How to Build a Ravenous, Loyal Marketing Fan Base - Dirt Cheap!

Internet Marketing Gurus are EVERYWHERE!

Usually whenever you read anything about Internet marketing you hear about the latest whiz-bang method that someone claims to have thought up. 

Of course, they’ll tell you that it is a SECRET way to make money online, but in reality there is no new thing under the sun.

Trust me on this. 

Now, having said that, I’d like to point out that there are people on the Internet that you should listen to because their information is valuable.  They’ve been around the block quite a bit and know what they are talking about.  Their books and courses are pretty good and I think if you want to pay $200 + to buy one…Go for it!

You’ll probably learn a lot more from those courses than if you went to college for the “4 year vacation” and you’ll have spent quite a bit less.

The Dirt Cheap Method of Learning

I once read an article by Gary “The Prince of Print” Halbert wherein he was talking about the lean years of his life; he didn't have a lot of money and he was dealing with an overbearing wife. 

However, Monsieur Halbert was a smart man, and he knew that he was living in the richest country in the world. He knew that he could learn a crap-load about marketing if he read a lot of books on the subject.  So, off he went to the public library where he read every book on marketing he could get his hands on.

Yeah, I love it…The DIRT CHEAP method of learning!

He didn’t need to pay someone $5000 to learn how to make money marketing, he just needed the information available and he took it from there.

Not only can you learn from books in the library, but now we have the Internet as well.  Amazon, sells tons of books on just about any kind of marketing you can imagine, and you can get the books used for a lark. 

TIP!  Not only can you find used books in online stores like Amazon, but you can also get FREE reports and eBooks by many of the top-o-the-line gurus for the mere cost of your email address.

Your Marketing Can Be Dirt Cheap Too!

While it would be bone-dead stupid for me to tell you that you’ll put zero dollars into your marketing, you can still market your business as cheaply as you can and still have an effective way of reaching out to potential prospects and customers.

One of the cheapest ways to do this is by building a community.  It takes work but it’s not as hard as

you think, either. The fastest and easiest way to do this by simply being nice and helpful.

When I say “being nice” I mean it. 

I was on a forum the other day and I made a comment about how people don’t even say thanks by pushing a simple button on the forum that says “Thanks” on it.  (You can read my rant that started a group of people talking here: Your Attitude Sucks – That’sWhy You’re in Neutral! 

The problem I have with a lot of Internet Marketers, (especially younger ones) is that they think if they’re snarky, rude and use a bunch of foul language they’ll get somewhere.

BIG MISTAKE.  This is where I draw the line and tell whoever it is that I’m not even going to listen to them anymore.  Not only that, I’m NEVER going to recommend their business to anyone, ever.  I can’t tell you the number of times that I've not recommended someone based on their attitude and language.

Especially Internet marketing gurus that think it’s cool to do so.  Apparently, they think they’re so rich, powerful and invincible that they’re too big to fail.

Man, is that a stupid way to act.

About 2 years ago there was a guy that had a way of marketing on Facebook that was kind of popular so I went on YouTube to see if he had a training video on there for free.  

Sure enough he was on there, and it was a video of a seminar of his that he had recorded live in front of a large audience. 

About 30 or so seconds into his dissertation he starts spewing out the “F” word like it was a badge of courage.  And the real sign of immaturity was that he laughed at himself every time he said it.

Very impressive.

And to think there were ladies in the audience and had to listen to that rubbish.   

Now riddle me this…

If a person like that runs their filthy mouth in front of an audience, especially where women are present, do you really believe that he’s doing ANYTHING in your best interest?  Really???

It’s been my experience that people like that look at you like a number with a monetary symbol in front of it and that’s all.

Why you should never do this…  

But, you know what?  Let them be that way.  Because entrepreneurs that really care about the people they deal with are RARE!  People that respect others, follow up and help people sometimes without any gain in life are very hard to find these days.

And if you treat others with respect and dignity and call on their higher qualities rather than their basest instincts, then you’ll have gained a loyal following of people that know you really care.

Years ago, I saw a documentary about this guy who unclogged sewage lines for people.  He really had his business down to a science and really made a huge difference in his community. 

The thing that drew my attention the most to this guy was he had actually built a mini- shower in the back of his van.  He also had a whole row of uniforms hanging up in his van that he would change after almost every appointment. 

“I don’t want to smell like a rat when I go to somebody’s house.” He grinned.

He worked in a rundown part of a large city and was booked solid. Everyone knew and loved this guy. 

The reason? He was always super nice, extremely professional and his prices were very fair.  I remember one older lady that had no husband, and was obviously broke crying because the man did the work for free.  He looked at where she was living and saw that the services were going to break what little she had left. 

“Now, Ma’am please don’t tell all your friends I did this for free OK?  They’ll be calling me off the hook and I can’t afford to help everyone for free.  OK?  I just had to do it because you’d be up to your knees in sewage.”

“Thank you…Thank you!  The woman cried, tears running down her cheeks.”

Pushing his hat back and scratching his forehead he smiled again.

“She’ll tell everybody.”

However, this man was one of the most successful people in the business.  He was making money hand over fist and booked solid BECAUSE EVERYONE KNEW HE REALLY CARED.

It’s like the Joker said in that Batman movie,  

“It’s not about the money…It’s about sending a message….”

But hey, even if you don’t want to be Mother Teresa, think of how little he has to spend on advertising and marketing.

I’m tellin’ ya what Forrest…All the shrimp you can eat!  Dirt Cheap!

Even if he didn't want the attention, he’d get it and the people he helped won’t ever forget what he did for them.

Here's a company that really gets it. Watch this video:

So, random acts of being nice and helping folks can be beneficial to your business.  If you can’t afford to give something away, give away your expert opinion or advice because it costs virtually nothing to give those away.

To Your Success!

Mark “Elmo” Ellis

How I used eBay! to Make My First Real Money On The Internet!

My Personal eBay! Story...

You've got to know what'll sell on eBay! if you
really want to make some money!

In case you've missed my last several posts, I’m conducting an experiment wherein I post several ideas that entrepreneurs send me on how they made their first money on the Internet.

The interesting thing is,  I have received only a few of these ideas from readers even though I've offered to post names and place web addresses with links next to the articles.   A few of you have sent in articles, but did not want to have their website information published, which is OK by me. 

I did have one really good tip sent to me by a guy named Jon that told me that he made his first money on eBay, buying and selling stuff that he found at yard sales.

Since he really didn't write much, and since I too used eBay a lot to make my first bucks on the Internet, I thought I’d expand on that and tell you about how I got down and dirty in the trenches with eBay. 

But, before I go down that road…

I just want to take a second and throw out the offer once again, for those of you interested in sharing your experiences on how you made your first money on the Internet. 

Please send your stories and ideas to: elmo033057@gmail.com or write your ideas and place them in a comment box.  It’s just that simple.  

I’ll give you full credit and place your name, business or whatever you want on my blog, to include your URL and a link to your site.

How I Made $20,000 on eBay!

OK this idea of using eBay to make money took quite a bit of work, but it basically forced me to try to learn how to do things on the Internet.  While $20,000 may look like quite a chunk of change, it was actually more money than that, and it was over a period of years I made money on eBay!  But as I said, it was really my first money that I made on the Internet, as far as I can remember.

It was about 1995 or 1996 that I got involved with eBay, and I just want to reiterate, it was a lot of work.  The first thing I tried to do was go around to yard sales, buy junk and try to sell it on eBay. 

I had heard at work that there were people going around making big bucks by going to yard sales, buying ties, shirts, or whatever and then selling them on the world’s greatest auction site.  

So off I went, hitting every yard sale I could buying things that I thought people would want. 

Unfortunately, I wound up with a garage full of junk. Some of the stuff I placed up on auction sold for a mere pittance and once I paid the shipping, I was the loser.

Clorox Bottles - The Turning Point!

But as I have stated before on this blog, your successes come from failing.  So, I kept at it.  I learned pretty quickly that you needed to have a way to check the

prices of things before you bought them.  However, this was before the Internet was on your cell phone, so I had to have another plan.

I had my slave…er…son sit at home next to his computer, and I took my cell phone with me.

Whenever I wanted to know what something was selling for I would call him up and ask him to look on eBay to see what the prices of particular items went for.

Hey, ya learn fast when you lose money.

So, my wife and I stopped at some lady’s house who was selling glass Clorox bottles.  Now, I was born in the late 50’s and as far back as I could remember, my mother always had to white plastic Clorox bottles, so I knew that these had to be antique.  I know that certain glass bottles can go for quite a bit of money, and these were in mint-perfect condition.

So, I asked the woman running the yard sale what she was selling them for. 

“$20.00.” She announced for everyone in the garage to hear.

They're $20.00!

I asked her where she got them from, and she told me they had been passed on for years in her family.  She also told me that glass collectors love those things. 

When I inquired why she wasn't trying to sell them to glass collectors and really cash in on the glass bottle bonanza, she told me that as soon as the yard sale was over her son was going to take them and do just that.

“Yeah,” she said chewing on a piece of beef jerky, “he’s gonna sell them to an antique dealer we know for $60.00 apiece.”

“Oh, really?” I said, dialing my son.

To cut a long story short,  it turns out there were loads and loads of them on eBay, in mint perfect condition starting at $4.00 apiece. So I skipped out of that yard sale thinking about a sign I saw in a library as a kid.

"Knowledge is power."

After that I usually checked things put before I bought them, and over time I knew which of the items were real hot sellers.

The Certain Things Sell Better Lesson

I remember going to a yard sale and some young guy (obviously pretty successful from the looks of his house) had a  brand new cell phone in a box.  When I asked him why he was selling it, he said,

"I signed up for a plan with the cell phone company and they hacked me off, so I cancelled the contract with them. Since that phone will only work with that particular company, I'm selling it."

He originally wanted 20.00 for the phone, but I offered him $5.00.  Since I hit him with this price right before he shut down his yard sale for the day, he decided to let it go.  I made $65.00 off of that brand new phone on eBay!

Knowing your market is kinda important 

So, if you know what the market on eBay! is looking for, you can still make money.  However, you have to consider the cost.  

• The cost of gas driving around

• The cost of time.  This method is pretty time consuming.  Not only do you have to drive around to all of the yard sales, but you have to consider the time you have to take packing this stuff up and then standing in line at the post office.

• The cost in shipping the items to the people that are buying them.  You don't want to charge too much, but at the same time, you don't want to under charge so that you're losing money either.  

• You'll need to spend even more time and money on eBay! itself.  eBay! does charge for placing items on it's auction site, and you'll have to take pictures of your items and upload them as well as write a real good description of the item.

The Lessons I Learned From This...

This isn't a real good way of making money on eBay!  

When I consider the time, money and effort I put into it, I was a loser.  However, as I said before knowledge is power, and I quickly learned how to put items up on eBay! and how the whole process worked.  

That set me up for making an actual income that was worth working on the "World's Greatest Auction Site" which I'll share with you in my next post.

Just a reminder, if anyone want wants to send me their story of how they made their first money on the Internet, please send it to:  elmo033057@gmail.com  

I'll be happy to give you full credit, place a link to your site and help you in any way I can.

To Your Success!

Mark “Elmo” Ellis

"When it Comes to High-Response Copy - I've Got Your Back!"

www.MarkEllisCopy.com

(859) 797-9560

elmo033057@gmail.com

We Need You! How Did You Make Your First Dollar On The Internet?

Last week I conducted an experiment.  

I ran an ad online asking for Internet marketers to send me an examples of dirt cheap marketing that they've used to make their first dollars online.  (I ran a real good deal on the ad, so I didn't pay much there and I didn't want to pay a bunch to get their responses. Ha-ha!  Cheap!  Cheap! ) 

I also posed a question on a popular marketing forum asking folks what their methods were there as well.  I got quite a few responses there too. 

So, this week I’m going to post those responses here for you to read.  

The Second Part of My Experiment Involves You!

Not only am I going to post the responses that I received, but I’m also going to post any good ideas that my reading audience sends me as well.  You can either send it to me here: elmo033057@gmail.com and I’ll post it to my blog with your signature and web address on it, or I’ll post it into the comment section of my blog. 

Either way works for me!

The Rules:

• Please don’t post duplicate content.  It will get trashed immediately.
• No foul language.
• We are here to lift each other up as entrepreneurs, not trash each other.  If you disagree on a point with someone, try to disagree without being disagreeable.
• I will not allow affiliate links.  If you have an example of a product or website, fine, but all affiliate links will get trashed.
• I won’t mind promoting your business if your post has a logical point or example with it. Readers can easily tell if you are just promoting your junk instead of sharing valuable information with them. 
• Oh, and No Running in The Pool Area!

Dirt Cheap Method #1 -Using Your Web Savvy Brain to Sell an eBook Online

I figured since I actually went through the process myself,  I'd be the first to tell you exactly how I made my first money online.  

I invested $30.00 on an eBook  which was titled, "How to write and Sell and eBook in 30 Days".  I bought the book and without thinking too much about what niche to dive into, I started writing.  

I actually got the book written in about 2 weeks and churned out about 75 pages of material.  I thought someone...anyone would want to read it and that I'd make some money on it.

I knew enough to figure that I would probably not make a huge sum of money from writing the book, but I was eager to set it up and get the ball rolling.  

In the early 1990's credit card processing was kind of expensive.  
You had to get an online credit card service if you wanted to sell something, even an eBook.  PayPal had just started to really roll, but it did not have half of the cheap merchant services it has today.  

I finally found a very inexpensive solution from a company called 2Checkout.  2Checkout is a company that would let you set up any product that you wanted to sell, and it would act as a credit card processor for a percentage of the sale.  (Currently, they will charge you 2.5% for processing.) 

They would let you set up your products, give you the code to drop into your page and then process your order for you.  With very few glitches, it worked like a charm.  

How I Faced Failure and Turned It Around...

However, nobody wanted to read my book on Internet marketing, especially since I was a Newb.  

So my first effort resulted in selling nothing.

But, hey, you'll learn your best and biggest lessons from failure.  Determined to still make money from Internet marketing thing, I decided to try again.  This time I wanted to find a niche that was narrow and that a group of people felt passionate about.  

At the time I was trying my hand at this, I was a band director at a military academy and I was working with a bagpiping team.  

The kids that I was working with at the time, were really into the whole Celtic/Bagpiping hobby, and I had a hard time keeping up with them because I had no education in the realm of bag pipes.

One Friday, when I was getting ready to go home from work, I noticed one of the bag piping team members getting into a car with his Celtic gear on. (Yep, the team wore kilts.) 

When I asked him why he was wearing his outfit, he told me something I had no knowledge of.  He was making all sorts of money playing bagpipes for different events.  Weddings, funerals, retirement parties, police events, etc.

And the money he was making was pretty good.  He'd make $200.00 at any given event, and he was only required to play for small segments of the events.

So, that was thew seed of an idea for my second eBook, "How to Make Money With Your Bagpipes"  and even though it didn't make me rich, I still made thousands from it.,

Heck, it was pretty easy to market, when I look back on it.  Since I was a band director at a military academy, it was very easy to network with bagpipers and find out where they all hung out at online.  

I also knew who the best bagpipe teachers were and I could easily contact them and get them to spread the word for me. 

I guess that's why identifying a focused niche is very important.



So, that was the first time I made money online and I've been hooked ever since.  

Now it's your turn.  What was the way you made your first money using Internet marketing? 

Once again, you can post your story in the comment section or send it on to me at: elmo033057@gmail.com

I look forward to hearing from you!

To Your Success!

Mark “Elmo” Ellis

"When it Comes to High-Response Copy - I've Got Your Back!"

www.MarkEllisCopy.com

(859) 797-9560

elmo033057@gmail.com

You've Made Your Web Savvy Traffic Generating Video, Now What?

Ok, the next thing you’ll want to do is save your video so that you can easily upload it to YouTube, Vimeo or any other Video site.  Before you do that, you’ll need a basic understanding of how to compress video. 

If you haven’t been keeping up on how to create traffic generating videos, here are the links to previous posts that you’ll find very helpful: (These are in the order of how you should read them.)

1.  Use Web SavvyYouTube Traffic Generation to Get Prospects to Your Site 

2.  How NOT to CreateYouTube Videos That Will Get Traffic to Your Site 

3.  What Type ofSoftware and Hardware Should I Use to Make YouTube Videos With? 

4.  How to Make Web Savvy YouTube Videos That Will Generate Traffic

  

Compressing your video files --- The Basics

It would be a good idea to understand how video file conversion works when getting ready to upload them to different sites.  Basically, whenever you are compressing a file of any type, it is basically reducing it in some manner.  The smaller the file, the faster it will load. 

If you have ever reduced a typical photograph file for a website, you’ll notice that when you reduce the size of that file, the picture becomes a little less clear and sort of grainy looking.  That’s because you are taking out some of the pixels in the picture. In a nutshell that’s basically what you’re doing to a video.  

In video however, the camera stores or records anywhere from 23 to 30 STILL images which somehow makes the movement more clear and fluid. So, within the frames, the compression function stores the changes there instead of storing more frames.

ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW IS: Whenever you compress a video or picture, it will be less clear because the file is smaller!

Here is a video compression chart to help you understand a little about it:

My recommendation to you is if this is the first time you’re compressing a video file and placing it on the Internet, is to compress it into a standard mp 4 format and upload it to YouTube.  That is the easiest way to get your first video online.

How to Compress the Video File

If you read my article on which video editing software to buy, you’ll know that I’m partial to Camtasia and Sony Vegas.  These programs have video compression built into the programs, so just like any other video program, you can pick the type of compression or file extension that you want.  My recommendation is to:

A.)  Use either Sony Vegas or Camtasia for video editing

B.) Compress the video file into MP4 format

C.)  Upload to YouTube because it is very easy and YouTube will give you step by step directions on how to do it.

Why I’m Not Recommending HD format.

There is an area of Internet users caught in an area called The Digital Divide.  These are people that because of where they live, their economic situation or they may not be computer savvy enough keeps them from getting the fastest and best Internet service. 

I live in a rural community where the only way I can get Internet is by way of a “Hotspot”.  I am only allowed 10 gigs a month on my Internet service. So, watching videos at home is totally out of the question, so I only use static pages. 

I’m in an extreme situation, however.  Usually, most people can get regular full-blown Internet but, there’s an awful lot of people that can’t get the best Internet service.  Either they are living in an area where they can’t get it or they can’t afford the best.  So, for them to wait for a HD High-Definition video to load on a slower bandwidth is unrealistic. 

And if you are trying to market your services, you could be cutting a whole segment of people out of your sales funnel.  So go with a medium range MP4 compression if you can.

If you still don't understand how to compress video files, watch this:

To Your Success!

Mark “Elmo” Ellis

"When it Comes to High-Response Copy - I've Got Your Back!"

www.MarkEllisCopy.com

(859) 797-9560

elmo033057@gmail.com

Use Web Savvy YouTube Traffic Generation to Get Prospects to Your Site

This is one method of generating traffic that I know for a fact works very fast.  I actually learned all about creating videos back in 2007 while working on my Master’s Degree in Education Technology with Boise State University.

One of the classes I took was “Educating with YouTube” believe it or not.  In that class, we had to create scripted, well edited educational videos and post them to YouTube.  Actually, there was more to it than all that; we had to create a YouTube educational channel, use various types of video editing and screen capture software like Camtasia among other things to make our instructional videos.

One of the first videos I created was one called “Facebook for Beginners”.  For that video assignment I had to build a lesson plan, write a step by step script, and then execute it and post it to my YouTube channel.  Of course all of this had to be submitted to my professors.

If you want to see it, here it is: 

I had beginners luck with this video.  To date I’ve had over 26, 000 views and it seemed to gain popularity very quickly.  Now some Internet marketers out there are going to roll their eyes at that count, and they would be right.  But for a person that tried it out for the first time, it was a good start.
 

Getting to the Top of The SERPS and Not Even Knowing it!

The other thing I learned about this that hit me like a Ton ̶ O ̶ Bricks was how fast the search term “Facebook for Beginners” went to the top of Google’s Search Engine Results Pages.  I was at the top of Google for that term for quite some time.                                                                    (Update: I’m no longer at the top of the Google’s SERPS for this term, unless you search under Google’s Video link at the top of Googles main page.  It’s still there after all these years, right in the middle of the page!)

The beauty of all this is that you can add your URL Website address to your video channel or display it in your video itself.  At the time, I wasn’t thinking about making money or gaining traffic on the Internet. I was just worried about getting an “A” in my YouTube class. 

Bad Videos and How They Can Cheese You Off!

Since taking this class, I’ve seen a lot of YouTube videos, especially instructional ones.  The problem with a large percentage of them is that they are horrible, mainly because most of them are unscripted.  Let’s say you search online for a Photoshop tip and find a video you think is going to quickly and succ where the person that created the video with Camtasia, has a bad microphone, so you can barely hear his or her voice.   

Then there’s the incredible dialogue with a lot of …uh…ya know…….uhhh……stuff…like…..uhhhh…..ya know ….stuff….like this!

If you’re like me, you hate, hate, hate, to waste time with someone that beats around the bush about what they are trying to tell you.  You can obviously tell the person that’s behind the

So, over the course of the next couple of days, we are going to take a look at what makes a good instructional video, why you would want to make one and how to do it as cheap as possible. 

Hint:  It’s the same principle as when you are trying to write Web content, if you write total crap, nobody will look at your material.  They’ll go to your site, see that you’re wasting their time because the content sucks and then leave.

So, tomorrow, I’ll write the first installment on how to create a good video with well organized content. In the meantime, if you want to watch a rather entertaining video on making money, here it is:

How to Make Interesting Money Making Videos

Mark “Elmo” Ellis

"When it Comes to High-Response Copy - I've Got Your Back!"

www.MarkEllisCopy.com

 (859) 797-9560

elmo033057@gmail.com