A Simple, Humble Newbie From Hawaii...

9 years ago

Aloha,

Your answer begins with your "PITCH", as you call it.

HOW does this take place? In person? Phone? email? Print ads? Postcards?

How do you make the initial contact?

It sounds like you want to build an area directory or referral service by having a web site, getting traffic (how?) to the offers, then passing the leads onto the service provider and collecting a "finder's fee" sort of a thing?

Is this right?

Truthfully, there are a handful of people who can make a directory or lead gen site work...but, my opinion. it is a lot of time and effort when you could be doing a much simpler, less complicated, less sloppy type of business.

To answer your question, there are several tracking methods, but you set up this, at the beginning of the "trust" phase of your relationship...right up front, which is why I asked about your initial contact.

They only pay for buyers? Or leads? (Which they have to close.)

Many successful lead gen biz models, control the lead and feed it to the service, and when the transaction is made, there is notification...but these advanced techniques are probably beyond you for now. You may have to start with trust, but, please, re think this whole thing through.

Can you make ONE sale? That is, get ONE service provider to say yes and test what you want to do?

Unless I misunderstood, it appears you are headed toward a time wasting pit, when there are better and faster ways to generate profits.

gjabiz

Originally Posted by sharkbaitwoohaha

Let me start off with this:
Although I know I don't have much to contribute, I know I have the right to contribute a question. I hope this question sparks imagination in newbies like me to discover answers... imagination is the only thing that has kept me going in life with ALL of my failures. Thank you for your time.

)

Here's the question:
How do you guys keep track of the conversions (a synonym to "sales" as I understand the term) that you generate to a small business? To be more specific, I will give an example... If I were to pitch a small business that I would offer them "free" traffic/advertisement in the form of my website directing their customers to use my coupon code to their "service" ...how would I hold them accountable to make sure they paid me commission for each one of those transactions? ...I understand how Amazon keeps track of its affiliates via code, but what about the smaller companies?

I ask you in the most humble way. I have been researching and pursuing "affiliate marketing" for about 5 months now and to no avail I have yet to receive a single paycheck. I just recently joined Warrior Forum because my mentality of "do it on your own without any help" has led my wallet and dignity of time wasted in the same state 5 months ago.

...I'm humbly asking for your help. My goal 5 months ago was to make $100 per month via online marketing. I have yet to reach my goal, and my Adsense account still reads $8.18. VERY Respectfully, Thank you for your time.

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sharkbaitwoohaha

9 years ago

Originally Posted by gjabiz

Aloha,

Your answer begins with your "PITCH", as you call it.

HOW does this take place? In person? Phone? email? Print ads? Postcards?

How do you make the initial contact?

It sounds like you want to build an area directory or referral service by having a web site, getting traffic (how?) to the offers, then passing the leads onto the service provider and collecting a "finder's fee" sort of a thing?

Is this right?

Hey, gjabiz, thanks for the response!

For the first part of your question, I would definitely want to meet in person if possible. This, to me, is the greatest way to earn someone's trust. I believe a combination of a phone call and email would have to be the next best bet if meeting up wasn't possible.

My goal, which is a small one for now, is to find local businesses that would offer me promo codes to then offer to customers that I provide for the various companies. I guess my angle that I would pitch to them would be the fact that they would be getting "free" traffic/advertisement. If I were to be able to pull this off, I would try to negotiate for something like a 25% discount off of their service for the customer to enter the promo code. I would then request that the 25% discount be credited to me. I mentioned free earlier because the businesses that I would be targeting would all offer "intangible" services... so in other words, they don't lose 25% off of the service for that transaction... they actually gain 100% of 75% of the sale I created for them for "free" ...this is all in theory for now though lol

Originally Posted by gjabiz

Truthfully, there are a handful of people who can make a directory or lead gen site work...but, my opinion. it is a lot of time and effort when you could be doing a much simpler, less complicated, less sloppy type of business.

To answer your question, there are several tracking methods, but you set up this, at the beginning of the "trust" phase of your relationship...right up front, which is why I asked about your initial contact.

They only pay for buyers? Or leads? (Which they have to close.)

Many successful lead gen biz models, control the lead and feed it to the service, and when the transaction is made, there is notification...but these advanced techniques are probably beyond you for now. You may have to start with trust, but, please, re think this whole thing through.

Can you make ONE sale? That is, get ONE service provider to say yes and test what you want to do?

Unless I misunderstood, it appears you are headed toward a time wasting pit, when there are better and faster ways to generate profits.

gjabiz

You have mentioned a couple times that there are much better and faster ways to generate profits, and I think that is the main reason I joined Warrior Forum. I would be stoked to hear some of your ideas... Thanks again for the insight! Have a good one!

Thanks

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MarkHernandez

9 years ago

Welcome to this awesome place first of all, without being disrespectful, I have to say that your goal is really really low my friend, are you sure it's big enough to push you out of bed every morning?

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sharkbaitwoohaha

9 years ago

Originally Posted by MarkHernandez

Welcome to this awesome place first of all, without being disrespectful, I have to say that your goal is really really low my friend, are you sure it's big enough to push you out of bed every morning?

What's up MarkHernandez,
Thanks for the welcome! I totally feel you man, I have definitely thought of setting my goal higher many, many, many times lol! I honestly had half of my friends laugh to my face after I told them that I am going to start looking into how to make money online... My current goal is very meek - that is, to make $100 per month by the end of this year. Yes, I understand that it is a very small goal, but I feel that I need to start somewhere. I told this to my grandma a few weeks ago, she doubted me, and that only made my drive that much greater. I find strength in people's doubt in me... It is my personal way of lighting up the darkness.

One more thing to note is that I have been actively seeking my "online money maker" niche for over 5 months now since there was a "glitch" with my job. Prior to that, there was a government furlough in 2013 which affected me and which was the catalyst for my drive to make money online.

So to answer your last question about how much drive I have... Let's just say that when I look at my AdSense account and it reads $8.18 and I have been at this since 2013... the answer is Yes, I do have the drive to conquer even my smallest of goals

)

Thanks for your response! I really appreciate it!

Thanks

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writeaway

9 years ago

Aloha,

I love your idea.

What I would do is pair the DISCOUNT CODE with an intermediary step that would SIGNAL to both you and the business that the count was used.

This would be included in the promotions agreement.

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sharkbaitwoohaha

9 years ago

Originally Posted by writeaway

Aloha,

I love your idea.

What I would do is pair the DISCOUNT CODE with an intermediary step that would SIGNAL to both you and the business that the count was used.

This would be included in the promotions agreement.

Aloha back to you writeaway!
I don't understand the specifics of the intermediary step, BUT I think that is a SOLID idea! I feel ideas are where it's at! I especially like the last part about the "promotions agreement" to make the entire transaction follow some type of legal code.

Going back to the intermediate step, someone recently suggested that I request the customer take a picture or scan a copy of the receipt with my promotional code on it and request they send it to my email. In return, I could offer them some sort of "prize" or "reward." I thought it was a great idea, but now that you mention your idea, I'm thinking about something more along the lines of coding to make it automated whereas there is no question whether the sale converted or not.

Thank you! You are awesome!

Thanks
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writeaway

9 years ago

Originally Posted by sharkbaitwoohaha

Aloha back to you writeaway!
I don't understand the specifics of the intermediary step, BUT I think that is a SOLID idea! I feel ideas are where it's at! I especially like the last part about the "promotions agreement" to make the entire transaction follow some type of legal code.

Going back to the intermediate step, someone recently suggested that I request the customer take a picture or scan a copy of the receipt with my promotional code on it and request they send it to my email. In return, I could offer them some sort of "prize" or "reward." I thought it was a great idea, but now that you mention your idea, I'm thinking about something more along the lines of coding to make it automated whereas there is no question whether the sale converted or not.

Thank you! You are awesome!

Yes, you have to give the customer an INCENTIVE to provide VERIFICATION PROOF.

The incentive must be STRONG ENOUGH to overcome consumer laziness though.

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sharkbaitwoohaha

9 years ago

Originally Posted by writeaway

Yes, you have to give the customer an INCENTIVE to provide VERIFICATION PROOF.

The incentive must be STRONG ENOUGH to overcome consumer laziness though.

Completely understood. You are 100% correct; it must definitely persuade the buyer to complete the "extra" step... I can easily remember a dozen or so rebates that I could have gotten real cash money. I failed to do so on probably over 75% of them simply because I was too lazy to fill it out, lick a stamp, and send it via snail mail.

Point taken. Thank you!

Thanks
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writeaway

9 years ago

Originally Posted by sharkbaitwoohaha

Completely understood. You are 100% correct; it must definitely persuade the buyer to complete the "extra" step... I can easily remember a dozen or so rebates that I could have gotten real cash money. I failed to do so on probably over 75% of them simply because I was too lazy to fill it out, lick a stamp, and send it via snail mail.

Point taken. Thank you!

This is a really productive thread because it has definitely gotten my gears turning.

I am under the impression you're not the only person interested in such a workaround.

I see a tremendous demand for technology that fixes this bottleneck.

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BrentGarett

9 years ago

Aloha man, you live at the place where you have incredible amount of tourist traffic coming in, have you tried doing lead generation for local hotels or something?

Or you can hand out flyers for your CPA trial offers and you should do great!

Just couple of thoughts..

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sharkbaitwoohaha

9 years ago

Originally Posted by BrentGarett

Aloha man, you live at the place where you have incredible amount of tourist traffic coming in, have you tried doing lead generation for local hotels or something?

Or you can hand out flyers for your CPA trial offers and you should do great!

Just couple of thoughts..

Brent,
This is a very true statement, yet it is something that I have looked over in my quest to break free of the 9-5 grind. I will definitely keep this in mind and do some research! Thank you again!

Thanks

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elmo033057

9 years ago

Sharkdude,

Helping you out without actually seeing your site and without looking at the way you're trying to convert is hard for us to do, If you are trying to get people to take an action that involves several steps filling something out, it's going to be rough.

I'm not concerned with your money generation online at this point. I'm more concerned with your list. How many qualified leads do you have?

If you learn one thing today, here it is: Building a focused niche list is paramount!

Your list is pure gold. If it is a group of people that are interested in a focused and particular niche, it will be high-octane gold.

I could go into more detail, but it will be hard without actually looking at what you are doing.

God Bless,

ELMO

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"When It Comes To High Response Copy - I've Got Your Back!"

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sharkbaitwoohaha

9 years ago

Originally Posted by elmo033057

Sharkdude,

Helping you out without actually seeing your site and without looking at the way you're trying to convert is hard for us to do, If you are trying to get people to take an action that involves several steps filling something out, it's going to be rough.

I'm not concerned with your money generation online at this point. I'm more concerned with your list. How many qualified leads do you have?

If you learn one thing today, here it is: Building a focused niche list is paramount!

Your list is pure gold. If it is a group of people that are interested in a focused and particular niche, it will be high-octane gold.

I could go into more detail, but it will be hard without actually looking at what you are doing.

God Bless,

ELMO

ElmoDude,
Thank you a bunch for your insight. I definitely will be looking into list-building. I've briefly did some research into it, I realized that many of the top sellers seem to use opt-in sections on their webpages, but I have completely looked over this aspect. It makes total sense from a theory aspect (the level that my IM is at... sad to say) since it seems as though the only information that I trust is that of someone's website in which I have already "trusted" and already given my email address in the first place. I will definitely be looking into this. As for my websites... they are pretty horrible lol... I'm not surprised at all why they haven't made any money on them - that is not the issue - I understand what doesn't work, and I'm trying to figure out what does work. I believe that I (along with most who are not making money online) am spending most of my time researching (90%) and very little (10%) trying new things. I will definitely be looking into email list-building. Thanks!

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elmo033057

9 years ago

Originally Posted by sharkbaitwoohaha

ElmoDude,
Thank you a bunch for your insight. I definitely will be looking into list-building. I've briefly did some research into it, I realized that many of the top sellers seem to use opt-in sections on their webpages, but I have completely looked over this aspect. It makes total sense from a theory aspect (the level that my IM is at... sad to say) since it seems as though the only information that I trust is that of someone's website in which I have already "trusted" and already given my email address in the first place. I will definitely be looking into this. As for my websites... they are pretty horrible lol... I'm not surprised at all why they haven't made any money on them - that is not the issue - I understand what doesn't work, and I'm trying to figure out what does work. I believe that I (along with most who are not making money online) am spending most of my time researching (90%) and very little (10%) trying new things. I will definitely be looking into email list-building. Thanks!

Since you appear to really want to learn this stuff, I'll help you as best as I can. Here's a path you can take. It's not one you have to take, but basically, most IM involves these steps.

Step 1: Find a focused and specific niche. Brainstorm some ideas on what your business is going to be about, check to see if there is any demand. Look at the "For Dummies" site to see if anyone has written a book on it.

Go on Amazon and see how many books there are and if there are groups of people commenting on these books. If there are similar books written about products or services of this nature, you may have a good niche. Usually, when no one is in a niche that means there probably isn't a market. So, do your niche research, first.

Step 2: Decide on how you are going to drive traffic.
Are you going to build single page sites that have tons of information on them? See Michael Bluejay's sites

Will your site be a blog, where you write super detailed reports on how to use or do something in your niche?

Read Jon Morrow's blog, especially the beginner's section. He really has AWESOME articles on here. Here's a good article for you: Ethical Way of Earning Money Online, Even if You Don't Have Anything to Sell

Are you just going to use Pay-Per-Click? (Read up on this before trying it!)

Are you going to just use social media? See Perry Belcher's videos on this: Social Media Marketing

Perry Belcher Social Media Marketing - YouTube

Whatever method you decide to use, the whole idea is to find a following, a tribe, a herd or whatever you want to call them. ( Read Seth Godin's book, "Tribes". You can get it on Amazon used dirt cheap. Read it several times. ) These are people that are very interested in your niche idea, product or service.

Step 3: Get a way to collect email addresses. You want to build a list of people in your specific niche. This is super important. Your list is GOLD. (I've had at least 2 millionaire Internet Marketing gurus tell me this to my face.)
To build your list you can use something like Neil Patel's "Hello Bar" tool.

Also go to UnBounce and learn how to build a page that collects email addresses. I believe this course is free: How to build a Lead Generation Page

Step 4: Monetize the sucker! What are you going to sell the people that are coming to your site? Affiliate products? A service that you offer? A product that you've created? Bill Meyers Site

Find out what your niche-crowd wants and serve it up to them.

Step 5: Create other more expensive services and products and sell those to your crowd. (Actually, you should have this all thought out in advance.) Especially, if they have already bought from you. Your easiest customers are the folks that have already bought your stuff.

I am really glossing over these points, and I'm sure other Warriors on here have other steps and points they want to add, which I hope they do. But bear in mind, each step needs to be read about, studied and applied.

One last thing. Here is a list of mistakes I see IM newbies make:

Wanting success fast. Not gonna happen unless you are just very lucky.

Not wanting to WORK it hard. IM requires a lot of hard, dedicated work, just like any other business. (The sharks on Shark Tank work 18 hour days 7 Days a week!)

Not investigating a niche well enough, or not even having one.

Wasting time on the WF whining that they are making any money.

Being afraid of Failure. - Watch

Seth Godin's Video on Failure

. Also

Barbra Corcoran's Video

Not being persistent.

Jumping from idea to idea and not staying focused.

Not continuously learning and building their IM skills. Dan Kennedy says that he can tell how successful a person is by looking at his bookshelf. If his TV is bigger than his non-fiction book collection, chances are, he's not doing too well financially.

I could go on, but I'm getting tired. Ha ha !

I truly wish you the best, my friend. I hope this helps out some. Like I said, I'm glossing over points here, but this should at least help you get started.

God Bless,

ELMO

PS Feel free to send me a message and friend me on here.

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"When It Comes To High Response Copy - I've Got Your Back!"

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GarlandBergeron

9 years ago

As Elmo just said, forget about your goal for now, it depends on how long you've been at list building and how cool is your list..

Then you would crash any personal record when it comes to income!

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