Action items to grow your Internet business
Anthony Robbins said, "You see, in life, lots of people know what to do, but few people actually do what they know. Knowing is not enough! You must take action."
Today, I'd like to share with you some "action" things I've been doing to grow my Internet business.
Affiliate programs... everyone is talking about them, and for good reason...
Affiliate programs are hot.
I was working affiliate programs long before joining FFSI. And, I was happy to see that building an FFSI business was not all that much different. The same principles for building a successful affiliate program applied to building a successful FFSI business on the Internet.
With both affiliate programs and FFSI, you can sign up and be selling products within 5 minutes. The web sites, sales letters, and order shipping are all done for you. All you have to do is promote.
It is a surprisingly sad statistic when you find out that only around 10% to 20% of affiliate members do enough to ever get a check. Then, only a small percentage of those go on to earn really good incomes.
I regularly get paid from numerous affiliate programs myself, and I have spent a considerable amount of time studying the top affiliates in programs all over the Internet.
The principles below are true of almost every one of the top affiliates in every program I have looked at. If you want to succeed and earn at least $5,000 or more per month from affiliate programs, then you will have to be following the five steps below. If you don't, it just isn't going to happen... and you have no one to blame but yourself.
1. Create Your Own Web Site.
Although almost every program gives you a web site to use to promote with, you really shouldn't be promoting with that site. The top affiliates always have their own web sites which they promote from. Then, they link to the affiliate program sites.
I rarely drive traffic directly to any of the affiliate programs. I drive it to my site, get their name on my opt-in list, and then promote the program. If you are serious about earning profits online, then you will do the same.
For example, rather than promoting my FFSI site, http://www.ffsi.com/61912 directly, I've created my own website http://www.globalbiztool.com where I can capture the visitors lead information for long term follow-up, then send them to my FFSI site.
And, I don't stop with just one site... I've created multiple contact points to reach a much broader audience and make it *easy* for people to find me. See for example, http://www.ffsiopportunity.com.
Having your own site and linking to your affiliate program gives you some additional advantages as well:
- You can write up a short two to four paragraph endorsement and testimonial for the site yourself.
- You can generate subscribers to your opt-in list first (this is the key to Internet profits).
- If the affiliate program ever stops or changes your link, you still have all the traffic you worked for at YOUR site (this happens quite often).
If you don't currently have a web site, but want to earn through affiliate programs, you need to get one today.
2. Generate Traffic
You can't earn a single penny in any program without generating traffic to your site. No traffic equals no income. Combine the right ingredients of an opt-in list, good site design, and the right sales offer... and your income will be directly proportional to the targeted traffic you generate.
An advantage that I didn't mention above in why you should own your own domain is getting listed with the search engines. The pages given to you by your affiliate program owner aren't going to receive virtually any traffic from the search engines. They won't have top rankings because there are at least 1,000 other pages just like them (from the other affiliate members) and many software programs create pages which can't even be indexed by the search engines.
Having your own domain will give you the freedom to create web pages which achieve high rankings on the search engines. Each of the major search engines such as Google, MSN, Infoseek, Hotbot, and the others have their own ranking algorithms which change virtually monthly.
You can stay on top of them though by using a program such as Web Position which actually monitors the search engines for you and helps you prepare doorway pages which will achieve the top rankings you are seeking after...and the traffic which comes from having those top rankings.
You can read more about Web Position and everything it can do for you... and also download a trial version for the three of the major search engines which is good for 30 days to try it out free. Check it out and download the trial at: http://www.webposition.com/d2.pl?r=JE6-55C6
Search engines are not the only way to build traffic to your site. You can trade links with sites, place free and paid classifieds, and even use banner advertising. There are dozens of ways to generate traffic. If you want to make money from your affiliate programs, you will be using them.
3. Start an Opt-In List.
All top affiliates have their own opt-in email lists and are pretty aggressive marketers to those lists.
That is where my income is coming from also. Over 90% of my income comes through using opt-in email in one way or another...either through my newsletters or through my autoresponders with follow-up. If you don't know how to use email, then you're always going to be living on barely get by street in the online market. The web sites which I send the most traffic to have one purpose to them... and one purpose only... to sign them up on my newsletter lists. All of the content that I have on my site is for that one purpose.
If you can't get a visitor to sign up for a free newsletter, then you aren't going to be able to get them to fill out your order forms and order. Get them on the list, and then start emailing them as often as you can put out good content (along with the ads).
Although I prefer to personalize my newsletter using software you have to buy, if you are just starting out and are on a budget, you can start your list using a free Listbot.
4. Develop a Unique Web Position.
Here is a trick to increase your sales from ANY affiliate program, but people rarely ever mention it. Any successful web site finds a way to make their products and or services unique from their competition.
When you are an affiliate though, you have thousands of competitors selling the exact same product at the exact same price. Every other affiliate in that company is your competition!
You will have to become unique if you want to beat the other affiliates competing against you. You may think it would be difficult to do, but it isn't.
All you have to do is add on some extra bonuses to those people who are purchasing from you. For example, you might give away a free ebook or audio tape. You can find lots of great products that would be perfect at http://www.myaffiliateprogram.com/u/dream/b.asp?id=1035
If you own an opt-in list like you should, you could give a free ad to anyone who enrolls with you. For example, you could write that anyone who orders the Financial Freedom Society before midnight tonight will also get a free ad ($30 value) in your newsletter... or three free ads.
Here's another idea... Buy submission software and submit their site to 1,000 search engines if they enroll today.
Do something like this and tell your opt-in email list subscribers and web site visitors about it. You will be setting yourself apart from the competition and be giving your purchasers an even better deal than buying from someone else!
Special limited-time offers work extremely effectively when combined with your own opt-in list.
5. Generate Multiple Streams of Income.
If you follow all four of the principles above, then you are going to be able to earn money from many different affiliates programs, and that is exactly what you should do. You should join several non-competing programs which sell products to the same targeted market.
For example, in addition to the Financial Freedom Society, you might join:
An Internet Training Program
http://www.empowerism.com/e/97033
http://www.quickinfo247.com/186885/IAHBE
A Personal Development Program
http://www.myaffiliateprogram.com/u/connect/up.asp?i=2660
http://www.jimrohn.com/default.asp?kbid=2308
A Web Hosting Program
http://www.host4profit.com/cgi-bin/home.cgi?63212
A Web Promotion Program
http://www.webposition.com/d2.pl?r=JE6-55C6
An Autoresponder program
http://www.getresponse.com/index/47699
A Leads Program
http://www.freedomlifestyleteam.com/leadfactory/
http://www.trafficoasis.com/index.php?19037
You can find several programs which target our specific niche group.
You can be earning 3 to 10 streams of income from the same visitors at your web site and subscribers to your newsletters. Having several streams of income helps every visitor to your site be worth more money to you!