2-days, $200 = Extra $2500 Per Month
...
Don’t see the message? Become a subscriber! See the link in the top right corner.
Sales Are Easy, Profiting Is Hard?
I’m doing some market research at the Warrior Forum -
I put up the question, “What do you love about Adwords, and what do you hate?”
The first response fits here perfectly:
“Making sales with Adwords is easy - profiting is hard.”
There are some things .X. is friggin’ lousy at - for one, I’m a disorganized mess.
What I’m good at, though, is looking at a situation and seeing solutions. I used to have to work at that - now it’s natural.
And to do it requires getting out of the box and recognizing what the existing paradigm is.
Internet marketing is changing so fast that you can’t hold on to old paradigms - it’s no different than holding onto a concrete block in a swimming pool.
The old Adwords paradigm is the Google Cash paradigm; spend one dollar on ads and work at making 2 dollars or more in return.
It’s not legendary fable that there was a time when it was easy to make six to eight dollars for every dollar spent - now, I regularly make 2 or 3 dollars on those campaigns - but you better expect the trend is going down on the profit margins.
Because of this old paradigm, most Adwords marketers (at least the affiliates) are finding it harder and harder to make money. Then you have tools like Undercover Profits coming out which basically exposes those . . . and you get the picture.
People are dying here.
So here’s the shift you need to make now - ...
Don’t see the complete post? It’s for my members only. Register with Black Books Blog and become a member today.
How Much Selling Have You Done Today?
FREE to EVERYONE
I’ve been doing a ton of reading lately and one of the books I’ve gotten a lot from is Ready, Fire, Aim by Michael Masterson of Agora Publishing fame.
Masterson breaks the book into four parts and each of those parts essentially talks about what your focus should be at various levels of income from your business.
Level one is generating income up to $1 Million per year, which probably covers where most readers of this blog are (although I know I have a few readers doing over $1 million per month).
Before I reveal WHAT you should be doing, let me stress now that if you’re an affiliate marketer running a solo operation then this is a message for you.
Or, if you have your own product but you’re struggling to reach that critical mass of customers then this message is also for you.
And, if you consider yourself a relative newbie who’s still working your butt off (or thinking tirelessly about how to make money online) then this message is REALLY for you.
So here it is - this is what you should be spending 80% of your time on as the leader of your business until you’ve reached $1 million per year in revenue.
It’s not customer support.
It’s not product creation.
It’s not picking out furniture.
It’s not setting up the best legal entity for your business.
It’s not creating pretty website designs.
It’s simply this . . . you should be spending 80% of your time marketing and selling.
Now, I think a LOT of people are grossly - GROSSLY - mislead and misunderstanding what marketing and selling IS.
Here is a simple fact of business - if you are not selling anything, then you are not going to make money and you are not going to stay in business.
And yet that’s the last thing MOST people want to do. We hate the idea of selling and being sold.
So we engage in passive activities that come close to accomplishing our goal . . . but not really. We’re sort of selling, but not really.
So, we write articles . . .
We hope someone is kind enough to pick our article up and post it on their site or in a newsletter (something I NEVER hear anyone talk about anymore and that works better than “bum marketing”, I guarantee you). We hope that someone then is able to find our article through a search engine, that they’ll read the article and click on a link and end up where we want them to end up so we can FINALLY make them an offer.
So, we hang out on forums with a link in our signature . . .
And we jump into the latest gossip and we hope that someone clicks on our link and goes somewhere and buys something.
So, we post some stuff on our blog and hope that somehow someone ends up there and buys something.
And on and on.
Now, sales do occur with these methods and a lot of the other passive forms of “selling” going on out there. And that’s the BAD news. Because these people think they’ve experienced some success without realizing how BADLY they’ve failed when compared with what they’re potential is if they were doing what they SHOULD BE DOING.
This is all a lot like having a crush on a cute girl in the 10th grade. We devise all of these passive ways of letting that girl know we like her. And not surprisingly, looking back, she’s not impressed - and then we wonder why she’s going to the prom with the schmuck she’s going with. It’s not necessarily because that’s who she’d have preferred - it’s because he actually took the chance and did the hard work of SELLING THE IDEA.
What does all of this have to do with affiliate marketing?
I’ll tell you.
You’re one and only focus needs to be on mastering selling, then mastering marketing. It doesn’t matter if you can identify a hungry crowd if you can’t sell to them. And that’s why I say selling first.
Yes, it’s uncomfortable. If you have any conscience, it may never be totally comfortable - unless you only sell products you REALLY believe in.
The reason that affiliate marketing is so important is you don’t have to focus on doing all of the things that you SHOULD NOT BE DOING ANYWAY.
Your focus should be almost exclusively on selling - and on finding more people to sell to. And then on finding more things to sell to those people. It should not be on creating products, supporting customers, creating pretty website graphics, etc.
Listen to me because I’m speaking to you from my own experiences and Masterson just put it into words I completely identified with: until the day came that I STOPPED attempting to be the guru - ie, creating everything from scratch - the product, the sales copy, the site, etc - when I stopped trying to do all of that and I started promoting the stuff created by real-live recognized gurus - that’s when I started making money.
Until you have mastered selling to people, all that other stuff is a waste of your time and resources.
Hey - you don’t have to agree with me on this but I’m telling you the truth here. Over the next week, see if you’re spending 80% of your time on marketing and selling. And if the answer is “no”, then tell me you made as much money as you could have made.
All the best to you - X
Black Books Blog Changes
Based on the number of people who’ve registered for this blog in the last 24 hours, my guess is you’re probably wondering what’s going on here.
“X, what’s the deal?”
I’ve promised a couple of projects this year that just aren’t getting done like I want them to - plus I’ve found a new love in blogs. Now that I “get” Wordpress, I want to do more with it.
There are things I’m happy to share with the public in an open access blog. There are other things that I think have a value to them and instead of delaying the release of that material until I have enough good material to put out a book (I currently have 4 books in various stages, plus a membership site) I’ve decided to start posting more often, with even higher quality content here.
At this point, it’s just an experiment and that’s why I’m only asking $17 per month to give you complete access to the blog. I assure you that I will be posting more often and the content will be what you’d expect for paid material from X.
I’ve set the bar low enough for you that there isn’t any real risk. And for me, I’ve set the bar a little higher so I have a compelling reason to share more ideas, more often here.
Maybe you’d prefer to spend your $67 per month on Google Nemesis where you’ll read second-hand, hacked up versions of what I’ve written about in the past. Or maybe, you’d prefer to get it fresh from the source.
By the way, $17 per month will only be available for a limited time - I fully intend to provide more value than that. But let’s prove it first. NOTE: If you join for $17 per month NOW, you will only pay $17 per month for as long as I do this.
To become a member, you just need to register with my blog and then make your payment through PayPal, which you’ll be prompted to do when you login. Simple as that.
All the best to you - X
Affiliate Marketing With Adwords
Here are some PPC / affiliate marketing tips I left on the forum for Renegade Affiliate Copy ( a service from John Hostler that I recommend HIGHLY ).
—————————————————-
I’ll offer some tips, since I know a little about making money with affiliate marketing and PPC.
1. Ads
Think in terms of AIDA and adding value.
Most ads out there being run by affiliates who’ve read books like Affiliate Project X and Day Job Killer are absolute garbage.
What do I mean?
...
Don’t see the complete post? It’s for my members only. Register with Black Books Blog and become a member today.
Cool New Script
I'm just back from Las Vegas and the Internet Marketing Superconference. One of the highlights of the conference was meeting subscriber Norman Freeman, former DJ techno star in Europe. Norman has developed a script that's simply amazing and it stole most of the "underground" buzz at the conference. In fact, Norman was the first guy I wrote when I got home because the ideas in my head wouldn't stop - implementing this script in a number of my sites has moved to the top of my "get it done" list (aka my GTSDN list). Check it out: http://www.imxfiles.com/vi-bbb X PS - I’m not going to tell you what kind of script this is, because you probably wouldn’t look at it if I did. And that’d be a HUGE mistake. I love it when someone takes an idea that we take for granted and pumps it up on steroids, making it so new and powerful you wonder why nobody thought of these things a long time ago. http://www.imxfiles.com/vi-bbb
What Is Traffic Fusion?
Traffic Fusion is an upcoming offer from Mike Filsaime. I can’t say much about it now - but I will share this with you.
Marketing is all about finding the right distribution channels and putting your product or service in front of the people in channels that want or need what you have to offer.
Here’s a real world example:
Millions of people (of questionable intelligence) go to McDonald’s for a meal every day. McDonald’s is a distribution channel. A certain set of people go there for “food”. This set of people have buying tendencies - one of them is they like a soda (or pop) with their meal.
Now, McDonald’s doesn’t produce soda-pop. Instead they “upsell” you on a Coke. So Coke utilizes McDonald’s as ONE of it’s distribution channels.
In essence you can’t go to a Coca Cola store - but you can buy one in just about any other store.
So Traffic Fusion introduces this same concept to Internet marketing. It makes possible, in a simple way for all involved, for your products to become available through other people’s channels.
It’s certainly not a new concept and there’s been software on the market for years that would allow you to accomplish this basic idea, but Mike has added in his twists.
Struggling? Become An Affiliate Manager
I’m not sure why more people don’t take this advice - maybe it’s sooo simple people don’t see the genius in it.
If you want a shortcut to success in IM, become an affiliate manager in a niche of interest.
Why?
You’ll get paid to see who makes money and how they do it.
It’s the greatest education you can ever hope to get.
In this case, you’ve found someone who you KNOW is producing results.
Rip them off directly and the evil edged sword of bad karma will decapitate you with a ruthlessness you never imagined.
Take it and make it your own and you’ve just been given the keys to the kingdom.
Am I Outraged!!!? …
Here’s an excerpt from an email I just received
from Allan Gardyne.
> =============================================
> 1. Beware of this sneaky new affiliate tactic
> =============================================
>
> Occasionally we receive some nasty smelling submissions to our
> affiliate directory.
>
> Here’s one I want to warn you about…
>
> It’s called Affiliate List Controller.
>
> The salesletter recommends a deliberately deceptive tactic.
>
> Affiliate List Controller is software that creates a pop-up which
> appears on top of ANY website you care to choose.
>
> free ringtones for verizon wireless cell phone free alltel music ringtones free ringtones maker download cell free phone ringtones verizon wireless ringtones software free cingular mp3 ringtones free motorola ringtones tracfone free samsung ringtones?????? cingular free mp3 ringtones cell free phone ringtones verizon wireless 24 tv show ringtones ericsson polyphonic ringtones sony virgin mobile phone ringtones hot new ringtones free metro pcs phone ringtones sony ericsson ringtones download free midi ringtones download free tracfone ringtones cell phone ringtones new ringtones Here’s how it works…
>
> Let’s say you’re an affiliate vendor and I’m an affiliate
> directing potential customers to YourSite.com. I can now make a
> pop-up appear on top of YourSite.com asking people to sign up to
> MY newsletter.
>
> Some affiliates place a squeeze page between their links and a
> vendor’s site. That’s OK. It’s a legitimate way of building a
> targeted list. There’s normally nothing deceptive about it.
>
> This is quite different. Sneaky.
>
> Here’s the salesletter…
>
> http://imxfiles.com/alb
>
> (That’s an affiliate link for X - not Allan)
>
> I hope you’re as outraged as I am.
My reply to Allan . . .
========
Allan -
re: Sneaky affiliate tactic.
Yes, but isn’t that site STILL GETTING FREE
TRAFFIC? Would you:
A. Prefer that I send traffic to your site
but build a list in the process of doing it.
B. Prefer I not send traffic to your site
at all.
I think we both know the affiliate marketing
game well enough to know that in most cases
the merchant is the real winner - especially
if they have any kind of a back end. And I
should build THEIR list too? Shame on us
affiliates for getting smarter.
This sounds like you’ve been spending too
much time with Rosalind Gardner, who’s pious
on the surface but I’ve caught her pulling
some of the sneakiest shit I’ve ever seen.
All the best to you - X
PS - Always enjoy your information - thanks for
a great newsletter.
================================================
Tell me what you think about this - I want to hear your comments.
================================================
The Affiliate Black Book
I’ve written a ton of material that could end up in the Affiliate Black Book - now the challenge is to whittle it down.
Tentatively here’s a peek inside:
1. Dirty Little Secrets for Using OPP as Your Front End
2. The Unappointed Affiliate Manager
3. The Appointed Affiliate Manager
4. How to Have Affiliates Send You Traffic Even When You Have No Product
5. The Sneaky Ad***** Trick
6. Top-Secret Tricks and Little-Known Tools
Basically, the point of this book is how to take advantage of affiliate marketing beyond just making a few bucks here and there on commissions.
If that’s the only thing you’re using affiliate marketing for then you’re really missing the big picture (at least that I see).
I’m also working on a membership site project with a mega-geek programmer from Microsoft. I mean “mega-geek” in the nicest way.
I’m motivated to get both of these projects out by June 1 . . .
X
