My most successful “information” product clients don’t sell information at all!

Chew on that for a while.

Nope. They’re not selling information.

They sell solutions to problems.

They sell tools that do the work for you.

They sell done-for-you services.

They sell end results.

Their products may include information, but that’s not why people buy them.

Your customers aren’t out there desperately look for another eBook to buy.

They have problems.  You have solutions.

And the quicker you can deliver those solutions with the least hassle required, that’s what they’re looking for.

Time for a pop quiz!  Didn’t you hate those when you were in school?

Which is likely to sell better to the average audience interested in better ad results?

A. A course on how to create your own successful ads step-by-step

B. A series of successful ads you can steal and simply edit yourself

Make your choice.

In the majority of cases, B is going to be the runaway winner.

It sounds easier to do.  It sounds like less work on the customer’s part.

And it’s more of a done-for-you tool.

Personally, this is often hard for me to accept.

Because I like “A” better.  It’s the one that will likely produce the best results long-term.

Now let’s apply this principle to your business.

How can you provide tools or done-for-you services that get the end results with the least hassle for the customer?

If you’re in weight loss, it may be a software program that hands them their exact meal plans.

If you teach PPC, it could be giving them the exact ads and keywords to run in their industry.

And on the backend you provide an Adwords service where you manage their account for a premium monthly fee.

If you sell a relationship ebook, you also provide them with the exact words to say or text to send after their first date.

Are you getting the basic concept here?

Yes, you can provide some information but that’s not what entices people to spend their money.

It’s the tools you provide along with the information they want.

Or it’s the service you can offer where you do it for them.

Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day.

Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.

But many times…he simply wants to buy the fish.

This email is sharing the basics of principle #13 of the 21 hidden cash generators in June’s Monthly Mentor Club issue…scheduled to go to print tomorrow on June 1st.

These are 21 go-to methods for helping my personal clients earn more, work less, and enjoy life online.

This the my reference to find the missing ingredients for quick profit enhancers in client businesses.

And now you can reserve your copy…but only if you act now.

She was the largest ship afloat at that time…and at 11:40 pm her fate was sealed when her hull plating buckled from striking the iceberg.

What can you, the internet business owner, learn from this disaster?

An iceberg is hard to see, because only about 1/9th of it is above the water.

The majority of its volume lies invisible under the surface.

The most successful internet businesses operate the same way.

You can track their PPC advertising.

You can check their SEO rankings.

You can see what they share on their blog and in social media.

And you can even see their frontend products.

But it’s tough to see everything they’re doing on the backend.

Let’s say you’re looking to sell a $29.95 eBook about your subject.  They’re running ads everywhere.  You know they’re spending tens of thousands of dollars.

They must be making a profit, right?

They probably are, but it likely isn’t from the $29.95 eBook.

That’s just how they get customers in the door.

Unless you also buy the product and pay attention to their email follow-up, direct mail, and phone contact…you don’t have a clue about what they’re really doing.

Perhaps that $29.95 eBook is simply a lead generator for their $5,000 workshop?

If you go into the market copying their eBook only, you’re about to have a disaster as big as the Titanic.

You’ll throw away money hand over fist…and sit there wondering what in the world happened.

How did they may it work when you lost money off every sale.

Only 1/10th of their business was visible from the outside.

I always tell people to look at what the most successful competitors are doing.

Analyze their ads and their results.

But you’ve got to go deeper to than just a glance.

How do they generate leads?

How do they follow-up on leads?

What do they sell them first?

What upsells do they offer?

How do they follow-up on customers?

What else do they offer you?

When you analyze a market or the competition, investigate what’s floating under the surface.

Go deeper than average.

It will keep you from being the next Titanic.  It will keep you from the icebergs out there.

The June issue of the Monthly Mentor Club is fast approaching.   The paper-and-ink issue will be scheduled for mailing on June 1st.

It covers my 21 hidden cash generators.  These are the jealously guarded secrets I go back to time and time again when working with my personal clients.

Which one of these 21 keys will open the door to internet profits for you?  Which one of them will keep you from that iceberg that’s fast approaching under the surface?

http://www.MonthlyMentorClub.com

I hate it when a boiler room rep calls me asking me what they can do for me to give them my leads.

It’s not going to happen.

It seems these guys call anyone who is building an audience of entrepreneurs online.

It’s happened 3 times in just the past year with different companies.

They want you to send them all your customer leads.

Of course they make it sound enticing. They average X number of dollars per customer.

But it would be like feeding your kids to the sharks.

They’ll bug them on the phone till the end of time.  Execute high pressure sales tactics.  And sell some overpriced piece of garbage “coaching” program.

These programs run anywhere from $3,000 up to $20,000 or more.

And what do you get…a $10 an hour employee going through a manual.

Any “coaching program” for entrepreneurs that hands you off to an employee isn’t worth jack.

Employees don’t understand entrepreneurs.  They speak totally different languages.

And if those employee coaches knew how to be successful online, you think they’d be working that crappy job?

Not likely.

They answer questions out of a manual they’ve been given.

Of course not all of them use the phone to make their pitch.

One of these boiler rooms told me they put everyone into a free “training” conference.

And then they beat you down until you join.

Either way, FLEE from these programs.

The first question with any coaching program should always be who does the coaching.

Why are they qualified?

Five days of intense training doesn’t count in their exclusive system doesn’t count.

They’ll also always tell you everyone needs a mentor to succeed.

That’s a lie.

It helps.  It can shortcut the process.

You’ll find a mentor or coach can spot things from the outside that you’re too close to ever see.

But it’s not a requirement to success.

For example, I’d NEVER recommend anyone go into debt to get a coach.

And that’s a biggie with those fake programs.  They want you to dig deep on your credit card and go into hock for their programs.

RUN in terror the moment they ask how much is on your credit card!

If the fee will financially stress you out, you shouldn’t hire a personal coach.

Sorry.  But it’s the truth.

Get started with some basic courses.  Study them until you can almost quote them word-for-word.

Instead of buying the new thing next week, study one of those courses again.

When I first started online, I got a hold of everything from Gary Halbert and Jay Abraham that I could afford.

Those materials led me to success.  They got me out of debt.

It wasn’t till later that I hired a coach to take me further in my business.

I hired the coach when I could afford it.  And they multiplied my results.

Before you consider anyone for coaching, make sure you’re in the right position to profit from the results.

You couldn’t get me to count the number of hours it took to create a level 85 frost mage in Warcraft.

Lately I’ve been playing Mass Effect 3 on the Xbox.

All these games have a few qualities in common.

You have goals. You go on quests. You get stronger as you level up. You defeat more powerful enemies.

It’s a constant cycle of action and small rewards each step along the way.

Those games with a monthly fee that consume people like Warcraft are a never ending process.

There’s always a new challenge to face and a way to grow.

Look at your internet business the same way.

If you’re a brand new beginner, the first challenge you face is choosing a market.

Your next challenge will be getting your first website up.

Then you create a list. You get your very first subscriber.

All of these are challenges you overcome. You’ve gain experience. You’ve gain knowledge and ability you’ll use in the future.

But it doesn’t seem like it. There is no external award immediately handled to you for overcoming these challenges.

You don’t “level up” in real life.

You hear about someone else who earned a million dollars online, and your lowly little website looks like such a failure.

It looks like nothing.

Because no one ever tells you what they had to go through to get where they are.

They talk about the excitement and the Internet Lifestyle they experience today…not the steps to get there.

When I first started online, I struggled with crappy Frontpage for days to create my first site.

And it was UGLY!

I got the endorphin rush from accomplishing that goal. No one could take that away from me.

This was 1996, so there wasn’t anyone telling me about the giants they killed that day.

You create a product and you get your first sale.

That’s a reason for celebration.

You just did something 99% of people the world have never done. You made your first sale online.

Instead you get discouraged because your numbers aren’t profitable yet.

That’s the negative if you look at money as the only reward.

All the little rewards and accomplishments along the way are tossed to the side and forgotten.

What games have taught me is you need those little positive reinforcements along the journey.

In Warcraft, your friends may have just saved the kingdom from the dragon threatening the land.

You killed a spider.

In the game world, you both get a reward that’s equal to your level.

You hear about an internet business which earned $100 million online.

You made a $10 sale.

You’re at totally different levels right now. Don’t steal your own reward because it doesn’t measure up to others.

Don’t disregard the mental aspects of this business.

May’s Monthly Mentor Club was all about developing the Mind of a Champion.

You missed out on the paper-and-ink issue, but the PDF version is still available inside the site.

Yes, I’m been there. I can waste time with the best of them.

One of these days I’ll share about my World of Warcraft adventure (level 85 gnome mage). Talk about wasting time!

People constantly tell me how much more difficult it is to run a business online today.

They cry, “There’s too much competition. Advertising is too expensive. Nobody spends money anymore.”

While they’re suffering, business is booming for others.

Your problem isn’t competition.

It’s not the price of advertising.

And it’s not your customers.

Your problem is distraction.

It’s so stinking easy to be distracted today that it’s amazing you get any work done.

There are new flashing shiny objects everywhere you turn.

You’re just getting the Facebook timeline down pat, and PInterest jumps to the forefront.

What’s new this week?

If you could just spend a few hours each day with 100% clarity and purpose, all those other problems will fall to the side.

Find your audience.

Listen to them and their frustrations.

Grab their attention by letting them know you understand their pain.

Offer them a solution to their problem.

And follow-up on those customers with other related solutions and answers.

You only need to reach a tiny fragment of your audience online to build a profitable business.

Competition isn’t the problem.

Distraction is.

It’s slaughtering more dreams of internet businesses than anything else.

It’s become the serial killer of more internet dreams than anything else.

Everything else going on and swirling around you each day is keeping you from focusing on what really matters…what brings the money in.

Gary Halbert used to talk about how he would shut out everything else. He’d turn off the phones. And he put Operation Moneysuck into action where he’d do what brought in the cash.

He’d put together the ads and offers that brought in the cash that funded everything else.

Shutting everything else off is tougher today than ever before.

It’s fun to multitask. It’s just not profitable.

When coaching clients to write, I’ve told them to turn off their monitors before. That way they can only concentrate on what they’re writing. They can’t get distracted by editing. They stop writing with the brakes on.

In the May issue of the Monthly Mentor Club I covered distraction and how to overcome it in detail.

It was all about developing the Mind of a Champion.

You can’t get the paper-and-ink issue that mailed earlier this month, but you can still get the PDF version inside the members area.

But it won’t be available there forever.

For example I earn money from one-off eBooks and courses.

The Monthly Mentor Club produces ongoing continuity income.

Amazon sends me a growing check for my books and eBooks.

Coaching and consulting clients pay me monthly.

And I also receive affiliate payments from 10+ companies.

It’s that last one, affiliate payments, that’s the most passive type of opportunity.

It’s especially exciting when you promote a program that continues to pay you each month for a lead you sent over once.

That’s true passive income.

Here are 8 affiliate myths I commonly hear:

1. Avoid competition.

Let’s kill this one.  Competition isn’t bad.  It simply means there is money there.  You beat competition by becoming a specialist in a buying market.

2. You don’t need a website.

While it’s technically possible to be an affiliate without a website, it’s competing at a disadvantage.  Create your authority site, your home base for everything you do.

3. Building a list is too much work.

Build your audience and your list first.  Build relationships.  You could even build a large autoresponder sequence to make even your emails passive over the long-term.

4. Just plaster links on your site.

Go to some blogs and they’re plastered with affiliate banners.  Those can work, but the best results will be when you give real reviews and results with the products in your content.

5. Only free traffic is profitable.

Free traffic is good.  But the affiliates I know with the biggest incomes use both free and paid traffic sources.

6. Clickbank/CPA/CJ/Amazon has the best affiliate programs.

The best affiliate program is the one that works for your audience.  And it’s often a mixture of multiple different programs that solve their problems.

7. Use the stock emails provided to you.

That’s a great way to lose the attention of your audience.  Write from your own voice.  Be honest about why you’re making the recommendations.

8. You don’t need to track.

Everyone needs to track.  It’s wild how much of a difference you will earn between two programs and two sources of traffic.  Program such as Prosper202 are built for affiliates along with many other tools.

If you’re not tracking, you’re wasting time or money (often both).

Where can you find out the best ways to grow your affiliate income?

#1 – Pay attention to the content I’m sending you each week in these issues.

#2 – Check out NAMS (Niche Affiliate Marketing System).

This is one of few workshops I’ve spoken at which impressed me with the content they deliver.

They break all their sessions up into 4 different levels (from brand new beginners in the NAMS100 track up to professionals making serious income online in the NAMS400 classes).

It is an event with trainers who care about delivering high quality content in each class…not just making a sales pitch.

Now you can also access their programs online with 17 ways they provide training, content, and tools for your affiliate business.

For example, this past week I logged into their site again because I needed some royalty free music to use on a video.  And that’s just one of the benefits.

Check out everything they offer…

Make sure to use the coupon code MyNAMS80 to get the best price.

Your Marketing Coach,

The link above is an affiliate link. If your audience is interested in earning money online, they have an excellent affiliate program you can find out more about here…

Here are just a few I see daily…

Mistake: Use a “professional voice” in writing.

Truth: Write like you talk. If you’re not having fun, no one else is either.

Mistake: Be wishy-washy and simply make suggestions.

Truth: Find your expertise.  Be bold and willing to take criticism.

Mistake: Create Sentences and paragraphs that are too long.

Truth: Make your emails inviting to read.  No more than 5 lines per paragraph and 3 lines is even better.

Mistake: Hide your emotions and stay all business.

Truth: Show empathy and feeling for your clients.  Show your humanity.

Mistake: Follow up on everyone in the same way.

Truth: Segment your lists to what they show the most interest in and ask for.

Those are all common mistakes, but the biggest myth I see about email is this one.

Myth: Give your absolute best content away free.

You hear that one constantly.  But if you give away your absolute best content, doesn’t that mean your customers get gypped?

And there’s another subtle danger.  You also train your readers to only expect free information.

Don’t get me wrong.  I believe you should give away content.  Help your subscribers.

It should be unique, contrarian content that stands out in a competitive marketplace.

But that doesn’t mean it’s your best.

And it also doesn’t mean you just throw out content randomly in every direction.

Your giveaways must be strategic.  

They’re leading somewhere.

For example, almost every big product launch includes content being given away.

But that content is planned to accomplish several goals.

You talk about the major problems and roadblocks holding them back.

You share case studies and stories that demonstrate your ability to solve these problems.

You may share step one in the process.  They need the additional steps from you.

And you demonstrate golden nuggets of information that can help them immediately.

This can all be great content, but that doesn’t mean it’s your absolute best.

Of course some people go into the ditch in the opposite direction and just send sales pitches with zero content.

Both are a mistake.

Here’s one additional golden nugget.  When sharing information, make it interesting.  Add some drama.  Integrate in personal stories.

If your subscribers have been on your list for weeks and don’t know anything about you personally, then you’re missing the goal.

For example, hopefully you know I delivered pizzas for Little Caesars for $8 an hour before I came online.

You also likely know how I failed at network marketing, door-to-door sales, and direct mail before I discovered the internet.

Once I came online, I quickly tapped into the power of building an email list.  

And from that first year to today, that’s one element of business that has stayed consistent.

The money is in a relationship with your email list.

There is a lot of conflicting information being shared online about building your list, but if you want the ‘real scoop’ from those earning 6 and 7 figures, you’ve got to check out:

Click here now…

14 list building experts share their absolute best strategies and techniques to build a responsive email list fast.

My special bonus, “Email Marketing Secrets to Winning In Even the Most Competitive Markets” will be provided to anyone who purchases through my affiliate link.

This is a collection of 6 of my Monthly Mentor Club letters about email marketing (where I share my best information for $29.95 per month). That’s a $179.70 value.

But he definitely knows a few secrets about marketing that took him all the way to president.

He knows how to use social media.  And he knows how to build a huge email list!

For a while, he even turned the Whitehouse.gov website into one big squeeze page asking for your email address.

He’s since changed the white house site, but you can still sign up for the lists.

If you’re on his list, you’ve been pummeled by requests for campaign contributions, photos, and his schedules.

They send out almost daily emails.

I don’t agree with his politics, but no one can deny he knows online marketing.

Are you building a list of subscribers, customers, and supporters in your business?

Or are you leaving your business…and your life to chance?

Make a simple decision today to concentrate on your list.

Focus your attention on what brings in the money…no matter what goes on in an ever changing internet world.

I told you about the List Building Summit yesterday and the 14 six and seven figure list builders who are sharing all their inside secrets to filling your list with red hot buyers as quickly as possible.

Click here now…

Yesterday I mentioned I had a special bonus for those who purchase through my affiliate link.

You don’t have to wait any longer to find out what it is.

The List Building Web Summit is jam packed with information on how to grow your list using joint ventures, affiliates, Facebook, viral marketing, publicity, and more.

You will grow your list faster.

But I feel it is a little light in the step-by-step email writing department.

Yes, this is covered by several of the experts, but not in as much detail as I’d like to see.

So I collected 6 of my past Monthly Mentor Club private paper-and-ink newsletters about email marketing and put them all into one PDF.

This includes:

- The Hidden Message Behind Winning Email Strategies (this is a biggie almost no one talks about)

- How to Build Your Email List (this reviews some of the basics and shows how to get started promoting)

- Death of the Free Line (how the wrong free information can sabotage your sales)

- Step-By-Step Guide to Writing Emails (includes subject lines, intros, editing, common mistakes, and more)

- 30 Day Email Sales Plan (creating your initial 30 day autoresponder sequence)

- Storytelling (this isn’t a skill you’re born with – it’s one you acquire and it makes all the difference)

Click here now…

“Email Marketing Secrets to Winning In Even the Most Competitive Markets” will be provided to anyone who purchases through my affiliate link.

But I have a 2nd gift as well for only the first 20 people who take action…

The first 20 get the opportunity to ask me to review one of their squeeze pages, popovers, or emails for maximum conversion.

This is NOT a full website review or a penpal service in any way.  It’s a one-time review of a squeeze page, popover, or email.

You’ll be notified if you’re one of the first 20 when we send you “Email Marketing Secrets to Winning In Even the Most Competitive Markets” in PDF format.

Simply purchase using my affiliate link and send over your receipt to webmaster at mymarketingcoach.com (please give us up to 24 hours to respond as they will be manually checked).

On Thursday, I’ll be covering the biggest myth about email in 2012.  I’m shocked how many “experts” keep this myth alive.  The vast majority now believe it…because it’s been said so many times!

This isn’t about those cute little critters living down by the South Pole.

It’s about Google’s new update on April 24th that threw a portion of the web into chaos.

Just like the “Penguin” villain from that old Batman movie, it’s causing havok. It’s even birthing “negative seo companies” who can be hired to hurt your competition’s ranking.

Visit any forum right now and you’ll find people who lost 80% or more of their income overnight.

All their eggs were in Google’s basket…and it got dropped.

It was a disaster for them.

I feel for anyone in this position. It hurts, but here’s what I don’t understand.

Why don’t you prepare in advance for the inevitable?

Google doesn’t owe you anything. They don’t owe you a free position in their results no matter how much content you create.

And they’ve proven time and time again they don’t even owe you a position in Adwords.

They’ll slap you in a heartbeat, at times just for being a direct response small business.

If your business model relies on only one source of traffic, you’re a disaster waiting to happen.

I’ve been online 16 years now. Man, that makes me sound old!

Ad sources come and go. Google wasn’t the first to do PPC and I hope they won’t be the last.

Rankings change. Search engines rise and fall. New opportunities appear almost overnight.

But one fact has stayed true since the first year I came online.

The money is in your relationship with a list.

That was my original discovery within the first six months online.

My income was directly proportional to the size of my list. This doesn’t mean two lists the same size earn the same amount. It means that YOU, if you consistently grow your list and stay in contact with them can see your income grow with the list.

We’ve learned a lot since then about segmenting our lists, ways to grow lists, and how to write much better emails.

But the money is still in the relationship with the list.

The purpose of search engine optimization is to grow your list, your audience, and your customer base.

If the bottom falls out, you still have that list.

For someone else it’s a disaster. Their income is gone.

For you, it’s simply annoying. You still have the list and the money that comes with it. You can rebuild or tap into another source of traffic.

What if Facebook or Twitter change their business model tomorrow…and aren’t so friendly with small businesses anymore?

Don’t tell me that can’t happen. It can and likely will at some point.

Take advantage of them now, BUT don’t rely on them.

Use them to build your list! Build your business, not theirs.

Of the questions I receive regularly, the two most common ones are how to generate more traffic and how to grow their email lists faster.

If you’re in that 2nd group and you want to grow your email list faster than ever before, then I have great news for you.

Kathleen Gage has organized 14 six and seven figure list building experts to share their quickest and easiest ways to build a list fast…in any market.

This isn’t your normal list building telesummit. These are 14 experts trying to outdo each other by giving their absolute best step-by-step list building information that works right now, in May of 2012…not in years past.

Find out more about this unique opportunity…

Yes, that is my affiliate link and you want to use it…because I have something for you…

I have a special bonus gift I’m going to send over to anyone who purchases through my affiliate link. It fills in the one “missing piece” I see in this course. When you order through my affiliate link above, send a copy of your receipt to webmaster at mymarketingcoach.com. We’ll confirm it came through us and we’ll get your surprise bonus out to you asap (please note this is going to be handled manually so please give us up to 24 hours).

This gift won’t stay a surprise for long. I’ll let you know more about it tomorrow…