January 17, 2008

Building A Successful Online Business Takes Only 4 Essential Keys

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The 4 ESSENTIAL Keys to Building an Internet Business:


1. You need to build a list

2. You need to have a backend and multiple front-ends

3. You need to be working with at least one other individual (partner), or in a team

4. You need to build a business with continuity income.


You need to begin with the end in mind and build your business based on the basic principles of marketing that have been around for hundreds of years.

So, how are the gurus making big, big money online. How are they constantly entering new markets and extracting huge profits from them?

They're using a very consistent, tried and true model.

It's actually a very simple model that they use over and over again, and it's easy to copy.

There are no secrets when you know the model. You only think there are secrets now because you haven't been able to piece the model together yet.

So, here it is:

This model (the KEY to online wealth), consists of multiple front-ends leading to a backend, which is either a high-ticket item or a continuity program (something where someone is billed automatically each month).

This is the foundation.  Every major online success has been a result of implementing this model properly.

Look at the most successful companies in the world, and you'll see the continuity model in action:

- Credit card companies

- The phone companies (cell phone and regular)

- Gas

- The grocery store (you HAVE to eat!!!)

- Cable TV

Even certain retail stores, like Costco are member-based. Costco charges an annual memembership fee to even allow you to shop at their store!

Of course, they can do this because of the way they've presented their product offering: buy in bulk and save.

It's no accident that these companies lock you into a subscription, and sometimes even a contract where you HAVE to pay them for a certain length of time.

Successful marketers often use a technique called forced continuity. This is where in order to buy something, someone absolutely MUST join the continuity program. The brilliant part is that the continuity program is positioned as a bonus, and on top of that the first month is free.

So, conversions on this are very, very high. And, once you have someone in your continuity program, there is a good chance they'll stay for awhile — possibly for years.

Watch the progression:

1. Customer comes in though a $30 front-end (ebook, cd, etc)

2. Customer is funneled into an email list where they are hit multiple times over the next few weeks (or even months) with autoresponders.

3. Customer is upsold into a $49/month continuity program.

4. From within the continuity program, customer is upsold to a $1000 home-training course.

5. From there, customers are upsold into a $7000 mentoring program including personal coach and teleseminars, plus other tools and bonuses.

If you didn't catch what I just wrote, read it again.

This is how the big names are making BIG BUCKS online. There are also many, many people who you've never heard of who are making insane amounts of money using this model.

Ever heard of Agora Publishing? Their model is based on continuity - they are one of the largest newsletter publishers in the world. At this point, they're bringing in $1,000,000+ per day using the model I described to you above.

With that said, let's take each of the bullet points I listed further up the page and break them down.

I want to tell you exactly what you need to do starting today.

- List Building

Building a list (with either email addresses and/or snail mail), is CRUCIAL if you want to succeed online.

If you don't do it, you will probably never reach your income goals, much less your income potential.

Start building a list now, in whatever niche is most appealing to you.

Now, once you have that list, keep in touch with your subscribers. Send them free content — build a relationship.

- You need to have a backend and multiple front-ends

This is one of the golden rules of Internet marketing.

Do you think guys are Armand Morin are making their money selling their little software scripts and eBooks? Heck no! These products are front-ends.

Armand's big backend is his BIG SEMINAR, which he holds annually. He not only charges people to be there, but he also takes a cut of whatever commerce takes place between people there. It's his seminar, so he can do it!

Remember, a backend can be a high-ticket item or a continuity program.

In this case, Armand's seminar is a high-ticket backend.

If you don't have a backend, you are seriously limiting your income. You're not following the model I've laid out for you!

Just remember, a backend is useless if you don't build your customer relationships. So, I urge you to go back again and read the 4 bullet points I've listed above.

You need to have ALL of them to make this work.

Here's a suggestion. In your everyday life — shopping at the store, taking the kids to school, etc — just pay attention to the businesses around you and ask yourself how they are utilizing the continuity model.

You're going to start seeing examples EVERYWHERE because this is a model that the rich have been using for many years. It's so freaking obvious, yet so many people miss it.

As you're observing the businesses around you, you're also going to see examples of businesses that have no backend whatsoever and you're going to wonder what the heck they are thinking.

As a final note, I want to stress that you don't need your own product to do what is described here.  Some people make it online with one affiliate site.

The model is dead simple — it's the model described above. The only difference is to use other people's products as front-ends. A successful marketer gathers email addresses, and upsells his customers to teleseminars, personal coaching, and his community subscription site.

- You need to be working with at least one other individual (partner), or in a team

I'm not going to devote too much time to this bullet point.

I just want to stress that if you're working alone right now, you're going to move much more slowly than if you find a partner who understands this model.

As entrepreneurs, we have a psychological condition where we think we know everything and can do everything better than anyone else.

This is perhaps our greatest downfall, because it is serious self-delusion.

You are going to be severely limited until you find a partner. This is a universal rule.

- You need to build a business with continuity income.

I think we've pretty much drilled this point into the ground, so I won't talk about it anymore here.

I hope that at the very least this letter has made you think.

I hope it's jolted you and caused to take a step back and really think about how you're spending your time online.

For some of you, what you're reading here will seem like nothing new.

In fact, a lot of people will say: " I already knew all that stuff…"

But the astute marketer, Frank Kern, does not seem

to think that everybody knows this.  Frank Kern wrote in his email to his list

"Listen - some idiots out there will say you don't

need a list …and if you're like me you're sick of their

B.S.  HERE'S PROOF THEY ARE LYING.

Think about this.

How many gurus do you know who don't have a list? None!!

How many big launches have you ever seen where email

marketing wasn't the NUMBER ONE method of promotion?

How many super affiliates do you know without lists?"

Please leave your comments and questions below.

Thanks, 

Angela Wickenberg

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July 13, 2007

PPC Spy Tools and Free Negative Keywords Videos

A few of weeks ago, I wrote that I will be performing a test on the various spying tools that have come out on the market.  I have three of them, which are in various price ranges. These tools take time to test; at least 30 days. I had already tested Google Cash Detective for a time but needed  to re-test it with the better knowledge I had about PPC and these tools.  However, before I could get any results I received a free tool that promised to protect your ad campaigns from these very tools.  I published  the link.  This turn of events made me re-evaluate my test.  My initial response to my failure in using the tool I had tested profitably was that I didn't know enough about how to apply PPC properly, or that there was something wrong with my landing pages and websites.  This may still be the case, but there may also be another explanation.
 
Well this morning, when I opened my email, I found a link to the report (link below), which is all about those PPC Spying tools. It's got some great info about the tools and about PPC marketing in general and relates also to the tools that protect the ad campaigns.

It's a free download and is very informative.   This is a viral report, which the author encourages to forward to three people you know.  When you have done this you also get free access to instructional videos on how to apply negative keywords to your PPC campaigns.  I wished I had received this information over a year ago, even six months ago.  It took me at lot longer to learn and made me bleed…

Here is the link: http://www.affiliateradar.com/report.php?arid=&usid=&invite_code=7336299872

I will include the information in this report and publish my results, but only after I have revamped the website and updated this blog.  Look for this in 6-8 weeks, perhaps before.

Best,

Angela

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May 20, 2008

Facebook CEO Comments on Blocking Google Friend Connect

Facebook blocked Google Friend Connect upon it's beta release last week.  They claim that Google developed and released Google Friend Connect, which uses the Facebook application, without asking them.  Google Friend Connect shares the personal data of Facebook members without asking the members themselves for permission.
 
Facebook Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Mark Zuckerberg, who was interviewed from Tokyo, says that Facebook's intention is to solve the differences they have with Google, who, he says, is a large player on the market and does lot of good things.

Angela

P.S. Don't forget to join our new Strategy Group on Facebook, Strategy Calls!

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=54338290656

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August 15, 2008

Social Networking Through Ping.fm

I joined Ping.fm back in April but never got around to using it.  Ping.fm is a simple service that makes updating all your social networks easy peasy.

What happened was that I changed my Twitter user profile name from @ebizmom to @AngelWickenberg and the Twiiter app that updated my Facebook profile, as well as the app that I could post to Twitter and Friendfeed from didn't work for me.

The problem was that I had also created a new profile called @ebizmom, just in case people didn't know how to find me, but also in case I didn't feel comfortable with my new user name, so I turned to Ping.fm to solve the problem.

With Ping, you can update from just about anywhere. Use AIM, GTalk, iGoogle, WAP, iPhone/iPod Touch, SMS or E-mail and let Ping.fm relay your message to a multitude of social networking sites.

Ping has a "trigger system" and have broken down the services into three groups; blogging, micro-blogging and status updates.

You can control how your messages are posted as well as where. If you don't include a trigger from below in your message, your message will be delivered as your default method.

Examples:

@s message - Posts a status update
@b title^body - Posts a blog
@m message - Posts a micro-blog

 

 

Ping.fm is a simple service that makes updating your social networks a snap!

 

Beta is still in session. To update your Facebook profile, an application key must be received from Ping.fm.

Try it, you'll like it!

/Angela Wickenberg

P.S. Follow me on Twitter:

New Twitter user name:

http://Twitter.com/AngelWickenberg

(old Twitter name: "Ebizmom")

P.S.S. Be-Friend me on Facebook:


http://profile.to.AngelaWickenberg/

P.S.S.S. My Friendfeed url is http://Friendfeed.com/angelaw

See you on the inside!

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April 24, 2008

Learning what makes Facebook tick

I joined Facebook a short while ago and was invited to join a group that was studying  the

psychology of Facebook!  I thought it was going to be interesting and useful and that turned out to be very true.

A representative of the BBC wrote an article, which I am sharing here.  I'll write something a little bit later

when I have time to focus on it.  Here is my Facebook profile:  You can be my friend there, if you wish:

http://profile.to/angelawickenberg/

My Twitter profile is twitter.com/EbizMom

which I update several times a day directly from my Facebook account.

Anyway, here's the article:

 

By Maggie Shiels
Technology reporter, BBC News, in San Francisco

Facebook
Students prepare to learn the secrets of Facebook

A group of students at Stanford University in the heart of Silicon Valley have turned their attention towards a unique course that blends popular culture with the more time-worn principles of psychology.

The Psychology of Facebook is the brainchild of Professor B J Fogg, a pioneering persuasion psychologist who founded the Persuasive Technology Lab at Stanford.

He says: "When Facebook came along I was one of the developers at the launch and what struck me was how there was this new form of persuasion. This mass interpersonal persuasion."

Professor Fogg says the pivotal moment came when he watched an application on the site go from "literally zero to more than a million users in a week".

He recalls that it was to do with music sharing and buying tickets and that that was when he had his "oh my gosh moment". It was quickly followed by a light bulb moment.

"Where on earth could you get a million customers in a week? That was when I said 'I want to learn more about this' and I thought the best way was to teach a class and look at how persuasion happens."

Usual coterie

It's Thursday afternoon and the sun is splitting the sky above the adobe-coloured Cordura Hall, the venue for Professor Fogg's Psychology of Facebook course. Outside there's a rag tag collection of people dodging the searing heat.

Alongside the usual coterie of students is an older crowd known simply as "visitors". These people are an assortment of entrepreneurs, angel investors, business heads and myself the only journalist.

Professor B Fogg
Facebook right now stands out from the crowd. Can they continue?
Professor B Fogg, Standford University

As we wait for the technology to click into place that allows another 700 students to tune in online, Professor Fogg declares that his goal is to help everyone to become a world class expert on the psychology of Facebook.

But this is no one trick pony according to the Professor. "What we learn here isn't just relevant to Facebook. The psychology that drives Facebook relates to other online success stories, including those blockbusters yet to be invented."

"There is something enduring about what we are studying," he declares, "whereas if you are learning how to programme a Facebook application, that then could change in 30 days from now. In fact it probably will; so that knowledge breaks."

Dissects aspect

Each week the class dissects an aspect of Facebook and looks at the way it works, the psychology behind it and what impression users are trying to convey. The gamut runs from examining status updates to news feeds and from poking to writing comments.

Today the focus is on the use of profile pictures, the photograph on the front page of every Facebook entry.

The discussion is led by Psychology Senior Richard Barton, who maintains Facebook's high strike rate in this area has to do with the default picture it puts up if you don't post your own.

"Who wants a question mark in place of their face and what questions does that raise about you? Like, why are you on Facebook? And so basically Facebook sets up an environment where your friends do the persuading to get you to post a picture."

Professor Fogg contends this is at the heart of Facebook's achievements.

"What they're tapping into are some fundamental drivers and it makes it easy to satisfy those drives. Things like the need to be socially accepted and the flip side is to not be rejected."

Class experiment

The other strand to Professor Fogg's persuasion theory has to do with motivation and outcomes, questioning why users post a certain type of picture and why they constantly change them or not.

Richard Barton, Psychology Senior
How does the Facebook 'question mark' persuade users?

To illustrate his point he conducts a class experiment asking people to write out how they want to be regarded based purely on their profile mugshot.

The findings are revealing:

"Fun, outgoing, nature loving."

"I was too lazy to rotate my picture and then I had the idea that if I left it you would think I was cool and good looking." "I'm hot."

"I want to remind my children that I was young once."

"Make people think about peace."

"Web 2.0 revolutionary and world traveller."

Professor Fogg says this random sample proves that behind even the innocent act of posting a profile picture, the psychology of persuasion in managing your image or the impression you give off is at play.

And he stresses that albeit unconsciously, Facebook's unbridled success lies in getting users to to do the work for them with friends persuading friends to post pictures, comments, or upload applications.

"I would say they were lucky and have been responsive to users but I don't think they are persuasion masterminds."

Straightforward tools

While luck might have played its part in turning Facebook into a major force in social networking, the entrepreneurs attending this course are looking for straightforward tools to help their businesses hit the jackpot.

Rob Ross has developed the Footsies application for Facebook and is working on others. For him the course is a portal into how he can make his business more relevant.

He says: "This opens a door that has not been opened before. This is going to change the game."

Student Roman David agrees: "It's beyond dollars and cents. That is part of it but its also where the opportunities are for entrepreneurs and about how the world is changing."

Professor Fogg says while his class is about trying to understand what makes Facebook tick, the people behind the site have a similar task to ensure it remains a dominant player.

"Facebook right now stands out from the crowd. Can they continue? So far with its fifty million plus users they're doing a pretty good job."

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July 28, 2008

Top 10 little-known Gmail features

Gmail has a bunch of lesser-known feature that can end up being very useful once you get to know them. The product manager at Gmail put together last year a list of his top 10 favorite features that you may or may not be familiar with.   Here's his list, which was very helpful to me in becoming more productive with Gmail and learning to use it's many features.

10. Custom "from" Most people end up managing more than one email account — some are personal, others might be for work or school. When I graduated from college, I wanted to keep my .edu address for alumni-related things, but made Gmail my primary personal address. My university made it easy to forward my .edu mail to my Gmail address, so I could read all my mail from my within my Gmail account. I was happy to find out that Gmail would actually let me send mail "as" my .edu address, so I could continue to keep that identity, while managing all my email from one place. Here's how to set that up.

9. Open attachments in Google Docs & Spreadsheets, or view as slideshow If you are sending a Word document or Excel file as an attachment, Gmail lets you easily open it in Google Docs & Spreadsheets. (In case you're not familiar with Google Docs & Spreadsheets, it's our online word processor and spreadsheet application, which lets you store and access documents online and collaborate on them with anyone.) Since other people are working on many of the docs I receive as attachments collaboratively, it's really easy to just open them in Docs & Spreadsheets and create a single document to work from, rather than constantly sending versions of documents back and forth. If the attachment is a PowerPoint presentation, Gmail will recognize this and give you a link to"View as a slideshow." This will open a window with a Flash preview of the slides. This is great for quickly reviewing slides in the browser.

8. Gmail gadget for iGoogle I use iGoogle to bring together a lot of the information I care about on the web (feeds, my Google Calendar, YouTube videos, etc). I use it as a dashboard at the start of my day to get an overview of what's going on in the world. I've added the Gmail gadget to my page to get a preview of my Inbox, which is great because it's one of the first things I'm interested in seeing.

7. Reply by chat Most people know that you can chat with your contacts in Gmail if they're using Gmail too. But there are some subtle features that make chat particularly useful in the context of using your email, like replying by chat. If you've received an email and notice that the sender is online (by seeing the little green dot next to his or her name in the conversation), you can click the button "reply by chat." What's particularly convenient about this is that the chat will be archived as part of the email thread to which you replied. I like this most because it means when I search for anything related to that thread, I find the chat transcript alongside all the relevant email messages.

6. Gmail for mobile application It wasn't that long ago that my cellphone could barely handle sending text messages. I didn't used to think of it as being an efficient place to access my email. That's changed — big time. Email has become one of my primary forms of communication when on the go. Unfortunately, on a lot of phones, dealing with email can still be a pretty annoying experience, especially if you're not using a device like a PDA. Enter Gmail for mobile. It's fast, it syncs with your online account, and it gives you virtually all of the same Gmail functionality like search, filters, and access to your whole archive of mail.

5. Smart links on the right When you get an email that references an address, look to the right and you'll probably see a link from Gmail pointing you to a map of the address on Google Maps. Gmail also recognizes email text that refers to an event (e.g., 'dinner tomorrow at 8pm'), and will give you a link to add it to your calendar. It'll even pick up on package tracking numbers from UPS and link you directly to the tracking page, so you don't have to copy and paste the number. I really like this last one when I order stuff online and want the instant gratification of knowing a package is on its way.

4. Conversation update notification It can be really annoying to write up a whole response to an email and click send — only to discover that someone else has already responded. Gmail has a little feature that helps solve this problem. When you're replying to (or reading) a conversation, and someone else replies, a small notification window pops up to let you know. I sometimes think of it as the "prevent embarrassment" notification. Plus, it can save a lot of time by avoiding the series of follow-up emails needed to clear up the confusion.

3. Advanced search Most people know that searching your archive is a huge part of what makes Gmail useful. But there are a few search features that you may not know about, which can be really handy. For instance, if I want to narrow down my search to only messages sent from Kevin, I can just add "from: Kevin" to the query. You can even search only for messages with attachments by including "has: attachments," or narrow by date with "after:" and "before:" Check out this whole list of advanced search operators.

2. Offline chat Offline chat is another feature which makes chatting in the context of your email particularly useful. When you're chatting with a friend and they suddenly go offline, you can keep sending IMs and your friends will receive your messages the next time they open Gmail. The chat will show up as a new item in their inbox. And, of course, if you're still online, your friend can go ahead and reply by chat.

1. Create event Since I use Gmail and Google Calendar at work (through Google Apps), I'm constantly emailing people about meetings, and scheduling them on everyone's calendars. When I'm writing an email to set up an event, I can actually do it all from within Gmail by clicking the "Add event info" link below the subject line. Then choose the time and location for the meeting or party. When you send the email, the event details will be added to to your Google Calendar, and Gmail will send an invitation to the email recipients to add it to their calendars as well.

Two other little known features to get greater control over your inbox:

Here are some little-known ways to use your Gmail address that can give you greater control over your inbox and save you some time and headache. When you choose a Gmail address, you actually get more than just "yourusername@gmail.com." Here are two different ways you can modify your Gmail address and still get your mail:

  • Append a plus ("+") sign and any combination of words or numbers after your email address. For example, if your name was hikingfan@gmail.com, you could send mail to hikingfan+friends@gmail.com or hikingfan+mailinglists@gmail.com.

 

  • Insert one or several dots (".") anywhere in your email address. Gmail doesn't recognize periods as characters in addresses — we just ignore them. For example, you could tell people your address was hikingfan@gmail.com, hiking.fan@gmail.com or hi.kin.g.fan@gmail.com. (We understand that there has been some confusion about this in the past, but to settle it once and for all, you can indeed receive mail at all the variations with dots.)

For me, the real value in being able to manipulate your email address is that it makes it really easy to filter on those variants. For example you could use hikingfan+bank@gmail.com when you sign up for online banking and then set up a filter to automatically star, archive or label emails addressed to hikingfan+bank. You can also use this when you register for a service and think they might share your information. For example, I added "+donation" when I gave money to a political organization once, and now when I see emails from other groups to that address, I know how they got it. Solution: filtered to auto-delete. ive it)."

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