Archive | November, 2017

You can take an awful lot of those “how to market online” courses and sometimes still not learn the truly groundbreaking stuff.

I’m talking about the seemingly unimportant things that turn out to be so important, it’s like a scene in one of those adventure movies:

The hero fights through obstacle after obstacle to get to this secret cave that hasn’t been entered in a century.

He pries open the heavy door, sweeps away several inches of cobwebs, and by the light of his torch he sees something shiny. He picks it up… it’s a gold coin! Nice, but not that earth-shattering, right? It’s just one coin…

Taking a step forward, he sees a small chest. Opening it, he sees a couple hundred gold coins. Yeah! This is pretty cool.

But then he catches just a glimmer of something deeper in the cave. Opening the door wider to let light in, he sees more gold. And priceless statues. And gemstones. And… the treasures go back as far as the eye can see.

Holy cow. That one gold coin turned out to be the beginning of more wealth than the GDP of most countries.

Well that’s how I feel about what I’m going to teach you here. To the uninitiated eye, these three lessons might seem small, like a single coin.

And they might almost appear trivial. But I promise you, if you follow this advice, your online income can become almost limitless.

And by the way, some people have paid literally thousands of dollars to discover what I’m about to show you:

Marketing Lesson #1: Make an irresistible offer

You’ve heard the term irresistible offer before, but what does it mean?

First, it’s an offer that’s better than anything your competition has.

Second, it’s so good that’s it’s truly hard to pass up.

For example, if I were to sell you a brand new car for $1,000, that’s an irresistible offer.

Most marketers have trouble getting their marketing to covert because they’re offering the same stuff as everyone else. Yes, they try to make it sexy, but it isn’t.

You can dress a pig up in a lovely, low-cut evening gown, or even a tiny bikini and high heels. But it’s still a pig.

(Not trying to pick on pigs here, btw – I think they’re kinda cute and definitely smart.)

You can have weak marketing and a great offer and make it work.

But great marketing will never compensate for a weak offer.

If you don’t have the right offer, then it doesn’t matter how great the copy is, what the headline is, who is promoting it and so forth.

If you want to make sales, you’ve got to have an absolutely superior, irresistible offer that the prospect simply cannot turn down.

And you’ve got to back the offer up with a product that delivers, too. I’ve seen offers that blew me away, but once I got into the product, I realized it was 80% hype and 20% substance.

As you might have guessed, I asked for a refund – as did close to 50% of their purchasers.

So make them an offer they cannot refuse, and then deliver on every promise you make.

Do this and you cannot help but make a fortune.

Marketing Lesson #2: You’ve got to have a big marketing idea.

Just having a bigger promise or using a hyped headline isn’t going to work anymore.

If you’re going to be seen and heard by your prospects, you’ve got to cut right through all the shouting online and present something brand new.

Think of it this way: A regular marketing idea is doing what’s already been done, except maybe it’s 10% bigger or 10% better.

That used to work, but these days it just blends with everything else.

But a big marketing idea is something new, something revolutionary. It could be an entirely new approach, a new way of looking at something or a new way of doing something.

Take cars for example. A regular marketing idea is to make a car 10% more gas efficient, or 10% sleeker/bigger/smaller/curvier/boxier etc.

If you think about it, most of the cars today just sort of blend. They look a lot alike, work a lot alike… it’s always been like that.

Then there’s Tesla. Put a Tesla side by side with any other car, and you’ll notice a difference. Talk about how a Tesla runs, and it’s revolutionary.

Don’t let your idea be the latest model of Ford or Chevy.

Make it a Tesla.

Give your prospects a feeling of discovery, of something completely new that gives them an AHA! Moment.

Offer them hope that this is finally THE solution they have been searching for.

It’s powerful, indeed.

Marketing Lesson #3: Customer acquisition is simply about good math.

I know you keep hearing about free traffic. But free traffic isn’t free; it costs you time and work. And more time. And more work.

If you want to make serious money, then you’ve got to learn some math and be willing to invest some money to make that money.

Online marketing in the six and seven figure range is all about buying new customers – not hoping they eventually find you on their own.

Buying new customers is how you grow big and fast.

Think of customer acquisition as an investment.

You’re investing in the acquisition of assets — customers.

And to do this wisely… like the best marketers in the world… you need to know some numbers.

For example, one of the absolute most valuable marketing numbers for you to understand and use is the Maximum Allowable Acquisition Cost (MAAC).

MAAC tells you the most you can pay to get a new customer.

And to know your MAAC, you also need to know the lifetime value of your customer. Which in the beginning is hard, so do this instead – know the 3 month value of your customers.

How much do they spend with you in 3 months? Whatever that number is, you need to spend less than that to get a new customer.

Most entrepreneurs and marketers don’t know their MAAC or their customer’s lifetime value.

Of if they do know the numbers, they don’t use them to determine their traffic generation budgets.

But if you want to earn six or seven figures a year, you’ve got to know and USE this stuff.

Once you know these numbers, you’ve got to focus on increasing the value of your customer, so you can increase your MAAC, so you can get more customers.

Very few average entrepreneurs and marketers understand this, but now you do.

So, did I just hand you three gold coins?

Or a vast and unending treasure trove?

That’s up to you and what you do with this information.

This is so easy it’s kind of like cheating… but at the same time it’s totally white hat.

Let’s say you want to write a Kindle book.

And further, let’s say you want to make sure it gets 5 star reviews and makes you a very nice, juicy, residual income.

Here’s how you might do exactly that:

First, choose a BIG niche that sells really well.

When you’re talking about Kindle, you’re talking about VOLUME. After all, a $2-4 profit on a book means you’ve got to sell a lot of books to make real money.

Selling a lot of books means you need a big money-making niche – something like:

• Food / cooking
• Self-development
• Relationships
• Making money
• Diet / weight loss
• Health / fitness

You can’t go wrong with any one of these niches.

Now then, narrow your niche down to a specific topic. For example, you might narrow down “Diet and weight loss” to “How to lose belly fat after 40.”

Forget about reinventing the wheel – it takes too much time and it’s too risky. Instead, you’re going to improve the wheel.

Go to Amazon and search for all the belly fat and fat loss books, especially the ones tailored for people over 40.

You’re interested in anything in this sub-niche that is selling under the Kindle Bestseller rank of 20,000.

Why? Because if they’re under 20,000, then they’re likely selling about 10-15 books per day or more.

What – that doesn’t sound like a lot? Okay, let’s do some quick math:

If a book has a profit of $3 per sale, and is selling 15 copies per day, then that’s $45 per day.

Okay, I know that’s not going to make you rich, but think about this: At $45 per day, times 30 days, is $1,350 per month… Residual…

…As in, you publish the book once and get paid over and over again.

Increase the price or increase the sales and your profits go up.

Look, I can’t tell you how many copies you will sell, but if you do what I’m about to suggest, and you do it once a month, in a year you can have 12 residual revenue streams from 12 books.

Multiply 12 times $1,350 and see what that is per month.

Now do I have your interest?

Okay, back to your research…

You’re going to find these books in your sub-niche that are ranking under 20,000 and you’re going to read the reviews – especially the five star and one star reviews.

Make a list of everything people love about each book, and everything they hate.

For example, the list of things people love might be:

• Great motivation, made me want to start losing the fat immediately
• Liked the diet examples
• Enjoyed the tips, especially the ones about exercise

And things people didn’t like might be:

• Not enough sample exercises
• Not enough resources – where are we supposed to find the things the author recommended?
• Too many typos – should have edited it better.

Write down all of that.

Now then, you’re going to keep what the customers liked, and improve what they didn’t like.

NO PLAGIARIZING, by the way.

You’re going to write your own book – or outsource it – with specific instructions on what to include.

That’s right – you don’t even need to write it yourself. Just give your instructions on what to include and how to write it to an outsourcer and let them handle it for you.

Your book will contain everything people love about the other books, and everything improved about what they didn’t like about the other books.

Do this and there is no reason for people to give you negative reviews, which is important.

As you know, Amazon reviews are HUGELY important.

Your book will eventually get more sales than the books it is modeled on as you get more and more positive reviews.

Meaning your income should surpass that of your competitor’s books.

Now then, rinse and repeat for your next book, and the next, and…

WAIT! Two more things…

First: Your book cover must be so mesmerizing that it STOPS Amazon customers in their tracks.

Everyone is busy. They’re skimming. They’re in a hurry. And there are hundreds of books in your category.

If your cover doesn’t stand out, and I mean STAND OUT – then the battle is lost.

You can have the greatest book ever written, but if the cover stinks then you will get few sales.

Here’s what to do: Find a great Kindle cover designer on Fiverr. You might need to pay more than $5 – it’s worth it.

Ask them to make your title(s) BIG and BOLD.

Remember, on Kindle a lot of people are looking at titles on their smart phones. If the titles are small, they can’t read them.

Ask for high resolution graphics, because people associate higher resolution with higher quality.

Second Thing: Get some reviews. REAL reviews.

Some people might tell you to get fake reviews from Fiverr or review exchange groups, but don’t do it.

Amazon is smart and they are cracking down on these sorts of things.

Instead, ask your friends, family, acquaintances and so forth for real, legitimate reviews.

Also, place an email opt-in page with a nice freebie at the beginning and end of your book. This will build you an email list of readers.

ASK your readers (politely) for reviews.

What about Promotion?

Good question. Here’s how to do a killer promotion that gets your book ranking high on Kindle:

So far you’ve got a great book, a captivating cover, genuine reviews – you’re already ahead of 98% of the other books on Kindle.

The only thing left for you to do is shoot your rankings up on Amazon.

Here’s what you do…

Enroll in KDP Select

Promote your book on as many promotion sites as you can find. There are all kinds of Facebook groups dedicated to free Kindle books.

Set your book on a free promotion through KDP Select.

Your goal is to get your book downloaded like crazy in spikes, because this is what catches Amazon’s attention and gets your book ranking higher.

Also, if you have a series of books (HINT HINT) then link all of your books together. As soon as one KDP Select promotion is over, set the second book on promotion and so forth. This will cross-promote your books and your sales should see a compound effect.

Continue the above, along with building your lists (remember you’re placing an offer to get on your list inside your books.) Whenever you publish a new book, let your list know. Let them download it for free during the KDP Select promotion, and ask them to leave reviews.

Rinse and repeat and repeat and repeat…

If you really want to scale this, you’ll hire someone to act as project manager and you’ll start publishing multiple books per week, outsourcing everything.

Yes, this is a six, or maybe seven figure business if you stick with it.

And you thought we were just going to talk about writing a single Kindle book…

…okay, if you only want to do ONE book for now, make it a great one and tie it in with something else you’re doing.

For example, if you’re a coach or consultant or provide services, let your book be your ambassador and show the world that YOU are the expert.

It makes for a much better and more effective business card than a little slip of paper with your name and phone number on it.

The sky’s the limit, so have fun and become a best-selling author THIS month before you put it off any longer.

What I’m about to say might sound contradictory at first.

And you might think I’m nuts. But stick with me…

…I want you to not only accept, but embrace your weaknesses.

That’s right – I’m not about to blow air up your skirt and tell you that if only you stick with it and persevere, you can learn how to do everything your online business needs you to do.

Hate website building? Stick with it and you’ll get good at it.

Don’t have a clue about SEO? Take a bunch of courses and eventually you’ll be a master at it.

Does writing make your skin crawl? Spend 4 hours a day, every day writing, and in a year or two you’ll be good enough to get by.

Nope. All of that is lousy advice given to new marketers by seasoned pros and amateurs alike.

And it’s nonsense.

If you hate cooking, should you really spend the next year of your life in the kitchen? I don’t think so.

If you’re a lousy mechanic who hates working on cars, do you really want to learn what every part under that hood does, and how to maintain and replace each one? Not on your life.

Yet we tell new marketers that if they don’t like building websites and don’t want to learn how to do it, they should just do it anyway.

And in fact they should learn every single aspect of their business, because once they do, then they can make tons of money.

And I’m here to tell you it’s poppycock.

You are really, truly good at maybe 2 or 3 things.

4 things tops.

5 if you’re a direct descendant of Leonardo DaVinci.

But that’s it.

Everything else? You don’t have the knack or the inclination.

And guess what? That’s OKAY. In fact, that’s GREAT.

Because one of the very first steps to going from online millionaire wannabe to actual online millionaire is to embrace what you are good at AND what you’re lousy at.

Here’s what happens when you think you have to do everything in your business – you procrastinate.

You don’t really want to learn how to write a squeeze page and lead magnet, so you procrastinate.

You don’t really want to work on your website building skills, so you put it off.

You don’t really want to do social media, so you set it aside for later.

A ‘later’ which, by the way, almost never comes.

But I can tell you for a FACT that the day you begin to become super successful online is the exact same day that you decide you are ONLY going to focus on what you’re good at, and you’re going to delegate everything else to somebody else.

Are you an amazing coach who is clueless about anything technical? Then delegate your website to someone else.

Do you love building sites and flipping them, but you hate writing the content? Outsource the content.

You get the idea.

When you hire someone else to take care of all the things you don’t like doing, you free yourself to focus on two things – what you’re truly good at, and working on your business instead of in your business.

Still skeptical?

Here’s a list of benefits to outsourcing everything you don’t like doing or you’re not good at performing:

Benefit #1: You can make fast progress because you’re no longer being held back by the things you don’t want to do.

Benefit #2: Your income skyrockets because of benefit #1.

Benefit #3: You’re happier. MUCH happier, because you’re not doing all the things you hate doing.

Benefit #4: You now have the benefit of other people’s work, which means you can scale much faster and easier than if you were still working alone.

Benefit #5: You have much more free time because again, you’re not having to do all those things you don’t like doing.

Benefit #6: Because you have more free time, you can take a step back and really see what direction you want to go in next.

Benefit #7: You can spend more time working on your business rather than slaving away in your business.

Benefit #8: You can take advantage of spur of the moment opportunities, because you have a team that can quickly mobilize and do what you need.

Benefit #9: You are now working and acting like a person of wealth. There is a reason wealthy people delegate like crazy – it makes them money on a much larger scale.

Benefit #10: You’ve got an entirely new mindset. You’ll have to experience this to fully understand it, but I can tell you that it’s the difference between being a foot soldier on the ground, versus having a bird’s eye view of your business, your market and your future.

“But that’s going to cost a lot of money to outsource all the things I need.”

If I offered you $7 for every dollar you gave me, how much would you give?

All you have, right?

Outsourcing works the same way. You are paying these workers, but in return you are making multiples of what you’ve paid.

I can’t emphasize this enough – if you are really, truly, absolutely serious about making six or seven figures online, then you need to start outsourcing everything you’re not good at or don’t like to do.

Period.