I have a simple philosophy when it comes to Internet income – Build a long-term business.
In other words, don’t fall for the get rich quick mentality that prevents success from happening.
Unfortunately some people don’t have the time to create future income.
They need money. And they need it now.
A reader recently asked how she can make $1000 within a 30-day period.
Normally I’d say it wasn’t possible.
However I put on my thinking cap and imagined what I would do to generate some quick cash.
What I came up with is a 30-day plan for making $1000 in online income. This isn’t an easy plan. But it’s the same system I’d use if I had to make money fast.
I want to emphasize something here. I’m a firm believer in long-term growth. Normally I don’t think it’s wise to build a short-term business. But I’m also a realist. I know some folks want (or need) immediate gratification.
This 30-day plan is designed to make quick cash – Not build a business. So if you’re looking for something more permanent; then start with my affiliate marketing strategies page.
This system makes money in a very aggressive manner. It’s not something I’d recommend to anyone interested in generating long-term income.
On the other hand, it’s easy to adapt once the money starts rolling in. Just change a few things and you’ll have a platform that will be successful for years to come. (More on this in step 7.)
Okay we’re done with the preliminaries. Let’s get to it…
Time Frame: Day 1
You need a high-converting; large commission affiliate offer to make this plan work. My advice is to only promote products with a commission of $30 or more. Why? It’s easier to make a thousand dollars from a $30 commission than from a $10 commission.
Here are a few numbers:
$1000/$30 = 33 Sales
$1000/$10 = 100 Sales
Which do you think is easier to get: 33 sales or 100 sales? Obviously the answer is the $30 offer. Even better – Promote a product with a $100 commission and all you need is ten sales to reach $1000!
Ultimately, your success depends on the offer. All the effort in the world won’t make a difference if you’re marketing the wrong product. That’s why it’s important to research a product that converts.
There are hundreds of ways to find a quality offer. For the sake of simplicity, we’ll talk about the easiest:
Promote Clickbank Information Products
My 30-day plan is about promoting information products. Why? They offer the largest payouts on a per-sale basis – Sometimes over $100 per sale.
The best place to start is Clickbank. This site has the best selection of profitable information products. Plus they make it brain-dead simple to grab a link and immediately promote an offer.
The trick to Clickbank is finding offers with a high conversion rate. Unfortunately there isn’t a 100% reliable way to figure this out. So my advice is to promote products with a high gravity score – At least 50 or better.
Now…gravity does not mean the sales page has a high conversion rate. Instead it’s a mathematical formula derived from the number of affiliates who’ve successfully sold this product in the last 60 days.
Put simply:
High Gravity = Lots of Affiliates = Quality Sales Record
It’s not a perfect predictor of success. But it’s okay for the sake of this 30-day plan.
How do you find products with high gravity? It’s simple. Here are three tools you can use:
#1- Review the Clickbank Marketplace: Start here if you already have a niche in mind. Just sort through categories and find high gravity offers related to your interest. This is a great technique if you want to avoid the mass-market offers.
Here’s how to find the gravity in a marketplace listing:
#2 – Scan the CB Engine Commission Rates Chart: Many affiliate products offer up to a 75% cut of their profits. (Remember it’s easier to make money from products with large commissions.)
So check out this area to find products with a great sales record:
#3 – Look at CB Engine’s High Gravity Scores: What are the best gravity scores Clickbank? Use this tool to find out. Yes, most are links to scammy MLM, Forex and make money products. However there are a few hidden gems on this list.
For instance here are a few Movers & Shakers on this list:
Specifically you see links to high quality offers like Rusty Moore’s “Visual Impact” offer. (He’s a great blogger who writes excellent, in-depth free content. So I can only imagine his information product is chock-full of great advice.) That shows you can find a lot of quality offers on this page.
Use one (or all) of these resources to find a profitable information product. Don’t worry if this takes a few hours. It’s time well spent because you’re looking for the right product to promote.
Time Frame: Day 2
Now you’ll research this niche. The purpose here is to determine the common challenges people face in this market. These are the obstacles that prevent them from achieving true success.
There are many ways to research a niche. My advice is to do these things:
- Read the top blogs in this niche. Specifically looking at the content that gets a high amount of comments and Re-Tweets. This is shows topics where an audience has a particular interest.
- Review the popular forums. Again you want to find the conversation threads that get a lot of comments. A great tool for finding a forum is the Big Boards website.
- Examine the sales copy of the affiliate offer. Most sales pages contain a wealth of niche-specific questions. Look carefully and you’ll see the author will list the obstacles/challenges that people commonly encounter.
It’s important to take notes during this research phase. You want to gather what people are saying in this market. Plus look for some common themes on how to overcome these different obstacles.
Don’t rip off other people’s content. Instead use this research as a way to generate your own ideas.
Okay this is just a brief overview of this process. For more on this, I’d recommend reading my free PDF: THE Affiliate Research Formula
Time Frame: Days 3 to 5
In this step you’ll take all these notes and turn it into a valuable piece of content. You will give this away in exchange for a prospect’s email address. This is called a lead magnet and it’s the best way to build a profitable email list.
Lead magnet marketing is all about presentation. While the content needs to be great, it’s equally important to present a compelling freebie. Something that makes someone really want to subscribe. That’s it’s important to focus on the perceived value of what you’re offering.
Here are a few ways to do this:
- Write a title that promises a great benefit
- Offer it in multiple formats: PDF, audio and video
- Use a tool like Optimize Press to create a stylish, professional ‘squeeze page’
- Create a slick looking eCover for this product
Presentation of the lead magnet is an absolute must. A great offer builds a large list while an inferior freebie will leave you dead in the water. So be sure to check out my post on creating lead magnets on how to do this.
Also, be sure to install Google Analytics on the lead magnet offer page. This will become important when you want to improve web traffic. (See step #6.)
Finally, don’t worry about making a perfect lead magnet offer. Just do your best and get it out there!
My advice is to create a good presentation. Then use a free tool like Google Website Optimizer to split-test the offer. Keep tweaking this offer till you’re getting a large opt-in rate. (At least 25%)
Time Frame: Days 6 to 8
Most of my autoresponder sequences are designed for long-term profitability. In other words, I sacrifice short-term profits to make money for years to come. (Click here for more on how I do this.)
But this post is about helping people who need $1000+ in 30 days. So I’m going to recommend a different strategy than I’d normally use.
Once the lead magnet offer is set up you’ll create a 7 part autoresponder sequence. The goal here is to blend content with a strong affiliate recommendation in each email message. Yes, it’s a very aggressive form of marketing. So you’ll get a lot of unsubscribes. At the same time, you’ll get a large number of affiliate sales.
This system is about giving multiple exposures to an affiliate offer. Here’s how to do this:
- Within the lead magnet. Embed a teaser and an affiliate link in the header of each page. Then give a soft recommendation at the end of the report.
- On the thank you page. Tell people to expect an email with the lead magnet; then give a short advertisement for the offer.
- 1st email. Introduce yourself and talk about the free content that’s provided within this newsletter. In the P.S. section, present the affiliate offer as an advanced solution. Present it as something as a total solution alternative to what you’re about to discuss.
- 2nd and 3rd email. Again, give lots of great content up front. Make these messages full of useful information that adds to what you discussed in the lead magnet. At the end of each, talk about the affiliate product – But don’t be too pushy.
- 4th and 5th email. Shift focus and use the presell tools provided by the product owner. What you’ll do is briefly talk about the free stuff (ie: webinars, PDFs, video, etc.) this person is offering. Then provide a link to where they can download this content.
- 6th email. This is where you’ll do a strong recommendation of this affiliate product. Discuss its benefits and how it can help subscribers. My advice? Spend a lot of time on this email; making sure it overcomes any objections about purchasing this item.
- 7th email. This is a reminder of this product. Tell people about what’s being offered and why they should buy it. This is a great time to use scarcity or a limited time offer to get people to take advantage of this offer.
Sidebar: Like I said, this is an aggressive form of marketing. It quickly divides people into two groups: They’ll buy the affiliate offer or they’ll unsubscribe/ignore your messages. In the short term, it makes money. However I wouldn’t recommend it for anyone who wants to build a long-term business.
Spend a few times crafting this autresponder sequence. It’s how you’ll make money. So be sure it’s blending great content with quality recommendations for this affiliate offer.
Time Frame: Day 9
You now have a lead magnet and a killer autoresponder sequence. What’s next? You’ll drive traffic to this offer and turn visitors into subscribers.
My formula is simple:
Find long-tail keywords that get at least 500 searches per month. Then create content on high-traffic sites that attract people to the lead magnet offer.
You won’t have time for SEO (search engine optimization) with this plan. Instead you’ll leverage the natural link-love that Google has for specific sites. Your goal is to find decent keywords and then create content that ranks well for these phrases.
Here’s how to do this…
What is the Keyword Demand?
Get started by using the Google Keyword External website. This tool allows you to check out the basic search demand for each phrase. Your goal is to build a list of keywords that focus on information people are seeking in this niche.
In step 1, we found Rusty Moore’s “Visual Impact” product. This is a product that’s designed to help folks develop a lean “Hollywood” look. It’s an antithesis on the lose weight/build muscle products that dominate this market.
My first thought when looking at this product is it’s perfect for anyone who wants to develop a celebrity-specific look. (Think Brad Pitt in the movie Fight Club.)
So my initial keyword research would include searches for keywords like celebrity workout and celebrity fitness:
Okay, these are amazing results. You know there is a lot of demand for this kind of information. The drawback is these keywords are full of competition. It’ll be almost impossible to compete for these phrases within a 30-day window.
That’s why it’s important to do a bit of out-of-the-box thinking. Most people don’t type in words like celebrity workouts or celebrity fitness. Instead they want to know the exact exercises that is done by a specific person.
For instance, let’s think about all the people who are famous for an aspect of their looks:
- Ryan Kwanten (from ‘True Blood’)
- Kim Kardashian (from ‘Meet the Kardashians’)
- Mike “The Situation” (from ‘The Jersey Shore’)
- Taylor Lautner (from ‘Twilight’)
Hate them or love them, these are celebrities who are in known to be in shape. As a result, people are looking for specific workout information.
Why do people look for this kind of stuff? Because many want to look like their favorite celebrity.
So they’ll search for exercise-specific information. The problem is there’s still some competition for these phrases. That’s why you might want to get really sneaky and go for phrases that no one has considered.
For instance, on Sunday Sofia Vergara made a huge splash at the Emmy’s. You can see that she was one of the growing trends here:
I’m sure there’s lots of people who wonder how she works out. And I’m pretty confident that there isn’t a lot of competition for the Sofia Vergara Workout keyword.
Or you could do search for guy named Joe Manganiello. (Don’t worry if you don’t know who this is…I had to look this up myself.) He’s the guy who plays Alcide in the HBO show True Blood.
A lot of people are looking for information about how he works out. According to Google 1,900 people last month looked for Joe Manganiello workout.
Yet the competition is fairly weak:
My overall point is there are sneaky ways to find hidden gems in keyword research. Just monitor the growing trends in Google / Yahoo and you’ll discover patterns that can easily be applied to an affiliate product.
What is the Keyword Competition?
Okay, I just gave you one way to find quality keyword phrases. Now let’s talk about another method…
A tool I’ll often use is Market Samurai. This helps me quickly identify the long-tail phrases that are have high demand and low competition. The basic metric I’d shoot for is a phrase match of 100,000 pages (or less.)
This might seem like a large number. However you’d be surprised at how easy it is to rank for some phrases using the strategy outlined in step #6.
My advice is to build a large keyword list with Market Samurai. Then narrow things down till you find ones that have high demand with low competition. For instance, here’s what happened when I ran a search for popular celebrities.
You can see that the phrase Taylor Lautner Workout gets 374 daily searches but has a competition of 1,460,000 exact phrase pages. That’s not very promising.
On the other hand, Joe Manganiello Workout has a result of 0. Unfortunately Market Samurai sometimes gets it wrong. So I did a manual search in Google and got back a competition of 12,400 phrases.
Now remember we already know there are 1,900 monthly searches for his workout routine. And Market Samurai shows this phrase is getting 26 searches a day. Right now, there are 12,400 competing sites…with 2 out of the top 4 showing content from a free site (wetpaint.com & youtube.com).
What does this mean?
You can create content around this phrase and quickly get a great Google ranking!
Pretty cool, right?
Build a High Search/Low Competition Keyword List
Don’t waste too much time in keyword research. My recommendation is spend a day on this particular task. Try to find keywords with high searches and low competition. But don’t freak out if you can locate any.
To be honest, I’ve had a lot of success by targeting high demand – high competition keywords. Frankly sometimes you get lucky and hit the search results jackpot!
So try to locate good keywords, but don’t let this process bog you down.
Time Frame: Days 10 to 30
This is where the real work comes in. In this step, you’ll create a LOT of content around the keyword phrases you’ve discovered. What you’ll do is blast out quality information that all directs people back to the lead magnet offer.
Remember it’s a simple formula:
Here’s how to start building that traffic:
Create Keyword-Centric Content
At first, you’ll post content to a variety of free sites. Each article, or video, should target a specific keyword phrase you discovered in step 5. Make each piece useful to the reader (ie: 500+ words) but also work in a strong author byline that promotes your lead magnet offer. (For more on this read my post about 11 article marketing strategies.)
Initially you want to target the sites that are preferred by Google in their search results:
1) EzineArticles.com
2) YouTube.com
3) Squidoo.com
4) Scribd.com
5) Blogger.com
Sidebar: There have been some controversy about these sites and if they ‘still work.’ My opinion is you can get a great ranking from these web properties. The trick is to make sure you’re providing great content.
Okay, notice how I’ve listed five different resources. That means you’ll have to create five variations of the same piece of content. Like I said…this isn’t an easy system!
Get started by reading my post on recycling and reusing web content. Then dedicate each day to creating and submitting five pieces of content around a keyword phrase:
- Day 10 submit five content pieces for keyword #1
- Day 11 submit five content pieces for keyword #2
- Day 12 submit five content pieces for keyword #3
- Etc. etc…
The key here is to start with keywords that have the most profit potential and work your way down the list. At first, don’t worry about what’s happening with your content. Some will get results. Others won’t. Just keep cranking out content on a regular basis – The more the better!
Track Each Traffic Source
You’ll discover that some web traffic does better than others. The best way to know this is to track each site. That means you should have a link for at least the following:
- Articles (ie: EzineArticles.com)
- Videos (ie: YouTube.com)
- Document Sharing (ie: Scribd.com)
- Web 2.0 Sites (ie: Squidoo.com)
- Blogging (ie: Blogger.com)
This extra step will identify what’s driving traffic to your lead magnet. With this information, you can determine what traffic strategy to ramp up and what to ignore. Ultimately this is the best way to maximize the return on the time you invest.
I recommend a few tools for doing this:
No matter what, it’s important to do some sort of tracking with your web traffic. So be sure to use one of the tools I just listed.
Scale your Web of Content
Like I said, some keywords will be successful and others won’t be. After a week, look in Google Analytics to see where what’s producing traffic. Specifically look for keyword phrases that are getting a high ranking in the search engines.
Then what you’ll do is submit a piece of content to other websites. You can try article directories like:
- GoArticles.com
- ArticlesBase.com
- HubPages.com
- Suite101.com
- Helium.com
- Buzzle.com
- DocStoc.com
- ArticleSnatch.com
- ArticleDashboard.com
- ArticleAlley.com
There’s a lot of debate about duplicate content. So submitting the same article might not work that well. An alternative is to use a tool like The Best Spinner to create variations of the article.
In addition you can use a free tool like Tube Mogul to distribute video and written content to a variety of sources. This saves time while increasing your exposure.
Rinse and repeat.
Keep creating content and then make adjustments once you see results. Don’t give up if something goes wrong. Just post your content and get it out there.
Time Frame: Days 31 and Beyond
In the introduction, I said this is a short-term solution. Work hard and you’ll make quick money. But what should you do if you want to turn this into a reliable source of income?
Here are a few ideas I’d recommend:
- Track, test and tweak. You’ll get additional results by tweaking this affiliate system. There a lot of ways to do this. You can split-test lead magnet offer with Google Optimizer. You can improve the autoresponder sequence by editing the emails that get low opens and click-thru rates. And you can solely focus on the traffic strategies that get the best results.
- Build a Social Media Presence. Get on sites like Twitter.com and Facebook.com to build a following of people interested in your niche. The trick is to create conversations; then direct people to the content you’ve created. If they like it; they’ll join your email list.
- Restructure your autoresponder sequence. Provide lots of value before recommending a product. This will increase the long-term value to your subscribers. You’ll brand yourself as an expert and people will want to read what you write.
- Promote multiple affiliate offers. It’s easier to make additional revenue from an email list when you’re providing value. Over a period of months…even years… you can recommend a variety of affiliate products. The difference here is your first concern is to only offer stuff that enhances the lives of subscribers.
- Create long-term sources of traffic. After building up a steady stream of traffic you can focus on building authority in a niche. This can be done in a variety of ways: SEO, blogging, podcasting and creating a video channel. The idea here is to build a brand around the email newsletter.
These are just a few ways to ramp up a short-term business. Overall, my advice is to experiment with different things and see what happens.
I often wonder what I would do if I was forced to make a certain amount of money. My solution would be the step-by-step plan that I just listed. I’ve done something similar in another market (not a make money/online business niche.) So I know it works!
My question to YOU is: Is this a useful plan? Or is does it sound a bit dodgy?
Have you ever tried to make money in a short amount of time…like 30 days? If so, what happened?
Comment Below…
Take Action. Get Results.
This is a good plan, and you’ve done a good job explaining the steps.
I think the only problem for people starting out is getting traffic!
specially the traffic needed to get to $1000.
But over all this is a great article!
thanks for sharing Steve!
Jesus,
Well traffic is of course an issue, but the idea is that finding those trending topics and writing articles for your product using those ideas can jumpstart you into an area with lower competition and still high traffic.
This is not a LONG-TERM solution. Traffic will fall off. It is all about strikeing while the iron is hot and goes against some of my usual advice. (to carefully and slowly build for keyword relevancy etc.)
I think the key to getting traffic from youtube is to offer a hard to find solution that is relevant to your product. Even a simple “how to” video can get tons of views if it offers something no one else is offering.
I think the biggest challenge here is to drive enough traffic. I’m not sure that can be done in 30 days, especially for a beginner. 90 Days would be far more realistic using this strategy.
Agreed, 90 days is definitely more reasonable. By the time you get indexed, and all of the backlinks are taken into account, and the mount of work you have to do to get indexed…30 days may be too short.
An alternative, of course, is to pay for traffic through something like Facebook ads. Or outsource SEO to try and get ranked quickly. These of course provide an extra expense that you would have to make a few extra sales to cover…but I think it’s more doable that way in 30 days.
Yes.. but how many traffic needed to get those sales.. As I know Google also count the age of site or blog post besides backlinks. So.. to get hundreds and even thousands of visitors need time and even months. The more the traffic we drive to our pages the more possibility to gain more sales, albeit, also depends on the conversion rate.. If the traffic is none or very few, we can’t expect to much of getting sales..
TBH, Quite a bit of traffic. That is why you have to capitalize on those “hot” names to jump the search engines on searches that few are ranking on. It is by no means an easy thing. Specifically quickly. I generally prefer the same tactics, but built up over a longer stretch, but I think this way can be done
Hi Steve,
This is a very informative post. And I want to ask you one question.
How to make videos which get lots of hits on Youtube?
Is link funnel works in Youtube?
Getting TONS of hits on youtube I think takes a ton of creativity. I am not sure it can be taught, and I am not sure if I have that skill myself.
BUT tubemogul CAN help you to at least increase your exposure. For a non-tool driven solution, just like blog commenting. Gettng out there and “liking” and commenting in videos in your niche will increase views and hopefully hlp push your videos up in the youtube results.
I do not consider myself to be a youtube, “expert” though
Steve (and Alex)
I know quite a bit about YouTube (I like to think so anyway!). Building traffic with YouTube is a long term strategy UNLESS you’re going to spend a ton of dollars and get some viral strategists to do it for you – even then the results aren’t guaranteed.
Teaching all the things you need to do with YouTube CAN’T be given justice in a blog comment – not even in a blog post. There are courses out there on it – some of them have OK information in them, some of them are pretty crappy and pretty spammy (IMO).
There’s a free guide though that is ‘deeper’ than it appears – it’s published by YouTube themselves. It’s called something like THE CREATORS PLAYBOOK or THE PRODUCERS PLAYBOOK. If you Google it, you should find it.
Read that, make QUALITY videos, and creatively use the strategies that YouTube themselves recommend and over time you will create traffic.
(Steve – if you need YouTube help, all you gotta do is email me, you know that right?)
You know I see alot of 30 day challenges around, as exciting as they seem it’s WAY too much information and chatter. This was easy to read so thanks.
I think I’m going to try it. I could use 1K bucks in the next 30 days lol. Thats almost a third of my monthly salary!
Lucy,
Good luck! This effort can work, but it takes a ton of effort. Have no doubt. 🙂
This is a great post.
I especially like your keyword research with a slight twist. This is where I always struggle.
I don’t think that this plan is too aggressive. It is quite work intensive but if a person is motiivated enough then they will definitely push through and get the work done.
Thanks for this.
Tiptopcat
I appreciate the backup. Typically I push people for more of a slow building approach (which I think is far better long term). But I know with the proper effort this method IS possible to produce success.
But like I said a few times. Far better to build something of quality to last… but sometimes people need to see results NOW.
Steve, this is simply one of the best five posts I have read in my life. Yes, I am not exaggerating. It is amazing. I think the strategy is great and it would be very easy to transform this into a long term business after the first month or two. If done right, I can see way more than $1.000 made in a month with this strategy. Great work!!!
simply one of the best five posts I have read in my life
Wow! thanks Bran! I appreciate that! I put a lot of effort into this post (over 12 hours struggling with some of the new graphics. etc.) I really appreciate the kind words!
I still add the codicil that it is better to plan for long term…but hopefully even with that there are some decent lessons here. 🙂
Dude – don’t call her Bran, she hates that! She’s a sharpshooter, remember!
Right Pit?
Wow, great pillar article here!
You’ve explained a lot in just one post. Very intense.
How about solo ads to attract traffic to your squeeze page?
Thanks Cristina! I appreciate your kind words.
Solo ads can certainly help boost traffic, but I was trying to do this from as much of a “no money down” perspective as possible.
Plus, to be honest, I have mostly avoided paying for ad traffic to a squeeze page, so it is something I would have to investigate further before intelligently commenting. But that is certainly a great addition!
Jesus christ man, what a cool article. You’ve given me some great ideas for my next posts and reminded me of some things I’ve been postponing (such as the autoresponder and the ezinearticles) so thanks a gain for the reminder, maybe this weekend I’ll get some serious job done
And agreeing with Brankica up there, one of the most useful post in the market on how to make your way into making money online, I wish I read this when I was starting 😀
Cheers!
Thanks Dennis,
I appreciate your vote of confidence. Hopefully some people who are starting out find this. Also glad to give you that gentle remind to get on your ezine/autoresponder stuff. I know how it can get when all the stuff you -know- you need to do gets backed up.
Thanks for the comment and hope to see you around here again!
Hi Steve,
Epic post, really! I agree with you on having a long-term mindset and to review good, profitable and useful for the eventual buyer products.
As a car you need all the parts to work well and together. Here is the same thing, one point fail, research, the niche, etc and all the plan can go down.
Good extra research from known celebrities 🙂
About Tube Mogul I know that today are more strict about content and they can share to other video channels for free, if the content is not commercial-type. (Need to read deeply the t.o.s. of them to see what they call commercial)
Cheers,
Gera
Thanks Gera!
I appreciate your comment and additional (and good) information on tubemogul. Youtube (like it’s owner Google) is getting quite strict about “good” vs. “bad” content. SO I absolutely agree. Any sort of funky business with trying to put overly commercial stuff could backfire.
That is part of the reasons I generally prefer a “long slow” growth over any sort of a “cash now” approach. It is certainly wise to make sure you are not breaking any Youtube TOS before you post anything.
Steve,
I’m not a regular reader here, but after reading this post, I think I need to be!
You’ve addressed the biggest hurdles that new bloggers/IM’ers face and that’s seeing tangible results quickly.
Many bloggers, including myself, have spent upwards of a year building traffic and community, but no income.
I’m in this for the long-term so I’m not all that concerned, but I very much could use an extra 1k per month. I am not a proficient marketer by any means and the steps you’ve provided offer some incredible insight.
I have a few questions for you:
1. Is there a difference between this type of marketing and building niche sites? We hear the terms affiliate marketing and niche marketing all the time. Are they the same thing?
2. Assuming we take your suggestions and make the recommended tweaks to the marketing approach, is this a good way to build substantial long-term income in your opinion?
3. Do you think this is a better way to generate income than blogging? I’ve heard of many people who have created dozens of small niche/affiliate sites and make a few hundred bucks a month from each one. Do you think this is still a good way to produce passive income long-term?
Sorry for all the questions, but you really seem to know your stuff!
Thanks
Steve,
I do hope you will pop your head around here again. 🙂
Before i answer your questions I want to make it clear that I view these methods as a short term strategy that could possibly be rolled into a longer term one.
Basically my views (though a little more elaborate) tend toward the “provide great quality” “build a list” “Be efficient in what you do” “keep learning” and “understand your analytics”
Let me try to answer your questions now.
1. Yes and no. You could use affiliate marketing within niche marketing (the terms are often interchangable). But they are not necessarily always the same. For instance if you are marketing to a niche and making money from adsense, banner ads or selling links or something, it is not Affiliate marketing. But if you have Amazon links or Email capture (where you plan to send affiliate links at some time) or strait up affiliate product offers those would all be affiliate marketing (and also Niche marketing)
That actually gave me a great idea. I have been playing with graphics a lot recently. I need to Venn diagram that…. could make a useful [infographic]. But I hope my explanation there is clear enough for now. (at least for how “I” view it.
2. Again. Yes and no. Many times these articles will be trending rather than evergreen. For instance you may get a lot of Taylor Lautner fans visiting your site rather than people who are really interested in what you have to offer. 6 Months from now when twilight fans grow up, no one will be interested in that guy.
For LONG term success I like quality in depth stuff, becoming a thought leader in your niche and networking for success. Likely stuff you have heard before.
That being said these “timely” articles can do quite well from time to time for broadening your reach and should not be ignored. For long term I wold just add some into the mix of evergreen content rather than making it your sole goal.
3. First of all, I may contradict some people you have heard. Blogging will not really make you money. IMO what blogging is is a platform to make you money. You blog to build a list, prove yourself as a niche leader, network, sell affiliate products, sell your services (if you have particular skills that sell), sell ebooks/products.
Blogging itself will make -some- money, but until you hit the stratosphere not a ton.
Now you already mentioned the one possible exception to this. Multiple lower quality blogs…. get 10-15 blogs making 100$ a month and try to grow that to 250-300$ mo.
…That is possible, and actually would work VERY well with this system.
But to be honest is not the way I have gone, and it is not what I normally recommend.
But it is viable.
The problem is that those sites can rise (and fall) quickly and I prefer trying to build something that lasts.
Whew, almost made another post out of this answer. Hope I cleared things up rather than muddying the waters more.
-Steve
Great post Steve! This is a really good, aggressive method to make money quickly. Also, it seems to me that a small bit of tweaking would turn this into a more long term strategy. Also, if you mixed in some affiliate programs that generated recurring or multi-level income, you could build up some good passive income as well.
Thanks Richard.
For sure, there are big elemants of this in my long term strategies. There is a lot of crossover. The main difference might be some of the reliance on just free traffic sources, the “hard sell” in email marketing (I am more of a relationship builder) and relying so much on trending rather than evergreen ideas. Besides that I agree it is all transferable 100% to long term. (and even those with less scale are transferable)
Steve, this is an excellent plan. Well thought-out and well explained.
I’m going to apply some of the info here to my own process.
Thanks Ana, I appreciate your comment! Glad you like it!
Very useful information Steve, your contents are real gem so much to take away from here as usual. Good job Steve.
Can’t wait to see your upcoming Million Dollar Blog. 🙂
Thanks Kaylan! I am definitely still chugging away at the MBP. It is going to be a blast. (and hopefully profitable)
Great post. Would love to make a grand in 30 days. I’ve not made a mailing list before so I think this might be beyond me.
When looking at how competitive a search term is why do you care about how many pages the search engine returns for the search? Surely that is no indicator of how hard it will be to get to page/number 1?
Joe,
IMO a mailing list is almost not optional if you want to achieve real success. it is pretty simple really.
1. Get Aweber ( http://www.stevescottsite.com/aweber.html ) or Mailchimp a decent free version (though definitely not as good…free is a nice word)
2. do step 2 (creating a product) This is certainly the hard part. You have to have something that will entice people. YOu need to make it quality and not some crap that will turn people off. But if you blog regularly you DO have what it takes. YOu can even rework a series of old blog posts into an ebook. The only thing that is essential…. that it be worth reading.
3. Then it is simply following step three and making an autoresponder sequence. This is pretty easy to begin with. Overtime you can tweak and make improvements. But something basic is fine at first.
It is a lot of work…sure.
Driving the traffic to the offers is a challenge… for sure.
But it is the best way to really turn transitory visitors in leads, customers and loyal fans.
Hi Steve,
You’ve sure put in a lot of effort into this MVP. Massive value indeed!
I didn’t know about the Commission Chart at CB. I’m sure it will be of great help.
You’ve done a great job at taking the long term strategies that you’ve been discussing on your blog and re-aligning them to produce quick results.
I think this whole plan will work just as good for long term business. The two main factors to make it a long term game would be to choose an evergreen product to promote and to focus on getting quality traffic, right?
I can’t wait to see some quick results that would boost my confidence in the long-term game. Thanks for yet another great post, Steve!
Cheers,
Mark
Thanks Mark!
Yes, many of these are transferable, although obviously your results won’t be as quick (not a big fan of “quick” as you know I prefer, “right”)
But I would say there are three differences. The two you say (though a “trending” topic now and then cannot hurt) and the action you take with the email list.
The way I talked about your autoresponder sequence here is a brute force method. 7 emails in a row bringing up a topic is going to get a “buy” or a “spam bin”.
SO that may be the biggest thing… NOT having a brute force appraoch in emails. Offering more free content and going lighter on slaes pitches when you do them.
-Steve
Gotcha! Thanks very much for the clarification.
Well, I’ve got some work to do to add some numbers onto my list before I can start driving those subscribers away. LOL! 😉
Cheers,
Mark
I have never had success with Clickbank, because I never eally understood how to find the better products to promote. I am off now to go back and see if I can find some juicy products to wet my appetite!
There is a lot of work involved in your method – not that that puts me off, but I think I would need to pre write some content otherwise the 30 days would loose some of the impact, but there are a lot of good general promotion tips as well.
There is a lot of crap in CB. No doubt it takes time to find those good ones. And probably a few purchases and refunds to check out if they are any good (and refunding the ones that are not)
No doubt there is a lot of work. Really success online is going to require a lot of work. Anyone who says different has some (made easy) product to sell you.
Generally I prefer a little less aggressive manner (specifically with emails). 30 days might be ambitious, and it would take a lot of effort, but it is just on the edge of doable… though I would recommend making changes for a “long term” income.
Steve
Interesting post. And it’s got people excited – and probably rightly so. Because finding credible advice on how to make some cash quickly is rare – for instance this post could be repackaged with more detail, more screensheets, and more ‘fluff’ and sold for $10 as a WSO on the Warrior Forum.
And it would sell a few copies. (Actually you should do that – I bet with the right promotion on the WF you could make more than $1000 in 30 days 😉 )
But I wonder how many people who’ve read this have glossed over – or maybe ignored completely – your very clear warning that this is not long term and not sustainable. And that long term and sustainable is the way to go.
For example – perhaps you could do a follow up post showing the benefits of building a long term and sustainable business (or maybe one exists already?) For example see if you can make $1000 in a weekend from your main business with two or three emails.
Because here’s the thing – and I really, REALLY want people to sit up and take notice of this – if you’ve done the long term thing, making $1000 in a weekend is relatively easy.
For you with your business model I’m guessing that you’d come up with a way of putting a great affiliate offer in front of your list and generating $1000 that way. If I wanted to make $1000 this weekend I’d simply put together a special offer of $100 by bundling my products together (with a value of say $500) and selling it to the first 10 buyers.
The point isn’t that you and I are brilliant at what we do – the point is that you’ve been building your main site since what – 2007? 2008? – and I’ve been building mine since late 2008.
When you take the time to build something for the long term – the potential rewards down the line are substantially greater than the ‘quick fix’ approach.
Please note that I’m not knocking you here – I saw the caveats clearly spelled out and I also saw that you created Stage 7 where people could take your advice and adapt it so that it could become the basis of something more sustainable and more long term.
To me this is a tortoise and hare kind of a deal – and the hare always gets his butt kicked. If you’re desperate then start out as a hare, but convert to tortoise mode as soon as you can. The tortoise always wins.
(That make sense? Late here…need coffee…or sleep?)
When you take the time to build something for the long term – the potential rewards down the line are substantially greater than the ‘quick fix’ approach.
Absolutely! I know you know my thoughts jibe with this. This post is how I would do the “make money quick” thing. About the best I could come up with for making money fast
…but my beliefs lie squarely in your camp. It is far better to make something that lasts. I have been doing my main niche since late 2005 and the idea of having a month with only $1000 would crush me, I couldn’t afford to live on that.
But good things take time to build. I Have been this site for a year and a half now, and $1000 here would be a decent month. It takes time to do it right, build the base and grow it slowly.
You have some great ideas here for future articles and ideas. I may do some of these (or versions of these).
But I take your point and I totally agree. I made this as a post to show the possibility for making 1K as quickly as possible (with out scammy “push button traffic” schemes)
… but it is far better to do it “right” and build to last.
Thanks for another great comment (I expect nothing less)
-Steve
I know we agree Steve – I left the comment in the hope that some people will read it and realize there are no quick fixes, no shiny buttons, no magic elves, etc etc. And I know that you pit the warnings in place – but I felt it was really important to reiterate those warnings so that ‘newbies’ get a realistic mindset from the outset.
Dammit! And I would love to outsource myself a magic internet elf!
(I have been trying to hit that home in replies too.. for the same reasons)
Hey Steve, I must say that this is a great article full of information. I might have to re-read again to grasp all the info.
This post can also be a starter for those who want to make their first few bucks online.
Thanks again for this wonderful post.
Kharim,
Hopefully it gives some ideas. Far better to to build for a long run, but a lot of these tips can help for that too! And it is always good to get those first few sales rolling.
Hopefully people see that no matter what you do…making money online takes real dedication and effort. Noting is “simple and quick” here.
Thanks for dropping by!
Hey Steve,
What a wonderful post 🙂 I love the way to build a list in the affiliate marketing model. There are lots of way doing AM but I reckon that list building approach is the best since you will be able to market to your list every time. Also, the traffic you generated wouldn’t be wasted since it is directed to your squeeze page.
I’ve seen people sending traffic directly to sales page (i.e. with article marketing, forum, etc..), this is indeed a waste of the traffic. You will be lucky if you can make a few sales.
Again, excellent post 🙂
Cheers,
Ming
Thanks Ming,
It makes me shudder when I see people NOT building a list. I make a living now MAINLY because of list building efforts I have been doing since 2005-2006.
If I were to die tomorrow I would want “Build a List” put on my tombstone.
It is something I feel pretty strongly about in terms of long-term money making potential. (of course some people go about it the entirely wrong way…but that is another subject)
Thanks for dropping by and commenting.
30 days is impossible..I make this within 1 years. Anyway good article steve
I wouldn’t say impossible at all. “Ambitious” maybe. I will agree the difficulty would be very high and some of the money might trickle in day 31, 32 etc. Certainly not easy…and certainly not guaranteed, but on the edge of possible. (I don’t think most people would quibble if they tried this and got 785$)
As for making that in a year. Well if you put THAT level of work into it and only make 1000 a year, something is wrong. Of course if you only work a few hours a week… 1000 is fine. It is all relative.
Anyhow, thanks for dropping by and commenting!
-Steve
Scott,
As always, I’m amazed at the wealth of information you offer! Thank you for showing the detailed instructions on how to accomplish this extraordinary way of making quick cash . I completely agree, getting rich doesn’t come quick or easy. Even though what you outlined could very well make you a quick $1000 in a month taking your time and building a steady and consistent income is what we all really want.
I can’t wait for your next article.
Pam
Thanks Pam,
I must admit, I almsot didn’t publish this, because i am against “get rich quick” and I though some people would misunderstand. I think the only way to really achieve success is through planning for a long term. that being said there are obviously ways to quicken your profit (but perhaps decrease long term success).
The good thing is that a lot of steps are the same and it can easily be turned into a longer term profit scenario.
Glad you like it! Thanks for commenting!
-Steve
Scott,
Your exposure is enough for me to mendatkan income online, after reading your report I understood how the masters get money easily and make online as a lifestyle without the bulls ** t. thanks: D
Glad you liked it Miftah! Thanks for dropping by and commenting.
Great breakdown Steve! I think getting $1000 in a month is possible as long as you know how to work your way around affiliates, PPC and other add campaigns. It will take a lot of you to generate high income every month but with the right tools and knowledge, you might even surpass the goal you set for yourself 🙂
You make a good point.
It is possible with knowledge. I wouldn’t say someone who has zero experience would be able to make it. ALthough I think somone with zero resources could. There are lots of little moving parts that would take a lot of time for someone truly brand new to figure out.
However, they could get a start on the path and learn a lot of important things (and make something…which is quite encouraging starting out).
-Steve
Wonderful tutorial. I knew pretty much about keyword research, but he information about Clickbank proved to be helpful. Thanks! 🙂
Thanks Matt, glad you liked it.
Wow! Awesome, detailed post! Definitely one to bookmark. You sure did put a lot of effort into this one.
I love the keyword twist and focusing on upcoming celebrities – clever strategy.
As with some of the other commentators here, the part where I think I’d struggle is with getting traffic in that short amount of time. However, I have been able to rank pretty quickly in relatively uncompetitive niches with an exact match domain (.com or .net). That’d be a priority if I was trying this out.
I think this defo has potential – it’s on my to-do list to try out once I finish my current projects
Thanks again for providing exceptional value
Thanks Sandip! Glad you liked it. The keyword twist is one of the essential items in ranking it fast. In fact even though it was not my intention I found a handful of traffic for the term “Joe Manganiello” just by writing this. Obviously they are untargeted and immediately bounce, but it shows that by targeting these terms and selling (the product) using these stars or trending topics, though I would say possibly slightly shady…is something that could work.
(although honestly not something I would do now)
Thanks for commenting and hope to see you here again
cheers,
Steve
That’s pretty impressive Steve. Not only are you showing someone how to earn quick cash, they are also learning affiliate research, keyword research, content creation, list building, email marketing etc.. To me that education alone is more valuable than the $1,000. The cash is almost just icing on the cake. Very nice!
Thanks Brian,
Glad you liked it!
Yes, I am a believer in fundamentals. trying to find a “quick cash” route on the internet is no mean thing. The ways to make money are often paved with slow building and “doing the right thing”
The thing I DO like about this system is that it also incorporates a lot of those long term methods. A few changes (mainly writing evergreen articles, creating your own site and focusing on long term building of an email list) and this method may make LESS at first…but be a far better long term strategy. (and like you say hopefully teach some fundementals)
I like this post. I think it can get a new person started and in line to earn money, the only issue is that once he doesn’t achieve that $1000 as new affiliates typically do, he’ll quit and say that was all crap.
I would rather say make $100 your first month and then double your income every month with this guide. Once he gets to $100 he can start believing he can do it and that he can double it if he just doubles the effort.
Hopefully even 100$ wold be proof of concept enough to show people the potential.
I know many people who get involved in more “scammy” methods where they end up paying a whole lot for traffic who never end up netting that much.
The other great thing about this system is that there are few expenses beyond busting your hump with effort.
Steve, aloha. Once again, thanks for the details in this post. Loved the Pit’s comments. Since niche marketing is her thing, I was delighted to read her response.
Steve, is someone takes you up on this plan and reports the results to you, I would love to read a post about it.
While I know the question to you was “can you make $1,000 in 30 days?” I think for the effort put in, I would rather take a longer term approach. That being said, if someone isn’t willing to go all out for 30 days because they need the money, then most likely they will not be able to discipline themselves for the long haul.
Steve, thanks so much for this comprehensive plan. Best wishes for a terrific week. Until next time, aloha. Janet
Janet,
I agree, there is probably MORE than 1,000 dollars worth of effort involved (figuring minimum wage) Far better to put it to a long term approach, which is not that far off.
I am all about doing i for the long haul, I just thought it would be interesting to try and come up with the strategy of doing it the “right” way and still being able to make some money fairly quickly.
Thanks for this great post. I’m one of the people that need to get money fast for personal reasons, but I couldn’t do it. So I really hope this will help. Thanks and I will tell you if it worked.
Peter, hopefully this helps you some. The good thing is that you do not have to change much to work it into a “long term” strategy, which is what it is really all about.
I’m not sure that can be completed in a month for a beginner. 90 days is definitely more reasonable
Mike,
I will give you that. 30 days is extremely ambitious. Even with busting your butt. 90 days would be a far easier number to reach. Perhaps based on those same 30 days of work it could then take a bit of time for the money to show up.
The main point is that there are a ton of “BS” methods to make money. People -spend- a lot of money and come out of it having spent more than they made. With this method the only “real” expense is your time and effort (a valuable commodity for sure) and it WILL produce tangible results. It may take 60 or 90 days to see it all…it DOES take a heap of effort, but it WILL work.
Thanks for the comment, man!
This sounds like a good system. I think I’ve done all this but just not pumped out enough articles. That must be my downfall. I’ll have to continue with this to see if it works. Thanks for the recommendations.
…and target them the right way. Since you are in the “exercise” niche this article should hopefully get you a few really good ideas to attract those people who want to have the celebrity bodies of their favorite celebs. It is all about finding those trending article ideas BEFORE they are completely swamped.
Good luck man!
This post is brilliant on so many levels!
I remember reading that tip somewhere to add celebs to the beginning and end of things like ‘diet’ and workout’ – did I read that here? Anyway…. the whole article has so many little nuggets for the beginner and seasoned campaigner alike.
I especially liked the CB bit – I never spent too much time there and now I am starting to see more traffic to sites where monetizing that way is a viable option – so great timing!
Thanks Steve, never has a marketer walked the walk quite like you do my friend 🙂
This is a great plan without any hype, and it is doable.
I believe the hardest part for many people is actually writing content. This is why many people postpone and put off such projects, while at the same time spend money on various “magical” products.
This is also why it is always easier to make money if you already have some money to invest. By spending about $300 to outsource writing content, this plan becomes so much more doable, realistically. You would still net $700, after all.
Marcin,
It is actually interesting that you bring this up. Since I am trying to set up a new site sort of a long the lines I talked about in this article. I do not have the time and I am outsourcing heaps of it. Shall see how it goes. But if it works it will prove that “takes money to make money” ideal
This is excellent step-by-step explanation. Real process handed over on a silver plate. But I have to agree with some of the comments. In this way, a $1000 can be earned by somebody who is already in the blogging world. Newbie would need a bit more time than that.
No doubt you are right. I wrote this with a very optimistic bent. For someone brand new these results would be close to impossible. If just because a learning curve that goes with it. But I do believe it will get you about as close as possible. Certainly far better than any “get rich quick” scheme will.
Absolutely! This is a real deal. You gave clear instructions and warnings about the downsides. It’s all there for everybody to take.
Great points here! Most actually recommends high gravity with a pretty much lesser competition for clickbank products and both factors make sense to all of us especially if we are looking forward to earn money within a period of time.
Hi Steve,
You did ask. I find it a bit dodgy – from the moment you said ‘find a good Clickbank product to promote…’
And isn’t that comment a contradiction in terms (or do good, genuine Clickbank products exist)?
Everything I’ve seen selling Clickbank products has been overpriced at best, normally just a con.
Nice article apart from that though,
take care,
Alan
Alan,
Understood. It probably is a little bit dodgy. ANything promising X results in X times really is a little bit dodgy. Hopefully the information is good though and this is the best method you can attempt to still be able to get some decent fast results.
I do think there are good clickbank products out there.
I will admit it can be time consuming and you can discover a lot of junk in the mix, for sure, but I don’t think it has reach the point where clickbank is synonymous with crap yet.
Anyhow, thanks for your comment and giving it to me straight.
Steve
Hey Steve,
I don’t have much time for Clickbank but maybe that’s just me.
Maybe there are some genuine quality offerings in Clickbank but the fact as you’ve said that you have to spend a lot of time and effort trying to find these just means to me that Clickbank as a company are not doing a very good job.
I’m psychologically scarred by all of the con artists and scammy schemes that have Clickbank as a major part of them.
The problem with these scams is that when you then get someone genuine offering a genuine service or product, no one wants to listen anymore becauuse their voice is lost in among all the BS flying around,
Still, it’s all interesting enough …
take care,
Alan
YOu do make some good points Alan. After all there is a reason why people have the gutcheck reaction the CB can be spammy. I understand your point!
Another great tool for finding CB products (because CB engine wouldn’t send me a stinkin’ confirmation email) is CBsnooper.com
Yes, the fast way to make money.
Hey steve,
Respect..Respect..Respect!
All this great information and you do not prefer the short term strategy, so what would you have written if you really prefer it 🙂
I think people also can make use of those short term strategies when it comes to traffic. I mean a mix of short and long term strategies.
Look! I have just one word for you.. You are genius. That’s it 🙂
Amazing boilerplate article to give you a head start in affiliate marketing. In fact, this can work for any kind of content marketing and sales. Awesome.