information marketing

Few days ago I asked some of my subscribers in a survey how much they will be glad to earn every month on the internet consistently within next 3 to 5 months, starting with only $100 or less, and working for only 2hrs a day. Majority of them says they will be glad ok with $1,000 every month for now.

In this article I will be sharing with you a simple, step-by-step system with which you can make $1,000 or more a month consistently within next 3 months selling information product on internet.

If you are ready let get into action:

Step #1 – Pick a Niche Market

Unlike the traditional way of doing business where average business man often starts with the product to sell, if you are to succeed on internet the first thing you have to do is to identify group of targeted audience that will be paying for your product or service. I will give you two basic ways you can brainstorm good market. However, before I do that let us discuss what makes a good market first.

What make a “good” market?

1.    They are passionate people.
2.    They are desperate about their subject area or interest.
3.    There are lots of advertising sources beyond just PPC like community sites, forums, related email discussion list etc.  (PPC means pay per click. It is a paid advertising method online)
4.    The market lends itself to information product.
5.    They are proven internet buyers. If there are other people selling to this market successfully on internet it is a good indicator.
6.    Build-in need for backend products (i.e. your product doesn’t “fix them” on the first go-round. They have every reason to buy more from you.)

Examples of good markets are:

Diet and fitness
Business opportunities (i.e. how to make money on anything)
Save Money
Anything health related
Pets
Marketing training
Investments/trading
Real estate
Dating (how to attract the opposite sex).

Now that you basic idea of what makes a good market, let us discuss two ways to brainstorm good market.

Two Ways to Brainstorm Possible Markets

1.    Start with what you already know.
2.    Brainstorm using online ‘ideas hangouts’.

Start with what you already know.

Almost every human being on this earth knows something that somebody else did not know. You are probably an expert in something that several thousands of people are searching for every day online.

Get a sheet of paper and answer the following questions?

What are your hobbies and interest?
What would you do every day if you didn’t have to work?
What are some of your life experiences and achievements?
(i.e. raising children, starting a business, staying married for 50 years, planning your wedding, learning a complicated software program etc)
What problems, big or small, have you solved in your life?
(i.e. lost a lot of weight, helped a loved one through an illness, landed a great job, survived bankruptcy or divorce.)
What problems, big or small, have you yet to solve that you would like to have the solution for?

Ask the following questions about any friend, family member or anyone you know, like and trust:

1.    What hobbies and interests does _______ have?
2.    What are some of _________‘s life experiences and achievements?
3.    What problems, big or small, has _________ solved?

You will get a lot of ideas if you are able to answer the questions above about yourself and about somebody you know correctly. For example, one person that I know, like and trust is my Rich Dad Dr. Sunny Obazu Ojeagbase. I can remember he has shared his story on how he survives bankruptcy several times. And recently he celebrated 25th married anniversary. But unfortunately, I don’t think anybody has every care to interview him to get detail information about how he survive bankruptcy or manage to stay married for good 25 years when most couple nowadays often struggle to celebrate 2yrs. I know it will be a good information product to sell.

Don’t be afraid to “borrow” affinity or a story from someone else.

Brainstorm using online ‘ideas hangouts’.

You can also get market ideas by visiting few ‘ideas hangouts’ online. These are websites that share information on several market categories.

Here’s a list of “Idea Hideouts” that you can use to find new markets:

eHow.com – http://www.eHow.com
MyGoals.com – http://www.MyGoals.com
SoYouWanna.com – http://www.SoYouWanna.com
Hints ‘n Tips – http://hints-n-tips.com
How Stuff Works – http://www.HowStuffWorks.com
Universal Class – http://www.universalclass.com
Ebay.com – http://www.Ebay.com (Look through their “Categories” for ideas)
Magazines.com – http://www.Magazines.com
MagsDirect.com – http://www.MagsDirect.com
Mr. Magazine – http://www.MrMagazine.com

If you need more list of “ideas hangouts” online you can visit www.imrolodex.com

Note: Before you decide on market to target make sure it meet the requirements for ‘good market’. You can read list of 6 things that make a good market I mention earlier.

Step #2 – Confirm Related information product.

Visit www.clickbank.com to confirm if there are other people selling digital information products on the topic. Make sure that you are able to find 15 to 20 other people selling digital information in that market already. To do this, click on ‘marketplace’. It will open a page where you can search for your ‘market keyword’ to know if there is information products listed on it already.

Just take note of the number of the listed products for now. You will need it later.

Step #3 – Create a short report to give away.

You have to find a way to attract people in this new market to you, build relationship with then and have opportunity to sell to them. To be able to do that you will have to give them something to attract them to you. What will be the best gift ‘bait’ to attract your market is information product that answers some of their problem.

The question now is how will you know what their problems are? Don’t worry I will lead you to a place where this people are already posting their problems. The place is called ‘online forums’, discussion boards or discussion groups.

Online forums is a place where people of the same interest meets to discuss their needs and share interesting stuffs with other people in their market. There are forums, discussion boards and groups on virtually every topic you can think of. So, you next action step is to search for top forums in your market area.

You can do that by simply using google search engine.

Type ‘your market + forum’ in google search engine. For example if your market is ‘parenting’ you will type “parenting + forum” in google search box.

Alternatively, you can check directories of forums and groups that are available online. Here is list of some directories:

http://www.big-boards.com
http://groups.google.com
http://groups.yahoo.com

Join only active forums (i.e. forums that have a lot of members with several posts), login and spend some time to see what they are discussing. If you follow this strategy it may take you long time before you discover what their urgent problems are.

I will show you my personal strategy to discovering hundreds of what is hot in any online forums. I called this ‘response trigger’ system. All you have to do is to type response triggers like; how do I, what can I, how can I, where is, who is etc in search form of the forum you joined earlier. You will get loads of questions members are asking. You will also see response of other people as well.

To create your short report all you have to do is to list out the questions that got a lot of ‘view’ and ‘reply’ on each forum, and find experts to further answer the question. You can contact the expert that answers the question already to give you more explanation on it. Alternatively, you can get contacts experts that post articles on ezine directories like www.ezinearticles.com on your topic.

When you get response from experts that you contact, compile it together and turn it to pdf report using free online pdf converter like http://www.freepdfconvert.com/.

If your market is ‘parenting’ you will be having something like ‘77 questions on parenting defiant child by 77 top world parenting experts.’

You can also research and create the reports yourself instead of interviewing experts. But if you are not an experts in the industry already it may affect acceptance of your report.

You can as well pay somebody to write the report for you. It will just cost you more money.

Step #4 – Step up a website to give away your report.

As you now know that the main purpose of your give away report is to build list of people in your market. To be able to do that successfully you need the following things:

1.    Register a domain name. My favorite registrar is www.007names.com. The best domain name extension for this purpose is .com
2.    Sign up for website hosting account. I will recommend kiosk.ws to you because you can try their service with only $1 for 30 days. You can use their service to host several sites as well.
3.    Upload your ‘report’ on your new domain.
4.    Sign up for autoresponder account with either www.aweber.com or www.getresponse.com. You will be using this autoresponder to capture the name and address of your website visitor and contact them as well.
5.    Create or have somebody create simple ebook cover for your report.
6.    Create or have somebody create simple graphics header for you.
7.    Put it all together and set up 1 page website or pay somebody to do it for you. If you know how to use frontpage or dreamweaver you can do this easily. You can as well download template online. You will be using this one page website to capture name and email address of those that are interested in your report.
8.    Install wordpress blog site – you will be sharing other free information on your blog site for continuous relationship with your subscriber. You don’t have to register another domain name for your blog site. You can install it on the same domain it will just be on sub url (i.e. www.yourdomain.com/blog)

Note: You can learn how to complete above listed task yourself or pay somebody to do it for you.

Step #5 – Promote your report give away website.

It is time to start promoting your new website to your market audience. Remember, your main goal is to build list of subscribers that you can start building relationship with. There are several ways to get people to visit your website. But we won’t be using any of the common ways to get website visitors because what we need is not just ordinary visitors, we need paid visitors (i.e. people that have proven they have money to spend and they are ready to spend it).

In last edition of SDE I shared piggybacking strategy with you. It is time to use the strategy again. We will be leveraging on success of other information product owners that we discover in step #2 above. You will be giving them the opportunity to give away your new report as bonus to buyers of their product.

If you are able to get 20 people that agree to give your report as added bonus to their paid customers and if in one month each of them gets 50 buyers on average that buy their product and download your report, you will be having 1,000 subscribers (20 X 50). It is obvious that some of them will sell more than 50 while some will not sell up to that. However, it still won’t take you to have list of people that are already spending money in your market.

Step #6 – Start building relationship with them.

Don’t try to sell anything to them in the first 3 to 4 weeks. Concentrate only on building relationship with them. Search internet for free stuffs they may like and share the links on your blog site. You can even write short articles and post it on your site as well.

Step #7 – Ask them what they want next.

Some of them will probably be asking you series of questions or requesting your recommendations by now. However, you still have to ask them so that you can know what they are ready to buy.

Go to www.surveymonkey.com, create a simple 10 questions survey and email it to them. Ask them questions like;

What is your number one problem that you will like to solve now?
What did you want to know that you didn’t get in other product you’ve bought?
What are you is most important to you now?
How much are you ready to pay for such information now?

You only need 100 of your 1,000 subscribers to fill your survey in other to get idea of their needs. You will be amazed with their responses.

Once you have idea of product they want to buy all you have to do is to create it for them. If you can create it pay somebody to create it for you. You can outsource creation of your digital information products to freelancers on any of the following site; elance.com, scriptlance.com, rentacoder.com etc.

Step #8 – Set up your sales page.

You will have to set up another one page website to sell your new digital product. To have a complete salespage you need following:

1.    Sales copy to sell your new digital product. You don’t have to be a professional to write a salescopy. If you can write a good headline and list out the benefits of your new product to your audience, that is all you need. Visit www.copyblogger.com for basic headline tips. If you want a professional job you can outsource it to professional writer for as little as $100.
2.    You need a way to receive credit card payment online. I will advice that you sign up for www.2checkout.com account. It will cost you one time set up fee of $49. If you have 2checkout account you can receive credit card and paypal payment on your website.
How will 2checkout send you your earnings?
As international client you have 3 payment options availble you.
1. 2checkout can air mail your check to you.
2. They can send it to you via international wire transfer.
3. They have a card system now card payoneer. It is 2checkout prepaid debit card that is mastercard. They send you the card. Every week they pay your earning directly into your account with them and you can access it with the card anywhere in the world on ATM machine that is mastercard enabled or any where mastercard is accepted.
You can read more from 2checkout website - http://www.2checkout.com
Step #9 – Sell your new digital information product and smile to bank.

You have 1,000 subscribers you can send your offer to already. So just send them email offer with you autoresponder.

Possible Income:

Let us say the price of your product is $27
You send email offer to 1,000 subscribers.
If only 5% of them respond you will be having 50 sales
50 sales X $27 = $1,350

If 10% of them buy you will be having $2,700.
If 15% of them buy you will be having $4,050.

Step #10 – Recruit affiliates to help you sell more.

The owners of the related information product you find above probably have several people that are helping them to sell their information products already. This people are known as affiliate. You can find this people by directly contacting the owner of the product or searching their product using google search engine.

Recruit several affiliates to help you sell. You can also partner with others selling related products as well.

If you are able to recruit 20 active affiliates that sells 50 copies of your product in one month your total sales for that money will be 1,000 copies.

Let us do the calculation –

1,000copies X $27 = $27,000

If you give each affiliate 50% you will be having $13, 500.

Step #11 – Sell it and Repeat the process.

You can sell your site after some months for X7 to X10 of the monthly earning. For example if your site is already earning $1, 000 (from above example) you can sell it for $7,000 or $10, 000. You can sell your site on http://marketplace.sitepoint.com/.

If you sell your site you can repeat the process. You can now make it better now that you have a lot of money to invest.

Hello

Late last week I got a mail from one of us asking few questions about my piggyback/information marketing system. Early this morning I got inspiration to publish my response to his message so that you can benefit from it. I have to remove certain information from his message for security purpose. Hope you don’t mind. Let us call this guy SU.

Message from SU -

> i ve been trying to make head ways online
> sir i listen to your presentation in the last dyministyfing de internet 4 ,
> about peggybacking , i now found out that the best way to start making money
> online is getting your own product
> so i now decide to make a defference in my nich , i use pegback on the forum
> exactly the strategy you use on your dogbite prevention , i told them that
> am writing a book tittle ”10 ways to ……” Thank God that
> three people ve reply by sending there report and some promise to send thier
> report, which i ve packeged and convert it to pdf , so this is my question,

I am glad you found the strategy useful.

> 1] how do i get thier testimony concern the book

You can go back to the forum related to your market. Post it there that you need 10 people to review your new book. YOu only give them a copy if they agree to write you a one paragraph testimonial or give you feedback/ comment in case you need to improve the content.

>
> 2] should i give out the book for free using back end to money

Give away strategy is good if you have the ‘back end’ that is profitable in place. The back end can be part two of the report or just affiliate recommendations.

>
> 3] how do i register with click bank as a marchant since i dont ve US
> address

It is a must you find foreign address if you will be using clickbank. Alternatively, check out is good for international transactions.

>
> 4]how do i get ecover for the book

You can create it yourself or have somebody to create it for you. That may end up costing you extra N2,000 to N3,000 (when you convert from dollars to naira) if you want to get professional job.

> 5] what are de other stretegy to use in making money from dis book
>
You can get the experts to review it as well and if they found it useful they can recommend it to their subscribers.

You can even give them 100% commission which means they sell it and get 100% profit. This may sounds absurd. But let me explain. Having contact list of targeted hungry audience is better then just making one time sale. If you allow them to sell it for pure profit you will be getting list of every buyers and they will want to push the product well to sell more.

The more they sell the more list of potential customer you have. But you have to set up the download page that gives you opportunity to get the names of everybody that buy your book from them.

If you have 10 of them selling 100 copies in one month it means you will be having list of 1,000 subscribers.

Most people are not making money online, either as an affiliate marketer or product seller because they don’t have list of potential customer to sell to.

You can sell this 1000 people affiliate product or create another product to sell to them. I explain this in my new article. Check next edition of success digest extra on using this strategy.

Hope I am able to answer your question.

> Thanks
> SU.

I have been able to discover my hobby, so what is next?

If that is the question in your mind don’t worry I will share few tips with you here to fulfill promise I made in my first article on Turn your hobby to money on internet.

The best thing you can do if you are seriously passionate about something is to actively be part of those people in your area of interest. Arsenal football fan did not need special lecture to know that it is a must he watch every matches that affect his football club and listen to success and failure of other teams. They know the best place to meet to discuss.

For you to know what is hot in your ‘hobby market’ you have to be part of the group. Actively participate in the discussion. It may cost you few bucks to do this offline, however, you can do it free on internet. All you have to look for is the forum that has to do with your hobby.

What is a forum?

Forum is a place where people of the same interest meet to share and discuss issues pertaining to their area of interest.

Online forums are also called discussion boards, discussion groups or online community.

If your hobby is in keeping dog you can check out ‘dog forum’ or dog discussion boards’ or ‘online dog community’.

You can get couple of forums in your hobby area by searching for it on google.com or yahoo.com however; today I will share with you a directory of online forums.

The directory is called - big boards - www.big-boards.com

On bigboards.com you will find list of forums on different topics. You will even be able to know how active this forum is because ‘big-boards’ provides data’s like number of members the forum has and number of post that has been made by other members of that forum. Those data’s will surely help you in making decision of best forum to visit.

Make list of forums in your hobby area, register with them and spend few hours a day for some days to know more on hot topics they are discussing.

Corey Rudl (RIP) shared his experience in one of his book on how he got a business idea that net him several hundred of thousands of dollars just by visiting internet forums on cars. At the end of the day he publish a book called ‘car secrets’.

You must have read about my dog ebook story as well.

I have been able to launch several successful products just from visiting forums and taking part in discussion on my area of interest ‘hobby’.

You can do the same thing. Start today.

You are free to ask your question on this topic here…..

Now that you know that before you can make money on the internet you must target a very specific hungry market. This group of people must be passionate about their are of interest. They must have money to spend.

I know from my encounter with some newbie internet marketers in nigeria that finding this group of passionate people is a big problem. See, their is a way out.

One of best way is to explore your hobby and that of other people.

Wait - let me ask you few questions?

Are you a football fan?

Which football club is your favorite?

If you are not a football fan probably a member of your family is.

See, this people don’t mind spending any amount to get anything that has to do about their club. Many of them paid several thousands of naira to get DSTV and hitv just to watch football match. Not only that they even don’t mind paying monthly subscription fee.

That is the type of group of people you need to make money online or offline.

There are several hundreds other hobbies apart from football.

If you don’t know what you hobby is you can discover one by checking long list of hobbies you will find in following websites:

Most popular hobbies on google answer

Ten Geekiest hobbies

http://stress.about.com/od/funandgames/tp/hobby.htm

Basic hobby topics on wikipedia

Explore above listed websites. When you see your hobby you will know it.

In my next article we will discuss how to discover where this group of people meet online and what they wants to buy. You will be amazed.

Your internet buddie

Lateef Olajide

What is or are you hobbies?  Tell us here…

Hey,  am I able to catch your attention with that heading. It is not hype. It is true my US.Based Multimillionaire mentor and publisher interrogate himself in his recent edition of Business Lyceum Newsletter. I don’t think any investigative policeman could have done it better.

If you haven’t heard about Business Lyceum e-letter before you are missing alot. It is one online magazine that always start my months with. If I may tell you the truth this is one of my secret source for powerful business growth information.

You can do yourself a favour by signing up here so that you can get next month edition: http://www.businesslyceum.com/join.html

But why waiting for another 30 days to receive your first copy here is extract from March edition. Enjoy yourself. And drop a comment here. I am very sure my mentor (Jim F. Straw) will drop by to read your comment one day.

Business Lyceum E-letter March 2008

Greetings & Salutations:

It seems all of you … well, a ho’bunch  of you anyway … liked the Q&A format from last month. — So, I’ll  do some more this month.

Q:  What are the biggest mistakes you’ve made in your career?

A:  Mistakes?  Who, me?  Never!  But, there was this one time …

All kidding aside, there are really no mistakes that I’ve made that stick-out as being “the biggest” or even the most important.

Babe Ruth was known as the “Home Run King” - but - he had more strike-outs than he did home runs.

I can count my successes on my fingers - but - when it comes to mistakes, I couldn’t count them on all my fingers, toes and hairs on my chest.

The secret to real success is to make mistakes. — You don’t learn anything from your success but mistakes teach you valuable lessons … IF you don’t make the same mistakes over & over again.

It’s like the one-time wonders who hit one big success, then never do it again.  They couldn’t learn anything from their success, so they are locked-in to telling the story of their one big success over & over & over; ad naseum.

Q:  What would you say are the best offline opportunities?

A:  Who is the most beautiful woman in the world?? — Depends upon who’s looking, doesn’t it.

Look around you.  There are millionaires in every field of business endeavor.  There are millionaire garbage collectors … millionaire bankers … millionaire shop keepers … millionaire day-care operators … millionaire internet marketers … etc., etc., etc.

As Albert Einstein said, “Anyone can be a genius, if they pick just one specific subject and study it diligently just 15 minutes each day.”

The same holds true in business. — Just pick one specific business. Do it every day until you do it successfully.

Most people don’t fail, they just fail to stick with any ONE thing until they have mastered it.

Q:What do you see as the best opportunities online at present, and in the next 2 years?

A:  Again, it’s all in the eye of the beholder.

There are very, very few opportunities that couldn’t be the “best” for someone.  It is all a matter of persistence.

As Benjamin Disraeli said, “The secret to success is the constancy of purpose.”

What would be “best” for me … since I have a very high risk threshold … wouldn’t be the “best” for anyone seeking any kind of security; or privacy.

To succeed in business, you must leave your comfort zone and tread into untried waters … willing to take the risks.

Q:  Do you treat your online business as you would a brick and mortar business?

A:  Yes. — As Benjamin Franklin said, “Keep your business and your business will keep you.”

Unfortunately, all too many online business people treat their business on a catch-as-catch-can basis.  They don’t establish office hours or keep with any established schedule … worst of all are the ezine publishers who set a circulation date for their publication then allow almost anything to keep them from meeting their own deadlines. — Even while I was in the hospital; after my heart surgery, my publications went out on schedule.

If you are going to have a business; any kind of business, you MUST establish all the “rules” you will follow … then, follow them.

Q:  In the respect of customers there is a kind of unwritten rule that says the customer is always right. Does this apply in the online world as well?

A:  The customer may not “always” be right - but - a customer is always a customer.

Too many wannabees want to “make sales.” — Those of us who succeed “make customers” … then, we do everthing in our power to keep those customers.  Our customers are our only real asset — BUT …

Unfortunately, there are some customers who become a liability; rather than an asset.  When a customer costs more than that customer is worth to keep, it is best to drop that customer from your roles.

Q:  How important is a business plan if you don’t need to raise funding to start your business?

A:  A business that doesn’t plan, plans to fail.

Even when financing is not required, a wise business person writes a plan … even if it is just a list of gonna do’s … to keep track of what they are doing; what they are going to do - and - what results they anticipate. — Of course, the plan is subject to change at any time.

———End———-

If you enjoy this post. Leave a comment here. I know Jim will read it one day.

How to Escape Your Day Job, Pay Your Bills, And Make Progress Towards The Ideal Lifestyle by Marlon Sanders

There are 6 basic ways to get dough online:

1. Promote affiliate products

2. Google adsense

3. Sell a service

4. Sell advertising

5. Sell physical products (think eBay)

6. Sell information

You’ll notice that the last 4 all involve selling something. That’s the approach I wanna talk to you about today.

I did a survey with my Milcers and Alist members. I found out that most of them are still stuck to a degree in getting things going.

I want to give you an abbreviated action plan that I spend 100 pages elaborating on in “Gimme My Money Now” and that the icons walk you through in “The Marketing Dashboard”.

There are MANY Formulas out there. Here’s the Marlon Sanders Formula in a nutshell. So many of you have written and said, “I need a Formula. I need step-by-step.” This is the big picture:

1. Find demand

2. Write sales letter

3. Create info product to meet demand

4. Roll out with affiliate program

Here’s what I found out from my survey. Most of you guys and gals have jobs that you want to escape from. You have bills and debts to pay.

And most of you are coming into this without a lot of prior knowledge of marketing and some of you have limited computer skills.

Based on that, do you think it’s safe for me to say it’s unrealistic to think you’re going to quickly and easily become a zillionaire? Well, it’s true. If you have no background in sales and marketing, and you don’t have very good computer skills, you have a learning curve ahead of you and that takes time.

HERE’S HOW I PERSONALLY DID IT

I remember when I was broke and bought deodorant with all pennies. But what I did was kept learning and didn’t expect easy nor overnight results.

I kept buying books when I could afford them. There were no cheap and easy ebooks back then. I could have done it
10 times faster if I had access to all the information available today.

Anyway, my way out was self education. And action. I kept doing little projects to put what I learned into ACTION.

I ran this one little business where you sold booklets using answering machines. You didn’t have voice mail then. So I had 3 answering machines hooked up in my home (my friends hated it).

I ran these little ads in what we call in the U.S. “penny shoppers.” These are little papers given away for free that are all classified ads.

I ended up running ads in 72 cities! And people would leave their name and address on the answering machines. I shipped the books C.O.D. Half the books came back. It was sorta like paying out 50% affiliate commissions.

You didn’t have Paypal or easy merchant accounts in those days. So you had to do C.O.D. I sold $12,000 of books via “mail order.” And I was exhilarated to do so. I think at the end of the day I probably LOST money.

But I sure learned a lot.

Then AOL and CompuServe came along and I started writing sales letters and running ads on there. You’d run a little classified ad (they were free on AOL). People would email you.

Since autoresponders didn’t exist, you’d personally email them back your “free report.” Since there weren’t any PDF’s then (at least, that I knew of), the free report was a long email.

The “big trick” my friend Jonathan Mizel taught back then was to put their name in the return email! That was a big secret back then.

Mizel, me, others all learned copywriting from Tested Advertising Methods by John Caples. That was like one of 4 or 5 books on copywriting. But you know what? We wrote some pretty good sales letters back then. I first met Jonathan Mizel ’cause he sent me one of his sales letters, and I thought it was good. So I wrote and asked him where he learned to write copy.

Of course, he said “Tested Advertising Methods” by John Caples. So we were immediate friends.

AOL was great. You could test out your little ads, emails and sales letters. I don’t even think in those days we sent out follow up emails.

As far as I know, my friend the late Corey Rudl created the demand for autoresponders when he wrote about how he brought in all this money by automatically emailing buyers 4 days later.

It was only after that someone was smart enough to create an autoresponder. Corey’s stuff was hand coded. Gosh, I miss Corey. And I reckon you’ve been in this business a long time when you see your friends move on to the next great adventure.

Somewhere in this time line (it all escapes me), I had a little retail store selling self help books and tapes. The first thing newbies think to sell online is either diet stuff or self help.

Man, self help is a tough sell. Both Dan Kennedy and I had self development stores. And we both lost bux on ‘em. But I did have the chance to write and send out a few sales letters. And since I often didn’t have the money to print and mail letters, I’d call ‘em on the phone.

I found out that just by calling people, I could say ANYTHING and I’d STILL get a lot of people coming in for the next 3 weeks.

That’s the power of staying in contact with your customers.

Anyway, I could go on with this story. I’ve told the rest of it in bits and pieces in different places.

What are you supposed to get out of this?

Dan Kennedy I think had a path kinda like mine. And what he said once is profound. He said, “I became an overnight success after 20 years of effort.”

Now, I’m NOT saying you need 20 years of effort. You don’t. But neither is 20 minutes a week gonna do much for ya.

Most of the people I’ve seen make it in this business do so after trying things that didn’t work. And they kept on trying. And sooner or later, somethin’ clicked.

I think I shoulda called this article, “Sooner or Later, Something Clicked.”

So you got a job that sucks. You got bills that are stacked up. Hopefully you can buy deodorant with something other than pennies like me in the old days.

So what do YOU do?

My friend, I’d personally tell ya to do what I did. Fall in love with the process more than the immediate fixation of “I gotta make this work now or the whole thing is a scam.”

What you’re learning is marketing.

And that’ll benefit you your whole life. It can help you get your son or daughter or friend a job. It can help you raise money for your Church or charity. It can help you promote an idea whose time has come.

See, a LOT of people say, “I feel like I’ve just wasted my #*$&* money on stuff.”

I my response is, “Then you don’t understand what you’re learning. No wonder things haven’t clicked for you yet.”

See, this isn’t about gimmicks. It isn’t about you figuring out how to trick people into buying with magic words. It isn’t about fooling the search engines into stickin’ your stuff at the top. If you do this business the way I teach it, it’s about learning marketing. And yeah, I said the dirty 5-letter word — LEARN. You can paint it up. You can put perfume on it. You can sell the sizzle not the steak.

But my friend, what you’re doin’ is learning. And like my friend Jim Edwards says, “That isn’t something you microwave.”

“So Marlon, tell me how long this is gonna take and how much I’m gonna make when I’m done?”

Rule 1: People learn at different rates, so no one knows.

Rule 2: You’ll never be done.

Rule 3: It depends on what you sell, who you sell to, how much you charge, what your margin is and how often they buy.

Some people like Russ Brunson get in this business, do it part time between classes in college and go great guns with it. Russ was one of my top affiliates. But he figured out this business so quickly, before I knew it he had his own line of highly successful products. More power to him!

Others are like me and take like 10 or 20 years to learn it. What’s average? Average is not doing anything, therefore not learning anything, therefore the bills pile higher and the job gets tougher.

“Well, if you can’t tell me how much I’m gonna make, how long it’s gonna take and how much it’s gonna cost me, then I think this whole thing is a scam.”

To say that is to say you believe marketing is a scam. Because at least the way I teach it, that’s what you’re learning.

What’s my advice?

Think of the best info product idea you know how to come up with. Interview some experts and record it. Or have a friend interview you. Do a little 3-hour product, write a sales letter for it. And see if anyone buys.

If they don’t buy, guess what? You asked the market a question and the market answered.

You asked the market, “Do you want to buy this?” And the market responded, “No, not in the way you’re presenting it to me.”

Your choice is to present it differently or do another product. Along the way hopefully you learn some things about how to find out what people want, how to get ‘em to buy, how to fulfill products, write letters, create sales pages and so forth.

Honestly, in the DOING, you’ll learn a lot more than you’ll ever learn in the reading. You ask. The market answers. You learn along the way.

But if you’re a spectator and you never get in the game, I can guarantee you one rock solid thing: You’ll never win the game if you aren’t in it.

This is a great business. It isn’t for everyone. It sure isn’t a way to become a zillionaire overnight. Maybe after 5, 10 or 20 years you hit that zillion and you’re the next John Reese or Jeff Walker.

I don’t think everyone should be in this business. If you don’t wanna figure anything out yourself, if you don’t wanna learn how to solve problems, if you don’t wanna learn more things about html and the computer than you really wanna know, if you can’t tolerate risk, if you need your first attempt to be a success, or even your first 3 or 4, then I don’t know, if you can’t afford to spend money on learning and education, if you can’t afford to try things that don’t work, if you think it should all be simple and easy, I don’t know if this industry is for you.

A lot of people get seduced by the lure of ez dough. The promises of zillions without learning. Just connect the dots and you too can be John Reese, Marlon Sanders or whoever you wanna choose.

Here’s the deal: People WILL sell you a turnkey system to escape your job, make zillions or whatever. They’ll give you the fish. I want to teach you TO FISH.

I have a strong belief that unless you buy a franchise, in most cases your going to better off learning marketing than “buying a fish.” There are exceptions. But more often than not, buying a fish doesn’t serve you well.

Some of my friends would disagree with that premise. I happen to have a strong conviction that you are better off learning marketing. My friends are RIGHT in that people DO want to buy the fish versus learn how to catch it. So oftentimes, you’re best off selling a “fish” product.

But everybody has their perspectives. And for me, my criteria for buying a product: If whatever “IT” is doesn’t “pan out” for you, are you STILL better off from having spent money on it? Will it continue to benefit you, your family or your friends in the future?

If the answer is NO, then think twice before spending your money.

You have a job you wanna escape, bills to pay off, retirement to prepare for. Or special needs like a sick loved one. Or a sickness yourself.

I can’t promise you ez zillions. There’s no integrity in that.

I can’t promise you 6 figures a year ez as pie.

What I CAN promise you is that selling products works. It’s no scam. People been doin’ it for thousands of years.

I can promise you that marketing works. Always has. Always will.

I can promise you that money and time spent learning marketing can pay off in many ways.

I can promise you that if you find demand, meet it with products and well-executed promotions, and you do that over time, those bills will likely fade away.

I can promise you that everybody on the Net selling you this or that “dough making system” ALL have 1 thing in common — THEY are selling you a product, service or seminar.

They have a target market.

They have an intro offer.

They have a back end.

I believe in paying more attention to what people DO than what they SAY.

People get all confused what to DO. And there’s a new system invented every day that’s the next big thing. Thank God. I love commerce.

But to remove the confusion, understand this:

They all may disagree on HOW you make money. But one thing is certain: They’re making bux selling a product to a target market — YOU!

Go and do thou likewise.

I remember back then. When I bought deodorant with all pennies.

I remember the date I had with a model in a car that smoked like a bomb.

And to me, there’s no confusion. It’s all crystal. It’s all simple. Take away the smoke. Take away the mirrors.

You need a product. You need people who want it with the money to buy it. You need some great promo out there.

There’s only ONE method people having using to pay their bills and quit their jobs for the past 1,000 years –

Selling products and services to a target market with a great sales pitch that presents benefits and solves problems.

You wanna quit that job? You wanna liquidate that debt? I don’t have an ez zillion for you. But I do have a crystal clear answer.

Find a group of people. Find out what they need and want. Meet those wants with a product. Provide great service.

And who knows. Maybe. Someday. If the stars shine down on you, you’ll hit that pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

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Marlon Sanders is the author of “The Amazing Formula That Sells Products Like Crazy.” If you’d like to get on his mailing list and receive tips, articles and information about online marketing, visit: http://www.marlonsblog.com

Many online marketers today make a living by selling their own products.  Among the most popular digital products to sell are eBooks and special reports.  These are files in written form where useful and desired information can be conveyed.  Indeed, information is what fuels the internet.  It’s not called the information superhighway for nothing, after all.  People log online to search for information.  If you have the information they need, then they will come to you.  And if this information holds a lot of value, you could sell the same and make some wonderful profit.  And since words are the primary tools of communication in the World Wide Web, information is often conveyed in written form, i.e. the aforementioned eBooks and special reports.

But preparing written works is not easy.  For starters, not everyone could write.  And those who could often don’t have the time to embark on such an undertaking.

Fortunately, there are some alternative routes you could take which would allow you to prepare your own eBook or special report without having to write down a single word.  Let’s take a look at 5 of these options.

1. Gather some articles and compile them in a single volume.  This would be the easiest way to prepare your own digital product.  These articles can be PLR works which grant you the right to alter them and use their content anyway you please.  Or they may be articles written by other people, which you have compiled from renowned websites like www.ezinearticles.com or www.goarticles.com .  If you choose the latter set, just make sure that you respect the terms and conditions of their usage, primary of which is the inclusion of the original author’s resource box.  You can’t just bundle up articles left and right, however.  Make sure that one article would organically and logically flow to the next.  You can ensure this by studying the articles you want to include.

2. Conduct an interview with an expert and record the same.  Thereafter, hire someone from www.rentacoder.com , www.elance.com or www.guru.com to transcribe the conversation you had with the said expert.  You’d be surprised how quickly you could jack up 50 to 200 pages worth of essential reading material using this method.

3. Buy an existing eBook or special report that comes with private label rights.  This would enable you to alter the contents of the same, and even name yourself as the author of the work.  You could add some materials as you feel are necessary, or better yet, you could combine two, three, or even ten of these PLR eBooks or special reports to come up with an encyclopedic tome of information worthy of some notice.

4. Hire a ghostwriter to prepare an eBook or a special report for you.  There are many, many freelance writers looking for work at the websites we have mentioned in no. 2.  It’s just a matter of selecting the best writer for the job at a price that will not be too daunting to your budget.  Expect to pay $200 to $1,000 for a 50 page eBook, however.

5. Here’s a novel approach.  Join an internet marketing forum, and ask a query.  A good example would be “How Could You Profit From The Internet With A $0 Budget.”  For  certain, you’ll get some amazingly enlightening replies.  Compile these replies until you’ll have enough materials to come up with an eBook or a special report.  Ask the posters’ permission to avoid any copyright issues.  Chances are, they’ll agree, provided that a link to their respective websites would be included in your work.

Lack of writing prowess, or the time to write at that, is never a bar for the production of your own digital products.  All you need is a little imagination, and hopefully, the suggestions above have stirred up some concepts in your mind.