5 Steps to a Social Media Avalanche of Customers

This is a great article by By Doug Firebaugh about how to build a massive following using Social Media. Doug starts out with “Build it and they will come”… Not!

Which to me rings so true… Although in the early days of building a website and selling something, it actually was Build it and they will come” for most of us that had a head start on the rest of the webpreneurs online.

These days you can build a blog or video site and you can still be lacking connections.

Connection is the nuclear core of social media. But you must make an effort in order for that to happen.

Whether you have a social media home busíness, traditional brick and mortar business, or an online business, you must get into the social trenches and connect and converse. It is that simple and that plain.

These days It’s all about connecting and creating an engaging conversation with people that draws them towards you.

But why are people in social media not doing that?

Maybe they do not know this powerful 5 step “Avalanche Process” for getting new customers and keeping them in social media.

The first thing you must do is connect with the social media culture. It is what marketing is about in social media. Some people think that they can be anti-social in social media and think they can broadcast their message and people will still come.

That simply is not going to happen. Not in social media. You do not build ‘it’ but instead, build relationships that can become doorways and then eventually become customers.

Here is the “Avalanche Path” you can follow:

1) Connect –>  2) Conversation –>  3) Value –>   4) Doorway –>   5) Customer

Let’s take a quick look at each step:

1) Connect

Connection with people is where success in social media starts. Connect with people on Twitter, on Facebook, on LinkedIn, on Youtube, on Orkut, or every other niche site out in the social sphere that matters. You must connect.

Here’s a little tip:

Connect to those who are looking for you. They will find you if you are visible, and accessible to
connect to.

2) Conversation

This step is where the conversation with people starts. You talk about the prospect and where they want to go. You talk about what they want to talk about. You study their profile, pictures and videos on their social sites because you can learn a lot just by paying attention.

Then make sure that you stay in touch and listen when they are communicating with you. If you do that, they will want to stay connected to you.

3) Value

This step is where you bring in the magnet to pull them towards your message. Show them value they can obtain with your message in their life. Show them how your message can help expand, broaden, enlarge and improve their life. You do it through tips and how to’s in videos and blog posts and podcasts, as well as tweets and twips. Show them how you can make their life easier and show them how to do something they want to learn. You show them how to be or do something. If you can expand the size of their dreams, you can get them as a customer.

The more value people perceive you have for them the more likely they will walk through the “Doorway.”

4) Doorway

This is the doorway to conversion where you convert them to a customer. You must convert prospects into customers if you are going to have any kind of business. That is simple to do.

Give them an offér where “No” is impossible to say. That is the secret. Give first and then make the proposition so compelling they cannot say “No.” We do it all the time. We just ran a social media special on our training products and it blew the roof off our shipping department. It has created a flood of new customers and new orders for us. All we did was give them an offer that was difficult to turn down.

The secret of success we experienced can be found in the word “Give.”

Give away something they must have, and something that will improve their life, and they will get it.

5) Customer

This final step is where they purchase your message, products, or webinar or event. This is the beginning of your relationship though – not the end.

Here you must start building the relationship between you and the customer even more.

Give more than they expected and throw something in for free they were not expecting. Give them a free download or ebook and let them see a Private video collection as a special.

Encourage more. Make sure that you send a note of encouragement and stay in touch with them.

Thank them more. Make sure they know you are thankful for their business and connection. We send out free downloads all the time to say thanks that some people paid $$$ for in the past. Thank them in everything you do and they will come back for more.

Get your customers addicted to your Value, Message and Emotions. They will become more than a customer. They will become a loud speaker for you and tell everybody you know you are the best at what you do.

That is what you want to happen in your home business or traditional business in social media marketing.

Related Blogs

• Scriptgiant Academy Blog » 5 Steps to a Social Media Avalanche of …
• Social Media Training Tips by Doug Firebaugh on Broadcasting …
• Step By Step Mini Site Video Training. | How To Edit Your PLR
• Brick Fireplace Designs And Their Selection | Heating and Air …
• Starting an Online Business: Three Basic Ways to Build Profits …
• A pedidos : Orkut e twitter de Theo Cavalcanti « Canal News …
• Is texting at the dinner table more dangerous then texting while …
• Reasons Why Bricks and Mortar Stores Need an Online Prescence
• The High Definite » Step 1: Setup camera for timed shot. Step 2 …
• NicoDerm CQ Clear Step 1 – 21mg Nicotine Transdermal System – 21 …

The Facebook Advertising Miracle

Gone are the day of spending countless, exhausting hours setting up carefully constructed pay per click marketing only to discover that all of your ads were pulled without notice, and apparently without reason.

PPC (pay per click) marketing is a high speed strategy for getting your advertisements in front of your targeted market quickly, however with the risks involved with Google pulling the rug out from under countless marketers by pausing their ads or worse, BANNING their accounts without notice, it’s become evident that anyone serious about maximizing exposure for their advertisements while retaining FULL control over your promotions needs to look for an alternative provider.

Enter Facebook.

Facebook is currently used by millions of users who log into their accounts every day to communicate with friends and family, to network with businesses and to post updates on their personal and business lives.

It’s one of the fastest growing sites online, with over 400 million user-created accounts and receives a greater number of page views every month then even Google!

With this mass exposure and incredible outreach, Facebook has quickly become the leading contender in the paid advertising scene, giving anyone serious about marketing their business the opportunity to tap into their target audience quickly, easily and most impressively – CHEAP.

In comparison with traditional pay per click marketing, the actual costs to advertise on Facebook are well below industry standard, PLUS even more importantly perhaps, Facebook actually has fewer advertisers then Adwords or other PPC marketplaces.

That means that you are have less competition to worry about and will be able to reach your target customers faster, easier and at a lower cost than with any other advertising network.

How Facebook Advertising Works
With Facebook, their advertising channels are based on DISPLAY rather than per SEARCH .
What this means is that instead of users having to enter in specific search terms or keywords, your advertisements will be trigger to appear based on the page content that the user is reading.

Another factor that plays a part in the advertisements that are shown to Facebook users is based on whether they “vote” for current advertisements. You see, with every advertisement featured within the Facebook network, there is a ‘thumbs up’ icon that appears below the advertisement that allows someone viewing the ad to ‘vote’ for it.

If someone votes for an advertisement, it indicates to Facebook that they should display additional advertisements of the SAME kind (based on category, keywords and overall relevancy), ensuring the best experience possible for Facebook members.

As a Facebook advertiser, you will also be able to promote your products and services using images, a feature that is not usually available within traditional PPC marketing. Images are an incredible asset in maximizing conversion rates because you can tailor the images used in your ads to push the “right buttons” or pull at emotional triggers that you know will have an impact on your average customer.

For example, if you were placing an advertisement that offered a teeth whitening kit, you could place a simple image of a “before” and “after” that offers the reader with a visual aid that leaves an incredible impression. Images can ultimately be one of the LEADING motivators in getting targeted customers to click through your advertisements and explore your offer.

So, how can you start exploiting the popularity and massive outreach of the Facebook network to gain maximum exposure for your business?

Here are a few tips to help you get started:

Target Your Advertisements
You want your entire advertisement to be heavily targeted towards your average customer.
This includes any images that are featured within your ads as well as the advertising text that is featured below the image.

With Facebook, you are able to set up a very targeted advertisement, including targeting specific age groups, locations, education levels, what people have indicated that they are interested in based on their profile summary, and can even target primarily men or women.

The more carefully you create highly targeted advertisements, the better your ads will perform, so make sure you spend a bit of time crafting your ads so that they effectively target your customer base.

Create Facebook Compliant Advertisements
Facebook wants to maintain a user-friendly community and in order to do this they are very strict with the types of advertisements that are allowed to be circulated throughout their network. This means that you cannot use slang; improper grammar and you must refrain from using any images or text that could be considered offensive.

Don’t look at these guidelines as a downside to using Facebook but instead, consider how this quality control will HELP you create higher converting advertisements that are genuinely targeted to your customer base.

Keep An Eye On Your CTR

CTR which stands for Click Through Rate and you want to keep an eye on how well your advertisements are performing. Your ads should never go below 2%, and if you notice that an advertisement is starting to fall below that level, you will want to tweak your advertisement and reconsider who your advertisement is targeted to.

Are you asking the right questions in your advertisement? Using the right image?
Make sure that you spend time evaluating the effectiveness of your advertisement to generate maximum conversion rates and avoid having your advertisements paused or removed.

Choose The Appropriate Time To Run Your Ads
You can choose to run your advertisements continuously throughout the day or based on specific start and end dates. You will want to run your advertisements throughout the day continuously, unless you need to pause it for a specific reason such as if you are going away on holiday, or you find that specific times of the day are converting better (based on the locations you are interested in targeting).

Set A Reasonable Maximum Bid
You will want to set a maximum daily bid that you are comfortable with and fits within your budget.
Facebook will provide a suggested maximum bid based on the content of your advertisement and your targeting configuration. Consider setting your maximum bid slightly lower than Facebook’s recommended minimum and adjust it as you need to based on your advertisements conversion rates and overall exposure.

Choose CPC Over Impressions
You can also choose to pay for impressions or per click. It’s always best to choose CPC (cost per click) for the most part, especially during your testing phase. You can always change this later on if you need to.

Highly Recommended Resource
_________________________

http://www.QuickStartExpert.com

Related Blogs

• Facebook « paulmellors dot net
• The 21st Century Dad – The newest target market for Brand Managers …
• Roommate Advertisements – How To Write The Perfect Ad | Blog Universal
• Pay Per Click Advertising | Blog Universal
• Get connected with the target audience with Centurion Marketing …
• 4 Months of Zero Advertisers For Glenn Beck In U.K.
• Friends and Family – WELCOME! « UWAA Tours Blog
• 1. Define Your Best Customers And Target Them Relentlessly …
• Target Customer Service | Coupons, Deals and More
• Apple's Mobile Advertising Network: iAd to Debut on July 1 …

The Fast and Easy Way To Make Money Online Webinar

I am hosting a live webinar on how I make a consistent 6 figure income online the fast and easy way.
You don’t have to be a programmer, web design, graphic designer or internet marketing guru to make a successful living online.

Join me, Mick Moore as I take you through a fast, fun and informative webinar on how to get up and running with your own online business in days, instead of weeks or months.

Sign up now as seating space is lmited.

This webinar will sell out !!!

Sunday May 23rd at 6:00pm PST and 9:00pm EST

www.MickMooreLive.com

I will be giving away some incredible bonuses at the end of this webinar.

So if you have ever wondered how the pros do it and idn’t want to shell out hundreds or even thousands of dollars to find out, nows your chance. The webinar is free, so join us and sign up now.

I’m dedicated to your success,
Mick Moore

Related Blogs

• Josh Peak Internet Marketing Webinar
• From the Law Library of Congress: Elena Kagan: Compilation of …
• As It Should Be: The Business World Can Learn from the Church …
• How to Choose the Right Web Design Company to Design Your Website …
• Web Design Articles – Web Designing Art | CqWen
• mmoglider.org » Blog Archive » Making thousands of dollars while I …
• Internet Home Business Expert Mick Moore shares How To Start A …
• Not aware of MHA letter on Afzal Guru: Sheila! | CNEWS
• Hang Kasab, keep Afzal Guru alive in jail : Separated At Birth
• Ad me Up before you gogo » Blog Archive » Save Thousands of …

Building Brand Identity With Twitter

Twitter, the net’s networking success story, is intriguing and intimidating because of its message limitations: they can be 140 characters, and no more.

This is to say; each message sent on Twitter can be no larger than the previous sentence. Not an additional letter, space, period or dash can be added. These limitations have proven to be the greatest asset and the greatest challenge for people trying to use Twitter for any number of purposes.

On the advantageous side, the short messages have created an entire culture of Twitter-fluent writers. The brevity of the message stretches creative muscles, making people use every trick to get the most information into the fewest characters. On the other hand it creates a severe headache for the marketing minded, as it doesn’t leave much room to present a case. Thus the vast majority of Tweets are short little social comments or updates, and most marketing revolves around calling attention to particular links.

Of course, there are always ways around limitations, and Twitter is something that every seriously market-minded organization needs to embrace in order to see continued success on the web. In the case of short message services like Twitter, the key lies as much in the peripheral data that builds up around the message as in the content itself.

Be SEO Minded

Twitter profiles are now ranked by search engines, Google in particular. Every SEO technique you’ve learned now has a new, exciting purpose. For example, consider the biography you’re able to construct using Twitter. This is a ripe opportuníty to develop some brand recognition right away. Put the title of the brand you’re marketing in the bio, and consider including the most relevant keywords in your profile. As ever, do so in a way that respects the user’s intelligence, and gives them something worth reading. Simply stringing together a chain of keywords is not the way to go.

Include keywords in your Tweets as well, taking care not to be terribly obvious about it. The first 20-30 characters are the best place, as later words are of decreased importance in a Google ranking search.

Identify Your Audience

Each brand rises and falls on the whim of the audience, known in this case as tweeple.

There are a number of applications available to help you with the process of identifying the tweeple that you want to cultivate into an audience. Twitterholic can help you identify the movers and shakers based on their Twitter traffic and their location. If you know your field or brand well, you can use this to locate groups with similar interests and woo them to your feed. Tweepz is a similar tool, focusing on location, and Twitter itself has a ‘near this location’ feature that can be used to identify tweeple nearby your center of business.

Let’s Give Them Something to Tweet About

Yes, Twitter is an effective way to quickly distribute information. But its real power is in its ability to create conversations about something interesting.

In theory you could simply gather up a large user list of tweeple and start spamming them with links promoting your latest gig. This is a surefire way to get flagged for abuse or ignored entirely, and thus is rather counterproductive to good marketing goals.

Instead, consider using alternative methods to drum up those conversations that travel like wildfire.

For example, there is the technique of Alternate Reality Gaming. This is a phenomenon based on the idea of taking ‘real’ events and building a game out of them. Last Call Poker was an ARG that intended to drum up sales for an upcoming video game, GUN.

LCP spread out information about gatherings, online incentives, and other attractions to get people excited about the western theme of the game. Tokens such as poker chips and other goodies were given out at these events, and GUN went on to have a very successful launch. People were invited into the world of the western, and the chatter eventually included 8 million participants.

This kind of rogue advertising is tailor-made to work with Twitter. Locations and dates can easily fall within the 140 character limitation, as can short explanations. Consider creating an ARG with a short story designed to work within 140 characters, locate an audience with the assorted Twitter tools at your disposal, and plan some exciting events to promote your brand. The chance to get involved always gets people talking, and the more esoteric games can span entire continents.

There are other methods, some more appropriate to each individual brand. Perhaps a modest bicycling business isn’t suited to promote a large ARG experience. They could, however, organize a bicycling flash mob by hopping onto the local bike hobbyist twitter feed and posting a date and time. The trick is less which technique you use, and more that you do your best to make it relevant. As always, strong content and clear presentation will win out over gimmicks and sales speak.

Also, consider one last thought. The introductory statements of each section in this article are Twitter compatible, and so is this one. Good luck and happy Tweeting.

Related Blogs

• Headaches-herbal Remedies | Whiplash
• Wikipedia's New Look and Feel Plus a Bunch of New or Improved …
• Dealing with negative comments on social media « Museum Marketing
• Volunteers needed at Options | Monticello Live
• Importance of Effective Blog Commenting for Social Media Marketing …
• Keep-A-Breast » Blog Archive » When life hands you lemons… take a …
• Tracking Your Website Search Engine Ranking | CqWen
• The Many Aspects Of Marketing To Search Engines | CqWen
• Stay Connected With Free Sms Service Of Youmint | cochinpages.com
• What is the Real Value of Social CRM (SCRM)? | CloudAve

What is Keyword Research – Why You Need to Do It!

If you are not doing proper keyword research your website is almost certainly leaving money on the table.

The reason for this is that Keyword research is the very first step in optimizing your site for the search engines. And we all know that top search engine rankings are THE KEY to getting lots of free traffic to your site.

So, in this short article Dr Noel Swanson goes over the fundamentals of good keyword research so that you can start the process of maximizing the profits from your website.

First, let’s be clear of some terms. A keyword, or key phrase, is the word or words that are typed into the search engines. So, If you go to Google, and type in ’dog health‘ then ‘dog health‘ is your key phrase, or key phrase,

When you do that, you will get a page that looks something like this.

The first thing we need to note is that there are two types of listings shown. Those at the top, and over to the right are sponsored listings. That means people are paying good money to have their advertisement displayed here. How it works is simple – each advertiser pays Google so many cents, or even dollars, every time someone clicks on the advertisement. The advertisers willing to pay the most get the top slots. This is called Pay Per Click advertising and, since it costs money, is not the focus of this article. You can learn more about it from http://adwords.google.com

What is of interest to us are those listings that form the main body of the page.

These are called the organic results. You can’t buy your way into these. But there are things you can do that WILL get you there.

Notice at the top right, it shows you how many results there are for the key phrase you just typed in.

The important thing is that out of 31 million results, only 10 are shown on this page. That means if your site isn’t in the top ten, it won’t be shown on this page, which means that very few people will find your site.

Take a look at this:

Source: http://www.seoresearcher.com/images/articles/click-distribution-serp.jpg

These results come from a study done at Cornell University by Laura A. Granka and show the numbers of people who click through on the various search engine listings.

As you can see, if you are outside of those top two or three places, you are getting only a tiny fraction of the people who are searching on your search term! And these are people who are looking for what you have to offer!

Clearly, getting top rankings for your targeted keywords is crucial.

But what keywords should you target?

Let’s do a search for ‘dog allergies’.

This time there are only 3.1 million competing sites.

So, that is a lot less competition, and therefore probably much easier to get onto that first page.

But, there are two big questions:

First, how many people are searching for ‘dog health’ and how many are searching for ‘dog allergies’,

And second, of those people looking for ‘dog health’ or ‘dog allergies’, which of them are more likely to spend money online?

These are the questions that your keyword research will tell you.

As it happens, here are the results:

Cost per click Search volume Value of Phrase
Dog health $1.80 201,000 $361,800
Dog allergies $5.70 74,000 $421,800
dog symptoms $0.50 165,000 $82,500

Wow! Advertisers are willing to pay over three times as much per click for people who search for ‘dog allergies’ than ‘dog health’. But, of course, many more people are searching for the broader term.

On the other hand, there are almost twice as many people searching for ‘dog symptoms’ as there are ‘dog allergies’, yet they are worth only 50 cents per click.

By multiplying the two figures together, we can get a relative value for each term – in this case ‘dog allergies’ is a more valuable term than ‘dog health’ AND has less competition, and both are way more valuable than ‘dog symptoms’.

So, assuming it fits in with the actual topic of your site, wouldn’t you be better off optimizing your site for the key phrase ‘dog allergies’ than for the broader term ‘dog health’?

But once you have found out what your most valuable keywords and phrases are, how do you optimize your site to get those top rankings for those terms?

For that, we need to look at how Google actually ranks your site. How Does Google Rank My Site?

Look for tomorrows post for more info on that…

Related Blogs

• Keeping Higher Search Engine Rankings For Your Website « Fashion's …
• The Job Interview Phrase Book: The Things to Say to Get You the …
• Ultimate Guide to Pay Per Click Advertising: Advanced Strategies …
• Tool Time Friday | TV-FOX? « Free Traffic Tips
• FAIR Blog » Blog Archive » 'The Money Is Not There' for Education …
• » 5 Cold Hard Facts About Increasing Search Engine Rankings …
• 7 Highly Effective Web Techniques For Free Traffic Generation …
• Pay per click advertising
• Understanding Pay Per Click (PPC) And Cost Per Click (CPC) For …
• Keyword Research Service: Important For Site Promotion | Home …

5 Tips for Using Social Media to Build Your Opt-In List

We all know the money is in the list, but how do you really build a solid list using the tools available?
This is a great posting I found by Marsha Friedman, the CEO for EMSI Public Relations in Florida.

Marsha spells out 5 useful Tips for Using Social Media to Build Your Opt-In List.
These tips will give you a better understanding on how to implement these tools.

Her post starts out like this….

The immense popularity of social networks, and the meteoric rise in the last few years of social media marketing, have been some of the most exciting new directions for PR and marketing that I have experienced.

That is why I jumped on board the social media marketing train over a year ago…it has been a huge boon to my performance-based PR business.

But in spite of the many extraordinary opportunities in social media marketing, one drawback I’ve found is the speed with which one can be forgotten. Even the social-media savvy may struggle to stay in front of and remain memorable in the minds of their friends, followers, connections and fellow group members.

The truth is that being an active and diligent social media marketer, posting and participating with consistent frequency, does not guarantee your messages are going to be seen by everyone you would like to reach. And it’s understandable…people are busy. Some log on to their social networks at different times of day than when you happen to be on, others get involved only sporadically, while some group participants may only check in to see what’s happening in their group every few weeks.

Tweets are here and gone in a flash. If your posts are not showing up in someone’s news feed or social network home page when they happen to log on, your only hope for that person to see your communication is for them to find you interesting and memorable enough to regularly visit YOUR profile to see what you’re up to. Sadly, more often than not, the majority of your prized connections are probably missing your posts.

My solution for this dilemma is to support my social media marketing with traditional email marketing activities. This one-two punch has been a very valuable approach for me: social media marketing has enabled me to increase my email list by thousands with those on the list continuously receiving my newsletters that carry my message.

Each week I email my newsletter containing my articles with tips on how to use PR to promote your business to my mailing list. (I have actually been sending these weekly emails since email became a common means of business communication and prior to email I was sending faxes!)

Unlike my social media efforts, I know that everyone on that mailing list sees my email in their inbox, at the very least. Some read and respond with feedback or a request for information about our services, while others forward it to their own lists.

My newsletter helps my social media contacts remember me and what I do, and this has led directly to many new business relationships. Indirectly, I frequently receive referrals from the members of my opt-in list. And I always enjoy the times when someone from my list, who has been quietly receiving my emails for years without responding, finally reaches out for my professional help and becomes a client!

That is the real reward of combining your email and social media marketing efforts.

So how do you do this? The trick is a strategy to turn your social media followers into opt-in newsletter recipients.

Here are five tips for using social media to build your opt-in list:

1. Join Targeted Groups and Post Effective Discussions. Within your social networks, choose the groups wisely in which you will participate, focusing on groups that are active and contain your target market. You should post discussions to demonstrate your professional expertise and drive people to your website, taking care to make your headlines short and interesting.

2. Make Sure your Website is “Opt-in” Friendly. Make sure your opt-in form is prominent throughout your website, with a message telling visitors that when they sign up for your list they will receive helpful information (as opposed to spam).

3. Invite Every One…But Don’t Pester! Every time you get a friend request or a new follower, send a message introducing yourself and include an invitation (with the link to your site’s opt-in form) to sign up for the helpful information you send to your list.

4. Be Direct…But Not Too Often. If you have a helpful and valuable incentive to offer, occasionally post updates inviting your friends and followers to go get it! Keep in mind you are treading a thin line with this type of post, so make sure they are infrequent and are mixed in with many posts that are completely non-promotional in nature. You don’t want to be considered “that guy” who’s just there to promote to people.

5. Be Consistent in Your Social Networking! The key to making points 1 – 4 above really work for you is – stay active in your networks and groups. If you are only an occasional visitor, you might as well “stay home.” In order to reap the rewards of these strategies, post often and wisely, and pay attention to your group members.

Related Blogs

• I just stayed there with Health Ease « tdash
• Recovery of drawback amount on the portion of the FOB value of …
• How Did A Real Estate Drawback Effect The Prices?
• Buy Twitter Followers | Technology Blogging
• Mock, Paper, Scissors » Blog Archive » The best part of Thomas …
• Free Public Lecture: New Hope, New Directions in Dementia Care …
• Your PR Business Is My Business « BurrellesLuce Fresh Ideas
• Job News | Media Marketing Jobs Atlanta – MarketingCrossing.Com
• [News] Super Junior's Popularity Soaring Sky High! | Kpop Today
• How do you get farmville news feeds under the news feeds tabs on …

Sell shovels to people who are digging for the gold. Don’t dig for gold yourself!

The reason why most people’s products fail is because they totally misjudge the market.
The easiest way to see what the market wants is to look around the message boards, SEE what is hot and take action.

Do not try and “force” the market to buy your product. It won’t work!

A few good message boards to check out the latest ”buzz” are Warrior Forum, www.warriorforum.com/forum/
Tony Blake Forum http://www.ablake.net/forum/ and Michael Green Forum http://www.howtocorp.com/forum/

Another telltale sign of a “buzz product” is owners claiming massive conversion rates, or if you see a lot of people pushing the same product. If that happens chances are the market is RIPE for that type of product.

A good way to keep in touch is sign up to the following email lists and “spy” on what they are promoting.
By the way all these people below are my friends and TOP marketers and I’m proud to give my solid recommendation to all of them.

Watch, study and prepare to pounce. How To Spot the Buzz and Pounce!

Back 2006 around April the Internet Marketing crowd was going totally NUTS about making money with Google Adsense. Now here is a very KEY point. While everybody was out there buying everything and anything related to Google Adsense I was doing the opposite.

And this is where my “simple” method comes in and what the “gurus” don’t want you to know…
“Sell shovels to people who are digging for the gold. Don’t try and dig for the gold yourself!”

So reverse engineer this…

When you see a HUGE trend don’t get sucked in and buy everything about that topic.
Don’t become another crazed buyer.

DO THE OPPOSITE!

Look for something to SELL to people on that topic.

And that’s exactly how I came up with the idea for the Home Business Success Kit

Related Blogs

• Track Conversion Rates and Meet Your Sales Goals | Master Dotcom …
• Video Marketing » How To Boost Your Site's Conversion Rates?
• Conversion Rates: How To Turn Traffic Into Sales With High Quality …
• Easy Psp Repair Guide – Very High Conversion Rate!
• Apr 7-8 Japan Green New Deal Forum 2010: Making A Clean Break to …
• How To Avoid Home Based Business Pitfalls? | The Breath Guy – A …
• “online home based business” + (Mlm)
• Best (Home Based Business) For Today's Economic… | Feed-Xmlrss.com …
• Investigating a Home Based Business Opportunity – Questions to Ask …
• Some Awesome Home Based Business And Money Making Ideas That Will …

A Great Post About “The Dark Side About Internet Marketing”

WARNING: Today’s post is going to rattle cages and put a spotlight on a potentially dark side of Internet marketing. It may tick some people off. That’s life. I’m more concerned with speaking the truth.

Todays post is a really good post about “The Dark Side of Internet Marketing” written by Joel Comm

Joel goes on to say that for some time it has been suspected that there is a “secret cabal” of Internet marketers who seek to do nothing more than drain money from unsuspecting customers who will buy their stuff. This group is accused of interacting with each other in a way that would exclude others from their circle. Several of us call this group “The Cartel”… Anyone that hasn’t been living under a rock knows who these guys are…..

Having written my first ebook in 2005 and having enjoyed a certain degree of success in the information marketing space, I believe I can honestly and openly speak to what I have observed.

First of all it is important to note that Internet marketing is a term we use to describe the people who sell training materials, software tools, templates, private label rights and other products related more directly to the “make money online” space.

My ebook on making money with AdSense falls into this category.

However, Internet marketing is really a method of marketing any kind of product or service on the Internet. So perhaps a more appropriate term would be infoproduct marketing. (Even that is not completely accurate as there are thousands of infoproducts that have absolutely nothing to do with the “make money online” space.)

So is there a secret group that exists to create products and sell them to people at exhorbitant prices knowing that others can not succeed with these products?

No, there isn’t.

But is there a group of marketers who have built relationships with each other over the years that tend to work together on projects?

Of course. People tend to befriend others with common interests. It’s just human nature.

But here’s the problem.

Just like any other group of people it is easy to lump everyone together and stick a label on them.

For example, all politicians are crooks. Is that really true? I’m sure there are some reputable, ethical politicians working on our behalf. (Just don’t ask me to name one…)

How about, all lawyers are scumbags. True, there are scumbag ambulance-chasing attorneys out there, but I have met some very nice ethical lawyers in my time.

The point is that we have to be very careful in lumping people together.

We are all individuals.

I didn’t set out to network with people in “the circle.” It just happened when I wrote an ebook that people wanted to buy. When it became a hit people naturally gravitated towards me. After all, success attracts the interest of others. (That’s the REAL law of attraction… not that mumbo-jumbo “the universe is your genie” crap.)

Others desperately want IN the so-called circle because they believe having relationships with other successful people will be the key to their success. I get emails all the time asking me to promote other people’s products because, and I kid you not, “I have a big list.” Gee, that’s a way to win someone over…

It’s important to understand that there ARE great products out there that bring value. I wouldn’t have sold thousands of copies of my AdSense ebooks if they didn’t bring value. Word of mouth and legitimate testimonials go a long way. I have always attempted to create products that bring value and will always continue to do so.

That doesn’t mean that you can’t make a lot of money with a worthless product, though. I’ve seen it happen time and again. All it takes is a carefully crafted sales letter, a well thought-out product launch strategy and a group of affiliates who will promote it on launch day for a commission.

I believe it is morally wrong to sell products that don’t bring real value. If you are going to provide training, make sure the training is valid. If you are going to sell a software product, the software needs to do what you say it does.

There is, however, nothing evil or even unethical about crafting a good sales letter, preparing a launch strategy and recruiting affiliates to promote your product.. As I’ve discussed before, it is important to write a persuasive sales letter (as long as persuasion doesn’t become manipulation.) It is essential to have a product launch strategy. And affiliate marketing is nothing new. It’s critical that others are eager to share your product or service with their members. New FTC regulations require that affiliates are forthcoming with their relationship with the product they are promoting, but there’s nothing wrong with doing a promotion.

So where is the problem?

Well, there actually is a series of problems that I have observed over the years. I’m not going to name any names because that’s not the purpose of this post. The point is to make you aware of what is broken in the industry. It’s then up to you to find out who the people are that have made it this way. Hopefully, you’ll also be able to discern who the good guys are.

With that said, these are three areas that I find disturbing in the Internet marketing space.

1) Back-scratching.

I understand the “if you promote this for me I’ll promote that for you” mentality. I have encountered it all too often.

In the earlier days of Internet marketing, many of the products were fresh and original. Entrepreneurs were coming up with great solutions and many of them worked quite well.

Things have changed. With so many people in the “make money online” space, many are creating products just to enter the niche. As I’ve written before, a number of them have no credibility and some of them outright copy others to make a buck.

Now there’s nothing wrong with asking for reciprocation, but I have a problem endorsing something I don’t think will serve the customer. Over the years I’ve presented numerous products and services. I’ve only regretted endorsing a small handful because I turn away from promoting MANY offers that I don’t believe bring real value.

That’s not the case with everyone.

I’ve seen some Internet marketers promote everything and anything that comes their way, all in the name of reciprocation.

I can’t do it and I won’t do it just to do it. I will only reciprocally promote an offer if I believe it is worthy to promote.

2) Unhealthy attitudes towards customers

This one may make you angry and it probably should.

I have spoken at a number of Internet marketing, online business and personal development conferences. I will go more in depth on these events in another entry, but for now I want to focus on an experience that I had.

I was at an event a couple years ago and was accompanied by one of my employees.

The event was such that the people attending paid very little to be there. The speakers were to deliver quality content and end their presentation with an opportunity for the attendees to purchase their product or service.

There is nothing wrong with this model. It allows people to learn something new and consider if they want to learn more. It allows speakers an opportunity to get in front of an audience and present valuable content. Of course, it also allows the speaker to sell his or her product.

Anyhow, at this one particular conference I was outside the room with my associate. We were speaking to the promoter of the event and asked him how things were going in the room. That kind of question means “how is the content and are people investing in product.” In order for a conference like this to be a win/win for all both need to occur.

My associate and I were stunned when the promoter told us that the attendees to his event were always looking for the next big thing and that it was like he was selling crack to them… providing their next fix. He made it clear that he didn’t expect them ever to make any money and he was fine with that.

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I lost a lot of respect for this person that day.

This attitude can be found in spots throughout the Internet marketing space. I’m not saying it is everywhere. It is rare. But it does exist.

3) Bonus offers to make more sales as an affiliate

It is common for marketers to have affiliates compete to see who can make the most sales during their product launch. They will frequently rank the affiliates each day so everyone can see who is winning and prizes will be awarded based on final standings.

I think healthy competition is a good thing and I see nothing wrong with having a sales contest. Corporations have contests among their sales teams all the time. I’ve offered prizes to affiliates in the past. It provides them with incentive to promote my product.

But I draw the line at affiliate bonus offers.

The merchant selling the product will ask affiliates to provide a bonus for customers who purchase their product through the affiliates link. The idea is that more people will buy through my affiliate link if I offer them an attractive bonus, thereby earning me more affiliate commissions.

I think I did this for another marketer’s promotion one time, several years ago. I gave away a free copy of one of my ebooks for customers who purchased through my link.

But many marketers will offer bonuses with high perceived value. I’ve seen people give away their high-end products to incentivize customers to purchase through their link.

I have found this puzzling because some people are willing to completely devalue their own products in order to make more sales of someone else’s product.

I have refused to play this game.

Essentially, it means that when I promote a product I feel adds value and choose not to add a bonus I will make fewer sales. After all, if a customer can purchase through Affiliates X’s link and get two-thousand dollars worth of bonuses, why would they purchase through my link?

And I’m ok with that.

I’m not going to devalue my own product in promotion of someone else’s. It doesn’t make any sense to me.

I’ve got more to say about Internet marketing and will be posting another entry shortly.

I want to conclude on an up-note.

There is hope that the industry is changing.

New FTC regulations attempting to reel in fake and unreasonable testimonials as well as a crackdown in the merchant services sector are forcing marketers to take a long hard look at what they are dong.

I believe this is going to serve to weed out more of the scam artists and provide opportunity for those willing and eager to do business the right way.

Assuming you have an idea for a product or service of value, I would encourage you to see it through and bring your dream to fruition.

So what are your thoughts on the topic? I’d love to hear your comments below.