Archive | March, 2022

What about HUGE Niches and MASSIVE Profits?

There is a ton of marketing advice online about niching things down until you get to a small, fanatical group of people who will buy anything and everything in that niche.

And this is great advice – I offer it myself and follow it all the time.

But… you know how I like to be contrary. Sort of like, if everyone is selling stock, I’m buying. If they’re buying, I’m selling.

And if they’re niching things down to the ridiculous, I try going after HUGE niches that have a TON of people in them.

For example… How many people like to eat good food? Or see movies? Or drive cars? LOTS of people.

So I got to thinking… What if you made an offer that appealed to a ton of people?

For example, how to take vacations for free.

This isn’t anything sketchy – it really is possible to take free vacations. In fact, there are several different methods of doing it.

So I advertise this free offer: “How to take vacations for free.”

And then I bill myself to my new subscribers (using a pen name) as the guy that will hook them up with really great free stuff, like the free vacations info.

In fact, if they liked that one, they will LOVE what I have coming up, so watch your email…

…you get the idea.

Then I send them free offers.

For example, a free report or video on how to get all the dates they want.

They opt-in to a new list to get that report or video, and now I have a targeted list of people who want dating info.

Or I offer a freebie on how to save tons of money on groceries, or how to make more money, or how to lose weight, or whatever.

Generally every offer I make is going to be directly tied into an affiliate product such as a ClickBank product.

They get the free report or video, and at the end of it I make a soft sell for the ClickBank product.

I also offer a free bonus if they buy the product. All they have to do is email me their ClickBank receipt, and I send the bonus. This way I can also separate my buyers from my prospects.

As I get these segmented lists, I continue to send them free offers that lead to paid offers.

And I make bank, all because I start out attracting as many people as possible and then segmented them down by interest.

Now then, you might be wondering how this is better than simply targeting a small niche in the first place.

Frankly, I don’t know if it’s better, but it is different and it does work. And it allows me to build several lists simultaneously from the same main traffic source.

One person can be on several of my segmented lists, after all. For example, they’re interested in vacations, dating and dieting – three different lists, three opportunities to sell them products.

Using this method, it’s very easy to build a large list quickly. And if I want to immediately profit, I offer a one-time offer after they get the initial freebie.

The real payoff is when I start segmenting into smaller, more targeted lists. And of course it’s nice to have (for example) 10 lists in 10 different niches, because now I have 10 different profit centers, all coming from the same initial source.

The key is to bill yourself as the go-to person for great free stuff, and then be that person. When you offer a free video or report or whatever, it’s got to be chock full of dynamite info they can use immediately.

Tell them what to do, for example, but not how to do it. The “how to” is in the paid product.

Or tell them the difficult method to accomplish something, and then offer the easy method as a paid product.

And you don’t have to create any products yourself – just use the ones on ClickBank. But you might be creating short free reports or videos, which of course you can always outsource.

One last shortcut: A lot of affiliate offers will start out with a free report or video. Make a deal with the product owner to get that report or video in the hands of your readers yourself. That way you’re using their freebie to segment your list, and the affiliate product owner is still making sales.

There might be a life lesson in this – when others are all doing the same thing, think about how you might do the opposite. Sometimes it can really pay off in a big way.

A friend of mine who wishes to remain anonymous has agreed to tell you one of his money-making methods. And while he might be leaving some minor details out, I think there is more than enough here to set you on a very similar path if you choose.

This is what he told me…

“Here’s an example of how I made over $17,600 in five days by investing $297 and a few hours of my time.

Okay, I didn’t really invest my time – I actually paid a freelancer to do the work for me. But this is something you can easily do yourself if you’re willing to put in a little time.

I found some dynamite high-quality PLR on free traffic generation. It was good stuff, and even contained some things I didn’t know.

It included a massive manual, several written bonuses and a sales page.

And at this price point, I knew that there wouldn’t be a ton of competition, either.

Frankly, I would have gladly paid a freelancer $1,000 to write this exact same material for me, but in this case it was a simple matter of plunking down the $297 and having it in hand.

I discarded the sales page because I didn’t want anyone to know this wasn’t my own original stuff.

Then I had my freelancer go through the written material and put more personality into it, so it sounds like it’s coming from me. He already knows my style so this was easy for him and just took a few hours.

Next, he broke it up into 24 PDFs. Each PDF detailed one or two free traffic methods.

Basically, we were building a course on how to generate free, targeted traffic. And who doesn’t need that?

Finally, I wrote a new sales letter for it in my own style.

And I offered two options – they could either make 3 payments of $47 a month, and receive 2 pdfs each week, or…

…they could pay $137 up front and get everything at once, plus email support for six weeks.

Really, I thought the $137 was a no-brainer, since it was cheaper and included email support and they didn’t have to wait to get the entire course.

Then I sent the offer out to my list, and in 5 days I made over $17,600.

As to the email support, I hired someone to handle that for me. And I paid them after the money started rolling in so I wasn’t out of pocket on that, either.

Nice, right?

But I wasn’t done yet.

I then made a new offer for $47 a month for 3 months, or $97 one time and everything up front, but NO email support this time.

And I let affiliates take a crack at selling it.

I made over $10,000 from that as well, after affiliate commissions were paid.

Okay, frankly I made a good bit more than $10,000, but I’m not going to say just how much because sometimes it feels like bragging, you know what I mean?

And here’s the kicker – I’ve done very similar things several times over the past 18 months.

The numbers are always different, but what never changes is I make a good bit of money with very little work.

I mean VERY LITTLE WORK.

I outsource just about anything that needs to be done except the sales copy because I like doing that myself.

And when I let affiliates sell it, I get a whole new list of buyers, too.”

As you can see, he does quite well with this method. And most impressive of all is how little time he invests into each product.

Some things to consider:

If you don’t have a list, then you’ll need to advertise to make sales or build your list. Even if you want affiliates to promote, you’ll need to get some initial sales yourself to prove that it does indeed sell.

You’ll have to hunt around for great quality PLR. It’s not easy to find, and when you do find it, it generally costs a good deal more than the usual ten bucks or so. But as you can see, if you use it then it’s an excellent investment.

The first time you do this, I suggest you make any changes yourself unless you can afford to hire a professional to do it.

One thing he didn’t mention was the product name – you’ll want to change it to make it sound unique to you.

And I suggest adding your own introduction to the material as well, again to make it your own.

One last thing – there’s no reason why you can’t place some strategic affiliates links in the material. For example, if your course encourages the use of an autoresponder, then give an affiliate link to the service you recommend, and so forth.

And one crazy idea for the road… what if you did all of this, but then you gave away 75% or more of your commissions to affiliates?

If you’re fairly new to marketing, then paying high commissions is an excellent way to attract new affiliates.

You’ll get more of them on board, you’ll sell more products, you’ll build your list of buyers faster, and these same affiliates will be far more interested in promoting your future courses if they already had success promoting your first one.

Just a thought…

You’ve heard of the Law of Attraction.

If you’re like most marketers, you’ve also belittled the Law of Attraction, too.

After all, it’s just new age hocus pocus malarkey, right?

You can’t sit on your duff and attract a new television to yourself.

(Well, actually you can, with the help of your credit card, Amazon and the mail delivery system, but that’s not what we’re talking about, is it?)

I’m going to prove to you that the Law of Attraction is indeed very real.

And I’m going to do it by simply having YOU prove it to YOURSELF once and for all.

Are you ready?

The first thing to know is that the universe is already delivering to you exactly what you’ve asked for.

Imagine a line of self-driving delivery trucks coming down your street. These trucks cannot be stopped – they will make their deliveries to you whether you want them to or not. And these trucks will never stop coming, either, for as long as you are alive.

What you can change, however, is WHAT they deliver to you.

If your thoughts are on your lack of sales, lack of subscribers, lack of JV partners, lack of affiliates, your website crashing and so forth – that’s exactly what you’ll experience.

However, if you think of all the new subscribers you’re attracting through your marketing methods, how well your website is converting thanks to your testing, how easily you attract affiliates and JV’s – then that’s what you’ll get.

“But I already do think about the things I want!”

I agree, you do. But maybe not as much as you think about the things you DON’T want.

And it’s actually a bit more complicated than that, too.

You see, if you only think consciously about what you want, but you don’t program your subconscious mind as well, then you still won’t get what you ordered from those trucks rolling down your street.

This is where it gets confusing, doesn’t it? What is the subconscious? And how do you program it to work with you, instead of fighting what you want?

You might think of your conscious mind as the part of the iceberg that’s above water – the part you’re familiar with. The subconscious mind is the much larger portion of the iceberg that’s beneath the surface – and also the part that reacts to currents and ‘steers’ the iceberg in the direction it winds up going.

The trick is to program the subconscious mind to take you where you want to go, and to bring into your life the things and people you want in your life.

Program your subconscious correctly, and everything is easier.

Program it incorrectly, and you feel like you are continuously attempting to swim upstream against a diabolically strong current that inevitably prevents you from getting where you want to go.

It’s important to note here that your subconscious mind is already being programmed all the time – by your thoughts, the media, movies and television, advertising, your friends and family and so forth.

Isn’t it about time YOU took charge of your own programming to get the success you seek in online marketing and every other aspect of your life?

Here’s how:

Step 1: Write down exactly what you want, in full detail.

Instead of writing, “I want more affiliates,” write “I want 20 active affiliates who sell a total of 1,000 copies of my program in the next 60 days.”

Step 2: Visualize yourself already having obtained what you desire.

This is fun and something you should do several times a day or more. Play full color movies in your head of yourself already having attained your desire.

Your subconscious doesn’t know the difference between what it sees in your imagination and what it sees in the real world.

That’s why when it keeps seeing movies of you having 20 active affiliates and selling 1,000 copies of your program in 60 days, it will think this is reality and work to make it happen.

Step 3: Don’t watch or listen to anything – real or imagined – that contradicts your new belief.

If you want to sell 1,000 copies of your program, but you watch a TV series where the main character is always failing at everything he tries, this is going to sabotage your efforts. Be very careful what you watch, read and listen to.

Consider going on a complete news fast, refusing to watch or read anything negative for the next 30 days. You might be surprised at how much more positive you feel, and how much easier it is to attain goals.

That’s because you’re removing negative influences on your programming, which allows the positive influences to have their way.

Step 4: Make your own mantra or affirmation summarizing your goal.

This affirmation is going to imply you already have the outcome you seek.

Start the affirmation with either, “I have…” or “I am…”. In the case of our example, your affirmation might be, “I have 20 active affiliates who easily sell 1,000 copies of my program in 60 days.”

Make sure your affirmation is in the present tense or else your subconscious won’t understand it.

Also, don’t use a negative word, because your subconscious won’t hear it.

For example, if you say, “I do not get refund requests,” your subconscious will hear, “I do get refund requests” and it will go to work to make sure you get plenty of refund requests. Ouch.

Step 5: Create reminders.

Set a timer on your phone that goes off periodically throughout the day to remind you to say your affirmation and play your movie in your head.

See yourself already in possession of what you seek.

Step 6: Do affirmations.

Okay, if you’re squirming right now and saying, “I don’t want to!” then I understand.

You probably tried affirmations in the past and found it too boring to continue.

Here’s how to make it simple for yourself: Write out a list of affirmations that support your desired goal.

Record yourself saying these affirmations, and loop it 3 to 5 times to repeat those affirmations.

Then play this recording several times per day as you do other things.

Hint: It’s especially useful to play it as you’re falling asleep.

Step 7: Time to kick things up a notch.

You’re going to speak as though you have already attained your goal.

Yes, I mean speak to others. If that sounds a little too crazy right now, then practice speaking it out loud to yourself, Then when you’re ready, talk to friends, family, etc.

For example, in our 20 affiliates – 1,000 sales example, you’ll be saying things like, “I’ve got 20 new active affiliates who are promoting my new program like crazy. In fact, I’ve already made 1,000 sales!”

“Wait! Isn’t this lying?”

Think of it as time traveling. When you do reach this goal, you will be saying these things for real. You’re just saying them a little early, that’s all.

Now, I know you’re going to try to skip this step. Don’t. Speaking things into existence is powerful. After all, don’t gods speak entire worlds into existence? If they can do that, you can speak your goals into being as well.

Now then, once you’re doing these seven steps, just keep doing them until you reach your goal. Then repeat the entire process.

I suggest you start with a small goal that can be achieved fairly quickly and work your way up to larger goals. Realize of course that you will HAVE TO DO STUFF along the way to make your goals happen.

But here’s the magic – by using this system, things will be a lot easier. The people you need will appear when you need them.

Things that need to fall into place for you will fall into place. It feels a lot like magic, but it’s not. It’s simply a matter of energy and focus.

You are focusing your energy to send out a call into the world for what you need, and the world cannot help but answer.

Remember that long line of trucks making deliveries to your home? Now you can determine what gets delivered (and what doesn’t.)

I’ve personally used this system for years. It’s as close to having my own genie as anything real that I can imagine. I’m a true believer because I’ve seen it work time and time again, and you will be, too, once you try it.

So what have you got to lose? And more importantly, fellow online marketer, what have you got to gain?

The world needs what you have to offer. And by using this system you’ll be able to help all kinds of people while simultaneously getting everything you want, too.

Truly a win-win for everyone involved.

Let’s be candid – You can discover these outsourcing secrets the easy way or the hard way, but you’re going to find this out sooner or later.

The hard way is the way most marketers do it. They make mistakes when outsourcing, lose time and/or money, and then learn from their mistakes.

I propose we cut out all that nonsense and I’ll just tell you what you need to know here and now. Ready?

1: Outsource customer service as soon as humanly possible.

Reason why: If you don’t, you’ll waste half of each day doing things like answering support tickets, changing email addresses for members who changed their email address (yes, that is a thing) issuing refunds, answering questions and so forth.

That is time you could spend doing something else like… let’s see… wait, I know – MAKING MONEY.

Your focus should be on building your business, not answering support tickets (“When I log in, I see a funny thing at the top that says I’m logged in… is that what it’s supposed to say?”) I’m not kidding, that is a real support ticket I once received.

Another reason why: Your virtual assistant who is handling your support can shield you from the negative ninnies. What’s a “negative ninny,” you ask? It’s that person who buys your product and then rants on for 6 pages on how awful your product is, how awful you are and so forth. You don’t need to hear that stuff. Just tell your V.A. to handle it for you without ever telling you about it. (In this case, refunding the person and removing them from every list is all that’s required.)

And by the way, if you’re thinking that your products will be so great, everyone will love them, well then I know you haven’t created any products yet.

I don’t care if you invent the method for turning pixels into gold, someone will hate it. And that’s okay, as long as you don’t have to hear about it.

2: Outsource the things that bring you profit FIRST.

So let’s say you want to outsource website building, content creation, product creation, sales writing, software creation and so forth.

Ask yourself this question: What’s going to bring me the fastest return on my money?

That’s the project to outsource first.

Maybe you pay someone to create a product for you, and then you turn around and sell that product to hundreds of buyers. BOOM! You’ve just made your money back and much more.

But what if you don’t have any customers yet? And no list? Then maybe you need to outsource the building of your squeeze page so you can start list building so you can start selling stuff to your list.

Whatever will put you in profit first is the thing you need to outsource first. This way you are not coming out of pocket by thousands and thousands of dollars without a return.

3: Pay outsources based on the JOB, not by an hourly rate.

You want to know going in what it’s going to cost you to get a specific job done. And a true professional will be able to tell you exactly what it will cost.

A lot of marketers make the mistake of paying by the hour to get a job done. So not only don’t they know exactly what the job will cost – they also don’t know if the outsourcer is dragging the job out longer to make it pay more. Yes, it’s been known to happen.

The exception to the non-hourly rule?

Your virtual assistant or customer service person. Because of the nature of their work, in most cases paying them by the hour is the way to go.

4: Outsource work you’re putting off.

Did you create a new product, but you haven’t edited yet? Or maybe you haven’t built the website or made the sales letter.

All the time you invested in creating that product is going to waste. Outsource someone to do what you haven’t done, so you can get it online and start making sales ASAP.

5: Outsource what you’re not good at, and what you don’t like doing.

Sure, you love building websites, but let’s face it: You haven’t updated your website skills since 2007. Or you know how to write sales copy, but you HATE doing it.

Those are things you should be outsourcing. By focusing on your strengths as well as strategically planning your business, and letting other experts handle the rest of the work, you’ll make more money faster than if you try to do everything yourself.

6: Outsource the instrument playing while you conduct the orchestra.

There may come a time very soon when you have a system in place for making money. It could be as simple as creating a product in your niche, write several pieces of content preparing people for the product, record several videos leading up to the launch, and then launching.

Yet all of that is a lot of work. You’ve got sales copy to write, JV’s to contact, swipe emails to write, etc.

If you can afford it, outsource everything you can so that you can focus on working ON your business instead of IN your business.

People who focus on working on their business while outsourcing a lion’s share of the work tend to make 5 to 10 times as much money as those who work in their business.

Sort of a no-brainer, don’t you think?

7: If you haven’t yet outsourced something – what are you waiting for?

If you already have an online business, or you’re in the process of building one and you haven’t yet outsourced something, odds are it’s simply because fear is holding you back.

Go to Fiverr, Upwork, Craigslist or Warrior and outsource a small job, just to see how it works. I promise, you’ll be hooked and your business will grow twice as fast.

There is not a seven-figure internet marketer out there who doesn’t outsource. So isn’t it about time you did, too?

Here’s something I’ve been playing with, and my results have been pretty good, too. Do the opposite of what everyone else is doing…

A few months ago a friend was launching a big product with lots of cash prizes for the top affiliates. I knew there would be tons of affiliate competition, with every affiliate trying to out-do the others with bigger and better bonuses.

How to compete?

I decided not to.

Instead, I thought about what every affiliate’s bonus pages would look like: Highly polished, slick, professional, lots of graphics, videos, etc.

Odds are they would all start to look very much alike, right?

So I thought… What if I did something different?

What if my page looked like something you might get in the mail – black and white sales letter, using the Courier typewriter font, very old-school looking…

And what if, instead of a highly polished professional photo of myself, I used one where I just woke up? Or one where I just finished exercising, or just finished the yard work?

In other words, I looked like the guy next door and not some slick marketer.

Taking this thinking to the next level, I decided I didn’t want to spend time or money on creating a bonus. Everyone else was doing that, so why should I?

Instead, I would hold a live class. The homework would be to go over the program before class. Then in class we would implement, step-by-step, what was in the program. And I would record the whole thing, so people could just follow along.

In case you’re wondering – it worked beautifully. My sales were a very decent 5 figure number, and my commissions were half that plus bonuses.

And one more thing – I cheated, too. I had my virtual assistant run the class for me. She got to learn some great new skills, and I put less than 2 hours into the entire project.

The takeaway: When you have a lot of competition, it’s time to stop directly competing and find another way.

If they are using tons of graphics and slick videos, you go with a 1980’s black and white typewriter look.

If they are offering bonus packages filled with 5, 10 or 20 products, you offer no products (I offered hold-your-hand training, which in my opinion is worth far more anyway.)

You get the idea.

Do you know what would work even better than that?

MAILING the actual letter. Yup. Talk about old school. If you collect real addresses of your BUYERS, you might consider doing this on big ticket items.

I know marketers who do this. They are few and far between, and they are KILLING it. They only mail to buyers, which greatly improves their conversions. They use a service to send out the mailers for them. And they make more on one of these mailings than most successful marketers earn in 6 months.

Which brings me to my second idea… if you don’t already have the mailing addresses for your buyers, start collecting those now.

When you have a sizable portion of them (at least 200, preferably 500) approach a marketer with a product your list would love. Make sure there is plenty of profit in that product. Take the sales letter, adapt it to a black and white mailer (cheap to produce) and send it to your buyers.

See what happens. Tweak, rinse and repeat.

You can easily DOUBLE your income using this method.

Know why? Again, because it’s contrary. It’s different. Almost no one is doing it.

Your customer gets maybe a half dozen pieces of mail in a day. Two are bills. Two are sales flyers from local businesses. One is a catalog.

And then there’s that mysterious white envelope. Yeah, it’s going to get opened. Yes, it’s going to get read.

Wow! They’re surprised. Someone they know from ONLINE is sending them REAL MAIL.

They don’t throw it out. Instead, they open their browser, type in the URL and ORDER THE PROGRAM.

Sure, not everyone does, but… enough do.

Believe me, I’ve seen this work time and time again. Which is why I’m about to start sending out sales letters via snail mail (Shhh, don’t tell anyone!)

Pssst… I know you’ve probably never done this, but I have. I’ve sat down and binge watched a whole bunch of episodes from one series on Netflix, and yes, I enjoyed it.

There, now that I have my confession out the way, I have to tell you what I’ve been thinking about lately.

Why is it that we binge watch shows on Netflix, but we dole out content to our readers like it’s bread crumbs? And scarce bread crumbs, at that?

Think about it – you want to learn something new. Maybe you want to learn everything you can about video marketing.

So you start looking, and you find a great article on a website about this exact thing. The site even offers to send you an entire email course on video marketing and you sign up.

Problem is, you want the rest of the course NOW. So you keep searching, and you land on other sites and read other articles and watch other videos.

And you forget all about that first site you were at.

A day later you get an email – installment #1 of your course. But you already learned everything you needed the other day. You’ll look at it later…

Yeah. Right. You never read those emails, do you?

I’ve done the same thing plenty of times. Yet I still parse out my content to readers as though they are doing absolutely nothing but sitting there, waiting for the latest installment…

When in fact they’ve probably forgotten all about me.

Or what about those product launches where they dole out one video every three days? “Watch this fantastic video to discover blah blah blah.” And you watch it, and you LOVE it, and you want to see the rest of the videos. Except they’re not online yet.

“The next video will be available in X days.” You don’t want to wait “X” days, you want to see it NOW.

And when it’s finally available, you’ve forgotten all about it. The ironic thing is, if they had all of the videos online when you were interested, you would have watched all of them right away. And if they were done well, you might have bought the product they promoted at the end of the last video, too.

But by the time the product is launched, you don’t even remember what they were talking about.

Been there, done that. Many times, too.

And then there’s the simple article on your website. You do one article about video marketing, one article about content marketing, one article about SEO, etc.

The reader finishes the article they’re interested in and looks for more on the same topic. There are no more. And so they leave.

Whoops.

Mind you, all three of these techniques worked great a few years ago. And I’m not saying they don’t work now. But I guarantee they are not working nearly as well as they used to.

And we can thank Netflix for that, and the internet, and the proliferation of ‘what you want, when you want it’ in just about every niche imaginable.

We are no longer content to wait. We want our information NOW, while we are hot about the topic. Not later.

And your readers and viewers are no different.

So what’s the solution?

We give our readers and viewers the opportunity to binge all they want.

You’ve got an article on your site about generating targeted traffic? Good. Now write 5 more, all on different aspects or techniques of traffic generation, and link them all together.

When someone finishes any one of those 6 articles, they find links at the bottom that take them to any of the other 5 articles. They now have CHOICES on where to go next, and all of the choices are good ones because they are directly related to what they just chose to read.

They also find a link that takes them to your super-duper traffic generation product, too.

If your articles are good, they’ll keep clicking and reading. And if they are impressed enough, they will eventually click on that product link they keep seeing.

And you will make sales.

Your readers will be happy because they found everything they needed in one place.

You will be happy because they stay on your site longer, they’re more likely to subscribe to your newsletter, and you’re making sales.

What about those email courses – why not let the reader accelerate the process?

At the bottom of each email in the sequence, you can let them know that the next installment is coming tomorrow. Or, they want to see it now, simply ‘click here.’

In fact, if you want to use tracking for engagement analytics, you might accelerate the process for the reader. Did they engage with emails 1 and 2? Maybe it’s time to send them straight to email #5, and so forth.

The more engaged your reader is, the more options they should have to continue consuming your content.

As a marketer you have an excellent incentive to do this, which we’ve already hinted at.

When someone is hot on the trail of a particular topic, or looking to solve a particular problem, you don’t want to present them with your offer next week – you want to present it NOW. Because they’ve engaged with your content, they’re hot. They like you. They’re trusting you. They want MORE. So give it to them.

Let them know that as good as your content is, the REAL meat is in your product. And watch them bite. Go ahead… Give your readers the Netflix experience they really want!

When you’re an expert, you command respect in your niche. People listen to you, they pay attention to what you say and most of all they buy your products.

Being the expert in your own niche is like writing your own ticket to freedom.

Granted, you’re never going to become “The Expert” in a massive field such as weight loss. But niche it down to “Weight loss for new mothers” or “Weight loss for brides-to-be” or Weight loss for video gamers,” and you can indeed become the expert in your niche.

I was reading Russell Brunson’s new book, “Expert Secrets,” and it starts out by giving some examples of just how easy it is to become an expert.

When Russell was in college, he tried internet marketing but failed. Then on spring break when he was bored out of his mind, he and a friend decided to build a potato gun.

The thing was, they didn’t know HOW to build a potato gun. It just sounded like fun. So they started doing some research.

They discovered things like the correct barrel-to-chamber volume ratio, the right propellants to use, the correct pressure for the pipes, how NOT to blow themselves up and a whole lot more. Armed with this information, they went to the store and bought their supplies. Then they spent the next few days building the gun, finding a place to shoot it and yes, shooting the gun itself.

They had a great time, and when Russell was in school the next week listening to the professor drone on, he thought about how he’d rather be shooting his potato gun. Then he wondered if there were other people who would rather be shooting a potato gun too.

Russell checked, and sure enough: the previous month there had been 18,000 searches for the term, ‘potato gun plans.’

Russell talked his friend into creating a DVD on how to source the items needed for building a potato gun, and how to build the gun itself.

Then he sold this DVD online. While he didn’t make a fortune, he did earn enough to get excited about online marketing and his new career was born.

Notice in the above scenario what Russell did to become an expert. He picked a topic he was interested in, researched it, experimented, did his own work, and created a video.

Not exactly hard work, was it?

Russell gives a few more examples of people who became ‘experts’ in the same manner:

Jacob Hiller always wanted to dunk a basketball, but he was lousy at it. So he started doing research to discover techniques to improve his ability to jump. Every time he found a technique that worked, he made a video.

At first nobody was paying attention, but after a while he had 100 followers, then 1,000 followers, and pretty soon he had 10,000 followers.

So he made a product and built a company that makes millions of dollars teaching people how to jump. Crazy, but true.

Jermaine Griggs had trouble reading sheet music, so learned to play piano by ear. Now he makes millions teaching others to do the same.

Liz Benny was an excellent social media manager, but it wasn’t until she began teaching others what she knew that she started making millions.

Robert G. Allen once said that he made millions doing real estate deals, but he made hundreds of millions of dollars teaching real estate.

Think of that – he made MILLIONS doing real estate deals, but he made HUNDREDS of millions teaching others what he learned.

Are you an expert at something that other people want to learn? Then as Russell says, you are just one funnel away from making millions.

But maybe you don’t have an expertise yet – that’s okay. As you can see from the above examples, every one of these folks learned to be an expert first and then built their business teaching others to do what they did.

Even Russell wasn’t born an internet marketing guru. He studied and practiced and worked to become what he is today.

And the same goes for me and every single expert making 7 figures on the internet.

One last thing – you might already be an expert, but you’ve got a voice inside your head saying, “Who am I to teach others? I’m nobody special.”

You are indeed special but you just don’t know it yet.
What you know comes easy to you because you’ve studied and practiced.

Yet to most people, what you know seems like something very difficult.

They need your help.

They WANT your help.

So ask yourself this question: Who are you to deny them the help they need and want?

Think about all the people you can help with your skill. By focusing not on the money you’ll earn, but instead focusing on helping others, you can build a 7-figure business you can feel great about.

And by the way, you can purchase Russell’s book, “Expert Secrets,” on Amazon.

A certain percentage of new list subscribers will unsubscribe from your list almost immediately.

They’ll get the lead magnet you offered them and then POW! Unsubscribe. You’ve got to wonder why.

Are they afraid you’re going to sell them something? Maybe. If you’re building a list of online marketers, you’ve really got to wonder about their thinking. After all, don’t they want to learn about marketing? And isn’t getting on other people’s marketing lists a good way to learn?

Anyway, here is the trick to reducing these immediate unsubscribes no matter what your niche is:

On the letter that new subscribers get, remove the word “subscribe” and all of its variations.

You know the ones: “Thank you for subscribing,” or “You are now subscribed,” or “If you did not subscribe, please click here,” etc.

Whether the word is coming from your autoresponder or from you, get rid of it. Talk about the lead magnet and how to download it, but do not talk about their subscription.

Try this for a month, and then compare and see how much your unsubscribe rate has improved.

What’s the easiest way to make money online, without having to create a product or a sales page? Affiliate marketing, of course. 🙂

So, why is it that most affiliate marketers never make nearly what they could make? Anyone has the potential to make HUGE money in affiliate marketing, yet 90% or more of affiliates make a pittance (I’ll wager the number is closer to 98%, in fact.)

Think about this: If you earn an average of $50 on each sale in a sales funnel you promote, and you make 6 sales, you’ve made $300. Sounds good, right?

But guaranteed, there is someone else who made 600 sales and walked away with $30,000.

Why did they make 600 sales when you made just 6?

There are reasons why a handful of affiliate marketers do amazingly well, and everyone else barely makes a profit.

And marketers who understand this will always have a tremendous advantage over marketers who don’t.

1: Build a Relationship

I know you’ve heard it before, but are you doing it? People buy people, not products.

If you want them to open your email and click your link, or visit your Facebook Group and click a link, you’ve got to have a RELATIONSHIP with your people.

This is so simple to do, yet few marketers take the time.

Start with a blog post that is all about you, and then send new opt-ins to the post so they can get to know you. Make the post silly, funny and most of all REAL. Talk about the stupid stuff you’ve done, the mistakes you’ve made, where you live and so forth.

Do you have a strange hobby or unusual taste in food? Include that. Do you have 17 pets? Talk about them. Do you work until 3 in the morning and sleep until noon? Mention that.

Reveal the real you. Not the details people don’t want, but the ones that amuse and interest. You’re looking to make a real connection, not give a resume.

And above all else, don’t make your life seem like a series of magnificent accomplishments. No one is going to relate to someone who turns everything they touch into gold.

But they are going to relate to the time you bought Bitcoin when it was worthless and sold it just before it took off, or the time you thought you could fly and jumped off your uncle’s barn into the manure pile.

And don’t stop with your ‘about me’ page, either. Use this relationship building in your lead magnet, your emails, your other blog posts and so forth.

Always inject a little bit about yourself. Not so much that you bore people, of course, or make everything seem about you. But just enough to keep it real.

Think about relating an event to a friend. Aren’t you going to give your own perceptions of what happened, as well as tell about how you got out of your car and stepped in the mud puddle just before your big presentation?

Use this same method of personal, one-on-one friend communication with your readers as well.

Post on your blog as often as possible, and we’re talking every day or two. Encourage your list to subscribe to Feedburner or the equivalent so they know when you add a new post.

Your readers will realize you’re a real person who isn’t out to pitch them a new product every 5 minutes. And they’ll gladly read your sales emails much more readily when they know there is a real live human being who is sending them these messages.

2: Use Your Own Voice

How many emails do you receive that say something along the lines of, “Buy this product – this product is the greatest product ever – you will be sorry if you miss this – so rush right over and buy it now.”

Yeah. Same old stuff, over and over again.

There is a marketer (or maybe several, but I’m thinking of one in particular) who sells MASSIVE quantities of this exact type of emails as a swipe file to new marketers.

Like a brand-new marketer couldn’t write their own 25 word email that basically says, “GO BUY THIS NOW!”

People are TIRED of getting these emails. You’re tired of getting these emails. I’m tired of getting these emails.

Same phrases, same message, same B.S.

If you’re not going to stand apart from the crowd, then you’re going to have to share the same crumbs they’re getting.

Instead, take 30 minutes and write your own promotional email in your own voice.

Forget hype. Be sincere. Be honest. “Hey, this product isn’t for everyone. I don’t even know if it’s for you. But if you have this problem, then maybe this is your solution. Check it out and decide if it’s right for you, because I know it’s worked like crazy for some people. And it’s on sale right now, too.”

I’ve written emails where I basically tell people not to buy something unless they really really want it or need it. “Don’t buy this if you already know how to do xyz.” “Don’t buy this if you’re not going to be doing this type of marketing.” This is only for people who want (fill in the blank.) It’s like I’m trying to talk them out of it, which paradoxically often results in more sales, not fewer.

But the point isn’t tricking them into buying; it’s to be honest. Because you know what? That latest, greatest product you’re promoting ISN’T what everyone on your list needs. Some of them, sure. The rest of them, no.

Do you have any idea how refreshing it is to open an email that says, “Here’s a new product, thought you might want to know, but please don’t buy it if you’re not going to use it.”

The first time I got an email like that, I bought the product without even reading the sales letter. True story. I was just so happy that someone wasn’t ramming a sale down my throat, that I jumped at the chance to buy it.

Weird but true.

My point is, be you. Be honest. Talk to your readers as though they are your best friends and you don’t want to lose your best friends by acting like a carnival barker who is here today and pulled up stakes (vanished) tomorrow with their money.

3: Email a LOT

This is the one where people like to argue with me, and I understand that.

You’ve heard over and over again that you shouldn’t email too often, or you’ll upset your subscribers, right?

After all, every time you email, there is the potential that a subscriber will hit the unsubscribe button.

Do you know what the potential is when you DON’T email? Nothing. No opens, no clicks, no sales… not even any relationship building.

Do you want people to open and read your emails? Then send out those emails EVERY DAY.

Here’s why:

First, almost no one will see every email you send out. Let’s say you’ve got a sale on one of your products. Don’t you think your readers might like to know about it? But if they miss the one and only email you send that lets them know, then they’ve missed out on the discount and you LOST a sale.

Second, send emails at different times. I opened someone’s email just yesterday, decided I was VERY interested in the new membership he was selling, clicked the link and discovered it was no longer available.

What happened? This particular marketer only sends out emails at 1:00 a.m. my time, so I don’t even see most of his emails in the avalanche of mail I get before I wake up.

Third, if you’re sending email once a week or once a month, your readers are forgetting who the heck you are. And when you finally do send an email, they think it’s spam.

Fourth, if you mail more often, you will make more money. Don’t take my word on this, just do it for one month. Send out one email per day, every day, for 30 days. Put a promotion in each one. See if you haven’t made more – a LOT more – money during that time period than during the previous month.

And by the way, I’m not saying JUST send out a promotion in each email. Make sure you have some content in there as well, even if it’s just an amusing anecdote.

4: Think of affiliate marketing as a BUSINESS

This isn’t a hobby, nor is it an add-on for an additional income stream.

Even if you go on vacation, be prepared to send out an email every day. Schedule them in advance or write them on vacation. Either way, affiliate marketing to your list is a business that you can’t just jump into when you need cash and forget about the rest of the time.

You don’t have many support issues, since the product owners handle this. You don’t have to worry about creating products, sales pages and so forth. You don’t have to drive traffic, unless it’s to build your list bigger.

With so much you don’t have to do, there’s no reason not to focus your time and energy into building relationships with your list and promoting to them every single day.

Affiliate marketing can be some of the easiest money you’ve ever made, if you put in the time and effort to make it a real business.