So you want to sell your own products? Or maybe you are marketing someone else’s product with an affiliate offer? Here’s the secret… Always offer more value than you are comfortable giving!

Offer More Value Than You Are Comfortable Giving

You want to make money, you want someone to take their credit card out of their wallet and pay you. Getting paid should be the very last thing you think about though, so let’s get into the mindset of the customer.

The customer is looking for the best value for their hard earned dollar. Your site, was in most cases, not the first they visited. The art of the Landing Page is to make your site the last place a customer visits and makes a purchase. Let’s think about what motivates a customer to buy:

• Nice looking site – maybe
• Awesome features – not really
• Perceived Value of Purchase – YES!!!

Think of when you buy something, you have an idea of what you are looking for. Several sites seem to offer almost identical products with the only difference being the price range.

Then you visit a site that sells you the same product, but then offers more! Now you almost instantly forget the others as you start to focus in on the new bonuses that will help you even more. Maybe the price is a little more or a little less than the others but you don’t care anymore. You feel that you are getting way more value from this new site.

Visit The Market Place

Let’s put it another way and go into offline mode for a second. Most everyone has been to a market place at one point or another. If you have not visited a market place, GO TO ONE IMMEDIATELY! They are some of the best places to learn how to sell.

So you and I are at a Marketplace and looking for new socks. At the market place you see several vendors and they all sell almost identical socks. Several vendors offer the same deal 3 pairs for $5 or 9 pairs for $10.

As I am getting ready to make my purchase I notice one vendor who offers 9 pairs for $10, plus he is including 3 pairs of shoe inserts for running and a free gym towel with his logo and phone number on it.

Now that vendor has got my attention! Why? First of all I don’t need that many new socks, so if I were offered more I would say 9 pairs is more than enough. The shoe inserts on the other hand compliment the socks and offer me immediate comfort. After walking around the market place I can use the right away and get instant foot relief. In fact he sizes them all up to my shoe size for free and puts the first set into my shoe without me asking. The gym towel is a nice to have, I don’t need it right away but I know that I could always use an extra towel in the gym bag.

The last vendor offered more perceived value for my $10 than the other vendors. For all I know he got the shoe inserts and towels for pennies. What he is doing is giving his customers the feeling of making a great decision. Everyone likes getting the deal, especially when they feel they are getting the better end of the deal.

Offer value to your potential customers and give them more value than anyone else is giving. Forget the fancy bells and whistles of the individual product, that almost becomes secondary. Let your customers receive satisfaction by feeling that they received the heighest value for spending money with you.

Seems like a pretty small sum, a dollar a day. What can anyone do earning a dollar a day? In fact what can anyone buy anymore with a dollar a day?

If you are like most people your mind started down a very negative path asking yourself those questions. In my experience, most people begin to shut down and convince themselves that whatever can make you a dollar a day is not worth trying.

I want you to stop and realize that if you are not making any money online and if your goal is to make money online, you need to start with one dollar. Let me explain why…

The Mental Hurdle

When the picture of one dollar pops into your mind it doesn’t stand a chance when you start thinking of fifty or one hundred thousand dollars in stacks. At that point, it is when self defeat begins. More importantly its at that point when different thinking needs to kick in.

Forget about the people making millions online. Sure there are several making millions, some are on tv or on conference panels. Odds are though that there are more people making several thousand dollars online that we dont even know about! Even though its not millions, several thousand is not to bad.

Now what if the people who are making several thousand dollars a day online decided one day “Well im not making millions so forget this!” Somehow I don’t think that’s very likely, in fact people who are making thousands can leverage what they know to make millions.

Wouldn’t you agree that if I had a website that made $100,000 a year in revenue all I would need is 10 more like it to make a million?

Let me tell you it’s the same exact process with that first dollar.

Wouldn’t you agree that if I had a site making a dollar a day and on average making $30 a month. I would just need to make 10 more like it to increase my earnings to $300 a month? I went from $360 a year to $3600 a year!

Its the Process

How many people fail to do anything including making a dollar a day because they give up? What do you think the percentage is? 80%? 90%? Did you count the people who never even try? The ones that give up in their minds first before trying anything?

I know brilliant people who can tell me how to increase conversions and rank #1 in search engines. Sadly they are also masters at convincing themselves of what is impossible to do online.

To put it bluntly, you must go through the process, win or no win. You never fail until you decide to quit. Its always win or no win, like in sports. You live to play another day. The process of your idea is what is going to teach you everything you need to know. If you do not go through the process, all the books, all the blogs and all the videos will do nothing for you.

That’s why it is so important that you start out with a simple goal. One dollar a day, no matter what. If you make more, like $20 great! But it doesn’t mean you get to take the next 20 days off! The process of building your site, measuring traffic, building traffic and converting visitors to customers is the best educator in the world.

When you go through this process you begin to internalize all the little things you will never learn in school. You begin to make your own formula for success.

You ever wonder why you could never replicate someone elses money making idea? This is why, you didn’t go through the process. You understood from what you could see. Visually and intellectually you understood what it took to have a great site. But you didn’t go through the process and internally gain all the knowledge it took to create a successful revenue generating site.

Get Some Support

Support is key, especially when starting out. Friends and Family are usually obvious choices. More often than not they never understand what you are doing anyway. If you are lucky enough to get the support you need to push through and accomplish the dollar a day challenge with Family and Friends that is all you need.

Regardless of the source of support remember the following. Although most will have good intentions never listen to those who try to tell you that you can’t make a dollar a day online. NEVER!

They may not agree with your process, your idea, your strategy or whatever. The bottom line is that you must go through the process in order to learn. Most people will try to save you time, but are they really helping? If you never make a mistake, how can you really learn?

That’s why starting with a small amount a Dollar a Day is important. Its manageable and the strategies you will be driven to create will form the foundation of how you make money online.

WARNING: The Most Important RULES! – Read This!

The Dollar a Day challenge requires that you make your Daily Dollar without spending any money! That’s right, zero dollars, euros, pesos, etc…

The second rule is that you give yourself a time line. I would not recommend anything longer than 30 days or anything shorter than a week.

Here are some more suggestions and resources:

Ask a ton of questions! No question is to dumb to ask! And if you still think its to dumb to ask then search for your question in Google. I am sure someone has already asked it. Seriously though, ask your questions here, I promise no question is to dumb to ask.

Keep some kind of journal to keep track of what worked and what didn’t. It’s surprising how quickly people forget what they have tried in the past and didn’t work. Avoid repeating mistakes by writing down what you do and more importantly plan what you will do next!

Create a free site!
WordPress – http://www.wordpress.com/
Blogger – http://www.blogger.com/

Make money selling other peoples products!
Amazon.com Affiliate – https://affiliate-program.amazon.com
Google Adsense – http://www.google.com/adsense/
Chikita Ads – http://chitika.com/
Soxialize Affiliate – http://www.soxialize.com/af/

Collect Money!
PayPal – http://www.paypal.com/

Track Results!
Google Analytics – http://www.google.com/analytics/

All the resources listed above is more than enough to make a Dollar a Day! Take the challenge, if for no other reason simply and selfishly for yourself.

Some of you are already making money, but are you making it consistently. For you it may not be a dollar, whatever the amount set a goal and make it consistently. Start exploring the questions you need to answer to create consistent cash flow.

If you decide to take the challenge keep us posted here by commenting below.

Want to know how I increased my email newsletter open rate over 23%? What if I told you it was as easy as asking three simple questions to your readers? In this post I am going to tell you how asking three simple questions can put your email campaigns into overdrive!

Average Open Rates

Everyone starts out at zero! I never get tired of saying that, where you go from there is up to you. Earlier this year I started building a newsletter list using in my opinion the best email service provider aWeber.

With a bit of testing for best signup conversion I started getting several email subscribers a day. But I noticed that I received an email open rate of anywhere between 20% on the low end and as high as 60% on a good day. That means that on average very few people where opening the email updates I was sending.

I Asked Three Simple Questions

I had watched a quick video interview on aWeber that I will share with you later in this post. What it said was ask your readers three simple questions and listen to what they say. So I did and the results were amazing!

Here is an example opening message and the three questions to ask:

Hi {name}

{Your name}

So there you have it! Seems a bit to simple right? Lets take a look at the questions I asked and why there are so important.

The first question: Would you like to continue to receive email updates?

This helps to remove people who do not want to receive anymore email from you. The reason you want to help these people out is to help boost your open rate. Obviously if they do not want your email they are not going to open it.

Secondly if they keep getting email they are going to report it as spam before they click on an unsubscribe link.

Last but not least people who are no longer interested in receiving information from you take up space and cost you money. Many email service providers have tiered pricing structures based on how many subscribers you have. If you can remove a few hundred off the list it can save you a few dollars and spam complaints.

The second question: What would you like me to write and inform you about?

This question helps you understand what your readers want instead of sending what you think they want. I found the information I received from this question alone helped re-align my focus and content development strategies. This not only helped my email open rate but blog and forum involvement as well. Take note of what your readers want and give them what they are asking for.

The third question: How often would you like me to send you updates?

This is the ultimate question that makes a few people cringe. Look some people can get a little trigger happy when sending mass emails. What you want to do here is listen to the majority of your subscriber base. If for example the majority responds daily is ok, then feel free to fire away. But if the majority responds with weekly or monthly take note, you readers may be to busy or be an industry where they get barraged with daily emails. If that is the case stand out by only sending the highest quality content when they want it.

The Results Are In

So after sending out my survey email I waited a bit to read all the emails. I noticed that I kept getting responses weeks after I had sent out the initial survey. I took note of all the comments, especially of what was wanted and how often. I even managed to remove a few people who just didn’t know they could get off the list.

The results afterward were amazing. Since the initial survey I have experienced open rates in the high 70% up from an average of high 40% to low 50%.

Here Is The Video

As promised here is the video that I watched that helped boost open rates and improve my relationship with my subscribers.

Final Thoughts

If you have a site you are passionate about and you are not building a newsletter list you need to get one started! Go to aWeber and signup. I personally really like their service and support. aWeber has helped boost my community building efforts more than any other tool. If you have any questions about this strategy or aWeber please feel free to post them in the comments!

The holiday season is here! How do I know? I saw Christmas trees on sale at local stores during Labor Day weekend. Here are few tips for getting your site ready to generate revenue this holiday season.

Affiliate Accounts

Organize all your affiliate links in one text file and place it somewhere easy to find. If you have not been creating posts or content so far using your affiliate links you better get started now! Seeding your articles now will give you plenty of time to get indexed.

If you run your own affiliate program for your products and services, stay in touch with your affiliates. Plan out a strategies for your holiday sales. Will you be offering coupons or discounts? Deciding all of this up front and having a plan for the holiday season can ease the stress and give you peace of mind!

Online Retailers

We all know you have been working super hard on creating a great site. So what is going to give you an edge over your competition? Stack the deck in your favor by getting larger sites like Amazon and eBay to generate sales for you.

Both Amazon and eBay offer methods for you to list your products for sale. You can list them one by one or in bulk. In my experience with both of these services its best to start familiarizing yourself with their systems. Don’t wait on this one, both systems take a bit to learn so get started now.

Prepare and Polish

Its early September, this gives you plenty of time to create three themes. Depending on your business I would suggest creating a Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas theme. In my experience sales always boost when people are engaged in the experience of the holiday and this includes the theme of your site.

I’m not saying change your layouts and all your graphics. If you use CSS you should be able to change some colors to match the season and add a few small graphics to give a seasonal feel to your site. Include the holiday themes as part of your sales and coupons. Get people involved in the holiday theme and experience.

Questions for you

Do you take the time to change your site theme for the holidays every year? Do you use Amazon or eBay to increase your product sales? Do you experience a sales boost from your affiliates during the holiday season?

Have a website and still cant get any visitors? It’s not your fault, everyone starts out the same way. So before you go buying courses and instant traffic ebooks, DO the following four steps.

Step 1: Get Stats

Simply, if you don’t know how much traffic you are getting now, how will you know you have improved? Go sign up with Google Analytics, its absolutely free. If you already use Google Analytics you are ahead of the game! Take a look at what your stats are for the last week and print them out.

Some of you already have some sort of statistics package offered with your hosting provider. If you do take a look at your stats and print out copy so you have a reminder of where you started.

Step 2: Offer something of value, to someone other than yourself!

Bottom line is we are all guilty of this one, we think that everything we do has great value. It’s human nature, everyone is flawed in the same way. The good news we can change it!

Put yourself in someone elses shoes for a moment and think about how your product, service or blog solves someone elses pain and provides relief or value.

Your product may have the greatest features, your services may be beyond belief or your blog may share instant insights into your mind. But how are you engaging someone? How are you solving your visitors problem? What value will they receive by learning about your products, services or blog?

Give something of value to your visitors that they can take away with them and use. You have to give before you can receive.

Step 3: Spread the word, to those that WANT to listen

So you have tried Digg and other Social Media and your stories never get more than one vote. No surge of traffic because you didn’t make the elusive front page. You want to know why? Because nobody there WANTS to listen!

It’s not just you, my blog posts along with several hundred a day never get more than one vote. It doesn’t mean that you are not offering value, it just means that no one there wants it. So go where people want to listen! Here are a few examples:

Twitter: Start your own following and provide value on your subject topic. Share stories you are reading about your industry as well as about your product, service or blog. Find others on Twitter who are in your industry and build awareness along with a strong network of people who want to listen.

Podcasting: Start broadcasting tips and strategies, industry news or anything of value about your industry. Leverage the strong user base of Apple products to spread awareness of your product, services and blog.

YouTube: Broadcast to millions around the world. Tell everyone your tips and strategies, industry knowledge and value of your products and services. Don’t forget to put your website address in the video and in the video description!

Forums: Join an established forum and help people in your industry. If you are knowledgeable than go provide value to someone. In most forums you are allowed to use a forum signature to link back to your product, service or blog.

Step 4: GO DO IT!

You are either going to read the above and come up with some excuse as to why it wont work for you OR you will go and make it work for you. Its that simple.

If you get stuck or have questions always feel free to post them in the comment section below!

Do you have a Business? Are you on Twitter? If not you better get on it!

When Twitter first came out few people paid any attention. Now Businesses both offline and online are leveraging the millions of daily users to drive leads, increase brand awareness, increase sales and deliver customer support. As you can see below I have put together several excellent resources that will help you use Twitter for Business.

If you are like most Business owners that I know, time is of the essence. So I made sure to only inlcude the highest quality trusted sources from my personal collection. So without further delay here is your ultimate How To use Twitter for Business resource guide:

Resource Links

50 Ideas on Using Twitter for Business (chrisbrogan.com)

Twitter 101 for Business – (twitter.com)

How to Use Twitter to Grow Your Business – (copyblogger.com)

4 Ways Companies Use Twitter for Business – (readwriteweb.com)

6 Tips for Using Your Twitter Profile to Get New Followers – (twitip.com)

Real-life Twitter Business Success Stories – (webworkerdaily.com)

17 Ways to Use Twitter for Business and Some Not – (ducttapemarketing.com)

Five Tips In Building a Twitter Profile For Business – (social-media-optimization.com)

5 Steps to Twitter Success – Twitter Optimization Series Overview – (seoptimise.com)

The Secret to Success on Twitter is the Same as Blogging – (remarkablogger.com)

The 10 rules of Twitter (and how I break every one) – (scobleizer.com)

12 Ways to Find Brands & Companies on Twitter – (toprankblog.com)

Tweeting for Companies 101 – (horsepigcow.com)

How Companies Use Twitter to Bolster Their Brands – (businessweek.com)

How and Why To Use Twitter For Small Businesses – (smallbiztrends.com)

The Ultimate Small Business Twitter List – (smallbiztrends.com)

Ask an Expert: Twitter for small business … reconsidered – (usatoday.com)

Great Twitter Applications for Small Business. – (youngentrepreneur.com)

27 Twitter Applications Your Small Business Can Use Today – (smbceo.com)

4 Twitter Tools for Business Research – (thegetsmartblog.com)

For Companies, a Tweet in Time Can Avert PR Mess – (wsj.com)

How Twitter Can Help Local Business – (encarolina.com)

Stwittergy: Twitter for Business (Twitter Strategy, Marketing & SEO) – (slideshare.net)

The Best Use of Twitter for Your Business – (highsearchranking.com)

Did I miss a great resource?

Feel free to add more great resource links using the comments below!

In one of my favorite movies, City Slickers actor Jack Palance explains to Billy Crystal the secret of life. While holding up one finger Jack Palance says the secret of life is “One thing. Just one thing. You stick to that and everything else don’t mean shit.”

Just in case you haven’t seen the movie I have included the clip below.

Only one thing matters… the rest don’t mean shit!

Billy Crystal was on a vacation in the midst of a mid-life crisis. He hated his job selling commercials on the radio. He had lost his passion for his job and his life seemed pretty miserable. Sounds like a lot of people right about now doesn’t it? That’s why it so important to find that ONE thing! What’s the ONE thing?

Well, that’s what you have to figure out!

In order to have a successful blog, online business or just about anything in life it has to be your ONE thing. Not only in the sense that it makes money but as well as it meaning enough to you, that you stick through the process until it makes a profit.

The ONE most important rule about picking a topic for a blog or a niche for your online business is “Start with something you already know and enjoy.” Give yourself a competitive advantage from the start by concentrating on a topic in which you are already knowledgeable and interested.

Understanding this small difference when starting a site means the difference between generating a few dollars a month or building a solid revenue generating site. Armed with intimate knowledge in a niche you are passionate about will dramatically set your site apart. Even if you don’t know every little thing, the fact that you enjoy and are passionate about it, will make all the difference.

In it to Win it!

There is a clear choice to make when starting a new site. On the one hand the opportunity to generate spammy sites seems lucrative and easier. On the other hand, building a solid site based on something you enjoy, with content and community features feels like more work for a payoff. I have found that building content rich sites with community features has given me better returns and generate them long into the future.

I have found that building sites around a niche that I enjoy not only kept me involved, but produced visitors that consider my sites a great resource.

Instead of possibly generating a sale once, I built a place where users can keep coming back and find great deals. Users read new content, participate in a community and find items they need at great prices.

Final Thoughts…

Finding your ONE thing is so critical especially in today’s competitive online world. Dont get caught up in thinking you need to be a general expert about everything. For example in a Computer related blog its better to be an expert on high end video graphics cards than providing general information on new computers.

Have you found your ONE thing? How many other “things” did you try before finding your ONE thing?

Do you have a Twitter account? Your Twitter Profile is your very first opportunity to tell other Twitter users who you are.

Soxialize just released a new FREE online tool that can optimize your Twitter Profile in 5 seconds or less!

It’s called Twitter Profile Optimizer and did I mention its 100% absolutely free? What are you waiting for?

Go optimize your Twitter Profile: Twitter Profile Optimizer

“For a long time now I have tried simply to write the best I can. Sometimes I have good luck and write better than I can.” – Ernest Hemingway

So are you sitting there trying to figure out what to write for a new blog post? You have a few moments before work or on a lunch break? You see everyone else come up with lengthy blog posts and graphics and wonder how can I even compete?

Simple. No, really. Some of the best blog posts I have ever read where small and simple. Make you feel a bit better? There is no reason to think you need to be writing a thesis to solve world hunger. Keep it simple and fun, for example:

Draw a picture: Some of you may be artist or at least you were in high school when you drew pictures of your teacher! Doodles and comics are great first posts, usually simple and to the point. Plus I am sure you can crank out something in that next one hour long meeting discussing TPS report cover sheets!

Take a picture: A picture is worth a thousand words, or so they say. Did you take a compelling picture? Ah, but you say its not that great. Look you are not going for the cover of Time magazine. Share your picture on your blog and tell a small story about it.

Tell a story: Short stories are amazing. Short stories delivered strong messages in the smallest of books. Tell a short story to teach a lesson or make someone laugh.

Make a list: Lists are popular online. If you doubt take a look at the front page of Digg. A simple list that is helpful or is funny can go a long way.

Last Word…

Keep your writing, pictures and drawing on topic to your blog subject. Remember that everyone starts out with no traffic and has to build it up. What separates successful blogs from the millions of abandoned ones is simple. They kept writing something.

Have you posted a picture, drawn a comic or written a short story? Share it with us, post a link to your blog post in the comments below.

Allow me to tell you about a man named Artimis who worked as an apprentice for many years as an iron worker. From the rise of the sun to the darkness of the dusk he labored hard for his Master. Amongst the ten other apprentices, none of them were more skilled and trusted than he.

One day the Master walked in with an announcement that would change all of their lives forever. The Master gathered the men and said to them “I have an opportunity for five of you to open your own iron shop. I will invest the money to open and run the shop for the first years. You will pay me a percentage of sales until you have repaid my investment at which point you will be your own Master. Discuss amongst yourselves who is ready and come to me with your answer.”

Artimis was beside himself with excitement. After all this was a once in a lifetime opportunity. He decided to go home to tell his wife after the days work had ended and talk it over. Artimis recognized the greatness of the opportunity presented to him, but was a bit unsure because of the major change it would make in his life. He would have to work harder than ever before and spend even more time away from his family in order to repay the debt and become his own Master.

The next day Artimis arrived at the Masters tent. Artimis said “Master, I am ready and would greatly appreciate an opportunity to be amongst the five you select”. The Master looked down at Artimis and said “I am disappointed in you Artimis, you are my most skilled apprentice. I was certain you would be amongst the very first to my tent to claim a spot. Your hesitation has cost you as five others less skilled than you took the opportunity before the day was done. Fortune favors those who help themselves Artimis, and you did not act when Fortune handed you an opportunity.”

Your invitation to be one of 100!

It takes new ideas to establish new patterns and habits. It also takes the support of a community to overcome challenges. This is an invitation to join our Soxialize community and participate in the 10 ways in 10 days challenge for free. Over 10 days you will read new strategies to increase website traffic without spending any money. Simply enter your name and email address below.

Soxialize community members have already started working through the 10 way in 10 days challenge.

It’s 100% absolutely free for 100 people! Are you going to secure your spot or will you hesitate?

Hint: Once the 100 spots are filled the guide will no longer be available for free! What are you waiting for?