In taking some time to reflect and think about what causes me to pull out my credit card and buy a product, I started to really focus on what was the main ingredient to getting your list and subscribers to purchase from you especially in this day where more and more skepticism is taking place online than ever before.

In today’s internet based world, its sometimes easy to forget that we are humans that like the human touch at times. I actually like to feel like I know someone when I purchase from them. Now this isn’t always the case, but for the most part, if I am going to pay big bucks for a product, I want to know who that person is that is selling it and have some type of connection.

I am a lot less hesitant to spend money when I have seen videos of the person, or interacted with them in some way. For me, it makes a difference because I want to know that if there is a problem or some type of support I can get it if I need it.

Lets consider this for a minute. All the top successful internet marketers preach that “The money is in the list” and while I believe that is true, I also believe that is only half the story.

It’s not just having a list that will make you successful. Its the relationship you build with your list that will get you sales. Its your personal touch that will really help you be successful.

With high touch marketing you don’t have to have a big list to convert sales, by constantly providing value and communicating with your list regularly not just with sales pitch emails.

So we are going to compare what high touch marketing is vs. low touch marketing. We will also look at some of the ways that you can implement strategies that will help your list get to know, like, and trust you, so they will be willing to pull out their credit cards and purchase.

First lets look at low touch marketing….

Low touch marketing is also what I consider to be low value marketing.

It is simply where you blast emails off with the hope of a purchase. You don’t really show to much of your human side, and do very little to connect with the recipient of your emails.

Low touch marketing only has one thing in mind and its to get a sale. It is not focused on what the problems are of the person who is reading, but only on the fact that getting a sale will satisfy your craving to make money.

Low touch marketing really is where I believe spam and other forms of unwanted, un-asked for advertisements come from. I personally don’t really get upset anymore when I get spam because I always try to look at it like an opportunity for me to stand out from the crowd. To stand out from the low touch, low value marketing that really plagues our industry.

Low value marketing is when you take the opportunity to send an email to someone that didn’t ask to receive it from you, and have gotten no value from you at all.

Now, let me just say that you can build a list and blast to them this way, but the responsiveness will be low, and that means you will need to grow a much bigger list than those that spend the time to update regularly and connect.

I believe people now days are seeking more high touch when they purchase. Why do I believe this? Because that what I am looking for also?

For instance, even when I am out and about in town, in the stores I am looking for good friendly, and quick service. That doesn’t change for me when I come online, as a matter of fact, I carry that same attitude online.

High touch, great attitude and high value motivational based selling gets me to buy almost every time.

I always look at what motivates me to buy, and then turn right around and implement that into my strategy because if I have thought about, more than likely my subscribers have too.

People have been there done that and pitched over and over again and they want something different.

The good news is, there are several things you can do to connect with your list on a regular basis. There are several ways that they can connect with you.

Now if your don’t have a list, the best place for you to start of course would be listbuilders like ViralURL, Viralinbox, and Viralhosts. From these list builders you can begin to use a shared list and build your personal list.

Some ways to practice high touch marketing…

Send out an email survey to your list and ask them what their biggest struggles are in their business or in whatever niche you are in some questions that pertain to that niche. With the answers they provide you can taylor your message and products to what they need. A good place for surveys is: http://www.surveymonkey.com/

In an attempt to connect with your subscribers on a personal level, you can also implement video emails into your marketing. Their are several video email providers nowadays that a simple search on Google will bring up a few for you. If you don’t want to invest in a video email system, a simple YouTube video will work just fine as well.

By making a video and talking directly to your subscribers you can make a big touch impact on the them where they will feel like they actually know you on personal level sometimes. I personally make myself available to my list via Skype, and via Facebook.

I just recently sent out an email blast on ViralURL with my Elite membership and got two people that connected with me on Skype. I can now chat with them, find out what they need, and give them a product or service that meets that need.

That is another great way for you to connect with your list is on Facebook. At the time of this blog post, there is currently over 800 million users on Facebook alone and growing daily. More than likely your subscribers are on facebook which means you can connect and interact. Send out a blast and tell them to request your friendship as you would love to connect with them.

If you have a Facebook fan page, invite your subscribers over to the page “like” it and ask questions or to interact with you so you can help them.

Facebook also has a video update feature that you can use to post video status updates on your wall.  You simply have your webcam connected, turn it on, and start talking. This is a great way to get your face in front of your friends and followers. The human touch goes a long way in marketing.

Through this strategy, you will begin to build value and trust with your prospects so that when you send out those offers via email they will be more apt to purchase from your recommendation.

Remember, connect with your list, and I believe you will be surprised with the results you get. Push yourself to go implement one thing on this and then blast it to your list and see what happens, I think you will surprised.

To your success,

Mark Harbert

Personal Blog: http://markharbert.com
Skype: markharbert

PS. Also, I would love for you to come on over to facebook and connect with me. Please come over and request my friendship. http://www.facebook.com/markharbert

The notion that one can build a thriving and successful internet marketing business without the need to invest in their own personal education, is not a sound business principle in my opinion.

There is simply no greater place to spend your money than on learning a new skill set, or something that can transform your way of thinking that brings more value to the marketplace.

I remember when I first got into internet marketing one of my first things to do was to go out and buy a new piece of software that promised to deliver all the results I was looking for in my business.

I bought it up as fast as I could, set it up and implemented. I soon found out that it was a lot more work than I thought it would be, and it wasn’t giving me the results I wanted, and all of this after one day of using it……lol!!!

It wasn’t that the software didn’t do its job, it was that I didn’t have the right mindset behind using it the way it was supposed to be used, and because of that my results suffered.

My mindset was that of looking for a magic trick in my business. I soon realized that if I wanted results, I needed to put some money into my understanding, and my way of thinking.

I see a lot of people online that are looking for the same exact magic trick that will bring them results and they are suffering in their business because of it.

I strongly believe that investing in yourself is perhaps the most important investment you could ever make.

Once you learn a new skill, or transform your mind in a way that helps you overcome a challenge you are different because you have added more value to yourself.

When you add more value to yourself, you bring more value to the marketplace.

Jim Rohn, one of my favorite mentors of all time said it this way….

“You get paid in direct proportion to the value that you bring to the marketplace”

My question to you is, what value do you bring to the marketplace?

Do you have the skills and knowledge that someone in the marketplace is willing to pay you for?

If so than find a way to market it and get it out to the masses, because if you have a skill that people will pay money for, you can write your own paycheck my friend….

Investing in your skills is the best place to put your money every month without fail.

Wishing you success in business and life,

Mark Harbert

ViralURL & Viralinbox Team Member

Personal blog: http://markharbert.com
Skype: markharbert

P.S. Have you signed up for Viralinbox yet? http://ViralInbox.com/

Hello all my friends and loyal readers at the Viral King blog. I wanted to take this opportunity and introduce myself with my very first post.

I just recently became part of the team at ViralURL and Viralinbox and my goal is to really help take these sites and services to the next level and do what I can to assist you in your business.

I would also like to take the opportunity to thank Colin Klinkert and Frank Bauer for being an inspiration on what can be achieved when you love what you do and do it with passion.

You guys have created some amazing stuff over the years and have incredible insight and vision as to what is needed in the marketplace today and for me it’s an honor to work with you guys.

With that being said, for my first post I wanted to really take a minute and talk about something that I believe to be the most important aspect to you business success, and it has to do with your mindset.

Many people in the home business/affiliate marketing industry are constantly looking for the “how’s” of what to do to build their business.

In other words they mostly take the attitude of “Just tell me how to do it, and I will do it”

If building our business was only about a specific set of techniques than there would be more people that were successful at it.

There would be way more millionaires than there currently is…but the truth is….the true power to attain success is not in the “How’s”, it’s in our attitude behind the “How’s”!

One of the things you will learn about me as we get to know each other over the weeks, months and years ahead is that I love personal development.

You see there is nothing that I believe to be as important as the mindset you carry as you build your business.

Your personal philosophy has everything to do with whether you will succeed or fail.

You personal philosophy is what you know, how you hold it, and how it affects what you do.

The philosophy that we hold in our brains affects every action we make, every day, all the time.

If you study the successful in business, you will see that the majority of them love personal development of some sort, and believe in bettering their skills and attitudes.

There simply is no better investment you could make on a daily or monthly basis that than of your own personal and professional development.

Some people think that they need to invest in the latest and greatest software to take their business to the next level.

I don’t believe for one second that this is the case and I will tell you why.

One of my favorite quotes ever is…

“We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.” – Albert Einstein.

Our level of thinking must go up a notch before the success will follow.

The truth is, if you want to get better and make more money in 2012 than you made in 2011, you must look in the mirror and look to improve your skills and improve your mindset….in other words, YOUR ATTITUDE!

In the world of internet marketing, it takes constantly being on top of what is working, and staying sharp mentally.

Never think for one moment that you can stay at the same level of thinking and attain greater heights of success simply by getting a new tool or trinket. They can certainly help, but they are not the end all be all of your success.

Thinking this way will only keep you from reaching your true potential and keep you from reaching your desired goal.

Over the coming weeks and months you will see many articles on here from me pertaining to mindset and attitude.

I urge you to begin to take action to improve your thinking and philosophies and with that your bank account will improve as well.

If you have never looked at personal development or read a book on the subject, there are some time tested classics you can start with like…

• Think and grow rich by Napoleon Hill
• The science of getting rich by Wallace D. Wattles
• As a man thinketh by James Allen

These are great places to start. I promise that as you begin to shape your mindset, things will begin to change for you.

Our brains are a computer, the data we put in, will eventually come out, so let’s make sure you put in the good data, and not a bunch of viruses.

I am excited to take this journey with you, and hope that I have the opportunity to play a little role in your success through these blog posts and articles.

Please take a moment and leave a comment below as I would love to know your thoughts, and what you think contributes to a person’s success!

Also, if you got something out of this post share it with your Facebook friends and your followers on Twitter.

See you on the next article!

To your success,

Mark Harbert

PS. Come over and say hi at my personal blog: MarkHarbert.com

On March 1st 2009 I hit the deepest point… or maybe I should say the widest?

After seeing that picture my wife took of me at the beach, I knew something had to happen. I joined Jenny Craig just a few weeks later and after 6 months of weight loss and 12 months of maintainance, I reached a weight that I haven’t been at since I was a teenager…

Now, I could say “Happy End”… but something was missing. Even though I reached my goal weight, I still had more belly fat left then I wanted, no muscle whatsoever and the way they tried to teach me to exercise at Jenny Craig for a minimum of 3 times a week for at least 20 minutes by taking walks around the block was simply something I didn’t really enjoy to do. It wasn’t that bad… but I constantly found myself saying, “I have no time to do that now, maybe later”. Of course later never came.

Now, let’s track back to September 2007, I met the guy in person that would eventually release the solution to my problem… Joel Therien and his 7 Minute Workout!

Joel is about to release his 7 Minute Workout Program and he released today a video that explains exactly how it works. Click here to watch his video on how to get in the best shape of your life training only 7 minutes a day 3 times per week!

After watching my business partner, Colin Klinkert’s great video on challenging himself and his subscribers, I feel it’s time to get out of the closet as well.

Check out Colin & my video challenge below…

Now, do yourself a favor… and click here to watch Joel’s video right now.

Colin & I are starting today and we are looking forward to you joining our challenge in the next days to a healthier body, 7 Minutes at the time and keeping us updated with your blog comments below.

To Your Success in Business & Health in Life,

Frank Bauer CEO, Add2it.com	&	Colin Klinkert CEO, ColinKlinkert.com

What can you do to become a pro-blogger?

Well, you need to get a lot of traffic to your blog.

And now you thinking….’I already know that, but HOW am I going to do it? I have some trade secrets to let you in on. By using these trade secrets, you too, can become a pro blogger.

Today, you are going to learn some great tricks of the trade to grab the attention of StumbleUpon, and use their platform to set your blog on fire. These tips and tricks will get you anywhere from the hundreds up to the thousands of StumbleUpon visitors each day.

StumbleUpon does lean toward some niches more than others, and you need to use this to work for your advantage. You will find that StumbleUpon can be one of the greatest viral marketing tool out there. So here are some tips:

• If you do have a niche that is lacking in the mass appeal, StumbleUpon will be a great boost for you where the others won’t. Digg uses a broad forum which keeps their power from weakening in traffic. StumbleUpon works a bit differently by creating more specific categories, providing a more targeted audience.

• Write posts that appeal to the particular social media, if you go for the general appeal, you are going to lose your followers. For instance, Del.icio.us likes anything that their users prefer, Digg likes the appeal of the masses. You have to have content that is going to get thousands of hits, or you won’t become a pro-blogger.

• When you are writing for StumbleUpon, you don’t need to worry about pleasing the masses, matter of fact, you benefit more by sticking with your niche, yes, even your small ones, and this will bring you some highly targeted traffic.

• So, write your content for your niche, not for the general public. By doing this, you will increase your chances to your post will be submitted to receive more traffic in a more specific category.

In another blog, I will go into the types of posts you should and should not be making. I will go into the types of content and the things you can do to make your blog more appealing to StumbleUpon.

Bring in Even More Business!

Today I want to talk about online newsletters and how these can bring in even more business for you. This is a very cost-effective way to market and will not eat up all of your time.

Whether you are mailing your newsletters out through the post office, or sending them out via email, this is a great way to increase the recognition of your brand, bringing in repeat business and sharing your experience and story and success with your readers.

1. You are going to first put your list together of your current customers along with any potential customers. Any names that you have collected from inquiries, direct mail response cards, etc…that you have from the beginning of your marketing endeavors, will be the start of your list. If you don’t have a list, and you have some money set aside, you can purchase a list, giving you names of the best potential customers.

1. If you are doing an online newsletter, it is best to include a content manager system. This will make your editing much easier with a newsletter template, your graphics and giving it your own style. You will have a little bit to learn, but you will have a lot of fun doing it. If you need help through the process, call a college student, they will be a great resource. Another option would be to hire somebody at Guru.com at great cheap prices.
2. Next you want to have a feature that allows you to track bounce back emails to help you manage. your list, deleting these names from your list. It is really important to keep your list up to date. Now, your goal is to increase sales, but you need to make this an easy process for your readers because they all have very busy schedules, so you need to show off your products in the very best manner.\Below are some tips to help you do this and achieve greater financial success from your email marketing.

• Include pictures all throughout
• Show details in these pictures
• The pictures need to be bright and cheery
• Make the picture a link to the sales page or product information page.
• Be sure to add a text link which is associated with your product picture which links to the online product page
• Include the ability to order directly from your newsletter with purchase buttons
• When you have a new product, make sure you have direct links in the website, making it easy for them to get there without any extra navigating.If you still have concerns about your new online newsletter, …just know you can do it…I will go over tomorrow some of your biggest questions..such as “What do I say?”, or “How much time will this take?”, or “How do I set up the links?”. Well, we will answer these questions in our next blog. Stay tuned…..

Affiliate Programs and How They Can Boost Your Income

What Do You Know About Affiliate Marketing?

As you already know, Internet marketing uses the Internet to market products as well as their promotion. You can be using this method to promote your own products or the products of others.

This is where we get into the affiliate programs and how they can benefit you financially by earning commission on the quality products you are promoting for others.

There are several avenues of marketing that you can use such as your website and web pages, personal blogs and Email Opt-in lists. You are going to promote the product with a squeeze page or promotional letter, In your letter, you will include an affiliate link which will contain the affiliate identifier.

With your affiliate identifier link, your visitors will click on the link, be sent to the product sales page or website, and with their purchase, you will be given a percentage of the sales price. This is very similar to sales in brick and mortar stores, however with an affiliate program, your part is very simple and self running. All you need to do is do the initial set up and optimize the traffic.

You need to realize though that Not All Affiliate Programs are the same, so choose wisely.

What you need to know and look for in choosing the right affiliate program:

1) Training and Support

Affiliate programs will usually provide training and support, which is crucial for those just starting out on Internet Marketing. This is so important as it will be the only way for you to become effective as well as profitable. You need to look for affiliate which offers sufficient training and the know how in selling their product. There are however, Internet marketers who have experienced great success in affiliates without the training and support, but wouldn’t it be nice to have that training and support?

2) Look for High Commissions

You are going to put in the effort to bring in the traffic to the affiliate product with your sales pitch, then directing the customers to the affiliate sales page, and for your well earned efforts, you will receive a percentage of the sale in form of commissions. As you look at the different Affiliate programs to market, look at the amount of commission they offer, some are hardly worth your effort.

The most popular site to promote affiliate programs is Clickbank. You will soon see that Clickbank is the largest online marketplace on the Internet. Clickbank places hundreds of thousands of products which are sold on a daily basis. There are some that pay up to 75% of the purchase price.

3) Affiliate Referral Programs

There are a few programs that will offer you a chance to recommend their affiliate programs yourself. This sill ultimately award you with a greater percentage of all the sales generated for the program you recommend. This is where your viral marketing techniques will come in effect, the more you recommend, the more money you will make.

4) Triple Combination; Affiliate Training and Support, Referral Commission and Product Commission

You will be happy to know that there are some programs out there that offer the best of all three worlds of affiliate marketing. You can have all of these with training to help you in your marketing efforts. A wonderful example of this is the Internet Marketing Center’s Affiliate program. With this combination, you can reap huge commission benefits.

You can make some good money with Internet marketing bringing you closer and closer to your goal of financial freedom. But remember, you need to be willing to put in the time and effort.

Building a List? Build Trust First!

You want to build a great opt in list, well the first thing you are going to do is build up the trust of your readers. You are going to want to do this quickly so you can get the word out about your site. When you have a broader opt-in list, the more traffic you will bring to your site, therefore, providing greater profits.

So how are you going to do this?

Let’s take a look at a few points of interest.

1. You first do this by having a legitimate business or product, one in which you have some expertise. Your customers are relying on your knowledge and expertise in your niche to answer their questions and help them to improve in that area.
2. Let your readers know that you know your stuff, that you know what you are selling them. They love to get helpful hints and how-to lists, bring up new and fresh ideas and guidelines that relate to the product you are selling. If you have a site selling hand tools, give some ideas and instructions on making a doll house, or maybe birdhouses. You may want to have instructions to making a nice new workbench for their new hand-tools. If you are proving your value and your knowledge in your product area, they will grow to trust you.
3. Be honest and true! If you are going to promote your products and services with the utmost hype and performance, then make sure you provide a guarantee to back up what you say. If you have a satisfied customer, then you will get recommendations and your viral marketing will spread. When someone recommends you to their friends and family, they are more likely to also trust you and visit your site on the referral alone.
4. Be consistent! If someone is given a recommendation for your great service, continue providing that great service.
5. Give them an escape if needed. You do not want your customers to ever feel trapped, you want to keep your list clean, enabling your readers to unsubscribe at any time. On you web form, provide information needed to unsubscribe from your list. Also let them know that they can do this anytime they want, and that their name is not sold to anyone else. No one likes spam, and by letting them know that you don’t like it either and that you will only be sending them letters as long as they want it.

LOL…

I bet that you were expecting a different type of post based on the headline, but the headline is 100% correct, only this post isn’t talking about how to make $100,000 in 4 days, rather, asking for your help to reach that goal for our planet!

http://worldinternetchallenge.com/

All the info is at the site link above

I was watching one of Frank Kern’s videos in ‘Mass Control’ series that I purchased a few weeks ago for $2,000 (It is all sold out now) and there is a video in there filmed at Rich Schefren’s live event that has just finished.

It was Frank’s presentation and I gotta say, I like Frank! Some don’t but most really do, and I am in the masses. His stuff is top quality and he seems like a top quality guy. “Where are you going with this?” I hear you say…

“If There Were NO Limitations or Consequences, what would your perfect average day look like?”
by Frank Kern

Where Would You Live?
What Would You Do?
Who Would You Know?
What Time Would You Wake Up?
What Would The First Thing You Say Be?
What Would You Have For Breakfast?
Who Would You Eat With?
What Would Your Friends Be Like?
What Would You Be Thinking About?
What Would Your Business Be?
What Would You Do at Work?
What Are Your Clients Like?
What Is Your Personal Relationships Like?
What Fun Stuff Do You Do?

There more detailed you become, the clearer ‘who you really are’ becomes. If this is different from who you are today, then there is a big gap and it will reflect in what you do. This is not a 10 min exercise to change, this will take you hours to hash out and ‘self discover’ and potentially months to start aligning your real life currently, with your ideal life!

Profound, but say it back to yourself again… The most important thing with this statement is that is makes you think! Can you think of what your perfect day would be? If so, you will change your life. It will give you focus and a goal to work towards. A goal that will make you happy, make your business successful (if that’s what you want), change the business you are in (if you don’t like what you are doing) will take time and explaining. This is just one small part of Rich’s course

I have also just purchased Rich’s course for almost $1,000 and you have a chance to pre-order now before it increases. Click here to check it out

(No, it is not an affiliate link, just a pure recommendation.)

Farrah Gray is a young motivational speaker who wrote a book in 2004 called: Reallionaire

He was 19 back then and has since written a new book: Get Real, Get Rich

‘So What?’ You ask…

So what is that I am busy reading them, (one at a time of course) starting with ‘Reallionaire’ and it makes the basis for todays post. Farrah has a unique writing style and has written the book based on his life from the age of seven and at the end of each chapter, summarizes what he learned and what we too should learn and take on board.

Reallionaire Affirmation

At the end of each summary, there is an affirmation and here is one that I want to share with you today:

‘opportunities are everywhere. I can rise above any circumstance with hard work, integrity, faith and especially persistence.’

I think the key things to take from that is – No matter where you are at in life right now, you can improve your lifestyle and you should not blame anything or anyone but yourself. Rise above the bad or negatives in your life and make a change… Make it your goal to do it…NOW!

Check Them Out At Amazon:

We have all heard about the The Secret...well, since this has been brought into light, the lives of many have been drastically changed. On Oprah, the original author of this concept was a guest on her show. Her name is Louise Hay, and she wrote a book called ‘You Can Heal Your Life’.

She wrote this international best seller 24 years ago and since has seen this change the lives of so many. There were two more guests who spoke about the power of your thoughts and of making lists.

Now the reason I bring this up is because this makes such a dramatic difference in your life and the success of your business.

You and I have the power to bring good into our lives by changing your thinking. Louise Hay was thrilled when The Secret came out last year, happy to know that everyone will have the chance to apply this into their lives.

This power can work not only in big ways, but in many little ways. Oprah shared an experience she had last month when a Bubble Blower came on her show…she thought she she would love to go blow bubbles with her god-daughter and needed to get some bubbles. She went up to her office, and next to her desk was a bag with 6 bottles of bubbles and a silver bubble blower from Tiffany’s. She asked her assistant if she had gone out and bought these bubbles for her. Her assistant replied “No, I bought those for your birthday, and they have always been there, you just have never noticed them before today.” Oprah was stunned! She couldn’t believe that these bubbles had been there this entire time, but because she had not thought of them until now, she had never noticed them.

We, you and I, can really change our lives with our thoughts. We become what we think about, whether we want it or not. You need to first start off with positive affirmations, and this is the foundation that you build upon. If you are always talking negatively to or about yourself, how can you bring anything positive into your life? How can you be successful in your business if you think of yourself as a failure? You need to love life and know that life loves you in return.

Affirmations are like planting a seed, you give it a chance to grow, it may take time, but it will grow if your nourish it. This is too where making goals and lists, writing out your desires of where you want to be is so important. You are reinforcing this in your mind, you are making it concrete in your consciousness.

They talked about making lists, some made out of fear…’the shallows’, and then the list that comes from our heart. This does not work if you are desiring things from the ‘shallows’, but things that are of real value. An example they used was King Midas…he wanted gold to make him rich, but he soon learned, after his wife and child were turned to gold, that all he really wanted to love and happiness. If he had asked that in the first place, he would have that plus the gold.

I just wanted to share this with you, it has reinforced the role of positive thinking in my own life and I know it will help you as well.