As part of the process of creating an online lead generation offer, we teach our Perpetual Prospect System students to start with a list of 20-30 unanswered questions that their Ideal Prospect is likely to ask. Then, the next step is to convert at least 10 of those questions into authoritative statements to be used in creating an offer that can be used to generate leads online. The remaining questions then become content for their Incubator (email follow-up series).

In the following video, Tate and I have walked you through our brainstorming process where we use FreeMind, to categorize our original list of questions into content groups. FreeMind is an open-source mind mapping software that is very powerful and a free. We use it all the time in our business to plan strategy, manage projects, and in our creative process to outline content.

This will show you how to create a free giveaway product to use as an online lead generation offer to build your email list.

Video: Brainstorming Your Online Lead Generation Offer

To learn more about how to create an Online Lead Generation Offer and how it fits into a complete, automated, online sales system, grab our free video seminar now…

Tate recently discovered an excellent free niche market research tool while doing research for a project that Tate and I are doing to help our Perpetual Prospect System students understand how to build a world class lead generation system and we wanted to share it with you.

This has been a really fun project because it allows us to do all the same steps our students will do by using a ‘model’ niche.  We are developing a complete niche business and recording all of the steps to provide a real-world example for our students.

We’ve already created our Ideal Prospect profile and shared it earlier with you in the post “Ideal Prospect Profile Sample 2.”

Our next step in this project is to create an LGO (Lead Generation Offer) which we will use to build a list of prospects. To get started, Tate did some research using Google advance search as a niche market research tool.  It’s amazing what you can do with an advanced Google search query.

A Free Niche Market Research Tool

Here’s a video showing how you can use a very refined search query to find out what is on the mind of your Ideal Prospect by searching Forums and FAQs for your keyword phrase.  This niche market research tool will give you an long list of the open questions your prospects have so you can create an in-demand special report to answer those questions.

To learn more about how this free niche market research tool helps you build a complete, automated, online lead generation system, grab our free video seminar now…

In the last post about the Ideal Prospect Profile, we showed you a sample profile and talked a bit about what an Ideal Prospect Profile is (the what). Today, we have another video tour and will discuss more about the benefits of creating an Ideal Prospect Profile (the why).

Better Sales Copy

When you know the demographics, needs, qualifications, and traits of your Ideal Prospect, you will speak directly to them in the language that they are most likely to respond to.

More Attractive Lead Generation Offers (LGOs)

If you know what unanswered questions your prospect has, you can easily create a lead generation offer that will build your list at lightning speed with the right kind of prospects.

Higher Converting Back-end Offers

By having a clearer understanding of your prospect, you will be able to match your back-end sales offers to the needs of your prospects to generate more sales.

Better Customer Experience

When you can anticipate your prospects needs, you can easily create excellent support materials such as frequently asked questions (FAQs) and helpful follow-up emails (incubators), etc.

Higher Perceived Value

Sell your products for a premium by matching your offer to the exact desires of your prospects.

Crystal Clear Niche Definition

After you’ve created an Ideal Prospect Profile for your business, you will find that you have a crystal clear definition of your niche — which is one of the secrets to online business success

Diminished Information Overload

Successful business building is often about the things you choose not to do. When you have a sharp focus on a specific Ideal Prospect, you have the ability to eliminate projects and tasks that do not satisfy the needs of your prospect. Without this focus, you’ll find yourself trying to be all things to all people which is one of the core causes of information overload.

As you watch the video tour below, you will realize how all of these benefits will be achieved by taking the time to create an Ideal Prospect Profile for your business

Ideal Prospect Profile Sample 2

To learn more about how The Ideal Prospect Profile fits into a complete, automated, online lead generation system, grab our free video seminar now…

The video below is a ‘walk through’ of an Ideal Prospect Profile that we created for our Perpetual Prospect System students. The Ideal Prospect Profile is a core component of the course and, indeed, any marketing effort.

The process of creating an Ideal Prospect Profile is about clearly defining the external focus of your business. And, in many ways, it is about defining your business itself. I don’t really separate “marketing” from “business.” Without a market, you don’t have a business. There is no need for the products you sell. So, in a very real sense, Marketing IS your business and, thus, defining your external focus is the most important part of defining your business itself.

When I say ‘external focus’ I’m talking about “who.” Who are you selling to? Who are you servicing, in your business? Who will help you define your first (or next) product? Who will tell other people how great you are? Who will give you their hard earned cash in exchange for value? Everything, comes from “who.” So, I think I’ve made it clear that it’s really important to get the “who,” figured out.

Sometimes, the easiest and fastest way to learn something is by example. That is why we provided two Ideal Prospect Profile samples in the ‘Resources’ section of the Ideal Prospect module of the Perpetual Prospect System course.

To take the sample even deeper, we recorded a video ‘walk through’ of the ‘First Time Triathlete’ profile that explains the back story of why we filled it out the way we did.

Ideal Prospect Profile Sample 1

To learn more about how The Ideal Prospect Profile fits into a complete, automated, online lead generation system, grab our free video seminar now…

Are you always looking for new ways of generating traffic to your website? Kim Roach, the creator of Traffic Dashboard has twenty of them and, as you will see in this review, we think she has created a fantastic resource that you will love.  We are always looking for new, real, honest, traffic methods. Aren’t you?

Besides that, our students are always begging us for really simple traffic generation techniques. Since we don’t sell a traffic course, we’ve been looking for one that we can believe in 100% and recommend wholeheartedly.

Our basic requirements for a traffic course are…

• Works if you have no money
• Works if you have no list
• Works even if you are just starting out
• Includes advanced techniques for generating larger amounts of traffic
• Affordable one-time fee (no recurring subscription)
• Clear, easy, step-by-step instructions (video and written content)
• Created by someone who has actually used what they are selling

Why We Purchased Traffic Dashboard (and think you should too)

When we discovered Kim Roach’s Traffic Dashboard, it seemed like it was exactly what we were looking for. One quick review of the sales video told us that this was a product that would probably meet all of our basic requirements for a high-quality course about generating traffic to your website.

Not only did it seem to have all of the content, but as an added bonus, it came from someone we were familiar with. Kim Roach, the creator of Traffic Dashboard has a lot of credibility with us and other top marketers. We’ve seen her guest blogging on Shoemoney, Copyblogger and other sites and she’s a member of an exclusive Skype group, that we also belong to, where she is well thought of.

So, we decided to buy the course and do an in-depth review. Although we have not been able to get through all of the content, Traffic Dashboard is clearly a great buy.

The content we have been able to review so far is great and all of the techniques will be highly effective for anyone. Our only concern has nothing to do with the quality of the content, it’s just that there is so much of it!

Traffic Dashboard is Packed with Killer Strategies for Generating Traffic to Your Website

Inside Traffic Dashboard, there are 20 different traffic generation modules.  Each one is a complete training on it’s own — with videos, transcripts, and cool little cheat sheets. We especially enjoyed the cheat sheets because they make it quick and simple to get an overview of the main points of each module.

You can see by the screenshot below what all of the modules are.  Click the screenshot to watch an in-depth video where we walk through the content and review it.

We Highly Recommend this Website Traffic Resource

Traffic Dashboard is the only website traffic resource you will need, whether you are a newbie or more experienced marketer.

The wide range of traffic-getting approaches allows you to start with any of the simple, easy-to-use traffic generation techniques.  Many of them can be done with a very small budget or even at no cost at all. For example, one of the modules we think will be very useful for our students and readers as a place to start is “Top List Traffic.”  Which is a free traffic strategy we explained in detail in our last blog post.

As you move through the simpler techniques, you will gain the confidence and experience that you need in order to be comfortable using the more advanced traffic techniques and really bring in huge amounts of traffic to your website.

Our recommendation: Don’t wait for the price to go up, buy it now…

Click here to start generating traffic to your website now…

Doug & Tate
“The Sales System Guys”

I’m in an invite only skype group that is full of people running multi-million dollar businesses online.

Many are names you know well.

Some are names you’ll never hear.

That’s where I met Kim.

She came in and had instant credibility with this group of war-hardened entrepreneurs.

Like all overnight successes, her ‘instant’ credibility was built on 3 years of hard labor in the traffic salt mines.

I mean, she’s done it all…

• Blogging Alliances
• Guest Blogging
• Integration Marketing
• Ad Swaps
• Autoresponder Swaps
• FREE WSOs
• Solo Ads
• Webinar Swaps
• Content Syndication
• Ebook Syndication
• Forum Marketing
• Link Roundups
• Tutorial Sites
• JV’s

She has tested every angle. and knows how to get good traffic fast. And she put it all together in one system called “Traffic Dashboard.”

I was so impressed that told my partner at IM Genome Project (Tate Burns) that we should buy and follow her course.

We are using some of her techniques right now and getting great results. And there is one technique we wanted to share with you because it does not require you to already have a list OR a substantial ad budget.

It is a technique Kim calls “Top List Traffic” and she gave me permission to share it with you (the cliff notes version).

Top List Traffic

A top list is basically a blog post where you list or interview the top 10 – 15 bloggers in your market. These are naturally viral in nature because it’s a roundup of the “best” you’ve found.

For example, you might email the top 20 bloggers in your niche and ask them to describe their #1 tip for ______. Most will respond because they are always looking for more exposure. Some will not respond, but that’s OK.

After you gather all of the responses, you build a high-quality post with the responses and links to each of the bloggers.

Whether you’re a blogging newbie or a long-time veteran – these top lists are one of the best, easiest ways to rapidly grow your blog.

Plus, not only are you going to drive a ton of traffic, you’re also building long-term friendships and blogging alliances. You’re aligning yourself with people of influence.

And this is going to allow you to reach and surpass your traffic goals 10X faster than you would alone.

So I highly encourage you to go ahead and start creating your own top list and I look forward to hearing about your experiences and the increased traffic that results.

The key components to a good Top List post are…

1. Use an engaging headline to make people want to read it.
2. Use pictures of the bloggers and make sure you link to their websites.
3. Include a small summary as well as one of the bloggers top tips for success (within your niche).
4. Consider sending bloggers one question via email as an interview and post their response.

Benefits of Top List Posts

1. Increased traffic
2. Built-in viral nature
3. Free consulting/advice
4. Networking and long-term friendships
5. Align yourself with people of influence
6. Transferred trust and authority
7. Instant credibility
8. Creates a ton of value for your readers

Good luck creating your top list!

Working for Your Success,

Doug Hudiburg and Tate Burns
“The Sales System Guys”

PS. This is just one of over a dozen traffic-getting techniques that Kim explains in great detail through videos, transcripts, and cheat sheets in her Traffic Dashboard System.

She makes it simple!

I’ve been using business World List for about 10 years and I don’t know what I would do if it was no longer available. I’ve had a lot of people ask me how I get people to my offers, so I thought I would write this review and tell everyone one of the easiest methods I’ve found to get the word out about the information products I sell.

Business World list is considered by many marketers as the most effective marketing list on the internet, next to their own list of course, since it reaches a mass audience with the click of a button. Thousands of marketers use it on a daily basis and swear that it is The Best Safelist out there. I give this product my absolute highest recommendation.

The first thing I noticed as soon as I gained access to their member’s area was that it was a lot more than just a plain ole’ safe-list — the members area is jam packed with innovative tools to improve traffic and sales, I know that this sounds like an overwhelming amount of information, but one of my favorite things about this website — which you’ll discover right away — is that it is extremely user-friendly and easy to reach a large audience (over 104,620 and growing).

And the best part is that you can see responses as soon as you start using their tools. Unless of course you think that being able to join for free is the best thing. Personally, I upgraded so I could use the full power of the site and I’ve make my monthly payment back many times over.

I’m not telling you to buy it (it’s free to join) — just take 2 minutes to look over! After using this tool, hundreds of marketers online saw immediate surge of visitors and increase in sales.

This is really good email list advertising — even their free membership will blow away some of the other paid advertising I’ve used. http://tateburns.com/businessworldlist

One of the things I find myself saying with students is that it is easier to correct your course while you are moving.  Building a successful information products business isn’t about getting it right when you first start. You never will. There never was a business plan, no matter how well written, no matter how good the information, that the entrepreneur who wrote it ever followed.

In other words, you won’t get your path right when you first start. But rather, getting to success is more about course corrections.

Think of it like you are steering a boat.  Have you ever tried to steer a boat that wasn’t moving? It’s impossible. Get your information products business boat moving, measure your results, and make frequent, informed, course corrections.

So many people I talk to who are trying to build a business are just plain stuck. The cure for that is to just get un-stuck. Don’t worry about if what you are doing is the exact right thing, just get it in motion.

Now, that doesn’t mean you just go off half-cocked in any direction. Do a bit of planning. Make sure you know your Ideal Prospect and what products they want, but don’t get stuck in the planning stage… You’ll probably be at least a little bit wrong anyway.  Get your information products business moving!

I’d like to share with you are two very simple tests that I ran, and the results, including the “mindset” lessons learned.

It’s a small case study which I hope will be of some use to you.
Case Study

File under: Sales System Management

Project Stage: Prototype
Objectives
1) Maximize Opt-in Conversion

I have to say “maximize conversion” rather than something more specific because this was my first round of testing. I am just now establishing a baseline conversion rate so I will soon be able to be much more specific such as “Increase Current 26% Opt-in Conversion Rate to 30%”.

With every new system, I start at the front of the funnel with my optimization efforts. I want to make sure I’m getting as high of an opt-in conversion rate as I can before I start working on maximizing profit. It may not be the *best* approach, but it seems to be the one I always take. Lots of people would suggest focusing first on increasing profit per visitor, but opt-in rate and profit per visitor are tied hand in hand, so I start with the simpler one first. I can always monetize a list, but I can’t re-gain lost visitors who should have been prospects.

Right now, I’m using two opt-in processes (as explained below) so the complexity of testing both processes is double what it normally is, though manageable.
2) Define/Validate System Model

This is a critical objective at this stage of the project. When I started this test, I was still in the process of deciding between two very different system models. I won’t go into the various options I was considering because that will take too long and it will cloud the main point. The main point is this: I needed to decide between two very different approaches for a major project, and I needed *objective* information in order to make an informed decision.

One of the key differences between the two models is the opt-in process. It isn’t the *only* key difference, but it is probably the most important one. So, part of the decision of defining the system model will be informed by which opt-in process is better. This makes both of my objectives, nicely complimentary, which always makes testing easier.
System Description

This test was run on a single sales system that includes two opt-in processes. It is a straight-forward opt-in process.

Traffic -> Opt-in Offer -> Thank You Page with Product Offer

After the initial product offer, subscribers continue to get frequent content and offers by email.
Description of Tests
Test 1

Background: One of the first things I started tracking with the private beta version of tracking software I’ve been developing was the number of opt-ins I was getting from one of my blogs. It took about 3 days for the suckiness of my conversion rates to become crystal clear. So I decided to test another opt-in process, this time adding a lightbox pop-up to the picture. The lightbox contains a headline, sub-head, left column of bullet points and right colum opt-in form and it is shown only once to each visitor.

Page Type: Public WP Blog

Control: Subscribe By Email’ Opt-in Box in Upper Right Sidebar

Test: Current opt-in process with a lightbox pop-up opt-in offer
Test 2

Background: I have a ‘sales letter’ type opt-in process that I use for the same list. Most of the traffic for this page comes from my direct promotions (free eBook links, articles, etc.) and referrals from a handful of JV partners and affiliates who have *integrated* the offer into their thank you pages, autoresponders, etc. Because I believe in split testing these types of pages, I wanted to kick off a split test as soon as I became able to track the results easily with my tracking tool. I didn’t spend much time on it, I just deleted the header from the test page and started alternating the traffic.

Page Type: Sales Letter

Control: Sales Letter with Graphic Header
Test: Sales Letter without Graphic Header
Results
Test 1

Test one didn’t produce many surprises. The test beat the control by a significant margin.

Conversion for Control: 1.2%
Conversion for Test: 7.1%

This means the lightbox + blog box (test) beat the blog box by itself (control) by a spread of 5.9% Clearly the test improved results, so the lightbox will stay. And I won’t be running another test on this system because the whole thing is likely to go away in February in favor of a different model.

The conversion rate on the blog box by itself was 1.2% before the test and .9% after the test, so the converson rate of the blog box itself went down but the combination of blog box plus lightbox pop-up is a huge improvement.

13% of the total optins during the test period came from the blog box. This means that they first said “no” to the lightbox and then saw the content and said “yes” to the blog box optin offer.

I suspect that the .3% decline in blog box opt-ins was due more to poor content than it was to the effect of using the lightbox. We have just improved the content process, so I expect that in a week or so, blog box opt-in rates will be back to normal or may even increase. I really think the lightbox pop-up delivers incremental subscribers without negatively affecting the blog box conversion rates. I’ll need more testing to know for sure.
Test 2

Test two surprised me. I have always heard that graphic headers reduce conversion rates, but I’ve not really tested it on my own sales letters. In this case, I have to call the test in favor of the the version of the sales letter that included the graphic header (control) because conversion was worse on the one without header (test).

Conversion for Control: 35.5%
Conversion for Test: 26.3%

I think it’s time to pick a new test. With the kind of traffic that I’m getting to that page, my target would normally be to achieve greater than 60% conversion. That would almost double the number of subscribers I get per month.

But, as I mentioned, I’m also evaluating one model against another. By comparing my conversion rate from Test 1 against Test 2, I can clearly see that the salesletter greatly outperforms the blog.

I knew that would be the case when I set up the blog, but I also expected to get some good search enging juice, links from other blogs, comments, etc. None of those things are happening right now, and I know why, but the effort to make them happen just isn’t worth it.

I can get higher quality traffic from JV and affiliate referrals with much less effort, and comments aren’t really that important at this point.

What I Learned

* A Lightbox pop-up plus a blog opt-in Box performs better than the blog box by itself.

* My sales letter with graphic header works better than the same letter without graphic header.

* An ‘opt-in first’ model works better than a ‘content first’ model (all things considered).

But there is a more important lesson here for me… having ready access to the conversion data I need has changed ‘optimization’ from a concept to an action for me. Because I have the right information, I am able to quickly make good decisions about how to improve my results.

In today’s feature post, we discuss one of the most important concepts you can ever master as a marketer — understanding the mindset of a buyer.

This is critical because once you understand the buyer’s mindset, you can use that understanding to improve your marketing results in countless ways. This knowledge is truly the “key to the castle” when it comes to marketing and business success.

The simple truth is this: As much as we, as marketers, wish it was different, prospects do not become buyers unless they are in the buying mindset. No matter what you do, no one buys unless and until they are in the buyers mindset.

As I explain in the free Mindset Matching Method video, the buyers mindset requires three things…

1. a relevant, current, and urgent need
2. trust
3. knowledge of how your product will meet their need

Let’s break that down and explain it a little more deeply…

“Relevant need” means that your prospect has a need that your product can solve.

“Current need” means that the more in the future your prospect’s need is, the less likely they are to buy.

“Urgent need” means the need has to be important enough that the prospect wants to solve it right now.

Trust: there is an underlying trust element to every online transaction, especially when money is involved

Knowledge: your prospect needs to clearly understand how your product will meet their need.  Some products require a lot of education before the sale, some require very little.

Here’s the rub…

These conditions rarely exist right at the moment that the visitor hits your page and sees your offer.

That is the core challenge I share in the Mindset Matching Method video.  The cure for this problem is something I also discuss at length in the video, but let me explain it here as well.

The key to getting your message in front of prospects who have a buyers mindset is to take it in stages. 

• First get prospects onto your list who have a relevant need.
• Then, follow up with them over time using an autoresponder ‘incubator’ so that your product is the first thing they think of when their need becomes urgent and important.

To do this, you will use two tools:

1. a Lead Generation Offer (LGO)
2. an Incubator (email autoresponder series).

This approach works very well because your LGO  does a great job of building a list of prospects with a relevant need — they wouldn’t opt in to get your LGO if they weren’t interested in solving their problem. (Assuming you take the advice I give you in the video and match your offer to your Ideal Prospect).

Then the incubator goes to work for you…

Chances are, at some point, your prospects need is going to be both current and urgent, your incubator gives you the chance to be there when it is.

Your incubator also helps educate and build trust — both of which I will write about in future posts.