A long-time subscriber, and customer, emailed in yesterday with a question. He asked:
“We have a good chunk of money and we want to put together a digital plan that will give us the best chance of success.
We’ve been trying for the past 12 months to get over the hump on a shoestring budget and just haven’t gotten there.
We’re not scared to spend the money, it just needs to be as bulletproof as possible!
We’re thinking [TRAFFIC SOURCE REMOVED FOR PRIVACY] is the best way to go, but we are open to anything, whatever will get us to consistent success/cashflow.
What we wanted to know is how you would approach it with a healthy budget to make this go?”
First of all, he made the right choice by asking me first.
All of my customers (who purchase ANY of my products) receive unlimited email coaching from yours truly, for life (mine or theirs).
However, only the smart ones take advantage of it.
Not being egotistical here…
I’ve been around the block a time or two.
I’d be a complete idiot if I didn’t at least soak up some of the knowledge that’s been thrown my way.
Next, regarding his question, it’s one so many marketers struggle with.
Getting caught in the trap of uncertainty and paralyzed by the plethora of opportunities out there. (More on that in a sec.)
First, read my reply to him:
I’ll start by answering your last question first… how would I approach this with a healthy budget to make it work?
In one word… EMAIL.
Out of every single opportunity out there, none are more consistent, more reliable, and more successful than email (for me).
Now, maybe email isn’t a good fit for you, if so, let me know and I’ll answer the other questions you listed.
Here’s the thing:
[TRAFFIC SOURCE REMOVED FOR PRIVACY] is just a traffic source. Traffic sources come and go every single year. There’s no secrets there. I can go buy a million clicks to any website I want tomorrow.
The real secret is turning clicks into cash. It’s the underlying strategy you use to turn a click from ANY traffic source into cash.
Niches, ad networks, offers, tracking, spy tools…? There is no magic combination. I could probably make money using a hundred different combinations of those.
If you’re looking for something that’s truly long-term (more than 2 years), email is the only thing I know of.
Promoting offers directly, of course, can make you TONS of money. However, the campaigns rarely last more than 18 months… 24 months if you’re lucky.
The reason is, you’re relying on your existing combination of other people’s businesses for the long-term success of yours.
For example, maybe you’re killing it with [OFFER REMOVED FOR PRIVACY] for 12 months… and maybe you’re up to $1,000/day in profit… but then they decide to stop using affiliates to generate leads.
You go from $1k/day in profit… immediately to $0. It’s good while it lasts, and you can make a TON of money, but there will always be an expiration date with this type of campaign.
And, it could end abruptly for any number of reasons that are beyond your control, including:
» The offer gets taken down
» The affiliate network who was running the offer shuts down
» The ad network where you have been running traffic shuts down or shuts YOU down
» The owner of the offer isn’t paying affiliates on time and gets removed from the affiliate network
» The offer gets into legal trouble and is forced to water down their sales funnel copy, which kills conversion rates
» The offer stops accepting the type of traffic you’ve been running
That’s actually just a small amount of possible reasons.
My point is, if you’re cool with running campaigns and making money as long as you can, great… go for it!
If you’d rather focus on building a long-term business that doesn’t rely on the success of a unique combination of other businesses, I’d recommend focusing your efforts 100% on building an email list.
Paralyzed by the plethora of opportunities.
Duped into believing success is determined by an offer, a traffic source, a niche, or a million other arbitrary components.
These are two of the biggest roadblocks faced by marketers today.
If I were you, I would go back up and read my reply to him one more time.
Learn it. Understand it. Put your thinkin’ cap on and figure out how to USE it.
Here’s a HINT:
BUILD AN EMAIL LIST.
If you pay for a click, send it to a landing page, and then on to an offer…
You might get paid for every 1 out of 100 clicks… and that’s only if you’re GOOD.
On the other hand…
If you were to send that click to a squeeze page and put them onto your email list…
You can get paid for EVERY SINGLE CLICK out of 100…
While you build a MASSIVE email list…
And without relying on ANYONE else.
You see, as marketers, we’re trained to be hyper-aware of new traffic sources, new conversion hacks, and new offers.
But that’s a ploy. A gimmick. A distraction from the real secret.
Those are all just tactics.
Tactics come and go. They change over time. Some last years while others last days.
However, strategies never change. They’re evergreen. One of my favorite quotes is…
“Tactics is the art of using troops in battle; strategy is the art of using battles to win the war.” -Carl von Clausewitz
Here’s how that translates to making money with email…
“Tactics is the art of using exit pop-ups to build an email list; strategy is the art of using email lists to build wealth.” -Duston McGroarty
They’re both required to win the war.
But you can’t choose the right tactics without first choosing the right strategy.
I’ll make it easy for you. Choose this strategy:
The Secret to Turning Every Single Click Into Cash
Carpe diem.
Dream big. Take action.
Duston McGroarty