Steve Wagenheim’s Home Business Blog

One thing I have learned as an affiliate marketer is that the best way to sell an affiliate product is to review the product so that prospects can get an idea of how good it is from an actual user of the product. The problem many affiliates run into is that they don’t have the money to buy these products and they can’t get a free copy to review because merchants want to see some sign that you have success as an affiliate marketer before they do that. So here’s how you get around this problem.

What you want to do is purchase a very low end product… maybe even one that sells for as low as $7 and only pays about $3 in commissions. Why do you want to do this? The answer is simple. For one thing, the price isn’t going to break you at all. If you can’t afford $7, you don’t belong trying to market online anyway. This should be easy enough for you to pull off. But there’s an even more important reason for doing this.

Think about how easy a $7 item is to sell. Many people, especially in the “make money” niche, have a problem spending money on high end items but will have no problems purchasing a $7 item. Therefore, you should make plenty of sales of this item. The dollars actually earned don’t matter. The reason is because NOW you have some level of success to show the merchant whose product you want to sell. You can prove to him that you’ve successfully marketed a product as an affiliate. He will now be more likely to give you that free product to review, one that will probably be a lot more money.

Now you can work on selling a higher end product and get even more merchants to give you free copies when they see huge dollar amounts earned on your part. The more money you can show THEM the more likely they will be to provide YOU with a review copy. And if they don’t, it’s no big deal. There is going to be somebody who will. Not everybody is going to say yes. Some merchants won’t allow you to even be their affiliate, for closed programs, simply because they don’t know you. They wouldn’t care how much money you’ve earned. You FIRST have to earn their trust by letting them get to know you. And that takes time.

Point is, you shouldn’t let the problem of getting review copies of products get in your way. Find yourself a cheap product, buy it, review it and sell it and that will lead to you getting review copies down the road with very little problem at all.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

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This might be one of the most commonly asked questions when it comes to starting a home business. It goes something like this. “Should I start a home business based on what I love or should I just pick a market that is high in demand?” At one time, I would have given a definitive answer to this question, but now…it really depends on what your priorities are and your tolerance to boredom. Don’t worry, this article is going to explain in excruciating detail.

Okay, I talked about priorities, so let’s get to them. If your main purpose for starting a home business is to make as much money as you can and you don’t care if you have to make funny faces into a web cam all day to do it, then by all means…pick something that you know is going to make money and the heck with how much or little you love it.

However, if you are concerned that you might get so sick of your business because you’re doing something that you have absolutely no interest in, then you might want to give the above paragraph a little thought. Because let me tell you something…doing anything that you really can’t stand doing can really wear on you after a while. It may take you a week, a month, a year or even five years, but eventually…you’ll reach the point where you’re screaming outside your living room window and begging somebody to end it all.

Which category do you fall into? I have no idea. In fact, you may not even know yourself until you try. And therein lies the problem of taking the chance on doing something different. So, in order to reduce your risk of taking on a business that eventually drives you bonkers, here is a tip that just might help a lot.

Whatever it is you’ve decided to do, assuming it’s something just for the purpose of making money, do a little research on the topic first. Read some articles. Go to some sites. Maybe even buy a product or two to see if it’s something that interests you. You can actually develop a love for something that you never even knew existed before. However, if after all your research, you find that you absolutely can’t stand the topic, don’t get involved unless you’re SURE you can deal with the boredom.

And that includes being able to handle customer requests, complaints or whatever. There are aspects of running a business that are unpleasant even when you DO enjoy what you’re doing. Imagine how unpleasant they can be if you have no interest in what you’re selling.

Like I said, nobody can really answer this question for you. But by doing a little research on your chosen market, to see if it’s something you can get into. you will save yourself a lot of grief down the road.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

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Okay, I’m going to tell you right off the bat…this is a trick question. Don’t you just love those? I do. And the answer to this one is going to surprise quite a few people unless they have experienced this for themselves. But okay, let me give you the answer to the question. The answer is…none. Not as in NO visitors, but as in there IS no answer. Confused? Well, don’t be. This isn’t an episode of Soap, but it’s going to be a lot more informative.

So why do I say there is no answer? Well, the answer to that has to do with a little something we call targeting to start with. No, it’s not the whole ball of wax, but it’s where it all begins.

Sure, you could throw a whole bunch of fish into a huge barrel and start taking shots at them and you might hit a few. The law of averages says that somebody is going to be interested in what you have to offer if you toss enough traffic at the problem. After all, even people who are interested in video games might have osteoporosis…though not too likely.

But imagine you target your ads to women over the age of 62. Do you think that maybe the traffic that you get from those ads is going to convert a lot better than just a general ad campaign that’s reaching men and women of all ages? I would like to think so.

Point is, it’s not how much traffic you get but how much TARGETED traffic you get that matters. But targeting is just the beginning. Even if your traffic is well targeted to your offer, once they get to your site, they have to feel that what they are looking for specifically is going to be available there. In order for this to happen, you have to make it crystal clear what it is you ARE offering as soon as they get there.

Too many sites are all over the place. You arrive there and there are a dozen menu options, paid banner ads all over the place, AdSense, CPA and who knows what else. It’s like walking through a maze. Do you really think you’re going to get the prospect that arrives there to take the action that THEY want you to take? So even with a ton of targeted traffic, if they don’t know what it is they’re supposed to do there WHEN they get there, that traffic is going to go away and NEVER come back.

Can you now see why there is no answer to the question, “How much traffic is enough to be profitable?” Add to this the cost of your ads, the conversion rate of your offer and how much it earns and you have even more variables added to the mix.

So do yourself a favor. Forget about how much traffic you’re going to get. Concentrate on getting the right kind of traffic and directing them to a site that is actually going to give them exactly what they’re looking for.

THAT is how you become profitable.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim.

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If you run a home business, especially one where you have contact with your customers, either via email or even in person, you are going to run into all types. Well, one thing I’ve learned from my over seven years of running my own business is that you never argue with a drunk, a madman or a fool. If you’re confused, don’t worry. By the time you’re done reading this article, you won’t be.

Let’s start off with the drunk. Now, I’m not referring to somebody who is literally drunk, although there are some people I know online who hit the bottle on more than an occasion. No, I’m referring to that person who is loud and boisterous. They think they have the answers to everything and they are always right. You know the kind I am talking about. Well, take my word for it, it is pointless to argue with these people about anything. If they give you a hard time about something related to your business, just nod your head and let it go. You will NEVER win with these folks.

Next we have the madman. This is the person who, because he didn’t get an email from you immediately after contacting you, or his product download didn’t work right, he goes flying off the handle and starts threatening you with lawsuits and just about everything else you can imagine. He calls you a scam artist, among other not so nice choice words, and basically looses all sense of reason. Refund these people right away, ban them from future purchases and never deal with them again. Otherwise, they will suck you into that dark pit they call their life.

Finally, you never want to argue with a fool. This is the person who just doesn’t have a clue and will probably never succeed in anything at life. You can almost see the sign on their back that reads “too stupid to live.” It’s pointless to get into any kind of argument with these people because no matter how much sense you make, they’re not going to see it. They will always look at the glass as half empty and in need of repair. And most of what comes out of their mouth…utter nonsense. Stay far, far away from these folks.

If you follow this simple advice, you will find that your business will be a lot less stressful and a lot more profitable.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

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A question I get asked a lot is this one. “Do people still buy ebooks?” This question comes from people who are thinking of getting into product creation and aren’t sure if they want to create an ebook because somewhere they heard that ebooks were falling out of favor with consumers. Well, my opinion doesn’t matter at all here. So why don’t I start this article off with a cold hard fact that I am sure is going to blow your mind wide open.

Did you know that ebooks at Amazon outsell hard cover books by 43%? It’s true. The news article just came out in regard to Kindle sales. Now, if that doesn’t tell you that ebooks still sell, nothing will. So if your REAL question is “Should I create an ebook” the answer is yes. But that’s not the whole story here. See, if it was, this wouldn’t be much of an article. And yes, there is a catch to that answer.

See, the truth is, what consumers are sick of are crappy ebooks. They’re tired of buying things with rehashed info. They’re sick of poorly written books. They fed up with books so thin in content that if you tried to sell them hard cover, you’d be laughed out of a book store for trying to peddle it. The days of the seven page ebook that made people go “wow” are over. You need to come up with something of real substance or your refunds are going to go through the roof.

In other words, the consumer is mad as hell and they’re not going to take it anymore. But make no mistake about it. Ebooks are still viable. The Amazon Kindle is a big part of it. Imagine you want to read 10 books when you go on your trip to wherever. Who wants to carry around 10 hardcover books with them? I sure as hell don’t. But with something like the Kindle, you can take 10 books or 110 books and it’s no big deal. The portability makes them very desirable.

So if you’re thinking that nobody reads ebooks anymore, think again. What people are sick of reading has nothing to do with the delivery system of the material (hardcover or digital). It has to do with the content inside. Product creators who understand that will be successful while the ones who don’t will wonder if maybe they should have purchased a printing press.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

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One thing I have learned from my many years as an Internet marketer is that you have to learn how to separate your personal feelings from the actual information you receive. If you let feelings get in the way, they could result in you missing out on a number of lost opportunities. This article is going to share a true story to illustrate exactly what I mean. No names will be mentioned as I don’t want to make any waves in this article.

Recently, I got into an argument with another Internet marketer because of some things that they did that I didn’t approve of. Well, things got heated and we both said things that weren’t very pretty. Needless to say, neither of us is going to be sending the other any Christmas cards this December. Okay, so personally things aren’t good between us.

However, just recently, this person started a thread at the Warrior Forum that had some killer information in it. In fact, I thought the information was so good that I shared it with my list. Well, one of the members of my list, who just happened to know about the words I had with this person, wrote to me and asked how I could promote a thread started by somebody who I had all these problems with. They couldn’t understand it and actually demanded an explanation. LOL.

Well, one thing I have learned in my many years of marketing online is that you can’t let your personal feelings get in the way of knowledge. The person in question shared some information that, had I not shared it with my list, I would have been doing them a big disservice. I wasn’t going to let that happen. So I put my personal feelings aside and sent them a link to the thread. Other marketers might have not been so accommodating.

And that’s why so many people fail in this business. They’ll have a personal problem with somebody and because of that, won’t subscribe to their newsletter or won’t read any of their articles or whatever. In the process, they could be cutting themselves off from some very valuable information. I don’t judge where I get my info from based on what I think about the person. I look at it objectively and decide for myself if I think it can help me with my marketing…regardless of what I think of the person.

So before you cut off your nose to spite your face, you might want to take a second look at that marketer’s material.

You know…the guy you wouldn’t let date your worst enemy.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

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You’re probably wondering why I’m writing an article titled “The Best Of The Warrior Forum.” Well, the answer is obvious. That place is a gold mine. There is more info there on how to market online than in any ebook you could possibly buy. The problem is, how do you find the good stuff? Well, this article is going to provide you some tips on how to find the gems that are posted there.

For starters, and there is really no way around this, you need to get to know who the most respected members are. How do you do this? Well, there are several criteria that you might want to look at including how long the person has been there, how many posts they’ve made, but more importantly, how many thank you’s they’ve gotten for their posts. Lots of people like to gab a lot but don’t really contribute anything.

After you’ve gotten a decent list of who the most respected members are, what you want to do is go to any thread where you can find them a part of and click on their name and then click on “Find All Threads” by that person. If they’ve started a number of them, there is a good chance that many contain valuable information related to Internet marketing. By simply browsing through the thread titles, you can pretty much figure out which ones are going to share information that will help you.

Another thing you want to do is look for threads that have ratings attached to them. The members can rate the threads up to 5 stars. If you find any 5 star threads, there is a good chance that the information in these threads is going to be of some use. Personally, I’ve seen some 5 star threads that were better than any ebook I’ve ever purchased. There is some real gold in those hills.

Finally, you want to look for threads where the poster received a lot of thank you’s and the thread itself received a lot of replies. Now granted, not all popular threads are great. Some are just flame wars because somebody said something controversial. But for the most part, where there is smoke there is fire. If you find a popular thread, there is a good chance that it contains something useful.

Without a doubt, by simply browsing through the Warrior Forum, you can get yourself a six figure education thanks to the many generous people there who are willing to share what they know with others.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

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As a home business owner for over seven years now, I can tell you that, over time, you are going to need a lot of things to run your business. Some of these things are going to cost money…lots of money. Well, did you know that there are a lot of things that you can actually try for free BEFORE you decide if they’re something you can actually use? It’s true. You just have to know where to look. This article touches on the subject. Hopefully, you’ll get something useful out of it.

Okay, let’s start from the beginning. You’ve started your home business and you’ve decided that in order to run it properly, you need a certain piece of software. Personally, I use Ultra Edit, Photoshop, Camtasia, Dreamweaver and a host of other things. Some of these cost me a pretty penny. But in many cases, I wasn’t sure I was actually going to need the software. So I wanted to try it out. How do you do this without having to dish out the money first? Very simple.

Let’s say that you’re thinking of going into the graphic design business and you’ve been told that Photoshop is the way to go. However, you’re not sure that you want to sink that much money into it without at least trying it out first. So what do you do? Go to Google and type in “Photoshop free trial.” If you look at the results, you will find a listing that says, “Adobe Photoshop Free Trial – Download Photoshop CS3 30 Day Tryout.” There you go. You can try CS3, which cost something like $699 when I bought it, for free for 30 whole days. You can’t beat that deal, can you?

And this will work for just about any software on the market. The reason is simple. Software manufacturers are not dumb. They want you to buy their software but they know that, especially in the case of expensive products, you’re not going to just sink $700 into something without trying it first. So they give free trials. It’s in their best interests to do this.

This practice doesn’t just confine itself to software. Many membership sites that provide services will also give you a 30 day free trial for their service. Some products and services are only 7 days, but still long enough to get an idea of whether or not you want to buy the product or service afterward. Again, just type in the product or service name and then “free trial” after it. You should see results for just about anything.

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!

One of the biggest problems marketers have is coming up with a profitable niche and a site that has a chance of bringing in some money. Well, one of the easiest ways to do this is by a little reverse engineering. If you’re not sure how to go about doing this, the article you’re about to read will give you a little insight into this subject. After reading this, you should be able to reverse engineer just about any niche out there.

First thing you have to do is come up with a niche itself. That’s the hard part, not so much because there aren’t plenty of things that make money, but because there are plenty of things that don’t make money. It’s just as easy to pick something that won’t make you a dime as it is to pick something that is a winner. The biggest mistake people make in this area is looking at the number of monthly searches for keyword phrases and nothing else.

Just because a keyword phrase gets one million monthly searches doesn’t mean squat, especially if that phrase starts with or contains the word “free”. People looking for free information are not likely to spend money on it. So certain keyword phrases should be avoided at all costs. Other keyword phrases that contain words like “buy”, on the other hand, are probably excellent choices because these people are actually looking to spend money.

Once you’ve zeroed in on your niche and keyword phrases, head on over to Google and check on a few things. One of them is how many paid ads there are for these phrases. If there are a lot of paid ads, most likely, people are spending money on products.

After checking the paid ads, the next thing you want to do is check the backlinks for the top sites. You want to see where they are coming from. Why? Because these are the sites you want to get to link to YOUR site. If they’re blogs, where the backlinks are coming from comments, then you want to go to these blogs yourself and post your own comments. This is part of the reverse engineering process.

Finally, you want to check out the top sites themselves. What do they look like? What are they selling? What keyword phrases are they optimized for? Essentially, your site has to be as good if not better than the top sites. There is no secret here. What they are, how they look, what they sell…it’s all out in the open. All you have to do is emulate these sites in appearance and content and then simply add more to YOUR site to make it better. Again, all part of the reverse engineering process.

The downside of being the top dog is that everybody can see who you are and thus, can easily copy what you do in order to knock you off your pedestal. That’s why Internet marketing is so competitive. Everybody is a target. So, you MUST learn how to reverse engineer a campaign, which also includes spying on how they advertise (PPC, squeeze pages, etc.) or you’re never going to be able to get the upper hand.

To YOUR Success

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This article is a bit of a change for me. That’s right…it’s MY turn to ask some questions. And I’m counting on YOU to supply me with some answers. So, it’s time to get out your trusty email account and get ready to write to me with your replies. Or, you can just post them as comments here. I really do want to hear what YOU have to say.

Okay, first question. Why are you running your own home business? Is it because you lost your corporate America job? Is it because you simply got tired of working for a boss? Was it the commute? Did you just want something better? Is it all about the money or is it the freedom to be able to work when you want?

Everybody has their own reasons for wanting to work online. I’d like to know yours. Here’s why I’m asking. Sometimes, the reason why somebody wants to do this is actually counterproductive to getting things done. I have learned from experience that some reasons lead to failure simply because the true love for doing something isn’t there. Those of you who ever tried to be something you’re not know what I’m talking about.

Okay, next question. Are you happy with your home business? I’m not just talking about the money you’re making. I’m talking about the actual work you’re doing. Does it excite you or are you bored to tears doing it? If the answer is the latter, maybe this isn’t the right thing for you or maybe your focusing on a business model that isn’t right for you. There are many different home business models. Just because one doesn’t excite you doesn’t mean you can’t find one that will.

What are your priorities with your business? Is it just to make money or do you need to enjoy what you’re doing? Some people say to me that they don’t care what they do as long as they make money doing it. I can’t do that. It would drive me crazy. I have to enjoy what I do. Also, is the money more important or is it the freedom to work when you want? Some people don’t need a lot of money but DO need their freedom. I can certainly understand that.

If you could do anything else in the world and make money, would you do that OR would you still be running a home business? I’ll be honest. If I could be a successful songwriter, that’s what I’d be doing. But that’s a tough field to break into, so I’m content being a successful home business owner. But no, this isn’t my first choice in the world.

Like I said, if you want to answer these questions, you can post your comments here or email me personally.

I’m looking forward to hearing from you.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

If you want to answer any of these questions, you can email me at: asksteve@stevewagenheim.com, put “Answers For Ask Steve” in the subject, and I will get right back to you with a reply. In the meantime, if you are 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!.