So who can you trust when it comes to YOUR business?

Would you rather get instruction from someone “just starting out” or someone that has sold over $50 million dollars online?

Sounds like a silly question, doesn’t it?

The problem is, too many folks listen to advice from people who have little to no experience with what they are actually teaching. Or worse yet from their friends and colleagues who are just as new as they are.

Yes there are all kinds of free articles online teaching you this and showing you that.

But is the source really credible?

For the past five years I’ve put my trust in the advice I’ve gotten from my friend and mentor, Armand Morin. Armand is not only successful himself, but he’s also shown a lot of
other people how to be successful. I count myself lucky to be one of his inner circle.

But not everyone has that chance. So how can YOU get good business advice from Armand? How ’bout in step-by-step video tutorials, centered on the topics YOU ask about.

I’ve had some advanced information on this site and you are going to LOVE what you see One of the first tutorials you’ll see is an example of the type of videos that Armand has created for this site. It’s 28 minutes long and goes into the meat and potatoes of
creating a winning optin page.

If you’re a collector, you’ll understand the “never have enough” concept.

In the Internet marketing arena I collect a few things:

• Domain names (there is always that ONE you “really” need!)
• PLR materials (I swear I’ll use them all some day!)
• Graphics (because you can never have too many to find just the “right” one!)

In fact, I found this neat graphics package this morning – it’s all icons! You know, those small items you need in your ebooks, when writing a sales letter, putting up a member site, etc.

And best of all, the package is under $10! So I wanted to share it with you.

When you are graphically-challenged like I am, you can use every graphic you collect!

So if you share my passion for collecting attractive graphics and love getting them at a VERY affordable price, pick up this package today.

P.S. I’ve already downloaded the icons and the actual graphics are sharper and more attractive than what he had to use on the sales letter. You see, he had to do some manuevering to be sure they showed – but were not downloadable. Tough to do. Just wanted you to know I’m even happier with the real thing.

Get Icons Today

It’s my way of reassuring you that regardless of what day it is on the calendar, you can start a New Year today!

Think about it. Traditionally we all get excited about setting goals on January 1. We are all revved up about Taking Action – for about 2 weeks. Then we start to beat ourselves up about why we haven’t stuck with the plan – and by March 1, we’re tired and discouraged and think “oh well, another year down the drain.”

It doesn’t have to be that way!

You can start a New Year ANY day of the year. For example,

• A New School Year starts the day after labor day.
• A new fiscal year starts for businesses on whichever day they choose to start it.
• The Chinese new year starts on a different date every year, as does the Jewish New Year.

So decide TODAY that you’re going to start a new year TODAY.

1. What goals do you have?

2. What actions do you need to take to achieve them?

Take a few minutes to write these down. You already know what they are because you’ve set New Years Goals before. But now you get a “bonus” new start for the year – right here in the middle of September!

Now let me make a few suggestions that may be helpful with the Action and Follow Through to achieve those goals.

If you want a fresh approach to earning from affiliate products, you’ll want to get Kevin Riley’s LPP System. It’s based on finding and marketing local products - a fresh way to offer something new to your marketplace. Get your free copy by clicking on the link.

The Ultimate Graphics Package will help you with any type of site. With the headers, footers, arrows, guarantees, etc you’re bound to use these graphics in many of your current and future projects.  Best of all, it’s free!

How to Win the Inner Game of Online Marketing and Sales goes along with the theme of this email – it’s all in your head! How you think controls your actions and your actions control your success. Definitely tops on my list! And you don’t have to pay for it.

Where am I finding all of these great resources for you – at absolutely no cost to you? At the Newbie Giveaway, of course. Yes, there is a lot of “stuff” in any giveaway, but if you spend a few minutes picking out the items YOU need NOW, you’ll get a great value for your investment.

So take the first Action you need to take – and go there now.

Jeanette

Let’s take a look at the relative perceived values of different products from lowest perceived value to highest perceived value.  Keep in mind the content is identical regardless of the packaging.

Example 1:  Single CD

Low —> Medium —> High
 
Paper Sleeve  —–  Jewel Case  —–    DVD Style Case

If the CD is a free lead generation tool or a bonus item then a paper sleeve may be your best choice.  The price that you’re asking for the product will, to a large extent, determine what kind of packaging you want to utilize.  If you’re giving it away you need to go bare bones on your packaging.

But, if the product is selling for $47, $97 or more than you need to dress up the package.  It needs to be more impressive so a jewel case with full color inserts or a DVD style case with a full color outsert will be called for.  Remember, the content is identical.  You are influencing the perceived value of your content by packaging it differently.

Example 2:  100 Page Manual

Low —> Medium —> High 

Saddle Stiched — Perfect Bound — Spiral Bound — 3-ring Binder

Again, the content is identical in each of the formats.  But the public has been conditioned to equate the value of a perfect bound book with a $19.95 price or so you’ll find in your traditional bookstore.  Put that same information into an 8-1/2” x 11” spiral bound document or a 3-ring binder then it appears to be more specialized knowledge and people are willing to pay more for it.

If you’re selling a multifaceted product that consists of many CDs and/or DVDs and some printed materials that going to have a ticket price of $497 or higher then you definitely want to stay toward the upper medium to high end of the perceived value scale.

How you choose to package the components of your information product is critical to how people will perceive its value.  Be aware of the value scales above when you’re deciding how you want your product to look and make sure your packaging is consistent with what you want the perceived value of your product to be.

———

Packaging inconsistent with the selling price of your product is Mistake #18 in Bret Ridgway’s new course “The 50 Biggest Mistakes I See Information Marketers Make”.  How many of the mistakes are you making and what’s it costing you?  Pick up your FREE Information Product Launch Checklist.

1. You don’t have to write the sales letter. The two most challenging and time-consuming tasks to selling a product online are writing the sales letter and creating the product. When you get a product with the sales letter already written, you’re half way there!

2. You don’t have to create the product. While you may want to create your own products, it’s time-consuming. Meanwhile, you’re delaying sales revenue. So you aren’t making any money while you’re doing product development. Being able to sell a resale product while you’re developing your own means you are on the road to profitability much faster.

Start Selling a Product Today!

3. You can test the market. If you’re thinking about creating a product – or entering a particular market – you can use the resale product as bait. You can see what it takes to get traffic to the site. You can work on improving your conversion of visitors to subscribers on an optin page. You can see what triggers a sale.

There is no point in your spending time in developing a product if you can’t make money in that market. So you can know for sure before you spend any time and effort on development.

4. You gain the same experience as having your own site. With a resale product, you get to set up the website. You can customize the sales page. You get to add the payment processor and collect all the money. And you get to deliver the product and support it after the sale. Everything you will do with your own product, you do with a resale product. But because it’s not your own, it’s not personal. It’s just business. And you are more likely to make good decisions and take the right actions when you are not personally invested in the product.

5. It’s FAST! In fact, once you have some practice you can have a site up and selling within an hour. The key is choosing a quality product to start – and knowing what parts of the process you need to tweak.

So how can you leverage resale products in your business? Get the details now.

And you can have your first resale site up and selling by Thursday! See you on the call-

Jeanette

So as of Monday, March 31, sellers will no longer be able to sell digital products on eBay.

Why does this matter to you if you aren’t selling on eBay? Read on to find out…

This change has a lot of eBay sellers up in arms – and rightfully so. People who have made a living on eBay are now facing extinction or a total change in business model. Here are just a few examples of those impacted:

• those selling ebooks, resale rights, PLR materials, websites
• mom and pop shops selling images or patterns for birdhouses, knitted sweaters, and other handcrafts
• great cooks who sell their recipes through eBay
• information marketers who sell low-cost reports as lead generators

Ah! Now we begin to see the “rub.” eBay mentioned that those selling 99 cent reports to “manipulate feedback” (the Holy Grail of eBay) were causing problems. Apparently they were actually getting good feedback on providing quality materials within minutes. And it was just too much competition for those who have to ship products and charge extra for shipping and their time to do so.

So much for efficiency!

So why am I (a non eBay seller) so upset about this? Because I think it is very short-sighted of eBay – and it’s going to hurt a lot of smaller business owners in the short run. In the long run they will be fine. It just seems so pointless.

And what am I doing about it?

I’ve teamed up with Lisa Suttora of WhatDoISell to find a solution for the smaller eBay sellers who want to continue to sell their digital products. We will be offering a webinar on Friday, April 4 entitled

How To Set Up Your Own Digital Store For Less Than $10 Per Month

And what about information marketers who don’t sell on eBay? Well, that workshop will be good for them, too! We’re still working on the details, so watch this blog for more information in the next day or two. Meanwhile, here’s your action plan:

1. Sign up for Digital Product News to stay on top of the latest announcements and be one of the first to learn about the Digital Store webinar.
2. Read a couple of articles that Lisa has posted on her blog.
3. Remain calm and keep creating digital products. I can assure you, there is a huge market for them – in spite of what eBay thinks.

I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments…

While the flurry of promotion has died down and most of the bonus packages have disappeared, Dr. Jeanette Cates has kept her IME Bonus package up and available for anyone purchasing the package.

In her IME Bonus package she offers 90 days of membership to her $97/month Online Success Mentor site, plus a one-on-one strategy session. Plus those who take advantage of the Bonus package will also receive Dr. Cates’ next three information products as a part of the bonus.

Finally, all of those who purchase IME before the upcoming Internet Marketing Explained conference in Los Angeles will be Dr. Cates’ guests at dinner on Thursday, March 6.

Knowing that when you purchase the course you will have more than enough content – I asked myself what would be helpful. And I’ve come up with a great bonus package for you!

Get all the details at IMEBonus.com

That’s why this ebook is so different! Not only is the content revolutionary – but the format is different from anything you’ve seen before in an ebook.

Yes, it’s still a PDF. But it doesn’t LOOK like your typical ebook. It doesn’t work like a traditional ebook. So prepare to change your thinking about ebooks!

Read the description of the ebook before you download it.

By the way, the content of the ebook is pretty revolutionary as well! If you’ve read anything about marketing in the past two years, this may change your thinking.

Enjoy the ebook format AND the content! I’ll look forward to your comments below.

Jeanette
 

How did the idea get from that person’s head to your chair? They followed a proven four-step process:

1) They recognized that they had an idea and they took the time to capture it. When you’re an idea person you have a LOT of ideas. If you don’t capture them as they flit across your consciousness, you’re likely to lose them. That’s why it’s critical that you have a defined process for capturing and documenting your ideas.

2) They organized their ideas. Remember the story of Edison having to try 10,000 times before he got the ligt bulb to work? He had to have 10,000 different ideas of how it might work. Imagine if he had not organized his ideas. He might have tried the same thing multiple times, wasting his time and not getting closer to his goal. Organization is key.

3) They monetized their ideas. Someone purchased everything around you. That means that between the original idea and its appearing in your space, somone had to figure out how to manufacture and market that idea. Without this step the “idea person” would have no income – and you wouldn’t have the item. This is the lubricant to keep the idea machine working.

4) They systemized the process. It may be a formalized process or it may just be in their head. But they repeat the same steps in order to keep turning their ideas into “things” you purchase.

When you market information you follow the same four-step process. The difference is in the types of ideas you have and the “manufacturing” process you use.

As an information marketer you are primarily interested in information as the product. Granted, it’s different types of information. But you don’t need to spend time sketching your ideas or having prototypes built (unless it’s software.) You’re dealing with ideas and information as the product.

When it comes to monetizing yur ideas, it’s a relatively easy production process. The biggest decision is the type of packaging and delivery mode you’ll use. And when you sell a digital product online, it’s fast and inexpensive.

So what’s an idea worth? It depends on the idea and the way you market the resulting product. There is no limit to the potential value of an idea. That’ why you owe it to yourself to dicover and adopt a systematic process for recognizing, organizing, and monetizing your ideas. Because you can never be sure which idea is the BIG idea.

Dr. Jeanette Cates is an Internet strategist who works with experts to leverage their information into Online Success. She is the creator of the Idea Organization System, which she credits with helping her create and market 12 information products in 12 months. Claim your complimentary mini-workshop on the Idea Organization System at http://OrganizeYourIdeas.com