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What Are You Struggling With? | ||
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I want to know what you are struggling with right now in your business and with your Internet marketing! What gets you stressed out? Or what is the biggest challenge you need help with? What do you feel is keeping you from breaking through to the next level of income in your business? Please take a moment to submit a comment below and give as much DETAIL as possible about something you need help with. I am going to start blogging a series of posts to address specific needs that some of my readers have. I won’t be able to answer all of the requests but I am going to pick several of the most detailed ones and post my advice for them. So take a moment and post your problem/issue/challenge and be as specific as possible. If you would like to me to take a look at a web site or any other landing page, please post the URL and/or any other data you’d like to share.
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« Squidoo Free Traffic Ride Gets Squished | What The Heck Do I Sell? » |
July 12th, 2007 at 8:41 pm
I’m struggling with learning about getting a LOT of video and audio on a membership
site that will open soon.
I have problems converting the video to FLV files that still have a good
quality. I’ve used SUPER and ULead with less than acceptable results.
Sometimes the audio sounds like Alvin and the Chipmunks when I
convert to MP3. It’s not loading as fast as I would like. It’s all very
unreliable and that’s just not acceptable.
Plus, I’m really concerned that I will not have enough bandwidth to support a lot of
people watching the video or listening to the audio at potentially the same time.
Surely there’s a formula someplace.
I’ve searched high and low to find help to solve these problems and I can’t find the
answers anywhere.
Any advice would be much appreciated.
Thanks in advance,
Jackie Lange
July 12th, 2007 at 8:48 pm
Hi John,
I don’t see any comments yet so let me (hopefully) be the first!
Here’s my problem: Getting quality content for a very, very specific and tight niche, in which reputation means everything.
The niche I’m working in is martial arts, and specifically Chinese ‘internal’ martial arts. I decided to do this online because it’s my real, great passion in life, and with my parents (boomers) generation approaching failing health and expensive healthcare, I think that in addition to other great benefits, I can help people live more healthily and improve the quality of their own lives.
I’ve recently purchased a domain which I plan to use as the main anchor of my site, and I’m planning to develop it very similarly to the way you’re developing income.com. I’m watching you very carefully for specific things you’re doing actually. So much so that while the site itself is not up, I’ve put up a blog at http://www.wudangquan.com/blog . . .
This is a relatively good domain, and is highly brandable for the niche.
So my eventual goal is laid out in that blog, andthe one above in my signature or whatever. I want to provide the highest quality content on this subject that’s ever been produced.
I’m so dedicated to this goal, that I’m moving from South Korea (where I’m an English teacher - I’ve been in Asia about 8 years) to China next month, to take a dramatic pay cut and get close to the source of this information, have access to original texts, and so on.
The site will be more or less a monthly/bi-monthly magazine in the front, and behind that will be a web 2.0 community type of site with lots of things for registered users to do.
Again, my problem is content. I figure that once I start doing some translations, video interviews, etc. other people will contribute, but like I said - reputation is very important, because like internet marketing, this niche is full of hacks and phonies.
So in a nutshell, my question is - How would you get experts in a very narrow niche/field to contribute their expertise, experiences, and so on to a third parties project, beyond the usual (I’ll give you a link back, exposure, etc.) stuff on a relatively tight budget?
Thanks for reading this!
Jonathan
July 12th, 2007 at 9:24 pm
Hi John,
I have been in the web design, development & marketing world for a few years, and have learned a lot in terms of specific skills like php & mySQL database development, SEO, link-building, Flash development, yada yada yada. I run my own business as a service provider for others, but I really don’t have a business that builds wealth. It’s like I’ve got all these skills but am squandering them on clients who don’t really need them or appreciate them.
I have to market all of my small companies services, talk to the customers, make the sales - AND THEN do all the work too. I feel like our end products are second to very few. But what I have begun to realize over the past few years is that design & development services just don’t make that much money after everything is said and done. All the support time and revisions eat away at billable hours. Unless I were to build a big company and cheapen our work quality, and bring in massive volume of clients, I don’t really see how I can really make much more than a small annual income.
The biggest problem I struggle with is that I really don’t have a business of my own that creates income on it’s own. I would way rather be putting these skills into my own projects, something that turns a profit on it’s own. I know without a doubt I have the skills to pull off a decent wealth building enterprise, but have been involved in quite a few flopped projects where we had equity stake, but the partners would either not follow through or the idea just wasn’t all that good when we actually put it to market. Thus I would invest months of time and really learn a lot, but lose money in the end. Thus now I’m fairly skeptical of any new project, and being in significant debt I can no longer afford to invest time (and definitely not money) unless I know with some level of certainty it will be worth it.
You had mentioned at some point in your life had been over $100k in debt and hadn’t really made any money yet. How did you get yourself out of it and how did you pull off successful business concepts when you had no money left to borrow and had to pull it off with almost nothing but your own skills?
July 12th, 2007 at 9:53 pm
Hello John,
I know you’ll probably have plenty of these responses and this is a great thing for you to help the “little” people out.
I recently just started StomperNET SIMPLE and to say the least a phenomenal boot camp in starting a internet marketing career. But my dilema is keeping my wife pacified, in other words I guess what are some things I could do or show her that internet business is a vialble way to make a living.
I’m doing all the things I need to do to prime the pump on a daily basis but as you know a new internet business doesn’t start making money the next day. Here’s my SIMPLE site that you could take a look at expert-parent.com/parenting-top-tips/ to critique and please be brutally honest.
So if you could explain some things or exercises to keep the spouse happy until the cash starts to come in or do I just say f her and go after what I believe in. I know there’s a healthy balance somewhere I just haven’t found it yet.
July 12th, 2007 at 10:02 pm
Sorry John didn’t put the URL in properly
http://www.expert-parent.com/parenting-top-tips/
THANX
July 12th, 2007 at 10:10 pm
As you said in one of your other videos. Sell what others are selling, ok coll, how do you know what others are willing to buy and what are other people buying online. Hard products? Ok ever try finding wholesalers online GOOD LUCK, I get the feeling they dont promote online or dont optimize their sites and thus dont appear in thr rankings.
So lets say you have found a wholesaler that wont rip you off. Then theres the stuggling point of creating a stompernet type site without having to pay a fortune (probably should have paid it when it was open to the public AGAIN). Is a yahoo store the way to go.
What if i want to sell my own goods and serives, Any one know of a good shopping Cart, cheap visa merchant accounts? Pulling hair out now…
Traffic anyone? Buy borrow or create, which is best and cheapest ? Adwords, yahoo or msn or all three.
I like the idea of that hispanic (lupe and carlos?) couples videos, what were there names again. and how do you do it without having to pay theyre 25,000 dollar entry fee.
IS a software approach the best way to niche finding? How many keywords and which are good niches that aren’t Crazy competitive vertical markets from already crazy competitive horizontal niches.
Overcoming selfdoubt might be a better starting place huh
Could I pick your brains in an email john, for a reasonable consulting sum?
July 12th, 2007 at 10:10 pm
I think my biggest need right now is to take the plunge and hire that first employee to take over tech support for me so that I can focus on business development (new products, upgrades to existing products, etc.). There are a lot of challenges involved in taking this step:
* finding the time
* and the courage!
* and explain to my wife that I need
* to find
* and train
* someone who I can trust
* who has the ability to learn my products well enough to answer questions correctly and efficiently (there are some people in my forum who are very helpful answering questions, but occasionally they totally miss solutions that are immediately obvious to me as the developer of the product and one who has used it a lot, so I probably have an eggagerated fear of how much hand holding and training I’m going to need to do)
* but who I won’t have to pay so much that there’s not enough left for me and my family (we’re hovering right around at the level where we’re making enough, but not extra right now)
My primary product right now is CaRP (http://www.geckotribe.com/rss/carp/ — John, you had a link to it for a while from the extras page on your Reese Report website — I used to get a constant trickle of traffic from there, which was much appreciated!) I have plans for some major upgrades to CaRP, with which will come a price increase. I’m working on some other things right now that will lay the groundwork for that, but often stumble a little juggling tech support and development.
I also have a new product, Fast JV (http://FastJV.com/), which I believe has great potential, especially once I get the time to add a few more features to it. I’d also like to have a little more time to put it to use myself! I just need that first employee to offload tech support to to give me the uninterrupted stretches of time that I need to be able focus on other things and really move them forward.
July 12th, 2007 at 10:19 pm
Hi John
Thanks for asking. You will not believe this, but I’m having trouble making money at all on the internet. I have tried to do what everyone says to do. I build websites and then try to drive people to them. I get some traffic, but not very much and there is almost no conversion. I sell a few items from our company site. http://www.equalizerpinpuller.com , but not very many. Frankly the website needs a lot of help, but we don’t have the money to have it done and there is a lot I just can’t do. I try to do affiliate marketing, but again I can’t get people to go to the sites. I think Brad’s FreeIQ site is a great way to help people, plus the commission there is awesome. But there again, it just isn’t working for me. I’m about to give up and go and find a outside job, I just hate the thoughts of that. I’m a 54 year old grandmother and I have been on the internet for the last 12 years. I have trouble with copywriting, I have learn how to write articles, but I can’t see any change in my stats from them. I try to learn something new everyday. I listen to you. Also Brad and Andy. Mike and Dave, I have tried to do what everyone suggests. It’s just that I have all this knowledge but for some reason I just can’t get it to work for me.
Sorry to be a whiny baby. It’s just that I’m getting so frustrated.
July 12th, 2007 at 10:20 pm
lets keep this simple….not get the help i want when i want it
and not being as rich as you
he he….. well maybe one day
July 12th, 2007 at 10:49 pm
[…] Share This […]
July 12th, 2007 at 10:54 pm
Could you publish a step-by-step guide to avoiding the Google Slap when starting a PPC campaign for a brand-new domain (squeeze page that forwards to a one-page sales letter)? Maybe “7 Proven Steps to A Good Quality Score (And Low Bid Prices) for a New Domain”?
Would the 7 steps include:
10 keyword rich articles?
10 posts to a WP blog?
Contact Us, Privacy Policy and TOS @ the bottom of squeeze page?
Linking to Google.com?
Would this be sufficient? What else is needed?
July 12th, 2007 at 11:00 pm
In short - listbuilding in the the internet marketing niche- the most effective way to do it. I will get there as I have closed the back and will go forward- I have set a big goal of making 10K before 12 August and have started taking actions towards it.
I welecome your opinion on my home page.
Best Regards
Paul Easton
http://www.DigitalAwol.com/
Link Exchange Directory
More Link Popularity, High Page Rank, Get A Top Ranking
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July 12th, 2007 at 11:01 pm
I’m interested in knowing why you have some kind of rolling identifiers on top of each of your blog pages?
Are you running some kind of “digital fingerprinting” software, in case somebody copies the whole content to their own site?
July 12th, 2007 at 11:20 pm
I am have a problem with building my brand. I mean do you just flood the market with yourself or do you just chug along slowly to try and build a brand? I just open my doors to my new article submission site http://www.searchalist.com and how do you covert these visitors in to buyers. So I guess my other question is how do you get targeted visitors that will covert?
July 13th, 2007 at 12:04 am
Hi John,
My biggest problem (as always) - TRAFFIC! That’s why I can’t wait for Traffic Secrets 2.0 - I need setp by step guide to build at least 500 uniques per day. Then I’ll be very happy
I have to face a lot of problems because my website is gambling related (http://www.bookieclub.com), just recently Google blocked any gambling related PPC campaigns. So I have to think about back-end ways to drive visitors to my site - free reports, EBay etc.
Sometimes, when I send out an e-mail to my list, I’m just over the moon - orders rolling in, everything is working as in best Internet marketing e-books. My best day till now was 6 sales in 1 day (sales of $2k, profit around $1.5k). Site converts really well (about 2% of targeted).
If only I could get those 500 uniques per day…
July 13th, 2007 at 12:58 am
I’m going to TRY and keep my question simple because I tend to jumble the questions all over the board. It’s just the way I think – which is thinking too much. I know what my problem is, it’s “FOCUSâ€.
If you had to pick a certain area to focus on in your online business, what would it be John? — And I mean like what should we be spending the majority of our time doing?
Should we be spending the majority of our time trying to drive a butt load of targeted TRAFFIC to our biz? I know you stated this before on your blog. I heard you loud and clear.
But…
My current scenario is: I can stand to add more products, and more content, and get more traffic. I have resources to outsource all of those tasks, so I really have no excuses.
What I tend to do is try and do everything at once, (you know even outsourcing seems like a chore.)
I have 2 sites. I probably shouldn’t have two sites either. LOL! But seriously, the first one is the oldest site in a somewhat competitive niche —which that site has info products, Adsense, and affiliate products. Two of my info products I was breaking a little over even. One product did crap squat. (Which is good advice; sell what’s already selling.) That site can stand to use more products and probably even better if I also sold tangible items there as well and got more TRAFFIC!
The second site is not so old, I can go broader and farther as far as products in both terms (info and tangible.) I also noticed that the traffic is easier to drive in naturally there. And I know we should not rely on one traffic source. But, that’s what I discovered so far along.
I think I should focus on ONE project because the good lord knows it and I know it. But which one? Should I finish her OFF with site number one, and go all out and as broad as possible?
Or…
Go with the other site?
That’s my problem John. That’s my stress. So, help me John, help, help me John, la, da, daa. I’m being serious too. Just thought I’d add in the little song. Anyways, there’s probably lots of people with my problem I’m sure. (hope I’m not the only one.) Thank you for taking the time to read my post.
Lisa
July 13th, 2007 at 1:33 am
A Question about 5000-9000 webpages on your site, to produce the LOTTERY affect of pages for your website
JOHN - In one of your transcripts, You stated that you should have Thousands and thousands of webpages made, all SE optimised(keyword tags, title tags etc), and have them all scattered in the Search engines, so these pages will just be one link away from your webpage, etc.
But how will the Linking and sitemap work for thousands of webpages(probly
wouldn’t a sitemap for a 5000 page website full of 5000 pages(probly article pages) be complex?
It would be wonderful to have 5000 - 7000 pages, but how will the sitemap per page work?
so many pages to Link to, and categorise….. ?
PLEASE ANSWER THAT JOHN……
Thanks…..
July 13th, 2007 at 2:20 am
I struggle different things at different time. Somtimes I need graphics to be done, I am not talking about good quality, I am just talking about something I made myself so that I don’t have to spend so much money on it. I am also on budget so I cannot afford that much to invest a lot in graphics.
I am struggling in writing content. I don’t know how to define good content.
I also don’t know how to build a good website, a website that makes people come back to visit again and again. I know html, but I don’t know how to make it very useful for me
July 13th, 2007 at 2:35 am
I have all the technical skills as I design and build websites for other people.
I understand HTML,PHP, SQL and all that stuff.
I can do basic graphic design.
I know Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Photoshop and Flash.
I have designed with Joomla
I can write decent articles.
But…
I perform much better when I’m doing a task for someone else.
When I do my own thing I never know where to start.
Trust me, the technical stuff is easy because you can pay someone like me to do it.
The real problem is knowing what action needs to be taken, and when.
July 13th, 2007 at 2:57 am
I want my webmaster forum to grow bigger. It is at 9mb.com and I have almost 5,000 posts.. but the activity is very low and it gets around 100 visitors a day.
Do you have any tips how to grow a forum?
July 13th, 2007 at 4:44 am
Im back!!! I couldnt find my list of things I neeed and want to do last night, 6yr old boy ran off with the binder
SO here goes, briefly. Alot of marketers are using the 1 pg sales letter, is this effective in non-IM niches? Which is the most effective method of creating the sales funnel? Freebie or low priced Ebook follwed up by backending with higher priced products. Which leads me into the next Q. From being on loads of lists i’ve noticed the “typical” funnel runs like this,
ppc, or jv, or organic traffic for
——>7$or 27$or 47$ or 97$ ebook
—->leads you into the funnel
——->which leads to the subscrption form
———–>which leads emails about other products , ie coaching, seminars,webinars, member ship sites.
—————>Which lead to getting on yet mmore subscription forms.
Which leads me back to the starting point EBOOKS.
Is there one specific type of eBook that makes the most money>
solves a pressing problem or one that buyers are nutty hungry for (niches)
Are mini sites best or full on multipage content sites best?
Which brings about the next Q
When doing niche research is it best to find a wide horizontal niche and find a somewhat narrow vertical niche within it or go wide on the vertical niche as well?
Once a problem has been identified and the book has been created what is the best way to launch, Step in a launch that create the buzz.
Especially considering the fact that you may have no street credibility.
I have one that I have identified as a common problem (in the IM niche oddly enough) you wouldnt think it was possible considering all the bases are pretty well covered)
I havent yet got the copywriting done for the sales letter (your fav copywriter lives in the same neighborhood as I) - go figure that for Karma and a road sign huh.
Ive been watching how you create aniticipation and desire for the next thing you’re doing… how does a newcomer start that. With no list and no contact. From ground zero?
Start emailing other Im’rs and hope one reads the email or their virtual asst passes it along?
Attending the big events you crazy IM’rs hold? and netowrk that way.
I KNOW I need to network and I KNOW I need help
in the words of the imfamous Dr Evil “throw me a frikken bone”
Ok I’ll “www.zipit.com” NOW
Cheers and Beers from Canada
Shane
July 13th, 2007 at 5:27 am
My problem is with writing in a way that makes people say ” hey, I WANT THAT! ”
Basically, I read the emails you send out to your list ( because I’m on it
) and I see how you speak in your videos of stompernet as well as traffic secrets and you seem to have a natural ability to convince people that something is the obvious thing to do, to get a desired result, without actually telling them all that much to go and buy a product. I also see Alan Gardyne do this quite well.
But when I try to do the same, I can come up with a basic template of SOMETHING…but when I read that something, I myself wouldn’t buy what I’m recommending if I was reading my piece.
Is there a process or “basics” to writing content that will convince people that what I recommend would be a smart investment, all the while building a relationship with the person reading the content?
July 13th, 2007 at 6:26 am
John,
my biggest problem right now: How to build a powerful team around me? How to find mates in business. Because it takes a lot of time to work alone.
I know a person, who has a wonderful team of marketers, technicans, help desk staff etc. How to build such a team?
In addition, how to create a business as fast as possible? Now Im working on a new project, but now I work alone: I create the webpage, the ads, I deal with traffic, but it is a hard way.
July 13th, 2007 at 6:39 am
Hi John!
I have been in internet marketing for the last 5 years and have grown it into a successful
low 6-figure niche-focused business. It is now my full time career and with growth
comes “different” dilemmas as I’m sure you’re aware…
My main issue now is finding qualified inexpensive “help” to take on some of the daily
tasks that I need done (copywriting drafts, site design and updating, content research,
etc.) while I focus more on larger projects and additional product creation.
What I would LIKE to do is hire an intern that has the vision to see the value in working
for a very small income. I can literally take anyone with good writing skills and a sharp
mind (the 2 skills I think are most imperative for this marketing life) and show them
step-by-step how to get to a 6-figure income. If someone would have offered me this
opportunity when I got started I would have shined their shoes and washed their
underwear if I had to. But finding someone dedicated to “making it” online and willing
to put in the hard work to make it happen (meaning learn it by DOING it…for ME as I
show them) has been a challenge.
What did YOU do when you got to that point in your business?
July 13th, 2007 at 9:35 am
I am new to the world of IM and have started an affiliate site with pre-sell landing pages. I have very few people clicking on my link to go to the vendor’s sales letter. So, presumably, my visitors do not like my landing page. My landing page URL is http://intro-to-fitness.com/blog/how-to-gain-weight
I would love for you to critique my landing page or at least tell us what makes a good headline and overall landing page. Thank you very much. I’m really looking forward to income.com.
July 13th, 2007 at 9:37 am
Not enough time.
Can you babysit 4 beautiful, well behaved, intelligent and precocious kids?
July 13th, 2007 at 9:40 am
john,
my problem is with determining what specific niche should i enter?
what are some of the criterias i should keep in mind when entering a niche?
July 13th, 2007 at 9:48 am
John, I’m stressed at waiting for INCOME.COM to open!
July 13th, 2007 at 10:07 am
I’m really stressed out as I cannot, for the life of me, figure out
what Income.com actually is.
Forum, Education, Products?
July 13th, 2007 at 11:32 am
Hi John,
Thanks for the massive amount of information you’ve posted on your blog already, and for this opportunity to pick your brain.
My question is this…
As internet entrepreneurs, it’s a common experience to have (what seems like) an overwhelming number of things on our plate - strategic planning, managing multiple projects, dealing with outsourced, independent contractors - just to name a few.
With so many balls in the air, how would you suggest we juggle our priorities and our time?
How do you personally plan and execute your schedule on a day-to-day basis? I’m certain anyone reading this would be curious to read a description of “A Day In The Life Of John Reese”, ala Donald Trump in “The Art of the Deal”.
These kinds of case studies are often eye-opening and incredibly beneficial.
Can’t wait for the launch of Income.com!
Back to work,
Jason
July 13th, 2007 at 12:08 pm
Honestly, John…my only real frustration at this point is that I need more time. I don’t think I got as much as everyone else when the original allotment was handed out…cuz I don’t have time to worry like all these other people do.
I believe that you can see from the requests above that the most important thing most of these folks need is some engaged, low-level mentoring. Someone to help them refine their vision…someone to teach them how and where to outsource for less critical stuff…and how to find potential project partners. Half of them are “idea” people and half are “execution” people. My sense is that they are desparate enough that they are ready to pay someone to help them identify and blast through some of these roadblocks that stymie them day after day.
But I still think there are way too many people trying to “get rich online” by just regurgitating what they’ve heard you and a few others teach. That’s just a lousy strategy. What would I listen to them when you’re already here? Where is the uniqueness of their contribution, and what’s the possible value to me or anyone else? You think throwing affiliate links on a site and trying to drag people in (kicking and screaming) is a worthy strategy?
People are continually looking for a “niche”. What about looking in your life, your heart, your hobbies, things that your friends are into? Analyze the market all you want, but don’t make your decision until you know your own heart. Passion is just as important as the techniques you employ to take that passion to market. Without it, you’re just continuing the process of littering the internet with fairly lame sites. What a mess we’re going to leave our children if people can’t learn to wrap their heads around this simple fact…
July 13th, 2007 at 12:11 pm
Oh, and Carrie…I’d LOVE to babysit your kids. Wanna trade places for a few hours?
However, by way of somewhat more practical help, check out my site for free music downloads for children: FreeKidsMusic.com
And my site for free audio stories and games for children: LightUpYourBrain.com
Mebbe that’ll keep ‘em occupied for just a bit..!!
July 13th, 2007 at 12:37 pm
My struggle with internet marketing is that I am a professional in a niche (finance) where the main keywords have huge competition. Specifically, I target women solopreneurs and small business owners, but that still is broad.
So, do I set up mini-pages covering micro-niche’s of finance, and direct traffic to those pages? Do I avoid google adwords etc. and just concentrate on organic searches, affiliates, etc.?
Thanks!
July 13th, 2007 at 12:40 pm
I want money I want fame, I am eager to learn, I am good at learning new skills…
My roadblock is inaction, how do I overcome it? Do I need a vision for my future, How to get one, Dream etc. which will encourage and motivate my day in day out to take action.
Vijay
July 13th, 2007 at 1:01 pm
Hi,
Thank you for this opportunity - I suppose this is for product creation for Income.com?
1) I had planned on re-building my website in a software that I need to upload. I have been trying to reach my host for weeks now but they have not replied. Something apparently wrong with my browser settings or something else…? They have not responded to nearly 10 ticket submissions and when I checked there ARE no ticket submissions!
2) Virus? Have run Spyware Doctor but found nothing. But even as I wrote this little post, my session was discontinued - better write fast… third time in 2 hours.
3) “analysis of paralysis” of various problems, keeping me up at night, especially how to make short term profits or focus on the long term instead - hard to focus on both at the same time with such limited resources and time (also a resource)
4) Focus - learning not to jump from activity to activity. I work all day but get mostly just studying done.
5) In re-building my new (old) site, I want to offer extra value - but this is a nice problem to have. Still I can’t create the landing page until I have the giveaway ready.
6) Organizational - getting a partner to discuss things with - takes a LOT of time - getting clear on our roles, the division of labor, etc.
7) Learning how to use the video software on the computer, audio, creating audios - creating reseller accounts, uploading new software, learning new software - all sorts of techie stuff.
Angela
July 13th, 2007 at 1:03 pm
Hi John,
My main problem seems to be in trying to build a list.
I have tried numerous ways to get people to optin to my newsletter,
but so far nothing seems to work.
I would appreciate any advice you can give in this area.
July 13th, 2007 at 1:32 pm
John,
You got a lot on your plate already, and I hope you can take the time to read this, and even better address it in one of your posts.
I am some-what new to being an real IM’er. I have only built up some products in the last month, but I have been creating sites for adsense earnings for about 6 months. I could do that well, because it was easy. Good content + Good Content Architecture + Good Taxonomony Terms = Good site, and a site that gets a higher PR without doing anything for it. I made a site 4 or so months ago, spent 2 weeks on building the site, and content, never touched it since, and its now at a PR4.
Anyways, back to my question!
I am trying to build up my brand: http://www.monetizedesign.com I can create the products no problem, the websites, the presentation, and all that good stuff. What I can not do is….Sales positioning! I can’t think of good titles, or sales angles in which to sell something. This also translate into PPC marketing. Since I don’t know which aspect of a product will be the selling point I have trouble picking the keywords, the ad copy.
I have one product selling product that was just released: http://webaudio.monetizedesign.com/ I tried to do a PPC campaign, and I realized…I have no idea what I am doing with PPC. I put two keywords in there, and hoped for the best.
I have another project I am working on: http://profitablebusinessplan.monetizedesign.com/ and I don’t know the right angle to make the sales letter on. If I were to set up a PPC for that…I would again have no idea what to say in the ad copy, or what keywords.
Bottomline - Product Creation easy but the actual marketing is hard! lol. How do I determine the selling point of a product (yours or affiliates) then how to get a keyword list (keyword research).
My plan right now is create quality products then pick up affiliates here and there, and get them to be my sales team, and I would only have to worry about doing PPC for my main site: http://www.monetizedesign.com
Thanks John!
July 13th, 2007 at 1:47 pm
I have been focusing on this one site for a long time and finally got it up and live.
http://www.partymonitor.com
My concerns are getting traffic and converting traffic into members. Both of which I have not been too successful at. I could use some information on getting and converting visitors to a non-product site.
It does not have a sales page so I guess it would have to be the content that sells. Any ideas would be helpful.
Thanks.
July 13th, 2007 at 2:01 pm
WOW, some very passionate responses here.
This next project is going to be the biggest commitment for me to date. I am going through productlaunchformula as the moment and have no problem with theory its the practical aspect that is the most challenging. Therefore I will take the advice and work at it strategically.
The service is a heatmap/clickmap with Adsense tracker built specifically working with the heatmap/clickmap and expanding to other contextual ad networks. It will be web 2.0 and 100% free and it will be based on the following site:
http://www.clicksmap.com
There are 2 - 3 main competitors in the market crazyegg.com, clickdensity.com to name two and all of them are paid services. I am confident that the service will not be inferior to these services, but will take time to build to their calibre. These have been reviewed in blogs like techcrunch, mashable, etc.
I would very much like to be able to do press releases in a way that will attract A-list bloggers i.e., techcrunch, problogger, etc so that they will not ignore them.
The question is, how to make a compelling press releases that get noticed?
Azzam
July 13th, 2007 at 2:02 pm
1) How to know yourself.
2) How to turn that knowledge into a profitable business.
3) How to stick to that business and ignore all the distractions.
July 13th, 2007 at 2:49 pm
Am a ‘newbie’ and still need basic ‘how to’ info. Once over this barrier, there is plenty of info to start sailing.
-Google Ad Sense, Yahoo banner ads: Yes, very basic - how to/links to set up accounts?
-Infrastructure: what elements should it include [accountant, legal, merchant accounts, shopping carts, etc.]?
-Carlos & Lupe said to ‘outsource everything’ before starting, and focus on increasing traffic & conversions. What does this outsourcing include, and who would you suggest using?
-What does your daily work staff look like?
-How do you ‘buy’ the competition?
-How to buy traffic from a targeted website [i.e. from MySpace]
-How do you build ‘op-in’ lists? [recommended software?]
-How to set up an auto-responder?
-How to start tracking?
-How to start split-testing?
-Do ‘publishers’ have to be licensed to get a commission?
Recommended services, such as servers, merchants accounts, etc. who won’t purge your system when you have a big day.
Thanks,
JJ Monte
July 13th, 2007 at 3:54 pm
John,
My biggest challenge is finding enough affiliates to promote my products, so that I can rise to the first page of Clickbank (and then reap the benefits of positioning).
I run sponsor ads, solo emails, etc… Conversions are good, but that’s not enough. I call/email/call website owners and most of the site owners feel as if the customers they have (are their customers) and that I would be stealing a buyer from them (even though my product is a non-compete)…
I know I need to partner up (and I have somebody who works on that all day for me) but it’s like pulling teeth with other people (or a ridiculous amount of $ to play the game)
Suggestions?
Thanks,
Brian
July 13th, 2007 at 5:18 pm
I’m struggling with the the hype-ish nature of internet marketing.
I want a website that sells, but I also want it to look professional. I don’t feel right using many internet marketing tactics. Where do you draw the line?
July 13th, 2007 at 5:45 pm
Who at your site is the person responsible for handling email address changes? [Tried to make a change about a month ago, without success.]
July 13th, 2007 at 8:39 pm
Hey John and others,
I got the tip earlier, but looks like there is going to be some form of webcast
tomorrow of a conference regarding Viral Marketing in California.
I posted the newsitem as the latest entry on my site:
http://websitetuts.com/
We’ll see if the live broadcast actually happens. Speakers look impressive,
hopefully the tech will work…
July 13th, 2007 at 9:40 pm
How to find out if a niche market is profitable!
Thanks John!
July 13th, 2007 at 10:24 pm
Hello John:
I am struggling with a cost effective method to advertise with a small budget. Google adwords are ok but I am averaging about $300/month and sometimes with no sales.
I wonder whether it worth the investment for so little return. Perhaps there are better marketing methods to get the word out
Paul
July 14th, 2007 at 12:37 am
Hi John,
I’d like to know how to enhance my strategic position in the marketplace, I’m really not sure how to do that without spending a fortune.
Thanks,
Amy
July 14th, 2007 at 9:02 am
Mr. Reese,
I’m having trouble following through on every project I start.
I’ve been trying to make money on the internet for three and half years now, but haven’t had enough success to quit even a $5.50 part time job. I’m now 23, going on to 24, and I’ve been through just about everything on the internet..
The scam stage, the MLM stage, the instant riches stage, etc. I’ve probably lost $3,000 so far on the internet, from mainly the scams and the lack of action.
I believe a lot of it has to do with my current mind set, in not believing, etc.
Recently, time has been ticking for me, and the anxiety is killing my ability to take action.
-Michael
July 14th, 2007 at 10:24 am
1.How to Stay Focus and Keep Momentum To the internet marketing business for
beginner? Because Beginner must be gone through a struggling curve before they
make first sale.
2.How to learn Proper Internet marketing Sale Proceses that Include the details of getting
traffics, converting the traffics to sales. In More Advaced and details?
3.How to Win the adwords War since it is competitive now and everyone in internet
marketing Flood into adwords marketing. How to Outbid the competitors since they can
bid so high because they had a great CTR.
4.Some Real Case Study How to make money online for long term and short term.
5.The fastest ways to get high ranking in Google and also Yahoo as well.
Thanks.
July 14th, 2007 at 11:19 am
Hello John
This is Yvonne.
Ironic subject heading….
At this moment, I am struggling with getting a response from your customer support helpdesk.
I had raised a support ticket more than 24 hours ago. The ticket id is ZLV-87908.
It’s not my nature to “chase” after support request, but due to the fact that there is a deadline involved, I would appreciate if you could get your guys to assist.
Regards
Yvonne
July 14th, 2007 at 3:42 pm
2 Words:
Taking action.
July 14th, 2007 at 5:02 pm
Hi!
John,
I have been a member of your network for many years through the Opportunity.com, which was a great Idea, I think. Therefore I’m looking forward to learn from the Income.com. The problem?: Quite easy: To get Traffic to your site. I belive you can promote any kind of product or service, if you get traffic. So I’m looking forward to learn how to get a kind of traffic that is profitable. So far, it’s a waste of time and money, and only few are making significant money on the Net.
Really ,looking forward to what you can teach us, and I do hope your new site also have a affiliate opportunity built into it?
Thanks for you attention;
Kindest regards
Income Group
http://home.email.no/taas
July 15th, 2007 at 2:12 am
Yvonne - Rest assured that your request will be handled as soon as possible. Don’t worry about any deadline. We’ll take care of it. But please know that it’s the weekend and even my hard working staff can’t work 24 hours a day 7 days a week.
July 15th, 2007 at 12:12 pm
Hi John,
This is a supplement to my previous post. I am zeroing in on what I perceive to be my real problem, which is two-fold:
1) Creating value
2) My overall business model, or my lack of one.
1) My most pressing issue lies in creating a product to giveaway. I have never created a product before so it feels like a big hurdle.
I have some ideas on how to create extra value with products, heard from you on interviews and from other marketers. Is there a “Product Creation Formula”? I saw that one marketer - actually several of them, have added “their” formula as a bonus to sell another product (probably a great buy
I don’t really want to be like every Tom, Dick and Harry out there, but, at the same time, I should “sell what others are selling”. I am even having last minute doubts on whether this rebuild should be as membership site or not (it isn’t now but the membership site will allow me to build a list).
I already have LOTS of PLR and other things that I have purchased during the past few months that I can give away, but I don’t think that will be perceived as something of great value and simply don’t want to do that.
So - I wonder:
If you feel you have the time and the inclination, and it will benefit the others, I would be grateful if you would critique the website when it is “ready”. It would have been better to hear the bad news before I put in the work, but I don’t want to write down the entire concept here with exactly what I’m thinking of doing. The site won’t be ready for yet a few more days due to technical issues with my computer, etc., which I am clearing up today.
2) My business model, or lack of one, is just too big of a problem to get specific about. But I know that you have written/spoken a lot about it before and, well, I could use a few reminders - maybe some major pointers to think about.
Thank you and Best Regards,
Angela
P.S. Thank you especially for the in-depth interviews you have carried out thus far, especially the Shoemoney one - very enlightening!
July 15th, 2007 at 12:42 pm
I have had my site up for one year now and don’t even come close to where I want to be. I have read everything about SEO and can’t seem to get the picture. I have no idea how to optimize my site. In addition, I want to keep everything simple. I don’t want a 5000-page site, yet I would very much like it to appear in the top searches. I’ve had virtually no success with backlinks or any of the other recommended techniques for getting higher rankings. And I’m burning out just trying to keep my sites updated and come up with new content every week for my newsletter.
It’s a good thing my PPC ads aren’t that expensive because this is the only way I am getting traffic to my site without going broke. I make from $50 - $200/month with the site which is a difficult site to make money with anyway because it is all about saving money, not spending it.
I must be a real dunce, because when it comes to finding profitable niches, I’m at a complete loss. And the last thing I want to do is market Internet marketing products like so many others are doing. It’s hardly a niche anymore. With rare exception, review sites are all a bunch of tripe designed only to promote Adsense campaigns. And you still need to get traffic to them. I could write an ebook on real estate (a real small niche market, huh?). It seems like what I know is in markets that are very broad. Finding a niche within those markets is difficult because when you get down to minor niches, I don’t know anything about them and probably don’t want to.
I seem to be rambling. It’s nothing more than my frustration showing through. John, you have been one of the better Intrnet guru’s. At least you’ve made more common sense than others, and you’ve been one of the most generous with your knowledge. I’ll stick around to see what you have to say, but if something doesn’t happen pretty soon, I’m going to have to start a new career cleaning bedpans.
Thanks for the opportunity to vent.
I don’t want to make money for money’s sake. I want to be able to enjoy what I’m doing at the same time. Trying to figure out how to make money on the the Web is hard and thus far unrewarding work. I’ve spent thousands just learning and don’t feel that I’ve learned a thing. The dream of giving up my daytime job is slowing fading.
July 15th, 2007 at 1:14 pm
“Quality” Traffic/Lead Generation!
July 15th, 2007 at 8:11 pm
Traffic! Need more traffic. Not able to spend
money on Adsense yet. Doing articles and
blogs to promote affiliate programs.
Want to start writing my own niche reports.
Building up the confidence.
Cheers,
Karen
July 15th, 2007 at 10:10 pm
I see a lot of good questions and frustrated people- I see the biggest problem (for me and others) is the change from JOB mindset to business, where many questions don’t get answered till you take action and it doesn’t work out as you planned- then you need to re aim and fire again- improving along the way….
A real mentor site - in which there is lots of QanA -maybe worked over Skype converence calls- would be great- how about guidence based on someone elses experience- keeping in mind the “business owner”- will sometimes need to get out of the comfort zone to make progress- inch by inch is good….
Just my 2 cents
Best Regards
Paul Easton
http://www.DigitalAwol.com/
Link Exchange Directory
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July 16th, 2007 at 12:16 am
TRACKING!
This is something I always struggle with, probably because I over analyze my stats. For example, when split testing 2 optin pages, here are my “typical issues”…
- Did I send enough traffic to get an accurate result to make a decision?
- Did optin page one beat number two because of the headline or some other reason (days of week that I tested, holiday vs no holiday, summer vs winter traffic, etc)
- What if headline one wins the split test using google adwords traffic, but other traffic sources such as banner ads, headline two may perform way better? I don’t want to dump the wrong one.
There are so many variables involved with traffic and response, how do you know if the results of your test are accurate for the long term? If one headline wins the split test, that doesn’t mean that headline will be best 6 months from now given outside circumstances may change…(google slap forces you to get new traffic sources that may not respond the same way).
I know you always say today is the worst your business will ever be if you test and tweak, but in my case that’s not true. In many cases I split test for months, dumping the losers and trying to beat the winners, only to find out 3 months later my newest winner just stops converting and all the testing I did was wasted.
A very frustrating topic for me…
Greg
July 16th, 2007 at 6:56 am
Hey John,
actually, to be very honest - I don’t have any problem.
There might be a few small ones. But there has never been a problem that we couldn’t solve in a timely fassion.
The only thing that’s sometimes a crucial point of mine is the profitability factor once you’ve concurred a whole niche. Several business I own have grown to that stage, both online and offline. But since there aren’t anymore customers it gets in my way - mainly because I want ever-growing business.
Maybe some tactics and strategies on how to get uninterested people interested in your niche would be a good thing for me, as well as many others. Though newbies should focus on the people already in the market, not outside of it as it may require skilled marketing efforts and high budgets.
Just my 2c,
-Dave Origano
July 16th, 2007 at 11:11 am
The biggest struggle for me is traffic! I don’t have thousands of dollars to put into PPC and online marketing nor do I have hours to spend each day building links so what I need to know is where I can get the most bang for my buck, is it paid links, directory listings, PPC or what? I feel like my site is sell optimized for the search engines and it ranks pretty well for some large keywords but I think its the inbound links that are still holding it back..
I would also like to know where I can find content for a reasonable price as that is another area I struggle with. I have a well developed site with a great CMS but I have no content to put in it…
Thanks John,
Marko Nikolic
July 16th, 2007 at 12:29 pm
John,
Like Yvonne, I also have a support ticket that has gone UNANSWERED for almost a week.
Ticket: SUJ-43660
It’s a simple request, I wonder what the situation is over there.
Donovan
July 16th, 2007 at 1:26 pm
Having purchased TS 1.0 in the blowout sale, I finally got around to completing all the DVDs this weekend. It brought the realization that not only was I driving without a map but I was also driving blindfolded.
For people getting started with internet marketing and marketing in general, the greatest challenge is to stay focused and get through the initial learning and ramp up stage without dropping off or putting things off. Any tips and advice on this will be great.
Another question I had on the course is regarding setting up the Affiliate program. For large affiliate payouts, are there any tax reporting requirements and are we required to get the affiliate’s SSN? Are there restrictions on international affiliates?
John J.
July 16th, 2007 at 1:54 pm
I’m struggling with finding a product or service and too much information on marketing.
What I mean is…I’m getting information from several different marketers and they seem to always talk about the importance of finding a niche.
Look at a problem in that niche and solve the problem. Then start to market or advertise online.
Well, I decided upon a niche finally. Something that I had been involved in with little success.
I even purchased a course from an industry leader recently and after listening to the audio’s and video’s. I had plans but haven’t got those plans to the product or service stage fully.
Now, here’s something interesting,,,, after listening to other marketers I seen that most of the information in the course was becoming out dated because of the changes online happen so quickly.
I’m also noticing that alot of marketer are really good at pushing the right buttons to get you to buy but the stage where I think I am with my putting together a business online isn’t what is being address in alot of marketing ads that I receive. But still a lot of marketers are saying that if you buy this or that you problems will be solve.
My reasoning for joining and waiting for income.com is that I’m hoping that the services will take away some of the confusing in niche marketing and product development along with how to use current tools to get traffic to your site.
I put together a site for my product or service but haven’t finalize everything yet, I was waiting for your site to find tune it.
You mention videos on lead capture pages, ,,, any suggestion for a beginner for a easy to use tool or software.
Plus,,,, how would you drive traffic to your site if you were just starting off today.
I know google is there but it seems that cost per click is really getting expensive.
Here’s a copy of what I’m working on http://mlmonlinesystems.com/
Thanks,
greg
July 16th, 2007 at 4:55 pm
Well, I just started a forum a couple of days ago and I’ve found that my most difficult task at the moment would have to be getting users.
The forum is quite fairly new, and I know you can do things like submit to search engines, go to other related forums and become an active member, use sigs in other forums that advertise (in a way) your forum.
However, with all of this being done it does seem, at times, to be work that turns out to be unproductive.
What else do I need to do to ensure that my site does become as popular as I believe it can be?
July 16th, 2007 at 6:36 pm
I have a few ideas, so I’m trying to figure out which direction I want to go in business. How do you determine which direction to go? I can’t decide.
July 16th, 2007 at 7:08 pm
Hi John
You know i look at all these site where you can get info on how to market your site etc, but VERY few have any sort of info on how to research an idea or product you may have BEFORE you build teh site!! That would be worth writing about!
Cheers
July 16th, 2007 at 8:52 pm
You’d think that since I’m a virtual assistant I’d be great with managing my time. I never miss my deadlines but my biggest struggle is to stay focused and on task and to make the most of all the time I have available to work with.
I’d love to know how people like you (successful people!) manage their time for maximum productivity and profits! I imagine it has a lot to do with outsourcing and I am considering having a team of people working with me and outsourcing work for my own business myself.
Thanks so much John for considering all the struggles us internet marketers have going on
Angela Wills
http://www.StarVA.com
July 16th, 2007 at 11:25 pm
I think John you work too hard. Are you a work a holic? You need a break!
best regards
P.G.
July 16th, 2007 at 11:58 pm
My biggest problem is knowing which products/software to purcahse. Their is so much BSaround who can you trust to review honestly?
July 17th, 2007 at 12:04 am
John, I’m having a problem given my affiliates good sources to market my product at. I would love to see a website that help affiliate managers manage their affiliate program. Maybe this site could have tools that affiliate managers could import into their affiliate software for their affiliates to use. Please let me know what you think.
Thanks
July 17th, 2007 at 12:22 am
John, I don’t know if this is how you would answer me. ( I posted previously. See way on top.) But basically after asking those questions to you it made me sit back and see the whole picture more clearly.
First off, I will keep both sites. I will improve those particular sales pages that were breaking a little over even, changing sales message, pictures, etc.) And also recording the results.
I’ve also made a list of tasks I can outsource to people. So, even if I know how to do a particular thing myself doesn’t necessarily mean I have to do it.
I have made a weekly task sheet of what I am to do each week. Starting from the most important and so on.
With site number 2, I will do what you said, put up a dummy sales page and drive traffic to it and collect my results. I will do that for several product ideas there. Then if my results prove positive I will create these products and build to stay. But, I think I will do this in a fast manner so that way I don’t waste time. It seems I should have done that in the beginning anyways. Now I know from you. Thanks.
I think… keep it simple
Outsource - When possible
Traffic - Find ways to bring in more traffic.
Test - Tweak and improve and record my results
Work fast ROBOT - Don’t wait be a doer
Mindset - Positive, if it doesn’t work sit back figure out what things could have been wrong. Learn from it if it didn’t work.
Then repeat the process again.
I found an interesting blog where these two twins talk about their mindset. I like what they say. Actually their whole blog is cool too.
http://www.richtwinpoortwin.com
Well, if you do answer my post I will take in what you say. But for now I will keep focused and eliminate the noise and work like a robot, as in tasks needed to be done outsourcing, trying new traffic bringing method.
SIMPLE.
and lastly I think I need a personal assistant. Hmm?
Sorry for being a hog, just thought I’d share what I discovered recently.
July 17th, 2007 at 1:08 am
Without doubt, even though I run a blog devoted to just traffic generation, (recently set it up because it is my biggest problem - hey its probably everybodies!) and have read dozens of ebooks on SEO, backlinks, social networking sites, etc, etc., I still cannot get the volume that I want. Got to keep on keeping on I guess.
Phill
July 17th, 2007 at 1:08 am
EMAIL…
I am overwhelmed with the hundreds of emails I get a day - and it is keeping me from being productive.
I would love to outsource it - not sure the best way to do that…
Thanks.
July 17th, 2007 at 2:12 am
John,
How would one go about creating UNIQE CONTENT in the competitive golf market, content such as VIDEOS showing the customer step-by-step how to play a certain shot. I realize that if you were to outsource this task that it would cost a few thousand dollars to do.
Thanks
July 17th, 2007 at 4:15 am
Hi John,
My biggest problem is I haven’t been succesful in replicating my current business and know-how into different markets.
My first online business is still chugging along 4 years later doing about 250K in revenue, but I just haven’t been able to do the same in a different markets, with a different types of products.
I feel like I get testing, I get PPC, I get SEO….etc But, i’ve been unable to plug it all in to a new market.
Maybe I’m overthinking new ventures and markets, picking them apart before jumping in vs. my first (and still succesful) site was literally jumping in blind??
I’d say I’ve seriously attempted 5-10 other projects and none have taken legs like the first???
Thanks!
July 17th, 2007 at 5:47 am
Hi John
strugulling with ad sense. If yo could link this site as above to one of your site it would be good just getting started have low income at the moment but trying hard. strating to make a little but a little way to go if you do want a holiday it is a website about holidays. Please take a look I got someone to design the webite for me thanks and with apprecation I have a few learning problem but dad helps sometimes diffcult. I have a few tools
paul
July 17th, 2007 at 5:50 am
Hi John
strugulling with ad sense. If yo could link this site as above to one of your site it would be good just getting started have low income at the moment but trying hard. strating to make a little but a little way to go if you do want a holiday it is a website about holidays. Please take a look I got someone to design the webite for me thanks and with apprecation I have a few learning problem but dad helps sometimes diffcult. I have a few tools
http://www.sunset-bargain.holidays.co.uk
paul
July 17th, 2007 at 6:16 am
Hi John,
A lot of internet marketing stuff out there churns out direct response sales pages, reviews, blogs, memberships, etc.
I have an online store for audio books that carries more than 160 different categories of subjects. There’s even one of yours amongst the titles from internet marketing.
My question is how do you turn an online store into a runaway success like you would for direct response sales pages? How would you market an online store any differently to take break through to the next level? I suppose its very much a different spin from mainstream IM?
Thanks!
July 17th, 2007 at 7:25 am
Right now my biggest problem is finding people to create web sites. Of course I could pay an enormous amount of $$ for every site and never get anywhere. I need to find people who can make websites at a reasonable price, who understand marketing (at least a little).
So far my experience with webmasters has been horrible. Either they don’t know how to do what I need them to do or they just simply never respond, or stop responding in the middle of a project.
Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.
July 17th, 2007 at 7:45 am
Hi. John!
I am a webmaster at work and am trying to start my own selling adventure. I have paired with very successful in St. Louis beautician that creates very good skin care product. What I am struggling with?
The site is almost done and I have no idea how to market it. I heard a lot of horror stories of how people pay insane amount of money for getting on Google, etc…
and never saw a profit. The market for skin care is saturated, how to make a breakthrough?
Thanks
July 17th, 2007 at 10:36 am
I’m always looking for traffic techniques that work for me…an extremely successful one that I’ve found is redirecting expired domain traffic, but would like to add “media-buying” to my marketing. Will you provide more detailed info on media buying without me having to spend $25,000 just to learn?
July 17th, 2007 at 11:54 am
I am a beginner. Know almost nothing.
Have no website. Don’t know how to do it.
Still don’t believe you can make money.
There seems to be no place for beginners.
Beginners all mixed in with “The Pros”.
All mixed up and confusing.
No online course. No online textbook.
No core knowledge to learn or master.
Can’t afford to invest big-money to start.
Worse yet, can’t help but be suspicious.
Wondering whether effort is warranted.
Confused about starting, how to begin, or
even whether worth trying out. And don’t
know what to try out. Flying confused
and solo.
No core knowledge to master.
Looks like the wild west.
Regardless. No place for beginners.
All jumbled up. No basic plan to start.
If there is a plan, guess who pays? ME.
Over and over again, I am sure.
July 17th, 2007 at 1:24 pm
As a web developer and designer, David’s comment hit home, “All the support time and revisions eat away at billable hours.”
I also feel I have a lot of skills to really make something happen and generate passive income for myself. I’ve realized that designing web pages and spending hours of hours in a service based people that the average business person just doesn’t seem to value anymore is not cutting it.
I have written a high quality e-book on small business (130+) pages and have gotten only a few sales.
My web development skills mean that I can develop and launch websites very quickly but that doesn’t really do me any good.
I want people to visit my site when they are looking for small business info and need help. I also would love to do seminars in this area. I have done tons of research in this area and have been running my own small business for over five years…most of that full time.
I have also thought about developing some PHP software too. I’m really open to ideas but I think I lack focus at this point!
July 17th, 2007 at 3:20 pm
John, YOU BEAST!
The most powerful tool you can arm your clients with is the ability to reverse engineer goals.
I know you probably have a lot of steps, and is more complex than I’m making it seem. But how the crap do you plan your weeks.
Maybe giving an example will be helpfull.
Let’s say I want to double my business by next year.
How would you chunk that down to what outcomes I want to achieve by next week. What steps I have to take tommorrow?
Do you use legal pads? White boards? Mindmaps? Notecards? Planner? Calender? All of the above?
A camtasia video would be tight for sure.
Thanks.
July 17th, 2007 at 4:33 pm
implementing a good marketing program in a good step by step way is a daily struggle. To many directions to go and too lillte time. Establishing priorites and keeping them happening on a regular way is always a challenge.
July 17th, 2007 at 5:47 pm
Greetings, John
What is the most ideal way to generate some fast income online in an emergency situation?
When there is little to no cash flow from a business, it’s hard to keep focused on marketing when the budget is tight, especially when one doesn’t have an established list of customers.
Thank you
July 17th, 2007 at 6:10 pm
Hello Mr.Reese,
I must say, this is very thoughtful of you to be concerned about a lot of people. My biggest struggle is the risks that I want to take…
I keep scaring other people, not intentionaly, telling them how many billions of dollars Iam going to make with just one Music abum in the form of digital downloads.
And Im not afraid of losing money or gaining it. It’s the end product that I’m interested in….
One thing is I dont believe that you need to have 1000’s of products to make millions of dollars. Or you even need affiliates!
I believe that if you can reach more than a billion surfers you can make billions of dollars without google,yahoo or msn and affiliates.
I’ve already come up with a plan of how to reach them just like you said in your email. have a 100 working 1% for you. Then I thought, what if you can have the 100 working 100% for you if you give them an interesting enough proposal. This is excluding affiliates and search engines!!!
All you have to do is go to them, reach them where they go…I would like to discuss the secret sauce with you. I want to share this with you. Please mail me your contact details Mr. Reese.
And I will call you. Iam in Chennai, India. My website will be up and running soon. Would be great if you can take a look at it when it’s up…
Would also be great if you can comment on this…Looking forward to your reply
My best Regards,
Sajjid Manuel
July 17th, 2007 at 6:35 pm
My website is ok.
I have it up and running for a bit more than a year
and i a earn a nice “bonus” for my current fixed job.
I believe i can make more money and be independent but for
some reason I can’t find out how.
I don’t have much traffic but my conversion rates are high…
What To do?
Kind regards,
Yoel Cohen
http://www.adjustcredit.com
July 17th, 2007 at 6:45 pm
[…] « What Are You Struggling With? […]
July 17th, 2007 at 8:41 pm
When Rich Schefren asked this same question a few months ago the answers showed a real lack of internet basics, but they also had a broader range of businesses outside of internet marketing. (I guess this is a very different crowd.)
I bring this up because when I read the comments on Rich’s blog I realized that what I liked was helping people get to where they wanted to be, and then I forgot about it because of concentrating on my mother’s medical issues in the intervening months.
Now I’ve read all these comments and remembered that I really enjoy taking what I have gleaned from my experience and using it to help someone with their goal.
But this leaves me with a struggle of “what do I know?”, “how do I find people I can help?”, “where do I start?”, “who would believe I can contribute something useful?” (can I?)…
The big problem from an internet marketing perspective is I feel I can implement a lot of the marketing advice I’ve read, but since content is king, and I don’t really “know” what content topic to concentrate on, I don’t have a basis for any of the marketing.
July 17th, 2007 at 11:58 pm
Hi,
This is month is the best for my 2 website earning an average 4 dollars a day but somehow this past few days my i
income drop to a measly .50 cents. What did i do wrong. My
website is currently 3 months old and my marketing method is using web 2.0 site. Can you help me. This is my last straw
to convince my wife that i can really earn money in the internet. I’m really really desperate.
Eliseo
July 18th, 2007 at 1:23 am
Information overload is my no.1 struggle. no.2 is lack of action (I know you say all the time “Take Action!”), maybe its the fear of failure or rather fear of success!? that stops me from moving. I am a regular forum lurker at wf, dp, np, etc. and most of the time end up buying stuff which people try to market or new domains coz they promise so much and when I try and fail and get depress, then i stop trying but continue to buy things..man i should keep a check on my cards! Been in this field since 18 months, and am just close to make 1200$ all this time from adsense(my only income source). I know theres a lot that can be done and I can/will succeed if I *DO* them.
July 18th, 2007 at 8:10 am
Hi Rees,
Thank you for giving me this opportunity to work with you, I have a problem that I can not pay for instant most of system by credit card, because since I lose my job I give up all my credit card. Because to fill the order form I must write the credit number on it, what I don´t have. Since I have been looking for the success on Internet I notice that everybody want sale something and it must only be by credit card and majority of Marketer is always taking about millions what is not true just to confuse people to buy the system (software) what it is not even working to catch the millions.
I find another system to pay cash calling STRATO cash, why do you only prefer by credit card?????
Thanks.
Tshibangu
July 18th, 2007 at 4:31 pm
Wow,
This is so great to read all the responses from everyone. I just got into online marketing one year ago and have been learning at a ridiculous pace. I saved up money so that I could live for 1 year without working and have total time to dedicate to learning how to be successful online.
I have been putting in massive effort working 10 - 16 hours a day, 6 days a week. In the last 8 months I have read hundreds of ebooks, listened to countless hours of audio and watched quite a lot of video.
I discovered:
Most people (the majority of who are struggling) want to “make money online” People that really are making money online have an Internet Business — Yes John, I heard this from you last year. So true. Like a splash of ice cold water!
Some other intelligent person put it like this: “If you want to get married, would you just pick the first girl you meet on the street and propose, or would you be very choosy about the girl you select?” — You’re going to be spending much more time working on your business than being with your girl so why not be a bit more selective?! (maybe that was you too John?)
Most newbies I hear about just jump on the first thing so that they get started and it doesn’t work because they have no idea what they’re doing (I’m guilty too)
After naively choosing a very small niche when I got into this and trying like crazy to promote it for 6 months, I have learned so much that it was actually a fantastic experience. People: Never underestimate the power of learning from your mistakes. If you weren’t here to learn, you’d already know everything!
Here’s my advice to everyone who’s starting fresh or starting again:
Find out how you’re going to get the traffic FIRST and make sure it works before you waste your time making a product/website,etc. Monetizing the site is the easy part. No traffic = no business
My buddy is in the TrafficTactics course and has a good relationship with Carlos and Lupe — Carlos understood something most people don’t (including myself until recently) FOCUS on what is IMPORTANT and MASTER it.
My biggest problem until recently when I re-evaluated my whole situation is that I was moving in too many directions at the same time. Looking back it’s all perfect because I have learned so much from it and all the mistakes this caused.
4 last observations:
*Moving far in one direction leads to a destination, going half way a hundred times
leads to nowhere.
*Partnering with others makes life a heck of a lot easier, but partnering with the ‘wrong others’ will give you grey hair and frustration. Choose Wisely.
*Most products in the internet marketing niche are GARBAGE. Most of the so-called ‘gurus’ are producing and promoting GARBAGE — even many of the big names (not John though : ) They are like vampires that want to suck you dry, armed with psychological weapons of mass destruction. They’d high-pressure their mother (using a one-time offer) just to make a buck.
*Before you buy the next hyped-up, rehashed internet marketing product after the sales-page does a number on you, do yourself a favour… Take some notes from the page of what the product promises you will get (look at the bullets), then find out who are the top bloggers on that subject and go and read their blogs, if that doesn’t work try Google searches. You’ll find almost all of the info you need for free. (use technorati.com to search blogs)
Good Luck everyone, hang in there. Create win-win situations for everyone…
Jason
P.S. Stop wasting your time reading all those BS mails you get from all those marketers everyday with the latest gizmo that’s going to save you, you’re wasting valuable production time. Unsubscribe!
July 18th, 2007 at 10:39 pm
I have a russian text and audio course. On my website which I have tried to style as
a one page sales letter I am offering 5 lessons free. I am using Google to advertise and get plent of clicks but have gotten very few people to sign up for the free lessons. I have advertised
using the key words like “learning Russian” and “Russian Brides” and get plenty of clicks
but few signs ups. Can someone review the site and give their critique?
Thanks,
Juan Marcos
July 19th, 2007 at 2:09 am
[…] is entry #1 in the What Are You Struggling With? series. If you’d like to submit one of your struggles for consideration please post a comment […]
July 19th, 2007 at 4:29 am
[…] new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!This is entry #1 in the What Are You Struggling With? series. If you’d like to submit one of your struggles for consideration please post a comment […]
July 19th, 2007 at 1:56 pm
Jackie,
Please feel free to give send me an email. dflanagan@llnw.com. Limelight Networks is a a CDN service that deals precisely with your challenge. How to provide rich media content to an ever-growing audiece of users. I don’t want to be inappropriate an make a sales pitch here but it will be worth your time to check us out. Good luck either way.
Don
July 19th, 2007 at 3:53 pm
One of the biggest challenges I’m currently facing is understanding my markets needs. I mean, I really know a lot about my niche, but what I know may not necessarily be what my reader’s are looking for. How can I better understand my market? I know I must serve my readers what they are looking for, and overdeliver…but how do I know specifically what they’re looking for as a whole? The last thing I want to do is waste someone’s valuable time.
Anyways, my site is still in it’s early stages, and I know with time I’ll better understand my fellow readers. I’m really enjoying the ride and all that I’ve been learning from others comments.
Really looking forward to Income.com launch day!
may you prosper,
Sam
July 21st, 2007 at 5:55 am
[…] is entry #2 in the What Are You Struggling With? series. If you’d like to submit one of your struggles for consideration please post a comment […]
July 21st, 2007 at 7:31 am
[…] new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!This is entry #2 in the What Are You Struggling With? series. If you’d like to submit one of your struggles for consideration please post a comment […]
July 22nd, 2007 at 11:22 pm
One thing is SEO for a brand new site (I’m not patient!), the other is how to grow a forum.
Thanks,
July 23rd, 2007 at 1:48 am
Thanks for your million dollar question John, thanks again..
well, my main problem is that finding proper resources for my different needs…
since i am starting out , saving money is not the only concern, my customers will also see my every steps…and check whether i am a fly -by night operator or a pro.. i want to use good services and tools,
with most so called gurus saying and recommending everything with their affiliate links within it is difficult to trust them..
these are my various problems..
1. which autoresponder is the most effective and the best .(services are better or having the script yourself is better)
2. which hosting is the best and trustable even for large traffic(not like yours of course.. hahah, yours traffic is mammoth,)
3.where will i host my videos( got your Answer : Amazon services , Thanks a lot)
4.which SEO book and tools are good and (this is really important as google is really serious nowadays)
5. what are the tools i should use for making my different tasks easier like submitting articles , submitting my site to directories and is there any other tool
which i should use….like any web 2.0 tools
6.any other tips you want to give.. thanks
thanks for your time and reading.
take care, and you are really important for all of us and all the upcoming future entrepreneurs , thanks for everything.
take care again.
July 23rd, 2007 at 3:51 am
an important thing i just forgot to add,
since lawyers are becoming so expensive and we also cannot even check whether
they are fooling us or not,
what are the internet laws out there and is there any website which i can refer and know the things i need to do.
any other legal stuff and sources …that is important kindly please mention it.
thanks a lot and take care
July 23rd, 2007 at 2:24 pm
What I’m struggling with is an age old quandary in the pub trade.
I’m just about to open a sports bar/billiard club smack bang in the middle of a busy pub area where there is lots of passing trade.
Jackpot I hear….
I don’t want to rely on business just ‘happening’. I want a hand in it.
But how do I get young males 21-40 into my bar?
July 23rd, 2007 at 8:25 pm
Hi John,
I came in late but I’m still going to post it anyway.
I have been online doing affiliate programs and learning about traffic generation for about a year and now I’m in the mist of setting up new online business. The niche has nothing to do with my current niches.
The website that I’m working on will be an educational, informative and interactive site. Very much like income.com and actually will be modeling some parts of your site on my site - Don’t worry we are in different niches and I hope you wont mind me doing that.
So my problem is its purely a new site and I do not have a whole lot of content up there. I’m working on my first wave of initial content up before we launch the site and going to use some other sites content as well. So how much content will you recommend to put on the site on a regular basis? I’m planning on having about 3000 words worth of content every week, perhaps you can advise on this how much content will make a difference in terms of SEO.
2nd problem is, its again a new site and traffic is what we want first. I have put in place free e course and ebook for viral marketing - which I think will work pretty well in this niche. My aim for this is to keep our viewers coming back to our site like what Im doing now - every few days login to your site and check whats new.
So I pretty much use myself as a great example, what I do as a viewer or reader of income.com and that’s what I want my viewer of my new site to be. Keep coming back for more information.
Do let me know your views and advise, thanks for reading!
- I don’t want to mention my site for now because its at its bare minimum, still working on the backend and content. Will share with you and all of you when I launch it.
Thanks once again.
Terry
T
July 24th, 2007 at 11:53 am
What should I do??
I have a website that is built on a .org domain and I have just recently bought the .com version. Should I leave the site ranking for the .net domain or should I move the whole site over to the .com domain? I don’t want all my hard SEO work to have been a waste of time. Is there anyway that I could move the site over to the .com domain without hurting my SE ranking? I hope you can help me out with this!
Thanks for your time John.
Regards,
Zane.
July 31st, 2007 at 6:43 pm
Hello John,
This is what i am struggling with right now;
i have paid some one to build for me the following web-site, to resale e-books, but i was not satisfied by him, and since five months till now, i did’nt earn any penny from that site;
That is why i need to cancell the actual content of that web site and
i am willing to create website or a blog on personnal developpment to earn money online; but for now, my starting capital is Quite ZERO, since, there is two years from now that i did not have a job; i only recently discover and decided to go for online business,so i actually have no money saved;
But, as you may guess, i actually need to have the necessary money to survive, pay my appartment rent, eat, take care of my health, etc.. while , by the same time i am rebuilding my new site, because it will take and money time to purchase , learn and master all the necessary tools and software needed, and it will also take time to write and post progressively the articles before i am able to have sufficient traffic on this site, to be able to monetize it;
I would like you to help me by telling me how i can find a top ten or more hot selling products online in some marketing area so that i can do affiliate marketing (consistent commission percentage of rewarding) using google adwords , to earn residual income to support myself while i am struggling to build my new website;
August 1st, 2007 at 12:34 pm
Hi John,
Can you please share some good resources to find best quality web developers/designers/ghost writers.
I know about elance. rentacoder/scriptlance etc..
My challenge is is there any place in the internet where we will find the best recommendations and good reviews about them. What is the first place you go to look for some quality workmanship?
Please answer.
Thanks & REgards,
-Gaj
August 3rd, 2007 at 1:35 pm
This is in response to Juan’s inquiry. Juan, your main problem is that you have “Russian Brides” as one of your meta keywords for your site and your site doesn’t offer Russian brides. You need to have your keywords reflect what you’re selling otherwise you will continue to have people go to your site and quickly leave it. “Learning Russian” is great. You should also try “Russian lessons”.
August 3rd, 2007 at 2:35 pm
Hi John,
Currently I’m struggling with seting up a website, I want to get into Internet Marketing
I have going through millions of websites, all promissing to be the THING or EBOOK for
Online marketing. I have studied some of the materials by Dan Kennedy, John Carlton
and Gary Halbert…etc
Where and how do I start? I’ve been reading and reading how to e-books and searching
and it’s not leading anywhere! Everyone trying to sell the very same thing through affiliate
and ad sense accounts, however I believe that most of these guys are just loosing their
Shirt, competing for the same traffic? In a market where your competition knows about
Your every move, How can you stay on top and actually make some good money?
You know, lot of these guys mention how their e-book will make you thousands of dollars
and then you click on the next website and another long Carlton Style sales letter pitching
the same dream??
people talk of finding a Niche Market and try to satisfy their needs, but a Niche stays a Niche
for a few hours or a couple of days until everybody else join in.
My other question is, how many productive hours should you spend in your online venture
in order to start making some decent cash? not only that, how do you start? Most online gurus
claiming that they got limited products that will make you millions of dollars, then you go
back to the sites after months only to find out it’s all just bunch of BS, and I’m not
talking about Guru wannabes, the real guys who are conducting seminars right and left
I’m sure that there are a lot of people confused, i have purchased and returned most of
these money making so called Secret Methods with one great hope that it will actually
teach something valuable, only to find out that it’s all BS.
I.e., Direct response marketing courses, all say the same thing, same info regurgitated
differently.
Hard to find an actual step-by-step course or info product to actually show you what to do
for online success..
Thanks
August 4th, 2007 at 12:01 pm
Hi John,
The biggest issue i find myself struggling with is, I am bombarded with info from various
websites, Do this.Do that, no one is actually telling me how to go from point A to Point B,
I often end up browsing through websites and tremendous amount of useless information,,
only to get more confused and frustrated, No one is actualy talking about how to do certain stuff.
How to get more out of your time? How to get from a single website or no website to
actualy getting some traffic and making a decent living online?
How to get and apply the right information?
Which tools to use? You know, all of us are probably good at few things, but maybe gifted
in one area or two at most, How can outsource right people?
What budget can you actualy work with? is it 1000,10000..etc
You know, i just watched youre videos and i can tell you that i relate to your past situation
where you had huge amount of debt (that’s where i am right now), my budget is very limited
maybe to a few thousands to get started online. You know most ebooks or dummy websites
promise to only put in 10-15hres a week to make a decent income…
Yeah right.
My problem is not working, i’ve been working 60hres a week since age of 24, i just want to
work smart, and move forward, and have something to show for it.
Thank you John
August 4th, 2007 at 12:46 pm
Hey John,
I am struggling with making a descision if I shall start a membership site, and what niche to choose travel or self improvement.
Do you have any suggestion what of them to take, which of them are more easy to dig in to?
Thanks!
Ulrica
August 6th, 2007 at 2:53 am
Hello John Reece, as you are one of the most successful people in online marketing I would like know
what you consider is copy that really sells and what angle at which to approach it viz. what is most appealing ! Or what works the best for you?.
Do you have any ideas as to getting great people to become an affiliate for? Like great product great commissions.
I do not want my own product as that is too much hassle e.g. inventory packaging postage ect.
I want to become a super affiliate. so which is your best product and can I become an affiliate for you?
Thanks for your consideration
patricia
http://www.patsite.com
August 8th, 2007 at 4:30 pm
– Newsletters –
Hi John,
Many marketers extol the virtue of building a list and then marketing to it through newsletter and special offers. My question is this, how do you build a newsletter every single week or two weeks? I’m always stumped where the good content will come from.
If it isn’t good or worthwhile, then I wouldn’t want to send one out. Why send junk? On the other side, as a subscriber, why would I continue to read junk? Short answer: I wouldn’t!
So what are your best tips for finding *good* newsletter content each week? BTW, my focus has ZERO to do with Internet Marketing (IM) and everything to do with supporting my day-to-day dirt wor