Back in the Saddle

The week before last was a great week. My family and I did our yearly trip to the Shushwap area in the interior of British Columbia, Canada for a mini family reunion with Kim’s (my wife) side of the family.

I don’t know what it is about that area but every year I look forward to it because when I come back after that week I am soooooooo relaxed.

It could be the awesome weather (90F or 30C) pretty much every day.  It usually doesn’t rain at all (well, except for last year :-) and when it does it’s a nice brief rain and usually at night when we are sleeping.

But its also the natural beauty of the area as well.  The Shushwap is actually a lake that has 4 arms to it.  We camp near Celista which is this little tiny one store town not far from Kamloops.  That little store is awesome.  In the morning they bake fresh bread which we buy by the dozens to use for our sandwiches that we eat by the lake every day.  The store is actually a hardware store, bakery, grocery store, liquor store all in one. 

Of course it could also be the power boating, jet-skiing, swimming, pontoon boating and just generally hanging out with friends and relatives.  And there is also a cool rental place right down from our campsite where you can get kayaks and water tubes. You can check it out here if you like.  There is also a bit more information on Celista and that area itself.

Ok, ok… its probably a combination of everything that just totally relaxes me.  If you have a chance to visit this area, I highly recommend it to you.

Here’s a few pictures:

My wife Kim relaxing with our dog Toby
World’s largest frying pan for camp cooking
Portable Tented Village on the Beach
A Very Wet Toby Trying to Get Dry
BedTime for my son Zach and Toby
Me (Cool and Unshaven :-) and Zach
Copper Island In the Middle of the Shushwap

But enough about my vacation.  The hard thing about vacation is … coming back :-)  I had more than 700 e-mails to sort through and several items on my “get to do” list that were screaming at me.  Good thing I love what I do.  Anyway that explains why its been a bit longer since my last post to this blog.

Now here are a few things I wanted to pass on to you.  I am currently reading The E-Code: 33 Internet Superstars Reveal 43 Ways to Make Money Online Almost Instantly — Using Only E-Mail by Joe Vitale and Jo Han Mok.

If you click on the link above it will take you directly to the Amazon.com page for the book. 

Now, I haven’t read the whole book yet.  I started out reading the following chapters:

Chapter 38: How To Create A Simple Internet Marketing Business Plan for Maximum Profits — Part 1 by Terry Dean

Chapter 39: How To Create A Simple Internet Marketing Business Plan for Maximum Profits — Part 2 by Terry Dean

I was motivated to read them because I am coming up on my self imposed deadline to create my own marketing plan for the next quarter of my business.  I use a slightly modified version of a Guerrilla Marketing Calendar. 

You can read about Guerrilla Marketing Plans and Calendars in a previous article I posted to this blog.  You can find that article here. Search for the article called “6 MUST Have Strategies To Make Big Bucks Selling Big Ticket Items Online Or Off!” and look at Strategies #3 and #4.

But I am always looking for ways to improve my planning as I consider it essential to having a successful marketing business.

Anyway, I started out with the intention just to read those two chapters but I also ended up reading the following chapters as well:

Chapter 40: The Lazy Person’s Quick and Easy Guide to Affiliate Success — Part 1 by Terry Dean

Chapter 41: The Lazy Person’s Quick and Easy Guide to Affiliate Success — Part 2 by Terry Dean

Chapter 42: How To Earn Maximum Profits From Affiliate Programs by Frank Garon and Terry Dean

Here’s what I liked about the book so far.  The writing style of the chapters I read made it very easy to digest the information.  The information I got was good, solid information.  I’ll summarize what I consider the most important points below.  However, the book is supposedly about how to market using only e-mail.  But the topics I read about were much broader than that.  Which is good because its all interesting but bad because the book doesn’t necessarily stick to its theme all the time.

Ok, here’s what I thought were the important bits from the chapters I reviewed.  These are all important for your own Big Ticket Business!

1. Have A Plan – Marketing is a business!
   This point was made over and over throughout the first two chapters I read.  Basically, the point was to set goals for 12 months and then have monthly, weekly and daily tasks that help you reach those goals.  I agree with this although what I do is to plan out what I want to do each quarter because I find that I don’t always get everything finished or that something with a higher priority comes up.  By having overall goals and only doing the planning each quarter, it makes it easier for me to be a bit more flexible in how I accomplish my goals.
   
2. Keep Improving Your Education
   No matter how much you know or learn, there is always more to learn.  I spend a thousands of dollars per year on self and business improvement programs.  In the chapters I read from the book Terry Dean says he probably spends around $10,000 per year on improving his education.  You only have to get one good, profit producing idea from each investment to cover the cost of the investment and make even more of your money back.
   
3. Make Sure Your Business Is Meeting Your Lifestyle Needs
   Make sure your business meets your lifestyle needs.  Terry Dean lists the following examples: no employees, limited phone contact, consistent monthly income, low overhead, writing, limited travel, long weekends.  Your list might be slightly different.  Personally, I love having no employees. Most of my business is done via email although I still do use the phone a lot (its a bit more personal). My business is low overhead in that the products I deal with are either pure information products that can be downloaded or are products that can be created as the orders come in.  Currently I only really travel when I want to attend an event.  And my schedule is flexible enough to allow vacations including the long weekend type. Anyway, the point is, make sure you build a Big Ticket Business that meets your lifestyle.
   
4. Generate Multiple Streams of Income From the Same List Of Customers (including affiliate products)
   Two things: Make sure you are growing your list all the time.  And, then make sure you give your customers opportunities to buy multiple products or services from you.  Of course you need to keep the niches that members of your list signed up for in mind.  You want to target your promotions to people who already have an interest in that or a related area.  You also want to promote affiliate products and your own backend products to customers with similar interests based on what they may already have bought from you in the past.
   
5. Article Submissions, Viral E-books and Hanging out in Forums are still the Best FREE Ways to Drive Traffic and Make Sales
   Despite the many different schemes for creating traffic to your websites and converting those prospects into sales, the best FREE ways to do that are still the simplest. 
   
   You can publish articles related to your niche and put your resource box at the bottom.  People who are interested in you articles can follow your resource box link to visit your site.  In some cases your article can have direct links to products you are promoting (both your own and affiliates.  By the way you can read my previous post on article writing here. If you are interested in a cool tool to help you get your articles published you can check out Article Announcer.
   
   Another great way to promote your or other peoples products is to create a viral e-book that provides high quality information but includes links to your own products or products you are recommending through your affiliate link.  You give people permission to redistribute the book for free as long as they leave the content and links unchanged.  In many cases you may even allow the person who is going to redistribute the book to brand the book with their own business information. 
   
   Finally, people love to buy from people who have helped them.  If you can find some decent forums to visit and then just genuinely try to help people in areas where you have expertise, you often get people checking out your products and services just by providing a link every time you answer a post for help or a question.
   
6. Don’t Sell Anything You Don’t Own or Use Yourself
   Both Frank Garon and Terry Dean were very clear about this.  You shouldn’t recommend anything to your customers that you don’t own or have used and loved.  Your business is based on your reputation and your integrity.  Your customers and people on your list are on your list because they get value and expect your recommendations to be honest and worthwhile.  If you know other marketers that consistently release high quality information and products and you feel comfortable recommending those products then you can make that decision as well.  But it is your reputation and your business that is on the line.
   
7. Make Sure You Put Your Own Personality Into Your Marketing for Differentiation, Branding and Building Relationships
   Finally, always remember that you are ultimately building relationships with other PEOPLE.  People like to get to know you.  In fact, you must let them get to know you in order for them to like you, trust you and eventually buy from you.  So make sure your communications are personal and reflect the way you are.  This lets your customers and people on your list know that you are in fact another person, just like them.  And because its your personality, you can use it to uniquely differentiate yourself from others and brand yourself as well.  In a world where everyone is flooded by messages, anything you can do to stand out and be different is critical.

By the way you can learn more about Terry Dean at http://www.bizpromo.com and about Frank Garon at http://www.internetcashplanet.com.

Also here is an article by Terry Dean that talks about developing your own Internet Marketing Strategy.  I think his thoughts can immediately relevant to your own Big Ticket Marketing business.

How to Develop Your Own $2,000 a Week Internet Strategy
By Terry Dean

In most of the articles on the web, probably 97% - 99%, you will read about the technical aspects of building a profitable business online. Most of the information I cover deals with that arena...but what most people forget to mention to you is that the technical aspects are ONLY half of the equation to your success on the internet.

When you really get down to the nitty-gritty of making money online, it all starts with your strategy. Even if you know exactly how to achieve top positions on the search engines or know exactly how a link campaign should be done, it still won't let you achieve the level of success you want if you don't know how to develop the strategy for your site.

To put it simply, tactics are your day to day actions in building your website. A strategy is your overall plan and goal for exactly what you would like to have your website and business accomplish for your customers.

The Random House College Dictionary defines strategy and tactics this way... "In military usage, a distinction is made between STRATEGY AND TACTICS. STRATEGY is the utilization of all of a nation's forces, through large-scale, long-range planning and development, to ensure security or victory. TACTICS deals with the use and deployment of troops in combat."

Have you ever stopped the day to day battle of trying to achieve top positions on search engines (And believe me...This is a battle) long enough to develop your long-term strategy? What is your overall vision for your site? In the Bible, Proverbs 29:18 states, "Where there is no vision, the people perish..."

I know some people who are brilliant strategists about online marketing who have achieved amazing success even though their actual tactical skills are only so-so. They hire out the web site design, the search engine registrations, the linking campaigns, and the copywriting. As a matter of fact, one of these brilliant minds once mentioned to me that "The Concept is Greater than The Copy."

In other words, the right marketing strategy can overcome slight problems in the copywriting or even the carrying out of the plans. Even the best copywriting on the planet won't make a success out of a poor business strategy or concept.

No contractor would ever consider starting work on a project without having a detailed blueprint already done and in their hands. It also doesn't matter how good they are at following the blueprints if the blueprints are all wrong. For many people, their internet businesses are in this exact state. They have many of the internet tactics ready, but they have yet to develop a powerful strategy to empower the whole process.

So exactly how do you choose the strategy for your Internet Marketing Empire? Below you will find a three step process in helping you develop your overall strategy. I don't want to over-complicate the process by any means, but I do want to help you create ideas through this. Your actual day to day internet marketing tactics will then flow out of your overall marketing strategy.

STEP ONE: Create Your Overall Theme to Your Online Business

You can't develop a business around a single product. Even if you are promoting a single product upfront, it is not the product that people want. They want the BENEFITS they receive out of the product. When designing your site, think about an "Ultimate Benefit" to build your site around.

I first heard the phrase "The Ultimate Benefit" through Dr. Jeffrey Lant and it has stuck with me ever since. It is that ever abiding "WANT" or "GOALS" that your prospects have with them continually. Ultimate Benefits are things such as: more money, weight loss, online success, being sexually attractive, self-defense, etc.

Ultimate benefits are what your prospects are really seeking after. So, don't base your business just on products. Base your business on this Ultimate Benefit. This will be the theme that binds everything else you do at your site together. It is what you want your site to become known for. It is why people will return to your site over and over again forever.

What is it that your prospects ultimately want?
More Money
Better Health
Weight Loss
etc.

Once you have defined your "Ultimate Benefit," that's where the products can come in. You will want to provide multiple products that all fall under the same Ultimate Benefit. This will help you to create "Multiple Streams of Income" all generated from one web site.

What mail order or internet company do you know of that only has one product? There aren't any really successful ones. Even the sites which seem only to have one main product still have dozens of different profit streams which all come out of the backend of that product. Your mission online is to help people reach their ultimate goals, and that cannot be done with just one product. It takes a variety of products to accomplish this goal.

One warning I do want to mention here though is that your site will be more successful if you have one LEAD product. By testing both multiple product sites and sites which focus on one lead product, I have found that the lead product sites will outsell the multiple product sites by a long shot in most cases.

So, the absolute best set-up is to focus on a main product, and then have many different backends or supporting products which will help your customers to further their goals. This type of system is often referred to as a marketing funnel. You may be selling a book about Ad Copy on your site, but you will also have consultations, seminars, audio tapes, and ad writing services which all support your theme.

If you are selling web sites as a primary lead product, you could also sell books on internet marketing, web design services, CGI programming, etc. If your theme is weight loss, your primary product may be a nutritional product. You could also sell weight loss and exercise books. A newsletter could be started. You could also do personal one-on-one consultations for specific individuals.

You also don't need to come up with all of these products yourself. Many of them can be found through Joint Venturing with other companies which have products you know your customers want.

STEP TWO: Develop A Unique Aspect to Your Business...Your USP

Your business cannot just be a me-too business online. You need to develop some type of uniqueness to it...something that sets you apart from all of the rest of your competition online. You need to create a "Unique Selling Position" which makes you stand out from the crowd online...

For example, everyone is selling books online. How did Amazon.com becomes the most well known bookstore on the Internet. They developed a USP which basically states "The World's Largest Bookstore" which is exactly what they are. They have stated in one phrase exactly what makes them unique from the rest of the bookstores in the world.

How can you develop your own USP? You probably aren't going to own the largest selection of anything in your business since most of us have started out bootstrapping at home or in our small business. Let me give you a simple little formula you can use which will help you immensely in the creation of a USP for your business.

To find your USP, pull out a blank sheet of paper. At the top of the paper, write "You know how most __________..." Then, halfway down the page, write "Well, What I do is..."

I want you to write how most of the businesses in your market are in the first section. Then, I want you to write what sets you apart from them. Avoid using words such as quality or better service, because those types of things don't really mean anything UNLESS you are more specific in your description. This may take you a while to do.

You probably will have to study your competition online for a while. Give yourself a few days to think it over. Then, write it down.

Next, I want you to boil down that entire sheet of paper to a single phrase or sentence. This takes some work. Write it out in a sentence or phrase as many times as you need to until you get just the right words. Again, if this takes you a few days, let it. Think about it when you are driving, eating, etc. Mull it over. Then, once you have just the right wording, that is your NEW USP which you will use to separate you from all of the competition.

Use it on your signature file online...Use it on your website...Use it in your ad copy. Let it become a guiding force to your online business that sets you apart and defines you as the person to deal with in this area.

STEP THREE: Concentrate on Building Relationships with Your Prospects

To fully develop an online business, you need to maximize your relationships with people. Although your goal in your Internet business may be to set it up on auto-pilot, you have to remember at all times that you are dealing with real people. Credibility online is a major issue because there are many fly-by-night get-rich-quick operators on the internet.

To help you develop this credibility with your prospects, your overall strategy has to include such tools as ezines, message boards, chats, conference calls, dealer programs, etc. Many people keep asking exactly why does it seem ezines are popping up everywhere...It is simply because they work. They help you to develop the relationships you need with your prospects. You are able to contact your prospects over and over again providing them with good useful information.

The same thing is true of the message boards. Once you have worked them up to a certain level of traffic, the same people will keep coming back day after day learning from you and the other experts you may have brought to your board.

Use your imagination and develop other free services such as these to help you develop your website and relationships online. How about doing JVs with other businesses? How about running a monthly conference call on your subject? Your business online is only limited by your imagination!

Get Started Today In Developing Your Online Strategy...

Don't let this report just sit there in your email box. Print it out. Start today in putting these strategy building tips to work for you. It is a proven fact that if you put this off for more than 24 hours, you will probably never come back to it.

Developing Your Internet Strategy can be the most important key to creating the internet business you dream of. Take action today and at least start thinking and working on it.

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Terry Dean's Brand New Fr-e eBook, "10 Quick and Easy Ways to Increase Profits to ANY Web Site Overnight!" Reveals More Time Tested Proven Internet Marketing Secrets Than 99% of the Paid Products Available...Showing You Step-By-Step How to Increase Your Traffic, Drop Your Expenses, and Drive Your Profits Through the Roof:
http://www.bizpromo.com

That’s all for this week!

-Chuck