[Black Quixote]

The Income Datasheet [IM Edition] Part 1

Disclaimer: Everything in this is for educational purposes only. Do not just copy me, but really put thought into every move you make in regards to IM. Diligence prevents loss.

So, yesterday, everyone is familiar with my thread on my IM JV. I found people, but the important thing I noticed was there was a visible curiosity into IM and I heard a few words about me never coming with a datasheet by myself, only being mentioned in a few others, so I decided to go ahead and write on something I know about like the back of my hand. Internet Marketing, but more specifically, my subset.

I just started writing, no organization, nothing and ended up with enough material for an ebook, which ended up with me just deciding to split it into three sections, so I could answer questions and really help people who were curious.

So let’s start from the basics:

What is Internet Marketing?

Internet Marketing (or Affiliate Marketing depending on your context), is a relatively new field. It has just started to reach maturation in the past few years. IM has relatively little legistlation and regulation due to the fact it is not limited to one country. There are some laws specifically for it, but this is the era of opportunity. Everyone and anyone with a mind, access to a computer (don’t even need your own, when I was 13 I worked out of a library), and a goal could make money beyond what most people would deem average. Of course, there are a massive amount of scammers, fakes, idiots, and plain jerks. It is competitive in certain channels, and completely uncompetitive in others.

I have over 7 years experience with IM. I have so much information about the various options but I personally choose to focus on three channels of Internet Marketing here for the sake of actionable information.

1.Affiliate Marketing

This is when someone has a product, you find the best audience for that product and lead them to the product you are promoting for a commission. There is so much information out there on Affiliate Marketing alone it is seriously easy for you to get overwhelmed. The smart thing to do, is focus on DOING and not reading. What you need to learn you can pick up as you go along, but I tell people all the time, DO NOT BE AN ARMCHAIR MARKETER! It means all you do is read and read and read and never take action, afraid because you think you aren’t ready.

Affiliate Marketing can be for any Niche, and there is most likely already a product in any niche you want to promote for. You have options. Below are a few examples of products you can promote:

-Clickbank/Clickbooth Products: Clickbank is a network of products, ebooks, forums, etc. etc. that you can promote for a commission. In the past, I’ve focused primarily on IM products such as software, ebooks, etc. etc. but there Is far more money in other niches. Product ranges from $20-$400, and from a one time fee to a recurring membership site fee. The beauty of clickbank is there is a lot of money from both sides, working as a vendor and as an affiliate promoting.

-CPA Offers: This has been my bread and butter. CPA stands for Cost Per Acquisition. Whenever you send someone to a website, they put in their email you get $1 or if they fill out a full two page form of information you receive $30. Some CPA offers are easier than others to promote. Some don’t convert at all and are just a pain in the ass. But regardless, if you want a CPA Network, the top ones are: NeverBlue Ads, CPA Tank, EWA network, but I use private networks. (If you need help getting into one, I can walk you through it).

-Websites Affiliate Programs: Amazon, Ebay, etc. etc. all have affiliate programs. Last I checked Ebay’s was hosted with Commision Junction, a network that sports an admirable diversity in products to promote. You can truly do very well with this. If you find the right product, and find the right traffic source you can be at $300-400 a day within months. I have friends that make that much in profit, and aren’t even out of high school yet, or out of college.

2. Product Development

Some people opt to turn their personal knowledge into a product. Ranging from a membership site to an ebook or a physical product or MUSE as Tim Ferriss would say. What Tim Ferriss did was take a topic that most IMers I know, knew for years and just put it out in the open for the average man to know about.

Product Development can be time consuming, and the options for product release are numerous.

You can build your own website, sell on Ebay, sell on Craigslist, etc. etc. Product Development starts with you taking something you are either knowledgable about or interested in, say Dog Training. First research a few keywords using Google Adwords tool, find 5-10 profitable keywords (keywords with low competition but decently high traffic, say a few thousand a month each). You then write an outline and a section asking all the questions you would have if you are a person that wants to train a dog an example:

-How do I teach him how to sit?
-How do I teach him/her how to not pee everywhere?
-What is the best strategy to train a dog without endangering them?

Once the outline is complete, answer all the questions. Make a table of contents and reread what you wrote. Add pictures, more information etc. etc. Then, build a website around your ebook, a Blog and a main website. Write 10 articles or buy ten for the average around $60 for 10 500 word articles and put them on the blog optimized for your target keywords and put content on your mainsite including an email capture to build a list. Have someone more familiar with SEO do Offsite and Onsite SEO for say $100, and focus on linkbuilding for a bit, and do as many press releases and article marketing (if you have questions, Ill send you an ebook on article marketing, PM me). Once your site starts ranking, add a new short article every other day and you should see emails coming in the email capture form. Then, send these peope some good information on dog training tips for a bit, then sell them your ebook for say $23.

Then, you have a list as well, which means you can upsell them on other things in the future, or sell the list or whatever. It’s not necessarily this easy, but this was just a way to start out cheap. It’s all about Niche + Execution for how well something like this does.
Alternatively, products can be sourced to China for relatively cheap, everything from Counterfeit Gucci bags to sell on Ebay (knew someone making $3,000 a day before he quit), to your own blenders. It depends on a variety of factors as well as what your investment. Product Development will get it’s own sheet, so this was just a quick general overview.

3Promotion/Marketing Services/Products

Whether an Article Service, Ebook writing Service, SEO Software, making websites and selling them, IM just expands from a small sector to so many different vehicles to profit from. I made an ebook with another member here on how to make good money from selling Services on Forums. A colleague of mine from Ireland made a million last year just off selling IM services on forums. Its lucrative, but means you must be dedicated and spend a good amount of time finding or rehasing a service needed. You could focus on linkbuilding, email list creation, wordpress template creation, outsourcing. I know a few guys that sell services that barely do anything substantial because its such a small niche but make good money and live comfortably.

But these are just the tip of the iceberg. Within each of those is five more levels and within that five more. They eventually reach a weblike form where you make money from one thing, but upsell your list you made from it on another, or swap lists with someone else and crosssell, etc. etc. The list goes on. The best part about IM is it is location independent and you can start with however much you want, the only problem is how fast you make money is dependent on you.
The best word of advice I can give you is: HAVE MULTIPLE STREAMS OF INCOME FOR STABLITY! DO NOT SPEND EVERYTHING YOU MAKE FROM THE GETGO!

Now, before I close this, I wanted to give a bit of information about what my next part will be on: Traffic Sources.

Traffic is the butter to Marketing’s bread. It is how you make money.
The first thing to understand is conversion rates and optimization. If I get 1000 people coming to my site, and I get paid $20 for every person that does a CPA offer, if I am getting even barely decent buying traffic then I will get at MINIMUM, being extremely pessimistic a 1% conversion rate, that means 10 people complete it and thus I get $200 for that day. But, say I change my site template, rework my sales page etc. etc. and it goes up to 10%, it becomes $2,000 a day. See the power of optimization? The problem is besides myself there aren’t many people that focus on specializing in Monetization and Optimisation, so for you it will be about trial and error, but will gradually see what the important factors are.

Traffic can come from a few sources:
-Social networks: Facebook, Youtube, Twitter are the norms.
-Answer Websites: Yahoo Answers (great for listbuilding and clickbank offers)
-SEO: Build a website whether MicroNiche (as they rank easily) or Authority Site, and rank and convert the traffic that comes in.
-Article Marketing: Put keywords in your articles so they rank, and put them on article websites such as HubPages, Squidoo etc. etc. then the reader goes back to your website, sees your other articles, looks around, maybe subscribes or just buys your ebook or product.
There are software and methods for each. It’s all about creativity and combination to make money. Testing, testing testing. Once you find something that works, you are gold for a bit and then just need to keep building additional streams.
This was just a general overview. Next Datasheet will come with a 10 day action plan.

Any questions, just ask!

Later

[Kitsune]

I don't mean to be negative, but this just reads like an e-zine article that you'd put a link to at the end.

There are a lot of guys who do internet marketing on this forum. I might have missed it, but you didn't say what you do, what you earn, or how you do it.

What I'm asking is for you to make parts two and three more nuts and bolts than general overview. Otherwise it is just another (Find product+SEO it = Profit) thread.

EDIT: And what is with the massive font?

[Black Quixote]

No idea. It just posted that way.

And I suppose,but I wasn't making this for the people that already know, it was an intro for those that don't. I had to make it simple. I'm trying to help those new know their options, then whatever the most interest is in, continue on that. If you are already working on I'M then I'm almost positive anything I could show you that's unique and long term, wouldnt be explained in a thread. This is general stuff for those new to it.

[R Smoov]

I acually like this. I'll PM you about this more so I can get help to get my feet off the ground on this.

It's good to see the forum indulge in the business aspect.

[Saladin]

I saw my name on the other thread on the JV thing BQ was offering. I don't know what it is yet and I don't know why he is promoting on on here instead of on an IM forum.

That being said this write up is solid.

[shameus_o'reaaly]

I'd like to learn abt SEO/listbuilding if you can give any recommendations. I'm writing stuff and compiling photos for a blog i want to start. I have some good gear to write about, but online marketing is new to me, and I mean completely. First thing i want to learn is how to bring traffic to a website, probably wordpress. I'm also taking a recognised class in copywriting sometime over the summer.
Pleasepleaseplease? I have a quiverful of good ideas about products, but unless i stand in Leicester Square and shout, i have no audience!

[AlphaTravel]

Go read Blackhatworld, Warrior Forum, Digital Point, Wicked Fire etc and you'll find out almost everything you need to know about internet / affiliate marketing and everything related. All the basics are covered and much more. On the making money section of BHW you'll even get people detailing step by step methods that you can follow to make money. It's inspired me to get into making money online again and given me a ton of new ideas that I'd never have known about.

Quote:

CPA Offers: This has been my bread and butter. CPA stands for Cost Per Acquisition. Whenever you send someone to a website, they put in their email you get $1 or if they fill out a full two page form of information you receive $30. Some CPA offers are easier than others to promote. Some don’t convert at all and are just a pain in the ass. But regardless, if you want a CPA Network, the top ones are: NeverBlue Ads, CPA Tank, EWA network, but I use private networks. (If you need help getting into one, I can walk you through it).

Can you explain CPA a bit more, it's one part of internet marketing that I haven't looked into yet and don't really understand it.

[Black Quixote]

Ok, it depends on the product. What types of products are you interested in making? Dont give away the specific niche but give me an idea. You can bring in traffic in so many ways. For a blog, SEO is a good steady source of traffic as long as you build it up progressively and do not (pardon my expression) fuck yourself over by trying to do too much in too little time. Unique content is key on blogs. Your content is what brings in readers, and makes them stay. If your promotional articles had great copy, but your content sucks, Theyll come then leave. if your copywriting is good and content is good theyll come and stay. But if copy is bad and content is good, noone will take the time unless your content is really that good. After that last panda update, it became a matter of having quality content and a more holistic SEO campaign. Not as many shitty blog networks with the same IP, used on a bunch of junk sites, it became more diverse linking. Also panda appeared to be partially random. So, it would take you a bit to figure out what sort of SEO will work best for you, but I can give you some materials to start with, make you a small reading outline to follow and then it's a matter of you testing and practicing.

So, the best training for getting basic traffic, is start with article marketing as it gets you slow traffic, make a wordpress. Read Clickbank Domination, Stopwatch Articles, 300perweek, Linkpush Ebook by BTB, The SEO Bible, The SEO book. I would agree, read through BHW, but cautiously, its INCREDIBLY easy to get overwhelmed and become another driveling idiot just reading but doing nothing. Only about 10% of BHW makes real money because everyone else spends their time bantering and getting rep but doing nada. It's a strange environment. Every IM forum is plagued with crazy politics. BHW is the best though.

Ill send you a few links via PM on materials to read that will answer many of your questions. Sound good?

[Black Quixote]

As for CPA, CPA means cost per acquisition. CPA is a wide open field. There is good money in being a Marketer, there is FAR more in being an advertiser (which I hope to become in December). CPA networks host a variety of offers. And it's important to pick good networks. Check which ones are good at AffiliatePaying. If you want me to help you get into a private CPA network, just PM me. There are a few ways to make money from CPA.

You can either pick an offer based on the following: A) You research what is popular, the new Ipad, the new Cellphone, the new stupidproduct #3456. B) Search trending topics and products. Either of these will be a source of traffic, as people will do anything for something they dont need. So, then you pick your method of bringing the masses of idiots to you. Lets say for instance there is a sudden influx in doctors due to the Obamacare bill as a good career option. You realize college students wanna become doctors. What do you need to do that? Money. Sweet, there are CPA Offers for College Scholarships and Grants. What do you do? You make a website that is a landing offer for collecting the emails and for tracking purposes. Your traffic options are as follows:

Cheap = Article Marketing, Offline Promotion via Flyers, Ad Space in newspapers, banners Forum Promotion

Midrange: Microniche Sites, List Building, Quasi-Authority Sites, Mailing (Blackhat or Whitehat)

High end: Text Messaging, Blackhat Software mixed with Good Quality Leads, Cold Calling, Pay Per Click, Authority Sites, Media Buys, Forums

No matter what you choose. Remember, fuck Direct Linking. I repeat. Fuck Direct Linking in most cases. You are losing the opp for a list. Dont throw away repeat customers.

Now, you are a bit more introduced. Now I can address the specific questions you have.

[Saladin]

IF you're new to PPC try out direct linking with 7Search. Yeah you may not be getting a list but 7search is super cheap and direct linking is simple. Allows you to learn the basics while only spending a penny a click. Thats what I"m doing right now to learn PPC, trying out different campaigns.

Once you make a profit off 7search try replicating the campaign via other sources and increase your income. Build your own landing page and list. Try other methods(there are plenty out there). However for beginners 7search is a great way to learn PPC basics on a budget.

For email marketing Aweber is a must. Whenever you offer something get their email, whether it be products or a service.

[worldwidetraveler]

(06-11-2012 10:09 PM)Black Quixote Wrote:  

No matter what you choose. Remember, fuck Direct Linking. I repeat. Fuck Direct Linking in most cases. You are losing the opp for a list. Dont throw away repeat customers.

I wish things were so black and white. This needs to be tested depending on the market or product you're promoting and your sales funnel.

Some products are a one time sale sort of thing and not worth building a list.

The more steps prior to your prospect purchasing will lower overall conversions. So that means less sales up front. You better have a good sales funnel to make up for that especially when you are paying for each click.

Sometimes direct linking is the best choice.

[Black Quixote]

It's true, but for some odd reason whenever I tell people it depends, they figure "Oh, Ill be lazy and not pay for a lander ever so I can track personally and not get sidestepped by my network or even optimise".

So, now I preach make a lander.

[Black Quixote]

Especially because some Advertisers shave like a girl before prom night.

[Johnny Football]

Hey, Black Quixote. Thanks for this thread I really needed to get inspired in IM again because I have been somewhat unmotivated in this field due to lack of success with my site that I bought off Flippa. If I sent you the link too the site do you think you could take a look at it for me? Thanks in advance.

[Black Quixote]

Sure man, send it over. I'll write you an analysis report (usually I charge), but we are all a close knit community so I feel like giving back is my duty. Include as much info about as you can and past earnings, and link me to the auction.

[AlphaTravel]

Quote:

I would agree, read through BHW, but cautiously, its INCREDIBLY easy to get overwhelmed and become another driveling idiot just reading but doing nothing

Which is why I've stopped reading it for now and started working. Every day you can find a new method being talked about on there and it's easy to get caught up in reading it all. End up with too much going through your head. I think it's better to just work on trying to make some cash and see what works and what doesn't and only go back when you need more information.

Quote:

As for CPA, CPA means cost per acquisition. CPA is a wide open field. There is good money in being a Marketer, there is FAR more in being an advertiser (which I hope to become in December). CPA networks host a variety of offers. And it's important to pick good networks. Check which ones are good at AffiliatePaying. If you want me to help you get into a private CPA network, just PM me. There are a few ways to make money from CPA.

You can either pick an offer based on the following: A) You research what is popular, the new Ipad, the new Cellphone, the new stupidproduct #3456. B) Search trending topics and products. Either of these will be a source of traffic, as people will do anything for something they dont need. So, then you pick your method of bringing the masses of idiots to you. Lets say for instance there is a sudden influx in doctors due to the Obamacare bill as a good career option. You realize college students wanna become doctors. What do you need to do that? Money. Sweet, there are CPA Offers for College Scholarships and Grants. What do you do? You make a website that is a landing offer for collecting the emails and for tracking purposes. Your traffic options are as follows:

Cheap = Article Marketing, Offline Promotion via Flyers, Ad Space in newspapers, banners Forum Promotion

Midrange: Microniche Sites, List Building, Quasi-Authority Sites, Mailing (Blackhat or Whitehat)

High end: Text Messaging, Blackhat Software mixed with Good Quality Leads, Cold Calling, Pay Per Click, Authority Sites, Media Buys, Forums

No matter what you choose. Remember, fuck Direct Linking. I repeat. Fuck Direct Linking in most cases. You are losing the opp for a list. Dont throw away repeat customers.

Now, you are a bit more introduced. Now I can address the specific questions you have.

Thanks for taking time to explain it but I still can't really get my head around it for some reason. So you get people to your site, get them to sign up to your list then you send them some sort of offer? What I don't really understand is what they have to do in order for you to get paid. Sign up to something, answer some questions, buy a product?

[Black Quixote]

@Alphatravel:

Well, it depends. http://ipad-giveaway.com/

This guy made a lander, then sends people to the offer. He is collecting a list by making people sign up on that left hand sidebar. Then he has an offer below as well. You dont even need a lander, you can just send people straight to the offer as some do in PPC. You can send them directly to the offer. Most Free Ipad offers are Email Submits or Mobile Offers. What Email submit means is that they go to the first page of the offer where it says "HEY, ENTER YOUR EMAIL HERE TO GET YOUR FREE IPAD!" and after they submit their email. You get $1. Doesnt matter what they do after that, (as long as you are sending some good leads), you get that damn dollar. The important thing for email submits is VOLUME, for two reasons.

1. Advertisers shave, which means they dont give you say 15% of your money for the leads you brought in. It sucks, but it's a part of promoting email submits primarily, as because its so many leads, 50% at least will not convert on the backend, thus making the lead potentially worthless, so they have to balance out giving you $100 a day and 20 other people money daily. SO they shave a bit off each persons income.
2. It takes a fair amount off people to make money $100 = 100 people converting + another say 50 for conversion shaving purposes.

Now, some other offers ask for more. The more it pays out, the more the person has to do. If it pays out $80 or something they most likely have to pay for something. If it pays out say $40, they may need to put in their credit card, but not buy anything outright besides shipping and handling fee of $3, which most of the time honestly is just a charge to make money off. People are sneaky.

If its $30, chances are its just a 3 page sumbit. Which means the person has to fill out a ton of information about themselves.

Hope it helps! Keep bringing questions.

[AlphaTravel]

Ok makes a bit more sense. It's something I'm sure I'll consider in the future but I need to focus on my current task and get it finished. Thanks for the advice.

[Black Quixote]

Anytme man, if you need any more help, just ask.

Part 2 being posted soon.

[WanderingSoul]

Back Quixote, what is your background in IM? I make my money online (SEO and affiliate marketing) so I am interested in what you have to say. However, I would hate to see a bunch of people here who are new to IM get sucked into the horse shit Warrior Forum type of IM. Not that everything on WF is bad, but anyone who has been in the game long knows that place is filled with newbies trying to sell to other newbies.

One piece of advice I can give to people new to IM is to find ONE form of IM that interests you and then master that as opposed to hopping onto each new fad and trying to make money. Being an expert in SEO is far more valuable than trying to have 10 AdSense site, 5 affiliate sites, 7 local SEO sites, website rentals and 2 clickbank products, because chances are you will not become good enough in each of those areas to make any real money. Find one, master it, make cash, and then move on if you feel like it. Or, just rinse and repeat what you already did in similar niches.

[AlphaTravel]

I'm trying to focus on one idea at a time at the moment and seeing what works. If one idea doesn't work and I'm sure no matter how I tweak it or how much work I put into it THEN i'll move onto the next thing. I also want to have multiple revenue streams so it's good to try a few different ideas.

The thing I'm working on right now isn't actually internet marketing so to speak but a legitimate service with a bit of a blackhat twist on it inspired by blackhatworld. I should find out next week if there's been any results from what I'm currently doing.

[Jalouse]

It's good to see an expert internet marketer on here asking people for money - it must be a lucrative business.

[Black Quixote]

@Jalouse: Haha funny. Just to address it, It was either spend a month building it up slowly myself and then getting started, aka losing a month of summer, or just start make much more and waste less time.

@AlphaTravel: Well, I wish you the best of luck.

@RioNomad: As of late, I've been focused predominantly on running services online through forums. But, now I am probably going to do a product release and make it into a Case Study here for everyone to see how easy it is to do with the right vision.

And WF is the place most people go to waste money, not make it.

[AlphaTravel]

Cheers Black, I think my idea is a good one and if it shows some results (which I should see by next week) I'm going to scale it up and turn it into a business. I can even outsource my service it if I wanted to and probably will if I start getting lots of customers. It's something very simple that shouldn't take me a lot of time however. If it doesn't work I have a hundred other ideas that need to be explored.

[WanderingSoul]

(06-13-2012 02:19 PM)Black Quixote Wrote:  

@Jalouse: Haha funny. Just to address it, It was either spend a month building it up slowly myself and then getting started, aka losing a month of summer, or just start make much more and waste less time.

@AlphaTravel: Well, I wish you the best of luck.

@RioNomad: As of late, I've been focused predominantly on running services online through forums. But, now I am probably going to do a product release and make it into a Case Study here for everyone to see how easy it is to do with the right vision.

And WF is the place most people go to waste money, not make it.

Product launches are something I have not done, but I know can be very successful if done right. Looking forward to more info on this. Any websites/info you recommend for someone looking to learn about product launches?