• Amendment to the PayPal User Agreement

Section 8.5 (Additional Fees) is amended to add a new refund fee. If you refund a Purchase Payment, we will retain the Fixed Fee portion of the Purchase Payment Fee. The buyer’s Account will be credited with the full Purchase Payment amount and the Fixed Fee portion of the Purchase Payment Fee will be deducted from your Account in addition to the amount of the refunded payment. The Fixed Fee will depend on the currency of the Purchase Payment and is listed in 8.4(c).

Can't say I am totally shocked, though I would have preferred to have seen accounts that experience an exceptionally high rate of refunds penalized rather than all of us

We've worked hard to keep our refund rates extremely low over the last few years, even as sales have gone up by a factor of 10X – measures such as…

1.  Gone to higher priced infoproducts where the refund rates are actually quite allot lower

2. Moved to recurring revenue (membership, coaching program and paid X of the month) programs where there is little or no refunds, cancellations may occur for future payments, but requests for refunds are pretty much non-existant

3. Sell physical infoproducts – as long as the quality is good, refund requests are exceptionally low

4. Over-deliver – I like to add surprise bonuses post sale so the customer rarely requests a refund

5. Spread delivery of the product out over 30-90 days where they get the main product right away, an additional bonus after 30-days, a coaching call 45-days later, etc… this both deters fraudsters because they are looking for everything for nothing right away and don't like these periodically delivered programs AND keeps legitimate customers plugged in

6. Finally – if there is an error or a problem with delivery or some aspect of your product (occurs from time to time) – then I make it right by offering additional products, free access to a membership site, etc… quickly – it was our mistake, so we own up and give them more value to make up for the fact which means they likely will not request a refund. 

More fees are never good, but it may be more positive for your business if you think a little about how to lower your refund rate – if you lower your rate by just 1%, then the .30 (depending on currency) fee will be nothing…

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That was before blogging really took off and there were only a few choices, tools like Frontpage or Dreamweaver were hitting the scene to simplify raw html coding, while a handful of html editors allowed the more technically savvy people to quickly launch their website

Then came along a tool called XsitePro – a very simple, graphical tool that let you quickly build professional websites and I was sold.

The best part of XsitePro came AFTER the site was launched.

The folks that build XsitePro have internet marketers and e-commerce knowledge so they focus on two things…

• How to build a site that attracts search engine traffic
• How to monetize your sites to make money

Since then, I have built (and continue to build sites) with XsitePro 2 – now the features available for SEO and monetization are incredible.

Here is a neat video that shows you how to quickly build a site and place different Amazon widgets into the page to earn money from Amazon's affiliate program – all without knowing a single html command!

To get to the video click on the image or simply Start Your Video Here

Of course, you can monetize Xsite Pro sites using Google Adsense, Cost Per Action, Clickbank or various other methods as well – all just as easily as it is to add Amazon widgets.

This video just gives you a sense for how simple, yet powerful Xsite Pro is a website builder.  The sites we build with XsitePro tend to get indexed by Google extremely fast and rank highly for months after we initially put them up.

We have thousands and thousands of pages across some 40 different website domains – we manage all of that with a combination of Xsite Pro for static pages (sales pages, squeeze pages, articles, etc…) and Wordpress for dynamic pages typically via blogs.

When it comes to finding a website building tool our recommendation is that you can build your own online empire using XsitePro and Wordpress – with Membergate being added for membership sites should that be your desire.

For a full list of the tools we use in our online business – visit our Recommended Internet Business Resources here.

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Internet Marketing Frustration

What is the reason that most people get all excited about marketing online but then end up crashing down to earth not earning any real serious money internet marketing?

You may think it is the product they are selling or perhaps the website is not up to par, but those are secondary to one major error that internet entrepreneurs make before they even launch their internet marketing business.

BUSINESS MODELS VS. MARKETING TECHNIQUES

To be successful with internet marketing you need both a viable way to make money AND you need the ability to effectively pull people into your money making funnel…of course this is put in the simplest of terms, but really is the equation for every successful internet business – blog, minisite, e-commerce or website that makes big mony online.

So, let me ask you this?

Is internet marketing a business? 

Yes, internet marketing lends itself to certain business models, but really internet marketing is  the label for all sales and marketing that is done online…which means that you need more, you need a viable business model and internet marketing plan to really make big money.

Indeed, we cover all aspects of building a viable business model as well as internet marketing inside InfoMarketer'sZone – in order for entrepreneurs to build viable , long-term, high-growth businesses that can scale on the internet.   Within the first 30-minutes of training on that site, our most successful members have finally "GOTTEN IT!"  Suddenly, months and sometimes years of frustration are torn away as they realize, for the first time, what it really takes to make money with internet marketing.

Business models define the way you intend to make money.  This typically involves exchanging value for profit. 

Marketing methods are the processes, systems and devices you use to identify, target and convert your market into buyers – in short, your marketing methods bring prospects into your business model – the better you are at this, the more money you will make.

Business models that work on the internet are:

1. Selling your own products or services
2. Sell other people's products or services (affiliate marketing)
3. License products or services
4. Advertising revenue (get paid for eyeballs) – this could be pay-per-click (Adsense), CPA or space advertising

Sure, many of us make money using all 4 of these business models, but…one typically dominates and more important, you can only start with one.

Marketing systems tailored to internet marketing, on the other hand, are all focused at identifying, targeting and bringing traffic to your websites AND converting that traffic into profit. 

How does this appear on most websites? 

You typically have…

1. A page optimized around selling something
2. A page that is optmized around building a list (for the 98% or so of people that do not buy from your webpage on the first visit)
3. Content pages that act as spider webs pulling in traffic from the search engines (articles, blogs, newsletters, social bookmarking, videos, press releases, etc…) which should all lead back to either your selling page or your list building page

The autoresponder fits into the process in #2 – where you continue to "drip" on your list owners until they buy your own or a referred product.

Just as offline businesses have sales processes, strategies and tactics – marketing systems online have their own set of techniques.

The fact remains that you cannot make money internet marketing unless you combine a solid business model (backed by a proven monetization method) with online marketing systems and techniques – get those two things right and you will see your chances of success with internet marketing be near assured

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Do you have a clear picture of what success in your own online business would mean? 

Even more important, do you have a measure of success in the short-term (say 6-months out), medium term (1-2 years out) and longer term (3-5 years out?)

BUSINESS SUCCESS IS A MOVING TARGET

When I first speak with newbie internet marketers or infoproduct writers and publishers they have a goal of what they would like to be earning – for everyone there are different motivations behind these numbers, some have in mind paying off a mortgage or major debt while others want to replace a current job or career, still others have a big number in mind so they can secure their future years. 

Having long-term measures of success is a great thing – shooting to earn $100K with your own internet business to take the place of a current job is a terrific goal and could be quite realistic in a greater than 6-month scenario, but how do we stay motivated, focused and satisfied with our progress in the meantime?

UNDERSTANDING PROFIT…THEN GROWTH

When we start out, everything is on a small scale (unless we buy an existing business).

We have zero traffic, a brand new website, a new product, no or a very small following – sales will be non existent or at least very low.

In the first few months, as traffic builds, our sales process kicks in we can begin to make some early sales and draw some conclusions. 

Let's say your weekly sales have reached $300, and to get those sales you have spent $250 – that is a $50 profit. 

Not bad to start with, because we could scale this model and turn $600 in sales into $100 in profit, $1200 in sales into $200 profit – and so on…

The first important point in building a business  is that we have found a profitable system, we can work with that.  In the beginning, focus on profit NOT on sales

The differences between those people making $300 on $250 investment and those making $3000 o on a $1500 investment are…

1. They have tried more things and found the right combination that produces 50% profit instead of $15% profit

2. They would have started with little or no profit, but continued to change, test and improve their process to triple or even quadruple their profits

3. They have learned something about their market that is much more fundamental – what their market values most which allows them to make $10 for every $5 invested.

4. Having found a system or generating traffic, converting that traffic into profits and improving profit margin over time, they can now scale their business to continually increase sales monitoring profit to make sure it stays in an acceptable range.  This what takes a part-time internet business into a full-time enterprise. 

FAILING TO SUCCEED CANNOT BE AN OPTION

Too many times the people we work with have given up when they make their first loss, when their profits are not as high as they expect or when their business remains at a very low scale…they have NOT made failure painful enough.

Nothing will happen if you don't make NOT succeeding with your business more painful than succeeding.  It is not enough to say "I wish…I had my own business" or "I hate my job…" without constantly reminding yourself (each day) the implications of NOT succeeding with your internet business venture. 

If you are not absolutely convinced that you MUST succeed with all of your living matter…then you most probably will not.

People who try once or twice and then give up have not associated enough pain and unpleasantness with NOT succeeding, otherwise they would not have given up.

Look, we know that staying focused, keeping your faith, remaining motivated and working through challenges is not easy..if it was, there would be many more of us millionaires. 

A big part of why we made InfoMarketer'sZone so accessible was to not only provide a solid system, simple training and helpful tools for starting and growing your information product marketing busieness on the internet – it was also to provide a strong bridge over troubled dips in your motivation & belief. 

From initial planning through post-launch, we talk about what to expect when building a business, how to measure and examine your online business, how to interpret the results you are getting and how to really scale the more successful aspects of your business so you don't lose faith and you DO succeed where many others have given up. 

Now that is as close to guranteed business success as you are going to get! 

How do you see success in your business or business plans…and how will you know when you have reached your goals?  Let us know by clicking on the "Comment" bubble top right of this message and leaving us your comment.

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The opportunity to make money online marketing affiliate products, your own information products (ebooks, membership site, courses…), services or via advertising revenue seems to grow each and every day…and indeed, there has never been more opportunity than exists today. 

On the dowside, there is some work involved with growing your internet marketing profit center, and it does involve a few different moving parts that must line up to create the perfect storm.

Here are some very typical challenges internet marketers face:

• Not getting enough traffic and not making any sales
• Getting lots of traffic, but sales are low
• Getting traffic and sales, but not making enough money
• Banking entirely on one income generation method putting future sales and profits at risk

Perhaps the most common scenario we all deal with when starting out is that we have ideas or even websites or blogs that we "think" will produce new internet income streams, but we can't really tell because we get a trickle of 20-30 visitors each day – and some of those are automated bots searching our website. 

Solution:  When you first start out you want to do two things…1) Of course, generate traffic, but also 2) Have a laser-focused purpose you are testing behind each page that will bring in visitors. 

We discuss this in-depth within the first two weeks of the 6-Week Information Product Marketing Profits Video Series inside InfoMarketersZone. 

CREATING THE PERFECT STORM OF PROFITS FROM YOUR INTERNET MARKETING BUSINESS 

The "perfect storm" of profits from online marketing exists when you get the right combination of 1) product or service people want to buy 2) targeting that means you bring the hungriest, most targeted buyers to your site and 3) where your message & sales process is most effective at turning those visitors into buyers

When people first start out, they focus entirely on #2 ignoring completely their monetization method and message to market match…the result is often failure. 

So, whatever you do, resist the urge to just haphazardly generate traffic to a website without having a solid plan for product (your own or as an affiliate) and a decent sales process that focuses on getting your prospect to take a measurable action (sign up to a list, place an order, click an ad).  That way, you have a much better possibility of success AND you are measuring to make adjustments along the way.

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Yes, this may describe new writers, entrepreneurs, and pretty much any one of us who decides to take action toward a dream and push ourselves outside of the comfort zone, but really we talk about these as great motivators (or as I like to say buying "Triggers") for people to buy information products.

After all, why do people buy non-fiction or how-to books and ebooks?  That is the one of the questions we dig in deeply within our 6-week intensive Information Product Profits Course.

The scared parent searches for help on helping their child overcome shyness.

The embarassed dog owner seeks out ways to train their dog.

The confused business owner seeks information on starting or growing their business.

The overwhelmed person suffering from painful tinnitus seeks out quick and easy methods to get rid of their pain. 

How about the person who just paid $1200 for a new, high-end digital camera and now is overwhelmed with its capabilities and is scared that he just paid way too much for a device that he will never use. 

So, next time you are thinking about whether or not your ebook, book, information product or training course will sell, ask yourself this question…

"Do I target a solution for someone that is scared, confused or overwhelmed?" 

If the answer is yes, then get your product to market quickly and enjoy some very healthy sales.

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Don't Let Fear Get In Your Way

Everyone wants to know "what is the secret of success" where the "success" may mean being wealthy, having a successful business, jetting around the world in your own private plane, gaining fame and fortune, being more happy, having a place in the country or just staying healthy…

Most of us yearn to go beyond where we are today…to improve some part of our financial, emotional or social lives and that means the search for that elusive missing piece is on.

Certainly in our own internet marketing training program where we help people jack up the profits in their own online internet businesses, we work hard with each entrepreneur to find the spark that will light a fire under their own internet business enterprise…and sometimes that means finding the missing piece.

But more than any one missing tactic, technique or strategy there is one overriding factor that will stop progress and success in its tracks.

I mean there is 0% chance of succeeding when you are ignoring this factor…you MUST learn to embrace setbacks, roadblocks and NOT fear failure.

FEAR OF FAILURE LEADS TO FAILURE EVERYTIME

It's funny, 9 times out of 10 when I look at someone's business and help them dramatically improve their results in a very short time inside of InfoMarketer'sZone, what is holding them back is something from within.

It is not ONLY a missing strategy, technique or method, but fundamentally is a limiting belief that is holding them back from achieving incredible results.

Often, it comes down to that massive inhibitor – FEAR!

I also know many millionaires who have mastered their career, market, business or life and have achieved a level of Greatness that most can barely dream about.

Astounded by the lack of any special character trait, knowledge or expertise – the one trait that comes out every time is how they EXPECT, ANTICIPATE AND INVITE setbacks  – they do NOT fear them.

Don't get me wrong, they still fear for their health, their kids, their loved ones, but they DO NOT fear their own ability to handle tough situations, their ability to generate wealth, their ability to persuade, influence and make their way in the world.

Outside of health issues (which they have learned to put their fear into perspective), fear no longer limits their ability to think, take action, try new things, quickly figure out what works (based on knowing what doesn't) and attracting immense momentum with their fearless approach to life and their internet businesses.

It goes without saying then that learning to manage fear and implement a system where mistakes are no longer avoided but embraced really is the single biggest pattern practiced by millionaires and yes…billionaires.

Here's a great survey that backs this point posted on Forbes – give it a read and you'll see the exact same findings I have noticed in our top students.

So, if you are challenged with getting your internet business started, can't figure out why your products aren't selling, can't communicate well with your market, and are not getting the results you expect – then join us within InfoMarketer'sZone where we not only empower you with the techniques, strategies, tools and support to succeed with your own internet business – but we also teach you how to test, quickly make mistakes and learn how to achieve BIG success…believe me, it really does work.

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That's right – there are 1000 ways to do it wrong, but only a handful of how to get it right.

Trouble is, there's so much noise telling you how to get it right that most people trip and fall before their internet business ever makes a buck in profit.

Okay, let's change that…watch closely to this video:

Don't make this more complicated than it needs to be, starting or growing your internet business depends entirely on the 3 principles shared in this video — now with this roadmap I KNOW you can finally get moving in the right direction and be massively successful

Let me here your comments – push the little comment bubble at the top of this posting and let me know your questions or thoughts.

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Certainly we have helped hundreds of freelancer writers, business professionals and many individuals who were looking for that one missing factor to help them start their own successful business online or get ahead in their career through Information Marketer's Zone – and so it wasn't a complete surprise when we came across yet another great case study of how the most successful book publishers are marketing their books on the internet.

Take author and entrepreneur Jean Ann Van Krevelen, author of the Amazon top seller
Grocery Gardening: Planting, Preparing and Preserving Fresh Food

Not only was Grocery Gardening developed from online blogging experience gained by Jean Ann, it was done through a compilation of experts, many selected from online networking.

Indeed, many people may still wonder why serious internet marketers fool around with Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, Linked-In or the other social networking hubs, well this is one great example of how they can be used to pull together a range of experts for compilation-type information products.

But what is really important to learn from Jean Ann is how she is using EVERY avenue available to her to market her book online (and offline for that matter).

First, I came across her book from an online article that had been written about an upcoming Gardener's exhibition – an event!

Second, I googled Jean Ann and her Grocery Gardening book and guess what I found?

The top 10 listings came up an incredible insight into the marketing avenues available to authors for marketing your book on the internet.

The first listing is Jean Ann's Entrepreneur blog, the second and fourth were her social networking profiles on Facebook and Linked-in respectively.

The third listing that came up was especially illuminating, Jean Ann's blog Gardener To Farmer, a wonderful blog on the niche topic of home farming – and a great platform builder for her book.

But low and behold, we find that Jean Ann has a few different blogs, certainly has the market covered on that front.

Ok next, I see that in her top 10 listings on Google she also is active on Twitter – a nice profile that also cross posts with other social networking sites like Facebook – hmmmm…methinks Jean Ann has had some online marketing training.

I think you get the idea – continuing on with another page or two of Google results we see that she is also plugged into social groups on Ning, Typepad (blogging platform), Plurk — and likely too many others to note here.

Now let me ask you – do you think that it is an Accident that her gardening book currenly sits in the top 20,000 of ALL books on Amazon and in the top 10 and top 30 in gardening categories such as fruit and vegetables?

There are huge opportunities for ANYONE to use the internet to:

• Find red-hot book topics to write about
• Research and package knowledge into ebooks, books, reports and courses
• And market those products effectively on the internet

Jean Ann gives us yet another example of how this is done, we know there are thousands and thousands of others doing the same thing…why not you?

Visit us over at Information Marketer's Zone and lets work to make you a smashing success with your own self-published ebook, book or training program that sells on the internet.

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1. They are frustrated and baffled by poor results of their existing websites — OR –

2. They haven't the first clue of what to do first – create a website, start a blog, advertise, write articles, build a list or produce a product

Not surprising that they are not getting results, that's why we begin by simplifying and making the intial steps to making money online more effective.

Challenge #1:  Have you chosen a market where you are offering value – in other words, are you offering a definable set of people something that they desparately want?  If not, then there's no sense wasting another minute because we KNOW the end result will be poor.  Oh…and another clarification – notice I said "something that they want" – not "something that they need".  This is where experts run into problems – they are too smart for their market.  You can't be ahead of your market – you must start by understanding what people want, then you can move them subtly to what they need – but first, you must market to them from where THEY are not YOU.

Challenge #2:  Do you understand the basic process.  For instance:

1. People search for something online

2. People arrive at your website (ideally a landing page that gives them a "taste" of what you have to offer in exchange for their contact information) – the dance begins…

3. People get to know, trust and like you by seeing your content and willingness to help BUT you don't give them everything, just a taste — slow dancing

4. You present your offer to them with the critcal elements of building anticipation, growing trust and credibility, including social proof (testimonials, case studies, stories) and cap it off by an offer they cannot refuse

That is the process you want to get down to near perfection – this is the heartbeat of your internet business – a landing page with a giveaway and a sales page all with the umbrella of an autoresponder-driven list building system designed to walk your prospects through the pre-selling stage. 

I can tell you that 0% of newbies or even experienced marketers that come to us with poor results have this process down effectively – and boy…what a huge difference when you do.

Challenge #3:  Traffic.  There are a few problems here.  First, when you first launch the process in Challenge #2 – you can't expect to convert many visitors into buyers unless you get REALLY lucky – so you are likely facing the reality that less than 1 in 300 or even 1 in 500 visitors will buy – but you need to go through that process so you can make improvements until you get to 2 or 3 in 100 people buying.  But…most peope that come to us are getting less than 50 visitors per day to their site…so do the math, they will likely see less than 1 sale every 10-days – pretty discouraging right? 

Second, traffic is generated by targeting keywords – either through online optimization (articles, sales pages, blog posts, etc…), through backlinks (where you are able to leave a link to your site from another website) or paid advertising such as pay-per-click – they all depend on targeting keywords that you believe will be used by people who seek out and are willing to pay for your products or services.  By choosing not to target specific keywords or to target the wrong keywords will mean many people will visit your site who are not really looking for what you have to offer which means that 1 in 200 or 1 in 500 may even turn into 1 in 1000 or more before you get a sale. 

What's the solution?

Drive more traffic.  In the beginning expect that you will go through this test and refinement step – give yourself a month where you aim to get 200-300 visitors each day and tweak your landing and sales pages (and even your offering if necessary) every 2-3 days depending on your findings. 

Without decent traffic, you can't get past this step – I would say this is why 75% of newbies with websites and products end up quitting when really this is just an interim step on the way to much greater success. 

Drive more relevant traffic:  By using free keyword suggestion tools and free competitive analysis tools online you can get very good at targeting a shortlist of keywords that are far more likely to be used by desparate searchers who really want to buy what you have – WHAM, that means more sales for you.

Think about reaching just 1 sale in 100 visitors with 200-300 visitors to your site each day – now you are making 2-3 sales each day, that's more exciting isn't it? 

How do you get to 200-300 visitors each day – that takes some knowledge of traffic generation and can be done using content generation, SEO along with paid advertising depending on your time and level of investment capability. 

The great part about understanding these 3 challenges is that you now have a way that you absolutely KNOW will make you money on the internet, it is just a matter of overcoming each of these 3 challenges. 

Of course, that is how we organize the training, tools and support available in Information Marketer'sZone - so if you want a helping hand as you build your profit and wealth machine on the internet, we would be happy to help you get there.

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