My dad looked at me and whispered, “holy sh$t”…
His eyes were bulging and his jaw was hanging to the floor…
He was in complete disbelief.
It was Monday morning, around 9:30am, on February 25, 2013 (just went back through my emails to confirm the date).
We were sitting in a plush meeting room at The Westin Hotel at The Domain in Austin, TX.
Surrounded by some of the smartest marketers in the world.
It was the first meeting of a $10k/year mastermind group we had just joined.
Still in awe, my dad leaned over and whispered to me, “we just got our money’s worth in the first 10 minutes”.
The guys who were running it kicked off the meeting by sharing something they recently tried.
What they shared, in the first 10 minutes of that meeting…
Has since made us millions of dollars in our online gardening business.
Funny thing was, what they shared wasn’t anything “new” at all.
It’s often overlooked and dismissed as an “old and outdated” strategy.
We’re still using it to this day and it’s still working just as good as it did back in 2013.
That’s your lesson for the day… stop trying to reinvent the wheel.
The fastest way to make money online is to model what’s already working for someone else.
You can get creative and try new things AFTER you’re happy with the amount of money you’re making.
Until then, model the people who are already doing what you want to do successfully.
Case in point…
A subscriber, and recent student of my Affiliate Ground Zero 30-Day Bootcamp, emailed in with a question yesterday:
I have a few questions, but first…
I took the AGZ course – learned a lot.
Here’s a couple of my takeaways:
- Your hosting options are far better than the standard ‘Get Bluehost, Godaddy, or even A2’… I have all three of those and they all suck! I like your approach.
- A few things no one else talks about in affiliate marketing: First, your ** campaign concept is great (never heard another course even mention it). Second, *** * (heard about it but no one really explains it. Thanks)
Anyway, I’m still making my way through the course. My day job gets crazy this time of the year but I’m plugging along.
My question:
If you had a site (much like the one you built in AGZ… or even no site) AND about $1000 to sink into marketing, etc…
What would you do with that money if you needed to turn it into $100-$150 a day (to create a $3000 to $4500 monthly income)?
What would you do?
He’s not the only one who’s wondering the same thing.
I get this question, or something very similar, at least once a week via email.
My answer is always the same. Here’s how I replied:
I would do exactly what I teach in AGZ… build an email list, deliver valuable content, and promote related products.
To which he replied:
Thanks Duston, I knew you would say that after I hit send based on how I worded it.
If you had to start making $100 a day tomorrow and only had $1000 to get started, what would you do?
I realize AGZ works (I’m building out my site now), but what if you didn’t have a list, etc. What would you do to make $100 starting tomorrow (and continuing)?
Would you do anything different? If not, what would the trick be to get that first $100 without a list yet?
And my response:
Still the same answer, with one minor difference.
Since you need to make $100 by tomorrow, I would use paid traffic to jumpstart the list-building process. No existing list is necessary here, or in my previous response.
The key to getting the best results with this is very, very simple… yet so many people completely miss it.
You have to keep your entire “funnel” congruent. Don’t pay for traffic and send people to your squeeze page that says “Lose 10 Pounds in 2 Days Without Dieting or Exercise”, then after they opt in, show them a diet offer that requires exercise.
That’s not what they opted in for. That’s a totally different person. Keep everything 100% congruent.
The easiest thing in the world to do is to take the headline right off the sales page of the affiliate product you’re promoting and use it as the headline on your squeeze page. After they opt in, send them right to the sales page (using your affiliate link). Obviously, make your ad say the same thing. It’s 100% congruent.
Then, it just comes down to math to make it work… the cost-per-click (CPC) of the ad, your squeeze page opt-in rate, the initial conversion rate of the affiliate offer, and the follow-up conversion rate from your email sequence.
Do you see the power in this?
It’s a quick, easy affiliate “funnel” that can be set up in a matter of minutes.
However, don’t mistake its simplicity for lack of potential.
I have made THOUSANDS of dollars a day with this exact setup.
7-figure and 8-figure per year businesses are being built on the back of this EXACT strategy.
Another thing…
One of the biggest misconceptions about building an email list with a squeeze page is…
People think they have to give something away for free in order to ask for an email address.
Erase that from your mind.
Instead, think of your squeeze page as a barrier of entry to the offer you’re promoting.
A hoop you make people jump through in order to see the offer.
It’s a way to qualify people so you’re only following up with the most interested prospects.
If you still can’t wrap your mind around this concept, here’s a comparison from another industry for you…
Wholesale Clubs. Like Costco, Sam’s Club, etc.
You can’t even shop in their store unless you pay an entry fee first. Kinda funny when you think about it.
“NO! I will NOT let you give me money until you first… give me money.” Lol!
Anyhoo, where was I… oh yeah…
Using a squeeze page to put a gate around your offer is the exact same thing.
Difference is, your prospect can get in for free and…
You get to capture their email address so you can follow up with them later.
It’s a beautiful thing and it’s an amazing time to be alive.
The opportunities we have online to be able to create the life of our dreams are just incredible.
This is only ONE of them. But it’s a dang good one.
And it’s the one I default to every time someone asks me…
If I had to make $1,000 by tomorrow, starting with no list, and no product of my own…
This is EXACTLY what I would do.
I wouldn’t even need the full $1,000 marketing budget he mentioned above.
I could make $1,000 by tomorrow starting with just $100.
Here’s how the math would play out:
Clicks: 1,000
Cost Per Click (CPC): $0.10
Squeeze Page Opt-in Rate: 40%
Offer Conversion Rate: 3%
Offer Payout: $98.50
Ad Spend: $100.00
Revenue: $1,182.00
Profit: $1,082.00
Those numbers are pretty conservative too…
Based on campaigns I’ve run in a number of different niches in the past.
Biggest takeaway here for you is…
Don’t reinvent the wheel here.
Don’t get cute and change stuff around.
Model what’s already working for someone else (read: me).
What about paid traffic sources? Which ones work best for this strategy?
How do you get $0.10 clicks?
Google or Facebook?
Yes, for some niches.
However, there are two specific traffic sources that work VERY well with this strategy.
Subscribe to The Opportunity Letter where I reveal them both in the upcoming December issue.
It goes to the printer on Nov 30th. Get in now before it’s too late.
Dream big. Take action.
Duston McGroarty