Everyone knows that I like Jimmy Brown -- but I was really blown away today by this post (reprinted here with Jimmy's permission).

In this post, Jimmy talks about how you can leverage the hype created by mega-launches like the PLF 3.0 launch this week.  You can do that by serving the people that WANT the mega-guru $2000 product, but cannot afford it.

For example, I am sure that I could sell a $97 product called "Product Toss Forumla" during the PLF launch.  Why?  Because there are tons of people like me that want to know more about product launches but do not have the money (or time) for PLF.

Interesting idea, eh?

Here is Jimmy's post (reprinted with his permission).

Note that Jimmy is using his own technique to buzz his own stuff here.

He sees the buzz, develops a technique to leverage the buzz, creates a buzz about that technique, and ends up getting a guy like me to promote one of his products on short notice on a PR4 Internet Marketing blog.

Pretty slick....(it helps that the product that Jimmy mentions below is very high quality, or I would not have reprinted the post).

Thanks,
Mark

How To "Borrow" Other People's Buzz TODAY (Think Traffic!)
By Jimmy D. Brown

Did you know that other people "warm up" your customers for you with their "big product launches"?

And, did you further know, that a huge opportunity for you to create sales for YOUR product or a product you promote as an affiliate can be the result?

If, that is, you "borrow" the buzz that other people are generating.

Imagine this scenario...

Mr. Marketer creates a new $2,000 product. He "launches" it with his friends. Everyone on the forums is talking about it. Every email sent out within the marketplace has something to say about it. Bloggers are raving. The whole industry is buzzing about the new launch.

The average conversion rate is 2%. And that's not on $2,000 products. But, let's assume that Mr. Marketer is the best in the biz. And he can generate something obscene like 25% conversion rate on a $2,000 offer (which, by the way, ain't likely to happen).

IF that were to happen, the flipside is this: 75% DON'T BUY.

In other words, for every 100 visitors to the "launch" site, 75 of them walk away without buying.

Were they uninterested? If that's the case, they likely wouldn't have visited the site in the first place.

In the majority of the cases, they $2,000 price tag was out of their reach. Not in the budget. Don't have the money. Been there, done that ... didn't have the cash to buy the t-shirt!

So, what can we learn from this?

We can learn...

* These 75 out of every 100 who don't buy are probably interested to some degree.

* These 75 out of every 100 have heard all of the buzz and have been "presold" on the premise of the product.

* These 75 out of every 100 are strong candidates to buy a lower-priced, related alternative.

That's where YOU come into the picture.

You "borrow" the buzz that's been generated for the big product being launched by talked about by everyone as you promote a lower-priced, related alternative!

Here's how you do it...

1. Look for high-dollar launches in your market.

The first step is to keep your eye on the pulse of your market. Whenever a major new product is being launched, get busy. You'll usually know days, if not weeks, in advance because that's how launches work: they do a lot of "pre" build-up work to get people salivating for the eventual launch. Keep your eyes out for anything new in the works.

2. Promote a low-cost alternative.

It doesn't matter if you write a quick 10-15 page report, promote your own existing product that is related or grab an affiliate link to some other existing product or service. It doesn't really matter WHERE you obtain this lower-priced alternative. The important thing is that you find one. It needs to be related to the topic of the big product being launched. It can be related either (a) by teaching a similar concept, or (b) teaching a portion of the big product's concept.

3. Write a mailing that explains the two options.

You'll want to write a mailing to send to your subscribers or to post at your blog. This mailing needs to contain three important elements...

- Content that presells. Share some meaty nuggets related to the offer you are ultimately going to promote to set the table.

- A small blurb about big launch with your link. Mention the "major" launch briefly. Describe it's benefits and use an affiliate link of yours to point to the offer. Mention that it's only drawback is "price". Express that many people can't afford it.

- A stronger promotion for your option. Then, really hit home with this "lower-priced, related alternative". Let them know the benefits are similar at a fraction of the cost. Be sure to point out that it's priced for everyone -- especially those who feel "left out" of the big budget launch because they can't afford it.

Then, it's just a matter of getting that mailing out to your subscribers.

Let's look at what you have in place as a result of this strategy...

* You have two promotions: a minor one for the same "major" launch everyone else is promoting, and a "major" one for the lower-priced, related alternative.

* You have "borrowed buzz". Everyone in the marketplace is warming up prospects with all of their "talk" about the importance of the subject matter of the "big product launch". They are primed and ready to buy ... something!

* You have a spike in sales coming.

This is a wonderful strategy for getting extra sales.

Remember, there are always a whole lot more people who DON'T buy the product being offered in the "launch", than those who do! You've got a huge pool of prospects in the 75-98% of people who don't buy the $2,000 offer. Many of them WILL buy a lower-priced, related alternative.

So, the only thing left for you to do is get started.

And if you've like a shortcut, let me show you a quick way to do it TODAY.

You have almost certainly seen that Product Launch Formula 3.0 (PLF3) has launched this week. Everyone is talking about it. While there are a lot of different strategies and ideas involved in a "launch", the backbone is the same...

*** Other people send you the majority of your traffic.

It's obviously a very *HOT* topic right now. People are scrambling to pay BIG BUCKS for the course.

But...

Do you think everyone can afford it?

What about the tens of thousands of internet marketers who can't afford it, but who ARE INTERESTED in the subject?

What a shame to let them sit by without getting any sales from them!

But, don't worry --- you CAN get sales from them! Here's how...

You offer them something for PENNIES on the dollar that provides the same end result: other people sending them traffic for their products and services!

A few days ago Jimmy D. Brown announced a resale rights offer for his SalesArmySecrets.com course.

All the details are at right here.

There are still licenses available for YOU to grab in order to sell a low-cost alternative to the high-dollar "launch" product that everyone is jabbering about.

***BUT IT GETS BETTER --- FREE PLR to $20 Report! ***

Jimmy wrote a report several months ago which he briefly made available to one of his membership sites. It's entitled "How To Get R.I.C.H. With Your Own Affiliate Program".

(It was pulled after a month and is no longer available anywhere.)

The report is 21 meaty pages in itself, but it also strongly promotes the Sales Army Secrets course at the end.

When you order one of the remaining licenses for Sales Army Secrets, Jimmy is going to give you (no cost!) a free PLR license to the special report!

You can sell the report for $20, give it away, do whatever you want with it (as long as you don't misrepresent it or mention Jimmy in reference to it)...

...while using the endorsement at the close of the report to promote YOUR COPY of Sales Army Secrets!

It's a ready-made marketing report to get people to buy Sales Army Secrets from you! You can sell Sales Army Secrets for $97 per order and keep 100% of every sale!

Here's what you need to do...

1. Order the Sales Army Secrets resale rights license here.

2. Register and open a ticket at Jimmy's support center at http://www.Infoprofitshare.com and provide his staff with a copy of your receipt.

Within 24 hours someone will send you the download information for this special Free PLR offer.

That's it!

Get one while it lasts...

There's only ONE catch...

This special offer is for the next 3 days only. On Friday, July 2nd at 10PM CDT, Jimmy is shutting down the license offer and this Free PLR offer. They will no longer be available. Officially "retired" at that point.

Grab yours now!

Then you can quickly "borrow the buzz" of those promoting PLF3!

I have been a Clickbank customer for well over two years and probably even used Clickbank before I got interested in internet marketing without even knowing it. Clickbank is a fantastic service that I highly recommend to internet marketers that I coach, but there a few things that just simply need to be addressed.

What follows is an open letter to the management of Clickbank.com.

Dear Clickbank,

I am a happy customer of Clickbank.com. I use your service both as an affiliate promoting products from the Clickbank marketplace and as a publisher having several products listed in the marketplace myself.

As I have often pointed out to my readers at MasonWorld.com, there are many advantages to using Clickbank as a service for publishing digital products. Chief among those is the high level of customer service you provide in handling refunds, collecting taxes, tracking and promoting to affiliates, and reporting transactions through your analytics service.

In fact, with regard to those features of your services, I couldn’t be happier. I do however have a problem that I cannot for the life of me understand why you have not addressed, and that is the problem of commission theft.

Now, I’m not by any stretch of the imagination a huge Clickbank client. I know that you have many clients that are selling products on Clickbank in volumes 100 times or more higher than my small amount. But, even looking at my list of transactions from the past three months I can see an unusually high number of purchases of my products made by people with only one hop credited to their affiliate ID.

What this tells me is that people are finding my product, clearing their cookies, and purchasing the product through their own affiliate link. This is not a new problem and it’s been reported by many other bloggers over the last two years. My concern is why hasn’t Clickbank done more to solve this problem?

There are many other affiliate scripts available in the marketplace that do a better job protecting affiliates.  For example, some affiliate scripts use IP tracking in addition to cookies, some affiliate scripts enforce the first cookie as opposed to the last cookie, and some affiliate scripts allow you to obfuscate the payment vendor on the order form.

It seems very simple to me that Clickbank should be able to address this problem of commission theft by offering product sellers the option to enable new features that enforce the first cookie, add tracking in addition to cookies that would identify the referrer, and help obfuscate the fact that Clickbank is being used as a merchant.

Sadly, I can only think of one reason that Clickbank would not be working to solve this problem. That is loss of sales that come from stolen commissions.

Here’s what I mean. I think that Clickbank must believe that if they take away people’s ability to steal commissions or in effect to get an instant discount that sales will go down. After all, there must be a certain amount of people who won’t buy a $97 product, but they will buy a $97 product if they can get half of that amount back by stealing the commission. Once sales go down that will mean that Clickbank will get a reduced number of sales based fees deposited in their coffers.

Now, that may be a cynical view, and I’d love to hear from Clickbank if that’s not the case, but I can’t think of any other good reason why Clickbank wouldn’t enable features to protect affiliates.

Clickbank’s fees are already some of the higher fees in the affiliate script space in my experience, but I would be willing to pay additional amounts of fees to protect my affiliates. I know that some super affiliates are not promoting my products because they’re listed in the Clickbank marketplace. In fact, in a couple of cases I’ve had to set up special promotions directly through PayPal to satisfy super affiliates that wanted to promote my product.

So, again, Clickbank, I ask you. How many sales are you really losing? If super affiliates are refusing to promote Clickbank products, and I believe that in some cases they are, wouldn’t it make sense to go ahead and enable optional protections for those affiliates so that people could use Clickbank without having to worry about commission theft?

I just simply don’t understand. I’d appreciate a response that would help me understand why you’re dragging your feet on this important topic in the internet marketing space.

Thanks and best regards,
Mark Mason – MasonWorld.com

This is the Mason World Late Night Internet Marketing Podcast, Episode 5.

You want to build a business that you can call your own, but you can’t imagine abandoning the security of your day job. You are confident that you can find a few hours a week to pursue your dreams of creating a business on the internet, but you don’t know where to start. You’re looking for a plan.

Congratulations! You just found one. You are listening to the Mason World Late Night Internet Marketing Podcast, with your host Mark Mason, building internet businesses one night at a time.

Hello, everybody. Welcome to the Mason World Late Night Internet Marketing Podcast. I’m your host Mark Mason. It’s great to be back on the microphone. I hope you’ve had a fantastic couple of weeks since I talked to you last. I hope they were very productive for you.

I know I’ve been incredibly productive over the last couple weeks. In fact, in some ways a little too productive. I tend to get too many tasks going all at the same time. I don’t know if you have that problem. That’s a huge problem for a lot of internet marketers.

I was talking to Lynn Terry about this over in her Elite forum the other day. Her theory, she had a post in that forum about this, is that you really need to focus on something, one thing extensively until that thing is finished to really get the maximum productivity. I’m really going to need to look at that a little more carefully.

I’ve really been enjoying Lynn’s forum. I spend a lot of time over there. I’ve been getting to know Lynn, she’s great. Some of you saw the video on my blog of Lynn opening up the Elvis bobble head that I sent her. That was kind of fun.

If you get a chance to check out Lynn, I recommend that you do that. You can check out the information about her Elite Membership Forum at MasonWorld.com/recommends/lynn. If you just want to kind of get a taste of what that’s like, you don’t need to pay any money at all. You can go over to her blog at ClickNewz.com and check it out.

There are links to the forum over there, and she’s got a free side to the forum too and that’s really excellent. I’ve been having fun over there with Lynn. She’s got lots of cool peeps that hang out with her over there in the Elite Forum, it’s really good stuff.

The other thing that I’ve been working on this week is a site with my nephew. We’re going to talk about that a little bit in the interview. My nephew and I have been working on an affiliate marketing site for the last couple of weeks. I’ve actually got him on the podcast today as the featured interview as a new internet marketer.

He’s going to tell us the three things that he learned from me this summer working on an affiliate site. He actually cleared over 100 dollars on that site in the month of August, which was only one month after we really started working on it. So, he’s pretty pleased with that.

We’re using the phpBay plugin to work through eBay to sell some comic books online. We’ll talk about all of that in the feature interview.

Before we get into that, let’s take a look at the feature segment and see what we’ve got going on today.

It’s time for the feature segment.

It’s time for the feature segment today, and we’re continuing our discussion about all the different possible internet business models. We’ve talked about affiliate marketing, last week we talked about eBay, we’ve talked about information marketing.

One thing I wanted to talk about today, because it’s timely, is the idea of creating residual recurring income through membership sites. In order to understand why membership sites are important, you really need to sort of understand the idea of a sales funnel. So, we’ll talk a little bit about sales funnels, and we’ll talk about membership sites.

This, again, points to one of the resources that I’ve provided you for this discussion, and that’s Jimmy Brown’s excellent report, which is called 10 Proven Ways to Make at Least 10,000 Dollars Every Month. In Jimmy Brown’s report, item three in that report is tap into the back end automatically.

Jimmy basically talks about the idea that most marketers really are concerning themselves with the creation of the sales funnel. If you’re not familiar with a sales funnel, I can sort of explain it to you like this. When you have an initial contact with a perspective client, you bring that person in to your range of influence and you essentially get their permission to receive your message.

Now, if you’re a person who’s being effected by TV marketing, sometimes you barely even have permission, you just happen to be watching the channel and you see a commercial and that’s sort of your first contact into the sales funnel for whoever is selling something to you on television. In the context of internet marketing, this sort of thing usually happens when you sign up to an email list.

You’re at the top of someone’s funnel, they’ve gotten your permission to market to you, basically. So, you’re at the top of their funnel. Then you might at some point buy an inexpensive product from them. That moves you a little further down the funnel.

You’ll find that a lot of internet marketers spend a lot of time creating more and more products at higher and higher price points to move you further and further down the funnel. You see, there’s a big difference between someone you’ve never talked to before, at the top of your funnel or just entering your funnel, and someone who’s bought two or three products from you over a period of time, who trusts you and understands the quality of your product.

So, that sales funnel should be architected to move you further and further towards purchasing higher and higher end products. That’s a classic marketing strategy. It’s not unique to internet marketing, but it’s used very well in internet marketing in a variety of product lines.

One sort of special version of that, that can replace the sales funnel to some extent, is the idea of continuity programs. One way to implement a continuity program is through a membership site. Now, a continuity program simply means, you can think of it as monthly billing.

Continuity programs have gotten a bad rap over the years, because of various problems, usually having to do with them being deployed in a sneaky manner. You’ll recall that Joel Comm had a problem where he had a continuity program attached to one of his Adsense books, I believe it was, and it wasn’t clearly indicated on the order form. A lot of people were upset with Joel, because he didn’t make it clear that in addition to buying the ebook for 9.95, you were also signing up for his 27 dollar continuity program.

Now, I happen to know Joel, Joel Comm is a really good guy. I really personally don’t think that was something that he did maliciously, but he upset a lot of people. So, continuity programs in general have gotten a bad rap.

Russell Brunson and others, particularly Jimmy Brown, have been talking about several ideas around continuity that make a lot more sense. One of the things that they talk about is micro-continuity through membership sites. Jimmy has an excellent course on this that he calls Membernaire. We’ll have a link to that in the show notes.

Membernaire is an opportunity to create what Russell Brunson calls a micro-continuity program. The way Jimmy does it is he creates courses that are finite duration. It’s one thing if you tell somebody that they’re going to need to pay 27 dollars, or 67 dollars a month for their rest of their lives.

But, what Jimmy says is, “Hey, we’re going to have a continuity program with a finite term. It’s going to be 6 months long, or a year long, it’s going to be 27 dollars a month.” You know the cost up front. It’s spread out over time.

Jimmy actually implements all of his stuff completely automatically, which is really neat. So, if you’re the product creator for a Jimmy Brown style membership site. Then what you can do is you can create these sites one time, market them, and then they run on autopilot all by themselves. It’s pretty interesting.

Now, there really are sort of three kinds of membership sites that Jimmy points out. Maybe four, I would say, Jimmy points out three. The first site that Jimmy points out, or sites that offer a service, if there’s something that you need over and over again rather than paying for it piecemeal you can create a membership site that offers that service over and over again or on a monthly basis. Web hosting is a really good example of that, that Jimmy offers.

There are other kinds of membership sites you can imagine. Help with homework would be an excellent example, or tutoring. Those kind of things you can offer in the form of a membership site. Related to that can be a site that offers lessons on a topic.

You could have 6 month, 12 month, or 3 month courses on how to get an online business up and running. That’s the example that Jimmy offers. How to start a restaurant, how to do home repairs, or how to do whatever it is that you know how to do.

That’s one of the exciting things about the idea of a membership site. If you’re an expert in something, and you can break it up into 48 or 50 or 100 easy lessons, then you can easily create a membership site that just drips those lessons out to your customers at a fixed rate. You just tell them up front, “You’re going to get one lesson a week, and here they come. As long as you keep paying, you keep getting lessons.”

The other kind of membership site that you hear about a lot is a site that offers a new product each month. So, each month you get a new PLR product or each month you get a new something that you need, new templates for a website, new content, new something, new cross stitch patterns, whatever it might be. People subscribe because they want that new fix of whatever it is that they need.

The other kind of membership that I think Jimmy didn’t mention, but he certainly knows all about this, because he does these sorts of things, are coaching programs. I think those are a special kind. They’re sort of like offering a service, but basically you’re paying to have some person on retainer to help you with whatever your problem. Usually those are implemented as a forum.

That’s just a few ideas that Jimmy covers in his book. He says, basically, you need to choose a niche, find out what they’re buying, and what they want, and then go build a membership site around that. I think that’s a really good idea.

The reason that I bring that up in this podcast is two fold. One is these are very, very important. In fact, I had a graphics guy tell me today that I was talking to by email, he’s over in Europe and is the guy who does most of my graphics for my sites, he told me there are four weeks out on graphics because of all these micro-continuity sites they’ve been doing based on Russell Brunson and Jimmy Brown’s sort of programs. So, they’re just swamped with work over all these membership sites that are being created. That’s one reason why I bring this up to you.

The second reason that I bring this up to you is if you’re interested at all in this, Jimmy is offering a webinar, and I’m going to give you the details on that at MasonWorld.com/jimmywebinar. That webinar is currently airing this Thursday. If you’re listening to this in a time shifted manner, go ahead and go to the link, it will give you the current next time for the webinar.

Basically, it’s an hour long tutorial from Jimmy on webinars. I’m going to see it for the first time tomorrow. I can tell you that I can recommend it without seeing it, because Jimmy is just a fantastic guy. If you don’t know Jimmy, it’s worth going over to the webinar just so you can get a sense of what he’s all about.

He’s really a fantastic marketer and somebody that I’ve really enjoyed getting to know over the last year or two. His stuff is top notch. He knows what he’s doing. He has personally created, I know for sure of two, but maybe it’s six of these sites, where he has over 1,000 members in each site. You go do the math. If you had 1,000 members in a membership site, each paying you 27 dollars a month. I think you might like that result.

That’s the main segment for today. I just wanted to tell you about that other income model, which is membership sites. The bottom line is if you know how to do something that people want to learn how to do, and you can figure out how to bust that up into courses, kind of like a Dummies Guide to Tennis, or a Dummies Guide to Fitness, or a Dummies Guide to whatever it is that you’re interested in, you can make that into a membership course.

You can recruit people into that course and have a recurring stream of income. You can set the whole thing up automatically, and Jimmy Brown is the guy to teach you how to do that. So, that’s another way you can make money online, and that’s well covered in the 10 Proven Ways to Make at Least 10,000 Dollars Every Month. That’s Jimmy Brown’s ebook, and that’s available at MasonWorld.com/10ways.

Thanks. That concludes the feature segment.

And now the feature interview.

Okay. Now it’s time for the standing interview segment that we’ve been having for the last couple of weeks. What I’ve been promising you is that I’d interview successful internet marketers and ask them the three most important things that they wished they had known about internet marketing when they first started.

This has been very exciting. But, recently I’ve been working with my nephew on his first website. He has an affiliate marketing site based around comic books, which is something that he is interested in. He’s a sophomore in high school, very intelligent young man, highly motivated, but didn’t really know anything about how money was made on the internet. Kind of like a lot of us when we first started.

So, I thought, “Wow. Here’s a guy who just learned how to make money on the internet.” He’s made his first 100 dollars, I think his site made 136 dollars in the month of August. He’s very excited about that. We’ve got big plans for the site, because we made that 136 dollars and we’re not even ranking on the first page of Google for our search term yet. So, we’re real excited.

I thought the interesting was 2 months ago he didn’t know anything about internet marketing. He’s done all the work himself. I’ve sort of led him through it, and helped him and coached him, but he’s done all the hard work, and he’s got a result to show for it.

So, I wanted to ask him what were the three things that he knows now that he didn’t know 2 months ago. The things that really stuck out for him. I got a very, very interesting answer from him and I wanted to share that with you.

Now, he’s a minor under the age of 18. Like I said, he’s a sophomore in high school. So, I’m not using his real name. we’re calling him Bob here for the purpose of this interview, which is really hilarious, because that’s not his name at all. So, you may hear us giggling a little bit in the interview about that.

The other thing I’ll tell you, I want to apologize in advance, this interview we did in my study. We had to move the microphone around, and I forgot to put the p-pop filer on. So, I’ve edited the interview to try and cut out the pops from articulating the letter P, which is the world’s most annoying sound.

I don’t quite have them all out of the interview, but I did the very best I could. I enjoyed the interview so much, I didn’t want to do another take. Here it is live, raw, and with the pops, my nephew Bob and our discussion about his internet marketing experience.

…

Mark Mason: Hey, this is Mark Mason. I’m actually in studio with my nephew today. A lot of you who have been following me over on Lynn Terry’s forum know that I built with my nephew a website about something that he was interested in, actually the website is about comic books. We built that website and in the first month were able to generate some revenue with eBay’s affiliate program. That was a very interesting process.

So, what I thought I would do is get some insights from my nephew, who is a sophomore in high school about what he’s learned from his experience making money online. I’ve been telling people, “If my nephew who is a sophomore in high school can make money online, you can make money online too.” I think that’s a pretty straight forward kind of way to think about things.

Now, I’ve agreed since my nephew is a minor under the age of 18, I’m not going to use his name. So, I’ve agreed to call him Bob for the purpose of this interview. Hi, Bob, how are you doing today?

Bob: Hi. Good. How are you?

Mark Mason: I’m doing great. Bob came over, he lives nearby. How long have we been working on this website together, Bob?

Bob: We’ve probably been working on it maybe since the beginning of last school year.

Mark Mason: Yeah, something like that. So, we worked on it for a couple of weeks, then we kind of dropped it, but then we hit it really hard this summer. Right?

Bob: Yes.

Mark Mason: So, my recollection was we didn’t make any money or really generate much of any content last year at all. We really started working on it about in July.

Bob: That’s right.

Mark Mason: We started making money on the website in August, right?

Bob: Yes.

Mark Mason: Okay, great. So, the website sat idle for awhile, and after about a month we started seeing a little revenue. That’s been really exciting. I guess it’s been exciting for me, has it been exciting for you?

Bob: Yes. It’s very exciting.

Mark Mason: Okay. So, you’re actually in a very prestigious position. I’ve been interviewing internet marketers from all over the world on this podcast and asking them the three things that they wish they had known when they started internet marketing.

I thought I’d turn things around today and ask you what are the three things that you’ve learned over the summer with your first experience in internet marketing that you just didn’t know before, that you’d want to tell someone about your internet marketing experience?

Can you think of one thing that just occurs to you just right off the top of your head, Bob? That’s not your real name, I know, but it’s kind of funny. Something that you learned over the summer, that you didn’t know before.

Bob: Yes. First, is how easy it is to get a website going. If you use a website like WordPress you just pick a theme you like, get it going, and put it up. It’s just easy to make one.

Mark Mason: That’s right. So, basically, what we did was we just simply found a theme that worked well with our topic of comic books. We actually found sort of a play on Superman theme, right?

Bob: Yes.

Mark Mason: We just used that on top of WordPress to create our little kind of ecommerce site. That worked out pretty well. It looked pretty cool?

Bob: It looks really cool, yes. A lot of neat features.

Mark Mason: I think, if I remember right, we asked a virtual assistant to make some small modifications to the site.

Bob: Yes.

Mark Mason: Right. So, we started with a theme that was pretty close to what we wanted, and we had a virtual assistant make some changes. Just a few dollars, literally a few hours work, someone offshore. It’s pretty much exactly the way you want it right now, right?

Bob: It’s perfect. Yes.

Mark Mason: Great. That’s the first thing. So, that point is a really good one. That is that basically anybody without a lot of technical savvy can have a website up and running very quickly by using WordPress. Is that pretty much what you’re saying?

Bob: Yes, sir.

Mark Mason: Okay, great. That’s thing one. That’s an excellent point. What’s your second thing that you kind of picked up this summer working on your WordPress website?

Bob: Probably number two is if you want to get your website going, something very important to use is keywords through Google. Pick out a keyword phrase, get backlinks to your website to get viewers to come to your site.

Mark Mason: Now, before this summer, did you have any idea, you’ve always used Google, right?

Bob: Yes.

Mark Mason: But, did you have any idea why pages came up on the first page of Google? Did you understand any of that before this summer?

Bob: I had no clue. I just thought it was random.

Mark Mason: So, we basically spent. I don’t know, about an hour? So, we got you started with the Easy SEO report from Josh Spaulding,that was really cool. Then we picked a keyword with some traffic. Where are we now with that keyword?

Bob: Just by using that one keyword we’re almost to the first page of Google. We’re kind of floating back and forth between page one and page two.

Mark Mason: So, we’re down kind of at the top of page two. We’ve got some tricks up our sleeve, maybe we’ll talk about that at the end of this, where we think that’s going to get us to page one.

Basically, pick a keyword that people are searching for and get backlinks to the website. That’s the offpage SEO part, getting the backlinks, but we also optimized the homepage for the keyword. Right? We’ve got it in there.

Bob: Yes, sir.

Mark Mason: Kind of in a natural amount of time. So, that’s just kind of common sense SEO, and you were able to pick that up pretty quickly, right?

Bob: Yes, sir, I was.

Mark Mason: Okay. So, the first thing that you learned this summer was that you can easily build a site with Wordpres.

The second thing that you learned is that once you build a site with WordPress, you can optimize it, both on the website and off the website, so that you’ll get listed in Google for a keyword that’s getting some traffic.

What’s a third thing that you learned this summer?

Bob: The third important thing I learned was if you can get traffic to your website, you can send them to other websites and earn commission off their views.

Mark Mason: Yes. We talked about that quite a bit this summer. That’s affiliate marketing. Of course, for our website, because we’re dealing with comic books, that’s just a perfect fit for eBay, right, because that’s where comic books are being sold.

Bob: Yes, sir.

Mark Mason: And you knew that already. You’d already been buying comic books on eBay. That’s in fact, how we got the idea.

Bob: Yes, I had.

Mark Mason: So, Bob is into comic books a little bit, and knew that there were transactions going on at eBay. All it took was for me to explain to you that you could build a website that drove traffic to eBay and get commissions, and we’re off to the races, right?

Bob: Yes.

Mark Mason: What we really want is to be on the first page of Google. So, why don’t you tell everybody what you have planned for, I guess we’re hoping to get the first draft of it done this weekend, you’re doing all the work. What do you have planned for this weekend?

Bob: We’re planning to write a press release to put out there to get our website on the first page.

Mark Mason: Yes. We’re following the Google First Page Formula, that’s the ebook that I’ve shared with Bob. He’s going to write a press release according to the Google First Page Formula, and we’re going to see if we can get the same results.

I’ve actually got a special link for that ebook, where I’ve got a discount available for the listeners in honor of Bob, since he’s going to be doing that this weekend. You can pick that ebook up for a 20 or 30 percent discount. I’ll be sure and put that link in the show notes. In fact, that will be at MasonWorld.com/press.

That’s great. Bob, I really appreciate you being on the show tonight. Tell me what you’re thinking about doing next. Are we going to build some more sites? How many more are we going to build or what are you thinking?

Bob: We’re just going to keep going until there’s nothing left to do. For all those people that are doing websites, don’t give up. It takes time, but it pays off.

Mark Mason: That’s excellent advice. I really appreciate it. Thanks for coming over. Have a great day.

Bob: Thank you very much.

Thanks for listening to the Mason World Late Night Internet Marketing Podcast. For more information about this program, and to get the show notes, be sure to visit our website at MasonWorld.com/podcast. Follow @MasonWorld on Twitter.

Have you got a question or comment for Mark? Let us know by leaving us a voicemail on our digital recording line at 214-444-8655. We may use your message on a future episode of the Mason World Late Night Internet Marketing Podcast.

Did you like our podcast? Help us out by telling your friends and leaving your review on iTunes by going to MasonWorld.com/iTunes.

Finally, always remember that all business involves risk. Internet business is no exception. Your ability to make money with the concepts discussed in this program and on MasonWorld.com depends on many things, including your effort and capability. Since these factors according to individuals, we cannot guarantee your success or income level, and we are not responsible for any of your actions.

Thanks again for listening to the Mason World Late Night Internet Marketing Podcast, building internet businesses one night at a time. Have a great day.

This is the Mason World Late Night Internet Marketing Podcast, Episode 4.

You want to build a business that you can call your own, but you can’t imagine abandoning the security of your day job. You are confident that you can find a few hours a week to pursue your dreams of creating a business on the internet, but you don’t know where to start. You’re looking for a plan.

Congratulations! You just found one. You are listening to the Mason World Late Night Internet Marketing Podcast, with your host Mark Mason, building internet businesses one night at a time.

Hello, everyone. Welcome to episode 4 of the Mason World Late Night Internet Marketing Podcast. Of course, I’m your host Mark Mason. It’s really great to be back on the mic. I’ve had a couple weeks of vacation with some light duty internet marketing activity, as well as some frenzied activity getting kids ready to go back to school.

It’s that time again in Texas, where we’re getting everybody ready to go back to school. That can be very exciting, because that generates a long list of things to go do. Everything from school clothes shopping to school supplies, physicals, band gear, and all of that. We’ve been pretty busy around the Mason World household the last couple of weeks.

I’ve also been busy, because I’ve been spending some time hanging out with guru affiliate marketer Lynn Terry in her private forum, she calls it the Elite forum. That’s really a fantastic investment that I’ve made. A small investment of money, and an investment of time over the last several weeks getting to know Lynn. I tell you, she is really fantastic. I had always heard great things about Lynn, and what level of integrity and customer focus she brings to her business.

Let me tell you, my time with her has exceeded all my expectations. She’s really fantastic. I encourage you to check her out over at MasonWorld.com/lynn, where I’ve a got a link over to her new Elite Membership forum over there. You can also find her on her blog at Clicknewz.com. I’ll provide both of those links in the show notes, you can check her out. She is really fantastic, and I really enjoyed spending time with her.

One of the best ways to learn about internet marketing is pick people and business models that you really believe in, follow them and watch what they do, ask them questions about what makes them successful and try to duplicate those results.

There’s absolutely no reason for you to reinvent anything in internet marketing. The best way to get started is to find somebody who you like what they’re doing, you believe in what they’re doing, and who will be honest with you and help you succeed.

Having said that, it’s time for the feature segment, where we’ll talk about our next internet monetization model. That’s making money on eBay.

It’s time for the feature segment.

In the feature segment today, we’ll be talking about our next internet business model. You’ll recall that we’ve already talked about affiliate marketing, which is when you essentially get paid for driving traffic to other people’s products, when that traffic converts to sales. Information marketing, where you can create information products, not too unlike this podcast, to be honest with you, and find ways to monetize those, usually by selling them as direct downloads.

Today we’re going to be talking about our third internet monetization method. That’s creating a business on eBay. Now, what we’ve been doing to kind of support this discussion that we’ve been having is following along in two publications.

One is the outstanding book by Yanik Silver, Moonlighting on the Internet. Yanik’s book can be found at MasonWorld.com/silver. We’ve also been following the great report from Jimmy Brown, I love Jimmy D. Brown, he’s really a great guy, his report is called 10 Proven Ways to Make at Least 10,000 a Month. That’s a 30 page free report that Jimmy offers, where he outlines 10 different things you can do to really crank up your internet income.

Those are both excellent texts for people who are getting started online, or trying to expand their online business. I recommend them both highly.

Today we’re going to be talking about eBay businesses and what you need to think about in terms of eBay. Now, most people when they think about eBay, think about going online and buying some used something, or some antique something that they go and buy and get a good deal. So, the two things that you usually have associated with eBay are used items, that’s what people think of when they think of eBay, or items that they can get for really cheap.

That’s kind of problematic if you want to start up a business on eBay, because you’re starting off in a situation where people who are looking for premium products, eBay may not necessarily the first thing that comes to your mind. Let me tell you, that is the wrong mindset to have if you’re an internet marketer.

The right thing to recognize about eBay, if you’re an internet marketer, is that there is a massive and enormous amount of traffic available to you on eBay. Millions of items are sold on eBay every year. It is a giant company that you can leverage to make money on the internet.

Before I go much further, let me tell you, I am not an eBay guru. I do not have a viable eBay business. Sure, I’ve sold stuff on eBay. In fact, I’ve got a couple of eBay auctions right now. But, that’s not my mainline business. I do understand, however, the fundamentals of marketing that are in play on eBay and I’m going to go over them for you a little bit.

The first one is there are a lot of people there. The fundamentals of internet marketing are find traffic, stand in front of it, and convert a certain percentage of that traffic into some monetized stream. So, you find people and you convert those people into something that translates into dollars. eBay meets the first criteria, which is lots of traffic.

Now, you might imagine sort of a fundamental eBay business, and you can setup sort of a traditional business on eBay by finding products and reselling them on eBay. The things that you usually hear about are people that go around to auctions and buy lots of items, and then warehouse them and sell them on eBay. Or people that setup things where they sell items on eBay, then they have them drop shipped so they’re not actually warehousing anything.

Both of those can be made to be viable internet businesses and that can work just fine. I am not super excited about those, because as I mentioned before, there’s a lot of price pressure on things that are for sale in eBay. I know people are making that work, and you can make it work too probably, but that’s not what gets me excited about eBay.

What gets me excited about eBay is the idea that Jimmy Brown mentions when he talks about eBay, and that is that you can use eBay as a lead generator. Now, if you go through the listings, as Jimmy points out, you’ll see a lot of people that seem to be losing money making sales on eBay. What I’ll tell you is that there are a lot of things that are called loss leaders sold on eBay.

It means that someone sells something, not so much really to make profit on the sale, but actually to get the customer. They know that once they get someone to buy something they’ve got a customer contact with a credit card in their hand, that’s actually willing to use it, and they can sell things to that person again. Essentially, they’re prequalifying the prospect and able to sell to them again. That’s the big thing that Jimmy points out is that you can use eBay as a lead generator.

You can also use eBay to get people into your direct sales funnel. If you’ve got multiple products, let’s say you’ve got a 1 dollar widget that you sell for 79 cents on eBay, and you know that people that buy 1 dollar widgets are going to need the 50 dollar widget cleaner. You can also get them directly in your sales funnel by selling your cheap product on eBay, and selling the more expensive back end to them later directly. Once you’ve got their contact information, of course, you’re able to contact them directly.

Those are sort of the business models that you should think about in terms of eBay. There’s the real eBay store, eBay auction, eBay selling physical products sort of eBay that you’ve thought about. But, then there’s this other thing, the marketing side of eBay where you can use eBay for lead generation or to get people into your funnel. Those are the two ways to think about eBay.

The important thing in eBay, just like in all good marketing, is the copy. That’s one of the things that’s really often ignored on eBay. When you go to write a listing on eBay, you really need to pay attention to your headline, you need to make sure your listing is personalized, you need to decide whether or not you’re going to specialize and feature it, and buy it now.

I’m not going to cover all those things, but there are a lot of marketing options, some of which are very sophisticated, that you can test and try to maximize your response on eBay. Particularly when you’re selling things over and over again. eBay is a great environment in which to split test, because there are so many different options, whether to use pictures or not, whether to use video or not, and so forth. That is a the main thing that you need to think about in eBay.

Don’t just do what all of these garage sale minded people are doing and throw up some sales copy in your auction. Actually approach it like a professional copywriter and think about what you’re writing. Hit people’s hot points, offer a unique selling proposition in your auction, offer risk reduction, make sure they know that there’s no risk for them to purchase through you. Use basic sales copy principles and you’ll be a lot more successful on eBay.

The last thing I want to mention about eBay is that you can combine what we talked about last week, that being affiliate marketing, with the things that you can do on eBay, because eBay has an affiliate program. A lot of people have made a lot of money putting up websites that actually don’t do anything but advertise products that are for sale on eBay.

You might be thinking, “That sounds like a lot of work, because something that’s for sale on eBay today won’t be there in 7 days.” That’s absolutely true. So, what these people do is they set up websites that read the eBay auctions, and when a visitor comes to their website it lists the current eBay auctions for very narrow subjects.

So, for example, maybe somebody might have a website selling coffee mugs, maybe antique coffee mugs that are for sale on eBay. They present themselves as an antique coffee mug site, with maybe some information and an antique coffee mug store. But, the links on the store really go to eBay auctions, so they’re able to sell these things that normally you wouldn’t be able to drop ship or otherwise find affiliate programs for on the internet.

You can check that out. My preferred source for the eBay affiliate program is Pepperjam. I’ll have a link to the Pepperjam Network in the show notes there for you so you can find that. That’s about it on eBay. Couple of business models there for you with eBay, a couple of things to think about when you’re listing your auctions, and finally affiliate marketing. You can mix all these things together. That about wraps it up for eBay today.

And now the feature interview.

I have a really special interview for you today. You know, I’ve been interviewing top internet marketers, asking them what are the three things they want to tell new internet marketers that will help them get started. What are the three things they wish they had known when they were getting started.

Today I have for you the guru of Firepow, the Niche Marketing on Crack author, Andrew Hansen. Andrew is an enormously successful marketer over at AndrewHansen.name. He’s a top choice of mine for integrity and paying attention to what people really need, rather than just be out to try and make a quick buck. His products are fantastic.

I’ve got him on the phone. Here’s what Andrew had to say.

Before we get started with Andrew, just one editorial note. I want to let you know that the recording of Andrew’s voice is a little echoed. It looks like we had a little equipment difficulty on my end. I did some work to clean it up, but it’s still not a fantastic audio recording. But, the information is so great, I didn’t want to re-record it with Andrew, because I didn’t want to miss that first pass raw nature of it. So, here it is in it’s entirety and I hope you enjoy it. Thanks.

Mark Mason: Outstanding. We’re on the phone now, and it’s Late Night Internet Marketing. That works for us, because it’s 1:00 in the morning. I am privileged to have on the phone Andrew Hansen. Andrew is famous for a number of outstanding products in the internet marketing space.

Of course, he is probably most famous for his viral ebook, Niche Marketing on Crack, one of the first internet marketing products that I ever purchased. He’s also got an outstanding free ebook that’s been making the rounds lately called Crap Cutter Marketing.

But, the flagship product of Andrew’s, and the one that I really love, is the Firepow product. That’s an outstanding product for affiliate and niche marketers. Maybe we’ll get to talk about that a little bit with Andrew today.

Andrew, how are you this morning at 1:00 AM in the morning?

Andrew Hansen: I’m really well. I think it’s closer to 2:00 AM now actually, where I am anyway. But, really well. Thank you for having me.

Mark Mason: Thank you very much for taking the call. It’s 2:00 in the morning on the east coast, 1:00 in the morning in Texas. This is the Late Night Internet Marketing Podcast, so I guess that’s appropriate.

Andrew Hansen: It’s all good. It’s fine by me.

Mark Mason: I have been interviewing outstanding internet marketers. I put you very high on that list. I’ve been reading your blog for a long time. I have been asking them the question, what would you tell a new internet marketer if you were going to tell them three things that they needed to know, or of you had it to do all over again, what are the three things that you would want to know?

But, before I ask you that question, Andrew, I’ve got to ask you another really important question that’s been on my mind for a long time. Can you handle one extra question?

Andrew Hansen: Yes, I think so.

Mark Mason: Your from Australia, right?

Andrew Hansen: Right.

Mark Mason: What in the heck is vegemite? Because in Texas we don’t know about vegemite. Can you just tell me what that is exactly?

Andrew Hansen: You don’t have vegemite?

Mark Mason: No. We don’t have vegemite and I don’t know what vegemite is.

Andrew Hansen: You don’t know what vegemite is?

Mark Mason: I’ve never seen it. I don’t know what it is and I figured now is my chance.

Andrew Hansen: Here you go. Are you ready? If I give you this description it will sound disgusting, but in fact it’s delicious. It is yeast extract. Now, how that is obtained, I have no idea. But, it’s like a black paste.

You can imagine like peanut butter, but black. So, it looks disgusting as well. But, it’s mega-salty. It’s a very sharp taste, sharp on your tongue, very salty. But, it’s a spread that you put on bread, toasts, and everything like that. It’s actually really tasty.

I didn’t know until I moved that it was really only in Australia and New Zealand, and a southern world thing. We haven’t had any since we left Australia, and we often regret that. So, that’s what vegemite is.

Mark Mason: Very good. Well, now I can rest easy. I appreciate that. So, you’re in Canada now, is that correct? And you can’t find it there?

Andrew Hansen: Canada, yes. Funny story, actually. My mum had sent me a birthday present earlier in the year, and she somehow had researched some things that we wouldn’t have had for a long time having been over here. She sent me in the mail these little vials of vegemite.

Mark Mason: That’s excellent. Very good. I’m glad to know that. You know, I’m a scuba diver, and I’ve wanted to dive The Great Barrier Reef, so now I can add vegemite and diving to that trip. That will be good.

Andrew Hansen: Just not at the same time. That might be weird.

Mark Mason: That’s true. So, the question for you, sir, is if you were talking to a new internet marketer, which I guess actually you do all the time, or if you had it to do all over again, what are the three things that you think somebody needs to know about internet marketing to be successful, or shorten the amount of time that it takes to be successful, or to avoid traps, or whatever. What are the three things you want to tell new people that are new to internet marketing?

Andrew Hansen: It’s actually a really difficult question, but it’s a good one, a very important. I don’t know whether I’ll have three things, or whether we’ll just kind of talk about a bunch of things in this time, but I can give you some of my thoughts.

The first thing that I think new people really need to know about is before they get into strategies and specific questions about you actually make the money, I think it’s important to just have an understanding of the industry that you’re getting into. I mean if you’re a new person starting out, and I’m sure you started out and I started out this way as well, you start looking into the different ways to make money online.

One of the first things that you realize is that there are so many of them. There’s as many ways to make money online as there is people trying to make money online, or at least people selling how to make money online.

So, that in itself poses, not a problem, but it’s like an initial barrier to people who are trying to get started, because one of the first things that you have to do is try to sift the enormous amount of information and try to find something that makes sense to you and something that seems like you can implement it.

Not only that, not only the amount of information, but the nature of the information that trains people how to make money on the internet is, as I know and you know, of varying levels of quality and varying levels of clarity in terms of how well they lay out the steps that you need to take. It’s so easy to waste your money, and it’s so easy to fail purely for that reason alone.

To have an understanding, like if you could somehow have foresight at that point starting out, the things that you’re looking at, the sales letters that you’re looking at and the products you’re buying are part of such an enormous, for lack of a better word, pile of information, strategies, tools, and offers trying to get you to spend more money and more money.

It’s a crazy world. That may be the first thing that I would talk about.

Mark Mason: It is a crazy world, there are 1,000 or hundreds of thousands of sales letters out there of different things you can buy. You’re right, some of them are just not very good quality. They’re well intentioned, but not good quality.

Andrew Hansen: Some of them aren’t well intentioned.

Mark Mason: Right. They’re not well intentioned, they’re actually kind of scam type things. What do you advise someone to do about this? Do you advise them to pick someone to follow, or focus their efforts, or do you just warn them?

Andrew Hansen: Yes, a bit of all of the above perhaps. I think one thing [inaudible] to the way I got started that was very helpful, and I know you did the same, was to start out when you start the search for information is to rather than jumping from kind of sales letter to sales letter and learning through the things that you read there, is to become involved in a community.

The Warrior Forum is a great one for people getting started, where you see a little more of the content and a little less of the offers, at least slightly. It’s the kind of place where there’s a bunch of people that are on the same mission that you are, and they’re looking at the same products that you are, and they can advise for or against a particular product, depending on your skill level.

They’re a group of people who definitely have been at the game longer than you have, so they will have made some of the mistakes that you are likely to make. So, you can learn from their experience. Learning from other people’s experience in that way is often a lot better than learning from your own experience, because when you have to go out and make every single mistake yourself, it becomes extremely disheartening.

It’s hard, you need a lot of will to carry on if you’re taking that way. Learning from other people’s experience cuts down the amount of time that you have to spend on everything. So, yes, joining a community is one excellent way to kind of fast track the process.

Mark Mason: Very good. That sounds like outstanding advice to me. How about thing two? What’s the second thing that you might advise someone that was new to internet marketing?

Andrew Hansen: The second thing that I had in mind when you first asked me, and some people listening may find it frustrating to hear, but it’s another sort of a mindset issue. Again, this is really difficult to do, and it’s very rare that people just getting started are able, even if they want to, to take on this mindset.

That is to just approach online business in two ways. Both as a long term venture, and something that you are building gradually and slowly, and that you want to have making you money, not just in the next 3 months, but in the next 3 years.

Then starting from that frame of mind, again is difficult, because all of the offers and all of the material that you read is always promising you that you’re going to be able to make X amount of money, “In the next 3 days you’ll have this stream of income coming next week, and then it will skyrocket from there and suddenly you’ll have an ocean front mansion and a Ferrari just like in the picture.”

It doesn’t take long for most people to realize that it doesn’t really work that way. Nor should you want it to work that way, because a general rule that I have is that the faster money comes to you, the faster it can leave you. You might be able to make 1,000 dollars by next week, but whatever may have brought you that money is almost always such that it can disappear just as fast as it came.

So, approaching it from the mindset of wanting to setup a real business is maybe the smartest thing that you can do. Again, it’s difficult, but if you do it you’ll beat many people.

Mark Mason: That’s excellent advice. I sometimes get these heartbreaking emails from readers of my blog, or people that stumble through my blog telling me how their credit cards are maxed out and they’re about to lose their house and they need to make 10,000 dollars tomorrow. There’s just not a lot you can tell those people, really.

Andrew Hansen: I know what you mean. I have the same emails. You’re right, what do you say to them? The truest thing to say to them is that you don’t need internet marketing right now, you need a loan or you need a job or something. If someone was in that situation, would you advise them to start a real business? Would you tell them to start up a Subway franchise and see if you can make money that way? Of course not. They shouldn’t be looking for a business. They should be looking to secure their financial situation first.

Mark Mason: That’s right. Okay. That’s excellent advise, number two. So, do you have a third one for me tonight?

Andrew Hansen: Yes. It’s hard to select a third one actually.

Mark Mason: Well, you’re allowed four. If it’s really coming down to that kind of thing, we’ll give you a fourth one.

Andrew Hansen: Sure. All right. The next thing, and this one is kind of related to your approach also in the pre-strategy stage, I would say. That is because like we’ve been saying, there are so many different methods to being able to make money, the thing is that actually there is also so many working methods.

There’s many ways to skin the cat. There’s a lot of ways that in the midst of all the ones that don’t work, there’s still a lot of ways that do work. What makes one method right for one person doesn’t depend on the method, but it depends on the individual.

For example, if you pick any given person off the street, that person would have preexisting knowledge, and preexisting skills, preexisting likes and dislikes. So, they would be better suited to one business model rather than another.

For example, you might really like writing, like me, I’m someone who really likes to write. So, writing comes easy to me. It’s never a rigorous process, I never begrudgingly start to write an article, because I enjoy it. So, I use that to my advantage by focusing on business models that utilize the skills and the things that I enjoy, and that I already have.

That’s how I got started out. I got started first just writing for other people. That allowed me to be able to make money from home. It wasn’t really a business, but I was able to make money from that. Then slowly as I learned more about actually making money with a proper business online, I was able to use those writing skills to leverage into content for blogs and for mini sites. Then to use the traffic generated from those to promote affiliate programs, and earn commissions and things like that.

The point after that discussion was try to find the method, and firstly, try to stick to one method, because the worst thing that you can do is get started with one method, see another method or offer tomorrow in passing and kind of hop over to that method and do a little bit of work there, and realize that it’s not really for you, so hop onto another method, and then maybe later come back to that first method, because you realized it might be more profitable after all.

That’s the worst thing you can do. That’s opportunity hopping, like I call it, and it’s almost always going to lead to failure. So, the first thing is to stick to one method at least until you get to the point that you realize you can’t do it, because it’s just not fitting with you, you’re not good at doing things that way, you don’t have the resources or the time, or whatever else to perform that particular method.

The second thing is when you are sticking to one method, make it one method that fits with the skills and the things that you like that you already have. So, if you like writing, blogging should be easy for you. You might find it easier to maintain a blog than to sell products. You could blog and to sell advertising on that blog, as opposed to doing all the research and the analytics and tracking and testing that comes with say making money with PPC.

That would be the third thing, stick to one method, and try to stick one method that fits with the things that you already are good at and enjoy doing.

Mark Mason: That’s a great tip. You know, I hear a lot of people, and I’m one of them, tell people to beware of getting distracted by what I call bright shiny objects. Every new email that comes into your inbox is trying to sell you a new method, you need to watch out for that.

But, I think you may be the first person I’ve heard who has really expressed this in this way, where you should take advantage of the skills that you have and try to get a match between what you’re good at and what the method teaches, so that you can leverage the assets you already have. That’s an excellent tip. I appreciate that.

Andrew Hansen: Absolutely. Part of it is that you only, and this is kind of unfortunate, but inevitable, that you will only really start to find what you really enjoy doing online and what you are really good at after a little bit of messing around. So, maybe one of the other side note points of the three is just be willing to kind of experiment a little bit with it, and be willing to lose a little bit of money if you absolutely have to.

Take your time and find out what it is you’re good at, because even if you take that little bit of time at the start and you start focusing on a method that you are really good at and that you do really enjoy, the dividends of that will pay down the track, both in terms of how much time it will save you and how much money it will make you, will be well worth the amount of time that you may waste in the beginning.

Mark Mason: Excellent. Did you have one more that you wanted to throw in here, because I’ve got time for you if you’d like one more?

Andrew Hansen: I think I will, actually, because we didn’t really get to talk much about strategy. So, I thought I might throw one little strategy point in there. It’s really hard to pick one strategy point out of everything that you could possibly say that would cover every kind of method and every kind of person who would be looking to start to make money online.

But, the thing that I thought of, and it’s such a recurring theme, and such a recurring thing that I see as the reason for people not achieving the results that they want to with their online business. That is firstly, whatever method or many methods that you will start to make money online with begin with finding a market. Whether it’s a market being an interest group to which you want to write a blog for, or whether it’s a market that you’re going to sell a product to, or it’s a market that you’re going to sell advertising to, whatever it is, many methods start with a niche or finding a market.

Different people have different definitions of what a market or what a niche on the internet really is. If you’re listening to this call, you probably will have already, or will in the future, come across the methods for locating markets on the internet. Like using the search analytics tools to see how many people are searching for a particular term.

A lot of people think, and it’s easy to fall into this trap of thinking, that things like somebody searching for a term is a market or is a profitable market. But, there’s a big difference between searches and buyers. If you want to make money from your online business, if you’re not just doing it for fun or because you enjoy it, you want to make money from it, you need to be in a niche where people are spending money. You need to be in a niche not just where you think people might spend money, but where people are already spending money.

Seeing the term, I don’t know whatever it is, Dragon Ball Z cards, for example, gets searched for 100,000 times, that doesn’t mean you’ve got 100,000 people who could potentially buy from you in that group, because that’s such a niche of kids and people who aren’t necessarily spending a ton of money. It doesn’t mean you’ve got 100,000 buyers. You might only have 1,000 buyers, if you’re lucky, maybe 100 buyers more likely.

Conversely, there’s markets where if you look at something like weight loss. People are spending money in that market. It’s an enormous market, not just on the internet, but offline as well. It’s a market where you know people are spending money. I’m not necessarily advocating that you get into the weight loss market, it’s extremely competitive, but I’m providing that as an example of a market where you are certain that people are already spending money.

So, your goal then, almost regardless of what method it is that you’re using, is to try to access and try to put yourself between the transactions that are already taking place and put yourself in the midst of the transactions that are already taking place. By doing that, you’re giving yourself a really increased percentage chance of being able to actually claim some of that cash that’s already changing hands.

Starting with a niche of buyers is my fourth, final, and only strategy tip.

Mark Mason: I know it’s amazing to me that people miss this, but I think you cover it pretty well in some of the materials that you’ve published over the years. There’s a lot of really simple things you can think about. One of the things that you teach is just the keyword modifier, “buy.”

There’s a hell of a lot of difference between the keyword “buy dog food recipes” and “dog food recipes.” One person is looking for a free recipe for dog food, and the other person is looking for a dog food recipe cookbook.

Andrew Hansen: Absolutely.

Mark Mason: There’s just a huge difference.

Andrew Hansen: One person has got their wallet in their hand as they type. They’ve got their credit card there and they’re looking to make sure they know all the different numbers so they’re ready to type it in when they find what it is that they want.

Whereas the other group, you can’t tell what they want. Some of them may be looking to buy, but some of them might be looking for a freebie, some of them might be looking for something they can print off and give to their friends. You don’t know. So, the group that’s got their credit card ready, and it’s a no brainer about which one you want to target.

Mark Mason: Very good. This has been incredibly helpful. There are a couple of other questions I wanted to ask you.

Andrew Hansen: Sure.

Mark Mason: I know that you’ve been very gracious and not actually talking about your own products, but they’re so good I want to talk about them. The first thing I want to talk about and want to point people to is one of my favorite ebooks that you’ve released, and it’s free, that’s really great, and I’ve actually sent my readers to it, because I really like it. That’s your Crap Cutter Marketing ebook. Can you give people kind of the 30 second lowdown about what they can expect in that ebook, and let them where to find it, and I’ll also put the URL in the show notes.

Andrew Hansen: Sure. Some of the things that I wrote about in Crap Cutter Marketing is the same as what we’ve talked about on this call. In part it’s about locating niche markets of buyers, locating groups of people that are looking to spend money and talking about strategies for putting yourself, your content, your website, or your offers in front of those people.

It’s talking about how to do that in a way that creates as little work for you as possible. There’s obviously work involved, but it’s try to make that as easy as possible for you. It also tries to do that without you having to spend a ton of money. So, it focuses on free traffic strategies. It looks at then leveraging that free traffic by promoting offers as an affiliate and using advertising revenue and using content, or things that you write, as the platform for selling stuff online.

There’s a ton of stuff in that report. A lot on mindset things, to finding niches, to monetizing your content, to generating traffic. It’s a really good free report, and it’s had a lot of good feedback. You can’t argue with free. There’s no cheesy up sell and you don’t have to spend any money in the process. It’s a good one to check out.

Mark Mason: Tell me the URL again.

Andrew Hansen: That’s CrapCutterMarketing.com.

Mark Mason: Have you gotten any negative feedback from people who are offended by the use of the word crap?

Andrew Hansen: No, I haven’t actually. Not as much as people offended by the use of the word crack in a previous report.

Mark Mason: Niche Marketing on Crack was another great one. I told you, that’s one of the first things I bought, so that’s good stuff.

The other thing I wanted to talk about briefly, because it’s your premiere product and I’ve written a lot about it on my blog, is Firepow. I was wondering if you could just give us the 30 second summary of what the Firepow system is, and give us some look into the future about Firepow and give me some breaking news here? Tell me what you’ve got planned over there.

Andrew Hansen: Sure. Firepow is kind of like a combination of all the intelligent things I’ve learned about making money online in the 5 or 6 years that I’ve been doing this. It’s a piece of software primarily, but it’s also kind of a suite of software tools, as well as a lot of training materials, like PDFs and videos, that focus on how to create blogs and use those blogs for the purposes of making money as an affiliate.

There’s other forms of monetization as well. The blog is for the purpose of generating really high quality, target, buying traffic that then you can push towards affiliate offers to earn commissions or to advertising on your site to earn Adsense clicks, or to your own products if you sell something somewhere else on the internet.

It’s a suite of tools that helps you to automate as much as possible that entire process. It helps you set up a blog in a matter of 10 clicks or something like that. There’s no HTML to write, there’s FTP programs to fiddle around with, there’s no uploading or downloading. You just fill in the forms and follow the instructions and it will spit you out a nice looking blog that’s not just a normal blog, but a blog that’s optimized to generate traffic for you from the search engines. So, it’s targeted to the right keywords that you’re looking to rank for.

It’s got proper permalinks. It’s got all the plugins and all the little settings that normally you have to learn how to set yourself or the add-ons that you have to work out. It’s got them all set in there for you, so you just click the buttons and you spits you out the blog.

It takes you right from that part of the process, creating your blog, to the generation of your content, which is the next thing that’s enormously important for anyone looking to generate free traffic. You need content. You need stuff to attract visitors that you can then monetize.

It helps you generate content both with ideas and with physically finding content for you on the internet that’s already out there that’s not being utilized as well as it might be that’s targeted to the terms that you’re looking to rank for. So, it helps you leverage other people’s content. Not in any illegal way, of course, just by grabbing content from syndicated sources from elsewhere on the internet.

Right through to the process of actually promoting your blog and being able to generate traffic to it, both through search engines and through social bookmarking sites, through directories, through other people’s private blogs, and building backlinks and generating exposure in as many places as possible to your blogs.

It’s kind of the whole enchilada from the creation of your blog to the cashing of your checks is what I always say. It’s automating that process as much as possible.

In terms of future plans, we’re really just trying to add new features or new tools all the time to optimize that and to automate it more for you. For example, we’ve got a feature coming out next week that’s for people who want to make Adsense sites.

We don’t have time to discuss that model, obviously, but it’s just creating content that gets ranked in the search engines that you position Adsense ads in, when people click those ads you make money. With this new tool, it will be in addition to something that we already have, but that lets you basically create a full Adsense blog that gets updated every couple days, however often you select, with content that’s targeted to the right keywords, that’s relevant and unique as much as possible, and automatically monetizing that for you.

So, you can create Adsense within, again, a number of clicks. You could create an Adsense site on any niche that you choose as long as you’ve got a keyword list that you’ve already researched within 5 minutes or so. So, that’s something we’re working on at the moment.

Mark Mason: Now, where can people find out more information about Firepow?

Andrew Hansen: You can checkout GetFirepow.com.

Mark Mason: That is excellent, sir. I appreciate all the tips, and I’m excited to give people an opportunity to hear about your products, because in both cases those two products are products that I’ve personally endorsed and have done so based on just the raw quality of both of them. I’m happy to give you that time to talk about that.

I do have one last question for you. I know you’re an accomplished affiliate marketer, you’ve sold all kinds of crazy things, which we don’t have time to go through them all here today, but now the question I have for you is, are you aware of any affiliate programs for vegemite?

Andrew Hansen: A vegemite affiliate program. You know, I’m sure there probably is one. You might have to sign up to some kind of online store, some Australian grocery store online. I don’t think it will pay out very high, because it’s a physical glass bottle with stuff in it.

After they ship it to you it will cost you 3.75, you might earn a 10 cent commission per jar of vegemite sold. I don’t know too many people that order it in quantities large enough to generate a huge commission. But, if you pioneer it, I’ll stand behind you.

Mark Mason: Okay, very good. Listen, Andrew, I really appreciate your time. The last question I have for you is, if people just want to follow the teachings of Andrew Hansen, where is the best place to follow you online?

Andrew Hansen: Sure. You can check out my blog, that’s at AndrewHansen.name, or you can follow me on Twitter as well, and that’s @AndrewHansen1.

Mark Mason: Very good. I’ll have both of those in the show notes. Andrew, thank you very much. I’m going to get some sleep. It’s creeping up on 2:00 in the morning here in Dallas, and it’s 3:00 in the morning there. I appreciate your time, and I hope you have a fantastic day.

Andrew Hansen: My please, sir. Thank you for having me.

Mark Mason: Thank you very much.

Thanks for listening to the Mason World Late Night Internet Marketing Podcast. For more information about this program, and to get the show notes, be sure to visit our website at MasonWorld.com/podcast. Follow @MasonWorld on Twitter.

Have you got a question or comment for Mark? Let us know by leaving us a voicemail on our digital recording line at 214-444-8655. We may use your message on a future episode of the Mason World Late Night Internet Marketing Podcast.

Did you like our podcast? Help us out by telling your friends and leaving your review on iTunes by going to MasonWorld.com/iTunes.

Finally, always remember that all business involves risk. Internet business is no exception. Your ability to make money with the concepts discussed in this program and on MasonWorld.com depends on many things, including your effort and capability. Since these factors according to individuals, we cannot guarantee your success or income level, and we are not responsible for any of your actions.

Thanks again for listening to the Mason World Late Night Internet Marketing Podcast, building internet businesses one night at a time. Have a great day.

Hey --

I'll keep this short.

My friend Andrew Hansen of Firepow fame has just released a report that you need to read.  It is called Crap Cutter Marketing.  The report is completely free.  He does ask for your email address -- but don't worry.  I promise you that you will love getting email from him.  And, if you don't, you can just opt out.

Either way, you need to read this report.

There is no affiliate program.  I do not get compensated an any way. There is no sneaky business.  There is no super secret one time offer on the back end.  Nothing.  Trust me -- just go download the report.  I am recommending it because I wish I had written it myself.  Plain and simple.

Actually -- there are some free bonus videos available if you tell 3 friends.  If you don't like that idea, no big deal.  Andrew is just trying to get the word out.  However, I think that you are going to want to tell people about it when you read it.

If you've been ripped off and bought so many fluff filled reports and courses and audios, and DVD's on how to make money online, you need to read this.

Even if you are making some money online you need to read this.

Just go download it and tell me what you think.  Comments are welcome.

You're going to love it.

Regards,
Mark

Note -- you may notice that I have a special link.  Andrew is tracking stats and testing graphics.  But there is no affiliate program.

OK -- I got the most interesting email request yesterday.

There is a new application on Facebook called TextToChat.  What is does is allow people that can see your Facebook profile the ability to "chat" with you via cell phone text messaging.  The person contacting you from Facebook sees a web-based chat application, and you communicate with them via text message.

Curious about the app, I installed it.  Now, let me tell you up front that it costs $6/month -- more on that later.  I tested it briefly.  Unfortunately, it did not work for me.  I could receive texts, but not reply to them from my phone.  Bummer -- because it was actually pretty neat.  I think it is a pretty cool idea for an application.

Because of the fact that it did not work for me, I am not promoting the application.  In fact, I canceled it.  Of course, the application is new, and I am sure that the problem is either on my end, or it will be fixed soon.

But, you might like it.  If you do, you can join through the guy that referred me.

Here Is The Rub

There is a multi-level affiliate program attached to the program.  Each person that you refer gets you $2 of the $6 fee.  On top of that, you get $0.25 for each referral they make -- all the way down to level 8!.

The application is being marketed as a way to make money -- not really as a cool application that improves Facebook.  It is very interesting, and you can see the video here.  (Careful - if you join, I the guy I mentioned above gets $2). Note that I know that guy (he seems like a nice guy and often comments here), but I am not affiliated with him or TextToChat in any way.

Now this MLM approach has some people pretty upset.  I am not really weighing in on the appropriateness of this here, but some people are.

I'd like to hear what you think?  Is this sort of promotion good or bad for Facebook?

OK -- here is the coolest marketing creative material I have seen in a while.  The below flash game allows you to "shoot the guru" in an arcade-style game format.  Sorry about the violence.

At the end of the game, you get a link to a sales page.  I don't know anything about the product (I'd love to hear about it if you know something about it).  However, I think this is an amazingly cool marketing strategy.

Note that there is an affiliate program behind it. If you buy the product, the person who displayed the game gets a commission. I don't know anything about the product, and I do not endorse it. I do endorse the viral marketing approach. (If you are interested in the affiliate program, the link is at the bottom of the sales page.)

What do you think about this clever approach? Any idea what something like this costs to develop?

Regards,
Mark

I have been working on the release of a new eBook using Jonathan Legers $7 Secrets approach, and in doing that work, I ran across this checklist for eBook creation.  I am publishing it here.  I hope you enjoy it.

Checklist: How to Create & Sell your Own eBooks

Is the thought of selling your own product intriguing but also overwhelming at the same time? Here is a checklist to get you started.

1. Research your target market & come up with an idea for your product.

I could go into great detail on this step, but I’ll make it short and sweet. The following three criteria must be met. Choose a topic where…

• People are looking for information.
• They are willing to spend money on that information.
• You, personally, are at least moderately interested and knowledgeable about this topic.

Although the third point is optional, I recommend it if you are going to stay interested and motivated to promote your ebooks for months and years to come. You have the option of choosing something you love or something that is popular. Make work fun by choosing a market that you enjoy.

Here are some ideas for you…

• Weight Loss and Dieting
• Health (or fixing health problems)
• Fitness and Exercise (lifting things that are drooping and tightening things that are sagging)
• Looking good (reversing aging, removing hair, keeping hair, etc.)
• Relationships (finding then, keeping them, getting over them)
• Making Money (online or offline, small business, finding jobs, etc)
• Saving Money
• Parenting problems/concerns

2. Purchase a Domain name.

Important things to keep in mind when choosing a URL are:

• Make it memorable.
• Make it short.
• No numbers or dashes.
• Easy to spell.
• Descriptive of your product.
• It should end in a .com (not a .net, .org, or .biz – unless you have a darned good reason to do so)

Also, if this is going to be your main site, be sure to buy any similar domains to protect your branding.

You can buy your domain names anywhere, but I recommend: www.GoDaddy.com or www.NameCheap.com.

3. Purchase Hosting.

I recommend ServInt for many reasons, including:

• Excellent customer service.
• Reliable uptime.

4. Load autoresponder/set up squeeze page while developing product.

The best autoresponder, in my opinion, is this one.

This autoresponder will manage multiple ecourses and lists, including your customers and affiliates. It will grow with your business.

If you don’t have a squeeze page, you can start with one at www.MostlySanePLR.com

By setting up your squeeze page first, you can start to develop a list of people interested in your topic. That will help you later when you launch – you'll have an instant boost for your new product.

5. Develop product.

Don’t know how? Here are some options…

If you can write 7-15 pages on your topic, I recommend that you grab the free report on this page - www.SmallReportsFortune.com

Take a shortcut by buying Resale Rights products. You can find some here:

www.srzone.com/rights.html

www.FullTimeWAHM.com (includes resale rights)

www.BeginnerCoach.com (also includes resale rights)

http://easyplr.com/resale.htm (great reports with rights)

OR

Start with PLR content. Here are some places to look…

www.EasyPLR.com

www.JustPLRcontent.com

www.easyplr.com/bestplr.htm

OR

Record an interview with an expert, have it transcribed and sell it. It's really easy if you use www.audioacrobat.com

OR

Hire a ghostwriter to create a custom product for you.

6. Order graphics or create them yourself.

You’ll need, at the bare minimum, an ecover for your product and at least one banner and button to promote it. A professional header or mini-site design can also convey a professional image.

7. Create sales page.

This is a highly important piece.

For best results, unless you have studied copywriting, I recommend that you hire a skilled writer to draft it for you.

You can find skilled writers at elance.com or www.Shelancers.com

8. Create thank you/download page.

Your download page should contain a few basic pieces:

• Who you are
• How to contact you
• Download instructions
• Download links (of course)
• What company name will show up on their paypal statement or credit card statement.
• Any bonuses they were promised and how to claim them.

9. Load the sales page, thank you page, & product to site.

If you’ve never done this before, you can either outsource the task or use a free program like www.smartftp.com

10. Decide on payment processor. (Figure out how you’re getting paid.)

Here are some popular options to choose from:

• Clickbank - click here for info (Very easy to use and popular for that reason.)
• Paydotcom - click here for info
• E-junkies - click here for info
• 1ShoppingCart - click here for info (Much more control & room for growth. More hands-on.)
• WAHMCart - click here for info (Similar to 1ShoppingCart, but more affordable.)

If all of those options sound overwhelming right now, then a simple paypal button will work just fine for now.

11. Once the pages are loaded, notify your lists. (Tell your friends.)
Contact the following people about the product:

• Your leads lists.
• Your customer lists.
• Your JV partners

If you don’t have lists, don’t panic. Just move ahead to the next step. Although... I do recommend that you read the free report at www.ListProfitSystem.com to learn more about list marketing.

12. Create affiliate tools and notify your affiliates. (Get your Sales Army on the March.)

If you have affiliates, TELL them about your new product and let them promote it for you. Why not have your team of affiliates promoting it for you?

Recommendation: Sign up for the free ecourse at www.SalesArmySecrets.com right away if your affiliate program needs serious help.

The very basic tools that you’ll need are…

1. Banners & buttons
2. Articles
3. Solo ads
4. Text ads

But, of course, there are many more tools that you’ll wish to offer. Just get started with these.

13. Continue promoting your new product. (Market the heck out of it.)

Don’t forget to promote the report like you would any of your other products.

• article marketing
• pay per click
• ezine ads
• forum marketing
• SEO
• web 2.0/social networking

And anything else that you’d normally do to sell your products.

You can certainly outsource many of these activities and/or train your affiliates to do them for you!

14. Start researching your next product. (Rinse and Repeat.)

Go back to #1 and do it all over again.

Does this sound like an insurmountable task? Don’t panic. I recommend that you check out www.OutsourceWeekly.com for a step-by-step course that will show you how to easily and effectively outsource many of these tasks – and increase your income in the process.

Man, did I get a bad case of something this week. I woke up Sunday morning feeling like I had been hit by a truck -- but it was more likely a virus. I got some well wishes via twitter, so for those of you that were rooting for me, thanks!

It was a crazy week last week. The hurricane (IKE) missed Dallas for the most part, but hit my parents in Houston. They are without power, and will be for several weeks. I have also noticed that many internet marketers from the Houston area (and there are a lot of them) are off the air. Their sites are up, but the pages are sparse and their lists are quiet.

Build Business Systems Into Your Business

Still, this reminds me about one of the important things about internet marketing. Internet business gives you the freedom to build income around automated systems that still operate when you are not around. If you have read The Four Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss, you know exactly what I mean.

In my case, I was away from MasonWorld.com for a couple of days, but readers kept stopping in. People kept opting into my list, and the many people on my list got automated messages that I had preloaded months ago with helpful information that was "evergreen."

My information products (like Niche Adsense Themes for WordPress) continued to make sales. Since the payment and delivery is automatic, this all runs on autopilot. AdSense clicks kept coming, and so did other affiliate program clicks (including eBay).

So, my adivce to internet marketers is to avoid creating businesses that "require" you to be there.  If you are selling a product that requires shipping, automate the order process.  If you are doing consulting, consider creating an digital information product instead.  If your business depends on you to generate content every day, look for trusted people for outsourcing.

In general, you need to look for ways to take youself out of the daily equation.  This allows you to grow your business way beyond what you can do alone, and it allows you to possibly sell it some day.  Who know, you might even find time to get off the computer and spend an hour with your kids.

Several weeks ago I did a review of the Internet Business Mastery Academy and highly recommended new membership site. At that time I mentioned how excited I was about the quality of the content and offered there. I also noted when I wrote that first post that at that time there was no affiliate program (yet).   That is still true -- so you can relax.   I am not trying to sell you anything.  At the time of this writing, I am not making a dime from this post (although I expect there will be an affiliate program later this year, and I definately plan to promote the site).

Lots Of Cool Features

The Academy has several main features. There is a robust members only forum, course content, and a very cool "Rolodex" feature that helps people find recommended solutions and services. The latter feature is sort of like a cross between "Angie's List" and a How-To Guide. You sort of have to see it to appreciate how cool it is.

Anyway, the course material is being added and created over time. There are currently five complete courses available, with the first part of the six course coming starting this week. I thought it would be cool to review the first course here to give you a feel for the flavor of the material inside of Internet Business Mastery Academy. (I am also going to spill the beans about some of the key parts of the course here -- I hope that Sterling and Jay don't kick me out).

Money Ain't Everything

As I have mentioned before, Sterling and Jay are about more than just making money on the internet. They worry about things like lifestyle choices, definite major purpose and fulfillment. Their basic premise is that if you are working on something "just for the money" that you don't really care about doing stuff you don't really like to do, you will not be successful. When they say "successful" they are talking about having the lifestyle of your dreams (money and time to spend it) while enjoying what you do (passion).

Course 1 is all about the foundations and mindsets that that you need to have to be successful in any business (especially a internet entrepreneurship). The course is rich and includes ten audio files as well and some additional supporting material. Some key points from the course are (the following is a summary of content blatantly stolen from Sterling and Jay without permission):    

• Why internet business? What is it about internet business that should make you consider starting your own? There are three pillars to a successful internet business, and Jay and Sterling cover them in some detail. They also outline a road map for internet business success. While the content is too much to repeat here, I can tell you that my favorite recommendation is "take massive action."
• While there are many ways to make money on the internet, information marketing is an important one due to several critical objective business considerations. Sterling and Jay cover the value of information and why selling information can be the ideal internet business.
• Success means being a lifetime learner. The most successful people at the top of their game never stop learning. This is similar to what Covey teaches when he encourages people to "sharpen the saw."
• If you plan to make money and live the lifestyle of your dreams, you may need to reset your thinking about time and money. Your time has value, and you need to recognize that. Some of your preconceptions about time and money may be holding you back. Sterling and Jay discuss how to recognize and deal with that.
• Everyone has fears (sometimes they do not even realize that they have fears). If fears are stopping your from starting your internet business (true in many cases) you need a framework for rationalizing and analyzing those fears. Don't let fears stop you -- most things that you are worried about are not a big deal.

Bottom Line:  Highly Recommended

There is a lot more where that came from -- I am just scratching the surface. The bottom line is that a month into the Academy, I am still a big believer in both the message and the messengers. I strongly recommend Internet Business Mastery Academy and encourage you to join today.

Got a question about Internet Business Mastery Academy? Want an honest answer?  Drop a comment with your question and  I'll give you straight answer.

I am totally excited.

I am very excited about the recent launch (July 23, 2008) of the Internet Business Mastery Academy membership site.  So excited, in fact, that I decided to spend my hard-earned money on a membership.  I have been a member for almost two weeks (as far as I can tell I am one of hundreds), and I could not be more pleased.  So, I thought I would tell you about it and offer a review based on my current experience inside the hallowed halls of the Academy.

Here is something that you need to understand first. At the time of this writing, there is no affiliate program for the Internet Business Mastery Academy (IBMA).  I am not making a dime writing this post.  In fact, the IBMA site will not have an affiliate program for months, I'm told.  Sure, when they add an affiliate program, I will edit this post to include my affiliate link -- but at the time of this writing there is no marketing hype.  Just info.

So Why Promote The IBM Academy Now?

I have talked to you before about the Internet Business Mastery podcast.  As you may have heard on CNN, I am currently the World Record holder for "IBM Podcast Rate of Consumption" -- I once listened to 30 episodes twice in 48 hours (or something like that) while traveling around Asia.  Needless to say, Jay and Sterling are by far my favorite internet marketing podcast.

It's not just me. I recently learned that the IBM podcast has in the neighborhood of 15,000 subscribers and climbing.  It has been the number one internet marketing podcast on iTunes for years.  These guys are the real deal.  Jay and Sterling both had real J.O.B.s before leaving them to pursue their dreams on the internet.  They have both had multiple successful internet businesses (and some failures too).

It's Not The Money, Honey

See, the great thing about the Internet Business Mastery approach is that it is more about lifestyle design than making money online.  There are tons of internet resources offering lots of ways to make money online from a hammock on a beach.  Don't get me wrong -- money is a critical necessary element.  It's just that money for money's sake is not what the IBM crew is about.  Jay and Sterling are about lifestyle design -- living the lifestyle of your dreams and using internet business as a tool to get there.  Their tagline is "Escape the 9 to 5" -- and the Academy is designed to be a place where you can learn to do just that.

So, What About This Academy Thing?

The Internet Business Mastery Academy (IBMA) is a membership site that is currently centered around three key value propositions:

• The IBMA Internet Business Courses. Jay and Sterling have previously taught a sold-out coaching course on internet business and internet lifestyle.  They have taken that material, their personal experiences from running their own internet businesses, and material from their time doing the IBM podcast and made it all into a new set of courses for the academy.  At this writing there are 3 courses, with new material coming monthly.  The courses start at the very beginning with lifestyle design and justify why internet business is their focus.  Then, they move right to market research and other key foundational information.  From their, they cover all the information that you need to create a internet business that is aligned with your "Definate Major Purpose."
• The IBMA Mastermind Community. Good membership sites have great forums, and the IBMA forums are off to a great start.  There is a nice mix of brick-and-mortar business owners, regular people with regular jobs, people with online businesses, IBM Coaching Course grads, total newbies, seasoned internet marketing types, technology gurus, etc.  Jay and Sterling have set the tone for a helpful, supportive commuinty with shared goals.  It is really cool.
• Access to the Jedi Masters. OK -- it is probably true that Jay and Sterling put their pants on one leg at a time just like everyone else.  (I am actually not sure about this).  Still, they are very active in the forums at this point, and they are fun to be around.  What I like about them is that they do not pretend to know everything about everything.

My Strong Recommendation

Well, I am thrilled with the Internet Business Mastery Academy.  I strongly recommend that you give it a try.  Jay and Sterling are offering an iron clad money back guarentee, so there is no risk.   Courses like the stuff in the academy can cost thousands.  (Read their sales page -- it is excellent.)  Or, skip to the bottom and sign up based soley on my recommendation.  Try Internet Business Mastery Academy today.

building photo credit: eflon money photo credit: pfala

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

A few days ago, Garry Conn lost his mind and pulled all the ads from his blog. I am not sure what he was thinking, but apparently he got some survey feedback that led him to think that his readers would be better served without the ads.

Never forget what Mark Twain said:  "Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics."

I actually like Garry's ads because he screens them so heavily. In fact, he has pulled several "sleazy" ads in the past and actually refused to take people's money. That's right, people have actually sent Garry money and he has returned it because he thought the products being advertised would be harmful to his readers. To put it in Garry speak: "My Blog, My Rules."

So, now after rethinking his rash move to pull ads off his blog, Garry is reversing himself and planning on adding the ads back. He is worried about "Whoring out his blog," but adding the ads back is a smart move in my opinion. According to Garry:

GCDC scores over 50,000 unique visits per month, generates over 100,000 page views per month, has over 50% search engine traffic and over 75% of the people that visit his site daily are first time readers.

So, ads should be very high value with all that traffic. Here is the thing -- he is giving up premium space and they are pretty cheap. He is offering banners and links starting at $25 per month. Details are here: Advertise on Garry Conn Dot Comm. No, there is not an affiliate program.

Is Garry Conn an Internet Marketing Whore? What do you think?
photo credit: Daquella manera

It has been a little quiet here. As you know, I have been working on my first product, Niche Adsense Themes for WordPress, Volume 1.

I am still waiting on product approval from my digital product distribution partner (ClickBank) -- so I am not sure the full launch will happen today. ClickBank's approval can take up to a week in some cases, and to be honest with you, I did not give them enough time.

Since I promised you a June 30 launch, I installed some special software that I will be using until ClickBank is up and running. As I have mentioned before, I always do what I say I am going
to do (at least I always do my best).

This is your chance to get your hands on Niche Adsense Themes for WordPress before everyone else.

Here it is http://www.nicheadsensethemes.com/jvr3

By the way, if you are interested in promoting Niche Adsense Themes for WordPress, you can sign up here:

http://www.nicheadsensethemes.com/affiliates

Have a great day!

Regards,
Mark Mason

Hello all;

Well, I am finally launching my first product on June 30.  I have done a ton of research and testing and I have collaborated with a couple of super-secret underground adsense gurus to create 12 adsense-optimized wordpress themes, complete with niche graphics.  The adsense placement is based on research by a known (but secret) adsense guru and the graphics were made by another guru that makes his living off of adsense clicks.

I am really excited about this because I am going to be able to offer the 12 themes at a great price, and there is a fantastic affiliate program that will pay a 75% commission to affiliates.  The affiliate program ad associated promotional resources will be located at http://www.nicheadsensethemes.com/affiliates
-- probably by Monday June 23.

So, keep your eye on http://www.nicheadsensethemes.com for further information.  There is lots of work for me to do, so I will be a bit scarce for the next few days.

Best regards,
Mark

photo credit: Matthew Oliphant

The Beatles said it best - "The Best Things In Life Are Free." Of course, the hook to that song is "Give Me Money - That's What I Want." It's pretty clear to me that John, Paul, Ringo and George would have made a great Internet Marketing Team.

Many of you know that I have a 3 part strategy for my internet marketing business. I am building adsense mini-sites, thin affiliate sites using phpBay and popshops, and working on information products and list building.

Since internet marketing is a hobby for me, I have been trying to learn about information products without spending $1997 on an internet marketing information product that may or may not be great. Pretty funny -- I am trying to avoid buying the kind of product that I want to build. I may need professional help.

The Best Things In Life Are Not Free

In the last few days, I have come across two "free" products that are worth mentioning. I have put "free" in quotes because they both require opt-in emails. Make no mistake here -- the reason that these people are collecting your email is because they want your permission to market other products to you. So we are clear on that, right?

Also, if you use my links to click through to these products, I will get credit for referring you. If you buy something, I will get a commission. Note that I am actually not endorsing any of those paid products. They are probably great, but I have not reviewed them. The free porducts that I did personally spend time reviewing are great. My point is, I am not trying to sell you anything, but there is an affiliate program and I want to be crystal clear about that.

So we are clear on that too, right?

OK, great!

Excellent Free Video Course

The first thing that I want to tell you about is the free video course on mini-sites from Michael Rasumssen called Mini-Site Profits Exposed. Like everyone else, I got email bombed by everybody from Mike Filsame to Jimmy Carter on this one this week. I never know what to think about these huge launches, but I decided to take a look. All of these big money guys are "Moving The Free Line" and that means that there is some quality free stuff coming out these days.

I was interested in this because if I am going to be successful selling information products, I will need good mini-sites. This free video series comes in 12 parts, and is really great. The quality of production is surprisingly high. The video series provides an excellent introduction to mini-site design, structure and flow. There is a section on squeeze pages, sales copy and site automation. Michael covers affiliates, sales growth strategies and traffic. The amount of content in this free video course is amazing. I don't agree with absolutely everything in the series, but I am also not making the kind of money that Rasumssen is making.

Excellent Free Slacker Report

If you are wanting to get started in information products and you are bogged down trying to figure out where to start (we have all certainly been there) -- then I have a eBook for you. I got an email from James Jones promoting a "free" eBook called the Slacker Way that James co-authored with Terry Gibbs. I like James and his Micro Niche Finder product, so I decided to take a look.

In the eBook The Slacker Way, primary author Terry Gibbs discusses a collection of topics that information marketers need to know. He covers what it means to be a "slacker," how to get started with an information product, how to build a network of affiliates and JV partners, how to knock off your own products, how to use pseudonyms, PLR content, public domain content, and a host of other topics.

It's a good read and a nice free guide. If you are thinking about getting into information products, this is a good free resource.

Regards,
Mark
photo credit: Cane Rosso

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 hear a lot of debate in the internet marketing community about whether or not to cloak links. Usually, the discussion about cloaking links is motivated by discussions of commission theft and other issues. Often, the people that are talking to you about commission theft are also trying to sell you some link cloaking solution, and increased revenue by decreased commission theft is one selling point they use to separate you from your $47 (a $997 value, of course).

In my next post, I am going to tell you how to cloak links for free. In this post, will cover the basics of how and why to cloak your links.

What is Link Cloaking?

If you are new to internet marketing, you might not even know what link cloaking is. For the purpose of this article, link cloaking is any technique you use to link to something that obscures the real destination link. For example, I can link to my favorite search engine. As you can see, the link is to "http://www.masonworld.com/recommends/search" and lands you at "http://www.google.com." The link to Google is "cloaked." You don't know where you are headed until you click on it.

Why Cloak Links -- The Wrong Reasons

There are several reason that people use to cloak links that I think are just plain wrong. Here is my personal standard for stuff like this: If you don't want to see it on the front page of the New York Times, don't do it. What I mean by that, is that if you are not comfortable with lots of people knowing about what you are doing, you should listen to that little voice and walk away.  Internet marketing is already full of slimy scam artists -- no need to add to that.

Here are a few wrong reasons to cloak links:

• To hide the fact that you are getting paid for the referral. Look folks, if you recommend a product and get paid for that recommendation, you need to tell people. Failing to tell people that you get paid if they buy something is dishonest.
• To stuff cookies. Cookie stuffing is a trick beyond the scope of this article. If someone tries to sell you cookie stuffing software, run the other way.
• To mislead people about the destination link. If you are cloaking links to trick people into clicking, you are doing the wrong thing. Stop doing that.

Good Reasons To Cloak Links -- The Right Reasons

Because so many people cloak links for the wrong reasons, link cloaking gets a bad wrap. I think link cloaking is very important and ethical (I use it on my blog) if done in the right way and for the right reasons. These are the reasons that I cloak links:

• To count clicks. This is critical to any business. If you don't know what people are clicking on your site, you cannot grow your business effectively.  Marketing is about running experiments, testing and making adjustments.  (For example, see also my post on the impact of StumbleUpon on my stats).  If you cannot count your clicks, you cannot determine what is working (and what is not working).
• To manage affiliate programs. Some times, affiliate programs die, change links or change sites. If you have 30 direct links to an affiliate program out there and the program makes a change, you suddenly need to edit 30 links. However, if you are cloaking that link, you only need to change the destination link in one place!
• To make clear that you are getting paid for something. I use the word "recommends" in all my affiliate link URLs. In my disclosure page, I explain (in case it is not already obvious) that the word "recommends" in the URL usually means I get paid if people buy.
• If link cloaking has any impact on theft, I'll get that advantage too from cloaking. I don't think it does have much impact, but people argue that it does.

In most successful businesses, transparency is a critical key to success.

So, cloak your links -- but do it for the right reasons

Later this week, I will discuss how to do the cloaking ABSOLUTELY FREE.

Best regards,
Mark

When I first got started in Internet Marketing, I ran across a lot of discussion about "article marketing."  Article Marketing is often confused with "bum marketing," but they are not really the same thing.  It all seems so obvious to me now, but I remember having a hard time getting a clear description of article marketing. So, I'd like to offer you what I consider the key ideas behind article marketing. If you want to know more about article marketing, I am going to point you to my five favorite resources at the end (which are great, but not required to become an article marketing guru).

So, what is Article Marketing?

Article marketing refers to a traffic generation method that depends on submitting informative "articles" to sites called "article directories." These articles generally consist of an article body that has generally useful information, and an article resource box that contains links back to the author's site. This technique is sometimes mistakenly called "Bum Marketing."   Actually, as pointed out by Josh Spaulding, Article Marketing is one of the tools that Bum Marketers use (so named since it is so easy even a bum could do it.)

Good article directories have great traffic and strong Google page rank, so publishing your information there increases the chance that people will see and read what you have to say. Additionally, article directories allow people to copy and republish their articles, provided the article is unchanged and the resource box is preserved. This means that your article with your links could end up on multiple sites with lots of exposure.

There are literally hundreds of article directories, the most famous of which is eZineArticles. (As an example, you can see one of my articles about Viral Marketing.) The fact that there are hundreds of article directories opens up the possibility of submitting your article to many directories and multiplying your exposure. (There can be downsides to this, however, as we will discuss below).

Two Sources of Traffic

The beauty of article marketing is the possibility of two complementary sources of traffic. This is a key point that is often not understood. When you initially submit your articles, if they are well written, you should expect that they will be spread and read. If you write an effective resource box, those same readers will want more information and click the links in the box.

This simple idea generates immediate traffic to your site. Eventually, as the article ages, it may fall lower in the article directory as it gets buried by newer articles on the same topic. This usually means that click-through traffic from articles will fall off as a function of time. Sometimes articles go viral and the clicks keep coming, but this is not usually the case.

Not to worry. Now your article has spread around the net with links to your site at the bottom. Google sees these (correctly) as backlinks to your site. Done properly, these backlinks can help you rank for the pages that the links are pointing to. So, while your direct click-through traffic is falling off, your organic search engine traffic will increase. Pretty cool, eh?

A word about content and keywords

There are lots of things to think about when you are writing articles for article marketing. Most importantly, you need to have a keyword strategy for the content on your site and the content in your article. It may not make sense to directly compete with your own website, for example. Rather, you may want to choose keywords for your articles that complement the content on your site.

For example, if you have a site on "blue soap," you may want to write an article on "green soap" knowing that people interested in green soap will also be interested in blue soap. You need to think about this carefully.

Earlier, I mentioned that you could submit the same article to multiple directories. You can, and I do. But you need a strategy for that as well to balance the effectiveness of the submission against the impact of duplicate content. Google expects syndicated content to be duplicated, but there are still tradeoffs that need to be considered (beyond the scope of this brief article).

Article Marketing Resources

As promised, here are five resources that I actually use for article marketing. I have purchased these tools myself. Don't misunderstand me: you can be successful in article marketing without any tools. These are the tools that I personally use to improve the quality and productivity of my article marketing efforts.

• Article Marketing Domination. This is an excellent eBook by article marketing guru Josh Spaulding. This eBook covers all of the details that i have glossed over above, and is a complete reference. You can do article marketing without knowing all the details, but you will get lot better results if you have all the facts. Most things in life are like this.
• Article Post Robot. A tool for submitting articles to multiple sites. It is really tedious and boring to submit the same article to 50 article directories. Article Post Robot automated this process. This is not the most elegant tool on the planet, but it works very well for me on over 50 article directories (the software supports many more).
• Instant Article Wizard Pro. IAW Pro is an amazing tool for article research. I just learned about this tool this week, and have used it a few times with incredible results. Basically it searches the web for research on your keywords and mashes the pieces together in reasonable sounding paragraphs. Cuts article writing time down by a factor of ten or more in my experience. Even if you have no intention of buying this thing, you have got to see the video.
• Micro Niche Finder. One of the most important parts of Article Marketing (not really covered well in this article) is keyword selection. I use Micro Niche Finder for all my keyword research.
• Josh Spaulding. OK -- he is not a resource, actually. He is a person - a really nice one. Josh is my "go to guy" and mentor for Article Marketing, and the author of Article Marketing Domination.

The Bottom Line on Article Marketing

Article marketing is a great way to promote your website, affiliate products or affiliate program. By writing an article that delivers value and offers a subtle mention of your affiliate product or critical keywords, you're well on your way to getting the proper exposure for your promotion (whatever it is). Simply put, Article Marketing is a great way to promote your business online.

Regards,
Mark

Sometimes things just come together.

Just a few hours ago -- earlier today -- I was talking about how I wanted to focus on my niche sites and other key parts of my long term business plan. Then, suddenly, out of nowhere comes the announcement of Josh Spaulding's newly launched private coaching forum. Manna from Heaven.

OK, I admit. It was not out of nowhere. He mentioned it in a blog comment on his blog a few days ago and I have been pestering him about it every day since then. Also, note that manna does not just fall from heaven, but instead it is described as coming with the frost and dew, during the wet seasons. But that is not as exciting for a blog post...where was I?

Oh, yes...

Josh is the author of several important eBooks including Article Marketing Domination (one of my favorite eBooks), has just announced a new private coaching forum. It looks awesome!

I was able to register successfully, but Josh is only taking 100 members initially. The registration is insanely inexpensive (I'd call it cheap), there is no affiliate program, there is no 17 page sales letter, and there are no wild bonuses.

I've known Josh for a while online. He's very helpful and generous in his normal day-to-day dealings with people. I can only imagine what a paid coaching experience will be like with him. I'm pumped.

As an aside, I have met several really cool people in the last few months. (You people know who you are). To those cool people I have yet to meet, know that I am looking forward to it.

Regards,

Mark

Note (added 5/16/08): when this post was written, there was no affiliate program.  On 5/16/08 I added my affiliate link to this post.  I strongly endorse the coaching program as a great value and I continue to get a lot from the program.

If you've been in internet marketing more that twenty minutes, then you've heard of Mike Filsame. He is the famous author of the Butterfly Marketing Effect, which he claims is the most profitable eBook ever sold. Mike is the undisputed King of viral marketing and has been for the past several years. But I believe he just started his own dethroning by letting us all in on it.

Today in my inbox, I got a marketing email from Mike. He is rolling out his latest project -- a viral membership site called Butterfly Reports. Currently he is working with Rod Beckwith who has been around as long as Mike has and is the genius behind this cool new Butterfly Reports site, and many other sites.The idea is very simple. Members will receive new viral reports each month (the number of reports you receive depends on your membership level).

These viral reports, available in different niches, are branded with your name and website, and contain affiliate links. Some of the affiliate links are set to your affiliate ID, and some are set to "Mike and Rod's affiliate ID." The percentage of links in the report that point back to you also depends on your membership level (Silver, Gold or Platinum).

One you get a report, you can use it however you wish. You can give it away, send it to your list, blog about it, whatever. The idea is to get it to as many people as possible.

Here is the cool thing -- the Silver level is free (one report per month). So, I signed up just to have a look. Of course, this is what Mike is counting on. Using a free offer, he is able to move me down the funnel. After I accepted the free offer, there was an upsell opportunity for $1. I took that too. Filsame blows my mind -- and I was really curious. Along with the free monthly report, you also get a free high quality ecover graphic to go with it. How cool is that?

Just a reminder under the heading of full disclosure: if you sign up using my link and end up paying Mike money, I get a referral fee.

Once you log in to the site, you are offered your first viral report that is actually about the site. More genius. It's a perfect first report since it promotes the site itself, which has an affiliate program (I am using affiliate links in this article from that report).

The report itself is very nice. Entitled Turning One Into A Million, it is basically a training document for the site and the viral marketing method itself. You can download the report here. Note that some of the links in the report are branded to my affiliate ID, and some are branded back to Mike. The more you pay Mike, the higher your percentage of links.

In another twist, you can also submit reports to this site to be included in their database.  in that case, you could write a report and have thousands of people promoting it for you.  Like the above example, you would get a percentage of the affiliate links pointing back to your Clickbank and  PayDotCom accounts.

I think this is really cool. Check it out for yourself and decide what you think. The Silver level is free. After you do, please come back here and let me know what you think.

Best regards,

Mark

Almost completely hype-free, the book covers five methods for making money on-line:

• Information Marketing -- Selling digitally delivered information. In this section, Yanik describes why selling digital information is the ultimate way to go. I happen to agree with him, as this is part of my long term plan. He covers the basics about how to get started registering a domain and setting up a shopping cart. The section is only about 100 pages long, and is not a complete guide. However, looking at it from the perspective of a brand-new-to-the-internet person, it is a great beginners guide.
• Selling on eBay. I don't know the first thing about running a real business on eBay, so it was hard for me to evaluate this section. Sydney Johnson covers how to select products, how to do listings, and what makes a successful seller.
• Affiliate Marketing. This sections is nicely done by super-affiliate Rosalind Gardner. I like this section too as it is also part of my longer term strategy. When I started looking at making money on line, I did not even know what affiliate marketing was. It would have been really nice to have seen this section of the Silver book at that early stage. Gardner talks about how to find and work affiliate programs. The advice she gives is very similar to the advice in a recent post about how to make money online by Garry Conn. Good, solid fundamental information about how to get started.
• Yahoo stores and E-Commerce stores. Again, not something that I am highly interested in. The section covers the history of Yahoo stores and how to select a niche, drop-ship, take payments, etc.
• Blogging. I liked this section. It was written by Darren Rowse - lending instant credibility. It covers what a blog is, how to set up a blog, and how to monetize. Again, since it is only 50 pages long, it is just a start and covers the basics. However, if you are just starting out, it is a great overview.

So, why write a real book? At $21.95, this 300 page book sells for less than most eBooks. The answer is that this book (which provides useful information and is a great value for the beginner) is actually a loss leader for the associated website. The book comes with free videos. When you go to the web page, you hit a squeeze page that collects your email. According to the book, they have plans for a membership site.

No matter. If you are a beginner and you are having trouble telling whether or not guys like Jeffrey Lant are on the up and up, this is a great book for you. If you are not brand new, take a pass on this book.

Regards,
Mark

One of the biggest challenges for me personally working on Internet Marketing part time is focus. As a part time Internet Marketer, I have a very limited amount of time to spend on tasks related to my new hobby. In fact, I try not to spend more than a couple of hours a day on Internet Marketing related activities. When I started out, my goal was to demonstrate that I could make some money on the Internet -- inspired by a segment I saw on the Today Show.

Since that time, I have started several blogs, a link directory, a couple of niche sites, some forums, switched blogging platforms, switched hosting companies, done some business/administrative tasks, read books, listened to podcasts, read and commented on blogs, studied marketing, joined countless affiliate programs, hired writers, won contests, built a mailing list, made friends, hired programmers, purchased software, written php code, changed blog themes many times, chatted on GTalk, and hung out on forums. The one thing that I have not done much of is make money. Go figure.

Speaking of distractions, I am writing this post on a plane bound for Hong Kong using ecto, which I mentioned earlier this week. I think this software is a keeper -- but I have not quite made up my mind. (Too bad they don't have an affiliate program). It does have some limitations that are annoying, however, For example, you cannot add a category or contol the post slug.  My friend Garry Conn likes Blogdesk.  I need to check that out.

Back to my story.  Don't get me wrong. I am having a blast, and I have learned a ton. The problems are that I haven't really finished anything - and the learning is not well documented. As it happens, my wife will tell you that this "unfinished project thing" also happens around the house. Great at starting projects; less great at finishing them. So, I thought it would be interesting to list all the current projects that I have underway or in my mind and see if I could prioritize them. Once again taking a page out of Caroline Middlebrook's book, I going to create a Projects page to document all of this so I can keep it straight in my own mind.

Another thing that I plan to do is increase my post frequency on this blog by making sure that I document what I did that day. After all, the value that I am trying to provide is an account of my experience. I am not trying to claim that I can teach people how to make $4B on the Internet this week. I'll categorize the posts by project. So watch for the post count to go up in the coming weeks.

So, what are all these current projects about? I'll work on a list tonight and post it tomorrow.

Best regards,

Mark

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

Yesterday, we talked about how you could diversify your niche income by taking advantage of the eBay affiliate sales program by taking advantage of phpBay Pro. Today, we'll look at our second method of nich store diversification -- PopShops.

PopShops provides tools for setting up an affiliate store inside your website. PopShops claims to be the largest searchable collection of affiliate products (said to be currently over 28 million and growing). They work with the major affiliate networks, including Commission Junction, LinkShare, ShareASale, and Performics. With the PopShops program, you keep all of your commissions. ProShops offers a Free Basic account where users can add affiliate products one page at a time using JavaScript. I use the Pro account ($5/month) because that allows you to use php instead of JavaScript. This is important because the php is SEO friendly and the JavaScript is not. This is because with the Pro account shops, the product descriptions are actually in your page, and can be inded by Google (similar to phpBay Pro). PopShops also offers an Enterprise account (at $30/month). The latter account offers better sales tracking, supporting multiple commission junction PIDs (among other things). If I am making so much money at some point that I am confused about where it is coming from, I plan to upgrade. You can read more about PopShops in PC World (good description of what they do).

To make this work really well on our nice site, we need the PopShops plugin for WordPress. As of this writing, it is still in Alpha release, but it works quite well for me. Features include (from their website):

• Add products to your WP blog from any of the major affiliate networks.
• Click the POP button on your WYSIWYG post editor to add affiliate product links directly into your posts.
• Build affiliate stores for your sidebar, footer, static pages, under a post, or randomly after posts.
• As always, keep 100% of your commissions

So, for HistoryofElvis.com, we want to add shops that Elvis fans will enjoy. You can use your imagination. For this demonstration, I have added shop pages targeted at Elvis Apparel, Elvis Auto Accessories, Elvis Pins, etc. I also created a sample Elvis t-Shirt PopShop at the end of this post for your viewing pleasure.

One thing that you have to watch out for with PopShops is adding products for merchants in commission junction for which you have no relationship. As far as I know, there is no way to tell PopShops what merchants have accepted you on Commission Junction. So, if you accidentally add a CafePress shirt to your PopShop page and you are not a member of the CafePress affiliate program through Comission Junction, you will not get any commission for the sale of that item.

One great thing about PopShops is the AutoFeed feature (available on Pro and Enterprise accounts). With AutoFeed you can automatically display additional pages of products similar to the ones you originally selected for your shop. The technology uses the same shop keywords and merchants you originally chose to decide what items to add. AutoFeed pages are SEO friendly when using the php code option.

So, that's about it for PopShops. Man, this blogging stuff is hard work. Phew.

Tomorrow we need to talk about Adsense. That will complete our three-pronged monetization attach (Adsense, niche store and niche auction). In the mean time, don't forget to check out the cool PopShop store below. Neat, huh?

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

You'll recall from our List of Niche Super-Site Design Goals that we are striving to create a niche site that generates $2 per day in residual income. We said that we did not want to rely only on Adsense alone to accomplish that. So, one thing that we can do to diversify our niche site income is add affiliate sales. One great affiliate program to look at is the eBay affiliate sales program.

As I reported previously, phpBay Pro is the way to go when you want to add eBay auctions to WordPress.  According to the Wired Studio’s website, phpBay Pro enables web publishers to quickly and easily add keyword rich eBay auction listings to WordPress or php driven sites to generate serious affiliate revenue in a matter of minutes!  Boy, can I confirm that claim personally.  In our case, we need to focus on the feature rich phpBay WordPress Plugin (for more information on why, see Build Niche Sites with WordPress). There are at least two great ways to use this plugin. You can embed auction items in posts, or you can created entire pages of auction listings.

Wired Studios’ product boasts several important features:

• Simple installation takes minutes to get up and going
• Keyword rich results adds SEO value to your content
• List auctions from specific categories
• List auctions from specific vendors
• Mask outgoing Ebay links
• First Class support in case you have a question or need help

From my point of view phpBay Pro delivers all of this and more. Specifically, the support is over the top - outstanding.  In fact, since I was new to WordPress, I had a couple of newbie questions that were answered by the developer himself (Wade) the same day.

You will recall that our niche site (www.historyofelvis.com) is up and running in WordPress.   When people visit there, we would like them to buy things (thus helping us make our $2/day).  The great thing about  phpBay Pro is that we can install the plugin and have a page up and running in just a few minutes after becoming an eBay affiliate.  Generally speaking, the steps are as follows:

• Sign up with Commission Junction (www.cj.com)
• Apply to become an eBay affiliate.
• Install the phpBay Pro plugin for WordPress
• Set your affiliate sales ID in the software
• Insert one line of code in any WordPress page and see your auction come alive.

You can see an example on HistoryofElvis.com implemented in the Elvis Autographs page.  The cool thing is that phpBay content is indexed by Google.  If you mix in some ad copy, this can have a dramatic impact on your page SEO for your search keywords.

So, that's it for today.  Tomorrow, we'll talk about PopShops.

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