Internet Business Make Money Online - Build an Opt-In Email List

Internet Business Make Money Online

I mentioned this in Method #1, but it is absolutely vital to your Internet
business. Ask any top marketer or webmaster what their most valuable assetis. It wouldn’t be their products. It wouldn’t be their location. It wouldn’t be their employees.

The most valuable asset to any business is their customer list. The most
valuable asset to any Internet business is their email list.
Your email list is your Internet business.

If you don’t have an email list, then you don’t have an Internet business.
Let me repeat that sentence. If you don’t have an email list, then you don’t
have an Internet business.

It should be one of your primary goals. If your web site is focused on selling a lead product, then you should also be using a pop-up on exit to capture email addresses for those who don’t buy. If they leave your site without buying your product, they’re offered a freebie for giving you their email address and name. Obviously, if they buy your product, you have their email address.

So you’re building at least two lists of people. You’re building a list of
customers (everyone who has purchased from you). You’re also building a
list of prospects (everyone who has given you permission to email them).
If you’re a more advanced business, you should even have further separations for your lists (such as a list of people who have purchased each
individual product). Advanced shopping cart systems allow you to do this
now…and then email your list of customers for any individual product any
time you want.

Once you’ve start building your opt-in email lists (opt-in means the person
specifically gave you permission to email them), then you need to be
aggressive at marketing to them.

Most people who are wondering about if they’re sending too many emails to their list simply aren’t sending enough. You should send out an email as
often as you have something valuable to say.

If you have a free tip you want to give them, email them. If you have a
special offer on a benefit rich product, email them. If there is an update you
want to send out, go for it.

You could potentially email them everyday if you have something important to say that often. The most common email contact frequency is once per week, but you can definitely do it much more often than that.

The key to earning big money from your opt-in email list is cultivating your
list. Having a list of subscribers is one thing. Earning a lot of money from it
is another.

Cultivating your list is made up of three parts.

Cultivation Aspect #1 - Content

Give your list good content. Give them good information and actually try to
help them reach their goals. This content could be made up of your articles
or the articles of others. Either way, it needs to be laser focused on helping
them achieve whatever you're promising them.

My newsletter has a main article in every issue and it also includes a search
engine question and answer section. Both of these are there to deliver the
content aspect of the newsletter. If you're not giving them enough content to keep them reading, then they'll never see the ads you send.

Cultivation Aspect #2 - Personality

Good content isn't enough. The library has good content, but not enough
people use it. The other thing you have to do is show a strong personality. If
you're funny, be funny. If you're mad, then let them know how mad you are.
If you're excited because it's your wife's birthday, tell them.
Tell them who you are, how you live, and why they should listen to you. Let them know your opinions on current events. Hold a birthday special once in a while. Tell them how your kids are doing in school. In my case I talk about the cow I see or what my Golden retriever is doing.

Everything I've just said comes down to one statement. Be real.
Even if you didn't write the content for the issue you're publishing, there
should still be something of you in it. Tell them why you picked the article
you're publishing and how it brings up a specific thought or story in your
mind. Be yourself.

Like you or hate you...they'll respond. They'll cheer, they'll buy, or they'll
unsubscribe. If you're just run-of-the-mill ho-hum with no personality, then
they just won't pay attention. And you'll feel that at the bank.

Cultivation Aspect #3 - Offers

Every email you should send out should have opportunities for you to make
money in it. So that becomes the #3 thing that's in every issue you
publish...the offer.

Don't ever send out an issue of a newsletter without a way to profit from it.
Sure, you may not be selling a package with a combined value of $1,500 for a discount price of ONLY $200 everyday, but you should be offering
something. Spend a couple of paragraphs selling one of your products, a
joint venture partner's product, or an affiliate product.

It also doesn't always have to be a hard sell. You could just mention a few
products in the course of your article or in your "editorial" beginning
section. Tell customers what products you're using or what you just
discovered. Then link to it.

The first link in my newsletter usually averages between 1,200 and 2,000
unique visitors. That many people click on and visit whatever link I
"mention" at the top of the newsletter. And each issue averages between
$1,000 and $5,000 depending on how much they like the offer being shown
there.

I used to follow the advice of just giving content and personality, and
avoiding making offers all the time. People have said that increases
response. I've tried it...and all it did was decrease my income. I make offers
in every issue now...and people buy. I make big offers and they buy.
Some people get mad and remove themselves from my list. That's OK. My
list isn't there for their enjoyment. It's there to make money.

There is NO reason to be sending out any issues without a link to profits in it (an offer). The question always comes up when I'm talking about newsletters, "How often should I publish?"

You should publish as often as you have something to say and to sell. As
long as you have all three elements: content, personality, and an offer, go for it. I've seen profitable newsletters published as often as every single day to only once a month with most letters going out 2 to 8 times a month (once a month is the bare minimum).

Online Home Business - Use Direct Selling Principles

Online Home Business

I hear it all the time, “I want my web site to look extremely professional.”
My response is always, “So you don’t mind being broke?”
People have different reasons for building a web site. Some want to have a
pat on the back and to be told what a good job they did. Others may want to
have their friends look at the site and be impressed. Others may just want
respect in the marketplace and to be looked at as an expert.

All of those reasons are OK. My customers and I want to make money from
our web sites. So we follow a strategy designed to help us do that.
I’m not against good looking web sites. I have nice graphics on my web
sites. I spend between $100 and $200 on each one to get professional
graphics done. The focus of the sites though is on SELLING.

Your web site either makes the sale or you stay broke.
If you have a professional writer, an English professor, or a web designer
create the words for your site, then you might as well quit now while you’re
ahead.

All of the above could of course do a very good job IF they have
copywriting and ad writing experience. If they haven’t written successful
ads before, then fire them…and do it quickly before you waste any more
money.

A good web site is intended to SELL something. If you want people to buy
your product, then you have to SELL it to them. If you want people to give
you their email and contact information, then you have to SELL them on the benefits of doing that.

If you hire someone to write the words for your web site, then they must be
an experienced ad copywriter. They should be able to show you other ads
they’ve written and tell you the kinds of conversion numbers those sites
have received.
The best person on the planet to write the words for your web site is YOU.
You may say, “I’m not a writer.” My response is GOOD. Then you’re
qualified (or can become qualified quickly). Creating words for your web
site is all about being personal and simply following a simple common sense conversation.

You grab the visitor’s attention, tell them the benefits of your offer, show
them how other people have liked it, and make it risk free to try out. If you
were to sit down and tell me why I should buy your product, that would be
90% of your web site copy right there.

Hint: Top copywriters (who earn $15,000 or more per ad + royalties) will
often interview the best sales person at a company…and a word-for-word
transcript of that salesperson’s pitch becomes the rough draft for their web
site piece.

I can’t cover all the principles of ad writing in this report (we have our
copywriting course for that), but I want to cover the most common mistakes
right here.

When I do a web site review for someone (for $250) or an hour long phone
consultation (for $1,000), these are often the very same mistakes I find on
their web pages. So save yourself some cash and fix these now…

Direct Response Mistake #1 – No Headline

I’ve seen, “Welcome to My Web Page,” so many times that the very sight of it makes me sick. Most web sites (over 80%) don’t have any clearly visible headline, not to mention a good one.

The very first thing someone should see when they visit your web site is
NOT your graphics. It’s NOT a flash presentation. It’s a headline. Your
headline should be at the very top of the page and it should be in a larger
font than the rest of the web site. In most cases it should be in a different
color than the rest of the text.

Sidenote: Your main text color should be black on a white background.
You can have other colors on your site, but the background behind the text
should be white. The color of your main text font should be black. No
exceptions. This is the easiest format to read.

Your headline is the ad for your web site. It has to immediately make a
surfer STOP dead in their tracks and start reading your first sentence of the
ad copy. It should be giving them the BIG benefit up front. Visit my web
sites listed in the beginning of this report and you’ll see a dozen examples of this. If you headline doesn’t make people stop and read more, then the whole web site is worthless. No one will even read it.

Direct Response Mistake #2 – No Benefits

This is a basic copywriting principle. Your web site should cover both
features and benefits. The features of your product are it’s description and
what it is. Benefits are what it does for your customer.

You should always combine both into your sales presentation. If your offer
is for an ebook, then the fact that it’s in Adobe Acrobat format is a feature.
The benefit is that anyone can open it using the free reader and they get it
instantly when they order.

If your product is a tax course and it comes with easy fill-in-the-blanks
forms, that is a feature. The benefit to that would be that it saves time and
reduces IRS worries as they get to use your forms to document everything.
In other words, everything I’m doing on my web site is appealing to both the emotional side and the logical side of my customer. People buy based on emotion, and then justify their decision to others based on logic.

Think about a Mercedes. People buy a Mercedes because of how important
it makes them feel…and it’s status symbol power. The reason they tell you
they bought the Mercedes is because of it’s impressive reliability. That’s the emotion and the logic combined.

Visit some of my web sites. Print out the sales letters. Pay special attention
to reading through the bullet points. In almost all of them, you’ll see both
the feature and the benefit mentioned.

Direct Response Mistake #3 – No Personality

You don’t write your web site to come from “we.” Way too many
webmasters are trying to make their web site appear like a large faceless
corporation. And that’s a big mistake.
Your web site should appear to be a letter written from one person. In many
cases it is even a good idea to put your picture on the web site. Sign the website at the bottom with a graphic which looks like your signature (don’t use areal signature as someone may copy it).

Talk about yourself as I. Talk to your customer as You. If you use figures
of speech when you talk, then put them on your web site (as long as most of
your customers would understand them). Write the copy for the web site
like you were writing a letter to a friend selling your product.
Be friendly. Be approachable. Your web site copy is not coming from your
company. It’s coming from you. You stand behind your guarantee. You
stand behind your promises. So always tell them who you are …and why
they should trust you.

Direct Response Mistake #4 – No Testimonials

Everybody wants to know what kind of results other customers have
received from your products and services. So use testimonials from
customers on your web site.

The more testimonials you have, the better your sales numbers will be.
The best testimonials are ones which state specific results.
“Using your information I made $4,453 in just 7 days.”
“I lose 23 pounds in only 2 months on your program.”
“My golf score went down by 8 strokes the first time I played.”
“I save $8,434 off my 2002 tax bill with your help.”

Testimonials which say you’re a great person or are non-specific are not
nearly as effective…although they can be used until you get more specific
ones.

Your testimonials should say the person’s full name and city/state if at all
possible (on my web sites you’ll notice I use web site addresses since my
customers are web businesses).

If you have them available, you can even use pictures. A picture of the
customer beside their testimonial increases the credibility. Before and after
pictures are especially effective for weight loss type of offers.
If you have recorded testimonials, you can turn those into Real Audio files.
Post them to your web site and put a link beside the written testimonials that visitors can click and hear the testimonial in your customer’s own words.

Direct Response Mistake #5 – No Guarantee

Buying anything is risky. Buying online is even more risky. You’re buying
a product unseen and you probably don’t know much about the person or
company you’re buying from.

So take out as much of the risk as possible for your customers. Offer them a
full money back guarantee for as long of a period as possible…90 days, 180
days, one year, etc.

You take all the risk. In most cases I even call this a “trial.” If for any
reason they try out the product and don’t like it, they can return it for a full
refund. No questions asked. They don’t have to decide today. Purchase it,
test out the techniques, and then decide if it’s right for you or not.
You should be taking all the risk for your customers and offering a full
money back guarantee.

Yes, sometimes you will get burned. People will buy your product and copy
it. Or they may buy a digital product from you, copy it, and then ask for
their money back. That kind of jerk is out there. They are only a very small
portion of your business, and the increased sales from the guarantee more
than makes up for them.

Online Home Business - Focus on Direct Response

Online Home Business

What is the purpose of your web site?

A lot of webmasters have not asked themselves this all important question.
For some reason, they seem to think that the purpose of their web site is to
give away free stuff. Or it could be to be a “showcase” for their products.
Or it could be to create links to all kinds of resources. Or it could be to have
fancy Flash graphics and build a brand name.
Hogwash!

If you’re a business, the purpose of your web site is to SELL something.
Generate a million visitors to your site and you just have to pay additional
“bandwidth” fees with many hosts. Generate a million buying customers to
your web site and you’re on the way to the bank.

Your web site should have ONE main focus. It should not be selling a
dozen products, a dozen opportunities, or linking to 10 different affiliate
programs.

Having a dozen links (or even half a dozen links for that matter) on your
main web site just CONFUSES your visitor.
When someone visits your site, it should be clearly obvious what ONE
action you want them to take.

There are only two possibilities for this one action:

Option 1: Buy a product or service.

Option 2: Leave their email & other information for follow-up.

If your strategy is option #1, then the best way to accomplish this is to use a
strong selling letter as the primary text on your web site. No, you don’t want a lot of links. No, you don’t want to make people click “continue” to go to the rest of your sales piece.

Simply have a powerful sales letter written for your product or service and
post it to your web site. You can add a few graphics if you like such as your
picture, a picture of the product in action, pictures of happy customers, and
even a header graphic. The focus of your web site is the sales copy.

Graphics don’t sell…and a picture is NOT worth a 1,000 words! Give me a
1,000 words and I’ll beat your picture every time in the selling process.
Yes. I know what you’re thinking. I’ve heard it a thousand times, “But
Terry, my product or service is different because ___________.”

Insert whatever your complaint is in the blank above. I’ve heard it
already…and my answer has always been your product is NOT different.
If you’re selling to humans, then the psychology is the same. Whether
they’re marketing humans, software programming humans, golfing humans, etc., it doesn’t matter. They’re still part of the human race and they’re still motivated by the same system.
Unless your customers are from a different planet, this is the system you
follow.

Having multiple links to all different sites may be what “Internet guru’s”
have told you to do, but that’s why they’re still having trouble selling their
$19.95 book.

Having a “catalog” will just confuse your visitors. You want to sell your
lead-in BEST product upfront (the one which they buy the quickest and
easiest), and then only show CUSTOMERS your full catalog after they’ve
purchased something from you (at that point you’d have their contact
information to follow-up and sell these others products also).

There is only one reason to not have a sales letter as your main page…and
that’s if you choose option #2 above for your web site purpose.
If you’re selling $2,000 widgets to a cold audience, that’s a hard sale. If
you’re selling $10,000,000 airplanes, that’s a hard sale. They’re probably
not going to make up their minds and buy right now while they’re at your
web site.

So in comes option #2. This is the ONLY other possible purpose of your
web site…to collect email addresses and other contact information.
My web site at http://www.bizpromo.com follows this purpose. People visit
the site and they leave their name and email address in exchange for my free report. This is the ONLY option they’re given at the site. They either leave their information or they don’t.

They either get the free report or they don’t. Visit the site above. Is there
any confusion about what I want you to do? No. It’s simple. That’s the
key. I basically tell you that if you do A (give me your information), you’ll
get B (these benefits in the report).

When people leave me their contact information I can then follow up on
them. I’ll send them good training material by email, but I’ll also make
special offers for my products. If I have one dozen products, then I can offer them those one dozen products one at a time…and tell them all the
incredible benefits of each one.

So I may only give them a freebie today…but I end up earning money from
them for years to come. Having a qualified targeted opt-in email list is as
good as money in the bank.

The way to get them to give their email address is to offer them something
special…a free report, an e-course, etc. Tell them what they’ll get and all
the benefits from it.

You don’t have to stop at email addresses. If you’re a medium size or large
company, you may also want to get their mailing address and phone number.

You could send them out a letter, audio, or video in the mail. You could
follow-up by both email and direct mail. This would increase your sales
conversion rates, but of course it increases your costs substantially as well.

You can also follow-up by phone. If you’re selling the $10,000,000
airplanes, then I would definitely want to do phone follow-up in addition to
my email and direct mail follow-up. Phone follow-up has the highest
response. Direct mail is second. Getting people to leave their phone
numbers is the most difficult so you only get the most qualified prospects
(and cut down on your leads dramatically).

Email follow-up actually produces lower response rates than direct mail or
phone, BUT it is free. You can follow-up one time or a 100 times…on one
prospect or 1,000,000 prospects…and the cost for your email will be the
same (very cheap).

So when you’re building your web site you have to choose what your
primary goal for this site is.
Will you have visitors buy your product or service…or will they simply be
signing up for a freebie?

If you’re selling a product under $50 with high conversion rates (2% or
higher), then selling the product is often the best choice. You can use what
we call a pop-up on exit to give away a freebie to get their email address.
If your product is $97 to $197, then it depends on your conversion numbers
and strategy. You may have to test to find out which approach makes you
the most money.

If your product is a higher ticket item, then you are most often better off
with the free lead generation page first. Then take subscribers to your sales
site. The email you send them will have their freebie and will begin
following up to sell your product.

If you’re an affiliate selling someone else’s product, then the free lead
generation page is almost always the best choice. You advertise your web
site, get people signed up for your email list, and then you promote the
affiliate products.

All my top selling affiliates have their own opt-in email list which they
concentrate on building. So if you want to be a top selling affiliate, guess
what you should do? You should concentrate on building your email list.

Forum - The Best Place to Start

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One of the biggest turning points since I began Internet marketing has been
my discovery of the online forums (or discussion groups or bulletin boards as
they are also called).

There are 4 major reasons why people use forums

1) You can get free advice. For example
ask about any aspect of marketing ·
ask for opinions about a product before purchasing or about a business
opportunity or affiliate program you plan to join ask for a site review ·

2) You can discover new products, ideas, tips, tools

3) You can make contact with others, and possibly set up joint ventures. You
will find many helpful people and many of the top names posting at forums.

4) Site promotion.

When you make postings you can include your signature or a link to your site.
If you have provided helpful answers or useful information readers 'may'
decide to visit your site.

There are techniques to turn 'may' into 'will very likely', which you will see in
the next tip.

General Internet Marketing Tips by Darren Roberts

 
Darren is full-time author and publisher of "AAvenues 2 Your Success".

Apart from writing success oriented articles for his weekly publication he offers his writing skills to small, medium and big businesses in the fields of personal development & copywriting.

Darren's top copy writing service includes constructing web content, ezine authoring, follow-up sales literature, marketing brochures, business articles and advertising copy.

Darren believes firmly that you can achieve what you really want to achieve. He has made it his goal to show that you can become the person you want to be through a series of self-help principles.

Top Tips

1) You must be unique. i.e. find, develop and exploit your own niche! Make your business yours - not a mirror of the masses.

2) Offer free information as your front end product/service to a highly target audience. Your offerings must be in huge demand.

3) Optimize resources with fellow netpreneurs by supporting each other with various win/win joint ventures

4) Provide a human face & service to your impersonal Cyberspace store with personal emails and answer all queries inside 24 (working) hours.

5) Never stop expanding until your goal has been reached. Change your plan as you go to make it happen.

General Internet Marketing by Dan Janal

Profile

USA TODAY, the Los Angeles Times and the San Francisco Chronicle have hailed Dan Janal as an Internet marketing expert. His book, "Dan Janal's Guide to Marketing on the Internet," is the oldest, continuously updated book on the topic and has been translated into six languages and is available worldwide via Amazon.com. Dan was on the public relations team that launched America Online nearly 20 years ago.

He has built the ShowStoppers Media Receptions for high tech companies seeking publicity (http://www.showstoppers.com) into a million-dollar business completely through ethical e-mail marketing and follow-up customer support via e-mail and website.

His latest business is called PR Leads (http://www.prleads.com) which provides authors and experts with direct contacts to reporters who are seeking to quote industry leaders in their articles. His latest e-book is called "How to Get Publicity Without Writing a Press Release or Cold-calling Reporters."

Top Tips

Dan has focussed his tips on PR issues for Internet marketers

1) Place your contact information - phone and e-mail - on your website and press releases. If reporters don't know who to call, they won't call. This happens more times than you could imagine.

2) If reporters contact you, respond immediately. They are on deadline and will quote the first person who calls back.

3) Place information articles for reporters on your website. Establish yourself as an expert - and let them know you are ready, willing and able to be a resource for them.

4) Create a page on your website that lists articles in which you have been quoted or profiled - no matter how modest the publication. This builds credibility for other reporters to call you.

5) Press releases aren't just for reporters. Send press releases to clients, prospects, vendors, investors and relatives. They want to know what's going on with you or your company. Post press releases on your website.

Traffic Generation and Advertising by Jonathan Mizel

Profile

Jonathan Mizel is an experienced direct response marketer who got his start at age nineteen in the financial services industry in San Francisco. In 1993, he joined the digital revolution, published the first issue of The Online Marketing Letter, and hasn't looked back since!

He's produced dozens of eBooks, videos, and has spoken at nearly 200 Internet marketing seminars which cost as much as $4,000 per person! Jonathan works with consulting clients from a variety of industries, including information publishing, telecommunications, retail, financial services, and real estate. His client list includes companies like Microsoft, Intel, American Express, and BMG Music Club.

Main sites: http://www.cyberwave.com and http://www.amazingpopups.com .

Top Tips

1) Know your numbers: The most important element in any direct marketing business is to know your conversion rate. In other words, how many visitors out of 100 make a purchase. This is critical because it allows you to see what a visitor is worth. If you test enough variables, you'll discover certain offers are as much as 500% more responsive. After expenses are covered, five times more money can mean up to twenty-five times more profit! You owe it to your business to test.

2) Build your database: Building your database and starting an opt-in e-mail list (also referred to as an e-zine or online newsletter) ensures you'll always have a ready supply of prospects to solicit, and allows you to create a continuous revenue stream that pays off every month with little or no cost. The fact is, the easiest and cheapest way to get targeted traffic to your site for free is to send an e-mailing to past prospects and clients asking them to check out your latest offer.

3) Automate your systems: The most successful business people aren't the hardest workers, but rather, those who can get 15 hours of work done in 5. The only way to accomplish this is with automation. Use services like Aweber.com and software like MailKing to save time. Learn how to set up your filters on Outlook or Eudora so you only see important e-mail messages. Set up real-time online credit card processing, and if you sell a digital product, use instant delivery. Getting 100 orders in a single day can be very good news, unless you have to process them all manually!

4) Start an affiliate program: It's true what they say about affiliate programs. They are a sneaky way to get your competitors to send you their best customers with the strongest possible endorsement. Many popular sites get as much as 90% of their traffic from affiliate partners, who are only paid when sales are made. The added benefit? You can use your affiliate program to track your own ads.

5) Stay current: This is important because it's your main strategic advantage! You may not have millions of dollars to invest in advertising, but you do have your brain! Make a commitment to staying educated and up to date. Find 3 - 5 weekly e-zines you like and read them. Invest in the latest paid newsletters and products, and dissect them to see what makes them successful. We recently got an idea from a newsletter, and 48 hours later, we had developed it into a product that generated $2,100 the first day!
Some of the sites we recommend are The Internet Advertising Report (www.internetnews.com/IAR), ZD Net (www.zdnet.com), and DM News (www.dmnews.com). You'll find information for large and small companies, including articles on paid search engines, pop-ups, e-mail marketing, and much more. Also, query your customers to see what they are interested in. You can do this by e-mail, with an online survey, or just pick up the phone and say hello.

Traffic Generation Tips and Advertising by Jeffey Lant

Profile

Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is one of the world's best-known marketers. You'll find his books and materials at http://www.jeffreylant.com

For a free subscription to his "Marketing Tips" Newsletter, go to http://www.worldprofit.com/ezines

For detailed information on how Dr. Lant can help you succeed online, go to http://www.trafficcenter.com/properties and http://www.worldprofit.com/autoresponse

Top Tips

1) Be hungry One reason people fail online is because they believe in the "post it and they will buy" myth. The Internet doesn't work for people who aren't DETERMINED to understand it and make it work. You cannot lay back and profit online. Period.

2) Sell value Too many people online sell crap. Crap will never make you successful online, or off. What people want, particularly in uncertain economic times, is VALUE. Value always sells.

3) Own a domain No one without a domain can profit online. Quote me. A domain is real estate. You must own one. You must be prepared to develop one.

4) Have professional design Amateur design is embarrassing and won't help you make money. If you want people to treat you seriously and regard you as a professional, get professional design assistance.

5) Get the right tools These tools consist of a listserver so you can send unlimited non-spam email; a sales manager for unrelenting follow-up and a cluster of traffic development tools. We offer them all at Worldprofit at http://www.worldprofit.com

Niche Expert by Sydney Johnston

Profile

* Author of "Make Your Net Auction Sell!" published by Dr. Ken Evoy

* Auction "Wizard" for wz.com

* Soon-to-be-published book with Intellectua.com's Dream Job series

* Putting Information Products on the Auction Block: How Anyone Can Sell eBooks, eBusinesses, Resell Rights, Digital Goods and Other Infoproducts on Web Auctions, with Jimmy Brown, soon to be published

* Author of "How To Suck Up Hungry Customers Faster Than A Vacuum Cleaner On Steroids", a complimentary ** ebook showing how any business can use auctions to attract tons of customers

* Interview for Anthony Blake tape series, "Mind of the Marketing Master"

* Newest project: the first mini site hosting and teaching center for the internet

** Sydney is giving this away free (at the link)

Top Tips

1) Learn your business. No one would expect to watch a couple of episodes of Law and Order and be a lawyer. Yet, so many read a net marketing book and become instant experts ... in their own minds, anyway.
Read everything you can get your hands on. Absorb it, devour it. And in this way, you drastically shorten your learning curve and eliminate unnecessary mistakes.

2) In marketing, there are lots and lots of genuine opportunities. Personally, I have a delusion that I can do everything ... meaning involve myself in every interesting project that comes along. I have repeatedly found myself involved in far too many things, doing justice to none of them. It is much easier to get IN to something than OUT of it, so choose carefully.

3) Forget about mistakes. When things don't turn out as they expect, so many stage an orgy of self guilt, despair fills their heart and they quit.
Instead, simply, calmly, observe and analyze what happened. After careful observation, you will be able to decide on a new plan of action . Experiment and observe until you reach your goal. The only mistake, then, is not to learn from your experience. If you redefine your career and life in this way, every "failure" brings you closer to your goal.

4) Move away from the dollars-for-hours trap and create multiple streams of income.
The easiest, quickest and most risk-free way to do this is with mini sites, simple sites with only ONE focus. Since mini sites are quick and inexpensive, it's easy to put one together in an hour or less. Imagine your string of 25 mini sites. If one fails, so what? Not only do you have 24 others, but you can build 5 more to take its place (or 10, or 20, or ...)

Niche Expert by Rob Frankel

Profile

Rob Frankel has been called "the best branding expert on the planet,"

His articles have been translated into six different languages appearing on six different continents.

UPSIDE magazine raves, "This man knows branding."

And MENSA notes, "Overall this is the most amusing-- and also the most interesting and thought-provoking -- book on marketing."

Rob's a branding specialist. Which means he knows how to turn users into evangelists for your brand, on the web or anyplace else.

Rob's clients include multinational businesses, start-ups and even a nonprofit or two. He does consulting and speaking gigs, mainly to companies who sink zillions of dollars into a website or business and then scratch their heads wondering why it just sits there like a lox.

In addition to speaking and consulting, Rob Frankel has contributed to the Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, Ziff-Davis' Internet Business magazine and dozens of other TV, radio and print endeavors.

Top Tips

1) Build a strong brand.

2) Implement that brand in every detail of your business.

3) Build a branded community based on your brand. .

4) Lead, never follow.

5) The more you niche, the better you do
More tips in Frankel's Laws of Big Time Branding, found in his latest best-selling book: "The Revenge of Brand X - How to Build A Big Time Brand On The Web or Anywhere Else"

Software Developers Tips by William Brontrager

Profile

The Amish religion and lifestyle didn't agree with my inquisitive nature, so I ran away from home at about 17. I wanted electricity and telephones and cars and the freedom to invent.

Some years later my brother, who had also left the Amish, gave me a computer. It had a pre-Mac, pre-Win, pre-DOS operating system called C/PM. A manual for the BASIC programming language came with the computer. When I opened it up, I had a clear realization that I had found one of my life's pleasures.

That was 1980. And I've been programming ever since. Other programming languages I've learned well include Pascal, C, C++, Perl, and JavaScript.

Today, my wife Mari and I own and operate WillMaster.com and several other domains. We've made our living from the internet since early 1998.

Top Tips

The quality of our CGI programs are a major reason for our success. So is our ezine of original and helpful articles, which is a weekly reminder of our presence and our willingness to assist. Real personal service and our quick attention to technical questions is one reason we are recommended as much as we are. What we give away is high quality. What we sell is high quality. We are real people. Our assistance is personal. People like to buy from people they like and trust.

Yet, there is a secret. Without it we would not be successful. And I'm going to let you in on it.

It's something that is often mentioned yet it's value is rarely understood -- because to really understand it, its truth must be experienced.

What I'm about to tell you will not make you a success all by itself. However, without it the road to success, if you make it, will be long and arduous.

The secret is passion. Whatever you need to do to reach your definition of success, you must be passionate about it. If you don't find joy in the very actions that will lead to success, you will probably fail.

The idea of having passion for one's chosen endeavor is not the secret. The secret is the fact that passion is such a powerful force.

Affiliate Program Tips by Declan Dunn

Profile

Declan Dunn is CEO of ADNet International, a marketing services provider, driving the next generation of Internet advertising and promotion powered by results. Since 1996 ADNet has developed strategies, promotional campaigns, and full business development for major clients like Network Solutions, Travelocity, and MyPoints, as well as powering startups like eStara.com from idea to fully functioning business models that work on the Internet.

Top Tips

1) Test like a direct marketer. Everything on the Net is about the numbers. When you test your marketing, be sure to take a limited test. For example, send out 5000 emails, don't email to a list of 50,000. Pay for 10,000 clickthroughs from GoTo.com and see what converts.

2) Focus on affiliate programs to get the best performance. You should use affiliate programs as the center of your testing and marketing development. Cut deals based on performance (like the tests in #1), then when you know your conversion, see if it makes more sense to buy ads than to pay on performance.

3) The 3 keys to Internet success are email, email, email. People spend much more time on email, instant messaging, and sending greetings than anything else. Email is where you build relationships and drive sales. Build your email list always.

4) Merge your efforts with offline marketing via direct mail and telemarketing. Everyone likes to talk about automating with the Internet and avoiding the customer. While email is a great way to develop relationships, the phone and direct mail can close much more. Imagine offering a free report and mailing it to them with a sales letter? Once again, test the ideas, but if you communicate only through the Net and email, you are missing the point. Make it easy for folks to contact you has been a staple of business for years.

5) Be surprised when your marketing works. So many people think that marketing is quick; fact is, most of what you try doesn't work. The key is to test small, and when it works, be surprised. If you are surprised that something doesn't work, you are missing one of the basics of direct marketing, and life in general. 20% of your efforts will generate revenue; 80% will fail. Your success depends on how well you limit costs for the 80%, and how quickly you can find the magic 20% that works. Your ability to manage the testing of projects will build the foundation of a long term business.

Resource and Tools Tips by Marc and Terry

Profile

29 year old husband and wife entrepreneurs Marc & Terry Goldman started their online business 5 years ago.

While in college, they realized that financial freedom and personal satisfaction were never going to come from working for someone else for the rest of their lives. They began to sell information products through the mail in 1996 and in 1997 moved their business focus to the internet.

Their internet business earns them a six figure annual income. They run their business from their homes in New York and Trinidad & Tobago.

Their flagship product The Ultimate Marketers Resource has been called "The Most Powerful Marketing Product on the Planet" and has been endorsed by master marketers Tony Blake, Jeff Gardner, Klaus Dahl and many others. The Ultimate Marketers Resource is a complete package of tools, techniques and strategies that are guaranteed to increase your traffic exponentially and boost your online sales effortlessly and automatically.

Top Tips

1) We recommend that everyone use bartering to get free advertising. We use bartering as the main means of obtaining advertising for our products and services. This keeps our advertising overhead to a minimum. For instance, we may trade a 6 month membership in our members only site for a solo mailing in an ezine that reaches over 25,000 subscribers.

2) You must constantly test your sales material. We model all our sales copy after proven successful sales letters written by Direct Marketing experts. We constantly test and revise our sales copy to see what will generate the highest response rate.

3) You must incorporate into your site a means to capture your visitors email addresses so that you can bring them back to your site thus making them repeat visitors. We achieve this by offering a free newsletter loaded with helpful, innovative marketing information. We also implement follow up autoresponders to send out personalized, sequential messages designed to bring the visitors back to our site and eventually close the sales.

4) It is EXTREMELY important to track the effectiveness of your advertising. This task is crucial no matter how much money the owner of a publication insures you will make or how sure you are that an ad will perform well for you. There are many tools that help you do this. We offer our affiliates a tool that will help them track any advertisement they send out so they can determine if the ad is worth their time and whether or not to advertise in that medium again. Our affiliate program is free to join at our site.

5) If you are not also marketing your internet business offline you are missing a huge market that could be interested in your business. We have had great success marketing offline and you can too. Many marketers utilize offline marketing to find their leads and prospects and then direct them to their websites to "close the deal". The best way to market offline is to use free advertising. If you are good at writing articles related to your products or services, we recommend that you write an article and submit it to highly targeted magazines or trade publications that cater specifically to the market you wish to reach.
Be sure to include a "resource box" at the end of your article. A "resource box" is that free mention at the end of your article that gives your readers more information about you. Your article has already established your expertise so your readers will want a way to contact you so they can learn more about your related products and services. It is very important that you make it as easy as possible for your readers to contact you (provide your voice mail number, website address, email address and whatever else you choose).

Resource and Tools Tips by Dale A Miller

Profile

Dale Armin Miller has been engaged in sales and marketing for nearly 40 years - everything from door-to-door greeting-card salesman in elementary school to (more recently) chief executive officer for marketing companies and non-profit organizations.

Fascinated by the Internet, Dale has been making his living exclusively online since 1998.

He is the only recipient of the Association of Certified Internet Business Consultants's Presidential Award and has (according to TrafficRanking.com) more than one site among the top one-seventh of one-percent most popular websites.

Top Tips

1) Make the first thing on your site a headline that compels desired visitors to stay. It doesn't matter what comes second if your visitor has already left

2) Give customers more long-lasting substance than they expect.

3) Don't start out with a product or service, and then try to figure out who the buyers are and how to reach them. Do it the other way around.

4) Reward those who help (affiliates, for example) with as much as possible -- which, at the beginning, means everything that isn't operating expenses.

5) If you are new to being an entrepreneur, then choose the path of passion, something you love to do. Not because "the money will follow." But because, if you are new to being an entrepreneur, you underestimate the amount of work and devotion required.

Mail Order Tips by JF

Profile

Jim's career has progressed through direct selling, service contracting, wholesale merchandising, entertainment (he was a professional Trumpet player, vocalist & Radio Announcer), freight forwarding, import/export, retail merchandising, warehousing, real estate, electronics manufacturing, finder's fees, closeout merchandising, financial brokerage, business consulting, steel fabrication, gold & coal mining, offshore banking, mailorder, writing, and publishing.

Over the past 30 years, he has written well over 300 books, booklets, manuals, reports, courses and articles about doing business ­ all based on his own personal, hands-on experience.

As a mailorder marketer - with over 700,000 customers worldwide - he has sold over two-hundred & fifty-million dollars ($250,000,000) worth of products and services by mail.

Everything from Beauty Supplies to Heavy Equipment ... Burglar Alarms to Sleeping Bags ... Fishing Lures to Women's Wigs ... Automobiles to Wheelchairs ... Investment Opportunities to Seafood ... Consulting Services to "How To" Courses ... all by mailorder.

Top Tips

There are only three (3) things you need to do to be an Internet Marketing success

1) Find one (just one) product or service to sell.

2) Find one (just one) method or technique that sells that product or service profitably for you.

3) Just keep doing it ... over & over & over & over & over ... adding to your product line as you go.

Mail Order Tips by Dän Lee Dimke

Profile

Dän Lee Dimke became a published author at the age of 14 and has since written or narrated more than 116 books and audiocassettes in a wide range of subject areas, including business, education, marketing, science and self-mastery.

At 20, he developed one of the first rapid reading systems for use with Mandarin Chinese and other non-alphabetic languages during a sabbatical in the Far East. Dr. Dimke speaks six European and Asian languages and reads nearly a dozen other human languages as well as five computer languages. His personal reading speed tops 25,000 words per minute.

Currently, Dr. Dimke serves as the CEO of the Internet information-marketing firm, Future World, with representatives and customers in more than 122 countries.

He is also a SCUBA diver, jet helicopter pilot, hypnotist, astronomer, futurologist, and celebrity impressionist. Dän plays more than 20 different musical instruments and has performed for audiences on four continents.

Top Tips

1) Success begins in the mind

Visualise your future wealth and prosperity as if it already existed.

2) Choosing a product

Most would-be authors write a book about something they like and then look for a market . Most never find one. Savvy authors look for a market, and then write for it. What to write about ? Just flip through a magazine, stroll through a bookstore to find out what's hot in your chosen field of interest.

3) The secret of creating the product

In four words -- Write the Ad first. Choose your topic, write the most fantastic ad you can imagine, then whatever your ad promises deliver on those promises in the product you create.

4) The power of Concatenation

Although each information product you offer must be self contained and deliver everything it promises you should predesign each so that the subsequent product will naturally follow on. For example, a second book may begin where the first left off showing the reader many of the exciting new things that may have occurred to him as he read the first.

5) The Copycat Technique

Create a special file of great sales letters, ones which really strike you when you first read them. Then adapt these to create your own sales letter. Remember, a specific order of words can be copyrighted but a format arrangement or style of the words in a letter or brochure cannot.

Ebook Marketing Tips by Kunle Olomofe

Profile

Kunle Olomofe runs his Internet Business from his study in Moscow, Russia. He's your typical example of STUDENT turned profiting INDEPENDENT MARKETER.

Kunle has developed his niche to help people realize their most vital potential. Their Brain. And how to use what they have to get where they want, when they want to get there.

When he experiences problems, failures, draw backs and other hold ups, Kunle says... "That's only PART of life and PART of business! Those same problems are solved when I sit my butt down, pick up a book or magazine and LEARN something new that adds to my information bank (in my head), which I later use to better someone else's life -- immediately and in my own words!"

Kunle's dream goal is to have set up individually AT LEAST 1,000 self-made success stories -- people earning $100,000 and more ETHICALLY and PROFESSIONALLY, BECAUSE they're doing what he's doing... Really running their own independent REAL online/offline businesses! Kunle's plan is to have achieved this dream before his 30th birthday, he's 24 now.

"It's not only doable," says Kunle, "it's doable by me and even anyone who just sets their mind to it and gets up off their rear to get it done!"

Top Tips

1) How to get reprint rights without spending a dime

If you have a product of your own, email your prospect and strike up a deal. Simply offer to swap ownership rights of your product with the rights to theirs. Make it even easier to close the deal. Pick up a telephone and CALL them. Voice communications increase your chances of warming your "prospect's" heart and quickly cementing a profitable deal.

2) *Horror-Story* Copywriting that captures readers

Start your sales copy by relating a real life story of some of the worst experiences you had before discovering the solutions you now have packaged as benefits of your own product or service. After making your readers paint a mental picture of *horror* from your bad luck, simply offer your strongest benefits immediately warming their hearts. Spell it out for them -- express the benefits as SWEET sounding SOLUTIONS next to all the *stress* and *horror* you'd laid earlier out for them. If you can write EMAIL, you can use horror-story copywriting effectively.

3) Get knock out headlines that make money

Do you watch tv? Listen to the radio? Read newspapers? Browse the classifieds? You should. There is a mountain of hidden knock out headlines in those sources. Many of the headlines I use these days are inspired from Hollywood box office hits, killer radio station jingles, etc. Next time you read a book, newspaper, watch hot selling infomercials etc, be on the look out for something HOT and HEAVY you can SWIPE, re-write it, and you will instantly have bang-out-straight, knock-out headlines and other sales copy "phrases" that sell!

4) Doubling your profits with ONE simple tactic

You can increase your web site profits simply by offering two or more different price options for the same product on the same web site! The first option could be your "basic" option. This is what your prospects who don't want to spend much money on your product will order. Next, offer a "premium" option where you'd have added on a pile of more benefits that really increase value. Offer the "premium" option at a slightly higher price than the "basic" one (usually no more than double the "basic" price). You'll find MANY of your prospects will ignore the "basic" option and order "premium". You've instantly increased your profits with one simple added option!

Ebook Marketing Tips by Eza Almeida

Profile

After receiving a bachelor's degree in pharmacy from the University of British Columbia, Eva Almeida moved up to Kitimat, in Northern British Columbia, Canada to practice community pharmacy part-time. She lives there with her husband, Nelson, and her two children, Emily and Nicholas.

An ebook enthusiast, Eva started up several ebook-related resource sites to help educate others on how to publish and promote their ebooks. Now considered to be an expert on ebooks -- she spends all of her spare time answering questions on the topic of ebook publishing and promotion when not maintaining her 25+ web sites or reviewing ebooks and epublishing software.

Eva publishes several newsletters on the topic of ebooks including the eBooks N' Bytes Informer (ebook contests, publishing and promotion), eBook Broadcast Bulletin (for ebook press releases), 45 Second Newsletter for eBook Authors and soon to be released, a paid newsletter strictly on ebook promotion techniques.

Top Tips

1) You must have a passion for your product - enthusiasm shows and increases your sales

2) Reply to any questions as soon as you can - I usually answer within 24 hours if possible

3) Give away an ebook on a topic you are an expert in - I have found it raises your credibility and sales

4) Create minisites for each product you sell - Search engines will help to sell your product through higher positioning plus it is less confusing to potential customers

5) Encourage others to link to you (provide outstanding content) - People approach you to exchange links which boosts your search engine rankings for more targeted visitors

6) Focus on one major task each day and consider the rest of your daily accomplishments as a bonus! - You'll be more productive and less stressed-out

Ezine Marketing Tips by Lee Benson

Profile

After being an online marketer for over four years, the truth FINALLY hit me. I'd absorbed so much hype, so many worthless marketing strategies and worst of all, I'd seen and heard WAY too many failures to count, that the powerful thought of realization conjured in my mind.

My business buddies had come and gone in their bucket loads.

In literal terms, I'd seen my "best net friends" drop from my ICQ contact list like flies. I was suddenly noticing returned mail errors when I tried to contact my business mates by email, and the worst feelings came when I received notifications of their intent to quit.

WHAT WAS GOING ON? Why Did I Feel So Strongly?

To put it bluntly, the ambitions that once were, died. My most regular contacts online had quit this Internet marketing 'lark'. Quite simply, they realized the hype.

They were sick and tired of spending endless amounts of cash on worthless marketing techniques, wasting hours of their life on pointless promotional junk, and getting ripped off by the "get rich quick" nature of the 'Net.

* And honestly, is it at all surprising? *

Every search I do for "Internet marketing" churns up 1000s of worthless websites, plagued with affiliate links, bad site design and promises of millions. The limitations of off-line business have been removed, and so have given way to a world of hype, scams, lies and false hope and promises.

No wonder thousands of businesses are actually LOSING money online. !

You want to know WHY I'm still here after this time, owning a successful business that I run from the home office? Want to know WHY I haven't joined the rat-race that I see clog up the roads at 9am and 5pm every day? Want to know WHY I don't quit, throw in the towel and say goodbye so all of this HYPE? The Answers follow

Top Tips

1) I don't listen to any of it! Although I'm NEVER skeptical of life's possibilities, I am realistic. Sure, you CAN become a raving success online. But why take advice from the self-proclaimed gurus that haven't achieved it?

2) I keep a VERY open mind to my own possibilities and have confidence in my own judgements. I know that by thinking in a successful and positive frame of mind, I can achieve it.

3) I DRIVE myself with a burning desire of true success, and will absolutely stick to that at all costs. My tenacity (persistence) grows every day - I stay focused at ALL times.

4) I work like heck and learn everything I can. Over the past few years I've learned more than my entire school education taught me in terms of real-world practicalities and skills.

5) No matter what life throws at me, no matter how much the circumstances can hurt, I stand up and say "I'm not affected". I NEVER give up. I NEVER quit. I keep striving for success.

So What Will You Become?

I'm going to share one simple (and totally overlooked) aspect of TRUE SUCCESS.

That tip is simply this (listen closely):

Internet success doesn't come from a few search engine submissions, worthless FFA postings and a site plagued with affiliate links. It comes from UNIQUE ideas, with UNIQUE creations, fueled by an over-powering ambition to SUCCEED.

You have two choices. Join the FEW who discover that the Internet (like so many things in life) takes hard work, smart thinking and a positive attitude for success... Or join the THOUSANDS that follow the hype, waste time and money, and die the Internet death.

Those two paths await. Which route will YOU take?

Ezine Marketing Tips by Jimmy D. Brown

Profile

Jimmy D. Brown is a former baseball card shop owner who now earns a six figure income selling information products online.

He came online in 1997 and failed within five months of starting his first internet business. He abandoned the idea of doing business online but in late 1999 decided to give it another shot. This time he was determined to make it work and began researching the success stories of Terry Dean, Allen Says, Ken Evoy and Jim Daniels, among others: he developed a plan based on their techniques.

ProfitsVault.com was launched in August 2000. Just four months later, it grew to 150,000 hits per month with profit of $7,000 for the month.

Since then, he has launched an entire suite of web marketing products, including the very successful, Free Advertising System.

Jimmy is a full-time netrepreneur and works from his home while caring for his 6 month old baby boy, Jacob.

Top Tips

Here are the tools and resources that are critical to my internet operation. You can find details of the actual products and services at my site.

1) Viral Marketing Tools.

Free eBooks are a BIG traffic and sales generator for my business. I rely heavily on the free exposure generated by *quality* eBooks. In conjunction with my affiliate program, eBooks are a great tool for my resellers to give away, customized with their affiliate link, to earn both them and myself great profits.

2) Order Processing / Affiliate Tracking.

THE most important part of my business is my affiliate program. I use a service to take care of all of the details for me. They handle all of my credit card orders, provide real-time tracking of all my affiliate sales and issue checks twice a month. They record the sales, write the checks, send out the tax paperwork and basically take care of everything involved in the accounting portion of things.

3) Autoresponder.

Autoresponders are also a key element of my day-to-day operations। One of my free reports, "How to Sell 300% More of YOUR Product in 72 Hours Than You Did All Month" has generated a whopping $30,000 in sales, 7,000 new opt-in subscribers and over 800 new affiliates in less than 6 months. All because of the autoresponder system of delivery and follow-up.


4) Web Host.

My web host allows me a whopping 300MB. When I started I thought "who needs that much space?" - now I am dangerously close to exceeding my limit! They provide membership to an entire arsenal of web marketing materials and have an affiliate program which means it's very easy to get your web site hosted for FREE each month because of the commissions you earn.

5) Ezines.

Ezine ads are my top choice for advertising on the internet.

* they are targeted - you can advertise to an audience that is interested in what you are offering

* they produce immediate results - you can expect results within 24-72 hours of publication

* they are extremely cost effective. I have spent $125 on an ad and earned $600 in profit in less than 3 days!

I show exactly where I advertise to build my business and the places I still recommend to my affiliates in my manual 'Ezine Ad Profits'

Search Engines Tips by Robin Nobles

Profile

Robin Nobles is the Director of Training for the Academy of Web Specialists. Over the past several years, she's taught thousands of people in online and onsite search engine ranking courses.

Robin writes monthly articles for publications such as Planet Ocean, Search Engine Guide, and WebProNews, leaders in the search engine industry, and she also writes weekly newspaper columns about the Internet for several newspapers and computer journals in the South. Her current books, Streetwise Maximize Web Site Traffic and Web Site Analysis and Reporting, are available through Amazon or local bookstores.

The Academy of Web Specialists LLC is a training and consulting institution that offers beginning and advanced search engine ranking training. The training can be taken with a mentor who will visit a student's site, answer questions, and offer suggestions on an individualized basis. Or, the courses can be purchased as one-time downloads.

Top Tips

1) Keep your Web site simple. Remember: the engines like simplicity, and so do your visitors! If you use "fancy" or complicated Web design strategies, you stand a good chance of hurting your search engine rankings and losing those visitors who access at slower speeds or who aren't computer/Internet savvy.

2) Submit your important Web pages manually to the major search engines, rather than using a handy dandy software program that will submit your pages to 3,000 engines. You can also use a submission service like Position Pro or Submit Director, or use a software program like WebPosition Gold or Search Engine Commando that mimics a manual submission.

3) Choose very focused keyword phrases, and don't try to go after general phrases. The competition is too fierce, and research has shown that though you will get more traffic through general phrases, that traffic doesn't convert to sales. All of the traffic in the world will do you no good if it doesn't convert to sales!

4) Work hard at building your link popularity by asking sites that are related to yours in content to link back to your site. Also, make sure that you get your site listed in all of the major directories, such as Yahoo!, LookSmart, the ODP, and About.com, because that can provide a significant boost in link popularity as well.

5) Target each Web page to a different and highly focused keyword phrase. In other words, your main page should be optimized for one keyword phrase, and each of your other pages should be optimized for a different keyword phrase. Then, point everything on each of those pages to that one keyword phrase. This includes your important tags, your body text, your links, and so forth. Focus, focus, focus!

Search Engines Tips by Michael Campbell

Profile

Michael is a search engine optimization specialist and top internet marketing consultant. His proven tactics can be found in his monthly Internet Marketing Secrets newsletter. Sign up free at http://www.internetmarketingsecrets.com

He is also co-author of Super Affiliate Cash Machine. A complete beginners guide on how to set up web sites and make money with affiliate programs.

He's the author of Nothing But Net. It details how he generated over $750,000 in internet revenues in less than a year, with no advertising costs, not even so much as a business card.

He produced Search Engine Commando. Software that submits your web pages to the search engines automatically, even while you're on vacation.

He wrote the Search Engine Positioning Reports. A series of revealing reports on how to get listed at the top of the search engines and stay there.

Michael's background is in typesetting, advertising, graphic design and the printing trade. He began using the internet in 1993 and was one of the first people to realize it was the most important communications revolution since the invention of the printing press.

Michael has served on several advisory boards, designed curriculum for internet marketing courses, given hands on training seminars, and has spoken at countless lectures and conferences.

He is currently president and CEO of Dynamic Media Corporation and resides in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Top Tips


1) Focus on the Three Most Profitable Internet Revenue Streams

There are three main internet revenue streams if you don't want to pay for advertising. They are free search engine listings, permission email and affiliate programs.

Motivated prospects will come to your site from your search engine positioning. Once they arrive on your site, rely on your sales message to convert the prospect into a customer. Test different sales messages and track the results. Your best message - the one with the highest conversion ratio - becomes your control piece, that you can use as a benchmark for all future tests.

Direct email to your permission list is one of the best ways to make money. It can be in the form of product announcements, a newsletter, or advertising affiliate programs that you belong to. The best way to get visitors to sign up, is by offering a newsletter, special report, or something of perceived value in exchange. The less personal info you ask for, the more likely they are to sign up.

Affiliate programs can make money in two ways. People make a commission by selling your products. Or you can join other peoples affiliate programs and recommend their products.

If you run an affiliate program and people sign up to become resellers of your product, your affiliates get customers the same way you do. They too need to acquire customers through their search engine positioning, direct email to their opt-in lists, and from sub affiliates they sign up. Your role then, becomes one of coach and mentor to your affiliates, training them to become better affiliates, and more effective sales people.

How far you go on the internet, and a large portion of the revenue you'll generate, depends on how well you and your affiliates do, in all three internet revenue streams.

2) Learn All You Can

Educate yourself about basic html so you can edit and create web pages. Learn how to master - or at least become competent in - search engine optimization. Learn how to write effective sales letters and persuasive email offers. Learn what affiliate programs are, how to apply them, and start profiting from them right away.

Please invest in yourself. Dedicate yourself to constant and never ending self improvement. Personally, professionally and spiritually. Take positive steps towards your goals each day. And don't forget to reward yourself for each little success or victory

Search Engines Tips by Brent Winters

Profile

Brent Winters is the author of the monthly MarketPosition Newsletter and the President of FirstPlace Software, Inc.

FirstPlace Software develops WebPosition Gold, the first software product to report your rankings on the major search engines and to help you improve those rankings.

To subscribe to MarketPosition simply send an e-mail to subscribe@webposition.com.

Top Tips

Brent has produced an in-depth article "Top 5 Tips and Top 5 Mistakes of Search Engine Marketing ".

You can see the full article at his site, here we show the key points (summarised).

The Top 5 Search Engine Marketing MISTAKES

1) Buying into the myth that SE optimization no longer works

2) Bulk submitting is the path to riches

3) Meta tags will solve all my problems

4) Believing doorways don't work or will get me banned

5) Submitting before establishing any external links

The Top 5 Search Engine Marketing TIPS

1) Target the right keywords

2) Proper submission to the major directories is critical

3) Optimize your page content

Create pages that emulate the "statistics" of pages that already rank at or near the top of the search results. These statistics include:

a) Frequency of the keywords on the page

Tip: This does not mean more keywords are better. Instead, emulate the same number of keywords of top ranking pages as closely as possible.

b) Total words on the page

Tip: Mimic the approximate number of words of a top ranking page on your own page।

c) Weight of the keywords on the page। (i।e। frequency divided by the total words)  

Tip: Too high a weight is just as bad as too low a weight।

d) Area or location of the keywords on the page। (i.e, title, heading, etc।)  

Tip: A keyword is given more relevance by an engine when the keyword appears in the engine's "preferred" areas।

e) Prominence. Tip: Generally, the closer to the front of the area you can place the keyword, the better.

f) Proximity. Tip: The closer that the words of a phrase appear together, the better.

g) Off-page criteria. (i.e., link popularity, click through popularity, etc.) Tip: Even when you've done everything else right, don't forget the off-page factors!

4) Increase your link popularity

5) Track your progress

Copywriting Tips by Joe Vitale

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Joe "Mr Fire" Vitale (http://www.mrfire.com) may be the most powerful copywriter in the world and probably the world's first cyber-copywriter.

His reputation for writing powerful sales copy is well known:

* One of his sales letters achieved a record-breaking 91% response.

* One of his ads brought in 500 responses in only 30 days.

* A news release he wrote got a reporter to call only 7 minutes after it was released.

* Another news release he wrote made one man a millionaire

* One email he sent out brought in $50,000 in only 24 hours

* An e-class he taught made $23,000 in one month

Joe has written way too many books to list here, including the brand new "Spiritual Marketing"--- which people are calling a masterpiece--- and "The Seven Lost Secrets of Success"---which one company bought 19,500 copies of---and "CyberWriting"---one of the first books ever written on how to market online.

Joe has also written several popular e-books, including "Hypnotic Writing" and "Advanced Hypnotic Writing." He was also one of the first people to begin teaching seminars---entirely by email.

In addition, Joe is the author of the best-selling Nightingale-Conant audiotape program, "The Power of Outrageous Marketing!"

Top Tips

1) Have an information-rich website that caters to a specific audience.

2) Send out a regular newsletter with tips and info for that same audience

3) Have e-books and other e-products for that same audience to buy.

4) Create affiliate programs for others to profit by promoting you.

5) Follow the motto "Get out of your ego and into your customer's ego"

Copywriting Tips by David Garfinkel

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David Garfinkel (http://overnightmarketing.com) is an internationally recognized authority on Internet commerce and direct marketing.

* He helped a small consulting firm get $50,000 in new business in a week - with a single e-mail sales letter.

* One of his clients picked up $5 million a year in recurring annual revenues - from a three-page sales letter mailed to prospects 25 at a time.

He has helped thousands of businesses in 81 industries around the world. He is author of "Advertising Headlines That Make You Rich" (http://www.adheadlines.com) and co-author with Jay Conrad Levinson of "Guerrilla Marketing for the Imaging Industry"

Many top marketers confidentially ask for David's help to solve their own marketing problems. He has been published or quoted in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The New York Times News Service and Sales & Marketing Management magazine.

Top Tips

1) Offer unique value to a highly targeted market. One reason why many of the dot-coms failed is they were selling the same old stuff you could buy in stores, catalogues and on TV - rather than offering a unique value and going after a highly targeted market

2) Let video game designers and "graphic artistes" do their thing somewhere else - but not on your Web site! A 100% guaranteed recipe for failure is to have a fancy, flashy Web site that takes a long time to load and calls attention to how cute and clever its design is. Keep it simple and stay focused on your target result - closed sales.

3) Follow the basic rules of direct marketing, viz

* be focused on an outcome, and make everything on your site contribute directly to that. The outcome may be to close a sale, to get a response, or to collect a name. Your outcome needs to be tangible and explicitly measurable.

* be direct and enticing in the language you use. Write headlines with promises of benefits, and use every form of proof that what you say is true that you can.

* ask for action, and make it incredibly easy for people to take the action you ask for.

4) Give your online prospects the simple, real-world assurances that make them comfortable giving you their money without ever seeing you or your business in person. For example, your Web site should include a physical address (street, not post office box) and a telephone number (that has a live person on the other end).

5) Be patient and methodical. Keep track of performance - such as, which forms of lead generation get you the highest number of leads to your site, and, more importantly, which forms get you new customers for the lowest cost. Become a fanatic about testing, measuring, refining, improving.

Top Tips by Lesley Fountain

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Once upon a time I decided I had to get out of the medical transcription business I'd started 18 years earlier or die in the attempt. That's when I started falling for every biz-op scam known to man.

Three years and $35,000 later, I decided to stop trying to step into a ready-made "opportunity" and repeat what had worked so well the first time around: I would create my own opportunity and build it from the ground up.

Somewhere along the line I discovered the world of internet marketing, and up went my first web site. I had no idea what I was doing, and it bombed royally. The silver lining came in the form of other people (tons of them!) who had lost their life savings (or worse) to some of the same scummy-scammy "opportunities" that got me. That's when I first realized I'd been victimized, and I quickly developed a passion for exposing these scumbeezles and teaching others how NOT to follow in my footsteps.

I took the long way around, but I'd finally found my niche. I dubbed it, "Scams 101: How To Smell a Rat Before It Bites You In the Hiney."

Scams 101 grew into my thriving little Friends In Business community, and it was there that I sprouted MaaMaw, my alter- ego. I stayed busy hunting down scammers and making their lives hell, and MaaMaw tended to her "Kiddies" on the bulletin board.

A couple of years later, while trying to come up with a product of my own, I realized that I dearly love visiting all the biz & marketing forums, where I can soak up the wisdom of the masters without buying more and more "stuff" to hold my bookends up.

And so "The Boardwatch" was born.

In the dead of night, MaaMaw changes into her surfing duds and scours all the best forums for all the best messages, which she dutifully categorizes, links, and delivers to her subscribers twice a week.

The Boardwatch was a free ezine for six months before I realized I didn't want to resell my ad space every month for the rest of my life and decided to charge for subscriptions instead. A paid subscriber base is a painfully slow thing to grow, and several experts said it would never fly. I, on the other hand, am confident that it will, because The Boardwatch is totally unique. There's nothing else like it on the net. It really is my own little niche.

Top Tips

1) Don't worry about competition. Don't try to compete with the giants. Concentrate on growing your own garden.

2) Spill your guts. Be 100% honest. Don't stretch the truth even a little bit. Leave all the hype to someone else.

3) Be yourself. Write like you're talking to a friend. Read it over and over and don't quit until it sounds like it tumbled right out of your mouth (then carefully edit for spelling and good sense!).

4) Expect to build your internet business SLOWWWWLY. This isn't get-rich-quick. It probably won't be "get-rich" at all, so don't count on that and you won't be disappointed. Set realistic goals and celebrate each little milestone.

5) Give away good information, but don't give away too much. Learn when to put on the brakes, and don't be afraid to charge a fair price for your expertise and/or your time.

6) Focus. It's SO easy to get sidetracked on the net that focusing on one thing is almost impossible. Racing off in a completely different direction has never been easier, so if you're having trouble moving ahead, think about what you're doing, narrow your focus, and try again.

7) Don't give up... but don't be an idiot either. Know when to call it quits. If you've done everything you can to make a project work and it just isn't going anywhere, don't let "the dream" keep you from moving on. Eventually you'll find the perfect fit.

Top Tips by Jon Runs

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Joe runs several profitable Websites, and is co-founder of the remarkably successful Newbie Club which is recognized as probably the best Newbie-learning site ever to hit the Web.

Widely regarded as one of the Web's top Copywriters, he puts his success down to his 30 year career in Sales and Direct Marketing. He's also an international seminar speaker and author of over a dozen books, including Make Your Words Sell (MYWS!) with Ken Evoy. Joe and his long suffering wife live in the beautiful county of Yorkshire in the UK.

Top Tips

1) Don't waste your efforts trying to give your customers what you think they need. Give them what they want. You may think they need a manual showing them how to earn an extra $2000 a month. But what they want is a better car or a bigger house. So sell your product by evoking their emotions - not their logic.

2) Your Headline is THE most important part of your Sales Copy. It's absolutely vital to your success, so devote 80% of your copywriting writing time on it.

3) A weekly newsletter is by far the most productive way to get people returning to your site. By constantly keeping in touch with them they'll get to know and trust you. Only then will they begin buying from you.

4) 'The money is in the List'. So devote a substantial amount of your time and energy in building it. Most successful marketers have built up large 'opt-in' mailing lists, and use it to sell their products/services. Very few people will buy from a site on their first visit.

5) Write your own articles and offer them for publication by other ezine owners. You don't have to be an Ernest Hemingway, just ensure your content is informative and of value to the reader. Then place a 4-6 line intriguing signature file at the end to bring traffic to your site.

6) Long Copy outsells short Copy every time. Just look at the Sales Copy of the successful marketers. If someone is interested in what you have to offer, they want lots and lots of information and re-assurance before they'll buy from you.

7) Keep your Order form totally free from distractions. Too many links and hurdles will dampen your prospect's desire and lose you the sale. At The Newbie Club site, we even explain how to download for those making their first on-line purchase. So keep it simple and explain every little detail - they'll appreciate it. In fact some will demand it.

8) If you have your own product, the most successful way to sell it is through your own Affiliate program. And the successful Affiliate managers spend an enormous amount of time and effort supporting their Affiliates with excellent promotional tools and marketing ideas.

Top Tips by Jim Daniels

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Entrepreneur Jim Daniels started his online business with just $300. Six months later he was earning enough to quit his day job and his web income is now well into six figures a year.

His first publication "Internet E-mail! Beyond the Basics!" followed by "Insider Internet Marketing" went on to become hot sellers.

His newest creation, "Make A Living Online," is a complete package of "information, services and support" which shows others how to spin serious profits from the web, right from the comfort of their own homes.

Top Tips

1) Grow your OWN opt-in email list of potential prospects and contact them on a regular basis.

2) Always have ALL email inquiries answered with 48 hours. Any longer than that and prospects will be leery about doing business with you.

3) Offer related products and services at your website by joining established affiliate programs and "recommending" their products and services.

4) Spend at least 25% of your time in your business on marketing and advertising tasks. This is what will grow your business. One good top sponsorship ad per week, in an ezine that reaches your target audience, will grow your business rapidly.

Top Tips by Eva Rosenberg

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Who is Eva Rosenberg?

Zany, passionate, creative, original, and 'clued-in.'

Her three outstanding qualities?

* Action - The ability to see straight through to the heart of a problem and find the best solution.

* Brainstorming - Eva gets fired up and generates brilliant solutions and business ideas endlessly.

*Cheerleading - No one ever leaves her presence without being inspired and empowered.

One of the best moderators online, Eva Rosenberg is one of the stars of the Internet. In daily contact with her readers, Your Humble Guide of I-HelpDesk and WebReview (http://www.adventive.com/lists/ihelpdesk/), Eva has the passionate loyalty of her HelpMates. Why? She writes back. (And she quietly helps them out, behind the scenes.)

Eva used the tools, resources, ideas and guidance from her online friends to create TaxMama.com (http://taxmama.com) one of the top seven tax advice sites online, according to Inc Magazine.

You'll find Eva speaking to the top marketing audiences, (the only woman) at Jay Abraham's "Billion Dollar Internet Summit," Herby Olschewski's "AffiliateFORCE," Chambers of Commerce, tax practice workshops, nationally.

Her sultry voice and words of wisdom can be found in articles, books, e-books on radio, and audio collections of people like Audri Lanford, Wanda Loska, Boogie Jack, Shel Horowitz, Judy Vorfeld, Patrick D'Acre, …even the L.A. Times and BankRate.com regularly quote her as an expert.

Her current goal: to syndicate Ask TaxMama and the HelpDesk worldwide and to take them on the air.

Top Tips

A four word summary: Be Bold and Original

1) Don't believe it can't be done! If you can dream it up, dare to try. I got IRS to do things for me they'd never done for any private party. They put on a seminar AND marketed it for me. I got to pocket all the money. How? I asked. Period. Too often, you expect to be turned down. So YOU talk yourself out of the sale.

2) Go for the Gold! You're great at what you do? You are meticulous with your product or service? Dare to go after the largest customer possible. It takes little more time to close a $50,000 sale than it does to close a $1000 sale. But think of the repeat sales on the $50K orders!

3) You're not too small Who's Kevin Colleran? At 17, he was meeting with CEOs, running successful Internet businesses, bringing millions to his sites. A winner of various 'entrepreneur of the year' awards. He's just a kid. But he got through. How? Simply by initiating contacts. Some by e-mail, some by phone. Nothing happens if you don't take that first step. Contact someone.

4) Persistence Pays - Practice Patience Marketing online or off, you're always going to face rejection. You could take it personally, 'flame' the person, carry a grudge or become bitter and hostile. Or, simply take it in stride. As a Newbie, I was an avid reader of I-Sales the creation of John Audette, THE Internet marketing Guru. For over a year, I kept throwing new ideas to him until finally I suggested I-Help: That was my entrée to the world of moderation. John gave me ownership of the I-HelpDesk and WebReview. It's all mine now.

5) Be Old Fashioned - Pick up the Phone Relying on e-mail for all your communications? Sometimes, the best way to start a deal, or close it, is a phone call. That personal touch can make all the difference in just about any relationship. You can't believe the dimension it adds to your interactions.