I’ve been in Asia for the past couple of weeks, and I just finished opening our new Income.com Asia office in the Philippines.

Here’s a photo of me and some of the team from Income.com Asia:

We’re building an exciting software development team here, and we’ll also be looking here for additional expansion for our company.

The Philippines is a wonderful place to hire workers. Whether you’re looking for a virtual assistant, programmer, designer, researcher, or any number of other skills, the Philippines is a great place to outsource to.

The people here are very nice and hard-working. Their school system is taught in English, so they can read, write, and speak English really well. Arguably better than any other country where English is not the first language.

Overall, the Philippines is a pretty poor country. There are not a lot of job opportunities for its citizens, so outsourced (virtual) jobs are an important part of their economy.

You can hire people here to work full-time for as little as US$300/month. More skilled workers, like engineers and developers, cost a lot more than that, but it is possible to hire people to do data entry, research, and writing tasks for that little.

And while $300/month may not seem like a lot of money, it’s a lot of money to many people living here.

Many Fortune 500 companies have offices in the Philippines and employ a lot of people here. It just makes good financial sense for certain types of jobs.

Our Income.com Asia headquarters is going to be working closely with a nearby university. We’re going to be creating internship programs as well as helping the university create specific curriculum to help students have more opportunities, and we hope to hire more and more people from this region.

It’s a sad reality when some of their top engineering and computer science graduates end up working at a call center as their sole job opportunity.

Opening this new office and building out our development team will finally allow us to build and deploy a lot of the plans I have had for Income.com — many of which were delayed due to the nightmares I dealt with in hiring software dev firms that I previously mentioned in my Internet Marketing 2010 report.

I’ll be sharing more news soon about how to find outsourced workers in PH, as well as the pitfalls to avoid.

* For those asking… Money Mindset should be released within 3-4 more days.

But I want to clarify a few things…

1.  My statement about “remove all testimonials.”

I was referring to RESULTS-BASED TESTIMONIALS.  That’s what the new FTC guidelines affect and the context of when I stated that.

Someone posted on a marketing forum that I was ‘crazy’ for giving such advice.  That as long as testimonials weren’t full of hype and outlandish claims that they are okay to use.

WRONG.

According to the latest guidelines (and again, I’m not an attorney and this isn’t legal advice) marketers cannot use testimonials that contain results from a product that the AVERAGE buyer of the product doesn’t achieve.

In other words, even a ‘tame’ testimonial that just says, “I really liked your book.  I made my first $50 a few days after buying it.”  According to the FTC guidelines, if the average buyer of the book doesn’t make $50 a few days after buying it, such a testimonial is considered MISLEADING and it’s against their new guidelines.

Yes, that’s how LAME these new guidelines are.

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with someone stating how much they liked the product and what they got out of it, etc. but ones that state actual RESULTS (big or small) are the ones now under scrutiny by the FTC.

Will the FTC come after you if you use a testimonial that states someone made $50 a few days after buying your book?  Probably not.  But according to their latest guidelines it sure seems like THEY CAN.

2.  My statement that “Social Media sucks.”

Anyone that read all of my comments in the report about Social Media knows that I recommend everyone use it.  It’s great for building backlinks, syndicating content, and building relationships — and, yes, finding new customers.  I think social bookmarking and doing trackbacks (with great content) is a must.

Most of my ’sucks’ comments were aimed at Twitter and Facebook.  The sites most people think of when thinking of Social Media.  These are the sites that I feel many people are wasting far too much time on.  YES, you should definitely use them.  No doubt about it.

But when compared to other Internet Marketing strategies (PPC, building a list, creating products, making offers, working on copy & conversion, SEO, creating & distributing content) it doesn’t produce as much money.  Therefore, I believe one shouldn’t spend as much time using those sites.

This is exactly why I mention people should use these sites for a max of one hour per day.

Twitter and Facebook have become the new AOL Chatroom.  Even if you feel you’re using them “in the name of your business” it’s too easy to waste hours of time chatting and socializing with people on them.  If you don’t actively limit the amount of time you use them, they WILL hold your business back.

Here’s a Special Report I created for you…  In this report I cover a lot of things.

I talk about some of the things I’ve been up to and changes that are affecting Internet Marketing.

Here’s Some Of What I Cover In This Report:

• How I made a bone-head mistake and lost over $350,000.

• My thoughts on “Social Media” and why some will hate what I have to say.

• Did you know… The FTC just changed the entire game of marketing.

• Why your traffic generation efforts better get ‘smarter.’

• Don’t do ‘this’ or you and your business might be doomed.

• How you need to position your business and why.

Click Here To Download The Special Report

After reading the report make sure to leave your comment below!

And feel free to tell others about this report.

It’s a 4-Week class with assignments and Q&A help. The cost of the class is $497.

The class doesn’t actually start until October 15th, so I have a lot of time left to do follow-ups and get more people to register. In fact, I’m sure many people were going to wait until the last minute to sign up — which is often the case with live events like Webinars, seminars, and conferences.

From a business standpoint, the campaign to sell this class (after only 3 days) was already successful. But to be honest, I didn’t see as many of my regular customers signing up as I thought I would. I’m sure many of them were going to register at the last minute, but it was something that got my attention.

I also paid close attention to the blog comments that were made in the post below this one where I had originally announced the class. While you can see for yourself many people are really excited about the class and even feel the $500 price tag will be a bargain for what they’ll learn.

HOWEVER…

You’ll also notice quite a few people expressing their disappointment over the price. They are really interested in the class but just can’t afford, or justify, paying $497 for it.

Our office received quite a few phone calls and email support tickets expressing concern that they really wanted to attend the “Money Mindset” class but the price was too high. We’ve gotten that feedback on some of our products before, but never like this. This is the ‘loudest’ the volume of feedback has ever been.

The economy is still obviously affecting a lot of people. While many are actually prospering right now in their businesses, many of my other customers are struggling.

Now I’m certainly never one to make excuses for high-dollar marketing products that I sell. As Gary Bencivenga once told me (btw he’s one of the top copywriters in history if you don’t know his name) marketing products are actually UNDERPRICED compared to other products; if they are quality training products that can actually produce results, of course.

I also believe in the matra of “getting rich while enriching the lives of others.” I’m an entrepreneur myself and when it comes to Income.com, my marketing-related business, I focus not only on truly helping people but also on making my company wildly profitable.

With that being said, I’m going to do something I’ve never done before when it comes to pricing products for maximum profitability…

The cheapest marketing product (non-subscription) that I’ve ever sold is Traffic Secrets 2.0 at $397. In fact aside from that product all the others are $997 and up. I, again, make no excuses for charge high prices for products I believe offer 10X+ the value. Many of my customers will vouch for the fact that they are bargains for what they contain. HOWEVER…

Because I’ve noticed the real EXCITEMENT people have about this “Money Mindset” and the disappointment so many have expressed because of the high price…

I have decided to CANCEL THE CLASS completely.

All the customers that ordered will be receiving a full refund this week.

What I’m going to do instead is change the format of the class away from the live multiple week platform with Q&A/coaching help, and instead go into my studio and produce “Money Mindset” as a digital home study course.

And then I am going to release it and make it available for only $97. And, no, I’m not planning any upsells, forced continuity, or anything. Just this course by itself for only $97.

But… but… but… there must be some other sinister scheme, right? After all, I’m a marketer. Or “marketing guru” or whatever you want to call me. And all marketers are bad, capitalist pigs right?

Well, in this case there honestly isn’t some evil scheme.

So Why Would I Do This?

Is this just a scheme to make more profit!? I seriously doubt it. I’d have to sell 5X as many to make the same amount of revenue. In fact, releasing recordings of the original class and being able to offer a $250 commission to affiliates would generate a lot more sales activity than if I did the same with a $97 price and gave a $50 commission.

Now don’t get me wrong… I’d love for it to sell thousands upon thousands of copies at $97 and generate some great revenue for my company - after all, we’ve got some pretty high overhead and payroll that need to get paid every month. But that’s honestly not the sole motivation for doing this…

I believe in this “Money Mindset” method a lot. I know it’s going to help a lot of people. I truly believe entrepreneurs NEED it. And who knows, maybe it will spin off into a real book that I may write. I’ve had plans to write a real book for years and haven’t been able to follow-through because I keep changing my mind as to what I’d want in it.

And from a business perspective, I think if I can help a lot more people with this product (by selling it for far less than any marketing product I’ve ever offered) it will also generate some loyal customers that may go on to buy my other more expensive products when they can afford them.

So I just wanted to share some random thoughts with you about what I decided to do and why.

I’ll keep you posted on the development of the home study version and when it might be ready for release. Thanks to everyone for their visit in “Money Mindset” — I’m really excited about it!

~John

Today I’m excited to announce a new 4-Week Web Class that I will be teaching…

It’s called “Money Mindset.”

I believe the right mindset about how/why/when/where to make money is absolutely key to someone’s financial success.

Many know by now that I’m a HUGE believer in having the right mindset when it comes to starting or growing a business.  And now for the first time ever I’m going to teach a complete systematic approach to figuring out what you want in your life and then how to strategically plan and take action in order to get it.

Check out the video where I make the controversial statement…

Is ‘The Secret’ A Bunch Of B.S.?

Click here to watch the video and learn more about my new Money Mindset 4-Week Web Class.

Today is the 5-year Anniversary of the “Million Dollar Day.”

On August 17th, 2004, I released the original version of my Traffic Secrets course and pulled in over $1,000,000 in sales in less than 24 hours.  And without spending any money on traditional advertising.

Up until that day, doing a million dollars in sales in a single day (for an individual) was unheard of.  Many thought that $100,000-$150,000 in a single day (which was still extremely successful) was about the ‘ceiling’ for what could be done.

But just like Roger Bannister breaking the 4-Minute Mile (which many thought would never be done) many others started to do it as well.  Today there are many high school athletes that can break a 4-minute mile.

And today in 2009, since that big day in 2004, many other Internet marketers have also had million dollar days and even multi-million dollar days.  I, myself, have done it again as well.

While certainly much of what contributed to these big days was ‘technique’ (which I’ll get to in a moment) a lot of it is simply MINDSET.

That barrier, just like running a 4-minute mile, was a MENTAL barrier as well as a physical one.  Often times before anyone accomplishes something for the first time it seems like it’s not possible.  Yet once something is accomplished, even if it’s extremely difficult, others seem to follow with similar success.

This is the same reason why if you take most self-made millionaires and take away everything they have that they’ll find themselves back on top in less than a year.  Yet so many other entrepreneurs that have never made a lot of money flounder around for many, many years before breaking through - and some never break-through.

If you want to make a lot of money in your life (even in a short amount of time) you need to get your MINDSET together.  And, no, I’m not talking about The Secret and the law of attraction.

It’s not enough to WANT a better life.  It’s not enough to be AMBITIOUS.  And it’s not enough to just work hard.

You have to have a conversation inside your own head about what’s really possible and what are you really capable of.  Only when you truly believe this capability (no matter what it is) are you on your way to achieving it.

So What Are You Truly Capable Of?

That’s the question you need to answer within yourself.

It’s also interesting to look back on that “Million Dollar Day” and observe HOW it happened from a technique and strategy standpoint…

For years many marketers repeated the mantra, “The money is in the list, the list, the list.”

I shocked a large crowd of marketers when I was on a conference panel in 2002 and I said, “Let me tell you the real secret…  the money is NOT in the list.  The money is in OTHER PEOPLE’S LISTS.”

One of the most powerful things about Internet Marketing is the ability to LEVERAGE the marketing assets of others - their customer and prospect lists, their traffic, their content, their relationships, their expertise.

I leveraged Affiliate Marketing and got a lot of partners to help promote my product and that was a big key to why it was able to break-through that $1,000,000 in a day barrier.

And while, yes, I had to pay my affiliate partners about 50% of any sales they referred, most don’t realize that my net profits were still very high.  Some like to think that the launch ended up only netting me about $300,000 or so after all commissions and other costs were paid.

That launch, in just the first few days, ended up NETTING me $1,000,000 in PROFIT.  Not sales.  And it continued to bring in cash flow for many months after the initial launch.

The total ‘end result’ from the launch itself will probably end up being worth $20MM or more.  That’s the power of LEVERAGE.

From a technique standpoint I came up with several tactics for that launch that are now being used today.  I was one of the first marketers to ever leverage a blog for SOCIAL PROOF.  During that original Traffic Secrets launch I was driving prospects to blog posts and their comments about “can’t wait to buy this!” were encouraging others to do the same.  I strategically leveraged those comments to create more FRENZY and get more people interested in buying the product - long before it was even released or people even knew an exact date it would be released.  A lot of marketers use this technique today.  And it still works great.

Another tactic I came up with was using great free content to ‘warm up’ my partners lists.  After all, most of those people didn’t have a relationship with me, or even know who I was, so it was very important that before a product of mine was put in front of them that they had a reason to be interested in what I had to teach.

I produced a special PDF report that my affiliates were able to hardcode and giveaway to their lists.  This played a MAJOR part of why the overall launch was so successful.  It greatly increased the conversion rate of people buying on launch day long before they ever saw a sales letter for the product or even know what all was in the course or how much it was.

Today practically every launch you have been exposed to gives away great content upfront before the product itself is promoted.  And today that PDF (which will still work) has evolved into VIDEO.  Reports and special hand-outs can still work well, though.

Throughout all of those techniques the power of ANTICIPATION is what helps build the buzz and demand.  Apple is a master of doing this with their product releases.  So anytime you can give your customers something to LOOK FORWARD TO it will increase the rate at which they buy.  The movie industry does this with movie trailers and release dates, and so does the music industry, car industry, and so many others.

If you aren’t using anticipation in your marketing you’re losing a lot of money.  So start thinking of different ways you can incorporate it.

Last but not least I just want to drive home the point that my historical Million Dollar Day accomplishment would not have happened without the involvement of my affiliate partners.  Relationships online are incredibly important.  If you want to leverage other people’s marketing assets like I mentioned, then you need to ‘play well with others’ in your market.  Sell other people’s stuff first, then try and build a relationship to get them to reciprocate to promote your products.

The most successful marketers online are working with others - across any industry you can think of.  The ones that end up making only a tiny percentage of what they could have are the ones that burn bridges with people (i.e. ruin relationships), get into fights with other people, and typically have a negative attitude.  It truly does come down to the difference in having an ABUNDANT mindset and a SCARCITY one as mentioned in the amazing book, Think And Grow Rich.

I hope this post has inspired you in some way to go out and create your own new record day of accomplishment.  Always remember, no matter what you currently think you’re capable of is not even close to what you truly can create.

Let me start by saying this post isn’t going to be very popular with some people.  In fact, it’s probably going to ruffle a few feathers.  But that’s okay.

I’m here to help people make more money with their marketing, and sometimes the truth hurts.

There are certainly exceptions to everything, and some marketers may find a way to make auto-follow effective, but I’ve personally seen the light and believe it’s a doomed technique for long-term success with Twitter.

A couple of days ago, I unfollowed over 30,000 people on Twitter.  Many people are wondering WHY.  And this blog post explains why I am no long auto-following people on Twitter (i.e. auto-following anyone that starts following me.)

After using Twitter for the past several months, and running several marketing tests with it, I’ve learned many things about it.  I think Twitter has great long-term marketing potential, but there are definitely some powerful do’s and don’ts to making it work for your business.

Here Are Five Reasons Not To Auto-Follow People On Twitter

1.  Twitter Auto-Follow Is The New Email ‘Safe List’

Do you remember email opt-in safe lists?

Someone came up with an idea to help other marketers get more opt-in email subscribers.  So they created a system where anyone who joined would get the ‘right’ to be able to send emails to all the other members.

Thousands upon thousands of marketers joined these ’safe lists’ so they could instantly have access to a large opt-in email list to send their marketing to.  Sounds great, right?

There was only one small problem… barely anyone would actually read the emails that the system sent out.  In fact, it became a known technique to join a safe list and use a throw-away email address that you never used.

This made safe lists worthless for marketing.

Twitter auto-follow is producing similar results.  Think about it…

No one can possibly follow the tweets from thousands of people.  NO ONE. Trust me, I know.  

I was following so many people that I barely saw tweets from anyone.  Heck, I’d ‘refresh’ my timeline and instantly see an entirely new page of tweets.  It was just too overwhelming for me to pay attention to.

If Twitter is to be used as a RESPONSIVE marketing tool for your business then you’re going to need people to read your tweets and to take action when you want them to take action - such as to read blog posts links that you post, visit links to special offers for your business, etc.

AUTO-FOLLOW ATTRACTS OTHERS THAT AUTO-FOLLOW.

It’s an incestuous cycle.  If you auto-follow others you’re going to be attracting Twitter users that also auto-follow others.  Let’s face it, most are using auto-follow to get more Twitter followers.  But getting more Twitter followers this way comes at a price — you attract others that WILL RARELY (IF EVER) READ YOUR TWEETS.  It’s just like the safe list model.

Good marketing is all about RESPONSE.  It’s definitely a QUALITY not QUANTITY scenario.  There’s a reason that an opt-in email list of 5,000 highly targeted and responsive people can make 100 TIMES MORE than a lower quality opt-in list of 500,000.

2.  ”It’s Not Show-Friends It’s Show-Business”

That’s a great quote from the movie Jerry Maquire and it really applies to using Twitter for your business.

Something you need to quickly realize is that ego doesn’t pay the bills.  Most people want high follower counts for ego purposes.  Heck, I do and I’m willing to admit it.

Twitter is fun and your follower count is like the scoreboard of a video game.  Who wouldn’t want a gazillion followers just for bragging rights?

But at the same time, it really has to come down to MAKING MONEY.  Do you want a big ego or do you want to make maximum money from your marketing efforts?

If you want to make more money, then don’t auto-follow.  The followers you do attract will be people that only want to read what you have to say and actively follow what your up to.  Wow, what an amazing concept.  (It’s actually why Twitter was created in the first place.)

Your “@” replies and conversations will be much more valuable to your business and will yield much higher returns - because you’ll be eliminating a lot of other auto-follow marketers that will be wasting your time trying to get exposure for their own accounts by starting pseudo-conversations with you.

Keep in mind that many conversations on Twitter don’t happen from just follower-to-follower connections.

“But Is Not Following Someone Back Rude?”

Not at all.  Again, that’s not what Twitter was created for.  If you want reciprocal communication then use an Instant Messenger service.  Would you add all of your Twitter followers to your IM list?  Of course not.

People should follow you on Twitter because they want to read what you have to say.  Period.  If you want to make money from Twitter then you need to be saying and attracting YOUR TARGET MARKET.  You need to be giving enough value to your ideal prospect that they’ll WANT to follow you.  If you don’t, you’re not going to make much money from Twitter; regardless of what tricks and techniques you try and use.

3.  You’ll Get Bombarded With Direct Messages That Aren’t Worth Your Time

When you follow someone you give them the right to send you a direct message.  Rest assured, you’ll start to get all sorts of spam and worthless DMs.  I know, I was up to over 6,000 DMs before I nuked my account.

You also run the risk of hurting your reputation with certain prospects and customers if you aren’t extremely attentive to their DMs.  You’ll quickly discover it’s very hard (nearly impossible) to reply to all the DMs you’ll receive, and as a result you’re going to upset some folks that contacted you.  This can hurt your business and lose you a lot of money.

There are different methods to keep people from sending you Direct Messages on Twitter, but most are unaware of them and it can still create a problem for most marketers.

4.  Auto-Follow Destroys The Twitter Experience

As I’ve already mentioned, when you follow too many people it becomes impossible to keep up with all the tweets.  You’ll end up discovering, like I did, that it takes the fun out of Twitter.  Twitter ends up becoming just a bunch of NOISE.

And, sure, there are more and more tools being created where you can ’sub-list’ your followers so you can keep up with just a select group of Twitter users, but to me that’s really DISINGENUOUS.  When you follow someone on Twitter (automated or not) you’re basically saying, “I’m going to read what you have to say.”

So if you auto-follow too many people that really does become just a big LIE.  Because, again, it’s nearly impossible to follow so many tweets.

5. Twitter Users That Auto-Follow Will Lose Credibility

If you’ve paid attention to everything I’ve stated so far then you’ll understand why most people on Twitter will eventually realize the same things.

I believe Twitter users will begin to look at others that auto-follow (which is obvious when the ‘following’ and ‘followers’ numbers are very close to each other) as POOR QUALITY USERS.  Auto-follow users will be looked at like safe list marketers.  People will look at them (whether it’s true or not) as someone that’s just trying to get as many followers at all costs, and not really caring about what those people tweet about.

Think about it… what’s more impressive… someone with 10,000 followers that follows only a few people, or someone with 10,000 followers that also follows 10,000 people?  Twitter users know that the first person in this example must really be someone worth listening to because all those people that follow them stand to gain nothing in return.  (Except for the great value of their tweets.)

There’s a reason 99% of the most influential Twitter users in the world don’t auto-follow thousands of people.

This is exactly what will lead to HIGHER RESPONSE for your Twitter marketing.  Higher response will make you more money.  This is a PROVEN FACT in marketing.

You can follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/johnreese.  I won’t promise that I’ll follow you back, but I’ll do my best to deliver great value in my tweets.

PLEASE RETWEET THIS BLOG POST.  SO MANY PEOPLE NEED TO KNOW THE TRUTH.

Just copy & paste below the line and tweet it.  (Thank you.)

—–

PLEASE RT: @johnreese 5 Reasons Why Twitter Auto-Follow Is Bad Marketing -> http://tinyurl.com/l2jmzf

Opportunity.com will open at 3:00PM EST today.

For now you can watch a Sneak Preview video of what’s on the inside…

http://www.income.com/images/OPP/opptysneak.html

I’ll be posting a new Special Report very soon about Affiliate Marketing.

Stay tuned.

This video will show you how to create an “Affiliate Commission Engine” that can generate affiliate marketing income on auto-pilot.

To watch the video and bypass the opt-in form click here to go directly to the video.