Sometimes it's true that the less you know, the better you do.I'd like to share a little story with you. It's got to do with "price points" and something that happened to me when I was just starting out. You might already know that I started the multi-million-dollar business I have now from nothing. I really did start it in my bedroom. That was in 2001. I had just wrapped up some work I was doing with a real estate agent. I didn't even have a...more
You hear the stories all the time. Some guy without a great education teaches himself how to set up a page on the Internet. He's got no experience writing books or selling anything, but somehow he manages to create an information product and put it out there in cyberspace for people to buy and read.Well, it turns out there's some demand the product. So before you can say "mouse click," the guy's running a multi-million-dollar business, has a home...more
There is so much to do when you start an online business. It can sometimes seem overwhelming. You first need to get your e-book or A/V product finished. You need to figure out how to get a shopping cart up and running. You have to draft an Internet marketing plan. Maybe you need to set up a pay-per-click search engine account with Google, or post some articles online, or start a blog, or something like that to build traffic.Of course, you need to get a web page set up with a sales letter on it. You need to figure out how to handle incoming data, both customer-related and financial. You'll have to be ready with customer service. Maybe you'll want to set up some auto-responders. What about a toll-free number, too?But wait! Don't overcomplicate things. Begin at the beginning, with an information product that's a sure-fire winner, and everything else will fall naturally into place.A simple way to do that is to conduct a seminar or workshop. It can be done live and in-person at a venue near your home, or you can do it as a tele-conference using bridge-line technology. The providers of free bridge lines can arrange for up to 100 participants on your call, and they'll record for you every...more
Information marketing through affiliate programs is simply amazing. It's got the lowest risk and the highest return of any Internet marketing method. When you're the publisher of information products and have affiliates bringing you leads, you only pay for results.Let's say that you've got a downloadable e-book. You normally sell it through your...more
When I read articles about information marketing, I am looking for one thing. I want one thing only. I want what Cuba Gooding, Jr. wanted from Tom Cruise in that movie, Jerry Maguire: "Show Me The Money!"That's right. It's all about the money. If you are about to start an online business, your first assignment must be to find out how you can make...more
Phase Three is all about customers. It comes after you've successfully tested your content and begun developing sales of your information products by using tried and true conversion techniques.To get more leads and more prospects that I could convert into buyers, I did things like going out and buying banner ads. I also purchased text links on large web sites. I often paid them whatever they were asking, although sometime I haggled and negotiated a good deal with them.I started doing more general advertising. I tested different creative approaches and graphics. I tested various appeals and landing pages, too.Testing and analyzing results is the heart of information marketing. It is critical to growing your business online. Your goal is to spend more and more money on what works, and eliminate anything that doesn't.Another thing I did was to hire a professional to manage my pay-per-click advertising. I got someone who had worked in the industry before. Then, I hired a professional to manage my affiliate programs. Again, it was someone who had worked in the industry before.Bringing these experienced professionals on board helped us massively scale up our efforts. They greatly...more
As you prepare to start an online business, it may be helpful to you to see how others have done it. What steps did they take that led to their success?When I was starting out in information marketing, there weren't many models around. I kind of...more
I talk a lot about pillars of success when I'm asked about information marketing. I use the term "pillars" because these are the activities that support your business. If you are missing any one of them, you can't expect to succeed.In short, the main...more
Let me give you a little plan here, a quick little blueprint or outline, for getting started in information products. I am going to take you through what I consider to be the seven basic steps that you are going to want to take when you start an...more
Over the years, I've gotten kind of famous for doing e-mail marketing. One reason is because I was among the first to really use a landing page widely to help build a list. I created a proprietary opt-in database, expressly for the purpose of e-mail...more
Design matters. In fact, design matters a lot right now in Internet marketing. I spend quite a lot of time on packaging my information products and designing web pages. You can't afford to have these look amateur or cheap. Regardless of what's been...more
It's really important how you name your information product or service concept. I think that probably the highest leverage thing you can do in the information marketing business is name your information product something that's both valuable and...more