I have met a number of people who are new to making money online since I’ve been in this business.

Most of the people who are new to internet marketing world are good at tons of skills such as being smart, doing extensive research, following trend setters, learning new things daily, etc. But, most of them have one thing in common: Being afraid of taking action.

Being afraid of taking action is like cancer. If you can diagnose the problem, understand the reasons for it, and start treating it, you might be successful. But if you spend months, even years with being afraid, it might be too late to take action on.

Why am I Afraid to Take Action?

Ask this question to yourself, be honest, and come up with your reason(s).

Do you spend countless of hours reading about a topic (e.g. google adwords), feel like you know everything about the topic, but don’t know how to launch your first campaign?

Do you lack of knowhow due to insufficient research & study?

Are you scared to take action because you don’t have the luxury of spending any money online?

Take a piece of paper, and write down: “Reason(s) Stopping me to Take Action:”

Ask every possible question you can think of to find out the reason(s) of being scared to take action, and write it/them down on the paper.

Solve the Problem

In the first step, if you were honest to yourself, you should have a piece of paper with the reason(s) that stop you from taking action with a title of “Reason(s) Stopping me to Take Action:“, correct?

Now, cross out the word Reason(s) and write down Excuse(s) instead.

There is absolutely NO reason to stop you from at least trying. All the reasons you’ve come up are your own excuses.

Take Action Today

Whatever the excuse you have, there’s a solution out there. Most of the solutions are in your mind. You should start with changing your mindset, and get ready to make money online.

Don’t ever be scared of failing in internet marketing, but always remember to take bearable risks for your situation, such as not risking your retirement fund.

Your success in internet marketing depends on your actions, so don’t wait another day, and take action today!

Also, check out this post I’ve written about 5 Reasons You Fail To Make Money Online to get you started with some ideas.

You’ve probably heard the term; “Think outside the box!” many times in your life. You’ll probably ignore it next time you hear it, again. Maybe it will remind you a brand, or a cliche quote.

For a few minutes, forget about “Think outside the box” cliche, and let’s talk about some history.

The history of humanity is the witness to great inventors, warriors, empires, kings, scientists, and smartest people who have done something remarkable during their life time. These people left a remark to the humanity, not just lived an average life.

Yes, some of them are geniuses, and some just were luckier than their peers.

But, have you ever thought about the common characteristics of the greatest people in the world history?

Is it being the smartest? or being workaholics? or being great leaders?

The answer is; none of the above.

The correct answer is;

All the greatest people in human history were lateral thinkers.

Lateral Thinking is the Key Ingredient of Creativity

When I was at high school, I had an AP Calculus teacher who wasn’t very popular along the students. Instead of showing us how to solve a tough calculus problem, her main focus was to show as many possible different ways to solve the same problem.

At the calculus exams, whoever solved the problem with the most common way used along the others would fail even if the answer was correct, and you would only get a high score if you had the most unique way of solving the problem.

We were too young and inexperienced to understand the value of this approach, but did our best to come up with alternative methods to solve the exact same problem.

Can You Become a Great Lateral Thinker?

Lateral thinking is not like leadership. You don’t need to have the skills in your genes. You can keep practicing, and improve your lateral thinking skills.

The easiest way to start is with brainstorming. Try to come up with alternative ideas to the regular, daily and usual things you observe in your personal and business life.

You don’t need to start implementing these right away, but when you start to train your brain’s right side for alternative approaches in daily life, it will be easier to adopt lateral thinking culture in the long run.

How to Implement Lateral Thinking to Your Daily Life?

Most of your business & personal life relies on Problem Solving. Your goal should be to try to look at the daily problems from a different perspective. Just like my high school calculus teacher, try very hard to come up with alternative ways to solve the daily problems.

Since I’m in marketing, my lateral thinking examples are usually about marketing topics. Here are just a few ideas to get you started. Real life examples are always better than textbooks. So, here we go;

• How we’ve sold 13 times more coffee within 2 months

A few years ago when we were trying to sell more Turkish Coffee, we’ve faced a bottleneck in the marketing plan. There were only a limited number of people in the US who even heard about Turkish Coffee. The niche market was limited, and already dominated by us (and another competitor).

With a simple lateral thinking session, I’ve come up with a new marketing plan to target only “Espresso Drinkers”. Espresso market was much much larger than our market, and we were so sure that if an espresso lover tried Turkish Coffee, they’d love it and become a returning customer.

After running our marketing campaign for over 2 months, our Turkish Coffee sales have increased over 1200%. Yes, you’ve heard it right. We’ve sold 13 times more Turkish Coffee than we used to sell before wearing our lateral thinking cap.

This is just a simple lateral thinking example while you are approaching niche markets.

• Debt Consolidation Services Marketing Success

When I was new to affiliate marketing, one of the niches I’ve researched was “debt consolidation services”. There was so much competition in the niche, it was close to impossible to turn a profit with PPC traffic (for a beginner).

But, I knew so much about debt. While I was a student, I was in both credit card and school loan debt. I knew how to help people in debt with my real life experience.

Instead of trying to sell a debt consolidation service site, I’ve created a simple blog sharing my story. I’ve posted step by step how I’ve gotten out of debt with recommendations to services/products I’ve used. Such as books to change my financial mindset, a few digital products to get my finances organized, etc.

People loved my blog, and my organic traffic kept increasing every single day. With some simple lateral thinking, instead of diving into an uber competitive niche, I’ve come up with an alternative solution which mad me money while helped people to really get out of debt.

• Craigslist Marketing Example

I’ve written a pretty long post about my craigslist marketing example, so I won’t be rewriting about it here.

Feel free to read it to get another example of successful marketing idea due to lateral thinking.

Above are just 3 simple real life examples of lateral thinking from my personal experiences. I hope they will get you started with your own brainstorming.

Keep Following the Trends or Start Setting the Trends

Whether you have a local business, a 9 to 5 job, or simply trying to make money online, today is the day to make a decision:

Will you settle with the word; average in your business and personal life, keep following trends set by others, or will you start working on lateral thinking to make a change and start setting trends in whatever you do?

Further Reading Recommendations about Lateral Thinking

I’d love to hear your real life successful lateral thinking marketing examples. Please share at the comments section below. If you got stuck and need lateral thinking ideas, why don’t you also share them, and we can start some brainstorming and try to help.

Photo Credit: Holger Eileby

I am an entrepreneur, and I have many entrepreneur friends.

In general, one of the common characteristics of entrepreneurs is not being a team player.

We like to do things our own way instead of relying on other people. This is great to some extent.

But trying to be a “one man show” can be a bottleneck in our business life when building a team, or asking for help.

How I Saved $100 in 30 seconds by Simply Asking

I was on Dell’s website shopping for 2 sets of new computers for the new office.

When I’m buying a computer, I am a kid in a candy store. I want to get everything.

After configuring both systems, I was confused about an option on one of the monitors, and I have decided to do a chat with a Dell rep.

I know from experience, and I wasn’t expecting to get a clear answer from Dell’s customer service, but I was surprised.

The customer rep on the chat was very helpful, and answered my question quickly. He’s also recommended a few cool stuff on sale.

Since, I was already over my planned budget for these 2 computers, I told the rep; “I’m already over the budget, but I don’t mind adding your recommendation if you can offer me an extra discount”.

I was expecting an answer like; “you can search for coupons online, or unfortunately we cannot do that, etc.” btw, I’ve already searched for coupons, and best possible deals online. So, I was getting a good deal.

Anyways, the rep said; “Sure, let me take a look at it”.

Within 10 seconds, he’s sent me a link, and when I’ve clicked the link, I have received an additional $100 in my shopping cart. I didn’t have to reconfigure anything (you know it takes time), or play with the shopping cart, etc.

$100 is better than $0. When you adopt this mindset, you can negotiate more in business deals. And, that’s what I’m doing.

At the end, I was a happy customer of Dell, who happened to save extra $100 by simply asking for it.

Dell also won from this transaction. Because I’ve decided to add a Quickbooks Pro 2010 to the transaction, which I was planning to purchase at Amazon. And I’ve left as a happier customer.

Internet Marketers Hesitate to Ask

I have met and know many brilliant internet marketers around the world. One of the main problems with internet marketers is; they are usually a “one man show”, and they are not great with communication.

If you work out of your house, and like to do things your own way, don’t worry, you can still ask for things and it really doesn’t hurt.

If you are in affiliate marketing, are you asking anything else other than a payout increase to your affiliate manager?

Here are just a few ideas you can ask to your affiliate manager;

• Custom creatives for a specific offer
• Custom landing pages specifically for you
• Keyword lists
• White label deals
• Specific toll free number only for your LP (if the offer has a toll free # on it).
• Customer demographics data
• 200 creatives (110x80pixels) to test on Facebook Ads
• And the list goes on….

Your affiliate managers are always ready to help.

They might be nice to you when you keep asking “How Can I Make Money? Could you help me?”, you won’t only be labeled as a newbie, but you will also be made fun of. And asking questions like “how can I make money with affiliate marketing” really won’t help. Or hearing which offer converts the most at the network won’t make you a millionaire.

Instead, prepare smart questions, and ask for help without hesitation.

Remember, whether it’s an affiliate company, or a direct offer you are promoting, they are the ones who need to help you.

At the end, you are sending them more customers, and helping them to make more money every single day.

It doesn’t hurt to ask, prepare your list, and pick up the phone to call your affiliate manager today, and ask for help.

I have a good friend whom I met when I rented my first office in NYC over 4 years ago. His name is Boris.

It was during September 2005, and I was renting my first office to launch my ecommerce business. Boris had an office in the same floor, and he was also launching his local service business at that time.

Both being entrepreneurs, and owners of 2 startups in the same building, we have become friends right away.

Boris was a very smart guy with great potential. He was probably the best sales person I have ever seen in my life.

One day, while we were having lunch in Dumbo, New York, near our offices, he’s overheard a conversation between two gentlemen who were also having lunch at the next table, and Boris found a way to join the conversation without interrupting them.

Within 30 minutes, he has sold a big ticket contract to these people. It is hard to explain, but when Boris started talking, you didn’t have a chance to say no to what he sold. He looked and talked trustworthy, friendly, and he was pretty persuasive.

He was so good at sales, he could pretty much sell anything. That’s the main reason his business started growing pretty fast.

Boris had another skill; networking. He pretty much knew every key contact in New York City. Whenever I needed a contact, it was enough to ask him. He could find the best electrician, customs broker, accountant in the city. He had a great network of business people.

While I was becoming close friends with Boris, I had realized something. He had a huge bottleneck in his business mindset which was going to keep him from becoming one of the most successful businessman in the future.

He was too perfectionist, and he wanted to do everything by himself. Even though he had usually one employee helping him, he was the guy trying to do everything by himself, and also burning out himself with all the unnecessary details.

Boris kept growing his business, and launched an import export company. Don’t get me wrong, he is still very successful compared to many entrepreneurs I’ve met. But he is wasting his huge potential by still trying to do everything by himself. And as a friend, I still tell Boris, he needs to start trusting people and create a team.

Left Brain vs Right Brain Mindset Approach

I won’t get into the details of how important it is to create a team and bore you with my tips. Instead, I will show you how I approach this in my own business.

It is all about the specific tasks. Is it a task that require to use your left brain or right brain? If you can answer this question, it is easy to come up with a plan.

Most business owners ask this question to themselves:

Should I hire somebody for this task, or Should I do it myself?

1. Create a business process flow chart

You can google some examples if you are not familiar with drawing a business process flow chart. Then use a free service like flowchart.com or even photoshop to create the business process flow chart.

2. Mark each step in the flow chart as L or R

For each step, I add a letter L or R. L means left brain, R means right brain.

Let’s say I’m building a network of product review sites. Choosing a niche would be the first main step. I’d mark this step as R. Because choosing a niche is the most important part of this project, and it needs experience and knowhow. It’s not something I can teach somebody in a few minutes. But uploading a wordpress would be L. Because I can create a short screencast video and teach one of employees how to upload and setup wordpress.

You see where I’m going from here right?

If you clearly identify the business process steps as L and R, your job becomes much easier to find the right people and manage the project.

3. Time to find people

Since I have clearly identified the steps with L and R. It’s time to find the right people who will be doing the left brain tasks (teachable, kind of easy, more data entry type).

This is the step which shows if you are a good businessman or not. You have options; hiring full time, part-time, outsourcing, crowdsourcing, or even finding a JV partner.

4. Proper Training & Management

When you found the right people for the tasks, it is time to train these people and manage them.

5. Working less hours for more success

Now, I have a team of people (full time, outsourced, part time, etc.) well trained, and working on the tasks simultaneously, like the workers in a factory assembly line. As the business owner, I can focus on managing the team, motivating them, planning for scaling, and enjoy working less hours for more success.

This is so important in business, I will also write some case studies about creating a team soon.

6. Taking it to the next level

Find team members for the right brain tasks. Yes, you need experienced people, and they cost more. But finding the people for the right brain tasks will take your business to the next level.

While you are coming up with the ideas, your right brain people will help you with decision making and managing your team. This is the only way to grow fast without losing control.

Whether you run a small local business, an internet marketing company or an affiliate marketing business, if you try to do everything yourself, you won’t achieve the ultimate success you deserve with your potential.

It is time to adopt this mindset, create your team, and turn the 4 hour workweek myth into a reality.

When Timothy Ferriss wrote The 4-Hour Workweek, it wasn’t a big surprise to me that the book had become the #1 New York Times Bestseller, #1 Wall Street Journal Bestseller, and #1 BusinessWeek Bestseller.

In my opinion, the huge success behind this book was the title. Title promised a result most readers were looking for and it was the smart marketing move by Timothy Ferriss.

Every single day, hundreds of new internet marketing courses, ebooks, and trainings are becoming available to people who want to start living the dream life of an internet marketer. They all sell on the promise of the 4-hour workweek.

Whether you want to learn affiliate marketing, achieve passive income by SEO, or excel in any type of internet marketing, get ready to hear the hurtful truth;

The 4 Hour Workweek Promise is a Huge Lie

Most people think internet marketing is the dream job where we work whenever we want, wherever we want. Unfortunately, this is not the case.

I agree, making money online has some invaluable advantages over a regular 9 to 5 job. It is very flexible compared to a regular job and it is rewarding as hell when you succeed.

But, being successful in internet marketing needs a certain type of mindset, and it’s definitely not the 4 hour workweek mindset when you are just starting.

Are You Ready for the 80 Hour Workweek?

Probably, you have recognized the picture of a very happy guy on the hammock by the beach. This is a classic picture used on many make money online websites.

Let’s start with erasing this picture in your mind, and using a more realistic one:

Instead of having fun on a tropical island beach, this is where you will be spending your days and nights for a long time. So, get ready to a 80 hour workweek.

I have met so many people who were so eager to start making money online, but failed working enough to achieve their dreams. You know yourself better than anybody around you, if you are lazy and you are not ready to make some serious changes in your lifestyle, online marketing is not for you.

Especially if you are new to the game, you have to forget about the 4 hour workweek, and get ready to the idea that you will work more than anybody around you.

But, when you start understanding the internet marketing, getting more experienced by the day, it doesn’t hurt to start adapting the 4 Hour Workweek Mindset.

How to Achieve the True 4 Hour Workweek Mindset

1. Adopt the Correct Business Mindset

Whether it’s internet marketing or any business you are getting into, you have to have the correct mindset to be able to succeed. Don’t let excuses to be the barrier to your success. Keep your focus on creating a business, and dream about your long term goals, but always setup short term goals.

2. Focus on Increasing Your Productivity

Sometimes the bottlenecks to keep you from achieving ultimate productivity are easily fixable. Find the bottlenecks, and constraints that keep you from being productive and fix them no matter what. Here’s an example of how I have increased my productivity by fixing 2 bottlenecks in my workflow.

3. Always Use the Pareto Principle

The Pareto Principle (80-20 Rule) is the key to working less for the same amount of tangible & intangible success. Never waste your time on small, unnecessary details and never miss the big picture.

4. Create a Team & Learn to Trust Them

Many people who make money online are smart and perfectionist. Creating team is not that hard. Whether you outsource or hire full time employees, you can find the right people to work for you. But, trusting your team, giving them some serious responsibilities, and rewarding them for the achievements is the hardest part for an entrepreneur. If your team of employees feel that you trust them, they will take more responsibilities, and help you achieve your goals faster.

5. Automation is the Key to Passive & Long Term Income

When you start excelling the ins and outs of internet marketing, your goal should be focusing on creating automation. For every new project opportunity, find ways to automate the business processes to achieve the long term success. Find and use the right tools and software to implement automation in your business, such as the best project management software. When you start analyzing the possible projects from the automation perspective, you will get close to reaching the 4-Hour Workweek mindset.

Today is the day to make a decision. Whether keep dreaming about the 4-hour workweek on a tropical island beach, or keep it real and start working the 80 hour workweek, and learn how to adopt the 4 hour workweek mindset to take your internet business to the next level.

au·thor·i·ty noun: the power to influence or command thought, opinion, or behavior.

Authority is powerful stuff.

Authority can be abused and it can definitely corrupt…

But it can also build trust, admiration, and respect.

And when it comes to online marketing…

Authority is what works.

This is written on the first page of a free eBook called Authority Rules. It’s written by Copyblogger founder Brian Clark. It is a short and right to the point report, and you should definitely check it out (pdf link).

True Power of Authority

Can you pre-sell 3000 copies of a, yet not printed, book and generate over $100.000 within 48 hours?

No, you cannot, unless you are the authority in your niche.

This is exactly what Seth Godin did on December 2nd. He’s sold 3000 books which will be published in 2010, and generated over $100.000 revenue (going to charity in this case) within 48 hours.

Seth Godin is an authority in marketing. When he writes, when he talks, when he teaches, people listen to him, and people follow what he says.

How Can You Be the Authority in Your Niche?

1. Be Different

What makes you different from the others in your niche? If you can’t be different and unique, you won’t succeed. You are different when you start setting trends instead of following them.

2. Don’t be the Salesman

There are enough salesmen in every niche already. Don’t try to sell anything. If you want to create the trust relationship with your audience, you don’t have a luxury of offering sales pitches. Your audience is smarter than you think. People love to buy stuff, but they hate to feel sold!

3. Inspire & Lead

Your followers need inspiration, everybody needs inspiration. As the authority figure, you have to inspire your followers constantly. You have to be a great leader at the same time.

When you are the authority in your niche, people will follow what you do, buy what you recommend, and take what you offer. This is a power you can’t buy with money, and you have to use it fairly.

Whether it’s a website, an affiliate marketing project, a community platform or your personal brand, spend the time to put some hard work in becoming the authority to dominate your niche.

Nobody is perfect, and everybody does mistakes in life.

The key is to learn from your mistakes and not to repeat them.

When I see people fail in affiliate marketing, I try to understand the reasons behind that failure.

I have created a Top 10 List for the most common reasons to failure in affiliate marketing by observing other people’s mistakes, and learning from my personal experiences.

Whether you are new to affiliate marketing or have been in the industry for a while, in this list, you fill find some mistakes you’ve done along the way or you’ve still been doing.

How to Fail in Affiliate Marketing – 10 Surefire Tips

1. Buy every single affiliate ebook, tool, training program you can afford

and never spend the time to read, study and implement the techniques and tips.

2. Spend Most of Your Time on Affiliate Forums & Blogs

instead of implementing and testing what you have learned.

3. Get Burned Out with Information Overload

Create campaigns on every niche you can think of without proper research & planning. Sign up with every single affiliate network, and try to be best on everything (SEO, PPC, Facebook, PPV, etc.)

4. Focus On Micro Details

while missing the big picture.

5. Convince Yourself that There’s a Magic Key to Affiliate Success

and blame everything and everybody else other than yourself. Bitch about your affiliate manager, bitch about how the offers suck, and keep bitching…

6. Don’t Spend Proper Time & Resources to Test a Campaign

Instead, keep testing tens of new campaigns, and keep jumping from one campaign to another.

7. Be Lazy to Test the New Trends

and wake up to see that you are 2 years late in the game.

8. Be a Copycat

and rely 100% on commonly known and used marketing techniques found and used by other affiliates. Be scared to test new stuff and never push your limits.

9. Don’t Network & Keep it to Yourself

Wear your mysterious, smart, nerd millionaire affiliate mask at industry events. Be shy and don’t even say hi to people. Wait for them come to you first. Be even scared to call your affiliate manager and ask for ideas.

10. Do Not Treat Affiliate Marketing as a Real Business

and simply rely on your day to day success and cash flow.

Do you recognize any of these? Feel free to share the mistakes you’ve done in affiliate marketing and what you did to fix them.

I keep saying it over and over again, just like many other bloggers who write about Internet Marketing. So, here it is again:

I don’t offer fish to all of my guests, but I will be glad to teach/show you “how to catch fish”.

But when I start thinking about people who are new to internet marketing or specifically affiliate marketing, I understand how frustrating it can get sometimes. You read all of these affiliate blogs and forums, you get pumped up with some great ideas, but never have the necessary skills and knowhow to implement that idea.

I wasn’t born as an internet marketer with full of skills, knowhow and resources, so I exactly know how you feel.

Don’t worry, I believe in KARMA. I have personally made so much money by simply taking a basic idea or case study and expanding it to a whole new level by creativity and hard work. And I’m sure, some of you will create successful businesses out of the ideas and case studies I share here.

And, I have thousands of ideas. I have more ideas that I can literally implement in my life time It won’t bother me or my business a bit if I share a few of these ideas and case studies with you once in a while.

Ok, I know you are excited, so let’s get started with the Craigslist Marketing Case Study.

I have made over $5000 Net Profit within 48 hours on Craigslist

Let me start with making this very clear. I won’t share any case studies unless I or somebody I trust did it. Also, don’t be a kid and ask for screenshots of payments and/or picture of my face with a check.

The whole purpose of sharing case studies with you is to share the marketing mindset.

Profitable ideas and offers come and go. Don’t depend on a single case study to quit your day job. Try to “get” the mindset I have behind these case studies.

Kapish? Ok, let’s move on to the case study…

How I Made $5000 Net Profit within 48 Hours with an Email Submit Offer

This is not going to be a short read. Because I want to share every single detail about this successful campaign from how the idea was born to turning it into real cash.

You will truly understand the mindset I had with this successful campaign if you focus on the details. Only if you “GET” the correct marketing mindset, you will be able to find your own winning campaigns easily.

Part 1: How Did I Find the Right Offer to Promote?

It was during 2005, and one of my friends gave me a call to ask my ideas about finding volunteers for her Ph.D. project. Since I have been a volunteer for AFS since 1996, and was involved with volunteer recruiting process, she thought I’d have ideas about finding volunteers.

She needed volunteers who were over 21 years old and who smoke at least 10 cigarettes a day (half a pack). She was an NYU Ph.D. candidate and the program was willing to pay $25.00/hour to volunteers. The whole process would take 2 to 3 hours (which means couple of cartoons of free smokes), and it was going to be a question/answer session only.

What gets better than this to somebody who already smokes to spend a few hours with a girl answering some general questions, right? I thought it’d be easy to find volunteers.

At that time, I was so busy with my ecommerce business packing and shipping products all over the world. I was staying at the office sometimes till midnight with my employees to finish the packing. But I was also testing several opportunities on Craigslist and many other sites ~definition: serial entrepreneur and/or ADD~

It was one of those busy days when my friend called me to ask for my help. I didn’t have a chance to think about where to find these volunteers since I was so busy all day. I thought, what the heck, if I can’t think about anything else, I’ll just post it to Craigslist.

I left the office around 7pm, and decided to walk home because it was a beautiful evening. My office at that time was in DUMBO, right under the Manhattan Bridge, and I used to live in Brooklyn Heights. So, it was a 15-20 minutes, very nice walk by the river with Manhattan view.

Even though I wasn’t new in online marketing, I was a newbie in affiliate marketing and was just starting to sign up with networks and test some offers. (it was 2005, Dr. Oz was aging like hell, because he didn’t think about acai berry at that time, yet. it was the glorious days of government handing out free grants and cash anyways, back to the topic)

My wife was on call that night, so nobody was at home waiting for me and I decided to grab a cup of coffee and walk to the Brooklyn Heights Promenade to relax before going home and getting back to the computer.

I’ve stopped by the Starbucks on Montague Street, grabbed my coffee and walked slowly to the Promenade. I’ve found a nice bench with perfect Manhattan view and sat to relax.

Part 2: Pure Luck + Creative Thinking = Great Idea

The second I thought about my friend’s need for volunteers an image appeared on my mind.

It was an image of an email submit offer I’ve seen very briefly a few days ago on one of the affiliate networks I’ve signed up.

I didn’t remember the details, but I clearly remembered it was an email submit offer with some pictures of cigarette packs on the landing page. I didn’t remember what the offer was about, why you’d enter your email, etc. But I knew right away it was targeted to smokers.

Probably it was the gorgeous Manhattan View which brought my inspiration angel to the earth

Small details during our daily lives bring us an unlimited number of opportunities for both business and personal usage. We rarely use these opportunities and take advantage of them. When you are making a living from internet marketing or affiliate marketing, you have to be more careful about these small details during your daily life.

It’s like the butterfly effect. You catch that small detail and turn it into a successful campaign, or even a business, or you just let these opportunities fly away, generously.

It was one of those moments, and I had to turn this idea into profit. I wasn’t after the few bucks I’d make with an email offer, I was after executing an idea which I thought was cool.

Part 3: Execution to turn that Great Idea into a Success Story (~benjamins in this case~)

I checked the offer when I got home. It was a 2 field email submit offer. First field was a drop down, asking the brand of smokes you smoke, and the second field was to enter your email address.

The catch was the “Free $100 Visa Gift Card”. It was a chance to win a $100 Visa Gift Card.

Using only little bit of my right brain, I have created a Craigslist post and posted it to the Volunteers section (if you don’t know, yes, craigslist has a volunteers section).

There were no links in the cl post. People would simply reply to apply for the study. It was a clear and short description of the volunteer study.

This was the title of the first cl post:

Looking for Volunteers for a Paid Study @ NYU who are Smokers & over 21

I don’t remember what I wrote in the post exactly, but the title shows you the big picture.

At that time I had enough knowledge of marketing on craigslist and community flagging, and I didn’t use any promotional language in the text.

I have also setup a gmail account with an autorespond message, and wrote a short and informative email explaining the details of the study. It had a PDF attached to fill and fax to NYU (my friend emailed this to me during the day). At the end of the message, I’ve added something like:

We really appreciate that you’ve applied to volunteer for this study. We, ourselves, are volunteers and we don’t get paid to help NYU. We have included your name into a drawing for a $100 Visa Gift Card to say “Thank You”. Simply follow this link and enter your email address, so we can get back to you if you win.

P.S. This $100 Visa Gift Card is not associated with your compensation. You will get paid $25/hour on the study whether you win the gift card or not.

It’s been over 4 years, I don’t remember the exact words, but it was something like above. I didn’t pay a copy writer. I just wrote this in couple of minutes. No lies, no tricks, no rebills, simple, clear. The points:

• It is a drawing, you don’t just get a $100 Gift Card. ~ Clear in the copy.
• We, ourselves, are volunteers. ~ This is true, doing a favor to a friend.
• We’d like to say thank you ~ Why not? being honest here

I’ve posted the ad to craigslist, went back to my site to check and answer my customer questions and spent around 2 hours on the site.

While I was ready to grab the remote and check if anything was on TV, I’ve refreshed the stats on the affiliate network page unawarely right before I stood up to get to the couch. And I saw:

31 Leads, $5X.XX dollars.

The cost was $0, it was just my time (around 30 mins to set everything up).

It was probably the sweetest 50 bucks I’ve made for a while. Even though I was making passive income from my organic sites, making cash with zero $ investment, in less than couple hours was so good to be true.

Part 4: Scale to Ultimate Success

I have spent the next 48 hours with less than 5 hours of sleep to scale the hell out of this craigslist post.

I don’t even remember how many versions of the title, text, and respond email content I’ve created, and I don’t think there was any city left unposted at craigslist.

The campaigns kept generating leads for the next 7 days (CL post duration) and total profit was little over $5,000.00 at the end of the 7th day.

Should I Try This at Home

I haven’t done any serious craiglist marketing in my life. I have done many tests similar to this one, and made money on craigslist.

This test I did was in 2005. I don’t even know how the volunteers section work nowadays, because I haven’t touched craigslist for over a year now (for marketing purposes).

So, try this at home or not. It’s not the point of this case study.

If you got the point, you will find so many ideas and offers to promote on Craigslist or on any other platform.

Don’t let your right brain die, use it to set trends & achieve success in online marketing.

Last week on a regular evening at home, I was on the computer reading my favorite blogs and my wife was on her laptop browsing the net.

We were both quiet and minding our own stuff.

Then suddenly, she called my name with a very excited voice tone asking: “Hey, isn’t my car’s insurance ending this month?”

I’ve said: “Yeah, I guess so, I have to look up”

Then she got more excited and said (while turning the laptop’s screen to my workstation):

“Look at this deal, XYZ Auto Insurance Company is running a special discount for only Westchester Medical Center Employees!!!”

She was showing me a Facebook Ad running an auto insurance offer, and targeting workplaces. I was like WOW!

I wasn’t surprised because of the workplace targeting, I was surprised because of my wife’s reaction to the ad.

Even though I’ve tested some workplace targeting campaigns, I am still kinda new to Facebook Ads. After explaining the ad to my wife, I’ve put on my creative hat and started thinking.

If you haven’t used Facebook Ads before, and don’t have a clue about what I’m talking here, read Chad’s post about workplace targeting 101 first, then come back here to keep reading. Also, I’ve recently written a pretty detailed Facebook Advertising Guide at one of my other blogs, check that out (warning, it’s loooonnnnggg!).

Ok, let’s get back to the topic. The theory was simple. My wife is a Westchester Medical Center employee, and she is more internet savy than an average internet user. So, the question I’ve asked to myself was; “Why did she get so excited about this ad?”

So many creative ideas started coming in, I couldn’t even sit on my chair. I had to stand up and walk around the apartment for a few minutes to calm down.

After I’ve calmed down, I wanted to run to the computer and start testing some campaigns right away.

But I’ve decided that this wasn’t a good idea. I had to analyze this through my affiliate mindset, and understand the human psychology behind this excitement. And, I did.

This was a true AHA MOMENT for me to understand the real power of Facebook Ads Workplace Targeting.

Facebook Ads Workplace Targeting is way more powerful than I’d ever imagined, because;

Average Internet User is NOT used to Personalized Ads

Understanding your customer demographics is the key to affiliate marketing success.

I’ve started by asking this question to myself:

What type of ads average internet users see daily?

Average internet users search on Google, read their favorite newspaper online, check out the blogs daily, etc. They usually see both PPC & CPM ads from Google, Yahoo, MSN, Media Buying Companies, etc.

How targeted are these ads? They can be pretty targeted to some specific customer demographic criteria.

But, unless they visit a company’s fan blog, or a university’s fan page, they are not targeted enough to call them “Personalized Ads”.

Ok, Facebook Team has hit it right on the target by workplace targeting, and I have already started turning this into some serious $cash$.

I am sorry, we ran out of fish today, so I won’t be able to offer you fish, but since you are my guest here, I will get you started with some tips, so you can catch your own fish

Great Idea => Brainstorming & Creativity & Research & Planning => Implementation => Success

As you can see, this is a 4 phase process in general. I’ve already shared the most important part with you: the Great Idea.

I will give you some direction on the brainstorming & creativity. You will need to take it from there, do your research and planning, start testing, and scaling, and finally create a number of successful Facebook Ads Campaigns out of this blog post.

Some Ideas to Exercise with Your Left Brain

• Start with where you (your family, friends, etc.) work. Think about specific things they do or buy, related to their jobs. Basic observation task, everybody can do this!
• Which schools did you go to? Are you a member of any Alumni Association?
• Split test your current campaigns. Maybe you have a profitable “tech offer” which is already targeted, but not using workplace targeting option. What if you’ve created 1000 campaigns out of that 1 campaign targeting 1000 companies which are very much tech related? Would workplace targeting alone increase your ROI or turn a losing campaign into a winning one?
• Start with the Inc. Top List, and learn more about the big companies in the US. Ideas will start pouring in while browsing the company list.

Use Your Right Brain – Let’s Get Creative

• What are the chances of a Wall Street Journal Employee clicking your “Wall Street Journal Home Subscription Offer”? Or a Walt Disney World Employee clicking your “Mickey Mouse Toys Sale Offer Ad”? Reverse thinking (& exclusion) can be a powerful tool & asset when you are planning your affiliate campaigns.
• How powerful can it get by combining keyword targeting and workplace targeting (along with other targeting options)? Don’t jump to the next one in the list. Stop here, take a pen and a paper and write down the first things that come to your mind.
• We need to use some more of that right brain. Let’s say you work at UPS. You don’t know me, I don’t know you.

  Let’s assume that I know you like golf (keyword targeting), I know today is your birthday (birthday targeting), I know you work at UPS (workplace targeting).

  You’ve stopped by my office to drop me a package (this way we have a few seconds on interaction ~~hint: you saw my ad on facebook~~), and what if I told you that your friends from UPS has a gift for you which is paid in full, just fill this form and you can pick it up right now?

  What would you do? Would you trust me?

• What if you knew the average IQ of your potential customers and I have a list of potential customers who are in that IQ range, how valuable would this list be to you?
• Think about which offers/products could you sell to Lehman Brothers employees on the day it went bankrupt, while they were all leaving the building with boxes of personal belongings, if you were there? What if you can reach the publicly available data to corporations filing bankruptcy, corporations starting to fire employees, companies whose employees are scared to hell that they will lose their jobs the next day, what would you do with this data?

I can keep writing ideas for hours. There are literally thousands of creative ways to catch the same fish.

Take it from here, and don’t forget the 4 Phase Plan:

Great Idea => Brainstorming & Creativity & Research & Planning => Implementation => Success

Probably You Won’t Make a Penny with Facebook Ads

What?

I just gave you great ideas and why am I saying this? To discourage you? To scare you? Am I scared from the competition?

The answer is NO to all of these.

It’s statistically proven data.

9 out of 10 people who read this post and got excited will NEVER take action!

Therefore, will never make a penny with Facebook Ads.

If you are one of those 9 people, I’m sorry, there’s nothing I can do for you. Probably, it is just a huge waste of time to keep reading my blog. I sincerely wish you my best at your 9 to 5 job.

But if you are that 1 special person. Take Action Now!

And always remember to share your ideas, results and comments below to encourage me to write more.

Remember to check out the Facebook Advertising Guide I’ve written. It has more tips, ideas & cool screenshots to get you started with Facebook Ads.

One of the most popular questions I get asked all the time is;

How Do I Get Started with Affiliate Marketing?

There are so many forums, blogs, ebooks, tools, etc. about affiliate marketing. In a way it’s great, but it’s also too much information overload if you don’t know where to start.

When I was new to affiliate marketing, there were only a few discussions on DigitalPoint and on couple of other forums, and it was it. I had to learn pretty much everything by testing.

I was pretty excited when I first heard about affiliate marketing, and I was ready to jump into it. But just like other newbies, I didn’t know where to start. Affiliate marketing has grown into a multi billion dollar industry, and I’m happy & excited to see it growing every day.

10 Tips to Start with Affiliate Marketing, the Right Way

1. Start with Setting up the Right Mindset

You have to have the right mindset for success in affiliate marketing. You need to have serious self discipline to be able to succeed in this business.

If you have a habit of coming up with excuses for your own failures, you need to reshape your thinking.

Affiliate marketing is not a get rich quick business. You need to work long hours, be consistent and creative to be able to succeed in affiliate marketing.

2. Research, but Avoid Getting Burnt by Information Overload

You have thought about the mindset, and you trust that affiliate marketing is the right business model for you to get in. Congratulations.

Now, start with researching. Try to focus on one project at a time. Especially if you are new to the game, you cannot learn everything about all different marketing methods and venues (e.g. PPC, PPV, Article Marketing, etc.)

Do your general research, pick one method and start working on it until you start making money.

3. Improve Yourself by Adopting Continuous Learning

Affiliate marketing is an ongoing learning process. If everybody is talking about a hot promotion method, chances are probably somebody was making millions with that method couple of years ago.

You have to create a balance between ongoing learning & implementation. There are new things to learn every single day.

Good part is, there are so many available resources online to get you started.

4. Start Testing

Research & learning is the key. But they mean nothing if you don’t start testing. I know, everybody says the same thing; Test, test, test. Almost 9 out of 10 newbies in affiliate world are failing because they don’t test at all, or they don’t test enough.

If you want to make serious money with affiliate marketing, you need to start testing the things you learn every day.

5. Plan & Organize for Optimum Productivity

If you are not productive, it doesn’t matter if you work 48 hours straight. Sometimes, very productive 4 hours of work is worth a week’s work.

So, plan and organize everything to increase your productivity. Most affiliates work from home, and it’s not easy to be organized while working at home.

If renting an office will double your productivity, do that investment for your business. Whether it’s the tools you use, your work environment, work hours, or your computer, simply plan and organize everything for optimum productivity.

6. Treat Affiliate Marketing as a Business & Setup Goals

If you don’t treat affiliate marketing as a long term business, it simply won’t be long term.

Use a project management tool, do short business plans for each promotion method your are getting into, increase efficiency while cutting cost, and treat treat affiliate marketing as a real business by doing all the necessary things a real business owner would do.

7. Create and Expand Your Team

Learning curve is the hardest part in affiliate marketing. When you have passed the initial phase, it is time to create a team.

Whether it’s 100% outsourcing or not, plan and create a team of employees helping you to take your affiliate business to the next level.

8. Start Networking

Networking is important for any business including affiliate business.

Pick up the phone, attend local meetups and industry events. Keep in touch with the people you’ve met at these events.

Don’t be shy and don’t be scared to share what you know. There’s no secret in affiliate world. Believe in KARMA. Trust me, when you share more, people will start sharing more with you.

9. Don’t Trust in Everything You Hear About Affiliate Marketing

You will hear so many things about different promotion methods to new tricks in the affiliate world.

Don’t trust in everything right away until you test yourself. Chad has a great blog post about Misinformation in Affiliate Marketing. Check it out and you will understand what I mean with this.

10. Reinvest into Your Business

If you take the right steps to plan and launch your affiliate business, it is not hard to create a cash positive business fast.

While the cash is coming in, reinvest into your business to create a strong foundation. Create organic websites, invest in SEO to distribute your risk, and generate passive income. Get your employees and yourself the professional training and consultancy. Investing in your employees is investing in your business.

Invest into the right tools, resources and right people to take your affiliate business to the next level.

These are my 10 tips to get you started with affiliate marketing.

Whether you are a beginner or you have been in affiliate marketing for a while, I’d love to hear your tips also.

What are your tips to newbies in affiliate marketing?