Turn the Internet Into Your Own Monopoly Game

Republish: EasyPublish™
Published: 18Dec2003
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Everyday I receive at least half a dozen emails asking me how to get more traffic to web sites and where good places to advertise are.

Although I am always glad to help, the problem is that 95% of Internet marketers have put the cart before the horse. They try to learn the techniques or generating traffic to a site or how to make sales, but they never spent any time developing a good business strategy.

Without an overall business strategy, any marketing technique that you use will only be one tenth as it could have been. Having the right marketing strategy is the key to developing a long-term profitable Internet business. When your strategy is developed you will find that the right traffic building techniques will just fall into place.

I am going to give you a very basic outline of the strategy you should be using below. Anyone can turn the Internet into a real life monopoly game, but you have to follow these three simple steps.

Although there are a lot of different models of Internet success out there, you will find that every one of them will include all 3 of these steps. You could consider them the 3 simple "Insider Secrets" to Internet Success. Every successful Internet model is applying them in one way or another. Start following and putting these 3 simple techniques to work in your business and you will quickly find yourself moving towards Internet monopoly.

STEP ONE: Choose a Market and Ultimate Benefit.

Which came first...the product or the prospect?

All successful businesses know that the prospect must come first. You will find that unsuccessful businesses choose a product first and then tried to find customers to buy it.

You will find that the Internet marketing road is extremely difficult if you are just trying to sell "Your" product. People don't care about your product.

They care about solutions that they need for their problems. Look for frustrations that people are experiencing. Look for a market of people who love something. Then, find out what it is that they want. Some of the most successful web sites out there were created to cater to a specific market before they ever even thought of a product to offer. Finding products that meet people's needs isn't that difficult. Finding a site that generates thousands of hits daily in a targeted market is difficult.

Internet marketers often do not stop and look at the big picture. If you can create a site that becomes a virtual hub, starting point, or meeting place in a certain market, making money will be a snap. So, instead of thinking of a product first, think of how to get the traffic first.

Then, find products or services that those people WANT.

A simple truth of marketing is that people do NOT buy products or services. They buy benefits and solutions. Think of it in the term of an "Ultimate Benefit."

What is an ever abiding "WANT" or "GOAL" that these specific people are continually seeking after. This "Ultimate Benefit" will be the theme of your web site and your entire business strategy.

Things such as more money, weight loss, being sexually attractive, self-defense, more time, etc. are ultimate benefits. People want them and they don't care what products or services are used to get them there.

For example, for weight loss, there are thousands of potential products which can help them reach the "Ultimate Benefit" such as exercise, weights, aerobics, infomercial exercise machines, nutritional supplements, nutrition programs, information products, etc.

Once you have defined an "Ultimate Benefit" that will be the source for any and all of the products or services you offer. Using it, you can find multiple products and services which will help your prospects reach the goals they are seeking after.

You could choose any potential "Ultimate Benefit" to be the theme and strategy for your web site. You may want to offer a home business, health, or wealth building web site. You could choose to focus on a specific market of people and their hobbies such as: RC cars, gardening, art, outdoor recreation, children, etc.

Think of a specific topic where you can easily identify where to find your specific prospects. A good rule of thumb is to go down to your local magazine rack and check out all of the potential topics there which have a large enough following to support a business (the market is large enough for your web site if a magazine has stayed in business for years).

Then, what you will want to do is build a center, hub, starting point, or site that caters to those people and provides them with what they want out of the web. Take the frustration out of searching the web and give them what they want at your site...and you will find your web site traffic and profits soaring.

Another rule of thumb in making the right choice is to choose something you love yourself. Don't choose a gardening web site if you love pets. Don't choose an Internet marketing site just because everyone else is doing it. Find something that you love to study and research. Find something that you are glad to sit down and discuss all day long.

Choose a specific market of people along with an Ultimate benefit before you ever even think of a product.

STEP TWO: Develop Updated Content, a Newsletter and/or a Discussion Group. The web sites with the highest hits and profits are those who provide constantly updated information or materials. Constantly updated content keeps people coming back.

You could provide new reports or new free resources every month at your site. The problem is that home and small businesses just don't have the kind of resources and manpower to keep in competition with the major sites such as the Yahoos, AOLs, and other superpowers out there.

To even the odds, we can use technology to do much of the work for us. One of my favorite sites to visit is http://www.cgi-resources.com where you can find thousands of CGI programs which can help your site become as interactive and useful to its visitors as any site out there.

For example, you could have a tip of the day program installed on your site and write all 30 tips for the next month into your system. Then, each day your web site will show that day's tips to its visitors. It will give your site the look that it is being edited by you every single day.

You could also install an awards program for your site. Then, people can submit your site for a "Best of the Web" award in your specific market and you could choose the best sites for the award. Then, every time your visitors return to your site they can find more links to high quality sites. If you keep a high standard for the winning sites, your visitors will keep coming back.

There are dozens of programs you will be able to find at the above site which will help you provide this updated and interactive content.

Another technique that works extremely well is to create your own newsletter which you email out every week or every month. The key to Internet profits for me has been to build a list of loyal subscribers. Then, each week I stay in contact with them providing them with high quality content. When I check out my daily web site traffic logs, the day I send out my newsletter produces more than twice the traffic of every other day at my site. It keeps me in the minds of my prospects, and it keeps them coming back to my site.

The people who have the most profitable Internet businesses are those who concentrate their efforts to building a list of subscribers. The number one goal of my web site is to produce new subscribers to my weekly ezine because of the success my newsletter produces for me. You will find that thousands of other marketers are finding out this same principle.

The #1 Goal of your web site should be to build a list!

Then, you can sell ads that go in your newsletter. You can send out your own product offers. You can send out offers that Joint Venture on and share the profits 50/50 with the product owner. Once you own your own targeted list of subscribers, your monthly profits are practically guaranteed. If I had to make a choice between choosing the hottest
Internet product or the biggest targeted subscriber list, I would choose the list. Either one will produce millions of dollars for your business, but the list gives you dozens of multiple streams of income for you to choose from. If a better product comes out tomorrow and your "Hot" Internet product stops selling, you could quickly find yourself in trouble.

If a better product comes out tomorrow and you own the list, you can just make a deal with the new product developer. If you have spent time and built a relationship with hundreds of thousands of individuals, no one can take that away from you. The "List" is the key to Internet wealth. How can you build a list of loyal visitors and have other people provide the content for your site at the same time?

A very successful technique that is producing 500,000 hits or more a month for many web sites involves creating your own discussion group. By leveraging off of the experiences of hundreds of different people, you can create the virtual coffeehouse or meeting place for tens of thousands of daily visitors.

At a discussion group, you pick a topic and then anyone is allowed to post questions, answers, comments, etc. You keep it all in check and on topic by being the moderator and deleting unwanted or irrelevant posts. When you offer emailed support for your visitors, you have to be the one who answers all of the questions. When you run your own discussion group you may quickly find that most questions will be responded to be dozens of different people giving good advice, other points of view, and more.

It can be extremely exciting to watch this kind of content added to your site by dozens of individuals. It is something that you could never do on your own. As the moderator, you just make sure to check all of the posts and delete any that are inappropriate for your board. You make the rules and watch to make sure they are enforced.

This type of program can be a godsend to you if you want to build your own loyal group of visitors but can't stand to write your own newsletter. And yes, I do personally know of a site that generates 500,000 hits a month without spending a single penny on advertising using this exact method. You can find out more about this individual and how you can follow in his footsteps by going to this web site now - http://www.bizpromo.com/discussions.htm

STEP THREE: Create a Lead Product and dozens of similar related products or Joint Venture deals.

You can create your own Internet monopoly game by providing dozens of Solutions and Answers to your prospect's problems and desires. Multiple streams of income equal constant profits for any high traffic web site.

You DO generally want to have a lead product. You DO NOT want to focus on all of your products to each new visitor to your site. Too many choices will confuse the average prospect. Give them one main choice that you focus on continually throughout your site and all of your materials.

I have tested both methods...offering one product mainly and having a web site which resembles a catalog approach. The one product approach actually outsold the catalog approach by about 2 to 1 (and I am changing all of my sites following this test).

Focus on one main product which most meets the "Ultimate Benefit" that your visitors are seeking after. Then, use your other products as backends for multiple streams of income.

The principle of the backend sale and multiple streams of income is so neglected by most businesses that many people don't even realize how powerful understanding it can be.

If you develop a good set of backend products which many of your first time customers go on to purchase, you almost have an unlimited money machine for your business.

For example:
Let's say you are in an information business selling a low cost audio tape set and a larger video package. The first product you have sells for $50.00 (and costs $25.00 for drop shipping from the owner) while your second package sells for $300.00 (and costs $150.00 drop shipping from the owner). If the first product you sell to customers sells for $50.00 and costs you $25.00 to fulfill, you have $25.00 potential earnings from it where you have to pay advertising expenses from. If it costs you on average $20.00 advertising expense for each new
customer, you would only be earning a $5.00 profit on every new customer.

What would happen if you included a sales letter for your $300.00 course in every $50.00 package people bought?

If 1 out of every 5 customers you brought in on the first product would also buy your second product for $300.00, you would be earning an extra $150.00 off of every 5 customers. Your front end profits would have been $25.00 for these 5 customers and your backend profits would have been $150.00 without spending more than a couple of cents
extra for the sales letter included in the packages.

The money is in the backend sales.

Let's take this example one step further. You could actually spend $30.00 advertising for each new customer and lose $5.00 per sale...and then make money just from the backend sales of your larger package. Note: What I am about to reveal to you can give you a Serious Unfair Advantage Over All of Your Competitors if you apply it to your business.

By putting this one marketing concept to work for you in your business, you can actually afford to lose money buying customers. If you and your competitors all sell a weight loss manual for $30.00 and you know that 25% of the people who buy that manual will also continue to buy nutritional supplements from you for the next 12 months, what can you
do to take advantage of this principle and beat the competition?

First of all, you could potentially spend much more on advertising. Your competitors might have to make a $15.00 profit before paying for the manual off of every manual they sell so they can only put $15.00 into advertising for every new customer. Since you know you will be making money for the next 12 months off of many of your customers, you can potentially spend the whole $30.00 in advertising for every new customer...possibly even more. Now, combine this knowledge of backend sales with dozens of different income streams. It will almost put you into shock!

You will be able to advertise in more places...expand more quickly...and basically take over the market through your additional knowledge and backend profits.

This practice is also termed "Knowing the Lifetime Value of a customer." Many businesses which actually start out with a $20 or $30 sale to their customers have computed out and realized that the average customer brings in $1,000 or more throughout the time they do business with them. Once a company realizes something like this, they can start "buying" new customers even at a loss because they know how much the customer is worth to them over the next few years.

Having a strong backend product and understanding the lifetime value of a customer can often be the major key that will separate you from all of your competition and enable you to absolutely run circles around every one of them.

It can cause you to be able to advertise more, sell at a lower price, and provide extra bonuses no one else can afford.

Each stream of income just needs to be focused on meeting the "Ultimate Benefit" you have chosen to focus on. Don't spread yourself thin by trying to focus on dozens of different markets. Focus on one set of prospects and customers and continually provide them with more products and services which help them reach their Ultimate Goals.

You will find that your web site quickly turns into a Virtual Monopoly game where you and your visitors always come out the winners together...and your competition doesn't stand a chance!

Terry Dean, a 5 year veteran of Internet marketing, will Take You By The Hand and Show You Exact Results of All the Internet Marketing Techniques he tests and Uses Every Single Month" Click here to Find Out More: http://www.netbreakthroughs.com

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