Free Training Friday: How to Have Your Own Affiliate Program on a Shoestring Budget

Zero Cost Call teaching YOU how to easily run
your own affiliate program to maximize Profts.

Attend live without registering – or opt in to
get the slides and a special bonus.

–> Join the call

I do a training call each week to share an aspect of
running a successful biz. Whether you’re an author,
an entrepreneur or an expert just now developing
your biz, you’ll be interested in this week’s call.

Here’s why I’m showing you how to have your own
affiliate program.

It’s something I wish someone had shown me how to
do when I first started.

See – When I first started out in my entrepreneurial
adventure, I had no idea how to do the things that
it seems  everyone already knew, like how to set up
my own affiliate program.

It’s good to have an affiliate program, because that way,
you get other people to share your products and
services with others so you make more sales with MUCH
less effort.

And sure, you give a commission, but then you didn’t
have to go get all the sales.

The system my first mentor recommended to me was…
…well…not a good fit. It was expensive and hard to
manage.

I’ve found an awesome and affordable way to have a
one-stop site to take care of:
digital prodcuts
physical products
autoresponder (email messaging)
RSS autoresponder (for those who prefer a feed reader to email)
affiliate program
message broadcasts

And I want to show YOU how it works. AND it’s only a
few bucks per month.

Join me Friday noon ET

–> Join the call

Talk to you on the call!

Ronda

PS I’ll also show you how to get a free 21 day trial of
the system I use for teleclasses and webinars (which you
can use for your paid programs) When you’re LIVE on the call.

When Should You Give Free Consultations or strategy Sessions?

The most valuable commodity of any expert is your time. Why? Because as an expert, in only a few minutes, you are able to save someone a huge amount of time and headache by sharing your expertise.

A recent conversation caused me to w

rite you this post to assist you in your own business development. Learn from a mistake I made – and I should have known better!

The husband of one of my affiliates is considering writing a book. That in itself is a good thing! My affiliate told him that I coa

ch entrepreneurs on how to write a book, which of course is very

much true.

I broke one of my own rules, and I will not break it again.

This affiliate has not made a purchase from me. Why I mention this is because I offer a $500 value strategy session with me as a gift inside of my products. That means by the time you meet with me about author coaching or business mentoring or story coaching, you are already a buyer, not a freebie seeker.

Some business mentoring for you:

I don’t sell coaching through a sales page. only offer coaching after I’ve had a consultation. This allows me to decide whether I believe you are a good candidate for author coaching. Contrary to popular belief, it’s not up to the client to choose the coach, it’s important for the coach to screen and select the best clients.

When I worked for someone else, I inherited a LOT of “problem children” because he took anyone who would throw money at him, and many of those people were expecting too much done for them. (One of many reasons I am SO glad I work totally for myself is I get to screen my own clients instead of inheriting people who want me to serve them their completely formed business on a diamond-encrusted platinum platter when they are only paying for a guidebook for how to write a book served in a wooden goblet).

When I Offer A Complimentary Consultation

In the past, I used to offer a strategy session to

1. Anyone who bought a product/service from me.
2. Anyone at a live event with me.
3. Anyone who came via one of my trusted allies.

Now, I typically give free strategy sessions under only 2 circumstances.

1. I include a consultation as a bonus inside a product.
2. We meet at a live event and I give you a consultation/strategy session.

In other words, I do not generally (except that I broke my own rule last week) give a free consult to an ally or affiliate. Experience shows me that these are not necessarily good candidates. I have various ways for people to experience my systems in the form of free gifts, inexpensive products and classes first.

When you develop a system, stick to it!

as I said, I broke one of my own rules to be nice to an affiliate. I know better. Please don’t make my mistake.

Back to the conversation with the affiliate’s spouse. I met with him for about a half hour about his potential book-business. I gave him top-notch business mentoring during this time. At the end of the call, he asked for a discount, figuring he deserved one as the husband of an affiliate.

Warning bells went off in my head.

I should not have given him my valuable time.

---

What I should have done was refer him to the Instant VIP Author Multimedia Home Study Program. (those are product links) Why? for several reasons.

The big ones are these::

1. Because he is not a proven buyer; he has not invested in himself and his book-business idea with me yet.
2. Because he immediately asked for a discount as if it were “owed to him” as an affiliate’s spouse, demonstrating he is more of a haggler than someone willing to truly invest in himself.,
3. Because he has not experienced any aspect of the teaching within my system.
4. Because a lot of his questions and concerns would be answered by knowing what and how I teach in the system and beginning to formulate his book idea before talking with me.
5. And remember, he would get a free strategy session anyway as a buyer of either the Instant Credibility ebook or the Instant VIP Author Multimedia Home Study Program. (both of those are links to my products available for purchase). So after either purchase, he would qualify himself to receive a half hour of my valuable time.

And here are a few other considerations as well. Keep in mind that coaching sessions are a half hour long and there is no “done for you” in it:

• I got the feeling what he wanted from coaching was for me to write FOR him or at least do some of the writing with him. That is an increased level of service, not coaching.
• I got the impression what he wanted was for me to read everything he wrote. Again, this is another level of service different from coaching.
• He wanted approval for his work. Deep down, everyone wants approval. However in terms of your book and business, approval is demonstrated by actions such as customers investing in you, media attention, and joint venture opportunities – not by your mentor.
• He wanted me to do his editing. Again, different service. Editing is not coaching.
• In other words, he would have treated coaching as if it were a “do it for you” service. I do offer ghostwriting and “write with you” services at a higher investment, and I am particular about the projects I take on.

What is coaching/mentoring?

For simplicity’s sake, I call the individual sessions where I guide you through writing your book coaching. People understand author coaching but not so much “author mentoring.” Not everybody has had guidance of that nature.

So, what is coaching?

I asked the would-be author if he ever had a child in little league or other sports.

He had.

“Did the coach ever pick up the bat and hit the ball FOR your child?”

“No.”

“Because that wouldn’t be coaching. That would be doing it FOR him. Coaching or mentoring is I teach you and give you the best possible tools, and you do the work.”

When I used to work on someone else’s team, he had a TON of clients who expected to pay for breakfast and be fed for a year. In other words, they bought a coaching package and expected their coach to spend hours and hours and hours doing things for them that they needed to do themselves.

There is no real way to guarantee coaching results, because I’m not coming to your house and forcing you to sit down at the keyboard to do your market research, formulate your business and write your book. Can I do that? Yes, but it will cost you exponentially more than hiring me to coach you. use the contact form to ask me about this extra special service.

the Deeper Issue for Many Would-Be Entrepreneur Authors

First understand that what I’m about to share is NOT a criticism of this person or anyone who feels similarly. Ultimately, this individual wanted things done for him because he lacks confidence in his message. He wants to write a book and simultaneously shrink into the background and hide behind someone else’s skill.

It’s common for a “messenger” who feels a strong desire to share your truth to feel uncertainty. After all, you’re about to be bold and brave and put your thoughts into print. You’re about to “take a stand” regarding what you believe.

Every entrepreneur author needs to develop your expert voice and your confidence. Remember, you are not only writing a book but building a business around it. You will share your message, promote your book, gain customers and in every other way grow your influence.

That means you are in charge of building your platform. Part of developing your business involves developing your expert voice. You gain confidence by speaking/writing/sharing your most important message over and over again.

I only take on ghostwriting or write it with you projects under certain conditions. Generally speaking, if you have an established platform and materials already “out there,” I will let you hire me, because you already have your business in place and your voice established.

The reason is because if I become your voice for you, I will cause you not to grow, and because you won’t have confidence in your message, you won’t get the media attention, instant VIP status, instant credibility, increase of customers and other benefits of becoming an author.

Although I might financially gain from taking on un-confident wannabe authors with no voice and no platform, I would not truly gain – and YOU would lose – because I would short-circuit your personal and business development.

My mission is to guide you through bringing out every ounce of greatness within you out into the light so you can be whom you are meant to be.

I hope that sharing how I re-learned a lesson I should have known will profit you.

Are You Asking Yourself the Right Questions?

When you’re faced with a “problem” – a challenge – where do you put your attention? Do you focus on what’s wrong? Many people do. When you walk into a room and see that your your friend is upset, what do you ask? Generally you’ll inquire, “What’s wrong?” I know I’ve done it plenty of times, so I imagine you have too. Nobody wants to see a friend or colleague upset, right?

Then your friend or colleague spills out a stream of woe and frustration and you’re dragged into a disempowered, negative space as well. How can either of you possibly make anything go right when you’re in a mud pit of all that is not right? It won’t happen.

Einstein says you can’t solve a problem with the same mind that created it. What he means is that you have to get yourself out of the “problem” challenge mindset and into an empowered belief mindset.

A demonstration will show you how this works.

What happens when you begin by focusing on what’s wrong? I’m going to guide you into a brief experience so you can feel exactly what happens from the inside. Right now,

Please take a moment to close your eyes and remember the most frustrating thing that has happened to you. Stop reading for a minute to do this please.

How did that feel? I’m sure it wasn’t fun, and don’t worry – I’m taking you to a much different place in just a moment.

OK, so now I’d like you to remember and relive a day when everything was going your way – when you felt on top of the world! Stop reading for a minute and get into the experience of everything going right.

That felt much different, right? When you’re in a “what’s going right” space, you are in a much better place to make positive changes, solve difficulties and overcome challenges..

Great..now how to you shift gears? It all starts with asking the right questions.

Asking myself questions is something I started doing as a child. As a visually impaired child, I had to adapt just about everything; I couldn’t do things the way people do with full eyesight. So I started asking myself, “How can I make this work for me?” or “What do I need to change to make this work?”

I didn’t know it at the time, but the brain works by answering questions. Anytime you ask yourself a question, the brain takes it on as a mission immediately.  The brain says, “On it!” and gets to work.

Anytime I need to figure something out, I ask myself whatever question fits the situation.

Recently, I was working on a product with my good friend and colleague Anne Holmes. I was “in charge” of the website – yes, the blind one did the website – and we were hustling to finish in time for a contest deadline.  We used a product of mine for an upsell  Her husband Steve told me that my upsell product page showed up as code in Firefox.

HUH? How did that happen and why?

It was after midnight and we were under the gun. Exhausted and pushing through it, I was in the middle of working on another piece of the project that needed to be done. hearing that the page didn’t work was definitely bad news that I didn’t need.

Did I panic? NO!

I stopped a moment, affirmed that all is well and we made our deadline with time to spare, and asked myself, “What do I need to do to make the page work?” and kept powering through my other task.

A few minutes later, a flash of inspiration sparkled inside my mind. I had used a secure page (shtml) for the product and evidently that worked fine in IE but gave Firefox indigestion. So I took out the “s” and everything was fine.

I wouldn’t let myself think of what could go wrong for even a moment.  And my brain helpfully provided the solution. I thanked my brain for being so incredibly useful and kept working.

The theme of asking the right questions has come up a lot recently. It is a part of the books The Greatest Networker and The Millionaire Money Formula.

Two fabulous people in my life teach about the power of questions: Jason Oman and John Milton Fogg. I feel so blessed and grateful to have both of these gentlemen in my life as friends, colleagues, mentors and masterminds

Jason Oman talks about asking quality questions in Money on Demand. He studied how millionaires think and came up with specific steps to take in order to bring forth your own million dollar ideas.

Jason recently asked me h ow I came up with my Instant Credibility system for how to write a book that explodes your business. I told him that of course there are several types of book that a business owner could write, but “When I asked myself the question, ‘what is the best way for me to teach a business owner, entrepreneur, coach or speaker to write a book?’ the answer came back, “Focus on problem/solution.” That is exactly what I do.

Because when you know you can solve people’s challenges (problems), you will always stay in business and get referrals.

John Milton Fogg, #1 Best Selling author of The Greatest Networker in the World, just put out a video yesterday about what’s right and what’s wrong.  Watch him teach from his home.

He shares that you need to start by asking yourself what is going right, what makes it work so well and what would be ideal before considering how to go from where you are now to the ideal. This gives you a place of power and energy from which to strategize and plan rather than starting from a pit of despair or a whirlpool of whining.

The Greatest Networker in the World is a must-read for anyone interested in self and business development. He wrote it for the network marketing industry, but it will teach you well no matter what business you do. You can read John’s ebook for free or listen to the audios from his website JohnMiltonFogg.com/tgnweekend – however you’ll want to grab yourself a hard copy from your favorite bookseller and carry it with you. I read it for the second time in a month while I was at a convention.

Be sure to ask yourself the right questions:

What’s going right?

What do I need?

How can I?

What is the best way to?

What would be ideal?

What would make this even better?

and, as Jason Oman suggests, keep asking until you get the answer. You’ll have to train yourself to ask and answer quality questions if you’re not accustomed to this strategy.

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• The Greatest Networker Weekend Immersion Experience with John Milton Fogg: How Can You Become The Greatest Networker in the World? (profitablestorytelling.com)

Insider’s Look at the Instant Credibility System for How to Write a Book: How Can You Quickly & Easily Write a Book that Brings in Clients?

Ron Davies and I were talking at a live event recently. He told me that he had looked at someone’s authoring program but did not enroll.

“What stopped you signing up for the program?” I asked.

“I even talked to the guy for about a half hour, and he could never tell me what exactly was in his system.”

In an age of total transparency, you can’t be afraid to lay out your system. “Would you like me to share exactly and specifically what the Instant Credibility system involves?”

“Sure. Let’s set up a time.”

“Have you got 2 minutes right now?”

A beat. “Sure.”

“Then I have enough time to lay out the whole system. After that, you tell me if it makes sense to you. Is that all right with you?”

He agreed. I didn’t have a stopwatch, but I know the explanation took less than 90 seconds. Once I laid it out, I asked him, “Does that make sense to you?”

“Absolutely. And I see how it will build my business.”

“And does it sound like something you can do since you have the roadmap?” He agreed, and I told him how to get started.

And I’m about to share the whole Instant Credibility system with you now. Are you ready?

Read more

Coaching or Encroaching: One Way to Sniff Out the True Coaches from the Greedy Money Mongers

Want to know how to tank your business and lose customers? Just ask like the coach with whom I used to associate. It sickens me to know how far he has strayed from how he acted a few years ago.

Important: Coaching for YOU

What I’m about to say is true for business and for all other aspects of life. Your associations are hugely important. If you are around people of questionable moral character, or people who focus on money over value, it’s time to cut the cord and stop associating. Period.

When a person you are working with or associating with at church or in a club or whatever arena demonstrates that they are slithering toward greed and deception, your best course of action is to discontinue the association immediately.

John Di Lemme says that you become the last 5 people in your cell phone. So are you under the influence of  uplifting, inspiring people who will assist you in moving toward your dreams? Or are you associating with money mongers out to make a buck?

Dancing with the Dark

I wish I could say that I can’t believe what a well known coach said to an event attendee. Unfortunately, I CAN believe it, because the coach has gone from dancing on the edge between light and dark to lovingly embracing the dark side. I’m wondering how long it will take event planners to realize what this person is doing. What happened?

—> Read More —>

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