Wanted! Frustrated Readers | The Myth of Autopilot Riches

Personally delivered to you by Steve Lindhorst, author of
"Selling on 'the River' and "The Niche Book"

It's been over a month since the last newsletter. Whew! I've been busy though. I'm working on a couple of new projects, and I've been going to the doctor to figure out this whole adult ADD thing. Thanks to those of you who shared your own stories via email.
On to the newsletter...

In This Issue

1. Wanted! Frustrated Readers
2. The Myth of Autopilot Riches
3. A Quiet Little Promotion
   
4. If you are an eBay affiliate, read this...

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1. Wanted! Frustrated Readers

Many readers have written to me asking if there is a way to make money with little investment. Some are on fixed income, or unemployed. Others are barely making ends meet, and need "extra" money to take some of the pressure off.

The fact is, there is no simple "money button" you can push to make that happen. Making money is the result of some kind of investment, usually involving cash and/or energy.

Quite a while back, I realized that people will pay you for what you know. I figured if I knew more, especially about things other people wanted to know about, I could write it down in plain English, and they would buy it. I certainly didn't think of myself as a writer, and you may feel the same. I was having trouble with my first ebook, the words just didn't sound right. But then during a conversation with Jim Cockrum he told me, "Just pretend you're writing a letter to a buddy." Once I got that mindset, writing was super easy.

The Big Idea

Here is the basic idea behind Wanted! Frustrated Readers: Big companies and organizations may be good at making their products. But they are usually bad at teaching people how to use their products.

For example: eBay’s product is the eBay marketplace. But why do you think there are so many books teaching people how to use eBay? Why do you think those eBay University classes were packed with hundreds of people in every city we visited?

Almost from the very beginning, eBay has had a “Help” section. They also had discussion boards that discussed common questions and provided real answers from real sellers. Why then, did so many “How to Sell on eBay” books get written? Why did eBay University even exist? It was because while eBay was a good marketplace, it was hard for new sellers to navigate all the choices involved with selling.

Because people trying to use the site were frustrated!

Why didn’t eBay explain how to use their product in clear, plain-English terms?

Many companies write their own “Help” pages internally. The folks that write these pages may know the company inside and out. So they often use terminology that they understand but then they confuse, and ultimately frustrate their readers. They can’t remember what it’s like to know absolutely nothing about their product. They have a hard time putting themselves in your shoes. That is a big reason why most “Help” sections do not help very much.

Writing Selling on ‘the River’ helped me discover that by translating a company’s own “Help” pages into plain English, along with gathering valuable information from a bunch of other (free) sources on the internet, I could make good money. You can too.

Help Sections on websites are not the same as tutorials. They are not designed to teach you step by step how to accomplish a task. Using Help to learn to sell is like using a dictionary to learn to read.

So people get frustrated.

Similarly, when dealing with big companies, government agencies, and organizations, we find red tape, a maze of phone menus, legal jargon, contradictions, and outdated information.

That is also extremely frustrating.

Learning to make money is frustrating. That’s why so many people buy information products that will give them a step by step way, or at least a shortcut to do it.

Frustrated people will pay for information to make the frustration go away. Those are your customers. They will read what you write, and they’ll pay you for it.

Remember, people will buy things that:

• Make them more money
• Save them time
• Allow them to avoid the frustration of doing stuff they don’t like
• Help them avoid losing money – now or in the future
• Help them feel better about themselves

Each one of those points involves an element of frustration. You can help them get relief. And just think, if you can write a letter to a buddy, you can do this - no big investment! Stay tuned!

In my new ebook, Wanted! Frustrated Readers I will explain how to:

• Choose a topic that will sell
• Learn all about that topic (for free)
• Arrange the parts in a logical order
• Write it all down (in plain English)
• Sell it!

I hope to have it completed in the next couple of weeks. Watch for an email announcement. My readers will get the first chance to grab it.

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2. The Myth of Autopilot Riches

Finding a worthwhile product to promote is not always easy. Lately I have noticed a lot of "autopilot" programs that promise to let you "set it and forget it." I would like you to focus on the "forget it" part.

Building a simple website and letting it chug away, making loads of money while you sleep. That is a great dream isn't it? Unfortunately, that's about all it is. There are a number of reasons why autopilot riches is just a myth.

• If it seems to good to be true - it probably is. - We've all heard that. Why do we try so hard to ignore it then? To make money takes work. Even if you inherit money - someone along the way had to work for it. Don't fall for the scammers that tell you all you have to do is slap a website up in cyberspace and people will come running. It will not happen.
• When rules change, you're out of business. - Most autopilot programs depend on an intricate system of connections to function. Big companies like Twitter, eBay and Google hate automatic websites and traffic schemes. For example, Google will de-index (remove) sites from their search results if those sites don't meet basic quality standards. Think about it, Google makes money by sending you to real, relevant sites that address your query. If they send you to junk sites, you'll eventually try another search engine.So if you set up an autopilot program that builds dozens of blogs automatically, Google will figure that out and dump your sites after about a month. When you buy an autopilot program, it has a sort of "footprint." The code for the site contains some common characteristic. When Google figures out what that is, it can just say to it's robots: "When you see this footprint, ignore this site." Boom - your dozens of blogs or sites or whatever - are dust.If your autopilot program depends on a bunch of pieces all hooked together, it's only a matter of time before it all falls down. It only takes one missing or changed piece - and boom.
• Everyone is doing it. - One of the reasons I like the idea of creating information products is: everyone is a little different. If my neighbor can buy the same autopilot program as me - it makes it harder, not easier for me to make money. But if my neighbor has to create something on his own, from his own mind, it will not be the same as mine. I want to be unique, unique sells.
• Some internet marketers lie. - I know you're shocked and disappointed by that. But not everyone is out for your best interests. There are just a few people I actually know and trust in this business. Everyone else is not necessarily lying, deception is a better term. But they build up this idea that they've discovered a "secret formula" that exploits some loophole and lets them make tones of money. It could very well work, but there is always one element of the formula that is nearly impossible for an average person to accomplish. Unfortunately, you usually discover that in the last chapter of their information.

Save your money. Don't fall for the scams. You will not make money without any work. If you're going to spend money on a product, get something that gives you ideas. Don't buy "autopilot" programs.

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3. A Quiet Little Promotion

Every so often, I like to throw a little personal party with a special offer of my ebooks. If you haven't picked up Selling on the River or The Niche Book yet - I'm offering a no-frills deal here. Half price on both books for a limited time. (I'm just feeling generous tonight. Grab them now before I get my A.D.D. medication and come to my senses.)

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4. If you are an eBay affiliate, read this...

Many readers of this newsletter have built sites around the eBay Partner Network (ePN). Recently eBay announced they would be changing how they calculate commissions earned through ePN. They've introduced a new model called Quality Click Pricing (QCP) which takes into account visitor's intent when they click on an affiliate link. (Yes, it's true, eBay can now read minds and determine visitor's reasons for clicking.)

There has already been a lot written on this topic. This situation illustrates what I was talking about in point #2 above. The more links there are to your "income chain" - the more likely one will eventually break. There is a good synopsis of the latest QCP news here.

Tagged as: autopilot blogs, autopilot riches, epn, Wanted! Frustrated Readers