The Anti-Amazon Business Model By Jason Holland
Managing Editor
It's been a decade since the Internet bubble burst. But many people still have the wrong idea about how to make money online. Yes, Amazon survived the bubble and has thrived – but that doesn't mean it should be your model. In fact, it's a perfect example of what a start-up Internet business shouldn't be. There's a better alternative. It's perfect for beginning entrepreneurs. You don't have to be a "techie." And the start-up costs can be just a few hundred dollars -- even zero, if you know a few tricks. -----------------------------------------------------Highly Recommended----------------------------------------------------- The First Major Shift in Business Thinking Since the 1937 Publication of Think and Grow Rich Michael Masterson's New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller, Ready, Fire, Aim, lays out a completely new approach to business and life. It's the blueprint that helped Michael go from pool installer to self-employed multimillionaire before his 40th birthday. And it's so practical and sensible that anyone with an average intelligence can use it to make their first $1 million... $50 million... $100 million or more! Find out more here!
"The Internet is a powerful way to make lots of money." Sumner Redstone It was a tough assignment. I was asked to speak to Agora's top people about "everything we had learned in the last nine years about selling our publications through the Internet." There was so much to cover. So many new tricks, techniques, and protocols. And most of it had been discovered by the same people I was talking to: the 40 people who headed our 20 divisions. I made a long list of all the "new things" we had learned. It was overwhelming. So I put it down and forgot about it for a week. When I picked it up again, I sorted the items on the list into "very important," "important," and "not so important." Then I put it away for another week. The next time I picked up the list, it no longer seemed so daunting. I realized that I knew all the "very important" secrets quite well. They were the same secrets we used back in the days when we did direct marketing through the mail. But that raised some questions. If all the important secrets were the same, why had Agora's revenues and profits soared? Why had Agora's competitors not grown as much? What were they not doing that we were doing? After some thought, I realized that it all came down to the business model Agora had been using. I don't know whether I coined the term or borrowed it, but I dubbed it Info-Net Marketing. Info-Net Marketing is a combination of information publishing (our industry), direct marketing via e-mail (our primary marketing method), and the Internet (our medium). And in the years since 2000, these three elements have converged in a very powerful way. Looking back at it now, it's clear that getting involved with Info-Net Marketing back then was a good move. And although some of the bloom is off the rose, it is still a very good business to be in today. In fact, it is probably the best way for newcomers to get in the game. By newcomers, I mean young people fresh out of college, middle-aged people who want a career change, and retired people looking to make extra income working a few hours a week. You can understand why I say Info-Net Marketing is the "best business in the world" for newcomers by looking at the main advantages of each of its three elements. Information Publishing You can keep dozens, even hundreds, of digital products in "storage." And you can sell them to your customer base, a little at a time, indefinitely. Direct Marketing You can start out small and keep testing new products and promotions cheaply. When you find something that works, you can "run it out" quickly. The Internet Because of the low cost of customer contact via e-mail, you can communicate with your customers daily -- and thus significantly increase (even quintuple) the lifetime value of each buyer. If you want to get into a new business without spending a ton of money, you should definitely consider Info-Net Marketing. If you come to one of ETR's Bootcamps, you will meet dozens of people who have already done it -- the "chicken entrepreneurship" way -- starting with very little and proceeding cautiously. It's the Info-Net Marketing model that sets Agora apart from its competitors -- especially the direct-marketing component. Most people who have started online businesses in the past 10 or so years have used models based on affiliate marketing and advertising. These sometimes work, but they are more costly and much less efficient than direct marketing. Plus, they don't give you the chance to "run" with your winners. Let me give you a quick example of how Info-Net Marketing works... Let's say you write a book or have one written. From the book, you create a special report. The special report focuses on one of the best ideas the book has to offer. You sell that report inexpensively online -- maybe even give it away for free. The report is used to draw in prospective customers -- to develop your own house file. Essentially, you use the report to capture names and e-mail addresses. As they come in, you give those folks more stuff -- good stuff -- for free. You give them a free e-mail newsletter. You send them occasional "news" alerts. You start to build a relationship. How often do you communicate with your house file? Daily. Why not? Thanks to the Internet, it costs next to nothing. And this has radically changed our business. In the old days, when we communicated with our customers through the mail, it cost about 50 cents per contact (for printing costs, postage, etc.). If, on average, each customer was worth $30 in sales to you over the course of a year, how often could you afford to do a mailing? Maybe once a month. Tops. But now, as I said, you can "talk" to your customers on a regular basis. And before long, they recognize your name. Not only that, but because of all that good free stuff you've been sending them, they think of you as a source of reliable, useful information. That's when you can begin to sell them things -- starting with the book you used to create that original special report. Then, based on the same book, you sell webinars, teleconferences, live seminars, and "thin-sliced" reports. For each thin-sliced report, you take one of the chapters from the book and make it bigger and deeper. And you sell those reports for $50 apiece, $100 apiece, and $500 apiece. Then you develop the information in those reports into additional products -- all the way up to personalized coaching programs that you can sell to the people on your list for thousands. Your fixed costs for all of these products are extremely low. But the profit potential is ultimately huge. This is the dynamic model Agora uses. With Info-Net Marketing, direct marketing meets information publishing meets the Internet. It really is the best business in the world. [Ed. Note: Agora's Info-Net Marketing model is what Michael Masterson (and a dozen other Internet, marketing, and business-building experts) taught during ETR's Info-Marketing Bootcamp. You may not have been able to make it in person, but you can still attend the conference "virtually." Check out the Bootcamp Home Study Program here.] -----------------------------------------------------Highly Recommended----------------------------------------------------- Why You Don't Need to Be an Author to Have a Best-Selling Book A Florida martial arts expert "found" a dusty old book. Then he turned it into estimated sales of over $20,000 in one month. With another book, he's pulled in over $332,252. A 30-something Internet marketer used the same formula to dig up his own best-seller. The little-known art book he found made $19,453 in just 3 weeks. The books weren't first editions. They weren't famous. They weren't wildly popular. Best of all? These hidden treasure troves don't have to cost you a penny. You could unearth the next best seller. Find out how right here.
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