Copyright © 2008 by Synergy Global Ventures, Inc.

Produced in the United States of America

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Disclaimer & Terms Of Use Note: I honestly dislike having to include this section as much as you probably dislike reading it, but I have to include the following paragraphs since we live in an overly litigious society… The following is for information purposes only. There is no guarantee of income stated or otherwise. Much of this publication is based on personal experience. Although the author has made every reasonable attempt to achieve complete accuracy of the content in this e-book as of the date of this publication, he assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions. Because the rate with which conditions change, the author reserves the right to alter and update this ebook and his opinion based on the new conditions. Copyright Notice All rights reserved. The entire contents of this e-book are protected by international copyright and trademark laws. The owner of the copyrights and trademarks are Brad Weinman and Synergy Global Ventures, Inc. No part of this e-book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. This e-book does not include Resale/Redistribution Rights. You may not distribute, give away, or sell any part of this e-book. This copy is only for your own personal use. If you would like to participate in our affiliate program, you can visit www.attraction-marketing-blueprint.com/affiliate.html for further information. If you received this publication from anyone other than us at www.Attraction-Marketing-Blueprint.com, you've received a pirated copy. Please contact us via e-mail at brad @ namebrandingyourself.com and notify us of the situation. Many of the links in this e-book are affiliate links, which means that the author may earn a commission if you decide to buy a product after visiting the various merchants’ sites through those links. Finally, nothing in this e-book is intended to replace plain old common sense, legal, or other professional advice, and is meant to be used for information and educational purposes by the reader. So have fun with the Attraction Marketing Blueprint™ and use it to grow your business.

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Table Of Contents

Acknowledgements 4

Author’s Introduction 6

How to Maximize Your Experience 18

STEP #1: Understanding The Law of Attraction 21

STEP #2: Back to Basics: Marketing Psychology 101 27

STEP #3: Becoming A Known ‘Brand’ 35

STEP #4: Setting Up Your Own Personal Website 45

STEP #5: Creating Lead Capture Pages & Copywriting Basics 83

STEP #6: The Critical Work Of Building Your List 104

STEP #7: Get Traffic 114

STEP #8: Follow Up Magic & Autoresponder Automation 144

STEP #9: Back-end Profits 152

STEP #10: Creating Multiple Streams of Income 155

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Acknowledgements

My whole point for sharing this information is that you come away with a new outlook for your future as a marketer, and transform your business after reading and implementing what you learn here. But before I do that, I have to give credit where credit is due. After all, I certainly didn’t “invent” all the stuff I’m going to teach you about in this e-book. I simply applied what I learned from many different sources and through my own experience.

I'm not one of these guys who claims to have all the answers. I’ve tried a lot of things over the years to build my businesses, some worked, some didn’t. In this course, I’m going share exactly what’s worked for me. I know it will work for you too if you put it into action.

It’s been said that “success is an open book test” and I couldn’t agree more with this statement. All the information, all the answers, everything you could possibly need to transform your business (and your life) is out there for you.

You just have to get up off your butt and go out there searching for it and I’m telling you, when you start searching for answers, they somehow magically start to appear.

The answers don’t just tap you on your shoulder if you’re sittin’ on the couch watching the latest Seinfeld re-run, however, if you start to actively search for answers, they have a funny way of showing up in your life.

First of all, I wish to thank everyone who’s ever asked me a question about how to market his or her business online.

The Attraction Marketing Blueprint™ was written for you and everyone else who’s searching for a proven, rejection-free, non-confrontational way to build your business using the Internet.

We all draw wisdom and borrow knowledge from our contemporaries who have it and those that have paved the way before us.

There are so many people that have come before us that have blazed the trail as far as what it takes to be successful with anything in life.

That being said, I’d be remiss if I didn't give due credit for my success to some of the great teachers and mentors I’ve learned from over the years, and I’d like to briefly acknowledge them. A partial list includes, but are not limited to: Jim Rohn, Dan Kennedy, Jerry Clark, Jeffrey Combs, Robert Kiyosaki, Jeff Mills, Todd Falcone, Mark Joyner, Marcy Koltun-Crilley, Joseph Parton, Mark Wieser, Val Smith, Atticus Killough, Troy Dooly, Tim Erway, Ken Evoy, Jim Edwards, John Milton Fogg, Perry Marshall, and Jim Lewis & Andy Hummel just to name a few… I’m forever grateful.

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Special thanks go to my buddy, Mike Dillard of Magnetic Sponsoring for his inspiration (and a gentle kick in the butt) to write this e-book and share it with the world - thanks Mike! To all my friends who contributed to this material, your feedback has been greatly appreciated. And last, but certainly not least, I’d like to thank my parents for always believing in me, and to the love of my life, Chiara for giving me the emotional support throughout the years with all the ups and downs, frustrations and set backs I experienced along the way and believing in me. I couldn’t ask for a better life partner.

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Author’s Introduction

Thursday, 10:23 AM From the desk of Brad Weinman: Congratulations and thank you for purchasing my Attraction Marketing Blueprint™! I’m honored to share my experience with you. By investing in this course, you’ll learn the shortest path to creating an automated marketing system that will attract more prospects to you in a fun and easy way, and help you make a boatload of money in the process. Make no mistake about it, you’ll still need to use your brain a little bit, but I’ve done my best to lay things out in a way that’s a no-brainer for you. Internet marketing has been very good to me. It’s allowed my wife, Chiara and I the opportunity to enjoy a lifestyle we could only dream about just five years ago. This material has been “percolating” in my gray matter for a long time and represents many years of trials and tribulations, failures and successes, and finally, the most important things I learned along the way about human psychology and making money on the Internet. This e-book was written for you, from the heart, and it’s my sincere hope that it over-delivers and exceeds all your expectations. It’s probably the most important work I’ve created since I started my own online business journey back in 1998. If you're a Beginner (a Newbie) and you haven’t yet created a reliable source of income from the Internet, you probably realize that there's a lot to learn and there's so much conflicting information and advice out there. In reality, marketing on the Internet is a really simple common sense business, but it does require that you master a few specific skills, which we’ll be covering together. If you're ‘Advanced,’ you may be someone who’s found a niche, or figured out how to drive traffic to your site, and you might already be making decent money online, but you can always be making more. You probably wanna get more qualified leads, experience a better conversion of the leads you're getting, and substantially increase your profits from the time and energy you're putting into your current business.

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If your home business isn't currently showering your bank account with extra cash every week, it’s time to get you off the peanut diet forever… let elephants be the only ones that work for peanuts, ok? Before we get into the real 'nitty-gritty' stuff, let me just give you some background info on myself so you know where I'm coming from. My name is Brad Weinman and for the last several years, I've been earning a comfortable, full-time living from the comfort of home on the Internet. My normal “work” attire is mostly shorts, t-shirts and flip flops… no suit and tie, long commutes, or time clocks to punch. I’m not some whiz-bang programmer, and I don’t have a Masters, a PhD or an MBA (but I AM working on achieving a Massive Bank Account). I don’t have any formal career training in sales or marketing either. In fact, I’m an artist by trade, which statistically makes me one of the least likely types of people to succeed in anything related to selling and marketing. For some reason I’ve always had a fascination with business and finance in addition to an interest in creating art and found a way to merge the two. Before my Internet days, I actually painted book covers for a living and knew absolutely nothing about Internet marketing until 1998 - which means ANYONE can learn to do what I do. I’ve got a successful network marketing background too, and have earned several hundred thousand dollars over the years from various networking programs, which means I understand exactly what you’re going through if you’re looking for a better way to generate leads for that type of business. For me, becoming a marketer wasn't a decision; it was a discovery. Network marketing caught my eye in 1998 and I was instantly hooked… Long story short, I actually started my own Internet business adventure offline by attending a local business opportunity meeting. I remember watching this clean-cut, sharp looking guy in the front of the room draw circles on a white board (sound familiar?). Anyway, let’s just say that the light bulb went on in a BIG way that night and I was forever changed… what I learned about leverage (something I didn’t have as a freelance artist). Man, I was so excited, I couldn’t sleep! Looking back, that meeting was where I had one of those “Aha” moments that I’ll never forget. It was if someone took my ‘dream thermostat’ and cranked up my “pilot light” and turned it into a raging inferno. That was the beginning of my own adventure that led to where I am today. Since that night back in 1998, like most people, I’ve made lots of mistakes, and have wasted a lot of time and money chasing “the dream”.

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But along the way, I learned about the power of branding myself on the Internet and the timeless attraction principles I’m going to share with you, which will never go out of style or become outdated. I’ll go into more detail about how all this branding stuff came into the picture in Chapter 3, but imagine for a moment... you're kickin' back in your cozy home office, having a nice cold one, and the phone rings... you pick it up and the voice on the other end says: “Hi! My name is Joe and I've been checking out your website for the last hour and I'm interested in your XYZ business. Do you have a few minutes to answer a few questions? I’m ready to join." Would you be shocked and say, “Umm, lemme think about that for a minute and get back to you!” OR, would you EXPECT this to happen over and over again? (You should be able to answer this with a resounding YES by the time you finish this course). Wouldn't it be exciting if you could spend the majority of your time answering calls from interested prospects? No arm-twisting. No high pressure. Just an eager prospect coming to you on a silver platter asking if you can take their order. For most people who are struggling, this is a pipe dream, but it's a reality for me and others who have mastered the art of personal branding and attraction marketing. And ya know what? It can absolutely become a reality for you as well. How you ask? By learning and adapting the little-known name-branding strategies in this ‘blueprint’, (the same exact strategies that continue to generate many thousands of dollars for me monthly, virtually on autopilot). There are lots of great businesses out there to participate in, and without exception, ALL of them will require you to advertise and promote your business. That’s why I spent the last several years learning “how to promote” as opposed to “what to promote.” It’s all about getting the customer to come to you first! Novel concept huh? And this course is not really about prospecting; it’s about positioning - BIG difference. Let me explain…

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Prospecting in the traditional sense of the word is about hunting, like the lion chasing the gazelle. Positioning yourself as an expert and a trusted friend and confidante on the other hand, is kind of like a frog waiting for it’s prey to come to it – and an expert in their field is very attractive to potential prospects! When you go head hunting and chase down your prospects, you're viewed as a nuisance. But when they find you and seek you out, you're viewed as… you guessed it, an expert. Positioning is what makes all the difference in the world. It goes without saying that there’s so much clutter and mass-market crap out there about prospecting and marketing these days that it’s hard to figure out who you should pay attention to. I mean, who can you really believe? There’s absolutely no shortage of "Pretend Gurus" who just make money telling people how to make money… but what most people don’t realize is that a lot of these wanna-be gurus don’t actually use the methods they teach. Most of them will lead you down the path of failure, just like a speeding car headed straight for a brick wall! Their personal track records seem to be tissue paper thin when you dig a little deeper past the surface. Most of what you find is the same ole’ same ole’ hyped-up, exaggerated garbage… usually undocumented and invisible. You Won’t Get ANY Of That Unsubstantiated B.S. From Me I’ll teach you the same exact methods I've used to personally generate a multiple six-figure income over the years (documented). They work. In fact, these strategies work so well that I sometimes have to “turn off” my advertising campaigns for a few days just to catch up with all the prospects calling and emailing me on a daily basis. Don’t get me wrong… by no means am I complaining. When you get to this point and experience this in your business, you’ll know the ‘attraction factor’ is working for you too. Now, I want you to just stop for a moment and ask you to imagine what it would be like to never have to talk to disinterested, negative, or even hostile prospects again. Think about the impact it would have on you, your business, your income, your attitude, and your confidence. Now, pay close attention to what I'm about to say...

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The strategies in this e-book have been responsible for helping me earn thousands of dollars in profits per day. But, let me qualify that by saying that I’m able to make this kind of money, not because of who I am, but because of what I learned over the last eight plus years of trial and error… digging in the trenches and getting beat up, bruised and scarred. Listen, when you try enough things over time, you eventually run out of stuff that doesn’t work! And the truth is, online marketing takes PATIENCE, and lots of it. I’ve learned that to be successful in online marketing, you have to be persistent, consistent, and very patient. And on that note, have you ever heard of the “Babe Ruth” philosophy of life and marketing? Well, most people know that Babe Ruth was the home run champion, but what’s less known is that he struck out more times than anybody who ever played baseball. Yep, struck out more times than anyone else. And I'm not ashamed to admit that I've probably struck out more times than a lot of people in the home business industry, but I never gave up. One of my all time favorite quotes is from someone who knows just a "little bit" about MASSIVE success: "I have missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I have lost almost 300 games. On 26 occasions I have been entrusted to take the game winning shot, and I missed. I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is precisely why I succeed." Michael Jordan I can help save you years of frustration and accelerate your income simply by applying what you learn here… but the reality is, you’re still gonna strike out once in a while and make some mistakes. Mistakes are like stepping-stones on the path to marketing enlightenment. In many cases, the mistakes I made led to some of the most profitable experiences I've ever had, even though it sometimes seemed like I was going two steps forward, one step back. Ever feel like that? From my experience, your best lessons will come from all these mistakes. There are a couple reasons for this... First, your mistakes show you where you can improve because when you're ‘cruzin’ along and everything's going smoothly, it's hard to know if you're still going in the right direction or not.

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But when you really screw up… now that's when you KNOW that in order to keep going, you've gotta change your direction a little bit. So these days, I actually look forward to making mistakes because it shows me I'm actually out there DOING something. The other thing to note is that it's ok to not worry about PAST mistakes. What I mean by that is, you're never, ever gonna be perfect the first time out of the gate with anything you do, so in a few years, you might look back at something you're doing now and think it was a mistake. When I look back at what I was doing a few years ago with my web sites and ad copy, I cringe... those things looked like a bunch of doggy doo-doo... definitely NOT the best looking sites or copy, but it was something and it still worked regardless. So focus on doing the best you can do right NOW, and improve things over time. A lot of people don't maximize the results from the things that they've already done... it's like they've gotta move on to the next deal and the biggest thing I want you to take away from this is that there are only two mistakes that you should really "worry" about making: 1). The mistake of never taking action, and 2). Making the mistake of thinking that you're right all the time, and that you can never go back and improve on things that you've done or learned in the past. Everything else is basically just a learning experience. You learn how to market your website, you learn how to write better headlines, you learn how to communicate more effectively and how to do things faster. That's what you need to do. “Success is being able to move from one failure to another failure with enthusiasm.” Winston Churchill By adopting this mindset, I don't think you can ever go wrong, but if you get too locked into "this is the way I've always done things" type of mentality, you're probably gonna encounter a lot of frustration and get in your own way. So don't be afraid to make mistakes, embrace them and welcome the learning process, and then use those mistakes to propel you forward. Making mistakes and failing is what builds character and makes you a better person. Getting really skilled at failure is actually one of the best things you can do in order to be successful. So my point is that if you want to be successful and make it through the trying times we all encounter along the way (without developing an ulcer or nervous breakdown), part of the secret is to learn how to transcend whatever mistakes, failures and challenges you'll inevitably experience.

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Once you find something that works, stick with it. You can also test new things at the same time, but don't ever stop doing something that works, especially if you’re already experiencing some level of success in your current business. This course isn’t meant to replace anything that’s already working for you, use it to enhance your toolbox. Over time, the compounded effect of your experience will give you the results you're looking for. Why I Wrote This E-book

One thing I should mention right off the bat, is that most of what you'll discover here is the opposite of all those hair-brained strategies that a lot of heavy hitter marketers still teach. Most people are using an archaic or backwards approach to prospecting and marketing, and the bottom line is it’s not working for 98% of us. There’s also a lot of the blind leading the blind and there always has been. Here’s what I’m talking about… Has someone ever told you to “Just do more of it!” when the real problem is you don't know what you're supposed to be doing ‘more’ of? Sad but true. And if you’ve been in any type of home business for a while, you’ve also probably been taught that it’s a “numbers game”. “Work the numbers and the numbers will work for you.” It’s only a numbers game when all you know is how to do things the old-fashioned traditional way. Yes, you can cold-call people all day long until you’re sore in the throat and you can’t speak anymore… and yes, you can make a list of your friends and family and harass them until they listen to you (so that you just go away), but all you usually end up with is a bruised ego and a reputation for being involved in “one of those things”. And on that note, once I was done working through my own “warm market” in my first network marketing program, they weren’t just burnt, they were crispy fried! Now, I don’t mean you any disrespect here if you’re the type of person that actually loves to sell… if you live for that thrill of the close… but I'm sorry, that’s not what teach. These days you’ve gotta be an absolute freak of nature to look forward to hearing the word “NO” over and over again. You’ll see why ‘Attraction Marketing’ is an easier and more effective method of getting your message across… AND making money.

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I'll go into more detail in a minute, but before I do that, I have a confession to make… one that I can’t say I’m totally proud of looking back at it. You see, when I began messing around with Internet marketing in 1998, I had the same lofty dreams of overnight riches that a lot of newbie’s share. At the time, my only goal for using the Internet was – to make money, plain and simple… and everything I did back then reflected that shortsighted mentality. I was only looking out for numero uno and what I wanted. Life has a way of knocking some sense into us when we need to learn a lesson and in this case, the student was definitely ready. After a few months of banging my head against the wall and not getting very far (imagine that), it dawned on me that making millions of dollars on the Internet wasn’t gonna be that easy. I had made the common mistake of putting my own interests first. As a result of that flawed approach, I didn’t make more than a few bucks… yeah, so much for instant riches. Today, thankfully, is a much different story. So what was it that helped me “see the light?” A Changed Attitude Yep, I stopped focusing on “just making the sale” and started focusing on the needs of others. Now don’t get me wrong, I was doing this in my personal life, but for some reason, at that time, I had this notion that the Internet is just about making money. Then BAM!! It hit me! It was if some magic fairy dust was sprinkled on me. Seriously… call it divine inspiration or intervention, but something intuitively told me that I needed to change the way I approached making money online because what I was doing was obviously NOT working. The results from this simple, yet major shift in my attitude were almost immediate. All of a sudden, people were more receptive to my offers. And here’s what I learned from this whole experience… take care of your prospects and they’ll take care of you! And that’s the primary foundation for what Attraction Marketing and the law of reciprocity is all about. It’s a radically honest approach to marketing based on integrity and common sense that only a small percentage of online entrepreneurs fully understand.

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Some call it “the missing link” - a revolutionary way of thinking about using the Internet to build your business. It’s not for the unmotivated or those seeking instant gratification. What I’m going to teach you works like magic, but almost no one knows about it, and even fewer are implementing it in their business. I want to caution you and say that a lot of the things we're gonna cover here are very simple concepts. Marketing isn't rocket science, but we, unfortunately, have a tendency to overcomplicate things in our lives. And as you read this e-book, you may even have the natural tendency to say, “Yeah, I already know this" (and you might)… but, are you using it in your business? So, no matter what level of experience you’re coming to the table with, I encourage you to look at this information with an open mind. Maybe this information will be completely new to you, or maybe you'll just hear it from a different perspective. The great thing about the Internet is there are always people who know more or less than you do, and you just never know when you’re gonna find those golden nuggets to help you move to the next level. The cool thing is, when prospects are drawn to you and your business through branding yourself properly, your phone can ring every day with hungry prospects waiting to meet you and send you money. The adrenaline rush you get when this happens is incredible, and everyone deserves to experience this in their business. But when your marketing isn't effective, your phones are silent. Things start to spiral downward and your bank account balance begins to shrivel up. The main thing that prompted me to write this e-book is I’m tired of seeing dedicated people ignore their relationships and their kids, and spend every minute of every day, night, weekends (and holidays) consumed by their business. I know exactly what it’s like to even go without food (and sometimes water) or even get out of the house for extended periods of time. Not exactly what I call living a balanced life, right? Frankly, if you’re determined to sacrifice your marriage, your family life, your time, your sleep, your finances, and your health, chasing the “dream” – I think you’ve been abused, to put it politely. That’s why this information is critically important. It can empower you to build a wildly successful business without trading your life to do it. Once you set up your own name-branding system properly, it will work for you 24/7, almost on ‘autopilot’ most of the time. If you’re tired of pissing off family, friends and prospects who “just don’t get it”, then let me lift a massive weight off your shoulders, because this attraction marketing method will be like a breath of fresh air to you.

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The premise behind this unconventional marketing strategy is simple: When you learn how to develop your personal brand, grow your contact base (your list) through marketing, and then build a relationship with that list, you’ll no longer be dependant on anyone else for your income. Not an upline or a downline. Not even your primary company. And if you’re currently in a situation where you’re completely reliant on one single company to put a check in your hands every month – you need to recognize that you could be setting yourself up for a potential disaster! Let me explain… I remember a time early on in my home business career when the company I was really doing well with (and relying on as my main source of income), changed their comp plan, and my check dropped by 30% overnight - Ouch! Needless to say, I learned really quickly that you’ve gotta protect yourself by not putting all your eggs in one basket. We’ll discuss the ins and outs of creating multiple streams of income later in one of the bonus reports, but it’s critically important to set your business up in a way where you’re completely in control of the amount of cash-flow that’s coming in every single month, and that all starts with personal branding and effective marketing. And as someone who's made lots of mistakes and tried lots of things, and eventually went on to make serious money online, I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that anyone, regardless of background or experience, can be successful if they apply themselves. Do you think that successful networkers are born with special skills that you don’t have? Nope, I don’t think so… C’mon, if an artist like me, with absolutely no sales or marketing experience, can make great money on the Internet, surely you can too. That being said, I’m gonna teach you how to get away from the old, outdated, painful, unpleasant, manual labor intensive type of prospecting that most people in the home business industry (like me) hate to have to do (but they do it anyway because that’s the only way they’ve been taught). It’s time to move you into a very unique, fun, and automated way to generate all the qualified leads you can handle. And although I wrote this guide primarily for network marketers, and people in affiliate or direct sales, these same attraction marketing strategies can be applied to just about any other type of industry, where relationships built on a foundation of trust can lead to more sales. Once you follow these simple, yet powerful steps I’m going to lay out for you, you’ll finally be in a position where making money online becomes a heck of a lot of fun… and in some cases, almost effortless.

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Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t mean that you won’t have to work and it won’t always be easy, but it WILL be simple work that you can do one step at a time. As you learn and comprehend more, it’ll become easier for you, but let me be really blunt with you for just a moment. There are losers and whiners out there. Most of us have met at least a few… it seems there are plenty to go around. They're the kind of people that buy some information like this and then never follow through, never take action. Then they whine about how they aren't making any money, how they hate their job, how they "wish" things would change, and blame others for their failures. We ALL must take personal responsibility for our own business and be accountable to ourselves instead of pointing the finger. Let’s face it, running any successful business, even a virtual one, requires patience, persistence, the ability to postpone gratification to endure through the ups and downs, and a friendly attitude to prosper. Procrastination Can Be Expensive Don't let it stop you from taking the decisive action that can improve the quality of your life forever starting today. If you're lazy, cut corners and follow the crowd (the herd mentality), you won't be as successful as you want to be no matter business you're promoting. Sorry, I didn’t make the rules. That’s just a fact. But, once you implement what I share with you, you’ll free up a lot of time you’re probably wasting right now on non revenue-producing activities, even if you’ve been around a while, and have some Internet marketing experience. If you've tried and failed, but you haven't given up… If you've ever been disgusted with all the hype… If you're still willing to work… If your reach hasn't exceeded your grasp... yet… If you can muster up the persistence it will take… ...then this course IS for you. By the time you finish reading this ‘Attraction Marketing Blueprint,’ you'll know more than 98% of ALL marketers on the Internet know. Your success is virtually guaranteed IF, (and only if), you take the time to understand everything here and then, most importantly, apply it. Think about that. You can dramatically transform the way you do business on the Internet from this day forward.

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There will always be people that just quit and give up on their dreams. It’s sad, but we’ve all gotta take personal responsibility for our ultimate successes and failures. If you’re in a rut and frustrated with your results, please, never quit because you may be just around the corner from a breakthrough. That’s how it happened for me; fortunately my stubborn attitude helped me stick around long enough to finally get into profit. Success doesn't come without some degree of pain or sacrifice, and marketing is a process not a destination, so keep on keeping on. You don't always know what's around the next corner, but who cares; you'll eventually get to wherever you're going as long as you don’t give up. So, think about where you want to go in your business (and in life). Take some time and really think about it, then take tiny baby steps everyday until you reach your goals. Now when it comes to marketing, most people don’t go into business thinking, “Yippee, I’m gonna be a super duper marketer and a salesperson.” They don’t get excited about this; they get excited about making money (and hopefully, helping people). A lot of times, as soon as they get started, they run into the problem of having the wrong marketing mindset. They think that marketing is like a necessary evil, but the reality is, marketing is the primary function of ALL businesses. If you have no marketing, you have no business. The bottom line is, you've gotta become a skilled marketer (not a salesperson) if you want to enjoy long term success in this industry, and branding yourself is part of that process. Experienced marketers succeed, but people who believe that their success is completely dependent on picking the perfect “ground floor” deal at just the right time will always lose in the long run. And just having a burning desire isn’t enough… there’s no shortage of struggling people with desire. Success can be yours as long as you have the patience and persistence to ACT on the steps outlined for you in the chapters ahead. Okay, I’m done with the pep talk… I’m gonna step down off my soapbox. This course is about branding YOU so your prospects will beat a path to your door, wanting to willingly fork over their cash and do business with you. “If you open the door to the magnetic power of friendship, souls of like vibrations will be attracted to you.” – Paramahansa Yogananda

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How To Maximize Your Experience I’m sure you're eager to dig into the material and all the how-to information, but here are a few tips to maximize your time… The best way to absorb this material is to print it out and read it offline – do it right now before we go any further. You can always go back to some of the various website links later. If you’re easily distracted, it also wouldn't be a bad idea to go lock the door, turn off that darn cell phone (or anything else that vibrates or makes noise), grab yourself a hot cup of java, a bottle of filtered water, or even a glass of superb Chianti if you want... then relax, unwind, study every single word and soak it all in. Oh, and be sure to get out your big yellow highlighter because we’re gonna be doing quite a bit of coloring as we go. You do have one don’t you? - just checking. Now, to understand and apply all this information in the way it was intended, you'll need:

• Basic computer skills, such as how to copy and paste, etc. • A general understanding of how to navigate around on the Internet. • Patience - Critically important. Don't expect instant gratification! • Focus. Also very critical. • Self-discipline and personal responsibility. • Proper mindset – VERY important.

From time to time, you’ll run into obstacles, and if you don’t have your mental game on, it’s gonna make those challenges that much more difficult for you to overcome. There's a lot of ground to cover and I want you to get the most out of this experience, so in each chapter, you’ll find ACTION STEPS to complete at your own pace. You'll have to do certain tasks, and doing the work will take some time, and yes, some money… that's called "building a business." Just make a commitment to take action and follow through. Another thing that’s vital for you to realize is that the information I’m going to give you is structured in a step-by-step sequence, each chapter building on the next, and you have to apply it properly… it’s kind of like baking a cake. If you have a recipe from someone who’s great at baking a cake, and they give you the exact step-by-step recipe, and in the recipe it calls for four eggs, but instead when you go to bake this cake, YOU say, “I’m just gonna put in ONE egg… hey, I’ll get the same end result, so what does it matter?” When you’re done baking your cake, not surprisingly, the end result is different because you didn’t follow the recipe to the “T”, and that’s what I’m talking about here.

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The ‘Attraction Marketing’ recipe I’m gonna lay out here works, but if you skip some steps and cut corners, and try to take short cuts, I’ve gotta tell you it’s gonna end up costing you more time and money - and I want to help you prevent that from happening. What we’re doing here is stacking the odds in your favor, so read and implement everything that you can, and please do it at your own pace to avoid getting burned out. I speak from personal experience here when I say that it’s easy to experience information overload, so take your time in digesting this information. I recommend first doing a quick pass through the entire course (without taking any action yet), then come back and go through and complete each step, one by one. And as you go through this material, you might be saying to yourself, "There's so much to do Brad", and you're right, there IS a lot to do… just like a car engine, there are a lot of moving parts to your business, and setting up a highly automated attraction marketing "machine" takes some effort. But…you DON’T do it all in one day! Also keep in mind that some topics I cover will require that you go through a little bit of a technical learning curve to set up and complete, but I know you can do it. Just focus on getting to the next step in the process. You start with one thing which leads you to another thing and then another and so on. And eventually, the jigsaw puzzle you had when you first started no longer has any missing pieces. Once it’s complete, it’s ready to work for you in a highly automated way. Another thing I want to quickly point out is when it comes to developing an overall marketing strategy, most people just kind of dive into doing things without thinking about how it will affect them long term. They’re so focused on tasks and the how-to information that they forget to analyze WHAT they’re doing and WHY they’re doing it. It’s critical to understand why it’s important to build and deliver things a certain way… and then what we need to do to accomplish the goals that we’re wanting to achieve. And when it comes to marketing, we sometimes tend to want to reinvent the wheel and change the “recipe” instead of looking at things that are already working. But all we need to do is borrow a structure that’s already working and adapt it to work in our business. Stock Up On Stickies…

Do you ever get ideas when you least expect them? Happens to me all the time. I have what seems like a bazillion little yellow sticky notes scattered all over my desk at any given time, with all kinds of chicken scratch on ‘em to remind me of ideas that I don’t wanna forget.

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Growing up, my Mom used to say my room looked like a hurricane hit it, and now that my room’s clean (most of the time at least), my home office is the one that needs help! Ideas seem to flow when we’re in a relaxed state of mind, so make sure you have something to jot them down on, otherwise they may fly away like butterflies and be lost forever. I’ve found that some of my best ideas have come to me by not focusing on them, and if I don’t jot ‘em down quickly, I forget ‘em… So, be sure to keep a pen and paper handy for those “moments of inspiration”, because you just never know when they’ll come. And remember, setting up an automated system like this, one that’ll pay you for years to come, is like running a marathon, not a sprint… the same is true in achieving success with anything in life.

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Ready? Ok, let’s begin… Step #1: Understanding ‘The Law of Attraction’ “Success is not to be pursued, it is to be attracted to you by the person you become.” Jim Rohn A lot of people are chasing after success and if that’s what you’re doing, it’s gonna probably elude you for the rest of your life… you’ve gotta work on yourself a little each day to improve your mindset and your attitude. There’s one very important law in the universe that’s ALWAYS at work behind the scenes like the Wizard of Oz, whether we’re paying attention to it or not… It’s the Law of Attraction! Did you know ‘Attraction’ has a law? Yep, it sure does… and it’s one of the main reasons I decided to name this e-book the Attraction Marketing Blueprint. Why did I choose to cover this concept in the first step? Because over the years, as I talk to more and more people who are still struggling and frustrated with their home business experience (and life in general), the more I realize that one of the biggest missing ingredients that all of these people have in common is that they don't yet understand how ‘The Law of Attraction’ works, and how a proper mindset can be used to overcome all obstacles in life. Obviously, I don’t know if you’re familiar with this or not, but I DO know for sure that it’s been affecting you everyday of your life, and the sad thing is, most people by default are what I call “crap magnets”… at least that’s what they’re attracting to themselves through their thoughts and emotions. Let me explain this because it’s really important, and it’ll play a BIG role in how you’re able to grow your business and your income, and improve EVERY aspect of your life. In fact, I believe it’s the primary reason my own life has become more abundant in every way since I tapped into it. What we think about, we bring about is an appropriate statement. The following is an excerpt from a book I came across recently on The Law of Attraction. The wonderful thing about these principles is that whether you "believe" in them or not, they work without fail! So, regardless of who you are, where you came from or what your religious or financial background is, these principles function with mathematical precision each and every time.

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They have to. They’re UNIVERSAL LAWS, just like gravity. You don't have to believe in gravity, but we know it exists. You can't see it, touch it or taste it. But the fact is, it's there, working invisibly behind the scenes, keeping you and me and everybody else attached to this planet. We create our own reality. We attract those things in our life (money, relationships, employment) that we focus our thoughts and feelings on. I wish I could tell you that it’s as simple as stating an affirmation, but no affirmation is going to work if your thoughts are canceling out the positive. When we focus on "having less," for instance, we then manifest that experience for ourselves. Negative thoughts and feelings create resistance and stop the flow of positive energy to attract more of what we want. When we focus on "I hate my job," then we’ll never notice the aspects of our employment that might be satisfying. Basically, just wanting something isn't going to bring that thing to us when we continue to obsess on the not having of that something. All we’ll experience is attracting more "not having" and we’ll ultimately be blocking our true desires. Another mistake that we make is that we tend to think of abundance in terms of how much money we have in our bank accounts. Here’s an example related to winning the lottery… now, I personally think that focusing on winning the lottery is a pretty fruitless event. In an indirect way, it’s kind of like focusing on "not having," wouldn’t you agree? It would be far better to focus on a particular object, scenario or outcome you’d like to see, rather than on the winnings or cash. The funny thing is, when asked, some of the things people say they would do with the money if they won, they could actually already be doing with their current incomes on a smaller scale, but they don't. Why not? Because they cling to what they perceive as their "meager savings" with the attitude that they don't have enough, mostly out of fear. Here’s a quick story related to this ‘scarcity’ or ’poverty’ consciousness I’m referring to:

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A man's mother has a car that needs to be repaired. Her son says, "If I won the lottery I'd buy Mom a new car." But actually, the son has the means to take her car to the mechanic right now and pay out $400 needed in repairs to assure that his mom has a dependable car to drive back and forth to the market. When asked why he doesn't then just go ahead and have her current car repaired, he answers, "Well gee, I only have $800 in the bank, and doing that would knock out half my savings. What happens if my car needs repairs next week or my daughter gets sick and needs to see a doctor?" So you see, the person's true focus is on "not having enough" rather than being focused on winning the lottery. When we’re focused on "not having enough", it won't ever matter how much money we have, it’ll never be enough. Suggesting that he pay for his mother's car repairs brought his fears out into the open. It would be nice if the fellow could trust in the knowing that by helping his mother out and paying for the repairs, he wouldn’t be putting himself at financial risk, he’d actually be allowing more prosperity to flow to him. But for the time being, he feels like he’s gotta hold onto that fear reality. What would be a better solution? Well, for starters, this man could focus on visualizing his mother driving safely to and from the market in comfort, without experiencing any mechanical breakdowns. This would be a positive image, thought and emotion to attract that scenario into becoming a reality. Another suggestion would be to introduce the concept of ‘The Law of Attraction’ to his mother so she could start attracting a new car for herself, among other things she might desire. Did the greats throughout history know about ‘The Law of Attraction?’ Of course...! “Imagination is the most powerful force in the Universe.” - Albert Einstein, 1879 - 1955 “Knowing that you have working with you a force, which never yet has failed in anything it has undertaken, you can go ahead in the confident knowledge that it will not fail in your case, either.” - Robert Collier, 1885 - 1950 “What this power is I cannot say. All I know is that it exists.” - Alexander Graham Bell, 1847-1922

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“To believe in the things you can see and touch is no belief at all. But to believe in the unseen is a triumph.” - Abraham Lincoln, 1809 - 1865 “Watch your thoughts when you are handling your money, because your money is attached through your mind to the one source of all substance and all money. When you think of your money which is visible, as something that is directly attached to an invisible source that is giving or withholding according to your thought, you have the key to all riches and the reason for all lack.” - Charles Fillmore, 1854-1948 Here are a few profound sources to learn more about manifesting more abundance in your life, and how the ‘Law of Attraction’ really works in our daily lives, and how it fits in with your business. Most people are familiar with the highly acclaimed movie called “The Secret” found at www.thesecret.tv . This feature-length movie includes teachings from some of my favorite mentors. There’s also another lesser-known, but more in-depth movie from the teachings of Abraham called “The Secret Behind The Secret” at www.abraham-hicks.com “The Secret” and “The Secret Behind The Secret” are two great films for anyone who wants to know more about the science and application of how to use ‘The Law of Attraction’ in their life and business, starting immediately. Remember, success is not something you chase after. If you’re chasing after success, you’re gonna keep chasing, and never catch it. Success is something that you attract to yourself, by what you focus your thoughts and emotions on, and the person you become through personal development. The more you work on yourself to eliminate resistance and the things you don’t want, the easier it is to attract success to you and “go with the flow.” “To better understand the ‘Law of Attraction,’, see yourself as a magnet attracting unto you the essence of that which you are thinking and feeling. And so, if you are feeling fat, you cannot attract thin. If you are feeling poor, you cannot attract prosperity. And so on. It defies Law. “The more you come to understand the power of the’ Law of Attraction,’ the more interest you will have in deliberately directing your thoughts — for you get what you think about, whether you want it or not. Without exception, that which you give thought to is that which you begin to invite into your experience.” - Abraham

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The Art Of Allowing Another ‘Law of Attraction’ concept that I want to cover is the ‘Art of Allowing.’ Let me explain… Can you remember times in your life where you wanted something so bad you could taste it? Maybe it was a new car, or a new home… when we were kids it was bikes, clothes and of course, ice cream. A lot of us tend to focus on what we don’t have (the lack), and it should be no wonder why that’s exactly what we get more of.

Several years ago, my wife Chiara and I set our goals and started a manifestation process for what we wanted to achieve. We got all kinds of magazines, and cut out and placed pictures of all the tangible items we wanted on our “dream board” (so we were reminded each day of where we were heading). We also focused on visualizing our goals and dreams, using all of our senses – (very important.) We painted real pictures in our minds of exactly what we wanted to achieve, as often as possible, using the emotions of how that would make us feel. We visualized all tangible and intangible goals with total trust and belief that we had actually 'already achieved' these goals.

By the way, this type of visualization is no different than lying on the grass, staring up at the sky and dreaming. Once we started expecting things to happen, and more importantly, LETTING GO of that expectation… overtime and out of nowhere, things we were wanting magically materialized. The expecting and then letting go of it is all about allowing. Allowing the universe to take care of the HOW as long as we take care of the WHY and the WHAT. At this point, you might be wondering if there’s something you can do right now that can REALLY make an immediate impact in your life… Well, I have an incredible resource for you. It’s a powerful free course created by one of my mentors, Mark Joyner. It’s called Simpleology 101: The Simple Science of Getting What You Want. Mark is one of those “Jedi Masters” of both marketing and mindset. I’ve learned so much from him about both of these areas, and I continue to learn from him. This particular course is 'simple' (the word in the basic meaning of 'straightforward and uncomplicated') combined with 'ology', which means 'the study or science of something'.

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It has practical exercises and real-life actions integrated into it to make sure you understand and can USE the information presented. Ready for more? Great, it’s time to move onto your first… ACTION STEPS:

1. Pick up a copy of “The Secret” and/or “The Secret Behind The Secret” and watch them at least 2-3 times to let things really sink in.

2. Sign up for Simpleology 101, it’s free. Get the course, follow the

instructions and what’s suggested, and most importantly, actually do the daily exercises… and I’m telling you, you’ll start to see some drastic changes and improvements in a very short amount of time, and in many different areas in your life, not just your business. The course is very easy to do and it’s actually a lot of fun. Mark is one of the most entertaining authors I’ve ever read (and listened to) and he understands the Law of Attraction very well. He makes it very enjoyable to read his material and watch his videos.

The ‘Law of Attraction’ ALWAYS works, and it’s working for you right now. After all, it led you to this material for a reason… So… what are YOU asking for?

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Step #2:

Back to Basics: Marketing Psychology 101

It’s interesting how many people start a business, but unlike other professions, never get the proper training to succeed. It’s why most businesses fail, both online and offline. What profession do you know, be it a Doctor, Lawyer, Professional Golfer, and the list goes on and on, where that person didn’t go through some sort of training process to become successful? I don't know of any, do you? To some of the ‘Old Pros’ this step may sound unbearably basic… and it is, but the reality is, when all is said and done, basic is all there is. The real Pros know this. Successful people in any business have learned how to survive. And the secret of survival is that when the going gets tough, the tough get back to basics. And here’s a very simple, yet very important reality; if you want to make money in your business, someone has to buy something from you. And if your visitors don’t trust you, they won’t buy from you, join your business or act on your recommendations. It doesn’t get more basic than that. So, here's the proven formula that I follow and that's made me a lot of money: Where there's demand, there's an opportunity for profit - because profiting is as simple as fulfilling an existing demand. Read that line again - just to let the simplicity of it really sink in! No matter how ‘scientific’ or complicated some people try to make it (Geez, you'd think you need a Masters or a PhD to succeed), making money in any business is incredibly straightforward. If you're able to fulfill a demand (needs, wants, desires, or solutions to problems), you're in business. Then it's just a matter of getting the word out about what you have to offer, in the right way. This is the most basic fact that underlies all businesses, it doesn’t matter if you’re building a downline in a network marketing program or selling real estate. And nothing moves until someone sells something. Now let me just touch on the whole concept of traditional selling techniques and how it relates to ‘Attraction Marketing’ for a moment. Selling isn’t a negative thing, but most people don't like to sell in the traditional sense of the word. In fact, some would say they actually hate selling.

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They don't like being sold to and they don't like selling to others. And they're sick and tired of all those advertising, prospecting, objection-handling and closing techniques too. And who in their right mind wants to become target practice for some hard-up, hard sell salesperson anyway? I’ve never personally been interested in selling, but I DO enjoy sharing helpful advice with people. How ‘bout you? Before I became a marketer, I used to associate “selling” with all those smooth-talkin, silver-tongued slicksters out there that would use every sales tactic known to man to convince me to whip out my wallet and part with my ‘cashola.’ Yeah, of course there are still a few of these dinosaurs out there I guess, abusing people with their gift of gab… but today’s prospects are smarter and more plugged in, and more cynical than ever. And with life being as complicated as it is these days, they also have less time to waste on a sales pitch from someone they don’t know. As a general rule, people ideally choose to do business with people who they feel care about them, and who make the process of buying an easy one. The truth is, people DO like to buy! They just don't want to be sold to. And, people like to buy if the experience is fun and pleasurable. Look at Amazon.com and iTunes.com… They make it a pure shopping pleasure, don’t they? Their hi-tech programming remembers all your preferences and the things you like, so you get intelligent, personalized advice each time you enter their site. And when you're ready to buy, you don't have to fill out some long form, do you? Nope, the entire process is reduced to just one little click of your mouse! That's it! Click - done - shipped to your front door, or downloaded to your computer. It’s painless! As we get further into some of the how-to material in this course, I’ll show you how you can make the “buying process” for your prospects more enjoyable, but let’s go over some basic, yet, critical foundational marketing principles first.

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Internet Marketing and Dancing

What the heck does dancing have to do with Internet marketing? Well, they both start with relationship building. To illustrate how relationship building on the Internet really works, here's a quick story about an average guy… we’ll call him Steve. Things had never come easily for Steve, but he worked hard and landed a decent job after graduating from college. Now that he was employed, he figured it was a good time to get married, settle down and start a family. So he was ready to go searching for ‘Miss Right’. One Friday night, Steve gets a call from his buddy who tells him about a local band that was playing at the pub down the street from where he lived. They both meet up and after nursing an iced cold one for a few minutes, he looks past the crowd… and there she was… Lisa. The girl of his dreams. Our man Steve fixes his hair, straightens his collar and walks right over to her… Their eyes meet, sparks fly… He reaches out to shake her hand and says: "Hi. Will you marry me?" Whoa!! Stop right there creep! Talk about putting the cart before the horse…

It’s obvious that this approach doesn’t work in the real world, yet, this is exactly what most online marketers are doing to build their business. It's no wonder why most of them fail; they’re so impatient, they propose on the “first date”!

They usually bypass the entire process of building trust with their prospects and instead, pounce on them, going straight for the jugular (the close). In the business world, what happened here is a form of "Interruption Marketing," a term coined by an Internet marketing pioneer Seth Godin, in his book, "Permission Marketing." (A great read by the way) Godin estimates that the average American is exposed to over 3,000 advertising messages every day. So many darned ads that we just ignore most of them. And what do advertisers do when we ignore their ads?

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They do ANYTHING they can to get our attention. From turning up the volume when their commercial comes on, to making geckos talk about car insurance. And what do we do when they do that? We usually do ANYTHING we can to avoid ‘em, right! Just think about some of the ads we see on the Internet for business opportunities. A lot of them look like this: “Earn $10,000 in 30 Days!” “$1,000 in 3 days... I did nothing! Wow!!!!!! Yippee!” “$1 Million in 6 Months or Less! I did it, so can you!!” “$10 One-Time Investment Returns 25% Daily For Life!” … and my personal favorite: “How To Earn $1 Million Dollars In Your PJs, Without Ever Spending A Dime On Advertising Or Lifting A Finger!” Most of these ads take you to a web site where you get to see all the benefits of instantly "marrying" the suitors. "Hey there, come on in, marry me and let's start this business relationship right NOW... even though you don't know me!" “Join me! Join me! Join me!” Sound familiar? It's just like Steve asking "Marry me?" on the dance floor. The relationship in this type of approach is purely commercial. The person who clicks on one of those ‘hypey’ ads is going to be pitched and they know it. They expect it. This Is The Biggest Mistake That ‘Newbies’ Make!

They’re so desperate to hit a home run on the first date that, not only does their prospect feel “pitched”, they leave with a bad taste in their mouth, most likely never to return for second chance. Let’s pretend for a moment that you don’t really care whether or not your prospect joins your business… If they feel like you’re there to help them instead of sell them, they’ll usually respond favorably. It’s all about relaxing and letting things flow naturally.

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By the way, do you really believe that the people who ran those lame ads above actually made that kind of money? Most haven't made a dime, so how are they going to show YOU how to earn it too? Yep, you guessed it - they're not! Important side note: There ARE people who run these types of ads that actually do tell the truth because they did the right thing first (i.e. - They built relationships and credibility through their own permission-based opt-in list, etc. - more about this later). But the key point here is this; the advertisers who re-used these truthful ads have sacrificed their own credibility by pushing their agenda in your face and making claims that may not have been theirs to make. (They also may have violated FTC laws by making false or misleading claims without proof.)

Hello? KNOCK, KNOCK! Are You Paying Attention? This just proves why ‘Interruption Marketing’ doesn't work. It fails because the focus is entirely on the marketer's agenda and shows no interest in the prospects or what THEY want and need. What's a better approach? Well, what if Steve simply walked up and asked Lisa for permission to dance? "Hi, I'm Steve. Would you like to dance?" We can almost guarantee that he'll get a better response than the "Marry me?" approach, right? Now let's say Lisa accepts. They dance. They enjoy each other's company. They exchange numbers and chat on the phone over the next week, and get to know each other even more. Maybe they go out to a dinner or a movie. They're now in a relationship building process based on mutual respect for each other’s needs, wants and desires. They'll learn about each other's tastes, interests, dreams and plans for the future. A few months later they might know enough to decide if they're ready for the big commitment. ‘Permission Marketing’ On The Internet

When Steve asked Lisa to dance, he was asking permission to spend a little time with her. Time they can both use to get to know each other a little better, and maybe even begin building a serious relationship.

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The keyword here is "Permission." Lisa's permission is a personal gift to Steve. He can't rent it, he can't sell it, and he can't even give it away. She gave it to him and him alone. By the way, that's why you can't buy or rent a permission-based email list either. You have to build your own list with permission-based marketing techniques, which we’ll cover later in another chapter. So, here's an easy way to think of permission marketing. It's the process of turning strangers into friends, and friends into customers... and then into loyal customers that continue to do business with you over and over again… and gladly refer others to you. This process of attraction marketing is powerful, but it’s not instantaneous. It's not a one mouse-click affair. It's a strategically planned, multi-step sequence of events. The permission marketing process begins with getting your prospect's attention. It continues as a process of building trust and meeting the wants and needs of your prospect. And when it comes to building your own opt-in email list, it's a process of frequent, repetitive contact that never ends, unless the prospect decides to "opt out" and remove themselves from your list. The process consists of four specific, yet simple steps. Let's use Steve again to demonstrate them. First, he gets Lisa's attention: "Hi, I'm Steve." Once Steve interrupts Lisa and gets her attention for just a second, he‘s got to immediately ask for her permission to take the next step. Then, he offers an incentive and asks permission: "Would you like to dance?" And he's got to quickly give her that incentive for her to WANT to take the next step… a reason to believe it'll be worth her time to proceed. This is the "give to get" principle, and if you don't give your prospect an incentive at this point in the process, you'll probably lose their attention. So Lisa grants Steve permission to dance. Now what happens? They get to know each other and begin to build trust, which can further lead to building a relationship. But if Steve fails to be considerate, or even if Lisa just changes her mind, she can “opt out,” and decline any future invitations from Steve.

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Note: The fact that your prospect can "opt out" anytime should keep you on your best behavior. On the Internet, the only equity that you have with your prospects is information that's of value to THEM, and the relationship you co-create together. Your approach should always put the prospects' interests first. Finally, and only when the time's right, Steve asks Lisa to consider his offer: "Will you marry me?" And… if all goes well, she might actually make that kind of commitment with him. So what's in it for you, you ask? Well, when used correctly, ‘Attraction Marketing’ is the most natural, low-stress way to grow any business, and generate a serious income, almost effortlessly. Yes, it takes work... and knowledge. But it's worth it. ‘Interruption Marketers’ on the other hand think they have to get married on the first date. They fear they only have that one chance to “close the sale”, and for the most part, the sale is all they really care about anyway. But YOU my friend, can set yourself apart from all the rest of those flash in the pan marketers with your own simple and personal attraction marketing approach. Now, let’s go over the different kinds of people you’ll encounter online these days so we can understand where they’re (mentally) coming from. In general, there are three types of people out there: Cynics, Skeptics & Players/Buyers. We can compare these three to a traffic signal. Cynics are red lights. They’re always in the stop mode. No matter what you tell them, they won't believe it. You say, "it’s a beautiful day", and they’ll reply, "the sky is falling.” If you’ve ever spent time with a Cynic, you probably know it’s best to quickly move on before they infect you. You don’t want to waste time with these people. You can't help them. Their world is a miserable one… and it’s usually impenetrable. Whenever I think of cynics, I remember a phrase from my early network marketing training, “It’s easier to give birth, than raise the dead.” (Ain’t that the truth!)? So don’t waste your time or energy trying to change peoples’ values or opinions, or convince them of something. You’ve got more productive things to do. Don’t try to be a social worker or an evangelist. You can do that on your own personal time if you want to, but if you wanna be successful in business, you’ve gotta focus on building your business.

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Next is the yellow light, and it’s comprised of the Skeptics. They approach everything with caution. Their skepticism can come from two sources - From without or within. Let me explain. If their skepticism is from within, this may sound strange, but they’re usually skeptical of themselves. They may have low self-esteem or a low self-image. Many of them don’t believe they can be successful, they’ve already quit mentally before they’ve even started. These aren’t usually the best types of prospects... unless you’re a therapist! If their skepticism is from without, then they may be skeptical of your business, product or service and that’s actually a good thing. These types of skeptics can sometimes turn out to be some of the best prospects you’ll encounter. It’s very normal for most people to be somewhat skeptical about most things that can have a profound impact on their life. They only want the facts so they can make a decision. You can use your website content (which we’ll go over in great detail shortly) to answer their questions before these questions even come up. Once they’ve researched all of the information needed to make a decision, they usually have no problem moving forward to join your business or buy your product, etc. Now, Players and Buyers are green lights. They’re the ones that are looking for you, your business or your product, as much as you’re looking for them. They’re usually competitive, strong-willed, and self-motivated. They have high self-esteem; they have goals and aspirations, vision, drive, and anxiously want to take action. And it’s because of these unique qualities that we want to focus on attracting people like this with our marketing. When it comes to your business, the idea is not to try and sell, you just want to get your information in front of a motivated buyer who’s sold themselves, and make the "sales" process as fun and pleasurable as possible. And remember this important principle; people buy through their emotions, not through logic. The key is to find a way to touch the emotional chords within them to get them to respond favorably, which brings us to the next, very important chapter where I’ll show you how to do that. Let’s get this personal branding ball rolling…

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Step #3:

Becoming a Known ‘Brand’ and Why It’s Critical To Your Long Term Success Ok, picture this… you’re in business. You’ve got your snazzy company replicated website, with flash, automated reports and all the bells and whistles. Yippee! Ummm… so why aren’t people joining you? (I mean duh, if that's all there was to it, you'd be on easy street right now, wouldn't you?) Have any of your prospects ever come out and asked you point blank, “Who are you and why should I care?” Probably not. But, it’s what they’re subconsciously (or sometimes consciously) thinking. The fact is, you're losing a lot of business if you aren't automatically answering this question every time you communicate with your prospects. People buy things and join opportunities because they expect to gain something more valuable (to them) than the money they fork over to get it. They’re expecting to gain a “big benefit”. That’s WHY they care. The good news is, YOU control whether or not they’re the right prospects. How? You do it by targeting your advertising to reach only the prospects who are likely to have a strong need or desire for the ‘benefits’ you provide. Begin by identifying the usual frustrations associated with your kind of product, service or business opportunity. Do you know what they are? If you're promoting a direct sales or network marketing business for instance, identify with their pain of not having enough time or money, or both. Maybe they want a way to be able to stay at home with the kids, and not have to slave away for someone else the rest of their life. Through your written words, you’re going to want to share with them your knowledge and experience (regardless of your level of success). When it comes to websites and the Internet, when you take away all the technology, the glitz, and html coding, what’s left? Yep, that’s right, a REAL person. The common misconception out there is that if you build it, they will come. The truth is, people don't buy from websites, emails, products, companies, compensation plans or classified ads… they buy from people like YOU and ME!

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There’s more to making money online than just having a professional website, it’s gotta sell YOU. Would you like to become a household name on the Internet?

If I mention the word "cola", what’s the first thing that comes to mind? Assuming you haven't rushed off to get yourself a cold drink, you're probably thinking of Coca-Cola (or Pepsi), even though there are literally hundreds of other “cola” drinks out there on the market. So why did you think of those two products first? Because, whether you like it or not, the hundreds of millions of dollars that Coca-Cola and Pepsi have spent over the years building their brands have paid off. The key word here is brand. Branding is what differentiates one product from another of a similar make. When it comes to Internet marketing, branding yourself and your name is the little-known ‘secret’ that 99.9% of other marketers don’t “get”, but it can pay off for you big time when used effectively. I’m also referring here to your USP (Unique Selling Proposition). It’s about your uniqueness… that essence that separates you from other people out there trying to promote their business. Attraction Marketing is all about being yourself, and learning how to get your target market to want to do business with you, because of who you are. When done properly, your prospects will do it willingly, and usually without hesitation.

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And for those who don't buy or join your business right away, over time, as we communicate with these prospects and ‘drip’ helpful information on them, they'll want to, because they’ll perceive you as the expert/mentor they desperately seek. They're attracted to you because of the WHO you are, and how you can help them get what they want.

Now, one of the biggest questions I get asked from people promoting business opportunities is, “Brad, you have a lot of experience that I don’t have, so where does that leave me, and how do I brand myself on the Internet when I haven’t had any success yet?” Great question. And my answer comes from what I've learned over the years when it comes to promoting lots of home business opportunities and products; Most people don't care about how much you know until they know how much you care. Sounds cliché, but it’s absolutely true. Another thing to remember is that ANYONE can become an “expert” in 30 days or less and teach what they learn…

What I’ve also found is most of us think we don’t have anything of value to share with prospects when we’re new, and we have a difficult time recognizing the knowledge and experience stored in our heads. Heck, for the first couple years I was trying to make money online, the only thing I had lots of experience with was failing! Then it hit me like a ton of bricks...! Even though I failed many times, and tried a lot of things that didn’t work, I accumulated a lot of knowledge along the way that would be beneficial to others, to help them avoid the pitfalls I went through and the mistakes I made. The fact of the matter is, we ALL have experience. We accumulate experiences all the time just by living life on a daily basis… and when you sit back and think about what you’ve learned so far in your life, you might be surprised just how much valuable knowledge you have to offer to others. The key is to recognize the importance of your experiences, and how they can be used to assist your potential prospects. An important thing to note here is ‘expertise’ doesn’t have to be based solely on your experiences alone. Even if you don’t feel you have enough knowledge about a particular subject, you can do some research on it, and gain that knowledge to be able to share… essentially making you an “expert” on that subject. The most important thing is to figure out what subject you want to research, and once you know that, things will usually fall into place much easier.

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Now, if you’re promoting a business opportunity, keep in mind that a lot of people have been burned by smooth talking or persuasive “Recruiters”… the “love ‘em and leave ‘em” types. It’s really a cryin’ shame, and this cycle of destruction repeats itself every day around the world. The ‘Recruiters’ leave these orphaned folks to fend for themselves, out there on their own with no one to talk to or help them. These orphans are afraid the same thing will happen again, again and again. They don’t want to be left in the cold to fail the next time around. So, you’ll want to ease their concerns by letting them know up front that when they enroll with YOU, that you're gonna be there for them after the sale. That’s what they really want from you. You don’t have to already be successful in your business (although it certainly helps you become more attractive) to be able to offer support to the people you enroll. If you have a question come up that you can’t find the answer to, there’s nothing wrong with saying, “You know, that’s a great question. I don’t know the answer, but let me get back to you on that”. Then go find the answer from either someone in your support team or directly from your company. In other words, don’t try to be Mr. or Mrs. ‘Know-it-all.’ It’s far better to be honest and tell them that you don’t know the answer, than to try and “wing it,” when you really don’t know what you’re talking about. This applies, not only to the business associates already enrolled in your business, but your prospects as well. Remember, this is about building trust, and people will value your sincerity when you tell the truth. If you’re someone (like me) who’s “failed” in other businesses, you can use that perceived negative experience and turn it into a positive, by sharing with your prospects what you learned didn’t work. If you're marketing a specific product or service, you might advise them how to select the best choice you have to offer. and educate them how to use it to maximize benefits. Take them by the hand (figuratively), and lead them through the frustrating process of making an intelligent buying decision. Your goal should be to solve your prospect's problems and be willing to serve them… even if they don’t join your business or buy your product. And that leads us to…

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The ‘Give-To-Get’ Principle

Let me make this point crystal clear because it’s a BIGGIE; In order to have long term success (not just an overnight flash in the pan) you must first GIVE before you can expect to receive, not the other way around. This is known as the law of reciprocity because it creates a reciprocal situation of people willfully wanting to do business with you. Over the years, I’ve met a lot of newbie’s (and experienced marketers) that ONLY care about themselves and what they’re gonna get. As I said before, this was one of my early mistakes when I started out. Pardon the pun, but some people just don’t “get it” and some of them never will. All truly successful entrepreneurs understand this fundamental principal of giving to others without expectation. It's critical to take the dollar sign off your prospect's forehead and start concentrating on serving them… let the law of reciprocity kick in. It's your attitude towards others and willingness to help without expecting anything in return that makes you attractive. Read that one again, it’s that important… It's your attitude towards others and willingness to help without expecting anything in return that makes you attractive. It's your positive and upbeat personality (hopefully you have one!), which can be shared through your written words that people are attracted to… BEING the type of person someone would want to do business with. When you effectively communicate your sincere interest in helping them, your prospects will ultimately view you as an expert, and you’re half way home when this happens. By the way, I define an “expert” as someone who knows more than his or her prospects. So don’t worry about not having had any success yet to be able to attract the right people to you. Everyone starts somewhere, and if you aim to make money at the service of others, not at the expense of others, you already possess one of the most important ingredients for longevity in your business. Just be yourself, and over time, as you do gain more success and reach higher plateaus in your business, you’ll be able to add that track record of success to your personally branded information. When we get to the next step on creating your personal website, I’ll give you some ideas you can use to quickly beef up your credibility with your visitors. Even if you’re brand new in your business, you’ll have strategies to use that work. So, it's not only about being really good at what you do, but more importantly, it’s about being a giver rather than a taker, with no strings attached! Can it be faked? I don’t think so. People can usually see through fakes on the Internet, just like in the real world.

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A Major Paradigm Shift For Me…

Although I’ve studied other master-marketers on this subject, several years ago I learned about name-branding first hand, when I stumbled on this gold mine of a concept, almost by accident. It was the summer of 2002, I was building a network marketing business full-time, but I was doing it the hard way. Most people in network marketing or direct sales do what their "upline leaders" tell them to do. For me, it was always the same mantra: ‘Buy leads and cold call them, blast out millions of emails (and get your sites shut down), make three way calls, use the "3-foot" rule, run ads, drop cards, leave flyers on cars, use cookie cutter self-replicated websites, do the dog and pony show, (hotel & home meetings) chase family and friends, oh... and then buy more leads. I was tied to the phone, "smiling and dialing" for 6-7+ hours every day - weekends included. After all, that’s what my sponsor told me to do to get to that elusive ‘walk away’ residual income. “It’s a numbers game Brad… just keep working the numbers”. Not only did these things not help me grow my business, but for several months I was spending a lot more than I was making. Sound familiar? After my first 6 months in the business, I was completely frustrated and ready to throw in the towel. I felt like a hamster on a treadmill. I couldn’t stop. I was buying and cold-calling biz-op seeker leads, battling voice mail, and dealing with more rejection than most people experience in the entertainment biz. I don’t know about you, but I can honestly say that cold calling made me feel lousy. Let's be honest, if you’ve ever had the “pleasure” of doing it, you know how brutal cold calling really is (unless you have skin as thick as a Rhino). You end up with a lump in your stomach, an injured ego, tons of hang ups, disconnected numbers, and sometimes you have to deal with nasty, disgruntled people who lost money in other deals, with very little to show for it! I mean, who was I to be calling strangers about a business I wasn’t making money in, yet? I was an introverted artist, not some trained telemarketer used to being abused by complete strangers. Looking back I can laugh about it all, but it’s no laughing matter when you just spent $2 - $5 per lead, and you call and get an angry father asking you why you want to talk to his 13 year-old daughter. Then on top of that, trying to explain that, “Well, she submitted a form on the Internet about wanting to start a home-based business, yada, yada, yada…” And you can’t really fault the people you call either. They don’t know anything about you.

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Nope, I don’t miss cold-calling at all, and you won’t either if you’re currently using it to build your business. After you implement what’s covered in this e-book, cold calling will be a thing of the past for you as well, because people will call you instead. Looking back at how my own marketing approaches have evolved over the years, based on trial and error, I guess the only thing that kept me going long enough to finally turn the corner of success was simply my stubbornness. I ended up sticking it out, and this is when I stumbled onto the concept of ‘Attraction Marketing’ and branding. Things dramatically improved in my business when I created a personal presence on the Internet using the “warm and fuzzy approach". Here’s one of the most important things I did; I put up a simple bio page where I shared a few pictures of my wife Chiara and I, our cat Milo, and my hobbies and interests. And at the end of my story, I had information about the business I was involved in at the time and a short review of how it worked, and why I joined, etc. Now, here's what I would do back then (this was before I really grasped the power of all this ‘branding’ stuff)… Every time I would talk to a prospect on the phone (after reluctantly cold-calling them), I'd send them an email link to read my story on my bio page. When I would call them back a few days later to follow up, instead of getting the cold shoulder, I’d get “Oh, hi Brad, thanks for calling me back, I really enjoyed reading your story.” Pretty cool huh? Well one day… imagine this… I got the “bright” idea to start promoting my bio page instead of my replicated websites I was using at the time (like everyone else). Do you remember that I said early on in this course, that most people have their marketing approach all backwards? Well, what started out as just a simple bio page, turned into a steady flow of prospects who were calling and emailing me. They already trusted me and were ready and willing to do business.

Did you get that? They came to me already knowing, liking and trusting me, and you can't ask for a better prospect than that! For the first time, I stopped being a 'hunter' and started being a ‘tour guide’ and order taker. The result? It put the FUN back in my business, which I was missing.

Needless to say, this was a huge turning point in my network marketing career, and it completely shifted the way I thought about marketing online.

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That was several years ago. Now fast forward to the present... What I learned, and what I'm sharing here with you about personal branding, turned my whole business around 180 degrees, and I know it CAN do the same for you. This simple, yet highly effective strategy was what helped me finally be able to earn over $250K a year from my home-based business, and it’s been that way ever since! Prospects started to call me for a change (how refreshing), and for the first time I became the 'hunted' instead of the hunter. And you know what? People will also want to do business with YOU too. Why? Simply because you’ll have taken the time to build a relationship with them (mostly on autopilot, through your name-branding system). In my own business, I now get almost all of my sales from people calling me, or just ordering automatically before we even talk. The amazing part is, when they call, they're already educated and ready to move forward. All of my conversations now are rejection-free and pleasant. My own attraction marketing system gets educated and pre-qualified prospects to call me when they're ready. No more selling, rejection or wasted time and money on tire-kickers and worthless leads. It’s like a breath of fresh air when people come knocking on YOUR door first. Let me illustrate this point by quickly sharing one of many very real emails I receive on a regular basis from people who read my story, and connect with me in some way.

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Pay close attention to the excerpt I highlighted below, which directly relates to what we’re talking about here:

Hmmmm, maybe this stuff works after all. The Great Thing Is, There’s Only One YOU… Robert Kyosaki, author of the “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” series says that everyone is a genius, we just need to tap into the Genie In Us… that magic that we all possess. We all have special gifts to share with the world, and the process of becoming a ‘heavy hitter’ marketer starts with tapping into your natural born talents and making them work for you. So… the main reason why many people are failing in their online business is because they expect their replicated websites and cookie-cutter systems to do the relationship building for them, so they can then sit back and let the money roll in. Nothing could be further from the truth.

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So now that we’ve established the foundation of WHY you want to brand yourself online, let's find out… HOW! Not only to get people interested in what you have to offer, but actually have them call you and hunt YOU down to do business with you. Would you like to learn how to do that? Your wish is my command! Let’s get started on your action plan…

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Step #4:

Setting Up Your Own Personal Website In this critically important step, I'm going to concentrate on the mechanics of setting up your Attraction Marketing system by creating a personal website that sells YOU to your potential prospects. “WHY do you need to have a personal website in the first place?” Simple - to make people LIKE you. “And why do we want to do that?” Because people WANT to do business with people they know, like and trust. “But Brad, isn’t it easier to just get one of those brand spankin’ new replicated sites that my company or team provides for $20 per month?” Well sure it’s ‘easier’, but there’s one problem. How many people do you think will have the same replicated site as you do? Umm… exactly - everyone! Now I’ve seen some pretty slick and really well done replicated sites out there, and there is a place for them within the context of your marketing funnel, but the problem is, they’re just like everyone else’s…. and they do nothing to build trust between you and your prospect. But… what are the odds that someone else on the net will have your exact same story? Slim to none, right? And that right there is the beauty of being able to stand out from the “me too” crowd, and separate yourself from the masses.

When potential prospects arrive at your website for the first time, they're both apprehensive and skeptical - and rightfully so…

With so many scam artists and rip-offs out there, you have to expect and anticipate that type of mindset. And a lot of people have felt the sting of losing money on scams.

That's why it's critical you put your prospect’s minds at ease the moment they land on your website. And the best way to do that is to instill confidence in them from what they read on your personal web site.

But what do I actually mean by a "personal” web site? Well first, let me tell you what I don’t mean:

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As you can probably guess, I’m NOT referring to the slick, self-replicating web sites we’ve already touched on. These are the ones everyone in your company gets when they join, or even one that your team may be using in a so-called “prospecting system”. As I said before, replicated sites don’t present your mission or who you are to your prospects. They don't build much trust either. What happens when a potential prospect lands on a replicated website? Well, let’s put ourselves in their shoes for a second. They usually don’t see any useful content… What they see is a sales page, but what they’re really searching for is credible information, preferably from someone just like them who they can relate to. We already know that most people are resistant to blatant sales efforts. So if you’re heavily pitching something too soon, potential prospects will intuitively pick up on it and resist you instead of embrace you. On top of that, they’re going to be frustrated and annoyed that they didn’t find what they were looking for. After all, your visitors want information, not a shameless sales pitch! There will always be some sites with well-written, convincing ad copy that convert some sales if you send enough freakin’ traffic to them, but 99% of small businesses fail to generate enough money to even cover their advertising expenses. This is why using stand-alone, replicated sites is a doomed approach in my opinion. It’ll cost you time and money in the long run. But it doesn’t have to be that way… In fact, it’s lucky for you that 99% of people are doing it the wrong way – less competition…hey, might as well use it to your advantage! The long-term solution I’m sharing with you here is something that probably less than 1% of all other online entrepreneurs truly understand, let alone implement in their business. Your personal story and experience is what encourages your potential prospect to think about you as a “friend” making a recommendation, rather than some smooth talker making a sales pitch. Big difference. It’s this openness and curiosity to find out more about you and your business that produces higher than average conversion rates, and as a result, ends up generating more income for you in the long run, and with less effort. We’ll get into more of the specifics on website and story content in a little while, but you’ll want to consider the impact your content has on your visitors reading your information. If it doesn’t make them more receptive to buy/join, then leave it out.

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The needs of your prospect must be your number one priority, and the reason behind every decision you make regarding how you guide people through your information. In my own business, this focused strategy works incredibly well and generates calls and emails from prospects DAILY. They perceive me as someone who’s credible in their eyes and they feel comfortable enough to pick up the phone and call me - a complete stranger. Your website story establishes the foundation of the relationship and the more you share about yourself, the more people will feel like they already know you before they pick up the phone. Now for some people, having qualified prospects calling you every day is a dream come true, but if you’re an introvert like I used to be, and you’re even afraid to talk to people that call you, all I have to say is… get over it! Remember, these people are calling YOU first. They already want what you have. I say that with the utmost respect because I’m tellin’ you, you’re gonna be leaving money on the table if you only provide communication via email. The more ways people can contact you the better, and some people will want to TALK to you instead of becoming a pen pal. From the feedback I get (and I sometimes ask people that call me what attracted them to respond), there's usually something that they read about me or what I do that resonates with them. The trust-building process takes place pretty much on autopilot without my intervention, and it will work the same for you too. Now, in setting up a personal web site, I’m also NOT talking about one of these freebie websites that you can get at GeoCities, Anglefire, or AOL, etc. Why? Well first of all (and let’s be honest) a freebie site has no class. Secondly, you get all those annoying pop-ups from advertisers that you have no control over. Trust me, you don’t wanna skimp out here, you’re a professional. So pay a few bucks and get yourself a paid website hosting account. We’ll cover some turn-key web hosting solutions soon, but for right now, let’s talk about some of the main components that I feel are essential to creating a personally branded website that sells you and your business opportunity, products or services.

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Domain Name Branding

Like I said, URL's that contain names like, "Geocities", "Homestead" or "Tripod" have amateur written all over them. So it’s time to buy your own .Com domain name. Let's face it, if you have a website URL that looks like this... www.myfreebiewebsite.com/dontwannaspendanymoney/onmysite.html (fictitious example)

… well, then it’s gonna be almost impossible for you to brand yourself, wouldn't you agree? On the other hand, with your own custom domain name, you create and impart an impression of professionalism and trustworthiness. And people want to do business with people who are credible. Having your own custom domain name(s) is something every heavy hitter marketer utilizes, and for less than $12 a year, you can get your own “branded” domain name. For example: www.yourname.com, www.yourbusiness.com, www.yourproduct.com, or www.yourservice.com Don’t take any short cuts here. Go for a .com level domain (they’re always the best) instead of a .net, .biz, .info, etc. A .com domain name will serve you better since it’s the most commonly used and recognized extension. TIP: You can also buy the .net, biz, and info extensions too to prevent a sneaky marketer from “hijacking” spillover traffic that might come from people typing in anything other than the .com extension. Now one of the most powerful types of domain names you can register is what’s referred to as a “Whois” domain. For instance, mine is www.WhoisYourName.com. The ‘Whois’ domain name creates more curiosity than just a www.YourName.com domain because it asks the question in your prospect’s mind, “Well who is this person and how can he/she help me?” However, with... www.myfreebiewebsite.com/dontwannaspendanymoney/onmysite.html … it screams “AMATEUR!”

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ACTION STEP:

1. Register your custom domain name(s) NOW! Don’t wait. And if you’re also considering additional domain names for your business, pick the domain name that can be most easily associated with your product or business opportunity. www.NameCheap.com and www.GoDaddy.com are great places to start. Once you’ve purchased your domain name(s), you’ll need to set up a reliable hosting service for your website, which we’ll cover very soon. Domain Name Forwarding

If you already have a website (either one you've designed yourself, or had one created by someone else) and have purchased your domain name in order to make its address a little more friendly (and professional), you’ll need to set up redirection or forwarding for your domain. Domain forwarding or redirecting enables you to use your new domain name to point to your current personal, or business web site, without the costs normally associated with web hosting. How does it work? For example, if you’re using a replicated site to send people to after they read your story on your personal website, you can turn that long URL: http://www.yourcompanyreplicatedsite.com/youruserid into an easy-to-remember, short domain based URL such as http://www.yourwebsite.com. The short domain name address you give out and advertise never changes. Even if your long URL changes (say you decide to switch companies) or you just want to send traffic to a different final destination, you can change your domain forwarding to point to your new web site anytime. No confusion to your visitors and prospects because your domain name stays the same. With a domain redirection/forwarding service, when someone types in your new domain name (that you registered with namecheap.com or any other registrar) in the address window of their browser, it’ll then forward them directly to your website you have hosted somewhere else.

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This may sound complicated if you’re new to all of this, but it’s not a big deal once you do it a couple times. Most domain registration services also provide a feature called “URL Masking”, “Cloaking” or “Frame Forwarding”. They all mean the same thing and with this feature, only your new domain name will show in the address bar of your browser, not the URL that it redirects to. Example: http://www.yourwebsite.com actually forwards your visitors to: http://www.yourcompanyreplicatedsite.com/2937/ (Note: A URL Masker may not work properly with certain frame pages and some Java enabled pages) Domain name forwarding (URL redirection) can be used as a low-end, inexpensive alternative to paid web hosting and keep you looking like a pro. Email Branding

Another way to brand yourself is by simply using a "signature file", or Sig File in your emails. This is usually a small amount of text at the end of your email (usually between 3 and 5 lines long). How can you use email to brand yourself using a sig file? Well here’s an example of one I’ve used before: ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Who is this Brad Weinman guy anyways? Meet me at http://www.WhoisBradWeinman.com I’ll teach you everything I know about generating multiple streams of passive income virtually on autopilot. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Crafting Your Personal Story Warning! This is a critical step that most people cut corners on and it's why they get poor results. “You only have one chance to make a good first impression” That old saying holds true today more than ever when it comes to branding yourself and marketing on the net. In fact, web research indicates you have only a few seconds to grab the visitors' attention.

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Your personal story page will be the first place most people will visit in your attraction marketing system. It will also be the first place to END a visit. The reality is, no matter who you are, or how well you write, some people will leave and never come back. Your goal is to reduce that statistic as much as possible, and keep ‘em reading. If your visitors like your “voice” and your “music”, then you’re on your way to getting to the critical “next click” which says, “I like you and I want to buy your product, join your business, or get more information.” So, once you’ve reserved your own domain name, the next step to becoming a Jedi Master Attraction Marketer is to write out your personal story that your prospects will be reading when they visit your website for the first time (We’ll cover each component of your story in a minute). Right now, you might be thinking, ‘But I’m no writer, and I don’t know where to begin.” Don’t worry, it’s completely normal to feel this way, but once you get those creative juices flowing you might just realize how much fun it can be. People will trust and relate to you more if you share your background and what you were looking for when you got started, as well as WHY you joined your business (or why you represent a particular product or service). When you write your story, it’s important to talk about your family, interests and hobbies, so your prospects can find some common ground and relate to you on many different levels. You never know exactly where someone might find a connection with you, so include as much detailed info as you can, as long as it’s on topic. Yes, products and compensation plans are important, but most people don’t buy from just anyone they bump into. They also don’t join comp plans; they join with a sponsor they trust will be there AFTER the sale! You’ll attract like-minded people into your business if you share your story authentically, meaning, just be yourself. And aren’t those the type of people you want to find you anyway? We’ve always gotta remember, YOU are the one thing that sets you apart from everyone else in the world. And your story is the one thing that no one can duplicate. You want to be one in a million, not one of the million, right? Writing your story out will require a bit of quality time and focus, but it’s critically important that you put your heart into it and not cut corners here.

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I’m gonna help you make it a fun and enjoyable experience. To prepare, you may find it easier to jot down your story on a piece of paper or type it in Microsoft Word. It really doesn’t matter; just do what’s most comfortable and natural for you. But where do you start? What do I write? Wait - hold on! We’re gonna tackle the mechanics of telling your story in a minute, but let’s go over some quick tips to help you get maximum results. When it comes to website copy, I suggest that you write in a friendly, down to earth manner. Your website copy, in my opinion, should be clear, confidence inspiring and conversational. Don't worry too much about proper grammar and punctuation initially. Heck, it’s even ok to use slang from time to time, and this will just make you come across as more of a REAL person to your visitors. Let the competition write in their pompous, elevated, third person, and slightly distant tone. Write in the same way you'd speak to a prospect if he/she were sitting directly across from you in person. Even though you’re writing to every visitor that lands on your website, you’re really only writing to just ONE person at a time, so it’s important to make your visitor feel that they’re the only one you’re talking to. When you make them feel unique, special, and individual, you’ve won half the battle. You do this by recognizing them, identifying with their needs and wants, understanding their psyche and dealing with their doubts and vulnerabilities. It’ll help you build a bond of friendship and trust that will help you enroll more distributors or make more sales. This will also make you more believable and trustworthy from their perspective. Don’t be afraid to let your sense of humor come out (hopefully you've got one!), but don’t go overboard with the jokes… humor on the net can sometimes backfire on you so use it sparingly, ok? Alright… So we already know that to make money on the Internet, all we need to do is find a need and fill it. Find out what people want and fill it. And the best way to making your product or opportunity sell like hotcakes is by FIRST; telling your story, then make a simple recommendation.

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People love to read stories, and you’ll gain more credibility by leading with your story up front before you ‘pitch’ them on whatever you’re promoting. A well written story will, in effect, ‘pre-sell’ so that your prospect is warmed up, and in a ready-to-buy mood after they get to know, like and trust you. You’ll have even more success if you weave your personal experience into some researched information. More on this in a moment… I know it will work for you. How do I know this? Because like-minded people will naturally be attracted to you based on WHO YOU ARE. (Remember the Law of Attraction?) And that brings me to your question… “How do I write my story in a way that builds trust with my prospects?” The answer lies within you. Let me keep this real simple… Do you know how to talk? Of course you do… Then you know how to write! Writing isn’t like playing guitar or whacking a ball across the green. You don’t need to spend years learning the basics and mastering the techniques. You’ve already done that from early childhood. You’re already a master writer. All you need is your brain, a pen and paper (or favorite word processing program) and a little bit of creativity. There’s nothing magical, mystical or complicated about writing for the web. The first thing to do is forget everything you learned in school about writing. Starting from grade school on up, we learn to write to impress our teachers and professors. After all, the more articulate you are in your use of the English language, the more intelligent you must be, right? Well, this ain’t English Lit, and I won’t be grading your papers, so when you’re writing your personal story, or any other type of web copy for that matter, write in a friendly self-assured tone, the way you’d normally talk to someone if they were standing right in front of you. Now I know the grammar freaks reading this may get a little uppity about this topic (and that’s ok), but the funny thing is, the less writing talent you have, the easier it’ll be for you to write your personal story. If you can write like Hemingway, good for you… that’s a great gift, but it may be an uphill struggle as you try to perfect what’s already perfect.

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It’s important to realize that most people comfortably read at a Grade 7 level capacity (about twelve to thirteen years old). Therefore, you need to make sure you’re not talking down to your visitors, but at the same time, don’t talk above them either. Write To Communicate, Not To Impress. If you write to impress your readers, you’ll ensure that people either perceive you as being arrogant, or they’ll mentally dismiss you (and your business altogether) - - Ouch! There are exceptions to this rule if your target market is composed of high-IQ, left-brained, sophisticated individuals, but this audience is usually in the minority for most businesses. So keep your writing style simple and direct, and don’t be afraid to break the rules once in a while… but if you do break the rules, do it for a reason. Paragraphs should be short; 2-3 sentences, 4 max. Please, no clumpy 17-line paragraphs, they’re brutal on the eyes and an intuitive turn off. Just break ‘em up if they start getting too long, preferably no longer than 5-6 lines max. Your sentences should be short and sharp, and only repeat something if it’s really, really important… and watch out for those pesky little typo gremlins. Potential prospects who see typo after typo all over your website may wonder if the person behind the website is just as careless with their business as they are with their Internet presence. Create a positive first impression by using a spell-checker or have a friend or family member read things over to catch anything you might have missed. Get rid of any longer, formal sentences. And don’t be afraid to have some FUN with your writing, and like I said, you may even want to throw in a little slang whenever it feels right. If it’s something that you’d say in person if someone were standing in front of you, it’s something that will come across as being authentic when someone reads your written words. You see, the mechanics are the easy part… actually it’s all easy once you’ve unlearned a few things! Writing your story is a bit like going to an art gallery; people know great art when they see it, it captivates them and holds their attention. The same holds true for the way you tell your story.

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But remember, your story is for your prospect. If you write it to just please yourself, you’ve got a hobby, not a business, and even though it’s a nice creative outlet, it probably won’t pay you much. How do you know if your story is doing a good job of building trust? One of the best ways is to simply ask some family or friends (who you can trust to be brutally honest with you) to give you feedback about your site. Listen to their responses carefully and make the necessary adjustments. Yeah, I know it may a little blow to your ego at first, but what’s more important, swallowing a bit of pride, or making your business more profitable? There’s another, more costly alternative; you can hire a professional copywriter to critique your content. But remember, YOU are the best person to write YOUR story. Even a professional copywriter can’t bring the same sort of authenticity and enthusiasm to your story as you can, so don’t think that you can cut corners here by paying someone to write your story from scratch for you. It doesn’t work that way because your “voice” must be genuine and all you. When done correctly, your site simply becomes an extension of yourself. For some, creating your own website for the first time may seem like a daunting task, but don’t let this step intimidate you. There are plenty of tools to help you take care of the techie stuff. Ok, time to start writing, since improvement will come quicker when you just practice and then practice some more. We all have to start somewhere and by practicing, reviewing, and polishing your content, your writing will get better and better overtime. All set? Let’s start out with… Your ‘Personally Branded’ Headline

Now that we’ve got the basic premise of your story out of the way, it’s time to think about your personally branded headline. (Always include a headline in your marketing material, because a good headline creates an emotional connection that draws the reader into your content). Here’s a quick example of a branded headline:

“Discover How a Former YMCA Program Director and Elementary School Teacher Went From Working 7 Days a

Week (Just to Make a Living) to Becoming a Successful Home Business Owner, Using The Power of Little-Known Passive

Income Programs.”

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Here’s another example of one of my friend’s headlines, he’s an airline pilot:

“Discover How A Fast Jet Maverick Went From Flying Mach 2 With His Hair On Fire Into The World Of Passive, Ongoing, Multiple Streams Of Income Without Having To Threaten To

Shoot Anyone Down.”

And another…

“Find Out How A Network Marketing Pro Finally Learned How To Make Money On the Internet After Twenty Years Of

Frustration. See How He Used Little-Known Techniques That Literally Have Prospects Coming to Him.”

Can you see how headline like these not only pull your visitors into reading your story by creating curiosity, but also makes them feel that they’ll lose out by not reading it?

By the way, I like to use a lead capture page as my home page (the first page they visit), where people have to fill out a form with their name and email to access my story (I’ll cover lead capture pages in great detail in the next chapter).

A lead capture page (often referred to as a “doorway”, or “squeeze” page) is nothing but a simple one or two page website where the only two options your visitor has is to either put in their name and their email address, or leave, that's it. It gives just enough information about your business or product so that your visitor wants to know more.

On the next page is an example of what I’m talking about…

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Your home page doesn’t have to be a lead capture page, but I don’t like to waste advertising dollars. If someone wants to get the goods on what I’m offering, they’re gonna have to cough up their info and allow me to email them when I want to.

I think it’s a fair trade off. We’ll discuss the importance of capturing your visitor’s information in a later chapter, but it’s something I would suggest doing on the front end.

All the copy on this capture page is benefit driven, discussing exactly WHY they would want to find out more… in other words, what’s in it for them. It can be as short or long as you’d like, but you don’t want to say too much here, otherwise, they have no reason to opt-in and request more information from you.

Keeping things on the short side on lead capture pages is the best policy.

I also include a simple call to action for them to enter their details. Again, there are not hard fast rules here.

Choose benefits and a call to action that sounds like it’s coming from you.

ACTION STEP:

1. Write your story headline. Keep it relatable, specific and benefit-driven. Don’t just settle for the first one that comes to mind, jot down as many as you can and challenge yourself to try lots of variations so you can use them all for testing once you’ve got traffic coming to your site. Also include some bullet points that elaborate more of the benefits your prospect will receive by filling out your lead capture form.

Your Introduction

Once a visitor fills out the capture form on my home page (my front door), they immediately land on my main story page. The first thing they read is my introduction. I’m gonna give you a real-life example of how to structure your story by first sharing my own introduction with you. You can use it as a general starting point for your own intro, then tweak it to your liking, maybe even completely change it. It’s time to flesh things out. Go with what would sound natural coming from your own mouth and have fun experimenting.

Here’s mine (minus the pictures and graphics):

“Hello and welcome. My name is Brad Weinman, and my wife Chiara and I have been married over 10 wonderful years and we have a Siamese cat named Milo. I appreciate you stopping by my personal website to read my bio and learn more about how I might be able to help you.

We currently earn a multiple six-figure income working from the comfort of our home using the Internet, email, and the telephone. We enjoy an incredible sense of security

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and peace of mind because we've created MULTIPLE streams of income - so if any one or two streams dry up, it's no big deal... we'll still be able to pay the bills (and feed the cat ;o)

I've been earning a full-time income from home online since 1998, mostly within the network marketing and direct sales industry, and in recent years, I've branched off into more passive income programs that make recruiting, selling or advertising optional, not required. There's no magic to what I do or what I've accomplished. I just keep an open mind and try lots of things. Some work out, some don't.

People who know me, know I'm a real easy going, down to earth guy and I pull no punches. I tell it like it is, get to the point, and I give people tons of beneficial information. Making money becomes almost effortless once you understand leverage and marketing, and I'll share with you what I know works.

I'm excited to jump out of bed each day and enjoy working late into the night, simply out of love for what I'm doing… and that’s helping others in any way I can.

Over many years of marketing online, I've found that websites and emails really don't validate trust or relationship building when it comes to getting involved in business opportunities.

There are so many scams and sites that will take your money and rip you off.

Have you ever noticed that we tend to do business with people that we like and trust, and find credible? I wanna to be able to connect and identify with you in some small way…”

Still with me? Great… Lemme ask you, could you start to get a feeling or a vibe about the type of person I am through my words? It’s best to share personal information about you, your family, your spouse or partner (if you have one), your hobbies, your dogs and cats and canaries. Share your “voice”. You DO have a personality right?... just checking!

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Your personality helps you write in a style that differentiates you from everyone else, but be sure to avoid using what I call “broadcast-speak” – eliminate anything that sounds like “for those of you”, and “everyone of you”, etc. Remember, we always wanna be writing to an audience of ONE. Note: It’ll be easy to get rid of anything that doesn’t belong once we do the “tongue test” a little later on… Here’s a trick question: What’s the one thing you didn’t see in the beginning of my story? That’s right… a blatant sales pitch or an immediate recommendation. Why? As you probably guessed… it’s a quick turn-off for your visitors. A sales pitch or recommendation too early can be fatal to the process of earning the trust of your potential prospects. But when you cater to your prospect’s needs FIRST, they’ll follow your recommendations later on. Your site isn’t there to simply wring dollars from them. Give, THEN get… not the other way around. Now we haven’t even gotten into using audio or photos on your site yet. We’re getting to that soon, but it all starts with your words. Your words are the star of the show here; everything else is the ‘supporting cast’. ACTION STEP:

1. Write your introduction. Don’t worry about it being perfect the first time around, just get something down to start with. Your introduction is never set in stone… it’s like a living breathing thing that’s constantly evolving, you can and will change it over time. It’s best to use a word processing program like Microsoft Word or Note Pad, but Word is a better choice since it has a built in spell checker – very important.

Done? Ok, once you’ve got your intro written, we need to flesh out your story a little bit more by sharing some details about where you grew up, your family, your career background and hobbies, and any other interests you think people would resonate with you on. This is optional, but from my experience, the more things people can connect with you on and have in common with you, the more serious prospects you’ll attract. So list as many specific things as you can.

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There’s always an instant bond when your visitors share your passion for something you both have in common (like traveling, cooking, fishing, golf, or even old muscle cars like me). The bridge of friendship starts with some common ground and people will be much more receptive to your offers sooner if they feel you’re someone just like them. When I write, I imagine myself having a heart-to-heart, candid conversation with one of my friends, or someone who’s asked me for some advice or directions. Just let your own natural enthusiasm come through. This ensures that your words come across in a really authentic way to your prospects. Then re-read what you wrote and tone down anything that makes you sound like a bossy drill sergeant – anything that says, “Do this”, “You have to,” “Don’t do that,” etc. What we’re going for here is a friendly upbeat writing voice that sounds like, “hey, ya might wanna do this because…” or “If you’re struggling with that, then try…” Personally, I like to use “emoticons” when I write back and forth to people in email (I realize that some of these things are really basic, but not everyone uses them). Some people might perceive them as corny or ‘soft’, but who cares? We can’t take ourselves too seriously ALL the time, can we? And since the written word (and tonality) is often times misinterpreted… When I’m kidding, I wink. It helps to avoid confusion. ;o) When I’m happy about something, I smile! :o) Luckily I don’t use this one too often. :o( I also use exclamation marks sparingly in my writing because it’s just me, and I think all these things contribute to making my writing more readable, genuine and friendly, instead of coming across as a “serious” dude all the time. Catch my drift? ;o) Got Writer’s Block?

If you’re having one of those brain-freeze moments (hey, we all have ‘em from time to time), here are a couple ways to get the words flowing… Envision your ideal prospect sitting right in front of you. Get into their head, speak their language, relate to their same passions and interests. Empathize with their concerns, or desires.

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If you’re still having a tough time, go take a hike (I mean that literally) or exercise… get that blood pumpin’. Meditating is also a great way to clear your mind of chatter so you can tap into your creativity in a relaxed way. There’s no magic formula here, but I’ve found that sometimes it’s best to clear your head of distracting thoughts first, which may mean that you need to walk away from your writing for a little while to get things flowing again. Now if you’re a procrastinator, you’ll probably do what you do best… put it off. But for some of us, it’s common to be intimidated by the very thought of writing, and that’s ok. Ever see the movie “Finding Forester” with Sean Connery? There’s a part in the movie where he tells his young, eager apprentice to just “Pound those keys, Dawg.” So just start writing… or start blabbing into a tape recorder if that works for you. That’s right, dictate to yourself.

There are even a couple companies that you can use to dictate right into your telephone, you can even record your thoughts while you’re driving.

www.iDictate.com and www.speak-write.com will transcribe your message and deliver it to you in your favorite word processing format in less than 24 hours for about 1.25¢ per word.

There are no excuses… "Writing" has never been easier! Just talk away and eventually some good thoughts will start to flow, and you’ll be on your way.

Don’t even worry about making things sound decent, you can always clean things up and polish them later. And remember, repetition leads to mastery so practice writing when you can and you’ll start to see how things flow easier for you over time. Avoid Using Hype

REAL prospects distrust opportunities and products promoted with hype and unbelievable claims. So don’t include them in your website copy or the only thing you'll attract will be tire kickers and looky loos. Remember, if you hype them to join your business, you're going to have a hard time getting them to go to work. If you want a lot of people doing nothing, using hype will certainly do the trick.

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The truth is, real prospects are attracted to integrity, honesty, and questions being answered in a believable manner, and preferably before they even conceive of them in the first place. Exaggeration can be effective with some prospects, but with many, outrageous claims will backfire on you. One last thing… be able to prove what you say. In other words, back up your claims with cold, hard, indisputable and verifiable facts. It will go a long way in building trust and getting your prospects to step up and raise their hand to connect with you, especially the analytical type of personalities that love to eat up all the details and data you can provide. Plus, it’ll help keep the FTC off your back. Lots of people use the Internet as a searching tool. They search for highly credible and valuable information… content. They might be looking to solve a problem or fulfill a wish, a want or a need. Most people searching on the Net don’t know who or what can provide these answers, they just know that they’re looking for someone they can trust to give them the information they seek, and that’s where you come in. But you must first know your prospect to be able to have them connect with you and your words. Build a prospect profile. Know your prospect’s needs and you’ll be able to share the benefits of what you’re offering. Ask yourself questions like…

• Who’s my ideal prospect?

• Are they young, middle-aged or well done (senior)?

• Are they financially secure, budget-minded, or just plain broke? (hopefully not the latter!)

• What do they worry about?

• What do they want more of?

• What kind of emotional pain are they experiencing? And so on…

When writing, focus on benefits, not features to connect with their emotions. Since most people rely on emotion rather than logic, the “feeling” has to be comfortable before they’ll open their wallet to join your business or buy your product.

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Think about what your own life experience has taught you because it’s this first-hand knowledge that can be invaluable to your prospects. So, are you beginning to really grasp how this entire plan is forming? Your website content has your own personal spin, it’s your voice and it all works synergistically, especially when you have a clear vision of “who” your target audience is. When you craft your story and content in a way that OVER-delivers on expectations and serves others seeking answers, it clearly proves to your visitors that you fully understand their needs and that you’re committed to providing exactly what they’re looking for. Like I said before, in their eyes, you’re the knowledgeable expert who cares and is willing to help… and anyone can become an “expert” in 30 days or less by reading books or listening to cds, etc. on any subject. Frankly, if you absorb and apply what you I’m sharing with you, you’ll be able to share with others what 97%+ of other networkers don’t know. Consider the alternative. If your story content doesn’t deliver, you have zero credibility and who really wants to join or buy from some unknown person anyways, right? The bottom line is, your conversion rate will skyrocket when you properly “pre-sell” yourself and give your prospects what they want – value in the form of believable and credible information. ACTION STEP:

1. Write your story. Again, don’t worry about it being perfect, just get something down that you can build on.

There’s one last step to master… Monetizing Your Site This is where the money is. Let’s not lose track of that. After all, isn’t this why you’re here in the first place?... Yes, when all is said and done, it can be extremely rewarding to build your personal name-branding site and attract like-minded people… but this is still a business, and you’re here to do business. There’s no need to beat around the bush and hide that. So we need to make sure we monetize our site, otherwise all you have is a hobby, not a business. But how do you integrate your business opportunity or products into your personal website without scaring your visitors away and compromising your credibility?

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You do it by focusing on building the relationship and providing valuable information first, without making them feel like making money is your primary motive. Think of it this way… In the offline business world, people get together in person for a “business lunch.” So what’s the difference between doing business offline compared to online in this context? Drum roll please… There is NO difference! All you have to do is be straightforward and naturally blend the personal with the business. And this brings us to the next step in this chapter… Add Information About Your Business, Product or Service

Once you’ve introduced yourself, and have established some credibility and trust with your viewer, it’s time to include some information about what you’re promoting. It could be as simple as a short little paragraph or a full blown review that tells your prospect why you joined XYZ company, or purchased this product, or that service. Then, the next transition is to simply have a link to your company website that does all the explaining and selling. This is where the replicated sites we touched on earlier actually have their place in the grand scheme of things. Replicated sites can be used in the information gathering process because they do a great job in providing useful information and validation, while your story and endorsement pre-sells and builds trust. But be sure to write your content in a way that has your prospect’s best interests at heart. Meet their needs, provide a solution, and try to address the most common questions up front before they even come up. When done effectively, your visitors will think you’re reading their minds… and you ARE when you write from your prospect’s perspective and see it through their eyes of “What’s in it for me?” The key here to converting prospects to money being deposited into your bank account is your pre-selling process, which all starts with your personal story. Attraction marketing can also be called Heart-based marketing because it’s about connecting with people on a more heart-felt level. A lot of this stuff is basic common sense, but it’s critically important to make your opportunity or product recommendations AFTER your visitors get to know and respect you.

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That way, instead of pushing and prodding your visitors to go where you want them to go, they’ll feel like it was their idea and you won’t encounter any resistance when they check out what you’re offering. ACTION STEP:

1. Write about your opportunity, product or service you want to promote. There’s no set length to make this section within your main story page. It can be as simple as one short paragraph, or a couple pages worth of content. It can even be on another page. Just focus on the important benefits, instead of rambling on and on about things that may not be important to your prospects.

The Power Of Writing A Review Writing an objective review about each program you're in, or a product you represent can be extremely effective and lead to more automated sales. I’ve successfully used this strategy for years and it never ceases to amaze me how powerful a personal review can be. What the review does for you is it demonstrates (not claims) that you’re an expert - very important. This in turn is another way to gain credibility in the eyes of your prospects, which inspires trust at the same time. It lays the foundation and educates your prospects about what you’re offering, so they can self-qualify themselves and be open and receptive to your offer. By now, I hope that two important points are now imbedded in your subconscious brain (or will be)…

1. What you’re going for here is a “been there, done that” feel in your writing. It probably won’t flow all at once, you’ll make your voice more clear as you practice and get better at expressing yourself.

2. You’re constantly taking in information from various sources, internalizing it, and

then putting your own spin on it to make it your own. TIP: If you want to increase your attraction power, write as objectively as possible so you’ll gain even more trust (and business). What do I mean by “objectively?” Well, for instance, if you share the great things about your product or business opportunity (which we normally do by default), also include the shortcomings. In other words, don’t sugarcoat anything. Do your best to present BOTH sides of the story (the pros and the cons). Do your best to outline any weaknesses about your opportunity, product, or service, or why it wouldn’t be appropriate for some people.

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By using this angle, your message and your credibility will go much further in the eyes of your prospects. Yeah, I know it’s not easy to speak negatively about something you’re promoting, but let’s face it… there’s no product or business opportunity out there that’s “perfect” (and your prospects know that, either consciously or intuitively), nor is every program or product right for everybody. As long as the benefits outweigh the detriments, you’re doing your part to educate them and your prospects will buy the product. What we’re doing here isn’t revolutionary, we’re simply proving to our visitors that we have their best interests at heart by telling them the stuff that they’ll eventually find out on their own anyway (but that most marketers will never openly share). And remember that if you act in their best interest first, you act… in the long run, in your own best interest. You just have to be willing to think “long term.” By the way, if you’re the type of person who likes to promote information products, like e-books, etc., then here’s how to tie in the “review” strategy into this whole game plan here… Let’s say you wanna promote a particular e-book (like this one - wink), the first step is to read it cover to cover. You’ve gotta know your product and this may take some time if it’s packed with lots of meaty information. It’s tempting to take shortcuts, that’s only natural, but don’t do it. Keep in mind that you only have to do this ONCE. When done properly the first time, it can generate income for you for months, and even years. As you review the info product you want to promote, make notes along the way and think about the review you’re going to write at the same time. Taking notes will help you convey specific benefits to your readers that you can use later. You can even discuss a specific chapter and use quotations (where applicable). Not only does it add a nice touch to your review, it also demonstrates that you’re intimately familiar with the product. One more thing… it’s important that you somehow show that you have personal experience with whatever subject you’re writing about. If you can’t do this, your readers will intuitively pick up on this, and you’ll lose sales. Just do a great job of presenting the facts, and put your own spin on things, and you’ll be fine. By providing some sort of objective analysis, you demonstrate your knowledge and save your prospects time and energy, since you’ve done the investigation work FOR them. As a result, you earn their gratitude, loyalty and respect… and in many cases…

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Viola - their business! Got it? So, once you’ve got the majority of your intro and main content of your story established, and you’ve worked out the details about your business offering(s), it’s time to start considering how your personal website should actually look… Website Design, Look & Feel

Most of what I’ve learned about how a personal (and professional) website should look and feel, I learned from a guy named Ken Evoy. He taught me that a clean, confidence-inspiring site will do a great job of pre-selling whatever you’re promoting. And as we’ve previously discussed, warmed up, willing-to-buy prospects will convert to customers or business partners much more easily. The most important thing to remember is that your website should be fool proof. So organize your content in a way that will take your prospect from beginning to end without any hassle. The very instant your visitors land on your website, they’ll (consciously or unconsciously) form an immediate opinion, so your first impression is critical. Your website will either help to keep your visitors engaged and receptive, or it’ll turn them off. Obviously, you want your prospects to be receptive and feel comfortable, but what if you have zero design or html programming skills? No problem… There are some great companies that can provide you with turnkey website templates. They make it easy for anyone to create a clean and professional looking website without the guesswork or Computer Science PhD. We’ll talk more about this in a minute. Now, if you already have some decent design skills and you know html programming, fantastic, but even then, keep your design clean and simple and leave all the bells and whistles where they belong… in the circus! The look and feel of your site goes deeper than just it’s graphics and overall design… The actual appearance of your WORDS is also important. For example, here are a few things to avoid or correct:

• ALL CAPS EVERYWHERE - No need to shout every word of every sentence.

• Glaring spelling typos - Nothing says amateur faster than tons of typos.

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• Over-use of colored text and flashing graphics – Especially in a single sentence. Stick with black text on a white background and use some red and yellow highlights sparingly to spice things up here and there. Red has the power to grab more attention than any other color and is best used for headlines. Leave the flash and animated graphics for gambling sites; they don’t belong on a personal site for the most part.

The layout design of your site should be clean and easy to navigate for your visitors – Google’s site is one of the best examples of simplicity. Keep in mind that reading online is done much differently than reading offline. People tend to scan text, so keep your paragraphs short with plenty of white space in between. Scanning eyeballs love visual breaks so scattering photos and images throughout your site help things flow better. For most businesses, it’s best to stay away from dark background colors like black with white text (unless you’re a funeral home marketing coffins and family plots). Not only is it difficult to read, but for a personal website, it might not necessarily give people a good vibe or first impression about you. The bottom line is, you can’t go wrong with black text on a white background. It’s the standard in web design for good reason - it’s easy to read. Why make things more complicated than they need be? Save the “cutesy” colors and fancy borders for a family and friends only site rather than a site created for profit. Also be sure to use bold, italic and highlighted text accents sparingly in your website copy. Too much of a good thing will ensure that nothing stands out. It can also give the impression that you’re trying to hard to make your point. Website Navigation

Website navigation is how people get around your site. Styles of navigation:

• Embedded links - The most basic form of navigation. • Breadcrumb trail - Used for organizing large amounts of information. • Left/top/pop-up navigation bar - Most common, generally usable. • Tab navigation - When breaking into a few primary categories. • Site map - One-stop shopping for everything on a site.

Some people like to have buttons or links towards the top of their site in a straight line, and some prefer them on the left hand side. And others prefer not to have ANY navigation buttons or links on the top or the side.

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The most basic form of navigation is the embedded link. An embedded link can be anywhere you link text within the body of the page to another page or website (like the example below).

This style of navigation is one of the best ones to use on your website because it doesn’t distract your visitors as they read your content in a linear fashion. The links become more intuitively placed. As a general rule of thumb, when you add embedded links that go to other sites, have those links open up to new windows (you’ll be able to do this by choosing ‘New Window” when creating links in whatever website building tool you use). This way, your main personal website will remain loaded in your visitor’s browser… even if they venture off to another part of your website. Website Background

I suggest using a solid or lightly textured dark background with a white column down the center. It helps to focus your visitor’s attention right where you want it…on your story and pictures. Use psychologically effective colors - The color blue suggests quality, trustworthiness, success, seriousness, calmness – it’s the perfect choice for business and personal web pages. Be sure to avoid purple, which connotes uncertainty and ambiguity. It’s also best to stay away from busy, heavily textured backgrounds that distract your visitors. Website Font Styles

For font style choices, it’s best to use a 10pt or 12pt Sans Serif font like Arial or Verdana for the main text areas of your site, and a 18-24pt Tahoma in red for headlines and sub-heads. In the offline world, Times New Roman is the font style of choice. It seems to work well in print and a lot of online marketers use this font, but it’s a little harder for people to read on a computer screen.

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San Serif fonts work best online because they’re easier to read and scan. I’ve seen some people mix and match, but that’s purely a subjective choice. By the way, I usually keep most of my embedded links to other sites or pages down towards the bottom of the main page so my visitor isn’t distracted as soon as they land on my site. Remember, the purpose of your personal website is to sell and brand YOU, not your opportunity, product or service… at least not right away. There’s plenty of time for that later, after you’ve got their undivided attention. If you allow people to bypass reading your story by clicking one of your other links, they may find what they’re looking for, but there’s a good chance you’ll miss the opportunity to have them get to know who you are and how you can help them. And if you’re the kind of person that likes to make things complicated - don’t! Again, check out Google.com if you need reassurance that simple and clean works. They can afford the highest-paid graphic designers, but they seem to stick with simplicity - big clue there. Remember, flashing, blinking graphics don’t foster trust… and frankly, most of the time it just bores people and makes them want to click their browser’s ‘back’ button. Also avoid using blinking text, awards buttons and banners at all costs! Having these types of things all over your site is a dead give away that you’re an amateur – c’mon… seriously. Less IS more... and on the Internet, simplicity rules. By the way, if you wanna have a few little special effects on your site, that’s fine, just don’t go overboard, use them sparingly. Website Builders

If you’re “technically challenged” like me and need a solution to build your website, you can get what’s called a WYSIWYG editor (pronounced Wiz-zee-wig), which is short for what you see is what you get. A WYSIWYG website builder enables you to see on your monitor exactly what will appear when your web pages are published and live on the Net. These days, building your website can be as easy as point and click, copy and paste. ACTION STEP:

1. Order your website-building software. If you don’t already own a program like Microsoft FrontPage or Dreamweaver to create and publish your website, here are some of the best geek-free website builders that can handle the job:

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2. SiteBuildIt! - This is Ken Evoy’s system and it’s one of the first website builders I

started with back in 1998. The training material Ken has to offer is extremely comprehensive and this system is great beginners. It’s my #1 recommendation for a turn-key website builder, especially for network marketers with no website building experience. Some people also choose to use myspace.com for their first name branded site since it’s easy to use and offers free web hosting as well as a free web builder.

3. Hire a webmaster - The other alternative to choose if you’ve got more time than

money is to hire a web designer to build your website for you. You’ll still have to supply them with your content, so it still requires some effort on your part, but a good web designer can take care of the technical part of getting your personal site published on the Net. A great resource for finding a competent web designer is www.elance.com

‘A Picture’s Worth A 1,000 Words…’

The words you use on your website are very important, but a good picture is worth a 1,000 words… it also adds some extra spice and interest to your site.

I'm a big fan of using real photos on your personal website because I know that your prospects can relate better with someone they can actually see.

I can’t tell you how many times I get calls from people I’ve never met before who tell me they feel like they’ve known me for years - simply because they’ve read my story and seen me on my web site.

If a prospect can see a picture of you and put a face with a name, and your competition on the other hand is just sending people to an anonymous replicated site… guess who’s gonna have a better chance of building trust and rapport? Yep, you guessed it - YOU! Let’s face it, just about anyone can throw up a business website for a few bucks, but to succeed, you need to establish trust and curiosity within the first few seconds someone lands on your site. As I’ve said, you must be seen as both believable and authentic. Trust is that essential lubricant that allows business transactions to take place, both in the physical world and in the cyberworld. We know that large companies spend tens of millions of dollars to build a brand. This type of branding is for association in the mind of the consumer, and a belief that a company with so much invested in its reputation won't disappoint its customers.

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Investments in brand development pay rich dividends, but smaller companies like home-based businesses and mom and pop retail stores don't usually have big budgets to establish a national brand. Instead of relying upon an established reputation, they're required to build trust and confidence from the moment a potential prospect lands on their site (or walks in their store). Big companies might have their big brand, but small companies have the advantage of a personal face to represent their business - and that personal connection is the missing link in most online businesses these days. So be sure to sprinkle in some personal photos of yourself (and your family, spouse, children, pets, etc.), use whatever you’re comfortable with. You can even create slide show of your photos by using slide.com. The Internet is such a cold and sterile place, your pictures will earn you tons of trust-building equity when someone lands on your site and sees you as someone they can relate to. Tips To Optimize Your Photos For The Internet

Once you’ve chosen some photos to include throughout your story, you’ll need to make sure your photos are optimized for the Net before you use them to ensure your site will load fast. A common mistake… I was once asked to look at why a very simple web page (with one small image and about 750 words of text) took almost 30 seconds to load… on broadband! The answer was simple and it’s a mistake I see over and over again with newbie’s. The original image was way too large and was scaled to a small image size visually in a web site creation program, not an image editing program and the size of the original file was 2 megabytes, which is extremely large for any website. Even when you resize your image on your web page to the size of a postage stamp, you really haven’t done anything to reduce the image file size at all. All you’re doing is telling the browser to re-scale the image, but not reduce its file size. The image that you thought is the size of a postage stamp is still that same large 8 x 11 inch image that takes over 30 seconds to download unless you shrink it down using a graphics program. A digital camera and/or scanner (along with the fancy graphics programs) have default settings intended for a printer, not the web, so your images need to be reduced in size and resolution.

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And when you use an image editing program (like Photoshop) to reduce the size of the original image (and you save it as a JPEG or GIF), you can create not only a smaller image, but a smaller file size as well. Then your edited images will load quickly on your visitor's computer.

JPEG and GIF Images

These are the two main image formats you need to know about because they’re the ones recognized by all web browsers. These JPEG (pronounced Jay-Peg) and GIF (pronounced Jif - as in Jiffy Peanut Butter) image formats are compressed to load quickly. That means that information has been organized inside the file in a special way in order to minimize the file size as much as possible. The difference between JPEG and GIF is the way that they compress the data. Without getting too technical on you, JPEG compression is designed to optimize photographs or images with fine gradations of color and this is the type of compression I recommend you use for your personal photos. GIF compression is designed to optimize images that include animation or large areas of continuous color so they really don’t apply to photos; they work better for animated buttons and accent graphics though.

Here are a few examples of JPEG images at various compression levels:

Low Quality JPEG Image:

size 2KB

Medium Quality JPEG Image:

size 4KB

High Quality JPEG Image:

size 8KB

Notice that the more you compress a JPEG image, the more distortion you start to see. This happens because you’re actually losing information. Also notice that the color in each example doesn’t change at all. Colors aren’t lost in JPEG images. When you use JPEG compression, you’ll just be trading off between image quality and image file size. Using the example above, the medium quality image is perfectly acceptable and is 4KB smaller than the high quality example.

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Note: If you had tried to use GIF instead of JPEG compression in the example above, the file size would be over 15KB. So when it comes to working with pictures on the web, the best method to decrease the file size is to decrease the quality. Image Resolution

With most of the commercially available digital cameras out there, you’ll find that the digital images they produce are normally much higher quality (resolution / dots per inch) than a typical monitor can display. Most monitors display images at 72 pixels per inch. So a higher resolution image (such as 300 pixels per inch) will be lost on the computer screen, (but not in print). So for web sites, using a graphics-editing program, you should reduce your image resolution size to 72 pixels per inch. As you can see in the flower examples above, using a lower resolution doesn’t mean that our images won’t look good on a computer monitor, quite the contrary. Another method to reduce the size of your images (while saving them as JPEGs) is to crop out any 'dead' area. For example, you could crop the borders in any of your images if they have some excess imagery that’s not important to see. I do this all the time with my personal pictures. Image Editing Software

If you don’t yet have an image editing software program, the good news is that you don’t need to go out and buy an expensive solution. Most people don’t need programs like Photoshop just to optimize photographs for the web. There are freeware programs like Irfanview at www.irfanview.com that do a great job of compressing JPEG images for the web. It has standard tools built in to help you decrease the file size of any image you want to use on your website. It also has a great little side-by-side comparison view that allows you to quickly ‘fix’ those dark pictures you might have from your digital camera or scanner. You simply load the original image and then use the 'save as' option on the file menu to give the file a new name (and reduce the file size at same time). Best of all, it’s FREE. Caution - Be sure to save your file under a different name from the original scanned image, otherwise your original image will be saved instead of the newly edited version, and this process can’t be undone.

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The Irfanview program is about as dummie-proof as you can get and has default settings that do a decent job of JPEG compression while maintaining excellent quality for the web. TIP - The default quality setting is usually 80% for Irfanview; however, 70% or 75% quality is still fine for the web. If you end up using another graphics program, follow the instructions on reducing the quality because most graphics programs are set at a high quality default resolution for printers (not monitors). Above all, your goal is to keep your images small in size, no more than 30KB each, but preferably 12KB or less if at all possible. ACTION STEP:

1. Compile and edit your photos. It’s time to compile and edit your photos so they’re ready to strip into your website content. It’s best to create a separate folder to store these in on your computer so you can easily access them. The more organized you are, the less frustration you’ll have when it comes to bringing everything together.

See Me, Hear Me…

One thing your visitors and prospects crave is human contact. With today’s technology (email, voicemail, etc.), you can go through your entire day now without having to talk to a single human being, pretty sad isn’t it?

But the real name of the game in branding yourself is the effective use of the personal touch, and this is where you can blow away your competition.

Fellow introverts reading this may disagree, but most of us are wired to actually need human contact. And there are two things that every sharp attraction marketer must do:

• Find ways to deliver useful and high impact (educational vs. advertising) information.

• And do it in a way that allows the reader to connect with you on a personal level.

Everyone on this planet has a unique personality and one of the best ways to transmit that personality to your prospects on the Internet is with streaming audio and video.

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Audio and video technology is nothing new and now that most people have the latest browsers and high-speed connections, online streaming audio and video these days is not only user-friendly, but also very cost effective and in some cases, free.

Lots of network marketers are using Youtube.com and other free video hosting services to upload their homemade videos to place on their myspace and personal websites.

Some additional ways you can use website audio and video is to give your visitors instructions on how to join your business, buy your product or service, teach them about marketing, or let your prospects know about special pricing, discounts or incentives you may be offering at that time… the possibilities are endless and only limited to your imagination.

I've checked out a lot of different web audio products, and the one I personally like to use is BYOAudio, especially for streaming audio. I've seen it increase my sales many times over.

I like it because it’s so simple and easy to use. You call into a number they provide you with, record your message over the phone (as many times as it takes to get it right), or record something off your computer, upload it, and then immediately copy the code and publish your audio message to your site.

ACTION STEP:

1. Create your audio and video messages. If you choose to use streaming audio and video on your site (like BYOAudio & Youtube.com), then decide how you want to use it. In general, most people use it for a brief introduction when visitors first land on your site, or to educate them about a particular subject. Your welcome message can be placed close to the beginning of your story so they can hear you, see you, and then read your story.

Display Testimonials

Never underestimate the power of adding testimonials on your site. When it comes to sharing your story, testimonials from others you've worked with (either sponsors or people you've enrolled or sold products or services to) can be a powerful magnet to get people to want to do business with you. I prefer to use audio (and video) testimonials on my sites when possible instead of just the written word so visitors can hear and see directly from some of the people I've mentored in their own voice. If you're currently with a primary company, they may already have some prepared testimonials that you can use, but I’ve found that asking a few customers, or successful downline or upline associates to write or record their own for you can be powerful, especially when they mention you in their testimonial as someone who’s contributed to their success.

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In your prospect's mind, this will be a solid confirmation that you're a leader and a professional that will lead them in the right direction, and will instill the belief that they can't fail with you by their side. To add more credibility, when possible, use full names with their permission, the city and state where they live. ACTION STEP:

1. Compile and collect testimonials - Written testimonials will suffice, but ideally, it’s best to ask people to record an audio or even a video testimonial for you, it’s much more powerful. BYOAudio allows you to set up a custom audio testimonial hotline where you can simply have people call a number and record their message. You can then get the code and strip it into your website (or hire a programmer to do it for you). Request people send you a photo to include with their testimonial as well to give them more authenticity.

Hot Tip: Man, I love technology… especially when it’s something that can add even more pizzazz to your web presence and instantly boost your credibility. That being said, there’s an incredibly innovative service I found called www.LiveFacesOnWeb.com. It’s an internet-based service that allows your website to have a real person show up out of nowhere to enrich the interactivity of your site. Here are some of the things that this cutting-edge tool can be used for:

• Have a personal host to introduce your site to your visitors. • Use a model to explain your company’s opportunity, products or services. • Use a model as a guide to help direct your visitors’ attention to anything you

want. • Use it to spice up your website with a real life model. • Increase your sales. • Impress your visitors (and competition).

You can choose from their list of several different models (both male and female), which you select to represent your opportunity, products, or services. All you need to do is provide them with a written script (or they can write one for you) and in a few days they’ll create a professional presentation to load on your website. This type of technology is also great for just a simple introduction as to why someone should request more information from you or want do business with you. It’s just another fun and high-tech way to give you an unfair advantage over your competition.

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Provide Full Contact Information

It’s funny that some people wanna build a large thriving business online without talking to anyone. While it's true that most of the sales process can be automated when things are set-up properly, especially when selling info-products like e-books, etc., but in my experience, only a very small percentage of highly skilled marketers can actually make anonymous sales and enjoy a secure, passive, residual income long-term. And automated relationship building can only work up to a certain point, primarily to get your prospects to take action and pick up the phone to call or email you. I attribute a lot of my online success to actually taking the conversation with my prospects offline. The phone, combined with the Internet, is probably the most powerful winning combination you can have – it’s the ole’ one-two punch. Why? It seems real simple, but when people have questions, some of ‘em don't wanna send an email; some people wanna just pick up the phone and get their questions answered… immediately! Of course, I'm happy to oblige and I make more money because of it! You can too… So, make sure that everyone can find your phone number easily! In other words, don’t be elusive. To get the best possible results, make yourself accessible. Providing contact information also demonstrates your willingness to perform great customer service. This is where most marketers fail online, they unintentionally "hide" behind email or a website, or just don't want to bother with having to actually talk to people. HUGE mistake! What they fail to recognize is how many tens of thousands of dollars they're leaving on the table for someone else (like you and me) to gladly snatch up. So, provide your phone number(s), e-mail address, Skype or IM, and street address if applicable (I use my corporate business address). Oh, and here's one bonus tip - If you have a toll-free number with voicemail (and they're so cheap these days you really should have one), always make sure to show your direct number, as well.

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Toll-free numbers only work within limited areas and you don't want to shut out the rest of the world, and without a direct number, most international prospects won’t have any other way to call you. A voicemail service attached to your business line ensures that you won’t be caught off guard when a prospect decides to call you unexpectedly from Timbuktu at 3 AM in the morning! If all calls go to a remote voicemail, you can then call them back on your terms, and when you’re prepared. I’ve been using www.800link.com for over 6 years for my toll-free voicemail, their customer service is great and they have all kinds of affordable monthly packages to fit your needs. Another thing to pay attention to is always be clear about what it is that you want you’re potential prospect to do. How should they respond? Offer as many options as you can, and answer your phone when people call you. Most people want an immediate response so don’t keep them waiting for whatever it is that you've promised. The harder they have to work to get in touch with you, the more business you’ll lose. So be clear about what you want them to do. Since any long-term business relationship is built on a solid foundation of trust, focus on trust building in all your communications, and like me, you'll experience what can be considered almost effortless income. Once you start filling up your prospect pipeline, you'll understand the true meaning of this. My life and income have never been the same since I put up my personal website many years ago, and every day I'm reminded of how powerful sharing your story with people can be. Tweaking, Editing and Polishing…

After you’ve written your first draft, you may find that you need to tweak, reorganize, add, and delete things to keep everything in sync and flowing properly. Are you happy with your first draft? (You DO have something written down by now, don’t you?) Good. Now it’s time to look for ways to “say it better” with the most important rule - “The tongue test.” Ready? Here we go…

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ACTION STEP:

1. Read your story out loud (slowly) - Pay close attention to how it feels coming off your tongue. You might be shocked at how many clunky sentences and grammatical errors slipped by the first time around.

If it sounds ok, it will be. If it doesn’t sound right coming out of your mouth, it doesn’t belong on your website, tweak it or delete it altogether. If you’re not happy, fix it and make it better, but don’t think that it has to be perfect before you can share it with the world. Anytime you add new content to your site, give it the tongue test before posting it. And if you’re REALLY daring enough, get yourself a tape recorder and record yourself as you read your story aloud. Listen carefully to your own words. Do you cringe, or does it sound natural to you? Your personal website will be a constant work in progress, it’s never “perfect”, nor does it need to be. Editing your content might seem like a lot of work – it IS… but remember this one last “rule”… No one’s gonna grade you so don’t take it too seriously or drive yourself crazy… just HAVE FUN! It’s all about communicating (which you already know how to do since you know how to talk). “But is all this effort worth it?” Well, once you put your web page up, it can earn you money for the rest of your life. Nuff said. Ok, done yet? If not, then go peck away at your keyboard for a while and then c’mon back…

So are you happy with how your story flows? I mean, really happy with it?

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Pulitzer prize material? (wink) Does it effectively express exactly who you are and address the needs and desires of your visitors, and provide the information they’re seeking? Great! Congratulations! You’re ready for primetime! ACTION STEP:

1. Publish your website! - It’s finally time to bless your story and content as being “done” and publish it for all the world to see!

Once your site is up and published, every now and then, step back and ask yourself, ”Does my site look clean and easy to follow, or is it cluttered and hard to read and/or look at?” After a while, you might find yourself tweaking and editing things on a regular basis. I don’t think a personal website is ever really “finished.” Just like with any living, breathing thing, it’s in a constant state of evolution.

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Step #5:

Creating Lead Capture Pages & Copywriting Basics Another very important component to your attraction marketing system is the use of additional custom lead capture pages for the various opportunities, products, or services you may want to promote. One of the first things most people learn about in internet marketing is that the fortune’s in ‘the list’, and we’ll be covering list-building in great detail in another chapter, but this chapter is all about the fundamentals of creating custom lead capture pages and copywriting basics. But before we move on, once again, let’s define exactly what a lead capture page is… A lead capture page (often referred to as a “doorway”, “opt-in” or “squeeze” page) is nothing but a simple one or two page website where the only two options your visitor has is to:

• Either enter their name and email address. • Or leave - that's it.

The primary function of your lead capture pages is to give just enough information about your business or product so that your visitor wants to know more. And when you tease your visitors with curiosity, they’re encouraged to take the desired course of action, which is to “opt in” and request more information. They can't go any further and get access to what you’re offering until they enter their information. And by the way, if a website visitor won't give you his/her name and email address, they won't buy from you! The wealthiest marketers in the world all use hyper-effective lead capture pages to capture names and email addresses... before they ever ask prospects for money. This is why capture pages are essential for building any long-term business online. The best part is they can easily be integrated into your attraction marketing system. So, once the form is submitted on your lead capture page, visitors are automatically redirected to a 'thank you' page or a corporate website containing more details. Note - If you decide to use a lead capture page for your personal story website, you’ll direct them to your main story page after they fill out the capture form. The cool thing is, you can be notified by email the moment someone submits his or her information. Here are some additional lead capture page samples:

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The Lead Funnel

Think of this whole process as ONE BIG FUNNEL èèèèè

We know that a funnel is big on one end and smaller at the other… and what this means to you is, only qualified visitors will knock on your “front door” (your lead capture page). The ones that don’t will be weeded out. You’re system will automatically grant the qualified ones permission to enter by having them fill out an opt-in form… they’ll then arrive inside your ‘virtual home’, where they can then read your story and see more of what they’re looking for. If a lead capture page was the front door of your house, you’d get two reactions from your visitors:

1. “Hey, let me in and show me around.” Or… 2. “Don’t get up, I’ll show myself out…”

And now, the moment of truth… Your visitors have their finger on their mouse trigger and they’re just itchin’ to click it! “Should I stay or should I go?” Hmmm, I forgot who sung that song… but that’s the question your visitors are asking themselves! Anyone interested in what you’re offering will keep reading and then… yep, the sound of that all-important “click” when they fill out your opt-in form. Your only goal here is to cause your visitor to want more information and get them to walk through your virtual ‘front door’. If you DON’T collect your visitor’s information on the front end by having them opt-in before they go any further, you’re making a HUGE mistake in my opinion and you can kiss a lot of your advertising dollars goodbye. The truth is some people will never come back to your site and if you don’t capture their information to follow up with them, you’ve lost them forever. Don't let your hard-earned leads disappear.

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Why Is Creating Your Own Personalized Lead Capture Pages So Important? Well, think about this… if a prospect clicks on your ad and sees the same darn replicated website that they’ve already seen half a dozen times or more from other people's ads… well, they’re gone. They'll quickly click the dreaded back button and leave your site… and your bank account won’t grow. Without effective lead capture pages for your business, you're wasting your time and money. Even more importantly, YOU'RE LOSING BUSINESS!... and my intention is to help you avoid that from happening. That being said, let’s quickly go over a couple of the biggest mistakes most marketers make when it comes to creating capture pages… The first big mistake most people make is they have their opt-in form (the place where visitors enter their name and email and hit the submit button) placed BELOW the bottom of the first page on the screen. This first page is basically everything someone on a browser can see without scrolling down. Now I’ll be the first to say that I break this rule once in a while. Some of my own lead capture pages are short and some are longer. But ideally, you want to position your opt-in box on a short page so that your visitors can see the opt-in form without having to scroll down past the first visible page. Sometimes you can have your headline and an opt-in form close to the top, and then do some additional bullets with even a second opt-in form a little further down. It's basically a headline, a few bullets or sub headline and then boom, your opt-in form right after that. This is a format that works, and if you follow it with every lead capture page you create, you can count on getting consistent results over and over again. They key to all this is having decent written copy to get the most bang for your buck. Another mistake I see people make has to do with using audio and video on their capture pages. Now, I'm personally a big fan of using audio and video on some of my own capture pages, but I found that until you get the one, most important element right, you probably shouldn't start adding audio or video. Why? Because audio and video are great, but it's not about the audio and video as much as the CONTENT of your message inside your audio or video.

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Your content has gotta deliver the right message to the right market, and this is the primary ingredient to using all these other high tech tools. So my point to all this is if you're just getting started with creating your own lead capture pages, just start with the ONE main element first, which is using written copy alone (mainly your headline), BEFORE adding graphics, audio or video. Then you can start stripping in audio and video. I remember when streaming audio was first introduced to the Internet and it instantly boosted people's capture page conversion rates simply because it was something new and fresh at that time, but it's no longer enough by itself to get you the kinds of conversions you need to stay competitive. When it comes to creating my own capture pages, I like things short and sweet and usually intentionally keep my capture pages short and to the point and just include the bare essentials; a headline, a little bit of supporting copy (or bullets), maybe an audio or video and the opt-in form, that's it. Remember, when it comes to capturing more leads, less is more. Sometimes people have a tendency to wanna list all the details they can on their capture pages, and it ends up being too long. Your visitors end up having to scroll too much. As an analytical person, I've been guilty of doing this many times myself, but creating CURIOSITY is more important than spilling the beans or doing a ‘data dump’ by giving away too much information too soon. So the point to creating effective lead capture pages is just start with getting good at writing copy (which we’ll cover in a few minutes), then you can experiment with adding bells and whistles like audio and video. It may take you a little bit of time of focusing on writing copy for your capture pages and testing, but I'll tell ya, if you can consistently get an average of a 25% - 40% or better opt-in rate, you're doing great and you'll be right up there with all the top marketers out there. By the way, I’ll go over some tracking and testing guidelines in a little while so you can conveniently keep track of your opt-in and conversion rates at any given time. Another thing to pay close attention to is the idea that people want to see something different - so be different. Again, sprinkle large doses of your personality into your lead capture page content. Lead capture pages give you so much room for creativity, so use it. Most marketers use them to collect names and email addresses, so we can build our own big list of people to market other things to in the future. Obviously, you'll make more sales if you have a list of people that you keep in touch with and follow up with on a regular basis. After all, it’s still all about relationships.

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Your Lead Capture Page Look And Feel…

When it comes to the look and feel of your lead capture pages, it’s best to follow the same design style as your personal name branding website we discussed earlier – keep it clean and simple. Black text on a white background. Remember, in marketing Copy is King, not flashy graphics, animation, or fancy type… Leave out anything that takes attention away from your main purpose which is to capture your lead’s information. It should be clear and simple. Let’s also pay attention to customizing the ‘Submit’ button text. Most people just leave it set to the default. ‘Submit’ = boring! Get a little creative and give your prospect a call to action. Here are a couple examples:

Note - An autoresponder is required to incorporate an opt-in form into all your lead capture pages and collect leads, but don’t worry if you’ve never used them before, we’ll discuss autoresponders in more detail in Chapter 8. TIP - Spam is a big problem these days and most people are leery about submitting their information over the internet and then ending up on someone’s spam list. There’s an EASY way to calm their fears. All you have to do is include a little blurb right below your opt-in form that reads something to the effect of:

‘We hate Spam as much as you do and promise your information will not be shared with others, ever.’

Important! Always create your own capture pages. Stay away from being a copycat or using pre-written, cookie-cutter templates. It’s ok to keep a ‘swipe’ file and use it for inspiration and borrow some ideas from time to time, but do your best to be original. By the way, ‘swipe’ files can be a list of captivating emails you’ve received from other marketers, ads or headlines you like, etc. Over the years, my swipe file has grown so big that it’s bulging at the seams.

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If I get an email that really tugs on my emotions, I save it and study why it works. So remember, a lead capture page allows you to follow up with your prospects via email. And since people rarely purchase anything the first time they visit a website, capturing their names and e-mail addresses will give you countless numbers of opportunities to keep your name and your business or product fresh in your prospects’ minds.

The key here is to give people what they want, when they want it! Provide information, free reports or articles based around your product or business.

For example, if your website's theme is about Internet marketing, then you would have articles relating to advertising and marketing.

If your website's theme is about finding a home based business, then you could have articles relating to the kind of opportunity you’re promoting and how it’ll benefit your potential business partner, and so on…

But what if you don’t have any freebie reports or articles to give away?

No worries… you could always write your own. It's really not that difficult; just follow some of the copywriting principles covered here.

But, if you find the task of writing your own reports and articles too daunting at first, help is here. There are a million places on the Net that can provide you with free content.

Here are just a few:

• www.articlecity.com • www.ideamarketers.com • www.ezinearticles.com • www.goarticles.com

Free reports and other perceived, high-value giveaways are a great way to build trust with your prospects on the front end. The more value you provide to your visitors, the more trust you earn. You can give people valuable information that they’d have to spend a lot of time researching on their own to find, and by giving before you take, you'll put your visitors in a much better frame of mind to be receptive to your offer. You can then backend any complimentary product, service or opportunity at the end of the report as an "Oh by the way" type of recommendation. This proven strategy works because you’ve given your prospect something of value up front, something they’re looking for… which helps build trust even before you speak to them on the phone.

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If you implement a lot of the suggestions I’m covering here, you'll probably invest many hours on improving and testing your website over time, but the pay-off will be major. If you want to create lead capture pages, and you don't have a clue about how hosting a website works, I highly recommend Carl Sorensen’s turnkey services at www.EasyLeadCapturePage.com. Carl can create custom leads capture pages for you at a ridiculously low price. Frankly, I don’t know how he does it, but his membership also includes unlimited autoresponders too. Plus, he’s an experienced marketer in his own right, and can give you professional advice on your campaigns. If you want something more elaborate, I highly recommend Ken Evoy’s SiteBuildIt!. As I said before, the custom web pages you build yourself will be far more effective than any canned, scripted, all-in-one inferior systems that everyone else is using. When you put together a finely tuned attraction marketing system using one-of-a-kind capture pages, you won’t merely be generating leads, you’ll be generating prospects that are ready and willing to buy from you… and in some cases, immediately after requesting information. No more chasing, unreturned calls, game-playing, dealing with objections (and rejection), flaky people, or other garbage you may have dealt with in the past.

Copywriting

“Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind.” – Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) A comprehensive course on writing sales copy is beyond the scope of this e-book, but I wanted to throw in some additional training material on copywriting because it’s worth repeating; It’s not what you sell, it’s HOW you sell it! Copy sells, not graphics. Pictures have never sold anyone anything, however, personal videos CAN be powerful if used effectively. Either way, it’s your writing (and content) that must convince people to take action. And when it comes to writing copy for your lead capture pages, it’s important to learn the insights that professional copywriters use, because they apply specific techniques and tactics that turn ‘writing’ into ‘selling with words.’ “The more things change, the more they stay the same". That saying couldn't be more true, especially when it comes to copywriting.

The same things that worked fifty years ago continue to work today. Yes, times and technology have changed, but people’s psychology hasn’t.

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At least, not the way we react to an effective ad.

The most skillfully copy-written masterpiece still requires the reader to make a choice - Take action, or don’t.

Have no doubts. Copywriting is a skill that can really add a LOT to your bottom line and I believe anyone can learn to become a good copywriter… and without having to work on Madison Avenue for years and years. It can make a BIG difference in your results when you use compelling website copy to ‘invite your visitors in to meet you,’ and make them willingly want to do business with you. For starters, here are four general guidelines to writing effective copy for your lead capture pages (and name-branding website): Your web pages MUST be written in a way that: • Is of interest to THAT visitor. • Is easy to read (or view). • Inspires trust. • Invites further action to know more, or even buy! For most people, this isn’t easy, but it can be learned. It all comes back to the basic rule - you must KNOW and BECOME your customer. Get into their head… What do they want? What are their worries? Why won’t they buy? You’ve gotta tap into the emotional needs of this person. This is easier said than done because it’s natural to shift back into your own point of view, especially if you haven’t been shown why certain words will motivate your visitors to learn more or buy. Or why other equally persuasive words are guaranteed to leave them bored and totally disinterested. But how can this be? After all, you know your business inside and out and upside down, right? You have more passion about your opportunity or product than any other person alive. You’re so certain the people out there will love it!

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So how come no one’s biting? Bottom line, your words probably aren’t inspiring the trust you need for your prospects to take further action. Why? Once again, I’d describe it as ‘a dance.’ (Remember Steve and Lisa?) Successful copywriting is a lot like learning to dance with a new partner. Some people know the right steps, but they probably picked them up from someone else, and they merely managed to ‘get around.’ But… to create a partnership that’s beneficial to both parties involved, you have to discover what your prospects want from you. And to do that, you have to figure out how they think. Until you do, you’ll keep making mistakes… stepping on their toes - Ouch! When you can anticipate their every move and understand why your prospect wants to move that way, you understand their mindset. Just like a dancer, effective copywriting demands that you plan one step ahead of your reader and answer questions and objections before any come up. You need to know how they think so you can inspire with phrases that motivate them into responding the way you both want. Once you know how to do that, you can talk to them on their level. You can identify what they really want. You can answer their questions. And you can solve their problem. At that point, you’re both moving smoothly along, directly towards… your order form! Cha-ching! It’s in the preparation that you’ll achieve the best results, so do your best to not cut corners in learning this stuff. Think about what it’s like to paint a house. You don’t just open a can of paint and start slapping it on the walls do you? There’s some prep work to do (I hate that part). Cleaning, scraping, spackling, taping, and probably ten other things you’re gonna do to make sure the paint goes on smoothly, and looks great when you’re finished. Effective copywriting is the same - it requires preparation. And this usually comes in the form of answers to critical questions... Questions like:

• Who am I talking to? • Where do they live? • How old are they?

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• How much money do they make? • What do people like best about my opportunity? • What benefit do they like best? Next best? Next best? • How are they using it that I hadn’t thought about? • How can I be perceived as an expert in my industry? • What price attracts the most people? • What’s my unique selling proposition? (How do I stand out in a crowd?) • What do I want my prospect to do? • What are my competitors offering? How do I beat that? • Why should prospects trust me, my opportunity, product, or service?

The fact is, these and many other questions form the foundation for what you’re going to write and WHY. Without the ‘WHY’, or the emotion that communicates ‘what’s in it for me’, your copywriting won’t give you maximum results. Here are some additional copywriting basics to follow:

• Write it so it can be scanned quickly. That’s how most people start reading and then decide whether or not to go on. Try to stay away from overusing CAPS or BOLD CAPS if possible. It slows the reader down and interrupts the flow of your message. Use bold to emphasize and bold underlined to really emphasize your points.

• Write an opening headline that sells. We’ve already discussed this and there’s

no getting around it if you want to keep your visitors on your site and give them a reason to read further.

Remember, you have mere seconds to make your visitor think there’s a reason THIS is something for them… or they’ll be gone. In fact, at least 80% WILL read your headline. It MUST do the job of making them want to know more. According to experts, just changing the headline of an ad or sales letter has been known to dramatically improve its effectiveness… by up to 1700 percent! I know it's tempting to want to be cute or clever, but on the web, there isn't any time for it in your headings. People want information and they want it now! So you need to let your readers know exactly what you're offering in your headline. Be direct - say what you mean and mean what you say. Headlines that evoke some type of emotional response are the most effective and will generally generate more sales. Emotions motivate people into action. The stronger the emotion, the quicker the action.

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So headlines that make the reader afraid of losing something, or excited about gaining something, will invariably produce the best results. There are a number of words that have been shown to appeal to people, some of these are: Free, New, Proven, Secret, Success, Instant, Fast, Simple, How to, Save, Easy, Limited time only. Always try to include at least a couple of these words in your Headline. Some other good words to include are: Absolutely, Amazing, Approved, Attractive, Authentic, Bargain, Beautiful, Better, Big, Colorful, Colossal, Complete, Confidential, Crammed, Delivered, Direct, Discount, Easily, Endorsed, Enormous, Excellent, Exciting, Exclusive, Expert, Famous, Fascinating, Fortune, Full, Genuine, Gift, Gigantic, Greatest, Guaranteed, Helpful, Highest, Huge, Immediately, Improved, Informative, Instructive, Interesting, Largest, Latest, Lavishly, Liberal, Lifetime, Limited, Lowest, Magic, Mammoth, Miracle, Noted, Odd, Outstanding, Personalized, Popular, Powerful, Practical, Professional, Profitable, Profusely, Proven, Quality, Quickly, Rare, Reduced, Refundable, Remarkable, Reliable, Revealing, Revolutionary, Scarce, Secrets, Security, Selected, Sensational, Simplified, Sizable, Special, Startling, Strange, Strong, Sturdy, Successful, Superior, Surprise, Terrific, Tested, Tremendous, Unconditional, Unique, Unlimited, Unparalleled, Unsurpassed, Unusual, Useful, Valuable, Wealth, Weird, Wonderful.

Craft your headlines to use words and phrases that will pique your prospect’s interest.

If you’re targeting people interested in starting their own home business, you can try phrases related to "Stay Home And Make Money" or "Kiss Your Job Goodbye Forever”.

A word of caution here – There’s a point where headlines can tend to get unbelievable. If you don’t want your visitors to roll their eyes, make sure that your claims are truthful and that your copy supports their truthfulness.

TIP – There are exceptions to this rule, but I suggest you avoid mentioning your company name on your capture pages until AFTER you’ve captured a lead. Keep your copy relevant, but generic until they’ve jumped through the hoop and opted in.

For homework, write several variations of the same headline until you’ve exhausted all the ideas you can think of based around the opportunity, product or service you want to promote.

If this is your first time doing this exercise, it’ll be both frustrating and difficult at first, but it becomes easier with practice. Remember, nothing worthwhile ever comes easy.

Ok, after you’ve written your list of headlines, make sure each one passes the litmus test for the following criteria for a good headline:

• Does it grab your attention? • Does it answer the question, "What's in it for me?" • Is it truthful and believable?

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If a headline doesn’t meet these three criteria, rewrite it or eliminate it from your list altogether.

Continue using this process of elimination, one headline at a time, until you're left with what you feel are the three best and strongest headlines.

How will you know which one is best?

Well, realistically, there’s no way to know for sure until you test them against each other, but here’s a nifty copywriting tool I found called Headline Analyzer that can generically measure the emotional value of your words to help you increase the selling power of your headlines. Best of all, it’s free!

Check it out at www.aminstitute.com/headline (anything that’s 50% or higher rocks!)

Ok, let’s move onto some more general copywriting points that can be used for all kinds of different situations, including your name-branding site as well as lead capture pages…

• Write a brief introduction. It must seamlessly flow from your headline, and start the process of ‘pulling’ the reader further and further into what you want them to know. • Identify yourself, but don’t make it all about you. Make it about how you can benefit the visitor because of your special or unique experience. Otherwise, they really don’t care and you’ll lose their attention… and these days, it’s all about capturing people’s attention! • Use sub-headings. These serve two important needs. First, it helps the break up the text into ‘bite-size’ pieces that are much easier for the reader to digest after reading your headline. Secondly, they serve as mini-headlines, telling your visitor what to expect next. • Vary the length of paragraphs. While paragraphs that all look neat and orderly look good to the writer and designer, to a visitor scanning a web page, it’s likely to look…um, boring! And once this happens… yep, you got it… they’re gone. Vary the length of your paragraphs to avoid this. • Use short sentences. This applies to most every media, but on the web, it goes double. The reason is it takes 20% longer to read a computer screen than a printed page. Short sentences are easier to read. That means less tiring on the eyeballs, and more enjoyable to read. Do your best to write your copy in a way that each point flows smoothly to the next. Don't be afraid of writing long copy when it’s appropriate. If you write it in a compelling way, people will follow it all the way through. It's a myth that long copy doesn't work. It could actually work the best depending on what you’re promoting.

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• Use simple, conversational language. Again, the nature of communication on the Internet, whether on a web site or in an email, is that it’s more of a personal conversation. In real life, people don’t talk to each other in long, drawn-out sentences. And ‘fancy’ language tends to either alienate people, or make them believe they won’t understand what you’re saying. Again, write as if you were talking with your prospect face to face. Avoid talking at them, but rather, with them. You also want to avoid using complex words or concepts. Find a balance that a fifth grade student would understand without insulting anyone's intelligence. • Remember the ‘WIIFM’ factor - “What’s in it for me?” This is THE question in the minds of your readers. They might never tell you, but you can bet that they’re thinking about it. So include the benefits of your opportunity, product or service everywhere it makes sense to do so. This helps to keep them glued to your message. As with all advertising, this is what people are interested in - how your opportunity, product, or service can improve their life… not the benefits it will bring to humanity or the environment, just "what's in it for me?" Your opening words, then, must tell people HOW they’ll benefit from visiting your site. When you're writing, include the words "you" and "your" as often as you can. Your prospects have got to see how this will benefit them, not you. By saying "Your bank account will love you…”, or "you'll discover…", transfers ownership psychologically. This will pull your visitor into wanting to read more. It’s much better to have 3-10 times the words "you" and "your", rather than "we", and "I", and "us", and "our", and "me" in your copy. The reader only cares about how THEY will benefit. By the way, if your copy is vague or too general, you'll find out quickly because people will have lots of questions. If you're getting the same question over and over again, then you'll know what to fix so you can eliminate it from coming up again. On the other hand, if you're getting sign ups or orders automatically without any questions, you've done a great job! • Get to the point! Stick to it. On a lead capture page, it’s easy to wander into telling your visitor everything about you, your opportunity, or product. That’s NOT the purpose here. Your visitors are there…

• To learn. • And to buy.

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If you wander from helping them with these two points, even for a moment… ‘click.’ Kiss ‘em goodbye. Sell the sizzle, not the steak. Never get caught up writing about just the features of your offer. You’ve gotta clearly explain the benefits. Use specific numbers if possible - "10 Little-Known Ways to Make Money Online" is more likely to gain our attention, rather than just "Make Money Online". A headline should contain plenty of verbs - you need to convey a sense of action and urgency if you want people to buy from you or request more information. • Skip the analytical ‘jargon.’ It’s boring. It doesn’t help your web site hold your reader’s attention and make the sale. And yes, this applies to ‘techies’ as well as everyone else. They only really need to know if the benefits outweigh the cost. • Humor is difficult. It’s fun to make people laugh, but it’s NOT easy to do when they don’t know you from Adam. This is especially true on the web where visitors can come from vastly different cultures every minute. Bottom line? People don’t buy from clowns, so be selective when trying to inject humor into your copy. • Skip the ‘hype’. If your message sounds like all the other over-blown, exaggerated-beyond-belief messages we all see (and ignore), your reader will smell the hype and run from it, quickly! Here’s a list of words to avoid in your copywriting. These words will destroy sales: buy, contract, bad, death, loss, hard, worry, taxes, wrong, difficult, sell, deal, fail, liability, cost, obligation, decision. Here’s a list of words to include in your copywriting. These words create sales! free, love, amazing, safe, new, benefit, gain, money, happy, glad, proven, guarantee, fast, results, discover, how you, how to, now, fun, value, easy, you, your, yours, you'll, healthy, natural, magic, secret, proud, comfortable, secure, solution.

Something else that's also very effective is to include a post-script (P.S.) at the end of your ad or sales page. Your post-script should include some sort of enticement to get your prospects to order NOW.

You can also use the post-script as a final call to action.

Here's an example of an effective post-script:

“P.S. - Don't forget, if you join me within the next 72 hours, you'll also receive my eye opening Free Report “How To Get An Instant Pay Raise Without Asking Your Boss, Compliments of Uncle Sam”. Click Here to Join NOW!”

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You can also use a postscript to tie everything together by summarizing your most important benefits.

Here’s another reason to use a post-script…

Studies have shown that most people, when reading an ad or sales letter, will read the headline and then immediately zoom right down to the bottom of the page to check out the price (if it’s a sales page) and see if your offer is anything that they'd be interested in.

They’ll also read your post-script.

Of course there’s more to good copywriting, but it all starts with identifying your prospects’ emotional needs. From there, the rest of the process is really pretty simple. And remember, when writing your copy, ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS keep in mind that one question we all want to know: "What's in it for me?” Create A Sense Of Urgency

One of the greatest challenges in the marketing process is your prospects’ indecision and procrastination. Let’s face it, most people are genuinely lazy by nature and they procrastinate. And most of them will put off making a buying decision if they think they have time to delay… and still, some prospects will put things off even if they know your product, service, or business opportunity is exactly what they’re looking for. Your copywriting results ultimately rely on your prospect’s ability to make a decision and take action on your offer. There are lots of ways to convey urgency, but one of the most powerful ways to do that is to use the “take away” approach. Tell them they can’t have it! People love to get things other people can’t and creating scarcity can make your offer sound exclusive. And if you include the possibility that they might lose out on your exclusive offer, your conversion rate will shoot up. Why does it work? Because people are more likely to take action based on the fear of loss, rather than an opportunity for gain. In fact, most people don’t even realize how badly they want something until it’s suggested they can’t have it. Here are few popular examples of creating scarcity in your copywriting:

• “Limited copies available.” • “First 50 people only.” • “Special discounts.”

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• “Order Now, this special gift won't last long” You can also set a date, or even have a countdown clock that shows how much time is left for them to act. You can also run holiday or weekend specials. This creates the urgency to buy right away, or risk losing out, which compels fence sitters to do what you want them to do. Regardless of the phrasing you use, the key to success is creating a sense of scarcity so that your prospect will feel the urgency to buy or join right away. Note - If you use a time-based sense of urgency in your marketing offer(s), don’t make the same mistake lots of marketers make by not making the deadline real. I've seen it many, many times over the years, and still today, where a marketer creates a deadline, and the deadline passes and they still make the same offer. BIG mistake and it will hurt your credibility and reputation. When you set a deadline, it’s gotta be enforced. When you do this, your reputation for honesty (and integrity) will be respected, and your prospects will know that if you set a deadline, you’re gonna stick to it. This is what creates the urgency that moves them to take action now and in the future, so make sure you use scarcity and urgency in your marketing arsenal. Incorporate ‘Hypnotic’ Writing

Joe Vitale is the guy who taught me about the mechanics of hypnotic writing for the web. Most of us have experienced it in one form or another, while listening to a talk radio show or watching TV. If you need some proof, here’s a quick example… Ever notice how on a popular TV show like ‘LOST’ (love that series!), just as the momentum is building… all of a sudden - CUT! Gotcha! Dang they’re good! Leaves you hanging, wanting more - and the same is true with hypnotic writing on the Internet. It’s something that enables you to tap into and penetrate the subconscious minds of your visitors. This is some powerful stuff here, so pay close attention…

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Below I've listed some examples of the best hypnotic phrases and sentences for you to try out in your own marketing campaigns. This way you can experience the power of using hypnotic writing first hand. Ready? Ok, here we go… Imagine what it would be like if... Can you remember a time when... After you read this short report you'll have learned... You don't realize it yet, but in the next 2 minutes you're going to learn... As you read every word of this article, you'll discover... Can you imagine... Just picture... Imagine experiencing... You probably already know this... And as you absorb this information, you'll... Have you noticed yet that... The more you keep reading this document the more you feel... Imagine what it would be like if... In a moment, I'll tell you... Now, let me ask you a personal question... Do you remember a time when... As you pay close attention to this page... Just suppose... If you're like me... Okay, you're probably wondering... I know you're feeling... See yourself... As you allow yourself to go further and further down this page, you're realizing...

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In just a short while... With each word you read you feel more and more... And you will begin to... Read these facts carefully. Proven Fact: Here's the bottom line... Studies will soon prove that... You’re absolutely right... STOP and ask yourself this key question... obviously clearly softly apparently certainly You’re ready for success, aren't you? Pay close attention! Now listen closely! Listen closely: Here's a secret: Stop! Listen! Forget everything and listen, Pull up a chair and hear me out: Just imagine experiencing a new way to.... All this can be yours! Don't believe me, believe yourself!

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Imagine being able to try out a product without any risk. Now it's a reality! While each second passes, you know you must be satisfied, or you'll get all your money back. Look at this See it Focus here Watch this Sounds good I hear you Call me Do it now, while you're thinking about it! Who Else Wants... Little-Known Secrets... The Shocking Truth About... The Single Most-Important... There's Nothing Quite Like... Simple But Powerful... Enjoy The Ultimate... All you need to know... Here's something that will... In this report you're going to... Just take a look at what's inside: Here's what you'll learn... Consider these benefits: the complete guide to takes you step by step Whew!... and the list goes on. This is just the tip of the iceberg.

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Try these phrases out in your own marketing efforts and see what happens! Becoming a great copywriter takes time and practice, practice, and more practice. Study and learn all you can from books, and study other people’s ads that you receive in your email inbox, and all over the net, as well as print ads in magazines. If you come across an ad or web page that motivates or moves you to purchase the product or request more information, go through it, and try to define the exact areas that push your buttons to take action. If you're interested in more proven techniques for powerful copywriting, check out "Make Your Words Sell!" by Ken Evoy as well as Joe Vitale’s Hypnotic Selling Secrets.

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Step #6:

The Critical Work Of Building Your List In real estate, the 3 most important things are "Location, Location, Location..." But in Internet marketing it's: “The List, The List, The List.” There are tons of ways to make money on the Internet these days. Create products, promote business opportunities, join affiliate programs, Adsense, etc. but nothing is as effective as having a list of buyers. It’s no wonder why Internet marketing “gurus” have always preached “The money’s in the list”. It’s their mantra and it should become yours too. Why’s that?

Well lemme put it this way… If you wanna make money online (and for a long time), you need a list, that’s just a fact. People aren’t saying this just to say it. The fact is, without a list, you’re not gonna succeed in Internet marketing long-term… period.

But what does it really mean to build and have a list, anyway? Before I get to that, what I’ve learned over the years is that simply "building a list" is actually USELESS! Yep, you heard right! Now let me explain… What you need to do as a successful attraction marketer is not just “build a list”, but build a “CULTIVATED” list of subscribers who know, like and trust you! A cultivated list that’s valuable is a list of buyers. This is best done by staying in contact with your subscribers, and sending them useful (and valuable) information on a consistent basis… weekly or bi-weekly is a good rule of thumb. I’ve also run a monthly newsletter before; it’s really up to you. What we’re talking about here is your very own personal opt-in e-mail list you can advertise your offers to over and over again and keep your subscribers up to date on any upcoming events or promotions, free. When done properly, people who subscribe to your list are essentially highly qualified, prospective customers.

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But WAIT! - Here's What It’s NOT! 1. An opt-in e-mail list is NOT a bunch of email addresses you've "harvested" from websites, or from cheap lead cds, classifieds, newsgroups, or any other source. It's amazing that some “know-it-alls” still teach people to do this, but it can get you into trouble because the people whose addresses you acquired in this way never asked to see your offer and some of them can get downright nasty when they receive unsolicited e-mails from you. You don’t wanna go there, it’s not worth the headaches. 2. An opt-in list also doesn't include the addresses of advertisers who sent you their offers at your request. Read this carefully now: YOU asked to see THEIR offers. They didn't ask to see yours. 3. In general, an opt-in list can't be purchased, it must be built. There are ways to take a purchased list and generate an opt-in list from it, but the people on the purchased list have never asked YOU for YOUR offer, so keep that in mind when you get emails from pissed off people telling you to go take a hike. The great thing is, once you know how to effectively build and profit from a list, you'll always be able to generate sales and sign-ups on demand in any business, anywhere in the world. And because mutual consent has been established between the two parties, any email sent to your list is not considered spam. They might not publicly tell you this, but many well known Internet marketers don't make most of their sales from visitors coming to their site and buying the first time. They build lists and then they can sometimes generate over 90% of their sales through e-mail, and at virtually no extra cost, because they already have the list they’ve developed over time. Unlike others who don't teach you the ENTIRE working mechanism, I’m gonna share with you how to adapt attraction marketing principles and strategies we’ve already covered to get people to buy from you repeatedly, and how to stay in constant contact automatically… and maintain loyal followers. What’s in it for you? This process can develop into a raging river of continuing cash flow, on autopilot. Building your lists can be VERY profitable. Here’s A Real Life Personal Example… With one of my promos, I joined a high-end program and after doing lots of research and due diligence on it, I decided to share it with one of my targeted opt-in lists. So, I sent out a real short and sweet email message, which had a link to my review of the program.

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The result? - $29,867 in net referral commissions within 72 hours and over $375,000 in commissions in the first 100 days.

Not too shabby considering my total time investment was about 4 hours for research, writing the review and sending it out to my list a few times. Now here’s the cool part, I didn’t have some big ole’ monster list with tens of thousands of opt-ins, it only had 3,809 subscribers on it. That’s it. How much did it cost me in advertising to send out an email to my list? Zero, nada, zilch! Pretty cool huh? Would you like to create results like this? Who wouldn’t, right? It’s not always “easy”, but it IS “simple” when you know the formula AND have a profitable opportunity, product or service to use as your financial vehicle.

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So… the next time you hear about some marketing "guru" who says, "I made 43 sales in the first 24 hours" or "I made $16,000 in 3 days," you’ll understand that they don’t have super human hypnotic powers that get people to open their wallets and magically buy, buy, buy… they just have a very responsive and “cultivated” list. The best part is, you can develop a responsive list that generates almost effortless income for you too, and starting TODAY. You see, there’s always the story behind the story that most people don’t tell you about, but just to clarify, here's how things really work behind the scenes: Build Your List > > Build Your Relationships > > Build Your Wealth It’s not magic. Just as every house must begin with laying the foundation, then the framework, your long-term wealth is built in this order. It’s the same reason why most part-timers who have a job, never go full-time in their business. They continue to buy leads or use ineffective methods instead of building their list. My main point here is, your “Opt-in Email List” is your MOST valuable business asset you can own as an Internet marketer. It’s like having equity in a house, it’s there when you need it (as long as you don’t abuse the privilege). Got it? Ok, your mission, should you accept it, is to build a list (over time) of at least 2,000 - 5,000 or more subscribers. These are people who are interested in WHO you are and what YOU have to offer. These are people who:

• Have asked you to send them your offer.

• Are most likely in the market to buy what you offer.

• Understand that you'll continue to send them information and offers unless they decide to opt out and remove themselves.

In a nutshell, a quality, regularly scheduled newsletter keeps you in front of your subscribers’ minds, encourages repeat visits to your web site, and enhances your “brand” and credibility. It also demonstrates your commitment to giving before taking, and generates more profits. When done properly, you’re subscribers will WANT to hear from you again!

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In your newsletter or email communications, you can make your recommendations a bit more direct than you might on your site. Your subscribers already know you by now, and if you’ve done a good job on the front end, they already like you and value your advice, because they feel you have their best interests at heart – this is a key factor that separates the pros from the amateurs. And once your customers start buying from you… well, they just keep on buying! Since you already know how to find them, your marketing costs are minimal (if any at all) by sending e-mail. Even the smallest subscriber base can pay you very well, again and again… when properly nurtured. Now, if you’ve never done this list-building stuff before, you might be saying to yourself, “Geez Brad, it sounds like putting out a newsletter is a lot of work!” Actually it’s not at all… it can be as easy as just sending out monthly updates about various businesses or products you’re involved with, or sharing a personal story and then tying that to a particular offer you want to promote. You can use it to pique your subscriber’s curiosity with a short teaser email that has them coming back to your site for another look. The uses are endless, and only limited by your imagination. And don’t worry, there’s no “newsletter police” out there looking to slap your hand for the way you communicate with your subscribers. So, how do you get a list like this? Like I said before… YOU BUILD IT! (or you pay someone to build it for you) and I'll teach you how. When it comes to Internet Marketing (and ‘Attraction Marketing’), list building is the Foundation of Wealth-Building. Like it or not, and boring or not, list building is the one thing you’ve gotta do if you plan to make money online for longer than a few weeks. I’ll show you how to put your list building on autopilot, with some proven techniques that'll minimize your advertising costs and accelerate your list growth quickly. In fact, if you really want to accelerate the growth of your business and make it to a full-time status (if you’re not there yet), it’s an absolute necessity to automate most of your marketing activities so you can focus on revenue-producing activities (like answering your phone and processing orders, etc). Show me a person who's making serious money online, and I'll show you a person who has his or her own list. On the other hand, show me a person who's losing money online and I'll show you a person who's never taken the time to build his/her own list. It’s as simple as that.

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Lemme put it another way… If you have your own list, you can do a fairly crappy job of advertising to that list and still make money online, especially when you include the branding principles we’ve covered in previous chapters. If you don't have your own list, you can do a great job of selling somebody else's program and you'll always be struggling to make money online. Before I started building my own lists, making money online was a frustrating experience. The day I started building my own lists instead of first sending people to some replicated cookie-cutter website, was the day marketing online got easier for me… and as a result, VERY profitable. TIP: As you soak up all this information and start building your own list(s), never forget to keep the needs of your prospects in the forefront of your mind. This shows that you value the permission they've given to you. Seth Godin calls it “Permission Marketing.” – (Great book by the way.) Be sure to never take that permission for granted, because it can disappear very quickly if you’re not a careful ‘shepherd’ of your list. The Online ‘Permission Marketing’ Process Here’s how Permission Marketing works on the Internet… First, we gain our prospect's attention with a simple, straightforward request for them to visit our web site. Second, we ask them to ‘dance’. We offer something of value: The incentive of some free information (like a free report) in exchange for their email address and permission to send emails to them. Third, we start sending them to our "Whois" website in an effort to begin establishing a long-term business relationship with them. And last but not least... The fourth step… when the time is right, we make offers our prospects can't refuse. And that's really all there is to it!

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Why Permission Marketing Works Most marketers focus entirely on their particular opportunity or product and various traditional sales strategies they've been taught for getting the prospect to say “yes”. This usually leads to lots of frustration and rejection (been there, done that). Permission Marketing works because it makes you shift your focus from you and your agenda to your prospects, and their wants and needs. How to Turn Your List Into Money Getting your subscribers to actually buy or join something is one of the biggest challenges most marketers face.

Some of them just don't have enough subscribers yet. For the average person, it takes time to build a list. If you’re an employee, you don't just start on Monday and then quit your day job on Friday. You’ve gotta be realistic and focus on the Big Picture.

You have the rest of your life to build up your business, but so many people jump on the next big bandwagon instead of using what they have now.

What information should you share, and what objections do you need to overcome to make sales? The most wonderful thing about ‘Permission Marketing’ is this: If we’ve done a good job with the first few steps in the process we discussed, the last step of making the offer is almost effortless. If you continue to build a relationship, your prospects will be ready to accept your offer when you make it. This is why marketing becomes so easy and automatic with your own list of permission based prospects. The absolute best thing about this kind of marketing is that it allows your prospects to close themselves. The second best thing about permission marketing is that it just plain feels good. It's about as stress-free as marketing gets, because you can relax, knowing that you're doing the right thing for your prospects. Another great thing about permission marketing is that it's duplicable. If you can learn to do this process once, you can do it over and over again with a larger group of people on your list, and it’ll work just as well. When do you stop duplicating the process? When your profits are big enough to satisfy you!

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List building using permission marketing is the proven process that will get you to the end goal of ongoing profitability sooner, at less risk, with fewer losses of time, effort and money, and for lower cost, than if you advertise your opportunities or products to strangers in the open market. If you learn nothing else from this e-book, remember that fact. In other words, No List = No Business… And the next time you're getting ready to advertise your program or product; you might want to stop and go build your list instead. So, let's recap. Permission Marketing and the list-building process I just described, work together to: 1) Get your prospects' attention. 2) Entice prospects to join your list. 3) Build relationships. 4) Meet your prospects' wants and needs. 5) Allow your prospects to close themselves. In that order. So... do ya think building your list is worth it? Still not convinced? Well, let's consider another case history... As you now know, what most highly successful Internet marketers won't tell you is that their big results in little time are achievable because of their "special advantage"... they simply have a huge opt-in list. Obviously they don't tell you because they want you to think you can get the same big results in the same short time. But you can't. Not without your own list first. Robert Allen (Author of Multiple Streams of Income) made $97,000 in 24 hours by sending 5 emails to his list of only 11,000 people. Hmmm, what would that list be worth to you? By the way, I've done tests to measure the difference between advertising to the open market and advertising the same offer to my own opt-in lists. Not surprisingly, every test proved that the biggest conversion results came from my lists.

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Your Automated Cash-Generating Machine

There are two main moving parts to setting up your own cash-generating machine that you can put on autopilot: 1. An automatic list generator - Targeted traffic from advertising is sent to a lead capture where people opt-in to your list. 2. An automatic relationship-builder - Using a personally branded website really automates most of the trust-building to the point where people feel comfortable enough with you to pick up the phone and call you, or do business with you before speaking to you.

Your personally branded website enables you to keep the best programs and products in front of your prospects all the time. Everyday You Put It Off Is Costing You Money!

It doesn’t matter if it takes 3 - 9 months, or even a year. Start building your list and generating leads TODAY, and then you’ll be able to experience sales every time you send out an email blast. And when you practice these principles of Permission Marketing, you'll find that you always do the right thing in the right order. Most importantly, doing it this way will become second nature to you over time and soooooo much easier… and then YOU too will be well on your road to virtually effortless income. Note - You must always provide a way for subscribers to remove themselves from your opt-in list (most autoresponders have this feature built in which we’ll cover in a later chapter). ACTION STEPS:

1. Choose incentives to use in building your list(s) – It’s time to decide what you want to use to give away to your subscribers when they join your opt-in list(s). This incentive may be anything from a free report or access to your story and advice and needs to be clearly mentioned on any lead capture pages you create. Regardless of what you use as an incentive, it must be benefit-driven, relevant and targeted to your visitors.

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2. Advertise your lead capture page(s) to start to build your list(s) – This is an action step you’ll most likely come back to after you go through the next couple of chapters on advertising and using autoresponders since they all work synergistically together.

If you haven't built a list yet, I URGE you to start now. If you have, then congratulations! You're ahead of the game. Once you have a list, my suggestion to you is to keep educating yourself on how to write more effective emails. A great resource I’ve found is Michael Rasmussen’s free video series called “Email Promos Exposed”, where he takes you step-by-step through the process of creating emails that pull results. Most of the free courses out there offer only watered down, weak content. Not this one! There are so many tips, tricks, and tactics in there that can make you money as soon as you start using them. My favorite video is video #2 - "Before You Write Your Promo". It talks about things that other top marketers don’t even KNOW about, including:

• The exact tools you need to write killer promos • How to keep your emails laser-focused • The 5 magic questions to ask yourself before creating ANY promo

So check out “Email Promos Exposed” and snap up some great email promotion tips. Michael’s got some other great products as well, but the free videos are some of the best I’ve seen on the topic of email marketing to your list. Moving on…

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Step #7:

Get Traffic

It can be downright frustrating… Once you have a powerful name-branding website and any additional lead capture page(s) in place, it’s time to start generating qualified traffic to them, which in turn, converts to sales and sign ups. No traffic = No sales… It’s kind of obvious that you can't make sales if you don't have any traffic right? Advertising is another critical area in business where a lot of people go wrong. The fact is, we all face the same challenges at first. No one is born with the knowledge of how to get real people to visit a website. Only time and experience can teach you these skills. So… now that we have a (hopefully) clear understanding of the mechanics and psychology behind branding yourself, and how to create powerful lead capture pages and then in turn, build your opt-in lists, it’s time to advertise and get the word out! This topic could easily fill several e-books on its own, so for simplicity’s sake, I’ll just be sharing my favorite and most effective online and offline advertising strategies I’ve personally used in my own businesses, and give you a personal recommendation if you want to learn even more. One thing you won’t hear me telling you to do is buy leads or make out a list of your friends and family. Again, this is all about attracting bees to honey… not chasing people down like lions. I’ll explain each advertising strategy below in detail. If some of this is new to you, I suggest focusing on just ONE method at a time, mastering it and then moving on to the next one, and so on.

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So let’s begin… On-line Strategies:

• Message Boards & Discussion Forums • Ezine Advertising • Pay-Per-Click • Press Releases • Traffic Exchanges

Off-line Strategies:

• Postcards • Magazines and print • Fun stuff

Before we get into the subject of generating traffic, let me first say that there are a TON of additional ways to market your business like blogging, myspace, youtube, etc. that I’m not going to cover in this chapter. There’s no doubt that Web 2.0 social networking strategies work and work extremely well, I just don’t honestly have enough personal experience with using them yet to be an authority on them, so I’ll cover the long-term strategies I’ve used over the years that still work today. Let’s go over each one in detail…

On-line Message Boards & Discussion Forums One of the most powerful ways of getting traffic to a website in the early stages (and ongoing) is to get involved in message board discussions based around a particular topic of interest related to your business. What are they? They’re basically communities where people can interact on specific subjects they want to discuss… everything from gardening to health and nutrition to cars. They’re a great place to connect and network with other like-minded people that share a common interest with you as well as stay on top of the latest news in any field. Everyone from experts with tons of experience to newbie’s can be found asking and answering questions on message boards and forums. In a nutshell, the main idea here is that you can share your expertise and in turn, get very targeted traffic to your site. Here’s how…

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Most message boards allow you to include something called a sig file (also known as a ‘signature file’) with each of your posts. A sig file is basically a few lines with your name, your website address and maybe a really brief description about your business.

This can equate to some serious money... there are a lot of marketers that make a good living off forums alone.

Now the strategy I’m gonna lay out here works well for promoting all kinds of different types of businesses, but it works exceptionally well for promoting network marketing and direct sales opportunities.

When you connect with other people who share a common interest, they’ll be open to looking at your business (through your posted sig file) and this is the whole point of this marketing strategy. Want an example? Ok, let’s say I’m on a ‘custom car’ message board (and yes, I hang out on these all the time cuz I’m a gearhead)… and let’s say that I’m sharing information back and forth about my 1968 Firebird project that I’m building, and in my sig file (that links to one of my business websites) it reads: “Click here and discover what I’m doing to pay for my expensive hobby.” Do ya think a few die hard car buffs reading my posts and seeing pictures of my car in progress might be a “little” curious to see what I’m doing to fund my passion? You betcha!... and you can adapt this same strategy to ANY hobby or interest you can think of and tie it into your existing business. For instance, if you love playing golf, you could have a sig file that says: “Click here to discover how I get paid while I’m out on the golf course.” Message boards and forums are one of the best places to start if you’re working on a shoestring budget. In fact, this strategy won’t cost you a dime... you’ll invest your time instead. They’re also great places to find answers to your questions about any topic. All of the established ones have knowledgeable people visiting regularly, who are happy to share information.

From a business perspective, the marketers that will benefit the most from this type of approach are the ones who offer the most help, not the people who post simple answers to try to get an immediate effect.

So, the way to do things the right way is to look for people asking questions, and then answer them. Remember, this is about helping others find solutions; it’s not about answering their question to simply pitch them on your business.

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If your main focus is purely to drive traffic to your site to promote yourself or your business (and not really be of service), don’t waste your time because you probably won't be very successful.

Your true intention to advertise will be evident once some of the sharp folks catch onto what you’re doing, and they’ll discount you and your posts, they may even call you out on the carpet and accuse you of “spamming the board.”

Therefore, your goal should be to be seen as an expert in your field, not just to get traffic to your site.

As you’ve probably noticed by now, being seen as an expert is a primary theme in having an effective attraction marketing system.

So, when it comes to online message boards, establishing your credibility as an expert must be your number one priority, not short-term traffic generation. Personally, I used to spend a decent amount of time on message boards answering questions, but I always know that if I need some answers to something, all I have to do is ask and someone will help me out. Other people can then see the question and respond, and this is what starts the interaction between everyone that’s participating. There are literally thousands of message boards and forums out there for every topic under the sun, and this is another reason why this type of marketing can never get saturated. It’s also important to realize that these sites are getting pounded with traffic everyday. They already have the traffic, so why not just go where the traffic is instead of starting from scratch? You can start finding relevant message boards and forums here:

• www.groups.google.com • www.delphiforums.com • www.liszt.com • www.forumfortunes.com (not free, but a great way to organize your forum and

message board marketing) • www.forumfind.com (This is one of the best free resources I’ve ever found. You

can locate almost any kind of forum under the sun. There have been times when I've picked a topic so off the wall that I thought there would definitely be zero results returned... and boy was I surprised when there were.

Now, once you've located some forums that relate to your niche topic, the first thing you need to do is sign up, create your profile, and include your signature with your link to your particular business opportunity or product you’re promoting. One of the best tips I can give you is, go where you’re passionate because that’s what you know best and what you enjoy talking about.

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Maybe you’re into parenting, or travel, or maybe you’re a car freak like me, it doesn’t really matter what the heck the topic is, just go where those like-minded people hang out because this is where you can contribute most. For instance, if you’re a distributor for a nutritional company and you’re passionate about health and nutrition, there are tons of message boards for health and physical fitness you can focus on. Or maybe you’d rather focus on topics related to building a home-based business… go for it! When used correctly, they can be an incredibly powerful way to generate tons of highly targeted leads. They can also get you in hot water and banned if you don’t follow the rules.

I’ve included a few general guidelines that are a combination of both "netiquette" and my own personal rules to follow when it comes to message board marketing:

1. Don't advertise. Let me explain… If you post blatant ads on message boards and forums, you’ll not only be banned and labeled as a “spammer”, (a reputation you won’t want), but you also run the risk of being “flamed” by other members that don’t appreciate blatant advertising and will tell you so with some choice words they email to you.

2. Respect the opinions of others. Message boards allow people to express their opinions and you don't have to agree with them, but you must respect them. If someone posts something that you don’t agree with, or that’s incorrect, feel free to post, but don't point the finger and criticize the person that you’re correcting, or that you don’t agree with. Just focus on helping them.

3. Be polite. If you’re a first time visitor to a message board and have a question to ask, always be polite and people will be happy to help you out. They just need to know that you appreciate it.

4. Help others. If you see someone asking a question that you know the answer to, help ‘em out.

It's really pretty simple, follow the guidelines above and you’ll be fine.

Beware of the “Lurkers” Don’t worry, there’s nothing negative about “lurkers”. Who are they? Lurkers are simply non-posting readers that prefer to “lurk”, instead of posting, and the important thing to understand here is that there are way more lurkers out there than actual posters… many people overlook this untapped goldmine. When you post on a message board, lurkers will see your information including the link in your sig file, and this is WHY you have the potential to generate tons of more highly targeted prospects to your website(s). So pay attention - your audience is much bigger than what first meets the eye.

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As a general rule of thumb, your first post to a forum or message board is strictly an intro post. From then on, follow the posts and threads at each forum and search for questions. When questions are asked, do your best to answer them. You'll quickly begin to notice traffic to your signature link, especially if it's compelling. Make sure you answer even the difficult questions, and you'll really start to see your traffic blow up. Like I said, people believe in the power of recognized experts. When someone asks a question on a forum and someone else chimes in and tells them to go ask YOU, you'll know you've accomplished your goal. One last word of advice! - In spending time visiting lots of various forums over the years, I’ve observed what I call “professional posters”. You might already know these types… They’re the people that spend the majority of their time posting their opinions about every topic under the sun; e-books, Internet marketing, business opportunities. (oh, and the ones they deem as being scams). Another thing a lot of these people like to do is whine and complain all day long, they look for sympathetic cohorts… misery loves company. And you know what? They usually don’t get much productive work done that puts dollars in their pockets. Now there’s nothing wrong with reading and posting on forums, quite the contrary, but just be aware of the dangers well-intentioned people sometimes encounter:

• Be sure to focus your valuable time on revenue-producing activities. If you spend all your time reading forums, how can you be working on the things that make you money?

• When it comes to researching a particular topic or subject, you can get it faster

by paying for it (i.e. – by buying an e-book, etc.), instead of spending hours and days searching on forums. You might find the free information you’re looking for in forums, but you’re still trading time for money. What’s your time worth? If it took you 10 hours to search for the information that you could have purchased for $50, your time is worth $5 an hour. Yikes! Nothing is free, so be sure to spend more time posting than reading.

So message board marketing can be an extremely powerful method of generating targeted leads long after you’ve made your posts. And because your posts can stay up for months and even years, it’s for this specific reason that you always want to use a custom website url (domain name) in your sig files so you can redirect that future traffic to any site you want to.

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Anytime you decide to change businesses, it’s easy to redirect your custom url to your new business website, then you don’t lose out on any targeted traffic that’s going to that domain name. Marketing on message boards is pretty easy to do, and it does take a little time in the beginning to find the ones that you feel comfortable with, but once you set that ball in motion, there’s no stopping it. It’s residual marketing at its best… set things up one time and reap the rewards over and over again. The fringe benefit is, you also get to meet a lot of great people along the way! Ezine Advertising

This section will be a bit longer than some of the other forms of advertising I’ve listed here because it needs to be fleshed out for you to fully understand how to utilize it properly. Ezine advertising is by far, one of the most effective forms of advertising that exists on the Web. It’s been around for a long time, but not too many people have really taken advantage of it in a big way. So what exactly is an “ezine”? In case you’ve never heard of one before, basically an ezine is an online newsletter or an online magazine, and in most cases, it’s delivered via email and just like a newsletter you’d receive in the mail, these online versions have a subscription base. Some of them have just a few hundred subscribers and some of them have tens or hundreds of thousands of subscribers. Now the big key to understand is that these are targeted groups of people. For example, work-at-home Moms, network marketers, webmasters, people interested in internet marketing, etc. They’re grouped together in a targeted list. And in case you don’t already know, targeted marketing is going to out-pull general advertising by 1,000%+. If you can target a specific group of people with your offer and get it in front of them, you’re gonna get better results hands down. Placing an ezine ad is no different than sending an email to a friend because that’s essentially what you’re doing when you place ezine ads. You paste in your ad copy, pay for the ad and the ezine owner takes care of everything else. The next thing I wanna cover are the types of ezines you’ll want to target. And depending on what product or business opportunity you’re promoting, you can get really creative with this.

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Some categories you can target are “home based business”, “mlm”, “direct sales”, “network marketing”, stay at home moms”, “internet marketing”, “cooking”, “investing”, “business opportunity seekers”, “personal development”, “metaphysics”, “personal growth”, “self-improvement”, and just about any other type of category you can think of. Especially those last four; they’re some of my favorite ezine categories to place ads in. Also, anyone in real estate, insurance sales, teaching, and personal trainers are good quality people to advertise to as well. And it’s been my experience that people that have been involved with personal development, self-improvement, working on themselves, the kind of people that go to seminars… they buy cd products that help them improve the quality of their skills or their mindset… these have always been great people to target, especially for business opportunities. Why? Simple… they’re looking for more... more time, more money. They’re looking to improve their life so it might be in line with what you have to offer. And when your promo shows up in their email box, and your ad is framed properly, they’ll take notice, and those are the type of people that you want to approach with ezine ads. But How Do We Find Ezines To Advertise In? There are a couple ways you can do it… the hard way and the easy way. Let’s go over both… The hard way in my opinion is to go through a major search engine like Google or Yahoo and try to search for these types of specific ezines. You’d do a search for ‘work at home mom newsletter,’ or ‘ezine,’ or ‘internet marketing newsletter,’ etc. That way is gonna be very time consuming. It doesn’t cost you any money, but it WILL cost you time… and time is money isn’t it? The two easier ways I’m gonna recommend is in the form of paid ezine directories.

Here’s how it works… if you're trying to get your message out to people who enjoy alternative health, golf, home based business, Internet Marketing, etc., you just type in your keyword, click the search button, and bingo… you've got a list of ezines that reach the people who tend to be interested in what you’re promoting!

Now the first ezine directory website I’m gonna give you is Charlie Page’s Directory of Ezines . It allows you to login to a searchable database of thousands of ezines to find the ones that are perfect for your business. The cost is under $100 per year. And best of all, a lot of the ezine publishers offer a nice discount to Directory of Ezine members, so be sure to take advantage of this when you buy ads through this service.

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You can also distribute free articles for publishers to use in their ezines and get free traffic to your website(s). The next thing to consider is what type of ad you should place. There are four main types of ads you can place:

• Bottom ad • Classified (sometimes called a “middle” ad) • Top sponsor ad • Solo ad (sometimes called “featured” ads or exclusive mailings)

From my experience, Bottom and Classified ads are a waste of money. They very rarely ever get read by everyone and they’ll usually produce a terrible response rate. They group these together with a bunch of other little ads and most people (including myself) just skip right through them. So that’s why you want to avoid these types of ads. The only two types of ads I DO recommend are Top Sponsor Ads and Solo Ads. A Top Sponsor Ad is a 4 or 5 line sponsored ad located at the top of the ezine. Everyone sees this ad since it shows in the first 'page view' of the ezine. Depending on the newsletter, it’s usually delivered weekly or every other week. When that newsletter goes out, your ad will be the first thing they see. It’ll usually get seen quite a bit. A Solo Ad is just what it sounds like. This type of ad is actually a solo mailing sent to the list of subscribers of the ezine. In other words, they go out on their own. When you buy a solo ad, your ad with your subject line is the only thing the reader sees. Both of these types of ads cost more to run, but you’ll get so much more bang for your buck since more people will actually SEE your ad in the first place. A Solo ad can also usually be much longer than a regular ad. You’re basically renting a list and email marketing to them. Everyone thinks that you need a big list to make money on the Internet, but as we’ve discussed already, that’s not true at all, especially if you don’t yet have one. You can leverage credibility off of ezine owners and some of them happen to have huge lists.

The quality of the list is also important. I’ve run $20 ads in ezines that pulled like crazy and others that I spent $150 on that bombed.

Another little gem of an ezine you can advertise in is Top Surfer. They have tons of great promotional tools, and their list is extremely responsive to all kinds of moneymaking opportunities.

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I especially like their $85 Solo Ads, which have produced extremely high response rates. My very first Solo Ad in Top Surfer generated over 300 subscribers (opt-ins) in less than 48 hours to one of my lead capture pages…, which in turn resulted in tons of referral sales. Check it out as a great tool.

When it comes to ezine advertising, I personally prefer to only run Solo Ads since my message is the only one going out and I can control the subject line, which will help you get the maximum response.

There are a lot of ezines out there to choose from. YOU have the upper hand in picking the ones you want to give business to.

There’s one important thing you can ask for… not all ezine owners will do this, but and if they agree to do it, it’s HUGE.

What am I talking about?

An Endorsement Ask them for an endorsement (you won’t ever get an endorsement if you don’t ask).

Think about it, these subscribers on an ezine list trust the owner of the ezine… at least somewhat. The owner has an existing relationship with them already (which is also why building your OWN opt-in list is so important).

When you place an ad with an ezine, it’s like the owner is giving a third party recommendation saying, “I approve of this”.

It’s no different than when a friend or family member recommends a great movie they just saw. When they do this, you’re more inclined to go see it right?

Why?

Because you TRUST that person. You don’t need to go research it and listen to what the critics said in the paper…

It’s the same thing with an ezine. So ask for an endorsement. The worst thing they can do is say no. No big deal.

You also want to find out if they have an archive. Like I said, a lot of this information can be found at the ezine’s website. You might be able to see some past issues… and WHY would you want to do that?

Because you want to LOOK at the content. You wanna make sure that the person publishing this information is providing good quality content to their subscribers, the kind of content that provides ongoing VALUE.

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Once again, people are subscribing to these newsletters because they think they’re going to get some value back to use in some way to improve their life.

Spend some time checking out some past issues to see if they qualify. After a while, you’ll develop an intuitive sense about them.

I’m tellin’ ya… if you don’t take what I’m saying here seriously, you could spend a lot of money and get zero results - OUCH!

So stay away from the ezines that have a flea market type of look and feel, they’re usually a waste of time and money.

Follow these guidelines and get them etched in your memory. In other words, don’t take the lazy route. If you take shortcuts, you may not like the results you get.

And be sure to also subscribe to all the ezines you advertise in, but do it with a separate free email account like gmail.com or yahoo.com, because you’re going to get lots of offers that you may not really want, and you don’t want them clogging up your primary email account.

Subscribing will allow you to see your own ad when it runs. I’ve had experiences where the day came that my ad was supposed to run and the ad never came out.

Because I was a subscriber, I was able to contact the ezine owner and get it corrected.

Another thing to consider is whether to use plain text or html ads. I personally prefer the plain text versions because they get through more spam filters, which is a major problem these days with certain ISPs.

TIP: Write your ezine ads like you’re writing a letter to a good friend. Even though thousands of people may be reading it, its still gotta sound personal because the person on the other end is reading it just for them.

Pay-Per-Click

I've been asked many times how I've built my website traffic and subscriber base, and in turn, my referral income. Specifically, Google Adwords (pay per click search engine advertising) has been one of my favorite ways to generate my own leads (subscribers) for the last several years. I pay about $0.04 - $0.35 cents (or more) per click for very highly TARGETED visitors to come see my website. Even though there are several other great pay per click search engines, most of my traffic comes from "Google". In case you're not familiar with what pay per click ads are, the PPC ads on Google's web site look like this:

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As you can see, when someone types in the term “make money from home” on Google a page displays targeted search results for the term “make money from home”.

It doesn't matter what the search term is, it works the same way when you're promoting any moneymaking program or product as well. Now look at the ads on the right under “sponsored links”. These are the ads that you’ll create for promoting your personal website and lead capture pages.

When someone clicks on your ad, you'll get charged a predetermined amount of money (as low as 10 cents per click) that you choose.

If a person clicks your ad and makes a purchase, you'll earn a commission - Cha-ching!

Side Note - The majority of Google AdWords advertisers simply don't have a clue about what they're doing. They instantly think they're ready to conquer the world after finding out that they can start out with as little as $5 and a dream.

The reality is you still have to have some fundamental knowledge of advertising in order to succeed with Google AdWords, or any type of advertising for that matter.

You have to educate yourself first; otherwise you'd be better off playing the lottery!

If you want to dramatically shorten your learning curve to make "Google" work for you in a big way, I highly recommend you pick up a copy of Perry Marshal’s “Definitive Guide To Google Adwords” e-book.

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Perry’s probably the #1 leading expert on how to place ads using Google Adwords and his e-book saved me tons of wasted time and money.

You can go to Perry's website right now and get his Free 5-Day Mini Boot-Camp Training on how to drive tons of traffic to your website fast using Google Adwords: Click Here. What I really like about Perry's e-book is that he makes it so simple and easy to understand. You can read his book, and then, in as little as 15 minutes later, have highly targeted traffic going to your website with just a few clicks of your mouse.

Pay per click advertising requires a little bit of a learning curve, some patience and testing to be highly effective, but it's totally worth it and will continue generating qualified traffic for you 24/7.

In the beginning, you’ll want to start by hunting for some key words or phrases that you’ll target using Google Pay-Per-Click ads.

Now you might be saying to yourself, "But Brad, where can I find more keywords that I'd never even think of in a million years?"

Well, a great tool for finding hundreds and even thousands of successful keywords in seconds is called KeywordElite.

KeywordElite is a keyword research tool that can instantly generate hundreds of keywords, suggest related terms or keywords, and even find common misspellings. They work off a membership subscription and have flexible plans starting as little as 1 day long.

When I first started using PPC advertising, I was naively typing in all of my keywords into my pay per click accounts. It was taking me literally hours to do this.

If you’re looking for a no-cost solution, here’s a sneaky little trick for finding some really juicy keywords….

Do a search on Google or Yahoo for your product, service or business opportunity. Visit some of the top listings in the middle area, these aren’t the sponsored listings, they’re the natural listings that you can’t pay for.

Now once you’re at one of the top sites, move your cursor over the page (but not over a link or picture) and 'right click'.

In most cases, a little box will pop up with some options.

Click on "view source." This will give you a behind the scenes look at that person's web site. You'll be able to see their key words. You may have to scroll down and to the right a bit to find them.

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You'll find a ton of key words and phrases to test by doing this. Try it. Note: The above technique doesn't work on every site, and it’ll most likely not work on a replicating website, but it can really help you speed up the process, especially if you’re on a tight budget.

Top Pay Per Click Search Engines 1. Overture (now owned by Yahoo) - http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com/ Ads placed through overture end up on search engines like Yahoo, MSN, Ask Jeeves, Alta Vista, etc. The downside to this PPC vendor is that you have to wait for your ads to be approved before they go live.

2. Google - http://adwords.google.com You can get a lot of exposure using Google Adwords, but there’s a bit of a learning curve. The greatest thing about Google is your ads go live within 15 minutes.

3. Miva - www.miva.com Miva is the third biggest PPC search engine with usually cheaper rates than Overture and Google with bids starting at .05 cents. They have a relationship with search engines like Search.com, Excite, WebCrawler, MetaCrawler, Dogpile, Bizjournals, Mamma, Cometsearch. There are tons more PPC search engines out there, but not all of them are worth the effort. To find out more about PPC search engines, here's a great reference website I use called: www.payperclicksearchengines.com

Now, before you decide to go out there and start blindly dumping money into these search engines, think again.

It's a great strategy, but if you rush into it and don't know what you're doing, you can lose money fast with minimal results!

The first PPC search engine I would start with is Google, because your ads go live right away, then you can branch out later to other search engines. Most of my ppc traffic comes from Google and allows me to turn it on and off with the click of a mouse button… like a light switch. I've been advertising on them for several years now and like most people, I didn't do well in the beginning. It's especially tough in a competitive market such as "business opportunities".

But when done effectively, you can easily make $500 in profit per week spending only about $15 per day (five days a week) on PPC. But be sure to set your daily PPC budget before running your ad so you don’t drain your account overnight - Trust me, I’ve seen it happen!

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Also, your click bid should be high enough to get your ad on page one or two of Google, Yahoo, etc. I try to keep my bids down as low as possible, but with some keywords, it's not possible to bid under $0.25, so I usually set my bids to at least $0.25 on all my ads, and I set my daily budget at $15 and sometimes $25 or even $50 depending on the campaign and profit margin of what I’m promoting.

A good daily budget to start with is $10 - $15 if possible. Remember, you can always pause things if you need to. Once you start to see profits, you can increase the daily PPC amount.

If you're spending $75 - $100 per week on PPC and you make $500, $1000 or more, then obviously you need to increase your daily budget. Lets say that you consistently make $500 from every $100 paid out for PPC, then it's logical that you could increase this and make more sales.

Writing Your Google Ad

Decide what key words and phrases you want to start testing first. Go to those key words and phrases via Google, and study the ads on page one for those.

I'd like you to notice something about the ads; a lot of them say the same thing with a slightly different twist. This is important to recognize... Make sure YOU don't say the same thing as everyone else.

For example: "$500 per day." "Make $3000 - $9000 per month," etc.

This is key. Don't copy anyone... be unique. Show your unique personality in your ad. Say something really different.

Here's an example... "I don't know you, but here's my $1,000 bucks." Now, don't use that ad. Come up with your own idea and your own ad.

Be a little creative and study other people’s ads.

One tip that’s served me very well over the years is to find out what most people are doing to market their business and then go in the opposite direction.

This is what Attraction Marketing is all about. Marching to the sound of your own drum, instead of following the crowd.

If you write your ad in a way that will make it stand out from all the others under the key word or phrase you're targeting, you'll have an advantage.

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TIP: Remember that the ad is not there to sell whatever you're promoting; it's just there as bait to get someone to click on your link and find out more. That’s it!

Target each key word or phrase with a separate ad if needed. Don't use the same ad for every key word or phrase unless you have a big winner.

For example... If I'm targeting the key phrase "Mentors in Motion," I want to say something that will attract people who are visiting that phrase.

For instance: "I was going to join Mentors in Motion until I found this."

This approach is the key to getting above average results, and you can reel in the big bucks by doing this.

Here's another thing you may not have thought about...

When big marketers advertise in magazines or direct mail, etc, many of the prospects from their ads will go online to research whatever they’re advertising.

Knowing this little-known fact can help you really cash in.

When they see your great ad, they'll click on it and maybe buy from you. I've had this happen many times where people are doing their homework on a particular program and all I did was share with them my own personal story and in depth review of the program (or product).

A lot of them end up doing business with me, even if they already looked at someone else's site.

That’s why as a marketer, you’ve gotta be savvy, creative and never lazy. Try thinking outside the box.

If you don't have a Google Adwords account, click here and then follow their instructions for setting up an account. If you need help with this, please use the Google support staff.

Online Press Releases

I don’t know why, but the words "Press Release" seem to scare the crap outta some people, so I’m gonna help clear up some of the mystery surrounding this powerful and low cost marketing strategy.

Online press releases are an amazing “secret weapon” that's usually never mentioned by mainstream marketing "gurus," because they know how powerful it is and don’t wanna let the cat out of bag… but I’m gonna go ahead and spill the beans…

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What's A Press Release? A press release (or “news release” as it's also referred to) is a condensed article that's written in a journalistic style. A press release is not a sales flyer, resume, or an advertisement; it’s a "news" item.

It needs to "inform" people, NOT sell them something. A press release informs the public on exactly how your product, service, or business opportunity will benefit their lives.

The purpose is to highlight something interesting and newsworthy about you, your company or your product. This can include announcing product releases, business opportunities, new services, or drama within your particular market.

The trick here is to write about your business, product or service the same way a newspaper editor would write about your business. Think NEWS... not ad. You don't want to come across like you're selling.

How Much Does It Cost To Do A Press Release? Press releases are relatively inexpensive ($200 or less), and even free in some cases, to prepare and distribute.

Compare that to the price of a full-page ad from a major news publication - generally tens of thousands of dollars right...?

Even local papers typically charge several thousand dollars. You can receive better, more comprehensive coverage than paid advertising using online press releases.

In fact, research shows that most news releases generate a higher return than even high-powered ad campaigns.

The primary benefit to you, and why you'll definitely want to do some press releases is because they’re a great source for generating tons of FREE LEADS!

Submitting press releases is a rarely used, "backdoor" strategy, that's usually hidden behind the search engines.

Most marketers never learn that due to the high rankings of a lot of these online news wire services, your press release can usually get very high rankings in all the major search engines like Google, Yahoo and many others in a matter of a few DAYS, not weeks or months!

I've seen some people get Top10 rankings on Google in as little as 24 hours, no kidding.

Not only does this mean that you get free leads for whatever you're promoting, but because it's considered "news", you get the credibility factor as a fringe benefit… which

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in turn builds tremendous trust between you and your prospects and delivers them to you on a silver platter.

Another advantage to sending out news releases is that they’re always in demand.

All news organizations, including magazine editors, broadcast, and industry-specific editors, use press releases to develop the bulk of their published news stories.

From a consumer stand point, editors who report on your press release are considered disinterested parties, meaning that your announcement was chosen because of public demand for relevant and useful information, and not because of commercial value.

As a general rule, paid advertising is suspect in the consumer’s eye because companies are more interested in their products selling than what's in the best interest of their customers.

To sum it up, the benefits to sending out press releases include:

• Low cost • Increased visibility for your business • High demand for press releases in the news industry • Added credibility for you and your company • New customers and/or reps • Gets your site listed in top search engines very quickly • Free publicity • More free traffic

You can go to PR Web or free-press-release.com, and write a "news style ad" for your business. Then wait a few days and... "Presto!"… your write up is on the search engines.

Free-Press-Release.com is free to submit press releases, PRweb charges a nominal fee of less than $200, but you’ll get better coverage faster.

One of the most important things PR Web does for you is they can professionally edit your press release, or even write it from scratch if you have a decent budget.

This service provides you with a great press release and allows them to virtually guarantee your press release gets picked up and carried on all the news services.

Once you place a press release, it will be out there working for you every day (and in some cases, years) sending visitors to your site!

Here's a great test for a real press release. Since your final sales pitch is usually included in the last paragraph, read your press release out loud.

Ask yourself if it would still be worth reading WITHOUT your sales pitch. If so, it's probably gonna work well for you.

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Press releases come in many forms due to the topic you’re writing about. However, the basic rule of thumb still applies. If you've never written one before it may be a little challenging at first.

Don't despair. Grab the latest daily newspaper and read some of their informational articles.

For more examples of press releases, do a search on www.prweb.com for any business, product, or industry you're promoting, and chances are you'll be able to find some great press releases others have submitted that can be used as a basic template or starting point.

Notice how each article is written and pattern yours after the same format. After you do a few of them you should be able to get the hang of it.

Rather pay someone else to write one for you?

If you’re like me and you sometimes find yourself either short on words or short on time (or a combination of both), you can always hire a professional to write a press release for you.

One of the best resources I’ve found for outsourcing these types of projects is Dr. Kevin Nunley’s website at www.drnunley.com. He’s got all kinds of awesome deals and can have you looking like a pro and getting traffic to your site in no time.

Another great tool I like to use to get my press releases out there much faster is a software program called Press Equalizer. This software kicks some major butt and will automate a lot of the submissions for you.

Traffic Exchanges

This strategy is really cool because you can get a lot of traffic to your website over time without much time invested or marketing skills.

But please don't think that you'll be racking up tons of sales without having to learn how to market effectively.

Traffic Exchanges can deliver some quality visitors to your websites, but it's not going to be as targeted as some of the previously mentioned strategies are.

The more you learn about attraction marketing (and marketing in general), the more targeted you can get with your lead generation.

There are two Traffic Exchanges I'm a paid member of. These are 123Clicks and Traffic Swarm.

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Traffic Swarm is free to join, and really simple to get started with as well. I have a 'Pro' membership since I like the deals I get and the consistent traffic, but you can just purchase raw traffic as needed without any monthly charge. Now, when you get started with this type of traffic program, all you have to do is log into your account, add your 3 line ad and website address (URL) that you want to promote… that's pretty much all there really is to it to get setup.

Tip: Always choose targeted visitors whenever possible. Don't choose “raw” traffic, which is considerably cheaper, but considerably poorer, and a waste of money. You’ll have the opportunity to choose a number of targeted categories for the traffic to originate from.

Traffic exchanges can be a nice supplement to any other sources of advertising; just don’t expect overnight riches from using them alone.

Off-Line Advertising Times are changing… If you’re strictly using only the Internet to build your business, you’re leaving money on the table! Let me share a big golden nugget with you that you probably won’t hear from too many Internet marketing gurus…

The next big advertising strategy is not pay-per-click… it’s not opt-in e-mail lists… it’s not blogs or video…

The next big Internet advertising strategy is OFFLINE marketing!

Yep, we’re talkin’:

• Direct mail • Telephone • Radio • TV • Magazines • Newspapers

For your business to survive and grow, you MUST expand your business beyond just the Internet.

About 97% of the people in an Internet-based home business (like MLM, Direct Sales, etc.) are still failing… and they’re still wondering why.

And one of the solutions is implementing these strategies that I’m sharing with you in this ‘Blueprint.’

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You’re missing the boat if you’re doing “one-dimensional marketing,” by either only building your business on-line, OR only building your business off-line.

You’ve gotta integrate both the on-line and off-line worlds together to make the strongest impact in the market place.

Postcards

Now let’s cover some highly effective off-line strategies right now…

Direct mail sales letters can be an expensive way to promote your offers, but you can outsmart your competitors with alternative marketing tools like direct mail postcards.

They’re a really great low-cost, highly effective way for generating traffic to any website or getting people to call you directly, or a recorded “sizzle” message if that’s what you prefer.

Postcards are still hot in the traditional marketing industry because they allow you to get your message into the hands of your prospects with less expense than most other forms of direct mail… and as you’ve probably guessed, most online marketers aren’t using them – at least not yet.

Another important benefit to using postcards is that you can also conceal your marketing activity from competitors (pretty sneaky).

And unlike long sales letters, postcards get right to the point. They allow your prospect to gather information in a matter of seconds… very important considering the amount of junk mail we all have to scan through on a daily basis.

Our brains have been trained like the speed of a Ninja warrior to quickly determine if a piece of mail is friend or foe.

That’s why it’s important to keep your postcard ad copy brief. Postcards are definitely one of those advertising mediums where less is more.

There isn’t enough space on a postcard to effectively “sell” because a postcard can’t provide all the information most prospects need to make a buying decision.

Postcards are best used primarily a as lead generator, that’s why you don’t want to try to close sales directly from a postcard.

Start your postcard with one major benefit (or many benefits depending on what you’re promoting). Then, use the remainder of the postcard to motivate your potential prospects to want more information from the source that you can close sales.

Some people like to direct people to an 800#, but since this e-book is all about branding yourself on the Internet, let’s just stick with sending them to your website for now.

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You can send your traffic to either your own branded site, or another site that you might be promoting to a particular target market.

Here’s an example of what I’m talking about when it comes to keeping is short and simple:

Are you surprised at the simplicity of this postcard design and content?

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No fancy graphics or glossy paper, no long, drawn out sales copy. Just short and to the point. I suggest using plain ole’ vanilla card stock.

Now, there’s nothing wrong with using a nice graphic on glossy card stock, but I’ve found this more personal approach to pull better results in the long run. Test both ways out yourself and see what works best for you.

By now you know that I LOVE automating things as much as humanly possible and there IS a way you can highly automate your postcard mailings too…

I personally like to use the USPS’ 3rd party mailing vendor because they have all the tools and resources you need to automate a lot of your mailings, plus, they have some of the best prices I’ve ever found for first class mailings. You can even merge in all your lead’s personal information right into the postcard copy so you can generate even higher response rates.

Warning: Don’t be cheap and skimp out on this important aspect. ONLY send out postcards via FIRST CLASS MAIL or you’ll cut your response rates way down if people see that it was sent as bulk mail. The whole key here is that it’s supposed to look like a very personal communication that came directly from you, not some mass-mailer machine that spit out tens of thousands of postcards.

When you create postcards this way, you can generate a high percentage of replies, and at a very low-cost per reply.

This happens for the simple reason that nearly 100% of everyone who gets your postcard will actually read it… Just make sure your message is brief.

They can’t NOT read it when your message is right out there in front of them.

Think about it. Your message arrives already opened and ready to read. What other form of advertising can give you that much exposure?

Also, postcards that sell the ‘sizzle’ and not the ‘steak’ will do a great job of pre-selling your potential prospects on the benefits you’re offering.

And this will encourage them to be more likely to want to do business with you once they get all the details at your website.

How To Increase Your Postcard Response Rate By 300% Here are a few helpful hints on getting maximum response on your postcard:

• Focus on your headline. Create a powerful, benefit-driven, compelling headline that jumps out and gets your reader’s attention.

• Use a P.S. in your offer. Your P.S. can be an incentive, or just a call to action. It could also be a short testimonial.

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• Use graphics sparingly, or not at all. If your graphic doesn’t support or enhance the message, drop it altogether. Your ad copy, not the graphic is what sells.

• Time your mailings accordingly - Annual Mailing Schedule:

Summer is a great time to mail out your business opportunity info because folks have time to search for them, read them, and respond to them. Here are some other times of the year to pay attention to:

January-February: January isn't a good time to mail ( too much post-holiday distraction ) but it's one of the best times to prepare your offer and get it ready to mail out. Lots of people make New Year's Resolutions to improve their financial situation so it's as if they're just waiting for your offer to arrive.

March-April: Excellent time to get your offer in the mail. The holidays are long past and Spring is a time of renewal for Mother Earth and also for seekers of income & business opportunities.

May-August: A very ripe (that means profitable!) time for mailing your offers. Don't listen to those who say summer is a down time for promoting business opportunities. People are at leisure, they’re more relaxed and therefore more receptive as their natural defenses are down.

September-October: Some people are distracted by the brief back-to-school period but that doesn’t last long and passes very soon.

November-December: You've probably heard over and over that the holiday season is a down time to promote your business opportunity. I disagree. If you send out offers early in November (not to compete with Thanksgiving) you could get some great response, but your offer needs to arrive about two weeks prior to Thanksgiving.

What kind of average return can you expect?

Well, postcard marketing CAN be very rewarding, but don’t be fooled!

There’s NO “average return” percentage in direct mail because there’s no average direct mail offer.

Your response rate will depend on a number of factors…

For example, WHO you’re mailing to is very important.

If you rent a list of opportunity seekers from some cheap lead broker, your postcard could end up being thrown out with the 50 other pieces of junk mail that arrived that day, or even worse, get returned to you - without a refund - ouch!

Are you mailing to proven BUYERS or qualified LOOKERS? These are some things you’ll need to determine.

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Are there any disadvantages to marketing with postcards?

Only one that I know of... its small size.

A postcard doesn't really have enough space to provide all the detailed information a potential prospect usually needs to make a buying decision.

They work best to generate leads by sending them to a website or a short recorded message.

Just be sure to keep your postcard brief - Remember, less is more. You don't need a lot of details to generate leads.

Postcards have certainly been around for a long time, but they’re even more effective and produce better results today because our modern society wants to get things fast and with very little effort… and that’s just what postcards deliver!

I learned most of what I know about postcard marketing from Bob Leduc at www.BizTipsLetter.com.

This guy really knows his stuff, and if you’re serious about marketing with postcards, be sure to get your hands on his training manual, “How to Build Your Small Business Fast With Simple Postcards”.

It contains specific details for marketing with postcards, including illustrated samples of postcards with copy you can use and duplicate.

Fun Stuff Here are a few fun tools you can use to promote your website(s) while you’re out running errands, eating at a restaurant, cruzin’ down the highway, or just kickin’ back, sippin’ a latte at Starbucks…

By no means are these gonna generate massive amounts of traffic, but they can be a nice supplement to some of the methods we covered earlier in this chapter.

Here we go…

1. Rubber stamp all your money with your website url. I love this one because you can get tons of free viral advertising, without spending anything other than what you use to pay for things with cash.

Here’s what you do… go get a small rubber stamp made with your website url (don’t include the http://).

Any of the large office supply superstores such as Office Max, Office Depot, Staples, etc. can produce stamps for you, and usually within a few business days.

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There are also several places on the web to order stamps, ink, and replacement inkpads:

http://www.stamp-connection.com

http://www.stampkits.com

http://www.thestampmaker.com

You can experiment with different ink colors. Some people will want to just stick with black or blue to try to remain as unobtrusive as possible. Others want something flashy like a fluorescent or neon color, or even red, so it’ll really stand out.

Make sure NOT to use a bold type style since the ink has a tendency to bleed too much on the porous paper and the letters will close up and appear mushy. Also keep the type fairly small in width so you can squeeze it in on some open space on a bill.

Next, go to the bank and get a whole bunch of one dollar bills ($20s and $100s work fine too!) and stamp them all with your website url. Then pay for everything with them!

Some people get good results from running their bills through their inkjet or laser printers, instead of stamping. It'll just take some trial and error to figure out the correct spacing and margin settings… you can cut out some plain paper that’s the same size as a bill to experiment with and use it as a practice template.

And some old fashioned dinosaurs out there will still swear by handwriting everything - Egads… that's a whole lotta writer's cramp!

And yes, it’s legal to do this. As long as you don’t make the bills “unfit for circulation” by “mutilating, cutting, disfiguring, perforating, uniting or cementing together” (or doing anything else to render them unfit to be reissued), Title 18, Section 333 of the United States Code wouldn’t come into play.

So just keep it simple and you’ll be okay.

2. Drop Cards

Drop cards (or sizzle cards) are very similar to business cards. They're the same size and made of the same kind of paper. The major difference is that while a business card will usually present a good deal of information, a drop card is used for one single purpose... to create curiosity that generates leads.

Here’s what a typical drop card might look like:

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When I first got started in network marketing, I used these a lot when I’d be out and about running errands, etc.

But if you wanna take this concept one step further and add more pizzazz, check out the $100 Bill Business Cards for fun.

People LOVE picking them up and will hang onto them as a novelty and show them to friends.

They’re a fun way to get exposure your website.

You can find out more at www.cashleadcards355.com.

To Use ‘Em, Or Not To Use ‘Em…

Think about this, when you pay your bills (the old fashioned way), how many people do you think are responsible for opening up that bill?

One right?

I mean, we've got a real live person on the other end who's opening up your letter and pulling out your check and processing it.

Do you think that person is making all the money they want to make?

Hmmm, probably not…

Do you think they might have some financial needs?

Probably…

We're already paying bills right? So why not make it a prospecting opportunity?

Have some fun with this… Stick a $100 Bill Business Card in with your bill next time.

Here are a few other ways you can use drop cards, but don’t be a litterbug:

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• Leave them on restaurant tables when you leave your tip.

• Hand them out to everyone you meet - especially when you buy from anyone.

• Stick them in business books and magazines at your local Barnes & Noble (requires going “stealth” to pull it off)

• Leave them on shelves in grocery and electronic stores.

• Leave them in the back seat of taxi cabs.

If you’re on a tight budget, you can also have drop cards printed at www.VistaPrint.com - they offer 250 FREE cards from their pre-selected templates, and all you have to do is pay shipping, which is about $5 or $6. You can put any text you choose in the text fields of their templates (rather than the type of text that a field is intended for). That way, you can create a card with an ad or a "sizzle" message with a link to your website(s) rather than creating a more traditional business card.

3. Use Your Car to Advertise Your Business

Forget bumper stickers and other cheap, cheesy decals. I.D.It! Plates offer a cool way to advertise your website when you’re driving or stuck in traffic.

They’re "traveling billboards" that easily attach to your car and can also be displayed just about anywhere… on doors, windows, filing cabinets, etc.

Another great advertising tool you can use on the road are WebDecals. They’re static cling decals that stick to smooth surfaces without adhesive. Just clean your window and apply. The letters can be made up to 2 inches tall and up to 40 inches in length.

ACTION STEP:

1. Implement the advertising methods that appeal to you – If most of these strategies are new to you, it’s best to pick one or two and master those over a period of 60 - 90 days or so before moving onto other methods. If I were to pick my two favorite methods to start with, it would be pay per click and ezine advertising.

Step #8:

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Follow Up Magic & Autoresponder Automation It’s a fact. If you wanna make more than just a few bucks in your business, then you’ve gotta follow up... and then follow up some more. Follow up is a critically important component in your Attraction Marketing system. It’s the difference between making a few sales here and there, and making an absolute fortune. After all, the old saying is still true today… the fortune IS in the follow up. And I’m gonna show you how to tirelessly follow up with people over and over and over again… and never let another prospect fall through the cracks! Experts say that a prospect needs to see your offer an average of 7-12 times before they feel confident enough to make a purchase. However, by using a personalized name branding system like the one we’re setting up, you’ll have an edge over the competition, and the personal touch can dramatically reduce the amount of exposures required to make a sale or enroll a new rep in your business. So if you want to be wildly successful, then be sure to follow up with every prospect and answer any prospect questions every day as soon as you can. You’ll have a tough time getting more business if you fail to take me seriously on this important aspect of your business. Let’s face it, we live in an instant gratification society and people like to get answers when THEY want them (usually right away), so don't make them wait to hear from you. Consistent, daily follow up has been one of the biggest keys to my success, and it’s easy to follow up when you tackle a little bit each day and use automated tools that do most of the heavy lifting for you. I can’t tell you how many times I've talked to people that have told me they’ve contacted other marketers and have sometimes had to wait days to hear back from them, or worse yet, never hear from them at all. Are you kidding me…? That’s a really poor business practice that leaves lots of money on the table for someone else like you and me to scoop up! The reality of internet marketing is that only a tiny percentage of your prospects will turn into paying customers on the FIRST visit to your site(s), and over 90% will leave and never come back. This means that most of your marketing efforts and expenses will go right down the drain if you don’t have a way to capture their e-mails.

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That’s why you’ll use an autoresponder to simplify and automate a lot of your follow up, as well as capture your prospects that come through your lead capture pages. What’s An Autoresponder? If you’re new to this terminology, here’s a simple definition; An (email) autoresponder is a bit of software that sits on a server and automatically delivers your information to anyone who asks for it, or to anyone subscribing to a form on a web page. Here's how it works... If a visitor fills out a web form on one of my lead capture pages, my autoresponder can automatically and immediately email this person a reply (for example: "Thanks for subscribing to my newsletter John!") Notice how John’s name is included… Most autoresponders these days allow you to merge your subscriber’s first name in both the subject and/or body of the email, and when used correctly, this little benefit can dramatically increase your profits and bottom line. Once someone is subscribed to your list, they’ll remain on your list forever or until they unsubscribe. If they want to unsubscribe, they can do it automatically by clicking on a link that’ll automatically be placed at the bottom of every message delivered to them. NOTE: An unsubscribe link or a way for them to unsubscribe is absolutely required according to the US CAN-Spam law. I typically use a different set of letters for different campaigns so that I can target a specific product or opportunity and keep all my lists separate. Most people will start out with just one autoresponder.

Autoresponders make the difference between having a website that works hard for you and you constantly having to work hard for your website.

Here’s what I’m talking about…

Imagine this… let’s say you start getting 500 visitors a day to your new site and one in ten of them requests information. That's 50 e-mails you're going to have to send manually (daily) for the next few days or weeks if you didn’t use an autoresponder.

And then tomorrow you get another 50, and the next day another 50... can you imagine how time consuming this would be?

Are you beginning to understand WHY you need an autoresponder?

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Here are some proven ways to use your autoresponder for marketing:

• The most important and obvious way is to collect leads and immediately follow up with your subscribers that fill out your lead capture page form.

• Repeatedly send your prospects new reasons to buy your product or service, or join your business opportunity.

• Sequentially follow up with them, gently reminding them about your particular product or service… dripping information on them over time.

• Win their loyalty and trust by creating an e-mail newsletter or a series of special reports.

• Motivate them to buy NOW with limited time offers, special discounts and bonuses.

The list goes on and you’re only limited by your own imagination.

Not everyone who uses an autoresponder makes five figures monthly, but every serious marketer that's making five figures monthly uses an autoresponder to build their lists and follow up. For online marketing, it's an absolute necessity, NOT an option. Next to having a personalized website, it’s the most important tool in your Internet-based business. Here's why… As we covered in Chapter 5 on list-building, the majority of the people who visit your website aren’t going to buy from you or join your business on their first visit. Most people don’t buy something on the Internet until they've seen it or heard about it at least 7 times. If you go out and spend a bunch of time and money promoting your business or product and you don't have an effective way to capture and follow up with your website visitors, you’ll lose a lot of sales. See, people don't say no to you. They usually say no to an opportunity if the timing isn’t right for them at that moment. You’re always gonna have first time visitors that arrive on your site and request additional information like a free report, etc… they obviously have an interest, and when you follow up using an autoresponder, eventually things will line up when the timing IS right for them. That's the beauty of the Internet and by using tools that do the majority of the work for you; you never have to personally experience rejection. Your system ends up doing all the sorting, qualifying and selling for you… all on autopilot! Even if you hired someone and only paid them a few bucks an hour to do everything that your autoresponder will be doing for you, you'd end up spending thousands of dollars per month.

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With an autoresponder, not only will you be able to follow up with your prospects by having captured their name and email address, but you’ll be able to e-mail a list of hundreds or thousands of people anytime you want to with the simple click of your mouse. OK, I'm sure you get the point. Having a good quality autoresponder is a small price to pay for how much time it’ll help you save. What You Should Look For In An Autoresponder There are tons of choices out there when it comes to autoresponders. So to simplify the decision, I’ve listed some of the most important things to look for in a good autoresponder:

• Unlimited autoresponders - You want to have the ability to set up an unlimited amount of autoresponders for each individual marketing campaign you might have, even for tracking.

• Instant, reliable delivery - Look for an autoresponder that has fast delivery times (preferably under 30 seconds) when someone fills out a web form on your capture page(s).

• Unlimited follow up messages - You want to be able to have an unlimited amount of messages per campaign as well as message length. Some marketers have email campaigns that run for over a year.

• Ease of use - Look for an autoresponder system that can be set up in minutes behind the scenes, instead of hours or days. The best ones offer step-by-step videos and instructions.

• Personalization - Customizing your messages and being able to merge your prospect’s first name in each message is critical and will increase sales conversions and response rates dramatically. This means no more “Dear Friend” letters.

TIP: When it comes to using the personalization feature, don't overdo the name thing. Just as you don't begin every sentence in a verbal conversation with the other person's name, use first names sparingly in your emails (once in the subject and up to 2 times in the body of the message max). Make sure it flows naturally by placing it in sentences that are more personally directed.

• Tracking - Ideally, find an autoresponder that can track your web site links and how many people click on them. If you’re looking for something more powerful, here's one of the best tools I know of for tracking and spilt testing: www.AdTrackingTool.com

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• Built-in anti-spam tools - The best autoresponders constantly make sure they stay off the spammer blacklists, so your emails reach their destination instead of being blocked. They also have spam tools like Spam Assassin that let’s you know if your email might be considered spam before it goes out. This way you can tweak your messages to avoid the spam filters, and get your messages delivered to as many people on your list(s) as possible.

One more very important thing to cover…

Once you have an opt-in email list that’s starting to build, what do you do with it?

Good question… After all, a list of names isn’t worth much unless you follow up with them about your offers, right?

The basic function of an autoresponder is to instantly respond to people’s inquiries, but that’s not of much value compared to what you need it to do for you.

Obviously, you need the ability to send follow-up messages to your subscribers on a pre-determined basis, but in addition to that, you need an autoresponder that has the ability to send out broadcast messages to your list anytime you want.

What's a broadcast message?

It’s real simple… A broadcast message is a message that you send to your entire list(s) anytime you want. This would be in addition to the automated follow-up messages that they might already be receiving through your follow-up campaign.

In other words, anytime you have something special you want to tell your list about, you can. Or, if you have a particular opportunity or product you wanna promote, you can do that too.

All you do is write up an email for the thing you want to promote inside a special window within your autoresponder account area, and click "Send".

Your message will then be immediately delivered to all of the subscribers on your list at once. Plus, your message can be personalized to subscribers, with their first name so it really gets their attention.

A word of caution… Be careful to not send out broadcast messages too often. People are bombarded with all kinds of junk these days, and you don’t want your messages to fall of deaf ears and be ignored.

I can almost guarantee this will happen if you send out your broadcast announcements too frequently.

Space ‘em out. I’d keep them to once every week or two tops, unless you have something really special that just can't wait since your last broadcast.

At the same time, you don't want too cautious either. You’re running a business. Don't be afraid to contact your subscribers on a regular basis if you have something of value to share.

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When you actively work to build relationships with your subscribers, you can easily increase your income by sending endorsements for products and solutions that you believe in.

If you don't already have an autoresponder, there are only two that I feel are worth mentioning. The first one is Aweber, and the second one is GetResponse. These are two of the industry’s oldest and most respected autoresponder companies, but I personally prefer to use GetResponse and here’s why… Getresponse has been around a LONG time and their customer support is very good. They still have (at the time of this writing) their "free" service, but if you're a serious marketer go for the $18 a month deal and get all the bells and whistles, including unlimited autoresponders to use for everything you promote. One of the top reasons I personally use Getresponse is because they have an option where you can buy opt-in subscribers. These aren’t just some run of the mill garbage leads, they’re highly targeted. Here’s how it works… You simply send Getresponse a short 3-line ad (similar to a Google Adwords ad) and they advertise it for you to get people to subscribe to your particular autoresponder campaign. You can use this strategy to promote anything or any program. And the best part, is, you get to lock in your cost per lead (as little as .27 cents per subscriber) and reduce the competition. But What About ‘Free’ Autoresponders? Well, one of the major reasons to NOT use free autoresponders is the fact that most free services include someone else’s ad with every autoresponder message it sends out to YOUR subscribers. Now having another person’s ad in there is bad enough, but that ad might also be from one of your competitors! A paid autoresponder will ensure that you’re not advertising someone else’s business. The bottom line is, the more professional you want to appear, the less you want to be doing advertising for someone else by using free autoresponders. Just as a traditional brick-and-mortar business strives to build a happy clientele that keeps coming back to make purchases over and over again, online businesses want to build relationships with visitors as well as customers, so they’ll also keep coming back. And the best way to automate this process of following up is by using autoresponders. Make sure you’ve got a reputable autoresponder working for you 24/7.

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Autoresponder Content

Just like the content you write for your name-branding web site, your autoresponder letters should be warm, personal and conversational in style. Don’t be afraid to use slang from time to time either, it’ll help you sound authentic. Always take your time and write from the heart. It pays! Include testimonials when possible… Testimonials can have a HUGE impact on sales. Include them in your follow-up emails (and lead capture pages) when appropriate. They can really make a big difference in your conversion ratios since most of your prospects are silently asking themselves, "Will it work for me?” Testimonials from others can really help answer this question in your prospect's mind. Ideally, it’s a good idea to have 20+ autoresponder letters written and loaded in each campaign that trickle, or “drip” on your subscribers over months and even years. Now don’t think you have to tackle all this writing your first few days, take your time and just have fun with it… write at your own pace, or hire someone to do it for you. You could create short messages that start going out every other day for the first 15 days, that's a total of six messages… each one teaching people the benefits of partnering with you in your business, or how to consume your product. You can sprinkle in some testimonials from others that have benefited from your business or product, to spice up each message. The main objective here is NOT to try to get them to buy through your email; we just want them to click on a link to find out more details. Why? Because it’s really difficult to effectively “sell” from an email, plus with spam filters the way they are these days, the longer the email, the more it might be filtered out and never even get seen by your recipients – OUCH! Some people claim that you can (and maybe they can for their particular market), but from all the testing I've done, the best e-mails were short, to the point, and then led my reader to a website for more information. Most of these emails were 50 words or less, because all I wanted a person to do was click on a link where I could send them to a website that does the “selling”. As your list grows over time, using an autoresponder is like owning your own automated ATM machine… just waiting for you to withdraw funds anytime you need them!

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ACTION STEPS:

1. Decide which autoresponder service works best for you - If you already have an autoresponder you’re comfortable with, keep it. If not, the first place I’d start my search would be with Aweber or GetResponse. You can’t go wrong with either of them.

2. Craft your automated messages - This part may take you some time, but write one message at a time and don’t rush the process. You might be able to use some pre-written messages, or pay someone to write them for you, but be sure they have your personality in them, so they sound like they’re coming from YOU.

Step #9:

Back-End Profits

Your lead business opportunity, product or service is the primary focus of your business and should help your prospects/clients satisfy their needs, help them realize their ambitions or solve their problems.

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But sooner or later, those fulfilled needs are usually replaced by new needs, and this creates a huge potential for additional income streams in your business through back-end selling. Back-end selling is simply the selling you do after your initial sale; and that means, selling another product to the same customer. So the product you sell after the first sale is called, for obvious reasons, the back-end product, and can certainly be a higher-end product or something of equal value that compliments your lead product (or opportunity) and is of interest to the same market. If you ever bought a low to no-risk product at first, and then graduated from there to purchase something at a higher price, then you know first hand what I’m talking about. Back-end marketing has been a proven strategy for all kinds of businesses over the years to increase sales, not only for online businesses but for traditional businesses as well. Marketing Gurus have told us that the money is not only in the list, but also in the back-end, but that’s not the entire story. The real story is that not only is the money in the back-end, but your business’s overall success and longevity is directly related to your back-end promotions. And when done properly, back-end selling also becomes easier over time. Why? Because you’ve made it through the hardest step once the first sale is made. It’s statistically 7 times easier to sell to an existing customer/client, than to a new one. So once you’ve got ‘em, make sure you continue to deliver value. Loyal customers are your most valuable asset. And it’s because of this loyalty that they're much more likely to buy a second product/service from you, and even a third, and a fourth, at a much higher price point than the original sale. Marketers call this a "profit funnel". You start with a free or inexpensive lead-in product, then continue moving up the food chain to higher priced products, which continually raises the price, value, and most importantly, your profits. There are lots of marketers who create their own products and a typical example would be where you start out by giving away a free report or free tele-seminar that people can request access to, from one of your lead capture pages. That free report or tele-seminar could sell a $27 - $47 e-book, which leads to a more valuable $97 digital product like an online audio tutorial, then maybe up to a $197 - $497

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physical CD or DVD product, and then finally on up to a $997 - $5,000+ high-end tele-seminar series or live workshop event. But What If You Don’t Have Any Back-End Products To Offer? That’s easy, just become an affiliate and market someone else’s higher-end product! In return for sending them customers, you earn an affiliate commission. In case you haven’t already noticed, I’ve sprinkled in quite a few back-end affiliate products within this e-book! Everything from website builders to tools and resources that compliment the information we’re covering here. Here’s another quick example… Ever notice how many websites promote books from Amazon.com? Well most of these websites are actually Amazon.com affiliates… and when someone clicks on one of their links from their site and buys a book on Amazon, the website owner automatically receives a commission directly from Amazon. There are thousands of great affiliate programs you can join and earn a resale commission when one of your customers buys their product. And since most affiliate programs are actually free to join, it’s a great way to add additional income streams to any business. Where Can You Find Back-End Products To Sell? Finding related products to offer to your existing customers can be very easy. One place I’ve used for years to find all kinds of complimentary info products is www.clickbank.com (this is who I use to handle all my payment processing for this e-book). Here are a few more:

1. www.associateprograms.com/directory 2. www.affiliatematch.com 3. www.paydotcom.com

ACTION STEP:

1. Using the above resources, find the right back-end products to add to your

portfolio, or come back later when you have a clearer idea of what you want to promote in addition to your primary product, service or opportunity.

Hot Tip: No matter what back-end products you decide to promote, it’s important to make sure that you believe in the product yourself. In other words, would YOU buy it?

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In my opinion, the only way you can honestly promote back-end products is by having first-hand knowledge about it yourself. It’ll make it a lot easier for you to credibly share the benefits of the product and you’ll be sure it delivers what your customers want if you own it and use it yourself first. The way I look at it, you’ll make a one-time investment that can produce huge rewards long term. Here are a few ways you can promote back-end products to your existing subscribers:

• When your visitor’s opt-in to your capture pages for your free newsletter or free

report, have your ad for one of your affiliate products at the end of the email. I sometimes like to use the “Oh by the way” approach to subtly back-end a product.

• Send your customers a thank you letter and mention your back-end product at

the end of the letter (works both in e-mails and snail-mail).

• If you're selling your own virtual or electronic products like e-books or online services, find a way to add a link that directs your customers back to your web site where you have an ad about your back-end product.

• Redirect your customers to a "thank you" page after they opt-in to your capture

page, or make their first purchase. Your back back-end product ads can be inserted there.

• One of the more popular ones for offline businesses is to insert a flyer or

brochure about your back-end products in the package that will be shipped to your customers.

• If your visitor has signed up for free email courses, find a way to insert your back-

end affiliate product ads in some portion of each new email course. Back-end marketing fits in synergistically with the concept of creating multiple streams of income, so let’s finish up with this last chapter.

Step #10:

Creating Multiple Streams Of Income

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Looking back in time, how many streams of income did it take in the 1950's for a family to survive?

You guessed it - ONE.

But today, I think it’s safe to say that very few families can survive on less than two streams of income, let alone, one. And the sad thing is, even that won't be enough in the future.

Do you have multiple streams of income flowing into your bank account right now?

Do you have a “Plan B” to keep your head above water if your primary income source were to all of a sudden and unexpectedly disappear overnight?

I think most of us are in denial when it comes to the possibility that this can happen to us. Like blind love, we tend to only focus on the positive and avoid the negative...

Having my own primary income source evaporate right before my eyes more than a few times taught me the valuable lesson that prosperous people have ALWAYS known; they spread out their financial interests and diversify. If one stream dries up, they have many more to support them.

Imagine a great big river, which may have hundreds or even thousands of smaller tributaries and streams emptying into it along its path. Without these waterways, the river might eventually dry up and stop flowing completely.

The same is true in your business. Your income is like that river… it needs to be nourished by lots of different sources, not just one.

Most employees and traditional business owners today are much more vulnerable than ever before because they fail to recognize how easily and quickly they can become financially devastated.

It’s scary to think about how many people are just one paycheck away from total financial ruin. If they lose one of their income streams, it wipes them out because it’s all they have. And it can take them years to recover.

With the high cost of living and easy access to high-limit credit cards, so many of them are simply ‘renting’ a lifestyle. They might have two new cars in the driveway and a big house, but in reality, they don’t really OWN anything.

It’s tough to eek out a living and people go into deep debt and end up just existing instead of living.

We can counteract this and prevent it from happening in our own lives by owning our own business, and even better, own a business that generates multiple streams of income.

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The “Mutual Fund” Approach In the not too distant future, people will need a portfolio of income streams. Not just one or two, but many streams, from completely different and diversified sources.

This protects you… if one stream dries up, you barely feel the bump. You're stable. You have time to adjust. In other words, you're SAFE.

The same strategy can apply to your business.

Developing your business portfolio is kinda like a mutual fund. A mutual fund makes money through diversification and invests in a variety of different companies. Some make money and some lose money, but the majority of them are profitable over time, and if one goes south and tanks, it can be replaced without a lot of negative repercussions. There’s also another very important reason for diversifying your business interests: Think Baskin-Robbins. They have 31 flavors for a good reason; not everyone likes the same thing.

The same is true with your home business.

These days, your prospects have more choices than ever before, so what I’m suggesting is that you offer more than one "flavor" to your prospects. NEVER ever put all your eggs in one basket.

Let me clarify this…

I’m NOT talking about taking your focus away from your primary business. What I’m referring to is developing a portfolio of complimentary (not competing) opportunities, products or services that give your prospects more choices.

You can lead with your primary business or product, but what happens if they’re not a good fit?

What most people do in this case, when they only have one thing to offer is they try to fit a square peg into a round hole. I’ve been guilty of doing this, how bout you?

In my “formative years” in network marketing, I remember times when I’d be talking to a prospect and they’d mention an aversion to MLM… and what would I do?

Well, since I only had one thing to offer them at that time, I would try to justify how MLM was a misunderstood industry, and try to convince them to give it a chance, etc., etc. Lemme tell ya, what a freakin’ waste of time that was.

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Anyway, when you have a business portfolio with more than one thing to offer your prospects, you can help them find the best fit for THEM, not for you.

Here’s another good reason why creating multiple streams of income in your business makes the most sense: If you take the time to become a good marketer, you won't ever have to worry about any company you affiliate yourself with going out of business. You’ll be prepared to move on and profit with another opportunity, product, or service at a moment’s notice, especially if you’ve focused on building a list like we talked about earlier. Your list is like an insurance policy, it’s your biggest asset that allows you to shift gears and make money on demand as long as you’ve built and maintained a relationship with the people on your list(s). One Potato, Two Potato, Three Potato, Four… You might be thinking "It's hard enough to keep one income coming in, let alone multiple streams of income, so how am I gonna to manage it all at the same time?"

Well, the good news is, it's really not as complicated as it might sound, because we’re using a lot of automated tools. In a minute, we’ll talk about how to create a business portfolio the correct way, so you don't go crazy trying to juggle several programs all at once…

Another logical question that usually comes up is, "How many streams of income should I have?"

Simple. The more the better. If you have your efforts spread over a wider business spectrum, you’ll always be in a good position to sustain your income long-term.

In my own business, I’m constantly adding new income streams all the time and replacing the ones that may not be flowing as well.

It’s kinda like gardening… There will always be some weeding out to do (and the occasional pests to deal with), but as long as you manage things properly, things will continue to grow.

What Not To Do… Before we discuss the proven formula to creating multiple streams of income in your business, lemme just quickly cover some hazards to be aware of.

Over the years I’ve run across a lot of “opportunity junkies”… you know the ones, they end up joining everything that looks good. They hop from program to program, thinking that if one program is good, then two is better, and how about three and so on...

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One of the reasons many newbie’s fail is that they take the notion of multiple streams of income far too literally and much too soon. Heck, I admit I was guilty of this type of mentality early in my networking career as well. A lot of well-intentioned people like this put the cart before the horse, and don’t know how to effectively market before they join all these things. The bottom line is, if you can’t make money with one program or product, what makes you think you’re gonna make money with the next one? I want to help YOU avoid the trap of trying to promote too many things at once, and not doing well in any of them. The trick here is to not get suckered into the hype of ‘The next big thing,’ while you’re still in the middle of the last big thing. By the way, have you ever landed on someone’s website that’s so littered with banner ads and links all over the place that you couldn’t even tell what they were promoting in the first place? Some marketers actually have no clue that their visitors are being assaulted by ads all over the place on their sites… So be careful NOT to clutter up any of your websites with banners and ads that take up every square inch of website real estate. The only results you’ll attract will be that of an amateur. A Better Way… The formula that I’ve found that works best for creating multiple streams of income in your business is simple… Start with adding one thing at a time, and focus on getting into profit with it, especially if it has recurring monthly fees associated with it. You do this BEFORE you add anything else. So the strategy here is not about jumping from one program to another every month, nor is it about “the flavor of the week” approach either. That kind of strategy will usually earn you a one-way ticket to the poor house. Picking ONE program to join at a time and putting your energy into that one is the best way to get into profit as soon as possible. One of my favorite things about being an internet entrepreneur is that I can literally wake up in the morning with an idea for marketing a new business opportunity, product or service, and have a lead capture page up and running and generating traffic (and sales) by the afternoon! Or I can find new ways to promote an existing product. Or I can join a new affiliate program. The possibilities are endless.

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Every time I repeat this process, I create a new stream of income to add to my existing revenue base. “But My Upline Told Me To Focus On My Primary Program Only!” Sound familiar? Well guess what? Here’s the blunt truth… It’s in THEIR best interest to tell you that! Do you think they want to see you stop building their downline? Of course not… But is there really any truth to what they’re saying? Yes… and no. Lemme explain… In this particular context, even with all the automation the Internet has to offer, I still haven’t met anyone in network marketing that’s become ultra successful serving two ‘masters’ at the same time. In other words, because it takes so much time and energy to create momentum in just ONE networking business alone, trying to build two at the exact same time is gonna be tough, and especially challenging if you’re not full-time in the business in the first place. So, coming from that perspective, this is one of those fundamental principles that I actually agree with other leaders on. Properly handling and growing more than one primary well-chosen program at a time is nearly impossible. However, that being said, it IS possible to build multiple streams of income, and also do it with more than one network marketing business. The key to making it work is not to lose focus on your primary program before it’s self-sufficient. So if you want to build more than one network marketing business, it CAN be done, just build one first, get it off the ground (this may take a solid year or more of proactive building to create the momentum required to sustain it on a part time basis.) After, and only after you've got that first well-chosen program, and you’re in profit with it, is it time to look for a second one, and then a third, and so on. These should complement your primary business instead of compete with it. One-Time Shot vs. Residual Let’s talk about the different kinds of income you can earn. After all, not all streams of income are created equal. Some streams are linear, and some others are residual.

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If you only get paid once, then the income is linear. For instance, affiliate marketing is a good example of linear income, so is a salary at a job where you only get paid once for your effort. And when you don't show up for work, neither does your paycheck. With residual income on the other hand, you work hard once, and it unleashes a steady flow of income for months, or even years. In my own situation, before I found network marketing and the Internet, I was a freelance artist for several years. And even though I owned my business, in reality… my business really owned me. True, I was in business for myself, but my income was linear because I was still trading my hours for someone else’s dollars. The secret of the wealthy is not that they have more money, but that they have more TIME freedom. And because many of their income streams are residual, they have time to spend on anything they want and money’s coming in with or without them… they have leverage. When you view people's lives through the filter of residual income, many groups of people aren't as wealthy as they may appear. Doctors and dentists don't earn residual income from their labor. Their income potential is usually restricted by their own amount of production. They can only see a fixed number of patients in a day, and they have to be there for every single one of them. That's linear. The same holds true for top sales people, chiropractors and attorneys. They may appear to be rich, but they're on a treadmill like a lot of employees. So when you’re deciding on which programs and other complementary products, tools and services to add to your portfolio and offer to other people, take into consideration that some will pay you a one-time commission, and some will pay you residually, each month. And it’s good to have a decent blend of both. Usually, the one-time commission type of scenarios can produce some nice up front money in the short term (which can be used to cover advertising), but something that pays you over and over and over again, can be just as attractive in the long-term. So look for income streams that offer a variety. That way, you can get the best of both worlds. What Should YOU Add To Your Business Portfolio? Glad you asked…

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The truth is, there are a lot more ways to make money online other than just network marketing and MLM. Here are a few additional options to consider adding to your existing business portfolio:

• Top Tiered Direct Sales Programs - In network marketing, the main focus is on getting a lot of people buying a little bit of product each month. The logic behind this is simple; the majority of people can afford to buy $50 - $150 per month of product volume. But there are other options like high end direct sales programs where you can get paid a big up front commissions instead of waiting months or years. It’s a good idea to have at least one top tiered program in your portfolio. The products can range anywhere from travel to wealth education and marketing seminars.

• Affiliate Programs & Info Products - This is one of my favorite (and simplest)

ways to create additional streams of income because there are hundreds if not thousands of affiliate programs that you can sign-up with and begin making money immediately. Most of them are free to join. As an affiliate marketer, you market a company's product or service, and when you send them a customer or make a sale, you’re paid a commission. In most cases commissions can range from 25% - 50% and up, especially when we’re talking about virtual products like e-books. You can find tons of info products that complement your portfolio at http://www.clickbank.com. You can join as many affiliate programs as you like, and each one has the potential of creating another stream of income for you. Believe it or not, a lot of Internet marketers have become millionaires without ever having a product of their own. They did it by promoting affiliate programs.

• Tools & Resources - This is another area of income that can make a nice

addition to any portfolio. Every internet-based business uses a number of different tools to create a highly automated system. For instance, everyone needs a good quality autoresponder. You could sign up as an affiliate and then earn a monthly commission by recommending the company you use. The same thing goes for services like advertising vendors or resources that you use that offer some sort of finders fee or affiliate commission.

• Complementary Products & Services - Do you have a specific niche business

that can be accentuated with other related products or services? Here’s an example of wrapping an existing business with a complimentary service… Let’s say your primary business is in the legal services industry… how about adding a credit repair or debt reduction service to the mix? They both complement your main focus, and you don’t have to go out of your way to promote them either, just mention them on your website or during a conversation when you’re speaking to a prospect.

• Passive Investment Type Programs - Legitimate high yield programs on the

Internet are very rare and most of them are in the form of what’s called a managed forex account where a forex trader has a limited power of attorney to

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trade your brokerage account. Based on my own experience and research into this industry, it’s safe to say that at least 99.9% of passive investment programs are scams or ponzi schemes. If you can find the handful of legit ones that exist, they can really impact your portfolio and give you a financial vehicle to funnel your other income streams into to make them grow passively. This type of income stream is one of my favorites because you can choose to participate in them yourself and make your money grow without telling a soul, or you can refer others and add an additional stream of income to what you already have. The key to finding good ones is to do your homework and only play with what you can afford to lose.

I’m sure there are other revenue streams, but these are the major ones that most of us will incorporate into our online business. Once you’ve internalized the marketing concepts and strategies in this course and more importantly, you’ve taken action and are getting the desired results, you’ll know when it’s time to add another income stream to your portfolio. The key is to always look for ways to compliment your existing business. Also, do your best to somehow find the right balance between finding and maintaining focus vs. generating multiple streams of income. These seem to be conflicting concepts, right? I mean, how can you focus if you're juggling multiple opportunities? The reality is, no matter what you’re currently doing for a living, you're gonna be dealing with multiple projects and priorities that compete for your time. So how do you manage all of this stuff and at the same time, maintain balance? First off, know the difference between busy work and revenue-producing activities. The solution to both, finding focus, and generating multiple streams of income is to work on one thing at a time, and work on it until you’ve taken it to a place where it can be maintained with just a little momentum each week. When you’re first starting out with a particular program or product, do whatever it takes to get it to the point that it has a life of its own. That might mean putting it up on your website and promoting it to your list(s) to generate a profit. Once an income stream is flowing, you can let it work for you passively while you work on something else. ACTION STEP:

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1. Make a list of potential complimentary revenue streams - Depending on your primary business focus, search for programs, products, services, and tools that can be integrated into your current portfolio and then add them one at a time to your name-branding site or any other marketing medium based on the suggestions I’ve laid out in this course.

I hope this chapter has helped you realize that it's really not difficult to earn multiple streams of income once you know how to structure and choose things properly. Above all, remember this… YOU are your business. People buy you first. If you’re providing them with a valuable solution and they decide they can trust you, you’ll get to a point where making money online becomes almost effortless… and that’s a sweet place to be indeed!

Final Thoughts Ok, let’s come full circle and wrap things up… I’ve really enjoyed our time together, teaching you the process of setting up your own ‘Attraction Marketing’ system, and most importantly, why it’ll never go out of style. We’ve talked about the importance of creating your own personal brand of YOU… how to write your story from scratch (even if you’re not a writer)… how to create effective lead capture pages, build a list of people that will buy from you over and over again… how to advertise your sites and use autoresponders, and lastly… how to multiply your income by leaps and bounds, with back-end marketing and by adding additional income streams that complement your current business. Whew! I don’t know about you, but think I’m ready for an ice-cold one… lemonade that is! Now, the choice is yours my friend... you can follow the crowd and continue promoting faceless and anonymous replicated websites (the same sites being used by hundreds and thousands of other marketers), or you can create your own unique, sacred place in cyberspace for others to get to know who you are, the leader they’re searching for. If you follow this blueprint without cutting corners, AND… put it into action, you'll be amazed how many hot prospects you'll attract… people who’ll want to do business with you, and only with you. It's hard for a prospect to resist someone who’s authentic and offers so much value. Remember that you're always paid in direct proportion to the value YOU bring to the marketplace, and to others' lives.

Jeffrey Combs said it best: “When you can operate from a sense of passion, you’re radiating from your heart. You’re sending the message, “Become a part of what I’m

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doing.” That, my friends, is when people want to be a part of what you are, because you are coming from your heart, not your head.”

Even people who may never join you or buy anything from you, will send you referrals as long as you live by the code of give before you get. This timeless principle will help to insure your success. Keep Learning And Growing Every Day. Technology and the Internet are changing all the time at a faster and faster rate. Successful ‘Attraction Marketers’ realize this, and are always learning new things by reading books and newsletters, listening to CDs and watching DVDs on what’s happening in the industry. They know that if they don’t, they might end up being left in the dust.

There’s no time to waste… its time to get your butt in gear, and make it happen for yourself and your business! A successful marketing career is the cheapest insurance policy that you can ever own.

The premium is daily consistent effort and a willingness to be a servant business owner. This will compound your income in a big way, over time. The effort that you put forth today is your down payment for your family's security tomorrow.

It’s been a real pleasure to share my experience with you. What you do with this knowledge now is 100% up to YOU. I’ve put up a rolodex of tools and resources I’ve personally benefited from over the last several years here: www.attraction-marketing-blueprint.com/resources.html Will this information increase your income? ONLY IF YOU APPLY what you’ve just learned. I look forward to hearing about your success, and I wish you much peace and prosperity. To Your Success, Brad Weinman

E-mail: bweinman@mindspring.com PS – If you have an interest in sharing this course with others and you’d like to earn a 75% commission on all sales you refer to our site, you can find out more about our affiliate program here: http://www.attraction-marketing-blueprint.com/affiliate.html