Author Archive | Richard Dansie

My wife I built a water fall in our back yard, witch took us about two years to build. We would go up to the mountains and collect rocks from different canyons. We enjoy the memories of each rock we picked from the peaceful places that we have enjoyed together.

You send out an email and someone writes back that you’re a liar. You post on your blog and someone says you’re an idiot. You create a new product and someone says it stinks and it doesn’t work. Congratulations, because you are doing something RIGHT.

If you’re trying to please everyone, you’re pleasing no one. People who are having a real and positive impact on the world are inevitably met with trolls and haters.

If no one experiences discomfort when they see your work, then your work isn’t having an impact.

Think of every successful person and company you know. Every single one of them has trolls and haters. And likely every single one of them knows that those trolls and haters are clear indications that they are on the right track.

Maybe you don’t have ‘haters’ after all. Maybe you have ‘fans in denial.’ It’s all a state of mind. Remember, when people hate on you, it’s often because you have something they want.

And here’s how to have fun with your haters: Realize that the less they like you, the more religiously they will be checking your page. So smile. And maybe write them this note:

“Dear haters, I have so much more for you to be mad at. Just be patient.”

A tiger doesn’t lose sleep over the opinion of sheep.

Is someone trying to bring you down? They’re already beneath you, and they probably secretly wish to BE you.

So love your haters.

They are often a true measure of your success.

If you’re not doing it, you’ve certainly heard of it – segmenting your email list is based on things like when and where readers subscribed, products they’ve bought, geographical location and so forth. Should you be doing it? Absolutely! Segmenting your list is a great way to increase response rates and grow your profits.

It’s not just the segmenting you’ve got to think about, but also moving people from one list to another.

Example: Jane subscribes to get your free traffic report. A month later she buys your traffic product. But the week after that she also buys your video creation product, and the week after that she buys an affiliate product you recommended on product creation.

So what do you do – move her to a new list every time she buys? Keep her on more than one list? Get frustrated and decided to keep everyone on the same list?

List segmentation might seem complicated and messy, so let’s talk about why you would even bother with it in the first place. Then we’ll cover how to go about it, what you need to think about, and ways to make it pay off handsomely for you.

Why Segment Your List?

According to DMA, 77% of email marketing return on investment came from targeted, segmented campaigns. Segmented email campaigns produce, on average, 30% more opens and 50% more click-thru’s compared to untargeted email campaigns. That alone might convince you to start segmenting your lists.

Let’s say you have 1000 people on your list. 300 of those people purchased an exercise guide on using stretch bands. The other 700 didn’t buy the guide.

If you send an email to the 300 offering them a discount on the exercise stretch bands to go with the book they purchased, you’ll likely get a good response. And if you send an email to the 700 offering a discount on a package deal of the book and the bands, you’ll likely get a good response.

But if you sent an email to both lists with a more generic offer, your response rate would go down. You can see how segmenting your list can work to your advantage.

Here’s how you might think of list segmentation: Pulling out portions of your list who are the most likely to respond to certain offers, and then giving them those offers. For example, you might have a list of 10,000 people who are interested in online marketing. But certain people on that list are especially interested in video marketing, while others aren’t. Some are interested in email marketing, while others aren’t. And some are interested in affiliate marketing, while others aren’t.

If you can segment your list to send the right offers to the right people, your response will go through the roof.

“But can’t I just send all the offers to all my subscribers?”

You can, but it’s counter-productive for several reasons:

First, readers are less likely to open any of your emails if they aren’t tailored to their interests. If you’re sending every offer under the sun, they’re going to realize that most of your emails don’t contain anything relevant to them. They won’t open all of your emails just to find the few that do pertain to them.

Second, the math is terrible if you send everyone the same offer. Imagine you have subscribers with 5 different interests. You could send out 5 different emails on the same day, each tailored to their specific interest, and get sales on 5 different products. But if you sent out the same email to all of them, then 4 out of 5 will have no interest and won’t buy anything.

Third, if you don’t segment then you’ll inevitably send out offers to people who already purchased that product. And that’s bad.

Imagine you’re the list subscriber. You buy product X, and a few days later you get an email suggesting you go buy the product you just bought. Now you’re thinking this marketer is an idiot.

Or maybe after you buy the product, the price goes down. Now you’re steamed. You paid $99 last week, and now you get an email saying the product is on special for $79. Grrrrr.

Sure, you write and ask for a $20 refund and you probably get it. But what happens from here on out? You don’t buy anything because you figure a better offer will be coming next week.

One more scenario – you buy a product and forget about it. Then later you get an offer for that product, buy it and… Oops! You realize you’ve just been snookered into buying the same product twice. Sure, you get a refund on the second one, but how do you feel about the seller? Not too great.

The list of reasons to segment go on, but let’s talk about…

How to segment your lists

In a word – autoresponders. Your list management service (autoresponder) holds the keys to segmenting. You can create tags, so that when a subscriber takes a particular action, they get tagged. For example, when they buy product X, they are tagged so they no longer receive emails promoting product X.

You can create automations, so when someone buys product X, they get moved into the buyer’s sequence. This is yet another reason to list segment – you can send a series of emails to product buyers that makes sure they get the most out of that product, thereby reducing refunds.

You can create separate sequences for each product you promote, moving your readers from one sequence to the next based upon their actions and preferences. Plus you can create separate sequences based on preferences, what lead magnet they signed up to receive and so forth. With the technology available in services such as Aweber and Ontraport, you’re only limited by your imagination and the desires of your readers.

Get creative in segmenting

Sometimes you’ll need to get creative, such as offering a bonus package that they need to enter their email address to receive. This will give you a list of buyers to a particular affiliate product you’ve promoted.

Use opt-in forms that offer bonuses, freebies, guarantees, support and anything else you can think of to get readers and product buyers to subscribe to segmented lists.

Always be thinking – how can I segment my list so I get them the information and offers they want to receive?

What can you segment?

This is where it gets fun, challenging and even exciting.

There are so many ways to segment your lists, and there are no hard and fast rules on this. Really you need to decide what is best for you, your list and your niche.

Here’s some ways to segment your lists…

Purchaser or non-purchaser – have they made a purchase? How long ago? If it’s been a long time, you’ll want to give them a great offer to get them buying from you again. If they purchased recently, you might want to reward them somehow to keep them active.

How active – have they clicked a link in your emails in the past month? Generally you want to make more generous offers to the least active subscribers, to get them interacting and purchasing again.

Customer value – did they purchase a $10 product? $100 product? How much they’ve spent with you can determine what offers you send them. Be sure to speak to your best customers in a way that shows how important they are to you.

Geographical location – depending on your niche, this can be a terrific way to speak to people using their local lingo, customs and so forth to better relate to them and push more emotional buttons.

A good example would be sending out special emails to the U.S. for things like Thanksgiving and Fourth of July, or Boxing Day in the U.K or Anzac Day in Australia and New Zealand.

Area of interest – even if you build your list with a somewhat generic lead magnet, you can still segment your list based on interests. You can do this by making an offer – free or paid – and then segmenting those who click the link.

For example, your lead magnet is online marketing (very generic) and then you make offers to your main list for a free video on traffic generation, a report on making money with blogging, and a paid offer for a product creation course. Now you’ve got 3 separate list segments that are niched down.

Content format – some prefer written content such as blog posts and pdf’s. Others prefer podcasts, or video, or webinars. If you know how certain segments of your list prefer to consume their content, you can tailor future offerings accordingly.

Stages in the Sales Cycle – giving new subscribers an introductory email series is a great idea. This introduces them to you and your business and gets them excited for more. Then you might even give them a choice of what they would like to receive next.

This barely scratches the surface of different ways to segment your lists, but you get the idea.

Segmenting tips, ideas and monetization…

Making the same offer to your entire list? Segment anyway. Let’s say you’re promoting a course on traffic generation strategies to your entire online marketing list, which is segmented into 3 parts as follows:

– People interested in video marketing
– People interested in blogging
– People interested in Amazon affiliate sites

Of course you could send out the same email to everyone, but why would you?

Instead, talk about using videos to generate traffic to your video list. For your blogging list, talk about driving more traffic to blogs. And for your Amazon affiliate list, talk about driving traffic to Amazon affiliate sites.

Remember to tailor the subject lines to each segmented niche as well. You might be shocked at the improvement in your open rates, clicks and sales.

Send new subscribers your old offers.

Let’s say you launched a new product 60 days ago. Everyone on your list at that time received several emails about the product. But now you have new subscribers on your list – what to do? Send an email (or 2) just to them, telling them about the product. The point is to tell new subscribers about offers, products and opportunities they haven’t seen yet.

Segment product buyers who didn’t purchase the upsell.

Make them another offer to buy the upsell they missed – perhaps with an additional discount or an added bonus.

Segment affiliate product buyers based on product creator.

If you sold a hundred copies of Joe Smith’s course to your list, those buyers might want to know about everything else Joe Smith puts out. And right there in the email, you can remind them that they bought Joe Smith’s course back in June.

You can also segment based on interest – that is, people who clicked the link in the email to check out Joe Smith’s course, but didn’t necessarily buy. Remind them of their interest in Joe’s products.

Segment based on clicks.

Readers click a link to check out a product – send them a follow up email reminding them of their interest and that the sale is ending.

Last of all, get creative.

What can you offer certain segments of your list that will have them shouting ‘YES!’ The more segmented you make your lists, the more specific and creative you can get with your offers.

Good luck and happy ‘segmented’ email marketing!

It’s possible to add another $1,000 – $2,000 a month or more to your bottom line if you live in the right location and own a car or truck.

In fact, some people actually lease a car or two in order to take advantage of these opportunities. And it makes sense: If you can lease a car for, say, $400 a month and make $2,000 a month, why not do it?

No doubt you’ve heard of Uber and Lyft, both of which allow you to start your own taxi service. But that’s not what we’re talking about here.

Instead, we’ve researched peer-to-peer sites where you can rent out your car to travelers for days and even weeks at a time while you focus on your internet business. Newer cars earn the most, as do popular travel destinations.

Turo – you can rent out your car, truck, SUV or minivan. Most rentals are at least a week. You might need to pick the person up or drop them off somewhere. Turo carries a $1 million liability insurance policy on every vehicle which covers damage and theft. turo.com

GetAround – similar to Turo, with reports of car owners earning up to $10,000 a year. www.getaround.com

Outdoorsy – do you have an RV sitting idle? Rent it out and earn $150 to $350 per day. The company handles bookings and payments and again carries $1 million in insurance. www.outdoorsy.com

Car Next Door – this one is strictly for our Australian friends. www.carnextdoor.com.au

EasyCar Club – this is the UK-based peer-to-peer car hire service. carclub.easycar.com

Do you use your car too much to rent it out? Then try a vehicle advertising service.

Wrapify – your car gets covered with a giant advertisement and you earn based on how much you drive. A typical commuter might earn $50 to $100 a week – which may potentially cover your car payment. www.wrapify.com

Carvertise – been around since 2012 and works like Wrapify. www.carvertise.com

None of these will make you rich, but they can add significant income to your bottom line while you’re growing your online business.

The only way you can fail is to give up. If you don’t give up, you can never fail, and it is only a matter of time before your perseverance pays off. Trust me, it’s true.

For example:

Have you heard of Theodor Seuss Geisel? Or perhaps you’ve heard of Dr. Seuss?

Theodor studied at Dartmouth College and Oxford University because he planned to become a series writer. But the Great Depression saw him working as a cartoonist and advertising illustrator just to get by.

Deciding to launch his writing career with a children’s book, Theodor wrote, And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street.

Unfortunately the manuscript was rejected 27 times. 27! Imagine going to 27 different publishers and having every single one of them say, “NO!” No doubt you’d want to throw the manuscript out, which is exactly what Theodore planned to do.

As chance would have it, he ran into an old college friend who happened to be working for a children’s publisher. Yes, the book was published, and Dr. Seuss went on to write over 40 books that have sold over 200 million copies. He won Emmy and Peabody Awards and even a Pulitzer Prize.

So what would have happened if Theodore had thrown out his manuscript after his 27th rejection? He wouldn’t have had it to give to his friend. And likely he would have given up and stayed in cartooning and advertising.

Never give up.

One more story…

You’ve probably never heard of Paul Rokich. He was born in Utah, near a sulfur dioxide belching refinery that destroyed everything around it. The place looked awful, so Paul vowed he would bring back the trees that had been destroyed by the sulfur.

But the refinery refused to give him permission to replant the trees. So Paul went off to college to study Botany, where his professor told him nothing would ever grow in such a wasteland.

But Paul didn’t give up. Years later he began sneaking back onto the refinery grounds and planting seedlings week after week. Most of his seedlings died, but he kept planting. Drought killed many, some were destroyed by fire, others were dug up by workers, and most just wouldn’t grow in the poor soil. But then, some of them started to grow. And animals began returning to the area.

Eventually Paul got permission to be on the land. He got machines and a crew to help him, and today the area is 14,000 acres of trees, bushes, plants and wildlife.

Even when things seem impossible and beyond your control, and even when your efforts prove futile time and time again, just keep planting.

Because sooner or later, persistence always pays off.

You’ve got a terrific offer that’s converting at 10% with earnings per click of $1.50. Anyone who mails for you is bound to make money. So why is it when you email potential JV partners, you don’t hear back from them?

Let’s look at it from the perspective of the JV partner. They probably get 2-5 emails a day just like yours. They already have a lot going on. They already have a lot of income coming in. They’re not desperate to mail, but they know if they do they will make money. So they need to get around to it, and they will, but it’s probably not going to be with your product unless you make it super easy for them.

Yes, you’re going to have email swipes in place and everything ready to go, but that’s not exactly what we’re talking about.

When someone gets your JV request, she has to review your product to see if it’s any good. That alone is generally going to take an hour or more. If she likes it, she’ll want to form her own opinion of it so she can tell her list. More time. Then she’s got the whole autoresponder thing to deal with. It’s an investment of time for her, for sure. Frankly, she’d rather be doing something else.

So to help push her in the direction of choosing to do this work for your product, here’s what you can do:

Don’t ask for the promotion because that’s what everyone else does. Instead, let her know you’ve got a ‘ready to go promotion’ for her mailing schedule next week if she hasn’t already filled it.

Provide a swipe email or two with her affiliate link already inserted into it. Provide a review copy. Provide all the details, like: Earnings per click, conversion rate, commission, who has promoted it, etc.

By saying it’s a ready to go promo and giving all the details up front, you are standing apart from every other product owner who is saying, “My product is great and I’m great and you should promote me.”

You’re focusing on what the JV partner needs and wants, and what’s in it for HER, not for you. Yes, it doesn’t seem like a big difference. But like anything else, it’s not just what you have but how you present what you have that can make all the difference.

Are you getting something expensive done for your business? For example, are you having some special software made just for you? That might set you back a couple of thousand dollars, but not if you’re smart.

When you tell your coder what you want, ask him to create a stand alone version that you can sell to others. It might be a blank version with no graphics or banners that you can then sell at a premium rate to other marketers, who can then brand the software and sell it under their own name.

This might cost a little more money up front, but the money you earn on selling the software will likely pay for the whole deal, and maybe even put you in profit.

What if you’re having your lawyer draw up legal forms for your website? Same thing. Ask your lawyer to make generic versions you can then sell to other marketers who can’t afford a lawyer. Make it clear that they need to do their own due diligence, and that you are not offering legal advice.

Anytime you are paying for anything pricey, ask yourself how you can turn the expense into a profit stream. It’s a simple shift in your mindset that can greatly reduce your overhead and even put some extra money in your pocket.

I know a marketer who subscribes to a PLR membership. He gets good stuff, usually video courses that are quite extensive. When he finds a course he likes, he renames it and gets new graphics for it so it looks like it’s his.

So far so normal, right?

But this is where it gets good. Instead of just selling it like you would any other course, he offers it as a personal mentoring course that lasts for 30 or 45 days. And he sells it for $297 to $497, depending on the contents of the course and the duration he chooses for the course length.

Then he simply makes himself available via email and twice a week via Skype to answer any questions. Of course he makes sure he knows the topic well, but anyone who’s been marketing for any length of time will know the basics well enough to do this.

He also limits the number of people who can join to somewhere between 10 and 25, depending again on the course. This creates urgency, and it’s not uncommon for him to completely fill a class. But even if he only sold a couple of mentoring courses, he would still be plenty in profit since his monthly membership is only $49.

The real work is done by the students as they progress through the course. He just answers questions. It’s a great deal for both him and the students, since they are learning by doing and they have someone to go to with questions. And he doesn’t put in much work to make the profit he gets.

If you’ve got a decent amount of Internet Marketing experience yourself, you may consider this for an additional income stream.

What if you were to do the exact same work and put in the exact same effort on your next product, only you made 3 tiny changes and increased your income? Here’s how…

1. Change the commission amount that you offer to affiliates. If you normally give 100% to build your list, try offering just 60 or 70% instead. Surprisingly, your affiliates will often send just as much traffic, but you get to profit as well.

Alternative: Bump the commission up to 100%. If you normally pay 50%, trying bumping it up this time instead. Then offer an upsell in which you either split the commission with affiliates, or take it all yourself.

2. Insert referral links into your product. This is old school but it still works. Choose a product or two of your own that fit well with the product you’re selling and talk them up inside your new product. Don’t oversell, just mention how they will help out with whatever it is they do.

Alternative: Add the sales pages for the products as index.html files into your download zip. Or better yet, do both.

3. Place links for other products on your download page. This is prime real estate and a great place to make other offers.

Alternative: Offer your best affiliates a link to their product on your download page if they will promote your product like crazy. This works really, really well at motivating some affiliates. Decide if you want to split the profits from their products with them, or let them keep 100% of the profits.

It is surprising how often simple little tweaks can substantially add to your bottom line. You just have to test things out and see what works best for you – it’s well worth the extra few minutes it takes.

This won’t make you rich but it can make you a full time income… Every day there are new people wanting to do Internet marketing, but they don’t want to do the work. If you can take the pain of the work away from them, they will pay you handsomely for it.

The pain is in the actual “doing” of the thing. So you do the “thing” for them. What’s the “thing?” It could be creating their first product, setting up their sales funnel, building their website, writing their blog posts, putting a list building system in place… anything that needs to be done to start an online business qualifies.

Let’s say someone wants to have their own website but doesn’t know where to start. “I will create your website for you” is going to resonate with them. So you create a professional website for your customer, and then when you’re in profit and have your own service you can start marketing – you outsource the rest of the website development while you focus on building your next service.

Yes, it really can be that simple. Watch to see what people want when they’re starting their online businesses, then jump in and be the one to give it to them. It’s a guaranteed plan to make money online now, and far into the future.