Q001. How did you make your first dollar online?
A. By selling an e-book I wrote myself called “Bookkeeping The easy Way (see www.bookkeeping-theeasyway.com).
Q002. How and why did you start your online adventure?
A. a) By attending a one-day conference held in Cairns, in Far North Queensland, Australia by an Australian “Guru” called Brett McFall.
A. b) Because I suffered a stroke and was planning to live in Thailand to be looked after by my wife. My profession, accountancy, is a Thai only profession so I would not have been able to get a job in Thailand, even if my lack of mobility had allowed it, and although I still had a small Australian client I could assist using the Internet, I needed a way to boost my income.
Q003. What has been a consistent earner for you?
A. Affiliate Marketing in the past. Dean Holland’s Internet Profits system, commonly known as “iPro” now.
Q004. If you absolutely needed money in twenty four hours, due to an emergency, and you needed to get it from your business how would you do it?
A. It probably couldn’t be done. I could make an affiliate commission from the best current seller of a product in the Make Money Online niche, within 24 hours, but I probably would not get paid for at least 14 days, if not 30, depending on the conditions of the affiliate agreement and the timing of the event. If the sum needed was very small ($30 – $40) I could sell a batch of 100 solo-ads.
Q005. If you were paycheck to paycheck, with no discretionary income to speak of, but you did a few favors and earned an extra fifty dollars how would you put it to use?
A. I’d take my wife and daughter out for a delicious Thai dinner!
seafood dinner washed down with plenty of beer, to counteract the spiciness.
Q006. If you started today without your list, and with hosting and a domain, what would you do?
A. Start blogging 18 hours a day.
Q007. Obviously testing is important, and can save you tons of capital. Where do you rank it when creating a product, and when or how soon do you implement it?
A. Apart from one E-book, which hasn’t sold very well,
(www.bookkeeping-theeasyway.com) and I count as one of my initial errors, I have never created a product. Once I tried to explain an idea I had for a WordPress plugin to a software creator I found on “Elance’ or whatever it is called these days, but it was just too hard to make him understand, and I gave up when it was clear that my ideas were not being translated into reality well enough. However, the most important thing to do first, after you have the initial idea for a product is to test whether there’s a market for it. (Something I did not do). Create a survey and send it to your list, if you have one, in an appropriate niche, or circulate it round Facebook groups that you are a member of that are connected to the potential product’s niche. You do this before you spend any time turning your idea into a finished product or sub-contracting the creation of the product. However, if you go to my blog, www.theiiiclub.com and then click on the “Level 1 – Earn Up To $2,500/Day” tab in the menu across the top, you will be able to read all about Dean Holland’s “iPro” program, the best M.M.O. product on the net where Dean and his team create many super products for you.
Q008. Do you tend to create demand for a product, or create or find a product niche that’s in demand.
A. Again I would advise you to forget creating products. Let Dean Holland and his team do that for you. However, if you are sure that you want to create or have created a product of your own, you MUST ensure there is a demand for it first. You will find it very difficult to create demand for a product if the demand is not already out there. In fact it would be virtually impossible.
Q009. In your opinion what is the single most important measure you test for from a product you create? From a product or service you sell?
A. Again, I repeat that I have lost the hassle of product creation by joining Dean Holland’s “iPro”. However, when I’m selling his services, by driving traffic to his fantastic funnels, the most important measure is conversion rates, together with knowing where your best converting traffic is coming from. By “conversion rates” I mean the ratio of visitors who actually subscribe versus the number of people you manage to attract, one way or another, to the opt-in page. A 30% opt-in rate is acceptable, and a rate of 40% or more is very good. Dean’s web site gives you all the statistics you require on a monthly basis, and it is a simple job to transfer the monthly figures to a spreadsheet to get your “lifetime” statistics, which will help you to decide when and if you need to change your strategy.
Q010. As a successful business owner, what are the key areas you are looking at if being pitched to that will determine if a product or service could get your investment dollars?
A. I am fully committed to Dean Holland’s iPro program. There are many levels within Internet Profits and all new investment Dollars that came my way would go to climbing Dean’s internal ladder, where, although the cost increases with each “step” so does the potential benefits.
However, should you want to invest elsewhere, the two main things you should be confident about is a) the return on investment (ROI) that you can expect, and b) the quality of the training you will be able to receive. A third thing to bear in mind, is whether you have enough available time to implement everything you will be asked to implement.
Q011. What in your opinion is the most efficient, and successful marketing channel for your business?
A. list building, email marketing and blogging, in conjunction with a Facebook Fan Page.
Q012. How do you determine monetization models for your products? Dow you decide on them before or after product is created? What are a few that you currently use?
A. Unless you are an expert in a popular niche. For example a computer programmer, weight loss expert, personal trainer, investor or currency trader, Internet Marketer, or some other discipline that is in demand, product creation is a waste of time. Use Dean Holland’s products within his “iPro” system instead.
However if you do go out on your own, use Paypal. All serious Internet buyers have a Paypal account. There are other services which you can use in tandem with Paypal, especially if you are selling a low cost product, which people in poorer countries might purchase. Paypal refuses, or limits the use of their services to residents of many 3rd world countries, who have to use the services of lesser known companies. But I would always have Paypal as an option.
Q013. Is there anything that you currently struggle with in your business? If so what is it?
A. You can never attract enough targeted traffic. It’s all you need to do with Dean’s system.
I wouldn’t say I struggle but it’s hard work. Luckily I have enough time to spend to do the necessary work to get “Free” traffic. By the way, many “Gurus” say that that there are two types of traffic. “Paid” and “Free”. This is only true if you are talking only about Dollars. So called “Free” traffic can cost you a lot of time blogging, posting to Facebook and answering forum questions. Time is money, so “Free” traffic doesn’t really exist.
Q014. What are the top five ways you funded your business starting out?
A. Only two. Savings and current earnings. Don’t borrow. If you can’t afford to pay off your credit card balance in full when it first falls due, it may be best to forget it until you can, unless you are sure you will be able to pay off the debt, including interest, within two years maximum.
Q015. What advice would you give to an upstart team looking to start a new biz?
A. Join Dean Holland’s Internet Profits, commonly known as “iPro”, by clicking on a banner on the “Level 1” page of my blog www.theiiiiclub.com.
Q016. I am very interested in your offers, but I cannot do Facebook. Would this be a drawback?
A. Before you invest any money into any Internet Marketing scheme, whether it be into one of my level 3 promotions in my daily emails, or into my level 1 promotion, iPro, you have to be aware that it will not be easy, it will take a lot of work, and there will be a lot of new things to learn. Internet Marketing is not an easy thing to be successful at, and statistics tell us that 97% of those that try to make money on the Internet, fail and end up losing money instead.
Facebook is arguably the most important tool an Internet Marketer has.
It helps you get traffic, helps you to advertise, and enables you to communicate with your fellow Internet Marketers, to exchange views and ideas. One of the best features of Dean Holland’s system are the vibrant Facebook groups at almost every level within the community. If you “cannot do Facebook” but you are still interested in becoming an Internet marketer, it is ESSENTIAL that, BEFORE you invest any money in any system, be it iPro, another one of my offers, or anything else you find advertised on the net, you learn how to open and operate a Facebook account.
Type “Facebook training” into a search engine, Google for example, and you will find many free courses on everything to do with Facebook, from setting up a personal account to communicate with your family and friends, to marketing and branding using a Facebook Fan Page.
Q017. (Amended version of Google’s translation from Dutch) How do I really know that a money-making system on offer is not a scam?
A. It is true that there are a lot of scams out there, and it is difficult to know by reading the sales copy which ones are scams and which ones are worth investing time and money in. My only advice is a) to always ensure that there are plenty of genuine sounding testimonials available, and b) that there is at least a 30 day guarantee period in which you can ask for all of your money back. As I explain on my blog, I do not personally endorse any of the products that are advertised in my daily emails, so please treat these offers with the same skepticism that you would any other offer from a different source.
I do fully endorse my Level 1 promotion which is the very reputable Dean Holland’s “Internet Profits” system commonly called “iPro”. Click the following link, or copy and paste it into your browser, and watch the video carefully.
https://rn132.isrefer.com/go/ac/philramage/emailtac
It concerns “The Affiliate Club”, a fairly low level entry point into Dean’s system. It costs $47 a month to join but it contains most of the advantages of the full iPro membership which is a one time fee of $2,000. I would join The Affiliate Club for a couple of months and, if you are beginning to see results you could upgrade to full iPro membership later, where the rewards are larger, when and if you can afford it. You can read more about iPro under the “Level 1” tab on my blog, www.theiiiclub.com.
There is also a regular webinar hosted live by Dean every Monday. The blog contains links to register for that, and I also promote it by email most weekends.
However, I am a bit worried about the fact that you communicated with me in Dutch. It is a fact of Internet Marketing life that the vast majority of buyers come from English speaking backgrounds, especially the USA. As a member of iPro it is your “job” to attract potential buyers to the scheme, and unless you know a large number of Dutch potential Internet Marketers this would be very difficult if you are not fluent in written English.
Good Luck in your endeavors
Phil
Q018. Say Phil, my name is Steven, and I have a problem. It’s with people who don’t want to be honest. I understand that there are people making money, but it’s been three years that I’ve been getting PayPal notifications, but not from PayPal. I get the notifications from rainbowsandskittles. Whoever they are? They obviously aren’t PayPal. Why are they being dishonest?
Hi Steven,
Paypal does suffer a lot from people who send fake emails, which they pretend are from Paypal itself. This is one of the reasons why Paypal does not have as good a reputation among Internet Marketers as it should have. It really is an excellent organization, and, apart from having a bit of trouble getting them to understand that I couldn’t read Thai, even although I lived in Thailand, (lol) I’ve never had any problems with them. Dean Holland uses Paypal all the time to pay out commissions generated by his partners in Internet Profits (iPro).
There are 2 ways that you can tell that an email which purports to come from Paypal is genuine or not.
1) The “From” email address ALWAYS ends with “paypal.com” immediately after the @ sign.
2) The body of the email ALWAYS starts with “Dear (your full name)” – Both your first name and surname spelled out in full. If you signed up adding a middle name as well, I expect that would be included in the introduction, but, as I didn’t bother with mine, I can’t say for sure. Looking back, I probably should have added my full middle name, and I would strongly suggest that, if you have yet to open an account, you include your full middle name if you have one, when you first register.
If you do receive an email that, on the face of it comes from Paypal, but either of the above conditions are not met, or their is something else that arouses your suspicions, Paypal would like you to forward the entire email to spoof@paypal.com . Paypal will then investigate the origins of the original message and will get back to you with their findings.
I’m afraid I can’t answer your last question about why rainbowsandskittles are doing what they are doing. Why do people spend time hacking into stranger’s web-sites for no personal gain? There are a lot of weirdos in this world and, I’m afraid we just have to live with them, and deal with them as best we can. In this case your next course of action is to forward the last email you received to spoof@paypal.com.
I hope all this helps
Phil
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