Rosalin Golden
list building and network marketing expert
Multiple six figure earner
http://www.4enhancementonline.info/homebasedbusiness/index.html

I’m anxiously waiting for more on paid media.  And if you know of a good course for sale, please advise.

David

Do you know what a customer is worth,  cost of a sale, life time value, etc. ?

If you know your numbers, paid advertising will offer the most stable form of advertising, as long as you have tracking in place.

Search engine traffic is good too, but it’s not evergreen, it can and does change. Look at all the search engines we’ve been through, even ppc rules change too. Right now Google is king, but that could change in a year or two.

thanks

I’m not questioning the knowledge base here but I would like to humbly add a little from my own experience (indirectly, I guess. It was actually my wife) as a former internet business owner. PPC and the other internet marketing tactics have, no doubt, evolved over the last couple of years but I think it is important that no matter what internet marketing tactics one employs, it is critical for that business owner or manager to literally camp on the marketing statistics and monitor them continuously. We didn’t and the ol’ "give me your credit card and we’ll take care of the rest" routine very nearly buried us in debt that took years and a lot of hard work to erase. So, my two cents to prospective internet business owners and marketers? Either be prepared to stay on top of the marketing tactics you have chosen to employ minute by minute or make sure you have incredibly deep pockets backing up your efforts. The internet marketing world puts brick and mortar marketing basics in the shade when it comes to confusion,  scheming, devious pandering, and racketeering. I can’t help but wonder when the government (or governments) will step in and try to iron out the wrinkles in the relatively unregulated internet marketing mess. Never thought I’d hear myself say that. I’m the last one in the world that wants the government involved in anything. They consistently do more harm than good in every area they touch, it seems like sometimes.

But I do think that many web marketing gurus take an all or nothing approach when it comes to their teaching… and of all the tactics, the one you hear about least is paid media.  Yet the ops are abundant.  And of all the tactics that happens to be my expertise and where I’ve had the most success.  Yet each individual tactic has their own nuances and challenges.  Don’t put all your eggs in one basket… always be testing.
 
Best,
Julie McManus

Besides that, I find it a shame that The Total Package blog leaves such great opportunities to pull in search engine traffic on the table. You guys have an excellent site here (click my name and you’ll see me testifying to that effect on a post in my blog) and it’s just a crying shame that more people aren’t sent here by the search engines.

Is there a reason you guys don’t do SEO for the blog?

Compare Clayton’s Co - it’s products and sales messages with the Internet Marketing community.  The quality, price points and method of sale are entirely different with straight to the point outstanding value.  The "general" mindset and sales techniques in IM are all about hammering your credit card until nothing is left - and many times for redundant or useless crap that has been re-spun and repackaged.

Has anyone noticed the latest trends that came out of recent guru courses and seminars?  How can you get $2000 for information in a $50 ebook?  Easy - and many have jumped on the bandwagon as it looks like the next big thing since OTOs  …

1st the big launch - a couple weeks of email bonding - free reports - videos - getting people to comment on the blog.  (After JV partners get it started with bogus posts)When the hype starts to peak, the scarcity warnings start and the takeaway is used.
Always - only a limited number can be sold and here comes the pre-notification list - followed by:  "This will sell out in hours - and is going out to all the JV partner lists."  Perceived value has been dressed up by turning the content into videos, audios, and a couple coaching calls - and the sales letter breaks the BS meter.

There is a $2000 course right now with all the above.  A major component for their "traffic secrets" is using site placement or targeting on Google’s Content Network - along with other "secret adwords" techniques.  So, I commented on the blog and asked a couple questions.  I mentioned that I knew of the best software used for site targeting and had a $47 ebook that covers it from A to Z.  Then I asked if the course was for someone who already knew this stuff?  My post was never published.  Obviously, they don’t want anyone to know about a $47 ebook.  And I’ll bet that at least half of the blog comments were from shills pumping up the launch.

I’ve bought some products that were worth it but this is only one example of the deceptive BS and con jobs that go on - by well known marketers.  Evidently, there is a huge market for gullible sitting ducks.

Aahh, yes, the age-old saga of how
to market the best, the cheapest and
the most effective.   

Thanks for your posts on this extremely
vital topic!

Carolyn
http://blog.kickasscopywriter.com

David while I agree that the prices are higher then other products I wouldn’t go as far as to call them outrageous.  It’s a question of how much time and money they spent perfecting their technique.  

At this point there really are no big "secrets" – one of the reasons  people might consider buying such packages is (for a lack of better wording) – they want proof that it will work.  Most might already know most of the these secrets they just want further validation that they’re right.  I guess in some sense they want to know they’re not making mistakes. 

So the question is how much are you willing to spend to avoid – 50 60 or 80% of the usual mistakes VS starting from the ground up.  

Everything I’ve learned in my field – a lot of it is from trial and error, making mistakes and then learning from it.  

So if people want to bypass parts of this learning process and have the cash to pay that amount then so be it.

I feel like I’ve gone off on a tangent.   lol.