Today is a very straightforward post as these steps are really very simple in nature. In fact, this formula will help you tremendously in writing great copy while also helping it flow in a much more natural and sophisticated way.

I welcome you to the AIDA copywriting principle.

What does it stand for?

Step number one in writing effective copy is to capture or grab Attention.

This is where most people go wrong and why they wonder no one is purchasing their product or buying their service…they can’t grab attention to save their life. One of the quickest ways to grab attention is to create an effective headline. If your headline does not grab attention, the person landing on your page won’t read the rest of what’s on that page.

From there, keep building the attention with your sub-heads and your intro, which will then get us into the next step.

Step number two is generate Interest.

Once your prospect’s attention has been grabbed and is getting further into reading your copy, you generate interest in the product or service at hand. You talk about the benefits of this, how you used it and got this result, just speak in pure benefits of what it can help them do and how it can help them do it.

A lot of times people confuse generating interest with, “Oh ok, talk about all of it’s awesome features.” The problem is, your customers don’t buy features, well maybe if they’re some geek who’s obsessed with tech, but your customers buy benefits. They want to know how blank can get them blank result. You convey that through generating interest in the product or service.

Step number three is build Desire.

You originally grabbed their attention, built some interest and from that interest, there starts to form a wonderful connection: Desire. They start to see how it can help them, what it can help them do, and so on. The most successful copy does a great job of targeting key desires that people have and conveying that through their message.

Your customers purchase based on emotion and very rarely out of logic. It sounds crazy but it’s just how things work. Building this desire stirs up their emotions and they start connecting your product or service with how it can benefit them in fulfilling that desire.

Last but definitely not least, get them to take Action.

Every effective sales piece has a clear call to action. “Order Now!”, “Get Started Today!”, “Take Advantage Of This Amazing Opportunity!”, etc. If you’re not telling your potential customer what to do next, chances are they won’t do anything. A lot of times people are just afraid to ask for the sale. Don’t be. You’ve laid everything out on the line, they know what they’re getting, and they know the tremendous value of your product or service.

The next most logical piece is for them to take action and purchase. With a clear and precise call to action, you will increase the chances of them doing so.

BONUS: I remember learning a really cool tip from Internet Marketer Frank Kern of Mass Control fame (awesome course by the way) that he learned from famous copywriter John Carlton. It goes like this…

Here’s what I got…
Here’s what it can do for you…
Here’s what you need to do next…

Simple huh? And that’s another important thing to add: Don’t overcomplicate the copywriting process. As long as you follow a simple structure and put great effort into it, you’ll sell significantly better than what you may have in this past or were possibly going to do before having this knowledge.

How important do you think it is to write great copy and what do you think something like this could bring you in terms of increased conversion?

So, if you read last week’s post, I talked about 3 Things You Must Know To Be Successful Online. If you missed it, head on over there because it’ll really get you ready for this week’s topic…Social Media baby!

By now, chances are you have a good idea of what Social Media is. Heck, last year it was called Web 2.0 and like Gary Vaynerchuck, the premier go to guy for Social Media branding says, “It’ll probably be called something different next year”.

In a nutshell, Social Media is just a fancy word for social networks such as Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, Friendfeed, etc., where you can engage and interact with your audience in a more personal and “social” way. It’s been around for several years now and frankly, it’s not going anywhere. I mean it when I say this and I can guarantee you that any business that doesn’t get into the new age of how business is done and continues to stick with the old school methods, is going to be toast.

Point blank, bottom line. There’s a lot of information out there on how to do Social Media right and then there’s people like me who love helping you profit from it. I’m extremely passionate about Social Media and over the course of reading up on a lot of different information, here’s what’s stuck the most…

If all you want to do is sell, you better change your mind…FAST! Social Media isn’t just about selling to and/or getting customers where they’re spending a lot of their time. It’s a lot more than that. It’s about getting into the conversation that’s happening and being there. Sometimes people need advice or help with this. Sometimes they need extra assurance before they purchase something. There’s a number of different possibilities and when you can engage and interact with them, they’ll look to you as a friend, an authority, someone they can trust over time.

If all you do is sell, you’ve already turned them off by just your first tweet or status update. Offer advice, be helpful, and sure, sell from time to time, but don’t stray from the fact that your customers want friends. And when you can be their friend and build that relationship with them, it’s hard telling how profitable it’ll become.

Post relevant, entertaining, and valuable information. You don’t speak politics to an infant, do you? Then find your niche or niches that you love, know about, and/or do work in, and post about that. There’s so many times where I’ve followed someone because I enjoyed their tweets about personal development and they start talking about this dirty scumbag politician. I guarantee you 98% of the people that pay attention to them could give a care less.

Now, there’s times where you post about other things, hopefully positive (Did I mention more than enough negativity can bite you in the butt?). That’s understandable and you should post here and there about other things because it gives people a better sense of your personality, a big factor in why people pay attention to you to begin with. However, when you get way off topic and stray far from your niche, it makes people start to change their minds.

Always stay true to your roots and make sure that you provide some sort of value in everything you post.

Transparency is the new disclosure. Most people can sniff out liars as well as a bloodhound can sniff out a criminal a mile away. Always be truthful and honest in your ventures and activities. There’s been so many people who could of got far in what they were doing but no, they decided to lie about things and worse of all, cover them up. Guess what happened? Things get exposed and when you get marked as a liar and someone who can’t be trusted, that sticks in people’s minds and is hard to get rid of.

By being transparent, you simply be who it is you are and just do you. You’re no one else. You’re not proclaiming yourself to be an expert, guru, master, or wizard. Let others decide who you are by your actions and what it is you bring to the table (jump back to valuable content). We’ve all heard the saying “The truth shall set you free” and it will. It’ll not only set you free but also help you build deeper relationships and make a lot more money in the long run.

Freelance Superstar is a step by step guide for newbie freelance writers or those existing entrepreneurs who currently struggle in their business. It is a labor of love and seasoned with plenty of hardship as everything I had to learn in order to run my own successful business is contained within. Basically, the Freelance Superstar guide will save you weeks of frustrations – guaranteed.

My early days:

When I first got started as a wannabe writer I had one thing going for me – passion to reach success once and for all or face another 20+ years in a job I absolutely hated. This drive was pushing me to work long hours and sacrifice many weekends in order to succeed.

In hindsight I have to say that every single tear I shed, every dollar I spent and every ‘not so lady-like word’ I ushered was worth it.

I got my first long term client while answering an online ad for a paid blogger job. By the time I saw it it had early been published 6 weeks and I figured ‘oh well, what have I got to lose by applying for it.’ So I did. Interestingly enough I got the job!

And guess who my first client was – yep, it is no other than my current partner in crime for the Freelance Superstar product – infamous online ‘guru’ Gobala Krishnan. Gobala employed me as a staff blogger on one of his sites which later lead to being the editor in charge on a couple of his blogs. Plus it also brought me several big name marketers as new clients.

The rest as they say is history – I wish.

My seven months journey to freedom and success:

From that very first job I landed with Gobala it took seven months for me to earn a full time income. Those seven months were perhaps the toughest ever for me because I spend hours online in order to brand my name and my business with my blog and social media. It was extremely time consuming but also very rewarding because by the time I quit my offline job for good (January 2008) I never had to look back.

In fact, from January 08 until March/April 09 I was fully booked at all times without having to seek one single client. You could call this the honeymoon period I guess. Life was perfect.
The suddenly I realized…

... that I had priced myself out of the market. When things started to slow down in those early months of 2009 I didn’t know yet that the GFC had already crowded my style. Only when I got an increased ‘lack of replies’ to my quotes I figured something was seriously wrong. My business was still rolling nicely but the cracks were slowly starting to show due to having bigger gaps in my schedule.

It was time to take action once again:

The first thing I did was to take down my rates and customize them for every single client. This has worked a treat for me ever since. Only later did I make the connection between this sudden loss of bookings and the global recession.

Luckily for me I did act on it immediately and only had to experience two slowish months.

I also realized that unless I got into the info product market I could keep writing forever and never achieve true time freedom. So I wrote Freelance Superstar to help newbies find their feet in the industry.

The supercharge formula:

A lot has happened since and while I normally never talk about my income I can proudly say that I had my first $700 day late last month. Naturally not all days are this crazy but my income has doubled from September to October this year already and things are looking good for the future.

My personal supercharge formula can be accredited to the power of outsourcing. Outsourcing is the way to go in this industry and I will talk about this in detail if you head over to my new site Writing Pod. That site is dedicated to take a freelance writing business to the next level and only my list subscribers will find out how I did this because it isn’t for the faint-hearted or the person scrambling for their last dollar.

What it takes to reach success in business:

If you want to be widely successful in your own business you need to be dedicated to your success. Expect late nights, weekend work, last minute orders from clients and a whole heap of time consuming tasks.

You also need to be passionate about what you do, otherwise it will never work out for you. The magic word is to take massive action day in and day out. Even after you reach acceptable success levels you have to keep on pushing. I’m happy to say though that it beats the alternatives for me every single day.

I LOVE my business, I LOVE my clients and best of all, I really LOVE my life. Do you have it within you to be the next Freelance Superstar?

In success
Monika Mundell

I don’t mean “change your mind”. I mean your mind has to change. Online business as a freelance entrepreneur is an example of thinking outside the box. Your personal “box” may take the form of…

• “I can’t make money in any way except a job.”


• “I’ve never tried anything like this before.”


• “I don’t know what I’m doing.”


• “This is a dumb idea.”

Maybe one or more of these apply to you, and these sorts of thoughts have to go. But before I repeat the cliche’ of “thinking outside the box”, how about a real-life example?

For a few months now, I’d been sick of turning on my television set with nothing ever being on, especially given what I paid for cable. Several hundred channels of programming, and it was all miserable. So, I did something that most people wouldn’t even consider: I canceled cable without replacing it. I no longer receive television of any sort.

Now, television tends to be a household staple even if it’s pointless. So this would be my own personal example of “thinking outside the box”. I’m saving a boatload of money, and it’s not as though I’m without distraction or entertainment with cable gone. In other words, net gain for me.

It was a benefit to me to do something most people would not consider, or at least not consider seriously. Online business is the same way. It’s a world of opportunity waiting that most would not even give thought, but it could wind up benefiting you greatly. This is what I mean when I say “First, your mind has to change”. If you don’t seriously believe you can make money online, you’re not going to get anywhere attempting it.

What I’ve down is outlined below some quick yet simple things that you can do to become more successful in your daily online efforts. Now, I’m not saying these are easy, in fact anything you do online or offline for that matter, is going to take some effort.

So with knowing that, let’s get to the 3 things that you must know to be successful online…

#1: Just Be You

This is a very big mistake I see, especially in the online world. People pretend they’re someone who they’re not and expect to make all this money and be uberly successful. It doesn’t work that way…

Sometimes it leads to people claiming “guru” or “expert” status, claiming that you know more and do better than you actually do, and in some unfortunate cases, posing as a famous internet marketer or business person and trying to cash in on their credibility.

Look: You may not be the greatest, most knowledgeable, absolutely amazing person in the world and none of that matters. People want to see you and your personality. Keep learning and educating yourself while taking consistent action, what REALLY gets you results, and never stray from who you really are, deep down inside, past all the materialistic things.

Others will appreciate that and it will allow them to create a stronger bond with you, and a much deeper relationship if you just be you.

#2: Give Great Value Or Go On Home

By value, I mean content. Chances are you may have a blog and if you don’t, get one as soon as possible. Blogs are really an extension of who we are and what we’re all about. We live in a society where people want information and it’s this information that is at the premier front of the gate. When people see how valuable something is, it grabs their attention. When they are attentive, they build an interest and a desire which leads to subscribers, followers, or even customers.

The great part is, you don’t even have to setup an extravagant blog that’s totally customized. As long as the content is good, you’re already making some significant leaps in your day-to-day online business. As well, if you have other websites, focus on giving out free ebooks, reports, case studies, etc.

Moving the freeline as some like to call it, has been proven highly effective for quite some time now. People respond well to it and it’s a great way to build some serious and massive value that shows others a little about who you are. Here’s the kicker…

When people see how valuable your FREE content is, they think to themselves, “Wow! If his/her free is this good, I can’t imagine how good their products or services are!”.

And guess what happens when they find out that you’re selling something or providing a service? They remember how much value you gave them beforehand so they’re influenced to snatch up your product or get your service.

#3: Content Is King But Relationships Are Queen

In this space, you always hear about how content is king. For starters, it is extremely important to your overall success, but it’s not all. Many times I see aspiring business owners throw up some sites, push out a bunch of content, and then wonder why no one is listening. It’s because A) They haven’t talked to enough people or B) They haven’t talked with enough people.

Relationships are very important to your overall success. To be honest, I wouldn’t go so far to say that it’s one of the most important things to your success, aside from having and giving value. With the creation of social media and sites such as Twitter, Facebook, and Youtube, it’s easier than ever to build relationships with people.

You should be building some sort of relationships through your sites or blogs, and by engaging and interacting with others using social media, you take relationship building to a whole other level.

Stay tuned for the next post where I dive into where we left off and talk about using social media in the most effective way possible.

For those who are planning on buying Jeff’s new product then you should check out our Product Launch Manger bonus offer.

We are offering a special bonus for anyone that buys through our affiliate link. We have spent a lot of time learning how to get local business owners as clients and we can help you do the same. So, we will be creating a “Quick tips on getting local business owners to buy your services” special report and giving it to anyone who buys through our affiliate link.

To get your bonus:

1. After the Product Launch Manager is launched on Friday then click on our affiliate link to buy it:

http://www.productlaunchformula.com/plmdr.php?17763

2. Email us the receipt.

3. We will verify your purchase and send you our special bonus report.

That’s all there is to it!

For now, check out Jeff’s free videos about being a product launch manager to help other business owners launch their products by clicking here.

I am personally very interested in the course because I think it would be a great service to offer to local businesses. It fits really well with our current business. If the price is reasonable then it will be hard for us not to invest in the training.

Anyway, Jeff is giving away some good free information in his videos about the course, so I recommend you click here to check it out.

Note: All the links in this post are affiliate links and I will make money if you buy something after clicking on them.

Rich Schefren, is launching a free 6 week training session called “The League of Extraordinary Minds”. The training is hosted by two of my favorite marketers Jay Abraham and Rich Schefren. For six full weeks Rich and Jay will be interviewing 54 of the greatest business minds on the planet.

Click here to check it out.

AND YES THIS IS AN AFFILIATE LINK AND YES I WILL MAKE MONEY IF YOU PURCHASE SOMETHING THROUGH THIS LINK.

Here’s the situation. Those short, one line things called titles are what your potential visitors see first. It doesn’t matter if it’s a blog post or a sales letter page, the first thing that’s going to make the first impression is the title. If that title doesn’t entice your visitor, it’s also the last thing of interest they’ll see before they leave, or never visit at all.

Not only do you need a title that will provoke interest from its viewer, but you don’t have that many words to do it. You have a second or two of reading before someone surfs off to the vast quantity of competing content available on the Internet.

In short, your titles needs some thought. You may even have to test it a time or two.

So what’s to consider when you’re trying to fill a title?

• Yes, spiders are great, but the primary target for the title is your visitor. It takes a human being to act on something they see, so don’t write titles for the spiders.


• You can find examples of titles in other places. Digg in particular is loaded with them, and you’ll find out in a hurry which ones you wish to click and which ones bore you. Find the ones you like and learn from them. The swipe file concept works just as well for title ideas you can adapt to your own purposes.


• Target titles to your desired visitors. Titles written for one specific group of people may not work for another. Furthermore, remember the marketing adage that if you advertise to everyone, you’re advertising to no one.


• Keep it as short as possible. If there’s something you want to say or provoke with a title, don’t drag it out. Fiddle with it until you use the least amount of words to get the desired effect, because the people looking at it won’t take long to make a decision about it.

Titles can make or break a visit to your site or blog. Take the trouble to get them right.

For those who haven’t used the website grader, here’s what you do…

1. Go to http://www.websitegrader.com


2. Fill out the form


3. Press Generate Report


4. Wait a few minutes

The site then creates a cool free Search Engine Optimization report for you and gives your website a grade. When I ran Can I Make Big Money Online through the website grader I got the following result:

... a website grade of 99.2/100 for www.canimakebigmoneyonline.com…
The website www.canimakebigmoneyonline.com ranks 12,076 of the 1,523,160 websites that have been ranked so far.

That means this website is very well optimized for the Search Engines.

How can this tool help you make money online?
If you get a low result you can find out why you have such a low result, and you can make changes to better optimize your site. This will help you get more traffic and, ultimately, help you make more money online.

If you would like personal help with Optimizing your site for the Search Engines then you can setup a phone consultation with me. My normal phone consulting rate is $250/hr (as seen on my Internet marketing consulting services page), but from now until October 31st, I will give Can I Make Big Money Online readers a special break on this price and I will do phone consulting with you for only $99/hr! That’s more than half off my normal price. All you need to do is send an email to info @ mantwebdesigns.com with the subject line “Make Money Online Phone Consultation”. Then we will schedule a time to talk. I am looking forward to helping you out.

PS. I am signing up for Stompernet today. While the information in the program is mostly information I know, the tools looks unbelievably useful.

It’s definitely worth checking out.

Update: I did join Stompernet, but decided to leave because I was disappointed with the functionality of the tools. It could still be good for beginners, but people with more advanced knowledge may not get a lot from the program.

We started with the program in June. As you know, George has been involved with internet marketing for quite some time. In spite of his grasp on the subject and the success of this blog, we’ve never found that one thing that works best for us as far as actually making money. So, after George was laid off, we came across Local Business Money Machine and thought it seemed like an excellent opportunity. And it has been. The program has opened twice now— once when we joined and again about 6 weeks later. Now, they’re opening their doors once again.

Let me start by saying we have made back every penny we’ve put into the program. We haven’t yet replaced George’s full time salary, but I think it’s realistic to expect that we’ll be able to do that by early next year, if not earlier. The program does talk about making a full time salary in three months, but I think that’s pretty aggressive.

First, it depends on what you consider full time. After 20 years of George working as a software programmer and with six children, our idea of a “full time” salary is most likely a bit higher than someone in their twenties. Second, I think it does depend somewhat on your existing business network. To get those first clients, it’s nice if you already have some inroads. The program provides lots of information on finding your first clients, but our experience has been that some of those take a bit longer. We’ve got some seeds we’ve been watering since July that we expect to finally bloom in the next couple of weeks. We started with practically no useful local business contacts, so we had to start from ground zero in that regard. Even under those circumstances, we’re in a good place for a three month old business.

As George wrote in his first post on this topic, we’re not sure about how effective this program would be for the absolute novice. I think there’s enough information there for a complete newbie, but I think it might take a bit longer to implement. However, the information provided is very clear and comprehensive. My college degree is in theater and, other than being married to George and listening to him talk, I don’t really have a technical background. The material in Local Business Money Machine has been very accessible to me. I’ve had no problems following the content and even communicating it to others.

There is a LOT of material in the program. You’d probably need about two weeks of consistent time set aside listening to the trainings to get started (a couple of hours a day, I’d say). And then you’ll need weekly time set aside to listen to the ongoing trainings, visit the forums, etc. But there’s no program out there that is going to give you a full time income just for purchasing it (run away from any that promise that). Local Business Money Machine will train YOU to be a money making machine, but it’s not going to do the work for you. It provides solid principles for getting started in a real business offering traffic services to local businesses. But it’s up to you to implement the training.

So, in summary, if the recent economy has you thinking about starting a new business full time or adding to your income by working part-time, and you enjoy this blog and learning about internet marketing, I think the Local Business Money Machine is a great blueprint for getting started in a business that is interesting, absolutely needed by local businesses and only going to grow in the future. There is a money back guarantee, so if you get it and decide it’s just not for you, you’re not stuck. If you do decide to get it and then return it, email George and let him know why. We’d be interested in knowing who the program DOESN’T work for, as we already have a good idea who it DOES work for.

If you buy the program, we’d like to help you use the program successfully. We’re offering you a Quick Start Blueprint— the parts of the program that we felt were the most critical for getting started, including our most successful networking tips and the tools (both paid and free) that we’ve found the most useful. And when you finish those trainings and have had a chance to get your feet wet, we’ll give you a 60 minute phone consultation at the end of your first month where you can ask any questions you may have.

One last thing, when you sign up for the program you’ll have the opportunity to add on a 4-Pack. We highly recommend it. The Million Dollar Presentation, alone, is worth the cost. As the networking/sales member of our team, I have used it several times, and it always wows people. I used it to do a 20 minute presentation at our local Chamber of Commerce, and the next day at another networking event, I had people who weren’t even at the presentation tell me that they’d heard it was great from other people at the Chamber. It really set us apart as a business that knew what we were talking about.

Thanks for reading. We’re really excited about our future with the program, and we’re very thankful for the opportunity it has given us. Go watch the free videos about the program and decide if it’s the right opportunity for you.

To get our bonus for the Local Business Money Machine follow the steps below:

1. Click here on our affiliate link and sign up for the program (before it closes).
2. Email your receipt for the program to us at info @ mantywebdesigns.com with the subject line “Make Money Online Blueprint”.
3. After we have verified your sign up using our affiliate link then we will contact you about the blueprint.
4. After you have been in the program for 30 days and are ready to ask us questions, set up your free phone consultation.

You need to go check it out by clicking here!

I was surprised by the fact that they are giving away Market Samurai as a free bonus. I have been using Market Samurai for the past 3 months and it’s without a doubt the best keyword researching software I have ever seen (and it’s still in BETA!). They are also giving away some other amazing free bonuses and well… just go to the page by clicking here! and you will see the amazing offer they are making. It’s a really good deal!

No matter what else you have going on Wednesday morning at 9:09 am Eastern, you need to go see what Brad Fallon at StomperNet has cooked up by clicking here!

When Brad Fallon recently bought out Andy Jenkins shares in Stompernet, I didn’t know what that meant for the future of StomperNet. Well…

If you’ve EVER thought about being a StomperNet member and thought it was out of reach for you…

...not any more.

I am having a really hard time keeping my mouth shut about this secret launch, but why spoil the fun? (I really would like to see the look on your face when you see this on Wednesday when they open up!)

So, be sure to click here and bookmark the launch page, set yourself a reminder for 09/09/09 (Wednesday) and check out StomperNet. I am sure you will be as shocked as I am…

Yes, some things work much better than others. But there’s no magic out-of-the-box anything that you can buy and suddenly, you have a successful and lucrative business. Yes, I know a lot of products bill themselves that way. It’s an annoying bit of background noise you’ll have to tolerate if you’re trying to learn how to make money online.

Throwing money at a business without a plan won’t help you either. You can spend a lot of money and not get anything for it. It works the same way for time and effort if you’re not doing anything but expending time and effort.

But there is something simple you can do. In fact, anyone can do it. It works like this:

• First, you find a business model that works for you.


• Then, you work it steadily until you get where you want to go.

Slow and steady builds the business. A successful technique applied regularly over a period of time will make your income grow. This could be list building, making sales, your approach to earning affiliate commissions, or whatever. Not a single burst of time, effort, and money, but a steady, continuous effort. Spend enough time each day for you to actually accomplish something with your chosen technique, and keep going.

You don’t have to be a business prodigy. You just have to be like the tortoise in his race with the rabbit. Find something that works, and then just keep going.

But what if success scares you and you want to fail miserably at affiliate marketing? How do you do that?

Here are some tips that will help you fail faster than the average joe

1. If Something Works Stop Doing It Immediately
If something works stop doing it immediately and try something else. This is one of the most obvious rules of bad affiliate marketing. Most people start out doing this, but if for some reason you are new to affiliate marketing and you find that you are making money with it, then STOP doing what is working. Otherwise you might have great success and ruin your chances of failing!

2. Only Promote Products You Hate
A product may be hot, but is it the right product for you? Contrary to popular belief, most affiliates have success when they are passionate about a product. The passion itself creates energy and drive, and these are the things that your potential customers will tune in to. So to ensure failure only pick products you either hate or at the very least ambivalent about promoting. Never promote products that you are passionate about if you want to fail!

3. Join Every Affiliate Program on The Face Of The Earth
Problems are bound to arise when you join too many affiliate programs at once. The more affiliate programs you join the easier it is for you to be pulled in multiple directions at once. Not being able to focus is an AWESOME way to fail at affiliate marketing or any business venture for that matter. No matter what you do, do NOT promote only one or two programs that pay large commissions. And absolutely don’t give those programs your undivided attention. If you can’t sign up for enough affiliate programs to keep you from focusing on promoting one or two programs, then your chances of making money with affiliate marketing actually might get too high and you (gasp) might not fail!

4. Don’t Do Your Research
Don’t research companies to see if they have good customer reviews and don’t find out if they pay affiliates. If you insist on researching affiliate programs be sure to search the internet for scams and affiliate programs that have lots of complaints from affiliates about not being paid for their efforts. That’s a great way to find a loser that will all but ensure failure!

5. Promote Products and Services You Know Nothing About
A common mistake that new affiliates often make is not being familiar with the product. This mistake almost guarantees your failure. So… NEVER BUY THE PRODUCT OR SERVICE YOU ARE GOING TO PROMOTE. If you do buy the product or service and you like it, then you CAN NOT promote it or you might make money! In order to be sure you are going to fail, only promote products you hate or that you have never used.

In summary, using these 5 methods should ensure you failure in affiliate marketing. What is your favorite method of failing? If you know of any other good methods for failing at affiliate marketing let me know in the comments below?

Pay Per Click (PPC) – Google Adsense

With PPC marketing the merchant pays affiliates whenever a visitor clicks on a merchant’s banner or text ad. The affiliate gets paid for every click even if the visitor he referred does not purchase anything from the merchant’s site.

Pay per click marketing is most closely associated with Google Adsense. Google Adsense is THE biggest money makers on my pure content sites. Adsense is a truly great way to make money with content sites and blogs.

The advantages of PPC systems like Adsense are:

1. Very easy to add to your site.
2. You don’t have to sell anything to make money with PPC.
3. You don’t have to choose programs to promote, the PPC system does that for you.

These advantages make PPC systems like Adsense very appealing to small websites and beginners. I, and many others that I know, have made a lot of money with Adsense.

Pay Per Sale (PPS)

PPS affiliate marketing is the most popular type used by merchants. In this type of affiliate program, the merchant only pays the affiliate whenever his referral buys a product. Affiliates are often paid on a commission basis (percentage of the sale), although some merchants pay a fixed fee. Commissions in PPS affiliate marketing can range from 1% to 100% of the sales.

Pay Per Lead (PPL)

Pay-per-lead (sometimes called Pay Per Action) is a type of affiliate marketing that is often used by insurance companies and other companies who rely on leads for their profits. The Death of Adsense ebook was a good example of Pay Per Lead in the Internet marketing industry. In this type of affiliate marketing, the affiliate is paid whenever the visitor he/she referred to the merchant’s site fills in an application form or takes an action that the merchant wants them to take. For example, a car insurance affiliate program will often want a person’s zip code to help find the best car insurance for them. Compensation for this type of affiliate marketing is a fixed fee and is often very lucrative for affiliates. In fact, one of my friends and mentors makes a nice income from pay per lead affiliate marketing.

In addition to the above types of affiliate marketing, there are other affiliate marketing types that enhance the earnings an affiliate can make.

Multi-Tier Affiliate Marketing

Some affiliate programs offer multiple tiers or levels that the affiliate can make money from. Single-tier affiliate marketing is the much more common than multi-tier, but multi-tier affiliate programs can be much more profitable. In a single-tier affiliate marketing program, the affiliates are paid based on the direct sales or traffic referred to the merchant.

In two-tier affiliate marketing programs, the affiliate is paid for for both the direct traffic or sales that he refers to the merchant’s site, AND all the clicks (PPC) or sales (PPS) or leads (PPL) referred by various other affiliates who joined the affiliate program through his affiliate link. Multi-tier affiliate marketing (3-tier, 4-tier, 5 tier, etc.) creates additional commission for the affiliates from the different tiers in the affiliate network. A good example of a multi-tier affiliate program is SiteSell which has 5 tiers.

Residual Income Affiliate Marketing

In residual income affiliate marketing, the affiliate gets paid whenever the customer he/she has referred returns to the site and purchase another product or renews a membership, etc. Compensation for such type of affiliate marketing is usually based on a sales percentage or a fixed fee. Residual income affiliate marketing is most commonly used by membership sites. I personally love getting paid every month from affiliate programs that offer residual income and look for opportunities to join affiliate programs that offer residual income in the areas I promote.

This is a basic summary of these five types of affiliate marketing. The important thing, as with all other kinds of marketing, is to find what works for you and your business. Experiment with different programs and different types of affiliate marketing and find out what works best for you and your visitors. As with everything else in making money online, it’s all about the numbers. If a particular method isn’t making money for you, by all means try something else.

If you’re not sure what Buzz Profits is all about or just aren’t sure you’re really ready to take the plunge, then sign up for Max Traffic, a free 7 day traffic blueprint that gives you a taste of what Buzz Profits is all about. You’ll learn viral traffic techniques, including how to get your competitors to promote you and getting others to spread viral videos for you. It’s free, so you don’t have anything to lose. And if you go through Max Traffic and still want more, then sign up for the full program. Click here to sign up for Dean’s free e-course MAX Traffic. Let me know if you use any of his techniques and how it works out for you.

Yes, I do have some direct experience with trying things that way, and it can be summed up as:

• Ready


• Fire


• Trip


• Fall on face


• Wish I had aimed first

In short, the “ready, fire, aim” thing really didn’t work for me. Throwing money and enthusiasm at something you don’t fully comprehend will only earn you some time in the School of Hard Knocks. So I don’t recommend you try your online business this way.

You don’t just go out and “Do”. First you learn, then you plan. Once you have a plan, then you “do”. It’s not “ready, fire, aim”.

Yes, there will be setbacks along the way. Sometimes, you have to adjust. Sometimes, you realize you can make a better plan, or do things a better way. However, this is more like “Ready, aim, fire, then try again if you must”.

Nowadays, there’s just no money to throw around frivolously, not that it was ever a good idea. And while sifting through the noise about making money online can take time, there’s also no excuse not to do it. Don’t give yourself more trouble than is necessary. Go out and do your homework before picking a REAL way to make money online and then working it.

Forget “ready, fire, aim”. First you plan, then you do. It doesn’t pay to do it any other way.

I haven’t decided yet what to do about managing comments on this blog. I have argued in the past that a blog without comments is not a blog, but comment management is time consuming. In fact, it’s so time consuming that one of my friend’s Garry Conn recently announced that he is no longer taking comments on his blog (although I can’t find that post anymore, what happened Garry?). For now I am still taking comments, but I may join the “no comment” crowd in the near future. I would, of course, continue to take questions emailed to me and would try to respond to them either personally or on this blog. Feel free to let me know your thoughts on how to handle comments.

Now for Guest blogging...

I get a lot of requests for people to write guest posts on this blog. There is much value in having guest bloggers, so I will catch up on those requests and get back to people who have been asking about it. If you want to write a guest post on my blog just check out my guidelines and let me know if you are interested.

That’s it for now, now back to your regularly scheduled programming.