What Santa Knows About Marketing

What Santa Knows About Marketing by Charlie Cook

WHAT SANTA KNOWS ABOUT MARKETING… What’s that ringing sound you hear at this time of year? It’s the sound of store registers ringing up the sales generated by Santa Claus. Just because he’s old, overweight, long haired and unshaven and dresses funny, don’t overlook his marketing success. Santa is a marketing expert and you can become one, too, if you follow his marketing methods. What’s that you say? You don’t believe in Santa Claus or you don’t celebrate Christmas? It’s true that Santa may be mostly mythical, but ask almost anybody who Santa is and what he does, and they’ll tell you. And there are millions of children who are convinced he’s real. So put your doubts about Santa aside for a moment and take a look at why he’s so good at marketing. A. Knows How to Be Unique Whether it is his trademark red suit, his unconventional transportation, his belly laugh or his occupation, Santa is different. He’s one of a kind, and makes quite an impression, one your unlikely to forget. B. Gets Free Publicity He’s a master at getting press. He’s mentioned in the media constantly during the winter holidays. Many songs, movies and books have been written about him. C. Is Customer Focused While everyone knows about Santa, his marketing isn’t focused on his credentials. He rarely talks about how long he’s been in business nor does he bore people with long discussions of his work processes. Instead, Santa makes a huge effort to learn what people want. It is estimated that each year over a million letters are sent to Santa. Santa supplements this effort by appearing in thousands of shopping malls around the country, listening to an average of nine thousand children per mall. He does all this just to learn what his customers want. D. Gives Something Away While most of the presents under the tree are from family, including the annual fruitcake from Aunt Bernice, typically at least one gift bears Santa’s name. How can you not love someone who gives so many presents away each year and whose only expectation is a couple of cookies and a glass of milk? E. Knows What He Is Selling Santa knows what he is selling, and its not just games and toys. Santa sells hope, whether it is for the latest video game, a warm sweater or happiness. Use these five ideas to market more like Santa all year long.

1. Clarify how you and your firm are unique, and what it is that separates you from the crowd. You don’t need to put on a red suit or slide down chimneys. Define yourself by the problems you solve, the expertise you provide and what your customers say about you.

2. Get media attention for your business, not just during holidays but all year round. Sometimes imaginative stunts like appearing in a sleigh help.

3. Ask your prospects what they want and then provide services and products that give them what they’ve asked for. The better you understand their concerns, the better services or products you’ll provide.

4. Give something away. It could be an article, a report, a book or a workshop. Use your free offer to prompt people to contact you and demonstrate your expertise. It works for Santa and it can work for you.

5. Know what you are selling. Your products and services bring in the money, but what do they stand for? What do they represent to your clients? Sell your prospects on achieving their objectives and dreams and deliver with tangible results they can appreciate. Whether or not you celebrate Christmas, market like Santa and you too, can have many happy clients this and every season, without having to squeeze down a single sooty chimney.

The author, Charlie Cook, helps small business owners and marketing professionals attract more clients, whether you are marketing in print, in person or online. Sign up for the Free Marketing eBook, ‘7 Steps to get more clients and grow your business’, full of practical marketing strategies you can use to increase profits

How To Increase Sales By 15 Times Or More

The accepted logic is that the only way to increase sales is to spend more on marketing and advertising. For the most part this is WRONG!

It’s true if you spend more on marketing and advertising you should bring in more sales but wouldn’t you like to spend less and make more instead? Using just a few key ideas you can increase sales by 15 times or more while cutting your per lead costs by thousands of dollars.

How can you make your sales soar and cut your marketing costs? Here’s the story of one savvy Vice President of Marketing and his amazing success.

A couple of years ago, Steve called me looking to adopt the lead generation system I use, which was of course the system that had prompted his call. He was frustrated and looking for ideas to increase sales. His company had a professional-looking website and was spending plenty on advertising, but was getting only a trickle of leads.

Steve explained that they were spending over $750 on pay-per-click ads, but their site was generating an average of only ten leads each week. This made their per lead cost $75 or more. At that rate they were just barely making money.

What are your per lead costs? Want to reduce them and increase sales at the same time?

As Vice President of Marketing, Steve wanted short and long term ways to cut costs and ramp up sales. To help them jump-start sales I started by having Steve modify his home page.

First, we added a marketing message that explained the benefit they provided to their clients. After some convincing, Steve agreed to put his company name on the side of their page, in smaller type. Then, we featured their marketing message at the top of the page instead.

The results were instantaneous. Lead flow increased by 300% and per lead costs started to drop.

Over the next two years, Steve and I worked together closely to implement a host of changes. Today, his company’s per lead costs are less than $20, and I know they can be reduced even further. But before I give you the steps we took to help them save over $250,000 and make 20 times that in the last two years, here’s another secret.

After the first success we had together the staff at Steve’s company were believers and healthy skeptics at the same time. Each time a change was made to the site, they checked their web logs to evaluate the number of visitors to leads generated and see if sales were increasing.

For example when we replaced the homepage copy they checked to see if more or less people were contacting them and to see which links site visitors were using. Then we worked to optimize the most highly visited pages on the site to increase lead generation.

The secret of Steve’s continued success. Measuring the effectiveness of each change and then using the past month’s results as a baseline to beat the next month.

Want to increase the conversion rate of your website to cut costs and make sales surge?
Do you have a brilliant marketing message that generates leads and sales at the top of your marketing material?

So, what were the most important changes Steve made to his site, which resulted in such an amazing increase in sales?

Some changes were small, some large. Here’s the top seven:

1. Replaced the company name at the top of the homepage with a 15-second marketing message.

2. Changed the page copy on the site from a focus on the company to a focus on the client and from a focus on selling to a focus on helping.

3. Used the location of links to direct visitors to key top-converting pages.

4. Developed and offered a helpful free guide.

5. Collected and added case studies and testimonials.

6. Replaced the sign-up form with a shortened new client focused version.

7. Measured the effectiveness of each change!

Want to cut your per-lead costs and increase your sales? You can! Whether you’re an author, entrepreneur or mid-sized company, you simply need to know how to put the marketing process in sequence and increase your conversion rates. Once you have these secrets, you’ll see your savings and your sales soar.

Want to make ten to 20 times more with your web site?  Explaining What You Do In 15 Seconds with Your Marketing Message by Charlie Cook

What’s the deal with eBay and email list growth?

Recently a representative from Aweber.com (my favorite bulk email
management service) contacted me and asked me what the deal was
with eBay’s email policy.

Specifically they wanted to know what users could and couldn’t do
as eBay sellers to grow a mailing list of customers and prospects.

If you’ve been reading my newsletter very long, and especially if
you’ve read my SilentSalesMachine.com book then you know that there
is tremendous potential for growing your customer mailing list and
eBay is a great way to go about doing it.

but…

There are rules.

I thought you might enjoy the response I sent back to aweber when
they asked me to give them my thoughts and insight:

Here are my thoughts on eBay’s email list growth potential:

Visit my blog for the full response…

http://www.jimcockrum.com/blog

Just yesterday I was conducting an interview for a course I’m
working on and it occurred to me that some people who are reading
this newsletter are actually being IRRESPONSIBLE.

WARNING: You might be insulted by what I’m about to say. If you get
your feelings hurt easily please stop reading now.

Here’s the bottom line.

We live in the greatest time in HUMAN HISTORY to be an entrepreneur.
You can literally have an INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS in a matter of
minutes. Audiences of tens of thousands can be accessed with a few
keystrokes. Information is the hottest selling product online.

Your race, age, education level, technical skills, gender etc. are
all entirely irrelevant.

What’s your excuse for not being part of the revolution? You have
to get REAL creative to come up with an excuse that I can’t shoot
full of holes in about 10 seconds.

There’s no sales pitch here.

If you don’t like me then go find another ‘expert’ to follow, but
for goodness sake DO SOMETHING with this opportunity.

To choose to do NOTHING is to be IRRESPONSIBLE with the gift that
is 2009.

A new year will be here before you know it…what foundation are
you launching from?

Turn off the TV, study a little, read a little, make a plan, and go
for it.

Need ideas? Need support? Need some hand holding?

That’s what my 3,500 member strong site

http://www.MySilentTeam.com

…is all about, but even if you don’t join that you must DO
SOMETHING to tap into the massive potential online.

BIG TIP:

Don’t go get a bunch of new “skills”. Go get a bunch of good ideas
and implement them with the help that is all around you.

People with ’skills’ trade dollars for hours working hard at making
the IDEA people rich.

Be an idea person!

Jim Cockrum
The #1 rated online entrepreneur according to IMreportCard.com

About the Author: Jim Cockrum has inspired tens of
thousands of people with his creative yet down to
earth style. He’s sold millions of dollars of products
and services online and has helped others start
successful eBay and online businesses since 2000. He
earns his living from the Internet and he works
full-time educating others how to run successful
Internet and eBay businesses.

This newsletter is read by over 100,000 subscribers.

Jim is a top rated Internet Marketing expert according
to the industry watchdog site: IMReportCard.com

He has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Mens Health
Magazine, Entrepreneur Magazine, eBay radio, Online
Marketing Monthly magazine and countless other publications.

Jim’s top sites include:
http://www.JimCockrum.com/blog – Jim’s blog
http://www.MySilentTeam.com – Membership site
http://www.OfflineBiz.com – Offline Marketing
http://www.SilentSalesMachine.com – Best selling book

Product Review: Insider Secrets to 15 Seconds Marketing

In “Insider Secrets to 15 Seconds Marketing” Charlie Cook shows you how to stop begging for business and discover a simple way to double, triple or even quadruple your leads and your sales.

He reveals how, using proven methods and techniques, you can dramatically change the effectiveness of your entire bricks and mortar and online business.

For example, you’ll uncover all the following:

*  The shocking truth that 9 out of 10 business owners never find out about – and it’s costing them fortune. Learn about the ultimate business investment and why simply reading chapter 1 will change the way you think about (and do) business forever.

* How to easily “position” your business ahead of the competition so that friends, family, and associates of your customers want to do business with you.

* How to save $100,000+ a year on marketing costs using this simple little trick…and it only requires a few hours of your time…

* How to write better ad copy than Bill Gates and the Microsoft Corporation.

And this is just the tip of the iceberg…

*  Smash your competition hands down by doing this one simple thing.

* A fast, simple, and fun way to explode your profits, make your customers as happy as clams, and laugh all the way to the bank. Amazing techniques – all detailed for you.

* How to read your customers’ minds. Doing this one thing could put thousands of extra dollars in your pocket.

* Add this one thing to your sales letter to instantly get people to read every word.

Charlie Cook shares with you all the small tweaks and twists that will lead your visitors and prospects in the right direction – making your cash register ring.

Things like:

* How to create award-winning headlines that can make your ads sizzle

* How to turn people’s own emotions into your personal sales tool

* Learning power words that sell. Charlie reveals his favorites – amazing words that make people buy again and again.

What makes Charlie’s course so useful is that…

1. The information he shares really works.
2. It’s based on real-life business experiences.
3. Charlie has made the information readily accessible and understandable.
4. He shows you how to apply his methods and techniques to your real-life situation.

This is the kind of information that can turn your business completely around… from being a failure to being a huge success.

When you study the “Insider Secrets to 15 Seconds Marketing” you’ll discover completely new ways to think about marketing – both online and offline. Instead of limitations you’ll now see a wealth of possibilities and opportunities.

As Charlie says: “I cut through the B.S. No filler, fluff, or boring stories. You get 100% practical ready-to-use tactics and strategies that work – no matter what kind of business you’re in.

“As long as you’re dealing with humans, this book will make you money. That’s because I’m going to teach you the psychology and application of marketing like no one has ever taught you before!”

Charlie Cook covers so much excellent information in this impressive course that it’s impossible for me cover all of it here.

But let me just say that I’m very impressed both by the quantity and the quality of what you get here. You’ll really see a difference in your online and offline sales if you apply this information to your business.

The “Insider Secrets to 15 Seconds Marketing” is NOT for the faint of heart. You have to be willing to hear the plain truth and apply it to your business. Charlie Cook is hard-hitting, he says thinks like they are and doesn’t pull any punches.
Some people might even find him a bit too aggressive. But I think that for people who are serious, this is just the kind of information that they need in order to succeed.

How To Get Rich ONE Site At A Time!

Are you fickle? (Do you even know what “fickle” is?) According to Merriam-Webster Online, “fickle” is defined as “given to erratic changeableness.” And when it comes to website success… If you’re fickle, you’re in a pickle! One of the biggest problems that crops up with my clients is that they always to seem to be too focused on the *NEXT* “big thing”…long before they’ve perfected the science of their *CURRENT* big thing — their existing website. As an entrepreneur, you should always be on the lookout for the next new ideas, the next challenges, the next possibility for success…but don’t be fickle! Clients say to me, “Dan, what am I doing wrong? I’ve got 8 or 9 websites up right now and I am starting 3 more this month. But I don’t know why am I not making much money with any ONE of them.” Wake up and smell the coffee, you Fickle Fiend! You’re working on TOO MANY WEBSITES! I’ve seen this so often it hurts…instead of putting effort into making their existing website more compelling, more effective, and more profitable, Fickle Folks are way too focused on that elusive “next big thing”… And when their first website doesn’t deliver on the promise, they don’t ask “Why?”… They don’t try to fix what may be broken… They just change their focus and concentrate on building another website that they’re certain is going to be “the next big thing.” And when that doesn’t work…probably for the same reasons that Site #1 didn’t make any money…they’ll start another new site and another and another in an endless cycle of “no return on too much investment.” If that’s not the fast track to bankrupt-and-out-of-business, I don’t know what is! As you know, I am a big believer in multiple streams of income. So, I am not saying you should be have multiple websites. BUT…make sure your existing website is as strong, solid, and successful as you can make it before trying to grab the gold ring and the next “big thing.” Don’t take the “fickle” path to the Poor House. Stay focused on promoting just one website …and promoting it effectively! Put on blinders to other distractions and keep your eye on the prize: making that ONE website as profitable as possible.

Dan Lok  A former college dropout, Dan Lok transformed himself from a grocery bagger in a local supermarket to a multi-millionaire. Today, Dan is one of the most sought-after business mentors on the Web, as well as a best-selling author. His reputation includes his title as the World’s #1 Website Conversion Expert. To find out what Dan is up to now, visit him at: www.WebsiteConversionExpert.com

How to Find Wholesale Sources for your Product

Any seller serious about creating a long-lasting profitable business will realize the importance of finding a good wholesale source.

Unfortunately, it isn’t the super-quick task most people would like it to be. Wholesalers aren’t exactly squabbling over sellers; indeed, most don’t make any effort at all to attract small to medium size businesses. Why? Because they are doing just fine selling to large retail stores with multi-million dollar orders.

So how does anyone find a good wholesaler then? The key is to do a lot of research. Begin with keyword searches in search engines using ‘wholesale’ in front of or after the name of the product you are looking for. Remember that there is usually more than one way of referring to a product. While you may be searching for ‘throws’, the wholesaler may be listing them as ‘blankets’, ‘covers’, and ‘home decor blankets’. Or they may even refer to them by the name of the fabric they are made out of.

Ebay can provide some fabulous wholesale buys also. In fact, there is an entire category dedicated solely to wholesale lots! Just search for the product you are looking for with the keyword ‘wholesale’ or ‘lot’ in the search string.

If you still can’t find what you are looking for, then try an online wholesale directory. Directories take a lot of the leg work out of finding suppliers. Good directories will thoroughly research all the contacts they recommend, removing the risk that you’ll end up dealing with a fraudster. While directories don’t automatically point you to the best supplier with the lowest prices for your item, it will give you a starting point.

Another way of finding wholesale suppliers is by contacting the manufacturer directly for the product you are interested in selling and asking them who their wholesale distributors are. This is a slightly scary option (particularly if the manufacturer is in a non-English speaking country!), but it can be extremely beneficial in the long term.

If you live in a big city, tradeshows are possibly one of the best ways to make wholesale contacts. A trade show is where related industries gather to showcase their products to potential buyers. Trade shows are not open to the general public, only to other businesses. Not only can you sample the quality of the product at a trade show, you can also talk directly to the manufacturer or product creator! Just make sure you come prepared and don’t waste their time with questions you could have found out by reading the brochure!

Finally, it’s important to realize that most wholesalers adjust the price per unit according to the order of the quantity. For example, throws might be $10/unit for an order of 15-30, $9/unit for 30-50, and so on. This means that as a small business, you might not be able to get the prices you were hoping for at first. It also explains why eBay powersellers are sometimes able to retail items for prices below your wholesale price. Once again, this emphasizes the importance of establishing a niche where there is less competition.

About the Author: SaleHoo is one of the fastest growing product sourcing portals on the internet. It contains a database of drop ship, wholesale, closeout and manufacturing suppliers offering thousands of product suppliers to consumers! Located at http://www.salehoo.com, visitors are allowed to sign up for unlimited and lifetime access to the completely searchable database of products and suppliers. The database is regularly updated, ensuring that the latest retail products are always available for purchase and SaleHoo carries the BBB Reliability Seal!

Affiliate Marketing: Best Home Based Internet Business

Affiliate marketing is nothing more than online referral.Most of the major-named money making programs online revolve around affiliate marketing in some way or form. For those of you who do not understand what affiliate marketing is, let me briefly explain.

When you place a link to Amazon.com somewhere in the world wide web and someone clicks on your link to go to Amazon.com and ultimately purchases something, Amazon will give you a percentage of the sales made (in this example, Amazon usually gives someone between 3%-5% of the sales).

Simple! They design a special web address (link), which has your affiliate details embedded in the URL. This works well for both parties. Amazon wins a customer and you receive referral commission in exchange. But how does Amazon know that you made the referral?

Simple, huh? Many programs make it sound as simple as filling out a few Google Adwords advertisements. It is really not that simple, but making money this way is still very achievable! This is how I make a majority of my money. Some affiliate programs have no cookies. Most are about a month. And some last for a year or even longer! So, all you have to do is get people to click your links that ultimately result in a purchase on the landing page website.

This is why I originally got into this business and why I continue to do these ventures today. So what makes affiliate marketing so great? Simple! You have no products, little customer interaction and require minimal attention once you get things going.Plus, no product means no initial overhead product costs. Any money that is usually spent on affiliate marketing comes from PPCs (Pay-Per-Clicks, like Google Adwords or Yahoo Overture).

What are the drawbacks? Well, one (which may actually be a benefit) is lack of control over HOW the product you are promoting is being sold. At the beginning, that will run you between $5-$10 per day. As sales increase, bidding increases and so do these costs (and your earnings!). As an affiliate marketer, you are relying on the product to make the final sale, which is out of your control.

This can be good, though. Many people (like me) do not have a degree in marketing nor the time to learn it. Most products you promote probably have more qualified people than you or I to actually sell the final product. Keep that in your mind when choosing products: Professional looking websites are important. Products that are popular and have a lot of sales are excellent choices, too. As your affiliate marketing website continues to grow, so do you as a marketer.

You will try to find ways to track your business and how people are buying. Again, with affiliate marketing, once you send someone to a website that you are promoting, you lose all trackability of that visitor. Finally, the one question that comes up rather often is: “Isn’t affiliate marketing too competitive?” The answer is both yes and no.

Secondly, the world wide web is a VERY BIG PLACE! You really only need to be able to reach an extremely small fraction of the internet public to be VERY successful. Yes, affiliate marketing is competitive, no doubt about that. Is it TOO competitive? First of all, I am here and I make money in some of the most competitive markets on the internet (and I’ve been doing this for only about a year).

Where to begin? I always recommend that anyone who wants to do affiliate marketing should get them-self a good eBook or program on how to learn the fundamentals. Finally, being successful is about being better than everyone else. If you are persistent, provide good content, look moderately professional and work on building traffic to your website, any market can be tapped, no matter how competitive it is.

revolve around affiliate marketing in some way or form. For those of you who do not understand what affiliate marketing is, let me briefly explain.

When you place a link to Amazon.com somewhere in the world wide web and someone clicks on your link to go to Amazon.com and ultimately purchases something, Amazon will give you a percentage of the sales made (in this example, Amazon usually gives someone between 3%-5% of the sales).

Simple! They design a special web address (link), which has your affiliate details embedded in the URL. This works well for both parties. Amazon wins a customer and you receive referral commission in exchange. But how does Amazon know that you made the referral?

Simple, huh? Many programs make it sound as simple as filling out a few Google Adwords advertisements. It is really not that simple, but making money this way is still very achievable! This is how I make a majority of my money. Some affiliate programs have no cookies. Most are about a month. And some last for a year or even longer! So, all you have to do is get people to click your links that ultimately result in a purchase on the landing page website.

This is why I originally got into this business and why I continue to do these ventures today. So what makes affiliate marketing so great? Simple! You have no products, little customer interaction and require minimal attention once you get things going.Plus, no product means no initial overhead product costs. Any money that is usually spent on affiliate marketing comes from PPCs (Pay-Per-Clicks, like Google Adwords or Yahoo Overture).

What are the drawbacks? Well, one (which may actually be a benefit) is lack of control over HOW the product you are promoting is being sold. At the beginning, that will run you between $5-$10 per day. As sales increase, bidding increases and so do these costs (and your earnings!). As an affiliate marketer, you are relying on the product to make the final sale, which is out of your control.

This can be good, though. Many people (like me) do not have a degree in marketing nor the time to learn it. Most products you promote probably have more qualified people than you or I to actually sell the final product. Keep that in your mind when choosing products: Professional looking websites are important. Products that are popular and have a lot of sales are excellent choices, too. As your affiliate marketing website continues to grow, so do you as a marketer.

You will try to find ways to track your business and how people are buying. Again, with affiliate marketing, once you send someone to a website that you are promoting, you lose all trackability of that visitor. Finally, the one question that comes up rather often is: “Isn’t affiliate marketing too competitive?” The answer is both yes and no.

Secondly, the world wide web is a VERY BIG PLACE! You really only need to be able to reach an extremely small fraction of the internet public to be VERY successful. Yes, affiliate marketing is competitive, no doubt about that. Is it TOO competitive? First of all, I am here and I make money in some of the most competitive markets on the internet (and I’ve been doing this for only about a year).

Where to begin? I always recommend that anyone who wants to do affiliate marketing should get them-self a good eBook or program on how to learn the fundamentals. Finally, being successful is about being better than everyone else. If you are persistent, provide good content, look moderately professional and work on building traffic to your website, any market can be tapped, no matter how competitive it is.

How To Make $500,000 In 1 Year, JUST Using AdSense!

Get over the fact that John Reese is a genius. He’s not a genius in the sense that he has some super human IQ… He’s a genius because he knows what works and the key to his success is that he focuses his efforts on the most important pieces of the puzzle. That’s good news for us. This means that WE can do it to!

The most profitable pieces.

It’s not about experience or knowledge or resources or contacts. You don’t need to have a million bucks to make $10,000 a month on the Internet.

What you do need, though, is one simple thing: Focus.

You must focus on the most important step in any money-making idea.

An example will help explain this point better.

Suppose you have a plan to create an info product (perhaps inspired by my recent series of articles on the subject) and sell it online. Now what are the steps involved in such a project?

• Research markets to find a profitable niche (strong demand, customers willing to pay good money)

• Write the book

• Create your sales pitch that effectively converts ‘prospects’ into raving customers.

• Create an automated sales process

• Drive traffic to your website

Now what is the most important step in this process? It’s not writing the book. It’s not even creating an automated sales process.

Surprise surprise, it’s not even the research.

The most important step (ok, two steps) is to drive traffic to your website and to convert that traffic.

That’s the part of the process you should be focusing on. And yet most people when they get into the info product business tend to focus on issues that are not important, such as:

• What do I write about?

• How do I write it?

• How do I sell it?

This is not important. Advice on this is available on the Internet for free in all the major forums, and better yet, you can hire someone to do this for you quite cheaply (even if the book can cost you a lot, you can circumvent that cost in many different ways).

Now when you think about what John Reese did (convert an experimental side-business into over $500,000 in 12 months), what do you think he was focusing on?

• Writing the content and
• Creating the perfect design?

Or

• Optimizing the website for maximum ad relevance and clicks and
• Driving traffic to his sites?

If you said option number 2, give yourself a pat on the back. You’ve finally cracked the code to making money online.

I cannot emphasize this enough – the 80/20 principle we hear so much about in economics and business is bandied about for a very good reason. 80 percent of your results will be achieved by concentrating on the most important 20 percent of the process.

The rest? You can’t ignore it, so either give it a lower priority or hire someone to do it for you.

If you’ve seen the video, you’ve already heard John explain the whole process. Here are the main points:

• Do market research to find a profitable topic

• Setup your website (domain name, hosting, design)

• Put content on your website (you can write this yourself, hire someone to write it for you, or buy private label rights to pre-written articles, reports and even books)

• Optimize your website for AdSense (ad placement, color coordination, ad tracking)

• Drive traffic to your website

And then repeat this for your next website. And the next. And the next… (And so on).

John wasn’t happy with just one website bringing him a couple of hundred dollars every month. He knew exactly what he needed to do in order to automate the time-consuming process of getting a website up and running. He also knew that the secret to VRE success was to build many different websites, all in small, profitable and not-so-competitive niches.

The lessons to take away from all this are:

• Learn how to “put together” websites as fast as possible.

• Remember that the real “profits” are in creating multiple niche VRE sites – and not just one big “love of your life” type of website.

Let’s recap the process behind creating a VRE site:

• Do market research

• Setup your website

• Put content on your website

• Optimize your website for AdSense

• Drive traffic to your website

Now this is the exact same process that you can use to build dozens of VRE websites. And I would strongly urge you to play the numbers game here – having just one website will not earn you a lot of money. In fact, once you’ve invested enough time in one website to start generating traffic towards it, you are free to go and build a new website.

And then another one. And another one. Keep building these sites until you have a consistently increasing income from AdSense.

It is hard work to earn a million dollars (or even a thousand dollars) per month from one website alone. On the other hand, if you have 20 websites earning you $100 a month, that’s $2000/month in your pocket already. And with small improvements to each of those sites, you could easily double or triple your income from them.

This way, instead of putting all your eggs into one basket (or one website), you can diversify your income and earn money from multiple sources.

So how do you go about doing this?

Find A Profitable Topic

This one is easy if you know where to look. John Reese provides VRE ideas in his newsletter.

The first option is to focus on what you would call the “end of the buying cycle”. This refers to that part of the information gathering phase where people are making or are about to make their buying decisions. For example, you may look for information on learning golf for six months, but when it comes to crunch time and you want to buy those golf clubs, what are you going to be searching for? “How to learn golf” or “golf clubs”?

More importantly, advertisers know this. That’s why you would see much higher bids for search terms that are related to the end of the buying cycle. Focus on that end, and you will find some kiler product ideas.

The second option is to focus on something expensive. The theory is that any product or service that costs a lot will generally have advertisers that are willing to pay more money. That means higher AdWords bid amounts, and in turn, better earnings per click for you on your AdSense websites.

The third option is to find out what other people are doing to make money, and then copy that (but do it in a more focused or slightly differentiated manner so that you don’t end up having to fight for traffic with your competition all the time). One of the best resources for such knowledge are websites that sell AdSense keyword lists. While the topics are generally too broad for a small website to be successful in, you can easily use those ideas to create your own super-focused lists on subtopics using a keyword research tool. I can guarantee you won’t find a better Keyword Research tool than the one we’ve created recently…

And why not combine two steps into one, and look towards private label content for topic ideas? More on this later.

Setup The Site

You can get fairly cheap and effective hosting (with domains) from places like Siteground and Bluehost.

Your site doesn’t have to win design awards. Its main purpose is to present your content quickly to your readers, so that they get what they are looking for. No heavy graphics or top-heavy banners required – just a simple, classy design that puts the most important component of your website (content mixed with ads) in front of your visitors.

You can also secure free website templates from places like OSWD. There are also a lot of template websites on the internet from where you can get free templates or paid templates for less than $30.

If you’re working on a blog, all this becomes ridiculously easy – WordPress has a very large and vibrant online community and you can easily find lots of free themes. If you go down this road, your site ‘design’ costs can effectively be zero.

As far as site graphics are concerned, it all depends on your skills and resources. If you are not good at graphic design and you cannot afford to buy stock graphics / hire a graphic designer, then you can also skip the graphics for now and go with plain text. The key is to get your site up and going as fast as possible, because unless you get to the good part (driving traffic to your sites), how will you ever make any money?

Upload Content

You’ve got two options here – you can write the content yourself or get it from somewhere else. Do you want to run the hassle of writing 200 pages yourself? At 4 pages of 500 words each a day, it will take you 50 days (assuming you can write 4 pages in 2 hours).

On the other hand, you could hire someone to write the content for you. But even that approach has problems – you have to wait for your writers, and good content can sometimes cost quite a lot.

The solution to this problem is private label rights content. These are limited sets of themed pre-written high quality articles that you can purchase and use for your websites. In fact, with the best deals you also get themed site templates, headers, site graphics and even auto responder courses – stuff that makes the ‘content’ part of your business truly ‘Plug-n-Play’.

Here are a few things to consider when you are purchasing private label rights content:

• See how many articles are provided for each niche – the more the better. Most PLR membership sites I’ve seen give you 30-40 articles per topic, whereas the better sites can go as high as 50-60 articles.

• Do they provide free samples of the articles? You should be able to see what you’re buying. Same thing goes for any other offerings such as templates or graphics.

• Do they give you a list of a set of topics they provide articles on? This is probably one of the most important things for me, because not only can these topics give you pretty good ideas, they also tell you how good these people are at finding profitable niches.

  Make sure to do your own research on the listed topics (using a tool like Keyword Elite) to find out how much advertisers are paying for them.

• Who writes the articles? Professional freelance writers or just some chump pulled off RentACoder to write articles at $2 a pop? If it’s not specifically mentioned (and especially if you can’t see sample articles to judge quality for yourself), I would usually think that the articles are not well-written.

• Who’s behind the site? Does this person have a track record for Internet success? Are they working on their own VRE sites?

• Do they offer anything else in the site? Is it just articles or do they offer help material to use those articles (something like the AdSense Supremacy bonus that was given to the first batch of Keyword Elite customers), or a software to rewrite the articles?

  Are they giving you tools to get the job done, or are they just offering articles?

• How many people will have membership? PLR membership sites cannot be a free-for-all, otherwise the usefulness of the niche articles will be lost. The lower the cap, the better.

One of the best resources on private label rights that I have found is Private Label Monthly. Make sure you check them out.

Optimize Your Site for AdSense

Get a hold of Joel Comm’s AdSense Secrets and read it cover to cover. Available for $97 (as I write this) and updated recently with his latest tactics and strategies), you will learn most of what you need to know about AdSense optimization from this book.

If you cannot afford the book (or true to the “speed” spirit, you don’t have the time), do this instead:

Head over to ProBlogger and read everything Darren Rowse has to say about AdSense. This shouldn’t take you more than one evening (especially if you already have an idea of what AdSense is and can skip the kid stuff).

Next, for added benefit, go to Performancing and search their archives for AdSense optimization tips. Once again, very good information and resources

Other websites on this topic are JenSense and GrayWolf, as well as the top SEO forums such as the WebmasterWorld and SearchEngineWatch Forums.

When it comes to AdSense optimization, you simply have to make sure that you get this part right. That doesn’t mean that you spend all your days tweaking your ads – but it does mean that you have to go to the best in the business (the money-making business, that is).

A few basic guidelines for AdSense optimization:

• Use colors that blend in with the colors of your website/blog theme.

• Put ads inside your content (as opposed to away from your page’s main text, off in the sidebar or something).

• Use rectangles instead of large sidebars and leaderboards. If you want to know why, read up on the websites and the book I mentioned above. Otherwise, just trust me .

• Write focused articles around one or two keywords.

• Choose a profitable topic (quick tip: use Keyword Elite to help you pick out the really profitable, low-competition niches for your VRE sites).

• Track everything – get AdSense Gold or some similar script that helps you track all your AdSense clicks. This tracking will help you discover which keywords generate the best clicks, as well as detailed information on which formats work best.
  

(I don’t have enough space to go into why ad tracking is so important, but almost everyone I know who is making serious AdSense money swears by their tracking scripts. They are indispensable to your AdSense success.)

For a quick example of these tips scroll to the top of this page and see how I’ve place my AdSense box – and that can be improved. Can you see how?

And if there was just one tip I could give to you on AdSense, it would be to:

• Copy the masters.

• You can do a lot worse than following what the AdSense experts are doing with their websites.

Drive Traffic to your website

This is what you should be spending most of your time on. Traffic will be the lifeblood of your VRE empire.

Two most important things to watch in your traffic stats:

• Search engine referrals and

• Page views

Search engine traffic is the best kind of traffic for AdSense income. These are people are come to your website and are in the “information-gathering” mode (whether it is information on where to buy a Proform treadmill or how to set up a shopping cart on their website).

These people are far more likely to click on your ads than your regular readers. Regular readers of any website (that shows adverts) tend to suffer from ad-blindness – their minds subconsciously begin to filter out any visual information they don’t need, and almost inevitably ads get blocked out.

(It’s kind of the same way how we deal with advertising in today’s world – what happens to us when there’s way too much information? Our minds automatically help us focus on what’s important, and the rest fades away).

You don’t want your AdSense to fade away in the minds of your visitors. That is why it is crucial that you build your search engine rankings.

This is the main reason why you use “low-competition” niches – so that it is easier to get ranked for your target keywords.

If you’re a regular reader of this newsletter you wouldn’t need much more advice on building traffic (although I’m planning on doing a mini-series of articles on that topic in the near future), but if in doubt you can always go through the newsletter archives (you get a list of past lessons in every “newsletter alert” mail you get from me).

(If this is the first time you are reading one of my lessons, though, I would strongly suggest that you sign up for my free SEO course through this link)

You can use your search engine referrals to tell you what keywords are bringing in the most traffic, and further optimize your website for that.

Another thing to watch out for is page views. Each page view (in other words, each time someone loads one of your website’s pages) represents an opportunity for a click on your AdSense ads. As such, you have to ensure that your website encourages page views. This will keep search engine visitors on your website for a longer period of time, and it will definitely lead to more clicks.

I’m repeating this again because I really want you guys to get this point loud and clear – you have to make sure that you focus maximum attention to those steps in the process that make you the most money. Find out what works, find out what is most important about that process and then implement the hell out of it.

The good thing is, I’ve already given you the process (‘what works’) and a strategy for focusing on the most important steps (the ones that will end up making you money). The only thing left, the missing ingredient, is you.

Carpe Diem. Take action, now.

All the best,

Brad Callen
Professional SEO
http://www.seoelite.com

The Rebel Millionaire Review

Are you sick and tired of theses Internet Scams claiming to make you a millionaire over night?

Lets be honest it’s just not going to happen like that.

Who are they kidding, if it was that easy than everyone in the world would be a millionaire?

I’ve spent a lot of my own time, money and energy trying to find a way to make a legitimate living on the internet.

There are so many books, products and programs out there that promise you everything but deliver you very little. They all claim that you can “make money over night” with very little effort.

What I’ve come to find out is that nothing comes with “very little effort”. Money isn’t going to just come to you. You have to go and get it.

If you are willing to work hard and actually put in some hours on your computer then the
“The Rebel Millionaire” is what you’ve been looking for.

This course contains some of the most powerful direct marketing secrets that I have ever seen revealed!

I was amazed that the author would let go of these secrets for the price he was.

Don’t get me wrong the price is a little steep for the average person but I promise you it’s worth every penny. I personally think he is crazy for doing it but I’m grateful at the same time.

The marketing secrets he shares in this course are the same ones that he utilized in building his own multi-million dollar direct marketing empire.

He covers everything from creating a product that “will sell”, finding businesses to outsource various aspects of your business that will save you time and money, writing powerful ad copy, how to properly test a product idea and know if it will make money before you even begin selling it, and so much more.

I study the course entirely cover to cover twice and have learned something new and more powerful each time. My copy is now covered in yellow stickies and highlighter marks. There is just so much astounding information in this book that it doesn’t matter how experienced a direct marketer you are. You will take away something that will improve your business in some way after reading this manual.

I highly recommend buying it, you won’t regret the decision. Will it make you a millionaire?

Only time will tell but I am confident that you will increase your sales and profits with any product or service after reading this manual.

Any business requires dedication and work, even an internet business. If you are serious about making money online, then check out the link.

This is definitely a train you want to get on before everyone else does.

Why People Fail at Adwords

I wanted to let you in on an article I have just completed – I call
it, “the most underrated reasons that people fail at Adwords”. This
certainly is not a conclusive list, but time and time again I find
people make these mistakes, and I don’t want you doing the same.

Some of you might already be “certified Adwords pros”, and some
might be complete newbies. In any event, the principles apply all
the same, and I am sure you will get something from this. Writing
it made me realize that I was guilty on several fronts. Anyway,
enjoy…

Using Google’s Adwords as a means to promote your Web site and
products is a great way to become visible to Google quickly. Many
find it a little too complicated and too costly, so they may be
prone to stop a little too quickly.

It is possible that many of these had dreams of making thousands of
dollars overnight, and just gave up too fast – but it was a little
too soon. By taking a little more time, and with a more realistic
attitude, you too can make a profit by using this great advertising
program. Here are some tips to further enhance your Adwords
campaigns, things that you should be doing as part of a long term
mindset, but you probably aren’t.

In fact, I would wager one of affiliate checks on the fact that you
are guilty of at least one of these mistakes.

1.  SEO Optimization

The only reason that anything at all needs to be said about this
here is because many who run Adwords campaigns do little to
optimize their Web pages because they think it does not matter if
you are using Adwords. It seems to me that anyone who thinks that
is missing the point. Are you not using Adwords to make money? By
using SEO techniques on your Web page, you can definitely get more
traffic through other means, and, it seems to me that the real game
is all about targeted traffic and how much you can get. Also, by
using SEO methods on your Web pages, you also can get more traffic
- for free.

Anyone using Adwords as a medium needs to invest a little time each
day building their organic rankings at the same time. You will
thank me down the line.

2.  Selectively Limit Your Keywords

If you have been using Adwords for some time now, then you know
that by using too broad of a search term money gets wasted real
quick. These terms can and should be narrowed down to enable you to
eliminate non-productive clicks that really will not produce sales.
This can be done two ways:

-       By using exact match search terms

Eliminating some of the broad search keywords allows you to get a
higher ROI (Return Of Investment) and a more focused audience. By
using more broad terms you are competing with those who can afford
the millions for their advertising campaigns – and it will drain
your bank account before you will ever drain theirs. Unless you
have a very good reason to advertise on the broadest of keywords
(and proof of conversions is the only one that springs to mind),
don’t do it. Sure, it will reduce your traffic, but should also
increase your click-throughs which means lower cost per click, and
better return on investment.

-       By using negative search terms

This is where you can eliminate those unwanted keyword searches
that may overlap your own. For instance, if you sell desktop
calculators, then you may want to eliminate searches looking for
“calorie calculators,” “retirement calculators,” “currency
calculators,” “mileage calculators,” etc. This would reduce a more
general (and non-interested) traffic flow, but will definitely give
you a more targeted traffic. A great way to find these negative
keywords is to use Overture’s suggestion tool (the most obvious
negative keyword is “free” – unless you have some reason, you don’t
want people searching for freebies clicking on your ads and costing
you money).

3.  Fine Tune Your Ads And Web Pages

Many ads used on Adwords – to put it as plain as possible – do not
make me want to see what they offer. Your ads need to grab the
attention of those that read them. If it does not grab your
attention – need any more be said? Then, when they get to your Web
page, what will your potential customers see? Again, does it grab
their attention? It should at least be pleasant to look at. Be
willing to change your ad and try new wording. If one ad does not
work after a day or two, change it by either modifying a word or
two, displaying a different URL, capitalizing some words, etc. If
you have trouble making good headlines on your own, there are free
headline generators online. The two biggest hurdles with Adwords
are 1) will they click on your ad 2) will they stay for more than a
few seconds.

If they click and then leave, you in a far worse position than a
webmaster who can keep the visitors, but cant get the clicks.
Remember that those clicks are costing you, and if you aren’t
seeing conversions look at the top of your web page, “above the
fold”. Chances are, you aren’t keeping them there long enough:
first culprit – your headline and lead paragraph.

4.  Use Tracking Codes

When you begin to see profits from a Web page, it is then time to
refine it so that even more customers buy. Google supplies an
Adwords tracking code that will enable you to see all you need to
know about the financial aspects of your campaign. With each change
of your ad that you make, you can measure just how profitable it
is, and can then improve it even more.

If you are an affiliate, ask your merchant to add your conversion
code to your web page. And stay alert for any merchant who appears
to fall down when it comes to these underrated basics of Adwords.
Click through rates are important – but they are part of a bigger
picture. Don’t forget that. I hope you enjoyed the article. Writing it certainly reminded me
of a few things. Adwords Miracle

Next time I will discuss some specific profit boosting tricks -
tricks I had to learn on my own, not from some big name out there.