Stop Wasting Time and Money by Promoting the Wrong Thing

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THE VICTORY LAP
by Charles Davidson

Today's Track:
Stop Wasting Time and Money by Promoting the Wrong Thing

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Hi there! Welcome to another issue of The Victory Lap. Here at
the Victory Lap, you'll learn how to kick your business into
overdrive.

There's no hype or fluff here. Just down and dirty, white
knuckle advice to steer you toward the fast track. No
advertising. No gimmicks. No shameless promotions. Just the
stuff you really need. Plus a kick in the seat to get you to
shift into high gear.

Sit down . . . buckle up . . . here we go . . .

FORGET EVERYTHING ELSE

Your opt-in list is THE most important marketing tool you will
ever have. It is the foundation for everything else you do on
the Internet.

Forget about affiliate programs. Forget about web sites.
Forget about advertising. At least for right now.

If you are starting out in online marketing - or if you've been
doing this for a while - you need to spend time focusing on your
opt-in mailing list.

Here's why:

THE DOWN 'N' DIRTY MBA

Here's all you need to know about business . . .

Business profits depend on a transaction between a business and
a customer. In order to make money online, you MUST have
customers who make purchases from you.

Whether you sell products or services, you need customers. If
you promote affiliate programs or network marketing
opportunities, you need customers. If you are going to make
money online, you need customers.

Get the point? You gotta have customers. 'Nuff said.

Most people understand this concept, but they still make some
major mistakes when it comes to Internet marketing.

CHRYSTAL: A CASE STUDY

Let me tell you about my friend, Chrystal.

Chrystal heard about how easy it is to make money online. She
started surfing for money-making opportunities and stumbled on a

few affiliate programs she thought she could promote and make
some good money.

So far, so good.

Chrystal copied some of the pre-written ads from the affiliate
program web site to use in her advertising campaign.

She changed all of the URLs to include her unique referral ID
number and then started placing free classified ads all over the
Internet. The first few days, she threw everything into it.
She spent hours at the computer typing in her ads.

Every day for three weeks, Chrystal checked her stats. Every
day, she was disappointed that her hit counts were not getting
bigger and bigger. Worse yet, her sales remained at zero.

You can imagine how Chrystal felt at the end of those three
weeks. She was about ready to give up. Her hopes of an
Internet fortune seemed to vanish right before her eyes.

Sound familiar? Many people take this exact same approach to
Internet marketing. No matter what affiliate program you
choose, no matter what advertising copy you come up with, the
results are the same. Nothing.

ABOUT TO GIVE UP

When Chrystal came to me, she was ready to give up. I listened
to her story and I was glad she hadn't thrown any money at her
online marketing. At least she had focused on free advertising
sources.

Would her results been much different if she had spent money on
advertising? Maybe. But probably not.

Chrystal and I sat down for a long talk about different
approaches to Internet marketing. As I explained about opt-in
lists, I began to see a light bulb go on in her head. She began
to make the connection.

She had been doing it all wrong.

STARTING OVER WITH A NEW STRATEGY

That night, Chrystal went home and started putting together an
online ezine she could use to build her opt-in list.

It only took her about an hour to create the template and put
together a few bonus gifts she could giveaway as an incentive to
subscribers. After that she spent another couple of hours
promoting her brand new ezine.

When she launched her ezine, she only had about 20 subscribers.

She advertised her ezine all over the Internet - even to many of
the same places she had advertised before. Her list began to
grow. Slowly and patiently she grew her list until it had a few
thousand subscribers.

Now, this didn't happen overnight. Overnight success only
happens when people don't see the days, months, or years of hard
work that happened before.

It took Chrystal many months of hard work and constant
dedication. She worked hard at putting together her ezine. She
tinkered and fine-tuned it. She made it something unique and
special. She was proud of her effort and she enjoyed telling
people about it.

And then something happened.

In each issue of her ezine, she promoted her affiliate programs
and recommended products and services to her loyal subscribers.
Every week she made contact with the people who joined her list.

As she did, her affiliate commissions started growing. The
more people that joined her list, the more money she made.

THE MORAL OF THE STORY

So, what was different this time around?

Chrystal advertised at many of the same places. She didn't
spend that much more money on advertising. She still promoted
her affiliate programs?

So, what did she do differently that allowed her to be more
successful?

Chrystal made one slight change in her marketing methods and it
allowed her to start making money.

The difference was in her email list.

Here's why . . .

THE MAJOR MISTAKE MOST INTERNET MARKETERS MAKE

Promoting an affiliate link through ezine and classified
advertising is a major mistake.

Think about it. If I'm sitting at home looking through my email
and I find an ad that looks interesting, I'll click on it and
see what it has to say.

When the web page comes up, I'll spend a few seconds skimming
the text. If anything grabs my attention, I may hang around a
little longer and read a little more carefully.

If I don't like what I see, then I click off and go somewhere
else.

And that is probably the last time I ever visit that web site
again.

The owner of that website spent a lot of time and money to
promote their website and the only thing I did was come in and
look around for a few seconds. Once I leave, you can bet that I
will forget all about that website.

Doesn't seem to make any sense to advertise like this.

And that's exactly what happened to Chrystal. She put out a lot
of ads. She even got some hits, but once they clicked away, she
lost that prospect forever.

RADIO SHACK BUILT AN EMPIRE ON A LIST

I remember many years ago, whenever you went into a Radio Shack,
whenever you bought something, the sales clerk asked you for
your name and address. It didn't matter if you were buying a
battery or a stereo system.

By simply taking a few moments to get a customer's name and
address, Radio Shack was able to build one of the largest mail
order catalog businesses in the United States.

They've since stopped collecting this information in order to
respect their customer's privacy. They still have an opt-in
email list, however, that customers can request to be added to
in order to get their catalogs. They just don't ask for it at
the cash register.

GENERATE CUSTOMERS NOT SALES

The main reason you should be promoting your opt-in mailing list
rather than an affiliate link is so that you can continue to
send your offers to your customers.

You should focus all of your marketing efforts on generating
customers and future prospects, not on immediate sales.

If you have a list of people who want to receive information
from you, you can send them information on a constant basis
about your affiliate programs.

They'll become familiar with you and what you have to offer.
Pretty soon, they'll start to buy.

REPEATED EXPOSURE CREATES SALES

The first time someone visits your affiliate link, they may not
want to buy. But if you keep promoting it to everyone on your
list, then pretty soon, they'll want what you have. You may not
catch them today, but you may catch them tomorrow. It's as
simple as that.

It's common knowledge in the advertising industry that a
prospect will probably not buy from you on the first exposure to
your offer. You must constantly expose them to what you are
trying to sell. As they build trust in you and begin to
recognize your product or service, the walls of objection will
start to come down. When they become more confident in you and
your offer, they will start to think about buying.

Mmost people agree that the magic number is between 7 and 10.
This is the number of times people will need to see your offer
before they will even begin to consider putting their cash on
the line.

Only through repeated exposure to your offer can you expect your
prospects to become customers.

When you own a list, you have a base of customers that you can
continue to market to month after month and year after year.

Instead of an unknown person who clicks on your affiliate link
and then disappears into the abyss of the Internet, you will
have a customer who will grow to trust you over time and begin
to act on your recommendations.

You will have the ability to generate income at any time simply
by sending an announcement to your opt-in list.

The success of your business lies in your list and in how you
continually market your offers to your list.

If you're still promoting affiliate links and websites, then you
need to stop now and focus your time and money in the right
place.

SHIFT TO HIGH GEAR

You'll get nothing if you do nothing!

Here's are your Victory Lap action steps to help you shift your
business into high gear . . .

DECIDE - once and for all - that you will no longer promote
programs and affiliate links except to your opt-in list. No
exceptions. Stop wasting your time and money. Capture those
names and email addresses starting today.

CREATE an opt-in mailing list. Below you'll find a link for a
free autoresponder that you can use to host your opt-in list.
It's easy to set up. It's free. There's no excuse.

http://www.rapidbizsuccess.com/recommended/get-response.htm

EMAIL ME to let me know you've done it! Let me know you're
taking the steps to kick your business into high gear. I'll be
happy to subscribe to your opt-in list. Maybe we can even talk
about some joint ventures.

mailto:victory-lap@rapidbizsuccess.com?subject=opt-in-start