So what do you want to make money on the Internet for? Why do you want to be wealthy? The answers you give will tell a whole lot about your hidden money myths and how you really see money.

Sometimes it’s simple: we have a dream and need money to fulfil it. The dream comes first.

Consider also what you don’t need more money for. I like cars and watches - but have found that my investments in such things hasn’t increased as my income has gone up. I still like them but my motivation for making money isn’t to be able to spend loads on new things. I don’t need more money to buy new cars and watches. Do you really need as much as you think? If so, fine, you just need to be sure and clear about it.

So what’s your excuse? What do you want money for? Set your own agenda, my friend, and keep it to yourself. And whatever you write down – and I recommend you write it down, it makes it so much more real – keep it secret, keep it safe.

Simon

Although I’ll be showing you how to make money with Clickbank, this model can be applied to any other affiliate network or product (even a blog). I just happen to like Clickbank because information is one of the easiest products to sell over the Internet with very little overhead costs.

 Have A Plan

Most budding Internet Marketers getting into the business do what I call ‘hit and run’ affiliate marketing. It’s the model they’re all familiar with because it’s the one they hear about the most. The hit and run marketing steps goes something like this.

1. Select a Clickbank (or any affiliate) product to promote
2. Send some traffic
3. Sale
4. Next

Sure, I know a few of affiliate marketers who spend £5K a day to make £10K. It sounds great doesn’t it? The main problem with this model is there are not many affiliate marketers who have a lot of capital to start off with let alone £5k to invest. More importantly, those who are making a profit using this method are leaving a ton of money on the table.

Spending money on advertising to get one customer that you will never see again is one of the dumbest business move you can make. That’s the equivalent of a retail outlet taking out a fron page spread on a national newspaper to have those customers buy one item and then never visit the store again. They’d go under in less than six months if that’s the case!

Another problem with the hit and run model is it’s not very stable. You have to keep spending money on advertising or the sales stop. You risk the chance of Google slapping your landing page because of a low quality score, you may run out of money tweaking the ads/keywords/landing pages, competition can drive up bids to the point where you can’t make a profit, the advertiser may pull the offer, etc.

A Business Without Repeat Customers Is NOT A Business

Think about it. How successful would Coca Cola be if everyone bought just one can? It’ll be Coca who? after a short while wouldn’t it?

Too many people think of Internet marketing as a game. It’s not. It’s a real business and real businesses are built on repeat customers. A restaurant can’t survive with first time customers only neither can the Apple Store, or any retail store. Every business you can think of would go under in a few months if their customers purchased just the once and never visit again.

If someone buys one Apple product, then they are likely to buy another product from Apple (iPhone 5 anyone?) The same thing holds true for affiliate marketing. If someone buys a Clickbank product from you, there’re likely to buy another one. But that will NEVER happen if all you do is hit and run marketing because you’ll never see that person again.

Repeat after me: “Repeat business is the key…”

And here’s the biggie: It’s infinitely easier and cheaper to market to a repeat customer than it is to acquire a new one.

Let’s think about this from mathematical point of view. If you had 100 customers and you make £50 per sale, then you’ve made £5,000 right?

So if we want to get more money we could go with step one, and we could simply double the amount of customers from 100 to 200 so we now have 200 customers each making us £50 per sale.

So we now make £10,000 pounds. That’s pretty easy to figure out, and this is where most people focus.

Now here’s the problem.

This is the LEAST profitable way to grow your business believe it or not, and the reason why is because of customer acquisition costs.

In fact, the average business spend seven times more in marketing cost to get a new customer than it does to keep an existing one. When you’re running this model what you are in fact doing is spending that 7X more money to acquire a customer for SOMEONE ELSE! Can you see now why most hit and run affiliate marketers don’t make money?

A Clickbank  Model That Works

My Clickbank business model is more complex than the hit and run model. But the amount of extra cash you will make far outweighs the bit of exrtra work you need to do.

Ready? – Take note!

1. Choose a few Clickbank producs to promote
2. Create a free eBook about the niche to give away
3. Create a landing page offering the free eBook
4. Send traffic to the squeeze page
5. Capture the lead coming to the landing page
6. Use an email auto responder with the Clickbank products
7. Now watch the money rack up in your Clickbank account

The main difference between my model and the hit and run model is I’m building a customer base. Instead of sending leads directly to the Clickbank landing page to buy the product and never see them again, I send them to my squeeze page to capture their emails so I can market products to them for weeks, months and years to come. This is a far more powerful marketing method.

The Money Is In A Responsive List

I’ve said many times before but it bears repeating. The money really is in the list. Look at all the really big affiliate marketers. Guys like Frank Kern, John Reese, Shoemoney, etc. They all have huge mailing lists. And because they have huge lists, they don’t have to spend hundreds of thousands per month on advertising. John Reese refers to his list as his ATM. He just goes to it whenever he needs to make a withdraw.

If you want to become a big Clickbank affiliate marketer (or blogger), you absolutely need an email list. That is your customer base. Without one, you’ll just be another wannabe marketer working for peanuts.  Work smarter and not harder.

Step 1 – Choose a Series of Clickbank Products

The first step to making money from Clickbank is to decide on the niche you want to target. Ideally, the niche should be a niche that you have knowledge of and a passion for. If that’s not the case then you’ll find it a chore and if it’s a chore – you won’t do it.

The Clickbank Marketplace list thousands of products for you to promote. You can sort search results based on commission, sales, popularity and a bunch of other criteria. I like to get a copy of the product before deciding on whether to promote it. You can either email the advertiser for a copy or buy it from them and then refund it if you don’t want to promote it. All Clickbank products are covered by a 60 day money back policy.

Step 2 – Create a Free eBook

The best way to make people give you their email address is to offer them something they find valuable for free. This is where the eBook comes in. You can write it yourself or hire someone from somewhere like Elance.com to write it. If you’re really cheap, you can use a PLR eBook. They’re just like PLR articles but in eBook size. Personally, I recommend you write it yourself or hire out the writing. The quality of PLR leaves a lot to be desired.

The free eBook doesn’t have to be very big, 20 to 60 pages should do, but it does need to cover the same niche as the Clickbank products you plan to promote. This is why I said you should have a knowledge of the niche you plan to deal in.

Step 3 – Create a Landing Page To Promote your eBook

A squeeze page is a special kind of squeeze page that is created solely to act as an opt in for information – primarily email addresses – from potential subscribers. When people visit my blog, I want them to subscribe to my email list. However, because there is so much to see and read, the number of sign ups isn’t as high as it could be. By creating a separate squeeze page, the email sign up rate can skyrocket. While I can capture maybe 5% of people visiting my blog, I have seen squeeze pages with conversion rate has high as 60%!

The easiest way to create a squeeze page is with Squeeze Theme by Unique Blog Designs. Squeeze Theme is powered by WordPress and will allow you to create custom squeeze pages in minutes..

To use Squeeze Theme, all you need to do is choose the theme you want to run, add the text, photo or video, your Aweber email codes and let Squeeze Theme do the rest. Before Squeeze Theme came along, I had a designer do all my squeeze pages. Now, Squeeze Theme does it for me in just a few minutes.

Step 4 – Send Traffic To The Squeeze Page

Once the squeeze page has been created, you need to send traffic to it. The quickest way to do that is to use pay per click or pay per view advertising. However, that’s also the most expensive way. There are tons of lower cost or free methods for traffic generation. A little creatively can go a long way.

Try to think outside the box when it comes to traffic building. Instead of using PPC to send traffic to your squeeze page, set up a contest to give away three prizes (worthy of winning of course). Let’s use iPads as an example; Two iPads will go to the top two affiliates who send the most referrals. However, the the 3rd iPad will be awarded to a random affiliate on a draw based on one entry per referral. By referring a friend to download your eBook, they earn an entry. Refer two friends and they earn two entries and so on.

The three iPads will cost about £1,200. Not cheap but not out of the budget for someone who wants to build a real affiliate marketing business. I’ve collected over 10,000 names using this contest method and I recommend you try it too. If 100,000 names are worth £1 million a year, 10,000 names would be worth £100,000 a year. That’s not a bad return on £1,200!

Step 5 – Capture The Lead

Lead capturing is the most important part of affiliate marketing. Your business is built around your list. Anything you can do to increase its size means more money for you.

While a squeeze page maybe the best way to get someone to give you his email address, you still need a system to handle and host the list. My recommended email service is Aweber. I’ve been using them for years and they are by far the best in the business. Aweber works seamlessly with Squeeze Theme and its web interface allows you to access it from any computer, anywhere in the world.

Aweber offers a $1 trial account for all new customers. The account is just like a normal Aweber account and includes unlimited email campaigns, newsletter, broadcasts and follow ups. It’s a great way to test drive Aweber to see what it can do for you. Your satisfaction is guaranteed. If you find that email marketing is not for you, contact Aweber within 30 days and they’ll give you the $1 back.

Step 6 – Deploy Auto Responders

Auto responders are emails that go out at a set date and interval. When someone subscribes to my blog, they are sent a series of pre-written emails. These emails are design to do three things.

1. Build a relationship with the subscriber
2. Promote my blog and brand
3. Recommend products and services that help solve the   reader’s problem

Setting up the auto responder is extremely easy and is no different than sending out a normal email. If you’re using Aweber, all you have to do is click “Follow Up” in the Message tab. This will allow you to create a follow up message to be sent to your new subscriber at a later date. Aweber allows you to set up an unlimited number of auto responders.

This is also known as a sales funnel. The first few emails helps build your relationship with the subscriber. Later emails in the funnel are used to promote the Clickbank products. This setup works far better than any hit and run system. It’s very rare your prospect will buy on the first visit or email – even if you are the most badass of badasses of marketing. They need to be hit over and over again. This is where the auto responder comes in. The sooner you set it up, the faster you’ll be in the money.

Step 7 – Watch The Money Rack Up In The Clickbank Account

This step is optional but I really enjoy it

You now have the formula to a make massive amounts of money with Clickbank (or any other affiliate network). It takes more work than the hit and run model but the payoffs are much higher.

I hope you enjoy this post and I hope it opened your eyes to what it really takes to make money with Clickbank.

Speak soon,

Simon

Upselling is one of the easiest ways to increase your bottom line and this method takes 5 minutes to implement. Nothing complex – technical stuff be damned!

Enjoy.

So why go learning how to do things when there are eminently more suitable people out there who can do them? Do what you’re good at and get others to so the things you can’t. Simple.

Pick really good people, and let them get on with the job of making you really prosperous.

Now here are some of my rules to making sure you (a) get the right people and (b) keep the right people.

1. Know exactly what it is you want done and who you want to do it.
2. Be very cllear about what you want them to do for you and how much you will pay and what guidlines you will give them.
3. Care about them – they are human and musn’t become a mere tool.
4. Keep them informed and motivated – inspire loyalty.
5. Tell them you long-term strategy – they too have a stake in your/their future.
6. If they muck up – and they will from time to time – then correct it and move on.
7. Praise them constantly – nothing insoires more than praise (oh, yes, and money of course).
8. Set realistic targets but don’t expect the impossible
9. Set a good example – be someone they can respect and look up to (no one likes working for an ass) – and set hogh standards and live up to to them yourself
10. Remember you’re the boss, not their friend. Try to maintain dignity, distance and authority.

That should do it. There are of course other things you can try, adapt, implement and use. All this stuff is adaptable and entirely up to you. Just make sure you treat your people well and have fun.

Simon

1. They set targets then just get on with it.

2. They don’t tinker too much.

3. They tend to work on their Internet Marketing at the same time of day (I don’t mean everyone works at say 9am but that each person tends to favour a particular time of day whether it’s 10.30 in the morning or midnight).

4. They are able to break from the Internet and have a life outside it – it keeps them refreshed and interesting. In fact, some of the best ideas I’ve had was when I was nowhere near a computer or even thinking about work.

The reason you need a set time of day is twofold. Firstly, it makes sure you actively managing your time rather than looking at it one a week and thinking ‘shit – I need more traffic’ and conversely it means you don’t over do it and spend all day tinkering (which as we’ve said is a bad idea).

And secondly, it means you can take advantage of your natural biorhythms and put in the effort then you are at your brightest. If you are a morning person, you’ll want to get your marketing in early. If you’re more of an owl (like me), then an evening slot will take advantage of your sharpest mental acuity.

The other big advantage of having a set time of day is that you can plan for it, work it into your diary and make time for it. If you don’t, that article you were meaning to write, or that broadcast you were going to send can get forgotten or the time used for other things. If, for example, you always spend half an hour on traffic generation after breakfast, then it gets to be a regular function and one you feel oddly uncomfortable missing – yes, even on holiday.

Working on your Internet riches at the same time of day – and for the same shortish length of time – means you can break things down into manageable chunks and not get overwhelmed (information overload ring a bell?)

You can work a bit and then take a break, put it behind you for the day and go back to it, at the same time of course, the next day. And providing you’re using your time effectively (watching clips on YouTube doesn’t count) then bit by bit, your income will snowball. Believe me, I’ve been here before you.

Simon

Now keep it to yourself. There may come a time when you need to discuss what you are doing with others but for the moment don’t broadcast what you’re doing. There are several reasons for this: 

-  Other people’s opinions can often be negative and this can put you off.

-  There’s no need to give away your best ideas

- You don’t want to be seen as preaching or trying to convert people to your way of thinking.

- No one else really wants to know what you’re up to.

- It’s nice having a secret – gives you a warm, smug glowing feeling.

If you go around broadcasting what you’re doing, there will be people around you who will get jealous and will do pretty well anything to put you off. After all, you are saying goodbye to them in a way.

You are proclaiming that the old you, the old lifestyle, isn’t good enough anymore and you are off to pastures new. Of course they are going to be unhappy about that. So keep it under your hat.

Let this be our secret. Carry on learning and practising the ‘Rules’ but just don’t go telling all and sundry – no matter how much you think they might benefit from what you’re doing. At least not when you’re just making progress.

The interesting thing is that even of you did go telling everyone how great making money from the Internet is, they’re unlikely to do anything about it. Most people would rather watch television and drag themselves to the pit of poverty.

Anyone who get’s religion of any sort needs to keep a tight lip on it. People hate to be preached at, lectured at, encouraged to think about their lifestyle or told that what they do isn’t good enough.

So keep it under your hat.

Speak soon,

Simon

Once he had purchased all he could, he started running around the streets with some gold dust yelling… “There’s gold in the American river!!!” What happened next was amazing…

Everyone started running to find gold, but when they went to buy shovels, there weren’t any stores that had any left – apart from Sam’s. So everyone came to Sam’s shop, purchased shovels so they can dig for gold, ans Sam Brannan became the first millionaire in San Francisco history. Now this story has quite a few amazing lessons that you will benefit from if you pay close attention.

Closer.

He Didn’t Dig For Gold, He Sold the Shovel

This is THE most powerful concept of Sam’s story. He didn’t make his money digging for gold. Sam made his money selling other people shovels they needed to dig for gold. So as a marketer, what’s the lesson you can learn here? The lesson is that the money isn’t in doing the THING… It’s in selling the tools (information and tools) needed to do the thing.

One of my clients is a dentist during the day, but after hours he sells information products teaching dentists how to get more referrals and generate more customers. He makes £100k a year cleaning teeth, but he makes 6 times that selling the information tools to other dentists.

You see in almost every industry, the people making the most money have done it by selling some type of shovel!Let me show you a few examples:

Dieting -> How to Lose weight
Golfing -> How to Increase Your Drive
Property -> How to Flip Properties
Gardening -> How to Grow Your Own Food
Bowling -> How to Have a 300 Game

And the list could go on forever…

You see, there is a lot more money in teaching people how to do something and giving them the tools to do it than there is in actually doing that “something!” There are thousands of markets who are thirsty for “how-to” information that can be tapped into in a heartbeat!

Information products come in lots of shapes and sizes. An information product could be anything from an eBook to a three day seminar (and about everything in between). One of the big secrets that the top information marketers in the world understand is that people pay different prices for the same content delivered in different ways. What I mean is that you can sell an eBook for £27.00, but if you take that exact same content and record it into a “Book on CD” you could sell it for £97.00 or more.

Now, let’s say you want to to the next level. What if you took the audio and the text, and combined them into a video? You could make a Camtasia video that shows the bullet points from the book as the audio reads through them. Or create  an outline from the text, and record yourself teaching the concepts.

There are a million ways to switch forms of content – but just  remembers that people pay more audio then they do text and more for video then they do for audio.

Simon

It says you are going to go somewhere, do something, be somewhere by a certain time. It gives your life structure and shape, gravitas and power. If you allow life to turn up any old thing you’ll be floating downstream as quick as you like.

Ok, so not all plans work out, not all plans lead to treasure. But at least you’re in with a better chance if you have a map and a shovel than if you just dig at random – or, like most people, don’t dig at all.

A plan indicates you’ve had a bit of a think about your life and aren’t just waiting for something to turn up. Or, again like most people, not even thinking about it but going through life perpetually surprised by what happens (Why me?!)

Work out what it is you want to do, plan it, work out the steps to take to achieve your goal, and get on with it. If you don’t plan your plan, it will remain a dream.

So what happens when you don’t have a plan? Well, you reinforce to yourself, your sense of being ‘not in control’. Once you have a plan everything falls into place. Once you have a plan, the logical steps to achieve that plan also become available, accessible.

A plan isn’t a dream – it’s something you intend doing rather than something you want to do. And having a plan means you’ve thought through how you’re going to do it.

Of course, just because you have  a plan doesn’t mean that you have to stick to it, to follow it, to obey it to the letter come hell or high water. The plan is always up for review, for improvement, for changing as and when you need to. The plan shouldn’t be rigid. Circumstances change, you change, your plans change. The details of the plan doesn’t matter. Having one does.

Having a plan gives you a fall-back position. When life gets hectic – and boy does it do that sometimes  – it is easy to forget what we are here for. Having a plan means that when the dust settles you can remember, ‘Now what was I doing? Oh yes, I remember, my plan was to…’ And off you go again, back on course.

Till next time!

In my last post I spoke about giving useful and valuable content to your customers so that they’ll buy something you recommend later.

Watch how the master does it. In spades. (It’s free).

http://www.CrazyMarketingTales.com/TripleYourIncome.pdf

Simon.