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CONTENTS
1)
Set up your website.
2)
Keeping track of things.
3)
E-mail.
4)
Creating content.
5)
Working with affiliate offers.
6)
Traffic.
7)
Test, test and test again.
Hello, My name is Sheldon Mohl Read every word of this E-book with a little skepticism. Hey, right now you don't know me, but my goal is to help you with internet marketing. And you have absolutely no reason to trust me. I'm sure you've probably read other E-books like this one promising you a “gold nugget� of information that's going to change your life. Well I'm not going to give you false hope of sitting on a beach and making money. If you're willing to learn, then continue reading and see exactly what it takes to succeed with internet marketing. These are 100% free lessons and, if you study them, they can change the way you approach internet marketing forever. There aren't any tricks and there aren't any shortcuts. It may seem really complicated, but I believe that creating an internet business comes down to seven steps. Once you begin to understand and practice this 7-step cycle your income in this industry can be unlimited. However, it's much easier said than done, otherwise we'd all be sitting on a beach making money. Each chapter will cover one of the steps in detail and YOU will move closer towards making your Internet Marketing business a reality. Still skeptical? So you thought it was going to be easy? Heck no it's not easy, a job is easy.
It's possible that you might get a little overwhelmed by all of the information in this E-book. People probably charge hundreds of dollars to teach HALF of what I'll be giving you.
Just don't give up. Even if you haven't completely digested all of the information yet, take a few minutes to re-read the chapters. Print this E-book out for easy reference, and work through them as you grow your internet business. At the end of each chapter there will be a summary section that occasionally contains a "homework" assignment. These assignments usually won't take more than a couple minutes, but they're vital to your success with this course. Today's assignment is to set up an account in this community There's no payment information required, and I link to some of their free training throughout this E-book to supplement these lessons and give you greater detail/perspective when necessary. You don't have to setup a free account right now, but you'll want one at some point because this E-book will dig deeper into the topics we'll be covering. The community will also be very helpful if you have questions anywhere along the way. Sheldon Mohl
CHAPTER ONE: SET UP YOUR WEBSITE When I first began trying to build an internet business it wasn't pretty. I didn't know what I was doing and I was always looking for shortcuts and push-button systems because I was lazy too. When buying product after product didn't work, I realized what was missing... I wasn't consistent. There was my “AH-HA� moment. Consistency is key, and it's the first step in setting up shop. Think about how many hours you can work on your internet business each week. It doesn't matter if you have a full-time job or if you have all of the time in the world - you need to set a number and stick to it. And it should be AT LEAST 10 hours per week. Now hit it each week for the next six months MINIMUM. Okay, so you should have the number of hours that you can work each week set in your mind by now. If you don't, stop reading, crunch the numbers and figure out what your number is. Again, it should be at least 10. Got it? Good, then let's really start today's lesson. Question: "Do I need a website to run an internet business?" The answer is yes. Unequivocally, irrefutably - yes. Does Starbucks sell to you out of the trunk of a car? What about Burger King - do they sell to you out of a semi trailer? We both know the answer to those questions, so if the idea of starting a website freaks you out then I'm sorry, you're going to have to get over it or give up now. You can't run an internet business without one. Anyone that tells you otherwise is trying to scam you.
It's not remotely as difficult as you might think it is and we'll discuss website setup more in a minute. Before we do that, you'll have to pick a niche. There are A LOT of ways to pick a niche, but the best walk-through I have ever come across online is this one. You'll have to be a member of that website, but you can read that lesson and many others just by creating a free account (no payment information required). Click that link, setup a free account, and brainstorm a few niche ideas by following the walk-through I've linked you to above. After you've done that (take your time with it), continue reading. There's A TON of other brilliant, extremely helpful content within that program that you can access for free, but please explore it at another time. For now we need to stay focused. After you've followed all of the steps in that lesson and have some ideas for niches, you'll need to setup your website. I'm going to link you to some other free lessons from the same program that will walk you through setting up a website step-by-step. This is a several step process and it will probably take you one or two hours if you've never setup a website before. It won't always take that long, but the first time might.
Here are the steps: 1) 2) 3) 4)
Setting up the foundations of your site Familiarizing yourself with your website Fine-tuning a few key points Preparing your site for the search engines
Chapter Two: Keeping Track of Things. When I began as an affiliate marketer, a lot of what I was doing was based on guessing (usually resulting in 5 steps back, 1 step forward). I would change or tweak something and then wait while checking my sales to know whether I was doing something right or wrong. Today, I realize this was a really a bad strategy. I missed out because I didn't use completely free tools to track my visitors and watch their behavior on my website. Oops! But today I'm going to make sure you never miss out because you didn't use the free tools available to you. If you're smart and you approach internet marketing the right way, Google Analytics will become part of your business. You can see how many visits you get each day, how long visitors stayed on your website, what pages they visited, what page they exited your site from, and a WHOLE lot more. Over time you will learn to use Google Analytics effortlessly. You'll be able to quickly and easily see EXACTLY what you're doing wrong on your website. Like everything else it takes some practice, but you should start now.
Once you have your website setup, analytics are really simple to install. In Chapter one, I linked you to a few free tutorials, and that same program has another awesome lesson on installing and learning analytics. Use this lesson on setting up Google Analytics and learn the basics of interpreting them. After you've done that, let's talk about why Google Analytics are so important. Let's say you're selling a product on your website, but first you want to get users to opt-in to receive a free E-Book. You're probably going to test different headlines to see which one is most effective. Otherwise, you're just guessing. It's kind of important to know if you're converting 0.7% of your visitors from email opt-ins, or if you're converting 12.5%. Google Analytics will give you that information. It's known as conversion tracking and it's an essential part of internet marketing. You NEVER know what works vs. what doesn't work by simply guessing. Even long-time professionals use A/B split testing. If Barack Obama's hired copywriter (a world-renowned copywriter, by the way) tested these email marketing subject lines while trying to get Obama re-elected, internet marketers like you and me should do the exact same thing. You can't guess your way to top. You need to familiarize yourself with Google Analytics and start practicing how to make decisions based on data. It will cut your time spent on trial and error. Install analytics on every website you ever run, and begin learning how to interpret your analytics. This video is a really good start to interpreting and taking action on your analytics.
So you've read a lot of information over the past few minutes, but this is what this chapter really boils down to: 1) Watch the video on setting up Google Analytics from above. 2) Install Google Analytics on your website. 3) Watch this video to understand the basics of Google Analytics Even if you don't have a website setup and analytics installed, remember to read over these chapters frequently. Look at how much we've covered. Next we start getting into the REALLY juicy, important stuff.
Chapter Three: E-Mail You've probably heard about "Collecting email addresses from your website visitors." Not many people elaborate on it much more than that. It's simple: If you're not collecting email addresses and following up with an autoresponder, you're missing out on building a relationship. It doesn't really matter which industry you're in or what niche you've chosen. You need to be collecting email addresses from your visitors. The generally accepted rule of thumb is that you need to have an average of seven "contacts" with a person before they will buy anything from you. How can you do that if they visit your site, spend a few minutes, and disappear, likely to never be seen again? This is why you HAVE to get email subscribers, but how? There's really not that much to it. Offer something of great value to your target market in return for their email address. You received an email from me because you originally requested my E-Book, "7 Steps To Internet Marketers". You saw the value of this E-Book to trust me with your email address. I write and produce my own material, and so can you. But you have other options. You can buy PLR content, which stands for "private label rights" meaning you are buying the rights to sell or give it away that content.
DO NOT USE PLR content for blog posts or articles because Google HATES duplicate content and it doesn't build your website or brand at all. But for something like an opt-in incentive they can work pretty well. Just make sure to read it yourself to make sure it's delivering a lot of value to your subscribers. We'll talk a little more about that in the next lesson, but to find PLR E-Books just Google: YOUR NICHE + PLR E-Book For example, if you ran a diet website you would search Google for: diet PLR E-BOOK Or if you ran a website in the golf niche, you would search Google for: golf PLR E-BOOK Simple as that. Now what if you can't find any PLR E-Books in your niche? Well...can you write it yourself? Usually E-Books don't run more than 15 or 20 pages and they are not that difficult to compose and produce. If you don't want to write it yourself, simply post a job on the Elance.com or Upwork.com sites with your project requirements and freelancers will bid on the job. You can look at all of your bidders' past work and feedback then pick the one you like best. Not a bad deal when you think about it.
After a visitor opts in to your email list you should have an autoresponder that sends messages out to them in the following days. The first message should contain what you promised to get them to opt-in (like this E-Book). An autoresponder will automatically send that first message and then you can have it send out another message, and the day after that another, etc... It all happens automatically without any action on your part. You just have to set the campaign up which is very easy to do. They're very handy tools for an internet marketer. The most popular autoresponder in this industry and the company that I've used for years is Aweber.com. The first month is only $1 and following months are $19/month until your list grows pretty large (at which point you should be making quite a bit of money). I also love Aweber because they have a giant resource library and use advanced email marketing strategies. You should install an autoresponder ASAP after setting up your website, regardless of how much traffic you're receiving. If not, you're missing out on subscribers who visit and then leave. I know there's a lot of information in this chapter, but it's simple: 1) Start collecting emails as soon as your site is setup. 2) Incentivize opt-ins by giving something of value to your visitors like an EBook. 3) Write the Ebook yourself, find PLR content, or hire a freelance writer. 4) Continuously deliver value to your subscribers (coming up next chapter). If you're feeling overwhelmed, just take a deep breath and relax.
With a little practice this will be second nature to you and soon you'll be running a profitable internet marketing business!
Chapter Four: Creating Content Following the advice in this chapter is a vital step in building a successful internet marketing business - you'll fail in internet marketing if you don't follow this one simple rule. A lot of people getting started in this industry think affiliate marketing is as simple as posting an affiliate link, driving traffic through that link, and giggling all of the way to the bank. It's not that easy. Not remotely. This myth was started by crappy affiliate marketing programs all over the internet, but the real way you make money in this industry is by delivering valuable content. I mentioned that last chapter too, but what does that actually mean? Rather than trying to make money off of your subscribers, focus on making their lives better. Deliver value to your subscribers and they will follow you anywhere you go. That's the kind of email list you want, not just a quick sale where you make $20 or $30. Don't treat your email list like a piggy bank. You can NEVER stop delivering value in your emails, articles, or blog posts. The first time you do, you risk that subscriber never opening another email from you.
You can't build your relationship with a subscriber if they never open your emails, which means you'll never convert that subscriber into any sort of revenue. But that shouldn't be your focus. This means don't ever create, "Check out this great new product" emails or blog posts. They'll stop opening your messages and visiting your website in no time. Only send emails that add value to your followers' lives and teach them something that they need to know. If there's a great product that TRULY makes their lives better (not just because it makes you money) send it to them and explain to them how much it's improved your life and why it will improve theirs. Your blog posts, articles, and emails will probably be lessons of some kind. For example, if you're running a site in the diet niche you may send out an email that explains how calorie counting works, how there are 3,500 calories in a pound, and simple passing up on 350 calories 10x per week will shrink your belly by 4 pounds a month. If you're in the golf niche, maybe you send a "5 Ways to Improve your Swing and Hit the Ball an Extra 100 feet... OVERNIGHT" email. If you promise it, you HAVE to deliver it otherwise you're letting your followers down and losing a little of their trust. Make sure all of your content creates an "Aha!" moment for your followers, and you'll be making money in this industry in no time.
Remember, don't treat your followers like a check you're trying to cash. Add value to your lives and focus on long-term relationships. Every once in awhile you'll come across a product that truly helps them and improves their lives, and recommending it to them (after you've already
helped them with several tips, awesome lessons, and valuable content) is almost a sure-fire commission if you've done everything correctly. Add incredible value with your blog post or don't publish it. Add extraordinary value with your email or don't send it. It's as simple as that. Run your business by this one simple rule and you'll make it sooner than later. It's a simple one, but burn it into your mind and don't ever lose sight of it.
Chapter Five: Working with Affiliate Offers This is not an easy one to master but, with practice, you will become better. The purpose of this chapter is to remember: Always make sure you're focusing on adding value over making commissions. Building a brand as a credible, expert source and developing relationships with your followers will ALWAYS be more valuable than a few one-time $30 affiliate commissions. As you create content, opportunities to pitch a companion product will arise. For example, if I'm teaching a lesson on niche research and I point you toward the industry's best, absolute hands-down most valuable keyword tool then you're very likely to buy it (given my lesson on niche research is eye opening and extremely helpful). Here's a tip though: if you have a choice to direct your followers to a paid resource that makes you an affiliate commission, but there's a free resource that teaches them just as much and works just as well, refer them to the free resource. Sure you might miss out on some affiliate commissions but, again, it's much more valuable to build your relationship than anything else. Over time you'll have longer lasting, MUCH more profitable subscribers on your list following these strategies than any other. Think about how many lists you've unsubscribed from in the past.
So as you develop highly valuable, powerful content that truly adds to your followers' lives don't forget to refer them to helpful resources whenever you can.
But follow these rules: 1) Don't overdo it. Not every article or email needs an affiliate link in it. 2) Always refer to free resources as long as they're as good as the paid options. 3) Don't refer any of your followers to something just for the commission. Also, you should try the products you're recommending to make sure they're of value before you recommend them. Remember, if you haven't tried it, there's no way for you to know whether or not it's of any value. Focus on your content, but link to great tools and resources here and there. If your content is valuable and helpful, your followers will view you as a credible source and trust any recommendation you give them. And THAT is why posting a link and driving traffic to it isn't a valid business model in affiliate marketing. You're not adding any value and the person doesn't have any idea who you are! Create value, build trust, and the sales will come. How do you like me so far? I'm not sure how much you've dug into it on your own, but the community that you should have created a free account with is Wealthy Affiliate. It really is excellent for building on and
supplementing this training if you're a complete beginner that's never built a Wordpress site. There are a lot of features in the free membership that you have access to, and you should explore it more if you already have an account, or if you still haven't done so. Even if you're overloaded right now, trust me when I say all of this will be unbelievably valuable to you over the coming weeks, months and years. Next chapter we're going to talk about traffic, which is arguably the most important aspect of running a successful internet marketing business.
Chapter Six: Traffic NOW we're getting into some deep stuff. I'm going to discuss some high-level concepts and also refer you to some resources. Just like everything else, you'll perfect it with practice over time. There are A LOT of different ways to generate traffic and learning them all will take months or years. The good news is you only have to be really good at one or two. I want to start by addressing an extremely important topic: using paid traffic. Be cautious if someone is telling you to use paid traffic before your internet marketing business is profitable. Everybody in this industry learns from the mistakes they make early on..I did...You will too, it's part of the process. We'll talk about how to minimize that trial and error process in the next chapter, but for now understand that you can pay hard-earned money to learn these lessons, or you can learn them while getting free traffic. There are multiple ways to get free traffic. The most well known are probably search engine optimization (SEO) which is where you get your site ranked at the top of the search engines, video marketing, article marketing, forum marketing, etc...
SEO is a preferred method of traffic but it definitely requires a longterm strategy. It's evolved a lot over the years and there's a HUGE amount of outdated information being taught out there. Essentially, the practice of search engine optimization is doing your best to show Google and other search engines that your website is more relevant for a particular term than all of the other websites on the internet. I'm going to link you to a very good walk through from that same program you created a free account with a few days ago. This lesson will give you a comprehensive understanding of SEO basics and show you how to set your website up for search engine rankings. It's a lot of information, but mastering this is a golden key in internet marketing. So that's SEO which is a great long-term source of traffic, but what about the short term? Well my two favorites have always been video marketing and forum marketing. Video marketing will be uncomfortable at first, but you'll get better and better as time goes on. This is content just like anything else, so you should be using it to teach lessons, answer questions, etc... Make sure the information you're giving is as high quality as possible and link back to a relevant blog post or directly to your homepage in the video description. Now my other favorite: forum marketing. This is where you find conversations on forums that are relevant to a blog post you've written and contribute to the conversation based on what you said in that blog post.
You need to make sure to do this correctly otherwise it just comes across as spammy, hurts your reputation, and gets you ZERO traffic. Let me give you an example: You find a conversation on a forum about improving your golf swing. You've written a blog post about enhancing your golf swing that's packed with valuable content, so you would reply to that forum thread giving one or two tips from your blog post (a couple of the most helpful to hook the reader) and then say, "I have six more tips in this post on my blog, feel free to check them out and comment if you have any questions." And link "this post" back to your blog. This way you're contributing to the community by adding valuable content which hooks the readers and demonstrates your expertise and credibility. Then leading them back to your blog where they hopefully opt-in to your email list so you can keep in touch with them and build a valuable relationship over time. Do you see how it's all beginning to connect now? I could have talked about traffic first, but first you have to lay your foundation of having a website setup, creating high quality content, incentivizing opt-ins, and tracking your visitors' behavior to optimize your site over time.
If you do all of this right you could be making money on the internet after you practice the cycle a few times. So once again I've thrown a ton of information at you, but here's the summary: 1) Don't pay for traffic early on. You'll be wasting your money. 2) Start learning and perfecting SEO as a long-term traffic strategy. 3) In the short-term use video marketing and forum marketing to generate traffic. 4) Don't be afraid of video marketing. You'll get better over time. 5) Don't spam forums. Contribute great content and tease them back to your site for more. There's a lot more to know about generating traffic in this industry, but for now this is a very good start and more than you'll need. Traffic is the lifeblood of your internet marketing business so don't take it lightly. Practice it over time and you'll determine your own income if combined with the other lessons I've given you. We've reached the end of chapter six, and only have one more left! I hope that you can look back on what you knew earlier and what you've learned from this E-Book and see a HUGE difference in your understanding of this industry. If you're overwhelmed, just re-read these chapters from time-to-time and I guarantee they'll have a positive impact on your internet marketing career.
I can only give you the information. What you do with it is up to you.
Chapter Seven: Test test and test again. You're Awesome - you've made it through six chapters and are now reading the final (and most important) one. To be honest with you, I neglected this step, but over time I've realized that it's the most important aspect of any internet marketing business. Just like with writing, art, or anything else: your first draft isn't going to be your best. It's called a "rough draft" for a reason. The second draft is marginally better. The third draft is getting close, but still not the best. And the cycle continues. The same is true for any website you launch. The first draft will leave a lot to be desired, but it's a start. As time goes on you can observe visitors' behavior through your Google Analytics account (which we setup in chapter #2) and tweak the banner on your site. Then you might tweak your opt-in form. Then you might tweak the headers and layout of your text. While you're making all of these changes, you can look at the data in Google Analytics to see if you're improving or not. If your bounce rate goes down (the number of people that get to your website and leave immediately), the new banner is better than the old one. If your opt-in rate increases by 3%, your new form is doing a great deal better than the last.
You see, internet marketing is as simple as always trying to beat your best. Sure, that headline on your opt-in form works, but you can probably beat it. Try another headline and watch your Google Analytics statistics to see if you're converting more people with the new one than the older one. If so, congratulations! You have a new champion. But if not, keep trying. There's almost always room for improvement. This, my friends, is what will turn you into an incredible internet marketer. It's what separates the amateurs from the professionals. You're no longer guessing. You're looking at the data, trying something new, and keeping what the data shows is most effective. This is why ANYONE can make it in internet marketing - it's a science, not an art. With that being said, here are the seven stages of website optimization. This applies to any aspect of your website - a banner, a headline, an opt-in form design, etc... 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) 6) 7)
Create the rough draft Launch and observe the analytics Try something new Re-launch Try something new Re-launch Try something new
And the cycle continues. This is the only way to craft the highest converting website possible. It happens over time - weeks or even months. But in the end your website will be a money making machine if you listen to the statistics.
Just like all of the other things I've taught you, there are a few important notes: Don't give up without gathering enough data. You may have heard of "statistical significance" which is just a fancy way of saying that your data is valid. You won't know after 30 visitors whether or not your new idea is working or not. I've had some campaigns start at 1.2% conversion rate, but by the end of the next day it's jumped to 9%. I'm sure glad I didn't stop it before I gave it a chance to work! I'd say you need a minimum of 500-1,000 visitors before you have data that is remotely significant. The more, the better, which brings me to my next important note: You'll be able to test much faster once your website is getting more traffic. For example, right now 500 visitors may sound like a ton! But months from now your website might be producing that in a few hours or a day if you work consistently. That means you could test a new opt-in form every day and see what works best. The final important note about testing and website optimization is only to test one thing at a time. For example, don't change your opt-in form, image header, and headline all at the same time. You won't know which is working and which is failing. You have to isolate the aspect you're testing by only tweaking one thing at a time. This may not make a whole lot of sense to you right now, but follow the other chapters you've read and it will.
Once your website is setup and getting some traffic, change something and observe how your visitors behave differently over the next few days. You'll be amazed at the things you thought were going to do incredibly well can sometimes fail miserably. And sometimes the ugliest, least polished idea can convert visitors like crazy. You never know until you test it. So here we are, the end of the E-Book together. I hope you've learned a lot. The chapters you have read will serve as the foundation for any successful internet marketer's business. It's the same cycle every time, and now you know the "secrets" all of the "gurus" are using. The quiet, successful internet marketers are using the same steps, don't call themselves gurus or scam people out of their hard-earned money. They use their internet marketing skills to help people and as a result, run successful businesses because of all of the relationships they've built. Now you can do the exact same. You have no excuse to NOT succeed - it's going to take some hard work but you now have all of the major lessons you need to succeed. You'll need to fill in a few blanks with a well-rounded training program, but you now have an extremely solid foundation to work with. Follow these seven steps and over time you will become a very effective, very successful internet marketer. Just remember the little guys that helped you in the early stages ;)
You must realize the knowledge you got from this E-Book. Simply read the chapters, re-read them again, and reference them as you learn and grow to make sure you're still on target. There is also one last thing that I want to give you. I mentioned earlier that you will need to fill in the blanks along the way with a wellrounded training program. This means there is a huge library of training, a helpful community to interact with and learn from, and support for when you REALLY get stuck. I hope by this point I've proven to you that I'm not trying to get a quick affiliate commission from you. I value the relationship I have with each and every one of my subscribers and I would never risk that to make a little more money. In a few of these “7 Steps� chapters, I linked you to some content within a program called "Wealthy Affiliate". You were able to access the lessons that I sent you with a free account, but trust me - that didn't even scratch the surface. Here is a brief summary of what else Wealthy Affiliate offers: -Training courses that you can follow along as a road map to build your business. -Classrooms to post in and read more about any specific internet marketing topic you're interested in. -Live Chat to interact with and get help from the community 24/7. -A forum to learn from, read success stories, dig into any particular topic, and post any topic that you want to discuss with the community in detail.
-An extremely active, incredibly generous community that will rally behind you and support you. -A great keyword tool and unlimited website hosting. -Direct contact with the co-founders of the program through the forum if you ever REALLY get stuck. Of course you can always message me or post on my profile too! Community plays a very, very big role in keeping new internet marketers encouraged and moving forward. There are thousands of people within that community that have gone through EXACTLY what you're going through. It's helpful to know they're all behind you and rallying for your success. The list goes on and on, but I don't want to come off as "selly" or make you feel like I'm pressuring you to sign up. It's completely up to you, but I think a premium membership at Wealthy Affiliate will go a LONG way to help you fill in the blanks and get support from a great community. A premium membership is $49 per month and includes everything I've listed above. I'm going to give you my affiliate link in case you are interested in signing up: Thanks, Sheldon Mohl