While reviewing newbie sites, my heart sinks as I see the world’s zillionth “How to Start a Successful Online Business” site. The aspiring netpreneur, whom I’ll call Bob, has obviously sweat great drops of blood to build his first site, yet he hasn’t seen a dime of revenue.
If only I could talk to him…
“So, what made you choose Internet and affiliate marketing as the topic for your first site, Bob?”
“Well, there are piles of money to be made promoting Internet business info products and software because everyone wants to start an online business and make money on the Internet,” he explains.
I agree that it certainly seems that way, then give him some hard data. Overture’s Keyword Selector Tool shows that “Internet marketing” was queried approximately 250,000 times last month. “Make money online” had just over 67,000 searches. In demand terms, that’s a workable market. To see if it can work for Bob, I ask him some questions about his site. “I see you’re promoting XSitePro and Article Announcer. What do you think of them?”
Bob replies, “Oh, I haven’t bought either. I used a free HTML editor and I use other people’s articles on my site.”
Although I know he doesn’t use an autoresponder service either, because there’s no subscriber signup form on his site, I ask how he likes ABC’s autoresponder service.
Bob tells me that he doesn’t plan to build a list because he’s not into the hassle of putting together an e-course or writing a regular newsletter. His no-knowledge, no-experience responses are consistent until I ask for his thoughts about the Internet/affiliate marketing courses prominently advertised on his home page.
He says they’re great and rattles off the list of Internet and affiliate marketing tutorials and software products he’s bought over the last few months. “Insider’s Secrets was the very first product I bought online, then John Reese’s, Corey Rudl’s, Jim Edwards’, yours and-and-and… .”
I do some quick math and estimate he’s already invested a couple thousand dollars in tutorials and software. I tell Bob that those are excellent resources to be able to refer to in his Internet business library.
“Can you tell me what persuaded you to invest in John’s course?” I ask Bob. “Was it his sales copy, or did you get a recommendation from someone who bought it?”
“I’m not really sure where I learned about it first,” Bob says. He thinks he may have seen an ad for it on Google, but he’s on a lot of different lists, including some of John’s affiliates’ lists, so he may have gotten an email from a couple of them. Bob says he read about the course on John’s site, then posted questions in some of the affiliate marketing forums to find out if anyone really bought the course and whether it worked for them. Bob was convinced to buy John’s course based on the testimonials on the site. He appreciated seeing proof of how well John’s techniques work by showing screenshots of the results some people had after using his system. “There were even links to those sites,” Bob explains.
“Well done,” I say. Like most Internet shoppers, Bob did his due diligence and ended up buying a good product.
“You’ve probably noticed that John Reese’s affiliates continue to recommend Traffic Secrets to their newsletter subscribers,” I explain. The most successful affiliates keep testing John’s techniques and tracking traffic. They broadcast good results to their list and mention that they learned those techniques from the Traffic Secrets course, which they then link to in their message. That’s a stellar example of how the top affiliate marketers work. They find a product they can stand behind and then recommend it to their subscribers, who are interested in products of that type.
Bob remains quiet, so I continue. “The process works exceptionally well when your subscribers know that you aren’t the merchant, but rather an unbiased reviewer who gives them the straight goods.” When you consistently make excellent product recommendations, I tell Bob, both your credibility and income will skyrocket. Unfortunately, a balanced review is pretty hard to write when you haven’t tested a product, and building credibility within a niche is virtually impossible if you aren’t building a list.
I am met with complete silence from my new friend Bob.
I ask, “Did you know that each of the Internet marketing experts you mentioned started online in markets that had nothing to do with Internet marketing products?” John Reese became an eBay expert, Corey Rudl sold car decals, Jim Edwards was into real estate and the single crowd is still my primary market. All of us learned how to market online in businesses related to one of our passionate interests or hobbies.
“When you’re really keen on a topic, it’s easy and fun to share what you know with a group of like-minded individuals – your subscribers,” I tell Bob. “They listen to you, come to like you and then they’ll buy from you. Better yet, passion for your topic will keep you going on those days when you feel like you’re drowning in a sea of cut-and-paste affiliate links or promotional emails from your merchants.”
I ask Bob what he’s passionate about and discover that he lives and breathes martial arts. With Overture’s Keyword Suggestion Tool open, I am able to quickly tell him that there were 241,000 searches for “martial arts” last month. That’s almost the same number as for “Internet marketing,” and we haven’t even begun to look at the permutations. There are martial arts product suppliers with affiliate programs, some with commissions as high as 30 percent. To make the site lucrative, however, Bob will have to build a subscriber list.
“Do you think you could write a regular newsletter about martial arts?” I query.
“For sure,” Bob replies.
“Perfect. And you can keep using your current domain, BlackBeltBobs.com.”
“Awesome!”
“It must be destiny, Bob,” I say. “The only suggestion I’ll make is that you may want to reconsider your royal blue, olive and burgundy color scheme. Check out ColorSchemer.com for some good combinations.”
“Hey, thanks for the great tip, Ros.”
“My pleasure, Bob.”
ROSALIND GARDNER is the author of the best-selling guide to affiliate marketing, The Super Affiliate Handbook: How I Made $436,797 in One Year Selling Other People’s Stuff Online. It is available on Amazon and www.SuperAffiliateHandbook.com.