Author Archive | Lawrence

Have you tried offline marketing yet? If not, why not?

Odds are you’re hesitant to offer offline services because you’re afraid of sounding less than super intelligent when talking to business owners. Maybe approaching them makes you nervous. Maybe you just don’t feel like enough of an expert.

Whatever the reason, take heart. Business owners are just people who need help, and you are there to do exactly that – help them. Treat them like they are your new friend and you can not only eventually turn them into clients, you can also keep them as clients for years and years to come.

Perform a service for them, no matter how small. Even if you only charge $100, that token amount is your foot in the door and a slam in the face to all other offline marketers. Now when someone approaches that business person about marketing, they will say, “No, I already have a guy/gal for that.” And once you earn their trust with that first small job, you can get bigger and bigger jobs from them in the future.

So how do you get your confidence up for that first phone call or in person meeting? How do you get yourself in the zone before you even pick up the phone or walk through the door? By talking to yourself or a friend. Literally.

This trick comes from entertainer Kyle Cease who accidentally discovered it on the way to an audition. Normally before an audition he would constantly worry about it. But this time he started talking to his friend about the upcoming audition as though it had already happened, like this: “Do you remember when I went into that audition and I just nailed it? I don’t know what happened but I got into a zone and I started feeling so good.”

By talking about it in past tense, he started feeling really good about it. The stress disappeared and he acted as though it was a done deal, as though the only possibility was nailing the audition, which he did.

Interestingly enough, I’ve been doing this for years without even realizing what I was doing or why I felt so confident in new situations. It took Kyle to point out that this technique isn’t well-known and needs to be shared.

Try this yourself. The next time you are stressed about something you’re about to do, talk out loud about how great it went, how you were positively on fire and totally nailed it, etc. It’s a simple trick that costs nothing but a few minutes of your time, but it can have a life changing impact.

This one technique will allow you to break through old comfort zones like you’re a super hero breaking the sound barrier. You’ll find you can do things and accomplish things you’d only dreamed about before.

Let’s face it – it’s getting a little harder these days to do offline marketing. There’s more competition than ever before as more and more marketers break into the field. There are also more potential services to sell, which just tends to confuse the heck out of both the business owners and the new offline marketers. And as more and more marketers are offering more services to business owners, the owners are often saying “no” before they even know what they’re turning down.

But it’s still true that offline marketing can be hugely lucrative for anyone who makes a serous attempt at it, especially if they find a way to stand apart from the crowd. Imagine the edge you could enjoy over every other offline marketer if you offered business owners just one thing – the thing they want the most – more customers.

Very few marketers are doing this, yet it’s probably the easiest service of all to sell to a business owner.

You could practically pick and choose which clients you work with, because what business owner is going to say ‘no’ to new customers? None in their right mind. Especially when they only pay you for leads or for actual customers. If you don’t deliver, they don’t get paid. Thus there is absolutely no risk to them. And with no risk, there is no reason for them to say no.

So how do you go about getting these leads and new customers for your clients? First, you’re going to think locally, not globally. You’re getting leads for a specific type of local business that serves a specific geographic area, such as a city or region.

Second, you’re going to build a website and then you’re going to drive traffic to that website. You do want to use good SEO, but you don’t want to rely just on search engine traffic. After all, your site could rise or fall on the whim of the search engines. That’s why you’ll want a paid traffic source you can rely on such as Google Ads.

You’ll be choosing niches that can pay you high referral fees so you can afford to spend money to get those leads and still pocket plenty of profit. For example, let’s say it takes you $50 in Google Ads to get a new patient for a dentist. If you’re charging the dentist $100 per new patient then you can do this all day long.

You’ll want to retain ownership of your websites for two reasons. First, if your client ever stops working with you, you’ll be able to sell your leads to a similar client in the same area. For example, if you’re getting leads for a contractor in Austin, Texas, and one day that contractor decides for whatever reason to stop using your leads, you can simply begin selling your leads to one of their competitors.

The second reason to retain ownership of your lead generating websites is so that you can make changes on the fly. Let’s say your site is ranking high but one day it falls to page 3. You can immediately make changes in your SEO without having to get them approved by the business.

As you can see, this business model is fairly simple and the competition is still relatively low. The field is wide open and getting clients can be as easy as asking if they can handle more business.

Here are a few questions you might have:

Q. What type of website should I build?

A. A small WordPress site targeting the best buyer keywords works well. Figure 5 to 10 pages, 10 to 25 keywords to start if you’re optimizing for SEO. Each website should target one niche in one town. For example, dentists in Tacoma or chiropractors in Atlanta.

Q. How do I find the keywords? Can you give keyword examples?

A. Use the Google Keyword Planner to find out which terms are commonly searched for in a particular industry. Then add those keywords to the location to form your keyword phrases. For example, Tacoma Washington dentist. Use singular and plural, and also add appropriate “buying” keywords, such as buy, rent, lease, hire, etc. Lastly, add descriptive keywords such as best, cheap, fast, etc.

Q. What domain should I use for my site?

A. First, don’t buy a domain that uses the actual business name. For example, if your client is Bob Smith, dentist, Tacoma Washington, don’t buy BobSmithTacomaDentist.com because if he ever stops using your services you won’t be able to use that domain. Second, choose something generic with your best keywords in a .com, .org or .net. For example, TacomaWashingtonDentist.com or DentistTacomaWashington.com. (These may or may not already be real sites.)

Q. What should I have on my website?

A. – A toll-free number prominently displayed.

– A contact form above the fold. (70-80% of people will call, 20-30% of people will fill out the contact form.)

– Images – either use images from your client or buy your own images.

– Lots of headings and paragraphs to break up the content.

– Great content with a clear call to action. Don’t use PLR for this – either write your content yourself or outsource it. If you need ideas, check similar websites but do not copy. Above all, make your copy engaging.

– Proof – real customer testimonials are good for this, as well as industry backed facts quoted with sources (IE: “People using a lawyer for their personal injury claim receive on average $42,000 more per claim than those going through the process without legal representation.” – The American Bar Assoc.) btw, I just made that up – DO NOT use it.

Q. What shouldn’t I have on my website?

A. Anything that is on the client’s own website. Assuming they have their own site, you’ll want to use all fresh and unique content. If you need to post their address, do so as an image so Google doesn’t see it as duplicating. And don’t use PLR. Ever.

Q. How do I charge?

A. It’s up to you and the client, but here are some suggestions:

Get paid for the leads you generate, rather than the sales you make. You’ll get paid less per lead of course, but you’ll get paid for every lead regardless of whether or not they become a customer. It’s important to note that clients may be more reluctant to do it this way if they are not confident in their ability to close leads. You can overcome their resistance by giving the first leads to them for free so that they can test the quality of the leads before agreeing to pay for your services.

Establish a flat rate for each sale you generate. Your client might offer many different services at different prices, in which case you can establish a different flat rate for each service. With flat rate you typically get paid right away.

Take a certain percentage of each sale. If your client bills far into the future rather than upfront, you might not get paid for awhile using this method. Commissions over the lifetime of the client/customer relationship. For example, if your client is a landscaper and they service the client weekly for months or years, you could get paid a small amount of money for a long time, which adds up.

Q. Are there any clients I should avoid?

A. Yes. Any business in direct competition with one of your existing clients. For example, you can work with one dentist in each geographical area, but not two dentists in the same small to mid-sized town (2 dentists in a large city would almost certainly be alright, but after that look for other locations or other professions.)

Also avoid any business that does not either make a large sale up front or offer a long term ongoing service. For example, a bakery wouldn’t be a good business since each sale is probably $5 to $20. But a doctor, lawyer, accountant, contractor, swimming pool sales, realtor, insurance agent, mortgage broker, etc., would all make for good clients. So would someone who provides an ongoing service such as the landscaping and lawn care we mentioned earlier, or a maid service, high paid personal trainer, etc.

Q. How do I know which businesses to approach?

A. Look for those that are already spending money on trying to get business. This might be in the Yellow Pages, Google Ads, newspaper advertising, etc. These are businesses looking for more customers and ready to spend money to get those customers.

Q. How do I track leads?

A. The opt-in form makes tracking of those leads easy. You can even offer an incentive such as a relevant report to encourage their opt-ins, and then follow up to encourage them to use your client’s services.

For the phone number, you can use a virtual reception service to take down the name and number of each caller before forwarding them to the business.

Local affiliate marketing can be extremely lucrative if you’re willing to put some time into it. You’ll need to build websites, optimize them and run Google Ads campaigns. But once you get everything set up, you can continue to make money for months or years to come with very little additional effort.

Hopefully you are the exception to these mistakes. If you’re not, take heart: 9 out of 10 online marketers make these very same mistakes. Here’s how to rise above your competition and increase your bottom line simply by NOT making these 5 mistakes…

Spamming on social media. You opened your Twitter account with the best of intentions to Tweet valuable content and answer questions, but now nearly every tweet you send out is a link promoting a product. If this is you, then it’s time for a change. Promotion is fine as long as it makes up only 20-30% of your tweets at MOST. The rest should be content rich and helpful to your followers. And this goes for every social media network, not just Twitter.

Not testing. You create a new squeeze page but you don’t test one headline against another. Result? Every day that goes by, you are losing money. Test everything and eventually the exact same effort will yield 1.5, 2 or even 3 times the results.

Not asking for the sale. Whether you’re looking for an opt-in, a share or a sale, tell them exactly what you want them to do. If you don’t make your call-to-action clear, you will get less than stellar results every time.

Ignoring your current customers. Are you so busy looking for new business that you forget to pay attention to your most important asset – your current customers? These are the people who already trust you enough to have purchased at least one of your products. That’s why your current customers are actually your best future prospects in the world – treat them like gold.

Talking about you, you and YOU. Do you know who your customers care about? Themselves. They don’t care about you, only about what you can do for them. This sounds harsh, but it’s true. Yes, you can tell them an anecdote about what happened to you last weekend, but it better have something in it for them. Your customers don’t want you or your products. They want solutions to their problems. Remember this and you can’t go wrong.

It’s almost cliché: People buy from and work with people they know, like and trust. People get to know you through your content, and they trust you based on your reputation and track record of service. But how do you get people to LIKE you?

Be honest. Who doesn’t like an honest person? If I came to you and said I did a really stupid thing and asked for your forgiveness, you would almost certainly forgive me AND think more highly of me, even though I did the stupid thing. But if I tried to cover it up and you found out, you probably wouldn’t like me, and who could blame you?

This is why mistakes are actually an opportunity to strengthen the relationship between vendors and customers. When the vendor owns up to the mistake and takes immediate action to correct it, the customer will often feel even more positive about the vendor than if the entire transaction had gone off without a hitch.

Be responsive. When someone takes the time to write to you, write back. When an affiliate has a question or concern, answer it immediately. If you can’t, let them know you’ve received their message and will be replying as soon as you can.

If your joint venture partners and affiliates can’t get a hold of you when things are running smoothly, they’ll be concerned that you won’t be there for them should something go wrong. And if you (or your assistant) answers customers questions in a timely manner, you will stand apart from those competitors who never bother to reply.

Be passionate. Yet another reason to work in niches you love – when you’re passionate about your topic, people just naturally like you. You exude an energy and charisma that draws people to you. Positivity is contagious – and people who are passionate about the topic will naturally bond with you.

Tell stories. Imagine a subscriber is on 10 emails lists. 9 of those lists are a constant bombardment of “BUY THIS!” But the owner of the 10th list tells stories. In fact, every email s/he sends contains a story, even if it’s still selling something. Which emails will get opened and read? And who will the subscribers like more? I know of list owners who promote a product every single day to their lists, but because they always tell an interesting story, their open rate is through the roof.

It’s no different than 150 years ago when the farmers would sit around the wood stove in the general store in the middle of winter. The farmer with the best stories was almost always the most beloved of the bunch.

Be yourself. Vulnerability, humility and authenticity will shine through every time. Which of your friends do you like the best? Odds are it’s the ones who don’t put on a facade and can just be themselves.

In the long running British series, “Last of The Summer Wine,” 2 of the main characters were Compo and Foggy. Compo had all sorts of faults, dressed like a bum and obviously didn’t care what people thought. Foggy, on the other hand, was continually trying to paint himself as a regimental, heroic leader. He cared a great deal about what others thought and often told stories of his many imaginary exploits in the great war. Of course he was really rather timid and somewhat incompetent. But he was too busy putting on a false front to notice that he was the only one who believed it.

So which character do you think was most beloved? Compo of course.

Use humor. You don’t have to be a comedian or even tell jokes if you’re not good at it. Simply telling tales about yourself and laughing right along with your readers and viewers will show you have a sense of humor. And they will be able to relate to you all the better when they see you can laugh at your own stupid mistakes.

Surprise people. Find ways to pleasantly surprise your affiliates and customers and they’ll keep coming back for more. For example, you might do a blog post in which you thank each of your active affiliates by name. It wouldn’t cost you a cent, but it would certainly surprise and delight your affiliates when you took the time to publicly recognize their efforts.

Be thankful. Thank your joint venture partners and affiliates every chance you get (see the previous paragraph.) And of course thank your customers. Simply sending an email is a good start, but consider taking your gratefulness further by sending e-cards or actual snail mail cards or even calling. Imagine calling someone who just purchased your $97 product just to say thank you. You’ll have a new best friend for a customer every time you do it.

Keep it simple. Every day the world gets a little bit more complicated, which is an opportunity for you to find a way to simplify things. Taking complex ideas and distilling them down to their simplest forms makes it far easier for your audience to understand what you’re saying and to appreciate you for making it easy for them.

Take a look at every component of your business and find ways to simplify. Is your ordering system a 4 page maze of forms and check boxes? Simplify it. Is your product 26 videos of step-by-step information? Make a mind map so they can see the entire thing on one page. Do you make new affiliates jump through a hoop or two before they can promote you? Simplify. The last thing anyone needs is more complication. By making things simple, you will again become that much more likeable.

If you are the marketer who is honest, responsive, passionate and thankful, who tells stories and uses humor, who keeps things simple and down to earth and even occasionally surprises people, you will be well-liked indeed.

Whether you’re just starting your first online venture or you’re going into a new niche, you want to hit the ground running. And because success loves speed and so does your wallet, these tips are designed to give you maximum boost for the effort.

Get your Unique Selling Point together. What makes you different? What sets you apart? Don’t say quality or price – everyone says that. Find your own unique voice that can be heard above the noise of the crowd and all of your marketing endeavors will become that much easier.

Decide exactly what you want. You can’t reach a goal if you don’t know what it is, so what’s your chief objective? To build a loyal list? To sell a particular product or service? To become the trusted authority in your field? Decide what you want so you can choose the best methods to get there.

Decide exactly who your target customer is. You can’t market to everyone, so create a profile of your ideal customer and then cater all of your marketing and content to that profile as though you were speaking one on one.

Get some partners. These partners will vary according to your goal (Building a list? Selling a product? Etc.) and according to who your target market is. Decide who is in a great position to help you reach your goal, and then start building alliances with them by asking them what you can do for them. Let’s say you can write – offer to write blog posts, articles, emails, etc. for them. Think of it as paying it forward. Yes, it works. The alternative is to approach them with an exciting goal, like raising a large amount of money for a cause or charity. Potential JV partners will often lend a hand to be a part of something big and newsworthy.

Get social. Choose the two social networks that are the best fit for your new venture. Create new profiles just for your venture and start reaching out. Incentivize people to share by offering them a bribe (ebook, video, etc.) or by running a contest.

Get your content on. Create content for your blog or website, social media content, videos, etc. Make it INTERESTING, make it informative, make it enjoyable. Mix in a little controversy (if possible) and you’ve got a recipe for share-ability.

Don’t just write and post your content, SHARE it. Use social media, guest blog posting, email and any method you can to get your content out there.

Give away small tastes only. There’s a theory that if you give away all your best stuff, customers will line up in droves to buy your products. But if they’re already getting your very best stuff for free, why would they? Because they think what you’re selling is even better. You can guess what happens when they realize it isn’t. Instead, only give away nibbles of your information. Tell them what to do, but don’t tell them how to do it. Make them buy your product to find that out. This is the secret of the marketers who charge 3 and 4 figures per product – they don’t give away their best stuff, they make the customers pay for it. And one more thing – people appreciate what they pay for. Want your customers to not appreciate you? Then give away the farm.

There you have it – 8 tips for launching your next IM venture. These are the solid techniques that build businesses. And you’ll notice something – no where in here did you see a gimmick or the latest piece of software. There’s no need to reinvent the wheel because building a solid business means using the rock solid basics that have been proven by successful marketers to work time and time again.

Awhile back we did a segment on headlines that was so popular we’ve decided to do another. Below you’ll find 33 examples of headlines where you can simply fill in the blank, along with an example use for each.

You might want to print this out and keep it next to your computer. Then the next time you need a headline, sub-headline or a subject line you’ll got it handy.

Your ___ Doesn’t Want You To Read This Your Banker Doesn’t Want You To Read This

What ___ Won’t Tell You Can Save You ___ On Your ___!!! What Your Banker Won’t Tell You Can Save You Thousands Of Dollars On Your Mortgage!!!

Why ___ Succeed In ___ And ___ Fail Why Lazy Jerks Succeed In Marketing And Nice Guys Fail

You Too Can ___ In Just ___ With ___! You Too Can Write Headlines Like A Pro In Just 2 Minutes With This Handy Cheat Sheet!

Too Busy ___ To ___? Too Busy Working A Job To Start Your Own Internet Business?

World Renowned ___ Reveals Top Secret ___ To ___ With ___ World Renowned Marketer Reveals Top Secret Surprising Ways To Generate Massive Traffic With Social Media

What ___ Don’t Tell You – You Can ___ In As Little As ___ For Only ___ What Gurus Don’t Tell You – You Can Build Your Own Online Business In As Little As 3 Days For Only $90.

These Must Be Some Of The Best Kept ___ Secrets In The World These Must Be Some Of The Best Kept Copywriting Secrets In The World

We’re Looking For ___ Who Want To ___ With ___ We’re Looking For Aspiring Marketers Who Want To Make Money With Their Own Internet Business

A ___ Without ___ A 7 Figure Business Without Employees Or An Office

___ Your Way To A ___ You Laugh Your Way To A Fitter, Skinnier You

This New ___ Can ___ While It ___! This New WordPress Plugin Can Generate Targeted, Eager Traffic While It Runs On Autopilot!

___, This Is The ___ Your ___ Doesn’t Want You To Know About! Marketers, This Is The Information Your Competition Doesn’t Want You To Know About!

7 Ways To ___ 7 Ways To Get A Brand New Car For Half Price Or Less

___ Swears Under Oath He Did Not ___ He’s ___ Local Appliance Dealer Swears Under Oath He Did Not Steal Any Of The Appliance’s He’s Selling For So Cheap

The Secret Of ___ The Secret Of Perfect Free-Throws

How To ___ More And ___ Less How To Eat More And Weigh Less

Get ___ Without ___ Get The Body You Want Without Diet Or Exercise

The People Who ___ Will End Up With Your ___ The People Who Buy This Plugin Will End Up With Your Customers

___ For ___ Available Now! Solo Ads For The Health And Wellness Niche Available Now!

___ Reveals Ways To ___ Without ___ Super Affiliate Reveals Ways To Steal Competitor’s Sales Without Getting Into Trouble

The Lazy ___ Way To ___ The Lazy Marketer’s Way To Product Creation

The Amazing New ___ Discovered By ___ The Amazing New Traffic Generating System Discovered By A Nine Year Old Kid.
The Amazing Secret Of How You Can ___ With No ___ The Amazing Secret Of How You Can Build A 100% Automated Information Business With No Experience

The 10 Quickest Ways To ___ The 10 Quickest Ways To Create Information Products

___ Got You Down? We Have The Solution. A Dead, Non-Responsive List Got You Down? We Have The Solution.

New ___ Won’t ___ Even In A ___ New Roses Won’t Get Powdery Mildew Even In A Rainforest

Need More ___? Need More Customers?

___ In ___ Or Your Money Back Your Pests Removed In 48 Hours Or Your Money Back

How To Turn ___ Into ___ In Just ___ How To Turn PLR Into Money Generating Powerhouses In Just 2 Hours

Improve Your ___ In As Little As ___ Improve Your SEO In As Little As 10 Minutes A Day

How To ___ That Will ___ How To Write Sales Copy That Will Make You Rich

How To ___ That ___ How To Write Emails That Go Viral, Sending New Traffic To Your Website

Do You Make These Mistakes ___? Do You Make These Mistakes On The Golf Course?

“Find out what people want and sell it to them” is advice you’ll hear time and time again. Why? Because it generally works. After all, if someone wants breakfast cereal made out of toads and frogs and you’re the only one selling it, you can command your own price.

But what if there is massive competition in the toad and frog cereal niche? Then you’ve got to differentiate yourself. You’ve got to find a way to stand apart and above the others selling a very similar product.

Or you can go a different route, the way companies like Apple roll, and that’s to find out what people WILL want. You see, all of the greatest products were at one time non-existent. No one knew you could ride in cars and so they used horses and maybe buggies. Then along comes the car – something no one had seen before, and people quickly realized they wanted it. Decades later consumers didn’t know they wanted computers and the Internet. Nor did they know they wanted cell phones and then super sophisticated cell phones, but once they were introduced, people desperately wanted them.

So if you can find a want before it even exists, you’ve got no competition – at least for the first few weeks and even months.

And you can take this even one step further. It’s not just a matter of finding out what people will want, it’s also a matter of finding a way to offer it to them that takes the work out of it. Imagine if Apple sold its products as kits that had to be put together – would they sell as many phones and tablets as they do now? Doubtful.

There was a time when computers were basically sold as kits. You get the plans, you buy the parts, you put together your computer. So who had computers during this time? A relative handful of people who liked to tinker on electronics. It wasn’t until several years later when computers were sold ready-made that the market took off.

If we were looking at this as a tiered system, with each subsequent tier being preferable to the previous, then the first tier is the old standby of offering customers what they already want. The second tier is offering what they want before they even know they want it. And the third and final tier is to offer what they want before they know they want it, and take all of the work out of it for them.

Sell them the ready made solution where the only action they need to take is to make the decision to buy. Make them feel good for taking that action, like they made a real contribution to getting the solution you’re offering. In essence you’re giving them the satisfied feeling that they really accomplished something important when they hit that order button. But in fact YOU are doing the actual, real work, whatever that might be.

If you’re offering a revolutionary new WP theme, install it for them. If you’re offering a complete business solution, set the whole thing up for them. If you’re offering an irrigation system or an automobile makeover or even an exercise program, make them feel that all they have to do is make the decision. That’s it. Then you will do the rest.

Now of course you and I know that in many cases, they will have to do work. But that’s not something they want to think about during the sales process. In the example of the exercise program, all they have to do is show up and then you will guide them step-by-step. They don’t have to think about a thing, they just follow along. You’re making it appear as though you do the work, when in reality they are the ones actually working.

Is this deceptive? Not in the slightest. If you say you will build them a website and then you send them instructions on how to do it themselves, then of course that would be deceptive. But if you build the site for them and then they have to update it themselves, or if you show them exactly how to exercise but they have to actually move their own bodies, you truly are taking the lion’s share of the work of thinking out of it for them.

In the sales process when you are romancing the customer, it’s okay to make them feel 10 feet tall for simply “taking action.” And it’s also a very smart move to continue to congratulate them for their wise decision, since this will make for happy customers who don’t cancel.

Find out what people want, or better still, what they WILL want, and then remove the work as much as you can and you will have a winning business model.

When doing the business of marketing we tend to get wrapped up in features, benefits, open and conversion rates, etc. We lose sight of who we’re talking to – people. Real people. People who feel, who hurt, who laugh, who are afraid, who triumph, who fail, who love. People.

It’s when you touch your customers hearts that you really get through and make an impact. That’s when you make the connection. That’s when you’re no longer an unwanted intrusion on their day, but rather a welcome friend they invite into their home.

I was reminded of this when I watched this TED Talk video featuring Frank Warren, the postcard secret guy. This is the fellow who receives real paper postcards from all over the world, each containing a secret. He publishes these postcards on his blog and in books.

He hasn’t chosen to place advertising on his blog, but if he ever does, he could generate a significant income effortlessly. Do you know why? Because people come back to his blog time and time again. They come back because those postcards touch their hearts.

And from a content creation point of view, Frank is a genius. All of his content is created by others. He simply scans it and posts it. Nice. So there’s another idea for you – in addition to touching hearts, find a way to get your users to create your content for you.

I highly recommend you watch this video. It’s only 11 minutes long but it will give you insights on what your customers really want, regardless of what niche you might think you’re in. Because no matter what your product or service might be, when it’s all boiled down to it’s essence you’ll realize that you are really and truly in the “people” business.

As a new marketer, or a marketer who is not yet earning 6 figures, building a business can be slow going. You’ve got to write lots of articles and blog posts, do SEO, write a weekly newsletter, participate in 2-5 social media venues a day, network at events, etc. And all of this is just to get your business off the ground.

There is a major shortcut to success that bypasses all of this time and effort, and it’s doing joint ventures. A joint venture is you and your partner sharing resources for mutual benefit. A typical joint venture is simply, “You promote my program and I’ll promote your program.” Using nothing but joint ventures, you can grow your business so much faster than by doing all of those other things we’re told to do. JV’s are a massive, MASSIVE shortcut to success.

But when you’re new and you still don’t have a very large list of your own, big JV players will seldom even talk to you, much less do a JV with you which is a real shame. These potential JV partners have already done all those things we listed to build their good name and their lists. If you could simply get your offer in front of their list, you would be golden.

But there is a way to get potential JV partners to pay attention to you, even if you do not yet have a list. Are you ready for this? No, it’s not sending them FedEx packages or calling them on the phone or promising to clean their house for a month if they’ll just mail for you. Instead, the secret to getting JV partners when you don’t have a list of your own is to:

Have a BIG idea, or a unique vision that gets them fired up. Everyone, including potential JV partners, want to be part of something BIGGER than themselves.

Your big idea is going to depend upon your niche. If you’re gardening, maybe it’s to raise money for community gardens or to send seed to countries in need. If your niche is weightloss, maybe it’s a challenge to get 10,000 of America’s office workers to lose 500,000 pounds. (That’s 50 pounds each, so target accordingly.) If your niche is teaching music, maybe it’s to fund an inner city program.

The point is to have a BIG IDEA and then get as many JV partners onboard as possible. There’s a tipping point effect involved in this – once you get a few prominent names in your niche, others will quickly sign up because of the star power of those first comers. Movies are cast like this, too. Once a star comes on board a movie, EVERYONE wants to be in that movie.

And by the way, this is also the secret to motivating yourself. I’ve noticed that sometimes earning an extra $___ a month isn’t enough to motivate some would-be marketers, but having a really big goal that helps others gets them fired up and moving.

So it’s a 2 for 1. Get a big goal and you’ll not only find that JV partners want to join you – you’ll also discover that you have more motivation and energy for the project.

And there’s another lesson in this – just because something doesn’t seem to work doesn’t mean it can’t be done. Just because the established marketers in your niche seem adverse to doing JV’s with newcomers doesn’t mean you throw in the towel and go home. Instead, you persevere and you find another way. And getting a big BIG idea that gets people fired up is that other way.

So make yourself a list of possible big ideas. Keep the question simmering in the back of your brain for the next few days – what would be so big it will get you and your future JV partners fired up? The answer will come when you least suspect it – quite possibly as you’re driving, showering or falling asleep. When the answers come, write them down.

Then, when the timing is right, take massive action and put your BIG IDEA in motion. 😀

The following information is for marketers ready to start their own coaching program. However, anyone could take the knowledge contained within to build their own $100,000 business from scratch. Bottom Line: Whether you’re ready to take on coaching clients or you’re just getting started, this information is for you.

There are practically unlimited ways you can set up a coaching program in hundreds of different niches. Obviously I can’t cover all the possibilities, so I’m going to outline one strategy that you can almost certainly begin implementing and teaching almost immediately, and it’s this: List building.

Every aspiring marketer knows s/he needs to build a list because that’s where the money is. Untold products have been sold showing people how to build and monetize lists. And yet there are thousands upon thousands of would-be marketers who simply don’t seem to be able to take that first step and set up their own list building system.

So here’s what you can offer them: A complete start to finish list building system that they can continue to use for years to come. In fact, you can even promise them a certain number of subscribers by a certain time frame once you get this process down.

What you will be doing is showing them step-by-step exactly how the entire list building system works, as well as helping them to get their list built. Whether you build it for them, have them do it or outsource is up to you and should be made clear from the onset. You could charge one price if they build it themselves under your direction, and charge extra if you do it or if you have it outsourced.

Now then, here’s the foundation you’ll want to lay with your clients from the start:

Caution: This first item might not seem important, but I’ve found that it’s actually THE #1 STEP that sets your clients on the path to success. Without this, their own self-doubt can wreck havoc, especially if you are having them do their own work (which, by the way, is the method I recommend rather than doing the work for them.)

So what is the first step? Building their confidence that what you are teaching them will absolutely, positively work. Because it DOES.

Let them know that if they follow your instructions and do the work, they will absolutely, positively succeed. Their success won’t be based on how good they are at marketing, but rather a proven system that has been working since the dawn of the Internet. Using this system is no different than turning a key in a new car – regardless of who turns the key, the car will run. Period.

Let them know they need to forget fads for right now and simply follow your instructions. How do basketball players get good at the game? By practicing the fundamentals like free-throw shots. List building is no different. If they want new-fangled marketing techniques, they can add them later once they learn the tried and true, proven fundamentals. In other words, they need to FOCUS.

You’ll be teaching them to create their own PAID sales funnel. This funnel will bring in traffic to build their list while producing enough immediate income to cover costs. They don’t even need to make a profit at this point – they simply need to break even. The profit comes from the mailing list they are building.

They can expect that once they get their system in place, their daily activity will look like this:

a. Buy one or more solo ads

b. Keep a careful eye on conversion stats – the object here is to break even. If a solo ad isn’t doing that, something needs tweaking.

c. Write an email to their list

d. That’s it. Simple, right? Even someone working a full time job will have time to do this.

Now we’ll cover what you’ll be coaching your clients to do, step-by-step. If you’re not proficient at any of these steps yourself, you can find plenty of videos and information on the net to help you along.

Create a VERY good reason for people to opt into your client’s list. The more specific the better. For example, “Discover how to make money online” is not going to convert nearly so well as “Discover how this retired kindergarten teacher averages $352 a day in 30 minutes by simply playing games on Facebook.”

The incentive to opt-in to the list should be every bit as good as a paid product, if not better. If using PLR, it’s got to be prime PLR and it should be renamed and given a new cover. The best option is to create a totally unique product available no where else, since this tends to increase opt-ins as well as lending instant credibility to your client.

Here’s an advanced tactic – offer TWO incentives to opt-in. The first is immediately delivered, the second is drip fed over a period of days or weeks. First, this provides incentive for the subscriber to give their very best email address so they can receive the rest of the incentive. Second, this also provides your client with a marvelous reason to write to their new list members daily. And third, it conditions new subscribers to OPEN and READ the emails they receive from your client.

Build a squeeze page. Simple often out-converts fancy. Think of it this way – the more you say, the more excuses you might be giving them NOT to opt-in. That said, simply asking for an email address without proper incentives does not work. You should have a great headline that arouses desire for the incentive as well as curiosity. A headline with 3-7 bullet points tends to work brilliantly when well written. If using a photo, do NOT use the standard photos everyone else uses. Instead, have the client either find something unique and captivating, or get them to use their own photo.

Advanced tactic: Write the squeeze page BEFORE creating the opt-in incentive. Yes, this does sound backwards, but it can have an amazing effect on your opt-in rate. Rather than trying to write a headline and bullet points about an existing product, you’re now free to embellish and get ultra-creative. Of course, the incentive will have to meet or exceed their expectations, so some moderation is necessary. But this technique can add another 10-20% to the conversion rate if executed properly.

Does your client need ideas for the incentive? Show your client how to research forums to see what people are asking. Teach them how to search Twitter for keywords and find tweets in real time about the topic. It’s good to make a copy and paste file of these questions and tweets for inspiration.

Track and test the squeeze page. Without getting too far ahead of ourselves, you’ll want to teach your clients the importance of tracking and testing, especially on the headline. A 5% increase in conversions can result in an added 500 subscribers for every 10,000 people who visit the squeeze page.

Plus, the better the squeeze page converts, the easier it is to monetize the funnel to the point of breaking even or making a profit. And when you have a high converting squeeze page, you also have more options when it comes to buying traffic. On the other hand, if a squeeze page is converting dismally, then only the very best traffic will result in a break even point, thereby severely limiting paid traffic sources to only a handful that convert high enough to make it pay.

Here are key points to optimizing this process:

Set the autoresponder to single opt-in. Losing a third of the subscribers from the very start because they don’t double opt-in is simply not an option.

Once the visitor opt-ins, IMMEDIATELY take them to an upsell page. In other words, once they enter their email address and click submit, the very next page they see is the upsell.

Deliver your incentive via email. This keeps them focused on the upsell page. At the top of the upsell page, let them know the incentive will arrive in their email box in the next 5 to 10 minutes. (Of course, if you’re linking directly to an affiliate page, you won’t be able to do this. But as your clients progress, they should create their own upsell. This way they keep 100% of the purchase price, rather than only getting an affiliate commission. This makes it even easier to break even, and even profit as they build their list.)

In the email the new subscriber receives, send them to a download page that contains one or more additional offers. This will make the funnel even more profitable, and of course more profits mean more money to use in further list building.

Don’t stress about how “pretty” the opt-in form looks or what the button says. Instead, focus time and energy on the headline – this is where the real increases in conversions are made.

If you’re not the least bit technical and don’t feel you can teach others how to build a squeeze page, then either buy software that does it for you, or outsource it. Do NOT let squeeze page building stand in you or your clients’ way.

Just to be clear – the point of the upsell and the product(s) you offer on the download page aren’t to make a profit, they’re to cover costs. If a profit is made, so much the better. But the goal here is to at the very least break even so that the list is built for free. The real profit is made when your client repeatedly markets to the list (without burning it out, of course.)

Let’s talk about the upsell. This is the product offer the new subscriber sees as soon as they hit the submit button to get the incentive(s) and join your client’s list. The upsell needs to be as closely related to the incentive as possible. For example, if your incentive is 10 ways to get free traffic, your upsell might be software that brings free traffic via social media. If the incentive is 99 tips to breeding and selling ferrets, the upsell might be a membership in an online ferret breeders club. (I have no idea if there is such a thing, btw, but it wouldn’t surprise me.)

Advanced tactic: Choose the upsell FIRST and then create the incentive to match the upsell. Again, it appears as though you’re placing the cart before the horse, but in reality you are targeting the exact prospects most likely to purchase the upsell.

The upsell should not be expensive. $5 to $19 seems to work best. Do NOT offer anything $20 or above. The one exception to this rule seems to be certain financial niches, but as always, TEST to be sure. Counter-intuitively, offering a $12 product as your upsell will often be far more profitable than offering, say, a $47 product, even though you need 4 times as many sales on the $12 product. The fact is, you typically will get far more sales at the lower price.

TIP: The sooner your client can get their own product to use as their upsell, the better. If your client doesn’t like to write courses or record videos, they can always outsource the work. Or they can get a coder to create a plug-in or a piece of software. Many times you can buy PLR software that can then be tweaked into an excellent give-away product. And getting minor changes made to software isn’t expensive, either.

Let’s talk numbers: If your client gets 100 new opt-ins for the price of a $50 solo ad, that’s 50 cents an opt-in. Sounds a little expensive, right?

But if your client offers a $12 upsell and 5% of the new subscribers take the upsell, your client has made $60, placing them $10 in profit.

And if just one person purchases a $30 product on the download page with a 50% commission, your client has made another $15, for a total profit of $25.

Bottom Line: Your client has invested $50 to get $75 and 100 new subscribers.

Multiply the above numbers by 100 and you’ll start to see the potential. In that case, $5,000 turns into $7,500 and 10,000 new subscribers. Of course it could takes weeks to do that, or even months, depending on how fast your client works.

Taking it a step further… let’s say each of those subscribers is worth on average $1 a month for 12 months – that’s another $120,000.

Obviously this is just an example and your clients’ numbers will vary. In the beginning your client may even be out of pocket money until they get their offer and their squeeze page converting well. But as long as they are getting subscribers and as long as they market to those subscribers, the profits will come.

Running numbers like these show you the importance of TESTING. In this scenario, if your client is only getting 50 subscribers instead of 100, they will only be making $37.50 for the $50 they’ve invested. True, they will make up the difference as they continue to market to their list. But it is much better to break even or be in profit from Day 1 so they can be continually reinvesting their profits to further build their list.

Google Analytics is all you need for testing. Create two squeeze pages with 2 different headlines and send 200 clicks through. Find the one that converts the best, and then test that page against a new one. Keep tweaking until the opt-in rate puts the funnel in at least break-even status or preferably profit.

Once you get the squeeze page converting well, test and tweak the upsell page. Remember, do not let your client invest heavily in traffic until the funnel is at least in break even status.

If your clients don’t track and tweak, odds are they’re going to fail. Yes, they might get lucky straight out of the gate, but more than likely it’s going to take some testing and tracking to really optimize the funnel. On the other hand, if you and your clients do commit to tracking and tweaking, then they will succeed. It really is that simple.

If you don’t know how to use tracking, outsource it and get your outsourcer to teach you how it’s done.

So your client is building a list – now what? Let your client know s/he has two options – churn and burn the list or build relationships. Both work, by the way. Constantly adding new subscribers and then sending them offer after offer will make money.

But the better option is to build relationships by sending out good content combined with offers. If your client already has products of her own, then she should offer those products within the first week of someone joining the list. New subscribers are HOT and in prime mode to buy. Some marketers say you should spend days and weeks “warming” the list, but the fact is if the list owner has products, those products should be made available to the list as soon as possible, regardless of price point.

Yes, there are people who will tell you that you can’t offer your $47 product until they buy the $7 product, or the $2997 coaching until they buy the $397 self-paced course. Hogwash. Customers will buy what they choose when they choose. But if they don’t know the product is available, they will never buy it.

Teach your client to continue sending rapport building valuable content along with offers, giving a nice mix of each.

Prepare your client in advance. This gets tricky – sometimes you guide your client in creating a high converting list building funnel, but when you ask them how often they’re mailing their list, they confess that they aren’t. Why? Usually it’s one of two reasons: Either they don’t know what to write to their list, or they’re afraid of getting hate mail. You can eliminate the problem of not knowing what to write by working with them on their autoresponder series or by showing them how to hire someone to write the series for them.

As to the hate emails, let them know every marketer gets a few and it’s no big deal. All they need to do is remove that flamer from their list and they’re good to go. Besides, hate mail can actually help them to sell more products. Show them how to write an email based on the nasty email they received and get them to send it to their list. They’ll find that people sympathize a whole lot more than they expect, and it actually builds a deeper bond with the nice subscribers. Plus oddly enough it tends to sell products as well.

Create a buyers list. Buyers are worth a whole lot more than freebie seekers are. That’s why you’re going to instruct your client to set up a buyers list. It can be as simple as asking buyers to sign up for free updates for life. Then set the autoresponder so that when they join the buyers list, they are removed from the prospect’s list.

Instruct your client to send only premium offers to the buyers list. After 30 – 60 days if people haven’t purchased from the prospect’s list, go ahead and start sending them solo ads. That’s right – your clients can not only build their own lists with solo ads, they an also sell clicks. Selling clicks is easy money and a great way to monetize even those prospects who never make a purchase.

Solo ads give you (and your coaching clients) fast, targeted and consistent traffic. You won’t get that using free methods. You can start small and scale up. You can control where your traffic comes from and you can immediately monetize it so that it pays for itself.

Want to know how the pros get their traffic? Many of them use solo ads. Sure, they’ll sell you products on how to get free traffic, but when they want a steady stream of new prospects and customers, savvy marketers use solo-ads, regardless of what niche they’re in.

You know those ads you see for push-button make money solutions?

Solo ad mailing is as close to push-button as you can get. The tricky part is getting your system to convert well enough to break even or better.

Once it does, it’s simply a matter of buying solo ads and adding to your ever increasing list.

Here’s what you and your coaching students need to know:

Udimi.com is an excellent place to get started. So is asking owners of lists, regardless of niche. Blog owners, affiliates, product owners, etc., who are in your niche are good prospects to do solo ads for you.

Always purchase “guaranteed clicks” rather than mailing to a certain number of people. For example, if you buy 100 clicks you know you’re getting 100 clicks (or likely a little bit more.) But if you have your solo ad sent to a list of 10,000, you don’t know if you’re going to get a 1,000 clicks or NO clicks.

Provide a swipe email to the list owner. Most solo sellers do NOT accept ads for paid offers, so offer something for free (as we discussed earlier.) The person sending out your offer will use their own name as recommending your freebie to their list.

Target your clicks. If your swipe is generic blind copy, the sender will have an easier time getting the number of clicks you purchased but the clicks you receive won’t be as targeted. For example, if you don’t tell much about your offer so that it can appeal to the masses, your sender might only need to send out 400 emails to get 100 clicks. But those clicks won’t be very targeted. However, if you pre-qualify your leads by giving them lots of detail about what they’ll be getting when they click, then you’ll wind up with much more targeted leads which is exactly what you want. In our example the sender might have to send 1,000 emails to get your 100 clicks, but it doesn’t cost you any extra and you wind up with a much more qualified list.

Just to be clear, an example of blind, un-targeted copy is: “Get this great system for making money fast – and it’s free!” The recipient has no idea how the system works or what they’ll have to do to make the money. Targeted copy might read: “Offer this simple video making service to local businesses and you’ll make money fast – get the complete system for free!” Now they know exactly what they’ll need to do, and in this case you’ll only get people on your list who are actually interested in doing local marketing.

Buy smaller sized solos, especially at first. Test a list by purchasing only 100 clicks and seeing how well they convert. If you like the results, purchase more.

To get more clicks, spread them around. If you’re shooting for 1,000 clicks a week, you could get one 1,000 click mailing, or ten 100 click mailings. Nearly every sender likes to over deliver on clicks, so if you book 10 mailings of 100 clicks, you’re likely to get 110 to 120 clicks each. If you book one mailing of 1,000, you’re likely to get 1,020 clicks or so. This means by doing a larger number of smaller mailings, you can get more clicks. Of course, if you’re getting a price break on a larger mailing, you’ll need to factor that in as well.

Always track. If you’re using udimi.com, their system already tracks how many clicks are delivered. But you’ll still need to track conversions.

Separate out the buyers and treat them like gold.

Follow up relentlessly. Stay in contact, forge relationships, engage and sell.

Segment. Besides separating the buyers from the prospects, you also want to separate them by interests. For example, if you’re in the make money through marketing niche, you can segment into online, offline, video, traffic, etc. You can do this through the products you sell and give away. One great method is to create a short and powerful report that you offer to your list on a specific topic. Anyone who signs up for that freebie is now on that list, and you know for a fact they are interested in that topic. Find or make worthwhile products on that topic and send those offers to that list.

Segmenting can be highly profitable because you are further targeting your customers and honing in on exactly what they want. Yet most marketers don’t segment or do a poor job of it. Teach your coaching students how to do this and you can easily add an additional five figures to their bottom line.

And by the way, any time you see a marketer bragging about making ridiculous amounts of money from tiny lists, segmenting is how they’re doing it.

If you haven’t yet used solo ads yourself, I recommend you do so before you start coaching others on this business model. You’ll discover many more tricks and tips along the way that I didn’t have time to cover here.

Once you master the skill of building profitable lists using paid traffic, you can branch out into banner ads, Facebook ads, Bing ads, etc. There is a world of possibilities to bring targeted traffic in day after day for free simply by setting up a funnel that makes you as much money as you pay for the ads.

Everything else after that? Gravy.

One last thing – how much should you charge your coaching clients? In the beginning you’ll want to start low – $200 to $300 a month. As soon as you have a couple of great testimonials, you can likely double or triple those fees.