For the past few years as I have developed my information marketing business I have concentrated on learning, and becoming proficient at, the basics: list building, driving traffic and building a relationship with my list. I didn’t do much work in the area of affiliate marketing because most of the products I was interested in promoting were things that I could do myself and I didn’t feel as if I wanted to ‘give up’ my subscribers for $$ and have them sign up to sign up for another marketer’s list.

I know, a bit selfish on my part.

My theory, or idea, was that I thought I was pretty decent at building a relationship with the people on my list and I’ve been making ‘ok’ income and I didn’t want them to get onto someone else’s list that didn’t know or understand that fundamental, and then turn around and leave my list because I steered them to someone who just sold and sold and sold (I’m on some of those lists, so I know).

The whole idea of choosing a very specific niche outside of the ‘make money’ niche wasn’t very appealing to me because I really wasn’t sure that I would be able to find something that I could become passionate enough about and promote it.

I mean, yea, there are other ‘info marketers’ out there that will promote just about any product that they get an email about that has some dollar signs attached to it just so they can make a buck. They typically haven’t purchased the product or used it to know how it works, they just grab an affiliate link and a canned email (and maybe a 125×125 image to throw on their site) and send out to their list over and over again.

This whole bit about becoming empassioned about what you are promoting was just a bit superficial to me.

Was there REALLY something out there that I could dive into and promote the bejeebers out of and actually KNOW what I was talking about?

I know listbuilding. I know relationship building; most of my autoresponder sequences have at least 8-10 messages in them and there is automation built into them so that once the message series is done, they start receiving ‘regular’ messages. I know how to create a product relatively quickly, whether it be a report, ebook, mp3 recording or a webinar.

I was seriously thinking that there wasn’t anything that I could really sink my teeth into outside of the previously mentioned ‘make money’ niche… I don’t know dog training, I don’t know real estate… I know bowling but haven’t bowled competitively in over 12 years and a lot has changed since then (YES, I have bowled two perfect games in league competition and my average was around 215 when I left the game). I still go out with friends occasionally and throw a few just to do it and I still have all of my equipment from back then. But could I monetize that niche? Maybe, but I really have no interest in trying.

All of that changed 5 1/2 weeks ago.

You see, a friend of mine tried a home fitness program last summer to tone up and lose a little weight before his son’s wedding. I worked so well for him that in the time he was ‘doing’ the program, he lost 4 inches around his waist line and over 25 lbs.

He was raving about it.

At the time, he was telling me what he was doing, how much time he was putting in doing it and all the other particulars and I just kept saying ‘great’, ‘good for you’, ‘glad it’s working’…

You see, I was already paying for a gym membership and having a tough time getting up there the required number of times for my health insurance to pay for the discount, so I didn’t think I could really justify the time commitment it took to do this program, but I was still curious.

Curious to the point that around the middle of January, as I was surfing the net one Sunday afternoon and I visited a site that my wife and I purchase a lot of products from.

This product was their special for the day.

I looked…

I became more interested.

I pondered.

It wasn’t until later that evening, probably about a half hour before the special was to expire, that I pulled the trigger.

I bought the program.

I was both excited and scared.

I knew I could return it.

I knew in the long run that if I could find the time to do it, it would help me out.

Little did I know.

I ended up purchasing two other pieces of equipment to help me out in the program.

Nothing too expensive, about $40 total, but I was set.

Nervous as hell, but I was ready to go.

Day one was February 21. I put the dvd in and started doing the workout.

I had no clue what I was getting myself into.

Well, I had a little bit. I watched a couple of the dvds on fast forward to get an idea of the workouts, but I still had no clue.

That first week was brutal…

I was soooooo sore.

The 2nd day after doing the very first workout I could hardly lift my arms to drink my coffee or eat my lunch! It was something I expected but it was somewhat unexpected. I mean, I grew up playing sports and I’ve done some limited weight lifting with my gym membership and I have experienced that soreness before but this was different. It was weird and hard to explain.

But I persisted.

As I said, the first week was brutal but I knew if I wanted the results that I wanted I had to get through it.

Today, 34 days in, I am TOTALLY ADDICTED!

What’s the program I am speaking of?

P90X

The Extreme Home Fitness Program developed by Tony Horton and Beachbody.com

You’ve probably seen the infomercials on tv.

To be honest, I hadn’t seen one of them until this past weekend.

I was shocked.

How could I have not seen one of these?!

So far I’ve lost… drum roll please…

Just over 10 pounds and almost 2 inches off of the waist. It’s gotten to the point that I have to wear a belt again around my pants!

THAT by itself is fantastic!

Now, why I am I so jazzed about writing and telling you about this?

I just found out last week that they have a ‘coaching program’.

Basically how it works is you sign up as a coach and then you can start making money promoting the products. Affiliate marketing at it’s finest!

Not only am I addicted to the workouts now but I am finally extremely excited about promoting a product that I KNOW works and produces results.

In the coming months I am going to be posting pictures of my progress and also give you more reviews of the program: What you need to get started. Some of the do’s and don’ts. What’s the best way to get through the workouts.

Things like that.

Beachbody.com has several other home workout programs that I want to try just for variety so if you’re not interested in the extreme of P90X, you can start in with a different program and work your way up. They also have some top of the line supplements, including Shakeology, which is touted as the ‘Healthiest Meal of The Day’… it really is, I can attest to that.

So go and check out my pages at Beachbody.com and then at Shakeology.com and make the decision yourself.

Are you ready to join the ranks of the believers in home fitness like myself?

Leave a comment and let me know what you think? Have you tried P90X or Insanity or any of their other workout programs?

IMPORTANT ALERT…(please respond)

Re: ACTIVATE YOUR ACCOUNT . . . <your email address>

Those are just two of the subject lines that have made it into my inbox the past few days.

Have you seen them too?

It begs the question:

Are your subject lines sending the right message?

As a marketer that uses email messages to send content and generate income it’s very possible that you may have fallen into the trap of your subject lines sending the absolute wrong message.

This is a disturbing trend that started a while ago and has progressively gotten worse.

You see, in today’s economic climate there are literally hundreds of people that are exploring ways to add some additional income to their bottom line each month. Maybe it’s just to pay a few bills or it’s to pay for a vacation or the kids college tuition. Whatever the reason is, they are searching for ways to make up for what inflation and the lack of pay raises at the day job are taking away.

And they come online to do it. Why? Because it’s the ‘thing’ to do.

They search…

and they find a ‘guru’ or someone who claims that they can teach them how to generate the extra income through some fancy-dancee, graphics hopped up sales page that claims they can make thousands each and every day.

Right.

Whatever.

Or…  they ‘discover’ (get told) that they need to be building a list and sending emails to create that income and they get sucked into someone’s promise to help them build that list by doing incessant & incestuous email swaps.

However it happens, they get on someone’s ‘list’ so that they can learn how to build their own online business a reap the benefits. The profits.

What they don’t get taught is the fact that they need to develop a relationship with the people that sign up for their own information.

Once that relationship is established through a very defined process, find out what those people need to advance their online business and create products to solve that problem. In a nutshell, that’s the ‘secret’ to building a profitable online business.

Part of what’s not understood is that in order to create that relationship they must have some basic copywriting skills which includes the ability to craft a subject line.

A subject line that, instead of deceiving the reader into opening the email with a promise it can’t deliver, creates curiosity and then gently leads the reader to click on a link to get to the information that they want.

Does that make sense?

So, here’s the question again: Are your subject lines sending the right message?

If you are you on the same lists I am you know what I mean.

Here’s a sampling of subject lines (and my commentary about the use of ‘it’) from the past couple of days that have slithered their way into my inbox:

Thanks <insert name here> – Here Is Your F’REE DOWNLOAD

duuuude, I’m already on your list and your freebie sucked. Why would I want to open up your email and get sent to ANOTHER squeeze page?

IMPORTANT ALERT…(please respond)

What??? What important alert? That you’re sending me to another ‘marketers’ list and I SHOULD be on HIGH alert? I’d like to respond to you personally, but you probably don’t monitor that email address!

{free video} If you “bought” this, I feel sorry for you…

yea, I’d feel sorry for myself if I bought that crap too, so why are YOU promoting it? OH, that’s right, you’re trying to put more subscribers on your list. How’s that working for you?

Re: ACTIVATE YOUR ACCOUNT . . . <your email address>

Activate my account??? WTH? When did I request an ‘account’ with you?

Or how about:

Re: Bank Depost #4733

Say who?? So you’re sending me a message to tell me you’re depositing money in MY account? Saweeeeet!

That one goes to a over hyped sales page with pictures of a brand new sports car, a house that even I wouldn’t want to live in (nice, but no thanks) and some jimmied up clickbank images.

INCOMING BANK DEPOSIT For <your email address>…

I’m not even going to add anything there.

Now, I must admit that these subject lines, while all real and all have come from my inbox within the past few days, are also being used by ‘marketers’ who have just come online recently (within the past year or so) and are being ‘taught’ that email swaps are a good business model and can create income for yourself.

I beg to differ. I’ve been down that road. It don’t work. It might work IF you are swapping with the right people at the right time.

But the way ‘these’ people are doing it. NO!

So… What does work?

I’ll get to that in my next post…

In the mean time

Is it just me?

Or is this irritating to you too?

Leave a comment to explain…

(p.s. there’s a bonus in it for you)

Whether you’re starting your first list, or targeting another niche and adding another list to your autoresponder, you need a plan. A Blueprint.

Click play for the rest:

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How are you going to build a list that makes you money, day in, day out, month in and month out? You need a Blueprint. A Blueprint for Lucrative List Building (p.s. the price goes up in 24 hours)