Amazon Slashes Commission Rates for Program That Gives Publishers a Cut of Sales
Commissions have dropped as of April 21, 2020,
Furniture, Home, Home Improvement, Lawn & Garden, Pets Products, Pantry from 8% to 3.00%
Headphones, Beauty, Musical Instruments, Business & Industrial Supplies from 6% to 3.00%
Outdoors, Tools from 5.5% to 3.00%
Grocery from 5% to 1.00%
Sports from 4.5% to 3.00%
Baby Products from 4.5 to 3.00%
Health & Personal Care from 4.5 to 1.00%
Amazon Fresh from 3.0 to 1.00%
In addition, Amazon is taking third party affiliate networks out of the loop and has hit pause on direct affiliate programs with publishers such as BuzzFeed and Vox.
In positive news, affiliate campaigns for casual clothing such as t-shirts and yoga pants are outperforming other categories because people are staying home right now.
If you’re a self-publishing author, or you simply want illustrations for your website or PDF, check out this site.
Any illustrations you commission come with full rights, meaning they cannot be reused by the artists and you do not have to ask permission to reuse them yourself.
This means your illustrations can pull double duty, not only making your book more valuable but also appearing on other merchandise you sell.
Illustrations are just $45 each with $0 royalties and no hidden costs. And the examples are gorgeous.
How to Add Original Artistic Images to Your Site for Free
Use the Google Arts and Culture app to turn your photos into works of art. A new feature called, “Art Transfer” that lets you apply various art styles to your own photos has been added to the app.
To use the Art Transfer feature:
Open the Google Arts and Culture app
Tap the Camera icon in the bottom-center
Click Art Transfer.
Either take a new photo or choose one from your current photos
Choose an art style to apply to your photo.
For example, that landscape photo you took could become a bold, swirling Vincent van Gogh-like painting.
Do you need some fast placeholder copy for a new site you’re building?
Or would you like to win a bet on how fast you can type?
Here’s the trick:
Open Microsoft Word and type the following: =rand(3,10)
Hit enter, and in this case you should see 3 paragraphs of 10 lines each. Change the numbers to anything you like, depending on how much copy you want.
If you’d rather have Latin than English, type: =lorem(X) You’ll get “X” paragraphs of this filler text.
Note: The Replace Text as You Type feature (File > Options > Proofing > AutoCorrect Options > AutoCorrect tab) must be turned on for this feature to work.
$1 Million Every Second
I just read that the Federal Reserve is printing $1 million every second.
Now if I could just have 5 seconds of their time…
My 4 Favorite Reverse Image Search Apps
Have you ever needed to identify a picture or an item? These apps let you upload an image to search instead of entering text.
CamFind – take a picture, upload the image and CamFind identifies the object.
Google Lens – Google’s visual search engine analyzes the image and gives you a link to the Google image search page in the results.
Photo Sherlock – upload the image, optionally crop the image to focus on the main element, then let the app fetch your results.
TinEye – this is an online tool, so you’ll need to download a dedicated app. Search an image by URL or by sharing a file. You can sort the results by best match, most changed, the biggest image, newest or oldest.
WhatsApp is Limiting Forwarding
To fight misinformation on the corona virus outbreak, WhatsApp has introduced new limits on message forwarding. This means you can now only forward a message you’ve received onto one chat at a time.
Calm – This is a great meditation app for beginners. Choose a meditation length of 3 minutes to 25 minutes. Then choose a topic such as managing stress, gratitude, forgiveness, happiness or many others.
Dark Noise – Ambient noise can help you focus on your work or even get to sleep at night. Choose from 30 possibilities, including a cat purring, rain, brown noise or a spaceship engine.
Day One – Research shows there are many benefits to daily journalism, including releasing negative thoughts and memories, gaining key insights and feeling happier. Day one is a daily journal that makes it easy to organize your thoughts and clear your mind.
Insight Timer – Features 30,000 meditations and music tracks you can access for free, many of which deal with anxiety and stress.
MindMeister
– This is a mind mapping tool available on mobile devices as well as online interfaces. Do you have a million thoughts swirling around, distracting you and making you anxious? Use this app to organize and prioritize your thoughts so that you can stop being distracted by them.
Simple Habit – Tackle stress and manage depression through 5 minute meditations based on what’s happening in your life now.
Sleep Cycle AlarmClock – Helps you feel more refreshed in the morning by tracking your sleep to wake you up in a light sleep phase, as well as vibrating when you snore to encourage you to shift position.
Email Marketing: Doing THIS Reduces Reply Rates by 40%
According to SalesLoft, explicitly referencing Coronavirus or COVID-19 in the subject line of an email creates a 40% reduction in reply rates. Their suggestion: Be human, don’t lead with Coronavirus, acknowledge the situation and then get to the point.
Secondly, things are changing fast. What worked last month might not work this month, so continually be testing and adapt your approach as necessary.
“Marketing is the price you pay for being unremarkable.” – Robert Stephens, founder of Geek Squad.
This isn’t black hat. Maybe gray hat. And the things I’m about to share with you are not illegal.
They are aggressive and controversial. They might upset some people. And I don’t necessarily recommend using them.
But I do think they serve an important purpose, in that they can make you think not just outside of the box, but outside the realm of everything you know of as online marketing.
You might view these as a springboard from which you can get your own creative ideas for promoting your business – not at a snail’s pace – but at light speed.
Just one idea like the one’s I’m about to show you can metamorphosize the right business literally overnight.
Before we dive in, I’m going to assume you have identified your target audience and the channels to reach them.
And you also have a value proposition (the benefit of using your product/problem you’re solving) and clear differentiation from competitors.
Those are the basics.
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And here are three examples of dark side internet marketing:
1. The Poo Stirrer
Let’s say you’ve got a controversial topic that is being heavily debated by your target audience. For example, the presidential Coronavirus response in the U.S., or Brexit in the U.K. There are strong feelings on both sides. And it just so happens that your target group is within one of the groups in one of these debates.
This is your opportunity.
Go on all those discussion forums, Facebook Groups, Twitter hashtags and blog articles and start posting comments that are contrary to the popular opinion.
Key point here: For this to work, your “opinions” need to be just controversial enough to spark interest and discussion, but not so controversial that people will dismiss you as a troll and ignore you, or worse yet not click your link.
Be polite, not rude and aggressive. But be controversial.
Have a blog post set up with an article providing support and credibility to your argument, that is also…
… and pay attention here…
… packed with ads for your company’s product.
Obviously, this article is not going to be on your domain, or even under your own name.
You might even buy a domain for this purpose, such as “UKShouldHaveQuitEUYearsAgo dot whatever” or something along those lines.
Create your post and generate 20-30 comments or discussions to make it appear active and give people the sense they need to join in on the argument.
Every time you engage in a debate on a third party site (or your VA engages in a debate) forward people to the relevant blog where they can see your “evidence”.
Remember to place your ads on the blog. It should look like the ads just happened to be served by an ad network.
The stronger people feel about the topic, the better.
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Depending on your product, you might even be able to make the post recommend the product, but again it’s got to look like a third party is doing this.
Create a few more pages on this website to make it all look legit. Place your ads on those pages as well because… why not, right?
See what I mean by dark side marketing?
It’s legal, but is it legit? You decide.
The point isn’t to teach you this trick as much as it is to get your brain cells working. Because when you see something that’s entirely different from what you’re being taught – something that works really well, by the way – it should fire you up to find your own unique ways of doing what you might call ‘guerrilla’ promotions.
2. Create the Story
We’re always told in marketing to have a good story.
And this is excellent, primo, top-of-the-line advice, too.
But what if you’re making the whole thing up?
In 2010, TheChive was fighting for viewers just like every other struggling website. They could have tried traditional marketing or even PR. But what reporter is going to write an article about a site for guy humor stuff?
They wanted eyeballs on their site, and this is how they did it:
In October 2010, Leo and John Resig, the brilliant guys at theChive, posted a story that had all the characteristics of an internet sensation.
Supposedly, some unnamed person sent them pictures of a gal named “Jenny” who was fed up with her boss’s harassment. She decided to quit her job in a unique and entertaining way, and the headline read, “Girl quits her job on dry erase board, emails entire office” (33 Photos).
The story went viral, most likely because…
1. Jenny has a vulnerable girl next door look and she was victimized by a jerk male. This was a winning story for men who want to be a savior to women, as well as women who hate womanizing men.
2. Jenny quit her job in a grand way, as many people wish they could. She’s now a hero in the readers’ eyes, and people are sharing this story when the boss isn’t looking.
3. They started a side discussion by misspelling a term, causing a debate. Yeah, I know that sounds silly, but it can be highly effective. HOPA? HPOA? Which is it? What does it mean? Better jump into the debate and argue with others online about it.
4. One of the dry erase boards referenced TechCrunch, saying the boss spent 5.3 hours a week on the site. Naturally, TechCrunch took notice and immediately did their own story, referencing the original TheChive story, causing even more buzz and traffic. Smart.
And of course, the entire story was created (fabricated) by TheChive.
Mainstream media soon took up the story, linking back to original TheChive article.
Reports say TheChive saw traffic jump dramatically as a result of the story, from 15,000 uniques an hour to 440,000 the next hour. It struck a personal chord, garnering 238K Facebook shares and 31K tweets.
Overall, its estimated that millions of unique visitors were exposed to TheChive as a result of the story.
And TheChive has since grown to be one of the biggest blogs in the space, if not the biggest.
Notice that TheChive was never the story, at least not during the actual hoax. It was simply the platform on which the story took place.
However, once the hoax was revealed, the creation of the hoax became the story and TheChive got plenty of additional press and credibility, twice.
The first time was of course the initial hoax, and the second time was the story of how it happened.
Do you want to fake stories? Maybe not. But can you pull pranks or hoaxes? Of course. Yes, maybe it is semantics, but it does work.
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3. Be the Underdog
Let’s say you’re a small political party or maybe an underdog candidate trying to make it big. You need publicity and attention, but the media is focused on the big boys. What can you do?
I can tell you what others have already done around the world – create yourself an enemy.
For example, post information that your website has been attacked. Plant hostile files on the site to complete the picture.
Say that your database has been hacked into. File public complaints. Make it look like there is vibrant activity going on. People are plotting against you and so forth.
Sure, it sounds a bit silly and provocative but it’s important to understand that every spin of this type increases traffic by hundreds of percentages.
That’s hundreds of percentages at zero cost and almost no logistical effort. These are the rules of the game, whether we like them or not.
How does this translate to your business? If you pitch a reporter a story about your new product, they’re going to yawn in your face. But tell them you’re the victim of some big unknown evil, or even better, a David fighting a Goliath, and the media will love your story.
What happens anytime some organization boycotts a movie? Ticket sales go up. The harder they boycott, the more tickets are sold because of all the free publicity. Plus, people want to SEE the forbidden movie that everyone is now talking about.
Every time the group called “One Million Moms” protests a movie such as Toy Story 4 because two women in the background are dropping off a child at school (I am not making this up) publicity runs swift and ticket sales soar.
In fact, I’ve sometimes wondered if “One Million Moms,” which has approximately 89,775 members (math is not their strong point) isn’t really a ploy to increase sales of certain products.
If you should happen to make a lousy movie, put a scene in it that some group will hate enough to publicly boycott, and I can almost guarantee you’ll make money.
It gets even better if most people don’t like the group doing the boycott. Not only do you get tons of free publicity, but people who normally would never see your movie or buy your product will do so now just to spite that group. I know, I’ve done it myself.
One more quick story…
In a classic David vs. Goliath tale, two young hippies named Ben and Jerry started an ice-cream shop in 1978.
By 1984, they had grown the business to $4 million in sales.
Independent ice cream distributors started selling Ben & Jerry’s in big grocery stores in Boston.
And that’s when the fight started.
Haagen-Dazs, owned at the time by $4 billion corporation Pillsbury, didn’t like the competition.
But rather than compete in an open market, their game plan was to pressure distributors into refusing to carry Ben and Jerry’s ice cream. Distributors were told that if they did not obey, there would be serious consequences – sort of reminds you of the mob, doesn’t it?
Ben & Jerry’s was a young company with limited resources. And they were innovative, finding the one thing that would give them a shot: They became the David to Pillsbury’s Goliath.
They launched a grassroots campaign printed on the pints of their ice cream called, “What’s the Doughboy Afraid of?”
If a customer sent in $10 they could get a bumper sticker and a t-shirt with the rallying cry: “What’s the Doughboy Afraid of?” on the front and “Ben & Jerry’s Legal Defense Fund: Major Contributor” on the back.
The customer-centered approach worked, the lawsuit was settled out of court and the rest is history.
None of these examples is meant to tell you what to do with your products or your company. But hopefully they’ve opened your eyes to a new world of possibilities if you will simply start thinking unconventionally.
Okay, this advice is going to be controversial, but I don’t care.
If you’re running a podcast, you get 60 minutes with a guest and no more. Maybe less.
For most guests, your podcast is not their first one. For some, it’s not even in their first 50 or 100 podcasts.
That’s why they have canned answers that they spit out automatically, without even thinking about it. The problem is, 4 times out of 5 those canned answers are dull and BORING. And many times they don’t even answer your question.
Do you really want them to talk about the exact same things they talked about on the last 10 podcasts they were on? Or the same things they’ve already blogged about?
No way.
Before the interview, ask them this question:
“If I get crazy curious about something you say, is it alright if I interrupt you?”
They will very nearly always answer yes.
Then when they are droning on about their first paper route (again!) or how the secret to making money online is selling stuff (no kidding!) you can interrupt if you’ve got a great question.
There is a flip side to this: You’ve got to be genuinely curious. It’s your curiosity that will provide the interesting question and the even more intriguing answer.
Them: “My first business was a paper route. Getting up at 5 am every morning taught me the importance of…” (Your audience is yawning at this point)
You: “Wait, what did you do when customers refused to pay you for the paper and slammed the door in your face?”
Or… “What’s the weirdest thing that happened to you on your route that you never told your parents?”
Them: “The secret to making money online is simply that you’ve got to sell something. Until you sell something, no money is made. You could sell products or advertising space or leads or…”
You: “Awesome! So, what’s the easiest thing for a brand-new online marketer to sell, and how do they sell it?”
You will never get another chance to ask, so go ahead and interrupt when appropriate.
And if your audience tells you not to interrupt your guests, tell them your #1 priority is getting your listeners the inside information most guests don’t easily divulge without a little prompting.
Can Visitors READ Your Site?
That might sound like a silly question – of course they can read your site.
Unless…
Unless you’ve got ‘helpful’ stuff on the screen that is getting in the way.
Take a look at this screen shot:
On the left you see a tab for reviews with no way to get rid of the tab.
Bottom left is chat box that again, cannot be clicked away.
Bottom right is a heart which had me baffled at first. Click on it and it tells you to log in so that you can save this page to your wish list.
NONE of these things were helpful to me, and all of them were in the way of trying to read the article.
Yet I’m sure the site owner thinks these things are the bees’ knees. And I’m sure they would be, too, if they weren’t so @#$%& obtrusive.
What handy dandy little gizmos have you added to your site that are getting in the way of your visitors reading your content?
If you want to do your own screen grab, it’s here:
In January 2019,, the Burger King Twitter account started liking people’s tweets from almost 10 years ago.
Out of the blue, Twitter users were getting notifications that Burger King had liked some of their tweets from 2010.
For the most part, these Twitter users had millions of followers.
Baffled, confused and intrigued, many of these Twitter users made posts about the incident, wanting to know why Burger King was doing this.
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They tweeted things like:
Why is Burger King liking my 8 year old tweets?
— Casey Neistat (@CaseyNeistat) January 24, 2019,
Wait why is Burger King going through my tweets from 2010?
— Brant Daugherty (@brantdaugherty) January 23, 2019,
You’re about 9 years late. ????
— 100T Nadeshot (@Nadeshot) January 23, 2019,
As you’ve already guessed, this story went viral.
Then several news websites picked up the story and wrote articles about it, alerting YouTube creators who made videos about it.
All the while, thousands of people on Twitter were tweeting about it.
It was a mystery to be solved, and everybody wanted to know just why Burger King was liking everybody’s old Tweets.
Eventually, when the time was right, Burger King gave everyone the answer they were looking for with this tweet:
Some things from 2010 are worth revisiting—like your old tweets. And funnel cake fries. Get them now for a limited time.
— Burger King (@BurgerKing) January 24, 2019,
Yup, that’s right.
Burger King liked everyone’s old Tweets to mystify people and create buzz.
And when enough people were talking about it, Burger King revealed they were liking Tweets from 2010 to advertise that they were bringing back funnel cake fries…
…which were first introduced in—you guessed it—2010.
You might say that Burger King tricked the internet into advertising their funnel cake fries to millions of people for free.
Or you might simply say somebody at Burger King had an excellent idea of how to get massive publicity for absolutely no cost whatsoever.
And it worked like gangbusters.
It was so simple that anyone could have thought of it.
And yet, until this campaign, I don’t know of anyone who had ever done it.
Guaranteed, there is a way to generate massive buzz for your next campaign that will cost you almost nothing.
All you need is one great idea, and then the gumption to execute that idea and make your fortune.
Google Quietly Rolls Out Combined Audience Targeting for Search Campaigns
Do you leverage Google as part of your paid programming? If so, then you may have noticed that the search engine and advertising platform recently enhanced search campaign features by adding combined audiences to your Google Ads accounts.
The update offers advertisers the ability to serve ads to even more targeted and specific audiences.
Snapchatters and the Path to Purchase: Shopping Behaviors on Snapchat
Today’s consumers are turning to their phones at every touch point of the purchase process. Smartphones are the most used tool for sharing and gathering information on the path to purchase.
Business owners can now create product catalogs directly in WhatsApp
Facebook-owned WhatsApp is taking the next steps towards monetization with a new option that will enable businesses on the platform to better showcase their products via the WhatsApp Business app.
Twitter’s new Topics feature may help new brands get exposure
Twitter is rolling out Topics, a way to follow subjects automatically in the timeline. They are starting with more than 300 subjects across sports, gaming, and entertainment
FTC clarifies guidelines for how influencers must disclose endorsements
Last week, the Federal Trade Commission issued updated and clarified “endorsement guides” that govern so-called influencer advertising on social media.
When most people think of social media influencers, world-famous celebrities, athletes, and models might jump to mind. While such figures are highly sought out by certain global brands, much influencer advertising is done with smaller names — and smaller budgets.
According to Hootsuite, “brands pay Instagram influencers [an average of] between $100 and $2,085 per post.”
With so much brand-influenced and sponsored content on various social media platforms, the FTC wants to make sure every day social media users can tell the difference between what’s a regular post and what’s a paid endorsement.
HubSpot report reveals buyers do most product research on social media
Throughout the past few years, social media channels have embraced their new role as product research platforms, devoting certain areas or features of their platforms to brands and products.
Where are most of your customers doing their product research? Social media.
Which social media platform is the most popular resource?
Google’s ‘.new’ domain extensions are coming: Marketers take note
Several companies are already using the.new domains, and public availability is coming soon. In the world of online sales and marketing, early adopters usually get the worm.
Are you a Phoenix in the making? I certainly hope so.
Greek mythology tells the tale of a huge feathered creature with talons and wings, its plumage radiant and beautiful. The Phoenix lived for 500 years before it built its own funeral pyre, burst into flame and died, consumed in its own fiery inferno.
But soon after, the mythical creature rose out of the ashes in a transformation from death to life.
This story of rebirth has been retold countless times throughout history, but my favorite version is from Egypt.
In Egyptian mythology, the Bennu was a self-created being that played a part in the creation of the world. This large heron-like creature flew over the waters that existed before creation, landing on a rock and issuing a call that determined the very nature of creation.
Two of Bennu’s titles were, “He Who Came into Being by Himself,” and “Lord of Jubilees”, referring to the belief that Bennu periodically renewed itself like the sun.
The name Bennu is also related to the Egyptian verb wbn, meaning “to rise in brilliance” or “to shine”.
When you rise like a Phoenix from the ashes, you emerge from a catastrophe stronger, smarter and more powerful than before.
And when you issue a call like the Bennu, you determine your own nature of creation.
Thanks to the pandemic, we are now going through a time unparalleled in the last 101 years.
Add in the presence of the internet, and this time of change is unparalleled in all history.
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Now here’s your dilemma…
You can curl yourself into a ball and wail that the end is near. You are a victim of the time, the place and the circumstance. You had nothing to do with the creation of this pandemic, and yet it has changed your life for the worse. Your job is in peril or gone. Your social life is no more. You are trapped in your house or apartment, your savings are dwindling, your fear of getting sick and dying is commensurate with your age.
You are a victim of this time in history, and no one will dispute that.
But there is another path to take.
No matter what our circumstances, be they good or bad, we still get to choose how we view those circumstances and what we do with them.
No matter what happens today, no matter what’s in the news, no matter how long this lasts; as long as you remain healthy, you still get to choose how you will think, feel and act.
While others are excelling in their victim roles, you can choose to be the Phoenix and the Bennu.
You Can Both Rise from The Ashes
And Speak Your Destiny
You can make a decision that from this moment forward, you will use the very circumstances you are in to create a life for yourself that is ten times or even hundred times better than it was at the beginning of this year.
Every time there is a recession, a lot of people lose money and a few people become millionaires or even billionaires. These are the folks who recognize that with great challenge comes great opportunity, and with great adversity comes the potential for gains not seen in good times.
It’s up to you. Curl in a ball and I won’t think anything less of you. It’s what most people are figuratively doing, at least initially.
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But if you choose to fly like a Phoenix or a Bennu, know that I am here to support you in every way possible.
Now then, if you’re still reading, I’m confident you have chosen the higher path.
And so let us begin…
A quick story…
When I was a kid growing up, the factory workers in the next town over went on strike. And because the factory employed half the people in the area, things got real tough real quick for everyone.
The strikers were scared and running out of money. Management was scared but acting tough. And nobody was spending money.
The local car dealers were especially hit hard and they couldn’t sell a single car during the strike. All but one of the sales people were so discouraged, they just sat around all day talking about how terrible things were.
But that one young guy didn’t sit around at all. He took advantage of the down time to personally visit every house on every street in our town and the next town over.
He’d knock on the door, smile real big, introduce himself, hand over his card and ask if someone in the house worked at the factory. If someone did, he would tell them how much he admired them for going on strike and how he was rooting for them, and to please let him know if he could do anything for them.
Often times this would result in a rather lengthy conversation, sometimes over a cup of coffee or a beer. Friendships were made. And unless they asked, he never once brought up new cars. Of course if they did ask, he was happy to tell them all about the new models that were coming in, should they ever be in the market.
Then he’d go to the next house and do the same thing.
He did get called a few times, usually by older folks who needed a little help or just a bit of company. And he did get invited to various birthday parties and whatnot by his new friends.
When the strike ended, the workers had a brand new 5-year contract and a big pay raise. And to celebrate their good fortune, some of them wanted a new car. Now who do you think they went to for that car?
People flat out refused to let any other car salesman help them. They’d patiently wait an hour or more just so they could talk to the young guy who knocked on their door to offer help when they were down.
That young salesman broke every single sales record that year and for the next decade, because he was there for his prospects when they needed a bit of encouragement.
How to make beautiful YouTube Thumbnails
A quick question
I was watching a segment on late night television during the first week of March. They were interviewing people on the street about the coronavirus, and when they asked one man what the coronavirus was, he didn’t know.
I mean, he actually did not have a clue. While the whole world was talking about nothing else, he had never even heard of coronavirus.
So, here’s my question for you: If you didn’t know what was going on in the world right now, what would you do? Odds are you would keep doing exactly what you’ve been doing. And if that’s online marketing, you would simply continue with your online marketing.
And I can almost guarantee you that by doing what you’ve always done, you would still be making sales.
Stop worrying that “this isn’t the time” and realize that this could be the best time ever to get a huge competitive advantage that you can benefit from for months and years to come.
The Mindset that Defeats Fear and Incites Massive Action
I was once caught in the path of a HUGE storm. This was the sort of storm that snapped full-grown trees in half or ripped them out of the ground. The kind of storm that removed your roof if you were lucky and removed your entire house if you weren’t.
And I was in its path with no way out.
I’d known fear before, but not this kind. This time I knew that something big, furious and totally out of my control was barreling down on me, and all I could do was wait.
That’s why, for a few minutes, I found myself curled into a ball on top of my bed. Because I was so numb with fright, I couldn’t even think straight.
But while lying there, I managed to start breathing again, and relaxing just enough to realize I wasn’t helpless. Not at all.
I started to put together a plan and pretty soon I was on my feet and coordinating my family on what to do.
Depending on where you are in the world, you’re somewhere in that storm. You might be waiting for it to get worse – a lot worse. And no one would blame you for curling up into a ball on your bed like I did. In fact, if this will help, you might set a timer for 30 minutes and do just that.
When the timer goes off, get up, because now we’ve got work to do.
The “economy” – whatever that means – is something you have no control over, so ignore it. Ignore the pundits who are wringing their hands and talking about financial crisis nonsense. Ignore the continuous gyrations of the various markets. Ignore the bellyaching that says we are in a recession.
Instead, realize this:
You Are Your Own ‘Economy’
You are the one who will make or break your finances. You are the one who runs your world. You are the one steering your ship – no one else.
We don’t know how long this will last, but it’s an almost sure bet that you have at least 60 days to focus and achieve at least one BIG thing. This could be to add significantly to your bottom line, to produce a hot selling product with a massive launch, to learn a new skill that will pay off in a big way… whatever you want to do, you now have about 2 months to totally focus on it and get it done.
This is your chance to work on your business instead of working in your business. Working in a business is just maintaining it. Working on a business is growing that business.
Most people are going to waste this precious time. Don’t you be one of them!
2 to 12 months from now, things will be getting back to ‘normal,’ whatever that means. It might be a slightly different normal, and that’s okay. We will not devolve into some post-apocalyptic hellscape, so stop watching those kinds of movies.
Humans have survived pandemics for hundreds of years and likely longer than that. We always survive. We’re kind of like cockroaches that way. Nothing keeps us down for long. This is a brief hiccup in the space-time continuum that will give you stories to tell your grand kids.
Already China is beginning to get back to normal. All of their makeshift hospitals are closed. All 42 Apple stores are reopening. China is reopening theme parks. Cases have dropped sharply in Korea. And all over the world, scientists are working relentless to discover which treatments, drugs and vaccines will work against this virus.
Yes, it’s going to get worse in many places before it gets better. But if China and Korea can get out the other side of this, then so can we.
Know that some people have made their FORTUNES during the worst of times. You could be the next one, but only if you turn off Netflix and get busy.
People will be selling things during this entire covid-19 period. They will be selling day and night. And many of them will indeed make fortunes. Never before have we had so many captive people with so much time on their hands, surfing the net and looking for help, instruction and something to get their minds off what’s going on outside.
You can be reactive and react to what’s happening with a fearful mindset.
Or you can be proactive and lean into what’s happening with a hopeful, optimistic mindset.
With that in mind, here are 5.5 tips to help you succeed, whatever your goal might be:
Step 1: Program Your Subconscious
The time to position yourself for massive success when this crisis passes (and it will) is right now.
You’re most likely at home now with extra time, so let’s make the most of it.
The first step is to get your thinking where it needs to be. Focusing exclusively on the news and how terrible the situation is won’t help you to be productive in the slightest.
Limit news intake to once per day. Focus on what you want, not what you don’t want. This is such basic advice, but for most of us it’s the advice we need right now.
Start feeding your mind positive thoughts both night and day. Did you know that 90% or more of your actions come about because of the programming in your subconscious mind? And that the best way to program your subconscious mind is to do it when you’re sleeping, relaxed or paying attention to something else?
Find YouTube videos of affirmations that play for hours. Or you can find one you like that plays only for a short while and loop it so that it repeats over and over.
If you’re going to bed, turn the recording on loud enough to hear and quiet enough to sleep and let it run.
If you’re awake, play it in the background while you do other things. Again, play it loud enough to hear, but quiet enough that it doesn’t distract you.
It’s amazing the difference this one simple step can make.
Be grateful. Go through your day thinking of all the things you are grateful for. Make lists and read them aloud. Express your gratitude when you wake up and when you go to sleep.
These are such simple things, but over time they make profound changes in how you see the world and how you respond to opportunity in your life.
Step 2: Choose Your Point of View
I’ve heard from some marketers who are afraid to send out a promotion during this period because they’re worried they will look heartless.
I’ve seen other marketers who are taking this opportunity to promote their products as being exactly what people need right now.
Guess which marketers are making money?
If your competition thinks this is the right time to STOP email marketing or marketing of any kind, then that’s all the better for you.
It’s not rocket science to know that if you don’t send out emails and promotions, you don’t get sales. But I also understand that you don’t want to seem like a cold, heartless person who never stops asking for the sale, either.
Basic Email Rule: When it comes to email marketing, more is always better as long as your emails don’t suck.
While you will want to tailor and even re frame your promotions during this crisis time period (more on this in a moment) it’s important that we first talk about getting your point of view to the right place.
Many, many people have been thrown out of work because of this pandemic. They need help. They need solutions. They even need distractions and entertainment. And most likely, they need YOU.
As I write this, Amazon is looking to hire 100,000 employees as fast as possible. Why are they doing this? Because suddenly the world has gone virtual, and that includes shopping for tangible goods, too.
Are you familiar with direct marketing? We’re talking about sales-letters-in the-mail kind of thing. You don’t see as much of it as pre-internet, but it’s still a huge industry.
And do you know when a direct-marketer’s favorite time is? A recession. Because during a recession, people are at home with nothing to do but read the mail. These people want diversions, they want help, they want answers.
And if you can give it to them, they will gladly pay.
That is the attitude you need right now; that people WANT what you are offering, assuming it’s a good product that fills a need or desire.
I don’t know what you’re selling, but whatever it is, odds are people either want it or need it right now. Do you sell online marketing info? People the world over have just discovered the importance of having an online income. They need and want what you can offer them.
Do you sell health advice? People the world over suddenly have time to exercise, to learn meditation to calm their nerves, to discover herbs to take for their health, to learn how to eat healthy and so forth. They need your help NOW.
Do you teach a hobby? It doesn’t take long for people to get sick of bingeing Netflix and want to do something else instead, like learn more about their hobby. In fact, hobbies are much better distractions than television, and healthier, too. What can you teach them now? What product can you offer them that they can consume while they’re waiting this period out?
You get the point. Whatever it is that you offer, odds are there are folks who want it and need it now, in the middle of a pandemic.
Stop thinking about what people don’t want and start thinking about what they do want.
And for goodness sake, stop thinking that your marketing is somehow intruding on them at a bad time, because this could be the very best time to put your offers in front of them, especially if you add in this next step:
Step 3: Tailor Your Marketing to the Times
People are Scared right now, with a capital “S”. They want answers. They are struggling to find hope. Acknowledge that and talk about that. Tell them you’re scared, too. Be there for them.
Do your customers need extra attention or hand-holding? Do it. Is there something your prospects need from you to feel you’re there for them? Create it and send it out. It might be as simple as an email that reassures them you are in the same boat they’re in and you’re there to support them.
Be there for your prospects – some of them are terrified right now and need your calming reassurance. Be the person who sends out the friendly, “How are you doing and can I help?” message, not just once, but repeatedly in your messages. Folks will remember that you were there for them long after this crisis has passed.
And they will be much more open to listening to you right now once they know how much you care.
Most of all, be the one who is positive and raises moral among your followers and customers. Right now the media stories and social media posts seem to be 90% or maybe even 98% negative.
I’ve had moments of reading two of the major newspapers when I thought I would hyperventilate or just throw up, because when you read this stuff it’s excruciatingly scary. People don’t want to be scared all the time.
It’s like going to a horror movie that never ends for weeks and months. No one would pay to see that movie, and they sure as heck don’t want to live through it.
Report good news, be positive, stay positive, make others feel positive and be the force that people can count on to lift them out of this fear that is permeating every facet of life right now.
Back to marketing – tailor your offerings to the situation. For example, if you sell “how to make money online” products, talk about how they’ve temporarily lost their job and wouldn’t it be great if they had an online income? Well here’s how they can do that.
If you sell health products, let them know this is the perfect opportunity to turn their health around, because without health, what do we have?
If you teach how to attract dates, tell them this is the time to study and become a pro at it, and when this crisis is over they’ll have more dates than they know what to do with.
While this is a global crisis, this is also perhaps the biggest opportunity of your life to help others. And that is exactly how you’ve got to look at this. You are not selling them stuff, you are helping them.
Yes, the end result is the same, but the path you take looks significantly different.
What can you do right now to best help your audience? You probably already know the answer. Now it’s just a matter of keeping your head in the right place and doing it.
Step 4: Have a goal bigger than yourself
This goes right along with what we’ve been saying… this is about helping your customers, not about you making sales. Don’t get me wrong, because I want you to make lots of money. But the best way to do it is to focus on helping and serving and that’s all the time, not just during pandemics.
What’s your goal? How about to help 1,000 people to do “X” in the next 3 months? If your niche is online marketing, your goal can be to help 1,000 people set up $500 a month recurring incomes. If your niche is health, your goal could be to help 2,000 people lose 10 pounds, or whatever.
Choose a goal that resonates with you. It should preferably be something that excites you so much, you can’t wait to get out of bed to work on it.
NOTE: It’s perfectly okay to have TWO interrelated goals. For example, to help 1,000 people start $500 a month recurring incomes, and for you to make “X” amount of money doing it. In fact, I recommend it.
Step 5: Exercise.
Yes, exercise, every single day. I know this is a weird thing to put into a list of things to do to build your business, but it’s as important as anything else here.
Find exercise videos on YouTube, such as yoga, body weight exercises and so forth, and make it a practice to work out every single day. If it’s allowed where you live, go for a walk, too. Just stay well away from anyone else you might encounter. If you say hello to them, do it from at least 6 feet away.
If you don’t work out every day, you’ll go a little crazy. Your mind won’t work as well, you’ll be more inclined to watch TV than work on your goal, and when all of this is over you’ll find your thinking is fuzzy, your creativity is poor and you may have even gained a few pounds, too.
You are the architect of your reality. You. YOU. Not the people on the news. Not the government. Not the latest pandemic numbers or stock numbers or what the heck ever. You determine what happens in your life over these coming weeks.
5.5: Let the Pandemic do Your Marketing For You
Now it’s time to really have fun with this crisis. Yes, I said fun. When someone gets 50 emails screaming the world is ending and one email from you with 10 jokes about washing their hands, which one will they open?
The trick is to find ways to use the pandemic in your marketing. This is something that you will likely never, ever get to do again, so make the most of it.
I’m going to jot down a few ideas here, and hopefully you will take the ball and run with it.
Hand washing jokes
Pandemic jokes (in good taste)
Isolation jokes (notice a theme here? Humor will get your emails opened and read right now, I guarantee it.)
Beware of this pandemic scam
5 pieces of good coronavirus news (you can send this daily)
How (Company X) is taking care of their laid off employees
5 pandemic heroes you’ve personally met (super market employees, etc.)
103 year old Chinese woman fully recovers from coronavirus
Tom Hanks wants a word with you (memes?)
10 reasons to be happy about this crisis
Free roll of virtual toilet paper with every purchase
Feeling lonely because of social distancing? Free 15 minute coaching chat with your purchase
45 healthy adults test first Coronavirus Vaccine
Positive news is a great way to start an email right now.
And if you’re wondering how you’ll transition from the news to your own marketing, just use a simple segue such as, “And here’s more good news…” or “To celebrate this great piece of news, I’m going to…”
Okay, there you have it. Bottom line, you get to choose how you respond to this crisis, and what you do during your time of isolation.
You can binge watch Netflix and eat popcorn until you puke.
Or you can become a Phoenix or a Bennu, rise from the ashes and create your own destiny.
Try These 7 Strategies to Begin Earning In a Short Time
Has the pandemic temporarily canceled your job? Here are 7 ways to start building an online income that can be fairly impervious to pandemics, layoffs or anything else the future might throw at you.
Please note: The 30-day timeline is somewhat arbitrary. When done right, some of these can begin generating income is far less than 30 days. Some might take a little longer. And all will depend on your execution. As they say, your results may vary.
How much can you earn? That will depend on the method and again, your execution of that method. It is perfectly reasonable that even most newbies can earn $500 a month through any one of these methods and scale it up to far more than that over time. But again, your results will depend on your efforts.
Pro Tip: I don’t have room to go into tremendous detail for each one of these. Then again, all of these are simple enough that you don’t need a lot of detail to get started.
Read through this entire list and find the one that strikes a chord with you. Make note of anything you don’t know about it and start researching via Google and YouTube.
Don’t think you have to know every step before you start – you don’t. Often all you need is the first step, and then the next, and then the next…
Fortunes have been built this way by people who were no more special or extraordinary than anyone else.
You can do this.
Let’s get started:
Strategy #1: Affiliate Marketing via Brick and Mortar Businesses
You can make money with this method by either using your own customer base or by helping other brick and mortar business people to stay afloat as they navigate these interesting times.
The key here is to choose a proven digital offering that matches the customer base.
Here’s an example: There is a local business where I live that offers yoga, qigong, tai-chi and meditation classes. They are now closed because of the pandemic and earning no money.
They have two options:
1: Stream their own classes online for their students. This isn’t a bad idea at all. They can charge for an online subscription and have their teachers continue to teach over the internet.
2: Find proven digital products that match their customers’ needs. Ideally, these proven digital products will be subscription based and pay a lifetime commission on referrals.
By promoting an established membership style website, their customers are likely to get a much better user experience than if the business begins streaming their own classes.
And because it’s a monthly subscription with lifetime commissions, the business can continue to make money even after they reopen their studio. Plus the business doesn’t have to go through the trouble of creating a program – all the work is already done for them.
They simply send out emails to their lists with the offer, as well as offering it through their social media profiles.
Learn how to build your free website here:
What about everyone else?
What if YOU don’t have a brick and mortar business, or you don’t already have a list of subscribers or a social media presence?
Then you can help businesses in your town to survive. Most traditional type of businesses do not understand affiliate marketing or even online marketing, other than having a website and building a list of their customers.
You can offer to show them how they can make a real income online by helping their customers to get what they want, too.
You can charge a flat fee or a percentage of income earned.
And you can do it all from the comfort of your own home, over the phone and the internet.
Strategy #2: Host a Virtual Summit
This is such an awesome business strategy for people with NO list and NO product.
Think of a virtual summit as a conference that takes place online. It requires very little overhead, isn’t complicated and you can drive traffic and sales quickly by leveraging other people’s lists.
First, you pick a topic. Examples are: How to market to your list, how to make the most of this self-quarantine, how to look and feel younger, how to improve your brain, how to start and run an online business… you get the idea.
Once you have your topic, you approach experts on the topic and ask them to participate. Each expert will be interviewed by you for approximately an hour on a certain aspect of the topic.
You create a landing page to collect email addresses and a sales page to sell the summit recordings.
People who sign up can access the recordings for free, but only for a short time. For example, if you have 15 experts, you might release 3 recordings each day for 5 days.
You might give your new subscribers 48 hours to listen to the calls before they disappear. And of course, you sell full lifetime access to the recordings for a price of $47 or $97.
At the end of each of the interviews, you allow the experts to offer one of their products to your listeners, preferably with a discount.
And all of your experts are expected to promote the summit to their list. You pay them a percentage of the lifetime access price, such as 50%. And you’re an affiliate for the product they promote at the end of each call, which again typically pays you 50%.
These percentages are negotiable. This is a great business model because you are very quickly building an active list of subscribers and making money, too. Talk about a win/win!
And you can continue to sell to your new subscribers. For example, if you’re a coach, you could sell coaching services to them, or other affiliate products, or anything else that directly relates to your initial topic.
Strategy #3: 30 Day Challenges
This works especially well if you already have a social media presence or an email list, but it’s not a requirement.
A lot of people are home right now, wondering what to do with their days.
And these same people have goals. Maybe they want to lose weight, learn a new skill, create something and so forth.
Here’s what you do: Choose a topic and the appropriate product to promote. For example, if your topic is weight loss, you might choose an affiliate product to promote that shows people how to lose weight by exercising at home, reduce binge eating through meditation, and using hypnosis to reduce appetite.
Then you announce you’re having a 30 days challenge with prizes. Everyone who gets the product and joins your challenge can participate on your private Facebook Group and cheer each other on. You provide plenty of extra support, feedback, bonuses and so forth. Make it super fun for everyone, so that no matter how much weight they lose, they still come out a winner.
Your prizes don’t need to be super expensive but they should be something people want.
You can repeat this every 45 days or so, with 15 days to sign up and 30 days for the challenge.
Strategy #4: Write a Book
Whoa! I know what you’re thinking… that writing and publishing a book in 30 days is crazy, insane, not possible, etc.
But here’s something you might not know – people do it all the time.
First, there is no length requirement for an electronic book such as those you find on Amazon’s Kindle. If 30 pages is enough to get across the information, then 30 pages is all you need.
Second, Amazon is one of the biggest search engines in the world, as well as the #1 digital retailer in the world.
They already have the customers. All you need to do is provide the product, which in this case is a Kindle book.
Choose a topic that people are interested in. The first one that comes to mind is how best to survive and thrive during a pandemic, but there are thousands of other possibilities.
If you’re an expert at something, or if you have a particular interest in a topic that interests others, then you’ve got a great head start.
Do your research online and write your book in your own voice. Your goal here is to help your reader achieve an outcome or solution, such as learning how to do something.
And above all else, do not be boring. Add your own interesting stories and charisma to the book to make it informative and entertaining.
Think of the teachers and professors you’ve had over the years. If you had them all teach the same material, wouldn’t you agree that some of them would still be more interesting and entertaining than others? Be that fun teacher who makes the topic sing.
If you can’t type or you just don’t want to, use transcription software such as Rev.
Get your cover done by a graphic artist on Fiverr or 100Covers.com. And get your book formatted at FormattedBooks.com.
Do some research online to learn how to launch a book and make it a bestseller. Generally, you’ll be spending about the same amount of time promoting your book as you do writing it.
With the right concept and great initial promotion, your book may continue to make sales without further promotion for a good long time.
Then rinse and repeat.
Make Money Online Now.
Strategy #5: Coronavirus t-Shirts
Okay, this is going to encompass a lot more than just t-shirts, but t-shirts seem like a great place to start.
With the advent of a global pandemic, there is now an almost entirely new niche.
While the pandemic is happening (several months or possibly longer) you can sell anything and everything that helps people get through this traumatic time, whether it’s something to make them smile (hence the t-shirt) something to occupy their time, or things they need for peace of mind.
If you go to Google and search for “flatten the curve t-shirts” and then click on images, you will find that sellers are indeed creating and selling a wide variety of these shirts.
Personally, I like the commemorative shirt that reads, “I helped flatten the curve, 2020.” “Stay calm and flatten the curve” is a good one, too.
Search for “pandemic t-shirt” and you’ll see, “Baby’s first pandemic” and “Never underestimate a nurse who survived the pandemic.”
(That last one gave me a lump in the throat – not all nurses or doctors are surviving this. Infinite gratitude to our first responders and medical teams around the world, they are our real rock stars and heroes, and we thank them all.)
No doubt there are many other pandemic shirts to be created and sold because humor is one of our best weapons for getting through tough times.
Other products to consider selling – anything that keeps people busy while they are stuck at home. Things to occupy children’s time that can be immediately downloaded is selling especially well. For example, science experiments your child can do with ordinary household items, and art projects for a rainy (or self-sequestered day).
Jigsaw puzzles are selling so fast, stores ran out in early March. In fact, I imagine that any family type of game or activity will do quite well for the next few weeks and months.
You could create books or courses for kids in no time and start selling them in just days. Enlist the help of your own children to tell you what kids want to do most.
A lot of people would love to know how to make more money from home. You might be a good example of this.
This is the perfect time for people to learn a new skill and you can teach it to them.
Guides for couples on how to survive being cooped up together 24/7 could be handy. Pandemic recipes, pandemic games, pandemic meditations… the list is endless.
I think right now just about anyone who is a good listener could start a service where they will simply listen to someone for 30 minutes for a fee. There are a LOT of scared people out there who need to talk to someone, and not everyone has someone they can talk to.
But don’t stop there… think about the time when things are getting back to normal… what will people want then?
And afterwards… things like preparedness kits might do well, as well as celebratory products. It’s difficult to say right now exactly what people will want when this is all over, besides the things they usually want. They say that after the pandemic of 1918, most people never even wanted to talk about it again, almost like it didn’t happen.
My point is, there are plenty of products you can be selling right now. As to new products for after the pandemic when things are starting to normalize… we’ll just have to see.
Strategy #6: Sell Advice (or Listen) by the Minute
Clarity.fm connects experts (that’s you) with people who have questions.
Your clients book calls with you on the website, and then they are charged by the minute.
This is a great way to do initial consultation calls, too. And the system is drop dead simple to use
The questions are, what expertise do you have? What will others pay you to learn? Who are your clients for your service?
If you’re an online marketer, people might pay you to help them choose a direction for their new business and get started.
If you’re a health coach/consultant/teacher, people might pay you to customize a plan they can use to get in better shape without leaving their house.
As we mentioned earlier, there are a LOT of people out there who simply need someone to talk to. Listening services have been gaining in popularity for some time now, and with everyone isolated in their homes, I suspect they are going to explode over the coming days and weeks.
You might even have different pay levels for a listening service, so that people can pay at the rate they want to pay at. Some can afford more, and others can only afford less. And when this crisis is over, because you were there for them now, I’ll bet that many of these people continue to use your service.
Strategy #7: Paid Membership
You might think this strategy is too advanced for where you are right now in your online marketing career, but I’d like to suggest that it isn’t.
To create a paid membership site, you need three things: Content, a system to run the membership site, and paying subscribers.
Can you either source or create content? Sourcing means you obtain it from somewhere other than yourself, such as interviewing other experts, using private label rights and so forth.
Of course, you can. If you’re not a writer, you can get content from other places, so that obstacle isn’t an obstacle at all.
Can you set up a membership site? It’s far easier to do this than in the old days when you actually had to know something about software and whatnot. Now you can simply use a WordPress plugin such as MemberPress.
Which brings us to the last bit of the puzzle – getting new members. If you already have an email list, then you can start there along with getting affiliates. Fortunes have been made this way. Set up a sales page, drive traffic and get new members.
But what if you don’t have a list, you don’t have any affiliate contacts (yet) and you don’t have money to drive traffic?
Here’s what I would do in that case: Assuming you’ve done your research and picked out a great niche that people are passionate about, start giving away ‘some’ free content. Just some. Newspaper sites do this all the time. They’ll let you read 5 free articles a month, but then to read more you need to subscribe.
Or you can give away the first portion of content, and to get the rest and everything else inside of the membership, they have to subscribe.
Or you can offer each month or each week of your content as a paid standalone product. People can pay $20 for the one course, for example, or they can subscribe to your membership for $29 a month and get a new course every week.
You get the idea.
It’s like a book author giving away the first 5 chapters of a 50 chapter book. People read the chapters, get hooked and have to get the rest of the book.
Memberships sites are by far my favorite type of online income because it’s recurring income. People sign up once and continue to automatically pay until they unsubscribe.
Software as a service runs on the same principle, only instead of content, they simple create and maintain software. (Something for you to consider as well.)
And there you have it – 7 ways to start earning money online while you’re self-isolating at home.
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1. Wealthy Affiliate. Site to create and build websites, with great training and research tools.
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With these tools and the information provided in them, you cannot fail online if you are prepared to put in the effort.
If you’re new to marketing and you have no following and no list, how can you get started?
Common advice is to gradually, over time, build yourself up to become an authority. You write a lot of articles and post them to your blog, you’re super active in social media, you make videos, and generally you slog away until finally people begin to notice you and buy from you.
Yeah. That’s a lot of fun.
But who says you must start at the bottom and work your way up?
Wouldn’t it be great if you could borrow the credibility, charisma and social following of more established marketers?
Let me tell you a story:
Michael was a totally average, ordinary guy. He didn’t stand out in a crowd. In fact, Michael was actually kind of boring. Sure, he was a nice person. But when you met Michael, there was nothing about him that made him special. Five minutes after he left a room, everyone forgot he’d even been there.
Then one day Michael got a job working directly with the Governor. He appeared with the Governor at special events, at press conferences and on the news.
Suddenly, Michael was a fascinating guy that people wanted to talk to. They called him just to ask his opinion or seek his help. They wanted to be friends, to invite him to parties, and to brag about being his friend.
What happened? Michael was still very much the same guy. The only difference was that he appeared with someone who held a great deal of sway with others. The Governor was what you might call a “big shot” in his “niche.” And because he was seen with the Governor, Michael was suddenly perceived as being a “big shot” too.
And this is how you fast track your own success in whatever niche you’ve chosen online.
The first step is to have something to say. Hopefully you are something of an expert in your chosen niche, or you at least know enough to promote your chosen products and create content.
The next step is to associate yourself with the people in your niche who already have a following. Without going into terrific detail, here are 3.75 ways to do exactly that:
1: Write Round-up Posts – You’ve most likely seen blog posts that go something like this: “20 Online Marketing Experts Give You 20 Ways to Make $1,000 Cash Fast.”
There’s more going on with those posts than meets the eye.
The person who compiles the methods from experts is getting their own share of credibility simply by being associated with these names.
The experts will often promote the blog post on their social media accounts. These means more traffic and more exposure.
And if you’re just starting out, it is entirely possible to write your first round-up without interviewing any of your experts.
If you are new to your niche, it might be difficult to get experts to respond to your request for their solution to your topic.
What you can do instead is search their own posts and find what they recommend, then write it up in your own words along with a link back to their original post.
Once this is done, email them to let them know how much you respect their opinion and that you will be posting their idea with full credit back to them in your blog post. They will almost never tell you NOT to do that, but if for some reason they don’t want you to, this is their chance to say so.
Then once you publish, let them know the article has gone live in case they want to promote it.
Once you have your first round-up under your belt, it will be much easier to get experts to respond for your next expert’s roundup by showing them your previous post.
Here are the steps to doing a round-up blog post:
1. Choose your question for the experts
2. Find your experts and their email addresses
3. Reach out to them with your question
4. Write the article and publish
5. Promote the article
Round-up posts are great for building relationships with other bloggers and influencers because you get at least 5 points of contact with each one.
1. Your initial outreach
2. The expert’s response
3. Your email thanking them
4. Your email notifying them that the post is live (include the link!)
5. (Hopefully) their email telling you they shared the article with their followers, readers or subscribers
That’s plenty of opportunity to build rapport which will come in handy later.
And your posts are chock-full of association with experts, taking you to expert status in the eyes of your readers.
2: Guest Blogging – If you’re getting less than 250 website visitors a day, then believe it or not, your priority should be writing for other people’s blogs.
They have the traffic and they have the credibility with their readers. Your job is to write them a great post that adds tons of value and by doing that, get some of their readers to follow you over to your blog.
Find blogs in your niche that take guest posts. Write an awesome article for them and include a relevant free offer in your bio box. What’s a ‘relevant’ offer? Something directly in line with the topic of the article. For example, if the article is on commercial cat toys, the freebie might be directions for making cat toys from stuff lying around the house.
Done right, you can also mention the freebie inside the article, too, if the site allows this. Readers click your link for the freebie and sign up to your list.
Guest blog on as many popular sites as you can within your niche, and people will start to recognize your name and assume you are an authority they should pay attention to.
Okay, now that I’ve given you the plan for guest blogging, let me also give you a reality check – depending on your niche, the plan I just outlined might take a lot of time, effort and no’s from blog owners. Some niches are overrun with people who want to guest blog. And when bloggers in those niches haven’t heard of you, they generally don’t feel a real need to let you guest post unless you do a VERY good job of selling yourself.
But there is a backdoor method that works really well, and it’s built upon #1 above. Remember the round-up posts we talked about?
Once you’ve done a few round-up posts, go back to your round-up of experts and contact each one, asking to guest post. Offer to write a post on a topic that their readers are passionate about. Not what you’re passionate about, but THEIR READERS.
This is key to any guest post. Hopefully what their readers want to read overlaps with what you want to write about and promote.
Check their site carefully to see if there are guest post guidelines. If there are, follow them meticulously.
Here’s an example email you might customize and send to blog owners:
“Hi Joe,
Thank you so much for joining my recent roundup post, your input was invaluable.
Today I was visiting your website (again!) and I wonder if you accept guest posts?
If so, I have 3 ideas for a guest post that I would love to submit to you.
Thanks so much,
Be sure to have your ideas ready to go. Give them the working title, introduction, outline and approximate word count of each.
If they choose one, get the article back to them within the week. Some blog owners will have you format and upload the article yourself while others will prefer to do it themselves. Remember to include any photos.
And most important of all, remember to include your author bio. This is where you’ll convert their readers into your own subscribers, usually by offering something totally relevant to the article and free for subscribing.
Keep your bio to 50 words or fewer and write it in the third person. Tell the reader what to do, how you can help them and include your link. If possible, include a photo of yourself, your credentials, and something that makes them smile such as a quirky detail about yourself.
3: Get Booked on Podcasts – Find the podcasts in your niche and get yourself booked on them.
Create a list of prospective podcasts, looking for the podcasts that are a good fit for your topic.
You can start this process with a simple Google search using your key term plus the word “podcast.” Pay attention to their social media following, reviews and any requirements for getting yourself interviewed.
You can also find relevant podcasts through your LinkedIn connections, inside Facebook Groups, with a BuzzSumo Keyword Search, on trending Apple Podcasts and so forth.
In addition to approaching podcasts one on one, you can also use a service such as PodcastGuests.com which puts podcast producers and hosts in touch with guests like yourself. Create a powerful profile and get the paid version to be promoted to their subscribers.
Pitch your prospective podcasts by showing the value you have to offer their audience. What makes you stand out in your niche? What can you talk about that is interesting to the audience and also helps you to get new subscribers and customers?
Don’t be super-salesy here. Your goal is to show them what you can do for them and their audience. And don’t forget to tell them you’ll market their podcast on your platforms as well.
Follow up as needed to get booked. Make sure you have your messaging down before you appear. And don’t forget to mention your website and your free offer at least three times during the podcast. The host will often do this for you if you arrange it ahead of time.
And by the way, some experts from your blog post round-ups and your guest blogging will also be podcasters, so don’t forget to ask to be their guest as well.
3.5 Publish a Book
Notice I said “publish” and not “write”. Remember #1 above? Now you’re going to do it in book form.
Once you have several round-up posts in your portfolio, you will also have relationships with many of your experts.
This is when you choose a topic that merits an entire chapter from each expert. Our earlier example of, “20 Online Marketing Experts Give You 20 Ways to Make $1,000 Cash Fast” could work for this as well, although I might change it slightly to, “20 Online Marketing Experts Give You 20 Ways to Make $1,500 Every Month.”
Approach your 20 or so experts and propose your book idea. You might even become an affiliate for the products they will promote in their author boxes inside your book. And you might also do live interviews that book buyers get access to for free.
If you really want to make it simple for your experts to participate, do an interview with each one. Have the interviews transcribed, and then convert each one into a chapter. This will take some rewriting, but you can always outsource it if necessary.
3.75 Next Level Thinking
Conversely, you could combine the interviews with the chapters and turn this into a monthly membership as well. The key here is to make the interviews highly relevant and cut out all the fluff. Good interviewing and excellent editing will help with this. Remove the small talk, the umms and ahhs, and keep a fast pace of awesome content that hold the listeners and readers spellbound.
Charge $10 or $20 or more each month, do one interview each week, and then promote the heck out of it. Personally, I would keep the monthly membership cost low and always act as the affiliate for the special offer your experts will make at the end of each interview.
Be sure the interviews contain PLENTY of great info on their own. This should be 90% content and only 10% selling. But what a great system for someone who is just starting out!
These are also 5 things that your spouse wants from you…
…your children want from you…
…and your friends, coworkers, neighbors and bosses want from you.
And they are the 5 things that YOU want, as well.
This comes from a book titled, “The One Sentence Persuasion Course – 27 Words to Make the World do Your Bidding” by Blair Warren and I highly, HIGHLY encourage you to read it.
Because while I will share the 5 things here, to entirely understand the importance and correct use of each, you’ll want to read the book. In fact, it might be the best money you’ll ever spend.
Here are the 5 things you need to influence others:
1: Encourage their dreams
2: Justify their failures
3: Allay their fears
4: Confirm their suspicions
5: Help them throw rocks at their enemies
From the book: “They are the most important because they are simple, they are immediately useful and they can be frighteningly powerful. Hitler used them and nearly took over the world. Cult leaders Jim Jones, David Kores and Marshall Applewhite used them and commanded such loyalty that many of their followers willingly – even eagerly – died for them.”
Imagine what these five tools can do for your marketing.
Most people who achieve extraordinary success are not extraordinary themselves. We might think they are geniuses, but it turns out they are typically of average intelligence.
What makes the difference, then, if it’s not how smart they are?
Most successful people simply hang in there. There’s no trick or secret formula. It’s a matter of deciding what you want, starting, and then never stopping until you reach your goal.
This explains why nearly all successful people have had several failures.
Countless self-made millionaires have declared bankruptcy multiple times.
Inventors first find tens and hundreds of ways something won’t work until they find the method that will work.
Online marketers will try a dozen things before they find the one that works for them.
Failure is an integral part of becoming successful. You can call it ‘paying your dues’ or getting your education. The bottom line is, if you keep going towards your goal regardless of how many times you stumble, you’ll inevitably be successful.
Successful people also tend to be arrogant. If you think of someone who comes from a background of poverty, and yet declares he will start and run a business that earns him millions of dollars, he’s going to sound arrogant.
Aspiring to do the ‘impossible’ will always make you sound arrogant, at least until you do it. It took arrogant people to figure out how to transmit voices from one place to another, to learn to fly and go to the moon, and to create the first real medical cures.
Everything great that’s ever been accomplished has been done by someone who sounded to others as though they were arrogant.
I imagine the first person to declare they would make a vaccine against influenza viruses sounded arrogant.
Yet now we make flu vaccines against four different viruses every year, and soon that number will be five once they have the vaccine for COVID-19.
Another thing successful people do is learn to use the talents and abilities of other people. It’s rare indeed that anyone has a major success in online marketing without the help of many other people.
Think of yourself launching a product – odds are the information you’re putting into the product is a combination of what you’ve learned from your own experimentation, as well as what you’ve learned from others. You might use writers and tech people to help you put the product together, to create the website, sales pages and emails and so forth. You’ll be using JV partners and affiliates to get the word out, as well as asking your customers to tell others via social media. It’s a team effort.
Lastly, successful people think of themselves almost as gods who are able to direct their lives and make things happen. They never choose the victim mentality, no matter what happens. They know they are in charge of their lives, their futures and their success. This gives them the confidence to make connections, move mountains and get things done.
To sum up, successful people aren’t necessarily geniuses; they’re just tenacious. They don’t mind failing repeatedly to become successful. They can be arrogant in their goal and act like they are a god in directing their own lives. They welcome plenty help from others, too.
And isn’t that the best lesson of all, that no matter what we’re going through, what our goals are and whatever our challenges might be, that we can always turn to others for help.
