I was supposed to prepare Sunday Email Part 12 last week but I was tight up with some other things to do.
With a small struggle, I managed to complete this week's issue for you to read, 100% free.
This week, I'm ranting about being silly to promote squeeze page the wrong way and some weird discovery about giving away free gifts.
If you're new to my subscription and wondering what is a "Sunday Email", it's an email full of my rants, personal tips and opinions on marketing especially in the "internet marketing" niche. Sometimes, opinions on life. Whatever it is... it'll give you value after reading it.
Some Weird DiscoverySeveral weeks ago, I offered a free gift with absolutely no string's attached. If you didn't get it, you can still request for it at
http://internetmarketing-tactics.com/2007/05/download-list-of-100-directory-sites.htmlThe weird thing is-- out of 100 people who see the offer, on average 66 of them will request for the free gift. Meaning that, 34 will just leave.
In a geeky testing world, the conversion rate of my optin was 66 percent.
Doesn't that surprises you? It should because it surprised me.
I was surprised because 34% of the people will NOT accept a free gift. Now, that was weird. Turning down a real free gift is something that I cannot comprehend.
I've told them there's no string's attached. No products to buy or offer presented.
In fact, the gift IS a valuable one and it was not some sort of crap.
That's why it was offered. I was actually doing a test to find out how much percentage of people will accept a free gift for validating my latest theories...
Conclusion #1:The internet marketing niche is still as skeptical as ever. Whether the skepticism have increased or decreased, I don't know. But the fact is people are still skeptics in general when there’s something free being given out. So the quote, "there's no such thing as a free lunch" is still widely being used.
Why wouldn't they be when there are so many marketers out there making silly claims and false hope. Make a million by next month. Generate daily sales on autopilot, etc.
Conclusion #2It's proven that people don't believe in free stuff. If all of them do, I would have 100% opt-in conversion. I can easily explain why this is true-- Most free gifts such as reports or ebooks are just promotional tools for another product. Sometimes, the supposedly content free gift is nothing more than a teaser or sales pitch for the paid product. How annoying is that. Very.
Conclusion #3Not all of my subscribers trust me. I should feel sad but that would be a stupid act which is not going to make me rich. Instead of doing that, I should be asking myself... "How can I give more value to increase the trust and build better relationship with those who trusted me."
So what's the point I'm sharing this information with you? Maybe, I just want you know that I'm smart and let my ego grows. Or I like you to know the fact that crappy stuff is making the internet marketing niche worst each day and it's your job to raise the bar. In conclusion to the 3 conclusions earlier-- provide real content to your visitors and subscribers. That's the only way that they'll see you to be genuine. And stick to first-hand, original content.
How To Know If A Guru Is Real Or NotI'm not surprise if you idolized any particular internet marketing guru. Maybe the word idolize is too cheesy. Let's replace that with admires. Yeah, keep on admiring the wrong one and he'll suck out all your hard earn money away faster than a jack rabbit.
You think I'm being funny, eh?
Ha.
Wait till you know the truth.
I know of a marketer who used to work for another REAL "underground" internet expert that steals his ideas and businesses. And now, this guy has became an 'expert' because he 'knows' some cool internet marketing methods. And of course, they all belong to the real "underground" guy. The difference? One has result and the other one have theories. But guess what-- the real guy doesn't come to the limelight so the one with theories gets all the attention with "his" ideas.
I know a marketer in Singapore who probably makes his first income online by selling an internet marketing product. Most likely, he NEVER uses that technique taught in his course to make money for him before. How would I know this? Because I know the truth. Heck, he even copied my content without my consent and put his name on it. Actually, I know more than one person who does this to me.
I also know of a marketer who manipulates his prospect about his achievement by showing 'proof' of his success. But in actual fact, that 'proof' cannot be repeated because it's not a system that can be replicated. Furthermore, there are other 'hidden' things not disclosed about the proof like what kind of resources are required to get this achievement.
If you're thinking that I got no guts to mention the names of these marketers outright in this blog, you can go on thinking that all day long. This is a rant. I don't even get paid to share this. Why would I want to create enemies by telling their names out? Interesting thing. If you have been following the things I've wrote and shared, you'll have faith in me and trust my stuff. If not, then I'm not going to convince you that I'm telling the truth because I'm not selling you any stuff here.
Am I the good guy? If any marketer who tries to sell you something is a bad guy, then I would be considered a bad guy. I sell because I know they are good for you and I got to make a living ethically.
I can start throwing names of real internet marketing milionaires and gurus that I can call them on their cellphones but that would be really silly trying to impress someone. What is there to be proved?
So go back to the main topic I want to discuss today...
How do you know that the "guru" you're admiring is the real stuff?
Easy. If you take away his internet marketing name and list and he's still able to make money online in a niche market WITHOUT his influence, credibility or network, then you should be learning from him as much as you can.
You see, most internet marketers are NOT MARKETERS. They are merely celebrities or someone with a list. That's it.
And if that's the case, I'm not too sure how they can teach you to be a successful marketer.
I know by the time "marketers" read this rant, they're going to argue with me and go full steam to defend their position. You know what, I can't care less. I'm not here to start an argument because I don't want to win. I would rather spend my time coaching my clients and getting paid handsomely. And besides, this is a rant (again). But I do believe that real marketers would agree with me that they can make money online in other niches starting from scratch if they have to. That's where the rubber meets the road.
Like-- a good copywriter can always make money by next week because he can writes a letter that sells anything suitable. Then, there are 'fake' copywriters that sell courses teaching someone how to write a salesletter. If you remove his name and credibility away as a copywriter, he can't sell his courses anymore and he won't make a single dollar with his own salesletters because they are crappy nonsense letters. I hope this analogy makes sense to ya.
Don't Be SillyYou know what's a 'squeeze page'?
If not, just go to www.youchandoit.com. That's a squeeze page. It 'squeezes' an email to build a list.
*Note: Don't know what's a mailing list and how important it is to make money for you on demand? I highly recommend List P.R.O.F.I.T System at www.listbuildingrevealed.com.Wasn't too hard to understand, eh?
When you're promoting an affiliate program, don't be silly to send traffic directly to a squeeze page because you would be building someone else's list.
Hold on. Before you go screaming at me for making such an impact statement, listen first dude.
It's ok to promote an affiliate program with squeeze page IF they have more than one product and most preferably, a monthly recurring charge product so that you get paid more for one time promotion.
But if that affiliate program only has one product to sell, you're going to make money for once only. THAT'S IT.
And each time he's promoting OTHER PEOPLE'S product as an affiliate, you're not getting paid. That's why I said it's silly.
I can understand the argument when the affiliate program owners say that they can increase the sale with follow ups.
Come on. Tracking with cookies?
Valid point but very ineffective. Do you clear cookies on your computer? I do. And I will "wash" away all of the affiliate ID's cookies regardless of whether it's on intention or not. People delete cookies. Fact.
Secondly, what's the proof that the follow ups increase sales FOR YOU? Hhm. Interesting point.
Put it this way-- you will 'lose' more money by building someone's list than hoping to get sales from followups. You might think that's not true. Well, it's true for me because I do testing. In fact, you can even verify with a marketer by the name of Dr. Mani. I've made more money promoting his products last time by sending traffic directly to the salespage than a squeeze page.
"You know Patric, you're being silly. You can't lose money by sending traffic to a squeeze page."Yeah, right. Provided you're clueless that each time a subscriber subscribes to another list, you're at risk of losing mindshare.
I know that I'll normally wait to buy a new launch product if I know for sure that many marketers will be participating in the promotion. Why's that? I want to wait to see who’s gonna give the best offer.
Interesting isn't it?
Originally, your subscriber subscribes to your list and two more others. Now by sending them to squeeze pages, they are subscribed to 10 more. No wonder the list gets less responsive to buy. It's not that they are not buying anymore; they are just not buying from you.
Tough luck, man."Don't you watch the Secret, Patric? You should be focusing on abundance, la da di da da and da."
Dude, dude, dude. Having a prosperous mindset and being business savvy is two different thing. Don't get yourself confuse. Man, the Secret REALLY makes people think differently. Don't get me wrong, I love the concept of the Secret and I'm a true believer for that.
But hey, there's a different of what's reality in a dog eat dog world and preaching peace and harmony. You have to know how to differentiate them at the right place.
Gosh. Is it so hard to pass a good advice of helping someone to make more money online? I hope not. Take it or leave it.
"I don't think you're telling the truth. I saw you promoting squeeze pages too."
But you probably don't know the whole story.
I do promote squeeze page on exceptional cases.
Case #1:
They are my friends. Close ones. I'm sure you would help your friends if they need a hand.
Case #2
I'm promoting as a JV partner, not as an affiliate. I'll be given extra perks for doing that. For instance, the product owner had promoted my product last time and I'm reciprocating a promotion for him.
Case #3
I'm getting paid per leads, PLUS per sale.
However, I do have one simple policy for Case #1, #2 or #3 to be executed:
The product has to be good. It has to add value to my list. The product owner could be the best friend I knew online, promoted for me previously or paying me per leads-- but if his product is a piece of junk, I'll skip it. I'll just say, sorry. No promotion for you.
The good thing is, the product owner may use a squeeze page for his promotion but you're not obligate to promote your affiliate link that directs to a squeeze page.
There are two ways to do this:
Contact the product owner and tell him that you would like to promote but ask him to create a link which your affiliate link will send your traffic to his salesletter directly.. not to a squeeze page. He'll normally does this for you because it's better for him to get a free promotion from you than NOTHING AT ALL.
The other method is slightly tricky and you'll need to spend some money. It's by getting a tool. This tool,
Convert Affiliate Link can bypass the squeeze page and send the traffic directly to ANY url you want. In this case, you'll send them to the salesletter directly. The cons? The tool is not free. I can't help you here. The pros? The investment is just one time affordable price that will save you hundreds or thousands of dollars. You can get it right away at
www.youchandoit.com/convertlink.
In fact, I'm going to encourage you to get it by offering an exclusive bonus— Once ordered, just forward your invoice to info@automateinternetmarketing.com with the
Subject: Convert Link Bonus. I'll then send 2 powerful affiliate marketing audio training by the 'real players' to you. One is by Tellman Knudson, an affiliate marketer in the internet marketing niche that generates 6-figure affiliate commission per year and the other one is by Rosalind Gardner-- known as one of the field's top affiliate marketers in niche markets because she easily pulls in over $400,000 a year in affiliate sales.
So why did you use squeeze page for YouChanDoIt.com? Well, it's advantage for product owners. Squeeze page tactic is superb. I use them and many of my internet marketing friends use them. I never said it's bad. My advice in today's Sunday Email series is for affiliate marketers, not for the product owners. By the way, my affiliate program tracks commission for multiple products of mine so that my affiliates get paid for promoting just one product.
Should I Work Or NotIt's Sunday today. If I work, I'll definitely make money. Or put it in a blunt way--I'll make money each time I work.
But what's the point of working?General answer would be... working = money. Yeah, duh.
Then I realized— I could make money every single day but it serves no point if I can't spend time doing the things I want.
They say, time is money. I'm sure these people don't really know much. Time is not money.
Time is EVERYTHING. Time is life.
You can make a lot of money but if you don't have the time to spend them, they are all useless.
You got to understand that making money is process that never ends. Therefore, I'm making a point to not work on Sundays. Yeah, I'm 'working' by writing today's Sunday Email but it's not such a chore but something fun to do.
I would rather make less by end of the month but get to do what I want-- Relax and spend time with my love ones. Plus, watch some DVD's and play Xbox 360.
The thing is this-- I want to end today's Sunday Email series by giving you a choice to choose... you want more money or you want a life?
I know it's easy for me to say this today compared to several years back when I was broke. But you know what, if you don't start giving yourself a break that you deserve now, it'll be a tough habit for you to quit when you're making tons of money. You'll be too busy replying emails. Friend, take this advice. It's for your own good.
If you have been reading the "Sunday Email" series, I'll always ask for your favor to leave a Comment if you find value of what you've read. It'll be most appreciated because I read all of them personally. (smile)
You "Chan" Do It!
-Patric Chan
P.S:
Are you involved in the internet marketing niche? If yes, I want to remind you that you're going to lose out the opportunity to get the RESALE RIGHTS to The Back End Mastery Training Home Course because the price will be raised this month. My reseller has already made 10x back his investment by reselling it. Go now:
http://www.thebackendmastery.com/resale.html-------
