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Terry: Just to give people an example then, your daughter is 18 or 20?

Ken: She’s getting up there, she’s 22 now.

Terry: Just to put a real perspective to it, when she was 20, she followed the steps that were on the site that anyone could go on and see them…

Ken: Actually, the report is still up there. It hasn’t been updated in a while to show what her exact results are, but we document on the site. So you can go to www.affiliateshowcase.com, and look for the Melissa Report. It’s actually a case study of how you can build affiliate income.

Terry: So that’s really going to be a step-by-step process…

Ken: It’s actually a step-by-step about what she did. I told her to do this, and she did it and reported back and told me about the results. “I got so much from this affiliate program, got so much from that affiliate program…”

Terry: Now people don’t have an excuse that they don’t know what to do. They just basically go in and look at the steps and follow what Melissa did because she had a good mentor.

Ken: She was successful at it.

Terry: As far as being an affiliate… we’ve kind of crossed from being an affiliate manager into being an affiliate. Now we know how to get started. If somebody isn’t going to go into the Affiliate Showcase site at this exact second, can you outline in general terms how it’s going to be? Pretend I’ve never been on the Internet. What kind of steps would I go through to make an income with an affiliate program?

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Terry: How does your traffic system tell you where they’re reading down to on the page?

John: It’s my own tracking system. It’s coded in PHP and it’s not available to the general public. I’m thinking about making it available in the not to distant future. Basically is uses a system where there little snippets of codes all the way down a page. The further down a page somebody reads, then that particular piece of code flags an indicator. Say, there were five codes that were flagged down the page, I can tell how far they scrolled by what marker they got to on the page.

Don’t ask me for the technical information, Terry. I just tell people what it is that I want to do and then they create a system that does it for me. I don’t know how things work; all I’m interested in is the results something can give me. The more data I have the easier it is for me to look at something and see how it can be improved.

Terry: That’s super. What do you do with the AdSense? You have a unique system to use AdSense in addition to your tracking and using articles and what not. You also have a unique system where you use AdSense to actually test the niche market, is that right?

John: Yea. It makes a lot of sense, if you think about it. A lot of people traditionally will look up a keyword, let’s stick with pet food, and they might want to know what the demand is for pet food. They could set up an Ad Words campaign where they set up a site with a squeeze page, one that gives away a free report, or maybe it’s a survey page. Traditionally, people have paid Google so many cents per click to drive traffic to a site to determine whether or not people are willing to give information and sign up to a list or just generally to determine if there is a sufficient interest in a particular key word before they invest in affiliate programs or something like that.

I turned that on it’s head. I came to the conclusion that, instead of me paying Google to do research, Google should be paying me to provide me with research information. If I’m interested with a niche market, I’ll set myself up with an AdSense site, I’ll maybe have ten or 15 articles written, I’ll created a 15-20 page site using the primary key words and a few secondary key words. Stick that site up and then leave it for a month or two or three, and after we have some traffic going to the site… some of the articles I’ve written I put in directories… maybe put some signatures around to drive traffic to a site; there are all different ways to drive traffic to a website.

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Dan: But could you find a list of 5,000 ReMax realtors? In a heartbeat. I could go one and on but those are some of the biggest mistakes.

Terry: That's very helpful actually. The next thing that just popped into my mind is that you're probably opposite of all the gurus and very professional people online where you don't follow into the mainstream I'd like to say. Most of the gurus are saying that to be successful, find a need and fill it. What's your opinion on that?

Dan: I think that's nonsense. Here's why: if you want to go broke, find a need and steal it. If you want to become rich, find a want, and steal it. People don't buy what they need, they buy what they want. We only need a few things in life to survive: food, water, and shelter; that's about it. We don't need a Mercedes, a big house, a Rolex, and we certainly don't need Starbuck's Coffee.

Terry: Well that's debatable.

Dan: And we don't need 30 pairs of shoes. I hope my girlfriend is listening to this. But guess what? We want them; we want the nicer things in life. People buy what they want, not what they need. Find a want and steal it; don't find a need and steal it. Position your products and services as the ultimate solution to your prospects problems. Fulfill their dreams; fulfill their desires and you'll do well.

Terry: Actually, that's a good point. If somebody's going to start a business right now, they're starting from scratch, what advice would you give them then? To find a want and not a need, and fill that want, how would you go about setting up that business?

Dan: That's a tough question Terry. Instead of just telling your listeners some pieces of the puzzle, why don't I walk you through the whole process? Imagine I'm starting a business with you right now, and the process we'll go though to build a profitable business. That way, you'll be able to see the whole process and behind the scenes and my thought process.

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Terry: Right. They’re kind of like Internet marketers: they focus on the tools and not the tactics.

Kelly: We’re all the same. The Internet is the same thing.

Terry: So once you got them in that position, what’s the next step? Maybe they’re not addressing the way that they should be… where does it go from there? Do you take a look at their sales copy and advertising and break it down? How does that work?

Kelly: Yea. Before we even look at their advertising copy, the next step is to really know your client and who you’re trying to sell to. I have a process that I go through with people because we really want to nail it down to one perfect, ideal client. As a copywriter, I’m trained to talk to one person when I’m writing, so it’s more like a conversation. As a business owner, what I want to do is for you to know who your idea, perfect client is, and tell me all about him. What worries them? What do they love? What is their family life like? You might combine three clients into one, but we want to know this one person.

Once we’ve identified who that is, are we talking to them correctly in all of the messages that we’re sending? That’s tricky; it was hard for me and hard for a lot of people to narrow it down to that one person because if feels like you’re alienating so many other people who you could be serving. In reality, what happens is that you’re talking so directly to that one perfect person that the other people hear your message because it’s very clear. Other people that you want to attract hear it.

That’s a big step that I spend time really digging into and getting really clear on who that person is. Writing the materials and writing to them in the ads and other messages is easier because you know who this person is.

Terry: How do you decide on the media? Once you decided on the perfect person that you’re going to write to, how do you decide if you’re going to do newspapers, postcards, sales letters, or direct marketing? How do you decide which avenues to go with?

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Terry: Beautiful. So that was really the first big break for you then; the toy collecting and the toy business.

Ty: Yea that was actually one of my first big breaks. I’ve had a few since then, but that was actually the first big break for me.

Terry: Now let’s just back up for a moment. These ads that you’re placing in the toy magazines… are they ads for people to order a specific toy or to order a catalogue?

Ty: Well, no, I didn’t have a catalogue; it wasn’t that advanced at that time. I placed two types of ads. The first was a want ad where I would buy collections from people to sell to other people. So, let’s say that you had a collection in your basement and you wanted to get rid of it, you could call up and say, “Ty, I have this collection and I want to get rid of it. I don’t know how much it’s worth or anything, it’s a bunch of junk/toys, how much would you give me for it?” I’d say, “Ship it to me.” When they sent it to me, I’d look at it and I’d give them an assessment and an honest opinion of what it was worth and I’d usually pay half of what the resale value was on those collectables. That was the first type of ad I made: want ads.

At first I was spending more money than I was making, because it was a hobby for me; I wasn’t business minded at that point. It’s like a lot of Internet marketers who spend more than they make because they are jumping in on all the new ways to make money or to get traffic to your site or some new way to get leads. You’re always spending more money initially until you get those “ah-ha” moments. The “ah-ha” moment for me was when I realized that I should be placing want ads as well as sell ads.

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Terry: So you end up having to continually find something new to smooth out the ups and downs of the business.

Marc: Absolutely. Or, you could never leave your day job because you can never say, “This is going to pay my rent next month and my car payment,” or reach your goals, whatever they might be. So, I knew that something had to change. In 1998, I had first studied joint ventures. I should back up a little bit… I had been reading about joint ventures since I got online. At that time, it was put on a lofty, mysterious platform, which I think it still is a little bit. Guys like Mike Enlow and Jay Abraham were the names talking about joint ventures. Ted Thomas as well. These three people seem to hold a mystical key that no one else could grab a hold of. I know that people have paid them $25,000 to come to their seminars, but I didn’t think that it was possible.

One day, I got an e-mail from Mike Enlow or someone who worked for him that said, “You can consult with Mike for one hour for $500.” At that time, I said, “That’s insane; who would do that?” But, Terri and I talked about it and we realized that this man might hold the key to unlock the power of joint ventures. So, let’s pay for it. We shelled out $500 and we scheduled a call with Mike. I tell you, Terry, that was the best $500 I spent at the time.

Terry: Fantastic. Before we go on, can you just explain what a joint venture is, for anybody who isn’t really sure of what it is?

Marc: Sure. A joint venture, in its simplest terms, is a partnership. It involved two or more parties, which could be individuals or businesses, partnering up, sharing resources, and leveraging off of each other’s strengths and weaknesses to bring more money in that didn’t exist before. I’ll simplify it: most people think that a joint venture is when, I have a product, I want to contact Terry, and I say to him, “Can you send this out to your list and I’ll pay you 50% or 60% or 70% of the profits that come in from your endorsement mailing of my product?” That’s been bastardized on the Internet; it’s been beaten to death.

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Terry: So what if I’m the opposite to exactly what you said, where I don’t have a business that’s totally unique, I don’t feel that I’ve developed something that someone hasn’t already done, and I can’t use anything else that any other business has done? What if I’m a business that, online especially, is in an extremely crowded marketplace? For example, like online marketing, instead of having two or three stores offline that are selling furniture or electronics or whatever, if you Google something like “online marketing,” you get 50 million results. How would I become a leader in an industry where there are millions of other websites that are my competition are just as accessible as I am or maybe even more so. How am I going to actually get to my prospects?

Marc: That’s a great question. It’s funny that you started out by saying that traditional offline businesses are less competitive than online businesses. The fact of the matter is that it’s 2006 when we’re recording this. No matter if you’re an online or offline business, your customer or prospect go online to research whatever it is that you’re going to sell before you buy it. There are a ton of very competitive industries both online and offline. The Internet isn’t doing anything but make it easier for the competition to enter the market. It’s lowering the barrier of entry so that any business can wake up one morning and find out that a furniture store is competing with a manufacturer from China.

People are saying, “I just bought something from online and bought it from a manufacturer,” or, “I just bought something online from the local furniture store here that’s national and competing against small businesses.” The Internet has opened up so that it’s difficult for offline businesses. Online marketing and businesses that are specifically online are extremely ramped. My first suggestion is to go run and hide. The reality of it is, if you jump into something competitive like online marketing and you haven’t been around for a while, be prepared to get very good at what you do.

The days are gone where you can just take someone else’s information, polish it up a little bit, put my name on it, and go sell it as well to make a little bit of money. Maybe those were very early on in online marketing, but those days are gone. Unless you’re prepared to become a very good online marketing guru and student, then you will find that it’s going to be a very tough up hill battle requiring ability to make yourself different, more unique, or special compared to your competitors out there.

All that said and done, when you find an industry that’s really competitive, for a marketing person, that’s a great sign. That’s a sign that you have a market that will sustain a lot of players. If you have a market that will sustain a lot of players, that means there’s a lot of money going around in that market. If there’s a lot of money flowing around in that market, that means that you have to figure out what you need to do to put your net in that cash flow and extract the amount that you think is worth your time, energy, and effort to be in that competitive industry.

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Terry: Just before we go on, can we go over what the difference is between a feature and a benefit so people are clear on that?

Jay: A feature is what is in your product and a benefit is what that means to them and what they get out of it. One of my clients goes to Norway to get their furniture. They get Norwegian slat beds. That?s the feature. The benefit is that you have a more inexpensive sleeping surface that gives you the body support you need and you don?t have to worry about a dirty innerspring mattress, you can use a slat bed. People only care about what is going to benefit them out of a product or service, and not care about anything else. Did that answer your question, Terry?

Terry: Yea, I just wanted to make sure our listeners know the difference between a feature and a benefit because way back in the day when I was in advertising, it was very difficult to figure out the difference between them. That explanation is absolutely perfect, thank you.

Jay: Here's the thing to keep in mind, quality is not what people think it is. Quality is not what you put into a product or service; quality is what people get out of your product or service. Don't talk to them about you, talk to them about themselves and they'll care like crazy.

Okay, so the first sentence talks about the purpose of your marketing and the second shows an advantage you have to achieve that purpose.