The Reason why?
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I was in the affiliate funnel seminar earlier today where we were discussing list building.
The first question was “ How do I go about building a list?”
It was a great question and got everyone telling how they go about building their own lists.
Some great tips and tricks were exposed and everyone seemed happy.
I then asked what most thought was a silly question. “ Why should I be building a list?”
If you have read 13deadly where I explain my whys, you would see where that would seem like a silly question coming from me.
But I wasn’t asking for me, I was asking for the benefit of those in the room that may not have known.
Like I said there was some great information put out about how to build a list, but for someone that doesn’t know why, it is kind of pointless.
I could talk to you all day about how to fix helicopters, but unless you had a reason to know how to fix them, there would be no reason for you to sit and listen to me.
The IM niche is full of how to guides, how to build a list, how to promote an affiliate product, how to do pretty much anything you can imagine.
The next time you are presented with an offer ask your self, “why do I need to know that?”
If you can find a reason that fits into your current business plan then grab the opportunity to learn as much as you can, but don’t go out learning how to do everything with out first asking why.
Topics: Opinions | 1 Comment »
Are you ready for integration marketing?
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I have heard it talked about it, I have seen it in action, but it seems the term integration marketing has not been widely accepted outside of the marketing world.
I just did a search for the layman’s definition, but did not find one.
But according to Wikipedia the definition of integration is
“integration is a process of combining or accumulating. It may specifically refer to:
• The bringing together of two or more economies, cultures, religions”
I believe you already know what marketing is so I wont go into the details of it here.
To try and sum it up in simple terms Integration Marketing is combining two or more products together.
This can be done several ways, One way is internally. Companies like Amazon have gotten this down to a tee. If you have ever bought anything from them you know what I mean.
You buy a book , they show you other books that are popular with others that have bought the same book. They then show you other books by that author; they then show you related products. It’s all done smoothly, integrated into the sales process and brings them in huge amounts of extra income.
What if you don’t have a huge library of related products to what you are selling?
You could look to external integration.
Just think of all the JV launches you have seen, or all the follow up series you have seen promoting some one else’s product. What about a membership site that recommends another product?
Those are other , and very powerful, examples, but that is just starting to scratch the surface.
Many marketers feel that an upsell, or a link to a JV partners site means they have mastered the art of integration.
But there is much more that can be done, more seamless non intrusive and effective ways.
That is why best-selling author Mark Joyner has written a new book about it.
The book has not been released in stores yet but you can get a free digital download of it now.
Along with the book comes access to a members area were you can meet other marketers and work together to integrate your products.
I am sure you already know that anything with Mark Joyner’s name on it is going to be a huge success and this is your chance to get in to his integration marketing site, and read the book for no cost, before it even hits the stores.
Topics: Freebies | No Comments »
Is FireFox hurting your business?
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Chances are it is, and you don’t even realize it. Let me clarify before I continue. Firefox is not the problem it’s a great browser and I find myself using it more than IE anymore.
It’s a favorite amongst Internet marketers and my stats show almost 75% of my te members are using it to surf.
No the issue is not with Firefox, another great feature of the browser is all the add ons that are available for it.
Unfortunately this feature is also the problem, one add-on in particular is killing your sales and opt-in numbers.
The no-script add-on.
It’s a great add on to help you protect your computer, there are a lot of surfers that use it to kill any scripts running on the pages they are viewing so it doesn’t slow down their computer.
Sounds good so far doesn’t it?
Turn your thinking for a moment to your own pages.
Have you spent time tweaking a video for your site so it would improve conversions?
Well it was pointless, if everyone seeing your page is using no-script, than your video is not being seen.
Do you have a killer squeeze page? You may never know because if someone gets to it using no-script they won’t be able to opt in to your list.
How about your join now button? It may be taking potential members to an error page instead of your sign up page, if they are using no-script.
Take a minute to think of the pages you are promoting. How many could be effected by no-script? How many sales or opt-ins have you missed out on because of it?
Do yourself a favor and get this free guide, that shows how to properly use the no script add-on and pass it on to all of your potential customers anyway you can.
Topics: Freebies | No Comments »
Tweets, Lottos, and Free Money
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I just got around to downloading Tweet My Blog, and realized that my blog has been neglected for too long.
This has been a great week and there has been plenty to write about too, so I will try to get caught up.
First of all as I mentioned earlier I just downloaded Tweet My Blog Another creation by John Merick and Soren Jordanson.
So what is it? Well the name pretty much says it all. If you use wordpress and you use Twitter then you need Tweet my blog.
It is a word press plugin ( word on the street is that they are working on making it compatible with other blog formats ) that will update Twitter any time you make a post. It also adsd your recent twitter posts to your blog.
It’s simple to use, and saves you time from having to go in and update both.
It was launched yesterday, but I just now got to downloading it and installing it, since I was busy yesterday with PromoLotto.
PromoLotto was also launched yesterday and it is one of the most innovative new exchanges I have seen in a while.
The site is based off of the lj script but aside from the registration page everything else is custom.
They have integrate list building with traffic and have presented a fun and effective way of growing both.
Building a traffic exchange and list builder into the same program is not new though Advertising Know How has been doing it for years. AKH is one of those must have programs in your marketing arsenal, and since Monday Robert Puddy has been giving away free money.
He is paying members $1 for each new referral, alng with free textlink and banner credits.
If you need more traffic and a bigger list ( who doesn’t? ) then make sure to add AKH to your battle plan.
Topics: My Reviews | No Comments »
What is a FirePow ?
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As blogging and in particular blogging for profit becomes ever more popular amongst online entrepreneurs, we’re seeing new tools developed to assist in this process being released, what seems like every week.
In this post I’m going to talk about one such tool, Firepow Blogging Software,because I believe it might just be a cut above the rest in terms of it’s flexibility of use, and overall effectiveness in accomplishing the three primary aims of blogging - creating a blog, managing it or maintaining it, and getting traffic to it.
It was hard to know where to start with this post because there are so many individual features of this software that could be mentioned.
To give you a brief overview of how it works…
Firepow is based on the Wordpres platform, and allows a user to install a fully customized and functioning wordpress blog with a few clicks of the mouse.
If you’ve used Wordpress before, you’ll know that one of the best things about it is it’s ability to be enhanced by third party plugins. You’ll also know that it’s not hard to get LOST in all the plugins and potential feature additions that CAN be made.
The first thing great about Firepow from my point of view is that they have done the plugin work for you. The best 50 or so plugins from around the web have been programmed into the software so as to be automatically installed when your blog is.
That’s a good feature, but it’s even better when you consider that while these plugins normally require manual fiddling to get installed, tweaks made to your theme CSS code and more - the software actually does that part for you too - so you click the button, and you have the function of that plugin added - VERY time saving!
The “Create” part of the process is also helped by the ability to create your own custom wordpress theme completely from scratch, with more functionality than we’ve seen from free theme generators EVER before - not to mention the ability to create your own categories from scratch, automatically create the perfect permalink
structure for SEO, and more.
Before even getting into the Wordpress panel of the site Firepow creates you’ve also got a site management tab where all your blogs can be managed from one place, an SEO tracking tool to monitor the search rankings of all your sites, and a task manager
that tells you what needs to be done to maintain your blog/s and when.
I dare say though that the best things happen once you’re actually IN the blog.
Here you have crazy abilities to make your post content better, easily being able to add relevant images, videos, or trackbacks (automatically building backlinks to your site) to your posts… and even that’s leaving alot out.
OR the crazy abilities to monitor your blogs success, like being able to split test the results of different posts, monitor your traffic through in depth reporting (utilizing Google analytics), monitoring your search spider activity, the popularity of your posts, the terms people are searching on your site, and more still.
I feel like I’m getting too salesy in this post to you but I can assure even with everything you’ve read here, I haven’t even really touched the surface of what’s going on inside this thing called Firepow - heck we didn’t even get to the promotional tools.
The best thing I can probably do is tell you go to look at the darn thing yourself:
Oh and I could also tell you that if your into blogging and you don’t, you’ll probably regret it big time.
I hope you’ve found the information here valuable, and don’t hesitate to leave your comments on Firepow here to share with others.
Topics: My Reviews | No Comments »
Is Internet Marketing Hard for You?
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Internet Marketing isn’t hard. A lot of people have a hard time getting started though. One reason is that they buy a couple of IM products that teach you to set yourself up as an expert in a niche, and try to sell products in that niche.
The problem is most people just starting are interested in the Internet marketing niche, which was why that bought the product in the first place.
With so many people trying to become an authority in internet marketing especially those that are just getting started it easy to see why it’s a crowded market place.
It makes it even more confusing for someone trying to learn more about it, because how do you know you are getting real information from someone that has actually used it and been successful with it, or are you just getting re-hashed information that someone heard about maybe working, from a friend of a friend?
Unfortunately many people are not able to tell until after a purchase is made.
There is a better way to do it though. Find a different niche. Or even a sub-niche within the IM industry.
Look for something that is not over saturated, that is profitable, and market to that niche.
Once you get your feet wet and you have had some success marketing to your other niches, take what you have learned, put your own twist on it and then try entering the IM arena.
The only problem with the above plan is finding those profitable other niches. It takes a lot of research; you have to find good keywords. A topic that is heavily searched but not very marketed.
This in itself could be a fulltime job for someone.
Luckily though, Cindy Battye, just released DailyNicheIdeas. This is a free membership site that not only gives you a new niche idea everyday but lets you know what the top performing product for the niche is. Marketing materials and everything else you may possibly need to market that niche.
You don’t have to go out and buy product after product trying how to learn the latest and greatest ways of marketing online, the member’s area is full of information.
If you want to learn how to use PPC, blogs, articles or anything else it is covered in the members area for you.
These tools along with a new proven niche idea each day makes this the only ite you will ever need.
Be sure to check out DailyNicheIdeas for the last site you will need to join.
I mentioned above that the site is free to join and you do get access to everything as a free member but be sure to pay close attention to the upgrade offer at DailyNicheIdea, for more ways that you can fill your mailbox with affiliate checks with no extra work by you.
Topics: My Reviews | 1 Comment »
Who are you promoting? pt.2
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My earlier post may have caught you a bit off guard. I mean here I am a program owner, but I am telling you not to promote programs directly.
At first glance that may seem strange. Of course as a program owner I love it when people promote my sites. I enjoy sending out commission payments, and I get great joy when I get an email that is talking about me or one of my products or services.
So why would I say not to promote your referral link to my business?
It’s simple, the more successful you are the more business you can send me. Instead of promoting my business you should be promoting yourself. Build your own list and start building a relationship with that list.
Then if you like my products or services tell your list about it. You will get better results and I will end up sending you a bigger commission check.
With the same amount of traffic exchange credits that it would take you to get one sign up in a site that has been around for three years you could get two, three or maybe even more opt-ins to your list.
You could then sell things to that list several more times.
For arguments sake lets say it takes 1,000 credits. The average price for 1,000 hits is $10, so we will say it takes $10 to get one person into what ever program it is your promoting. Now if that that program is paying you $10 per sign up you just broke even.
But if you were to use those 1,000 credits and get just three opt-ins to your list. You could promote your program a little more, give more detail about it and maybe convert two of those members into paying customers. So now you have already doubled what you could have earned, and have gotten 100% increase in profits.
Now you also have these members on your list and you can recommend other products and services to them. How much more can you make?
Think about this for a second before you copy and paste your next affiliate link into your favorite TE, Safelist or any other promotion method you may use.
Topics: Opinions | No Comments »
Banner Keyring Banner Rotator
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If you use traffic exchanges you are probably no stranger to using a site rotator. Its a great way of controling your sites on all of the traffic exchanges you use.
Now you can have a rotoator for your banners. Check out the video below to see how you could use Banner Keyrings to save you time.
Pretty cool huh? Be sure to get your own banner keyring.
Topics: My Reviews | 2 Comments »
Who are you Promoting?
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I want to start off with a scenario today. Lets say there is a great new program that was just launched.
It has a great product, great conversions, and a killer commission plan.
You get an email about it and decide to check it out. The sales letter sucks you in and you make a purchase.
You are excited about the commissions and think it’s a great product. You want to promote the product right away.
If you have been building a list, you simply log into your auto responder account and send a broadcast email, or maybe work it into your followup series. You tell your subscribers all about this great new product. Your work is done, now you can go back to building your list.
If you haven’t built a list you might hurry and log into all your traffic exchange accounts, change your URL to your new affiliate link, and assign however my credits you have to it.
If you don’t have a lot of credits then you start surfing as much as you can and assign more credits. You keep surfing and assigning credits to your affiliate link.
If you were one of the first people to do this you might get a few sales but, then as your surfing you start seeing other affiliate links for the same site. Before you know it there are 100 other affiliates doing the same thing you are.
The site is still getting the same amount of people joining from traffic exchanges as before but you now only have a 1 in 100 chance that it is going to be from your link.
You are not getting very many (if any) signups anymore. It seems like the program is just not converting anymore, so you look for the next big thing to promote.
Do either of the above sound familiar to you?
I was the second person in that scenario for a long long time. It took a while before I realized the people that were actually doing good online were those that were sending the emails I joined things from.
It was then that instead of spending all my credits on the next big thing, I spent them on building my list.
I stopped changing my URL’s every time a new program came out and started only to change them when I was testing a new page that built my list.
If I get excited about a new product now, I will tell my list about it, but I continue building my business first.
If you find yourself in the second category above, take a moment to think about those around you that are more successful than you. See what they are doing and see how you can apply it for yourself. And start promoting you instead of someone else.
Topics: My Reviews | 2 Comments »
What in the world is a Jump Link ?
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Affiliate Funnel has done it again. They launched as the downline builder for its members, not for the owners. They have done a great job of providing all the tools you need to build your own list, and build your own business.
It may seem strange that promoting another program would actually help you build your own business and not the owners but that is truly what they have accomplished, especially with their latest feature.
When I first heard the name of this feature it I was confused, but after it was explained to me I couldn’t believe what they were doing.
The feature is called “Jump Links” and my first thought was clickbanks Hop Links, but as you will see they are nothing like them.
You see when you promote most programs you are essentially building the program owners list for them, yeah you may earn commissions or whatever they offer for you helping to promote them, but in the end you just put someone new on their list.
Well since affiliate funnel is all about you promoting your business, when ever they send out a promotional email to their list your affiliate link will automatically “jump” into the emails of your referrals.
You don‘t have to worry about building someone else’s list anymore. No matter who sends the email out to your downline it will be your affiliate link in the email.
This shows just how serious they are at Affiliate Funnel about building your business and not theirs. That in combination with all the great tools and training they provide make for a winning formula, that I have not seen anywhere else.
Topics: My Reviews | No Comments »