Marketing Tips from High Performance Fighters

November 17th, 2009

This weekend at the SEO conference I met and spent time with three trained killers.

Lloyd Irvin, Frank Camacho, and David Hogan are mixed martial arts specialists and also avid students of Internet marketing. Lloyd is a World Champion several times over in various mixed martial arts disciplines. Frank Camacho and David Hogan have both had nationally televised fights and are actively training. (see pictures below)

Team Lloyd Irvin

Team Lloyd Irvin

Mixed martial arts is also known as cage fighting. Two fighters are put inside a steel cage and beat each other until submission. They wear no protective gear and almost anything goes. It is raw, vicious, and as real as it gets.

David "King David" Hogan

Controversial or not, cage fighting requires mental and physical training like none other. When you’re in the ring you are as exposed as you’ll ever be. Make one mistake and you’ll be knocked unconscious within a split second.

It is kill or be killed.
Cage fighters cannot afford to be lazy, neglectful, or apathetic in their training regimen. After spending a few days with these guys it was inspiring to see they apply this same attitude to their website businesses….and you should too.

Ben Moskel and Frank Camacho

Ben Moskel and Frank Camacho


In fact, one of them is so aggressive that he occupies the entire first page of Google for his most profitable keyword!

Simply put, if you want a six-figure website, you cannot afford to be lazy. You can’t treat it like a fun hobby if you expect to make any money. You cannot spend hours watching reality tv every night rather than doing real work on your business.

The good news is that most of your competition is lazy and apathetic. They whittle away all their time on mindless text messaging, pointless gossip, celebrity magazines, and updating their Myspace profiles. They do that while you are building new landing pages, scoping out the hot affiliate offers, and discovering new traffic sources.

This means that there is a TON of online real estate available for the taking.

Here is More good news: if you work on your online business as if your life depends upon it, the money will naturally follow. Just like the fighter who relentlessly trains and gives 110%. Once he gets into the ring on fight night he acts upon his instinct. The right moves naturally flow and victory appears effortless. The same is true here with Affiliate Marketing. Do the work and the money will take care of itself.

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Marc Attwood and Ken McCarthy Blogging Seminar in Manchester

November 16th, 2009

The Manchester blogging and SEO seminar is underway. Marc Attwood began by posting a blog to demonstrate how quickly you can rank in the search engines.

The results: The blog post was ranked #1 in Google in less than 14 minutes.

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UFC 105 Conspiracy and Blogging Seminar in Manchester

November 15th, 2009

I am recalling last night’s bitter memory of standing in M.E.N. Arena and hearing Michael Buffer announce that Randy Couture defeated Brandon Vera by unanimous decision.

To the layperson, the fight looked clear: Brandon Vera beat the crap out of Randy Couture. Most fans reached the same conclusion which was evidenced by the crowd clearing out of the arena even before the surprising decision was announced.

ben-moskel-vicki-irvin-kim-davis

ben-moskel-vicki-irvin-kim-davis

The judge’s clear bias towards selling more tickets for future fights reminded me of when I worked a “real” job.

I had no control. It didn’t matter how hard I worked or how many hours I invested in the law firm. The pay was the same. The bonuses were still pathetic. I was still expected to show up bright and early every day and never to request more than two weeks vacation.

Affiliate Marketing has given me the ability to regain control of those things.

I can put up several new websites and expect to add profit to my bottom line. I can add keywords to a profitable campaign and make more money.

The bottom line is that you can finally regain some control in this crazy politically driven World.

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Meeting UFC Fighter Brandon Vera

November 14th, 2009
benmoskel-marcAttwood-KenMcCarthy-BrandonVera-LloydIrvin-GregDavis

Ben Moskel-Marc Attwood-Ken McCarthy-Brandon Vera-Lloyd Irvin-Greg Davis

I’m writing you from Manchester, England where I’m getting ready to head downtown for tonight’s UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) event between Randy Couture and Brandon Vera.

The event is completely sold out and they are expecting over 18,000 fans…and I’ll be sitting ringside (Row C).

It’s a long story as to why I traveled all the way from Rochester to the UK. Suffice it to say that it was a mixture of networking and luck. My marketing mentor Ken McCarthy is close friends with Lloyd Irvin who is Brandon Vera’s trainer.

(Brandon Vera is fighting in the main event tonight)

I didn’t come to the UK just for the fight however. The fight is an awesome “bonus” of this trip. My primary reason for the trip was to attend an SEO conference by one of the best in the UK and to rub shoulders with other internationally recognized Internet Marketing Experts.

What have I learned so far?

I’ve learned that you cannot possibly ever underestimate the power of face-to-face networking. Last night we spent hours (over drinks of course) discussing Affiliate Marketing, SEO, website traffic, twitter, and just about everything else under the Internet Marketing sun.

The nuggets of information are things you could not possibly get from any ebook.

Plus, this late night face-to-face networking is INSPIRING!

Lloyd Irvin lives by a mantra of absolutely zero tolerance for excuses in business. The members of his mastermind club fiercely enforce the mantra. (In fact, if any member makes an excuse – for anything- they are required to do push ups on the spot).

It was fun to see people’s reaction to a few of us doing push ups in the middle of the bar last night!

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“K.I.S.S” Method for a $5,600/Month Website

October 30th, 2009

Have you ever wondered what it takes to create an Affiliate website the cranks out 5,600 per month?

I can tell you it’s a lot less than you think.

There’s no complicated web design, html coding, or magic juice. Instead, it takes simple marketing fundamentals. Dave and I recently used our KISS method (Keep It Simple Stupid) to quickly build a $5,600 per month Affiliate website.

We revealed the website and our exact steps at our recent seminar…and share the video coverage here.

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Ken McCarthy’s Blogging Conference in Manchester

October 19th, 2009

If you are on Ken McCarthy’s list then you probably discovered that the blogging/SEO conference is now open.

I’ll be heading to Manchester to attend. Ken did a quick video on how the conference came to be here:

Ken McCarthy – Marc Attwood Conference in ManChester, England

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“Godfather”of Internet Marketing Interviews Ben Moskel

October 17th, 2009
From Left to Right: Lloyd Irvin, Ken McCarthy, Greg Davis, Chris Chico, Ben Moskel

From Left to Right: Lloyd Irvin, Ken McCarthy, Greg Davis, Chris Chico, Ben Moskel

Ken McCarthy, also known as the “Godfather” of Internet Marketing, sat down for a 60 minute interview.

Below is an excerpt from the transcript:

Hi, this is Ken McCarthy and today I’m talking with Ben Moskel.  Hey, Ben?

Yes, Ken, I’m here.

Great.  Ben’s a System grad.  Some of you may know his story but I love telling it and, if you haven’t heard it, it’s pretty interesting.

As you know, for many, many years now, I’ve always given away lots of free information.  In fact, if you look back I might be the first internet marketing person that gave away tons of free information.  Good, useful information on the front end as a way of demonstrating our skill and experience.

And, my theory was, hey, I’ll give away some really good stuff and people will be able to use it.  They’ll test it.  They’ll see that it works.  They’ll make money.  And, then, they’ll realize, you know, if I want to learn more and get into this in-depth, then I should go to the System Seminar.

So, we’ve been doing that for years and it works pretty well.  As anybody who’s been in the system knows, we’re always selling out and we’re not doing a whole lot of hype and we don’t have a big circle of promoters.  We just sort of put the word out that we’re doing something and magically everybody appears.

So, doing this approach seems to work and seems to be very sustainable.  A lot of people ask me how I find the faculty members I find and this calls going to be sort of an x-ray into the process that I use.  Part of it is I’m doing constant research.  I’m never willing to rest on our laurels, you know.  And, really great events come from having very, you know, experienced, knowledgeable, active people who are doing what’s working today.

I don’t have a lot of old timers around unless the old timers are still doing really good work.  I don’t have celebrities around because I have no time for them.  I’m really looking for people that are just good and their work is cutting edge.

And, Ben is one of those people and we are going to talk about another one of these people, named Greg Davis, who Ben and I met pretty recently.

We were so impressed by Ben’s work, I mean, well, you know, Greg was, actually Greg was impressed by Ben’s work, too.  But, Ben and I were so impressed by Greg’s work that within a week of meeting him, we each got on a plane and flew down to Maryland to spend two days going in-depth into what he does.

Ben, you’re in the business of buying traffic from pay-per-click search engines and directing that traffic to affiliate programs.  Is that right?

That’s right.  Yes.  That’s internet marketing in a nutshell.  Yep.

And, that can be tricky and you’re in a fairly challenging marketplace.  Can you tell people the market that you’re in?

Get the First Half of the Interview by sending me an email: benmoskel@gmail.com

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Greetings from Ben Moskel @ The System Seminar Intensive 2009

October 4th, 2009
Ben Moskel at The System Seminar

Ben Moskel at The System Seminar

I just returned from my journeys abroad and cannot wait to share the experiences and marketing lessons with you.

This year I presented at The System Intensive, the longest running Internet Marketing Seminars in the World. Ken McCarthy, a friend and mentor, invited me to give a one hour presentation on Affiliate Marketing.

Download my Power Point Presentation Here

I must confess that I had not planned on making the trip to London. To do so meant that my wife and I had to cut short our Italian vacation.

Plus, getting to London was no easy task. It meant that we had to leave the tiny 12 mile Island of Capri the day before the seminar to make it in time for my presentation. We took no less than 5 different modes of transportation to make it there on time including a bus, a boat, car, airplane, and several trains.

However, we ultimately arrived late into London, exhausted, but just in time to get 4 hours of sleep before the next morning’s presentation.

Let me tell you it was worth the effort.

The presentation was much appreciated by the audience which included business owners, multi-millionaires, and individuals considered to be pioneers in the online marketing circles. I decided to speak about my story, how I got my start, who we work with, and the most important advice I would give to somebody getting their start with an affiliate website.

After the event we all had dinner which went late into the evening with conversation about business, the Internet, and our goals for the next few months. I met some really interesting people including Mike Mindel, the creator of Word Tracker. I also met Marc Attwood. Marc took a break even business and used his websites to turn it into an 8-figure per year business (this means his business makes more than 10 million dollars per year).

I also got to spend more time with Greg Davis, an affiliate marketer in a league of his own. (Greg makes about $50,000 per day from his affiliate websites). Greg shared with me his latest websites and the product he believes is going to be the next big affiliate product.

Overall, it was well worth the trip. I took home some new marketing lessons and newfound inspiration. Specifically, I learned that you should always pursue information and knowledge with great enthusiasm. Had I been lazy, and not made the effort to attend the seminar, I would missed out on invaluable networking, public speaking experience, and marketing secrets (which I intend to share with you during the coming weeks and months).

Any successful entrepreneur will tell you the value in seeking knowledge. That is why any efforts to educate yourself by way of books, seminars, conversations, experiences, and mentorship, ALWAYS pays dividends.

The old saying: “You don’t know what you don’t know” is especially true with affiliate marketing.
Here’s to pursuing knowledge and achieving success.

-Ben Moskel

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What Happens if the Affiliate Company Rejects my Application?

September 2nd, 2009

Sometimes working with affiliate partners is a frustrating experience. There are so many ways merchant partners drop the ball and unintentionally sabotage a potentially profitable relationship. Dan Kennedy refers to this type of thing as the “Sales Prevention Department.”

Here is what one of our new members experienced while applying for affiliate partners in Commission Junction:

Ben,
I have finished reading “The Online Entrepreneur,” and just have a few more of the training videos to watch before getting started.  I received the email with the website editor and have already registered for my Commission Junction account.
I was looking around on the CJ website at the different affiliate programs that are available and noticed that there is a box to check to apply for the different affiliate programs.  I am starting with just one website, which is www.——-.com.
I currently own a childcare center and wanted to start a website for the business.  My plan is to add different affiliate links related to children to the site.  I definitely plan to acquire another website to focus solely on affiliate products, but wanted to kind of get a feel for how exactly everything works with this one, at least to start with.  My question is, one of the affiliate programs, which is a clothing store for children, immediately declined my request to join their program.  Do you know why this happened?
Also, I’m assuming that you have to go through that process of joining their affiliate program FIRST, before you can actually begin earning income, right?  I realize this may be a dumb question, but I am still just a little confused about the whole process and exactly how to get started.  Any help that you can provide would be greatly appreciated!
-A

Here is my response:

A -

You are not alone in your bewilderment here!

Unfortunately merchant partners fail to see the potential in developing affiliate relationships. To understand this, first let me explain the nature of the affiliate relationships.

First, an advertiser – also known as the “merchant” decides they want to have affiliates promote their products. Because running an affiliate program is a full-time job, the advertiser will then look for an affiliate network to operate their affiliate program.

In this case, the advertiser decided to hire Commission Junction. Commission Junction then takes care of all the day-to-day managing activities of the program, such as tracking sales, issuing commission checks, etc.

In return for this work the affiliate network takes a cut of all the sales generated by its affiliates. For example, if you are getting paid $10 for a sale, Commission Junction may be taking $3.

Affiliate networks, like Commission Junction, are a necessary evil. You will discover that other than issuing your commission check, large networks including Commission Junction do nothing to deserve their high fees.

They provide zero support and often fail to recognize when good affiliates apply to join a program. In any event, here are some suggestions on what to do if your application is denied:

1. Consider contacting the merchant company directly. You can usually find some contact information right on the company’s website. Explain to them that you have an affiliate site, how you plan on promoting their products, etc.

2. Consider joining other affiliate networks outside of Commission Junction. In Chapter 4 of The Online Entrepreneur – available to members in our training center – you will find a large list of other networks. Often these networks have the same program or comparable programs.

3. Write an email to the merchant via your Commission Junction account. You can usually contact the advertiser via CJ. Just look for the merchant’s contact information in your CJ account. This is probably a last resort type of thing because it may take up to a week for CJ to route the email onto the advertiser – if they bother to do so at all.

Remember, don’t get too caught up on a specific program. There are likely similar offers available who are ready, willing, and eager to have you as their affiliate!

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MSN Content Network: Money-Suck or Gold Mine?

August 31st, 2009

We recently tested two campaigns on MSN’s content network. It is well known that Google’s content network is a reliable source of targeted traffic. However, I have had a few shaky experiences with Yahoo and MSN’s content network in the past.

Thus, for the most part, we focused more on optimizing our Google content network campaigns as opposed to dissecting Yahoo and MSN’s wildly unpredictable content campaigns.

However, after seeing quite a few very targeted content ads well placed in MSN content pages, I decided that MSN’s content network deserves a closer look. While I cannot say which campaigns we tested, I can say that they were affiliate offers in two completely unrelated industries.

We invested $2,500 over the course of 4 weeks and purchased over 4,000 clicks. The bottom line is that MSN’s content network, while still somewhat unpredictable, is much improved and can be a source of unbelievably targeted prospects.

Specifically, here are our discoveries:

1.    We found a handful of placements that reliably show conversion rates of up to 10X higher than similar traffic from Google and Yahoo paid search campaigns.

2.    Ads for products in some industries (Think financial niche) will bring traffic, but almost a non-existent conversion ratio.

3.    The number of different web properties is limited – even with a broad appeal type campaign, e.g. business opportunity, which had over 10,000 different keywords.

4.    You have good control over your placements including the ability to exclude properties as well as access reports on where your ads were served.

5.    Placement reports are available quickly, sometimes only 10-12 hours following the visit. (Compare this with Google’s placement reports which are available 48-72 hours following the visit)

6.    Placement targeting campaigns are an option although operating a placement targeted campaign is a challenge because of the limited number of available properties.

7.    The advertising reps are helpful and willing to set up a content only campaign if you request. (They’ll even identify keywords which are likely to trigger good traffic on the content network)

The bottom line is that MSN content traffic is much improved. Traffic is limited and sometimes poorly targeted. However, it is worth the time and resources to invest in a new test campaign to identify the small number of properties that consistently bring you targeted visitors. Of course, you should expect investing a reasonable amount of time up front monitoring your traffic and excluding any irrelevant properties.

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