Why Amazon Products Kick A$$-Part 2

In part one, we talked about reasons why you may want to consider selling and marketing Amazon products over digital products.  In this article we’re going to explore a very simple plan to take advantage of the Amazon system that makes you money.

First, you need a good product to promote. Ideally, you want to stick with high-ticket products like vacuum cleaners or designer shoes.   You’ll want to stick to promoting products that retail for at least $100.  The only time you want to sell products LESS than $100 is to boost commission percentage from 4% to 6.5%. Sell 20 “Under $100″ items fast for the bigger commission payments.

Second, go through Amazon’s database and find a product to sell that is popular and has at LEAST 5 more similar products to promote.

Again, stick with the “Over $100″ rule.  Also, make sure the product has OVER 10+ reviews (perfect indicator it’s a good seller), and has a rating above 3 stars.

Third, Be sure your product is being searched on Google.  Take the name of the
product you want to market and run it through Google’s Adwords tool. If the product
get’s 4,000 – 5,000 searches a month write an article for it.

Fourth, write at least 5 articles by yourself or outsource it.  Take one article and post it on a WordPress self-hosted blog and let the rest drip feed over the period of one month.

Towards the end of the article, you want to put something like:

“I give product xxxx a 4 out of 5 stars and highly recommend this product which is available here (insert your Amazon affiliate product link).”

Fifth, get your main website indexed using OnlyWire to speed up the process (or outsource it).

Sixth, slowly build links to your website.

Don’t get overzealous and follow harmful advice like “build links FAST”.  This can
lead to your Amazon page being blacklisted and generating little if any traffic.  A few
link building sources you can use are social bookmarks, blog comments, and profile packets.

Seventh, when you’re up and running and making money, focus on what’s profitable and discard what’s not.  The key is to test a variety of products.  That may sound obvious, but it’s so easy to think every niche works the same for every audience.

Duplicate the winners and improve on the winners.  Forget about re-inventing the wheel of straying to far outside of what you know is profitable for you.  If you don’t know anything about medical supplies or how to market it, don’t build an Amazon website about it.

I’m confident that you can take this info and and start increasing the size of your bank account over time.  This method really IS easy to apply.  Action and Implementation is really all it takes.

It’s not rocket science, and it can give you extra income in a relatively short period of time.  I won’t wish you luck because I believe we all make our own luck.

Stay thirsty my friend!

Jerry

Why Amazon Products Kick A$$-Part 1

In the last post, we had a little affiliate marketing refresher for you that mostly focused on reviewing digital, downloadable type products in the Internet Marketing space.

Today we’re going to talk about the benefits of leveraging one of the largest retailers in the world to boost your affiliate marketing business.

If you’re struggling in your affiliate marketing efforts and are looking for that lucky break you keep hearing about that happens to some successful online marketers, then this article may just hit the spot for you…

But there is a catch.

For most successful marketers, there was nothing “lucky” about their success.  You’ve heard the saying that “success is when opportunity and preparedness meet” right?  Success for the Internet Marketers that “make it” didn’t just fall into their lap one day.  It wasn’t necessarily hard work and determination alone either.

There had to be some method and/or methods (plural) involved.  It takes skill and strategy.  There has to be some planning as well as trial and error involved.

There are an unlimited number of combinations or sequences that can take place that will bring about enough success to make money online and build a specific, pre-determined lifestyle for their family.

In the course of the next two articles, you’ll discover that this isn’t one of the typical methods that you’ll find where you’ll write articles, implement pay-per-click, build a list of subscribers, etc.  We talked a little about ways you can use some of those methods in the last post and they definitely work and aren’t a bad way to start.

We’re not going to talk about making a fortune on Clickbank right now because what worked a few short years ago selling e-books doesn’t work as well now.  The business of selling e-books has changed.  What we’re going to talk about is something a little different.

Before we start, let’s talk a little shop about WHY I believe leveraging Amazon in your Affiliate Marketing Business could possibly one of the simplest ways to make money online:

1. Pre-selling is virtually unnecessary.  People are far less skeptical when it comes to buying physical products versus digital, downloadable products.  I think it’s because with digital products, you never really know what you’re getting until after you buy it.

Another reason is because physical products are tangible.  You can touch, feel, see, and hear them.  Physical products stimulate the human senses and digital products don’t have that effect and never will.

2. No possibilities of saturation.  You hear stories about how popular products are “over-sold” to a limited group of people in a market (i.e. make money online buyers). Well, this is not a myth, it’s true.

If you promote Amazon products the threat of too much competition is basically eliminated because of the business model itself.  Tens of thousands of products are added every year, so no one person can corner the market.  There’s literally too much opportunity for any one player to come in and sew the market up!

3. The products do most of the selling for you.  This is a good thing because you can scale faster and you don’t have to learn a lot of the stuff you need to know to sell digital products.  You don’t have to worry about writing (or hiring out) sales copy, building a list, or becoming “buddy buddy” with top marketers that you don’t even like in order to make JV deals with.

So, that gives you a general idea of why leveraging Amazon in your Affiliate Marketing business is a great idea!

Be on the lookout for the next article where I give you the skinny on what to promote, what NOT to promote, how to promote these products, how to set up product reviews, and more…

As always, stay thirsty my friend!

Jerry

Affiliate Marketing Refresher

It’s really not that hard.  Building an income stream through affiliate marketing is simple.

In fact, it’s a piece of cake when you understand the process, respect the process, and follow it to a “T”.

I’m talking about making a good living as an affiliate marketer.  Maybe not a millionaire, unless you catch a real knack for affiliate marketing and can scale your operation to large volumes, but a few thousand bucks a month in profit is very possible.  What could you do with a few thousand bucks a months?  You could use it to pay off that mortgage or send your kids to school.

The hardest part to getting an affiliate marketing income coming in is to actually start the process.  It all begins with making that first buck as an affiliate.  Making that first $1 bill is a HUGE psychological barrier to get over.  For some reason, making that first dollar solidifies in your mind, and proves to yourself that this is real and will drive you.  From there, it’s just a matter of scaling your affiliate business and building it up from there.

You’ll find a “metric shit-ton” (official name) of information and courses out there on how to start making money as an affiliate marketer.  There is a lot of good information out there and great courses to teach you how to build your affiliate income.

Let me give you an overview of how to get started.  Or, if you’ve already made some money as an affiliate, consider this an Affiliate Marketing refresher:

Step 1:  Market & Product Research – you’ll need to become a bit of an investigator.  This, arguably could be the most important step.  Doing research to find out if there are a large group of people buying the type of product(s) that you would like to sell.  And, finding products that this group of people are buying.

Step 2:  Gain Product Knowledge – Once you’re fairly confident that you’ve found a market and a good product that you can comfortably sell to that market, you should either buy the product or gather as much information as you can about it.  If it’s an information or digital product such as software, you can ask the product owner for a review copy and more times than not, they’ll give you a copy that you can then review
and study the product.

Step 3:  Write a review of the product if it’s worth your time to write a review.  If it’s not a very good product, you may want to find another product.  If you write an honest review and include the good along with the bad, your honesty will come through and it will build trust and rapport with your potential buyers.  People will be able to tell that the review is real and not faked just to make a sale.

Step 4:  Write and submit one article a day.  This is a simple way to drive traffic.  It may not be big traffic numbers, but it will grow, slowly but surely article by article.  When you finish writing your articles based on targeted keywords, send it to ezine articles and make sure the resource box is good.  Writing a good resource box is very important.  Also, writing quality articles is very important.  If you’re not a good writer, outsource your article writing.

Step 5:  Enjoy watching your Affiliate Income grow month after month.

Obviously, there’s nothing really “new” about any of this.  This is a refresher course for those of you who have been around this Internet Marketing game for a while.  If you’re just getting started in the Affiliate Marketing game, then this will be a great way to get in the game.

The beauty to this 5 step process is that it doesn’t rely on the latest Facebook tactic of the week or any other flavor of the month marketing method.  This method won’t become obsolete because it is based on the very essence of the Internet.  Information.  Sharing information via articles is as basic and solid as it gets.

This simple affiliate marketing refresher can not become saturated. I should know because I and many other successful marketers like myself are using it daily with success.  It stands the test of Internet Marketing time since the idea of making money online was ever conceived.

Will this require work?  Yes.  There’s no doubt about it. But is it worth it?  Again, Yes.  If you think you can just turn on your computer and money will just start flying into your bank account…maybe it would be best for you to save yourself the time an aggravation of it all and just find a part-time job if you need extra money.

But if you’re willing to put in a little bit of effort to get phenomenal long-term results and enjoy the profits of your Affiliate Marketing business, you and your family will enjoy the extra income that can be a real stress reliever.  Try it out!

Stay thirsty my friend!

Jerry

Affiliate Summit West 2012 – Las Vegas

Hi friends,

It’s been too long!  It’s been a few of weeks since I’ve returned
from Las Vegas where my wife and I celebrated her birthday and
I checked out Affiliate Summit West 2012 (my second year).

This was Affiliate Summit’s most well attended event to date
where over 5,000 Internet Entrepreneurs gathered to meet
with vendors, affiliate networks, product and service owners
and other affiliates at Caesar’s Palace.

The networking opportunities at Affiliate Summit are PHENOMENAL
and are arguably the most important reason to attend.

There are opportunities to implement affiliate marketing into just
about ANY Business.  If you own and operate an online/Internet
business, implementing affiliate marketing into your business is
a “no-brainer.”

If you’re a “traditional, bricks-n-mortar” business owner, you
should be thinking of the ways that you can implement affiliate
marketing into your business.

If you’re a consultant to businesses, you should be educating your
clients about the many benefits of implementing affiliate marketing
programs into their business.

There are opportunities for business owners to open revenue streams
as an affiliate of other business’ products and services and in recruiting
affiliates to promote and sell their products and services.

If you are a consultant to business owners, you should be thinking of ways
that you can educate and assist your clients in the many benefits of the
proper implementation of affiliate programs on “both sides” of the game.

OK, so here are some pictures to give you some insights to Affiliate Summit.

Enjoy!

Affiliate Summit West 2012 Registration area

SEO Session

Lurkers in the hallway between sessions

Long-ass escalators (official name) hauling people to and fro’

Awesome view of the fountain at the Bellagio!

Me and Eric “The Hip Hop Preacher” Thomas
after his keynote at “ASW12″

Nice little JACKPOT I hit while my wife and I were
playing the dollar slots at the Monte Carlo!!

Ok, that’s probably enough for now….

I also took some video on my iPhone of the MMA fights
we went to that some of the sponsors of ASW put on at
Randy Couture’s gym.

As soon as I figure out how to convert the video from
my iPhone to the proper format to upload here, I’ll
do it and notify you.

Until then, here’s a very hard to see picture of me and my wife
with Randy Couture!

Me, Randy Couture and Chrissy!

See you next time!

Until then…

Stay thirsty my friend!

Jerry

Keep Working Toward Your Dreams

If you’re a Dallas Cowboys fan, you get an extra
5 points from me!

Points redeemable with “Peggy” from the credit
card commercials… lol

Anyways, I was thinking about this after the
Cowboys lost to the Giants the other day…

I was reminded of something that I heard
Jim Rohn say on one of my “get your shit
together CD’s” aka Self-Improvement product

He was talking about, and I’m totally paraphrasing
because it’s been a couple of years since I listened
to that CD, how…

“Things are the way they are suppose to be.”

Here’s how Jim put it…

He was using the bible in his example.

He said something like “can you imagine how the
bible would be, or any other book, if you picked
it up and the first page said… everything is fine.”

And the 2nd page said, everything is fine….

And the 3rd, 4th, 5th, 10th, 101st pages said,
“everything is fine…”

“Would you keep reading this book?!”  Jim asked

Jim continued…

“now, what if you picked up a book
and it said ‘ALL HELL IS BREAKING LOOSE!
and we don’t know if we’re going to make it!”

“Wouldn’t you want to know more about how
the story is going to unfold?” Jim asked

Jim said that he believed things are designed
this way by the “higher power.” (or whatever
word he used to describe it)

There can be no good without evil.  There can
be no light without darkness.

Everything has an opposite.

Can you imagine things not having an opposite?
Things couldn’t work.

So, what’s my point?

To maybe give you a little motivation or a
“pick-me-up.”  But, it’s probably more self-
serving than that.  It’s probably to give
myself a little boost of motivation.

Building a business from scratch is not the
easiest of endeavors to pursue.

I hit roadblocks and challenges every single day.
But, I keep moving forward.

If you’re struggling in your business and things
aren’t going the way you’d like them to, just
remember that that is the way things are suppose
to be.

There can be no victory without a battle.  There
can be no winners or losers without an opponent.

If there weren’t struggles, challenges and
difficulties, would winning be such a big deal?

There HAS to be challenges and hurdles.  It’s just
the way things have to be to have balance.

We just need to remember to keep our eye on the
prize and keep pushing toward receiving it.

One of the weird things I’ve noticed is that
when you hit roadblocks and challenges in your
business, if you just keep pushing forward,
answers ALWAYS reveal themselves to you.

For a long time, I never really understood
exactly what was meant when I heard the saying:

“When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.”

Oddly enough, that is exactly what happens!

But, it only happens if you keep at it and are
persistent in your business.

Sometimes the answers you are looking for to
solve certain problems don’t appear for months.

I believe it’s because there is a certain order
for things.  People, events, experiences or lessons
that you need to solve the problems at hand in
your business don’t appear until the time is right.

If you give up or don’t pursue your goals and
dreams, the answers or resources to help solve
your problems will never appear.

Sometimes, the answers to our questions or
urgent problems are right in front of us.  But,
we’re not fully engaged or open and cannot see
them sitting there for us to use.

I’ve shared my goals openly with you, out there
for the world to see.

The reason I did was to motivate myself to pursue
my goal every day.  By publicly stating my intention,
I stand a better chance of keeping myself on task.

Knowing what you want is half the battle.  A lot
of people don’t even know what they want.  Sad
but true.

It takes conscious effort and a lot of thinking
and decision making to figure out EXACTLY what it
is that we want out of life.

Surprisingly, most people don’t take the time
and put forth the effort that it requires just
to figure out what it is that they want out of
life.

So, I urge you, as a friend as the New Year is
soon to be upon us, to really take the time and
effort to sit down and figure out what it is
that you want out of this life.

That’s all for now…

Stay thirsty my friend!

Jerry

P.S. I truly hope today’s message inspires you
to keep working toward your dreams.  And, to
figure out what you truly want out of life.

P.P.S. This applies to ALL areas of your life,
not just business.

Is 2012 Going To Be The End of The World?

If you watch the news and listen to the
media for any length of time, you’ll hear
how we’re constantly on the brink of disaster.

Unfortunately, there are some truths to
the “doom and gloom” that you’ll hear just
about every day from news stories.

We are living in a time like no other in
the history of the world.

We are living in a global economy and
when one country’s economy falters, it
is felt in nearly every other country’s
economies.

Goofy “bailout” schemes aren’t working for
the countries trying to use them.

You and I don’t get bailouts.  We have to
think and maneuver on our own since most
of us don’t have a rich uncle we can call
to bail us out.  (most likely, even if we
had a rich uncle to call on, we probably
wouldn’t)

So, how do we survive in the current
economic conditions?

We think and make moves instead of sitting
there like a deer in the headlights.

Here’s something I jumped on almost
immediately after I saw it.

http://bit.ly/s3wO5Y

To be honest, I took a leap of faith after
seeing this based only on my past experience
with learning from what this guy teaches.

His voice annoys me, but I’m willing to look
past that to know what he knows…

Keep “thinking and maneuvering” my friend!

Jerry

P.S. If you listen to the news, the sky is
falling. Unfortunately, some of the doom &
gloom is true. Here is a way to “future proof”
your business:
http://bit.ly/s3wO5Y

===============================================

Dad’s Advice: “If You’re Going To Do Something, Do It Right!”

Have you ever gotten advice that you never
asked for and then never followed?

We all have.

Growing up on a farm and ranch in Montana
is a good teacher of life lessons.  The
work is tough and sometimes thankless.

Dealing with the harsh weather alone in
the day to day operations of a farm and
ranch is more than challenging.

Dad had a way of saying things that were
sometimes motivating and encouraging and
other times really made you think while
we went through our daily work.

If he saw me or my two brothers half-assing
our work, he would “gently” remind us…

“If you’re going to do something, do it
right or don’t do it at all!”

It’s been well over 20 years since I’ve
worked on the ranch on a day-to-day basis.
And, dad’s been gone for over 13 years…

But, I regularly hear his motivational,
encouraging and scolding sayings in my
head as I work in my various endeavors.

If I find myself half-assing something in
my work, I’ll hear that phrase…

“If you’re going to do something, do it
right or don’t do it at all!”

As a matter of fact, when I made the
decision to build a $3 Million/year online
business within 3 years, that phrase
instantly popped into my head!

It has served me well over the last few
months since leaving the family businesses.

When I started “dabbling” in online money
making ideas, I treated it like a hobby.

And, because of that, I made a hobby income.

Being the rebellious type, I didn’t listen
to my dad’s advice….

I half-assed it and got half-ass results.

So, here’s today’s message…

“If you’re going to do something, do it
right or don’t do it at all!”

If you’ve been dabbling or treating your
online business like a hobby, I strongly
urge you to stop wasting your time.

Either go all out and do it right or
stop messing with it altogether.  Stop
wasting your time, money and effort
and go hang out with your family.

That would be a better use of your time.

If, on the other hand you’re serious
about wanting to build a real business
but are having a tough time figuring out
where to start, here’s a great resource:
http://bit.ly/spW4el

That’s all for today…

Stay entrepreneurial my friend!

Jerry

P.S. Dad’s advice was: “If you’re going to
do something, do it right or don’t do it
at all!”  Learn how to do things right here:
http://bit.ly/spW4el

==========================================

Did I Waste $10,500 For An Email List?

Hi friend,

In Tuesday’s message titled, “Old School”
Makes a Come Back!” I shared how I had my
first success online.

Ads in “ezines” worked very well back in
2002 & 2003…

(Just to let you know, I’m not sure how
ads are doing in ezines these days but,
I’ll be testing them out very soon. As
soon as my test results are in, you’ll
be the first to know)

In 2002 and 2003 I had to keep things
simple because I was a complete rookie
at all this “make money online” stuff.

So, my simple sales funnel back then was:

> buy little 4 line text ads in “Ezines”
for $20 to $100

> within the ad I would insert my affiliate
link or link directly to the sales page
of my “Private Label Rights” downloadable,
digital product.

> when someone made a purchase, I got paid

Can you say “THAT’S FREAKING AWESOME!!!

Some of the easiest sales I’ve ever made!
WOOO..HOOOO!!!  Boy was I smart!

Uhhhh, not really…

Can you spot the major
flaw in my sales funnel?

Yep, you’re right.  Building a list from
the people who clicked on the ads BEFORE
I sent them to a sales page, was the missing
component to my simple sales funnel.

Major, major, major mistake!

After attempting several business models
in the online world, I was offered a chance
to buy 50% of an “Info Marketing Business.”
(you might know this story…)

Included in the purchase, were info products
created by the previous owner as well as a
decent sized in-house email list.

My portion of the investment was $10,500
for a stable full of info products and a
sizable email list.

This was in 2006.

After making the purchase, it quickly
became evident how vitally important
having a list of leads, prospects and
customers is to ANY business.

My former business partner and I would put
a simple promotion together, write some
simple copy, send out an email and make
sales!

Having an email list allowed us to skip:

> having to find places to advertise
> spending money on ads
> taking the risk that our ads wouldn’t
work
> waiting for our ads to start running

Having an in-house email list is a mainline
or direct channel to the most important
people in your business…  your leads,
prospects and customers.

Here’s the bottom line…

The single most biggest mistake I made
early on in my Internet Marketing career
was not building my own list from day one!!

PLEASE don’t make the same mistake that I
did.  Save yourself a whole bunch of years
and frustration.

Start building your own in-house list NOW!

Stay in the game my friend!

Jerry

P.S.  If you’re looking for a way to
build your own in-house list(s), take
a look at what these guys are doing:
http://bit.ly/tja3ex

==========================================

What Happens If The Greek Government Fails?

Does it matter to you or me if the Greek
government and economy fail?

Yes it does.

These economic events have an impact on
everyone, worldwide.

Can us entrepreneur types get rich if all
hell breaks loose with the world’s economies?

This group of well informed individuals think
the answer is yes…

http://bit.ly/vkjnl0

Stay informed my friend!

Jerry

P.S. This group of well informed individuals
think you and I can get rich beyond our wildest
dreams even during the troubles we face in the
very near future:
http://bit.ly/vkjnl0

=================================================

“Old School” Makes a Come Back!

Hi friend,

You know all of those fancy video sales letter
pages with the slick graphics and paid actors
and actresses?

Maybe you haven’t seen them because I think
they’re finally getting shut down.  Thankfully!

The ones that are legit are still around and
convert very well.

When I got started in this business 9 years
ago, producing all of the fancy videos, etc
wasn’t even an option.

I had my first success using “Old School”
direct marketing on this thingy called…
“The Internet.”

Admittedly, I was as green as green can get…

At the time, I didn’t know it, but that was
to my advantage.

Being new to marketing and naive about
the Internet was good because instead of
letting confusion get in the way, I followed
instruction on what I learned and took action.

There were 2 ebooks or courses that I studied
at that time.  One was called “Online Gold”
(or something like that) by Shawn Casey.

The other was called “Instant Internet
Empires” by Frank Kern.

I bought both of those courses at around
the same time and started studying them
like I was possessed.

There were times when I’d stay up all night
and have to work at the family businesses
the next day without any sleep.

Those courses taught me what to sell, where
to sell it and how to advertise online.

Both course offered resell rights and I could
sell the very same courses I was studying!

I thought at the time that that was one of
the neatest concepts I had ever come across
(and still is)!

In 2002, I made my first sale of an
information product online!

Here’s how I did it…

I paid $60 for an ad in an “ezine” (online
newsletter), just a little 4 line ad that
went at the bottom of the newsletter.

That ad brought in 6 sales of the “Instant
Internet Empires” or “Online Gold” Information
Product.

$282 in sales minus the $60 ad cost netted
me $222!  As a “newbie!”

So, I found a few more ezines and paid for
more ads and some made money and some didn’t.

My little operation wasn’t bringing in
millions, but it was enough to make me a
believer and got me hooked on this whole
business model.

I’ve been hooked like an addict ever since
I made that first sale online in 2002!

One of my tactics moving forward is that I’m
going to go “Old School” again.  I’m going to
search and find ezines that have good lists
with relevant content and buy ads.

One of the resources I used “back in the day”
is still around, believe it or not!

All you do is search for ezines that would
be a good match for your products or services
or even affiliate products, buy ads and
make money.

Here’s where you can find ezines to advertise
in right now:
http://108dccog0duf1o8etegj4mq973.hop.clickbank.net/

Let me know how it works out for you and
I’ll do the same!

P.S.  You can’t go wrong with “Old School”
marketing that works.  This is a great
resource:
http://108dccog0duf1o8etegj4mq973.hop.clickbank.net/

=====================================================