This post has moved here

This post has moved here.

This post has moved here

For the whole of May, I will be posting updates every day to my new blog, “Think, Write and RETIRE!“.

This is part of my participating in a ‘Blog Book Tour‘ challenge… and to make this more interesting and interactive, I decided to include a CONTEST.

Every week, I will pick THREE people to win a free copy of my book, “Think, Write & RETIRE” – based on the comments you leave on my blog.

Each comment you leave will be awarded 1 point. In addition, based on the quality of your comment, I will award you an extra 1 to 5 points. At the end of a week, I will tot up the points, and the top 3 scorers will be eligible for a copy of my new book.

Sound interesting? Go on and follow the ‘Think, Write and RETIRE!’ blog.

Sign up to the RSS feed by clicking on the button at the top right corner of the page, so you’ll be notified each time there’s an update.

And if you know someone else who’ll find the blog interesting, please spread the word.

John Reese is launching Opportunity.com

And as I drafted out an email to one of my sub-lists, I ran across a problem that many affiliates may face while promoting Opportunity.com to their lists via email.

For my email autoresponders, I use Aweber.com which offers built in ‘Spam Check’ – a service that flags emails if they are likely to get caught by spam filters.

My first draft was flagged, with a score of 3.7 (very high) – and that was due to my use of “Opportunity” in the email.

So I set up a web-based redirect – this is where you set up a webpage with a different file name, and have it automatically directed to your affiliate page. This is the link I set up: http://Niche2.com/reese.htm

Thinking this would do the trick, I queued my email – and again was hit by a spam score of 2.3 (still high). This was because I used ‘Opportunity.com’ in the text of my email message.

UPDATE (3 hours after posting this note! Maybe you should just ignore the part of my post that follows (colored red), based on this information I got from Alok Jain – scroll below to read it)

So I tried different ‘typos’ (mis-spelled versions) of the word – and ALL got flagged.

- Oppportunity.com
- Opp.ortunity.com
- Opp.port.unity.com

Finally, I got through with this variation:

Op.p.port.unity.com

The finished email looks like this:

Lessons for Affiliate Marketers:

* Use reliable email autoresponder providers who let you test for spam score (Aweber, GetResponse and EmailAces all do)

* Pay attention to your spam score – and try and get it to ZERO (or close to it)

* Use web based redirects for your affiliate links to work around potentially spammy names (more so during big launches, as the sheer volume of emails with these names will sharpen filters!)

* Test different versions of your email to get highest delivery rates. Remember, you can’t earn affiliate commissions from undelivered emails!

Happy promoting!

- – - -

UPDATE:

This is what I learned from Alok Jain:

“Thought I should tell you that Aweber discourages this practice since it hurts deliverability. Here’s their blog post about it.

Also, I have had extensive discussions with them about the spam score. I had the same issue. Using free or similar words bumped the score to 2.5 or above. I started using punctuations too and and noticed that open rates were going down.

Long story short, discussed with the guys at Aweber and they say that any score less than 5 is okay. We don’t have to aim for 0.

Since then, I have done several split tests using the actual word (higher spam score) and one with punctuations (score of 0) and every time – the former had better open rates (meaning better deliverability since the subject lines were the same)

Just felt I should share this with ya…

Best,
Alok

- – - -

Thanks, Alok. I’m sure my readers will appreciate this as much as I do

You can learn more from Alok Jain from his website at http://alokjain.in/

I haven’t minced words over my opinion, thoughts and feelings about ‘forced continuity’ selling. It’s a fantastic concept. But there are great ways to implement it – and some stupid ones too.

I’m a Jay Abraham student. Jay teaches, as one of 3 ways to grow a business, the desirability of ‘repeat transactions’. And forced continuity is one way of getting them – automatically.

• If you trim borders and trees, you could set up an arrangement with clients to work on their garden every month – and bill them for it automatically.
• If you’re a hair-dresser, offer customers a special discount if they’ll commit to having a haircut every month or 3 weeks.
• If you’re a carpet-cleaner, tell your clients you’ll come to their home every 6 weeks and clean their carpets – and charge their card automatically.

All these are value-added services to your clients – because you are offering them MORE of what they already purchased from you.

And doing it conveniently, so they won’t have to remember to call you each time.

Plus you give them a discount, to reward them for their loyalty.

Yes, continuity selling can explode your business profitability.

On the digital web, the concept of continuity selling takes on a slightly different and unique shape – one such is a MEMBERSHIP SITE model.

The idea is similar. Sign up to a program. Pay monthly (or yearly, even maybe weekly) dues. Get access to valuable content, resources, tools or other. And continue receiving it for as long as you’re a member.

Simple. Yet not EASY. Unless you know what to do. And when.

That’s what I learned today in an excellent report by my friend and expert blogger Yaro Starak. And that’s what sparked off this post.

The Membership Site Master Plan by Yaro Starak is a free 72-page ebook. The provocative promise is voiced in the tag line: “How To Make $250,000 By Launching Your Own Membership Site”.

Well, that’s the only bit of the report that gave me pause. It didn’t pass my “Yeah, right!” test. (Y’know, that’s the one where you read the promise and go “Yeah, right!” – and shake your head in disbelief before clicking away to something else!)

But the rest of the report was pure gold. So let’s give Yaro the benefit of doubt, and not blame him for using a hypey headline to attract eyeballs, ok?

And if you’re still cynical, just do this. Download the report and read Page 6. If that doesn’t convince you about the kind of person Yaro Starak is, then nothing I say will.

Ok, so if you’re still with me, you’ve decided to learn from Yaro’s rich experience with continuity selling. And the free report gets right into the meat of the content without much fluff.

At the very beginning, you’ll hear about “Business Models” for membership sites – and see how you can have members paying $27 a month, or $999 a month – your choice! You might be surprised at an ‘insider secret’ Yaro reveals on page 9 which I have employed very effectively for many years!

After that, the report gets into the step by step approach to creating a membership site. It will come as no surprise that you need positioning and pre-eminence to run a successful membership site and attract new members to it. But what will amaze you is how simple it is to GAIN pre-eminence using a simple approach Yaro Starak shares in the report.

And yes, ANYONE can do it. All it takes is a free blog, some of your time, and focused effort on reaching that goal. Oh, and no… it is NOT ‘instant’!

Things like blogging, list building, and the natural consequence – reputation building – take time. And Yaro’s report shows that there are some tricks experts use to grease the slide, turbo-boost the engine, speed up the pace.

Though not daunting, the technology required to set up a membership site on the Internet is a barrier for many entrepreneurs. And in this report, Yaro takes readers through the process of finding suitable software – by telling the story of how he struggled, made mistakes and finally settled upon a free software tool to use for his membership site!

(Side note: Having bought several membership site scripts, and spent hundreds of dollars on them before realizing their drawbacks, I deeply appreciate this section in Yaro’s free report!)

Another section comparing the various payment processors that can handle recurring billing for membership sites is worth reading over and over again – because taking heed will save you endless problems when you get started with your own membership site.

Just when I thought this was way too much information to be giving away, and that Yaro was probably going to withhold the rest for a paid program, I saw the chapter titled “Affiliate Management” – and that one is ‘required reading’ too for any serious student considering a membership site promoted through affiliate partners.

By now, I’ve hopefully made a convincing case for you to take the time and effort to:

* download Yaro Starak’s 72 page FREE report
* invest the 45 minutes or so that it’ll take to read it
* use the information to plan your next membership site

But in case I haven’t, here’s a quick overview of what else is included in the report.

There’s advice about planning your membership site content – what to use, and how to present it.

There’s guidance about pricing your program for maximum impact.

(Another Side Note: Yaro says: “Pricing too low can end up killing your membership site because everyone perceives your offer as low quality.” Reading that bit was an ‘Aha’ moment for me, and I’m reconsidering my price for “The Smilenaire Way“ membership program.

Almost every single member who has joined is surprised at how much value is provided for the very modest membership price – which means many who did NOT JOIN probably think there can’t be much on offer for such a low price!

Hmm… I’ll seriously think about hiking it up a notch, so join today if you want to beat me to it!)

And then, there’s a section in this free report that I do NOT think should be there – simply because it’s like putting a hand grenade into the hands of a little boy! He won’t know how powerful it is – but can pull out the pin easily.

That’s the section Yaro has put in about “Psychological Triggers” for selling.

And this section segues nicely into the pre-launch and launch suggestions that he so liberally and generously shares. Remember, these are tested and proven techniques that Yaro has himself used to generate hundreds of thousands of dollars – and they work.

What is unusual is that it’s all included in a free report – that’s rare in this niche!

But then, that’s probably why I’m taking so much time – and over one thousand words – to wax lyrical over a free report!

There’s a lesson in itself. Many more of his affiliates will to the same, and then readers who download and see the report itself will talk about it. That creates a ripple effect that spreads far and wide – showcasing the power of quality content to get passed along.

Anyway, even with only this much inside, the report could sell for $27 or more. And yet Yaro appears to be just getting warmed up!

The next chapter is about handling attrition – one of the BIGGEST problems membership site owners face, and one that is often completely ignored or brushed away by everyone teaching how to build membership sites.

Like I said before, I’m a Jay Abraham trainee. Jay teaches attrition control as one of the most powerful levers to boost profitability. And that’s because every member reclaimed is the equivalent of attracting a new member to join!

While it doesn’t go deep into the specifics of beating attrition, The Membership Site Master Plan does provide some helpful tips to minimize loss of members, and strategies to re-fill the empty slots so that your income from a membership site remains constant.

Finally, Yaro addresses the Holy Grail of all information marketers – how to get paid for NOT working! In other words, how to set your membership site on auto-pilot so that your content continues to earn money even without any extra work or effort going into it.

Once again, in keeping with the fact that this is an overview and not an in-depth guide on the subject, he doesn’t dig deep into specifics but paints an overall picture that’ll give you a bird’s eye view of how to structure your membership site for the greatest impact.

There’s also a short chapter about selling your membership site, with details like where to find buyers, how to present your offer, and even guidelines on how much you can expect to make from selling your membership site.

The Membership Site Master Plan is well-worth reading if you have even a remote idea of setting up a membership program, either now or even in the future.

I don’t know for how long this will be available as a free download – and recommend that you pick up your copy right away.

And then, please read it. Think about it. And act on it.

That’s the way to reap rich rewards from Yaro’s experience, expertise and generosity in sharing these powerful membership site secrets.

Some years back, I bought a piece of software from Neil Shearing.

It was related to affiliate marketing – not surprising, as Neil is one of the best-known SUPER-affiliates, and has been ever since around 1998 when I first heard his name.

The software I bought cost $97. I didn’t hesitate to do it – because the value was obvious. Especially because a SUPER-affiliate created it… and the software was about ways to track down super-affiliates who will help promote YOUR product!

Over the years, I would conservatively estimate that this software had made me a 50x multiple on my modest investment. So I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend that you buy it for 100 bucks.

But here’s where it gets absolutely mind-boggling. Neil emailed me this morning to say he’s GIVING AWAY the Success Spider software!

That’s right – you’re NOT dreaming, and I’m NOT crazy (though I did think it about Neil!)

Anyway… if you know a great deal and are the kind who takes swift, purposive action, go right now and download the Success Spider software. Make sure you register for it with an email address you use, because you’ll need an ‘unlock key’ that’s emailed to you.

Then, don’t make the critical mistake of assuming that this is a weak, worthless or wimpy program just because you’re getting it without spraining your credit card!

Install the Success Spider. Put it to work seeking out affiliates you can contact and approach about promoting your product or service. Follow the simple instructions to find literally DOZENS of them within a few minutes.

When you’ve made a windfall profit from a day’s work (or less), please come back here and do 3 things:

- leave a comment sharing your experience using Neil’s software
- say ‘thank you’, both to me and Neil (we both appreciate it!)
- make a donation of 5% of your extra profit to help a child with heart defects

Now, don’t waste any more time. Go pick up the ‘Success Spider’ here.

He’s been called the ‘Godfather of Internet Marketing’ – and lot worse, too.

He’s a marketing genius, an extremely intelligent man, best-selling author many times over, brilliant strategic thinker, and highly successful entrepreneur.

He’s my friend – Mark Joyner.

I knew about him since 1997. He probably heard about me the first time just before he retired from his business at Aesop.com – and our very first interaction was characteristic of his never-ending generosity.

Mark gifted me a copy of his ‘Farewell Package’ to use as part of my activities to raise funds for CHD awareness.

Maybe that doesn’t sound special, but this was a ‘limited edition’ pack that sold out for $500 each – and pulled in a million dollars inside a week!

It was so powerful a pack that my very first attempt at using it resulted in an embarrassing incident… I got caught SPAMMING!

Fortunately, not by any ‘authority’ – but worse, by Mark himself, who had seeded his list with ‘trick addresses’. I apologized. Offered to return the pack. And experienced another facet of his wisdom and broad-mindedness.

He replied: “If you do, I’ll just ship it right back! We all make mistakes. Don’t worry about it.”

Over years, we discussed many things. I’ve learned a lot from him – about writing and marketing, networking and influencing.

Finally, after many years, we met face to face at Singapore. In a short chat that stretched to almost 2 hours, we watched ships in the busy port city while talking about Internet marketing, personal development, world politics, mind control and other fascinating topics.

I was delighted to review many of Mark’s print books – and pleased to find my testimonial on the jacket cover of “The Incredible Offer“.

Mark has also taught me one of the most powerful marketing concepts I’ve had the privilege of learning… INTEGRATION marketing.

It means getting your marketing seamlessly interwoven with OTHER processes in OTHER people’s businesses – so that YOU benefit while THEY build their business.

And of course, in the spirit of getting back multiples of only what you first give, doing the same for someone ELSE’s business yourself.

Mark Joyner walks his talk. In one of his recent launches, he asked for bonuses to give away to his buyers. I seized this INTEGRATION marketing opportunity and sent him details.

Today, a few weeks after, I looked at my statistics and was blown away.

I have 160 opt-in subscribers from Mark’s site!

That’s without doing ANY work after initially setting up that Integration Marketing system. On average, my email list subscribers are worth $3 to $5 per year – so that’s a REAL $500 to $800 more in profit this year. And if I were to buy opt-in subscribers, I’d happily pay $2 for each – so this one channel saved me $300 in cost.

Both Mark Joyner and Jay Abraham taught me that replicating tested and proven models is the best way to grow a business exponentially. And that means I will be working to use this Integration Marketing method in many more areas. Maybe even in YOUR business – if you’re interested in partnering with me on this, let me know… drop me a short email with details.

And now YOU can learn how to apply these same INTEGRATION MARKETING principles in your business – and learn it from the Master himself. Mark’s basic course on Integration Marketing is available as a ’starter kit’ – one worth 5 times the price or more.

You may want to take it for a trial, or even just join the free Integration Marketing membership area and learn about setting up your own processes from the free content and real life examples on the service.

There’s a lot more I could tell you about Mark Joyner – but I’ll save it for later. You can see the slew of launches he has been immersed in lately – here and here and here and here – to get a rough idea of the energy and intensity Mark brings to his work.

(In fact, he’s been launching so many things lately that when Mark asked us to guess – on Twitter – what ‘GG’ in his latest project stands for, I replied:

To prove how SIMPLE this really is for anyone to copy and use, he even teaches a program called SIMPLE.OLOGY, one of the greatest value programs I’ve ever come across online. And it’s FREE… try it out here, and enter the magical universe of Mark Joyner!

I promise you’ll have fun.

P.S. – Speaking of promises, Mark Joyner wrote a special report for my CHD awareness activities. It’s called “THE POSITIVE PROMISE” – read it here, it just may change your life!

Image credit www.sxc.hu“From a tiny acorn springs the mighty oak”

It’s a lesson beginners, starting out with dreams to build an online business, would do well to take to heart.

Many experienced teachers in the business coaching niche echo similar messages.

Jim Straw once detailed his process to build massive email lists. Not by getting thousands, or even hundreds of new subscribers from every ad he ran, but just 5 or 10. His key message was measuring, knowing which ads work, and using them for as long as they were effective.

Chet Holmes tells the story of his dentist client who out-performed everyone else in his industry. When asked for his ’secret’, the dentist said that while he didn’t know how any single method to get 100 new patients, he did know 100 different ways to get one new patient… and used all of them!

John Reese, in an inspiring report about his million-dollar day, mentioned the importance of “getting it out there” and then tweaking or improving your process till it got better at converting more sales, more subscribers or any other response you measured.

Seth Godin, best-selling author, advises writing a book that you can sell to one person first. If you can’t do that, you don’t have a book that will sell many copies. When you do, all it takes is finding more of your ideal readers – and selling each of them a copy.

Success, at the core, is simple. Easy, even. It starts from humble beginnings. And grows bigger.

There’s a myth that goes:

“You can’t make money unless you spend money first.”

It’s a myth that appeals to those who “dream big” – but unfortunately, expect those dreams to come true when they wake up the next morning (or sooner)… and think throwing cash at them will make it happen.

But you can’t run until you learn to walk. You can’t walk until you learn to stand. You can’t stand until you’ve gained balance.

You need to find your ‘business feet’. And confidence. Then, profits will follow.

‘Quick ‘n’ Easy Cash Generators’ is a rare guide I put together that teaches fast money making.

No, it’s not one of those “Earn $7,532.46 in 24 hours” kinds of junk, but the first in a series of baby-steps that will lead you in 6 months or a year to becoming the owner of a successful and profitable business.

It’s your acorn.

Plant it. Water it. Care for it.

In time, it will grow into your mighty oak.

.

What a long way we’ve come!

In 2003, I first participated in an event called the Blogathon. It was early days for blogging, and many of today’s ‘gurus’ weren’t even aware what a blog was.

And most bloggers were totally ignorant of the profit potential inherent in blogging. In fact, the participants at the fundraising 24-hour blogging event were shocked that I could even be hinting at using blogs to profit!

In fact, I got roasted by fellow bloggers for suggesting it – and my application to be a part of Blogathon 2004 was REJECTED… because my activities were deemed to be too ‘commercial’.

My conviction however ran deep. I wrote a little ebook called “Blog Profit Ideas Exposed” in which I shared 33 different ways you could profit from blogging. It was a runaway hit – and has sold over EIGHT HUNDRED copies since then.

Today, I was reading a report from problogger Yaro Starak – and was thrilled to hear that he’s making $30,000 a MONTH from blogging! (Wonder what the Blogathon folks might make of that, eh?!)

What makes Yaro’s success so worth talking about is that, in addition to being a great, nice guy, Yaro TEACHES others how to make money from blogging. He got together with Gideon Shalwick (co-author of this report) and shot a series of FREE videos on “How To Become a Blogger” – which received over 60,000 views shortly after it went public.

Excited at the response and flooded by demand for more information, these two guys created a whole new ‘Roadmap to Blogging Success’ and are offering this premium course to anyone who is interested.

But what I’d like to share with you is the impact reading their FREE report could have on your blogging success. Because as I browsed through the 67 pages, it became clear early on that this isn’t quite the usual ’sales pitchy’ freebie – but a content-rich document worth going over.

I found their concept of ‘new school blogs’ and the mysterious ‘X factor’ interesting. And their 5 blogging benchmarks make commonsense milestones for any blogger, beginner or advanced.

You could look on blogging like a bike tour or trekking adventure. You’d start off with a roadmap or guidebook, and then take heart when you reach every milestone that’s marked on it, knowing you’re on the right path to your destination.

And when it’s so easy to go off-track, having a roadmap drawn for you by an experienced traveler is priceless – unless you enjoy meandering around and wasting time, effort or both.

Each section of this short report, called “Roadmap to Become a Blogger”, ends with an ‘Action Plan’ so that you can put the lessons to work in your blogging instantly. You can read the report, work through the simple steps, and experience results from this information almost immediately.

Now, at the half-way mark, you’ll probably be wondering “What’s NEW?” – and that’s the question Yaro and Gideon address next… they call it “X Factor”

If you’re an experienced blogger, you probably WON’T find the 2 components a surprise – but it’s still interesting to see how a very successful blogger weaves them together for massive profit.

After reading the report, you’ll notice something missing from THIS blog – and it will be one of the 2 components of ‘X Factor’. Will I change that soon? Maybe. Yaro is certainly convincing!

The last portion of the FREE report shares techniques to apply the ‘X Factor’ to each of the 5 milestones – once again, breaking down the concepts into directly applicable action steps you can take today and boost your blog’s success.

What’s NOT to like about the report?

Well, if you’re into gripping prose, exciting story-telling, and power-copywriting, then this report will leave you disappointed – even bored. Because it’s not ‘entertaining’ – it is EDUCATIONAL.

If you are a blogger, seeking direction on taking your blog to the ‘next level’, and wondering what more you can do to make things more effective with your blogging, download and devour this report right away.

It’s free. You’ll pay for it only with your time, attention – and your email address! Don’t believe me? Click here and see for yourself.

Become a Blogger… and I hope you make a fortune!