Discover the 3 Sales Funnel Stages that Everyone Must Use to Become Profitable Fast!

“There’s a Funnel for THAT!”

People freak out when you talk about sales funnel stages - and building a sales funnel
because they think there’s something magic about it...

That’s mostly wrong. Magic isn’t required to create funnels, but plenty of financial magic happens when you discover that you can add 20 to 100 percent income to a highly-converting funnel!

When people picture the stereotypical sales funnel they see broad words like Awareness, Interest, Decision and Action - and their eyes glaze over and they run away fast! It doesn't have to be that way though. You just need to see it from a different perspective.

The first step is admitting that you have a problem.

I’ve talked to people about having a sales funnel or an optin funnel or a strategic funnel in place, and I get really excited about the possibilities when it seems they get it. They understand. They’re nodding their heads. They agree. It’s incredibly important they see exactly how they could make more money with the right funnel in place.

Yet, when I dig deeper, I realize it’s never going to happen.

It’s too much work.

They don’t have the time.

They don’t have the products.

Excuses abound.

And I completely understand. I waited about 8 years before I actually had a follow-up funnel in place.

So, you see, I’ve made the same mistakes.

Some mistakes are harmless. I just dust my pants off and move on.

Others have been devastating (leaving a hacker vulnerability in place cost me 6 weeks of revenue, expense and a lot of headache in 2012.)

But the most costly mistakes have been not having the right funnels in place from the beginning of my business.

Sales funnel creation is the one concept that you MUST understand if you want to build a real business.

Without the right funnels in your business selling for you ALL THE TIME, chasing new customers is your daily goal.

With the right funnels in place, you focus on adding new traffic sources and new prospects into your content and sales funnels so that they buy early and often.

Cash rolls in.

But like I said, I waited nearly 8 years before I focused on the right funnels.

Why?

Paralysis caused by fear resulting in procrastination.

That’s the worst.

Fear of something new that we don’t understand is a basic human response. We all do it. We all have it. Some worse than others.

Complacency as the result of good-enough thinking is your enemy.

Maybe it’s your only enemy…

It usually rears its ugly head when things are going along just well enough to not cause panic.

You may be doing a few one-and-done promotions each month as an affiliate marketer and making just enough money to be okay. And okay is a lot better than you used to be.

But if you had funnels in place, there’d be no scramble for the right amount of cash this month to run your business and put in your family’s pocket.

Funnel Fear (yep, I’m calling it that!) happens when you look at a big process drawing and panic because you don’t understand it and can’t figure out how to use it.

In fact, you look at it, throw up your hands in exasperation, and vow to change careers.

Here’s an example of a funnel that might scare the bejesus out of you.

That looks like a ton of work. And really, it’s just a bunch of squiggly lines that makes no sense to most people. Not knowing causes our skin to crawl. (Hint: this funnel combines at least 4 foundational funnels to create a complex automatic delivery system.) We react two ways:

Walk away. Put it on the shelf and come back to it later, or…
If we’re desperate or driven to improve our situation, we study it. We learn the language. And get familiar with the concepts of funnels until we are no longer paralyzed.

Back in 1991, I visited China for a month. In my hotel room in Beijing, I found the men’s restroom because they had “M-E-N” spelled out on the doors for the foreign visitors.

Then, I traveled south to the Yunnan province to a small village 8 miles from the Burmese border (Myanmar was called Burma at the time). I tried to find the bathrooms - public bathrooms.

But no one spoke English there.

And I began to panic a little bit. But then I found a kind Chinese soul who understood the international face that symbolizes “I gotta pee!”

Without speaking a word, he lead me to the men’s bathroom and pointed to this Chinese symbol for Male.

I understood!

I had a solution!

My panic was gone!

That’s why I’m writing this article.

Understand the solution before you even implement it and your confidence soars. More confidence about your abilities is all the difference in moving forward.

In this article, we’ll focus on:

The benefits of a sales funnel
Four different kind of funnels
Why you need to embrace and implement them all fast
The three sales funnel stages
How to get started implementing funnels fast
How to “read” a funnel so that it reveals everything you need to know about what’s working and not working in your business.

Let’s start from the beginning.

What’s a sales funnel?

You may know this, or think you do, but let’s go over it quickly just to make sure.

A funnel is a process for connecting prospects to products to create customers.

That’s pretty much it.

Don’t make it complicated.

A basic funnel can be drawn out on a napkin, but of course, you’ll want to refine it as you understand and tweak it because the funnel is an amazing machine that will show you all the failures and successes in your business.

A funnel is a process drawing.

It represents the progressive or regressive steps that a prospect takes to achieve your desired results.

A progressive path is sometimes called the “Happy Path”. Your prospect does everything you want them to do exactly how you want them to do it.

That almost never happens.

A regressive path is sometimes called the “Error Path”. It’s a big Oops. The prospect declined to follow your instructions and you have to get a little creative to come up with a way to get them back on track.

Here's a happy path sales funnel example.

In the funnel above, the prospect who arrives on your landing page opts in by exchanging her email address for your gift.

Then, she purchases the first upsell and completes the cart checkout. Then, she upgrades on the second upsell after the checkout and go to the confirmation page without any incident.

Nothing ever goes that smooth.

That’s why the downsell was invented.

And this is a funnel with an “error path”.

Notice the downsells in the funnel.

Downsells are the result of “What If?” thinking.

What if someone doesn’t take me up on the front end offer?
What if someone buys the front end but doesn’t take the upsell?
What if they take the downsell, what next?

See what I mean?

What do you want your prospect to do? You should know the answer to all the “What If” situations before you start building your funnels.

Really good product offers convert on the front end between 10 and 30 percent. That is a FANTASTIC conversion rate. What are you going to do with the rest of the people who don’t become buyers?

We need solutions for that situation as well.

Already, this feels like it’s getting complicated, right?

Before we go down this rabbit hole...

What are the different kinds of funnels?

Once you understand that ALL funnels are variations of four basic types, you begin to realize exactly how simple funnels are.

So, let’s spend a little time going over these.

Strategic Funnels

You’ve probably never heard of Strategic Funnels. We’re one of the few trainers that talk about this. And with good reason.

To build a real business, everything needs to lead to your ultimate goal. And if you don’t know what that is, you can’t create a strategic funnel. This concept is so important that we have an entire course about the Strategic Funnel.

First, understand that the Strategic Funnel is your ideal vision of your business from top to bottom. Even if you have NO products, you can still create a PLAN for your business and lay it out in a Strategic Funnel.

There are three main Sales Funnel Stages:

Commitment - Prospects and customers who display more commitment to themselves and their business enter the funnel from the top where the high-end (more expensive, more results-oriented) products live. Not-so committed prospects and customers come in the bottom of your Strategic Funnel where the lower-cost product live. We recommend measuring the commitment level in two ways.
1. Mental Commitment - Use a survey to ask questions. One of those questions needs to measure their mental commitment to their business. People will say things like “Absolutely committed to success,” or “Failure is not an option.” But the second part of that measurement is probably more important, which is…
2. Financial Commitment - What are they saying with their wallet? Mental commitment is the road to frustrating failure until a customer realizes that they MUST invest in themselves and their business.
Product Levels - While you can have as many product levels as you want, fewer levels keeps your business simpler and focus clearer. Product Levels that make sense is to make sure there’s a linear path from one to the next. For example, if your coaching program is the top level, then the free optin gift needs, low-cost product, members area, and webinar (if that’s your product path) need to lead to your coaching program naturally and congruently.
Multiple Product Groups - We have 30 different lead magnets on different niche topics such as funnels, list building, blogging, graphics, social media marketing, Youtube marketing and many more. But all of them eventually lead to the ultimate goal for our business which is some kind of personal coaching. That can be one-on-one, group coaching or a weekend bootcamp. We like to think of it as multiple doors into one house. At the bottom level of the Strategic Funnel, we have many lead magnets in that product level. In the next product level, multiple lead magnets flow into fewer low-cost products to turn prospects into buyers. And the next level contains even fewer mid-level courses and products. And so on all the way to the top level where there is one or two high-ticket products - max.

The rest of the funnels we’ll discuss fit into the Strategic Funnel

Optin Funnels

This is the simplest funnel you can create. And I contend that it’s the most important.

Building your list is the most important thing you can do as an online marketer. Online information marketers in any niche with more than 100,000 people on their list can easily count on a six-figure income.

Business people with 10,000 people on their list and the ability to create funnels that convert can also count on making a good living with their list. I was a full-time online marketer with a support staff, full-time daily income and a dedicated following with less than 7,000 people on my list.

My friend Connie Ragen Green was able to create a $100k income with just 637 people on her list.

We had great funnels in place. But when we focused on the optin funnel, our business really took off.

The optin funnel offers a high-value gift with a simple thank you page and a follow-up email series. Quality is everything. Don’t skimp.

Product Sales Funnel Stages

Once you understand the optin funnel, the product funnel is easy. Basically, it’s the same principle as the optin funnel, but the product funnel is all about persuasion.

That means your initial sales page has to focus on benefits, benefits, benefits. And follow it with persuasion techniques that lead the prospect to the natural conclusion that they must have the product.

A product funnel on steroids continues the selling process as you add opportunities for the customer to buy UP your strategic funnel from one level to the next methodically.

Automated Funnels

While automation seems complex, it’s not. An automated funnel responds to the buyer’s actions. It’s called behavior driven marketing.

Here’s an example on the right:

If a prospect comes to a sales page and makes a purchase, then he gets the upsell just as with any product funnel, but…

If the prospect does not make the purchase, then you send them to a survey tool to ask what their biggest problem is from a multiple choice survey. Of course, the solutions you are yours or affiliate programs you can promote.

Think of automated funnels as a choose-your-adventure results. Sometimes, your buyers will tell you directly what they want next, but more often than not you provide solutions based on their actions in the previous funnel.

Automated funnels take many forms. The goal is to keep the buyers and prospects in ongoing funnel opportunities.

Start Simple!

If you don’t start with a VERY simple funnel, you’ll never build seemingly complex ones.

So, let’s break down the parts of a funnel. There aren’t many.

Pages - this includes landing pages, squeeze pages, sales pages, confirmation pages and more.
Cart - you must have the ability to take money when people want to give it to you.
Autoresponder - communication is key. Whether the prospect buys or not, telling them what to do next is essential.

Pages

There are essentially 4 kinds of pages classified by function.

The first is the optin page.

Everything you do for your online business is about building your list. We’re not going into it in detail, but the optin funnel is one of the most important funnels you can have in your business.

Your job as an online marketer is to fill prospect pipeline. The optin funnel is how that’s done. The best option is to get buyers, but even at 30 percent customer conversions, you’d still have 70 percent that you want to keep on your list to sell to later.

Constantly building your list is your primary job.

The second page type is the sales page.

A sales page convinces the prospect to pull out their credit card and purchase your solution that will solve their problem. That page can be a video sales page (VSL), standard long form sales page, hybrid sales page, or any other kind of sales page that works in your market.

If it’s doing its job, the sales page creation the trust relationship.

Nearly every page in the funnel contains an element of the sales page because you’re always selling. Even if you’re delivering a product, confirming their purchase or thanking them for becoming part of your community, you’re selling the prospect on taking more action.

The best online entrepreneurs get really good at writing sales copy.

Thirdly, we have the download page.

The primary function of the download page is to deliver the product. It can be a hidden page on your site, inside a membership or someplace else where you deliver the promised content.

It should always have some opportunity to upgrade (by the deluxe version). Your goal here is to be so valuable that the visitor wants more.

And finally, the thank you page.

Most people think the thank you page and download page is the same.

Big mistake.

The only way to access the download page is through email. The thank you page is the page that follows the purchase, but does NOT deliver the product. But it may be the most important page in your funnel.

Think about it. This is the ONLY page that 100% of your visitors who have taken action will see.

This is the page that appears after you hit submit on the optin or sales page. So, make the most of it.

There are three reasons you NEVER deliver the product on this page:

Ensure the visitor / prospect / customer gives you their best email address. It’s the one they check frequently, and the one most likely to be your communication channel.
Set the expectations at the top of the page for next steps. For example, at the top of the page you might have something like, “Thanks for requesting our free report on XXXXXXX. The email containing your access information will arrive in your inbox in 5 to 7 minutes, but in the meantime, you might like to check out this course on XXXXXX.
Display a sales opportunity on the page. This becomes a sales / thank you page hybrid. And will also become your best performing sales page. If you’re not adding a sales page below that heading, you’re leaving 30 to 70 percent of the money on the table.

Cart

There are many options for your cart from PayPal to Merchant Accounts to eCommerce platforms like Infusionsoft, 1 Shopping Cart, or Zaxaa. Which one you pick depends on the functionality you require.

Zaxaa offers really slick one-click upsells in the cart itself. PayPal as a cart does not.

We added the one-click upsell to our Infusionsoft system with custom code and that one thing lead to a 30 percent increase in revenue.

Choose carefully.

But don’t lose site of the most important functionality of the cart - collecting money and getting it into your bank account as fast as possible.

Autoresponder Sales Funnel Stages

Below is a simple 3-part funnel. There are 3 pages, one cart and one autoresponder.

The autoresponder and email series is the secret sauce of online marketing. That’s one reason why we spend so much time talking and teaching about email campaigns.

Email (broadcast and autoresponder) account for about 85 percent of our revenue in some form.

In other words, if we didn’t communicate with our visitors and buyers via email, we would not be in business.

The autoresponder system should have the capability of responding to specific user actions. For example, in aWeber, we know that we can schedule an email this evening to go out to only those people who did not open the email this morning.

Autoresponder series are a little bit art and a little bit science.

You have to engage your readership with subject lines and exciting email copy.

But most importantly, the email builds the relationships with your prospects and customers unlike any other tool you have.

Pages, Carts and Autoresponders make up the key elements, but they each have the capability to make or break your funnel. So, you must pay attention to all the bottlenecks and fight the conversion fight.

Read your funnels

Every funnel has conversion points.

The conversion points tell you what’s working and what’s not working.

If you understand where the breakdown starts, you can fix those conversions one at a time. And your funnel begins performing better along the way.

It’s a long term process. And it involves many different parts of the funnel. But you tackle each one at a time.

For example, if you’re getting lots of traffic to an optin page, but few people optin, you have a landing page issue. Improve the landing page, and if the optins improve, you’ve solved that conversion point.

Next, if quite a few people are taking your optin gift, but not buying your low-cost product on the thank you page, you’ve got a problem on the thank you page. Improve the offer or the copy, and if the conversions improve, you’ve fixed the conversion point.

Every conversion point has to be monitored from front to back of your funnel so that you eliminate all the bottlenecks.

This is where the work comes in creating and managing funnels.

But first, you have to create the funnels… now.

Get started with funnels fast

Creating funnels have a lot in common with writing.

If you’ve never created funnels, you start with a blank page. And in writing - or funnel creation, a blank page is the most daunting obstacle to accomplishing what you want.

That’s why we HIGHLY recommend funnel templates. We’ve identified 10 sales funnel templates that everyone should have in their business.

And creating those templates from scratch is ridiculous when you can start with a template.

You can grab these here and get started immediately implementing the most important funnels in your business.

YES, I Want 10 Profitable Funnel Templates So I Can Get Started Now!

How to Recruit More Affiliates to Make You Even More Money

By David Perdew 1 Comment

How to Recruit More Affiliates to Make You Even More Money!

No matter what niche you're in, you can find affiliate programs for it...

There is now an affiliate program for EVERYTHING you can imagine.

That’s terrific for affiliates because it gives them choices…

LOTS of choices.

So many choices, in fact, that they may never see - much less consider - promoting your offers for you.

Long gone are the days of, “Put it online, and affiliates will ask to promote for you.”

True, once you have a very proven track record and you already have a dozen or more of very active affiliates promoting for you, THEN affiliates will indeed show up – at least to a certain extent.

Yet, it pays handsomely to continue to recruit affiliates.

So how do you go about attracting active affiliates to promote your products?

While it isn’t difficult, it does take a plan and work. And it helps if every single day you reach out to a handful of affiliates – this way you’ve always got at least one or two new ones in the pipeline.

Let’s talk first about some of the biggest mistakes marketers make when recruiting affiliates.

Then we’ll talk about things you can do to bring in affiliates, as well as giving you a very simple, yet powerful affiliate recruiting letter you can begin using immediately.

Affiliate Recruitment Mistakes

Often, we can learn as much from what people are doing wrong as from what they are doing right.

1: Approaching the Wrong People

The first time you try to recruit affiliates can be scary.

Will they say no? Will they be mean? Will they say bad things or laugh at me? Or will they even respond?

It brings out some of our worst grade-school nightmares, which is why we tend to ask the people we already know. “Hey George, I have a new product coming out, will you promote it for me?”

That’s terrific if George has a list that is the right match for our product. But if George is selling washing machine repair manuals, and you’re selling info on how to build your own greenhouse, then it’s not a good fit.

A better bet is to find the folks who have lists of gardeners and do-it-yourselfers and ask them to promote our new greenhouse product because those marketers and their lists will be open to it.

Find anyone and everyone who is in your niche, and get on their list. Watch to see what they promote. Watch the appropriate contest leaderboards and see who is on top.

These are the folks you want to approach.

2: Not Sending a Review Copy

“Hey, I have this great product. Trust me, it’s really great. It really is. Will you promote it?”

Yes, you’re afraid someone is going to try to steal your product from you. But this fear is something we all have to get over. Real affiliates don’t steal, they help you make money.

Asking them to promote a product they haven’t even seen is just foolish. Sure, a tiny handful will go to the trouble to either ask you for a review copy or buy it themselves to see if they like it. But the rest will simply delete your email.

Don’t be stingy. And don’t wait for an affiliate to have to request a review copy, either. Just send the link where they can download a copy.

You can even send this with your very first communication. This way they can immediately check out the product while they’re thinking of it and have the time.

If they have to request a copy, by the time you send it to them, they’re either busy doing something else or they’ve forgotten all about you and your product.

Once you send the copy, don’t bug them to death about it. Too much bugging can make them change their mind about promoting.

3: Not Friending Before You Need Them

If your potential affiliate is on social media, it is extremely bad form to friend someone and then immediately ask them to promote for you.

Instead, friend them days or preferably weeks ahead of time, while you are still creating your product. You might even have some interaction with them through social media.

Then when you do ask them to promote, you’re more likely to get that coveted ‘yes.’

4: Not Offering the Right Benefit

Every affiliate is different. Some are hyper-concerned that a product is a good fit for their list, be of the highest quality, and impact their customers in a powerful way.

Others are concerned with how much money they can make.

And still, others are keenly interested in how well your offer converts.

While every affiliate will be partially interested in all of these and more, it’s important to hit your affiliates MOST important ‘button.’

Get on their lists and find out what gets them excited. Then when you approach them, that is the benefit you should lead with.

5: Not Being Responsive

You’ve got to be ready to answer affiliate questions when they ask them. Getting back to them a few days later, or a few hours prior to launch, is not going to win you new affiliates.

If you’re not responsive to your affiliates, they will assume you will not be responsive to their customers, either.

By contacting affiliates well ahead of your launch, you give yourself and them plenty of time to sort things out.

And if you’re too busy to deal with affiliates, you can always hire someone to act as your affiliate manager.

Effective Ways to Recruit Hard Working Affiliates

Now that we know what NOT to do, let’s see how we can go about finding new affiliates, or even having affiliates approach us.

‘Cheat’ Tools

There are tools out there to help you find affiliates. Some are free and some cost money. All of them will check a website to find out where the traffic is coming from, which helps you to locate the affiliates for that site.

We won’t delve into each one here, but we’ll give you the list in case you are interested:

Internet Success Spider (free)
SEO Quake (free)
Backlink Watch (free)
Citation Labs (420 per 500-1000)
Buzzstream ($29 - $249 a month)
Raven SEO Tools ($99 to $249 a month)

Recruit Through Your Network

Depending on which network you use, you might be able to contact affiliates directly through the network. Be sure to follow all the rules of the network so you don’t get in trouble.

Go to Affiliate Conferences

Nothing beats face to face for making new contacts. Affiliate conferences can be well worth the cost of admission just to meet a handful of really good affiliates.

Participate in Affiliate Facebook Groups

This can be an excellent way to find new affiliates. Just make sure you don’t spam.

Blogs

Bloggers in your niche who are capturing email addresses might be excellent affiliates.

Satisfied Customers

You can always ask your customers if they would like to become affiliates. Most won’t, but those that do can be extremely powerful in their selling efforts since they are already a happy user of the product.

Peers

If you are friends with your niche peers, you might ask them if they are willing to refer affiliates to you. If they say no, don’t push it – some marketers do not share this information, while others don’t mind. You can offer them a commission on everything their referred affiliates earn to sweeten the deal, or you can offer to tell your affiliates about their program.

Adwords

Because 22% of affiliates search for new affiliate programs on search engines, you might want to consider devoting a test budget to try Adwords and see if you can find new affiliates this way.

Facebook Ads

Target people who are following the top online marketers or people in your niche.

Affiliates Finding You

Wouldn’t it be great if affiliate came to you? They likely will, if you try some of these techniques:

Through Your Network

If you are selling your program through a site such as JVZoo or Clickbank, take special care with your description. When you want to attract affiliates, honesty goes a lot further than hype or clichés.

Optimized Affiliate sign-up page

First, build a page for your affiliates where you explain all the pertinent details such as program description, FAQ section, tips and ideas, creatives, conversion rates, commission rate, sign up button and contact us.

Make sure you have a review or two from affiliates on there as well.

Next, optimize the page, so that if anyone searches for your program’s name and the words, ‘affiliate program,’ they can find you.

Link to the affiliate page from your main website. According to the 2015 AffStat Report, 24% of affiliates learn about new affiliate programs from the merchant’s website.

Affiliate Directories

Sign up with all the affiliate directories, especially if you’re doing a big launch. These are NOT affiliate platforms and these come and go pretty quickly. So, always check to see what other affiliate directories are available. Here are a few to get you started:

AffiliatesDirectory.com
AffiliatePrograms.com
AffiliateRanker.com
AffiliateSeeking.com
AllAffiliatePrograms.com
AssociatePrograms.com

Affiliates Bringing You New Affiliates

Consider a two-tier commission program, in which you pay affiliates a commission on all sales from their personally recruited affiliates.

For example, Bob is your affiliate, and Bob brings in Betty, who also becomes your affiliate. You pay Bob 10% of everything Betty sells.

And by the way, this 10% comes out of your profits, not out of Betty’s commission.

Use Incentive Contests

online business, making money online, The Internet Earning Concept

Put together an incentive contest for your launch and publicize it anywhere affiliates hang out. Affiliates love to compete to win big prizes, and this can be an excellent draw.

Proven Affiliate Recruitment Email

The key is to keep your email short and to the point, with a call to action at the end.

For our example, we’re going to say that you went to Google, typed in a competitor’s product (WonderBread Traffic Blueprint) and scrolled through the results to find out who is promoting that product.

To find their email address, you may have searched their domain at whois.domaintools.com, or used Rapportive plugin for Gmail, or used Data.com Connect, or any method of your choice.

Then you send them an email that looks like this:

SUBJECT: WonderBread Traffic Blueprint

Hey FirstName,

I saw that you were promoting WonderBread Traffic Blueprint recently, and thought of you for something we have coming up.

This July we are launching Iceman Traffic Tool. It’s similar to the WonderBread Traffic Blueprint, but it offers a wider range of techniques along with software to automate the entire process.

If you are interested, please let me know.

I’d love to send you a review copy and share more info with you.

Sign off

As you can see, the formula is to mention the competitor’s product, tell how your product is different, and invite them to get a review copy and learn more.

You can also (and I highly recommend this) give them a link to your affiliate page, where they can download their review copy right away, without having to ask you for it.

Once you send this email, you can, of course, periodically follow up.

How Often to Follow Up:

I saw some numbers once on how well emails work at recruiting affiliates.

Frankly, they were a little dismal at the onset but improved dramatically with repeated follow-ups.

They said the initial email you send out will result in 4% signing up.

But if you follow up, you will get an additional 12% to join.

The frequency they recommended is NOT very frequent. Frankly, if you’re going to follow up, I would recommend you do more of it. Here’s what they said brought them the additional 12%:

Frequency:

A week from the original email
One more week down the road
In 2-3 months
In half a year
In one year.

While I haven’t collected the data (shame on me) through my own recruiting, I’ve found that checking back with them 3 days after the initial email, one week after that, and then every two weeks works well.

Of course, your results may vary.

A Polite ‘Request Denied’ Letter

If for any reason you need to turn down an affiliate request, here’s the email to send that WON’T burn your bridges:

We are sorry, but the website(s) and/or promotional methods listed on your affiliate profile do(es) not meet our approval criteria. We have, therefore, declined your application.

If, however, you feel that we have overlooked your potential, we would like to hear from you. Just email us a brief explanation of how you were planning on marketing our product/service, and we will gladly reconsider your application.

Bottom Line:

The better you get at recruiting affiliates, the more money you can make.

I know, that sounds obvious.

Yet so many marketers focus on anything BUT affiliate recruitment, and then they wonder why their sales are flatlined.

New affiliates mean new customers are seeing your product. The more of those customers you can sell the first time, the bigger your list of buyers, and the more money you can make in the future, too.

If you get good at recruiting top affiliates, there simply is no limit to the amount of money you can make.

Top marketers may even be asking YOU to act as their affiliate manager for major launches, offering you a percentage of every sale made.

Or you can simply focus on bringing in affiliates to promote your own products.

Either way, you can’t lose.

How Rich Marketers Think

By David Perdew Leave a Comment

Are You Thinking Like a Rich Person?

So, if you’re going to become rich as an online business person, you first have to think you’re rich.

We work and work to prepare our business to collect as much wealth as possible.

The next product to create or the mechanics of the delivery system or where we’re going to get traffic gets most of our attention. And by focusing on these things, we think we’re preparing for online riches.

Don’t get me wrong. I do believe those elements are important, but I believe the richest people in the world have a different thought life first.

There’s saying that I love and believe.

Everything is created twice. First in THOUGHT, then in FORM.

That’s a lot harder for many people than you’d guess. Many folks – me included – had to get over this old idea that being rich was for someone else.

There is a thought in online marketing that if you just get the mechanics right, then everything will fall into place and you’ll get rich.

I’m not here to dispute that.

Rather, I’d like to suggest that mindset plays a bigger role than most people think.

After all, if thoughts are things – and quantum physics tells us this is true – then what you think can have a huge impact on the success of your business.

Don’t believe me?

Take two people – one has a track record of building million-dollar businesses. The other has a track record of never having had a major success in his life.

Who would you bet on to build a million-dollar business? The one with the track record, of course.

But let me ask you this… do you think that both of these individuals view business – and specifically, the acquisition of money – in the same way?

You might guess that the successful person who has made millions of dollars sees money in an entirely different way than the person who has never been successful.

One sees opportunity everywhere – the other sees obstacles.

One sees challenges to overcome – the other sees problems that cannot be solved.

One believes leverage is the way to get rich – the other believes hard work will win the day.

One believes money is abundant – the other believes it’s scarce.

One thinks about how to make more money – the other thinks about how not to lose money…

… and so forth.

If you took the second person – the one who has never had a major success – and implant the thought patterns and beliefs of the first person concerning money and business, do you think the second person could then build a million-dollar online business as well?

That’s our question for the day. And you, with your consent, will be our test subject.

If you’ve never built a million-dollar business but you would like to, then I’m challenging you here and now to adopt the following thoughts and make them yours.

This means that reading them once won’t be enough. You’ve got to integrate them into your thinking 24/7. They have to become as much a part of you as your belief that you should eat, sleep and brush your teeth.

You’ve got to believe in these as much as you believe the sun will come up tomorrow.

In other words, you’ve got to make these thoughts YOURS.

You might do this by rereading the following list when you wake up and when you go to sleep each night.

You might write them out longhand, or record them and listen to them on your Mp3 player.

Just do whatever it takes to make these thoughts your own.

And just so you know, we did not pull these out of thin air. They come from a very solid book by Steve Siebold entitled, “How Rich People Think.” We’ve simply put our own online marketing spin on them.

If you’ve ever wanted a roadmap on how to be rich – I dare say this might be it.

Take these thoughts and combine them with any proven online business plan, and you should be making money – significant money – in no time at all.

Your results will vary. Remember that making these thoughts yours is just the first step – working your business is the second. And doing one without the other is probably just going to waste your time.

Just to be clear, we’re going to differentiate the two types of thinking as “Non-rich” and “Rich” thinking.

“Rich” is, of course, a relative term. To a millionaire, a billionaire is rich, while the billionaire might think the millionaire is poor by comparison.

Let’s get started…

The non-rich think: The rich are obsessed with money

While the rich think: Being obsessed with success is a wonderful thing

Why is it that we think obsessions are necessarily bad? If a person is obsessed with being healthy or with helping others, we generally don’t criticize. But if they are obsessed with being successful, we like to point out that there is something wrong with them. But why do we do this?

Most likely because it’s easier for us to say they are wrong than it is to become obsessed with success ourselves.

When you’re rich, you have the ultimate freedom to do what you want, when you want. Money is simply a gauge by which you measure how successful you are.

If you can think of business as a game you love to win, then you can become obsessed with success in a healthy, productive manner.

It’s all about what you can accomplish and how many people you can help with your online business.

The primary motivator for many millionaires is reaching a certain net worth – a number that is different for everybody. Assuming your business is legit and helps people – and hopefully, it does – then the bigger the number you reach, the more people you’ve helped.

And think about this: when you hit your number, then you are free to chase higher pursuits such as philanthropy, time freedom and personal fulfillment.

So yes, go ahead and get obsessed with success. If that means working on your online business 14 hours a day for a few months, go for it. Success is calling and it’s time to answer that call.

The non-rich think: Saving is the way to get rich

While the rich think: Earning more money is the way to get rich

The non-rich cling tightly to their meager assets because of fear of loss and uncertainty of the future. Then when an economic correction occurs, they suffer catastrophic losses they cannot recover.

The rich, while understanding that saving and investing are important, also direct their energies toward making more money by serving others and solving problems. If a catastrophic loss occurs, they turn their attention to financial opportunities that occur in a downward economy and often become all the richer for it.

It’s a question of whether you operate from fear or abundance. Either mindset can lose money, but only the abundance mindset can quickly recover the money and more.

Focus on building an online empire of several different income streams, not on saving pennies.

The non-rich think: Trading time for money makes sense

While the rich think: Non-linear thinking and leverage is the way to get rich

Any time you’re trading your time for a paycheck, you’re actually trading the most valuable commodity you have – your precious time – for a fixed income.

If hard work made fortunes, every fast food employee would be rich.

The rich generate money though ideas that solve problems. And since there is no limit to ideas, there is also no limit to the money you can earn.

The right idea at the right time can make a fortune. Facebook, Amazon, and Microsoft are classic examples of this.

Look to your own online business and you can see this at work. For example, if you write a book to sell to one person, you are trading time for money. This is what ghostwriters do.

But if you sell the book yourself, you can continue to sell copies of it every day for the rest of your life. You get paid over and over for work you did once.

And if you hire someone to write the book for you, now you are experiencing true leverage.

The non-rich think: Rich people are evil

While the rich think: Rich people are ambitious

The average person has been programmed to think rich people are somehow evil, dishonest and deceitful.

And while this is occasionally the case, as a general rule self-made rich people have used their drive, ambition, and vision to build something that helps a lot of people.

Believing that rich people are inferior or morally lacking makes a great excuse for why a person isn’t rich – after all, they’re a nice person, and they don’t want to hurt anyone.

But if the non-rich will take responsibility for their financial plight and adopt the thinking of the rich, then they, too, can become rich.

And in the process, they can prove that not all rich people are evil.

The non-rich think: Being a lone-wolf is a positive quality

While the rich think: Building wealth is a team effort

When the non-rich folks have jobs, they’re paid for their individual efforts. They’re lone wolves, and they believe that if they start their own business, then they have to do it on their own.

But the rich (and future rich) know that building anything worthwhile is a team effort. Finding the right people and leveraging their knowledge and action is key to achieving success quickly and on a large scale.

The rich are team leaders. The non-rich try to do everything themselves.

The rich know their strengths and weaknesses and find people who fill the gaps in their knowledge and abilities.

The non-rich believe they can eventually learn everything they need to know to become successful.

If you can build a team and share the credit for your success, then you can achieve almost anything, and do it in a surprisingly short amount of time.

But if you go it alone, success will always be just around the corner and just out of reach.

In your online business, figure out what you’re good at and what you enjoy doing. Then outsource everything else. This will shave your time from conception to launch in half or less, keep you happy and more than double your profits.

Try it – once you do, you’ll never go back to trying to do everything yourself.

The non-rich think: Money is bad

While the rich think: Money is fantastic

If you were to ask most people why they don’t have money or even what they think of money, you’ll realize why they’re broke.

They see ambitious people as greedy and self-serving. They think money is a necessary evil that must be managed but should not be their focus.

And there are better things to do with their time than be successful, like watch TV, sports and so forth.

The rich see money as a positive tool that can create freedom and opportunity to do what they want and have the life they enjoy. Money removes restrictions and lets them do what they want, when they want and where they want.

When you have money, you can engage in your favorite pastimes, help out the less fortunate and improve life for others beyond yourself.

Whether you believe money is evil or a tool for empowerment will make the difference between whether or not you have money.

The non-rich think: Formal education leads to wealth

While the rich think: Specific knowledge creates wealth

While rich people respect a formal education and encourage their children to attend university, they don’t see it as a way to build a financial empire.

Many self-made millionaires have very little formal education. They’ve amassed their wealth through getting, using and selling specific knowledge and information.

College typically prepares a person to trade time for money, and this is rarely the way to real wealth.

Rich people work from a non-linear mindset, with no limits or boundaries.

Give an employee a problem, and they will try to solve it for the company.

Give someone with a rich person’s mindset a problem, and they will not only solve it but then sell the solution to everyone who needs it, thereby creating wealth.

And if the person with the rich mindset can’t solve the problem, they’ll hire someone to solve it for them, and again sell the solution to make their fortune.

Problem-solving is an asset that can build empires. While academics and middle class see problems as being complex, the rich mindset is able to break those same problems down to their essence to find the solution. Bill Gate’s founding of Microsoft is a wonderful example of this trait at work.

As an online marketer, you have the opportunity to present solutions to people around the world.

And you don’t always have to find the solutions, either. You can act as a reporter, finding out what people need and then reporting back to them with a product that fills that need.

The non-rich think: About spending

While the rich think: About investing

Do you really, truly need that new car? Or will your old one last for a few more years?

Living beyond your means isn’t living at all. It’s self-imposed slavery, where you have to go to work just to keep your nose above water and eek out a meager existence.

The self-made rich only buy the things they truly need and the things that will make them money. True, once they become wealthy they do splurge, but by then they’ve earned the right.

Many self-made millionaires are ordinary people who went without luxuries and extravagances while they were building their fortunes. Instead of lattes and going to the movies, they invested in stocks and real estate.

But the real answer isn’t just to be frugal and live on as little as possible – it’s to double or triple your income and invest a large portion of that.

Ideally, you want to live the good life, and if that means being cautious with your finances for a few years while you increase your income and your investments, it’s well worth the price you pay to then be financially free.

Investing your money in your online business can be the most freeing thing you ever do. Imagine being able to retire in 5-10 years, and then ask yourself if watching your money for that length of time while focusing on making more was worth it.

The answer will invariably be yes.

The non-rich think: “If only I could win the lottery…”

While the rich think: “Let’s get busy and make this happen!”

People love the lottery because they think it’s their only chance to get rich.

Sadly for most, they’re probably right. And it’s not because they’re not capable, either. It’s because they don’t believe in themselves and their ability to create wealth.

The rich know that talk is cheap, and take daily action to build their wealth because they know they can do it.

Beliefs dictate behavior, and behavior dictates results. If you believe you can succeed, then you’ll take action to do exactly that.

That’s why you’re in online marketing – because you believe you can succeed. But do you really, truly believe you can become rich?

If not, you might want to adjust your thinking.

The non-rich think: Money changes people

While the rich think: Money reveals people

The average person has beliefs that money turns good people into greedy, corrupt, uncaring jerks. This limiting belief not only keeps people poor – it also serves as an excuse for why they’re unsuccessful.

But the self-made rich know that success and money reveal the true person inside. If you were a crook before you were wealthy, you’ll be an even bigger crook once you’ve got money. If you were kind and generous before becoming wealthy, odds are you’ll do a lot of good with your money to help people, animals and the world.

Take a good look at your own personality, and then imagine them amplified by wealth. Do you like what you see?

If so, great. If not, you might want to make some changes now, before money amplifies traits you’re not proud of.

The non-rich think: You have to have money to make money

While the rich think: You should use other people’s money to get rich

Did you know it’s easier to borrow $10 million dollars than it is to borrow $10,000? It sounds crazy, but this is exactly how the rich think.

They don’t use the words, “I can’t afford it.” Rather, they think in terms of, “Is it worth buying, investing in or pursuing?” If it is, they find the money.

Again, this is all about linear thinking: “I have to make money in order to invest it in order to get rich.”

There’s nothing wrong with this, except that it takes time. A lot of time. And life is short.

Let’s say you’re starting an online business. You’ve got a proven business model that works, along with a great product. You could work yourself silly by getting free traffic in order to get sales. Or you could get an investor who can pay for traffic. In the first case, it might take you months to make enough to buy consistent traffic, at which time your product might already be out of date. But in the second case, you can send massive, targeted traffic to your offer from day one.

In the first case, profits will come slowly. In the second case, you’ll be making solid money from day 1.

The non-rich think: Self-made rich people are somehow smarter

While the rich think: Self-made rich people are more savvy – not smarter

Memorizing information to get good grades in high school or score well on an IQ test won’t make you rich. There is a theory that the “A” students end up working for the “C” students, and this is likely true more than we realize.

Different people are smart in different ways. Some can memorize information, some are good at physical things, some are music smart, and others have an ability to figure things out.

The self-made rich have a talent for making money. Fortunately, no one is born with this talent (how many babies have you seen on Wallstreet?) which tells us that this talent can be learned.

And the best way to learn to make money is to find out what’s working for others and model their success.

That’s why ‘how to make money’ programs are so popular. People want to be rich, but they don’t know how to do it. They want someone to show them the ropes.

This is key if you’re in the make money niche. Explain to your prospects that your system is proven to work because others are already making money doing it.

Just follow the blueprint, and you can succeed. Just make sure your products live up to this promise.

By reading this article, you are now one step closer to becoming rich yourself.

And by knowing, understanding and incorporating rich thoughts into your everyday life, you are setting the stage for your own success.

Oddly enough, this article wasn’t about money at all – it’s about mindset.

And when you have the right mindset, then everything else falls into place.

Create Your First Webinar In 14 Days!

By jen Perdew Leave a Comment

14 Days To Your First Webinar

Webinars are a great marketing tool. But learning how to create webinars makes them an even greater marketing tool.

Webinars can be scary if you've never done one before. Or even scarier if you've done one and it kinda went off the rails (don't worry it happens to everyone at least once)!

But when they're planned and executed properly webinars can do two things for you:

1. Build your reputation, credibility and rapport with your audience

2. Bring in substantial sales for your business.

How to Create Webinars

When you're just starting out with webinars, a great way to get comfortable and test the waters is to do a free training for your current list or members with little or no sales pitch.

This helps you get comfortable being live on screen and takes away some of the jitters.

It allows you to highlight your teaching capabilities and focus on delivering great content.

Plus a really great teaching or training webinar is a huge confidence booster and rapport builder!

And it'll be much easier for you to make an offer when you do your next session.

Webinars are like everything else though. They're only successful when you follow a proven process.

Winging it on a live call can spell disaster especially if you're not comfortable with your platform or your content.

When you've got a step - by - step guide to follow, it's less likely you'll miss something really important.

I've got a great FREE checklist to help to make sure you don't miss a thing.

Whether you want to create a straight training webinar or sell your own product or an affiliate product, this day by day checklist will teach you how to create webinars that get the word out and build a killer presentation.

Start using it today and get out there with your own training! Your members want to interact with you. Promise!

Automate your income to get the lifestyle you want!

By David Perdew 12 Comments

“It All Started with a Blind Date and Ended Up Being All About Automated Funnels to Fund Our Lifestyle...”

This is why automated funnels are so important to me...

Money can be the biggest stressor in your life, but done right, it can also be the tool that allows you to live the life you've always wanted - no matter who you are...

As I’m writing this, Charlsa, my wife, and I have been home from a 5-day trip to New York for less than 12 hours. We’re dog tired, energized by the trip, and really happy to be home. NewYorkTrip IMG 7718

We had an awesome trip and loved every minute of it.

And it reminded me why I do what I do, and why automated sales funnels are so important to our lifestyle.

You see, we did more than five figures in sales while my wife and I were doing the older-than-60-version of painting the Big Apple for 5 days.

I left my computer at home to truly be present on this trip.

Still, we reaped the rewards of truly passive, automated income. And I’m going to explain the key to this entire way of life in just a minute, but first…

Travel with the right person is a dream come true!

This trip was really Charlsa’s Christmas present. As an opera singer for nearly 35 years, getting a chance to see a performance at the New York Metropolitan Opera is a real treat.

So, in December, I discovered her favorite opera, Turandot, was playing in March.

I booked it.

We had special seats and a special reservation in the Belmont Room exclusive to Guild Members and Metropolitan Donors. We were living the life of the rich and famous opera fanatics where the caviar was $155 for a small tin.

We didn’t take advantage of that 🙂 We’re pretty frugal folks...

The difficult part was working the trip in around all our other travel…

I’m not complaining. That’s a great problem to have. And it's one that I designed for our lives several years ago with our automated, online business. More about that in a minute...

But let me explain why this is so important first...

One of the big reasons for our big trip to New York last week other than the opera was to celebrate the 20th anniversary of our blind date. davidcharlsaonbikes

Yep, 20 years ago, I was a wannabe biker with long hair and a Harley - no car. I roared into the outdoor cafe R Thomas's on Peachtree in Atlanta for a 1-hour meeting to have coffee with this woman named Charlsa.

My friend Beverly (and Charlsa's really good friend) had been pestering us both to meet for 3 months. We finally agreed - mostly to get Beverly off our backs.

It was my first blind date. And Charlsa's last. I never thought I'd get married again. And I really wasn't looking. In fact, I was quite comfortable (although misguided) with the bachelor life.

But within minutes of sitting across from Charlsa in that restaurant, I knew this was different.

Twenty years later, it's turned out to be the best thing that's ever happened to me.

We share a life, love and a home. And no matter where we go, it's always great to be home again - together...

Don’t miss this point!

Sharing your life with someone that you actually want to spend nearly every moment with is a rarity among relationships. And certainly a blessing I never thought I'd experience.

But that’s what we’ve got. We live in the woods on a lot of land and spend a lot of time together.

And we travel. Quite a bit. On purpose.

In the past 20 years, we’ve traveled the world and the US.

Each fall, we plan every home game weekend with the Alabama Crimson Tide football team and a bowl location. We make a weekend out of it going to lunch with Coach Nick Saban on Friday, tailgate with our friends on Saturday before the game, and drive home on Sunday. DavidAndCharlsaAtTheBeach

We go to our favorite beach in Florida for a couple of weeks twice a year. And we visit my elderly parents at The Villages in Florida several times a year.

Traveling is an opportunity to recharge and reconnect as much as possible.

The time in the car is our time to be really alone when no one else can get to us...

Not long after that blind date, I realized I wanted as much time with this fantastic woman as I could get. And luckily - and inexplicably, she feels the same about me.

It’s ironic then that during the first 7 years that we lived in Alabama, I was a traveling consultant leaving town on Sunday night and returning home on Thursday night - sometimes Friday night.

Essentially, for 7 years, I left her alone in the woods.

But I was making nearly $250k a year as a consultant. And missing my life.

We had to do something about that...

That’s when I decided to become a full-time, work-from-home business person.

I loved my consultant work, and even though I was self-employed with great clients, I was beholding to them. I wanted more freedom and flexibility.

In 2010, I quit, and soon realized that full-time, online business people can choose one of two paths:

Scramble daily to make sales by hawking as many products as possible, or…
Focus on building a passive, automated business that pays you whether you work or not, AND delivers exactly what your prospects are looking for.

Of course, either path has consequences…

You can’t do one without the other. If you focus on building an automated business, you still have to promote other products to create cash for your business or you’ll die quickly while building the automation.

But you can promote excellent products selectively and with moderation.

Building is the keyword…

And with building, there is work that must be done. Without a clear vision and a clear plan, that work can easily become overwhelming.

That’s why we had to get very clear about the basic building block of our business.

And I’m revealing it here today with a challenge.

“Implement this one thing in your business, and you’ll always build on what you did yesterday.”

It starts with a decision diamond…

This is so simple, most people overlook it completely.

They are so focused on getting the prospect or lead to buy something, they forget that at least 90 percent of your visitors didn't. What about those folks? if this do this else do that

The key to every automated funnel is this simple programming concept.

And it starts with a “Decision Diamond.”

A decision diamond is a basic software process function.

It simply recognizes that every option presented to your prospect is a choice.

It requires a decision and there’s a consequence to that decision, whether you control it or not.

Most marketers today send an email expecting a prospect to click to an offer, and hoping she takes the action the marketer wants - making a purchase.

If the prospect doesn’t make the purchase, they fall into a black hole of nothingness with no action because the marketer didn’t account for that choice. But it was a choice, remember?

But by default, there’s a consequence.

”No Action” is a choice...

And in automated funnels, you never want “no action” to be the choice.

Every decision diamond requires two (or more) choices.

And when everything you do comes from this perspective, the following equation becomes your driving force.

“If this (selection is made), then do this action, ELSE do this action…”

You see, this is where most marketers fail…

Instead of letting prospects and leads fall into the nothingness black hole, I’m proposing you do something else.

If the prospect didn’t take the action you hoped he would take, then make sure he takes another action - one you control.

It's up to you to present another action.

Or record the choice the prospect made so you can help him take a different action later.

It may look like this:

if this do this else do that example

Notice, the prospect has multiple positive choices until we discover the information (problem and solution) they really want.

Once that’s known, offer the right solution and chances are much greater the prospect will buy and become a loyal customer because you’re offering what they want.

Why should you use this in your business?

This is how you fund the lifestyle you want.

If you’re tied to your computer all the time, you can’t possibly enjoy your life to the max.

Listen, Charlsa and I had a great time in New York. We have a great time everywhere we go.

But I also love knowing that our business supports our lifestyle and it only gets better and better. Having this freedom in our lives allows us to focus on one another.

To quote a wise old man (my dad!),

“When poverty comes through the door, love goes out the window…”

You might argue with that and say it’s pretty cynical, but me?

I’ve experienced poverty, and life is much better with automated income.

If this is your problem, let us help you solve it…

BiggestAutomationProblem

If you want to find out how you can create real automated income in your life, join us here for a life-changing program to get more automated cash in your accounts every day...