Steve Wagenheim’s Home Business Blog

One thing that I have found out about people who build lists is that they make a very serious mistake, especially if they have more than one product to sell, whether it be one they created or sell as an affiliate. In this article, I’m going to point out what the mistake is, how to correct it and how it can easily make you an additional $50 a day with very little work. Keep reading to find out more.

Okay, if you’re the typical product creator and/or affiliate marketer, this is probably the trap that you end up falling into. You create a product and promote it to your list. You make a whole bunch of sales and life is good. But after a while, the product gets old and sales slow down. So you create another product or find one at an affiliate marketplace and promote that one…completely forgetting about the old one, thinking that there is no more money to be made with it.

Problem is, as time goes by, your list is still growing. There are new people on it who never saw your old product. In fact, they don’t know that it IS old. So, if the product is still viable, meaning that it isn’t outdated and can still help people, why not send out a broadcast to people on your list who maybe joined in the last 30 days and see what happens? You’d be surprised at how many extra sales you can get that you wouldn’t have normally gotten because you left that old product for dead.

I can’t speak for other autoresponder services but Aweber has a broadcast feature where you can send an email to people who signed up for quite a few different time periods. In fact, you can send an email to all people who joined in just the last seven days. If you do this once a week for all your old products, think of how many sales you can make. Of course this all depends on how many subscribers you add to your list on a daily basis.

Point is, don’t abandon your old products. Just because they are old doesn’t mean that they whole world has seen them. There are new people coming online everyday who wouldn’t know an old product from one that was created the other day. As long as the product is still useful, there is nothing wrong with promoting it.

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.

I had an interesting conversation with a bunch of marketers last night and I’ve come to the realization that the problem with most Internet marketers is that they think like Internet marketers. If you’re confused, don’t worry. By the time you’re done reading this article, you won’t be. I’m going to explain exactly what I mean, why it’s a bad thing and what you can do to correct it. If I were you, I’d take this advice seriously and act on it quickly. It could mean the difference between success and failure with your marketing efforts.

Let’s start off with explaining exactly what I mean by “thinking like an Internet marketer.” The typical one will go about things very methodically. They’ll do their niche research, trying to find one that isn’t too competitive. They’ll do their keyword research, trying to find the keywords that are what we call “buying” keywords. They’ll go about finding a product to sell using all kinds of tools to determine how well it might perform for them. If they create their own product, they’ll slave over that sales page making sure it has the right amount of hype. They’ll build a list, making sure that everything on their squeeze page is above the fold and that their AR series has the right number of followups. They’ll do everything by the book, but they’ll forget one very important thing that blows all of this to hell.

They’ll forget what it’s like to be a real person with a real problem.

We get so caught up in the X’s and O’s of marketing our products, that we forget that on the other side of this equation is a person who maybe woke up in the morning with a splitting headache, can’t take pain killers because they’re allergic and they need something natural that’s really going to get rid of that headache. This person might very well be desperate at this point. The last thing they need is a load of hype and no substance just because YOU want to make a sale.

Ultimately, what happens, after a number of purchases of overhyped, worthless items is that the person on the other end gets disgusted with the whole process and doesn’t know who to trust anymore. So when something real actually comes along, they may end up passing it up because they’ve been burned too many times.

Folks…we have nobody to blame but ourselves because we’ve become marketers first and human beings second.

I know a lot of people aren’t going to like hearing this, and no, I’m not saying everybody in this industry is like this. But way too many are. They’re just out for the almighty dollar and the heck with everything else.

It’s going to be the downfall of this industry yet.

Mark my words.

So how can you correct this problem?

Simple… remember what it was like to be a human being with a problem who really can use some honest help.

And then watch your marketing take off like a rocket when word gets around that you’re one of the good guys.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

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I get a chuckle from some of the questions that get asked over at the Warrior Forum. It’s just so funny what people will buy into. Today’s offering is this one. “Is the standard squeeze page still effective?” If you’re a typical Internet marketer, you probably use one of these yourself. So you probably already know the answer…for you. Ah, but therein lies the rub. Confused? Well, sit back, relax, and read what I have to share on this subject. It isn’t what you think it’s going to be.

One of the things that I learned (and it took me a LONG time to learn it) is that there are no absolutes in this business. Every single day you hear proclamations by other marketers.

Long sales copy is dead.

Article marketing isn’t as effective as it used to be.

And the proclamations go on and on. You’d think that the sky opened up and some divine creature fell down from it revealing all the truths about Internet marketing. Well, the truth is, there ARE no truths. What works for John Doe may not work for you.

But why? Why is that so? Why is it that for John Doe, his squeeze pages perform like gangbusters and yet for you, they don’t do squat. I mean, either they work or they don’t…right?

Wrong!

There are many variables that go into the effectiveness of a squeeze page. The niche itself for starters. Some niches are more jaded and blind to squeeze pages. Other niches are afraid of them simply because they are so far removed from buying things online that they’re afraid to share their email address with you or anyone. They apparently never heard of junk email accounts.

The look of the squeeze page itself comes into play as far as effectiveness. Different niches will respond to different looks. You certainly can’t expect a squeeze page designed for rappers looking to get a record deal to perform as well with the same look targeted towards people who are looking to get out of debt. They’ll be running for the hills when they see all that glitz.

I learned a long time ago that absolutes will kill you. Anybody who says that one thing or another either works or doesn’t work ALL the time, is greatly misinformed. There is no such animal.

So, the answer to this question is simple.

Test and find out for yourself.

That is the ONLY way you’re going to know.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

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A lot of people who run home businesses think that the only costs involved are the ones that come out of their pockets, such as web hosting, site design and so on. The truth is, there is more to the cost of a home business than what can be seen on a credit card statement each month. This article is going to dive into the real costs of a home business. I think you will find this an interesting read.

Okay, let’s start with the obvious. Yes, your home business costs DO begin with the things you spend money on, whether on a daily, weekly, monthly or yearly basis. It’s important to get a handle on each of these costs and when they have to be met. Cash flow is a serious problem for a lot of people. Without knowing what has to be paid for and when, you can get into a real bind.

So the first thing you want to do is crack open the spread sheet and log in every single item that you spend money on. You want to then designate each one as daily, weekly, monthly or yearly. Then, you want to add up the costs for each time period. That way, you’ll know just how much money you will need to have on hand for each day. And yes, there are some things that are daily expenses, such as when you run ads in forums that have to be paid for right away.

For most people, that would be the end of this issue. But that’s where, for most people, they would be wrong. See, there is another cost to doing business that most folks don’t consider a cost but is.

Their time.

Oh how precious our time is. And most of us don’t realize it until we are suddenly out of time, such as when a doctor tells us that we have some horrible disease and only have six months to live. Let me ask you a question. If you had only six months to live, would you spend your time doing all the things you’re doing now for your business? If the answer is no, then that means you’re doing things that are costing you more than you’re willing to spend on them, time wise.

You need to take a look at the things that you do. Are they productive? Do they bring you in enough of an income to justify doing them? For example. Let’s say you perform certain advertising actions each take and these actions take up two hours of your time each day, adding up to 60 hours in a month. When looking at your bottom line, you determine that these 60 hours of work bring in $500 of income. That comes out to a little over $8 per hour. Isn’t your time worth more than $8 per hour? I know mine is. If so, then it’s quite possible that there are other things you can do that will be more profitable.

Like it or not, your time has a cost associated with it. In some ways, time is more precious than money. You can get money back. You can’t get time back.

Don’t ever forget that.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

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So, you’ve created your first product. You get a nice fancy sales page made, start promoting it but don’t get many sales. And the ones you do get, most of them get refunded. You start to blame it on the sales page or the people buying the product. You accuse them of being serial refunders and people just looking for a freebie. But maybe the problem is a lot more simple than that. Maybe the product is just plain crap. Before you start throwing stones at me, you might want to read this article.

I learned something a long time ago as an up and coming songwriter (how I got started in the writing business) and that’s this. When you create something, that something is like your child. And when you have a child, it’s hard to admit that it has a horrible disease like cancer. One of the great promoters of our time (the man who discovered Bon Jovi) said to me, “Your songs have cancer. And when your children have cancer it’s hard to admit.”

I took offense to that comment at the time. But it was the best lesson I ever got in my whole life. It made me take an objective look at my music. I was finally able to evaluate it objectively. It made all the difference in my life not only for the music I wrote but also for the products I created as a marketer. I was able to look at those products objectively and evaluate them that way. Did they do what I claimed they did? Could they be better? If so, how could I make them better?

If you’re selling a product and it’s either not selling or you’re getting a lot of refunds, you have to be able to objectively look at that product. If it’s not selling, is it something that people want…not because YOU think they should want it but because they have expressed an interest in it? If you’re getting a lot of refunds, ask yourself why. Is the product delivering on its promises? Is it well written? Is it easy to understand? It’s one thing if one or two people refund a product. But if you’re getting a lot of refund requests, something is wrong.

Once you are able to objectively evaluate your products, you will find that you will make more sales and get fewer refund requests. That translates into more money in YOUR pocket.

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.

I was surfing the Warrior Forum today and found a thread started by a really great guy by the name of Michael Mayo. In a nutshell, his 10 year old granddaughter bet him that SHE could make a better YouTube channel than her grandfather. Well, being the professional marketer that he is, Michael took her up on the bet. Well, long story short…she kicked his butt all over the place. Her YouTube channel is so much better than his that I’m almost ashamed to call him an Internet marketer.

Okay, you’re probably asking me what the point is. Don’t worry. I’ll get to the point. In the meantime, if you want to see their YouTube channels. go to YouTube and look up DestinyM1231 (that’s the granddaughter) and WSOGold. That’s Michael’s channel. As you can see, hers is infinitely better. It’s almost a crying shame to call Michael a marketer. Oh yes, the point. Let me get to it now.

We have seen how a 10 year old girl can totally decimate a seasoned marketer by simply putting her mind to it and getting it done. She knows nothing about marketing or any of the stuff that we take for granted but she knows how to roll up her sleeves and get to work. And therein lies the problem with most Internet marketers who are struggling to make a living online.

See, it’s not that we don’t know enough. I mean, come on…how many “how to” books have you purchased? How many tactics do you know to market your products or services online? You’re not uneducated by any stretch of the imagination. So what’s the problem? Why is it that you can’t seem to get anything going? The answer is painful to hear but nevertheless you need to hear it.

Your work ethic stinks…plain and simple. Do you put in all the work into YOUR business that this 10 year old girl put into her YouTube channel? Somehow I doubt it. Heck, there are days when I don’t want to put in that much work. But when I have to, I do it. I roll up my sleeves and get done what has to get done. I make a schedule and stick to it…even if it’s something as mundane as write an article, such as this one.

How many articles have YOU written to market your products? Thousands like I have? I doubt it. That takes REALLY rolling up your sleeves and getting to work…just like that 10 year old little girl did.

I’ll bet Michael is proud of his granddaughter, even though he’s probably ashamed to have gotten his butt kicked like that.

Point is, if SHE can do it…YOU can do it.

No excuses….NONE

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

Tired of spinning your wheels trying to get your marketing off the ground? Haven’t got a clue what you’re doing and sick of being dead broke? Why not get some solid mentoring from somebody who has been EXACTLY where you are today? Check out my mentoring program at http://www.stevewagenheim.com/mentoring/mentoring.html and finally get yourself the one on one education that can FINALLY give you the success that you’ve been looking for.

Something just happened to me this past week that has convinced me beyond the shadow of any doubt that there are absolutely NO excuses for not achieving some level of success with Internet marketing. In fact, I am so awestruck at what I saw this week that I don’t even quite know how to put it into words. But I am sure as hell going to try. If you want to read an inspiring story, you might want to read this article.

I have my own coaching program. I don’t take on many students because quite honestly, most people don’t even get passed the screening process. When you send me emails that say nothing more than, “I need coaching… how much?” they are only going to end up in the trash. At the very least, give me your name and tell me something about yourself. But I digress. That’s not the point of this story.

Anyway, this young lady, who just got married, asked me about coaching. The email was very well written and I took her on as a student. I gave her an assignment each day. The amount of work that I gave her was substantial and I honestly didn’t expect her to finish all of it in the time period given. I do this to test the character of the students I work with. Well, much to my surprise, she completed everything. But that’s not even the most amazing part of the story.

Just today, I asked her if we could schedule a Skype consultation at either 10 AM or 2 PM this Friday (as of this writing) and he reply to me was that she couldn’t make it at either time because she worked a 9 to 5 job. That’s when my jaw hit the floor. This girl worked a full time job and STILL got done everything that I assigned her. I literally scratched my head wondering when she found the time. How was this even possible? But she did it. She DID the impossible.

And THAT is the point of this article. I hear excuses from people all the time how they don’t have time or they’re not smart enough or whatever. This girl, who works a full time job got everything done I asked her to do AND got one of her sites up to number 2 at Google. I’m honestly not sure if she really even needed my help.

Bottom line… NO excuses. If you want success in this business and are willing to work hard to get it, you WILL get it. I have no doubt about that. Not after what I’ve seen this week.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

Tired of spinning your wheels trying to get your marketing off the ground? Haven’t got a clue what you’re doing and sick of being dead broke? Why not get some solid mentoring from somebody who has been EXACTLY where you are today? Check out my mentoring program at http://www.stevewagenheim.com/mentoring/mentoring.html and finally get yourself the one on one education that can FINALLY give you the success that you’ve been looking for.

Yes, my blood pressure is at a boil yet again. Just came back from my morning stop over at the Warrior Forum only to find yet another person who is trying to fake it until he makes it. If you don’t like reading rants, you probably want to stay as far away from this article as you can. I’m going to provide you with one heck of a rant. But I’m also going to explain to you WHY you can’t fake it until you make it and how it can land you in a ton of hot water. Keep reading if you want to learn more.

Here’s the story in a nutshell. This one member has a site where he’s going to inspire new Internet marketers with success stories and all this other great stuff as an authority on the subject. But he comes to the forum asking if he should spend $500 to have his site evaluated and beefed up so that it can do a little better in the SERPs. Right now, he’s getting hardly any traffic at all. Am I the ONLY one who sees the irony in this? He’s going to show people how to be successful and he’s a total failure.

Okay, but why is this dangerous? See, I know what you’re going to say. Nobody has to know that the guy is a failure. After all, how can they prove that he doesn’t make any money or that his site doesn’t get any traffic? They can’t…not right away. But here’s the problem and it’s what many people don’t think about. As you begin to get people to believe in you, they’re going to have questions and you darn well better have the answers. When they see that you don’t, they’re going to realize that you’re just faking it.

You may get away with this for a little while, but as the complexity of the questions increases, the chances of you being found out to be a fraud increases as well. Eventually, somebody is going to figure out that you’re a fraud and then, when the word gets around, your reputation is shot for good…even if you ever DO reach a point where you actually have some success.

Like it or not, the “make money online” niche is one where you really can’t fake it until you make it. At least not for long. Eventually, you’ll be ratted out as the fraud that you are. So my advice to you is simple. Make sure you actually have some success in this niche before you try to teach others how to have it themselves. Otherwise, you’re going to be in for a rude awakening when somebody pulls the rug out from under you.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

Tired of spinning your wheels trying to get your marketing off the ground? Haven’t got a clue what you’re doing and sick of being dead broke? Why not get some solid mentoring from somebody who has been EXACTLY where you are today? Check out my mentoring program at http://www.stevewagenheim.com/mentoring/mentoring.html and finally get yourself the one on one education that can FINALLY give you the success that you’ve been looking for.

When we market online, we cater to a certain demographic. Actually, we cater to several demographics. Some are obvious, such as the people in the niche itself who are buying the products or services. They are more or less, as far as demand goes, pretty much the same. But then we have sub demographics which are quite different and can really put a kink in our marketing plans. If you’re confused, don’t be. This article will clear things up.

I think a perfect niche to illustrate my point is the golf niche. I used to play golf many years ago. I know what the avid golfer wants. He wants to drive the ball further, improve his short game and putt more accurately. If you have a great teaching tool, you can sell to this market easily. These people all pretty much want the same thing. However, there is something that a lot of marketers don’t take into account when marketing to golfers. And I’ll bet you can’t guess what it is. Well, I’m going to tell you.

First, a question. How do you think a golfer would prefer to learn whatever tips you have for him? Do you think he’d want to read a book? I don’t. I think he’d rather watch a video…one showing the actual golf swing for a long drive or how to putt accurately. Nothing works as well as video when marketing to golfers. That’s why you should create teaser videos to lure golfers into your membership site or whatever it is you’re selling. But see, here is where the sub niche comes in. And I bet you still have no idea what it is.

It’s people on dial up. Oh yes, they still exist. And not only because they can’t afford high speed. Some areas in this world simply don’t have high speed capability. It’s a fact of life. And when you’re on dial up, let me tell you from experience, watching videos is darn near impossible. So, if you are in the golf niche and don’t have an alternative to video, you are, in essence, alienating those people who are on dial up.

Now, there is nothing wrong with that as long as you understand it. Some people will claim that those on dial up make up maybe 1% of the population. That may be true. But it still doesn’t change the facts. Those people will NOT be able to access your marketing OR your product UNLESS you make some kind of provisions for them such as making the videos available on CD or DVD. However, you have to ask yourself this question. Is it worth the expense to do that?

This example, people on dial up, is just one of the many “sub demographics” that exist in this world. You have the issue of language. Not everybody speaks English. You don’t have to cater to each sub demographic, but you darn well better know that they exist and that you won’t be reaching them if you don’t make provisions for them.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

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I hear it all the time. “I don’t care how much work I have to do as long as I’m making money.” I guess I can understand this thought process, especially if you’re on the verge of losing your home and everything else that is dear to you. Believe me, I’ve been there and know what it’s like. But eventually, you really need to think about what your time is worth or your business will never grow beyond a certain point. This article explains. Hopefully, it will REALLY get you to start thinking about these things.

Probably the best way to illustrate what I’m talking about is with a fictional example.

Let’s say John Doe decides he wants to get into the home repair niche, teaching people how to fix their own homes and also selling tools as an affiliate. It’s an ambitious business model but one that’s doable.

Okay, let’s see what’s involved time and actual expense wise.

Expense:

John decides that he’s going to use PPC to promote affiliate tools. Some of these tools are quite expensive and pay very well, so he can afford high PPC costs.

Let’s say his average keyword costs him $1. He decides to spend $100 per day on PPC. That means he’s going to get about 100 clicks. He estimates he’s going to convert at about 3% for this niche because these are really targeted people.

The average commission on the tools he decides to sell is about $50. So for every $100 spent, he makes $150, which gives him a $50 profit per day. That comes out to $1500 a month profit.

Now, the product he creates to teach people is an ebook and a membership site.

The ebook, time wise, is negligible. It took him 40 hours to put it together. He decides, because this is a low end product ($27) not to use PPC but to sell it on the backend of the tool sales. He thus builds a list to do this. Well, his autoresponder now costs him $20 a month. He is also paying hosting of $5 a month.

He finds that his ebook has a conversion of 1 tenth of 1 percent on his tool sales. That means he sells only 1 ebook for every 1,000 sales.

Since he only makes 90 sales a month, that means it takes him over 11 months to make 1 sale.

At $20 a month for the AR service and $5 a month for the hosting, at an income of about $2.50 for a month, it is obvious that selling the ebook isn’t worth it.

But…there is also the membership site.

Seems that this goes over much better and for every 90 sales he makes each month, he gets 5 members at $47 a month. That’s $235 a month income on the membership site.

But wait…he spends 2 hours each day helping those members with their home repair problems.

That means that he’s working 60 hours a month to earn that $235. That comes out to less than $4 per hour.

John feels that his time is worth at least $20 per hour, since that is what he made at his off line job.

So, here is the $64,000 question.

Is it worth John’s time to keep that membership site going?

More importantly, and this is where I’m going with this, if it were YOU, is it worth YOUR time to keep that membership site going?

These are the questions you need to ask yourself IF you are going to run a business where you are ultimately NOT wasting your time.

Hope this helps.

To YOUR Success

Steven Wagenheim

Tired of spinning your wheels trying to get your marketing off the ground? Haven’t got a clue what you’re doing and sick of being dead broke? Why not get some solid mentoring from somebody who has been EXACTLY where you are today? Check out my mentoring program at http://www.stevewagenheim.com/mentoring/mentoring.html and finally get yourself the one on one education that can FINALLY give you the success that you’ve been looking for.