Getting started in Internet marketing over the next 90 days

Quick Tip: Go add yourself to wikipedia. Add a page about yourself. Add links back to yourself. Add information about your products. So Chris, What is it that you do? I create search engine optimization software that allow me to promote affiliate programs through search engines by creating highly optimized web pages. I also create information products and I promote these products in the same way. So Chris, How did you get started doing this? That's very easy. Back about 1999 I was working at a very large mortgage company, who is now a household name now, you see their name on TV alot now. They were paying $10 per application to affiliates for anyone who was referred to their web site who would complete a mortgage application. I didn't know anything about Internet Affiliate Marketing back then and it sort of supprised me that we ended up owing a guy $100,000 for the month. He had referred 10,000 people at $10 a piece who completed a mortgage application. So the marketing people within the company came to me and asked me if I would investigate how this person was able to do this. So I went out and found at what this person had done. He had submitted thousands of web pages to MSN search for different keywords. All these web pages redirected the web surfers back to a 5 page web site. At the time Internet Explorer always defaulted the home page to MSN search. Unless someone installed another web browser on their machine or manually changed their home page, they were using MSN search for search results. So what happened was for personal loans, auto loans, mortgage loans and lots of other searches this person was the first 100 links in MSN search for those keywords. When anyone searched for these terms they would end up on this person's web site. He had cornered the market on MSN search. So the mortgage company asked me to put this system in place. We did and started making alot of referrals to our primary web site. We ended up getting alot of traffic and people filling out mortgage loans for free. The affiliate income was never a steady income I could depend on, so I kept a full time job and did affiliate stuff as a hobby. I made $189,000 from a one page web site. So how do you know if Internet Marketing is for you? The only thing I can say is to try it. One of my favorite things is from Dan Kennedy's book on direct marketing. He has a list of things that every direct marketing system should have. Everyone should own his book "No B.S. Direct Marketing". But basically it follows the path of lead generation, making offers, how to respond, tracking conversions, cross-selling, upselling and follow up. If you send someone a letter, somewhere in that letter should be an offer. You don't want to just send someone a letter and educate them and then say by. You should always make and offer in every item you produce. So that customers can keep the conversation going by taking action. It always easier to sell to someone who has purchased products from you before. So market and measure responses. Keep following up with your customers. One of the techniques for selling is going out there and creating copy for customers who are close to buying a product. But they have a few questions in their mind. You want to cater to their emotional brain. They probably want to know if the product can produce the results that it says it can or if others have seens good results by using the product. Is this product a scam, is it for real, etc... One of the thing that you need to do if focus your copy to the emotional brain. If you were going to build an affiliate page for mortgages, you want to sell the vision. If someone is looking at getting a mortgage are they getting one to have an extra payment every month? Of course not, they have some underlying want or need that is causing them to pursue this product purchase. You want to cater to that emotional want or need. Are they buying this home to pursure the American dream, is their family growing etc... Surround your offering with pictures, the big house, the green grass, the white picket fence, two health adults with two healthy kids, nice car, nice neighbor, etc... That's what these people want. They are looking to make a deposit in their emotional bank account. You want to tell that person hey, I have what you are looking for. People will make an emotional decision twice as fast as they will make a logical one. They will get to the logical part sooner or later, let them make that logical decision after they have left your affiliate page. You want to cater to their emotions and get them on and off your site as fast as possible. People will act on emotion twice as fast a logic. What are the top 5 areas you should focus on in Internet Marketing? 1. Blogging - focus on creating real value everyday. Write several high quality blog posts each day. If you can't create good content, goto elance.com and find someone in India who will write the stories for you. You can usually get an 400 word article for $3 each. It might cost you a couple hundred dollars but it will be well worth it. 2. Podcasting - variation of blogging, different medium. Audio or Video. People learn in different ways, so it's important to offer some options. Some people will buy all versions because they can't get enough of you. Some people will learn better listening driving their car to work, some will learn better by reading your PDF in peace and quiet. 3. Create yourself an information product - Put together a comprehensive information package about a particular topic. You know people who know stuff. Make a list of all the people you know and what they know. Write down their occupation, find out what that means, what things do they do on a regular basis. Find a couple experts and sit down as ask them some questions. Just pretend you know absolutely nothing about the topic of interest. Make them tell you everything. You want to create and information product that is soup to nuts. Transcribe the conversation and revisit it with them for additional information they may have forgotten to include on the first interview. 4. Help other people make money with your product - the long term success of Microsoft has been built on this principle. Microsoft allows other companies to use their products and make money by building customized solutions for their customers. 5. Find a Joint Venture partner - Get your product exposed to other people's customers. Find someone who will promote your product to their email list. If they don't have one, move on. You want to get your product in front of as many people as possible who are interested in the types of products you sell. So what mistakes have I made? The first thing I would say is that I should have got started a a lot sooner. I started back in 1999, but I really should have started in 1995 or 1996. Having those 3 years could have made a huge difference for me. So what is the difference between myself and all the other people who are doing the same thing that I am doing. I would prefer to thing that there are not alot of people who are doing what I am doing. But besides that I think I bring alot of value to my subscribers and listeners. Giving away value builds credibility in the marketplace. I would say that alot of people out there who are doing Internet Marketing are teasing their customers into buying their products and once the customers buy the products they read them and say "Wow, that makes sense", well of course it does, because these products are usually just common sense ideas. If you would have done the research for a few days you would have received the same answer. For example this podcast is some good value you are receiving from me for free. What makes the difference between a good and a great Internet marketer? A good Internet marketer has a good product, with a good sales page and they make some sales. A great Internet marketer has a good product in many formats. PDF, Audio, Video. They have a blog. They have user forums so users can answer questions. They provide a lot of value in every interaction. They post all their contact information on every page of their web site. They answer the phone when you call. They are highly available to interact with their customers. They have an email list, they send regular weekly emails with good value. They have a podcast. They regularly cross-sell and up-sell. They follow-up all the time with their customers. They have a customer relationship management system in place. They have lots of good systems that make the whole process work. Who can you call at 2am? Who do you do business with that would not mind receiving your call at 2am. They have enough trust in you to know that it's important and they should listen. This is a very powerful statement. If you have customers that you can call at 2am, you are doing something right. It's important surround to yourself with like minded individuals who are your power team. What is the favorite part of your day as an Internet Marketer? Freedom. You can do Internet marketing whenever you want to do it. You have alot of freedom and control. What is a little known secret of Internet marketing? It's easy. It's easy to do. Alot of people get analysis paralysis when it comes to Internet marketing. For some people there will never be enough answers, for others they just do it. Just go get started, do something even if it's wrong. Sit down and organically grow your business. Always watch your purse strings. Don't do stupid things that turn a quick buck. Use the family factor, does your product have enough value that you would sell it to your family at the price you charge for it? Would your brother, grandmother, uncle find enough value in your product for what you are charging? So what were some of your goals when you got started? I wanted to make a million bucks. But I don't really focus on that now. I have learned that success is a journey not a destination. So it's important to focus on the little things in life and don't let them slip by. It's easy to focus on creating money on the Internet and let yourself fall into the greed factor. If you want money and money is all that does it for you, you will always be disappointed, money is never enough motivation to keep anyone going long enough to achieve it. Don't be a hungry hound on the quest for the American dollar. What is the next big trend? Social Internet. Content creation by individuals that aggregated becomes a worthy goal. Lots of community forums, collaboration, replication, sharing, mobile content creation. Products that allow for the creation of social networking sites. The ubiquitous Internet will be Internet 24 x 7 at broadband speeds. WiMax and WiFi everywhere. Mobile devices. High speed broadband download. HD movies on the xbox 360. Google Docs and Spreadsheets where people are using Internet based applications for their business needs. The idea of software installation will go away and be reserved for the highest value add. Over the next 30 days, find people to help you create an information product Over the next 60 days, create your information product Over the next 90 days, find a joint venture partner that will help you promote your product. http://www.chrisclarkradio.com