How to Get Other People to Make Sales for You
Issue #2355
- WEALTHY: Your best choice when investing in bonds (Andrew Gordon)
- HEALTHY: How a few pounds affects that beer belly (Craig Ballantyne)
- WISE: Charles L. Allen on aiming high
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:
- Treasure maps that lead to treasure chests full of other treasure maps (Alex Mandossian)
- Do you answer the question "What do you do?" the lazy way? (Ilise Benun)
- It’s Good to Know… about the computerized repo man
- Add "lionize" to your vocabulary
The Difference Between 30-Year Bond Returns and 30-Year Bondage
This is what the government bond chart on the Bloomberg site showed me recently:
- 2 years: 2.13 percent return
- 5 years: 3.13 percent return
- 10 years: 3.50 percent return
- 30 years: 4.38 percent return.
If you want to invest in bonds (these are U.S. bonds but you can do the same exercise with bonds from other countries), which ones do you choose? Here’s how to break this chart down in order to select the best deal.
1. Calculate the difference in the various interest rates in basis points. One basis point equals 1/100th of 1 percent or 0.01 percent.
- The 5-year bond’s interest rate is 100 basis points better than the 2-year.
- The 10-year bond’s interest rate is 37 points better than the 5-year.
- The 30-year bond’s interest rate is 88 points better than the 10-year.
2. Measure the points per year. (Divide the points by the number of years your money will be tied up.)
- In comparing the 2-year to 5-year bonds, you get 33 more basis points of interest for each of the three extra years your money is tied up.
- In comparing the 10-year to 5-year bonds, you get 7.4 more basis points for each of the five extra years your money is tied up.
- In comparing the 30-year to 10-year bonds, you get 4.4 more basis points for each of the extra 20 years your money is tied up.
The 5-year bond looks like your best deal – but it’s not. When you compare the 2-year to a zero-year bond at zero interest (in other words, no bond at all), you get 107 more basis points for each of the two extra years your money is tied up. Based on how much more interest you get paid for the number of years you tie up your money, that makes the 2-year bond your best deal.
The 30-year bond is your worst deal.
There are subjective factors you will also want to consider, like how soon you will need that money. But for a simple quantitative analysis… you just learned how to do it.
[Ed. Note: ETR's Investment Director, Andrew Gordon, is the editor of INCOME, a monthly financial advisory service that uncovers income-generating stocks that promise safety (first and foremost), along with much-higher-than-average profit potential.]
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== Highly Recommended==
Your Personal Invitation to Join a Small Cadre of "Freedom Fighters" in Our Nation’s Heartland This July!
Coming this summer, Early to Rise presents a five-day challenge for you, should you decide to accept it…
The stakes? Reclaiming your personal liberty… declaring your self-reliance… and seizing financial independence forever.
This July 8 to 12, we’re going to take a small group of ETR readers and work alongside them to build their own Internet business – the whole shebang, from soup to nuts – in an intensive, 5-day business-building program better than anything we’ve done before.
You’re going to walk in with nothing – no product, no marketing skills, no technical know-how – and you’ll walk out with your own online business
What you will learn flat-out works. You will build a professional, popular, and profitable Internet business. When you walk out the door, you’ll be super-prepared for success in a way that very few entrepreneurs ever are, online or off.
ETR’s "Five Days in July" Internet Business-Building Workshop is going to deliver success. Actually, it will OVER deliver. And your success, of course, is the bottom line. Sound good?
Okay, then let’s get going… let’s build something that WORKS… your own, REAL Internet business.
It only takes a few minutes to take that first key step. Find out how easy it is to join us and get all the details here.
Looking forward to seeing you there,
- Charlie Byrne
P.S. Only 75 people will get the chance to create a fully-functioning Internet business at this elite conference. As of this morning, fewer than SEVEN spots remain. Get in now before you’re shut out completely.
"Why should you be content with so little? Why shouldn’t you reach out for something big?"
Charles L. Allen
How to Get Other People to Make Sales for You and Boost Your Bottom Line
Teleseminars have helped me make up to $25,000 an hour. They’re my bread and butter.
The most common way to make money with teleseminars is to use them to sell products or services to your existing or prospective customers. But there’s another way.
You can offer special teleseminars specifically for your affiliates.
What are affiliates? They are people who promote your products and services to their customers and prospects. If their prospects buy, you pay them a percentage of the sale. They’re like a sales force you pay only when they produce results.
You can build your business just by teaching your affiliates how to become better marketers. This helps them sell their own products… and it also helps them sell your products.
Your affiliates are essentially treasure maps that lead to treasure chests full of other treasure maps. You can find all those other treasure maps by hosting teleseminars for your affiliates on a regular basis.
These teleseminars are valuable marketing tools in part because they create intimacy. They allow you to talk directly to your affiliates, which makes them feel like part of your exclusive group. They get your affiliates excited about your products and ready to promote them.
Another big benefit of teleseminars is they establish a win-win-win situation. You’ll make more money because you’ll sell more. Your affiliates will make more money because they’ll earn commissions. And – through your affiliates – you’ll be able to give useful, valuable products to many more customers than you could reach on your own.
Giving away useful information for free is a great way to get your affiliates pumped up about selling your products. I’ve done this with TeleseminarSecrets.com, VirtualBookTourSecrets.com, and PodcastSecrets.com – with every program I have to offer.
In my affiliate teleseminars, I talk about all the details of the program I want them to sell. And I tell them all the reasons that a customer would want to buy that program. What makes it superior to other programs. How it can help the customer make money. I also suggest ways for my affiliates to promote the program to their customers. This gets them charged up and champing at the bit to get out there and sell.
When I hosted a teleseminar like this for my 1Shopping Cart affiliates, I got them so pumped up that we saw a nice bump in sales within 24 hours.
The key is to make each teleseminar simple and exciting. And keep it to less than an hour. I’ve found that 45 minutes is the sweet spot.
But it doesn’t end there. I offer a contest for the affiliates who sell the most, plus additional bonuses depending on how many sales they make. I send out e-mails and use additional teleseminars to let all my affiliates know who the top affiliates are, as well as to answer questions and give them more ideas on how they can make more money.
Here’s how you can set up your own affiliate teleseminars:
First, of course, you need to set up an affiliate program. Don’t worry – it’s pretty easy to do.
- Make sure your shopping cart can handle affiliates. (Some can’t.)
- Put up a Web page with the affiliate sign-up form from your shopping cart.
- Your shopping cart will give each affiliate a special link to your products – one created just for that person. This way, you can track which affiliates are bringing in the most customers and pay them accordingly.
Once you’ve got your affiliate program up and running, start coming up with ideas for teleseminars you can offer. For instance, you could hold a teleseminar where you:
- … reveal how your best affiliates are marketing your products. Interview your top affiliates and have them share their secrets for making money.
- … recognize best practices and outstanding efforts. Do this by not only teaching your own proven marketing strategies but also by having the affiliates teach what they do – and then openly acknowledging their efforts.
- … give monetary awards to the "Affiliate of the Month." Feature the Affiliate of the Month on the call and let them share what they do, then mail them a check.
- … introduce new products and discuss what makes them valuable to your affiliates’ customers. Use the call to teach your affiliates how to sell your new products to their lists.
- … talk about upcoming events. If you’re doing a promotion of an existing product or a new product launch, this is the time to let your affiliates know about it so they can get it in their calendars.
- … answer questions from individual affiliates
There’s another way you can use teleseminars to make money with your affiliates. Instead of offering a call for the affiliates, offer a call for the affiliates to promote. They make money on every person who signs up for the call. PLUS, they make money when the people they signed up buy something during or after the call.
Here’s how I did it with my TeleseminarSecrets.com affiliate program. First, I offered a preview call. I charged $20 for the preview call, and I paid my affiliates $18 for every customer they got to sign up for it. Plus, I paid them an additional $900 for each of their customers who signed up for TeleseminarSecrets.com.
Whichever method you choose to use, hosting teleseminars for your affiliates can skyrocket your affiliate marketing campaigns. But as simple as this technique is, it is oftentimes overlooked. Don’t make that mistake. It is a win-win-win situation that can make you lots of money.
[Ed. Note: Alex Mandossian is the CEO of Heritage House Publishing Inc. Affiliate marketing with teleseminars has helped Alex make $25,000 an hour. If you want to learn exactly how he did it, step by step, go to www.TeleseminarSecretsProfile.com, where you'll also be able to get a free custom marketing electronic analysis.
You can get face time with Alex and other Internet marketing experts at ETR's 5 Days in July Internet Business Building Conference. We can accept only 75 attendees at this exclusive conference, so if you're interested, act soon. Update: As of this morning, fewer than SEVEN seats remain for this 75-person elite event. So get the details right now before every spot disappears.]
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Give Yourself a Nice Pay Raise – And A Three Day Weekend, Every Weekend
By the end of this week, you can give yourself a pay raise. How does an extra $20/hr sound… and schedule a few days of vacation while you’re at it!
After a month or two, how about another raise… to $2,000 a week.
It’s happening everywhere. Ordinary people — including folks who never finished school — starting their own businesses… and making side incomes in the neighborhood of $40,000… $60,000… even $100,000 or more a year.
They’re living the American Dream. Now it’s time for you to start living it too. Read on…
-Charlie Byrne
Networking Mistake: Labeling Yourself
By Ilise Benun
When networking, one of your goals should be to invite the people you meet into a conversation. But when you answer the question "What do you do?" with, "I am a _______," the result is the exact opposite. Instead, you’ve got to start out with something interesting. Something that will pique your listener’s curiosity and make her want to talk to you longer.
Take lawyers, for example. When I hear them say "I’m a lawyer" in response to "What do you do?" it makes my eyes glaze over. I want to hear what type of law they practice. And what kind of clients they work with. If they say something like "I practice entertainment law and I draft contracts between film production companies and movie stars," that gets my attention and makes me curious to know more.
Let’s say you’re a writer. Instead of saying "I’m a writer," why not take advantage of the opportunity to mention the kind of writing you do and who you do it for? You could say, "I work with financial newsletter companies and I help them sell more subscriptions." Or, "I write articles for online political magazines." Or, "I work with aviation companies on their marketing materials." All of these sentences give your listener so much more to ask about. Then you’re off and running into conversation-land!
[Ed. Note: Marketing expert Ilise Benun is the author of The Designer's Guide to Marketing and Pricing. Get more self-marketing strategies with Ilise's free e-newsletter, Quick Tips from Marketing Mentor.
Networking is one of the best ways to find new clients, meet potential partners, and discover people who can help your business grow. For ideas about how to accomplish your networking - and all your other personal and professional - goals, check out ETR's Total Success Achievement Program.]
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Why Only a Little Weight Loss Helps a Lot
Too many people don’t get started on big projects, like losing weight, because the task seems insurmountable. But even if you’ve got a long way to go to completely lose your gut, here’s some incentive for you.
In a review of 61 studies, Australian researchers found that modest weight loss resulted in a preferential loss of visceral adipose tissue (VAT). VAT is the fat that is most often found in those "hard beer bellies" of older men – the fat associated with a risk for heart disease.
As soon as you start a fat-loss program, the first fat to go tends to be that potentially deadly belly fat. So just by losing a few pounds, you can make a dramatic improvement in your overall health.
To get going on your fat-loss program, reduce the number of calories you eat each day by 10-20 percent and start doing resistance and interval training.
[Ed. Note: If you are new to exercise but want to lose weight, start with a beginner bodyweight training program for 2-6 weeks, such as the one found in Craig's Turbulence Training manual. You will also get specific step-by-step instructions on how to do intervals at any fitness level. Learn more here.
And to get more articles on how simple lifestyle choices can improve your health, sign up for ETR's natural health newsletter.]
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It’s Good to Know: The Computerized Repo Man
You head out to your car, turn the key in the ignition. Instead of the roar of the engine, you hear an insistent beeping. You turn the key again. The car still won’t start!
This situation is becoming increasingly common because of a new effort by some lenders to cut down on loan defaults. They’ve been turning to several companies that offer technology to "train" customers to pay on time.
It works like this: A small box is mounted under the dash of the car. Its lights flash when a payment is coming up. It starts beeping on the due date. If the payment isn’t made, the car won’t start. Lenders claim that default rates have decreased 30 to 50 percent among those who have the device installed.
Frustrating? Maybe. But probably better than a late night visit from a collection agency to repossess the vehicle.
(Source: USA Today)
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The Only Three Ways to Grow a Business
Did you know that there are only three ways to grow a business?
1. Increase the number of customers.
2. Increase the average transaction value.
3. Increase the frequency of repurchase.
Find a way to maximize each one, and your business will experience an astonishing rate of growth.
In his "9 Pillars of Business Growth" program, acclaimed consultant Jay Abraham outlines hundreds of proven, frequently unrecognized, and almost totally underutilized ways to grow these three key areas of your business. If you own a business (or would like to), be sure to take a look at Jay’s program.
- Charlie Byrne
Word to the Wise: Lionize
To "lionize" (LYE-uh-nize) is to treat as an object of great interest or importance.
Example (as used by James Brady in Further Lane): "At Penn State he’d been welcomed, nurtured, lionized as a track and field star who narrowly missed making our Olympic team in the decathlon."
Copyright ETR, LLC, 2008
As a former bond portfolio manager, I regret to inform you that your understanding of the math of bonds is woefully deficient. Your “analysis” of picking bonds by incremental yield is simple-minded and flat wrong. First of all, to determine risk (or, more accurately, interest rate risk), you have to use DURATION (or in some cases, MODIFIED DURATION), a weighted present-value concept, rather than maturity. Each year of maturity increase adds less than a year of duration, and the further out the yield curve one goes, the more pronounced the difference between the two becomes. This is why, for example, the rate risk of a 30 year bond is not 3 times the rate risk of a 10 year bond, but more like double. Another mistake your method will lead to is always favoring the shortest maturities when the yield curve flattens enough or becomes inverted. This will typically give you the WRONG (least profitable) recommendation as to which maturities to favor, since, historically, the yield curve usually inverts when rates rise, and this is the best time to invest in LONG BONDS, not short or intermediate issues. (Go back to 1980/1981 to see this, when short term government rates were 20% and long term rates were 15%. Would you really have preferred to invest in short term instruments and roll them over as rates fell, rather than profiting from the huge capital gains that accrued to long term bond holders?) Finally, your statement that 0 year maturity instruments earn 0% ia absurd. Money market funds, bank accounts and short term T-Bills all pay interest rates substantially greater than zero.
Next time you’re tempted to write about something you don’t know much about, perhaps you should first consult someone who does.