Archive | December, 2022

There’s a standard theory that you’ve got to warm up your list for a few days or even a few weeks before you try to sell them anything. But if someone came to your website looking for answers and opted into your list – then they are a hot prospect right NOW.

 

That’s why you should go ahead and make them an offer within the first seven days. Make them 2 or 3 bids.

Yes, you still need to provide some great content, whether telling captivating stories or giving them hot tips. But at the end of each email, make them an offer they can’t refuse. You may be surprised how many prospects become customers in that first week. And as you know, once they buy from you, they are far more likely to buy repeatedly, as long as you continue to make them happy.

But we’re not done yet. In addition to making them offers via email in the first week, you also want to provide them IMMEDIATELY.

Let’s say they sign up for your free report on ten ways to banish acne. If you’re using single opt-in, they’re now on your list. So instead of sending them to a page that tells them to check their email for their free report, please send them to a sales page that tells them the free account will be sent to their email shortly, and in the meantime, to check out the one-time fantastic offer you have for them.

Depending on your offer, there’s no reason why you can’t convert 10% or far more of these prospects into IMMEDIATE buyers with this simple technique. And best of all, it’s something you set up once, and then you can forget about it, earning yourself a nice little additional income while you continue to grow your list.

No matter how hard you try to prevent it, you’ll have prospects land on your 404 error page sooner or later. When they do, they have a choice – to find what they were looking for or give up. Care to guess what happens more often? They leave in frustration.

So instead of the usual “Whoops! We’re sorry, but what you’re looking for has moved” page, consider customizing your error pages to get these people to do something.

For example, you could allow them to opt into your list with an offer different from your landing page. This can be highly effective. For example…

“Congrats! You just found our secret page where we give away ___. Just tell us where to send it, and it’s yours.”

Or you might make them an offer they can’t refuse, such as a great deal on one of your most popular products or a combination offer for a super low price. Like this…

“Oops! You just landed on our error page, but we will make it up to you. Here’s $xx. xx off of our super hot selling ___.”

For one reason or another, if you have your website online long enough, you will start getting a stream of people who land on a page that does not exist, leading them to a 404 error. Plan for this hidden opportunity; you can turn some strayed visitors into subscribers and customers.

Popular thought says something about turning 40 that makes one think, “Holy ^%!*I could get old one day.” Then 50 starts approaching at warp light speed, and some begin to think new thoughts, like, “Where did I put my keys?” And, “What did I come into this room for?” And “What was I going to write in my blog post? Wait, what’s my password? Never mind the password; what’s my domain again?”

If you can’t relate yet, good for you, and I hope you never do! This article is meant to inspire you to avoid such mental collapse.

No matter what your age, you can benefit from a better brain. And I don’t mean trading your brain in for a new one, although that could be awesome. I mean growing your brain to function better, make new connections and think up creative new ideas constantly. Like there’s weight training and cardio for the body, there must be ways to improve how your brain functions so that everyday tasks like running your online business and finding new ways to make it profitable become like child’s play. At least, that’s what I was hoping to find.

So I started researching the brain, how it works, and what a person can do to improve it. And you know what? You have to be a brain scientist to understand all that stuff. So I took a shortcut – I bought a book by a brain researcher with 20+ years of experience in actively building or growing his brain. The book is called Whole Brain Power, and the exercises he recommends are not what I expected.

The first discovery I made – the brain does grow from nurturing and training it. Second discovery – left-handed people have more brain mass and a more flexible brain structure than right-handed people. You might wonder how they know that: UCLA did a study of 70 pairs of identical twins where one twin was right-handed, the other left-handed, with an average age of 70. The lefties almost invariably had better brains.

Put these two pieces of information together, along with a lot of scientific data I won’t get into, and you find that by using your non-dominant hand to do things like write and play sports, you are growing your brain. Plus, memorization can work wonders, too.

Here’s a tangible example of brain growth: London’s famous black-cab cabbie drivers must store a mental map of London, including 25,000 street names and the locations of all major tourist attractions. Passing the test takes three years of intensive study, and three-quarters of the applicants drop out. When they studied the brains of these cabbies, they found their hippocampus had grown. The longer they spend on the job, the bigger their brains. This and other studies prove you can physically improve your brain if you work at it.

Doing these exercises have side benefits as well. Within 3 to 4 weeks of consistent training, you’ll notice you’re more alert, have greater focus, and improve your attention span. Work will become more accessible, you’ll write blog posts faster, and you’ll begin seeing possibilities in your business that were invisible to you. Plus, your memory will get better; you’ll experience more energy, your chance of getting Alzheimer’s decreases, and other benefits.

So what are the prescribed exercises for growing your brain? I’ll go over some of them briefly.

For explanation, I’m going to assume you’re right-handed. If you’re left-handed, reverse what I say.

Anything that you usually do with your right hand, like brushing your teeth, combing your hair, eating with a fork, etc., try doing with your left hand every day.

Write with your left hand. Get a notebook and write something on the right page with your right hand. Then write that same thing on the left page with your left hand. Using this method, your right hand (left brain) is training your left hand (right brain). If you like, use mirror writing when writing with your left hand. Write from right to left, making the report legible when viewed in a mirror. Leonardo Da Vinci did this, and he was no intellectual slouch.

By the way, it’s no coincidence that Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Mickey Mantle, and Babe Ruth were all ambidextrous.

Memorize and recite things forwards and backward. For example, learn to say the alphabet as fastback as forwards. Memorize states or countries in reverse alphabetical order. Memorize long poems, speeches, or monologues. While you’re at it, learn a new language. And memorize number sequences such as the powers of 2 up to 30 or beyond (2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024, 2048, 4096, 8192, 16384, etc.)

Do hammer drills. To start, get a lightweight (1 pound or so) rubber mallet and bounce a tennis ball on it using your right hand. Bounce once and catch, bounce once and catch. When you get good, jump twice and see, then three times, working your way to jumping five times and catching the ball. Now transfer the mallet to your left hand and repeat. Be patient; your brain wants to learn this new skill. Move up to using a golf ball and increase the number of reps. When you can do 100-300 on either hand, place a mallet in both hands and bounce the ball from right to left and back again. Once you can do this successfully for 100 reps or more, get a heavier hammer. It sounds crazy, but the benefits – both to the brain and the body – are enormous. Here’s a helpful video on hammer drills:

Avoid passive stress from television and video games. Do you know how your mom said those things would rot your brain? It turns out she was right.

There’s a lot more, like games you can play and the science behind all of this. I highly recommend you get a copy of the book. It’s called Whole Brain Power: The Fountain of Youth for the Mind and Body by Michael Lavery.

If you’re wondering if all this stuff works, go to chapter 5 and look at the before and after photos of the artwork done by C. Ryan Walsh for the documentary film Brain Dead: The Resurrection of a Video Game Junkie. In 45 days, his artwork went from what I would describe as a 2nd or 3rd-grade level to a 12th-grade level, assuming the 12th-grader had practiced art for 12 years. Mind-boggling.

One last thing – what could you accomplish in your Internet business if you were more intelligent? If your memory was better? If you were more creative? If you had more energy? If you had more concentration and focus?

What couldn’t you accomplish??

I get a lot of questions about how to build a business online. Here are some of the top questions and answers to help you start your online business and become profitable.

 

Q. I keep hearing that I’ve got to get people to know me, like me, and trust me before they buy from me, but how do I do that?

A. You’ve got two choices, and I recommend you do both. First, position yourself as an expert in your field. If you’re not an expert, surround yourself with experts by interviewing them, letting their guest post to your blog, and working with them. Second, be generous. Give away great content that instills confidence in your abilities and expertise that builds your reputation. Offer free teleclasses or podcasts, guest posts on popular blogs with info-packed posts, and author a book or report.

The better your free content is, the more people will trust you and your content. As a bonus, they’ll be more likely to share your content with others, helping you build your reputation and following.

Q. Can I reach a wider audience while delivering more value to my current customers?

A. Consider lining up some partnerships or joint ventures in your niche. First, make a list of the areas your customers are interested in. You’re not looking for direct competition here but rather complimentary sub-niches. For example, suppose you teach how to do Forex with a particular method. In that case, your customers will likely be interested in how to trade on Forex with other methods and even how to invest in other areas besides the Forex market.

Once you list areas, choose an expert you’d like to partner with. Go online to get their contact information and then approach them with a win-win reason why they should partner with you. They should benefit, you should help, and your customers must also benefit.

Do something together that you can offer to both your customers and your partner’s customers, whether it’s a free webinar with an offer at the end, creating a series of videos together, or even starting a new membership with a free introductory period. This will add value to your customers and theirs and expand your reach to a broader audience.

Q. I’m just a newbie in my niche – how do I approach the “big dogs” and get their attention so they’ll partner with me?

A. Two words – help them. Comment on their posts, share their stuff through social media, ask if you can re-post their work to your blog, etc. Please find a way to be of service to them so that you can get on their radar and start building a relationship for the long haul.

Note that the bigger the person you’re targeting (IE: The more extensive their following and the greater their influence in your market), the longer it will take to attract their attention as someone they might want to work with. It’s recommended that you begin by targeting more accessible people and work your way up to the giants of your industry.

Also, consider writing a book, devoting one chapter to each “big dog” you target. In this manner, you can make friends with these players, and some of them will promote your book to their audience.

Q. I keep hearing that I must “have a story” to share with prospects. What does this mean?

A. In a marketing context, ‘your story’ led to you doing what you do today. For example, someone who teaches basketball techniques may have been a lousy basketball player themselves until they learned and mastered certain fundamentals and techniques that caused them to become an all-star player. In a nutshell, that’s their story. Of course, they’re going to want to embellish with details, such as how rotten they felt when they got laughed at for missing the easiest of shots.

The purpose of having your own story and sharing it with your readers is to make a connection. Someone having trouble making the junior varsity basketball team wants to know if you went through some of the same trials and tribulations they are experiencing. This bonds them to you and causes them to be far more receptive to your message. Remember, “birds of a feather flock together.” Once they realize you’ve been through the same struggles they’re currently going through and that you not only persevered but overcame, they’ll want to know exactly how you did it.

Q. But isn’t that manipulating them?

A. Not at all. You show that you have indeed walked in their shoes, experienced their problems, and found a solution.

I heard a story once that illustrates this beautifully. Imagine you’re in a foreign country and don’t speak the language. For days you’ve been struggling to understand and be understood. Then all of a sudden, someone says hello to you in your language and asks how you are. How would you react? No doubt you’d rush up to that person and start talking, feeling that you finally are making a connection with someone. Imagine the relief you would feel, finally being able to communicate, to understand, and most of all, to be understood.

Telling your story does the same – it creates a bonding connection that lets the prospect know you understand what they’re going through because you’ve experienced the same problems.

Q. If I want to create a product or success system based on my own experiences, how do I go about that?

A. If you’ve become successful at something, you have a ready-made product you can sell to others who want to master that same skill. Here’s how to get it into product form: Recall where you were at the beginning of your success. What was the first thing you did? The second? Write down everything that you did and put it into step-by-step form.

Now you’ve got the ___ number of steps to accomplishing ___. Name it something appropriate, contact the domain for that name, and start marketing it. You could do it as an ebook or audio/video course or offer it as a series of webinars or even one-on-one coaching. Each step will represent one chapter in your book, one webinar, or one coaching session.

HOT TIP: You can use this same process to partner with anyone who’s mastered a skill others want to learn. Interview them extensively to discover precisely how they succeeded and then create the product based on the interviews. Split the profits with the expert, rinse, and repeat with more experts or the same expert and different topics.

Q. I have a friend and fellow marketer who’s continually writing posts for other people’s blogs. I think she’s foolish because she’s giving away her valuable info on other blogs instead of using it to boost her standing in search engines. She says it’s worth it because she’s getting new prospects through her guest posts. Who’s right?

A. You both are correct, to a degree. While it’s true that placing her best content on her blog may help to get her site ranking in the search engines, SEO is always a gamble. On the other hand, guest posting on popular blogs practically guarantees exposure to new prospects and new alliances with the blog owners.

When your friend guest posts, she’s hopefully targeting blogs that already receive plenty of traffic interested in her particular niche. This will help her to gain exposure to new audiences and get her endorsed by leaders in her field (the blog owners).

Q. I’ve contacted blog owners about being a guest blogger for them, but I don’t get much response because I’m new in the niche. What can I do?

A. Begin by repeatedly posting in their comments section. Join the conversation, add relevant comments, ask good questions, and answer other people’s questions. Hyperlink your name to your website to get new visitors (this is automatic when you fill out the comment form – just be sure to fill out the website URL box and your name, and your name will become a hyperlink to your URL.)

Use a catchy, memorable photo on all of your posts. Register your email address along with your picture at: en.gravatar.com.

By participating in the community, the blog owner will likely notice you and be far more receptive the next time you offer to do a blog post. In addition, visitors to the blog will begin to recognize you and visit your blog.

Q. I write a newsletter, but lately, I get the feeling that no one is reading it. What am I doing wrong?

A. You may need to contact your market to find out what they want to know. Go to forums and watch social media to find out what they’re talking about, especially what they’re asking. Ideally, it would be best if you were answering their questions and helping to solve their problems because when you do that, they will read every word of your newsletter.

Q. I HATE writing headlines and subject lines, and I wouldn’t say I like using headline templates. Any ideas?

A. Interestingly, your best headline is often buried inside your copy or email. You already know all the best selling points about your product, how best to present it, your target market, and how to craft the best call to action. So forget the headline, write your copy or email, and then go back and reread what you just wrote. You’ll often find your jewel of a headline inside your document, just waiting for you to pluck it out and place it at the top.

You already know that a buyer is generally worth ten times more than a prospect who signs up for a free product. Here’s the best way to continually build a list of buyers without buying solo ads or placing advertising.

Create a simple product that solves one pressing problem in your niche. This might be a video, audio, or ebook – it doesn’t matter. What does matter is that it delivers precisely what it promises.

Create a simple sales page for the product and price it in the $7 to $12 range, depending on prices in your market. This should be an impulse buy for customers, not something they must think about long and hard.

Use a program such as Rapid Action Profits or JVZoo to manage affiliates and pay 100% commissions. That’s right; you’ll pay 100% instant commissions to affiliates because you want to incentivize them to send you traffic. Right now, you’re looking to build a list of buyers, and by offering 100% commissions, your affiliates will be happy to send them to you.

Advertise your affiliate program to your list and via social media.

If you like, add an upsell to the offer that pays you. This way, you’ll not only be building a list of buyers – but you’ll also be making a profit from the start.

Market products to your list to make money, and market your affiliate program to your list to continue to bring in more affiliates. Also, advertise your affiliate program inside the product itself. Some of your best mates will first be your customers.

Rinse and repeat. Optimally you want 5 to 10 pretty new products that pay 100% instant commissions to affiliates so your affiliates always have something they can promote.

Continue to build and nurture your list of affiliates – these are equally important as your customers. Give your companions your products for free as you create each, so they can see what they’ll offer their customers and continue using social media to find new affiliates.

This strategy can be launched quickly and scaled consistently to develop a six or 7-figure business online. You wouldn’t be the first, and you won’t be the last to follow this model to build a thriving online business.

Oddly enough, this question often pops up in popular online marketing forums. Sometimes I even see people get pretty upset about the answers they get, demanding proof that a person is making money writing articles. So I thought maybe it’s time to add my own two cents.

Yes, article marketing is dead if you’re referring to posting junk articles on article directories and expecting people to knock down your virtual door. Thanks to the changes in Google over the years, those days are over and done. Even posting an outstanding article on a site like Ezine Articles likely won’t garner you more than a few website visits a week at most – probably not enough to make it worthwhile. Because if you’re writing quality content that people want to read, there are far better places to place your articles.

For instance, you can place them on your website. These days, Google rewards sites with quality information and better rankings, so why not fill your website with great articles?

What do I mean by quality information? First, it’s got to be material people want to read. This means you’ve got to have some essential writing skills, or readers won’t go past the first paragraph. Second, the content must empower them, improve their life, or solve a problem. In other words, what’s in it for them to read your article?

Third, it has to be relevant. Offering up last year’s SEO techniques isn’t cut; it will earn you some nasty comments and a hit to your reputation. Either know what you’re talking about or find an expert who does.

Okay, so you’ve got some great articles on your website – time to find other sites looking for your content. Ideally, you want places that get a lot of traffic but don’t post much content. This way, your article will stay featured for a more extended period, and it’s more likely to appear in the “most popular posts” section.

Once you’ve got some guest articles (or guest posts, if you prefer) out there, contact those site owners about possibly writing for them continuingly. If you’re submitting a report a month to ten different sites, that’s ten sites sending visitors back to your site. And that can be far more powerful than Ezine Articles ever was.

Lastly, see if you can get articles published in real-life magazines. That’s right – magazines like Entrepreneur and Wired. Sure, breaking into those is more challenging, but what a coup if you do!

A hot online business model is building a membership site and selling those memberships for $27 to $97 monthly or more. It sounds like a great idea – theoretically, just 100 members paying you $97 a month will gross $9,700 per month and $116,400 per year.

But getting someone to sign up for a hefty monthly payment is not as easy as it used to be. And if you do, most members tend to cancel after 1-4 months.

So why do they cancel? Because in their minds, you are not delivering enough value for the money. They see that their finances are tight and look for ways to save money. “I’ll cancel that monthly membership because I wasn’t using it anyway.”

The only way to prevent this is to be indispensable to their business or lives. If, for example, your membership gives them the software or the content that enables them to run their business, they’re not going to cancel. If you provide them with something, they can immediately turn into profit, such as high-quality PLR. But these things tend to take more time and resources than the average marketer, at least initially.

So how can you start a continuity program that people readily join and don’t quickly cancel? By offering an inexpensive newsletter on a topic, they’re passionate about. If your newsletter is in the $5 to $12 a month range and if it’s providing value, they’re not likely to cancel. After all, what’re a few bucks to read something they enjoy? It’s less than a pizza, and it provides value. And it’s almost too much effort to bother to cancel – it’s easier to let it continue.

But you might be wondering how it can be worth selling a newsletter for a $ 9-a-month subscription. After all, 100 subscribers is only $900 – is it worth your time? And how long will it take to get those 100 subscribers?

Frankly, it generally doesn’t happen overnight. You may only get a handful of subscribers the first month and another handful the second. But if your subscribers are sticking around, your income is steadily building monthly.

Better still, your work stays the same whether you have one subscriber or 10,000 subscribers. This means you can continue adding subscribers to infinity, and your workload never increases, but your income does.

Plus, it doesn’t have to take a tremendous amount of effort. You can write about your topic in your spare time if you’re already knowledgeable. If you’re not, you can interview others and transcribe the interviews or get other experts to write articles for you. If you’re smart, you won’t spend most of your time creating content because you’ll spend it growing your subscriber base. This way, you’ll earn more every month than the month before, and that’s a great feeling.

You can also market additional related products and services to your newsletter subscribers, increasing your income. Remember, your newsletter is far more likely to be read than regular emails, articles, and blog posts because people are paying to receive it. This means you can build great rapport and power with your readers. And so long as you never steer them wrong, they are more likely to follow your suggestions.

Here are 16 tips to get your newsletter up and running and make it as successful as possible.

1. Choose a topic with a high perceived value for the market. Making or saving money is always good. So is any niche with fanatical followers, many health niches, hobbies, and even dating and relationships. If you can find something people are obsessed with, you have a winner. For example, bodybuilders are obsessed with finding better/faster ways to gain muscle, and they’ll subscribe to numerous magazines and websites to find the latest techniques.

2. Write a bullet-rich sales page with tons of teasers on what they’ll discover in the newsletter.

3. Write one monthly newsletter or break your newsletters up into weekly editions. To begin with, the monthly newsletter format is more accessible and feels less overwhelming to produce. Plus, it can look more impressive when subscribers see one big monthly newsletter instead of several small ones. However, if there’s a lot of news in your niche, you might want to go with two or smaller newsletters since you’ll be able to put the word out in a much more timely manner before it gets old.

4. The amount of content you put into each newsletter will depend on your preferences, the niche, and what your readers want. Remember that quality is much more important than quantity. For example, suppose you write a newsletter about making money from home. In that case, one exact method they can implement monthly is worth more than 100 pages of generic information they can get anywhere.

5. You don’t have to limit yourself to written content – you can also do podcasts and videos.

6. Use experts in your field to help you generate the content. If you rely just on yourself, you’ll run out of info. But with a steady stream of experts, you’ll always have something fresh to say. Do interviews, use guest authors, and even hire people to write articles for you.

7. In addition to information, negotiate discounts on products and services they might need. Getting these “inside deals” can be an added benefit of subscribing to your newsletter. For example, if your newsletter is about best using WordPress, you might negotiate discounts on popular themes, plugins, or hosting. They could even pay for members’ subscriptions if you’re good at negotiating these deals,

8. Use a $1 trial to bring in more new subscribers.

9. Convert your newsletter to PDF and deliver via autoresponder or download link.

10. Ask your subscribers to submit tips and advice and offer them a link in your newsletter or some other reward if you publish what they write. Do this in every issue; you won’t have to produce as much content over time.

11. Survey your subscribers to find out what they want to see covered in your newsletter.

12. Once you know the value of your subscribers, you can purchase advertising to bring in new subscriptions. For example, if you know that your average subscriber stays for six months and you charge $9 a month for your newsletter, that’s $54. If it costs you $15 in advertising to get that subscriber, you’ve made (on average) $39 for every new subscriber that advertising brings in, not including other sales you might make to them.

13. Have a back end. It should be something more expensive than your newsletter and needs to fit your niche perfectly, but it doesn’t have to be your product. You can offer an affiliate product – just be sure it’s something you genuinely believe in yourself.

14. You might offer a “fixed term” membership depending on your niche. This is generally used when teaching specific skills that don’t change much over time, such as how to run a membership site or how to survive a disaster. You wouldn’t want to use this model if the information were constantly changing – for example, investing.

If the fixed-term membership model applies to your niche, it offers a double benefit: First, you write the content once and continue to get paid for it for a long time. Second, members see the end in sight and are even less likely to cancel. Weekly publication tends to work well for a fixed-term membership.

15. Rinse and repeat. Once you get one newsletter and are successful, you might consider doing a second one. This might directly relate to your first niche or an entirely new place.

For example, if your first newsletter is on Commodity trading, you might start a second newsletter on Forex trading. Then you can discount your commodity subscribers when they subscribe to your Forex newsletter. This will give your new newsletter a financial jump-start and enable you to begin paying for content if you have it outsourced immediately.

16. Cash out. If there comes a day when you’re ready to move on, sell your newsletter. Remember that having built-in recurring income and a list of paying members makes your business VALUABLE, so you should get an excellent price for it.

Don’t be alarmed, but I want to shake you by the shoulders and slap you, silly… Because I suspect you’re fast asleep at the wheel of life.

Well, I have news for you, and I’m sure you’ve heard it before, but maybe this is when you finally sit up, take notice, and start making fundamental changes in your life because…

Life Is Too @#$Z&% Short!

Remember when you were a child, and you believed life goes on and on and on?

And now here it is, barely a few minutes later (or so it seems), and you discover that a significant chunk of your life is forever gone.

What the heck happened to it??? Did you blow it like someone blowing money on the horses? Or did you make the most of every moment?

Millions of people struggle to make it through the day. They’re in jobs they hate, lives they don’t like doing things that hold no interest to them. And yet the clock ticks for them as it does for the rare person who is completely happy and content doing what they love to do.

Doberman Dan wrote something that fascinated me. I don’t know where he got these numbers, but they’re enough to shake awake anyone slumbering through life:

You’ve got 78 years on this earth, statistically speaking.

You spend 1/3 of that time sleeping, leaving you with 49 and 11 months of “awake” years.

Subtract hours in school, leaving you with 46 years and four months of your life remaining.

Subtract 91,000 hours on a job; you have 35 years and 11 months of staying.

Subtract time driving, running errands, brushing your teeth, etc., and you’re now down to 32 years and two months.

Subtract eating, drinking, shopping, etc., and you’ve got 25 years and ten months left.

Subtract chores, and you’re down to 20 years and one month.

Subtract taking care of children and family, watching TV, playing video games, and wasting time on the Internet, and you’re now down to 9 years and six months of your life remaining.

Seventy-eight years on this planet (if you’re lucky), and only nine are yours.

See what I mean? Life is too @#$Z&% short.

Life is too short to let fear rule. Open your mind, arms, and heart to new things and people. Take a chance, push through fear, let go of guilt, break down your goals into achievable steps, and get moving TODAY.

Life is too short to be unhealthy. Get moving, get active, and stop eating crap food, especially if you want to make it to 78+ and enjoy the journey.

Life is too short to be full of regrets, just as it’s too short to dream about your ‘glory days.’ You can’t start the next chapter of your life if you keep re-reading the last one.

Life is too short to be a slob. If you’re disorganized, you’re wasting time looking for things and wasting more time not doing what you want.

Life is too short to be negative. Yes, occasionally, negativity seeps in. But when negativity rears its ugly head, you’ve got to beat it back with everything you’ve got, and never under any circumstance do you invite it in or ask it to make itself at home.

Life is too short to deal with or even think about rotten people. Are you worried about what that nasty person said about you? Why????? Life is too short to stress yourself with people who don’t even deserve to be an issue.

Life is too short to keep up with the neighbors. Do you care how many new cars or televisions they have? I can’t think of anything more irrelevant than what the neighbor blew money on today.

Life is too short to be in a job you hate. If you’ve never had a job you hated, words couldn’t explain this to you. But no explanation is necessary for the other 95% of people who know what I’m talking about.

Life is too short to be poor. Yes, you might start poor, which certainly isn’t your fault. But there comes a time when your finances are precisely what you make of them. Nothing is noble about being poor – it’s like having a ball and chain around your throat that stops you from living the life you want and instead wraps you in layers of stress and anxiety. If you don’t have the money you wish to, get busy and make it. And yes, I believe Internet Marketing is still, hands down, bar none, the best way a person can go from poverty to wealth in a relatively short time (2 to 10 years.)

You, I, and everyone we love is terminal – it’s just a matter of time. And every day, we have a little bit less of that.

I’ll let the quote master Mark Twain have the last words…

“Life is short; break the rules.
Forgive quickly; Kiss SLOWLY.
Love truly. Laugh uncontrollably.
And never regret ANYTHING.
That makes you smile.”
– Mark Twain

Let’s face it – offline marketing gets a little more complicated nowadays. There’s more competition than ever before as more marketers break into the field. There are also more possible services to sell, which tends to confuse the business owners and the new offline marketers. And as more and more marketers offer more services to business owners, the owners often say “no” before they know what they’re turning down.

But it’s still true that offline marketing can be hugely lucrative for anyone who makes a serious attempt at it, especially if they find a way to stand apart from the crowd. Imagine the edge you could enjoy over every other offline marketer if you offered business owners just one thing – the thing they want the most – more customers.

Few marketers are doing this, yet it’s probably the most accessible service to sell to a business owner.

You could practically choose which clients you work with because what business owner will say ‘no’ to new customers? None in their right mind. Especially when they only pay you for leads or actual customers. If you don’t deliver, they don’t get paid. Thus there is absolutely no risk to them. And with no trouble, they have no reason to say no.

So how do you get these leads and new customers for your clients? First, you’re going to think locally, not globally. You’re getting information for a specific type of local business that serves a specific geographic area, such as a city or region.

Second, you’re going to build a website, and then you’re going to drive traffic to that website. You want to use good SEO but don’t want to rely on search engine traffic. After all, your site could rise or fall on the whim of search engines. That’s why you’ll want a paid traffic source you can rely on, such as Google Ads.

You’ll be choosing niches that can pay high referral fees so you can afford to spend money to get those leads and still pocket plenty of profit. For example, let’s say it takes you $50 in Google Ads to get a new patient for a dentist. You can do this all day if you’re charging the dentist $100 per new patient.

You’ll want to retain ownership of your websites for two reasons. First, if your client stops working with you, you’ll sell your leads to a similar client in the same area. For example, if you’re getting information for a contractor in Austin, Texas, and one day that contractor decides to stop using your tips, you can begin selling your leads to one of their competitors.

The second reason to retain ownership of your lead-generating websites is so that you can make changes on the fly. Let’s say your site ranks high, but one day, it falls to page 3. You can immediately make changes to your SEO without having to get them approved by the business.

As you can see, this business model is pretty simple, and the competition is still relatively low. The field is wide open, and getting clients can be as easy as asking if they can handle more business.

Here are a few questions you might have:

Q. What type of website should I build?

A. A small WordPress site targeting the best buyer keywords works well. Figure 5 to 10 pages, 10 to 25 keywords to start if you optimize for SEO. Each website should target one niche in one town—for example, dentists in Tacoma or chiropractors in Atlanta.

Q. How do I find the keywords? Can you give keyword examples?

A. Use the Google Keyword Planner to find which terms are commonly searched for in a particular industry. Then add those keywords to the location to form your keyword phrases—for example, Tacoma, Washington, dentist. Use singular and plural, and add appropriate “buying” keywords, such as buy, rent, lease, hire, etc. Lastly, add descriptive keywords such as best, cheap, fast, etc.

Q. What domain should I use for my site?

A. First, don’t buy a domain that uses the actual business name. For example, if your client is Bob Smith, a dentist in Tacoma, Washington, don’t buy BobSmithTacomaDentist.com because if he ever stops using your services, you won’t be able to use that domain. Second, choose something generic with your best keywords in a .com, .org, or .net. For example, TacomaWashingtonDentist.com or DentistTacomaWashington.com. (These may or may not already be real sites.)

Q. What should I have on my website?

A. – A toll-free number is prominently displayed.

– A contact form above the fold. (70-80% of people will call, and 20-30% will fill out the contact form.)

– Images – either use images from your client or buy your photos.

– Lots of headings and paragraphs to break up the content.

– Great content with a clear call to action. Don’t use PLR for this – either write your content yourself or outsource it. If you need ideas, check similar websites but do not copy. Above all, make your copy engaging.

– Proof – real customer testimonials are suitable for this, as well as an industry-backed fact quoted with sources (IE: “People using a lawyer for their injury claim receive on average $42,000 more per claim than those going through the process without legal representation.” – The American Bar Assoc.) by the way, I just made that up – DO NOT use it.

Q. What shouldn’t I have on my website?

A. Anything that is on the client’s website. Assuming they have their site, you’ll want to use all fresh and unique content. If you need to post their address, do so as an image, so Google doesn’t see it as duplicates. And don’t use PLR. Ever.

Q. How do I charge?

A. It’s up to you and the client, but here are some suggestions:

Get paid for the leads you generate rather than your sales. Of course, you’ll get paid less per lead, but you’ll get paid for every leader regardless of whether or not they become customers. It’s important to note that clients may be more reluctant to do it this way if they are not confident in their ability to close leads. You can overcome their resistance by giving them the first leads for free, so they can test the quality of the charges before agreeing to pay for your services.

Establish a flat rate for each sale you generate. Your client might offer different services at different prices, so that you can establish an additional flat rate for each service. With a flat rate, you typically get paid right away.
Take a certain percentage of each sale. If your client bills far into the future rather than upfront, you might not get paid for a while using this method—commissions over the lifetime of the client/customer relationship. For example, if your client is a landscaper and they service the client weekly for months or years, you could get paid a small amount of money for a long time, which adds up.

Q. Are there any clients I should avoid?

A. Yes. Any business in direct competition with one of your existing clients. For example, you can work with one dentist in each geographical area but not two dentists in the same small to mid-sized town (2 dentists in a large city would almost certainly be alright, but after that, look for other locations or professions.)

Also, avoid any business that does not make a large sale upfront or offer a long-term ongoing service. For example, a bakery wouldn’t be a good business since each sale costs $5 to $20. But a doctor, lawyer, accountant, contractor, swimming pool sales, realtor, insurance agent, mortgage broker, etc., would make good clients. So would someone who provides an ongoing service such as the landscaping and lawn care we mentioned earlier, a maid service, a high-paid personal trainer, etc.?

Q. How do I know which businesses to approach?

A. Look for those already spending money trying to get business. This might be in the Yellow Pages, Google Ads, newspaper advertising, etc. These are businesses looking for more customers and ready to spend money to get those customers.

Q. How do I track leads?

A. The opt-in form makes tracking those leads easy. You can even offer an incentive such as a relevant report to encourage their opt-ins and then follow up to enable them to use your client’s services.

For the phone number, you can use a virtual reception service to take down the name and number of each caller before forwarding them to the business.

Local affiliate marketing can be highly lucrative if you invest time. You’ll need to build websites, optimize them and run Google Ads campaigns. But once you get everything set up, you can continue making money for months or years with minimal additional effort.

If you’ve read Napoleon Hill’s “Think and Grow Rich,” you know that he repeatedly alludes to “the secret” without stating precisely what the secret is.

A quick aside here – I wonder if his book would still be popular to this day if he had STATED the secret rather than leaving it a bit of a mystery. I don’t think so.

Some have said the secret is to “Conceive it, believe it, and then achieve it.” That is, you need to decide what you want, believe with all your heart that you can and WILL achieve it, and then take action necessary to make it happen.

Others have said the secret lies in Chapter 2, where even Napoleon’s son said he could identify the secret. That chapter is about “Desire: The Starting Point Of All Achievement.”

Chapter 2 reads, “The method by which desire for riches can be transmuted into its financial equivalent consists of six definite, practical steps…”

“First. Be definite as to the amount.” Desiring a lot of money or being rich won’t work. Making a goal of $5,000 a month in income will help.

“Second. Determine exactly what you intend to give in return for the money you desire.” You get something for nothing – if you did, you could make a wish, and your desire would appear. You’ll need to exchange your efforts for the money you desire, so what can you do? How can you give tremendous value to others?

“Third. Establish a definite date when you intend to possess the desired money.” Never underestimate the power of a deadline or the need to be accountable to someone. Tell the person you least want to disappoint about your deadline, and be sure they hold you to it.

“Fourth. Create a definite plan for carrying out your desire, and begin at once, whether you are ready or not, to put this plan into action.” Decide what you’re going to do, and then do it. Don’t wait – procrastination leads to excuses which lead to more procrastination. Begin immediately.

“Fifth. Write out a clear, concise statement of the amount of money you intend to acquire, name the time limit for its acquisition, state what you intend to give in return, and describe clearly the plan through which you intend to accumulate it.” You’ve heard this before – Write it down. Make it concrete. Make it REAL.

“Sixth. Read your written statement aloud twice daily, once before retiring at night and once after arising in the morning. AS YOU READ – SEE AND FEEL AND BELIEVE YOURSELF ALREADY IN POSSESSION OF THE MONEY.” Twice a day? I would suggest several times a day. Keep your goal before you, so it’s on your mind constantly, like a mantra. It should be the last thing you think about as you fall asleep, the first thing you think of upon waking, and your prevailing thought throughout the day. As you think about it, BELIEVE it is already done – you are simply going through the formalities.

You’ll notice that these six steps assume one thing – that you will take ACTION and do whatever you need to do to make it happen.

Six steps, plus action.

What would it be if we were to boil this down to its essence?

Conceive it
Believe it
Achieve it

And there you have it – Napoleon Hill’s secret to Thinking and Growing Rich.

Famous salesperson Ben Gay tells the story of being on an ocean-going fishing boat with a very successful friend. His friend hooked a whopper of a fish on his line. The crew went crazy with someone shouting out, “slow down, speed up, hard to port, etc.” Crew members were running around doing whatever they were doing, and the entire boat felt chaos while his friend was working on landing this fish.

But his friend was as calm as could be. When Ben asked his friend how he could stay so quiet amid all this frenzy, he replied, “While the fish and the crew don’t know the outcome of this struggle, I do.”

His friend had already conceived and believed he would catch a giant fish. All that was left was to calmly and serenely land him.