Ever had one of those days where you so busy that you completely forgot about something ultra-important?
Like going to the airport in a rush – and forgetting your passport? Or maybe forgetting about an anniversary, etc?
I’m guessing you have…
Guess what?
I just had a big-time “Blonde Moment” (no offense, blondes…) this week. I completely forgot to make some CRUCIAL additions to the Authority Loophole user guide, simply because during a product launch, you’re simultaneously scrambling to do a thousand things at once…
…and sometimes seemingly “small” things get overlooked.
So it’s totally my fault – and I apologize for the confusion.
Here’s What Got Messed Up:
Authority Loophole actually operates in TWO MODES:
1) Completely White-Hat
2) Gray-Hat
It was Dave’s “job” (which he completed, and very well) to create the content for the gray hat usage of the software. And it was MY responsibility (which I FORGOT about entirely) to add in the sections about the White Hat mode.
So the user guide and training info you’ve received so far has only covered the gray-hat strategy.
Which – obviously – has caused a lot of confusion and even a bit of uproar.
Rightly so, since AL is marketed as being legit and ethical – which it is, along with a gray-hatoption for users who don’t mind pushing the envelope…
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Here’s the “REAL” User Guide – The Way It Should Have Been the First Time:
In addition, Dave has also just created a video that covers the white-hat strategy in more detail. He didn’t have to do this (it was also my responsibility), but did so in the interest of time, and to cover my butt, because I am an idiot: Authority Loophole Best Practices
Once again – this was totally my fault, and something “small” that I had totally forgotten amidst the craziness of the launch. I’m very sorry about the confusion…
-Chris
P.S. No, this isn’t some ass-covering attempt, or some kind of “controversy” tactic.
In fact, for those who may be a bit suspicious about the legimitacy of my bad memory – here is the pre-launch “JV page” I’d personally sent to over 200+ affiliates and partners well over a week ago, which clearly states the 2 modes of operation of Authority Loophole…
Well, obviously “a few days” have come and gone and Authority Loophole still hasn’t launched. As with most product launches, the culprit is a combination of technical stuff, unforeseen tasks, etc. As well as “real life” stuff that tends to take up a fair bit of time…
Anyway – that said, we are aiming to have this out before July 10th, with fingers crossed.
Alright, a bunch of people have been asking questions about the software, the link-building process and of course – the costs involved.
So here’s some answers to your questions…
Q:If The Links Are Being Placed With an Exploit on ONE Widget, Can’t They Just “Shut it Down”?
A: No, “they” can’t. That’s because the widget is simply a script that works with existing blog installations – and literally millions of wordpress blogs use it, several thousand of which are quite established.
Just like how wordpress can’t control its blogs “remotely” on other people’s servers, let alone fix an exploit across millions of sites.
Q: Won’t Google Somehow “Figure This Out” and Discount the Links?
A: Regardless if they “figure it out” or not, the nature of the “hack” is actually not harmful at all. Also, your links will only “stick” on the site if you use the tool properly – and done correctly, the sites you’re grabbing links from won’t be bothered since you’re actually adding value to their blog in the process.
So it wouldn’t concern Google regardless, since it doesn’t interfere with how the widget itself works. “Crap” links won’t stick anyway, which means that Google by default won’t be considering them.
Similar to link-building via dofollow blog comments, it only works if you’re adding value or legitimately RESPONDING to something the blogger has to say. If you do that, using this exploit, then your links will “stick”.
If you simply go out and spam, then you’re wasting your time and burdening the webmasters who will, guaranteed, delete your link anyway.
That’s all I can really say about it without giving away the process, which our software largely automates.
Q: What’s The Price – And What are the Additional Costs to Do This?
A: I can’t reveal the price until it goes live. Sorry – but I will say that it is not high ticket, nor is it recurring.
As for the additional usage costs…
NOTHING. Nada. Zilch.
No extra hosting, tools, resources or anything else required. Use software, build links. That simple – no surprises.
Also, this link building tactic will benefit any type of site. It’s not better-suited at all to any particular search engine or site structure. You can use this to drastically boost the authority of your conduit sites, content sites, MSN Loophole feeder sites (and your blog network, if you’re doing that), your “real business” site, ecommerce sites, authority sites – anything.
The closest I can get to revealing the price right now is to say that it will be accessible to newbies as well.
Q: What If Hundreds or Perhaps Thousands of People Do this….
A: Think of the hundreds of thousands of people out there writing articles for traffic and links. Guess what? That’s still very effective for getting indexed and ranked. Probably always will be.
More than that – think of the millions upon millions of blogs out there that automatically “ping” their RSS feeds into the ping services to get spidered, indexed and ranked.
All that stuff still works folks. And it has worked for years.
Since this strategy – though “clever” and very effective – still depends on value. The people who use this properly will get some of the easiest links in their life.
Those who abuse it – like anything – will be fighting and uphill battle. And even if there are widespread voluntary updates (such as the “nofollow” settings to combat comment spam) at some point in the distant future, only some sites will employ them, and certainly the people who just use this properly won’t have to worry about it anyway.
But as it stands right now, the “link fields” are ripe for harvest, and anyone who actually builds links by using this is in for some seriously easy authority links.
You can speculate, wonder and deliberate – or you can get linked and get ranked. Your call.
Always remember that the BASICS of effective SEO haven’t changed since the search industry took over the “web directories” back in the late 90′s…
Reality Check:Should You Be “Investing In Your Business” If You’re On the Verge of Bankruptcy?
Before I get into this, let me just state up front that it’s a loaded question.
The answer depends on a lot of things, most of which only you can answer (if this in fact applies to you)…
Yes – a lot of people in this industry (myself included) have “success stories” that involve years of struggle, poverty, and so on suddenly being obliterated with an alleged ”tsunami” of traffic of sales, and then building further and further on top of the initial momentum.
John Reese somehow got himself out of $100K worth of bad debt that was spent on “opportunities”, marketing courses and other related stuff – and of course now he’s known as the “Million-Dollar-Day Guy” and likely uses $100 bills for toilet paper.
Armand Morin started out with next to nothing in some crappy little apartment, and now runs a phenomenally succesful internet business that makes mine look like a lemonaid stand.
And apparently Jeff Walker (the product launch guy) also had his “back against the wall” before his first big breakthrough. And on and on it goes.
As for me, well, basically I just ran out of money and had to figure out a way to bring in more if my wife and I wanted to have more freedom, purchase real estate, etc. There was some pressure, for sure, but it wasn’t like I was going bankrupt or anything. I was just sick of not having options.
So what does this mean, then?
Well, I don’t think it means anything.
I don’t think that being “under pressure” is a requirement, or a prerequisite, to success at all. In fact, from what I’ve seen at this point from interacting with literally thousands of customers from this business (“TheLazyMarketer.com & Friends”) , it’s become very clear to me that situation really has nothing to do with it.
What matters is attitude and perseverance. And if you ask me, both the latter and the former are a lot easier come by when you’re not in “panic mode”, with your back up against the wall.
This isn’t a hard business.
Build a site that sells shit. Preferably the kind that people like buying. Get traffic. Make money, and then do it again. And again, and again – etc.
Yes, I’m simplifying it a bit for the sake of effect – but it’s definitely not rocket science.
What it takes is focused effort and logic.
And what’s obvious to me is that people who have previous business experience are – not surprisingly – the most likely to succeed. Becuase they treat this like a task, and they get the job done – or have someone else fill in the blanks on things that they themselves can’t do (like technical stuff).
I think that a lot of the marketers who’ve made it to celebrity status in our little “IM” world have done so as a result of the passion that comes with starting out with nothing, and making it big. They’ve likely all been a part of “IM” since their humble beginnings, and so it makes sense that they are vocal within it when business starts doing well.
So you can rest assured that for every one ”rags to riches” story out there, there’s probably TEN instances where someone with resources, business acumen and drive got online with a project and made it crank out some serious numbers.
But to put things in perspective, no matter what, the money goes to the entrepreneurs. Those who dream AND do.
Not the “opportunity seeker” crowd. (Those who dream, buy stuff, skim, complain, “almost give up”, dream again, buy again… etc.)
Therefore, to answer the initial question, this is what it comes down to…
If you’re in a hard spot right now – and if your NUMBER ONE goal is to generate cash however you can, this is what you need to consider (carefully) before buying, or “investing” anything right now into your internet marketing education:
1. You Need the TIME to Make This Work
I do pretty well at this stage folks, but to be honest – I’m still at the office every day, with hours that are not unlike a regular JOB. (Yes, we travel lots, and yes, we have much more freedom, but it still takes work to keep things growing, to make progress, etc).
So if you’re on the verge of bankruptcy… and you’ve got a fulltime job that at least keeps food on the table… and you’ve got kids and/or a spouse that require a lot of your time…
…then it’s time to get real.
Don’t buy stuff that you know you don’t have time to implement.
I know it’s a lot more exciting to dwell on things related to HOPE – but honestly speaking, the smarter thing is likely to focus on your current financial state – DEAL WITH IT HEAD ON – and then, once you’ve enacted a sensible and logical plan with the help of someone who knows what they’re doing, then you can move forward, taking steps to make time to learn the ropes of this business, and most importantly, work at it.
Okay, on to the next point…
2. To Build a Business in Addition to Working a Job, You’ll Need to Sacrifice Something
You know that little saying “do today what others won’t so tomorrow you can do what other’s can’t”. That’s completely true.
It can be hard at first, but there WILL be sacrifice on your part.
And in addition to making time, you also need to carefully monitor your capital when you start out. It’s much easier to get things going if you’re not “house poor”, proverbially or literally.
Get rid of stuff in your life that racks up pointless expenses, or needlessly occupies your time.
Forget about “ego” and what your peers think if you have to temporarily “lower” your standards of living. (Nobody really cares what you do anyway – as humans we’re all so damn preoccupied with what others think about us that it doesn’t really matter).
And furthermore - don’t be deceived – most people who live a so-called “lavish lifestyle” are in so much consumer debt it would make your head spin if you saw their real financial picture. So don’t fall for the trap. It’s all smoke and mirrors, and most of them cry themselves to sleep at night (or get divorced over the stress of it all).
If you can, try to live under your means while you’re building things up. If you stick with it, and if you play it smart, eventually you’ll be able to live like a rock star and still be way under your means.
Sarah and I travel lots, and I have a nice little 2002 BMW M3 (bought used, in cash for a great price), I have a fairly nice office to work out of, and we have relative freedom to do whatever throughout the day. But the vast majority of our after-tax take goes into investment properties (real estate).
Yes, we could blow everything. I could lease a Lamborghini. We could live in a $1M home. We could buy tons of pointless “show off” crap for the sole purpose of making a statement (to people who really don’t care).
But soon enough you reach a point where your expenses match your income – and then you’re back on the treadmill again.
And for what?
I don’t know about you, but I’d far rather live under the radar for a while, avoid bad debt and liabilities like the plague, play it smart and end up with a business (and assets) that would allow for a lot of options over the long-term.
It doesn’t matter how much money you have, or how much you currently make – what matters is your mindset.
If you’re blowing your whole paycheck on a $40,000 annual salary – trust me – you’ll blow it just as easily if your business starts churning out $40K a month.
So take a close look at your track record, and ask yourself – “am I really cut out for running a business?”
If you’re only in this for the cash, or the “image” that you can pseudo-create with that cash – then I would say that you probably don’t have the right disposition to hunker down, treat this like a business and build long-term success. That’s because your business is going to need a lot of the cash that it generates at first.
Which is why if you’re “desperate for money” or intent on spending everything you make on yourself, then you’ll just end up starving your business to death, ending up right back where you started.
The people that succeed with IM are fascinated by the business model itself. As much as they love the lifestyle and rewards of a successful online portfolio – they’re equally in love with the process. Like I said, it’s the entrepreneurs who will make it big online.
That’s because sacrifice for “the cause” comes naturally to entrepreneurs. It’s not a constant struggle; it’s a default setting.
And finally…
3. Do You Finish What You Start?
When I first got into this business, I would deliberate and “plan” stuff endlessly. Everything had to be perfect, and leveraged for maximum results. In reality, all of this back-and-forth doddling was exactly the reason why I wasn’t seeing much in the way of results.
Because focused action = results. That formula will always work for you. Even if the “action” isn’t perfect, or taking advantage of every possible form of leverage, etc.
Everything that detracts from you taking action (such as endlessly “learning”, planning too much, researching too much, etc.) directly competes with your available time to do what is actually profitable.
So if you find that you constantly deliberate, over-think stuff, take a long time to make decisions, and in general have difficulty getting stuff done and completed – then you WILL struggle with this business.
But if you treat this like building a deck in your backyard, where you do the necessary research, obtain a deck building plan, get the supplies you need and then just get out there and DO it – you’ll see results.
Most people’s proverbial “deck projects” go something like this:
- See their neighbor’s deck, get really excited about it
- Go online and read up on deck building – even more excited now
- Get wrapped up in the whole world of “deck building”, buying lots of How-To guides, blueprints, etc.
- Eventually buy high-end deck building tools
- Become unsure about the deck, start to question themselves and start to deliberate
- Buy even more how-to guides and tools, to “reassure” themselves that the deck was a good idea
- Finally they start building the deck, but it’s hard work, so they give up after an hour
- Complain about decks, deck-building “gurus”, etc. to make themselves feel better
- See their neighbor’s porch swing, get really excited about it….
What’s the problem with this picture?
It’s insanity!
Just build the damn deck already! Struggle through it and get it done! Quit stalling, “learning”, deliberating, perfecting… and get out there and pound some nails.
But as ridiculous as this seems, it is a rampant pattern in the business world – particulary with newbies who are attempting their first self-employment project.
So if this is a pattern that seems consistent with your own track record, then you either need to make some serious mindset adjustments and dedicate yourself to action…
…or you need to realize that maybe your personality type is simply not cut out for this.
Especially if you’re doing it out of desperation.
Conclusion:
Should you be buying stuff if your “back is up against the wall” and it’s a last ditch effort prior to bankruptcy?
All I can say is that if you don’t have:
1. Time
2. The Ability to Sacrifice Activities/Expenses, and
3. An Action-Oriented Personality
Then you probably shouldn’t be spending any money right now on anything – since it’s just going to go to waste anyway. At least until you’re in a better position.
Now, please don’t take this article as being a “doomsday” prophecy if you happen to relate to one of the negative attributes I’d listed above.
The fact is, I think everyone deals with procrastination, image-dwelling, the desire to “dream” rather than act, etc.
I know I do – and I used to overthink things to death (I called it “planning”). Over time, things changed (and I changed my mindset, attitude, etc.) because it’s undeniable that action breeds results. And when you see results first hand, it becomes addictive. You get your research and “info” for a project as fast as possible and then focus on actually DOING it.
So wherever you’re at, you definitely can change your mindset, your attitude and so on so that you can be action-oriented.
But if you KNOW, deep-down, that right now you’re simply buying stuff in this industry on “hope”, or because it’s entertaining – then don’t waste your time, or your money.
If your TRUE intention isn’t to ACT, then don’t invest in yourself.
You’ll only end up disappointed, and in worse financial shape than you were previously.
I’ve got something very cool that’s being released in a few days…
It’s a software program developed by Dave Kelly (from Linkvana) that performs a “white hat exploit” to legitimately place your backlink on major authority sites that use a popular, widely-used widget.
In fact, this widget normally appears on the home page, which means that it’s very easy to get PR5+ backlinks with virtually no “effort” whatsoever.
You simply load up the software program – which is called Authority Loophole – and then run a simple search for your base keywords, and it pulls up every site that uses the “exploitable” widget. And there are thousands upon thousands of very established authority sites that use it.
The process of placing your link can take anywhere from 1 to 10 minutes on each site, but usually on the lower end of that.
Conservatively speaking, your links will last anywhere from 1 week to 1 year. It all depends on the nature of the site, and how they’re using the widget. Regardless, the amount of spidering activity and initial rankings can catapult any site very quickly.
But the bottom line is that this is the easiest, fastest and most certainly the “cheapest” (as in: free) way to get authoritative backlinks that currently exists.
Authority Loophole will be available in a few days time.
This will be very effective for getting indexed – and ranked (quickly) – in all 3 major search engines, but most particularly, Google.
That’s because these kinds of links are NOT seen by spiders as easy to get. Google does NOT consider this to be a “freebie” link, such as with article submission, directory subs, etc.
These links will carry the weight of an authority site linking to YOUR site directly from a strong page, sitewide or (usually) the home page.
Today’s message is a very, very important one. It’s something that most full-time marketers who make a great living intrinsically understand, while the scores of misguided beginners just don’t seem to “get”.
And I would like for the playing field to be at least somewhat leveled for those who read this blog post.
So let’s start off by identifying the dangers of mistaking hype for reality so as to prevent a chain reaction of both destruction and limitation that will plague your business right from the start – and all due to perceived, imaginary threats…
Dangerous Assumption #1: “Popular Beliefs Are Usually Right”
Millions of people have died senselessly – in this century alone - because enough people were led to believe a complete MYTH. Examples include the atrocities committed by the Nazi’s in WWII (believing that certain races were inferior), the widespread plague of AIDS victims in Africa (due to certain beliefs about how to rid one’s self of the disease), and so on.
The same ridiculous patterns of senseless, mass hysteria are clearly evident every day – all you have to do is turn on the news for a few minutes to have your fill of grossly-exaggerated (or outright “invented”) potential security threats, the “recession”, pending disasters, etc.
It’s endless, by necessity – because the underlying TRUTH is that “doom and gloom” is the media-at-large’s central offer.
It’s what they sell.
A Close Encounter With Mass Hysteria…
The latest media phenomenon was the “Swine Flu” epidemic. Or should I say Whine Flu. This is one example of how unbelievably irrational people can be – on a global scale – and it struck pretty close to home for Sarah and I as well…
We’d planned a trip to Mexico with some very good friends of ours, and we’d been looking forward to it for months. A friend of theirs has a really nice beach house near Guayabitos (north of Puerto Vallarta) that we’d be staying at, close to the surf, yet tucked away in a nice, friendly little Mexican village.
Sure enough, about a week before our departure from Canada, the “swine flu” outbreak occurred – becoming the next media darling in one fell swoop. And in a way, it was kind of nice, since the media finally shut up about the “recession” (maybe it died of swine flu as well?)
Nevertheless, since it seemed every government was literally tripping over themselves to “react” to the coming pandemic, we kept a close eye on airline companies, quarantine procedures and travel restrictions that might affect our trip.
So we watched the news every day, scoured internet headlines and checked the WHO (World Health Organization) site daily, just to keep tabs on what was going on.
And it was a sickening experience (pun) – and a sobering lesson in just how damaging hype can truly become. Here are some highlights…
* The flu bug was (mistakenly) called “swine flu”, which instantly led numerous countries to literally BAN pork importation from all of North America, crippling an entire industry on a whim. And the geniuses over in Egypt’s government decided that they should slaughter 300,000 of their pigs because they might be bad. Even though EVERY credible source on the flu said that there was zero scientific connection between the influenza strain and pork.
* Several countries and HUNDREDS of airlines (Air Canada included) just outright stopped flying into Mexico. Anywhere in Mexico – not just Mex City. This was directly against the advice of the World Health Organization, which clearly stated and is still stating that travel restrictions are pointless and ineffective against the spread of the flu virus, which had already spread to other countries anyway.
* In Canada, the news hype was literally over-the-top to the point of comedy. In one case, the Vancouver news station was declaring that the swine flu cases had “doubled” in the last week, urging the TV audience to stay tuned for the full story. So we did, only to find out that it had “doubled” from 3 people, to 6. Even the “expert” doctor they’d interviewed was coyly addressing the situation with obvious contempt, saying that 6 people out of the 8,000,000 or so that live in BC – “doubled” or not – is about as worrisome as UFO abduction.
* Schools all across North America closed. People stopped going to their jobs. Stopped going OUTSIDE. Mask sales must’ve been off the charts…
* Amazingly, there were glaring discrepancies between the “victim” figures reported by the media, and the actual figures as recorded and confirmed by the World Health Organization. While talking heads were spouting lies about “hundreds being dead from swine flu…”, the WHO was reporting less than 20 deaths, worldwide – all but one occuring in Mexico City (and in one of the most impoverished districts, no less).
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
But what’s truly sad is that – just like the “recession” – once again….
The Compunding Effects of Media Hype Far Outweigh The Actual Damage From the “Disaster” Itself
As the picture shows above, what we’ve seen since we’ve arrived in Puerto Vallarta has been astonishing. With the thousands of cancelled/restricted flights, literally zero Cruise Ship landings and other travel hassles, since we’ve arrived and spent time in Puerto Vallarta, several popular surfing beach spots and other attractions, we’ve seen less than 50 other tourists (and we’ve been here for 2 weeks now).
Every restaurant is barren. Every tour operator is lucky to see one tour a week.
Almost every store we visit where Sarah or Kim (my friend’s wife) buy something, the vendor usually admits that it was the first sale that day. Or week. It’s crazy.
There’s businesses closing down, jobs being cut in droves and livelihoods drying up.
And of course, inevitably, now the media is saying that the swine flu is no different than the regular flu, etc.
But it’s too late. The damage is already done.
This is the power – the destructive power – of widespread hype. Of going with the crowd, and assuming that what’s popular is true.
It’s the Same in Internet Marketing…
This industry is particularly susceptible to hype, and mass “belief”, simply because much of the market is inexperienced, or at the beginning of the learning phase. It’s easy to get sucked into thinking that only ONE method works. Or that old methods are somehow less effective than “new” ones.
One month there will be a bunch of hype about CPA, and that it’s the future of IM.
Next month, there will be a bunch of hype about how important it is to build a list, and that everything else is just gravy.
And of course, the month after that, the emphasis will be on affiliate marketing. Or whatever.
And on and on it goes.
What you have to realize is that – just like media – everyone has an agenda. Their own.
Even me.
Even you.
Everyone.
But that’s not necessarily bad. That’s the way life is, anyway, whether we admit it or not. Everybody has an agenda – a plan. A way that they think works “best”. And reality is always a different picture, especially from the viewpoint of someone else.
So that brings me to the second point of this blog post…
This is something that a lot of people don’t want to hear, or consider – or want me to convey. But it’s true.
And it applies to both positive AND negative results.
In other words, just because someone succeeded with something – it doesn’t mean that you’ll succeed with that method. Often times, the success of a given strategy is actually reliant on a specific industry – or an authoritative writing style – that a total newbie won’t be able to emulate just by “doing the same thing”.
AND:
Just because someone FAILED with something – it doesn’t mean that you’ll fail with that, either.
That’s very important. Keep that in mind as you paruse the various marketing forums and become witness to one gripe story after the next about how some method doesn’t work, etc.
Something I’ve learned over the years is that when it comes to simple marketing strategies (SEO, PPC, Product Creation, Affiliate Marketing, Email Marketing, Sales Copy writing, etc.), there are usually three types of characters you’ll encounter who have something to say about them:
1. Someone who raves about them – because they have an agenda
2. Someone who complains that “it’s all a scam” – because they’re beginners and they didn’t have traffic, conversion or both
3. Someone who does these things, recognizes that they obviously work – and keeps on doing them. They’ll occasionally make comments on blogs, forums or directly to people in the industry.
The first 2 are very vocal – especially the beginners who (mistakenly) think that they’ve “tried” something, failed, and that their “results” should be taken as gospel truth. In reality, their results should be taken with a 900 lb grain of salt.
The 3rd type of marketer, above, is usually not very vocal simply because they don’t care, and because they’re too busy actually doing stuff to participate in forums, discussions, etc. It’s sort of like how fat people love talking about diets and obscure weight-loss methods, etc.
When in reality it’s the person who simply eats less and has an active lifestyle that stays in shape. No mystery there.
Guess what?
It’s the same with internet marketing.
The truth is that marketers who get results are the ones driving traffic to offers, building lists and building up their online assets. It’s pretty straight-forward, and it’s all in front of you. Just look at your competitors. The top-dogs in your markets of interest. Not too difficult to see what works.
And, obviously, the marketers who DON’T get results simply aren’t doing those things. They’re the type that are continually looking for “fast money”, shortcuts and the easiest way possible to make money.
It will come with time, but to accurately determine TRUTH in this industry, you’ve got to do two things:
1. Ignore information from marketers that are in line with an agenda (ie. pre-launch “content”)
2. Ignore the “Can’t-Do-Its”, naysayers and whiners in general, because 99% of the time their results are anything but accurate or conclusive.
As you spend time in this industry, you’ll begin to see this.
And you’ll also, eventually, begin to meet people who genuinely make a fortune on the net – people who do simple things, over and over again.
People who actually produce – rather than consume and complain.
So don’t be a sucker for hype, and don’t assume that popular notions, “beliefs” or the alleged results of vested or inexperienced marketers are a basis for truth.
Instead - LEAVE the forums. Close your emails. Ignore other marketers for a few minutes – and just go to Google and actually start researching your markets yourself.
Check out product networks like Clickbank, CJ, LinkShare and others – see what’s hot. See how other affiliates are promoting them.
It’s not hard.
And THAT is conclusive.
THAT is what is working.
Don’t fall victim to invented threats, or perceived “warnings” about a certain strategy or method. Chances are – it’s hype.
Similarly, don’t get suckered into believing that ONLY _______ actually works. Once again, it’s hype.
A lot of people silently and unknowingly sabotage their business, their own livelihood, because they take everything they see in the marketing industry as gospel truth.
Instead, go with what you can actually see yourself. Do your research, watch your competitors and see what the ACTIVE marketers are actually doing.
Let me assure you – the view from “Mexico” (proverbial and literal) is a lot different than how the media paints it…
Buenos Tardes
-Chris
P.S. Here’s some pics from Mexico, as well as some pictures from Las Vegas that you might enjoy. See the previous blog post if the Ferrari pictures seem out of context…
P.P.S Yes, the masks are a joke…
My wife Sarah sun-tanning on the beach, safely
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Me and my friend Cam (left) on our beach house patio
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Me and our rented Ferrari F430. In red rock canyon, just outside of Vegas
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Cruising around… is a lot more fun OUT of town than in it…
I’m currently posting this whilst waiting in the departure gate to board my flight home from Las Vegas – so if it seems a bit brief, it’s because I’m trying to press “Publish” before my plane leaves
Alright – here we go – possibly the easiest way to make MORE money as an affiliate…
Sell High-Ticket or Recurring Items
(“Thanks captain obvious!”)
Yeah, I know. It is obvious. But for some reason, a lot of affiliates don’t “get” how high-priced items would actually sell, simply because THEY are not their market. Which is a classic fundamental mistake that applies to thousands of different contexts in business…
Let me give you an example of something I just saw first-hand this week that was a shocking reminder of just how true this really is…
I spent the last 4 days or so in Vegas hanging out with my brother and his wife, and before we left I’d reserved a Ferrari F430 from one of the numerous Exotic rental companies in the city. And it was a fair bit of change for a 24 hour rental (and it was also extremely fun!)
That was cool and everything, but what really blew me away was that I was very, very lucky to have been able to rent it at all, simply because you need to book almost a month in advance just to get any of their cars – as I later discovered from talking with the owner, as well as seeing excited, old rich dudes flocking into the office one after the next.
And this was several MILES off of the main strip. It was on the edge of the city limits in a warehouse district.
And they had something like 15 exotics in their fleet, each renting for about $500 – $1100 or so per day. I’m sure you can do the math on what 15 vehicles might bring in on a daily basis if even 30% of them were rented out.
So how do they advertise?
Google adwords. And from what I gathered, it’s a very, very amateur campaign at best, and the clicks are cheap.
Maybe at most a couple hundred visitors a day – and from that they are busy like crazy.
Doing thousands a day in sales, and probably profit as well.
So what’s the lesson?
Well, it’s twofold:
1. High-ticket items are an easy sell to THEIR respective market, regardless of your assumptions
2. It’s the same amount of effort to sell a $20 ebook as it is to sell a high-ticket product.
Just connect a different set of buyers to high-ticket products, and you’re looking at making way, way more money just based on the math alone.
I’m not saying that this is a golden rule or anything, but you should definitely include high-ticket stuff in your lineup of affiliate promotions. And the same goes for recurring products and so on.
Most importantly – DO NOT make assumptions about your market, or what people will spend.
You can easily multiply your profit with no extra “effort” just by selling something that’s a lot more money.
Remember – all you’re doing is connecting buyers with product.
I’m going to share a formula for ”success” with you today that will single-handedly remove almost every reason for failure you have as an affiliate marketer.
But first I’m going to explain WHY this formula is so effective…
They say the failure rate for small business startups is 5 out of 6.
For affiliates and people who want to “make money” online – I’d say it’s closer to 98 out of 100.
And not because it’s too difficult, or too technical, or because some strategy or tactic doesn’t “work”.
The truth is that most people fail because of one or all of the following:
1. Fundamental issues (marketing something that doesn’t sell)
2. Commitment issues (not following through, not giving it an honest shot, expecting overnight success)
3. Structural issues (fractured attempts, unfinished projects, no proper systems in place, etc)
4. Cash-flow issues (not re-investing some profits into the business to perpetuate growth)
In fact, of all the emails I’ve received from people who are struggling, who just can’t seem to make it work – wanna know what’s almost always the common factor?
They have virtually ZERO web-presence!
And many of them – a shocking number, actually - don’t even have a website!
In fact, I received an email a few months ago from a guy that had spent over $60,000 in courses, seminars, “systems” and God-knows what else, and these were literally his exact words:
“…Because nothing i have done or spent so far has helped me get up [my] first complete site….”
As you can imagine, my reaction was bordering on shock and utter disbelief. Aside from the fact that you can outright BUY established sites already pulling down thousands of dollars a month for $60K on places like SitePoint.com – what really got me was the fact that this guy was literally expecting success to just “manifest” itself, somehow, by maxing out his credit limit on one training course after the next.
This was a part of my response to him:
“…If you’re at a point where you’ve invested $60,000 in “learning” and you don’t even have a SITE up and running – then I really think you should completely stop spending money and actually USE the training you’ve been given.
You can learn and “discover” all the secrets in the world.
But ultimately – it’s still up to YOU to actually put that into action.
Please do NOT buy anything from me, or anyone else, until you’ve come to terms with the reality of your situation (ie. spending vs. action) and establish a clear plan that you actually carry through on.
I mean this sincerely, and with entirely good intentions.
I’m sorry if I come across a bit harsh, but this is a serious issue. Blowing $60K on an “education” without a single thing to show for it points to some underlying issues. For one thing – nobody “made” you do that. That was your choice, entirely.
Second – unless you miraculously managed to buy the worst possible information every time, for $60K worth of marketing materials, there’s gotta be SOMETHING of actionable value there. Have you ever once followed through on anything that you learned from doing so?
Remember that our roles as teachers is to provide actionable content. I don’t know about other people – but I make damn sure everything I sell is actionable on its own.
And likewise, YOUR role as the customer is to take that content and put it into action so that you benefit from it.
Here’s a page that you might benefit from reading:
Now – would you like to know the real reason why (in my opinion) the $60K guy and so many other “marketers” just jump from one course to the next, without actually DOING a damn thing?
It’s simple:
1. They have no desire to build a business or serve customers – they only want MONEY.
2. They had no real intention of trying, because they prefer the “excitement” of new discovery to the results of a certain four-letter word called…
WORK
Ah yes. It’s an ironic reality for the majority of opportunity-seekers.
Their very motivation is what kills their chance of success.
While actual marketers are out there quickly building sites, making offers, driving traffic and providing VALUE, people who just want “the money” will almost indefinitely move from one thing to the next, ever-searching for a “system” that does everything for them.
So they can get money.
They buy into all the hype because it’s entertaining and it’s easier than WORK.
Whereas real marketers take all the “hype” at face value and invest in what they plan on using in accordance with what they’re already doing, or planning to actually do.
(Are you starting to see a “secret pattern” emerging here?)
And guess what – it practically doesn’t matter what you do. Every viable “strategy” and “tactic” works.
Continuity works.
Selling infoproducts works.
Selling stuff on Ebay works.
The conduit method works.
List-building works.
CPA offers work.
Hell – even making adsense sites works great (in fact I just got off the phone with a guy who makes a huge six-figure income with Adsense literally 5 minutes before writing this).
Virtually ANYTHING works…
…if YOU put in the work!
And with that said, as promised – here’s a simple formula that won’t cost you $60,000 to “learn”, that works every time and always will:
A Simple Formula For Nearly-Instant Results
Here it is, plain and simple…
You’re going to choose an ultra simple business model (I’ve listed a detailed example below) and you’re going to LAUNCH it in 7 days.
Not have a “plan” drafted in 7 days.
Not buy some jackasses course about the strategy.
Not get all excited about it and blab your virtual mouth off about it on marketing forums….
You’re going to actually DO it.
And this method ONLY works if you start, build, complete and actually LAUNCH it within 7 days or less, because that deadline ensures simplicity, feasibility and a realistic plan of action that won’t continually “grow” 100 times larger than the initial idea (which has the exact same net result as procrastination – regardless of the intention)…
So we’re clear?
Good.
Now let’s look at a perfect example of a super-simple business model that works, has always worked, and always will work – that you can start and finish in 7 days or less…
1. Find a good product in a niche that’s opt-in list friendly. Examples include anything related to music, investing, health/fitness, hobbies, sports, and so on. In general, if the vendors in the market are list-building, there’s a good reason why. Now go scour Clickbank, CJ.com, AzoogleAds, ShareASale.com and others and make a list of all the niches where the vendors have an opt-in form.
You will become an affiliate for this product, and the following steps will explain how you promote it.
Hint: There’s hundreds, if not thousands.
2. Go buy a PLR ebook or report related to that topic. Just google “niche + plr” or whatever and in many cases you’ll be able to find great reports that you can totally re-brand, re-name and all that stuff for as little as $5 or even less. Some examples of sites that sell PLR like this are Master-Resale-Rights and PLR Store.
Modify that PLR report so that it’s easy to read, and have it recommend your chosen product (use an authoritative, conversational pre-sell at the beginning, end and perhaps in one or two spots within the report).
3. Buy a Domain Name and Set Up an Offer For a 7-Day Mini-Course And the PLR Report. “Sell” the report with a brief pitch, and then set up your Aweber form (or whatever autoresponder you use) to add the lead to your opt-in list.
Hint: If you’d like thousands of ideas of what you can do and model after, just Google “7 day mini course” and you’ll have about a year’s worth of things to essentially copy ahead of you…
4. Create 7 Follow-Up Messages, Staggering Their Delivery a Day Apart. These will be 7 useful articles that focus on the selling points that your target affiliate offer focuses on as well. Ideally, the product you’re promoting should be a shortcut, or some kind of automation, so that your quality tutorial content acts as an amazing pre-sell for your subscribers to genuinely save time, automate, etc. with the actual offer.
As an example, a 7-day mini-course on learning guitar could include the basics of how to read tabs, tuning tips and so on, all the while naturally recommending your primary offer – whatever that may be (perhaps a guitar membership site or continuity program, etc.)
If you’re stuck, just join a bunch of related 7-day courses and write about the same topics. Easy.
Hell, some of the good affiliate programs literally give away awesome content that you can use for your mini-course!
5. Go to EzineArticles.com, YouTube.com, ExpertVillage.com and Other Reprintable Content Sources and Find 50 Quality Articles/Videos. Boom. You now have quality followup autoresponder content for an entire YEAR of easily & effortlessly recycling traffic by staggering the messages 7 days apart.
Host the reprinted article or embedded video on a dedicated page of YOUR site, and place a brief recommendation for the offer (or other methods of monetization) at the top and bottom of the content.
Keep the actual emails that point to those pages brief, and link to the main offer as well as a secondary link.
Here’s an example:
——————————–
Subject: GuitarMaster Issue #34 – Learn This Hot Blues Riff in 3 Minutes Flat…
Hi {!name},
This is Joe from GuitarMaster.
Today’s guest contributor is Fred Flinstone, a world-renowned blues guitarist who [blah blah blah...]
Check out this tutorial that will have you playing one of his hottest riffs in less than 3 minutes – even for beginners:
–> Yoursite.com/issue37.html
Enjoy!
-Joe
P.S. If you’re serious about learning guitar – and actually sounding hot – then you need to learn from the best. I still haven’t found a better resource than [Whatever Course] at YourAffLink.com
Check ‘em out…
——————————–
See how easy this is?
You don’t even need to outsource articles – just use pre-existing content!
The whole idea is to recycle your traffic and send more and more prospects to the offer over time.
In addition to these consistent followups, you can also throw in straight pre-sells that only mention the offer. Or perhaps other offers with different angles.
Now you’ve got a system in place for automatically multiplying the value of your traffic through the roof.
Which brings us to the next and final step…
6. Get Traffic. Add articles to your site, submit articles to other sites for traffic, optimize and get organic traffic, build a dedicated landing page and carefully run PPC tests for relevant keywords, use forum signature links and participate in forums, cite your URL as a relevant source on Yahoo Answers, exchange content/promos with other webmasters, and once you’ve got a bit of a list going – then start doing cross-promos to build your list that much faster.
You know the drill – it’s just traffic building 101.
Even if you just do the free strategies (articles, forums, eventual organic long-tail, etc.), you’ll still get traffic and you’ll still get subscribers if your offer matches what they want.
You can EASILY do all this in 7 days or less. If you can’t, then this is seriously not the business for you. Hell, you can even outsource this entire process for a couple hundred bucks (and if you do, then why not just send your freelancers to this blog post for pre-written instructions?)
Even if your site gets just a few visitors a day and your list builds by a few subscribers a day, if you’re promoting a hot offer and genuinely giving your subscribers something interesting – you WILL see sales.
And over time, your list (and compounding recycled traffic) will grow, along with your sales. Not to mention – you’ll be able to broadcast to your subscribers any time you want. So if it went well and you decide to scale up – great! You’ve already got an email list to work with – and that’s a key factor in building an authority blog, forums, communities, natural links, etc.
It’s also very helpful if you decide to launch your own product in the market at some point.
So this is just a 7-day strategy, from start to finish – including the traffic building elements. You could set up your PLR report, your opt-in offer and ALL your autoresponder content/followups in a day or two, max. (And no, you don’t have to go and find exactly 50 content pieces for followups. You could even just find 10 for starters and then add to it if the campaign was performing).
And the remaining 5 or 6 days you spend on the traffic & external content elements. Articles for the site. Articles for submission to other sites. Directory submissions, forum traffic, yahoo answers, relevant blog comments, PPC tests, developing useful software (see conduit.com) and distributing it, and so on.
It isn’t hard and it’s completely systematic.
If you’re just starting out (or if you have nothing to show for your efforts thus far), then even if you did this just 3 times a month, you’d be on your way to seeing consistent results very quickly.
Once you learn how to “pre-sell” effectively (and it simply comes with practice), then each of these sites can easily earn you hundreds of dollars a month, or perhaps even more. In fact, I have sites like this that I haven’t promoted or even thought about it YEARS – and they still generate consistent sales every month. And I’m talking about sites that are like TWO pages total, almost zero search engine visibility…
Obviously, in time you’ll have some winners that you can scale up.
But even if all you do is just duplicate this process in as many viable niches as you can find, you’d be earning a 6-figure income pretty damn quick – and you’d have an email list in each of those markets as well.
So really, folks – there’s no excuse.
That’s as simple as it gets and it will ALWAYS work.
Question is…
Will you?
-Chris
P.S. And if you’re interested in gaining access to my advanced list-building methods, check out the Rapid List Profit Formula
Here’s an overview of what I’m launching/developing in ’09.
Please let me know if I’m missing anything that you’d like to see!
Okay, here goes…
First thing first – and this is already completed – the product review search engine.
This is very, very cool. Very simple – but very cool. It saves you hours of searching through forums (and trying to filter out affiliate content) when you’re sourcing actual consumer comments about virtually ANY product.
Make sure you bookmark that one. It’s incredibly useful.
Okay, now – after the last of the VIP products is released – here is what’s on the menu for 2009…
1. Pre-built affiliate content sites in virtually every profitable market.
I’m not just talking the clickbank markets. I’m talking everything that sells. CJ, CPA, ClickBank, ShareaSale, MarketHealth – you name it. We’re in the process of making it ultra easy for affiliates to get into markets quickly, start driving traffic and making profits.
This will NOT be a membership site. It will be like a store, where you can add sites/content packs to a “cart” and then checkout. That way you can just get what you want for the markets you want to pursue, and then come back later for more as need be. I’ve always thought the PLR membership model was kind of limited. I don’t want to wait 4 months to get the right kind of content for a niche that interests me…
For applicable markets, there will also be opt-in offers, autoresponder sequences, etc. The whole sha-bang.
Affiliates can just go get a 15-20 page content/review site, rewrite the content and BOOM – you’re ready to go with a totally unique “tester” site in any given market.
The sites will be totally pro and optimized for great conversions.
Status: In development, first 10 sites are already being developed. In time there will be hundreds.
2. “Six Months to Six Figures”
A 6-month course that delivers a weekly action plan. Obviously, the result is that those who actually FOLLOW each week’s set of actions will have built the framework for a 6-figure online business.
Status: In development. Content is in progress.
3. “Foolproof Comissions”
This will be a resource for serious affiliates, where merchants will provide specific (actual) conversion figures, PPC data and so on for their products. This will have a limited membership to try and cap competition. Priced accordingly.
Status: Still in idea stage – your suggestions are most welcome!
4. “Affiliate Scope”
An affiliate program directory with a twist. You’ll be able to sort by payout, continuity, reputation/rating, datafeeds, etc. Will likely be free.
Status: Still in idea stage – your suggestions are most welcome!
5. Confessions of a Lazy Super-Affiliate: Vol. II
Bigger, badder and bolder – and still way underpriced, just like the current one.
I’ve got some very cool things and examples in this one…
Status: In development, content is in progress.
So there ya go
That’s a quick snapshot into what’s going on in ’09 in terms of TheLazyMarketer…
Now – am I missing anything?
Is there something you’d like to make sure that I include with some of the mentioned resources?
Please post a comment below and let me know.
I read every comment.
Thanks
-Chris
P.S. For those of you who purchased my latest VIP product, the Hot Product Formula, I’ll be releasing an additional (free) update to the course so as to clarify a few things based on some of the feedback I’ve received. The “patch” will be released right away.
And it’s been several months since the site went live…
If you haven’t already guessed – I’m talking about a site that sells a digital product, where basically ALL of the traffic volume is generated by the affiliate force.
And it’s just one site of several. Another of my product sites (just a one-pager salesletter, actually) has seen exactly 15,874 visitors so far this month, and it was released in 2007. Over 2 years ago, and still getting about 1,000 visitors a day. Passively.
I do nothing beyond my initial one-time effort, aside from the occasional split-test.
Still another of my products (in a really weird niche) has received 6,912 visitors so far this month, from a mixture of affiliate traffic, word-of-mouth and organic traffic.
And that’s just some of my more substantial examples.
If you can’t see the power of affiliate leverage for generating traffic, building huge opt-in lists and – obviously – driving sales, then you’re really missing the whole POINT of internet marketing.
The reason why there’s so much opportunity online is because you can harness other people’s talent. Other people’s resources. Other people’s time – and even their advertising investment.
In fact, when it comes to traffic – running an affiliate program is the best deal going. Especially for digital product vendors, because your distribution and “inventory” costs are non-existent. It’s the ultimate traffic strategy, hands-down.
It’s also one of the highest-leverage, easiest and fastest ways to build the foundation of a REAL business. One that can create a dependable (and potentially very exciting) livelihood for you. And one that can be sold off for anywhere from 10 to 24 months earnings (or much more, depending on what you sell, and your client base).
So with all that said – why aren’t more people doing this?
That’s a good question…
I know people who’ve spent literally half a day making a product that they later turned around and made over SIX FIGURES with in a few months time.
Hell, even my own ”conduit method” report is something like 14 pages long and as of tonight I’ve sold exactly 3,914 copies of it at $14.95 a pop (and that doesn’t include the backend) since it was launched.
(Took me about an hour or two to put together.)
I could go on and on.
In contrast, I’ve built affiliate sites with over 300+ pages of unique content that haven’t even come close to generating the kind of traffic, sales and revenues that I have by taking the simpler road – with far less effort – and creating a single offer that affiliates can sell.
And not only that – I’ve also built my “buyer lists” by doing so, across a few well-chosen niches, into the tens of thousands.
Believe me – that does NOT happen unless you’re either leveraging affiliates, or spending major cheese on advertising. It ain’t gonna happen by building squidoo lenses or submitting articles to EzineArticles.com…
So here’s the deal:
Very shortly I’m launching my next VIP report, called “How to Create a HOT-Selling, 100% Unique Product in as Little as 24 Hours”.
Here’s some of the things it will cover…
* How to CHOOSE YOUR MARKET (the most important step)
* What exactly to SELL to that market (also highly important)
* High-value products that you can EASILY create in 24 hours or less
* How to “use” someone else’s product to sell on your own – exclusively
* How to make it sell like crazy (advanced selling/copy tactics that are simple, yet profound)
* A simple, easy-to-follow and highly effective “product launch sequence” that you can use in ANY niche, any market
* How to recruit tons of motivated affiliates
* Think beyond “ebooks” – I cover 5 different ways to create digital products that deliver major value, that are a lot easier and faster to create than a book – and that you can sell for a mint…
* How one company simply sells organized facts (to save other people time) for upwards of $3000 per DOWNLOAD.
And more.
Stay tuned – and since I’m just in the final stages of wrapping up the report, if you have any last minute questions or requests about how to successfully build and launch a digital product – please post it below as a comment.
