Tag Archives: Marketing

What’s The Deal With Landing Pages Anyway?

Talk to any on-line marketer for any length of time and they are sure to ask about your landing pages. If your reaction is “My landing what?” then it is time to learn something about your marketing. Not having the proper landing page will hold you back and cost you money. Take note.

Here’s Why You Need To Use Landing Pages

All the products that you want to sell online are ready. You have already signed up with the Google Adsense program or with other affiliate marketing programs and you have already prepared the ad you want to post on your affiliate’s site. Your mind is now set to being the next most successful online businessman. But is there anything else that you might have forgotten to prepare? Maybe none. But how about your landing pages? Are they all set for your business?

Landing pages are simply web pages where visitors are directed to whenever they click a result in a web search or whenever they click a web ad. For affiliate marketing, landing pages would refer to the web page where you, as a merchant, would want your potential customer to be directed after clicking your ad on your affiliate’s website. Landing pages are, at most times, nothing really different from other web pages in a particular website, especially if the said website is an e-commerce site. Some online businessmen would even use the homepage of their websites as the landing page for their ads. Are these businessmen making a big mistake? Or should you follow their method in creating landing pages for their ads?

Well, you can always follow what most online retailers do, directing their potential customers to the homepages of their websites. But if you want to achieve something more from your online business, and if you want to earn a lot of profits, you better create a special landing page for your web ads. Why? Here are a few reasons why you need to use landing pages for your web ads. And take note, it would do you a lot better if you create a great landing page than a so-so one.

Reason no. 1: It is the only way you earn conversions in an affiliate marketing program.

There are a variety of affiliate marketing programs today, but most of these programs let the merchant pay the affiliate in a pay per click basis. Basically, all you have to do is sign up with the program and submit your ad. The program owner would then distribute your ad to various affiliates who would then place your ad on their websites. Whenever your ad is clicked, a visitor would be directed to your landing page and you would have to pay the affiliate for his service.

As a merchant, you earn in an affiliate program through conversions—that is whenever a visitor that is directed to your site actually buys a product on your site. Without these conversions, you actually earn nothing from the program. Also, the more visitors that your affiliates have directed to your site, the larger would your expense be. And the only way that you can recover from these expenses is through conversions.

Now, you sure won’t get any conversion if you have posted an ad on your affiliate’s site without an actual landing page for the potential customer to be redirected into. It’s just like advertising a product without actually having a store to sell your product. Your advertisement may be enticing enough to encourage people to purchase a product, but without the landing page, how will they know how to purchase the product

It is therefore important to have landing pages for your ads because it is the only way for you to earn something in an affiliate program. Without landing pages, all you do is spend money paying your affiliates without actually getting anything in return.

Reason no. 2: Other web pages may just not be enough.

Many people make the mistake of making their website’s homepage as the landing page for their ads. The same is true for those who make use of other pages like a “contact us” page or a product page. Homepages are often designed to serve multiple users and contains a lot of links to other pages or to other websites. The same is with the other two pages mentioned. If you want to be successful in an affiliate program, we’re sure that you don’t want your landing page to cater to the needs of various people, most of which may not be really interested with your product.

When choosing a landing page, you must always have the customer directed into that page in mind. Therefore, your landing page must be relevant to the keywords and the contents you placed on your ad. It is also important that the landing page can induce your visitor to take action—that is to purchase your product or at least provide leads for potential customers.

Final Word

You probably entered into an affiliate marketing program with these things in mind: to save on advertising expenses and to gain more profit. But if you get into an affiliate marketing program without actually having a landing page, you’ll end up paying too much without getting anything in return. So if you still don’t have a landing page for your ads, you better start creating one now. And don’t get us wrong; it isn’t enough for you to have just a landing page—it should be a great landing page!

It is time for 2013…More sharing…More Awakening…

Happy New Year 2013
Happy New Year 2013 (Photo credit: Mark Kens)

The year that was, 2012, has left me changed in more ways than I ever would have believed. I have shared of myself on this blog and on my YouTube channel in ways that I never imaged and the response has been incredible. From the questions and comments that people have been sending me, it looks like 2013 will deliver new avenues to explore and share.

I am looking forward to writing and creating videos sharing more of myself and my world. I do have requests to explore more of my INTJ-ness and what it was like growing up with that personality. Some of you want to know what it is like have Fi as a tertiary function and I look forward to sharing it with you.

Writing of the YouTube channel, I have found several videos that I shot near the end of 2011 that I neglected to publish. Many of them are about marketing: what it is, how to do it and why. These are quite informative and need to be shared. These videos were created in response to questions and answers are overdue.

Yes, 2013 does hold some scariness. The United States Congress seems hell bent on never producing no budget and Obama continues to show he has no leadership skills. Too many Americans are voting for free stuff, with no regard from where the money will come to give out so much crap. America is heading to the same place as Greece, if they do not wake up.

David Icke continues to make more sense with his presentations and connecting events. The overlords of the masses are very scared of him. More and more people are waking up, though far too many are asleep. The year 2013 is shaping to be a pivotal year. So much momentum was cared into 2012 it looked to be a breakout year. Alas, the Republican leadership scammed Romney upon the people and the overlords were able to get their fraud in-line for Obama’s re-election. None of the fraud will be investigated and no one will do jail time for breaking various election laws. Their fraud actions show how scared they are of the people. After all, the people cannot be trusted to elect the correct leaders.

So, here we come, 2013. Are you ready for us? This year, more people will wake up. More people will take control of their destiny and refuse to rely on the Government for their livelihood. More people will start a business and more people will find Freedom. And above all, more people learn the meaning of Liberty and how it was stolen from them. They will demand it back.

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The Importance Of Your Niche

Niche in the wall
Niche in the wall (Photo credit: RahelSharon)

Back in my Pro U days, Gregg Davison was very keen of stating we needed to find our niche. This was more than finding an opening in a market. Your niche is defined by who you are and how you will express your voice. You must fit well into your niche as you need to own it fully. Choose a niche that doesn’t fit you and your customers will notice.

The idea of a niche was also repeated in training by Michael Force and Andrew Cass. It was a shared and correct idea. It again came to the foreground in workshops lead by Justin Woolf and Aaron Rashkin. Find your niche. Find your niche. Find your niche. Ok, I get it.

Recently I decided to return to trading. I had success before and the market seemed to have at least some direction. It was time to do homework and paper trade to understand trends and cycles. I had mostly failure, but this was the beginning. Time to get some guidance.

The other day I called Michael Parness to seek his knowledge. Previously I had been a member of the Orange belt options service and I was one of the first to sign up for the website www.parnesseducation.com. We talked for about half an hour and near the end I heard a familiar phrase, “You need to find your niche.” Again?

One may wonder why one would need a niche for trading stocks. It is quite simple. Your niche is your methods: the way you trade, why you trade, how you do plays and when you get out. It is about what you do in your trades. It is about you.

Your niche. What is it? Learn to find it. It is your voice. It is who you are. It is the way to your future.

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Where is Gregg Davison?

Rescue for Your Business
Rescue for Your Business (Photo credit: Zavarykin Sergey)

I first met Gregg Davison over the phone. He was living in the Cayman Islands and loving life. He was talking to me about CarbonCopy Pro, a business opportunity I had heard about during a commercial break on the Rush Limbaugh radio show. I was intrigued. I had to find out more. I went to the website and eventually signed up at the Gold Level.

The calls with Gregg happened each week. I was given some assignments and things to do. I went through the back office. I went through the tutorials. The online marketing education CarbonCopy Pro has is massive. Almost too much to absorb. Gregg said to register a domain with your name in it. I chose several. Eventually I had getrichwithbryon and both the .net and .com versions of bryonlape. The sites were out there, leads came in.

I finally met Gregg Davison face to face in Phoenix, Arizona at the Master Marketing Event. He was energetic. He showed interest in people. He gave them guidance and leadership. That weekend was phenomenal. How exciting to be in business.

A couple of months later, Gregg and his business partners Andrew Cass and Michael Force held a weekend training retreat in Miami. It is amazing how inexpensive hotels can be in Miami, Florida in July when few people are there. The training was intense and close up. On Monday, several of us on Gregg’s team were in his room for “A Day In The Office With Gregg Davison”. It was worth the extra time and money. All of us stayed as long as we could and eventually made our way toward our respective homes.

That was mid 2011.

A few months later, Gregg stopped being on the calls. He stopped holding team training sessions on Saturdays. A bit before he stopped talking about his lovely wife Christina. Something was up. No one knew what. Then, he was gone.

Peter Hobler, his business manager stopped hearing from him. The marketing partners Andrew and Michael didn’t hear from him either. Neither Jay Kubassek nor Justin Woolf knew anything about what was going on. Gregg Davison seemed to have disappeared.

Those of us on Gregg’s team were first moved under Micheal Force. Several months later, as the marketing leaders started to leave Pro U (CarbonCopy Pro’s new name), the team was moved again to be under Justin Woolf. Still no word from Gregg.

Gregg’s Facebook page became stale. A picture of him holding his nephew was posted by his sister. No status changes. No location changes. Nothing.

One day Justin saw Gregg come on-line and was able to chat with him a bit. Gregg was back to being in his mother’s basement. Back in England. Back to where it started. But what was Gregg doing? No one seems to know.

Gregg Davison is still out there. He’s voice is no doubt being heard by someone. He is not part of Empower Network. He is not part of Pro U. He is not part of RemarkaMobile.

Where is Gregg Davison?

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Good Content Makes For Good Conversation

Girl with smirk
Girl with smirk (Photo credit: BrainMuffin)

My marketing mentor Gregg Davison is found of many phrases. Many would be quick to recite his “It is always sunny when you are making money” quip. He is also keen on another important phrase when it comes to successful marketing “Content is King”.

There are many blogs out there on the Internet. Many of the are popular and do bring in some money for their creators. Many of them bring in no one and don’t make a penny. Why? Simple: bad content.

Creating good content is more than bringing up the Google adword tool and finding good keywords to use. Sure, if you want trying to sell a business opportunity about making money on the Internet, the usual advice is to look for those keywords and get them into your content. Gurus will tell you that your content should have somewhere between 3-5% of your “making money” keywords so that Google will like your content and rank it high. When it comes to a phrase like “Making money on the Internet,” how many websites could Google possibly place on the first page? Exactly.

Having a good blog that attracts readers is more than just good use of keywords in your content. The content itself needs to be good. You want to attract readers. You want them to return. You need to find you niche.

Finding your niche is about your story. Who are you? What are your interests? Forget about the awesome Internet money making opportunity you have and tell the readers more of you. They want to believe they know you, so tell them. Don’t let every article be on some new marketing technique you learned on the previous night’s call with Jay Kubassek.

Here’s a great for instance. A classmate of mine from college has her own blog. Always wanting to keep a few extra pounds off, she embraced her struggles and shares her story. The result? She attracts like minded individuals who are looking to achieve results. Her readers like that she is not trying to use the blog to hawk particular products, so they see her openness and candor as refreshing. They also celebrate each others victories. That is what blogging is about! Take hold and triumph!

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Keywords, they suck

Image representing Google as depicted in Crunc...
Image via CrunchBase

Keywords. Keywords. Keywords. That’s all I hear from various network marketers. They say to go to Google and use the adword tool. Find keywords. Use them. Work them into your content. Why?

Keywords are like bait. No, not the negative bait and switch. Rather a positive lure to pull an audience to your content. Keywords are how people are searching on content related to yours. Keywords is how search engines like Google and Bing determine what to do with your content. Keywords are what build the path to you.

Doing search for keywords is a good exercise. It let’s you determine your topic and how you style your content. They are how you organize your articles and blogs. Keywords will either lay a path to your content or leave you out in the woods.

Keywords should be specific, yet general enough to pull in more people. Get too specific, too narrow and no one will find you. Get too general, too wide and the noise will overwhelm you. Channel in between and you will pull the right amount with the right mindset. That’s the key.

Keywords are a tool. They are a tool you can use to bring the right audience to your content, whatever that may be. Know your audience. Understand what they use to search. Pull them in and grow your influence.

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Are You Voiceless?

Do you feel like you are speaking into a dark hole? Like your marketing efforts are only appreciated by ghosts and crickets? You are not alone.

Many of us feel like we speak, but no one hears our voices. The end result is feeling voiceless in the world. Which is worse? Be able to speak, though not heard or not being able to speak? Is there really a worse? Are not both results the same? No responses. No leads. No customers. No sales.

Pulling from the weeds

Marketing is about placement and message. Where you say is as important as what you say. Writing great copy for the wrong audience will not succeed. First, define your audience and know where they. Pull yourself out of the weeds and into the fairway of success. Do not spend your time and efforts with those known to not buy what you sell. Get out of the tall grass.

Once your audience is defined, now develop marketing to meet their pain or in pull them into their pleasure. Spend your time with them. Get to know them. Build a relationship.

Plotting a new course

There are so many expressions for finding success, they seem like cliches: start with the end in mind, know what you want and get it, define the end and plan backward. All of them have two things in common: a clearly defined goal and a way to get there. Clarity of goal and path are a must. One must know exactly what one wants and how to get there. A poorly defined goal will lead to a poor path.

Suppose you are in charge of building a bridge across a river. They only given requirements is that it must join two particular roads. Is that enough to start building? No? Why not? Why do people start a business with a less defined goal?

To build such a bridge, there are many factors to consider: length, structure weight and strength, type of bridge, building materials, design, function, etc. Scale models of various bridges will be built. Sight lines with the surrounding geography will be considered. Plans have to be approved. Bids for construction have to be made. All of that before one scoop of dirt is moved.

Do not set out into the world of business without defining your goals as clearly. Know your send. Make your plan. Start moving.

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Like, have fun dude!

Over and over, the same mistakes get made when marketing. It matters little if it is a video or a blog post or a capture page. All have the same mistake, the same theme. They are all too serious.

The video

In the video, the person pitching the latest and greatest whatever is well dressed and groomed. Other than their mouth, they hardly move. After all, they have a serious business to offer. They want to be taken seriously. Therefore, they are serious, so they present serious. Is there any other way?

Write to me

Blog posts that fall into the too serious category are long and boring. They ramble on and on, use eloquent and awkward speech, and seem as though their authors have swallowed a Thesaurus. The grammar is near perfect, punctuation correct and don’t have contractions. Readers leave nearly as quickly as the arrive.

Combining all of the worst

The long landing pages combine all of the bad aspects of videos and blog posts. They go on and on. The never-ending text is only interrupted by bad videos. The text is laid to use all the colors of the rainbow, multiple font sizes, bold and underline. The content is bad enough, so the author assaults the reader every which way. Oh good grief.

Have fun

Why all the seriousness? Lighten up a bit. Don’t be sophomoric. Be entertaining! Be Lively! Get your point across clearly in a relaxed manner. Don’t worry about perfection, worry about value. Introduce a comma, splice to see if anyone is paying attention. Sure, get the spell and grammar correct (at least mostly), but not to the point of awkward absurdity. After all, this is a post to get attention and make a connection. It is not a term paper or a doctoral thesis.

Legacy Mastermind Leftovers

What a incredible weekend it has been. Blogging while Justin Woolf was reviewing keyword search and the importance of being precise and drilling into a niche. Advertisement reviews with Sophia Rashkin. Getting videos critiqued by Benny Bells and Kevin Levonas. Being in the Loyal 9 Revolution headquarters. Being with other marketers. Hearing their trials. Learning from their mistakes.

No words can accurately described what the weekend brought. Clarity and peace. Willingness and direction. Longing and anticipation. Such pale terms.

Being with the Loyal 9 and Team Rashkin for a few hours is a privilege. Being with them for a whole weekend? Awesome. Having them training and reviewing your work directly? Priceless. That was this weekend.

Meaningless

All the superlatives in the word are without meaning if no action gets taken afterward. If nothing comes of this weekend, it was only a good time in New Jersey. Action must be taken. Action will be taken.

Now the action has direction. Now the skills to correct, aim again and go are learned. Now the understanding of good marketing has been absorbed. Now is the time. Now is the day. All will be seized. It is all mine.

Your road to the Legacy Mastermind event starts by applying to start your profitable business.

Legacy Is Rocking

Are you at Legacy? No? Why?

Legacy is the third session in a three part series of training events. The series is named AFL for Action, Freedom and Legacy. It is the place where all the parts come together. It is where the picture becomes complete.

Legacy is a mastermind for Pro U members lead by the Loyal 9 and Team Rashkin held in the Loyal 9 headquarters in Hasbrouck, New Jersey. It is not for the timid. It is for the serious.

Pro U is about community. It is about every member helping every other. It is more than a business opportunity. It is entry into a training and mentoring culture. Do the work and it will lead to more.

It will lead to more opportunity elsewhere. It will lead to creating your own voice, your own business. It will create a new journey for you. It will make the future you want possible.

The opportunity is not a consumable. The product is not a one use and dispose. It is a new way of thinking about yourself. It is a way for you to get the training and direction you need to have your own business. Not one selling Pro U to others. One selling your services to other businesses. You will become a marketer, dedicated to helping others. You will become a leader.

Legacy is rocking. Are you here?