MarkTse.com Internet Marketing Blog

“The vogue nowadays is product launches. And that’s all well and good if you have lots of friends who are willing to stick together and promote each other. And, coincidentally, win each other’s fancy affiliate prizes.” – Marlon Sanders

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Featured Article by Marlon Sanders

Two $100,000 A Month Models Compared — PLUS The Shocking
Truth About Banner Ads, Your Email, Privacy, And Yes, We
Even Have Traffic Secrets…

The other day I was reading a forum. Several guys had gotten
100 visitors and not made a sale and wondered what was wrong.

In this article, I’m going to try to answer that question.

I just talked to another friend of mine on the phone
last week.

He’s been making $100,000 a month online since I met
him back at the Boulder seminars years ago.

Back then his model was to run banner ads, sell a $39.95
ebook with a super duper offer.

Then in the ebook he sold ‘em his big ticket. He spent
$25,000 a month on banner ads and made $100,000.

Almost identical numbers to my friend who is doing the same
thing with Google pay-per-click in another market. Except
he gives away the ebook free instead of selling it.

My first friend had back ends of $377 and $577. And then
later went to $577 and $997, or something like that.

My second friend has a recurring billing $37 a month
back end. But converts 10% of the people who request the
free ebook.

What’s CRAZY is my second friend is NOW doing the free
BOOK thing by direct mail. So instead of a free ebook,
it’s a free PRINTED book.

You’ll laugh at this.

I asked him WHERE he was getting his books printed at and
he said Kinkos! The reason you’ll laugh at that is he
consumes over 30,000 a year. And could easily get ‘em
cheaper elsewhere.

Here are the models:

Model one: $39.95 ebook. $377 and $577 upsells. Later
a $997 upsell.

Model two: Free ebook. $37 a month back end.

Model three: Free BOOK. $4,000 back end.

Oh, I forgot to tell you. The free book sells a $4,000
product. Basically, it’s written on the old Jeff Paul
if you’re familiar with that.

Anyway, that’s not the point.

The point is these models all do some things in common:

Step one: Get people in the funnel

You can sell a low-priced something or the other. Or
give it away free.

Step two: Sell ‘em something MUCH more profitable.
$377, $577, $37 a month, $4,000.

I think of Matt Bacak and Russ Bruson doing the
$5500 big tickets with phone sales. I think of
Vincent James doing the $59.95 a month recurring billing
for his bottles o’ pills.

In the early days, my model was Amazing Formula on
the front end then the Big Course for $500 on the back
end.

Later that changed to Cash Like Clockwork.

But there’s one MORE missing element here.

And that is the MAIN key: A repetitive way to generate
leads.

The vogue nowadays is product launches. And that’s all
well and good if you have lots of friends who are willing
to stick together and promote each other. And, coincidentally,
win each other’s fancy affiliate prizes.

(Did you EVER notice a friend in the JV circle seems to always
win the huge affiliate pize? I WISH my friends were so kind
to me!)

Personally, I’d RATHER have the consistent traffic without
the chaos of a big launch.

Whether you have a FREE ebook, FREE book or low-priced offer,
you MUST have something that converts.

Copy is king and queen.

And truly, if you can’t write great-converting copy, you’re
at a handicap.

Then you gotta have a big ticket back end or recurring billing.
Now, you can convert people with sales letters, direct mail,
teleseminars, video, or email.

They all work.

They’re all just ways of delivering your sales message via
different channels.

Here are the things I’ve seen work on the front end:

1. Banner advertising

If you’re in a market with lots of inventory, this is a great
option. Get ‘em to a page, bribe ‘em with something free to
join your list.

Begin marketing.

2. Pay-per-click

This works too IF you have a back end that sucks money out
within 30 days. But you have BETTER have an offer and emails
that convert 5% to 10% of subscribers to buyers.

Google keeps tightening the rules and the cost of clicks seems
to be going up. But there’s no doubt the volume is there. It’s
fast. And it’s highly trackable and testable.

3. Affiliate program

In probably any arena OTHER than Internet marketing this is
still gold. Internet marketing has degraded into the product
launch of the week. And you’re LUCKY if your affiliates promote
your new product for longer than 2 weeks.

You have a degree of vulnerability in that you’re dependent
on the efforts of others. So it isn’t perfect. But with
ppc, banners and direct mail, you pay IN ADVANCE.

With SEO, you pay with your time creating content.

With affiliate programs, you pay in money AFTER the sale.
That is why it’s still a great marketing method.

4. Direct mail

The age of folks is 45 to 50+. So if you’re trying to target
people in their 20’s or early 30’s, you may have a challenge.

5. Seo stuff

Article marketing and other methods can work. I mean, if you
produce an article a day, turn it into video and podcasts using
Traffic Guyser, submit it to the video and podcast directories,
submit it to the article directories, post it on your blog and
so forth, and KEEP doing that day after day — sooner or later
you’ll get traffic.

I mean, if you just HAMMER Google with content day after day,
relentlessley, it’s bound to get you somewhere. The only thing
is, the content has to be themed and related and so forth.

This is basically what Tinu does in the Evergreen Traffic
System except she’s a lot more focused with it and targets
Google with laser tactics.

Still, it’s a CONTENT-BASED approach. With Tinu’s system you
create high quality content and syndicate it using RSS.

Either you create content or buy it. The problem or issue I
see with buying it is if it’s low quality content, Google can
TELL people don’t spend much time on the page or bookmark it.

I’d personally rather buy clicks, banners or send out direct
mail. Writing every day is NOT attractive to me.

There’s a MAJOR sacrifice of time UNLESS you can afford to
hire or magically find writers who can actually produce high
quality content people WILL read.

Seo is a CONTENT model. The only approach I know of that works
long term is CONTENT. That is what Google values. And they CAN
differentiate the quality of content by time-on-page, bookmarking,
links and so forth.

Long term, you CANNOT trick Google. Having said that, I do know
people who outsource articles inexpensively and do get results.
I wonder, though, long term if those pages will stick.

I pretty much doubt it. Did you know Google sets a cookie when
you long into Gmail?

So they can SEE every email you open.

They KNOW every link you click.

They KNOW the web sites you go to. How long you spend there. How
much you scroll (or they could track this easily).

They know who links in and out.

They know who clicks what.

Heck, they even have a PICTURE of your HOUSE on Google Maps and
your street view. They have a picture there of the CAR you drive
if it’s in your driveway. Seriously, in the U.S. they probably
have literal video footage of your home, your car and the street
you live on.

I’m NOT making this up. I looked up a friend’s home in a fairly
remote suburb of a pretty small town. And they had STREET LEVEL
video of the whole neighborhood. And you could see the CAR in
the driveway. Everything.

And with their new Google phone, they’ll know WHO you call, how long
you talk and where you call.

So just TELL me you can find a way to fool them about the quality
of your content long term.

By the way, in the U.S. the government from what I can tell can get
that DATA anytime they want. So every email you read, email you
SEND, web site you go to. They know WHAT you click when you GO
to those web sites because of Google ANALYTICS.

If you use Gmail, it’s ALL tracked.

And you wonder why Microsoft was desperate to buy YAHOO?

You know, in the U.S. I THOUGHT we had a constitution that prevented
search without a warrant.

Yeah right.

Frankly, if this scares you a little, it should. You need to know,
if you’re on the Net and you’re not surfing with a proxy like
hidemyip.com, and you’re using Gmail and doing all your searches
in Google…ummmmm….you should just know it’s all TRACKED and
probably recorded.

I don’t know WHO owns Skype. And I don’t know if any of that data
is SOLD. Since it’s FREE, I’m guessing it is. How much data is sold
and to whom? I wonder. Are your Skypes private?

Mmmmmmmmm. I doubt it. But I could be wrong. I’m sure that if the
government or someone in a lawsuit wants them, they can get ‘em.

I’m no privacy expert. And I’m sure some of the things I’ve said here
aren’t exactly accurate. But anyone with half a brain can put two
and two together and see the pattern.

As far as privacy, don’t use Gmail. Use Safari as your web browser
or maybe Firefox. Don’t get a Google phone when it comes out. And
know that when you search on Google, there is very little protection
of your privacy.

Just know that there is no privacy unless you surf with a proxy
turned on. You may not care. But I think you should at least KNOW.

1. There is no privacy
2. It’s all tracked
3. The Government has access
4. Even your emails are archived and are NOT private.

(Don’t know about UK and Australia or other countries.)

In terms of BANNER ADVERTISING it is good for marketers. It means
they can and DO track people’s movements ACROSS web sites and can
serve banners based on a theme of their surfing habits. That is what
the whole Double Click uproar was about ..

They also know WHAT people click in their email on Gmail and Yahoo.
The targeting is VERY precise. I mean, they know EVERTHING.

Everything. Every click. Every move. Emails. House location,
value (from Google Maps). Even your forum postings can be tracked.
(Google Analytics).

In terms of PRIVACY, Google is not your friend.

As a marketer, if you can’t target precisely with THAT….

There ARE services that let you target banners with this precision.
However, NO ONE has really researched them and written up an ebook
that’s affordable on the topic.

No one has written who these services are, the degree to which they
track, how much you can REALLY buy the banners for via negotiation
vs. off-the-rack b.s. prices.

It’s a bonanza for marketers NO ONE has written about exploited.

If you know:

– What sites people go to
– How long they are there
– What they click on
– How often they go there
– How often they click
– What types of emails they send and to whom
– The location of their home (and by implication home value)

If you know all that, are you telling me banners aren’t being
served with the greatest precision known to man?

Why hasn’t this been told or written up?

I KNOW you can buy these banners. But who sells them? What
is the minimum buy? What is the price AFTER negotiation? You
know, the true street price? What are the minimum buys?
Who are the main players? What data are they tracking?

What is the average CTR?

So you wanna talk about TRAFFIC and TRAFFIC SECRETS? There
you go. THERE is something to talk about.

SUMMARY:

1. You buy traffic

Banners, Google, other methods.

2. You trade time for it by creating content for Google

Google rewards high quality content with good rankings.
But quality content takes YOUR time or talented hired writers.

3. Direct mail

You could call this direct response and include full-page ads,
TV and radio.

Once you’re reaching .50 a hit on Google, there’s not a lot
of difference between THAT and spending .50 to send a proven
buyer a piece of mail.

The cost of entry is high though. Testing 10 lists at 2,000
names each is a 20,000 mailing costing over $10,000.

I began this article talking about a forum thread I read where
several guys had gotten 100 visitors and not made a sale and
wondered what was wrong.

Do you see now?

1. You gotta have a way to deliver a LOT of visitors predictably.
Banner ads. PPC. Affiliates. Direct mail.

Something you pretty much CONTROL.

2. You gotta have a conversion PROCESS.

Get people on your list and follow up with emails.

3. You gotta have a big ticket back end.

Every single thing I said in ActionGrid.com still applies. And
the system for creating big ticket info products STILL WORKS
and still applies.

These guys:

1. Didn’t have a repetive way to bring in visitors that they
could rely on.

2. They didn’t get people on a list.

3. They didn’t have a big ticket.

I will add that they were trying to do an SEO method based ONLY
on getting inbound links with low quality content.

You know, link exchanges and such. Which I’m sure probably work
IF you have high quality content. Google just isn’t stupid or
dumb.

Marlon

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Marlon Sanders is the author of “The Info Product Dashboard.”
If you want to create your own info products, go to:
==> www.marktse.com/recommend/infoproduct/

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You may reprint this free article on your own website, blog, and ezine by reserving the resource box with clickable active links.

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“Making smart modifications and carefully testing them might turn what appears to be a loser into an impressive moneymaker.” – Jo Han Mok

“You must develop a way to get visitors to your web site on a continual basis and get those visitors to join your list.” – Marlon Sanders

This article reveals twelve new marketing ideas that you can use in your own marketing business.

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Featured Article by Marlon Sanders

The State of Internet Marketing 2008 — 12 New Innovations
You Should Know About and How They Fit Into The Basic Formula
For Selling Products Online

When you’re just starting your online business, here is the
one key to your success:

You must develop a way to get visitors to your web site
on a continual basis and get those visitors to join your
list.

Giant product launches are certainly a great way to build
a list fast. But the business model I personally like is
one that is more systems base.

I like things that run like clockwork.

Every day traffic comes to your site. Every day some people
buy and get on your list while others just opt in and get
on your list.

Internet marketing isn’t some big, incomprehensible plan.
It’s simple at core —

1. You get eyeballs to your web site.
2. You get ‘em to join your list.
3. Then send ‘em content they’ll wanna read or watch.
4. And mix in product offers that make you money.

Originally, I was an advocate of just emailing offers to your
list without sending an ezine or communications of value.

To me, the tide has shifted. And you need to send emails
to your list that contain value.

The innovations you’re seeing center around new, different,
better, easier or cheaper ways to do the above:

1. I just bought a little ebook written by someone who is
getting visitors to their site from Adbrite.com for a nickel
each vs. much more expensive clicks on Google.

Adbrite is an advertising service you might wanna test vs.
Google pay-per-click. Google ad costs keep going up and the
rules keep getting stricter. So I think you’re going to see
advertisers looking for easier and cheaper ways to get clicks.

That said, if you have the back end to support it, there’s
nothing stopping you from buying massive clicks on Google and
getting 30,000 opt ins in the next 12 months.

Of course, Jeff Walker would likely argue you could do the same
thing in a few weeks with a good product launch and it wouldn’t
cost you anything. And, assuming you could pull it off, he
would have a point.

Still, there’s something appealing about getting your ads running
so you know that each week you’ll get X visitors, Y opt-ins and
Z sales like clockwork.

I see a LOT of opportunity in advertising alternatives to Google.
Google keeps making the rules tighter, MSN still isn’t as user
friendly as you’d like. With all of MSN’s money, you’d think they
could create an interface that isn’t clunky.

So I think smaller marketers are just BEGGING for someone who
understands them and their needs to come out with a way for them
to advertise.

2. Another ebook I bought in the last few weeks is written
by someone who gets clicks from Zango.com, Whenu.com and other
popup services.

I’m not big on some of the methods these sites use for reasons
that are more complex than I have space to debate here. But I think
as clicks on Google get more and more expensive, and the rules for
use get harder to comply with, small info product sellers will
take a second look at alternatives like these.

One thing I CAN tell you is that roi reports I hear on these
services is off the charts. People are getting 12X returns on their
ad spends. Compare THAT to Google!

3. Another ebook I bought was by someone who uses social
bookmarking to get free traffic. So they get 9 or 10 Diggs,
Delicious bookmarks and so forth.

They’ve found that there is a certain mass of social bookmarks
you need to get traffic. The clicks are free, so it’s something
to look at.

The single best report I’ve seen on the topic by far is by

bookmarkfrenzy.com

That’s NOT an affiliate anything. I just thought it was a good
report.

4. Many people continue to innovate with different methods of
article marketing.

My concern on this is that the low quality of articles and the
mass flooding of Google with questionable content will go the
way of Traffic Equalizer sites.

Still, people are getting very creative with ways to outsource
article writing and submission techniques. My friend Kirt
Christensen is a master at this. So is John Jonas.

5. A lot of marketers are hiring people in countries like the
Philippines to do repetitious activities that generate traffic.
Whether it’s social bookmarking or article marketing, I’m seeing
a big trend in this direction.

6. In terms of squeeze pages for list building, the breakthroughs
I’m seeing are in how variables are passed through to the
autoresponder service, so that emails can be more personalized.

Your ability to segment lists and communicate on a customized
basis with your customers is STILL very limited.

Autoresponders still have almost no ability to perform decision
tree actions. So that if the customer opens X email, you then
follow up with Y sequence and then in Y sequence if they open
email #3, you drop them into sequence Q.

7. Innovations in terms of content delivered to customers via
email to obtain readership are mostly centered around video.

With the new improvements to Camtasia, including the ability to
more easily zoom in and out during the presentation, you’re
seeing more video.

8. Lead generation on You Tube and Slideshare.com

I’ve seen information by marketers who claim to be getting great
traffic and opt ins by uploading videos to You Tube. I wonder
what percent of the You Tube generation are buyers? But as
You Tube becomes mainstream, I’d think the percent would increase.

It certainly doesn’t take long to create a 10-slide Power Point,
drop in some audio and music, convert and upload to You Tube.

I’ve even heard of some people outsourcing the whole process.
There’s another site called Slideshare some are using because it’s
a PR7 and gets good backlinks to Google.

9. Web 2.0 is about having a 2-way communication with customers
via interactive web sites. This isn’t the giant breakthrough
it’s heralded as in that it isn’t easily scalable.

It’s not going to drive massive Internet growth. Creating interactive
sites is expensive and not easy. I see it more as a way that
big players are using to create a barrier to entry vs. smaller
players.

In other words, web 2.0 is NOT about scalability. It’s the reverse.
It’s a squeeze play by larger businesses to try to get a barrier
to entry vs. smaller businesses.

10. People are using Web 2.0 properties like Squidoo, Hub Pages,
Propeller and others to create small sites that provide backlinks
to their main sites in order to grab those organic seo rankings.

If this is new to you, check out:

www.squidoo.com

www.propeller.com

www.hubpages.com

The term “backlinks” just means links to a site you’re trying to
get ranked in the left side (the non-paid organic side) of Google.

11. USFREEADS.com continues to be a source of backlinks that
gets a little juice with Google. The game is to take your web
site. Then create a little ad on usfreeads and link to your site.

Then build a Squidoo page, Propeller, Hub Page and other Web 2.0
sites and link to the samme. Or link them all to each other.

Then write articles and submit them to article directories.

Whew! It’s a LOT of work to grab rankings that’ll probably get
zapped by Google in the next SLAP anyway.

Still, the best, brightest, and most nimble marketers figure out
ways to make all the above work. And if Google changes the rules,
they just adapt quickly.

Those who are the most ambitious outsource the whole entire process
to India, the Philippines or wherever.

12. Since Web 2.0 is about people having 2 way communication with
businesses, Web 3.0 will be about machines having communication
with machines on a 2-way basis.

That’s just crazy. I have no idea what it means. But I’m equally
as certain it’ll happen.

As you can see, your eyes can quickly glaze over with all the options.
That’s why I’m an advocate of FIRST doing the basics really, really
well.

The basics are still the same.

a. You get visitors.
b. You build your list.
c. You send content to keep readership high
d. You send periodic offers to make money

For the small business or info product publisher, my recommendations
are the same:

Get visitors using an affiliate program, pay-per-click, banner ads,
viral and article marketing.

Give ‘em good reasons to join your list.

Send out content.

Mix in offers.

As you have time, money and energy, experiment with the new methods
that come down the pike monthly.

Marlon Sanders

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Marlon Sanders is the author of “The Info Product Dashboard.”
If you want to create your own info products, go to:
==> www.marktse.com/recommend/infoproduct/

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You may reprint this free article on your own website, blog, and ezine by reserving the resource box with clickable active links.

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“Selling on the internet requires innovative approaches. Though search engine optimization is the first step, once the customer makes it to your site, you want them to stay and shop.” – Lynn VanDyke

Hi Internet Marketing Blog Reader,

Article marketing might not be the newest or glamorous way to gain traffic to your site but it’s been tested and proven to work.

I know of several people making six figures a year just writing and submitting articles to various sites online.

Despite many success stories, why are the majority of people not getting much result from this technique?

Just like SEO, they’ve been following the wrong advice.

I recently got hold of a product from an article marketer who walks his talk. He has achieved #1 Google listings for such competitive phrases such as:

make money online
article directory
article marketing
make money at home
…

I thought he would have something amazing to share about how he got those rankings but after discovering how he did it, I was surprised. It’s such a simple but overlooked idea.

Take a quick look at this article marketing method because it’s a long term technique which will work for you if you put in the effort:

==> www.marktse.com/cb.php/jspauld/blog/

To Your Article Marketing Success,

Mark Tse