July 25, 2006 by rcarruth.

Casey has a sense of humor.. you have to if you’re involved in internet marketing.  You know how those internet marketers are… I watch one the other day spend four hours trying to throw a yoyo away. Eventually he and fourteen other marketers got together and mailed their lists for suggestions. Actually, I’m not sure if he was ever sucessful at throwing the yoyo away… but I understand he has sixty-three affiliates waiting in the wings to try their hand at it… 

—————————————-

- 10 Ways to Tell if You’re a Guru -

Over the last few months there has been an incredible number of new “guru’s” appear in the world of internet marketing. Amazingly this has coincided with a whole host of very poorly though out products that offer very little or no value to purchaser. Coincidence? I’ll let you decide.

It could be that you are already an internet marketing Guru and you don’t even know it yet. Just to help you out here is a list of 10 things that will help you work out if you are in fact an Internet Marketing “Guru”

10. Every family event, Birth, Wedding, Christening or Funeral is seen as a potential source of sales and the Ideal opportunity for an impromptu Seminar.

9. You approach the local paperboy and offer him 50% of sales to your new product in return for use of his “list”

8. You start to use words and expressions like “skyrocket” and “Explode your Income” in day to day conversations

7. You write your wife a note to tell her you’ve taken the dog for a walk and it stretches to 8 pages

6. You phone your local Wal-Mart and ask If you can get your shopping “even if it’s 2am”

5. You and your friends’ idea of fun is seeing who can get a poorly written book to no1. in Amazon

4. You get embarrassed in the showers when you find your friend has a bigger list than you.

3. You decide to sell your car but won’t tell anyone the price until they are in the bank and ready to pay

2. You take your youngest kid to a new school and then try to up sell to your oldest kid and tell the headmaster that he will never see this offer again

1. You can’t see the irony in the last 9 reasons

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

July 21, 2006 by rcarruth.

In this article, Jeff Smith spells out what skills you need to be successful in the marketing of information products. Read the article.. then… go back and read it again!

————————- 

It’s a very odd phenomenon, the fundamentals of business are so simple and yet the failure rates of business continue to disappoint at well over 50% - looking even more dismal the longer you track a business from its inception.

On a more specific level, I have had a great deal of experience in the information product marketing business segment both offline and online and see marked differences between those who struggle with this business and those who take off and never look back.

One of the biggest factors differentiating the hobbyists from the real big money earners in the information marketing business is the degree to which the entrepreneurs look at their ventures as end-to-end businesses versus businesses that are based on a single event (website developed, ebook written, affiliate marketing site created, etc…)

Once you begin to look at the various facets of your information product marketing business, it becomes obvious that there are many skills required to carry out all functions of your plan.

It’s likely that you are better at 1 or 2 of these, perhaps being able to perform all functions, but not to quite the same level. Considering the information marketing business and your role within that business is a critical factor toward your results.

So, let’s look at the skills required for your business.

1. PLANNING & STRATEGY: Over and over again I’ve tried to drive home the importance of coming up with a business plan for your information marketing business. Starting with a 3-5 year goal and working backward is a great way to chart a course making your journey more certain. For someone who loves to take action, this stage can be a little daunting. Realize however that it must be done, if you struggle with business planning, then hook up with someone who has been through the process before - you may even find such a person at your local entrepreneur or mentoring program offered by Entrepreneur centers in many towns and cities.

2. RESEARCH AND TESTING: A critical, often underestimated set of skills important to the success of your information product is the ability to research a market for opportunities and test your market, ideas and topics for signs of existing demand and spending activity. People who have great skill at tapping into opportunities in a market often are curious by nature, good listeners, have a good ability to relate concepts to one another and generally are good investigators.

3. JOURNALIST SKILLS: Closely linked to research and testing, a journalist combines the skills of uncovering the the few “in depth” questions that your market really wants to know, networking skills, a very powerful knack for asking questions, a true passion for their topic and a good ability to write or edit their work to bring out the most important points.

4. PRODUCT CREATION SKILLS: Product creation is really about understanding the format(s) that best suite the material you will be marketing to your customers and being able to quickly and efficiently package that material in written, audio, video or in real-time seminar formats. Remember, we are trying to find your idea skills. We can all master each of these tasks if we are given enough time and teaching, but what you want to do here is give an honest opinion of your current strengths. For example, if you were an expert at packaging audio and video products, then it would make more sense having someone else plan your business and generate the content, while you can focus on your strength of packaging products behind the scenes.

5. MARKETING SKILLS: I’ve split marketing skills into two large sub-groups, skills that require behind the scenes work and skills that involve outbound and relationship management activities. For example, you could be quite good at creating press releases, marketing plans, written articles and interviews, blogging, etc…these are all examples of behind-the-scenes marketing typically enjoyed by people who like to work alone, have more control over their environment and perhaps are more on the introverted side. Alternatively, marketing skills such as networking, public speaking, team building and leadership lead to more successful outbound and relationship marketing. Both are required to raise your business to the high-achiever ranks, few people are experts in both of these areas.

Bet you didn’t realize there were so many skills required to operate your own super-profitable information product marketing business did you?

No wonder you get overwhelmed by the sheer effort all of this requires. A couple of these skills may allow you to perform that part of your business in your sleep, while other factors mean you take four-times longer than an expert to accomplish the same task.

Its no wonder that most people hit roadblocks along the way. Even if you master each of these areas enough to get your first product out the door, can you really scale your business success to where you want while doing all of this yourself?

By now, you should have a good idea of what strengths you bring to the table and more important, which ones you do NOT. By understanding where you need help, you can make decisions about how you want to structure your business, what type of business you would like to run and who to look to for help.

Copyright 2006 Jeff Smith

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

July 19, 2006 by rcarruth.

Making money online is a challenge, especially for the beginner. The purpose of this site is to help online marketers make money… real money. Yes, it CAN be done, but you have to do it the right way or you stand to lose a ton of money and waste a lot of time.   

—————— 

If you’re an average member of the population, you’re likely to be overworked in a job you dislike, have credit card debts you can never seem to pay off in full, and find yourself run ragged by friends, family and children. If you want to make your life that bit easier, then it makes sense to earn extra money online.

You’ve probably heard of these fantastic stories about teenage punks becoming millionaires online. Ditch the envy for a moment and process this information through your brain - these stories are true! Anyone can earn extra money online these days, and you don’t need to be a technical wizard in order to do so. The internet is more accessible than ever before, and there is plenty of software available to make your projects as easy and automated as possible.

The most obvious way to earn extra money online is by selling your unwanted goods on an auction site such as eBay. EBay has millions of members, and thousands more sign up each and every day. The market is absolutely huge, and you can sell anything from a leather couch to a leather thong on there! Last year I had a clearout of all my old clothes and items I didn’t use, such as vintage lighters, toys from childhood and books. To my amazement, I raised a quick $2000.

However, eBay will only provide you with sporadic lump sum payments. If you are looking to make a consistent, passive profit month after month, then you need to venture into internet marketing. There are many methods to make cash online, and internet marketing is the umbrella term used to describe them. Let’s examine a few of these methods.

Firstly, there is blogging. If you wish to earn extra money online, you won’t go too far wrong with blogging. You can set up a website for free, add some affiliate links or some Adsense advertising (again, for free), and then focus on driving visitors to your site. Blogging can be a hugely enjoyable past-time as well as a money-maker, but like everything else in life you will need to spend a little time researching the tips, tricks and methods to make the most of your new site. Try going to internet marketing forums and asking for some advice - most marketers are very helpful to newbies.

Secondly, you could try affiliate marketing. Simply find a product which has an affiliate program over at a website like Paydotcom. Register for an affiliate account (free), and then start making posts in related forums with your affiliate link in your signature. This method is especially easy if you happen to pick a product you’re interested in, e.g. Texas Hold’em poker, gardening, real estate etc. It makes writing those posts a heck of a lot more enjoyable.

Thirdly, you could give pay-per-click (PPC) advertising a go. If you run a search on Google, you will inevitably see a list of sponsored links in the right hand panel of the page. If you sign up for a Google Adwords account (free), then you too can place adverts. The idea is that you pay a pre-determined amount of money for every click your advert receives from a web surfer. If you can direct the surfer to a site where you stand to make affiliate commissions, then you can make a great deal of money fairly quickly. However, I would recommend that you read a good ebook on Google Adwords before trying this, and also hunt around for a free $50 Adwords voucher to get your feet wet before committing any of your own money.

These three methods really are the tip of the iceberg when it comes to internet marketing. If you want to earn extra money online, then you need to realise there are literally hundreds of different ways to do so. As you get more experienced in the business, you’ll realise that you will be rewarded greater by being as innovative and as creative as possible. But if you do wish to pursue internet marketing as a long-term option, ensure you master the basic free methods of making money online before anything

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »