January 31, 2002
Table of Contents
Welcome
Quote of the Week
Administrative Stuff
Staff Article - Strategy
for a Struggling Economy
Marketing Tip of the Week
Guest Article - Multiple Streams of
Automated Internet Income
Parting Comments
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Staff Article
Strategy for a Struggling Economy
by: Cary Christian
Let's be honest about something. Most Internet businesses struggle to
produce profits. Even Amazon.com made their first quarterly profit just this
last quarter. Businesses who do quite well in the brick and mortar world
often find their results lukewarm in cyberspace. If your business is the
exception, congratulations and more power to you! But you would certainly be
happy if you could do better, wouldn't you?
Today's Internet business model just isn't working as well as we'd like it
to. I believe we are in a transition to one that will work and the business
and sales models that emerge will be defined by those companies and
individuals that innovate now and find new ways to drive revenue growth.
Here is one business and marketing strategy that might help carry you
through this transition.
Every day, thousands of people decide they want to make a living on the
Internet. The lure is powerful. They can be their own boss, work the hours
they choose, and they have a real shot at building wealth. And, as you know,
most of these people are nothing more than a new mark for someone peddling a
worthless money-making scam.
What does this have to do with business strategy? Plenty! They
represent a resource you can use.
Most people who run traditional businesses on the Internet look unfavorably
on the various MLM and affiliate opportunities most of the masses flock to.
But there is something to be learned from them. Ask yourself how they
attract people to their opportunities in the first place.
Looking a little deeper than promises of wealth, many provide a roadmap to
working their program that even the newest of newbies can follow. Most of
the people joining these programs do so because it is so much easier for
them participate in them than it would be to start a more traditional
business. In fact, most of them would have absolutely no idea how to start
their own business.
A great number of these people are decent, hard-working individuals who are
only looking for a chance to succeed. These are people you could help and
who could help you.
You know your business well. I would venture to say you are an expert in
your business. Could you teach others to sell your products for a
commission? If you can't teach them to sell, can you teach them to make
intelligent referrals? Can you pay a high enough commission to serve as an
incentive to your affiliates and keep them motivated and active? Could you
provide the training and structure they would need to be successful?
If you can do these things, why not resolve to become a mentor and recruit
others to sell your products? You pay them only if they make a sale, and
every sale they make is incremental in terms of your profits. Give them an
option that is attractive and the worthy ones will choose you over the next
get rich quick scheme any day.
You have to realize that you are already part of an MLM chain. Before
you get angry, let me explain.
As an example, if you sell retail products, your products are made by a
manufacturer who sells them to a distributor who sells them to a wholesaler
who sells them to you for retailing. You are on the fourth level of a
multi-level marketing program. But there is no reason you can't expand the
program to a fifth level by recruiting your own affiliates.
Always remember that the Internet is a tremendous communication medium that
breaks down traditional world barriers. It makes it easier for you to do
business and allows you to expand your geographical reach into new markets.
But if you merely put up a storefront, promote it and make no effort to
expand your influence, you are not using this medium to its full potential.
By using the Internet, you can recruit affiliates in other regions, even
other countries, that you wouldn't be able to establish a relationship with
otherwise.
Your task is to find ways to use this medium to your advantage given your
specific business and product advantages and limitations. Do not rely on
what everyone else is doing. That may or may not work for you. Innovate.
Find new ways to get things done. Don't make the mistake of thinking an
affiliate program wouldn't work with your business.
If the Internet is to eventually be scam-free, or as nearly so as possible,
it will be because legitimate businesses make it possible for opportunity
seekers to invest their time and money into productive activities to a much
greater extent than they are able to today. Small businesses must lead this
charge and, if they do, they will reap the benefits.
Individual opportunity seekers have a role to play also. If you are looking
for additional sources of income, find a company you admire and whose
products you believe you could sell. Approach them with your own ideas
for becoming their affiliate. Work out the details you would like and
give them a solid, well thought out proposal. They might love it and make
you a sweetheart deal!
Yes, the economy is bad right now. But opportunities exist only where there
are problems. Identify the solutions to people's problems and you will find
yourself riding the crest of the next wave of Internet success.
Copyright © 2001, all rights reserved
Marketing Tip of
the Week
We all know that banner advertising just
doesn't deliver like it used to. People have been so deluged with banners
that they tend to ignore them. However, banners represent extremely cheap
exposure for this very reason.
You probably hesitate to join a banner exchange because you don't want to
junk up your site with other people's banners, and you are right to feel
this way. But if you want to take advantage of this favorable environment
here is an easy way to do it.
Join a banner exchange like
BannersGoMLM at
http://bannersgomlm.com/cgi-bin/ref/index.cgi?dist=philcary
where you get a 1:1 ratio for banner displays. Create an extra page on your
website designed specifically for use in start page or other traffic
programs. Make it a signup form for a special report or something similar.
Place your
BannersGoMLM code on this page. You will probably want to make this page
inaccessible to your normal visitors.
Now, show this page in one or more of your start page or surf for traffic
programs. If your page is crafted properly you might get some signups for
your newsletter or special report or visits to other pages on your website,
but you are also earning banner display credits without cluttering up your
website with other people's banners.
Guest
Article Multiple Streams of Automated
Internet Income
By Terry Dean
I sent one email.
Twenty-four hours later I had earned $10,185.
That's a pretty good day.
I sent another email a couple of months later. This email brought in a total
of $31,185 in 96 hours.
That's a pretty good weekend in anyone's book.
The funny thing is that you can duplicate my results...if you follow my
lead.
As I'm sure you've figured out by now, these weren't just any old emails.
They were special.
They were both sent to my opt-in email list.
Each of these emails went out to over 30,000 people, but it took only one
click of the mouse and one actual email leaving my box to generate the
income.
An opt-in email list is the exact opposite of a bulk email list. Everywhere
you turn online someone is sending an email into your inbox about how you
can earn big money online by
buying 1,000,000 email names you can send email to.
Don't do it! Purchasing email lists and mailing to them is called Spamming
and will get your ISP and web site shut down. You'll also earn the
dreaded reputation of a spammer.
An opt-in email list is one where the recipients have requested for you to
send them email. It may be an ezine, a free email course, a customer list,
or anything else you can use to build
relationships with your prospects and customers by email.
Spam is based on generating and sending out sales letters to as many people
found online.
Opt-In email is based on building relationships with thousands of people at
one time.
If your web site is not taking advantage of opt-in email in one fashion or
another, then you are losing out on as much as 90% of your potential income.
You are making the same mistake I did the first year I was in business.
Instead of working to build an opt-in email list, I was just trying to make
one-time sales from my web sites.
Sure, I had times where I made some money that first year (not much), but I
wasn't building any long term value into my business.
The #1 asset in your business is not your products, your talents, or your
web site traffic. Your #1 asset is the number of strong relationships you
build with your prospects and
customers.
Email is perfect for doing this. To send a letter to over 30,000 people
would cost a bare minimum of $15,000 and that's being very conservative. I
would break out in cold sweats if I
had to fork out that much money every time I wanted to contact my list with
an offer.
I don't think I would be able to sleep for days if that much was riding on a
one-shot opportunity!
Sending out an email to 30,000 people is free except for a small fee I pay
for online access and the database system it's running on.
In a year where there has been one dotbomb failure after another...the small
guys are still profiting.
A major reason for this is opt-in email. We've figured it out, and large
companies are still in the dark.
It's not about the traffic. It's not about the branding. It's about the
relationship.
Having an opt-in list takes you away from having a one-shot sales
opportunity or one stream of income. It opens you up to earning multiple
streams of income from one web site.
Our list earns us 7 streams of Internet Income...
Income Stream #1: Special Offers
The two examples I gave you at the beginning of this article are from
special offers we have done. Although we normally send out content in the
form of articles, questions & answers, etc.
to our list, we also send out special offers every 2 to 3 months.
These special offers go out with nothing else in the email to distract our
readers and produce the most income in the least amount of time. We keep
them rare though so as to not "waste"
the relationship we've built up with our readers.
They're a great way to generate a lot of cash flow in a short period of time
(please note that they must really be specials and not some offer you
regularly run).
Income Stream #2: Selling My Products
The second income stream for our opt-in email list is the income we generate
from selling our own products to the list. We post a quick welcome message
to our subscribers and then post a
quick note about one of our products usually at the very top of most of the
issues which go out.
Our opt-in email list is the primary driver of our web site sales. Our
response rates are actually much higher by using our web site to generate
subscribers more than anything else...instead of going for a sale right from
the site on a prospect's first visit.
Income Stream #3: Joint Ventures
One of the most valuable joint venture partners you can ever find is an
ezine owner with a large email list. They have an audience and they are in
constant need of high quality products
and services to sell to their list.
As an opt-in email publisher, I regularly contact product sellers and
negotiate to sell their products and services to my audience. Guess what? As
a person with a large list, I'm able to command a much higher percentage of
the profits than what the average individual receives in a deal such as
this.
Whereas most affiliate programs pay 10% to 30% commissions, I'm usually
looking for at least 50% of the sales price when I contact someone to joint
venture their product to my list. You
won't have this luxury if your list is small, but it will start happening
more and more as your business grows.
Income Stream #4: Affiliate Programs
Just because I do special joint venture deals doesn't mean that I don't join
affiliate programs from time to time. I still do, but it usually isn't just
to sell the product.
I specifically go out of my way to look for affiliate programs who provide
you with good content and articles that you can use to promote them with.
You can accomplish two goals at one time
by joining these programs.
You get content already written for you for your opt-in email publication,
and you get to earn profits from the affiliate program for running the
article.
Income Stream #5: Sponsor Ads
A sponsor ad runs at the top of my ezine before the main article in every
issue. In some cases these will be ads for my own products, but in many
cases they will be ad spaces that I traded someone for.
We could easily sell this space, and most ezine publishers do, but we find
it more profitable to use it in bargaining for space with other publishers.
Then we simply trade ad for ad to keep
our own ad expenses down.
If you sell this space, it is the most valuable section of your publication
and usually commands a price of around $5 to $20 per 1,000 subscribers or
more. If you're thinking about pricing the space, then I recommend selling
one of your own products or doing a joint venture to determine the value of
this space in your specific publication.
Income Stream #6: Classified Ads
Classified ads in opt-in email publications are losing value and are being
replaced by having one to four sponsorship positions spread throughout the
content.
People still buy them though and you can easily use classified ad space as a
bargaining chip for trading ads or as bonuses with products you're selling
(for example, give a free classified ad to anyone who buys one of the
affiliate program products you're recommending).
Income Stream #7: Membership Site Upgrade
This is an income stream from opt-in email that most publishers never even
think about. Email publications are usually sent out free, but this doesn't
mean you should be giving away your very best content free.
Information is valuable and customers are willing to pay for it if it is
unique and difficult to find information.
So many publishers have found themselves another incredible stream of
income. They've started up paid membership sites to provide the most
exclusive content to only paid subscribers.
For us, we've created the Netbreakthroughs site which contains all our
special training reports and our weekly ad tests (showing results we're
receiving from our own advertising).
Take a look at it at:
http://www.peakconsultinginc.com/nbt.htm
Most publishers will find that they can create a backend private membership
publication like ours for their email list. This expands their income
with a totally new income stream you've probably never even thought of
before.
________________
Terry Dean, a 5 year veteran of Internet marketing, will Take You By The
Hand and Show You Exact Results of All the Internet Marketing Techniques he
tests and Uses Every Single Month
Click here to Find Out More:
http://www.peakconsultinginc.com/nbt.htm
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