The "title" of this series is supposed to CRASH cash creation Q & A, right? That should mean, by definition, that we’re goign to cover some of the FASTEST ways to make money online for ANYONE who needs to make it happen…..and it’s sort of implied, that time is of the essense, right? And of course, most of you, at least the one’s who’ve written in with questions, specifically are in need of techniques that you can start, today……..and for FREE. ( i.e. – NO Adwords Spend, no fancy pants copywriter with cool hair like me, and certainly no dubious DVD’s, coaching club or other exotic and expensive outlays of cash as well.)
Want to know where I started when I first started getting serious about making some money on the interwebs? Mas or menos, my ENTIRE working approach is immediately below…….and that’s after several YEARS of playing with some more "high minded" strategies and working with some pretty damn smart people on more complicated ideas that NEVER worked.
While this is *slighty* modified to meet todays market a little bit ( CPA offers weren’t really that mainstream when I started ) this approach worked then, works now and most likely……will WORK well into the forseeable future for you if you start today.
Is this complicated, complex, high minded or secret, underground maniac marketing magic?
Absolutely not – it’s dead simple to do, dead simple to execute and damn profitable as a result. But it’s NOT the end game…..should ONLY be the beginning, and we’re goign to cover LOTS of more elaborate, and perpetually profitable ways to scale this approach UP in a hurry. But for now, if you aren’t making a solid sale or two a day, this is a great way of turning the tides of fortune in your favor, and making it happen in a hurry. Plus it’s dirt cheap to start.
Here is ALL you need to do next. ( if you fall into this group…which I’m going to guess about 80% + of you do)
- Register a .info domain name ( one dollar)
- Get dirt cheap monthly hosting ( 4 Bucks or Below)
- Sign up for Affiliate Networks that Specialize in CPA offers ( Free)
- Put a one page re-direction file in your root directory ( Free and Easy)
- Write Articles until your fingers bleed and send your traffic at aforementioned root level re-direct ( bloody but still free)
- Wait 3 Days, Take 2 deep breaths and check your stats ( Free but no one can wait 3 days to see if they’re making money – just try not to check so often that you forget to write more articles)
Rejoice!
You should be making *some* money now everyday- contingent of course on how quickly your articles are approved, and all you need to do now is repeat in new niche – OR – simply scale up and out on this one if it’s working.
Does this work?
Absolutely – like magic – and there are hundreds, if not thousands of people around the GLOBE doing exactly that at this very moment.
Why does this work?
Because it’s not personal. It’s numbers game -and the the right offers, given the right amount of traffic, convert as a function of simple math.
Your landing page is irrelevant – your sequence is irrelevant and your job is only to churn out enough articles – and test enough resource boxes, that conversions are as close to automatic as my running jump hook from just outside the paint.
But CONTRARY to what many of you are led to believe – and even what some of my own advice may seem to suggest – this is NOT a viable way to build a business online longterm and NOT how I spend most of MY marketing muscle.
And why not you ask?
It’s too much work – there are too many variables outside of your control – your articles may SINK in the search engines after a few weeks, you have to keep UP the effort for FAR longer than you should to earn a super high income ( it’s NOT bum marketing – it’s actually MANIAC marketing and you’ve got to work like one to keep your income up)
But most importantly – you’ll NEVER be great.
There is NO greatness, no glory, no power of pinnacle pointing, potential putting sense of personal achievement or excellence in writing articles all day to re-direct for affiliate commissions – even if they’re simple and dead easy to earn.
If you are in tough times right now as many folks are, and need a short term, lucrative lift – give the above a go and see it it helps get you over that first high hurdle or hump.
But don’t live there – and beware – easy commissions can be seductive – but if you don’t RAISE the bar higher for yourself, you’ll never move beyond the plateau of a frenetic and perpetually panicked article marketer.
I know – I’ve been there, and MORE than once I’ve burned myself OUTsimply trying to sustain a business model that was sort of stupid, makes NO use of leverage, and ultimately, sort of starts to suck after a while to boot.
So what is the REAL solution?
Easy.
B-U-I-L-D-I-N-G A L-I-S-T.
Creating and Selling your own products and services. ( or building your OWN relationships around the existing products of others)
We’re going to cover it from a slightly different perspective for the remainder of these Q & A’s- ( which for better or for worse is the perpetual position from which most of my perspectives tend to emanate) and we’re going to focus mostly on the MINDSET and mechanics questions – and NOT the minutia that so many blogs, e books, and blabbering "gurus" try to sell you as a poor excuse for giving you a REAL success strategy that you can emulate, replicate and ultimately, reciprocate for others later on.
CRASH CASH CREATION Q 7 A: The Magic of Mindset: How to Build (Multiple) Online Profit Centers Quickly, Easily and Profitably By Creating, Selling and Distributing Your Very Own Products
What You Should Come Away With From the following pieces of this Sequence?
If I’ve done my job right – you are going to gain greater insight into MY personal thoughts on the following tips and techniques for selling more stuff to ANY list…in ANY market you choose.
- The Magical Marketing “Mindset” that’s Mandatory to Suceed
- The Real Keys to Picking the Right “Starter” Niche That Feels Right For You
- The Simple Steps To Building A Viable, and Valuable Online Business that’s Grounded in Solid Principles that Will NEVER Disappear…...(or Be Subject to The Aribiarty whims and winds of the latest or greatest fad )
- The Right Way to Think Through a Niche………Rapidly Reverse Engineer every New Idea Before You Even Begin to See if It’s Worth Pursuing
- The “Power of How”…..Or The Simple Technique for Asking Better Questions, for bigger ( and safer) resultst Without Frustration, or Fear of Failure
- The Ability to See the BIG picture…..simply by adopting a Broad View Perspective of Your Business to incorporate all of the above, and more into something that’s fun, profitable and most importantly, that you can be proud of going forward.
What tools are we going to use
You ABSOLUTELY need an autoresponder.
You *Should* Use Keyword Research Tools……although you can start with the FREE Google Tool for the time being if money is super tight and get *close* to the same level of intelligence ( even though Nichebot has a $1 Dollar Trial right now which is hard to ignore)
Again -
You MUST build a list.
Said backwards – List a build must You.
If you aren’t prepared to start list building – you simply aren’t ready for the rest of this report, and you minus well skip it and go back to watching more swine flu updates on TV.
WHY is selling your own product the very best place to begin?
It’s dead simple to do, has a difficulty threshold of just about zero and can literally be compiled and completed WELL in one weekend…..even if you’re a slow writer and occasionally hear distracting voices in your head like I do. For example – if I was a tad bit smarter and ambitious, I’d be modifying this a bit, offering this as a PDF or audio, selling THIS to my list….rather than giving it away for nothing….and this only took a few hours to write.
Creating your own information products has REAL value has real value that can be parlayed into plenty of potential profit:
- TANGIBLE VALUE ( you control the product, you control the affiliate links, you control the distribution channels, you control the list, and you control the direction that the product pushes going forward. Say Goodbye to having NO control over the future of your own business)
Equally as important to TANGIBLE value are the subtle but significant INTANGIBLES that your first simple informational product will give you:
- INTANGIBLE VALUE ( it’s your stuff – the level of commitment and identification to your own stuff is far higher than simply hocking someone else’s product, and it feels solid. You can wrap your hands, mind and ego around something that you’ve created FAR tighter than simply sending affiliate traffic at something someone else worked on. The confidence that kicking out your first product in ANY market is crucial to believing you can really do this work, that people will PAY for your ideas, and critical to the process of become successful to boot)
Okay? Let’s talk about how to Choose a Market to Start With: Most people have BIG trouble with informational intertia……and this works wonders for me, and my coaching clients in picking the proper paths to profit.
Your "Drivers" may be different than mine……but these are a mighty fine place to start for most.
1 The Passion Paradox
Most marketing manuals tell you to “avoid” selling things that you love, or are connected to in favor of following the numbers, and the online marketing math. I’m here to tell you they are all totally wrong.
People who are truly successful are those who follow what they love. If you are truly passionate about something, (contingent upon you NOT being one of 10 people on God’s green earth who shares an interest in the topic) that is where you should focus. Why? It’s quite simple. You are going to be really GREAT at what you’re most passionate about…and other people can “smell” great a mile away.
Everyone is great at something – and the likelihood is, if you’re great at it, you probably love showing off, or sharing your expertise.
And if you can parlay that PASSION….into a sense of purpose, the PROFITS are never far behind.
But Can’t you simply love the process of building a business and don’t care about the "niche"?
Absolutely – and this is usually the biggest argument for creating online businesses around things that you care very little about personally, but are profitable none the less simply because the creator ( you) is REALLY, really good at doing the online business “thing” and that’s your passion.
I’m all in favor of it – but please note, those people are really not overly common – and are typically NOT the kind of people who are running a small one person shop home based information business. ( and most people I speak to who ARE in the generic, online business building business…often admit to really wishing they could start again, with EVERYTHING they know, and simply stick with their one primary “passion” instead)
MOST folks who have built very profitable, very fun, very fulfilling businesses (online or off) are those that find ways to parlay their passion – into profit.
A quick Example……
Do you think Gordon Ramsey of “Hell’s Kitchen” et al- a very successful Chef, TV Celebrity AND business owner could have achieved the same level of success selling hubcaps, or running a muffler franchise?
Probably not.
Why?
Presumably, He loves food – loves to cook, eat, and shop for food. Loves to present great good, loves to prepare great food, and loves the look on a diners face as they’re appreciating the culinary creation that he, or his crew has created.
His PASSION pours through and spills out and we eat it up in just about every marketing medium he serves it in – books, TV shows, restaurants and so on.
Would he have been successful in anything he chose to do?
Yes, probably so…..it’s hardwired into his DNA, personality and work ethic.
But I’m going to bet without the benefit of PASSION above, you would have never heard his name, or seen his face.
You can’t simply make that up – fake it – or generate it SIMPLY for the love of money.
It comes from within. We all have it for something ( mine is Salma Hayek) and the key to truly becoming successful is parlaying that passion, into piles of health, wealth and happiness.
Another Sterling Example
Gary Varneshak – the “wine guru” guy who parlayed a LOVE and passion for wine with his “everyman” personality and turned a small family wine store into a 40 million or so a year business – AND has become an pretty major media celebrity as a result. Would Gary have done well in whatever he chose to do in life?
Probably – yes.
But is there something amazingly magnetic about watching this guy talk about the wonders of wine because of how much he obviously LOVES the topic? ( even though he don’t necessarily….fit the role..:-)
Absolutely – and by simply taking what he loves and sharing that with the rest of us, he’s become WILDLY successful, exceptionally popular, and quite a colorful mainstream media character to boot.
What are YOU PASSIONATE about?
Answer this question FIRST…..and then align the rest of your marketing momentum around it. You’ll be starting with an unfair advantage straight out of the gate.
2 A PROFITABLE Back End –
As someone MUCH smarter than me once said, always begin with the end in mind.
The key to creating a strategic, sequential and successful product creation process is knowing what you are going to sell on the back side of the offer, before you even finish the front.
Selling a gardening e book for 7 dollars, for example, will NEVER make you rich.
But selling a gardening e book for 7 dollars that is the top of the funnel – or loss leader – or first foray into your prospects stream of consciousness that ultimately converts 1% of those digital customers into a monthly local landscaping continuity program that you ALREADY own can make you VERY rich – and this approach has done that, and much more for thousands of informational marketers both on and off line alike for many decades.
The key in this example is that you have something to follow up with – PREFERABLY as a natural extension of your existing business. ( i.e. – you already HAVE a landscaping company well primed to handle upscale clients in your local community…and NOT, if these e book sells a bunch, maybe I’ll consider starting one..:-)
Know where you are right now – where you want to be a bit down the road – and Strategy your niche selection process around what you WANT to be selling 6, 12 or 18 months out, and you’ll never want for business again.
3 Pain Points
Pick a niche that has LOTS of pain points, and you’ll never go hungry.
If you have the passion for it, you can go into just about ANY pain market, right now, and start a lucrative business from SCRATCH, regardless of how much competition you might face as you walk through the door. The simple truth is that pushing the pain, as I’ve written about before, is just about the easiest way to put on the the profits that there is, and that ain’t gonna change anytime soon.
The late Gary Halbert – famed Copywriter, wrote about Diet and Weight loss, as the “ #1” niche, by FAR” in one of his popular Halbert Letter Marketing Manifestos many moons back, and so true he was.
Just last month, Chris Knight of Ezine ArticlesCom, commented on the HUGE popularity of their weight loss articles in the search engines, with – and I hope I’m not misquoting but I’ll take my chances, with those articles in the Search Engines being the BIGGEST source of EZA’s traffic generation for the preceding month. ( and that’s a shitload of traffic as they say in Wisconsin)
Weight loss is a pain market.
Anyone whose ever been tackled by a chubby person while trying to sneak through airport security knows this firsthand.
The bad news for our species is that we are always in pain over one thing or another.
The good news for marketers is that we are always in pain over one thing or another.
Pick a pain point and run with it.
(Please Note: As I’ve pontificated about in the past…and yet STILL get "angry" emails about this…….there is NOTHING unethical, immoral, or unseemingly and selling stuff in “pain” markets – ESPECIALLY if what you are creating is beneficial, helpful and truly offers relief to your clients and customers.
Actually – the way I see it – is these are the BEST markets to work in because you can do so much good…….if you can authentically help someone lose weight that has forever refused to go away……help cure the deleterious effects of panic or anxiety attacks, help someone overcome the fear of speaking in public, help a young family finally fix the credit score that has kept them impoverished and working multiple jobs just to scrape by…..in my view, that’s the best way to translate your passion, into a purposeful existence that both benefits your community and results in piles of profit for you)
4 How Viral is My Niche?
This is a HUGE consideration, and one that many people completely ignore.
Can you turn your customers, into your marketing partners. Can the folks who LOVE your stuff, also help you distribute it for you. ( and make a profit themselves) It used to be that the only REAL markets for this for the average marketer were Internet Marketing, or entrepreneurial, for obvious reasons.
For Example……
If I’m teaching you how to sell more online right now, and solve one of your most pressing initial problems ( Uh…..what do I sell?) I can quickly and easily turn you from a simple customer, into a marketing partner, right? I can give you the product, the sales script and sequence, the strategy and so on….and we both win as a result.
The “ 7 dollar script” was and still is a great example of that ethos in a very simple form, and still works wonders to this day.
In NON IM markets though – this has always been a bit a problem, as someone who buys your gardening book might really have NO interest in making money from selling it as an affiliate ( plus it’s not a natural conversational cue to even really bring up)
Some easy solutions?
Be Social – The Viral Dilemma Solved
Social Media tools give you the ability to now to allow your customers to evangelize your products, without having to necessarily care about selling it themselves.
Blogs, Twitter, Facebook, Stumbleupon can EXPLOSIVELY get the word out about your stuff, and even general bookmarking tools can allow your stuff to go “viral” a bit, simply by creating good products that people share with others.
Occasionally, these tools can make “selling” the idea of an affiliate program to your customers far easier too, even if non entrepreneurial markets, as niche hobby bloggers need to pay hosting fees too, right?
And the best source of free traffic?
Affiliate traffic.
Good questions to ask before you begin?
Are there lots of active affiliates in the space?
If yes…..you’re one BIG step closer to some good guaranteed GREEN if you’re willing to do a little work.
Why?
It’s not only FREE…..an affiliate program runs on automatic autopilot for weeks, months and even YEARS to come, and takes no real work to generate a boatload of backsides to your offer pages, once it’s set up and selling well for your affiliates.
And If your product is one that you can quickly set up an affiliate program for, the “viral” nature and possibilities go up explosively and exponentially……often immediately.
So……..Network, Research and Look for Active Affiliates as a preliminary piece of your evaluation metric of ANY niche market you’re thinking about entering, and consider it an important part of the profit puzzle when deciding how many feet to use when jumping in. ( I try to use 2)
More on the The Joy of the JV
For example, the very BEST way to get an avalanche of traffic overnight on a brand new product or service, is simply to contact potential marketing partners who already HAVE a list ( or popular blog) in your niche, and asking them to share YOUR resource with their customers, readers or subscribers as an affiliate. ( or even for a flat fee as some list owners prefer)
If you’ve just created a KILLER e book on creating the perfect garden, and contact 10 site owners who are collecting names and emailing folks already on good gardening products,sites and services, how tough do you think it’s going to be to start making money IMMEDIATELY with your offer if it’s good?
Not too tough, right? I agree!
Look for Mainstream Affiliate Network Profits as a Sure Fire Sign Your Niche Can Be Monetized the Very Same Way
For example, simply by creating a product in a popular market and getting it up on clickbank, the distribution channel and “viral” component to your marketing just took a major league move up, right?
Look for markets that are “MOVING” in the popular affiliate networks, and cater to them.
Okay……let’s make this as SIMPLE as possible to get started…..
Ok….so what are the essential ingredients to creating your first information product or name collection campaign?
Very easy.
You need a strategy that’s simple, saleable and squeezable.
- You need a front end giveaway.
- You Need an auto responder.
- You Need a Product to sell.
That’s it.
Your giveaway? Go get a freebie related to your niche. Get something with a killer graphic for a cover, and watch your opt in on the squeezable side of the street will go up by 50% or more. (Get a free report and BUY one of those ebook cover generators and do it yourself if need be.)
You need a thank you page to sell your product.
And you need ONE html template that you can send your traffic to per lessons, and convert on the product. ( as this works best for conversions in my experience)
That’s it.
Do you need a blog, a twitter account and a killer top spin backhand Like I have?
Absolutely not. Will it help? Most definitely – but these are the “pieces of perfection” that cause most people to procrastinate.
Just launch it now – and add the supplemental pieces later if it’s slowing you down. If you’ve got all of that aready…..you are FAR closer than most, and integrating all of the pieces will be paramount ( and super profitable) when you tie all of the pieces together.
Note: There is a GREAT, and simple video primer from Dave Lakahni on how to write your first Ebook very, very quickly – that I grifted from the EZA blog last year, and still just about the best K.I.S.S approach to kicking out your first product in a series of simple steps that ANYONE can follow in one short afternoon. Check it out after you’re done reading this.
Keywords, Keywords, Keywords………
Let’s talk a little bit about KEYWORD Conundrums when picking a niche.
This is really a sore spot for me.
Nothing makes my "psycho juices" flow faster than hearing these so called "SEO" or keyword experts wax poetic about keyword counts, competition and the "right ratios" to move into a market. Sure….they may be smarter than you and be able to tie their shoes twice as fast, but content is KING…..and good content is what ALWAYS rises to the top and you CAN ( and should) be able to dominate ANY market you choose simply by working harder, and creating BETTER stuff that people like better, than your competition.
Every odd, exotic and esoteric strategic autopsy approach of learning to pick a niche by breaking down the counts into cute little mathematically relevant latent semantic indexed collections won’t sell you ONE thing. Ever. They may help people find you a bit faster…..buf focusing on what REALLY matters is far more important.
A Quick Sidebar —–
I’ll tell you a quick story. Years ago I was in prison with a guy who couldn’t stop talking about keywords.
Keyword counts this…..keyword counts that. He was a smart guy, but it was just a major league pain in the ass to hear him drone on and on about the right “ratio” of keyword counts, trends, crunches, spread sheets and so on for every different project we all talked about trying ( and when you’re in the can – all you’ve got is time)
Eventually it just turned out to be a total buzzkill to even brainstorm with this guy about anything at all due to his unrelenting fixation on keywords and research and pie charts.
Want to know what eventually happened?
He got shanked in the pool while playing Marco Polo during free swim.
Want to know why?
No one likes a know it all who makes EVERYTHING more difficult that it needs to be…and that’s what all of these SEO keyword experts do for a living.
They overcomplicate everything to the point of making it NO fun….JUST to show off how smart they are and eventually find themselves bleeding from the head from a butter knife wound in a pool full for white collar criminals who spent their last 800 bucks on on a Stomper net subscription.
Please note – in the interest of full disclosure that didn’t really happen. I was watching prison break while writing this and got a little carried away. I’ve only been in prison once, and that was for a college philosophy course on non violent resistance, where we were allowed to bring in guitars, an overnight bag and got a free dominos pizza at midnight. The important thing is don’t get analysis paralysis when it comes to keyword tools research and spreadsheets. Carry on below)
Secondly, and in my view this is HUGELY important……If you are going to use article marketing and piggyback or parasite page rank traffic generation strategies- (i.e – getting the majority of your traffic from the directories themselves) PLEASE – feel free to go after a BIG niche – and one that has lots of existing content – and LOTS of competition.
The more the merrier – it means more free videos, freee books, etc.
Why?
The more content you can leverage that already exists, the more you can augment your own offers with an AVALANCHE of eyeballs, simply by leveraging blogs, rss feeds, flickr and video multi media channels and more….and you’ll RARELY find enough of this in those micro markets.
I’ve found a bunch of itty bitty niches that NOBODY else is selling stuff in. Will I make a fortune? Is this a good idea?
I say – absolutely not.
In my view, if you have the expertise, You can CRUSH on an e book on ACNE Cures – just as easily as crushing on BABY acne cures – or Teen Acne Cures or even NATURAL Acne Cures. (ESPECIALLY if you are using high ranking directories as your primary traffic source.)
Do you have a “broad view” strategy to incorporate and funnel LOTS of islands of content to ONE primary product? Using little niches is a good idea to broaded your marketing "funnel" for sure.
But are you simply SEARCHING for little segments of a market to dominate when you COULD strategically dominate the whole thing instead?
I say – fortune rewards the BRAVE, think big, ask better questions, and target the MAIN niche instead. ( we’ll cover this a bit deeper with an example in a later Crash Cash Creation Q & A a few days from now…and how using ALL of the little pieces of the primary market can be a killer way to dominate a big niche if you’ve got the passion for it)
Now – start thinking about a product, and in our next Crash Cash Creation Q & A we’re going to cover what I believe are the 4 KEY components of selling ANYTHING…..to anyone, with confidence, creativity and fufillment, and how to make it happen in a hurry…even if you’re just getting started.
2 Key Takeways?
Pick Your Passion
Keep it Simple
Start Having More Fun!
(and if you’ve enjoyed this – or have found it helpful, I’d love to hear your comments below!)
Ian,
I’m an old guy, sort of (61 if you consider that old), anyhow I have discovered that it takes a while for things to sink in. So I appreciate your article as what your saying I have heard before but for some reason it got through the density upstairs this time. I’m technologically challenged as my son tells me and that is my biggest mountain to climb. I think that’s the case with a lot of people that are venturing into IM. I’m a semi retired cardiac nurse and as my passion is health care and people I am taking your advice and doing research on my own product. Thanks. I’ll be on your list so don’t stop the good stuff this old guy appreciates it.
Hi Ian totally mind blowing info I read your article like flows out /pours out in gushes. Enjoyable read i will be back. Thanks
Brilliant! (try leaving a comment about THAT comment!)
Thanks for this lesson – it’s a great post! It’s also a great overview of what’s important to a long term biz. I’ve started with a passion of mine – helping people climb out of financial trouble and into a brighter place. I also followed the (matching) wise words of another and created my own first e-Book (working on a second in the same passion area). Please keep us the excellent work. I’ll look forward to your next great insight.
Thanks, Mike – I appreciate it!
Eddie, I agree ( and it’s a great time to sell good financial advice, too)
Bill – 61 isn’t old! I think it’s probably a great time of life to do this sort of work if you have the time – and while tech stuff can feel intimidating – trust me, it ain’t tough – and what you’ve done in the “real world” is much harder to learn!
Thanks, Richard – glad you found it helpful..:-)
Seriously, I need to buy you a beer one day and pick your brain. The passion is the huge thing but a lot of people don’t get to experience what it’s like to be so passionate about something. I know it’s bad but if my friends ask me how they can make money online, I ask them first what their passion is. If they don’t have one – I tell them to find that FIRST and then do the online thing. Otherwise, I just feel like people spin their wheels for a long long time.
But yes, genius stuff. I’m actually getting started launching my first product and have everything set up that you talked about. I’m going to be working on having 100 articles done before July 1st. It’s so true though – when you can write about something you really enjoy, build a list who like what you have to say, and then create products around it, it’s an authentic and wonderful way to make a life online.
I hope more people find their way to your emails because they just might change their lives.
Thank you very much, Jeff – and you are right – it makes all the difference in the world!
I am learning and I love your blogs and info. I feel so scared to start. I want to go forward but I feel anxiety attacks as though I have to keep learning and learning.
I love your info. I can’t tell you how much I learn from you.
Thank you.
Bonita
Thanks, Bonita – that’s great to hear!
Just get started on something and the pieces will all fall into place FAR faster than they could from reading alone – I promise!
This lesson is awesome! I like how you keep things simple and REAL…which definitely helps with overcoming information overload and analysis paralysis.
Looking forward to reading more of your posts soon!
Thank you Roz..:-)
Ian can you explain more on what this mean:
Put a one page re-direction file in your root directory ( Free and Easy)
Im guessing that it means something like this right.. http://www.petdogtraining.info which is a domain name that redirects to the merchant sales page?? I put that url into my EZA resource box and when people click on it then it will redirect them to the sales page or in your case the CPA offer right?
I got confuse on the part where it said put a “ONE PAGE” re- direction file because all i did was bought the domain name and redirect to the merchant page and there was no need for hosting or a one page thingy..
Right – you’ve got it completely..:-)
Any process or page that credits YOU with the affiliate commission – whether you “code” it yourself in the html file – or simply utilize domain tool redirection ( as long as you’re sure that you’re getting credit) is good for the above. ( has to be on the root level to comply with that specific directories TOS)
One last thing I forgot to mention is that for a newbie like me how likely is that the CPA networks would let me join their network? Do I need to show proof of a website that has 10,000 vistors a day or anything like that? Can you give us some tips on how to easily get accepted into the CPA networks if its our first time?
Don’t worry about it – I’ve honestly never seen someone get turned down from one of the mainstream networks due to being new – I can’t speak for their policies of course, but i’ve worked with 2 or 3 people this month, including one of my best friends, who had NO experience at all…….no website, etc – and were accepted to every network they applied to.
The thing these places are looking out for these days, ESPECIALLY, the CPA style networks – are dishonest and fraudulent marketers – i.e. – the people who register domain names around celebrities and sell acai berry and the like – or – put up bullshit blogs about their “personal” story with a particular product that is completely fabricated. ( the government is cracking down on these folks for sure……and the networks are probably feeling a bit of tangential pressure to pay attention to their affilaites)
I recommend picking good products and being honest – put up a real blog – etc – keep it real and you’ll be in good shape – if you get rejected from one – ( which I doubt) there are many out there to pick from – don’t worry about it! ( if you have trouble – drop me a comment on here and I’ll make some recommendations that are off the beaten path a bit)
Thanks Ian! I won’t be doing CPA soon yet because I just want to get good at promoting clickbank before I do CPA and by good I just mean a steady few hundred a month before I dive into CPA.
If I need help getting accepted by the CPA networks I’ll be sure to seek you for some help.
Again thanks for all the help and all the valuable info you send us!!
No problem – glad to help..:-)
Hmmm, go with my passion, huh? I can’t see anyone buying an ebook about porn… lol. Great stuff, you’ve condensed most of the multi-hundred dollar internet marketing products out there into one blog post. Maybe an ebook about cigarettes and Mountain Dew? Well, back to brainstorming…
Thanks, Brian! (And I’m also a big fan of
PornMountain Dew)Hey Ian
Thanks for these insights!! .. still working on my basic skills….
Building a list is something I KNOW I should be doing but have always basically been too lazy- I have just signed up for Aweber from your link and was surprised to see we get a 30 day free trial- so if money is the reason you are not signing up for it- it is no excuse! We have 30 days to make the first months subscription.
Sorry, have just seen it costs a dollar for the first month…well, that is basically the same as free isn’t it.
Thanks, Debbie – and yes that does make it a pretty easy decision!
I was also afraid it would be complicated…it took me about 30 minutes to set everything up for an existing site that gets around 60 visitors a day- and within an hour I have my first subscriber.
Ian- I was wondering- if you set up a list for say “weight loss” by advertising a squeeze page from EZA- and maybe mailed the list once a week, when it reached for example- 2000 subscribers, is it possible to sell a list? And if so how does one do that?
(Thank you again for all the information)
Glad to hear it, Debbie – and yes, it is always that quick and simple! ( if you have traffic and put up a form, invariably sign up’s come super soon..:-) You can definitely "sell" a list – and it’s done all the time in the lead generation space – BUT – it can be a bit of exercise in verbiage and legalese and I don’t want to offer bad legal advice..:-)
The language you use on your form – for example – ( "we will never sell/rent/other otherwise distribute your name, etc") has to be modified – you would need a TOS that evidenced your intentions ( could certainly be a little link to a file that no one ever reads, but should be there) and – to be totally honest with you, if you have a super receptive list, it’s probably worth more to you, than it would be to an outside party. ( unless you were just completely in the dark about how to monetize a list – which it doesn’t sound like you are)
That said – yes, there are entire industries built around aquiring names and distributing them to larger entities, in many respects alot of the CPA offers emulate that exact model, and while the affilaite is not really "selling" the name – they are acting as the intermediary – and faciliating the process that ultimately allows bigger marketing companies to capitialize on smaller affiliates generating lists like the one you are working on….or simply driving the traffic to the vendor where they’ll offer that info up in exchange for stuff ( and you are compensated for making the "introduction" obviously as well) I would be careful though about just "selling" names as a strategy – especially because I’m not sure it’s the best use of your list building abilities.
Yes I see- that makes sense. It could be rather complicated. I’ll just work on building them and go on from there!
I am really quite happy with this- in the last 24 hours I have 8 subscribers, so times that by 30 and I should have about 250 by the end of the month.
I am planning on sending them some tips every week- i.e asking Clickbank vendors to send me a snippet from their products (it is a weight loss site) then putting a link to the full product, like a kind of mini-interview…
do you think this is a good way to go?
Sorry for all the questions- but as I said I have never done it before…
No problem, Debbie and congratulations – that’s 8 more people than have signed up on this blog over the last 24 hours..:-) And yes, you have the general idea, although I would re-read some stuff on best practices on mailing your list – (either re-read some of the stuff I’ve written or any number of other good resources that are available online from tons of smart people) I don’t neccessarily want you to depend on any clickbank product owners to email you snippets though – you may wait a while!
Any product on CB worth promoting will have a wealth of info you can grab and re-calibrate for your own site – squidoo lenses, blogs, scribd docs, etc – if you focus on ONE product which is always a good idea to start – maybe just tailor your content for those 5/7/10 emails and blog posts to smooth sail the sequence and simply try promoting that one product while offering solid tips to your list and readers on diet overall. This is a GREAT time to sell diet stuff by the way – I’m living at the beach in NJ right now – and I can tell you first hand – some calorie shifting might come in handy over here..:-) ( although I’m in such bad shape these days – I really shoudln’t talk!)
Thanks again Ian- I live near the beach too and wouldn’t DARE go on it unclothed at the moment- but I am advising others how to lose weight….hmmm.
Hey Ian – I only recently found you, but I’ve learnt SO MUCH in an amazingly short time. And btw – I love your writing style – so easy to read and funny. Am still trying to catch up on things I don’t know – sometimes I have no idea what you’re referring to, but THANKS HEAPS for your amusing and informative stuff. xx
Thanks so much, Pollyanna……. And don’t worry – I often have no idea what I’m referring to either – it takes a few re-reads on my end for that “a-ha” moment..:-)
Oh – one other thing – I would love it if your links opened in a new tab, I want to check out the links without having to go back to your articles
xx
This was awesome! Just what I needed to hear!