Noel Cunningham

Hey guys!

This is Noel here and I just wanted to post this thread to give an update on how I've started to turn the corner and can really see an huge amount of opportunities online in 2012. I hope it can give some struggling newbies out there an extra boost and hopefully encourage them to keep driving forward.

Like many of you reading this I struggled for many, many months when I first ventured online. As a naive Newbie I thought I was going to instantly hit the jackpot and work for a few hours per day and make millions!

It didn’t take me long to figure out that this was only a pipe dream and wasn’t possible in the real world. After some reflection I decided I needed to reassess what I was doing with my business and where I was going. Where was I headed if I continued on the path that I was following and what chance did I have to make a success of myself and be able to break free from my dreaded day job.

At the time I was heavily involved in affiliate marketing, and had invested an awful lot of money in PPC ads and on all the newest and shiniest traffic generation software. Needless to say I was not seeing a return on my investment and instead was losing more and more money.

It seemed the harder I tried and the longer I worked, the more money I lost. This didn’t sit well with me and I put my affiliate marketing business (if you could call it a business) on ice and critically assessed everything I was doing to see was there a viable and profitable way forward.

From where I was standing I had 2 choices:

a) to get this online business off the ground and turning a profit
b) or pack it all in and dedicate myself to the 40+ years of meandering nothingness of the 9-5 rat race that awaited me

After devouring Tim Ferriss’s 4 Hour Workweek one weekend I was full of idea’s and vigor on how I could finally break free from the shackles of working for the man and run my own business that would allow me the freedom to live life on my terms.

It was during this critical assessment of my “business” that I stumbled across the answer. This was the fatal mistake that I as a Newbie was making and until I addressed it I would never really be able to make a sustainable, consistent income online.

I was focusing on SELLING to people instead of MARKETING to them.

It was a lightbulb moment for me for sure. I was simply putting a product in-front of them and asking them to exchange their hard earned cash for this product.

Hell, I wasn’t even building a list from this method as all the prospects joined the list of whatever affiliate offer I was promoting. Essentially, I was doing all the work but besides the initial benefit of the affiliate commission I was getting very little out of this sales transaction.

I wasn’t building a relationship with any of the prospects and would never be able to sell to them again in the future. It was a one-time profit with no further benefits to me down the line.

As you may know, the 1st time customer is the most expensive to acquire. This customer doesn’t know you, may not be familiar with your offer and would be naturally untrusting and skeptical of what you are saying to them in your sales copy.

You see the internet, like everywhere else in life, is full of sharks. The customer may have been stung before and you know what they say “once bitten - twice shy.”

So once you have made that first sale to that customer, and provided you have supplied them with a good quality product, you will find it a lot easier to sell to them in the future. Over time you will build a strong relationship with these customers and as they become repeat customers they will naturally evolve into fans of your work and will be only too happy to buy your products or affiliate offers that you promote.

So this lead to me asking myself how can I begin to build this relationship with these prospects that will eventually see them evolve into repeat buyers who are fans of my work and look forward to my emails. The answer was simple and was right in front of my face.


This may seem obvious to more experienced Warriors reading this but like I mentioned before, this is how I stumbled along with this internet marketing game before I was able to see the bigger picture.

I needed to switch my focus from selling these prospects whatever product I was promoting at the time to providing them with upfront, valuable content that would help me to win their trust and build a good relationship with.

My aim now was to provide as much high quality content to them free of charge, but to leave them hanging a little - and to leave them wanting more. An example of this would be to create a short and clear ebook about “what to do......” on whatever niche market you were targeting but to later sell the prospect “how to do it....”

This little change has made all the difference to my business - focus on giving first and you will no longer have to chase the money!

The simple psychology of the situation will have your prospects appreciate the value that you have given to them for free. This will naturally lead to them trusting you more and seeing you as an authority figure in your field. Then when they receive a message from you they are much more likely to open it and click through to whatever offer you have inside.

I didn’t completely abandon affiliate sales I just reworked my business model so that I was the one building the list first and foremost. I could always promote an affiliate offer that I judged to add value to my subscribers but only after they had become comfortable to receiving emails from me and buying my own products.

This simple shift in mind set has allowed me to finally start making good money online. Now, don't get me wrong I'm no millionaire (yet ) but I've grown a strong list which is growing all the time and the best thing is - it's Responsive and and my open rates are as high as 27%!!

I'm giving away content for free to begin with but I'm more than making up for it down the line as the subscribers begin to view me as an Authority figure who gives them great content.

It took me a while to get used to that mindset but once I focused on Marketing and providing Value first everything else falls into place after that!!

Ok - I'm tired from typing so I'll stop now. But I hope that helps some of your or inspires some newbie to persevere because the reward are so worth it at the end of the day!

All the best - Noel

Cataclysm1987

Awesome post Noel.

Some questions: what products are you selling right now?

How long you been in the game?

I could add something to this but...somehow I feel like you've hit all the points I would have brought up. Very nicely done.

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DonHuevos

Great post. There is a huge difference between selling products and marketing to potential clients. Can you touch a little more on how you're building your list?

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Randall Magwood

How much money are you making with your newfound marketing model?

Noel Cunningham

Hey, thanks man.

At the moment I'm mostly in the Muscle Building Niche (isn't everybody) but I've also been playing around with Kindle ebooks. A slow burner but interesting nonetheless....

I've been online since last summer but have only really focused in the last 3 months or so....still a million miles away from where I'd like to be but I'm starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel and I'm getting the odd "aha!" moment so fingers crossed!

Noel Cunningham

Sure Don, no problem. I'm still fairly green behind the ears but the way I'm seeing it now is that its all about the Marketing.... It's so hard to sell to a cold prospect who doesn't know who the hell you are and what you stand for.

To build the list I'm basically giving away free stuff, but not some crappy PLR ebook - I'm giving away the "good stuff". Say I had this ebook that I wrote that I was gonna sell. I set up my sales page etc. as normal but gave it away for free once the person signs up to my list.

I'm basically exchanging the product for their email address instead of money. Now, once I've done that I follow it up with an email marketing campaign which would politely offer them complimentary products to the ebook. This could be in the form of an mp3, some video training or some other bonus material.

And this is where I try and cash in. The customer by this stage should be a little more trusting of my emails due to the good content that I've delivered them and would be more open to actually buying from me.

This is like a slow dance routine....a bit of give and take and go in for the kill later in the night and cash in

Noel Cunningham

Hey Randall, I making a solid 4 figure (the lower end) per month around 3 months into this whole "give first, cash in second" philosophy. It's a slow burner and I'm still experimenting as I go along but I had to try something different you know?

I really sucked at selling to people so I'm just trying a bit of "reverse pshycology" on it for the time being.

Cataclysm1987

Nice!

Tried that niche out for myself for a little while. Can't say I had much success, but then again I only tried for a month or so. Had a few sales but wasn't too excited about the overall revenue opportunity there.

I've got my eyes on the software niche at the moment, obviously .

Would love to chat or share ideas some time.

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ryankjones

Show us some examples of your stuff. Maybe we can help you out. I've been in the game awhile now. Not with the Warrior Forum but I've been around internet marketing since 2007. I love to help others :-)

steven sanderson

Fantastic post

You have hit the nail on the head, we all like to get things in life, it is in our nature as this helps us survive.

However our prospects are just like us, and they like to get things too, so what we must do is stop trying to sell and start trying to give, this way we sit right in the comfort zone of our prospects mind, and our reward for fulfilling their need to get things is that they then trust us, and so they should if we offer great products and content.

All the best
Steven

MaryKathan

Nice job Noel
It is always good to be a Giver.
Best of luck in your future

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Rich Shaw

Great post Noel!

As someone who, like yourself has only been involved in IM a short time this post will have inspired others who were probably wondering where they were going wrong.

Like you, when I first started I was trying to sell the product before actually getting to know my customers and more importantly them getting to know me!

It's been amazing how the response has been!!!!

Good luck and success with your business

Rich Shaw
website: rich-shaw.com/blog
email: richard@rich-shaw.com
facebook: http://facebook.com/RichAShaw
twitter : http://twitter.com/richshawcom

ExpertSEOServices

Great post. Very inspirational especially for newbies. I totally agree that building a relationship is important.
I too was not building a list in the first instance and since joining the forum I have started building one.

DWaters

Noel,
Thanks for the thoughtful post. I have yet to "run the corner" but at least the corner is in sight, ........... I think!
I am no longer focusing on list building but on simple physical product marketing, but the idea of provided help and good quality content can still be applied. Thanks for the encouragement.

Noel Cunningham

Excellent stuff Eric - feel free to drop me a mail anytime. That's the thing I like most about this forum, there seems to be a genuine goodness in most of the Warriors that want to see others succeed. The networking and ideas that are floating around here are immense!

I think another good point (although I'm sure very basic to most experienced Warriors) is to have a plan.... As simple as it sounds having a progressive plan with tasks to complete & goals to achieve will rapidly increase you chances of achieving them. Keeping a journal of your what your doing is a great way to keep focused and being productive with your time. Just my 2.0

Noel Cunningham

You got it Steve - it seems obvious to me now and I'm kicking myself why I wasn't working like this all the time before. But I guess we all live and learn and just keep trying to improve and drive forward

I vaguely remember taking a class in college about behavioral economics and what makes people "want" and "need" certain things. I think a lot of it comes down to incentives - if you can give someone an incentive then they are more inclined to take the course of action that you want of them....

i.e. Give first, give well and receive your reward by building a responsive email list that will be interested in your work and pay you money etc. down the line....

Noel Cunningham

Thank you Mary for your kind words! Yes, it's kind of counter intuitive to begin with since I guess most of us got into IM in order to make money....yet it appears that one can make money by giving first and receiving second

Noel Cunningham

Awesome Rick, you hit the nail on the head. I'm sure my post is like stating the obvious to thousands of Warriors but to a Newbie like me this was a Big Deal! So if a few Warriors can get some benefit from it then my work here will be done

All the best mate.

Noel Cunningham

Ya, definitely the List is where it's at. I was listening to an audio interview with Michael Cheney not so long ago and he even went further by saying....

"Not only is the money in the list...the money is in the relationship with the list"

If it's good enough for him then it's good enough for me Lol

Noel Cunningham

No worries mate, good to see you have ideas floating around! All you have to do now is go out there and make it happen

trackergirl

Thanks Noel for the inspiration, my head is spinning from all the "make money" gimmicks out there; time to step back and access what I have to offer.

Alyona The Publicist

great motivational story thanks

parklands

Great post Noel, your best customers are your existing ones, give them something FREE, nuture them, ask them what products they like, good service is so important, it leads to recommends and future business.

Congratulations on good work and inspirational post.

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IMHunter

Great post Noel! It is very motivating and congratulations on your success.

bleudika

Great! This changes the perspective for me. I've never thought of it in this way before.
I am going to try it out soon.

Thanks for the inspiration!

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ChrisEllgood

Great post!

eguinan

Great post! That book really changed my life also. I've given it away many times. Thank you for sharing!

jeresteem99

very excellent composed content, Noel.

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hireava

Such an awesome post.....Continue inspiring people. Very much appreciated!

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Jamus McKenna

Noel,

Great contribution to the forum & a great lesson to be learned their.

I've always followed Eben Pagans statement "If you are trying to sell to someone then you've already lost. You've alrwady lost."

Cheers,

Jamus

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eaknhebb

It is really a good program for the great