Beware of Crabs

Beware of Crabs

By Matt Bacak

 

Beware of the “crab bucket syndrome.” When a single crab is placed in an open bucket, they can escape and they will. However, when more than one shares a bucket, none can get out. If one crab elevates themselves above the others, the others will grab this crab and drag it back down to share the mutual fate of the rest of the group. The crab bucket syndrome is often used to describe social situations where one person is trying to better themselves and others in the community attempt to pull them back down. Here’s how to get out. I’m out of the bucket and many of you want to get out of the bucket. Here’s how to get out the bucket. You can listen to someone who’s made millions affiliate marketing, doing or you can listen to others. It’s your choice.

When I first started out in affiliate marketing, I did a million dollar run. What I mean by that is I decided I wanted to make a million dollars and then I took off running towards that goal. I remember calling up my mother during the middle of my run and talking to her. I said, “Look Mom, I’m not going to talk to you for awhile. I’m not going to talk to you until I make my first million.” She wanted to know when that would be. I told her I didn’t know but I wasn’t going to talk to anyone until I succeeded, except for my cheerleaders that were going to cheer me along.

That sounds harsh, doesn’t it? I love my mom and she has always been there for me. She always knew I could make a million dollars but she was like a fellow crab in the crab bucket. She was trying to pull me down from getting out of the bucket. She didn’t do this purposefully and with any kind of hateful feelings. Simply put, she was just being a mom. In her effort to try to protect me, she was pulling me back down into the bucket. She wanted me to succeed at my goals but she would often say negative things that ended up hindering me.

I’m sharing this story with you because I know many of you have goals you want to achieve but you’re being pulled back by the other crabs in the bucket. These other crabs can be anybody, including the people who love you the most, your parents. They could be your spouse, your children or even your best friend. Now this isn’t to say that they don’t love you or want the best for you because I’m sure they do but sometimes, you have to say to yourself and to them, I’m going to succeed and I want your support along the way. If they can’t be supportive or they act like my mom acted, trying to protect you while in turn hindering you, distance yourself from that person for awhile.

Sometimes, when trying to realize your dreams, you have to make sacrifices. For me, I made a sacrifice by deciding to not speak with my mother until I could accomplish my goal. In less than six months, I made my dream a reality and I called her up and told her I did it. She was ecstatic for me. Our relationship now is just as great as ever. Our relationship has not suffered even though I had to step back from it for awhile.

The point is, do you have someone in your life holding you down mentally? Is someone grasping onto you, trying to maintain the status quo in your life. Who are the crabs in your life? Sometimes, it may be someone who actually doesn’t want you to succeed and then you’ll need to make the decision to get rid of that person in your life. Often times, just like with my mother and I, the people holding you back may be people you love and who love you. Don’t let anyone hold you back or keep you from escaping the crab bucket. You can do it. You must find a way to create a balance in your life so that you can accomplish what you’ve set out to do, even if it means taking a break from the people you love.

 

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How To Have The Best Opt-In Page And Make More Money

How To Have The Best Opt-In Page

And Make More Money

 

by Matt Bacak

 

In the IM market specifically, people are usually looking for three things. The three hottest products I’ve ever sold in the IM space is make money, traffic and social media, as long as it has to do with making money. When you’re trying to come up with something to give away for your opt-in page, it’s best to choose one of those three items. You can either build a product of your own or find something that related to those products.

I personally like to give away information on my opt-in pages, like a free report or a PDF file. My good friend, Shawn Casey, gives away software on his lead capture page. I have a feeling that free software is the direction opt-in pages are heading. However, it’s up to you to decide what type of product you want to gift people. It needs to be valuable and unique. For example, I have a mind map that I share on one of my opt-in pages. On the page, it’s blurred out and to get it, you have to opt-in to my list. It’s unique and valuable.

I told my wife when we got married that I’m not like everybody else. I told her we would either be the poorest people in the world or the richest. I won’t settle for being normal. Using the same concept on the internet, I’m always trying new things. Everybody else usually plays the follower. I’d rather be the leader. Wouldn’t you? When you follow the followers, you don’t understand the innovators. Question everything that you see. Take a concept and shape it into your own. Make it new and exciting. Innovate. Look at a product and say, how can I make this different and better?

Once you’ve set up your opt-in page, you must split test. I have said this over and over again and I’ll keep saying it. It’s so important. Split testing is NOT optimization. Optimization is when you change the headline or the background color. Split testing is when you test radically different pages. For instance, page A is a page so ugly I wouldn’t want to show anyone, especially my grandma or my mother. Page B is a page that’s so beautiful, I’d want to show everyone. And page C is a page that’s a mixture of both. Usually, the one I wouldn’t want to show my grandma is the one that crushes it. If I had gone with my gut, I would have chosen the page that was pretty and I would have lost out on sales. Internet marketing is often counterintuitive. The normal person on the internet doesn’t make the amount of money I make and want to make because they aren’t split testing. They are just taking what they think will work and plastering it on the internet. They don’t know their numbers.

So the two things I want you to take away from this are know your numbers and split test. If you create your opt-in page blindly, you will second rate results. If you know your numbers because you split tested your opt-in page like crazy, you’ll know exactly what you need to do to make a lot of money. Don’t be a follower in this market. Followers don’t make the big bucks. To make money online, you have to be an innovator and innovators split test.
 

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The Importance of Enjoying Small Victories

The Importance of Enjoying Small Victories

 

by Matt Bacak

 

When I started, I was nicknamed the Powerful Promoter. I didn’t do anything in the internet marketing world. I was doing wealth building. It wasn’t until 2001 that I started my first list. That was a pivotal moment for me. I started my list because I had things to sell and also because I wanted a platform where I could be a reporter. Maybe that sounds strange to you so let me explain.

I started a newsletter called Millionaire Minutes. I never said I was a millionaire because I wasn’t at that point. It was my way of making friends and learning from the greatest minds in the internet marketing world. I leveraged my newsletter to get closer to the people I wanted to learn from.

The great thing about this newsletter is that I was able to bring value to not only my list, who subscribed to my newsletter but also to the people I was interviewing. I had something the millionaires desired. I had a list of people that wanted to buy their products.

Now I tell you this story because I want you to understand how valuable your list is. Also, I wanted to share my experiences with you so you would understand where I came from. I didn’t start with a million dollars. Most people don’t. I started out with an idea and the desire to make a million dollars. The first thing I did was learn from the people who had gone before me. What is your dream? Is your goal to make a million dollars? Who can you learn from to get you where you want to be in life?

When I started out on my quest to earn a million dollars, I would come home every day defeated. I would think, I didn’t make a million dollars, therefore I’m a loser. I’m a failure. A big moment for me was when I realized that I had to make my first dollar before I could make a million. From there, I had to make my first hundred dollars and then my first thousand dollars. I knew if I continued to only look at the bigger picture, I would stay defeated. I have to start cheering myself on and keeping a positive attitude. I had to celebrate the little victories along the way to stay motivated.

I remember when I made my first hundred thousand. It was a huge success for me. As soon as I made that, I knew I just had to do what I did ten more times to make a million bucks. Within six months, I made my first million dollars online, from the time I made my first hundred thousand. It was such a great feeling. Without breaking my goal down into smaller steps, I may have never gotten there.

So be realistic in your goals you set for the upcoming year. Big picture, you may want to make a million dollars but small steps do you need to take to get there? Start at the beginning and celebrate every victory you have on your journey to your goal. Set your goals so you can have those victories to keep yourself encouraged. Then take massive action and make it happen.

 
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How To Tackle Webinars

How To Tackle Webinars

 

by Matt Bacak

 
Webinars are a great tool to use if you want to sell high ticket items, whether they are your own or someone else’s. Before webinars existed, there used to be tele-seminars. We used to use telephones before computers were mainstream to sell high ticket products and services. Now it would take a whole course to cover everything you need to know about webinars but I’m just going to give you an overview of some things to keep in mind.

First, you need to send out several messages to fill up a webinar. To do this, you’re going to have a sequence set up to send out to your list. This is very easy to do and set up in your autoresponder.

Second, you’ll need to make sure to record your webinar. There are several different reasons for doing this. I personally record every webinar, every interview and everything meeting I have online because I have that information to look back on in case I need to recall that information for later purposes. For instance, if I have a webinar to sell an item that I may sell again, I have concrete data that I can then go and re-work for the next time around, to make it better. More importantly, the second reason for recording your webinar is because depending upon how well it goes, most of the time, you’ll want to do an encore. Thanks to recording it, you’ll already know exactly what you’re going to say and you may have found areas where you can change it up a bit to make better sales.

Now why would you turn around and do the exact same presentation again? It’s simple. Not everyone will be able to attend the first webinar. If you did your first webinar at 3 PM EST, do the second live webinar at 8 PM EST. This will enable you to bring in more people from different parts of the world. When you do your webinars at different times during the day, you are giving yourself more chances to make sales. Think about your target audience when you pick your times. You want to try to accommodate as many people as possible and in as many different parts of the world as possible.

Third, after you have the recording of your webinar, you’re going to do a replay. Send out an email to your list with a very simple message, letting them know they’ve missed this great webinar but they have the opportunity to come to the replay and see the awesome information you’ve shared. This will bring you even more sales. So, I’m sure you’re wondering, when do I stop sending the replay? When people stop buying.

Lastly, if you want your webinar to be the most successful it can be, create a deadline. If you start your replay sees on a Thursday and there is no urgency to buy or go to the sales page, what do you think will happen? Lots of people will ignore your email and go on to the next thing because there isn’t anything causing them to say, I’ve got to do this now! They think because it’s online, it’ll be there forever. There’s a simple solution to this. On Friday, you announce that this is going to end. Tell them it will go away forever by Sunday at midnight. Then you put a countdown on the relay page and a countdown timer on the sales page. It should say something like, this sale will be done on Sunday at midnight and when the timer hits zero, this deal goes away forever. We’re going to close this deal and we don’t know when we’re going to reopen it. Don’t lie to people and say you’ll never do it again if you aren’t sure. You are forcing people to make a decision about your product, forcing them to act. And they will!

With this overview, I know you’ll have a better understanding of the steps you should be taking when creating your webinar. It’s really that easy.

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The Simplest Cure For The Entrepreneur’s Curse

The Simplest Cure

For the Entrepreneur’s Curse

By Matt Bacak

Not too long ago, I had the following conversation with my good friend, Shawn Casey.

Me: “Man, I keep mailing this affiliate offer. I’ve sent it out sixteen times already. Every time I mail, I’m making over a dollar a click.”

Shawn: “Matt, let me ask you a question. You’re going to leave it, aren’t you?”

Me: “Yeah, I’m thinking about it.”

Shawn: “Matt, I’m joking! If it’s working, why are you leaving it?”

Thankfully, I have someone like Shawn who can tell me when I’m getting in my own way. It happens to all of us. It’s the Entrepreneur’s Curse. Part of being an entrepreneur is taking things to the next level and making things happen. We want to create things that are great and then we want to take those things and make them better, bigger, faster. Then, after a while we get bored and want to move on to the next fun and exciting thing.

This isn’t always a good thing. Because we are always thinking about creating new things, it’s easy to lose sight of what’s going on. In the example above, why would I leave something that’s making me money? It was an offer that I was making over a dollar EPC on. Now when I mail, I’m getting over a couple thousand clicks. That’s good money. Why would I want to change that? Because I’m losing sight of the bigger picture, that’s why.

One of the biggest internet marketing secrets that is easily overlooked is when something works, do it again. If you send an email and it makes a lot of money, send it again. You can change it up a little, send a variation of that email but keep sending it until it stops working for you. If you’re on my list or even Shawn’s list, you’ll notice that we are sending the same things out over and over again. And guess what? When it stops working, we put it away for a while and then a little while later, we bring it back out and send it again. Like I said, if you’re on my list, every couple months, you’ll notice something pop out that I’ve sent before.

If you understand human nature, you know how small our attention span is these days. Think about when you last watched a TV show. Did you remember the commercials when your TV show came back on from the break? You probably couldn’t remember even one commercial. They will keep showing that commercial and eventually, you’ll say, oh that’s amazing. You forgot you’ve already seen it. Your list is the same way. They have so much on their plates that they aren’t going to remember they’ve seen this offer before. So don’t quit sending until they stop buying. It’s really that simple.

Don’t let the Entrepreneur’s Curse stand in your way of being successful. Pay attention to what your list is saying with their wallets. Stay focused on the numbers. If they’re still buying, don’t change anything. If it’s still working, let it work. Don’t get in your own way. Remember the internet marketing secret I’ve shared with you today, “When something works, do it again.”

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I just buy it…

I posted this on the warrior
forum the other day…

Re: Pre-Launch: How I Made 1,602 Sales On
Vacation In Fiji (Solo Email Ads, baby!)

Quote:

“Dude… open up the link I want it.
In all seriousness folks – anything with
Mizel’s name on it – is a MUST have. He’s
not just brilliant but his experience level
out ways more then almost everyone I know
online. I’d suggest refreshing your browser
anticipating the moment you can get your
hands on this… can’t wait for my copy!”

And today’s the day :-)

So, I just bought it…

Purchase Details:
—————–
Transaction Id: AP-7JW0397986730973L
Date:     Tuesday 3rd of December 2013 05:22:09 PM
Product Name: SoloAdExpert
Price:     (REMOVED – Because it’s a DIME SALE)
—————–

Get it here: (before it rises)

http://visitrightnow.com/r/JustBuyIt

Best Regards,

Matt Bacak

Effortlessly Creating An Email Sequence

Effortlessly Creating An Email Sequence

By Matt Bacak

 
I have a lot of people ask me how I come up with email sequences when selling a product, whether it’s my own product or an affiliate product. A lot of people think way too hard about this. They spend hours agonizing over what to write in their emails for a product. It doesn’t have to be this way. It’s very simple and I’m going to show you exactly what I do when writing my emails.

Before I ever send out the first email for a product, I have a general idea of how my sequence is going to go. It’s so simple that you’ll laugh when I explain this to you. The first thing I do is head over to the sales letter. At first glance, I look for things that have a flashlight on them. I explained this to the guy in my office that does my mailing for me by saying, watch where the flashlight shines. The flashlight shines on places that stand out to you when glancing over the sales letter. The words could be bigger, highlighted, in a different bolder font, in a box that stands out, etc. You’ll notice the words because they pop out at you. For example, after looking at one of my previous WSO’s, I notice right away the words “Think about this.” The next thing I notice is in a box and it says, “Google updates their algorithms with a zoo animal name like Panda and then you watch your websites and blogs drop in rankings.” So when I’m writing my sequence, this might be my first email. Now all I will add to this is a call to action and my name.

When creating the follow up emails in my sequence, I just go back to the sales letter again and look for headlines and things that are highlighted, or under the flashlight. It’s really that simple. I really like using the headlines for one reason you may not have considered. Headlines are where most copy-writers spend the most time and energy. The headlines are words and phrases that have been split-tested. So right away I know that the headline works.

One thing you should remember when creating your email sequence is that you need to be specific. Don’t write blind emails. You want them to know why they’re going to the sales page. If it’s an offer for YouTube and your email says it’s about Facebook, not only will you look like an idiot but the person clicking on the link will be annoyed and disappointed when they get to the sales page. The person will feel like they’ve been tricked when you don’t deliver what you promise. Make sure you are sending messages that are congruent with what you’re selling.

Also, consider the length of your emails. My emails are always short, sweet and to the point. There are a couple of reasons for this. Reason number one is in today’s world, many people are interacting online by their mobile phones and devices. Some people don’t use a computer anymore. There are tablets, e-readers and cell phones with amazing capabilities. So when writing an email, I take that into account. It’s a lot easier to read a short email on a cell phone than it is a long email. Reason number two is based upon a personal belief of mine. It’s my belief that my job as an affiliate marketer is to send you qualified traffic. It’s your job to sell that qualified traffic. I know many other marketers feel the same way.

Something else you might want to keep in mind when crafting your emails is putting in two calls to actions. This is something I know my friend Shawn Casey does when writing his email sequences. This makes it super easy for people to click on the link and go to the sales page. Who knows, maybe they’ll click twice?

Now you’ve seen how I write my emails for my sequences. You’ve seen how easy it is to create emails that will work for you and be congruent with the sales page. All you need to do now is put this into practice. It’s really that simple.

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Why You Should Become An Affiliate Today

Why You Should Become An Affiliate Today

By Matt Bacak

Recently, I wrote an article explaining the different types of affiliate marketing. Today I want to explain why you should become an affiliate, even if you already sell your own products. I can personally attest to the success of affiliate marketing because I’ve walked this path. I’ve sold over $2.1 million just by selling other people’s stuff. That’s a lot of money! If you’re still on the fence about whether or not you should try affiliate marketing, let me give you three reasons why you’re missing out by not starting today.

Reason Number One – Simply put, affiliate marketing is one of the easiest ways to get started in internet marketing. If you’re a newbie or whether you’ve had a list for awhile now, affiliate marketing is simple. You sign up as an affiliate. You mail out an email to your list. Then you watch the cash come in.

Reason Number Two – There’s less work involved for you. The great thing about being an affiliate is that you don’t have to spend your time and energy creating a product. On top of that, you don’t have to handle the transactions or the customer support. Anyone who has created a product before knows that you don’t just sell and you’re done. After you sell, you have to handle any support questions or problems people may have with your product. As an affiliate, all those issues are sent to the person who created or launched the product. Less work for me is always a bonus.

Reason Number Three – I know that I cannot create everything for everyone. You can’t either. If there is a product that my list desires, something I think they would want or need, and I can’t produce it, I will go out and find that product. Part of having a list means knowing exactly what your list wants and you won’t always be able to provide them with the products they’re looking for. Me personally, I know I don’t have enough time or enough people on my staff to create products all the time for my list. Luckily for me, I can easily search and find the right product that will match my list.

Now I’ve had people who say, oh that’s all fine and good Matt but I’m planning on creating this product for my list and I don’t want to sell any products like it because I don’t want to be competing against that product when I sell my own. There’s a couple things I want you to keep in mind if you are one of those people planning on creating a product for your list. First of all, what if you never create that product? And who’s to say that if you do create it, that people will actually buy it? One of the great things about selling affiliate products is that you can find out what sells to your list. Why waste your time and energy creating a product that you don’t know if anybody wants to buy? Why not allow people to vote with their wallet? For example, if you’re planning on creating a course on YouTube, go find affiliate products for YouTube. Once you see how your list responds, you’ll know whether or not you should spend your time creating a YouTube course.

In conclusion, if you’re not already selling affiliate products, you need to get started today. It’s easy, less time consuming than creating your own products and you can’t create everything for everyone. So what are you waiting for?

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How To Make More Money With Upsells

How To Make More Money With Upsells

by Matt Bacak

 

Learning how to make money with upsells is one of the factors that tremendously grows any business. You must be familiar with the question “would you like fries with that?” This is probably one of the most famous upsell in business. Ruthless business people stop at nothing to have them in their businesses.

Not all of us have the same view when it comes to upsells, but we would take on anything that would help us make more money in our businesses. That is why I’m happy to share with you this information on how upsells can be done well to bring you more business and not irritate your clients.

1. Upsells can occur at 3 points during a business process: pre-sale, checkout and post sale. When setting up upsells at any point of these opportunities, they have different approaches.

2. Pre-sale upsell occurs on the sales page. It is part of the whole sales pitch of your product. It is presented to the customer before they checkout, e.g “buy all 6 ebooks for $49.”

3. Pre-sale upsell is presented as an offer that goes along with the product on the sales page.

4. Checkout upsell is presented when the customer has made an action to buy (add to cart). You ask the customer in your own way if they would like “fries with that”.

5. You would want to keep a few upsells at this point because you are interrupting a checkout process.

6. Remember to give the customer an option to decline without feeling interrupted. This can be done by have a “No Thanks” button.

7. A checkout upsell can also be presented when a buyer is confirming an order. Amazon subtly suggests this very well.

8. A post sale upsell is the most common technique used. It is commonly presented in emails after purchase, offering a similar product to the purchased one.

9. It is easier setting up a post sale upsell as it can be a more advanced product than the one bought.

At each stage of the techniques, the buyer is at a different sales cycle stage. At pre-sale, they might not have decided what to buy, at checkout stage, they have mentally committed to buy and at post sale they are probably enjoying the product. So what do you upsell at each point?

10. At pre-sale, find products that have a similar price and offer them at a discount.

11. At checkout, find products that complement the purchased product but have a lower price.

12. At post sale, you have the freedom to offer more expensive offer, you premium products.

Things to consider – You don’t want to piss off your customers.

13. Do not automatically add things to their cart. Even if your clients trust you, it is an element of dishonesty.

14. Do not sell your buyers what you have already sold them. They expect you to know what you’ve sold them and would not take excuses.

15. Do not offer the same product when they have said “No Thanks”. Even if you discount it further, honor their decline.

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Tips For Starting Your Internet Business

Tips For Starting Your Internet Business

by Matt Bacak

 

Starting an internet business does not have to be difficult or overwhelming. There are many resources to help you create content and a website, build customer lists and use social media to promote your online business.

PLAN
1. Define who you are and what your business is

2. Develop the style of your business and your site

3. Set up an e-commerce website to sell products

4. Set up an online portfolio to sell your services.

5. As you set up your internet business, you will need a unique site name.

LEARN and GET HELP
1. Learn from others with similar online businesses

2. Learn to deal with rejection

3. Talk to lots of people who might be able to help you. Eventually, someone will.

4. Send short, succinct messages to potential helpers.

5. Find a mentor with a good system of success

6. Find a proven business system

7. Consult a tax advisor regarding business taxes and personal taxes

8. Consult local or state business licensing bureaus and follow regulations

CONTENT
1. Populate your site with examples of work or items sold

2. Create and post keyword-rich unique content regularly

3. Make your site findable on Google, Bing, and other search engines

4. Do not use technical jargon. Speak to your clients, not your peers.

5. Offer payment options including PayPal or similar services

GET TRAFFIC and CONVERSIONS
1. Traffic, or visitors, to your site need to become customers who return to your site

2. Make it easy for customers to communicate with you

3. Respond promptly to customer communication

4. Engage customers on your site with online communities, product reviews, blog comments, etc.

5. Offer coupons and exclusive offers for frequent buyers or registered users

6. Offer free shipping

PARTICIPATE
1. Get involved with the community your niche targets

2. Participate on message boards and help others with your expertise

3. Cross post updates, news, new products to your social networking sites

MONETIZE YOUR SITE
1. Sell advertising on your site to make additional money besides direct sales

2. Become an affiliate marketer, earning commission from sales

3. If your website is selling a product, also sell on eBay or Etsy and link back to your direct sales site

PROMOTE
1. Market your online business assertively both on and offline

2. Connect with customers and prospects via Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn and other social networking sites

3. Maintain a business page on Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. Post special offers for those who “Like” your page. Update your personal pages with links to your business page.

4. Cross post news from your main website to your social sites and link back to you main site.

5. Tweet tips or short bits of information from your main site on Twitter

6. Create your own YouTube channel for your business. Regularly add useful videos. Encourage viewers to share your videos with others. Have a video contest. Post a weekly mini-demo of customer tips or demonstrations

BE PATIENT
1. Start your online business small and build it bigger.

2. Expect to have a few failures along with your successes

3. Keep your main job until you are certain the online business can sustain you.

If you did good research and created a good foundation for your business site, you will have a better chance of success. Take care of the basics, and gradually build on that. Learn everything you can and strive always to improve your business presence.

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