By the time I attended my third Dan Kennedy seminar, I was feeling pretty smug. After all, during the prior three years, I had bought everything Dan had for sale, learned a bunch of it and applied it. Not only that, I had doubled my take-home profits from my business three times since I had bought my first Dan Kennedy book, Ultimate Sales Letter.

But before the event even started, I was totally humbled—and that has changed everything.

It all started at my first Dan Kennedy seminar. Dan gave some of the best teaching I’d ever heard, and I still refer to it today. In addition, Dan’s seminar offered a special night owl session with Bill Glazer. Bill was successful as an info-marketer to retailers, and he was going to explain how he sold his products.

That’s when I really understood the possibilities of information marketing. Bill had applied Dan’s teaching 20 times beyond anything I’d ever conceived. Seeing the steps of his marketing funnel and the way he created his product gave me the idea to create my own information products business.

Bill gave everyone in the room the opportunity to purchase his BGS Marketing kit and receive a complete copy of his entire marketing funnel. I happily bought it so I would have samples to follow and use as a benchmark for the new info-marketing venture I had thought of while listening to his presentation.

A couple of weeks later, Bill’s materials arrived at my office. I took an entire day to pore through all of the sales letters and manuals, and then I listened to the tapes in my car. It was obvious; it was going to be easy for me to create a product just like Bill’s. I would create my product to teach associations how to apply the marketing strategies I had used to boost my clients from mediocrity to success.

I got busy with the demands of my job, and three months went by with no product, nothing. I got mad one day and resolved to set aside two hours a day, every business day to work on my info-product. I spent two hours a day from 6 to 8 a.m. for about 10 weeks to create the first manual for my product.

I was proud of what I had created, but I realized this was just one of three manuals I needed for my product. Plus, there were audio programs to record and a video to create.

An entire year passed, and I didn’t have a product to sell. But my new consulting clients were a great success, and I was feeling good about my work. That’s when I got humiliated.

On the afternoon before my third Dan Kennedy seminar, a group of us got together for a mastermind meeting to discuss our businesses and what we hoped to get out of the upcoming meeting. One of the guys was still in college, and he had made $100,000.00 from his info-marketing business within the previous four months.

As I spoke with this college kid, I learned that he had gone to the same seminar I had attended the year before. He had heard Bill Glazer speak, he had gotten inspired and he had created an info-business. Because he was attending college full time, he was limited in the number of hours he could devote to his new venture, but still he had managed to create his entire business.

I thought I was pretty smart and efficient. I thought I was a good implementer. But here was someone many years my junior who had started at the same time I did, had created a complete product and had sold it to real customers, generating more than $100,000.00. All while I had been struggling to write one of my three manuals.

But the next few minutes were so instructive that it was worth everything I had ever invested in Dan Kennedy’s information. Several members of the group asked the college student how he had done it. What was the secret?

He took Bill Glazer’s marketing funnel and kit and focused on creating a lead generation ad first. While I had been working to create manuals, he had created a single ad. After he ran that ad in a couple of magazines, people started calling him to obtain the sales letter for his product.

In response to those leads, he spent a weekend to create a sales letter. That Monday, he sent out the sales letter. By the end of the week he had orders. The next weekend he created the kit so he could fulfill the orders and cash the checks. He used the money from those sales to run new lead generation ads to restart the cycle, and he was making money.

Hearing this totally changed my outlook on business. I found a three-day block of time and reserved a hotel suite in town. I sequestered myself in the room (without Internet access) and got to work on lead generation ads. After creating the ads, I went ahead and wrote a 40-page sales letter using Bill Glazer’s as a template.

Within a month I had ads in magazines, I was generating leads, sending out sales letters and taking orders. It’s amazing how much easier it is to get a product completed when you have customers ready to buy it.

This is one of the real powers of networking. By meeting that college kid and sharing stories, I got the essential piece I’d been missing all along. I had struggled for a year while he had built a business and made money. Even though I had all the knowledge, learning from his story gave me the confidence I needed to take action and launch my new info-business.

To help you unlock the power of networking so you can mastermind, do joint ventures and find people to work together, you have the INFO-MARKETING CONNECTIONS™ NETWORKING AND MONEY-MAKING SUMMIT. This is a huge shortcut to finding people who can help you accomplish more within your info-marketing business.

Put the CONNECTIONS QUOTIENT™, the proprietary method of matching you up with the best people,to work for you.Who knows what the connections you make will do for you? The INFO-MARKETING CONNECTIONS™ NETWORKING AND MONEY-MAKING SUMMIT is a free membership benefit of the Information Marketing Association.

Best wishes,

Robert Skrob

Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act

Because of runaway practices in the health supplements and credit repair industry Congress passed new laws regulating how online marketers sell products to customers. This new law merely codifies the rules MasterCard imposed on their merchants in January. The most important aspect of these new rules is now there are stiff criminal penalties for internet marketers who violate the law.

There are a lot of details in the law, the single-most important one is disclosure. As an internet marketer you must be emphatic and clear in your marketing about any continuity programs and make it “hassle free” to opt-out future charges.

This may not be an exciting topic, but it’s important. While other people get to tell you about multimillion-dollar product launches, selling $100,000.00 coaching programs or ways to create products without work, I’m stuck talking about mundane issues such as merchant services. But you won’t receive a penny of the money from anything else you are doing unless you have a credit card merchant services account.

There has been quite a bit of fear mongering over this issue. A lot of people are selling products about it or trying to trade on concern.

Instead, I’m providing you with the simple facts you need to know to manage within this new law.

I created a special program giving you everything you need to maintain a healthy relationship with your merchant services provider. These best practices will also help you comply with the new “Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act.”

After several discussions, outlines and a lot of back and forth with Neil Alcala, president, and Jeannie Sorensen-Steil, director of sales and marketing with Practice Pay Solutions and Direct Pay, we recorded a brief audio interview that provides you with a thorough review of what you need to know navigate through these new rules.

This information is important for your business. Block out just 30 minutes to listen, and here’s what you’ll learn:

• Who will get approved to accept credit cards under the new merchant services rules and who will be stuck looking for alternatives
• What you need to be prepared to provide your merchant services provider to get considered
• New website and billing disclosures your merchant services provider will be looking for when you apply
• How to keep your merchant account if you already have a provider
• The ratios you must maintain to prevent yourself from getting “red flagged” as a possible problem merchant

Listen to this program online or download the audio file for your iPod or burn your own audio CD by visiting www.MyInfoMarketingForum.com today.

Robert Allen Makes Money—Lot Of It—With Nothing Down

Robert Allen is a famous author. His books include Nothing Down, which established him as one of the most influential financial advisors of all time. He followed up that success with other bestselling books and information products, including Multiple Streams of Income and The Road to Wealth. Today, if you’re shopping for Robert Allen books, there’s Nothing Down for the 2000s: Dynamic New Wealth Strategies in Real Estate, Multiple Streams of Internet Income: How Ordinary People Make Extraordinary Money Online, Creating Wealth: Retire in Ten Years Using Allen’s Seven Principles of Wealth and a book that Robert co-authored with Mark Victor Hansen called Cracking the Millionaire Code: Your Key to Enlightened Wealth.

Not surprising, Robert is a millionaire many times over, mainly because he has implemented the advice he gives in his books and info-products. Most people probably think it takes something special to have the kind of success Robert enjoys. It does, but Robert is happy to share his secrets, so others can share the wealth.

Actually, Robert’s path to his career was somewhat ordinary. “I graduated from Brigham Young University in 1974 with a master’s degree,” he says. “I graduated in the one-third of my class that made the top two-thirds possible. I couldn’t get a job and ‘failed’ into real estate investing, basically because that’s what I love to do.”

You can read more about Robert Allen and the way he launched an info-marketing empire my visiting the IMA Members’ Only Info-Marketing Resource Library at Robert Allen Makes Money—Lot Of It—With Nothing Down.
 

Creates the Relationships Important for Faster Business Success

April 27, from 2:00 to 5:00 pm is set aside for masterminding, sharing ideas, making deals and creating joint ventures. As a member of the IMA, we will introduce you to other member for networking and deal making using The Connections Quotient,™ proprietary networking formula. No matter the size of your business, your experience (or lack of it) or your industry; The Connections Quotient™ will connect to the best IMA members for masterminding, deal making and joint ventures.

Register Now:

INFO-MARKETING CONNECTIONS™ NETWORKING AND MONEY-MAKING SUMMIT

From Foggy to Clear and Inspired

"I went into the call feeling foggy, confused and uncertain. I left the call feeling clear, inspired and very certain on what steps I need to take to move my business forward. Not bad for a 45 minute session. You have saved me at least 2 - 3 weeks of time, and removed a lot of anxiety and frustration around feeling unproductive.

Thanks Robert. I highly recommended the investment in a coaching session with you."

- Andrew Roberts

Many members face “information overload.” All of the information and choices overwhelm them, and they don’t know how to begin. They need someone to talk them through their experiences and their interests and to give them a step-by-step plan for building their information marketing businesses. Or they have a plan but need help finding resources and vendors. The help you need is available to you as a member of the Information Marketing Association.

Robert Skrob, IMA president, is hosting 45-minute private one-on-one telephone consultations to give members an outline for growing their information marketing businesses. Robert regularly charges $1,200.00 for a two-hour consulting and coaching call. As an IMA member, your investment for your 45-Minute Private One-on-One Info-Marketing Success Consultation is only $247. 00. Call Suzanne at 850/222-6000 or email her at to schedule your call. Get help to replace your frustration with success. Contact Suzanne to book today.
 

IMA Easy Content Library

Are you looking for one last article for your newsletter? Would you like to have a guest column every month? Would you like to add a bunch of additional content to your website?

As an IMA member, you have access to the Easy Content Library. This is a resource library of articles contributed by other IMA members that you can use in your own publications.

You can insert these articles into newsletters, products or even books as content. As long as you maintain the author’s attribution at the bottom of each article, you are welcome to use them.

Check out the Easy Content Library today. It’s filled with a lot of great articles to read, and they may spark ideas for blog posts or other content.

Experts For Your Monthly Calls

Many of our members need great people to interview for their monthly "CD of the Month" or "Monthly Teleseminars" for their own subscribers. To make it easy to find great people to interview the Information Marketing Association created the IMA Expert Interview Directory.

This is a directory of other IMA members who make themselves available for interviews. The directory notifies you if they have products and in many cases gives you a link to where you can listen to a sample interview.

If you need a few guests for your monthly calls, check out the IMA Expert Interview Directory. Or, if you want to make yourself available for interviews visit the directory and click the Update my Interview Directory Information at the right of the page to create/update your listing.