I-Marketer Blog and Newsletter

How can I marketing online at no cost? I have used Kijiji, Gumtree and Craigslist in 100 cities around the world. I got responses through Kijiji but not from the others. Are there other channels for marketing that are free?

I offer lessons, assignments and asnwer keys on English vocabulary, grammar, reading and writing for ESL high school and college students.

Dr. Otto

The best way to start out with a zero advertising budget is to create an in-demand resource then give it away in your target market.  This allows you to build a list of targeted prospects who will do business with you in the future.

In order for your campaign to be successful, you will need to be actively recruiting people to give away your resource on their website.  Why will they give it away?  You need to reward them in some way–either through commissions or even a fee per download.

Once you generate some initial sales using this method, put your profits back into paid advertising for your website.

hi kevin
i have started a new campaign i have got rid of the previous one and i have joined this mailing programme for$8.00 and they say they mail to over 20million+ subscribers and idid this before i had realised is there a way i can check their claim.
the email programme is (Link Removed) 

kind regards
steve

I took a look at the site you mentioned and need to warn you (and everyone else) about safelists.

The theory behind a safelist is that everyone on the list has agreed to receive email promotions from you on a regular basis.  You pay a small fee (from $5 to $50 typically) to gain permission to email the list.  At first it sounds like a great shortcut to getting started online.  The reality is quite different.

First, if the safelist is actually composed of people who gave permission to allow you to email them, the members quickly quit reading the email pitches sent to them each day.  In most cases they sign up with a “throw away” email and your messages never get read.

The second problem with safelists is that many of them are not composed of opt-in email addresses, but rather “harvested” emails.  I suspect the one you wrote about fits into this category.  When you send a promotional email to these harvested email addresses you will be hit with dozens (or even hundreds) of spam complaints.  This will get your site shut down and could possibly (though unlikely) result in government prosecution.

My advice is to begin today building your own targted email list.  Just adding 15 people a day gives you a list of 5,000 in a year.   A list of 5,000 in a targeted niche can make you a full-time living. 

Is it best to work for 3-4 months on 1 idea or is it better to try to juggle 2 or 3 ideas at the same time to see which one takes off?

If you are just starting out, choose a proven system (you can see my recommendations here) then stick with it until you are making money.  Once you are making solid money with your first site/idea, expand into other areas as you see fit.  So many people fail because they don’t stick with a good idea until it has a chance to bear fruit.

I second the post by Steve and do inculde thinhs like wether it is better or not to incorporate, if so how? And like that

I do cover things “like that” in my Success Secrets Course, but on the question of incorporation I defer to the experts.  My friend Wayne Davies has an excellent resource I would point you toward on How to Incorporate for Free.

Hi Kevin

I have been receiving information from you for a while but perhaps now is the time to move forward. I have a partially completed self help book that contains a number of points of difference from many, if not most, other self help books. My plan was to publish the work as a printed book and still think it is important to do that. However gathering funds to self-publish is taking time and I have been considering the role of the internet in terms of getting the message out and building cash flow. There have been lots of distractions that have slowed down the completion of the writing to a standstill. Maybe there is a an alternative plan that will get this project moving ahead….

Cheers
Alan

Self publishing is a great way to go.  You can do this several ways.

First, you can always offer your book in digital format.  You can sell it through your own website, through Amazon.com and Ebay.com.  This is a cheap and effective way to get started.

Next, you can offer a printed version of your book via a “Print on Demand” service.  This is a service that prints up just one book at a time when the order comes in and sends it to your customer.   You have a small one-time set up fee (usually $100-$400) then you are charged by the POD service for each book they ship out.

If you see yourself making enough hard-copy sales, then you can invest in printing up your book.  This will reduce your per copy cost which will ultimately increase your profits.  But wait for this stage until you have a good idea how many of your books you are selling each month–you don’t want a garage full of books that aren’t selling! 

Hi Kevin - I’m currently working on your “Success Secrets” course and I’m confused - Overture, Yahoo and Ask all have references for my chosen Niche! But NicheBot and Seo site have NO references at all for either of my choices!! Why would that be?? Any Suggestions on what next?

 Jim, fire me off a message with your exact results (niche, keyword phrases, etc.) through the student hotline and I will help you through this.

Kevin,

I just signed up with you a few weeks back and the Success Secrets Course is everything your sales copy said it would be. The course is awesome and you have answered every question I have sent your way.

My Question: Once a product is in place and profitable, such as an ebook, how soon should you start setting up another stream of profits?

Thanks for the compliment.

Typically you want to make sure you have automated your marketing and routine efforts for your current site before trying to add a new revenue stream.  You don’t want to get into a situation where your initial profitable site stops making money because you are trying to jump start something else.

CAN ANYONE TEACH ME HOW TO USE THE SMART WAY PAY PER CLICK? IT IS SO EASY TO WASTE DOLLARS ON PPC……BUT I KNOW THE GURUS KNOW HOW TO INVEST NICKELS AND GAINING IN RETURN HARD DOLLARS. THANKS

I wish I had the “perfect” resource out there to direct you to.  PPC has changed dramatically in the last few months and I am still trying to put together new strategies to make it profitable for me again.  One person I would recommend you check out is Perry Marshal.  Perry is on the cutting edge of Adwords marketing and I trust his recommendations.

I would also encourage you to try other advertising mediums as well as organic search engine positioning.  While PPC is easy to set up and evaluate, it is becoming difficult to use PPC as a profitable lead generator for most niches. 

Hi, sad to say that I have not made much after spending close to 6 years and lots of money on courses. Courses that I bought always seem to have something missing, there seem to be a missing piece of the puzzle. I have dabbled with close to 10 sites, from affiliate, ebook selling to ppc sites, nothing seem to be working. I don’t know how different will your course be.

I don’t know what you have purchased in the past, but based on what I have seen online your story if pretty typical.  There are a couple of things any course needs to have to help most people succeed:

First you need to have a clear, step-by-step plan.  You don’t need information to succeed online, you need action.  You need a step-by-step plan that produces action not just information.

Second you need to have a way to ask questions and get answers when you get stumped.  I guarantee that you will get stumped at one point or another.  We all do.  Having someone who can answer your questions is key to success online.

Both my Success Secrets Course and my Self-Help Products Crash Course offer these two important factors.

I have seen and heard alot about online success stories, but i also see and hear alot about being able to start from nothing yet everytime i find these sites they want money, I literally have nothing, no credit, and no money to make a investment, also I am currently unemployed due to medical conditions. What I do have is a internet connection, and above average knowledge on how the internet works, I looked over your $5000 in 30 days plan but I am no writer, so i think a e-book is out of the question in my current situation. What other business’s can one do online other than e-books that require Zero investment to get start.

 I regularly see this comment from people in similar situations Dwayne.  Here is what I would recommend.  Go ahead and follow the plan in my 30 Day Challenge report, with one change.  Instead of writing your own eBook or paying someone to write it for you, use either a Public Domain book or a book compiled from articles written by others.  EzineArticles.com has thousands of articles and you can likely compile a cutting edge book just from other people’s articles.

Yes, I would love to purchase either of your two courses. It is just simply not in my budget.

My question is……..what about people like me. Widowed, working third shift in a factory to survive. Trying my darnest to figure this internet marketing business out. I have been studying anything free for two years. I have just made my first adwords sale and it felt terrific. But the buyer asked for a refund. Good grief. Anyway, I just wanted to respond and wish those who can afford your course good luck.

There are many who are in this exact place, Carol, you are certainly not alone.

If you can’t afford anything and want to get started right, I would recommend focusing on just one plan designed to be started with nothing.  This helps you to overcome the information overload caused by the constant barrage of “new” information.

You can start with my 30 Day Challenge Report–it’s designed to give you a way to start online from scratch.  And it’s free.

Hi Kevin!

My biggest problem in making money online is rather strange, compared to the others I’ve read.

Aside from dealing with a massive amount of people who don’t understand that you cannot build any kind of business online, without spending some money on it first. No one seems to under stand the concept that Free really isn’t free. Not when it comes to web hosting, advertising, or anything else.

My biggest problem is getting people to understand that my time is valuable. I have people, usually unknown to me, call me up on the phone and want to pick my brain for hours! I don’t mind answering a couple of questions, and I will spend hours on the phone with any of my clients, but trying to get a complete Internet marketing course out of me over the phone is nuts. I don’t want to seem rude, but when somoeone is picking my brain, I can’t get anything else done. I lose money.

I’m about to the point of adding a phone consultation fee next to my phone number and office hours. (I added my office hours, because I was getting calls at midnight.)

So how do I get people to exercise common sense? LOL I know that’s a biggie. How do I remain polite and helpful, and get people to understand that I don’t work for free, and having my brain picked IS working?

What would you say to me, if I called you up and tried to milk your brain over the phone? I mean, you and I have done some corresponding, and I know you are professional and courteous in your manner. (of course, I’ve never kept you on the phone, talking about what I did last summer either. LOL

If you can help me out here, I’d really appreciate it.

Thanx Kev,

Trina

The key to getting paid what you are worth is to refuse to take less than you are worth.

For example:  Let’s say you want to earn a profit of $100,000 per year from your website and you are working at it 40 hours per week, 50 weeks a year.

You also know you will spend about $1 in expenses and advertising for every $1 you make in profit.  That means you will need to earn about $200,000 in gross revenue to meet your goal.

Now even though you are working 40 hours per week, you will only get about 30 hours of real “productive” work time.  At 50 weeks per year that works out to 1,500 hours of work.

$200,000 divided by 1,500 hours is $133/hour.

So, for every hour you spend on the phone you need to be paid at least $133.

But how can you get people to pay you $133/hour for your time?  Here’s how:

1.  Put a page on your site where they can purchase time from you in 15 minute increments, where the minimum charge is $150.00 for the first hour then $37.50 for each additional 15 minutes or portion thereof.

2.  Offer a discount for purchasing (in advance) a block of your time (5 hours for $725, 10 hours for $1,400)

3.  When someone calls you and wants your advice, tell them your time is valuable and send them to the page to schedule a phone appointment and purchase your time.  Be courteous but firm.  I often tell people “this is the kind of advice I reserve for my paying clients. Here is where you can go to become one….”

Always keep this in mind:  You will never earn more than you charge.  Your time is worth exactly what you charge for it.  If you give it away for free, then your time is worthless.

It is not fare to our families when we give away our time.  Each time I give someone my advice for free that’s less money I have to pay for my son’s college, give away to worthy charities, or just pay the light bill.  If someone refuses to pay me, that’s OK–if they don’t value my advice enough to pay for it then they won’t take my advice anyway.  Advice is worth exactly what a person will give in exchange.

Well Kevin…you pushed me into it.
Since I will not be able to use ‘Keywords’ to promote my new e-book…my niche doesn’t use keywords

Without knowing your niche I have to wonder why.  Is it just an emerging niche?  Are these people online? 

…can you tell me how I can promote a ‘roll-out’ and make a few waves to start off the sale of my new book.

Without knowing the content or topic, it’s tough to say.

Generally you can become active in forums and generate buzz with topical yet provocative posts.

For example:  Disciple Help (your site) is targeted to Christians.  If I wanted to generate buzz I would register and become active for a few weeks at some of the larger Chistian forums.

In my signature I would offer some free book with a compelling “hook” for my target market.  This helps build your list while you prepare for launch.

When I was ready to launch I would begin with compelling posts surrounding the topic of my ebook and the problem my ebook solves.  I would encourage the people on the list I have been building (it will likely be a small number of people–maybe a few dozen) to post replys to my compelling post in return for some reward.

The buzz generated by the large number of replys helps to launch your ebook.

I have to admit your program does go into a lot of detail…but I couldn’t find just what I was looking for.