UPDATE:  Get all the details here

This coming week we’re going to unveil a new product for the first time publicly that’s been under wraps and development since last year.  Actually, it’s been under development since 2006, since what I’m about to share has been refined in my own businesses since then.

What I have done is to finally document everything I’ve been doing with the exact techniques in my own online businesses for years to:

• Back-track sales transactions to understand exactly where the buyers and leads are originating
• Understand buyer behavior, in terms of content usage and consumption patterns on websites
• Properly tune and optimize landing pages, sales pages and critical content pathways
• Build bigger lists faster and less expensively
• Get the most out of lead-generation and sales conversion processes with certain best practices I’ve learned from all over the place since 2004
• Reduce wasteful spending on advertising programs, including Google PPC and Display Network
• Pinpoint where to concentrate SEO efforts to get the biggest ROI

I decided to package this knowledge up and turn it into a video-based training course that anyone will be able to use to get what I’m calling a “Detective of Sales” badge, by learning and applying “Internet Marketing Forensics™” techniques to their online business.

I designed a cool-looking badge for those who complete the course:

We’re going to be providing training on how to become a “Sales C.S.I.”, a sales detective who gathers the proper evidence and clues on the “conversion scene” (the website), and then (like their crime solving counterparts) solves conversion mysteries, then makes tuning and optimization decisions that:

- Increase online sales conversions

- Increase lead-flow to offline sales teams

- Maximize profitability of  PPC and other traffic and advertising

- Guide where to focus for the  highest-return on SEO keywords and related SEO investments

- Reduce waste and eliminate unprofitable spending (esp. on Google AdWords and content network traffic that doesn’t convert profitably)

The thing is, we have decided to launch this product a bit differently.  We’re going to begin by limiting the initial user base to just one hundred (100) users in what we’ll be calling a “controlled release”.

This controlled release phase is essentially a paid pre-release/beta program, where we’ll be working closely with the early adopter customers to help them apply these Internet Marketing Forensics techniques in their businesses, gather feedback on the pre-release product, testimonials, etc.

Keep an eye out for the announcement, as I’m expecting those initial 100 units could sell out rather quickly, given that we’ll be making the controlled release units available at just 40% of the normal retail price.  Once the controlled release units are gone, the product will be taken off the market for a while until we formally launch it (probably in May/June timeframe).

Also, this is the only time we will be working with clients this closely at such a low introductory price point, so while the controlled release may not be for everyone, it’s a great way to get going quickly to improve sales and lead-generation results fast with some hand-holding that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg

Anyway, I’m very excited about this “soft launch”, controlled release of the Sales C.S.I. program, which begins this coming week.

Stay tuned. More details will be announced on Tuesday, March 1st at 11 a.m. Eastern time.

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Today we’re announcing a new affiliate and joint venture partner service, whereby we work with clients to put a high-performance affiliate program in place.  The program is designed to increase sales and grow lists at the same time.

This service is based upon Andy Hussong‘s JV Attraction Formula(tm) and his “F.A.S.T.E.R.” methodology, which is a field-proven process for attracting, motivating and profiting from JV partnerships and affiliate relationships.

You may recall the interview with Andy back in November, and he discussed in detail how the overall process works and the kinds of results that one can achieve.

The new service includes development of a Partner Portal, a WordPress-based JV blog and content site like the one you see here, which hosts training training videos, links to promotional materials and other useful information for communicating with partners and affiliates more effectively.  It also included development of a “JV Attraction” affiliate sales page with accompanying video.

Get all the details here

Related posts

• How to create magnetic JV partner and affiliate programs that get results (12)
• Wrapped up interview with Andy Hussong on JV partnerships (2)
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• No list, no partners, no budget – no launch (1)
• It’s good to be King (3)
• Internet Marketing Forensics: Coming this week (0)
• Business Leverage: Joint Venture Partners and Affiliates (25)

Add new revenue streams to your business by attracting more JV partners and affiliates and learn how to actually get them to promote your products for you in this free interview with affiliate management and joint venture expert Andy Hussong!

In a recent blog post on Business Leverage: JV Partners and Affiliates, I wrote: “I sought out a leading expert on Joint Ventures and Affiliate Marketing (Andy Hussong)… and we are now engaging him to help us with these areas of our business and now I’m going to introduce him to you…” and told you that I would interview Andy and share it with you, so you can:

1. Attract more JV partners and affiliates and learn how to actually get them to promote your products for you!
2. Identify any gaps or shortcomings you (probably) have in any existing affiliate program you are already managing today
3. Increase your sales results and profits through high-leverage JV partnerships and super-affiliates

Well, Andy really over-delivered, as I have come to expect from him.  Instead of just providing us with an “interview”, we ended up with both an interview plus a full-blown tutorial on how to create a successful JV partner and affiliate program for your business.  It’s one-hour, 18 minutes of high-impact content – strategies, tips, how-to’s, pitfalls to avoid and more.  Believe me, it is well worth your time to listen to this entire interview, and take notes on everything you learn so you can super-charge your JV partner and affiliate program.

Press Play button to continue (and get a notepad ready and take notes)

Download the MP3 file (audio only)    Download the MP4 file (video)

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION AND LINKS:

1) Get 3 Free JV Attraction Videos

2) To schedule a free 20-minute strategy session with Andy:

Send an email to: jvstrategy at gmail.com Subject: Rick sent me

Be sure to take advantage of the above offers from Andy!

There’s a TON of useful tips, strategies and practical how-to advice in this tutorial interview.

Some of the topics covered include:

• Biggest mistakes and pitfalls to avoid when approaching JV partners
• How to create a proper “JV Attraction Page”
• The F.A.S.T.E.R. formula for successfully attracting, motivating and profiting from JV partnerships and affiliates
• The JV / Affiliate Funnel and associated processes that must be put in place to succeed
• Why you need a JV / Affiliate Blog and what goes in it
• Where to find and how to approach potential JV partners and affiliates
• Hiring an affiliate manager and how to properly compensate them for performance and results
• Much more… well over an hour of expert guidance that WILL help you.

I realize this is a long interview. Believe me when I say, it will be worth your time.  If as a result of this information you only get ONE additional JV partner or affiliate to promote your product, you will likely make enough sales to pay for the hour you’ll invest here a hundred fold – so please take my advice and go through this material (or schedule 90 minutes on your Calendar with a link to this blog post so you can take full advantage of this opportunity).

Also, be sure to register for the three videos Andy is giving you for free.

I hope you take away some solid value from this interview and it helps you as much as it has me with our affiliate program.

Related posts

• The New Rules of Launch (11)
• Announcement: New Affiliate Management Services (1)
• Wrapped up interview with Andy Hussong on JV partnerships (2)
• Business Leverage: Joint Venture Partners and Affiliates (25)
• No list, no partners, no budget – no launch (1)
• It’s good to be King (3)
• Internet Marketing Forensics: Coming this week (0)

CLICK HERE FOR THE INTERVIEW

Related posts

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• How to create magnetic JV partner and affiliate programs that get results (12)
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• Internet Marketing Forensics: Coming this week (0)
• Announcement: New Affiliate Management Services (1)

In the recent survey we ran, we received a number of write-in comments.  One of the recurring areas in this, and prior, survey responses is that most of us small business owners and entrepreneurs aren’t getting nearly enough “leverage” in our businesses today…

What is meant by “business leverage”?

Jerry Myers knows a lot about business leverage, as shown in this great diagram from his blog, which I highly recommend:

As Jerry correctly points out on his blog, in business, gaining leverage is typically a matter of increased speed, reach and momentum.  And leverage is achieved by tapping into:

* OPM = Other People’s Money
* OPE  = Other People’s Energy
* OPI  = Other People’s Ideas
* OPT = Other People’s Time
* OPU = Other People’s Momentum
* OPR = Other People’s Relationships
* OPN = Other People’s Networks
* OPX = Other People’s Traffic

Obviously, the operative term here is “other people’s” – which is not under our direct control, but IS under theirs – if only they would cooperate with us and let us into their world…

So if leverage is so critical to business growth, how do we get it?
And why don’t we have more of it already?

Like most things, it’s a matter of where we invest OUR time, energy and money – as well as the systems, tools and processes we have in place and that we make a priority.  Most small businesses and online entrepreneurs spend the vast majority of our time on our own products, websites and in driving DIRECT profitable traffic to generate sales.

The difference between “proportional” results in business and exponential business growth is what we’ve been talking about – the number of business leverage points you employ.  One way to add this business leverage is through INDIRECT marketing and sales strategies; e.g., resellers, sales reps, affiliates, JV partners, ecosystem partners, franchising, licensing deals, etc.

In the online marketing and product launch areas, we can gain massive leverage from JV Partners and Affiliates. By “massive”, I mean orders of magnitude more sales with less effort – that’s massive leverage – tens to hundreds of times more sales with the same effort you put out to make fewer direct sales today.

How do you suppose companies like Citrix, Microsoft, Adobe, Google and every other big company makes billions of dollars in sales?  They have acquired and mastered MULTIPLE sources of business leverage over time.  They have thousands of resellers, VARS and partners and use “other people’s stuff” to generate massive business leverage.

It’s not a matter of magic, luck or being smarter – it comes from deliberately and systematically developing, nurturing and growing these points of leverage on a consistent basis – year in and year out.

We all know the words and concepts – “JV Partner” and “Affiliates”; however, most of us struggle to actually tap into these sources of business leverage that directly translate into wealth.  Why?

Because we are unable to find and forge the right relationships with these “other people”, and as a result we don’t get nearly enough ROI for our business investments… so why not?

The reality is, most of us don’t have the right systems, tools and skills in place today to attract, train, energize and motivate JV partners and affiliates – hence, we don’t have these “Other People” amplifying our business today.

I know this for sure, because I don’t have all of these things in place fully in our business today either… (something we’re underway to fix).

Guess what?  You’re not alone!  But we are going to solve this business leverage problem…

I have recognized that our business is suffering from a lack of engagement by most of the JV partners and affiliates we have “signed up”, too.  So I finally decided to take action and do something about it.  Fortunately, I have found the solution, which I’m now going to share with you…

So here’s what we’re going to do about it

I sought out a leading expert on Joint Ventures and Affiliate Marketing… and we are now engaging him to help us with these areas of our business and now I’m going to introduce him to you.

His name is Andy Hussong.  Here’s a bit of background on Andy:

“Andy worked behind the scenes with one of the most highly respected Internet marketing experts in the industry, John Reese, as his affiliate manager for over 5 years. During this time, Andy spent numerous years figuring out the best strategies for having a killer affiliate program, and in the process, developed a formula for not only attracting new affiliates and JV partners, but how to MOTIVATE them to take consistent action, as well.

Today, Andy is a coach, consultant, and trainer on how to apply these principles effectively, in order to create a dependable, consistent stream of sales from an army of motivated affiliates promoting your products, month after month. He’s also a devoted husband and father of 4 boys, a youth baseball coach, and die-hard Cubs fan.”

In case you don’t know who John Reese is, John is a multi-millionaire serial entrepreneur and leading online marketer, who taught many of today’s “gurus” how to become successful with their online businesses.  I can’t say enough good things about John Reese, as I have probably learned more about what works in online marketing from John than everyone else combined over the years.

John Reese was the first Internet marketer to have a million dollar day – to sell more than $1 million of information products over the Internet in less than 24 hours during a product launch – and Andy is an “insider” who knows a lot about how those kind of results are achieved…

And Andy has agreed to an interview, where he will provide us his direct insights and perspective

Per your recent guidance from the survey, you told me you wanted me to do a better job for you by interviewing more experts in various disciplines… so here we go…and believe me when I say, we are all in for a real treat!  I spoke with Andy at length yesterday about the interview for an hour, and I am truly excited about what we’re going to learn.

Here’s your opportunity to get YOUR questions on JV Partnering and Affiliate Management answered!

So, now I need your help and input again.  If you have specific questions, issues or sticking points on attracting and motivating JV partners and affiliates to gain the leverage you need in your business, please post them as Comments here on this blog entry, and I will do my best to have Andy address them for us in the upcoming call, which will take place the second week of November.

Please post your questions, issues and sticking point comments for Andy now
(just Leave a Comment below)

Here’s a link to the interview

Thank you.
Rick

Related posts

• Wrapped up interview with Andy Hussong on JV partnerships (2)
• The New Rules of Launch (11)
• It’s good to be King (3)
• How to create magnetic JV partner and affiliate programs that get results (12)
• Your Relationship Development System – Profiting or Costing You? (3)
• When I Stop Talking, You’ll Know I’m Dead: Useful Stories (9)
• Internet Marketing Forensics: Coming this week (0)
• Announcement: New Affiliate Management Services (1)

The New Rules of Launch

How to launch a product, company or
anything else via the Internet in 2010

FREE E-BOOK DOWNLOAD

The Internet and Web have changed the rules for how we launch anything new, including products, websites, and companies – even political campaigns – using social media like Twitter and Facebook to create purpose-built launch communities and make more sales.

The Web and the ubiquitous global communications it enables now interconnect over 1 billion people for the first time in human history. Practitioners who learned based on the old rules have been slow to change and adopt new methods, such as social media.

I hope this e-book will enable everyone who wants to leverage social media and the Web for launch of – a company, product, service, website, political campaign, or anything else –  to grasp how to leverage the immense power of the Internet and social media networking to do so.

While I certainly don’t claim to have all the answers, the path and way major launches will reach the masses is clear – through social media and online networks. I think this e-book provides some food for thought that will be helpful and worthwhile.

Download and Read the New Rules of Launch

But be prepared to alter the way you think about launches…

Download the New Rules of Launch here.

Merry Christmas 2009!!  And here’s to a Happy New Year and lots of great launches in 2010!

Rick

P.S. Please feel free to post copies of this free e-book document on your blog, website or email it to anyone you believe would benefit from it. This e-book is licensed under the Creative Commons License, as indicated below.

P.P.S. Please come back here and share your comments on the e-book whenever you can so I can improve it…

Inside the New Rules of Launch

How to launch a product, company or
anything else via the Internet

TABLE OF CONTENTS

The New Rules of Launch.  4

How to launch a product, company or anything else via the Internet  4

The old rules of launch.  5

The New Rules of Launch.  6

Why You Need to Learn the New Rules.  7

Today, savvy marketers use online networking to reach and influence buyers directly.  7

Psychology of Social Product Launches.  7

Reaching Mainstream Buyers and Markets Faster.  11

Targeted Buyer Language vs. Generic Product Language.  14

The 3C’s of Launch.  16

It’s the Network, Stupid!  17

Obama Presidency Launch Campaign.   18

The Power of Grassroots Movements in Launch Campaigns.   19

Network Influence is the Launch.   21

Nobody Cares About Your Product   24

Tuning In to What Customers Want   26

Big Idea = Big Launch.   28

New Rules of Attention.   35

The Magnetic Force of Free.   38

Buzz = Word of Mouth Storytelling Gone Wild.   41

The Launch Community.   43

Launch Partnering in Powers of 10.   44

Introducing Launch 3.0.   46

Launch 3.0 Process.   49

Canvassing – Building the Launch List and Community.  53

The Launch 3.0 Sales Process.   58

New Rules of Launch by Rick Braddy / ConXentric is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at www.winningware.com.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://www.winningware.com/contact.php

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It’s been said that on the Internet “Content is king.” Well, if content is king, then relationships go cha-ching!

Of course, cha-ching is the sound of the cash register ringing—the sound of making money.

Another popular online marketing adage is “The money is in the list”—meaning if you have a list of prospects and customers, the money is in farming the list.

In reality, the “Money is in the relationships,” including relationships that are embodied within mailing lists.

No relationship = no money.

Great relationships = great money.

These “Circles of Trust”, as illustrated at the top of this post, are where the real money is made. Get inside one of these major circles, and you’re in the money.  And the more of these circles you become a part of, the easier it becomes.

Tapping into these circles of trust is probably the biggest untapped potential for social networks to create tangible value for online businesses.

One of the fastest and most reliable ways to make money online is to build relationships and then turn them into money.  Sounds simple enough…

RELATIONSHIPS = MONEY

For example, let’s say you have a friend or business associate that has a newsletter and blog in your target market. Let’s assume this person has built a following of 30,000 newsletter subscribers and 20,000 regular blog readers per month.

These aren’t uncommon numbers on the Internet; in fact, these are relatively small compared to many people I know personally.

So, you convince this person that it would be in her subscribers’ best interest to know about your new product. As an added incentive, you agree to pay her a 20% commission on every sale you make from her subscriber base and blog. Never mind exactly how we will track those commissions (it is easy) for now.

I am going to use this concept of a “Trust-O-Meter” (below) to depict how much trust a prospect has developed in us. The following Trust-O-Meter shows how much our associate’s audience trusts her:

Like a thermometer, the Trust-O-Meter represents the level of trust and relationship strength, in a simplistic way, so we can conceptualize it better.  As we see above, our friend’s audience not only trusts her, they like her.  We might even consider extending the scale further to the right by adding “Respected” (not shown here).

Why Affiliates and Bloggers Are Trusted

Continuing the affiliate example above, since most of her audience has been with her for some time, they have not only developed a high degree of trust in her, but they also like her. Going beyond trusted to liked is a sure way to make more sales—a lot more sales.

So, we were introduced by our friend and associate to her audience. What is our Trust-O-Meter reading with them at the start?

Because we were introduced by a person the audience (those on the affiliate’s list) both trusts and likes, we get the benefit of the doubt and begin in a semi-trusted state with her audience.

We will have to earn the rest of their trust…

Together, you and your friend come up with a strategy for communicating and involving the subscribers:

• An initial email and blog entry that introduces you to her community
• A free teleconference where she interviews you about a hot topic of interest
• A recording of the free teleconference posted on the blog site and a brief email note sent to the subscriber list
• A free giveaway item you provide that is relevant to her audience
• A “special offer,” a time-limited discount on buying your product!

Assuming your product can interest the majority of the 50,000 audience your associate has just introduced you, guess what just happened from the above steps?

First, a foundation of trust and respect existed between your associate and her subscribers and readers. Second, she introduced you to them. You are no longer considered a stranger, so you instantly became semi-trusted.

Next, your free teleconference gave those who attended an opportunity to learn firsthand what kind of person you are and to ask you questions and see how you responded. In effect, you became an authority who is operating at nearly the same level as your associate, and perhaps even at a higher level in your particular area of expertise.

Incidentally, everyone who actually registered for and attended that teleconference just became qualified leads for your product, since they invested some time with you.

Next, everyone else who listens to the recorded teleconference audio also trusts you more (assuming you didn’t blow it during the interview by trying to sell something!) Notice how you have moved up in the Trust-O-Meter!

Next, you gave away some of real value to her audience. This shows what a stand-up kind of person you are, someone who cares and is trying to help.

Finally, she pitches the special offer for your product to the subscribers and audience. In this pitch, your friend is effectively endorsing you and your product, which confers an even greater amount of her trust equity onto you.

I call this “transitive trust,” since her audience now implicitly trusts you primarily because you have been endorsed and approved. Why do you think companies pay so much to get celebrities to endorse their products?  Because they are both trusted and liked by so many.

Now, let’s run some numbers to put this example of ours into the proper perspective.

Out of 50,000 subscribers, only 50% are even mildly interested in what you have to say or offer them, leaving 25,000 potential prospects.

By the time she makes these 25,000 the offer, around 40% have enough interest and familiarity to open the email and learn more (This is your email “open rate.”) That is 10,000!

Out of those 10,000, about 25% click through to get more details on this special offer— that is 2,500 qualified prospects that now show up at your website (instead of her blog).

Let’s assume your offer is truly special and motivating to the buyers who have an immediate need and budget, and now trust you enough to buy from you. Let’s assume that 20% end up buying your product over the next 30 days as a result of this campaign.

So you make 500 sales! About 1% of her total subscriber base ended up buying your product. Not bad for a brief campaign with this associate of yours. Let’s say your product sells for $100. You just generated $50,000 in sales.

Let’s say your product sells for $995. You just generated $497,500 in sales!  Now you are talking!

What just happened here? You went from zero to half a million in sales and 500 new customers in a matter of a few weeks. That is what happened. What other business do you know of where those kinds of results are possible?  It happens somewhere on the Web every single day.

The truth is, this happens in online businesses all the time. In fact, I’ve seen product launches orchestrated with multiple partners who have large subscriber bases sell many thousands of units in less than 24 hours—generating millions of dollars in just hours.

All of this is only possible when you have the right relationships in place.

Remember what I said:  Relationships go cha-ching! It’s so true.

And, it’s good to be King!

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