I was online for SIX YEARS before I attended my first internet marketing seminar (in December 2002), yet attending that first seminar was the catalyst that started my already successful business growing exponentially.

I probably would not have even attended that first seminar had I not been invited to speak, so “luck” played a part in my discovering one of the most-powerful online success secrets.

My circumstances were different than many of my contemporaries though in that I still have another year to serve in the U.S. Air Force at the time. Attending seminars meant scheduling live events, and indeed building an internet business, in a way where it didn’t interfere with my being a full-time soldier.

What happened was that at that seminar I was exposed to some really amazing people who were doing what I eventually wanted to do, and doing it at a much bigger level than I had previously allowed myself to even imagine possible.

At that seminar I discovered that some of the best learning happened after-hours. I discovered this when I was walking down the hallway with Ramon Williamson (one of the speakers) and he asked John Reese (one of the attendees) if he had time for a little “brainstorming.”

John said yes, and Ramon suggested we could hang out in his suite. Ramon orders a few snacks from room service, and from around 9pm that night until 4am the next morning, Ramon and John bounced ideas off of each other, and I sat listening in amazement.

I won’t repeat what they said, only that they had income goals at least 10 times as big as mine… and they clearly explained HOW it was possible.

That seminar was where I also discovered “the joint venture” and the back end. Prior to that event I viewed EVERYONE as my competitor.

At the seminar, I discovered about 20 people who were genuinely NOT afraid to share with me what was working as long as I was willing to do the same for them.

They taught me to drop the poverty mentality, and that together we could make the pie bigger for everyone. Over the next few years I did projects with most of the speakers and several of the attendees!

After I spoke, they all openly critiqued my business model, knowing that it would help the other attendees. I basically had one product that represented 90% of my income and I had no real backend product to offer after that first sale. They FIXED that.

I left that seminar so pumped up that I was ready to explode. I had driven the dozen hours from Eglin AFB, Florida to Hawk’s Cay down in the Florida Keys. All during the 12-hour return drive, I planned my next step.

Within a month of attending my first seminar, I boldly decided that I was going to host my own seminar, and began putting it together.

Four months after attending my first ever live event, I hosted a seminar in Pensacola, Florida (in April 2003). It wasn’t huge but it was a HUGE step for me.. one of many that I would take in relatively rapid succession.

Speakers at the first seminar included Dr. Bob Silber, Ramon Williamson, Fred Gleeck, Armand Morin, Tony Blake, Stephen Pierce, Gary Knuckles, and myself. Stephen was the first speaker, and I can still tell you to this day exactly what he said. In fact, I can tell you to this day what ALL of my speakers said.

I could go on forever with how attending my first seminar surrounded me with movers-and-shakers, and totally energized me. I honestly became close friends with MOST of the speakers at that first seminar. Jonathan Mizel even called me the day before I hosted my first seminar to both wish me luck and to give me a few tips.

My first seminar set in motion a chain of events that made all of the really BIG things that I’ve done since then possible. It enabled me to start developing the relationships that would have never happened had I not gotten out and actually attended a live event.

My conception of what IS possible would probably be relatively constrained had I not been around mentors who taught me to think bigger.

If you want to meet mentors and friends you are invited to join my friends and I in my InternetMarketingInncercircle.

To help you succeed Willie has created The Internet Marketing Inner Circle, a membership site where he frequently brainstorms solutions to problems such as those discussed in this article. Join that discussion for your success at TheInternetMarketingInnercircle.

Back when I first started using computers in my Air Force job, in 1982, they had a strict rule against eating or drinking around the machines. I recently discovered why eating at your computer is so dangerous.

I was eating a piece of lightly browned wheat toast, with some cream cheese on it, when I felt a distinct lump. Upon closer examination, I discovered that one of my teeth had sheered off. The tooth had broken at an angle with the missing part going fairly deep into the socket.

I quickly deduced that “this could get painful” so I scheduled an appointment with my trusty dentist.

He looked at the tooth, informed me that we needed to surgically extract what was left, and then maybe stick in an implant.

It all made sense to me as he showed me the dental x-rays. He showed me the thickness of the bone where he would stick the implant, and why he needed to build up the bone before putting in the implant. He also show me how the bone had thinned where I had previously had teeth extracted.

He explained that most people who have teeth removed don’t replace them, and sensing that all that bone isn’t really needed, the body decreases the amount of bone in that spot.

As we talked some more, I discovered that the dentist was retire Air Force – just like me. We had even both served in Hawaii. For some reason, that bit of info bolstered my confidence in him, and I was actually ready to do whatever he suggested.

As we talked about our post-Air Force careers, I told him what I did on the internet. He and his assistants seem intrigued. They realize that they were still trading time for money… though the money wasn’t too shabby.

As we chatted I confided that I didn’t realize that unused jawbone atrophies. We both commented that sometimes we just don’t know what we don’t know… and that we are perfectly happy not knowing what we are missing out on… until we know.

I related to him that when I first started my internet business I was still flying C-130′s as a navigator out in the Pacific. One of the things that I didn’t know back then was the power of networking, doing joint ventures with others, and attending live events where you actually get a feel for who you really want to form business relationships with.

I didn’t know anyone who had attended a live internet marketing seminar. I didn’t meet anyone who attended seminars regularly until 2002. Prior to that time, I communicated with other internet business people almost exclusively by email. Practically ALL of the people that I chatted with regularly were aircrew members… planning how they would land an airline job some day.

My knowledge of what you should do for a problem tooth was similar. Back when I was a child, and on into young adulthood, the answer to a toothache was to “pull it out.”

I simply didn’t know what I didn’t know about alternatives that made a lot more sense in so many ways.

When my dentist enlightened me, I opted for an implant.

Then he explained that he wanted to add some bone, give that time to grow, and then stick the implant in.

I paused for a second before timidly asking, “Where is this bone coming from?”

I sort of expected him to say that they take it from some other part of your body, much like they do with skin grafts. Instead he said, “We keep a supply on hand.” He went on to explain that it was real human bone that had been treated in some way that make the procedure “work like a charm.”

I didn’t ask any more about where this bone came from – satisfied in knowing that I had learned something useful that would serve me well in the future.

My first seminar was a similar experience. When I got there, many of the attendees and speakers gave me feedback on my business model, and many of them also suggested doing joint ventures.

Of the attendees and speakers at the very first seminar that I attended, I ended up jointly creating products with Marty Foley, Dr. Bob Silber and Frank Garon. I also worked on projects with or was mentored by Fred Gleeck, Armand Morin, Ramon Williamson, and Jonathan Mizel.

I very quickly learned at that first event that I really had missed 90% of growing a really successful internet business. I had completely missed even noticing the ONE thing that would offer the greatest leverage – networking with, jointly creating products with, and joint venturing with other internet marketers.

As soon as I recognized what I had been missing, and started really getting to know other marketers who were happy to partner with me in jointly growing our businesses, my business literally skyrocketed.

The other thing that happened at my first seminar was that being surround by so many really successful online marketers TOTALLY energized me. A late night brainstorming session with John Reese and Ramon Williamson showed me that my goals were WAY to small.

I left that first seminar truly understanding the power of being in a room filled with super-achievers. I was so convinced that ALL of my contemporaries needed to discover “what they didn’t know” that on my drive home, I committed to hosting a live seminar.

Four months after attending my first live seminar, I hosted a seminar in Pensacola, Florida. My speakers include: Armand Morin, Dr. Bob Silber, Gary Knuckles, Tony Blake, Ramon Williamson, Fred Gleeck, and Stephen Pierce… speaking for his very first time. John Reese, and a number of other notables, were paid attendees.

That seminar changed lives, and created many partnerships, and many life-long friendships.

You are invited to join my friends and I in my InternetMarketingInncercircle.

To help you succeed Willie has created The Internet Marketing Inner Circle, a membership site where he frequently brainstorms solutions to problems such as those discussed in this article. Join that discussion for your success at TheInternetMarketingInnercircle.

According to this article in USA today, YouTube has 5.5 billion streams and 58.1% of the online video market: http://tinyurl.com/WhyYouTubeMatters

That means that if you use video in your marketing, you definitely want your videos on YouTube. Having your videos on YouTube, when properly submitted, often gets you top positions for your keywords.

Like many marketers, I submit to a variety of video sharing sites. Yet, just as with search engines, only a handful get the vast majority of traffic.

As an Internet marketer, we’ve been conditioned to focus on quantity. That is, submitting to as many sites as practical. However, that may not be the best approach.

Flashing back a few years, there were many search engine submission services that offered to submit your url to over 1000 of the top search engines. The reality was that there were fewer than 10 search engines that mattered, and submitting to many of the other low quality places could actually HURT your ranking in Google (or the top search engines at the time).

YouTube has become such an excellent source of traffic that many marketers have begun marketing too aggressively, and YouTube is striking back. This blog post by Jeff Schechter explains the problem nicely: http://tr.im/UToob

Basically, YouTube is noticing that a lot of users completely ignore their terms of service, “by creating multiple accounts, overloading tags and keywords at the expense of content, using ‘friend getter’ type softwares, and a host of other ‘black hat’ tactics.”

Many top Internet marketing, and network marketing trainers have taught using these aggressive tactics. So have many of the leading video sharing sites. In fact, according to the blog post above, the top dog in automated video submissions, Traffic Geyser, has gotten many YouTube users’ accounts shut down.

Now, I use automated video submissions myself. In fact, I am part owner of an automated video, audio, article and press release submission service. That service is called Easy Push Button Traffic. I became part owner because I loved how easy and reliably the software works.

I also wanted to give my clients an affordable tool that WOULDN’T get them banned.

I noticed that many of the other services were encouraging users to do things like “spinning” content or submitting the same video repeatedly, only giving them different titles and descriptions.

You may ask what’s wrong with that? It harms the video sharing sites by decreasing the quality of user experiences (driving users to other sites). A person watches a video on a topic, and then looks for related videos. They watch a second video with a different title and description, only to discover that it’s the SAME video. Those users naturally complain to the video sharing sites, and the video sharing sites naturally strike back BANNING those who submitted the videos.

At Easy Push Button Traffic, we owners took a different approach. We insisted on protecting our customers even if they don’t know that they need protecting. We use what Jay Abraham calls his “Strategy of Preeminence” – putting the client’s best interest FIRST!

It’s absolutely CRIMINAL to us to allow one of our users to spend weeks or even months setting up a video campaign to generate traffic and brand their products, only to have YouTube and the other sites delete their work when they notice blackhat tactics.

We insisted upon being 100% white hat… even when our customers often asked for blackhat capabilities.

Easy Push Button Traffic bucked the trend in another area. While many video submission services were adding as many submission sites as possible, we insisted on ONLY submitting to the top sites that matter and generate traffic for our target market.

Just as the search engine submission services advertising that they submitted to over 1000 places often submitted to link farms, or free-for-all pages on porn sites, many of the video sites also cater primarily to porn, reality television type material, and stuff that primarily interested teenagers.

Having your video on many of these sites will actually HURT your Google ranking. Google owns YouTube incidentally, and their algorythm does consider where your videos are streamed from!

What matters most when using an automated submission service is how many quality sites will actually accept and publish your submissions. It’s also important how much traffic those sites get.

We’ve subscribed to most of our competitors services, just to test them out. We often submitted videos, articles, etc., and then logged in a day or two later to see which ones actually were displaying our content. With some of the leading services, less than HALF of the sites that we had registered for, and properly submitted to, accepted or displayed our submissions.

We had to wonder why none of the other customers of these services didn’t notice that they were largely buying vaporware. If their submission weren’t going through and the customers weren’t even noticing, we had to conclude that they merely logged in to the control panel at the services, glanced at the “submission records” but never confirmed that the submissions were actually physically on the sites!

One of the difficulties with automated submissions is keeping up with the changing submission rules, and the interfaces at the various submission sites. That’s actually a full-time job, and probably why many of the submission from many of the leading submission services don’t go through. They don’t keep up with the changes.

Most of these sites are set up for individuals to manually submit. They often don’t mind automated submissions, since they need the content for their users, as long as the submissions are within certain guidelines.

Easy Push Button Traffic actually uses propriety software and technology that was under development for a VERY long time, and Our team of programmers are constantly updating it. This allows us to submit to the video, podcast, article, and press release sites in a way that makes it look the same as an individual visiting the sites.

If you are using a video, article, podcast or press release submission service, you ABSOLUTELY should physically visit some of the sites peridically and verify that your submission are physically there.

What you discover may shock you.

One of the other things that shocked us as we set up Easy Push Button Traffic, and studied our competitors, was how over-priced they were. We could only conclude that they charged such ridiculous prices because they had no real competitors. When you have no competitors, you can charge monopoly prices.

As we looked at pricing, looked at the fact that many of our client would be struggling entrepreneurs trying to get a business off the ground so that they could quit a 9-to-5 job that they hated, we decide to charge a more reasonable rate. In fact, we decided to initially price our service at roughly 1/4th of what the big dogs charged for their lower-priced options. We crunched the numbers and saw that we could still make a profit doing that.

I’ve rambled on long enough, but did want to encourage you to check out Easy Push Button Traffic. You will discover that it is the very best value for the money. Your submissions will get through, they’ll be on sites that send you relevant traffic, and if you’re one of the next 750 clients, it will only cost you $27 per month.

Do your business a huge favor – take a minute now and check out: http://ibmm.com/epbt

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Willie Crawford is an internet marketing and traffic generation expert. He often distributes content (articles, videos, podcasts, and press releases) to generate highly targeted website traffic. To do that efficiently he uses the automated submission service that you’ll find at http://ibmm.com/epbt

To help you succeed Willie has created The Internet Marketing Inner Circle, a membership site where he frequently brainstorms solutions to problems such as those discussed in this article. Join that discussion for your success at TheInternetMarketingInnercircle.

Without traffic to your websites you have no customers.

Without customers, you have no sales, and really aren’t in business.

So the question becomes, “What really works in generating website traffic?” Let’s look closely at a few proven method.

1) An email newsletter is a quick way to generate repeat traffic, but building a list takes time. There is a popular saying in the Internet marketing community – “The money is in the list.” That’s a true statement. With a responsive list, you can generate sales with the click of a button.

If you are not building a list right now, then you should start. Offer an email newsletter or a free ebook or piece of software to get people onto your list. Then follow-up with them, delivering valuable information, and when you offer them products, they will buy.

If you are relatively new to list-building, I recommend that you start out by contributing one of your ebooks to a free list-building giveaway. You can find current ones which are free to join at: http://FireSaleLegend.com/blog/

2) Pay per click programs (such as Google AdWords) can generate immediate traffic, but if it doesn’t convert, you can waste a lot of money. As soon as you set up your pay per click account, and set up a campaign, you can start to see traffic within minutes. The problem is that, depending upon your niche, each click could cost you several dollars.

You pay for each visitor, and there’s no guarantee that any of them will buy anything!

3) Joint ventures are a risk-free way to generate tons of quick, quality traffic, but it takes time and lots of effort to build joint venture relationships. Most online marketers that I know prefer dealing with friends, or people that they actually know, like, and trust. Building those relationships takes time and a concerted effort.

That’s not to say that you shouldn’t use joint ventures to drive traffic to your offers, you just need to start building those relationships today. A good place to start is The Internet Marketing Inner Circle.

The Internet Marketing Inner Circle is a community that I started back in 2006 as a place for people from numerous niches and experience levels to work together. It’s a place where members brainstorm, do joint ventures, coach/mentor each other, and even jointly create products.

Members of The Internet Marketing Inner Circle also get a free Gold Membership in The International Association of Joint Venture Brokers. IAJVB is a membership site where members share information about upcoming product launches and orchestrate joint ventures. Gold members can enter ALL of their projects into the full-searchable database. This is an EXCELLENT way to recruit affiliates/JV partners practically hands-free.

You can join TIMIC and IAJVB at http:TIMIC.ORG Remember, TIMIC members get a free year in IAJVB :-)

The truth about joint ventures is that unless you DO start networking, you’ll be an outsider who’ll often find it hard to get JV partners.

4) Creating content that discusses problems and shares solutions to those problems is one of the most reliable ways of generating quality free traffic.

That content should include articles, videos, podcasts, and press releases since your audience members prefers consuming information in different modalities. Some prefer reading articles. They often print out an article and make notes as they read it.

Some prefer watching videos that show them rather than just telling them. Many of your audience members have spent a LOT more time watching television than reading, and are conditioned to learn via watching.

Some prefer listening. They may have hectic schedules and consume your information by downloading a podcast and then listening to it while out exercising, or on their long commute to that job that they hope to leave soon.

Press releases are also an excellent way to get your concise message into the hands of the right people. The search engines as well as the media frequently comb press release sites making press releases an excellent tool for search engine optimization, and to get free media exposure.

I actually teach that you should start with an article, turn that same content into a podcast, and create a video from the same content. With a little creativity, you can also do press releases related to the topic of your articles.

Next you need to distribute your content. There are literally tens of thousands of places where you can distribute your content, but in each category, only a handful get significant traffic.

Focus on submitting to the top 10-25 sites in each category (article, video, podcast and press release).

You can submit manually, but in order to really get noticed in many niches you need to crank out a LOT of content. Manually submitting dozens of articles could become a full-time, incredibly tedious job. Instead, I recommend using an automated submission service that complies with the terms of service of the sites that it submits to.

I personally do my submissions using Easy Push Button Traffic, and recommend that you do the same. The proprietary software and method that Easy Push Button Traffic uses ensure that the sites that you submit to accept and display your content.

EPBT is at http://ibmm.com/epbt

The truth about traffic is that you have to figure out where it’s at and stand in front of it. All of the methods described above allow you to do that. For the average marketer, creating and distributing content is the method that’s easiest to implement, and that makes the most sense.

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Willie Crawford is an internet marketing and traffic generation expert. He often distributes content (articles, videos, podcasts, and press releases) to generate highly targeted website traffic. To do that efficiently he uses the automated service: http://ibmm.com/epbt

To help you succeed Willie has created The Internet Marketing Inner Circle, a membership site where he frequently brainstorms solutions to problems such as those discussed in this article. Join that discussion for your success at TheInternetMarketingInnercircle.

During my 12 1/2 years online I’ve heard numerous people say “There are no secrets in Internet marketing.” They say that primarily because they haven’t discovered any that radically changed their world.

I believe that there are internet marketing secrets… things that the really successful marketers know and do that average and failing marketers don’t. Many of these can be readily observed, so while they are secrets they’re not hidden.

Often, it’s those things staring us right in the face that are the biggest keys to success. The key is that successful people don’t discount those things just because they are obvious.

So, what IS the biggest secret, or key to online success, that I’ve discovered in the past 12 1/2 years?

It’s that people really do buy from people that they know, like and trust.

They also do joint ventures with people that they know, like and trust.

The secret is that we all like to help “our friends.” That also means that the secret is to be a genuine friend.

The secret is that while you may be trying to reach as many customers as you can, if you don’t actually form some deep one-on-one relationships, your business probably won’t grow very much.

In an email, a year ago, a well-known internet marketer predicted a shakeout in the industry. His ominous warning was that the key to your survival would be to form strategic alliances.

Fast-forward a year, and an internet marketing friend that I had coffee with recently commented with disdain on “the guru club.” Like many, this friend had noticed that unless you are a member of that circle, it’s very difficult to get them to promote one of your products.

A core group of top Internet marketers has formed a strategic alliance and do promote mostly each other’s products. It’s not impossible for an “outsider” to get a product promoted by them but it IS difficult.

What’s the solution to that problem?

It’s really quite simple. You spend time getting to know a few like-minded Internet marketers and you form you OWN “guru club” or “mastermind group” or just a group of marketers who share similar values. Then, you work together on projects where appropriate.

That very concept is what caused me to start a membership website called “The Internet Marketing Inner Circle” back in 2006. I actually interviewed most of the top internet marketers of the day, asking what their success secrets were. I also asked them very bluntly, how does an unknown get to joint venture with them.

Every single one of those very successful marketers indicated that the key is to form a true relationship with them first. They all admitted that, like most humans, they preferred helping their friends.

How do you REALLY get to know other online marketers anyway?

The single best way is to attend seminars or mastermind sessions with them. I’ve probably attended over 50 Internet marketing seminars since 2002. December 2002 was when I attended my first one. That event completely changed my Internet marketing path. I walked away from that seminar CONNECTED with Dr. Bob Silber, Marty Foley, Ramon Williamson, John Reese, Fred Gleeck, Jonathan Mizel, Frank Garon, and a few others.

Those individuals all mentored me, teaching me things that it would have taken me a very long time to discover on my own. Many of them also did joint ventures with me… I co-created products with many of them :-)

So, the secret is to get out and actually meet a few fellow marketers face to face. Look a few people in the eye, and get a feel for whether or not they are the people that you’d like to form long-term business relationships with. Then follow-up with them and build those true relationships.

I’m hosting the ideal gathering to get you started the weekend of March 27th – 29th, in Orlando, Florida. I’m turning 50 years old, and many of my friends will be gathering for a HUGE birthday celebration. A dozen of my friends, people like Stephen Pierce, Lynn Terry, and Mark Hendricks, will be actually teaching some of their secrets formally… from the stage.

You are invited to this gathering where I will facilitate as many introductions as practical.

You’ll leave that weekend knowing several hundred online marketers, and more importantly, several hundred online marketers will know you.

If you don’t appreciate the power of that, let me share that when busy people don’t know you, it’s difficult just getting their attention. When they really KNOW you, your emails jump out at them in their inboxes, and they happily read them.

Isn’t that true of how you read emails. Don’t you read those from your friends with a smile on your face?

So, to harness “The Single GREATEST Internet Marketing Secret” RSVP for my birthday bash now at: http://WillieCrawford.com/BirthdayBash/

It’s only a week away, and we’re trying to get a final count to plan for a roast among other things. Go ahead and sign up now: http://WillieCrawford.com/BirthdayBash/

I’ll see you in Orlando. Bring business cards, a digital camera, and your projects. Come prepared to form some true business relationships :-)

Willie Crawford has been helping others build successful internet businesses since 1996. Many of today’s leading marketers are his students. Tap into their collective wisdom and friendship at http://WillieCrawford.com/BirthdayBash/

To help you succeed Willie has created The Internet Marketing Inner Circle, a membership site where he frequently brainstorms solutions to problems such as those discussed in this article. Join that discussion for your success at TheInternetMarketingInnercircle.

One Summer, back when I was a college student, I sold reference books door-to-door working for a company named “Southwestern Publishing Company.” My territory was some fairly rough neighborhoods in Baltimore and Philadelphia.

That Summer taught me a lot about sales, and a lot about “the price of success.”

A recent trip to the Philippine, where we all took cold showers, brought back memories of that Summer job.

You see, one of the expressions that I memorized, and lived by while selling books door-to-door was “Successful People Do Things That Unsuccessful People Don’t Like To Do.” So to get ourselves accustomed to doing things that many people didn’t like to do, we forced ourselves to take cold showers every morning.

There is a lot of truth in that saying, so let’s look at it a little further.

First of all we have to admit that many of the things that unsuccessful people don’t like doing are also things that successful people initially don’t like to do. They Simply force themselves to do them over and over again until they become habit.

One such thing is risking rejection. Most of us don’t like having our feelings hurt, so we don’t ask for things as often as we should out of fear of rejection.

Successful people learn to risk rejection and not to take it personally. For example, an internet marketer may need to ask numerous “bigger named” marketers for a joint venture, realizing that MOST of them will say no. He has to learn not to take that as a rejection of him, but as just a rejection of his offer.

Most of us don’t like being ridiculed, yet successful people learn to attempt things that might lead to them being ridiculed. They are less afraid of taking calculated risk, and realize that ridicule might be one of the prices of success.

I had a coach once who pointed out to me that most well-known authors first wrote several books that flopped. It was often not until that third book that they had a best-seller.

He taught me that if you study many of the most successful people you can think of, you’ll discover that they had several failures along the way. When I did this, I saw how true that was. Many of them had bankruptcies, failed projects, and often even spent time homeless, on their way to success.

When you see these big successes’ pictures plastered all over television and magazine covers, most people have no idea what it took them to get there. They had to take numerous big risks to get there, and not all of those risks turned out favorably!

My coach and mentor taught me that since I know a failure or two is likely on my way to massive success, I may as well get those out of the way. He used the expression “fail forward fast.”

When I look at the cost of mega-success I see two requirements:

1) Mega- successful people are not satisfied with being average. Average people just get average results.

2) Successful people often have to stretch their comfort zone. Since this entails doing something that is NOT comfortable, it also means that you have to learn this behavior. You learn it by taking little, uncomfortable, calculated risk time and time again.

You don’t take foolish risks, but you do have to force yourself to do things that average people won’t do. That is often the price of being above average.

Now, that you know the price of success, to include Internet marketing mega-success, you have to ask yourself, “Are you willing to pay the price?”

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Willie Crawford is an internet marketing and traffic generation expert. He often distributes content (articles, videos, podcasts, and press releases) to generate highly targeted website traffic. To do that efficiently he uses the automated submission service that you’ll find at http://ibmm.com/epbt

To help you succeed Willie has created The Internet Marketing Inner Circle, a membership site where he frequently brainstorms solutions to problems such as those discussed in this article. Join that discussion for your success at TheInternetMarketingInnercircle.

I’ve been in business online since 1996, and have tried dozens of website traffic generation tactics. I’ve written ebooks on the topic that others have purchased the rights to so that they could create courses from them. Those course each generated multiple six-figure incomes!

I’ve also discovered that when you try to focus on too many different traffic generation tactics, you master none of them, so I only really, really focus on a few. I’ve mastered writing and publishing articles, and have personally written over 1300 – because they work.

I’ll make no secret of the fact that article marketing is my favorite free website traffic generation method. The reason is simply because webmasters, article directories, and ezine publishers all love giving their visitors quality, useful content. So they happily publish your articles – with your bi-line in the resource box.

Articles have worked for me long-term because when you write and publish a good article, it will be published in many places, and the search engines will also discover it posted online. That article then generates a steady stream of website visitors for you, sometimes for years.

As the internet evolved, and bandwidth became more affordable, audio and video also grew in popularity. I decided to repurpose many of my articles, creating podcasts and videos from the same content.

Sometimes I just read articles, turning them into MP3′s.

Sometimes I just created slides of the key concepts in articles. Then I turned those narrated slides into PowerPoint presentations which I recorded and turned into short videos.

I submitted those podcasts and videos to leading podcast and video sites that get millions of visitors.

I did create many original, new audios and videos, but I wanted to make the point that once you have the content you can just output it in different formats. I’ve done that numerous times. Do the work once and then use it over and over again.

Some people prefer reading, others prefer listening, and still others prefer watching. If you don’t give the content to them in their preferred method of consuming it, you miss a huge portion of your audience.

As video grew in popularity, something else also happened… Google often rated videos on a topic higher than articles on the same topic for a given keyword. That increased my use of video.

While studying how Google ranks content, it was also pointed out to me that Google ranked “news” such as press releases very high. Press releases often out-ranked article, podcasts, and videos for the same keywords. So press releases often appeared at the very top of the listings. My mastermind team deduced that it may be because Google considers news time-sensitive.

That increased my use of simple, to-the-point press releases, that also told my audience of my expertise on a give topic (keyword).

I’ve discovered that creating article, press releases, podcasts, and videos generates a steady stream of free highly-targeted, long-term website traffic – VERY effectively.

This traffic is targeted because, when someone clicks-thru after consuming your content they are pre-sold on you. You’ve already demonstrated your expertise to that visitor. They arrive wanting more – and ready to follow your suggestions.

It’s free traffic as oppose to you having to pay as much as several dollars per visitor when you use pay-per-clicks. This traffic is, in my opinion, better than pay-per-click traffic because, again, they arrive pre-sold on you.

As I ramped up my use of articles, press releases, podcasts, and videos, I also looked for ways to automate my submissions. Visiting dozens of sites each time I wrote an article, created a podcast or video, or wrote a press release was simply too tedious.

I did consider outsourcing content distribution, but found that using sites that allow you to automate the distribution yourself allowed the degree of control that I insisted upon.

While my content is created with search engine optimization in mind, I write primarily for my readers. I’m seeking to demonstrate my expertise and then attract website visitors pre-sold on that expertise – buyers.

After trying numerous solutions, I now use and highly recommend Easy Push Button Traffic. EPBT submits to numerous sites in a totally white-hat method that will get you lots of inbound links and traffic long-term. On top of that EPBT costs only 1/4th as much as it’s nearest competitor which uses many “questionable” tactics.

You’ll find EPBT at http://ibmm.com/epbt

I’ve just shared with you my favorite, most effective free website traffic generation method. After being online since 1996, and trying “the latest and greatest” numerous times, I’ve not discovered anything better.

It’s free, effective, and something anyone can do. It also doesn’t come with the risk of methods such as pay-per-click (where you can lose thousands of dollars on a campaign if you’re not careful).

Now that you know my “secret” all you need to do is use it too. Website traffic generation need not be complicated.

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Willie Crawford is one of the world’s leading internet marketing experts, and a proven expert at website traffic generation. You only need to “google” his name to verify his expertise. For easy traffic generation, Willie highly recommends http://ibmm.com/epbt

To help you succeed Willie has created The Internet Marketing Inner Circle, a membership site where he frequently brainstorms solutions to problems such as those discussed in this article. Join that discussion for your success at TheInternetMarketingInnercircle.

If you are an affiliate marketer, one secret to making more sales is finding out about product launches early. This is true even if you are new to affiliate marketing and have a very tiny list.

The reason that this is true is that when you find out about a product launch early, you can position yourself to take advantage of organic search engine traffic during the product launch. There are dozens of things that you can do so that you will rank near the top of the search engines for very important product-related keywords when you find out about a product launch early.

You can set up pages on dozens of web 2.0 type properties such as Blogger.com, Hubpages, Squidoo, etc., and if you have the right content on these pages you will rank very high for product-related keywords by launch date. The key is to get your pages up early, post often, and then get them noticed by the search engines. Product owners will often provide you with tons of just the right content!

Another reason that you want to find out about affiliate product launches early is that it gives you more time to prepare a bonus to offer purchasers of those product. It’s no secret that the people who sell the most of a product during many launches are the ones who offers the most enticing bonuses. Since the basic product is the same no matter who the customer purchases from, that only makes sense. The bonus is what keeps the product that you’re marketing from being just a commodity.

Often, there are numerous products being launched at the same time. Since you can only effectively promote one product at a time, knowing what product launches are coming up allows you to focus on the one most appropriate for your customers. It’s very disheartening to plan for promoting a specific product, and then to discover on launch day that there is a product more suitable for your customers being launched on the same day.

When you promote any product, you really should plan out a complete promotional campaign. That is, you should flow out how and when you are going to do multiple promotions. Those promotions could include emails, interviews, articles, press releases, and perhaps even videos. You can’t flow out these promotions unless you find out about the product launch early enough. Ideally, you plan a protracted campaign – one where you will continue to make sales even after the big launch is over.

Finally, you need to find out about product launches early because you need to allow sufficient time to actually get a review copy of the product, and to go through it with a fine-toothed comb. You absolutely should not promote any product that you haven’t actually gone through, and with some of the more substantial products, that could take a week or more.

Those are just a few of the reasons that you really do want to stay informed on what new product launches are coming up in your niche. If you only learn of an impending product launch a few days, or even a week before it happens, you are so behind. Especially for great search engine positioning, there are things that you need to do at least a month in advance.

Decide today that you’re going to keep up with all of the product launches in your industry, and market a lot smarter.

To help you succeed Willie has created The Internet Marketing Inner Circle, a membership site where he frequently brainstorms solutions to problems such as those discussed in this article. Join that discussion for your success at TheInternetMarketingInnercircle.

Marlon’s 21-Step Cheat Sheet To Profiting From Twitter By Marlon Sanders

In this article I’m sharing my cheat sheet for profiting from Twitter.

I want to share with you how to obtain joint ventures, meet people you can produce products with, get people to promote your products and jump start your business — all without forking over even a dime.

And you can do all of this starting 60 minutes from now — even if you don’t know anyone to start, even if you don’t have any sort of list to begin with, even if you’re a newbie, even if you’re a Mac user, even if you can’t attend seminars, even if ….

You get the idea.

By using Twitter, you will:

* Meet people who have lists and can promote your product.

* Meet people who have the know how to move your business forward.

* Connect with people like you, so you don’t have that feeling you’re in this all alone.

* Avoid the bickering, arguing junk that goes on in forums.

One thing I hate about forums is a few people post all the time and become power brokers — even if they’re obnoxious, don’t have any clue what they’re doing and so forth.

Forums also attract a lot of negativity.

Twitter is a totally different and refreshing experience.

I’ve officially been on Twitter hard core for a few weeks now. I still have lots to learn. But let me share the amazing things I HAVE discovered about it that can benefit you greatly and almost immediately.

==> You’ll meet and connect with wonderful people

I’ve met some really neat people I normally would have never connected with.

==> You’ll get to discuss things with people you might not know about them in other venues.

==> You can interact with a lot of people quickly.

==> Your Twitter list builds virally

People will retweet (explained below) things you say. This virally spreads your info through other people’s networks.

This is the most powerful aspect of Twitter.

Now, here are my best tips on getting the most out of Twitter.

1. Sign up at Twitter.com

That’s step one, of course. It’ll take you about 30 seconds.

2. Download Tweetdeck

It’s a freebie download for pc’s and Macs from Tweetdeck.com. Tweetdeck will make your tweeting an unbelievable experience.

3. Keep the negative junk off Twitter

Don’t use Twitter to try to get that refund or resolve disputes. The purpose is marketing. Use it to bring positive energy and meet people.

People have asked me, “Marlon, why can’t I publish info if someone rips me off?”

The reason is because the PURPOSE of being on Twitter is to network with people who can promote your products for you.

When you complain about other people, it REPELS positive people, exactly the ones you are hoping to ATTRACT.

4. Follow people who are in your niche.

Go to Twitter.com. Click on “find people.” Type in names of people who write blogs in your niche, who have affiliate products and who are influencers.

Click the “follow” link under their photo. This will let you see their tweets with other people.

5. Make friends

Do NOT go onto Twitter pitching people. Make friends. Be a sociable person.

6. Learn the art of the RT

RT stands for “retweet”. There’s a little icon that says RT. When you retweet someone’s messsage, you’re passing it on so the people on your list can see it.

This is the ultimate form of sharing. You give before you get.

Even if you only have 10 people on your list, use the RT. But watch how others do it first. Don’t just jump in.

7. Observe for a week

Spend a week or so just watching others and learning what happens on Twitter before you jump in head over heels.

8. Anything and I do mean anything you say can and will be retweeted.

It’s crazy. People RT things you wouldn’t think they would. So be aware that anything you say can be spread. So be very cautious about saying anything negative about anyone.

9. Share your positive energy

I said this before. But I’m going to repeat. Positive energy attracts other positive people.

10. Give first

Do NOT ask people to promote you or your product. GIVE first. Offer to promote THEM!

How? I don’t know. Be creative. Think of something. Anything. Even if it’s just republishing their article on your blog. Or retweeting them.

Let me repeat — give first. Offer to promote others first. By law of reciprocity many will give back to you.

The #1 mistake people make is to ASK before they give.

11. If someone really annoys you, you can go to twitter.com, find their name and on the right side is link where you can block them.

12. Go to associateprograms.com and search for affiliate programs in your niche market. Find the names of the product creators and look ‘em up on Twitter.

People who have products with affiliate programs also have lists. Make friends with ‘em. Do something to promote their product and tell ‘em about it. That WILL get a response in most cases.

13. Offer viral ebooks and reports on Twitter.

Instead of blatantly promoting your product, it’s better to offer a little report or ebook with a decent chance of others retweeting it.

Use Twitter to PULL more than to PUSH. This is PULL marketing.

14. When you run across a cool web site or resource tweet it to your list.

15. Do NOT send a lot of messages without the @ symbol. You want to send most of your messages to individuals using the @ symbol.

16. Go out of your way to promote others to your Twitter list. They’ll reciprocate some time in some way.

17. When you find a good blog post on someone’s blog, pass it along to your Twitter list.

This endears you to the blog owner. Even if they aren’t on your Twitter list, there’s a decent chance word will spread back to ‘em.

This IS the age of instant communication.

18. Learn to Twitter on your iPhone or cell. Yes, you can do that too.

19. Understand that in the big picture your goal is to find people who have lists and can promote your products then make friends with ‘em.

That’s your ultimate objective. But you don’t get there by ramming your product down people’s throats. You get there by being an ATTRACTIVE PERSONALITY that others gravitate to.

It helps if you pass along cool resources and on occasion say things that are profound or retweetable.

20. Inspire others to go for it and pursue what they know they should pursue but don’t have the courage to do it.

Be a cheerleader for people’s highest and best interests.

21. Use Twitter strategically to meet and network with list owners.

Do NOT end up twittering away time you really should be using to create products or do other promotions.

Use Twitter. Don’t let it use you.

Please pass this cheat sheet along to others with the resource box below. And then hit me with your feedback and comments on my blog.

Let me know if this helped or inspired you:

http://www.marlonsnews.com/?p=197

To help you succeed Willie has created The Internet Marketing Inner Circle, a membership site where he frequently brainstorms solutions to problems such as those discussed in this article. Join that discussion for your success at TheInternetMarketingInnercircle.

If you are not making a lot of sales from your website, and you’ve never been in direct sales before, then you’re probably making some very basic mistakes, and can easily increase your sales.

Even if you have been in direct sales before, if you haven’t thought the process through, you’re probably making some very basic mistakes on your website – and that’s killing sales.

Making sales from a webpage is really not that different than making sales face-to-face. Yes, you have to do it using html, instead of verbally, but the process isn’t different.

First of all, you have to anticipate and answer your prospect’s objections. If you’ve ever gone through any type of direct sales training, a big part of it was probably going over answers to the various objections that your prospects are likely to raise. You probably had to practically memorize answers to the most common objections. You practiced answering those objections until you were blue in the face.

Your online sales process should be NO different. You should spend time brainstorming possible objections that people who read your website, or email, might raise, and then you need to have ready answers to those objections.

Since your email readers or website visitors can’t express those objections to you, you have to answer them as if they were raised. You make a list of most-probable objections and then you answer them – right in your copy.

After you have been marketing your product or service for a while, and gotten more feedback from your customers, you will also have them provide you with NEW objections. You need to incorporate the responses to those in your revised web copy and emails.

The process of selling is an interactive process. Even on a webpage it MUST be interactive to be effective. You must enter the conversation already going on inside of your prospect’s head. You must jump into that conversation as convincingly as you would if that person were sitting across the kitchen table from you.

Far too many online marketers fail to even consider the fact that their websites and emails ARE conversations with prospects. You can’t afford to do that.

Actually sit down and brainstorm this conversation. Make a list of possible/probably objections, and then answer them. Incorporate the answers to those objections into your web and email copy. Do this and you will notice a dramatic increase in your conversion rates.

The sales process is largely responding to objections (reasons that your customer won’t buy). If you don’t address those “reasons” then you shouldn’t expect to make sales.

Now, you know what the problem is and how to fix it.

To help you succeed Willie has created The Internet Marketing Inner Circle, a membership site where he frequently brainstorms solutions to problems such as those discussed in this article. Join that discussion for your success at TheInternetMarketingInnercircle.

In part-1 of this article we looked at why link cloaking or redirecting your affiliate links is absolutely essential.

If you missed that article, you’ll find it at: http://WillieCrawford.com/RedirectingAndCloaking/

Now let’s look at specific methods of cloaking or redirecting links.

Link shortening services such as TinyURL.com can be used to make long, ugly affiliate links more palatable. I use these on sites such as Twitter, and to shorten LONG URL’s on my blog. I generally don’t use them in emails anymore because I’ve been told that some ISP’s have blacklisted some of these services. Since mostly marketers use some of these services, that would make sense…

htaccess redirect – This involves creating and uploading an .htaccess file to your server. It’s simple and easy, but also intimidating to some, so I won’t explain it here. Your web host probably has a tutorial on how to do this if you’re really curious.

Your .htaccess file can affect many aspects of the way that your website performs, so unless you want to take the time to really understand it, you should probably not use this method. Do it wrong and you could suddenly find yourself unable to access certain files on your server!

HTML redirects – I use these a lot. I create an .html file with redirect html commands embedded in the “header” section of the html page. That file is then uploaded to your server, and when the url is accessed, the visitor is automatically redirected to your affiliate link.

Download a sample file and complete instructions on how to set up an html redirect here: http://WillieCrawford.com/HtmlRedirect.zip

PHP redirects – I also use these a lot and have found them faster than .html redirect in many cases. I create a .php file with redirect html commands embedded in the “header” section of the file. That file is then uploaded to your server, and when the url is accessed, the visitor is automatically redirected to your target link.

Download a sample file and complete instructions on how to set up a .php redirect here: http://WillieCrawford.com/PhpRedirect.zip

Link cloaking Software. My favorite is Affiliate Cloner. It allows you to create links that will set an affiliate tracking cookie, and then send your visitor to any specified page.

One reason that you might want to do this is that you’re promoting a great product with a horrible sales page. So, you can write and host your own sales page, and create an order link on that page that sets the cookie and then links directly to the order form.

You may also write such great emails, that they do a great job of selling. If your customers are already sold, you may not want to then send them to a long sales letter which might “unsell them.” Instead, you can send those ready-to-buy customers directly to the order form.

Affiliate Cloner does this beautifully, and you grab a copy at http://WillieCrawford.com/AffiliateCloner/

There are also tons of scripts out there that you install on your domain, and then redirect the affiliate links through your domain. Those are suitable for many purposes, and actually allow you to log-in and CHANGE what product a particular link promotes – with just a few clicks of a mouse. This means that if you later change your mind about a specific product, and are promoting it in thousands of places, with just a few clicks of your mouse, you can send that traffic to an alternative product.

Some affiliate marketers love these scripts, but I don’t currently use one. In the internet marketing niche, I think that the most popular ones also signal that you’re promoting an affiliate product, and lower your response rates. That’s just my opinion though.

I’ve just given you numerous ways to redirect or cloak your affiliate links starting today. If you are not doing this, you ARE losing sales! ——————

Willie Crawford is a website traffic generation expert. He often distributes content (articles, videos, podcasts, and press releases) to generate highly targeted website traffic. To do that efficiently he uses the automated submission service at: http://ibmm.com/epbt

To help you succeed Willie has created The Internet Marketing Inner Circle, a membership site where he frequently brainstorms solutions to problems such as those discussed in this article. Join that discussion for your success at TheInternetMarketingInnercircle.

One of the excuses we hear most often from struggling online marketers is that they don’t make more sales because they don’t have a list. We even hear that excuse from marketers who have been online three, or even five years.

My question to them is always, “What are you waiting for?” “Why not start a massive list-building effort today?”

When I look at how I built my database, I used only a few primary methods. Here are the most effective ones that I used:

1) On many of my content websites, in many niches, I simply have an opt-in form in a prominent location on practically every page. That opt-in form is usually in the upper right corner of the page. I typically offer the potential subscribers a gift as an enticement to join my list — perhaps a PDF special report or an audio recording.

I also assure the potential subscriber that I will protect their data and only send them appropriate email. I also tell them that there is a handy one-click link in every email that I send that makes it super easy for them to remove themselves from my list if they ever get tired of my communications.

This has worked beautifully for me for more than a dozen year, and steadily grows my lists.

2) I have numerous affiliate programs. Many of these affiliate programs sell inexpensive products and pay the affiliates 100% commission on the front end product. The real purpose of those affiliate programs is to build a list of proven buyers interested in a specific topic. The commissions incentivize others to go out and send me traffic AND build my lists.

I most often use a script called Rapid Action Profits, which allows me to pay affiliate instantly, depositing the payments directly into their PayPal accounts. This is so powerful because affiliates often need the funds TODAY, and don’t want to wait 30 – 60 days for their commissions. When they can sell one of my inexpensive products, that are almost impulse buys for their customers, and get those funds instantly, they trip over themselves sending me customer… and building my lists.

3) I often participate in quality list-building giveaways. In these events, numerous marketers ban together to drive traffic to a centralize website where gifts from each of the marketers are listed. In order to download a specific gift, the website visitor must typically visit the site of the marketer offering the gift and join his list.

If you offer truly useful gifts, thousands of new subscribers can sometimes be gained from just one of these free giveaways. I usually offer PDF ebooks (transcripts from interviews that I conduct), MP3′s or inexpensive but useful software.

I often announce free giveaways that are looking for contributors on my blog, and to my Twitter followers.

4) Software that displays your subscribe box on other’s site, and automatically builds your list for you. There is software that allows you to participate in a cooperative effort, where partners display the boxes on each others’ webpages. This is a good way to share the wealth since your website visitors are joining others’ lists anyway. You may as well send your traffic to someone who is reciprocating.

There is also newer software that allows you to display your subscribe box superimposed on affiliate websites, social networking sites, etc. You still tell your visitors to go to sites such as YouTube, Clickbank, Amazon or Ebay, but the software shows them a subscribe box and asks them to join your list BEFORE doing anything else. This is very powerful, and is largely hands free.

For example, I can mention affiliate sites, or perhaps my profile page on one of the social networking sites, and build a list in the process of just spreading the word.

With so many easy ways to grow your list, there really is no excuse for anyone who’s been online for more than a few months not to be aggressively building a list. You do need that list to inexpensively spread the word about your business.

Now that you see how REALLY simple and easy it is, get started building your list today!

To help you succeed Willie has created The Internet Marketing Inner Circle, a membership site where he frequently brainstorms solutions to problems such as those discussed in this article. Join that discussion for your success at TheInternetMarketingInnercircle.

Let’s begin our discussion of link cloaking and redirecting affiliate links by looking at what that means, and why you’d want to do it.

First of all, one definition of “cloaking” is “hiding,” which instantly implies something devious to some. Link cloaking DOES mean hiding, or changing the link format from the default, for some reason. In the sense that I’m going to teach you, there is no evil intent. It’s just one method of increasing your affiliate sales.

Link redirecting involves inserting your affiliate link into some script, webpage, or file, and then using a link defined by that script, webpage or file when you promote the primary link.

Reasons that you’d want to cloak or redirect your links include:

1) To protect yourself from affiliate commission theft. Many affiliates readily recognize a link for a Clickbank product, for example, and know that they often only need to insert their ClickBank ID where yours is in that link to earn the commission on their own purchase. They jokingly call that an “instant discount.”

Affiliate marketers will often see an affiliate link, and visit the website looking for a link to register for the affiliate program, and then purchase through their own link, robbing the affiliate, who first made them aware of the product, of the commission that they rightly earned.

This is very prevalent, and many product owners really don’t care about the affiliates, so it’s often not prohibited. Those merchants will earn the same amount regardless of which affiliate earns the commission.

I refuse to promote most affiliate products that don’t specifically prohibit affiliates purchasing through their own affiliate links. I also insist upon that being the policy at companies that I help run such as http://ibmm.com/epbt

Clickbank doesn’t prohibit affiliates from buying through their own links, and I actually promote VERY few products on Clickbank just for that reason.

2) To shorten and “pretty up” long, clunky affiliate links.

3) To make the affiliate links less obvious. Some people do not like the idea of you earning a commission on products that you recommend. They often even assume that you recommended the product ONLY because you earn a commission.

4) To get your email delivered, even if the primary domain for the affiliate program is blacklisted. During many product launches, overly-aggressive affiliates promote so hard that they irritate a lot of subscribers. Those subscribers often file spam complaints, even though they subscribed to the subject newsletters.

When enough spam complaints are received about a given domain, the ISP’s will often blacklist that domain. At that point, many of the emails that are sent which contain that domains url will automatically be deleted. So, you could have a list of 100,000 and because your email contains a blacklisted domain, maybe only 10% of your emails get delivered.

I have a free 52-part email course designed to train affiliate marketers. It covers this topic as well as tons of other tips and tactics that are very effective in selling affiliate products. The course also included 15 videos showing how to do things that you need to master to be an effective affiliate marketer.

You can enroll in that affiliate training free at: http://WillieCrawford.com/FreeAffiliateTraining/

Ok, this article is getting long enough, so let’s end it for now. Part-2 will get into the specifics of HOW you redirect or cloak a link. Be on the lookout for it, and make plans now to start redirecting or cloaking all of those ugly affiliate links.

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Willie Crawford is a website traffic generation expert. He often distributes content (articles, videos, podcasts, and press releases) to generate highly targeted website traffic. To do that efficiently he uses the automated submission service at http://ibmm.com/epbt

To help you succeed Willie has created The Internet Marketing Inner Circle, a membership site where he frequently brainstorms solutions to problems such as those discussed in this article. Join that discussion for your success at TheInternetMarketingInnercircle