Digging deep in any market is the way to hit the PROFIT GUSHER.

Here's how it went.

I had put together an ebook around some fundamental (not FUZZY) methods used to make massive change in our lives.  Based in part on my own life experience combined with some solid research, these techniques really worked.   

I'm not talking about temporary motivation or small improvements, I'm talking about MASSIVE change across many areas in life.

After a few weeks of reaserch and another 2-weeks of putting together the content, preparing for my launch and setting up some partners we hit the market with some exceptionally good results. 

The ebook still sells great on Clickbank as more and more affiliates promote.

But here's what happened that is REALLY exciting.

A major part of entering this market was having a high-traffic blog (in fact we have multiple blogs now) – the original is over at Peak Personal Development Blog

The process we used to quickly develop top search engine rankings for this blog are outlined as part of the 6 Week InfoProfits Course inside InfoMarketer'sZone…soon the blog weas getting 400-500 unique visitors a day, which continued to grow to well over 3X that amount today. 

Ready for the part that will really freak you out though?

Some of these blog posts quickly amassed 50, 60 or more comments and questions, they had massive user engagement. 

Indeed, many of the comments left asked questions about getting extra help, answers to additional questions, ways to get more information.

What was my audience asking for?

A Back-End set of products and ongoing coaching which we have since moved into multiple spin-off businesses. 

The lesson, for those of you who are serious enough about getting this online marketing thing down, is to enter a niche market prepared to dig deep, engage your market and plan to have a back-end…using a plan like this you will strike oil, it's only a matter of time.

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When you start out online it is tempting to build your business using 3rd party social networking, blogging or content directory sites like…

• Google Blogger
• Wordpress.com (NOT wordpress.org which allows you to use the WP platform on your own domain)
• Squidoo
• Hubpages
• Facebook Fan Pages
• Twitter Profile
• Tumblr
• Ustream

Don't get me wrong, these platforms have their place in online marketing, should not be ignored, but here is what they ARE NOT!

These platforms are NOT designed to make money specifically by hosting your business websites (commercial websites) and in fact, make more money based on pure content so there is absolutely no motivation for them to support your commercial efforts online. 

On the other hand, webhosting companies like HostGator (as our preferred example), make their money via website hosting…most of which are commercial sites or sites that are dependent on operating commercial activity to sustain their web hosting account. 

It should come as no surprise then when we advise strongly NOT to ever build your web business based on 3rd party platforms other than high quality web hosts. 

HOW TO STRUCTURE YOUR ONLINE BUSINESS:

1. If you are serious at all about business online, host your content with those who's specialty it is to keep YOU in business…in other words, quality hosting providers.  You control your own pages, content and scripts/tools, etc…

2. Start with the fundamentals of building traffic by generating content hosting articles and blog content on your own domains with reliable web hosts…having great content is what people want so you will attract traffic and it will be meaningful to your visitors which means they will come back, trust and buy things from you

3. Once you have your base site and content program in place along with pages that are strongly converting your visitors into customers – look at additional methods to attract traffic and leads.  Operating our own affiliate program and actively pursuing/supporting affiliates is still one of the best ways to pull in traffic (if you have your own products), guest blogging can be extremely powerful, posting on relevant forums with a strong call to action in the resource box, etc…

4. After doing all of this, you can then branch out onto 3rd party platforms and strategically bring traffic in from those platforms – of course here you want to pick the platforms that are most aligned to your market.  If you are a musician, then Myspace is still good, business or politics – then Twitter may work for you, etc… These platforms though should be used with the expectation that the TOS will change and that they may disappear tomorrow (in terms of how we use them today).  So they are purely ways to bring in additional traffic, build relationshps over and above what your own websites are already setup to do. 

Don't make the mistake of thinking that hosting your website on Google Blogger or Squidoo, etc…means they will look out for your best interest…thsi type of thinking has caused many online marketers to lose tens of thousands of dollars in business overnight…you've been warned!

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I could just as easily substitute "Amazon Websites" for "InfoProduct Minisites" or "Adsense Websites" and the same mistake will have been made.

Think of it this way, what is someone came up to you and asked you "If I setup a store with a red brick front entrance will it make money?" 

Does that make any sense?

No!

What you want to ask is "If I set up a business to sell outdoor camping supplies (as an example) to middle-aged consumers, can I make money?" 

Amazon websites are not MAGIC, it is like any other online business…

1. You must pick your niche
2. You must know the keywords that buyers use to seek out products
3. You must generate traffic (understand that conversion on pretty much any site works at 0-5% with most solid sites working consistently at 2-3% so you will need 100's of visitors each day before ou will make sales consistently)
4. You must have a compelling landing page that gets your customre to take action (click through…most will simply click away and go to the next website)
5. You need to keep this working – even as search engines change their algorithms – what you have today could be gone tomorrow.

For this reason, I strongly suggest you look at the bigger picture – start an online business to target a niche and make selling physical products from Amazon a PART of your overall monetization of that niche.

For example, we target a niche within Yoga where we sell ebooks we have written, but we also offer yoga gear from Amazon and Commission Junction – this is in addition to ad-based revenue from classified page, etc…

Look at it as a real business rather than just Amazon websites.

Please leave a comment if you GET THIS…it's important to steer away from money-making-techniques to understand what starting a real business is all about.

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Yet, when I look around me at some of the most successful people I know, their business is driven 110% by passion…

1. The alternative health care practitioner that saw a vision of what it was like to dedicate his life to helping people and now operates a highly successful offline and online business

2. A grandmother that overcame debilitating arthritis to plan and attend her daughter's wedding, then wrote a self-published e-book that secured her retirement

3. My friend who gave up her high-paying corporate job to open a small art shop in a rural town and now makes more selling her paintings with a fraction of the stress and frustration

4. The mother who was inspired by hear autistic son who became valedictorian to write a book and help untold thousands of others going through the same or similar situations…you can read this story here: 

5. A recent member of InfoMarketer'sZone who came looking to write a book to extend his career in technology, but after working through our program, re-considered and decided to pursue a lifelong dream of helping himself (and then) others become more healthy and fit.  He now makes 3X his previous income, has lost 40lbs and is happier than he could have ever imagined. 

The stories go on and on…

The message… "Don't EVER Underestimate The Power of Inspiration And Passion"!

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It seems even more true than ever before given that search engines have made major adjustments to their algorithms to favor content-rich, authority sites at the expense of "thin", commercially focused pages such as squeeze pages, landing pages or other thin mini-sites. 

But wait a minute, some things really don't add up…

1. Didn't massive content sites like EzineArticles get hit as hard (or harder) than thin, spammy sites in the latest Panda updates last year?
2. Aren't people buckling under the sheer amount of content that is available to them online to the point where they are ignoring most of it?
3. Isn't it rue that there is more content produced in 48-hours currently than was produced until 2003? 
4. Aren't we ignoring most email to the point where email open rates are brutal? 

So there is a disconnect here…and what we are really hitting is a wall where the quantity and type of content matters more than ever before.

Are You Ready For The Next Marketing Revolution?

We are hitting a revolution that will have huge implications on marketing, I have tried to summarize them into 3 main actionable trends:

1. Content aggregation around urgent questions/demands is becoming hugely valuable. 

Google's Panda update struck a balance between penalizing massive unrelated content farms, dismissing thin niche sites that were motivated only on commercialization at the expensive of quality while elevating relevant, useful content. 

Perhaps the biggest trend we are seeing emerge around valuable content aggregation is the growth of the InfoGraphic.  What's an infographic?  Take a look at this blog post from Jeff Bullas, you'll see how he uses InfoGrpahics to clearly aggregate useful content into a graphic that can easily be read with ease. 

How else can we aggregate content – how about succinct 3-5 minute video updates that clearly summarize facts or answers to urgent questions?

A slide-show placed on Slideshare that provides a summary of useful information in 3-5 slides?

Can you think of other ways to help aggregate, simplify and at the same time, be relevant and interesting with content?

Do yourself a favor, become good at presenting aggregate information and you will do well over the next few years. 

2. Hitting It Big By Going Small Town.

When you have so many options overwhelming you, who do you look for to help?  Your network of course.  Unlike ever before our decision on what information to read, what opnions will influence us and what products we buy are coming from our social networks…that means you not only must participate in social networks such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Tumlr…but you must learn to become a relevant, interesting and effective social networker…a new skill that our grandparents may know more about than we do. 

3. Deeper Before Wider

 It is my firm belief that becoming an authority, expert or influencer in one or two key areas is far more valuable in a world that is fraught with information overload rather than going "thin" and wide.  In other words, I would be spending more time building out authority sites around a niche market you rae passionate about where you build blogs, forums, video channels, webinars, products, online training, etc…rather than building dozens and dozens of "thin", tactical sites.   These "thin" sites may show some early promise, but the trend toward content saturization dictates they will not remain relevant over time. 

Each of these trends has dramatic, lasting impacts to business and marketing…will you be on the leading-edge or trailing edge of these trends?

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I've always been very conscious of the incideous way time can leap ahead and erase hope, health and happiness – outside of death and taxes, there is nothing more certain than the fact that time WILL continue to tick away.

The question then is will you use the time you have to improve your health, finances and happiness or will you continue to "go along for the ride" full-well knowing that someday (it could be tomorrow or it could be 40-years from now) you will look back and wish you had better used your time. 

WHY DOING NOTHING IS SO HARMFUL!

Frustration, guilt, procrastination and regret are the enemies of proactivity, health, happiness and the natural state our mind and body expects to operate. 

Yet my guess is that your life so far has tended to fall into the "regret and procrastination" category more than proactivity and success. 

That's why you should not let another day go by in 2012 without tackling this head-on!

Believe it or not, you can lose your entire year in just the first few weeks of 2012, unless you take action RIGHT now.

Think about it, you get into the middle of January and suddenly you get super-busy with your job, family functions and just surviving the winter. 

February is a short month, taxes and paying bills become the priority

March-June is Spring, while Springtime is wonderful, it does give you a false sense that everything is ok as you enjoy the season not noticing how little progress you make toward your goals until the summer hits.

July-September bring new challenges, vacation and slow season.  Many people reason that if this is slow season, I'll wait until the Fall to really ratchet up my activity, so why not sit back and enjoy the summer months?

October-December – while you may have your best intentions here, this is generally where everyone wants your time:  job/work is busy, your family wants more of you, it's crunch time at work, your own stress level increases dramatically as you near the Holiday Season and realize you have wasted another year. 

What is the best way to make SURE you do not waste 2012? 

MAKE 2012 YOUR YEAR…OR ELSE YOU WILL LOSE GROUND!

Make it your #1 priority in this first week of January to…

1. Know what you really want.  Where you want to be in 3-5 years, your dreams, your goals, how you want your life to look
2. Develop a plan on how you will get there.  This plan should be broad at first (say by Quarter of the year) and then, as a second step, more detailed down to the week and even day
3. Develop a daily routine that involves both reviewing your goals, finding time to spend on your action steps and for improving the people that are around you to include a few more that will help you achieve your goals.  Don't worry if right now you can only find 20-minutes or 30-minutes each day, that's ok.  The important thing is to have a plan for that 30-minutes so you get maximum advantage of the time you do have. 
4. Set key milestones – objectives or gates where you need to be to track your course
5. Life goals – remember that achievement in one area of your life is tough to reach if you don't have balance in other aspects of your life.  If you have health issues, you need to have goals to improve your health, if you are in a mountain of debt – then face that fact and have a plan to deal with your debt…etc
6. Be flexible enough to alter your plan.  No result is reached 100% according to plan, so you will need to be open to seeing alternative paths, rebounding from setbacks and even re-aligning your plans as you go…but the key is that you always do have an active plan you are working toward

Please, whatever you do at this crucial point in the year, do NOT overlook the importance of planning your 2012 otherwise you will find yourself 1-year from now having lost an entire 365-days. 

Oh yes, and remember this, if you are not making progress you are losing ground.  It may seem like treading water is possible but it isn't.  If you are not making progress toward your goal then you WILL be WORSE off next year at this time than you are now.  There is no middle ground.  So which will it be?

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The question that was rattling around inside of his head (just a quick aside – when you are trying to figure out what is really bothering someone, it ususally comes out at the END of a conversation) was what distribution path should he take to bring his ebook to market.

In his mind, the traditional publishing market meant he should submit manuscripts to publishers, possibly seek out an agent and see if he can score a major publishing deal. 

Or, should be go right to Amazon Kindle and publish his book there?   Getting warmer…but he still wasn't getting it. 

You see, Seth Godin has it right in today's blog post – he talks about "non-linear consumption of content" meaning that the days of consuming a magazine, newspaper, television show, videos, etc…from start to finish are gone.  Where is the start and where is the finish when newspapers are online?  Where is the start and finish when your favorite TV shows are available on demand and more often now, as favorite video clips?

Absolutely, linear consumption is disappearing JUST as is linear business models and linear distribution models.

It used to be the only way to get a book to market was to get the attention of a mainstream publisher, pay them a whack of cash (via royalties) and then push hard to get your book front and center in the marketplace (retail)

But now, as consumers understand non-linear consumption, they go online and search for information and because distribution and business models are also going non-linear you can position your ebook to them from your own website, relevant blogs, articles – linking non-linear content to non-linear marketing and distribution – it really is a an entirely new ball game.

As Seth mentions – instead of riding the wave, you can now make the waves…so this really is your chance to step up, turn your information into useful content, attract attention and make money in the process.  Are you ready?

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Building a list and sending out email means NOTIHNG if people don't open your emails and read what you have to say

Posting daily to your blog will get you zero in results if people don't read what you have written

Sales letters will not convert visitors into buyers without a strong headline.

So, what's the secret to writing titles that people will open, that captures their attention?

WRITING TITLES THAT PAY-OFF

So many people have trouble writing headlines because the biggest "secret" is knowing the emotional head-space of your market and very few people really know this.

If you ever went and paid a copywriter 30K for a website you would find that

a) They spend the vast majority of their time pushing YOU to know your market, your customer's headspace, the dreams/frustrations of your client and to find a hook in how your product uniquely gets them to where they want to be.  It is actually a very intense process – so a good portion of what a copywriter does is FORCES you to have the discipline to think like a marketer…if you can master this on your own you are more than halfway to becoming a great headline, ad and sales letter writer

b) They have studied and tested hundreds/thousands of copy pieces so based on experience they know what works and what doesn't in given markets. 

So that said, the two most important things you need to do to write better headlines is

• Learn to buckle down, develop a concept of your target customer and think about what emotions lead them want what you have to offer and
• That you study the best ads, headlines as well as split-test your own to find out what works and why

1. Develop Your Customer Profile

To begin with, you must be able to develop a profile of your target customer – so for example, your planned ebook will target new mothers with babies, now ask yourself these questions:

1. Who is my customer?  In this case, our customer would be an 18-40 year old, first-time mother with a newly born baby less than 5-years old
2. What is the #1 frustration:  Here we could have a couple of options – 1) They want to look physically like they did before they had their child or 2) They want to feel as good about themselves emotionally as they did before they had their child
3. What is the #1 desire they have?  Linked to the frustration above, it would be either 1) To lose 10lbs of "baby fat" they put on during pregnancy or 2) To be able to manage stress and continue a social life outside of the home now that they have their new child
4. Why haven't they found a solution:  This is particular to your market segment, but perhaps they couldn't find specific information for them, or what they found was too hard or did not work…you MUST understand why they are still struggling to find answers
5. What can you promise them that would make them happy?  You could commit to helping them reduce 10lbs in 30-days even with a busy, stay-at-home Mom schedule or you could give them stress management techniques that are specifically designed for new Mom's 

As you see, the customer profile gives you incredible insight and POWER to tap into the emotional state of our prospect so you can impant your headline as if you knew EXACTLY what they were looking for

2.  Finding The Best Headlines and Testing

There are dozens of top books on copywriting, but really you can look in a few places to really see what is working now:

• Top selling books on Amazon (excluding celebrity-based books that sell on the name of the author) will give you insight into top headlines
• Finding the top articles in article directories like Ezine Articles will tell you which titles are of most interest
• Looking at top blog posts – same thing, this will teach you which headlines get the most attention
• Study magazine headlines as they have been vetted, professionally written and tested

Finally, learn by writing your own content and watching the response.  Write articles, blog posts, ads, each day and you will soon see from your web statistics which titles are resonating with your market. 

We have amassed a ton of knowledge just by producing daily content – blog posts, articles, running ads, etc…then looking at the top 10% that get opens and conversions – now we know what works.  

To quickly master the key aspects of internet marketing and build your full-time income stream online be sure to access the training we provide over at InfoMarketer'sZone - you will be amazed at how quickly you can turn our experiences into profit for you.

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First, a reminder – to make money online with your online business you need to master 3 main objectives:

1. You must have targeted traffic that reach your site right at the point they are ready to buy

2. You MUST have a product that is in-demand aligned to meeting the desire causing the targeted traffic to want to buy

3. Your landing page/sales page must persuade your visitor that you have what they want and drives them to take action

It's not good enough to master 1 or 2 of these, your success with online marketing truly depends on their being NO weak link. 

Certainly the 6-week InfoProduct Profits Training program over at InfoMarketer'sZone is designed to help you master each one of these steps and that's why people get results. 

Now, let's drill into #1 above a little deeper, because that is where I see many people making terrible mistakes. 

If you have any experience marketing online I'm sure you will agree that we have ALL fallen for the traffic is money trap.  Much like being BUSY doesn't mean you are being effective, attracting traffic doesn't mean you are making money does it?

When we started out we generated content until our fingers bled, signed up affiliate partners to the point we figured there was nobody else out there and paid for tons of traffic that dropped by, waved at us and moved on…without making the BIG money we knew was possible. 

Since then, I've also come across many people that generate between 100 right up past 10,000 unique visitors a day to their websites and are totally frustrated because their online marketing is not resulting in sales. 

So what's missing?

How about:

• Commercial intent
• Urgency
• Desperation
• Closure

Think about it…when you hit the net, some of the time you are curious.  You search to see if you can find some recipes online, perhaps you visit a site and sign up to their recipe list, but you are not in a buying mood, have no intention to buy and likely cannot be convinced by the best of websites.  You may have searched for "chicken recipe" or something similar. 

However, there may be a day when you ARE more desparate to get better in the kitchen, to impress your boss, family or special someone with your cooking prowess.  So, you hit the internet and search for "Southern Cooking Recipes" or "BBQ Recipe Book" or even "French Cooking DVD". 

Do you see the difference?

So our objective as internet marketers is to get really good at matching commercial intent with both our traffic building strategies as well as our landing pages and messages. 

Here are 3 tips to keep in mind that will dramatically improve your online business sales:

1. Learn to seek out commercial intent "trigger" keywords and phrases – you can find these in magazine ads, in discussion forums (by watching passionate discussions take place and noticing the language that is used), by focusing on top selling infoproducts listed on Amazon, Clickbank and other digital infoproduct directories. 
2. Focus on low-hanging fruit first…ALWAYS target keywords where your market is searching for information (YOUR KEYWORD + book, ebook, dvd, course, workshop, seminar, training, magazine, manual, guidebook, etc…) These may sound obvious but I guarantee you that 99% of infoproduct marketers out there are NTO targeting these keywords today
3. When operating your own affiliate program, target partners who most closely match the type of information and market you are targeting…it does you no good to have hundreds of partners if they don't quite align with your market or message – everyone ends up disappointed

Use these techniques and watch your sales soar – let me know when you use them…leave us a comment.

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It doesn't matter if you get 10 visitors to your website each day or 1000, if they are not buying, you aren't making online sales and profit ramains elusive. 

That's the trick with internet marketing, you need to have a great idea that sells, go get the traffic and make sure they find you AND THEN when they do find you make sure they buy what you have to offer.  Miss any one of these steps and you will see dismal results.

Of course, as we share inside InfoMarketer'sZone, there are specific, simple steps you can take to make sure your infoproduct idea and topic are highly aligned with demand so that you can be confident that people want what you have to offer. 

Further, making sure the right people find you is a largely a keyword targeting and affiliate targeting exercise, which can both be learned and improved.

So, what can we do about improving your online sales results?

Here are two ways to improve your conversions…

1. Drive your prospects to a high value freebie to get them on your list and then come up with a highly effective email marketing campaign. This is NOT trivial – it took us years to modify and improve our email marketing sequences to the point where they were more effective. It has to do with how you communicate, what information you share and how you offer them proof that your products work to help them achieve their ultimate desire.  However, marketing to subscribers who already are familiar with you and your business, have grown to like and trust you is much more effective than marketing to a first time web visitor. Typically we see 3X the conversion from our email list than from frist time vistitors to our website. 

2. Be crystal clear about the value your product offers to your prospect. When they land on your sales page there should be a well architected sales message (written or video) that grabs their attention, walks them through the emotional ups and downs of the pain or pleasure you are selling to and then offer them a unique value toward achieving their desire that is perceived as extremely high value.

We have found the following structure to work very well in terms of websites that sell:

• Killer Headline with the strongest benefit of your product in the headline and sub-head
• A first paragraph or two that connects with your audience showing them you know their pain…and in doing so, also re-creates that pain fresh in their mind
• Further connecting with your reader by explaining WHY they have not yet been able to find a solution to their challenge
• Hit them with benefits of your own products – specifically tell them how THEY will benefit from your information
• Ovecome obvious objections
• Include testimonials and proof
• Have an offer that 0ver-delivers in terms of value
• Finsish with a powerful statement on what will happen if they don't take action NOW!

To get to this point you may need to go back and drill into the conversations your market is having online, hire copywriting help and split test different pages or email sequences to constantly improve them.

It really is as simple as that…build a list and convert them, get better at presenting your message to your market.  Practice these two principles and watch your online sales improve.

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