Randy’s Ramblings 19th June
HypeFree advice to help us all.

In this Post:
* Brief Catch Up
* His Survey Says…
* Sign off

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* Brief Catch Up

Re: My Error (see former post)
I’ve now sorted and activated a ‘Do Follow’ plugin to this blog
so any comments that are made (by genuine readers) will gain a
backlink from their post to their listed sites.

Re MoreMonthly.com
What a fantastic start to a new site & forum.
I’m thrilled at how quickly the forum is becoming a great place to be
with members sharing some good and some greeat advioce to help
each other…. The launch price of $14 is still available for the next
67 people – so if you were tempted… do watch the video tour in the
last post – and get over to the site to secure your spot.

Re: Lee’s New Bargain Product
It’s not just me who thought there was a heap of value in it for
the $10 price tag!! – Early feedback from other buyers has been even
more complimentary than mine…lol

Re: A 300 List in 7 Days – (My Free Report)
This has also been well received – with over 150 downloads since
last weekend … check the link above if you haven’t picked up your copy

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* His Survey Says…

Today I’m stealing an article written by Soren Jordansen.
(It’s OK – having met him at britpack last year, I didn’t feel shy
at asking..and he was happy for me to post it)

Soren surveyed his lists, and as they are a considerable size larger than
mine – I figured his results would accutrately reflect the vast majority of
Internet Marketers.

Another reason for copying it is that I was really pleased at the action he
has taken based on these results.

Rather than just go on to recommend everybody buys a ‘super new product’ he
could have created based on the answers he got – he has chosen to give some
detailed (and to my mind – Real Quality advice) in a series of articles on his blog.

Here are the survey results that lead to his great articles and advice.

Do take a read through – and see where you fit…
And then pop over and check the quality of content Soren is posting !!

Quoted From Sorens Blog: –

The Average Internet Marketer Is What?

The results from my big internet marketing survey are ready – and as promised
I’m going to share them with you along with my comments, tips and suggestions…
I surveyed all my internet marketing related lists, and the sample size and response
rate should be big enough to consider the data statistically valid – and thus
applicable to most lists.

As mentioned before I will use the data (and comments) as the base for an article
series here on the blog, but more on that later.

First lets take a look at the questions, the results and what they could mean…

How long have you been involved with internet marketing?

6 Months or Less = 22.30%
6 Months to 1 Year = 22.30%
1 to 2 Years = 22.30%
2 to 5 Years = 21.19%
5 Years or More = 12.27%

No real surprise here, the numbers are pretty evenly spread out, and I have seen
similar results before. If anything, it shows us that internet marketing is still in its
infancy and thousands of new people are joining our ranks each day… I have heard
a lot people say that marketing to the “internet marketing niche” is hard, the market
is saturated etc. I completely disagree. I think this is the easiest niche to master,
especially if you are relatively new to the game… What do you think?

Are you working full time online?

Yes I’m full time and I make a “full time income” = 7.43%
I’m full time online, but I don’t make a “full time income” = 34.57%
No, I have a job so I’m part time online = 57.99%

Not surprising either, when you consider the stats above – after all you don’t just
waltz in an create a full time income overnight. It did however surprise me to see
the high number of full time marketers, not making a full time income. I have thought
about this, and my guess is that the number includes a lot of “stay at home” moms
and dads. They may not desperately need to create another full time income for
the household, but they would like to. Would love some comments from people
in that category

What is your income goal – why are you in internet marketing?

To make a bit of extra cash to help make ends meet = 10.78%
I want to create an extra stream of income (but keep my job) = 7.43%
I want to create an income that will let me quit my job = 54.28%
I want to be filthy rich = 27.51%

This did surprise me… a lot! I thought (and have been told) that most people who
get involved in internet marketing are just interesting in making a bit of extra cash,
thus falling in one of the first two categories. As it turns out the vast majority wants
to quit their JOB, go full time online and be filthy rich (yeah, I know we all want that).

So, that’s what people want… But what are they actually making?

What is your monthly income from internet marketing?

Zero, zilch, nada, nothing = 50.19%
Less than $500 = 38.66%
$500 – $1,000 = 6.32%
$1,001 – $2,500 = 2.60%
$2,501 – $5,000 = 0.37%
$5,001 – $10,000 = 0.37%
Over $10,000 = 1.49%

Can’t say that the numbers surprise me, but they sure do scare me… Over 50%
not making a single cent. The number is too high to fend off with a “it’s all the newbies”
comment, so there must be something else at play. And this is interesting… if you
correlate the numbers with the “full time” question, you will see that quite a few
people consider $500-$1000 a month a full time income. Guess it could be depending
on where you live, it wouldn’t be in Denmark.
What would you consider to be a full time income?

That was a bit about what people are earning and what they would like to earn.
Now lets look at some of the probable causes.

Do you have your own website or blog?

Yes = 71.00%
No = 29.00%

This used to be the “Holy Grail” of internet marketing, in order to make money
you need to have your own website and domain. While I can’t argue that it’s still
important to have your own site, the numbers clearly show that it’s not enough.
We need something else and I think the two next questions will give us the answer.

Are you building your own email list?

Yes = 58.36%
No = 41.64%

Now we’re on to something (not that it surprises me at all). There is a definite
correlation between building a list and making an income online, and it’s crystal
clear when you look at this…

How many subscribers do you have on your email list?

I’m not building a list = 29.74%
Less than 500 = 52.04%
500 – 1,000 = 4.83%
1,001 – 2,500 = 6.69%
2,501 – 5,000 = 1.86%
5,001 – 10,000 = 1.86%
More than 10,000 = 2.97%

Hmmm… first of all the number of people “not building a list” does not match
the previous question. My guess is that a lot of people have tried building a list
but gave up because they did not see immediate results, and thus they fall into
the less than 500 subscribers category. Anyone got a comment on that, or a
better guess?

Other than that the numbers are fairly conclusive. I would bet my entire
business that almost all the people not making money online fall into the
0-500 subscribers bracket. The “high” earners (or maybe I should just say earners)
correspond well to the lists sizes – however it does look like a few people with
larger lists are failing to monetize them to their full potential.

Do you own/sell your own products or programs?

No, I’m only promoting products as an affiliate = 65.43%
No, but I plan to create a product of my own soon = 18.22%
Yes, I sell my own products and services = 16.36%

While intesting, I don’t think this question offers any conclusive data. You don’t
have to create your own products/programs to make money online, there are a
lot of people making a killing just with affiliate marketing – But (yes you guessed it)
these people are building a list.

However, having your own products does make it a lot easier to take your
internet marketing income to the next level. It also gives you leverage to utilize
JVs, affiliates, integrated marketing etc. But if you look at the numbers there
are a lot of people with their own products, who aren’t making any significant
income – I’ll just jump on my soap box again and say, probably because they
haven’t been building a list.

What are your favorite traffic generation methods?

This was very evenly spread out, no clear winner, and a lot of different ways to
drive traffic to your site. If anything, we can conclude that it doesn’t matter
much where the traffic is coming from – what matters is what you do with that
traffic, and to be more specific how you adapt your marketing funnel to the
traffic source in question. It was also very encouraging to see that most people
don’t put all their eggs in one basket.

However, there was a slight tendency for traffic exchanges and safelists to
rank high for most people. Doesn’t surprise me when you look at some of
the other numbers. They are free to low cost traffic generation methods,
readily available to the newbie.

If you have an affiliate program, don’t underestimate this… Provide affiliate
tools optimized for safelists and traffic exchanges. It’s what a large % of your
affiliates use, and if you don’t you are missing out on sales.

Which affiliate network do you prefer?

I tossed this last question in out of idle interest, but the numbers where
pretty conclusive – most people prefer Clickbank, probably because it’s
so easy to use (both as affiliate and vendor). PayDotCom came in as a
strong #2. Hmmm… Do you prefer Clickbank and why? Does that also
apply when you are buying products?

Now on to the conclusion…

Your average subscriber is!

If you are in the internet marketing niche, your average subscriber
(and/or website visitor) is:

1. Fairly new to the game (less than a years experience)
2. Working a full time JOB and doing IM part time
3. Looking to replace the JOB with a full time IM income
4. Not building a list
5. And thus failing to make any money from IM

So it would be a very safe bet to focus your product/newsletter on teaching
newbies (from scratch), how to create that “job quitting” full time income
online – And you need to do it by showing them how to build a list and
how to monetize said list. There are a lot for fads and buzz words in this
industry, but that is really what it all boils down to.

Also, if you have your own products and affiliate programs – helping your
users to get that first sale, get the ball rolling on the list building etc. Will very
likely generate some very loyal customers, and affiliates who are happy to
promote you.

Keep in mind that your affiliate toolbox can give them the best emails in the
world and tell people to mail them to their list. It doesn’t really matter, because
most of your affiliates can’t use them – you need to provide tools and services
that will help the 97% who aren’t making any sales. The cynical voice will say:
“If you help them build a list, they will be better affiliates anyway”.

Side note: My good friend Mike Paetzold recently did a similar survey of his list.
His results and findings match mine extremely well, you can read about Mike’s results here.

What you want me to write about

As I said I want to do an article series based on this survey, and I asked people
a) what they would consider their biggest IM problem, and b) what they would
like me to write about.

I was extremely happy to see the responses… The vast majority have no illusions,
they know where they are failing. So they want to know how to build a list and
how to monetize the process and the follow ups. Great, that just happens to be
my field of expertise

Here’s what I will do

I will write a series of step-by-step articles for this blog. Based on the comments
and results of the survey, they will be targeted towards the beginner, but there
will be something in it for every level. It’s going to be the A-Z of building a list
and using it to generate income online. Here’s a rough outline of what I’m going
to write about.

1. How to set up your squeeze page and monetize the whole sign up process
2. How to write a killer follow up series and how to make money from it
3. How to drive traffic to your squeeze page and make it convert
4. Advanced traffic generation methods and even more profit
5. How to take it to the next level and become “filthy rich”

Should be good, so stay tuned for that… If you are on my list you will receive
and email as soon as I complete each step-by-step article. If you aren’t on my
list you can sign up at the top right of this page (and you can also subscribe to
this blog’s RSS feed). When the article series is done I will compile it into an
ebook and if you are on my list you get to download a free copy. You can then
use it as a giveaway to build your own list (I’ll probably make it rebrandable).

In closing

Thanks for reading this post, I know it was bit long, but I hope there was some
useful information in it for you. Please leave a blurb below if you have any
question or comments – Suggestions for, and comments on, my coming
article series are also very welcome – thanks

End Of Quote

I made my comment ( well more than one actually), Soren really impressed me
with his comments on the results… But even more so with the posts that are
now following.
I have no problem sending my readers over to gain from his knowledge and his
quality advice – and I honestly suggest you do.

There are no affiliate links or any self centered reason for me to send you there.
Just the believ that you’ll gain immensely from Soren’s posts.

By all means feel free to come back and tell me if you thought his follow ups
were useful to you
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* Sign Off

As ever I really mean it when I say -
Here’s hoping you’re …..
Loving Life, Living it with Passion, And Passing it on!

Til next time
Warm Regards to You and Yours,
From Me and Mine.
Randy
www.MonthlyBargains.co.uk
www.RandolfSmith.com
www.YourCopySmith.com
www.SuccessAndYourHead.com
www.7KeyElements.com
www.SalesLetterAbc.com
www.MagicAuctionWords.com
www.MoreMonthly.com