5 Steps to "Making It"
During my presentation in Panama, I referred to something that I call the “Catch-22” of building your business.
It refers to the problem that a lot of good folks have when it comes to recruiting affiliates to promote their products, and it goes like this.
“If you don’t have any affiliates, then you don’t have any data (i.e. conversion stats, profit, etc.) to show new, potential affiliates. And if you can’t get new affiliates, then you won’t be able to get data.”
It’s a vicious cycle. So let’s look at how you break it.
Q from Nina: What do you do if your product is new and you cannot prove your conversion/refund rates?
Answer:
Nina, then you need to become a master of persuasion to convince someone to take a chance on you. You must prove to them that your idea is unique, and superior to all other
options out there.
From there, you go on continuing to build your own traffic and improving your sales processes until you finally have some numbers you can share.
Getting started online is not easy, despite what some “gurus” will tell you and sell you.
Keep pushing everyday.
Q from Steve: I have a question regarding affiliates and jv’s. If you are just starting out, how do you go about offering to help people to make a relationship? I guess my question is where do you start?
Answer:
Hi Steve, great question. Fortunately, there are lots of things you can do to start building relationships.
First, you can interview the other expert and post the interview on your site.
Second, take a look at the person’s websites and products. Is there something missing? Is there a report or video that you could create for them to give away or add to their product line that would fill in this missing gap?
Third, you could review their product on your blog or become an affiliate of their business and recommend the product to your list. One of the best ways to get someone’s attention
is to make them money.
Fourth, go to seminars where you know these potential partners will be. Almost nothing beats meeting people in the “real world” and buying them a drink at the bar.
Finally, is there someone else that you could interview who has information that would help the person with whom you want to build the relationship?
For example, I’m always doing things to help my affiliates and joint venture partners, and in the past couple of months I’ve interviewed SEO experts and Facebook Ad experts to help my friends build their businesses.
Heck, I even interviewed my friend Simon Black about overseas webhosting and website registration to help my friends protect their online assets.
(PS – I can share that interview with everyone next week if I get enough interest. Just let me know on the blog.)
So those are just a few things you can do to start building relationships.
Q from Dell: How did you know you were going to “make it”?
Answer:
There were two events, both of which involve making money while traveling the world.
The first time I realized I could make money from anywhere was in February 2006 when I traveled to see some friends in Dubai. I remember checking my Blackberry when the plane
landed and I had made $1500 on a big sale.
That $1500 covered my trip. And I made even more money that week while just checking my email a few times and sending out a couple of newsletters.
The second event that really made me feel like I made it was back in January 2007. I was planning a trip to see another friend in New Zealand, but I couldn’t go until I had the money for the airplane ticket.
Again, another sale helped me have a huge payday, that more than covered my ticket and expenses for 14 days down under from top10paydaysites.com/.
So really, my getting out there and living the Internet Lifestyle, that was what really confirmed what I was doing was right…that I was on the right path to “making it”.
And that brings me to a site that I want to share with you.
This site is dedicated to sharing examples of people who have “Made It” by breaking out of the regular 9-5 lifestyle and are living in a foreign country while building a business or even simply creating something COOL in a new country.
If you are one of those folks, or if you know someone, who has “broken free”, this website is looking to feature you in a video competition they are running.
Wherever you are, they’ll come to you and chronicle your life to use as inspiration for others.
Plus, you will get a TON of publicity for your business.
Check out this website for more details on breaking free:
=> The Matador Network: Breaking Free
Next Week:
The NUMBER ONE tip for naming & setting up your site.
This little “Set-up System” will answer a LOT of questions that were posted on the blog this week…and by using this system, you’ll overcome the #1 online problem of “No traffic”.
Talk to you Monday.
Take action and change the world,
Craig Ballantyne
Seek opportunity, not security.