I just published a new e-book that tells the story of how I earned my first $100 marketing on the Internet. It’s a very simple story and a very simple system. Anyone can do what I did and I explain the process in full details in the e-book.

So, if you want to learn a little more about the marketing/business side of my online life get your free copy of:

How I Made My First $100 Online

Once you read the e-book, come back and leave a comment and let me know what you think. If you have any questions I’ll do my best to answer them here.

The Go-To Guy!

Working on a new business part time can be exhausting and a bit frustrating. Sometimes it takes a while to get all of the pieces to come together. Well, this weekend, I managed to get some significant work done.

In the past year I have created several reports and a new video product which have given me some nice successes in the marketplace. I’ve promoted them individually and given some their own domains, but never tied them all together anywhere.

At the same time I’ve purchased the resale rights to a number of excellent products which I haven’t marketed to their full potential either. I mostly did short, direct promotions in forums or to my personal lists, but never put all of the included sales packages online to continue to generate sales as time goes on.

Well, I’ve got a bunch of my key products online over at my GoToGuyEnterprises.com domain and I put together a little products page listing all of the items that I sell with links to the sales pages.

In an earlier post I mentioned my new Internet Marketing Insights blog that I started over at GoToGuyEnterprises.com. I’ve moved all of my marketing focused content over there and am posting new marketing material over there as well. So far, it’s working out well.

The products I have list are:

Go-To Guy! Enterprises Originals

• Rapid Website Development - This massive video training series will show you how to create an SEO tweaked niche content site using Wordpress and then show you how to mass produce similar sites in 30 minutes or less.
• The Traffic Exchange Red Pill Report - This free report exposes the truth behind traffic exchange visitors and outlines 4 proven (and free) methods of generating targeted traffic to your websites.

Licensed Products

• Double Genius System, by Tony Shepherd - This detailed e-book outlines everything you need to know to build a business selling 9-1-1 information to people in desperate need.
• Mark Hendricks Live! - In this 14 hour seminar caught on audio, veteran Internet marketer Mark Hendricks answers dozens of audience questions about building and profiting from online business. Special bonus, resale rights are also included.
• Master Key Methods, by Tony Shepherd - The key components required to market like a master. Follow these methods and success will come.
• One Day Info Product Seminar, with Fred Gleeck - In 4 1/2 hours, Fred lays out his entire information publishing business so that others can model it to succeed.

Check out the Internet Marketing Products page on the IM Insights Blog. You might even want to bookmark it so you can check back for new products (hint, hint!) Even better, sign-up for the updates list and you’ll be sure to get notices anytime I offer something new or run a special.

Now, time to get back to work. I have more products to create!

The Go-To Guy!

I’ve started a new blog over at www.GoToGuyEnterprises.com to cover my Internet Marketing activities. I just finished copying all of the significant Internet marketing related posts from this blog and posting them on the new blog. Going forward, I’ll post most of the marketing related content over there and reserve this blog for other interests,

I’ve been writing about my Internet marketing work on this site since day one. Over the years the results of that effort have grown and I’m now in the process of releasing and marketing my first major product - with several more waiting in the wings. It got to the point where this blog was being dominated by marketing content but the marketing content was not clearly visible. I felt I needed to ’spin off’ the marketing work and create a more focussed site for it.

My marketing business is taking place under the name Go-To Guy! Enterprises and I bought the domain name www.GoToGuyEnterprises.com. The new blog is called Internet Marketing Insights and the web address is  www.GoToGuyEnterprises.com/blog/ . Eventually there will be a full-blown site there as well, but for now it’s just the blog.
If you are a fan of my Internet Marketing projects and want to keep up with that work, make sure and check out the new blog and subscribe to the feed so you don’t miss anything (and you can watch the promotion of my new Rapid Website Development training videos as it unfolds.)

The Go-To Guy!

The value of a good reputation is worth at least $524.50 USD today! That is how much money I spent buying Mike Filsaime’s “7 Figure Code”* on the recommendation of John Reese.

The remarkable thing about this is that I have seen the “7 Figure Code“* website several time before and decided it was not in the budget right now. I had also heard reports from several people I trust discussing the quality of the content in this product - and still decided not to buy it. I have read Mike Filsaime’s Butterfly Marketing Manuscript and thought it was brilliant - worth every penny - and still wasn’t ready to fork over $500+ to get this product. But…

…one single email from John Reese and my Paypal account is $524.50 lighter!

That is the power of a good reputation. I’ve been following John Reese’s writings for a while now. I’m on his mailing list for Income.com and have purchased a copy of his first Traffic Secret’s course and have been inspired and impressed with what I’ve learned. One thing he states over and over is the importance of delivering top quality content to people - even when creating giveaways. Not long ago John mentioned in an email that he would no longer use affiliate links in his newsletters so that people would know that he has no profit motive for recommending products.

All of this information, and an ongoing stream of excellent content in his newsletters and blog, have given me a very favorable opinion of John Reese. So, when he sent an email today and said he thought that the “7 Figure Code“* product is excellent and highly recommended (and also that he arranged for a discounted price for his members - check out the site, it lists for $797 there), I jumped in and made the purchase.

That’s the power of a good reputation. Without John Reese’s recommendation I would never have purchased this course - at least not any time soon. Without the quality products and informative blogs and emails, his recommendation wouldn’t have meant as much. The discount didn’t hurt either (and just makes me like him even more!)

Now I’m waiting for this new source of Internet marketing training to arrive. When I get my copy of the “7 Figure Code“* and get a chance to read through it and watch the DVD’s, I’ll certainly be posting a review on the site. But, until this new package arrives, I’ll leave you with these two questions:

What is your recommendation worth?

What have you done today to build your reputation?

The Go-To Guy!

P.S. Don’t let me have the last word. Scroll down and leave a comment.

Fellow email marketers, does this ever happen to you when trying to build a mailing list?

Recently I purchased a copy of John Reeses’ ‘Traffic Secrets’ course to try and improve the success of my online marketing efforts. There are 2 DVDs in the collection dedicated to email marekting and list building to sell affiliate products. As I watched and listened to the master speak, I was reminded of a line from a Monty Python sketch that goes like this:

“Start her off with a kiss, boy!”

That line is delivered by actor John Cleese as he is admonishing an overly eager sex-ed student to slow down.

Building a relationship with the people who join your email lists has a lot in common with other forms of relationships. You have to take the time to build mutual trust before you can expect people to take risks at your recommendations. And, that is exactly what people do when they buy a product promoted through your list - they risk their time and money.

With that in mind, how can you plan the auto-responder sequences you create for your mailing lists so that they don’t rush in too fast and scare people off?

First, spend all of your first efforts providing value. Give, give, and give some more and ask for nothing in return… yet!

I can’t take credit for that idea, it’s straight from the ‘Traffic Secrets’ course. But, it makes sense. In the early days of a personal relationship you spend a lot of time ‘on your best behavior.’ You give lots of compliments and little gifts. You go out to dinner and a movie. After you build up some trust in the relationship, then you might ask for a favor or ‘pop the question.’

Applying that to email marketing, don’t push for a sale too soon. Spend, five or six days giving one great piece of content after another. Maybe you mention your product, but it’s subtle - just to remind them that you have a product. Then, on day seven, send them a sales message for your product and show why it is the perfect resource to compliment all of the great things you’ve been teaching them.

After the initial sales pitch, mail a little less frequently and mix things up. Send a content heavy email one time and then a pitch heavy email the next. Try pitching some ’special deals’ - a product bundle or a discounted price.

You will have earned a level of trust with your list members because of the attention you gave them initially. They will be more inclined to follow your recommendations and continue to read your emails because you have given them a good reason to do so.

Don’t worry about giving away your best content right away. If the first things your readers get is impressive, they’ll assume what you haven’t given them is even better.

My next list building project will be taking advantage of this tactic and a few others I’ve learned. I’m looking forward to bigger profits than I have ever seen before!

The Go-To Guy!

P.S. What strategies do you use to build trust with your list and improve the results of your email marketing? Leave a comment and join the conversation!

I don’t know if this qualifies as truly outside of the box, but I did one project where I used several ideas that I learned in slightly different ways than they were presented to me.

Back in January I created a tool called the Amazon Deal Finder and placed it on my blog. Look up, it’s right there under the header. I had read an article at Lifehacker.com about how to manually create links to the Amazon search engine that would filter results by a preset discount amount. The process was very simple, but not for people with no tech background - I couldn’t imagine my mother being able to do it.

Several people had created blog entries that explained the idea and/or gave you a form based interface to create your own links. The worst examples created long lists of links to every possible combination of store/discount range available. All of them were on techie blogs and none was attractive. The blog entries were focused on explaining the process to other techies.

I setup a simple form based version of the idea on my own site, but spent my time making it friendly and attractive rather than explaining the tech.

Pick a store, pick a discount, and click the deal button.

It took a few hours in total to get everything together. Then, I posted the form to my site and made a blog entry about it with lots of keywords. (I’m #1 out of 1.8 million returns on google for the phrase “hidden amazon discounts” with no quotes - you can test that!) I also sent a note to Lifehacker about my version of the tool and they invited me to become a contributor and post comments. I added a comment with a link to my site.

The big ‘out of box’ moment came when I read a report that Dennis Becker posted on the 5 Bucks a Day forum’s download page about creating software products to boost your search engine rankings. The author suggested using a tool called MultiMedia Builder to create software that is essentially a mini browser that is programmed to open up your website.

In about 10 minutes I put together a little software file that opened the discount tool. It took almost no time. Then, I posted on software sites, added a link to my original page, and also listed it on a couple forums and JV giveaway sites as a free giveaway resource.

Finally, after having a few good months making commissions, I created the toolbar version of the Deal Finder and integrated it into my blog’s header. Now it shows up on every page of my site.

At every step I used the ideas I had been given in slightly different ways. I focussed on a user friendly interface and unique ways of getting it in front of people.

I’ve made a little money directly from these efforts so far - enough to have made it worth my while. In all, I spent 4 or 5 hours playing with this. It’s not yet a huge return on my investment, but I get new Amazon clicks every single day and every now and then I get an order for 20 drill bit sets or 5 hard drives that nets me $8.40 or $34.00.

I’m not done with this either. That’s another beautiful part of creating something like this. Whenever I think of a new place to incorporate the tool, I can plug it in and generate more sales. I have several ideas in the works now!

The Go-To Guy!

Want to learn how to make huge sales and profits selling products and services at seminars? Well, attend seminars hosted by others and take careful notes on how they craft their pitch (and how many people are buying!)

Whenever I attend a seminar, I always watch the way it is run as well as listening to the content being presented. It is like getting a free bonus seminar. Today I came across some notes from a Photoshop seminar I attended a while back and, the system they used to promote sales was very effective. I’m sure they made a lot of money that day beyond the registration fees.

This seminar was a paid event - several hundred dollars for a single day with two learning tracts for beginning and advanced users. The focus was Photoshop skills and the audience was predominantly graphic designers and other heavy Photoshop users. Overall, the atmosphere was very professional and the actual content delivered (printed materials and the presentations themselves) were excellent. It helps to start with great material and deliver value.

When people checked in to the seminar, they were all given a packet of information that included a course book that contained all of the tutorials covered in the presentations plus the usual sales materials and evaluation forms. We all got our packets and found seats. They also had a table with a wide selection of Photoshop related books across from the sign-in table. This area was set up in a horseshoe shape with lots of open spaces for people to gather around and flip through the sample copies of the books they were selling.

The first session of the day was an overview of the days events and a detailed examination of the materials in the packet. The presenter was one of the Photoshop experts. When he went over the curriculum for the day, he presented it with the impression that you would be getting so much information that you wouldn’t be able to remember it all. (That was true, but he made sure to plant the idea in the audience’s mind right up front.)

From there he moved into a description of all of the materials for sale at the event. He drew our attention to the order form that was in the packet and gave endorsements for the quality of the materials listed and explained how they were all used to prepare the presentations we where about to see.

Then, they split the beginners from the advanced audience and moved them into a different room and the training sessions began.

As I mentioned before, the training was first rate. The teachers were extremely knowledgeable and had extensive experience in the field. They demonstrated a host of powerful techniques peppered with shortcuts and tool tips to improve work speed in addition to achieving the results being demonstrated. Very quickly, it became clear that we would have a hard time remembering everything we learned.

Throughout the presentations, the speaker mentioned that the exercises we were going over were drawn form the books for sale on the back tables. He dropped lots of little comments about the quality of the books in addition to the extra tips.

Just before the breaks, the presenter reminded the audience to fill out the forms and drop them off with the people working the product table. He did not mention anything about prices and spoke as though everyone had already decided to purchase products and just needed help filling the forms out properly. Then, he projected a PowerPoint slide that showed a copy of a properly filled out order form and ended the session leaving the image onscreen.

Unlike most “back-of-house” sales setups I’ve experienced, this seminar had buyers submit a copy of their order form to the people working the sales tables. Then, while the sessions were underway, they picked and packed the orders and had them waiting at the table. During later breaks, customers would pick-up their orders from the table.

Overall, I’m not sure whether this is more or less effective than other methods. I do know that I purchased about $100 worth of books that day and many others purchased more. Like me, I think most of the people attending were having their employers pay for the seminar fees and books (or they were writing off the purchase from their own businesses expenses.) The whole atmosphere was very smooth and professional feeling and fit right in with the tone of the room. I was impressed.

The best pitch I’ve ever heard was from information product creation guru Fred Gleeck. He has written a book on the subject and also gives a tremendous example of the process during a seminar he conducts called “The One-Day Info Product Seminar.”* Like a magician giving away the secret to his trick, Fred goes step-by-step through his sales pitch and explains every part. He tells you all of the different product packages he offers and why they are structured the way he has them. He explains the sequence in which he presents each offer and why he uses that sequence. He discusses the psychology of the customer and how he goes about establishing the value of his products in their mind. And finally, he actually sells you the stuff he’s talking about (and you find yourself wanting to buy something from him!) He claims that exposing his process like this makes no difference on his actual sales and I believe him after hearing the pitch. The whole thing is amazing.

Take a few notes from my examples above and boost your sales and profits at your next seminar event. Better yet, attend other people’s seminars and study their selling process - you can learn a lot!

The Go-To Guy!

* Affiliate Link

Clickbank* has long been a favorite marketplace for selling digital products. Apart from managing the sale and delivery of e-books and software for publishers with very little upfront costs, they manage an army of affiliates who will promote a publisher’s products for a commission on the sale. Now, they have added recurring billing to their services!

With recurring billing, Clickbank* will process ongoing membership fees for publishers and allow affiliates from their network to profit from the residual fees. My guess is that affiliates (myself included) will be foaming at the mouth for a chance to promote products with this type of long term residual payout!

It’s time to start making some membership sites!

The Go-To Guy!

* Affiliate Link

If you have spent more than 10 minutes searching for information about Internet marketing, you have probably experienced the results of Mike Filsaime’s Butterfly Marketing System. He created a detailed and integrated marketing system and built software that allows anyone to put the system into use with minimal technical knowledge.

This software, bundled with The Butterfly Marketing Manuscript*, and other audio and video training materials, sells for thousands of dollars - and it is worth the price!

After the initial launch of the Butterfly Marketing System, Mike Filsaime decided to sell the The Butterfly Marketing Manuscript* e-book separately from the rest of the package. This e-book explains the entire system and is available for less than $100. It is also the focus of this review.

The name, Butterfly Marketing, refers to the chaos theory concept known as the butterfly effect. This concept states that small actions can create big changes in the final outcome of an event. The example usually given to illustrate the idea is that a butterfly flapping its wings today can create disturbances in the atmosphere that eventually lead to storms instead of sunshine in the future.

In The Butterfly Marketing Manuscript*, Mike Filsaime focuses his attention on identifying small changes that online marketers can make to the way they do business that will have a huge impact on their profits.
The butterfly marketing approach is more evolutionary than revolutionary in nature. It includes viral marketing strategies, free membership sites, joint ventures, affiliate programs, developing pre-launch buzz, testing and tracking, email marketing, contests, promotions, one time offers, and more. Each concept is explained in detail - what it is, how it works, and WHY it works! For novice marketers, this information alone will save hundreds of hours of research and trial and error. But, The Butterfly Marketing Manuscript* doesn’t stop with the basics.

Mike Filsaime takes all of this information and structures and sequences it to give readers a complete blueprint for their online marketing projects. Those that spend the extra money for his software also get a complete business system built to operate according to this blueprint.

To further explain and demonstrate the Butterfly Marketing System, the manual provides 10 case studies of Mike Filsaime’s websites and products. These are familiar sites, but readers are given an inside look at why and how they work.

I highly recommend this book with a couple small caveats. First, Mike Filsaime is a former car salesman and car sales can be a pretty high pressure sales environment. I don’t question his honesty, but his tone can be a bit blunt.

When he describes how some affiliate sites provide links to their affiliates he exclaims, “Oh My Gosh, this is just damn insane!” The bulk of the book is on target, well written, and packed with high quality information, but these types of comments are peppered through the text and they might put some people off.

My main reservation has more to do with the way some of the ideas he presents have been implemented in the marketplace. One topic that Mike Filsaime teaches centers on giving affiliates a wide range of easy to use promotional resources. These include things like affiliate links, banners and buttons and also complete pre-written email sequences for them to mail to their lists. On the surface, these are all a good ideas. But, lazy affiliates just cut and paste these letters into their mailing programs. The result is that I often get 15 or 20 copies of the exact same letter from various affiliates who all just had to write and tell me how their best friend so-and-so has just released the most amazing new product that I just have to check out.

Coupled with the emphasis on building buzz and expectation before a launch and then driving tons of traffic during the launch, this can get aggravating and turn off potential customers. I’ve seen it happen many times.

I spend a lot of time in the Internet Marketing worlds and it is a crowded marketplace. This annoyance may not be a problem if you are applying the Butterfly Marketing System in a different marketplace.

Novice and intermediate online marketers should read The Butterfly Marketing Manuscript*. It is like getting a degree in online marketing in 125 pages. Print it out and keep it next to your computer. You’ll be referring to it often.

The Go-To Guy!

* Indicates Affiliate Link

This past week I had the chance to speak to a young aspiring sports journalist and offer him some career advice.

My niece graduated high school last weekend. I traveled to the west coast for her commencement and met a young man at the graduation party that my brother and sister-in-law threw for her. I was talking with the young man’s father and, when he found out that I do media production work, he called his son over to introduce himself. When the young man explained his desire to be in sports broadcasting, I gave him some advice about breaking into the business which I think is relevant to people well beyond the world of sports broadcasting.

Develop Your Own Audience

The world of broadcasting revolves around gathering together a large number of demographically targeted audience members and then selling access to their attention. This is true of television, magazines, and even the good old Internet. Advertisers pay for access to targeted audiences and broadcasters are constantly trying to find ways to capture the attention of audiences. They hire big name talent for their shows to try and attract their fans to become regular viewers. They monitor the Nielson ratings to check their market share and audience estimates and demographics. This data influences the prices they can charge advertisers for commercial time during their shows.

In magazines, the same thing goes on. The magazine tries to win an audience and then sell ad space around the articles. On websites, people post videos, audio, text and images in the hopes of attracting visitors and then place advertisements around the content to promote products to the audience. It’s the backbone of Google’s ad system.

The best way to become a powerful player in this world is to build your own loyal audience.

My Career Advice

I advised this young man to immediately start a blog and begin writing about whichever sports he was interested in. He had the good fortune of being friends with a talented baseball player who had just been drafted into the farm team system. I advised him to interview his friend and write about him on the blog.

Another recommendation was to become THE local journalist covering the sports teams at whichever college he attended. If there are more schools in the area, he should cover them all. I told him to interview coaches, players and fans. Write articles, record videos and audios and post them on his website. And, most importantly, start gathering an audience.

The Internet makes it cheap and easy to start publishing. The tools to do the job well can be had for pennies per day. It is also easy to gather contact information from your fans so that you can communicate with them through emails and newsletters. Online publishers can easily track which resources are popular with their audiences and interact with them through comments, polls and surveys.

There is no reason to wait for someone to give you permission to become a broadcaster, you only need to decide to do it and then get to work.

When this young man graduates college and begins looking for work in his field, he will be able to point potential employers to the large body of work that he has created. He can explain to them about the hundreds (or thousands) of loyal readers he has to his website and his work. Stack this up next to the resume of another applicant who only has coursework and demo recordings created in class and tell me which one will be more attractive to hire? If he develops a strong following, he may decide to skip the job search and start selling advertising on his website instead. There are many people earning a living this way.

Not Just For Sports Journalists

This advice is not just for aspiring sports journalists. I recommend the same advice to filmmakers, writers, musicians, and many other creative people. Building a loyal audience is the best investment for your business future. If you have a mailing list of 100,000 active gardeners, someone will pay you to advertise to them. Same goes for a host of other audiences. In my online marketing business, one of my key success strategies is to develop targeted mailing lists so that I can promote relevant goods and services to them for a commission.

So, don’t wait for someone to give you permission. Go out there and start building your audience!

The Go-To Guy!

P.S. Do you have something to add? Am I way off base? Don’t let me have the last word, leave a comment!