Steve Wagenheim’s Home Business Blog

We have reached the technical age where Photoshop can literally perform magic. Therefore, income screen prints are virtually worthless as they can be so easily faked. In the make money online niche, nobody believes them anymore. However, since income proof is so important in this niche, what is a copywriter to do? Is there another way to show income…a better way? Actually, there is. In this article, I’m going to show you just what that better way is.

While technology has really put the screws to us as far as screen prints go, it has saved our lives in another area…video. Yes, video is one of those things that is very hard to fake. I’m a techno wiz with that stuff and I can’t for the life of me make a video that isn’t what it really is. Yes, I know, there are some special effects masters out there who can do just about anything. However, for your typical Internet marketer, these things are well beyond his capability. Besides, as consumers, we are more trusting of video.

So just how do we incorporate this video into our sales copy? Well, a neat little product called Camtasia takes care of this just fine. In a nutshell, what Camtasia does is that it allows you to actually video screen movements. For example, you can start it up and have it record yourself logging into your Clickbank account or even your PayPal account. You can show people in REAL time the money you’ve made from your online business. This is pretty indisputable proof. Of course you better have something to show when you get there.

Inserting the video into your sales copy is a piece of cake. Camtasia has multiple wizards when compiling a video. Just choose the one you want and the code will be created for you. You then just take it and paste it into your sales copy in the appropriate place. After that, all you need to do is upload the needed files to your server and you’re done. The whole process can be done in under 15 minutes even if you’re a novice at this.

Social proof is one of the biggest motivators for getting your prospect to buy. If you are selling a make money online product and you can actually show them that you are indeed making money, that goes a long way. In many cases, this proof is enough to push a prospect over the edge and convert him into a buyer.

Screen prints are old hat and unreliable. Video is the wave of the future.

Use it!

Want to discover everything you’ll need to write killer copy? Check out the resource in my signature.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim
Want to write copy just like the pros? Visit my site at http://www.bcipe.com/ and discover killer copywriting tips that have allowed me to write my own copy for years and earn myself a 6 figure a year income selling my own products.

If this sounds like an odd title for an article on Internet marketing, it is. But it’s also more true than you can possibly imagine. So many marketers do just that, fly their kite with no wind in site. They’d have a better chance of getting that thing off the ground if they were under water. But they just don’t get it. Okay, you have no idea what I’m talking about. Well, hang in there because this may be the most informative article you’ve read in a long time.

Okay, what do I mean by flying a kite with no wind? Well, we all understand that phrase literally. If you have a kite and try to fly it on a day where there is just no wind at all, it’s not going to get very high up in the air, if at all. You’d have a much better shot at getting that kite to fly if it was a nice breezy day. Well, it’s the same thing with Internet marketing. When you’re out there promoting whatever product it is that you’re promoting, it would certainly be a good idea to make sure that before you put it out there that there’s some wind to catch hold of it. The wind I am talking about is called a market. You know, that little piece of demand that determines whether or not your kite’s going to fly or not.

A friend of mine called me and told me he had this really great idea that was going to make him a fortune. He described his product to me and I had to admit, it sounded great. Well, he had it created and then went out on the Internet to sell it. He didn’t sell one copy. Why? Because there was no wind out there. Nobody cared about this great product of his. There was no demand. When there is no demand, it doesn’t matter how great your product is. You can give it away and nobody will take it.

Before you make your kite and before you take it out into the backyard, make sure you do some research first. Go to forums related to the niche you’re targeting and ask people what they think of your idea and if they would pay money for it. Get some feedback. Put a poll out on your web site. Maybe have a form that visitors can fill out with their feedback. Get as much of it as you can. Also, see if there is something like your product out there already. If there is, there’s a good chance that your product will sell. If not, it’s quite possible that there is simply no demand for what you have, or no wind.

Just because you think you have a great idea doesn’t mean everybody else will.

In other words, don’t fly a kite in a clear, calm day.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

Tired of busting your behind for peanuts online? Go to my web site and find out how I earn a monthly income that exceeds 5 figures and how I can help YOU do the same. Get your free report at http://www.mysecretarticles.com/report.html

As an Internet marketer, what’s your biggest problem? Never give it a second thought? Maybe you should. See, many marketers don’t really understand what their problem is, especially if they’re not having any success, and therefore, they don’t know where to start as far as trying to get things sorted out. This can lead to tons of frustration and wasted time. So, this article is meant to get you thinking about what your problems could be and how to get them corrected.

Most marketers will simply look at their bottom line and say, “I’m not making any sales” and wonder why. Well, let’s assume that’s your problem. Truth is, that’s not the cause of the problem. The cause is something entirely different, though related. For example, are you not making any sales because your sales page is garbage? Or, is the sales page fine but you’re just not getting any traffic to your page? Or, are you getting traffic but it’s not targeted traffic? In other words, the people you’re sending to your sales page aren’t really potential buyers because they have no interest in what you’re selling?

When you’re able to sit down and figure out the “cause” of your problem, then and only then have you actually figured out the real problem. You can then go about trying to correct it. This may be the hardest part of the whole process…trying to identify exactly what the problem is. Most people will just look at the symptom and not realize that there is an underlying problem causing that symptom. Yes, no sales is a problem. But there is a reason you’re not getting any sales and it is THAT reason you need to figure out. No, it’s not always easy. The example I gave above is actually quite simple. Trust me, there are problems that are much more complex.

So how do you go about actually getting to the heart of the problem? What you need to do, in the case of no sales, is sit down and make a list of all the things that are required in order for you to make a sale. After you have done this, you can then check each part of the equation to see where you’re falling short. Yes, it takes time and effort to do this, but it will be more than worth the effort in the long run.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

Want to get your business off on the right foot? Tired of spinning your wheels? Go to http://www.nichetoolkit.com/ and sign up for early bird admission into the complete solution for your training, product and promotion needs.

So, you’re thinking about going into affiliate marketing and you’re wondering if you should sell a whole bunch of products or just one. Well, there is no right or wrong answer to this question. So, what I am going to do in this article is give you the pros and cons of each method. No, if you’re looking for perfection, it doesn’t exist. You’re going to have different problems with each method. Hopefully, after reading this, you’ll be able to decide what the best course of action is for YOU.

Let’s start with selling just one product, which is usually how most people start out. The great thing about this is that it allows you to focus all your time and attention ON that one product. Every ad you write, every page you put up, it’s all about that ONE product. You’re not dividing your efforts up between a whole bunch of products, which can take a lot of your time. On the other hand, by promoting one product, you’re risking that the product itself could either become saturated with affiliates, making it very hard to sell, or be taken off the market altogether. Putting your eggs in one basket is usually a dangerous thing.

With multiple products, you don’t have that problem. If one of them goes sour, no problem. You have many others to take its place. Plus, with multiple products, you get multiple incomes and the chance to make some really big money. But then again there is that problem of time. If you’re going to promote, say 10 products, that means you have to write ads for 10 different products and maintain review sites for 10 different products and finally, drive traffic for 10 different products. This can become a real nightmare, especially if you’re limited on funds.

So as you can see, there is no perfect solution here. Either way, you’re going to run into a different set of problems. Personally, I don’t want to put all my eggs in one basket so I promote many products. I don’t mind putting in the extra time if it’s going to give me a better chance at earning a decent income. Ultimately, you have to do what you feel is best for YOU.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

Tired of being an affiliate failure? Want to turn yourself into an affiliate assassin like I am? Want to land in the top 20 of every affiliate promotion you tackle just like I do? Check out my site at http://www.stevewagenheim.com/affiliateassassin/index.html and start earning a solid income as an affiliate marketer.

If you’re thinking about getting into video marketing, you’re probably wondering. Should you make these videos yourself or should you hire a professional to do them for you? There is no right or wrong answer here. However, there are times when maybe hiring somebody would be the better option. This article is going to explore this issue and hopefully give you some guidelines to follow.

Naturally, there is a big advantage to doing a video yourself…cost. Some of these professional video creation companies can get pretty pricey. If you’re just starting out, that kind of budget could be out of your means. The advantages of creating the video yourself is that you can minimize the cost and at the same time, have complete creative control over the process itself. A company is only going to redo the work so many times. Essentially, you give them the specs of what you want and hope for the best. And once they do get it just right, your bank account is going to take a major hit.

Okay, fine, so there are advantages to doing it yourself. On the other hand, if you’re not that adept at creating videos, and you’ve got a lot riding on the one you plan to use as a marketing tool, you might want to seriously consider having a professional do it. And that brings us to the next question. When do you decide to go with a pro as opposed to tackling the job yourself?

The best way to answer that is by taking a look at the niche you’re targeting. Look at the other videos in that niche. Are they professionally done or do most of them have that “home grown” quality to them? If the latter, you might be able to get away with making your own video. However, if you’re in a market where just about every video is a major production, you probably won’t have much luck with a home video unless you tap into an idea that is so unique that the low tech look and feel actually compliments it.

Ultimately, the choice is yours as long as you understand that the product that you put out there has to be able to compete with similar products in the marketplace on some level, whether it be in the look and feel of the video or the uniqueness of the video.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

Want to find out how to create killer videos like my friend Kevin Riley and rake in a 6 figure income like he and I do? Check out my review of his dynamite product at my blog at http://stevenwagenheim.blogspot.com/2008/06/kevin-rileys-recipe-for-success.html

There are tons of tips flying around on how to write articles. But the one thing that I rarely find touched on is the tone of the article itself. Do you think about the tone of your article when you write one? If not, you should. How you word things will greatly affect the response that you get from your reader. So, no offense to the X’s and O’s guys out there, this one thing could make or break the article you’ve written…no matter how well constructed it is.

Probably the best way to explain why tone is so important is with examples. Let’s say you’re writing an article that is a review of a brand new comedy. The purpose of the article could be anything from trying to get the reader to buy movie tickets from you personally to picking up another title with the lead actor. It doesn’t matter. What DOES matter is how you write the article itself.

The movie is a comedy. So, is the article going to have a serious tone? No, of course not. You might even want to throw in a few jokes yourself or even take a few digs at the movie if you thought it was a piece of garbage. You want the article to be as entertaining as the movie itself…more so if the movie was a dog. The reader is reading about entertainment so he or she wants to be entertained. That’s YOUR job as the writer of the article. Don’t blow it.

But…what if the article you’re writing is about war crimes? This is nothing to laugh at. In fact this is a very serious subject and has to be treated with compassion and empathy. An article like this will probably be very solemn, depending on the slant that you take. You might want to write the article from a sense of outrage. That’s fine too. An emotional article on war crimes will definitely get the reader’s attention. Point is, this is a completely different article than the one you wrote about the comedy and therefore must have a completely different tone or not only won’t the article work…it might offend people in the process.

Finding the write tone for your article is an art and something that you’ll learn over time. There are no books that teach you how to phrase something depending on what it is you’re writing about. This usually comes down to just plain old common sense…something many people lack.

So before you start writing…think. Is the tone you’re using appropriate for the article you’re writing?

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

Want to write articles that get people’s attention and can earn you up to $200 per article written? Then check out my Complete Article Writing And Marketing Guide that you can find at http://www.honestincomeprogram.com/tcawamg.html – This is my own book that I wrote from over 30 years of writing experience.

There is no arguing that the money is in the list. My own personal list has taught me that much. And, like the old saying, “There is more than one way to skin a cat,” there is more than one way to build your list as well. One great way to build your opt in list is by participating in giveaways. If you’re not sure what these are, this article will explain as well as fill you in on why they are so effective.

A giveaway is usually conducted by one Internet marketer who serves as the host of the giveaway. He’ll contact some fellow marketers and ask them if they want to participate by donating one of their products for people to grab hold of when the giveaway goes live. That’s all there is to it. So, the question is, how does one build a list with a giveaway and how does this translate into making money down the road? This is where a little thought comes in handy.

The first step is to setup an opt in with whatever autoresponder service that you’re using. You’ll probably want to create a brand new list for this unless you have an existing one that directly matches the giveaway. I like to start a brand new list as that will show me how many people I got from the giveaway itself.

The next step is to come up with a product to give to each opt in. Now, the key to doing this is to come up with something where you can then followup with your list and offer them something related that they might be interested in purchasing. For example, let’s say you had software that did SEO automatically. You might want to create a free report to explain the importance of SEO and give that away. In the report itself, you could make your pitch for the software. That would be an example of a perfect giveaway.

To make the most of these, you want to hook up with people who have huge lists. This will give you the most chance of building a substantial list of your own. My last giveaway, I got over 500 subscribers in just one day.

There is no question that giveaways are fantastic for building your opt in list and earning a nice income at the same time. The key is having something of value to give and then something of even more value to sell.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

Want to get your business off on the right foot? Tired of spinning your wheels? Go to http://www.nichetoolkit.com/ and sign up for early bird admission into the complete solution for your training, product and promotion needs.

Are your goals based on reality? Odd question? Not really. You can’t believe how many Internet marketers I talk to who tell me stuff like, “I’m going to make 7 figures a year after just my first year online.” I then ask, “Is that your goal?” Their answer is yes. Well, it’s a great goal to have. Nothing wrong with having them. As a matter of fact, without them, you’re just fumbling in the dark. But are your goals based on reality? And if not, does it matter? Everybody is going to have their own opinion on this subject. I’m going to offer mine.

I have a lot of respect for somebody who has big goals. When I first started online, I had a very small goal to start with…just make some money. I was out of work and hoping just to be able to show myself that it was possible to make a living online. Once I saw that it was, I then shot for bigger goals. I graduated from one level to the next and I did it very slowly. I am still doing that as I am writing this.

The reason I believe this is a “better” way to go about it is simple. If you were to decide, right from the start, that you wanted to make a million dollars a year, and your first year you only made about $20,000, wouldn’t you be at least a little disappointed? I know I would. But if you kept your goals modest, that $20,000 might look like a fortune to you.

But there is another side to this and it’s what I call the “reality” side. It’s one thing to say you’re going to make so much money marketing, but what’s your plan for pulling it off? Have you mapped out the specs? Is your million dollar plan actually based in reality? Is it doable? Or are you just wishing? See, things just don’t happen. YOU have to make them happen. Anybody can say, “I want to make a million dollars this year.” But without a clear cut plan to back it up, it’s not going to happen.

There is nothing wrong with thinking “big” and certainly I am not trying to discourage anybody from doing that. Just understand that behind every big goal is a workable plan.

Don’t leave home without yours.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

Want to get your business off on the right foot? Tired of spinning your wheels? Go to http://www.nichetoolkit.com/ and sign up for early bird admission into the complete solution for your training, product and promotion needs.

Forums can be a fascinating and exciting experience for a new marketer. The opportunity to network with other marketers, exchange ideas and maybe even form friendships, is one of the most wonderful things about Internet marketing. However, forums are not without their downside. Whenever you’re in an open community, you’re going to run into all types of folks. Some will be friendlier than others. Some will look for a fight at the first chance. The key to surviving these forums is knowing when to pick your battles. This article is going to explain why this is important as well as how to do it.

Let’s begin with the why. As a member of a forum, you are a guest at the person’s home, so to speak. As a guest, you will be expected to govern yourself accordingly. Now, having said that, some people just don’t care and will jump on just about every word that comes out of your mouth. If you retaliate in kind, what will happen, in many cases, is that you’ll both end up getting booted out of the forum…and with it, your chance to network with the other members. So for that reason, you want to mind your p’s and q’s. That isn’t to say you have to lay down and be a doormat for others.

That brings us to the “how” of picking your battles. This will usually come with experience. For the most part, there is only one thing that anybody can say to you at a forum that can be harmful to your reputation and that’s if a member actually says something about your character as a person, such as calling you a scammer or a crook. Then you need to defend yourself. The key is how to do this. The best way is simply to ask the person to show evidence to support their claim. Unless the claim is true, they can’t do it.

The important thing is not to get into a war of words. Be the bigger person. Bringing yourself down to the level of the attacker just makes you as bad as that person. By conducting yourself with dignity and professionalism, you’ll find that you can usually out think these bullies…most of whom don’t have the sense to come out of the rain. They act the way they do in order to make themselves look important.

It rarely works. Remember that before you decide to go off on one of these trolls.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

Want to get your business off on the right foot? Tired of spinning your wheels? Go to http://www.nichetoolkit.com/ and sign up for early bird admission into the complete solution for your training, product and promotion needs.

Did you ever see that WKRP episode where they got the bomb threat and they evacuated the station, sent Johnny and Venus to the transmitter, only to find out that the bomb was actually planted at the transmitter? It was a classic WKRP episode and quite funny. But trust me, there is nothing funny about putting a bomb in YOUR transmitter. Don’t know what I’m talking about? Well, this is going to get a little deep, so try to stay with me now.

Home business owners are always looking for problems. They’re almost convinced that somewhere around the corner there is disaster waiting to strike. Now don’t get me wrong, sometimes there are problems that we have to deal with. I deal with them almost everyday, whether it’s a down website or a customer complaint because they didn’t get their product. But one thing I don’t do is look for more trouble. If I get one person saying that they couldn’t download a product, I don’t automatically assume everybody is having that problem.

If I were to do that, I’d probably start looking into my delivery system. I’d poke around and try to fix something that wasn’t broken. Ultimately, I could end up causing more harm by actually breaking my delivery system. This is similar to putting the bomb in your transmitter when one didn’t exist in your home field of operations. Admit it, how many times have you poked your nose into something that you ultimately wished you had left alone? I have had my share of these and have learned from them.

Your home business SHOULD be built on a solid foundation. Notice I used the word SHOULD. If it isn’t, you’ve got more problems than just a potential bomb in your transmitter. A firecracker could probably bring your business to its knees. An example of this is people who relied on made for AdSense sites years ago only to find them all worthless when Google dropped their own bomb on them. But a solid foundation can survive almost anything…unless you self destruct yourself.

So please…think before you react to anything that is negative in your business. Sometimes it’s just a slight glitch and an isolated incident.

To YOUR Success,
Steven Wagenheim

Looking for a solid 4 step plan to building your own business…FREE? Pick up my free report at http://www.stevewagenheim.com/4steps.html and get started TODAY!