Guest blogger Marlon Sanders reveals a simple step by step method to get started with Internet Marketing.
Pay attention to this post, as it really could have been the chapter of a book.

STOP OVERCOMPLICATING: The only 5 things you gotta do
and how to get ’em done in a few weekends.
By Marlon Sanders

Marketing 101 is to get a list of people and sell
something to ’em.

That’s about as basic as it gets.

Step one: Get traffic

Step two: Get people on your list

Step three: Give ’em an offer to erase your traffic cost

Step four: Get ’em to confirm their email address

Step five: Send ’em emails that get ’em to buy

Now, you can SIMPLIFY that even more by saying:
Get traffic, get ’em on a list, send emails and
make sales.

You can get most of these things done in one or two
weekends.

There, now you have the “magical formula’ for making
money online. How does it feel?

Of course, as with all things, the devil is in the
details. For example, one fly in the ointment is people
don’t have a target market.

I solved that with pushbuttontargetmarket.com so I won’twaste time on here.
I think I also cover that topic well in Product Dashboard and my Produce Promote course.

You can also
learn to create products, here.

Another fly in the ointment is having a product to sell.
You START by selling affiliate products or PLR. But you
create your own product in ONE WEEKEND if you’re halfway
ambitious.

Or you can start by selling affiliates products. Private
label rights. Affiliate products. They DO work to start.
Your own products are better. But hey, it’s better to get
going than to do nothing.

You can write a report or do 5-7 screen capture videos
that are 10-20 minutes long using either Power Point
slides or a mindmap as your talking points.

Beyond those two sticking points, the next BIG question is:
“So how do I get those people ON my list to begin with?”

The answer is: Offer them something free that they
really want.

The more they want it, the higher your conversion rate
on your squeeze page, that is the page that gets ’em
to give you their name and email.

There is no “magic formula” for the write freebie to give.
Some target audiences might like videos, or audios, or
cd’s or podcasts.

In the past, there was an import company called Mellinger
that build a multi-million dollar business running
classified ads in dozens of magazines offering a free
sample import. And they taught you how to run an import/
export business.

Their freebie was a free sample import.

If you’re offering a free report, audio or video, the KEY
is simply the title you give it.

It’s no more complicated than that.

They have to REALLY want whatever the secret you’re offering
is. If they really wanna know about it, they’ll opt in. If
they don’t, they won’t.

The format of audio, video, ebook or whatever is secondary
to the topic and the secret being offered.

Your actual name squeeze page can be ultra simple. Eben
proved that with doubleyourdating.com. Or you can be a tad
fancier.

Here’s my squeeze page that I’ve shown before. It’s not
exactly a work of art but before you laugh, it’s averaging
50%+ opt ins.

http://albertgrande.com/marlontraffic.html

The BIG secret is that I had to do 10 or more squeeze pages
to find ONE that converted at 50% or over. I didn’t get it
right my first time out.

I showed on the Traffic Dashboard webinar yesterday that
some of those test squeeze pages only got 5% to 8% opt ins.
But then ONE stood out with 69% opt-in rate. And that’s
the one I use now.

It’s not hard to do some graphics in Power Point or
Photoshop Elements, drop them into Kompozer or Dreamweaver
and create your own squeeze page.

You can even hire it out for as little as 5 bucks
(we discussed how to do this on the Traffic Dashboard
webinars this week).

Should you use a name squeeze page?

How do you come up with a great title for your freebie?

Look at the things that grab YOUR attention. That’s a good
start. Look at magazine article titles, subject lines of
emails, and so forth.

When something grabs your attention, ask yourself “why?”
Why did that grab your attention?

So step one is:

1. Find something your target market really wants to
have, see or know.

2. Offer it to them in exchange for joining your list.

It’s no more complicated than that.

Now you have people on your list. Step two: Send emails
that continue value and on occasion sell something.

There are advanced methods, secrets and little tricks
for name squeeze pages, follow up emails and all that.

But you START with the basics.

Target your group of people. Get ’em on your list.
Send ’em emails.

Listen, in ONE WEEKEND you can write an ebook. 50 pages.
You can do that in one weekend.

In one hour you can write 10 bullets and ask a designer
to create a name squeeze page for you.

Excellent graphic designer who knows how to create a nice
name squeeze page for ya.

In one weekend you can create a few Camtasia videos people
get as a freebie when they join from your name squeeze page.

You can EVEN do like Eben USED to do on doubleyourdating.com
and answer all the bullets on the next PAGE. In the old
days, Eben NEVER sent a freebie. Your freebies were all
delivered on the next page after you join his list.

I’ve seen people do that with a video also. They’d deliver
the info on a video then do a little mini-pitch.

STOP OVER COMPLICATING.

Get a stupid name squeeze page DONE! Get a freebie you
offer in exchange for a name and email. Get it DONE!

I’ve seen people use PLR (private label rights) as their
freebie and get 50%+ opt-ins with it.

I’ve seen people use PLR and also affiliate products as
their offer on the thank you page after people opt in, and
I’ve seen it be very profitable.

My friend Winter Valco made $15,000 last January 2010 by
selling a series of TEN PLR products after people joined
his email list. Some were one time offers and some were
sold via email.

Write your ebook in ONE WEEKEND. 50 pages. THREE PAGES
per hour. Ten hours in a day. That is 30 pages per day.
60 pages in two days.

DONE! Finished. Get on with it. If it needs editing,
send it off to an Elancer.

Don’t like to write? Do screen capture videos. With
practice, you can bang out 5-7 ten to fifteen minute videos
in 3 hours or less. Your first few times out will take
longer.

Don’t wanna write or talk? Then stop the excuses and get
started with plr and affiliate products.

Don’t got a target market. Pushbuttontargetmarket.com. Or
Productdashboard.com. Or my Produce Promote course. Can’t
do graphics. Hire Guru Ryan NOW and then get Design
Dashboard and get some SKILLS going for yourself.

It’s a GREAT product. Great stuff. Yeah, Adobe has a new
version of Elements. So one or two things changed on the
videos. But really, you CAN figure it out. For the most
part, they changed the COLORS of the program but not the
core functions.

It isn’t complicated.

You draw boxes. You insert photos. You add a border or
shadow. You create a gradient. You add a pattern.

Understand layers.

Understand how to use the canvass.

Understand how to lock layers and view layers.

Know how to add a stroke on text or graphics.

Know how to add a background image or color to a table.

SIMPLE, SIMPLE stuff.

That’s about all things we do in Photoshop and Dreamweaver.
You could learn them in a few hours if you set your MIND
to it. We use like 3% of the total abilities of Photoshop.

It’s EASY to learn.

Dreamweaver. Insert tables. Center. Add background image.
Insert picture. Insert graphics.

That’s your html editor or Dreamweaver basics.

If you don’t have the money for Dreamweaver, don’t sweat it.
Kompozer is a freebie download and lots of folks use it.
I think in Design Dashboard we used First Page for html
the 2006 version (the last version produced).

Hey, it STILL works! No problemo.

Now, Photoshop. Layers, gradients, patterns. Saving for
the web.

Basic, basic, basic stuff.

And if you don’t wanna even learn THOSE basics, for dirt
cheap you can hire some pretty good designers nowadays.

Of course, there’s the perenntial “Where do I get TRAFFIC
from?” question. And now that too is answered at:

http://albertgrande.com/marlontraffic.html

Let me ask you a question: Can you think of ONE STUPID
THING your target audience or market REALLY wants to have,
see or know?

Can you think of ONE THING?

If you can, write 10 bullet points on it.

Open html editor.

Insert table.

Center.

Type headline. Select font. Choose dark blue as color.

Type bullet points.

Go to aweber, automateyourwebsite.com or Get Response.
Create form. Copy html. Past in code in html editor.

Name squeeze. DONE! See doubleyourdating.com for example.

Now, you have a list in Aweber, Getresponse or
automateyourwebsite.com.

Send emails.

Don’t know HOW to put the autoresponder code on your page?
Hey, no problemo:

Now, sign up for affiliate products at Commission Junction
or Clickbank. Send emails. Sell.

The MOST important things are:

1. You MUST have one reliable method to get traffic to
your squeeze page.

You can use article marketing, organic seo, ad swaps, solo
emails, “the epiphany”, $7 offers or any of the other
methods I covered in the Traffic Dashboard webinars this
week, or any of the methods in the Traffic Dashboard itself.

They all work.

2. You MUST have a 40%+ opt in rate email capture page

I’ve covered this in detail in past ezine issues.

But you gotta have one. My tip is to create TEN to get ONE
that produces at over 50%.

But that one can make you a lot of dough and is 100%
worth it.

3. You MUST have a one time offer that works and partially
or fully erases your advertising costs.

A great OTO allows you to break even on your ad costs, thus
making the building of your list a no-cost event.

A super duper one returns 2 bucks for every buck you spend.
My friend Corey Lewis has one like that.

4. If you’re double opt-in, you MUST test different
confirmation emails and thank you pages until you get a
combination that works really great. Right now I’m at 60%
confirmation but I’m not happy with that and will continue
testing.

5. You MUST send offers via email

Affiliate offers are fine but learn how to create your own
pre-sell pages.

Learn how to send “free-to-join” offers.

Learn how to create your own little 7 dollar, 100%
commission offers. We talked about this on the webinar
yesterday also. My friend Jason Fladlien practically built
his whole business with these to start with.

You’ll spend about a month learning how to do ppc, or
specialize in any ONE method in “The Traffic Dashboard.”
You do NOT need to do all of them to start with.

Pick ONE and do just it for a month. Then go from there.

Set up your affiliate program using affiliatedashboard.com.

These are the BASICS.

This is how you make money in this business if you’re
curious and really don’t “get it.”

STOP OVER COMPLICATING.

STOP IT!

Get the basics done. Like starting NOW.

Best wishes,

Marlon

———————————————————–
Marlon Sanders is the author of The Traffic Dashboard and
You can snag your copy at:
http://albertgrande.com/marlontraffic.html

Learn How to Design a website, banner, and more.