Direct Response

Last week Shoemoney (Jeremy Shoemaker) and I did a webinar on direct response marketing.

For those of you who don’t already know Shoemoney, he is the #1 affiliate marketing blogger in the world and one of the top affiliates out there.    For several years he was the largest affiliate at Clickbooth, Neverblue, and Copeac.  Like most affiliate marketers, Shoemoney got wise and decided to stop making other advertisers rich.  He started creating his own offers a few months ago.  Since then, Jeremy came out with a biz opp that has hit its merchant caps since day 1.  With processing limits lifted now, Jeremy’s offer is now the most sought after offer in the biz opp vertical.

Picture of Shoemoney in 2005 after he raked in $132,994.97 from Google Adsense

Nice Hummer Shoemoney!  Nicer check!

Not bad for a month’s work on CJ!

CLICK HERE to listen to the webinar.  I got caught up in a meeting so was pretty late.  It’s funny because Shoemoney literally winged it for 30 minutes – he did good considering that I was supposed to head off the entire session, haha!

It was a great webinar.  For those of you that run offers or want to start running offers, you’ll find this webinar very resourceful.  Thanks Shoemoney!

Have you ever found yourself reinvesting every dollar of profit back into your campaign?  I have, and it’s not fun.

Some of our clients start campaigns with budgets around $30k – basically their life savings.  This money is everything to them.  After  the campaign launches, it often takes months of organic funding to turn a profit.  Unless the publisher/network grants a nice line of credit, campaign owners struggle to take things to the next level.

In situations like this I like to get media funders involved.  Media funding is a way to finance direct response campaigns through OPM (other people’s money).  There’s a number of private investment firms and individuals in the direct response space that fund media.  These groups typically have a background in investment banking and are always looking out for good offers from trusted sources.  At Direct Response, we have a rolodex of funders that preapprove offers we bring them – they know from experience that our offers convert and are profitable.

Need funding?  Here’s how you get it:

1.  Stats Are King

It’s always good to understand who you’re dealing with and where their minds at.   Media funders speak the language of numbers.  All other talk is cheap.   A media funder’s goal is to invest money in projects that are going to make them more money than they invested.  The higher the probability of success, the more money they’ll spend.  It’s that simple.

Your job is to demonstrate through numbers that your campaign is worth investing in.  Even if your personal credit sucks, media funders will often lend cash to a campaign if you can demonstrate that they’ll make a large return on investment.

2.  Referral From Trusted Partner

A stamp of approval from a truly trusted 3rd party goes a long way in this industry.  In any negotiation, it’s critically important to view things from the other person’s view.  If someone asked you to invest in their business, you’d want to know who that someone is.  If they just appeared from nowhere, i.e. Googled your name and found you, you’re going to be wary.

Now if the same person was directly introduced to you by a trusted partner, you’re much more apt to listen.  Automatically the years of trust and credibility from your partner carry over to the introduced party.  As a media funder, you know you have a hot lead and want to not only capitalize off the deal, you want to show your trusted partner that you’re still diligent.  If you slip, the leads will stop coming your way.

I have referral agreements in place with a number of media funders.  When they lend capital, I receive a percentage of the loan.  If a funder stops giving my leads money, I’ll stop sending them leads.  The word will quickly travel around that they’re not on top of their game, and soon all of their referring partners will move them down the list of funders.  The only leads they’ll get will be leads that we couldn’t get approval on from other parties – these leads are often called “garbage leads.”

Note that we only introduce advertisers that we think are worthy of funding.   Our name is on the line, so you’ve got to convince us that you’re on top of you’re game, which brings us to:

3.  Make a Good First Impression

You’re asking someone to lend you money – to give you their hard earned cash out of trust.  Media funders have money, lots of money.  They didn’t obtain their money and keep it because they got lucky.  No, they have it because they are calculated creatures that make good financial decisions time and again.

Your job is to demonstrate through actions that you’re worthy or receiving a loan.   Prior to reaching out to a media funder, put together a package with stats, professionally written copy on why your offer is going to make them money, and a media campaign goal.  Include the direct numbers to all of your vendors: from CRMs to merchant processors.

Have your team ready to turnaround a credit application the same day.  You’ll need your articles of incorporation, tax returns, bank statements, and Federal EIN number.   As soon as that app hits your inbox, work with an immediate sense of urgency to get it turned around in an hour.  If you do this, I can assure you that you’ll significantly increase your odds at receiving funding.

Show these guys that you’re on top of things – it will create the impression that you run a tight ship and are worthy of receiving their investment.

4.  Choose a Funder That Is Familiar With Your Vertical

Media funders are not a one-size fits all group.  These groups range from the ultra conservative to the gamblers.  Contact us and we’ll put you in touch with the right media funder for your campaign.

Media Funders Direct Response Recommends

• MediaFunding.com
• Go Big Network
• Media Funding Solutions
• Next Level Funding

Or contact us to gain access to our private rolodex of funders.

A few weeks ago I talked to my friend Trent Silver, a really sharp internet marketer.  Trent told me that he wakes up everyday, makes a cup of coffee, and reads DirectResponse.net and The Gary Halbert Letter.   I laughed and said “come on bro, you don’t really read the Direct Response everyday.  Afterall, it’s just the crazy thoughts about marketing floating around my mind every day.  Thanks for the compliment though.”

Over the next few weeks I started getting all of these random emails and Facebook friend requests.  Guys and gals in the industry reaching out to ask questions about direct response marketing or thanking me for the posts.  As many of you know, I just launched Direct Response in December ’10, literally 2 1/2 months ago.  I researched our stats on Sharenator and discovered that we have over 18,000 daily unique readers.  What!

Say Whatttt!

For those of you who don’t know, Gary Halbert was the best copywriter that ever walked the face of this planet. Gary Halbert knew how to create controversy and didn’t give a flying fuck who he upset in the process. His world renowned newsletters have been described as being bordering on the illegal. I love them!

You know someone is good when they can take nearly all of the subscribers to their newsletter and charge them a whopping $195 per year to continue receiving it.  Shit, most people have a hard enough time just getting people to subscribe to their stuff for free.

Gary Halbert passed away a few years ago.  Years before his death he stopped charging people to read his newsletters.  His thoughts were:

“Well, hell… if what I write helps people this much, it should be available to everyone… even if… they can’t afford to subscribe to my newsletter.”

Thanks Gary!   If you haven’t started reading The Gary Halbert Letter, start today.  It’s one of the best damn websites on the internet!

Over the past year I’ve talked to a few hundred newbie advertisers that have offers they want to “test out” on a CPA basis.  You know the type – car salesman pitch: the offer is “amazing,” “it converts like wildfire,” “it cures cancer,” “blablabla.”  The advertiser then goes into a harangue about how they want to go live on a CPA basis with net terms.  SCREEEEECH!!! Say What? 

From the publisher’s perspective, giving terms on a CPA basis to a new advertiser is akin to asking a crackhead to watch over your bank account. 

If you’re a new advertiser and tried this pitch, you’d be luck to receive a call back from the publisher with a “no.” 

You’ve presented a zero-sum game to the publisher/network:

-  You can receive 30 days of traffic free and take off without paying (probably enough money to go buy a new Mercedes and Rolex)
-  If your offer doesn’t convert the publisher wastes his capital in advertising it.
-  You’re not creating real value to the publisher.  The most sought after publishers are busy.  It is not logical to work with you.

If you want to gain the attention of top publishers/networks, follow this 5 step process:

1.  Have your landing page created by an industry professional with a reputation.  If you don’t know any, email us at impact@DirectResponse.net and we’ll put you in touch with them.

2.  Agree to a guaranteed EPC or CPM with the publisher/network you’re trying to work with.  Make sure you are working with a reputable company. 

3.  Prepay.

4.  Once your offer is proven to convert, continue to establish rapport with the publisher/network on a prepay basis. 

5.  After you have a relationship built, move to more favorable terms.  At that juncture the publisher/network has worked your offer into their profit model.   They rely on your offer as much as you rely on them. 

Blam!  That’s it.  You’ve made it to the inside by putting your money where your mouth is.

Remember, the top publishers/networks in the space are very selective about who they work with.  They’ll turn down 99 out of 100 deals.  If you get in the front door, you’ll enjoy top quality traffic that will make you enormously profitable.  Once the initial relationship is established, economies of scale are realized.

“Strategy requires thought, tactics require observation.” – Max Euwe

Spending money is like the game of chess, every move counts.  When you see a good move, look for a better one.

Over the past 10 years we’ve spent a lot of money in the online marketing space. It reminds me of a bell point curve:

-  In the beginning we were spending a little and losing a lot.  Trial and error, slowly gaining contacts and finding our way.
-  In the middle we were spending some and breaking even.  The rolodex was growing, though we hadn’t found the best resources.
-  In the present we’re spending a lot and making a notable return.  The top resources are at our fingertips and momentum is on our side.

After talking to a lot of other direct response marketers, I realize that our paths to success in this industry are very similar.

Even though we spend a lot of money these days, we spend it very strategically.  Before we’ll do business with a new company, they’re going to have to meet 2 of 3 criteria:

- A strong referral from another trusted partner.
- An inexpensive test of their services.
- Proof that their service is the best.

That’s our litmus test – and if they pass it’s on.

Some of the richest guys I know drive Toyotas and wear Fossils.  These same guys spend $25 million a year on IP addresses, place $400k media buys, and retain the best lawyers in the world.   Every move in their lives is calculated and everyone they do business with is carefully vetted.

Calculate every move in your life.  The most difficult thing in the world to do is confront reality, especially when it comes to family and friends.

In the 4th quarter of last year we brought on a team member that was also a good friend, James Walker.  We put James at a $55k salary plus bonuses.  The bonuses were based on performance – and we structured the deal so he could cherry pick accounts from the beginning, earning upwards of $120k after bonuses.   Within the month I realized that we had made a terrible mistake bringing James on.  His role in the company was unneeded based upon our business model.

Everyday the idea that we’d keep James on started fucking with me.  On the one hand we didn’t want to burn a bridge by leaving a friend high & dry.  On the other we didn’t want to throw money away.

After much thought and consideration, I approached James in confidence.  We sat down and discussed our business model, the direction forward, and my thoughts on his position.  We knew of 3 other companies in the industry that were hiring and believed that James would add much more value there.

Instead of reacting in anger and disbelief (which he had every right to feel), James smiled and thanked me.  He noted that he felt like he wasn’t adding much value to our team and didn’t want to mooch off of someone else’s success.  James ended up getting a job a few weeks later with one of our competitors and from what I’m hearing he’s doing really well.

If you’re throwing your money into a ditch STOP!  Confront the stone cold realities no matter how much they hurt.

Analyze your spending down to the penny.  Donald Trump signs every check before it goes out.  We all should too.

If the 3 most important words in real estate are Location, Location, and Location, then the 3 most important words in direct response are Quality, Quality, and Quality.

I know a lot of guys that can hit a hundred leads a day and create more value than publishers that hit a thousand leads a day. There’s all types of pitfalls and tricks to hitting massive numbers, but at the end of the day your backend stats will tell all.

My good friend Gary McNelley, owner of MarketHealth.com, noted that 1 hardsale is worth 10 trials. I couldn’t agree with him more.

Here’s 5 tips on how to garnish top quality leads:

1. Strategically Align Your Campaign

Discover complimentary services and strategically align your offer.  Do you have a fulfillment company?  How about an auto-dialer?  Great!  Create a strong referral agreement and align yourself with the top CRMs, website designers, traffic sources, merchant processors, and hosting companies.

Go above and beyond your competition.  Create enormous value for your referring partner.  Payout weekly, or even daily.  Make your  referral program fully transparent.  KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid).  Don’t add bullshit legalese, just make it point blank.

When leads come in, follow through.  Go above and beyond to show that you value the free leads you’re receiving – bcc your partner. Put them on 3 way and mute the call.  Let them know that you’re going all out to close the leads they’re sending.

If you do this you’re leads will start flooding in.  So long as you have the systems in place to handle the volume – bliss!

2. Strictly Control Your Traffic

I talked to a really sharp Purdue grad. gone internet marketer named Rahul last week.  Rahul noted that he was running a free trial offer on Azoogle at a $45 CPA. When he told me this I could literally feel my blood pressure rise. This poor bastard had a vacuum on his wallet and was about to learn about it after it was too late.

Rahul quickly pulled his offer and started reaching out to mini networks.

At most, you should have 5-6 publishers pushing volume to your accounts, and each publisher should hit a minimum of a few hundred to a few thousands leads a day.  If you’re paying these publishers then you have absolute right to know exactly who they are, and it’s your right to work with them direct.

For advertisers starting out, there’s no need for more than 1 publisher or subid running your offer at any given time. (period)

3. Stick to Highly Targeted Traffic Sources

Focus on top tier traffic sources.  i.e. If your running a PPC campaign, target commercial intent keywords.

4. Create A Barrier To Entry

Small, low profit clients often take just as much time if not more to manage than high end clients.

Set barriers to vet the wasteful leads.  Then create a service or referral partnership to monetize the lower end clients.  From my experience, life is better when you sell them down the river

5. Turn Away Those That Don’t Meet You’re Criteria

This tip is similar to 4, though mutually exclusive.  One of my recent projects targeted politicians, high profile individuals, professional athletes, and established corporate brands. Approximately 90% of our leads do not fit this criteria.

We have created referral partnerships with our competitors to monetize these non-qualified leads.  We simply forward the leads that do not qualify and let our competitors handle them.

Part of my new years resolution was to stop doing business with low profit / overly needy clients.  The barrier to entry I created was an hourly consulting fee of $350.  The moment a prospect gives us a modicum of belief that our cost is a problem, we cease communication.  Why?

They just qualified themselves as overly needy / low profit.  I work with a handful of top notch advertisers, some that are more capital intensive than others.  The one common trait all share is their unwavering tenacity to succeed – they put their money where their mouth is.

The results: more money, more free time, and less headaches

In direct response marketing, the quality of your leads is everything.

Two philosophies I follow:

- It takes years to establish trust and seconds to break it.
- The more value/money you add to others, the more value/money others ought to add to you.

The key is identifying trusted partners that understand these concepts.   My experience has been that when there’s no money on the table, all parties see eye to eye.  It’s only when you start to make a lot of money you discover the true value in your partnerships.

Today brought disappointment in a referring partnership I have.  This partner and I are making some really good money together – and its at an exponential growth.

It came to my attention that an account was getting credited to Direct Response – the partner gave me his word.  I then executed on my part of the deal and got the lead to close , you know, Glen Gary/Glen Ross ABC style:

Shortly after I received an email from my referring partner that he was taking the deal and I was getting cut out.

WTF!  My partner gave me his word that this was a referral attached to our account, I then performed, got the lead to close, and he switched out on me.  In situations like this I always like to give the other party the benefit of the doubt, so I reached out for clarification.

My partner referred back to our “contract.”  Sure, I know that an oral amendment does not usurp a written contract, however this was down right wrong.  I spent time working with the referral and got him to sign on the line in which was dotted – and only followed through due to my partners word that the account was mine.

Then my partner went into a harangue about how I’m too aggressive and if I’d like he’d gladly terminate our relationship – which I understood as him taking all of the money and me getting outed.  Nice!

Now I’m not going to quote my partner or reveal his name, as now I know he is a man that follows contracts to the letter of the law (when it’s convenient for him of course) – there’s an MNDA in place.

The irony is that when I probed the referral further, it came to my attention that they actually got to my partner through an advertisement we’re running.  My referring partner conveniently forgot to ask the lead how he found out about my partner.

Which begs the question: how many other leads did this partner “forget” to ask where they came from? After all, we have several top commercial intent keywords on lock organically – haha, we even rank at the top of the search engines for his name/company’s name. Surely there’s more traffic coming from our ads – I’ve yet to see one convert though.

Over the past few months I’ve literally had this partner’s competitors kicking down my doors for our business.  Out of respect for the longevity of the relationship, I politely turned them away.

Now I’m stuck here on a Friday night thinking to myself, what should I do?  This partnership has been going really well so far, but I just caught him slipping.  There’s a really good opportunity for us to make millions together – but is it worth it?  What are your thoughts?

Direct Response marketing comes in many forms, from media buys to infomercials.  The less consumers feel that someone is trying to sell them something, the higher the conversion rates.  People don’t like to be sold.

One of the craftiest direct response marketing techniques is selling through lawsuits.   Say what?  Lawsuits?

Negativity publicity travels 1,000x faster than positive publicity.  It’s just human nature to have a proclivity toward bad news.  Chaos merchants like our local news stations have utilized this tactic for years.  People love to hear about bad.

Microsoft, owner of Bing, is the master at positioning itself at the epicenter of nationally recognized lawsuits.   Just about every industry Microsoft enters they dominate.  Likewise, Microsoft seems to get “wrapped up” in a major lawsuit during the process.  Trust me, these lawsuits are not happenstance.   They’re actually inexpensive advertising.  Case in point:

“Google claims that Bing is stealing their search results and Microsoft isn’t denying the accusation.” – Shelly Palmer, Daily Report
“Google claims Bing copies its search results” – Stephen Shankland, Cnet
“Google: Sting proves Bing copied search results” – CNN Wire Staff

Whatttttttt?  No way!  I started hearing about this along with millions of others.  What was the first thing we did?  BING BADABADA BING!  Sure enough, Bing is pulling up some awesome, totally fresh results.  I compared the results to Google.  Ya know what?  Bing is actually pulling up better results for me.

Then it hit me.  This is a dream come true for Bing.  Everyone in the nation is starting to test Bing out now.

Microsoft is the master at creating eclectic versions of products – in laymens terms, stealing the best parts from the best products in an industry.  Then Microsoft puts it all together and has a superior product.

With a crack legal team in house, Microsoft writes litigation off as a cost of doing business.   Here’s how they do it:

1.  Identify the industry to enter.
2.  Identify the top players in that industry.
3.  Corporate espionage – discover exactly how they do what they do.
4.  List the best areas of the competitors business models.
5.  List the weak areas of the competitors business models.
6.  Rip the best and replace the weak.
7.  Run by legal to optimize and tie up loose ends to make it difficult for competitors to win lawsuits.
8.  Shred Shred Shred the evidence

Tada – Microsoft now has a superior product.

The moment competitors attempt to sue Microsoft, the game is over.  Microsoft has won.  Here’s how:

1.  Competitor files a lawsuit against Microsoft.
2.  Microsoft unleashes its crack legal team, compromised of the smartest legal minds in the world.
3.  Years and years of litigation ensues.
4.  During which time Microsoft improves its product.
5.  Competitor starts to run out of money.
6.  Competitor becomes distressed over lawsuit – they’re not seasoned like Microsoft is at litigation.
7.  Competitor attempts to settle lawsuit.
8.  Microsoft drags it out and beats them down.
9.  Competitor settles.
10.  Competitor is beaten down, product is now inferior, and Microsoft buys them out.

Is this going to happen to Google?

If I had to place my bets, the answer is yes, in part.

As Steve Ballmer astutely pointed out “Google is a one-trick pony.”  While Google has attempted to diversify, the overwhelming majority of their revenue still comes from the advertising on their search engine.

Bing has quickly started to chip away at that revenue, earning over 10%.  More negative publicity on how “Bing copied Google” continues to propogate as more and more people start testing Bing.

Will Bing beat Google at the search game?  What are your thoughts?

Rick Del Rio. founder of Lime Light CRM,  is one of the smartest guys I’ve met in the direct response space.

A little over a year ago I was referred to Rick through a trusted partner in the industry.  After viewing the demo of Lime Light CRM I discovered that the initial integration and monthly fee of his CRM appeared to be much higher than that of his competition.   Although his CRM looked like it was the best, the price still seemed steep.

I asked Rick if he would lower his pricing a little.  The answer was an affirmative “no.”

I thought to myself “arrogant ba$tard.  I’m taking my business elsewhere.”

Our group  jumped on board one of his competitors CRMs, we’ll call them Optimum CRM (not the real name).  The barrier to entry was non-existant.  Things looked pretty good upfront.

Shortly after launching our campaign on Optimum CRM  problems starting popping up left and right.  We discovered the functionality was minimal and there were a lot of bugs.  When I tried reaching out to their tech support, it seemed like I was emailing a brick wall.  You know the feeling.

Then a huge ACH debit came through on our account from Optimum CRM that far exceeded the cost of Lime Light.  WTF!  We called Optimum CRM and discovered that we were receiving pretty hefty transactional fees – “didn’t you read subsection 2,102,381 of their agreement.”  No we didn’t – guess we’d like to cancel.  “Cancel?”  “You can’t cancel, you’re locked into a 1 year contract.”  Say What!

Using some hardball tactics Optimum CRM let us cancel.  Fewww.  I called Rick Del Rio up, asked for another discount, got another “No,” smiled, accepted bargaining defeat, and signed up.

That was the single best move I’ve made in my career as a direct response marketer.

Rick’s CRM is incredible.  My business partner, Hersh Sandhoo, a prolific programmer and great businessman, rarely gives credit to companies like Lime Light.  Maybe it’s just a programmer thing, but he seems to find a litany of problems with most services.  Never have I ever seen Hersh fall in love with a system the way he fell in love with Lime Light.   And for very good reason.

Lime Light CRM lives by a very important philosophy: “They Don’t Try To Be The Best At Everything, They Integrate With The Best.”

Indeed, while other CRMs invest millions of dollars into trying to become the best at everything, Lime Light identifies the best dedicated services in the world and integrates with them.  i.e. instead of developing their own expensive fraud prevention software, Lime Light integrates with top notch providers like Chargeback Guardian.

At Direct Response, we follow the same philosophy.  There’s only so much time in a day.  Instead of trying to become the best affiliate marketers in the world ourselves, we’ve identified the very best media buyers/email marketers and partnered with them.  On design, we utilize 3 of the most sought after direct response designers in the world.

There are a lot of megalomaniacs running around the direct response space.   These company’s suffer from delusional fantasies of omnipotence.

Don’t fall into that trap.  Identify your strengths and hone in on them.  Then utilize the best resources around you and you will become the best at what you do.

Building a successful direct response campaign is part art, part science.  It takes tenacity, an unwavering belief in your campaign.  You cannot fear failure.  You must embrace it, learn from it, and keep marching forward.  Successful direct response campaigns remind me of the Spartans.

Inspected at birth, and discarded if found lacking, Spartan men are trained in the arts of war from the moment they can stand. At the age of seven they are sent off to join the agoge, where they learn to survive through cunning and theft (and beatings if they are caught at it). Once they come of age, they are given armor, shield, and spear, and fight in Sparta’s various wars, where they show uncommon valor and skill, thinking nothing of themselves, but only Sparta. They don’t even fear death, knowing there is no greater honor then to fall in service to Sparta. The only thing a Spartan solider fears is to be thought a coward. Thus, they will never retreat or surrender, as per Spartan Law.

One of the common traits amongst people that are just getting into direct response marketing is fear.  Fear of the unknown.  Fear of failure.  Fear!

Embrace that fear.  Use it to propel you to learn more about direct response marketing.  Reach out to other direct response marketers and gain their insight.  Utilize the angst to energize and motivate you.

Then place your against the wall, like my friend Derek V., and launch a campaign.  Become a Spartan.

“You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” – Wayne Gretzky

Success means many wonderful, positive things. Success means personal prosperity: a fine home, vacations, travel, new things, financial security, giving your children maximum advantages. Success means winning admiration, leadership, being looked up to by people in your business and social life. Success means freedom: freedom from worries, fears, frustration, and failure. Success means self-respect, continually finding more real happiness and satisfaction from life, being able to do more for those that dependon you.

Believe you can succeed and you will.

The secret to success is surrounding yourself with other successful, positive people.  We become part of what we are around.

The world is filled with Negative Nancys. Avoid them like the black plague. They exist in all of our families, social networks, and professional lives. Weed them out.  As you might expect, toxic people are the ones who always dwell on the negative.

Negative people will always drag you down to their level. They hammer away at you with all of the things you can’t do and all of the things that are impossible. They barrage you with gloomy statements about the lousy economy, the problems in their lives, the problems soon to be in your life, and the terrible prospects for the future. If you’re lucky, they might even throw in a few words about their aches and pains and recent illnesses.

After listening to toxic people, you feel listless, depressed and drained. Psychologist Jack Canfield describes them as “energy vampires” — they suck all the positive energy out of you. One thing is certain: these “vampires” will wear you down and kill your dreams.

On the other hand, how do you feel when you are around people who are positive, enthusiastic and supportive? I’ll bet that you are encouraged and inspired. You start to pick up their attitude, and you feel as if you have added strength to vigorously pursue your own goals.

If you had a choice, wouldn’t you rather hang out with nourishing people? Well, in fact, you DO have a choice. It’s up to you to determine who you spend your time with. If toxic people surround you in your daily life, you can do something about it.

To begin with, develop friendships and associations with people who are positive and supportive. In addition, seek out people who are action-oriented and service-oriented. As you spend more and more time in the company of people who have these traits, you, too, will develop the same successful characteristics and put them to use in your life.

Consider who you have been spending your time with. Examine your friendships and relationships at work and during your leisure hours. Those who occupy your time have a significant impact on your most priceless possession … your mind! It is your responsibility to regulate what you allow into your mind.

Here are some steps you can take to be more responsible in this area:

- If you regularly have lunch with toxic people at work, stop it. You should be able to find a diplomatic way of extricating yourself from this “poisonous” group.

- If you have a toxic relative (which could be your mother, father, or cousin), it is important to put some limits on your involvement with them. This does not mean that you abandon this relative and never speak to him or her. However, you should not go out of your way to call that person several times each day if he or she is going to put you down or fill the conversation with negative remarks.

* Form your own positive group with friends or colleagues. Make a commitment to meet with these people on a regular basis (e.g., once a week or once a month) to discuss goals, exchange ideas and offer support. These should be people who accept you as you are and yet challenge you to be the best that you can be.

Surround yourself with positive, nourishing people – they will lift you up the ladder of success.

Niccolo Machiavelli, the well-known philosopher of the Italian Renaissance, poses this question in The Prince: “Is it better to be loved than feared, or vice versa?”

Machiavelli answers his own question, arguing that a prince is much safer being feared than being loved. Inducing fear upon his subjects with cruelty will keep them united and loyal. Those who are fearful of a person of any authority are more inclined not to cross the boundary of disrespect, for fear of punishment.

Against popular “open” political opinion, I agree with Machiavelli.  Behind closed doors, I’d assume that most of our country’s leaders believe in Machiavellian theory as well.

Take for instance the United States of America, one of the greatest nations to live in and simultaneously the single most hated country in the world.  There are thousands of Osama Bin Ladens out there itching to take a shot at our nation.  These people hate us to the point that they’re willing to kill themselves just to inflict pain on us.

Additionally there’s an abundance of jealousy and dislike toward Americans.  A few years ago my parents traveled to France for a summer vacation.  My dad noted that several French men and women were outright rude, one even called my parents “stupid Americans.”  Haha, so I asked my dad what the deal was, did he do something stupid.  He told me that he asked the man for directions, and in return got a snare and a “stupid Americans!”   WTF.

The only thing that keeps these countries/terrorists at bay is fear.  Fear that our stellar US Army will go into their countries and kick the living shit out of them.  Look at Iraq.   Sudham fucked with America, right?  When we eventually attacked, Saddam was hit from hundreds of angles.  The attack was planned out for years and executed in minutes. Saddam never saw it coming. With a noose tied tightly around his neck, hundreds of thousands of Iraq’s slaughtered, and an overrun nation, the last look on Saddam’s face was one of shock and disbelief – then snap!

And that’s key, in business, if you believe you’re going to get involved in a litigation, never let them see you coming. My good friend Jeremy “Shoemoney” Shoemaker recently released a video on legal gotchas. It provides hundreds of thousands of dollars in value – and today it saved one of my clients around $200,000 in legal fees.  Here’s how:

We all know the cost of doing business is litigation.  The more money you make, the greater the chances are of litigation.  Why?

1.  You’re receiving money that would otherwise go to competitors in your industry.  They will feel it if you’re doing things right.
2.  Lawyers love suing people that have money.
3.  People love trying to extort people that have money. (I’ve never heard of someone trying to extort a homeless man).

Ok, here’s what happened.  A well known affiliate network recently suspended the account of an affiliate.  For the sake of brevity, we’ll call this affiliate “Shithead.”  Shithead had decided to promote 3 free trials on his blog – recommending that consumers sign up for all 3 trials.  That’s a big no-no.  Trial offers rely on rebills to survive – that’s why they pay high CPAs.

On a 3 step blog, the offer that’s running at number 3 will have trial offer 1 and 2 rebill before it.  Therefore it is very difficult for trial number 3 to rebill, and if it does, there’s a high probability for chargebacks and refunds.  Afterall, 2 trials rebilled before it, and the 3rd places the consumer in the hundreds of dollars in loss.  Not a good thing.

When the affiliate network discovered Shithead’s tactics, they suspended his account.  I think there was a total of $10,000 owed to Shithead, $7,000 of which the network paid and $3,000 of which was charged back.  The chargeback period was within the contractual time frame and the $3,000 was credited to the advertiser’s account.

Shithead didn’t like this too much.  Instead of accepting responsibility, Shithead attempted to extort money out of the network.   Through email correspondence, he threatened to create websites with the company’s trademarked term in it.  From there, in writing, he threatened to defame the brand.  Brand reputation is everything in marketing.  Companies that value their brands take these threats seriously.

A week later Shithead had created an exact match domain name with the company’s trademarked name in it.  He drafted defamatory comments and started backlinking.  Low and behold a week later he was ranked on the home page of Google for this affiliate network’s name.

My client called me up all freaked out.  “What are we going to do.  Should we pay him?”  No, just like the United States policy to never bargain with terrorists, I firmly believe that when someone has wronged you, plea bargaining is not an option.

We contacted the affiliate network’s legal counsel and advised them of the situation  – it’s always good to give your lawyers a heads up.   My goal was to give Shithead notice that we’re coming after him, and it’s going to be nasty, real nasty.

The affiliate network pulled all of Shithead’s information from his file, including bank accounts, home address, ip addresses, and email correspondence.  We created  a nice little dossier on this guy.

Next we continued the correspondence, giving him enough rope to hang himself.  I had a picture in my mind of Shithead pacing around his house, smoking cigarettes, and thinking he was really gonna get off on my client.  Ohhh yeaaa, that just made it all the sweeter for me.  I wanted him to get riled up.  I wanted him to snort a line or two and feel like he was the king of the hill.

Because we were going to bring him down, bring him down real hard…

Never Let Them See You Coming – Al Pacino, The Devils Advocate

Baam, we hit him with the Shoemoney24 hour notice of lawsuit letter – titled Trademark Email.  Attached were strings of email correspondence that corroborated our claims of trademark infringement, criminal extortion, and libel.

LMFAO Literally – Check Out Tough Guy Shithead’s Response:

Email 1:  After We Dropped The Bomb

Email 2: He’s Getting Nervous, No One is responding

Email 3: Mercy

Now my client had tried to work with Shithead in a very nice manner, even inviting him to their office for lunch.  Shithead mistook  kindness for weakness – a fatal error.   Machiavellian theory at it’s finest.

It’s better to be feared than loved?

What are your thoughts?

Partial data is information collected about people that have visited your site but didn’t purchase.  Top notch direct response marketers know that data is a goldmine.  When collected and monetized properly, seasoned direct response marketers turn partial data into millions of dollars.  Here’s how it works:

When visitors fill out the call to action form, top notch CRMs like Lime Light segregate the data into 2 classes: customers and partials. The partial visitors invested their time and energy into filling out the call to action form on your offer.  That means that they trusted your website and felt that your offer was valuable.

But they left without buying…

Novice marketers would take that as a sign of loss of interest in your offer – nothing could be further from the truth.  As we all know, things come up throughout the day.  They may have received a call, had to pick up the child from school, or got scared at the last minute and decided to think about it.

Ah ha!  Perfect opportunity to get your offer back in front of their eyeballs.  Remember, the longer you rent space in their minds, the higher the chances they’ll buy.

There’s 3  tricks we use to turn 40% or more of this data into cash:

1.  Email

Within 24 hours of filling out the call to action form, have an automatic email system in place to deliver a promotional code.  This surmounts any pricing hesitations.  For hard sale offers, send an email with a trial offer.  The lower the barrier to entry and risk, the higher the conversion rates.

Also, attach as many customer testimonials as you can find.  Continue to validate your offer.  If you don’t have testimonials attach news reports on your offer.  i.e. If you sell a tanning lotion, find positive reports on the active ingredient and add them to your email.

2.  Direct Mail

Some offers collect the address from customers upfront.  When done tactfully, this presents a great opportunity for marketers to start direct mailing.  Here’s a great article from Copyblogger on just how to succeed in direct mail campaigns.

Note: the more information you ask to collect upfront, the lower your conversion rates.  Most people do not want to commit to sharing that data upfront.  Once they do commit to part of their personal data, they are more apt to follow through on the checkout page.  Here’s a tactful way of collecting all the data upfront:

3.  Call Center

My friend Ryan Tewis hits over $50,000 a day on a hardsale biz opp he’s running.  Ryan is a master at monetizing partial data.

In his Tampa call center, withing 30 seconds of receiving a partial lead, his call center reaches out to the prospective customer.  He catches them when they’re red hot.  I’ve heard rumors that he closes over 50% of his partials  Talk about improving the bottom line!

The #1 reason why most people don’t monetize their partial data is lack of manpower.  We work with the best data monetization companies in the world.  If you’re too busy to monetize your data or feel that you’re not monetizing to your fullest potential, reach out to us and we’ll help you turn your data into a goldmine.

First and foremost, anybody that won’t guarantee their work to some extent in SEO is a fraud.  In fact, out of almost all of the online gigs out there, SEO ranks as the #1 scam on the internet.

There’s only 1 company that I’ve found that will guarantee results, and it’s called Rank Pay LLC.

I was recently turned on to Rank Pay by my good friend Zac Johnson.  I shot Zac a Facebook message asking him where I could buy some solid backlinks from.  His response was as follows:

When Zac recommends a service and personally uses it, I listen.

After doing my due diligence, I’ve gotta tell you that I am super impressed with this company, I MEAN SUPER IMPRESSED!

On Rank Pay, you only pay when you rank.  As your page starts to gain ranking, you pay for the higher spots. If you don’t rank, you don’t pay.

Rank Pay conducts a thorough analysis of each “keyword” you submit for ranking.   I submitted a litany of keywords for their review.   Around 60% of the keywords I submitted were approved based on the domain name and competition.   The other 40% were determined to not fit their criteria for ranking, therefore they passed up the opportunity.

Direct Response fully endorses their program and strongly recommends that you check them out: RankPay.com.

In direct response marketing, perceived value is more important than actual value.  The idea is to get the customer in the door.  But what happens after that?  If your product is shit, the customer will quickly come down with buyer’s remorse and you’ll suffer the consequences: chargebacks, refunds, and negative publicity.  That’s why your offer must create real value.

Take for instance my friend Rich Symington, owner of Mavia LLC.   Over the next few years you’re going to read a lot about Rich in Forbes, Fortune, and just about every other business journal.  Rich developed a formula a few years back that treats ED – and it’s non-prescription.  In a recent study, 100% of the men that tried Rich’s formula reported better results than Viagra.

When Rich first pitched his offer to me I brushed it off.  By nature I’m skeptical – I need hard facts and proof.  From my experience, any non-prescription product that produces Viagra like results is SPIKED!  Rich was adamant that his offer was the next Viagra, only bigger.

Through sheer tenacity and unwavering belief in his product, Rich convinced Direct Response to assist with his marketing efforts.

Rich retained our group a few months ago.  While I’m under an NDA and there’s a lot I cannot reveal, what I can say is that this man is onto one of the biggest things I’ve ever witnessed in my professional career.   His product, Sprung, is not spiked.  Additionally, it works better than Viagra, without the side effects.

His current site, SprungClub.com, is not cutting it.  The perceived value on the copy doesn’t portray the true value of Sprung.  Over the past few years Rich has sold less than 100 bottles.  That’s about to change.

While we’re going to offer a trial, the main page is turning into a hardsale.   For those that want to take Rich’s Pepsi Challenge, he’ll offer a 2 pill trial pack for $10.   We are going to crush it with Sprung. From my understanding of the science behind his product and the myriad of men that are devoted to using it, anyone who tries Sprung will be back for more.

And that’s key – your offer must create real value.  Otherwise, your direct response efforts are for naught.

Consider for a moment most male enhancement supplements sold on a trial basis.  The average rebill lifespan is 3-4 months.  For non-continutiy offers, the average lifespan of recurring customers is 1 month.   Why’s that?  The offer’s initial perceived value far outweighs the actual value.  Customers don’t get the results they’re looking for and subsequently move on.

Now consider the average purchase cycle for consumers who are prescribed Viagra – 9+ years.  A large number of “patients” are on it for life!  That means that each customer who tries Viagra due to the “perceived” value goes on to realize the “actual” value lives up to or surpasses their expectations.  Hence Pfizer makes billions from loyal, repeat customers.

The more real value your offer creates the more money you’ll make.  Rich Symington will not face the headaches that other direct response marketers deal with in the male enhancement vertical.

Does your offer create real value?

In creating this blog, I put a lot of thought and consideration into what domain name to choose.  Should I call it RichGorman.com, or how about Goremoney – like my buddy Shoemoney?  Eh nah, what’s the benefit?  Who cares about Rich Gorman, and moreover what’s the point.  I wanted to write about direct response marketing – the multi-billion dollar industry that myself and thousands of other marketers earn a living off of

Contrary to popular opinion, there’s still a lot of really good domain names available on GoDaddy.  It only took me 2 hours to find the premium domain name DirectResponse.net.  Total cost: $900.   I didn’t think twice about it, the exact match keyword “Direct Response” not only represented an industry that I’m passionate about, it also presented a fringe benefit: free traffic.

Every month 40,200 people worldwide go to Google and search for “direct response.”   In less then 6 weeks I captured all of these impressions.  Here’s how:

When organically ranking websites, the Google algorithms currently view domain names with the suffix “.com, .net, and .org” with equal opportunity.  Exact match domain names are the easiest domains to get ranked on Google.

Armed with the exact match domain name in hand, I utilized the following SEO tactics:

1.  Create original, compelling content.
2.  Use a catchy title that people are apt to click on.
3.  Create authentic backlinks from authoritative resources.
4.  Use a unique and compelling design.
5.  Show Google some love – advertise consistently under the PPC term you want to rank for.
6.  Keep people reading by adding controversy.
7.  Be real.  The ultimate spam blocker is a human being.  Political correctness earns bloggers an early death.  You’ve got to be willing to put it all out there.  No doubt that I’ve received a few calls from pissed off people that I threw out there – that’s to be expected.  Loved, Hated. but never ignored
8.  Register the domain name for 10 years – Google uses this criteria in ranking sites. In the case of DirectResponse.net, it was a dated domain name, which helps to a small extent as well.
9.  Follow Copyblogger SEO copywriting tips.

In less than 6 weeks,  DirectResponse.net went from a Google page ranking of 9 to a page ranking of 1.  Depending on where you are in the world, DirectResponse.net is now listed in the top 5 results for the search term “direct response.”   Our team is loving the free traffic and increased exposure here at DirectResponse.net.

If you need any help in getting your site ranked, hit me up and I’ll show you how to do it.

In direct response marketing, perceived value is more important than actual value.

Take for instance 2 teeth whitening brands, Rembrandt and Crest.  Both use the same exact “magical” ingredient (peroxide) and produce the exact same result.   In a close race like this, whichever product has a better perceived value to the consumer will win:

Crest!  The perceived value of crest white strips is enormous.  Crest charges more money than Rembrandt and sells 3,000% more whitening kits.

At Direct Response, we are masters at creating perceived value.  Here’s 9 ways we create perceived value on offers:

1.  Offer The Product At A Higher Price

Identify your competition and price your offer higher than theirs.  Most people are suspicious of discounted products.  The first thing that pops into their minds is “if it’s discounted what’s wrong with it.”

Brands such a Louis Vuitton and Ferrari are coveted throughout the planet.  Imagine what would happen if Louis Vuitton bags went on sale for $10 and Ferrari dropped their price to $12,000.   There would be a mad influx of buyers.  Every other car on the road would be a Ferrari and every house wife would sport an authentic Louis.

Now imagine what would happen if these brands raised their price back up to their historical value.   The perceived value would not support the original price and no one would buy.

Do not discount your offer.

2.  Use As Many Testimonials As You Can Get Your Hands On

Human beings are followers by nature.  The more security you provide them with people that have tried and liked your offer, the higher the chances that they’ll buy.

Creating affiliation is key.

3.  Packaging

Spend 200% more on packaging.  Think about Crest white strips – the nice plastic box with the shiny designs.   I viewed the cost specs for the Crest Strips and Crest packaging.   The packaging costs 12x the cost of the actual strips.

4.  Celebrity Endorsements

If you can afford them get them.  Just make sure the endorser is coveted by your target audience

5.  Package Your Product With Free Bonuses

Consumers love FREE!!!  Add free ebooks, keychains, and other widgets.

6.  Use Dark Colors To Create Trust

Dark colors create trust with consumers, especially dark blue – that’s why I used it on this blog   Avoid light colors at all costs.

7.  Make It POP!

Make your offer pop.  Whether it’s your landing page or actual offer, it needs to pop.  A lot of direct response marketers use the color wheel:

There’s a few color combinations that kill it in direct response marketing:

Blue and Yellow (Best Buy)
Red and Yellow (McDonalds)
Blue and Orange (ClickBooth)
Red and White (Target)

8.  Create Limited Quantities

Simple economics.  In supply and demand, demand goes up as supply goes down.   Create a sense of urgency by making your offer scarce – just make sure the qunatities are truly limited or you’ll find yourself violating one of the myriad FTC regulations.

9.  Offer A Trial Vs. A Discount

For non-branded offers, show the consumer that you have so much faith in your product that you’ll offer it for free.  This creates enormous value.

Just a quick tidbit.  Lately I’ve been spending time reading different blogs – mostly just the ones on my blogroll.  I noticed a lot of wanna be bloggers post comments religiously – with backlinks to their blog.  Most of their comments seem pretty lame.  So why are they commenting?  There’s 2 reasons:

1.  Create an authoritative backlink in hopes of achieving a higher ranking on Google.

2.  Gain free exposure in order to get people to buy whatever the hell they’re selling.

Sure enough, I noticed the same faces popping up every day with links to their blogs.  I decided to check a few of them out.

After clicking on a dozen or so, I came to the determination that 99.9% of bloggers suck at life.  Most of these guys are attempting to make a living off their blogs.   The problem is that they have no real life experience in marketing.  If you were to ask them how many campaigns they’ve built, or if they’ve ever ran the backend of an offer, placed a large media buy, or hit a few million inboxes in a day, their answer is likely no.

One pundit blogger noted that they were qualified because they graduated from an Ivy League college.  Who gives a shit dude?  Most Ivy League kids go on to become corporate drones – and the minority that make it big never qualify themselves as trustworthy by mentioning their alma mater.  In fact, the moment I hear someone use a college credential to add credibility, they lose all credibility with me.

Yea yea, I had a small stint at Harvard’s graduate program – which I quickly identified as a considerable waste of time and dropped out.

To be a good blogger you need to create real value to your audience.  The main reason I blog is to my share ideas and meet great people.  If I were to get killed in a car accident tom. a lot of useful knowledge I have to offer the world would go with me.  What’s the point be of keeping all of my trade secrets confidential?  There’s no greater reward than helping a fellow human being.  Life’s too short!

Ok, to those bloggers who are “politically correct.”  Death as a blogger is cast upon you.  As far as being conservative when blogging, sure go ahead, you just earned yourself an award for mediocrity.

You’ve gotta be willing to put it all out there – and write like you talk.  If you feel like saying fuck or shit, say fuck of shit.  Who cares.  Oh Google’s gonna penalize you for speaking naturally?  Then fuck you Google

Blogging is a great hobby and lately I’ve made a lot of money off of it.  That wasn’t my goal when I created this blog though.  I built Direct Response for an elite internet marketing group, with guys like Zac Johnson, Rick Del Rio, Peter Nguyen, and Ian Fernando as part of its network.

As it turned out a bunch of people started reaching out to me and asking for assistance with their campaigns.  While I can’t take everyone on, I’ve found some pretty interesting projects that are turning out to be huge money makers.

Are you adding true value to your readers or clients?  If so, the money will follow.  If not, go out and get some real life experiences before you decide to write about a topic.  Remember, the ultimate spam blocker is a human being