So far December has been rubbish, all the grown-ups in the house have had lingering colds, and my computer time has been limited to completing fiverr gigs. But tonight I’ve found time to compare and contrast 2 different squeezepages.

Like I say I do have a cold, so apologies if the audio quality is more monotone than usual.

the unknown super affiliate

The only reason I found this was through a request on the warrior forum about how a squeezepage could get 300 leads and not make a single sale. This sort of approach would have worked well back in 2007 which was probably when it was first created, but in the modern world it just doesn’t work as we’ve seen it all before and want something real.

Going through the offer page it’s got all of the aspects that make me cringe. 

It’s talks about “Easy Money” and how this digital information is limited to 500 action takers, and the ultimate NLP sales tactic of overvaluation turns $1997 right down to just $7. 

Nick Grimshawe

Nick bought my BuildAQualityList course, and has done a brilliant job of taking action. 

Within the 5 second timer you can see that Nick wants to help you achieve success with Traffic Exchanges, and he’s giving you the chance to download a report which will teach you how to get results. 

Now Nick’s page may not get as many subscribers, and Nick doesn’t make you any offers, but I will bet that this time next year that Nick will still be in business generating leads and making money from his list via the numerous evergreen programme’s that he has in these rebrandable reports and on his blog.

If you do want to join Nick’s list here’s the direct link to his squeezepage

Can You See Why Personal Branding Is Important?

If you want real people to give you their real e-mail address and listen to the advice you give on which products / services to spend their money on then it’s time to really invest hard in your personal brand.

Andrew

On Saturday morning I was driving, and whilst deciding if the roundabout was clear enough to go I was shunted by a car behind. The impact was < 5 mph and on pulling over into the nearest layby it was pretty obvious the car bumpers had done their job, and neither car was damaged.

So that’s how these minor incidents should be resolved, and the young lad was really apologetic. We did exchanged numbers, and I should really call him up and confirm that nothing will be happening about this. No damage done, and he’ll just need to remember and leave a bit more room at roundabouts in the future.

What Cheat’s Do

Now a very similar incident occurred to me back in June, where the person in front of me didn’t go when the roundabout was clear, and I hit her car at 1 mph. Like above no damage was done to either car, but the trouble here was that her car had 2 Shaun Ryder types in the back.

It wasn’t until 5 minutes after getting back on my way I suddenly realised that whiplash claims in that particular area were a very common thing to happen. Sure enough 6 weeks later we had a call from the insurance company wanting to know a bit more details about our “crash”

Turns out that one of the passengers wanted to claim for whiplash. This accident caused no damage to either car, and out a total of 9 people in both cars the biggest person involved was suffering the most. 

The World Has Gone Mad

Our insurance company suspected foul play was involved, but because he made the claim he was going to be offered a £1,000 out of court settlement for the “discomfort” of his whiplash. It turns out that if you actually try to prove he’s lying it would cost everyone involved a lot more than this significant sum of money he was getting for nothing.

Based on this it would far too easy for me to get on the phone and complain of a sore neck, or some sort of discomfort. 

But here’s the thing, I’m honest, and much as I would like to get a thousand pounds just before Christmas I would feel like a cheat. I don’t have this “entitlement” gene where I think the world owe’s me a living. 

Being Honest Will Cost You Money

Now that my details have been registered with an insurance company I will be getting letters in the post and phone calls telling me they symptoms of whiplash and how much I’m owed. 

The people running these companies are very similar to “Churn & Burn” email marketers. They buy your details and then pester you into taking something you don’t want and rely on high pressure tactics to make money. They don’t care that you weren’t really hurt, all they want is their share of the commission.

Personally I can think of nothing worse than making money through selling a lie, have you noticed how when I send you an offer I focus on the benefits and how it will help you achieve a specific goal. I’m not going to pick the offer that pays the highest commission and has a great conversion because it has a fantastic salespage that has people pulling out their credit cards to buy “the dream” of being financially independent within a month after spending a single $97

Treat Other’s Like You Want To Be Treated

Don’t be tempted to take the easy route and claim for things that you’re not entitled to, or promote things purely based on money when you know it’s essentially never going to work and is aimed at selling to vulnerable newbies who don’t know any better.

Stay Honest

Andrew Stark

One of the reasons that I enjoy being a member of ClickTrackProfit is that they set achievable targets that mean you get rewarded with badges if you do the tasks. The other benefit of course is I generate credits in numerous traffic exchanges which means that more people will get to see the splash pages which in turn brings readers to this blog.

So when I saw that the TimTech team were doing a contest I thought to myself that sounds like a good idea, I’m going to give this a go. The concept is simple, collect 18 badges in day, and complete the picture below, in return I get a token. On Sunday a prize wheel will appear and my token will give the chance to win cash or credits from participating exchanges.

This is the completed picture I managed to achieve yesterday, my biggest gripe with the whole process was the fact it took me 5 hours to finish the task, and when you actually work a real job this is a big ask of someone. Hence the headline, if I was retired, worked full time online, or didn’t have other responsibilities then I probably would repeat the process for the remainder of the contest.

After surfing each site I assigned all available credits, and here was the result – note I recently reset the tracker.

I use TEToolbox and looking at the stats all of the sites in the promotion were able to deliver the hits I assigned. This is brilliant as it shows that the promotion is working and that the community are taking part. The worst feeling in the world is to assign credits to a TE and find that the traffic takes a week to arrive.

Looking at the stats a couple of new sites I joined have given above average results

Using the chat to +1

I decided to spend 15 minutes at each site, and use the chat function to see who else was participating and what others were thinking of the whole contest. I didn’t dare use the LFMTE chat, and tumbleweed was present at a few sites, but I was able to strike up a couple of conversations.

A few people told me I was daft for doing this, the amount of time was an issue for some, whilst others didn’t want to join more exchanges. Randy Ritter was in the chat at his sites and talking about how activity was through the roof thanks to this contest, and as the only reason I was in his exchange was to get the badge I’m proof this contest is working.

In face I’ve just checked out the red tick badge and 3 pages worth of people were also crazy enough to complete the card. All of these people are potentially my target market, and I hope that the splash page advertising this blog and the badge for all readers get’s me noticed.

10 seconds vs 6 seconds?

In the sites with 6 second timers all of the adkreator splash pages loaded perfectly and I was able to see a lot of people have taken action on the branding, it’s just a pity they’re still promoting crap. The golden nugget I want to share here is that in the extra 4 seconds I was constantly drawn to the banner advert next to the timer.

When I get ready to launch a full on advertising campaign I think that banner advertising will have to be a massive part of my campaign. Many exchanges will practically give this space away, the cost is normally 10% of the credits and if you’re trying to brand your own site this will be a very cost effective method vs buying start page adverts.

The new found star

Like I said above many people were doing a good branding, but were promoting all the wrong things, so if you want to know how and what to advertise you need to look at Rhonda and learn from her. The way that she designed all of her own splash pages and the branding was brilliant, and the best part is that she has actually has her own site where I can go and place an order and give her money directly.

Far too many people are caught in the downline mentality where they’re actively generating leads for other people and hoping to get some crumbs of commission should the downline upgrade. If the page you advertise isn’t directly benefiting you then it’s time to think about what you’re doing.

In summary I think this is an excellent example of how community marketing can work. All the owners are actively promoting each other and trying to increase the level of activity and engagement. This will bring long term benefits and help show other areas of internet marketing that surfing traffic exchanges is not a waste of time.

Here’s to a good prize for everyone who is able to complete a card.

Andrew Stark

So it seems that the subject of launching a site via the traditional JV model has stirred up some controversy.

This post is going to compare this “scummy” Internet Marketing model vs a more sustainable model.

Traditional Model

You pick a date, and then spend all your effort on schmoozing the big list owners and setting up the site to get highest earning per click for the affiliates. On top of that a contest will be in place to give away cool items such as ipads, experience days, and other shiny items.

The reason this model works so well in the world of internet marketing is the “shiny object” syndrome. Every month a new fad appears, currently it’s pintrest, could it be sitizen’s next month?

Your salespage will be set up for maximum hype and use all the pressure tactics such as blind salescopy and playing with emotions by selling hopes and dreams.

Now the trouble with this as a list owner is that you can get carried away with the “hype” and promote because you want the prizes and don’t care how good the “product” is, and if it will actually help your customers out.

With the rise of “churn & burn” marketing I’ve seem plenty of people go from making thousands on that first mailing to then making zero in a few months when profits have been put in front of ethics.

Ultimately the JV model is a cash grab, and it’s no different to the mobile phone market. Big money can be made today, but if you still have stock left once the hype is over then you’ll struggle to shift it.

To make this model work you need to constantly have new products and keep generating that newbie list to prevent the list you worked so hard to create from being burnt.

Community Model

This model works if you still want to sell the same product a year from now.

It’s about getting the people who buy / use your product or service to tell friends about how they’ve used it and what the benefits are. Typically the “salespage” will explain exactly what the product does, who the owner is, and be free of the normal marketing BS you have if you want to attract a “guru” to promote it.

Customer service will be a priority and the owner themselves will want all the users to succeed. Refund rates will be exceptionally low, and if you have a question then generally other members of the site will be ready to help out.

Social media will also be a key feature of these sites, you can form friendships with like minded people in the same niche.

Strike The Perfect Balance

To me it’s important that you focus on your marketing and make sure that the page will convert as well as possible. If you want to be successful you need to attract affiliates who are able to promote your site, so you do need to have ways of attracting the “big fish” who can send you lots of traffic.

As an owner make sure that you spend your advertising dollars in the right place and get to know the people who you want to promote your business. If you’re a traffic exchange owner and want to have the TimTech community help you then spend money with them and buy the tiered badges and take the time to meet the TELive community.

If you want the other “big players” in TE / Safelist Land to promote you then buy login adverts and credit specials then tell the site owner what the conversions were and how much profit they made you. This sort of information will get you onto the radar and show you as a serious business owner not someone after a money grab.

Place banners to their site inside your members area and add a follow-up message to your autoresponder. Integration marketing is the only strategy that works as well today as it did last year.

Be True To Yourself

It’s up to you how ethical you want to be. If you’re happy with “churn & burn” marketing where you only care about the profits you make today that’s cool, but when you mail out next month and make no sales don’t be surprised.

Andrew