The Anatomy Of A Money-Making Site

Today I’m going to bring you behind the scenes of how I create a money-making website. I’ll be using a LIVE example that’s making money right now and I’ll show how I structured the entire website and the sales process so that everything runs on autopilot.

Well, I hope that gets you jumping in your underpants. So without further ado…

This is the helpless guinea pig we’re gonna dissect:

The Secrets Of Millionaire Investors

If you need to see the site LIVE, simply click on the screenshot above.

I usually start with a squeeze page to capture names and email addresses. And in order for someone to give you his contact details, you obviously have to provide a great reason for him to do so.

In this example, we’re giving out a free chapter of the book. For you, it could be anything else; a free report, video, mp3, e-course, even a whole book, mother-in-law (ha! see who opts-in!), etc.

Creating the squeeze page is simple enough. I usually think up a headline, a subhead, 4-7 bullet points highlighting the main benefits of the free whatever, and the call to action (gimme your email!).

That above is called an opt-in form.

If you need some help creating your own squeeze page, you can follow my example here or you could go visit the MOST copied squeeze page in the world – www.DoubleYourDating.com (I can’t believe how many times I’ve seen this model floating round…)

There are other types of squeeze pages around. Some offer a free video upfront and then ask you for your name and email before you can access the rest of the videos. Some have audio content, some use surveys/quizzes where you answer questions and then they ask you for your name and email before they allow to see the results of your quiz.

Many, many models out there today. But if you’re just starting out, doing your first squeeze page, keep it simple and effective and get it done. That’s the key. You can always tweak your page in the future. You don’t have to (and can’t) get your page perfect.

So what software do I use to store all the fancy names and emails?

If you’re looking for software to capture all the fancy names and emails that come your way, I recommend Aweber. I use them myself and about 50% of IMers out there use them too. Their system is a pleasure to work with. For strong reasons why I recommend using an autoresponder like Aweber instead of you storing your database on an excel spreadsheet (cheapskate!), read this short post.

OK. So after someone enters his contact details, what happens next?

Well, the first thing that happens is that you’ll want to direct him to a Thank You page. In my example, I send him to a Thank You page where I specifically give the person instructions on how he can confirm his subscription BEFORE I send him the free download. Having someone confirm his subscription is called a double opt-in.

The reason why I do this is simple. I’m looking for people who are genuinely interested in my offer. And if someone is genuinely interested in my free download, he won’t mind giving his real contact details at all.

So if someone uses a fake name and email, he can’t get the download. Because the only way I’m going to deliver the download is through email. And if your email is bogus, you won’t be able to get it, eh?

Another reason why you should use a double opt-in is because you don’t want to be accused of spam.

For example, if someone lands on your page and enters George Bush’s email address (instead of his own) into your opt-in form and you start sending emails to Bush. He’s going to scramble a couple of F-22s and accuse you of spam/hiding weapons of mass dissemination/etc.

Big trouble! You don’t want that.

You only want to send emails to people who’ve ALLOWED you to do so and having them confirm this is the safest way to go. Aweber and all the other top-notch autoresponders out there will have this double opt-in feature available.

Anyway, if you notice on my squeeze page, I have a link that says Click Here To Continue at the bottom. That link directs to the salesletter (which I’ll be talking about soon). So even if some idiot enters a bogus email and lands on my Thank You page, I still have the opportunity that he clicks on that link, goes to my salesletter and maybe purchase my product. Plug all the gaps, baby!

OK, let’s move on…

Assuming the fella entered his real contact details, he’ll first be directed to the Thank You page (like everyone else) to read the instructions.

At the same time this is what happens behind the scenes; the moment someone enters his name and email into your opt-in form, Aweber will immediately send a confirmation email to the person’s inbox.

So now the person’s at the Thank You page reading the instructions and then he proceeds to check his inbox for the confirmation email. He sees the confirmation email, opens it, and clicks on the confirmation link inside. He’s now confirmed! (He’s a live one!)

Once he confirms his email, Aweber will automatically send out my first email in my queued email sequence (I’ll about talk this later as well) to him.

In my first email, I welcome him to the list and give him the link to download his free bonus as promised.

Notice again that even on the download page, I have that link again at the bottom directing people to the salesletter.

You always want to give people somewhere to go. Don’t just let them visit a page and then end there; direct them somewhere else where you can offer them something else, visit your blog, etc (people have itchy fingers that love to click…).

In this case, after someone has finished his download, I want him to proceed on to view the salesletter and go for the sale.

But even if he doesn’t visit the salesletter now, it’s fine. Because in my free download I have links which point back to my salesletter. Obviously your free download has to be QUALITY. You can’t expect to give people rubbish and then expect them to buy from you.

In my example, people get to read the a full chapter of the book which is loaded with great value and content, and hopefully whets their appetite for more information. So make sure your free bonus is packed with value, so that people can trust you as an expert in your field. You MUST gain their trust before they will buy from you.

So what comes next?

OK. So now after he reads your free report, or watches your free video, listened to your MP3, spent some time with your mother-in-law, etc, you want to provide links that will direct him to view your salesletter and your product. And then he can make a decision whether he wants to buy or not.

So in my example, let’s say that after reading the free chapter, he’s impressed and interested enough to find out more about the rest of the book and what it has to offer. So he clicks on the link at the end of the free chapter that will direct him to the salesletter:

The salesletter is obviously a CRUCIAL component of your website. It has to sell your product or you don’t make money. It’s as straightforward as that.

Now there are many elements which make a salesletter sales-worthy. But I won’t discuss them here because copywriting is another topic altogether (which I’ll cover in another post like this).

So now someone’s at your salesletter and reading about what you have to offer. At the end of this, only TWO things can happen – he buys or he doesn’t.

If he buys, great! You just made some money (and I’ll show you how to make even more after that). But if he doesn’t buy, what happens then? Do you just allow the person to simply slip away?

Of course not! Remember that he already confirmed his email address and gave you his permission to contact him via email. So now what you have to do is to follow-up with the prospect via email. And you can do this entirely on autopilot!

I know it’s not really clear but that screenshot above is my Aweber account where it shows the emails I’ve queued up to send to the prospect every 7 days. AUTOMATICALLY.

So every week I send an email to the prospect reminding him about the great product we have and all he has to do is to click here, visit the salespage, and purchase his own shiny copy.

But beware!

Now you can’t just send an email every week simply telling someone to buy, buy, buy. No one’s going to like that at all! So what you want to do is to provide relevant and valuable content to the prospect. Content that he can benefit from right at this very moment.

Here’s a REAL email which I send out to people on my list (for this particular stock investing product):

Hi Dubya,

Through my own course of learning to invest over the years, I have
found that there are many very different philosophies and
strategies that experts use to select stocks to achieve above
average returns.

Today, I use a whole range of different investment strategies
myself, depending on whether I am looking for a quick intra-day
gain or a longer-term return over a year.

In all, I will share with you four of the most powerful growth
strategies I use to make millions in the markets.

Growth Strategy 1: Buying Markets & Sectors

The first growth strategy you will be learning in chapter 3 would
be on how to achieve the same returns as the whole US stock market
or Singapore Stock market by buying the market indexes such as the
S&P 500 index, Dow Jones Index, Nasdaq composite Index and the
Straits Times Index.

This is the most basic strategy that all novice investors should
start off with. Executing this strategy successfully involves the
lowest level of financial competence but can make you consistent
annual compounded returns of 10%-12.08%.

Growth Strategy 2: Value Investing

In chapter 4 of Secrets Of Millionaire Investors, you will further
increase your level of financial intelligence by learning to select
specific stocks of individual companies that would outperform the
general market and even the hottest sectors.

Value investing is the strategy employed by Warren Buffett, the
world’s greatest investor and second richest man. In value
investing, you will learn to buy high performing companies at a
fraction of what they are worth.

In other words, you will learn how to buy great companies when they
are undervalued and to sell them for a huge profit once the market
realizes its true value. This strategy has consistently made me
profits of 15%-25% annually!

Growth Strategy 3: Momentum Investing

This next strategy will allow you to achieve much higher returns
(of more than 20%) within a much shorter period of time (3-6
months). Momentum investing involves finding the hottest stocks
that are ready to make great gains.

Momentum stocks tend to already be priced above their fair value.
However, because of the entire market’s optimism about the stock’s
potential, these stocks tend to increase significantly in price
within a very short period of time before they are overbought and
come tumbling down (this is when you sell and make huge profits).

Growth Strategy 4: Options Trading

Finally, you are going to learn the art of how to make 100%-500%
return on your money within 1-3 months. This final strategy
requires you to have the highest level of financial competence and
skill. This strategy is known as trading (as opposed to investing)
and it involves the use of buying (or selling) stock options.

Trading is different from investing in a few ways. Investing
usually involves making money by buying a stock and predicting that
it will increase in value over a few months to a few years.

However, in trading you are able to make profits whether the stock
price moves up or down and you usually enter and exit a trade
within a very short period of time.

So there you have it. 4 powerful growth strategies to multiply your
money immediately.

If you’re interested in learning the RIGHT way to invest
successfully in the stock markets, then click on the link below:

=> http://www.SecretsOfMillionaireInvestors.com/index1.htm

To your investing success,
Adam

And when you provide such valuable content to people. They’re going to remember it! And they’re going to remember you as the EXPERT. The go-to-guy whenever it comes to whatever-your-field-is. And when they’ve positioned YOU as the expert in their minds, guess who they’re going to purchase from when they decide to buy? Uh huh, you know…

So someone’s going to magically buy my product after reading emails?

OK. Is the person going to buy the moment he reads your first, second, third email? Maybe not (and usually not). That’s why you need to continually follow-up with a prospect. For this list, I’ve got over 30 emails queued up. That’s over 7 months of follow-up emails. ALL of them providing real, valuable content and a call to action inside as well.

After all of this, if someone doesn’t buy, then he just won’t. You can’t force anyone to buy your stuff. But then there will obviously be people who DO buy and who buy because of your regular follow-ups. So focus on them instead.

Remember to always provide real value in your emails! Because if you give people crap, they’ll simply unsubscribe from your list and you just lost a prospect forever. (There’ll always be people unsubscribing, you can’t help that, it’s a numbers game. But as long as you know you’re providing good value, that’s good enough)

OK. (Damn! This post is getting long…) So let’s say after all the follow-up, someone decides to visit your salesletter, reads the offer one more time and then purchases your product. What happens next?

Well, if that’s the end of your sales funnel, that’s it. You get paid and your customer gets to download his product (or you deliver it if it’s a physical product).

But you DON’T want to end your sales funnel here. You want to immediately upsell them to another offer. Just like McDonald’s upsells you dessert, apple pie, and extra calories along with your meal, you want to do the same thing.

So in my example, straight after the first purchase, I show the customer another product offer. This is called an upsell.

Remember that the best time to sell to a person is just after he buys something (he’s in the buyer’s mood! I mean, I buy candy this way… snickers, kit-kat, Heck! I’ll just take the whole load!). So take this opportunity to offer something else to the customer.

Now to those people who think that this is pushy, too ‘much’ selling, etc. Please remember that you are NOT forcing anyone to buy your product; you’re merely offering them another CHOICE. And people love choices. So if you don’t offer your customers more choices, you really are doing yourself and your customer a great disservice.

People are smart enough to decide whether they want to purchase something or not. SO don’t worry about offering choices. McDonald’s does it (upsize? Umm ok!), movie theaters do it (how about popcorn along with your movie? Oh heck! why not!), so why shouldn’t you?

In my example, from an initial $19.95 purchase, I get the opportunity to upsell another product at $197.00. And if just 10% of people purchase the 2nd offer, I’d be missing out on A LOT of dough if I didn’t simply offer that choice.

Let’s move on…

OK. So now your customer it at the upsell page. Again only TWO things can happen – he purchases the upsell, or he doesn’t.

If he doesn’t, that’s fine, you send him straight to where he can download his original purchase. If he decides to purchase, AWESOME! You just made more money because you added one extra step in your sales process. Money that would have been left on the table if you hadn’t done so! So either way you send your customer to the download page to download his purchases.

In my example, after payment, instead of sending my customer straight to the download page, I send him to another squeeze page first. And he has to enter his name and email again before he can download his purchase.

The reason why I do this is because I want my customers to be on my CUSTOMER list. You want to know who your customers are, so you can take very good care of them. They’re very important people. Basically, someone who’s your customer has demonstrated that they trust you enough to pull out their credit card and purchase from you. So treat them well!

Another reason why I do this is because when I subscribe someone onto my customer list, Aweber automatically unsubscribes someone from the PROSPECT list. I don’t want to be bother someone with emails promoting my product when he’s already bought the product.

So after my customer enters his name and email and proceeds to download his purchase. What happens next? Does it all end there? Oh no… (muahahahah!)

Even on the download page, you want to offer something to your customer as well.

Again, what you’re doing is that you’re simply offering CHOICES. As long as your choices are made with good intentions, relevant (don’t offer cats to dog people, etc) and what you’re promoting is of real value and can seriously benefit your customer, then please offer them that choice.

Like I mentioned earlier, people are smart enough to decide if they want to buy or not. So give them the opportunity to work their brain cells and make decisions.

And it goes on and on and on…

Now that someone’s on my list, I will continue to send valuable content along with offers every now and then. And people will decide again and again whether they wish to purchase or not.

It’s just like your everyday life. You’re faced with choices and buying decisions EVERYDAY. Shall I eat this or that? Watch this movie or that? Should I buy this dress? etc etc etc… You’re just bringing that process on to the Internet.

And THAT is the basic anatomy of a money-making site.

Right now if you’re lost (you poor sod…), here’s a little something to help you summarize the whole process:

And to end this post, guess how long it takes me to run this entire sales process?

ZERO hours. (omigod! you lazy bastard!)

Everything online is fully automated. You may come back every now and then to tweak things here and there. But once it’s all properly set up, everything’s on AUTOPILOT. Now wouldn’t you want something that spits money for you on autopilot every month?

You see, that’s the great thing about the Internet. A LOT of the processes can be fully automated online, freeing you to pursue your plans for world domination! How cool is that?

Anyway did you enjoy this post? Leave a comment or contact me if you have any questions.