• @rondavis007 thanks Ron. #
• @gushin bread was fantastic! #
• @rondavis007 TWIT? #
• Listening to NLP based podcast. Wondering if NLP really works, or is it just nonsense. #
• In the ER with youngest daughter and possible broken foot. Ouch! #
• Eating homemade jalapeno beer bread straight from the oven. Yum. #
• Finally celebrating Christmas with my parents. Better late than never. #
• My friend just started a new blog, and his first post is up. Check it out! InkHammer.com Stumbles appreciated. http://inkhammer.com/?p=10 #
• @jarret Check this out http://tinyurl.com/2tdkkj in reply to jarret #
• @colligan Right. But twitter is the tech. You are using the tech to some end. The nature of that tech is shaping the end result. in reply to colligan #
• @jasonvo @colligan But you cannot separate tech from the product. eg. Twitter. Before twitter, we would not have a 140 char debate. in reply to jasonvo #
• @aaronabber I am thinking that an IM product might generate more interest for your purpose. Like a copy of some cool course or software. in reply to aaronabber #
• @colligan I heard those 5000 people were all trying to fix Vista. Apparently, they gave up. Beyond repair. in reply to colligan #
• - Are You Having Trouble With AdSense? http://aweber.com/b/10B5Z #
• @PatrikBerggren It is going well but slowly. It is not my top priority right now. I have 30 sites up, creating content, and seeing some $. in reply to PatrikBerggren #
• Up early this morning preparing for a meeting. Need more coffee. #
• Just entered the $497 Blog Mastermind contest. You can win by following @JohnChow and retweet. http://xr.com/master He follows back too! #
• @jasonvo Are NDAs needed for mastermind groups? in reply to jasonvo #
• @jasonvo Should there be free alcohol at mastermind meetings, and if so, how much. Who should be responsible for bringing the blender? in reply to jasonvo #
• @jasonvo Mastermind group. Should there be a business profit model for a mastermind group, or should the group be "not for profit?" in reply to jasonvo #
• Wondering how to integrate my Google AdSense/AdWords/Gmail and Docs accounts under one login. Won't let me associate the accounts. Help? #
• Calling my grandmother. Sadly, she does not have twitter or facebook. #
• Taking kids to school. Rocking out to the Jonas Brothers CD. Not bad for pop music. Well produced. #
• @jasonpotash I don't go to bed. I write blog posts. LOL in reply to jasonpotash #
• Yep. Thanks. On my way. #
• IPod interfaced to car video. Watching @jasonvo how to register domain name tutorial on my car video. Too cool. #

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I hope you had a great week, especially if you were somewhere in the world where you were able to celebrate Thanksgiving with your family. I am personally stuffed to the rim with turkey and other traditional holiday food -- it's back to the gym for me on Monday.

I just got off the phone with Internet guru Aaron Abber. He had to call me because I am at my parents house with no high speed internet access (yikes) -- so I am sending this through my laptop via cell phone (a neat trick).

I have been told again and again that it takes days for a new site to get noticed by the internet and that it takes weeks or even months to get a new site ranked well on Google. After that, many people will tell you that it takes months to make money on line. In many cases, that is all completely true.

But it's not true in every case... especially if you know what you are doing.

To prove it, I agreed to let Aaron guest post on my blog so you could see just how Aaron Abber and Joe Swopes have just blown these ideas out of the water, and made some serious cash in the process.

This is a guest post by Aaron Abber of http://www.ListedInstantly.com. Aaron is a niche marketing pioneer, having earned over $323,165.05 in niche marketing alone. Visit http://www.ListedInstantly.com for more tips and tricks to make your niche sites profitable.

Derrick and I had been friends online for about a year. We both owned internet businesses and were discussing our biggest triumphs and failures online. I guess I was feeling a little cocky and I made an offhand comment: “I'll bet I could start from scratch on a Friday morning and make $10,000.00 by Monday.”

As soon as I said it I knew it was a mistake. Derrick immediately called me on it: “Prove it! Prove that you can start from scratch—without using your email list or your existing site—and make $10,000.00 by Monday.”

So, with under Derrick's watchful eye, I started on the next Friday morning at 8am. To say I was nervous was an understatement.

I took all day Friday preparing a new website then launched it at 5pm. By Monday (evening—he hadn't given me a time so I stretched it out as far as I could) I had $8,516.25 in sales. Not $10,000.00, but a nice chunk of change.

(To see a screenshot of my merchant account, go to http://www.ListedInstantly.com )

Now I'm not trying to tell you that anyone can start out from zero and make $8,000.00 in a weekend. What I am telling you is this: You won't know how much you can make until you try. What if you only made $1,000 this weekend? Or $500.00? or even $100.00? Is that such a bed thing?

Yeah, that's what I thought.

To get a complete plan on how you can imitate my success, go to:

http://www.ListedInstantly.com

I have been working on sales copy a lot lately, so I thought I would post a useful summary of the 15 most important elements of a sales page. This list is adapted from an excellent two-hour lecture presented as part of Aaron Aaber's free mentoring course over at FullTiltBlogging.com.  The audio lecture and the presentation slides are available for download as one the member benefits at LifeFoc.us (Aaron's membership site). In this post, I'll be telling you what the sales page items are. If you want to know how to implement them effectively, you have to talk to someone like Aaron (I am just learning - albeit quickly).

15 Key Sales Letter Components

First, you need to get the prospect's attention. If you cannot command your visitor's attention, they are not going to read your sales copy, and they will not buy. If a qualified prospect does not buy, you have failed. It is as simple as that, and the headline section is critical because almost every legitimate prospect that visits your site will take time to scan the headline. The pre-headline, headline and sub-headline work together with the attention device to get your prospect to read on below the fold. You want to grab their attention, promise them something, or encourage them to read further.

• Pre-Headline. This is that little sentence or two at the top of the sales letter prior to the headline. It is usually a statement that draws the reader to the headline (or motivates the headline in some way). This part is optional.
• Headline. Big font. Often red. Hard to miss. This component is critical to capture attention. Think front page of the New York Times. Note that this headline is almost always in quotes.
• Sub-Headline. Again an optional part that comes after the headline and can serve as the punchline to the headline.Attention Device. Simply put, the purpose of the attention device is to get your reader to read the rest of the copy. It can be part of the headline or stand alone. Often, it comes in the form of a warning, a statistic or an implied story (the story is usually delivered in the body copy below the fold).

So, here is an example:

Ready to finally build your own AdSense Empire using WordPress?

"Warning: The Amazing New Niche Site Themes For WordPress
Will Cause Your Puny AdSense Earnings To Soar"

You May Need To Hire A New Accountant.

Anyway, you get the idea. I am not the best copy writer in the world, but above you can see a pre-headline, a headline, a sub-headline and an attention device in the headline.

The Body Of The Sales Letter

The body of the sales letter needs to breathe and flow. You need to draw your prospect along as they read -- make them want to get to the next part. Tell stories. Break up paragraphs. Seduce your reader.

• Introduction.  Let the prospect know why you are and establish credibility. You can be an expert or have relevant experience documented here. I like the way Jon Leger does this -- he simply lists the great products he has launched before.
• Statement of Problem. If you have a product, you need to be solving a problem with that product, or you will not sell it. Simple as that. Why does your prospect need your product? If they do not know that they need your product, you will have to educate them here.
• Destroying the Old Method.  Take down existing solutions so the prospect can see your solution as the uniquely best option.
• Value Building (Bonuses and Testimonials). Prospects buy when the value excedes the price. What is the value of your product and bonuses. Testimonials can help to show value (and also to reduce risk). There are many ways to build value.
• Price Drop. This is almost a cliche in Internet Marketing, and is done incorrectly most of the time (including in my own sales letters). Aaron has some proprietary and very unique views on how to do this properly. Out of respect to Aaron, I will not reveal them here. Suffice it to say that you need to do more than cross out a wild price of $1997 and put $27 next to it.
• Why This is So Cheap.  Make sure that your deep discount is well justified, otherwise your prospect will think there is a catch. For example, if I offer you a brand-new iPod for $10, you will assume it is stolen.
• Reason for Offer. Why are you making this particular offer today. Urgency can go here (Act Now!)

Getting The Order

OK -- finally it is time for the sale. Just a few things left to do.

• Risk Reversal.  You need to offer an iron-clad money-back guarantee. Convince the prospect that they have nothing to lose and everything to gain.
• Closing.  You must ask for the sale. Call to action is a critical part of any sales letter. Do not leave the prospect guessing what you want them to do.
• PS.  Use the PS to target people who skipped the sales copy and headed to the bottom of the page to see the price. Summarize the offer and call them to action right there in the PS.

Next Steps

Writing sales copy is probably the most challenging part of Internet Marketing. Each of the 15 items above can be expanded into a full course, so I am really only scratching the surface here. Again, thanks to Aaron Abber for allowing me to summarize one of the many cool courses that you get as a member of LifeFoc.us.

Do you have any questions about sales letter copy? Drop a comment and ask me. If I cannot answer, I will ask Aaron to drop by and pontificate.

Regards,
Mark

My buddy Arron Abber at FullTiltBlogging.com is giving away a couple of free memberships to his great membership site, LifeFoc.us.  I love the concept of the site.  LifeFocus is all about getting more out of life, and Aaron is dishing out the free memberships this month.  Check it out before they are all gone.

Man, Time Flies....

Well, it has been almost a month since I did a trial launch of my first product, Niche Adsense Themes for WordPress.  Two weeks ago, I started a post series talking about the lessons learned in doing my first digital project launch.   A few days later, I offered a free copy of the product to anyone who asked the best question that I could use for a future post.

The Big Winners Revealed

I am happy to announce that i really liked two of the responses, so I have named two winners.

• Kent made a comment that reminded me that I was thinking about doing a step-by-step explanation of how to create an AdSense mini-site.  I had actually started something like that a long time ago.  Some of you may remember my series of posts on my mini-site the History of Elvis.  Anyway, I never finished that post series or that site.  I need to do that, and I would like to do a post series for beginners on starting an AdSense mini-site.  So, Kent, thanks for that.
• Alex commented that he likes lists and checklists.   That was a great comment.  It applies to the current task of posts about my digital product as well as the coming posts on AdSense sites and Elvis.

So, both Alex and Kent will get free copies of Niche Adsense Themes for WordPress.

Lesson Learned 2:  Good Sales Letters Are Hard

OK -- so here is the next lesson that I learned regarding my digital product.  Of course to sell a digital product properly, you need a mini-site.  The setup of that mini-site is a big deal.  If you want a great free tutorial on that topic, you can take a look at Michael Rasmuessen's free Mini-Site video tutorial.  It is outstanding.

Anyway, inside this mini-site, you need a sales letter.  That sales letter is this only thing (besides possibly a pre-sales endorsement from an affiliate) that a customer will see before they decide to buy your product.  This is important to understand.

A customer is not making a decision to buy based on your actual product.  They have not seen the actual product.  And, they will not see the product until they buy.  Rather, they are handing you their credit card based on the claims in the sales letter.

So what about the product?  Well, the quality of the product (specifically, whether or not you live up to the claims of the sales letter) impacts returns, repeat purchases, and referrals (I call these the three Rs).

Good Sales Letter Need Basic Things

Now, I am not a sales letter expert (yet), but I can tell you that sales letters need basic things to be successful.

• A killer headline.  You have about 10-30 seconds to capture someone after the page loads.  If they do not see something that captures their attention, they will hit that stumble button and never return.  So, you must grab them.
• A USP -- Ultimate Selling Proposition.  Why do they need what you have?  What is the value of it to them?  Why are the benefits that you are describing obviously worth ten or 100 times the price you are asking?
• Risk Reduction/Reversal. Why is a decision to trust you (buy the product) completely risk free?  Or better yet, is there negative risk (If you are not completely satisfied, keep the free knives as our gift just for trying the product).
• Urgency. Be careful with this.  Act Now! can be a real turn off if not real.  Digital products do not run out of stock, so artificial urgency can be dangerous as it feels sleasy.  Instead, consider offering your product at a discount for a limited time. (Be sure to raise the price as promised later).
• Call to action. It is an old truth in sales.  You have to ask for the sale.  Ask them to buy your product.

My Sales Letter Sucks

OK, so my first attempt at a sales was not so great.  Here are my stats:

• 3.5% conversion for highly targeted email list promotions from an expert in the field with an "email list that converts well."  This is OK, but not great.  A %10 conversion rate (or higher) should be possible.
• Very low conversion rate (less than 0.5%) for somewhat targeted email list traffic from an MMO blogger.  I expected 3-5% conversions.
• Almost zero conversions from random ClickBank affiliates.

What does all that tell me?  It tells me that my sale letter needs work.  So, I am working on it.  I am in the process of gathering input on how to make it better.

• I posted to 5 forums asking for comments and help on the current sales letter (including the Warrior Forum and DigitalPoint Forums.)  Man, you want some criticism, just ask for help over there.  It helps to have high self esteem.  All the comments I got were quite helpful.
• Phone consultation from Aaron Abber at FullTiltBlogging.com (I belong to his mentoring program and to his membership site).
• Private consultations from Garry Conn and Josh Spaulding via email.  I am also a member of Josh's coaching program.
• Reading lots of sales stuff by guys like Dan Kennedy.

So, in the next post, we can look at the old sales page and the new sales page, and I will summarize the changes.  We can also talk about split testing.

Regards,

Mark

P.S.  What do you think of my first sales page?  Be honest.  I can take it.  Leave your comments here.

photo credit: TheTruthAboutMortgage.com

Last week I said the I was planning on writing several posts on lessons learned in creating my Niche Adsense Themes for WordPress project.  Well, here is a really important one -- don't try to do everything.  Some stuff you should simply hire out.

But I Can't Afford That!

I know what you are saying.  You cannot afford to hire someone.  You are not making any money right now, and until you do, you have to do everything yourself.  I know the feeling, but I am going to argue that you cannot afford not to hire stuff out.

What Is Your Time Worth?

See, you are making the assumption that your time is not worth anything -- that it is cheaper to do it yourself (whatever it is).  Well, what is your time worth?  Let's say you normally make $50,000 per year.  If you do, your time is worth about $25/hour.  Seriously, when you spend an hour on your business, your business, you are essentially investing $25.

Let's say that you had an employee named Joe that you were paying $25/hour, and that Joe was very busy.  So busy, in fact, that really important stuff was not getting done.  If everything does not get done, your business does not make money.  Problem is, some of the stuff that Joe is doing can easily be done by a $10 high school student.  But you are paying Joe $25/hour to do that work, and not getting other stuff done at the same time.  You are paying Joe too much for non-critical work, and more important stuff is not getting done.

You are Joe

Guess what.  You are Joe.  So am I.  There were a couple of things that I needed done for Niche Adsense Themes that I could have done if I wanted to, but it would cost me more to do them myself than have them done.   And, I did not want to do them.  I did not want to do the theme graphics, and I did not want to do the HTML version of the templates.  I also needed some CSS help.  Cost to me was under $200.  The Themes generated $1000 of revenue in the first 10 days (and it was a simple narrow product with a bad sales letter -- more on this later).  And, the time saved was measured in DAYS (or maybe weeks).

How to Outsource

I recommend that you try outsourcing right away with something (anything) simple.  Give it a try, and you can get a feeling about what is possible.  I personally perfer ScriptLance.com, but there are tons of services out there, including eLance.com and RentaCoder.com.

Software is a really good thing to outsource.  I outsourced the creation of www.thebigworldproject.com, for example.  I knew how to code that project, but I did not have the time.  Likewise, anything that sounds like WordPress maintenance is easily outsourced.

Just go to scriptlance.com, sign up, post your project and see who bids and how much.  Read their qualifications, talk to them on the private message board, make sure they understand the requirements (good specs are critical to outsourcing) and let it fly.  You will enjoy the freedom of having some guy in Malaysia work for you while you sleep for $5/hour.  He will be thrilled to have the work, and you will be thrilled to have the work done -- win/win.

If there is interest, I will post a "how to use scriptlance" video to the Free Stuff area.

What are your experiences with outsourcing?  Let me know by dropping a comment.

Regards,
Mark
photo credit: Aaron Escobar

Be sure and check out my

Big Mac Guarantee at the end of this post.

I grew up with the Beatles. Actually, the Beatles had long since broken up when I grew up, but I loved them anyway. I had all of their albums (in vinyl). Now I have all of their CDs.  As a result, I quickly discovered that every thing that you need to know about life, you can learn from the Beatles. For example, I learned:

• "We all want to change the world"
• "It's getting better all the time, can't get no worse."
• "There's nothing you can do that can't be done."
• "Living is easy with eyes closed.

Mostly, I learned that "all you need is love" but money cannot buy it. Go figure. I was pretty sure about all this for most of my life.

Then I met Aaron Abber from LifeFoc.us

Aaron is selling Love, Happiness, Fitness and Financial Freedom all for less than the cost of a Big Mac.  Now the other day, I bought a Big Mac value meal for about $7 US.  So, if Aaron is delivering for less than that, then that is something that is worth blogging about.  However, this is an Internet Marketing blog, so let's talk about why this is cool from an internet marketing standpoint.

Make Money On Line Myth Shattered

Some people say that the only way you can really make money on line is to sell information about how to make money online.  Baloney.  Here is Aaron Abber with a perfect example.  See, Aaron is providing a real value.  It's a Zig Ziglar thing -- you get everything in life that you want by getting other people what they want.  What do people want?  They want happiness.  And finding happiness is an individual journey.  If you provide a place where like-minded people can support you in your success journey, then you have found something of real value.  Something worth paying for.

Enter LifeFocus

So, Aaron created a membership site. I am a charter member.  The site is fantastic.  Best of all, it is really affordable.  Aaron's sales page tells the story better that I can, so be sure to check it out.  All I can tell you is that you can join on a refundable trial basis for less than $5.

My Big Mac Promise To You

I honestly think this site that Aaron has created is really something special.  And, you know that I never promote stuff that I don't believe in.  So, here is the deal.  Aaron talks about how you can join his site for less than the price of a Big Mac.

I don't think you should be required to choose.

You should have you Big Mac and eat it too.

So, I am offering a Big Mac to the first 20 people to join Aaron's site using my affiliate link.  So, if you (1) sign up for Aaron's LifeFoc.us site through my affiate link;  and  (2) send me an email asking for your Big Mac, I will send you a $5 McDonalds gift certificate via US Mail or $5 via paypal.  All you have to do is email me with the details of your ClickBank transaction.  I will confirm that you signed up through me and send you your Big Mac.  It's that simple.  If I cannot verify the CB transaction or your use of my affiliate link, then you do not get your burger.  Also simple.  This offer expires after the first 20 sign-ups under my link. If you are not in the US, I will not be able to mail you the gift certificate (sorry) -- you will have to settle for paypal.

So, what in the world are you waiting for?  Join LifeFoc.us today.

photo credit: orsorama

I thought that I would take a moment this morning to welcome myself back from vacation. I just returned from a great few days in Galveston, Texas. Now admittedly, Galveston is by no means the most beautiful beach in the world, but it is really close to my parents. We actually stayed at Moody Gardens, which is a cool resort complex on the back side of the island. The complex includes an aquarium (complete with Penguins), a rain forest, an IMAX theater, a water park, and a man-made beach. Really neat. As fun as it was, I think it is better to stay closer to the beach (especially from the point of view of my children).

Before I left, I intended to get several posts queued for release during my vacation using the cool "future post" capability found in WordPress. If you are not familiar with this neat feature, drop me a comment and I will post a tutorial on how to use it. I think it's pretty obvious, but I am happy to help if I can.

Well, I obviously failed to get posts scheduled for release. I got completely distracted with other projects that I am currently working on and will be discussing here this week. Some distractions include:

• New Experiment with Jonathan Leger's 3-way Links Product. I'll be blogging about this in the near future, but basically this is a subscription-based service that gives you one-way back links. Your subscription allows you to get 250 one-way back links per site for 50 sites. On the sites that I am testing, I am seeing immediate results for targeted keywords. More on this later.
• Redefining the MasonWorld Roadmap. It's mid-year 2008, and I a revisiting my "Internet Empire" goals to be completed by the end of the year. I have a much clearer idea of my long-term goals now, so I will be sharing those with you as well.
• Continuous learning. I have also been participating in 2 mentoring/coaching programs. I work with Josh Spaulding for learning related to SEO and traffic, and I work with Aaron Abber for learning related to direct response internet marketing (email lists and products). Cool thing is that both guys actually know a lot about both topics, so there is a llot of synergy. My goals for 2008 include having several profitable adsense and affiliate sites, as well as a couple of product launches.
• Speaking of product launches, I will be launching my first product at the end of this month (target launch date is June 30). I have developed some niche adsense themes for WordPress that are designed for high CTR mini-sites, and will selling them along with a subscription for future themes and an install service. More on this as the launch date approaches. There will be a very generous affiliate program, so stay tuned.

By the way, one thing that I missed while I was on vacation was Aaron Abber's weekly mentoring class teleconference (mentioned above). This a very cool thing each week that I always look forward to (Aaron is entertaining in addition to being well qualified to present the class materials.) There are lots of cool things on Aarons blog for free (in addition to his free mentoring program). One of my favorites is his humorous 101 Ways to Grab More Blog Subscribers. So if you want a laugh with a bunch of great ideas mixed in, check that out.

OK -- that's all for now. Look for more sunstantative posts from me later this week.

Best regards,
Mark

I am actually on a plane to California from Texas this morning. I am on my way to a conference to speak on Design For Manufacturability in the Semiconductor Industry. But that is not what is on my mind this morning. In today's article, I am going to BLOW THE LID off of Aaron Abber's BARELY LEGAL Super-Secret "Free" Mentoring Program. His program is not free at all. I'll expose the HIDDEN COST.

I'll also be offering a BIG TIP (you heard it here first) about keeping your email list subscribers.

And I'll tell you about an ALMOST SNEAKY way to further reduce your UNSUBSCRIPTIONS (unsubs).

Keep Your Email Subscribers With Content

Here is the BIG TIP - and it is a revolutionary idea.

Content is King. (OK, maybe not revolutionary, but true).

If you send useful information to your list between promotions, AND the promotions you send are for things that are also useful, you will keep the subscribers (subs) that matter. Let's face it, some of your subs are "freebie people" -- they subscribed just to get a freebie, and they will unsubcribe (just as they planned) right away. That's OK. Keep them if you can, but let them go if they want to leave. If you have great content, it will be their loss. Don't sweat it. The biggest mistake I see people make is that they promote to their list too often and too much. You need trust before you sell. Treat them with respect. Underpromise and Overdeliver. Promote selectively.

Aaron Abber EXPOSED

I have been talking a lot about how much I am getting out of Aaron Abber's Free Mentoring Program. All that is completely true. Aaron is a great guy and it's really a great program. But let me tell you something -- Abber is FULL OF CRAP when it comes to the "FREE" part. You cannot get ANYTHING IN LIFE for free. To get things in life, you have to take action. For example, if you want to learn from Aaron, you need to get over there and subscribe to his program.

Now, here is the other part that is not free. If you want to stay in his program, you have to take action and do the work that will help you make money online. What are you waiting for? (See what I mean?) People fail on line because they fail to take action. Don't do that. Don't be that person. Do something. Now.

One of the advantages of being partnered up with Aaron is having his permission to reprint some of his content. This is also encouraged as a way to help him grow his mentoring program (see, you need to take actions -- nothing in life is free).

Barely Legal Email Subscriber Tip

The following is a reprint of a post from FullTiltBlogging.com, posted with Aaron Abber's permission (he is a fool for telling you this information, so pay attention).

“I Am Tempted to Not Share This Tip”

At least, not publicly.

I don’t mind my subscribers having it–after all, they see it all the time and some have even started copy-catting me already.

But I don’t want my competitors to start using it. If they do, they will be putting to work one of the most powerful email marketing strategies I have come up with.

“Imagine If No One Ever Unsubscribed”

You work hard to get people on your subscriber list. You work hard to put together sexy content. You craft your promotional emails carefully, doing all you can to convince your subs to visit the sales page with an open, positive mindset.

You hit “send” and your carefully crafted, compelling email goes out to your loyal subscribers.

When you check with Aweber the next day you discover you have made some sales–Whoopie! But they you notice something else–3% of your subscribers hit the UNSUBSCRIBE link.

You just lost 283 subscribers. That sucks. Those people will never buy from you again–even if you recommend the perfect product for them.

You’re about to discover a simple way to change all that.

In the next two minutes you can take the unsubscribe rate for your next promotion to just a fraction of what it was on your last promotion.

“Unsubscribing is NOT a Thought Out Process”

The vast majority of unsubscribing is done almost unconsciously. You do it; I do it; we all do it. You are going through your emails, see a bulk email you aren’t interested in, scroll down to the bottom and hit the unsub link.

It’s almost automatic.

And that’s the problem. Your subscribers aren’t thinking of you. They aren’t remembering that great article you sent them last week. They don’t remember that you are pro-kitten (unlike kitten hating Darren Rowse). They just automatically unsubscribe.

“You Have to Jump In There and Say STOP”

The key to stopping them from automatically unsubscribing is to interrupt their automatic brain function and get them to think.

One way to accomplish this is to hire The Amazing Kreskin to send out powerful brain interrupting neural thought waves each time you send out a mailer, telling your subscribers not to use the link.

Of course, that might get a little cost prohibitive.

An easier way is to create a

WARNING MESSAGE

just above the unsubscribe link. (Man, I think that friggin’ flashing is going to send me into a seizure.)

“Warnings Are Poweful”

You only have to overcome the slight automatic response in order to keep those subscribers. Just create a brief message urging caution. Make them think: “Wait, do I really want to do this?”

Just making them pause for a moment will eliminate most of them from clicking on the good-bye link.

“But Wait, There’s More…”

Not only do you want them to not click the link, you want them to think about the past and potential future value of their subscription. That makes them more likely to open, read and respond to the next email you send them.

So, now that I have whet your appetite, here is my personal anti-unsubscribe message:

*CAUTION*

Using the unsubscribe below will
PERMANTELY block your email address in
our system. Use with caution.

Now, go put this at the bottom of all your emails. It will make you money.

I just put up a new report you will want to pick up.

“101 Ways to Grab New Subscribers”
84 GREAT Ideas,
11 CRAZY Ideas,
5 ILLEGAL Ideas and
ONE MARKETING BABE

http://www.FullTiltBlogging.com/101ways

Just wanted to give you a heads-up regarding Monday's post.

In Monday's article, I am going to BLOW THE LID off of Aaron Abber’s BARELY LEGAL Super-Secret “Free” Mentoring Program. His program is not free at all. I’ll expose the HIDDEN COST.

I’ll also be offering a BIG TIP (you heard it here first) about keeping your email list subscribers.

And I’ll tell you about an ALMOST SNEAKY way to further reduce your UNSUBSCRIPTIONS (unsubs).

So, check back on Monday. I'll be posting early in the morning Texas time on Monday.

Have a great weekend,

Mark

Just a quick recap on the week to let you know what I have been working on. Man, has it been a crazy week.

• Attended Aaron Abber's mentoring class. Still getting a lot out of that at very low cost. This is a great value if you want to learn about list building and lead blogging from a pro.
• Logged some time at the Member site over at Coaching With Josh.
• Published a guest post over at Garry Conn's Make Money Online blog on Article Marketing.
• Started work on a super-secret link building experiment (don't tell anyone). I am really not sure about this one. More on this later if it works.
• Worked on integrating Yahoo Pipes, WordPress and phpBay. No luck yet.
• Worked on www.historyofelvis.com. That project needs to be restarted, and I am trying to get it going again.
• Attended the killer Jason Van Orden Podcasting Teleseminar. Will definitely be blogging about that. It was great.
• Started working on an updated MasonWorld Roadmap.  Man, I have be doing this Internet Marketing thing for over six months now, and I am really starting to get an idea about what I want to be when I grow up.  More on that in another post.

There is more to tell, but I am out of time (still doing that day job thing).

Hope everyone has a great weekend.

Regards,
Mark

Earlier this week, I talked about Lead Blogging and I proclaimed that "Lead Blogging is the Answer." In that post, I introduced you to Aaron Abber over at the make money blogging site FullTiltBlogging, and promised a reprint of one of his posts on Lead Blogging. In this post, Aaron show you a screen shot of his 60,000 subscriber list over at Aweber.

Lead Blogging: Turning Opportunity into Leads

Luck and leadblogging favor the prepared.

Last week I noticed a new blog post over at Aweber.com. Nothing earth shattering, but it dealt with a topic I am intimately acquainted with—getting people to subscribe to email lists then confirm their subscription. In fact, before I sold my online business last year I had captured almost 60,000 double opt-in subscribers (click here for screen shot of my account.)

So I went over and left a comment about how I get over 15% of first time visitors to subscribe and over 90% of those people to confirm their subscription.

I figured making that comment would generate some visitors and subscribers.

But then I had a brainstorm—why not put the actual codes into an eBook and offer it for download? I figured I could capture more subscribers.

So that’s what I did. I created this “subscriber trap” to capture email address from my visitors:

http://www.FullTiltBlogging.com/submagic

All in all it took about two hours to set up and has resulted in 183
email submissions (so far) on 312 visits—for a whopping 58.7%
conversion rate from visitor to subscriber.

That’s pretty cool.

In next week’s leadblogging
post I will tell you about how I got a 95.2% confirmation rate from
those visitors, and how I will turn those into $4,209.00 in cash. That
means it it paid me about $2,104.50 an hour. Stay tuned.

This post is by Aaron Abber. Aaron is the owner of http://www.FullTiltBlogging.com where he teaches bloggers just like you how to make money blogging. Go there now to pick up his latest book “How to Retire on 200 Blog Visitors a Day” free.

Aaron over a FullTiltBlogging has cooked up a cool RSS promotion in celebration of RSS Appreciation day (which is tomorrow.) Be sure and check it out. By participating in FeedaPoolaza 2008, you can increase your own RSS subscriptions and take home a free bonus that Aaron is offering. It looks pretty cool.

Originally suggested by Steve Rubel, RSS appreciation day is designed to call peoples attention to RSS feeds and feed readers. Some extremely large percentage of internet users have no idea what a feed reader is or how to use one.

So, celebrate RSS day tomorrow! Tell a friend about the magic of RSS.

Regards,

Mark

So, if Lead Blogging is the answer, what is the question?

The question today (for the duration of this post, at least), is what is the best way to monetize a blog?

Answer: Lead Blogging

Of course, this answer itself opens more questions than it answers (like many good questions).

I have recently been learning a lot about lead blogging from Aaron Abber at FullTiltBlogging.com. Tomorrow, I'll be reposting one of his lead blogging pieces here. (If you just cannot wait for tomorrow, you can see it here.) For now, what follows is a summary of just some of what I have learned over the last few months.

What is lead blogging?

I've got my own "white hat" definition of lead blogging. Lead blogging is the act of developing blog content that is so valuable and compelling that it motivates readers to subscribe to your mailing list -- creating a qualified sales lead. A more sinister view of lead blogging would have to do with blogging with the intent of luring bloggers to your list for the purpose of exploitation. That is not what I am interested in. Blogging, like all things in life (including direct response marketing), is best done with integrity. Integrity is what you do when no one is watching.

Why blog for leads?

Blogging for dollars

If you are in the blogging game as part of an internet marketing business plan, you are blogging for money. If you are blogging for money, the best way to monetize your blog is through your list. This is a truth of direct response marketing that predates blogging and can be found in marketing textbooks across the globe. The value of an marketing business is in the list. Your list is a collection of interested customers (or potential customers) who have given you permission to talk to them. They have told you ahead of time that they are interested in what you have to say.

Blogging for fun (or a cause)

But I'm not in it for the money, you say. Well, why are you in it? Are you trying to promote a cause? Do you need to call people to action to save the whales (or something similar). If that is your mission, your list can be even more important to you than the traditional "capitalist pigs" mentioned above. Your list gives you permission to contact people directly and persuade them, help them, or educate them. Your list is how you get their attention on demand.

Integrity and Trust is the Key

So, once you have a list, what do you do with it. From my perspective, you deliver value and content. You do things that make people glad that they signed up. When you promote products, you should only promote things that you really believe will benefit your readers. You have to act with integrity, and protect your readers. Don't make the mistake that Darren Rowse made a few weeks ago and promote a product without looking at the sales copy. Treat your list well.

Even Yaro Starak, in my view the ultimate in honest bloggers, is turning his attention to his list. If it's good enough for Yaro, it's good enough for me.

photo credit: .....dotted.....

The following post is by Aaron Abber and is reprinted with his permission.

Have you ever felt like you are spinning your wheels? Have you ever felt you are working and working and writing and writing for your blog but still get no attention, no visitors and no money?

I’ll bet you have.

You are about to discover some news that will not only encourage you, it will make you money.

There are many things about online business you can’t control—yet we often hang our emotional hat on them. You can’t control how many people visit your site. You can’t control whether Google will make you first or 11th for your best keyword phrase. You can’t control whether a celebrity blogger will link to you. You can’t control whether your “link bait” will actually catch the eyes of hundreds of other bloggers.

These results are all beyond your control.

Yet, despite the reality of these things being beyond our control, many are quick to evaluate their blogging efforts based on these uncontrollable results. Maybe you fall into that category as well. It’s no wonder many bloggers just give up.

But that’s not how you measure success. You measure success by looking at what activity you are actually engaging in. You can’t control the results of those actions, but you can control the actions themselves.

Here are some high pay-off activities. The more of these you do each day or week, the more people who will eventually visit your blog:

Commenting wisely on blog posts by high visibility blogs in your niche
Writing blog posts targeting your top keyword phrases
Writing a post with a link back to a top blogger’s post
Creating a free digital report to give away
Writing link bait
Submitting articles to article banks

Try these—they pay off!

If you are truly serious about succeeding online join me and 24 others in my free mentoring program. You’ll learn how I bring in over $12,000.00 a month, part time and how you can duplicate my efforts for yourself.

You need to go here now and sign up:

http://www.FullTiltBlogging.com/blog/?p=194

Photo by Benjamin Earwicker.

This post is by Aaron Abber. Aaron is the owner of http://www.FullTiltBlogging.com where he teaches bloggers just like you how to make money blogging. Go there now to pick up his latest book “How to Retire on 200 Blog Visitors a Day” free.

Sometimes I feel like I am "drinking from a fire hose" trying to learn about internet marketing and how to make money online. I even wrote earlier in the week that I am trying to go on an information diet. Still, I am constantly trying to keep up with all of the A-list bloggers and what they have to say about blogging, making money online, and internet marketing. Being new to internet marketing, I am constantly on the lookout for new sources of information. The problem is that each time I find a new great blog, it makes it harder to keep up.

Today, I turned the tables a bit. I found FullTiltBlogging. One of the great features of FullTiltBlogging is the daily blog summary. As the name implies, the guys at FullTiltBlogging are scouring the internet every day looking for great posts. This is really cool -- now I can check out a blog that saves me some time each day. The blog is run by Aaron Abber. I don't know much about Aaron, but he is also running a mentoring program teaching people to make money blogging. The program sounds interesting.

Check out the blog, you'll be glad you did.

Regards,
Mark

Several months ago, I started a case study of the Elvis Niche. I built a site, added content, and demonstrated that I could rank for a very long tail keyword with no competition. As I mentioned in that post, I felt like there was no stopping me after I ranked for “Elvis Aaron Presley Collectible Necktie”, and I announced my intention to attack higher competition phrases — “elvis presley collectibles” (74 searches per day), the “life of elvis presley” (226 searches per day) and “elvis presley history of” (4383 searches per day). My plan for ranking was to use Link Directories and Article Marketing.

Well, I have not started my article marketing, but I am accumulating backlinks

Backlinks Make The Difference

Because of this post series on niche sites, I have quite a few backlinks for terms similar to "history of elvis" and history of elvis presley or "elvis presley history of". A quick check of Google shows that we are magically on the front page! Woo hoo!

Obviously, the next goal is to move up the page.

Using Link Directories - OK or Not?

Sometimes, you learn as you go along based on the advice that you get. One guy that I trust recommended that I use free link directory submissions as a way to get backlinks. When these directories are new (and free), they have very low page rank. Once they get older, the page rank may increase, making the link more valuable. This takes a long time.

I tried to figure out if this was "white hat." According to Google's Webmaster Guidelines, they recommend:

Submit your site to relevant directories such as the Open Directory Project and Yahoo!, as well as to other industry-specific expert sites.

Now, free link directories are not exactly "industry specific expert sites," but it is pretty clear that Google does not consider all link directories to be bad. When these directories are new (and free), they have very low page rank. Once they get older, the page rank may increase, making the link more valuable. So, I'd be interested in your comments regarding the acceptability of free link directory submission (and the effectiveness).

Next step is article marketing as described in Article Marketing Domination.  I've hired someone on ScriptLance to write some content for the site, and I'll be writing about that experience in a future post.

Thanks, Mark

Be sure and check out these related posts.

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So, I was crusing around on Spyfu.com today, and I saw lots of listings involving mesothelioma. Now, to be completely honest with you, I did not know that mesothelioma was the disease that you get from asbestos. Go figure. It is a high cost keyword (from an Adwords point of view) - no doubt because some well-meaning and some slimy lawyers are building huge lists of class action lawsuit clients. In fact, spyfu.com say it can pay as much as $50 per click.

So, I said to myself -- "Self, what would Micro Niche Finder say about this?" As it turns out, it says that there are some long tail keywords out there with very low competition. Now, I remember what happened with HistoryOfElvis - I was able to rank easily for a silly long tail keyword -- Elvis Aaron Presley Collectible Necktie because there was zero competition. So, I said to myself -- "Self, let's put up a long tail page about mesothelioma just to see what happens." I agreed with myself, so my next post will be a long tail keyword targeted post about mesothelioma.

I'll see what happens over the next week and blog about the results.

Now, if my millions of readers go out and do the same thing, it will goof up my experiment. Instead, I recommend you run your own experiment with Micro Niche Finder in a non-mesothelioma area and comment here with your results.

Thanks,
Mark

Update on Micro Niche Finder Experiment

I threw this initial post up rather quickly. Then I threw up a post about mesothelioma just as fast. It was a completely worthless 300 word article targeted at the keyword phrase that I had selected. So, I go to thinking -- here I am, adding worthless content to the internet so I can capture a click from some pour soul whose husband or wife has this terrible disease. After reviewing the search results pages in Google, I quickly discovered that this particular keyword and groups of similar keywords are very abused. In fact, the mesothelioma group of keywords initially appeared on a list of high CPC that has been floating around the Internet for almost 4 years!

So, I called my friend Garry Conn. I have really not known him all that long, but I respect his opinion a great deal already. In fact, he designed this WordPress Theme for me, and has given me advice on several occasions. (By the way, you can actually call him directly yourself -- the number is on his blog). Anyway, I asked Garry -- what's my blog about? He had a really strong reaction that confirmed my gut feeling. This blog is not about MFA pages and other trickery designed to game the system (and neither am I).

At this moment, I am very interested in using Micro Niche Finder; however, I am quickly learning that some keywords can be detrimental to the health of my conscience an my blog

So, I am out of the mesothelioma business after about 3 or 4 hours. Sorry for the distraction.

As always, your comments are appreciated.

Thanks,
Mark

So much has been going on in the last few weeks. Most obviously, I was able to convince Garry Conn to redesign my blog and create this killer custom theme just form me. Garry is a great guy, and he knows a heck of a lot about niche IM. On top of that, he is pretty handy at php, CSS and graphics. If you need someone you can trust to work on your blog for a fair price, I can honestly recommend him unconditionally. I am still turning some knobs and adjusting some dials (most notably, Aweber), but I could not be happier with the new look (and the amazing service from Garry).

Turning my attention back to Elvis Presley

Now that the new theme is up, I simply cannot believe that my plan to document my creation of a Niche Super-Site started on February 4th. Man, time flies when you are having fun with part-time Internet Marketing. In case you missed the press frenzy in early February (LOL), I am quite literally taking a page out of Caroline Middlebrook's free eBook and documenting my experience of trying to create a niche site. I picked a random topic (Elvis Presley), and so far on our journey to build the Niche Super-Site we have discussed:

• Definition of the Niche Super-Site case study
• List of Niche Super-Site design goals
• How to select your niche
• Choosing your keywords
• Choosing a domain name
• Setting up your niche site
• Making things look nice
• Installing Plugins
• Getting listed in Google
• Making Money with phpBay
• Adding PopShops to your site
• Adding Adsense
• Adding Amazon Omakase Widget
• Adding a favicon
• Testing the Long Tail Keyword (1) (2) and (3)

At the end of the long-tail keyword test, we were able to declare victory because I now rank on page one of Google for the killer MMO phrase "Elvis Aaron Presley Collectible Necktie.” This shows that on-page SEO works to get listed for a search term. The problem is that where you rank for that term depends on your off-page SEO. For more on this, I recommend the free EasySEO eBook from Josh Spaulding. As I mentioned in my previous post, with “Elvis Aaron Presley Collectible Necktie” under our belt, it is now time to attack higher competition phrases -- “elvis presley collectibles" (74 searches per day), the "life of elvis presley" (226 searches per day) and "elvis presley history of" (4383 searches per day).

Simple plan for niche market SEO

Simply put, my strategy is to create a landing page for Elvis Presley collectibles and another for Life of Elvis Presley. I'll write good SEO copy and pay attention to details like making sure the keywords appear in the title tag, headers, beginning of the article, exerpt, etc. Basically, I will simply do all of the things that are documented in the free EasySEO eBook. Once those pages are complete, I plan to use the variation on Bum (article) Marketing taught in Josh's Article Marketing Domination (AMD). If you are not familiar with article marketing, the basic idea is to write articles about your niche containing your keywords. At the end of the article, you include links back to your site for your keywords. You submit the article to article directories. These directories are well indexed, and they allow you people to copy your article, propagating your links. (Note that you do not put these articles on your own site).

In Article Marketing Domination, Josh outlines some key steps for article marketing, including

• Creating effective articles
• Creating an effective signature block
• Submission strategies

So, I plan to put this to the test starting in a few days. The problem is, I need some articles. I am not sure I have lots of Elvis Articles in me (this is why it is useful to choose a niche you really care about).

Buying Articles

Article marketing is the perfect place to use a writer for hire (ghost writer). I was able to hire a lady on ScriptLance to write 20 300 word articles about Elvis for $70 ($3.50 per article). ScriptLance is neat because your job goes out for bids, and you can select from the people that respond. This writer has a BA liberal arts and is US based. The $70 is held in escrow until I am happy. Now, I might not always want to spend $70 on a marketing -- but this is an experiment...

So, we'll see how it goes. The traffic data for HistoryOfElvis.com is contaminated by this case study, so it may be hard to judge. Again, we'll see.

Topics remaining on my list for this niche super-site series include the following:

• eZineArticles Content
• Write your own content
• Set up AA404 plugin
• Set up a pseudo-link-directory as pillar content
• Remember to back up your data.
• Comment Kahuna
• Secure WordPress
• Other marketing ideas
• The 50 site checklist
• Others…

Best regards,

Mark

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 Well, I did it. In a previous post, I declared my intent to test long tail keyword theory. Now, I proudly rank on the first page of Google for the highly competitive term "Elvis Aaron Presley Collectible Necktie." What does this tell me? Look out "internet marketing" and "make money online." Mark Mason is an unstoppable SEO POWERHOUSE.

Well, not exactly. Actually, it tells me that if you can identify long tail keywords with low competition where you can make money, you can easily rank on the first page of google. If you read the free EasySEO Book, you will begin to believe that you can rank in google for any term you want.

So, let's try that. I still have the goal of writing several articles for ezinearticles. So, let's attack something harder -- "elvis presley collectibles (74 searches per day), the life of elvis presley (226 searches per day) and elvis presley history of (4383 searches per day). To do this, we are going to create three specific "landing pages" (one for each term), we are going to write 5 ezinearticles (with a resource box targeting each term), we are going to pay to get submitted to directories, and we are going to buy a few blog posts. Let' see how we do." More on this 4-part traffic strategy in the very near future (like tomorrow). For the meat of my strategy, i plan to follow Article Marketing Domination.

For now, I will bask in my glory.

%RELATEDPOSTS%

Well, this is funny.

My post about ranking for "Elvis Aaron Presley Collectible Necktie" ranks #1 for that phrase. The actual post on HistoryofElvis.com is no where to be seen yet. I'll keep you posted (so to speak).

So far on our journey to build the Niche Super-Site we have discussed:

• Definition of the Niche Super-Site case study
• List of Niche Super-Site design goals
• How to select your niche
• Choosing your keywords
• Choosing a domain name
• Setting up your niche site
• Making things look nice
• Installing Plugins
• Getting listed in Google
• Making Money with phpBay
• Adding PopShops to your site
• Adding Adsense
• Adding Amazon Omakase Widget
• Adding a favicon

We really need to start turning our attention to traffic for HistoryofElvis.com, but I wanted to start a small test first. Everybody always talks about long tail keywords, and they can be important for making money in a niche. In fact, Caroline Middlebrook has an excellent article on Long Tail Keyword Research that you should check out.

As a complete aside, saying "Caroline Middlebrook has an excellent article" is completely redundant. Every word on her site is excellent. But, I digress.

Anyway, I thought I would run a test. Let's see if we can rank for a really long tail phrase on HistoryofElvis.com. The phrase I have selected is

"Elvis Aaron Presley Collectible Necktie"

Now, those of you on the other side of the pond will notice that I have intentionally selected the Yank spelling of Collectible. According to Wikipedia, although "collectable" is the spelling listed first by the Oxford English Dictionary, and is standard spelling in British English, the dictionary observes that the "-ible" form is also valid, and has come to be common spelling in the United States.

A quick check on google confirms that there are only 200 pages answering to this search, and none of them match very well. Additionally, a look at the Adwords keyword tool confirms that there is no search traffic and that there is no competition for that phrase. So, this should be like shooting ducks in a pond.

So, I have created a page on HistoryOfElvis.com with the following characteristics:

• Page title tag is Elvis Aaron Presley Collectible Necktie
• Page title is Elvis Aaron Presley Collectible Necktie
• Keyword meta data is set to variations on the target phrase
• Description meta tag is set to include the phrase 3 times.
• Page slug is elvis-aaron-presley-collectible-necktie
• The phrase Elvis Aaron Presley Collectible Necktie appears in the copy many times
• The page is linked from the HistoryofElvis.com home page
• There is lots of related product copy on the page

Now, to keep from passing page rank from masonworld.com to this page, I am not linking to it from here.

So, I launched the page today. You can find it from the HistoryofElvis.com main page of you are interested. Let me know what you think. I will report back the results in a few days (or you can check google yourself).

Thanks,

Mark

Topics remaining on my list for this niche super-site series include the following:

• Traffic strategy
• Really long tail keyword test
• eZineArticles Content
• Write your own content
• Set up AA404 plugin
• Set up a pseudo-link-directory as pillar content
• Remember to back up your data.
• Comment Kahuna
• Secure WordPress
• Blog by email
• Great podcasts
• Running adwords ads
• eBooks
• Other marketing ideas
• The 50 site checklist
• Others…

If you have a topic that you would like to see added to my list, please feel free to leave a comment. Thanks!

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