Author Archive | Richard Standen

There’s always a lot of talk on how to recruit affiliates to promote your products, right? But what if instead of recruiting affiliates, you TRAIN affiliates?

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That is, announce you’re offering affiliate training once or twice a month, live on a webinar. The training is free, come one and come all. You put out the call, and then using your own products as examples, you train them in how to make money by promoting affiliate products, especially yours.

This reminds your list month after month that they can make money promoting your stuff. It also builds loyalty, since you’re giving free training on how to make money doing this. And it forges partnerships between you and your affiliates. When they can speak to you on the webinar, or at least ask their questions and hear your voice, you’re building rapport. At the very least you will most certainly sell more products to those who attend your training because they now know, like and trust you.

And in addition you will begin building your own army of affiliates to promote for you all over the web and reach people you could never reach on your own. It’s a win-win all the way around, and it will only take you a couple of hours a month to do this.

I’ve seen this time and again.

Someone builds a nice little site, or product, or some sort of residual income stream.

Then they spend their time tweaking it and trying to increase the income from it. They’re good at SEO and so they tweak and tweak and tweak to make the most money possible from that asset. 

Good so far, right?

But there comes a point of diminishing returns. The site or product or whatever is making $1,000 a month. 

And after hours and days and weeks of tweaking, the site is now making $1,100.

But here come the monthly bills (mortgage, car, insurance, etc.) and the bills are far more than $1,100. So, what’s a marketer to do?

Sell the asset, of course. You might get $3,000 to $5,000 for this asset, depending on what it is and so forth.

Now they have the bills paid and maybe go on a bit of a spending spree, but no asset and no residual monthly income.

Of course now they have to do it all again – build an asset, tweak it and wind up having to sell it to pay bills.

Did you spot the mistake? It’s hard to miss.

If the marketer had spent just enough time testing and tweaking…

…And then moved on and REPLICATED the process…

S/he would then have TWO assets each creating $1,000 a month in residual income.

Then rinse and repeat. Building one asset a month, that’s $6,000 a month in residual income after six months, along with assets totaling maybe $18,000 or a lot more.

As you’ve already guessed, the point is that while you do want to test and tweak whatever it is that you’re doing online, you don’t want to make a career out of it. 

Optimize it the best you can as quickly as you can, and then replicate the process and build another one, and another one, and another one…

In the above example, our marketer could have started selling one asset (product, site, etc.) per month after six months or a year, to again greatly increase their monthly income. 

Selling these assets before their life cycle ends can be a great idea. After all, it’s hard to sell a product or site once it’s no longer making money.

Do what you need to do, but don’t make a career out of making a few extra dollars while leaving loads of money on the table.

Did you enjoy the Olympics? Every four years we get to see the best of the best and their gold medals, but sometimes the best inspiration comes from those who don’t win – or even someone who came in dead last.

In 1988, Eddie “The Eagle” Edwards became the first competitor since 1928 to represent Great Britain in Olympic ski jumping.

How did Eddie do? He came in #58 out of 58.

But it didn’t matter. His fans loved him for other reasons. He had no trainer, no money, no practice facilities – and some called him the great British loser.

He had a cheerful air of bumbling incompetence, epitomized by the big pink goggles he wore.

Says Eddie, “I got my letter saying, ‘Congratulations, you can represent Great Britain in the Olympic games’ when I was in a mental hospital in Finland. I wasn’t a patient. I was there because it was the cheapest place for me to stay.”

On getting ready to do his jump, Eddie says, “There were about 85 or 90 thousand people in the ski jump area, and I thought this is going to be really good, I’m really going to go for this. The Germans and the Swiss and the Italians were going down jumping, but the crowd were ignoring them and chanting, ‘Eddie! Eddie!’”

“And I got out and sat on the bar and they started cheering and cheering and it was great!”

“When you sit at the top of the ski jump, you look down, and you’re probably about 500 or 600 feet up from where you’re actually going to finish. You can see a million and one different reasons why you shouldn’t really go down. So you do have to be not a little crazy, but probably a lot.”

“You’re traveling at 65 or 75 miles per hour. Within about a second you’ll be 250 feet up from where you’re going to be landing. And you just try to relax and let your skis carry you to the bottom of the hill.”

“It’s the most exciting, exhilarating feeling in the world.”

Eddie’s British record jump of 71 meters landed him in 58^th place – out of 58 competitors, 19 meters behind the jumper who placed 57^th.

And if you ask anyone in Great Britain, “Who won the Olympic ski jump in 1988?” Almost no one could tell you.

But if you ask, “Who is Eddie ‘The Eagle’ Edwards?” They’ll tell you all about the crazy ski jump guy who they still remember and love to this day.

Eddie stood on the top of the precipice and said, “Geronimo!”

The British people were so proud of him for just trying, that winning didn’t matter a bit.

He dared to go where most of us won’t. Yes, he came in dead last, but he will be forever and fondly remembered by his country for doing what no one else had done in 60 years.

So what daring thing are you afraid to do? Whether it’s something online or in real life, take Eddie’s example and just go for it.

You might just become a legend.

You don’t need a humongous budget when you begin outsourcing, but what you do need is the knowledge of HOW to get the best online workers possible. After all, no matter how much work you outsource, it’s still your business and your reputation on the line. Not to mention the fact that better work equates to better profits, both short and long term. Doesn’t it just make sense to find the very best people possible to work in your business?

Whether you are a seasoned pro at outsourcing or you’ve never hired anyone to do anything before, here are some proven tips to get you moving with the least amount of hassle and the highest return for your money.

1. Be absolutely clear on what you want done. Whether you are posting a job or giving instructions to someone you’ve already hired, tell them step by step exactly what you want them to do. This will save you time, aggravation, and usually get the job done faster. Plus the bids you receive will tend to be lower, since the people doing the bidding can easily envision exactly what they’re doing and how long it will take. Lastly, if you are paying by the hour then this will save you money, as your worker doesn’t need to take the time to figure out how to accomplish what you want done.

2. In being clear, consider either writing out what needs to be done in a step by step fashion, or make a video showing them exactly what to do. This way you are not only showing your present worker what to do, you’re also creating a blueprint for future workers to follow. In addition, if there is a hole in your plan it will become quite clear when you’re going through the steps necessary to achieve your goal.

3. Have an agreement or contract between you and the worker. Things you might include are:

– Work to be done (Detailed description of what is expected)
– Deadline for the work to be done
– Payment arrangement (Amount to be paid, terms, method of payment, etc.)
– Copyright (You’ll want it to be crystal clear that you own all copyrights)
– Non-disclosure (Your worker is not to reveal anything that goes on inside your business, etc.)

4. Check out your worker prior to hiring them. Check their portfolio, references, feedback, etc. You might also Google them. Try to get an idea of the kind of work this person does and whether or not they meet deadlines. Also important: How well they communicate with you.

5. Start with something small and work up from there. If you’ve never hired someone before, choose a small job first. It makes it easier for you to get your feet wet, minimizes your risk, and allows you to experience how wonderful it is to have someone else handling that small chore that you don’t enjoy doing anyway.

6. Find the workers who do well with the small jobs and then give them bigger tasks to do. Rather than hiring someone for a large project, let them show you what they can do with a small one first. They’re testing the waters with you, finding that you do indeed pay on time and you’re someone they can work with. And you’re finding out what kind of work they do, if they meet deadlines and if their style meshes with yours. If it’s a good fit, offer them more work and bigger jobs. If not, move on.

7. For any big job, don’t pay all at once. For example, rather than paying all up front or all when the job is done, you might pay 25% up front, 25% when the job is half done, and 50% when the job is finished. This provides them with plenty of incentive to keep working, since they know you pay and there is more money to come. Plus, if the work isn’t to your satisfaction, you can stop the work before you’ve shelled out too much money.

8. Let them know to contact you if they have questions they can’t find the answer to. It’s important that they and your project not get stalled simply because they’re missing a key piece of information.

9. Have them keep in touch daily. You might ask them to send you a report at the end of the day detailing what they accomplished on the project, any challenges they’re facing and of course any questions they might have.

10. Keep your relationships professional. That is, don’t hire your best buddy because he needs the work – you’ll only end up with problems. Also, if someone you hire is really nice but not performing, you’ve got to set aside your feelings and deal with the situation from a business standpoint. This is, after all, your livelihood.

11. Let your workers know exactly what you expect and give lots of feedback. Don’t make them wonder if they’re doing a good job, tell them. Don’t just pick out the one mistake they made in the 100 articles they wrote for you, also tell them what they did right and let them know you appreciate their work. The more positive feedback you can give, the harder they will work for you, and the easier it will be for them to take constructive criticism as well.

12. If you think you might change your mind, let them know ahead of time. For example, you decide to take a project in a certain direction, all the while wondering if you shouldn’t be doing it differently. Let them know you might be changing things halfway through, and if it comes to pass they’ll be ready for it.

13. Always treat your workers with the utmost respect. It goes without saying, but I will anyway: Just because they’re working for you doesn’t mean they are less than you. Being respectful of your workers will yield you 10–fold in goodwill and hard work. Think back to when you had a boss – who did you go the extra mile for? The boss who yelled and screamed and put you down? Or the boss who was positive, treated you with respect and brought out the best in you? Be the good boss and you will have workers who are loyal and ready to set aside their other work to get yours done faster and better.

Apply some of these hard-earned tips working in the trenches of outsourcing and you’ll save yourself lots of frustration and find faster success getting others to help you grow your business online.

No doubt you’ve been told to avoid using “hype” in your copywriting and sales messages, right? And I’ll bet there have been times when you’ve closed a sales letter page because the hype was too ridiculous for words. But when it comes to defining hype and especially to determining how much is just right, the water gets murky and no two marketers can give you the same answer.

That’s because “hype” is subjective. One prospect’s perception of hype is another prospect’s perception of just the right sales message to get them to buy. In addition, you need some hype to sell. No hype = no excitement, which means no sale. Here’s what I mean:

Sales message example #1: “This system is for sale for $33.33, here’s the order button.”

Now you’ve got to admit, that’s hype free. It’s also benefit free, boring and will capture the interest of just about nobody. Of course, if the system is already well-known and you’re discounting it to 5 bucks, you’ve made a sale. But if you’re selling a good product at a reasonable price, you’re going to have to turn on the hype. Here goes:

Sales message example #2: “This Revolutionary New System Cuts Your Work in Half While Tripling Your Productivity.”

Not bad, and certainly worthy of further investigation if you’re interested in getting more work done in less time. And yes, there is hype for sure, especially in the words “revolutionary” and “new” – just not so much that it raises red flags and causes your prospect to tune out.

Sales message example #3: “The Easy System that Earns You a Thousand Dollars a Second with NO Work.”

Looking at the words themselves, there isn’t much in the way of hype. We didn’t say it’s the greatest system in the world, or that everyone loves it, or that there’s never been anything like it since the beginning of time. However, is it believable? No. And therefore, the promise is just so much hype in the ears of the prospect and doesn’t offer enough substance.

Sales Message Example #4: “Give Me 5 Hours and I’ll Show You How to Earn $1,439 Per Month on Autopilot.”

Hyped? I don’t think so. This message offers a specific benefit in exchange for a specified amount of work – 5 hours. The amount doesn’t sound unreasonable because we’ve all seen examples of a few hours of work resulting in a monthly income of several hundred or even a couple of thousand dollars per month. Most importantly, the reader isn’t being promised something for nothing, which will ALWAYS instill doubt in a prospect. It sounds honest, it doesn’t sound hyped, and it’s completely plausible.

What have we learned from these examples? Plenty. First, if you don’t use some hype you’re never going to sell much of anything. People need to get excited before they’ll whip out their wallets and they need to see a clear benefit to making the purchase. They WANT to be fired up, they want to feel their heart race a bit and experience that adrenaline rush of getting a great deal. The better you can extrapolate how the features of your product will benefit the consumer and improve their life, the more likely they are to click the order button.

Second, be believable. Making wild claims is the ultimate in hype – and if you can’t back those claims with rock solid absolute undeniable proof, you’re better off not making those claims at all.

Third, be specific. “Make $2,000 a month!” sounds much more like hype than “Earn $2,078.55 a month.” Why? Because the specific number is more credible, as though it’s already been done. “Type Faster” doesn’t mean much, but “Type 15 Words Per Minute Faster after Just 4 Lessons” tells the prospect exactly what to expect. Non-specific claims and rounded numbers just naturally sound like hype, regardless of whether or not they’re factual.

Fourth, tell them what the catch is. This goes right back to being believable, because if you tell someone they can get a great benefit, they immediately want to know what the catch is. Often this equates to price, but if you can show a different catch, such as “5 hours,” then you take their mind off of price and onto the question of, “What do I need to do for 5 hours to make that $1,439 a month?”

And by the way – normally an article like this would start out with the definition of hype, but I wanted to save this gem for the end. Here’s what hype really means:

Hype: Verb meaning to stimulate or excite
Hype: Noun meaning extravagant or exaggerated claims

As you can see, hype is good so long as we strive to stimulate and excite, rather than exaggerate or stretch the truth.