Michael says . . .

Why You Will Never Make Money At Home Online

michael@michaelsays.com — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 11:27:00 -1200

It seems like everyone and their mother these days is trying to make money at home online. Are you one of these people who buy into this dream that you are going to be your own boss and quit your job? I bet you have joined just about every make money online opportunity that is free or have tried paid surveys or looked into home typing or some other washed up online scam. You probably have one hundred e-books on your computer that you paid $97 for and promised you millions overnight. Let's face it, you might as well kill yourself now or go back to your boring job because I have some bad news for you. The chances are that you are not going to succeed.

Now the good news is that their is some light at the end of the tunnel for those privileged few who follow the golden rule to success online. First you must ask yourself this question: "How bad do you really want it?", just how bad do you really want to make money at home online? For some people it is just a hobby which they do not take seriously and the results will be relative to their actions.

Now let's take a look at some of the things which I can guarantee are holding you back from success. For those few privileged people who are willing to make the step to the next level I am going to show you what you need to prepare for to make money from home online.

There are three types of Internet marketers: Those who take action, those who take a little action and those who take no action and just read information. The third type should not even be considered Internet marketers because they do nothing at all. If you are one of the first two than you have a fighting chance but you are still not there yet. Even if you take action you are still one of the 95% who don't make money online at home.

My favorite saying is that the definition of crazy means doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results the next time. This is a trap that many marketers fall into. If you are trying something out like a marketing method and it does not get good results than don't do it at all or modify it until it works! If you keep on doing the same thing you will get the same results.

Your first step towards success is to TAKE ACTION IMMEDIATELY! Don't wait and don't think about it, just do it and if you fail do it again till you succeed! And remember just because something worked for one person does not mean that it will work the same with you. You have to experiment and find your own methods that are your specialty.

My next bit of advice would be to stop reading and buying into every information product that comes out. How many times have you seen the same old sales letter and same old information about how to make money online at home or how to make a million dollars with affiliate marketing or Ebay. Please folks stop buying into this. I am going to let you in on a little Internet marketing secret which is that there are no secrets and most of this information is available freely if you search for it.

Does this describe you? You come home from work at night and go online to search for a way to make money online at home and finally quit your job. You read the latest sales page from some million dollar a year marketing guru and he promises that if you buy his product your life is set and you have very little work to do on your part. You start to get filled with excitement with the thought of riches running through your hands as you pull out your credit card.

After you download the latest E-book or software you read through it with hope and optimism and feel really good about the plan put in front of you. "This is it!" you tell yourself. You go to bed that night with millions of ideas running through your head about starting your business. At work the next day you can't wait to get home and get started on your retirement.

When you finally get home you go online and search around a bit for and for some reason you just can't get started. After a while depression sets in and than a couple of more offers get thrown your way promising you that their is still hope and don't give up yet. You buy another book and the whole process repeats itself. Before you know it you have thousands of dollars of E-books and nothing to show for it. Can you see where this cycle is going?

Don't give up just yet. I am not saying that these books are all garbage and their is nothing worth reading or trying. Did you most people who read books never take action on it. The very few who decide to take action are the ones who succeed. I am not going to get into what products are the best to buy. I am just telling you that you have to stop buying and start doing. Promise yourself that you will never visit another forum again or read another review or buy another program that promises.

I promise you that if you never buy another thing again you will not be missing anything. Many of these marketers are very good at playing with peoples emotions and they know exactly what people want and what makes them buy. Many of these make money online at home products are just the same information repacked with a new twist or sales page. So stop buying into all the hype and put a business plan into action. You can learn all the marketing secrets in the world or buy all the automated business tools but if they just sit on your hard drive you won't make a cent.

The main reason that many people quit and jump from program to program is that they are promised riches with little effort and don't take action on it. They than get frustrated and start to believe that it is the program and not themselves and than go and try and find the better deal. Look, there are many scams out there but any of the legitimate make money at home online programs or systems all have the same potential to make money. It does not matter who has the better compensation plan or higher commissions. It all depends on how bad you really want it and how much effort you are willing to put into it.

I don't mean to be hard on you. I just want to tell you the honest truth about how you can really make money at home online. I don't want you to fall into the same trap that I did. If only everybody was this prepared when they got started and had the right state of mind than so many more people would be making money.

I am not going to tell you how you should make money at home online. This you have to decide for yourself. You have to find what works best for you and what fits your budget. You also have to factor in how much time available you have to run your business. All you have to do is follow three easy steps which is to decide on what you want to pursue as a business. This could be affiliate marketing, network marketing, content publishing, advertising, or have your own product or service. After this you need to find a good book or plan to follow. If you already have knowledge than skip this part or use free information. Last but not least is to take massive action and don't ever give up despite what anybody tells you and no matter what avoid all distractions and offers.

If you follow this simple advice I can guarantee that you will make money online at home. It's not really that hard and just about anybody can do it. Just believe in yourself and your abilities and have a little patience and in no time you will really be living the dream of being your own boss and quitting your job for good.

Who Else Wants To Make Money With Adsense

michael@michaelsays.com — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 11:34:00 -1200

Fact number 1: Kids in high school are making thousands of dollars every month with Adsense.

Fact number 2: Housewives, retirees, mom and dads, who are just staying at home and have never made a dime on the internet have created full-time incomes by simply placing Adsense ads on their web site or blog.

These are just some of the "super Adsense earners". You may have already heard about their story for they are among the few who are on their way to making millions worth of cash just by promoting Adsense sites.
Anyone, any age and gender can become money generating Adsense publishers as long as they what it takes. How does one go about this Internet advertising?

Writing articles for Adsense is the way to do it. Using the right keywords in your articles and having Google ads on a certain site has become the most profitable way of marketing that anybody can get into. No experience and level of education needed. If you are not using this strategy, or may not be aware of it in the first place, chances are you may be losing thousands of dollars worth of extra income and still do not know it yet.

This is one of the many reasons why writing original quality content articles is now the latest in marketing buzz. Content and links. When combined together becomes a really powerful tool to a successful web site and richer individuals. Many internet marketing professionals are already aware of the value of an original quality content and how using keywords can drive targeted traffic into their sites from the search engines.

So why don't all these web site owners write and submit their own articles if that is what is important?

The simple and understandable answer is that it takes time to write articles, submit them and get targeted traffic to their websites. That is why they get the services of those who can spares sometime to write the articles that would cater to their site purpose but still turn out as a good quality and unique piece of work.

To get into the Adsense marketing business and start earning some good cash, ask yourself. Did you enjoy writing when you were in school? If you answer yes to this question, you already have an initial advantage over most internet marketing business owners that wants to make money online and doing it at home.

With the boom in the Adsense market comes the need for sites to want fresh, quality and original keyword rich content. This way, web site owners can have a steady supply of articles with the proper keywords that they relate to their site contents. The result of this is seen in the sites page rank when indexed by the search engines. Which, in turn, gets moreAdsense ads to show above, below or next to the article on their website with targeted traffic.

What do people have to do?

Write quality and original content, keyword or phrase rich articles with links to your website in the resource box. Then build a website or web page with targeted keyword or phrase rich original content for the targeted traffic that originates from the articles you wrote. Finally, you will have a Google Adsense ads that are targeted to your keyword or phrase rich original content site where visitors will get to visit when they come looking for information.

A win-win situation if you think more about it. A favor for persons looking for quality content and information. For the persons writing the original content articles. And the person with the quality original content rich website. Of course, the search engines and its advertisers are getting targeted traffic and sales but so what? As long as you are getting something in your favor, it does not really matter what the others are getting for themselves.

So who else wants to start earning money with Adsense. You. Everyone. Anybody. Internet marketing has many opportunities wide open for this people. Writing articles and using Adsense for your kind of internet marketing strategy is one sure way of getting a piece of that action and cash.

Better not be left behind the many making millions already.

Audit of the Federal Reserve Reveals $16 Trillion in Secret Bailouts

michael@michaelsays.com — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 10:03:00 -1200

The first ever GAO(Government Accountability Office) past few months due to the Ron Paul,

Alan Grayson Amendment to the Dodd-Frank bill, which passed last year. Jim DeMint, a Republican Senator, and Bernie Sanders, an independent Senator, led the charge for a Federal Reserve audit in the Senate, but watered down the original language of the house bill(HR1207), so that a complete audit would not be carried out. Ben Bernanke(pictured to the right),audit of the Federal Reserve was carried out in the Alan Greenspan, and various other bankers vehemently opposed the audit and lied to Congress about the effects an audit would have on markets. Nevertheless, the results of the first audit in the Federal Reserve’s nearly 100 year history were posted onSenator Sander’s webpage earlier this morning.

What was revealed in the audit was startling:

$16,000,000,000,000.00 had been secretly given out to US banks and corporations and foreign banks everywhere from France to Scotland. From the period between December 2007 and June 2010, the Federal Reserve had secretly bailed out many of the world’s banks, corporations, and governments. The Federal Reserve likes to refer to these secret bailouts as an all-inclusive loan program, but virtually none of the money has been returned and it was loaned out at 0% interest. Why the Federal Reserve had never been public about this or even informed the United States Congress about the $16 trillion dollar bailout is obvious - the American public would have been outraged to find out that the Federal Reserve bailed out foreign banks while Americans were struggling to find jobs.

To place $16 trillion into perspective, remember that GDP of the United States is only $14.12 trillion. The entire national debt of the United States government spanning its 200+ year history is "only" $14.5 trillion. The budget that is being debated so heavily in Congress and the Senate is "only" $3.5 trillion. Take all of the outrage and debate over the $1.5 trillion deficit into consideration, and swallow this Red pill: There was no debate about whether $16,000,000,000,000 would be given to failing banks and failing corporations around the world.

In late 2008, the TARP Bailout bill was passed and loans of $800 billion were given to failing banks and companies. That was a blatant lie considering the fact that Goldman Sachs alone received 814 billion dollars. As is turns out, the Federal Reserve donated $2.5 trillion to Citigroup, while Morgan Stanley received $2.04 trillion. The Royal Bank of Scotland and Deutsche Bank, a German bank, split about a trillion and numerous other banks received hefty chunks of the $16 trillion.

"This is a clear case of socialism for the rich and rugged, you’re-on-your-own individualism for everyone else." - Bernie Sanders (I-VT)

When you have conservative Republican stalwarts like Jim DeMint(R-SC) and Ron Paul(R-TX) as well as self identified Democratic socialists like Bernie Sanders all fighting against the Federal Reserve, you know that it is no longer an issue of Right versus Left. When you have every single member of the Republican Party in Congress and progressive Congressmen like Dennis Kucinich sponsoring a bill to audit the Federal Reserve, you realize that the Federal Reserve is an entity onto itself, which has no oversight and no accountability.

Americans should be swelled with anger and outrage at the abysmal state of affairs when an unelected group of bankers can create money out of thin air and give it out to megabanks and supercorporations like Halloween candy. If the Federal Reserve and the bankers who control it believe that they can continue to devalue the savings of Americans and continue to destroy the US economy, they will have to face the realization that their trillion dollar printing presses will eventually plunder the world economy.

The list of institutions that received the most money from the Federal Reserve can be found on page 131 of the GAO Audit and are as follows..

Citigroup: $2.5 trillion ($2,500,000,000,000)
Morgan Stanley: $2.04 trillion ($2,040,000,000,000)
Merrill Lynch: $1.949 trillion ($1,949,000,000,000)
Bank of America: $1.344 trillion ($1,344,000,000,000)
Barclays PLC (United Kingdom): $868 billion ($868,000,000,000)
Bear Sterns: $853 billion ($853,000,000,000)
Goldman Sachs: $814 billion ($814,000,000,000)
Royal Bank of Scotland (UK): $541 billion ($541,000,000,000)
JP Morgan Chase: $391 billion ($391,000,000,000)
Deutsche Bank (Germany): $354 billion ($354,000,000,000)
UBS (Switzerland): $287 billion ($287,000,000,000)
Credit Suisse (Switzerland): $262 billion ($262,000,000,000)
Lehman Brothers: $183 billion ($183,000,000,000)
Bank of Scotland (United Kingdom): $181 billion ($181,000,000,000)
BNP Paribas (France): $175 billion ($175,000,000,000)
and many many more including banks in Belgium of all places

View the 266-page GAO audit of the Federal Reserve(July 21st, 2011): http://www.scribd.com/doc/60553686/GAO-Fed-Investigation

Source: http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-11-696

FULL PDF on GAO server: http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d11696.pdf
Senator Sander’s Article: http://sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/news/?id=9e2a4ea8-6e73-4be2-a753-62060dcbb3c3

www.unelected.org

5 Steps to Writing Effective Sales Copy

michael@michaelsays.com — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 06:46:00 -1200

One of the biggest challenges to selling your product or service online is writing the sales copy. You are basically trying to use text to convey the benefits of your product to the buyer. Hopefully, the prospective buyer has already been searching for the answer to their problem. It is your job to convince them that your offer will satisfy their needs.

You have a product that you believe in and stand behind. Your price is competitive and you offer some incentives to the buyer. The problem is how to write a good, solid sales letter that will lead your prospects to buy from you. There are many ways to write effective sales copy. It is definitely not a cookie cutter science though. Learn to be attentive to the needs of your clients, and explain in simple language why they should buy the product you are selling. It is always in your best interest as a sales copy writer to keep things simple and to the point. With that said, let us move on to what components you should include in your sales letter to make it outstanding.

Start with the main focus of your sales letter: Ask yourself; What is the Unique Selling Position (USP) my company is trying to offer our clients? In other words, how is our product or service uniquely beneficial to the buyer? Answer this question first. Then you will have the basis for writing a compelling online sales message.

The USP must be something that your competitors do not offer, or your company does better for the customer. It might be something about the price, the superiority of your product or even the great service after the sale. Whatever you decide as your unique selling position, be sure to emphasize it more than once using simple down to earth language.

The outline to use for good sales copy includes these things in order of appearance on the page:

1. Benefit Headline. Tell your customer exactly how they will benefit from buying your product now.

2. State your USP in easy to understand text. Let the buyer know they have found a unique solution to their specific need.

3. Give the reader an idea of the many advantages of owning your product. This will keep them interested in reading deeper into your copy to discover if it really is what they want to buy. 3 to 5 bullet points should do it. Make the points clear and try to build desire in the reader's mind.

4. With one line of definite purpose, restate the main benefit you started the sales copy with in the headline.

5. Next, use a small list of the best features your product has to offer. A feature is something that the product has built into it that makes it special. This is important because here is where the buyer will make up their mind as to whether or not your product is right for them.

You have now captured your prospect's attention, interest and hopefully their desire. Some copywriters stress that the closing of the sale is the most important part of the sales letter. It is definitely important to emphasize this part of your pitch to the buyer. Usually a good incentive to make the purchase right now is necessary at this time. Use your judgement as to what you want to offer. This will help increase your sales conversion rate.

Closing the sale really comes down to simply asking for the person to buy your product. It may sound elementary, but do not overlook this part of the process. Experiment with different types of closing statements to see what works best. When you incorporate these elements of good sales copy, you will see an increase in the responses to your offers. Writing your own sales copy can be highly profitable when you follow these guidelines.

55 Ways to Supercharge your Direct Marketing - Part 2

michael@michaelsays.com — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 06:33:00 -1200

As discussed in Part I, direct mail has to be the most exciting area of marketing. With all the new programs,Co-Registration companies,PPC advertising and Social Marketing sites to help you create a mailing list, your chances of creating a winning mailing are in your favor. In fact the odds of you creating a successful business online today are greater than they were two or even five years ago.

Of course the best approach to starting a new business or a winning mailing is to prepare yourself. The key is to study and learn new techniques that apply to your situation and put them to work. Part II of this article will pick up where the first left off explaining 55 excellent techniques for making sure your mailings pull a stronger response.

26. When using figures, make them as specific as possible.

"30% of all adults do not get enough iron" sounds more believable than "most adults aren't getting enough iron." Believability and credibility are factors that help your prospects accept and buy your products.

27. Use a negative fact to make your claims more believable.

Although it's important to demonstrate the key benefits of your product, a negative element can help establish credibility. Here's how this technique works. Let's say you're selling quality cashmere sweaters at bargain prices. Many customers might doubt your ability to deliver. But if you emphasize that these sweaters are limited to only three colors which have a lot of appeal, you've used a negative fact to give reasonable proof of why you can offer such a fine deal.

28. Provide your customers with testimonials from other customers just like them.

Overcome customer reluctance by demonstrating how well your product has worked for other customers with similar problems. When using text, audio or video testimonials, a complete name and company name along with the city is most convincing.

29. ALWAYS offer a guarantee.

By this I mean a STRONG guarantee. Something that shows your prospects you have complete faith in your product. A good guarantee period is at least 90 days and a one-year guarantee is a true winner.

30. ALWAYS issue a call to action.

Tell your readers clearly and precisely what you want them to do. Do Not be timid. Tell them more than once. If you don't, you run the risk of them not doing anything.

31. Give your prospects an incentive to take action NOW.

Offer discounts, free merchandise, time limits, or iron-clad guarantees to help ease your prospects over whatever makes them feel reluctant.

32. ALWAYS end your letter with a P.S.

The P.S. is one of the most frequently read portions of a letter even when other sections are skipped. Take advantage of this by driving home an impressive benefit, sweetening your offer, or otherwise motivating your prospects to act now.

33. Check the flow of your letter.

Your letter should flow smoothly from section to section. Lose your course and you might lose your reader. Also, if you use a teaser copy on your envelope or in your email subject line, make sure your headline or first sentence picks up where the teaser left off.

34. Use an 800 number.

The use of 800 numbers increases response from 10%-50%. If you can't afford your own 800 number, many companies now offer 800 number services for a fee. To find out about them, look through the ads in any direct marketing magazine such as Direct Marketing or perform an online search.

35. Key every ad or mailing you use-without fail.

The beauty of direct marketing is that everything is measurable. You can easily tell precisely how many inquiries and orders are generated by each of your offerings. All you need to do is build a unique key into the order form for each of your offerings.

36. Repeat your offer and your guarantee on your order form.

Focus on your offer or strongest benefit and restate your guarantee. An official looking border around the guarantee has been shown to help response also.

37. Make sure your coupon is easy to use.

If your coupon is too crowded or difficult to use, you'll lose business. Have a friend or employee fill out your coupon. They can tell you how easy it is to use.

38. ALWAYS use a reply card, envelope or email address.

Postage-paid Business Cards or Business Reply Envelopes will boost your response. But they also boost your cost. The use of email marketing keeps your cost down and offers possible easy contact with your audience. With small orders, use a reply card or envelope that requires your customer to use a stamp. If you do not give your customer a specific way to respond, many of them won't!

39. Use a teaser on your envelope.

To be effective, a good teaser must offer a strong incentive to open the envelope.

40. Use a plain white envelope.

Another method of getting a high percentage of prospects to open your letter is to use a plain white envelope. Either no return address or just an address without a company name pull the best results.

41. Lift letters boost response.

A small note featuring a key benefit, special offer, or president's message is a cost-effective way of "lifting" your response.

42. Think follow-up.

You should constantly be thinking about related items to work into your product line for follow-up sales to your customers. Whenever you receive a new order, always send a follow-up offer 10 to 15 days later.

43. Offer multiple versions of the same product.

Deluxe versions, full-featured models, basic features only models, and personalized versions are just four ways of getting extra mileage from the same basic product.

44. Use response mailing lists.

List of people who have responded to a mail order offer or email offer are more profitable than compiled lists. Always find out what the customer responded to.

45. Use HOTLINE lists.

If you can get a list of people who have responded to offers in the last 3 to 6 months, it's definitely worth the additional cost. Satisfied recent buyers are strong candidates to buy by mail or email again.

46. Cultivate duplicate names from different mailing lists.

Most marketers run a merge/purge when buying multiple mailing lists to eliminate duplicate names. What a waste of an exceptional marketing opportunity! Buyers who show up on multiple lists have a proven buying history. Treat them like gold!

47. How to find the best mailing lists.

Contact 3 or 4 mailing list brokers. Ask them to recommend 10 lists for your product or service. Then compare the results. The list to test first are those recommended by more than one broker.

48. Use high quality paper when printing your brochures and sales letters.

Initial impressions are crucial. Make sure your documents and emails present the image you need to succeed.

49. Use colored stock for paper order forms.

Colored stock with black ink distinguishes your order form from the rest of your package. It draws attention and increases sales.

50. Use 2 colors of ink on paper and email order forms.

Two colors of ink on white stock or white email backgrounds give you the opportunity to create an extremely professional looking order form.

51. Use a separate order form.

A separate order form will outpull a coupon contained within your brochure or email. Smart marketers always use all three. If a separate order form is used, another pass-along order can be made from the coupon in your brochure.

52. Use heavy stock for your paper order forms.

A substantial stock, such as card stock, always outpulls flimsier paper.

53. How to get the most mileage out of premiums.

A bulky premium that your customers can feel will get your envelope opened. If you're premium isn't bulky, a teaser along the lines of "Your FREE item is inside" is effective.

54. Cultivate "swipe" files.

Set up files and collect examples of great headlines, sales letters, emails, brochures, coupons, teaser copy, and so on. Study the examples that really make you feel like taking action.

55. Ask yourself this CRUCIAL question.

Based only on your direct mail package or email, would you buy your product or service? Be uncompromisingly honest. If your answer is "no", keep making the necessary changes until you can unequivocally answer "YES".

These two articles of the 55 marketing tips should give you enough techniques to help you have many successful marketing campaigns. Remember to pick the techniques that apply to your situation and put them to work!

You can obtain all the knowledge possible but if you do not put that knowledge to work it will mean nothing to you and you will gain nothing.

Just Do It