Ethical Internet Marketer – Make More Money Online… Ethically!

I will be focusing more on developing my own products again instead of mainly promoting affiliate programs. As you can imagine, not only is it much more profitable to have your own range of products, it is more exciting, too. And I know that I can help a lot of people with these new products.

After all, that’s what Internet marketing is about:

Helping people to make money from home!

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NEW ADSENSE MEMBERSHIP WEBSITE IN JANUARY
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One of the new products will be a membership site for fully developed Adsense websites. You will get up to 12 websites from me on a monthly basis. These are different from the ones you have seen as part of my special offer when you signed up for my free PromoBuddy software.

But that’s not all…

Together with these Adsense websites which will have RSS feeds and a comment function included, I will be adding 24 different niche headers to the package (2 headers for each niche/Adsense website). Last but not least, you will also get the individual articles that make up the Adsense websites so you can modify them as you wish. All in all, 300 Private Label Articles per month.
And the price?

Well, let me say that there will be a price that’s affordable to everyone.

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GOING LOCAL – FOCUS ON: GERMANY
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As far as Internet marketing is concerned, Germany used to belong to the underdeveloped countries – at least with regards to the sales of digital products.

But times are changing…

Together with a partner of mine, I am going to release multiple digital products completely in German.

I know some of you reading this newsletter live in The USA, others in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, the UK and other places all over the world…Regardless of where you are, one direction I recommend you look towards in 2007, is GOING LOCAL with your own products.

Try to develop something in your OWN native language…

Whether it is Spanish, German, French, Italian or Japanese. There is a market for digital products everywhere not just in the english speaking world.

Just think about it…

You will have much less competition and the internet marketing strategies you’ve read over and over again, and probbaly know off by heart, will serve you well outside of this crowded market.

Avoid the mistake of thinking they are “old hat” tactics…

This may be true in our field but are they “old hat” in your own country or are the tactics used in a different NICHE?

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HOW TO DOMINATE YOUR MARKET
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I have seen and am involved in new product releases in the German speaking world and I can confirm that the tactics and strategies which I learned as an international Internet marketer work even better when you’re going local.

Here’s an example…

Maybe, you are a member of some private label membership sites?

Instead of doing like everyone else does and selling the products as they are, why don’t you translate them into your own native language and ELIMINATE the competition?

Think about that for a moment…

You could dominate the market in your country, especially if you are the first to come up with new Internet marketing or niche products in your country on a regular basis.

Point I’m trying to share with you is this… Try to be different than everyone else.

It’s easy to copy others in the hope of finding the same level of success but in my opinion, you will only find success if you are doing at least some things differently than the rest of the herd!

When I wanted to fly home on Dec. 7 and 8 (the plane left in the evening), the following things happened…

First of all, we had a delay at the Caracas Airport. Not because the airplane was late but because the security over there thought it was funny to make their security checks 20 minutes before departure time. The boarding time had been delayed by 45 minutes already for reasons no one really could understand as they had been there all the time.

When they finally started doing their security checks, it took ages.

Can you imagine, they were trying to get this done 20 minutes before the departure… for more than 400 passengers on the flight to Paris? Needless to say, the flight was delayed. We were leaving 1,5 h. too late! And my connection flight to Paris would leave 65 minutes after arrival in Paris.

Of course, it was impossible to get that one. And I couldn’t get the alternative connection flight either which the crew was mentioning during the flight when they noticed that we would be too late. At Paris Airport, I had a hard time getting a boarding card for my new flight (of course, the old one for the earlier flight wouldn’t have done it).

Finally, I got one which would have left at 12:50 IF it had been on time. But it wasn’t. The plane took off after a waiting time of almost 3 hours.

Why such a long waiting time – what had happened?

Maybe, you remember the news from last week if you’re living in Europe. There was a storm over France and the wind conditions were so dangerous that the planes couldn’t take off.

I missed a whole day because of all these delays and all I did when I got back was to go sleeping – 14 hours in a row (I didn’t have any sleep on the flight from Caracas to Paris because of some children making noise…). So I almost missed 2 days – lol –
But despite of all this, I love travelling and this won’t keep me back the next time I will be going abroad

It’s more than 14 days ago since my last email to you so I just wanted to tell you that I got home okay. I’m back from Caracas. So here are my impressions…

In fact, I got home last week already but I had to catch up with so many things after coming back that I simply had to get some personal things done, first. And of course, there were some Internet business related issues as well. If you’ve ever been away to the other side of the world and got home from it, I think you can relate to it

Teaching Rolf how to set up niche blogs using WordPress

Anyway, apart from teaching him what to do, I also recorded everything on video. Yes, we’ve made some Camtasia videos so he can refer to them over and over again. And from his feedback, I now know what a complete newbie in this Internet business is looking for (in fact, he was a newbie to computers as well but that’s another story…).

There was a second reason I made these videos… I now have a completely unique product which I can sell to German speaking people and set myself apart from others. Yes, I plan on releasing some new products in the german market as well. And as I will explain later, in another post, it can really be worth your time. By the way, Rolf is not a German but he originally is from Switzerland.

But fortunately for me, he spoke perfect “hochdeutsch”. This is important because even for us Germans, a real swiss german accent is very hard to understand. It’s almost like a completely different language.

Why did Rolf hire me? Well, he simply wanted to find a way to make a living on the Internet, just like you. He is a former hotelier and used to live in Kenia for quite some time before moving to Venezuela.

Rolf recognized that just by reading books or listening to some audios, you don’t learn that much and you probably won’t be getting all the steps needed to make a business profitable. And since there are not too many Internet marketing experts who are also speaking German, he found this absolutely perfect combination in me

What does it take to work abroad?

Well, you need to become an expert on at least one subject. You probably don’t know it yet, but in the last two years I have somehow become an expert on creating WordPress blogs. Then I went one step further and found out everything that was needed to make them profitable. My next step was automating everything AND making these blogs unique without too much work and this was made possible just recently with Jonathan Leger’s Article Builder. I cannot stress enough how important this tool has become for me. Try updating your blog manually for 3 months and you will know why you need it.

Anyway, I now have a powerful system in place which lets me create the blogs, do a little work on them and enjoy the fruits of my labor for months and years to come. Each blog I create is making a bare minimum of $2 a day. If you knew these metrics – how many of those would you build? … Exactly, and that’s what I am doing most days. I love building websites and especially blogs so it’s fun to do and I am making money doing what I love.

Is there a better combination to earn your money…?

Elections in Venezuela – I was an observer

I was there during the elections and as you can probably can imagine, it was kind of scary to see all of these military guys trying to protect the people who went to schools and other public buildings to cast their vote. I didn’t feel really secure passing along this crowd when I went over to my client’s home on Sunday, Dec. 02 …

With his counter USA paroles, Hugo Chavez certainly hasn’t made friends in the world. But unfortunately, it seems like he will stay the first man in Venezuela for longer than most of us were hoping for. Will he become the next Fidel Castro…?

And while he is getting richer and richer, most poor people, the majority of people over there, has to live in poor areas.

Contacting the merchant of your interested program is an ideal way to increase your sales, which can save you a lot of time and heartache. Once you contact the merchant, be sure to let them know what you are doing to promote their products, and ask for their advice when it comes to marketing.

The merchant will know the product the best, and they will have a good idea of the strategies that are being used by other affiliates to make sales. By contacting the merchant, you’ll also show them that you are dedicated to succeeding with affiliate marketing.

Contacting the merchant also shows your enthusiasm for marketing their products and services. Any merchant who knows affiliate marketing also knows that over 90% of sales are generated by less than 5% of the affiliates. Good merchants recognize your efforts and provide you with information and resources and may even boost your commission rates!

Dealing with merchants

If you email a merchant and they don’t respond, try again. If they still aren’t responding, you should think again about continuing the partnership, as a lack of communication can indicate other problems as well – such as payment.

Keep in mind that many merchants make big promises, and set a high payout rate knowing that very few affiliates will actually meet it. This isn’t a good way to do business, and you should avoid working with these types of merchants.

Communication

When you communicate with merchants, you should ensure that you use a professional tone. If you have suggestions of how a merchant can improve their offers, you should let them know. Many merchants appreciate feedback, and know that any feedback they
receive can improve their programs.

Wise merchants always understand that good affiliates are hard to find and will treat them with respect, assist with resources, and be prompt with payments. Wise affiliates are the same way, and understand that merchants want quality promotion and sales performance.

To get the most out of your partnership, you should always be professional and understanding with your merchant. Good merchants are always busy, which may
make them seem like they aren’t that good. They will answer your questions and emails, although it may take them a little bit of time.

The longer you work with a merchant, the more you’ll understand how they do things. If you are just starting out in affiliate marketing, a merchant can help you understand how things work. If you listen to them and show initiative, you’ll be well on your way to making it to the top.

The truth behind affiliate marketing is the fact that 90% of affiliates will actually make less than 100$ a month. Therefore, you shouldn’t count on making full time income unless you can get very good at the following:

1. Building a good web site that converts.

2. Search engine optimization. You’ll need a lot of traffic, as maybe 1 out of 200 visitors will buy your products. SEO can help you get your site
in the search engines so more people will be able to find you.

3. The trial and error of picking the right merchants and learning the correct ways to promote them.

Too many people out there assume that affiliate marketing is actually a get rich quick type of program. These types of people will throw up a
couple of banners, then wonder why they never make a single sale or any money at all.

How long you’ll need to do it depends on how much money you are wanting to make. If you are a quick learner and really good at affiliate marketing, you may high 2,000 in 2 years. This is based on the fact that you are starting at 0 and the fact that you have another full time job, not being able to devote a lot of time working with your affiliate
marketing program.

If you decide to give it a try, the hardest challenge will be the first few months. If you check your stats and see that you are only making a couple of bucks, you’ll find yourself wondering if all the hard work was worth it. If you get some sales going and stay committed with your hard work, the commissions should start growing.

One of the biggest factors with affiliate marketing is the traffic that goes through your site. Even though you’ll get a lot of traffic passing through your website, only a fraction of the traffic will be buyers.

The key here is knowing your visitors and then being able to determine which affiliate programs you can offer to meet their needs. There is also the concept of pre sale, which is the ability to put your visitors in the required open and mind set that’s required for them to actually click on what you are selling.

By sticking with affiliate marketing, you’ll learn more and more over the years. You can’t expect to be the best when you first start, it’ll take a lot of hard work and dedication. By putting the time and effort into your programs, you’ll be well on your way to making it in the very profitable and exciting world of affiliate marketing.