The Silent Avatar Speaks

If you’re into Internet marketing then maybe you can relate to to the title of this post….( or am I just being a touch sensitive to others marking shite loads of money straight from the wallets of “newbies”, and anyone else looking … looking …. looking … to make a quick buck? (sorry successful online business).

Let me explain…

My email inbox has been (yet again) bombarded with product launch emails.

If it wasn’t Mike Filsaime’s Traffic Fusion at $1495 (oops $1497) , it’s Rich Schefren’s Guided Profit System (at $2495.. oops $2497), or how about …

Look.. I’m not saying that these “systems” are not worth what they are asking for.. but either people are being crazy and digging deep into their wallets until they hit their credit card/s (Ker Ching),  or I’m just a tad disillusioned with the whole “up the ante lets rake in the money while we can game”.

In the space of 3 years I have seen product launches go from $97 to $497 to now $1497 and Rich’s latest offering at $2497!

Put your wallets away.. there is nothing that these guys can teach you that you can’t find by some diligent surfing of the Internet. Yes.. It may take time, but how about putting that $2497 into a BIG advert in your metropolitan paper and see what that gets you.

How about thinking strategically about where you spend your money for your online business?

How can this money be best spent right at this time to move me towards where you need to go?

$2497?

Think about it… a shite load of PPC! Just monitor your competitors, their ads, and see if the same ad keeps coming up week after week, after week. If it does? Just duplicate it with your own branding. Look.. no one keeps paying for PPC if it isn’t working.

$2497?

How about paying a crack SEO dude to really ramp up your site and get the traffic flooding in?

$2497?

Rent a Billboard for a week (or how ever long it gets you), in the most prominent spot in your city and stick your web address on it and a “tease offer”.

$2497?

How about outsourcing all the stuff you’ve never finished, never got around to, always wanted to add to your website, or have them blog like crazy for you, submit articles, research a niche? Hell for $2497 I could bring on board an outsource from from some far flung land that is prepared to work for months for me for that sort of money.

$2497?

How about hiring a PR dude to get you to speak at a Wealth Building Conference? (not for the faint hearted but definitely doable).

$2497?

For that I could catch a return flight from Australia and knock on Rich Schfren’s door and bug the hell out of him day and night until he sat down with me and talked turkey.

Now for all those reading who like to spend money on “Personal Development”, I say “You go girl!” (or guy). I am definitely an advocate for learning more of what you need to know about yourself, your self sabotaging patterns, and if you need to pay $2497 to find out what your constraints are then go for it.

Hell..  welt KNOW what our constraints are TIME and MONEY. But I’ll give you the link to shoot on over and sign your self up if you really want to…

You can do it here: https://ssl2.strategicprofitsystem.com/gps/

For $2497 I could get a one on one with someone like Rich Schefren for .. hmmmm.. maybe an hour or two.

Do you think I would pick his brains to bits.. do you think I would tell him what I want to do and then ask him “How do I get there”.

Do you think I would have a list of questions..take a recorder… video… do the whole shebang (and even take ‘em for lunch is that’s what was required?)

But you know what?…..

Do you really need to know what you don’t know?  Or … do you just need to know that you don’t know, and get someone who to find you the information you don’t know?

It reminds me of a story I read once.. it was about the guy Ford.. (you know the one.. the guy who made the first car.. the “Model T”). The story goes like this…

Henry Ford (congrats to those who got it right), wagered a bet with a friend that he could answer any question his friend put to him and get the answer right.

The friend accepted the challenge, and up for grabs was a considerable amount of money…

The friend asked him the question (insert your own wildly insane, hard as you can, bet you don’t know the answer question ’cause it doesn’t really matter what the question was he was asked).

The point is this…

Henry Ford picked up the phone, called his personal assistant, told him the question, and said get back to him with the answer.

Touche! Mr Ford!

Did he NEED to know the answer? No.

All he needed to know was how to find the answer, and he only had to pick up the phone and he had his answer. Do you get it?

You work hard for your money.. damn hard. Make it work for you, and stop making others wealthy, because now you know.

PS. This post comes with a disclaimer. Rich Schefren is the only man who I have got up at 4am in the morning to join a live video seminar he was hosting. The man’s a legend. However  he relies on people not to think about what else their money could buy. His list is so big, his contacts so far flung, his wealth (well.. I’ll leave that alone ’cause we know he’s not short of a dime) that he has at his disposal people just like Mr Ford had.  In a nutshell he has gotten rid of his constraints to building a successful business by finding out what he needs to know and then getting others to do the groundwork for him. How on earth do you think he manages to conduct workshops, teleseminars, run Strategic Profits, do product launches, and the thousand and one other things this guy does?

$2497 for the Guided Profits System?  Now it’s a choice not a “must have”.

I say.. Ease up fellas.. our wallets are not that FAT (and I’m not about to make yours fatter).

Of course, if you agree or disagree you comments are always welcome

Sphinn

Tags: Advertising, Business Tips, Internet Marketing, Online Business, Promotion and Marketing, Web Design by the silent avatar
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I couldn’t resist making this post in the wake of the launch of “Review Crusher”.

What? You haven’t heard of Review Crusher? Where have you been?

Mike Filsaime is at it again churning out yet another “buy this and it will make you money” product.

I sat through the whole painful video introduction which (if you took out all of his bragging and name dropping, and who he rubs shoulders with), it could easily have been condensed down to 10 minutes.

(C’mon Mike! Do you think we all have tons of time to just sit and watch a “brag fest”?)

Now don’t get me wrong. I’m no party pooper and good on Mike for getting to where he is (and no doubt his skydiving exploits are testimony to the money he has made to enjoy his down time) As Mike freely confesses.. he work’s hard and parties hard.

I’ve been reading Mike’s emails and watching product launch after product launch since I purchased the Butterfly Marketing script. All up I am probably on about 5 of Mikes lists (which means I get copies of all of his emails from all 5 lists! – which is another peeve of mine), and I’ve unsubscribed from others because it was just getting ridiculous with the duplicate emails).

But seriously.. lengthy product introductions like Review Crusher is enough to send me (and I’m sure many others) screaming up the garden path saying “Get to the point!”.

Was the waiting the 50 odd minutes worth it?

In my opinion? No.

Look.. the premise for this product is to be able to open up your own “Review Site” and without taking anything away from Mike I’m sure the product does what he says it does.

BUT… I couldn’t help thinking that even though you can customise your own template (so individual sites can be different), it still boils down to a few more hundred review sites hitting the internet courtesy of Mike Filsaime.

Now there is some benefit in creating your own review site, and before we get into what those benefits are, what about the competition who is already out there? Mike Filsaime has his own site for reviewing internet marketing products called MarketingProductReview.com.

As at the time of writing MarketingProductsReview.com’s Alexa rank was 28,927,768. Compare that to this sites ranking of 1,213,502. Enough said.

Dig a little deeper and I find that the traffic stats for MarketingProductReview.com is 140,832 (down 27,135)

The Reach, Traffic and Page Views are all down.

So one has to ask the question… is having a “review site” a good thing?

Well.. if you look at the stats then it’s not an earth shattering site for a niche (and this is Mike Filsaimes site).

However if you are in looking to pad out this site with your affiliate links and someone buys on the strength of a review, then it could be a money making proposition for you.

If you’re into Internet Marketing, then forget grabbing this product for a site which reviews Internet Marketing Products. Go review another niche as Mike’s got that one covered.

By The way.. if you are interested in purchasing Review Crusher software only it’s US$1997, or you can get a payment plan option: US$497 down and US$67 per month buys you the software and membership to Job Crusher.

You can watch Review Crusher Video here (you can download the video and fast forward Mike “bragfest”) to save time.

If you want to throw your money at Mike then go ahead. If I want a review I will just Google it.

So Is there any benefit in having a review site?

I’ll let you be the judge.

Tags: Hot Off The Press, Internet Marketing by the silent avatar
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One of the ways to make money online is to become an affiliate and sell products for others and get a commission.

Commissions range in percentage, but you can expect somewhere in the region of fifty to seventy five percent of the cost of the product (less fees), so it can be a lucrative way to make additional income.

If you have a list to sell to then simply sending out a broadcast email to your list advising them of the affiliate product along with a personal testimonial can be all that is required to sell an affiliate product.

The amount of email which comes into my inbox each day is testimony to the number of product launches which continue to bombard the Internet marketing circles on a daily basis.

Along with product launches, it is not uncommon to see “contests” to reward affiliates to actively promote products.

Russell Brunson’s Dot Com Secrets affiliate contest came to my attention this week offering to win a lease of a Corvette for two years.

What jolted me upright was the inclusion of a photo of Mike Filsaime standing in front of an enormous Hummer, with the caption underneath reading:
“Mike Filsaime showing off his brand new Hummer H2 he won thanks to winning one of Russell Brunsons’ affiliate contests!!!”

If you have been in Internet marketing circles, then you would know Mike Filsaime. Mike shot to fame with his Butterfly Marketing Manuscript, and software. He has become a multi-millionaire, launching numerous products including Viral Friend Generator (which I spoke about in my post about viral marketing). He has built a list of over 300,000 subscribers (OMG), so does it surprise you to see that Mike took out line honours in an affiliate contest? Nope.

And what does this mean for people like you and me starting out?

It means this…I’ve got a better chance of winning the Lottery than winning an affiliate contest with Mike Filsaime promoting to his list.

And if you go up against someone with a list of thousands, then what’s your chance of winning such a contest? Not likely.

My question is this… does Mike really need a Hummer? My guess is “nope”.

And what’s this doing to those who are hell bent on making a career of Internet marketing, or those in the loop who keep Internet Marketing alive?

It kills any enthusiasm, stifles the very essence of “fair play”.

A contest open to to the big marketing gurus is like playing with a full hand of aces. How can someone with a list this big not win? (and let’s face it… Mike Filsaime has all the knowledge and resources he needs to make sales happen)

Forget the contests. It’s not even a level playing field.

You’ve got a better chance of winning the lottery, so save your time and effort and go buy a ticket and focus on building the list.

The money is in the list!

Tags: Affiliate Marketing by the silent avatar
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Give me $500. Come on! Give me $500!!! 

What?  You’re not going to just give me your money?

Why Not!?

See, when you ask someone to do something for you, unless they have some motivation to do so, they just won’t do it. No motivation.

So today I want to focus on motivating your current subscribers to grow your list (aka viral marketing).

Viral marketing makes use of the tendency of a person to share something found to be informative, entertaining or amazing. Viral marketing makes use of many mediums in enticing this behaviour. It might be in the form of an interesting story, an addicting flash game, an amusing video and many others that may catch a person’s fancy.

This ingenious form of marketing is typically low cost and is a wonderful tool for any company to utilise. The benefit greatly overshadows the cost or efforts to initialise this marketing scheme.
Viral marketing makes use of many mediums in enticing this behaviour. It might be in the form of an interesting story, an e-report, an addicting flash game, an amusing video and many others that may catch a person’s fancy.

Viral marketing is wonderful, but “True Viral Systems” are quite rare.

A true viral system is one with a “Spawn Rate” of x>1 Spawn Rate: The Rate at Which Your Viral System Grows – That is, for every one person who enters the viral system, they will, on average, result X number additional people spreading the word as well.
                        
If your spawn rate is greater than 1, over time you have something that grows and grows perpetually.

  Every viral system will die at some point even if they are truly viral, however your system does not have to be truly viral for you to benefit.  If you have a spawn rate of X < 1 you will still get growth – and growth, when you’re talking about an email list, *is* exactly what you want to achieve.

Ah, this is the *theory* of viral marketing.  It sounds wonderful doesn’t it?

The problem is, getting the actual result is the problem.
Here’s where the real value of what I have to tell you surfaces.

So just how do you increase the Spawn Rate of your viral system?, or put in layman’s terms, how do you get people to spread your marketing message for you?

 

The Golden Rule of Viral Marketing:
“If there is no motivation, there is no viral  growth.”          

You weren’t motivated to give me $500 were you?  Unconsciously you were looking for the “What’s In It For Me” answer.

And if you weren’t offered a reason to give me $500, or you couldn’t find one then you simply won’t do it. Put simply, there has to be motivation.

Whoa! I can hear the naysayer loud and clear…

 “But what about if I just wanted to give for no real reason at all?”.

Then I say your motivation is to please the asker, or you want to avoid the pain you will  experience when you say  “No”.           

So in order to motive people to do something for you, you want to motivate them by giving a compelling reason to do so.

The classic way to motivate people to spread the word is to offer them an incentive: “Pass this on and we’ll give you ____” (fill in the ____ with your creativity).            

Motivating doesn’t need to be overt as sometimes people are motivated to pass things on for more subtle reasons. Ever noticed how many jokes get passed on from one email address to another? The reason they get passed on is you generally found them funny and want to share the humour with a friend.

Knowing the value of viral marketing, a number of software applications have been spawned to assist your viral marketing efforts.

There was plenty of hype around Mike Filsaime’s Viral Friend Generator when it was launched and I recommend as the best viral marketing tool to use for your website.

Tell A Friend Script

One of the easiest methods in viral marketing is using a tell-a-friend script. This is a simple programming script that you can attach to the programming of your website. Generally, tell a friends script are installed in pages where a media is placed so that a person can easily send the media to any of his friends or his family members.

The basic concept of  a tell a friend script is a script wherein a person may input his name, e-mail address, the recipient’s e-mail address and send the media to the intended recipient much like an e-mail with an attachment. As the recipient receives the e-mail he wouldn’t think of the mail a spam mail because he would see the sender’s name as someone he or she knows and trust.

Tell a friend script eliminates greatly the chances of being blocked because they use the information inputted by the sender. This allows for wider spreading of this marketing method. It can be quite sneaky but it is very effective.

 With the e-mail sent and opened the sent media will either be read, viewed or played. Also along with the mail would be a brief description of the company or site that sponsors the media sent. This allows for the introduction of either the site, company name or its products. The along with it is another tell a friend script.

Then the process begins again. As more people use the tell a friend script, more and more people will know of the existence of the sponsoring company or site. People who read the ads inside the mail who liked what they see would go and click on the link and visit the site. This drives traffic into the site resulting to great number of potential customers.

 Tell A Friend Script Availability

 A tell a friend script is very simple and does not require a complicated method of programming. In fact, you can copy paste a script and simply put it on an intended page. Finding one is even simpler. All you have to do is go to a search engine and type in the search box “tell a friend script” then press enter or click go.

In the search results page you will see many links that will direct you to a site where you can get a tell a friend script. It would just be a simple matter of looking and searching for the script and copying it to your intended web page.

With a tell a friend script viral marketing strategy you can drive traffic into your site which could potentially spell profits. This is a simple harmless script that offers great benefits for low cost paired with great creativity and foresight.

It is imperative that you have patience in using a tell a friend script. If your chosen media doesn’t get the mileage that is expected of it, it may take some time before it gets spread or shared. But surely many people will see your ads and there is great probability that they will visit your site increasing your traffic flow.

Tags: Internet Marketing, Tools For Your Business by the silent avatar
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