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Hello,
Marlon here.
I have a real treat for you. It’s a complete PDF report you can download now. After you read it, please post your thoughts in comments.
Enjoy,
Marlon
Hey Marlon, in Product4Dollars you really lay it out. Straight talk, easy to ‘get’, a process that can change the dollars for hours lifestyle and bring in something that looks like a WHOLE lot more fun.
Thank you once again for sharing these words of wisdom.
[Hey Bill, thanks for your kind words. Have you used enough of my stuff to be a case study yet? I'm looking for case studies.]
Hi Marlon,
I have been following your newsletters for the past few years, and even though I have unsubscribed from nearly a hundred others over the last nine years, I seem to have more confidence in your methods and your style than many others. Plus you give good information without constantly sending only offers. I appreciate that.
In nine years of studying this business and staying on the sidelines, I find one thing to be the biggest sore spot with me, especially after seeing Jerry West’s blog on one of the top marketers alledgedly having sold his list to third parties. The biggest sore spot (for me) is the constant pushing for marketers to latch onto prospect’s email addresses. I just recently had to cancel one of my addresses at my name at my company, that I had used for nearly nine years with no problems, because within three month’s time it suddenly became flooded with garbage from Nigeria, the UK, fake servicemen, fake sweepstakes, and little old ladies wanting handouts. I can’t prove it was the alledged perpetrator Jerry mentioned (even though I was on his list), as I had made some other mistakes which I have since corrected.
I have since gone to contact forms on all my sites, and “compartmentalized†the email addresses I assign to people, so that if it happens again, I can quickly determine who the scoundrel is!
I know that money can be made from the internet without gathering names and email addresses because I have been doing it for years. I know it is a proven fact that you can increase sales by about 40% with follow-ups and back-end offers, but regardless of what everyone says, there is a lot of extra work in that…writing the follow-up information, constantly coming up with new offers, etc. And if you have more than one site, it only compounds the work.
My situation is that I have worked construction most of my life (builder, master electrician and robotics tech) and have never set aside enough in social security to be comfortable with retirement. I’m 61 now, with back problems which keep me from doing what I used to do, and can no longer take a job working for someone else.
My theory is this: if back-end offers add 40% to your income, why mess with it? (For example): If you only make $100,000 instead of $140,000 per year, isn’t that plenty to live on (from completely passive income) without making a full time job out of doing all that follow-up work? Why is it that everyone has to feel the need to get greedy?
I would personally like to see someone teach a program where they can just build simple web sites to create an “income†(not an “empireâ€) without having all that follow up work to do. If the student decides to “advance†into that concept to further his goals at a later date, that’s fine, but why make it mandatory from the very beginning? They have enough things to do, with just picking a product and getting their site up and running, without adding more work to it.
I make about 1/10th of our monthly budget from only one of our products so obscure that only about 400 people per month search for it. At the time I found it, I knew absolutely nothing about proper keyword research…I just happened onto the product. The site isn’t the best looking, I have no opt-in box, no blog, I do very little maintenance on the site, and my only promotion is generic SEO, and yet I hold the #1 position on the first page on Google for my keywords. If I can do that from such an obscure product, think what can be done with a properly researched keyword (resulting in MANY more searches per month), a great product, and a better looking site! Less than ten sites can provide that full time income, with no follow-up work to do! And by testing, and every couple of months) eliminating the worst performer and replacing it with a new product, you will eventually be able to cut down on the number of sites needed to provide a decent income (and ideally get it down to just one site!)
Many people in this world are afraid to give up their email address, for the reason I stated above. They don’t trust what people will do with it, and many newbies aren’t knowledgable enough to set up “disposable addressesâ€. Even some of the customers that I deal with face to face on an everyday basis won’t give me their email addresses! Neither will they participate in blogs where giving their address is required. It’s easy to write them off and say “Oh well, it’s their lossâ€, but there has to be a better way of doing things to get those people involved and allow them to learn. They need to become comfortable with the methods first, and learn how to set up those disposable addresses before they can take the next step, but no one is teaching this.
I am interested in your opinion (as well as other people’s) on these things. Is there a way we can teach people to earn a full time living online without them giving up their addresses, and yet still make a living ourselves from their efforts, while at the same time, reduce our own workload? That’s what I’m striving for, and since I am already using those methods successfully, I know it can be done.
Not everyone is looking for another full time job, and not everyone is looking to be a multi-millionaire. Many are only looking to be able to make a living and pay their bills and have a little time to enjoy life. I can’t see giving them extra work to do that they don’t need to be doing. Many professional marketers are making plenty of money from passive income where they don’t collect or have to deal with email addresses, and I would like to see more of them teaching that, instead of constantly pushing the “opt-in box” or “list building” theories. I know they work, but it has been my experience that that extra 40% income that “can” be obtained also results in at least 40% more work. Those of us looking to retire soon (as an example) don’t need or want that extra work! When I build a site (properly, of course), I want to put it on the web and forget it, while I move on to create more! I want no deadlines to meet, no newsletters to write, no customer service issues to deal with, and no outsourcing to deal with! Like you said before, let’s keep “making money” a simple process!
John W. Abert
[Hi John, there are people who claim to have what you're looking for. Personally, I doubt most of them do but you're free to look and try. There's no lack of people promising such a system. I think you'll go down lots of goose chases. I do know of one such thing that might work. If you want to buy an hour of my time, I'll tell you about it. Other than that, good luck! What it sounds like you've bought into is a pitch that promises such things. The TRUTH is John, like it or not, money is made by being aggressive and selling stuff. That's part one. Part two is that the money is made on the back end repeat business because you usually only break even (if even that) getting new customers. So to say that 40% of money is made on the back end isn't exactly true. In many or most businesses ALL the money made is made on the back end. I'd say that in the vast majority of businesses in the WORLD whether online or offline, ALL the money is made on the back end and they're lucky to get a new customer at break even. My other comment is that if you DO find such a system, including the one I know about, there's a good chance it'll break within a year or two because once word spreads, it stops working.]
Hi, Marlon.
You have such good content I think of your newsletter as “Marlon University.” Every post is a mini-course.
Yesterday I was in the “Marlon University Library” checking info re: Marlon’s Reseller ID and Affiliate Programs when I decided to “audit” the Affiliate Forums.
I encountered what Twitter refers to as “Unusual Activity.” I was so surprised by the photographic demonstration that I backed up, closed the door and tiptoed down the hallway. Marlon, we need to get Campus Security over there! LOL
Leigh Anne
[No need to post this comment but I'm serious about that forum; it has your name on it. Love you, as always.
[Leigh, I appreciate you. And wow! I'm so glad you brought this to my attention. Now, what URL is it? I think I know but I'm not 100% sure. I think it's a forum I didn't know my staff had ever turned live.]
In my experience, it is MUCH less work to add follow-ups and back end offers to generate that extra 40% (which is a minimum figure if you make even a halfway effort at it) than it is to continually generate new customers for every single sale made to effect a similar increase in income.
[Carl, we agree on that point. I just don't think back end marketing for many or most businesses is ONLY 40%. It's more like 100% because they only break even getting customers. But it depends on the business model. That could be true in some businesses. Since my model is an affiliate model we are profitable upfront and we don't have a lot of big ticket back ends. But we're changing that.]
Love it — Love it — Love it — thank you
Thanks for the pdf and video Marlon.The affiliate model truly stands on its own as a traffic source. The fact that it is not dependent on Google is a relief.
There has been a lot of focus on Google that sometimes it’s difficult to think there is something besides them.
Thanks for great content.
Will D
Hey Marlon,
thanks for all the good stuff for free. Latel it seems people say “free” a lot, and you get peanuts. So, thanks.
Well, like plenty of other peeps out there, I’m having a hard time lifting off. I even have a product, a software I made myself. I have sold 2 in many months. Now, I don’t know how much traffic one woudld expect in a “screen printing” niche, but I assume I’m doing a host of things wrong.
One of the reasons is that I’m not outsourcing any part of anything. I do everything myself: Software creation, installer, website, website templates, software locks, registration system, paypal integration, the whole lot. I simply have no money to buy anything! It was a struggle to come up with the cash for a domain name. We have so little money (in my family), that we can barely afford bread. I haven’t paid an electric bill in 6 months.
So, I’d like to know (if you know, because my situation is fairly unique and also fairly unrelated to anything you’ve been through) how to start with absolutely nothing.
What do I say to get people to buy from me?
I sell software that’s worth some $700 (competition’s price is $800). I’m selling it for $99! I’d like to sell it for $695, but if nobody is buying at the $99 price point…
I just need a few pointers, I guess. I would really appreciate some help.
[Hi, my recommendation is to study the sales pitches for the $800 software and compare yours to it. IF they can sell it at $800, you can sell it lower. You MUST be missing something in your sales pitch.]
I sure do appreciate the answer. It’s refreshing to get feedback from an actual person! Thank you!
Do you think I should ask for an email before I allow the trial to be downloaded? I could pitch to them on a regular basis. I’m working on an autoresponder, ’cause I aint got none, and no money for one…
I didn’t wanna ask for an e-mail, because my site is so un-flashy and I didn’t want to throw up a hurdle to download… But on the other hand, I can catch the crowd that’s only downloading for one or two time use…
Plus, it’s a considerable effort to make an autoresponder from scratch!
What’s the rate of increase in sales I can expect if I, say, email them once a month? (I won’t have much “news”. I have been thinking of creating related content to lure them. I already have an article up, but I’m not much of a salesman…)
[All you need is a very simple squeeze page. Nothing flashy. Look at it like a puzzle an you've got to try different pieces until you find the one that fits. Autoresponders aren't hard to set up. You can do it in an evening. I would email once a week or more.]