One of the great things about having a blog is that you can have great readers that are really fun to get to know.  Susanne Myers is one of those, and she creates excellent content.  So, I was thrilled when she read my post from January 1 and asked to guest post.

Her post below is excellent -- but there is something even better here.  I published my other post on the 1st of January (3 days ago).  On the morning of the 3rd of January (yesterday), Suzanne had an excellent guest post written and in my inbox.   She even put my affiliate links to her products in the post (her stuff is really good by the way).

Anyway, the lesson here (for me and for you) is to take action.  Be like Susanne.  Whatever it is, just do it.

Growing Your Affiliate Niche Site in 2011

By Susanne Myers – www.AffiliateTreasureChest.com

I loved Mark’s post on online business resolutions and how we often focus on the wrong thing. His analogy that internet marketing can be a lot like losing weight was spot on and I thought I’d take it one step further today and give you some tips on how to grow your affiliate niche site this coming year, focusing on the important things like providing  a lot of value and serving your readers.

Adding Content

A great place to start is by adding more content to your site on a regular basis. I find that my larger sites not only get the most traffic, they are also talked about more, get more comments and my lists are growing faster. There’s a bit of a snowball effect going on here… the more people know about your site the more talk about it across social media sites, on their blogs etc.

Does this mean you should get into autoblogging or throw a bunch of rehashed junk on your site? Of course not!  What it does mean is that you should take some time out each week (or ideally several times per week) to write some good content and share some interesting tips with your readers. It helps to have a schedule for this. Take a few minutes to figure out how often you can realistically add new content to your site each week. Then create a content schedule and plan out the first few posts or articles. Then make it a priority to get that content added and watch your site and your traffic grow.

Building Your List

Next, I suggest you spend some time building your lists. Lists allow you to get back in touch with your readers regularly and provide them with even more value. Over time you build a mutually beneficial relationship with them and your readers will quickly learn that they can trust your advice and the offers you present to them.

While money should never be the main focus or goal when you’re building your business, it does come in handy, and even in 2011, the money is still in the list. Let’s make this the year we really grow those lists.

Start by taking a look at your lists and optin boxes. Are there things you can improve? Are you split testing your optin forms to find the ones that convert best? Are you following up regularly with your readers? Are you sticking a good balance between providing them with valuable content and making offers?

Expanding Your Reach

Last but not least it’s time to expand your reach. Sure, blogging regularly will get you some traffic and keeping in touch with your list will continue to send them back to your site, but unless you also spend some time marketing your site, you’re missing out on a big chunk of traffic.  Here are some things you may want to start doing this year:

Guest Blogging

Write a few guest blog posts for other blogs in your market place. Email the blog owners and ask them if they would consider publishing them on their sites. You can quickly and easy expand your reach with just a few guest posts.

Article Marketing

Article Marketing still works. Get in the habit of writing and submitting articles regularly. I like Mark’s recommendation or Automatic Article Submitter to help you spread your articles far and wide. Again, this is about capturing and audience you wouldn’t have access to otherwise.

Link Building

Both article marketing and guest blogging are excellent ways to build links. Other things you can do are inviting readers to link to you, create “link magnets” (exceptionally good content that people will link to automatically), participating in social media, commenting on other blogs etc.  Make an effort to build some links to your site on a regular basis.

If you are ready to learn more about this, take a look at my link building program where I share what I’m doing to build thousands of links that help me improve my search engine rankings and send me traffic.

Viral Reports

Combine some of your articles and guest posts and even your own blog posts into short reports that you can then give away. You could also write something completely new, but I find it more effective to reuse my content this way. When you’re done, post the report on your blog, submit it to ebook sites and of course send it out to your list. Don’t forget to invite readers to share it with friends.

You can make your reports spread even further if you make them brandable. If you have your own products, you can allow people to “brand” the links in the report with their affiliate links. If you don’t have your own products and are strictly an affiliate marketer, allow them to brand some of the links in the report and keep some in there with your own affiliate links. Don’t forget to mention your name and your main site in there as well and link to some of your pages or blog posts were appropriate.

Here’s an example of a brandable report I’ve created recently with my friend Nicole Dean

http://www.brandablestuff.com/tools/weight-loss-blog/

Keep in mind that it’s all about sharing useful information that will help people.

Podcasting

Now here’s something I haven’t  done but Mark does really well and I think it has helped him not only extend his reach, but also contributes to his expert status.  Take a look at his podcast here:

http://www.masonworld.com/category/podcast/

Next I want you to consider creating and recording your own podcast. It’s definitely something I’m considering doing this year.

For now, keep adding content to your site regularly, build that list and then do something each and every week to expand your reach and watch your affiliate business grow in 2011

And now I’d like to invite you to take a look at my affiliate marketing blog at www.AffiliateTreasureChest.com . While you’re there, take a moment to sign up for regular email updates so you’ll never miss a thing.

And yes, I am taking my own advice and will be providing lots of great content on the blog throughout 2011. Let’s make this the most profitable year yet!

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.

As many of you are aware, Josh Spaulding released his latest product a couple of weeks ago -- Info Product Success Forula (IPSF). I have worked with Josh to secure a discount for my readers (you get 20% off of the retail price) and I am offering a killer bonus in addition to the discount on Info Product Success Formula.  To complete the picture, I thought that you might appreciate an unbiased Info Product Success Forula review.

Here is the problem -- I am not sure I am a credible reviewer.

There are lots of issues here. The deal is, I really think this is a great prduct. As a lot of you are aware, Josh has been one of my mentors for almost 2 years now, and we have collaborated on several projects together. I am a moderator in his coaching forum. I consulted with him on the ISPF project, reviewd and commented on the draft version and consulted with Josh during the development of IPSF. So, I am invested in this product -- and I think it is great.

On top of that, I consider Josh a friend, and (as you know very well) I get paid if you buy the product through my link. My entire business is built around integrity and service to people -- so I want to be completely transparent about this review.

In the end it's all no big deal because of Josh's money-back guarantee -- but I want to be straight up with you and make sure that you don't feel that you are getting hosed.   See, in this business, your perception can be more important than the truth (especially on trust issues) -- but that is another blog post.

Information Product Success Formula is a New Product

Josh had a lot of very successful information products about things like Article Marketing, AdSense sites, eMail Marketing and SEO (to name a few). Some of his reports are free and some are not. One of the first questions that people asked me is whether or not IPSF is just a rehash of some other product (like the $5 Formula). So, let's put that one to rest -- this is not a rehash of those products.

In fact, those products have made Josh many tens of thousands of dollars and are still making him money as you you read this. Info Product Success Formula documents the strategy behind those products and what you can do to to copy Josh's approach in any niche.

IPSF Works In Any Niche For Any Info Marketer

One of the key things about IPSF is that it is a general approach that applies to any niche. Josh had had lots of success in the information marketing niche, but is also making money in other niches with the same approach. Not only that, but Josh has two "tracks" that he describes in IPSF. There is a track for people that are trying to be authorities or "famous" in their niche. These people usually have a passion about a topic, and love to spend a lot of time working in a particular area that they love.

There is a second track for people that just want to get into a niche. Let's say that you want to set up a presence in the consumer debt reduction niche. You are not all that into that topic (boring!), but your research indicates that you can make some money selling reports to people about how to get out of debt. You can use Info Product Success Formula to set up and information business in that niche -- and then leave it.

What is covered in Info Product Success Formula?

Info Product Success Formula is a 45 page PDF file comprised of seven main chapters (not including the introduction and closing remarks. There is very little (like none) fluff, and the book is nicely formatted for easy reading as a print-out or on the screen.

Josh starts with an introduction of the formula that he has personally used to make money online. That introduction is followed by a description of the two paths -- path one and path two. As described above, path one is for people who want to be authorities in their niche.

I think of it as the deep and narrow path. Path two is for a quicker approach suitable for people that want to be in lots of niches. I think of path two as shallow and broad. As Josh mentions in the eBook, you can mix and match the two paths to diversify your business.

After that, Josh describes how he creates certain reports for lead capture and uses other reports for sale as products. He also talks about the importance of the One Time Offer (the OTO.) In fact, when you buy Information Product Success Formula, you can see Josh's OTO strategy in action (he offers a killer discount on one of his related products when you buy IPSF).

Once all that is up and running, Josh talks about the importance of the prospect and customer list that you will create, and how to manage it. As usual, Josh is relationship focused here, and emphasizes the importance of delivering value in your emails to customers.

The Bottom Line About Information Product Success Forumla

So here is my honest recommendation. If you are interested in having an information marketing business like Josh, this is the report for you. I have securecd you a 20% discount and included bonuses that will help you execute Josh's plan. If you are not completely satisfied with Josh's product, you can request a no-questions asked refund for 60 days. Fair warning here -- the refund rates on Josh's products are very low, and I preduct that you will love it.

Get Information Product Success Formula Today

You must make sure that affiliate ID "masonworld" shows at the bottom of the payment screen to get your bonus.

Then file a ticket and attach your receipt at

http://www.masonworld.com/support

Best regards,
Mark

In this episode of the MasonWorld Late Night Internet Marketing Podcast, we continue with our series introducing the different ways that you can make money online. Specifically, we take a look at information products or information marketing.

We have a special interview with Internet Marketing Guru Jon Leger (pronounced Lay-Jay) and he reveals what he considers the three most important things that a new Internet Marketer needs to know.

Information Marketing has made millionaires out of a lot of people.  In fact, my buddy Josh Spaulding has just release an excellent (and very affordable eBook on the topic of Information Products.)

Advantages of an Information Products Business includes:

• Incredibly low overhead -- create content and publish electronically
• Sell it over and over again
• Sell it 24 hours per day, 365 days per year
• Fully automated sales and order delivery product
• Works well with affiliate marketing
• Location independence (work anywhere)
• No employees required

Some links mentioned in the podcast

• Moonlighting On The Internet
• Ten Ways To Make $10K On The Internet
• Information Product Success Formula from Josh Spaulding
• ClickBank.com

Possible information product topics

• How-To guides
• Self-help products
• Financial eBooks
• Make Money On The Internet
• Fitness/Diet/Health
• Skills Improvement Or Training
  • PM PodCast
  • iPhone Programming
• Lifestyle Design

Interview with Jon Leger included in this episode.

• Tip 1:  Look for a mentor running a real business; it takes real work.  Watch out for sharks and false claims.  Cannot get something for nothing.
• Tip 2:  Find a great niche or product that sells well.  Have some passion.
• Tip 3:  Get targeted traffic.  Not all traffic is equal.

Jon has an awesome product for beginners in internet marketing:

GeekFreeProfits.com

Be sure to leave us some feedback and subscribe in iTunes!

Podcast Alley is another option:
My Podcast Alley feed!

Here is the Raw RSS Feed.

I'd love to hear what you think about the podcast. Drop me a line here on the blog on on the digital recorder at 214-444-8655. Ask a question or leave a comment and we may use it on the show.

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?

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

Powered by Twitter Tools.

If you are an internet marketer interested in niche marketing or writing niche eBooks, one of the hardest things can be finding niches to market to (or write about).  To help with that, here are a couple of fresh ideas for finding niche markets to help you make money online.

Get niche market ideas from other people.

Whether you get family members, a group of friends, or other writers together, brainstorming is a wonderful way to beat Niche Marketer's Block. When you are stuck, make brainstorming fun. You can sit and just start throwing ideas out or make a game by putting ideas in a hat and then passing it around to read or act out.

Fancy Internet Marketing gurus call this a "mastermind" session.

And you'd be absolutely amazed at how productive it can be.   People throw out ideas that you never even thought of. They offer opinions that you weren't even close to considering. Why? Because they think differently than you do. And that can be a good thing.

Are you having trouble with generating ideas for your eBook , or expanding upon what you are already writing about?  Simply get a group of folks together (or even just one person is a start) and ask questions. Explain what you are writing about and ask for suggestions, ideas and opinions.

Bingo!  Just like that, with the wave of a magic wand, you've got more ideas and a fresh perspective to write from or product ideas to market against.

Store up ideas as they occur to you

You need to be an "Idea collector."   Collect ideas to use later in your writing or niche marketing.  When something grabs your attention, no matter where you are, write it down and capture as much information as you can.

Thoughts could come to you at any time. You might be grocery shopping or at your son's soccer game. The best thing is to be prepared and always keep a pad of paper and pen with you. Or, even better than that is to have a small hand-held voice recorder.

You'll be amazed at where inspiration hits you. For example, when sitting at your child's outdoor sporting event, focus on things going on around you. Perhaps you see a child playing off by himself in the dirt and you watch as another child around the same age slowly and shyly approaches wanting to make a friend. Before long, they have bonded and are now sharing their toys together.

Write the scenario down and later think about ways you could use that story to illustrate a point when you are writing your eBook. A pad of paper and pen (or the voice recorder) will soon become your greatest companion.

NOTE: And the "ideas" you collect don't necessarily have to apply to your CURRENT writing project. I collect ideas that sit in my "idea file" for months -- even years -- before I ever use them. But, they are there when I need them, always giving me something new to draw from, and something new and fresh to spawn ideas.

Regards,
Mark

This is a little off topic for this blog, but I love cool tech stuff, and this is really cool.  I know a lot of you out there are geeks a heart, and we all love to get the best price when we shop.

If this describes you too, you gotta check this out.

Some graduates from my Alma Mater (Texas A&M University) are up for a neat award, and I was hoping some of you would take a minute to vote.

This guy (Rylan Barnes) started up a company that makes software for your mobile phone (think iPhone, Android/G1 etc).  Their first application is out, and it is a killer app!  Totally practical and useful (and really cool).

The app is called ShopSavvy and it uses the camera in your phone to scan the barcode of any product and finds the best prices online and at nearby, local stores!

Check out the company here: biggu.com

Anyway, they've been nominated for the 2008 Crunchies! This is a big deal. It's like winning an Oscar but for a tech startup company. This is only a nomination, though, so they need your vote!

Vote here: http://crunchies2008.techcrunch.com/votes/?nominee_id=85&category_id=16

They are up against some big Silicon Valley competition (like Google) so please spread the word. Blog it, twitter it, tell your facebook friends! Vote every day! They'll take all the help they can get.

Thanks!

Regards,

Mark

I'm not done for the year yet, but I thought I might share my thoughts on progress at MasonWorld for 2008 with you now (before I get stuffed with egg nog and fudge.)

It's hard for me to believe that it was just over a year ago that I really got serious about Internet Marketing as a night-time hobby, prompted by a love for computer technology and a 5 minute segment on NBC's Today Show.  A lot of water has gone under the bridge since November of 2007, and I am proud to count myself as one of the small percentage of Internet Marketer that have not tried, failed, and quit.

In Internet Marketing, Failure Is Progress

Now, don't get me wrong.  I have failed over and over again.  I have lost money toying with PPC (that is a rite of passage, I think), I have posted blog posts that I later decided to take down, I have launched products that did not do very well, and I have spent time on lots of things that did not pan out.  I even launched MasonWorld.com on the "wrong blogging platform" and had to migrate to WordPress.

But learning and progress require a certain amount of failure (ask Edison).  So, one thing that I plan to do in 2009 is actually "fail faster."  Get out there, try stuff, and move on (keeping the stuff that works).

I also spent lots of time and money reading Internet Marketing stuff.  I have a sub-directory on my hard drive in my "Internet Marketing" directory that is titled "Courses and eBooks."  As of this writing, that folder has 474 files (91 folders) containing 4.96 GB of Internet Marketing eBooks, audio and video that I have downloaded for free or purchased.  Amazing.

With Failure Comes Success

Most important to me, I have learned a ton about Internet Marketing.  I am really not interested in working on things that don't allow me to learn.  The cool thing about Internet Marketing is that it is a nice mix of technology, marketing, small business, and people skills.  Lots of varitey.

Of course, I have had more than my fair share of successes.  I also have some profitable niche AdSesne sites, MasonWorld.com is growing, I have some affiliate products that are making money, I released a couple of profitable products, and I have a nice start on an email list.

My tip for you in 2009:  Take action and don't be afraid to fail.  The only path to success is through action.  With action comes risk.  So, take some risk in 2009 -- you'll like the results.

So, The Bottom Line Is Thanks!

Most of all, I have been able to make some great friends on line (you know who you are), who have helped me get up to speed.   And, I have a great following of MasonWorld.com regular readers.  I really appreciate those relationships -- so thanks to all of you.

I hope you have a great Holiday Season and get everything that you wish for in life in 2009.

Best regards,

Mark

It's Wednesday (well, actually it is Friday, but who is counting?), and you know what that means. It's time for another weekly Internet Business Fortune Cookie.

Since I am running behind (evidenced by the tardiness of this post), I'll keep it short.

I was at a Chinese fast food chain this week. I know -- not up to my usual standards. Truth is, I'll eat anything that does not eat me first.

I had their lo mein noodles and some mysterious chicken. Honestly, It was not all that great.

On the plus side, there was no MSG and the fortune was fantastic.

"You Will Be Travelling And Coming Into A Fortune"

This was obviously a reminder to use the Global Translator plugin for WordPress to increase search engine traffic. This is a tip that I got from Andrew Hansen of Firepow fame.  The Global Translator plugin is cool because it brings search traffic to your blog.

Global Translator automatically translates your blog in the following 34 different languages: Italian, Korean, Chinese (Simplified), Portuguese, English, German, French, Spanish, Japanese, Arabic, Russian, Greek, Dutch, Bulgarian, Czech, Croatian, Danish, Finnish, Hindi, Polish, Romanian, Swedish, Norwegian, Catalan, Filipino, Hebrew, Indonesian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Ukrainian, Vietnamese'.

When these pages get indexed, it can result in some traffic for you. Check out these search terms from November at MasonWorld.com:

o poder da internet
afslankproducten met geld-terug-garantie
mikronischen
gratis ting internett
neultabstoula
a procura do feminino ebook

I hope none of the above phrases are offensive. I have no idea what most of them mean, but traffic is coming to my blog from them.

Here is a cool example of this article translated.

Anyway -- listen to the cookie. You'll be glad you did.

Have a great day.
Mark

Photo credit: Uploaded on July 17, 2006 by headcase

It's Free Stuff Friday again, and time for the Friday Freebie.

I have written in the past few weeks about how to make money writing your own eBooks, and I even published a report on how to write your own eBooks. I published the report using the $7 secrets formula for it's distribution.

But I Don't Want To Write

Don't want to write? You can also make money using Private Label Rights content (content written by other people that you have the rights to use).

To help you understand that, I have a free report from two famous internet marketers that I personally trust available for you this Friday. The title of the report is: Private Label Rights (PLR) Secrets: How To Use PLR Products To Create A Money-Making Small Reports Business.

As always, opt in to my list to get access to all the free stuff (opt-in box in the right hand sidebar). As soon as you opt-in and confirm you subscription, you'll receive instructions on how to log into the members area.

Thanks,
Mark

It's Free Stuff Friday again, and time for the Friday Freebie.

As a reminder, the information you need (URL and password) to get access to all the free internet marketing goodies in the archives is available in my Internet Marketing Newsletter each week.  You can subscribe in the sidebar to the right and I will send you immediate access to the entire archive.

This week, I am adding an eBook to the collection.  The topic is Article Marketing -- and how to drive traffic to your niche websites using article marketing and re-written PLR.

The eBook is by Matt Callen and addresses a lot of the questions that came up the other day in the comments of my post about his Simply PLR Membership Site.

It's a pretty good read, and I agree with most of the stuff in the eBook.

As always, opt in to my list to get access to all the free stuff (opt-in box in the right hand sidebar).

Thanks,
Mark

Phew.  Yesterday's launch of First eBook Now was crazy.

Now, it's time for another weekly Internet Business Fortune Cookie. Last night I celebrated the launch of my latest eBook with Hot and Sour Soup from a new place. I had never eaten there before. The soup was good, and it struck me that sometimes you have to try something new to find something good.

The Cookie Speaks The Truth

As you know, everything you need to know about running an internet business can be learned from fortune cookies. Luckily the Cookie knows that this week we are talking about the importance of mailing lists to your online business, and was kind enough to serve up an appropriate lesson. This week's cookie actually hits right at the heart of getting started online:

"Reach for your dreams. Start with the Spring Rolls"

Of course, the fortune cookie is obviously referring to the fact that many people who are trying to make money online fail because they are overwhelmed by their own goals -- completely paralyzed by the seemingly enormous nature of the task before them.

Many people have lofty goals like replacing their entire income or "escaping the 9 to 5 routine" of their day job or making $15,000 per month on line. Those are both great goals, and it is important to have the big picture. But at some point you have to get started.

It reminds me of the answer to an old question: "How do you eat an elephant?"

Of course, the answer is "One bite at a time."

The Cookie Speaks About Lists -- Follow The Cookie

Let's say that you have decided that you need to make $5000 per month on the internet, and you plan to do that with a email list. How big does the list need to be?

Well, let's say that you have been careful to cultivate trust with your list, and that every time you send out an email to them, an amazing 10% of your readers click the link to go see what it is that you are talking about. And, let's say that the members of your list really trust you, and that an equally amazing 10% actually buy. This seems possible since you only promote products that you actually believe in to your list. That means for every message that you send out, 1% (1 of every hundred) of the people you send to will buy.

Now, let's say you are really smart and you follow Spaulding's New Age eMail Marketing strategy. This means that you value your list and you only email an offer to them about once a month. The rest of the time, you are emailing your list helpful information.

Since you need to make $5000 per month with only one offer, you need to make $5000 every time you send out an email. Sounds scary, doesn't it?

Remember, 1 of every 100 people you mail to will buy. Let's say you are promoting $100 products, and that the commission is 50%. That means that for every 100 people you mail to, you make $50. Since you need to make $5000, you need to mail to 10,000 people. You need a list of 10,000 people.

Question: How in the world are you going to do that?
Answer: One subscriber at a time (Start with the Spring Rolls).

The Cookie Knows Best

Build trust and give people something in exchange for their email. There are 365 days in a year. That means that you only need 30 subscribers a day to hit 10,000 in a year. This is exactly the kind of thing that can be accomplished with viral eBooks using Leger's $7 Secrets formula. Actually, it can be done much faster than that if you can ad some real value and do something viral (but that is for another post).

So, listen to the cookie. Don't focus on the 10,000 subscribers -- you will freak out and give up. Focus on the the next several dozen subscribers instead. Set some goals for this week, or for this month. And focus on keeping the subscribers that you have. Keep adding value. The subscribers will come.

Take some action like writing a report that people will value. Use some cool technology like $7 Secrets to get people to help you build your list. You can do it -- just Start with the Spring Rolls.

Planning on taking some action as a result of this post? Let me know what it is by dropping a comment. Publicly declaring your intention to make progress is a great way to hold yourself accountable.

Have a great day.
Mark

Photo credit: Uploaded on July 17, 2006 by headcase

Announcing First eBook Now

An eBook about creating your first eBook.

Since last Thursday, I have been blogging like a madman about the importance of lists, and how I have changed my entire list strategy based on Josh Spaulding's New Age Email Marketing Report.

This caused me to start work on an experiment with $7 Secrets (which I described Saturday).  Yesterday, I demonstrated how you can build you list using other people products (Master Resale Rights).

As we discussed yesterday, that can work great, but what works best (in my opinion) is having your own products.

So, I am happy to announce a product that will help you with your journey to build your own information marketing business.

First eBook Now

You Need Your Own Products

If you look at all of the really successful email marketers, they have their own products.  It's a very satisfying thing, really.  You create something that has real value - something that helps people.  Then you sell it at a price that leaves people delighted with their purchase.  What could be better?  It's the true definition of win-win.

The customer gets a great product.  What do you get?  You get the sale, of course.  But you get something much more valuable -- you get the trust of a happy customer.  You can work to grow that trust and provide more to that customer by using email lists to stay in touch with them.  You can sell them other products that they need (and that you also value), increasing the investement in your relationship.  In the end, everybody wins (especially the customer).

You Have To Start Somewhere

The thing is, if you look at these guru email marketers, they all have tens (or hundreds) of thousands of people on their lists and dozens of huge products.  How in the world can you compete?  Simple answer:  don't compete.  Start small and build from there.

See, I believe that everyone has at least one good eBook in them.  Probably more.  The thing is, people are reluctant to start.  Either they don't know how to start or they are afraid to fail.   Either way, they forget that the longest journey begins with the smallest step.

Take A Small Action Today

Are you interested in starting your own information marketing empire?  Why not take the smallest step today?  Check out my latest eBook -- I wrote it for you.  It gives you a great overview of how to get your first eBook off the ground, and includes information about everything from finding a topic to outsourcing a salespage.  If you have ever wanted to get started, this is the resource for you.

The best part -- it's only $7.   Get First eBook Now! today.  You'll be glad you did.

Regards,
Mark

Today, I show an example of how to use Master Resale Rights content and the $7 Secrets Script to build your list.  You can see the offer for PreSelling Secrets here.  Read on to learn more.

On Thursday, I talked about the importance of lists, and how I was rethinking my entire list strategy thanks to Josh Spaulding's New Age Email Marketing Report.  This caused me to start work on an experiment with $7 Secrets (which I described Saturday). Committing to a $7 secrets approach meant that I needed a new eBook to sell -- something that people would really want that was worth a lot more than $7.  Well, I went ahead and wrote one that was appropriate for this experiment. It's all about how to write your first eBook, and I am launching the eBook (called "First eBook Now!" tomorrow.  Stay tuned and you will be among the first to know when it goes live (hint -- around noon CST Tuesday).

But I Don't Want To Write An eBook

One thing that I hear from time to time from people is that they "can't write an eBook" or "don't want to write and eBook."  Now I personally think that everyone has at least one great eBook in them, especially if they already have a website full of content that they can draw inspiration from or perhaps even re-purpose.

I'll admit, however, if you have never written an eBook before it can be a little intimidating at first.  Based on that revelation, I will be releasing my own $7 eBook tomorrow about how to write your first eBook.  I think it will help get you over the hump.

Of course, there are other options apart from writing your own eBook.  You can purchase Private Label Rights content (discussed in my post on Friday where I give away some Weightloss PLR) and put that content together into an eBook.  Sometimes, you can find entire PLR eBooks that you can purchase and put your name on.  Or you can hire a ghostwriter.  Still another option is that you can purchase Master Resale Rights to a eBook and sell that.

Using Master Resale Rights With $7 Secrets

If you are not familiar with Master Resale Rights (MRR), you should know that when you purchase MRR with an eBook, you usually get permission to resell the eBook and keep all of the profit.  Sometimes, the MRR package even comes with a sales page and graphics that you can use.  These restrictions can vary from package to package, and you should always check before you make your purchase.

Honestly, I don't usually use MRR content for anything.  However, in support of this blog post I decided to find some quality content so I could demonstrate the idea for you.  I happen to own Master Resale Rights to Johnathan Leger's Preselling Secrets - an excellent eBook that my audience should value.  Since it is one of Jon's books, it happens to be set up for use with $7 Secrets - so it was really easy for me to set up.  You can see PreSelling Secrets here.

In fact, you can even buy the Master Resale Rights to PreSelling Secrets in a one time offer that is available to you after you buy the report.  That means that if you buy the Master Resale Rights you can use Preselling Secrets for your own $7 Secrets experiment (while you are writing your own eBook).

The Bottom Line

There is no substitute for having your own product.  But in certain situations, it can make sense to find quality MRR products that people will value and promote them using $7 Secrets.

Regards,
Mark

Hey -- hope you are having a great day, and are enjoying my daily post frenzy that I started on Thursday with my post on the importance of lists.    I'll be posting daily for the next few days (possibly longer) and then it will be back to my normal 3 posts per week (Monday, Wed Friday).  We'll see how that goes in November.  So much to do, and so little time.

October Was A Crazy Month

If you have been following my over the last month, you know I am working on three main projects at the moment.  It can be a bit confusing at times, so I wanted to update you on the status:

1. Build 30 quality "AdSense sites" in a variety of niches. This whole thing was motivated by my post about how to make $5000/month on line.  Now, I am calling these AdSense sites, but, in reality I have decided to add a variety of monetization options including eBay links (using the phpBay bay plugin), some ads through the PepperJam affiliate network and other affiliate offers.  Instead of 30 "AdSense sites," this will result in 30 "mini-authority" sites.    I call them "mini-Authority" because they will not have high frequency original content.  Rather, there will be a mix of content from a variety of sources presented in a useful way.  Status:  all 30 domains are purchased and up and running.  About 15 sites are actually running and some are generating a little revenue. I think I sould be able to "finish" them and drip back to 1 hour of work per site per month by December.  We'll see.
2. Full evaluation of Firepow. In building these sites, I realized that Firepow might be just the tool that I need to make this happen.  I have been helping Andrew's team beta-test Blog Import into Firepow (which is working for me in most cases).   Now that that is complete, I plan to get back to blogging about Firepow late next week.  Don't forget that I have arranged for a $300 Firepow discount for you if you cannot wait for my complete review and recommendation.
3. Build my email list using $7 Secrets. This is the big distraction for me at the moment.  I was so impressed with Josh Spaulding's New Age Email Marketing report, that I decided to move the management of my email lists to his "formula."  Part of that experiment involves growing the list, and that means I needed to write a great ebook to offer for sale for $7 as recommended in $7 Secrets.  That eBook is complete, and will launch Tuesday here on MasonWorld.com. If you have not read Josh's report, I recommend it (it is only $7, as you might expect).

So, that is what is going on at the moment.

Hope that clears things up a bit.

By the way, things are likely to get worse before they get better.

I have learned a lot of tricks building these 30 sites (and others before them), and before the end of the year, I will be launching a new Niche Site Building service. If you are interested, you can see the current sales copy at http://www.nichesitenow.com.

Also, am hoping to do a PPC experiment with one of my internet marketing buddies before the end of the year.  As you may remember, I purchased Commission Blueprint, and I am itching to try out PPC.

So, hang in there -- lots of stuff to come before the end of the year.

Thanks,
Mark

I hope you survived Halloween. I simply cannot believe it is November. Where did the year go?

Over the last couple of days, I have been on a posting rampage about the importance of lists in Internet marketing.  Yesterday, I told you about how you could build your list buy giving stuff away.  This works well, but fills your list with "freebie seekers."  Wouldn't it be better to have a list full of people who had already trusted you enough to give you money?

The Magic of $7 Secrets

What seems like a long time ago (2007), I remember hearing about Jonathan Leger's magical $7 Secrets report (complete with scripts).  There was a lot of buzz about it at the time.  But back then, I had never worked with Jon Leger, so I was not sure if I could trust him.  After all, I did not know him at all. I sort of forgot all about $7 Secrets.

Since that time, I have come to know Jon as a trustworthy Internet Marketer (and a really smart guy).  I read his blog, exchange email with him, interact with him on forums, purchase many of his products, etc.  I've even recommended some of his stuff (like IAW Pro) to my readers.  Bottom line, Jon is a good guy who works very hard and has lots of good ideas.

I was reminded about $7 Secrets when my friend,  Internet Marketing Coach Josh Spaulding, told me he was writing some $7 reports.  That got me interested in Leger's 7$ secrets again.  (Note that since then, Jon sold the product to Don, who is doing a great job supporting it).

What is Seven Dollar Secrets?

Simply put, the $7 secrets approach takes a high value item (a small eBook) and offers it for sale at a price that is way below the percieved value.  $7 is typically used as a sales price because it is widely reported that prices that end in "7" convert better on the internet.

The key piece of the $7 secrets approach is the viral marketing part.  The $7 script that comes with the $7 secrets report is set up so that people can make money selling the report that they just purchased -- and they can do it instantly.  By simply adding their paypal address to the URL for the product, new affiliates can instantly make 100% commission on sales.

The checkout part of the script even has a "tell a friend" area where people can make commissions as they complete their purchase by sending a promotional email directly to their friends.  Pretty slick.

The $7 script also allows you to make money on the back end of your sale by supporting "One Time Offers" for higher priced products.

So Why Offer 100% Commission?

If you are selling an eBook with the $7 Script, you are doing it because you are wanting to collect emails.  The script is set up to collect emails once the purchase has been made.  You don't care about the $7 -- you want the email.  So, if someone is willing to promote your report to their list, you will happily trade them the $7 commission for a chance to get the prospect email.  It is as simple as that.

Affiliates love it because it is usually easy for someone to decide to spend $7, especially if the content is great.

My $7 Report

The best value that I have seen lately for $7 comes from Josh Spaulding.  He recently released his New Age Email Marketing report under the $7 Secrets script.  You can go check it out to see what a great $7 Secrets promotion looks like.

My $7 report will be coming out on Tuesday, so stay tuned.   In the mean time, I recommend that you seriously consider getting yourself a copy of $7 Secrets (complete with the script) for $7 and writing your own eBook.

Regards,

Mark

Hey -- Happy Halloween!

It's Free Stuff Friday again, and time for the Friday Freebie.

As I promised yesterday, we are spending a week blogging about lists. The problem is that it is also Free Stuff Friday, and I know how you love that. So, I am combining Free Stuff Friday with a post about lists.

If you read my blog, you already know that you can use "free stuff" to get people to sign up for your list.  This is a good approach because it provides value and builds trust.  A better approach is to get people on your list by selling stuff (as done with $7 Secrets), but giving stuff away is a great place to start.

You can give away information, software, content, merchandise, discounts, you name it.

In this example, we'll talk about giving away PLR content.

What Is PLR Content?

One thing that you hear about a lot in Internet Marketing circles is content that comes with "Private Label Rights (PLR)." Typically, if you buy content with PLR you are licensed to use that content in various ways. Things that you can usually do with PLR might include use it to make eBooks, publish with or without modification, combine it into longer content, split it apart into shorter content, use it in an autoresponder series, put your name on it, etc.

I say "usually" because PLR rights are almost always given specifically for the content you are buying, and restrictions can change depending on the authors wishes.

One thing that you usually cannot do is resell unmodified PLR to other people.

What are Master Resale Rights?

Master Resale Rights (MRR) usually gives you the right to resell something and keep all of the profits as long as you make no modifications to the content. MRR does not usually give you the right to reuse the content for another purpose (like re-publication under your name).

To illustrate all of this for you, I bought Master Resale Rights to a package of PLR articles on weight loss. I am making these articles available to you these articles as this weeks Friday Freebie.

Specifically, when I bought this PLR with MRR rights, I got the rights to:

(Yes) Submit to article directories
(Yes) Can be offered as a bonus with other Products - if changes are made to the articles
(YES) Can be edited completely and your name put on them
(YES) Can be used as web content
(YES) Can be used as a blog post
(YES) Can be broken down into smaller articles
(YES) Can be combined to make larger articles
(YES) Can be used as an e-mail/auto responder sequence
(YES) Can be added to a membership site
(YES) Can be Sold at any Price

I am NOT giving you MRR.

I am giving you PLR rights to these articles.

This means that you can:

(YES) Can be used as web content
(YES) Can be used as a blog post
(YES) Can be broken down into smaller articles
(YES) Can be combined to make larger articles
(YES) Can be used as an e-mail/auto responder sequence
(YES) Can be added to a membership site
(No) Can be Sold at any Price (Unless completely edited)

As usual, all you need to do is join my email list (see the opt-in box at the right) to download this report and other free stuff. Why not sign up today!

So How Can This Help Me With My List?

Now, I don't use a lot of PLR -- but here are at least 3 ways you can use it to help build a list.  Note that I always recommend that if you do use PLR that you rewrite it completely, adding your own voice and augmenting it with your own experience or research.

• Give PLR (when you have MMR) away to your readers as an opt-in gift (like this post)
• Use PLR on a blog as posts to attract readers to your opt-in box
• Send PLR content to your list as valuable content after they opt in.
• Use PLR to write an eBook for use with $7 Secrets

Enjoy.
Mark

P.S. -- If you really want the resale rights to this package of articles, you can have the resale rights for $5 by purchasing through the paypal button below.  Your paypal receipt with the title "Weight Loss MRR" will serve as your license to resell these articles (or use them as you see fit).  Note that you will still need to opt-in to the email list to get them, as I have not set up a separate download just for MRR.

List, List List.  All I ever hear about are email lists.  Are you sick of hearing about email lists?  Oh, I hope not, because as they say, the money is in the list.

A Week Of Posts About Lists

As I mentioned to you a few days ago, my buddy Josh Spaulding recently released a new eBook about how he manages his email list.  It is excellent, and I recommend it highly.  It's so good, in fact, that it has motivated me to take some serious action.

Starting today, I am posting a series about building lists -- here is what you can expect:

• Today (Thursday) -- This post about the importance of lists
• Tomorrow (Friday) -- A post about how you can use free stuff to build your list
• Saturday -- A post about Jonathan Leger's $7 secrets formula (for building lists)
• Monday -- A post about how you can use quality Master Resale Rights products to build your list
• Tuesday -- A post announcing my new eBook about writing eBooks ($7 secrets style)
• Wednesday -- See what the fortune cookie says about lists

The Purpose Of A Mailing List

If you spend much time around internet marketers, you’ll hear them talk about “the list”.  That term refers to their mailing list, which is made up of people who have requested to receive information from them, usually in the form of email newsletters.

For many internet marketers, the bulk of their income comes from marketing to the people on their mailing list.  A person’s list can truly be their key to success.  I know of several examples of "normal" people making a living on line using their list.

As Josh points out in New Age Email Marketing, some people mistakenly believe that the bigger list they have, the more successful they will be.  This is not necessarily the case.  There are a lot of ways to “get” subscribers, such as contests, list swaps, and even through list purchasing.  It is possible to achieve a high number of subscribers through these methods... but that doesn’t always guarantee success.

Instead of focusing on the number of people on the list, focus on the quality of the list and how interested the people are to receive the information.  A list of 1,000 very interested people will bring in much more money than a list of 10,000 uninterested people.

More important than that is trust.  Are you offering something of value (usually free information) to your list, or are you just asking them for money all the time?  Do they look forward to getting email from you, or do they hit the delete key without reading your mail?

While you think about those questions, here are some tips to help you build a great list:

Easy sign-up process

If signing up for your newsletter is a complicated process, many people will simply click away.  It’s also important to make sure the sign-up box is easy to see.  You'll notice that my opt-in box is at the top of my sidebar.  The graphics are professional, and I am asking for a minimum of information.  Some people place it at the bottom of their sites and if the visitor doesn’t scroll all the way down, they’ll miss it.  Many studies suggest that placing your newsletter sign-up box on the top right portion of your website will yield the best results.

Here is an example of easy -- an opt-in box right in the middle of a post:

Promote your list to your target market

Knowing your target market is another big key in creating a great list.  The more targeted the people on your list are, the more likely they are to purchase your products or services. That is one of the reasons that blogs are so great for list building.  People are visiting your blog because they are interested in the information there.  In that case, your target market consists of the people who are most likely to be interested in what you have to offer.  This is important.  Obviously, if you sell natural baby care products, you probably wouldn’t want to promote your list by purchasing an ad on harleydavidson.com.

Offer a freebie

Many people offer their subscribers a freebie in exchange for joining their mailing list.  I'll talk more about this on Friday, but that is exactly why I offer the Friday Freebie on MasonWorld.com.  This freebie could be in the form of an ebook, a special report, an audio recording of a teleclass or some other information product.  When doing this, it’s always best to stay close to a topic your target market would be interested in.  Going back to the example of someone selling natural baby products, a great freebie would be a small guide filled with natural baby food recipes.

Stay At It

Building a great list, full of targeted readers, will take some time to develop. Don’t get discouraged if it doesn’t happen overnight.  Over time, the list will grow and it can develop into one of your best business assets.

Did you like this post?  Why not sign up to my list?  That's the point after all.  You'll receive lots of helpful content and notification about new blog posts.  You'll get the occasional special offer.  You will never get SPAM.

Sign up today.

Greetings!

Except for a brief time when I went shopping with my two daughters this weekend, I have been knee-deep in Firepow doing an in-depth evaluation (as promised). Right now my plan is to blog about it several times over the next week. I have gotten permission from Andrew Hansen (the creator of Firepow) to include some screen shots from deep inside the software -- so stay tuned. Bottom line is that I am really impressed with Firepow. It's not perfect, but you can see perfect from there -- a comment that I will explain in detail all next week. I hope that when I am done with you next week you will be able to tell if Firepow is for you without even reading the sales page.

Why Am I Telling You This?

Like I said, I am busy with Firepow, but I got interrupted today.

Josh Spaulding just sent over a pre-release copy his new eBook product. He is launching it Monday, and it is called New Age Email Marketing.

Now, on Monday, I will be talking about Firepow, and will not be able to help Josh promote his report (which is killer -- read on). So, Josh gave me special permission to let my readers know tonight, ahead of the launch.  The ink is not even dry on the sales page.

You need to know something -- Josh is one of the very few people that I both trust and respect in this business. I read the report (26 pages), and I was amazed. The report is about exactly how Josh manages his very profitable email campaign. It's all the details you need to build and make money from a list, even if you are a beginner.

The crazy thing is, it is only $7

(with a money-back guarantee, no less).

Why Is Josh Doing This?

Well, he tells you right in the sales letter. He has created an incredibly valuable report and it selling it at a really low price as a way to grow his list. He explains all of this in the report -- and tells you how to duplicate his approach.

So, if you are interested in making money from your email list (even if you don't have one yet), I recommend this report unconditionally. Josh is a great guy. He shoots straight, and will help you make money online.

Get New Age Email Marketing for $7 today.

You will be glad you did.

Hey -- It's Free Stuff Friday again, and time for the Friday Freebie.

I talk a lot about Article Marketing -- but the challenge with article marketing can be writing the articles.  I totally get that.  Sometimes it is hard to come up with topics to write about or strategies for writing articles.

This free report will help you get going.

As usual, all you need to do is join my email list (see the opt-in box at the right) to download this report and other free stuff.  Why not sign up today!

Enjoy.

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.

A few months ago, I wrote about how to cloak an affiliate link and why you might want to cloak links for affiliate products that you promote. Since that time I have gotten a lot of questions and requests for help regarding that post. That's great because it means that people read the article and decided to give cloaking a try. I love that.  Helping people is the best part of this gig.

The Next Level Of Cloaking

Today I wanted to mention a more aggressive technique for cloaking - cloak an entire page. I was re-reading the Secret Affiliate Code (note the cool cloaked affiliate link) on the airplane on the way home from Singapore, and I was reminded about this method. This is a nice trick of the trade that I forgot about until I re-read this excellent eBook.

Let's say that you want to promote an affiliate product that is available on a service like ClickBank. Let's use Secret Affiliate Code as mentioned above as a great example for this case. It has a great landing page that converts really well. Let's also say that you want to link to the landing page as you promote the product as part of your promotion strategy. Now you could use a cloaked link like I taught in my previous post on cloaking (just like I did above). That would take the user away from your site to the sales page of the affiliate product. That's a perfectly normal and fine thing to do, and you can make money doing that.

Keep The Prospect "On Your Site"

But what if you want the visitor to have a more seamless experience, and you want the landing page to look like it lives on your domain, not the domain of the seller. Deciding to do this could help reinforce the message to the buyer that you are fully endorsing the product, not just slinging traffic to an affiliate link. Here is an example of the Secret Affiliate Code sales page showing up as if it were on MasonWorld.com.

So, How Can You Cloak A Page?

The answer is by creating a simple HTML file on your site that places the sales page inside a frame. The code shown below, but I recommend you download it from the attached zip file.

Save the zip file to your disk, edit the four things mentioned below, and ftp it to your site. To make the file work, you need to change the following:

WEB PAGE TITLE: Give the page a title that matches your keyword strategy for the promotion. This is especially important for a good quality score if you are driving Adwords to the page.

KEYWORDS: Put your keywords in here. You want to have these there, but it is not as critical as it used to be. Google pays very little attention to these.

DESCRIPTION: This will show up in your listing on Google. Make sure your keywords are here as well as a call to action for the Googler that makes them want to click on your search engine listing.

GA CODE: Be sure to turn on Google Analytics for the page. This is another major advantage of this technique. You can get Google Analytic data for the visitors that you send to the sales page.

Be sure and save your "cloaking file" file with a file name that includes your keywords and ends with the .html extension (like secret-affiliate-code-discount.html or whatever).  Alternatively, you can rename this file index.html and put it in a directory called secret-affiliate-code under the public_html directory.  That gives you a URL like this:

http://www.masonworld.com/secret-affiliate-code-discount.

I hope that you find this cloaking method useful. Thanks to Craig Beckta of Secret Affiliate Code for reminding me about it.

Best regards,
Mark

P.S. Here is the code (see also the zip file):

<body>

GA CODE GOES HERE

</body>

It's Friday Freebie Time Again

Like most people in internet marketing, I have an entire hard drive full of "free eBooks".  Just like everyone else, I often download free stuff from the internet with the best intentions to read, learn and use the information within.  Then, sometime later, reality hits, and I realize that I have a hard drive full of "stuff" that I have never looked at.  Well, I was cleaning some things up on my laptop and I ran across License To Print Money -- a free eBook about making money with ClickBank.

Just Ignore The Promotion

Now, the marketing purpose of this eBook is to promote a membership site at the end of the book.  I don't know anything about that membership site.  So, I am not encouraging you to sign up for the membership offer inside.  I don't know anything about it.

I did read this eBook, however, and I am recommending it here for a couple of reasons.

1.  If you have not thought about making money with ClickBank products, you should.  This eBook outlines a reasonable (although not the only) approach to promoting ClickBank products.

2.  This eBook outlines some solid traffic strategies for any project you are working on - press releases, article marketing, classified ads, Squidoo, etc.  These are all good fundamentals, and this is a reasonable overview.

Download Your Free Copy Now

So, for details on how to download the Friday Freebie, simply join my free MasonWorld Internet Marketing newsletter.  Since I hate spam as much as you do, you will not get any spam from me.  Instead, I'll send you useful free tips on Internet Marketing and occasional promotions of products that I personally believe in.  Best of all, you can unsubscribe any time (but I don't think you will want to.)

Sign up now! I hate spam as much as you do!

Best regards,
Mark