Have you ever suspected that marketers make secret deals with each other behind the scenes? And that perhaps they will call each other on Skype or Zoom and coordinate activities and launch dates? And maybe they work together on marketing deals, promote each other’s products and work together to maximize their profits? Well, it’s 100% true…

Marketers network and mastermind with marketers on their own level.

Now, if you’re new to the game, how do you break into one of these million dollar mastermind groups?

Unless you have something incredibly spectacular to offer – like some marketing holy grail or something – you don’t. But you don’t need to.

Think about college – you go to school with a group of people. You meet as Freshmen or Sophomores, hang out together, do stupid stuff together, take classes or study together, etc.

After graduation, who can you call to get an “in” at a company, get a lead on an account, get an introduction to somebody and so forth?

Your pals from college, that’s who. You came up together. You’re friends. And of course you’ll help each other out whenever you can.

Marketing works the same way.

Find people on your level – marketers who are on their way up. Make friends. Hang out. Have drinks. Talk on Skype. Work together. Bond.

You and your friends will progress up the marketing food chain together.

And there’s your ground floor opportunity into your own million dollar mastermind group – the guys and gals who came up with you through the ranks.

So start networking. Get a team of friends. Work together. Help each other out. Have each other’s backs. Care as much about them and their success as you do about your own.

And in no time, people will be looking at your group and wishing they were you.

No doubt you’ve heard that offering a bonus for other product sellers to give to their buyers is a good way to get a list of customers. And that’s true. If your bonus is good enough that the product seller believes it will increase their sales, they might be willing to let your bonus tag along with their product.

You might need to contact 5, 10 or even 20 product sellers to make this happen. Obviously, the better your bonus and the closer it’s tied to the original product, the higher your odds of getting a yes. Having a relationship with the product seller helps immensely, too.

But there is an easier way to get that coveted “yes” from the product seller, and here it is:

Offer them a complete upsell funnel.

A lot of newer product sellers on Warrior and JVZoo don’t have their own upsells yet. And because of this, they’re leaving a lot of money on the table.

If you offer them a complete upsell funnel and let them keep 100% of the profit, you stand an excellent chance of them saying yes.

Your upsell funnel should include a squeeze page offering a good freebie – this will capture product buyers who don’t purchase your upsell. It also should also include a proven product that converts well.

You can add exit splashes, pre-populated forms, bonuses and trial offers – basically whatever it takes to:

1. Capture the email addresses of the buyers, regardless of whether or not they take your upsell.

2. Makes sales for the product seller.

Using this method, you can add hundreds of buyers to your list every week. And as you know, buyers are worth far more than tire-kickers.

Everyone is happy using this model:

– The original product seller is making more money – often twice as much or more.

– The product buyer is getting a good deal on your product.

– Even if the product buyer doesn’t buy your product, they still get your freebie (remember to make it VALUABLE.)

– And you get a list of buyers with very little effort on your part.

For maximum success, rinse and repeat as often as you like.

Let’s say you’re offering a course with 10 videos, 10 corresponding pdfs and 3 great bonuses, all for $47 – and you want to make that $47 seem like an absolute and total bargain price. How do you do it?

By giving your customers a choice right there on the sales page, the check-out page or preferably both.

Here’s how to do it:

Strip your package down to a much smaller one.

For example, 10 videos, no pdfs and no bonuses. Or 10 pdfs, no videos and no bonuses. Whatever works.

Offer that smaller version for $37, or $39, or even $45. You might want to test this to see which one works better.

Have the smaller version right there next to the big version for $47.

Let them know they have a choice. Of course, you recommend the full $47 version, but it’s up to them.

This is a variation of decoy pricing which typically uses 3 prices to sway buyers into purchasing a particular item.

With the slightly lower price giving them so much less, your regular price looks much better.

Also test having a higher price with not much more benefit.

In this case, it could be $67 for a slightly bigger package. That might increase sales of your regular priced product as well.

Remember to test, test and test some more to see what works best.

Curious about the 3 price decoy effect?

The most famous example is pricing used by the Economist, and later by many other magazines and newspapers.

The Economist offered an online subscription for $59, a print subscription for $125, or an online and print subscription for $125.

Naturally, this greatly boosted sales of the third option.

How can you apply this proven strategy to your business? I know you can find some creative ways to do so and boost your sales in the process!

Okay, so you’ve hopefully got your core business online, or you’re about to put one online. You have it up and running, making money… Now what?

First things first – figure out how to make MORE money in the business you already have.

How do you get more customers?

How do you sell those customers more stuff?

And how can you charge more for what you sell?

This is basic and should always be your focus. The more value you give, the more money you typically make. Give more value and you can charge more and sell more.

But what about the ‘fun’ part?

That’s a matter of trying stuff out.

Buy new stuff on Warrior and JVZoo. Read the case studies. See the new techniques someone’s dreamt up.

Pick and choose stuff to try and then just try it. Don’t devote a week to it – it might not work. But devote a day or two and see what results you get.

That new thing that everyone is doing? Pick a topic (or whatever needs choosing) and outsource it. Or if you can do it yourself in a day, go for it.

Is it promising? Keep going.

Does it look like a loser? Good – you just found something that doesn’t work for you.

Either way, if you always look at it as experimenting, as having fun, as trying new stuff and seeing what happens, then you’ll never take it too seriously.

You won’t get stressed. You won’t smash your head against the desk when you realize the last 24 hours taught you nothing more than how NOT to do something.

Because you’re having fun.

And when you do strike on a winner, sha-ZAM!

Rinse and repeat and you’ve got another money making avenue in your online business.

Smart marketers are not limiting themselves to the English market. Instead, they are taking their best selling products and getting those products and the associated product funnels translated over to French, Italian, Spanish, etc.

Here’s how to do it:

Unless you’re really sure you want to invest the money, do NOT go with a professional translation service because the cost will be too prohibitive. Not to mention their translations can be too dry and boring to be effective, especially on the sales material.

Instead, find someone on Upwork or Fiverr who is fluent both in English and the language you’re translating your work into. They must be fluent enough to thoroughly know the slang and colloquialisms of that language.

Have them translate the product, the sales letter, the emails, the squeeze page, etc. Also have them translate a month’s worth of PPC ads to bring in new subscribers to your funnel. You’ll want a month’s worth because it can take you that long to test and tweak your ad campaigns.

Then retain that person with a small monthly fee to handle all customer support emails for you.

Rinse and repeat with another language.

No Products of Your Own? No Problem…

Negotiate with product owners for the rights to sell their products in other languages. You might pay them a flat fee, or a percentage of sales after your initial expenses are recovered.

You could build an entire business doing this one thing – getting licensing rights to popular products and translating them to various languages.

And if you’re fluent in another language, then you don’t even need to hire a translator if you’re willing to do the translation yourself.

Your very best products – the premium stuff making you the most money – is worth even more than you think it is.

Let’s say you’ve got a successful membership site. You’re charging $20 a month and you’ve got 300 subscribers. That’s $6,000 a month you’re bringing in, before expenses. Obviously you’re doing well with that, right?

So what do some marketers do? They make an info product teaching how to do this very thing. How to set up the site, how to get the outsourcers to create the content and how to get subscribers.

And they charge maybe $9 or $17 for a Warrior Special Offer or JVZoo offer on this product. That’s one way to go.

But there is another method – one that generally makes more money with less hassles, and it’s this:

Make a premium offering.

Let’s face it – there are significant advantages to attracting $500 customers over $10 customers in the online marketing field.

A $10 customer tends to be skeptical. They need a lot of convincing because they’re pretty sure nothing works. That’s because thus far, they haven’t met with much in the way of online success.

And when they buy your $10 program, they often need help. A typical query: “How do I take payments?”

You: “Have you heard of Paypal?”

Your customer, “Sure, but could you walk me through on how to set that up?”

A $500 customer, on the other hand, tends to be on an entirely different level. They’ve likely already experienced online success, which is why they can see what you’re offering works.

They don’t have as many questions. And they know that any basic answers they do need (like how to set up a website, or Paypal) can be found online, rather than expecting you to do the work for them.

It’s paradoxical, I know.

A $10 customer needs $100 worth of your time. Or more.

A $500 customer generally doesn’t need help. But even if they do, you don’t mind spending the time with them because they’ve paid you good money.

So to get back to my original point, don’t sell your knowledge short.

Packaging your know-how and experience into a $10 product may lead to more frustration for you than anything else, even if you do have a great upsell.

Since, in this example, you’ve got a membership site that’s doing well, you could:

1. Offer to build them a similar but non-competing website, complete with 6 months of content.

2. Offer to coach them one-on-one on how to build their site themselves (far more valuable, since they will then own the skill).

3. Work with membership site owners to get their subscribers up to a certain level.

And so forth.

And for any one of these things, you can easily charge $500 – $2,000. Get 10 customers at $500 each you’ve just made $5,000.

To make that same money selling a $10 book or program, you’d need to sell 500 copies, assuming you make all the sales yourself without affiliate help.

Now then, how about getting the best of both worlds?

Create the inexpensive product and sell it without any personal coaching. Make this clear – they get the information, but you’re not holding hands for 10 bucks.

If they want personal help, you can offer that as an upsell. And if they’re truly serious, you can offer one of the above three options at full price as well.

Of course, the $10 and $500 is arbitrary. You will set your own prices as you see fit. For example, setting up a full membership site with six months of content is obviously worth a great deal more than $500.

As long as you’re not setting up direct competitors to your own membership site, you can do this every single month if you like.

Using this method alone, you can easily double your income.

Membership sites are just an example. This works no matter what you’re doing online that is making you good money.

Which of these two products would you most likely buy: “How to sell stuff using Facebook ads”… Or: “How to make 461 affiliate sales totaling $8,384 in commissions in the next 72 hours using $112 of Facebook ads”? The second one, right?

How about these two…

“How I lost weight”

Vs

“How I lost 93 pounds in 6 months and went on to win 2 bodybuilding championships at the age of 42”

Of course, it’s the second one that gets your attention.

Why is that?

Because the second titles are exact and precise, which is exactly what people buy.

Vague isn’t interesting. It isn’t sexy. And it doesn’t make sales.

To be clear here, we’re not just talking about having great titles. That’s crucial of course, but so is this:

Base your products around just ONE main promise.

Compare these two:

“The complete, no-holds-barred, definitive encyclopedia on Facebook Marketing”

Vs

“The 3 step formula to selling almost anything on Facebook and making a profit within 24 hours, guaranteed.”

The first one presumably covers everything you could imagine about Facebook marketing.

The second one makes a single, precise promise.

Guaranteed, the second one will outsell the first one 10 times over or more.

Choose one thing and cover it in depth. This is what makes sales. It’s easier and faster to make this type of product. It’s simple to explain in your sales material. And it’s a no-brainer for the customer to grasp.

They know exactly what they can expect, which makes it far easier to get the sale.

And best of all…

…let’s say you’ve got a book/program/software that covers or does a whole range of stuff.

If you break that product down into ‘one promise’ products, you will have more products to sell, and you will sell more of each product.

You might want to read that last sentence again, because it is a million dollar piece of marketing advice if you understand and implement it.

Make the title of your product a single promise. Then go deep, not wide. Rinse and repeat.

Using this method you can crank out a product a week instead of a product every month or two. Frankly, if you work on this full time, you can do even better than that.

And you’ll actually sell more of each product. Paradoxical, maybe. But it flat out works.

One last example:

You’re building a WordPress plugin that does everything but the kitchen dishes.

Stop.

Break that plugin down into several small plugins, with each plugin delivering on a single promise.

Your marketing just became easy as pie.

Your sales letters and videos will practically write themselves because it’s now so simple. People will better understand what you’re offering. And you will sell TONS more.

Okay, I’ve harped on this enough.

One promise products – be specific – go deep, not wide – rinse and repeat.

What’s the easiest way to make money online, without having to create a product or a sales page? Affiliate marketing, of course. 🙂

So, why is it that most affiliate marketers never make nearly what they could make? Anyone has the potential to make HUGE money in affiliate marketing, yet 90% or more of affiliates make a pittance (I’ll wager the number is closer to 98%, in fact.)

Think about this: If you earn an average of $50 on each sale in a sales funnel you promote, and you make 6 sales, you’ve made $300. Sounds good, right?

But guaranteed, there is someone else who made 600 sales and walked away with $30,000.

Why did they make 600 sales when you made just 6?

There are reasons why a handful of affiliate marketers do amazingly well, and everyone else barely makes a profit.

And marketers who understand this will always have a tremendous advantage over marketers who don’t.

1: Build a Relationship

I know you’ve heard it before, but are you doing it? People buy people, not products.

If you want them to open your email and click your link, or visit your Facebook Group and click a link, you’ve got to have a RELATIONSHIP with your people.

This is so simple to do, yet few marketers take the time.

Start with a blog post that is all about you, and then send new opt-ins to the post so they can get to know you. Make the post silly, funny and most of all REAL. Talk about the stupid stuff you’ve done, the mistakes you’ve made, where you live and so forth.

Do you have a strange hobby or unusual taste in food? Include that. Do you have 17 pets? Talk about them. Do you work until 3 in the morning and sleep until noon? Mention that.

Reveal the real you. Not the details people don’t want, but the ones that amuse and interest. You’re looking to make a real connection, not give a resume.

And above all else, don’t make your life seem like a series of magnificent accomplishments. No one is going to relate to someone who turns everything they touch into gold.

But they are going to relate to the time you bought Bitcoin when it was worthless and sold it just before it took off, or the time you thought you could fly and jumped off your uncle’s barn into the manure pile.

And don’t stop with your ‘about me’ page, either. Use this relationship building in your lead magnet, your emails, your other blog posts and so forth.

Always inject a little bit about yourself. Not so much that you bore people, of course, or make everything seem about you. But just enough to keep it real.

Think about relating an event to a friend. Aren’t you going to give your own perceptions of what happened, as well as tell about how you got out of your car and stepped in the mud puddle just before your big presentation?

Use this same method of personal, one-on-one friend communication with your readers as well.

Post on your blog as often as possible, and we’re talking every day or two. Encourage your list to subscribe to Feedburner or the equivalent so they know when you add a new post.

Your readers will realize you’re a real person who isn’t out to pitch them a new product every 5 minutes. And they’ll gladly read your sales emails much more readily when they know there is a real live human being who is sending them these messages.

2: Use Your Own Voice

How many emails do you receive that say something along the lines of, “Buy this product – this product is the greatest product ever – you will be sorry if you miss this – so rush right over and buy it now.”

Yeah. Same old stuff, over and over again.

There is a marketer (or maybe several, but I’m thinking of one in particular) who sells MASSIVE quantities of this exact type of emails as a swipe file to new marketers.

Like a brand-new marketer couldn’t write their own 25 word email that basically says, “GO BUY THIS NOW!”

People are TIRED of getting these emails. You’re tired of getting these emails. I’m tired of getting these emails.

Same phrases, same message, same B.S.

If you’re not going to stand apart from the crowd, then you’re going to have to share the same crumbs they’re getting.

Instead, take 30 minutes and write your own promotional email in your own voice.

Forget hype. Be sincere. Be honest. “Hey, this product isn’t for everyone. I don’t even know if it’s for you. But if you have this problem, then maybe this is your solution. Check it out and decide if it’s right for you, because I know it’s worked like crazy for some people. And it’s on sale right now, too.”

I’ve written emails where I basically tell people not to buy something unless they really really want it or need it. “Don’t buy this if you already know how to do xyz.” “Don’t buy this if you’re not going to be doing this type of marketing.” This is only for people who want (fill in the blank.) It’s like I’m trying to talk them out of it, which paradoxically often results in more sales, not fewer.

But the point isn’t tricking them into buying; it’s to be honest. Because you know what? That latest, greatest product you’re promoting ISN’T what everyone on your list needs. Some of them, sure. The rest of them, no.

Do you have any idea how refreshing it is to open an email that says, “Here’s a new product, thought you might want to know, but please don’t buy it if you’re not going to use it.”

The first time I got an email like that, I bought the product without even reading the sales letter. True story. I was just so happy that someone wasn’t ramming a sale down my throat, that I jumped at the chance to buy it.

Weird but true.

My point is, be you. Be honest. Talk to your readers as though they are your best friends and you don’t want to lose your best friends by acting like a carnival barker who is here today and pulled up stakes (vanished) tomorrow with their money.

3: Email a LOT

This is the one where people like to argue with me, and I understand that.

You’ve heard over and over again that you shouldn’t email too often, or you’ll upset your subscribers, right?

After all, every time you email, there is the potential that a subscriber will hit the unsubscribe button.

Do you know what the potential is when you DON’T email? Nothing. No opens, no clicks, no sales… not even any relationship building.

Do you want people to open and read your emails? Then send out those emails EVERY DAY.

Here’s why:

First, almost no one will see every email you send out. Let’s say you’ve got a sale on one of your products. Don’t you think your readers might like to know about it? But if they miss the one and only email you send that lets them know, then they’ve missed out on the discount and you LOST a sale.

Second, send emails at different times. I opened someone’s email just yesterday, decided I was VERY interested in the new membership he was selling, clicked the link and discovered it was no longer available.

What happened? This particular marketer only sends out emails at 1:00 a.m. my time, so I don’t even see most of his emails in the avalanche of mail I get before I wake up.

Third, if you’re sending email once a week or once a month, your readers are forgetting who the heck you are. And when you finally do send an email, they think it’s spam.

Fourth, if you mail more often, you will make more money. Don’t take my word on this, just do it for one month. Send out one email per day, every day, for 30 days. Put a promotion in each one. See if you haven’t made more – a LOT more – money during that time period than during the previous month.

And by the way, I’m not saying JUST send out a promotion in each email. Make sure you have some content in there as well, even if it’s just an amusing anecdote.

4: Think of affiliate marketing as a BUSINESS

This isn’t a hobby, nor is it an add-on for an additional income stream.

Even if you go on vacation, be prepared to send out an email every day. Schedule them in advance or write them on vacation. Either way, affiliate marketing to your list is a business that you can’t just jump into when you need cash and forget about the rest of the time.

You don’t have many support issues, since the product owners handle this. You don’t have to worry about creating products, sales pages and so forth. You don’t have to drive traffic, unless it’s to build your list bigger.

With so much you don’t have to do, there’s no reason not to focus your time and energy into building relationships with your list and promoting to them every single day.

Affiliate marketing can be some of the easiest money you’ve ever made, if you put in the time and effort to make it a real business.