Welcome!

This Lesson is on selling... I'll refer to what you will learn here as selling "secrets" because, if you've never heard them before, they really are 'secrets' :-)

Even if you have heard them before, I may be able to shed new light on some tried and true selling techniques making them finally sink-in for you... so you can actually see how they are applied in a real selling situation - especially online.

The Lesson below is based on my own experience selling online and so, of course it's highly subjective. But the principles of what I reveal here will easily translate to anything you are selling online. Anything.

The Lesson This Week: The reality of selling online is very different than what you may have read or heard. In a lot of cases you do not need a 'sales style' website, or fancy graphics or a 'slick' approach to selling your products and services.

Remember what we said about selling online? Specifically we said, "It is extremely difficult to sell anything on the first contact with a prospect"... drill that into your mind and you will have a key to success that few ever realize.

This basic marketing principle, "It is extremely difficult to sell anything on the first contact with a prospect" holds true no matter what you're selling.

We have to keep in mind that the REASON WHY it's hard to sell anything on the first contact is that your potential buyer does not trust you (yet) ...AND unless they are in the PERFECT frame of mind for your offer at the time they receive it, it's highly unlikely they will even consider it.

There are ways, however, to change their mind and break their 'pre-occupation' with themselves and that's what we will begin to learn in this Lesson and Lesson 5.

We'll also begin to see the huge profit potential the Internet really offers anyone who is willing to see and act on this information.

Please note: Some of the references to products and services I use in the case studies below may no be available anymore due to various reasons. Since I do not own some of these websites I have no control over them. But the lessons learned are valid and work.

With that said, are you ready? Ok! Let's get going - Lesson 4 begins NOW!


Lesson 4

Introduction

We learned in past Lessons that people seek distractions to their problems and daily life to 'fill the void'.

We also learned that everyone is 'pre-occupied' with their problems... and their own thoughts.

These concepts are critical to understand if we are to make sales online. And it's just not about getting them to 'pay attention' to our messages by creating eye-catching graphics or headlines. The secret to breaking pre-occupation is to find out what your prospects are THINKING ABOUT and trying to enter the conversations in their heads at the right time.


Reality In Selling Online

In order for you to understand what I'm going to teach you in this Lesson you need to forget about yourself for a minute and put yourself in your prospects' shoes.

In my case, my typical prospect is trying to solve a very particular problem: He's trying to figure out how to make some money online.

Now a typical prospect for me is really not so typical because even though each prospect may have the same goal (to make money online) their individual circumstances, motivations and desires are all over the place.

I might have one prospect who needs money NOW, TODAY... he's got some rent due or an overdue bill and needs to make money ASAP.

Ok? That's ONE type of prospect who may have found my site and my capture page.

I speak to him directly in my capture page copy. My copy says, "Sign-up now and learn more ways to make money now"...

So he signs up for my newsletter.

This is very important:

He has this problem and he's pre-occupied with it. He's thinking about making money fast. He SKIMS my capture page, the words on the page. What JUMPS OUT at him? This does...

"Sign-up now and learn more ways to make money now"

That's ALL HE NEEDS to subscribe. I entered the conversation already taking place in his head, and my message was accepted.

But the reality is, in a day or even in a few hours he will not even remember he signed up for my newsletter! Ok? But I still have his name and email address so I can follow-up with him.

Here's another scenario:

Another prospect sees my web page. He's not in the "I need money fast" frame of mind, he's a looker, and earnest seeker of solid, reliable information. He's also interested 'money making information' but he's cautious and has been burned before.

He's read a lot of Internet marketing ebooks and hates hype, so he's cautious. I also speak to him in my web copy when I say, "I will guarantee not to sugar-coat what it takes to really make your living online..."

So he too signs up for my newsletter because I wrote what he's already thinking.

Another 'surfer' comes along and reads the first line of copy at the top of my page, "David Vallieres teaches anyone little known ways to make money on the Internet."

They are not totally convinced .. yet.

They are looking for some easy money... they don't want to work too hard. They have a day job, they just want some extra money. They heard the Internet is an easy place to make money. They believe that's true, but they only want the inside' stuff because they know that, since so few people really do make big money on the Internet, there must be some secret to it.

They jump into reading the first paragraph and this jumps out at them:

"Little did I know at the time that I would not be successful until I learned a few secret things about the Internet, human behavior and selling online"

"Hmmm", they say to themselves. "Ok... I'll bite"...

They are in a hurry... so they jump down to the sign up form and joins then skips off to another site and signs up for their ezine.

Each one of these individuals are coming with completely different pre-occupations:

  • One needs fast money because he needs to pay the rent and his bills
  • One needs solid, reliable info because he's been burned before
  • One needs easy money, but because she knows success is rare, there must be some 'secrets' to it

Do you see what's going on here?

Each one of your visitors is looking for something that clicks with the conversation already going on in their head... you don't have to break their pre-occupation as much as you need to try to enter the conversation already in progress in their heads.

The key is to put key lines, sentences, phrases and paragraphs in your copy that SPEAKS to each one of your visitors... precisely on target.

Of course, in order to do that effectively you must know:

  • who you prospects are,
  • why they would visit your web page in the first place and
  • what's likely to be going through their minds when they hit your page.

How are you going to know all of this?

You will never know for sure, but you should take the time to THINK like they do, put yourself in their shoes and, just like I did above, try to figured out what they might be thinking about.

You don't have to run survey's or ask your prospects questions to figure this out.

Make it up! Use your imagination! I'm not kidding.

The prospects above are all 'made up' using my imagination... I am sure that it's a pretty accurate description for the types of prospects I get on a daily basis but, even if it's a little bit 'off' I'm not going to pay thousands of dollars for a 'focus group' or a 'professional' survey...

Here's why:

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A 'Little Known' Fact About Surveys and Focus Groups

You might be tempted to use phone surveys or focus groups in your marketing to find out what your customers want or how they feel about your products.

There was an interesting side bar in DMNews not to long ago that stated that surveys and focus groups are almost 100% inversely related to actual truth of the respondents actual attitudes and actual behaviors.

Evidently the respondents to the survey either told the interviewer what they wanted to hear in order to gain the favor of the interviewer or the exact opposite of what they really felt or did in order hide their own behavior, which they thought was not acceptable to the interviewer.

The important lesson here is that people will say ONE THING and DO something entirely different and sometimes they don't even KNOW they are doing that!

As marketers we're more interested in what prospects and customers DO, than what our prospects and customers SAY.

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I KNOW what certain people are looking for because I've been around my market long enough to meet all kinds of people looking for money making and business opportunity information and I watch them.

I'm a confirmed biz opp junkie myself.. so who better than me to know what they want?

All I'm saying is just use some COMMON SENSE. People will visit your page in all kinds of moods, dispositions and with certain thoughts running through their heads at the time they visit that you have NO CONTROL over.

You can only SPEAK to them the best you can. There is NO MAGIC 'sales copy' that will make EVERYONE who hits your page sign up or buy anything.

The only thing you can do is carefully craft your copy so that certain types of people - the one's already thinking about what you are offering and most anxious to find a solution to their problems - will sign up immediately, no questions asked.

I can tell you truthfully, if they can't figure out what you are trying to SAY TO them, in LANGUAGE they understand, in 3 seconds or less, you've lost them. That's why the message and the 'big idea' of your site have to be CLEAR at the very start.

Remember what we said in Lesson 1?

"If you confuse your potential customer at the POINT of initial CONTACT, you are giving them the opposite of what they want. Instead of SATISFYING their CONFUSION you are ADDING to their CONFUSION."

If you confuse them, they will leave and won't even bother wiping the dust from their feet on their way out the door (metaphorically speaking :)

Get into your customers shoes... think about them. Think about them a lot.

Use your imagination to "see" one of your web site visitors enter your capture page.

"See" with your imagination what they look at, what they are doing, imagine what the conversation is like inside their head.

Take a look around their environment... are they alone?

Are they with kids screaming, playing and pulling on their sleeves for attention? How can you fight with that??

You can't.

Are they in a BAD mood, a TRIED/LAZY mood or are they really excited and in a GOOD mood?

Do you think it will make a difference what kind of MOOD they are in when they get to your page?

Of course it will!

Is there anything you can do about it?

No, there isn't.

Here's one now... he's coming to visit your page. You have 3 affiliate program banners flashing on the page, two large multi-colored headlines and a pop-up window asking him for his email address about "what?".

He's CONFUSED... he's tired. He worked a double shift at the factory and hates his job. He's just looking for a WAY OUT of his crummy job... but "How?" he keeps asking himself.

He leaves your page because he doesn't understand what you're all about... you're not 'speaking' to him. He keeps surfng without signing up for anything.

He lands on my capture page next... it's clear: how to make money no one else knows about... He says, "Hmmm... little known ways... I wish I knew what they were".

He signs up and secretly prays, as he's ready to head off to sleep, that, "maybe that Dave Vallieres can help me find a way out of this mess so I can start my own business... I hope".

At least he wasn't CONFUSED... he knew EXACTLY what what I was offering him... I was offering him little known ways (he) can (possibly) make money online".

Ok? Got the picture?... You must have EMPATHY for your prospects and customers... and understand their hopes and fears. If you understand their hopes and their fears then you can tap into their minds.

You must KNOW WHO they are, what their DREAMS are, what their HOPES are... you have to IMAGINE them, where they live, what they are doing and what they have to deal with every day.

Then and only then, can you SPEAK to them and get your message accepted.

Now That You're Starting To Build Your List

Now that you have your capture page ready you are ready to go into discussion groups and starting making posts as recommended in Lesson 2.

To increase your optin rate I also suggested preparing a report that can be branded and given away as a lead generation tool as well as a few other methods of building your list.

I also mentioned using ebaY's About Me page for a capture page.

You can also use offline ads, classified ads and publicity to generate traffic (Lesson 7).

You will start to get subscribers.

Now the question becomes... what to send them?

In Lesson one I mentioned that I had a small list built up and was making very little each month from it until I discovered the switch word "find!".

It worked then and it still works. I say it everyday and I get great ideas for making money, with no effort. I just say "find" and ideas come to me... and it's become much easier for me to recognize an opportunity when I see one now... but it's become a bit of a problem.

I have TOO many ideas!

I have more ideas about how to make money than I could ever pursue in my lifetime.

So, I have to FOCUS on one or two ideas that appear to be the MOST PROFITABLE for me.

Since I started writing my ezine I try to keep it balanced between pure info and sales material. Sometimes I do both in the same issue.

Some of the most profitable newsletters start with pure info but then gradually morphs into a sales pitch.

I will give you examples of that in a few minutes... but first I want to talk about the approach you should take when sending an ezine and sales letter to your list.


Why You Don't Need A Sales Page To Sell Most Of Your Products

In most cases whatever you write about in your ezine about your product will be enough to sell it. You really don't need to have a website or even a detailed web page to sell it.

Why? Because...

...plain talk with enthusiasm will almost always outsell slick sales messages.

We will talk more about "plain talk with enthusiasm" in Lesson 5, "The Golden Key To Profits".

I've also found that if I have long copy for a product in my ezine and ask them to click through to a long sales letter about that product, it will reduce response.

On the other hand if you're pre-selling a product as and affiliate for someone else's product then you can keep the email short and lead them into a long sales letter at the affiliate managers site and get a good response.

I'm not sure why that's true and you may have results completely different from mine because you're in a different market or whatever, but I've found it mostly to be true.

Here's my rule for LONG vs SHORT emails that are pitching an inexpensive (less then $99) product:

The LONGER the email, the SHORTER the order page should be.

The SHORTER the email the LONGER the sales letter should be.

This is the rule for products you might be selling under $99. For products over $100 up to $500 this rule does not seem to matter. I can have a long email that leads to long sales letter and not have any reduction in sales on products over $100 as long as I don't repeat the same material in the sales letter.

Maybe all it means is that the higher the price of the product, the more copy you need to sell it :-)

Let me give you an example of a LONG email and SHORT email and order page.

The Public Domain Reports I gave you in Lesson 3 are sold with Master Resale Rights for $79. Here's the email I sent selling these rights:

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Subject: How to profit from public domain information

----

Hi,

Re-publishing public domain information is the hottest
business opportunity to come along in the last 10 years.

There is a treasure chest of public domain info that is just
waiting to be re-published... and those who get to it first
will be the one's to profit.

What is 'public domain'?

At a very basic level, "public domain", in the USA, means...

...anything that is NOT protected under US copyright law.
This includes ALL works published before 1923 AND, under certain
conditions, works published up to 1978. A 'work' can be anything:
a book, a play, music, photographs, movies, instruction manuals,
courses, reports, posters, etc...

Re-publishing and re-packaging public domain information and
other creative works can make you a lot of money. The reason
is fairly simple: If you find, re-package and sell information
that has fallen into the public domain you do not have to pay
royalties or copyright fees on that work. Can you tell me about
any other business that...

... you can resell over and over and keep 100% of the profits
without paying a penny for the acquisition of it and not ONE CENT
in royalties or copyright fees for its continued use??

For the past several months I have published 10 reports on how
to profit from re-publishing public domain information.

I just sent a notice to my subscribers that I will NO longer be
publishing these weekly reports... one reason is: I HAVE REVEALED
JUST ABOUT EVERYTHING about profiting from the public domain in
these 10 reports!!!

If you were not a member of my Public Domain Report you can
check out what the Public Domain Report was all about here,
http://www.publicdomainreport.com
Or click here: <a href="http://www.publicdomainreport.com">
Public Domain Report</a>

I am now selling these 10 reports WITH MASTER Resale rights!

This special resellers package (just for InfoProductLab
members) comes with:

= 10 POWER-PACKED Reports on how to profit from public domain
information! Everything you (or your customer) needs to start
profiting from the treasure of public domain info is included!!

= The SPECIAL LEAD GENERATION REPORT: "How To Profit From Public
Domain Information" which you can give away to generate leads...!

= The SPECIAL REPORT: "How To Perform Certified Copyright
Searches" which you can use as a bonus...!

= A Special Public Domain "Quick Reference Guide"...!

= OFFICIAL MASTER Resale Right Certificate to the Public Domain
Reports package!

= NEW!! A sales page to sell the 10 reports almost identical to
the one at http://www.publicdomainreport.com (except it is re-written
to just sell these 10 reports)

This is a package that you can easily resell for $39.95-$49.95
and, because of the HUGE interest in Public Domain re-publishing
you should be able to make some decent profits for a long time
to come... if you get in early.

This is real 'insider' stuff...

I suggest not selling the package for less than $29.95. I do NOT
want it 'given it away' but you may 'bundle' it with other items
or offer it as a bonus to your other products.

Anyway, this is a first-come, first-serve offer that may never
be repeated. I may take the order page down without notice...

Click here to get this whole package (ALL 10 REPORTS) with MASTER Resale
Rights now for just $79.95,
http://www.infoproductlab.com/buyrights.html
Or click here: <a href="http://www.infoproductlab.com/buyrights.html">
Buy MASTER Resale Rights</a>

Click here to get this HUGE Public Domain MASTER Resale Rights package
now for just $79.95,
http://www.infoproductlab.com/buyrights.html
Or click here: <a href="http://www.infoproductlab.com/buyrights.html">
Buy Resale Rights</a>

FREE SALES SITE!! Included in this package is my entire web site at:
http://www.publicdomainreport.com which has been modified to sell just
these 10 reports!! You may additionally modify the sales page anyway
you want and use on your own domain - just make sure you change the
payment link and contact info to yours :-)

The copyright on the site should just be left as is or changed to read:
"(c) 2003 by David Vallieres. All rights reserved."

Sorry, I am not selling the reports without MASTER rights yet.

That's all the news for now,

- Dave
http://InfoProductLab.com

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That's kind of long for an email message. Now if you go to the page above that I refer potential buyers to, I do not repeat everything I already put into the email above. I simply include a brief description of the product on the page and the order link.

Does it work?

Well, every time I send this email I get thousands in orders. Would it work better if I had another long sales letter on that page instead?

I've tested it and response and dollar volume were reduced by and average of 27%.

Here are a few other "order pages" I use when I sell the product in the email message... their only job is to take the payment, that's it:

Except for the Public Domain Reports all the products above were sold with a sales letter in an email message to my subscribers- there is no sales page.

In one case I simply 'redirected' the buyer to the PayPal payment page without stopping on a page with a further description of the product!

As long as you include enough information in the email about your product there is no reason to further try the patience of your potential buyer with yet another long sales pitch and letter!

This is really true if you're selling a relatively inexpensive product, say under $99... and almost ALWAYS true on products under $50.

Let me give you an example of the opposite scenario: SHORT email that leads to a LONG sales letter.

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Subject: He made $18,343 in ONE Month from AdSense!

----


Hi,

He sold his game site to Yahoo!... now it's Yahoo Games ;-)...

He broke the 'code of silence' on AdSense earnings...

-----------------------
He made $15,675 in November 2004
He made $18,343 in December 2004
... and it's STILL going up...
----------------------

He gets his AdSense checks by UPS Special Delivery...

He wrote a 'tell all' guide on how he went from $30 a day in AdSense earnings
to over $500 a day... using some simple (but un-common) and 'secret' techniques.

Read more all about it,

http://www.visiturl.com/adsense

Your personal success coach and partner,

-Dave
http://www.infoproductlab.com

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This is a really short email... it pre-sells a book, "AdSense Secrets" and that's it... it just introduces the book in an interesting way and compels the reader to click the link for more info. Even this message contains some interesting information... a little about his background, how much he makes with AdSense, and how he gets his Google AdSense checks delivered!

Like I said, I try to mix pure info and sales pitches and it works.

I make it short because anyone who clicks through to either one of these sites will find a lot more information to read and it's a lot of work to read all these sales letters!

Hey... my job, if I'm an affiliate, is to get the someone interested, excited, curious about the product and get them to click on the link through to the site. That's it... then it's the sales letter that makes the sale, not me.


Why I Love/Hate Affiliate Programs

There are a lot of affiliate programs you can promote to your list and they can be a good source of income.

The thing I love about affiliate programs is that you don't have to provide...

...customer service!

When you're running your own business customer service issues can eat up a lot of your time. With affiliate programs your only job is to get your subscribers interested in the product and then get your reader to click through to the site.

After that you job ends. If they buy, you get the commission. If they have a problem with the product or have questions about it, who are they going to call or email? You? No! They'll call the seller.

You are completely free to find and pursue other opportunities!

But there are some things I also hate about affiliate programs.

Here's what I hate about affiliate programs:

  • You have to wait too long to get paid, sometimes 6 weeks or more after the sale
  • You never really have any assurance that you will get paid, unless you use a 3rd party processor

I favor Clickbank (www.clickbank.com) over any other affiliate program because they are incredibly reliable about making payments and, at the most, you'll wait 4 weeks after the sale to get paid.

I have heard horror stories of website owners who recruited a lot of affiliates, made a ton of sales through them and then never paid out the commissions. That's why I rarely join an affiliate program run by the webmaster of a site.

Bottom Line: If I work hard to generate a sale, I want some guarantee I'm going to get paid.

I'm sorry but business is much too serious to be taken so lightly. If I promote a program and make a sale, I better get paid for it... or else.

And it's that 'or else' that prevents me, in most cases, me from promoting affiliate programs run by webmasters or are not guaranteed by a 3rd party. I don't want to have to go after them for payment. It's a waste of time.

When I promote the products on Clickbank I know that if I help make a sale, I will get the commission for it. No if, and's or but's.

I also have an account with CommissionJunction (www.cj.com), but since I sell primarily digital products I don't do much with them. But you might. It all depends on your focus.

The best way to sell a program you're an affiliate of is to simply pre-sell it to your list...never try to sell the program directly from within your ezine.

Why?

When I first started promoting affiliate programs I wondered why I'd get lots of click-throughs and very, very few sales out of it. Well it occurred to me one day to
really check out the site of the program I was promoting.

To my surprise, it was terrible!

Of course I'd seen it when I signed up for the program but I didn't
look at as if I was a buyer... I looked at it as an affiliate opportunity seeker. Remember, always put yourself in your prospects' shoes. If you landed on a site you were promoting, would you buy the product they offered?

Here's another challenge when promoting books and programs you're an affiliate of: Some of the books and products I've offered to my list as an affiliate are actually BETTER than they sound on the page selling them!

In other words, the sales page is terrible, but the product is EXCELLENT!

You may find this from time to time, the site doesn't sell the product very well BUT it's a GREAT product!

Actually it's not too hard to find these kinds of products...the problem is you don't really know if it's a good product or not because the owner has very little skill in marketing and doesn't do a good job presenting the benefits to a potential buyer.

In a lot of cases you can discover the true worth of the product by doing a search on discussion boards or asking a question in a discussion board about the product.

Sometimes if you think it really is a good product (in your gut) just go ahead and buy it to see for yourself.

I spend a lot of money buying products that I think will benefit my readers... some turn out terrible, but a few are really are good and, when I find one that really is good, I can promote that book for a long time and make money month after month with it. It's like investing in high-dividend paying stock... it just keeps on paying for years!

That's when I decided to start pre-selling my affiliate programs... most of the time through mentions in my newsletter.

What I'd do is help the company I was promoting put their 'best foot forward' by mentioning the positive aspects of their product (and more) that wasn't obvious or was hidden on their site.

That last point is very important: In a lot of cases the main benefit of thier product wasn't obvious. As soon as I discovered what it was, I used that point in my promotion and sales really started taking off.

My 'reviews' (pre-selling) of the program showed what I really liked about the product ... but I also told my readers what I didn't like about it.

Suddenly my affiliate earnings started climbing rapidly because I was 'pre-selling' them before sending potential buyers off to the products' site.

I think you'll find the same thing when you start to promote affiliate programs.

If you don't pre-sell your programs you'll get lot's of click-through's but few sales. If you take your time to 'review' the product and then make a recommendation to your readers that includes the less obvious benefits of the product, you'll find your commission checks will grow.

Here's an email for a program I love to promote. I always get a good response when promoting it:

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Subject: "The Sales Writers' cheat book" - 7,000 copies sold and not one refund

----


Hi Dave,

How powerful are using the *right* words when trying to sell on the Internet?

To answer that just imagine trying to sell anything with the *wrong* words ;-)

I don't make very many recommendations like this one... on a scale from 1 to 10 (highest) this is a "10"...

I don't, or shouldn't, have to tell you that WORDS create SALES and the best resource I have ever found to help you create the right combination of WORDS that SELL would be the "The Sales Writers' cheat book".

Were you ever at a loss for words when writing your marketing copy? You won't be anymore...

The Sales Writers' cheat book provides almost 200 ready-to-use Headlines, plus hundreds of Taglines, Link Lines, Image Builders, Calls to Action, Price Defenses, Guarantee Lines, and much more. All of which you can use straight off the page, or adapt to suit your project.

I printed my copy and it's dog-eared, highlighted underlined and scribbled on... thank God I can always print another copy ;-)

This is, without a doubt, a highly respected and professional resource for anyone who has to put two words together and MAKE them SELL. 'nough said....

http://www.webfindz.com/wordpower.html

<a href="http://www.webfindz.com/wordpower.html">The Sales Writers' cheat book</a>

If you want to write words that sell more product and make more money, you cannot find a single source like it at this price.

Still not convinced? How about this: He's sold 7,000 copies of this workbook without even one request for a refund...

-Dave

http://www.infoproductlab.com

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I always sell a lot of these for the affiliate manager. Why? Because I uncovered one hidden fact onhis sales page: "7,000 coies sold with NO refunds" and raised the curiosity of my readers by highlighting it.

Here's another successful way to pre-sell by using 'testimonials' from the sales page and quoting them directly into my email copy:

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Subject: 70 viral marketing gems for affiliate selling

----


Hi,

How many ways can you think of to start a viral marketing campaign for the many affiliate programs you're promoting?

When I tried I came up with less than 5... that is until I read Sherry Gordon's book on creating affiliate promotions with built-in viral marketing.

The majority of books on promoting affiliate programs talk 'around' viral marketing... but here's a book that gives you 70 tested methods!

I honestly love the proven concepts in this book and wouldn't think of recommending it if I wasn't in love with it and have read it myself... if you are into affiliate marketing you should be absorbing the knowledge in this little gem!

http://www.webfindz.com/viral.html <a href="http://www.webfindz.com/viral.html"> Or click here </a>

If you're *really* into affiliate marketing (as you should be - even if you have your own products or not) then you cannot pass up this book for only $23 - it gives you over 70 sure-fire methods for creating a viral marketing program with your affiliate links. Cha-ching! No kidding.

Don't take my word though:

---"How can you launch a hugely successful viral marketing campaign, one in which you tell your friends, who tell their friends, who tell their friends, etc.? A campaign that just keeps on snowballing - with YOUR affiliate links imbedded in it? Imagine what that would do to your affiliate commissions!

You're in luck. Help has arrived... You'll be staggered by the amount of ground covered here."

-Allan Gardyne / www.AssociatePrograms.com

---"Wow! Amazing! Incredible ideas, Sherry. I bought your book on Thursday, started to read and couldn't put it down till the end. This is exactly what I needed! You gave me so many ideas I don't even know which one to use first. I am sure my business will benefit greatly."

-Dagmar Rakos / dagmar@makeyourhobbysell.com ---

Great bonuses, an inexpensive book - real-life viable strategies make this gem of a book a real winner with real substance.

Every person who promotes affiliate programs should at least KNOW ABOUT the methods in this book. When the time comes to start promoting a new affiliate program, use this book as a reference and watch the dramatic difference it will make to your bottom line.

Paul Reilly's e-book, "Zen Profit" is one of the bonuses... very, very interesting :-)

Sherry has a 100% "Can't use this knowledge after all? ...Just ask for a no-quibble refund" refund.

http://www.webfindz.com/viral.html

<a href="http://www.webfindz.com/viral.html"> Or click here</a>

That's all the news for today,

-Dave

http://www.InfoProductLab.com
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In the above example, using the 'testimonials' from the site selling the book proved to be a very successful tactic.

A couple of people told me how much they liked the book and the only reason they bought it was because of the testimonial from Allan Gardyne!

This was one of the very first books I promoted successfully by pre-selling and since then I've tried to incorporate a testimonial from the products sales page into every review I do.

Here's one that sold like crazy and all I did was MENTION the testimonial, I didn't even have to copy it into the email!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Subject: a 'blow-your-mind' freee traffic secret

----

Hi Dave,

I promised you a totally 'blow-your-mind' traffic secret I
have used to generate freee, unlimited traffic to my sites.

This is the SAME freee website traffic secret that websites
making six-figures or even millions use themselves every month.

This isn't 'kiddie' stuff Dave or BS... it's a total
solution to generating real targeted traffic to your sites.

... it works for me. What I can't figure out is why
everyone isn't using this ??? ...but I ain't complaining ;-)

http://www.webfindz.com/powertraffic.html

<a href="http://www.webfindz.com/powertraffic.html">
Or click here</a>

Plus, it's one of the only systems I have EVER seen Jim Daniels
endorse :-)

That's all the news for today,

-Dave
http://www.infoproductlab.com

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Here's another one... this time almost the entire message was written around the testimonials!!

Take a look (I sold 43 in hours, the first time I sent this message out :)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Subject: how to start a profitable membership site

----

Hi,

What a week... my computer monitor blew out and my
printer is spitting out garbage...

Tomorrow:

.... some killer info tomorrow that will make a huge
difference in your online business so stay tuned...

Quickly now...

I came across Michael P. Rasmussen's "How To Start
A Profitable Membership Site" today ...,
http://www.webfindz.com/paidsite/

Peter Twist says, "I wish this had been around when I
was starting my membership site, I would have saved myself
from many long nights working and making mistakes. This
book does much of the research leg work for you!"

And Maryanne Myers (Owner/CEO WebStars2000 Network) says,
"I'm impressed. That's all I can say. This is very
detailed, very easy to read for the newbie to the seasoned.

Being an owner of several (major) membership sites already
- this just showed me that I don't know everything! I'm
sure it will triple my membership rate. Thank you!"

If you looking at setting up your own membership site
you may want to take a look at this detailed guide,
http://www.webfindz.com/paidsite/

If you order the guide... (or even if you don't :)
download this report about who's paying for online
content and what they're buying... EyE opening stuff :-)
http://www.infoproductlab.com/opareport/

One of the best things about membership sites is the fact
that they are literally ongoing, continuous income streams.

Your paid members pay you again and again, for the privilege
of coming back to your site.

That's all the news for now!

- Dave
InfoProductLab.com

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Breaking Pre-Occupation and Entering the Conversation In Your Prospects Head

In the "Welcome" section to this Lesson I mentioned that "...there are ways, however, to change their 'mind' and break their 'pre-occupation' with themselves".

There are seven primary ways that I help my readers to pay attention, get them into the proper 'frame of mind' and break their pre-occupation so they acccept and act on my message.

These methods are used in the subject line and the opening sentence or paragraph of my email message. The rest of the message builds on the subject of the message by using:

  • emotional and logical arugument, and
  • transitions (discussed in lesson 5)

I can tell you that next to the subject line of your email the opening sentence of your email is the most critical and it's the one I spend more time on than anything else, even the subject line.

Why place so much importance on the opening sentence?

Just like a sales letter sent through the mail, the first sentence in your email will determine if the reader will read the rest of the message or delete it.

If you don't grab their attention and interest in the first sentence, they will not read the rest of it.

The first sentence is critical to your success, after you've gotten them to open your email. If it doesn't hold their attention, you've lost them.

These seven methods I use are:

  1. The "Obvious Adams" Subject Line
  2. The Personal Story Opening
  3. The "What"s New" Story Opening
  4. The Build-Up or "What's Coming" Opening/Closing
  5. The "Undisputed Fact" Opening
  6. The "Question" Opening
  7. The "Challenge" Opening

Each of the "opening" methods are employed at different times depending on my objectives and which one I used most recently.

I try to 'mix them up' a bit so that I don't use the same ones over and over again. Eventually my readers will catch on to the methods I'm using and they will become less effective - or maybe not :-)


1. The "Obvious Adams" Subject Line

Did you get a chance to read "Obvious Adams" by Robert Updegraff yet? I mentioned it in a previous Lesson. Wasn't that a great book? If you haven't read it I highly recommend you do.

The theme of the book is one key to marketing and advertising any kind of product: Don't use anything but a very straightforward approach to advertising and marketing. If you have something to sell, tell people what it is, plainly and simply by uncovering facts, and being 'real' with them.

One story in the book describes and sums up what the "Obvious" Adams approach was to business, marketing and advertising (the emphasis is mine). A reporter is interviewing Mr. Adams in this pasage:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Obvious" Adams on Marketing, Advertising and Business:

"I just did what occurred to me naturally after I had thought things over. There is no credit coming to me. I couldn't help it", said Mr Adams.

"Well," (the reporter) pressed, "why don't more business men do the
obvious then? The men in your office say, that they often spend hours trying to figure out what you are going to propose after they have decided what they think is the obvious thing to be done. And yet you fool them repeatedly."

Adams smiled and said, "Well, ...I have given considerable thought to that very question, and I have decided that picking out the obvious thing
presupposes analysis, and analysis presupposes thinking, and I guess Professor Zueblin is right when he says that...

"thinking is the hardest work many people ever have to do, and they don't like to do any more of it than they can help"

They look for a royal road through some short cut in the form of a clever scheme or stunt, which they call the obvious thing to do, but calling it doesn't make it so.

They don't gather all the facts and then analyze them before deciding what really is the obvious thing, and thereby they overlook the first and most obvious of all business principles. Nearly always that is the difference between the small business man and the big, successful one.

Many small business men have an aggravated case of business astigmatism which could be cured if they would do the obvious thing of calling in some business specialist to correct their vision and give them a true view of their own business and methods. And that might be said of a lot of big businesses, too."

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This one line says a lot, "They look for a royal road through some short cut in the form of a clever scheme or stunt which they call the obvious thing to do, but calling it doesn't make it so".

Too many email marketers are trying clever stunts to get people to open their email, when it's obvious they don't work.

The other significant line in this passage is "thinking is the hardest work many people ever have to do, and they don't like to do any more of it than they can help."

THINKING is absolutely necessary for your success. Not just any kind of thinking... I'm talking about a specific type of thinking. And Lesson 6 is devoted to this important subject. But for now we need to carefully consider what it means in the context of creating the subject line of your email.

Look at the "Subject" lines of my email messages above. Nothing really CLEVER... they match the message of the body of the email, state it simply and plainly and succinctly.

No overstatement or clever use of words is necessary here.

Why not?

If people are interested in the subject they will click and read your email. Period. If you try to 'trick' them into reading your email by using a 'clever' subject line it will backfire on you. Don't use misleading or 'clever' subject lines. That's my advice. You might get your email opened but when the subscriber sees the message has nothing to do with your subject line they will be very upset and send you nasty emails, un-subscribe and tell everyone they know what a creep you are.

How do I know? I've tried 'clever' subject lines. They don't work. If you're into 'pain' and 'rejection' and 'poverty', then go ahead and try it.

Ok?

If they are not interested in the subject of your email they will ignore it...but that's ok...

I have found that some people will keep all my email messages and refer to them weeks and months after they were sent. So if they don't get opened right away by your subscribers, don't worry they may be opened later, much later.

The majority of your subscribers (that is, the majority of subscribers who even receive your message) will either open them right away - if they are interested - or ignore them completely and delete them.

You job is to stay on target with the message. You know it's not going to appeal to every single one of your subscribers but that's OK...

If they don't open your message on "starting a membership site" today, they may tomorrow when you write about getting the "number 1 spot on Google". And when you write about "starting a membership site" in another month or two, their circumstances may have changed and they might be interested in that subject then.

It all depends on a number of factors - most of them way beyond your control. What are those factors? Well we kind of talked about one of them already, "Mood"... the other one is "Timing".

More than anything else, getting your emails opened and read depends on the Mood of your subscriber and the Timing of your emails.

These two factors are totally out of your control.

"Mood" simply means how they are feeling at the very minute your email reaches their in-box. Are they OPEN and RECEPTIVE at that moment... or have they experienced some distressful news or been yelled at by their boss (or spouse)? Did they just chip their tooth and get upset?

There are a thousands things that could have affected their mood just prior to opening your mail.

If their mood is UN-RECEPTIVE at that precise moment, it doesn't mean they are not interested in your offer forever. That's why I say you need to send your offer multiple times - you just never know what mood your subscribers will be in the precise moment your email is received!

"Timing" simply means when your email is received during the day... if it's received at all. In addition to "mood" there is timing... timing includes factors such as:

  • ...how overcrowded the subscribers' email box is;
  • ...IF your message even gets delivered at all;
  • ...how the subscriber sorts and prioritizes their messages;
  • ...which one's they delete first or last;

  • when the email is delivered: night, day, mid-morning, mid-day, etc...; and
  • ...many more factors... some of which may be controlled by you... some not controlled by you.

Some of the timing factors you cannot control are the existence and settings of a subscribers spam filters or their ISP's spam filter settings.

Another factor beyond your control is the way the subscriber prioritizes their emails... do they sort them by 'received' date or by 'subject'?... then how do they delete their messages?

Do they simply select all messages that were received yesterday and delete them (your message was in yesterday's pile!) because they didn't have time to check their box and ONLY read TODAY'S messages?

Another 'timing' factor has to do with lost packets. Never heard of "lost packets"? My ISP, Adelphia Communications, estimates they lose 5%, and sometimes as much as 10% of all messages sent through their network!

That's 5% to 10% of ALL YOUR EMAILS... getting LOST! I've seen 'lost packet' statistics for other major ISP's and they range from as low as 1% to as high as 17%(!), depending on different times of the day and day of the week. Lost packets are especially high when networks are at HIGH capacity nationwide.

Can you do anything about that? No.

So what can you control?

You CAN control the time your message gets delivered - most of the time. I have tested this and I get the best response when I send my messages between 11:30 AM and 2:30 PM EST.

Do I always send during those times? No. But I should follow my own advice. Sometimes I miss that window, and rather than send nothing at all I send my mail later in the day.

Why is this the best time?

I'm not really sure, but email deliveries during that time seem to be slower than other times of the day, so maybe I have much less competition in my subscribers email box for their attention and network stress levels are lower so packet losses are much lower at that time of the day too.

So the lesson here is keep the subject line 'obvious'... don't use clever lines, etc... make the subject of your message clear and then keep the body of your message on target.

Let's look at some more opening sentence methods to get your message read, once it has been opened.

2. The "Personal Story Opening"

This opening simply means that you include some personal note about yourself in the opening sentence with the objective being that everyone likes to do business with a 'real' person.

In one of the messages above I stated in the opening,

"What a week... my computer monitor blew out and my printer is spitting out garbage... "

Here's a few more examples of this type of opening:

"Before I got involved in Internet marketing, I was a collector and dealer in rare books. I started in 1979... and in my mind it is a nearly the "Perfect" part-time or full-time business!"

If you're on my email list you've seen this opening more than once ;-)

It's short ... but more importantly, it reminds my subscribers that I'm a 'real person' behind these messages they are getting.

Sometimes I talk about my kids or something else about my personal life that's brief and not too revealing. It adds a touch of warmth, which some subscribers need to make them more receptive to my messages.

The key to the success of this opening is too make it brief... one short sentence is all you need.


3. The "What's New" Story Opening

This opening means you share with you subscribers something you've just discovered, experienced or were asked about lately.

In one of the email above I open with :

I came across Michael P. Rasmussen's "How To Start A Profitable Membership Site" today ...

Here's a few more examples of this type of opening I've used:

This is a quick note! I just found this! This guy has made as much as $60,000 in a single month from ClickBank and shows YOU how to do it, step-by-step...

--------------------------------------------------

This weekend a subscriber asked me what I "read" and what I would recommend to help them learn how to sell on the Internet like I do...

--------------------------------------------------

Someone asked me about how to setup a system if you're selling a digital product such as an ebook and you want to use PayPal.

--------------------------------------------------

I have been on an amazing quest... and I want to tell you what I've been up to and what I found!

--------------------------------------------------

I just found this today and it is great!! (and FREEE!)

It's called, "Sales Guard CB-Download Protection Software for Clickbank"

--------------------------------------------------

Recently someone asked me, "Are there any tips or advice you could offer on how find a good business opportunity on the Internet?"

SUPER-SALES TIP: All those emails you get from subscribers asking you questions can be used to generate the next day's email message! It saves you the work of figuring out what to write about! Save the question, save your response and find an appropriate affiliate program to plug into the message! It's just like painting-by-numbers!



4. The Build-Up or "What's Coming" Opening

This opening prepares the subscriber for what you are going to offer them in the future. You will find this a VERY VALUABLE tool in selling online. This is essential if you're selling a high priced product that's $300 or more.

In most cases I have substantially increased my response rates to certain products by alerting my subscribers that the product may be available at some future date... so they can "keep an eye out for it".

I'm sure you've seen this type of opening now, but when I first wrote about it in December of 2003 it was rarely used.

This type of opening does several important things... it builds anticipation and it can help gauge interest in the product before you even created it!

In some cases I've requested that anyone interested in the product simply send a blank email to me using a special "email address" such as "blog_project@infoproductlab.com" or "ebay_project@inforpodctlab.com", etc.

The email address is specially coded and sent to an autoresponder with a brief reply message being sent back to the person who responded.

I view my autoresponder and see how many messages I received at that address to determine the level of interest that subject, project or product has received from subscribers. This is a way to 'segment' your list into smaller lists that is HIGHLY responsive to offers that are targeted to them.

As far as I know this method of email marketing is not unique, but I have found very, very few smaller email marketers using it (marketers with lists of 50,000 or less).

You can use this method even if you only have a few hundred subscribers... simply ask your subscribers which projects you are planning interest them the most, and ask them to respond to a certain email address.

Once you have determined what they are interested in you can send HIGHLY TARGETED offers to JUST that small segment of you list and get DRAMATICALLY HIGHER responses.

You can also use this method to determine WHAT PRODUCTS you should be developing.

Here's an email I sent to my list to see which projects they would be the most interested in getting more information about. It worked beautifully! I got hundreds of responses in each category and it helped me to determine which of the projects I should probably pursue based on the responses I got.

--------------------------------------------------

Subject: what projects am I working on now?

----

Hi,

A subscriber asked me yesterday:

"What kind of projects are you working on right now?
In other words, what do you think is the 'next big thing'
on the Internet?"

I don't mind revealing the projects I'm working on... but
obviously some 'details' are left out until they are
finalized.

Also, I don't have a 'crystal ball' - but since I live, eat
and breath what happens online I do have a pretty good feel
for where trends are headed.

But, I thought you might be interested in my answer to this
subscriber's question so I'm going to repeat it below for you.

I'm also going to include an email address you can send a blank
email to get progress updates on each of my projects as I
work on them. I probably won't mention them here again, so if
you have an interest in one or more projects send me an email
for quick updates.

There's no charge to get the updates.. I'll just tell you what's
happening with it and how it's progressing, road blocks I've hit,
successes, etc. You might find it useful to see how projects
go from my head to actually making money :-)

Ok? Here goes:

Projects I'm currently investing time, energy and money on:

-----
Blogs:: Blogs fascinate me. Are they what the
Internet was supposed to be: A personal publishing
machine/network? I don't know, but they are interesting.
Allan Says started a blog at
http://www.instantgurublog.com

The question I'm working on: Is there MONEY to be made
in 'blogging'... from what I've seen so far, there is, BUT
you need to have an extremely tight focus and without
giving away too many of the secrets Jason reveals in
http://www.webfindz.com/goldblog.html there are many
ways to profit - many that I never would have thought of.

My project and my own interest is in creating a blog for
increasing my publishing profits as well as producing a
report on the subject of making* mon*ey with blogs. My
brother is 'blog crazy' and we had a long discussion
about it over the weekend.

I'm almost ready to take the plunge myself for one reason:
The directories that list blogs are incredibly EASY to get
into at this point. There's even a 'search engine' that
does nothing but 'index' blogs and so the chances of getting
found are very, very good. What that means is that if you
have a niche 'focus' for your blog you could be getting
traffic to it in as little as a day or two! How easy was it
to get indexed by Google in 1996-1998?? - pretty easy.
That's how it is now with getting your blog indexed...
if you start now - 12 months from now, it may be too late.

Another reason to blog: People are 'crazy' over reading blogs.
I forgot now where I read this but it said: there are more
blog readers than there are blogs!

In addition to the above: I firmly believe that 'email' as a
form of marketing may be permanently harmed by sp*a*m. Most
blogging software now allows you to automatically notify your
readers when a new post was created using xml... this may
be the only why to market effectively on the Internet in the
future. Finding a business model using blogging is my #1
project right now.

For updates on this project email me at:
blog-project@infoproductlab.com

-------
Website Traffic:: Finding the 'holy grail' of the Internet-
focused, targeted traffic! I've tried everything you can think
of and my traffic has steadily grown over the years, but it has
not been due to 'tricks' or many of the traffic 'gadgets' I've
seen being sold on the Internet.

My basic traffic methods are pretty simple and boring: Word
of mouth, being visible on major discussion boards and trying
to be helpful to everyone who emails me with a question.

My own SEO methods are almost non-existent. I decided a long
time ago I would not chase the search engines because they
constantly change the rules of the game. But... I am trying
out something that is very, very s^ex^y... it may be
exactly the 'holy grail' of traffic I've been looking for,
http://www.webfindz.com/powertraffic.html

But I will not be using it the way they suggest for one major
reason:

1. I know that the majority of my really targted traffic comes
from bookmarks and links from other sites. FACT: Less than 7%
of all Internet traffic you receive will come directly from
'search terms' entered into a search engine.

I'm testing the program now and I have a few ideas how it could
be used much more effectively. One test I'm conducting is to use
this program to create feeder sites to my own sites... another
is to generate high quality, targeted reciprocal link sites that
DO get indexed by Google...
http://www.webfindz.com/te.html

For updates on this project email me at:
traffic-project@infoproductlab.com

---------
eBay :: A centralized market with millions of registered users!
I got my start on the Internet selling on ebaY. First I sold rare
books, then I sold entire websites...

The sale of 'websites' on ebay has hit an all-time low. At one
time I could have sold an original developed (not a template) site
for $500-$1,000. Although they took a long time to make, a sale
is a sale... I couldn't get those kinds of prices anymore.

Where are the hot markets on ebay now? There are actually a lot
of them, but not one's I'm interested in pursuing. ebaY is a very
tough market for information publishers. Ebooks are selling for
peanuts. Entire websites are selling for $20!

I still use it for generating leads, which is probably the best
way to use ebaY right now for info-publishers, but another InfoLab
member has found a very interesting way to use ebaY (among other
lead generating systems) to create a dynamic viral backend money
making system that made him a 'extra' $46,538 last year,
http://www.strongmarket.com/viral.html

I think this is VERY smart... use ebay for lead generation and
create multiple backend sales.

My ebaY 'project' (if you can call it that) for is to
create 'keyword' rich listings that get found by the 'right'
prospects who then bid on simple CD-rom or DVD products I create.
Nothing fancy, just solid products with a niche focus.

For updates on this project email me at:
ebay-project@infoproductlab.com


Well, I could list another 5 or 6 projects I'm working
on right now, but space is limited here... so I'll continue in
the next issue!

Best wishes always for your success,

-Dave
http://www.infoproductlab.com
--------------------------------------------------

You'll notice I used the "The 'What's New' Story Opening" in this email :-) and a very simple, 'obvious' subject line.

You'll also notice that I include several of my 'affiliate links' in this message, but the response and sales were dismal. I may have received one or two sales from the links, but that wasn't really the purpose of the email. The purpose was to determine which of my subscribers had an interest in which of my projects.

The response to my request to get 'updates' was amazing. I was able to create a number of smaller lists which were highly responsive to targeted offers. This is very diferent than a 'survey' of your members because you are asking them to 'raise their hand' about their interest in a specific project.

In other words, you're not asking their opinion about it, just whether they are interested in getting more information about it.

Here are some other ways to use this. You can use it in the opening or toward the closing of your email. The effect is that you are building anticipation for what's coming, to keep your subscribers alert and interested in your next email:

--------------------------------------------------

Next time we will be discussing:
+ How to "Develop a RELATIONSHIP with your Ezine subscribers" and;
+ How To "Send them APPROPRIATE offers that will APPEAL to them"

--------------------------------------------------

Tomorrow:
.... some killer info that will make a huge difference in your online business so stay tuned...

--------------------------------------------------

When I use this method, I tend to get higher response rates to the email message I send after these 'alerts'.

But I don't use it as often as I should because in most cases I don't know what I'm going to write about the next day!

But you don't have to be like me... you can write a series of email messages that are all planned out ahead of time.

The only reason I write each message new each day is that I find that my messages are better if I create them 'fresh' that day... I don't know why except that maybe, just maybe, my subscribers know that's it's 'fresh' and current and up to date, so they are more likely to open and read it. I've told them I do not include their name in a follow-up autoresponder ... each message they receive was created the day it was sent.

That doesn't mean I don't 're-use' older messages and create each message from scratch... I DO re-use messages, but I also edit them slightly to make them appear to be written that day. It saves a lot of time and there are certain days I just don't know what to write about! So I go through messages I sent a month or more ago and bring them back to life :-).. I edit them a little and send it out.

I do not use autoresponders and long term, automated follow-up messages. We'll talk more about why I don't use them, and why it's probably more effective than using long-term follow-up autoresponders in Lesson 5.


5. The "Un-disputed Fact" Opening

This is a reliable method I tend to use occasionally. Basically you start your email message with a fact or statement that would be almost impossible to refute or, at least, can be backed-up with solid proof.

The idea here is to get the subscriber to 'nod' his head and say to himself, "Yes, that's true" and hopefully agree with everything else you say in the email... all the way down to the order link! :-)

Here are a few examples of this in action:

--------------------------------------------------
One of the easiest way to make money online is
to find a niche that no one else is targeting.

--------------------------------------------------

Re-publishing public domain information is the hottest
business opportunity to come along in the last 10 years.

--------------------------------------------------

Writing sizzling sales copy sells products. Paint a
picture with *words* that 'move' your prospects
and your sales will SOAR...

--------------------------------------------------

You have to be a little careful about this kind of opening though. If you make a statement that is easily disputed or is just your opinion you'll have a low response. It should be something universally true or perceived to be universally true.

And, after you make the statement you must be prepared to BACK IT UP with facts, figures or PROOF that your statement is true.

It's too easy for your subscriber to say, after reading your opening, "Yeah, who says so?" and delete or ignore the rest of your message. So use with caution.

You could also use a common complaint or common gripe or an acknowledged truth you've seen people write about on the various forums as the opening. It's almost as good as a news headline.

It's just another weapon in your email marketing arsenal and it's a good one to use if the situation calls for it.


6. The "Question" Opening

This is a very reliable method that I tend to use very frequently. Basically you start your email message with a question that leads the subscriber right into the message body to 'discover' the 'answer'.

The point of this opening is to lead your subscribers right into your message, and NOT to reveal the answer until the END of your message...

It's extremely effective because you can include some 'pure' info, some good advice in the body of the message which gives the reader the impression it's not a sales pitch. Of course the sales pitch doesn't come until the end of the message after the subscriber has already read the entire message, essentially hooking them and ordering the product or service that you recommend before they know what hit them ;-)

It works very well and response rates are better than almost any other opening method I use.

Here are a few examples of this kind of opening:

--------------------------------------------------

Hi [Name],

How can you increase your sales, with fewer visitors?

--------------------------------------------------

Hi [Name],
You know how I make my money on the Internet?

--------------------------------------------------

Hi [Name],

How powerful are using the *right* words
when trying to sell on the Internet?

--------------------------------------------------

Hi [Name],

Would you do me a favor?

--------------------------------------------------

Hi [Name],

You want to cash-in on a very h o t new market
created ....T O D A Y?

--------------------------------------------------

Hi [Name],


Is Public Domain info the NEXT big Internet niche for
information products?

--------------------------------------------------

Hi [Name],

Today's message is very short and to the point.

Do you ever find yourself scratching your head when
trying to figure out how to "make your fortune online"?

--------------------------------------------------

Hi [Name],

Do you believe a single idea could make you rich?

--------------------------------------------------

Hi [Name],

How can you use ebaY to generate a ton of FREEE traffic
to your website??

--------------------------------------------------

Hi [Name],

How many ways can you think of to start a viral
marketing campaign for the many affiliate programs
you're promoting?

--------------------------------------------------

Here's a highly effective example of how this kind of opening slowly turns into a sales pitch, without the reader even knowing what's happening :) It's the kind of message Jonathon Mizel calls a "slippery slope"...

--------------------------------------------------

Subject: how to make $21,000 in the next few weeks

----

Hi [Name]

Do you believe a single idea could make you rich?

Here's a method that makes ordinary people Millionaires.

Ready? Let's go...

Think about the products and services your company has to
offer.

Here's the $21,000 idea:

You can bring them to a non-competing business and
arrange for them to make an endorsed mailing to their
existing database.

Your company splits the profits with their new business
partner and you get a percentage of all the sales this
idea produces...

That's the POWER of a single idea...

Having a company endorse someone else's product has an
extremely powerful effect on the customer by making it
more compelling for them to want to buy.

Let's say your company creates safety videos and sells
them for $49.00 ($40.00 profit each). They could easily
approach companies in their local and/or nearby cities and
ask them to do an endorsed mailing to their database of
customers.

The host company can send a letter or email to all their
customers -a letter testifying to how important they thought
this video was that they just "had" to let all their valuable
clients know about it. They could even say they arranged a
special discount just for them.

If your company contacted 20 companies each with a 5,000 name
customer list they would have 100,000 potential new customers
they did not have access to before.

If only 10% of those customers bought the video that would be
10,000 videos x $35 profit (which includes the discount)
equals $350,000.00 in new profits.

Your profit? A royalty of 6% would pay you $21,000.00!!!

Now what is this idea really worth to you...?

And all you had to do was just supply the idea - that's it!!
It did not cost you a single dime. It's so simple you can do
it this week!

The host company would make $175,000 just for sending out an
email.

Your company would have $154,00.00 more than they had before
all by just getting someone else to send an email recommending
their product (the $175,000 minus your Royalty of $21,000).

How many more times a year do you think your company would do
that again? They made a whopping profit with very little effort.
They'll go all over the country with this kind of result.

Thanks to the Internet, they can go world wide!

Now you can understand how valuable money-making ideas like this
really are?

This one idea alone is all you ever need to be Financially Free
the rest of your Life. Every time you use this idea again you
will make another royalty.

Isn't it any wonder why Millionaires keep this a secret?

Now that I've given you an idea worth at least $21,000.00 which
can be used literally thousands of times, wouldn't you like to
know the exact steps to make it happen for you this week?

Then click below now and download your copy of "Creating Wealth
From Ideas" for only $27!!

http://www.webfindz.com/ideas.html
<a href="http://www.webfindz.com/ideas.html">
...order click here</a>

Start generating royalties (passive income!) from your ideas!

Having your ideas create royalties and wealth for you is a better
than being in "business". You aren't tied down to an office,
employees or making 'payroll'. You're really freee!

The bonuses alone are worth over $800! No BS, this is some of the
most powerful wealth generating stuff I have ever seen,

http://www.webfindz.com/ideas.html
<a href="http://www.webfindz.com/ideas.html">
...order click here</a>

That's all the news for now,

-Dave
http://www.infoproductlab.com

--------------------------------------------------

You can use this for a lot of products and affiliate programs. It combines good info with a sales pitch for a product that works. This method has generated more sales for me than all the other one's combined... it's that powerful.


7. The "Challenge" Opening

This open is very difficult to craft correctly and can easily backfire on you.

The problem is your subscribers may see it as a 'threat' (gheesh, some people are really sensitive!).. that's why in the message below I state, "I want to challenge you... but don't get nervous this is a totally 'friendly' challenge :-)"

But, aside from these precautions, it's highly effective.

Number one, it showcases a product that you have a lot of faith in, enough faith in fact that you 'challenge' anyone to find a better one!

The "challenge" alone is proof in the minds of you subscribers that it must be the best around.. no questions asked... if it wasn't the 'best' you wouldn't make the challenge!

Number two, in order for anyone to beat the 'challenge they have to BUY the product :-) and then compare it to all the other products they've purchased!

Number three, I get responses from subscribers who 'take the challenge' and share with me some great books that maybe I missed that are even better than the one I'm using in the challenge.

This is GOOD, because if a subscriber DOES find something even better, I can PROMOTE (assuming they have an affiliate program) it to the entire list as "THE BOOK THAT BEAT THE CHALLENGE!"... !

I will then be able to make a ton more money by continually promoting the "CHALLENGE book and the new "BOOK THAT BEAT THE CHALLENGE!"... on and on, with any new contenders getting a plce in the "FINALS" -- it's an endless cycle!

I made a lot of money from this 'challenge' email... and used correctly you will too.

Let's take a look at an example at this type of opening and the entire email sent:

--------------------------------------------------

Subject: the best Internet Marketing ebook challenge ... will you take it ?

---

Hi Dave,

I want to challenge you... but don't get nervous
this is a totally 'friendly' challenge :-)

As you already know, I sell a lot of products and services
on the Internet.

My best day ever was $4,870. I've had a lot of days that
have come very close to that, and days that I barely made a few
dollars... but in the end I MAKE MONEY now every month...
enough to pay the upkeep on 2 homes, feed a family of 6, send
2 of my sons to private school and stash away a few thousand
each month for retirement :-)

But it wasn't always like that. For the first 2 1/2 years I
was online I never made more than $1,000 a month. Most months
I made less than $500 ... I couldn't even pay my mortgage with
what I made online!!

Then I read just one book that changed my entire life... in
the month that I read this book I went from $487 in earnings
(the previous month) to earning $9,398 in the current month in
my online business.

No BS, no crap... it's 100% true.

I kid you not... this is the most powerful book that NO ONE is
promoting because it's... well I don't think they WANT you to
know about it... but I do. I want you to know about it.

If you want to learn quickly how to REALLY sell on the Internet
there is one (YES, REALLY only ONE ebook) that I recommend for
novice and experienced marketers alike. There are other ebooks
I do recommend, but none of them have the pure raw, money-making
power that this one does:

How To Become A Global Internet Tycoon =>
http://www.TycoonBook.com/

I honestly don't like the title... but the information
is incredible... it's 100% solid info, and NO filler.

It's my personal 'Internet Marketing Bible' and I use it
every single day for guidance and inspiration and strategy.

I kid you not, this book completely turned my LIFE around =>

http://www.TycoonBook.com/
<A href="http://www.TycoonBook.com/">Or click here!</a>

OK? Ready... here's the challenge:

----------- TAKE THIS CHALLENGE!! -------------------------
I challenge ANYONE to show me a BETTER ebook on Internet
marketing, anywhere EVER written, by ANYONE for the price.

TAKE MY CHALLENGE!!

Email me at: challenge@infoproductlab.com
to tell me about a book that's BETTER than this one!
If I think you're right (I'm the sole judge :) you'll
get a free mention of your website in this letter that goes
out to over 8,000 loyal subscribers like you! You will get
a ton a traffic and, if you're selling anything, you're
almost guaranteed to make a few more sales :-)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Good luck... and PLEASE send me those entries!! The first
person who sends info on an ebook and I think it's better than
this one will get a free mention of their website in this letter
that goes out to over 8,000 loyal subscribers like you! You
will get a ton a traffic and hopefully make some sales for free!

NOTE: Send just the URL to the book sales page please, don't
send me a copy of the book... I'll buy it myself :)

BTW- Forget "The Whole Truth", "33 Days", "Google Cash" and most
of the 'popular' guru ebooks our there... I already decided How
To Become An Internet Tycoon has them beat by a mile :-) Also
don't send me ebooks that are filled with affiliate links or
books that are 400+ pages long...

I'm only looking for SOLID info, packed into a powerful package
that can be read in a day and something that hasn't been beaten
to death because EVERYONE is promoting it...

Hey, I told you it would be a challenge :-)

-Dave
http://InfoProductLab.com

--------------------------------------------------


At the end of the email I remind them again that it is a "challenge".

One additional caution: The book or software program or whatever it is you are using as the "Challenger" in your email better be darn good... darn good.

I had a number of subscribers tell me the "Challenge" was fun... they really got into it!

I would get emails from subscribers every day telling me I should check out this book or that book. Some of the books were pretty good and I ended becoming an affiliate and selling them to subscribers in future emails. So my subscribers ended up being like an army of 'scouts' for me, finding me great new products I can promote!

It was fun for me too :-)

Where 80% of Your Income Will Come From...

...your email list. There's no doubt that if you only have a web site, and NO list you're not going to make much money let alone make your living on the Internet.

Hey, right now email marketing is almost free... there's no cost to send emails. But, it won't always be that way.

The time to build your list is NOW... it's also a good reason to build small, but highly responsive lists. I predict that eventually it's going to cost money to send an email for commercial purposes. Maybe it will only be 1/10 th of one cent per email, but someone, maybe the government, maybe the Microsoft machine, somebody... will find way to charge you for it. You'll probably have to apply for a 'bulk email permit' like you do for a 'bulk mail' permit from the postal service.

You don't have to take my word for it... there's lots on information about it on the Internet. In the not to distant future, you'll be paying for all those emails you're going to be sending to subscribers, so you better make sure your emails are highly effective sales vehicles.



How Much Can You Make (Part 2)

I send 5-6 email messages to my subscribers every week.

You would think that I get a lot of 'un-subscribes'... I don't.

At least I don't think I get a lot - it's just my opinion but I get one or two day un-subs... that's it.

But I have a list with almost 9,000 subscribers. And I get 20-100 new subscribers a day (sometimes more), using exactly the technics I showed you in Lesson 2.

So I defintely have a net gain of subscribers each day and not a net loss.

Now out of those 5-6 messages 4-5 are selling a product or service and only one is 'pure info', advice, news, etc... with no sales pitch.

So, it would seem that I would get more than my share of un-subscribes wouldn't it? I mean every day my subscribers are getting a sales pitch, except one or two.

I think a lot of people are afraid to send a message everyday to their subscribers with a sales pitch in it. I'm not. I used to be... but not anymore.

I used to 'believe' that if I started sending daily messages to my subscribers they would all gang up and lynch me!

I took a chance. Remember I told you that you needed to be 'fearless' when it comes to marketing online? Well I went through the same anxieties and fears you do when trying to promote your products... but I set aside my fears and I took a chance... and it worked!

I started emailing my list every day, pitching my own products and some affiliate programs. Nothing happened - I mean they didn't lynch me ;-)

One person complained if I recall - but even he said he wasn't going to 'un-subscribe' just because I sent him 11 sales pitches in a row! He still liked to read my messages(!)... But that was all he said.

After doing this while I realized it didn't matter (except to your income) if you mail once a week, once a month or everyday. The only change I made to my marketing and ads was I let everyone know that when they subscribe to my ezine they will get messages "daily".

I can predict now within a few thousand dollars how much income I will generate in a given month. Each one of my subscribers is worth $2-$3 each if I mail to them 5-6 times a week. If I mailed to them less often I would make less money.

Simple, uh?

Some months each subscriber on my list geneated $4 or more in income...each.

It also doesn't seem to matter what day of the week I mail them... only the time of the day, as I mentioned earlier.

There is very little email, of a commercial nature, sent out on Sunday. But I send out sales messages on Sunday and I get good response rates. The only day that doesn't seem to be very good for responses is Monday.

So Monday is the day I generally send my 'pure info' letters (the one's with no sales pitches :-)


What You Need At Least 2 Low-Priced and 2 High Priced Products Of your Own To Make Your Living Online

When you start to promote products and services you need 2 low-priced products (under $100) to promote and 2 higher priced (over $100).

Why?

The low-priced products will naturally appeal to a certain type of subscriber who just will not spend money on high priced products and your higher priced and premium products will appeal to an entirely different type of subscriber.

If you only had low-priced products you be missing out on a lot of profits... because you will always have subscribers on your list that want a 'premium' product.

If you only sell high-priced products you will also leave a lot of profits on the table because some of your subscribers will not be able to afford them or even desire them.

So you need to both low-priced and high-priced products that appeal to both groups. Eventually some of the subscribers who purchased your low-priced products will want to 'step-up' to a higher priced and premium product from you, and if you don't offer one you'll be missing a large share of potential profits that could be yours.

Let's take look at the numbers:

In a given month you can promote one of your own unique products once each week before response rates start to drop. In other words, you can't promote you own products day-in, day-out... your list will get tired of you promoting your own products every day and response will plummet.

There are exceptions to this, but in general, you cannot promote the same product more than once each month. So you'll need at least 4 of your own products and at least 16 different affiliate products to promote each month (I'll explain why in a minute).

So let's say you have your own digital products or a product you have semi-exclusive rights to where you get 100% of the profits on each sale. This is fairly important. You'll need those kinds of profit margins to make your living online. The rest of the products you promote will be affiliate products earning you anywhere from 30% (minimum) to 70%. Unless the product is really good, I generally do not promote a product with a commission of less than 50% and the selling price is less than $19.95.

I prefer affiliate products that sell between $29 and $49 or higher because the commissions, in terms of dollars earned, will be higher.

Let's say you have four products... 2 you created yourself and 2 you purchased the Master rights too:

Product A is priced at $27 (my product)

Product B is priced at $49 (an affiliate product)

Product C is priced at $295, and (my product)

Product D is priced at $497 (an affiliate product)

The way I do it, is I promote Product A in week 1 of each month, Product C in week 2, Product B in week 3 and Product D in week 4. In this way I alternate a low-priced product with a high priced product each week.


What Is A 'Marketing Calendar' and Why It's Critical To Your Success.

A "Marketing Calendar" is similiar to an 'editorial calendar' that a magazine publisher would use to determine the major focus of their publication over the period of a year.

For example, a typical consumer magazines' editorial calendar would inlude an issue on "Easter/Mother's Day" in April, "Summer Fun" in June & July a "Fall" issue in September, a "Christmas/Holiday" issue in December, etc...

A "marketing and sales calendar" has a shorter time frame... one month. For a typical month (starting on "Monday" instead of Sunday) would look like this:


WEEK 1:   WEEK 2:  
Day 1 - Monday "Pure" Newsletter Day 1 - Monday "Pure" Newsletter
Day 2 - Tuesday Affiliate Promotion Day 2 - Tuesday Affiliate Promotion
Day 3 - Wednesday Product A Promotion Day 3 - Wednesday Affiliate Promotion
Day 4 - Thursday Affiliate Promotion Day 4 - Thursday Affiliate Promotion
Day 5 - Friday Affiliate Promotion Day 5 - Friday Product C Promotion
Day 6 - Saturday Day off... Day 6 - Saturday Affiliate Promotion
Day 7 - Sunday Affiliate Promotion Day 7 - Sunday Day off..

WEEK 3:   WEEK 4:  
Day 1 - Monday "Pure" Newsletter Day 1 - Monday "Pure" Newsletter
Day 2 - Tuesday Affiliate Promotion Day 2 - Tuesday Affiliate Promotion
Day 3 - Wednesday Affiliate Promotion Day 3 - Wednesday Affiliate Promotion
Day 4 - Thursday Affiliate Promotion Day 4 - Thursday Product D Promotion
Day 5 - Friday Product B Promotion Day 5 - Friday Affiliate Promotion
Day 6 - Saturday Day off... Day 6 - Saturday Affiliate Promotion
Day 7 - Sunday Affiliate Promotion Day 7 - Sunday Day off..


The days I promote my own, exclusive products are my 'bread and butter' days, because I make 80% of my income for the month on those days. That's why I told you in the last Lesson that if you have you own products you can make a lot more money...

The rest of the calendar days are filled with affiliate promotions and the 'pure info' newsletter I send out.

So why not just create a lot of your own products and sell only your own products? Why get involved in selling affiliate programs at all if you make more money selling your own products?

Good question!

As I create more products I promote them less frequently, maybe once every other month instead of once each month. This I found has boosted response. But even more important than that is the amount of customer service issues that come up when selling your own products.

I mentioned earlier that I love affiliate programs because I don't have to provide customer service!

Now, if you want to build a large organization with customer service reps and all the headaches that come with "employees" and "overhead" then go ahead... I wish you the best of luck. I've run small businesses with employees and overhead and I didn't care for it.

I would much rather do what I'm doing - completely independent, making a large income with virtually no overhead and free! Using this type of marketing calendar I can clear $10,000 to $35,000 a month and only have to provide customer service on 4 products... I can handle that.

If I had 20 of my own products being sold in any given month I may gross more money but I would have to hire a full-time customer service person to handle customer emails!

I choose not to do that... you can choose whatever you like, I'm just sharing with you the reasons I don't promote my own products everyday.

That doesn't mean I stop creating new products... NO! It also doesn't mean I don't want to make more money!

No! I'm showing you the 'bread and butter' methods that help me make a good living on the Internet... in Lesson 5 we're going to talk about getting RICH.

In Lesson 5 I'm going to show you several incredible ways to make a lot of money with your own products without ANY customer service issues (or very little).

Ok... back to our marketing calendar:

Your results are going to vary slightly, but, as a general rule of thumb, for every 1,000 subscribers you have, following the mailing and marketing schedule above and having 3-4 of your own (or semi-exclusive rights to) products to sell, you should be making $2,000- $3,000 a month in net income at a minimum.

Getting a 1,000 subscribers, even 3,000 subscribers shouldn't take you more than a few months if you've followed my advice in Lessons 1-3.

We'll continue this discussion in Lesson 5... but for now let's talk about how you're going to actually accept money over the Internet when you sell your own products.

It's more important than you might think... and full of danger.

How To Take Payments Online Simply And Easily

One of the necessary tools you'll need to make your living online is a processor for taking payments for your products and services.

After all, how do you make money without a way for your customer to pay you?

I use PayPal a lot. My secondary payment processor is now 2checkout.com. I used to use PaySytems.com but in August of 2004 they canceled all Internet payment processing, refused to pay merchants who had payment pending and have blamed it on their processor.

They still owe me $4,651 for sales back in July, 2004. Other Internet marketers were hurt much worse than I was becuase they used PaySystems exclusively. I only used them as a backup processor.

But here's a the funny (not ha ha, but strange) part of that story:

In early July I got calls from my PaySystems representative asking why I didn't use thier servbice more?

I told them I was using PayPal and very happy.

They said they would reduce my merchant fees to 1.95% (a very,very low rate) if I used them more.

I mistakenly took them up on the new rate and said I would use them a bit more.

My mistake.

I processed $4,600 in sales in 2 weeks with them and then they shut down!

As of this writing I have not received a penny. There is pending legal action so I guess I better shut up about this now... I'll keep you posted, but I bet I never see a dollar of that $4k.

I still use PayPal 100% now, but have a real Internet merchant as a back up now.

But PayPal is also full of danger.

You might have heard horror stories about PayPal, shutting down merchants without cause, etc... I don't know about what other people are talking about in the forums, etc. because I've never had those problems with PayPal and I do $10,000 to $40,000 with them every month. I have been with them since 1997 and have had NOT one problem.

PayPal charges just .30 cents + 2.2% or 2.9% depending on where the transaction orginate (in the US or in a foreign country).

But just in case I run into problems with either of these services I have other 'backup' processors.

I hope I never have to use them, but I feel better knowing they are there to keep my cash flow going in case one of my primary payment processors cancels me for no reason (like PaySystems did) or suddenly goes out of business.

My back up 3rd party processors are: ClickBank.com, 2CheckOut.com (2CO), FirePay.com, Emetrix.com and eGold.com, ProPay.com (highly recommended) and Payko.com.


What To Do Now!

Here's what you need to know:

Wow, what a Lesson! You should feel pretty good about getting through this one!

You should also now be feeling a lot more confident about your ability to make your living online... you should be really fired up and ready to make some money!

What to do now:

1) Keep building your list!

2) You should begin looking for one "challenge" product you can promote to your list. It should be the best of the best product you can find. If it's your own product... great! If not, find a really great product you can promote to your list.

As a Training Participant you are free to adapt the "Challenge" email of mine from the section titled, "The Challenge Opening" for your own use. You may not sell it or share it with anyone else, but may modify it anyway you want for your own use.



Next Lesson:

In the next Lesson we're going look deeply into our list to find those hidden nuggets of "extra" profits with your list and we're going to pull everything together to create a WEALTH GENERATING MACHINE so you can become truly RICH, if that's your desire.

Lastly we'll tear apart a 'common myth' about information marketing that is keeping many people from being successful - including you - and we will systematically destroy the one biggest obstacle to your success online or offline so you'll have no barriers to success.



RECOMMENDED RESOURCES FOR THIS LESSON

HIGHLY Recommend Reading Books:

Sizzlemanship: New tested Selling Sentences by Elmer Wheeler. Prentice Hall, 1941. Very highly recommended book.

The Robert Collier Letter Book by Robert Collier. The author sold millions of dollars worth of books, courses and other products by direct mail in the 1920's. Collier stated that a 'picture is worth a thousand words, but a mental picture created through your sales copy, is worth ten thousand pictures' or very close to that. A book prized by serious and experienced direct marketers. Available from the Robert Collier Foundation or here TwiPress.com

Commonsense Direct Marketing, by Drayton Bird. Kogan Page, 2000. A very practical and down to earth book on writing sales copy. Excellent.

Recommend Internet Services/Websites:

http://www.clickbank.com/ :: ClickBank is the most popular and most trusted 3rd party payment processor with a built in affiliate program. When I look for products to sell I use Clickbank Marketplace first.



BONUS LEARNING MATERIALS FOR LESSON 4

"Lost" Masters Of Copywriting (Course)

As many of you know I was a rare book dealer before becoming an Internet marketer. Several years ago I found a "lost" course written by the masters of copwriting from the 1920's with parts of the course written by the greatest copywriter of all time, Claude C. Hopkins! Other contributors were H. Harry Thompson, Joseph Appel, Bruce Barton, J.K. Fraser, Ben Nash, Kenneth Goode and many other notables in the field of copywriting at the time.

This 'rare' course has not been available in digital form until now. I am not done with the process of 'digitizing' the hard copy of the 25 lesson course, but students will receive several Chapters each week for the next 6 weeks until you have in your possession the entire course.

Being able to create copy that persuades people to do what you want them to do YOU HAVE TO LEARN HOW TO WRITE COMPELLING WORDS THAT SELL.

That's a MUST. No "if's", "ands" or "buts".

By the way... this course is NOT available anywhere online... and very, very, few Internet marketers have ever heard of it or even know that it exists. So please let's keep this quiet... and our 'little secret' ok?

Click here to download lessons 1-20 (you got 1-15 last time) of this "lost" copywriting course:

Special BONUS Learning Material!

  • Robert Collier Million Dollar Sales Letters Robert Collier's "The Million Dollar Sales Letters" details 15 letters selected by Collier with brief explanations preceding each letter. These letter generated hundreds of millions of dollars in business.


Next Week:

More Lessons of the Masters of Copywriting course and a SPECIAL BONUS ...stay tuned!

------------------------

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