Friday, February 27, 2009

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!

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Revolutionary Matrix Review

I joined Revolutionary Matrix a few days before I went to Chicago last week. I liked the honest feel of the creator in his explanation of why he created the site.

For those who haven't seen, Revolutionary Matrix was created by a former top GDI recruiter. On his site he has a video right on the top that plays while your looking through the details...

The site could use some brighter colors, in my opinion :)

It has a GDI 'type' of matrix with a few key differences. It's a forced 5x6 matrix - what they say happens is you fill up 5 members, then your spillover from your upline and your referrals go into filling your 2nd, 3rd, 4th levels etc - What the difference is with this is that they add a 6th level and pay you $2/referral on the 6th level -

GDI doesn't have a 6th level (sorry, they actually DO, but you have to get like 5k recruits and have like 100 members on 5 levels deep - so if your already a GDI millionaire, you can get a 6th level payment :)

When reading through the details, I will admit it looks like and promises the same as so many others do - "Spillover" and "Forced Matrix" and "Great Resources" - all that type of stuff that you see in ANY matrix program...

But listening to the audio kind of won me over a bit - He talked about how he was a top recruiter in GDI and despite HIS success, his downline members were not having the same type of success. He talked about how all MLM companies are set up so that the guys at the top always get the biggest piece of the pie - About how MLM systems are based off plain greed etc

So I did what I normally do when i'm semi interested in a new program. I leave my name and email and see what is sent to me.

They have some automatic follow up, which is nice. The best thing I can say about SpiderWeb was that automatic follow up is a great thing to have - It "reminds" people about the program.

I liked the follow up letters I got and so I decided to join

I sent an email to my list and had 7 people join my downline...

Last night I went in and saw that they offer a free rotator in THEIR paid advertising. Now, I've been in tons of programs and many offer a rotator - but it ALWAYS costs money and even when I have paid money, it was never very effective...but still, I thought "hey, it's free and all I need to do is post my referral link in the forum"

so i did that last night -

This morning I went to see how things looked - To my Utter Amazement, I had 9 new signups - OVERNIGHT -

My downline went from 7 to 16 in 1 night - all I did was take advantage of the free rotator...

Well, to say the least I was incredibly pleased - It is not often that an online marketing program actually DELIVERS something that it promises - In fact, not once in my experience has anything lived up to what it promised...

But Revolutionary Matrix did - So far I now have 20 members in my downline and I haven't even started any "real" advertising efforts...

I am happy to report I may have actually found a Real Winner this time!

Beyond this, Revolutionary Matrix is showing up on safelists and "blast emails" everywhere - It's a very hot new program and it's taking off -

I think you need to get in on Revolutionary Matrix, and get in fast - It's only $10/month. Right now there are only 318 links in that rotator, and all of us are getting referrals FAST!

And the fact the rotator is free is unbelievable - Considering I got 9 signups OVERNIGHT, I'm not sure how long they will keep giving everyone that -

Anyway, looks like a real winner and I am recommending it to everyone - NOW

Join Revolutionary Matrix HERE

The Point of Building Residual Income Online

Been busting my HUMP lately with all sorts of new projects. Tons of stuff going through my mind and what I need to do. I wanted to post this blog entry because I feel like there is something most online marketers never get to -

I don't want to go on and on with this, but back in December I decided to REALLY work on my GDI business. The main reason was that I knew I needed something REAL - something I could count on and something that would, hopefully, get to the point where it was building itself.

Couple weeks ago the GDI Gold Rush site went down. Despite the fact that I was using PPC for 95% of my signups, it was incredibly effective. I was spending about $10/day advertising and if you look at it strictly from the Cost vs. Income perspective, it was not worth it at all.

I think this is the main problem most people have with GDI - They join under all the hype and premises that it's overnight wealth - It's not - It takes work and it takes effort. I worked my BUTT off getting 20 signups for GDI my first 4 months! I used everything imagineable - SpiderWeb, Hits2U, 3Cash Machine -

Since using Gold Rush of course, my GDI signups went nuts. I made the potential leaderboard almost weekly for 2 months straight. Before Gold Rush went down, I had 29 potential signups in 3 weeks!

Then Gold Rush was taken down by GDI for reasons I won't go into here - I was crushed - I felt like I deserved a freaking break after the Affiliate Junktion debacle and a full year of online marketing - My main income earner was gone - And I had no solution...At least nothing that I wanted to go back into - I was not going to invest all my time into traffic exchanges again, or posting free ads - That stuff just doesn't deliver sales -

I shut off all my GDI advertising and tried to figure out what I was going to do -

Then something happened during the past 10 days that made me realize what the ENTIRE point of building a GDI business is all about - My downline went and got 10 signups when all of my advertising was off -

See the entire point of building a long term income, with an MLM type structure, is that you start to reap the benefits of all your hard work - Those 10 signups that my downline got were all from THEIR efforts. That is 10 new people in my downline now that didn't cost me 1 dime or 1 moment of my own time -

Granted, I had to get my downline to over 90 members in the first place - I also built a training series JUST for gdi and gave them every thing I new about online marketing - Yes, that all took time...But for all that hard work, I was rewarded with 10 new members - 10 members that all are part of my team. And as they build their GDI business, it builds mine as well -

If I never put another penny into advertising GDI, my monthly income will continue to grow - Because I built it up and got enough people that want to build THEIR business the same as I built mine -

And that is what residual income is all about - It took me a lot of work, a lot of money and a lot of effort to get my GDI team to where it is today - But now all that work is paying off because my team is building GDI for themselves -

This is not to say I"m going to stop building my GDI team - On the contrary, I want to build my GDI team to the point it's earning me several thousand per month. My goal is to get 200 personal members in my GDI business, and show each of them everything I learned about how to build a GDI team themselves. Several of my team members contact me by email daily, asking me tips and ways to improve - Some of them are very hungry, and that's all it takes - A few members who want to really build an online business...

I wish I had me when I first started, but then I'd never have any good "hard lesson" stories to tell :)

But for 10 days, despite me not doing any advertising myself, my income grew simply because of all the hard work I had ALREADY put in -

Residual Income is not easy - it takes time, effort and often money. But once you have put in that time and effort, it starts to grow for you.

And there is no better feeling (in online marketing terms haha) than having a reliable monthly income that grows each and every month -

That's all for now

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Big Results with my new "Experiment"

This week has given me some very positive results. I got another 10 GDI Signups this week (same as last week) which I thought was pretty good. But more than that, I started a little experiment last week.

After I told my friend about my GDI Success, he asked me what the heck I was doing. He knew I was into this online marketing thing a bit, but I never really told him too much about it - It was always my goal to succeed on my own - I never asked friends or family to sign up under me or help. I wanted to do this all myself - I figured when I had "The Recipe" then I could share it -

So I told him about the 10 GDI Signups and how that could be a $200 bonus (Bad part here was that only 4 paid the first month - I figured I wouldn't get all 10, but I thought at least the $100 bonus for 5 was "in the bag" - Instead, 4 actual signups and no bonus this week - Yes, Crappy!). So he asked how much and all this stuff - He agreed to join and I told him I would put all my signups under him until he had at least 10 -

This seemed like a great opportunity to test out exactly how good my marketing skills were at this point. I knew they were working for me, but my downline didn't seem to be following all the instructions. I know they are trying - They didn't sign up to NOT make money right? :)

So I got my friend signed up for GDI and sent him the Gold Rush instructions. Mind you, this is someone who has never done ANY online marketing, whatsoever - He doesn't know what a splash page is and has never even heard of a traffic exchange - ZERO Experience. I showed him how to start and had him go claim his $100 Yahoo advertising credit and start his 7 day trial.

I also had him put his new GDI Username in the ClixSense randomizer ($5/month)

I showed him exactly how to set up his PPC advertising on Yahoo, write various ads and calculate his bids. I gave him the emails to send to prospects and signups for instructions (although I'm sending his emails because the instructions are all in my Autoresponder. This way he doesn't have to do anything else at all)

He has not even paid his 1st month into GDI and has 4 signups over the past 2 days!

This is incredible - His first 3 days he didn't get any signups, but was getting lots of clicks. We changed his Country Targeting a bit to remove certain areas. The first day after that he didn't get as many clicks - Something about Yahoo advertising. It's not a "change a setting and it runs perfect right away"...Almost like it needs a day to "warm up" and work correctly...

Anyway, point is this. My friend still has not spent even $1 of his own money advertising! He has only used a portion of the $100 yahoo credit and now has 4 signups in 2 days.

It proves that the system works 100%, if you just follow the instructions. This is someone who has never posted a free ad, sent an email, visited a safelist or used a traffic exchange. He has no idea what Viral Marketing is and he didn't need to. All he did was follow my instructions and now he's getting 60-70 clicks daily and has 4 signups for GDI in the past 2 days.

I can't tell you how many times I've read people complaining about GDI and how it's too hard - How it's too much work and nobody will join. My only guess is that there idea of marketing is putting up a general GDI link on a traffic exchange and surfing 20 min's a week - As if that should make them rich...

For me, this is also pretty big - I mean, this is SERIOUS credibility! I took someone with absolutely NO experience of any kind, and got him more signups in a week than most GDI signups EVER get. This proves hands down that what I do works -

So my mind is running with new ideas for splash pages for the traffic exchanges. If I can get him on the leaderboard, that is going to be huge. He and I joke around that I'm just pimping him, but of course that isn't the case - Yes, he was kind of an experiment, but I made damn sure he would have some success. I already put 10 people under him so he's earning his $10/month GDI money already -

Anyway, I'm pretty excited - I've got just TONS to do right now. My Acme page isn't giving me anywhere near the results I need, so I'm working on a redesign. I'm going to put in JUST a list of affiliate programs and some short reviews - No advertising pages or tips - Just some quick affiliate program links and then advertise that page using Pay Per Click. I need to condense my efforts and get more signups - So I'm thinking along the lines of Gold Rush, Online Business Alliance, Acme People Search & Push Button Extreme. The PBX is a pretty flashy program - and it's not cheap - but it's a flashy money making program and everyone needs a little bit of that.

I'm also going to add a ClickBank product - I have a domain name and I'm going to re-direct it so it "cloaks" my ClickBank ID and link...People seem to HATE buying products knowing someone is making a commission - And I'm still convinced there is money in Clickbank, I just don't know how to get it :)

Need to tune up my power traffic training series etc - Today I "hyped up" my Gold Rush training series. Having 10 signups last week and only 4 stay for 1 month is disparaging - I figured maybe the emails were too much "this isn't easy", so I spiced them up a bit to make it sound like it's all super easy - Disgusting, I know, and it's not me - Anyone that tells you making money online is easy is lying - Wait, I just got my friend with zero experience making money and got 4 GDI signups over 2 days...Maybe it is easy :) - Anyway, so I spiced it up and cut out the whole "this takes patience" speel that I seem to be too honest about...I can't help it though - It's taken me a lot of work to get to this point now, and I'm not some expert -

Anyway, if your reading this long, maybe your waiting for my Gold Rush link - Here it is:

http://greatopportunities.tk

I will give you EXACTLY what I gave my friend at work - I know the little secrets to getting tons of clicks cheap. And with that $100 credit, you should be able to get at least 10 signups before you spend even $1 on advertising of your own money (aside from the ClixSense $5/month - that's a steal though. I must be getting 2-3 signups weekly just from that - I haven't changed anything except that and I've gone from 5-7 signups/week to 8-10, so I know it works)

I'll be posting again soon, I'm sure - Gotta work on my stuff and make some money!