I have a bucket list of ideas and activities that I would like to complete. We all have a bucket list in our minds of “someday I’m going to do that”. Some people actually write down their bucket list and maybe even tape it to the bathroom mirror or they will put it on the refrigerator door with a magnet. I have a summer bucket list and a winter bucket list. The summer bucket list is definitely longer.
What is a bucket list?
A bucket list is a list of activities or things that you would like to accomplish in your life. You want to do the items on your list before you get too old to do them and before you die. It is really simple, take a piece of paper and write down five, or ten, or twenty things. Things that you want to do but, for whatever the reason you can’t do it right now. Maybe age or lack of money, or you need more education, or more experience is needed.
Start simple first.
I understand that actually writing something with a pen or pencil is kind of old school. If you want to put it on your iPhone, tablet, or computer, that will work too. Let me mention here that there is something special about actually physically writing it on paper.
Writing on paper adds a dimension of reality and something tangible you can see and feel that is different than electronic notes. Compare reading an ebook to holding a real book in your hands. The experience is different. It’s got gumption. Now write or type maybe 30 – 50 (or as many as makes you happy) ideas of things you want or wish, hope or desire to do or have in your lifetime. There are no limitations except for your imagination.
Organize your list.
Now you have your list of 100 things, and you can start to organize them into groups. This will make it easy to find them. You might have categories like a summer bucket list or a winter bucket list. Which countries would you travel to? Family vacations, or learn to do this, or acquire this particular skillset and get certified. Example: you want to scuba dive shipwrecks around the world but you have never scuba-dived in your life. Well, then you will need to learn how to scuba dive.
If you are like me, you might have to get in better physical condition before donning a wet suit. That would be quite the sight right now. Picture a seal trying to put on his own skin. If there are easier things in a grouping, put them at the top so you can do that first. This will empower you and give you confidence, and you will feel in control of your future and your destiny.
Take action immediately!
Let’s recap. You created a big, crazy list of outrageous things you want to experience. You organized them into groupings and the easiest things to accomplish are at the top. Now you need to take action immediately by figuring out what you have to do to do the thing. You might need to start a savings account specifically for that. Or sign up for a gym membership and get in better physical shape. Travel? Start researching all the things required to travel like getting a passport, luggage limitations for flying, and what documentation you need with you, and how to keep it safe.
Save the date.
Everything is ready. You have put together a game plan and know what you are going to do and the things you need to execute the plan. Time to look at the calendar and decide how long will it take to save the money, get in shape, orchestrate travel details, and finally the best time of the year to go. Put a great big “X” on the calendar and SAVE THE DATE. Choose the soonest date you think you can and write it on the calendar! Look at your bucket list every day and especially the first/ next item on the list because that is your future. That is YOUR dream! Don’t let anyone steal your dream.
Live Your Dream!
Look at your list every day! Work toward fulfilling the requirements of your next item on the list. Believe that you can do it and that you will do it and in time, you will be smack dab in that place living your dream. You are awesome! If you can dream it, you can live it.
Trying to find an affiliate marketing program that works and makes money is no easy task. Every time you turn around, there’s another guru offering a high-ticket item that will save the day and put a fortune in your pocket. But will it? The thing about selling information to Internet marketers on how to market is that they are effectively creating their own competition. Training others to do exactly what they are doing is making them rich.
Now, if you were going to train YOUR competition to compete against you and try to take away your business – would you tell them everything? No way. For that matter, would you be tempted to tell them things that were – shall we say – not exactly true? Possibly. Here are 4 common myths the “experts” would love for you to keep believing.
Long vs Short Sales Copy – Myth 1
Long sales copy always out pulls short sales copy. Not true – if you’re selling a low ticket item ($5 to $30) then short copy will often out pull long copy – especially if you state the price UP FRONT rather than trying to hide it at the bottom. If you’re selling more expensive products, then long copy does out pull short copy.
Video vs Written Copy – Myth 2
2. Video sells more than written copy. Not true – split testing of squeeze pages shows that the pages without video nearly always out pull the ones with video. Moreover, sales pages with just video and no copy tend to not do as well as sales pages with copy and no video. And a combination of the two really needs to be split-tested, because it could easily go either way. Don’t assume video sells – depending on the product and the video itself, it can hurt as much as you think it might help.
Split Test Everything – Myth 3
3. You should split test everything. Yes, as we just mentioned split testing is great – but only so long as it doesn’t slow you down. When you’re just getting started, the last thing you need is to delay your actions until you’ve split tested everything down to a science. Better to roll out that sales page today and begin making sales now than to wait until it’s perfect. Do split test, but don’t make it a priority. Taking action, rolling out new products and building your list should be your priorities. Get the money coming in and then focus on improving your systems.
Affiliate Marketing – Myth 4
4. Affiliate marketing is the way to go. Think about this – do you want to compete with a hundred or a thousand other affiliates to sell a product? Or do you want to sell your own unique product that no one else on the planet can offer? By creating your own products, not only do you eliminate the competition, but you also build a relationship with your customers. Your customers who have gotten to know you, trust you and love your products. And once this happens, then you can sell them all the affiliate products you like.
Never be afraid to question anything anybody tells you – including me. And always look at the possible motives that might lie behind a word of advice. As my grandfather used to say, “Follow the money!” If someone is teaching you how to compete with them, odds are they’re not only omitting key information – they may also be leading you astray.
Remember the life you dreamed about in your youth? The dream of being a famous rock star, astronaut, or movie star. My American dream was pretty typical for someone growing up in a mix of lower to middle-class America. I just wanted to have nice things like a nice house, a nice car, a nice boat, etc., etc., which seemed so simple back then.
What Happened To The Dream?
My question is, what happened to my American dream and what happened to your American dream? We weren’t warned of the dream stealer in our youth, so we didn’t know how to protect our dream. It wasn’t taught in the public school system that we should hold on to and pursue our American dream, and don’t let it go. Nope, just a list of do and don’ts, be here at this time, blah, blah, blah.
Day by day, as we get told our limitations, busy with our particular flavor of hobby in school whether it is sports, academics, or arts, we repetitively see or are told the costs to pursue that endeavor. We have been counseled and prepared to go to school and get a job.
Choose Your Career
As you go through school, there is the perpetual question to you, “what do you want to do when you grow up and get a job?” Or what is your career choice? Or, if you are good at English you can be a secretary or my personal favorite, an administrative assistant. and so on. Whatever you happen to be naturally gifted at there is a career for you doing that.
Now you are grown up and you have done your best to follow all the guidance of teachers, professors, and mentors you grew up with and had influenced your life decisions and now you are wondering, “what happened to my dream”?
Day by day your dream life has slipped away. A little here a little there, this is how it happens. You think that you will make so much money, and maybe you do. You get your paycheck after all the deductions that they didn’t tell you about when you were growing up.
Where Did The Money Go?
Things like taxes, health insurance, uniforms, laundry, health savings account, short-term disability insurance, long-term disability insurance, and more. You look at your paycheck and ask, WTF happened to my money? That is one example of how the dream stealer gets you.
Get Your Dream Back
What is a person to do to get their dream back? Work longer hours? Get another job? That can help in the short term but, will wear you down in the long term. Go into business for yourself, right? Be your own boss, make your own hours, and eat lunch at 11:00 am because that is when you are hungry, right?
Take The Next Step
Where do you start? Business takes money to get started. Business takes time to get going to before you make money. May or may not need employees depending on the business. All the legal paperwork, acquiring a location, advertising, website, and social media can build you up or take you down.
You have to make that decision for yourself. If you want to get the life you dreamed about as a kid and kick the dream stealer out of your life then you can begin today. Whatever you decide will be a great decision. Today is your day and you can make it great.
What’s the easiest way to make money online, without having to create a product or a sales page? Affiliate marketing, of course. 🙂 Most affiliate marketers are doing it all wrong.
So, why is it that most affiliate marketers never make nearly what they could make? Anyone has the potential to make HUGE money in affiliate marketing, yet 90% or more of affiliates make a pittance (I’ll wager the number is closer to 98%, in fact.)
Think about this: If you earn an average of $50 on each sale in a sales funnel you promote, and you make 6 sales, you’ve made $300. Sounds good, right?
But guaranteed, there is someone else who made 600 sales and walked away with $30,000.
Why did they make 600 sales when you made just 6?
There are reasons why a handful of affiliate marketers do amazingly well, and everyone else barely makes a profit.
And marketers who understand this will always have a tremendous advantage over marketers who don’t.
1: Build a Relationship
I know you’ve heard it before, but are you doing it? People buy people, not products.
If you want them to open your email and click your link, or visit your Facebook Group and click a link, you’ve got to have a RELATIONSHIP with your people.
This is so simple to do, yet few marketers take the time.
Start with a blog post that is all about you, and then send new opt-ins to the post so they can get to know you. Make the post silly, funny and most of all REAL. Talk about the stupid stuff you’ve done, the mistakes you’ve made, where you live and so forth.
You have a strange. or interesting hobby
Do you have a strange hobby or unusual taste in food? Include that. Maybe you have 17 pets, talk about them. Are you one of those people that like to work until 3 in the morning and sleep until noon? Mention that.
Reveal the real you. Not the details people don’t want, but the ones that amuse and interest. You’re looking to make a real connection, not give a resume. Tell them how the dream stealer got you.
And above all else, don’t make your life seem like a series of magnificent accomplishments. No one is going to relate to someone who turns everything they touch into gold.
But they are going to relate to the time you bought Bitcoin when it was worthless and sold it just before it took off, or the time you thought you could fly and jumped off your uncle’s barn into the manure pile.
And don’t stop with your ‘about me’ page, either. Use this relationship building in your lead magnet, your emails, your other blog posts and so forth.
Be something about yourself
Always inject a little bit about yourself. Not so much that you bore people, of course, or make everything seem about you. But just enough to keep it real.
Think about relating an event to a friend. Arerselfn’t you going to give your own perceptions of what happened, as well as tell about how you got out of your car and stepped in the mud puddle just before your big presentation?
Use this same method of personal, one-on-one friend communication with your readers as well.
Post on your blog as often as possible, and we’re talking every day or two. Encourage your list to subscribe to Feedburner or the equivalent so they know when you add a new post.
Your readers will realize you’re a real person who isn’t out to pitch them a new product every 5 minutes. And they’ll gladly read your sales emails much more readily when they know there is a real live human being who is sending them these messages.
2: Use Your Own Voice
How many emails do you receive that say something along the lines of, “Buy this product – this product is the greatest product ever – you will be sorry if you miss this – so rush right over and buy it now.”
Yeah. Same old stuff, over and over again.
There is a marketer (or maybe several, but I’m thinking of one in particular) who sells MASSIVE quantities of this exact type of emails as a swipe file to new marketers.
Like a brand-new marketer couldn’t write their own 25 word email that basically says, “GO BUY THIS NOW!”
People are TIRED of getting these emails. You’re tired of getting these emails. I’m tired of getting these emails.
Same phrases, same message, same B.S.
If you’re not going to stand apart from the crowd, then you’re going to have to share the same crumbs they’re getting.
Instead, take 30 minutes and write your own promotional email in your own voice.
No hype. Sincere and Honest
Forget hype. Be sincere. Be honest. “Hey, this product isn’t for everyone. I don’t even know if it’s for you. But if you have this problem, then maybe this is your solution. Check it out and decide if it’s right for you, because I know it’s worked like crazy for some people. And it’s on sale right now, too.”
I’ve written emails where I basically tell people not to buy something unless they really really want it or need it. “Don’t buy this if you already know how to do xyz.” “Don’t buy this if you’re not going to be doing this type of marketing.” This is only for people who want (fill in the blank.) It’s like I’m trying to talk them out of it, which paradoxically often results in more sales, not fewer.
No trickery
But the point isn’t tricking them into buying; it’s to be honest. Because you know what? That latest, greatest product you’re promoting ISN’T what everyone on your list needs. Some of them, sure. The rest of them, no.
The first time I got an email like that, I bought the product without even reading the sales letter. True story. I was just so happy that someone wasn’t ramming a sale down my throat, that I jumped at the chance to buy it.
Weird but true.
My point is, be you. Be honest. Talk to your readers as though they are your best friends and you don’t want to lose your best friends by acting like a carnival barker who is here today and pulled up stakes (vanished) tomorrow with their money.
3: Email a LOT
This is the one where people like to argue with me, and I understand that.
You’ve heard over and over again that you shouldn’t email too often, or you’ll upset your subscribers, right?
After all, every time you email, there is the potential that a subscriber will hit the unsubscribe button.
Have you considered what the potential is when you DON’T email? Nothing. No opens, no clicks, no sales… not even any relationship building.
Do you want people to open and read your emails? Then send out those emails EVERY DAY.
Here’s why:
First, almost no one will see every email you send out. Let’s say you’ve got a sale on one of your products. Don’t you think your readers might like to know about it? But if they miss the one and only email you send that lets them know, then they’ve missed out on the discount and you LOST a sale.
Email at different times
Second, send emails at different times. I opened someone’s email just yesterday, decided I was VERY interested in the new membership he was selling, clicked the link and discovered it was no longer available.
What happened? This particular marketer only sends out emails at 1:00 a.m. my time, so I don’t even see most of his emails in the avalanche of mail I get before I wake up.
Third, if you’re sending email once a week or once a month, your readers are forgetting who the heck you are. And when you finally do send an email, they think it’s spam.
Fourth, if you mail more often, you will make more money. Don’t take my word on this, just do it for one month. Send out one email per day, every day, for 30 days. Put a promotion in each one. See if you haven’t made more – a LOT more – money during that time period than during the previous month.
And by the way, I’m not saying JUST send out a promotion in each email. Make sure you have some content in there as well, even if it’s just an amusing anecdote.
4: Think of affiliate marketing as a BUSINESS
This isn’t a hobby, nor is it an add-on for an additional income stream.
Even if you go on vacation, be prepared to send out an email every day. Schedule them in advance or write them on vacation. Either way, affiliate marketing to your list is a business that you can’t just jump into when you need cash and forget about the rest of the time.
You don’t have many support issues, since the product owners handle this. No need to worry about creating products, sales pages and so forth. You don’t have to drive traffic unless it’s to build your list bigger.
With so much you don’t have to do, there’s no reason not to focus your time and energy into building relationships with your list and promoting to them every single day.
Affiliate marketing can be some of the easiest money you’ve ever made, if you put in the time and effort to make it a real business.
Hello world, it’s Gary and this is my new website. Stay tuned because I’ll have great things to share!
For starters, here’s an article on home business ideas I think you’ll enjoy.
It’s called: “Make the Leap to Home Business Success”
If you are going to build a successful home business you will need 3 “intangibles.” These are things that must come from WITHIN you.
===> Intangible 1 <===
First and most important is you must have a strong WHY.
Why must you make your home business ideas work? What’s driving you to succeed?
What is it that you CAN’T have in your life anymore and/or what is it that you absolutely MUST HAVE now?
For me, I couldn’t stand working 12+ hours a day anymore and missing the experience of my children growing up. I also absolutely HAD TO HAVE the freedom of being able to control my life and finances through a little box.
A little box that I could carry with me anywhere in the world and not be tied to anyone’s time pressures or demands but my own. For me, those became my carrot and my stick.
I felt a great pain deep in my gut of missing out on my children’s lives. Also, the incredible freedom that succeeding in this business idea would provide for me.
I have found my why and now you must find your why that will keep you going when things get tough. Once you find your why, here is a place you can begin by clicking these blue words You MUST find yours.
===> Intangible 2 <===
You must BELIEVE that it is possible.
If you don’t believe that it’s POSSIBLE for you to succeed in a home business or make your living on the Internet, you won’t. It’s that simple.
Figuring out that it was possible was just a matter of realizing that many other people were ALREADY making great money with home business ideas online. If they could do it, I could too.
It would just be a matter of figuring out what those people were doing and then adapting it to my situation.
Undeniable proof home business ideas work
There is no shortage of undeniable PROOF that people (millions of them) are making money online in many different ways. Just get online and do some research and you’ll find countless testimonials.
Stories of REAL PEOPLE making real money on the Internet. Or head to your local bookstore and you’ll find the same documented evidence of this fact.
The truth is, it’s getting easier and easier to start and succeed in a home-based business. This is primarily because of the Internet and affiliate marketing.
I’ve always said that “affiliate marketing” is the job of the future. In the “old” days, you had to go to a potential employer, apply for the position, and hope for the best.
Now you can simply go to any company you want, fill out their affiliate application and start work immediately. Affiliates are the new working class.
Believe me, making money with affiliate programs or making your living on the Internet is WAY MORE than possible. It is pretty much (or will be soon enough) unavoidable now. Affiliate marketing is the “job” of the future that’s here TODAY.
===> Intangible 3 <===
Be willing to MAKE THE LEAP.
Ready, FIRE, then aim. This is the operating philosophy you MUST adopt to succeed with an Internet home business.
That’s backward for most people who like to aim before they fire. The fact is that the Internet is a moving target and the only thing constant about it is change.
The cost is small compared to brick and mortar
It’s time to stop analyzing the game and simply jump into it. You can’t learn from the outside. You have to be IN THE RING to truly understand it.
The lesson here is that you will never really be READY to start a home-based business. You simply have to start one. This is what I call “Making the Leap.”
The good news is that the cost of failure on the Internet is very small. In the “brick and mortar” world you need to evaluate things very carefully before you decide to open up a business.
It’s almost always necessary to invest thousands of dollars to get an offline business off the ground. However, on the Internet, you can often start a successful business for less than $100. In fact, Plug-In Profit Site is a really good example of this.
Now get In The Game
You simply need to get IN THE GAME. Each moment that you stay “out there,” you’re wasting valuable time that you could be learning the skills necessary to become a successful affiliate marketer.
In fact, if you’re not in the game yet, you’re ALREADY behind the times. Come on… You can do it! Make the leap to becoming a successful home-based business owner today!
About the author:Stone Evans was a washed-up restaurant worker desperately searching for a way to save his family when he discovered the internet and affiliate marketing.
24 months later he finally cracked the code and started earning over $10,000 per month. Now the same system that saved him is available to you here >>
