Internet Marketing Transformation Contest Winner

“Transformation Contests”, Forrest Gump once said, “are like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re going to get.”

You might be overwhelmed by the number and quality of entries, or as has been the case in the past, you might be disappointed by the lack thereof.

I’m pleased to announce this contest exceeded my expectations in terms of the quality of entrants.

Wow.

I’m not easily impressed, but the winning entries in our first Financial Independence Monthly Transformation Contest stunned me. It gives me great pleasure to share these inspiring stories with you.

The winners of $1000 each of my money included:

1) The Advanced Champion: An expert selling valuable products to the senior market (making $20K per month while STILL working a 40-hour-per-week J-O-B – impressive)

2) The Beginner Champion: A man funding his world travel by selling tax-prep info products

Today we’re going to meet the Advanced Category winner, and I want you to use his story as inspiration.

(PS – If Mike sells to your marketplace...I encourage you to contact him and see if you can help promote his products. I’m sure there are a few joint venture partners reading this email right now. Let’s help out other Internet Independence readers when we can.)

Back to your success…

It can be done. You CAN succeed. It will not be easy or an overnight process, but with patience, persistence, and a proven blueprint, you can achieve the New American Dream and take control of your financial independence.

Advanced Champion $1000 Winner – Mike Ross, www.TheBalanceManual.com

Achieving the American Dream by Solving Senior’s Problems.

Here is my gross sales comparison of 8 weeks during the transformation contest and the 8 weeks before that.

Nov 5, 2011 – Dec 30, 2011 = $18,048.3
Dec 31, 2011 – Feb 24, 2012 = $26,828.5

(NOTE: Full screenshots with dates were provided)

That is an increase of 48.6%. Also, January was our best month ever and February was our second best month ever.

This was the result of four major things implemented over that time. (By the way, my business sells fitness information products to seniors.)

1. Free Video Membership site for my current email subscribers.

Over the last couple years I have been sending my list exercise video clips on a regular basis. People love these, but many had emailed me that they had lost the links to my prior videos or were having trouble keeping track of all of them.

So I put all the videos on one site, with an index page so they could quickly go from one video to another. Every video page also had a link on it to my Products page as well as a
link or call to action below each video for a specific product.

I ended up getting a lot of sales from people who had been with me for a long time and knew about these products, but they just needed to be reminded about them again.

Secondly, every person that signed up immediately received an autoresponder email asking them to forward the link to the site to a friend, which brought in leads and sales.

Those two things were minor in the grand scheme, though.

The real reason I made this site was because I knew my list would love it and that it would build tremendous reciprocity.

And it didn’t even take much work. These videos were an asset I already had that I was able to repurpose into something that generated sales and goodwill.

2. Limited time sale.

January is of course a huge month for fitness, and that is no different for seniors. So I had a limited-time sale on my most popular product, the Moving with Mike DVDs, and we sold $2400 of those.

3. Reposition an underperforming product.

About 9 months ago I released my Agility and Coordination Exercises product to my list, and response was underwhelming.

I realized that the product was not really a standalone product but more of a follow-up to my original book, The Balance Manual. So I added it as a 1-click upsell after the
Balance Manual, and the results have been great.

Nov 5, 2011 – Dec 30, 2011 as a Standalone = $608

Dec 31, 2011 – Feb 24, 2012 as an Upsell = $2036 = 234% increase

This will be a permanent increase in monthly sales, and it’s also good because it makes a bigger initial transaction and thus larger up-front commission for my affiliates. I am getting a 24% uptake rate on that.

4. Continuity – Launched a monthly paid newsletter.

This was the most exciting for me. I always wanted to do some kind of continuity, but I had sent my list so much free video content, I couldn’t imagine them paying for a video
membership site. And they would never pay for a text newsletter, because text is boring compared to video, right?

But then I thought about how much I enjoy getting FIM and ETR Premium, and that’s just text. It’s the content that matters.

Perhaps a newsletter would work precisely because it was different than the free videos I had been sending.

I went from idea to launch in less than a month – articles, graphics (outsourced), formatting, offer, sales page, etc.

This is pretty good for me considering it took me a year to write my first ebook (that was back before I found you).

I put together an irresistible offer, and was just floored when over 100 people joined on the first day!

We have over 280 people now, and are just starting to rebill people for the second month.

I am only charging $5 per month. The rationale for that was that after I had built up so much reciprocity over time, and the price was so low, they would almost have to dislike me to not sign up.

And once you’re signed up for something that is only $5 per month, why would you cancel that unless the content is just terrible? It’s only $5! And I am providing top notch content, so I expect people to stick for a long time.

I should mention that I still work a 40-hour-per-week job.

I am off Sunday and Monday, but Sunday is wife time, so I do most my work on Monday, and I get up early and do 1 hour of work each day before I leave for work.

My big secret is that I make to-do lists.

So on that precious Monday, or the hour before work, I know exactly what I am going to do, and it is going to be something that moves me forward.

Bottom Line:

For me, doing these numbers in gross sales is almost unbelievable considering it was only several years ago that I was excited about making $200 in a month, and I’m in a market that supposedly would never buy anything online.

(CB NOTE: I’ve heard many people give me the “seniors don’t buy online” excuse, and it’s great to see Mike showing us the #truth.)

Recently you emailed asking to hear about how Internet marketing has changed people’s lives.

For me it is quite simple.

My wife is pregnant with our first child, due in 3 months.

My Internet business, catalyzed by this two month period, will allow her to stay home from work to raise our son, something she very much wants to do.

Six months ago I wouldn’t have thought that to be possible.

What more could I ask for? Thank you!

Mike Ross
**************************

And THAT, ladies and gentleman, is what it is ALL about.

Congratulations to Mike Ross.

He gets $1000 of my money that it will make it even easier for his wife to stay home with their lil’ junior and it’s another $1000 closer to when he can leave his J-O-B and start helping seniors full-time.

A powerful, POWERFUL success story.

I look forward to reading yours,

Craig Ballantyne

The fastest way to become a success story is to get a mentor.

Your chance to work with myself and Matt Smith, in person, for 2-full days, is about to expire.

Grab your spot and get on the fast track to success

Get inspired. Take action. Learn the fastest way to success by getting a coach. Success is simple. Not easy, but simple.

“Now for some reason I fit into Internet Marketing like one of them round pegs. It’s not really hard. You just add value to your market, make your bed real neat and remember to stand up straight and always answer every question with “Yes, coach.” – Forrest Gump