DISCLAIMER: This may be the most important post you will read this week. Read to the end.
Most everyone wanting to make money online, wants to make it fast. There isn’t any waiting for tomorrow. We need quick cash and a silver bullet right now. Afterall, we have bosses to fire, and dreams to pursue, right?
- It Does Take Work and Time
Even though we want to dive in head first, and start to make money, you really need to have a road map of how you want to get there. One way to get there faster is to learn from others who are doing what you want to do. Another way, is to try things until you get something working. If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.
- Don’t be Afraid to Invest
Everybody wants to spend as little money as possible to learn how to make money online. Even to the point that they don’t want to spend money monthly for hosting, autoresponder services, affiliate mechanisms, or shopping carts. Listen folks, the costs of these services, while yes, they can get large…they are usually a necessity to get going. Businesses are built by bootstrapping, but you also need to have some capital to invest if you want to reach your destination quicker. When I hear people complaining over a $15 autoresponder account, come on. It is needed to make a dent in any marketplace.
Look at your expenditures as investments. Whether it is for these types of services, or your education. Buy and learn from the hours others have already spent their time and money learning.
- The Math Behind the Theory
The math I want us to focus on, is the math of building a list of prospects and customers. How much do you need to make each month? $2,000? $5,000? $20,000? I believe if you stick at it long enough, anything is possible, and more.
Let me ask you this important question: Would you be willing to spend $50,000 on something that can generate you $5,000 per month? Wow. $50,000 to make $5,000 per month?
In 1 year, you will have received your $50,000 back, plus – you made $10,000 to boot. That is a 20% return ($10,000 profit/$50,000 invested) on your investment in 1 year. That $5,000 may prevent you from having to ever work again for the man.
Everyone playing the stock market is happy to receive an 8% return year in, and year out. I really don’t think you have to spend $50,000, or invest $50,000 in marketing to achieve $5,000 per month. I believe it is less than that.
- If it Worked Once
Why not dip your toe in the water? The least that can happen is you learn from an investment. What I want to to do is leak a secret to you today…it is about offline marketing of your online niche.
Imagine the possibilities for a second: If I had the name and email of every dog owner in the Pittsburgh region…let’s say there are 3.5Million people here locally in this region. That is approximately 1.6 Million households and apartments. (Don’t ask me how I know this…it just has to do with my real estate investing)
So, we have 1.6 Million households and let’s say 2 out of 10 have dogs. That is 320,000 dwelling units having dogs. Suppose we can market to that niche locally, and get 3% onto an email list, someway, somehow. That is nearly 10,000 people! Are you starting to see the potential here? If this isn’t getting you excited…I don’t know what will.
Email Market – Suppose out of those 10,000 people on your list, you earn $1 from affiliate marketing via email each month. That is $10,000 per month.
Training Seminars – Suppose you begin holding puppy training seminars (you don’t have to do the training, work out a JV with a local dog trainer and split the profits). I’ll bet people would pay $25 / week for a 4 week training session). You easily have the potential to now make (100 sales X $100) = $10,000 per month in seminars. Pay the trainer $100 for the 4 weeks of training and you net $9,600 for the month.
Physical Product – You could offer a $99 video course (maybe you make it with PLR products, or video the trainer) etc) and upsell 5 of the 100 people…that is another $500 for the month.
JV’s with Breeders and Advertising – You could add a Page on your site where people can post dogs they have for sale. You just ask for a $50 fee it the dog sells. Offer $150 advertising slots. Offer videos that you provide web links to local vendors. You could easily make another $1,000-$2,000 per month with that.
For InfoPreneurs, the opportunities are literally endless! It is a bottomless pit of money that is waiting for you to reach into your creative sack of knowledge and tear it up! (Well, we don’t literally want to tear it up…we want to pocket it)
Ok, maybe you are starting to get the picture. The secret marketing weapon I want to share with you is Bandit Signs. Yes, bandit signs. Look, back in my real estate investing hay-day, I tried everything (and still do several). Craigslist ads, Billboards, newspaper advertising, flyers, business cards, networking, direct mail, etc. Nothing, dollar for dollar, worked better than bandit signs. I one time spent $775/month for a HUGE BILLBOARD, for 6 months, on the highway near where I live. It brought, on average, 3 calls per month. If I put an add in the paper, I’d get 3-10 calls per month for $150/month. If I put out 10 Bandit Signs, I’d get 2-5 calls for $25. Bandit Signs drive phone calls. That I’m positive of. Do they drive traffic? Well, I’ll let you know in a month or two how my plan is working. I do believe it has the potential to build lists, and I’ll be testing it out soon.
If nothing else, I hope this post gets your creative juices flowing. Find your niche and exploit it. Find your passions and work it like nobody else can. I really believe that InfoPreneurs, when given the right tools, can accomplish just about anything if they take action. We haven’t even created 1% of the Information Products that are going to be created in the future. The future is certainly bright.
I want to wrap up the Traffic Nuke program, and then we’ll be launching into the webinar series I’ll be offering to the VIP’s here. If you aren’t a VIP, joinup on the top right hand side of this page. Then, I believe some massive things are going to start taking place. 
Talk soon InfoPreneurs,
Over and Out.
Brandon Yeager
photo credit: U-g-g-B-o-y-(-Photograph-World-Sense-)
You definitely have some good ideas within this post Brandon and are absolutely right about the ideas being limitless.
It is all about being creative and finding what works for you and profiting from it and then ultimately taking action.
Interesting to find out how those bandit signs go for you. I really can’t do it here where I’m at but that would’ve been a good idea where I used to live.
Anna
Anna Haller´s last [type] ..Are you alone
Thanks Anna. I just see opportunity everywhere. It’s nice chasing after those shiny objects, versus buying the other shiny objects.
Brandon
I totally understand that we need to throw in small money in order to get big money. But knowing how and where to spent your investment is a another big topic too. Like me, I wasted some money on Adwords that I wish I can redo it =(
What are some ways that have been successful? Any other things besides Adwords that didn’t work so well for you?
I’m curious.
thanks,
brandon
How’s it go? You gotta spend money to make money?
Yes, you can bootstrap your way to building your business but sometimes you have to weigh your time vs. money. If you have to spend 100 hours learning a skill vs. buying a piece of software for $1000 obviously buying it will save you money and time.
We all have to think like a business professional would. Don’t just look at your blog as a blog, look at it as a platform to build your brand and a launchpad for your products.
Great suggestions on the little signs. In my town, there are dozens of them all over the place. You can buy 25 signs @ $2 each so a $50 investment can have your little ad all over the place.
Murlu´s last [type] ..Free and Open-Source Software Alternatives For Small Businesses
Yep, now you’re thinking. Think of a niche to dominate and network with people in that niche locally. Be the go to person.
B
Brandon!
Bandit signs? I love it. Please explain a little more on how you use them. This is a great idea. I’ve used a lot of guerilla marketing techniques off-line to drive traffic, but this is a new one for me. I would love to hear more about it.
One of the great, secret traffic weapons that I still love is article marketing. You can get traffic the day you write the article in many cases. Not a ton of traffic per article, but once your efforts increase, you keep multiplying your numbers each month.
Bandit Signs… I love it!
-Joshua Black
The Underdog Millionaire
Joshua Black | The Underdog Millionaire´s last [type] ..A Product Pricing Strategy Courtesy of Michael Jackson’s Glove
Hey Joshua,
The really cool thing with the bandit sign idea (or any other offline marketing also) is you can literally split test different campaigns easily. Your cost: $10. Just buy a different domain name and point them to different landing pages, etc.
How have your other offline techniques worked? I’m curious.
Also, thanks for the info on article marketing. That definitely something I want to start stepping up on also.
Take care,
Brandon
I am familiar with using Bandit signs for real estate and know that they are effective. I am curious about the message that you would use to drive traffic to a website with a Bandit sign. I hope you will follow up with details and results.
Keith Preston
Hey Keith,
It will something short and memorable. You have a split second to brand a domain into their head that they can remember. My only wonders…I know one of the owners of a bandit sign company and he says in general that websites aren’t a good thing to put on them. People would rather call a phone number, right there on the spot using a cell phone. Now, whether he was meaning sites/numbers on 1 sign, or sites by themselves…not sure.
So, I may possibly even direct “traffic” to a phone number, which then gives them a recorded message with a website. Will definitely let all of you know how it goes.
Brandon
People are often so averse to spending money to make money. It’s like they think a fully formed business will just fly our of their computer. I’ve yet to see that happen
Jean Sarauer´s last [type] ..How Naked Should You Get on Your Blog
I agree completely with everything you said here and I am really learning the stuff as I start out. Every time I am like man I need this to really make that work I hit Google. Then after about an hour of searching for a free service that offers what I require I am forced to start balancing my checkbook and weighing my options. I find myself doing this constantly now when I see a necessary tool I need. As the old saying goes you need to spend money to make money. Hopefully I make the money.
Ryan Hanzel´s last [type] ..Response cached until Mon 28 @ 22:38 GMT (Refreshes in 51 Minutes)
Hey Ryan,
Don’t get me wrong. I like free also.
But there are just certain business expenses that need to be made. Online marketing businesses are similar, but I just wonder how much faster we may be able to accelerate the process.
Keep on truckin. You’re on the right track.
Hi Brandon,
Awesome post. I’ve been looking for ways to market my online business offline. You have given me some great ideas to think about.
I really like your example. There are opportunities everywhere; you just have to be able to see them. I love that you’re out there trying different things and that you’re willing to share your ideas and experiences. Great work.
Jazz Salinger´s last [type] ..Learn and Earn – It’s a Marathon Not a Sprint
Hey Jazz,
It’s really coming down to…trying to develop a business completely around my vision for what I see myself doing in life…how I want to change the world…what legacy am I going to leave. That is all I’m focused upon and I’m just trying to let everything else (detail wise) fall into place.
Ohhh…did you just hear another minute tick away?
Will definitely keep you folks updated.
Brandon
well dag, I have $10,000 floating around, I’d give that up to make just $500 if it was guaranteed.
lamo´s last [type] ..Adrian Lamos meds