Hi everyone

Last weekend something funny happened, I went out with the Dad’s from Amber’s school to watch Macclesfield vs London Scottish. We put our money into a kitty and the beer flowed far too much… It was a proper sideways stagger to get home!

Anyway I’m now feeling lucky and postive about life in general. When in that sort of state I could have quite easily been robbed, run over by a car, or done myself a variety of mischieves. Also from what I can remember everyone else with kids the same age is feeling pissed off with the cost of living – petrol, insurance, utility bills, general lack of cash, and finaly the demand for expensive christmas toys!

In fact the very knowledge that I can press “send” and generate any extra cash is something that I should be very proud of – sure it’s not thousands or hundreds, but in these times of austerity you’ve got to be grateful for anything, and lots of small payments are better than no big payments.

If I think back over the past 6 months all of the info products I’ve bought have been in the < $37 bracket, so if I’m buying these inexpensive items that bring high return on investment then that’s what I should promoting.

Note I’m not going to pushing the crappy clickbank products which are full of BS – read this post by Andrew Hansen

http://andrewhansen.name/anti-recommends/i-need-your-help-this-time/

This week I’ve promoted 2 solid sub $10 offers and I’m now even more convinced that selling $10 products is the way forward – and taking action on AJ’s $500 in 24 hours from other people’s WSO means that you as followers of me will be able to get send traffic to my much dealyed and anticipated WSO and get all of the payment.

Anyway time to dash now, going into Manchester as Grandad Steve is treating us to a Pizza at one of the best restraunts in town, and as my mobile phone contract is up for renewal I’m due a shiny new handset.

I’d like to go for an iphone, it’s got all the cool marketing, but like the $37 clickbank products it will suck you into various upsells, and when you include all the apps and being locked in an expensive contract it’s going to be an android phone for me.

Have a great weekend, and start brainstorming for a topic that you can create a $10 report on. Think about the positives of what it brings to you, your business, and personal life.

Andrew

If you listen to Amanda, all I ever do is moan, so today I’m going to do her proud and get a lot of the stuff around my online business off my chest, and hopefully if you’re suffering the same frustrations it will help you realise you’re not alone.

But before I get into full rant mode I have to tell you about 2 great new listbuilders that have just been launched. Both have great owners who will ensure a steady stream of new prospects, and these are worth adding to your advertising arsenal – click the banners below to join.

Now I guess that the first part of my rant relates to Adchiever – when I mailed out last week about the free advertising codes and told you about my excellent results I was shocked to find it had one of the worst click through rates in a long time – do you not want free traffic? Or was I just too late in telling you about it, and you’d already joined through someone else’s link?

Anyway I’m going to number my rants from here on in, as the title suggests I have 5 things to share

1. Outsourcing – My launch plan for my new site involved outsourcing a pdf version of my video series as I realise that some people learn better through reading, and having 2 different versions will create more value and should help increase conversions at the $9.95 price tag I plan on charging.My orignal quote from a recommened source came back at $25 per page, which for a 15 page summary was more than I was thinking of paying. I then scanned the WSO section of the warrior forum and found a writer who was doing a deal on big batches of articles. I contacted her, got a sample of a previous report she’d written, and happily sent her my budget for the report.The 3 day deadline came and went, it was extended by another week, and basically it became clear to me that she was pulling a fast one. Long story short I had to resort to a paypal dispute. Thankfully I won and I’m waiting for the refund to clear before having to go through the whole process of hiring another writer.
2. Google Adwords – Recently I got a voucher for £100 of advertising, and I still have £35 left, so I thought I’d run a cheap campaign via the banner advertising and get my eye in before I move onto media buying and having to spend my own hard cash.

   This was going to be for an affiliate offer, but it’s been nearly 72 hours and my advert is still “under review” which suggests that google really don’t affiliate marketers anymore and the future of paid traffic for affiliates is going to be CPM banners via media buying.

3. Safe-Swap – As you know I’ve been really growing my list numbers through this service, but a few of the recent swap partners have had shocking attitudes. The adverts and sites I have in place are proven to convert, and when people mail out for me they get good clickthrough rates and I get lots of new subscribers.

   Now the trouble is that not all the adverts I send in return are of the highest quality. So a couple of swappers who had adverts for PLR reports with pretty lame headlines have complained that I didn’t send enough traffic and that I should resend to match clicks. Er, No!

   If an advert bombed then sending it again isn’t going to make it better, and I’m going to lose the respect of those who are left on my list if I keep sending out the same crappy messages. So basically apologies to you as subscribers for the odd rogue email.

4. Link Tracking – Today I send out a message for CBCashGrenade. This is the latest in a long line of excellent products from Simon & Jeremy, but I added a space into the link within the html part of aweber, and it re-directs to my 404 page rather than the actual product.

   Rather than do the embarassing resend, I’m apologising now, and am really gutted that I’ve made myself look like an idiot, and I will have lost out on plenty of commission – the exact opposite of what a link tracker should do!

5. Spinning My Wheels – Basically for the reasons outlined above I feel that my online business has actually gone backwards recently.

   I haven’t been able to take action on the things that I know need to happen, my product launch is still not ready, I’ve learnt about media buying but don’t have the funds to get it started, and although my list has been growing in size I’m feeling that the responsiveness to broadcast mailings is dropping.

If you’ve made it this far I’m glad to have you still on my list, and this would be a good time to let me know why you’ve managed to stay without hitting the unsubscribe button?

I look forward to comments, and feel free to share your current frustations, it’s best to get things off your chest than let them build up inside you.

Andrew

A combination of a new product in the pipeline (delays in outsourcing) and studying how to buy social media meant that although I send you a survey last week I haven’t had time to collate the results. So I’ve finally pulled my finger out, and here’s the results.

Have You Used Safelists As A Way Of Generating Traffic To Your Online Offer?

60% of you have never used safelists – given that it’s my current primary traffic source and something that I recommend in all of my products this is something I find surprising, and something hopefully I can change in the near future.

Do You Still Use Safelists On A Regular Basis?

Of the 40% who have used safelists the number still using them drops to 25%, but that’s still 2/3rd’s of the people using them who are getting results. This enforces my point that used properly they are a valuable traffic source.

What Did You Use To Track Your Adverts?

50% used nothing, and of those who do track it was an even split between histconnect, TEtoolbox, and a different service – if you would care to recommend that other service please post a comment.

How much would you pay for a guide to safelist marketing?

Now most of you are a bit tight and the majority went for nothing! But of those who are prepared to invest in their learning the lower price of $9.95 had 3 times the $17 price tag. Using simple maths this means the lower price should convert better, and overall be more profitable.

What Is Your Gender?

70% Male to 30% Female

What is your age?

52% > 50 years

32% in the 34 – 50 years

16% < 35 years

What Is Your Income?

52% < $30k

31% $30k – $6ok

17% > $60k

This confirms my demographic work for buying social media in that the average user is > 35 years old, male, and earns < $60k. Now I’m not saying that all users fall into this catagory, but when I’m buying traffic this demographic should get me better results than teenage girls.

Surveys like this usually generate some strong views, so please post your thoughts.

Andrew