Maximize Results

Do You Follow Rules Or Results

When the rubber hits the road, and you begin to put real effort into making money online with a blog, website, or affiliate business, do you follow rules or results?

Following Rules

The “rules” crowd likes to know every in and out, every nuance, tip, and strategy before they put any real effort into their project. It feels good, they would say, to read the “10 Tips For This,” and the “10 Strategies For That.” They typically suffer from paralysis of analysis and over analyze everything before they actually do anything. Does that sound like you? Do you suffer from following a rules mindset?

Taking it a step further, and when you really think about it, the rules mindset only gets you so far. Not only are “rules” what every average joe looks to follow when starting a blog, online business or the like, but by following the vast majority of people when it comes to making money online, you’ll end up with results the vast majority encounter: nothing.

It’s a sobering reality, but one you must be aware of. The point here is to make money online. That’s the end goal. To achieve it, let me suggest following the results driven strategy.

Following Results

Let me tell you a little story about me to help prove this point.

Over 4 years ago, I stumbled into internet marketing by doing what many of you have done in the past or did to make it to our site: search for how to make money online.

I was in college at the time, and since most college students are always looking for ways to make extra money, I decided the internet was a good place to start. Who wouldn’t want to work online and make money? 

Almost immediately, I discovered an ad with the headline “$300/Hr In College?”

I clicked the ad and was taken to a site where several work at home opportunities were reviewed (and ranked, or course) all so I could make money online (at least that’s what the site owner was saying). I was immediately intrigued by the idea, but my first question was, ‘Why would someone want to be nice enough to just share this information with me…what’s in it for them?’

Remember, at this time, I have no idea what internet marketing, blogs, or affiliate marketing is…I just started with the premise of searching on Google for how to make money online.

After browsing around the site for a while, I noticed that when I clicked on a recommendation, a new window would open, and for a split second a different URL would show in the browser before it finally resolved to the recommended website. It was so fast that I could only make out one letter at a time. After each click I would get a new letter that finally spelled out: C-L-I-C-K-B-A-N-K.

From there I went back to Google and typed in Clickbank, found their site, and discovered that they were this marketplace for digital products. It didn’t take me long to put two and two together. The site I had visited was recommending products from the Clickbank marketplace, and each time a visitor made a purchase from one of his recommendations he was making money.

From that moment, I was immediately more interested in learning how to market products and services online than doing any of the “opportunities” listed on his website. I caught the internet marketing bug, and there was no looking back.

Now…I tell you this story only because discovering that site was not only my foray into building several internet businesses, it helped me learn from day 1 to follow the results mindset.

After I discovered this work at home review site, I did some more keyword searches and saw that this guy was everywhere. He had hundreds and thousands of ads up for thousands of keywords, and from what I could tell was getting a sizable amount of traffic to his website.

Now at this time, I had no idea of any sort of tool to calculate site traffic, there was no SpyFu or KeywordSpy to see which keywords he was bidding on…I had to do it the old fashioned way: trial and error.

Through another series of events (a long story) I discovered that this affiliate was in fact one of the largest affiliates for the product he was promoting, and when I put all those results together (thousands of ads/keywords, a top affiliate for the product he was promoting) I had my model.

When you find someone with proven results, the smart money models their success. I could have spent my time learning about the difference between web design strategies, onsite optimization techniques, and keyword density, OR I could simply use this website as a model (not to copy) for where to to start.

And that’ what I did. Thankfully, I was able to use that one website to learn the importance of a results driven focus. Something I feel has made all the difference in the world.

Here are some actionable things you can do today to start following results:

• Search for your desired keywords on Google and examine the top 10 results. How are their sites designed? How often are the keywords used? What type of language is used (casual, professional, personal)?
• Make a spread sheet or word document and write down characteristics of those sites and see which ones overlap (maybe 7 of the 10 sites for Keyword A use the same 2-panel style layout or the length of the article/content are all around 650 words).
• Be sure to take note of any Adwords ads you see often for your desired keywords. If there are lots of ads for one site, you should review their sales pitch, layout, etc because most likely they’re making good money AND they are paying for the traffic.

The key to the results mindset is to be aware. Be mindful of the successful websites in your niche or industry by following some of the tips above. Always remember that rules can be important, but results are what you want.

Buying & Selling Websites Training Returns

My “world class training product” (well I think so anyway) is now available to the public again!

I have been getting a bunch of emails from people who missed out on my training class from 3 months ago. I’ve also had people asking me for resale rights to the course since I was no longer selling it.

I got to thinking, since the videos are just sitting in the members area, why not let other people make money from them since the content is already made.

So, I’ve decided to open up the course again and let affiliates make money from it.

I won’t be advertising the website myself, so you will have no competition from me.

I’m basically just opening up the existing content so you and other affiliates can make money from my hard work and knowledge.

Since I’m not going to be as involved with the day to day training like I was before, I’ve dropped the price down to $99 and I’m paying a 60% commission to affiliates who want to promote the course.

If you have a website related to making money, have a blog or email list, you can make about $54 for every person who signs up for the class.

I’ve set it up through Clickbank, so it’s very easy for you to get started making money from the course. You can get your affiliate link from this page:

http://www.buyingandsellingwebsites.com/affiliates.php

You probably know by now that the value of the education I’ve provided to students and you know it’s worth WAY more than $99. But, since I dropped the price, it will make it a lot easier for you to sell.

I’m letting you know about this first so you have the first chance to begin promoting it before anyone else. Usually the first people to promote an affiliate program are the ones who make the most money.

I let the buyers of the course have first crack at this affiliate program last week, and one of my students has already made $378 in commissions from the product in the first 4 days!

Here is the sales letter so you can see where your visitors will go after they click your affiliate link:

http://www.buyingandsellingwebsites.com

Anyway, just wanted to let you know what is going on.

If you have any questions, let me know.

Talk soon…

Highly Recommended Training Product

It’s VERY RARE that I come across a product that I feel is absolutely fantastic when it comes to internet marketing.

I bought a product called Commmission Blueprint on Friday afternoon after reading some good reviews about it. I was curious to see what the fuss was about.

Expecting it to be rehashed nonsense like most internet marketing products, I began watching the training videos Friday around 4pm.

I got sucked into the videos and watched all of them non-stop, finishing at about 10pm Friday night. I think there were about 18 videos total and each one was pure meat, no filler content.

He talked in depth about things like “here’s how to find a profitable product to promote”, “here’s how to track your advertising spending”, etc.

I’ve been marketing online for several years and I even learned some pretty interesting things I didn’t know about tracking in adwords.

Almost everyday someone asks me to recommend an internet marketing training program that is good. Unfortunately, there are not very many good one’s out there to recommend.

But, commission blueprint is by far one of the best values I’ve come across as far as training programs go.

The content in this course blows away most of those $1,997 “home study courses”, no joke.

I’d highly recommend you check out the videos. They are only $97 and the videos that talk about tracking your adwords traffic are worth 10 times the cost of the course.

Even if you don’t buy from my blatent affiliate link here, you still need to get this course if you are looking to make money online. It’s just good stuff that you need to learn…

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Complicated Businesses Suck

Since I announced my retirement from teaching the buying & selling websites training class, I’ve been hard at work on my 2 new business ideas.

The two new businesses I’m starting are in the travel market and the toys market, neither of which I have any experience with, but are both proven and profitable markets to get into.

While doing my market research, I decided I needed to find partners who were both smarter than me, and have lots of experience in these markets.

I met with a couple guys yesterday to discuss my business ideas and realized something very important.

The main reason I’ve been so successful in my internet businesses is because I always keep them SIMPLE.

I never realized this until talking with these partners. I basically gave them a rundown of what I wanted to do, which was very simple and straight forward. It took all of 5 minutes to explain the entire business plan to them.

Almost immediately, the guys I was chatting with were throwing out ideas left and right.  Each “brilliant idea” was more and more complex and I knew in the back of my mind that:

a) trying to do all of these things would be too overwhelming and probably never get done.

b) these ideas would most likely confuse the customers and result in them not taking action on my offers.

c) would be 3 times as expensive to do and half as profitable as my simple idea.

I didn’t want to tell these potential partners that their ideas sucked because they were so excited about them.  Yes, they were sexier ideas than my plain jane version of the business, but 9 out of 10 times it’s the boring businesses that make the most money.

After talking with these guys, I realized that many of the mistakes people make when trying to make money online are because people over complicate things.  The easier the business, the more effective you can be at doing the things that actually make money. If you are so caught up in complicated technology or constantly trying to be innovative and cutting edge, you will be stuck in a never ending rat race.

Have you figured this out for yourself yet?

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Who Is Your Mentor?

I’ve talked about mentors a bit in the past and how I believe you need to have a mentor if you want to achieve success in making money online.

When I announced my “retirement” from teaching how to buy and sell websites, I got a ton of emails from readers who were sad to see me go. A lot of the emails read “Please don’t stop teaching, you’re one of my only mentors that I can trust”.

It really got me thinking…

It’s true, many people who teach methods of making money online are in it for one thing, the money. And when you have that motivation, you can be sure the mentor you are following has THEIR best interests in mind, NOT YOURS.

While it’s also true, I’m retiring from teaching the buying & selling websites business anymore, I think its important for you to know what to look for in a good mentor so you don’t get burned.

Find A Mentor You Can Trust To Help You make money online

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1) The mentor you are following should have a defined path to success.

In other words, your mentor should be someone who has made most of their money DOING whatever it is they are teaching others to do. If the person made just a few bucks using the technique and now makes the majority of their money from teaching the “how to”, STAY AWAY.

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2) The mentor you are following should help you stay focused.

Have you ever been on someone’s email list and you get offer after offer after offer to buy different products? This is one SURE SIGN that the mentor doesn’t care about you. All they are looking for is their affiliate commission, so they try to shove offer after offer in front of your face hoping you’ll bite on one of them.

It is impossible to be successful with an internet business if you buy a new training program every single week. By the time you learn the technique you bought, the next great “product of the week” comes out and you move on to the next one. You never have a chance to implement anything.

If you get emails from a mentor who offers you many different ways to make money than what you originally signed up for, chances are the mentor is abusing their relationship with you for affiliate commissions.

A lot of times these emails will “appear” to be genuine. Here are some common ones (since most of these marketers have no originality…)

a) My good friend Bob agreed to share his secrets with you on a FREE teleconference tonight at 9.

b) I just found this new way of making $300 a day, download this free report that explains it all.

c) I just got off the phone with __________ and got him to reveal his system how he makes $5000/month with no list, no website, no money, etc.

There are a bunch of similar stories, but the meanings are all the same….They are going to give you a free teaser, waste 45 minutes of your time, then pitch you on the latest and greatest money making technique for $997.

These are distractions to your main objective, and this type of mentor is HURTING your chances of success by throwing different business models at you every single week.

My advice, if you are on a list like this, unsubscribe immediately.

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3) The mentor should not depend on the income from his training course to survive!

If your mentor is coming out with a new product every single week or every month, chances are they are doing that because they NEED the money from these courses to pay their mortgage.

And if these people are that bad off financially, that’s NOT someone you should be listening to when you want help making money online.

You should only be following people who really don’t need your money because they became wealthy using the technique they are teaching. Sadly, there are few people who fit into this category.

You might ask, if the mentor doesn’t need the money, then why are they charging for the training? Well, one reason is, it’s not right ethically to use someone else’s time, knowledge or experience without compensating them. Do you work for free?

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4) The mentor should not sell “dreams”.

Making money online CAN be easy once you know what you are doing, but don’t let anyone fool you into thinking all you have to do is push a couple buttons and then it’s off to the beach to live a life of luxury.

That is physically impossible.

Anyone who tells you that you can start a business with:

a) no money

b) little effort

c) just a couple hours per month

is flat out lying!

Personally, I don’t think anyone should even consider starting an internet business unless they have at least $1,000 - $3,000 of cash in the bank that is not reserved for living expenses. If you don’t have at least this much, you don’t need to be in business because you are just not ready yet.

Internet businesses are dirt cheap to start compared to any other business in the world, but they are still businesses and have certain costs associated with them (ie - hosting, domain name, development cost, advertising, content creation, software, etc).

Compare this startup cost to a real retail business, where you can spend more than $150,000 just to open your doors, a couple grand for an internet business is nothing.

Not everyone is right for making money online. Lack of capital is one thing that keeps people from succeeding online. If you are always stressed about the decision between spending $50 for a website logo or putting $50 of food on the table, you will not do well online.

Advice - pick up an extra part time job and put all of that income aside for your internet business. Once you have a couple thousand saved up, then quit the part time job and focus on building a real internet business.

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These are the big ones to watch out for. You just have to think about the person you are following and ask yourself, “Are they really trying to help me succeed, or are they just trying to sell me their products and earn affiliate commissions from their friends?”

Sometimes it is difficult to know who to trust for advice and that’s part of the problem.

Personally, I like the school of hard knocks as a learning tool. Just go out there and try stuff. Learn for yourself what works and what doesn’t. Stop doing the stuff that doesn’t work and keep doing more of what does. Before you know it, you will be making good money online.

A lot of people are afraid of failure or losing money, but if you think about it, why not spend that $997 on testing a new business idea and see if it works rather than pay $997 for a training program. The money is gone either way, but at least if you invest in yourself and your business, you have a much higher chance of success.

So, who do you follow online?

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Reader Discussion Session: Fake LinkBait

Recently the SEO universe erupted into a huge debate about the morality of fake or made up linkbait. Popular blogger Lyndoman admitted in a post on his blog that he had completely fabricated a story about a 13 year old stealing his father’s credit card and using it to hire hookers… to play Halo with him!

The story appeared on an authoritative news site, went popular on Digg and several other social media sites, and was even picked up by one of the major television news networks! Needless to say, the linkbait attempt was incredibly successful.

However, the tactic Lyndoman used was met with mixed reactions in the SEO community many of whom thought the method was immoral and gave the community a bad name.

Personally, I am of the feeling that the piece achieved its goal (of attracting a massive number of links) and that is the only moral issue involved. If people (especially the news agencies) don’t bother to do some fact checking, I don’t see how that’s any concern of the marketer. Also, I don’t see how publishing a fabricated story is any different than staging photo opps or orchestrating events to create a desired effect. For example, if Lyndoman had in fact paid a 13 year old to steal his father’s credit card and hire the working girls would the story be somehow more valid?

What do you think? Would you knowingly publish a fabricated story to generate links? Do you think someone hired for the purpose of creating linkbait should worry about the moral implications of the story or are results the only thing that matters? Let your opinion be heard by weighing in through the comment section below!

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6 Ways to Increase Email Subscriptions

Having a large subscriber list can be highly beneficial in any online endeavor. This is because you will be able to send marketing materials to your target audience directly to their inbox. Some people worry about the technical aspects of setting up the subscription form on their webpage but this process is actually quite simple; e-mail management services will give the HTML needed for the subscription form. The real concern is related to marketing.

1. Premium placement – it is recommended for you to put the sign-up form prominently on the home page. It should be visible to the reader before the break (towards the top of the page without the need to scroll down). You can also use graphics or even animation or rotating images to draw their eyes to the registration form.
2. Use multiple forms – you can put the subscription form on most of your web pages. Putting the form at the end of the article after the reader has read the content has been proven to be effective. Not only will the added reminder help your subscription rate, but if you place forms after your content there’s a good chance prospects have already been exposed to your information and enjoyed it (otherwise why would they keep reading?).
3. Provide incentives – you hear this tip all over the internet but I will repeat it here because it works. You should offer something for free such as free articles, free e-books, and free contests. You can even offer discount coupons to your products if you are selling something.
4. Provide rationale – information overload is an inevitable part of being an internet user. Realize that your readers suffer from information overload as well so take time to explain why they will benefit from subscribing to your site.
5. Offline methods – exhibits are a great way to solicit subscriptions. When people visit your booth, you can ask them to sign up personally. Many of the methods I discussed in Take Blog Promotion Offline can also be effectively applied to list building.
6. Co-registration – this is a great way to get subscriptions from other websites. You need to have partners who will place your form at their “thank you page” when their readers have already subscribed to their newsletters. Take note that you will need to return the favor.

What other methods have you used for list building? Have you tried any of these that I listed? If so, please feel free to share your experiences with us in the comment section below!

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