The speech I had came with was a no go. That’s because there was another speaker on the same topic, and even though initially it seemed like there wasn’t much overlap, when I sat down and talked to her about what she was going to cover…

I realized it wouldn’t be fair to the audience or her if we give such similar presentation.

Problem

I was speaking the day after next and I couldn’t write a new presentation.

I could do an old one, but I didn’t have anything on hand that fit with the theme of the seminar, which about traffic generation.

So what did I do? I DID have my iPad with me (I bring it to play games on during the flights!). Could I write my presentation on that?

I didn’t want to, but I didn’t have many options. So the first thing I did was download the keynote app to create my presentation. I had never used keynote before… what better time to learn?

I had limitations. For example, I’d have to type with the stupid touch screen keyboard on the iPad. So I’d have to be as pithy as possible with my slides. I also did not have the time or desire to add any graphics or designs as it’d be a nightmare to do all this with an iPad.

What I did have with some very good knowledge of traffic generation though. And turns out, that was all I needed.

The plan…

create a 75 minute presentation with as few slides as possible with no designs, animation, graphics or anything but a few words on each slide… and make this the best presentation any speaker gives at the event

What I did was this. I took out a piece of paper and pen and begin to write down a list of different traffic generation strategies I had used that most people in the audience migh not be familiar with.

I wrote and wrote and wrote – and by the time I was done I had about 26 methods. I whittled it down to 17 methods, with my hopes that NO ONE in the audience knew more than 3-4 of the ones I was going to share.

Next? I created a one slide introduction, and a one slide conclusion. Then I stuck 17 slides in between… each slide devote to 1 traffic generation method. I put just enough bullet points on each slide to use as “talking points”.

I went out the next day and gave this presentation. I’m not sure if it was the best at the event, but a lot of people thought it was! I left the stage with a standing ovation, literally high fiving people as I walked off the stage.

I tell you this story because

it illustrates a lot of success principles that you should make it your duty to adopt. Let’s do a break down on a few of them.

The Power Of The Deadline - since I only had HOURS to create my presentation in less than ideal circumstances (an iPad!) I had to get creative in my solution. I have no doubt this creativity wouldn’t have came to me unless I wasn’t under such an intense deadline. Conclusion: anything worth doing is worth putting an intense deadline on.

The Power Of Expertise - Once you know your subject down cold (having put your 10,000 hours on experience into it!) you can pretty much manifest magic out of thin air. Conclusion: get really, really good at one thing, ideally something that a large group of people would pay you a lot of money to know about.

The Power Of Focus - Once I get something in my mind that I want to do, I feel compelled to do it. If I hadn’t had focus I either wouldn’t have gotten my presentation done on time, or I would’ve sacrificed quality to rush through it. Focus can be learned. I learned focus by devoting the first 3 hours of my day, every day, to a no interruptions, only stopping for bathroom breaks work ethic. I didn’t start at 3 hours. I started at 30 minutes, and gradually worked my way up.

The Power Of Control - there are two things in life: those you can control and those you can’t. The things you can’t control are like the weather. So since you can’t control them, don’t worry about them. Then there are things you can control… like how you respond to the things like the weather. Since you can control them, don’t worry about them.

I was able to control how I responded to the situation, and since it was in my control I didn’t stress about it. I didn’t worry. I just knew what needed to be done and did it.

You get this power of control by making small daily adjustments to your stress and anxiety habits. Just observe what gets you stress, and slowly work out ways that alleviate that stress. Improve on those until you feel little to no stress. Takes time, but is simple if you’re committed to it. And who wouldn’t want to be when the price you pay to obtain it is worth the value!

Conclusion

I’ll leave you with this final takeaway… if the story above led you to believe I’m some sort of super human freak genius… you’d be wrong (even though I wish you were right!). There are a LOT of things in my life outside of business where I do not have the same abilities to deal with those situations as I dealt with the one above.

However, the difference is my business is the second highest priority in my life (next to family). So since I make it a priority, I work extra hard on those things and applying them specifically to a business context. Since I’m not a super human freak of nature, but a regular small town man from Iowa, that means if I can do it, you should be able to do it as well.

As the wise saying goes, “success isn’t doing extraordinary things, it’s doing ordinary things extraordinarily well!”.

Oh By The Way…

I’m experimenting with the new “google plus 1″ feature. If you liked this article, just hit the plus 1 button below. If enough people do it, we can get some data which I will share with you in the future to let you know if the plus 1 is something that is worth your while to do in your marketing.

Boy time changes things doesn’t it? The same is true for internet marketing. There is stuff going on in the market place right now that is important for you to understand, so you can position yourself to best profit from it.

In this blog post, I’ll break some of those things down for you.

Multi-Media Communication Is Now (Almost) Necessary

Email marketing has gotten tougher and tougher. For example I have a list of roughly 68,000 people (though I’m guessing it’s closer to 45,000 UNIQUES). Regardless, on average, you know how many “clicks throughs” I get on my email?

Around 1600 on average. Believe it or not, that’s actually good. Few people can get 1600 clicks from an email. You’d expect it to be more though, wouldn’t you?

Well it’s obvious. In hyper competitive niches (like mine) most of the people on my list (YOU!) are also on at least 20 other lists. At least. Plus people sometimes sign up with “throw away” emails or secondary emails they don’t check often.

Even worse – email filters are getting more and more conservative (I’ve heard rumors that gmail is going to make some incredible changes that should make commercial email delivery even worse!).

Email still is currently the best way to market your goods and services. However you should dig the well before you’re thirsty and start opening the lines of communication up through other medias.

Ideally you want your customers and prospects reachable in three locations:

1. Email List
2. Facebook
3. Mobile

Here’s how we’re starting to do it. We still want to drive to an email list first, but then there are times we send emails out just to increae our following on facebook (my profile and my fan pages).

We also are building a mobile list of people who want to be sent a text message for invitations to our webinars.

If I was starting over again, here would be my process. I would use a facebook fan page to simultaneously get “fans” and to build my email optin list. Then I’d use both my email optin list and facebook to build a mobile list.

Which brings me to the second trend right now…

Paid Advertising Is Viable For The Little “Guy” Again

Or girl.

It’s more than just a hot sales pitch or angle that marketers are using. Facebook has indeed become friendly to direct marketers like us… so it’s quite possible for someone to actually build a profitable campaign without being some sort of pay per click genius.

It’s apparent that Google HATES direct marketing to the point where they don’t even want to take your money and make it all but impossible to create an actual campaign.

It’s also clear that facebook is taking google HEAD ON in order to steal market share from Google. Brilliant.

I think Facebook is going to win. An example: when you were running a google ad in the past, where’d you take them to – a blogger website? Nope. But with facebook, often times the best place to take visitors that come from your ads is to a facebook page.

It’s this type of tight integration typed with demographic targeting (as opposed to keyword targeting) that is making Facebook the dominant place to go for traffic.

I think paid advertising as a whole is gaining popularity again, especially in competitive markets. Most big marketers are suffering from “marketing incest” where the rate of new leads being brought into the market is very small compared to the rate of people LEAVING the market.

This is happening because joint ventures are being abused to the point where in order to get someone to mail for your big launch, you have to do a recip with them on their launch. So the next 5 months after your launch, you’re having to mail a promo for the 30 people you owe who helped you on your last launch.

I’m so glad I NEVER followed that model.

The point though is that marketers are “passing around” leads more so than brining in NEW leads into the fold. Thus traffic gets tighter and tighter. That’s why I think those who get good at paid advertising (specifically through facebook and IP retargeting) are going to flourish.

Finally…

The Sales Letter Is Becoming Less & Less Important!

You know what I (and a lot of other people) do before buying an internet marketing product from someone I don’t know…

I go to the Warrior Forum and click on the “reviews” section. I’m getting my information a lot of times from sources OTHER THAN the advertisement itself. (Non-biased sources!)

Which brings me to another point – a lot of times I’m checking out products because of the forums and because of what I hear on facebook! Heck, the only time I’m responding to cold advertising any more is from facebook!

Interesting.

At the same time, you’ll probably have noticed that a majority of our selling in my business is done via webinars, not through sales letters. And the sites we’re designing lately are for the most part, “corporate” sites… NOT long form sales letters.

Webinar Legend is a good example of this.

It’s funny because in the times of Clickbank HYPE mania with HARDER hitting sales letters than others… guys like me are going the EXACT opposite route. Not a coincidence.

SUCCESS IS THE SAME AS IT HAS BEEN THOUGH…

I’ll tell you what I tell my personal coaching clients all the time – to “win” in internet marketing it comes down to outworking your competition.

That’s the “magic”. It’s ideal to work both smarter AND harder, but just harder will do. Look how many pieces of software I’ve put out in the last few months. That’s more than most software providers put out in a life time!

I do it through lots of hard work and extreme discipline toward building systems. I still don’t know a better way to succeed in that.

The final takeaways are this…

a) start thinking multi-integration. If you have an email list, get them also to follow you on facebook and think of some (even if very small) mobile integration you can implement.

b) consider paid traffic again. At the first least start studying meticulously what’s being advertised on facebook and HOW it’s being advertised.

c) think of ways to sell your stuff that doesn’t require your sales letter to do all the heavy lifting for you. This means webinars, social communities and a vision for long term quality control.

Despite all these new challenges, I think with facebook on the rise the way it is, right now the opportunity is easier than normal. It won’t stay that way forever though.

Here’s where a lot of people struggle. In order to get good, continual traffic, you need good content.

But just creating good content on its own usually doesn’t bring you any traffic.

So what do you do? That’s the rub. That’s why a lot of people have trouble making money online. They face this traffic/content conundrum.

Option 1…

The first thing you can do (and almost everyone DOES) is to try to bypass the good content creation phase… And go straight for the traffic.

A push button software program perhaps could do the trick? You plop down some cash on one of these gizmos… And you might even try in earnest to make it work.

It usually doesn’t. That’s because what value are you providing to the marketplace? Usually none.

You can spin an article 7 ways til Sunday – but if that article sucks, you’ve added not just one piece of junk to the Internet landfill… But a whole heap of it.

Nice try.

Option 2…

Go the affiliate route. Makes sense – you can tap into someone else’s high value content… And still just focus on traffic to get eyeballs to that person’s high value content.

For your reward you earn commissions on sales.

Sounds swell. Maybe you can use some of the content they give you. Problem – every other affiliate is using that same content.

Again, no value is being created in the marketplace. Just more noise. And if you’re going to use your own content… Then you need to be good at creating content anyway. Sigh.

Option 3…

Go long tail young man (or woman)! You can create some content… Based around keywords like “Weber Q 100 Portable Propane Gas Grill” and play the SEO game.

Boy that sounds like a picnic, doesn’t it? It can be made to work – but what value are you really putting out there for the marketplace?

Option 4…

Become a “high value content creator”. This is hard. Laborious. Little payoff in the short run. Requires a lot of your time – especially at first.

Something with few shortcuts attached to it. The toughest road to travel. That’s why it’s the best. That’s why it’s the model that will work most often.

But it’s also the least attractive. Plus it requires the delicate balancing act of practicing and fine tuning your skills to create content… And also getting SOME short term payoff.

Where’s The Money?

If you’re with me so far, you’ve reached the conclusion that the most predictable… Most scalable… Most long term valuable thing to do to build online wealth… Is creating high value content.

The trick is getting paid to practice.

When coaching clients come to me and are just starting their online business… They ask me if they should create a blog.

Often I say no. While a blog is a great place to practice creating high value content… It requires you to BRING people to your blog. That’s challenging.

On the flip side, what about an active forum? There are people already going there… You just need to get the attention of a few of them.

So you create high quality content for an active forum. The main purpose is to get good at creating high value content – while getting some short term results.

Warning – You Won’t Get Rich!

Sadly you won’t make a lot of money doing this. But you can make some in the short term… And get paid to “practice”.

And you stand an okay chance of making SOME money at first.

Let’s get specific. The first thing you do is observe. You have to spend a few days going to the active forum you’re targeting… And just take in the “culture”.

Each forum has its own unique identity. There are things the forum as a whole is favorable to… And things it hates. Be aware so you can do the things it likes and NOT do the things it hates.

More importantly observe this forum with your “opportunity antennae” on. You’re looking specifically for this – a problem shared by a large number of visitors to the forum who are desperate for a solution to that problem.

Once you’ve figured out this problem – it’s time to get your hands dirty and do some work.

I’m talking serious research. Serious effort to create the granddaddy forum post that will become the de facto “go here” thread in the future any time someone brings up the problem.

You might have to spend 2 hours researching the solution for the post you’ll create… And another hour crafting it.

It will be worth it. People will love your for it. You might even get some cash out of it.

Example…

A huge problem people have in Internet marketing is setting up an affiliate program. I know. In fact I’m creating software for it that I’ll launch in 2011 because this is such a big problem.

However, in the meantime you could – hypothetically – provide your own solution on a high traffic Internet marketing forum (http://warriorforum.com).

What do you do? Here’s what I’d do if I was in your position.

I’d start with the outline. I’d aim to cover the 3 major, most popular affiliate program solutions. And I’d also try to cover 3 “obscure, little talked about” solutions. I’d have to dig around for these and hopefully test them out if they’re free or rather inexpensive.

Then I’d write that granddaddy forum post. For each of the 3 main ones, I’d write a step by step tutorial on how to set up an affiliate program with that program, including screenshots.

I’d also research my butt off to uncover all the pros and cons I could think of related to each of those.

I’d do the same thing with the 3 obscure ones.

Would I throw an affiliate links in at any point?

No. Not only would it probably violate the rules of that particular forum… But even if it didn’t I’d still not get greedy.

Remember the focus is on GIVING… Creating high value content… The end all, be all solution for this problem. People will reject it if they think you are trying to be sly and take advantage of them. Don’t be foolish.

So How Will You Monetize It?

One of two ways. Either with a low key “forum signature” or with people literally seeking you out and private messaging you for further help, which often they would be happy to pay for. (That’s when you know you did it right!)

A low key forum signature could be something like – “I help set up affiliate programs for people. Email me at email@example.com if you’d like to discuss hiring me.”

Simple, right? Yes.

What can this mean for you? Well I’m looking at a thread right now on the Warrior Forum that has 21,260 views. Guess what it’s about? How to get the most out of an ezine article!

Not rocket science. It’s not even that good of content.

This post is 2 years and 2 months old. So don’t expect to get 21,000+ views immediately. But do the math – that averages out to about 26 views a DAY over the span of two years and two months.

Sounds good to me.

Now what if you created a post like this once a week? In a year you’d have a lot of things going for you…

• Tons of high value content out there.
• Stuff to repurpose into free (and paid!) products.
• Experience which sharpens your skills.
• Enlightenment based on results. (Can’t get that in an ebook.)
• Some money in your pocket.

Hopefully along the way you aim at getting a little (just a little!) better with each piece of high value content you create.

If you do this – in a year you will laugh when you look at a blank screen – because it will be so easy for you to create high value content… Since you’ve done it so often.

Plus, you’ll be more finely tuned in to how people react to certain things that you do… Meaning you are consciously able to create FAVORABLE reactions consistently.

You will be a high value creation machine. Which you can leverage so many different ways to get traffic. Which in turn you can then pick among the many proven models to make money online.

It’s not glamorous. It’s a little slow. But it works. Don’t you wish you would’ve spent the last year with a plan like this instead of being distracted by fancy, pie in the sky solutions?

There is a disturbing trend going on right now, especially with ClickBank launches. The main model is this:

Traffic Loophole Hook -> Blind offer for $77 -> 3-7 upsells -> Atrocious customer product and customer support.

I have seen a lot of people in the Warrior Forum review thread complaining because they got burned… I don’t want you to get burned.

So let me give you some good rules of thumb for investing in your business with Internet marketing products.

Rule #1 – If it’s blind, don’t buy it

A copywriting technique that’s incredibly effective is what’s called a “blind offer”. A blind offer is this – you don’t know exactly what you get until after you purchase.

If the sales letter spends more time telling you what it’s NOT than what it is… it’s a blind offer.

If the sales letter explains you’ll exploit a loophole… but doesn’t give you the slightest hint of what that loophole is… It’s a blind offer.

If you have no idea exactly what you’re getting, in terms of the training content… It’s a blind offer.

Compare that to my copy – I meticulously break down the major sections of my training. If it’s a way to get traffic through Facebook, I TELL you that. Be careful of copy like this:”It has nothing to do with Google, Yahoo, Pay Per Click, Ezine Articles, YouTube, etc.”.

Blind copy on a $37 or $77 price point will sell the living daylights out of your product. It will also bastardize your customer list you just built, send refunds through the roof and create support nightmares.

I never teach this tactic to my copywriting students, I never personally use it, and I NEVER… NEVER buy from it. Blind copy sucks!

Rule #2 – If it promises a “loophole” or “automation” be very careful.

The ClickBank trend right now is “traffic loophole”. I have seen 4 launches in the last two months that have put that exact phrase in the headline.

Product #1 - the “traffic loophole” that was teased was actually not a loophole – but an illegal violation of terms of service from Facebook. The copy for this product was “blind”. Hmmm!? Wonder why they didn’t tell you that you’d be doing something illegal in the sales letter? …

Product #2 - the “traffic loophole” was an obscure pay per view advertising network that is actually a nice place to get traffic really cheap and make some decent money with it. Problem – you have to put a $1,000 deposit down to get accepted into that network. The copy didn’t mention that little fact. Hmmm!? Wonder why they didn’t…

Product #3 - the “traffic loophole” WASN’T a loophole at all. It was forum marketing, Ezine article marketing and a few social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. See why the copy had to be blind? If they told you that these were the “secret traffic sources”, you would’ve realized there was no loophole. Dare I say it was a lie!? Gasp! Who would’ve thought?

Product #4 – the “traffic loophole” was a genuine loophole. Problem – right before he launched it, that secret traffic source was purchased and acquired by Google – who quickly fixed the loophole. Well, gee – can’t call off the launch when you got all the JV partners and everything in place, right? So just launch it even though the loophole doesn’t exist anymore. That’s a great idea, isn’t? That’s what they DID!

The TRUTH about traffic loopholes – if I find a genuine, powerful traffic loophole (and I do every so often) I do NOT sell it in a $77 product. I mean I’m a nice guy, but that would be a really dumb business move. It’s usually $297 or $497.

What about automation?

Don’t believe them… UNLESS they show you a demonstration. Automation is a power word that can absolutely get you to want to buy! That’s why you have seen a lot of these ClickBank launches USE that word in the headline.

The problem – nothing is automated! So don’t believe that something is automated JUST because the headline says it is. ONLY believe it MAY be automated if they show a demonstration of the automation on the sales page.

But you really can’t do that with blind copy can you?

Rule #3 – The Upsell Tidal Wave

A very profitable strategy for these launches is to promise you the whole world (and more!) for $37 or $77 – and after you purchase – take you to an upsell that says “well, if you really want to do it right, then you need to buy…”.

Oops! Instant disconnect. Doesn’t that piss you off? Let me school you two ways.

First, if you do upsells (and you absolutely should!), don’t do them like these ClickBank guys are doing them.

An upsell should be one of the following…

1. COMPLEMENTARY to the original product without invalidating the promises of the original product. (Example – if we teach a traffic program, we might upsell “mind state stuff” to help them more effectively implement it… Or if we sell product creation… We upsell copywriting – because you need to write the sales letter for the product, right?)
2. A Higher LEVEL version that doesn’t invalidate the promises on the original product. (Example – your front end shows a “down and dirty” way to do something… It’s good enough and made for people on a budget… But you extend the more thorough, more in depth version on the upsell for the people who want it… But you never claim on the sales letter for the front end product that it’s the end all, be all!)
3. A really damn good deal rewarding the customer for making the first purchase with you. (Example – we do the buy 1 for 50% off, get 3 more free offer which is a TRUE special offer only on the upsell and can’t be gotten anywhere else.)
4. A more in depth modality. (I can offer a product writing copy on the front end, upsell a 30 minute sales critique for those who want one on one in addition to standalone…)

Now let me school you the second way – EXPECT the upsell on a $37 or $77 product. These guys don’t DO giant launches unless big bucks are involved… And you can’t get big bucks on a $37 product without a stack of upsells, downsells and continuity thrown in somewhere.

So when considering purchasing the front end, ask yourself – “what kind of upsell should I be expecting to get? Will it be a bait and switch? Will it be something intentionally left out of the front end?”

After asking that question, THEN decide if you’re comfortable purchasing something on the front end that you think is either incomplete, or just “part of the puzzle” even though it’s presented as the whole puzzle.

Final word on upsells – I’m a HUGE believer in them… When done right, they are win-win. But from a consumer point of view, anticipate them and calculate them into your purchasing decision.

And you should use them in your business as well. Just use them the RIGHT way as I’ve outlined above.

Rule #4 – Support! (Or Lack Thereof!)

Here’s something fun to do during a product launch. Put in a simple support ticket before you purchase. See how long it takes to get a response.

Be prepared to be shocked!

I have no idea how this happens, but it happens more often than not. People buy product – don’t get download. 4 days or longer go by and they still don’t even get their product.

Okay, I’m not perfect. I run a small operation with just myself and my wonderful assistant Mary Jo. Yet we are on pace to do about a million dollars in gross this year. And we take support seriously. It’s very rare that something slips through the cracks. It happens, but not a whole lot. And when it does, it gets fixed.

Now I admit, I’m not the quickest to respond to personal requests that Mary Jo forwards me – but SHE usually responds and tells them she’s forwarded it to me.

And if it’s a simple download request, she handles that almost always within 24 hours or less.

The TRUTH about Internet marketing – there is no front end money in customer support. So when doing a launch, you don’t really need it to do big numbers. More important is the sales copy, the launch process, managing the affiliates and joint venture partners, email copy and so forth.

Customer support is not very profitable, so it’s not likely to get much attention or focus during the launch.

The only people who do customer support well, do it simply because they know it’s the right thing to do. Not because it’s very profitable. Those people have integrity.

But how much integrity do you think these launch guys with blind copy, false “loopholes” and bait and switch upsells have..?

So do you expect great customer service or support? Hmmm!?

Let’s bring this home..

What I have just done is probably pissed off a lot of my so-called peers. Lost a lot of potential joint venture partners. Alienated alliances that could bring me in big bucks.

Yeah, so be it. These ClickBank style launches are built around affiliates and joint venture partners – NOT around the customer. I build my business the other way – I attract great customers who eventually become long term affiliates and joint venture partners for me.

So if I have to be the only one with enough guts to stick my head out there and let you know the real deal with these things… While everyone who is in the “know” remains tight lipped about it… So be it.

But I wanted to give you some clarity on this so you don’t make a really dumb purchase in the future that you immediately regret. And when you save that money on dumb purchases remember me. Then come over and invest that in some of my stuff instead

We had a full house with almost all 100 people who signed up for the seminar actually attending. The live stream went about as flawless as it could given the massive amount of people we had on the stream.

It wasn’t without its hiccups, as anything of these magnitudes go.

Looking at the seminar itself, you might wonder why I and my mastermind were crazy enough to try to pull something like this off. The fee was a ridiculous $97 to get in. There was no pitching… All content.

Clearly, there was no money being made on our part from this event, ESPECIALLY when you consider the time obligations required. So what was the “angle” for such a thing?

Mainly, it was BOTH a customer appreciation event and a long term strategy. I can’t remember the exact numbers, but I think 93% said they would have paid $197 or MORE to attend (based on our survey results).

That’s cool, isn’t it? In marketing, we call that differentiation. Why should someone stay on my list and read my emails in the future? Because I’m one of the few that would go to great lengths to put on such an event. Smart and a lesson for you to consider using in your own business. (Engineer such fantastic deals from time to time so people absolutely look forward to receiving your communications.)

There were other secret “sly” reasons to do such an event. For example, I counted at least 15 attendees at the seminar who do at least 6 figures a year, and at least 5 attendees at the event (NOT SPEAKERS but people who paid) who make more money a year than I do.

I like meeting these people, because clearly I have something to offer them that they come to me for. I want to know how I can serve them better so they come to me more often and invest in my products and services more frequently. The best way I know for doing that is meeting and talking with them at a seminar.

I was telling someone at the seminar that the value in that room – when you added up speakers and presenters – could be translated into many, many millions of dollars based on products everybody at the event had sold.

Easily tens of millions of dollars a year people in that room move in products. That means if you JUST started Internet marketing, you could go to this event and have mingled with millions and millions of dollars of ideas.

Another “secret” reason:  seminars are the greatest customer research you can ever get. I listen. I watch. I observe. I look for problems that seminar attendees talk with me and to each other about.  When I come home I have a whole list of products and services I plan on creating that I know are guaranteed winners.

Now let’s talk about happy accidents. There’s an interesting phenomenon that occurs in business. Here’s how it works: you set out to do X, having high expectations for X. X doesn’t pan out the way you like, but while doing X, you notice that one aspect of it, almost by accident, seems to get the most results or response.

If it worked so well on accident, imagine how it would do as a deliberate strategy… Let’s take it further – any time you’re doing a lot of stuff, something will, by luck or accident, pop out and say – “Hey I’m an easy six figure side business if you treat me right”.

You can’t find these things. You can’t research them. You can’t plan them. You can only do so many different things so that eventually one pops out at you.

I got two such accidents this weekend that I know with little effort and execution on my part will translate into at least $200,000 additional revenue in my pocket. I like that.

Another benefit I often forget about – affirmation that you’re doing it right. I believe over 60 people came up to me and wanted their picture taken with me. That’s awesome. Several people came up to me and told me that I had drastically improved their life… And some I honestly think were happier to meet me for the first time in person than they would their favorite celebrity. Cool.

It’s good to be reminded IN PERSON that there are a lot of people who want you to do more of what you’re already doing, which always gets me fired up when I get back home to take the business up another level.

Sometimes it also awakens you to the difference between success and failure. Let me illustrate it to you with a story.

It’s Friday night at midnight. I speak the next day. I go down to the casino bar looking to network. Guess who is down there? 5 other people.

That’s it. Sigh…

One of the other people was this guy named Colin Theriot who I actually consider to be one of the greatest up and coming email marketing guys in the game. I’m down there picking HIS brain for every tip I can get to help in my business.

I’m there myself to learn. If I can always use more insights to apply to my business model, where was everyone else? Dare I say they were sleeping? GASP! I slept on the plane ride home, when there was no action taking place. NOT when there was the potential for all kinds of action.

So here we are – 6 of us at the bar… Masterminding, discussing ideas and so forth. We stay there till… 5:30 AM in the morning!

For hours I answered any and all questions, from anyone who asked, about how I run my business. I answered questions from those who asked specific things related to their own businesses.

I said the next day that I literally gave away $1000 in consulting time at the bar the night before. It was true. Don’t you wish you would’ve been there?

Let’s back up.  In the niche we’re all a part of (Internet marketing) there are two MAIN kinds of buyers for the most part. There are those who are beginners and need a LOT of education because they’re just starting out. Then there are those who are very successful who still buy almost everything because they practice the principle of the SLIGHT edge.

Here I am, having to speak the next day, also do the Q & A, and more and I’m down until 5:30 in the morning gathering information, getting more insight into my business with the answers I give to questions, and establishing contacts and potential business ventures when I arguably need it least.

That’s the SLIGHT edge.

Now to bring it home. Big picture question:  Can you get rich quick by going to a seminar like the one we just put on? Surprisingly, yes you can. It depends on “quick”. I did it in 6 months after I got focused.

I’m also slightly insane with my desire to succeed. Still. They say work smart, not hard. Pfui… If you want to do big things fast, you work HARD & SMART. Sometimes though, you get that tunnel vision in your business…

That’s when you bop on down to a seminar which helps you know where you’re currently at – and where you need to go to hit your business goals.

Thoughts?

I am going to show you how to set up a simple model that almost guarantees success… Quick, immediate, short term profits and long term profits. If you truly understand this model and its implications – And most importantly – You WORK this model…

It can be an easy 6 figure a year business. True.

Here’s how it works. Most people sell information products, which have the least intrinsic FACE value of any type of product you can sell.

That’s why they are usually sold with extremely clever marketing, great sales copy and a lot of trial and error before success is achieved.

That sucks for someone starting out or if you don’t possess (yet) great marketing skills. The key word here is FACE value. On their own, info products have almost no face value.

On the other hand, you know what has great face value? That can be sold with mediocre, or even poor marketing? And can still make you very wealthy?

Services. Because people GET something tangible, DONE FOR THEM, when the transaction is finished. There is inherent value in the offer itself, therefore it can make up for poor marketing.

Now the downside is service-based businesses do not bring in automated profits. You stop working, it stops working.

So what’s a great solution… That is easy to sell as if it were a “service based” offer… But still have the ability to be completely automated, bring in passive income and also be easy to scale?

The solution is “done for you” type of offers. This is where some, most or all of the initial front end work is done for the consumer… Making it EASIER for them to get the results they desired since you’ve already brought them many steps closer to achieve those results… Than if they bought a digital product.

Now let’s talk specifics. In Internet marketing, there are things that hold a lot of people back – Setting up websites, generating content, coming up with ideas that will ACTUALLY sell, finding the correct niche markets and so forth.

You can educate people on these things… Which is good… or you can automate and do these things for them… Which is better from a profits perspective.

Let’s inch even closer to the truth. In Internet marketing, it’s no secret that you can make money (if you do it right) with affiliate marketing. Even better,  review sites that get ranked high in the search engines for certain keyword terms can be a gold mine.

For example, a lot of people are searching for a term like “best anti-aging cream”. That’s a start. Drop that in your favorite keyword tool. If you don’t have one, use Google Keyword External Tool to start to do some research.

We’re looking for keyword terms that have little to no competition that have a decent search volume.

So I type the keyword phrase above in Google Keyword External Tool and start to do some digging. Here’s some interesting things I find. A lot of people have been searching for wrinkle creme – which is spelled wrong.

Further digging allows me to discover “wrinkle creme review” has little actual competition in the search engines, but decent search volume. “best over the counter wrinkle cream” also falls under that category. I know with a little bit of work I could get good rankings for both of those search terms.

That’s fine, but we’re not doing it for our own purposes. Here’s what we’re going to do instead… Do the initial ground work to get it going, but sell the site to other people.

Here’s the concept: we want to find 5 keyword terms that have high search volumes (over 2,000 searches a month) with low competition in Google (under 30,000 competitors when you search for the term in quotes).

Next – We take each term we find in quotes and write an article for it… Or we outsource the article writing to someone. Whatever. When we’re done, we have 5 articles optimized for different terms under the niche of wrinkle cream.

Now you set up that review site in WordPress with the 5 keyword articles in it. Optimize it as you would normally for a site you’d try to get ranked… As far as on page optimization goes. If you don’t know anything about SEO then there are hundreds of guides that can give you the gist very quickly.

What we do now is pick 3-5 wrinkle creams that have good affiliate programs that would seem to convert well from a “review site” style blog. Then we add those in to the blog in locations that we feel would best monetize those affiliate offers.

What’s next? Get an article spinner that’s decent quality and spin each of those 5 articles so that each article has 20 UNIQUE spins. Or you can pay someone to spin them for you. Whatever.

What you have got, when you are finished, is 20 “review sites in a box” that are each uniquely targeted at a niche that could make some money if you got some rankings in the search. You’ve already picked out the affiliate programs. You’ve already done the research. Picked the niche. Designed the site.

We’re almost done. What you do now is create a little pitch page offering your 20 review sites. You sell the set for $97. As a bonus you give them training (either stuff you create or private label rights to SEO guides) that shows them how to get it ranked high.

Then you explain why at $97 it’s such a good investment compared to all the value they get in return (which is significantly greater).

BONUS – You offer an upsell where you set the site up for them and host it for them for a nominal monthly fee. (You can make a lot of money doing this… You just take your own hosting account and partition packages off within it…)

Where can you sell these at? Warrior Forum is a great place. You can also start trying to attract joint venture partners and affiliates to sell them for you. Sitepoint. Even Flippa.com.

When you’re done, you’ve grossed close to $1900 in sales… without an upsell. Is that good or bad? Depends. If it took you a week, and after all other costs you made $1700, that might be good. Might not. That’s not the point.

The point is now you have a leveragable asset. There are two ways you can easily multiply your profits. If you sold out the first 20 real fast, here’s what you do – Make 20 more spins for each article, and then sell it again.

Or, you just set up ANOTHER review site in a box for another niche… And then sell that. You can sell more copies this time, or sell it at higher prices. You now have a list of buyers from the previous offer, so you can more easily sell your next package, as they will be your most targeted buyers.

Say you do this 5 or 10 times, now you have a lot of assets. You can then take it to the next level and start a membership site – Where each month the person gets access to two “review sites in a box” for just $47.

Then you can sell 250 spots a month, and spin 50 articles for each that they can pick and choose from, and you can have extensive SEO training in there (just interview others and put the content in the members area) and you can outsource the whole thing.

You can – On the backend – Upsell setting up the sites for them (again, outsource it at a profit) and discover all kinds of other monetization streams because your members will be asking for additional things… Which you can create packages, trainings, and additional offers for that you know are highly likely to sell.

Gee, sounds like a bit of work upfront, doesn’t it? Yep, it is. But that’s probably no more work than most people do in a 40 hour a week job that pays them only $7.50 an hour. And the reason why it’s so profitable to do this work is because most people WON’T do this work. That’s why they’ll pay you do it for them.

And this is the model where you can “do it for them” but on a one to many level, so you can make it a passive, scalable income stream.

I hope you see both the forest and the trees here. You can literally swipe the business model I’ve given you above and execute it.

Or you can use it to think deeper. “What similar ‘done for you’ type offers can I make that would be easy for me to create and have a large chance of succeeding right out of the gate?”

There you go – A simple model that… While it is front end intensive – Can very quickly be made scalable, outsourced, and easily taken to a six figure a year model once you have lain down the groundwork.

7:29 am on the 30th of June my daughter,
Laney Elizabeth Fladlien, was born. She
weighed 8 pounds and 1/2 ounce, and was
19 3/4 inches.

And look at that full set of hair!

Everything went great – no complications at
all – and I can’t tell you how wonderful it
was…

I know, we had hundreds of people emailing
me saying it would be wonderful, and I thought
yeah, I’m sure it will be great and all… but
maybe they were exaggerating as to how great
it would be.

They weren’t exaggerating. If anything – they
were understating it!

I’ve been at the hospital since yesterday at
4 am, and this is the first time I’ve been
home… I snuck out real quick tonight to
write this blog post and teach a quick webinar
class… lol – then I’ll be right back there.

We’ve literally done nothing but sit and hold
Laney and stare at her – awestruck at such
a wonderful little miracle. It’s great.

It makes you reflect on life — a little over
18 months ago my 8 year old brother Ryan
passed away. I lost a loved one. Today I gained
one.

Life sure does have its ups and downs, doesn’t
it? Isn’t the circle of life amazing? It makes
me think that if life is tough for you right
now… HANG IN THERE… it might get better.
And if you take an active hand in MAKING
it better, chances are it WILL be better.

Or if life is great right now…  it can still
get EVEN BETTER! And if you take an
active hand in MAKING it better,
chances are it WILL be better.

My life before the 30th was great – I’ve
accomplished several major life goals
I’ve had at an early age and I usually
wake up excited to start the day and go
to bed happy with the day… life was
REALLY, REALLY good for me.

Then Laney came. Now it’s EVEN BETTER!
Can you believe that?

It just goes to show you how many truly
wonderful things are out there for you
and can come to you in the near future -
regardless of whether it’s a new baby,
a new love, a new financial opportunity,
or whatever.

People seem to forget that, don’t they? We
hear so many complainers! But if you focus
on wonderful things – like if you’ve ever
seen the birth of your own child – and you
really focused on wonderful things LIKE
THAT – it’d be hard to complain about anything,
wouldn’t it?

Think of how much more resourceful that can
make you! And being more resourceful means
you can handle ALL situations in your life
better… being a better parent… being
a better child… being better financially…
mentally… spiritually…

I’m excited to see what wonderful things
Laney will do… TRUST me, you’ll hear
about them from me (LOL!)… and I am
also excited when I hear a client of mine
share a success story with me.

THAT, my friends, is LIFE. And I Love it!
Thank you to each and everyone of you for
being part of MY LIFE, and for letting me
be a part of yours!

We’ll be in at 5 AM – wow that’s early – and that
baby should be here at around 8 AM central time.
I can’t wait!

I have just finished writing a book and it’s getting
approved on Amazon here in the next day or two called
“The 6 Life Lessons I’ll Teach My Newborn Daughter”
so look out for that – I’ll let you know when
it’s available on Amazon.com

It’s a great book and it’s wonderful that Internet
marketing has taught me the skills to create such
a wonderful gift to give to my girlfriend and also
to the baby!

Other than that, you might have noticed some new things…
like I completely updated this blog! I’ve been getting
really big into WordPress lately, and I will have a new
training out shortly as well called “Egghead Blogger”
where I show you cool things like:  How to add a widget
to any part of your wordpress theme, How to make your
own WordPress sales letter themes, review themes
and all kinds of crazy, amazing stuff you can do
with WordPress with almost no technical know-how!

In the meantime, you should sign up and get my 32
reports, as you see on the right. You can even
brand them with your own affiliate links if you
sign up to my affiliate program. Details are inside
once you get the free reports.

In addition, if  you’re in the copyeclass (wow we
have a lot of members in there, the class is kicking!)
don’t worry, the call on Thursday will go as planned.

It will probably be the first real business related
thing I do after the baby is born, so that should
be a fun, exciting class.

Other than that – life is good. No scratch that – life
is great. 2010 will indeed be my best year yet on
this planet Earth. And it can be yours as well.

I urge you to make that commitment. To really get
the most out of this year as you can. And then BETTER
it next year, because you will have all the experiences
of this year to INVEST in the next one.

Cool!

It was a VERY small apartment.

I didn’t pay rent, my dad took care of it. But that also meant he
took care of the utilities. In the summer on the second floor
in Iowa, with the temperature at 98 degrees, and the humidity
at 120% (how does that even happen?), it gets really, really
hot.

My dad refused to ever let the air-conditioner run. EVER.

I think about that now as I sit here in my home office.
My home office has a walk in closet. It has a bathroom
attached that is pretty impressively tiled. It has
TWO sinks in it. It has a remote control for the lights
and the fan. My desk is huge and wouldn’t even fit into
my room in the apartment I lived in with my dad.

And the central air is on. I’m loving every second of it.
When I had my home built, we made it 5 star energy efficient
and even though it’s a big house (4 bedrooms, 3 baths)
it costs almost nothing to cool it. And it’s so quiet
you can’t hear it.

I tell you this for one reason – it’s amazing how far you
can come in three short years.

I spoke at Dennis Becker’s seminar last week. The hotel room
I stayed in was bigger than the first apartment I moved into
after I moved out of my dad’s apartment.

At that seminar, Tim Castleman – who I did a promotion with…
PAID me in front of everyone… my commission.

$4800 – in one dollar bills. Nice touch. If Tim sends me the photo I’ll
add it to this post.

It was incredible to see that many one dollar bills. All for
less than 2 hours of work. It amazes even me how quickly
someone can attract wealth with a little bit of sweat
equity, a little bit of building, and a whole lot of focus.

It’s amazing how far you can come in three short years.

I write this to you now as I expect my daughter, Laney
Elizabeth Fladlien, to be born at the end of June… the 29th
is what the hospital told us. We’ll see.

Three years from now I’ll have a daughter who’s just turning
three. I wonder where I’ll be at… where she’ll be at…
where our family will be at… in three short years.

Where will you be at?

It’s something to think about. It’s something to have a clear
vision on. I have mine. We’ll see if it comes to be.

But what about you? We do high end coaching programs, and the
first thing we do is make our students do is write out their goal
of what they want to get out of the training.

The sad thing is, most students FORGET their goal as soon
as they write it down.

They don’t think about it every day first thing when they
wake up in the morning. Or LAST thing before they go to
bed.

Or several times over and over again throughout the day.
If they did, their behavior would change to automatically
attract them toward that goal. Really.

I remember when I first moved out of my dad’s apartment and
into this little 350 square foot apartment where my office,
bedroom AND living room was all ONE room.

It WAS a step up. I had just started writing articles for
marketers and was making some good money at the time, for
the first time ever in my life.

But I knew that was just a transition that would help me
get closer to my vision.

Everyday between 2, 4 or even 6 hour non-stop marathon writing
sessions, I’d need a break. I’d often grab my running shoes
and go out for a jog.

Each time I would run by this new house for sale. It was
brand new, a very nice home and pretty “expensive”. I’d say
to myself every time I ran past it “I’m going to own a home
just like this in less than 2 years”.

Now, I had no business saying that. It was not rational.
It was not reasonable. But one of the ways to get dramatic
growth in your business is to have UNREASONABLE expectations.

I write world class sales letters in 1 hour or less because
I am UNREASONABLE about how long it should take.

I create membership sites in 6 minutes or less because I
am UNREASONABLE about how long it should take.

And because of that vision, I find a way to MAKE IT WORK.

I didn’t buy that house I ran by every day within two years.
I bought a BETTER one.

So very few people in this game want it bad enough. It’s there.
You can have it. But you have to want it bad enough. Bad
enough to learn how to discipline yourself to WRITE for hours
on end… if that’s a skill required.

Bad enough to write a sales letter EVERY SINGLE DAY… if
that’s a skill required.

Bad enough to contact complete strangers who are experts, and
ask them for an interview… and then contact them again later
and ask them for a promotion… if you want to succeed.

That takes guts. It’s scary. But it’s less scary than letting 3 years go
by… and being in the same position you are in today. Or being
in a worse position.

I want to know something from you – do  you want it bad enough?
I bet most of you reading this don’t. If you did, you’d wake
up in the middle of the night compelled to take action. If you
did, you’d sacrifice your favorite television program to work
an extra half hour.

If you did you’d do the things you know you need to do that
currently you are AFRAID to do to get what you want.

3 years from now can we sit down at a table and exchange stories?
And wow each other with the wonderful journeys we’ve been on,
experiences we’ve had, growth we’ve achieved, goals we’ve
reached?

I sure hope so. I’ll be sitting at that table. I hope you will
pull up a chair and join me.