Let me explain how I went from absolute miserable failure to consistent success by getting back in touch with the basics of marketing. 

MYTH:  The old adage "It Takes Money To Make Money" is completely false. 

FACT:  In order to make any serious money, you need to create value for other people!

In fact, it wasn't until I was absolutely flat broke and in debt up to my eyeballs that I was forced to re-evaluate everything I was doing.  Sometimes you do have to hit rock bottom before things can turn around, because it forces you back to the drawing board.  Once I started creating value for my visitors, I started making money consistently.

How can you create value for other people?  The best way is to do a bit of studying on a topic so that you know more than the average person.  That way you can be rewarded for sharing the information with others.  For most internet marketers the way they are rewarded is that the person subscribes to their newsletter in order to receive the free information.

In mid-2000 I began to think about what I could offer others, obviously with a finance degree I knew quite a money and banking so I began to look for opportunities in that area.  I started a site that dealt with financial issues and signed up for a couple affiliate programs where I could promote credit cards.  I had read in a magazine that people were actively applying for credit cards online.

Then I went and did some research to see how many people per month were searching for Capital One Credit Cards, I was surprised to see several thousand per month!

Critical Knowledge:  Using Pay Per Click Advertising First, I use the keyword search tool offered by Overture to determine what people are searching for in that particular area. Second, once I find what people are typing in I check the bid rates people are paying for that keyword. In my case, I found that I could spend about $8.00 in order to make $25 so it was obvious that I should buy as much advertising as possible at that price.  I had tested my concept using Overture which has since been purchased by Yahoo.  I immediately expanded my number of keywords in order to get more traffic and found that I could make about 100 sales per month ( $2500 ) for $800-900 worth of advertising.  Best of all, these were affiliate sales so I didn't have any interaction with my customers.  I could go about my business and have this working for me in the background.  Each morning I would wake up and login to my account to see how much money I had made.  It was very exciting. You get what you pay for when it comes to search engine advertising.  The only sites I have had good conversions from are Overture and Google.  Overture is the most expensive but I've had the absolute results from them, I believe they have fewer issues with click fraud than Google.  But both are excellent sources for test marketing and getting sales flowing quickly.   Yahoo! Search Marketing - (Formerly Overture) Google Adwords MSN Adcenter - is a newer contender after moving out on it's own.  It won't provide the volume of the other two, but is definitely a source of quality clicks! While you are fine tuning things, avoid all the lesser known search engines.   Under NO circumstances should you ever use Miva (formerly known as FindWhat), they have a rampant click fraud problem. Ask.com and Mama.com are both quality companies that I have had good luck using in the past as well.  I remember MaMa was very low volume however.

My First Automated Online Sales

One day I was looking through my Commission Junction account and noticed that I had made $25.00 on one of my web sites.  Compared to my staggering debt, it shouldn't have been any cause for excitement but I was truly excited.  The reason for my excitement was the fact that this was the first time I had made a passive online sale without any human interaction.  I knew that if it was possible to make one sale, then I could make hundreds of sales. I Had To Develop A Positive Cash Flow For My Business On A Shoe String Budget With Zero Downside Risk.  So I began running keyword advertising using only the phrase "Capital One Credit Card" using the headline "Apply For A Capital One Card".  When I began doing this, I could purchase a click on that phrase for only 22 cents.   I would be paid $25 for a sale, so if I could get just 1 sale from 100 visitors I would be in the money!  Luckily, since these visitors were already "pre-sold" on Capital One (due to their huge advertising campaign) I was able to make 3 sales for every 100 visitors.  I was getting a $25 commission for each sale and paying only $8 in advertising costs, so for every $1 I spent I got $3 back!

I went nuts!  I purchased every bit of advertising I could find from every Pay Per Click search engine I could find.  The first month I made just under $1000, nearly $2000 the next month and within 90 days was making $3500 per month.  I was happy, but I knew it wasn't going to last.  I could already see other affiliates were copying me and my cost per click was slowly rising.

This Is Known As Arbitrage:  If you can purchase advertising for less than what you are paid in commission then your advertising will more than pay for itself.   All you have to do is figure out how many visitors it takes to make one sale, then if it's profitable you can simply purchase advertising and pocket the difference between the cost of advertising and the commission you are paid.

The problem with arbitrage is that other people will jump on board when they see what you are doing and they will drive up the cost of the clicks.  That's why you need to get creative and broaden out the number of keywords you can use.  Since most banks didn't offer affiliate programs at that time, I could buy their keywords for little or nothing.  First USA Visa for example was one that I had myself and I could purchase a click for 5 cents

I clicked on my own ad and studied the offer from Capital One.  I went online and studied other offers from other companies and compared them to Capital One.   I made notes of the benefits and drawbacks of each credit card offer and then compared each one against Capital One.  What I found was that in most cases they had a better offer, so I began putting the comparisons on one of my web sites.  I created comparisons for people Good Credit, Fair Credit and Poor Credit, so people could easily find the cards that were right for them.

My First Profitable Email List

Next, I wanted to begin capturing people's names and email addresses and adding them to a database as they came through my web sites.   I began collecting their name and email address, in addition they could click on their credit category.  When they pressed submit, they were added to my database and delivered to the appropriate credit card offers.

When new credit card offers came out, I could email the appropriate people in my database and let them know about the new offer.  Since email was free, this dramatically increased my profitability.  Since that time I have always tried to incorporate database marketing into whatever I was doing.  It can be less effective now due to all the spam filters, but there are tricks such as using multiple domain names that still make it the most cost effective form of marketing out there.  Building prospect and customer lists have always been a basic staple of all successful marketing businesses whether online or offline.

Today, there are more options than ever and more sophisticated database systems that offer more features.  Aweber offers click-thru tracking so you can tell how many people visited compared to the number of registrations.  In addition, their forms can be setup as a secure javascript so no one can bypass the form.

Here are two examples of how I am using Aweber at the current time:

#1  Free Video Streaming Tools & Newsletter Membership

The drop down box on http://freevideostreamingtools.com is provided by Aweber, when people fill out the form it forwards them to the page that allows them to setup a free basic video membership.  This adds them to my Media Streaming Tips newsletter which comes out on a monthly basis offering them tips, advise and new services we offer for video & audio streaming.

#2  Free Credit Report Reminder Service

It is now a federal law that each of the 3 credit bureaus must give you a free copy of your credit report on an annual basis if you request it.  Through Access2Privacy.com  I offer to send subscribers a reminder of who owes them a free credit report every 4 months.  This way they spread their Free Credit Reports over the entire year instead of getting them all at once, allowing them to keep better track of their finances and avoid identity theft problems.  Since I have permission to contact them every 4 months, it allows me a chance to invite them back to the web site where they can read articles, click on Google Ads or Apply For Credit Cards!

The Key Is To Get The Most From Your Advertising Dollars!

When you purchase online advertising to initially get traffic to your web site, you should have 2 goals. 

#1 -  To sell a product or service and earn enough to pay for your advertising.

#2 -  Offer people something of value so they will join your mailing list.

Understanding Failure

The main thing to understand it that if you are failing, it's for one of three reasons:

1. You are simply trying to sell the wrong product or service. 
2. You are using the wrong techniques or not correctly reaching the Target market.
3. You really aren't putting much effort into it and are looking for short cuts.

Looking back, I now realize that prior to July 2000 I was guilty of all 3 of these!  That's why I found myself on the verge of bankruptcy.  I changed my habits and my finances turned around as well.