famous marketer's outline for making an easy $3k a month - my observations

True. Though I would argue...

1) There's no reason someone couldn't learn the above steps. There're not that hard really.

2) There are still "steps" you need to take when hiring an outsourcer, so the same principle of one-step-after-another is still important to keep in mind...no matter your business model.

3) It's much easier to hire an outsourcer, explain your project, and review their work if you too know how to do what you're asking of them or at least specifically what you're looking for.

Best,
Derek

Pretty much.

The sad thing is when you see people still running around wondering what they should be doing and how this whole thing works. Like I said, it's not the only way, but just because it's incredibly simple doesn't mean it doesn't work.

Part of the inspiration for this post was an email I got today from a client I had about a year ago asking the same questions and still in the same boat. No progress. What had they been doing this whole time? A little of this. A little of that. No particular strategy. No particular order. That just doesn't work. Stick to the basics, one step at a time.

It's simple, but it's not easy. Otherwise, everyone would be doing it.

Derek

I work in multiple niches too. My advice though: pick the best niche and start there. Focus on the one. Get the one rolling. THEN transition to the second.

My two cents.

Derek

A quick Google search yielded these interesting results:

The Anatomy of a Perfect Squeeze Page Template | Digital Marketer

20+ Free Squeeze Page Templates | InstaPage

There are others. It all depends on your niche and your offer though really. Personally, I use Wordpress.

BUT, BUT, BUT..I have to ask.

Did you nail down a specific niche yet?

Step one always comes before step three.

Derek

This, right here, is the single biggest mistake I see people making in business. I have an exercise that I go through with clients where we identify what value they're bringing to the marketplace, because they usually don't know the answer themselves.

Quite frankly, as I spend more time on Warrior Forum, it's also the biggest tragedy that I see in the endless train of posts asking about how to make their first X dollars online.

People seem to forget about the most basic thing that makes economics work: People only exchange value (in the form of money) for something else of value.

There's a whole lot of thought behind a high converting squeeze page, and unfortunately I won't be able to answer all of your questions in this thread. The good news though is there's a ton of information out there, much of it here in the Forum.

Here's my challenge to you: Carve out a couple of hours and just study everything you can about squeeze pages. Search Google. Search the Forum. Study squeeze pages that compel you personally to opt in. You won't be a "master", but you will begin to obtain a good working knowledge of what it takes to create a high-converting page.

Best of luck. Keep taking action!
Derek

I've seen a ton of expensive squeeze page softwares & elaborate templates come and go in my five years of online marketing. I've tried plenty of them.

The squeeze pages that still work best for me and convert at the highest rates are the stupid simple ones with a really catchy headline in big red letters, a couple of sentences underneath describing why they need to opt-in, and then the opt-in form.

Don't overthink it. I've tried squeeze pages with elaborate graphics and squeeze pages that take 10 minutes to read and my conclusion is that they don't work as well as the plain white page with just a headline, a catch phrase that builds curiousity, and the opt-in form.

I have one squeeze page that converts steady at 40%. It was one of the first ones I ever set up. I created it myself in about 15 minutes using Gimp and Kompozer.

This all falls into line with what the OP is saying. The things that worked well 5 years ago will most likely still work well now.

How would you define "the basics" then?

I agree, and said as much a couple of different times in my post. The interesting thing though is you can strip them down to make the 4 steps even more universally relevant.

- Find a hot niche market = have someone to sell to
- Create a report = have something to sell
- Give the report away using a high-converting squeeze page = have somewhere to sell it
- Build relationships with your list = be more than an obnoxious salesman

Here's my thesis: You can add to these steps, but you cannot take away from them. You may not follow the specific strategy of giving away a free report to build a list, but the basic principle of having something to offer, someone to offer it to, and an outlet of offering it can't really be argued with in my opinion.

I "buy into" relationship myself building because I know who I buy products from personally...without regret. Those people I trust, that provide good value, and that I have a relationship with. If a "relationship" is important for me when I'm making buying decisions, I know it is for my list when purchasing from me as well.

Which part doesn't work in your mind? Is your proposition that you cannot earn $3k a month from a healthy email list? If your issue is with the word "easy", I'd agree that it's not necessarily easy. It's simple, yes; but easy, no. Otherwise everyone would be doing it.

I'm afraid you may have missed the point though. The point is less about "do these 4 things" and more about having focus, following a plan, filling your "knowledge gaps", taking action, not trying to overcomplicate matters, and yes, sticking to the basics. Now you may disagree with what "the basics" are, but I'm convinced this is an absolute fact: simple is better.

Thanks for your thoughts. Makes for an interesting discussion.
Derek

I must be "old school" because that's pretty much the strategy that has allowed me to earn a full-time living since 2010.

The only difference is that after the first year I started creating and launching my own products to promote to the list in addition to marketing products as an affiliate.

Granted, email marketing isn't my entire source of income, but it does account for about 80%.

Also, I have to disagree that "list building" is an easy sale to newbies. List building is my main niche (why wouldn't it be, that's what I know, lol) and rarely are you able to convert complete newbies to list builders...

Normally the types of folks that "buy into the list building model" are folks that have been around the track a few times and already bought the (normally) over-hyped MMO type of products.

In reality, it really is that simple.

Cheers,
Coby

Well said sir. It is very easy to say build a list and market to them but it is much much more difficult to do. You better be providing your list with highly valuable content or the chances of anyone buying from you are very slim. Unless you are an expert at something and love writing, where are you going to constantly find good, fresh content and offers to suggest? Imo, people are pretty saavy and don't part with their money easily. They don't just buy something because someone say's it's good. If you dupe them just once, chances are they will never buy from you again. It's not that easy.

Hey Derek,

Thanks for the thought provoking post!

Basics always work, be it IM or any other sphere of life. Again as Robert T Kiyosaki (Rich Dad Fame) says earning money is boring and that is one of the major reason not many are successful at doing that. Anybody would agree it is so very boring to stick to the basics and keep doing things that are routine that actually make you money. It is so easy to chase the next shiny thing and in the process move away from your goal and plan.

For me I have a simple goal of becoming the go to guy for videos here on the forum. Been receiving some great feedback for my work so far just want to scale it up further so that I can provide up to 10 custom videos per day. Once I have the social validation about the quality of my work I would like to move on to bigger projects.

Cheers
HonestIM

That's actually an easy question to answer...

Here's how you get traffic to a squeeze page:

- Ad Swaps
- Solo Ads
- JV Giveaway Events
- Mini Giveaway Events
- PPV
- PPC
- Media Buys
- Free WSOs
- Affiliates

This is just the tip of the iceberg, but I think you get the idea.

Cheers,
Coby

Here are some profitable hot niches, no research required...

- Make Money Online
- Internet Marketing (similar to MMO, but not the same)
- Weight Loss
- Forex
- Sex
- Health (similar to weight loss, but not the same)
- Real Estate
- Investing
- Divorce
- Happiness

Stop making it hard! Don't make excuses, just get to work...

I know - your next objection will be "these niches are too big, how will I ever break into them"... At which point I will point you back to Derek's OP which and tell you to take a look at the 4 steps then look at my post on getting traffic...

These niches might be "huge" but that also means there are lots of folks you can partner with or buy traffic from...

Do you think that everyone in these niches started in another niche? How did they get to where they are now? They started at the bottom...

Was I "born in the the IM niche", no! I worked hard and followed simple steps (more or less the one's outlined by Derek) and I built a business...

Was it easy? Heck no! Was it simple, oh yeah!

Can you do it? Absolutely?

Pick a niche from above, do the other 3 steps listed in the OP then go buy traffic from your "competition" or partner with them in some way...

Everyone has to start at the bottom - some make excuses and others just climb the ladder...

In my opinion, the only thing holding you back is your mindset. Take a step back, clear the mental slate and start over if you have to. If you haven't made $100 in any niche yet, then today is the day you start working to change that.

Good luck.

Cheers,
Coby

Here's what I think the main problem is: it's too easy to mentally tick the "I know this" box without ever actually doing it. I'm known around the Forum for my keyword research services, and even released a how-to product. It's astounding how many people "know" how to do keyword research, but don't do it. Why is that?

I wrote this post because I got an email from a client I worked with over a year ago. A year ago he was asking questions about niche marketing and how that could help him make money online. My first advice was to spend time and nail down a niche. One niche. Not two, not three. One.

Is there any guarantee that one niche would be the bull's eye? Not necessarily. But in my experience you have exponentially greater chances of success when you focus on one niche than when you focus on multiple...at least when you're first starting out.

But like I said, he came back to me one year later with the same questions, so I gave him the save advice. What niche did you settle on? The answer was "I tried this method, and this niche, and then this method, and then this other niche". Translation? I dabbled.

Dabbling is not likely to get you far in this business. Focusing on a proven plan, one step at a time? That was my point of the post. We can argue about the steps all day, and to be honest, we'd probably both be "right". There is no one right way to make money online, but "dabbling" is hardly it. It's like with personal finances: a "dabbler" might get lucky and win the lotto, but I don't want my financial future resting on finding that lucky ticket. I want a proven plan to financial well being, so I budget, invest and follow a plan. It's the same with Internet Marketing.

And all I really trust is what is working for me. I started making money online in late 2009 and it was entirely because I focused on a singular niche market. I'm not sure how you go about things, but finding a niche for me was not about getting lucky. It's was about knowing what to look for, and like you said, getting out there and trying it. I'm not saying you're going to hit the bull's eye on your first run, but I would say this: 1) if you wait for that "perfect" niche you'll be waiting forever, 2) most strategies do require having a niche focus for best results, and 3) you have a much greater chance at finding a workable niche if you focus on one at a time.

Often time it's not that the niche doesn't work or isn't profitable, we just didn't focus on it properly. Just pick any of the big three: making money, weight loss, relationships. Or how about golf or parenting. All huge niches. All proven money makers. Do we have to test? You bet. But again, dabbling in those niches isn't likely going to work. There's a reason those "tens of thousands of people" you mentioned still haven't made any money, and it's not that the "steps" don't work.

You're right, it has nothing to do with magic, or luck, or any set of special skills. It's about following a proven plan, rather than trying to do a little bit of everything. It's about knowing what steps you need to take next in order to get you where you want to go. It's about filling your "knowledge gaps" with specific training instead of bouncing around from one WSO OTD to the next.

Traffic may very well be your next step. So learn and research and test and experiment. But do so with one niche, and make sure you've given your due diligence to research that one niche and ensure it has at least a strong likelihood of being profitable. But you have to ask yourself? Where am I going to send that traffic? What am I going to offer that traffic? If you don't have answers to those questions, why are we even talking about traffic at all?

The point is not in these 4 steps though. Not at all. You can have 5 steps, 10 steps, sub-steps, it doesn't matter. My point is this: it does little good to learn about "step ten" if you haven't taken, learned, or even know what "step five" is.

Derek

Great posts, Derek, I am with you on this completely. People can parse all they want, but the fundamentals don't really change.

I went through the same thing! I ended up selling off a bunch of sites and putting that money to use buying traffic to build my list...

I haven't looked back since.

Cheers,
Coby

YES, absolutely I would! If you wrote a report I'd be happy to critique it for you because that would be a huge action step. Go for it! I've got your back.

In regards to how to do it, maybe this link will help: How To Create a Traffic Pulling Free Report in Just 1 Day – To Entice New Opt-ins | Internet Marketing Tips Simplified

There's also plenty of how-to guides (free ones) here in the Forum or here: https://www.google.com/search?q=how+...t+to+give+away

If you have any questions, drop me a PM anytime.

Best,
Derek

Is your point provide the content first and have an opt in for "more"? I remember Frank Kern (and others) always being big on providing steps one, two, and three for free but then steps four and five being "paid" for, even if only by opting in. That may not be your point though.

Again though, I would just say the specifics of the 4 steps aren't really what's most important as these are just one path of many. The point is to pick a path (a proven path though) and then "trust the process".

Derek

Hi,

Exactly it's a MODEL!

Once you have that model transfixed in your mind then it's all
about getting your hands dirty and cracking on with things like...

...Getting good at sales copy

Tracking

Testing

Tweaking your funnel

Getting good at writing engaging email copy

Keeping your discipline by RE-INVESTING your money
back into your business that you've made. (That's not always
mentioned)

And so on until it becomes like riding a bike.

You never forget how to do something well once you mastered it.

Good comment & all the best
G.B.

Of course you can build a relationship with email. If you can't, then it simply means you can't write very well or perhaps you don't know your audience well enough. (Which is a good point you made earlier in your post, actually.)

At the risk of sounding sarcastic, did you even read the post? Of course people have been posting this on the WF (and elsewhere) for years. In fact, that was my point. My point was certain fundamentals don't change, but my bigger point was about finding a plan and sticking to it. You can argue the merits of the "4 steps" all you want, but the "4 steps" in and of themselves are not the point of my post. You can have fewer steps or more steps. You can have different steps altogether. I don't care, so long as (1) you follow a PROVEN plan, and (2) you stick to the plan and focus. And I honestly don't think that is something you or anyone else can argue with.

EXACTLY. I'm confused as to why you think you're saying something different than me. In my example, "step ONE" was to find a hot niche; "step FOUR" was to "build relationship". So, what are you saying is "left out"?

So, is your advice then to not build an email list?

Derek

I'm soon to finish another round of P90X. Have you ever seen those infomercials? It's packaged in a very "sexy" way with a great USP. As a result, it's been crazy popular for years now, and P90X3 (which just released) is already breaking records.

So, does it work?

That depends.

It depends on whether or not you put the DVD in, whether or not you "bring it" during the workouts, and whether or not you eat right. The premise of P90X: eat right and exercise.

How we package those 4 steps is important. Here's the thing though...

The reason it won't work is NOT because there's nothing sexy about it. It's because people don't do anything with it! You're definitely right though that people crave newer, bigger, better, sexier; and it's easy to discount the basics as "old school", "boring", or "rehashed". But can we really say that P90X doesn't work if someone doesn't do the workouts? Likewise, can we really say these 4 steps don't work if someone doesn't act on them?

My advice to those reading: ignore the noise, unsubscribe from about 95% of those mailing lists your on, quit browsing the WSO section, and DO SOMETHING today.

Derek

Derek,

Thank you for the thread, your post specifically, and the reminders about basic online business steps. It does seem so very easy . . . and if it were really that easy in practice, we'd all be successful business owners.

Here's the challenge, in my opinion: you have provided the view of Internet business success from 40,000 feet. Where the game changes is on the ground!

Yes, you have given the formula and it does work extremely well. Where people get hung up, especially newcomers with no online business experience, is with the daily details of executing the steps necessary in a smart and profitable way.

It's easy to say "pick a niche" - it's much more difficult to pick a money niche with rabid fans, not too intense competition, and a position for your business in front of prospects that want what you offer.

It seems so simple to say "drive traffic to a squeeze page" - yet doing that and having a page that converts is not easy at all.

It is so obvious that you should "develop a relationship" with your customers and prospects - yet actually doing that poses all kinds of challenges.

I am personally convinced that having a great business is not the result of knowing the basic steps (the 40,000 ft view). Those are in plain view for everyone - yet so many fail every day.

I think success comes when you learn how to implement those basic steps tailored to your own business model, and you do that day after day after day. You try things, test and track results, make modifications and try again. And here's something critically important: you learn how to overcome any obstacle thrown in your path - there will surely be some big ones.

Profitable online business is mostly about daily business execution of small details more than it is about a basic big-picture formula.

Just my thoughts . . . I welcome contrasting views.

Steve

The power of perspective is so very interesting because you and I have WAAAAAY different views of the P90X program. It's interesting because it's the same with everything in life, isn't it? Two people look at a situation and you have at least three opinions.

Personally, I like Tony and find the videos to be great. And if someone does the exercises yet finds them to be "easy", then I'm truly impressed! It still kicks my butt every time. Who knew Yoga could make you sweat so much!

And on an aside: The sales numbers (both over the last few years for P90X and with the December release of P90X3) indicate a very successful campaign. And I'm not personally familiar with much criticism from those that actually went through the program.

So...

What does this actually have to do with our discussion? A lot actually.

True, I am a Tony Horton disciple , but there are still a ton of lessons we can learn from this P90X tangent...

1. Branding (Have a good USP. Even if what you're selling is diet and exercise, package it in an appealing way)
2. Perspective (You have a negative taste in your mouth; I have a very positive one. I have the advantage though of actually doing the program, twice; which leads to...)
3. The importance of action (You can't say P90X doesn't work unless you don't work it. Same with Internet Marketing. I can WATCH the workout videos while eating cake and ice cream on my couch, but I won't get in shape that way. So in that sense, P90X doesn't work. Likewise, I can watch sales videos, buy WSOs, and learn new methods for 50 hours a week, but unless I spent AT LEAST the same amount of time implementing what I'm learning, then I can't expect any results)

Speaking of working out, today is KenpoX, so I'm off for now. Thanks for contributing though. Good thoughts for sure.

Derek

Focused execution is the key.

Not sitting around talking it.
Not wishing something magical would happen.
Not buying new products about it.
Not critiquing those who support it.
Not complaining about how hard it is.
Not saying it doesn't work if you've never tried it.

Execute.

One of the things I've referenced several times in this post is "knowledge gaps" (something I learned from Mr. Paul Myers). So yes, learning how to "create a campaign" is very important. That's the gap you need to fill.

If you're a total beginner, you likely need either a good coach or a detailed A to Z plan. Maybe both. For most others though...those that have been stalled for 6 months (others for years) and "learning" but never "doing", the plan is pretty simple, and you probably already "know" it. You don't need the whole package, you need specialized training. You don't need A through Z, you need specific training on how to do E or how to do J. So the question we all have to ask ourselves... What "letter" (i.e., What specific step) am I stuck on, that if learned would take me to the next level?

Maybe it would be worth a number of us taking 10 minutes and actually answering that question.

Derek