Work Yourself Up!

Starting a Membership Site: Have a Plan

What is it that they say? If you don't have a plan, then you plan to fail. The same can be said about starting a successful online business. In particular we are talking about membership sites.

Just about everyone has seen at least one membership site. It is a website where you have to be a paying member to gain access to the content and other materials that are showcased on the site. Members can pay anywhere from $9.99 to about $199.99 or more per month to be a part of the site.

Membership sites are money makers because they have a simple model that provides everything a person needs and they do it all on one spot. If you've ever searched the web for information then you know how frustrating it can be. Some of the content that you find is well-written and some is not. And, even if it is well-written it is not necessarily the truth.

Membership sites help people avoid all that and those people are willing to pay for it. You can capitalize on the new trend towards membership sites with a site of your own. But first, you need to have a plan.

What's in a Plan?

Begin with some thorough research. Check out the blueprint for other membership sites. What are the basics of their offering? What is the fee? These are just two of the questions to ask yourself.

The perception with membership sites is that members will be getting more for less. For a low price each month, they will have access to bona fide information on a certain topic. And this information can take several forms. Here are just a few of the most common membership site ideas you'll find online:

- Private Label Rights
- Internet Marketing Business Owner Training
- Mentoring for Online Business Owners
- Fitness
- One-on-One Coaching

The expectation from your members will be that the quality of your content will be a cut above the others on the Internet. That means keeping your finger on the pulse of the trends in your area of expertise. And, yes, if you know enough about a topic to see a need for a membership site then you are a self-proclaimed expert.

A fully rounded plan will include ways to set your membership site apart from the others. Maybe you offer a new service or a new twist on an existing service. Before you can put that in writing, however, be sure that you can do it. Technical stuff like setting up websites and all of the things that go on behind the scenes are like Greek to many people. But, if you can find someone who can do it for you, then you are in business.

Don't forget about security. This is a private membership site and access to certain areas can only be gained through a password. Maintaining that privilege against gatecrashers is crucial.
Always have a plan before beginning any business venture. Do your homework to come up with a list of services or information that you can offer to a certain group willing to pay for it.

4 Quick Tips for a Powerful Squeeze Page

The importance of a powerful squeeze page can’t be stressed enough. An excellent squeeze page can accomplish many things from building your list all the way to increasing your sales by leaps and bounds.

One of the primary reasons to have a squeeze page is to “squeeze” the email address out of your reader so you can use the information they provide to you for follow up marketing.

Used properly, your squeeze page has the power to boost your visitor-to-subscriber conversion rates allowing you to send follow-up communications that will then help convert your subscribers to buyers.

These 4 quick tips will be easy to implement getting you on the right track to success in no time.

Quick Tip #1: K.I.S.S. It

Keep It Simple Silly. A squeeze page is meant to serve one purpose - to get subscribers to your list. Don't clutter it up with other offers and affiliate links. As a matter of fact, it is better to have less on a squeeze page than to overwhelm your visitor with too many options.

Make your intent clear – do you want them to subscribe or click away? If your squeeze page is too cluttered your reader will not know what you want them to do. If you give them too many choices they won’t make one at all.

Quick Tip #2: Compel Them

There are other people on the Internet offering basically the exact same things you are. All those other Internet marketers want your reader to sign up for their site too. So, what makes you so special? Why should they give you permission to continue to contact them?

Speak to your reader in terms they understand. Speak to their problems and their pain. Solve their issues and tell them what you want them to do.

Let your readers know exactly what to expect when they sign up for your list. What are the benefits to being on your list? Figure it out and then tell them how being on your list will solve every (fill in your area of expertise here) problem they have.

A Tip: Under Promise & Over Deliver -
You hear it all the time but it is so true. If you promise a weekly newsletter you’d better send them a newsletter every week or be prepared for the mass unsubscribe when you haven’t mailed them for months and your readers no longer remember who you are or why they subscribed in the first place.

Quick Tip #3: Follow Up

A powerful squeeze page will make your prospect want what you’re offering so badly they don't hesitate in giving you their name and email address.

We live in a society that loves immediate gratification. If you’ve offered an ebook or ecourse as an incentive for them to sign up to your list – give it to them immediately! Don’t make them wait for the information you’ve promised them. Use an autoresponder to send out the information right away. Then continue to send information and make offers to them.

Quick Tip #4: Test, Tweak and Test Again

While we hope that every decision we make with our online business will result in enormous success, unfortunately, this is not always the case.

If the copy on your squeeze page doesn’t seem to be drawing your readers to sign up, you might need to take a look at how you’re driving traffic to your squeeze page. You might also split test multiple offers and see which one converts best.

Never be afraid to ask a mentor or someone with some background in Internet marketing their honest opinion of your squeeze page. Open your heart to what they have to say and what you need to hear. Then, make the necessary changes. It is often in our failures that we find our successes.

So there it is: K.I.S.S, Compel, Follow Up and Test

Now, go out and create the best squeeze page you can. It doesn’t have to be perfect but, it does have to exist to draw your readers into your list building process. You do this using persuasive copy that gives them a reason to opt-in.

Your conversion rate will increase as you make your page simpler and pleasing to look at and creating compelling, benefit driven copy. Don’t forget the "thank you" page once they’ve signed up!

Energize Your eBook Sales

You worked so hard to prepare an eBook that’s right on trend in your niche. After the initial burst of sales, all that remains is a trickle of buyers.  Even your returns are rising. So what just happened?

The information is solid and unique. Do you have to change the content to pump up the sales? No, but you may need to make simple adjustments to get those sales back on the rise and prevent more refund requests.

Give away free samples. You know how that draws people in the grocery store or at the coffee shop. Everybody wants to try something that’s free.  Let prospective buyers have a sample of your eBook.

Provide a link on your website that allows viewers to read a sample chapter. Then circulate that link to every site, forum and discussion group in your niche.  The more people who sample your work, the more potential buyers you attract. 

The free sample is another way to reduce requests for refunds. The buyer has a chance to see if this is the kind of information and presentation that’s worth buying.  You can also add a free look at the table of contents. An informed buyer is more likely to be a satisfied buyer.

Don’t be afraid to highlight the money back guarantee. Rather than prompt refunds, a strong guarantee of satisfaction actually reduces refunds.   Add a gold seal or other icon that shows a guarantee symbol.

Buyers want to know that their purchase information is safe. Instead of saying, “ Your order is secure” add to your link “Order Now on our Secure SSL Server” (or other appropriate security message).

Speaking of the Order Now link, apply this several times in your sales letter and in several locations on the sales page.  Each time you add more reasons to purchase or add a bonus offer, put in the Order Now link.

Don’t make your prospect search for how to buy. You want to grab them while they’re still overwhelmed by the urge to have what you’re selling. Inside your eBook is another place for the Check New Titles link.

You can add it in the copy a few times as long as you don’t interrupt the flow of the content. Have that link in the opening page with your welcome, in the signature line of your “about the author” page and on the last page of the copy.

If you already have a title for the next eBook, use that in the link. While the reader is enjoying your work, it’s a great time to promote another eBook. Make it easy for a satisfied reader to find and buy more eBooks from you.

Add a bonus survey at the end of the eBook. Ask your reader to “review” this eBook by answering a few questions for a Special Free Bonus Gift.  Add the link for the review. When the reader finishes, the review goes into your autoresponder and the Bonus Gift is sent immediately with a note from you. 

The Bonus Gift is the incentive to complete the survey. You can get useful information from your readers that will help in targeting your next product. But even if the survey information isn’t that important, it’s a way to build a relationship with your buyers. Let them know what you have to offer and give past buyers the first chance to get your newest information products.

Bum Marketing Blunders

When you need to make money, you’re ready to believe in a system of Internet marketing that’s so easy even a bum using a free library computer can do it. After all, if he can do it, you can do even better.

Granted, you can make money online with practically no cash out of pocket. Just avoid counting on the bum marketing method as the be-all and end-all for online marketing. Don’t fall into the bum marketing blunders that cost both time and money:

1.    Constantly searching for the “hot ticket product.” You can waste a lot of time roaming the Internet for the next big thing. You can make money with “evergreen” products that have an ongoing demand. If the product you’re promoting is too trendy, interest diminishes in a short time and you have to start the marketing process over again.

2.    Limited range of exposure.  ClickBank is a great place to find information products to promote, but it’s not the only game in town. If you depend on ClickBank without any other affiliate marketing efforts on your part, then you’re leaving money on the table. Don’t forget about other third party affiliate marketplaces such as PayDotCom.

3.    Working free to benefit others. A big part of Bum Marketing is submitting articles to free content sites like EzineArticles, Associate Content or ArticleBiz. Sure, this is a way to get exposure for your topic and maybe attract interest to your website as it appears in your signature line. Spending too much time writing free for these sites doesn’t give maximum return on your time investment – consider building up your own domain as an authority in your niche.

4.    Relying on one keyword tool. Online marketers have favorite research tools: Overture, SEO Toolbar, Word Tracker, Wordze or Google Labs. The mistake is in getting comfortable with just one keyword research tool. You need to use several research tools and compare results. If you limit yourself to one tool then you can miss important information.

5.    Do it yourself responses. If you have ten information requests daily, you can handle the email, but how will you handle 100 requests? Even if you spend hours at the computer, you won’t be as efficient as using an Autoresponder.  It’s a small monthly fee to save time and get out responses faster to your prospects.

6.    Depending on affiliate products. Using affiliate products is a quick way to get started, but don’t camp out there. Either purchase the rights or create your own products as soon as possible. Otherwise, you make a few bucks only to let your buyer become loyal to the affiliate product (and get on their email list for more products).

7.    Simple isn’t sloppy.  Use a template to create a neat, easy to read website. You don’t have to be a web guru, but you do need a site that’s attractive, even if simple. Don’t let low cost marketing look like it’s cheap. That impression cheapens the value of your product.

Identify Your Marketing Assets

One attraction for an online business that sells information is that your car can still fit into the garage. If you were selling tangibles on a site like eBay, your car would be out in the rain because the garage would be filled with inventory.

That’s both costly and inconvenient.  With online marketing of information, your “inventory” of products can fit on the thumb drive in your pocket. Even if you sell actual deliverable products, you can have those sent from a reseller and have plenty of room at home.

Since your products don’t take up space, it’s easy to forget just how many “assets” your business owns. You need to keep an ongoing list of the “assets” for your Internet marketing efforts. Not only do these have an economic value, but you want to know what’s available and have it organized for your convenience.

It’s too easy for files to get lost on the hard drive and linger instead of getting revised and back on the market. Keep everything in separate folders or files and then make a back-up on a regular basis. It only takes on computer meltdown to lose your entire business in a flash.

Here are a few prompts to use in listing your online marketing assets so that you stay well organized:

•    EBooks – custom written, original product or collaboration.

•    PLR Products – articles, eBooks or courses that you own rights to resell

•    Articles and reviews related to your niche

•    Video or audio products that are marketed separately or with eBooks

•    Customer list of buyers

•    Prospect list of people who ask for more information

•    Product reviews and testimonials from satisfied buyers

•    Recommendations from influential people in your niche market

•    Sales letters, squeeze page copy and ad copy from successful campaigns

•    Graphics and logos identifiable as the “brand” for your site

•    Opt-in pages and forms from successful campaigns

These “assets” have a monetary value, but they’re nothing until you “monetize” them for online marketing.  By keeping track of your marketing assets, you discover what’s most profitable in your niche and what isn’t.  Make the most of your assets and you’ll get more income with fewer useless files (the electronic equivalent of the packed garage!).

What Makes People Buy Online?

Online shopping is no longer the exception - it’s a major share of business, even for the massive discount stores with a strong retail presence. With the improvements in secure transactions for credit card information, more buyers of all ages feel safe shopping online. 

If you’re a solo marketer and not a brand name business, what makes people want to buy from you? The answer is the same regardless of the size of the business because it’s about the psychology of online shopping more than about the product or price.

The Internet is both huge and personal at the same time. Your prospects aren’t riding along the Internet the way they ride on a subway. Your prospects shape the ‘net with their interests, searches, desires and purchases.

Trends on the Internet are people-driven. Your site may be seen all over the world, but it still needs to be tightly focused to appeal to your best prospects. You can’t create a one-size-fits-all site, so make sure that you don’t confuse prospects by being too all encompassing. 

Put the virtual welcome map out for prospects by making them feel comfortable at your site. Excitement drives purchases online. If you’ve bid on an item on eBay, chances are you’ve been caught up in the online auction wars.

Just like a live auction, the online auction creates that desperation among buyers who want to get the item partly because they want it but also to win the item from other bidders. It’s envy personified. You don’t need an auction to create a buying frenzy. You can do that with a limited number of products or a limited time special offer.

That off the list stuff you toss in your grocery cart while waiting to check out are impulse buys. Retailers know that this is the last chance to get you to buy things that you don’t need just because it’s there and appears to be a bargain. 

The bonus products at the end of the sales letter are the online version of the impulse buy. You might resist the major product only to be hooked by the extra offers. When it comes down to what makes people buy online,  the reasons are the same for buying a $17 information product as for buying a $17,000 painting at a local fine arts gallery.

It’s the ABCDE of buying:

•    Acquire – the drive to have more, better and flashier than the neighbors or colleagues

•    Better – the drive for the most trendy, new item or improved version of the item

•    Convenience – the desire to have something to make your life easier, more comfortable

•    Distraction – a way to check out of the mundane aspects of life and live in the fantasy

•    Envy – the desire to create envy among others because you have the first, best or most exclusive product

You need to know more than “who” your product appeals to but also “why” it appeals to that market. Check the ABCDE and keep that focus on your presentation.

3 Easy Ways To Increase Your Internet Marketing Profits

Internet marketing IS hard work. There is no denying that. Especially in the beginning. However, the beautiful thing about Internet marketing is that once you have you business up and running there are some very easy things which you can do that can give you an instant boost in earnings and that can over a long period of time increase your profits by an amazing amount. Here are a few steps that you can take which can make the difference between just getting by and really living life to the max.

Easy Profit Increase No. 1 - Start Affiliate Program

If you don't have an affiliate program for your online product then you really are leaving loads and loads of money on the table very year. the good thing is that this is easily remedied and can be done so very quickly and really cheaply.

Two almost instant ways of starting your own affiliate program are to go to either Clickbank.com or PayDotCom.com. These solutions have a lot of affiliates that can drive loads of extra sales to your site. They are also pretty automated which means you don't need to put much time into running the affiliate program. It is a good idea to use both of these solutions to really maximize your profits.

Easy Profit Increase No. 2 - Create An Upsell

This is a great way to do something one time and then reap the profits forever. There are several ways to go about producing an upsell which include creating an interview with an expert or a nice little piece of software which would perfectly complement the existing product.

Easy Profit Increase No. 3 - Offer A Related Affiliate Product On The Thank You Page

When the buyer is in the mood after having just spent money with you go ahead and recommend an affiliate product which is related to the purchased item. This isn't rocket science but by implementing it you can see a great increase in profits over time which is exactly what you're after isn't it?

So there you have it - 3 great ways to increase your profit margins without that much additional work. See Internet Marketing doesn't always have to be hard does it?!

Why the Majority of Online "Gurus" are Screwed

John Reese wrote a blog post recently about how the "Mr X" thing isn't working with Internet marketing anymore and how IM people have to brand themselves.

If that's the case, there will come a point when only the most dynamic, most charismatic people will prevail.

And when that happens, all the techie geeks who simply sit in front of their computer for hours at a time and really can't connect with people are going to have limited success. The bar will be raised by those who do brand themselves and people like most of the "gurus" we have now, won't be able to keep up.

It's already started to happen...  Don't believe me?  Check out some of the videos which have been released by "gurus" lately...especially the ones where two of them get together.  The inside jokes, the "template" they're all following, and how they can't relate to each other, much less people who are watching...

The "transparency in marketing" trend is going to kill these guys off, when they attempt to share their personalities, yet lack the social skills to connect to anybody.

Times are changing in online marketing.

It's kind of like when music videos started to become popular.  Suddenly, musicians like Christopher Cross had failing careers.  A great songwriter and great musician, but the business made changes he wasn't ready for.

IM will be the same.

So, if you're got charisma, be prepared...your time is coming.

Thoughts?

The Best Way to Make Money Online

Here's a recent inteview I did with Wendy Wallace of DesireToGrow.com.  In it, I talked about starting my online business in the early 90s, what I've learned about doing business since then, and how I've been able to not only maintain things for so long, but grow them.

Wendy asked me a lot of questions about the best way to get things going, especially when you're under the stress of money or similar situations.  I feel this is a very important aspect of being successful both online and offline, so take a listen if "money stress" is something that you deal with in your life.

After you're done listening, feel free to post any comments or questions below.

Want more?  A couple of things for you...

You can get more insight into my mindset within my new book, Ask, Believe, Receive - 7 Days to Increased Wealth, Better Relationships, and a Life You Love. If you're into self-development material such as "Think and Grow Rich" or similar books, you'll like this one.

For those of you who are interested in more of a "business" process, try my workbook, Quit Your Job (and Never Go Back) - How to Create, Start, & Market an Online Business for Under $500 in 30 Days or Less.

Book Marketing Exposed - What I'm Doing to Launch My New Book

NOTE: This is part of a series I am doing here, which explains how I am marketing my new book, Ask, Believe, Receive - 7 Days to Increased Wealth, Better Relationships, and a Life You Love. If you enjoy the "behind the scenes" info on this promotion and feel the book would help you, please purchase it. :)

Last month, I put out a new book.  During 2007, I put out a total of 12 books, and this year, I've already got four new ones in various phases of production, so this is a pretty common thing for me.

But this one is different... It's called Ask, Believe, Receive - 7 Days to Increased Wealth, Better Relationships, and a Life You Love and it goes deeper into the "mindset" of creating a successful business and happy life than I've ever done before.

And the promotion is going to be different as well...  Because I'm going to share with you exactly how I do things.

As I mentioned in my post yesterday, I believe that the best promotion is a "slow and steady" process.  And this one might take a week, or it might take months...or years.  I'm not sure how long it will last...  The only thing I can say is that I'm going to go at it until I feel it's time to quit...and I'm going to post everything here, in hope that you'll be able to benefit from the information.

What I'm going to share with you can be done as a step-by-step process, or you can take what you feel will work for your project and do them in the order you choose.  But the more things you do to promote your book, the greater results you'll get from each individual aspect. 

With that said, you'll want to either bookmark this site or subscribe to the feed in order to make sure you don't miss anything. :)

If you're curious as to how things are going, you can get up-to-date sales rankings here.

And if you're wondering why I'm doing this, it's because blogging about what I'm doing to promote this book is also part of the promotion.  I hope that Ask, Believe, Receive - 7 Days to Increased Wealth, Better Relationships, and a Life You Love is something which you'll find interesting and want to purchase. :)