I recently conducted a survey of my readers, asking what their #1 Internet marketing question is. Here’s one reader’s response to my question:

"I’m not really sure how to phrase the question .. but I can surely tell you the problem. I am a newbie. I have everything. Seriously, I do. I have programs, I even paid someone $200 (a well-known marketer) to build my first website, the autoresponders, the whole thing. That was maybe a month and a half ago. I have yet to make a dollar. Why? Well, there IS the list I don’t have, but I did get a list of a thousand or so but no instructions on just how to use it (I can’t read what was sent.) It looks like Greek to me. My biggest problem .. my BIGGEST problem, is — since I do have it all, or I think I do .. is that I can’t seem to get a "plan". Not just .. I need a webpage, I need a blog, I need a list, etc. .. See, I don’t really know what comes first, second, third, etc. Obviously, it’s not the webpage or the autoresponders cause I have them (although, even though I "have" them, I’m wondering if I can duplicate them on another site (of hopefully several) all by myself (or not!). Ok, the plan. I have information overload, bigtime — hundreds, if not thousands of programs, and how to’s .. so many that I am overwhelmed with it all. I need a SIMPLE plan .. today, I need to do this .. oh, not just I need a list … I need to know .. step by step how to create this list .. like today I write an article .. don’t forget to put good sig file (maybe I should have the sig file down first since it has to be thought out well and created … several of them, no doubt .. then the article, or the ideas first, or the responders first, or decide which giveaway to use first, or finish my own ebook first (it’s almost done), then make the cover, the backend, the frontend, the mid-sell (each one something specific I have to do) and that seem overwhelming — which first .. I saw a jv giveaway program I’d love to be a part of, but see no way to do it all in time (before it starts) .. I suppose I’d need the autoresponder set up first before I start trying for a list or I’d have nothing to send them, same with the ebook, or even branding an ebook to give or sell — so much stuff, not knowing where to begin, and I HAVE to start deleting email (without reading!) cause I spend most of my time trying to stop my email account(s) from reaching the 1000 per name that will cause them to bounce and I’ll miss something important, not to mention my bank account is dwindling from membership sites and $7 sales .. I feel I’m drowning and have done nothing but SPENT bux, not make the first one! I need a SIMPLE plan .. 1 - make a backend page, (oh wait, what do I want to sell? that should come first?, 2-make a disclaimer, 3-start a blog .. I mean I can think of a hundred things I need to do, I just don’t know where to start in all the chaos. So, Perhaps my question is: How do I figure out what comes first .. and I mean literally .. make a some sig files, make a back end page, decide what you’re gonna sell, each individual thing I have to do . .and in the right order .. it’s the order I think I need, like a checklist .. when I get this done and this done, I should have blog ready, when I get done, my ebook should be ready, when I get this done .. my autoresponder is ready .. is that too much to ask? Yes, I have videos (yes!), just need that order, I guess. Thank you for listening to such a long question."

First, TAKE A REALLY DEEP BREATH!

Whew! I think that’s the worst case of information overload I’ve ever seen. LOL

OK, seriously, just slow yourself down and think about it logically…

You can’t create an opt-in page or sales page if you don’t have the product for it. And it really doesn’t matter exactly when you create your autoresponder account as long as it’s before you make your opt-in and sales pages live online.

Some marketers say to start with the backend first, meaning the first product you choose is really your backend product. Then you find a complimentary lower-priced product to sell as your front end product. Personally, I think either way works. But definitely start with choosing a product to sell. (I’ll assume you’ve already verified that there’s a market for it because you didn’t ask about that.)

You should also have 2 or 3 more products in mind that you’ll try to sell them after their initial purchase. You could use one as a one-time offer and the others for backend sales later. But at least KNOW what other products you want to sell to your new customer list, even if you don’t have the sales pages ready when you launch your first product.

You could start a blog before launching your product, but in this case I would say worry about your main website and product first, then blog later. There is no hard rule about "needing" everything all at once. You’ll run yourself ragged if you try to do it all at first.

My best suggestion is to write down everything you need to do, then number them in logical order. You’ll be able to see better what comes first, then next, and so on if you have a list in front of you. Check off each item as you complete it and make sure to work on just one thing at a time. Trying to do too much at once is the worst thing you can do to yourself.

If you still can’t figure it out by looking at your list, send me your list and I’ll help you put them in order.

Hi guys! I’m back again with more answers to your questions. Today I’ll answer
this common one…

"No matter how hard I promote my opportunities and no matter how creative I am I
don’t get any new associates. I don’t know what to do!"

If you’re getting traffic to your signup page then it’s probably a program that
people aren’t interested in or the signup page may be poorly written and isn’t
converting visitors to signups/sales. There’s nothing you can do about it if
you’re not the program owner, so I’d say move on to something that will convert
better.

If you aren’t getting traffic to your signup page then the problem is either
your ad or the place(s) you’re advertising. If you’re using "canned" ads that
are supplied by the program owner try creating your own. People get tired of
seeing the same ads all the time and they start to tune them out.

If you feel confident that your ad is well written then I’d suggest promoting
in other places. It sounds like the people you’re promoting to aren’t
responsive. Also, if you’re only promoting in one way or on one website, then
try more.

Tahir Shah and Chris Freeman have just released the teaser video
to their new product and it’s one you must watch!

You can also download Tahir Shah’s new report about The Marketing
Nightmare for free and I absolutely recommend you do so.

Plus Tahir was recently interviewed in a "no holds barred"
interview for internet marketers and he’s releasing the interview
($97 Value) at no cost to everyone who has a copy of his report.

It’s over an hour of pure content that you won’t want to miss, and
it’s yours free just for downloading the report.

So go download the report… and get prepared for more news about
How to Avoid The Marketing Nightmare.

This really is one report you can’t miss reading.

Oh, and be sure to enter the competition on his blog, too, after
downloading the report. You can be one of the lucky winners of the
entire "How to Avoid The Marketing Nightmare Course" before it
launches on July 5th.

I promise you, the video is unlike anything you’ve seen, and the
report is really worth getting hold of, so do it now while it’s
fresh in your mind.

If there’s one thing that bugs the heck out of me it’s people asking for help then not using the information they receive. I frequently get the feeling it’s because they’re lazy, not because they can’t do it. Or maybe they just don’t give it a fair shot and they give up too soon.

It’s like they think "Oh, wow! I didn’t know I’d have to do any work to get traffic to my website." (Or build a website; or find/create a product to sell; or build a list… etc.)

Sometimes I get the feeling they expected me to tell them about some little magic pill that will drive traffic to their site and make people pull out their credit cards and buy immediately.

Well, here’s a wake up call - making money online is like making money anywhere else - you MUST work. I’m sorry, but money won’t just fall into your lap. I get sooooo tired of people thinking they don’t have to WORK to make money online. They might as well be wasting their time looking for a money tree.

Recently someone wrote and told me article marketing doesn’t work, it’s a bunch of B.S. (and some other choice words). This guy was outraged at me for suggesting to my readers that they purchase a brand new software product that makes writing articles a breeze. He said I was trying to "scam them out of their money."

Now, anyone who knows me (and my background) well enough would know that I do NOT scam people, so his comment really ticked me off! I felt had to get to the bottom of this guy’s rage.

I’ve had great success over the years with articles, so I wrote back and asked him if he had ever written any articles and if so, how many articles he had written and where he had submitted them.

You know what his answer was?

ONE!

He had submitted ONE article to a "few" directories several months ago!

And when I asked why he had only written one and submitted it to a few websites he said it was too time-consuming!

He admitted he had gotten a "trickle" of traffic at the time, but now the
traffic has tapered off.

Well, BINGO! That’s the exact reason marketers need to submit many articles to many directories and/or ezines for publication…

The more articles you write and submit, the more traffic you’ll get. And even though the traffic will taper off as your articles become "older" in the directories, they’ll still bring some traffic over time. Plus you get the benefit of backlinks from each directory to your website.

New articles are always posted at the top of the pages at article directories so visitors can see new content quickly. And when ezine publishers print your articles you’re in the spotlight for their subscribers.

Writing articles "brands" your name in the minds of people who read them. You’re seen as an expert in your field because you’re providing information. So the more articles you write and submit, the more well-known you become.

Anyway, after a couple more emails back and forth with the guy who reamed me for sending a promo about an article research/writing software, I discovered he had written me in the past and asked how to get traffic to his website and I had suggested writing articles.

Sooooo he took my advice, but just barely. And I think that instead of spending time promoting his article, or writing more articles, he chose to sit and spin his wheels and be upset because he wasn’t making money from that one article.

But since he got a "trickle" of traffic from one article submitted to a few directories, it stands to reason that he would have gotten more trickles from more directories and more articles. And with time, all of these trickles would run together and become like a "river" of traffic to his website.

Of course there are other ways to promote your website and products besides articles. But article writing is still, and always will be, a source for long-term traffic so I stand by my decision to recommend writing articles with Instant Article Wizard because it makes it MUCH less time-consuming.

But whether you choose to write articles or not, please realize you WILL have to work to make money. Yes, I know there are many promises online of "autopilot income" but what you need to understand is that to get money coming in on autopilot takes work first.

You need to get yourself and your website "out there" and use squeeze pages to
capture names and email addresses of people who are interested in your products. You need to set up an autoresponder series of emails to follow-up with those prospects about your products.

And most of all you need to keep your momentum going. Do NOT stop using a method that’s working for you. Floods of traffic and sales won’t happen overnight, but persistence is the key to eventually getting floods instead of trickles.

I’m sure you noticed the launch of "Lay Off Your Boss" by Jeff Wellman a few
days ago. I chose not to promote it on launch day because I hadn’t had time to
review the product yet, and I won’t recommend something unless I’ve reviewed it.
But now I’ve finished checking out the entire product so I’d like to give you
my honest opinion of it.

"Lay Off Your Boss" doesn’t contain any "new" information (that I noticed) so
if you’re looking for something new, you may want to pass on this. But it DOES
contain rock-solid information directed especially towards new marketers or any
marketer who isn’t yet making money online.

Jeff covers a wide variety of topics from finding a good product to sell to
creating your own product to building a relationship with your list members and
joint venture partners. He also covers WHY those things are vitally important
to your business.

Now, quite honestly, Jeff had a huge advantage over most marketers when it
comes to making money online. If you didn’t already know, Jeff is the father of
Keith Wellman who is a well-known Internet marketer, so naturally Keith showed
him the ropes. And because of Keith’s guidance Jeff was able to put together a
truly awesome product package.

"Lay Off Your Boss" isn’t just an ebook. It also contains video interviews by
top marketers Keith Wellman, Heather Vale, Frank Sousa, Simon Leung and Harris
Fellman, plus Power Point overviews of each one.

But that’s not all… Jeff is also including live audio interviews with Gary
Ambrose, Ken McArthur and Sterling Valentine.

All in all, this product has overdelivered on quality information that you can
use to start making money online in very little time if you take action on it.

When I first heard about this product before it launched I expected it to be a
medium to high-priced item - $97 to $197. But it’s not even close. Jeff knows
what it’s like to be starting out with very little money to put into learning
when you’re not making any money yet. And he priced it so it’s affordable to
almost everyone.

I highly recommend you get a copy of "Lay Off Your Boss" so you can start
making money as soon as possible. And if you grab it before noon U.S. eastern
time on Friday, May 25th you’ll also get two fast action bonuses - Cutting Edge
Traffic Tutorial and Underground Marketing Strategy, so do go check it out now.

I’m sorry I haven’t posted anything in the last several days. My daughter is
visiting from out of state and I haven’t been online much. But I promise to
answer all your questions from my recent survey within the next week or so,
right here on the blog, so bookmark it and check back often.

Here’s one reader’s #1 Internet marketing question:

"define internet marketing. how to succeedinit make it simple.
What are the exact steps I need to take to get started without any hype?"

Truthfully, online marketing isn’t much different than offline marketing. But a
lot of people think they’re very different and they don’t grasp how to do it.

For one thing, if you’re selling something offline, you wouldn’t typically call
it "marketing." You’d be more likely to say "I sell Avon" (or Tupperware or
whatever). But in reality, the biggest difference between offline marketing and
online marketing is the MEDIA with which you market your products. Internet
marketing simply means you’re selling your products VIA the Internet.

So if you think in terms of selling something offline and define your action
plan, the steps you’d take to sell products offline, you can make some simple
adaptations for online selling.

Let’s use selling Avon products offline as an example. If you’re just starting
to sell Avon, you wouldn’t have any customers or prospects. What would you do?
How would you find people who are interested in what you’re selling?

The first step would probably be to contact family and friends, right? You’d
tell everyone know that you have wonderful products if they’re interested in
buying. And you’d probably ask them to tell their family and friends, too, so
more people know.

After giving your family and friends the current Avon sales brochure, you’d
wait for them to call with their orders. But what would you do if no one calls?

I hope you’d make phone calls to see if they want to buy. Why? Because they
probably set your sale book aside and forgot about it. They got busy with other
things and your book got buried on the kitchen counter under 3 days of mail.

You need to REMIND them that you’re placing an order tomorrow for the current
sale items and ASK if they’d like to order something.

Let’s recap the steps, equating online selling to offline selling:

1. Find a good product to sell
2. Find people who are interested in your product (list-building)
3. Spread the word that you sell this product (promotion & viral marketing)
4. Follow-up with prospects to remind them of what you’re selling (offline this
is typically done with phone calls; online it’s done with emails)
5. Take orders/make money

I can’t tell you exactly where to promote your products or website because it
depends on what you’re selling. But you can visit any search engine to find
ezines to advertise in, websites to buy advertising on or to swap links with,
classified ad sites, etc.

The key is to promote to the right market - people who are interested in the
type of products you sell. You could advertise weight loss products in a
fishing ezine, but you probably won’t get any sales. You need to advertise your
weight loss products in health and diet related ezines.

And if you think list-building and follow-up aren’t important to selling
products online or offline, check out this article I recently wrote.

I’ll be back here within a couple of days with more answers to your questions,
so stay tuned.

I’m still answering questions sent to me by readers in my recent survey. This
one is interesting…

"ARE WE REALLY GOING TO MAKE MONEY WITH YOUR OFFER ON INTERNET MARKETING. OR JUST MAKE US FOOL WITH LONG WRITING ABOUT YOUR BUSINESS,FLASHY STORY AND COLLECT OUR MONEY FROM OUR CREDIT CARD ACCOUNT."

Let me just say that NO product and NO one can make money for you. YOU are the
only one responsible for that. I can recommend hundreds of good products to
help you make money, but if you don’t apply the strategies you learn then you
won’t "make money with it."

And the same goes for any other marketer. We can all make recommendations, but
if you don’t use the products the way they are meant to be used, then you won’t
make money.

I’ll be back tomorrow with more answers to your questions.

Here I am again with more answers to readers questions. Now, before you go
thinking I’m insulting anyone with my subject line, take a look at this
question:

"My number one question? What is the best "turnkey" program out there? I am
looking for a program that even "dumb" grandma can do in her sleep."

See? She called herself a dumb grandma. I didn’t

This is kind of a toughy because there are so many turnkey programs being
offered around the ‘Net. I can’t really tell you what’s the "best" because it
would just be my opinion. But I can tell you the ones I’ve had great success
with.

The two I’ve had the most success with are Autopilot Profits and
Secret Affiliate Weapon, both by Ewen Chia.

Both of them are turnkey programs in the Internet marketing niche, so if you
don’t want to sell to that market they won’t be turnkey programs for you. But
they WILL help you learn a lot about Internet marketing so even if you’re in a
different niche you’ll find them helpful.

Secret Affiliate Weapon specifically teaches you strategies for selling
affiliate products. Autopilot Profits is an overall view of how to make money
online with your own products or affiliate products.

And yes, even a grandma can do this. I’m a grandma and as I said before, I’ve
done VERY well with these two products.

Now I’d like to tell you some things to look for when you’re checking out
programs…

First, scroll down a few posts in this blog and read my post called "How to
Keep From Being Scammed" for some pointers. You don’t want to get conned out of
your money.

Besides that, when looking for good programs, keep in mind that if something
about the sales page makes you think twice about buying, then it’s likely your
prospects will think twice, too.

For instance, I’ve seen a "business opportunity" that sells for $997. It
contains tons of ebooks and software and I’m sure if they were purchased
separately they would cost more than $997. But how quickly do YOU cough up
$1000? Your prospects are likely to feel the same way.

If the products look crappy or the sales letter looks like it was written by a
3rd grader you’ll probably have trouble selling it, too. You really just need
to use your best judgement.

I’ll be posting more questions and answers over the next few days, so bookmark
this site and come back often.

Today I’m answering another question from a reader in my recent survey.

"How do you brand yourself on the web so people will come to you to join your
MLM, no matter what your selling? Now that’s a good one for you Denise."

I’ve always told people to write and submit articles to as many article
directories and ezine publishers as you can find. You simply add a link to your
website or opt-in list subscribe page in the author’s resource box at the end
of the article. This is what got my name and website "out there" 4 years ago.

The more exposure you have, the more website visitors you’ll have, leading to
more sales and signups. Articles are typically posted online for a long time,
so this can bring you traffic for years to come.

You should also advertise in as many places as possible - ezines, classifieds
sites, forums, etc. Just keep your name and website in public view. Post
comments or answers to other people’s questions at forums that are about your
topic, too. Just be sure you follow their rules about advertising and posting
links.

These days many people are also using "social" sites to drive more traffic and
make more sales. Sites such as MySpace and YouTube could be a good place to
brand yourself with people who are interested in your topic. Again, be sure you
follow their rules.

By now you’re probably tired of "learning" about Internet marketing and would
actually like to make some money, right?

I don’t blame you.

When I see dozens of marketers selling the same info I feel like I’m drowning
in information overload. And instead of actually making money I’m too busy
trying to keep up with all the latest marketing fads.

The good news is you don’t need to know all the newest fads. Internet marketing
isn’t any more complicated than offline marketing.

You need 3 simple things:

1. A good product
2. A good offer
3. A good prospect list

But the simplicity of actually making money is complicated by one thing: FOCUS

From what I can see, hundreds (maybe thousands) of new marketers get stuck…
they have trouble focusing on what to do next, so they end up spinning their
wheels.

Here’s my suggestion… do ONE thing at a time.

Instead of hopping on every "next best thing" that comes along, concentrate on
doing ONE thing until you’re good at it. When you start to see results from
your efforts, you’ll know it’s time to start learning the next step.

Most people want to try and learn everything there is to know before starting
to build their business.

Well, guess what? There’s always something new to learn, so going about it that
way will get you no where. You’ll be in a state of constant learning and never
DOING what you learn. You MUST take ACTION on what you learn.

This is the philosophy behind my "Recipe For Internet Marketing Success" report.

Decide what your next step is, then take action on it. This is more important
to your success than doing nothing because you’re waiting for all the pieces of
the puzzle to come together.

It’s much more important to ACT, then learn more as you go, rather than never
acting at all. Every small goal reached is getting you one step closer to your
ultimate success.