Most Important Business Question Ever?

Well, here goes nothing…

WARNING: Again, I’m about to ask you a really tough question that is going to demand soul-searching and serious contemplation.

That said, let’s review…

We all agree that getting traffic and recruiting affiliates are often two of the most crucial components of online success. But, they also tend to be the most difficult to achieve.

In fact, recruiting affiliates is a Catch-22. Most affiliates want to know how other affiliates have done. But if you don’t have any other affiliates promoting your product, you have no data to convince the new affiliates. Like I said, a Catch-22.

But on the bright side, once you get a few successful affiliates, your success will snowball as other affiliates join your mission.

So yesterday I sent you away with the question:

“What do your clients and prospects NOT have?”

That was meant to help you create and refine your product and offer for your market. And if you did a good job with that, then you’ll be on your way to successfully answering today’s tougher question.

So are you ready?

And open-minded?

With a pen and paper and 15 minutes to devote to this one?

Okay, so you need to ask yourself…

“Why do I DESERVE traffic and affiliates?”

Listen, almost every online niche market is jam-packed with competitors. It’s naive to expect that you can come waltzing in, set up a site offering a generic product, and have thousands of visitors hitting your site and buying your product from day one.

It’s just not realistic. Let’s dig deeper and ask:

Why would other websites link to mine?

Why would affiliates promote my product instead of others?

What do I offer that is DIFFERENT than everyone else?

Why would I stand out in a crowded marketplace?

For example, let’s say you are a financial expert and want to sell your financial and investing books online.

Well, why would someone choose you instead of Suze Orman or David Bach?

Why would your prospects go to your website when they can watch CNBC and Jim Cramer’s Mad Money? Why would they buy your product when they can find investing online for free?

Here’s another example…let’s say you want to be a fitness and fat loss expert for Moms.

You’re now competing against Jillian Michaels, Tony Horton, Holly Rigsby, Jennifer Nicole Lee, Isabel De Los Rios, Dustin Maher, and every baby-body-belly-blitzin-bootcamp within 10 miles of your prospect.

So why would they choose you when they have all of those options, AND when they could even find all of the info they need online for free?

And let’s be clear about that last one…our prospects can pretty much find EVERY piece of information that they want somewhere on the Internet WITHOUT having to pay for it.

So why do you deserve your prospect’s money?

Those are tough questions that you absolutely, positively must ask yourself. You need to set aside at least 15 minutes now, and then again at your most creative time of the day to list out everything that makes you, your website, and your product unique and valuable.

OK, I hope we’re still friends so far. If not, I’ll now win you back with Part 1 of 2 in the Good News Department.

To help you get started, I’ll list a few of the methods you could use to differentiate yourself and earn your traffic and affiliates:

1) Do you have a unique product that fills a gap in the marketplace?

2) Do you have massive credibility and established brand offline?

3) Are you the first to market? (Being first to market is one of the “22 Immutable Laws of Marketing” by Jack Trout and Al Ries)

4) Does your sales copy convert better than most other products in your market?

5) Does your website provide massive amounts of unique and valuable content that can be used to generate Search Engine Traffic?

6) Do you have unique and valuable content posted all over the Internet, on sites like Youtube, EzineArticles, Facebook, and other major sites in your industry?

7) Are you outspoken and different and NOT saying the same old thing that everyone else is saying?

That’s a starting point. Again, “Internet Marketing Gurus” won’t ask you these questions because these questions won’t help them sell you products, but these questions WILL help you make a plan for success.

So until tomorrow, sit yourself down, take a deep breath, be brutally honest, and ask yourself WHY do I deserve to get the traffic and affiliates that I desire?

And if you can’t come up with a list of at least 6 powerful and justifiable reasons, then don’t get frustrated. Instead, start
working on a plan that justifies the existence of your business.

This might be the most important set of questions you ever ask yourself when it comes to the future of your business.

Oh, and Part 2 of 2 in the Good News Department is that I’m working on a 12-Month plan that will show you exactly what I would do if I was just getting started online and wanted to make $100k in 12 months.

Should be done for January 24th…and it will be free.

Hope you’ll be back tomorrow,

Craig Ballantyne

“What do you want and what are you doing NOT to get it?
Dr. Nido Qubein