Big Sky Marketing

New FTC Rules Apply To All Marketers

2009-10-08T13:42:00.000-07:00

The Internet Marketing Game Is Changing

On Monday, October 5th, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission released its 81 page "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising". The adoption of the new "Guides" was announced Monday by Official Press Release and will appear soon in the Federal Register. According to the FTC, this is the first update in the "Guides" under the FTC Act since 1980 and the changes are the result of the Commission's "ongoing regulatory review of all current rules and guides". You can download and read the "Guides" here (.pdf file).

Ok, so what's all this mean to internet marketers? Is it important or is it just "much ado about nothing"?

The updates adopted by the FTC will go into effect on December 1st this year. They are very important not only to internet marketers, but to all advertisers, marketers and promoters of every ilk in both online and offline media. Specific to the web, the new "Guides" apply to everyone who is marketing, recommending or advertising any product in the U.S. as a website owner, blogger, article writer/publisher, mlm networker, paid endorser (money or free product), testimonial provider (celebrity, JVer, "guru", or otherwise). The rules apply whether you are the product maker, producer, owner, distributor, affiliate marketer, or otherwise promoting any product. It applies to all products and all promotions.

Interestingly, the Monday press release specifically addresses bloggers because of the vast number of same engaged in promoting some form of products, including this blogger. Virtually every blog site has sidebar advertisements as a means of promoting a product or cause of some kind. Many bloggers also promote via links within the body of their posts. So, is this "much ado about nothing"? I think not. It is imperative that anyone associated with a product understand the new "Guides" and the responsibility that is now put upon us all.

You may ask, "Why is the FTC now suddenly changing the rules of the game for everyone in the middle of a global recession?" Well, don't fall for the ramblings of conspiracy theorists just yet.

First of all, there is nothing sudden about this. The Commission began reviewing the "Guides" over two and a half years ago and twice in that period asked for public comment on the key points. The reaction to the review and the number of comments from the interested public, which basically should be everyone who buys and sells in America, was an underwhelming yawn. It was pathetic. They received 22 comments the first time and 17 on the second go around. Considering the millions of products and millions of people buying and selling them...well, you do the math and draw your own conclusion. Just don't gripe about sudden changes or government meddling into free enterprise. Everyone should have seen this coming long ago but no one was paying attention.

Secondly, the FTC is charged with protecting American consumers from fraudulent advertising practices and maintaining fair and honest market competition. That's why they are doing this and it is why internet marketing has a big bull's eye painted on it.

We all know the web is crawling with scammers and spammers. The internet marketing industry is teeming with "snake oil" fraudsters who think nothing about plastering fake testimonials and Photoshop altered "screenshots of earnings" on their landing pages. The industry is rife with unscrupulous "JVers" who dishonestly hype each other's products within their "inner circle". They do this purely for profit's sake without regard for the product's true quality, content or user value. Sadly, for every one honest vendor, marketer, JVer, or "marketing guru" on the web there are dozens who will scam your credit card out of your wallet and laugh at how easy it is to ripoff internet newbies. Fraudulent internet advertising is a big hot spot the FTC hopes to rope in with the revised "Guides".

Hey, I've been suckered more than once by internet thieves, so personally I'm glad to see the new "Guides" and wish the FTC much success. The internet marketing and network marketing industries have never stepped up to the plate to self regulate, so cheers to the Commission for taking care of business.

The bottom line is this: The changes are official, enforceable and here to stay. Finally there is a possibility of having a level playing field for everyone who wants to enjoy the challenges and rewards of internet marketing. Everyone in this business must now understand the rules and work within them or suffer the consequences.

(Notice to Readers: The above post is written solely for information and opinion purposes. The author is not qualified to offer legal or political counsel and absolutely no intention is made to do so in any manner whatsoever. Any opinions expressed here are just that, the personal opinions of the author and/or those expressed by individual readers. Each reader of this blog post is responsible for accessing and evaluating their own copy of the official FTC documents mentioned herein, and agrees by reading this post to hold harmless the author, blog owner and anyone who leaves comments here from any and all legal action or other consequences which may result from decisions made or actions taken by the reader. The author reserves the right to delete any profane, volatile, disrespectful, or irrelevant comments.)

Press Release - http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2009/10/endortest.shtm

81 Page Downloadable Publication - 16 C.F.R. Part 255: Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising: Notice Announcing Adoption of Revised Guides

Easy Video Producer

2009-09-22T20:41:00.000-07:00

Global Virtual Opportunities' FREE Video Marketing System

All experienced marketers know that “the money is in the list" and internet marketers have developed opt in lists in many different ways over the years. We've all seen, and most of us use, an auto responder opt in program like AWeber to offer a free product encouraging our readers to subscribe to our lists. In recent years the singular email opt in took a giant step forward with the introduction of software that requested the first recipient to forward the same offer to a few of their friends in order to receive the free gift, bonus ebook, discount offer, or other giveaway. This approach took list building into the expanding world of viral marketing. It allowed a single email to be blasted exponentially to huge numbers of recipients as each person forwarded to their friends.

Enter The Web 2.0 World

The most recent trends in the network and internet marketing industry is the Web 2.0 world of micro blogging (i.e., Twitter), Social Media (i.e., MySpace, Facebook, Forum Communities, etc.), integration into mobile devices (i.e., iPhone), and of course, YouTube.

Although Google hasn't put even a small dent in the $1.65B price they paid for YouTube, the omnipresent embedding of videos in all types of websites has fast become an industry standard. Video is without a doubt the most favorable and profitable "go to" method of branding, creating trust, forming relationships, building lists, and selling.

The hype on video is now woven into the fabric of almost every marketer's pitch. We see it all the time..."get on video now or be stampeded by your competitors", "it's video or die", "don't eat the dust of your competition, get video now"... Nonetheless, and regardless of the hype, it’s all true. Profitable internet and affiliate marketing today means producing and publishing quality video presentations.

Are You Ready For Viral Video?

The truth is that most online marketers are not ready for video marketing, and I don't mean just newbies. In fact, even those who have been at it for a couple years or more are not up to the challenge of producing, editing and publishing high quality video that will capture subscribers and create customers. First and foremost, the desire of video producers and users should be to instill KTL in the viewer for the purpose of establishing and building relationships. KTL is "Know, Like and Trust" and without focusing on this principle video marketers will gain nothing for their efforts.

Enter Joel Therien, CEO of Global Virtual Opportunities

Joel is a hugely successful Internet Marketer based in San Antonio, Texas. He has created and launched an exciting new service product called Easy Video Producer. EVP takes all the fear out of video production and replaces it with a simple and easy system by which anyone can make top quality videos for their marketing machine. Easy Video Producer is a unique program because the actual software is offered as his own free giveaway. EVP is, in fact, a
“tell-a-friend” list exploding system. This is an extraordinarily easy to use video generating program that builds and posts your personally produced video and information in capture page form for installation on any website or blog. EVP even includes a fully integrated subscriber management system for organization and management ease. What's the price of this unique software? Well that's the really awesome thing about it, it's FREE.

Now, I could blather on and on about Easy Video Producer, but I'm not going to do that here. The saying used to be "a picture is worth a thousand words" but this is 2009 and so now "a video is worth a million words." I'll let Joel speak for himself. Just click the banner below to sign up now for FREE, or to learn more about why you need video and, in particular, why you need Easy Video Producer. Remember folks, it's FREE to join.

Hot Tips For Newbies

2009-09-10T18:30:00.000-07:00

Marketing Tips for Clickbank Newbies

Even the newest of affiliate marketing newbies have probably discovered Clickbank. But, for the purpose of giving you a little background, Clickbank is a well known, reliable affiliate network. It is known as the best place to earn solid money by promoting other people's products as an affiliate. It's free to join Clickbank and the transaction fees are very reasonable.
Not only is Clickbank a great place for newbies to start out, but it's used by tons of veteran IMers as well. I highly recommend that all affiliates join Clickbank to start their marketing business. This hugely popular affiliate network offers tens of thousands of downloadable digital products in several broad categories. Once you're registered as an affiliate with Clickbank you can choose as many products as you wish to promote. The merchants' sales commissions are very generous, ranging from 50-75% on almost all products. If you really want to jump start your business you need Clickbank.

Tip 1: Promote in Forums

Search out popular forums that are related to your product. Join those that enjoy a high search engine page ranking (Google, Yahoo! and Bing). Once registered you can follow the various threads to get into the "flow" of discussions and to become familiar with the prominent members. When you're comfortable with your niche forum start posting your own questions and even try answering some questions from other members. Have confidence in your answers before posting them. If you give silly or irrelevant answers to questions, the forum veterans will quickly go on the attack.

Never place any promotional text or links in the body of your posts! The posts are for giving and receiving information only and not for product promotion. You'll be booted out for spamming if you try doing this. You can brand yourself or your product in the signature at the end of your post. This is where you can add you name, your website, blog or affiliate link. Why do this at all? Because it's easy, and it will make you money. You'll eventually receive hits to your site from forum members and other sites which may have high page rank (PR). This activity translates into higher SERP and more traffic to your site which equals sales.

Tip 2: Promote by Email

This is huge and should be a top priority in your business blueprint. The only people on Earth who don't use Email are those who are no longer living! At the end of your email content you should have an effective signature. Don’t overlook your signature. Along with your name, you should add your website, blog, social media, and/or affiliate link, as well as your contact information. In this way, every Email you send becomes an effective and free advertising platform. If you send out just 10 new personal emails a day, then 10 people are seeing your affiliate link each day. That's 3,650 people a year who see your links, and that's the power of email campaigns!

Ok, everyone harps at you constantly about building your list. Right? Well, there's a reason for it. It is the absolute, most productive and profitable way to make money on the internet today. The cost to do this is relatively low and the value is priceless. Your list gives you ready made, practically free, traffic for your linked sites. Without a list you will not survive in affiliate marketing today.

So, how do you build a list? The first choice should always be a double opt-in auto responder such as Aweber. Auto responders allow you to legally develop a database of email addresses by means of squeeze pages, landing pages, etc. When anyone submits their name and email to your opt-in box you then have the legitimate right to send them a promotional Email. Understand, though, there are rules you must learn and abide by. Yep, that means another learning curve for you. But, if you don't follow the rules you'll be blocked as a spammer, so beware and use your opt-in privileges properly.

Tip 3: Promote by Social Media

Social media rules the day! Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Digg, and other platforms are there for your free use. Tons of information floods the web daily about this subject, so just know that social media is a gold mine for proactively building your lists. But, like any gold mine, the effective use of social media requires tools and an understanding of how to use the tools. Become familiar with everything about how to use social media. You'll be left in the dust if you don't!

Tip 4: Promote by Membership Sites

There are a large number of membership sites that you can join to gain access to huge numbers of email clients. Many of these sites are free to join. One very popular list builder site is Earners Unite, but there are many others to choose from. Check some of these out to see which one, if any, you are comfortable with. One word of caution is that you may get your own inbox flooded by promotions when you join some of these sites. Earners Unite seems to me to be the least problematic in this issue and they offer a membership option which avoids inbox stuffing entirely.

Tip 5: Promote by Article Writing

Articles, Hubs and Lenses are a fantastic way to build up your list fast. While you can't place an auto responder opt-in box on these, you can very effectively drive traffic to your website, landing page or squeeze page where the visitor can join your list. What's really great about these is that they're free! Another great tool is the one you're visiting right now i.e., blogs. All of these work extremely well, but only if you are willing to learn and to put in the work. Over 90% of Clickbank newbies fail to make any money because they simply are too uninspired or lazy to do the necessary work. Don't be one of the 90%! Learn how to use these fabulous tools and you will make money online.

You can gain an edge over your competition by joining one of the well known, respected training and mentoring sites. These sites teach you all the ropes and often hyped "secrets of internet marketing". They will tutor you through everything you need to know to succeed in internet marketing. Here are links to five such sites that I highly recommend which are renown for training highly successful internet marketers: Wealthy Affiliate, Chris Farrell, DOE, List Building Club, and NPC.

There are several very good online programs which will show you the "ins and outs" of marketing Clickbank products. Two that I strongly recommend are Clickbank Code by Michael Jones and Clickbank Pirate by Soren Jordansen and Cindy Battye. CB Pirate actually supplies you with a totally turnkey clickbank marketing business. CB Pirate is the best system I've ever seen for the complete newbie marketer. Everything you need to make money is done for you and no technical skills are needed.

Tip 6: Viral Marketing Software

The last, but certainly not the least, important way to build your list for promoting Clickbank and all other affiliate programs you may join is using Viral Marketing Software. In other words, making video promotions. Video is all the buzz right now and will be for a very long time. With video you can brand and market yourself and your affiliate products up close and personal. Building lists of clients is all about relationships and nothing online does this better than video marketing. I've recently partnered up with a great company called IMBuzz which has a huge array of video software designed specifically for internet marketing. They also offer great video products which you can sell as an affiliate member. This is one of the best on the web I've seen so far, and if you're going to do video this is a must have brand.

In conclusion, Clickbank is a wonderful place for anyone in the affiliate marketing business. Whether just starting out or a seasoned pro, it doesn't matter. There are many money making products there for just about everyone's taste. Promote your Clickbank affiliate products by using forums, Email, social media, membership sites, articles, blogs, and video. Should you find all the information and hype to be unnerving, then choose one of the training and mentoring sites listed above and learn it all from the pros.

(Thanks for reading! Please rate this post and leave a comment. Oh, and be sure to follow me on Twitter )