Before I share my point, here’s a major update regarding this blog:

1. I am too busy on my recently launched site (not related with online marketing) so you will just see me write a new post twice or at least once a week. To make up for it, I’ll make sure to give you articles that is really informative and worthwhile.

2. I’ve been asking my other website’s visitors about their biggest problem on their online business and generating traffic comes on top of the list. So I’ll be posting more on this topic and probably would change the whole structure of the site accordingly.

I think that’s about it…now on with the topic – The New FTC Guides Governing Testimonials and Endorsements.

If you haven’t read about it yet, here’s a link to the FTC’s site: http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2009/10/endortest.shtm

Before moving on, I just want to say that what you are going to read here are just my personal opinion. This should not be taken as a legal advice. I am not a lawyer and neither know a lot about laws (I’m not even based in the US!).

Before taking any suggestions, you should first approach your lawyer. Plus, if you do not agree with my site’s TOS, please leave this site now. : )

Whew…a very boring paragraph to read right? But you’ll be seeing a lot of those in the near future so you just might as well get used to it.

I assume that you have read the new guide on the link I gave you above, if you haven’t or is too lazy to click and even glimpse on it (like most people do), you can continue reading…just don’t take it out on me if your business get busted later on.

As you know, these new rules will greatly impact all online businesses that have testimonials (results-driven and income claims – yes, now you can’t use the most effective type unless you include a disclaimer that states the average typical result of  your buyers) and those that are doing endorsements and any product referrals.

Here’s what I have to say:

1. Testimonials.

If you are one of those that do use “specific” results-driven testimonials or post income claims/ proof, you should consider changing it. Unless you want to put a disclaimer after each testimonial stating the average typical result of your buyers which, for most if not all, is pretty embarrassing.

Here’s why:

No matter how good your products are, your average result will always be really really low. A really high quality product with an income proof of $5,000 per month and with customer testimonials showing a result of $1,000 in the first month, may have an average result of $00.01 or probably less.

And it’s not because the claims or testimonials are fake, its because a lot of buyers (we’re talking about 80%+ here) will not finish reading it, will not even follow the information, and will not take any action at all. I’m guilty of it…and I know you are too.

For example, this “Buffettology” book that I purchased two years ago. I haven’t finished reading it until now. I remember reading the first chapter but after that, I just put it in my pile of unfinished books. Why did I bought it? It’s because it’s the current “craze” way back then.

How many ebooks, books, e-courses, etc. do you have in your hard drive? How many of those you actually finished reading and took action til the end?

My solution:

Use other type of testimonials. The one’s that are pretty general and doesn’t convey your customer’s results like “Hey Ricz, I really love your product. Looking forward to purchase another one from you.”

If you really want to use “results-driven” and income claims testimonials, you just have to find a way to state the disclaimer and reveal what your average “typical” result really is in a way that it doesn’t devalue your product.

2. Endorsements/ Recommendations

FTC wants you to fully disclose to your website visitors the real relationship between you and the products you promote/ endorse/ recommend. If you earn any compensation from it (commissions, paid reviews, etc…), you need to tell them. Transparency is key.

My Solution:

This one won’t really affect your sales if you do it right. If you’re targeting other niches (not the make money online/ internet marketing niche), you don’t have to worry about it at all. Of course, disclose to your website visitors that what they are clicking is your affiliate link and that you are receiving a payment from recommending it. Non-IM guys won’t really mind it at all.

If you are in the make money online/ internet marketing niche, find a way to make them buy from you and not from other sources. You can do this by offering high quality bonuses that complement the product your promoting. The only way that they can get these bonuses is when they get the product from your affiliate link.

To reiterate, please don’t use this as a legal advice. Always consult your lawyer regarding this and don’t think that you can get around with this new rule. Do your best to always comply!

I would love to hear your opinions about this new rule. If you have something in mind, you can freely do so by replying below. : )

Others who read this post also read:

• August 31, 2009 -- Getting Ideas For Your First Info Product (1)
• August 25, 2009 -- How To Become An Expert In Your Niche (1)
• August 10, 2009 -- Don’t Be Sold! (1)
• August 1, 2009 -- How to Write a Sales Letter That Really Sells (5)
• September 9, 2009 -- Split Testing Basics (2)

Want to be an “expert” to make a lot of sales online? Or you just want to market and brand yourself to have more exposure?

Either way, here are some steps you can follow to become an expert in any niche:

1. Find some forums in your niche and establish yourself as an expert.

Help people out. Don’t just reply, open new threads for each topic you want to tackle. Reply and post with excitement and don’t limit the content you give. Bring all you know in a forum and people will start to follow you and look up to you as an expert.

2. Flash your proof or evidence whenever possible.

When you email your list or members, include pictures of you at a marketing event. If you have a picture with a very known expert in that niche, show it to them as well. Tell them how you and a certain someone met, conversed and established a partnership.

Share your stories of success to your subscribers. Don’t just tell them that you earned this amount of money in this amount of time, tell them how you did it and how it worked. Show some proof by including statistics and income statements. You can also put this in your blog. Which gets us to number 3….

3. Create a blog with your name

Get yourself a domain name. Just like this blog of mine, RiczSabido.Com. Send your list or newsletter subscribers to it often. If you have a product of your own or have an upcoming product launch, post it on your blog as well. By doing this, you are also marketing and branding your name.

Make sure you also place photos of yourself and with other well-known experts on your blog. Strive to create a community of marketers around you by encouraging people to post comments on your topics.

4. Use a redirect tool when promoting your products or affiliate products.

When you have a domain with your name, you can promote while embedding your name on the links. For example, if your product URL is www.my-resources.net, you can brand your name with it using a redirect tool (a software or a script). Instead of www.my-resources.net, you use www.yourname.com/recommends/productname.

This is powerful and can give you a lot of great benefits. People will easily remember you because of it and most of the time, they will check your site after seeing the product you promote (this always worked for me.)

5. Associate yourself with “gurus” or well-known people in your niche.

Go attend some seminars, mingle with them and establish a relationship. You need to be genuine here. Offer assistance, hear them out, share them your thoughts, and so on…Treat them to a lunch or dinner. Remember, you’re making a friend here, not a business partner. Nurture relationships first then the partnership or business will follow!

Becoming an expert in your chosen niche isn’t that hard. It just takes time and a lot of relationship building. In today’s business, it’s not what you know that really counts, it’s who you know.

Others who read this post also read:

• October 12, 2009 -- My Take On The New FTC Rule Concerning Online Marketers (1)
• August 31, 2009 -- Getting Ideas For Your First Info Product (1)
• August 10, 2009 -- Don’t Be Sold! (1)
• August 1, 2009 -- How to Write a Sales Letter That Really Sells (5)
• September 9, 2009 -- Split Testing Basics (2)

Finding the right opportunity isn’t enough to succeed in making money online. Yes, it starts from there, but you need other essential factors to guarantee your success – the path you choose to take, your set of skills, talents, knowledge, and experience.

Your chance will greatly increase if you have all these but if you want to keep and hold that success for a very long time, these factors may not suffice. The internet marketing and online business world changes much faster than its offline counterpart. The techniques that you learned just a few months ago may not work that effectively if you implement it today.

Increasing Your Chance in Any Given Opportunity

1. Expect To Fail

Every successful business owners embrace failures. It’s part of their plan.

Failures are there to teach us to become more successful next time. Before you succeed online, expect a lot of things to happen. And that includes failing. This is a learning curve that every people trying to make money online go through.

Making a sale online is a numbers game. It takes a certain number of traffic to your site to make that first sale. That’s why knowing the conversion rate is essential for us marketers. We welcome those who didn’t make a purchase because we know that it will bring us closer to the one who will buy. You expect to fail because you know that success is just around the corner.

Several people who try to make money online get easily frustrated when their first business fails. You need to understand that opportunities are everywhere, but not all are capable of grabbing one. Finding your opportunity is a great start. However, it will take some time before you can fully take a hold on it.

You may slip sometimes, may fail and start all over again. But remember that now you have this experience to make you more capable in grabbing the next opportunity that will come.

2. Obtain Business Skills and Knowledge

You don’t need to go to school and obtain a business management degree. Educate yourself. Do your homework. Read books, search the internet for free information. It’s all there.

Having a business background is not necessary to succeed in making money online, but make it a part of your future growth. Set time aside for studying and reading business books. It won’t hurt.

3. Prioritize

Learn how to prioritize doing the more important things. Things that are going to make you money.

Several internet marketers’ focus too much on things that they think will build their business but these things don’t give them money. Instead of doing things randomly, practice to do the things that will generate income to your business.

Spend most of your time getting traffic to your site, on creating content, looking for joint ventures, building backlinks, and so on. Spend more on tasks like these, create a system and make sure that you stick to it.

4. Don’t Put All Your Eggs In One Basket

Spread your risk. You can choose the opportunity you liked the most, but build it around a structure that can surpass the change of seasons and the passing of time.

In advertising and marketing your business, use several different methods and channels to secure long term success. Don’t rely on just pay per click traffic or search engine “organic” traffic. Try other stuffs but avoid getting too spread out.

5. Learn Continuously

The only way you are going to stay ahead of the group is by keeping up with new trends and techniques. And you can only do this by learning continuously.

Invest in programs, seminars and courses that you know will help your business and make you more money online. Always read ebooks and articles, be updated with the news related to your business. Participate in online communities and ask questions.

As I said before, being in an online environment is like riding in a bullet train. What you knew a few months back is useless today. New products, new techniques and new ways of doing things will not stop coming. Stay educated and be updated. Don’t get left behind!

Several internet marketers will claim that their product is all you need to make money online. It’s your job to choose a system, know how to use it, integrate it into your online business and stick to it.

One’s failure can discourage anyone. Equip yourself with the right tools and mindset. Know that failure is essential towards success. And I guarantee you that making money online is easier than you think.

Others who read this post also read:

• August 17, 2009 -- Getting Out Of The Newbie Stage (0)
• August 8, 2009 -- Why 95% of People Fail In Making Money Online (0)
• October 12, 2009 -- My Take On The New FTC Rule Concerning Online Marketers (1)
• September 16, 2009 -- Where To Get Your Website Content (1)
• September 9, 2009 -- Split Testing Basics (2)

There is no difference between an online business and an offline business when it comes to its ability to capture great success from poverty…to rise from rags to riches…to produce extra ordinary results in just one move.

Most of the things offline are approached like things online. Even marketing and sales.

Many of the so called “gurus” or those well known online marketers use marketing techniques that has long been used by offline marketers. These marketing techniques are just repackaged and reengineered to fit in the online marketing world.

The result? Big income!

I have been offered hundreds of products online as well as offline. Been sold to every product you can imagine. I have attended seminars with sales pitches thrown in between breaks. Some of it I was sold, some of it failed.

As a result, it became natural to me to see a sales pitch coming at me even if it’s still a mile away.  Today, I don’t buy anything in my online business based solely on a sales page. In short, I can’t be easily sold. I became immune with the sales pitches and techniques applied in a sales letter.

Now, I only buy things based on the features, quality and price of the product, whether if it will help me on my current goals. I learned not to make any decision to purchase a product just on the pitch itself but to research the product well.

In an online business, it’s hard to sell to a person immune to these copy writing and marketing techniques. A person who will ignore the long lines of a sales letter, avoid the hype, pass through the pitch and just purchase based on what the product is truly worth.

Unfortunately, most of us doing business online are not like this. Most of us are swayed effortlessly by great copy writing techniques. Especially the new comers or newbies. They are easy prey to these sales pitches and will be sold one after the other.

All I have to say is this – don’t be sold! Avoid the hype, extract the facts, and do your homework!

Yes, several of those hyped products online are most likely earning people money…but probably not you, it’s the people selling them!

At most times, if not all times, you are being sold opportunities. Most of the sales page will not tell if the product is right for you. It will be more structured in a way you will be sold and less structured in a way that you will be educated.

What can you do? Do what you think is right for your business.

Can the product help you bring closer to your goals? Is it inline with your objectives? Don’t just be sold!

Others who read this post also read:

• October 12, 2009 -- My Take On The New FTC Rule Concerning Online Marketers (1)
• August 31, 2009 -- Getting Ideas For Your First Info Product (1)
• August 25, 2009 -- How To Become An Expert In Your Niche (1)
• August 1, 2009 -- How to Write a Sales Letter That Really Sells (5)
• September 9, 2009 -- Split Testing Basics (2)

Are you selling digital products? Are your digital download pages safe? If no, then you better read on. If yes, well you better think again! No download page in the World Wide Web is 100% safe from stealing.

There are a lot of people who look for loopholes and download pages to steal online. Some of them just can’t afford the product, and some even share these stolen digital downloads to others for free.

I have known of several internet marketers, and some are really well known, that don’t take the time to protect their product’s download pages. If the BIG players can be stolen from, can it happen to you? You bet!

The bad news is you can’t stop these thieves from stealing from you. The good news? You can do a lot to protect your download pages and make it hard for these online thieves to steal from you.

Protecting Your Digital Product’s Download Pages

1. Rework Your Download Page Templates

If you bought a product that comes with a reseller website for you to use, don’t just upload the entire reseller website folder without making necessary changes. If you already have a live download page online, then you might as well apply these changes:

• Don’t just use the ordinary “Thank you for your purchase! Your card has been charged by….blah blah blah…”. This line has been overused and is a potential loophole to your download page. Rewrite and make it unique!
• You should also avoid putting clickable links inside your download pages. If you really have to put a link, just type it and don’t make it clickable. If you have any clickable links on your download pages, there is a chance that this can be followed by Google and can be found through online searches.

2. Using the Right CHMOD Settings.

Some of these online thieves would spend time searching your website for loopholes on your file folders. Your website’s file folders are the same as the folders on your computer. This is where you upload your website’s content.

If you like to protect a particular folder from these online thieves, make use of the correct CHMOD settings. If you are using FileZilla as your FTP application, this is termed as File Permissions. To some this is called File Attributes.

If you create a new file folder on your hosting account, these folders are automatically given a CHMOD status of 755. This is not the correct setting for valuable files; most especially your digital product’s download pages.

You should change this to 751 to keep the files inside hidden to the public. This can eliminate a dozen thieves from stealing your digital products.

The 751 setting won’t work on every file folders on your site. Most especially to those containing files that run scripts that need a different CHMOD setting to work. You can solve this by having a file folder that is dedicated only to your digital product’s pages, and downloads.

3. Don’t Let Google Help Steal Your Digital Products!

You can’t blame Google for helping these online thieves. It’s only a system after all. Their spiders crawl every nooks and sides of the World Wide Web, even your digital products download page can be indexed.

Google won’t know if a particular page is your download page or any other page on your site. To Google, these are all content that they can index. So what can you do? You can add the line of code below to all the pages that you don’t want Google to display on their search list.

<meta name=”robots” content=”no index, no follow”>

Put this code right below the <head> tag or above the </head> tag. This should tell Google’s spiders to not index your download pages.

4. Always Put an Index File (index.html or index.htm) On Each of Your Folders.

Always remember to put an index file, either index.html or index.htm, on each of your web folders. This is the easiest loophole to find for those online thieves.

To know why, try creating a folder on your website and another folder inside it called “download”. Type the address of the folder you just created (not the folder in it) on your browser. See what I mean? They can check the contents of your folders that have no index.htm or index.html without you knowing it. Not unless you check your web statistics regularly that is. And I know most of you don’t!

Combine all of these steps and you’ll tighten your digital download pages even more. There are several online digital sellers that don’t take the time to do this. Every day, they let more and more online thieves to steal and get their products for free.

Don’t let this happen to your digital product’s download pages. Protect your online profits and make more money online doing these simple steps.

Others who read this post also read:

• October 12, 2009 -- My Take On The New FTC Rule Concerning Online Marketers (1)
• September 9, 2009 -- Split Testing Basics (2)
• August 31, 2009 -- Getting Ideas For Your First Info Product (1)
• August 25, 2009 -- How To Become An Expert In Your Niche (1)
• August 22, 2009 -- Making Money Online Is Not Just Finding the Right Opportunity (1)

You can make more money online by doing simple things on your current line of products. One of that is product slivering.

So what is product slivering and how it can make you more money online?

It is simply making sub-products or sub-niches of your most popular product, making it more targeted to a particular market. It’s a technique used by most large companies out there. I’ll use one international company as an example – Coca Cola. Its main product line Coke has produced several sub-products such as Coca Cola Zero, Diet Coke, etc…

In a shopping mall, most of the stores that you went through are owned by just one management company.  Why not put all of their products in just one big store?

Because only a few will buy.

Retailers, particularly those specialty ones, have found out that by slivering their products, not only can they earn more money in one single mall, but customers are actually willing to pay more for these products.  Here’s another secret…You can actually charge premium prices to products if your customers believe that it was made for them!

Now what does product slivering has to do for your online business!

The answer: So much

Product slivering is easier if done online. If you’re selling digital products, then there’s no problem slivering it. Most digital products such as ebooks have chapters or are divided into sections. You can divide each chapter and sell it individually at a lower price. Or you can also separate each section and make each section target a particular niche.

You will have several sub-products to sell to different markets. You can now make the complete ebook the upsell of all of its sub-products at a premium price. There are a dozen ways of product slivering; the only limit is your imagination.

Google Will Reward You For Slivering

As I mentioned earlier on my post at Google Adwords Fast Track, Google changed because it wants its users to have the best surfing experience. They want them to find exactly what they are looking for.

In using Google Adwords, Google rewards you for slivering your products into sub-niches. The more relevant your products are to the keywords the user searched, the more Google will love you. End result: you pay less yet you also rank higher.

If you don’t take the time to sliver your products, aside from suffering a high cost per click rate, you will also get mediocre conversion rates. Imagine driving a highly targeted traffic to a general landing page. Your conversion would suck because the targeted traffic you’re sending is looking for a very specific product and not the general one that you’re offering.

If on the other hand, you slivered your products so that you had a unique product to offer for every targeted prospect, then expect to have some really good conversion (up to two digits)!

Recap – How Product Slivering Can Make You More Money Online:

• Higher conversion for your products.
• You can have several targeted sub-products coming from only one main product.
• Google will reward you with a high quality score: less pay per click cost and higher ranking

Product slivering is a method that can be applied to any online business. The big internet marketers use it and almost all online businesses utilize it. Increase your online income and make more money online by slivering your products!

Others who read this post also read:

• October 12, 2009 -- My Take On The New FTC Rule Concerning Online Marketers (1)
• September 3, 2009 -- Email Marketing 101 (0)
• August 31, 2009 -- Getting Ideas For Your First Info Product (1)
• August 25, 2009 -- How To Become An Expert In Your Niche (1)
• August 10, 2009 -- Don’t Be Sold! (1)

What do the internet marketing guru’s know that the other 90% of the marketer’s don’t? What do you need to reach the same $50,000+ per month income (or at least achieve half of it) that they are living right now?

I am not an internet marketing guru…and I don’t want to be one. However, I learned a lot from these gurus on their product launches and some of their high priced courses. I followed some of these internet marketing gurus’ campaigns and would like to share some of the things that I learned from it (if I share all of it, it would take me days to finish this post).

Guru’s Secret #1 – They Don’t Just Build a List

List building is one of the most overused phrases by almost all marketers online. I don’t mean that you should not build a list, what I want you to do is don’t JUST build a list, focus on building a strong buyer’s list.

I know most of the guru’s have several lists but these lists would only fall into two major categories: a prospects list (the freebie seekers are here) and a buyers list (where the real money is made). Focus most of your time on the buyers list because these are the people who have money and have a higher chance of making a second purchase from you.

Guru’s Secret #2 – They Have a Napkin Sized Business Model/ Plan

You don’t have to build a multiple page business plan to succeed in internet marketing. Sometimes keeping it simple is more effective.

Internet marketing gurus can write down their entire business model/ plan on the front side of a napkin. What do your business plan look like? Eliminate those extra lines and use the K.I.S.S strategy.

Guru’s Secret #3 – They Don’t Focus on their Front-End

When I was starting out last year, I would allocate most of my time on the first sale. Guru’s don’t. They even give their front-end or their first sale away for free or only for a buck. How do they earn from a free or almost free product? By implementing a well-planned product funnel.

A product funnel looks like this:

As you can see, the entrance to the funnel is very wide. You should drive all of your traffic here.

An internet marketing guru’s product funnel will always have three levels: the front-end, mid-level, and a back-end.

Front-end products are low priced ebooks, courses, softwares, etc… with a price range of $5-$30. Mid-level price range is usually from $100-$400+. One example is a home-study course. The backend product, which is where the guru’s make real money, ranges from a thousand to ten thousand dollars. This can be private seminars, one-on-one coaching, etc…

Guru’s Secret #4 – They Harness the Power of Continuity

Continuity is king. I’m sure you have heard of that phrase. Your business model should include residual income as this will give you a solid stream of revenue, even if you decide to take a vacation.

Go back with the product funnel diagram. As you drive traffic to your front-end product, your mid-level or the up-sell should be where your continuity program lies. Include it as a bonus. This way, you are making your continuity program a forced one and not an optional one. However, please clearly state this to your buyers.

Explain what will they get (in this case the free trial to your continuity program), the amount that they will be charged in case they still want to continue after the trial, and how can they cancel from it.

Several internet marketing gurus have implemented this technique since the start of this year (2009). One example is Russell Brunson’s DotComSecrets program. They would offer you a free CD, together with their continuity program which is a membership site. Another example is Anik Singal and Amit Mehta’s PPC Classroom. They gave away a free CD about their membership site, PPC Classroom 2.0, and yes, a free trial to it too. Mike Filsaime has three launches that have continuity in it (his monthly newsletter): Butterfly Marketing Script, Traffic Crusher, and Niche Crusher.

There are three types of continuity:

• Physical Products – Monthly Magazine, Newsletter, DVD or CD Series
• Membership Sites – Yearly, Monthly, Weekly subscriptions
• Software Applications – monthly fee for the use of the software

The key to this technique is quality. Make sure that your product can and will satisfy your buyer’s expectations and needs. If you don’t have a continuity program in place, you’re wasting a lot of money. Remember, continuity is KING!

Guru’s Secret #5 – They Don’t Put All Of Their Eggs In One Basket

Internet marketing products are very volatile in nature. Certain products can give you thousands of sales last month but can only give you a few hundred this month. Never stop from just having one product.

A guru’s new product launch may give him $60,000 in the first month, but he won’t expect that income level to stay any longer. That’s why after a successful launch, they are back with they’re planning board and think of their next launch.

Never put all of your efforts on just one product. Internet marketing is changing and evolving really fast. Be dynamic!

Guru’s Secret #6 – They Are All Fast Action Takers

This is also part of being dynamic. Don’t be a perfectionist on your promotions or products. Your product may never see the sunlight if you try to polish all of its angles. All internet marketing gurus know of the phrase “Ready, Fire, Aim!” and they practice it all the time.

Whatever your plans are, practice to put something up online as soon as you can and just aim and refine it as you go. Just make sure that you have tested all of its functions, checked all its grammars and the graphics are aligned the way you want it to. You don’t want to make your product look like cheap, but at least get something out there and just learn and tweak along the way.

Now that you’ve seen an internet marketing guru’s mind, all that’s left is for you to take action! Even if you read posts like this every day, it won’t make you money. Spend the most of your time in turning what you’ve learned into gold.

Others who read this post also read:

• October 12, 2009 -- My Take On The New FTC Rule Concerning Online Marketers (1)
• August 31, 2009 -- Getting Ideas For Your First Info Product (1)
• August 25, 2009 -- How To Become An Expert In Your Niche (1)
• August 10, 2009 -- Don’t Be Sold! (1)
• August 1, 2009 -- How to Write a Sales Letter That Really Sells (5)