Your readers probably enjoy hearing about your latest exploits and victories. They like to hear how you made $10K in a day, especially if you give them all the details so they can try and duplicate your success.
But do you know what they love hearing even more?
Your failures.
Your muck-ups…
The time you fell down the stairs stone cold sober while holding your best friend’s wedding cake.
The time you thought you were so smart, you had found a brand new way to sell widgets, and lost $1,200 in the process while gaining a closet full of maxi-widgets 2.0.
And the time you got conned, too, also makes for a great story.
So why do people love to hear about your failures?
Because they can relate. Because it shows you’re human. Because it’s just plain fun to know they’re not the only ones who sometimes screw things up.
We all know the guy who brags non-stop about how everything he touches turns to gold. In fact there’s a word for him – BORING.
Then there’s the bloke next store who has some success, but enjoys a few failures, too. Now THAT’S the guy we want to hang out with.
That’s the guy we can relate to.
And guess what? That’s also the guy we’ll listen to and buy products from…
So go ahead and regale your readers with tales of your failures. They’ll love you for it, and in the end, so will your bottom line.
Some of you are going to dismiss this idea. You’ll think it’s strange. You’ll think I’m full of beans. But others will recognize this as one of the holy grails of online marketing. And those are the folks who will do really, really well online if they aren’t already. Because making money as an Internet marketer isn’t about selling products or services or clicks…
Nope.
It’s about selling YOU.
Think about what you buy. Don’t you find that certain marketers just resonate with you? When you get their emails, you read them. When they tell you to click somewhere, you click. And when they put out a product, you buy it.
Why? Because you like the way they make you feel. You like their style, their humor, their motivation… whatever it is, you just LIKE them.
Why did you like a certain teacher in school? Why do you like your friends? Your spouse? Maybe you don’t know why, you just know that you do. It’s the same way for your customers.
If they like you, they will read what you write. They’ll subscribe to your emails and read them. They’ll follow you on social media. They might even promote you. And yes, they will BUY most ALL of your stuff.
Not because they want more stuff, but because they like YOU and the way your stuff makes them feel. When you brand yourself in such a way that you connect with your readers, you no longer have to worry if your products will sell or if your affiliate recommendations will work.
Your coaching program will sell out. Your webinars will be packed. Your products will be winners.
And you don’t have to worry about sales any longer. Just focus on being the best YOU that you can be for your customers, and everything else will take care of itself.
So how do you brand yourself?
You might take a course on branding. You might look at branding leaders, too. Most of all, take a look at your strengths. What are you good at? How do you best communicate? What are your interests?
If your niche is IM and you’re into extreme sports, how can you combine the two to resonate with people just like you?
If your niche is health and you’re very much into spirituality, can you combine the two to create your persona?
I’m not suggesting you reinvent yourself. I am suggesting you combine what it is that makes you, YOU, with your niche.
Here’s some examples…
The Hippy Gardener The Globe Trotting Marketer The Spiritual Carpenter
Now, you might be thinking this is a bad idea because it will turn some people off. I have news for you – no matter what you do, there will be people who don’t like you. And that’s a GOOD thing. Because those who do like you will be all the more loyal.
Sell yourself first. Find your followers and build your tribe. And everything else in your business will naturally fall into place.
There is a young lady in the Internet marketing niche who has 3 separate IM type blogs. And without revealing too much (we don’t want to create direct competition for her) here are the methods she’s tried and the ones that worked in monetizing those three blogs…
To begin with, she tried AdSense. But that only made a few bucks and she quickly abandoned it. Then she tried renting out banners, but since her 3 blogs combined receive about 10,000 visitors a month, she didn’t get a lot of interest.
She does put up ClickBank ads, and those bring in about $1,000 a month from all 3 blogs combined. Not bad, but obviously not that great, either. Especially when you consider that she posts 6 days a week on each blog.
Next she decided to devote one blog post out of 6 to promoting an affiliate product. This wasn’t an easy decision for her, because she was afraid her readers would be alienated and they would stop visiting her blog.
But on the contrary, her promotional blog posts were well received and they’re making her money. In fact, it doubled her income and then some.
So now she was making over $2,000 a month on her three blogs but she felt she could do better. So what she did next was a little unorthodox.
She had a pop-up to get people to subscribe to her mailing list, which she decided to rent out. That’s right – she’s renting out her pop-up. She devoted the top right sidebar and the bottom of each page to capturing email addresses for herself.
Then she made a page showing her traffic stats, her own conversions on her own pop-ups, some demographic info and so forth. She was really selling her pop-ups on each of her three blogs.
And it worked. She rents them by the month, taking the code the customer gives her and pasting it into the pop-up. The customer has to be offering something for free, and of course it needs to fit her niche.
Believe it or not, between the three pop-ups on the 3 sites, she’s earning close to $2,000 a month just doing this.
Combining that income with the income from her ads and her promotional blog posts, and she’s earning about $4,000 a month from her blogs. Of course, this doesn’t include income from her own list which she is building.
So the question is, why was it so much easier to sell the pop-ups than it was banner ads? Maybe because it’s something different. Or perhaps because people want to build lists, and see this as the way to go.
Now you might be wondering if she isn’t shooting herself in the foot and losing out on long term income by building her own list faster using her own pop-ups.
It’s hard to say. But one thing for sure is that $2,000 a month from the pop-ups is coming in like clockwork, and all it takes is collecting the money and pasting in the code once a month. Really, you can’t beat that.
I hope this gets you thinking about new possibilities for your own website(s)!…
Want to create the perfect sales letter – fast? Try this template. Not only is it easy to do, it’s also highly effective. And if you know your market and your product, you should be able to crank out a rough draft of your sales letter in about an hour.
Then set it aside for a day or two to let it ‘percolate’ in your brain. Come back, polish it up and post it.
Here are the 6 primary elements of a proven sales letter template:
Pattern Interrupt with a BIG Promise – Get their attention and promise something big, bold and specific. “Veterans, is the government ripping you off? Here’s how to finally get every benefit you earned while in the service of your country – even the 14 benefits they never told you about!”
State the Problem and Make it Hurt – This is the main problem your product solves, the one that is currently making your customer’s life hell. Don’t just state the problem – really agitate it. Make them feel how bad it is to have this problem of theirs. “Beautiful women look at you like you’re a tick on a dog, and you can’t get a date with anyone but your second cousin Shirley – the shrill shrew who never stops reminding you of the time you pooped your pants at the family reunion.”
“Here’s what most people do” – this is where you talk about alternatives and why they don’t work, shutting down all avenues to solve the problem except the one you are offering. “People try anything to lose weight. One woman ate nothing but grapefruit for a month, and all she lost was her energy and her hair. Another woman walked and ran 20 miles a day, and while she didn’t lose any weight, she did get both knees replaced within the year.”
“Here’s what I do.” This is your solution. Tell why it’s best and why they must have it. “When I stumbled on this method I was flat broke and 8 days away from declaring bankruptcy. 3 months later my $125,000 mortgage was completely paid off. Yes, I was as shocked as you, but here’s the proof.”
Outline the Deal, Ask for the Sale – Don’t be afraid. If you’ve done the previous steps correctly, they’re ready to buy at this point. “When you order today, you get A, plus B, plus C. And I’ll throw in D, E and F to absolutely guarantee your success. All this, and it’s only $9.99.”
Close the Deal – this is the either / or part. “You’re either going to take full risk-free advantage of this deal and get all these benefits, or you’re going to go on having this horrible problem.” “You could continue as before, sitting home alone every night where the only women you ever see are on TV or porn sites. Or you can do what so many others have done and grab this program. Even before you complete the second module, you’ll notice women are looking at you differently. They’re smiling at you, making small talk, slipping their phone numbers into your pocket, casually touching you… your only problem will be scheduling all these beautiful women into your new dating lifestyle.”
That’s it.
Yes, writing sales copy really is that easy.
Have fun with it and make yourself tons of sales on your next product.
They say you have to walk before you run… and you have to finish 9th grade before you can start 10th grade… and you have to start at the bottom and work your way up… and all that stuff. Quite true, isn’t it?
Is it?
Really??
When you hear something enough times, you think it’s true.
“Of course it’s true, EVERYONE KNOWS it’s true.”
Yeah.
Right.
Do you really need to know all the basics of how to market online before you can start making money?
OR…
Can you find a desire in the market, create a product and get it online within a week, knowing almost nothing about what you’re doing?
I’ll give you an example:
Let’s say you’ve heard about “Internet Marketing,” but you really haven’t paid any attention to it.
You don’t know how to set up a WordPress site, build a list, create a product or any of that stuff.
But last week you got laid off from your job!
Unemployment compensation will barely cover the mortgage. Food? Utilities? Insurance? Car payment? You need money, and you need it FAST.
So you don’t pay attention to all those people who say you have to ‘pay your dues,’ ‘learn the basics first’ and all those other ancient clichés.
Instead, you hit a forum, or Amazon, or the Dummies guides.
You find a desire that people have.
You devise a plan to make a product that fulfills that desire.
You decide to get it on the market in 7 days.
Website building? Sales letters? Turning a word doc into a PDF? And a hundred other little things?
You’ve got help for that – Google.
Every time you need to know something, you Google it…
Yeah, I know – it’s too easy, right?
Where’s the suffering? The pain? When do the dues get paid?
Getting a product online within a week (or even a month) of first beginning in Internet marketing is like skipping your first 3 and a half years of college and graduating in no time.
Come to think of it… what’s wrong with that?
Some of the richest people in the world didn’t graduate college.
They were too busy DOING.
So yes, I do believe a person can run before they walk in Internet marketing. I’ve seen it done too many times to not believe it.
We’re all too familiar with webinars. And we know that when we get on a webinar, someone is undoubtedly going to try to sell us something. Fair enough. But what if you change the medium?
Suppose you invite a handful (let’s say, 24) of your best customers, or your most recent customers, onto a Skype conference call?
The attendance percentage will be much higher than what you would get with a webinar – often close to 100%.
The perceived value of a coveted spot on the call is also greater – after all, a webinar holds 1,000 people, whereas a Skype call holds just 25 including the moderator.
It’s perceived as being different – and that is often a good thing all by itself. It raises interest and provides a bit of intrigue.
You can actually use the names of every single one of your attendees. Talk about making them feel special!
So what would you talk about on a Skype conference call?
Anything you might cover in a webinar. The point is to give some good information or coaching to a small group of your best customers.
And at the end? Of course you’ll give them the opportunity to get more information, more coaching, buy a product, join a membership, etc.
No, you won’t make 200 sales. After all, you only have 24 people on the call, max.
But you could sell close to half of those or more. You could definitely form relationships with all of these 24 customers, making you stand apart from any other competitor in their minds. And you can do this as often as you like.
The marketers who are using Skype conference calling in this manner are making excellent money, 24 people at a time. It’s definitely something to consider.
And one more thing – if you’ve been trying to build up the courage to do webinars but the thought of speaking to hundreds of people at once is too scary, why not start with 24?
Once you do it a few times, you’ll have your talk optimized. You’ll have gained plenty of confidence, and you’ll be ready to jump on that big conference call and make those sales.
It’s simple. Partner up on projects. Now, just to be clear – I’m not necessarily suggesting you take on a full time partner for your entire business. At least, not at first – not unless you already know someone really well who is the perfect fit in every way.
What I am suggesting is partnering on individual projects.
For example, you have an idea for a software product. But you’ve never taken a software product to market before, so you call up your friend who’s done it several times.
You talk things through, and decide to work together because:
1. His skills and strengths complement yours – you bring different assets to the table and together you make a better team than either one of you working alone.
2. Two heads are better than one. Together you come up with improvements in both the marketing and the product itself that you likely never would have thought of on your own.
3. You can keep each other accountable for getting your tasks done.
4. And together, the two of you bring more affiliates to the table than either one of you can individually.
In the process of working on this project – which is a success – the two of you come up with great ideas for your next project, and so forth.
Partnering can be a great way to get more accomplished in less time, to defeat the procrastination monster and to make things happen, fast.
Just be sure to choose your partners and your projects wisely. 😉
Whatever your sticking point for not growing your business is… I’m here to suggest it might be something else entirely.
Not enough money?
You could use credit cards or borrow from family. Or you could sell some stuff. Or get a part time job to build up a little nest egg, quit the job and start your business.
You don’t know how to set up the websites and software you need?
Hire someone to do it for you.
You don’t know how to create a product to sell?
Hire someone to create it for you.
And on and on.
Just about anything you need for your online business, you can hire someone to create or do it for you. And if you don’t have the money, there are ways to get it.
S… what’s REALLY holding you back from starting or growing your business?
That one little, lousy 4 letter word – fear.
Fear of what, only you know.
But maybe it’s fear of starting. After all, it’s a big project, right?
Easy solution: Break it down into small steps.
Then do one step every single day.
Maybe it’s fear of failing. Oooohhh, that’s a BIG one.
You are 100% responsible for the success or failure of your online business.
It’s a success? Good for you!
It’s a failure? No one to blame but yourself.
Solution?
I’ve got two for you:
Try to fail.
Yes, I know that’s crazy. You’re afraid of failing so you’re going to TRY TO FAIL? Actually, yes.
We’re talking about a shift in mindset here. Instead of worrying about failure, we’re going to embrace it. After all, most self-made millionaires failed over and over again. It’s because they kept trying that they were so successful.
So embrace failure. Know that it’s actually your friend and not your enemy. Do everything you can to avoid it, but if it comes knocking, you know your life isn’t going to end.
Instead, you’re going to sit down with failure and discuss how you can avoid it the next time around.
Think it through.
Ask yourself, “What’s the absolutely, positively WORST thing that could happen?”
Oh yeah, that you do the work and don’t make money. That’s it. Your face won’t fall off. Your life won’t be over. The world won’t end.
Yes, maybe you’ll feel some embarrassment. But do you know how many times professional ice skaters fall in their lifetime of learning? Me neither, but I guarantee it’s a BUNCH of times. Do they sit on the ice and cry about it? Maybe.
But then they get back up and start skating again. Failing isn’t death, it’s a learning experience. Embrace failure so that you can succeed.
One more thing…
Start with a proven plan and work from there.
You are much less likely to fail if you take a path that has already proven to get you where you want to go.
So don’t reinvent the wheel. Instead, choose something proven time and time again to work – list building maybe?
And start with that. Then once you taste success, you can start taking roads less traveled if you want to.
Here’s the bottom line…
All those ‘reasons’ for not starting or growing your business almost always boil down to one thing – fear.
It’s so much easier when you get home from your job to park yourself on the porch with a beer or in front of the TV with a bag of chips.
And that little voice of fear in your head will tell you that you should be doing ANYTHING but working on your business.
So take little steps.
Embrace fear.
Start with a proven plan.
And enjoy the ride.
Because once you come out on the other side, you’ll wonder what took you so long to get started.
And you’ll have more confidence in yourself, your abilities and your choices to continue growing your business into the 6 and 7 figure income you’re dreaming of right now.
Have you ever suspected that marketers make secret deals with each other behind the scenes? And that perhaps they will call each other on Skype or Zoom and coordinate activities and launch dates? And maybe they work together on marketing deals, promote each other’s products and work together to maximize their profits? Well, it’s 100% true…
Marketers network and mastermind with marketers on their own level.
Now, if you’re new to the game, how do you break into one of these million dollar mastermind groups?
Unless you have something incredibly spectacular to offer – like some marketing holy grail or something – you don’t. But you don’t need to.
Think about college – you go to school with a group of people. You meet as Freshmen or Sophomores, hang out together, do stupid stuff together, take classes or study together, etc.
After graduation, who can you call to get an “in” at a company, get a lead on an account, get an introduction to somebody and so forth?
Your pals from college, that’s who. You came up together. You’re friends. And of course you’ll help each other out whenever you can.
Marketing works the same way.
Find people on your level – marketers who are on their way up. Make friends. Hang out. Have drinks. Talk on Skype. Work together. Bond.
You and your friends will progress up the marketing food chain together.
And there’s your ground floor opportunity into your own million dollar mastermind group – the guys and gals who came up with you through the ranks.
So start networking. Get a team of friends. Work together. Help each other out. Have each other’s backs. Care as much about them and their success as you do about your own.
And in no time, people will be looking at your group and wishing they were you.
No doubt you’ve heard that offering a bonus for other product sellers to give to their buyers is a good way to get a list of customers. And that’s true. If your bonus is good enough that the product seller believes it will increase their sales, they might be willing to let your bonus tag along with their product.
You might need to contact 5, 10 or even 20 product sellers to make this happen. Obviously, the better your bonus and the closer it’s tied to the original product, the higher your odds of getting a yes. Having a relationship with the product seller helps immensely, too.
But there is an easier way to get that coveted “yes” from the product seller, and here it is:
Offer them a complete upsell funnel.
A lot of newer product sellers on Warrior and JVZoo don’t have their own upsells yet. And because of this, they’re leaving a lot of money on the table.
If you offer them a complete upsell funnel and let them keep 100% of the profit, you stand an excellent chance of them saying yes.
Your upsell funnel should include a squeeze page offering a good freebie – this will capture product buyers who don’t purchase your upsell. It also should also include a proven product that converts well.
You can add exit splashes, pre-populated forms, bonuses and trial offers – basically whatever it takes to:
1. Capture the email addresses of the buyers, regardless of whether or not they take your upsell.
2. Makes sales for the product seller.
Using this method, you can add hundreds of buyers to your list every week. And as you know, buyers are worth far more than tire-kickers.
Everyone is happy using this model:
– The original product seller is making more money – often twice as much or more.
– The product buyer is getting a good deal on your product.
– Even if the product buyer doesn’t buy your product, they still get your freebie (remember to make it VALUABLE.)
– And you get a list of buyers with very little effort on your part.
For maximum success, rinse and repeat as often as you like.
