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What to do first?

by trimmerman
12 replies
Hello,
I have lots of things on the go. A bucket full of websites, Capture pages, I'm signed for clickbank and everything else that has been recommended. I'm trying out a couple of auto-responders, Yada yada.

I'm not getting too far. I was wondering, If I reverse-engineered this a bit I might find the problems. Maybe there is an order that would make more sense and work better.

Any thoughts would appreciated.

Jeff
  • Profile picture of the author sylviad
    What problem are you referring to? Not knowing where to start, or how to start making money?

    Maybe that's where you start. Deciding how to make money.

    From what I can tell, the best approach is:

    1. Find a niche and build a web site to promote the product
    2. Sign up to the affiliate program, grab your links and add them to your page.
    3. Set up an auto responder and put an opt-in form on your landing page so that the people who visit will get on your list. Then, you can market to them repeatedly if they do not buy the affiliate product first time through. Offer them something they cannot resist - a free report or mini-course related to the affil. product.
    4. Fill the auto responder with valuable content related to your product to "win their trust". Do not promote heavily at this stage.
    5. Make every third message a promotion for the affiliate product.
    6. Start marketing.
    7. Collect the cash.

    At that point, you need another plan for the marketing. Where will you market, how can you reach the right audience that is hot to buy, what will you use to deliver your promotions: articles, PPC, social bookmarking, blogging, etc. ?

    It sounds like you've fallen into the common trap of many new marketers - trying to do a ton of things at once before you've mastered one. Your approach so far looks very scattered, with no focus whatsoever.

    The solution...

    Work on one product promotion at a time based on steps 1-7. Once you start making a steady income from that one product, move on and repeat the process with another product.

    Hope this helps.

    Sylvia
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    • Profile picture of the author trimmerman
      Hi Sylvia,
      That is exactly what I was looking for. Focus, of course. Learning to use the auto-responder does seem to be at the hub of things. I was thinking that might be a big part of it. The friend that got me going on affiliate marketing is having the same trouble. Would you mind if I sent him this list?
      Jeff
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      • Profile picture of the author Daniel Brock
        Here's my personal recommendation.

        Build a few affiliate sites that are not focused around using an autoresponder.

        That will get you your first sales and also build up your skill level.

        Once you have had success with that, you might consider either making more sites, or moving to niches were list building is more effective.

        Once your list is building, focus on more ways to introduce people into your list funnel.

        This way you are moving to one grander goal.

        From there, you might consider creating your own products.

        Regards,
        Dan Brock
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        Clickbank #1 Best Seller: The Deadbeat Super Affiliate.
        Click here to learn how to make money online in your bath robe and gym socks!
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      • Profile picture of the author Maddi
        Originally Posted by trimmerman View Post

        Hi Sylvia,
        That is exactly what I was looking for. Focus, of course. Learning to use the auto-responder does seem to be at the hub of things. I was thinking that might be a big part of it. The friend that got me going on affiliate marketing is having the same trouble. Would you mind if I sent him this list?
        Jeff
        Autoresponders are very important but they are only one piece of the puzzle and once you actually get the hang of using them they hardly take a few minutes of your time to do a certain task. So don't focus completely on autoresponders but learn as you go. For now setting up a list, setting up follow up emails and making your optin form is enough to get you going and like I said once you get the hang of it each of these tasks hardly take 15 minutes to set up.

        Look into Randy Smith's wizard responder if you looking for something cheap and user friendly. I personally have used aweber all along but I am seriously considering moving to wizard as they have fantastic support and the only diff between WR and aweber/get response is that the latter are big names thats all. and Randy has fantastic support too and lets you import your lists from other responders.

        As for your main question, Sylvia's list is really all there is to it. Of course there is a learning curve involved in each of the steps but the order is very important and focusing on one thing at a time is the key.

        Hope it helps.

        Maddi
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        Instant Income Streams
        Over 350 Happy Warriors
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  • Profile picture of the author Vanquish
    My advice would be to choose one method and concentrate on it for a few months until you master it and you will be surprised at the results you get.

    Do not take any short cuts and jump from method to method because a lot of the new flashy stuff is just rehashed info with a new twist on it marketed in a very seductive way.

    In my opinion you should go for list building if you want to learn how to build a long term sustainable business.
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    Nothing to sell, only value to give and new knowledge to learn.
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    • Profile picture of the author Tyson Faulkner
      It sounds like your way to spread out.

      When you try to focus on everything you essentially focus on nothing. Pick one thing, and put 100% of your effort into it until it works, only THEN move on to the next.

      I would highly recommend building your list first, use one of those capture pages you made, drive traffic to it like crazy, test it and tweak it to get performing well and build your list in the process.

      Having a list of interested prospects is the best way to have a sustainable business online. At least that's my perspective.
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  • Profile picture of the author Mohammad Afaq
    Step #1: Choose a METHOD
    Step #2: Decide how you will get there (create a step by step plan)
    Step #3: Stick to it (for atleast 90 days)

    That's all I do.
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    “The first draft of anything is shit.” ~Ernest Hemingway

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  • Profile picture of the author trimmerman
    Hi Everyone,
    Thank you for all the good info. I was thinking, maybe we could start a forum on auto-responders. There are quite a lot of them. some are free. some are modestly priced, some are quite expensive. From the few reviews I have read they are all quirky. some are difficult to use. Some are downright unstable.
    Time is so very important to us, we need to know we can rely on a new piece of software if we are going to invest the time to learn it. Also, we we don't want to overpay. If there is a good value out there, For myself I'd like to know about it. I thought of starting a blog on it, but then I thought "why not just do it here?"

    What do you think?
    Jeff
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  • Profile picture of the author webinsiders
    Nice idea Jeff! I'd find that helpful as well since I haven't had a chance to try all of the paid ones out there. If we could get opinions and reviews from some WF users with which ones they've used, and are currently using and finding successful and why I think it would really benefit a lot of people trying to pick which is best for them
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  • Profile picture of the author woodsja
    I'm going to back Daniel up here. Don't worry about autoresponders until you've gotten the basics down. Pick one method and focus on that whether it's PPC, PPV, SEO, or Social Media. You need to learn how to drive traffic and convert it into leads or sales. I would sign up with an affiliate network, pick a niche, and learn one of the methods I mentioned. Focus on that and then try to build your own lists and learn to market to them once you've done that.
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  • Profile picture of the author Nicholas Kemp
    Focus on one thing at a time. You must have a clear plan which you can break into action steps and follow. Make sure your niche/product idea already sells well.
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  • Profile picture of the author Nathan Alexander
    What do you want?

    What can you see yourself doing that you won't feel trapped in? Something that you can commit to because you want to. Something that you won't resent having to work on.

    This is important because you don't want to do something that you're not motivated to learn and excel at.

    You want to make money so you need to know more about what excites you to get started. I say this because there are so many ways to earn (work for) an income from "online" and it's easy to lose clarity in places like this. You might as well start by finding out what you feel an affinity for.
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