About 6 weeks ago I made a post about The Myth of List building (I’ll add the link to the bottom of the page) now considering I think that list building is in 80% of cases a complete waste of time I expected that most people would ignore the post and just treat it as the rantings of a lunatic… (the one that always sits next to you on a bus…except I had a 2.5 hour flight with one last month!!)

Surprisingly it got more comments than almost any other post I made. Many of them had to do with the amazing content my friend Andre gave away on one of his sites.. Thats real friend as in “here have another beer” not as in “Skype me I have an offer for your subscribers” type of friend!

So anyway we pretty much decided in that post and the comments that a targetted list no matter how small where you build a relationship with your subscribers is much much better than one of these massive lists the guru’s build.

Anyway next week Andre has a superb product coming out (don’t go Yet!! I’ve got something Important for you) that is unlike anything you’ve ever seen, i.e it’s not rehashed from what others maketers have said, it’s unique, More importantly It’s delivered in a way so that you’ll actually use it and take action…How do I know?  Because I am a week ahead of you… And I am hooked.

The Bad news is you can’t actually get it yet but the reason I am telling you this is that there is a free report on the sales page which could change the way you think about building lists and email marketing…

Autoresponder Madness

Grab that free report study it over the weekend and see if you think that email marketing by building relationships is something that you should add to you business. If it is head back to that page on Tuesday…you won’t be disapointed.

Here is the link to the first post I mentioned.

http://mjthompson.net/512/internet-myths-346-the-money-is-in-the-list/

Normal servie will be resumed next week!!

When I started Internet Marketing I had very little money available to spend so I had to build and promote each site from scratch. It was cheap and It was effective. However I do often wonder what would have happened if I’d been able to take some shortcuts.

On the positive side I probably would have started making money sooner. I could have then leveraged that income and increased it exponentially.

On the negative side I probably would have ended up taking a totally different path and I wouldn’t have had such a good grasp on the basics.

That last point is the problem with taking short cuts , you don’t learn and master all the finer points of site creations and promotion.

Having said that If you need to kickstart things how should you go about it.

The first thing people will tell you to do is try to find some sites for sale. Flippa is a the option that most people recommend but some sites do tend to be a little expensive there and with most sites with lots of members there will be a few sharks there looking to rip you off.

The big scam at the moment is to create a product sell it as a WSO on the warrior forum then show those sales as income, there is technically nothing wrong with this but it does stink of sharp practice as it’s doubtful you’d be able replicate this income on clickbank or paydotcom.com.

There are several other major problems with flippa, One listing today had the title “Automated Amazon earning $5403 per month Polarized aviator sunglasses”

To read that you’d think it was earning $5403 a month, it’s not in fact it’s earning $0 the $5403 is the sellers estimate of how much it will earn in 3 months. Why Flippa allows crap like this is beyond me! You couldn’t use misleading adverts like this in any other form of media so why allow it.

Do your due dilligence, get as much information as possible and if it looks too good to be true it probably is. Flippa is a great resource but you do need to be careful.

So what can you do to make things safer and less fraught with risk?

I usually use a site called flipfilter.com when i am looking for sites as it allows me to search a number of different market places.

If you are just starting out I would recommend finding someone who will be happy to create sites for you. We have several people in the WordPress Goldmine Forum who build and create sites for people. Other members regularly sell off some of their sites within the forum.

For example one of out members owns this site http://websitesforbuying.com there you’ll find several sites for sale.

One final thing you can do is to sign up with a Site Broker, these guys regularly sell sites on behalf of others in return for a commission. The prices will be slightly higher but if you use the right type of broker you’ll be assured of getting good quality sites as brokers protect their reputation by selling good quality genuine sites. One of the brokers I use is http://www.flipwebsites.com/

When you come to sell any of your sites it’s also useful to use a broker to sell your sites.

To sum up, you can get a head start by buying existing sites and promoting them, you will probably not gain as much as an insight into how Internet marketing works but you will probably be earning quicker. Finally be careful, only buy off trusted sources, paying a bit extra for a genuine site is worth it.

I am basically a very shy person, and I always feel very uncomfortable in strange places or in large groups, so a nightmare scenario for me is to have to address a large group of people in a strange place. I think this comes from a case of stage fright I got when I did a school play and had to give a monologue.

I stood on the stage, looked at all the people in the audience opened my mouth and my brain shut down…. I ran off the stage as quick as I could. The strange thing is.. I can still recite that damn monologue now from memory 40 years later!

Last Thursday at 9.45 am I stood up in front of 25 people in a Meeting room In Nottingham and presented my first ever seminar. The 2 day seminar covered Product Creation, List Building and Promoting your Products. I can’t remember ever enjoying “work” so much in my life.

Within about 5 minutes the fears and nervousness disapeared, the adrenaline kicked in and I was on a roll. Questions were asked and the answers just came without me even having to think about it, ideas that i’d never considered before sprung from the grey mush between my ears. I was having the time of my life… well apart from that night in the Ice bar in oslo….but thats another story.

I spent 2 very productive days with the nicest group of people you could ever meet, If I’d let my fear win I would never have had that experience. I learned a lot myself from the people who attended, never underestimate the power of sharing information with likeminded people

The really perverse thing about all this is that I arranged to present a 2nd seminar in Las Vegas before I knew if I could do it. Do you know what? I can’t wait, I wish it was next week.

(me presenting a seminar in vegas…I still can’t believe it!)

What aspects of you IM life, or even life in general do you fear?

I’ve had people tell me they were afraid to ask for help in case they were thought of as stupid.

I’ve had people write great products and not release them because they were afraid people wouldn’t like them

I’ve known people who wouldn’t send an email asking about a JV because they were afraid of the other person saying no.

Like most fears these are all irrational so what if they say no if you don’t ask it’s the same as a no.

Forget those irrational fears get out there and do something that you are afraid of.

Do it today address one fear that’s holding you back you’ll more than likely be surprised at the outcome.

Below is the group photo of the brave people who attended my first ever seminar, thanks guys , you don’t know how much I owe you!

How Many Potential Niches Can you Spot?

You are being Misled!

That’s not some marketing trick to get your attention it’s the truth. Every day you are getting emails from marketers and they are misleading you.

Some of it is deliberate some of it is just misguided ignorance.

Whether it’s telling you about some great new product that will make you millions of dollars…that they haven’t even seen or Just telling you that you that Guru x just did a million dollar launch most of its bull.

In fact next time someone tells you about a million dollar launch do the math and take off affiliate commissions, taxes and refunds (many big launches can have massive refund levels) and that cool million dollar launch won’t look anywhere near as impressive.

What really gets me is the lie that gets trotted out regularly each month “The Money is in the List” I wish I had $10 for every time I’ve heard that.

The thing is the money isn’t in the list, if it was then the guys with the biggest lists would be winning every affiliate promotion competition and making more sales than anyone else. Whereas when you look at the competition results quite often the guys at the top of the leader board are people very few of us have heard of.

The reason why is simple… the money isn’t in the list at all. The money is in a well-targeted and prequalified list.

There are two types of email marketers, those that do anything to get you on their lists and those that only want people on their lists they feel they can genuinely help. It’s really easy to spot the difference.

With the first type you see their email and usually ignore it or delete it without opening it.  With the 2^nd type of marketer you see their email and open it immediately or in some cases wonder why they haven’t sent an email out.

There is also a big difference between the way these 2 types of marketers build their lists.

Type 1 will make you sign up before giving you any information, just think about all the big launches that have happened lately.  You need to sign up before you watch any of the videos, look at Product Launch Formula 3 for example (what was wrong with 1 and 2?  Ohh and is it only me that see’s the irony in a product launch series about a product launch product..surely everything is in the launch series J)

Type 2 marketers give you lots of good information and only once you’ve read through it will you get a chance to subscribe. By doing it this way type 2 marketers ensure that they are sending information to people who want to get that type of information. Their lists are much smaller but highly responsive.

When you think about it its common sense really but that tends to be lacking in many marketers.

One of the best exponents of this type of prequalification marketing is Andre Chaperon. If you go to his Affiliate Bully website (no that is not an Affiliate link!!) you’ll find more good free  information about affiliate marketing than in many sub $100 e-books. ..Actually I’ve seen a $197 book with less useful information.

Go and have a read then come back and tell me (use the comment button below) if that isn’t the type of information every internet marketers should give out!