into gold.
But they are going to relate to the time you bought Bitcoin when it was worthless and sold it just before it took off, or the time you thought you could fly and jumped off your uncle’s barn into the manure pile.
And don’t stop with your ‘about me’ page, either. Use this relationship building in your lead magnet, your emails, your other blog posts and so forth.
Always inject a little bit about yourself. Not so much that you bore people, of course, or make everything seem about you. But just enough to keep it real.
Think about relating an event to a friend. Aren’t you going to give your own perceptions of what happened, as well as tell about how you got out of your car and stepped in the mud puddle just before your big presentation?
Use this same method of personal, one-on-one friend communication with your readers as well.
Post on your blog as often as possible, and we’re talking every day or two. Encourage your list to subscribe to Feedburner or the equivalent so they know when you add a new post.
Your readers will realize you’re a real person who isn’t out to pitch them a new product every 5 minutes. And they’ll gladly read your sales emails much more readily when they know there is a real live human being who is sending them these messages.
2: Use Your Own Voice
How many emails do you receive that say something along the lines of, “Buy this product – this product is the greatest product ever – you will be sorry if you miss this – so rush right over and buy it now.”
Yeah. Same old stuff, over and over again.
There is a marketer (or maybe several, but I’m thinking of one in particular) who sells MASSIVE quantities of this exact type of emails as a swipe file to new marketers.
Like a brand-new marketer couldn’t write their own 25 word email that basically says, “GO BUY THIS NOW!”
People are TIRED of getting these emails. You’re tired of getting these emails. I’m tired of getting these emails.
Same phrases, same message, same B.S.
If you’re not going to stand apart from the crowd, then you’re going to have to share the same crumbs they’re getting.
Instead, take 30 minutes and write your own promotional email in your own voice.
Forget hype. Be sincere. Be honest. “Hey, this product isn’t for everyone. I don’t even know if it’s for you. But if you have this problem, then maybe this is your solution. Check it out and decide if it’s right for you, because I know it’s worked like crazy for some people. And it’s on sale right now, too.”
I’ve written emails where I basically tell people not to buy something unless they really really want it or need it. “Don’t buy this if you already know how to do xyz.” “Don’t buy this if you’re not going to be doing this type of marketing.” This is only for people who want (fill in the blank.) It’s like I’m trying to talk them out of it, which paradoxically often results in more sales, not fewer.
But the point isn’t tricking them into buying; it’s to be honest. Because you know what? That latest, greatest product you’re promoting ISN’T what everyone on your list needs. Some of them, sure. The rest of them, no.
Do you have any idea how refreshing it is to open an email that says, “Here’s a new product, thought you might want to know, but please don’t buy it if you’re not going to use it.”
The first time I got an email like that, I bought the product without even reading the sales letter. True story. I was just so happy that someone wasn’t ramming a sale down my throat, that I jumped at the chance to buy it.
Weird but true.
My point is, be you. Be honest. Talk to your readers as though they are your best friends and you don’t want to lose your best friends by acting like a carnival barker who is here today and pulled up stakes (vanished) tomorrow with their money.
3: Email a LOT
This is the one where people like to argue with me, and I understand that.
You’ve heard over and over again that you shouldn’t email too often, or you’ll upset your subscribers, right?
After all, every time you email, there is the potential that a subscriber will hit the unsubscribe button.
Do you know what the potential is when you DON’T email? Nothing. No opens, no clicks, no sales… not even any relationship building.
Do you want people to open and read your emails? Then send out those emails EVERY DAY.
Here’s why:
First, almost no one will see every email you send out. Let’s say you’ve got a sale on one of your products. Don’t you think your readers might like to know about it? But if they miss the one and only email you send that lets them know, then they’ve missed out on the discount and you LOST a sale.
Second, send emails at different times. I opened someone’s email just yesterday, decided I was VERY interested in the new membership he was selling, clicked the link and discovered it was no longer available.
What happened? This particular marketer only sends out emails at 1:00 a.m. my time, so I don’t even see most of his emails in the avalanche of mail I get before I wake up.
Third, if you’re sending email once a week or once a month, your readers are forgetting who the heck you are. And when you finally do send an email, they think it’s spam.
Fourth, if you mail more often, you will make more money. Don’t take my word on this, just do it for one month. Send out one email per day, every day, for 30 days. Put a promotion in each one. See if you haven’t made more – a LOT more – money during that time period than during the previous month.
And by the way, I’m not saying JUST send out a promotion in each email. Make sure you have some content in there as well, even if it’s just an amusing anecdote.
4: Think of affiliate marketing as a BUSINESS
This isn’t a hobby, nor is it an add-on for an additional income stream.
Even if you go on vacation, be prepared to send out an email every day. Schedule them in advance or write them on vacation. Either way, affiliate marketing to your list is a business that you can’t just jump into when you need cash and forget about the rest of the time.
You don’t have many support issues, since the product owners handle this. You don’t have to worry about creating products, sales pages and so forth. You don’t have to drive traffic, unless it’s to build your list bigger.
With so much you don’t have to do, there’s no reason not to focus your time and energy into building relationships with your list and promoting to them every single day.
Affiliate marketing can be some of the easiest money you’ve ever made, if you put in the time and effort to make it a real business.
Hi, it’s Billy and this is my new website. Stay tuned… I’ll have great things to share!
For starters, here’s an article I think you’ll enjoy…
It’s called: “Make the Leap to Home Business Success”
If you are going to build a successful home business, you need 3 “intangibles.” These are things that must come from WITHIN you.
===> Intangible 1 <===
First, you must have a strong WHY.
Why must you make a home business work? What’s driving you? What is it that you CAN’T have in your life anymore and/or what is it that you absolutely MUST HAVE now?
For me, I couldn’t stand working 12+ hours a day anymore and missing the experience of my children growing up. I also absolutely HAD TO HAVE the freedom of being able to control my life and finances through a little box that I could carry with me anywhere in the world and not be tied to anyone’s time pressures or demands but my own. That was my carrot and my stick. I felt a great pain deep in my gut of missing out on my children’s lives and the incredible freedom that succeeding in this business would provide for me. I found my why. You MUST find yours.
===> Intangible 2 <===
You must BELIEVE that it is possible.
If you don’t believe that it’s POSSIBLE for you to succeed in a home business or make your living on the Internet, you won’t. It’s that simple.
For me, figuring out that it was possible was just a matter of realizing that many other people were ALREADY making great money with a home business online. If they could do it, I could too. It would just be a matter of figuring out what those people were doing and then adapting it to my situation.
There is no shortage of undeniable PROOF that people (millions of them) are making money online in many different ways. Just get online and do some research and you’ll find countless testimonials and stories of REAL PEOPLE making real money on the Internet. Or head to your local bookstore and you’ll find the same documented evidence of this fact. Truth is, it’s getting easier and easier to start and succeed in a home based business. This is primarily because of the Internet and affiliate marketing.
I’ve always said that “affiliate marketing” is the job of the future. In the “old” days, you had to go to a potential employer, apply for the position and hope for the best. Now you can simply go to any company you want, fill out their affiliate application and start work immediately. Affiliates are the new working class. Believe me, making money with affiliate programs or making your living on the Internet is WAY MORE than possible. It is pretty much (or will be soon enough) unavoidable now. Affiliate marketing is the “job” of the future that’s here TODAY.
===> Intangible 3 <===
You must be willing to MAKE THE LEAP.
Ready, FIRE, then aim… This is the operating philosophy you MUST adopt to succeed with an Internet home business.
That’s backwards for most people who like to aim before they fire. The fact is the Internet is a moving target… The only thing constant about it is change. You need to stop analyzing the game and simply jump into it. You can’t learn from the outside… You have to be IN THE RING to truly understand it.
The lesson here is that you will never really be READY to start a home based business. You simply have to start one. This is what I call “Making the Leap.”
The good news is that the cost of failure on the Internet is very small. In the “brick and mortar” world you need to evaluate things very carefully before you decide to open up a business. It’s almost always necessary to invest thousands of dollars to get an offline business off the ground. However, on the Internet you can often start a successful business for less than $100. In fact, Plug-In Profit Site is a really good example of this.
You simply need get IN THE GAME… Each moment that you stay “out there,” you’re wasting valuable time that you could be learning and skills necessary to become a successful affiliate marketer. In fact, if you’re not in the game yet, you’re ALREADY behind the times. Come on… You can do it! Make the leap to becoming a successful home based business owner today!
About the author:Stone Evans was a washed up restaurant worker desperately searching for a way to save his family when he discovered the internet and affiliate marketing… 24 months later he finally cracked the code and started earning over $10,000 per month. Now the same system that saved him is available to you here >>
