[#4 of 7] -- One Repeatable Formula That Blew Up Internet Marketing Almost Overnight
Published: Wed, 08/01/12
Memo To: ~Contact.FirstName~ ~Contact.LastName~
Re: #4 of 7 -- I've Got To Tell You This Before It's
Too Late
Hello,
Marlon here.
Quickie Recap:
Email #1: My quest to become a speaker, writer, and
consultant as a living with no one to guide me, or help,
and virtually no courses to train me. And how can I ever
possibly gain any respect or fame whatsoever when people
of immense stature like Dan Kennedy, Jay Abraham, Gary
Halbert and John Carlton dominate the scene?
Email #2: The 16 pages and 11 words that changed
everything. The power of a Unique Selling Proposition and
the Lifetime Value of a Customer.
Email #3: The missing piece that took me over the
top, leads to millions of website visitors and dollars in
sales and world travel.
------------------ Today's Story -------------------
My hands shook almost uncontrollably.
With one slip all my transparencies zipped out of my hand
at the speed of light and splattered across the floor.
Everyone is staring at me. There's my presentation --
scattered about in front of glaring eyes. I didn't know
transparencies could be slick as black ice unless you put
paper between them or scuff 'em up a bit.
I'd never done this before.
Quickly, I corralled my slides and got 'em back on the
projector. Of course, now they weren't in order. If I
was nervous before, now I think my voice shook like
a vibrator.
And to think, there are my idols all watching on.
Ted Nicholas, the man who had ran more full page ads than
anyone ever. The legendary E. Joseph Cossman. Dan
Poynter. Tag Powell. Cindy Cashman. All looked on ......
Fortunately, some of the speaker training I'd had in years
past kicked in and I made my way through that speech. The
camera man later told me it was the single greatest
marketing speech he'd ever heard.
I have no idea if he meant it or was trying to make me feel
good. I know Tag told the audience, "I guess we have some
speakers here who are afraid of the microphone."
That would be me.
Thus went my first talk about Internet marketing. I owe
Tag Powell a massive debt of gratitude for inviting me to
speak at his cruise.
There it was that I got to hang out with Ted Nicholas who
was and still is one
of them most accomplished marketers of our era. At the
time, any magazine you opened probably had one of his
full-page ads in it.
Ted shared, laughed, and told stories with a gusto for life
that inspired everyone. And he did it with any hint of
ego or one upmanship whatsoever.
And then there was E. Joseph Cossman. If you ever owned
an ant farm as a kid, E. Joseph probably got a cut of your
money. Spud guns, ant farms, you name it. He imported
and sold it via direct mail.
At age 79 he was more tanned and ripped than any 21-year
old on the cruise ship. And if his wife wasn't with him,
I dare say he could've and would've been more popular with
the women than any guy 50 years younger.
He was a larger-than-life figure in every sense of the
word. A man among men. He authored a book in his younger
years called "The Virile Male."
And he epitomized what he wrote.
Fortunately, I held a letter of introduction to him written
by none other than my mentor Lew Williams, who
coincidentally produced the first seminar E. Joseph ever
spoke at.
And, being the thoughtful mentor he was, Lew had warned me
in advance.
"Now Marlon, when you hear E. Joseph speak, remember that
he didn't speak like that at his first seminar. He was
nervous just like you'll be."
Make a mental note of that: Anytime you do or try
something new, you probably won't be very good at it at
first.
Just from that one cruise I have so many stories to tell
about Cindy Cashman, Dan Poynter and many others.
Oh, wait! I got all caught up in the glory of my first
big triumph and forgot to
tell you HOW I managed to get there to start with.
Come closer. Let me share with you the secret in whispered
tones....
At my copywriting job, Phil had a continuity program --
the cd of the month. He didn't have time to do the
interview one month so he asked me to do it. That interview
was with Tag Powell, a very famous self publisher at the
time of Silva Method books and many others.
Tag had this unique method, this formula, for self
publishing books and getting them in bookstores. And a
repeatable formula for promoting and making them
successful. He also had a repeatable formula for doing
seminars.
I interviewed tag and grilled him relentlessly, until I"m
sure he felt like he'd had every last morsel of knowledge
in his brain sucked dry!
I was relentlessly curious. Remember those words. My
good friend and powerful marketing force Daegan Smith, who
inspired me to write this email series, embodies that term
and reminds me today of the power it wields.
It's an odd thing. When you ask questions and listen, you
do something for someone almost no one else does. How many
times in a person's life will they ever have someone
honestly, truly listen to them for one hour, unless
they're paying for therapy?
When you do that for someone else, it's a powerful
experience. You bond in an unusual way. Dale Carnegie
wrote about the power of listening in "How to Win Friends
and Influence People." But most people write it off as
something they "already know."
Coincidentally, Dale Carnegie discovered this Formula that
if you used it the way he taught it, really would win
friends and influence people.
He canned and cloned that formula, franchised that formula,
wrote books on the formula, did seminars on the formula.
He capitalized on that formula about every way a man can.
Just as the others did I was soon to meet.
Such it is with all the greatest marketing and business
ideas. They're simple. Almost understated and enormously
powerful.
Like USP. "Oh yeah dog, I know all about USP. Don't talk
to ME about USP any longer. I've already heard that. Tell
me something NEW!"
Yet.....
There it was.....
In front of me. Speaking on that cruise ship that I found
my USP. See?
Why was it that Tag invited me to speak there? Well, I
DID promise to help out. And quite frankly, did the worst
job in the history of the world of fulfilling on that
promise, I'm embarrassed to admit.
1. Reciprocity. Tag bonded with me from our interview.
2. Insight -- I had a friend with an Internet marketing
list -- one of the only ones at the time. That friend was
Jonathan Mizel, author of the first (as far as I know) paid
newsletters exclusively about online marketing.
And Jonathan could sell some tickets to the cruise. And
that's how my pal Jonathan whom I'd met on AOL, made it
onto that cruise ship as a speaker.
3. USP -- And this would be the motherload.
See, Ted Nicholas didn't speak about Internet marketing,
did he? But he had his own USP formula that made him a
household name. Remember that ad on how to start your own
corporation for $50? You may not know Ted by name but you
know his USP. And the formula he repeated something
like a billion times in print.
E. Joseph Cossman didn't speak about Internet marketing,
did he? But he had his own USP "The ant farm and spud
gun man." And he had his own FORMULA he used over and
again to import products and sell them through one of 17
channels, a number of which were direct response marketing
channels.
Dan Poynter didn't speak about Internet marketing, did he?
But he did have his own self publishing books USP. And a
formula for self publishing and promoting books that he
taught to others.
I had an advantage though. Because Phil was very forward
thinking and right on top of online marketing from day one.
Unfortunately, he bet heavily on the text-based Internet,
really bet the future of his company on it.
No one thought or dreamed that the world wide web with
it's pictures and heavy graphics that loaded really slow
would beat the living crap out of the text-based Internet.
But so it did.
Still, I had the advantage of being involved in it from
day one. And before going back to running classified ads
on AOL and Compuserve.
Here's the big lesson: I couldn't compete with Gary
Halbert, Ted Nicholas, John Carlton, Dan Kennedy, the Antin
brothers or Bob Serling on the topic of "how to write
ad copy."
They all had their own unique and formidable formulas that
worked over and over and over again for them.
Are you GETTING this now? Are you seeing what a huge
breakthrough in insight this is?
See, I COULD make a name for myself and become somebody by
talking about writing ONLINE. And making sales ONLINE.
On that basis I could differentiate myself.
I could have a peg to hang my hat on.
You need a really good, strong peg to hang your hat on.
A weak, namby pamby one doesn't cut it. Do you have a
hook?
Today people are specializing in Facebook, or social media,
or mobile marketing, sms marketing or local business
marketing. They are choosing niches that less crowded or
uncrowded.
And once you find your peg, your USP, your uniqueness,
your differentiation, and once it gets traction in the
marketplace, be smart enough to give it everything you've
got.
You may not have another chance to find your fame and
fortune.
Before I move on, let me draw for you a few lessons:
Lesson 1: Mental curiosity creates aliveness. Be
relentlessly curious about what happens if you try this or
that. That's the attitude of testing. It's an attitude
that drives success.
It's also an attitude that enables you to listen intently
to others. I didn't try to impress Tag Powell when I
interviewed him. I had nothing to impress him with other
than my passion about online marketing.
But I listened. Really listened.
Lesson 2: Interviews open doors
Joe Polish pushed a wand cleaning carpets. But he started
a "Genius" series of interviews. He ain't a carpet cleaner
no more. Even I am surprised at the people he got to to
interviews with him.
Somehow he developed this formula for getting interviews
with people, publishing and then selling access to those
interviews on a monthly repeat basis.
And today he's not a wand pusher anymore.
The other thing he did was export basic direct response
marketing methods and techniques taught by Dan Kennedy and
others and taught them to carpet cleaners....
Just as some really sharp people today are taking basic,
fundamental Internet marketing methods like blogs, webinars
and autoresponders and exporting that knowledge to
businesses they know and have experience in.
You think Joe could talk carpet cleaner language and sell
marketing knowledge to them in a way that non-carpet
cleaners can't? You betcha.
If you did that, would have a USP? An advantage?
Differentiation? Just as I did when I jumped on the
opportunity to speak about online copywriting when no one
else taught it?
Most people don't understand Dan's business in the
slightest. He created a repeatable Formula people could
use to export core direct response marketing technology
(ads, sales letters, offers) to businesses in an industry.
He developed a way to create a funnel from lead generation,
through continuity, to the big ticket cash out for a
quarterly in person mastermind, a mastermind where the
person conducting it just listens and lets others do the
talking.
He developed this repeatable formula. Then created a funnel
culminating in his own Mastermind to help you can and clone
his formula in other industries.
Basically, he figured out a repeatable funnel formula all
the way through the big ticket Mastermind and teaches
people how to operate their own funnel in niche markets.
Repeatable Formula + Funnel + Big Ticket Cash Out =
Good Times
The other lesson here is that YOU are the U in USP.
When I spoke about Internet marketing and copywriting, I
didn't just drone on about it.
I educated. I entertained. I dramatized. I got people
walking around the room like a choo-choo train saying
"everything is funny when you're making money!"
I put some U or uniqueness into it. That caught on.
Of course, today no one would ever do that? Why? I don't
know. You tell me.
And remember my friend Jonathan Mizel who I helped get that
gig on Tag's cruise? And remember those 60 inbound leads a
day that Phil got at the company I wrote for?
Come to find out, a LOT of those calls came from Madison
& York, the largest 900 # seminar company in the U.S.,
doing $3,000 seminars and filling rooms for 5 years.
They referred their customers to Phil so he could sell
'em ads in newspapers, his core business.
Well, they were looking to do seminars on Internet
marketing. So they found none other than one Jonathan Mizel
since he published the ONLY (think U or unique) print
newsletter on online marketing (maybe there was another...
his is the only one I know for sure about).
Anyway, he called me up one day and said, "Sanders, you
wanna do a speaking gig? It's paying a G."
I said sure.
Then it became 2 G's. Then a LOT more than 2 G's. And we
did those gigs 120 times around the world with another
incredible, wonderful speaker and marketer named
Declan Dunn.
At those seminars I taught the 12-step online copywriting
FORMULA I had discovered and refined. See, one of the most
potent forces in the world is a formula that works.
A formula you can repeat over and over again. All great
wealth stands on the shoulders of a repeatable formula.
Not long after that I penned "The Amazing Formula That
Sells Products Like Crazy."
===================================================
Please go here and vote for which Repeatable Formula you'd
most like me to teach:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/7RVS9V9
To register for the event this Saturday, August 4, go here:
http://attractsalesnow.com/gottatellya
===================================================
Now, by that time Corey Rudl was selling enormous amounts
online. And a friend of mine named Patrick figured out how
to get access to the stats of his affiliates. He called me
and said, "Marlon, look at this."
A number of Corey's affiliates were making up to thirty
thousand a month in their commissions.
Patrick said I should start an affiliate program for
Amazing Formula, so I did using the only program at the
time I know of that did it. One Corey found or had a
guy program.
Mizel started putting on these annual events in Boulder,
Colorado. Jeff Walker was on our panel there. Corey Rudl,
Jim Edwards, Yanik Silver. Many other famous modern day
teachers of Internet marketing attended our original
events then.
That was the core. Where it all started and sprung from in
those days.
Here is vintage video from there.
http://attractsalesnow.com/vintage
Thanks to the promotion of Rick Beneteau and then
Allan Gardyne, Amazing Formula rocketed to a mega
smash hit. It was certainly the first 100% digitally
delivered ebook sold via an affiliate program that hit
it big.
I think Mark Joyner sold a boatload of ebooks on a dos
program as did Michael Enlow. Mine was windows-based. And
the traffic was all affiliate driven. Corey sold a zillion
dollars of his car secrets book digitally but also
followed up with a print copy.
This was a new MODEL.
A new FORMULA.
An Amazing Formula that sold products like crazy.
I taught others to use it. I used it myself. But a lot of
people didn't get it. The ebook Sitesell advocated search
engine positioning as a set up to a monthly continuity
software program to help you do seo.
I advocated using an affiliate program because all you
needed was a 2-page website.
1. The sales letter
2. The order form
Three pages if you added your affiliate sign up form.
This formula flat out rocked it. And I repeated it over
and over with other
products:
Gimme My Money Now
How to Create Your Own Products In a Flash
Web Site Order Taking Machine
Speed Cash
Pr Cash
I rolled 'em out fast as we could. I created Push Button
Letters to CAN and CLONE my 12-step ad copy formula.
My traffic and sales were astronomical at the time. My
phone rang off the hook 24/7 with calls from around the
world.
So much happened and so many stories happened, I'll have
to tell those another day.
What have you learned here?
How many businesses became successful because they got a
Formula that worked, canned and cloned it?
What about Coka Cola to start with/
What about McDonalds? Originally, that was a formula for
putting out one hamgurger and one french fry really
freaking fast. I loved it in those days.
You told 'em how many of the burgers you wanted, how many
fries. How many Cokes. Boom! In sacks. Out the door.
In the blink of an eye.
THAT was the original McDonalds formula imho.
My friend Jonathan Mizel later went on to develop a Formula
he called the Name Squeeze page. He holds a trademark on
that term by the way, lest anyone else says they invented
the proverbial squeeze page.
Frank Kern, Perry Marshall, many other modern day teachers
of Internet marketing (those the masses refer to as gurus,
a word which means teacher), were in his coaching program.
Anyway, he had a formula for converting a lot higher
percentage of email subscribers to sales than anyone else.
No one knew his formula for a long time.
He cleaned up on the cost per action (cpa) networks on the
back of that one formula.
My friend Declan Dunn became Ceo of a company that had
a repeatable formula for buying and re-selling advertising.
They raked in huge figures.
That's where Mike Hill of Traffic Tsunami fame got his
start.
But it was all a simple formula. One no one else knows
to this day.
Do you now SEE and FEEL the power of having a repeatable
Formula?
The power of canning and cloning it? Can you imagine
the feeling of just having one powerful, USP-driven,
repeatable formula that you just do over and over again?
Imagine a time in the not so distant future where you have
such a Formula working for you on your behalf.
What is life like?
How is it different?
How do you feel?
I don't know if you can see that clearly and vividly now.
But if you could and if you found your mind working
backwards in time to NOW when you and I make that happen
together.
That's where I'm headed with this. I'm holding a special
event on Saturday, August 4. And you're invited.
I'll be teaching 11 of the greatest repeatable formulas
I've learned over the years. And 4 of the most powerful
secrets that fortunes are made of.
You don't pay me a dime for this if you don't feel it's
worth many times more than I ask for it.
You don't pay until a day AFTER the event is over. See, at
the end of our time together, I'll give you a URL to post
to if you don't want to be charged. Just post a note and I
won't charge you a dime.
But that won't happen.
Because this is the event I share the things I've got to
say, the things on my mind, secrets and Formulas I want
YOU to know ...
Before it's too late. Every day I wake up and know my
name, I thank God and am grateful.
Today, I live each day like it's my last. Because at my
age you just never know.
A lot of people do this business only for money. I do it
for love and passion. The money is great.
But there is a difference. Some people will do anything
for a buck. I won't and don't.
But I need your help. And I need it today.
See, I have too many Formulas to share for one event. I
can't cram them all in.
I can only teach 11. And I want it to be the 11 YOU feel
will personally benefit YOU the most.
So here's what I what I need you to do right now. Your
assignment today is to go here and select the one
repeatable Formula you MOST want me to talk about.
Now, you'll notice that none of the formulas are "How to
make X amount in Y time." That's a great formula. And
personally I like it. I know that it's what you want or
would like to see.
I don't blame you. I'm very reluctant to publish that sort
of thing because in the U.S. the laws are pretty stringent
about it. I understand you're quite possibly in another
country like UK, Australia or Canada where such laws may
not exist. But it's how things are in the U.S.
Anyway, if you believe in the concept of repeatable
Formulas and you want me to share with you the best ones I
know, do you have enough belief to spend 2 hours, possibly
more, with me and then only pay me if you agree it was 10x
worth your time and 97 bucks?
You've probably already invested $97 of your time in
reading these emails, so you know that you know the value
or you wouldn't have spent the time.
So go ahead and take that next step to visibly demonstrate
your trust in me and belief in the power of repeatable
formulas and go here:
Vote for the one topic you most want me to cover here:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/7RVS9V9
To register go here:
http://attractsalesnow.com/gottatellya
But the story isn't finished quite yet....
In the next email....
My mum gets alzheimers....
The head of the Neo Nazi party in America attacks us
My web host gets more complaints than they ever had
My girlfriend gets sold into slavery
And my Internet marketing acumen and business comes to
the rescue on ALL counts....
That and more in the next email.
==>>> Your Assignment:
Vote for the one topic you most want me to cover here:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/7RVS9V9
Then to attend my event and pay only AFTER the event
and only IF you love it go here to register:
http://attractsalesnow.com/gottatellya
Finally, post your thoughts and feedback on this issue
here in my new Facebook group:
http://attractsalesnow.com/marlonsfbgroup
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
B R E A K D O W N OF AUGUST 4 E V E N T
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The details are emerging from the survey:
1. Time length: However long it takes me to cover
the topics. Usually I fade after 2 to 2 1/2 hours
2. Will I cover the topics in a cursory fashion
or in depth?
I'll cover them 100% in the depth needed. Several
topics you WILL receive supporting videos or
documentation on as you'll see.
3. Will it be recorded if you can't make it?
Yep.
4. Don't know for sure if you'll get your money's worth?
You don't pay until AFTER the event. You just pop a
note in our support desk and we won't charge you.
Don't want to dissapoint me? LISA will be handling these
not me. So no guilt or worries if you don't want charged.
5. What the topics?
They are NOT all decided yet. That depends on YOUR
responses to my survey:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/7RVS9V9
And YOUR comments in my Facebook group:
http://attractsalesnow.com/marlonsfbgroup
Here are the FOR SURE topics:
1. Sales Letter Formula -- My 12-step formula that has
sold millions of dollars
I will be breaking this down in very good detail for
you. Plus, see the bonuses.
2. The Guru Creation Formula; What's the formula to become
a guru with a dedicated following who buy products on
demand?
I have secrets here I will share you've never heard
before.
3. The List Building Formula -- Use adswaps and solo ads
to explode your business overnight and build your list
In today's market, it's all about list building, so I'll
definitely cover this one.
The other topics are to be decided.
==============
B-O-N-U-S-E-S
==============
First 25 to sign up are guaranteed to receive:
1. FULL access to the complete presentation from my
Vintage video in 1997.
2. A written document covering my 12-step sales letter
formula in depth.
If you like to read and have concerns I won't cover it
in enough depth in the webinar (which I will) you have
this to fall back on. This is an extensive document.
3. One year access to my Push Button Format email
editor that is a complete and total life saver when
you're writing emails like this one.
Write the email in any text editor. Paste it in. Click
a button. Boom! Your text is 100% formatted the right
length.
All other tools I see jack up and truncate lines and
you have to manually go in and fix every line. This
includes the built-in tool on Aweber.
Note: Infusionsoft doesn't have a built in line length
marker and if you're sending text emails with it not
formatted to 72 characters per line or less, it's a huge
mistake.
This is the ONLY tool I know of that fixes this problem.
4. To be announced.
=======>>>> To sign up go here:
http://attractsalesnow.com/gottatellya