A quick “Income.com” related news update for you…

Status Of Traffic Secrets 2.0

We, unfortunately, ran into a minor problem with the CD-Rom format for Traffic Secrets 2.0 and now I have to go and re-record some of the content.

It’s not a major issue but it’s going to delay the course release by a few weeks. We had planned to release it by the end of May but that’s not going to happen now.

I want to apologize to everyone that’s been patiently waiting for the course. We’re doing our best to get it out ASAP and it will be available before you know it. (So thanks.)

The Main Income.com Site

We’re still very busy with the development of our core site as well as the great video content we’re creating for it.

I had really hoped to open up the site early in the year, but it’s just not going to happen. We’re adding more features and doing a lot of testing on the initial phases of it all.

UGH. Why is it that everything always takes A LOT longer than you think it will!?

A lot of our valued customers have been contacting us and are anxious to know when TS2 will be out as well as the main site. So I just wanted to send out this update to let everyone know that we’re hard at work on both of them. They will both be well worth the wait. I know I keep saying that, but it’s true, I promise.

I am dying to share some more information about what we’re developing (which would make people realize what’s taking so long) but I cannot release this information just yet for competitive reasons.

You’ll fully understand once you see it all come together.

So in the meantime, keep working hard on your business!

QUICK TIP:

Here’s how to make more money in your business right away…

Analyze your current results. See where most of your traffic is coming from and what’s creating most of your revenue.

You’ll find that only 1-3 things are most likely driving most of the activity in your business. Spend more time growing those things and very little time trying other things that are unproven. It’s the 80/20 rule on steroids. It really applies to Internet Marketing.

Also, there’s ONE thing that will probably make you more money than anything else - A NEW PRODUCT.

It’s a proven fact that one of the best ways to create an infusion of cash into your online business is to release a new product.

Yes, product creation is time consuming and sometimes is no fun. But regardless of your market, releasing a new product is almost guaranteed to make you more money as fast as possible.

A great book I highly recommend you go out and buy TODAY is “Ready, Fire, Aim: From Zero To $100 Million In No Time Flat” by Michael Masterson.

This book talks a lot about building an information publishing business and a lot of it can be applied to building this business online. After reading this book you’ll understand why creating new products quickly is one of the most powerful ways to build wealth in your business.

Here’s a link to it on Amazon.com. It’s currently selling for only $18.45 which is an absolute bargain.

More news soon.

By now you probably know what “Target Marketing” is. It’s the process of designing your marketing for a specific group of people that would be most likely to buy what you sell.

As a simple example, if you sell products for men then you don’t need to include things that would appeal to women. But it’s much more complex than that.

The WORST thing you can do with your marketing is try to “be all things to all people.” This is what many refer to as the SHOTGUN APPROACH — you advertise and promote your business to anyone and everyone with the thinking that you’ll sell more by reaching more people.

Massive mistake.

If you truly focus your efforts (the way you communicate, your marketing style, the benefits that you stress, the stories you tell, the keywords you bid on, the places you choose to advertise, etc. etc.) towards your most ideal prospect then you stand to make the most money.

The closer you ’speak someone’s language’ (i.e. to a person’s feelings, problems, situations, etc.) the higher your conversions will be. i.e. the more sales you’ll make.

Because the problem with the shotgun approach is that your marketing becomes TOO BROAD and doesn’t ’speak’ directly to anyone (or group) in particular.

There are MANY marketers making the shotgun approach mistake. But there are probably MORE marketers (especially those marketing via the Internet) that ARE properly using target marketing as the foundation for their business BUT they are using some shotgun-type mistakes because of HOW they market online.

Here’s a great example…

How many companies online are trying to structure their web sites, content, and marketing to appeal to ALL INTERNET USERS within their target market? (Probably 95% of them.)

But here’s why this is, in my opinion, BAD MARKETING…

Internet users have different connection speeds… different screen resolutions… different computing power. Trying to structure your online marketing to appeal to ALL of these things is, ultimately, a way to LOSE MONEY.

Why?

Because in an effort to appeal to ‘everyone’ you sacrifice the ability to do a better job to a subset of those users. The best example is broadband users.

Income.com, for example, is going to be doing A TON of video. And guess what? We’re NOT going to have ‘alternate versions’ of our videos for dial-up and lower bandwidth users. In fact, we’re going in the opposite direction — our primary content is going to be aimed at users with fast connections. (Which is the majority now anyway.)

By creating our content and producing it to have the best experience for the majority of users that DO have fast connections we can do a BETTER JOB with our marketing. On the other hand, if we tried to create our content so it could still be experienced by everyone, we’d be ‘robbing’ our broadband users of a better experience — which can, ultimately, lead to higher conversions or higher revenue.

Some web designers are STILL designing web sites for 800×600 resolutions. This is silly. 75%+ have 1024 or greater screen resolutions now. Marketers can create better experiences by designing for the majority of their target audience — and in doing so make more money. Far more than the money they think they’d ‘lose’ by not catering to those users that are going to NOT get the ideal experience due to their computer and connection limitations.

In any business you’re going to have to do things that might “leave people out.” It’s just part of the process. If you want to maximize the amount of money you make in your business you’re going to HAVE TO make some tough decisions. Whether that’s not marketing to 18-24 year olds because most of your sales are coming from older folks, or with the dial-up vs. broadband example I’ve given you.

In fact, I would like to make you a CHALLENGE. I’d be willing to bet that RIGHT NOW in your business you could fine-tune your marketing to more directly target FEWER PEOPLE than you currently are. And in doing so, I’d almost guarantee that you make more money.

Always keep in mind… it’s not about the size of the audience, it’s about the rate at which people buy. Sometimes you have to focus on a smaller audience to produce more money.

Another great example of this is are companies that sell with premium prices. They are willing to ‘give up’ all of their potential buyers that won’t be able to afford (or justify) paying extremely high prices for their products. But they end up making more money because they tailor their marketing to do a better job of ’speaking’ to their target audience that WILL be most likely to buy their stuff.

So start thinking how you can at least start doing some test marketing to a smaller targeted audience. Set up a separate web site and special offers if you have to.

BONUS TIP: If you’re selling a bunch of products right now with an online store examine what products are selling the most. You’ll most likely find that 2 or 3 products account for 90% of your sales. If so, target your efforts to ONLY sell more of those 2-3 products and you’ll most likely make a lot more money than trying to appeal to people that ‘might’ want your 20-30 different products.

There’s a fantastic event happening in Orlando, Florida on September 11-13, 2008. It’s called IZEAFest.

IZEAFest is a 3-day event all about BLOGGING. Many of the top bloggers in the world will be in attendance. My good buddy, Jeremy Schoemaker, is giving the keynote address.

Unless you’ve been living in a cave, by now you realize that blogging is the current and future of publishing. Most “old school” newspapers and magazines now have digital editions of their publications (i.e. blogs) and many are transitioning to a BLOG-ONLY model and will no longer continue to print their newspaper, magazine, or trade journal — because it’s a lot more profitable as a blog-only model.

Thousands of bloggers are now making a part-time or full-time income from blogging — and this trend is only going to continue to explode. Never before has it been easier to ‘instantly’ have your own publication like a magazine or a newspaper to let your voice be heard.

EVERY COMPANY marketing themselves online needs a blog.

Want to learn more about how to make money from blogs? Want to network with some of the most successful bloggers in the world? You know, the ones that can dramatically increase your rankings with a single link pointing to one of your posts.

Then you need to attend IZEAFest.

Here’s The Best Part…

It’s DIRT CHEAP.

If you register for IZEAFest before May 14th, it’s a whopping $50. Yes, fifty bucks. If you register after May 14th, your ticket will cost $65.

Even if you pay $65 for your ticket this is an absolutely NO BRAINER. The networking opportunities alone are probably worth 1,000X+ that amount.

And since this event is taking place right down the road from my super-secret batcave headquarters, I am 90% sure that I will be able to attend so I’ll see you there! There’s a small chance I might be out of town that week but I’m trying to adjust my schedule.

Get all the info and register here.

You know Super Billy and UltraProfit2K and BloggerBarbara and SEOKungFu?

*For the record, I am just making these up. This isn’t aimed at an actual person.

Well, their days of making money online are numbered.

In the past few years, things have really evolved with Internet Marketing and one of them has to do with ONLINE IDENTITIES. You used to be able to get away with using some anonymous “username” as you communicated with others online — even for business purposes.

But that has now changed.

The most successful marketers online are ones that will build brands and a loyal following with THEIR ACTUAL NAMES. And in some rare cases, a pen name.

As ‘Social Marketing’ is becoming more a part of our marketing lives, it’s now apparent more than ever that the Old Generation of anonymous usernames isn’t going to cut it.

With the growth of Facebook, Twitter, blogs, and other forms of social marketing, users want to feel like they are communicating with ANOTHER PERSON, or even a new FRIEND. Well, giving a new friend you just met some bogus, made-up name isn’t going to exactly benefit that relationship. It would be a bit insulting, actually.

If you’re going to take the time and effort to ‘get involved’ online in discussions and other ‘conversations’ (for marketing purposes) you’re going to LOSE A LOT OF MONEY if you’re going to use something other than YOUR FULL NAME. Again, as an option you can use a pen name, but you must be consistent with it.

Want to know one of Facebook’s ’success’ secrets? The majority of their users are USING THEIR REAL NAMES.

Anonymous posting and conversations is so 1997.

Think about it… if you’re using Twitter, or even an online discussion forum, which posts and comments (especially those without a prior relationship) do you TRUST and VALUE the most?

Yep, it’s the ones from people using their full name.

Most people naturally equate anonymous communication as a COWARDLY ACT. And, no, I’m not saying that everyone that posts anonymously online is a coward. But that’s the PERCEPTION and FIRST IMPRESSION that most people have.

If you’re going to use the Internet for marketing purposes you better get over this ‘anonymous’ communication stuff quickly — because you’re only losing potential business and personal name brand recognition EVERY TIME YOU POST.

I’m a huge ‘trend watcher’ online, especially when it has to do with marketing. There’s a major EVOLUTION that’s happening now in relation to online identities and how people are effectively using the Internet to drive traffic and sales to their business…

The anonymous communicators are being IGNORED more and more. They just don’t get the attention and ‘interaction’ that they once did. It’s like most serious marketers are thinking, Well, how professional can they be if they aren’t even using a real name?

Another thing that adds to all of this is the TROLL FACTOR.

If you’ve been involved with online discussion forums then you are probably well aware of what a “troll” is. It’s a person that posts (anonymously, of course) some garbage to a thread you’re reading or even starts a junk thread just to “stir the pot” and piss people off.

Well, anonymous posters of any kind (forums, blog comments, social networks, etc.) are often being considered trolls now (even if they aren’t) because so many people are finally communicating online with their real names.

So the bottom line is this…

Do You Want To Make Maximum Money In Your Online Efforts?

Then start participating around the Internet using your FULL NAME. If you’re going to run a REAL BUSINESS that people spend money with then you should be using your FULL NAME.

For every successful marketer someone can name that uses some sort of anonymous moniker others can name 1,000 successful marketers using their full names — and this trend is just getting started.

PERSONAL BRANDS are becoming more valuable every day. Don’t wait to start building and growing the EQUITY in yours.

UPDATE:
Mellisa McJunkin made a great point in the ‘comments’ for this post. It’s very important that your ‘avatar’ or profile image also be a photo of yourself when possible. Funny pics of cats, cartoon characters, or Tom Cruise take away from your credibility — it is looked upon as “amateurish” and even untrustworthy as someone that might be hiding something.

SECOND UPDATE:
Peter raised some great points in the comment section about building a company brand instead of a personal brand that can never be sold, etc. Here is my response:

Peter,

-John Reese