It’s undeniable that if you add audio to websites it will increase your results. In fact, not using audio is a big mistake. Adding it raises your opt-in conversions. And your sales.

But why?

It’s not hard to figure out. The web is mostly silent. Audio adds a human quality to your site. It adds the feel of a real live person. Audio literally breathes life into your website. And this aliveness creates more interaction with your visitors.

Some more benefits

You’ll receive two immediate benefits to your bottom line when you employ the use of audio. You will close more sales. And you’ll spend less getting those customers. You won’t have to hire someone to write your sales letter. Just record some audio and add it to your site. Your visitors will respond better to a heart-felt message from you than some fancy copywriting.

You’ll also get better conversions on your list opt-ins. People need to be told exactly what to do. So you make an audio recording that says, “Enter your email address in the form.” That alone can increase opt-in rates up to 310%!

Some ways to use audio

A welcome message on your homepage. A warm welcome can be the deciding factor. This could be all it takes to get your visitor to decide to stay.

Lead them by the hand. The same principle we used to boost opt-ins applies. You can use audio to tell your visitors exactly what to do. And take them all the way through buying your product.

Testimonials for your product or service. It’s good to get written testimonials. But what’s even better are audio testimonials. It’s pretty easy to fake a written testimonial. Audio adds a level of higher believability. And will definitely increase your results.

Power tip

What about creating an entire product using audio? You’ll be able to produce audio products faster than any other kind. And your customers will be very happy with the product. Think about how popular podcasts are. Plus, you can get them transcribed cheaply. This is the easiest way to “write” an eBook!

How hard is adding audio?

It’s actually really easy. There’s software that will show you how to add audio to a website. There’s no knowledge required on your part. The software creates the audio button code for you. Simply copy the code and paste it in your site. You don’t need to even consider this part.

In closing

Here’s a recap of the benefits: Setting up some web audio will do wonders for all your results. You’ll get more sales. You’ll get more subscribers. And don’t forget, you can easily create sales pages and products in a flash. It’s a less often used medium. So you’ll be one of the few reaping the rewards. Get started right now and realize instant results.

It is extremely difficult to get started in affiliate marketing. This is because there are already a lot of people doing it. In order to survive you have to beat your competition. There’s also a lot of information out there about how to do affiliate marketing, so it can be confusing. Here’s one trick that almost no one else is using.

Affiliate videos

No one would deny the power and popularity of video. The reason it’s so pervasive is because everyone loves it. It’s so much easier to keep people’s attention with video. So why wouldn’t you use it in your affiliate business?

Here’s how to use videos for affiliate promotions:

• Testimonials
• Walk-throughs
• Ordering
• Sneak peak

Record your testimonial

This one is super simple. Just turn on your web cam and talk. It doesn’t have to be professional or polished. Listening to your honest endorsement makes your viewers feel comfortable buying. In truth, mistakes and mess-ups just make it more believable. You really can just click record and start talking. Use one of the other ideas if you’re feeling shy.

Record a walk-through

This one is a little more subtle. Basically you’re doing a tutorial on how to use the product. And while they watch you use it, they think, “I should buy that.” If it’s useful, then what you’re teaching just makes people want it. So just make sure you’re demoing a good product.

Do an ordering video

This technique is super powerful. Do a screen capture of the ordering process. Nothing inspires your viewers to buy like watching you do it. First of all it’s what’s called “social proof”. Once they see you doing it, they feel more secure. It also build your viewers trust. They are much more likely to take your advice to buy when you’ve taken it yourself. And let’s not forget about good old fashioned envy. It’s simple – you have it. Now they want it. You can add some extra punch to this by ending with: You’re gonna have to place your own order if you want to see the members area.

Record a preview of the members area

This is a great way to build value. You do a tour of the members area. You show them the entire contents of what they get. This one also helps to remove the skepticism. It’s much easier to trust they’re getting something if they actually seen it.

You can do this!

You don’t need any special training for this. Anyone can create stunning videos with some easy-to-use software. Really, the software does all the work. So you don’t have to worry about the technical part of this at all. Keep focused on the rewards:

• Increase sales You’ll earn more affiliate commissions when you add video. People like video, so start using it.
• Less refunds Less of your commissions will be clawed back, too. Your customers will know what they’re getting into ahead of time. So less of them will ask for refunds.
• Beat your competition! Adding video is so simple. But only a very small percentage do it. So, you’ll be way ahead of the crowd.

Get started right now and take your affiliate marketing to the next level. It’s your profit that’s affected by not taking action.

Secrets of Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is by far the fastest way to get started making money online. Affiliate marketing means that all you do is send hits to someone else’s website, they do everything else (make the product, design the sale page, handle the billing and support, etc.), and you get a percentage of the sale price as your commission (usually 50% or more for digital products).

Here’s just a few benefits

1. You’re able to start almost instantly without having to make a product, write the sales page, design the website, create marketing materials, or set up the ordering, billing & delivery system.
2. It runs on auto-pilot for you because you don’t have to do the customer support or deal with billing or technical issues.
3. There’s no risk for you, because the product owner has already done all the research, development and testing.  So you already know that the visitors you send will result in commissions for you.

Obviously affiliate marketing makes sense – these benefits make it a clear winner!

There is one major drawback…

Once you send your visitors to the product sales page, they are gone forever. Unfortunately, the majority of those visitors (at least 90%) will not buy on their first visit. That’s fine for the product owner because she can sell to them again and again, but you can’t.

How can you avoid this pitfall?

What you need to do is capture the contact info of your visitors before sending them to the product website. This way you can follow up with them and keep sending them back to the sales page to increase your chances of making the sale. And if you’re a super star affiliate, you’ll provide high-quality content before sending them to the product website.

Here’s what these affiliate marketing strategies will do for you:

1. Owning a list of potential buyers gives you the ability to market additional products at the push of a button.
2. You’re generating good will by giving them high-quality content. This way, they are much more likely to make a purchase when you send them to the sales page.

Here’s what you’ll need to create affiliate tools like this:

1. A squeeze page, and even better, a video squeeze page.
2. One or more content-rich “warm up” pages
3. An email series with at least 5 high-quality content emails

The video squeeze page is where you’ll direct your traffic instead of directly to the product sales page. It captures the name and email of your visitors and puts them into your autoresponder, which then begins sending out the 5-part email series. Then it redirects them to your content pages after they subscribe to your email series.

The content pages provide valuable information for your visitors and make them more receptive to the sales message that you’ll link to from inside the content. While they’re reading the content you’ve provided, your email system is already following up with them to send them back to the product website again and again.

There’s no doubt it’s worth the effort to put a system like this in place, because doing so will increase your profits by 500% or more.  And after you get it all set up, it runs on total auto-pilot. You just refer people to your lead capture page, instead of the product sales page.

Setting it all up yourself requires some skill, and if you’re not up to it, you can use a service like Affiliate Silver Bullet. With a service like that, you don’t have to do anything. They make the video, build the squeeze page, write the email series, develop the content mini-site, etc. And then just give you a finished package. On the plus side, you’ll save a ton of time and money vs. trying to build this yourself. Plus you can get started instantly. The downside is that other people will be using the same affiliate tools as you. But the internet is pretty big, so this isn’t much of a concern.

The other route you can take is to hire people on Elance to create and implement the various aspects for you. Either way, it’s an important step you need to take if you’re going to be serious about your affiliate marketing.

Have you ever felt like you’re being drawn and quartered and just haven’t come apart yet?

Yeah, I’m feelin’ kinda stressed around here. Trying to go in too many directions and not reaching any of the destinations.

That’s what happens if you try to do too many things that aren’t related to each other.

Having become addicted to downloading all the neat free offers and free trials, I’ve been going in too many directions for a while now.

It’s hard to resist email headlines like these:

“Last chance to download this free PDF report”
“Here’s your free report”
“Here’s your ready made income stream…”
“You can’t win without this…”
“Download this free video package”
“Did you pick up your free software?”
“This powerful report is just for you”
“This report / video/ course/ software/ ebook/ audio/ is just what you need”
“Open now if you like money”
“Download these products instantly”
“Get 2000 guaranteed visitors to your website today!”
“Have you tried this yet?”
“Grab this while you still can” or, “before it’s too late”
“Great freebie for you today”

And then there are the nifty catch words like, secret, incredible, sneaky, alarming, fun, deadline, before it’s too late, and
yes, even nifty is a great catch word.

I’m saving the headlines that make me click, for a “swipe file” of good subject lines, but I’m not the best test subject for this. I tend to be curious anyway, and it doesn’t take much to pique my interest.

And I’m not complaining about these email subject lines. They’re good. They got me to click on them. And they pretty much all have some great products. But are they related to what I’m doing? Or even to each other?

Mostly, not. And therein lies my dilemma.

It’s a funny thing about goals… you have to define them really well if you want one.

It’s time to read Alex’s modules again and get down to business… yet again.

How do you stay on track? How does anyone focus on only one subject when everything is so interesting?

I’d love to hear what you think!

If anyone still thinks Social Media marketing is a fad, they will find out soon enough things have gone far past that idea.

I’ve certainly found a great niche on Twitter and am reveling in the fine friendships I’ve made over there. We’ve also accomplished quite a lot, as well, as we share information and recommendations to help others. It’s amazing how much information you can dispense in 140 characters or less.

Others prefer Facebook, or LinkedIn, or any of the many others now on the scene. It’s not going away and as this video demonstrates, it’s a paradigm shift akin to that of the Industrial Revolution.

Enjoy:

This just in: Now it looks like we’re going to have to learn some new rules of the game due to changes in credit card order processing. Apparently, MasterCard and Visa have changed things without any warning.

This very likely will affect most of us in varying ways. For some, it will be completely debilitating, and for others, just a bump in the road. In either case, it will be a learning experience and will ruin some and strengthen others.

What is this change?

Remember “try before you buy?” Or “free plus shipping?” Or, “$1 now, then $37 (47, 67, etc.) per month?” It’s known as “continuity.”

Well, it seems those selling tactics have just been shut down. Suddenly, and without warning, you may not be able to do those anymore. Not with those credit card companies, anyway.

It’s probably a reaction to unscrupulous marketing, but it has the potential to ruin honest and straight forward marketers, too.

Boy, if you’re not being slapped around by Google, or fined by the FTC, now you can get in line with your fanny bared for a MasterCard/Visa spanking.

Where will this end? It’s getting harder and harder to make a living in any world, offline AND online.

So what can we do to survive, or preferably, thrive?

According to some of the experts out there, it looks like your LIST will still be your best asset to date. Focus on list-building and forging relationships with people and you should be OK. The high-flying, happy-go-lucky days of the wild frontier online are over.

Good. It’s not hard to put videos in here. Now it’s time to post the second video from Patric Chan, which I just got from him. It’s the second 5 tips, completing the Top Ten that he promised in Part One.

Enjoy:

Gotta love him… Patric knows his stuff, and he loves sharing it!

This is going to be an experiment for me, as well as an attempt to share something of value with everyone.

First, this will be my first attempt at posting a video in here! If nothing shows up, I’ll cry, but if you see something, then you’ll know I lucked out.

Second, I thought this video was pretty helpful. It’s by my friend, Patric Chan, who coached me a couple years ago.

So, if I’ve embedded this video right, you’ll see as you watch it that it only shows the first five tips. Patric said he’s making another video with the last five tips, which I’ll put in here next time.

OK, here we go:

Watch for the next video! You can also visit his website at www.successtrace.com.

Oh, it’s a jungle out there, all right. Just when you think you’ve learned enough to protect yourself, someone comes up with a new way to ruin your day… or your website, or your reputation, or…

We all know better than to click on a link in an email from Nigeria by now, but did you know it could happen in your Twitter account too?

Typically, it will show up as a DM (you Tweeters know what that is…. “Direct Message” if you don’t) from someone you know or recognize. It will be something to pique your curiosity… a link to a funny video or a way to make 10 million bucks in 5 minutes… and you want to click on it. You can’t help clicking on it. So… you click on it.

As a rule, you’ll get a login screen that looks very official. You might even think it has something to do with Twitter. After all, there are quite a few useful and innocent apps available for us Tweeps to make our time there more fun and profitable. If you’re used to allowing apps to have access to your account, you will probably allow this one, too.

But don’t do it!

Why? Because the next thing that happens is that YOUR Twitter ID starts sending spam to everyone. You could get banned or
flamed or something.

What should you do? First, don’t click on these. If you get hooked anyway and start seeing the nasty results of this scam, immediately change your password. Then, go here: http://twitter.com/account/connections and see who has access to your account. If you don’t like what you see there, click on Revoke Access.

I just checked, and I don’t have anyone using my account but me. Whew!

But don’t panic if you have several in there. Just examine them and be sure they are there because you really did want their services or whatever.

Also realize that if you can be tricked, so can your friends and followers. Don’t flame them. Just realize they probably don’t know what happened. Send them a DM and advise them what to do to clear things up! Be a friend.

Oh boy, be careful what you wish for. And be careful how you visualize and focus on things…

I’ve been thinking strongly about how to make a few bucks this year, just to help me hold on while I create my ultimate success online.
I guess I’ve been thinking of that end result as too big to conquer first, and that I should do something “in the meantime” to survive while I put the elements together that will bring huge success.

This week I actually came into possession of a “buck.” A dog named Buck.

OK, you can laugh if you want to. I think it’s kinda funny myself. Maybe Buck the dog will be the push I needed, to get past the notion that the ultimate goal has to be secondary. It should be primary!

So, how did I actually end up with Buck the dog?

As part of my animal rescue work, it came to my attention that a swell dog was about to be put down because he had nowhere to go, and the shelter he was in needed the space. As is typical of shelters all over the U.S. (and probably in other countries as well), certain animals have the lowest chances of survival as they are usually the first to be killed. No one adopts them, and they can languish in a cage forever. So why bother?

Buck typifies that situation in every way: He’s black; not too big, but not small; he has no identification on him; he’s older; no owner can be found (meaning he was dumped to wander and make it on his own); to survive he was raiding trash cans; he looked sickly (thin from lack of food and care, matted hair, covered in ticks). Poor Buck was a sure candidate for the needle, all right. Who would want such a sorry looking old dog?

Well, I did. I knew he was a good dog inside but that his luck was almost completely run out, so I spoke up. After veterinary care and some recuperation time in a foster home, he became ready for his new home…. mine!

So now that I have my interim “buck” along the way to internet success, I can focus fully on that goal! (Did the universe just teach me a lesson? I prayed for “bucks” and got one!)