How To Build A List Of Potential Buyers… BEFORE You Even Have A Product!
A common obstacle for most online businesses is they don’t have a list of people to contact when they start their online business. Everyone in online marketing will agree that it would have been much easier to launch a product if they had a list of 5,000 – 10,000 people to contact in their niche. There is a simple solution to this problem, which is to use Google AdWords to start marketing to people in your niche before your product even exists?
By applying this strategy, you can start building your list of potential people to sell your product too immediately. You don’t have to wait months while you’re building your product before you find a group of eager buyers in your market. You simply need to find someone else’s product for your niche (preferably one that will complement your product) that you can sell while you build your own product.
This strategy also lets you get your business up and running quickly, in a matter of days instead of months. And, while you are building your list of potential buyers, you will be making sales that can help cover any of your costs.
Finally, it’s a fantastic way to confirm that you have a product that will sell once it is released to the general population. You can easily get feedback from your initial list on their interest for the product that you plan to bring to market.
Here’s how you can implement this strategy…
- Find an affiliate program for a product that you can sell to your niche market
You’ve done your keyword research and you know what people are searching for in your niche market.
Now it’s time to put those keywords to the test!
How do you do this? You find a product for your niche, which solves one of their three largest problems.
For example, let’s say one of your top keyword phrases is, “how to sell a horse on the internet.”
Based on this and other similar keyword phrases, you’re thinking about creating an eBook that shows people how to sell their horse on the internet. In your research of affiliate products, you find someone who is selling a program on horse training.
- You then sign up as an affiliate and create a squeeze page to capture their name and email address.
You tell them you have found a great solution to training horses.
Here’s the really great thing about this strategy…
You will also be building a list of potential buyers who have already proven they’re active in your niche market.
- Use Google AdWords to drive potential buyers to your squeeze page
Once you’ve created your squeeze page, you’ll want to start sending traffic to it right away.
That’s where Google AdWords comes in… PPC ads are simply the best way to send instant traffic to a website.
We suggest that you sign up with Google AdWords and create a minimum of 5 ad groups representing your top keywords. This will give you a great opportunity to test the effectiveness of your keywords and your squeeze page.
Set a minimum budget. The more traffic you send to your site, the bigger your list will be when it comes time to launch your product.
… And that means more potential customers for you!
Not only will this strategy help you build a list, it will also give you critical information to help to build your website. You will have discovered the keywords that send the greatest number of converting visitors. Plus, you can test different versions of your squeeze page to determine which benefits are most appealing to your target audience.
The bottom line is this: you don’t need to wait until you have your own product to start building your list. You can find an affiliate program, build your squeeze page, create your Adwords Campaign, and start making money within 48 hours.
How you implement this strategy
- We suggest you go to Clickbank.com to find affiliate products for your niche market. We recommend that you look for products that pay at least $30 in affiliate commissions.
- You should click on the link and visit the sales page for each product. You want to find a product with a sales page that will convert visitors to sales. The best way to judge that is to see how you feel when you are on the sales page. Are you compelled to buy their product if you had the problem that they say they can solve? If you are, that’s a good indication that it’s an affiliate program that will work.
Here are 5 questions you should ask yourself about the landing page’s quality.
- Does it look believable?
- Does it look trusting?
- Are there any testimonials?
- Does it clearly state what the customer will receive?
- Are there any “extras” like videos, actors that walk onto the screen and talk directly to the visitor, or a “timer”?
3. Narrow your list to three products and then select the one that you feel is the best one to promote. Keep the other two in the back of your mind, in case your first product doesn’t sell. The benefit of selling someone else’s product to build your list, is that if it doesn’t convert you can replace it with a different product.
One final note: don’t try to find the “hot new product” to sell. Your primary goal is to build your list, so you want a product that applies to your niche market. It doesn’t do you much good if you are trying to break into the “horse” market, and you build a list from the “weight loss” market. You want to stay within your niche market.
Authors Bio
For the past 11 years, Randy’s principle business enterprise has been in the top 5 listings on Google for his industry. His list of clients includes the Department of Defense, Department of State, Municipalities, Fortune 500 Companies, College and Universities, and several hundred small businesses.
Today, Randy is using his acquired knowledge to help businesses learn how to grow through the savvy use of internet marketing techniques. His central focus is to take complex online marketing strategies and tactics and break them down into easy to follow step-by-step processes.
Randy has written and published articles on internet marketing strategies to show businesses how to make money online. You can access these resources and learn how you can make more money online at www.InternetMonetizationUniversity.com .
How To Write Great Headlines That Pre-Sell Your Prospects
Do you want to know the top secret to effectively selling things online?
It’s uncovering the RIGHT WORDS for the job.
Think about this: Most visitors take 8 seconds or less to decide whether to stick around or move on to the next site. You have just 8 seconds to convince them that your site is where they will get what they are looking for.
It doesn’t matter how incredible your product is or how amazing your website is… if your words don’t grab your visitors attention, they’re going to leave.
Make note of this point: of all the words on your site, the most important are the ones in your HEADLINE.
Your headline is the first thing anyone sees on your website. You want your headline to jump off the page, capture their attention – ignite their curiosity – and pull them deeper into your site. And it has to do it in under 8 seconds!
Make YOUR headlines work for you by using the following formula:
MAKE YOUR HEADLINE RELATE TO THE PROBLEM THAT BROUGHT THEM TO YOUR WEBSITE IN THE FIRST PLACE…
When visitors come to your site, are looking for information to solve a problem.
They may be looking to learn about training their dog. Maybe they’re searching for information about how to cure diabetes. Or, maybe they want to start their own online business.
Whatever their problem is, you want to relate to it in your headline. You need to demonstrate that YOU know what their problem is all about. When you show a clear understanding of their problem – they will be far more willing to stay on your website.
PRESENT A SOLUTION TO THEIR PROBLEM…
Once you’ve described a problem, you now want to solve it. You should do this in a way that creates a powerful image in your visitors mind.
Describe how your dog training course will have their dog obeying every command in 5 easy lessons.
Tell your visitors they’re about to discover the latest research and cure to diabetes.
Promise to show them how to start their own online business for under $100.
You want them to see the end result and stir their emotions that this just might be the solution to their problems.
STATE THE BENEFIT THEY WILL GET FROM WHAT YOU HAVE TO OFFER…
There is a story about a man who went to the hardware store for a drill. He didn’t go there because he wanted a drill. He went because he wanted a hole.
People want to know what your product or service does.
Let them know they’ll get the inside scoop on dog training – because you have successfully trained over 300 dogs.
Describe the relief they will experience when they get their blood sugar under control without medications.
Help them imagine what life will be like when their online business goes ballistic and they can stay at home with their family.
You need to answer the question that’s on your visitors mind… “What’s in it for ME?”
SPEAK TO THEM AS IF THEY WERE A CLOSE FRIEND SITTING ACROSS THE KITCHEN TABLE FROM YOU…
Write your headlines as if you were talking to your closest friend. If your customers use certain dialog, make sure you talk to them in the same language.
For example, if your customer is a professional, talk to them as a professional. If they are a ditch digger, talk to them as a ditch digger.
You need to know your market and speak their language.
Your goal is to… Get them to picture how great their lives will be after they’ve used your product or service.
But, they won’t listen to you if you talk in a different language. They won’t believe that you really understand their problem if you do.
MAKE YOUR HEADLINES “JUMP OFF THE PAGE”
It’s all about how you format your headline.
- Try to limit yourself to just one important idea per line
- Also, use formatting tricks such as italics, bolding, and ALL CAPS
- Use shadowing so that your headline pops off the page
- Use a color to have it stand out from the rest of the page
You want your visitors to capture the meaning of your headline at a single glance.
Your headline can have a huge impact on your sales, so it’s important to spend the time creating several headlines so the you can uncover the right combination of words to get the impact that you want.
We spend HOURS on our headlines, and usually create 50 headlines before we select the one we want to use.
We suggest that you choose at least three headlines and test them. Run each headline until you feel that you have a good sampling of the market and then test it against another headline and compare the results.
It is no different than running an Adwords campaign. You always want to be testing to find the best headline for your sales copy.
You may have to tweak them several times before you hit the bulls-eye. But, keep testing because it is definitely worth the effort. It can make as much difference as a 500% increase in sales.
While the main purpose of your headline is to grab your visitors attention and get them to stick around to learn more, the secondary purpose is to get them to read your Sub-headlines.
Your headline and sub-headline should act together to draw a visitor into your salescopy. Website visitors will skim your salescopy before they decide if they want to read further. We recommend to our clients that their headline and sub-headlines provide a 30,000 foot view of your program and they are weaved together in such a way as to communicate your entire story in “Cliff Notes”.
Your headline and sub-headlines should get your message across loud and clear. You need to write headlines that force your visitors to pay attention.
In todays market, where video is replacing the sales page, your headline may be the only sales copy that your website visitor sees. So make it great!
I recommend that if you want to write great headlines that you do two things:
First, create a swipe folder of headlines that you find appealing. One of the best resources for finding great headlines is Magazines. I like Readers Digest in particular.
Authors Bio
For the past 11 years, Randy’s principle business enterprise has been in the top 5 listings on Google for his industry. His list of clients includes the Department of Defense, Department of State, Municipalities, Fortune 500 Companies, College and Universities, and several hundred small businesses.
Today, Randy is using his acquired knowledge to help businesses learn how to grow through the savvy use of internet marketing techniques. His central focus is to take complex online marketing strategies and tactics and break them down into easy to follow step-by-step processes.
Randy has written and published articles on internet marketing strategies to show businesses how to make money online. You can access these resources and learn how you can make more money online at www.InternetMonetizationUniversity.com .
Most Entrepreneurs Are Leaving Buckets Of Money On The Table… And Putting Control Of Their Business In Someone Else’s Hands.
If you’re marketing on the Internet and you don’t have your own product to sell, you’re sabotaging your own business.
An internet business is no different in this respect than a brick-and-mortar business. If you don’t own the product, somebody else controls your business, plain and simple. If something happens to that company, it can have a dramatic effect on your income.
I know from experience. I live in North Carolina, and Amazon announced earlier this year that they were severing their relationship with all affiliates in North Carolina to Avoid Taxation by North Carolina. I had absolutely no control over Amazon’s pull out of North Carolina.
In today’s market, we see the ripple effect when companies go out of business because of tight credit markets and the recession. It has a negative impact on anyone who is associated with a company that goes out of business. When you sell somebody else’s product or services, your success will always be at the mercy of somebody else’s business.
An example of this was when Chrysler and GM scaled back on the number of dealers in their networks. Although these dealers thought they owned their own business, they were only a sales arm of the manufacturer. They had no control over the total devastation of their business brought about by a decision made by their supplier.
If you’re marketing on the Internet and you don’t have your own product to sell, you’re sabotaging your business.
If for no other reason, you should develop your own product so that you maintain control over your own business. This fact alone should motivate you to create your own product, but if it doesn’t, there are seven other powerful reasons why you should create your own product. We are going to share the first three with you …
First, you can’t expand your marketing efforts through other people…
A very wise man businessman once shared with me that there are only two ways to make money in this world: you either have money which in turn allows you to make more money, or you must duplicate yourself through other people. Affiliate marketing is the way you duplicate yourself on the Internet. If you don’t have your own product, you can’t get affiliates to sell for you.
By having your own product, your old competitors become your new sales force…
Second, if you’re not selling your own product, you face fierce competition from other affiliates.
You’re always forced to ask yourself the following question: how do I differentiate myself from other affiliates who are selling the same product?
In the brick-and-mortar world, competition is a less significant problem. This is because geographic boundaries limit the effect the competition can have on your business. For example, if you have a store in one community, and your next competitor is 60 miles away, he’ll have little effect on your business. But on the Internet, your competitor is only one click away and that can have a huge effect on your business.
Third, it’s harder for you to be recognized as an authority in your niche market…
When you sell someone else’s product, you are just another player in a very large field. From a consumer’s standpoint, it doesn’t matter if they purchase the product from you or from a competitor. Once you create your own product, you take on a new status in your niche market. You will be considered an authority in your niche and that translates into increased sales.
The final four reasons for manufacturing your own product…
You will experience greater profits and put more money into your pocket. Wow, creating your own product could double, triple or even increase your income tenfold. For example:
Assume that you are selling someone else’s product and make a 50% commission, which is equal to $25 per sale. When you sell 1,000 units, your gross profit is $25,000. Now, let us assume that you sell your own product for $50 and keep 100% of the money. If you sell the same 1,000 units, your gross profit is $50,000. You doubled your profit and put an additional $25,000 into your pocket.
But, it gets even better…
You can also expand your sales by setting up an affiliate program. Let’s assume in addition to your own personal sales, you have 10 affiliates selling your program. What happens when each one makes 1,000 sales just like you.
First, you have expenses that weren’t there when you just sold the program yourself. Let’s say that 60% of sales goes to expenses such as commissions and other affiliate costs. You have 10,000 additional sales at $50 = $500,000 in sales. But, 60% or $300,000 goes out in affiliate costs and you net $200,000. The income you derive from affiliate sales is $200,000 and the income you get from your own sales is $50,000 for a total of $250,000. That is a tenfold increase in your net income.
But, it gets even better…
Now you control the price, so let’s say that you decide to raise the price by 10% or $5.00. However, because you raised your price, you actually experience a 5% decrease in business. Your sales are now 950 units at $55.00 which generates a profit of $52,250. Your affiliate sales are also reduced to 9,500 units, which at $55.00 grosses $522,500. After you subtract 60% for affiliate expenses ($313,500) you are left with a profit of $209,000. When you add the $209,000 profit from affiliates to your $52,250, you have a total profit of $261, 250, which is an increase of $11,250 just because you control the price.
But, it gets even better…
When you sell someone else’s product, you are just another player in that niche market. It doesn’t matter if someone purchased the product from you or purchases it from a competitor. But, once you create your own product, you take on an new status in your niche. You become an authority in your niche.
When you become an authority in any niche market, people tend to listen to what you have to say. That translates into increased sales. Isn’t this what you want? You got into business on the Internet to make money. More sales equates to more money!
But, it gets even better…
By having your own product, you add unique content to your website. Google loves websites with unique content. And, because you’re an authority, other websites will naturally link to you. Google also loves websites that have lots of one way links to them. They recognize these sites as authority sites and rank them higher in the organic search results.
If your ranking lands you on the first page of Google, you get more organic leads and this in turn leads to more sales and additional profits. All of this happens just because you have developed your own product.
Authors Bio
For the past 11 years, Randy’s principle business enterprise has been in the top 5 listings on Google for his industry. His list of clients includes the Department of Defense, Department of State, Municipalities, Fortune 500 Companies, College and Universities, and several hundred small businesses.
Today, Randy is using his acquired knowledge to help businesses learn how to grow through the savvy use of internet marketing techniques. His central focus is to take complex online marketing strategies and tactics and break them down into easy to follow step-by-step processes.
Randy has written and published articles on internet marketing strategies to show businesses how to make money online. You can access these resources and learn how you can make more money online at www.InternetMonetizationUniversity.com .
How to select a domain name to help you rank high with Google for your keywords
Most people think of a name that they want to use as their company name and then see if the same name is available for their website. Unfortunately, if you are trying to rank high in the search engines, this way to selecting a domain name doesn’t work to your advantage. You shouldn’t think of your domain name and your branding name as one-in-the-same.
Your brand is the name that you will plaster all over your website so that people associate that name (brand) with you. You domain name will be used by the search engines in their algorithm to help determine if you website is relevant to the keywords that someone is searching upon.
To understand why it is important to select a good domain name for SEO (Search Engine Optimization) purposes you need to understand some basics of SEO.
Most people think SEO is a science: if you do this then that will occur. If that were the case, everybody would end up on the first page of Google. Actually, SEO is more art than it is science. There are various pieces of the puzzle that are necessary if you want to rank high in the organic search results, but how you put the pieces together is up to you and that will ultimately determine if you get on the first page of Google.
With that in mind, there are some basic rules that you must understand about SEO, because if you don’t follow these rules it will be incredibly hard to get on the first page of Google.
The first rule is to work you keywords into your domain name. For example, let’s say that I’m targeting the keyword phrase “horse boarding stables”, then I would want to select a domain with that keyword phrase in my name.
The first thing I would do is to search for the domain www.horseboardingstables.com. If a website is found and displayed in my browser, I know that that name is already taken and I will have to find a different domain name. We actually have a website in this niche market and we selected the domain name www.horseboardingstablesbystate.com. Notice that the keyword phrase “horse boarding stables” is contained in the domain name.
Domain Name 1
One of the factors that Google uses to determine if a website is relevant to what the person is searching for is whether the domain name contains the actual search term. If my brand was J&J Ranch and we boarded horses, which website do you think Google is more likely to think is relevant to the search term “horse boarding stables”: www.jjranch.com or www.horseboardingstablesbystate.com. Google looks at the later as being more relevant.
Targeting more than one keyword or phrase
Let’s say that you want to target more than one keyword or phrase, how would you overcome that problem without the domain name getting too long. We solve this problem by creating a file folder in the website’s main directory that is identified by the phrase that we are targeting. For example, let’s say that our main phrase is “horse boarding stables” and our secondary phrase is “Colorado horse boarding stables”, we would handle it as follows: www.horseboardingstables.com/coloradohorseboardingstables/.
Domain Name 2
This is referred to as keyword stuffing and it has to appear to be natural to your type of website or Google may penalize you. Whether or not they penalize you will be determined by looking at the context of the rest of your website. In our case, www.horseboardingstablesbystate.com is a directory of horse boarding stables by state, so it is a natural way to help identify the categories of the website or blog.
We hope that you have found this strategy useful. I will assure you if you apply this strategy to your online marketing business, it will help you to improve your ranking with the search engines.
Authors Bio
For the past 11 years, Randy’s principle business enterprise has been in the top 5 listings on Google for his industry. His list of clients includes the Department of Defense, Department of State, Municipalities, Fortune 500 Companies, College and Universities, and several hundred small businesses.
Today, Randy is using his acquired knowledge to help businesses learn how to grow through the savvy use of internet marketing techniques. His central focus is to take complex online marketing strategies and tactics and break them down into easy to follow step-by-step processes.
Randy has written and published articles on internet marketing strategies to show businesses how to make money online. You can access these resources and learn how you can make more money online at www.InternetMonetizationUniversity.com .
Getting Ready To Shoot Your YouTube Video
Planning
Planning your video is probably the most important step in the entire process. Your planning is what gives direction to your video shoot and to the final product that you produce. Therefore, this is where most of your energy should be spent.
To be good at each step of the process… camera work, and editing, you must have a clear picture of the entire process; and what the finished product should look like. This is where the difference between an amateur and a professional shows up most dramatically; an amateur “points and shoots”, whereas a professional “plans and shoots”.
We simply can’t stress enough, planning is everything when it comes to creating a good video.
Shoot plan
A good plan should have a clear purpose for every shoot. As a general rule, everything should be moving you towards a larger plan. Your focus should be on “what do I want this to look like on video?” You will then shoot the action to achieve your goal.
You will need to decide how many shots of a scene you want to shoot. Do you want to shoot at several different angles so that you can capture different perspectives when you edit your project and assemble all the pieces into the final video? Is the location important? Is the time of day you shoot your video important? All of these things have to be taken into consideration as you lay out your shoot plan.
Planning to edit
It is important to remember that everything you capture on camera must be shot with editing in mind. There are two ways to edit your video: one is post-production and one is in-camera. Most of your editing will be done in post production but on-camera editing will make your post production editing easier.
Post-production editing is the process taking the video that you have recorded and assembling your shots into your storyboard via editing software. Post-editing is what gives your final product a professional look.
In-camera editing means that what you shoot is what you get. The difference is that you are making editing decisions as your shoot. An example of in-camera editing is when you decide to zoom in on your subject or pan the scene. In-camera editing requires more planning, foresight and experience than post-production editing.
Once you have your overall plan in mind, you are ready to plan individual shots. As I mentioned earlier, you should have a reason for every shot. Is the shot necessary to tell the story? Is your audience going to care about what is being shot?
Once you decide on a shot, you then need to think about what is the best way to get it. This is the time you should be thinking about the composition of the shot, not at the time of shooting. What angles should the shot be taken at. Should it be a close up or a full body shot? What are you trying to convey to your audience?
It is usually good to get several variations of the shot so that you can choose the best one later in the post-production editing process. One important note: it is important that you leave 5 seconds of picture at the beginning and end of each shot as a buffer for post-production work.
Framing
Shots are all about composition and framing is the process of creating that composition. It should be noted that framing techniques are very subjective. What one person finds pleasing another doesn’t. Therefore, it’s a good idea to follow the basic rules of still photography.
- Make sure the shot is level with the horizon unless you are purposely going for a tilted effect. You do this by looking for horizontal and vertical lines in the frame.
- The rule of thirds… divides the frame into nine sections. Your points of interest should occur at 1/3 or 2/3 of the way up or across the frame. It generally shouldn’t occur in the center of the frame.
- “Headroom”, “looking room”, and “leading room”… refer to the area of the frame that is purposely left empty. Without this empty space, the subject will look uncomfortably close. A common mistake of amateur’s is to leave too much headroom, which doesn’t look good.
- Everything in your frame is important… what does the background look like? You also need to pay attention to the edges of the frame. It looks ok to cut a person off at the waist, but not at their knees.
- To become good at understanding these rules and seeing good composition, watch some TV and movies. Notice which shots stand out. When shooting video, it’s all about camera positioning and frame composition.
Here are seven tips you should know before you shoot an Internet marketing video. Knowing these tips will make your video more professional. They will also save you from some costly mistakes.
1. Know your equipment
It is important to understand that every camcorder is different and every model has its own idiosyncrasies. It usually takes a while before you become comfortable using your camcorder.
Start with the basics. Know where the start and stop recording button is and learn just how far you can move your thumb before you hit a button that will accidently activate a feature you don’t want to activate. Learn when your camcorder is recording and when it’s not.
You should also practice using the zoom feature. Each camcorder seams to require a different touch to work the zoom.
Finally, you should learn to manually focus your camcorder. You may find shots that require you to manually focus instead of using the auto focus feature.
2. Learn to use your backlight button
The backlight is designed for those situations where you are shooting video with someone against a brigt background and the only thing you get is a silhouette. Normally you should move your subject to a position where they are properly lit, but sometimes that’s not possible. The backlight control opens the aperture a few stops, which makes your subject more properly exposed.
Fortunately, with the type of video you will normally shoot for you online products, you can avoid poorly lit situations with proper planning.
3. Setting up and using your tripod
You also need to practice using your tripod. Tripods very in many ways, some pan and tilt smoother than others, and some use different ways to make height and leveling adjustments. You want to know what loosens what and which lock does what.
4. Be prepared for the shoot
- Are your batteries fully charged?
- Do you have your AC power supply if your batteries run dead? Did you bring an extension cord? Do you have extra batteries?
- Do you have enough tape or digital memory? Do you have extras in case the tape or memory card is bad?
- Are you shooting with special lighting? Do you have extra bulbs in case one burns out?
5. Overshoot if possible
Due to the fact that your finished video will be created in post-production editing, we recommend that you overshoot when possible. You will want to get close-ups of faces and any products that you are demonstrating. Adding these shots to your final video can mean the difference between a boring video and one that is lively and exciting. Therefore, as long as you have power and tape, shoot, shoot, and shoot some more.
6. Use a good microphone to capture your audio
Be aware, built in microphones on camcorders aren’t very good. They capture all the noise in a room so your videos will end up having a lot of background noise.
You should use an external microphone that is plugged into your camcorders audio jack if you want to have quality audio with your video.
7. Have a plan
Every video you shoot tells a story. What is your story?
Every story has a beginning, middle, and end, but you don’t need to shoot your video in chronological order. If you do shoot scenes out of order, you need to understand how they fit into your final product.
Finally, be flexible, because sometimes the unexpected happens, so be open to “found” shots. Sometimes, these shots can become the highlight of your video.
How do you apply this strategy to your internet marketing efforts?
If you are not using video with your online marketing efforts, you are leaving money on the table. Video increases sales, period. You need to learn to shoot video to use with your Internet marketing business.
If at all possible, shot your video indoors where you have more control over the elements such as sound and lighting.
We recommend that you create your videos using the storyboard method we describe in another video on this blog. This is the easiest form of video to create and one of the most powerful videos you can create for your online marketing business.
Authors Bio
For the past 11 years, Randy’s principle business enterprise has been in the top 5 listings on Google for his industry. His list of clients includes the Department of Defense, Department of State, Municipalities, Fortune 500 Companies, College and Universities, and several hundred small businesses.
Today, Randy is using his acquired knowledge to help businesses learn how to grow through the savvy use of internet marketing techniques. His central focus is to take complex online marketing strategies and tactics and break them down into easy to follow step-by-step processes.
Randy has written and published articles on internet marketing strategies to show businesses how to make money online. You can access these resources and learn how you can make more money online at www.InternetMonetizationUniversity.com .
