Why I Was Successful in 2001 and Why You Could Be Too
It is the end of another year and I am thankful for the many
blessings. This last year was the best year ever business-wise.
How many can say that? I am not in the same league as people
like Robert Blackman, Terry Dean, Cory Rudl among others. At
least not yet. How about you?
By the sheer volume of email I received during the year, I know
there are many frustrated people trying to make a few bucks in
the hottest, latest affiliate, network marketing, home business
idea launched during the year. I've read about the frustration
on home biz forums and in the group clubs. I even started
recognizing the same names of people promoting the newest
programs. I've been tempted several times to write and ask how
they are doing and what's happened with the programs they've
joined.
Before looking forward to next year, it's important to look back
and analyze what worked for me and what didn't. One of my
favorites quotes is by Albert Einstein who said, "The definition
of insanity is doing the same thing over and over expecting the
results to change."
One of the things that most sticks out in my mind that
contributed to my successful year is learning new skills. I
believe learning is never done so one of my goals last year was
to read books by successful people. Two books that had the
biggest impression on me were Robert Kiyosaki's "Rich Dad, Poor
Dad" and Richard Brooke's "Mach II With Your Hair on Fire."
I also learned new skills by subscribing to and reading several
good newsletters.
Phil Wiley's All My Secrets - http://www.ozemedia.com Cynted
Chronicle - http://www.cynted.com/subscribe.html Boogie Jack's
Almost A Newsletter - http://www.boogiejack.com Jim Rohn's
Weekly Ezine - http://www.jimrohn.com Big Al's Recruiting
Newsletter - http://www.fortunenow.com GROKDotCom -
http://www.grokdotcom.com Slight Edge Newsletter -
http://www.yoursuccessstore.com Dirtsmart Netrepreneur -
http://www.dirtsmart.com Achieve USA Home Business Journal -
http://www.achieveusa.com
I attribute my successful year to the ability to track my
advertising campaigns to find the ones that worked. Having a
limited advertising budget, it was critical to get the "most
bang for my buck" when it came to advertising. To that end, one
of the most useful suite of web promotion tools is ROIbot
(http://www.roibot.com/r.cgi?R33095_2002). Because of the
quality of the program, the ROIbot reseller program also
contributed to my profitability.
Running ads in newsletters was my most successful form of
advertising. However, not all newsletters are created equal. My
most effective ads were run in newsletters that focused on home
businesses. I was the least successful running ads in
newsletters that were primarily ad sheets or those that run
separate classified ad issues.
The following sites provide lists of newsletters that can be
searched for advertising opportunities:
http://www.homeincome.com/search-it/ezine/
http://www.e-zinez.com/cgi-bin/hyperseek/hyperseek.cgi
http://www.list-city.com/ezines.htm
http://www.site-city.com/members/e-zine-master/
http://bestezines.com/
http://www.lifestylespub.com/cgi-bin/directory.cgi
http://ezinecentral.com/ http://ezine-universe.com/
http://ezine-tips.com/ http://list-a-day.com/
http://list-resources.com/
Mike Hill runs a very successful ezine classified ad service
that has brought in results. Advertisers can get their ad placed
in 20 newsletters sent to 25,000 readers for $10. Visit
http://hop.clickbank.net/?glenpalo/cashgalore for more
information.
The least successful form of advertising for me in 2001 was the
use of "safelists" of opt-in email addresses. Usually, the
safelist operators let you email to their database of email
addresses for a nominal fee. The fee is either an annual or
monthly fee. Some people say they have been successful using
safelists. While I did not get the same results, I found that
the use of safelists was a good way to test ad titles (email
subject).
MyLISTmaker proved to be an exception. Because of the cost of
joining MyLISTmaker Gold and, I believe, the quality of the
program, the revenue generated from promoting my products more
than made up for the upfront cost of MyLISTmaker. Also,
MyLISTmaker has the ability to generate a separate stream of
revenue for those that actively promote the service. When
planning your advertising for 2002, MyLISTmaker is worth a look
at http://www.mylistmaker.com/?460019
A number of clickthrough or click exchange programs brought
additional visitors to my websites. The basic premise is if you
visit websites, you will receive visitors to yours in return.
The click exchange programs take several different forms such as
popup windows, exit windows, start pages etc. The best
collection of these free advertising programs can be found in a
downline club called MyECom. I joined and use MyECom because of
the extensive list of free places to advertise. There is
extensive support through one of the associated groups. For more
information, visit http://myecom.net/members/builder7/
In summary, to improve your results, review what you have done
in the past. Focus on the methods that bring in the best
results. If you did not try different advertising methods in
2001, try new ones in 2002. That way at the end of the year,
you'll be able to compare results.