Archive for the ‘Thursday: Roundtable Chat’ Category

Okay, so due to a flub on my part, Carrie’s response to last week’s roundtable chat didn’t get added in – oops, sorry Carrie!

So I wanted to share her response with you here today. Again, the question I asked was:

“For those business owners who haven’t started to outsource, but are interested in taking that step, budget is always a big concern. Often, they tend to avoid jumping in feet first, and instead, they’ll test it out with a minimal investment. So with that in mind, our business owners are looking to spend no more than $25/wk. ($100/month).

“With a $100 budget, where should they be putting their outsourcing dollars to get the most bang for their buck? Why?”

And here’s Carrie’s reply:

Carrie Wilkerson from BarefootExecutiveOnline.com says:

If you have a $100 to outsource with – then see where that goes the furthest to get you farthest ahead (that grammar may be ALL wrong…but you get my drift!

If you can get alot of blog promo buttons and social media buttons ‘on the cheap’ – but it would take you hours and hours to do them yourself – DO THAT.

If you can get 10 articles written or blog posts sourced…and it will save you HOURS, do that!

If it will secure you the amazing WP theme that you need to make everything else easier, do that!

Bottom line is — it depends on YOU! What my $100 buys will be different that what yours does!

Maybe you need to have some audio transcribed so you can configure a product for quick sale! Maybe you need to pay for a few hours of payment processor, 1ShoppingCart or SWIMCart or InfusionSoft.

Whatever it is – spend wisely…both your dollars AND your time!

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If you want to start outsourcing, go to www.OutsourcingSweetie.com to see how I can help!

I started outsourcing a few years ago, and as my business grew, I found myself putting together a team of people that I could count on to help me.

I completely understand the thinking, “Why pay someone else to do what I can do myself” because I felt the same way at one point too. But now I can see that it was short-sighted thinking. I wasn’t looking at the bigger picture, because the bigger picture held GROWTH and lots of it. Obviously, there was no way I could get my business where I wanted it all by my lonesome.

There are so many time suckers in your business, and if you’re not careful, they’ll steal hours from your life and leave you with little to show for it. It you’re busy handling customer support, who’s bringing in new customers? If you’re scheduling emails in your autoresponder, who’s creating the promotional plan so you can earn money from your list?

You can’t do it all, and when you try, you end up sacrificing the important stuff that creates GROWTH in your business because you’re too busy maintaining what you have, instead of growing it.

So with that said, I wanted to ask our experts what they would do if they were working on a small outsourcing budget, in the hopes that you’re short-sighted thinking will enable you to see the big picture

“For those business owners who haven’t started to outsource, but are interested in taking that step, budget is always a big concern. Often, they tend to avoid jumping in feet first, and instead, they’ll test it out with a minimal investment. So with that in mind, our business owners are looking to spend no more than $25/wk. ($100/month).
 
“With a $100 budget, where should they be putting their outsourcing dollars to get the most bang for their buck? Why?

To which they replied…

Josh Spaulding from Ethicalim.com says:

I’ve found a good majority of my developers/designers etc. at scriptlance.com. So if someone is just starting with outsourcing (GREAT decision to start btw) I recommend coming up with small tasks, putting them up on SL and getting comfortable with that first.

These tasks could be anything from article writing projects, to small code or design tweaks. You’ll learn the overall process with little to no risk, being that you’re only investing a few dollars, and you’ll be able to start building your list of good people to outsource to for bigger tasks.

Building a list of trusted “workers” is VERY important! I personally have several people in each outsourcing category in my contact list. If I need a CSS expert I have several CSS experts. If I need a web app developers I have several of those etc.

So, with a budget of $100 it’s more about developing your outsourcing network in the beginning than it is about finding the most “bang for your buck.”

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Tiffany Dow from the Tiffany Dow Blog says:

Well $25 a week isn’t enough to get more than 3 pages maximum ghostwritten – 2 pages if it’s a decent ghostwriter and only 1 page for a really good one. It’s not enough for high tech media outsourcing, either. It might be enough to get 1-2 “grunt work” tasks completed.

What I suggest instead is that they invest that $25 per week on relevant Private Label Rights (PLR) content and use that to act as a net that brings in more traffic and opt ins to their business.

PLR is outsourcing to a degree – only the work’s already been done and multiple people are benefiting from it. Take the content you buy and post it on blogs with links to your site. Use it as free reports to help build your list. Post it in your email autoresponders to free up time in the future when you need to be working on tasks other than creating email messages.

If you struggle with writing, but can’t afford a ghostwriter on a $25/week budget, then PLR will also give you the springboard you need to help make your writing tasks get completed faster – you can alter and tweak rather than wrack your brain trying to start from scratch.

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Alice Seba from Contentrix.com says:

I guess it would really depend where their strengths and interests  are, but as a general answer, I would say get a Virtual Assistant (VA)  on board.

At $25 per week, you can get a junior VA or work at home mom looking  to earn cash for a couple of hours per week. Two hours may not seem  like a lot, but it is amazing what a focused person can do in that short amount of time. When we work on our businesses, things seem to  take us longer because we’re distracted and are constantly doing  things that really aren’t directly working on our businesses. A VA  charges for her time actually working on tasks or projects you set out  for her…not posting to Facebook, reading the latest guru offer or  checking Adsense stats like we might when we are supposed to be working. (Side note, yes there are male VAs…I am just saying “her” for  simplicity sake.)

I think the biggest drain on an online business owner is email and I  would start outsourcing incoming inquiries and customer support. Come  up with a list of frequently asked questions and train your VA on the  type of service you want to offer. If you want to keep an eye on how  she is doing, set up a support ticket system, so a record is kept of  everything.

I say email is a drain because:

- It is our leash to our online business. If we are responsible for  email, we feel compelled to check it constantly. That’s no way to run  a business or live a life.

- Sometimes negative feedback comes through email and it can be a  drained on your day. Of course, constructive feedback should be passed  on to you and so should praise, but online people are just negative  when they hide behind a screen. You don’t need to see those “stop  spamming me” messages that come from an opt-in subscriber and you  don’t have to bare the brunt of someone’s bad day. Your VA is one  stepped removed ad won’t take it personally and you can stay focused  on your work day.

If you’re a relatively new business and just starting to grow, you  probably don’t need to have 2 full hours of email support each week.  You can assign other tasks to your VA like:

- Updating websites
- Researching affiliate programs and potential partners
- Submitting content to various websites
- Proofreading
- Research service options
- Create monthly statistics reports
- Pay your affiliates
- Invoice clients

Just think about what you hate doing, aren’t good at doing or never  get around too, but should. There are so many possibilities when you  have a helper on your team.

$25 can go a long way…and as you free up your time and get more  focussed on building your business, you’ll see you can afford even more.

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Nicole Dean from NicoleOnTheNet.com says:

This is a great question and one that I talk about a lot in my course Outsource Weekly. Honestly, spending money on freelancers, without an overall plan is like throwing money into the wind.
 
The absolute first thing I would recommend to this person is to analyze the one thing that’s standing between her and profit. 
Is it transcribing the product so it can be put up for sale. Is it installing a script? Setting up a shopping cart? Maybe figuring out the autoresponder?

Whatever that thing is that’s keeping her unfinished project from being finished is where she’ll want to start. As I always say “Unfinished projects can NOT make you money. So get it out there into the world.”
 
However, if we’re talking about a marketer who’s already reached profit and is just frazzled and overwhelmed, then we’ve got a totally different strategy.
 
She’ll want to look at her strengths and where profit is coming from already. Then, she’ll want to track her time for a few days in 15 minute increments to see where her time is going.
 
Based upon that informaton, you’ll get a very clear picture of both what you should be focusing on vs. where you’re actually spending time.
 
From that info…
 
Do more of your strengths – especially if they’re bringing in profit. Start to outsource the time drainers like customer support.
 
I also always recommend that anything you’ll ever only have to do once – outsource it. Personally, I never install scripts. There’s no need for me to spend the time monkeying with it, when most developers will install it for you for a small fee if you ask. They know their software a heck of a lot better than I do, and normally can do it in a jiffy.
 
Thanks, again, Melissa, for having me here!

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Kelly McCausey from WahmTalkRadio.com says:

I would start with content creation and distribution.  With $25 a week I could have a good article written and  have money left over at the end of the month to have the articles distributed to the best directories.  With that steady approach to building back links I know I’m building search engine juice that will pay off over the long term.

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Angela Wills from MarketersMojo.com says:

Wow that’s a tough one. Before I give some suggestions on where to spend that money, I’d love to go on a little rant about how NOT to outsource – ok?

You see I’ve been serving online business owners for over four years now and I see a BIG misconception that is widespread throughout the community.

Many business owners believe that a virtual assistant or other service provider is going to have the ability to quickly and accurately recognize where the money should go for the biggest and fastest profit. Essentially looking for someone to help build the business for them and create the return on investment for the business owner.

Instead of coming to a service provider with this question:
“I know exactly where my business is profitable and I need help ramping up what works for me – can you help?”

They come with the question:
“I don’t know what to do to make more money online – can you help?”

My point is this:
Every business is very, very different because it is a direct result of the person who built it and the market they serve. It is the responsibility of that business owner to pay very close attention to what works for them and then make the decision to outsource what will help them do that better.

That doesn’t mean your question is unanswerable Melissa. However, I don’t want to even suggest that outsourcing is easy as pie and everybody should just hire the next VA that comes along so they can get rich quick – it just doesn’t work that way!

Ok, now that my little rant is out of the way I have some very practical questions you can ask yourself to see where you can put that initial $25/week:

- What makes me money right now?
- Where am I loosing money?
- What makes me money that someone else can do faster than I?
- Can I hand over a task that takes away time I could be using to make money?
- How much can I afford to loose in training a team member before I make money back?
- How much can I afford to pay while figuring out where the return on investment will come from?
- Are their tasks I just hate doing that cause procrastination and slow down my business progress?
- Can I outsource profit-producing ‘projects’?

With these questions answered where to put that initial $100 should become much more clear. If it’s not possible to answer these questions then I would seriously recommend taking a look at if it’s worth it at this point for you. If you can afford to spend $100 a month testing for Return on Investment or as a justified business expense then go for it. If not, pass until you can figure out how that monthly spend will come back to you.

Another tip for saving a huge amount of money is this:
Be Super Organized!

Organizers and Virtual Assistant are two different professions. However, many business owners rely on their team members to help keep them organized. This is fine if you can afford it (and your team member is willing) but if you want to save yourself big time then have everything ready to outsource. This means your passwords, your directions, links to references, etc – have it ALL ready to go. You might think a two minute email here and there is nothing, but multiple emails day after day eat up your billable time like nothing else!

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If you already outsource, or plan to, pick up a copy of my FREE guide to learn more about micro-managing and how you can avoid it for a more profitable outsourcing experience => The Micro-Manager: The Quick Way to Lose Money and Strangle Your Business

All my best,

This week’s roundtable chat is for you if you are struggling to get going online. I remember those days well, so I know how frustrating the whole process can be. In fact, you start to wonder if there really is some secret formula to making money online, or if those who say they’re making money, are really no better off than you are.

As I found out, there really isn’t a secret process to making money online. It’s simply a matter of:

• Deciding what kind of business you want to have – what are you passionate about?
• Educating yourself to learn the basics of Internet marketing – so you can set up a website, a mailing list, etc.
• Taking action on what you learn – don’t be afraid to make mistakes, that’s how you learn what works and what you need to change

So this week, I asked our group of experts what business model types they suggest you start out with online:

“When new people come online to build a business for extra money, they often have no idea what they’re doing, or what their options are. So they wind up flitting from one thing to the next, wasting time and money, trying to find the pot of gold. So based on your own experience, what business model do you suggest a new entrepreneur start out with, in order to maximize their time and profits?”

To which they replied…

Lynn Terry from ClickNewz.com says:

“I recommend you start by choosing a topic you enjoy, with a market you can serve. From there you can set up a blog or site, as well as social media profiles, and start communicating with that market. Your goal is to become known as a trusted resource and start building your reputation, readership, and relationships.

Once you get that foundation created, begin monetizing your content & conversations with affiliate marketing. That means that you review and recommend products as an affiliate and earn commission on any sales you refer.

Affiliate marketing is a great way to start because it’s low-risk. You don’t have to invest in product development, set up customer service or support, carry inventory, or deal with shipping and returns. The merchants you affiliate with handle all of that.

Start with the market and topic. Become known. Make recommendations and take note of the content and products that get the best response. From there you can expand and start creating your own products, or joint venture with independent product developers.”

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Tiffany Dow from the Tiffany Dow Blog says:

” This flitting around scenario isn’t just an obstacle for newbies. In fact, I’ve found that the more I succeed, the more flitting I do – but it’s not always a bad thing. It’s wise to do a bit of testing to see 1.) what you enjoy most and 2.) what gives you the best return on your efforts.

I can’t logically give a one size fits all statement. If I sit here and tell you that a newbie should be article marketing, and I don’t know that their writing is horrible, then I’m doing them a disservice.

At the same time you don’t want to buy one guide on PPC, try it for a week, give up and move on to the next shiny concept like a locust, either. That’s how newbies go broke fast.

What I like to do is if I find something I feel will suit my strengths (writing and communication), I do a thorough test run. I complete the steps from first to last and then evaluate it – did I enjoy it? Did I make enough money back during the trial to do it again or continue doing it?

If not, it’s appropriate to move on – and that’s one of the biggest perks of working at home for yourself. You have options. Not like if you were hired for a specific position with specific tasks to do at a corporate 8-5 gig. Enjoy the fact that you can flit around – but don’t move on so quickly that you don’t give a method time to work. It takes 100% commitment and effort to a project before moving along is allowed in my book.

I know people want a black and white answer, so I’ll give that, too. Assuming your writing is strong enough, I would begin with affiliate marketing as you work on your own info product behind the scenes.

I was lucky in starting as a service professional, so I got to make money while learning the ropes from people who were already pros in Internet marketing. But service jobs have zero residual income opportunities – you’re always working for every single dollar. Affiliate marketing lets you focus on traffic only – and puts the bigger burden of conversion and customer retention on the product owner.”

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Alice Seba from Contentrix.com says:

“To some degree, I think it’s okay to do a little flitting. You have to learn what works and what you like doing, so you know where you really want to be. But if you’re looking to do it right and do it right from the start, I’d focus on building your list. This is going to be a long-term asset for you, requires minimal maintenance and still offers some of the best conversion even in today’s “social” web.

Some of the essentials:

* A freebie to entice subscribers. This can be an audio recording, report, informative video, a piece of software or anything would be of great interest to your target customer. Something digital that costs little to create and distribute.

* An opt-in page designed to “sell” your freebie and opt-in to your list. This is a page with a benefit-driven and attention-getting headline, benefits of signing up, possibly a graphical representation of your freebie, etc.

* Pre-written emails for your autoresponder. Provide valuable information and relevant product recommendations as well. If you prefer, you can broadcast to your list, but using pre-written and pre-scheduled emails means you have less work to do.

* Drive traffic to that opt-in page. Link to it from your articles, press releases, blog and anywhere else you publish content. Link to it in your paid advertisements as well…it’s easier to get them on your list by selling them something free and then upgrading them to your paid products.

Obviously, that’s a simplification…but it really doesn’t have to be a complicated process. When you have a list, you have interested people to contact regularly and that can buy from you over and over again.”

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Nicole Dean from NicoleOnTheNet.com says:

“Oh, Melissa, this is a trick question. Because everyone is unique and brings different skills to the table.

There are thousands of ways to make money online. Most of them actually work.

The important thing, in my opinion, is to pick one, then get a mentor in that area, and stick with it. Don’t sway to anything else until you’ve reached success with that first method – unless you have a darned good reason to.

The #1 reason for failure, in my experience, with new business owners is just being too fickle and jumping from idea to idea. (And, I used to resemble that.)

So, follow this formula…

1. Pick one thing.
2. Choose a mentor who’s experienced in that field.
3. Stick with it. (Unless you have a solid reason why you shouldn’t.)

That’s my advice, whether you’re deciding on ecommerce, a service business, blogging, affiliate marketing, consulting, creating an infoproduct, starting a membership site, or any of the other ways to make money online.”

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Kelly McCausey from WahmTalkRadio.com says:

“You’re so right. The internet offers so many options that newcomers have a hard time choosing and sticking with a business long enough to see it profit. I can’t recommend a specific business model – everyone is so different. What I can suggest is that you choose a good business coach to work with for the first year or so of your business. A coach will mentor you, help you make the best business choice and keep you centered when you feel tempted to give up or start something new.”

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Angela Wills from MarketersMojo.com says:

“Great question!

Based on my own experience I definitely recommend a new entrepreneur start out with a service-based business. It’s a quick way to turn a profit without a big email list or a lot of traffic. Also there are many service businesses that you can start immediately, without any additional training or technical skills needed.

Another advantage of starting with a service business is that you can learn from business owners who are already making money online. You get a sneek peek into their business and what works for them, this will come in handy when you do decide to start another brach of your business that focuses on more passive income.

Some examples of the types of service based businesses in demand right now:
- Writing (Copywriting, Emails, Articles, eBooks, Products, Website Content, Etc.)
- Graphics
- Audio Transcription
- Video Creation
- Social Media

While I believe starting with a service business is a good idea to get a cash injection, I don’t recommend you rely on it as a sole source of income. The internet holds huge potential for ‘passive’ profits. Meaning you can have a website that’s open 24-7 – making you money no matter where you are.

I highly recommend that once you’ve got money flowing in from the service business, then it’s time to decide where and how to reinvest that to create income that doesn’t rely on dollars for hours.”

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If you’re looking for more help, pick up your NO-CHARGE copy of my 39-page step-by-step Quick Start Bluprint: Fast Track Your Way to an Online Business.

All my best,

I came up with this week’s question as a way to get insight into the various techniques that successful affiliate marketers are using to generate hefty commissions in a short period of time.

Now I personally don’t support or encourage anyone to pursue shifty ”fast cash” business models, because it just doesn’t happen overnight. It takes hard work and time to get yourself into a place where it does becomes possible to make extra money fairly quickly.

But if you’re already building sites and mailing lists, then the strategies you’ll learn here today are completely doable, no doubt about it. Heck, I know I picked up some great ideas, so I’m pretty sure you will too :)

So let’s get to it! Here’s what I asked our group of experts this week:

“Let’s pretend you’re fairly new to affiliate marketing. Even though you’re kind of a newbie, you’re having some success and making a little money here and there. And then suddenly, you find yourself in a situation where you need to make some fast cash, but you can only use one technique to make enough affiliate sales to cover your needs. Based on your current knowledge and experience what would you do and why?”

To which they replied…

Josh Spaulding from Ethicalim.com says:

“This is hard to answer in a way that will benefit the masses because there are so many effective ways to execute affiliate marketing. For instance, some affiliate marketers make their money primarily from PPC, some primarily through mailing lists (like myself,) some primarily through organic traffic and those are only 3 of the more known affiliate marketing “models.

With that being said, the best answer for one person is probably not going to be the best answer for another. But, if I were mentoring someone who is in the exact situation you mentioned and followed the exact same path that I have, which consists primarily of email marketing, for fast affiliate cash I would recommend the following:

1. Find a product you REALLY believe in and benefit from.

2. Obviously sign up to their affiliate program.

3. Contact the product owner and request a discount for your list, which expires about 3 days later and try to get them to add a countdown timer for that sense of urgency (really increases conversion!)

4. Spend some time coming up with a good subject line for your email! The subject line can really “make or break” any promotion. Go back and look at your previous emails. Find what converted well and what didn’t convert well.

5. When writing your email, be sure to first describe the problem, then describe your search for a solution, reveal the solution then provide a good, solid call to action!

6. Come up with some kind of valuable bonus. This could be one of your own products or even some kind of service you can offer. Just come up with something that is free to all who purchase, which adds value to the overall offer.

7. Follow up with a second email about 24 hours before the offer expires (so two days later) with a reminder that they only have 24 hours to take advantage of the offer!

That little seven step process, in my experience, has improved promotions by as much as 300% and is my best advice for some quick affiliate cash if you have a list that has made you a little money in the past.”

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Lynn Terry from ClickNewz.com says:

“The absolute best way to earn fast cash, while also setting yourself up for long-term profit, is to create an info-product in your niche. A short low-cost report is an impulse buy, which will result in a good conversion rate.

Selling the report will earn money on the front end, while also building a list of buyers that you can follow up with long-term. In the actual report you can lead into specific affiliate recommendations, and earn commissions from any sales made.

This one method gives you three potential revenue sources. It also gives you extra options. You can set up an affiliate program for your info-product, or work with JV partners, to reach even more buyers and make even more sales. Authoring a high quality guide or report will boost your credibility in the niche, which you can leverage to land guest blogging or interview opportunities.

Initially you want to sell the product to earn your fast cash. But at the same time you can set yourself up to have a consistent stream of income from that one project, which will keep you from getting in that situation again.“

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Tiffany Dow from the Tiffany Dow Blog says:

“Oh it stinks that my first time here I have to be a Debbie Downer, but I’m not one to promote quick cash concepts. I see too many desperate people coming through this industry – maybe they’ve made 2-10 sales total but suddenly they’re losing the house, about to go to a shelter – and emailing me for a life raft.

In my personal experience, it just doesn’t work that way…UNLESS…you’ve taken time to build a list while you made those few trickles of sales. If this is the case, and it honestly doesn’t matter what the size of the list is – just how targeted it is for the product you’re about to promote, then you tap into that for a sudden influx of sales.

I’ve had a small list convert into $12,000 worth of sales in 48 hours – $6k for me, $6k for the product owner. There’s a reason it resulted in such a great cash flow and you can do the same steps when you need a quick injection of cash IF you have a list:

1.) Find a product new to your niche. Always be on the lookout for new items that everyone and his brother hasn’t already promoted.

2.) Buy a copy for yourself (or request a review copy) so that you’re not just rattling off sales copy bullet points, but truly giving a very personal review.

3.) Create a short personalized tutorial that can act as a viral element to reach those who aren’t even on your list yet – like a PDF or even a YouTube video.

I’ve had great success with affiliate sales just telling others about my excitement about what may be with a product – even when I haven’t tried it myself. It’s all about how honest you can be and how committed you are to finding products perfectly suited to your customers’ needs.

Look out for them…and they’ll look out for you when the time comes and you need a quick jolt of cash.”

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Alice Seba from Contentrix.com says:

“Assuming that I was smart enough newbie affiliate marketer to build my mailing list, I would put my focus there. Results from email are instant – you send a promotion and things start happening. I could spend my time distributing articles, guest blogging and the like, but results can take time to build. You get much more control out of promoting to your own list.

Truth be told, I would probably step out of the affiliate marketing box and quickly create an information product, so I would get all the profits and I’d get them right into my PayPal account. But the question is asking me to stick with affiliate marketing, so I will do that for my answer. I’d pick a product with a high conversion rate and a high payout…then I’d craft a promotion around that. I’d warm the audience up over a few days with information related to the product and then start selling. I might even offer a highly-relevant bonus/gift for those who purchased through my affiliate link.. If I want to make quick money, I can’t expect to send out an email and be done with it. The key here is follow-up and persistence.”

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Nicole Dean from NicoleOnTheNet.com says:

“If I were in this situation, I’d first ask myself the question:

“What product would I really like to try, that my blog readers would be fascinated by?”

By answering that question, you’ll have an idea of which affiliate program you’ll want to promote.

From there, it’s a matter of buying the program (assuming you can afford it) and then using it, while documenting the results, both good and bad.

Here’s an example. Last year, I purchased Scott Tousignant’s Fat Loss Quickie program and followed it for 30 days. You can see what happened during that time here:
Computer Butt Challenge.

I made plenty of sales during that month. Scott was a trooper, of course, because he was supportive during the good and the bad, so people didn’t feel like I was just blindly promoting a program to make money. They could see that it worked.

The only thing that I would do differently, would be to include a bonus for those who purchased the program through my affiliate link, which I didn’t do at the time. Next time, I will, though.

You could do this successfully in ANY niche. Budgeting, organization, healthy eating, parenting, marketing. You name it. It can be done.”

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Kelly McCausey from WahmTalkRadio.com says:

“Maaaaan, that’s a hard question! I’ll have to choose holding a special event like a teleseminar or an all day conference room webinar series where my guest speakers all have great products to offer and I can pepper my affiliate links into everything we do. It would take quite a bit of advance work to get it all together but the payoff should be excellent.

I would love it if some of my affiliates organized seminars that would allow me to come and share my passion for an hour or so! Something about reaching offline businesses to promote Become a Blog Consultant, another about getting started as a blogger to promote Blog Internship, etc.”

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Angela Wills from MarketersMojo.com says:

“I think the answer would depend on if I already have a list. I’m going to assume that since I’m a newbie my list is pretty teeny as most new people’s lists are. If I were in this situation and could use only one technique I would definitely look to leverage the lists and traffic that other marketers have already built.

Here’s what I would do:

1. Write a fantastic report that is highly targeted to the advantages and benefits of the product I wanted to promote. Say for example that I was going to promote Melissa’s Special Report Club. I would write a report about the advantages of using private label products and the benefits of not having to do everything yourself. Throughout the report would be my affiliate link.

2. Next I would contact highly targeted, popular bloggers about guest blogging on the exact same topic my report covers. The blog post would be a lead-in to the report and I would then invite them to come get the free report within the blog.

3. I would repeat this with as many bloggers as I could. I would also carefully watch how people were responding to the blog posts, reports and the calls to action within the report and tweak as necessary as I went along.”

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Well, there you have it! Like I said, there’s some fantastic information here. But if there’s one thing that you take away from here today, it’s the importance of building a mailing list. And don’t be afraid to promote to them either (remember, you’re running a business not a charity).

All my best,

 P.S. I love affiliate marketing, not only because it’s profitable, but because it’s fun and challenging too. While I now know how to be successful at it, it wasn’t always that way. In fact, just a few short years ago it was a real struggle for me to get going and make money at it. Talk about frustrating!

But I don’t want it to be like that for you. Which is why I put together my Affiliate Marketing Guide (use coupon code: 06F90B8 to save 20%), so I can help you bypass those tricky hurdles and see results a lot faster than I ever did.

Every Thursday I ask a few experts to contribute their thoughts on questions related to Internet marketing and online business. Some of my contributors will be regulars, while others will just pop in from time to time.

So this week I posed this question to the group: “Do you think that traditional information products, like the single ebook/report being sold, is enough in today’s market to satisfy consumers, or do you believe they’re looking for more than ever before?”

To which they replied…

Alice Seba from Contentrix.com says:

“I don’t think there is a cut-and-dry answer because everybody wants different things. Some want in-depth audio, video, etc. Some just want it quick and simple. Budget is also a concern and people will more willingly spend money on a inexpensive report than a full-fledged course. On the other hand, as a business owner, you need fewer sales of an expensive product…so it may be easier to make more money with more complex products. Ultimately, I think there is room to do either…you just have to package it so it’s appealing to your target customer.

At Contentrix.com, for example, we sell cheap $6.50 “Blueprints”on specific topics. We don’t call them “reports” because “blueprint” sounds sexier and they aren’t exactly what one thinks of when they say the word “report”. Our customers get easy-to-reference help on targeted topics and they can start applying what they learn right away. There’s no monster of a course just wasting space on their hard drive. That’s how we package it for our target customer. You have to come up with just the right way to package your product, whatever it may be, for your market.

Ultimately, you need to decide what you are willing and able to put together. If you don’t feel you have the resources or time to put together a giant course, then don’t do it…but don’t let that keep you from getting in on the information product business. There’s a market for all kinds of products. Start testing the waters to find out what will work for you and your customers.

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Nicole Dean from NicoleOnTheNet.com says:

I think there’ll always be a place for traditional “quick” solutions to problems, which is what the ebook is so good for.

“However, there will always be customers who want more and more and more, so providing them with additional content is always smart, whether it’s included in the product or offered as an upsell during the order process.

The important things, in my opinion, to remember are…

1. To create the product in the method that’s least intimidating to you, whether that be writing or recording an audio.
2. Then, expand your offering so that the customers who want more have that option.”

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Kelly McCausey from WahmTalkRadio.com says:

They sure are looking for more. I’m seeing it in every area of my business. People are interested in interactive learning resources. They’re willing to pay more for a personal touch. I’ve been doing well with products that fall somewhere in between the traditional info product and one on one coaching – my WordPress Orientation course for example.

My WO customers pay once to access to live Q&A sessions where the answers are demonstrated before their eyes in a web conference room. They also receive access to some basic videos for common issues but most tell me that it’s the live demo that attracted them.

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Angela Wills from MarketersMojo.com says:

In the information product industry I think there are a few things to consider:

1. How the consumer prefers to learn.
2. How much the consumer is willing to pay.
3. If a simple format is enough to teach the material properly.

There’s no doubt that social media, coaching programs, video and other advanced methods of product delivery are pretty big deals in today’s market but that doesn’t mean that the traditional methods are no longer effective. I believe it’s not a matter of following the trends but following your market.

For example I bought the Super Affiliate Handbook about a year and a half ago. It is simply an ebook but it is exactly what I needed. I would buy it again today. I prefer the ebook format over videos, teleseminars or a coaching program because I can print it out and sit it on my desk for handy reference.

Is the traditional format enough for everything? For some markets and topics I believe it is. For others, like say teaching advanced methods or video marketing, you’re going to have to use some of the fantastic formats and technology available on the internet.

Again, it all comes down to your market and their needs. Listen to what they tell you and you can’t go wrong.

**If you have a question you would like to ask the roundtable chat experts, CLICK HERE send it to us!