Stuff the Big Product Launches, I’ll Take This Thanks Marlon

I’ve just received Marlon Sanders newsletter and I have to say, I just love the guys down to earth style and his honesty.

Marlon Sanders has been making money online before most of us set eyes on a PC and yet, he’s the non comformist.  Rarely do you see Marlon involved in huge product launches, his products are often in the reach of most people’s budgets and, they are often nicely packaged in a step-by-step video format.

In his current newsletter he refers to three online marketing models that I know most of you will be able to implement without having to put a further strain on your marketing budget.  

Ensure you take particular note of the 3 models Marlon refers to in his newsletter and ask yourself how you could use any of the three strategies to grow your online business, attract more clients and to earn an extra $1,000 per month.

You also have to check out the information about Google and using Gmail … kinda scary …

*************

The other day I was reading a forum.  Several guys had gotten 100 visitors and not made a sale and wondered what was wrong.

In this article, I’m going to try to answer that question.

I just talked to another friend of mine on the phone last week.

He’s been making $100,000 a month online since I met him back at the Boulder seminars years ago.

Back then his model was to run banner ads, sell a $39.95 ebook with a super duper offer.

Then in the ebook he sold ‘em his big ticket.  He spent $25,000 a month on banner ads and made $100,000. 

Almost identical numbers to my friend who is doing the same thing with Google pay-per-click in another market.  Except he gives away the ebook free instead of selling it.

My first friend had back ends of $377 and $577.  And then later went to $577 and $997, or something like that.

My second friend has a recurring billing $37 a month back end.  But converts 10% of the people who request the free ebook.

What’s CRAZY is my second friend is NOW doing the free BOOK thing by direct mail.  So instead of a free ebook, it’s a free PRINTED book.

You’ll laugh at this.

I asked him WHERE he was getting his books printed at and he said Kinkos!  The reason you’ll laugh at that is he consumes over 30,000 a year.  And could easily get ‘em cheaper elsewhere.

Here are the models:

Model one:  $39.95 ebook.  $377 and $577 upsells.  Later a $997 upsell.

Model two:  Free ebook.  $37 a month back end.

Model three:  Free BOOK.  $4,000 back end.

Oh, I forgot to tell you.  The free book sells a $4,000 product.  Basically, it’s written on the old Jeff Paul if you’re familiar with that.

Anyway, that’s not the point.

The point is these models all do some things in common:

Step one:  Get people in the funnel

You can sell a low-priced something or the other.  Or give it away free.

Step two:  Sell ‘em something MUCH more profitable.
$377, $577, $37 a month, $4,000.

I think of Matt Bacak and Russ Bruson doing the $5500 big tickets with phone sales.  I think of Vincent James doing the $59.95 a month recurring billing for his bottles o’ pills.

In the early days, my model was Amazing Formula on the front end then the Big Course for $500 on the back end.

Later that changed to Cash Like Clockwork.

But there’s one MORE missing element here.

And that is the MAIN key:  A repetitive way to generate leads.

The vogue nowadays is product launches.  And that’s all well and good if you have lots of friends who are willing to stick together and promote each other.  And, coincidentally, win each other’s fancy affiliate prizes.

(Did you EVER notice a friend in the JV circle seems to always win the huge affiliate pize?  I WISH my friends were so kind to me!)

Personally, I’d RATHER have the consistent traffic without the chaos of a big launch.

Whether you have a FREE ebook, FREE book or low-priced offer, you MUST have something that converts.

Copy is king and queen. 

And truly, if you can’t write great-converting copy, you’re at a handicap.

Then you gotta have a big ticket back end or recurring billing.
Now, you can convert people with sales letters, direct mail, teleseminars, video, or email.

They all work.

They’re all just ways of delivering your sales message via different channels.

Here are the things I’ve seen work on the front end:

1.  Banner advertising

If you’re in a market with lots of inventory, this is a great option.  Get ‘em to a page, bribe ‘em with something free to join your list.

Begin marketing.

2.  Pay-per-click

This works too IF you have a back end that sucks money out within 30 days.  But you have BETTER have an offer and emails that convert 5% to 10% of subscribers to buyers.

Google keeps tightening the rules and the cost of clicks seems to be going up.  But there’s no doubt the volume is there.  It’s fast. And it’s highly trackable and testable.

3.  Affiliate program

In probably any arena OTHER than Internet marketing this is still gold.  Internet marketing has degraded into the product launch of the week.  And you’re LUCKY if your affiliates promote your new product for longer than 2 weeks.

You have a degree of vulnerability in that you’re dependent on the efforts of others.  So it isn’t perfect.  But with ppc, banners and direct mail, you pay IN ADVANCE.

With SEO, you pay with your time creating content.

With affiliate programs, you pay in money AFTER the sale.
That is why it’s still a great marketing method.

4.  Direct mail

The age of folks is 45 to 50+.  So if you’re trying to target people in their 20’s or early 30’s, you may have a challenge.

5.  Seo stuff

Article marketing and other methods can work.  I mean, if you produce an article a day, turn it into video and podcasts using Traffic Guyser, submit it to the video and podcast directories, submit it to the article directories, post it on your blog and so forth, and KEEP doing that day after day — sooner or later you’ll get traffic.

I mean, if you just HAMMER Google with content day after day, relentlessley, it’s bound to get you somewhere.  The only thing is, the content has to be themed and related and so forth.

This is basically what Tinu does in the Evergreen Traffic System except she’s a lot more focused with it and targets Google with laser tactics.

Still, it’s a CONTENT-BASED approach.  With Tinu’s system you create high quality content and syndicate it using RSS.

Either you create content or buy it.  The problem or issue I see with buying it is if it’s low quality content, Google can TELL people don’t spend much time on the page or bookmark it.

I’d personally rather buy clicks, banners or send out direct mail.  Writing every day is NOT attractive to me.

There’s a MAJOR sacrifice of time UNLESS you can afford to hire or magically find writers who can actually produce high quality content people WILL read.

Seo is a CONTENT model. The only approach I know of that works long term is CONTENT. That is what Google values.  And they CAN differentiate the quality of content by time-on-page, bookmarking, links and so forth.

Long term, you CANNOT trick Google.  Having said that, I do know people who outsource articles inexpensively and do get results.
I wonder, though, long term if those pages will stick.

I pretty much doubt it.  Did you know Google sets a cookie when you long into Gmail?

So they can SEE every email you open.

They KNOW every link you click.

They KNOW the web sites you go to.  How long you spend there. How much you scroll (or they could track this easily).

They know who links in and out.

They know who clicks what.

Heck, they even have a PICTURE of your HOUSE on Google Maps and your street view.  They have a picture there of the CAR you drive if it’s in your driveway.  Seriously, in the U.S. they probably have literal video footage of your home, your car and the street you live on.

I’m NOT making this up. I looked up a friend’s home in a fairly remote suburb of a pretty small town.  And they had STREET LEVEL video of the whole neighborhood.  And you could see the CAR in the driveway.  Everything.

And with their new Google phone, they’ll know WHO you call, how long you talk and where you call.

So just TELL me you can find a way to fool them about the quality of your content long term.

By the way, in the U.S. the government from what I can tell can get that DATA anytime they want.  So every email you read, email you SEND, web site you go to.  They know WHAT you click when you GO to those web sites because of Google ANALYTICS.

If you use Gmail, it’s ALL tracked. 

And you wonder why Microsoft was desperate to buy YAHOO?

You know, in the U.S. I THOUGHT we had a constitution that prevented search without a warrant.

Yeah right.

Frankly, if this scares you a little, it should.  You need to know, if you’re on the Net and you’re not surfing with a proxy like hidemyip.com, and you’re using Gmail and doing all your searches in Google…ummmmm….you should just know it’s all TRACKED and probably recorded.

I don’t know WHO owns Skype.  And I don’t know if any of that data is SOLD.  Since it’s FREE, I’m guessing it is. How much data is sold and to whom?  I wonder.  Are your Skypes private? 

Mmmmmmmmm.  I doubt it.  But I could be wrong.  I’m sure that if the government or someone in a lawsuit wants them, they can get ‘em.

I’m no privacy expert. And I’m sure some of the things I’ve said here aren’t exactly accurate.  But anyone with half a brain can put two and two together and see the pattern.

As far as privacy, don’t use Gmail.  Use Safari as your web browser or maybe Firefox. Don’t get a Google phone when it comes out.  And know that when you search on Google, there is very little protection of your privacy.

Just know that there is no privacy unless you surf with a proxy turned on.  You may not care. But I think you should at least KNOW.

1.  There is no privacy
2.  It’s all tracked
3.  The Government has access
4.  Even your emails are archived and are NOT private.

(Don’t know about UK and Australia or other countries.)

In terms of BANNER ADVERTISING it is good for marketers.  It means they can and DO track people’s movements ACROSS web sites and can serve banners based on a theme of their surfing habits.  That is what the whole Double Click uproar was about ..

They also know WHAT people click in their email on Gmail and Yahoo.
The targeting is VERY precise.  I mean, they know EVERTHING. 

Everything.  Every click. Every move.  Emails.  House location, value (from Google Maps).  Even your forum postings can be tracked.
(Google Analytics).

In terms of PRIVACY, Google is not your friend. 

As a marketer, if you can’t target precisely with THAT….

There ARE services that let you target banners with this precision.
However, NO ONE has really researched them and written up an ebook that’s affordable on the topic.

No one has written who these services are, the degree to which they track, how much you can REALLY buy the banners for via negotiation vs. off-the-rack b.s. prices.

It’s a bonanza for marketers NO ONE has written about exploited.

If you know:

– What sites people go to
– How long they are there
– What they click on
– How often they go there
– How often they click
– What types of emails they send and to whom
– The location of their home (and by implication home value)

If you know all that, are you telling me banners aren’t being served with the greatest precision known to man?

Why hasn’t this been told or written up?

I KNOW you can buy these banners.  But who sells them?  What is the minimum buy? What is the price AFTER negotiation?  You know, the true street price?  What are the minimum buys?
Who are the main players?  What data are they tracking?

What is the average CTR?

So you wanna talk about TRAFFIC and TRAFFIC SECRETS? There you go. THERE is something to talk about.

SUMMARY:

1.  You buy traffic

Banners, Google, other methods.

2.  You trade time for it by creating content for Google

Google rewards high quality content with good rankings.
But quality content takes YOUR time or talented hired writers.

3.  Direct mail

You could call this direct response and include full-page ads, TV and radio. 

Once you’re reaching .50 a hit on Google, there’s not a lot of difference between THAT and spending .50 to send a proven buyer a piece of mail.

The cost of entry is high though.  Testing 10 lists at 2,000 names each is a 20,000 mailing costing over $10,000.

I began this article talking about a forum thread I read where several guys had gotten 100 visitors and not made a sale and wondered what was wrong.

Do you see now?

1.  You gotta have a way to deliver a LOT of visitors predictably.
Banner ads.  PPC.  Affiliates.  Direct mail. 

Something you pretty much CONTROL.

2.  You gotta have a conversion PROCESS.

Get people on your list and follow up with emails.

3.  You gotta have a big ticket back end.

Every single thing I said in ActionGrid.com still applies. And the system for creating big ticket info products STILL WORKS and still applies.

These guys:

1.  Didn’t have a repetive way to bring in visitors that they could rely on.

2.  They didn’t get people on a list.

3.  They didn’t have a big ticket.

I will add that they were trying to do an SEO method based ONLY on getting inbound links with low quality content.

You know, link exchanges and such. Which I’m sure probably work IF you have high quality content.  Google just isn’t stupid or dumb.

Marlon

———————————————————–
Marlon Sanders is the author of “The Info Product Dashboard.”
If you want to create your own info products, go to:
http://getyourprofits.com/z/377/CD23579

You new here? If so, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!