A lot of people wonder why I do this. There are really three big reasons…

First, I care about whether you succeed or not. Internet marketing really isn’t rocket science…once you know what you’re doing. Before you “get it”, though, it helps a ton to have somebody actually answer real questions that real people ask along the way.

Second, even after you’re an “expert”, it’s great to get new ideas from other people. You never know when an answer to a question will press just right button in your brain…and boost your profits.

Third, I get literally thousands of emails every week, and it’s impossible to answer them all. So I set up this system to help me manage email better, while still giving you the information you need.

So read on, and I hope you enjoy the learning.

As you probably know, I make a good living as an affiliate marketer. And I get lots of questions about it, too, especially from people who want to know how to get started, or whether it’s even a good place to start. In this issue, I’ll answer some of the most frequent questions I get asked about affiliate marketing.

1) I’m brand new to online marketing. Can you tell me if affiliate marketing is a good way to start? (asked by William Ackersly)

ANSWER: The short answer is, “Absolutely!” There’s nothing magic about affiliate marketing, but it’s a great place to get started. The reasons are pretty simple:

* It takes VERY little money to get started. I recommend having your own website, and you should have an autoresponder account as well. But that’s really all you need to pay for.

* It’s easy to get started FAST. You can get set up within a day and easily start promoting products the next day, or even that first day. It’s not hard.

* The profit potential is great.

Even if you’ve already got an online business, affiliate marketing is worth a look. It’s a great way to supplement your income, and in most cases, it’s easy to add affiliate marketing to what you’re already doing.

So, regardless of whether you’re just getting started online or you’ve been at it for a while, affiliate marketing can be a great way to make solid cash.

2) How do I pick affiliate products that are likely to sell well? (asked by Bethany Simmons)

ANSWER: The best strategy is to find products that are already selling well. They’re likely to keep doing that! So how do you find them? Here are three quick ways:

* Search the ClickBank Marketplace to find products with a good gravity score. I recommend looking for scores between 20 and 150, which gives you a popular product that doesn’t have outrageous affiliate competition.

* Monitor what other marketers are promoting. I suspect you’re already signed up for several lists. Keep your eyes open for what they’re promoting. The odds are good those products are converting well enough to make it worthwhile for you to promote them.

* Ask the product seller how well it’s doing. Most people overlook this one, but it really works. I’ve asked sellers how well their products are selling, and they’re usually honest about it. If it’s selling very well, they’ll certainly have no problem telling you so.

And of course, you can combine all of those methods to get an even better picture of what’s selling well.

Regardless of where you start your research, one thing you absolutely MUST do is review the sales page for any product you’re considering promoting. Is the copy good? Does it make you want to buy? Is the sales page attractive? Does the payment link work?

And you’ll also want to sign up for and analyze any autoresponder for a free sales page offer as well. That will show you how aggressively the seller is following up with people to try to sell to them again…which can boost your commissions.

ANSWER: The best way to get people to take action is to give them incentive to do it. The two most common tactics are:

* Offering additional helpful information on a product review page. (I’ll talk about review pages more in the answer to a later question.)

* Offering a bonus to people who buy through your link.

Offering a bonus for an affiliate product has become a sort of standard in affiliate marketing, but you don’t have to be intimidated by people offering massive bonus packages. Your bonus just has to be attractive to prospects.

For example, you could offer another related ebook that you wrote and have never released before. That’s definitely unique. It might not be a huge bonus package with everything from video training to coaching, but it might be attractive enough to get somebody to buy.

Here are a few other guidelines for offering a bonus:

* Make the value of your bonus several times the purchase price of the product. Don’t lie about it! Make sure what you’re offering is really worth at least 50% more than the product, and preferably at least double. So your bonus for a $37 product ideally should be worth at least $75.

* Get a nice graphic image for your bonus. This makes it look more attractive, professional and (most important) valuable.

* Make people sign up for your list to get the bonus. That’s that way to build your buyer list over time, which will help you boost your affiliate earnings in the long run.

4) What PPC strategies do you recommend for promoting affiliate products? (asked by Robert Williams)

ANSWER: PPC is a great way to promote affiliate products, and it’s easier to do than most people think. Here’s the plan:

* Use trigger words and question marks in ad headlines to get more clicks. For example, your headline might say, “Be An Affiliate NOW?” That attracts attention, leads somebody to want to answer the question, and uses the trigger word “NOW” to get people to act.

* Target long tail keywords and product specific keywords. Long tail keywords are keyword phrases with three or more words. They typically get decent clicks with lower competition. That means you can bid lower for clicks, something like 25 cents or less, and still get good traffic.

* Send people to a product review page where they can click your affiliate link to get to the sales page. This lets you “pre-sell” the product, which often improves your conversions.

* Wait for 200-300 clicks. Ramp up your campaign if it’s converting, move on to another product if it’s not. Or you can try other keywords before switching products. It’s up to you.

That’s the simple PPC strategy that keeps you from spending too much while you figure out what works.

5) What makes a great product review page? (asked by Ruth Ames)

ANSWER: I’ve mentioned product review pages a couple times. If the concept isn’t familiar to you, a product review page is a page where you offer additional information about an affiliate product, often as a “review” of the product. That helps people know if the product is worth buying.

Your goal with a review page is to excite a buyer and make him more likely to click your affiliate link and buy the product on the sales page. Here are few tips for how to do that:

* Use a headline that includes some controversy. That might be something like, “Is Product X Junk?”

* Foreshadow the sales page headline when you can. So for a list building course that makes a bold claim on its sales page, you might say, “Can You Really Build A List Of One Million Like Product X Claims?”

* Offer helpful information and personal proof. If you’ve used the product and got great results with it, talk about that! If you haven’t gotten results, talk about your experience so far.

* Use a bonus offer as an incentive to click your affiliate link. This tends to produce the best results. It almost certainly will get you more clicks through to the sales page.

6) Which is better, promoting high-ticket items that sell fewer copies, or promoting less expensive things that sell more? (asked by Ruth Ames)

ANSWER: This is sort of the wrong question. The real question is how can you do BOTH?

What you really want to do is start by promoting some less expensive stuff, then promote more expensive stuff later as sort of a back-end marketing effort.

Once you’ve built a big high-ticket list, you can promote the more expensive products more often. Your list has build some trust in you at that point, and your high-ticket promotions are more likely to convert well.

You can even start the process by promoting FREE products with reasonably priced back-end offers built in. I’ve used that strategy myself, and it works very well.

Remember, affiliate marketing isn’t just about making a pile of cash on a single promotion. It’s about using affiliate products to build a business. If you focus on building a list and giving the people on it what they want, they’ll buy over time.

———-

All right, that wraps it up for this time.

If you like getting answers to questions like this, ask your own question! You can submit your question by filling out the simple form at:

http://www.michaelrasmussen.com/questions/

Every couple weeks or so, I’ll go through the questions and pick out 5-6 to answer in an email to people on my lists.

Your questions are what will make this email helpful, so please keep them coming. I can’t guarantee I’ll answer your question, but if the same question gets asked several times, I’ll try to answer that one. So don’t think, “Somebody’s probably asked that already.” Maybe so, but it’s worth asking anyway.

All the best,

Michael Rasmussen
CEO, BulletProof Marketing, Inc.

P.S. If you know any Internet marketers who would enjoy this article, just send them an email with this link:
http://www.michaelrasmussen.com/internet-marketing-qa-issue-11

A lot of people wonder why I do this. There are really three big reasons…

First, I care about whether you succeed or not. Internet marketing really isn’t rocket science…once you know what you’re doing. Before you “get it”, though, it helps a ton to have somebody actually answer real questions that real people ask along the way.

Second, even after you’re an “expert”, it’s great to get new ideas from other people. You never know when an answer to a question will press just right button in your brain…and boost your profits.

Third, I get literally thousands of emails every week, and it’s impossible to answer them all. So I set up this system to help me manage email better, while still giving you the information you need.

So read on, and I hope you enjoy the learning.

Last year I released Get More Buyers (you’ll find it at http://www.GetMoreBuyers.com). I put up a blog to during launch week to get feedback and to answer people’s questions. The response was stunning, and the most common set of questions were all about how to start a successful online business. That’s also the most common type of question I get asked every single day.

In this issue, I’ll answer some of the most common questions about how to get started online. Let’s jump right in…

1) There’s so much junk out there about getting started. What essentials do I REALLY need? (asked by Jessie Allis)

ANSWER: Yes, there’s a ton of junk. Wading through it can be a distraction. Let me try to simplify things.

First, you need a market to sell to. Not having one is like trying to set up a business in a ghost town. You might get some customers, but they won’t come around much!

Second, you need a product to sell. That could be your own product, or it could be somebody else’s product you promote for a commission (called an affiliate product). This is what will put money in your pocket.

Third, you’ll need a domain. I suggest starting with a “.com” address, because it looks much more professional. And pick a domain that’s your own name, if it’s available, like my MichaelRasmussen.com site. That will give you a foundation to build on, no matter what direction you want to go, and will let you build your personal brand.

Fourth, you need a website. It just makes things so much easier if you have a site that you control and can change however you want.

Fifth, you need an autoresponder. This lets you build a mailing list and keep in contact with the people on it. That’s where your long-term income will come from. I recommend http://www.AutomateYourList.com. And once you have your autoresponder set up, check out http://www.EmailPromosExposed.com to learn how to write promotional emails that convert like crazy.

Sixth, you should consider setting up a blog at a separate site. This is a great way to keep your content fresh, which will get you more free traffic from search engines. And linking to your main site from your blog can help your search engine rank for your main site as well.

Seventh, you’ll need a payment processor, which is a way to take credit card payments online. I strongly recommend ClickBank, because they’re reliable and secure. They’ll also give you a built-in affiliate program, and they’ll handle paying your affiliates for you.

That’s literally all you need. There are other things that you CAN have, but those are the essentials.

2) How can the “average Joe” get started online? (asked by Neil Bier)

ANSWER: I get this one all the time. What shocks most people is that just about everybody who starts an online business begins as an Average Joe! I did.

The way to get started is to find a market that needs a product you can offer at a profit. That’s as fancy as it gets.

You can offer a physical product or a digital one. To keep things simple and low-cost, I suggest starting with a digital product, meaning one that people can buy and download immediately.

Here’s where I might shock a few readers…

Your first product can be VERY simple. You might write a brief report called something like “10 List Building Tips If You’re Starting From Zero!”

The point is, find a market, find what they want to know, then offer it to them. What most people just starting out overlook is that most of the information is available for free online.

Use Google to research your topic. Visit sites like EzineArticles.com to get ideas. Track down sites that already exist and see what information they offer for free. Then you can create a relatively short report that saves people the trouble of doing the research on their own.

You can hire somebody to write your report, or you can summarize existing material in your own words. About 10-15 pages should do it.

Once you have your report, you can sell it for a low price, maybe something like $7. Most people will be willing to part with that kind of money, since it’s almost as much as they spend on coffee or sodas in a typical day.

The next trick is to drive some traffic to your website where you sell your report. The easiest free way to do that is to write an article and get it accepted at EzineArticles.com. Target a keyword that gets okay traffic, but doesn’t have a lot competition.

I’ve never run across ANYONE who couldn’t use that approach to get started. There’s no guarantee you’ll succeed, but it’s a quick process you can keep hammering on until you find a winner.

ANSWER: There are really two answers to this question.

One option is to avoid the Internet marketing niche. There really are plenty of other niches out there. Do some digging on Google or at EzineArticles.com or even at Amazon.com to find them. Here are some niches that have been popular (and profitable) for years:

- Personal development stuff, like boosting your self esteem

- Relationship topics, like improving your dating life or marriage

- Debt or credit-related topics, especially with the economy doing so bad

- Health topics, like curing acne or fixing back pain

The list could go on. All you have to do is find a niche that’s not as cutthroat as Internet marketing. Odds are good that people in those other niches are even more eager buyers than in the IM space.

But I don’t tell people to avoid IM entirely. It’s a great niche, and I make good money there. The challenge is standing out from the crowd, so here are a few simple ideas:

- Talk about a NEW topic. If there’s a new social networking site out there, for example, write a report about how to use it. New information sells great.

- Present your product in a unique way. That could be doing videos when everybody else does ebooks, for example, or offering overwhelming value that nobody else does.

- Offer help to buyers. Lots of people sell IM products and then abandon buyers to figure everything out. Simply offering email support for a small fee and a limited time can make you stand out.

- Offer stuff that works. Not so hard, right? The market is full of junk that makes money but doesn’t live up to its promises.

And one more piece of advice for standing out…social proof counts most of all. So give your product away to some limited number of people and ask them for honest feedback. That will help your sales presentation be more genuine and more likely to sell.

4) I know I need a website, but I’m so overwhelmed by the technical stuff (which I have no experience with). Can you recommend any short cuts? (asked by Max Coltharp)

ANSWER: I can understand when anybody says they’re a bit afraid of the technology of online business. But there’s really nothing to be afraid of.

The first thing to keep in mind is that your website can and should be very simple. You’ll need a page to present your product, a way for people to buy, and a page to deliver the product. That’s it. Three pages can do the job just fine.

You might want more than that, but that’s fine to start with.

The second thing to keep in mind is that you need to find a good tutorial about how to build simple sites. Frankly, I thought there wasn’t a really good one out there, so I created my own:

http://www.MiniSiteProfitsExposed.com

It doesn’t cost a dime, so feel free to sign up for your copy and put it use. The video course walks you through everything you need to know to set up your own mini-site, which is a simple site to sell a single product.

You’ll learn how to get your domain, set up your hosting, create your pages, hook up your autoresponder and payment processor…everything you need. If you take the plunge and get stuck on something, don’t panic. You can find a cheap freelancer to help you on Scriptlance.com, or even have them develop the entire mini-site for you from scratch.

———-

All right, that wraps it up for this time.

If you like getting answers to questions like this, ask your own question! You can submit your question by filling out the simple form at:

http://www.michaelrasmussen.com/questions/

Every couple weeks or so, I’ll go through the questions and pick out 5-6 to answer in an email to people on my lists.

Your questions are what will make this email helpful, so please keep them coming. I can’t guarantee I’ll answer your question, but if the same question gets asked several times, I’ll try to answer that one. So don’t think, “Somebody’s probably asked that already.” Maybe so, but it’s worth asking anyway.

All the best,

Michael Rasmussen
CEO, BulletProof Marketing, Inc.

P.S. If you know any Internet marketers who would enjoy this article, just send them an email with this link:
http://www.michaelrasmussen.com/internet-marketing-qa-issue-10

A lot of people wonder why I do this. There are really three big reasons…

First, I care about whether you succeed or not. Internet marketing really isn’t rocket science…once you know what you’re doing. Before you “get it”, though, it helps a ton to have somebody actually answer real questions that real people ask along the way.

Second, even after you’re an “expert”, it’s great to get new ideas from other people. You never know when an answer to a question will press just right button in your brain…and boost your profits.

Third, I get literally thousands of emails every week, and it’s impossible to answer them all. So I set up this system to help me manage email better, while still giving you the information you need.

So read on, and I hope you enjoy the learning.

Lots of people think doing business on the Internet is very different from doing business “offline”. Not really. They both boil down to one thing: selling. In the end, what really counts is getting prospects to become customers by buying your product.

In this issue, I’ll answer some questions about how to sell.

1) I’ve got my product ready to go, but nobody knows who I am. How can I convince people to buy when I’m not famous? (asked by Louisa Duren)

ANSWER: This is easier to do than people think.

Don’t get me wrong…having some name recognition DOES help you sell. Some people buy my products, for example, simply because they know who I am, and they were told that my last product was good. And that’s the key for new sellers like you.

People buy from sellers they know. Since you’re new, most people don’t know you. That means you’ve got to put some effort into making them feel like they do. Your main tool is social proof.

You’ve probably seen testimonials on sales page. That’s a kind of social proof. Case studies are another. Having people review your products in marketing forums is another.

If you have social proof, selling is a lot easier. But how can you get it? Here’s an easy strategy.

You can give away some copies of your product for free and ask for reviews.

This is exactly what it sounds like. You give people a free copy, and you ask them to give you feedback. When you get some positive feedback, you ask that person if you can use what they said as a testimonial on your sales page.

You’re giving up the profit you’d make on a few sales, but the benefit you get can be huge. The testimonials you get from reviewers can make your sales copy sound great.

You don’t have to be famous to do this either. For example, you can go to your favorite marketing.

“Hi everyone, I’d like to give 10 people a free copy of my new product. All I ask is that you give me honest feedback about it. If you like it, I may ask to use your comments as a testimonial on my sales page. So send me a private message if you’re interested, and the first 10 people are in!”

Even if nobody knows who you are, most people like the idea of getting something for free. That just might get you the social proof you need to convince some prospects to become buyers.

2) How can I use scarcity to sell more of my product without using phony scare tactics, like “the product might disappear at any time”? (asked by Max Goquen)

ANSWER: Using phony scare tactics is almost always a bad idea. Honesty is a better policy.

The most effective way to do this is to come up with a scarcity tactic that’s honest and sounds reasonable. That creates genuine urgency to get some prospects off the fence they’re sitting on.

What you want to do is have a good reason behind the scarcity claim you’re making. Anybody can scream, “Quantities are limited!” You need to do more than that.

For example, one way to create scarcity is to limit the number of copies of the product you sell. But why are you limiting it? That’s where you need a good reason so your claim doesn’t sound like hype. You might say something like this.

“I struck a deal with a contributor to this that I would sell only 125 copies, so when they’re gone, they’re gone. Don’t wait and miss out on this. When the doors close, I can’t make exceptions.”

Assuming you actually did strike a deal with a contributor like that, you’ve got a great scarcity claim to make.

The point is, you don’t want to whip prospects into a buying frenzy based on a false sense of urgency. If you develop a reputation for doing that, your scarcity claims will lose their effectiveness. You’ll also get a reputation as somebody who screams about scarcity when it’s really not scarce.

And by the way, when you make a scarcity claim, stick to it! If you say you’ll take down the sales page by next Tuesday, don’t leave it up until Wednesday. That will ruin your reputation fast.

ANSWER: Making up numbers isn’t always bad, but making up numbers that don’t make any sense can kill you.

It’s sort of like scarcity claims. You want to make claims that are reasonable, preferably backed up by some facts. If you do, your claims will come across as genuine…because they probably are.

For example, you can slap any old price claim on an ebook you sell, but does it make sense?

If you’re selling an ebook about how to write affiliate promotion emails, you can say it’s worth $997, but that probably won’t sound reasonable to people. It might actually be worth that, but it’s a tough case to make.

So how do you determine what a reasonable value is? There aren’t any rules like “ebooks aren’t ever worth more than $37″, but here are some suggestions for valuing things:

* The more material you offer, the higher the value. An ebook that’s only 15 pages long probably has a lower value than one that’s 100 pages.

* If you’ve sold something before, the previous sale price is a supportable starting point for value. That video course you sold for $97 is probably worth it, assuming some people bought.

* Audio and video tend to be perceived as more valuable. You can make a case for a higher value for videos than you can for an ebook, at least most of the time.

* If the topic is new and hot, the perceived value is higher, so you can place a higher value on it. An ebook about how to build a list probably should have a lower value than an ebook about how to profit from YouTube, for example.

Like I said, there aren’t really any rules about assigning values to things. What really counts is that you can back up your value claims, and that they seem reasonable.

And one last point…

Make sure the total value of what you offer isn’t so crazy high that people question what your product is worth, based on what you’re actually charging.

For example, let’s say you offer a product with multiple components, and the value adds up to something like $8,917.

That’s great, but if you’re only charging $37 for the product, people might wonder if your product is junk. They might say, “It can’t really be worth that if he’s only selling it for $37.”

It’s probably smarter to knock your value claim down a bit to make your price look good, but not too cheap.

4) How long should my sales copy be to convince people to buy? (asked by Alana Mertz)

ANSWER: This is a very common question, and there’s a very easy answer…

You copy should be as long as it needs to be, and no longer. That’s all there is to it.

Now, most of the time, longer copy gives you more space to make a solid case for your product. That can be particularly important for a product with a high price point (you have to overcome more potential price resistance).

But don’t assume that longer copy will sell better. Sometimes shorter copy does a superior job, because you’re not making people read a lot before they decide.

This is a place where testing is a must. Write copy that seems long enough to make your case, then test it to see if making it longer or shorter sells better. That’s the only way to know for sure.

———-

All right, that wraps it up for this time.

If you like getting answers to questions like this, ask your own question! You can submit your question by filling out the simple form at:

http://www.michaelrasmussen.com/questions/

Every couple weeks or so, I’ll go through the questions and pick out 5-6 to answer in an email to people on my lists.

Your questions are what will make this email helpful, so please keep them coming. I can’t guarantee I’ll answer your question, but if the same question gets asked several times, I’ll try to answer that one. So don’t think, “Somebody’s probably asked that already.” Maybe so, but it’s worth asking anyway.

All the best,

Michael Rasmussen
CEO, BulletProof Marketing, Inc.

P.S. If you know any Internet marketers who would enjoy this article, just send them an email with this link:
http://www.michaelrasmussen.com/internet-marketing-qa-issue-9

A lot of people wonder why I do this. There are really three big reasons…

First, I care about whether you succeed or not. Internet marketing really isn’t rocket science…once you know what you’re doing. Before you “get it”, though, it helps a ton to have somebody actually answer real questions that real people ask along the way.

Second, even after you’re an “expert”, it’s great to get new ideas from other people. You never know when an answer to a question will press just right button in your brain…and boost your profits.

Third, I get literally thousands of emails every week, and it’s impossible to answer them all. So I set up this system to help me manage email better, while still giving you the information you need.

So read on, and I hope you enjoy the learning.

In the past couple of years, people have been exposed to a large number of products about product creation. There are courses about it, seminars on the topic, and countless articles about various aspects of creating products.

I know I get literally hundreds of questions about product creation every time I launch a product of my own. Here are some recent questions I think will help you know the answers to.

1) It seems like I’ve been working on several products for the longest time. I can’t ever seem to get them done, and they all seem important. Any advice? (asked by Kelly Berkholz)

ANSWER: I know they all seem important, and they probably are, but the advice I’ll give you is exactly what I would tell anybody else who is creating products.

First, choose one product to focus on first. If they all seem like “the” product to you, just pick one! This will let you focus on one product instead of overworking your brain trying to think about more than one at a time.

Second, focus on that product until it’s done. I mean REALLY done. Working on something else will distract you, and you’ll stay in the “nothing’s finished” spot you’re in now.

Third, launch that product. Having a bunch of products done but just sitting there doesn’t do anything for you. Finish the product and launch it to start accomplishing your intended goal with it, whatever that goal is (selling it for a profit, building a list, etc.)

Fourth, keep your focus on that product until it’s solidly accomplishing your goal. Don’t just kick off the process and turn your back on it. Work on it until it’s working well for you.

THEN move on to the next product.

Why do it this way? Because nothing beats the power of focus. You have to focus to finish. Without finishing, you’ll never benefit from the product creation work you do.

2) I don’t have a problem creating products…but I can’t seem to launch them! They sit around doing nothing after I worked so hard on them. What should I do? (asked by Guy Won)

ANSWER: Okay, you’re following the first part of the advice I gave in the previous answer. Now keep going!

But I won’t leave you hanging. Here are some specific steps to take. It’s a simple launch procedure you can use for any product you already have:

* Pick one product to launch first. Just like I mentioned earlier, you have to choose. If you try to launch them all at once, you’ll go crazy, and it probably won’t work. You have to start somewhere.

* Write down a specific launch plan. This includes what your target market will be, the components your product will include, what your price point will be, your target launch date, and who you’ll contact to promote for you (and how you’ll find new people, if you don’t already have a network to dig into).

* Set a deadline when you MUST start your promotion plan. This will light a fire under you. You’ve done the hard part (creating the product), so decide you’re going to DO something with it now.

I don’t want to be too simplistic here, but that’s really all there is to it. Not launching your product probably means one of two things…

Either you’re scared to launch, which is very common for people without a lot of experience, or you haven’t really thought about the stuff in the second step I just gave you.

In particular, if fear is your problem, you need to break through it. Forcing yourself to take action and launch is one of the best strategies for breaking through.

A great place to start is with that marketing plan. There are what’s called the “5 P’s” of marketing:

* Product
* Place
* Price
* People (your market)
* Promotion

If you’re stuck on knowing what you have to think about, there’s your list. You need to know what you’ll sell, to whom, how, where and for what price. When you know all of that, all that’s left is executing your plan.

You’ll be surprised how energizing it is to get your product actually out there selling. You’ll want to do it again.

ANSWER: Heck no you haven’t wasted your time! Be proud you got your product done. Lots of people never finish. Here’s how to get people interested in it.

First, though, you need to remember that there are TWO groups of people you need to get interested in your product. The first group is potential buyers, and the second group is potential promotion partners. Both have to think your product is good enough to act on (meaning buying it or promoting it).

Now I’ll cheat a little bit and tell you how to get both groups interested by targeting only ONE of those groups first.

If you get potential promotion partners interested in your product, they’ll help you get potential buyers interested in it. That might mean they’ll suggest changes that will increase the perceived value of your product, or maybe they’ll suggest some sales copy changes. Then again, they may say your product is great already and simply get their lists excited about it.

So I suggest focusing on getting partners interested first. Here’s short cut for how to do it, especially if you don’t have a big name yet.

Partner with someone who has a bigger name than yours. Get them interested in working with you to make the product even better. You’ll have to entice them to do this, so make it worth their while by offering things like this:

* Give the person a cut of the profits when the product launches (this should be a given, and be generous)

* Offer to do most of the grunt work to get the product ready, if the other person will bring their marketing expertise and existing JV partners to the table

You don’t have to be famous to find people willing to work with you, because here’s a little secret…most people don’t want to create their own products, because it’s a lot of work. If you offer to do most of the work, a potential partner might jump at it.

Once you’ve identified your partner, knock yourself out to deliver on your part of the deal. Do a great job, ask questions, and learn as much as you can. Then you’ll not only have a partner for this product, but you’ll also have an enthusiastic contact for your next one.

ANSWER: This is a classic question. Here’s how to find JV partners when you don’t feel like you know anybody:

* Hang out in marketing forums and develop relationships. When you find a good prospect, send him a private message to introduce yourself and pitch your JV.

* Use JV networks to get your proposals in front of lots of people you don’t know…then do a great job with your partners so you’ll be able to get them on board much easier next time.

* Look at the email lists you already subscribe to. Do you really like the style of one of the marketers? If so, strike up a relationship with that person through email, or on their blog. This isn’t an overnight thing, but it’s worth the effort. You can certainly pitch a JV right away, but it’s usually better to develop some relationship first.

* Find contacts in sales letter testimonials. This works great. Sure, some of the really big names won’t give you the time of day, but some might if you make a good proposal that has a lot in it for them.

The bottom line for finding partners is really simple. You might not think you know anybody right now, but you almost certainly can develop contacts with lots of people in lots of different ways. That’s where relationships come from, and some of those product great JVs.

———-

All right, that wraps it up for this time.

If you like getting answers to questions like this, ask your own question! You can submit your question by filling out the simple form at:

http://www.michaelrasmussen.com/questions/

Every couple weeks or so, I’ll go through the questions and pick out 5-6 to answer in an email to people on my lists.

Your questions are what will make this email helpful, so please keep them coming. I can’t guarantee I’ll answer your question, but if the same question gets asked several times, I’ll try to answer that one. So don’t think, “Somebody’s probably asked that already.” Maybe so, but it’s worth asking anyway.

All the best,

Michael Rasmussen
CEO, BulletProof Marketing, Inc.

P.S. If you know any Internet marketers who would enjoy this article, just send them an email with this link:
http://www.michaelrasmussen.com/internet-marketing-qa-issue-8

A lot of people wonder why I do this. There are really three big reasons…

First, I care about whether you succeed or not. Internet marketing really isn’t rocket science…once you know what you’re doing. Before you “get it”, though, it helps a ton to have somebody actually answer real questions that real people ask along the way.

Second, even after you’re an “expert”, it’s great to get new ideas from other people. You never know when an answer to a question will press just right button in your brain…and boost your profits.

Third, I get literally thousands of emails every week, and it’s impossible to answer them all. So I set up this system to help me manage email better, while still giving you the information you need.

So read on, and I hope you enjoy the learning.

Sooner or later, every person into Internet marketing hits a bit of a roadblock. That roadblock is time. We all have only 24 hours in a day. We need to spend some of them sleeping, and it’s good to spend some of them not working on your Internet marketing business.

But many wonder how they can use their time better, increase their productivity and get more stuff done so they can have more time for other things. I’ll give you some tips in this email.

1) I’ve heard outsourcing is a good idea, but it’s expensive. Is there some way I can outsource without spending a lot of money? (asked by Javier Stransky)

ANSWER: Good question, and it lets me explain why most people think about this the wrong way.

Most people just getting started in Internet marketing have more time than money. But they consistently ignore the value of their time.

Your time is worth something. Let’s say you work part-time on your Internet business, but you have another job to help pay the bills while you’re trying to grow your online income. And let’s say you get paid $10 an hour for that job.

Now, if you have to work, say, three hours to write a really good article to get traffic to your site, how much is that article worth? That’s right, $30. What if you could hire somebody to write it for $10? That’s a pretty good deal!

The point is, your time is valuable. If you spend your time working on your Internet business, you don’t have that time to work in your other job, which costs you lost income.

Having said that, though, I realize outsourcing costs, and that you have other things to spend your money on too. That’s why I recommend using freelance sites like Elance.com.

Those freelancing sites let you post a job and get bids from lots of freelancers. You don’t have to accept a particular bid. You can look at the ones you get and pick which one you’ll accept. If you find two that look equally good, but one bids less, you can save money on your outsourcing.

Remember, the cost of outsourcing isn’t really the money you spend on it, although that counts. You also have to consider the value of your time.

2) Okay, I’m sold on the idea of outsourcing to save time, but I’ve never done it before. What kinds of things can I outsource? (asked by Lonnie Pelosi)

ANSWER: Just about anything that somebody other than you can do. That means the list is very long, but here are some ideas.

You can definitely outsource almost any writing task. That includes

* Writing articles to drive traffic to your site

* Writing ebooks to sell from your site

* Writing reports that you offer for free to attract subscribers

* Writing emails for your subscribers

* Writing blog posts, or web pages

But writing isn’t the only thing other people can do for you.

If you’re not a technical person, and you don’t like dealing with setting up websites, you can hire somebody to create minisites for you. That might save you a ton of time, and get you to the point where you can profit much sooner than if you do it yourself.

Or let’s say you just bought a great script to help make your site management easier…but it takes some skill to install. You can go to a site like ScriptLance.com and hire somebody to do that. It might take them minutes, whereas it could take you hours.

And some of the things you can hire somebody else to do are even more obvious.

For example, are you a graphic artist? Probably not, so it makes really good sense to hire somebody else to create graphics for you instead of spending a ton of time trying to learn Photoshop or something.

You might pay $50 up to a few hundred dollars for the graphics you buy, but trying to do it yourself might cost you days and still not get you the graphics you need.

ANSWER: I know the feeling. I can remember times when I forget the last time I slept. And I can definitely understand wanting to spend more time with the kids.

The key to figuring out how to work more efficiently (and profitably) is to figure out what you spend your time on when you’re working on your Internet business.

You might keep a log of what you do every day for a week or two, then check it at the end to see if you see any common tasks or patterns.

This exercise does two things for you:

1) It lets you see if there are common things you do that you can outsource.

2) It lets you see which activities make you money, and which don’t.

It’s smart to focus your time on what brings in the most money for the least amount of effort. That should get your personal attention. You can pretty much outsource everything else eventually.

You might not start being able to outsource everything, but you’ll probably end up being able to if you focus your time on money producing tasks.

For example, let’s say you that you have a few hours a day to squeeze in on your Internet business after you get home from your day job and put the kids to bed. Your log shows you that you spend about two hours of that time writing articles to get traffic. They’re not great articles, but they bring in visitors.

Once you know that, you can hire somebody to write articles for you and spend that time on other tasks that put money in your pocket.

That’s a simple example, but there are others. Keep your log for a week or two and they’ll probably jump out at you.

ANSWER: Efficiency is a skill, just like any other. That means you can learn how to be more efficient. It really takes two things:

* Paying attention to what you’re doing so you can see where you’re losing time

* Having a plan that focuses you on the most important things first

In my answer to the previous question, I talked about keeping a log for a while so you can see where you’re spending your time. That lets you know if there are things you can outsource.

But it also lets you know if you’re wasting time. I don’t mean that to sound negative. We all have a tendency to waste time! It’s easy to let time slip away and wonder where it went.

For example, let’s say your log tells you that you’re spending hours every day on email. That’s a huge time waster. If you absolutely have to do it, then do what you have to do, but you can probably cut back the time.

Once you’ve trimmed the time wasters, make a simple plan that focuses you on the most important things first. This is as simple as a to-do list with two simple rules.

First, the items on your to-do list have to be in order of importance. You should put ones that make you money near the top!

Second, starting at the top, you have to finish each item before you move on to the next one, if at all possible.

That’s not a fancy plan, but it’s the basic one time management experts like Brian Tracy talk about all the time.

When you get right down to it, working efficiently is a choice, and only you can make it.

———-

All right, that wraps it up for this time.

If you like getting answers to questions like this, ask your own question! You can submit your question by filling out the simple form at:

http://www.michaelrasmussen.com/questions/

Every couple weeks or so, I’ll go through the questions and pick out 5-6 to answer in an email to people on my lists.

Your questions are what will make this email helpful, so please keep them coming. I can’t guarantee I’ll answer your question, but if the same question gets asked several times, I’ll try to answer that one. So don’t think, “Somebody’s probably asked that already.” Maybe so, but it’s worth asking anyway.

All the best,

Michael Rasmussen
CEO, BulletProof Marketing, Inc.

P.S. If you know any Internet marketers who would enjoy this article, just send them an email with this link:
http://www.michaelrasmussen.com/internet-marketing-qa-issue-7

A lot of people wonder why I do this. There are really three big reasons…

First, I care about whether you succeed or not. Internet marketing really isn’t rocket science…once you know what you’re doing. Before you "get it", though, it helps a ton to have somebody actually answer real questions that real people ask along the way.

Second, even after you’re an "expert", it’s great to get new ideas from other people. You never know when an answer to a question will press just right button in your brain…and boost your profits.

Third, I get literally thousands of emails every week, and it’s impossible to answer them all. So I set up this system to help me manage email better, while still giving you the information you need.

So read on, and I hope you enjoy the learning.

If you’ve been around Internet marketing for any period of time, you’ve probably heard of joint ventures, or JVs. These are partnerships where all parties (usually two, but it can be more) profit from the deal.

But if you’ve been around a while, you’ve probably also heard that JVs are difficult to get, especially if you’re brand new. I get questions about JVs all the time. This email answers some of the most common ones.

1) I’ve sent out probably 50 JV proposal emails in the past three months, and haven’t gotten ONE response. How can I get somebody to say yes? (asked by Clinton Beehler)

ANSWER: Excellent question, and it’s probably the most common one I get on this topic.

Fortunately, the answer is pretty easy, although it takes a little work to do what I’m going to tell you to do.

I get several hundred JV proposal emails every single week. Imagine getting over 1,000 proposal emails a month. What would you do with email 1,001? Yep, you’d probably ignore it. I just don’t have the time to read them all, much less respond.

So if you want to get your JV proposal read, regardless of who you’re proposing to, you need to do three things:

* Make your email subject grab their attention. A generic “JV Proposal” subject line probably won’t get read. But a subject like “PERSONAL: May I promote [his product]?” might. No guarantees, but remember, your subject has to compel somebody to open your email or the rest of your email doesn’t matter.

* Lead with what you bring to the table. If your entire email is about how your partner should promote your product to make you money, that’s no good. Instead, emphasize how HE can make more money along with you, so it’s a win-win deal. That’s a better pitch.

* Make the strongest case by dropping names of well known people you’ve worked with before, or people you already have on board for the JV already. If any of those people have given you testimonials about how good it was to work with you, it’s definitely smart to include those in your proposal.

* Be creative. Overwhelm him with profit opportunity, and really go out of your way to make it painless for your prospect to say yes. For example, if you’ll write all the sales copy and the email templates for the promotion, and all he has to do it load stuff up to his server or autoresponder account, that removes most of the work for him.

Even if you follow those guidelines, you still won’t get a yes every time, but you’ll put the odds in your favor. That’s the best you can do, and it might just pay off big.

How can I get a JV with a big name guru that will get me four- and five-figure paydays I’ve heard about? (asked by Roxie Barletta)

ANSWER: This might literally be the $64,000 question.

People want JVs with the big names because that usually means more profits. But remember what I told you in my answer to the previous question…I get several hundred proposals a WEEK. That reduces your odds.

There are really three main ways to get a JV going with a big name.

First, you can start by promoting their products and making them money. This proves you actually bring some profit potential to the table.

You don’t have to win their affiliate contest, or make them millions. But saying you’ve already made them some money helps your case.

Second, get an introduction. You can’t force this, so all you can do is increase your exposure to the big names and try to develop relationships that might grow into JVs.

That might mean hanging out in marketing forums and commenting on their posts. It might mean going to live events and introducing yourself. It might mean offering to help them by doing some free work on a product or launch.

Anything that will help you get to know people is something worth considering. Out of that could come partnerships with those people, or perhaps with people they know…and that might include a big name.

Third, you can shoot for a level below the big names. This might sound strange, but sometimes it’s best NOT to target the big names. Instead, target the up and coming marketers.

When you see a name you don’t recognize in the second or third spot in somebody’s affiliate contest, that might be a good person to try.

For example, I did a couple JVs with Mike Filsaime before he was a big name. Several of them made solid profits for both of us, but that’s nothing compared to what our partnerships bring in now.

By targeting somebody who wasn’t a big name yet, I grew a relationship with somebody who’s now a big name. And he can say the same about me.

ANSWER: I get this question a lot, and it’s a real challenge for people relatively new to online marketing. Fortunately, you CAN get JV partners even if you don’t have a list.

Having a list is great, but it’s only one of the things you can offer a partner. When you don’t have a list, or if your list is really small, that’s where creativity can make a big difference.

For example, let’s say you don’t have a list, but you want to do a JV with a particular person you’ve read posts from in a marketing forum. Ask yourself what you can offer this person that will make the partnership pretty much equal.

He might have a list, so he might be the one promoting a product to people, but can you contribute in some other way? Probably so. Here are some possibilities:

* If you can write sales copy, you could write some to promote your joint product. That might save a ton of money for both of you.

* If you can create websites, you could do the technical grunt work of getting everything set up so he doesn’t have to worry about it. That’s great if the person you’re partnering with is already very busy.

* If you’re good at creating products, you can take more of the creative load and let the other person concentrate on other things.

You get the point.

Being able to promote a product to your own list is a nice contribution to a JV, but it’s not the only thing that can help a partner. Anything you can contribute that can save time, save money or bring in more profit is usually very attractive to potential partners.

And when you propose your JV with these creative things in there, that has the extra benefit of setting your proposal apart from the others your partner might get.

4) Do JVs work outside the Internet Marketing niche? (asked by Lorrie Lipton)

ANSWER: This is an easy one…YES! In fact, JVs are more common outside of IM than inside. That’s where they started, actually.

Think about when you go to McDonald’s and order a Happy Meal. The toy that comes inside the box is usually from Disney, or Pixar or some other company. That’s a JV.

So if you’re in a niche other than IM, don’t think JVs are off-limits for you.

What makes a JV one of those monsters that
generates huge profits? (asked by Lakisha Facey)

ANSWER: I think people focus too much on the profits sometimes, when JV relationships are more important in the long run, but profits do count. And the most profitable JVs have some things in common.

First, they promote a great product. For example, Steven Clayton & Tim Godfrey released Commission Blueprint earlier this year. It was a fantastic product, and our JV did very well. A great product makes everything easier.

Second, the most successful JVs leverage at least one very responsive list. There’s no way around that. You can make good money without a big list involved, but you have to have some buyers, and that means at least one responsive list.

When I promoted Commission Blueprint, I knew it was a perfect fit for my list, so I was confident that they would respond. That made Steve and Tim more willing to work with me to create a killer bonus for my readers, and it paid off well for both of us.

Third, they’re professional. The websites work, the products are laser targeted at good markets, the graphics for everything look nice, and the promotion efforts hang together well.

If you want a super successful JV, you need to make sure it has a solid foundation of all of those things. If they’re not in place, your chances of success go down.

There are other factors that might make a difference, but those are the biggest three.

Remember, JVs are about profit AND relationships. Not every JV will be a profit gusher, but that’s usually less important in the long run than developing relationships that grow into larger profit engines in the future.

———-

All right, that wraps it up for this time.

If you like getting answers to questions like this, ask your own question! You can submit your question by filling out the simple form at:

http://www.michaelrasmussen.com/questions/

Every couple weeks or so, I’ll go through the questions and pick out 5-6 to answer in an email to people on my lists.

Your questions are what will make this email helpful, so please keep them coming. I can’t guarantee I’ll answer your question, but if the same question gets asked several times, I’ll try to answer that one. So don’t think, "Somebody’s probably asked that already." Maybe so, but it’s worth asking anyway.

All the best,

Michael Rasmussen
CEO, BulletProof Marketing, Inc.

P.S. If you know any Internet marketers who would enjoy this article, just send them an email with this link:
http://www.michaelrasmussen.com/internet-marketing-qa-issue-7

A lot of people wonder why I do this. There are really three big reasons…

First, I care about whether you succeed or not. Internet marketing really isn’t rocket science…once you know what you’re doing. Before you “get it”, though, it helps a ton to have somebody actually answer real questions that real people ask along the way.

Second, even after you’re an “expert”, it’s great to get new ideas from other people. You never know when an answer to a question will press just right button in your brain…and boost your profits.

Third, I get literally thousands of emails every week, and it’s impossible to answer them all. So I set up this system to help me manage email better, while still giving you the information you need.

So read on, and I hope you enjoy the learning.

You probably already know how popular affiliate marketing is. I’m an affiliate marketer myself, and I can confirm that it’s a great way to make money online. But I get lots of emails from people who are confused about some aspect of affiliate marketing. If that’s you, this FAQ should help you get past that confusion.

1) I get 10-20 affiliate promotions a week from lists I’m on. As an affiliate marketer with a small list, how do I make good income from my promos but keep from overwhelming my list? (asked by Kelly Dupras)

You say you’re starting with a small list. That’s actually not a problem, if you have reasonable expectations for it.

My list is pretty big, so my profit expectations should be higher. That’s why it’s usually better to think in terms of conversion rate.

If you have a list of 50,000 and one percent buy when you send a promo email, that’s 500 buyers. Is that “good”? That depends on how many buyers you’re used to seeing. Actually, a one percent conversion rate isn’t very good at all!

But let’s say you get 10 percent of people to buy from your list. Now your relatively small list of 1,000 gets you 100 buyers. That’s pretty good. If you make, say, $25 profit on every sale, that’s $2,500 per promo email. Even if your list is only 500, you’d still make $1,250 with every email. That’s pretty good profit there.

What really matters is focusing on building your list and packing it full of proven buyers to get your conversion rate up.

As you’re doing that, make sure you don’t burn those buyers out. If you promote too often, they’ll get tired of it and start ignoring your promo emails.

The smarter way to go about it is to put yourself on a somewhat regular promotion schedule. It doesn’t have to be rigid, but it should be pretty regular.

For example, you might decide you’ll do two major promos per month, and send a couple emails a week leading up to each one. And you’ll make one of those emails more informational than promotional. That way people will get used to getting your emails, and they won’t mind them.

Remember, the size of your list isn’t as important as your efforts to grow it and build your relationship with it.

2) What if I don’t have a list yet? How in the world do I get started in affiliate marketing without one? (asked by Hugh Furlow)

If you don’t have a list…get one!

Okay, don’t get mad at me. I’ll explain what I mean.

It’s not as hard to get a list started as people think. Actually, it’s pretty easy if you use a simple plan.

The fastest way to do it is to offer something free and tell people in a niche forum about it. It can be a short report or anything else they might want. You don’t have to spend months writing the thing. In fact, you might be able to do it in a few hours, including research.

Just go to your favorite article bank and find 5-10 articles about the topic that sort of hang together with a theme. Read each one and (this is VERY important) summarize the article in your own words.

Once you’ve done that, assemble your summaries into sections for your report. If you end up with 5-10 pages, that’s plenty. It doesn’t have to be long, because it won’t cost anybody anything!

Now that your report is finished, go to one or more free forums in your niche and write a short post offering your free report to anybody who signs up for your list. Your post might say something like this:

“I’ve just finished my report called [report name]. It’s free to anybody who joins my list. Don’t worry, I won’t blast you with 100 emails aweek :)”

If people ask you questions about the report, use that opportunity to build your relationships with people in the forum, and to make a case for your report.

I’ve used that technique myself several times. And I’ve also offered more extensive products for free, like the videos at http://www.MiniSiteProfitsExposed.com. People love free stuff, and they’re usually willing to join your list if you offer it.

If you’ll use this simple strategy, you could easily find yourself with a list of 500 people very quickly. And if you read my answer to the first question about promoting to a small list, you’ll see that list is plenty big enough to make you good profit.

3) What should I promote? I mean, the possibilities are endless. (asked by Guy Axford)

You’re right, the possibilities can seem a little overwhelming. So what you need to do is find a nice place to start…sort of your baseline place to go to find products.

I recommend ClickBank for that. Their Marketplace has over 10,000 products in there (including some of mine), and it’s very easy to search for stuff.

When you search, look for products in your niche, of course, but sort them by High Gravity. That will tell you which products other affiliate marketers are getting behind in a big way.

Don’t necessarily pick the top one on the list, though. Shoot for gravity between 25 and 150, so that the competition isn’t so fierce.

With ClickBank in your hip pocket as a place you can always go, I suggest branching out from there to focus on new products, preferably product launches. That’s where all the buzz is, and probably where you’ll make your best profits.

There will be more competition there, so you should do your best to come with a good bonus to offer as an enticement for people to buy through you. But if you’ll focus on what’s hot, you’ll like the results.

You might be wondering how to find those hot new product releases. There are a few possibilities:

* Check out the New Products listing in ClickBank’s Marketplace

* Hang out in marketing forums to see who’s launching what, and when

* Hang out in JV forums to see what people are talking about as upcoming launches

I guess that’s not rocket science, but it has worked very well for me over the years, and I suspect it will do the same for you.

Great question and it let me kill a myth that hurts lots of aspiring affiliate marketers.

You do NOT have to buy every single product you promote! It’s fine to buy a product, and it can make your review of it much more personal, but if it’s not something you have to do.

So how can you not buy a product and still do a product review without misleading people? It’s easier than you think.

First, see what you can learn about the product from the sales page. There’s usually a huge amount of information in there that you can use to write your review. Pick the parts you want to focus on, or draw a reader’s attention to.

Second, ask the product creator if he’ll let you see a review copy. It’s amazing to me how many people don’t do this. Most of the time, the product creator will give you one, especially if you start by saying something like this:

“I own [your website URL] and I currently have a list of [your list size] and I think your product could be a great fit. Any way I could take a look at it so I can review it for a promo email?”

You obviously should have a list if you say you do. After that brief introduction, be sure to include some basic information about how you’ll promote the product. That shows a product creator that you have a plan, and will make him more likely to give you a review copy.

Third, read what other people say about the product. Google the product name and see what comes up. You’ll probably find a few review pages already out there that can give you some facts to use. And you can always summarize what other reviewers have said, something like this:

“I’ve seen several reviews that point out a bug in the software, but they say it’s not a big deal at all.”

If you’re willing to get a little creative, you can write great product reviews, but not have to spend a dime on products.

———-

All right, that wraps it up for this time.

If you like getting answers to questions like this, ask your own question! You can submit your question by filling out the simple form at:

http://www.michaelrasmussen.com/questions/

Every couple weeks or so, I’ll go through the questions and pick out 5-6 to answer in an email to people on my lists.

Your questions are what will make this email helpful, so please keep them coming. I can’t guarantee I’ll answer your question, but if the same question gets asked several times, I’ll try to answer that one. So don’t think, “Somebody’s probably asked that already.” Maybe so, but it’s worth asking anyway.

All the best,

Michael Rasmussen
CEO, BulletProof Marketing, Inc.

P.S. If you know any Internet marketers who would enjoy this article, just send them an email with this link:
http://www.michaelrasmussen.com/internet-marketing-qa-issue-6

A lot of people wonder why I do this. There are really three big reasons…

First, I care about whether you succeed or not. Internet marketing really isn’t rocket science…once you know what you’re doing. Before you “get it”, though, it helps a ton to have somebody actually answer real questions that real people ask along the way.

Second, even after you’re an “expert”, it’s great to get new ideas from other people. You never know when an answer to a question will press just right button in your brain…and boost your profits.

Third, I get literally thousands of emails every week, and it’s impossible to answer them all. So I set up this system to help me manage email better, while still giving you the information you need.

So read on, and I hope you enjoy the learning.

If there’s one thing I get asked about more than any other, it’s about the size and responsiveness of my email list. What most people don’t know is that the size of the list is far less important than whether it’s full of buyers. So here are some questions related to that issue, and some responses I hope will help you.

1) Getting buyers would be great, but what if I don’t have a product? I always seem to get stuck there. (asked by Lonnie Gersten)

You and lots of other people! You’re definitely not alone.

What most people don’t understand is that it’s actually pretty easy to create a product quickly if you keep it small and focused on a particular information need in the niche you’re trying to target.

Even better, it’s smart NOT to start from scratch. That’s simple to do when you use private label rights (PLR) material. That material lets you put your name on it and claim you’re the author, and you can use bits and pieces of it however you want.

So let’s say you’re targeting the list building niche, and you have some PLR material related to building a long-term relationship with a list. It’s a lot of material, but you extract some to create a report 10-15 pages long.

There’s you product! It doesn’t have to get any more complicated than that.

Or, if you don’t have PLR material to use, you can do essentially the same thing by look at article sites like EzineArticles.com. Find 15-20 articles on your topic, summarize the key points in your OWN words (very important) and then write your own articles to create an ebook.

There’s another product! That approach takes a little more time, but not much.

Even better, once you have your product, you can use the same techniques again to come up with an offer that people will see only once when they buy your main product (an OTO).

The way most people do it today, you’ll show this offer to somebody before he gets to download your main product. This lets you use a great strategy–offering a FREE product on the front end with an OTO behind it.

So let’s say you assemble that ebook about building a relationship with a list. Then you put together a quick, easy set of email templates as your OTO. You can sell it for anywhere from $7 to $17 and have people think that’s quite inexpensive.

When somebody signs up for your free report, show him your email templates offer and…probably add a buyer to your buyer list!

That’s a simple strategy I’ve used myself many times, and it still works great. I’ve added literally tens of thousands of buyers to my lists that way, even with simple products that took almost no time to create.

2) I have a product, but it’s not selling from my site. How can I get buyers if nobody’s buying? (asked by Kelly Goodlett)

This is a real challenge for a lot of people, especially when they’re first starting.

The key is to understand one critical point: “buyer” doesn’t necessarily mean somebody who has bought directly from you. It could be ANY buyer. Here’s what I mean…

A buyer is somebody who’s shown he’ll take out his wallet and make a purchase. Now, does it matter WHO he bought from?

Yes and no. It would help if he bought from you, because then you know for sure he’s willing to give YOU money. But if he bought from somebody else, that’s still good, because he’s shown he’s willing to buy from somebody.

So all you really have to do is figure out how to get somebody else’s buyers to join your list.

An easy way to do this is to find somebody who’s willing to put your product in his upsell or OTO. This is easier than it sounds.

You have a product already, Kelly. So look online in forums, at ClickBank or anyplace else you can think of and find marketers who offer complementary products (not direct competitors of yours). Look at their sales pages and find a few who offer an upsell when you click the order button. Find their email addresses and send them a personal message.

In your email, tell them what you like about their site or product. Then let them know you have a product you’d like to make a partnership proposal about.

Your proposal is simple:

* You contribute your existing product to their upsell, which increases the perceived value of what they’re offering

* You won’t ask them to share any profits with you

* All you ask is that the point buyers to your sign-up page before they download your product

There you go. You’ll be adding somebody else’s buyers to your list, and that other person is doing all of the sales work!

This is a great question. Your action plan begins with one word…

START!

The key to building a list is to create something people want bad enough to sign up for. Then you can transform them into buyers.

When I started years ago, I didn’t have a big list. As little as a few years ago, I didn’t have a list anywhere close to what it is now. I started small and grew, just like everybody has to.

The key, though, is to focus on getting BUYERS from the start. Subscribers are great, but if they don’t buy, you won’t make money from them.

The easy way to jumpstart the process is to add buyers from other people’s lists. A cross-promotion is a good way to start.

A cross-promotion is where you and a partner agree to promote each other’s products to grow your lists. It’s easy to set up, and usually easy to pitch to potential partners.

The critical element in most cases is to give your partner 100% commissions. In other words, don’t worry about making money up front. Focus on building your list.

It’s a no-brainer for a partner, because he’s getting commissions, and he’s getting a great product to promote. It’s great for you, too, because it can help you build your list fast.

You can find partners exactly like I described in my answer to the previous question–look for marketers with complementary products and send them an email. Nothing fancy, just a friendly email with a straightforward proposal.

Remember, what matters in the list game is growing a list, not having a huge list right away. A big list is great, no doubt, but it’s more important to have a list of any size and grow it from there.

4) If you could only use one technique to get buyers, other than selling your own product from your own site, what would it be? (asked by Matthew Lesh)

This is an easy one.

If I could use only one technique to attract buyers to my list, I would use thank you page promos.

You might know of my product at http://www.EmailPromosExposed.com. When that first launched, I used thank you page promos a lot, and that helped me get to the 100,000+ downloads I’ve seen for that product.

That’s over 100,000 names on my email list, and a large percentage were buyers. Why? Because I offered an OTO behind my free product, and that got a large number of people to buy from me right away.

Thank you page promos are easy and powerful. All you need is something to offer and the willingness to recruit partners. You can end up with an autopilot income stream, which is what most people want.

In my case, I offered a free video course up front. But you could offer a video course, screen capture videos, a short report, templates of some kind…anything that might appeal to somebody as a free offer.

Then you put an OTO behind it at some price, typically a low one if you’re just starting to build your list. You want to get lots of impulse buyers fast.

The great thing about thank you page promos, though, is how easy it is to pitch to partners.

Give them something like 75% commission, offer to create their thank you page ad for them, and pay them on time. This is EASY money for them, especially if they’re not currently using their thank you page real estate for anything.

Even better, when you grow your own list and start selling more of your own products, you can offer to swap thank you page ads with other marketers. That makes your thank you page proposal even more profitable for a potential partner.

———-

All right, that wraps it up for this time.

If you like getting answers to questions like this, ask your own question! You can submit your question by filling out the simple form at:

http://www.michaelrasmussen.com/questions/

Every couple weeks or so, I’ll go through the questions and pick out 5-6 to answer in an email to people on my lists.

Your questions are what will make this email helpful, so please keep them coming. I can’t guarantee I’ll answer your question, but if the same question gets asked several times, I’ll try to answer that one. So don’t think, “Somebody’s probably asked that already.” Maybe so, but it’s worth asking anyway.

All the best,

Michael Rasmussen
CEO, BulletProof Marketing, Inc.

P.S. If you know any Internet marketers who would enjoy this article, just send them an email with this link:
http://www.michaelrasmussen.com/internet-marketing-qa-issue-5

A lot of people wonder why I do this. There are really three big reasons…

First, I care about whether you succeed or not. Internet marketing really isn’t rocket science…once you know what you’re doing. Before you “get it”, though, it helps a ton to have somebody actually answer real questions that real people ask along the way.

Second, even after you’re an “expert”, it’s great to get new ideas from other people. You never know when an answer to a question will press just right button in your brain…and boost your profits.

Third, I get literally thousands of emails every week, and it’s impossible to answer them all. So I set up this system to help me manage email better, while still giving you the information you need.

So read on, and I hope you enjoy the learning.

Having been in Internet marketing for years, I pretty much taught myself everything I know about this business. But I definitely remember feeling a little lost when I started. It was overwhelming, to say the least. Two things in particular seemed to crop up a lot: how to set up a website, and how to create a product without working myself to death. These are still hot topics, because I get asked those questions all the time. This issue should give you some guidance.

1) How do I set up a simple website to sell a single product? (asked by Christin Tamburo)

This is probably THE question for people just getting started, and it really assumes you have a product already. Let’s say you do…

The first thing you’ll want to do is know what web pages you’ll need.

That’s not hard, and you only need three to start with:

* A sales page, where you pitch your product and ask people to click the order button

* A buyer registration page, where you send people after they purchase your product

* A thank you (or download) page where you actually deliver your product
I strongly recommend registering your buyers to build your buyer list, but if you want to start as simply as possible, you only need the first and third pages–a sales page and a thank you page. Either way, what you’re creating is called a mini-site.

The next natural question is, how in the world do you create this stuff? Do you need to know HTML? Maybe.

If you can get a mini-site template, you’ll probably be all set. Even if you have to buy it, it might cost you anywhere from $100 to $300, which might be less than you’d pay somebody to do create a site for you at a freelance site.

That’s really all there is to it. The biggest effort is creating your sales copy. That’s what sells your product. Most people just getting started can’t drop big money on an expensive copywriter, so they try to do it themselves.

An alternative, especially if doing it yourself scares you, is to visit popular marketing forums which allow members to post special offers. Sometimes you can get fantastic copy for less than $200 through these specials.

One you have the pages and copy, all you’ll have to do is plug in a payment processor, like ClickBank, so you can take credit card payments online. ClickBank has very helpful setup instructions, and it’s really easy to set up. It’ll cost you $50 to host your product there.

Adding it up, you might spend $550 to set up a pretty nice mini-site, if you don’t want to do it all yourself. And you won’t have to know HTML to do it!

2) I recently bought a package of website templates, complete with graphics. What do I do with it now? How can I get set up to sell it? (asked by Robin Guidotti)

This is related to the previous question, and the answer applies to more than just website templates.

If you’ve bought a product you can resell, all you have to do is set up a mini-site to sell it! Your expenses will be similar to the ones I gave in the previous answer.

If you’ve bought website templates, you might even be able to use one of them (or borrow material from several) and dramatically cut your costs.

You can pay a freelancer to install a template at your domain so you can just fill in the sales copy, and so on. That might cost you $100 to $300, but you pretty much avoid all other costs.

3) How do I come up with something to sell online? I mean, I’m not an “expert” at anything, so what kind of product can I create? (asked by Pete Feiner)

Most people new to online marketing make the mistake of thinking they have to be experts on something before they can create a product in that niche. Not at all!

Really, if you can get past that hang-up, you’ll be very far ahead of the game.

The easiest thing to do is to find a product with some kind of reprint rights in a niche you want to target. That could be:

* Resale Rights (RR), which give you the right to resell a product as-is (meaning no changes allowed)

* Master Resale Rights (MRR), which give you the right to resell the product and pass along the RR

* Rebranding Rights, which let you include your own affiliate links in a product, but typically no other changes

* Private Label Rights (PLR), which let you change a product however you want to resell it, and even put your name on it as the author.

Think about what those rights mean to you…you get a product with barely any work. It’s a great way to start. Focus on finding a good niche, then essentially buy a product. It won’t cost a ton, and you can get up and running fast.

Another option is to interview somebody (or several people) in your niche and record the interviews. That gives you a very popular audio product without doing much work to get it, other than setting up and preparing for the interview.

But back to those reprint rights products. I often get a question like the next one…

4) I just bought a huge package of resale rights and PLR products. How can I differentiate myself from everybody else selling these? (asked by Dorris Kearcher)

First, Dorris, it’s great that you know you need to differentiate yourself. Many people don’t, and then they wonder why their product doesn’t sell.

There are several ways to differentiate yourself when you resell products, whether PLR or otherwise:

* Add more value by including extra components you created on your own. This could be an additional “report” or ebook, an audio version of your ebook (Google “text to speech” for free tools) or something else.

* Get your own graphics. Most people will use the graphics that came with the package. If you get your own, you’ll probably stand out.

* Rename the product if you can. That’s another way to make your product not sound like everybody else’s.

* Edit the product if you can. If you’re allowed to, edit the content to put your own stamp on it.

Those are just a few suggestions. Feel free to get creative with your own twists and modifications. The bottom line is, you’re saving a ton of effort on product creation since you’re not starting from scratch. Invest some of that savings by working to make your product different. That effort can pay you back big-time.

5) What price should I put on my digital product? I’ve seen all kinds of numbers, and I’m a little confused. (asked by Johnathan Vassel)

Lots of people get confused by this. Contrary to popular notions out there, there are no “magic” prices. Sure, $19.95 is often better than $20, but a price of $19 can outsell a price of $17, or vice versa. Only testing will tell you the answer.

Here are some rules of thumb, though:

* See what other people in your niche are charging for similar products. Odds are good that those prices are what the market likes. Copy them!

* Don’t charge a price that’s silly high. Remember, the goal is to make the thing sell. If your 20-page ebook is really worth $1,797, great, but most aren’t. Charge something that seems to fit the product and you’ll do better.

* Don’t charge too little. If your product is good, don’t be afraid to put a good price on it. A nice piece of software should probably sell for more than $7, unless charging that little is a part of your on-purpose marketing strategy.

* There are no magic prices, but numbers ending in “7″ DO tend to perform well. So when in doubt, charge something that ends in “7″. I’d choose the multiple of 10 that feels about right for the product and the market, then tack a “7″ on it. For example, you might charge $37 for a meaty ebook, or maybe up to $97 if the information is really good enough.

Like I said, there’s no magic price. More often than not, you’ll need to guess at a decent price, then put it out there to see how it performs. If it doesn’t work, change the price and see if that helps.

———-

All right, that wraps it up for this time.

If you like getting answers to questions like this, ask your own question! You can submit your question by filling out the simple form at:

http://www.michaelrasmussen.com/questions/

Every couple weeks or so, I’ll go through the questions and pick out 5-6 to answer in an email to people on my lists.

Your questions are what will make this email helpful, so please keep them coming. I can’t guarantee I’ll answer your question, but if the same question gets asked several times, I’ll try to answer that one. So don’t think, "Somebody’s probably asked that already." Maybe so, but it’s worth asking anyway.

All the best,

Michael Rasmussen
CEO, BulletProof Marketing, Inc.

P.S. If you know any Internet marketers who would enjoy this article, just send them an email with this link:
http://www.michaelrasmussen.com/internet-marketing-qa-issue-4

A lot of people wonder why I do this. There are really three big reasons…

First, I care about whether you succeed or not. Internet marketing really isn’t rocket science…once you know what you’re doing. Before you "get it", though, it helps a ton to have somebody actually answer real questions that real people ask along the way.

Second, even after you’re an "expert", it’s great to get new ideas from other people. You never know when an answer to a question will press just right button in your brain…and boost your profits.

Third, I get literally thousands of emails every week, and it’s impossible to answer them all. So I set up this system to help me manage email better, while still giving you the information you need.

So read on, and I hope you enjoy the learning.

I’ve gotten a ton of emails from people who are confused about some aspect of getting started online, or are having "growing pains" in their business. Some are farther along than others, but most people have one thing in common–they’ve encountered an obstacle they aren’t sure how to get past. This issue should help!

1) I’m completely overwhelmed about how to get started online. What kind of plan do I need? (asked by Kelly Speirs)

It’s common to feel that way. There’s a lot of information out there, and it can be tough to wade through. Here’s the most important stuff to nail down:

- Who are you going to sell to? That’s your market.

- What are you going sell them? That’s your product.

- Where/how are going to sell it? That’s your sales channel.

- What are you going to charge for it? That’s your price point.

- How are you going to attract potential customers? That’s your marketing approach.

- What are you going to do next? That’s your growth strategy.

That’s not fancy, but it’s the core of any smart business plan, online or offline.

But online business requires some serious attention on the marketing approach. In particular, you need to figure out how you’ll get traffic to your website. No traffic means no sales.

I recommend you start by answering those core questions. I always do, for every single site or product I put online. Then, as with any business, you have to DO it.

2) Should I partner with somebody else to create and launch a product, or should I go it alone? (asked by Julio Scavuzzo)

Each approach has its advantages.

If you go it alone, you have absolute control, you don’t have to share any of the profits with a partner, you won’t have to share your mailing list with somebody else, and your brand identity will be all yours for the future.

Partnering with someone else can give a sounding board for your ideas, somebody to support you when you get stuck, some great ideas you might not have thought of on your own, and some help in getting the work done.

There’s no "right" answer, but I recommend that you seriously consider partnering with somebody at first. It’s really about bootstrapping yourself.

Partnering with somebody does have some potential issues, like sharing lists and profits, but it also gives you two huge advantages.

The first is motivation. Coming up with all the ideas on your own, then doing all the work to make them reality can be a drag. Lots of people give up before they finish. If you’re working with somebody else, that person can pick up the ball and run with it if you hit a low spot.

The second advantage is speed. If you partner with somebody, you’ll probably bring a better product to market faster, and you’ll probably accelerate your progress toward your financial goals.

For example, you might partner with some people who are a little farther along than you are. You can help them by contributing good ideas and doing some of the grunt work, and they can help you by jumpstarting your online career. You both win that way.

3) Do I need to find an Internet marketing mentor? (asked by Lance Huhn)

I definitely think you should.

I’ve always been a big believer in education, because knowledge is power in a lot of ways. I read constantly, and try to learn something new every day. But it can be good to have somebody who’s invested in helping you learn. That’s why mentors are important.

The best mentors are ones who take a genuine interest in you. These are people who you "click" with, and who naturally help you out when you ask. You won’t pay them for mentoring you, it just naturally happens. You can work with them on things, or maybe just talk about business in general.

But there’s nothing wrong with joining a mentoring program to get the ball rolling. Those can be expensive sometimes, but if you do a great job, that paid experience might grow into a relationship with somebody.

Another possibility is participating in online forums, like the Warrior Forum. You can develop some great relationships that way, and those might grow into informal mentoring relationships.

It’s usually smart to have more than one mentor, because that gives you different perspectives on various business things. So you might combine these approaches by joining a formal mentoring program, and still develop some informal mentoring relationships with other people in forums.

Most people starting out online have more time than money, so it makes sense for them to do things on their own.

Sooner or later, that flips, and they start having more money than time. It sounds like you might be getting to that point. When you get there, it’s a business decision like any other.

The first step is to assess how much time you’re spending on the IM things you do. Then you need to figure out how a personal assistant (or even an outsource freelancer) can help take those things off your plate.

Can a personal assistant really handle your email the way you have it set up right now? Can a personal assistant do mundane website tasks that are stealing time you could be spending on other stuff?

In particular, you need to free up your time for things you do well that also put money in your pocket. That’s the ideal use of your time.

You’ll have to pay an assistant, of course, so you need to consider a couple items:

- Do you really need an assistant, or can you be more efficient and get more done in less time yourself?

- How much will it cost, and will your current profits pay for it? If not, can you be reasonably sure having an assistant will let you generate more profit to cover the cost?

If you do need an assistant and you can afford it, by all means get one and start spending your time on how to increase your bottom line.

5) Outsourcing seems smart, but I have no idea what to outsource. What do you recommend? (asked by Jamie Mollica)

This is another one where there’s no "right" answer. You can outsource almost anything you want. The key is to focus on outsourcing things in two categories:

- Tasks that take your time away from things that put money in your pocket

- Tasks that can put more money in your pocket if somebody else does them

For example, I’m not a graphic artist. I know what I like, but I usually can’t draw it. So I outsource my graphics to partners I trust, who do great work. Having attractive websites and products makes me more profit.

Another common thing to outsource is article writing. You might not be a writer, so you can hire people to write articles for you. That lets you focus on coming up with great niche ideas instead of knocking yourself out to write when it’s not your thing.

You can outsource website creation, graphics, writing of almost any kind (including website copywriting), AdWords advertising, and so on. It’s all a matter of money, really. If you have the money to pay for it, you can outsource most of your business.

But be careful when you outsource projects. Make freelancers prove themselves on a small project first, before you give them a bigger project to do. And definitely shop around for the best price. Good doesn’t necessarily mean expensive.

———-

All right, that wraps it up for this time.

If you like getting answers to questions like this, ask your own question! You can submit your question by filling out the simple form at:

http://www.michaelrasmussen.com/questions/

Every couple weeks or so, I’ll go through the questions and pick out 5-6 to answer in an email to people on my lists.

Your questions are what will make this email helpful, so please keep them coming. I can’t guarantee I’ll answer your question, but if the same question gets asked several times, I’ll try to answer that one. So don’t think, "Somebody’s probably asked that already." Maybe so, but it’s worth asking anyway.

All the best,

Michael Rasmussen
CEO, BulletProof Marketing, Inc.

P.S. If you know any Internet marketers who would enjoy this article, just send them an email with this link:
http://www.michaelrasmussen.com/internet-marketing-qa-issue-3