Bad information keeps many people from making money online.

People give a half-hearted effort to one form of marketing, get disappointed that it didn’t work, and then cry out to the world that it no longer works…

How many times have you seen one of these headlines:

“Email Marketing Is Dead!”

“SEO No Longer Works Thanks to Google…”

“Content Marketing Has Lost Its Luster…”

Or the big one:

“Affiliate Marketing Is for Scammers!”

When something is proclaimed dead or not working any longer, it’s probably because someone was gaming the system and the system owners plugged the hole.

Ethical marketing always works in the long run.

That’s why Affiliate Marketing has worked for decades and will continue to work for the non-scammers of the world.

But the headlines persist, and the myths and misconceptions flourish.

Let’s talk about the top 5 myths about affiliate marketing today…

1) Affiliate Marketing is easy…

There’s a misconception out there that the newbie online marketer can grab an affiliate link, put it on their Facebook page, and the money will start rolling in.

Not so fast…

Affiliate marketing like any other business model IS a business.

And it should be treated like a business.

While affiliate marketing may be the exact business model you need as a new entrepreneur, it’s important to understand and accept that it is NOT a get-rich-quick scheme.

As with any business, your primary job is to present a solution to a market with a desperate problem. The problem must be so severe that they are willing to pay for that solution quickly.

Is this beginning to sound like work yet? It should.

Affiliate marketing can be VERY rewarding, but it is not easy, especially if you have no business experience. But affiliate marketing can be the best way to learn how to build a business with very low-risk.

Your investment as an affiliate marketer is low because you don’t have any product or delivery costs. Your focus must be on building a market, knowing that market inside out, and learning how to sell.

These are essential skills for any business owner to master.

Driving traffic and measuring conversions to build your marketing list is the primary tool of every affiliate marketer.

2) Affiliate marketing doesn’t work any more…

The days of throwing a link up on the social marketing sites and making a million dollars overnight are gone…if they ever existed.

Social media has heightened the importance of building relationships with your target market, and that can be a slow process.

Your followers and email subscribers must feel a connection with you. If they don’t, they find someone else where that connection is real.

Affiliate marketing not only works with an audience that knows, likes and trusts you, but they will ask for your affiliate link for new products. Sometimes, they feel such a close relationship that they’ll pass around your affiliate link for you.

Affiliate marketing without real relationships (even if they’re automated) is hard, but can be done with a lot of effort.

But affiliate marketing with real connections with an audience that has been nurtured and embraced works like a charm because you’re genuinely looking out for their interests.

3) The competition is too steep in affiliate marketing…

First, let’s agree competition is good.

That means there’s a market for the product. If not, no one else would be trying to sell that product.

Competitors can also become your best traffic source. Using the right tools like iSpionage.com, you can target your competitors, and step in front of their traffic with better offers, Facebook ads, or other techniques.

Sound a little cutthroat?

Nope, it’s just business. Once you become the Big Dog, everyone will target you too.

Your job is to offer better bonuses, better services, better support, and better experience to that market. And by doing that, you’re building a better relationship.

Find out how your competitors are building their audience (keyword research) and jump in there to grab that audience yourself.

Business is about competition, so if that bothers you, you probably need to get a job.

4) The more I promote my affiliate links the more money I’ll make…

Listen, this one is tricky.

In theory, this is true. But there are other considerations like…

Does your message match the right audience? This is where you’ve got to get good at knowing your market including their hopes, dreams and issues.

In the consulting world, they call these the FUDs – Fears, Uncertainties and Doubts.

What is your audience trying to do? And how can the solution you put in front of them solve that issue?

Promote to the right audience and you don’t have to “sell them” often because you become part of their go-to-problem-solver while you’re building a relationship.

Spamming your links to an audience never works.

But offering a solution to a problem always works.

5) Affiliate marketing is high risk and low ROI…

Ok. There is risk in any business endeavor. In affiliate marketing, you could make a lot of sales for a product only to have the product owner go out of business.

That’s always a risk.

And the return on investment could be very low, but only because you’re not making sales.

That usually means you don’t have the right message for the right target market. Conversions are much easier and ROI much higher when you convert prospects to customers.

Opponents of affiliate marketing will jump in here and declare you’d be better off building your own products, selling them online and keeping ALL the money.

Here’s the truth about that:

If you can’t sell someone else’s product and get a good ROI, what makes you think that you could invest a lot of money on your own product and sell THAT to the same target market.

Affiliate marketing is attractive because the risk is extremely low. You don’t have to create a massive infrastructure to support your products. You’re letting someone else take that risk on.

And the low ROI? Wrong.

The potential in affiliate marketing for those people who learn how to build an audience and convert that audience to paying customers is HUGE because it’s a pay-for-performance model!

The more you convert, the more you make and the higher your return.

Of course, like everything else, affiliate marketing only works if you know how to do it correctly.

I received a marketing email telling me how GREAT a new video making product is, because it works in conjunction with a piece of software almost everyone already has.

Cool!

So I go to check it out, and guess what?

They NEVER show you what the videos you’ll be making will look like.

Not ONE single example!

Worse still, the video they use to sell the video maker is a regular talking head type of video, NOT the kind you’re supposed to be able to make with this software.

What thinking person will take this offer seriously?

It’s like someone trying to sell you their artwork without letting you SEE the artwork.

If you’re selling software, and especially video creation software, let people see what it can do, rather than just telling them.

Otherwise, who’s going to believe you?

Well over a decade ago I bought and devoured an expensive course called “Hypnotic Writing” from Joe Vitale. If I remember correctly, it cost $1,000 and arrived in a heavy box with tons of CD’s and two thick manuals. And it was perhaps one of the best investments I ever made in learning not just good, but great copywriting that converts like crazy.

This morning I was cleaning out some old files, and ran across my handwritten notes from the course. In the notes I discovered a list of “The 7 Secret Principles of Hypnotic Writing.” They still stand the test of time today, so I thought I would share them with you here.

Please keep in mind, these aren’t so much a primer as a list of clues as to what Vitale’s “Hypnotic Writing” is. But from these clues you can discern enough valuable information to almost instantly improve your own writing, whether it’s blog posts, sales letters, emails or anything else.

1: Make it Personal

Hypnotic writing speaks to YOU, the reader. You’ll find words such as you, me, I, yours, etc. All of this makes you feel like the writing is speaking to you personally. In fact, it is. The more personal, the more hypnotic.

2: Keep it Active

Hypnotic writing is active. You’ll find lots of verbs. You’ll find little passive writing. It’s the difference between saying, “The writing was hypnotic,” and saying, “Joe weaves hypnotic writing.” The first is passive, the second is active.

3: Get Emotional

Hypnotic writing taps your emotions. You may find it doing so in a story format or in a direct narrative. Either way, the writing will pull at your heart strings. One of Joe’s most famous letters began, “I was nearly in tears…” That line engaged the emotions of readers. You had to read the letter to discover what the tears were for.

4: Be Sensual

Writing hypnotically involves your senses. You’ll find descriptions of feeling, tasting, seeing, smelling and hearing. All of this will help you become involved with the writing and therefore susceptible to what it commands.

5: Be Commanding

Hypnotic writing commands the reader to do something. As the reader, you might not detect the command as it may be embedded. But there will always be one. Ask yourself, “What do I want to do after reading this?” What you do next may be a result of the hypnotic command.

6: Curiosity

Hypnotic writing plays on your curiosity. You may find it beginning a story – but not ending it until the end of the article. You may find it promising to tell you how to do something, but it will only give you limited details, thereby urging you to order the product it’s promoting to get more information.

7: Hypnotic Writing is Hidden

You won’t find any obvious clues that signal, “Warning, hypnotic writing at work.” The writing will instead be smooth and personal, and the hypnotic aspect will sneak in below conscious awareness.

Now imagine if you actually had the power to influence your prospect’s subconscious mind.

Imagine if you could do it by using simple trigger words that activate involuntary reactions in their brains.

And imagine you can do it in writing and in speech.

You might not believe you can do this. But I’m going to tell you that you can, because over time we are all subtly hypnotized to accept certain suggestions. This process started when we were babies and has never stopped.

You wouldn’t even suspect these simple words of holding any special power. But when you use them correctly, they can dramatically improve your power of persuasion.

Yes, I’ve just given you a sample of ‘hypnotic writing.’ If you re-read the previous 5 paragraphs, and if you study it very carefully, you will notice I used three little words to great effect – “Imagine, you and because.”

If all you do is begin using these three words more often in your copy, you will experience an increase in the persuasiveness of your writing.

Imagine if you could persuade anyone of anything, because when you do, you’ll hold the power to make a fortune. Try it out next time you write, and see what happens. 😉

If you’re an experienced online marketer, you may never have considered working with brick and mortar type businesses, but after reading this you might rethink your position.

First, it’s great money.

Second, it’s great money FAST.

Third, you don’t actually need to do any of the work yourself, since you can outsource everything.

The hard part? Getting clients. At least, it tends to be hard for most marketers trying to run a marketing business for offline clients.

But I’m going to show you how to get all the clients you want, using three easy techniques.

All three of the techniques center on one thing – offering a FREE 20 minute consultation about why their website isn’t getting them enough customers, and how to fix it.

Think about it – how many businesses want more customers? Nearly all of them.

How many businesses would like those customers to find them on the internet and then walk in the door, ready to buy? Nearly all of them.

And how many businesses would like someone to tell them why their website is doing such a lousy job of getting new customers, and how they can fix it?

Just about all of them.

So your offer is going to be a free 20 minute consultation on why their website isn’t getting them business and how it can be fixed. Totally free, no obligation, no nothing beyond you honestly and earnestly helping them.

There are two keys to your offer – first, it’s only 20 minutes. Most business owners are happy to find 20 minutes to have an expert look over their site and give them some helpful advice.

Second, you are going in without expectation of self-profit. Your entire motive is to help them. And when you think like this, it will show. They’ll let their guard down and have a real conversation with you.

And more often than not, they’ll also hire you to do the work for them.

The three methods you’ll use to get these appointments are:

• Posting on Craigslist or a comparable website if you’re outside of the U.S. Of the three methods, this one tends to get the lowest response. Yet the appointments you do get – perhaps 1 to 2 per week – will very often result in a sale. However, if you scale this up and post in numerous cities, this method alone can be enough to keep you busy. You’ll just have to conduct your appointments via Skype or phone. Be sure to find ways to post that don’t conflict with Craigslist rules, since they can sometimes get a little cranky if you post the same ad in multiple cities.
• Create cards that you leave in strategic places. First, create your cards. They could be brochures, or they can be oversized business cards. Spend plenty of time getting your wording just right. Next, scout your locations. You want to find places where business owners have down time – for example, accountants, suppliers, repair shops, computer shops, etc. Mark each card with a code so you can give a commission to the business where your new customer found your card. Done correctly, this will yield several appointments per week.
• Email business owners directly. You can generally find their email address on their website, or you’ll find a ‘contact me’ form. Either way, let them know you’ve been studying their website. You’ve discovered 3 things they could be doing to bring in a whole lot more customers, and you’d be happy to stop by and show them what those things are.

And finally, because you go in with no expectation of self-profit, business owners will feel completely confident in recommending you to other business owners.

This will be a natural outcome of your business model, but it’s not the one to rely on. Some months you’ll get several referrals, and other months you might not get any.

So when they come, be thankful, be happy, and by all means go out of your way to show appreciation to the person who referred the new business owner to you.

Start offering free consultations, and deliver great value to everyone you meet with! Before long, you’ll have more people wanting to do business with you than you can handle by yourself. In fact, the next skill you’ll need for growing your business after implementing the action plan above is learning how to outsource or hire effectively! 😉

Do you have a list? Or do you have access to a list? (Think JV with a list owner)… If so, you have the potential to make money fast.

Let’s explore some possibilities… I received an email the other day from a mate who is changing niches. Apparently he is moving from IM to the coaching niche. And as he’s transitioning over, he’s making one last offer to his IM list:

For six weeks, he will answer any questions you have about IM in the areas he knows best. Not only will he answer every question within 24 hours – he will also point you to a great resource that explains his answer in detail.

For this, he is charging about $300.

Think about it – he knows his niche. He knows how to do online marketing. So answering questions is pretty simple for him, I’m sure. But he’s also pointing to a resource for every answer he gives.

Frankly, as long as you are somewhat familiar with your niche and good at using Google, you can do this, too.

Receive the money, stay on top of your emails, spend 5 minutes (or less) researching a good article that answers each question in depth, and you’ve got it.

You might be thinking, “What if people ask stuff I don’t know?” Google it. “What if they bombard me with a million questions?” It won’t happen. Maybe the first day or two they will, but after a while they’re going to run out of questions. After the first two weeks, I bet you don’t even hear from some of your students.

I don’t see why anyone with a halfway decent knowledge of their niche can’t perform this service.

And who says you can only do it once? You can offer this service over and over again, as many times as you want.

Google is your research partner. And list owners are your JV partners.

One thing – make sure you really do send your people honest, accurate and useful info. After all, you want to help others as much as possible. That’s the way business works. 💡

If you’re trying to contact people via email and they’re ignoring your messages, here’s what you do. Send them the “magic” email.

I didn’t name this. In fact, you can find several good articles about the magic email online.

And no, it’s not really magic. But in many cases it does indeed get a person to talk to you and even invite you for a meeting.

It works like this:

You’ve sent out one or more emails to your leads. Some have answered, some have not. Some of those who initially answered are now ignoring you.

For all those who are not communicating, send them this email:

“Since I have not heard from you on this, I have to assume your priorities have changed.”

You can add to this or send it as is. I’m told (I haven’t tried this myself) that your response rate will typically be 50% or more, which is really, really good.

Why does it work? Because you don’t sound needy. Heck, you don’t sound like you need them at all. You’re making it clear you are moving on. And when you take something away from someone, what happens? They suddenly WANT it. So they reply back – often immediately – to try to keep you from walking away.

Try it – you’ve got nothing to lose and plenty of sales to be gained.

Sorry, But You’re Too Late

It’s a fact that the vast majority of the great online marketing ideas have already been thought of and executed.

Do you really think you’re going to invent the next greatest thing?

Maybe the social media platform that puts Facebook in its grave?

Or the marketing course that makes everyone else throw up their hands and go home?

Or maybe the dating app that makes all the other ones shut down?

Nope.

Sorry, but the odds of that are about as good as getting hit by lightning twice.

Mind you, I’m not saying it couldn’t happen. I’m just saying it’s not likely.

But here’s the good news – you don’t have to invent something radically new that changes the world as we know it.

You don’t even have to have an idea no one else has thought of before.

The smart marketer knows that you can take the best ideas out there and re-use them to make them new again.

Now before you get in a tizzy, let me say this: It’s not unethical to repackage information or use someone else’s marketing techniques, as long as you change it.

Obviously you’re not going to just rip something off and do exactly what’s been done, or use exactly the same copy, the same product, etc.

No sir. You’re not going to rip anybody off.

But the fact is, the best ideas have already been used. But there is no reason why you can’t make them your own.

Walk into a bookstore, go to the non-fiction section and you will find hundreds of books that have basically the same information as thousands of books that came before them.

Yet these books are selling.

Why? Because the authors put their own unique spin on the information.

Let me use a cake recipe to illustrate: Let’s say you want to sell your own cake recipe. Are you going to start with a whole new list of ingredients that no one has ever put in a cake before?

For example, “To bake this cake, you’ll need 2 cups of chopped chicken, a package of onion soup, 6 fresh catnip leaves, one half cup of coffee, 12 dill pickles, 2 boiled eggs, a pound of potato peels…”

You get the idea.

Of course you’re going to start with flour, sugar, butter, baking soda or baking powder, etc.

You’re going to use the exact same basic ingredients that a million chefs and cooks have used before you.

But you’re going to put your own twist on your recipe.

Maybe you add maraschino cherries and cinnamon. Or peppermint extract and dark chocolate. Or blueberries and lemon juice.

It’s still a cake recipe, and it’s not all that different from other cake recipes, except that you put your own twist on it.

Stop trying to come up with a world-shattering idea and simply look around at what’s working and what resonates with you.

Take that information and make it your own.

And then teach what you learned.

It’s so simple, and you don’t need an amazing idea.

Now here’s where a lot of people get bogged down – they think it’s unethical to take information they got elsewhere and make it their own.

So let’s put some context on this…

You go to college for 4 years. For this privilege, you pay a great deal of money. Professors and textbooks teach you a whole lot of knowledge that THEY DID NOT THINK OF FIRST.

That’s right – it’s what you might call regurgitated info, in that other people discovered it, came up with it and so forth.

But they are getting paid to teach it to you anyway.

Then what happens?

You go out and get a job, where you use this same information. And you get PAID for it, too.

So now then, here’s your question: How is this any different from taking information that’s already available, putting your own unique spin on it, and selling that same information?

You are doing the same thing the professors and the college are doing. And you’re doing the same thing anyone who gets a job and uses this info in their job is doing.

You’re just doing it online.

Now then – feel better?

Good.

Because for many of you, I have just removed your very last excuse for not making your own product.

Assuming you already have your niche picked out, go find your very favorite products in that niche. Study them. Learn all you can. Put the information to work in your business or your life.

And then make your own product with your own unique personality and skill set.

I know you can make it a success, and you don’t even have to invent the wheel to do it.

Okay, your results will vary on this one. Frankly, I don’t see any reason why a person can’t make $500 per DAY, but as always, it depends on what you do with the info I’m about to share with you.

First, there is a stipulation – you must be really good at something that others want to know about. For example, if you’re really good at solving a particular problem or reaching a particular goal, then this might be right for you.

Let’s say you know how to list-build like crazy while spending very little money. Or you know how to write copy that converts, or how to get far more done in less time, or how to get podcasters to interview you, or…

The possibilities are endless. As long as you have a skill or knowledge that other people need and want, you can do this.

If you don’t, first get a skill and then do this.

And by the way, you’ll find this work rewarding and interesting. Plus you’ll make new friends, associates and business partners, too.

You can do this if you have a list, (best option) if you’re willing to advertise, if you’re willing to do guest posting, etc. Really, any method of getting qualified traffic can be used.

You’re going to advertise 30 minute brainstorming, troubleshooting or mentoring slots. Choose the term that works for you.

And you can do this in any niche, by the way, not just online marketing.

Charge a low fee when you start out – maybe $99 for 30 minutes. Once you gain testimonials and experience – which shouldn’t take more than a couple of weeks – significantly increase your price.

Ask your clients to send you any info you need for the call ahead of time. For example, if you’re doing website consultations, then of course you’ll need their URL. If you’re doing personal coaching, you might ask them what their biggest obstacles are, and so forth.

This allows you to prepare for the call. Later as you gain more experience, preparation won’t be as necessary.

But in the beginning, you want to build your own confidence so you instill confidence in your clients. Plus, you want to be able to give them the best advice possible. And sometimes that might mean doing some research prior to the call, especially if you’re somewhat new to the topic.

Personally, I’ve paid people as much as $1,000 for 30 minutes of their time. In return, I once saved 3 months of work and $5,000 in capital (I had a business idea that I learned from my expert wasn’t viable.)

And I’ve easily made 5 figures from just one consultation, resulting in a huge return on my money.

So yes, people DO pay for information, guidance and one-on-one help. And yes, you are providing a valuable service, assuming you know your topic.

You don’t need to be famous in your niche. You don’t need to be a guru. You just need to have a skill or knowledge that people want.

Do other people turn to you for advice? On what topic?

There’s your niche.

Have faith in yourself and your knowledge and you’ll do fine.

Be sure to ask the right questions. In fact, you might keep a list of questions handy. Once you know where your client is in whatever process you’re teaching, and where they want to go, then you can help them.

That last sentence, by the way, is a goldmine. Here it is again:

1: Find out where your client is in the process you’re teaching. How far along are they? What have they done so far? What are they about to do? What results have they gotten so far?

2: Find out where your client wants to go. What is their end goal? How do they plan to get there? Why do they want to get there?

3: Use your knowledge to help them get to where they want to be. What are they missing? What don’t they know or realize? What obstacles can you help them overcome? What shortcuts can you show them? What should their plan be? What is their very next step?

Things to know:

– Done right, you can get clients to book regular weekly time slots. For example, let’s say someone wants you to teach them different ways to get traffic.

On the first call, you might only have time to teach them one method.

Let them know you have a dozen more proven methods you’d be happy to teach them – given the time – and offer a weekly slot.

If they actually take your advice from the first call and start to see results, they will be back.

Or perhaps someone just needs you to keep them on track and making progress. You are now their coach, so naturally they’re going to be booking a weekly time slot with you.

– Let your clients record the calls. They will forget 90% of what you tell them if you don’t let them record, so yes, just let them.

– Provide tons of value, but forgo the firehose. Let’s go back to the traffic example: It’s better to teach one method of traffic generation really well so they can immediately put that knowledge to work, than it is to try to teach a dozen methods in 30 minutes.

If you try to teach too much too quickly, they won’t have enough details or confidence to implement what you teach. Plus you’re robbing yourself of potential repeat business.

– All you need to get started is a sales page offering your services and a Skype account. And use a scheduling service to schedule your appointments.

– Once you raise your prices enough to justify it, you might record the calls yourself and have them transcribed and sent to the clients.

This makes a nice added touch that provides real value, since they don’t have to go back to the recording each time to find out what you said.

– Ask for testimonials. Don’t be shy about this. Follow up via email and ask for their opinion of the call.

Ask specific follow up questions. If the answers you get back are positive, then ask for a testimonial.

– If the answers you get back are negative, fix it.

Maybe they didn’t understand something you said and were afraid to ask for clarification. Maybe they didn’t feel you understood their needs.

Whatever it is, fix it and fix it fast. When you do, you’ll often have a client for life.

Perhaps the most valuable point of all is to relax and have fun. The more relaxed and confident you are, the better your ideas will flow and the better advice you’ll be able to give.

Plus it’s important that the client enjoy the call in addition to receiving great information.

Make it fun for both you and the client – as well as highly educational – and you’ll get plenty of referral business, too.

Picture this…

You’re watching a television show and it ends with a dark scene of a hand firing a gun at the hero. You don’t know if the hero lives or dies.

You don’t know who shot the hero or why.

And you’re in suspense.

So what do you do?

You watch the next episode, of course.

Humans have a desire to KNOW stuff.

When they don’t know, it bugs them. It’s like an itch that needs to be scratched, and they’ll do whatever it takes to scratch that itch.

You can do the same thing with your emails – make it so your readers MUST read not only the email you just sent them, but also your next one and the one after that.

Andres Chaperone does a great job of teaching this email marketing technique.

In fact, here are three different open loop methods he recommends:

The Fake Out Open

You start out telling your readers that you’re going to tell them something. But then you tell them something else, instead. For example:

“Dear Reader,

I’m going to show you exactly how I managed to lose 83 pounds while watching television, eating whatever I wanted and never exercising – other than to go to the fridge.

The secret to my weight loss involved three magic words, and I’ll tell you what those words are and why they work to make you effortlessly lose weight tomorrow.

But right now, I want to tell you about my 21 year old college roommate who died from a heart attack because of a single Oreo cookie.”

You’re telling them what you’re going to tell them, but you’re not telling them right now.

That’s because you have something else to tell them now.

This is an open loop – the magic 3 words that caused the 83 pound weight loss – combined with value stacking. They get a secret tomorrow, and they get a story about the dead roommate and the Oreo cookie today.

This makes the recipient feel like there’s a ton of great stuff coming from you.

This creates surprise, curiosity, desire and anticipation.

And they love you and your emails for it.

Delayed Gratification

For this one, you’re going to throw in an open loop somewhere inside your content. It could be almost anywhere – near the beginning, in the middle, near the end… where you place it will depend on what it is and how it relates to the rest of your email.

For example, let’s say you’re writing an email about weight loss, and you’re telling the story of how one of your weight loss students lost 143 pounds thanks to your coaching. In the middle of your email, you might write…

“And when I told her how to perform the belly blaster technique in the shower every morning, and that she would effortlessly lose another pound of ugly fat every week… well, she just about lost it.

***If you’re not familiar with my belly blaster shower technique for losing fat, tomorrow I’ll tell you exactly how to do it. You’ll be shocked at the results.

So she tried the technique anyway, even though she thought I was crazy, and a week later she called with the results.

‘I lost 2 inches off my stomach, and I didn’t do anything else differently!’”

Notice how we mention something that’s bound to provoke curiosity, and then we tell the reader they will find out all about it… tomorrow.

3. Cliff Hanger P.S.

This is perhaps one of the most commonly used techniques for creating an open loop. It’s easy to do and keeps you on the minds of your readers long after they close your email.

You simply tack on a P.S. with a teaser for whatever you’re going to share with them tomorrow, like this:

“PS: Did you ever hear about the guy who decided to tie balloons to a lawn chair, to see if he could fly?

He did, with unexpected and totally scary results. In fact, he even scared the heck out of an airline pilot at 30,000 feet!

And what happened next, you’re not going to believe. In fact, I’ll tell you all about it tomorrow, I promise.

See you then!”

It’s easy to create open loops in your emails.

And don’t stop there. You can place open loops everywhere. For example, at the end of a blogpost, in your videos and so forth.

It’s a great way to get people to read several posts instead of just one, or to watch several videos.

You just keep ‘open looping’ them, and they keep clicking to satisfy their curiosity.

It works almost like magic.

A friend of mine who wishes to remain anonymous has agreed to tell you one of his money-making methods. And while he might be leaving some minor details out, I think there is more than enough here to set you on a very similar path if you choose.

This is what he told me…

“Here’s an example of how I made over $17,600 in five days by investing $297 and a few hours of my time.

Okay, I didn’t really invest my time – I actually paid a freelancer to do the work for me. But this is something you can easily do yourself if you’re willing to put in a little time.

I found some dynamite high-quality PLR on free traffic generation. It was good stuff, and even contained some things I didn’t know.

It included a massive manual, several written bonuses and a sales page.

And at this price point, I knew that there wouldn’t be a ton of competition, either.

Frankly, I would have gladly paid a freelancer $1,000 to write this exact same material for me, but in this case it was a simple matter of plunking down the $297 and having it in hand.

I discarded the sales page because I didn’t want anyone to know this wasn’t my own original stuff.

Then I had my freelancer go through the written material and put more personality into it, so it sounds like it’s coming from me. He already knows my style so this was easy for him and just took a few hours.

Next, he broke it up into 24 PDFs. Each PDF detailed one or two free traffic methods.

Basically, we were building a course on how to generate free, targeted traffic. And who doesn’t need that?

Finally, I wrote a new sales letter for it in my own style.

And I offered two options – they could either make 3 payments of $47 a month, and receive 2 pdfs each week, or…

…they could pay $137 up front and get everything at once, plus email support for six weeks.

Really, I thought the $137 was a no-brainer, since it was cheaper and included email support and they didn’t have to wait to get the entire course.

Then I sent the offer out to my list, and in 5 days I made over $17,600.

As to the email support, I hired someone to handle that for me. And I paid them after the money started rolling in so I wasn’t out of pocket on that, either.

Nice, right?

But I wasn’t done yet.

I then made a new offer for $47 a month for 3 months, or $97 one time and everything up front, but NO email support this time.

And I let affiliates take a crack at selling it.

I made over $10,000 from that as well, after affiliate commissions were paid.

Okay, frankly I made a good bit more than $10,000, but I’m not going to say just how much because sometimes it feels like bragging, you know what I mean?

And here’s the kicker – I’ve done very similar things several times over the past 18 months.

The numbers are always different, but what never changes is I make a good bit of money with very little work.

I mean VERY LITTLE WORK.

I outsource just about anything that needs to be done except the sales copy because I like doing that myself.

And when I let affiliates sell it, I get a whole new list of buyers, too.”

As you can see, he does quite well with this method. And most impressive of all is how little time he invests into each product.

Some things to consider:

If you don’t have a list, then you’ll need to advertise to make sales or build your list. Even if you want affiliates to promote, you’ll need to get some initial sales yourself to prove that it does indeed sell.

You’ll have to hunt around for great quality PLR. It’s not easy to find, and when you do find it, it generally costs a good deal more than the usual ten bucks or so. But as you can see, if you use it then it’s an excellent investment.

The first time you do this, I suggest you make any changes yourself unless you can afford to hire a professional to do it.

One thing he didn’t mention was the product name – you’ll want to change it to make it sound unique to you.

And I suggest adding your own introduction to the material as well, again to make it your own.

One last thing – there’s no reason why you can’t place some strategic affiliates links in the material. For example, if your course encourages the use of an autoresponder, then give an affiliate link to the service you recommend, and so forth.

And one crazy idea for the road… what if you did all of this, but then you gave away 75% or more of your commissions to affiliates?

If you’re fairly new to marketing, then paying high commissions is an excellent way to attract new affiliates.

You’ll get more of them on board, you’ll sell more products, you’ll build your list of buyers faster, and these same affiliates will be far more interested in promoting your future courses if they already had success promoting your first one.

Just a thought…