* Start of Interview *

1. Please introduce your name, who you are, which country are you staying in and your area of IM expertise

I’m Ron Douglas from Traffic Sage.. I’m a New York born Internet Marketer, Author, and Search Engine Marketing service provider. I’m proficient with many aspects of IM, but I’d have to say that my expertise is using leverage for website promotion and list building.

2. Share with us your first success in Internet Marketing and how did you do that

I started in IM back in 2001. I was just trying to make money promoting other people’s products. I was an affiliate. A friend of mine I went to grad school with graduated and began working for a company that marketed cell phones for AT&T. He pretty much introduced me to e-mail marketing.

We kind of partnered up early on in my career and we were trying to figure out ways to make money online. In the first two or three years, we didn’t really make much. I actually had an Internet marketing make-money product back then in 2002. I wasn’t making any money yet, so you can tell that didn’t sell too well. I decided I needed to find a different market.

I kind of stumbled across a niche, to be honest with you. One day my wife and I were interested in trying to figure out how to make Kentucky Fried Chicken at home. We began surfing the Internet looking for recipes and found out that people have a big interest in trying to figure out how to make their favorite restaurant dishes at home.

I thought to myself, “This would make a great e-book to put on ClickBank. So I began gathering and testing recipes. The first ebook I put on ClickBank had 11 recipes. It was like a cooking ebook, but it was called America’s Most Wanted Recipes. It was kind of mysterious. They weren’t regular recipes; they were secret restaurant recipes. That was kind of like my USP; my Unique Selling Position.

To my surprise, people liked it and affiliates started picking it up and promoting it. From there, I started getting a lot of traffic and I started paying a lot more attention to it. Eventually, that ebook became a real cookbook with 125 recipes. It’s been #1 on Clickbank’s Marketplace in the cooking category since 2004.

To this day, I’ve sold over 50,000 of those cookbooks. It did so well as a self-published title that I was able to get a publishing deal with Simon & Schuster. They gave me a six-figure sign on bonus and plan to release the title in bookstores in July 2009.

That’s basically how I got started and how I started to build a big Email list early on. I also built a community because I saw how many people were searching for these recipes online. It was a hobby for a lot of people, especially people who work at home: stay-at-home mothers just trying to cook a meal and find new recipes of something exciting to make and something to brag about to their friends. They could say, “Look! I made Olive Garden lasagna.” It was just a hobby for them.

So I created a forum where people can come and share their test results from testing these recipes. That’s how I got a lot of the recipes for my original cookbook. Today, this forum has 75,000 members and a lot of active members that post every day. The forum began getting me traffic from the search engines because of all the user-generated content that was posted in the forum. Then I would build my list and feature things in the forum just to get the forum active. In my e-mail newsletters, I would tell people, “If you want this recipe, go to the forum.” The forum really became active. Today I get a lot of traffic from the search engines and from very little content that I posted myself.

3. Share with us one obstacle which you have overcome and you have learnt a lot from it

I’m an introvert by nature and for many years I operated my business “on an island.“ I discovered that it’s so much easier to make money when you create alliances and collaborate with others. It’s important to get away from your desk sometimes and make a point to get out and meet people. You’ll find that the best ideas come from interaction with other like minded people. Forums and mastermind groups are great for this, but attending seminars and meeting people face to face is even better.

Another point to consider is that email is the most common form of communication in IM. If you want extraordinary results that are not common, you should expand your communication efforts beyond just email.

4. Share with us one mindset tip you would like to share with others, especially those who find IM hard

IM is not hard, it’s just marketing. There is no copyright on marketing process – find out what works from successful marketers and do the same thing. The difficult part in my opinion is finding a product or service that people want to buy and that affiliates want to promote. If you can do that, the rest is easy.

Many people waste time marketing products that don’t have good potential to begin with. If you’re competing with 1,000 others in a market that has small dollar potential, you can expect to make small dollars. You want to go after the markets that have many buyers and lots of big dollar potential. That alone could be the difference between a 6-figure business plan and one that barely make ends meet.

5. Share with us about the uniqueness of one of your products.

Traffic Sage is a unique search engine marketing, Web 2.0 solution. We handle all of your content creation, content marketing, and link building for one low price. No other services provides you with teams of website promotion experts for less than $10 per hour. It allows you to have your own team of marketers without having to spend time hiring, training, or managing them.

For all those who are struggling to get traffic to their website and losing out to the competition, have a look at our service. You can even get a free 34-part personalized website evaluation and competitive analysis by visiting Traffic Sage.

6. One project you are working on right now and you would like my readers to know

Right now I’m working on a joint venture with the winner of Season 4 of NBC’s hit reality show “The Biggest Loser.” It will be a weightloss program that shares the secrets of how he lost 170 pounds in less that 8 months using the “Rapid Action Metabolism” RAM™ system. The product will be on Clickbank and offered at www.TruthAboutDiets.com.

We were fortunate enough to get one of the copywriters who wrote the copy for FatLoss4Idiots.com – which is the #1 selling product on Clickbank. He wrote the copy for our product as well. The combination of good copy, a huge mass market, and celebrity appeal will make this one of the best converting products in the history of Clickbank. Affiliates are going to make lots of money with it.

7. One last tip you want to share with my readers

There are no limits to how much you can make in Internet Marketing – but most people place limits on themselves with their mindset. For example, if you build a business in which the money you make is a function of your time, you’re limited by the amount of time you have in the day. The same thing holds true if you try to do everything yourself – there’s only 24 hours in a day.

To really reach the true potential for your IM business, you have to use leverage. Some examples from my experience are:

- Creating a system to get user generated content, instead of trying to write your way into the search engines

- Leveraging the motivated efforts of others by having an affiliate program and a product that does well for affiliates who promote it

- Leveraging the profitability of a product to have an advertising budget, get traffic, and build your list

- Leveraging your email list to survey ideas for new products and to have a platform for launching new products related to your subscriber’s interests

- Outsourcing revenue generating work such as traffic generation, content creation and marketing, link building, social media marketing etc. to services such as Traffic Sage.

Learn to work on your business instead of making yourself an employee who works in your business. It’s honorable to work hard and work lots of hours, but working smarter can produce more money with less effort.

* End of Interview *

Additional resource:
>> How Ron Douglas Sold 60,000 Books & Ebooks – Built List of 225,000 & Gets Millions Of Hits Per Month

from ba7reneya_3asola

From now onwards, there is going to be major changes in how I manage my team.

I have received many questions from you and other marketers asking how on earth did I move so fast within a short span of one year.

Honestly, I owe it to my team. There is never one-man show. I have a team of 3 very dedicated team mates who stood with me all these times and we are always forging forward.

So next time when you are successful, remember your team or anyone who has supported you all along. =)

Being really busy for the past one year has been really overwhelming for us. In order to keep every team mate, including myself sane mentally and emotionally, I have decided to do a restructuring.

For your curiosity:

Question: Why have I come to this stage?

As you know, I am also working full time. Now I have a family and I want to spend more time with my family members. In the midst of busyness, I started to feel really drained and I really need a breather.

Being a team leader is also not easy. I have to constantly read other marketers’ blogs, ebooks, materials, forums to learn more about marketing techniques and I have to be constantly updated. There is a constant need to upgrade one’s knowledge and skills. There is a constant need to meet new people and joint venture partners. There is a constant need to make sure you, my subscribers are well-taken care of.

Question: Tell me how will you plan to move ahead.

I will be focusing more on relationship-building with partners as well as making sure my subscribers are well-taken care of.

There will be more contests for free giveaways so that it motivates you to move forward. I will continue to blog about useful content to motivate you too and at the same time, you get to learn new things. I will also be looking for useful products for you like wordpress themes for bloggers or Jaz Lai’s recent new product – Inbox Cash Blueprint.

As for my team mate, Ben, he is the guy who is taking care of technical stuff such as html, webpages, domains, linking up of web pages, emails drafting and autoresponder management.

As for my third team mate, Andrew, he will be doing more of management and upkeeping of our new blog membership site and taking care of our subscribers for this site. He is also well-versed in programming and will be helping us on that as well.

(Keep a lookout for our email on our Blog membership site soon.)

Create your own personal route

I know it is not easy to venture into internet marketing but the rewards can be very encouraging as you realised one day you are able to leave your office and work from home just for yourself and your family. Not forgetting you get to spend more doing things you love and spending more time with your family members.

- Keep a look out for those who can help you
You should constantly be on the look out who you think have the skills to help you. Do not partner with someone just because he is your friend or you can’t say no to him.

Look for someone with good attitude and is willing to learn. Start off with short term projects lasting for 1 to 2 months before committing to big ones.

- Keep a look out for your own health
I really do not encourage you to work 24 hours a day. It is going to drain you and soon without the energy, there is most likely to be an end to your dream.

Set aside 4 to 6 hours a day just for your online business and spend the rest of the time with your family members or doing things you enjoy.

This is important to sustain you and your business for the long term.

- Keep a reward for yourself once in a while
You know what is my greatest weekly for telling myself I have done well for the week?

It is a simple cup of English tea – “Teh Si Siu Dai”. It is in dialect meaning, tea with condensed milk and less sugar.

I feel very satisfied. What I want to say is you got to reward yourself. It need not be expensive stuff. It can simple things like your favorite food or drink or a swim or a tan at the beach.

By the time this post is published, I could have gone for a swim. It is weekend man! Time to relax.

In the meantime, if you have any question, just comment below and I will get back to you.

Happy reading! Make sure you have a fantastic weekend doing things you enjoy!

* Start of Interview *

1. Please introduce your name, who you are, which country are you staying in and your area of IM expertise

Hi John and to the rest of your lucky subscribers, a very good day to you all!

My name is Foo Ming Chern and I’m better known as the tofumonkey amongst my friends. I’m a Malaysian by birth but have been living in Singapore ever since very young. I’ve been joking that I’m a fake Malaysian as I know the Singapore roads & places better than Malaysia and stayed in Singapore almost all my life. I have been on internet marketing officially since August 2006.

My expertise in IM is my technical skills in IM and the abilities to impart it to the budding internet entrepreneur. I must admit that I’m not the average all-out Internet Marketer where I peddle all my wares online and earn a full online income. My income basically comes two tracks, online income and offline training. Online being adsense, affiliate marketing and product creation. I also do IM training for individuals and/or groups offline to teach them about Internet Marketing.

2. Share with us your first success in Internet Marketing and how did you do that

I think it’s quite accidental on how I started to have my first success in IM. I started off attending Stuart Tan’s Internet Marketing course and thereafter we formed mastermind groups. Me being the most technical competent person, I ended up teaching the rest of my group mates on how set up shy yes pages, websites and so on, basically the technical elements of Internet Marketing. It was from this experience that I see where my value lies.

During this time, I started my blog on Internet Marketing and blogged about my journey in IM. I keep reminding myself to position myself as the technical coach/trainer. Through my blog, I build a small list and keep in close contact with them.

While I help my list get up to speed on IM, I earned affiliate commissions from recommending hosting, autoresponder software or other products. That’s how I made my first $1000 within 2 months of beginning IM. I know it’s not a lot of money, but this money at that time proved to me that money can be made online, and the internet world is not some mystery to be solved.

To cut the long story short, I identified what I do well and found an angle on how I can provide value. The rest like building a blog/website to collect list is pretty standard, it’s the angle & the value that I can provide that matters.

3. Share with us one obstacle which you have overcome and you have learnt a lot from it

Confusion; this is something you will definitely face when you first begin Internet Marketing or anything else that is new for that matter. I spent 3 months trying to learn IM on my own and decided that I need help as I’m getting nowhere. So I paid Stuart, Ewen Chia & Johan Mok $3000 for a 2 day course and came out even more confused! Ha! But I realized that I knew what I need to learn… The frame of the jigsaw puzzle has been complete, the rest is piecing everything together.

I spent the next 3 months toiling over the computer pouring ebooks after ebooks, visiting forums, participating in mastermind sessions, etc… On the average, I spent 6 hours on weekdays and 12 hours on weekends minimum continuously for 3 months. It was like going through hell, the more I read, the more confused I got.

But like magic, after one fine day, everything made sense and everything clicked together. It was like the dark curtain that has been covering my eyes has been pulled away and voila, there was light. So ladies and gentlemen, if you are feeling confused, this only means that you are learning something new!

Congratulations!

Ever since, I love feeling confused, this means I’m learning something awesome and not being stagnant. Adopt the ultimate success formula, if solution #1 doesn’t work, go for solution #2, #3, #4, #5… Do whatever it takes to make it happen!

Quoting Einstein, Insanity is defined by doing something the same way over & over again and expecting a different result every time. So guys, keep changing tactics if it doesn’t work the same time! You can do it!

4. Share with us one mindset tip you would like to share with others, especially those who find IM hard

It’s definitely having a problem-solving mindset as compared to focus-on-problem mindset. Just couple days ago, I was training a bunch of my students and I offered some solutions to their problems. The thing is, he came up with 101 things that could go wrong before he even attempted step 1.

To me, this is a very dangerous mentality that needs to be conquered before you start anything. There will always be something that can and will crop up to spoil your grand plans. The issue is not to cry over spilled milk, but instead, to focus on coming up with the solution.

As a start, use these words for a change:
• There are no problems; there are only challenges to be conquered.
• This will work, if and only if… (start thinking about solutions)

5. Share with us about the uniqueness of one of your products.

For the longest time, my greatest value was to bring people up to speed in IM from ground zero and after training hundreds of people in Internet Marketing, I found out that the thing that made people quite is not really the business ideas or the marketing angle. It was the technical bits that made people quit.

Let us look at it from this angle: An average person who took up Internet Marketing and decided to blog and promote affiliate products. The very first obstacle is to understand what exactly Internet Marketing is.

Thereafter, he’ll need to purchase his domain name, hosting, change DNS to point to the hosting. Other things include accessing cPanel, understanding WHAT is cPanel, install wordpress via Fantastico or Simple Scripts, uploading and installing new wordpress themes, etc…

Now, there are a lot of new terms and skills to be learnt just by my above-mentioned paragraph. For years, I’ve coached and trained hundreds of people on a one-to-one or by a class-basis on how to do the above.

But I found out that I really love helping/training/coaching people in IM and my current method just takes up too much time and helping too few people. That’s when I decided to bring my service/products online and voila, the birth of my first official online IM product: IMTechMastery.com.

6. One project you are working on right now and you would like my readers to know

My latest project is what I’ve mentioned above: IMTechMastery.com, as this product is pretty unique and ongoing, it’s only going to get better and better with more & more content for everyone.

I definitely envisage it to be the IM library of technical help, suitable for anyone who is not too technically savvy.

As a recap, I would definitely like to keep the competition level even. Too many people I met starting out Internet marketing get stumped by the most mundane things: the technical elements of IM. As a trainer by passion, I really hope & believe that this product will be able to help a lot more people out there. ?

Do check out www.IMTechMastery.com for more details. ?

7. One last tip you want to share with my readers

Stay focused. Focus, focus, focus! In internet marketing, there will always be the next big thing, the next fad, the next million dollar idea that will come & rock your boat. I’ve met with countless examples, including myself, who get distracted with the bright shiny object syndrome (distracted by something really appealing).

The truth is, in the offline world, everything can make money. People have made millions from network marketing, real estate sales, running a training business, selling ‘rojak’ (a famous Singaporean snack). As an example, there is a stall near my place where the owner have been selling rojak for the past 20 years and is very famous for it. He now owns 2 private apartments and drives a Mercedes.

Same goes to online world. People have made millions from adsense, affiliate marketing, CPAs, product creation, online network marketing, etc… There are hundreds or thousands of success stories in every conceivable niche online.

So you see, there will ALWAYS be someone who’s making tons of money doing something else. Do we drop what we have and move on? Have we worked enough on the idea? Have we exhausted every means that we have in our entire being to ensure the success of our idea? The answer is usually a No. It’s because people give up too early, people lose focus, people move on…

Stay focused on your very own million dollar idea and profit from it! You can do it!

I would like to take this chance to thank John for this opportunity to share my views and hopefully increase the chance of success in the Internet Marketing world for your readers. We go many years back and I always love to use you as my favourite success example in my class. You’re an example on how anyone can succeed online! Good luck to your future endeavours!

Till next time people!

Regards,
Ming Chern
www.IMTechMastery.com

* End of Interview *

* Start of Interview *

1. Please introduce your name, who you are, which country are you staying in and your area of IM expertise

Hey there bro..nice to talk to you after quite awhile..it’s good to see you getting better and better in your online endeavors..you are one of the rare marketers who actually implements the tools and tactics taught by other marketers (including myself ) as soon as possible and that’s the key to your success thus far.

I’m Shree Kay, 23 years old maverick marketer from Singapore and I am semi retired for quite awhile after bringing my company to 1.2 million dollars last year. I was featured in the book secrets of Millionaire students as well as Playeur magazine and other publications for my successes last year. you can say I am enjoying the fruits of my labor right now. lol..

I deal with high octane marketing systems. The kind of online business systems that makes you 6-7 figures a year. I’m not interested in teaching systems that make you maybe $1000 or $2000 online.there are other coaches for that. I currently only mentor motivated clients on making their first 6 figure online using the kind of hybrid marketing systems that I myself use to make my moolahs online.

2. Share with us your first success in Internet Marketing and how did you do that

My first success in IM was when I sold an Ebook called The Slingshot Method, an ebook on getting better with local women. It netted me $3000+ in my first month launching it. But my actual first income online was when I wrote articles and ebooks like a madman online for around $2000 a month.

It was tough but I was practically broke so I spent 10-12 hours a day writing and writing and from that first $2000 I started my empire .

3. Share with us one obstacle which you have overcome and you have learnt alot from it

Other people’s mindset. When I first told people I was making a living online they were like, is it porn, is it a scam, is it this or is it that. It didn’t seem as prestigious to them as say working in a law firm or in a tv channel or anything.

I overcame it by showing my naysayers the kind of multimillionaires I spent my lunch and dinner with as opposes to the “job mentality” people who spent their time with other job oriented people.

4. Share with us one mindset tip you would like to share with others, especially those who find IM hard

Analysis Paralysis. People spend too much time thinking of the perfect strategy, planning the perfect system, trying to learn every single detail before doing the required work. They will never succeed.

There is no such thing as a perfect anything(well maybe Angelina Jolie), just go and do what you are supposed to do instead of trying to learn all the theory which will never get you anywhere.

I learnt more about google adwords using it for a week than the two months I spend trying to learn everything about it from information products. That goes for everything in Internet marketing.

5. Share with us about the uniqueness of one of your products.

Make sure your products say what they do. Hype is fine as long as you can deliver. Don’t go sell a make money online product when you aren’t making any money online. That’s just stupid though I see a lot of people doing it.

Every product I sell comes with a 150 percent money back guarantee which means if it doesn’t work, I have to pay my clients. So I have to make sure all my products do as they say or I will end up running a charity organization.

6. One project you are working on right now and you would like my readers to know

Well I am working on a lot of offline deals such as television rights deals and casino liaisons deals which I believe where the multimillion dollar profits are but everyone has to start somewhere and internet marketing is a failsafe way to make massive income. You can make a Six Figure income or more with a proven system like mine.

Currently, I am giving away a Free CD which teaches one how to exactly use my Internet marketing system to build a six figure income within your first year online.. I have a few CDs left which you can get from my site at http://secretebaydossier.com/freecdoffer.html

I hope the cd will be a catalyst to all the people seeking to make massive income online. Now they have no excuses.

7. One last tip you want to share with my readers

Never give up. Never back down. Many people don’t realize how close they were to success when they gave up. I myself have carelessly let go of many million dollar opportunities because I gave up too fast.

Senthil Shree Kumar
http://secretebaydossier.com/freecdoffer.html

* End of Interview *

Share with us your thoughts. I would love to hear from you. =)

I must say I had a really good experience last week. After blogging about how I have been using Twitter, I am surprised to be contacted by one of Strait Times (a local newspaper in Singapore) technology editor for an interview on how I am ranked as #5 top Twitterers in Singapore.

source: Strait Times

It was kinda of good exposure and I have never thought of using Twitter can get me an interview from Strait Times.

It was like free press release for me and I am really thankful for the editor, Weizhen for giving me such an opportunity.

The coverage was very little compared to our local top twitter Xavier. It was about 4 lines long in the newspaper.

Of the other three top Twitterers, one is a social worker and two, Internet marketers.

Social worker and avid blogger John Yeo, with 5,676 followers, said he joined Twitter mainly to share blogging tips.

Source: last few lines in Strait Times article

Many friends asked me if I was disappointed. I guess not as it was really a good and pleasant experience to go through. How many of us get to be interviewed by the press for being in the field of internet marketing?

* * *

My history of Twittering is I started last year around June I think. It was till December 08 that I got serious in Twitter as most of my close friends (such as Dana Willhoit and Peggy Baron) in the internet marketing arena are using Twitter to share tips as well as to build a community of followers.

So realising I am in the blogging arena, I asked myself “Why not I share blogging tips too?”

I love Twitter also because it is micro-blogging. It allows you to blog in a sentence or two on what you are doing or what you want to say.

In a way, it encourages you to make what you want to say sweet and short.

* * *

Back to the interview, there were many questions posed by the editor such as:
1. how has Twitter benefited me?
2. why do I used Twitter?
3. what is the comparison between facebook and Twitter?
4. do I consider my using of Twitter an addiction?
5. how do I build my followers?

There were many more questions and the whole interview lasted for about 45 minutes over the phone and I shared ideas from blogging to internet marketing and so on.

In conclusion, it was really a wonderful interview as it gives me an avenue to share my view. Published or not, I think it does not really matter. :p

* * *

To end off, to succeed in Twitter, you have to:
1. provide great value Tweets (or short posts) that benefit your followers
2. interact with your followers by responding to their questions or remarks

When I mentioned great value stuff, they can be resource links, tips, freebies, prizes for contests and so on.

Remember you are dealing with human beings. Always remember to add a personal touch in whatever response you give.

To read more about blogging tips and business mindset, Follow me at http://twitter.com/john_yeo

* * *

If you want to read more about my Twitter success story as featured in Peggy Baron’s Twitter Success Stories compilation, you can visit Twitsuccess

Here’s the list of marketers/businesses who have contributed their Twitter stories:

Felicia Slattery
John Taylor
Bev Clement
Willie Crawford
Craig Ballantyne
Beverly Mahone (BabyBoomerBev)
**John Yeo (jhongren)
Paulette Ensign
Connie Ragen Green
Thom Scott
Heidi Richards Mooney
Dana Willhoit
James Francis
Sean Malarkey
Jack Bastide
The Coffee Groundz
Peggy Baron

Link: Twitsuccess

from jpn

Today I want to share with you on how you should slice your way through the many niches out there.

Many could have wondered that there seemed to be so many experts out there and a new player couldn’t possibly make a name for himself within a really short time.

It is possible and I am going to show you how you can be an expert in your niche within a period of few months.

As for me, being a really new player in the Internet marketing niche, I have somewhat build a somewhat good reputation in the blogging niche.

Within a period of 6 months, my blogging guide Blogger’s Paycheck has been reviewed as the top leading blogging in a blogging product review.

When I first started off, there is alot of negativity from the people around me as they feel there is absolutely NO WAY that a small fry like me can carve my way through the blogging niche.

Even if I can, I could have bitten to death by the bigger players who had been in this blogging niche for a relatively longer time.

I guess the difference I made is I chose to be myself and have the “never-say-die” attitude.

* * *

What I meant by I chose to be myself?

My personal style is keeping things simple and direct. I myself have been a loyal customer of Internet maketing niche, buying and investing over US$10,000 worth of IM books, ebooks and courses within a short period of 6 months or less.

I know some of you could have even invested more than what I did.

From reading these materials, one thing I realised is that they are not simple enough for any newbie like me then to comprehend.

What I meant by simplicity means direct and straight to the point. Do this and you will get that.

Knowing this is not enough.

* * *

Application also plays a big part in my success as I chose to keep to the simple fact of making things simple, created my blogging guide, launched it and hope for the best.

Personally I feel among the mist of hype, many could have been lost in the confusion too. I know it is not easy to make sense of the overflow of info around you. I had been there and I know how frustrating it is.

What I want to say is that you are a unique individual who have your own strength and experience. I am sure you can somehow leverage on what you know and inject your personal style into your product or service you are providing.

No one else knows your customers as well as you do. So present in the manner which you feel is the best and just be yourself.

Be patient and I am sure you can slice your way through your niche and build your own empire.

Never say die! =)

Share with us your experience in starting out in your Internet marketing journey. We love to hear from you in the comments below.