Steve Wagenheim’s Home Business Blog

I bet you never heard that term before. Well, you’re going to be hearing a lot about it very soon. Coordinated Promotional Advertising Model, or CPAM for short, is my brainchild. I’ve worked on this system for over five years and it’s been responsible for the success that I have had. Last year I earned over six figures because of it with no signs of slowing down. So just what is CPAM? Well, I’m not going to spill all the beans in this article because they you wouldn’t have a reason to get my new book that’s coming out someday. No, I don’t know when, but someday. But I will give you a little idea of how CPAM came about.

Take a look at all the books on advertising that you get. They all have something in common. It doesn’t matter if it’s a book on pay per click or social bookmarking or whatever. Know what that common thing is? I’ll tell you. They all preach the gospel of that form of promotion as if it lived in a bubble. In other words, was unaffected by anything else. Just concentrate on that one form of promotion and it doesn’t matter what else goes on around it or what you do. Well, my five years of experience has taught me that this is totally false.

What I have discovered is that everything you do online affects everything else you do. It can be the smallest little thing, like writing one little article. It makes a difference…and in some cases a big difference depending on how much work you put into your promotions. See, the thing that most people don’t realize is that any one form of promotion only reaches so many people. Think about it. Even Google, which is the biggest search engine, only reaches about 50% of the Internet population. That means if you relied solely on Google for your promotions, you’d be leaving out 50% of your potential audience.

What CPAM does is it takes all the different forms of promotion, reaching various segments of the Internet population, and combines them in various effective ways so that your promotional efforts are maximized. It took a very long time to come up with the various models. I have so far developed six of them that work very well and I am always working on others. The reason there are so few is because this requires a lot of testing to see what works and what doesn’t work.

You’ll be hearing more about CPAM in the near future. For now, don’t put all your eggs in one basket. If you’re just using Google to promote, you’re leaving money on the table…lots of it.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

Want to learn more about CPAM and get the dirt on all the lies that they’ve been filling you about making money online? Get my FREE report at http://www.stevewagenheim.com/btl_squeeze.html and start your way to earning a six figure income like I do.

Copywriting is such a fascinating art and science. Yes, it is both. Here’s a truth that’s going to be a hard pill to swallow. You can certainly learn the ABCs of copywriting if you have any degree of intelligence, but those who are truly gifted as writers are going to be the ones who rise to the top and command sales copy fees of $15,000 or more. Having said that, you still need the ABCs. So this article, one in a long series I hope to write, will continue to share the ABCs with you. In this particular installment, I’m going to discuss clarity, focus and flow. Hope you got your notepads out.

Clarity is something that I see all to often missing in sales copy. I’ll be reading the copy and I quite honestly don’t know what the point is. I don’t know where the writer it going. He seems to drift from one line to the next with very little tying it all together. I’m not even sure sometimes what he’s trying to sell to me or what problem is it he’s trying to solve of mine. Even the headline is fuzzy. When you write your sales copy, you MUST be crystal clear as to your intentions, especially with your headlines. “If I could show you how to save $15,000 on copywriting costs…would that be worth 5 minutes of your time?” Now THAT is a very clear headline. I know exactly what this product is going to do for me.

Focus is something that is more related to your target. Much sales copy that I read doesn’t focus on the prospect’s needs. It discusses things that are irrelevant to the topic. It rambles. It goes off in tangents that are so out there that sometimes I wonder if the copy is ever going to get back to where it needs to be. You have got to keep focused on your prospect and the ultimate goal of the copy itself. Every line in that copy, in some way, must have something to do with the product you’re selling and the problem you’re trying to solve.

Flow is something that is difficult to really explain but I shall do my best. Flow is one of those things that you just feel. You can tell when sales copy doesn’t flow. How? The thought following the previous one just doesn’t seem to fit. You feel uneasy reading it. You feel like something is missing. It’s like watching a TV show where in one part the cop is chasing after the crook and then suddenly you see the crook behind bars. Where was the capture? Where was everything in between? Why was so much left out? In sales copy, you can’t leave anything out. Each point that has to be made SHOULD be made…and made in the proper sequence.

Clarity, focus and flow are so critical to writing sales copy that converts.

If you want more great tips on writing sales copy, please check out the resource in my signature. You’ll not only save yourself $2,500 to $15,000 in copywriting costs but you’ll also turn yourself into a darn good copywriter in the process.

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.

In all my life, I have never seen a payment processor get such a bad rap as PayPal. At least not unless that bad rap was deserved. In this case, this couldn’t be farther from the truth. Is PayPal perfect? No, but what is? They’ve got their problems just like any other company, but as a member of PayPal for over 5 years, I can honestly say that in all that time I have only had to get on the phone with PayPal ONCE.

So let’s set the record straight on this company once and for all and forget about all the horror stories that you’ve heard, because in most cases, they are either exaggerated or the person telling the horror story left out a very valuable piece of information.

The main gripe that people seem to have with PayPal is that they’ll shut down your account at the spur of the moment for absolutely NO reason at all. This couldn’t be farther from the truth. PayPal, as a payment processor, has to protect itself and its customers. This includes all vendors and customers. Vendors need to be protected from people who try to unlawfully access their products and customers have to be protected from vendors who sell fraudulent products. It’s a two way street that PayPal is in the middle of. Because of this, they have very strict regulations, not the least of which concerns security. Have you seen all the phishing emails that have gone around trying to get you to give somebody your PayPal information? PayPal has to combat this garbage everyday, as if they don’t have enough to do.

Yes, PayPal can and WILL shut down your account if you violate any of their Terms Of Service, which are clearly spelled out on their website. All you have to do is read them. They are very clear and to the point.

For example, when PayPal says that you can only have one Personal Account and one Premier or Business Account to go along with that Personal Account, they mean it. So yes, if some idiot tries to open up a half dozen PayPal accounts and they get caught doing it, they will get their funds frozen and their account closed. Ignorance of the rules isn’t an excuse. Like I said, they are clearly visible.

I could go on, but I think you get the message. Like I said, I have been a member for over 5 years and have never been worried about having my account closed down. I also don’t worry about those phishing emails because all you have to do, when you get one and you’re not sure if it’s from PayPal or not, is simply forward the email to spoof@paypal.com and they’ll tell you whether or not the email came from them. It’s that simple.

PayPal is without a doubt the best payment processor on the Internet, hands down. You’d be hard pressed to find one that’s even close. I know. I’ve tried a few with less than satisfactory results.

Plus, more people are likely to pay for your goods and services if they are able to do it from their PayPal account. My own sales have picked up greatly since I shifted many of my products to PayPal merchant services.

The bottom line is this. Whatever you’ve heard about PayPal, take it with a grain of salt. No, they’re not perfect, but the alternatives are pretty bad. As long as you keep your nose clean and follow their rules, you should have no trouble keeping your account open for many years.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim
Get my Complete Guide To Paypal and discover everything you’ll need to know about setting up your account and keeping it from getting shut down on you.

There are many ways to make money with your own home business. The many choices is sometimes what makes it difficult for people to decide. In this article, I’m going to discuss one of those choices…freelancing. Hopefully, by the time you’re done reading this, you’ll have a decent idea of whether or not freelancing is the right home business choice for you.

Okay, let’s start with what freelancing is. Freelancing is the act of offering your services for a fee. The service itself can be anything from writing to programming to graphic design. Any skill can be freelanced. And with the many people online looking for these skilled professionals, freelancing opportunities are bountiful. No, you’ll never have to worry about the demand not being there. As long as you have a skill, there will be a demand for it.

However, freelancing isn’t all that rosy. For one thing, the skills that are most in demand have quite a bit of competition. And a good part of that competition is very skilled. In other words, if you’re going to compete, you better know what you’re doing. Otherwise, you’re going to find yourself working for peanuts…if at all. One botched assignment can pretty much ruin a reputation. So you need to know your stuff…plain and simple.

But there’s more. See, unlike when you work a 9 to 5 job, there are no regular hours with freelancing and no regular work. You’ll need to drag yourself out of bed each day and get yourself to that computer. Nobody is going to do that for you. There is no boss watching over you to make sure you get the job done.

Okay, now that I’ve given you the not so nice part of freelancing, let me clue you in on the benefits. For one thing, it’s nice to do one writing job for a sales page and get paid a few thousand dollars for what comes out to maybe a week of work. Yeah, the money can be real good for freelancers. There are freelancers out there who are making well over 6 figures a year and they don’t have to work everyday for it either.

Like anything else in this world, freelancing has its good and it’s not so good. However, if you’re looking for a relatively easy way to make a living online (no sales involved) this is one of the best.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

Not sure if freelancing is right for you? Get my free report at http://www.stevewagenheim.com/freelancing/squeeze.html and get the total rundown on the freelancing world and find out how YOU can earn 6 figures a year as a freelancer.

As with anything in this world, with affiliate marketing, there is more than one way to skin a cat, or to make an affiliate sale. One method is to use what is called an authority site. The question is, does this method work? Are there better methods? In this article, I’m going to cover the pros and cons of using authority sites to promote affiliate products. You can then make your decision as to whether or not this is a tactic that you want to use.

First, let me explain what an authority site is. An authority site is one where the are many products being promoted, usually with a lengthy review for each one. The site has a number of pages and quite a bit of content. In short, you’re promoting more than just one product.

Okay, what are the pros to using this approach? Well, for one thing, by selling many products, you have many more chances to make a sale. If one product isn’t what the prospect is looking for, another product may fit the bill nicely. This way, you’re not putting all your eggs into one basket.

But probably the biggest advantage of an authority site is that because of the amount of content that these sites have, they usually end up at the top of the search engine results, especially in niches where there isn’t an exorbitant amount of competition. This provides you with a steady stream of traffic for a long time to come.

However, all is not a box of chocolates with authority sites. For one thing, they are a lot of work to setup. The amount of content needed is considerable. Reviewing products takes time.

In addition to that, when you’re promoting a lot of products, your efforts are not as focused as when you’re promoting one product. A prospect may get distracted or just not take the time to find what he’s looking for, which is something he doesn’t have to do if he’s going to a single sales page. Most copywriters will tell you that this is the most effective way to make a sale…one single product pitch at a time.

So as you can see, the authority site isn’t the perfect solution and may not be the right one for you, depending upon how much work you put into it. However, these sites can bring in a great deal of money long term, something most sales pages don’t, if the site is put together properly.

And that is certainly worth the effort in my book.

On a scale of 1 to 5, I give authority sites a solid 4.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

CLICK HERE to discover how to put together an authority site that will ultimately bring you in a steady income for years and years to come with very little upkeep

This is a question that pops up a lot, even among established copywriters. When you write your sales copy, should you do it totally by hand, from scratch, thus designing your own sales page in the process, or is it okay to use a sales page creator provided that the templates that come with it are professional quality and you don’t rely on the template for selling but use your copywriting chops to get the message across? Okay, pretty long winded question, and if you notice, I actually answered it for you. Okay, so let’s go over the answer in detail (in case you missed it) so that you understand it.

Okay, first part of the answer is that the template has to be of a professional quality. I have seen some horrible templates out there. Ugly doesn’t even begin to describe them. Anybody who uses some of these for their sales letters should be drawn and quartered. However, there are some excellent sales page creators out there with templates that are, quite honestly, top notch. Marlon Sanders comes to mind as probably the top of the line. You won’t find any better. So that’s the first criteria. The template you use MUST be of the highest quality.

The next part of the equation is the content itself. These templates will arrange things for you, such as where the headline goes, subheads, bullet points and so on. All you need to do is provide the content that goes into the template. And therein lies the rub. See, many beginning copywriters think that a fancy looking template can take the place of solid sales copy. It can’t. You still have to use your brain and write something that is going to ultimately get people to purchase whatever it is you’re selling. So please don’t get the impression that you can rely on these sales pages creators to do the work for you…they can’t.

Now, which is better? Honestly, if you’re not a terrific web designer and don’t have access to really great looking templates, it’s probably better to get one of these sales page creators. Your sales pages will look a lot more professional and provided that you are a competent writer, you probably will make a lot more sales in the process. However, if you can design your own web pages and you’re good at it, then that is the better option simply because you can create something unique, which is always going to be better than a template.

If you’d like more great copywriting tips, check out the link in my signature. And no, it’s not a template.

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.

How much money do you want to make online? A little…a lot? Well, if the answer is yes, which I assume it is, then you’re going to have to get out the big guns when it comes to your marketing campaigns. There is no way around this. Big money requires big action. Well, this article is going to give you some basic things you can do to get out the big guns and take your marketing to the next level…if you’re ready to go there. You are? Okay, then here is what you’re going to need to do.

Okay, the main thing you’re going to need to do is crank out a solid pay per click campaign, like it or not. There is only so much traffic you’re going to get and targeted traffic is very hard to get in bulk. Pay per click services will deliver the most traffic at the most affordable prices and do it quickly. These are people who are most interested in what you have to offer.

The next thing you’re going to have to do is hit all the major ezines in your niche. Most popular niches are going to have tons of these ezines. Many of these ezines will have subscriber bases of 50,000 members or more. These are the ones you have to target. One solo ad to an ezine with 50,000 members, even at just a 1% conversion, could lead to 500 sales for one mailing. So don’t ignore the large ezines. Yes, the ads are going to cost a pretty penny, but they are more than worth it if you hit on a solid ezine.

Next, put out a press release on your company. Let the people know what’s going on with you if you have a new release or something new is going on. If you can’t write an effective press release, get somebody who is an expert at press releases and have them write it for you. A press release can bring you an enormous amount of traffic it it’s well written.

Finally, contact everybody you know. If you have favors coming to you, call them in. And the best way to have this advantage is to actually go out of your way to do something for another person. You can’t imagine the good will that you will establish by simply going out and doing things for others. When you do this, the chance of them reciprocating is much greater.

Just these few simple things can send your results into a whole other orbit.

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

Have you ever taken the time to really surf the Internet to see what kinds of sites are out there? You’d be amazed at the disparity between the many sites. Some are about as bare bones as can be and others are so massive that you can just about get lost in them. This article is going to discuss authority sites, what they are, and why you might want to consider putting one together instead of…well, instead of whatever else it is you were thinking of doing. I think you will find this interesting reading as well as extremely helpful.

Okay, let’s begin with what an authority site is. The best way to really explain it is go give you an example of one. Take WebMD. If you want some medical information, you’d be hard pressed to go there and not find what you’re looking for, whether it’s cancer, arthritis or Alzheimer’s. You will most likely find it at WebMD. The place is massive. That is a perfect example of an authority site. Now, before you go into a panic and start to hyperventilate, your authority site doesn’t have to be that full blown. That’s an extreme example. There are plenty of authority sites that are no more than 10 to 20 pages or so and they’re at the top of the search engines.

So, why would you want to create one of these monsters instead of just putting up one of your little one or two page blogs or sales pages? The answer is simple. Most knock off sites, which is what I call these one or two page wonders, don’t have any real staying power. They may pull in a few bucks for a month or so, maybe even for a full year, but eventually…they crumble into the dust. It is rare that these sites have any staying power at all.

With an authority site, you are building a web presence that is the “go to” place on the Internet. If somebody wants to find out something about YOUR topic, that’s the place they are going to head for. It’s like when people want to buy a book or DVD online, one of the first places they think of is Amazon. That’s another example of a great authority site. Again, you don’t have to go for anything that big.

In the long run, your site is going to be there for years and years to come. It will bring you in a steady income without even having to do much to keep the site up, as long as you put the work into it initially. That of course is where most people run into problems.

How the heck do you put together an authority site? What’s required? Do I need a certain kind of web template?

In my signature is a review of a resource that will show you everything that you will need to know in order to put together a viable and profitable authority site, from the content all the way to the design template. I think you’ll want to read it.

If you want to make REAL money online, authority sites are the way to go.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

CLICK HERE to discover how to put together an authority site that will ultimately bring you in a steady income for years and years to come with very little upkeep.

This article is the fifth in our A-Z series. We’re up to the letter E. As you probably could have guessed, E is for email marketing. In spite of what many people think, email marketing is still one of the best ways to generate an income online. Why do some think otherwise? We’re going to answer that question as well as explain why email marketing is still so effective.

Okay, let’s address the negative views of email marketing first. Many people think it’s not worth doing because of delivery problems. Why are there delivery problems? Well, you can thank the spammers for that. Because of all the complaints of spam emails, ISPs have had to put very aggressive spam filters on their email accounts. Unfortunately, what this does is it makes it so that legitimate emails also have a very difficult time getting through. These filters are not perfect and never will be.

Another problem with email marketing is that because of all the spam and the volume of email that the average person gets, it’s harder to get their attention than it used to be. In many cases, your email just gets lost in the soup with the other 300 emails that John Doe got that day. There is a very good chance that he will either not see it or even if he does, because he’s so overwhelmed with junk, he won’t read it and just end up sending it to the trash bin.

Yes, email marketing is not as easy as it was. Nobody is saying that it is. However, having said that, it is still very profitable. If you use a email delivery service such as Aweber or GetResponse that has a good delivery rate, write emails with effective subject lines, provide value for people and obey the laws, you can have a lot of success with email marketing.

How much success?

This past December, I generated over $16,000 in income from my 12 Days of Christmas email campaign. Think I’m not glad that I use email marketing as part of my marketing arsenal? So please do yourself a favor. Don’t listen to all the gloom and doom when it comes to email marketing. It is still a viable way to generate revenue on the Internet.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wageneheim

Tired of not getting your emails delivered, read or opened? Sick of not making any sales from your email marketing efforts? Visit my site at http://www.stevewagenheim.com/emailmarketing/index.html and get your hands on 5 years of my personal experience with email marketing…experience that has earned me tens of thousands of dollars yearly.

The other day I got a chuckle. Somebody opted out of one of my lists because he said my emails were too long. I wonder what he would have done with a friend of mine who essentially writes novels for his list. Long is definitely in the eyes of the beholder. However, it is possible to write emails that are simply too long or don’t stay on topic. How long is too long? Well, I’m going to explore that question in this article, which I hope in itself isn’t too long.

There is an old saying in the field of copywriting that a sales letter should be like a lady’s skirt…short enough to get attention but long enough to cover the important details. Yeah, it’s a fine balance and something that takes time to master. But it still doesn’t answer the question…how long is too long? Well, the truth is, there is no answer to this question simply because it depends on what it is you’re trying to say. That is what the real focus should be on…saying it, making it clear, and then getting out before you bore somebody to tears.

So let’s say, for example, you want to tell somebody about this great new site you just found that you know they’re just going to love but you don’t want to tell them too much about it because you don’t want to ruin the surprise. In that case, an email such as the following is all you need.

“Hey *subscriber name*:

Look, I just found this really cool site that I know you’re going to love. I don’t want to ruin the surprise that you’re going to get when you see it so here’s the URL:

*URL*

Just go there. I promise you’ll thank me for it.

Sincerely,

Your Name

Now, if the site really is targeted to the topic of your list, then there is a very good chance that the subscriber WILL thank you for sending it and in this case, the above message, as short as it is, is all you need. Anything longer would be overkill in this situation. You want to get in, get the message across and get out.

But, what if you’re sending an email about a new product that you want the person to check out and you’ve personally used it? You’ll probably want to send a review of the product. In that case, the email is going to be much longer. And, if the product is something that your list would really be interested in, the longer the review (as long as everything you say adds to the description of the product itself) the better for the person reading it. In this case, you’d be hard pressed to write an email that was too long.

So you see, length depends on what has to be said. Say it and get out.

If you follow that principle, without babbling on, in most cases anyway, you’ll be sending emails that your subscribers will enjoy reading.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

Tired of not getting your emails delivered, read or opened? Sick of not making any sales from your email marketing efforts? Visit my site at http://www.stevewagenheim.com/emailmarketing/index.html and get your hands on 5 years of my personal experience with email marketing…experience that has earned me tens of thousands of dollars yearly.