You’re working like crazy and you need a break or you’re going to crack. The good news is that there are certain Internet marketing hacks you can use to work less and earn more. Here are 5 common Internet marketing problems along with 5 Internet Marketing hacks you can use to bust past them.

Problem 1: There’s No Way You Could Ever Write Your Own Book Or Create Your Own Product

You love the idea of creating your own information product empire. You see other marketers releasing products left and right– you know that’s where the real money is made. The problem is that you can’t see yourself doing that. It will take you way too long. You’re not a writer and you don’t have that kind of time. How on earth are you going to succeed with your business in light of this?

Internet Marketing Hack: The solution is a lot simpler than you think. The solution is like any large or scary task in life– you just have to break it down until it isn’t scary or seemingly insurmountable anymore. In the case of writing a book when you’ve  never done so before, plan out your chapters. Give yourself 500 word chapter chunks to focus on… 1 per day. Ignore the rest.

Every day, focus on and write 500 words per day. At the end of 10 days, you will have written 5,000 words– a perfectly acceptable length for a shorter ebook or report. Rinse and repeat and build your info product empire. Anyone, even those with the toughest of day jobs and the most pressing of responsibilities, can make this happen. You write 500 word emails to friends and family every day, so make this happen.

Problem 2: You’re Not Selling Enough Products

If you’re not selling as many products as you’d like, it’s a real problem. You’ve done the hard work of creating the products in the first place so now you expect to reap the rewards. Should you have to spend a lot of money advertising your products? You could… but it’s not necessarily your first solution. Should you have to spend a lot of time on free traffic methods that may or may not work? You could, but I suggest a better way.

Internet Marketing Hack: As an Internet marketing hack I suggest you put most of your energy on recruiting affiliates who will promote just about everything you put out. I use the Nanacast system for my affiliates, which credits my affiliates for everything their referred customers buy, even on products they didn’t specifically promote. It’s all about affiliate loyalty. Spend your time recruiting and nurturing affiliates.

You see, when you put your focus on the affiliate, they become extremely loyal to you. When you have an army of affiliates who are loyal to you, they do the work of driving traffic to your offers, time and time again. They bring customers to you and help build your list (because every new customer is added to your list, of course).

If you’re struggling to get traffic or customers, focus on building relationships with affiliates. Rub elbows with others in your niche. Offer exceptional deals to affiliates and give them an offer they can’t refuse then they promote. If you make it incredibly easy and enticing for them and profitable for them to promote, there’s no reason they won’t.

If you don’t have enough income coming in, or enough products to justify a platform like Nanacast, you could use JV Zoo or Warrior Plus instead, although those who use those platforms sometimes lose fact of the fact that little transaction fees with each sale quickly add up to more than the monthly cost of Nanacast ($97.00).

Another option might be Amember or Digital Access Pass (DAP) which just charge you a one-time fee to use their software. One reason I love Nanacast more than the others (which I’ve used in the past) is that I don’t have to install the software on my server, and therefore don’t have to worry about security or having to continually install updates.

Problem 3: You Don’t Have A List

You don’t have a list, which you  know is a necessary and important part of succeeding in any business. You don’t really see how you can succeed without one. Is there hope for you? You know building a large list can take years, but you’d rather start succeeding right now, rather than later.

Internet Marketing Hack: Start to write and release mini and larger products and get affiliates to promote them. Give these affiliates great commissions and deals they won’t want to turn down. Whenever a customer buys, they’ll be added to your list. Rinse and repeat weekly. Continue networking and forming new relationships with affiliates weekly. Before you know it, you’ll have great relationships with affiliates and a steadily growing list of active buyers.

You don’t really need a large list to do well, my friend Connie Ragen Green is a prime example. She was earning over $100,000 per year with a list of only a little over 600 subscribers.

I cover this problem and its solution very in depth at No List, No Contacts, No Problem, so I recommend you check that out.

Problem 4: Your Time Is Filled With Little Tasks You Hate And That Don’t Bring In Much Money

There are always little tasks in business that have to get done but don’t bring in much money in the end. These tasks can really suck the energy out of you. They take up the time you could be spending on much higher profit activities. This is a huge problem many people run into when they’re the only ones in their business. What should you do?

Internet Marketing Hack: It’s time to outsource the little things. You need to outsource the tasks that hold you up. Consider what your time is worth. If it would take you 3-4 hours to do something that you could instead outsource on Fiverr for $5-$10, you’re much better off outsourcing it. Leave your energy for higher profit, more enjoyable activities and you’ll find that you can grow your business and profit more overall.

Problem 5: You’re Totally Drained And Not Getting Much Done

You work all day but still find yourself not having gotten much done at the end of the day. What’s the solution? It’s not as if you can tack on another few hours to the 24 we all get. That’s the other thing– we all get the same 24 hours in a day, so why are some people able to get so much more done than others?

Internet Marketing Hack: It’s important to figure out when your peak work hours are. Some people work better first thing in the morning while others work better at night. Plan your schedule well and then get your most important tasks done first. Give yourself breaks and time off. You’ll burn yourself out very quickly if you don’t. Your health, productivity, business, and life overall will suffer if you burn the candle at both ends.

No matter what problem you’re dealing with, there are always new ways to approach it.

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Internet marketing has an interesting reputation. On one hand, people know that lives are changed by being able to earn money online. On the other hand, there are a few rotten apples that spoil the bunch. Some people assume that every online marketer is scheming and scamming. You and I know that that’s far from the truth.

The people I work with, my customers, are extremely important to me. I’ve dedicated my life to helping others succeed and achieve their dreams. It means so much to me that my customers get a lot out of my products. That’s why I strive to treat these customers like gold.

They know that I have their best interests at heart. They know that I’m only going to teach what I truly believe in. I don’t like to toot my own horn, but consistently around the web I see people mention that they trust me. I have many loyal customers who spread my name via word-of-mouth and who mark me as someone to trust.

It’s my nature to want to treat people well, but it’s also something I’ve done very deliberately. If you treat your customers well, they’ll help turn you into a marketing superstar. It can really boost your business to become known as someone who cares deeply for the customer. Treat your customers well and they’ll buy from you, love you, and spread your name far and wide. I can personally attest to that and owe my success to my customers who, in many cases, have become like family to me.

It’s a concept I’ve seen in practice time and time again with the most successful businesses.

Consider Zappos

I really like to look to case studies and examples to help get the point across. When considering how companies can become very successful because of how they treat the customer, Zappos springs to mind.

Zappos wins over the customers for many different reasons. For one thing, they offer fast, free shipping both ways. It is very easy to make returns with them and they are very clear about what you are buying up front. Their customer reviews and user ratings make it easy for the buyer to make a decision. The site is easy to navigate. The customer service is very responsive.

They also set themselves apart in a few important ways. Most importantly is their VIP service upgrade. This VIP upgrade is often given as a free surprise perk to delighted customers. It offers free one-day shipping and a few other great perks.

Zappos makes the customer feel special and they are often touted in marketing materials for being an exemplary company. Many note that they treat their employees exceptionally well, which trickles down to treating the customer very well.

Consider Amazon

Amazon is another great example. Amazon is very easy to order from – too easy, some would argue. They offer excellent customer service, low prices, and an easy to navigate site. As a bonus for you and I, they also make it very easy to earn an income with them.

But one thing that really sets Amazon apart is Amazon Prime. They offer free two-day shipping, dramatically reduced one-day shipping, and a lot of free movies, TV shows, books, and more as part of the Prime membership.

Amazon treats the customer right and seems to put the customer first. This has helped them grow into the company they are today.

It’s All About The User Experience

You may not have a company anywhere near as big as Zappos or Amazon, but you do have an online business that’s important in your niche, or soon will be. You can use the concepts of great companies to treat your customers like gold so that you, too, can become a marketing superstar.

Think about the customer or client experience when they buy from you. You want them to feel good. You want them to feel part of something great. Ordering from you should be an experience or an event. Their experience with you really should be different from what they get elsewhere.

It’s time for you to treat your customers like gold. Be there for them. Give them a great experience and treat them well. Be approachable and helpful. Be different and stand out from the crowd. It can really help to brainstorm ways you can treat your customer better than ever so they’ll develop a loyalty that will last a lifetime.

If you do this, customers will love you, buy from you, recommend you, and flock to you. Treating your customers like gold can help you become a marketing superstar.

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This is a product review on Big Content Search, another product in our review series.

Big Content Search is a website that provides users with a searchable database of over 100,000 PLR articles.

What our first reviewer said:

Big Content Search

- convenient searching (including AND and OR searches)
- lots of variety
- lots of topics
- decent sized articles (number of words)
- some basic training that is decent
- easy downloading and/or cart system

I searched for, and found, articles about 10 topics that I consider myself to be knowledgeable on. The article titles were good, and were not overly simplistic. Most of the 10 topics had good representation in terms of # of articles.

The one downside is that about 1/2 the articles came from people who do not have a good knowledge of English grammar and proper sentence structure. The quality was not pathetic, but it was definitely not up to my standards. I would have to rework most of the articles.

Example:

“I can remember vividly a photography named Michael Zagaris who is the team photographer of the San Francisco 49ers. He said that he was just captivated by the use of black and white photography. The way the light and the shading are so much more evident.”

That said, we are told we should never use PLR as is. We should always rewrite it or spin it (they have a built in spinner!) so the main negative may not be that BIG a deal.

There is also a forum but though it is about 9 months old, not many have used it. Communities are always great for me.

I’d give this an 8.

What our second reviewer said:

Big Content Search has a wide range of articles covering a broad range of topics. I put in some off-the-wall keywords, and it came back with articles.

Are these the best articles in the world? No. They are pretty good articles for blogs, and they are great for rewriting to get unique articles.

Click here to learn more about Big Content Search.

Have you used this product? …What’s YOUR feedback?

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Hey everyone, Rachel here!

I have a long list of blog entries to write, but I decided to push them aside to write about Chronic Marketer – Brad Gosse’s new book.

I intended to write about it sooner, but I took a small side trip to Zion National Park with a friend and got sidetracked.

Brad sent me a copy of his book a few weeks ago. I started reading it as soon as I got it and digested the whole thing within a few hours.

It’s definitely a very controversial book… but like with most things, I am choosing to listen to the MESSAGE versus be judgmental around the way it’s communicated.

That being said, here are the top 3 things I’ve gotten from Brad’s book:

1. Change what you don’t like. While Brad’s book helps to teach a lot about internet marketing, one of the top things I got from the book was a side tangent he went over. He mentions how when he goes to restaurants, if there is a long wait, he chooses not to accept that. He says on page 224:

“Personally, I don’t like to wait in line for anything. Call me entitled. I don’t care. I will walk up to the host or hostess with a folded $20 bill in my hand and quietly hand it to them asking if there’s anything they can do to expedite things for us. I have never been denied a table using this method. 60 minutes of my time is worth far more than $20.”

I LOVE this!

Sure… we could follow rules, but as entrepreneurs, I don’t think that’s what we’re here to do. We’re here to LEAD.

So taking this concept into internet marketing… if you don’t like doing something, don’t accept it! Outsource it. Extinguish it from your business model. Re-frame it so you DO like it. Whatever it is, make sure you’re getting to work in as empowering mindset as often as possible.

2. Don’t be the one to ask for money. I LOVE this one!! If you’re offering any kind of service, you probably will too. Brad says that when he is approached – either through social media, IMs, or after a talk, about being hired… he’ll tell them to book an appointment with his assistant.

His assistant is the one who gives the prospect all the information about pricing.

His rationale is that his assistant is a gatekeeper.  She creates a wall, and when there is a wall, people feel more inclined to deal with your protocol.

They also have less price resistance.

And at the end of the day… they’ll either follow your rules or they won’t.

I realize that this may be controversial, but personally, I LOVE it.

If people are going to complain about the way Brad runs things, then they’re not his ideal client anyway.

I’d definitely recommend doing this.

3. Be yourself. I have no doubt that there are going to be some people who are unhappy about my mentioning this book. Brad mentions drugs, curses up a storm, and is basically 100% politically incorrect.

But at the end of the day, people who are attracted to him will fight for him for LIFE. They will feel very close to him. He’ll have an extremely loyal group of followers.

And for anyone who doesn’t like him… they’ll self select out. They’re doing Brad a favor. Now he only gets to work with people who love him. Who doesn’t want that?

This has been something I’ve been learning to do myself… giving more blog posts even though most people want the bright, shiny objects… using my “feeler”, hippie language… and unabashedly signing off “With love”.

Some people like it, some people don’t… but at the end of the day, I’ll have the best kind of tribe I can hope for – a tribe of people who appreciate me.

I highly recommend you do the same thing. If people don’t like you, screw ‘em – there’s BILLIONS more where they came from!

Bonus: Plan ahead. Brad had planned his book launch well ahead of time. He sent out lots of review copies, got support from fellow marketers, and made an INCREDIBLE sales page (check it out here).

All of his planning and focus paid off bigtime, because at one time he was #51 on OVERALL Amazon bestsellers (and possibly higher). At the time of this writing, he’s #1 in web marketing, #1 in e-commerce, and #1 in general business.

That’s kind of AMAZING… and definitely shows the power of a well thought out plan and focus towards it.

Have YOU read the book? I’d love to hear your thoughts… positive or negative… below!

Also, if you’re interested in my writing specific blog topics, please post those too!

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This is a product review on List Building Pro, another product in our review series.

List Building Pro is good for newbies and veteran IM’ers alike. It strives to teach you a complete strategy with precise tools for how you can build your list fast.

What our reviewer said:

List Building Pro is another great product put out in conjunction with Mike Cowles and Niky Ray. Mike goes over some great ways to build a list and keep the people on it happy.

He shows how to come up with product ideas and the best way to deliver them.

This is an hour long webinar, but it is packed with some great information.

Click here to learn more about List Building Pro.

Have you used this product? …What’s YOUR feedback?

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This is a product review on Avalanche List Building, another product in our review series.

Avalanche List Building strives to teach you how to get tons of targeted visitors and loads more buyers in a precise list building system, which you can make happen 99% on auto-pilot.

What our first reviewer had to say:

Let me just say first: List Building Avalanche has some solid information. It covers the basics of list-building, setting up your auto-responder, your squeeze page, and selecting a giveaway. It also has some very helpful information about testing and tracking.

Then there’s the sales funnel information. Paul covers lots of ways to do your funnels. There are mind maps of the different sales funnels, and I really liked those. I also like having the list of solo ad sources. They were very affordable, and if they get results, that’s something really useful.

But the videos…

This is a perfect example of why I hate video courses. The videos are slooowww. He talks really slow, and repeats himself and rambles a lot. It really felt like there was no “script” at all; that he just hit the record button and started winging it. I watched the videos at 1.6 speed which helped some, but that didn’t remove the distracting, rambling way he covered the material.

There is almost 2 ½ hours of video, and the information that’s in them could have been covered, in my opinion, in half the time.

There is a one-time offer of a “Super Advanced Branch Off List Building” system, which covers how to segment your lists according to their interests, etc. It includes an additional list of solo ad sources and two more mind maps.

Here’s a rundown of what you get:

Video 1-Tools You Need to Build a List – 10:54
Video 2-The Importance of Having a Good Sales Funnel – 11:06
(Includes Mind Map of the Funnel)
Video 3-Using One Time Offers in Your Sales Funnel – 7:00
(Includes Mind Map of the Funnel)
Video 4-A Sales Funnel for Selling 2 Products – 6:45
(Includes Mind Map of the Funnel)
Video 5-Advanced Sales Funnel with One Time Offer and 2 Products – 11.56
(Includes Mind Map of the Funnel)
Video 6-How to Create High Converting Squeeze Pages – 15:33
(Includes List of Power Words)
Video 7-Build Your List Using Free Traffic – 11:17
(Includes Mind Map of the Funnel)
Video 8-How to set up a New Campaign with Your Autoresponder – 20:22
Video 9-How to Build Your List Super-Fast – 13:57
(Includes List of Solo Ad Sources)
Video 10-How to Set up a Solo Ad Campaign – 16:01
Video 11-Solo Ad Conversions – 5:46
Video 12-How to Split Test Using Google Website Optimizer – 8:30
Video 13-List Building System Explained – 9:39 (Extra Tips)
(Includes Mind Map of the Complete System)

The Upsell:

Super Advanced Branch Off List Building (List Segmenting) – 10:15
(Includes an Extra Solo Ad List and Two Advanced Funnel Mind Maps)

Summary:

The information is good. I liked the mind maps and the solo ad lists. I didn’t like the videos at all. Unfortunately, you have to watch the videos to really get the full scope of the mind maps. A quick start guide or checklist in PDF format would be really helpful.

What our second reviewer had to say:

Avalance list building is a series of videos that cover how to build a list. It covers squeeze pages, autoresponders, OTO’s, and more. It covers what to do when someone goes from a prospect to a buyer. It is a good course that will help you build a list.

The only thing I have against it is that he uses a $97 wordpress theme throughout all the videos. I feel he should show how to set the stuff up using a plain WordPress blog.

There is an OTO with the product. Is it worth it? I think somebody just starting out would be overwhelmed with it. I’d say, stick with the main product, and you can branch out from that.

Click here to learn more about Avalanche List Building and its OTO.

Have you used this product? …What’s YOUR feedback?

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I’m a little overdue, but I wanted to give a MAJOR thank you to our top affiliates for our December affiliate contest.

The winners were:

#1: Connie Green of Huge Profits Tiny List – She is an AMAZING woman, phenomenal email marketer, Armand Morin’s top affiliate, and someone you definitely want to follow.

#2: Martha Mayo and Ed Akehurst of Couch Potato Cash – These are 2 of my favorite people – both extremely positive, hard working, and overall great at life.

#3: Teresa Miller of Book Flips. I can’t speak highly enough about her! She cares SO MUCH about people, her products, and is an absolutely delightful person.

#4: Garry Sayer of GarrySayer.com – While I don’t know Garry too well personally, I know he’s a VERY smart marketer who seemed to explode literally overnight. He has tons of really smart ideas and is a very nice guy.

5. Bolaji Oyejide – Visit him at his free “Getting Things Done” forum here. Bolaji is one of the most hilarious, sincere, positive guys I’ve had the pleasure of meeting. He does everything in a unique way, cares a lot about customer experience, and is overall awesome.

CONGRATULATIONS to all the winners and everyone who participated!

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This is a review for the following three products in our review series:  Bring In 2012 with a Big Bang, Twitter Profit Secrets, and Cash In on Unwanted Holiday Gifts.

Our reviewer decided to bundle these three products together into one review because they were created by the same person and possess several other commonalities.

What our reviewer had to say:

To be honest, I was underwhelmed and a little disappointed. I’m on a couple of lists for the creator of these products, and I enjoy what I get from her there and on her blog, but these seemed to be thrown together quickly and contained little detail.

First, I’ll just give a quick run-down, because they all had these things in common:

All of these were very basic. They outlined a “what to do” scenario with very little “how to do” included in the reports. Instead, she linked out to various blogs and articles “for more information on how to…”

At the beginning of each was a title page, a hyperlinked table of contents, an acknowledgements page, a dedication page, a legal page, a picture of donuts and coffee and a cartoon. That took you to about page 9.

At the end were an About the Author page, a page about her affiliate program, recommended resources, more cartoons, traffic resources, three pages of her other material, and a page with a quote on it. That all added up to another 9 pages.

The silliness on these was over the top, and it was distracting. I’m all for humor and an informal, conversational tone, but this was just silly, and seemed forced.

How valuable they are would depend I guess on whether you know anything at all about the subject. If you do, you should probably skip these. In my opinion, these reports are more suited to be opt-in reports, or free giveaways to get your links out there. I wouldn’t want to pay for these. If I HAD paid for them, I’d ask for a refund.

Bring In 2012 with A Big Bang

This report was about building a list. It basically told you to pick something to give away, set up an autoresponder, and build a squeeze page. There wasn’t any instruction on how to do any of those things, but lots of links out to various blog posts and articles. There was also a little bit of about how to get traffic to you page. Very basic stuff.

Twitter Profit Secrets

This one was a little bit better. She did go through some instruction, although she still linked out to other sites for most of the detailed information. I’m pretty uninformed when it comes to Twitter, so I did pick up a couple of things that I might be able to put to use. Still, more filler than substance though.

Cash In on Unwanted Holiday Gifts

This one was my least favorite of all of the reports. It was literally, a list of things to do if you get a gift and don’t want it. It went through all of the typical answers, including returning it to the store and the various places you can try to sell it. Yawn.

Click here to learn more about…

Bring In 2012 with a Big Bang

Twitter Profit Secrets

and Cash In on Unwanted Holiday Gifts

Have you used these products? …What’s YOUR feedback?

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This is a product review on Opt-In Funnels, another product in our review series.

Opt-In Funnels strives to present you with a hugely powerful list building concept that is beneficial for both newbie and guru Internet marketers.

What our first reviewer said:

Click here to learn more about Opt-In Funnels.

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This is a product review on The WSO Chronicles, another product in our review series.

The WSO Chronicles strives to teach you  all of the ins and outs of creating a successful WSO.

What our first reviewer said:

What our second reviewer said:

WSO Chronicles is a collection of video tutorials which currently covers many aspects of the process of creating and selling a Warrior Special Offer.

He covers every step based on his experience from creating the content of the product with Powerpoint, Screencast videos and PDF’s.

These videos will not teach you every way of doing these things. If you have no experience with some techniques, you will probably need to take more time to get up to speed, but the methods are workable.

I am impressed by the number of videos, but there are gaps. What is already there is substantial (37 videos) but some sections are incomplete. Some have been added since I started reviewing this offer. I don’t know the expected delivery schedule for the other videos.

The provider needs to give a specific indication of about how long it will be before the other material is available.

I can only review what is already available.

The videos are clear and cover a lot of information.

There is some backtracking during some segments, which interrupts the flow of the instructions, but the presenter covers the information you need.

The PDF’s are mindmaps and step-by-step lists (e.g. how to encode your videos), but there are no transcripts.The videos are fairly short (about 10 minutes) and clear, so this may not be a big problem.

Overall Impression:

The presenter is not a pro at this (yet) but the presentation is clear. He bases this WSO on what made his other WSO’s successful. He does give tips which I think will save you money and time.

Click here to learn more about The WSO Chronicles.

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