Home > General > Affiliate Marketing Forum

---

Noobie internet marketer here (made 7 figures last year completely blind) (37)

---

Hey all, I'm new to this forum and I'm still getting my grasp on everything so pardon if this is the wrong section...

But, a little background. I started a youtube channel a couple years ago that has garnered close to 2 million subscribers.

I sell my own products from my channel, and 100% of my traffic is organic (dating niche). I've never paid for a single ad and I've never used an affiliate. In 2013 the company pulled in 7 figures. The only overhead I have is paying members of my "creative team". All the products are virtual so there is no cost to produce except my time.

My specialty is viral marketing. I know how to create viral content on YouTube. I have a rabid fan base that loves my content. I also created an email list. The current email list size is about 200,000 with a 30% open rate. I don't really have any sort of e-mail "funnel" per say. I do sell my stuff through my e-mail list, but it's definitely not optimized.

Here's my dilemma:

I've only recently been exposed to direct marketing. Before that, everything I did was just based off my gut. Which has done OK, but I feel like the potential to 2x-5x my revenue is very high. The problem is, I've never optimized a "funnel" before. I'm currently going through an information overload. I know roughly what needs to be done, but now the problem is execution and finding the right people.

I've concluded that I need to hire a quality copywriter and perhaps a "VP of Sales" type position - basically someone who will lead the funnel optimization process.

I need your help! Am I going about this the wrong way? Is my hiring priority in order here?

Basically, I need some guidance from someone who has been through this process before. Looking forward to reading your response!

---

You are definitely at the right place. If you made 1.5 million running blind and just based on gut, you should be able to turn it into about 10 million by working with the right people here to turn it into a well oiled marketing and business operation.

---

I'm also interested in email list funnel strategies/optimization if anyone could recommend any good resources

---

Just read everything that johna5150 and _mcr_ have written on STM.

---

If so many people are following you , you must be sharing information that is useful/works for them.
How did you gather all the dating knowledge? What books have you read and can you recommend?
Willing to share your youtube channel?

btw, nice introduction!

---

At the very least, you should

1. Get a copywriter and generate some new sales pages.

2. Split-test these against the original ones - in parallel, and use some analytic tool to track performance.

3. Work on an email funnel - with the copywriter and by absorbing as much email knowledge as possible from here (e.g. authors cmdeal recommended to big numbers in email)

4. Use an cross-platform analytics system to truly understand the LTV of your users and what influences this, as well as how your many split-testable factors influence this.


Doing 1.5 mill blind... mate, as long as the audience is large and willing, you are in the right place to launch yourself to some serious numbers.

---

Sounds like SimplePickup. Kong, that you?

---

Jesse? And...where's Jason?

---

Lol I do hope that is true, just lost 30 minutes chuckling to myself at their antics on Youtube, so funny

---

Well, I guess the cat's out of the bag huh..

Jason is pursuing other interests. He officially "retired" from youtube because he was trying to do 2 things at once. Now he's going full-sail on his other passion. d

---

There are folks on STM who have either started or run web video sites that run massive traffic (by massive, I mean like over 4 billion total Youtube views).

There are also quite a few folks on STM who have actively pursued the pickup scene while running their 7-8 figure AM activities during the daytime.

By browsing STM, you can probably figure out who they are within a short period of time. If you can't, I'd be happy to make the personal introduction if you send me a PM.

Hit them up and work together, and you should be able to turn this into an 8 figure business quite easily.

---

Thanks cm. I'm browsing the forums and am currently going through johna5150's posts... If there is anyone else you can recommend that'd be great!

---

Congrats on your success. The pua market responds strongly to high-quality material, so yours must be very good. You couldn't have found a better place to amplify your business than STM.

My expertise is in email marketing automation and online media, on an enterprise level, 500 million emails/year. Let's do a chat and see if I can help with the setup there.

Also, I am acquainted with the highest grossing pua of all time, I'd like to see if we can get his thoughts on the best way to proceed.

There are many other people who'll give you priceless advice, and who you should definitely talk to:

cmdeal is a master of all business-related matters, in addition to adwords and affiliate marketing
johna5150 has years of experience as a pua offer owner and is a great writer
mr green/stackman/bbrock/zeno/caurmen/finch/maynzie are superaffiliate gurus

And I'm forgetting many others

---

As a long-time member of project go right from the beginning, here's my recommendation:
1. Do NOT promote any other advertiser's PUA products. Most of the PUA offers in this industry are complete trash/scammy/ and it will be incredibly obvious to your subscribers that you are looking to make a quick buck. Keep making your own products. Deliver value.
2. Look into BUYING traffic to send to a landing page that has them subscribe to your email list. With this email list, deliver valuable tips and articles to build trust. Then eventually you can start pushing Project Go, Simple Mixology, and your future dating products on them. (Hire a copywriter, and split test the shit out of this). Or you can also test a very aggressive sales lander for Project Go. Video landers perform very well.
3. Where should you buy traffic? Try POF. Try direct buys on dating sites targeting males. Facebook ads. Adwords. Blow some money. Test. You have a great brand.

---

Haha WOW! Fk yeah, just watched your channel you guys are SICK welcome to STM and congratulations on it all

No doubt with the information here you can blow this way up if you're running blind, all the names mentioned above can chuck some high grade spectacles on your blind eyes and clean up all the processes and increase every other marker haha keep at it guys

---

Would be pretty amazing to have a Follow Along to keep track of your growth with the help of STM.

---

@microload

Ah, now THIS is the kind of question I love because you, my friend, are sitting on a huge goldmine, and this is one I know how to unlock.

As I’m sure you’re well aware, this market responds very well to stories, especially about picking up women and getting laid (please, no “number closes”). It may still be around, but for years there was a “Lay Report” that was essentially stories about how guys picked up women and, well, got laid. It was very popular amongst the pickup crowd, perhaps you even contributed to it.

If you remember the old Ross Jeffries Speed Seduction List circa 2002 (I actually saw him in person a month ago, at the IM Party here in Austin) there was a character on there who called himself Bishop. What “Bishop” would do, was get on the list and post incredibly detailed, lengthy write ups of how he met a girl, worked the magic, spoke the words, and she got naked with him. It all turned out to be fake, but that’s irrelevant—the point is, everyone on that list was mesmerized by the detailed stories. He turned it into a product called Bishop’s Journal, and you can probably find that somewhere online. The writing is really good, almost hypnotic to that audience.

Now, from a marketing point of view, what you’d want to do is write similar stories BUT break them up into episodes with a cliffhanger on the end, telling them to tune in tomorrow to see what happens next. Each episode should be about a page to page ½ in a Word Doc, with each episode setting up the next day’s episode. Andre Chaperon’s ARM 2.0 course is an excellent resource for learning how to do this, especially the open loops and cliff hangers—one of his example is even geared towards the pickup market, and it is very, very, very well written (his “Adventures of Alan Saunders.”)

You can check out that course here: http://autorespondermadness.com/about/

If you want to see how I do this, you can opt into my list at www.womenapproachyou.com

Essentially you want to have a story that goes on for a week to ten days, then you start another story. They should get an episode every day, with an offset classified ad at the top, and an ad at the bottom as a ps. Chaperone’s description of a “mini launch” is very well done too, and I have several of those set up for my market, and you can see how I do them here:

http://www.effortlesscommunication.c...-list-join.php
http://www.effortlesscommunication.c...-list-join.php
http://www.effortlesscommunication.c...-list-join.php

I drive opt ins to these sublists from my main list, so it’s a neat way to segment your list—obviously guys who sign up for the online dating list are interested in online dating products, so this “mini launch” leads to one (Mr. Miz’s, as a matter of fact, if you’re reading DAVE!).

You can also solicit user generated content, i.e. stories from successful students on your list (and they LOVE to see their story in print), so you can get your list to write the stories for you. You’ll have to have them edited and broken up into episodes, but you will get some really good ones if you ask.

Obviously the point of all of this is to set up product sales, and the key to this market is having a TON of different offers to sell to them (I believe I offer them 160 in their first 60 days on the list). Luckily, I have a huge word document with all the offers I promote on it (and I’m adding some new ones to it) so if you, or anyone else, would like that document, why then just PM me, and I’ll PM it back to you…just keep it to STM members.

You may have run across this in some of my other posts, but I’ll give it out again, so it is directly relevant to your question—my slides from my presentation on how to use the Attractive Character in Email Marketing, a talk I gave last year at my friend Daegen Smith’s Event.

http://www.womenapproachyou.com/emai...ng-secrets.htm

Study it, and you’ll have your email marketing blueprint.

Now, what I have just said is a short term play, something you can set up as an autoresponder that will work quite well to the new subscribers who opt in to your list. It can even run for years, as you add new stories to it. The beauty of this market is that it is evergreen, and in 20 years guys will be just as frustrated with women as they are right now, with the same issues.

The longer term play to keep in mind is this: as time passes, so will the wants, needs, desires, and life events of your subscribers. The 22 year old guy who just wants to get laid will have different concerns in three years, perhaps desire for a long term girlfriend, a wife, or he might be the proud parent of a 1 year old little girl. The point is, he may not be interested in pickup stuff any more, but if you build a great relationship with your list over time, he will be interested in other things—health, fitness, get your ex back, make more money, etc.

I’ve been in this market for 10 years (and 5 months) and I still have a few subscribers left over from 2004. Think about that—if they were 25 when they opted in, they are now 35 with a vastly different perspective on life, and completely different desires and concerns from when they opted in. This opens up a whole new array of products to sell them, transcending their initial interest. Because they still like me they read, pay attention to what I say, and buy products from me they had no interest in years ago…that is true long term customer value.

So, to start with, I’d say get the Andre Chaperone ARM 2.0 material, find a copy of Bishop’s Journal, and duplicate the play-by-play how-I-got-laid stories, making soft offers in each episode (by “soft” I mean putting a classified at at the top of each episode that doesn’t distract from the episode itself…you’ll see how I do it on my list). Promote as many offers as you can that are relevant by layering them into Getting Laid Stories, and don’t forget about CPA offers to dating sites, etc. There is a very substantial amount of money to be gotten here, and it can be gotten with relatively little effort. You’ve already done all the hard work, congrats, man!

If you have any other specific questions about this, please, post them, and I’ll answer them the best I can.

-John

---

wow John! you just dropped some bombs

---

This will be one of the best STM Follow Alongs ever: "How I turned a $1.5 million Youtube channel and 200K email list into a $100 million sale to MTV"

---

If you combine what Chaperone teaches in ARM 2.0 with the story telling/Hero's Journey sequence described in Christopher Vogler's "The Writer's Journey," you can make some real magic happen. While that book is written for aspiring screenwriters, if you apply it a longer email sequence, it works magic...my introductory hero's journey email sequence is 64 emails long (one per day, then they go into my daily commentary email), which to use Chaperone's "SOS" (Soap Opera Sequence) terminology, would be an elongated SOS.

---

Wow, thanks for all the replies. I'm going to dissect everything in this thread tonight.

Also, John, I tried going to that link you sent me and the "buy" button seems to be broken (it looks like he's not selling that course right now).

Again, thanks for the replies. This is amazing information. Will come back to this thread in a day or so with updates.

---

reading alanis… converting well for ya still?

and for those of you who don't know…. johna5150 (john alanis) is a motherfucking BALLER…. dude is a GOLDMINE of direct response marketing knowledge. love talking to him…. each time I do, i learn so much…. except he keeps reminding me how shitty my ATL falcons are. :-)

---

@john

Hey John, even though buyer email lists are obviously more valuable, do you find that building a list based on freebie giveaways from PPC ads still pays off? It's the fastest way I know to build a list, but my experience with them turning into buyers hasn't been so good. But, I haven't really hammered them with offers yet quite the way you describe. Your opinion?

---

@ microload,

You guys are the bomb! Been a follower since 2012, love your stuff!

---

Tell you a quick story about that-- back in 2004 I did some Google PPC at about 50 cents a click to relevant keywords for the men's dating advice market, and after two months on the list, I thought the traffic was crap. I did a few more Adwords campaigns on and off, but just wasn't happy with the results. I didn't really have a great way to track lifetime customer value back then, so I turned off the PPC. In 2005 I got much better tracking tools, and started figuring out lifetime lead and customer value.

In 2007 I decided to go back and analyze my old 2004 PPC leads and here's what I discovered...after one year on my list they were worth 4 times what I spent to get them...that's a 400% ROI in one year, and they've continued to pay off year after year. In fact, I STILL get some sales from those leads, so obviously the longterm ROI is through the roof. If I'd known those numbers back then, I would have borrowed every dime I could, scaled PPC and gotten fabulously rich.

One thing I did discover in my analysis was that the average time from opt in to first sale was 88 days. But over a year, they paid off very nicely, and continue to do so over the years. It is, of course, a matter of people buying when they are ready to buy not when you're ready to sell, and buying intent occurring from life event. That takes time (and cash flow), but it can pay off very handsomely long term. Also, there are other ways to make money with the list, driving to ad pages, CPA offers, etc. but my experience to targeted traffic in the men's dating advice market has been it pays off very well over time. One of the smartest metrics I ever heard was "sales on spend" from Drew Kossoff, the media buyer who built Double Your Dating, and they ran all their traffic to an opt in page with a free offer (they popularized the term "moving the free line"). They knew that if a certain percentage of people bought on opt in, the media was good, and they continued. Obviously they were going way negative on the opt in, but that metric allowed them to scale because they could predict the buying behavior on from that source based on sales on spend.

---

@dkonstruckt

Indeed it is...check your clickbank stats, you'll see a few sales in there from me today! And focus on the upcoming NFL Draft, man, it's the only way to get through a down season....good days ahead for the Falcons, but not this year or probably next...

---

John, you're a serious OG lol love the circa 2005 stories haha!

---

I cry myself to sleep every night wishing I knew then what I know now but wake up knowing there are still plenty of fungolas to be made in this day and age! Hell, I remember when GoTo invented PPC and then tried to sue Google for ripping them off....and when pop ups were the key to internet riches...

---

I think you have a big opportunity with facebook and youtube's advertising platforms (PAID traffic, not organic) simply targeting people who like you with the right ad and offer. You have 2 million subscribers, and over 300,000 fb fans. It's like having a pack of hungry wolves at your door. Anyway, welcome! I was a member of project go briefly. I'm not sure what it's like anymore, but I would consider more upsells. The people who have just bought are hot and are most likely to buy right then. Make it easy for them and entice them with ridiculous value (pile on the benefits), make it silly for them not to upgrade. Anyway, this is all stuff you'll figure out. I think it's probable, that you'll exceed your revenue goals, especially with the BEASTS on this forum. All the best!

---

Just watched a couple of your videos, nice job man! But which one are you lol? Still couldnt figure it out since you guys dont say your names that often. Theres the asian, indian, and the white guy?

Anyways ya you wont have any problem jumping into affiliate marketing. If anything Ive always thought making youtube videos are definitely harder than the stuff we do as most of us can be very lazy.. only difference is this stuff is more technical and involves coding / mundane tasks

---

I believe Mr Micro is of the Indian persuasion.

---

Wow... SimplePickup

I've seen your videos since way back, and just watched a bunch of new ones!

You're in the right place to get the info you need. You could EASILY 5x your revenue within 6 months by hiring a few people to help you optimize your setup.

Things to work on:
- The funnel system in general (you'll ideally want to find someone with mail experience). This is your biggest factor to creating a lot more revenue.
- Copywriting/sales pages/split testing/
- New products (virtual products, possibly subscription based, and consider workshops)

I would assume the operation is pretty hectic, and hiring for a lot of this is definitely worth it in the longrun.

---

You guys are awesome!

---

shit if i had a 300k list, with the stuff I do? i'd be retired.

Nice. Nothing like longevity

that thing has been making money for 10 years now and still going strong. Dude we need more than a draft, we need a fucking MIRACLE… forget the offensive line that sucks balls… falcons have ZERO defense. How the fuck do they get solei and tyson jackson and get WORSE? lol.

---

@dksonstruct

Ha, for only $280,000 you can have that email list of 300k!

You make a very good point that may have been overlooked-- that Insider Internet Dating product/pitch is a true business asset because it's a classic case of doing the work once (well, and fiddling with it over the years) and profiting forever while you develop other things. I've probably been promoting it since 2006 and it has always been a solid seller for me, and takes me virtually no time to write an email for it, send it and we both make money (you get a customer, I get to make mine happy with a good offer and use the money to buy new customers). That's the power of building both an email list and your own products in an evergreen market....that product will still be going strong in ten years and I will probably still be promoting it...do the work once, profit forever.

One of the best things I ever learned about customers is they can consume faster than you create, which is why I promote as many affiliate offers to my list as I possibly can...a buyer is a buyer is a buyer, and when they are in heat, you have to sell them as much as you possibly can-- that's why affiliate offers are so important to promote to an email list in addition to your own products.

Yeah, as far as the Falcons defense goes, as with any free agent, there's a reason why they are available...

---

me too. LOL

---

Hey John, I'm just going through all your posts, (no homo stalking!), great value...
GKIC gold subscriber here and fellow email marketer with my own info product...
Do you mind sharing, what do you recommend to track LCV?

Thanks!
John Galt

---

Home > General > Affiliate Marketing Forum