Diary on Wealth creation in a Depression

Getting started

Really, apart from the weather factor I mentioned in my last post, and the realization that there had to be a better way to market products, the main  person I blame for getting involved with Internet marketing was my dentist, Colin.  He had just quoted me some horrendous figure for fixing my teeth, and I asked him why it was that dentists and orthodontists charge so much.  He promptly filled my mouth with something that tasted like plasticine (preventing me from speaking any further) and ,whilst I was busy choking on his plasticine, proceeded to explain how dentists have to study 12+ years, followed by an obligatory 40 hours extra study a year to keep abreast of the latest developments in dentistry. I think what he was trying to say was: we were basically paying for their experience.

My dentist: the trigger that pushed me into Internet Marketing

After removing the plasticine, I asked how they could still justify their fees when, in effect, they were dealing with a small area (the mouth) and that it was “hardly as difficult as heart surgery”.  Colin waved a hand and chortled, instructing me to wash my mouth out, dismissing my complaints like a benign schoolteacher reprimanding a facetious schoolboy.  I realized I was going to get nowhere and that I had to find a way to support my dentist’s past college fees. I was reminded to ask myself what Robert Kiyosaki advises to ask in his book Rich Dad, Poor Dad: not whether I could afford it, but HOW.

“Year of the Affiliate” Beta-tester forum.

And so-cut to the Year of the Affiliate Beta-tester forum.  I joined Sean Rasmussen’s Year of the Affiliate (“YOTA”) Forum in July.  It had a reasonable price, I thought at the time, and I could always cancel if I wished and it had a money-back guarantee.  So I thought – I had not much too lose.  I introduced myself to the members and the “Zodiacs”, Sean Rasmussen’s techie helpers who would be helping to answer questions from forum members.  I liked the fact that Sean was easy to understand in his web tutorials and the Zodiacs were very quick in answering any questions posted.  They also, despite the theme, did not dispense astrological advice, because that’s not why I joined and have no interest in that subject!

I thought it noteworthy Sean also said that becoming successful in Internet Marketing would require hard work, and was no quick route to riches.  He himself has sold over $7 million online, so obviously knows what he is taking about.  So the two pluses I got immediately were:

• an honestly presented, not-over-hyped  program-unlike most internet marketing affiliate programs
• it is much more AFFORDABLE than most comparable programs
• Forum helpers (“Zodiacs”) who were able to answer my questions in an unpatronizing, efficient, non-jargon-filled way

The other thing I liked was that the “Year Of The Affiliate”, e-book by Sean Rasmussen was easy to read and again-not crammed with jargon (important for Search engine optimization dummies like myself!).  You also got continual video downloads to go along with the e-book which are, again, clear and easy to follow.  For example, how to use Google Reader for S.E.O purposes.

• the downside (if there is one) I can say after two months is simply the huge amount of info you have to absorb if you are a complete novice, like me.  But-you do get help!

YOTA eBOOK

The book describes the opportunities to use the big Affiliate Marketing sites like Clickbank, Commission Junction and Amazon.  These sites allow one as a budding or experienced Affiliate Marketer to promote or advertise the products on one’s own website and get paid commission if any are sold by their links. The e-book also explains how to protect your affiliate link so you can get the commission without a customer just going straight to the website of the product, missing your link out- I will explain a bit more about this in my next post, along with answering one of the first questions I had , which was “But I don’t have a website”.

"Year of the Affiliate"

Suffice it to say I saw that there was a great potential to answer my limited sales options in marketing products by learning how to implement Affiliate marketing and S.E.O strategies . If you wish to dip your toes in this exciting field, there is no better place to start than here
Click on the image to check out the Year of the affiliate e-book!

John Reason,
Brit currently living in New Zealand.
Salesman, teacher, article writer, Internet Marketer.
© 2010-11
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First steps in Internet marketing and Search Engine Optimization for dummies

As I discussed in my last post “ ”I am not a natural sales person” I am now two months into the Year of the Affiliate Affiliate marketing forum with Australian Internet-marketing guru Sean Rasmussen.

Before the Internet marketing course, I was already involved in sales as a commission salesman, as you may have gathered from the previous posts.  As I was considering my options recently,  something crystallized in my thinking on one particular day.  I was trudging the cold and windy streets of my city in the deep Southern winter, looking for suitably elderly-looking individuals to qualify for the government-funded security products that I market, and was telling myself  there had to be easier ways to market not just my product, but any product. (and no, I do not spend all my time taking such an old-fashioned approach to direct sales, but when you live in a city of old people it is definitely an option to just get in your car and look for potential customers!). Other times we book a Mall or a function room, which then eliminates the weather as a problem factor in sales prospecting, at least to some extent (but my customer base-the elderly-often stay indoors on cold days too).

The answer came within a short time when I got an email from Australian internet marketing guru Sean Rasmussen, inviting me to join his Affiliate marketing forumas a Beta-tester.

I knew the potential of the internet, having spoken to various friends who were either designing websites or studying internet marketing in various degrees or levels of ability. The problem was: all my sales experience had involved more or less direct contact with customers. Somehow, I have been successful in doing this.  It is great if one can keep finding prospects, but not so great if whatever reason one cannot (e.g bad weather/sickness/family issues).

So I had a need, I saw the potential, but had very little experience of marketing anything over cyberspace, and my know-how to create websites and pages on the net to do this was non-existent. I worked out it would cost me a lot of money, and since I hate overly-jargon-filled subjects, I discounted internet marketing as an option. “Affiliate marketing?” “Web 2.0″ ? I would not have had a clue what these terms meant.

In my next post I will go into more detail on the exciting “Year Of The Affiliate ” product that I will offer direct from this site, together with some more reports on my experience in building an online income using affiliate marketing using the “Year of the Affiliate/Web2020″ training I have received.

If you just can’t wait to dip your toes into the world of online marketing, try this product by Brad Callen on How to get a no 1 Google ranking, for access to which all you need to do is Click Here!

John Reason
Salesman, Internet marketer, independent researcher, Article writer.
Living in New Zealand.

©2010/11

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Getting your feet wet

In the previous post “Starting in direct sales” I looked at some of the initial questions that arise when one decides that one needs to acquire Sales training either because one is thinking of starting a sales career, or because one’s job requires one to take on some skills in this area.  I discussed how the first two questions that naturally arise (“What do I sell?” and “Do I have to do an expensive sales training course?“) could both neatly be answered within the category of Network-Marketing, because network marketing affords one the ability to sell virtually anything (and as we mentioned, it is important to choose something to sell that one is enthused about personally), and to do so at a nominal cost, often with great training.

Click here for “15 Secrets” book on Network Marketing

I remember being taught the basics of presenting products, demonstrating products and talking to small groups of strangers by the great Andy Privett, a six-foot tall Englishman who commanded respect if for nothing else because of his size.  All the people invited had been pre-prospected and invited either to my house or to Andy’s where we would give an initial presentation using a whiteboard, on the benefits of using and marketing the products.  Thereafter, once we had a few people agree to try out the products, and ,even better, try marketing the products themselves, we could invite them to conventions where the full spectrum of products, personalities and company back-up could be fully deployed.

Back-up and finding a mentor are crucial

I’ll say that phrase again: “Back-up and finding a mentor-a good mentor-are crucial to success in sales”.  If you are not being looked after by your “Upline” manager or trainer, beyond the first few weeks, then consider talking to someone higher up the pipeline who may be able to have a little word in the junior manager’s ear, or, even better, take you directly under his wing. From Day 1 I had full support from Andy and I attribute my continued interest in direct sales companies (I don’t say “success” because in those early days, we didn’t do great, but I was learning) to his attention and care of me.  If you are a Manager or team leader of a direct sales business and your salesmen do not last more than a few months, look carefully at your training systems and trainers. I’ve seen many potentially good commission salesmen lost to companies because of selfish, impersonable, or over-aggressive, trainers and middle-managers, who were not willing to go the extra mile for their charges.

Your No.1 skill in business is to sell

So if you are not a natural sales person, take heart.  I wasn’t (and probably am not now).  Yet I have been selling successfully and continuously (with no retainer or other safety net) for the last six years in a country and markets I had no prior experience in.  I made the decision that I could do sales and that I would learn and put into practice what I learned-and I got myself one or two good mentors.  Blair Singer says “Your number 1 skill in business is to sell.  In this economy you are either going to learn how to sell or go out of business..the toughest job is to sell yourself to yourself.“  I agree.  Don’t look at what you are not-look at what you have.  God has given everyone gifts and talents. I have insecurities and faults, but somehow I have always been confident.  I have survived the Rhodesian civil war (see African Genesis) , a dysfunctional family, and moving house no less than 15 times!  when I was growing up I was so unused to talking to people (my early days were spent in the bush country in eastern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) that I could barely look people in the eye!
Click here for this great book on sales

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Particularly for those considering taking up the challenge of starting to “sow”, or “sell” in the Direct Sales industry,as I related those two terms in the previous post (see “Sell! is the answer”), there will immediately spring to mind a few questions, the first of which is probably “OK I want to start sales, but what do I sell?”

Other attendant questions might be “Do I need to do any expensive sales courses?” and “I am not a natural sales person-how will I be able to sell anything?

What do I sell?

The answer to the first question ” What do I sell?” is “Well, what are you interested in or passionate about?” It is far easier to sell something you have previously enjoyed, or seen the value of.  I have sold certain products that I personally had no real interest in nor saw much value in, but they were part of a product range that I was obliged to sell. I think of certain whole-life insurance products I sold . They were “O.K” but were nothing great. I sold them because I had to;secondly the company that offered them had a very good credit-rating so that I knew at the end of the day my customers would be paid out, which was important to me. But I could not sell the best products because I did not have access to the best products. There goes the story of many financial advisers the world over and explains one of the reasons people the world over lost money in their investments in the 90’s and early 2000’s , while certain infamous financial “gurus” made a fortune selling bonds and mutual funds that were only average performing or, at worst, downright useless.

So it’s a lot easier to sell something that you know works well, or that you have used and believe in. But it’s not always possible to find the right combination of great products and good marketing and good company back-up.

Do I need to spend a lot on sales courses?

The second question you may have is: “Do I need to do any expensive sales courses?” . The answer is,very definitely: NO. You can learn everything you need to do by joining a good network marketing company. A friend of mine introduced me to network-marketing, where you can learn sales by working in a team of people marketing the same products, and who are interested in helping you because it is to everyone’s mutual advantage to do so. I started selling Amway products because I thought they were good products. I was living in England at the time, one of the capitalist centres of the world and it was just a lot easier for my prospective clients to buy soap powder for 80 pence at Tesco’s than spend GBP7 on American soap powder that admittedly would last a lot longer (and they would have to remember to use smaller scoops each time).

The other problem was, I found to my surprise, that there was a barely-veiled resentment against direct sales companies, and American companies in Europe generally (I put the latter down to jealousy) and the English are famous for regarding their home as a castle (even if it is semi-detached) and don’t generally like door-knockers and direct sales reps! Mind you I don’t like them either and I am one!! I think it’s the pushy ones no-one likes.

So I didn’t reach the stellar heights of sales success then but I did learn about selling through Amway’s great, well-established network-marketing training, which I recommend, and I broke the timidity barrier in sales. In fact, to start in business I recommend network-marketing because it teaches you the most important thing in business (selling) and it carries little risk and little up-front investment.

The other thing is: why not try selling online? For example, you can sell products through an internet marketing affiliate program like I have learned how to do. You can learn step-by-step from Australian internet marketing expert Sean Rasmussen. You will learn how to sell products through huge affiliate companies like Amazon and Clickbank, without the overheads of those companies.

Have a great day!
John Reason,
Brit currently living in New Zealand.
Salesman, article writer, Internet Marketer.
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© 2010-11

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