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Some of you are going to dismiss this idea. You’ll think it’s strange. You’ll think I’m full of beans. But others will recognize this as one of the holy grails of online marketing. And those are the folks who will do really, really well online if they aren’t already. Because making money as an Internet marketer isn’t about selling products or services or clicks…

Nope.

It’s about selling YOU.

Think about what you buy. Don’t you find that certain marketers just resonate with you? When you get their emails, you read them. When they tell you to click somewhere, you click. And when they put out a product, you buy it.

Why? Because you like the way they make you feel. You like their style, their humor, their motivation… whatever it is, you just LIKE them.

Why did you like a certain teacher in school? Why do you like your friends? Your spouse? Maybe you don’t know why, you just know that you do. It’s the same way for your customers.

If they like you, they will read what you write. They’ll subscribe to your emails and read them. They’ll follow you on social media. They might even promote you. And yes, they will BUY most ALL of your stuff.

Not because they want more stuff, but because they like YOU and the way your stuff makes them feel. When you brand yourself in such a way that you connect with your readers, you no longer have to worry if your products will sell or if your affiliate recommendations will work.

Your coaching program will sell out. Your webinars will be packed. Your products will be winners.

And you don’t have to worry about sales any longer. Just focus on being the best YOU that you can be for your customers, and everything else will take care of itself.

So how do you brand yourself?

You might take a course on branding. You might look at branding leaders, too. Most of all, take a look at your strengths. What are you good at? How do you best communicate? What are your interests?

If your niche is IM and you’re into extreme sports, how can you combine the two to resonate with people just like you?

If your niche is health and you’re very much into spirituality, can you combine the two to create your persona?

I’m not suggesting you reinvent yourself. I am suggesting you combine what it is that makes you, YOU, with your niche.

Here’s some examples…

The Hippy Gardener
The Globe Trotting Marketer
The Spiritual Carpenter

Now, you might be thinking this is a bad idea because it will turn some people off. I have news for you – no matter what you do, there will be people who don’t like you. And that’s a GOOD thing. Because those who do like you will be all the more loyal.

Sell yourself first. Find your followers and build your tribe. And everything else in your business will naturally fall into place.

There is a young lady in the Internet marketing niche who has 3 separate IM type blogs. And without revealing too much (we don’t want to create direct competition for her) here are the methods she’s tried and the ones that worked in monetizing those three blogs…

To begin with, she tried AdSense. But that only made a few bucks and she quickly abandoned it. Then she tried renting out banners, but since her 3 blogs combined receive about 10,000 visitors a month, she didn’t get a lot of interest.

She does put up ClickBank ads, and those bring in about $1,000 a month from all 3 blogs combined. Not bad, but obviously not that great, either. Especially when you consider that she posts 6 days a week on each blog.

Next she decided to devote one blog post out of 6 to promoting an affiliate product. This wasn’t an easy decision for her, because she was afraid her readers would be alienated and they would stop visiting her blog.

But on the contrary, her promotional blog posts were well received and they’re making her money. In fact, it doubled her income and then some.

So now she was making over $2,000 a month on her three blogs but she felt she could do better. So what she did next was a little unorthodox.

She had a pop-up to get people to subscribe to her mailing list, which she decided to rent out. That’s right – she’s renting out her pop-up. She devoted the top right sidebar and the bottom of each page to capturing email addresses for herself.

Then she made a page showing her traffic stats, her own conversions on her own pop-ups, some demographic info and so forth. She was really selling her pop-ups on each of her three blogs.

And it worked. She rents them by the month, taking the code the customer gives her and pasting it into the pop-up. The customer has to be offering something for free, and of course it needs to fit her niche.

Believe it or not, between the three pop-ups on the 3 sites, she’s earning close to $2,000 a month just doing this.

Combining that income with the income from her ads and her promotional blog posts, and she’s earning about $4,000 a month from her blogs. Of course, this doesn’t include income from her own list which she is building.

So the question is, why was it so much easier to sell the pop-ups than it was banner ads? Maybe because it’s something different. Or perhaps because people want to build lists, and see this as the way to go.

Now you might be wondering if she isn’t shooting herself in the foot and losing out on long term income by building her own list faster using her own pop-ups.

It’s hard to say. But one thing for sure is that $2,000 a month from the pop-ups is coming in like clockwork, and all it takes is collecting the money and pasting in the code once a month. Really, you can’t beat that.

I hope this gets you thinking about new possibilities for your own website(s)!…

Want to create the perfect sales letter – fast? Try this template. Not only is it easy to do, it’s also highly effective. And if you know your market and your product, you should be able to crank out a rough draft of your sales letter in about an hour.

Then set it aside for a day or two to let it ‘percolate’ in your brain. Come back, polish it up and post it.

Here are the 6 primary elements of a proven sales letter template:

Pattern Interrupt with a BIG Promise – Get their attention and promise something big, bold and specific. “Veterans, is the government ripping you off? Here’s how to finally get every benefit you earned while in the service of your country – even the 14 benefits they never told you about!”

State the Problem and Make it Hurt – This is the main problem your product solves, the one that is currently making your customer’s life hell. Don’t just state the problem – really agitate it. Make them feel how bad it is to have this problem of theirs. “Beautiful women look at you like you’re a tick on a dog, and you can’t get a date with anyone but your second cousin Shirley – the shrill shrew who never stops reminding you of the time you pooped your pants at the family reunion.”

“Here’s what most people do” – this is where you talk about alternatives and why they don’t work, shutting down all avenues to solve the problem except the one you are offering. “People try anything to lose weight. One woman ate nothing but grapefruit for a month, and all she lost was her energy and her hair. Another woman walked and ran 20 miles a day, and while she didn’t lose any weight, she did get both knees replaced within the year.”

“Here’s what I do.” This is your solution. Tell why it’s best and why they must have it. “When I stumbled on this method I was flat broke and 8 days away from declaring bankruptcy. 3 months later my $125,000 mortgage was completely paid off. Yes, I was as shocked as you, but here’s the proof.”

Outline the Deal, Ask for the Sale – Don’t be afraid. If you’ve done the previous steps correctly, they’re ready to buy at this point. “When you order today, you get A, plus B, plus C. And I’ll throw in D, E and F to absolutely guarantee your success. All this, and it’s only $9.99.”

Close the Deal – this is the either / or part. “You’re either going to take full risk-free advantage of this deal and get all these benefits, or you’re going to go on having this horrible problem.” “You could continue as before, sitting home alone every night where the only women you ever see are on TV or porn sites. Or you can do what so many others have done and grab this program. Even before you complete the second module, you’ll notice women are looking at you differently. They’re smiling at you, making small talk, slipping their phone numbers into your pocket, casually touching you… your only problem will be scheduling all these beautiful women into your new dating lifestyle.”

That’s it.

Yes, writing sales copy really is that easy.

Have fun with it and make yourself tons of sales on your next product.

They say you have to walk before you run… and you have to finish 9th grade before you can start 10th grade… and you have to start at the bottom and work your way up… and all that stuff. Quite true, isn’t it?

Is it?

Really??

When you hear something enough times, you think it’s true.

“Of course it’s true, EVERYONE KNOWS it’s true.”

Yeah.

Right.

Do you really need to know all the basics of how to market online before you can start making money?

OR…

Can you find a desire in the market, create a product and get it online within a week, knowing almost nothing about what you’re doing?

I’ll give you an example:

Let’s say you’ve heard about “Internet Marketing,” but you really haven’t paid any attention to it.

You don’t know how to set up a WordPress site, build a list, create a product or any of that stuff.

But last week you got laid off from your job!

Unemployment compensation will barely cover the mortgage. Food? Utilities? Insurance? Car payment? You need money, and you need it FAST.

So you don’t pay attention to all those people who say you have to ‘pay your dues,’ ‘learn the basics first’ and all those other ancient clichés.

Instead, you hit a forum, or Amazon, or the Dummies guides.

You find a desire that people have.

You devise a plan to make a product that fulfills that desire.

You decide to get it on the market in 7 days.

Website building? Sales letters? Turning a word doc into a PDF? And a hundred other little things?

You’ve got help for that – Google.

Every time you need to know something, you Google it…

Yeah, I know – it’s too easy, right?

Where’s the suffering? The pain? When do the dues get paid?

Getting a product online within a week (or even a month) of first beginning in Internet marketing is like skipping your first 3 and a half years of college and graduating in no time.

Come to think of it… what’s wrong with that?

Some of the richest people in the world didn’t graduate college.

They were too busy DOING.

So yes, I do believe a person can run before they walk in Internet marketing. I’ve seen it done too many times to not believe it.

What are you waiting for? A written invitation? 😉