Steve Wagenheim’s Home Business Blog

That’s it…I am fed up. I am convinced beyond the shadow of a doubt that laziness must be the first prerequisite for marketing online, because nobody, and I do mean NOBODY wants to take any initiative with anything. All day long I get questions like, “Does article marketing work?” or “Does social bookmarking work?” and on and on and on it goes. Nobody wants to get their hands dirty and do a little testing. Well folks, for you lazy no good for nothings out there, this article is for YOU. The rest of you can just read this for the entertainment value.

Let me start off by saying why NOBODY can tell you if a certain thing is going to work for you. Hopefully, this will get through that thick skull. Let’s take article marketing. Why can’t I say that it will work for you even though it accounts for a good part of my income? Because I have NO idea what your skill level is. I don’t know how well you can write. And let me tell you something, if you can’t write your way out of a paper bag, article marketing is NOT for you.

But even beyond your skill, I don’t know what niche you’re targeting, what keywords you’re targeting or for that matter if there is even any demand for the product you’re trying to sell. Point is, there are just too many variables involved with any form of marketing to give you a blanket response to your question. Okay, so that being the case, what do you do if you want to find out if something is going to work for you or not?

You roll up your sleeves, get your hands dirty and do a little testing. Take article marketing. Pick a niche, do some keyword research, find a product to sell, set up a landing page with a review of the product, write a few articles pointing to the review and see if you get any traffic and make any sales. Yeah, that’s it…that’s all there is to it. Then you will know if article marketing works for YOU.

And it’s the same with any other form of marketing online, whether it be pay per click, video marketing, social networking, blogging or whatever. Nobody is going to be able to give you an answer to your question because there are too many variables involved.

So stop being a lazy no good for nothing, get off your duff, roll up your sleeves and do a little testing.

Trust me…it WON’T kill you.

To YOUR Success

Steven Wagenheim

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I get a lot of questions on a daily basis. This particular question was asked at the Warrior Forum today. It’s also one I get asked a lot. The question is this. Is it unethical to sell products that you’ve never tried yourself? For some reasons, marketers seem to have a problem with this. Well, this article is going to answer the question as honestly as possible.

Probably the best way to actually answer the question is with a few examples. You go to a local Best Buy to get yourself a high definition TV. There are salesmen there to help you. One of the salesmen comes over to you and asks you if they can help you. You tell the salesman that you’re interested in an HD TV and want to know which one he recommends. He then takes you over to a TV and says that this is the one he recommends.

Here’s another one. You go to a local Computer City. You are looking to buy a new PC. Again, there are several salesmen in the store. You walk over to one of them and tell them that you’re looking for a new PC and ask the salesman to recommend a good one. The salesman takes you over to one and says that this is the one he recommends.

One last one. You go to a book store and tell the person there that you are looking for a book on how to repair roofs. You ask the store owner to recommend you a good book. The owner walks you over to the section with books on roof repair and says that this is the one he recommends.

Let me ask you a question. In all three of those scenarios, do you REALLY think the salesperson has actually tried that particular item? In the case of the book store owner, do you REALLY think he’s read every single book in the store? I highly doubt that he’s read ANY of them.

My point is this. As long as you don’t lie about your recommendation (saying that you tried the product when you actually haven’t) there is nothing wrong with selling it. There is nothing wrong with using, as a recommendation, the following tactic…telling what OTHER people have said about the product and based upon their raves, recommending it yourself.

If everybody who sold a product online as an affiliate had to try the product, nobody would ever sell anything. I mean think about it, a guy who sells a book on treating breast cancer…has HE had to use it himself?

Use your common sense. The whole world sells products they don’t personally use and there is nothing wrong with doing so as long as you do it honestly.

To YOUR Success,
Steven Wagenheim

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Have you seen ClickBank’s new order page? If you’re not a product creator, maybe not. But even if you’re an affiliate marketer promoting ClickBank products, this order page does affect you as well. This article is going to fill you in on what ClickBank has done and offer an opinion on the whole thing. I think you will find this interesting reading that will hopefully put your mind to rest.

In a nutshell, what ClickBank has done is put a nice little seal on the right hand side of the order page saying that anybody should just ask for a refund if they’re not happy with their purchase. It’s as clear as day. While their refund policy is clearly stated on each sales page, this new order page really brings it to the forefront.

Okay, so why are marketers all in a tizzy about this? Quite simply, they’re afraid that anybody who makes a purchase of a ClickBank product is going to immediately see this and ask for a refund regardless of whether or not they are satisfied with the product.

This is absolute nonsense.

First of all, the ClickBank serial refunders (you people know who you are) already know about ClickBank’s liberal refund policy and don’t need to be reminded of it. They’ve been buying products and asking for refunds give minutes later since the beginning of time. This order page change is not going to matter to them one bit. And the legitimate buyers…they’re really not going to notice it or for that matter…care.

Okay, but why is ClickBank doing this? Well, answering that question is speculation at best, but I’m going to take a crack at it. See, refunds for ClickBank are no problem. They’ll issue them gladly especially since the money comes out of the product creator’s or affiliate’s account anyway. So they really lose very little. However, where ClickBank gets hit hard is with chargebacks from the customer’s bank. These chargebacks cost ClickBank money…lots of it.

My guess is, in order to cut down on the number of chargebacks, ClickBank has made the change to their order page to make it crystal clear that all a person has to do, if they are not satisfied with their purchase, is to ask for a refund. Personally, I don’t know if this is going to cut down on chargebacks or not, but I am pretty sure that it’s not going to increase the refund rate. In either case, I guess only time will tell.

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.

You know, sometimes you get so caught up in the X’s and O’s about running a business that you forget about those little things that make all the difference in the world. Becky Hagel, from the Warrior Forum, reminded me of one of these little things the other day with a thread she started. I’m going to tell you what she reminded me of and then give you my thoughts on the whole thing. I think you’ll find this a very informative and, hopefully, interesting article.

In a nutshell, what Becky said was this. When you create a product, you want to spend less time talking about yourself and more time focusing on the person reading the product and how that product can benefit them. In other words, less about you and more about them.

Okay, here is where I am on this issue. I agree to a point. The last thing you want to do is start going on and on and on about yourself. Eventually, you are going to turn off your reader. However, there are certain times where your own personal experience is important to getting your point across to the customer.

For example, let’s say you’re selling a book with a natural acne cure. There is absolutely nothing wrong about talking about your experience with acne and how it made your life a living hell. And certainly, you want to talk about how, once you discovered this cure, your life completely changed. That’s fine. But…you want to then focus the attention on the customer and make it about them. Saying something like, “Wouldn’t you like to be able to do the same thing for YOUR life” can make all the difference in the world.

You want to make it so that the person reading your book feels that you’re speaking to him and about him. The more personal you make the information, the more you can instill how the information can improve that person’s life, the better that person will relate to it. Talking only about how wonderful YOUR life is, is only going to make you come off as a total bore.

Remember…it’s NOT about YOU. It’s about your customer.

Remember that when writing your next ebook and you’ll find that you’ll have more people satisfied with your product and more repeat customers.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

Tired of creating products that nobody wants and don’t sell? Check out my Complete Guide To Product Creation at http://www.stevewagenheim.com/productcreation.html and create products that actually sell.

Every once in a while, I like to see what other marketers are talking about and get a read on them. Well, just before writing this article, I downloaded a free report from a fairly well known marketer. No, I won’t mention his name because I don’t want this to turn into a mud slinging contest. What follows is why I have titled this article “Internet Marketing Tips – Avoiding Miscommunication And Misleading Info”. I hope, if nothing else, that you get something out of this.

For starters, the description of what I thought I was going to download lead me to believe that it would be a report on Internet marketing myths and trends and that the download process would be a simple opt in and get the report. So let’s start with the process itself.

After clicking on the link to get to the squeeze page to get the report and typing in my email address to get the report, I was then greeted with a page asking me for a login and password. Why would I need a login and password to get a free report? Suddenly, I realized that I was actually signing up for a membership. Fortunately, there was no place to put in a PayPal account or any credit card info, so at least I didn’t have to worry about being charged.

But then, after clicking on the “download report’” link, which I then assumed would give me my report, I was greeted by an upsell page. Okay, I’m a marketer. I get it. I have no problem with the guy trying to sell me something. I immediately went down to the bottom of the page, looked for the no thanks button to click and download my report. But that wasn’t the end of it.

I was then greeted with a downsell of the upsell. Now I’m starting to get a little annoyed. How about letting me get the report, see if it’s any use to me and THEN decide if I want to buy anything from you should I decide that the info you gave me was useful?

But this was the part that really annoyed me the most. I was under the impression that the report was going to give me up and coming trends. To me, a trend is a business, product or service that looks like it’s going to be hot. Instead, what I got was a list of things on how to treat your customers.

How is THAT a trend?

The author even said that these aren’t trends in the traditional sense.

In other words…I was mislead in the original pitch for getting the report.

THAT is what I have a problem with.

So, here is my very simple message to you today IF you are a marketer and IF you give or sell info to other people.

Tell them EXACTLY what you are going to give them and then GIVE them what you SAID you were going to give them.

This way, there is no misinformation and no misleading the prospect.

It’s a short lesson…but one I hope you got loud and clear.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

Want to find out what the REAL hot and up coming trends are and how to capitalize on them without spending a DIME? Check out my site at http://www.hottrendsdaily.com/ and find out how.

One of the toughest things for Internet marketers is looking for new niches to tackle. It’s almost like they have blinders on when it comes to this stuff. Well, this article is going to give you a great way to find some killer niches to tackle. Know what it is? Look in the mirror. Confused? No problem. Keep reading and I promise you that your confusion will be a thing of the past.

If you take a look at a majority of things that people buy in this world, you will notice that many of those things are for personal use having to do with something either on or a part of their body. Think about it. we buy clothes, shoes, hats, and all kinds of things to put on ourselves. We have clothes for all occasions. Heck, we have everything from going to a wedding to going to mount what’s its name to ski. The number of items we can put on our bodies is almost limitless.

But that’s just the start of the process. Forget about what we put ON our bodies. What if we looked in the mirror while we weren’t wearing any clothes at all? Okay, I know for some of us, that’s a scary thought. But just imagine yourself in front of the mirror without anything on. Now take a look at each part of your body. Start with the top of your head… your hair… if you wish. How many products are there out there for your hair. The bald men niche alone is HUGE and there are plenty of products to sell.

And while you’re looking in that mirror, depending on where you are, what about the things you see IN that mirror behind you? I have one mirror in my bathroom and behind it is a closet with all these bath products. That niche has tons of potential, from shampoo to body moisturizer. And what about that hair dryer in your bathroom closet? I’ll bet there’s an affiliate program out there somewhere for selling bathroom related products.

In my bedroom is another mirror. In that one, I can see a wall… one that needs to be painted. That gives me another idea… the home maintenance niche. How many things are there to sell that have something to do with fixing up your home? I can think of a ton off the top of my head including roofing, siding, plumbing, painting and on and on. Can’t think of a niche to tackle? For crying out loud… open up your eyes. That’s of course if you’re not too afraid to look in the mirror.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

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Okay, enough is enough. Every morning when I wake up, one of the first things I do is check out my favorite forum so I can see what the latest topics of discussion are. No sooner do I head on over, what do you think I find? Thread upon thread that says “moved.” These are all threads that have been posted in the WRONG sub forum. So I have to ask. Can we not read? Are we so dense that we can’t figure out that PPC goes in the PPC sub forum and JV requests go in the JV sub forum?

Okay, you’re probably going to ask, “What does it matter?” I knew that was coming, so…I am going to explain to you the three main reasons why it matters. Hopefully, after you are done reading these, you will understand.

At the top of the list is something very simple and easy to understand. It matters because, if the forum owner didn’t want certain subjects discussed in certain areas, he wouldn’t have created those areas. Do you think he did this for his health? No, he didn’t. He did this because he doesn’t want a whole ton of unrelated topics all in one place. Okay, but why?

Here is where we get to reason number two…and it’s another very simple one. When you have a forum the size of some of these, like the one I frequent, you get tons of threads started in a very short period of time. You can start a thread at 10 AM and it can be off page one in 30 minutes depending on how busy the forum is at the time.

Now, imagine compounding that by starting threads that don’t belong on that part of the forum. The people who need help with a particular problem are never going to get that help because their threads are going to disappear so fast, nobody will ever see them. By splitting up the threads between various sub forums, threads stay on page one longer and get more responses.

Finally, and this is a reason that a lot of people won’t get because they’re not forum owners, it doesn’t look good for a forum when there are many sub forums and only one or two of them see any traffic. It gives a bad impression on the forum. It makes it appear that it isn’t a very good one, at least in the eyes of new people.

It is for these reasons that you really need to confine your posts to the area of the forum where they belong.

This ends my rant on this subject.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

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If you’re in the “help other marketers” niche, you probably get questions all the time from your prospects. Some like, “How do I cloak an affiliate link” are easy to answer. But every once in a while we get questions that require a lengthy response. Usually, when this happens, the biggest problem we have is getting our thoughts in order. There is so much info to share, where do we begin? This article is going to give you a brief outline that should help you with any response to almost any question you get.

First thing you do in your response is summarize the information that’s to follow. For example, let’s say somebody asks you how to start their own business online. That’s quite an open ended question that requires an involved response. So what I would do is begin by saying that to start a business you need the following things…and then I would list them, such as having a business plan, researching a market and so on.

After outlining all the things that I was planning to go over, I’d then take each item, one at a time, and cover it in detail. For business planning, I would talk about the need to have a budget for expenses, a projection for income, how to do each, and so on. If you take each item one at a time, you’ll be able to focus on that item in isolation and not get distracted by the other items.

Think of responding to an question for help as writing an ebook on the subject. That’s the approach you should take. The only difference, if this is going to be an email response, or even a skype or phone consultation, is that you don’t have to worry about formatting and making the info look pretty. Simple paragraph formatting will be fine.

Finally, I would list any resources that the prospect might need in order to complete any of the tasks. For example, let’s say somebody asked a question where your response was to do something that required knowledge of HTML. If the person doesn’t know HTML, you might want to include some free resources to sites that teach HTML. Always think about the technical parts of what you’re teaching and anything you can share that will help in those areas. Resources are great for that. And there are plenty of free ones online.

Bottom line is this. Get your head and thoughts together. Think of what has to come first and what has to come last and simply report the facts in that order. Always finish by telling the person that if they don’t understand anything, to ask.

Follow the above outline and you should have no problem answering any question that anybody asks you.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

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Have you noticed that, if you run your own home business, that there aren’t enough hours in the day? Maybe not. Maybe you’re too busy chasing your tail to realize that you’re getting half of what you want done each day…if that much. Hey, you’re no different than anybody else…including myself. I sometimes wonder why God only made 24 hours in a day and why we have to sleep 8 of them. Well, if that’s you, you might want to read this article. I think it will help solve the problem.

First thing you have to realize is that you can’t beat the clock. It’s going to keep on ticking no matter what you do. So the only thing you can do is deal with it on its terms…by making the most out of every minute that you spend on your business.

That brings us to what that actually is. See, depending on where you are with your business, that could mean different things. For example, if you’re just starting out, most likely you’re biggest problem is that you haven’t got a clue how to even start a home business. If that’s the case, then you probably want to spend most of your time on learning. That can mean a number of options…the easiest of which is to just to go out and get a solid highly recommended home business course.

Of course, if you don’t want to go the paid route to learning, there are always forums and other free sources you can visit to get your education. The problem with this course of action is that it’s a lot more time consuming. Most information sources are scattered all over the place. Think about it. You have web hosting and web design for your site, marketing tactics for your advertising and content writing for your sales pages, articles and other forms of content. It’s rare to find all that in one place for free…and certified as helpful to boot. That’s why, personally, I choose to pay for my info…even to the point of hiring a mentor if I have to.

But what if you’re beyond the learning stage? There are so many things involved with putting a business together…most of which I mentioned above. Between building your site, advertising it and then keeping up with changes in the industry (critical, especially when regulations change) it’s easy to wake up at 7 AM and find the clock hitting 10 PM before you even blink an eye. Trust me…I know.

Okay, so what’s a bloodshot eyed home business owner to do? Well, this is what I do. Every night before I go to bed, I make a to do list for the next day. But not just a list. I prioritize everything from most important to least important and put down a time that I believe I will have to spend on that task that day. I try my best not to go beyond my allotted time, though it’s not always possible. However, if you learn to discipline yourself, you will find that you WILL get more done during the day.

No, it’s not a magic bullet. Nothing is. It takes discipline and organization. If I knew how to teach that, I would bottle it.

But it’s something that each person has to develop on their own.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

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I hear the whining every single day it seems. “Why won’t anybody JV with me?” I then ask the person what they’ve done and I immediately know what the problem is. Well, if you’re one of those people who are sitting there scratching their heads wondering why they can’t get anybody to JV with them, you might want to read this article. I promise you it will be a real eye opener.

Probably the biggest mistake that marketers make is thinking that their offer is the greatest thing since sliced bread and that there is no possible way that the person you approach can pass it up. News flash my friend…these people get great offers almost on a daily basis. Yours, no matter how good it is, is no different. So no matter how good you think it is, it doesn’t matter. Great offers are a dime a dozen. Deal with it.

Aside from that, marketers approach potential JV partners like they were a side of beef. The emails they send are obviously cookie cutter and probably the same email sent to everybody in creation. There is nothing personal about the email at all. There is certainly nothing in it to make the potential JV partner feel all warm and fuzzy. Contrary to popular belief, JV partners are not robots and they actually like to be made to feel that they’re more than just a means to an income.

Another problem is that there is no thought put into the actual offer itself. Not really anyway. For example, you’d be surprised how many people don’t even have a product ready to send to the person they approach or expect that person to say yes WITHOUT seeing the product. I don’t know about you, but I don’t promote anything unless I’ve gone over it with a fine tooth comb. There is a lot of crap out there and I don’t want any part of it.

And this is just the tip of the iceberg as far as problems, though these three items are probably the three biggest reasons why you can’t get a JV. So do yourself a favor. If you really want to partner with somebody, forget about wowing them with your great offer. That alone won’t do it. Instead, work on developing a relationship and make sure you have everything planned out ahead of time before even approaching the person. At least then, you’ll have a snow ball’s chance.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

Want to discover an almost foolproof way of getting a joint venture? Check out my site at http://www.stevewagenheim.com/jvs/index.html and find out how I get just about any JV that I want.