Underground Traffic Secrets - Review

What if you could get as many of your favorite internet marketers into the same room to discuss their opinions on what they would do if they could go back in time with the knowledge they have now?
Phill Turner (yes, with 2 Ls) of Underground Traffic Secrets has done just that with his packaged collection of interviews with a variety of successful online experts and asked them "If you were starting again today and you had absolutely no traffic, which traffic strategy would you use to make $1000 in profit after 30 days?"

Being experienced in internet traffic myself I just about skipped over this gem - but saw the names in the list and the price and decided to purchase a copy. I've got to tell you I was pleasantly surprised to find this to be an incredible deal and wealth of information. When you get to hear experienced marketers talk candidly about their strategies to drive traffic, you'll find that they tend to give away much more information than they would in a written ebook or article.

One on one interviews work so well since the interviewee typically doesn't have time to filter their thoughts and they're so excited to help others.  What is so revealing in these audio reports is that they cover so many different traffic strategies which is so important for any type of online site - plus, they really demonstrate how to make money online. Most of Phill's interviews are about 20 to 30 minutes long making this offer an even better value.  With that single question offered up - the responses stay very focused on traffic with what I think were some deep, hidden slips of the tongue by these guys.

Here's a brief list of the interviews (my ratings) and some of the topics discussed:


1. Dean Hunt (very good) - an expert in buzz marketing, he focused on becoming an authority much in the same way as a talk show host or interview might do it. If you focus on learning a topic at no cost and associate your name with experts you can build a level of respect. Lots of good details on how to build out this method.

2. Kim Roach (amazing) - is one of the most successful female marketers online, she is best known for her products Traffic Dashboard, Instant Affiliate Payday and Super Affiliate Club.  She focused on the very basics of marketing online - but manages to lay it out in simple terms of traffic, offer and conversion. Using solo ads, newsletters, WSOs and more, she provides an amazing wealth of information in 30 minutes.

Why You Need a Strategy to Earn Money Online

As much as you want to make some extra cash online right now -  if you don't have a strategy you might just be floating in the ocean of internet marketing without a real sense of where you're going.  In most large companies having a strategy is a key component to a business plan and direction setting.  But, many times people confuse a strategy with a plan which are two very different things.  A strategy requires some training on strategic thinking to help you define potential opportunities for the future. How does this apply to you online? Let me dig a bit deeper to show you how you might apply it.

What is a Strategy?

Have you ever met someone who was so meticulous that they planned out in detail every step and task in detail?  Or, have you ever met someone who was so creative, inventive, yet so disorganized that they didn't know what day or time is was?   A strategy is can be thought of as the intersection of the two.  A strategy is not necessarily a plan nor is it just a set of creative ideas. The best way to think of a strategy is mix together the best of 'inventor/innovator' thinking with 'planner/organizer' thinking.  This is the essence of strategic thinking.

What is the Best Method to Make Some Money Online?

Recently, I was scanning around Yahoo Answers and found this particular question. Since I spent the time answering it for that person I thought it might be useful for any of the Agile Marketer readers. Enjoy!

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This is a difficult question to answer because most of your answers are going to be pitches for products or services that claim to make you money.

I'll say right up front that even though I have made some good money online most of the money making systems are really a bad mix of techniques and promises that typically burn people out right away because of one of the following:

1. You have to pay too much money to learn or get into this business

2. You don't have the computer skills to work online

3. You are trying to make money on something you know nothing about or care about (this is my pet peave!)

4. You don't have the diligence to do the day to day work

5. You are not thinking like a small business

6. You are desperate for money and will do anything

These statements are what typically splits those who make little or nothing to those who make millions online.

I started out like you wondering what to do and how to do it and was left with a lot of frustrated mistakes. But, if there is anything I've learned online in the last 5 years is that if you don't pursue something you love (your interest, hobbies, life dreams, etc) you probably won't make much.

My advice to you is to:

1. Start with a business mindset first - what is your plan? what will you sell? do you have knowledge that is marketable? (Don't worry - many things are marketable - I've seen successful online businesses just on simple home ice dam removal because the person doing it loved construction - and saw another make a mint on care of pet fish - yes, pet fish!!!).

2. Be sure to really start your business - as a sole propietor or LLC. You get huge tax breaks for anything you buy for your business - books, computers, software, desks, phones, etc. Don't buy anything until you do this!!!! It will save you a ton of money.

3. List every thing that you love to do or know about and write them down. Then, pick what you think you could market online as a product, service or knowledge (such as a blog)- stick to it!! Don't go online trying to sell diet plans if you know nothing about nutrition or dieting. If you know something about specific pets, legal forms, cameras, - the sky is the limit! Use that knowledge to your advantage and build on it.

4. Not give into desperation - let things work out over time. You can't build a business in a day. Making big money online takes time - you have to prove yourself and have the motivation to work on it every day.

5. Invest in your education. Learn as much as you can on how to do this - buy a few online business guides. I'm constantly amazed that people are not willing to spend a couple hundred dollars to learn how to make money online when they are willing to pay thousands for a MBA or even an online college degree.

6. Don't get distracted - probably the #1 killer of online hopes and dreams. Once you start learning this business you will definitely see more opportunities - hold off!! You will spread yourself too thin. Be focused.

I hope this helps you. I've lived it and think that anyone can do this.

IM101 Step 2: Establish Your Differentiating Email IDs

Ok, it's summer and you've just setup your business to make money online as a Sole Proprietor or LLC called Howe Productions (since your name is Sarah Howe - note: that I just made this up - any relation is purely coincidental.). You're really excited to get started with the two ideas that you've finally decided are worth pursuing with a passion to earn some online income. You've created your main business domain called howe-productions.com with a main contact ID of sarah@howe-productions.com.

Meanwhile you've decided that your two marketing ideas are going to be built on a primary business idea (travel photography - eztravelpics.com) and a secondary personal project (yoga hot spots). However the secondary idea is going to be a blog only and not its own domain (yogahotspots.blogspot.com). Once setup, you now have two more email contact IDs - sarah@eztravelpics.com and yogahotspots@yahoo.com. Everything looks good, right?

Now the first problem. You want to submit some articles, Flickr pictures, and use some forums to start promoting your sites. Which email ID do you use when you register? Also, you want to setup some Adsense ads, plus some site analysis tools. Which email ID do you use now?

The core problem here is the use of your specific taglines for promotional links vs. general tools to manage the marketing strategy. Do you want all of your travel promotions to show sarah@howe-productions.com or sarah@eztravelpics.com? What if you write some yoga articles?

The solutions to this is pretty easy to do but also easy to miss. Just remember to use your parent email ID (in this case sarah@howe-productions.com ) for any online tool that manages mutiple sites - things like Google Adense and Adwords, Sitemeter, Feedburner, etc. Use your specific email for promotional sites such as articles and article taglines, blog comments, Web 2.0 community sites, etc. Promotional sites should always point to the specific site you are try to monetize thus the need for a specific email Id tuned to that site.

Case in point: I started using an article submission service that required a tagline for every article (such as 'Don is an Internet Strategist and ... you can reach him at don@agilemarketer.com'). However, I wanted to submit to wholly different categories. I switched the email and tagline only to discover that my previous marketing articles now had taglines and email ids completely in the wrong category!

So, here are my strategies for IDs :
1. For a single online strategy - use a single domain email id (makes sense)
2. For a parent company strategy - create a parent domain email id and individual ids for each site you create.

Note: If you plan a Blog with no domain for either 1 or 2, I strongly suggest using Yahoo mail as your primary id (this is because of the promotional tools that Yahoo has). You're going to have to have a Yahoo id anyway (more on that in future posts).

This may not make a lot of sense to you now, but it will in the future.

Next up, using the Web 2.0 community to promote your site before you're even close to finishing it.

Use the 80-20 Rule to Make Money Online

I don't know how many of you have worked in a Fortune 50 company before. But, if you have you know how much large companies focus on squeezing the greatest benefit from every dollar spent.

This type of value can come in many ways - reduced expenses, more sales, faster delivery, etc. Any way you look at it, large corporations understand the need to keep the financial statement friendly to their stock owners.

A common theme running in many companies is the idea that the first 80% of any work is easier than the last 20%, and, it is that last 20% that usually doubles the total cost of the effort. Plus, it is usually the first 80% that provides a majority of the need. When you apply this to a large effort or a combination of efforts the savings is staggering! Companies will work on 10, 50 or 100 million dollar projects and can realize 32 million in savings plus get the benefit sooner just using those three examples

How can you apply this to your own online marketing endeavors? You have probably invested quite a bit of time and effort to make money online, and, if you're like me, want to perfect all of your work. This includes articles, websites, blogs, ebooks, graphics, lists, etc. Are you burning the midnight oil on fine details?

If you took a step back and analyzed your own work would you be able to strip away some of the most difficult and time consuming steps but still get most of the benefit? In my own work I have found that trying to complete a site down to the finest details probably did nothing for any additional revenue. If I had worked on only the core 80% I could have spent the rest of the time on traffic building.

Take a look at it a different way. Perhaps you are writing your first ebook and have 12 chapters on your specific topic. Do you really need all 12 chapters? Will some of those chapters make the difference in the overall quality or sales? What if you cut it down to 9 or 10 chapters - maybe the other chapters can wait for the next ebook.

By no means am I trying to suggest that you not complete anything to the point of it being non-functional, poor quality or simply useless. You still have to do the majority of the work that gets you to that threshold. The balance is benefit vs. effort and cost with your goal to still have quality products, services and information.

The bottom line is every hour you spend working on fine tuning your own online marketing process could be taking away potential profits from other endeavors. The more revenue generating projects you have, the higher the potential is to make money online.

You can always use your first earned dollars to hire talent later to tune, modify and perfect your past work (take a look at Where to Focus Your Marketing Dollars). This gives you even more productivity with business acceleration!

Get Your Website Up Fast!

My assumption today is that you have an idea of what you want to do and are ready to get your website built. Great! However, if you are like me you may tend to get lost in the design or look-and-feel of your site's layout. Advice of the day - whatever you do stop this behavior! Why? Because this is the kind of thing that will waste hours of your time. 'But, but, but', you say, 'I want my site to look great.' Yes, everyone does. However, it is one of the single most time consuming tasks especially if you are not a graphic designer.

Based on my own abilities to do graphic and text layouts I would say that my efficiency rating is about 5-10 to 1 - meaning that what takes me 5-10 hours to do graphically I can do in 1 hour of article writing, site text and links. Think about that - if I build my own site I may be spending 20 hours on the layout and 2 to 4 hours on the content. Now you tell me which is more important!

Regardless of my argument - what is important is getting the content out on the web before anything else. Many miss this point all together. I could, for example, create 5 articles, 3-4 intro and about pages, and a site map and get it loaded on a new domain in a day. I could also start the first blog entry as well. This content would not need a layout and could just be a basic CSS XHTML layout as you can see in the CSS Zen Garden site without CSS skin and with CSS skin. That way the search engines can immediately begin spidering my content. I do not need to worry about my visitors yet since the site is new and very few will find it in the next few weeks. However, now I have the luxury to work on the layout and start building links without trying to complete the entire site first.

Get your content out there first! You'll be glad you did!

Marketing What You Love to Do

Ah, this topic will drive me into a frenzy the more I think about it and talk to people. And, frankly, it is the antithesis of the current trends in internet marketing. Why, might you ask? The answer to this ties directly to my last blog entry on AdSense niche marketing and the information black market. People are throwing niche websites left and right on all kinds of topics - mostly targeted at the highest paying keyword phrases. Besides the other problems I mentioned before this also stabs right in the heart of who you are.

Let me explore this a bit differently. Let's say your real passions are golf, drinking coffee, and reading non-fiction books on science. Besides that you are an expert real-estate lawyer and have a plethora of knowledge on that subject. Now let's look at some of the highest paying keyword search categories:

DUI, Mortgage, Refinancing, Sex, Travel, Health, Gambling, Entertainment, Legal Help, etc.

Many budding internet marketers are choosing highly rated keyword phrases to put up niche Adsense sites focusing on these areas as well as others. But, why would you put up a niche site on lazik eye surgery if you love golf, coffee, science and real-estate law? The answer, simply to make money, of course! The goal of most niche sites is pure profitability. I'm not saying that making a profit is bad - all I am saying is that doing work only for profits will eventually burn you out. There are a number of packaged niche products you can buy to quickly jump into high-paying markets. But, once built do you really care about the information any more to drive these sites forward?

If you happen to be one of the lucky ones whose interests fit a high paying niche then good for you. But, don't be discouraged! You can typically find something that fits your passions and interests that can be managed to an income source. If you love to collect things then build on your collectables - if you love coffee then build your niche around coffee. Just remember that it will be ten times easier for you to add original content to anything that you really care about.

Pssst!! Here's a Secret - How to Make Money Online

Ah, the age old question - "how do I make easy money online without any effort"? Guess what, unless you are a lotto winner the answer is 'you cannot'. Please listen to me when I say this - you are not reading this to just make money - you are trying to establish an online business. What's the difference you might ask? The difference is a business has a vision, plan, growth potential, focus, etc.

"But", you might ask, "I can just be an affiliate and make extra money, can't I?" Yes, you can. However, you cannot make the kind of money needed to become an independently wealthy or earn a full living online. Now, you might counter with examples of those who have done it - but I would say they have a vision and direction but just don't know or have the business education to realize it. Take a very close look at some of the leading internet marketers like Mike Filsaime, Neil Shearing, Michael Cheney (affiliate link) and Derek Gehl. They are making serious money online because of their commitment and vision of their business. (This goes back to yesterday's posting on driving business growth).

Internet Marketing Secret - there is not an easy way to make money online, but, there is an easy way to learn how to build a business to make money online. Study the names above very carefully, take notes, find their links, see what they sell and list their core business focus areas. If you are patient, and truly productive you will make serious money. It will take effort and a little time.

Driving Online Business Growth

It is amazing to see the plethora of internet marketing, work at home, wealth online and similar guides out there. Once you start seeing all of the possibilities your mind tends to swim with ideas. Someone is making millions on AdSense, another is selling ebooks like crazy, others are using anti-marketing to drive curiosity seekers, and so on. Where do you start?

The biggest problem that 95% of those trying to break into online marketing is sustaining productive growth. By this I mean defining daily time to your project and business to drive revenue. Sounds easy, doesn't it? Well, it's not.

The greatest secret that online marketers rely on is the fact that most buyers have huge dreams but very little productive drive. Most online products are purchased but never used or used only inconsistently. The chore of working on something day to day is too difficult for many - they're always looking for automated wealth.

In order to drive traffic to your site and build your business you must sustain a certain amount of productive work every day. What is productive work? That is work that directly affects your revenue. Unfortunately, reading this right now is not productive work for you - it will be in the future. Building your sites, adding content, writing ebooks and articles, etc. is productive. If you are like me you enjoy finding new products and learning the trade - but many times it is overwhelming and your head starts spinning.

Here's my advice: focus on a single project, build it daily, add content, add links, add rss feeds, get your list started - it will take some time. Try to curb you tendencies toward reading blogs, getting excited over the next new product, and reading forums. I'm not saying you shouldn't educate yourself - just don't forget that education does not directly drive revenue - it only gives you more potential to drive revenue.