By Jimmy Krug –

I’ll be the last person to knock people who spend money on Clickbank’s software and information products. I’ve bought some myself. I’m using Clickbank as an example because many people are familiar with their internet marketing products and affiliate program. There’s nothing wrong with buying “specialized” software or information products if you’re buying them for the right reasons. The problem happens when you start developing the “get rich quick addiction.”

I’m sure you’ve noticed – people have all kinds of addictions. And as you know, there are more people than ever before out there taking advantage of this fact and profiting monetarily from it. The Get Rich Quick addiction is similar to the Gambling addiction. The promise of quick profits with little or no effort is just too much for some people to resist.

At a time when so many people are in desperate need of money, the “Get Rich Quick” way of thinking is spreading faster than ever before.

Clickbank is known for offering a variety of information and software products with sales copy that follows the familiar rags to riches storyline. This isn’t to say the products themselves are all bad. The information you’ll learn and the programs you’ll buy, however, are far cry away from being the magical keys that will unlock the doors to unfathomable riches. Far from it. Just read the fine print.

I’ve talked to many people who’ve spent fortunes on “magic software” that will bring hoards of eager buyers to you site.  Just set it up and within a few weeks, you’ll be depositing checks. The people who buy into these programs are often influenced by the glowing testimonials of people “just like them.”

I did the bulk of my own get-rich-quick purchases in my twenties. I’d like to say I didn’t know any better, but the fact was – I did and bought the stuff anyway “just in case.” Back then, these offers were found in magazines. Most of the ads were what you’d call “blind ads.” With a blind ad, you never know what the details of the information product was until you bought the front end product. The stories were always very similar.  Some poor, down on their luck person was broke, just like you. Then, they discovered the secret.

The ad usually showed the person standing by a fancy car or with an exquisite looking home visible in the background. Finally, in closing… they want to share their secret with you, for a small fee.

If you’re a get rich quick addict, you already know how these small fees can add up over the months (not to mention the years)

One day, back in early 1990’s, I was reading one of these ads when I suddenly recognized the address as being in the same post office as my own! The ad included the man’s name so I looked it up in the White Pages and would you believe – I found his phone number and address? I was so excited I would have done a back flip if I thought I could do one without breaking my neck. The next day I drove to the address to check out the area.

He had a beautiful home located on the water inside a gated community.

I wasn’t totally nuts, so instead of climbing the gate, I decided to call him on the phone instead. To my surprise, he answered the phone! I told him that I’d seen his article in the magazine and lived about ten minutes from his house. I was honest with him and told him I’d wasted more money than I could really afford on programs promising wealth and financial freedom – but was really interesting in learning what his magical business was.

He probably thought I was half nuts because I’d gone through the trouble of tracking him down… so after a moment’s hesitation he told me, “I’m in the furniture restoration business.”

Furniture restoration? Wow. What a letdown that was, at least to me. I thanked him for turning all the cards over and that was that. No need to send $19.95 to learn about all the possibilities that awaited me in the furniture restoration business. No wonder he didn’t mention what it was in the ad. It was just a guy in sunglasses standing next to a fancy car. Besides, I’d struggle building a birdhouse let alone restoring a piece of furniture.

As the day went on, I found myself thinking about all that would be involved in having a furniture restoration business. That’s when the light bulb finally went on. There is no such thing as a business that doesn’t require your time, energy, focus, training and yes… some kind of commitment.

As time goes on, you learn better ways of doing things and (hopefully) become more proficient at the little aspects that make up the entire process. Most things don’t come quickly. They make come all at once, but that’s only after some time and energy have been invested.

Logically speaking, just above everyone knows the get rich quick mentality will get them nowhere. They spend their money, however, with the same “hope” (or maybe abandon) as someone pulling the lever on a slot machine. From this perspective, Clickbank is like a casino… and like the old saying goes, the house always wins.

A CLOSER LOOK AT THE PRODUCTS THEMSELVES

Information products differ greatly from software products insofar as they have a much greater shelf life. For instance, you can buy a book on copywriting written 30-years ago (or longer) and still find what’s being taught applicable today.

When it comes to software, it’s another story entirely.

Think about it. How many life-changing, game changing software products have you bought in the last few years? Or maybe in your lifetime?

Information products, however, are different. Yes, there are some real crappy products out there. In comparison, however, books and the knowledge they contain have been changing people’s lives for centuries. They are storehouses of knowledge. There were two information products I bought in the past that provided me with the raw blueprint for my publishing business. It’s hard to put a price tag on that.

FIRST YOU LEARN, THEN YOU EARN. YOU CAN ALSO LEARN FROM HISTORY

Over a hundred years ago there was the gold rush. While very few people actually struck it rich back then, more than just a few wound up building successful businesses out West and the rest is history. Make no mistake about it, digging for gold takes time. Some people dug for months on end. Others for years on end.

By the time the “rush” ended, most came up empty handed. During that same period of time, others built businesses out West in a country that became known as the “Land of Opportunity.” They became wealthy in the process.

Today, with the Internet, there are many similarities. There are a handful of people who will create a single site that goes public and results in a windfall of cash. I’m sure you remember Napster and some of the others that have popped up? Those stories are modern versions of “striking gold.” Other people, usually working under the radar, went on to build very successful online businesses.

Realize this… the Internet is still in many ways like the Wild West of old. There are fortunes waiting to be made in the here and now. The old media guard that I’ve been personally working with since the late 90’s are finding themselves being out maneuvered by lone bloggers who quickly develop large followings.

If you’re interested in doing something similar, you have to overcome the Get Rich Quick addiction and start building a real business.

A GOOD FRIEND BEATS THE GET RICH QUICK ADDICTION

Several months ago a good friend of mine made the commitment to break away from buying WSO Warrior Forum Products. For those of you unfamiliar with the Warrior Forum, it’s an Internet Marketing site where loads of “make money” products (eBooks, software, etc.) are sold. He’s been building a web business for two years at a much slower pace than need be because he kept getting sidetracked by email offers.

One week he’d tell me he was found a product on how to start and run your own plug-and-play, local SEO business in 30-minutes a day. He told me about it, but I wasn’t interested. He asked, “Aren’t you just a little bit interested? What if it’s something you can use a few months down the line to make some good money with?”

My answer was, “No. I have enough on my plate and my own projects to complete right now.”

A few weeks later, when I asked him about it, he told me he put it on the backburner because he didn’t have the time to go through the material thoroughly enough to set everything up. A few days later, he’d tell me about a course he purchased about building and running adsense sites on autopilot.

Finally, it occurred to him that most of the people sending out these offers were making money off individuals like him creating and marketing offers every day. That was their business. He told me, “These people aren’t actually using the information or products they’re selling. They’re just hawking offers and building mailing lists to repeat the process.”

This took place in the spring of 2011. Since that time, he’s unsubscribed from 95% of the lists he was subscribed to in order to focus on building his own business. From June until now, he’s managed to triple his monthly income building websites for local businesses here in Florida.

Remember, I’m talking about the Get Rich Quick Addiction. It’s the addiction part that causes people to do stupid things, take horrendous risks and have their business and personal lives brought to the brink of collapse as a result.

HITTING THE RESET BUTTON

If you’re ready to hit the reset button, here’s one way to do it.

1. Gather all the junk material (physical, digital, etc.) and move it to an out of sight, out of mind location.
2. Reroute all but the very best one or two subscriptions to your junkmail folder if you can’t outright unsubscribe from them. You can always move them back later if you feel you made a mistake on any given one. (I only have 3 ezines I read as of this writing. Jim Straw’s, a Facebook expert from Ireland and another guy from the UK who’s a newbie but I enjoy his articles).
3. Write down what you want to accomplish in the next 6 months.
4. Next to that, write the tools you’ll need to do this.
5. Buy ONLY those tools.
6. Write a daily action plan
7. Do it!

You may not be one for lists, but go ahead and take a moment and do the above outline. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised how helpful it will be.

That’s all for now.

By David Breth.

One of the most difficult aspects I find about email marketing is improving my open rate. After all, if your prospects do not open your email, they can not know what wonderful products and services you are promoting.

Here are 3 proven direct response copywriting secrets you can use to increase your open rate and your bottom line.

1. Your subject line must be a short, attention grabbing, sentence much like what you would find on the envelope of a piece of direct mail you receive in your mailbox at home. Consider, when writing it, if it answers one of these three questions:

a) Who is the email from?  “HGTV Top Decorating Dos and Don’ts” for example, tells the recipient who the email is from. It also offers a benefit.

b) What does the recipient have to do and when do they have to do it. For example, “Enter Today to win the $5000 New Years Sweepstakes.”

c) What benefit do they receive by opening it? “Learn how to add $1000 to your bank account each month” Or “Get $1,000-$5,000 Free & Clear”

2. Your From Line is key. If you are a well known company or person with your readers, then putting your company name or your name in the from line is the best bet. During 2010 most people are not going to open an email from someone they do not know. There is too much risk with viruses and too much SPAM to bother. However, if they immediately know who the email is from, they are more likely to open it. But what if you are not a well known company or person?  Then put your name in the “From” line.

3. Pay close attention to your first couple of sentences. Direct response copywriters call the first paragraph the “lead” and most email systems provide their users with a few words, if not the first few sentences of an email. These first few sentences are critical to your open rate. Use active and inspiring language to excite your reader, inspire curiosity, or create a sense of urgency. Once the email is open, then you can let your copy do its job.

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Stop here for a brief moment and get a free copy of J.F. (Jim) Straw’s “How To Write Better Ad Copy” report. Reading and using what J.F. (Jim) Straw shares in this eye opening report CAN really help you get a greater response from your emails http://www.tiny.cc/JimStraw

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Remember:

Your open rate is one of the most important statistics to increase your email marketing success. Use what direct response copywriters like J.F. (Jim) Straw have known for decades and apply it to your email marketing strategy for optimal results.

http://www.tiny.cc/email559 <– Click that, please

By David Breth.

Are You Testing And Tracking The Right Information?

Testing and tracking your email marketing tactics is an essential part of a successful strategy. Without testing and tracking specific information how will you know what is working and what needs to be tweaked or fine tuned for better results?  After all, better results mean more money in your pocket, right?

As an email marketer, here is what you should be testing and tracking:

Open rates.

1. Do you know when your prospects are more likely to open your emails?

2. What time of day?

3. What day of the week?

Open rates are a critical; some say the most critical, element of your email marketing campaign. After all, if your email is not opened then you are unable to connect with and “sell” to your prospect, right?

Subject Line and To and From Lines.

Just like you will test a headline on a sales page, you want to test your subject lines. You also want to test your to and from lines just to make sure you are making the most impact possible on your potential readers.

1. What subject lines prompt your prospects to open your email messages?

2. What subject lines are dumped right into the trash bin?

Forward to a friend. While this is not viewed as important a statistic to test and track as your open rates and your subject line, I find it can be a useful piece of information.

If you find one type of email message gets forwarded more often than others, you can use this to increase your brand awareness, build your list and of course increase your profits.

Call to action.

Within every email message you send out should be some sort of call to action.

What do you want your prospects to do once they’ve read your message?

This is also a great piece to test and track. For example, if your “Buy Now” call to action receives less click throughs than your “Learn More” call to action, that is REALLY good to know.

Once you fine-tune your call to action to receive optimal click throughs, then you can make sure to fine-tune your sales pages for optimal conversions.

Testing and tracking tools and information is a marketer’s best friend. If you are not testing and tracking the above elements, you are missing out on valuable information which can take your email marketing campaigns from so-so to super.

http://www.tiny.cc/email559 <– Click that, please

Q: What’s the idea of lots of multiple emails that are identical? — Interested to know about the psychology.

A: There isn’t any  “psychology” involved.

Having  spent over 40 years in mailorder (direct  marketing), I know for a fact that if I mail a piece  to 1,000 people and get 15 sales, there are 985 people on that list that didn’t buy … which  means I need to mail the list again and again and again to get to all of those people on the list.

People buy for different reasons … at different times  of the week, month, year.  Their  plans  change; what  didn’t interest then yesterday is of great importance to them today.  Or, they meant to buy the product but decided to wait; then lost the sales piece.
It isn’t  psychology …  it is a matter of bringing the products to the customers at a time when they are ready to buy and nobody  knows when that might be.

Only a gross amateur; or a fool, makes one mailing, one time, to one list, and expects to build a  business.

Those who say differently only say it because they are afraid to offer their products more than once to anyone. — That won’t happen when you ONLY offer good, reliable products that do what those products are intended to do.

- Jim Straw
Online Mentor Magazine: August 2009