AFFILIATE DIMENSIONS

Now Here's A Breath of Fresh Air

2008-10-20T10:16:00.001+11:00

The 3 Secrets to Massive Online Marketing Success

2008-10-17T20:19:00.001+11:00

by Sonia Simone

If you’re trying to sell products and services online, you’re probably looking for that one magic key to make your business work.

You buy CDs and DVDs that will tell you the secret.

You subscribe to sites like Copyblogger to study the secret.

You look at mega-successful sites in your market and try to reverse engineer the secret.

After all of this searching, you may be tempted to believe there is no secret. But the secret is real.

Actually, there are three secrets that work together. To be blunt, these three magic success secrets separate the winners from the losers. Master them and you’ll start to move forward. Slowly at first, then you’ll pick up momentum and things will start to move amazingly quickly. No baloney, no tricks. These three secrets are . . .

Success secret #1: Take action

Every year, hopeful entrepreneurs buy millions of dollars’ worth of “how to succeed” or “how to start a business” products. The market isn’t limited to doing business online, but the idea of working at a computer making “six-figure incomes in our pajamas” is especially irresistible.

95% of the customers for these products will spend thousands of dollars, then turn around looking for the next magic pill before their credit card gets a chance to cool off. So are online marketing products all garbage? Are they just hype and spin?

There are some junky products out there, but the truth is that many of them are excellent. The “gurus,” as they’re (not always affectionately) called, have a lot of sound advice to give. Their advice can make you lots of money, if you know the success secret:

You actually have to do something with the advice.

Most customers for “business opportunity” products value the dream more than they do the result. They want to get out of the cubicle, out of their crummy apartment, out of credit card debt. They might even want it desperately. But they don’t take action.

I’m not saying this to be flippant or harsh. It’s not actually all that easy to go from advice to action. If you don’t have a good track record for that, if you’ve spent a lot of time or money on how-to products but never really done anything with it, you may believe you’ll never master it.

That’s BS.

Your new productivity methodology

Get a little notebook. This is your to-do list for your project.

If you’re a content marketer, most of your actions will revolve around creating content, creating products, or delivering services. Be sure and maintain a long list of content ideas, so you’re never at a loss when it’s time to knock out a post or a podcast.

Write down all the actions you must take to get you to the next step. Add more actions as you think of them. Cross them off when you’re done. When the list is a mess, rewrite it.

You don’t need an elaborate system that wastes more time than it frees up. Your system only needs to help you know what to do next.

Work every day (7 days a week, no exceptions), even if some days you only have 15 minutes. Working every day will increase your productivity by spurring your unconscious mind to come up with more ideas. This is helpful for entrepreneurs, and critical for content marketers.

Make a daily habit of one hour of action on your biggest goal. You’ll be astonished at how quickly you start to make progress. Ready, Fire, Aim author Michael Masterson recommends an hour of work on your dream goal every morning, as a way to start your day with a terrific rush of productivity. I’ve been doing just that for the past few months, and I’m starting to get used to the “whooshing” sound as the pieces fall into place. Not only does it work, it feels great too.

You can spend that hour all at once, or divide it into two or three pieces. Make it work for you. And once you develop the hour-a-day habit, you’ll actually find yourself making excuses to do more work on your project.

Success is built on lots of small steps. Start taking them. You’ve built this up in your head to be 1,000 times harder than it is. The fact that you have historically been terrible at getting stuff done is not relevant at all.

Just start taking action. It honestly is that simple.

Success secret #2: Have a plan

The down side of “just taking action” is that if you do a lot of random tasks, you tend to get a lot of random results.

You need to put together a simple, reasonably logical plan. If you want notoriety and attention for its own sake, put together a Paris Hilton sort of plan. If you want credibility and trust from your customers, make it more of a Copyblogger kind of plan.

There’s an old saying that when the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem tends to look like a nail. Fight that kind of thinking as much as you can. Your plan may call for expertise you don’t have, or actions you aren’t very good at. So make some room in your plan to partner with someone else. If you’re great at connecting with customers but lousy at technology, find a partner whose strengths and weaknesses perfectly complement yours. Believe me, that person is out there and wants desperately to work with you.

Making too many plans can be the enemy of success secret #1. Be sure your plan has plenty of room for “actions I will take.”

For most of us, grandiose plans don’t get implemented. It’s great to have spectacular goals, if that inspires you. But put together plans for relatively simple, manageable projects. A dumb, simple little project that gets done is infinitely more valuable than an impressive one that gets 99% done.

The reason “back-of-the-napkin” project planning is a cliché is because simple, compact plans tend to get put into action, while 1,000-page strategies to create business empires tend to gather dust.

Keep your project plan in your little notebook. If your plan doesn’t fit into a small notebook, make a smaller plan.

If you want to make a million dollars online, start with a project to make $10. Figure that out, then scale it. It sounds simplistic and even silly, but it works.

Success secret #3: Your secret sauce is you

This is the one that’s going to take #1 and #2 to a completely new level. Success secrets #1 and #2 can make you a decent living. Add #3 to those and you’ll start to create an extraordinary business that supports a meaningful life.

As a content marketer, you’re going to need to create interesting, useful and compelling content pretty much every day you’re in this business. Your blog posts, free reports and email newsletters all contribute to one goal: to establish you as a trusted authority on your topic.

If you’re just going to regurgitate the usual stuff in a lame me-too blog, you’re not going to find too many customers. You’re betting off spending your time surfing or skateboarding—at least with those, you’ll get some exercise and you might meet somebody cute.

You have a unique view of your market’s problems. You have a unique set of techniques and approaches to solve those problems. You have a unique set of experiences to put the problems in a fresh light. Share those unique perspectives in your content.

If you need more expertise to establish yourself as a credible authority, get out and start asking questions. Be a reporter. Look for case studies. Look for real-life examples, even if they’re tiny. Look for lessons in your own life. Make connections no one’s made yet. Bring someone else’s expertise to light in a new way.

If you’re a Franciscan monk, write about the Franciscan monk’s guide to brewing better beer. If you’re a doting parent, write about the toddler’s guide to success. If you’re an indentured servant for a big corporation, write about how to avoid doing all the really dumb stuff your company does.

There will always be people—often thousands of people—who know more than you do. Acknowledge that so you stay humble and open. Then put it to one side and speak up anyway.

Keep whittling down your topic until you’re speaking with an authentic voice about something you genuinely know and care about. Stay curious and you’ll find the path that works for you and only for you.

The real secret

Nearly everyone will read this, feel inspired for about 45 seconds, then go off to hit Starbucks and check out what the hottie on the 2nd floor is wearing today.

But you’re going out at lunch today to pick up your small notebook. As soon as you get back, you’re going to scribble a simple plan and a good handful of actions that will make the plan happen. You’re going to put some thought into how you can execute this plan in your own inimitable way.

You’ll make 10 minutes and take an action today, even if it’s small. Tomorrow morning, you’ll start working for an hour every day, 7 days a week, toward your biggest goal. And just like that, you’ll be on your way to true, meaningful success, however you define it.

Send me a postcard when you’ve reached your dream. I’ll be very jazzed to hear from you.

About the Author: Sonia Simone is an Associate Editor of Copyblogger and the founder of Remarkable Communication.

12 Tips for “Psychological Selling”

2008-10-17T19:41:00.003+11:00

by Dean Rieck

Many copywriting and marketing gurus teach simplistic ideas about psychology. They insist that people can be fully understood and manipulated with a checklist of motivators or pyramid of needs.

What nonsense! I can’t even figure out why the guy at the pet store puts 75 cat food cans in one bag and a tiny box of treats in another so that I lurch to my car leaning to one side. How can I possibly summarize human psychology in a few bullet points?

People are highly complex and often mysterious, so we all struggle to understand our fellow humans. However, now that you’ve gotten over being afraid to sell, here are a few basic psychological tidbits that can help you write compelling copy.

1. People make decisions emotionally. They decide based on a feeling, need, or emotion, not though a logical thought process. That’s why intangible benefits are the keys to persuasion. When you’re writing, you should ask yourself, “What is the emotional hot button here?”

2. People justify decisions with facts. Example: a man sees an advertisement with a photo of a sports car and instantly falls in love. However, he can’t bring himself to buy the car based on a feeling, so he reads the copy for technical details about the powerful engine, safety features, and low maintenance. He wants the car because it makes him feel good. But he buys it only when he can justify the purchase rationally.

3. People are egocentric. The word “egocentric” means centered around the ego or self. We all see the world in terms of how it relates to us personally. So when your copy asks someone to do something, it must also answer the unspoken question, “What’s in it for me?” On a deeper level, the question might be “How does this give me feelings of personal worth?”

4. People look for value. Value is not a fixed number. Value is relative to what you’re selling, what others charge, what the prospect is used to paying, how badly the prospect wants it, and how the prospect perceives the difference between your offer and others. You must demonstrate a value that seems to be equal to or greater than the asking price. The greater the value relative to the price, the more likely people are to buy.

5. People think in terms of people. The human brain is not a computer, calculator, or information processor. Scientists have shown that its primary function is to deal with social interactions. Remember how some mathematical questions in high school were stated as real-life situations? They were always easier to understand and solve than abstract problems. Your copy, therefore, should feature people through names, personal pronouns, quotes, testimonials, stories, photos of satisfied customers, etc.

6. You can’t force people to do anything. When people buy, it’s not because you wield some magical power over them. You can urge. You can push. You can entice. But ultimately, people do what they want to do. This means your job is to show how what you’re offering meets your prospect’s needs.

7. People love to buy. Some say people don’t like to be “sold.” Not true. People love to be sold. They love to discover wonderful new products and experiences. What people don’t love is to be cheated or tricked. Therefore, it can be helpful to change your analogy of the marketing process. Instead of “selling” to people, try to “help” them. Sell good products, make appealing offers, and treat people fairly. That’s a surefire formula for success.

8. People are naturally suspicious. It’s true that there’s a sucker born every minute, but most people are moderately skeptical of any offer. They seek to avoid risk. You can never predict the level of suspicion any particular person has, so it’s usually best to back up all claims with evidence, such as testimonials, survey results, authoritative endorsements, test results, and scientific data.

9. People are always looking for something. Love. Wealth. Glory. Comfort. Safety. People are naturally dissatisfied and spend their lives searching for intangibles. At its simplest, writing good copy is a matter of showing people how a particular product, service, or cause fulfills one or more of their needs.

10. People buy “direct” because of convenience and exclusivity. If people could easily find the things you offer at a nearby store, that’s probably where many would buy them. So if they are not buying from you directly for sheer convenience, they’re doing it because they can’t find the item elsewhere (or just don’t know where to look). That’s why it’s wise to emphasize the convenience and exclusivity of what you wish to sell.

11. People like to see it, hear it, touch it, taste it, or smell it before they buy it. Some people never buy online because they can’t examine the merchandise. Some items, such as books and CDs, are tangible and familiar enough to sell easily online because there is little doubt about the physical quality. Other items, such as clothing or food, may be a harder sell — at least until people have a satisfactory buying experience — because quality may be variable. Think about how people buy things in stores and ask yourself if there is some element of that sensory experience that is missing from your sales message.

12. Most people follow the crowd. Most of us are imitators. We look to others for guidance, especially when we are uncertain about something. We ask, “What do others think about this? What do others feel? What do others do?” Then we act accordingly. This is why testimonials and case histories are so influential.

Of course, this barely scratches the surface. Psychology is a deep and eternally revealing line of study. And while I don’t believe in making things more complicated than they have to be, I think there is great benefit in knowing not only what people do, but also why they do it.

This is the path to copywriting mastery.

About the Author: Dean Rieck is a leading direct marketing copywriter. For more copywriting and selling tips, sign up for Dean’s FREE direct response newsletter or subscribe to the Direct Creative Blog.

Twitter Your Name Or Blog

2008-10-17T10:05:00.002+11:00

Heard a good tip the other day.

Register a domain TWITTERyourname.com or TWITTERyourblog.com

Makes sense! Could apply to other social media sites too.

Writing Quality PPC Ad Copy

2008-10-16T21:17:00.002+11:00

By Brian Basch

There are lots of different ways to make your PPC ad campaign work. Start by picking keywords, bid for them, then make sure your ads are working and making money for you. However, the way the ad reads is very important, too. It's the component that convinces the customer to click.

It takes just three lines of text to make a person click, but if the ad's copy doesn't work the rest of your campaign won't have a chance. Be noticed and empower the customer to click on the ad. Often people get too far ahead of themselves and put all their efforts into making the sale, but you need to start with the customer clicking on the ad before you can make that all-important sale.

Conventional marketing tricks just don't work with PPC. Pay per click has become its own marketing enigma where everything you know about advertising has been reinvented. At the same time, many novices are finding it to be their ticket for success. To get your campaign to work you need to understand how those three little lines of ad copy work, and the last thing you want to try and do is cram in too much information. Less really is more in this case.

The 80/20 rule applies to PPC, you've heard about a different 80/20 rule for many different applications, I'm sure. Here, it means that the ad works best if it has a good headline - which makes up about 20% of the ad. This is true in other forms of writing, too. As a matter of fact, in PPC ads, this is even more true.

Be sure that everything about your ad is appealing. Trying to get the right words is a chore, but you can do it with some careful thought. Good spelling and punctuation is a good start, there's nothing more unappealing than an obvious mistake in advertising. It just cries out for the customer to turn away fast. It's almost like a form of shame.

Make sure you get attention first. There will be more ads than just yours in the search page sidebar. If you want to get customers, you'll have to stand out. Make your headline and copy appealing and attention grabbing. If possible, pique the viewer's curiosity - make him or her want to know what's behind that ad.

Keyword placement is very important. The keyword phrase (or a variation on it) needs to be in the headline. Next, make sure that your second line is relevant and really eye-catching. Don't use phrases like "quality service" or state however long you've been in the business. These types of approaches don't wok with pay per click.

The last line of your ad is important, too. Use it to tell the viewer what's best about your product, or use it to highlight an offer or deal. This will increase the chances of a click through and an eventual sale. Never use deceptive wording to get more clicks, however. A click that doesn't result in a sale is a wasted one, because you pay for it anyway.

PPC campaigns aren't easy to write and require some careful thought Make sure your ad gets attention by following these guidelines and you'll be seeing lots of clicks in no time.

About the Author:
If you are struggling with your ppc campaigns and are seeking quality adwords help, browse over to ProPayPerClickManagement.com to take advantage of a wealth on information. They offer over four years of experience and professional adwords management services. Visit now to learn about their qualifications and sign up for a free pay per click analysis.

What Web 2.0 Can Do For You

2008-10-09T13:54:00.004+11:00

Michelle McPhearson from Social Media Daily has a great guide on marketing your website with social media, social bookmarking, social networking and other Web 2.0 fun. It is packed with information from a lady that knows what she's talking about and one that keeps right on top of her subject matter.

You can download here "Social Media And Web 2.0 For Traffic"

Audio Marketing Using Audacity

2008-10-07T14:01:00.003+11:00

Lisa Hartwell's blog AUDIBLE MARKETING has a set of tutorials on how to use the free audio recording software Audacity. Anyone thinking of conducting online interviews or podcasting should seriously look at what this talented lady has to say.

Will Google Use Chrome to Index Password Protected Web?

2008-10-07T00:38:00.002+11:00

It's now over a month since Google released its open source web browser, Chrome. An interesting theory we heard recently is that Google will use Chrome to index the password protected Web - a.k.a. the 'dark web'.

Right now the Chrome Terms of Service (TOS) prevents Google from indexing private data. But when you consider that Chrome was initially presented as a browser for applications, instead of just web pages, this theory begins to make more sense.

more @ Read Write Web

Want to know what your market is thinking?

2008-10-06T14:10:00.001+11:00

Ask them.

Ask500 -Public Opinion Polls

Are You Serious About SEO?

2008-10-05T18:40:00.000+11:00

Peter Drew is in prelaunch phase right now with his BRUTE FORCE SEO. If you wanna have an early heads up for when this product will be available go and register now

The Copywriting Master Needs Help!

2008-10-03T16:47:00.000+10:00

If you don't know about John Carlton then you have never realised how essential copy writing is to your success.

Well it seems the master has a problem and needs inspiration from others to figure out a solution. He's even running a competition to encourage input.

From John's blog:

"The person who most succinctly and clearly helps me see what I’m missing here…

… will win a free copy of the freshly updated “Kick-Ass Copywriting Secrets of a Marketing Rebel” — the course that launched so many of the online marketers now dominating the virtual landscape."

Go see if you can help... johncarlton

Step 2 Overall Strategy Defined

2008-10-03T13:10:00.000+10:00

The last post in this series I asked you to:

Get yourself a generic domain name that would serve as your overall business name;
Sign up for a reseller account with a web host;
Point your DNS from your domain registrar to your host account.

Over a period of time you are going to find numerous products that you will want to push. The steps you took above will help you get these products to market.

When you find an exceptional product you will want to register a domain that approximates the product name. (More on this later);
Then you will want to set up a new web host for that domain. (As you are a reseller this should cost you zero).

OK so now where is all this going to take us?

Here's the strategy or rather process we will be using:

Do Market Research to find a likely PPC (pay per click) product to push;
Evaluate whether the product can provide a sustainable ROI (return on investment);
Investigate and confirm keywords to use;
Create a lead generation and traffic generation framework;
Set up a web site;
Set up auto responding framework;
Set up an AdWords test campaign;
Go live;
Evaluate results;
Track and adjust as necessary.

Of course there are numerous other steps to be taken when going through the above process... but in the main this is where we'll be going.

Next post will deal in depth with the all important methods of where to look for and how to find that magic product! This is an area where most people stumble... but have no fear... to better prepare you I have a special report that you can download which will point you in the right direction. It includes in particular a little known gem used by super affiliates to get them ahead of the pack! Request a copy.

Ways To Make Money On The Internet

2008-10-03T12:03:00.000+10:00

Interesting video from Stephen Pierce. Good insights for Newbies. The wheel has already been invented... just don't try to do it all over again!

Women Heavily Influence The Buying Decision

2008-10-03T11:18:00.000+10:00

Why Market to Women?

"Women influence 97% of buying decisions.

It's true, whether it be consumer, personal, household or corporate, on average, women are influencing 97% of the buying decisions that are made.

Even when a man is making a purchase for himself, he's been influenced by the women in his life. Men use the same detergent, mayonnaise, and other household items that their mothers use. They buy the clothes that their female friends tell them they look good in.

Perhaps more importantly, they make decisions not to buy based on the approval of the women in their lives."

Donna Fox is an Internet Marketer, focusing on Marketing to Women Strategies. She believes that effective selling to women comes from not selling, but creating an environment with your design and language to encourage buying. Have a look at her site it is dedicated to understanding the reasons why a woman buys, how to market effectively to women, and gain a greater capture of your marketshare."

Source: The Why She Buys Reporter

Great Interview

2008-10-01T17:08:00.000+10:00

Ray Edwards rewards his Twitter followers with a gift. A link to an interview he did with Ben Settle. Awesome content. Follow him here rayedwards

Step 1 To A Successful Affiliate Marketing Career

2008-10-01T12:52:00.000+10:00

Affiliate Marketing isn't simply about finding a product to push and just putting it out there. Successful marketers recognise that they have to be willing to put their own dollars behind a campaign. This does not need to be big money, but hey there's no such thing as a free lunch right?

So let's start at the beginning. At some time or other you're going to need your own website(s) and domain names.

I recommend that your domain registrar is different to your web host... why? Well the one thing you don't need is to have something go wrong with the web host and be off the air for hours on end or even days. You want to position yourself for total flexibility. It is easy enough to point your DNS to another host if things go wrong. This way you are totally in control.

I also register the hyphenated version of a domain name. Why would you allow your competition to get it?

Another practice I have is that I buy a reseller package when choosing a web host. Some Affiliate Marketers run hundreds of campaigns. This is a lot cheaper alternative to having to set up a new host every time you look at a new campaign.

Ok so... given that you have not chosen a product to push yet, at this stage all I would recommend you do is to purchase a domain which will act as your generic business name, make sure you register it as private, so that your details are not wide open to everyone. Then go ahead and purchase a reseller account with a web host, again you want to have flexibility here, so if you are given the choice as to what type of account you want... choose Linux instead of Windows.

Here's a couple of providers I use... Godaddy as a domain registrar, and KIOSK as a web host. There's a reason why I use KIOSK... go to thier web site and find out why the Gurus use them.

When done, point your domain DNS from your domain registrar to your web host.

Next post in this series we'll look at the overall strategies to employ in our Affiliate Marketing Campaigns.

Starting out In Affiliate Marketing

2008-09-30T17:55:00.000+10:00

Whether you are a newbie to the Internet or a proud owner of a website, affiliate programs are great opportunities for you to make money online. It is an interesting concept that allows affiliates to develop a source of income and the program owners to sell their products more effectively.

As an affiliate your job is to drive traffics to the program owner's site. You get a commission from each sale made to a customer that originated from your marketing efforts.

Once you become interested in making money through affiliate programs and do some research you will come to know that there are many affiliates, who consistently make thousands of dollars month after month.

James Martell, who also wrote a handbook on affiliate marketing, claims that he makes over US$ 40K each month from his 30 over niche affiliate sites.

Phil Wiley lives in a remote area near Australia's Great Barrier Reefs but it does not create any barrier for him to make a comfortable living from his online incomes.

Rosalind Gardner, author of the Super Affiliate Handbook, made over US $400,000 last year alone by promoting different affiliate programs.

Needless to say, these people are in the minority. However Affiliate Marketing offers the easiest entry to Online Marketing and is without doubt the perfect vehicle for those who do not have much money to invest at the beginning.

Over the next few days I will be posting a series of articles that will show you how to start in Affiliate Marketing. This will be a step-by-step tutorial to encourage those who are waiting undecided on the sidelines to take action. Look for the first article later this week.

FINALLY… A BLUEPRINT TO MAKING AN ONLINE LIVING!

2008-09-30T12:29:00.000+10:00

Dear Fellow Marketers, Newbies, Wannabe Marketers, etc;

I’m going to cut to the chase and jump right into this and tell you my story.

A bit of background.

I’m an Internet Marketer making money online right now. In fact as I write this my cash machine is working for me in the background.

I consider myself a savvy business person having spent a good many years running my own bricks and mortar businesses or helping other people run theirs.

Two and a half years ago my word fell apart. To put it simply my marriage went down the drain! With my marriage went my business, property etc;

Taking stock, I decided that I really needed to smell the roses for a while so I took a 12 month sabbatical from the world of business. Mainly, (as my kids ended up living with me), I became Mr. Mom! It was a role I really enjoyed and to be quite truthful with you looking after my kids kept me sane through a rather rough patch in my life.

Enter the world of Internet Marketing.

Some eighteen months ago however, I became interested in the world of "online marketing"! Of course like any would be "Internet Marketer" I looked at what was happening out there saw the promises of instant riches and thought… “I could do this!”

Now as I said earlier I consider myself a savvy business person, so yes I did take what I saw with a dash of healthy skepticism, but I also saw the potential of what could be done and the type of money that can be made. I then proceeded to investigate ways of "earning money online". And… as has happened to many that came before me I fell prey to the “information overload syndrome”.

Let me tell you that I spent many, many, months moving from one guru to the other, one product to the other, and taking little action. There was so much information out there that it became impossible to do all that had to be done. The latest offer was better than the last… and so it went… MONEY GOING OUT THE DOOR and the result… zero!

I have followed, subscribed to, bought products from, people like Derek Gehl, Mike Filsaime, Stephen Pierce, Dan Kennedy, Frank Kern, Ed Dale, Ewan Chia, Joel Comm just to name a few ( there were many more believe me). Please don’t get me wrong each of these wonderful people taught me heaps and I don’t regret the money I spent on the education I received through them… my lack of action was of my own doing!

BUT… Now all these months later, as I write this, I am proud to say that things have changed for me and I am "making a healthy living" from my online presence. I’d like to share with you what the 180 degree turnaround for me was.

So let me fast forward a little to two “aha” moments that changed things for me.

“AHA” Moment #1

I joined a web site run by Mike Filsaime called The 7 Figure Zone. Part of the site is a training module where Mike conducts online calls. Members can ask or send in questions and Mike gives candid replies (all with the benefit of his extensive marketing experience). So literally from the horses mouth!

I was lucky enough to get a question featured and it was this:

“Mike, given that Rome wasn’t built in a day and that I would like to be earning whilst honing my skills what specific advise would you give a newbie as to the market progression he or she should start in to commence to earn a living.

That is would you recommend starting an Ad sense campaign, a WSO (meaning a Warrior Special Offer), an affiliate campaign, etc; and then progress to putting together your own product or web site?”

So paraphrasing “if you had no list, no product, not much money to invest but still wanted to start to make money online so that one day you could put together your own product and web site, where would you start?”

Mike’s answer? (again paraphrased) “Start with an affiliate campaign.” “AHA!!” As I said earlier you can’t get it any straighter from the horse’s mouth than that!

Ok so picture where I am at this point, a real life "Internet Marketing" Guru has just given me (a raw newbie) one-on-one advice. You would think this should end my “Information Overload Syndrome” right? Well to a point it did… but old habits are sometimes hard to break. The mistake that I made at the time was not to turn off the mountain of information that was still coming in! I was still subscribed to a few hundred RSS feeds and my email inbox was bursting at the seams. It almost seems as if I was addicted to receiving information… sound familiar?

So although I knew that to "get started making money online" I would need to go down the "Affiliate Marketing" road I somehow held myself back and continued to basically waist time and money. Duh… pretty dumb I know!

“AHA” Moment #2

Fast forward again. And now let me really cut to the chase… Don’t ask me how, because to this day I cannot remember how I ended up on a landing page for a product that turned everything around for me and made the world of "Affiliate Marketing" fall into place. But I did, and yet again, I found myself buying another "Internet Marketing" product. I even subscribed to the up sell, after all there’s a "guarantee" right?

Anyway, I proceeded to download, extract, etc; like we all do when we buy ourselves yet another one of these toys… but… here’s where the epiphany happened… THIS TIME IT WAS DIFFERENT! As I started to go through the materials I could tell it was different.

Suddenly it was like somebody had lifted a veil of fog from infront of me. I could actually see the wood for the trees!! I could see how each piece fitted together. What I had to do and the order I had to do it in!! I had a blueprint to follow… FINALLY… CLARITY… FOCUS… “AHA!!!!!!!!!!!”

THE TIME FOR EXCUSES AND PROCRASTINATION WAS OVER!

This product I am talking about was (is) a masterly example in over-delivery. I spent a week immersing myself in its contents, watching the videos, using the resources available, reading and interacting with others who had experienced success using it, even talking directly to the people that produced it.

NOW… FAILURE WAS NOT AN OPITION!

So I followed the blueprint, set up the systems, and went to work. And here’s the key concept… this time I wasn’t going to try and reinvent the wheel because I didn’t need to! Everything I needed was laid out for me to follow.

In the famous words of some other marketing expert… “Set up the system, then work the system”. And that is precisely what I did.

Little by little the cash started to come in. $75.00 the first week, $225.00 the second week, $459.00 the third week. You can imagine how I was feeling right? Hell I cracked the code!

Today I "make a healthy living online" and yes I could be called an "Internet Marketer"!

SO WHAT ABOUT YOU?

If right now you find yourself where I was when I asked Mike Filsaime that question, that is, you do not have a list, you do not have a product, you do not have much money to invest, and yet despite these setbacks, you aspire to "make a living online"… I have a question for you…

WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT - AND WHEN?

I simply ask you this question because I know that we all need to be challenged into action at some time or another in our lives. So many of us spend our time living on “Someday Isle” that we forget to catch a boat to the mainland now and then.

You now have THE VERY SAME INFORMATION straight from the horse’s mouth. The best start for a newbie is via "Affiliate Marketing". That’s the first part of the equation. The second part is just a click away…