Difference between Pro and Wannabe’s
My brother Bhanu is an artist, he likes to paint and create new things on canvas. Just recently I got into discussion about selling his creations. There’s a hesitation in him which is not helping his sell more of his stuff and work.
This discussion was all about Pro’s and Wannabe. I was telling him pro takes charge in his life and every step of the way. Wannabe’s sits there and wait for stuff to happen.
Pro is serious about his work and its value. Wannabe is unsure about it.
Pro is dedicated about it 7 days a week, 30 days a month and 365 days a year. Wannabe is a weekend warrior.
My thought was, “If you love your stuff, you should not hesitate to sell. If you are selling, do not hesitate to name your price. It’s your work, create the value for it by yourself”.
And this is exactly the biggest difference in most beginner internet marketers.
They do not take the business of building business online seriously.
They do not think in terms of Profit and Loss in monetary value.
They are buying stuff, expecting things to happen.
So what you can do things differently to make things happen in your favor?
1. Create a Product in your market (I don’t care if you create 10 page ebook, Just do it. On other note I just finished 16 page ebook in 3 hrs)
2. Set advertisements (PPC/PPV/CPA) to bring immediate traffic to your website sales pages.
3. Test your sales letter and find out ways to improve conversion.
Next Steps can be optional.
4. Create content to promote your content.
5. Create more ways to get traffic (blog comments, article marketing, forum comments, SEO, affiliate system etc).
6. Make a goal to at least sell 1% conversion of your sales letter.
If you just do the first 3, you’ll be better than 95% of other marketers. If you do the next 3 steps, you’ll be rarer less than 1% who acts and gets results.
I dare you to try it and see if it doesn’t change your life in next 30 days.
Un-complicate things
While surfing around today, I came across a very interesting post by Jimmy D brown titled, “3 Keys To Kick-Start Your Biz In 24 Hours”. Now, now, I know, it’s very salesy title, but the idea or the knowledge he shared is Important here. It wouldn’t do any good to you if you miss the essence of the post because of salesy title.
The essence of the article was to “Un-complicate things”. Like he said, most internet marketers are chasing after the new shiny tool like dog chases its tail.
Like I always talk about “Mastering one way of doing things before you move on”. Often Doing it One way produces far better than spreading out in many different fields. Again, Do not complicate things.
People often equate simplicity = Not advanced enough = Bah, I am an expert, this thing is below me.
For anyone who ever practiced martial arts knows, “Basics properly executed often wins over advance technique”. In MMA UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship), Royce Gracie+’s (Elite Fighter) most victories came from simple arm bar.
1. Streamline
2. Systemize
3. Stick
Are the simple formula Jimmy Uses in his life and marketing.
I also use simple formula to explain my philosophy.
Product + Targeted traffic + conversion = $$$.
Then I talk about 1 way of doing things. 1 way to create product, 1 way to increase traffic, 1 way to improve conversion. It starts with just 1 way.
And folks, that’s how you do things.
Varun Pratap
Aim for that peak like mad
Shadow Such people and Cheer Them On.
2X, 3X Clickthroughs on your email newsletter
I received few emails after I posted my clickthroughs percentage on email newsletter. Of course my readers are curious about how they can also increase CTR on email newsletters.
Internet marketers talk about giving Content as a strategy in newsletters, which I believe is as strong as a house of cards, full of air (hot air). I noticed couple of glaringly obvious problems with this strategy.
1. Everyone and his dog is giving away content – How the hell will you differentiate yours? If it wasn’t the only pain in the neck, then you have to worry about writing content on regular basis.
2. How much of content is enough? Can you tell how much is enough and when it’s time to shift from telling to selling?
3. Perception of content – If I am publishing something and an Already expert marketer publishes the same content. The perception of his content is going to be higher than mine, even if his ideas are inferior to mine.
If I play the games by same rules, I don’t stand a chance whatsoever against other marketers. So I have to bend the rules.
After realizing it, I went back to the drawing board.
First thing I notice was the marketers I was personally following, reading their emails or bought stuff from. And that number I can count of one hand. Very few marketers. Very Few.
We’ve been hammered to death about how content is important and it is, but one thing they forgot to tell us, that there’s no shift between telling and selling. Either you are persuading people or your are not. It’s as simple as that.
So if you are differentiating between giving content and sales pitch, you can never give enough content. And that’s the wrong way to do this. Remember, you are always selling.
Eben pagan talks about “moving the free line”, again good advice with half truth. Move the free line, but don’t forget to sell along with it. There’s no difference between telling and selling.
How to increase conversions on your email marketing?
1. Create a better relationship – Go Beyond content. Create a relationship with your list without using content. Content is small part of the strategy. Using content is like creating friendship with hidden motives. And that sucks.
When my subscribers write back to me, they write like they write an email to their friend.
2. Talk like a normal Guy – Again, following the first tip, I am just another guy who understands their situation and have a solution or an example that they can learn from. Don’t Act like a guru. If you don’t understand this, look at Frank Kern and Ed dale.
3. Connecting from the very first email – Your first email is very very important. Try to create a connection from the get go.
4. Use preview to increase readership – One of the good technique I learnt from Jimmy D brown was to use previews to talk about upcoming stuff. It builds anticipation and curiosity.
5. Don’t use too much of their name – Have you seen how some of the marketers use subscribers name in every subject line or emails. The personalization trick works but doing it for every other time is way too much.
Imagine how you’d feel if someone starts talking to you like this. Use their name when it’s natural.
6. Enjoy writing your emails – It’s such a little thing that we miss. If you don’t enjoy writing to your subscribers, it’ll come across through your emails. And this will create a disconnect. Which will always drop your sales.
Phew, I am typing from last 30 minutes and I need a little break.
Before I end this article, I have to comment on few questions/things I got from subscribers.
1. Someone asked me, if I write regularly to my list? How many times per week do you write?
The answer is yes. Write whenever possible is good way to start. Either people like you or they don’t.
2. Do you use and combine blog with email marketing?
Again, the answer is yes. But it’s not that necessary.
Varun Pratap
Aim for that peak like mad
Shadow Such people and Cheer Them On.
PS: This week India is celebrating Deepawali, so I won’t be able to do more than 2–3 Blog consultation. So if you want to get your blog strategy reviewed and consult, then you should contact me as soon as possible.
A different take on Building internet business part time
One of the most common mistake every new i-entrepreneur does is not take their business seriously. They are working part time with part time mentality. That’s where 95% of new internet marketer goes wrong.
You have to take it seriously and think like it’s your own business that you are working towards. People have this attitude from their teenage years where Part time = pocket money = few beers and pizza with friends. And this attitude cross over when you start building your own business online.
Think of it like this. You are baking a cake. It takes 7 ingredients to bake a cake. But what if you miss 3 of the ingredients. Will the outcome be still a cake? Heck even if you miss 1 ingredient, the outcome will not be a cake.
For internet business, you need
1. Ingredients – Raw Materials to work with – i.e. Website, domain name, hosting etc.
2. Time limit – Working hours – You have to spend time daily on your business.
3. Experience – nobody can make a decent enough cake with their first try– It comes with experience. You’ll have to get improve your skills with writing, seo, building traffic. It’ll take some time.
If you understand this simple aspect of building business, you’ll go further than most people. One of the studies about affiliate marketers suggested that 90% of them do not make more than $200 a month. To me, Which is not surprising. Taking into the account of their hard work, I am not surprised at all.
Whenever I think of new marketers, I remember someone who in this first month as affiliate marketer made $800. He worked harder than anyone, he worked longer hours than anyone, he focused on his objective better. He jumped into 10% of affiliate marketer in his first month. Is it surprising? No.
Niche Marketing – Biggest Internet Marketing myth.
How many times you’ve read in articles, ebooks or listened to some video and some marketer is saying “All you need is to find a niche and that’s all it takes to get rich on internet”.
All you need is a niche.
This has been one of my pet peeves about internet marketers approach. Especially after frank kern/ed dale’s underachiever method, everyone was trying to make their dogs and parrots sings.
The problem with this advice is that Internet does give you with an ability to target thousands of niches. But to try and find out if they are profitable will take consume lots of your time and money. And the worse part is, you don’t know how niche, your niche should be to be profitable?.
I know the idea of having 15 websites making $300–$500 per month sounds lucrative and effortless (sheesh how much marketing it needs to do to get that much money, I bet not much). It’s not.
And trust me, if you think handling 15–20 niche markets is easy? You have no idea.
Gary Halbert told me a better approach.
As you know Late gary halbert has way with words (Read his newsletter archive, it’s goldmine better than few of those $997 products put together). He talked about “Hungry market”. He said, “If I have a burger store, I am not going to try for the biggest, baddest, tastiest burger. No sir, I am going to want a bunch of hungry people who just wants a burger RIGHT NOW”.
In fact this approach is one that’ll make you most money. Find a herd of people who are hungry and put your burger mobile in front of them and charge money. There’s never been a better money making forumla told.
Find something that people want and charge for it.
Competition worry – Now in this situation, quite a few smart marketer will be using same approach (same ones who told you to find obscure niche for yourself). There’ll be competition. And I say “YAY” to that… With competition, you’ll learn faster. Either you’ll shape up or ship out. Simple.
I used to be worry myself sick with the competition. It never helped me. I could never market myself with more gusto. Worrying about it made me more worried. When I said, hell to all competitors and challenged them head on… I started making money… and fast too.
I always believed in “Push people in the water, they learn to swim faster” approach.
So What to do now?
Make a list of things you know and talk about to people. Includes your habits and other stuff. Chose 2–3 different topics and see how people are making money in those markets. (Check monthly magazines, websites with products etc). Jump into the water and learn to swim.
Oh… Don’t give up. Trust me, each failure will bring you so closer to your goal.
Do you really need mass article submitters?
One of the quite common question that my subscribers ask me is “Which article submitter you use?”
Often my response is “Do you really need mass article submitters?”
With so many article submitters out there and promises of tons of free traffic, people do get lured in and wonder about this.
Personally I don’t use any of the paid softwares to do article submitting.
Here’s why –
1. Every article directory needs to be signed up and logged in to submit articles.
2. Almost all the good submitters are what you call semi-automatic. You have to sit through the process of submission.
If I am going to do it manually then what’s the reason of using submitters?
Oh… I remember…
it’s those 457 article directories plus 576 ezine directories that those submitters got access to …. Right?
Frankly speaking you are better off using few of the top directories like www.goarticles.com, www.ezinearticles.com etc.
BUT I still want to mass spam article directories. Can you please tell me which is the best?
Like I said, I don’t use any of the article submitters but I use Firefox to submit my articles.
No, I am not kidding at all… Here’s how you can use it.
Create a new bookmark section in firefox bookmarks with all the logins. and Use “Open All in Tabs”.
See? If you have a list of 100 directories… all you need to do is create 10 “Article submit” bookmark folders to easily handle the list.
Sorry for not updating for last few days…
I have been trying to update this blog as frequently as possible in 2008. But for last week or so I couldn’t. My father got into small accident and had to undergo a simple surgery. Though surgery was minor but I just couldn’t get myself to write. Well now everything is the way it should be so I am here updating my blog again.
Well, To start off this blog again, I am starting “Traffic Tactics 7″ where I’ll share tactics/ strategies to build traffic for next 7 days. That means one tactic per day. I’ll be post today’s tactic later in the evening (I am working on it). If you want to build traffic to your website. You better keep your eyes on next 7 days on this blog.
Do You hate Re:?
I was checking my emails just now and I was noticed I get tons of emails with a headline starting with
Re: Your headline goes here….
Now Re basically suggest that someone wrote back to your email and often make you open these emails (to follow the conversation).
Frankly speaking this is really underhanded way of getting attention. About a year ago they were using “You made a sale” or “You got a commission”. I remember I un-subscribed from almost every guy’s list who sent me with this headline.
I sometime wonder if marketers think we are stupid dumb farts?
If you are using these kind of tactics, you might get a few emails open but people will become blind to these tactics sooner or later.
Attention Marketers : How about becoming honest for a change?
I learnt most of my email-ing techniques from Jimmy D brown. Frankly speaking his methods works like gangbusters in every niche. I get High open rates for this website and other websites. When I am saying High, I do not mean 30-40% open rates… No even better than those.
If you check people like Ewen Chia, they are not using these tactics… I have a swipe file of his email from last 2-3 years. He isn’t using these tactics. Do you wonder why?
If you are a marketer out of ideas and using these tactics. Here’s how to become better email-writer.
Step 1: Get a new gmail account. Yes that is necessary.
Step 2: Subscribe to every marketer you know of in varieties of markets too. Try dating, health, Internet marketing, self defense etc.
Step 3: Notice which emails you read and figure out WHY? Why did you opened that email? Why did you read that one and clicked on the link.
Step 4: Start using same tactics that worked on you. You want people on your list, who are like you, who shares same thoughts… So you’ll be sure that these people will open your emails.
See was it really that hard to get new ideas? Nope… So don’t be lazy. I know marketers wants to be lazy and get cash while they are sleeping… but sometimes you should wake up and see the light.
The Easiest way to make killing on internet
Last year I trained someone on how to make killing with internet marketing. I was talking to this guy, he is another Indian I met by chance. He was telling me, how easy it is and How stupid he was to never listened(actually follow) to do things I told him to. If he had done earlier what I told him to, he’d be stinking rich by now…
Now the story behind all this is very simple… He asked me about the Easiest way to make money on internet. And I Told him the secret. For first 7 months he didn’t do what I told him to. Then one day in frustration he finally tried it.
When he did, he was able to generate $4800 in one week. Thats 7 days. thats 685$ a day. Oh did I told you, No list, No JV’s etc.
Don’t you think thats crazy??? and all this time he was saying how what I am saying is hardest thing to do… But You know sometimes the hardest paths are easy to follow. He finally found out.. I guess he’s not going back to other ways any soon.
Actually he was not wrong, I, myself used to think that this might be the toughest thing to do. I think he could have made some more as I was able to find many mistakes he did in those 7 days.
Don’t you think thats amazing. Though I believe he could have made more if he was prepared.
So today I am going to share This Hard Path with you. Do you know what it is?
Its very simple. You create a product and sell it.. HuH..!!!??? Don’t believe your ears?
But lemme comment on the Easiest Path. You see people tends to believe that If they are creating Adsense Sites they don’t have to work as hard as making a product.
Listen to me, The method which you used to create adsense sites is not at all different than create products and marketing it. Lemme give you a fast overview on the both methods.
Adsense Creation method :
Discover niche -> Find Keywords -> Generate Content -> Write Articles -> Optimize articles -> Bring traffic -> Monetize traffic.
Product marketing Method :
Discover niche -> Find Keywords -> Generate Content -> Create Product -> Set up an autoresponder -> Bring traffic -> Monetize traffic.
You see there is no difference. In place of writing articles you are creating a product. And in place of optimizing articles you are putting up autoresponder on your site. If you want to know how to create instant products then read my earlier post on “Creating product is easy”
For the same traffic, you can get better rewards with Product Marketing. As You’ll have many chances to sell it to your visitor (if you are creating your subscribers list).
So How to go about Marketing a Product?
Today I am going to give you some thoughts about this kind of marketing. and then We’ll start the series based on this topic. I’ll be discussing finer details of the steps involved. So Here you go…
If you create a product based on what you like, or what you think people will like, you will be extremely lucky to sell one single copy, and you’ll probably have to bribe the person to buy it!
By finding a small segment of a much larger market in which people are actively buying, and where there are not too many competitors, is the best chance you have of making money from selling your own product.
The only way to create niche products or services that become best sellers is to discover what your potential customers want.
What problems are they facing that you can solve.
What pain are they experiencing that you can soothe.
You have to uncover your potential customers needs, their pain, even their dreams and aspirations.
There are some ways to get this information…
- Use the search engines to find a number of forums related to the niche your’re interested in.Visit these forums regularly and find out what questions people are asking and how often they are asked.
- The same question asked by many different people on many different forums is a possible topic for your product or service.
- If you own an opt-in email list, send a brief survey to your subscribers to discover the problems they are facing.
- If a common problem emerges from your survey, providing the solutions to this problem is a possible topic for your product or service.
- If you don’t own an opt-in email list, you could send a solo advertisement to a few ezines with a large subscriber base and invite people to take part in your survey by offering a useful reward for their participation.
- If you own a website which receives a lot of traffic, you could use a popup to invite people to your survey.
Wordtracker.com is one of the most useful research tools on the internet. You can use it to uncover what people are searching for on the internet.Not only that, you can use it to find out how often people search for different topics. It is a great tool for discovering niche markets.
On its own, Wordtracker is unlikely to point you to your next best seller, but when used in conjunction with surveys you have a very powerful research tool.
Private Label Rights is by far the quickest method of creating your own product. The only real disadvantage is other people will be using the same content as their own, so if you use the contents “as is” you won’t have a unique product.
Do a search for public domain products and once you have found one purchase a copy and have it digitized (made into an e-book). Matt Furey has made million dollars from one of the public domain product.
If a product is in the public domain, it means the copyright on it has expired and you are free to use the contents.
You can copyright your new digitized product, meaning nobody can sell copies in that particular format.
There are many ways to start off your own business on Internet. But You need to have a Blueprint or a method which can help you start properly. If you look around this blog, then you know I have even shared simple blue prints too.
I guess that’s it for today. This is very simple step but really powerful if you implement.
PS: For Comments, brick backs, love letters and hate mails.. you can leave comments on this blog
Creating product is easy, what comes next might be hard
Creating your product is very easy… Trust me… I have done it many times over…
Like if you read this blog, you’ll find how easy it is to create your product. In fact I know methods where you can create and start selling in like 30 minutes or less. I stole this idea from porn producers and this is ingenious. I don’t believe people in internet marketing are so far behind these guys. Read this blog post carefully to the end to find out about this.
You want to create an ebook?
Start typing and don’t stop typing until you finish it… All it requires is effort to finish it. I believe most people cry and whine because they are just being an excuser.
1. Most people don’t even start.
2. If they do, They don’t have faith in their abilities.
3. If they do have some faith, they do not go follow the plan completely.
4. If they do and still fail, they quit.
5. If they don’t quit and still march on forward. They’ll get their first success and then again it soon becomes habit.In my earlier posts on creating products I showed you how to create products fast… so you should read those posts.
You want to create an audio? Do it in 3 simple steps.
1. Create a script for your topic
2. Find a recorder
3. Record.
Am I just pulling your leg? No… This is exactly what I did to create a recent audio recording on fitness training. Of course, your first time will be horrible… but try again… after couple of tries, you’ll be able to record a decent audio.
I can understand some people just can’t write e-books or even 10 pages reports. Often this is the reason they are not selling their own products. Marketers tell them to either tough it out or get it ghostwritten. But…
NOTE: This Report will be Updated and Released Soon… To get updates Subscribe to this blog.
How this idea stolen from porn producers
can quickly & easily sell these micro-products
guaranteed to earn steady profits…
Imagine if I show you how to create micro products that you can sell for anywhere from $5 to $30-$40, without spending much time, would you be serious to listen to me?
If you take a look at new wave on internet, you can understand how content is important. You are going to write some content anyway, then why not cash on it at same time. No its not about submitting articles to get paid.
This is a step by step system where you can identify special products in your market, create these micro products and sell it for profit. This is a very small report that has power to set your internet business on fire.
I bet you want to know what it is… Here’s the system for you…
Find a market -> Create a Report -> Sell…
That’s it… Though I have taken the liberties to not include few things like the software I am using and how to get it for free and much more…
Anyone can copy the same strategy. Heck you might have seen it in action. A few others have attempted to copy the idea but…They are pretty wrong. Each of them left out one of two things here and there. Leave one out and whole thing crumbles.
In fact you can create a low cost products on daily basis and create multiple entry point for your customers. The report is short, and an easy read. It’s deceptively simple stuff. Doing the process will require a little time on your part up front, but it’s easy, a lot of fun (once you get started).
It’s only $10. Get it and do the process
Topics include
How to find low competition market?
How to find the right product to sell?
Where to get this simple software to increase profits?
How to get traffic to your product?
Meet Mr X who is selling his products at $30+ per piece and have over 15 products…
Strategy Mr X is using to sell his products like hot cakes…
Free tools you need to use for creating instant products…
etc
Here an idea which you can use to create multiple products on almost daily basis.
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