whatsoever through a US-based server, such as:
JV Give-Away events,
Monetizing with affiliate offer reviews,
Receiving free Professional Review products, etc, etc...
Then the SEC and FTC have distinct jurisdictional powers over your affiliate
marketing endeavors. It's important to note that this is regardless of where
you reside.
Consequently, be sure to properly disclose your affiliate marketing connection
clearly, concisely and plainly; in a non-obfuscated and easily-viewable manner.
To put this into perspective, your disclosure must be in obvious proximity (aka
“clear and conspicuous”) relative to any affiliate link (aka “triggering item”).
One of the easiest ways to maintain compliance, is to simply post a plainly
obvious affiliate earnings mini-disclosure at the very top of any page/post that
houses one or more affiliate links.
Your mini-disclosure would then link to your full disclosure page, whereby
helping to build trust with your readers (due to the very fact that you are making
it so plainly obvious).
Which brings us to...
Key Elements Of An Irresistible Traffic Funnel
A properly-designed Traffic Funnel can mean the difference of adding another
zero to whatever you are currently used to generating online annually.
The most lucrative Traffic Funnels have the following traits in common:
• Are fad-neutral / season-neutral.
• Contain no hype, visual noise, or “click me” distractions.
Address the Top Four Consumer Questions (covered below).
Are benefits-bullet packed, with one very specific (unified) call to action.
Build trust every step of the way, while totally avoiding information
overload.
Remember the old saying about “Honey attracts more than vinegar”? The same
holds true when creating Traffic Funnels. How so? Selling online is similar to
offline dating. Unless you're into “dating” hookers or bar flies... you usually do
not start out jumping in bed.
In other words, you have a much greater chance of monetizing your list if you
love and nurture your subscribers because you truly care. If you start by building
a strong trust-based relationship with your subs, they’ll eagerly look forward to
hearing from you again and again.
And that’s when you’ll really start seeing your traffic, subscribers, social shares,
linkbacks, and profits skyrocket like a bat out of hell. Rather than merely a list of
email addresses only there to make you money... on the contrary. Serious Bank
emerges when you develop a heart-felt relationship with your list and truly help
them achieve their goals.
The rewards are breathtakingly splendid, to say the very least. You’ll then have
yourself a bonafide cash-crapping Goldmine of Opportunity at your disposal.
Remember your #1 Greatest Asset is a responsive, targeted subscriber list eager
to spend money with you. Get that right, and the rest is biscuits, gravy and apple
pie (with ice cream on top).
Top Four Consumer Questions
In order to achieve maximum conversions, the Top Four Consumer Questions
must be answered. Below is a short excerpt from “The Irresistible Offer: How to
Sell Your Product or Service in 3 Seconds or Less”, by Mark Joyner, to put the
importance of this into perspective.
“Question 1: What are you trying to sell me?
Question 2: How much?
Let’s look at these questions in tandem. Put them together, and your buyer is asking, “What is your
offer?” Your communication must reassure that ongoing Unspoken Inner Dialogue that you are offering a
commodity of acceptable quality for a reasonable price.
Give me five dollars, and I’ll give you a glass of water.
Give me $5,000, and I’ll remove your swollen appendix.
Give me $100, and I’ll (deleted!) . . .
If, at the core of your sales process, your offer is not a good or a fair one, then only fools will buy. And, if
you have fooled someone into buying your product, you won’t have that customer for very long.
In the long term, a business built on such a shaky foundation will not last. You can always sucker
someone into giving you money, but you can only do it once.
A master — one who knows how to make a quality offer — will wow the customer once, and wow him
again and again and again until both buyer and seller have happily prospered.
Such is the way millions and billions are made. Once the offer has been made, there are still two
questions that must always be addressed in the prospect’s mind.
Question 3: Why should I believe you?
Indeed, why should someone believe you? This question goes to the core of buyer insecurity.
Sometimes, offers can sound fantastic on the surface, but therein lies the problem they sound too good to
be true.
People have to trust that they’re not dealing with a charlatan peddling snake oil before they are willing to
hand over their money. An offer only works if it has credibility behind it.
Again, only a fool would hand over money for nothing, and you don’t want a fool for a customer.
Question 4: What’s in it for me? Wait a minute... We just answered the question, “What are you trying to
sell me?” Isn’t this the same thing? Not exactly. When people ask, “What’s in it for me?” they are trying to
figure out how they benefit.
People buy products, but what they want are “benefits.” You buy the Bentley, but what’s really in it for you
is the prestige that comes with owning one.
You buy the health food, but what’s really in it for you is a better quality of life (and more of it). Most
marketers see this as the core question to be answered.
Its importance is obvious — if there is nothing in it for me, why should I waste my time listening to you?
This question is so often pondered by marketers that we shorten it to “WIIFM.”
However, to focus on this question alone is folly. If you focus solely on WIIFM, your marketing will seem
pitchy and solicitous.”
Although the above excerpt was framed in the context of a Premium Offer, all
four of the above questions still apply to Freemium Offers just the same.
Sales Funnel Aesthetics
Without a doubt, the aesthetic appeal of your site can massively turbo-boost your overall conversions across your entire Traffic Funnel:
Genuine end-user testimonials.
Crisp, clean, non-convoluted layout.
Site owner graphical signature and photo.
Alluring professionally-designed eCover graphics.
A compact main heading/sub heading combo minus the annoyingly hokey-
looking red headline.
You'd think the above tips would be plainly obvious. Point of fact: The vast
majority of web marking sites I've checked out look like they belong in a circus
freak show. So do yourself a favor and strip your sites down to a crisp, clean,
easy-on-the-eyes trust-building opportunity.
Deploy all of the above and amaze yourself with the resulting conversion boost.
Pure and simple.
Hot Tip: For self-hosted WordPress users, I have found the s2Member plugin
absolutely indispensable for creating Traffic Funnels. Amongst numerous other
highly desirable capabilities, it can be configured to seamlessly collect leads
completely in the background (via MailChimp).
Granted, it does take a bit of work to initially get everything set up right. But
once you've done it as many times as I have, it flows like clockwork; whereby
providing a remarkably smooth end user experience.
Special Thank You Page Considerations
Thank You pages should not have any affiliate offer pitch whatsoever (except as
noted below). Its sole purpose is to over-deliver real value and build rapport with
your subscriber as the Go-To Girl / Guy within your niche.
It's not so much the “what”, but rather the practical value of the information and
resources you're providing for your subscribers. Buyer resistance is rapidly
reduced when you are always truly helpful, and never pushy:
• Keep your hard-pitching down to a minimum (i.e. once every seven email
sends)
• And always be extremely generous with high quality no-strings shares
each and every mailing.
Hot Tip: Let's say that you found a really excellent Love & Romance niche
product that you felt was worthy of promoting. To instantly discover a treasure
trove of freely available goodies, I'd go to Google and type in the following two
searches verbatim (with quotation marks)...
“love tips” filetype:pdf
“romance tips” filetype:pdf
Just those two searches alone will produce many dozens of freely available L&R
tips PDFs. I'd then select the direct links to the very best dozen or so, and create
a highly-focused “mini resource directory” right under the main Freemium Offer
download link.
Naturally, each resource would have a brief couple-sentence explainer on why
it's being recommended.
Now you might have to experiment a bit with different keyword combos (for the
best resources), but this has always worked without fail for every niche I've done
this with. In some cases, it's produced some pretty amazing results.
At the very bottom of your value-packed Thank You page, you'd have a discreet
teaser linked to your no-holds-barred brutally honest affiliate offer review page
on whatever you're genuinely excited about.
Now, for this to really work like gangbusters - the affiliate offering must perfectly
resonate with your free offer. And on that note, most so-called “reviews” are
snake-oily and do not actually help the end consumer. So dare to be different.
In other words, write real reviews that openly discuss the draw-backs AND extol
the virtues of the reviewed product or service. Your customers will admire your
honesty, and your wallet will prove their loyalty.
Before you start building your own highly profitable Traffic Funnels:
• Have a clear picture of a specific problem your ideal subscriber is facing.
• Have a clear picture of what your typical web visitor is going to experience
when they land on your site (i.e. your “Funnel flow”).
• Strongly consider the real value of your offers (which is not to be confused
with 'perceived value').
Going about it this way helps to ensure maximum receptivity and minimum
unsubscribes.
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