Dr.Mani Memes

Internet Marketing Prudery? No, Rampant Hypocrisy!

2007-06-26T06:32:00.000-07:00

A certain controversial figure in Internet marketing circles stirred the pot recently by announcing a high-powered networking meeting with the proceeds going to charity.

Surely a worthy cause?

Think again. The murky waters of Internet marketing were roiling because of the VENUE of the event - Playboy mansion.

Moralists and purists stepped up by the dozen to their pulpits, preaching the message of 'outraged modesty', battling with 'wickedness, vice and depravity' as if Armageddon were just around the corner, if not already upon us!

Surely a worthy act?

Think again. They are the same folks who quietly endorse or vociferously support actions like these:

- Spamming unwary subscribers with one sales pitch after another for overpriced trash that has less hope than a snowball in hell of being successful

- Assuming false identities to post fake testimonials on each other's sales letters

- Using multiple 'avatars' on discussion forums to conduct 'conversations' with themselves that steer innocent viewers towards the quicksand of their sales page

- Sinking personal prejudices or preferences when the affiliate commissions offered breach their threshold of 'salivatory excess' (a.k.a. drooling at the cash bonus)

- Employing sneaky blackhat techniques to get their worthless websites ranked high on search engines so they can suck droves of hapless surfers into their ken

- Implementing scripts and worse to rewrite or overwrite affiliate cookies so they can steal commissions away from rightful referrers

- Refusing legitimate refunds - or maliciously requesting them, and escalate quickly to chargebacks that cut into profits ethical online vendors work hard to earn

I could go on, but...

Surely you get the picture?

Yes, it's DIRTY.

Yet this is the murky marketplace these 'holier than thou' moralists have chosen to play in daily - and accept, like, and thrive in.

But at the slightest hint of 'moral decadence' in the form of a party at a 'house of dubious distinction', everything that's pure and righteous leaps right out of these super-heroes on a mission to save the world and keep it safe for everyone.

It forces them to lecture anyone who cares to listen on morals and scruples, blithely ignoring the inconvenient fact that in many more ways (smaller, and often larger), they are contributing to the same decadence and depravity in an incremental manner more damaging to the image of a 'profession' they practice.

Wake up, hypocrite!

How is it ok when you suggest 'rank swapping' on Squidoo to boost the visibility of your lens on Google, but NOT ok when someone else is making whoopee in a lasvicious manner with scantily clad blonde bombshells?

It isn't, really.

So let's cut the crap and face the uncomfortable truth. You do what you think and feel is right - and justify it. So do the others. In the end, it's a question of your personal values, ethics and standards.

Just remember - the world (or your segment of it) is watching, drawing their own conclusions... and laughing themselves silly over what you are doing today!

Follow the discussion on this post at the Niche Marketing Forum at - click here

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Acceptable Affiliate Practices

2006-11-03T07:57:00.000-08:00

Over the last decade, Affiliate Marketing has become a specialized field of Internet marketing, spawning off multiple sub-industries, generating mega-profitable businesses and creating heroes and role models called 'SUPER affiliates'.

More recently, as the industry matures, definitive courses covering the various tactical and strategic elements of affiliate marketing were launched that shaped the way affiliates work online. Best practices and power-tactics for raising an affiliate's performance, maximizing profits, adding value to clients and optimizing business processes have radically altered the way affiliate marketing is practiced today.

While tactics and strategy no doubt have their value, what has been ignored until now is a definitive set of ethics or 'acceptable behavior' on the part of affiliate marketers. This is an effort to piece together a document that would serve as an unofficial 'rule book' or a set of guidelines 'good' affiliates would adhere to.

The concept behind 'Acceptable Affiliate Practices' is simple: define standards that will benefit, enhance value and boost bottomline profit to the three players in an affiliate marketing transaction - the vendor, the buyer and the affiliate.

Here are 5 rules I use to guide my thinking about affiliate promotions to an audience of interested prospects:

1. Respect the chain - both upstream and down. Vendors create products or services, process orders and handle customer support. Buyers consume what they purchase - and benefit from it. Affiliates are in the middle, playing matchmaker to bring buyer and seller together. Respect for the chain means striving for win-win deals that benefit everyone - and harm no one. A quick 'rule of thumb' to decide whether or not to do something is to ask oneself: "Will it harm any part of the chain?"

2. Review with empathy - It's simple. Put yourself in your buyer's position. Review the product or service you are promoting as an affiliate just the way you would like it to be done for you. Focus on benefits and risks, as perceived by your buyer. Don't 'sell' in a way you would not like to be sold to.

3. Research your recommendations - The best practice would be to personally buy (or ask to review) the thing you are recommending. Put it through the paces, see how effectively it works. Only if it passes your rigorous testing, promote it to your prospects. If this is not practical, research as much as possible about the item, the vendor, the industry, the market, and use your best judgement about the value it will provide in your affiliate recommendation - making it explicit and clear that you have not personally tested it out.

4. Add value - Focus on bringing more value to the transaction. Your buyer should ideally feel better about ordering through your recommendation than by doing it directly from the vendor. You could do this by saving your prospect time, effort or money in arriving at a buying decision.

5. Offer bonuses - within reason. Adding extra bonuses to a product, converting it into a 'package' is an excellent, effective affiliate marketing tactic. It is also often abused. Strive to enhance your buyer's experience by carefully selecting the bonuses you throw in. Targeting them to your buyer's needs is more important than the number, price or size of your bonus pack.

There are many other 'rules' that would likely fit into this document, as we refine and enhance the concept. Maybe there is even a role for an informal industry-specific agency that would expand on the AAP guidelines, making them increasingly better and more effective.

Would you like to add or modify these rules? Post to your blog and send me a link to drmani (at) ezinemarketingcenter (dot) com and I'll add it here. I will also tag all posts related to this idea with the tag "affiliateacceptablepractices" on del.icio.us

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A Social Networking Idea

2006-11-03T04:11:00.000-08:00

The idea of having a list of high PR blogs and MySpace sites to post comments on will benefit users from the LINK BACK

Which makes me wonder - if my blog was suddenly hit by hundreds, if not thousands, of comments, I'd be VERY likely to either delete and block all future comments, set up moderation (with image verification), or even remove the commenting feature completely.

But what if...

The owner of the blog or website or MySpace site
WANTS to host a link back to your site?!

My "Who Is The COOLEST Warrior?" experiment - http://www.CHDinfo.com/coolwarrior/ - is actually one way to achieve this end - and will help anyone who owns a website get some links back.

It is left to your creativity how you use it, but the basic concept is one that can be used on multiple sites - and requires surprisingly little 'programming' (hey, if I could handle it myself, anyone can!)

But the basic concept can be made a LOT more powerful by adding:

- a way to pick from various 'templates' or different 'images' that go along with the 'certificate'

- a 'tell a friend' form included for viral pass-along

- a scrolling list of people who have already added the certificate to their site

- an automated solution to add people who display their certificate to a directory on the owner's site, giving the 'winner' another incentive to host the certificate on their site (it's a reciprocal linking model with a twist)

- a list building module to include with the site

- an 'automated' (or even further simplified) way to insert the 'winner' code to their blog or website (maybe a snippet of code like a link that integrates into the template of their blog automatically and calls in the 'certificate image' when the blog page loads

- a way to keep the 'directory' updated (if the certificate code is removed from a website, it would be taken off the directory after a few days - again, similar to a reciprocal links directory)

So what if...

The program being built will not only identify sites, blogs, MySpace pages and others meeting certain criteria, but also pull the email information from the site (or even use the comment feature to do this), but instead of 'spamming' them with your message, sends out a note like:

"Hey, CONGRATULATIONS. You've just won this awesome award as the COOLEST/FUNNIEST/MOST INTELLIGENT/SMARTEST/WHATEVER-est _____ - click here to claim your award and display this awesome certificate on your blog/website"

If they see your certificate, think it is worth posting on their site, and do it - you've probably got a much longer lasting inbound link from a high PR/traffic site... a link the site owner willingly gives your site!

What do you think?

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Message Board Marketing for Dummies

2006-10-27T08:14:00.000-07:00

When you give WITHOUT thinking about receiving, the Universal law kicks in and works for you like crazy.

Far from being a 'marketing strategy', it is a 'philosophy of living'.

Once you 'get' it, you'll really start experiencing massive results.

Follow the discussion on this post at the Warrior Forum at http:// - click here

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Effective Emailing - 'the Bing way'

2006-10-22T04:04:00.000-07:00

Stanley Bing writes for FORTUNE magazine. His books rock. I loved 'What Would Machiavelli Do?"

This short set of tips is excerpted from an article in his collection, "The Big Bing"

* Is the email I'm about to send necessary? And if not, is it at least fun? If you cannot answer 'Yes', don't hit that SEND button

* Stop telling people you Will Do Something. Do it - then send a message it's done. Until then, I assume you Will Do It.

* Stop thanking people so much.

* I'm also not interested in hearing that there's "No problem". Know what? There better not be.

* Stop using email when there's a phone on your desk. Email is for confirmation and simple discussion. Phones are for doing business.

* Don't hold back email with data in it. But shred the follow-up saying "Go for it"

* Stop copying me on transitional stuff. I want stuff that's fully baked. Not half-baked!

* No email chains of more than 10 communications. Absolutely. When you reach that number, have a meeting!

* If I see the same subject line in my inbox once too often, you're toast! Toast!

Ok? Will do? Thanks!

Wonder how IM'ers will react to some of the suggestions!

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Massive action, anyone?

2006-10-20T08:20:00.000-07:00

Written at 11:54 p.m.

I'm bushed!

Have been busy sending out JV invitations for hours and hours now.

It's close to midnight, my eyes are blurry, and I'm off to bed - but happy at what action I've taken.

How about you? Have you taken MASSIVE ACTION today to achieve YOUR dream?

Follow the discussion on this post at the Warrior Forum at http:// - click here

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How To Make GIANTS Pay You?

2006-10-17T02:12:00.000-07:00

How to Make a GIANT pay you?

If I asked you to name some online GIANTS, you'd likely
include these names:

Google
Yahoo!
eBay
MySpace
Squidoo
Del.icio.us
Warrior forum

All of these are places where MILLIONS of people flock
to every day to do many different things.

And each of these giants can be made to pay YOU cash!

This article will share some insights about how you can
get familiar and friendly with these giants, work with
them to further their ends... and make a tidy profit.

It begins with studying the giant's purpose.

Google and Yahoo are search services. They compile and
sort through massive mounds of data to give their users
a productive, useful search experience.

eBay brings together buyers and sellers and helps them
exchange value to each other.

MySpace and Squidoo are personal spotlight services,
where the emphasis is on giving each member their own
'5 minutes of fame'.

Del.icio.us and similar bookmarking services let you
store favorite sites online to recover and share easily
with others looking for the same kind of information.
Online forums foster a sense of community where members
meet, share, and help each other.

Understanding this core purpose of each of the giants
puts you far ahead of the crowd of competitors seeking
to profit from them.

There are ways to take advantage ethically of the huge
crowds they have aggregated. And there are manipulative
ways to exploit them too. Which you choose to use is a
reflection of your personal philosophy and approach to
working online.

Take Google and Yahoo! for instance. You could build
a website that is the answer to any searcher's dream -
rich with solid, useful content, containing relevant
keywords, linked to related sites. Or you could try
SEO tricks which seek to pervert the system and fool
the engines into ranking you higher than your site
deserves.

Guess which works better in the long term?

MySpace and Squidoo are places where people meet and
network. If you join as a member, and hang out to
meet folks and make friends, surely it will translate
over time into increased business and profits. There
is an unbroken rule in business and in life - people
relate to and do business with people they like.

Or take social bookmarking services like Furl, Spurl
and Del.icio.us. They arose as search alternatives
because the bigger engines threw up irrelevant
results. By building websites that other users found
interesting, and bookmarked more often, you'd provide
their users with a valuable experience on their site
- and they will reward you with a higher ranking.

Of course, you could try and manipulate the results by
getting many sites (maybe all owned by you!) to list
your wbesites, unfairly loading the dice in your
favor. Over time, though, you'll get caught out -
and have to begin from scratch all over again.

Does this mean getting an advantage from these giants
needs to be a long-drawn, back-breaking effort? No.

You don't have to work hard, if you work smart.

Instead of painstakingly building links to your site
on your own, pay someone to work on link exchanges.
Pick the most popular forums in your niche and take
time each day to hang out and help others. Build
content rich sites optimized for your right keywords
systematically, over time - and get them 'discovered'
by the search engines.

In other words, help the giants help the audience
THEY serve, and you'll benefit wildly from the massive
crowds they have attracted. Zig Ziglar said it well:

" You can have everything you want if you give enough
others everything they want."

Follow the discussion on this post at the Warrior Forum at http://www.warriorforum.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=106776 - click here

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'Rotten' Special Offer Deals - Who is to blame?

2006-10-14T02:05:00.000-07:00

I'm reminded of a very brief, pithy, and very deep statement attributed to W.C.Fields:

"You cannot cheat an honest man"

Among other things, I've interpreted this to mean that if I expect to get something from someone else paying far less than what it should be worth (for whatever reason), then, I'm not being completely 'honest' - because I'm trying to get it for less than fair price.

That 'greed' then makes me a prime target for ANOTHER 'less than honest' person to take advantage of me.

Let's take a famous '$50 per day' report as an example. What's it REALLY worth? Even if you price it at 30-day earnings, the value is $1,500. A more reasonable 90-day earnings figure puts the value at $4,500.

Yet, I see it on 'sale' for - just 12 bucks

And I jump at the 'great offer' and buy... later, I discover it sucks... and feel terrible about it...

And Look For Someone To Blame!

Well, surprise, surprise... there IS indeed someone to blame - and he stares back at me each time I look in a mirror!

If you see my earlier post to this thread, I mention: "Buyer beware..."

This forum is just a meeting place for individuals. All kinds of individuals. No moral or ethical yardstick is made an 'entry criterion'. Everyone, beginner to expert alike, would do well to remember this fact.

Allen did a great job creating the meetingplace. But what happens when you do business in here is first and foremost YOUR look-out - no one else's.

This had to be said - though I'm not sure how many are really LISTENING

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An INSPIRING, Heart-Warming Warrior Success Story

2006-10-12T02:09:00.000-07:00

This email from a fellow Warrior just popped into my inbox:

= = =

Dr. Mani,

Since the first mailing went out at 11:26 am yesterday, we've had $24K
in sales. It hasn't even bern 24 hours. This isn't even the "real"
launch like we're going to do in January.

So on my first day over $16K, what did I think of? I thought back to
the Warriors forum and how nice you were to me. I thought of my
private pledge to myself to donate something off the top to my
favorite foundations.

Thank YOU for making it possible to express myself like this.

Tinu

= = =

Yes, this is Tinu Abayomi-Paul, the 'Blog Queen', who just pre-launched what promises to be a fascinating course on power blogging.

It was a closed-door launch, and will release publicly in January - but I asked her for permission to share this inspiring success story with other Warriors.

A lot begins here in the Warrior forum - and anyone can have the same success. Just buckle down and get to work!

Congratulations, Tinu! You can meet her at http://www.freetraffictip.com

Follow the discussion on this post at the Warrior Forum at http://www.warriorforum.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=106466 - click here

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Your Blueprint To Profit From Content

2006-10-10T02:10:00.000-07:00

As I was formulating a plan to implement over the coming weeks, it struck me that others too might find this 'system' helpful. So this blueprint was created to share a step by step method to create a content site, grow it bigger and turn it into profits.

This will NOT happen overnight. Or even next month. But it will soon place you in a dominant position in your niche, and become one of the multiple streams of traffic to your 'money sites' that will be future-proof and search engine proof.

Did I also mention it will be FREE?!

Step #1 - Niche Research

Niche research can be a tough task.

One of the best ways to do this is to look for a problem many people are facing, and then offer a solution. Another is to follow hot trends and better still, be ahead of the curve. A third is to focus on 'timeless' niches like self improvement, dating, pregnancy or travel. One more way is to follow your passion or area of expertise - as long as enough others are interested in what you do.

Some resources that will help you are online discussion forums, chat groups, news websites, magazine sites, and trend watching sites.

After doing your niche research, the next step is to look for the top keywords in your chosen niche. Again, there are a wealth of resources, tools and services that will let you do this quickly and effectively.

Try and get a list of at least FIFTY keywords, popular ones, to build your content around.

Step #2 - Setting Up Your Framework

I like using an integrated framework that has a content management system, an interactive section and a convenient 'relationship building' vehicle - all working together seamlessly.

And surprisingly enough, setting this up is NOT very difficult!

First, set up a blog to be your content management system.

Why a blog?

1. It is easy to set up, even if you are not tech-savvy
2. It is naturally search engine optimized, with a structured linking pattern which ensures each section of your blog is connected so a spider can explore every nook and cranny.
3. It allows simple, effective keyword optimization
4. It does not require HTML coding or fancy programming to get going
5. It naturally encourages updating - on a regular schedule
6. Search engines love them - and so do other bloggers - giving you near instant traffic
7. They come with RSS feeds which allow another promotional vehicle and distribution channel for your content

Convinced? Good.

Next, integrate your blog with your forum/bulletin board. Sounds complex, doesn't it? Not really.

If you have a web host with Fantastico, you probably can install a choice of forums with a single click - not knowing anything about scripts or FTP. I use PHPBB boards, but have heard good things about other choices too. Pick one you are familiar with and like.

Now, how to integrate both your blog and forum together?

See an example of one way I've done it here:
Dr.Mani says... http://www.EzineMarketingCenter.com/drmani-says/

I got the idea (indeed, swiped a LOT of the stuff on it) from Mark Joyner:
http://www.MarkJoyner.name

Essentially, the link at the top of the blog points to your forum. In addition, I also place another link to the forum BELOW every blog post, with an invitation to discuss the article/post. You can set this into the template of your blog, if you know how. Otherwise, simply copy and paste the link into every blog post that you make.

Third, you set up an autoresponder account which you will integrate with the forum and blog.

I use Aweber, because it offers a cool new feature... it will automatically pull content from your blog and mail it out to your email list on a schedule you decide. You can choose to include 1, 2 or more posts, have them inserted into a template that you can customize, and have it mailed automatically or only when you approve it.

What you get, in essence, is an automated email newsletter created from the content you post on your blog!

Then, to encourage your site visitors, blog readers and forum members to join your autoresponder list and receive notifications, you place your opt-in form on the blog and forum - offering suitable inducements to encourage as many as you want to opt-in.

Step #3 - Creating Your Content

I could write a full book on this - indeed, I once did!

There are many different ways to get content. You can create it yourself. You can hire someone to do it for you. You can licence someone else's content. Or you can buy packs of pre-created content (with resale rights, or private label rights) and customize them.

Which route you go depends upon your available resources (time, skill, money) and how you prefer to run your business.

Good articles can be ghostwritten for around $5, if you order in bulk. Packs of articles with Private Label Rights (PLR) are going for varying rates - between $17 and $67 a month for the good ones. All you have to do is modify them, rewrite portions and use them.

Try and focus on creating 'chunks' of content that's optimized for each of your keywords. For instance, create 5 to 7 articles around the theme of your top keyword. Then another group of articles on your next keyword.

Then, put them into their own 'minisite' - and link to them from your blog, forum and ezine!

This way, you create multiple 'keyword rich zones' - each of which is tied in to your main content resource, giving you the best of both worlds... huge content resource on a specific theme, PLUS tiny segments laser focused tightly on specific keywords.

Step #4 - Optimizing Your Content & Blog

The key to profiting from online content is to make sure the resource you are building ranks high on search engines for your chosen keywords, offers valuable content for human visitors interested in your niche, and is regularly updated with fresh, useful content.

Master these 3 and you can't keep the traffic away if you wanted to!

Here are a few tips I use to optimize my blog:

- Create categories and name them with your keywords (Wordpress and Movable Type let you do this)

- Add Technorati tags to your blog posts, and sprinkle your best keywords (ones related to the blog post)

- Place a list of your top keywords somewhere on the blog as a navigation menu - and link each of them to the specific keyword-rich minisite you created (see Step #3)

- Make your blog username one of your top keywords. For example, if you set up your username to be '[Your Keyword] Guide', then every post will have 'Posted by [Your Keyword] Guide' below it - adding to your blog's keyword optimization

- To the end of every post, add descriptive links like:

"Discuss this [Keyword] post on the [Keyword] Forum"

"Share this [Keyword] article with your friend"

"Permalink to this [Keyword] post"

Get creative. There are many places you can insert your keywords for better optimization.

And after you've done this, go ahead and do the same with your content.

Make each post you make on the blog focus on one of your top keywords. By rotating posts around, you can ensure your blog gets listings of all your top keywords over time!

Step #5 - Throw In Money-Making Systems

There are so many ways to do this, it would be too difficult to list them all in this report. My ebook, Blog Profit Ideas Exposed, reveals thirty-three of them.

The most obvious is adding 'Pay per Click' links, like Google Adsense or one of the alternatives. Since your blog will be tightly themed, you'll see well targeted ads appearing across your blog.

Another proven system is to run ads for products or services. These can be your own, or ones you're promoting as an affiliate.

A critical way you can differentiate yourself from the crowd is to do a short 'advertorial' (or endorsement) instead of merely placing a link or banner for the product or service you're promoting. Use a picture, some bullet points highlighting the biggest benefits, end with a powerful call to action, and insert your affiliate link.

When you've created this endorsement box, insert it into the blog template so it shows up across your blog, getting your ad multiple exposures - giving you the highest chance of making a sale.

Step #6 - Kickstart The Marketing

Set up your blog to ping the major services every time you update your blog.

Promote your opt-in list everywhere - in email sig files, on forum signatures, on ezine directories, running paid ads, ad swaps, doing JV deals.

Submit your blog's RSS feed to all the major directories.

Use 'tag and ping' to get listed in social bookmarking sites.

Run your blog roll list - and start conversations with other bloggers.

Encourage visitors, subscribers and forum registrants to help spread the word.

Submit articles to various directories and ezines, linking back to your blog.

These are the most effective, least expensive methods I've used to drive the initial rush of traffic. They should work well to begin with - and then, you can take it as high as you wish.

How It All Synchronizes Together

Sure, it takes some time to set this all up correctly. But when you consider how easily and effortlessly you can continue to manage your 'system' once it's set up, you'll agree it's well worth the effort.

When your framework is in place, here's what you'll have to continue doing:

1. Post a short article or post to your blog regularly, often

2. Well, really, there is NOTHING further to do!

Yes!

Your post on your blog will link to your forum - inviting visitors to discuss it. If you allow comments to be posted, these visitors will also generate content for your own blog.

The discussions on the forum will generate a vibrant community - after some intiial nurturing and hand-holding, of course - which then becomes self-sustaining. (Think about how often you see Allen Says in here, and you'll get the idea!)

The autoresponder system will automatically pull content from your RSS feed and email it to your registered subscribers, providing them with the latest content, and maybe also enticing them back to the forum and blog.

As more and more visitors hit your blog and forum, your list will grow, and more folks see your ads - and soon you'll be making sales.

Throw in viral pass-along systems, and everything grows incrementally - hands off.

Your only 'expense' needs to be on content development (if you don't want to do it yourself). Everything else can be found for free, or at a very nominal cost (not counting your time and effort investment in learning and implementing the technology)... and will quickly become self-financing if your PPC and direct sales revenues grow.

= = = = = = = = = = =

Just like my earlier 'Goldmine Report'...

THIS SHORT GUIDE IS "HELPWARE"

It's a term I first learned from the late Jim Wilson of www.JimWorld.com - a visionary and one of the most inspiring online marketers I've known and learned from.

It means this - if you liked what you just read, pay for it...
BY HELPING A FELLOW WARRIOR

Any way you like. Lend them cash. Help out with their sales copy. Offer your resources or experience. Whatever.

Jim taught me the principle of helping others first. It has stuck in my head since then, and done wonders for my success online. It will yours too!

Follow the discussion on this post at the Warrior Forum at http://www.warriorforum.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=92860 - click here

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Is the Warrior Forum YOUR Goldmine Too?

2006-10-08T01:54:00.000-07:00

At 8:30 a.m. on Thursday, I logged into the forum and checked a discussion thread about refunds.

At 8:30 p.m. I launched a special report called "Refund Profit Secrets", with an email to my list.

By 8:30 a.m. on Friday, I had made 16 sales, and added $136 to my Clickbank account.

What happened during this 24 hour period? It's all inside the 'Infoproduct Profit Blueprint' - and it's yours free!

I'm going to share the exact steps, thinking and process planning that went on behind the scenes yesterday - so you too can use it to plan a project, create your own information product and start profiting from it. It's all done by tapping the very same resources on this forum we all have access to.

= = = = = =

STEP #1 - CHOOSING THE RIGHT TOPIC

Niche research can be a tough task. You've probably heard it said that the best way to find a hot selling product is to look for a problem many people are facing, and then offer a solution.

One of the best ways to do this is through online forums, especially busy ones like the Warrior Forum.

It's hard to detail the best way to conduct such research, but here's what I do. Visit the forum. Look for 'hot' threads - discussion topics that have the folder icon on fire by the left, or ones with a huge number of page views. As a rule of thumb, if a discussion has over 400 views in a day, or over 1,000 views in 3 days, it's likely to have potential.

As you gain experience in a niche, you might even latch on potentially viable topics simply by seeing the title of the post and studying the nature of the responses other members offer. As an example, even though I have little experience in it, I sense there's going to be some demand for a product showing how to avoid having your MySpace.com account deleted.

When you see the same (or similar) questions being asked on the forum, instead of getting annoyed, see if there's an opportunity you can tap. Study the nature of the discussion each time around - and see if any questions are common, if any issues keep cropping up regularly.

= = = = = = =

STEP #2 - PLANNING OUT YOUR PRODUCT

At its core, an information product is judged by one thing, and one thing alone - the quality and usefulness of the information inside it. Not by the fancy packaging, not by the method of delivery, not by the fancy graphics or glitzy programming... but by the stuff it offers.

And that's good news - for you

If you have useful information, insider tips, practical experience or extensive knowledge about the topic under discussion, you probably have the kernel of your information product.

And even if you don't have it, but know WHERE to find the information, you're looking good!

Before taking the next step, think about the topics, questions, issues, problems cropping up in the discussion. With my report about refunds, I identified a few core issues:

- what's the best way to offer refunds?
- how to deal with cheats and serial refunders?
- can refunds be turned into an advantage?

Based on my own experience from a decade of selling info-products online, I also added a few things like the psychology behind a refund, the reasons why people might consider requesting a refund, and added the solutions I've built into my own business that has helped lower my own refund rate.

This entire process shouldn't take too long, especially when you're planning a short report. For a full-fledged ebook or ecourse, this process might take a bit longer - but still not more than an hour, tops. After all, all the research material is right there in the forum, within the discussions that attracted your interest in the niche!

= = = = = = = = =

STEP #3 - CREATING THE PRODUCT

This part is as easy or as difficult as you make it out to be. To me, writing comes easy. I wrote the entire report in one session lasting a little under 2 hours. You might find it easier to dictate and have it transcribed (or even offered as an audio product), or ghostwritten by someone else for a fee.

You don't have to leave the forum to do that either - there are many good writers who can help out right here in the membership!

If you aren't writing from personal knowledge or experience, you might spend some time doing research and reading, online or in your local library. How long you take to do it depends on your expertise, knowledge and depth of material you expect to share in your product.

Once you've finished writing and editing, if it's a report, I like to present it as a PDF document. A cool feature in the new Apple OS allows me to convert a file from TextEdit into a PDF document with 2 clicks - after formatting the file, click on PRINT, and then SAVE AS PDF! That's it, you're done

= = = = = = = = =

STEP #4 - GETTING FEEDBACK - AND TESTIMONIALS

One of the coolest things about the Warrior Forum is the amazing folks who will review your creation, offer constructive and extremely valuable feedback, and quickly give you lovely testimonials (if they are happy with what you've created) that you can use on your sales letter.

Ask for suggestions and critiques of just about anything - headline, sales letter, graphics, product - and you'll get willing, useful and very insightful responses.

One word of caution, if you've never done this before... be very specific about what you're looking for, and by when. There have been many times, early on, where I've only ended up giving away samples of my ebooks with little to show in return - because I wasn't clear about 'end points'

Here's a sample of what I posted in the private 'Warrior Alliance' forum about this report:

quote:

Need Review +/- Testimonial... By Tonight

If you've got a few minutes to spare right now, I'll trouble you for a small favor.

I just finished a report about refunds and dealing with them - and need some feedback and testimonials for the sales letter.

I'm posting a WSO and telling my list later on today, and would like to give out FIVE review copies to anyone who can quickly go through it and offer feedback/reviews/testimonials I can use on the letter -

And Do It Very Soon - Before The Day Ends

The report is 22 pages long, and will take around 45 minutes to read. It's about dealing with refunds and turning them into profit centers.

If you'd like to be a reviewer, just post a note here, or send me a PM, or email me - info (at) ________ .com (with REVIEW COPY in the SUBJECT line)

Thanks for your help, sorry for the short notice, and in case I've got 5 reviewers before you contact me, I apologize and will give you an extra special deal when I launch

Thanks again.

All success

Dr.Mani

It got 5 reviewers within an hour - and ALL of them sent in reviews which now grace the WSO sales letter...

= = = = = = = = =

STEP #5 - CREATING YOUR SALES LETTER AND PROCESS

The nice thing about this approach is that the sales letter practically writes itself!

While you're researching your material, you'll already know your prospect's hot buttons... their biggest worries, toughest problems, most difficult hurdles. If you address them in your sales letter, it's sure to convert enough of them into buyers.

The major issues in the discussion thread will become your copy bullets. The biggest 3 or 4 things will go into your headline. The problem becomes your lead-in to the sales letter. All that's left is to throw in the price, guarantee and sprinkle in testimonials - and you're done!

If you want to do this even better, include an opt-in form and create a multi-part autoresponder sequence or a PDF booklet that offers a sample of your information.

Then, set up your payment processor to accept credit cards, test out the entire process, and you're ready to roll.

= = = = = = = = =

STEP #6 - START SELLING YOUR INFORMATION PRODUCT

If you have a list (subscribers, clients, previous buyers), you could launch the report to them first. It's always nice to get a few quick sales under your belt - and it validates your decision to pick that niche to go after.

It also gives you a chance to test the sales letter and process, fix any major glitches. What's worse than having a non-converting sales page is driving a huge flood of traffic to it!

Once you're reasonably satisfied with your sales conversions, it's time to ramp things up - and offer your finished info-product to the audience that's most likely to snap it up... the forum audience that first pointed you in the right direction!

On the Warrior Forum, the nicest way to do this is by posting a Warrior Special Offer. This works for you in many different ways:

1. WSOs usually generate many sales - you'll feel good about it
2. WSOs give fellow Warriors a good deal - so you're helping folks who help you
3. WSOs are closely watched by big JV partners - if you're selling something hot, you'll find it easy to land JV deals
4. WSOs will let you get the critical numbers you need to approach super-affiliates and JV partners - without spending a fortune on PPC or other advertising

There's a fine art to posting good WSOs - and there's a ton of education right there in the forum itself!

Take a close look at the popular promotions. They are the ones with the highest number of page views - over 350 is good, more than 750 rocks!

Analyze the headlines. Several things are common across the popular ones. Make sure you include each of those elements in the headline/title of your WSO. Far too many good offers don't take off because not enough people LOOK at it. Your headline is CRITICAL here - make it catchy and compelling. Principles of copywriting apply here - it's great practice to writing ads.

Notice also how the different offers use advertising copy to build interest and excitement in the product - and use this technique in your own offer.

There are new rules for WSOs - and they are CLEARLY spelled out in a PDF document Michael Tracey has placed in the forum. Follow it to the T - or watch your WSO die without seeing the light of day!

= = = = = = = = = =

STEP #7 - RAMP IT UP

Once you've got a HIT, run with it!

Try all the marketing tactics you'll learn about on the forum. There is enough material in here covering just about every element of marketing to keep you busy for a long time. Keep trying and growing.

Joint ventures are a great way to extend the reach of a hot WSO launch. So are exclusive affiliate promotions - pick the big players in your niche who are Warriors and invite them to help you promote.

= = = = = = = = = = =

What's GREAT about using this technique?

Just this... if you're willing to work fast and furious, you can have your product ready, tested and validated, all within 24 hours!

With this speed, you can test 3, 4 or even more products EVERY WEEK! Just imagine - you can CRUSH any competition who will take weeks, if not months, to get this far.

And with over 40,000 posts every year, there's enough research material to hunt out hot niches for a long, long time.

It's why I look at the Warrior Forum as my GOLDMINE. The rich ore is right here - all you have to do is mine it!

There are several hundred fortune-making products around the Internet that began as seeds on this forum - and you too have just the same access to this rich material as I do.

The difference is in how you will use it. Will you drop by the forum, chat aimlessly, chew the fat, trash and bash a few folks, or idly flip from one discussion to another - till another day rolls by without getting you closer to where you want to go?

Or will you change over to a pro-active, niche-hunting, fortune-building, opportunity-seeking approach, where every minute spent on the forum is invested in either growing your knowledge, extending your network or researching future products and promotions?

The choice is yours to make. Whatever it is, I wish you every success.

= = = = = = = = = = =

THIS SHORT GUIDE IS "HELPWARE"

It's a term I first learned from the late Jim Wilson of www.JimWorld.com - a visionary and one of the most inspiring online marketers I've known and learned from.

It means this - if you liked what you just read, pay for it...
BY HELPING A FELLOW WARRIOR

Any way you like. Lend them cash. Help out with their sales copy. Offer your resources or experience. Whatever.

Jim taught me the principle of helping others first. It has stuck in my head since then, and done wonders for my success online. It will yours too!

Follow the discussion on this post at the Warrior Forum at http://www.warriorforum.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=90322 - click here

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2006-10-08T01:49:00.000-07:00

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