I just got back from the Leverage Summit in Austin, Texas and I have to say it was awesome!
So good I decided to create a video where I share some things I learned from being around and hanging out with some of the biggest names in the industry.

Enjoy!

To Your Success,
Billy Holder

There are many lesson but these 3 are critical to your success.

Lesson #1: Get Clear On What You Want And Develop a plan To get You There

This has to be the biggest, most important thing you can do for your business. So many people starting out in internet marketing never get clear on their goals.

They jump around all over the place learning everything under the sun. They may start with building affiliate sites this week, then do facebook marketing next week, and mobile marketing the next.

They are learning SEO tomorrow and then the next day, they are studying something related to offline marketing or trying to learn some new software they just bought.

Heck, most of them don’t even know what niche they are going into! I have seen people who jump around online for years and never decide on a niche.

Once you realize you are only ONE person and only do so much you will realize it is not humanly possible to do everything. As long as you think you can, you will fail to have any real success.

So, stop what you are doing, decide right now what niche you are going into. Then set some specific goals for your business for the next 90 days.

Then create a plan to follow that will get you there.

Lesson #2: Focus on ONE Business Model

Buidling an email list has to be one of the best assets you can have. Period.
Business is all about assets. The more you have, the more leverage you will have in your marketplace. I have tried building affiliate websites and have made good money from them but an email list is the best hands down.

If there is any doubt on where to start then start with an email list!

If you are stuck and don’t know where to start. Focus on building your email list!

Lesson #3: Overcoming Information Overload

Who has not been here? Maybe you are experiencing it right now.

Once I discovered the solution to this, it changed everything!

The feeling of OVERWHELM is only a symptom to a bigger problem. Information overload.

Even that is not the real problem, only the result of something else. It is the result of taking in too much information. I know you are probably thinking, “tell me something I don’t know”

Here is the real problem: Not taking enough ACTION!

That usually leads to this thought: “I would take action if knew what to do!”

The fact is that if you have been online for more than 6 months, then you already know enough to get started.

What I do when I get to feeling overwhelmed or stuck is start taking ACTION. If you want to see more results and feel less overwhelmed, try this:

For every hour you spend learning, follow it with one hour of taking action. The more action you take the more confidence you will get and the more results you will see.

Conclusion

If you will focus on the the 3 lessons above and take them to heart, it could change everything for you and your business. I am sharing this because I have been where you have been and I know the problems we all encounter.

If I can pass along any advice that could help you, then I feel like it is my obligation to do so.

If you need more help then, here is a good resource I highly recommend!

You see, just a little over 2 years ago I began my journey into the world of internet marketing and, like most, I struggled to make any money.

I knew others were making lots of money and doing really well, or that’s the way it appeared on all the sales letters and sales pitches I kept coming across.

But, in all honesty, I knew for a fact there were some who were making really good money online. Most of them, you could not put their name and the word “smart” in the same book.

So, I got to thinking about it trying to figure out what made them so different from me and the millions of others who were not making a dime online.

Then it hit me like a ton of bricks.

Everyone I knew who were successful had something in common that separated them from all the rest.

It was their mindset and their whole approach to this business.

Most people who come into this business with the dream of making all kinds of money online without lifting a finger have one major flaw.

They have the wrong mindset and the wrong approach.

In this business, mindset is 95% of the puzzle. You get it right and the rest will come. It is like having the key to a car.

If it is the wrong key, I don’t care how hard you try to get it to start, it will not happen. But if you have the right key, it is almost effortless.

That is how big a role mindset plays in internet marketing.

Most people who are looking to make money online are looking for the shortcut or magic bullet. They do not see the trees for the forest.

They always think there is some other secret that the successful internet marketers are not sharing.

They buy course after course looking for these secret tactics or strategies to raking in tons of cash with little to no effort.

They want to make money but they approach it completely wrong.

They are their own worst enemy and don’t even realize it.

The successful marketer is different.

They are making things happen. They do not jump from one opportunity to another looking for some secret that no one knows.

They are busy taking action and trying different things.

They don’t care if they don’t know everything. They take what they do know and focus in on it.

They are plan their approach then following through until they get results.

They don’t let fear hold them back. It’s almost like they have a “I don’t care” attitude.

The truth of the matter is most people in this business never plan anything. They have no idea what they want, and therefore, are not focused at all.

So, if you are one who feels overloaded with information and frustrated with the results you have achieved to this point, then here is what you need to do.

1. Find ONE business model you like
2. Pick one program or course you already own and go through it again. This time write down the things you need to take action on as you watch it, read it, or listen to it.
3. Set 2 goals for the next 30 days. The first Goal is an income goal. The second goal will be related to an asset. In business, you want to acquire assets. The more assets you have the bigger your business gets.
4. Divide those goals into 4 smaller goals – These will be your weekly goals
5. Create a plan of action to achieve each of those goals.
6. Map out in as much detail as you can a daily schedule for the next 30 days.
7. Finally, focus completely on your plan and follow through with it. Be conscious of the time you waste on Facebook, checking emails, browsing the web, talking on Skype, etc. You must schedule time for those time wasters because they are the number one reason most people never succeed.

It is tough words but I only say it because I care about your success. I challenge you to try it and then come back and leave me a comment. Let me if it helped you or if you have a success story to tell.

All the best,

Billy Holder

Double opt-ins are especially prone to this trend.

First of all, “What is double opt-in?”

Basically, that means when someone goes to your site and signs up for your
newsletter or autoresponder series, they are sent an email with a confirmation link.
They must confirm by clicking that link in order to receive what they signed up for on your website.

If they don’t confirm, they are never added to your list.

It is a way to lower spam complaints because they have to go the extra step to get added to your list.

It would be virtually impossible for someone to “accidentally” be added to your mailing list.

This protects you if someone complains because they forgot they signed up to your list or simply mad because you sent them an email promoting something.

That doesn’t change the fact that they still had to confirm their original
subscription and now you’ll have proof.

The Biggest Complaint

The biggest complaint people have about double opt-in is that they don’t get
as many subscribers as they would by allowing any and everybody to join their
list without confirmation.

But here’s the flaw in that line of thinking…

Let’s say that 100 people sign up for your newsletter and 100 email
addresses are added to your list because you aren’t using double opt-in
confirmations.
Up to 30 or more of those email addresses could be worthless anyway.

Maybe someone mistyped their email address or they entered one that they don’t
really use thinking that they would be able to download some freebies on your
thank you page.

If you’re using double opt-in you would never see those worthless email
addresses. The people who typed in their email address the wrong way most
likely won’t sign up again but more importantly, those bad addresses won’t be
added to your list.

The people who purposely entered a bad email address thinking they could
download something on your thank you page most likely will not give you a good
email address anyway.

In other words, with confirmed subscriptions you are basically dealing with
people who have given you valid email addresses they actually use. If someone
won’t even give you a real email address do you think that person would bother
to buy from you?

Probably not.

The key to getting the most people to sign up to your lists and confirm their
subscription is to offer some sort of incentive for them to do so. But you don’t
want to make that incentive available on your thank you page.

Your incentive MUST be sent only to the people who take the time to
confirm their subscription. Make that known.

Let people know they have to confirm their subscription before they
can get any incentives you offer for signing up.

Here is a good example of what you could say on your thank you page:

In the beginning, people are more interested in the bonus you promised
them than they are in your list because they don’t know if the content you’re
going to send them is any good yet.

That’s why you have to make sure they understand that to get your
incentive, they have to confirm their subscription.

Before you go live with your list, sign yourself up then go to your inbox and
take a screenshot of what they confirmation email looks like. Upload that
screenshot to show people.

That way, you’ve told people what to look for AND you’ve shown them.
You’ve just made it easy for them to confirm.

I know it sounds simple, but sometimes simple is best. It’ll definitely improve
your confirmation rates dramatically.

As long as you let people know immediately after they sign up for your list
that they have to confirm to get anything from you, the number of people who
actually confirm will rise significantly.

Remember, many people (especially in non-marketing niches) just assume
that since they signed up for your emails, they should automatically get them. Many Don’t

Hope that helps.

Talk Soon,
Billy Holder

I don’t know about you but I feel like asking for a refund at that moment. It doesn’t stop there either. You are hit with one upsell and downsell after another before you finally able to get access to the download area.

Once there, you find that it is nothing like they hyped it up to be and so now you are really mad.

No wonder Clickbank has become the lowest of the low with product launches. It is a good platform and I still recommend it but you have to be careful when promoting anything from there and know the product before you endorse anything.

As a product creator, you definitely want to have upsells and downsells because you can make a lot more money with them.

However, there is a right way and a wrong way to do it and I am going to give you a few guidelines to follow when doing it.

Must Be Complementary

Your upsell must add more value and does not break any promises you made in the original product. It works to help your customer get a step closer to reaching their desired outcome.

Ex. Let’s say your original product is an email marketing course. It goes into great depth on the subject and fulfills the promise in the saleletter. The upsell could be a ready-made emails written by a professional copywriter they can plug into their autoresponder.

It is like going to MacDonalds and ordering a Big Mac. Adding fries and drink are complementary items that will enhance the customer’s experience. That is what you need to think about as you develop your upsells and downsells.

The Advanced Training

Another strategy that works well as an upsell is to offer more advanced training that does not take away from the original offer.

Let’s say you have a standalone course on traffic generation. A good upsell could be a special discount price into your membership site where they get weekly case studies of the latest traffic strategies and advanced more in-depth training. Maybe there is access to some software in there that will automate traffic for you.

You could also upsell your one on one coaching program where you personally help them build there business.

The Package Deal

Another  good offer you could make could be an 3 for 1 deal where you offer three of your top selling products for one low price after they purchase one of your other products. This is a good way to reward your customers once they buy from you and everyone wins.

Another idea could be to upsell them a huge PLR collection as a complementary offer to a program on repurposing PLR.

Master Resell Rights and PLR

Another upsell that is common is to offer resell rights or PLR to a product you just purchased. I am sure you have seen this before after purchasing a product.

It works really well in the IM market and can be very profitable as well. Not too long ago I purchased an amazing WordPress plugin and then had the opportunity to get the white label copy which I did. That product has been rebranded and I am getting the sales page now.

Conclusion

I hope this will help you see upsells from a different perspective and helps you the next time you get ready to set up your sales funnel.

Just take a few minutes before start creating your product to plan it all so you can maximize your profits and still have the loyal, happy customers you desire.

Just remember the guidelines above and you should be fine. Maybe some of the Clickbank Gurus will read this and take notesJ

Talk Soon,

Billy Holder