A lot of novice web based small business owners set themselves up for failure due to some deadly marketing mistakes made unintentionally.  Okay, the statistic is improving in regards to online business success. Whereas it used to be that over 99% of all web-based business fail within the 1st two years after start up, nowadays about  5% are thriving after two years.

Quite a few home based business has gone to generate millions of dollars in profits each year.  This trend is set to continue and I guess it can be attributed to consumer awareness and confidence in doing transaction and purchase on line.

Continue reading “3 Sure-Fire Ways To Kill Your Internet Business” »

What Is Upselling?
All successful Internet affiliate marketers and online business entrepreneurs share one common trait and that is of having the ability to upsell products or services to their customers using proven effective marketing strategies. Continue reading “The Ultimate Upselling Marketing Strategy” »

Over ninety five percent of online business fails within the 1st five years. It is not by luck or chance for those who make it through and thrive to become multimillionaires. Your chances of success with any online business that you choose to be in depends on having the right mindset and executing the right strategy and techniques.

Here are five powerful tips that you should consider to improve your Internet Marketing success.

Manage your online activities and keep to a schedule.
One of the main challenges pertaining to running a home-based online business is that of time management. Quite often  many people admittedly including myself will spend more time surfing  sites such as YouTube and etc instead of focusing on what’s important to our online business.

For instance, sometimes it took me twice as long to write an article for posting even though I knew deep down inside I could get it done much sooner. The reason is because I get distracted easily by other sites and my mind starts to wonder into other interesting websites.

You need to exercise self discipline and adhere to strict tight deadline for each specific tasks that you are doing. In other words organize your life and online activities so that you get the most important and urgent tasks done at the soonest opportunity.  You need to stay the course and have schedules to prevent yourself from side tracking to other unimportant things.

Know your subject and understand how things works from inside out
You don’t need to be a master and expert in Internet technology to make money online. You can even start a successful e-commerce site even if you do not know how to build a website. That goes without saying because there are  software  tools available which automates pretty much everything.

A car driver may not need to know the inner working details of the engine but it is good and essential that he knows how to check the brake oil, jump start the car, change the tyre and etc. You never know when such skills will comes in handy in times of emergency.

Likewise it is important and essential for you to have basic understanding of say HTML (hyper text mark up language) and knowledge on how to upload and download a file to your site using file transfer protocol (FTP) and etc. Learn as much as you can and don’t have the wrong notion that there is absolutely no need to learn just because there are automated tools to get the job done.

Use the right tools
Use the most appropriate and suitable tools for working towards your end. That does not imply you have to use the latest tools but it helps in some way as Internet technology and marketing landscape change quickly. Some older software  tools, strategies and techniques  may become obsolete or not as effective down the road.

Don’t try to be a complete cheapo and rely on just free tools to get the job done.  As with any other real business, you need to invest some capital to build up your online business. You should reinvest some of the profits  back into your business. Invest in software tools and information that improves your productivity!

Do not reinvent the wheel.
Don’t waste your time to try to reinvent the wheel. Use the wheel instead, make it more better and  powerful. For instance, you don’t need to create a super product that is out of this world.  Find out a product or service that sells well and do further market research to know what’s lacking and customer wishlist.  Join relevant discussion groups and forums to get to know more about customers expectations of future product enhancements.

Anticipate future needs
Try to predict the future trend with regards to your niche market and develop a unique product that will stand out and make a difference to people’s life.  Do not focus on the outcome on the product in terms of dollars and cents but rather on how the product is going to improve one’s well being.

The wonderful thing about the Internet is that you can make money by promoting both digital as well as physical products online. Which of these is better for affiliate marketers? Should you focus your Internet marketing efforts on selling ClickBank products or Amazon products presumably if you have time for on only one of them to focus on?

Which of these affiliate network partners (Amazon & ClickBank ) give you better return of investment for the time and effort you need to put into promoting the products? To the experience affiliate marketers, both are equally well established good online source of income to tap into. As a general guideline, promote a product that you like, something that you have knowledge and experience regardless of whether it is digital information or physical item.

ClickBank deals with digital information products or services mainly in the form of digital content that can be delivered to the customer entirely through online. There is no postage and parcel stamps fees to dealt with. Customer usually can immediately download the product or service that they have purchase. Amazon on the other hand offers a wider range of affiliate products, encompassing both physical as well as lesser range of digital products such as eBook, software and online services.

The affiliate commission rate for promoting digital information products such as an eBook is usually much higher compare to a physical item which pay out as low as 6% of the product selling price. It is not unusual for advertisers to offer affiliate commission rate of up to 75% for information products versus 8% for physical items. Many super affiliates and Internet Marketing Gurus make tons of money selling ClickBank products. Thus why would anyone want promote physical products since the commission is far lower compare to marketing digital content?

There are couple reasons people still continue to make money with Amazon. Firstly there are many physical higher price point items that will bring you more commission even though the commission is not high.

For instance, there are many high-end physical items in Amazon that sells for over one thousand dollars or more. Let’s say a massage chair cost two thousand dollars and the commission for it is 10%. You make 200 dollars commission per sale. Digital contents on the other hand usually sells for far less say on the average of 47 dollars. That work out to be 37 dollars per sale for commission rate of 75%.

There are many high cost physical items you can promote from Amazon. Items and goods that you can touch and feel is generally perceived as higher in value and people are usually more willing to invest their money to purchase it. This is one of the main reason why people are willing to pay more for digital content that are delivered in hard copy form such as DVD or hard/soft binding book.

The conversion rate (earnings per click) for promoting physical products are usually much higher compare to software or service products. It is not unusual for experienced marketers to make a successful Amazon product sale for every six to eight pay per clicks (PPC). Good chances are that if you implement the right techniques and strategy, you can realistically achieve very good conversion rate.

Your chances of profiting from Clickbank is good if you promote hot selling products, digital contents that are new or just being released recently (less than 3 months) to the market where there are lots of hypes and anticipations. It is not unusual for the demand and popularity of most software products to decline rapidly within a year or so. The popularity of physical products usually last longer compare to digital information items such as software utilities.

Unlike software products which usually becomes obsolete due to fast paced change of the Internet marketing technology, the value of physical goods are more lasting so to speak. For instance, an effective eczema itch relieve cream will continue to be a good product that will continue to be well sought after and in high demand so long as the product is available in the market for as long as there are eczema sufferers.

In summary, there is no doubt that the Internet provides tremendous opportunity for affiliate marketers, both the advertisers and publishers to create wealth. Ultimately the choice is yours, you couldn’t go wrong with either of these two major affiliate programs namely ClickBank or Amazon, it is a matter of personal preferences and with the right strategy and technique you can be successful promoting both digital as well as physical goods.

One of the common question that many novice affiliate marketers has in mind is what are the best ClickBank products to promote. Well, there aren’t any specific best products because it all depends on your preferences, interest, experience, niche market, the amount of time, focus, efforts as well as your expectations of how much money you wish to make money online and how soon you wish to achieve your goals.

Everyday new products are added into CB (ClickBank) market place. Some Internet marketers prefers to promote fresh new products, some prefer to focus on promoting just money making products such as Internet marketing software & tools and there are those who just simply follow the crowd and promote anything and everything that others claim as hot products!

Usually the higher the price of the product, the higher is the sales commission. That does not mean you should promote only high end products because what works for others may not work for you! If you are novice Internet marketer then it is advisable that you choose products that you are familiar with.

It is even better if you have purchase and use the product yourself. You should only promote a product that you strongly believe in, have personally use and satisfy with it. People can tell from a mile if you really know the product which you recommend through your website.

Of course it is not always possible to evaluate every product that you wish to promote. Always do a Google search of the product you are interested. Check out reviews and feedback. Even though it is not likely that every customer will like the product and give a positive review, chances are that if over 70% of the reviews are positive it is quite alright for you to promote it.

It is not difficult to find quality products from ClickBank to promote. Study the affiliate product sales page. If you are not impressed with the product sales page or landing page then chances are that the customer or prospect you recommend will likewise not going to be motivated to purchase it . Choose one that offer at least 50% sales commission. In other words, if the product cost one hundred dollars, you should get at least 50 dollars when the sale is made.

Some of the factors you need to consider in choosing an affiliate  product are 1)credibility of not just the product but also the product creator, 2) the quality, 3) the conversions and refund rate, 4) the saturation of affiliates, 5) the gravity, 6) the cost-benefit relation, 7)after sales support, 8)promotional materials such as banners, marketing emails and and last but not least the price.

The ‘gravity’ factor is one of the most important criteria that you need to take note. Generally speaking, the ‘gravity’ indicates how popular the product is; it provides a rough estimation of how many affiliates actively promoting it. Don’t bother to figure out the how the value is derived. The higher the gravity the better chances that you will be able to make money promoting it. A gravity above 10 is consider good.

Another important factor that is often overlook by many is the ‘Rebill’ total. Any product with re-billing value is good as it indicates you get paid not just once for the initial sales but also repeatedly so long as the customer continue to use and pay for the upkeep of the product or service. You can achieve passive income of some sort with this mode of payment.

In summary there is no doubt that ClickBank is an interesting starting point to begin with if you are thinking of how to make money with affiliate programs. You shouldn’t doubt if you can make money with affiliate marketing but rather how to earn good passive income and live on multiple streams of income with affiliate marketing.

Internet Business Live 2!

I attended Internet Business Live 2 seminar organized by two of the biggest Internet Marketer names in town namely Ewen Chia and Patrick Chan. It is one of the most interesting and rewarding seminar I have ever attended. It was held at Singapore Novotel Clark Quay hotel on September 24th and 25th. There are quite a few people who flew in from as far as Australia and US to attend the event.

I learn quite a number of strategies and techniques in the seminar, most of which you will not be able to find else where. I am surprised that both Ewen and Patrick is so open and willing to share, so much so that they even show us some of their successful websites as well as disclosed some of the under radar strategies and techniques!.

How many Internet Marketing Guru’s do you know of are willing to show and let people see their money making websites ? Not many I suppose and here in IBL2 we have two of the most well respected and established trainer and speaker disclosing some of their best money making websites!

Most seminars usually involved multiple speakers, each lasting about an hour and so where the speech is usually scripted in advance and then follow with up sell of products and services, not so with Ewen and Patrick. The up sell of their 6 month intensive Internet marketing training follow through only after they have completed the training seminar.

One of the thing that I find most interesting about IBL2 event is that Ewen and Patrick conduct the seminar in a free flow manner where they speak freely and pour out their thoughts and gave some valuable insights when it cross their mind. It is not a scripted event so to speak. I can tell that they truly believe in sharing the wealth of information and experience that they have gained so that others may benefit from it.

The lack of preparation does not compromise the quality of the seminar but rather it enhance and makes it more lively and fascinating. The biggest take away that I gain from IBL2 is that Ewen rightfully points up that everyone can succeed online just like him and in all essence success is all about foremost having the right mindset and secondly the ability to follow a proven Internet marketing blueprint system.

There are many ways to make money online. There are so many business model to choose from. Do not be intimidated by all the various marketing techniques. You don’t need to be an expert in every business model in order to succeed. You certainly do not need to be an Internet techie or Internet savvy to start a profitable online business.

What matter most is find out what best works for you and then do more of the same thing in order to make even more money. The key technique is what is usually called rinse and repeat. Once you have established a money making business model that works for you then you can move on to explore other techniques.

The online business landscape is ever changing but the basic principle on how to make money online remains the same. It is truly and evergreen technique that both Ewen and Patrick has mastered and put to perfection. You stand to gain a lot by enrolling in some of their best training courses and coaching programs.

If you are newcomer in the world of Internet Marketing then you may wonder what is the easiest and quickest way to start an online business. A lot of people has the wrong notion that they need to create their own product or service in order to start one.

Do you actually really need to create your own product in order to start an online business?  Absolute not!, you don’t need to create or own any product at all. Have you heard of the term affiliate marketing? In a nutshell affiliate marketing is a form of marketing where you get certain commissions for recommending and referring people to buy products for which you are the product affiliate.

There are lots of work involved to make money with your own product. Not only do you have to spend time and money to create a product, you also need to deal with marketing stuffs such as writing  a good sales-copy letter, sales banner, handle payment system, refunds, technical and customer support and etc.

On the contrary you don’t need to worry about all the above when you deal with affiliate marketing. You just need to focus on promoting and recommending products to the customer. Isn’t that an easier business model for novice and newbie Internet Marketers to begin with? By the way you can still create your own products for instance eBook which you can bundle as additional bonus or add ons for customers that purchase affiliate products through you.

Affiliate marketing has been around for quite some time, even in offline business, well except that people don’t called it specifically ‘affiliate marketing’. Take for instance a shop which sells various products and goods. Do you think all those products are manufactured or created by the shop owner? Of course not!. So where do all those products on the shelf comes from?

Put it simply, the goods and products are distributed by salesmen who make a deal with the shop owners who stand to earn some profit when a sale is made. The same goes for affiliate marketing whereby you sign up as an affiliate for products or services that you wish to promote through your website. It is as easy as directing the customer to the product website. You get paid when the customer you refer to buy the product.

The main advantage with online affiliate marketing is that you don’t need a lot of initial capital start up investment at all. As a matter of fact you don’t even need a website to begin with. You can promote affiliate products directly through Facebook, Squidoo, HubPages, and various social networking media and social book marking sites such as StumbleUpon. You have the flexibility and choice to promote both physical as well as digital products.

All that you need is a computer with connection to the Internet to start an online business and you CAN make money as an affiliate marketer, usually as quick as in within the 1st 24 hours . I used to be very skeptical about people being able to make money online within 24 hours starting from scratch until I attended the  Internet Live Business 2 seminar conducted by Ewen Chia and Patrick Chan.

There so many affiliate programs that you can sign up for as an affiliate marketer. Most of these companies do not have strict criteria and they usually approve your application quickly. Amazon, eBay, Commission Junction are but some of the bigger names that offers you the opportunity to promote physical products.

Among these companies, eBay is the most difficult to sign up for as an affiliate also known as eBay Partnership. Don’t’ be surprise if your application gets rejected by eBay no matter how hard you try. Of course there are some tips that you can use to improve your chances of being approve by eBay but again that’s an article for another post which I will write shortly.

I am quite impressed with US President Obama’s speech which he addressed to the US congress on the proposed Job’s Act. The Bill Act that Obama seeks Congress to approve right away pertains to tax cuts and money estimated amounting up to US$447 billion dollars, mostly to put unemployed Americans back work.

President Obama is truly a gifted speaker indeed. His stern yet seemingly calm expression is quite commendable. The message he conveyed pertaining to the urgency to help those in desperate need of financial support will no doubt goes down well and touch the life of those who live from pay check to pay check or on day by day basis.

I was not able to watch the entire live television broadcast of the speech because I had to leave house for work. On the way to the office I can’t help but wonder if President Obama’s Job Act is going to solve the nation jobless woes.

At the heart of the whole economic and financial crisis that beset the world superpower, creating new jobs seems like the most logical plan and sensible urgent task to focus on. The bigger question though is if the proposed Bill a long term and sustainable plan given the ever changing political and economical landscape that affect not just the United States but also the rest of the world as well.

Republicans and Democrats are still very much at loggerheads and at odds with what the best solution to address the nation’s soaring debt and increase unemployment rate should be. President Obama strongly believe that the wealthiest citizens of the nation and large US corporations should do their part to contribute more to help the middle and the lower class income wage earners.

Well, I am not so sure if I agree a hundred percent with Obama’s proposed increase tax rate for the wealthy class in order to help subsidize the middle and lower income group. After all, some of these so called well to do high income group earners were also once struggling much like the lower and middle income class long before they achieve success. Many of these high achievers did it with no assistance from the government.

Most of those who achieved tremendous success in life work hard to achieve their goals and aspirations. Money don’t simply fall from the sky so to speak. Yes, no doubt there are quite a few who acquire their wealth through unscrupulous and unethical means but for the greater majority, it is their right mindset, persistent and focused efforts that get them where they are.

The Republican viewed President Obama’s ‘ national wealth distribution policy as that of robbing the rich to feed the poor, some sort like Robin Hood story, a socialist propaganda and an excuse to shift the goal post from his failed administration economic policy to that of pointing the finger at the wealthy rich class not doing their part to help the poor.

Creating jobs to alleviate the unemployment situation is the right to do. Providing the right conducive environment for people to venture and create new businesses is even more important. As the saying goes; ‘Give a man a fish and he live for a day, teach the man how to catch a fish and he will earn his live-hood.

For those who were being put out of work due to company restructuring or downsizing, getting a job is a priority but it is also important to look at the big picture, to consider and strive towards having multiple streams of income regardless if you have a full time job or not.

It is very risky to put all your eggs in one basket so to speak. If you earn your income from pay check to pay check then you really ought to consider alternative source of income so as to compliment the job that you have.

Having multiple streams of income is more than just a backup plan. Having alternative source of income can make a difference between struggling to feed your family versus living and providing a comfortable financially secured environment for your loved ones in today’s economic and financial uncertainties. You don’t have to panic if you lose your main job simply because you have sideline income to cushion the impact of the lost of your 9 to 5 job.

One of the best ways to generate multiple source of income is through Internet marketing. You can practically establish a profitable online business even if you are really broke or living on shoe string budget. The barrier entry to start an online business is practically almost zero.

It is quite interesting to note that many unemployed people are struggling to look for jobs while there are those who quit their full time well paid job to focus on their home based online business! There lies the difference between those who choose their own destiny versus those who sit on the fence to wait for government assistance.

We live in an era of unprecedented global economic and financial uncertainty. Unless your father or you own the company that you work for, you can forget about life time career or life time employment. Nobody is indispensable in any organization.

Change of management and reorganization in any company may result in you having to report to a nasty boss or someone that you simply cannot work with. All your past efforts and contributions to the company are wasted when you are reassign to report to a new boss who may or may not value your talents and capabilities.

You can lose your job for a variety of reasons, not just due to company downsizing and restructuring. Why wait to be told to get out from the company? As the saying goes, failure to plan is to plan to fail. Don’t procrastinate and take for granted that your job is secure.

Most successful athletes usually engage the help of experience and good sports coach to mentor and teach them important techniques and effective training workout so as to enable them to excel in sport competitions, usually within the shortest possible time .

A good and experienced coach is one who is able to provide guidance, advice, strategy and personalized training workout for individuals. A mentor is usually someone who’s being there done that so to speak.

Likewise it is essential for you to find a good mentor to help you jump start your Internet marketing business particularly if you are new to online business or you are a novice in Internet Marketing. You should find an experienced Internet marketing coach if you are unable to earn profitable online income despite the massive efforts and time you put into it.

Some people feel that they can do without any specific coaching since there are tons of free online information on how to make money online. After all there are plenty of forums in the Internet where people can participate to share information, experience as well as gather knowledge on tips on Internet marketing.

Well, it is true that you can find lots of tips on how to start an online business however the main problem is not lack of information but rather availability of too much information so much so that you become overload with too many money making ideas and techniques till you don’t know where to begin with.

Lack of information can impede your online business success but too much information resulting in paralysis through analysis is equally bad. Information overload may cause you to panic and lose confidence in your ability to start online business.

Finding a good mentor that is willing to hold you by the hand so to speak, to guide and teach you step by step and to correct you along the way on mistakes that you make is extremely important.

A good mentor can drastically reduce the amount of time that you need to gain speed and knowledge on making money online not just quickly but also to build a sustain long term business. As a matter of fact an experienced and truly genuine honest mentor will share the blueprint that allows you to fast track your Internet marketing success.

A lot of people fail to make money online and then give up not because the market is saturated but rather due to the fact that they spend too much time on focusing on the wrong thing and trying to make things right instead of doing the right thing.

A good Internet marketing coach will help you to understand and avoid some of those Internet marketing pitfalls, the do’s and the don’t which you should pay attention to. You don’t gain anything by repeating mistakes that others had made and learn from it.

You can avoid many costly and time consuming mistakes as you built your online business with help of a good mentor. A little helping hand will dramatically improve and expedite your ROI (return of investment in Internet marketing)

Last but not least, make it a point to attend Internet marketing seminar if possible. Besides the opportunity to learn how to make money online, you can also take opportunity to network with some of the top Internet marketers.

Ewen Chia and Patric Chan are both well known Internet Marketers and experienced mentors who can help you make tons of money online. They have team up to conduct Internet Business LIVE 2! seminar in Singapore. It is an opportunity not to be missed. Do register and sign up for the event.

One of the most important factor that determines the number of targeted visitors to your website is of course the amount of useful, relevant and interesting information you post in your website. When it comes to online publicity content is king so to speak. Who would bother to waste time to look at a website devoid of any interesting information?

There is no reason why you cannot increase targeted traffic to your website so as to build up a good responsive subscriber list that you can easily convert into buying customers. There are many ways to promote your sites. Social network marketing is the in-thing and popular medium to reach out to visitors and customers. Some claim that the old technique involving article marketing is dead. Is it truly obsolete?

Nevertheless, you should not rule out article marketing. Article marketing is still one of the proven time tested winning strategy to gather targeted traffic to your site. Most article directories allows you to include links back to your website through the so-called article author ‘byline’ or the author biography.

Most article directories allows you to include links back to your website through the so-called article author ‘byline’ or the author biography. By syndicating your contents for others to publish and post (with the condition that the article must include the link back to your website) you increase and improve the opportunities for others to link back to your site.

The increase in back links, particularly from authoritative sites or sites with similar niche market of yours will greatly enhance and improve your site page ranking. You have a winning formula to put your websites at top ranking of Google’s search engine result page if you can consistently provide timely fresh useful information which the reader can apply to address their problems or needs.

The ability to provide consistent fresh content in conjunction with good niche product marketing and keyword research puts you in very good position to succeed.Staying ahead of the competition is not really not difficult so long as you are able generate quality back links to your website and one of the best ways to do is via article marketing.

Creating useful content for your website should always be a major focus and part of your Internet marketing campaign. There are many articles that seems more like sales pitch and lacking in terms of depth and substance. Take some time to so some research on what you wish to communicate to your readers. Write articles about your niche.

What if you are not a good writer? There are many good freelance writers out there who can do it for a small fee. Not all ghost writers and freelance writers able to write good articles that are search engine friendly (with good keywords). So when in doubt, check out the profile of these writers and ask for sample articles.

Here is the key to article marketing success. Rewrite the articles and post it to various article directories. Rinse and repeat. Do it over and over again for each of your website. You should consider automating the process so that it takes minutes instead of days. Here is a free article writing software which is completely free that you can use to help you with article research. One important thing to take note is that you should only rewrite articles that you hold copyright to change (original article that create or own.)

The major advantage with article marketing is that the articles resides in the article directories for years thus the more articles you submit for syndication (submit to major ezine and article directories ) the more opportunity it is for you to increase backlinks to your site.

In summary, is article marketing dead? Well, it doesn’t seems to be anytime soon or in the distant future given the fact that more and more people are going online to look out or search for information and solutions to problems and needs or access to information that enable them to make well inform decisions.