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Marketing Quiz: Which of These is Easier?

As an marketing coach, which do you think would be easier: A: Taking someone who is earning $1,000 a month and showing them how to earn $10,000 a month, or B: Taking someone who is earning nothing online and showing them how to earn $500 a month…

Marketing Quiz: Which of These is Easier?

As you’ve probably guessed, the answer is “A”.

But why is that true?

Because someone who is already earning $1,000 a month likely has systems in place to earn money. They have a squeeze page and maybe a website, they have one or more products to promote and they have a means of driving traffic and a list they can contact.

Most of all, they KNOW that $10,000 a month is an attainable goal because they’re already earning $1,000 a month. They believe it can be done.

But the person who is currently earning nothing likely has no online marketing infrastructure in place. They probably don’t have a list or an audience and they might feel overwhelmed and unsure of what to do and how to do it.

More importantly, they’re not entirely convinced online marketing is even REAL – at least not for them. They don’t yet believe they can do it. They want to believe, but their doubts are so great that it’s easier for them to think online marketing works only for other people and never for them.

If you take someone who is earning $1,000 and show them how to earn $10,000, they will be happy. But if you take the person who is earning nothing and show them how to make $500 a month, they will think you are a SUPER STAR and they will love you for it.

And if by chance you are not yet earning anything online yourself, then let me ask you this: Do YOU believe you can earn a full-time income online? Because if you have doubts, it will be that much more difficult for you to find success.

How to Add an Extra $500 in Profit to Any Product Promotion in 10 Minutes or Less…

The $500 figure is arbitrary. Depending on the size of the promotion, you could gain an extra $100 to $2,000, or a whole lot more. Here’s how it works…

How toAdd an Extra $500 in Profit to Any Product Promotion in 10 Minutes orLess...

Anytime you promote a product, whether that product is yours or an affiliate product, consider adding a one-time deal for your own personal email support for an additional fee. For example, you’re selling a $47 product that teaches buyers how to train their horse. You offer your own personal email support for a fixed length of time to answer any questions they have that are directly related to implementing the information in the product.

The biggest obstacle many people face when learning something new is putting it into action. Having someone they can lean on for guidance can be tremendously helpful both from a psychological as well as a practical viewpoint.

Things to know:

1: You most likely won’t be overwhelmed by questions because only 10 – 15% of people who pay for your support option will use it. People have the best of intentions to use the products they buy, but as you know yourself, people get busy and things get set aside.

2: You’ll be getting paid for something you probably already do, especially on your own products. If people already email you with questions about how to implement information you teach, the difference now is they will be paying you for your answers.

3: Many of the questions will be the same. This is helpful for you in two ways – first, you get to discover what’s missing in the product. For example, if you forgot to include how people will take payments in the system you teach, you’ll know to add it to your course. If it’s an affiliate product, you’ll find the holes and have the option to either create a bonus that covers the missing areas, or even create your own, more comprehensive course.

Second, it’s helpful that people tend to ask the same questions because then you can write the answers once and copy and paste them each time the question is asked. Or you might create an FAQ to send out, or even create an FAQ page you can refer people to. This will greatly cut down on the number of questions you receive.

4: This does not undermine the pricing of your personal coaching. Think of answering questions about a particular product as being a FAQ, not a coach. Your answers will be shorter and more direct, and they generally won’t be tailored to the person asking the question since you don’t know their situation. You’re giving bite-sized answers, not in-depth personally-tailored step-by-step coaching. For that they need to upgrade to your much more expensive coaching program.

5: You’ll set a time limit, and if you want, an email limit. You’ll answer their questions for a set period of time, such as 30, 45 or 60 days. You’re not offering email support for the rest of their lives. Emailed questions are only taken if they are directly related to the product. And if you want, you can limit the number of emails they send to you to one per day. This last one sounds unnecessary and it usually is, but one time someone decided to write to me 4 and 5 times per day. Ever since then, I place the one email a day limit in my offers. You can also limit the number of questions per email to 1 or 2.

6: If you’re selling an affiliate product, you’ll need to be familiar with the contents of that product and how to implement what it teaches.

7: You don’t need to be an expert. The questions are coming by email, which means you can take time to look up anything that you don’t already know. If the answer isn’t in the product, use your friend Google to find it. And if the question is beyond the scope of the product, recommend another product to fill their need. For example, if they’re asking how to get traffic but that’s not covered in the product, suggest your own traffic course or one that you are promoting. If you’re giving them an affiliate link, say so.

Bonus: You’ll build rapport with the people who send you questions. Plus, you’ll demonstrate your ability and willingness to help them, too. When you follow up with these folks and offer your coaching program, you’ll find that some of them are not only receptive but also eager to grab the opportunity to join your more expensive program or service to receive even more help.

I’ve probably made this sound harder than it is. Realize that most people who buy the upgrade don’t use it, and those who do use it will email you 2 to 5 times with questions. It’s actually an incredibly easy way to make some extra money when promoting anything, and it’s an awesome stepping stone to your high level coaching as well.

10 Things I Learned from My Spam Folder

On a whim I opened my spam folder today to see if I’ve been missing anything. The answer is I’ve missed a LOT. Here are some of the highlights…

10 ThingsI Learned from My Spam Folder

1: Text to Speech Videos are Annoying

Not all spam is spam. Sometimes someone you recognize turns up in your spam folder. In this email I clicked the link to the video he recommended about “What So-in-so taught Such-in-such About Success.”

The video was only 2 1/2 minutes long but I couldn’t make it past the first 30 seconds. Stock photography slides and text to speech software made it unbearable to watch. If he had used a real voice to narrate the video, I likely would have stayed to the end.

2: You Can Buy an Award from a Well-Known Magazine

I am soooo tempted to tell you the name of this business magazine, but let’s just say that you almost certainly have heard of it. In this email they are giving helpful instructions on how to apply for their Best in Business Awards.

You can choose from 37 (yes, THIRTY-SEVEN) different industry categories in 3 different company stage categories and 3 different company size categories. You can apply to as many categories as you like, and each application costs you just $345 dollars. Oh yes, and they will be choosing multiple winners in each category, so your odds of winning something are pretty good. In fact, I suspect EVERYONE wins.

I took a look at the application – at 3 pages long it’s not exactly extensive or comprehensive. Something tells me they are far more interested in collecting application fees than finding the Best Businesses. And yet any company that buys wins one of these awards will be able to flaunt it for recognition, brand exposure and credibility purposes.

Yes, I know this has probably been happening for decades and maybe I’ve been a little naïve, but somehow I’ve thought these awards were supposed to MEAN something.

3: I Won a Free Lottery Ticket

Yeah. Right…

4: Some Marketers Think I Don’t Have a Life

I’ve noticed that some (many?) marketers vastly overestimate my attention span, free time and interest in watching their sales video. I’m reminded of a Mark Twain quote:

“I didn’t have time to write you a short letter, so I wrote you a long one.”

Marketers: take the time to remove the drivel and fluff and sharpen your message into something I WANT to watch or read. Please.

Here’s the email that caught my attention: “We’re about to start the LIVE training where you’ll see first-hand how you can tap into email lists of 150 MILLION consumers and target any offer you wish.”

Yes, I know it sounds too good to be true, but I was curious, so I clicked the link.

What I found was a headline and a recorded presentation 2 hours and 40 minutes long. Nothing else. No bullet points to entice me to watch the confounded video. No copy to tell me why I need or want to invest nearly 3 hours watching this behemoth. Just a counter telling me I had 7 days, 10 hours and 51 minutes to… do something. I’m not sure what.

If you want me to watch your sales video then you’d better give me some great reasons WHY I want to watch it. Tell me what I’m going to learn in the video, what benefits I’m going to get even if I don’t take your offer, and yes, tell me there will be an offer, too. Even though I already know that, I like you to come clean about it up front because then I can start to believe the other things you’ve told me, too.

And another thing – I GUARANTEE that no recorded sales video needs to be 2 hours and 40 minutes long. Cut the beginning introductory B.S., get right into the meat, give me 3 to 10 awesome how-to’s that I can immediately use and then make your offer. Tell me up front what I’ll discover in your video, make it enticing, keep the video to 60 minutes or less and I promise that unless my house is on fire, I’ll watch it.

5: Turning Affirmations into Questions can Speed Your Success

This is something I already knew but I appreciate the reminder.

When you say, “I am thin and healthy,” your mind naturally argues with your affirmations like this: “That’s a lie! I’m fat and sick and I know it!”

Instead of making statements, ask yourself questions such as, “Why is it so easy for me to be thin and healthy?” When you ask the question, your mind works with you to find the answers. “Because I eat small portions and I take walks every day!”

6: Bootcamps Are Still Awesomely Profitable

Okay, I’ll admit up front that this email was poorly written but it still got the message across.

Essentially a big name – a VERY big name – in marketing was giving a bootcamp that was starting TODAY. The big name would kick off the event and then hand it over to others to perform the actual teaching. Smart. His name sells the event but he’s no longer having to do the work himself.

Attendees would not only learn what they need to do to vastly improve their marketing systems; they would also be DOING the work during the virtual bootcamp.

This is awesome for a couple of reasons. First, the attendees will immediately have something to show for their money, making it much easier to upsell them to something higher priced later. Second, you don’t need nearly as much content for your bootcamp. If half of your time is spent letting the participants do work, that’s time when you don’t have to be teaching.

I suspect their goal here is to give a taste of their big and expensive marketing/coaching program to their best prospects – people who have already spent $197 for this bootcamp. I’ll bet they close 30-50% of them on upgrading (just an educated guess).

The first bonus takes no extra work for them because it’s recordings of the live event. The second bonus is a monthly live Q and A, the perfect place to gently upsell those who didn’t buy into the expensive program at the end of bootcamp.

Please notice what happened here: Reading a single email in my spam folder reminded me (and maybe you, too) of an entire business model that is super easy to implement and highly profitable, too.

7: This Marketing Guru’s Email Account Got Hijacked

I can’t name names here, but a certain marketer’s account apparently got hijacked. (Either that or he’s entered the sex trade industry.) While his emails used to be all about getting traffic, making online sales and so forth, now his emails are offering me dates, sex and… well, you can use your imagination for the rest.

The thing is, this didn’t go on for just a day or two. It continued for two WEEKS. I cannot imagine the damage this has done to his brand. Personally, I can tell you that while his emails used to land in my inbox with no problem, they are now all in my spam folder, even though he has gone back to talking about internet marketing.

Folks, you might want to protect your email accounts like your business depends on it. Because it does.

8: I Won More Lottery Tickets

In fact, I won over a dozen lottery tickets in the last 5 days alone. I had no idea I’m so lucky! Good thing I checked my spam folder.

9: Completely Over the Top (Sometimes) Works

Marketing messages aren’t about what we want to tell our prospects, but rather what our prospects want to hear from us.

In the interest of always learning, I subscribe to lists outside of my own interests and online marketing. Because what’s working in, say, dating might also work in another niche.

This email in my spam folder is selling a program to single women who want to find love. To me it’s completely over the top and borderline ridiculous, but I know it’s probably working because I get emails with this sort of language all the time.

I’ll paste a portion of it here:

“I’m about to show you a DANGEROUS text that you really only want to send to guy… …

if you are READY for him to fall head over heels for you like love-sick, high school crush.

Just one TEXT and even a guy who blew you off before can become obsessed and won’t have the willpower to stop himself from chasing you.

==>Discover it HERE

The text might appear a little silly at first…

But the reason it works is it pumps up a man’s adrenaline, urging him to keep chasing you over and over.

This will even work when he is currently obsessing over another woman…

Because it immediately awakens a fresh enthusiasm of DEEP LOVE for you that’ll make him completely forget other women.

And every bone in his body will be aching to earn your heart in ways you’ve only see in movies.

If you haven’t seen this yet then this is going to be a game changer for your relationship.

==>Dangerous Text – Are You Sure You Want Him To Chase You This Hard?

Putting aside the… ugh… language of the email, the basic message is this texting program is so incredibly effective that we need to warn you it might be TOO effective.

Imagine you’re selling a traffic program – “This program is so effective we have to warn you that your site might crash and customers who desperately want to buy your product might email you night and day until you sell it to them.”

If you’re selling a weight loss program – “We cannot warn you enough that this program is so effective, if you do not stay within the limits prescribed then you will lose weight TOO FAST and no one will recognize who you are, and security guards at your job may arrest you for impersonating, well… you.”

If you’re selling a gardening vegetable fertilizer – “Warning!! This is the one product that will pump up your pumpkins to the size of a house and make your neighbors get a restraining order on the 30 foot tall sunflowers blacking out their view of the sky.”

Ha! I love that last one.

10: How to Bring Everyone Back to You

An email from a favorite source – James Altucher – landed in my spam folder. In it he gives 11 pieces of advice, and here’s my favorite:

Make Everyone Else Look Good

I had a professor once who said he didn’t care if anyone knew who he was. I didn’t understand. He said, “If my students become famous, then I’ve done a good job.”

Make your boss look good. Make your spouse look good. Give all credit to your employees. If you are always the source of “credit” then everyone will come back to the source.

Strong people don’t put others down. They lift them up.

And that’s awesome advice I’m going to carry with me and use.

And now you know what I learned from snooping in my spam folder today. Have you checked yours lately?

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