Internet marketing is a strange industry.  There are a lot of wild claims by attention grabbers and gurus.  This sets up a herd mentality of people constantly chasing down every new niche and technique.  In reality, most of these claims are completely unattainable and probably not true in the first place.   These people are selling their idea of success to an eager audience just looking to better their position in life.

I have always believed it’s important to define your own success, not the ideal of success set forth by some random guru on the internet.   Personally, I have no desire to ever be a “baller”, “grinder”, or “guru”.   These may be someone’s idea of what a successful marketer is like, but not mine.

True story:  when I was a kid growing up we didn’t have a lot of money.  My mom always bought us frozen orange juice in a can because it was cheap.  It was my task to make it, and it was always a real pain in the ass job.  I hated scraping the frozen concentrate out and stirring it around endlessly trying to get it to melt.  So each time I would proudly proclaim, “When I grow up, I’m going to make enough money to buy orange juice in the carton!”   That was it.  To me, buying orange juice in the carton was my definition of the pinnacle of success.  I still think of that every time I buy a carton of OJ to this day.  It’s these little successes that define us, not driving a fancy car or living in a mansion.

I’m a big fan of Henry David Thoreau and re-read all of his writings frequently.  In the conclusion of Walden he has a great quote that relates quite well to Internet Marketing: “Why should we be in such desperate haste to succeed, and in such desperate enterprises?  If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer.  Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.”

Put into marketing terms, don’t be so desperate to succeed that you chase down shady offers and tactics to make a quick buck.  Don’t try to attain a lifestyle you see someone else promoting.  Set your own goals to define your happiness.  The ironic thing is, people who do their own thing and go in their own direction are always the most successful anyways.

For some that can be as simple as quitting their day job and supporting their family while working from home.  Others may be able to put a monetary value on their goals, and that’s great too.  Just as long as you are the one consciously setting your own goals and defining your success.  Follow your own drummer.

Automotive
Auto dealers
Motorcycle dealers
Auto Financing
Auto Repair
Car Rental
Window Tinting

Legal
Lawyers
Divorce Lawyers
Bankruptcy
Personal Injury
Estate Planning
Business Formation

Insurance
Car
Life
Health
Dental
Independent Agents
Annuities

Profession Services
Accountants/CPAs
Financial Planners
Consultants
HR Specialists

Real Estate
Realtors
Home Inspectors
Home Appraisers
Mortgage Brokers
Real Estate Investors
Foreclosure/Short Sale
Movers

Events
Florists
Catering
Photography/Videography
Disc Jockeys
Weddings
Limousine
Personal Chefs

Health and beauty
Hair salons
Nail salons
Day spas
Cosmetic Surgery
Dermatologists
Tanning
Chiropractors
Dental
Gyms
Personal Trainers
Weight loss specialists
Dieticians
Massage Therapists

Education
Private schools
Technical training centers
Vocational training

Travel
Travel Agents (yep, they still exist)
Small non chain hotels
Resorts
Timeshares

Construction/Home Services
Air Conditioning/Heating
Handyman
Heating And Cooling
Housekeeping/Maid Services
Painters
Plumbers
Bathroom Remodeling
Kitchen Remodeling
General Contractors
Pest Control
Carpet Cleaning
Decks & Porches
Pools & Spas
Roofing
Fencing
Landscaping
Siding
Flooring
Locksmiths
Glass repair
Security Systems
Interior Designers
Home Theater Services

Misc
Child care
Veterinarians
Pet groomers
Tattoo shops
Karate

This list is taken from Chapter 2, “Finding Customers” of Local Lead Plan

One way is to accept the fact that everything you build and work on is temporary and always be working on the next thing to replace revenue sources that are dropping off.  Unfortunately this is equivalent to living paycheck to paycheck with a regular job.  Eventually your luck will probably run out and you will be left without an income stream.

A more stable approach is to try to build sources of lasting and growing value alongside your affiliate work.  This might include things like an authority site, community site, real products, a service or tool, etc.  These are the types of things that increase in value as time goes on, provide recurring revenue for the future, and have a residual value if you want to sell them.   I like to think of affiliate marketing as a temporary income that can help fund long term projects, but I am always thinking of the long term projects as the main goal of Internet Marketing.  If you look at almost everyone that has made it big in an online business, they have built something of real value.

I have tried building countless new sites and services. Most of them have failed miserably, but I have learned something from each failure.  Some examples: I built a large dog community site that never worked out, a cooking site, a social networking site, built a business planning tool, gamer sites, etc….  Probably 90% don’t work out, but a couple have done ok which makes it all worthwhile.  Once you hit upon something that brings real revenue and customers the payout can be great.

What kind of site or service should you create to build lasting value?  It’s been said a million times but it’s still true: find a need and fill it.  Sure that is easier said than done.  You can start with things that interest you, then it seems less like work.  Or you can look for trends and emerging niches and try to get in on the ground floor.  Whatever method you use, provide value to customers and the revenue will come eventually.  Instead of thinking “how can I make money online”, think  “what do people need or want that I can provide”.

When considering a new online project, there are 3 factors that I consider the holy grail of an Internet business:

1.  Automated sign up/delivery service – This means that once your system or site is built, there is no input needed for new customers to sign up and start using your service.

2.  Infinitely scalable – Which means it doesn’t take any more effort to have 10 customers or 10,000

3.  Recurring monthly revenue – Customers pay to continue to use your product or service so the revenue stream keeps coming.

An example of perfect internet businesses that meet these 3 criteria would be any online tool that charges by the month for use.  It fills a customer need, they can sign up and use it without your input, you can add more customers with minimal extra effort, and they continue to pay as long as they use the service.

In short: affiliate marketing can be rewarding in the short term, but don’t forget to invest some time in building long term value projects – whatever they may be.

Here’s a quick review of some of the benefits:

• On major affiliate networks, average earning per click for web offers is around .65. For Pay Per Call, average earnings >$10

• Average conversion rates for online only campaigns is around 1-3%. Pay Per Call is around 30-50%.

• Higher final sales prices with Pay Per Call

• Better CTR with ads including a phone number

As you can see, Pay per call has some pretty impressive stats going for it, so how can you get started?  The easiest way is to just run some of the Pay Per Call offers on the big networks.  You usually have to sign up for these programs separately, even if you are already an affiliate of the network.  Once approved, you sign up for an individual offer, just like you would a web based offer.

The 3 largest programs are:

http://www.cj.com/paypercall

http://www.linkshare.com/paypercall

http://www.shareasale.com/out-paypercall.cfm

There are also a lot of smaller networks out there running Pay Per Call offers.  Almost all networks are using the Ring Revenue PPcall platform.  (My interview with the CEO of Ring Revenue is here)

What kinds of offers are there?

There is a wide range of offers available.  In general they are more established companies running PPcall, because of the higher investment required to get the programs running, and the staff involved in answering calls.  The payouts are usually a price range on a sliding scale rather than a single payout. For example the eFax offer on CJ pays from $1-$25 based on call duration and menu options pressed.

Some other examples of good paying offers on CJ are:

Fitorbit(Exercise niche) -  Up to $40 per call
Health Insurance Megastore – Up to $30 per call
ADT – Up to $25 per call
Allstate  – $12 per call

Direct Pay Per Call

If you want to try Pay per call on your own offer, for a example a Local Lead Gen offer, you need to sign up for a call tracking service directly.  There are a lot of them out there, but I use Ifbyphone (discount link).  This will allow you to generate a phone number to use with your campaign that can be tracked in Google Analytics, just like clicks.

It’s not hard to give Pay Per Call a try, especially on a major network.  Just like any new web skill, there is a learning curve.  But if you already know web offers and PPC, it’s an easy transition.  If you are frustrated with regular web offers maybe it’s time to give Pay Per Call a shot.

Do any of the smaller 2nd tier PPC networks still work in 2010?   Yes, but only a select few will actually produce positive ROIs in our testing.  These are the 3 that I am still using to this day for certain campaigns, both network CPA stuff and local.   The traffic volume is lower so these will never be a primary traffic source for a campaign, but if the traffic is good, every little bit helps with the bottom line.

7search

7search traffic converts very well in my experience.  The volume is low, but on a ROI basis, I actually see a better return on 7 search traffic than Google Adwords or even Bing.  Setup is simple and there are no quality score concerns.  Targeting is country based, not down to the city level, so its not suitable for local campaigns.  I’ve had 7 search campaigns running continuously for years now.

Miva

Miva can generate a decent volume of clicks and their network has a large reach.  The interface is good and conversions are solid for some niches.  You can get an account rep that will take care of a lot of the setup for you and even let you do “run of the network” campaigns.

Ask

Ask has almost all the features that Yahoo or Bing have including bulk uploads, conversion tracking, dayparting, and local targeting down to the zip code.   The traffic is relatively cheap and does convert for certain niches.  Geo-targeting is effective and can be used for national or local lead gen campaigns.

That’s about it, those are the only 2nd tier PPC services that I can recommend these days.  If you have others that are currently working well, please let me know!

The display ad builder has been out for a while, but the recent updates have made it work really well.  Its basically a tool for quickly creating images to use on your content network display campaigns.  You can choose their standard templates with flash animation built in, load in an image, and it spits out all the standard IAB ad sizes.   Normally, its quite a chore to make 5 different animated display ads.  If you outsource them to a designer you might pay $40 an ad, so a group of 5 sizes would cost $200.  The display ad builder tool can do this in 5 minutes for free.

You launch the tool in a campaign by selecting “new ad” then choosing “display ad builder” from the drop down.   You are then presented with all the different designs and formats.

Its then just a matter of filling in the form fields with the information you want, uploading a logo, and entering your destination URL.  The tool then re-formats each ad to fit the correct size and you get flash ads in every size.  The only catch is, sometimes you have to play around with your images or text in certain ad sizes if it doesn’t look quite right.  But overall, its a very fast process.

So if you haven’t tried image ads on the content network because you don’t have the images, check out the display ad builder.  You could be up and running in a few minutes.

OK, I took all the Twitter and blog entries and assigned a number to each one, then used the trusty random number generator to pick. So everyone had an equal chance no matter how you entered.

And the winner is……

Hoo Kang

Congrats!  Send me an email and I’ll get your copy out to you right away.

http://www.localleadplan.com/

To commemorate the launch I am giving away a free copy.

To enter tweet: just entered to win a free copy of the Local Lead Plan course http://bit.ly/95sLqy

Or if you don’t do the Twitter thing just leave a comment to this post.

I’ll pick the winner in 2 days, on Friday at noon.

Update: Due to user feedback for a place to continue the local lead gen discussion, I just launched a forum on the site!

Head on over and check it out, everyone is welcome!  Local Lead Plan Forum