Information Marketing the MOST Lucrative of all Internet Marketing Opportunities

Information marketing is probably the easiest and fastest way to build a business on the Internet.  (Already I can hear you say “Duh – Everybody knows that!)  Most people won’t try to make money using this venue and when they do, it is usually done wrong.

However, when you think of it, if everyone were great info-marketers the market would be absolutely saturated.  (Kinda like brick and mortar video businesses back in the 80’s.) 

Not to say it isn't highly competitive in certain niches already, but if you know how to target a hot niche or sub-niche, you can still rake in the bucks.

The Reality of the Info-Marketing Business – or – That Dirty Four Letter Word

I like to frequent forums where IM newbs (slang for Internet Marketing newbies) hang out.  Most of them are wide-eyed optimists, and right out of the starting gate, they make posts like this:

“How can you make $2000 a month selling info-products?”

“Frustrated with trying to make $$$ online”

“I’m totally broke and desperate and need to make good money now!!!”

You know, the usual.

My response to them is:

“Did you think this was going to be different than starting any other type of business?  It requires A LOT of WORK!”

Just like Edison used to say, “The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary.”

Information marketing IS lucrative, but you have to work it like a madman or woman to make money at it.

Consider What You Need to Do to Make Money

Outside of actually creating the actual product (videos, eBooks, reports, blog posts, etc.) you still have a load of work to do to actually get your product onto the market.

Market Research

Let’s say you’re going to sell a 100 page eBook.  You need to research first to see if there’s a market for it.  If you do it right, it may take you a few days or more of work to find out whether your product has merit. 

The reason I say this requires a few days of research, is because you really need to find out on the front-end of your project whether or not there is a marketable niche.  You need to find out if the market is large enough and hungry enough to buy what you’re trying to sell.

If you watch ABC’s Shark Tank, you’ll see that this is where most enthusiastic and new entrepreneurs fall short on that show.  People come into it expecting to go into business with seasoned, filthy rich venture capitalists on their ideas and products. 

Unfortunately, these venture capitalists are very experienced and business savvy.  If the budding entrepreneurs haven’t sold too many units, or have any existing market data to back up their claims, they won’t get a deal.

As one of the sharks on the show likes to say, “You’re dead to me.”

Marketing Plan

Once you've finished writing, formatting, branding and packaging your product, you still have a crap-load of work to do. 

You've got to figure out how you are going to attract your target market.  What methods are you going to use to attract and keep the attention of the people you want to have as paying customers?

What type of a sales funnel are you going to use? What is your unique selling proposition? If you structure a plan based on the sales funnel model, you’ll need to decide what channels you are going to use to broadcast your message.

Execution

Once you've figured out how you’re going to market your business, you've got to execute it. 

The Most seasoned marketers will tell you to use as many different types of marketing channels that you can manage.  That way, if one channel goes out for one reason or another, you’ll the other channels that you can still promote your business through.

For example, if you are accustomed to using nothing but YouTube videos to promote your product and then Google decides to kill YouTube for some reason, you’ll still have 4 or 5 other channels like social media, blogging, or whatever that you’re still using.

Selling

Once you get your crowd through your sales funnel, you’ll want to set up a sales page.  (Actually the sales page is part of your funnel, but let’s not split hairs here!)

You've got to have a page that convinces your readers that if they don’t buy what you have to offer, life on planet Earth will end.  You either have to have the skill to write compelling copy or hire someone that’ll do that for you.

Delivery

Once you get everything else in place, you’ll need to make sure you've got a way to collect money and deliver the product.  There are all sorts of ways to do this from making on line delivery systems to sending your product directly to the customer by way of snail mail.

Hot Tip #1 - If you have a PayPal account you can sell eBooks online relatively easy.  PayPal will process your transaction, but it will not DELIVER your eBook. For that, you’ll need an intermediary site.

  

There is a site called Upload –N- Pay that you can use as a delivery system.  The setup is fairly easy and you can be running in no time.

Hot Tip #2 – if you want to produce your own physical Audio CD’s or Video CD’s there’s an excellent company called Kunaki that silkscreens the CD and packages it in a nice case.

 A while back, I was making sports videos for kids that wanted to get scholarships for college, and I needed a way to get the video CD into a box.  I used Kunaki because they print on demand.  

I uploaded the video, sent in the case photo and for an extremely reasonable price got my video and case created. 

An absolutely amazing service! Here is their price list: Kunaki’s Prices 

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

Blogging The Web Savvy Dirt Cheap Method To Get the Word Out and Generate Traffic

Google loves blogs.  

Don’t ask me about all of the technical SEO babble that goes along with Internet Marketing, but I've read countless articles about this and the results are in:

Google Loves Blogs.

It’s just that simple.  Or is it?

If you've glanced at my articles for more than five seconds, you’ll see that I’m cheap.  I've mentioned this before, but I don’t like getting a second mortgage to start a business. That’s just the way I am. (Actually, I don't even have a first mortgage ;I paid my little house in the country off years ago, but that’s another story.)

The Upside to Blogging

So, blogging is one of those dirt cheap tools you can use to generate interest in your business and get people to actually go to your site.  There are several reasons for this that you should know about:

1.  As I said before, search engines like Google love blogs.  The reason that they do is because if you write brand new hunks of content every day, they’ll consider you to be an active web page rather than a stale, inactive one. 

2.   It can give you a good reason to stay in contact with your client and customer base.  Every time I finish a post, (which is usually once a day) I post it online and immediately tell everyone I can online about it.  I send out email, tweet, Google +, Facebook, and let everyone I do business with know about it. 

 I also have a physical newsletter that I send out as well and I mention that I just made a post somewhere in the body of the article.  It is very effective that way.

3.  People can feel like they are a part of your business and that they actually know you.  They can leave comments and feel like they are contributing to your cause.  If they follow you on a regular basis, they’ll feel like they really know you.  The evidence is in that people will spend their hard earned cash if they know you and trust you.  So, look at blogging as a trust building experience.

The Downside to Blogging

The problem with this blogging strategy is that it is labor intensive and requires massive amounts of discipline.  There are quite a few reasons for this.

1.  You have to research your posts before you write them.  You can’t just sit down and blather on about nothing.  Even if you're going to write highly personalized accounts about yourself or a particular subject, you need to sit down and think the post through.   

If you just sit down and dash out crap, people can smell it from a mile away.

2.  Keyword research is important too.  You need to find low competition keywords that are somehow related to your niche.  If you have a Google AdSense or AdWords account, you can use their free keyword research tool.  

They’ve changed quite a bit about it over the years, to include the name of it, (they now call it Keyword Planner) but it’s still pretty effective. 

If you don’t want to use that tool you can always pay to use WordTracker or MarketSamurai.  These have been rated pretty well by SEO specialists, but I can’t vouch for them because I’m too cheap.  

I just use the free Google tool.  That’s good enough for me.

3.  Formatting Text and Pictures on a Screen - You’ll need to go back into your blog and make sure that you format the paragraphs so that they are readable to your audience.  This is one of those times you need to put your grammar book away and think about the way people’s eyes work when reading a computer screen.

People see things as blocks of text on a screen much differently than they do when they read a book.  You can use all sorts of word processor conventions to do so.   Bullet statements, headings, underlined areas, highlighted text and paragraphs that are shorter and different length can be used.

Word count is important. Remember the reason why Google likes blogs is because it loves to see well written content as frequent as possible.  I personally like to write every single day.  However, posting every single day is sometimes impossible due to scheduling problems.  

So, post as frequent as you can.

You’ll need to post 500 words every other day to gain favor with the search engine gods.  Be patient with them though, because they might not to notice you for a while and you’ll need keep working at it without a lot of visible success right off the bat.

4. Spreading the Word – Once you get your post written, I would spread the word throughout the social media net as fast as I could, merely highlighting the posts and giving teaser information about it.

Here's a video on how a lovely young lady built her blog.  The rules are pretty much the same no matter what the niche or market is.

5.  Add on Videos and Charts – Not only do the search engine gods like new content frequently, but they also like other relevant information as well.  If you can produce relevant charts and graphs backing up your information, then you’ll find favor in their eyes. 

Relevant video is another area that search engines like if they are relevant to the posts.  If you can find video you can use that helps illustrate a point, then use it. 

If you want to read an excellent article on search engine optimization then I would highly recommend SEO Book’s Guide to Blogging.  It is one of the most extensive and well written posts on the subject.

The Most Important Facet of Your Blog that’s Dirt Cheap

I know I've spent a considerable amount of time talking about the things you should do for the search engine gods.  However, the main focus of your blog is to provide your readers the best information possible on your business niche.  You want to be seen as an authority, a valuable resource site and a place to go to share opinions and ideas. 

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

The One Thing You Absolutely Have to Have to Run a Business - Or You Can Just Hang It Up

Today, I’m going to switch things up a bit.

I’m not going to talk about what web savvy, slick tools you can use to generate traffic to your site.  Instead, I’m gonna tell you about the most important thing you are going to need to survive in business. 

I’m an active participant in the Warrior Forum.  The WF is probably the most active Internet marketing forum on the planet right now.  Probably because the seats are so cheap.  You can get a lifetime membership for $10.00.  Not bad. 

I've written about this forum and others more extensively in the past, and you can read that post here:

Marketing with Forums

The Reason I’m bringing up this venue is because the other day, I noticed there were quite a few people on that forum that were a certain class of people.  These folk show up all over the Internet.  On forums, blogs, and social media sites.

For some weird reason, they are rather shameless in their brazen messages, and they don’t care how much abuse they take from people reacting to them.  They just keep on broadcasting, no matter what.

Of course, the people I’m talking about are the habitual whiners. 

These folks, instead of writing extensive posts on their blogs or websites, spend their valuable time and efforts complaining about how something didn't work.  How Internet marketing doesn't work, or how they’re sick of hearing people give them the same advice over and over again, or how they lost money, yada, yada, yada…

It’s as if they think they’ll actually start succeeding if they keep complaining.

It ain't gonna happen that way.

And the sad fact is that there are a number of people on that site that’ll actually waste their time trying to help them.  My advice to those people is: Don’t waste your time. 

 

I've owned online and offline businesses and the downside to owning a business is that it’s not like a job.

 

With a job, you down have all the responsibilities of running the company.  You’re not the one that has to make payroll for everyone in the company, make sound decisions about which direction the company is going to go, spend money on marketing, and have health insurance for your employees, and all of the other stressful responsibilities that go with running an enterprise.

Usually with a job, you don’t have to do all of those functions.  You have a certain set of things you do for the company and that’s it. 

But if you are an owner, you have a very full plate. 

It’s like Spiderman’s uncle said, “With great power comes great responsibility.”

So, if you are going to whine and cry about the “Internet Gods” not favoring you, go find something else to do.  Because business, (no matter what type it is) is a full-tilt, 10 million pound behemoth that you’ll have to battle with every day.

Failure is Absolutely Necessary

If you are going to be an entrepreneur, you are going to fail and you’ll probably fail a lot. 

I’m sure you’ve heard of Thomas Edison’s most famous quote, “I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.”

I guess it's all how you look at it.

So, failure is essential to learning.  Ask any musician, artist, writer, engineer, or business person.  Especially, when you are new to having your own business, failure is essential.  I’m not saying to go out and deliberately try to be a failure, I’m saying that it’s a part of the process.

If you’re not failing, you’re not trying, plain and simple. 

Why Dirt Cheap is So Cool

If you’ve been following this blog, you’ll notice that I’ve talked an awful lot about using “dirt-cheap” methods of starting businesses and marketing.  There is a method to my madness.  For one thing if you start small, cheap and SMART, you’re reducing your risk dramatically. 

Thanks to the Internet, gone are the days of having to take out huge sums of money to start a business.  You can start a business anywhere from home and actually make a living.  And you can also do business globally.   

You won’t have to worry about having a lot of money or taking out a loan.  That’s the beauty of this method, and it’s low stress.

This makes it extremely easy to start a business. It no longer matters how young or old you are, whether you’re a cripple or Chuck Norris, the door to prosperity is wide open. 

That is, if you have the guts, knowledge and DETERMINATION to keep on truckin’!

But, you will fail.  Any successful entrepreneur will tell you that they've had many more failures than successes.  That is just the nature of any business or endeavor and you’ll have to face that demon on a daily basis. 

So keep swinging that bat, keep playing that horn, keep busting your butt, because that’s the only way you’ll ever learn enough to outlast people that just don’t have the will to stick it out.

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

Webinars - A Mind-Blowing Traffic Generating List Building Tool You Can't Do Without!

This is a list building venue that isn't used by many marketers because usually, it requires planning, knowledge and a little bit of a technical set up.  This is usually enough to put most people off.  Just like video marketing, webinars require a little knowledge of equipment and software and it does take a little time to learn.

However, this shouldn't in any way stop someone from using these tools in marketing.  As a matter of fact, the benefits of using video and webinars should really encourage people to use them.  For one thing, they’ll help you get to the top of the search engines much faster.

 If you’ve ever made a video and posted it, you’ll be stunned at how quickly it can rise through all of the Internet clutter.

The same thing could be said for audio files from webinars.  The reason why videos and audio seem to rank faster, is because there is less competition.  People feel too intimidated to make them, so therefore there’s much less competition. 

There are other bennies that many people don’t think about too.  For one thing, if you are able to have a well done audio or video, it makes people look at you like an authority in your niche.  The other thing, these items can have incoming or outgoing links and can be shared through email and other online file sharing systems.

So, ignoring these methods of marketing online is not too swift.

Basics of a Webinar

If you are going to create your own webinar, you should get a webinar hosting account.  These are typically inexpensive, but well worth the money you put into them.  A good hosting system will give you a fast and easy way to invite people to your event and sign up, by allowing you to send out an email inviting people.

You can easily find good companies to handle this for you.

 For example, there’s an online service called GoToMeeting  that has a lot of great features on it.  You can set up a really pleasing interface for people that you've invited to the event, and you can even share pictures and streaming with them.

Here’s the Shameless Cheaper Way…

Another good company is AnyMeeting. 

The thing I like about this service is that it reminds me of MailChimp.  You don’t pay anything unless you have a certain number of people.  In the case of AnyMeeting, it’s free up to 200 people.

I like that idea, because you all know that my whole marketing ideal is to do everything as dirt cheap as you can, especially if you are trying to start your venture.  I’m sorry, that’s just the way I am. 

I figure once you’ve hit the same financial status as that guy that runs Virgin Records or that other guy that invented Facebook, THEN you can spend Mega-Bucks on advertising.

But until then, you’ll want to save some money in your marketing efforts.  Just sayin’!

Make Sure You Tell Your Audience All about It

Before the webinar, make sure that you’ve really spread the word about the webinar.  Use Facebook, Twitter, Google + and any other social media site that you can.  Also, make sure that your entire email list knows about it as well. 

TIP!  Go offline too!  Get some nice event note cards produced and send them to all of the clients and customers on your mailing list.  Make it like a real nice invitation that is handsomely made.  You can do this dirt cheap with a printer and some clip art or go on a site like Fiverr and hire someone inexpensively.

Considering all of the effort you’re putting into something like this, you may want to call people that you know as well.  

For example, if you do consulting it would be pretty beneficial for you to call them and invite them to your event.

Even if they don’t join you for the webinar, they will be happy to know that you are still thinking of them and that you value them enough to invite them.

Make Sure You Aren't BORING

I know this is kind of common sense, but try to make your webinar interesting.  If you and your guest are not enthusiastic about what you do, then it will come off that way.

Also it would be a good idea to organize and write down your questions before the seminar.  Give your guest a copy of the questions so he or she can think about a response.

Off the cuff comments can be OK as they arise.  You do want to have a logical structure to your webinar, but try to be natural too.  If a question you didn't happen to think about rears its head, go ahead and ask it.  It will sound natural and spontaneous because it is.

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

Driving Traffic Offline Traffic to Your Online Website the Dirt Cheap Method

On the last blog post, we started down the road of how to generate traffic from offline sources.  I’m going to try to research and place as many ideas as possible and write about them.  Some of these ideas are from personal experience as well as research. 

You can read the last post I did on that subject here: Offline Traffic Generating Strategies

Tell Everyone You Know – How many people do you know?  Chances are, you know a load of people that you aren't even thinking about.  Sit down for a moment, get out a pencil and a pad of paper, your address book and any other log you use to keep names and addresses on and write down every person you can think of.  Not just friends and relatives, but anyone you do business with. 

You can then write them a brief snail-mail letter telling them about your website as well as the irresistible freebie that you have on your site if they get on your email list. 

Hey, double winner, chicken dinner!  Not only will they go to your site, but if the offer is great, chances are they’ll sign up for your shameless newsletter, email series, blog post alerts, etc.

Advertise Your Online Business on Your Vehicle – Have you ever been out driving and see a bumper sticker that had a web address on it?  Of course you have.  Sometimes I think the weirder the web address is the more it makes you remember it and want to go home and plug into the net.  Which brings up the major question of this post: Will people actually look up your business if they see your web address on your vehicle? 

Well, considering how many people are carrying cell phones and tablets around with them they probably will look you up. 

So here’s an idea, the more unique you can make your advertisement on your vehicle look unique or interesting, the more you’ll get the attention.  Use words or phrases that will generate curiosity.   Ask a question they ca answer on your site, or tell them that you have a free product to give them if they visit your site and register with you.

Once again, you’re trying to build that all-important list that you can use to market to the people that follow you and your products and services online. 

Put Your Web Address URL on Your Answering Service – Marketing Master, Dan Kennedy, had a great story about how he called a guy that was supposed to spray his home for bugs.  When he called the home office of the exterminator a lady with a cheerful voice greeted him and after a few seconds asked if he wouldn't mind waiting for a few minutes on hold while she transferred his call.

He was then treated to an awesome advertisement about the services and upgrades he could purchase with the standard service package.  That and all the perks, insurances and everything else you can imagine that you can think of.  Of course he was given the web address where they could get discounts and other freebies. 

Then Mr. Kennedy was treated to another commercial with all sorts of information and ideas on how to clean and take care of pools.  Yep, the web address of the pool maintenance company was on that commercial too and that business was owned by the brother of the bug spray guy.

Put Your Web Address on Al Correspondence- Yep, I know that this is a no brainer, but it bears reminding you to put your web address on all correspondence pieces like letterhead, envelopes, return addresses, etc. 

TIP! You could buy sticky labels and make them for your envelopes with a good call to action on it.  Put pictures on it or anything else that’ll catch the eye of your reader.  Just think of all the hands your letter passes through on its way to the recipient. That way your envelope will have a double purpose to it, carrying the letter and advertising!

 Mark “Elmo” Ellis

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

www.MarkEllisCopy.com

(859) 797-9560

elmo033057@gmail.com

Dirt Cheap Offline Methods of Generating Traffic to Your Website

Most of the Marketing Methods I've talked written about has been methods of send traffic to your site online.  Now, we’re going to get into other methods of driving traffic.  Primarily, how to send traffic to your site from the offline world. 

In some ways, marketing offline can actually be more fun to do and you can get very creative with how you do this.

Join Local Groups in Your Community – I live in Lexington, Kentucky and I can tell you that this is not a big city.  Actually, where I live I can have access to 3 cities that are rather small.  However, there are business groups that have regular meetings to discuss their businesses and network together.

These are usually businesses that perform services or products in the bricks and mortar world.  

So their topics whenever they speak of them are usually about what they’re selling or doing.  In my case, since I talk about dirt-cheap marketing methods and also write advertising copy, I have a pretty wide appeal with my group.  If I were a dentist, well, I don’t think I’d have the same appeal, even though dentists perform a super-important service. 

Finding these groups is pretty easy.  Just Google “Business Networking Groups” and the name of your city or town. Once again, don’t try to be a “Johnny Jump-Up” and try to connect with your group too fast.  Just like online social groups, you’ll want to get to know your group before you approach them with anything.

Once they get to know you. They’ll be much more responsive to what you have to say and your marketing message.  At some point you’ll want to give them a business card or offer to speak at one of the meetings. 

I can’t overstate that you’ll want to ease into these relationships before talking to them about what you do too much.  Just be cordial and attend regularly.

Speak at local business meetings.  

Almost every city or large town has a Toast Masters Club.  These clubs are there to give members the opportunity to speak or help you learn to speak.  However, just like any other social network, you will have an opportunity to network and talk to others that are in business.

And guess what?  You’ll be able to give a speech about your business there and hand out business cards and make connections you can send to your website!

The next move you’ll want to make once you get used to talking to crowds is to research different business groups in your area and contact them.  Usually there are business chapters or clubs that meet regularly and many times they are looking for speakers.  Depending on your niche market, you can speak at some of these events.  All you have to do is send a brief letter to the chair person leading the group offering your services to speak. 

The only words of caution I would have is make sure your niche or subject is relevant and applicable to your audience.  A good way to make sure that you’re speaking on target would be to ASK the person in charge what subject (related to your field) that they think would be good for you to speak about.

This method is very effective, especially if you’re addressing people that are interested in your business.  Usually, people will come up to you and ask you for more information. 

However, I have a better plan for you…

Hot Tip!  Instead of just giving out your marketing materials when someone asks for it why don’t you “bump it up a notch”? 

At the end of your presentation, you could say something like this:

“Thank you so much for allowing me to speak at your event.  To show you my extreme appreciation, I’ve got some free parting gifts I’d like to give you at the door before you leave."

You could give them a free report, complimentary items like pens or key- chains that have your web address and other contact information on it.  This way, you can make sure that just about everyone in the room will have your marketing materials as they leave, rather than just one or two people that just talking to one or two contacts that happen to approach you.