How To Make Money In Recession

Last week I showed you how the geography of your audience (the beach) has an impact on your earning potential as an Internet marketer.

An audience is a group of people though.  My goal today is to show you how to turn an audience into revenue, or what we like to call “power customers”.

So here we have the oyster shell.

“This is the home for the oyster.  The bigger the shell, the more the meat there is within the oyster.  The longer you leave an oyster on the beach (ie, the more time you invest in it), the bigger the oyster grows and the more money it is worth.”

This translates into customer value in the Internet marketing world.

The more patient and more care you give your oyster (customer), the better the opportunity you will have to earn not only the first sale from that customer, but multiple sales.

I can give you a quick example of this to explain exactly what I am talking about.

I have had an iPhone ever since the first generation of it came out.  I am not one of those people that stand in line and camp outside overnight to get the first one, however, I can guarantee that I buy every single new iPhone that comes out (my next purchase will be the iPhone 4).

This is a beautiful thing for Apple.  Although many argue that there are much superior phones to the iPhone, I continue to buy.  In fact, I know there are phones that have more bells and whistles, have been rated higher, have better battery life, faster processors, etc….but I continue to buy EVERY iPhone that hits the market.

Why?

No…I’m not a freak.  I am a POWER CUSTOMER of the Apple brand.

What if you could create your own power customers, nurture your subscribers and your website visitors from the point of being just a baby oyster shell, to becoming a massive oyster!

In order to do this, we need to look at the characteristics of a POWER CUSTOMER…or in this case, I can just look at myself in terms of buying into Apple.

(1) I love the products
(2) I trust that it will work how it says it works, and if it doesn’t I know they will be there
(3) I like to talk about the products
(4) I even defend the product
(5) I recommend the product to my friends, and sometimes people I don’t even know

OK, this is fine and dandy.  I have outlined what is the genetic makeup of a power customer, but what we really want to know is how do you create a POWER CUSTOMER?

Over the years of marketing online, I have learned that creating customers does not have to be as difficult as some people would like to make you think.

Really, what is a customer…

Someone that buys something.

Why does someone buy something?

They need it.  They want it.  Or they simply like to spend money.

Why would they buy it from you?

Because you have HELPED them.

Oh no, there’s the “H” word.  This is the most common thing people overlook when promoting products, services and trying to create relationships online.

The emphasis is put on “selling” versus “helping” which will lead to inferior success.

People hate blatant promotions without being helped.  If I am going to buy something online, I am going to want some help, some education, and I want to know who I am buying from.  I have thought long and hard about the aspects of “creating” power customers, and the 3 most important aspects you as an Internet Marketer can have are:

(1) Be real.

If you were at a car lot and the salesman came out with a black sheet over their heads, and introduced themselves as “yoursite.com”, would you buy from them.  Um…NO.  You would probably find it very creepy and jump in your car and lock the doors.

Why is this OK online then?  People seem to think it is OK to hide behind their website.  Think about how silly the car lot examples sounds.  Now take a look at your online promotions.  If you don’t have a name, a face, and a personal brand behind your recommendations, your product, or your promotions, you might as well start selling cars with a sheet over your head.

Leave a good first impression.  Give people your name, tell them a story about yourself (could be a funny one) and let them know that you are there if they need any help.  One thing that I have found to be effective over the years is to give out an email address in which people can contact you.  If you do, you will not only create instant trust, people will feel as though they have reached a safe haven…and are much more likely to buy from your recommendations.

(2) Give more than you take.

Selling 101 here.  What makes a good buying experience?  One where the customer feels they get the most bang for their buck.  This does not necessarily mean a “firesale” or a “garage sale”…however it means that the value of the product or service you are selling are worth more than the actual price indicates.

If I buy an iPhone for $699, it is worth more to me than that.  If it is worth less I would not buy it.  Worth would come from many different aspects.

An iPhone is sexy.

I pay to be cool I guess (as lame as that sounds).

An iPhone allows me to check my emails.

That saves me time (and money).

An iPhone gives me GPS when I am lost.

That saves me stopping at a gas station to ask for directions.  I do have GPS in my car, but for some reason I use my iPhone instead!

An iPhone gives me 100,000’s of apps. Many are free.  This gives me something to do when I am standing in line to get my Subway or sitting in the airport waiting to catch my flight.

An iPhone allows me to check the Internet from where I wanted.

The other day my friend told me that Tuna fish get up to 600lbs in weight.  I didn’t believe him so I looked it up…and sure enough, the biggest Tuna ever caught was 1496lbs!!  Anyways, without the iPhone I would not have been able to do this.

Oh ya, I can also make PHONE calls.  Weird…

Anyways, the point I am getting at is that an iPhone is a great deal for me at $699.  It provides me much more value and substance than the 7 $100 bills do.  So I make the trade with Apple and they hapilly make their $300 profit on the product.

In the online world, if you offer your customers free incentives, upgrades, powerful information, bonuses, or continue to make your product or service better….you will make more money.  If people view the value of what you offer them to be more than that of their own money, they will buy from you EVERY SINGLE TIME!

(3) Know your stuff

There is nothing worse than being misinformed or being told ONLY stuff that you know in the same way you know it.

If you are promoting products to help greyhounds train for dog racing, you better know your stuff about dog racing.  You better know the terminology, you better know the reason people love racing greyhounds,  you better know the history of greyhound racing and you better know the products you are promoting.

If you don’t, it is obvious.

What do you think is a more knowledgeable statement:

Want to build a model airplane?  (at this point I didn’t know “jack” about model airplanes).

OR

Want to geek out your FPV with the Thomas Scherrer UHF Long Range System?  (at this point I know something).

With a tiny bit of research, you can be informed in pretty much any industry you want.  Whether it be model airplanes or mini horses.

I don’t know whether it is because some marketers are just plain LAZY or they have never considered the consumer in the correct “light”, I see a lot of websites out there that show a complete lack of “niche” knowledge.  A real turn off.

There you have it.

The oyster shell strategy, creating more lucrative and POWER CUSTOMERS comes down to three items.  One, be real and authentic.  Give people the feeling they can reach out and touch you.  In the online world there are a lot of headless horsemen out there…and I don’t want you to become one.  Be a personality.

Next…give, give, and then give again.  If you want to create a repeat customers you have to become known as someone that is generous.

Lastly, know your crapola.  If you don’t know jack, you won’t sell jack.  Simple as that.

Hope you enjoyed Part 2 of my 4 part “Oyster Marketing Strategy” series.  If you have any feedback I would love to hear it…so please leave your comments below.

Cheers,

Kyle
wealthy affiliate
www.wealthyaffiliate.com

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The other day I made post in the forum pertaining to my old job as a Oyster Picker.  Yeah, yeah…enough chuckles!

Anyways, within that post I mentioned that there were 4 aspects (the beach, the shell, the meat, the pearl) to a successful oyster business, and I tied them into their extremely close relation to Internet marketing. (You can read my original post here)

Today I am going to elaborate on the beach, or the geographic marketing epicenter of a successful campaign.   This is post 1 or a 4 post series…and in the following posts I make I am going to be discussing the other components of an oyster (in terms of marketing) and hopefully it will give you a very strong grasp of how to market online.

“When you look for a beach you need to really analyze all of components of that area.  You need to understand the true demographics of it.  Is is easy to deliver product from that area…are the winds so high they will blow away your oysters, is it an area known for “red tide” in which there are seasonal times you cannot sell your poisonous oysters.”

The same goes for geographic locations for your marketing campaigns.  Geography can make all the difference between a successful campaign and one that is really struggling.

In order to sell something online, you need to be in the right market.

Have you ever been at work and so darn hungry that you just went to the cafe next door?  You see, the food doesn’t even need to be the best for this company to succeed if the office staff next door is large enough.  A lot of people will have the same idea as you and because of the cafes geographic location, they are positioned to succeed.

Put this same cafe down a dark alley and watch it be out of business in a month.  Conversely, if you have the best food in town but are in a jurisdiction that is difficult to travel to or where people are worried about crime, you are not going to be successful.

The exact same thing happens within the online marketing world.  If you have a product you are promoting to a certain geographic area and these people can’t actually BUY that product from that area (due to credit card processing restrictions), you are wasting your damn time and money on getting traffic.

Think Clickbank (CB), one of the largest affiliate networks out there.  Many people don’t realize that when they are getting traffic to promote Clickbank products, that some of it is wasted traffic…by that I mean they can’t buy ANY CB products due to the country they are in.

Paypal only allows payments from certain countries as well.  If you are promoting a product that only accepts Paypal payment, then you may want to look into which countries are on the “safe list”.

https://www.paypal.com/worldwide/

And what about the “rich versus poor”.  If you try to promote a 1980 Ford Pinto online to people that are billionaires you are wasting your money.  Same goes for putting a Maserati ad in front of people who have a lower income.  You might get some “looky loo’ers”, but you would not be anywhere near a successful campaign.

My recent case study:

I recently ran a test for the “make money online” promotion of an pure “squeeze page” the other day and ran it within all Countries & Territories.  My goal was to simply get people to opt-in to a mailing list…at which time I could build a relationship with them, one that was ideally strong enough that they would purchase based on my recommendations.

The results:

80% of all my traffic came from India & Nigeria

The problem:

Most of these people were willing to join a list (that is free), but next to none of them could afford to buy anything.  Sure these geographic regions would be great if you had a “free system” that you wanted to attract new people to…and they were willing to work hard, however they did not have adequate funds to make this campaign profitable.

The solution:

Target only countries that fit the geographic profile that would allow them to buy your product based on the demographics.

I edited the campaigns settings so that it would only show within countries with the purchasing power that I felt necessary to sell the products that I had within my back-end sequence.   The results were as anticipated, much better.  The pay-per-click price actually went up slightly, but the quality of lead was much more qualified.  Conversions also increased drastically from the opt-in to sale ratio.

So in conclusion, the beach you choose is VERY important.  You want to seek out the following criteria through research before promoting to a certain jurisdiction:

(a) Do they have the money to buy your product?
(b) Do they need money to buy your product?
(c) Do they want your product?
(d) Do they need your product?
(e) Are they capable of making the transaction you require?
(f) Do you run the risk of fraud?

If you can accurately assess each of these items, you will be much more successful with your promotions.

That’s all for today.  I will complete part 2, 3, and 4 in the coming weeks.

Take care,

Kyle
wealthy affiliate

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Guest Post by: Steve W.

I’ve been working full-time as an Internet Marketer for a little over a year now. In that time, I have learned that it takes a little bit more than knowing the methods of Internet Marketing to be successful.

Here are just a few of my observations that most other people either don’t want to talk about, or they simply forget to tell you about.

1. You become your own boss.

When you start a career at home for yourself, you don’t really have anyone to answer to. You need to force yourself to work. Sure, you aren’t going to get fired if you don’t do your work, but you also won’t make the money required to pay your bills.

A lot of people think anything goes when you work from home, but you should treat it no different than working a full time office job. When I first started at home full time, I figured out the time of day I was the most productive and set a work schedule for myself. Most days, I work from 10AM to 4PM with a break for lunch. I try and stay as productive as possible during those hours and limit the work I do outside of that schedule.

To stay focused and on track, create a to-do list for each day. Outline tasks you’d like to have accomplished by the end of your work day. The feeling of accomplishment you get when you cross of an item will keep you motivated all day long

If you need inspiration for an idea or just need to take a break, get away from the computer. Nearly every good money making idea I’ve had, I didn’t think of while staring at a screen. I’ve never had success by trying to force an idea and believe me, I’ve tried that.

2. Your home is now your office.

Create a dedicated workspace for yourself. Slouching on your couch in front of the TV with your feet up on the coffee table while using a laptop does not count as a workspace. Get yourself a real desk and keep it organized. If you ever have to stop working to investigate a strange smell, your workspace has become a distraction. Keep it clean.

Eliminate distractions before you start working. Finish up whatever small chores you need to do for the day so you don’t have to take care of them when you’re on a roll. Only do work related tasks while on your work schedule.

You also have the ability to grab a laptop and go work outside on nice days. Do this as often as you can but don’t brag about it to people who work in offices. They will resent you.

3. You need to take care of yourself.

For starters, take sick days. You’re human and you need time off to rest, just like everybody else. If you don’t feel well, grab a blanket, make your favorite soup, and nap on the couch all day. You may be capable of sitting up, but that does not mean you need to be working. Take time to rest your mind and body.

Speaking of staying healthy, you need to exercise. It’s easy to let yourself go when your only commute is from your bed to your computer chair. Take care of yourself and get a gym membership or at the very least spend some time walking outside. I like to try to workout in the mornings before starting my work day. It keeps me in shape and allows me to stay focused and energized all day.

One of the hardest adjustments I had to make when starting to work full time at home was dealing with being alone for extended periods of time. You need to find ways to stay social. Working alone can get depressing and having a social outlet is a vital part of success.

Try and find someone local who is also working from home to meet with every now and then for lunch or to discuss ideas. At the very least, invest in a web cam and keep in touch with your friends and family through Skype. If all else fails, get an animal friend. They make the day less boring and yes, you will start to talk to your pets.

4. You do not have to work 24 hours a day.

You may have merged where you work with where you live, but you need to find a way to still keep these lives separate.

I’ve spoken to a lot of people who try to start careers from home. For some reason, most people think they can dedicate 12 to 14 hours per day, 7 days a week to working online since they now have nothing else to do. There’s no easier way to burn out than trying to work all waking hours. You simply can’t stay productive after these long hours.

You need to respect the weekends and take time off on holidays. It’s okay to let an email wait until the morning or a phone call to go to voicemail. It’s okay to have a personal life. You do not have to always be readily available.

5. You get to live an awesome life.

If you reach a point in your work at home career where you can work full time at home for yourself, that is amazing. It’s a very big accomplishment that very few people can achieve.

I can’t tell you how often people tell me they envy my lifestyle. I’m usually very modest when it comes to talking about my career path, but it is seriously awesome. I live with my girlfriend who works 10-hour days in an office building and she often comes home stressed about her job, boss, deadlines, salary, or any number of things that accompany an office job. She’s even limited to the amount of sick days she’s allowed to take! I’m forever grateful that I don’t have to deal with any of that.

If you have a chance to start a work at home career, definitely seize the opportunity. It will be challenging at first, but there’s nothing that can match the feeling of running a successful business from home.

So, these were just a few things I’ve learned over the past year. I’m sure you have things to add to my list and I’d love to hear them.

Leave me a comment below!

Steve W.

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Guest Post by: Marcus

Back in 2005 when I first started online I couldn’t get this question out of my head. Every which way I turned I was told that learning how to do keyword research was an important part of the whole Internet marketing process, but even though I understood that point in theory…I really didn’t understand what a GOOD keyword was.

I’m not talking about any keyword in particular here…I just couldn’t grasp exactly what it was that made one keyword stand out more than any other – in any niche.

So I set off on a mission to find out if anyone could give me some answers, and along the way I learned plenty of stuff that made things a lot clearer. Things like…

Long tail, relevance, low competition, search volume etc…

They all struck a chord with me and definitely made the process of identifying keywords a lot easier.

I then began to question if that kind of knowledge was really necessary because let’s face it…the way keyword tools are designed nowadays, you only have to push a couple of buttons and within seconds they will spit out 100’s of potential keywords (And then some!)

But do they really help to find GOOD keywords?

Now at the risk of sounding a little cranky, I later discovered that no matter what I learned about the keyword research process…and regardless of how many whistles and bells my keyword tool had on it, I was only uncovering keywords that MAY have potential.

You see, things suddenly became clearer for me when I realized that…

A keyword only becomes a GOOD keyword when you learn how to do something good with it!

But really…just what the heck is a keyword?  Many people overlook the simplicity of it all,  and therefore fail to understand keyword research.

A keyword is simply something that people type into search engines when they are:

(a) looking for information
(b) looking to solve a problem
(c) looking to buy something
(d) bored…and again, they will be looking for info

So thanks to my collection of keyword tools I thought I had become something of an expert at spotting some amazing keyword opportunities, but in reality those weren’t good keywords that I was finding, they were just…well…keywords.

That was when I had my first ‘cart before the horse’ moment (one of many I might add), when I realized that keyword research means absolutely NOTHING if you don’t know what to do with what you find.

I’d already been busy with my hoard of keywords up until that point…ranking high in the search engines with articles on some pretty random keywords, and I regarded this as a pretty big success.

But was I able to MONETIZE them?

Well I won’t say ‘not at all’, but I will say…HARDLY.

All those hours of hard work that I’d put in – pretty much a total waste of time.

Then again, there was a major positive that came out of this whole experience, and for that reason I’m so glad that it happened. My brush with ground zero conversion rates had forced me to learn how to focus on the person behind the keyword and connect with them and their issue, rather than just hitting them with some loosely related content and hoping it would just do.

Let me tell ya…that was when EVERYTHING changed!

And it’s no coincidence that we talk a lot on here and at WA about building relationships with visitors to our websites/promotions (see Eddie and Jennifer’s posts), and it emphasizes the fact that how we use keywords is fundamental to our success online.

All successful marketers know and understand this point…but at the same time, most people struggling online DON’T.

Keywords allow us to open the door of opportunity in any market we choose, via any medium of online promotion. Understanding how to interpret and use them and understanding the person behind the initial keyword search is one of the most important skills that you could ever possess as an Internet marketer.

So if you ever found yourself wasting hour after hour scouring the Internet for those elusive keywords that you can dominate, think back to my early experiences and how I discovered that they didn’t really exist, without my own consideration for “people” behind the search. I promise that when you do, you’ll end up with more good keywords than you can possibly handle

Thanks for reading, and have a great day!

Marcus

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Hey everyone,

This is a story I can completely relate to for many reasons.

Believe it or not, I used to work for an aquaculture company during my mid to late teens, with my main duty being “picking oysters”.  Although this was a back breaking job it was one that taught me a lot about work ethics and how to work quickly and efficiently.

I guess in a way it also taught what I don’t want to do for the rest of my life.  You can probably relate to this, and you may even be in a job right now that you are hoping to quit one day.

Anyways, here we are 10 years…and a roller coaster ride of a decade later. I have been able to accomplish success within the Internet marketing world through the same hard work and work ethic…in what some would call in “extraordinary fashion”.

So today I thought it would be COOL if I could combine the two industries and show you the relation between an “oyster” and “how to make money online”.  Although they are VERY different in nature, I was able to find a correlation between the two.

This is what I call the Oyster Marketing Technique…

To find the relation between online marketing and the oyster business, you need to understand a few things.  First, there are 4 components to the oyster that correlate to a successful marketing campaign…the beach, the oyster shell, the meat, and the pearl.

The first thing I want to look at is the beach. Oysters grow at different rates, and flourish much better depending on the water temperatures, currents, and location of the beach.  We will call this the beach component, and this translates to the “geographic market” in the Internet marketing world.

When you look for a beach you need to really analyze all of components of that area.  You need to understand the true demographics of it.  Is is easy to deliver product from that area…are the winds so high they will blow away your oysters, is it an area known for “red tide” in which there are seasonal times you cannot sell your poisonous oysters.

The same goes for geographic locations.  Can people in that area buy the product you are selling?  Do they have enough money to purchase your product (if it is paid)?  Are the people in that area even interested in your product?  Do they speak that language?   It is important that when you choose geographic location within PPC campaigns that you understand the market.  You need to know that there are adequate and qualified people within that jurisdiction that can purchase your product.

You need to understand the beaches and understand the seasons in which the beaches produce the best harvest.

Second, we have the oyster shell.  This is the home for the oyster.  The bigger the shell, the more the meat there is within the oyster.  The longer you leave an oyster on the beach (ie, the more time you invest in it), the bigger the oyster grows and the more money it is worth.

This translates into customer value in the Internet marketing world.

The more patient and more care you give your oyster (customer), the better the opportunity you will have to earn the most money from it.  The same goes for the IM world…the more you help out a visitor, the better the customer they will be.  This definitely applies in particular to the email marketing realm.

The better you are at building the relationship and nurturing your “list”, the more success you will have and the greater the “value per customer” relationship grows.

Next, we have the meat.  Oysters tend to vary in size and although the biggest oysters fetch the most money, the smaller oyster are in much higher demand.   There are many more markets for small oysters because of their popularity within the restaurant business and “smoked” oysters business (canned).

Because of this, you can typically sell more volume, but the small oyster market has much more competition and is subject to price slashing and business lag…things that the extra large oyster marketer and the cocktail (mini) oyster market are not subject to as much.

If you are crafty as an oyster business owner however, you can find more niche marketers for the more popular size oysters.  For example, there are restaurants that don’t serve oysters that you could deal “direct” with and earn higher profit.  There are also tradeshows, different distributors worldwide, and also an online market.

In the Internet marketing world, this translates into market size, versus the niche markets.

The largest markets online reap the largest amount of sales, yet are volatile to ongoing influxes of competition.  However, within these large markets (like weight loss, like dating), you can find smaller niches.  Long distance relationships.  Dieting for women post menopause.  Etc.

Then there are the “small” markets that have very little competition, and on occasion take a little more work to get going.  But the market is always there and MOST people are not willing to do it, so you can take full advantage and corner that specific market.  These are the unique niches like “tractor canopies”, “little big man ladders”, “men’s anti-aging cream”, “yoga for basketball players”.

The meat is where the market is!

And then you have the pearl.  Pearls are very rare and in fact, in my 4 years in the oyster business, I only came across one…and it wasn’t the ideal pearl shape (perfectly round).  I guess you could call this kinda lucky (that I found one that is).

A pearl is VERY rare in the wild and is created when a spec of sand finds it’s way into the mantle folds of the oyster…at which time a calcium carbonate form builds up around it.

A pearl is equivalent to hunting for something that is not there or very hard to find…or an illusion in attempt to earn a MASSIVE PROFIT.

The pearl is what most people look for, yet the fewest people ever find.  I compare it to someone looking for the “secret to success”…when in fact, the secret is that there is NO SECRET (if that makes sense).

I mean, there really is not secret niche, no pearl that is waiting to be found on the Internet.

Sure I guess you could refer to unexplored niches and keywords as pearls, but there are so many of them out there that I could not state they are “rare”.

All you need is to research and find your ideal beach (it doesn’t even need to be the best one), find the right size oyster shell, find a market for your oyster meat…and you will be a successful farmer and in Internet marketing terms…a SUPER AFFILIATE or a MILLIONAIRE!!!

I guess I could end this within the old saying…

“The world is your oyster”!

Cheers,

Kyle
Wealthy Affiliate
www.wealthyaffiliate.com

PS.  Leave feedback!  Also, I am going to be elaborating in great detail on each section (the beach, the shell, the meat, and the pearl) in the future!

Now Available!

Part 1: The Geographic Marketing “Beach”
Part 2: The Oyster Shell – Creating More Powerful Customers
Part 3: The Meat – Sell More Low or Sell Less High

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I really suck at building websites!<img class="alignright size-full wp-image-101" title="Kyle" src="http://www.wealthyaffiliate.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/kyle_side.jpg" alt="Kyle @ wealthy affiliate” width=”200″ height=”249″ />

Honestly, I do.

Looking back over the years (wow, almost 8 years now…I am getting up there), I have built some of the funkiest, stinkiest looking websites around.

Graphics…bah.  A waste of time right?

A fancy template with lots of bells and whistles…I had no need for that.

An ugly (by conventional rules), bare looking “homemade” website with quality and relevant content. That is what I was interested in creating.

I didn’t enjoy creating graphics and good thing…I would have likely sabotaged my sites!

I know Carson spoke to you last week about the importance of a website in this day and age.  To be honest with you, I think it has always been important.  What is not as important is how it looks…sites that I created in 2003 are still effective.

In fact, sites without any “template at all” are still effective.  Flat white background with a small border around it with good sales copy, and relevant pages within still work.

So, if technology has produced so many killer ways to build websites with a lot of flare and a lot of graphics, why hasn’t the way people view websites changed?

Think about this for second…

If you were searching for a solution to “change your dodge caravans spark plugs” in Google and were taken to a revolving door to your solution, what would you HOPE for on the other side.

CONTENT on how to change your spark plugs.

If the content is of quality, you could care less about the picture of the caravan in the banner, the moving image on the right, the beautiful detail that went into the table layouts and graphics….YOU WANT CONTENT.

People search Google for content.

And marketers that deliver the “sought after” content are those that succeed.  And that leads me to the idea of…

The Backwards Website Model

What if you were to build a website in reverse, based on what works (meaning, what earns you money).

Where would you begin to start?  What lead to all your conversions?

For those of you that have been able to achieve success online, you are likely putting your hand up right now and shouting out the answer.

The answer is:  THE CONTENT, THE STORY, THE SALES COPY, OR THE OFFER

All of these relate to writing, and none of them relate to graphics.   If you reverse engineer any successful website out there, the graphics would be the last component to come.  The content would be the first as the content is what leads to success.

And so goes the QUALITY of the content…

Ethics are still important.  Content is only content if you are doing it simply for displacing money.  IE, earning money without offering adequate “stuff” in return.  That leads me to the fact that although websites are key, you need to think of the bigger picture when creating your content….who is reading it?

BUT…Aren’t Websites Important?

Yes, websites are key.  Google no longer has love for people that direct link  They don’t care for people that do redirects.  In fact, they don’t even care much for affiliate link.  The reason being is there is a huge gap they are seeing a need to fill between their paid advertisers and their top search engine optimized sites.

The content quality has always been much better for “natural listings”.  Just a few years back, Google implemented what we call the Quality Score algorithm to try to increase this quality.   I remember back in the day seeing things like an ad being listed under a a keyword like “weight loss” that was for “making money online”.

Now, this was not cool for someone doing a search within the search engine that was faced with getting an irrelevant result for their search.  In order for Google to sustain their search market share, they needed to improve this.

So Quality Score came.

People then learned to “game” Quality Score.  Creating relevant pages, with little or no content Quality.

What marketers would do is simply stuff in a couple of relevant keywords, and then drive their traffic to click affiliate links…in which they would earn a commission from.  It worked…and people made a ton of money.

But Google Caught On!…

They found this loophole within their own Quality Score calculation and have recently stuffed a massive hole in these marketers game.

Stuffed a hole to the tune of anywhere between 100,000 and 200,000 Google Adwords accounts being shut down without warning.  To the tune of advertisers losing all their Quality Score rank and having their sites red flagged.  To the tune of million dollar marketers completely losing their businesses overnight!

Google now wants, really, what it should want.

Quality content. Relevant content.  Enough content. AND no greasy salesmen.

Google basically wants their user experience (people searching for stuff) to be the best possible.  Google wants marketers to have their own website and to put some thought into the content they write…for it to be unique, and for it to be adequate enough for a decent experience.

So, the rules of the NEW AGE are:

(1) Having your own website (a must)
(2) Having adequate content
(3) Having relevant content
(4) Having unique content
(5) Not trying to trick Google by stuffing keywords in your site
(6) Not being a smoke and mirror salesperson

You follow these rules, you are cool with Google and your are cool with me.  What worked for me worked back in 2002 when I was starting out.  Not because I knew some secret strategy then, I always put myself in the “searchers” shoes and aimed to make the search experience as good as possible.

BTW, I have ad groups that I have not touched for the last 6 years and are still effective.  They follow the convention and if you work forward using the “user experience” model,  you will have a safety shield from any major Google slaps, dances and punches.

The Internet has changed, but the ideology of website success has not.

Let me say this again in another way…

The Internet has NEW RULES, but the SAME OLD WEBSITE STILL PREVAIL!

Take it easy,

Kyle
wealthy affiliate
www.wealthyaffiliate.com

PS.  I love to get feedback…so if you have any comments, please feel free to leave them below.

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Hey,

Carson here with a look into what I would do today if I had to start my Internet business from scratch.  What would I do? How would I do it? and WHY?

So, here we are in April 2010, and in the past year the Internet marketing industry has seen the biggest changes that have affected marketers in the 8 years I’ve been earning a living online.  I’ve seen the impact the changes Google and FTC rules can have on the most profitable and efficient campaigns that have been running for years.

I’m here to tell you that TODAY’S Internet marketers has to change the way they do things to stay current.

Here’s a story of ME, and what I focus on if I’m starting out as an Internet marketer TODAY!

First thing’s first, I’m going to learn what the heck Internet marketing is.  This is the fundamental understanding that everyone that wants to succeed needs to know.  That aside, I’m going to assume that I could explain what Internet marketing is to my mother, and have her understand it too.

Next.

I’m going to take what I know about the Internet and apply it to ONE major aspect of Internet marketing that will be the base of my Internet business.  That is right, JUST ONE.

Google is the #1 place to get traffic in the world and whether you’re using free SEO techniques, or focus on placing ads using their Adwords Pay-per-click engine, the bottom line is that they are requiring that you offer value to people who visit your website.

Google uses a complicated algorithm that determines how “good” your websites are and gives each of your sites a SCORE.  Google Quality Score is used to determine where your page is ranked in the search engines.  It is also used to determine whether or not your ads should be displayed when advertising using Pay-per-click.

Knowing that Google is the worlds largest traffic source, and that the traffic is the highest quality, I’m going to focus on something that will allow me to build a business using Google as a traffic source.

What am I going to do?

I’m going to focus on something that might sound a bit scary at first, but it’s something I know I need to learn.

WEBSITES!

Maybe my goal is to earn $100 a month in profit.  Maybe I want to earn $1000 a month in profit.  Maybe my goal is to earn $10,000+ a month in profit from Internet marketing.  Regardless… in order to do this I need to learn how to get traffic (people) to click on my affiliate links so I can start generating commissions…and in order to do this I need Google.  In order to leverage Google, I need to offer value, and in order to do that I need a medium in which to do so.  This is why I am going to focus on creating content for websites.

Whether I build a website from scratch, or use a blog, the one thing that I know is that I need to be able to deliver quality content that will help people.  Then Google will give me a high quality score and then my opportunity is endless.

Since I’m new and don’t want to spend a bunch of money on website software or “offers” that flood my inbox daily, I’m going to grab myself a free blog (there are many of them out there).  Then I’m going to start creating pages on my new blog that focus on what I’ve chosen to sell.  I’m going to create myself a website out of my blog and spend an hour or so a day focusing on writing on my blog.  I’ll put in my affiliate links, fine-tune the content for my Articles or PPC ads, and I’ll be well on my way.

My ONE focus is going to be on mastering websites and creating content that will provide value to my visitors.

When I’m ready, I’ll step-it-up a notch and grab myself my own domain ($10 or so a year) and get myself some hosting so I can run my website/blog from my own domain and start getting free listings due to my SEO efforts.  I’ll scale my site so there are pages upon pages of content that are HIGHLY relevant to what I’m selling, keeping in mind that offering valuable information to my visitors is KEY to my success.

Once I get over the fear of building content for a website or blog, the only limit to the amount of money I want to make is TIME.

Ok.. that’s what I (Carson) would do if I had to start my Internet business today from scratch.

Everything else falls into place after I have the ability to deliver quality content online

(1)  I can generate traffic using free techniques like Article marketing
(2)  I can focus on advertising using Pay-per-click marketing
(3)  I can start building an opt-in email list
(4)  I can start offering Video and other media on my site

All the most cutting-edge techniques and strategies that Internet marketing has to offer can leverage this ONE aspect of Internet marketing…a website and/or blog.  This is my focus for starting a business from scratch today.

Don’t get me wrong though…

There is still huge opportunity online to build a business without a websites, but I want to spend my time focusing on one thing that will allow me to scale my business going forward.  I also want to be able to utilize the endless stream of traffic from Google and that requires me to be able to deliver quality content.

Here’s the issue most people have:

WEBSITES SCARE THE HECK OUT OF YOU!

Don’t let that stand in your way.  If you can write an email, you can write content for a website and there is ample training available to get a website or blog up and running.  If you are going to focus on an aspect of Internet marketing that will take you to the next level, create a website or blog.

Let’s take a look at what I just went over:

(1) Build a website or Blog
(2) Write Content
(3) Promote it within Google
(4) Scale it ANY WAY I want

Sound complex?  It really isn’t that tough…but one thing that I do know in this day and age of the Internet Marketing world is that a website is becoming more and more of a necessity.  Gone are the days of direct linking, MLM traffic schemes, and putting together low quality web pages.

This is how Carson builds a thriving Internet business in 2010.

Cheers,

Carson
wealthy affiliate
www.wealthyaffiliate.com

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In this post, I do a WordPress Express review which is the latest system to help your Internet marketing career
with a breath of fresh air…and gives you a powerful punch.

Search engine giant Google is slapping people left right and center due to poor quality content and
this makes it hard to get traffic to your affiliate links.  If you want to buy traffic from pay-per-click networks
like Google, Yahoo, Bing, MSN Adcenter, you need to have a good website with quality content.

Getting free traffic can drive your Internet marketing campaigns for years all because you get ranked under high
traffic keywords. In order to tap into organic search engine traffic you need a website that is optimized (seo) to get you listed.
A really easy way to do this is to download wordpress express.

I have been helping individuals just like yourself how to leverage the Internet to earn money online since 2007. 
I know the path to success because of the fact that I am actively doing affiliate marketing myself. 
I started out as an affiliate, and have always been involved in the Affiliate marketing game. 

Unlike most other self acclaimed “GURU” marketers, I don’t teach Internet marketing
becauseI’m unable to succeed myself! The bottom line is that I know what it takes
to earn a living online, and I have helped many people succeed over the years.

WordPress Express overcomes the hurdle that causes nearly all Internet marketers grief. 
I use WordPress Express on a daily basis to create networks of highly optimized income generating machines. 
With the click of a button you too can leverage this unique and highly powerful system to build your Internet business.

I will never go back to build sites “the old way” as I can easily get niche sites up in a matter of minutes. 
Things that used to take me a month, now take me days.  Things that used to take me days, now take me hours.

If you currently build web sites from scratch you are wasting your time. 
With 1000′s of great looking templates to choose from, the WordPress Express
system provides flexibility, speed of development, and built in optimization.

Did you know that a WordPress express websites can get listed in the search engines
in a matter of hours?  No joke, you can literally see your website being listed
for free in Google, Yahoo, and other major search engines in a matter of hours.

I have recently created a new website waterrocket.org and it got indexed by google in just 2 hours. I was amazed by this and will be sharing the tips in this post.

First of all, I used wordpress 2.9.2 to create the entire site. It’s so simple to setup and install. Just click a button using simple scripts from bluehost.com and the new site is ready for some content.

I then add 3 new posts to the site and then go to wikipedia and find a page that is related to “water rocket”. I add a link at the wikipedia page which is redirected to waterrocket.org. I also ping all the 3 new posts and the wikipedia page.

I know that wikipedia links are nofollow but this is the only thing I do that is different from the common ways of building links to a new site.

Then i just go to digg.com, stumbleupon.com and reddit.com and submit the links for my 3 posts. Again, i ping the links from the bookmark site.

That’s about all I do. Is there any more ways you will like to share?

So here is my beef…

I become a customer…which I am very often within the online world, and I am looking to buy myself a new camera.

Pretty cliche, right?

Well, it is the truth.  With the US dollar being close to par with the Canadian one right now, us Canadians can get excellent deals by buying US versus buying Canadian.  In fact, things like clothes are close to 50% cheaper down there, with items like SLR digital cameras being close to 25% off.

For all of you crafty marketers out there, now is a great time to market ALL products to us Canadians, as we are going online by the fist-fulls, looking for great deals.

However, don’t fall into the trap that I saw many marketers falling into when I tried to buy a camera online.

I got turned off…pissed off…and frankly almost decided to go down to Costco to buy my camera as a result of the type of “hard sell” marketing that I saw taking place!

I understood the benefits by reading these sites, however I was not able to commit to buying any camera based on what was on all of these websites because their marketing styles frustrated me as a consumer.

What were they doing that was so bad?

First off, they were feature heavy.  They loved to tell you all about the features.  To me, and amateur photographer at best, I would need a professional beside me to translate terms outside the normal MP, Digital Zoom, etc to really understand what they were talking about.

Their marketing message went something like this:

1. has acne fighting ingredients
2. shipped within 5 days
3. comes with 2 free gifts
4. gets an overall rating of 4.9 out of 5 by consumers
5. moisturizes your skin
6. guarantee to work or your money back
7. Comes in a 2oz bottle

Benefits:

1. makes you face look flawless to the human eye
2. start removing acne before next weekend
3. has extra gifts that will make your skin oil free
4. real people, with real acne issues love it
5. makes your skin feel and look like porcelain after
6. it works for most people, but if it doesn’t, there is no risk in trying
7. comes in a travel size bottle so you can take it with you on vacation

Don’t sell the solution, sell the face!

You heard it straight from the horses mouth.  People want the face, they don’t give a rats about the bottle it comes in, the ingredients, the gifts, etc…they ultimately buy the product to get the desired result, which in this case is “clear skin on their face”.

OK, let’s start off a good sales message here touching on some of the benefits:

I know how you feel.  I have acne.   I still get it, even tough I used Proactiv, but it is way more manageable.  I don’t get funny looks any more, and I don’t get snide eye comments about me being a pimple-face.

If you want help, I suggest you try Proactive.  It carries the most powerful stuff for fighting acne in the world, but it doesn’t burn your face off like some of the other products out there.  It won’t end acne altogether, but it will make it manageable and allow you to sustain a clear, soft face when you are using it.

One thing I do think you should always consider when buying is whether or not the company guarantees the product.  Proactiv does which really made the difference between me buying and not buying.  They understand that it won’t work on some of the more severe cases and this is why they have this in place.

Is it worth a shot?  I will leave this up to you as you are the one spending the money.  However, my experience and research says that you will benefit from it.  You will know right away if it starts working, and I believe the company will ship the product by next week, so if you do have an engagement or event coming up where you want to show off your new skin, this would be a good opportunity.

If you have any questions about Proactiv, you can feel free to contact me and I will be more than happy to give you a helping hand.

What do you think?

This is much better than some authority or website telling you that it rates 4.9 out of 5.0 and comes in a oval shaped bottle which is 2oz in size and it has a 60 day money back guarantee.  Oh ya, it has this stuff in it called Benzoyl Peroxide.

People like a realistic, personal approach to being sold on anything.  Saying something is the best in the world raises red flags.  Hiding behind a website and writing as though you are an authority can raise red flags.  And outlining just features is simply not effective.

Be real and make your selling strategy a soft sell, not a hard and abrasive sell.

Happy selling,

Kyle

**Side Note: If you can’t give a personal opinion because you haven’t tried the product, then you will have to take a different approach.  Use a friend or someone you know of as an example.

“I know that someone near and dear to my heart had acne growing up and the impact it can have.  They use to vent to me about the emotional pain they endured from the teasing and weird looks.” etc…

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