Goodbye SEO, Hello PPC

Hey there,

Really apologize for the lack of updates. Been a craaaazy busy 2 months.

I’m off to travel in Europe for the entire month of April. Super excited cause it’s my first time.

Cities I’ll be hitting up: Vienna, Prague, Amsterdam, London, Brussels, Paris, Budapest and a few more I can’t think of off the top of my head. So pumped.

Marketing wise, I’m starting to slowly stop depending on SEO for traffic. I’m also getting into paid traffic.

Why?

2 reasons-

1. Google updates sucks. It’s too unpredictable to build a long term business around.

2. I’m starting to hone my copywriting skills. I’ve never really cared about (or given much thought to) copywriting in the past, but after launching a few of my own products, I’m really starting to see it’s power (not to mention the unlimited income potential).

After numerous friends/business partners told me that I have a knack for writing copy, I decided to start studying it. Now, I’m completely fascinated. I love learning about human psychology to begin with, but I just think it’s so damn cool how much you can persuade someone with words. Dan Kennedy says that copywriting is the most leverageable skillset a marketer can learn.

Anyways, with paid traffic, I can test my ads a lot quicker and improve my copywriting skills.

So what paid traffic source am I focusing on right now?

I’m glad you asked.

Right now, I’m advertising on Plenty of Fish. That’s right, the dating website 93 million lonely Americans use to find love (sadly, I used to have an account).

My buddy Seth showed me how to get set up on there. I’m loving it so far. Especially how quickly the results come. What other online business model allows you start averaging $100/day within a week?

With SEO, it would take at least 45-90 days.

Sooo that’s about it. Is anyone else interested in how to get started on POF?

I’m not an expert by any means, but I’m doing pretty well on there and can write up a detailed post on how to get started. Drop a comment and let me know!

Protected: Sweet Bonus for Squidoo Cash Storm Customers

The Definitive Guide to Making Money With Adsense in 2012 (1 of 7)

A few weeks ago, I wrote a super long post in the Adsense section of the Warrior Forum about how to make money with Adsense in 2012.

I’ve been getting a lot of replies and questions, so I thought I’d turn this long 2000 some word article into a video series.

That way, it’s a lot more digestible. Here’s part 1 on keyword research:

Let me know what you think by posting a comment below!

- Tony

Pssst here’s a secret…

I recently asked my list what questions and issues they had about creating and selling a WSO and I kept getting the same ones over and over again…

• I don’t know what topic to create on one
• I don’t feel like I have enough authority in internet marketing
• I’m not making enough money online so I’m not qualified to teach others how to make money online
• I’m afraid no one’s going to buy my offer over thousands of other offers that all promise great value
• and so on…

The truth is, these are all EXCUSES and limiting beliefs. I’ll even prove it to you- with hard evidence- that almost anyone can launch a quality WSO that make 4 figures in sales in just a few short days.  But first, let’s take a look at why selling WSOs can be so freakin profitable:

You already know that in order to build a long term, profitable business online, you need a list. The common knowledge is to build your list by sending traffic to your squeeze page. The problem is, SEO takes too much time and is too dependent on the whims Google. You never want to base your entire business off of someone else.

On the other hand, paid traffic (Adwords, Facebook, Adswaps, etc.) costs money. When as a  newbie, you’re probably struggling to make an online income in the first place, so you’re hesitant to spend more money on traffic.

What makes the Warrior Forum an incredibly profitable niche to market to is that your traffic is already there. The forum has hundreds of thousands of people highly interested in internet marketing.

At any given time, there are 20,000-25,000 members online!

When you run a WSO, you are getting paid to add people to your list. Think about it: With most traffic generation strategies, you need to spend money in order to get someone to your page, where you’ll offer them a freebie in return for their email. On the Warrior Forum, someone else is paying YOU $5-27 to join your list. Not only do you have subscribers, you have a buyers list that will purchase more from you in the future.

When I launched my first real WSO (I say real because I had NO IDEA what I was doing with my previous ones), I sold over $1,890 and ended up with 209 new buyers on my email list- by the very next day!

I grew my list from 0 to 209 overnight... And the $1890 in sales wasn't bad.

I also have friends who make $40K per month with their link building business (you know who you are if you’re reading this), and majority of their clients were acquired through their Warrior Special Offer.

Some Marketers Will

Hate Me For Admitting This:

Most marketers tell you not to sell to the internet marketing crowd as a newbie, because you have nothing to teach and the niche is just too competitive.

Here’s the truth: Those “gurus” are just saying that to prevent competition for themselves. I can’t blame them. I mean think about it, if you are making bank selling to a certain niche, would you really encourage everyone else to start a business in that niche? Heck no! Chances are, you would teach people the principles that led you to find that niche and encourage them to go find other niches themselves.

Yeah gross i know...

That’s why these marketers are telling you to find other niches when they know that the real money is in the internet marketing niche. So am I saying to perpetuate our weird cannibalistic culture where some people make money online solely by teaching other people how to make money online?

Again, heck no! If you don’t know how to make money online, don’t teach others. That’s common sense.

But you see, most newbies think that internet marketers on the Warrior Forum are ONLY interested in “how to make money online”. That couldn’t be further from the truth.

Internet marketers have LOTS of needs and wants, besides “make lots of money”. Things like productivity tactics, shortcuts and time savers (can you say WordPress plugins?), copywriting skills, graphic design, link building, WordPress, Legal stuff, creating content, research, customer service, just to think of a few off the top of my head.

If you DO happen to have a system that makes you a solid income and you’re comfortable teaching it to others, great. But if you don’t, don’t worry. Contribute value in some other way by simply leveraging your strong points (everyone has these). Let’s look at a few ways other Warriors have made a killing by selling WSOs that do not relate to teaching people how to make money online:

Max is graphic designer, not some guru internet marketer, and still managed to sell over 1,000 copies of his WSO.

Matt Rhodes sold a guide on outsourcing that had nothing to do with “how to making money online.”

This is a WordPress plugin for backing up blogs that sold like hotcakes on the Warrior Forum.

Garry’s product teaches people how to prevent problems with PayPal, and everyone’s buying it because no one wants to deal with PayPal complications and have it slow down their business.

These are just a few examples in a large ocean of best-selling WSOs that don’t teach people how to make money online.

The bottom line is this: If you’re not utilizing the Warrior Forum, you’re missing out on huge opportunities to build your list and increase your monthly income.

Like I said before, the key is to leverage YOUR strong points and create something of VALUE to internet marketers. If you think you don’t have any strong points, then that’s just an excuse. You don’t have to be the world’s best at something to contribute value to someone else’s life.

- T

Protected: My 3 Most Gangster Keyword Research Strategies (Mini Case Studies)

How Google Panda May Destroy Your Website… And How to Protect Yourself

Before I get into the Google panda stuff, I wanna ask you something….ever hear the expression “Content is King” before?

I’m willing to bet an In-N-Out double cheeseburger with animal style fries that you have (yes, I am pretty hungry as I write this…)

But do you know what that really means?

Cause I was kind of confused when I first heard this somewhat overused IM axiom.

So what actually qualifies as good content?

Revealing a secret that most people don’t know about?

Nope.

Over-delivering like heck?

 Nope.

Formatting everything so it’s super organized and really actionable?

Nope.

Creating good content, or “killer content” as I like to call it is simply…

Giving Your Visitor

Exactly What They Want!

This is the difference between creating stuff that people love reading and will share with their buddies… versus… pouring hours of your time into creating content that quietly sits there while tumbleweeds roll across.

And ultimately, the difference between pulling in loads of cash versus wasting your time… to put it bluntly.

Before I get into easiest way to read your audience’s mind and give them what they want, I want to share a quick example of why good content is absolutely crucial for any internet marketer nowadays.

So a few years back, you could have a site filled with informational articles on health insurance that you bought from an article writing service and rank on the first page of Google. Just add adsense and you’d make a killing (the insurance niche has a very high Adsense payout).

But Google got smarter.

They know (as you and I know) that if someone is searching for the term “health insurance”, they couldn’t CARE LESS about reading a 500 world article on the benefits of health insurance.

They want to BUY health insurance online. Or at least review different plans before making a decision.

So now, in order to rank for a term like “health insurance” you need to be an actual service provider, or can direct people to one, because that’s what visitors want. Not a B.S. 500 word article. I’m sure you’ve felt the frustration of really wanting to find something online, but only landing on crap websites.

Yes, Google’s AI human-learning thingamajig is smart enough to know when you’re giving good content and crap content (one indicator of this is your website’s bounce rate, but there are many others).

And by the way, Google is not done. It’s constantly changing. There were actually several Google Panda updates in 2011 and there will be more in 2012.

Panda Updates Can Literally

Ruin Your Online Business Overnight!

So how do we safeguard against this?

Simple: Give visitors what they want aka provide killer content.

Remember that marketing is simply giving people exactly what they want.

So let’s talk about a cool little tactic you can use to find out what your website visitors truly want.

No, it’s not surveying them, although that works too.

It’s actually pretty ninja. I call it, “reading your visitor’s mind”

Here’s the tactic:

You’re going to create a contact form, disguised as a search engine box. So when your visitors type in a question they want answers to, you’ll receive that exact query as an email. Review these emails an you’ll know exactly what type of content to create!

This is golden if you don’t know much about your niche.

One of my websites is in the pregnancy niche. Believe it or not, I’m not an expectant mother and don’t know much about pregnancy.

…despite what you may think after seeing my post-holiday dinner belly…

So in order to find out what expectant mothers wanted to know concerning their HCG levels during pregnancy, I set up this little form:

That’s just a picture with a simple contact form underneath. I use the plugin, Contact Form 7.

I let this run for about a week. And received hundreds of emails with what people were typing in. Not surprisingly, most people were asking the same questions. And I knew I needed to give the answers to these questions somewhere on my site… to give my visitors exactly what they’re looking for, but also to prove to Google that I deserve the top ranking for the keyword (currently 6th, but just wait a few weeks).

Whatever I create will be considered “great content” because it’s exactly what the visitors are looking for!

Do not make the mistake of merely guessing your audience wants.

Use this or some other research method to find out for sure. And no your picture doesn’t have to be as corny as mine

Try this out and let me know how it works!

Tony W

PS- what kind of sorry excuse for a marketer would I be if I didn’t ask you guys what type of stuff you want me to write about!

Leave a reply in the comments below and let me know things you’re struggling with, topics you want to know more about, or anything you want to see on this blog.

PSS – I cover this strategy plus many others in my, Passive Income Shortcut: $100 per Day in 90 Days training course. Click here to get the heavily discounted WSO

How to Find A $100/Day Niche in 10 Minutes

This is a video I made for the Passive Income Shortcut Members that covers…

• Which type of niche you should get into when you’re first starting out
• What are the 2 most profitable niche categories
• The 16 “evergreen” niches that will always be profitable
• How to dominate your niche if you’re NOT an expert
• The fastest and most effective way to break into a niche and quickly become the “go-to” person in that niche

Click here for the $100/day niche selection outline >>

How to Always Get What You Want In Life [And How To Get WSOs For Free]

There’s one simple difference between people who get what they want and those who have to settle for what they can.

It’s a small secret that you’ve probably heard of… but aren’t doing. And it’s costing you missed opportunities, in your business and in your life. On the other hand, if you master this skill, you become one of those powerful people who succeeds at whatever they set out to do. Not powerful as in tyrannical or manipulative. You become extremely resourceful and wise. Plus, your people skill will improve a ton.

So what’s this secret to getting what you want?

…its simply just ask for it.

• If you want a simple favor from someone, ask them
• If you want an interview with somone, ask them
• If you want someone’s product for free, ask them
• If you want an SEO expert to coach you, ask them

To get what you want, you just have to ask.

If you get a “no” just be persistent (I’ll show you the right and wrong way to do this later on)

Are you with me? But you see, most people don’t do it because they either fear rejection or anticipate it.

If you’re scared of rejection, maybe this business isn’t for you. My sales pages convert 1-10%. That means my customers are “rejecting me” 90-99% of the time. I also believe that no one reaches true success without failing and getting turned down first.

So you might think that the other person will say no so you don’t even attempt to ask. This is common, especially when you’re asking for a big favor or contacting someone really important. While it’s likely that a lot of the top guys in your market are busy and won’t have time for you, you never know until you try.

And once you do,  you’ll be surprised how many people say yes.

Here are some more examples that will hopefully help you make this shift in thinking:

Product owners will give out their products for free if you ask - If someone has a really quality product, they’re MORE likely to give you a copy for free. This is why some companies offer free samples.

They know you’ll like it and want to buy more from them. If the product sucked, they would try to sell it to you upfront. Frank Kern says to give away your best stuff first. Eben calls this “moving the free line”.

Bear in mind that some product have a tangible COST associated with it. Like a service or something that costs the owner money to distribute.

But with most digital products on the internet (cough cough WSOs cough), it doesn’t cost the owner anything to give away 1 more copy.

Bottom line: just ask for what you want. It only takes a simple email or phone call. I’ve gotten tons of products for free just by asking and offering to promote it or review it. I’ve also given away a ton of my products for free to people who approached me nicely and asked for a review copy.

Lots of experts (or just people with more experience than you) are happy to mentor you if you ask - Who doesn’t like the feeling of being in that “teacher” role? I get asked for help and coaching a lot and people always think they’re taking up my “time”. No. I enjoy helping people. And anyone in a position to teach will tell you the same thing.

Case in point: My buddy David used to do SEO consulting. He was at a mixer with a client and started talking business with another SEO-guy. His client was pretty impressed with Mr. X and a week later, called for an “emergency meeting” with David and Mr. X. During the meeting, Mr. X. laid out his SEO strategy and the client hired Mr. X right then and there. He fired David.

What did David do? He didn’t get angry or resentful.

Instead, he called up Mr. X (who has 10+ years of SEO experince) and asked him to teach David everything he knew about SEO. Mr. X agreed and now they’re business partners. Everytime I talk with David now, I am blown away by how much he new SEO knowledge has to share.

By the way, if they refuse because they’re busy or whatever, offer to “intern” for them. Do their busy work so you learn how they run their business and pick up lots of IM knowledge along the way. I know lots of guys who got good at whatever skill they were trying to learn by being an “apprentice”.

Most experts are happy to do an interview with you if you ask – One of the easiest ways to create a product is to interview an expert and leveraging their knowledge and experience. It may seem a little intimidating to approach an expert and ask for their help, but the truth is, these experts WANT to be interviewed. It’s an ego boost to be positioned as an expert and doing an interview. Plus, it helps them gain publicity.

When people don’t reply to your emails, chance’s are, they’re just busy - Get in touch with them again a few days later. I know some marketers intentionally ignore requests because they want to see how serious the sender is. In an interview, Jason Fladlien admitted to intentionally ignore initial emails he received asking for coaching or requests to intern for him. He would wait for them to email him again (sometimes even 3 times) to screen out the serious applicants.

This brings me to my next point…

How to Be Persistent Without Coming Off As A D-Bag

LMAO... best Halloween costume EVER!

If you want to get what you want, you’re going to have to be persistent. Persistence is going to get you noticed and improve your chances of getting what you’re asking for.

Here’s an example: Think about the kid in the movie UP. Remember how he kept coming back to the old man’s house over and over again so he could get his final merit badge? It ain’t over till it’s over.

(I’m sure there’s better examples of this, with success people in history,  but I really can’t think of one..lol).

Here’s the important part: the key is to be non-needy and offer value.

Non-needy means you don’t give off a vibe of scarcity. AKA don’t send stuff like,

“Hey I really want a free copy of your latest product. I need to learn how to make $300 in the next week. I just got fired from my job and need to pay rent this month. I’m really desperate. Please please please.”

Yuck. I hope you can see what’s wrong with this picture. When I was selling my skateboarding ebook, I used to get emails from people all the time, telling me how they have no money and want my stuff for free. It’s not that I’m a dick. It’s because I don’t want to reinforce their needy, value-sucking behavior.

Offering value means giving something back in return. For example, exchanging services. If you’re really good at something or can hook them up with something that will help them, say so! I get my copy looked at by highly paid copywriters because I offer them SEO services.

If you’re not in that position to do that, the best way to offer value is to… make them laugh.

Use humor to put a smile of their face and make yourself stand out from all the other people asking them for stuff.

For example, I had a client who I sold a website to. I asked him for updated earning screenshots for a case study. He didn’t HAVE TO give them to me.

I sent him 5 emails (each 3-5 days apart) asking for them. I didn’t come from a place of neediness and simply joked around. This was the one that finally broke him down…

Email 6:

This is how I feel, because you still have not replied to me:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBMYow46LxQ

Sad..sad…sad…

:p

Please reply! I still look forward to getting those screenshots from you ”

That link by the way is an Air Supply music video.

After that, he finally replied… and gave me my much needed screenshots. He also apologized for not responding to me initially because he was busy.

That’s 6 freakin’ emails in a row! When was the last time you emailed someone that many times because they didn’t respond?

Which goes to show, persistence always wins (thank you Air Supply).

When my first few emails were getting ignored, I knew I needed to change my strategy. I offered SEO help to sweeten the deal. Still no reply. So I thought, screw it, I have nothing to lose, so I might as well amuse myself and give him a good laugh.

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Sidenote – I would not normally bug someone that much unless it was really important. These screenshot were pretty darn important because they provide proof that what I’m teaching actually works. I personally believe all IM products should be backed with relevant screenshots.

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That’s it for this post… leave a comment below on what you think about asking for what you want and persistence. I want to hear YOUR thoughts

Protected: A Sure Fire Way To Dodge The Panda Penalty + Mini Case Study

The Lazy Internet Marketer’s Guide to Being More Productive Part 2

Welcome to part DOS of the Lazy Internet Marketer’s Guide to Productivity series!

This post is going to cover only a few productivity strategies but these are crucial to your success online- no matter what type of marketing you do. When you apply these simple guidelines, you actually GET STUFF DONE and as a result, see money flow into your bank account.

And when you DON’T apply these (or just ignorant of these concepts), you’re at the whim of every distraction and ” new shiny object” (*cough cough new WSOs*) that comes your way.

Let me ask you a quick question – when you first started this whole make money online thing, did you set an income goal?

For me, my first goal was to make $3k a month… and it took a few years to reach that goal. The turning point wasn’t when I discovered some new crazy traffic method. It was when I learned how to get FOCUSED and make the best use of my time. I think a lot of successful internet marketers out there will agree with me.

It’s a really rewarding feeling to actually reach the income goals you set out for yourself, especially if you’ve been struggling for a long time. On the other hand, when you’re not where you want to be financially, it’s kind weird and awkward when your friends and family ask you how your “internet thing” is going and you’re not sure how to answer.

Think about how great it would be to look at yourself in the mirror and say, YES I did it! I reached my financial goal! Instead of, oh man… another failed attempt.

This post is going to put you in that first category

Essential Productivity Habits Part Two

So last time we talked about to-do lists and flow state. The two additional productivity habits are the following

1. Workspace management – clear your workspace of ALL non essentials. Get rid of anything that doesn’t help you make money online. This means you need to throw away any food or drinks you have lying around, remove any books, magazines, pieces of paper you don’t need. Shoo away your cat.

My kitten Boo-Boo doing some SEO

Also, turn off your cell phone and TV. Exit out of Facebook and Gmail (block these websites if you have to). Shut the door and tell your family you not to bother you for the next X hours (personally I like working 3 hours in the morning when my minds the most fresh).

Jason Fladlien calls this your “profit hours” where you are COMPLETELY focused on tasks that will make you money.

Eliminating  all distractions and treating your desk as a sacred workspace conditions your brain to start taking your business seriously. It also helps you enter flow state, which I explained in part 1, allowing you to get all your tasks done as efficiently as possible.

2. Set deadlines for each task on your to-do list. Say that your tasks for the day is to write three 500 word articles, install a few plugins and build some backlinks to your homepage. After deciding which one is most important and prioritizing them, you need to set specific amount of time you’ll give yourself to complete each task.You can use either an online timer (http://www.e.ggtimer.com) or actual cooking timer. DO NOT use your cell phone!

This works because of something called Parkinson’s law, which states that “Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion”.

This means if you give yourself 2 hours to write a 500 word article, you’ll most likely take the whole 2 hours. If you give your self only 30 minutes, you’ll find a way to get it done in 30 minutes, without sacrificing any significant quality (of course, if we go too extreme, then there will be a bigger difference in quality). So by giving yourself a set deadline, you’ll subconsciously find a way to get it done in that time frame.

But what if you don’t?

Then, give yourself another time frame to finish the task, and set a more accurate time frame next time. You’ll find that by becoming aware of how long it takes you to complete certain tasks, you’ll naturally become faster at finishing them!

The 4 Laws of Internet Marketing Productivity

Here’s a quick recap of the principles we covered from the last blog post and this one…

1. To do list – every night, before you go to bed, make a to-do list. Group them together by things you MUST accomplish, things you can do if you have time and things to do in the near future.

2. Flow state – practice getting into flow state by setting aside a period where you work non-stop with no distractions for at least 30 minutes. Do not stop working and practice for at least 7 days.

3. Workspace management – get rid of anything that doesn’t help you make money online.

4. Set deadlines – Leverage Parkinson’s law by giving yourself realistic time frames to complete each tasks ahead of time.

Action Steps!

My last name ain’t Robbins but I’ll pretend it is for a second :p

Right now, STOP what you’re doing and complete these 2 things:

1, Print out these 4 items or write them down on a Post-it and put it somewhere you can see when you’re working. Look it constantly as a reminder of what you need to be doing in order to stay focused and productive.

2. Also, get another sticky note and write “is this the best use of my time?” and stick it on your computer monitor. Ask yourself this question and if this answer is no, look at your to-do list and switch over to what you need to get done.

Please take the time to do those things- they may sound trivial, but can mean the difference between success and failure!

Your Online Business is Your Baby

Remember that internet marketing is a BUSINESS and you need to treat it like one. If you’ve ever bought a WSO or any other IM product, you have a proven business model you can implement and make money with. The missing piece is just you taking action and staying disciplined and focused.

Your motivation will waiver from time to time and there will be times when you feel like you’ll throw up if you spin another article. But in the end it still comes down to taking action and commitment.

One thing I did that really helped me develop a tenacious resolve to reaching my income goal was making a big promise to my family. My family lives in China and visits from time to time. I made a promise to take them to Disneyland for a week next time they visit. Let’s not forget that Disney isn’t the cheapest amusement park in the US.

I made that promise that to my 13 year old little sister who’s never been to Disneyland in her life.

Wouldn’t it kind of suck if I didn’t keep my promise and let her down?

That’s what drives me to remain focused when I’m working every day and slowly chip away at my internet marketing projects.

Productivity + Focus = Acieving Your Financial Goals

Whewwww! Another post that ended up longer than I had originally intended. Don’t skip over the action steps just because it’s “boring mindset stuff” and not a step by step blueprint for making money (trust me, there will be plenty of future posts on that).

If you put these principles to use you’ll achieve your internet marketing goals- guaranteed! It doesn’t matter if you want to build a 6 figure online business or have a steady stream of passive income coming in, when you get focused and practice these productivity principles, you’ll also feel great about yourself and start succeeding in other areas of your life.

Also, keep in mind that you should only apply these productivity guidelines when you are working on your business (during your profit hours). I assume you’re already dedicating a chunk of time each day to internet marketing. That’s when you want to apply these things.

DO NOT try to be ultra productive during your FREE TIME, like when you’re reading your favorite blog for fum, otherwise you’ll turn some sort of a weird OCD productivity freak :p