What if you were to do the exact same work and put in the exact same effort on your next product, only you made 3 tiny changes and increased your income? Here’s how…
1. Change the commission amount that you offer to affiliates. If you normally give 100% to build your list, try offering just 60 or 70% instead. Surprisingly, your affiliates will often send just as much traffic, but you get to profit as well.
Alternative: Bump the commission up to 100%. If you normally pay 50%, try bumping it up this time instead. Then offer an upsell in which you either split the commission with affiliates, or take it all yourself.
2. Insert referral links into your product. This is old school but it still works. Choose a product or two of your own that fit well with the product you’re selling and talk them up inside your new product. Don’t oversell, just mention how they will help out with whatever it is they do.
Alternative: Add the sales pages for the products as index.html files into your download zip. Or better yet, do both.
3. Place links for other products on your download page. This is prime real estate and a great place to make other offers.
Alternative: Offer your best affiliates a link to their product on your download page if they will promote your product like crazy. This works really, really well at motivating some affiliates. Decide if you want to split the profits from their products with them, or let them keep 100% of the profits.
It is surprising how often simple little tweaks can substantially add to your bottom line. You just have to test things out and see what works best for you – it’s well worth the extra few minutes it takes.
This won’t make you rich but it can make you a full time income… Every day there are new people wanting to do Internet marketing, but they don’t want to do the work. If you can take the pain of the work away from them, they will pay you handsomely for it.
The pain is in the actual “doing” of the thing. So you do the “thing” for them. What’s the “thing?” It could be creating their first product, setting up their sales funnel, building their website, writing their blog posts, putting a list building system in place… anything that needs to be done to start an online business qualifies.
Let’s say someone wants to have their own website but doesn’t know where to start. “I will create your website for you” is going to resonate with them. So you create a professional website for your customer, and then when you’re in profit and have your own service you can start marketing – you outsource the rest of the website development while you focus on building your next service.
Yes, it really can be that simple. Watch to see what people want when they’re starting their online businesses, then jump in and be the one to give it to them. It’s a guaranteed plan to make money online now, and far into the future.
That’s right – you can make 50% for products you haven’t even created or sold, simply by offering this service. There are plenty of people out there who have created products but are reluctant to bring them to market. Why? Probably because they either don’t want to spend the money it takes to launch a product, or they don’t know how to do it, or they’re simply scared. The reasons don’t matter so much. What does matter is they’ve got a great product that will sell, if it’s given the chance.
You can offer to launch the product for them.
You put up the sales page, create the membership page if it needs one, write the sales letter and get the graphics done. Or you can outsource the entire thing, depending on if you’d rather do it yourself or pay someone else to do it.
In exchange, you get 50% of the profits. The product owner gets the other 50%, of course. You get 50% of profits from sales, 50% of recurring sales, 50% access to the list and 50% if you sell off the product.
Be sure to get this in writing. Never assume, even if it’s someone you’ve known for years.
This is a win-win for both of you. The product creator gets their product out there and gets 50% of sales. You don’t have to create a product. You just handle the marketing. If you have a list and JV contacts, this will be even easier. If not, budget for solo ads, Facebook ads or Google Ads to get the ball rolling.
If you’ve never launched your own product, you might want to do that first to get the experience. Then go to forums like Warrior and find folks who have products and need help launching. Be choosy about which products you want to launch. And then make it a big success for both of you.
You already know about the BIG THREE niches: Health, Relationships and Money. It’s been estimated that as much as 80% of online revenue has something to do with these 3 niches. Of course, if you’re going into one of these niches, you’re going to want to niche it down a whole lot more. For example, Health could be: Weight loss, yoga, running, herbal remedies, healthy cooking, etc. The list is endless.
But how often do you find a great niche that isn’t in one of these three categories? That is, how often do you find a hot niche that isn’t overrun with competition? Not too often. That’s why when I stumbled on this niche, I had to tell you.
Of course, this niche is nothing novel or new. It’s simply overlooked by the vast majority of marketers. Which is a shame because it’s highly profitable and the buyers in this niche will fork over big bucks to get solutions to their problems.
So what’s the niche? Education. It’s a multi-million dollar category with an endless stream of parents ready and willing to pay to help their kids.
If you go into this niche, you’ll again want to sub-niche it down to a particular field (math) or grade level (anything from kindergarten all the way to university).
Imagine a young parent with a child who is struggling in school. Is that parent willing to pay for a course or book to help the child? You bet. How about a parent who is worried their child won’t get into a good university, or worried they can’t afford one, or just wants to help their child write term papers – the list is endless.
If you have a teaching background, or if you can enlist the help of teachers, you could probably make a small fortune in this niche. At the very least you could publish a line of Kindle books on tips and tricks to do well in each grade of school, and another series of books to show parents how to help their kids. The possibilities? Endless.
Let’s say you want to start a new business, but you need some capital to do it. Maybe you want to start making apps or some other kind of software. Or you need software for your own social networking site, or whatever. Here’s how to get others to fund it for you.
As you are building your business, record everything. Every problem you solve, every step you take, every misstep you make – take notes of everything.
Offer these notes for sale to others who want to do the same thing you’re doing. For example, if you’re building apps then you’d sell your info to other people who want to make money with apps, too.
You might offer them a weekly update as you progress. Or bundle it all together and sell it when you’re done. It’s up to you, but frankly the idea of letting your customers watch you as you set up your new business and turn a profit can be pretty exciting for them and motivating for you. Plus, you’ll get paid up front.
Offer this insider info for a reasonable price, and remember to offer an appropriate upsell as well. The right upsell will more than double your profits. Use this money to fund your business, and you’ve basically started a business for free – not a bad deal at all.
You’ve likely seen comments in IM forums such as: “How much will I have to spend to do this?” Or, “I won’t have to spend any money to start this $1,000 a week business, right?”
Yeah. Right.
Where did the notion come from that it should cost zero dollars to start a real business? If you open a barber shop or a donut shop or a flower shop, I guarantee you will need funding for the shop, the supplies, the tools, the counters, cases, inventory, etc.
Yet somehow we’re under the impression that doing it online should be free.
I have 3 words for you: Get over it.
If this is your way of thinking, then just get over it. You will spend the next year searching high and low for the magical, mythical business you can start for zero dollars and be making a grand a month within the week.
And you’re as likely to find it as you are a bag full of unicorn horns.
Here’s how a real business person would think: “Okay, I’m a marketer, not a web designer. So instead of mucking about for the next six months to build a website and a sales funnel, I’m going to outsource the whole thing and have it done in a week, two weeks tops.
“And while that is happening, I’m going to create a free report to give away to build my email list. And while I’m at it, I’m going to create an OTO (One Time Offer), too, so I can immediately start making a few sales from my new subscribers.”
Of course, if you’re not a writer, either, then you would outsource the report and the OTO as well.
The point is, if your specialty is marketing, then that’s where you need to put your focus. Let other experts handle the stuff you’re not good at while you do what you do best.
The difference between trying to do it all yourself (the “free” way) and hiring pros to help you is usually about 6 months. That’s right – try to do it all yourself and you will lose 6 months of business growth and profits.
Or it could take even longer. I know of one ‘marketer’ who has been trying to figure out the tech stuff for over two years. That’s two years he could have been building his business, but instead he’s trying to do everything himself rather than pay someone. That has got to be the most expensive version of ‘free’ that I’ve ever seen.
Outsource your challenges and focus on what you do best. This is the fastest way to get into profit, with the least amount of headaches and hassles. You’ll be glad you did.
You could not be blamed if you think a blog exists to inform and entertain its readers. After all, a blog really isn’t much different than a magazine, right? And a magazine exists to inform and entertain its readers. Right?
Actually, this is the exact point where many information marketers go horribly wrong.
Let’s pull up a quote from an ad executive named James Collins:
“There is still an illusion to the effect that a magazine is a periodical in which advertising is incidental. But we don’t look at it that way. A magazine is simply a device to induce people to read advertising. It is a large booklet with two departments – entertainment and business. The entertainment department finds stories, pictures, verse, etc. to interest the public. The business department makes the money.”
James Collins said that in ’07.
That is, 1907.
And it’s as true today as it was then. Maybe even more so, with the advent of the Internet.
Why do websites make you click links to read the following pages in an article, rather than putting it all on one page??
Why do websites make lists of “The Top 20 __” and then make you scroll through each one, rather than putting the entire list on one page? It’s to expose you, the reader, to more ads. If you have to go to 3 different pages or 20 different slides to finish an article, you’re exposed to 3 times or even 20 times the number of ads.
As a content marketer, you must focus on two things:
Providing interesting content. It could be entertaining or informative or both, so long as it captures and holds attention. But the content isn’t what’s keeping you in profit – it’s the products you’re selling. Content is simply a means to a sale.
Making a profit. This profit could come from ads on the page, or products you promote, or even products you create and sell.
One business, two functions: Entertainment and business.
When you view your business in this light, everything becomes much more clear. You suddenly know what it is that you have to do, and more importantly, what you don’t have to do.
Look at it this way: The only purpose for your content (blog posts, articles, podcasts, free ebooks, tweets, posts, etc.) is to gather the specific audience you want.
So you choose your audience and then tailor your content accordingly.
Now then, ideally you want your audience to sign up to your email list. This makes it far easier to do the business side of your business. Otherwise you are dependent on readers to click your ads or buy your products. But with a list, you can send emails to your prospects promoting products they can buy.
Your focus should be on turning every reader you can into a subscriber. And when you do, you offer them whatever it is that they already want.
Find out their desires and sell them the solutions and products they already want. Don’t try to forge new paths by educating your audience on what they “should” want. This is an uphill battle you will lose. Instead, discover what they already desire and also how they like to be sold. Then act accordingly.
Remember: Your content is simply a device to induce people to read and act upon your marketing. It’s that simple.
As you know, there is a lot of money to be made in working with offline businesses. If they don’t have a site you can build one for them. If they have a site but it’s not mobile friendly, you can build them a mobile site. If they’re not doing video, you can do that for them. If they’re not building a list, you can get that started for them and so forth. The possibilities are nearly endless, and there’s tons of support on how to do it.
But here’s the sticking point for most online marketers: They do not want to go out and talk to business owners.
So if you’re one of those who prefers to stay at your desk, then how can you cash in on offline marketing? Simple – hire a salesperson. Pay that person a commission such as 50% of profits or a straight 25% off the top. This way you only pay when you make money.
And if you don’t want to be the one to provide the services, you can always outsource that as well.
This is a great side business for marketers. You’re still free to focus on your online business, diverting your attention to offline only when there is a sale. And it’s a great opportunity for the sales person, because they can pursue it in their spare time.
And if you’re outsourcing the work, you probably only need to spend a few hours per week to make this work.
What’s the easiest way to make money online, without having to create a product or a sales page? Affiliate marketing, of course. 🙂
So, why is it that most affiliate marketers never make nearly what they could make? Anyone has the potential to make HUGE money in affiliate marketing, yet 90% or more of affiliates make a pittance (I’ll wager the number is closer to 98%, in fact.)
Think about this: If you earn an average of $50 on each sale in a sales funnel you promote, and you make 6 sales, you’ve made $300. Sounds good, right?
But guaranteed, there is someone else who made 600 sales and walked away with $30,000.
Why did they make 600 sales when you made just 6?
There are reasons why a handful of affiliate marketers do amazingly well, and everyone else barely makes a profit.
And marketers who understand this will always have a tremendous advantage over marketers who don’t.
1: Build a Relationship
I know you’ve heard it before, but are you doing it? People buy people, not products.
If you want them to open your email and click your link, or visit your Facebook Group and click a link, you’ve got to have a RELATIONSHIP with your people.
This is so simple to do, yet few marketers take the time.
Start with a blog post that is all about you, and then send new opt-ins to the post so they can get to know you. Make the post silly, funny and most of all REAL. Talk about the stupid stuff you’ve done, the mistakes you’ve made, where you live and so forth.
Do you have a strange hobby or unusual taste in food? Include that. Do you have 17 pets? Talk about them. Do you work until 3 in the morning and sleep until noon? Mention that.
Reveal the real you. Not the details people don’t want, but the ones that amuse and interest. You’re looking to make a real connection, not give a resume.
And above all else, don’t make your life seem like a series of magnificent accomplishments. No one is going to relate to someone who turns everything they touch into gold.
But they are going to relate to the time you bought Bitcoin when it was worthless and sold it just before it took off, or the time you thought you could fly and jumped off your uncle’s barn into the manure pile.
And don’t stop with your ‘about me’ page, either. Use this relationship building in your lead magnet, your emails, your other blog posts and so forth.
Always inject a little bit about yourself. Not so much that you bore people, of course, or make everything seem about you. But just enough to keep it real.
Think about relating an event to a friend. Aren’t you going to give your own perceptions of what happened, as well as tell about how you got out of your car and stepped in the mud puddle just before your big presentation?
Use this same method of personal, one-on-one friend communication with your readers as well.
Post on your blog as often as possible, and we’re talking every day or two. Encourage your list to subscribe to Feedburner or the equivalent so they know when you add a new post.
Your readers will realize you’re a real person who isn’t out to pitch them a new product every 5 minutes. And they’ll gladly read your sales emails much more readily when they know there is a real live human being who is sending them these messages.
2: Use Your Own Voice
How many emails do you receive that say something along the lines of, “Buy this product – this product is the greatest product ever – you will be sorry if you miss this – so rush right over and buy it now.”
Yeah. Same old stuff, over and over again.
There is a marketer (or maybe several, but I’m thinking of one in particular) who sells MASSIVE quantities of this exact type of emails as a swipe file to new marketers.
Like a brand-new marketer couldn’t write their own 25 word email that basically says, “GO BUY THIS NOW!”
People are TIRED of getting these emails. You’re tired of getting these emails. I’m tired of getting these emails.
Same phrases, same message, same B.S.
If you’re not going to stand apart from the crowd, then you’re going to have to share the same crumbs they’re getting.
Instead, take 30 minutes and write your own promotional email in your own voice.
Forget hype. Be sincere. Be honest. “Hey, this product isn’t for everyone. I don’t even know if it’s for you. But if you have this problem, then maybe this is your solution. Check it out and decide if it’s right for you, because I know it’s worked like crazy for some people. And it’s on sale right now, too.”
I’ve written emails where I basically tell people not to buy something unless they really really want it or need it. “Don’t buy this if you already know how to do xyz.” “Don’t buy this if you’re not going to be doing this type of marketing.” This is only for people who want (fill in the blank.) It’s like I’m trying to talk them out of it, which paradoxically often results in more sales, not fewer.
But the point isn’t tricking them into buying; it’s to be honest. Because you know what? That latest, greatest product you’re promoting ISN’T what everyone on your list needs. Some of them, sure. The rest of them, no.
Do you have any idea how refreshing it is to open an email that says, “Here’s a new product, thought you might want to know, but please don’t buy it if you’re not going to use it.”
The first time I got an email like that, I bought the product without even reading the sales letter. True story. I was just so happy that someone wasn’t ramming a sale down my throat, that I jumped at the chance to buy it.
Weird but true.
My point is, be you. Be honest. Talk to your readers as though they are your best friends and you don’t want to lose your best friends by acting like a carnival barker who is here today and pulled up stakes (vanished) tomorrow with their money.
3: Email a LOT
This is the one where people like to argue with me, and I understand that.
You’ve heard over and over again that you shouldn’t email too often, or you’ll upset your subscribers, right?
After all, every time you email, there is the potential that a subscriber will hit the unsubscribe button.
Do you know what the potential is when you DON’T email? Nothing. No opens, no clicks, no sales… not even any relationship building.
Do you want people to open and read your emails? Then send out those emails EVERY DAY.
Here’s why:
First, almost no one will see every email you send out. Let’s say you’ve got a sale on one of your products. Don’t you think your readers might like to know about it? But if they miss the one and only email you send that lets them know, then they’ve missed out on the discount and you LOST a sale.
Second, send emails at different times. I opened someone’s email just yesterday, decided I was VERY interested in the new membership he was selling, clicked the link and discovered it was no longer available.
What happened? This particular marketer only sends out emails at 1:00 a.m. my time, so I don’t even see most of his emails in the avalanche of mail I get before I wake up.
Third, if you’re sending email once a week or once a month, your readers are forgetting who the heck you are. And when you finally do send an email, they think it’s spam.
Fourth, if you mail more often, you will make more money. Don’t take my word on this, just do it for one month. Send out one email per day, every day, for 30 days. Put a promotion in each one. See if you haven’t made more – a LOT more – money during that time period than during the previous month.
And by the way, I’m not saying JUST send out a promotion in each email. Make sure you have some content in there as well, even if it’s just an amusing anecdote.
4: Think of affiliate marketing as a BUSINESS
This isn’t a hobby, nor is it an add-on for an additional income stream.
Even if you go on vacation, be prepared to send out an email every day. Schedule them in advance or write them on vacation. Either way, affiliate marketing to your list is a business that you can’t just jump into when you need cash and forget about the rest of the time.
You don’t have many support issues, since the product owners handle this. You don’t have to worry about creating products, sales pages and so forth. You don’t have to drive traffic, unless it’s to build your list bigger.
With so much you don’t have to do, there’s no reason not to focus your time and energy into building relationships with your list and promoting to them every single day.
Affiliate marketing can be some of the easiest money you’ve ever made, if you put in the time and effort to make it a real business.
Hi, it’s Tracy and this is my new website. Stay tuned… I’ll have great things to share!
For starters, here’s an article I think you’ll enjoy…
It’s called: “Make the Leap to Home Business Success”
If you are going to build a successful home business, you need 3 “intangibles.” These are things that must come from WITHIN you.
===> Intangible 1 <===
First, you must have a strong WHY.
Why must you make a home business work? What’s driving you? What is it that you CAN’T have in your life anymore and/or what is it that you absolutely MUST HAVE now?
For me, I couldn’t stand working 12+ hours a day anymore and missing the experience of my children growing up. I also absolutely HAD TO HAVE the freedom of being able to control my life and finances through a little box that I could carry with me anywhere in the world and not be tied to anyone’s time pressures or demands but my own. That was my carrot and my stick. I felt a great pain deep in my gut of missing out on my children’s lives and the incredible freedom that succeeding in this business would provide for me. I found my why. You MUST find yours.
===> Intangible 2 <===
You must BELIEVE that it is possible.
If you don’t believe that it’s POSSIBLE for you to succeed in a home business or make your living on the Internet, you won’t. It’s that simple.
For me, figuring out that it was possible was just a matter of realizing that many other people were ALREADY making great money with a home business online. If they could do it, I could too. It would just be a matter of figuring out what those people were doing and then adapting it to my situation.
There is no shortage of undeniable PROOF that people (millions of them) are making money online in many different ways. Just get online and do some research and you’ll find countless testimonials and stories of REAL PEOPLE making real money on the Internet. Or head to your local bookstore and you’ll find the same documented evidence of this fact. Truth is, it’s getting easier and easier to start and succeed in a home based business. This is primarily because of the Internet and affiliate marketing.
I’ve always said that “affiliate marketing” is the job of the future. In the “old” days, you had to go to a potential employer, apply for the position and hope for the best. Now you can simply go to any company you want, fill out their affiliate application and start work immediately. Affiliates are the new working class. Believe me, making money with affiliate programs or making your living on the Internet is WAY MORE than possible. It is pretty much (or will be soon enough) unavoidable now. Affiliate marketing is the “job” of the future that’s here TODAY.
===> Intangible 3 <===
You must be willing to MAKE THE LEAP.
Ready, FIRE, then aim… This is the operating philosophy you MUST adopt to succeed with an Internet home business.
That’s backwards for most people who like to aim before they fire. The fact is the Internet is a moving target… The only thing constant about it is change. You need to stop analyzing the game and simply jump into it. You can’t learn from the outside… You have to be IN THE RING to truly understand it.
The lesson here is that you will never really be READY to start a home based business. You simply have to start one. This is what I call “Making the Leap.”
The good news is that the cost of failure on the Internet is very small. In the “brick and mortar” world you need to evaluate things very carefully before you decide to open up a business. It’s almost always necessary to invest thousands of dollars to get an offline business off the ground. However, on the Internet you can often start a successful business for less than $100. In fact, Plug-In Profit Site is a really good example of this.
You simply need get IN THE GAME… Each moment that you stay “out there,” you’re wasting valuable time that you could be learning and skills necessary to become a successful affiliate marketer. In fact, if you’re not in the game yet, you’re ALREADY behind the times. Come on… You can do it! Make the leap to becoming a successful home based business owner today!
About the author:Stone Evans was a washed up restaurant worker desperately searching for a way to save his family when he discovered the internet and affiliate marketing… 24 months later he finally cracked the code and started earning over $10,000 per month. Now the same system that saved him is available to you here >>
