Very cool tool I found yesterday around 2am (that’s why I don’t remember where I found it).

The website grader gives a free analysis of several aspects of your website and comes up with a score based on readability, loading time, and incoming links. It’s much more than a SEO tool.

Website reviews are nothing new, and there are tons of tools trying to convince people to buy their products after some scary analysis says so, but website grader is different:

First of all, it offers suggestions on what to do to fix the problems, in a completely NON-TECHIE way.

And second, their SEO strategies book is FREE. REally, free!

Go ahead and try it out. You might see things through a new perspective.

Is Traffic Formula 2 Mike Dillard's Bible?

After 3 years of launching the original MLM Traffic Formula manuscript, which has become major part of many successful marketers’ libraries, Mike Dillard is now launching an updated version of the formula.

Sure, the first TF is still relevant, as it covers fundamental online marketing practices and platforms, but, according to Mike himself, there are issues that have grown too much to ignore:

1. Increasing competition
2. Increasing amount of free information available
3. Decreased internet users’ attention span
4. Decreased customer retention

So How Is MLM Traffic Formula 2.0 Going To Address These Issues?

On a recent email, Mike Dillard explained how TF 2.0 will be delivered:

Traffic Formula 2 is not a physical product.

When it goes on sale this Wednesday, we’ll be selling tickets to the “Beta Release” which will allow you and your customers to attend all of the live training calls and webinars we’ll be holding over the coming weeks and months as they happen.

This will allow us to make sure we cover everything you’d like to see in the course.

Eventually, the final version will be put into a binder just like “TF1″, and the price will increase substantially.

This is exactly how Traffic Formula 1 was developed. People were allowed to purchase a ticket to all of the training calls and attend them live.

From Mike’s email, and given his new take on Social Media, the crew will base the entire Traffic Formula 2.0 in what we as marketers would like to learn.

Your Input Is Important – Traffic Formula 2.0 will be Interactive!

About 2 days ago, Mike Dillard mailed an online survey to his list, prompting his 120,000 members to reveal their knowledge level, experience, and biggest difficulties.

The results of this survey remain yet to be seen, but I bet Traffic Formula 2.0 will hit the nail in the head, once all the answers are revealed.

This is undoubtely a bold, genious move by Dillard – he’s basically asking his customers:

Tell me what you want to know, I’ll answer it, and then sell it back to you for a decent price…

With his knowledge, and the support of team members like Justin Christianson, Craig Allen, Ben Settle, Jim Yaghi, and others, Mike’s definitely got the knowledge to back that promise.

The Traffic Formula 2.0 Freebies + Leo’s Awesome Bonus

Following the amazing success of Eben Pagan’s latest launch, Mike released a 36-minute “online dvd”, which has already received over 11500 views in less than 48 hours.

Because the video – and TF 2.0 – are so jam-packed with advanced marketing concepts, I’ve uploaded an entire blog designed to clarify details of the traffic formula 2 launch.

And the cool thing I’ve got stashed in there is MY PERSONAL BONUS: The first 50 people to get traffic formula 2.0 through my link get PERSONAL COACHING!

This way, if you’re unsure how to digest all the information TF’s got, or you’re not quite sure how to implement it, you’ll have myself there to assist you in your major obstacles.

So go check out Dillard-Traffic-Formula.com and sign up quick to ensure your free personal coaching.

Master The Google PPC Content Network

And so it begins….the real PPC power!

I’m always surprised to see the results that my ads on the Google Search produce, and the flexibility of choosing specifically which searchers to target is awazing…

BUT…

The more targeted you get on the Search network, the less impressions you get, after all, you’re narrowing the funnel, focusing on customers who have moved past research and into buying mode.

Often, you find a profitable keyword, your Clickthrough Ratio and Conversion are excellent, but the traffic is just not enough to really make that much of a difference.

The Content Network Boosts Profitable Keywords Exponentially

When a PPC campaign includes the content network, Adwords will place your ads throughout Adsense placements in affiliated websites. That means not only ads will show when someone is searching for your keyword, but also when that keyword is somewhere within the text of those websites.

With the Content Network, PPC takes a much more aggressive approach and targets potential prostects that may not be “searching” for what you’re offering, but reading, looking, or watching it.

Google understands these prospects are interested in that keyword because the website in which the ads is placed contains that keyword – therefore its visitors must be somewhat related to that query.

It is common to see a huge spike in impressions when the Content Network is turned on, and that is exactly why it is such an advanced PPC strategy: with 40K impressions/day in average per keyword, a 0.5% clickthrough ratio means 200 clicks - which means at $0.10 per click, $20, for a single keyword.

There are a variety of reasons to be careful when advertising in the content network:

• quality of the placements (the website where your ad is showing – is it well-targeted?)

• quality of the clicks (keeping track of where your clicks are coming from can be a tiresome chore)

• difficult budget planning (much higher click volume, even with low CTR)

• difficult keyword strategy (instead of simply focusing on what they are searching for, marketers have to think what is the best context to place a keyword)

A couple of recommendations to maintain control over your ppc campaigns running on content:

• Imagine how your keyword will show up on a blog post, email, or article, and focus your ad around that angle

• Create Content-only campaigns,  and check it’s results very often

• Check Google’s Placement Report at least weekly to find out exactly which placements have offered the best results, and ditch the ones that didn’t.

• Use ONLY []exact keyword matches to have the most amount of control

Would you like to share your experience?

I have a project cooking right now that will open a huge channel to PPC students who need or want to share their PPC knowledge, but for now, I’d like to see what was everyone’s experience with the Content Networ..

Leave your comments, questions, and suggestions – I will reply!

Eben Pagan Moves The Free Line

I’ve just finished reading Eben Pagan’s latest giveaway, the 21-page Marketing Voodoo report.

Eben is too humble to take credit for it, but he’s famous for the phrase “move the free line”, in regards to offering high-quality content, freely, in order to capture and captivate prospects, customers, and associates.

To promote the launch of his Guru Home Study Course, Eben has been over-delivering 1000s of dollars worth of free tips, training, and even mini sales letters – stuff that could easily sell for at least $40, only to WOW his prospects to the point where they have to have his course.

Honestly, it’s working.

After taking the time to watch his 40 min video twice and reading his marketing voodoo report over and over, I’ve reached the point where I can’t imagine what’s left for the actual paid course. The information Eben shared on the marketing voodoo report alone is 100% actionable, and I already see it increasing my conversion rates and capturing customers for life.

I’m trying my best not to sound like a groupie, but it’s not easy.

What is impressive is that Eben leaves no doubt that what’s in the video and in the marketing voodoo report is his best, most precious strategies, and he is not afraid to reveal it publicly. The reason for is that despite the immediate potential his free reports have, with his guidance and special exercises, exploring its full potential will take much less than having to study it on your own.

Basically, Eben Pagan is giving you an amazing toy without the full, 400 page instruction. He gives you a 20 page instruction, and full access to the toy; you may play with it for a while, but without the entire manual, it gets boring… So you have to come and ask for the full instruction set.

It is your decision to seek Eben Pagan as a solution provider, not only because he gave you the toy, but because he knows exactly how to have lots and lots of fun playing it.

The entire “move the free line” strategy revolves around the fact that Eben (or any knowledgeable entrepreneur, for that matter) is confident that it will be our decision to seek his solution, which brings us to another point discussed on the Marketing voodoo report:

An info-product has to solve an immediate pain, and if done correctly, has no perceived competition.

Notice the cycle?

• The Bait – high-quality information

• The catch – the info has limited training

• The solution – pay to get more training

• The alternative – none, since there’s nothing designed for this specific need/service/opportunity

Genious!

I’ve already made changes to my sales letter, and include some of Eben’s “toys” – can you see which ones are they?

Lateral Keyword Research Tool

Master Jim Yaghi posted a new keyword research tool that makes the advertiser’s life a whole lot easier.

Most keyword tools go deeper into a query, for example:

For a ‘home business’ query, wordtacker brings these results:

home based business
home business
home business post free ads quickly
home based business opportunities
home based businesses
home based businesses free classified ads
home business ideas
10 best home based business
google home business kit
starting a home based tutoring business
home businesses
article business home idea
home business opportunity
home business opportunities

Pretty common, right?

Now, this is what KWBrowse brings:

See the difference?

Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Hello there, loyal readers!

I wanted to start off today’s post by saying THANK YOU, very much. Each one of my readers motivates me to learn more just so I can share more valuable stuff here on the LPNM.

What today’s post is also about is your initial setup running a network marketing business. As you know, I’ve made tons of mistakes – have I ever stopped? and it’s my mission to prevent you from doing the same.

Or at least not as bad as I did

I put together this video to clarify basic, yet fundamental, aspects of a network marketing business strategy that took me a while to figure out and that I still see going on with plenty of marketers out there.

The video will explain 5 concepts regarding the regular operation of your business that will take any newbie off-guard.

For example, the video explains why you should NOT say “Hi, This is Joe with Amway” when you’re on the phone with a prospect, and how to avoid trying to “convert” prospects into your business.

I know this may seem basic to some of you, and I appreciate the fact that I do have readers well-positioned in this industry, but I defend a strong position in the video, one that most marketers would take different stand on.

Which stand are you going to take?

Increase Your Asset - Grow an Active List

The most important asset a internet marketer has is a responsive list of customers. Whether on email, twitter, or facebook, building a list of active subscribers is a strategy that any marketer should focus on since the beginning.

The average list-building experience starts slowly, as traffic starts pouring into landing pages and prospects subscribe to your list.

However, this strategy can be frustrating in the beginning, while traffic is still shy.

That’s when a respected list-building platform comes in handy. List-builders are communities of professionals that subscribe (or buy access) to receive and send messages within the community. Basically, List-Builders are a pool of like-minded professionals looking to improve their businesses, get more traffic, and make more money.

My Favorite List-Builder

I’ve written before about my results with list-builders before, so today I want to share specifically my results with ViralUrl.

For $197/year, ViralUrl allows email blasts every 3 days to 3000 random members in their list.

I’ve been utilizing their services since february, and I’m very satisfied with the results.

Previously, I’d been promoting Magnetic Sponsoring, because of the high conversion rates, and for each blast, I’d generate 10+ leads and about a sale/week from MS alone. That’s $80/month, which would cover my initial investment in 2.5 months, leaving me 9.5 months to profit from the ViralUrl services.

Now, I’ve switched the focus to my own training, the Expand Your Income manual – and even though my landing page does not convert as well as Mike Dillard’s (what’s new?) the prospects I receive are much more targeted because they want to know ME, not magnetic sponsoring or Mike Dillard.

So here are the updated results: depending on my email copy (I keep experimenting, which makes for a lower average), I may get anywhere from 100-150 visits, and 6-10 leads. I understand this is not outrageously effective, but it brings me great prospects, and I’m building my own list, expanding the reach of personal branding even further.

If you’re just starting up, and you’re not yet getting the traffic you want, I highly recommend ViralUrl. And if you have a bit more to invest, you can get multiple accounts, and send blasts everyday!

Either way, be sure to offer something valuable in exchange for your opt-ins. Folks in list-building services are already in the industry and are probably not looking for another home business – they’re looking for training, consulting, tips.. So provide them with something highly beneficial and your results will speak for themselves.

To growing your list the smart way,

Leo Saraceni

P.S – ViralUrl also offers an effective url cloaking service (for free, even if you dont join their paid membership) that is great to mask affiliate links and protect your commissions. Check it out:

http://viralurl.com/about

Im sure you all know by now we’re supposed to offer more than a product/service – as network marketers, we offer guidance, possibility, training, insight, and information.

We all are bombarded with different “sources” of this education, whether online or from friends, family, teachers, and colleagues, but each has its own “influence level”, according to the amount of respect we give to each source.

How about an educator that makes you laugh?

Even though laugh is not enough to make you respect anybody, humor is the most effective way to break down initial barriers and capture one’s attention; follow me on this thought:

Remember that one cool teacher, whose lecture went by faster than others, in whose test you did much better without extra effort, or whose topic you were always motivated to study?

How much would you value his advice? How much of his discipline do you remember? I bet it’s more than all the other “normal” teachers put together.

When it comes to network marketing, the same concept applies, meaning that regular knowledge sources (gurus) are boring, average, and common. The exceptional ones are the Kerns, the Dillards, the Reeses, who add not only personality to whatever they’re doing, but know how to have fun doing it.

And that is my secret for today:

if you make your prospects laugh, you’ve broken the barriers and conquered that individual’s full attention.

Tone your messages, write ads that stir away from “formulas” and add something unusual. Do use colloquialism and spoken grammar on your articles, and dont be afraid to make fun of yourself.

I saw the following note on Ben Settle’s blog, it’s a snippet from Jim Yaghi, Adword’s specialist:

Hey Ben,

thanks a lot for that! awesome. I actually use cartoons when trying to come up with graphical descriptions for that very reason. They also allow you to tap into a prospect’s inner child as they remember images like “seeing stars” when hit on the head, or the bump that grows on someone’s head when hit by a hammer, or the way people drift on the scent of sizzling sausages

jim

Be honest: who here has ever thought of getting inspiration from Comic Books? Does anybody here even read comics anymore?

That is the kind of “spin” that separates common from unique, just-another-one from yes-this-guy/girl-rocks! And that is something anybody can do, with a TINY BIT of creativity.

Of course, in the world of mass media & mass budgets, fun has been with us for quite a while (the gosh-darnet Superbowl ads), but I picked this Heineken ad to show how Educating & Promoting are aligned with Humor. It’s almost like a Public Service Announcement, but fun.

Leave me your opinion – what have you done that made your prospects laugh lately?

MLM Duplication Is A Legend

When I first started, I did believe that a magical system would find my leads, close them, and just send me the money.

That’s exactly why I signed up with a premium company, because I thought they had the most magical system.

When I realized there is no “automated money system”, I converted my faith to my sponsor. I thought that was the guy who was going to share with me the secret and take me by the hand to the millionaire land.

And he did. He explained everything he does, how he does it, and he even GAVE ME LEADS! I listened to him talking to prospects, I looked into his Adwords campaign, and asked all possible questions.

I applied everything he taught me. I ran my first adwords campaign – on a replicated company website – until my credit card maxed out at $1500. I still go back and look at that first adwords account – I actually paid $11 PER CLICK on a certain keyword.

I did generate leads, and I called all of them, following the script my sponsor passed on to me, only to achieve ZERO results.

So I narrowed my errors to the company-replicated website – I went out and got a decent site. I also decided that 15 minutes of Adwords training weren’t going to cut, so I bought Jim Yaghi’s PPC Domination.

Now, I had a great site, and quite a bit of knowledge regarding PPC. Exactly how my sponsor did.

Still, I had no results – few leads, ZERO conversions, NEGATIVE profits. How? How?

When I contacted my sponsor, the guy I was trying to copy, he looked over my entire marketing and said:

“dude, you’re doing everything I do. There’s nothing else to say! Try to find better keywords, and practice your phone skills”

That’s when it hit me: I CAN’T BE MY SPONSOR. There’s no CTRL+C and CTRL+V when it comes to running a business – even McDonald’s’ franchises have different results. And I should’ve known this, because my father owned a restaurant franchise for almost 10 years and he only succeeded when he opened his own.

There is no Duplication. When I hear marketers talking about “keep it simple, so others can do the same” or “blueprints to success” it bothers me for two reasons:

1. Do they actually believe their success can be replicated? How many of their downlines actually did?
2. Are they a duplicated product? If so, what would keep me from going straight to THEIR upline? To the source?

The concept of duplication is nothing more than a legend.

If you’re new to network marketing, or if you’re a veteran training your team, FORGET DUPLICATION and focus on EDUCATION. Learn (or teach) as much as you can, from as many different sources as possible, and apply it in a manner customized for your business.

To paraphrase that common saying:

“give your prospect a formula, and he may eat today; give him the tools to create his own formula, and he will feast forever”

Stop being a tool - Become a solution

I received yet another bogus email this morning, and the only reason I opened it was to get inspiration to advise against this evil practice. What I’m talking about is the silly “my company is awesome” email that most network marketers seem to have on their autoresponders.

It usually starts like this:

“hey [name], thanks for stopping by my website, and congratulations on blah blah blah [...] our company has been in the market for [insert years here], has been featured on [pick from: Oprah, CNN, Mad Money], and our market grows by $1 Billion/MINUTE!”

So here’s the fundamental mistake on these bogus emails:

They are TOOLS – basically, their company uses them to promote the company’s solution. Let’s address this:

Most marketers fail to notice that they are NOT Representatives. They are not salespeople, per se. As a marketer, your objective is to PROMOTE A SOLUTION.

You, my friend, is a RESOURCE through which your prospects find the solution to their problems.

You guide, mentor, advise, and coach your prospects towards a tool that will make them money, improve their marketing, clear their acne, and so forth… Pay attention to how this works:

A person is looking to get out of a dreadful job, or generate a second income stream – direct them to a business opportunity where they could be their own boss, or just supplement their main source of income. If they already have a business and are looking for some marketing assitance – share with them a marketing training that helped your business.

You see? There’s no selling - only good-old advice, tips, hints, even opinions. Things get ugly when your prospect thinks you’re a pitching machine.

Okay, so what do you need to become a resource?

Share your knowledge, offering valuable information that will assist others make better decisions. You will benefit by just by grabbing their undivided attention.

To help you come up with ways to do this, answer the following questions:

• How can I make a difference?
• How can I assist others?
• What can I offer?
• What took me way too long to master, that I wish somebody had told me before?

Of course, in your path to become a valuable resource, there is one major investment to be made: YOUR EDUCATION.

The more you know, the more you learn, the more valuable you are in the mind of your prospects.

Think about it, and let me know what is your plan to change the world. I’d love to hear about it!

Seriously, leave a comment.