Ingredients:

1/4 Cup Butter
2 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 Tbsp Tomato Paste
2 Tbsp Brown Sugar
1/2 Large Onion, sliced up thin
2 Medium Red Bell Peppers
1 Jalapeno Pepper
1 cup chicken broth
Pinch of salt
Pinch of pepper

1. Melt the butter in a medium skillet on medium heat. Once it is melted, pour the onions in and saute them until caramel, about 15 to 20 minutes.

2. While the onions are being sauteed, pour the chicken broth in a microwave-safe bowl or cup and put the jalapeno pepper and red bell peppers in with the broth. MAKE SURE TO CUT OPEN THE JALAPENO PEPPER AND SEED IT FIRST OR IT WILL BE EVEN HOTTER THEN IT ALREADY IS!! Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and nuke it for about 3 minutes to get the flavors out and soften it up nicely. Set aside when done.

3. Once the onions are getting close to being done, add the tomato paste, salt, pepper, Worcestershire sauce and brown sugar and mix together and let them cook for a few minutes together.

4. Get a food processor or blender out and be careful. Pour the chicken broth/pepper and the onion mix into the food processor and process until nice and smooth, just like a sauce!

This sauce is nice and sweet when it hits your mouth but then it nails you with heat. Seriously, when you first taste it, just dip a little corner of your meat and see for yourself. If you are brave, take a large amount, but I am warning you, this is heavy on the heat! Give it a try and if you love spicy food, you will love this sauce.

Imagine your email list is a woman (or man). How do you approach a potential partner? Do you dive right in and try to get them straight to the bedroom? Of course not! Well, at least I hope not. But anyways, this is what I mean.

You need to take your approach slowly and build a relationship so that your potential mate trusts you. You need to do the same thing with your email lists. If you starting hard selling immediately, your opt-out list will be just like a slap in the face. Not what you want when you spent all that time getting your list ready to go and gathering precious emails.

Alright, so now that we know that we need to be smooth and use some charm to get what we want, how do we do that? Give more stuff away! Start a daily or weekly newsletter to your email list. Give away a free e-book, scripts, tips on whatever or some great coupons you have found, or a combo of them all. Don’t directly link to any of your stuff for about the first month or so. If you are going to link to a site, make sure it is a content site that has real value and not a lander. A lander will get you opt-outs too very fast.

After a month or so of good quality newsletter, you should have a solid user base that is starting to trust you as a source of good information. Now, it is time to start making some money off of them. Now, don’t ruin your credibility by sending out an email template from your favorite affiliate network. No, you still need to send out a good newsletter, just now you want to start to drop the seeds of the product you are pushing. A good example would be to do the following with your email:

Say I am sending out a diet email. Here is a basic sample. Don’t use this exactly, expand on it, as it is just a base sample and not good sales copy.

Post an article of a famous person losing weight and how they did it in your email. Then, after that, say something like:

Can you believe that they did that? They make it look so easy at times that it makes anyone sick. One thing professionals recommend is some type of jump start for your diet. Most people have a hard time starting out, as they don’t have the energy or the self-control to start the diet. Something like DIETPILL(this is your affiliate product, send it to a review site, not a lander) is way to jump start the diet process, as it helps give you energy and blah, blah, you get the drift. Just don’t pour it on too heavy.

The beauty of these email lists is that you built trust and you can recommend them to products and they don’t know it. It is subtle or soft selling, and it is done every day in life. Why not utilize it in your newsletters?

Now, you might be thinking, while this is great, after awhile, won’t they know I am pushing these products? Maybe, but not if you do it the right way. Plus, with the market that we have for almost every niche, the new products that you can talk about is almost endless. It is just about selling your current customers, retaining them after they bought, adding new to the list and limiting the amount of opt-outs. If you can keep your newsletter growing every month while increasing your income, then you of course are on the right track.

A bit of legal reminders here. Don’t forget about CAN-SPAM act when mailing out. Basically, you need to provide a way to opt-out online and offline, which means having an opt-out form online and your business’ physical contact information. If you are worried about privacy, just get a P.O. Box. Also, don’t just scrape emails or buy huge lists for a couple of bucks, because I guarantee you they are not opted-in. Make sure record them opting-in so that you cover your butt. And if they opt-out, make sure you don’t mail them. Finally, if you are running an affiliate offer, to be on the safe side, make sure to run your database against the network’s scrub list. That way, you cover your butt and no one can give you any reason to sue you or hold back your commissions.

That is the basics! Pretty simple, really, once you get the hang of it. Once you get going, it is really easy to stay up with and write the emails. You almost get to know your audience and writing to them is almost like talking to a friend. Once you get to that stage, you will be more successful, as the emails won’t sound as canned either.

Next post will be the finale and it is how you can get even more money out of your list without changing a single thing! You don’t want to miss this one, I promise.

The same thing applies when people arrive on your website/lander. They don’t know you. They have no reason to trust you and you are, more then likely, trying to sell them something. Some things are easier then others, but the more info you ask for, the harder it gets. And if you want them to whip out their credit card, you better build trust fast. But how do you build trust besides brand awareness?

One way is through the use of colors on your landing pages and websites. Don’t believe me? Split test some pages and see the reaction you get. I will go over each of the major colors, what they mean and why you should or shouldn’t use them on your site.

Black

Using black is a big no-no. Besides text and outlining, I would avoid black. Black means death, sorrow and evil, so having a site that is mostly in black is not good for sales. There are always exceptions to this rule, as with every color, but if you want to make the most money, avoid black.

White

White is known as a sterile, bland and sometimes even a cold color. White is good for backgrounds and does help to make a sleek design, but I would limit the usage of it. I like to split test different backgrounds and often just changing from white to a light gray can make a difference. It all depends really on the offer, but it is something that you want to try.

Red

Red is my favorite color in the psychology of color. Red can work one at one time and then turn around and totally bomb. I believe it all has to do with your presentation and how the rest of the page flows together. However, red means excitement and urgency, as well as anger and fear. Basically, it can be used to create a sense of excitement or as a huge stop sign. I always tried to stay on the conservative side in the car business and avoided red at all costs. Honda buyers are typically affluent and a skeptical bunch, so selling to them is tough. I didn’t want to make my job any tougher by giving off the wrong impression, so that is why I did that.

Anyways, try red. Don’t be afraid of it, just don’t overuse it. If you are trying to draw attention to your call to action, that is fine. Try that out and it will probably work. Using is as the main background of your form will not work, trust me. Just be smart and really think out your landing page.

Blue

Blue was my favorite color to wear at the Honda dealership. Not only did it match the logo of Honda, but because it is the best color to build trust instantly. Blue is considered a color of trust, serenity, calmness and even sadness at times. Think of the music, the blues, and what type of message that is sent in those songs. But, I have never really seen any negative backlash from blue. Just don’t use it too heavily, but you really can’t go wrong with blue. Think of doing blue themed type sites with other colors as accents when needed, and you will create some killer sites.

Green

Green is an interesting color because it can mean luck, health, greed or jealously. I avoided green in the car business because I thought it would be viewed as greed. Nothing is worse then being a greedy person at a car dealership. But, on websites, green can be used as a primary color. I would try it out and split-test it with blue and orange type of sites. They have always seem to work out the best for me.

Yellow

Yellow is associated with frustration and anger, so I would not use yellow really at all. You can always split test, but for the most part, yellow is not a primary color that can be used for selling.

Orange

Orange is a great color to use for web design and selling. I use orange and blue a lot for my sales sites, and they always seem to work out the best. Orange creates a sense of excitement and enthusiasm, plus it is a good attention getter. So, if you are selling to a younger demographic, orange is a good starting color to use, as blue is better reserved for the older demographic. Always tweak and test, but those rules are a good rule of thumb to follow.

So how can you use this information? Well, I did explain briefly how each color could work to your benefit, but in the end it is up to you to test what works best on your demographic. Just remember, you always need to put yourself in the consumers’ shoes. Ask yourself when you visit your site, do I trust this site? Would I really do anything on this site? If there a clear purpose and flow to this site? Be honest with yourself. If you can’t get the answer you are looking for, play around with the colors and the flow of the site.

Red can be used to perfection is used right. If you use psychology in your sales copy and incorporate color psychology, then you have a powerful site. Say you are trying to get home biz opp leads. Your sales angle is to stop working the 9 to 5 grind. Use red as a positive stopping force, meaning telling them to stop their day job. Make them stop their normal thinking and get them thinking outside the box. In this case, blue may be a detriment to your campaign, as you want people to be pulled out of their comfort zone a little bit and not be complacent anymore.

Selling is about pinpointing a need of an individual and filling that need. However, the customer doesn’t always give us the information that we need to put together the puzzle. Using subtle little things like this to get the customer to trust your site is all you really have, as you can’t talk to the customer unless they happen to email you. Make the best of your sales presentation and let your site do the talking. Until next time!

1. Give away content

This is the most traditional way I have seen bloggers build up their email list. Content will get you plenty of email subscribers if you can provide high quality content that doesn’t rehash old content without giving any type of new spin on things. Content lists, I have found, are slower to build then any other ones, because it all depends on building off of your words. Sure, people may love reading stuff you write, but prying their email address out of their hands so that you can send them love letters all the time is much more difficult then you think.

However, if you have a strong following and a good amount of activity on your site, people will start to subscribe to your content. Consider adding pop-ups or banners about subscribing to an email list and give some benefits as to why they should. Also, make sure site look busier if you want more people to take it serious. You may have great content on your site, but if you don’t have any comments, people don’t think others are reading it and they likely won’t comment as well. Consider hiring some cheap help and get a bunch of comments for your latest blog posts.

2. Give extra benefits to your email subscribers

I mean, this is kinda a given when you sign up for an email list, but make sure your people know that when they sign up. Point out benefits, give out some secret tips or just tell them what they are missing by not being a part of your email list. You have to sell your email list in a very short period of time, like in a banner ad or pop-up. So do it. Tell them why they NEED to get on your list and what they will miss by not being on it.

3. Give away free stuff

I like this best because it is easy to do, builds your list fast and most of the time, it is cheap, especially when compared to the return you get. But what do you give away? More content is always a good thing! Here is what I mean.

For my one dieting site, it is targeted at people who need to start losing weight but they are having a hard time doing so. So, when they come to my site, my main purpose is to get them to sign up for my email list. However, that is not the main focal point of my site. The main focal point of the site is an ebook that I had written just for me on how to start dieting, which includes everything from changing your diet to changing your attitude. I mean, it covers it all. It is a book that adds real value to the site, and I give it away. But, I need your email so that I can send it to you. Bam, I got their email. It really is that simple. It just takes time and some initial investment and traffic, but it can be done easily.

Tailor the free gift to your audience of course. If like talking about site design, give away some exclusive templates. They don’t have to be killer ones, but make them good. The thing is you are pre-selling and building trust, so giving away something of real value will go a long way. People talk about things they get off the Internet, especially if it is a good value. Learn from that and build the trust of the people you are selling to. Remember, they are people just like you, so how would you be sold? What would make you sign up for an email list?

Just some things to think about here really on how to build the initial list. Now, I didn’t go into how to drive traffic or what to do once you get the email list rolling. That is for next time! Hope you enjoyed this simple but effective way to build your email list. I know it is nothing new or earth-shattering, but I hope you learned a few new things from the way that I look at things. Until next time!

Alright, enough rambling. That is why I can’t update more, because as I write, more ideas and thoughts flow to my head. That is also the reason I don’t use Dragon Naturally Speaking, because then this post might be thousands of words long.

Okay, now on to talking about email lists. You already know that getting a customer’s email is the key to recurring income, so how about we dive right into setting up the list. WARNING! This is not for advanced marketers who are already using email marketing. This is just a basic post of software, how to set it up and integrating on your site. That is it! More will be coming soon, I promise.

As I said before in other posts, I am not a designer, coder or anything like that. I know enough to get by and outsource anything I don’t know how to do or if I need an expert. So, with that being said, let us use the easiest and most powerful out of the box CMS available, good ole Wordpress. Seriously, for any content site that you are creating, there is no reason to use anything else, so start using Wordpress and that only.

I will assume that some of you are looking for free solutions as well as paid ones. If you are running a small list like you probably will, these solutions that I will share will work. The first one is a free solution and the one that I first used, which is PHPList. Simple, effective and free. Does it have all the bells and whistles? No. Can mail effective email newsletters? Yes. Case closed.

There are two paid versions that I have experience with and they are pretty much the most common solutions. Those two are Constant Contact and AWeber. Both are fine and will do the job and you only pay for what you use. In the end, it is all about personal preference and one other thing, which I will go over later.

PHPList is pretty simple to use. You just have to install it and start playing around. But it has all that you need to manage all of your list, including a list builder, the ability to create multiple lists and pretty much everything else you need to start mailing. Also, it is very easy to integrate your signup form into Wordpress using the PHPList Plugin, which is free.

I love the AWeber plugin for Wordpress not because you it is simple to set up, but because that it gives you the option to opt-in your blog commenters as well. Think about how to explode your list with this little plugin. Write a sweet linkbait story, drop a few hundred to get to the top of Digg, get tons of comments, profit. This is one feature that I love about AWeber. Of course you can do that with the other platforms, but it will cost you or you need to learn to do it yourself.

The Constant Contact plugin for Wordpress is similar to PHPList except that you don’t need to touch the site at all to integrate this signup form. Nothing special really here other then it is easy to setup, even for a noob.

So what do you do with this info? This is just basically the software to actually create a list and get you up and running. Next, I will share with you some ways to advertise your newly created newsletter.

First off. I am NOT going to give away my traffic sources other then AdWords. There is a ton of traffic out there for international offers, you just need to know where to find it and then use your brain a bit to go from there. I did this and I am going to help you get started. Just remember, think out of the box and you will be fine.

Alright, let’s start off the research. This isn’t brain surgery. Just go to the top sites in terms of traffic and start your investigating. How about we check out France? (This will help out with an offer later)

Go to go ole Alexa (This link takes you straight to the country top sites) and start bring up the top sites in France. Now, you take a look at the top and it’s no surprise that you see Google.fr, Facebook and Google up there. You can advertise on these of course and I recommend using both as they have lots of traffic. However, Facebook is pretty picky of course on which ads you can run, so to maximize your traffic, you need to keep looking.

Go down to #6 though. It is SkyRock.com, another social site. This site is available in English and French and guess what? They have ads on their site. Do some research get ads running on this site. #8, Orange.fr, is another top site that has an advertising platform and this site is strictly in French. (Hint, Google Translate is your friend!)

I will give you some good performing offers. With all the other traffic sources out there, I am not worried about this getting saturated. So here we go.

Karaktr Media is my first one that I am loving and this acai offer is great because it has a French landing page. (Check out the lander) Run this along with their French colon cleanse offer and you will be happy, I promise!

Finally, another international offer that can marketed to many different countries and languages is through Motive Interactive. This offer is Acai Maxx International (Lander here) and it is pretty much good to go in all the European countries. The nice thing about this one though is that it has an option to translate the site into 5 different languages, making targeting even more broad. Not sure if this is a private offer or not but if you can’t find it, just talk to your AM to see if you can get on offer #50770.

That is about it for now I guess. If you have any questions, let me know. Like I said, I am not giving out traffic sources or ad copy, so please don’t ask, but I will always answer questions otherwise. Good luck with your campaigns and research and go some make some money!

In steps a great company, Lovecore Designs. This is a newer company but the skill level of Laura, the owner, is just amazing to say the least. And the even better part about Laura is that her rates are dirt cheap since she is still new. But as you can see from her portfolio, her skill is anything but on the noob level.

So, why all the rave about Lovecore Designs? I love her work, and she is a very capable designer. Whether you are looking for full HD wallpapers to full website design, she can do this effectively. This is of great value to myself and also any other Internet marketers out there, as high quality graphics are hard to come by.

While I do not personally have use currently for her other work, I find it highly professional and just amazing. Lovecore Designs does some awesome photo edits as well model portfolios. Words can’t describe the quality of these photos, as you need to see for yourself.

Finally, Laura is a cool person to deal with and will make sure your work is done right in a professional manner. Plus, she is from Scotland, so you know she is a top-notch girl Anyways, if you are looking for a high quality, low cost graphic designer, make sure to give Lovecore Designs a shot!

First, you will need to have the following:

1 Package of Yeast
1 Teaspoon of Sugar
1 1/4 Cup of Water

1/2 Cup of Sugar
1 1/2 Teaspoons of Salt
5 cups Flour

1 Tablespoon of Vegetable Oil

1/2 Cup of Baking Soda
4 Cups of Water

2 6 oz Cans of Jumbo Lump Crab Meat
Shredded Cheddar Cheese of your choice (I use a Mexican/Taco style blend)
Old Bay
2 Tablespoons of Butter

I have them each separated above because they are needed in these amounts in different steps.

1. First, dissolve the Yeast with 1 1/2 Cups of Hot Water and then stir in the Sugar in a bowl.

2. Next, in a separate bowl, mix the 1/2 Cup of Sugar, Salt and Flour together.

3. Make a well in the middle of the dry mixture and first pour the oil in. Then, pour the yeast mixture in and start to knead. Do this for like 6 to 8 minutes until it is formed into a nice dough mixture. If it is sticky, add a bit of flour. If it is not forming right at first, add a bit of water. You can always self-correct with either one, so just do it and don’t be afraid. You will get it right eventually lol.

4. Lightly grease up a bowl and put your dough in it and turn it over once, making sure it gets a light coating of the oil. Cover and let rise for about an hour or so until it is about double in size. If it doesn’t double totally, don’t worry, it will still taste great!

5. Meanwhile, get the crab meat out and ready. Soften the butter so you can mix it with the crab meat, but you don’t want to melt it. It needs to be stiff so that it can cling to the meat. This also helps to make it thicker so it will be easier to place on the pretzel.

6. Put the butter and crab meat in a bowl and work it together until well mixed. Sprinkle Old Bay on the mixture to taste and mix again. That is now ready, so set it aside.

7.  After the dough has rise, preheat the oven to 450 degrees.

8. Mix the 4 cups of warm water and the baking soda in a bowl that you can dip pretzels in.

9. Take your dough to a surface where you can roll out the pretzels. Cut the dough (use a pizza cutter to make life easier) into 12 equal parts and roll them out and form pretzels.

10. Get 2 cooking sheets and spray with cooking oil.

11. After you form each pretzel, dip it into the mixture and place on the sheet, making sure the pretzel stays together. Make sure to pinch where the pretzels comes together to help keep the pretzel shape.

12. Once you have formed and dipped all 12 pretzels, get your crab mixture and cheese.

13. With your fingers, place the crab meat over each pretzel. This amount gives you a nice amount to put on each pretzel, so you don’t have to skimp.

14. After the crab meat is placed on the pretzels, sprinkle them with your favorite shredded cheddar cheese.

15. Place them in the oven for 8 minutes. They should get a nice color to them but still be a bit doughy when you get them out. That is okay!

16. Place them immediately on a cooking rack and serve. They are best hot of course!

These taste so good! The pretzel itself should taste like a buttery pretzel you would get at Auntie Anne’s or Pretzels Plus, and the crab and cheese just make it a great treat.

Also, you can just dip these in butter as well or sprinkle them with cheese. This is a great pretzel recipe and you can really add any of your own toppings. I love this base to start out with and it really lets you do anything with your pretzels, so be creative!

Let me know if you have any questions and feedback is always appreciated!!

This is a fairly easy thing to make, so don’t start thinking before you read this that you could never make it. All you really need to do is throw some things together, simmer it for about an hour and that is all. But, here are the fine details.

You will need these ingredients:

1 Medium Onion chopped
Olive Oil (to fry the onions)
28 oz canned or fresh tomatoes, either diced or whole (fire roasted gives them a nice flavor as well!)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 Tablespoon tomato paste
1/2 cup cider vinegar
pinch of salt
1 teaspoon Worchestershire sauce
OPTIONAL
To make spicy, add 1/2 Tablespoon of either Chiptole powder or cayenne power

Now that you have your ingredients, fry the onions in the olive oil, about 2 Tablespoons. Do this for about 5 to 8 minutes until browned. While frying, add all of the other ingredients in a large saucepan and stir them in. When onions are ready, dump them in as well.

Turn heat onto medium and cook for about an hour, stirring every 15 minutes at first and then every 5 minutes the last 15 minutes. Once you do this, pour into a food processor or blender (I suggest splitting this into 2 batches since the sauce will be very hot and it gets a smoother texture). Blend or process until smooth and no onion pieces can be detected.

Pour them into a jar or bottle or anything with a cap and that is it. You can use this up to about 3 weeks, so enjoy. My family won’t buy store brand anymore, as I need to always make this for them! Enjoy!

I am an Economics major and Economics geek at heart, so this point hits home hard. I have always thought I was good at outsourcing. I never write content and I never build links. It takes too long, it is redundant, I don’t enjoy it and it is not worth my time. If it takes me just a 1/2 hour to write an article, that is valuable time lost out of my schedule when I could hire someone to do it for me for $5 and get decent content.

In Economics, we call outsourcing or teaming together with other people/companies comparative advantage. It is all about levaraging what you do best but also being able to offer other services or get other goods as well. Say I find a killer article writing team that can pump out a ton of content every day but they have no marketing skills whatsoever. I come into play. I can write, but it takes me longer but I work alone plus it doesn’t motivate me much to be honest. However, I can set up ad campaigns on Facebook or Google all day long and make a profit on those articles that were churned out. When we team together, we can accomplish more and make more money. So why don’t we outsource everything?

1. You don’t have the money

This is probably the single biggest problem people have with outsourcing, and it is understandable. If you are broke yourself, consider starting out at the outsourcee (is that a word??). Do the crap jobs. I know I did when I started out. Write content, build sites, do link wheels, etc. in order to get a nice amount of money to start out with. Once you do that, you can start focusing on what you do best and outsource the rest.

2. You are too cheap

I fall into this one and the next one as well. I hate spending money. I always am looking for a discount, review, coupon codes or whatever in order to get stuff cheaper. I hit up Craigslist for stuff all the time. I am cheap. My wife hates it. But it is good to be frugal. However, being too frugal can be a detriment to your business.

First off, even if you outsource, you need to make sure you get quality work. Sure, hiring an article writer from DP at 60 cents per 100 words may seem good, but is the content going to deliver? More then likely, you will be fixing mistakes and adding keywords. That is fine if you don’t mind spending a few minutes doing that. I don’t personally, so I pay a bit more.

Also, if you don’t outsource, you find yourself doing jobs below what you are worth. If you are making even $150/day, you shouldn’t be writing articles or doing link building. These services can be found for very little money on virtually every forum in the world, so respect yourself and outsource.

Use the 80/80 rule. Yes, it is different then the normal 80/20, but if you spend 80% of your time doing the things that make you 80% of the money, then you are in a good situation. Don’t spend 80% of your time doing things that make you 20% of your money. If you are writing content and building links, then you fall into that rule.

3. You don’t trust anyone

I am so guilty of this on outsourcing except in the content and link building department. I HATE outsourcing anything related to my websites, as I am afraid they will steal my ideas, content or just totally screw me over. I also do not like hiring designers and coders. I have found a few that I use all the time, but it took me a long time to trust them, starting them off on tiny projects and such until I felt I could trust them. I would rather do the work myself, but I am not the best designer and I can’t code too well, so again, we use comparative advantage to get services done that benefit me.

In conclusion, you are never going to get anywhere if you do it alone. You may be your only employee, but you need to outsource things. There is only so much you can do and there are only so many hours in a day. The rich don’t become rich by themselves. They are lifted up by a strong team of individual talents that feed off of each other. Does the Steve Jobs work at an Apple store taking order? So why do you need to feel that you can do it all?