Why you NEED Promotional Power

I've been thinking of LOTS of different post topics lately. What I have wanted to do is something along the lines of a "What I learned in my 1st year of affiliate marketing" -

The problem is that is a WIDE topic - And what it needs to be is bore down to the essentials.

Last night I came to some conclusions and Promotional Power is what I came up with.

What I'm talking about is a short compilation of the BEST of what I've learned how to do in my 1 year in online marketing.

I will absolutely premise this article and say that I am NO expert, by any means. In fact, far from it - I don't know much about SEO, I don't know much about keyword traffic, I don't know much about advertising outside of PPC & Traffic Exchanges. There is such a long list of what I don't know, I will stop there :)

But what I do know is what works best for me in my business: I've now been online for 1 year as of Feb 21, 2008, which is pretty cool. I feel a bearing to write new stuff though. This new stuff is only a short and sweet version.

It's Absolutely to both test and "prove" that I know SOME things. But need to be able to deliver it well. I read a comment on Link Referral tonight and the guy was absolutely right - My PBX review isn't a "review", it's a sales page. It's an ad - And I kinda new it when I put it up, I really kinda had a feeling. But I should have had more than a feeling - This was serious Sales Pitch type stuff, and I HATE that stuff.

So this is my "project" for the next 2 weeks or so - Possibly a month, and it probably should be a month. Give me something to focus on - Which I need to do sometimes (Like Now)

Here is what I'm doing: I'm building a "short & Sweet" version of using and promoting on traffic exchanges - A lot of what is in this blog entry will be in there - At least the "main reasons", just less background and my endless babbling of reasons :)

This is so "in process" that i'm ending here, and leaving all my notes (below) right here, so I can use them, read them, double check them etc.

You will all know when it comes out - the short and sweet Power Traffic 2!



notes - intentionally left blank spaces - easier for me to come back and edit this blog post later :)

This is both a review AND some of the autoresponder messages setup to send on my next splash page campaign. I'm working on a 2nd series to my original Power Traffic. I think there is a lot of good stuff in there, but even as an email series it requires SERIOUS attention span. I wrote the thing off 6 months experience - I knew how to get the basics. Tons of Traffic Exchange hits & a few other promo things help you get signups. I knew how to send 30k hits to my sites in as simple time as possible - But it is STILL too long.

It needs to get shorter and more efficient - I'm going to base my series off TESTING hard core for a few weeks first. Revising Power Traffic, building 1 new splash page (but leaving the other up on just exchanges - it still works, kinda, after 3 months online. Kinda is like 2-5 signups daily on "autopilot". When I go in and allocate traffic credits though, I get 7-10 - Problem is I don't go allocate my credits enough (anymore).

Anyway - Stick to the point here and focus :)

I'm writing this to prove that it works - without just updating my current Power Traffic Course.

So here is what I'm doing -

I'm going back to exchanges to build my list - Plain and simple. In that medium I will say what programs I'm in and what works for me. My first 6 months onine I was in a dream like state. I was looking for the get rich quick button, without really trying to learn what it was about. Everyone says that but I really lived it. In my first 6 months online I earned $193 - Yep. And spent about $1,200 or so. Last 2 months I have built my GDI team up from 20 to over 90 (although I've had help of course).

I thought I was good enough now to start proving myself - So I had a co-worker join under me. I told him what I was doing, but I wasn't pitching anything (at least I really FEEL like I didn't and if it was, it was unintentional. We were talking about money, so I mentioned that i got $200 in GDI Bonus money this week, and that was 3 weeks in a row where I had 29 total signups, and should have had $400 in bonuses at least I thought - I got $200. Still, not bad. It was certainly some success. But I still couldn't Prove anything)

So he asked to join - This is someone with zero online marketing experience, and here's how it happened: I told him I'd pay his first month and he wouldn't have to spend anything else (I got him a sandwich here, but yeah, i still owe him $10 real money - i'll admit :)

I used GDI Gold Rush, had him setup an account with GDI (through Gold Rush though, no other way for me to share the system). He picked a domain name and signed up for the trial.

I finally felt confident enough that I knew I could get him at LEAST 10 signups under him, to pay his monthly $10 in case he is done with it and never wants to use it again - He'll still make money. I put maybe 10 in his downline -

He got 8 signups on his own, in the first 10 days!

I showed him how to setup, use the Yahoo credit of $100 free advertising. How to setup his ads, and how to put tons of keywords in. We setup everything the same as me - And most things happened just like me. His first 2 days no signups - Not a big deal though because I had already put 5 in his downline - I was moving Every Member under him to make SURE his team grew, as quickly as possible.

He got tons of clicks everyday. We set his budget to $7/day - we figured this gave us a few days to test everything and see what wasn't working.

We unchecked africa and south america. He got 2 signups the next day. This made a big difference. It gave him less clicks, but better quality. I love to get emails from people who really want to try something, and tell me $10/month is too much - I am totally understanding of this, but there isn't much I can do for them. Sorry if that sounds crass, but sometimes you just do what you can - I have to grow my business and make money also.

He had 8 signups in his first 10 days. It was beautiful - Here was something i could really prove, but there was a problem - It ONLY promoted GDI and didn't get me anything else. So since most of my current email list are either in or done with GDI (really done), I couldn't HIGHLY recommend it (although I probably did - I'm not a hypey salesperson much, but there were a few - I WAS EXCITED BECAUSE SOMETHING WAS WORKING! really working -

I wanted to build my next campaign, but I was limited. The Gold Rush site kicked butt for me, but I was spending more in advertising than I was making - The bonuses helped a bunch as I ended up with $500 in bonuses.

But what was it Missing? For Traffic Exchanges to work for you, you have to be short & effective. My Power Traffic page drew a fair amount of signups - It was different and I promoted it a LOT :)

I need my new thing to work in the concepts of traffic exchanges - I needed to "Sweeten It", again. This means being a salesperson - Plain and simple. (Yes, right now, this is it :)

Traffic exchanges sales pages are simply building a list - Their are 2 ways to build lists.

1: Building your list using a Downline Building Program

2: Build your Own Personal List using Squeeze pages and promoting it using traffic exchanges

There are BIG differences of course. Here are my explanation of the differences.

Downline builder programs CAN be great. I have signed up for maybe 30 of these and paid attention to about 3 or 4 at once. I don't know if I ever "fully explored" everything Each program had to offer, but these are my favorites for Building a List for Free, using only Exchanges - Period.

This is what I'm doing: I'm editing the messages right now (I'm editing THIS blog broadcast, even thought it's live - This blog message has been edited once already :)
Number 1 is my list - I have a personal email list of just over 800 people now. That is nowhere near the numbers that are worth preaching about - But there is a HUGE difference in MY LIST, and any safelist, email blaster, email advertising etc.

My List stays with me, for the most part, AND they open my emails. 10-15% and click through. You don't get that with safelists or blasting emails.

I never send long sales letters to my list - I never send "Join Now or You'll Regret IT!" type of stuff at all - Never sent anything even resembling the masses of emails that experts recommend. That just isn't me - I am very honest and open with my list - And I believe that they know that, and is why I get such good feedback and a pretty good % of people who stay subscribed.

That list was built 95% from Traffic Exchanges - Period

Took about 4 months to get to the 700 mark -

My most recent "example" of how good MY list is this: My last broadcast I sent out a review of Rev. Matrix - I got 11 Signups over 2 days - All from names I recognized on my list.

So Building your OWN List is just that important - To be honest, I don't "sell" much at all to my list. I send maybe 1 broadcast every week or so.

Anyway, the point is that a large majority of leads who join my newsletter, stay with me.

Traffic Exchanges:
I am easily able to send over 20k hits each and every month on Traffic Exchanges. There was a 2 month period when I didn't surf AT ALL - Still sent tons of traffic. These days my schedule is easing up a bit and I surf about once/week. The main reason I surf nowadays is to see "What's New" and the trends going on.

I have over 150 personal referrals to EasyHits4U, about 100 to WebBiz Insider, 30 or 40 on Traffic Splash, close to 50 at HitSafari -

Not once did I ever add a referral page on any traffic exchanges - How in the world do you get 150 personal referrals on EasyHits WITHOUT advertising them in exchanges?

I LEARNED HOW TO USE TRAFFIC EXCHANGES!

I spent a Solid 3 months surfing like crazy. I got Zero results, but I finally learned about how to use them - What works on them - How to use Splash Pages - How to generate Lots of traffic - My personal favorite exchanges (out of over 30 regularly used!)

When I started, all I did was join a few affiliate programs promising instant riches, and advertised them on exchanges. I figured this was the way to Instant Riches and was counting down the weeks til I could retire (Yes, absolutely dillusional)

The biggest Realization I had about Traffic Exchanges was when I found Home Income Team. I basically realized (FINALLY) that traffic exchanges are FULL of opportunity seekers - All you needed to do was give them something THEY WANTED -

What a revelation huh? Now it seems absurd to me that I didn't even consider what OTHER surfers might be interested in. I just sent hit after hit to my affiliate page, expecting signups and huge money rolling in -

It was HIT that I really LEARNED about how to get massive traffic on exchanges. They had a 1 time deal where you got a pro-upgrade at 7 different exchanges for $54 - In my mind, I saw this as $17/month for really "giving traffic exchanges a shot" - I knew in my mind there had to be SOME success using them, and I must have just been doing it wrong -

I was doing it wrong - For one thing, I was thinking that using 2 traffic exchanges and sending 50 hits daily was HUGE.

Maybe I should "shorten" this a bit - I learned how to surf 12 exchanges at once, i surfed about 1/2 hour daily and sent 30k hits to my sites the first month.

I built my OWN splash page - Used a catchy title and offered my experience - How to drive massive traffic and use traffic exchanges - I built a follow up series of about 5 emails outlining what MY experience had taught me.

I actually still didn't have much of a business at all. I had just joined GDI and was basing my business "around" that. I signed up for Hits2U & SpiderWeb...both of which use GDI as the centerpiece.

It did okay. I had about 100 in my email list in a month or so. Not very many GDI signups but at least I was "growing a list"

I was always QUESTIONING my own advice and results - This came full front when I looked at SpiderWeb. I had over 200 signups for SpiderWeb in around 6 weeks - Yet, my GDI Downline was nothing near profitable. I had about 15 members in my GDI team.

So here I was, getting massive signups for Hits2U & SpiderWeb - These were "supposed" to be building income AND GDI for me - And it did NONE of what it promised - Every program after GDI was VERY expensive, and most people never bothered to finish signup -

So I knew I had to move on -

It was about this time that I undertook PPC advertising and Affiliate Junktion - roughly 8 months into my Online Marketing career now and I had tried what I "Thought" was everything.

I began spending LARGE amounts of money on PPC - I was spending close to $40/daily on advertising campaigns. And it worked - I was getting 100-150 LEADS daily from Affiliate Junktion. This was supposed to be $200 - $300 per day!

I was ecstatic - I raised my daily spending and thought I'd FINALLY figured it out.

The rate of what I was earning should have been anywhere from $6k - $9k EACH MONTH!

Amazing income - truely

Then Affiliate Junktion basically started to fall apart for me. I kept spending and getting clicks, but they changed terms and leads reason almost daily. What was before $300/day, was becoming $50/day - Shit, I was already spending $40/day, so that wasn't looking good at ALL -

But it got even worse - I spent about $5k in just over 3 months advertising Affiliate Junktion - I earned what was supposed to be over $10k, even with all the changes and restrictions etc.

I got 1 check for $753 US for my September earnings - Then next month I got nothing - No reason, no explanations, nothing - Were going on and on.

Despite this, I HAD learned how to really use PPC - Anything I plugged into Google & Yahoo was CERTAIN to get clicks.

So what does all this mean?

Here is the POINT -

The point is that after I learned how to USE traffic exchanges, I could go in and plug ANYTHING I WANTED into them and get hits.

Now that my list is built, I now have over 800 people that read my emails and follow my program recommendations.

Now that I know PPC advertising, I can plug in ANY SITE and get hits and traffic (whether it works is a different story though! LOL)

To get to this point took MONTHS - It took so many lessons I could write PAGES here.

But what I have NOW, despite not being "Guru Marketer" level, is what I would consider very valuable.

In order to get to this point, it takes time -

Luckily you have me (or unluckily, depending on how long you've been following me :)

This is my "quickest" way to begin achieving what I now have:

My Power Traffic Course!

Despite needing to revise some things and get some new stuff in there, this is still a GREAT guide to what works on Exchanges!

You need your own splash page (and NOT a "builder" but something YOU control!)

Get a FREE SynthaSite website! I tested one out a couple weeks ago - I was able to upload my Aweber script into it so you can start building your email list. I was able to upload, edit and put web pic's on my SynthaSite - I took 3 different screenshots of my latest GDI leaderboard pic's where I had 29 signups in 3 weeks -

When you build your site make it short and snazzy - Give the surfers something YOU would want to sign up for!

This builds your personal email list - and there is nothing more important, in my opinion

NEXT - Blogging - You must be using a blog. I never applied any specific principles to my blog. I used my blog strictly as a way for me to organize my thoughts.

Why Blog?

Already way too long - I'm going to save this and edit later - Needs to be short and sweet, like my new site http://www.realmoneyfromhome.info/

Coming back soon!