Associate Programs Newsletter #363
Some affiliates like learning from their friends.
I reckon there are very strong reasons why you should learn from experts, from big thinkers, big achievers.
CONTENTS:
1. Learn from friends or from experts?
2. You don't have to be perfect
3. Do you learn like a novice or an expert?
4. We're back in sunny Queensland
5. Are you new to affiliate programs?
6. Thought for today: New ideas
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1. Learn from friends or from experts?
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Do you learn from friends who are on about the same level as you, or do you learn from experts?
(Lucky you, if your friends ARE experts.)
Experts are much more likely to be strategic thinkers. They're more likely to see the big picture and think big ideas (more about how experts think later).
Learning from experts broadens your horizons and makes it easier for you to believe in big goals.
So I was delighted when John Evans told me that he was launching "Success Alert 2 - Conversations with MORE Successful Internet Entrepreneurs".
Volume 1, published in 2004, was hugely popular.
In Volume 2, John interviews nine Internet entrepreneurs who use a variety of different business models including affiliate marketing, membership websites, eBay retail, blogging and more.
These are BIG thinkers, and BIG achievers.
Check out the caliber of the people he interviewed...
* Al, a blogger, generates an annual revenue of more than $300,000 (60% from AdSense) from his most popular blog. He's in an intensely competitive niche but his visitors are growing by 5% a month.
* Craig, who's become an expert on rebates, runs a membership based shopping site. He earns affiliate commissions and gives members cash-back rebates. He has 160,000 members signed up - a very handy sized list. Annual sales: Over $1 million.
* Craig No. 2, a fitness expert, owns two sites using different business models. He sells an ebook he wrote (a new twist on an old topic), with an upsell to his membership site, which has different membership levels. Annual sales: Over $400,000. He has a video on YouTube that has been watched more than 200,000 times.
* Eran sells clothes on eBay. In a highly competitive niche, his annual sales top $1 million. He doesn't put a lot of time into this project because he's busy working on other business ideas.
* Joel sells toys - lots of them. He attracts 20,000 to 25,000 unique visitors a day and has annual sales of nearly $6 million.
* Torsten owns a network of more than 130 blogs, gets 1.5 million unique visitors a month, and his annual revenue is over $1.5 million. He's now establishing a blog network in China.
* Michael turned a pastime into a business. He earns more than $60,000 a year from a job he loves.
* Richard owns travel sites which get more than 1 million unique visitors a month. He's doing a whopping $80 million in sales annually.
* Bruno owns an ecommerce site which has annual revenues of over $25 million. He also owns more than 1,000 satellite sites in related themes. The business has six different types of revenue streams - some good ideas there.
These guys describe how they got started, how they built up their business, their marketing techniques, the software they use, which entrepreneurs' blogs they read, which forums they use to get advice, how to get traffic from YouTube, and so on.
Many of the answers will surprise you because they're not the answers you often see in other books or on forums. These guys are describing their own real-life experience, not just repeating theories they've read, so this is incredibly valuable information.
What I like about John's books is that you're not just learning vague theory, you're discovering techniques and strategies from guys who are very successfully doing this stuff.
People selling marketing books like to tell us that "anyone can do this". Well, you need to know that most of the guys John interviewed for this book are NOT ordinary. Al was a software engineer, Craig majored in computer management, Eran has a background in engineering, Joel has a degree in computer science and Bruno had $50,000 to invest in start-up costs. If you want to emulate some of things these guys are doing, you'll need to be prepared to learn a lot and probably hire help from places like Rentacoder.
These guys AREN'T ordinary. They're extraordinary. They're so good at what they do that they're comfortable revealing a lot of stuff an ordinary entrepreneur probably wouldn't want to reveal.
How about Bruno telling us that he has more than 1,000 satellite sites driving traffic to his $25 million a year main site? Wasn't that tactic meant to be impossible these days? It depends who you learn from - a theorist or someone who's actually doing it.
Also, I was flabbergasted to see that one of these entrepreneurs was prepared to reveal that 90% of his customers are REPEAT customers. Don't you just itch to own a business where nearly all your customers keep coming back?
I like the way John provides a neat summary of the most relevant facts at the end of each chapter. This makes sure you don't miss a valuable tip.
Success Alert Volume 2 probably isn't suited for beginners, unless you use it for inspiration and strategic thinking, while getting your nitty, gritty, detailed how-to knowledge elsewhere.
The book will suit you if you like thinking big. I do.
If you do, too, I highly recommend it.
Check it out here...
http://www.AssociatePrograms.com/john
[UPDATE: I've made a special arrangement with John so you can get a $20 discount on Volume 2. Just use the following code: SA2AG.]
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2. You don't have to be perfect
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Talking about the "expert" entrepreneurs John interviewed...
I use the word "expert" fairly loosely. These entrepreneurs may have developed expert knowledge, but they aren't perfect by any means.
For example...
Al, who brings in $300,000 a year from blogging, has been collecting email addresses for two years - and yet he's never made the time to send out a newsletter. So he's collecting thousands of nicely targeted email addresses that are just going to waste. (When he reads John's book, he'll find out what he should be doing with those email addresses.)
Joel, who has annual sales of nearly $6 million, "thinks" he's getting about 3,000 visitors a day from the money he spends on AdWords. However, he isn't yet tracking which keywords result in sales. He says he's just using "brute force" at the moment.
So don't think these guys are perfect and that their level of achievement is impossible for you. They're human, and they make real mistakes just like the rest of us.
Check out Success Alert Volume 2 here...
http://www.AssociatePrograms.com/john
[UPDATE: I've made a special arrangement with John so you can get a $20 discount. Just use the following code: SA2AG.]
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3. Do you learn like a novice or an expert?
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I've been doing a little studying recently on memory and how people learn things.
Apparently, there's a big difference between the way experts learn and the way novices learn.
According to the book "How People Learn", experts notice meaningful patterns of information that are not noticed by novices. To me, that's a powerful reason for making sure you get your knowledge from experts. They see the big picture.
Experts often think in terms of core concepts or big ideas. Novices are more likely to be hoping for a correct formula or a simple answer.
(Unfortunately, being an expert doesn't automatically make you a good teacher.)
If this stuff intrigues you, you can read more here...
http://www.nap.edu/html/howpeople1/ch2.html
If you're struggling with learning something, here's an encouraging fact - learning actually changes the brain. The brain really IS like a muscle - you really can strengthen it by using it.
That means you can get brainier.
You can read about it here...
http://www.nap.edu/html/howpeople1/ch5.html
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4. We're back in sunny Queensland
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Joanna and I are back in Queensland, Australia, for the southern winter. We've been making the most of the warm weather here by going for a beach walk each morning and we enjoy watching the surfers from our window.
New Zealand had been getting a bit too chilly for me but the autumn colors were absolutely beautiful.
I love the way our Internet business allows us to move as the seasons change.
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5. Are you new to affiliate programs?
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If you're new to affiliate programs and affiliate marketing,
here's the place to start...
http://www.AssociatePrograms.com/categories/Beginners-Articles
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6. Thought for today: New ideas
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"Man's mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions." - Oliver Wendell Holmes.
All the best
Allan Gardyne
