Internet Marketing Q&A - Issue 6

It’s time to answer another set of questions from my readers. You’re in that group, so you get the benefit of the great questions your peers ask me.

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.

————- CURRENT ISSUE ————-

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.

4) I’ve seen product reviews you’ve done in promo emails, and they’re great. But what if I can’t afford to buy every product I want to promote, especially when I’m just getting started? (asked by Eve McEntee)

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

About the Author

Michael Rasmussen is a successful Internet Marketing Consultant and author of many top-selling eBooks. Michael has been marketing online since the early days and he knows what it takes to make money and succeed online. Stop by his Web site and subscribe to his Free monthly newsletter full strategies and techniques for successful web site promotions that can help YOU! Go to http://www.MichaelRasmussen.com

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