I was presented with a great challenge this weekend by surprise and I took it (mainly because I really had no choice!)

Daniel and I got another project for a local business. In case you haven’t heard, that’s probably our biggest income increase and growth lately—Providing perpetual lead generation systems to local businesses. We only know of 1 other company that is doing it besides our Premier Internet Marketing, LLC and they are in Florida. THEY CHARGE 7X WHAT WE CHARGE!!

Anyway, this particular project is for pay-per-click strategies where we offer a service for regular companies to pay about 15% of the average cost per click. We get paid on performance level only, so there’s no risk to the company-either they get results or they don’t pay. Not bad, eh?

So Daniel is actually the expert when it comes to pay per click and setting up the capture/squeeze pages, but I don’t want any money coming into our bank accounts unless I have put value into the equation. I’m not a fan of getting paid for nothing (success secret!! There is no success without effort and sacrifice). So I asked him what I could do to help out with it…I should’ve known he would issue a difficult proposition…This is one reason I like him as a business partner-he challenges me constantly so I’m always improving (success secret! Get a challenging biz partner)

He said, “Okay, you can build a webpage, just on MS Word, HTML not necessary yet, with the ad copy for a squeeze/landing/capture form to go from a PPC-type ad.”

Whoa, I’ve never done this type of thing before. I’m used to web 2.0 stuff where people know you a little before they go to your capture page, meaning you don’t need as much copy to get them to opt in…This was not just a short capture page, but it also wasn’t a looooong sales page because we’re not selling anything. It’s actually a free offer to get the lead. (The shorter capture page is really cool and it’s a smokin’-good offer for free. Check it out if you want to see the kind of capture pages we like to do. http://www.get3dresults.com I said of course I can do that and I’ll have the rough draft to you Monday (See the last paragraph of the post to see the success lesson here).

Okay, long story short(er)… What the heck am I supposed to do?? Well, I say this a lot- “Why create mediocrity when you can copy genius”. I Googled “how to create sales copy for a squeeze page” and grabbed a few nuggets and opened up about 7 of my favorite sales letter-type of websites and started writing. It actually wasn’t nearly as hard as I thought it would be. I just told myself. I’m not going to eat or sleep until I’m done with this. No more than 1 5 minute break every hour. It took me 2 hours and I was done. Awesome.

Entrepreneurs jump off the cliff and risk everything to build a parachute on the way down in time to save themselves. Sometimes the only thing to get you moving enough is to jump off that cliff.

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“Striking a better balance between work and play.”

Even though I failed many times, and tried a lot of things that didn’t work, I accumulated a lot of knowledge along the way that would be beneficial to others, to help them avoid the pitfalls I went through and the mistakes I made.

The fact of the matter is, we ALL have experience. We accumulate experiences all the time just by living life on a daily basis… and when you sit back and think about what you’ve learned so far in your life, you might be surprised just how much valuable knowledge you have to offer to others.

The key is to recognize the importance of your experiences, and how they can be used to assist your potential prospects.

An important thing to note here is ‘expertise’ doesn’t have to be based on your experiences alone. Even if you don’t feel you have enough knowledge about a particular subject, you can do some research on it, and gain that knowledge to be able to share… essentially making you an “expert” on that subject. Sooo easy… pretty fun, too. Plus, you want to learn some of this stuff anyway.

The most important thing is to figure out what subject you want to research, and once you know that, things will usually fall into place much easier.

You wouldn’t believe the number of ideas and products and services that I’ve come up with on that simple strategy.

 One of my mottos is “Never use a tool or take a course that doesn’t have an affiliate program.”

Of course, the word “never” doesn’t really apply.  It’s just a generalization.

This way, when I’m spouting off about my newfound knowledge on a conference call or something, someone is bound to ask me where I learned that valuable nugget. I get their email address and send them the affiliate link. I promote about 25 programs, tools, courses and mastermind groups this way.

It’s how I got most of the knowledge to write this post…as well as my ebooks and my parts of TFTF (See how it works?

Dan Dimit

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I’m sure you realize that there are lots of Americans who enjoy a lifestyle where they no longer have to worry about day-to-day expenses and are physically and mentally fit. Everyone knows that they’re out there. How about the percentage?  Can you guess? Well, it’s 2% of this great nation’s population. It’s the American dream to be financially independent as well as mentally and physically fit, but it just doesn’t happen.

Why does it happen to only such a tiny percentage? Well, because it’s not easy. It takes learning the specific skills that are present in all high achievers. Sadly, these are not the skills taught in our nation’s schools and universities. The basics are stated right here. Sorry, there is no magic pill or secret. There is no success without effort and sacrifice.

If you want to create the life of your dreams, commit yourself to developing these 5 traits every day for the rest of your life. Once you do, there will be nothing that will stand in your way!

Discipline

While hard work is certainly instrumental in attaining success, it is useless without discipline. Discipline is the ability to set goals, manage one’s time, measure results, and maintain overall balance in life. Being busy working doesn’t always translate into success. It often takes doing certain things in a certain order. Regardless of what you do, it is only success when you have done your best.

Passion

Success is having a dream of the future to be excited about. Yes, life comes at you hard sometimes, but every person must have an instinct to press on and dream big. Visualization is huge. It’s what all high achievers do from the beginning. See in your mind what you want. The more details, the better.

Risk

Risk is not always a matter of rolling the dice. With success, it’s calculated risk. In this case, our goal is to measure one’s willingness to step out of the “comfort zone” and stay out.  Success often requires change, and the road is often paved with new challenges that defy complacency. Any time you’re comfortable doing what you do, it’s time to grow more. That’s calculated risk.

Optimism

“You are what you think about,” so the saying goes, and it is no surprise that happy people are, well, just happier. This category of optimism includes both internal and external sources of positive affirmation (i.e., self-esteem, confidence, self-image, spiritual acuity, etc.). Visualization again… What you focus on thrives. Focus on your bills? Or focus on the creative ways you can take care of them? Make it a habit!!

Interpersonal Skills

Relationships are pivotal to overall success, and that not only includes personal relationships, but also the ability to deal with people. Negotiating. Selling. Public speaking. Regardless of your trade, these factors are all necessary for ultimate success. Oh, and there are no “self-made millionaires”. Every one of these people has a team.

Long term and short term communication is important.

Dan Dimit

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Some people online seem to think they have to interest every single person who reads their ad or sales letter. Not true! You only need to interest a select few. These are the 3% that WILL buy. These are the people you are speaking to. These few will make you all the money you need. You want buyers — not warm bodies! The people who get on your optin list and are just looking for free info take up your valuable time and resources. But they do not return anything to you. Avoid them!

But you still have to GET to those select few. And the only way to do that is with dynamic, powerful and very skillfully done marketing materials. This could be electrifying copy writing, powerful videos, or a well done eBook that goes viral and ends up in the email boxes of the all of the 3 percenters. If there is nothing about your service or product or opportunity that excites readers, you are going to have a hard go of it. That’s why you should only concern yourself with those that WILL be excited.

Tin my opinion, this is the only way to work with niche markets. To appeal to a particular subgroup of buyers, you must slant your communications to be more relevant to them. You want to use language that your niche market uses. You certainly don’t want to use words that a software author would understand if you’re writing for an audience of stay-at-home moms looking for easy recipes! If you’re writing to the average American reader, you would use PhD level literary skills.

You have to believe in what you offer. People who have passion about their opportunity, product or service are more successful almost without exception.

At the same time, your customers and prospects need to have a little passion about your product, service and opportunity. Your passion must be contagious! They must sense what you sense. The reader must feel what you feel. You have to get them caught up in the intensity of your strong beliefs service, product and opportunity. This comes automatically if you have the belief, but skills are a big plus. Targeting your market correctly also wins a big head start. If they’re passionate about the problem you’re helping them solve, why would they NOT be excited about the solution?

What are you offering people that allows them to make a strong emotional connection to you, your company, or your product and opportunity? It doesn’t matter what you provide, be it a line of vitamins, toys, or plumbing services. Your prospective customers need to feel the value of the product. They need to see and understand what your product will do for them. They must get excited!

Project your passion to your prospects and some of them will respond.  The ones you want to respond will respond! And that’s what counts. That’s why you’re only trying to get THEIR attention.

You can make a big profit catering to a select minority. You don’t need to appeal to the majority of people. You just have to make a small group of people like your offer and like it very much. For example, in your business a person may pay $3000 or more for a simple direct mail package. Now, that sounds like a lot of money to some people. And it is. But if that person builds a million dollar business from that one direct mail package the $3000 is mere pocket change! So everything is relevant. You want to appeal to buyers. In most cases, price is not a factor. People will pay the price if it’s valuable to them. You want your offer to appeal to people who want, and are actively seeking what you provide. Not people who really can’t afford the product. People that can’t afford it are not actively seeking it. But they may be curious about free info…(They’ll most likely stay on your autoresponder forever)

You want to target your message to the type of people you want to respond. If you want buyers, you target buyers. Of course this tends to make the group you are aiming at smaller. But if you hit them with a personalized message they will be more responsive than if you use the so-called “shotgun” approach with a weak, broad message that ends up being of little interest to anyone. These messages are not heard above the roar of marketing that people are inundated daily.

Don’t be politically correct in this. Target certain age, gender, race, religion, political views, anything that will get their attention.

Your marketing material must have a powerful punch. I see sales letters everyday written by people who mean well. They simply don’t know how to get their point across. And they try to target too large an audience. If you can avoid these traps you can join the ranks of the successful marketers. Remember that the 80/20 rule applies everywhere. 80% of marketing success is had by 20% of the marketers. What are you willing to do to become one of the 20 percenters?

Dan Dimit

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To really make the kind of money that can set you free, you’ve got to acquire an insatiable appetite for anything and everything having to do with sales, leadership, marketing, relationship building, and business skills.  There’s an old story I’d like to repeat to you. I heard it for the first time from Ann Sieg (while studying others with more knowledge and better skills than I had). You know, the lady that you can’t get away from no matter what MLM company you put into the search engine.

A number of years ago two men came here from Cuba. There are thousands of people who risk their lives on tiny little boats  to make it to America every year, but let’s just focus on two of them. They both arrived here on the same day, a new life in front of them.  One of them was a dishwasher who worked at a hotel in Havana. He somehow managed to steal $500,000 from the guests who stayed at that hotel and make it ashore with all that cash on him. The other one barely made it alive on an inner tube with absolutely nothing but the tattered clothes on his back. Not a single penny. But this guy was a brain surgeon in Cuba. One of the best, in fact. Now imagine 5 years have gone by. Where’s the dishwasher? The one who came here “rich?”

Most likely he’s broke and living on the streets. Or perhaps in jail. Maybe even dead. You see when he got here, he probably carelessly spent all his money on luxury cars, houses, drugs, partying and other impractical things. Once he ran out, the only skill he had to make more money with was washing dishes. But after having a taste of “the good life,” there was no way he could go back to doing that. So he probably turned to crime and eventually wound up living in a 6 x 6 cell. 

The other guy – the one who came here with “nothing” – has a great house in an upscale neighborhood, a wonderful family, a nice car and in general, a very prosperous life.

Why?

Because he came here with the only real wealth, the only true financial security there is in life… …the kind that’s between your ears! And no matter how broke he temporarily was, he would always be able to pull himself out of that situation.

You can do the same if you acquire skills that are highly valuable. And as we’ve discovered, there are no skills more valuable than those of sales and marketing! We’ll help you gain that knowledge and use it specifically on the internet.

Dan Dimit

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No product or service will appeal to everyone. Many business owners, including corporate executives, try to come up with ways to reach every market. Typically, this does not work. It can spell disaster for small businesses, who cannot afford to spread themselves too thin. Therefore, find your market and be everything you can be to that audience.

Highlight your competitive advantage. One of the keys to all advertising is to emphasize the pros of your company. These are factors that give you the competitive edge. Too many ads are clever but fail to sell the benefits (as opposed to the features) of the product or service.

Establish an image.  Brand yourself first. You can recognize the McDonald’s arches while you’re driving by. It’s the same thing with the products that you recognize by their packaging or logo. Image counts when it comes to advertising and promoting your business. Too many advertisers do not work to build a consistent image.

I apologize to the cheapos out there, but you have to spend money to make money. There are ways to save money, but most of the time marketing is not the place to cut corners. It will affect sales, and that affects the bottom line. Successful advertising may cost some money, but that’s because it works. Supply and demand…

You have to do your marketing and advertising in the right places. Your favorite magazine, radio station, or even television program might not be a favorite of your audience. Know what they read, watch, and listen to, and advertise in media that reaches your target market. That’s why we like to use web 2.0 techniques. We’re young and fun-loving people, just like those who frequent social networks.

Don’t allow your budget to run your advertising campaign. If you budget $5,000 per month for advertising, you’ve made it very easy from a bookkeeping perspective. Here’s the problem. Like most businesses you probably have seasonal highs and lows, and you may be spending too much money advertising during down times and not enough when you want to attract customers. Too many entrepreneurs do not budget according to their seasonal advertising needs. Luckily we’re here to teach you technique sto get the word out that cost nothing, or very little.

Having said that, here’s the next rule. Diversify. It’s really common for business owners to choose the best place to advertise based on price and potential rate of returns and then stop. Kinda like investing, you do not want to put all of your eggs in one basket. Spread your marketing dollars around.

Monitor your marketing communications. It is very easy to ask new customers or clients where they heard about you. As simple as this is, many entrepreneurs do not bother to do stuff. It is really to your advantage to know which videos, articles, etc. generate business.

Speaking of monitoring, you should test everything you have time to test and try to constantly improve it. This can be your email, videos, capture pages, blogs, anything will help.

Did you notice that everything in this article sounds like running a real business? HHMMMM…

Dan Dimit

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The Pareto principle (also known as the 80-20 rule, the law of the vital few and the principle of factor sparsity) states that, for many events, 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes. It’s named for an Italian economist, Vilfredo Pareto, who noticed that in his country 80% of the weatlh was owned by 20% of the population.

The 80/20 principle has proven in business and economics that the majority of results come from a small minority of causes or effort. So, we can’t say that the 80/20 numbers are accurate. Some situations are 90/5 and others 70/30.

 This powerful rule has way more benefits than just in business. Learn to focus your attention on the “vital minority” to live the 80/20 lifestyle and accomplish more with less!

Every major religion and every bestselling self-improvement book or program promises a great reward from serious effort. The advice usually works for those who follow the directions carefully, but the trouble is that most don’t get into the correct habits. The effort is too much. We fall by the wayside. Have you ever had that experience? I have.

Wouldn’t it be great if we could discover a way to do less, and yet get more of what we want — more love, more “toys”, more happiness, more success? Wouldn’t that be a crazy-good lesson for everyone?

It so happens that there IS a program. I found it after quite a bit of time and studying success. Here it is …

It is the 80/20 RULE

For example, we send about 80% of our emails to 20% of the people in our address book. In business, 80% of profits come from 20% of customers and 20% of products. We wear 20% of our clothes, our favorite outfits, more than 80% of the time. Police investigations reveal that 80% of accidents are caused by roughly 20% of drivers and that 80% of crime is committed by 20% of criminals. Keep in mind the inexact numbers.

 What about this: Businesses have known for a long time that they can improve their position enormously by concentrating on the key 20% of activities.

Why can’t people do the same in their everyday lives?

 Guess what? THEY CAN. We can make our lives enormously better by doing less… but there is a catch. The secret is not to do less of everything, but to do less of the majority of things we do(the things that don’t work very well for us) and to do more of the few things that deliver what we want.

 The key to making the 80/20 Rule work for you is focus(this is one of my weaknesses). In every area of your life you can figure out what few things are really important to you and the few methods that give you what you want. You should try to divide everything around you and everything you do into two piles.

 First, there is the big pile. This is the 80% pile, that takes a lot of energy but delivers less-than-great results… sometimes these activities may even make things worse. This is the mass of little stuff that surrounds you and normally takes over your life. We’ll name this “The Unimportant Majority.”

Then there is the small but vital 20% pile, which comprises the few things that work so well, it surprises you — the “vital minority” that brings happiness to you.

 Once you know what is in each pile — the things you do, the thoughts you have, the people you meet, the techniques and methods you use — you can do something simple and extremely effective: You can do less of the “The unimportant majority” things and more of the “vital minority” things.

The result? Much less effort but way more (and better) rewards.

The modern delusion is “more with more.” Nearly everyone thinks that to get more out of life and to succeed in achieving what we want, we have to labor harder, devote more time to our work, and make sacrifices and tradeoffs (I’ve been seduced by this belief for years). The truth is that less is more, as long as it’s less in the right areas. We make progress by stripping our activities and concerns back to a small, effective pile.

There are lots of simple, painless ways to start this “shrinking” process so that you can begin applying the 80/20 Rule and getting benefits in your everyday life.

One of the easiest ways to start this process is to find what makes you really happy. Think back to the last time you were really happy, then the times before that. What did these times, or a certain group of them, have in common? Were you in a special place, pursuing a similar sort of activity (with a particular person or group)? What are some common themes?

Now, how can you multiply your time in these happy moments? If you figure that your happy times make up only a fifth of your time, how could you take that to a third or a half… or even more?

There are plenty of activities that give us a poor return on happiness, and they are relatively easy to identify. Surveys of people watching television, for example, show that very few respondents say they are happy after watching two or more hours of TV. Typically, they actually become mildly depressed. I’m very harsh on TV in the first place… but that’s very true.

What things do you regularly engage in that have a poor happiness reward? What do you do out of a sense of duty? If there’s little pleasure in the duty, how much good are you doing? When you are happy, your happiness overflows into the lives of those around you. Time spent being miserable benefits nobody.

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Always ask yourself, “How do I know that’s true?”

There are really two sides to this coin, and it all comes down to who these people are and what they’ve done.  

They’re right about “doing it on your own…” It can be done, and purchasing training courses is the BEST way there is to get the results you want fast, and for the least amount of money in the long run.

This is one of those secrets to online success that everyone knows, but they’re still looking for  the magic pill.

Is their training worth thousands? Well that depends…

I just thought about sending a $1,000 check to Rich Schefren today for his course. Rich is one of the best marketers in the world, and from what I’ve heard, his program is over-flowing with golden nuggets of wisdom.

Is $1,000 a lot of money? Sure… Unless the content helps me make $100,000 in return. The bottom line is that I know about Rich.  

This isn’t some random course, from a random person I’ve never heard of, or seen online before.

His reputation and skills are without question. His work has produced $1,000,000,000’s, (that’s BILLIONS), in sales for his clients.

Most people can’t imagine spending $1,000 for a set of books and DVD’s on “marketing”, and if they did pull out their wallet to make that kind of a purchase, 90% of them wouldn’t finish the material, or even apply it to their business.

Yet they have no problem spending $100,000+ and 5 years of their time for college classes.

Oh well… That’s why they’re still broke.

Anyway, here’s my point…

You need to know who these people are and that their material works…

Have they built a list of subscribers?

Have they made at least an attempt to give you value before you buy?

Do they have relationships and a reputation with other leaders in the industry?

What comes up when you do a search for them on Google?

Can they show you what they’ve done with their online marketing skills?

And finally, is there factual evidence for their claims, or are they making all of their money selling $1,000+ coaching programs?

When someone learns about myself or The Free Traffic Formula, it doesn’t take much digging to realize what we’re about and what we’ve been able to accomplish (through years of very hard work).

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Whom do I study most?

One of my golden rules of marketing on the internet is “Study your competition and those you admire.”

I’ve been able to achieve the kind of success that I have today because of one reason…

I constantly learn from others who are where I want to be, and apply their lessons.

I DO NOT listen to my “cheap and tacky” friends.

For example, the other day I was speaking to my sister-in-law. She asked me what I do for a living now.

I told her I help people with their home businesses–Internet marketing as well as network marketing, etc. This was her reply,

 “You mean those pyramid thingies?!?!”

So I asked, “What’s a pyramid?” She says, “Well, if you don’t know what it is, then you must not be in one.

But it’s where the guy at the top makes all the money.” To which I quipped, “Oh, you mean corporate America.”

She says, “NO, I’m talking about the SCAMS where the guy at the top makes all the money and the little guys at the bottom do all the work and don’t make any money.” I explained to her that “You won’t find a bigger, more blatant scam than what goes on in Corporate America, and you described it perfectly”.

She didn’t like that and she went on to tell me that what I’m doing won’t work and that I should try to find a real job.

I didn’t have the heart to tell her that I make about 3 times what she does even though I don’t have nearly as much experience in this as she does in her profession. Plus, there’s the fact that I work only a few hours per day as well as the fact that it’s about 2 in the afternoon and I’m writing this at a bench in a beautiful park on a nice, sunny day and I’m enjoying most of my time with those I love the most, and the least of my time with those I like the least, and she’s doing the exact opposite.

(AND I NEED TO GO FIND A REAL JOB?!?!)

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