Author Archive | Edward Rodriguez

Sorry, But You’re Too Late

It’s a fact that the vast majority of the great online marketing ideas have already been thought of and executed.

Do you really think you’re going to invent the next greatest thing?

Maybe the social media platform that puts Facebook in its grave?

Or the marketing course that makes everyone else throw up their hands and go home?

Or maybe the dating app that makes all the other ones shut down?

Nope.

Sorry, but the odds of that are about as good as getting hit by lightning twice.

Mind you, I’m not saying it couldn’t happen. I’m just saying it’s not likely.

But here’s the good news – you don’t have to invent something radically new that changes the world as we know it.

You don’t even have to have an idea no one else has thought of before.

The smart marketer knows that you can take the best ideas out there and re-use them to make them new again.

Now before you get in a tizzy, let me say this: It’s not unethical to repackage information or use someone else’s marketing techniques, as long as you change it.

Obviously you’re not going to just rip something off and do exactly what’s been done, or use exactly the same copy, the same product, etc.

No sir. You’re not going to rip anybody off.

But the fact is, the best ideas have already been used. But there is no reason why you can’t make them your own.

Walk into a bookstore, go to the non-fiction section and you will find hundreds of books that have basically the same information as thousands of books that came before them.

Yet these books are selling.

Why? Because the authors put their own unique spin on the information.

Let me use a cake recipe to illustrate: Let’s say you want to sell your own cake recipe. Are you going to start with a whole new list of ingredients that no one has ever put in a cake before?

For example, “To bake this cake, you’ll need 2 cups of chopped chicken, a package of onion soup, 6 fresh catnip leaves, one half cup of coffee, 12 dill pickles, 2 boiled eggs, a pound of potato peels…”

You get the idea.

Of course you’re going to start with flour, sugar, butter, baking soda or baking powder, etc.

You’re going to use the exact same basic ingredients that a million chefs and cooks have used before you.

But you’re going to put your own twist on your recipe.

Maybe you add maraschino cherries and cinnamon. Or peppermint extract and dark chocolate. Or blueberries and lemon juice.

It’s still a cake recipe, and it’s not all that different from other cake recipes, except that you put your own twist on it.

Stop trying to come up with a world-shattering idea and simply look around at what’s working and what resonates with you.

Take that information and make it your own.

And then teach what you learned.

It’s so simple, and you don’t need an amazing idea.

Now here’s where a lot of people get bogged down – they think it’s unethical to take information they got elsewhere and make it their own.

So let’s put some context on this…

You go to college for 4 years. For this privilege, you pay a great deal of money. Professors and textbooks teach you a whole lot of knowledge that THEY DID NOT THINK OF FIRST.

That’s right – it’s what you might call regurgitated info, in that other people discovered it, came up with it and so forth.

But they are getting paid to teach it to you anyway.

Then what happens?

You go out and get a job, where you use this same information. And you get PAID for it, too.

So now then, here’s your question: How is this any different from taking information that’s already available, putting your own unique spin on it, and selling that same information?

You are doing the same thing the professors and the college are doing. And you’re doing the same thing anyone who gets a job and uses this info in their job is doing.

You’re just doing it online.

Now then – feel better?

Good.

Because for many of you, I have just removed your very last excuse for not making your own product.

Assuming you already have your niche picked out, go find your very favorite products in that niche. Study them. Learn all you can. Put the information to work in your business or your life.

And then make your own product with your own unique personality and skill set.

I know you can make it a success, and you don’t even have to invent the wheel to do it.

Okay, your results will vary on this one. Frankly, I don’t see any reason why a person can’t make $500 per DAY, but as always, it depends on what you do with the info I’m about to share with you.

First, there is a stipulation – you must be really good at something that others want to know about. For example, if you’re really good at solving a particular problem or reaching a particular goal, then this might be right for you.

Let’s say you know how to list-build like crazy while spending very little money. Or you know how to write copy that converts, or how to get far more done in less time, or how to get podcasters to interview you, or…

The possibilities are endless. As long as you have a skill or knowledge that other people need and want, you can do this.

If you don’t, first get a skill and then do this.

And by the way, you’ll find this work rewarding and interesting. Plus you’ll make new friends, associates and business partners, too.

You can do this if you have a list, (best option) if you’re willing to advertise, if you’re willing to do guest posting, etc. Really, any method of getting qualified traffic can be used.

You’re going to advertise 30 minute brainstorming, troubleshooting or mentoring slots. Choose the term that works for you.

And you can do this in any niche, by the way, not just online marketing.

Charge a low fee when you start out – maybe $99 for 30 minutes. Once you gain testimonials and experience – which shouldn’t take more than a couple of weeks – significantly increase your price.

Ask your clients to send you any info you need for the call ahead of time. For example, if you’re doing website consultations, then of course you’ll need their URL. If you’re doing personal coaching, you might ask them what their biggest obstacles are, and so forth.

This allows you to prepare for the call. Later as you gain more experience, preparation won’t be as necessary.

But in the beginning, you want to build your own confidence so you instill confidence in your clients. Plus, you want to be able to give them the best advice possible. And sometimes that might mean doing some research prior to the call, especially if you’re somewhat new to the topic.

Personally, I’ve paid people as much as $1,000 for 30 minutes of their time. In return, I once saved 3 months of work and $5,000 in capital (I had a business idea that I learned from my expert wasn’t viable.)

And I’ve easily made 5 figures from just one consultation, resulting in a huge return on my money.

So yes, people DO pay for information, guidance and one-on-one help. And yes, you are providing a valuable service, assuming you know your topic.

You don’t need to be famous in your niche. You don’t need to be a guru. You just need to have a skill or knowledge that people want.

Do other people turn to you for advice? On what topic?

There’s your niche.

Have faith in yourself and your knowledge and you’ll do fine.

Be sure to ask the right questions. In fact, you might keep a list of questions handy. Once you know where your client is in whatever process you’re teaching, and where they want to go, then you can help them.

That last sentence, by the way, is a goldmine. Here it is again:

1: Find out where your client is in the process you’re teaching. How far along are they? What have they done so far? What are they about to do? What results have they gotten so far?

2: Find out where your client wants to go. What is their end goal? How do they plan to get there? Why do they want to get there?

3: Use your knowledge to help them get to where they want to be. What are they missing? What don’t they know or realize? What obstacles can you help them overcome? What shortcuts can you show them? What should their plan be? What is their very next step?

Things to know:

– Done right, you can get clients to book regular weekly time slots. For example, let’s say someone wants you to teach them different ways to get traffic.

On the first call, you might only have time to teach them one method.

Let them know you have a dozen more proven methods you’d be happy to teach them – given the time – and offer a weekly slot.

If they actually take your advice from the first call and start to see results, they will be back.

Or perhaps someone just needs you to keep them on track and making progress. You are now their coach, so naturally they’re going to be booking a weekly time slot with you.

– Let your clients record the calls. They will forget 90% of what you tell them if you don’t let them record, so yes, just let them.

– Provide tons of value, but forgo the firehose. Let’s go back to the traffic example: It’s better to teach one method of traffic generation really well so they can immediately put that knowledge to work, than it is to try to teach a dozen methods in 30 minutes.

If you try to teach too much too quickly, they won’t have enough details or confidence to implement what you teach. Plus you’re robbing yourself of potential repeat business.

– All you need to get started is a sales page offering your services and a Skype account. And use a scheduling service to schedule your appointments.

– Once you raise your prices enough to justify it, you might record the calls yourself and have them transcribed and sent to the clients.

This makes a nice added touch that provides real value, since they don’t have to go back to the recording each time to find out what you said.

– Ask for testimonials. Don’t be shy about this. Follow up via email and ask for their opinion of the call.

Ask specific follow up questions. If the answers you get back are positive, then ask for a testimonial.

– If the answers you get back are negative, fix it.

Maybe they didn’t understand something you said and were afraid to ask for clarification. Maybe they didn’t feel you understood their needs.

Whatever it is, fix it and fix it fast. When you do, you’ll often have a client for life.

Perhaps the most valuable point of all is to relax and have fun. The more relaxed and confident you are, the better your ideas will flow and the better advice you’ll be able to give.

Plus it’s important that the client enjoy the call in addition to receiving great information.

Make it fun for both you and the client – as well as highly educational – and you’ll get plenty of referral business, too.

Picture this…

You’re watching a television show and it ends with a dark scene of a hand firing a gun at the hero. You don’t know if the hero lives or dies.

You don’t know who shot the hero or why.

And you’re in suspense.

So what do you do?

You watch the next episode, of course.

Humans have a desire to KNOW stuff.

When they don’t know, it bugs them. It’s like an itch that needs to be scratched, and they’ll do whatever it takes to scratch that itch.

You can do the same thing with your emails – make it so your readers MUST read not only the email you just sent them, but also your next one and the one after that.

Andres Chaperone does a great job of teaching this email marketing technique.

In fact, here are three different open loop methods he recommends:

The Fake Out Open

You start out telling your readers that you’re going to tell them something. But then you tell them something else, instead. For example:

“Dear Reader,

I’m going to show you exactly how I managed to lose 83 pounds while watching television, eating whatever I wanted and never exercising – other than to go to the fridge.

The secret to my weight loss involved three magic words, and I’ll tell you what those words are and why they work to make you effortlessly lose weight tomorrow.

But right now, I want to tell you about my 21 year old college roommate who died from a heart attack because of a single Oreo cookie.”

You’re telling them what you’re going to tell them, but you’re not telling them right now.

That’s because you have something else to tell them now.

This is an open loop – the magic 3 words that caused the 83 pound weight loss – combined with value stacking. They get a secret tomorrow, and they get a story about the dead roommate and the Oreo cookie today.

This makes the recipient feel like there’s a ton of great stuff coming from you.

This creates surprise, curiosity, desire and anticipation.

And they love you and your emails for it.

Delayed Gratification

For this one, you’re going to throw in an open loop somewhere inside your content. It could be almost anywhere – near the beginning, in the middle, near the end… where you place it will depend on what it is and how it relates to the rest of your email.

For example, let’s say you’re writing an email about weight loss, and you’re telling the story of how one of your weight loss students lost 143 pounds thanks to your coaching. In the middle of your email, you might write…

“And when I told her how to perform the belly blaster technique in the shower every morning, and that she would effortlessly lose another pound of ugly fat every week… well, she just about lost it.

***If you’re not familiar with my belly blaster shower technique for losing fat, tomorrow I’ll tell you exactly how to do it. You’ll be shocked at the results.

So she tried the technique anyway, even though she thought I was crazy, and a week later she called with the results.

‘I lost 2 inches off my stomach, and I didn’t do anything else differently!’”

Notice how we mention something that’s bound to provoke curiosity, and then we tell the reader they will find out all about it… tomorrow.

3. Cliff Hanger P.S.

This is perhaps one of the most commonly used techniques for creating an open loop. It’s easy to do and keeps you on the minds of your readers long after they close your email.

You simply tack on a P.S. with a teaser for whatever you’re going to share with them tomorrow, like this:

“PS: Did you ever hear about the guy who decided to tie balloons to a lawn chair, to see if he could fly?

He did, with unexpected and totally scary results. In fact, he even scared the heck out of an airline pilot at 30,000 feet!

And what happened next, you’re not going to believe. In fact, I’ll tell you all about it tomorrow, I promise.

See you then!”

It’s easy to create open loops in your emails.

And don’t stop there. You can place open loops everywhere. For example, at the end of a blogpost, in your videos and so forth.

It’s a great way to get people to read several posts instead of just one, or to watch several videos.

You just keep ‘open looping’ them, and they keep clicking to satisfy their curiosity.

It works almost like magic.

A friend of mine who wishes to remain anonymous has agreed to tell you one of his money-making methods. And while he might be leaving some minor details out, I think there is more than enough here to set you on a very similar path if you choose.

This is what he told me…

“Here’s an example of how I made over $17,600 in five days by investing $297 and a few hours of my time.

Okay, I didn’t really invest my time – I actually paid a freelancer to do the work for me. But this is something you can easily do yourself if you’re willing to put in a little time.

I found some dynamite high-quality PLR on free traffic generation. It was good stuff, and even contained some things I didn’t know.

It included a massive manual, several written bonuses and a sales page.

And at this price point, I knew that there wouldn’t be a ton of competition, either.

Frankly, I would have gladly paid a freelancer $1,000 to write this exact same material for me, but in this case it was a simple matter of plunking down the $297 and having it in hand.

I discarded the sales page because I didn’t want anyone to know this wasn’t my own original stuff.

Then I had my freelancer go through the written material and put more personality into it, so it sounds like it’s coming from me. He already knows my style so this was easy for him and just took a few hours.

Next, he broke it up into 24 PDFs. Each PDF detailed one or two free traffic methods.

Basically, we were building a course on how to generate free, targeted traffic. And who doesn’t need that?

Finally, I wrote a new sales letter for it in my own style.

And I offered two options – they could either make 3 payments of $47 a month, and receive 2 pdfs each week, or…

…they could pay $137 up front and get everything at once, plus email support for six weeks.

Really, I thought the $137 was a no-brainer, since it was cheaper and included email support and they didn’t have to wait to get the entire course.

Then I sent the offer out to my list, and in 5 days I made over $17,600.

As to the email support, I hired someone to handle that for me. And I paid them after the money started rolling in so I wasn’t out of pocket on that, either.

Nice, right?

But I wasn’t done yet.

I then made a new offer for $47 a month for 3 months, or $97 one time and everything up front, but NO email support this time.

And I let affiliates take a crack at selling it.

I made over $10,000 from that as well, after affiliate commissions were paid.

Okay, frankly I made a good bit more than $10,000, but I’m not going to say just how much because sometimes it feels like bragging, you know what I mean?

And here’s the kicker – I’ve done very similar things several times over the past 18 months.

The numbers are always different, but what never changes is I make a good bit of money with very little work.

I mean VERY LITTLE WORK.

I outsource just about anything that needs to be done except the sales copy because I like doing that myself.

And when I let affiliates sell it, I get a whole new list of buyers, too.”

As you can see, he does quite well with this method. And most impressive of all is how little time he invests into each product.

Some things to consider:

If you don’t have a list, then you’ll need to advertise to make sales or build your list. Even if you want affiliates to promote, you’ll need to get some initial sales yourself to prove that it does indeed sell.

You’ll have to hunt around for great quality PLR. It’s not easy to find, and when you do find it, it generally costs a good deal more than the usual ten bucks or so. But as you can see, if you use it then it’s an excellent investment.

The first time you do this, I suggest you make any changes yourself unless you can afford to hire a professional to do it.

One thing he didn’t mention was the product name – you’ll want to change it to make it sound unique to you.

And I suggest adding your own introduction to the material as well, again to make it your own.

One last thing – there’s no reason why you can’t place some strategic affiliates links in the material. For example, if your course encourages the use of an autoresponder, then give an affiliate link to the service you recommend, and so forth.

And one crazy idea for the road… what if you did all of this, but then you gave away 75% or more of your commissions to affiliates?

If you’re fairly new to marketing, then paying high commissions is an excellent way to attract new affiliates.

You’ll get more of them on board, you’ll sell more products, you’ll build your list of buyers faster, and these same affiliates will be far more interested in promoting your future courses if they already had success promoting your first one.

Just a thought…

You’ve heard of the Law of Attraction.

If you’re like most marketers, you’ve also belittled the Law of Attraction, too.

After all, it’s just new age hocus pocus malarkey, right?

You can’t sit on your duff and attract a new television to yourself.

(Well, actually you can, with the help of your credit card, Amazon and the mail delivery system, but that’s not what we’re talking about, is it?)

I’m going to prove to you that the Law of Attraction is indeed very real.

And I’m going to do it by simply having YOU prove it to YOURSELF once and for all.

Are you ready?

The first thing to know is that the universe is already delivering to you exactly what you’ve asked for.

Imagine a line of self-driving delivery trucks coming down your street. These trucks cannot be stopped – they will make their deliveries to you whether you want them to or not. And these trucks will never stop coming, either, for as long as you are alive.

What you can change, however, is WHAT they deliver to you.

If your thoughts are on your lack of sales, lack of subscribers, lack of JV partners, lack of affiliates, your website crashing and so forth – that’s exactly what you’ll experience.

However, if you think of all the new subscribers you’re attracting through your marketing methods, how well your website is converting thanks to your testing, how easily you attract affiliates and JV’s – then that’s what you’ll get.

“But I already do think about the things I want!”

I agree, you do. But maybe not as much as you think about the things you DON’T want.

And it’s actually a bit more complicated than that, too.

You see, if you only think consciously about what you want, but you don’t program your subconscious mind as well, then you still won’t get what you ordered from those trucks rolling down your street.

This is where it gets confusing, doesn’t it? What is the subconscious? And how do you program it to work with you, instead of fighting what you want?

You might think of your conscious mind as the part of the iceberg that’s above water – the part you’re familiar with. The subconscious mind is the much larger portion of the iceberg that’s beneath the surface – and also the part that reacts to currents and ‘steers’ the iceberg in the direction it winds up going.

The trick is to program the subconscious mind to take you where you want to go, and to bring into your life the things and people you want in your life.

Program your subconscious correctly, and everything is easier.

Program it incorrectly, and you feel like you are continuously attempting to swim upstream against a diabolically strong current that inevitably prevents you from getting where you want to go.

It’s important to note here that your subconscious mind is already being programmed all the time – by your thoughts, the media, movies and television, advertising, your friends and family and so forth.

Isn’t it about time YOU took charge of your own programming to get the success you seek in online marketing and every other aspect of your life?

Here’s how:

Step 1: Write down exactly what you want, in full detail.

Instead of writing, “I want more affiliates,” write “I want 20 active affiliates who sell a total of 1,000 copies of my program in the next 60 days.”

Step 2: Visualize yourself already having obtained what you desire.

This is fun and something you should do several times a day or more. Play full color movies in your head of yourself already having attained your desire.

Your subconscious doesn’t know the difference between what it sees in your imagination and what it sees in the real world.

That’s why when it keeps seeing movies of you having 20 active affiliates and selling 1,000 copies of your program in 60 days, it will think this is reality and work to make it happen.

Step 3: Don’t watch or listen to anything – real or imagined – that contradicts your new belief.

If you want to sell 1,000 copies of your program, but you watch a TV series where the main character is always failing at everything he tries, this is going to sabotage your efforts. Be very careful what you watch, read and listen to.

Consider going on a complete news fast, refusing to watch or read anything negative for the next 30 days. You might be surprised at how much more positive you feel, and how much easier it is to attain goals.

That’s because you’re removing negative influences on your programming, which allows the positive influences to have their way.

Step 4: Make your own mantra or affirmation summarizing your goal.

This affirmation is going to imply you already have the outcome you seek.

Start the affirmation with either, “I have…” or “I am…”. In the case of our example, your affirmation might be, “I have 20 active affiliates who easily sell 1,000 copies of my program in 60 days.”

Make sure your affirmation is in the present tense or else your subconscious won’t understand it.

Also, don’t use a negative word, because your subconscious won’t hear it.

For example, if you say, “I do not get refund requests,” your subconscious will hear, “I do get refund requests” and it will go to work to make sure you get plenty of refund requests. Ouch.

Step 5: Create reminders.

Set a timer on your phone that goes off periodically throughout the day to remind you to say your affirmation and play your movie in your head.

See yourself already in possession of what you seek.

Step 6: Do affirmations.

Okay, if you’re squirming right now and saying, “I don’t want to!” then I understand.

You probably tried affirmations in the past and found it too boring to continue.

Here’s how to make it simple for yourself: Write out a list of affirmations that support your desired goal.

Record yourself saying these affirmations, and loop it 3 to 5 times to repeat those affirmations.

Then play this recording several times per day as you do other things.

Hint: It’s especially useful to play it as you’re falling asleep.

Step 7: Time to kick things up a notch.

You’re going to speak as though you have already attained your goal.

Yes, I mean speak to others. If that sounds a little too crazy right now, then practice speaking it out loud to yourself, Then when you’re ready, talk to friends, family, etc.

For example, in our 20 affiliates – 1,000 sales example, you’ll be saying things like, “I’ve got 20 new active affiliates who are promoting my new program like crazy. In fact, I’ve already made 1,000 sales!”

“Wait! Isn’t this lying?”

Think of it as time traveling. When you do reach this goal, you will be saying these things for real. You’re just saying them a little early, that’s all.

Now, I know you’re going to try to skip this step. Don’t. Speaking things into existence is powerful. After all, don’t gods speak entire worlds into existence? If they can do that, you can speak your goals into being as well.

Now then, once you’re doing these seven steps, just keep doing them until you reach your goal. Then repeat the entire process.

I suggest you start with a small goal that can be achieved fairly quickly and work your way up to larger goals. Realize of course that you will HAVE TO DO STUFF along the way to make your goals happen.

But here’s the magic – by using this system, things will be a lot easier. The people you need will appear when you need them.

Things that need to fall into place for you will fall into place. It feels a lot like magic, but it’s not. It’s simply a matter of energy and focus.

You are focusing your energy to send out a call into the world for what you need, and the world cannot help but answer.

Remember that long line of trucks making deliveries to your home? Now you can determine what gets delivered (and what doesn’t.)

I’ve personally used this system for years. It’s as close to having my own genie as anything real that I can imagine. I’m a true believer because I’ve seen it work time and time again, and you will be, too, once you try it.

So what have you got to lose? And more importantly, fellow online marketer, what have you got to gain?

The world needs what you have to offer. And by using this system you’ll be able to help all kinds of people while simultaneously getting everything you want, too.

Truly a win-win for everyone involved.

Let’s talk about real life real estate for just a moment…

How do you make money in real estate?

You buy a property, rent it out, and use the rent money to pay off the property.

Or, you use the rent money from your first property to buy your next property. You rent out the second property and buy your third, and so forth.

So yes, you’re coming out of pocket on that first property, or you’re taking out a loan. But in the long run, you wind up with several rental properties that eventually pay themselves off, and you’re a millionaire.

But the problem with buying properties are numerous: Real estate loans are a hassle to get. Renters are problematic. You’ve got to pay property taxes and all upkeep. You get calls in the middle of the night saying a pipe broke, or whatever. There’s always more added expense and headaches than you expect.

But what if we do something similar on the internet, so that we get all the benefits without all the hassle? It would look something like this:

(And by the way, many millionaires made their money using this exact method.)

Let’s say you go to Flippa and you find a website that’s making $800 a month. The owner is willing to sell that website for a minimum of $3,000. You bid on the site, others bid on the site, and you manage to buy it for $4,000.

Now you might wonder why someone would sell a $800 a month website for just $4,000. Frankly, their reasons don’t matter. What does matter is you did your due diligence and confirmed that they are in fact making $800 a month with the site, and you are getting everything needed to continue earning that $800 a month. That may include a list, or a product, etc. As long as you can continue to make that kind of money, you’re golden.

Let’s say you make no improvements to the site other than upkeep and maintenance, and you continue to earn $800 a month. In a year’s time you will have more than doubled your money. The following year everything is profit, and so forth.

But you don’t stop there, because you take your profits from the first website and buy a second website. You take the profits from the second website and buy a third website, and so forth.

You’ll notice that you can pay for a website a whole lot faster than you can pay for a piece of real estate.

In addition, it’s much easier to make improvements to your websites than to your properties.

For example, if you want to upgrade the kitchen on a rental home, you’ve got to get bids, hire a contractor, let the house sit idle without a renter for two months, and pay a hefty fee for the privilege of not collecting rent while the kitchen is being redone.

But with your website, you can hire an outsourcer for a few hundred dollars to make whatever changes you need.

Which brings us to the next point… oftentimes there are small things you can do to a website to create big changes in revenue. And as an experienced marketer, you’re in prime position to see those things and act on them.

For example, have they been using the site to build a mailing list? If not, this one step alone can often double and triple revenue within just a month or two.

If they are building a mailing list, are they mailing to it on a frequent basis and selling products through their emails? You’d be surprised how often they’re not.

Is the website getting good SEO? If not, hire an SEO person to help you out, because it can be money well spent.

There’s almost always going to be something you can do to increase the revenue you get from the site.

Imagine if, in a year’s time, you buy 6 websites that each earn $500 a month when you buy them. Imagine you tweak them just a little and get them up to $1,000 a month. That means you could have a $6,000 a month income without much work.

I know a fellow who bought a site for $5,000 that was earning $600 a month. He saw a lot of potential in the site, as well as things that could easily be improved.

He made a few tweaks (took him a week) and now the website earns $3,000 a month.

I don’t know where else you can invest $5,000 for an asset, spend about $900 upgrading that asset, and earn $36,000 a year. In my opinion it beats the stock market and real estate combined.

And if you ever decide you’re tired of a particular site or you just need some fast cash, you can always sell the site on Flippa again.

Now you might be wondering what sorts of changes you might make to a website to increase the revenue.

Broadly speaking, your changes will fall into one of these categories:

1: Increase the amount of traffic that’s coming to the website. If your website is already earning good money from advertising or product sales, you might just need to send more of the same traffic it’s already getting.

2: Increase the quality of traffic that’s coming to the website. If the original site owner wasn’t targeting just the right people, then changing your ads or methods of driving traffic may greatly increase sales without increasing traffic.

3: Get more of your visitors to become customers. Tweak the site to convert more prospects into customers. Also work on turning those prospects into list members so you can continue to sell to them, even if they don’t return to your website.

4: Sell more to your customers, meaning either sell them higher priced products, or sell to them more often, or both. For example, add an upsell to the sales funnel, as well as an autoresponder sequence that sells them on more products.

It will take some nerve to make that first website purchase. Learn how to appraise sites and verify traffic and sales before you do, and you’ll be alright. Remember, you can always sell the site later if you want to.

I think once you try this, you might just get hooked. It’s a lot of fun to have an entire stable of websites, all making you money like clockwork. And should one of them ever stop producing, it won’t matter. You’ll have already made your money back, and you’ll still have all of your other revenue streams from your other websites.

As you can see, the internet can be a great place to develop your ‘real estate’ fortune.

What about HUGE Niches and MASSIVE Profits?

There is a ton of marketing advice online about niching things down until you get to a small, fanatical group of people who will buy anything and everything in that niche.

And this is great advice – I offer it myself and follow it all the time.

But… you know how I like to be contrary. Sort of like, if everyone is selling stock, I’m buying. If they’re buying, I’m selling.

And if they’re niching things down to the ridiculous, I try going after HUGE niches that have a TON of people in them.

For example… How many people like to eat good food? Or see movies? Or drive cars? LOTS of people.

So I got to thinking… What if you made an offer that appealed to a ton of people?

For example, how to take vacations for free.

This isn’t anything sketchy – it really is possible to take free vacations. In fact, there are several different methods of doing it.

So I advertise this free offer: “How to take vacations for free.”

And then I bill myself to my new subscribers (using a pen name) as the guy that will hook them up with really great free stuff, like the free vacations info.

In fact, if they liked that one, they will LOVE what I have coming up, so watch your email…

…you get the idea.

Then I send them free offers.

For example, a free report or video on how to get all the dates they want.

They opt-in to a new list to get that report or video, and now I have a targeted list of people who want dating info.

Or I offer a freebie on how to save tons of money on groceries, or how to make more money, or how to lose weight, or whatever.

Generally every offer I make is going to be directly tied into an affiliate product such as a ClickBank product.

They get the free report or video, and at the end of it I make a soft sell for the ClickBank product.

I also offer a free bonus if they buy the product. All they have to do is email me their ClickBank receipt, and I send the bonus. This way I can also separate my buyers from my prospects.

As I get these segmented lists, I continue to send them free offers that lead to paid offers.

And I make bank, all because I start out attracting as many people as possible and then segmented them down by interest.

Now then, you might be wondering how this is better than simply targeting a small niche in the first place.

Frankly, I don’t know if it’s better, but it is different and it does work. And it allows me to build several lists simultaneously from the same main traffic source.

One person can be on several of my segmented lists, after all. For example, they’re interested in vacations, dating and dieting – three different lists, three opportunities to sell them products.

Using this method, it’s very easy to build a large list quickly. And if I want to immediately profit, I offer a one-time offer after they get the initial freebie.

The real payoff is when I start segmenting into smaller, more targeted lists. And of course it’s nice to have (for example) 10 lists in 10 different niches, because now I have 10 different profit centers, all coming from the same initial source.

The key is to bill yourself as the go-to person for great free stuff, and then be that person. When you offer a free video or report or whatever, it’s got to be chock full of dynamite info they can use immediately.

Tell them what to do, for example, but not how to do it. The “how to” is in the paid product.

Or tell them the difficult method to accomplish something, and then offer the easy method as a paid product.

And you don’t have to create any products yourself – just use the ones on ClickBank. But you might be creating short free reports or videos, which of course you can always outsource.

One last shortcut: A lot of affiliate offers will start out with a free report or video. Make a deal with the product owner to get that report or video in the hands of your readers yourself. That way you’re using their freebie to segment your list, and the affiliate product owner is still making sales.

There might be a life lesson in this – when others are all doing the same thing, think about how you might do the opposite. Sometimes it can really pay off in a big way.

Here’s something I’ve been playing with, and my results have been pretty good, too. Do the opposite of what everyone else is doing…

A few months ago a friend was launching a big product with lots of cash prizes for the top affiliates. I knew there would be tons of affiliate competition, with every affiliate trying to out-do the others with bigger and better bonuses.

How to compete?

I decided not to.

Instead, I thought about what every affiliate’s bonus pages would look like: Highly polished, slick, professional, lots of graphics, videos, etc.

Odds are they would all start to look very much alike, right?

So I thought… What if I did something different?

What if my page looked like something you might get in the mail – black and white sales letter, using the Courier typewriter font, very old-school looking…

And what if, instead of a highly polished professional photo of myself, I used one where I just woke up? Or one where I just finished exercising, or just finished the yard work?

In other words, I looked like the guy next door and not some slick marketer.

Taking this thinking to the next level, I decided I didn’t want to spend time or money on creating a bonus. Everyone else was doing that, so why should I?

Instead, I would hold a live class. The homework would be to go over the program before class. Then in class we would implement, step-by-step, what was in the program. And I would record the whole thing, so people could just follow along.

In case you’re wondering – it worked beautifully. My sales were a very decent 5 figure number, and my commissions were half that plus bonuses.

And one more thing – I cheated, too. I had my virtual assistant run the class for me. She got to learn some great new skills, and I put less than 2 hours into the entire project.

The takeaway: When you have a lot of competition, it’s time to stop directly competing and find another way.

If they are using tons of graphics and slick videos, you go with a 1980’s black and white typewriter look.

If they are offering bonus packages filled with 5, 10 or 20 products, you offer no products (I offered hold-your-hand training, which in my opinion is worth far more anyway.)

You get the idea.

Do you know what would work even better than that?

MAILING the actual letter. Yup. Talk about old school. If you collect real addresses of your BUYERS, you might consider doing this on big ticket items.

I know marketers who do this. They are few and far between, and they are KILLING it. They only mail to buyers, which greatly improves their conversions. They use a service to send out the mailers for them. And they make more on one of these mailings than most successful marketers earn in 6 months.

Which brings me to my second idea… if you don’t already have the mailing addresses for your buyers, start collecting those now.

When you have a sizable portion of them (at least 200, preferably 500) approach a marketer with a product your list would love. Make sure there is plenty of profit in that product. Take the sales letter, adapt it to a black and white mailer (cheap to produce) and send it to your buyers.

See what happens. Tweak, rinse and repeat.

You can easily DOUBLE your income using this method.

Know why? Again, because it’s contrary. It’s different. Almost no one is doing it.

Your customer gets maybe a half dozen pieces of mail in a day. Two are bills. Two are sales flyers from local businesses. One is a catalog.

And then there’s that mysterious white envelope. Yeah, it’s going to get opened. Yes, it’s going to get read.

Wow! They’re surprised. Someone they know from ONLINE is sending them REAL MAIL.

They don’t throw it out. Instead, they open their browser, type in the URL and ORDER THE PROGRAM.

Sure, not everyone does, but… enough do.

Believe me, I’ve seen this work time and time again. Which is why I’m about to start sending out sales letters via snail mail (Shhh, don’t tell anyone!)

When you’re an expert, you command respect in your niche. People listen to you, they pay attention to what you say and most of all they buy your products.

Being the expert in your own niche is like writing your own ticket to freedom.

Granted, you’re never going to become “The Expert” in a massive field such as weight loss. But niche it down to “Weight loss for new mothers” or “Weight loss for brides-to-be” or Weight loss for video gamers,” and you can indeed become the expert in your niche.

I was reading Russell Brunson’s book, “Expert Secrets,” and it starts out by giving some examples of just how easy it is to become an expert.

When Russell was in college, he tried internet marketing but failed. Then on spring break when he was bored out of his mind, he and a friend decided to build a potato gun.

The thing was, they didn’t know HOW to build a potato gun. It just sounded like fun. So they started doing some research.

They discovered things like the correct barrel-to-chamber volume ratio, the right propellants to use, the correct pressure for the pipes, how NOT to blow themselves up and a whole lot more. Armed with this information, they went to the store and bought their supplies. Then they spent the next few days building the gun, finding a place to shoot it and yes, shooting the gun itself.

They had a great time, and when Russell was in school the next week listening to the professor drone on, he thought about how he’d rather be shooting his potato gun. Then he wondered if there were other people who would rather be shooting a potato gun too.

Russell checked, and sure enough: the previous month there had been 18,000 searches for the term, ‘potato gun plans.’

Russell talked his friend into creating a DVD on how to source the items needed for building a potato gun, and how to build the gun itself.

Then he sold this DVD online. While he didn’t make a fortune, he did earn enough to get excited about online marketing and his new career was born.

Notice in the above scenario what Russell did to become an expert. He picked a topic he was interested in, researched it, experimented, did his own work, and created a video.

Not exactly hard work, was it?

Russell gives a few more examples of people who became ‘experts’ in the same manner:

Jacob Hiller always wanted to dunk a basketball, but he was lousy at it. So he started doing research to discover techniques to improve his ability to jump. Every time he found a technique that worked, he made a video.

At first nobody was paying attention, but after a while he had 100 followers, then 1,000 followers, and pretty soon he had 10,000 followers.

So he made a product and built a company that makes millions of dollars teaching people how to jump. Crazy, but true.

Jermaine Griggs had trouble reading sheet music, so learned to play piano by ear. Now he makes millions teaching others to do the same.

Liz Benny was an excellent social media manager, but it wasn’t until she began teaching others what she knew that she started making millions.

Robert G. Allen once said that he made millions doing real estate deals, but he made hundreds of millions of dollars teaching real estate.

Think of that – he made MILLIONS doing real estate deals, but he made HUNDREDS of millions teaching others what he learned.

Are you an expert at something that other people want to learn? Then as Russell says, you are just one funnel away from making millions.

But maybe you don’t have an expertise yet – that’s okay. As you can see from the above examples, every one of these folks learned to be an expert first and then built their business teaching others to do what they did.

Even Russell wasn’t born an internet marketing guru. He studied and practiced and worked to become what he is today.

And the same goes for me and every single expert making 7 figures on the internet.

One last thing – you might already be an expert, but you’ve got a voice inside your head saying, “Who am I to teach others? I’m nobody special.”

You are indeed special but you just don’t know it yet.

What you know comes easy to you because you’ve studied and practiced.

Yet to most people, what you know seems like something very difficult.

They need your help.

They WANT your help.

So ask yourself this question: Who are you to deny them the help they need and want?

Think about all the people you can help with your skill. By focusing not on the money you’ll earn, but instead focusing on helping others, you can build a 7-figure business you can feel great about.

And by the way, you can purchase Russell’s book, “Expert Secrets,” on Amazon.

Ok, this is a rant but it needs to be said… I got another email the other day from someone lamenting at how darn difficult it is to start and run an online business. He went on and on about his struggles, challenges, problems… how he didn’t have anyone to sit right there and show him step by step what to do, that he had to read BOOKS and watch VIDEOS to learn things… He was literally convincing himself that he couldn’t do it.

This man is a friend of mine. He’s 42 years old, has a good job, a college education and a lousy attitude.

Finally I got sick of his whining and I sent him this note:

“Dear Peter,

What I’m about to say, I say with love and the deepest of respect.

I want to tell you about a 14 year old boy named William Kamkwamba.

William was born into poverty in a small Malawi village in Africa.

Because of a crippling famine, William was forced to drop out of school since his family could no longer afford the tuition. To further his education, William used his spare time to study books in the village library, where he evidently learned some stuff all on his own.

His village had no electricity and no running water. So at the ripe old age of 14 and using what he learned from those books, William built a wind turbine out of blue gum trees, bicycle parts and scrap.

This turbine along with future turbines William built powered his entire village.

Next, William built a solar-powered water pump to supply the first drinking water to his village.

Of course, William had many advantages you do not. He didn’t have decades of life experience like you do.

He didn’t know that things were supposed to be hard. He didn’t know to complain. He didn’t know that what you learn in books is useless.

You’re smarter than William. You know how hard it is to get motivated when you already have drinking water, food, a home and so forth.

And books – you know how difficult it is to read and learn from those silly things. After all, the only thing in them is the knowledge of experts who’ve already done the things you want to do.

You know how hard it is to move that mouse and tap those keys.

Starting an online business? You know it’s impossible.

But William… he didn’t know any of those things.

And at 14 he brought power and water to his entire village all by himself.

Maybe you could ask William to show you how to build your online business…

😉

Love,

Me.