Hello it’s Tak Hikichi here. I appreciate you taking busy time
reading this newsletter this week.

========================
THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOX
========================

I’ve noticed a lot of emails recently about Internet Marketing product
giveaway events.  That is if you contribute as a product owner,
you can benefit by receiving multiple streams of traffic from all
contributors massively promoting to their lists.

It’s one reason you leverage once you start having some type of
product.  But how hard is it to create one from scratch?

I am not going into “using PLR” talk because that’s been done in
every email I send out, so this time, I say something different.

I share this strategy from time to time and it’s worth repeating.

========================
REVERSING ELANCE SYSTEM
========================

I did this once and received so many bids at elance.  As you probably
know, www.elance.com is the largest outsourcing portal online.

I posted a project like this and it WORKED.

My post:

Hi, I am looking to buy existing product of yours.  If someone has
ebook, audio, video that I can own rights exclusively, please bid.

I am looking for products only in Internet Marketing field.

Thanks,

Takuya

Within a week, I received tens of offers from authors who created
something in their hard drive once, but didn’t know what to do with
them.

Some were very quality and some were only average.

But the upside was I was able to PREVIEW their work entirely before
buying them.

There was no “getting burned” experience by outsourcing the task
and end up creating something I didn’t want.

======================================
THIS IS WHY I CALL THIS “REVERSING” THE ELANCE SYSTEM
======================================

Instead of posting a product project and have someone create one
from scratch and get disappointed, this way, you only buy what you
like.

The work has already been done for you, now you choose what you want.

You can either publish it as your own work or sell private label
rights to the work and turn the profit.

- You just have to get creative and think outside the box sometimes -

And with that new product, you can rightfully join as a contributor
at these Joint Venture Giveaway events to build your list.

=======================
HOW MUCH DOES IT COST?
=======================

You might be wondering how much it would cost to buy label rights
from an author?  Their bids range from anywhere from $250 – $500.

So it’s bit steep, but all the hard work has been done for you. Do
this quarterly (spend $1000 a year) and you’ll have 4 products that
can be generating streams of income or building lists on autopilot.

Not bad huh?

===============================
BUSINESS STRATEGY OVER PRODUCT CREATION
===============================

It’s easy to get caught up on creating a perfect product instead
of establishing a business strategy.

We all know Ray Kroc didn’t create a perfect hamburger for McDonalds,
but his business strategy made his name known.

Likewise, Harland Sanders, better known as “Colonel” Sanders sold
his “business in a box” instead of selling his secret recipe that
is still locked up in a safe at his home state of Kentucky, USA today.

=======================
WHAT’S YOUR BUSINESS STRATEGY?
=======================

What’s your business strategy?  Do you have one?  I tell you mine,
and you’re welcome to model after my strategy because it’s not
like I am the only one doing anything like this.

So here it is:

1. I first giveaway something easily recognized as valuable. Either
a product that can be charged, or bunch of PLR products as I do
on my main home page.

2. I upload 20 “follow up” emails, all arriving to my subscribers’
inbox every four days.  These consist of messages hopefully unique
to the readers.

3. After I’ve “trained” people to open my email (this is why I only
use the same subject title for most of my emails), now people
will begin opening emails, based on my very NAME.

4. At least once a week, I send out broadcasts to my lists. These
consist of current industry updates, news, gossip, product launches,
recommendations etc.

5. I also give out more PLR products in my newsletter.  I go buy these
and upload onto my server, provide links for downloads, no need for
opt-in again.

6. I upload the same email article on my blog at
http://www.AskTak.com/blog which generates more traffic from people
pouring in from search engines.

7. I might participate in JV giveaway events, buy ad space in friends
ezines to run a small ad, do ad swap, whatever to further build
bigger subscription.

8. Most importantly, I try building my newsletter look like a
newsletter, which builds trust and dialoge with my subscribers. This
way, I generate high converting emails (last week’s email generated
65.4% click throughs).

9. With high converting email campaign, I can leverage from it even
if my recommendations only net $5 in every sale.

=================
SEE YOU NEXT WEEK
=================

This week, my three year old made it to Pre-School.  Every week is a
gift and I am thankful for simple things that make me happy.

Maybe this is why, I only drive domestic vehicles (yeah, I know I am
Japanese, but I don’t want GM to die), buy clothes at thrift stores
and have a wife who is more frugal than myself.

But it’s nice not to struggle looking for every penny when buying
Christmas gifts or give out donation.

Today in US marks the 67th anniversary of Pearl Harbor.  I am not a US
citizen, but have volunteered as a tour guide at Pearl Harbor when I
lived in Hawaii.

My message focused on not how people died, but how they lived.

I am thankful today for many people who lived their lives before
me to be able to enjoy liberty.

How about you?  What are you thankful for?

Be the first one to leave a comment.

==========
I LOVE PLR
==========

I was looking for a product to upload this week and ended up coming
across something different.

It’s not a free product, but very quality and cheap ($4.95) tutorial
video teaching how to convert PLR to add completely different look.

>> http://www.AskTak.com/recommends/plrtutorial/

With this instruction, you’ll be able to easily create a product of
your own, having different look, graphic, and content.

Why don’t you come up a product of your own, then give it away during
an giveaway?  You can add hundreds of subscribers if you have quality
product.

=======================
MORE GIVEAWAY EVENT TIP
=======================

Last year when I first came across these Giveaway events, I was adding
upwards of 70 subscribers a day.

For some marketers, 70 additional subscribers could mean $70 more
residual income every month.  If you haven’t participated in any
event before, you owe it to yourself to become a contributor.

–

It used to be that a Giveaway required you to have list before you
could join as a contributor — if you didn’t promote to your list,
you weren’t welcomed.

Not so in today’s trend.

What happens today is when you sign up as a contributor, you’re usually
upsold to become a preferred contributor.  Once you pay whatever the
OTO amount (usually like $17), your contributed gift will remain as
a “featured gift”.

The $17 is split between the Giveaway host and the referrer who signed
you up.  But even though you might have “zero” members to promote to
your list, because you’re now an “upgraded” member, your gift will
remain seen (if you’re free member and don’t promote, your gift will
be deleted – this prevents people coming in for a free ride).

==================================
USING ELANCE FOR QUICK TURN AROUND
==================================

Here is my version of the “quickest way” to succeed with JV giveaway.

1. Go to Elance and ask for someone to come up with original graphics
that you’re going to use as your legit product for a giveaway event.
($50)

2. Go to Digital Point Forum’s marketplace and find a graphic designer
who can come up with original eCover designed for your gift.
($15)

3. You set up your gift with auto responder, lead capture page, domain
and paid hosting.
($9 one time fee for domain and $7-$10 monthly fee for hosting)

4. You collect subscribers using paid auto responder.
($20 monthly)

Rinse and repeat above.

–

You see, doing these simple tasks and participating in several
giveaways between now and end of the year, you’ll add additional
500 subscribers to your list.

Depending on how you work your list, that can lead you to gain
additional $500 income for you.

===================================================
TIP OF THE WEEK: WHERE TO GET QUALITY RAW MATERIALS
===================================================

In the past, I have “confessed” that I use these two websites to
find good (and cheap) PLR materials.

link 1 >> www.master-resale-rights.com (great selection)

link 2 >> www.bestchoiceforebooks.com (less, but way cheaper)

What I do is, I first visit link 1 and browse what I want. Then I
visit link 2 to find the same material, but at a bargain price.

If I cannot find the same product at link 2, then I’ll go back to
link 1 to buy what I want.

1. I then go through a product to see if that’s something I want to
put my name to it.

2. If it’s a video product, I really won’t touch anything.  If it’s
an ebook, I’ll rewrite and add my own thoughts.

3. I hire graphic designer to either just come up with eCover or
whole mini-site.  They average anywhere from $10 to $50 for me.

4. I either giveaway to build a list or sell it online.

====================
IF YOU NEED HELP…
====================

Of course, I cannot be available for every request that says,
“Please show me how to do this”.

This is why I am recommending that you’ll get a set of video tutorial
from this link.

It’s a good set of instruction that can potentially create a new
business model for you.

So here it is again. Go get it. It’s only $4.95.

>> http://www.AskTak.com/recommends/plrtutorial/

Hello it’s Tak Hikichi here. I appreciate you taking busy time
reading this newsletter this week.

Now the election is over in US, we can all better focus taking care
of our business.

======================
HAVE YOU EVER USED PR?
======================

When I first began my online career as a Network Marketer, I used all
kind of press releases to gain massive exposure.

Not only did they help rank prominent search engine positions
organically, but built my credibility.  One time I received a phone
call from England after someone finding me on a press release I
personally wrote.

Today they’re getting more popular than ever.

I have two links for you, the first one is link to a list of online
PR services -

>> http://bignews.biz/blog/?p=6

And second link is for a PDF report for PR distribution (mine). I
have given you this second link in the past, but for new subscribers,
this can become helpful.

So here it is, go learn how to use PR and get really good at it.

>> http://www.AskTak.com/reports/quickpr.pdf

===========================================
MONDAY CLICK THROUGHS AND EMAIL OPEN RATES
===========================================

For the last two months or so, I have been testing sending newsletter
on Sundays.  I do this because I know most marketers slow down during
weekends and I thought I would gain better exposure this way.

The test result shows that even though I send out newsletters on
Sundays, most of downloads and click throughs occur on MONDAY through
WEDNESDAYS.

Interesting result huh?

But I personally like the feel of Sunday Newsletter — kind of like
Sunday edition of internet marketing newspaper.

Sunday Morning Herald or something — I thought there was such newspaper
somewhere in the world.

======================
AWBER OR GET RESPONSE?
======================

I receive this question a lot.  So I am going to list strong features
offered by each service.  Let’s start out with Get Response because
this is the less popular between the two.

- GET RESPONSE -

1. You can import one list to another – Once you gather subscribers
to ONE of your Get Response lists, you can then import the entire
membership to another list.  With Aweber, you’d have to ask people
to opt-in again.  Although Aweber opt-ins can subscribe to multiple
lists during the same sign up process, you cannot import subscribers
from another existing list.

2. You get reliable trial – If you want to test it out, you can
build one campaign with 5 messages with Get Response.  Obviously,
that’s limited but in the event you upgrade, you can seamlessly
facilitate this list into the upgraded unlimited version.  With
Aweber, I believe it’s a short (maybe one month?) trial that eventually
ends.

3. Single Opt-in – If you’re a fan of single opt-in, Get Response
isn’t scared to help you build subscribers using not only regular
sign up forms, but also through other methods like co-registration.

- AWEBER –

1. The blog — This is probably one of their most overlooked tools.
Aweber.com/blog offers serious and advance case studies. I learn
great deal of relationship building techniques, principles and
tips.

2. Best delivery rate – This is what they say anyway.  It’s supposed
to have the best delivery rate among all the auto responder services.

3. Advanced tracking method – this is for the advanced users.  But
with Aweber, you can even track which subscriber clicked on what link.
You can’t get this feature if you’re just paying the $19.95, but
the most advanced version (which most people don’t yet to use).

-

They both run about $20 a month.  But if you’re thinking about adding
your own product line in the future, you can consider 1shoppingcart
as your primary auto responder.

You see, the list goes on and on.

============================================
TIP OF THE WEEK: DON’T BUY IT! GO TO YOUTUBE!
============================================

As an information marketer, I might be shooting myself in the foot
when I tell you this, but oh well, let’s talk about it.

People use search engine (primarily Google) to look for information
but as you know, unless a site or a page is optimized well (sometimes
strategically, sometimes naturally), you will NOT find it on the
first page of Google’s search results.

If you’re looking for specific instruction like,

- How to convert PDF from Word

- How to upload a webpage using FTP

- How to install WordPress

- How to learn to play guitar, Led Zeppelin

- How to redirect using java script

- How to WHATEVER YOU WANT TO DO

Don’t go to Google, but go straight to YouTube AND USE THEIR internal
search engine for instruction.

This way, you get video instruction on how to do things. You’ll be
surprised how much information you can find there.  So if you’re new
and desperate of knowledge, stop buying ebooks while trying to find
shortcuts, but think outside the box when using existing services
such as YouTube.

=================
SEE YOU NEXT WEEK
=================

Take care and let me know if there is anything I can do.

If you submitted questions last week and you haven’t
received reply from me, please be patient, you’ll get them soon.

Hello it’s Tak Hikichi here. I appreciate you taking busy time
reading this newsletter this week.

If you submitted questions last week and you haven’t
received reply from me, please be patient, you’ll get them soon.

=========================================
ADD YOUR LICENSE, GENERATE VIRAL TRAFFIC
=========================================

In the last few broadcasts, you probably noticed that I have always
included PLR or MRR materials.

This week, I decided to create a nice set of templates that you can
customize and easily add your information to create own license.

So for example, let’s say a PLR product said you could do anything
you wanted with that product, then instead of leaving the previous
owner’s license within the package, you’d insert your version of
license when redistributing them.

(Now if what I said above confused you, just download the package
through the download link below and see inside – it should make
better sense to you).

After downloading,

1.  First you’ll see a folder that says “Your Templates”.  These are
the brandable files that all you have to do is convert the word to
PDF after adding your unique content.

2. Second, if you need an example of how this could be done, just
open up the file that says “My Example”.  You’ll see exactly what I
do to add my information.

As these licenses get passed around, a little by little, you’ll
gain greater viral traffic and subscribers to your list.

Download it here

>> SUBSCRIBER ONLY LINK

=========================================
POP OVER FORM CONVERTING OPT-INS AT 38.8%
=========================================

About a month ago or so, I decided to add Aweber “Pop Over”
forms across many of my websites.

Prior to this, I have heard that this method would
increase subscribers, and I decided to give a try.

While regular “inline” forms are currently converting at 30.1%
on average, my “Pop-Over” forms are converting at 38.8%.

I know many marketers argue that this can annoy visitors.

But that opinion can also be their personal perspectives towards
such methods and not necessarily based on what has been tested.

So I wanted to test this method myself and I’m going to be sticking
with it – it works for me.

(notice this is a “pop-over” and not a “pop-up”, slightly different
tactic, here)

=========================================
EFFECTIVELY REMOVING ALL THE DISTRACTIONS
=========================================

This week I unsubscribed from five more lists.

I was on some of these lists for a few years and was afraid to make
the change, but now I realized nothing has changed in my life -
Nothing.

In fact, I believe it actually increased my productivity.

If you’re fairly new to IM, you might want to bookmark the Internet
Marketing NewsWatch at http://www.imnewswatch.com/

This way, you’re still up to date with what’s going on in the
industry.

Also I mention in my free ebook how I use “JV Notify Pro” service
to alert any upcoming launches.

I get to then review products legally, submit reviews and earn
affiliate commissions.  If you haven’t read my Article Marketing Guide,
you might want to give another look at the report.

In fact, just today, I just received another $48.50 commission for
a product I did review over four months ago.

>>SUBSCRIBER ONLY LINK

===============================
GOOD PRODUCT WORTH LOOKING AT
===============================

This week I came across a product that really got my attention.

I don’t know if you know who Carl Ocab is but Carl is 15 year old
kid who has over 10000 subscribers to his “Make Money Online” blog.

Carl attests that his secret to success is ranking high with
key phrase “Make Money Online” using search engines and he does this with
WordPress and SEO.

He tested it, tweaked it and played with his WordPress template and
in the course of time, the template became fully optimized with SEO
in mind — interesting.

Now what Carl has done is he decided to sell the same exact template
that he uses to rank his own website for some of Google’s most
coveted key phrases.

Did that get your attention, too?  It certainly did mine.

So I’d say you also take a look at the sales page.

>> http://www.AskTak.com/recommends/carlocab/

====================================================
TIP OF THE WEEK: WITH ANIMOTO, ANYONE CAN MAKE AWESOME FLASHY VIDEOS
====================================================

As marketers, people take their knowledge for granted and assume
everyone else ALREADY know what they know. I don’t know about you,
but I make these types of assumptions all the time.

A few people asked me how I made my videos on YouTube but it never occurred to me
that this could be helpful information for some people.

Well, it was very simple.

With Animoto, you can turn 15 slides into 30 second video like the one
I made above.

All you have to do is use Screen Capture utility that you can download
online or simply use “Print Screen” function on your keyboard and submit
15 slides in order to create one video.

Animoto offers paid and free version but for now, I only use the free
version for most of my projects (free videos limit to 30 seconds max
length)

Give it a try at >> http://animoto.com

I am not in it, but there is an affiliate program with Animoto where
you can refer people and get paid when they upgrade.

=================
SEE YOU NEXT WEEK
=================

Take care and let me know if there is anything I can do.

If you submitted questions last week and you haven’t
received reply from me, please be patient, you’ll get them soon.

by Jari Schroderus

Bill McRea just published an audio, discussing ways to deepen relationship with email subscribers.

Frankly, you can never have enough of these ideas.

I just purchased a Master Resale Rights for Adeel
Chowdhry’s new ebook.

I originally purchased it with an intent to market, but
for you as a subscriber, I’m just going to give it
to you.

Here is the download link for ebook (Download Begins Automatically).
>> http://asktak.com/reports/asebookonly.zip (687 KB)

and here is the download link for the Reseller pack (Download Begins Automatically).

>> REMOVED (Available Only for LIST SUBSCRIBERS)

++++++++++++++

The reason I wanted to get this to you is when I first
began marketing online as an affiliate, I added bonuses
to build greater value in an affiliate offer.

This works especially great when you have a list.

A launch comes out, your list knows about it, they want
to purchase from someone and you offer nice bonuses.

Then I began making more money repeating it.

++++++++++++++

It’s easy to do because all you have to do is show them
links saying, “If you go to this website, this product
is sold at $27, but you can get it from me” and
actually have visitors go to such websites and let them
realize that they’re getting a better deal.

Make sense?  Just double check your rights come with
not only Master Resale Rights (MRR) and also Giveaway
rights otherwise you can’t just give away without the
permission from the product owner.

I already emailed Adeel and said he is fine with me doing
this.

So here is the download links again.

Ebook link
>> http://asktak.com/reports/asebookonly.zip (687 KB)

Reseller pack link
>> REMOVED (Available Only for LIST SUBSCRIBERS)

You can have both or either one.  But if you download
the reseller pack, you can customize the website.

++++++++++++++++

But here is one problem when you do this to build
“Email List” with a product like this.

The problem is, when you give away a product that belongs
to someone else, you’re only building brand for that
marketer instead of your own.  And as long as you’re
promoting someone else’, you really won’t become
super great at Internet Marketing.

So how do you overcome this???

I have a solution…

You can giveaway classic like Napoleon Hill’s
“Think and Grow Rich”.

Here is the download link

>> http://www.takuyahikichi.com/thinkandgrowrich.pdf

You see, this way, you’re not building brand for anyone
other than you.  And giving away classic books like this
is a good incentive for list building.

So let’s recap this.

1. You obtain products to giveaway or come up with your
own (See >> http://www.minireportcreationguide.com )

2. If you have to giveaway someone else’ product to
build a list, you stick with ones that DOES NOT dilute
your brand (such as Think and Grow Rich)
>> http://www.takuyahikichi.com/thinkandgrowrich.pdf

3. Once you begin marketing to your list, you can then
use MRR to set yourself apart from other marketers.

4. Be generous and people will stay on your list.

5. You rise above the noise.

++++++++++++++++

That’s it for today….

If you have any feedback or comments, I could use your
comment below.

by wadem

This is one of those moments when a blogger gets attention he deserves.  Ryan Deiss at DrivingTraffic.com conducts a split test by doing away with the name field from auto responder form.

After removing the field, he saw 5-8% (depending on the site) increaes in opt-in.

Normally, auto responder forms are created with at least both the “name” and “email” fields.  After seeing other websites such as Motley Fool using no name field for newsletter, Ryan decided to test it to see if it’d increase sign up rate for his sites.  It sure did — it’s one less thing for visitors to fill out and one less privacy being given away while visiting your site.  How often do you get opt-in names with subscribers only giving you their first name initials instead of their real names?  I get it all the time.

But let me point out something important.  I said earlier that Ryan’s post deserves attention.  Why is Ryan’s blog post so significant?  It’s worth bookmarking because Ryan successfully builds a case by doing against what is being accepted conventionally.

Back in the day when Cory Rudl was the top of the game, I remember him teaching “personalized email” strategy, that was to use customization feature in auto responder and make it look like you “personally write” every email addressing the recipient’s name.  However, today in 2008, people know that you’re no longer sending an email personalized and it’s just a part of your auto responder message feature.  So this may no longer effect any impact.

I should also implement this in my future campaign.  It’s kind of late for me to go back and redo the entire follow up series for existing lists and it gets confusing so I’ll leave those as they are, but for my future project, I’ll definitely implement this.

I wonder why I haven’t come across anyone else mentioning this yet.  What Ryan proved was certainly not a rocket science, yet I am surprised that I haven’t heard seen anyone challenging this wisdom.   It just shows that there are so many ways to make your blog posts interesting.

I really liked what I read.  Another nice split test done by Ryan Deiss.

by DonLon Photo

Yesterday I talked a little bit about copywriting. Although I have been in sales all my life, I never received formalized training in copywriting and it’s fascinating for me to meet people who know how to persuade others through ads or sales pages.

I was reading Paul Myers’ recent newsletter. In one of the issues he was selling one of his books and this was the sentence he used:

“That package is normally $67.
From now until the end of the weekend, you can get the
whole thing for just $27. Same guarantee as with most of my
“thinking” projects: If you try it out and you don’t think it’s
worth at least 100 times that, you get your money back.

Simple.

And so is what you’ll learn in the book. But it’s powerful
stuff.

Grab a copy and see for yourself.

If you want the details, you can get them here:

Link #1

If you just want to grab a copy right now, here’s the direct
link for it:

Link #2

Yeah. It might seem a little “sideways” of what I usually talk
about. Don’t let that fool you. It’s some of the best stuff
I’ve ever done, and it applies to everything.

Read. Enjoy. Get more of whatever you want.

Paul”

What’s significant about this email? Notice how Paul says, “If you want the details, you can get there”, or “If you just want to grab a copy right now, here’s the direct link”.

Paul Myer’s TalkBiz News is very high quality, educational newsletter and it’s not one of those lists that only consist of product junkies. And for some people on his list, all Paul has to say is, “Hey, read this”. Then he’ll make a sale based on the credibility he earned through his newsletters. In fact, they’re reading the sales page (Link #1) ONLY IF they want the get the detail.

That’s powerful.

Some people on his list don’t need to be “sold” on the book by persuasive copywriting, but only through crediblity, Paul Myer is able to make sales.

Even though it’ll take time, this is definitely something that all Internet Marketers can develop. It’s Paul’s “positioning” in the marketplace that enables him and other marketers alike to do this — there are no need for convincing, showing off, manipulating… but through value and trust Paul earned over the course of his career he can just push SEND and watch sales pouring in.

You see, I already said I don’t know how to write persuasive copy. So for me to make significant impact in this competitive world of Internet Marketing is through developing trust and credibility.

This will take time, but I know I can do it. The difference between Paul Myers and I are he is the Blackbelt expert, whereas I am the Whitebelt student (OK, maybe Yellow). Paul has done his moves over and over until he mastered his way. If I train hard and work my way up, I know I can develop skills like Paul.

by shortfatkid

You might be hearing about Mass Control Giveaway by Frank Kern this week.

If you know Frank, he is the master of “Reverse” squeeze process, first showcasing very informative and useful content video before his visitors opt-in for more.

It’s an interesting approach to list building because it goes against the usual “opt-in first then see inside” method. But if used effectively, it gets people to start talking about the promotion and it’ll become easy to go viral.

This means Frank has multiple “sub lists” that he uses to promote upcoming events. Instead of mailing only to his main list, he lets subscribers to further opt-in for something more specific such as this Giveaway event, effectively customizing his message content among the sub lists.

How often do we as Internet Marketers become tempted pitching SEO information to PLR marketers, Article Marketing knowledge to PPC lovers?

If a list is “super customized”, it should become more responsive, yet may build slowly. But if a list is too broad, it may not be focused enough that your newsletter content stands for nothing, creating more reasons for unsubscribing from your list.

If your strengths span across a few areas of Internet Marketing, you can create group of sub lists to promote your customized messages.

For example, I have a large list of Network Marketers and I don’t mix and match my newsletter from Internet Marketing content because I don’t want to confuse each other by sending the same message to two different groups of people. Plus if I keep on sending message irrelevant to what they initially opt-in, it’s unfair for my subscribers.

One way to avoid this brand erosion is customizing messages for each sub list so that only “the select” will read your relevant news. This way, you become a Master of _____ instead of Jack of all Internet Marketing trades.

Nice work done.

I’m currently being interviewed for a weekend gig position, representing Adobe products at retail stores in Las Vegas.  I need to brush up on these presentation skills.  But I’ve always been a Front Page user and this will be a nice change.