[Note #1: This is the most important thing I’ve written in 2010. Hands down. If you don’t read anything else from me this year (he he) . . . then read this.]
[Note #2: Every year I try and give away at least one free product. In this article, I’ll tell you about one I’ll probably give away this week (to a limited number of people). The product I’m giving away is intended to put an additional $1k in your pocket before the end of January; details on how to get it are below.]
What I’m about to tell you is something that I wish I’d been told years ago. And frankly, I wish I’d published this a lot sooner . . . because this is, by far, my most important blog post of 2010.
That said, I want you to know that . . .
What I’m About To Share (In This Post) is Not a F*cking Magic Bullet
What I’m about to share with you IS NOT a magic bullet.
If you truly want an online business, or if you want to take your online business to the next level, then I know we can make this work for you.
But the truth is that a LOT of people don’t want a business . . . they want a push-button and done-for-them simple income stream that’s not as much of a pain in the ass as their current job.
Anyway, if you’re looking for a zero-risk situation that comes with a guaranteed paycheck and almost no responsibility . . .
. . . then what you’re really truly looking for is an entry-level job.
And there’s nothing, NOTHING wrong with that.
But if that’s what you want then this isn’t for you. In fact, NONE of my courses, programs, advice, or blog posts are for you.
So, to be blunt . . . I know, KNOW that if you want to make this whole online business work then YOU. CAN. MAKE. THIS. WORK.
I’ve done this for myself and others countless times.
But please know that this is not a magic bullet (marketing “secrets” do exist, and there are paths to rapid amounts of wealth in a short period of time . . . but magic bullets simply do not exist).
So, enough about that. If you’re still here . . .
I’ll Start Off With My #1 Marketing Lesson of 2010 With a Story About A Dude Who Changed My Life
Back in the day, I took a huge leap of faith and spent like $3k to attend a live internet marketing event (at the time, that was not cheap for me, and I remember trying to hide the fact that I was NOT staying at the fancy conference hotel, but instead at a cheap hotel in the bad part of town about 1.5 miles away).
The event started at 9AM on a Friday. And being completely incapable of getting up before 10AM, I walked through the seminar doors a few hours late.
Anyway, when I walked through the doors, the first thing I did was approach some guy sitting at the very end of the very last row of seats to ask him if I’d missed anything important. (By the way, the guy I approached was a friggin’ huge dude with a shaved head . . . and I couldn’t quite figure out if he was a Buddhist monk, an ex-green special forces/black-ops military guy, or both.)
That guy was Chris McCombs.
When I Met Chris, He Was THINKING About Launching a Product For Personal Trainers
When I met Chris, he was thinking about doing this product for personal trainers (for the record, he ended up launching that product, but I’m getting ahead of myself).
Long story short . . . Chris and I began a friendship at that event. (Chris, by the way, is one of the most generous people I know).
And since we were both passionate about marketing, we spent a lot of time talking about that (I told him what I knew about blogging, and he told me what he knew about direct response marketing).
Anyway . . .
About A Month After That Event, Chris Launched That Program He’d Been Thinking About Creating (And He Totally Crushed It)
After the seminar where I met Chris, he did end up launching that product we’d talked about (at the seminar where I met him).
And he launched it in a big way.
But the magnitude of Chris’ success isn’t all that I remember.
Not by a long shot.
I remember seeing Chris’ sales copy the day before he went live.
I remember him telling me (before he put everything into motion) how he lined up his affiliates, how he decided what to work on and what NOT to work on.
I remember Chris showing me draft copies of the logo before everything went down.
And I remember him mulling over his plan of attack.
I Remember The Experience of Being Behind The Scenes As I Watched Chris’ Big Info-Marketing Victory Unfold Right Before My Eyes
As a consumer, I’ve seen literally hundreds of winning and losing marketing campaigns over the course of my life.
I’ve watched them on television.
Listened to them on the radio.
And participated in them on the internet.
But for me, Chris’ launch was different.
Chris’ Launch Marked the First Time that I’d Personally Gone Behind The Scenes of a High-Grossing Campaign . . . Of A One-Person Launch That *I* Was Capable of Running
Somehow . . . hearing Chris’ personal account, and seeing specific examples and numbers behind his launch (plus hearing the story of how it came to be) . . . made everything believable in a way it hadn’t before.
Sitting there on the phone, listening to Chris recount to me the play-by-play on how his launch took shape did something for me and my education that hadn’t happened previously.
It opened me up to a new reality and made everything real.
Getting all the nitty-gritty step-by-step plans and details behind a real live campaign that I had seen with my own eyes made something click.
It made me think “I can do this too.”
But most importantly . . .
Watching Chris Got Me To Do What No Other Course, Program, Or Coach Could Do . . . IMPLEMENT
Seeing behind the scenes of Chris’ campaign got me to take action for the very first time.
I’d read “all the books,” gone through “all the courses,” and spent plenty of money and time doing what consultants, and gurus, and teachers TOLD me would work.
But with all the courses, there was always this little voice in the back of my head saying “this is internet marketing, this is probably bullshit, you can’t REALLY do this, this isn’t REALLY possible” . . .
. . . and that voice had scared me action-less for too long.
That voice is why I never gave it my all.
That voice is why I never really fully committed.
That voice is why it took me so long to finally follow through.
Yes, I had gone through all the courses. I had studied everything. But, strangely, seeing Chris’ specific example got me to actually believe that this whole online business thing was real (and not just a pipe-dream created by marketing teachers to sell me expensive shit).
And it was when I truly, deep-down, believed it was possible that my dreams became a reality . . .
And then I started executing like a madman because I finally had recaptured the enthusiasm and “I can do anything” outlook of excitement that I had when I first got started.
Watching Chris not only gave me confidence, but it also gave me an airtight PLAN (that I had 100% faith in) and a simplified, workable structure for moving forward.
And within three months of watching Chris do his thing, my income skyrocketed.
In fact, I pretty much learned from Chris’ plan of attack . . . and adapted his approach to my market.
And within three months of seeing what he did, I’d tripled my income.
And Then It Happened Again. And Again. And Again.
At the very next conference I attended, I ran into Chris again.
And he SHOWED me behind the scenes of another promotion he’d run (he told me what he did, showed me his copy and conversion stats).
I implemented. And I made money. AGAIN.
In fact, I made about $12k within the next three weeks.
And Then I Went (Bat Sh*t Crazy) Crazy Finding More People Like Chris
I started fighting tooth-and-nail to find people who were ACTIVELY and regularly making highly profitable offers to their lists and markets.
And I ended up getting behind-the-scenes, no B.S., from the horse’s mouth step-by-step directions (with specific examples and swipe copy) on how to . . .
- Promote live events
- Do upsells
- Sell continuity programs
- Offer down-sells and cross-sells
- Create booked-solid coaching programs
- Offer membership sites
- Promote physical products
- And on and on and on
And I meticulously started building an underground swipe file, taking copious notes of what worked and what didn’t, conversion rates, etc.
In the end, I had compiled a “library of offers” (an informal repository of knowledge) . . .
. . . and next thing you know, people were calling me to get the latest details on what offers were working and what offers weren’t.
Anyway . . . it turns out that . . .
What I’d Been Doing is What Most Multi-Million Dollar Marketers Consistently Do
Yup . . . back then I was pretty naive, I thought what I was doing was groundbreaking.
Years later it’s unquestionably clear that the one practice that top marketers are consistently engaged in is the non-stop, ongoing dense exchange of almost real-time nitty-gritty details about what kinds of offers have been working (in their market AND in other markets).
Indeed, among top marketers, there is a beating-pulse, word-of-mouth, and accidental network of data swapping about what worked YESTERDAY.
I Call This Accidental Network “The Collective Consciousness Of Internet Marketing.”
And it’s an unintentional and underground information economy with its common and widely understood repository of word of mouth knowledge.
And most people don’t even know exists (even the people participating in it).
But it turns out that (across markets) one of the major factors consistently separating top online entrepreneurs from people whose businesses never quite take off . . .
. . . is the good ol’ fashioned practice of getting on the phone (with other movers and shakers) and consistently swapping information – on an ongoing basis – about what recent offers failed and succeeded. And why.
(Remember when I said I’d tell you what my friends and I do to double our incomes each year? Well, the secret is that we connect WEEKLY to swap information about what offers have worked and not worked in our respective markets and businesses. And then we implement like madmen).
Anyway . . .
The #1 Thing You Can Do To Make Your Business Work is Get Access to “Real-Time ‘Offer Flow’ In Your Market”
If you’re like most people (i.e. if you’re like me) . . . you can’t have major online success before seeing numerous plain-as-day, detailed and specific examples of successful online offers.
And if you feel you’ve haven’t “made it” yet, or you’re still struggling in your market . . .
. . . then there’s a very good chance that you don’t have consistent access to “offer flow” (i.e. consistent access to behind the scenes information about how different offers are doing in your market).
Today’s Lesson: Do Everything You Can To Get Constant, No-Holds-Barred, Behind-The-Scenes Detailed Access to Online Offers
You want me to give you a step-by-step blueprint for doing this, but I don’t have one for you.
But I can give you a few pointers to get you headed in the right direction.
You’ll need to go to conferences OTHER THAN SXSW and BlogWorld (try Yanik’s Underground Online Seminar, Affiliate Summit, Product Launch Formula Live, etc.) and talk to people pushing the envelope.
You’ll need to hang out at the bar, late into the night (which is usually when the best connections are formed).
And if you’re new to the game, you’ll need to have massive value to bring to the table as well (what got me “in” initially was that, when I started selling stuff online, I’d done social media promotion for companies like Fox Television Studios and had extensive connections to top social media influencers . . . and people were really interested in that).
There’s no easy answer here, because you’re the only one who’s going to figure out how you’re going to do this for you.
But I will tell you this . . . it will require you to have creativity, persistence, and confidence.
Rest Assured, You NEED to Figure This Out
Because theory can only take you so far.
And because, until you get behind the scenes of real marketing campaigns that have made serious money, and see with your very own eyes how this stuff works . . .
. . . then that little voice in your head (that’s saying all of this is bullshit) will likely continue to scare you action-less for the rest of your life, or keep you from rapid growth in your current business.
How to See Behind The Scenes Of One Low-Effort, High-Return Campaign
In order to show you exactly of the kind of information I’m talking about . . . I’m willing to make a free video showing you behind the scenes of one of my favorite offers.
(I promise you – this is an offer that you, yes YOU, can have up and running in a day; and it’s an offer that works because I’m doing the exact opposite of what everyone else is doing.)
Anyway, if you implement this offer exactly like I show you, there’s a good chance it will make you an additional $1k (at the very minimum) within the next 30 days.
I’m going to tell you how the offer works. And why it works. And give you as many stats as I can (and as much perspective and story as I can fit into the video).
I’m also going to share information about my business that I’ve never shared before.
But This Is Going To Take Some Time To Put Together
This free video is going to take some significant time to put together. So if I’m going to bust my ass to make this happen over the weekend, then I want to make sure you actually want it (so I don’t feel like an idiot).
So if you want access to the video, please (1) enter your email address below, AND (2) leave a comment below telling me you want the free video. (Note: you MUST do both of these things if you want the free video).
Important note: There’s a good chance that I’ll only give away between 150 and 200 of these free videos (to protect my business). And in the case that I do limit the release of this material . . . the videos will be given away on a first come, first served basis.
So if you know that you want a copy, you’ll probably want to take action sooner rather than later.
Anyway, I hope all of this has been helpful! And of course, I’ll do my very best to answer questions in the comments (so ask away).
Warm regards,
Clay
UPDATE: We’ve maxed out on the number of videos we were giving away, but if you’d like to be one of the first to hear about future free videos, join our list (you can sign up at the top of this page) and we’ll let you know as soon as they come out.
