You are using an outdated browser. Please upgrade your browser to improve your experience and security.

AFP 12: The Fourth Wave In Internet Marketing

Justin Cooke March 3, 2012

In Episode 12 of the AdSense Flippers Podcast, we wanted to provide an extension to the ideas in a post on TropicalMBA.com discussing the 4 waves or cycles that the Internet Marketing industry has gone through.  It’s interesting to see the progression and change we’ve gone through in only a few short years.  We cover the transition from the “Business Opportunity Guru’s” to the selling of profitable mini-businesses and get into the how and why regarding the changing trends and themes in the industry.  We also get into where we see the industry going and provide some actionable tips and ideas for getting started in the “4th Wave”.

The 4th Wave of Internet Marketing Has Arrived

Direct Download – Right Click And Save As

We’re excited about this episode as it allows us to showcase some alternative concepts that can be used to sell these mini-businesses using the same marketing or brand platform we’ve used here.  Did you like this episode as well?  Let us know on iTunes! Here’s the link to the podcast on iTunes.  Thank you!

Podcast Transcript (Click Show to view)

Show More

Justin: Welcome to Episode 12 of the AdSense Flippers Podcast. I’m your host Justin Cooke and I’ve got my business partner extraordinaire here as well, Joe Magnotti. What’s up, buddy?

Joe: Hello, everybody.

Justin: We’ve got a great show lined up for you this week. First we’re going to go over some updates and news, new gadget I’ve been playing with a little bit. The heart of this week’s episode is all about the fourth wave of internet marketing and what that means for your business and then finally, we’re going to go over some tips and some tricks and things we want to talk to you about and ask for your feedback on. So we’ve got a great episode lined up. Let’s get right into it.

Joe: Yeah, buddy. Three new iTunes reviews, right?

Justin: Yeah. Three new iTunes reviews, three five-star iTunes reviews, I should say. They’re great, man. First one is from BJ Max.  He says, “Love the podcast. If you’re looking for a ton of info on building profitable niche websites, this is the podcast to listen to.” Stu says, “These guys are the real deal. They talk about problems and success of running their business and they cover both high level subjects and they also go into details. Love this podcast. This isn’t a sales pitch for a class or a book and you can tell from their enthusiasm they enjoy doing this.” Thank you, Stu. Thank you, BJ. We got another one from Tom. “I love this podcast because you two are out there with all your information, the good, the bad and the ugly.” I would say the business is good. You’re bad and I’m ugly. What do you think?

Joe: Yeah.

Justin: Anyway man, really excited to be on this episode. Let’s talk a little bit about the Flippa auction we had last week. How did that go?

Joe: Unbelievable. Everything was up and sold within three hours of putting the auction out there.

Justin: I felt guilty, man, because we sent it on an email and I didn’t want to send it out to everyone. I was like just the people that opened, like the last one that were showing some interest in buying and I send it out and like within a few hours, it was snatched up.

Joe: Yeah. You know, I was thinking, hey, I will be able to email. People have been emailing me, asking when we’re going to put sites up and at least point them to an auction they could bid on and they could have little fun with but no, that thing was snapped up quick.

Justin: Anyway, not complaining. Very happy with it. So thank you to the buyer. The other thing I want to talk about, I got my Kindle Fire. I’ve had it for a while now, a little over a month. It’s kind of hot, man. I thought it wasn’t going to be something I was going to use. It was one of those tablets where it sounds cool and then like six weeks later, it’s like hidden in the closet but we got some use out of it, man. Monopoly. Downloaded Monopoly. Loving it, yes.

Joe: As you know, I had a tablet for a few months and I sold it just because I didn’t think it was worth it. Personally, I think between a really good smartphone and a really good laptop, there’s just no room for a tablet in your life.

Justin: The games, man. You know, it’s bad. I know, whatever. You should be learning. You should be earning. You should be whatever. I like playing a little bit of games. Monopoly, I’m a fan. So, another good bit of information we have coming out, the Lifestyle Business Podcast guys are on their way. They’re going to be here Thursday nights, right?

Joe: Yes. We’re going to take them out to dinner, show them around. Have a fun planned weekend with the guys.

Justin: Yes, they can check out all the new entrepreneurs here in Davao. I could talk with them a little bit. I think that would be really exciting. Hopefully we can actually sit down and do a couple of recordings or something either for their show or ours. Anyway, we’re big fans of the LBP. Just wanted to give LBP a little props. Thanks, guys.

Joe: Yeah. Dan and Ian, can’t wait to see you guys.

Justin: Also we’ve got a new and improved end to end guide we’re working on. Our intern is working on actually that he’s going to be writing up for us. We’ve been going over the process step by step, detail by detail and he has been documenting everything. So we’re going to have a really clear, concise guide that we can hand out here within the next week to two weeks and I think that would be really helpful for some of our listeners and readers and we will be giving that out to everybody.

Joe: Yeah. The last bit of training was today and that’s why John is not on the podcast today. He’s chained to the desk, getting all the documentation and the video casting done. So that should be really good. I’m looking forward to seeing his work.

Justin:
That guy is working feverishly, man. Last week, we tried to get him out. We were like, “Come on, man. Come and have a couple of beers with us.” He’s like, “OK.” Couple of hours later, he’s like, “I don’t know, man. I need to get back. I got to do some work tomorrow.” Like come on, you’re with us. Let’s go. I got to encourage the work habit. I don’t want to discourage him from getting stuff done.

Joe:
Yes, positive work habits. Let’s enforce that first.

Justin:
Last thing I want to cover is we had an idea and we wanted to ask you guys what your thoughts are on it. You know, we’re not really big fans of info products. We were thinking that we could create basically a business in a box. So we sell a batch of niche websites that are earning and along with those earnings, a fully detailed plan, videos, interviews with experts about how to build those sites out, how to basically buy a site and flip it and make it worth more later.

And then additionally do some interviews or some phone calls with us so they can ask lots of questions. We can kind of go over the process and really help step someone through it. The idea is that we’re turning over not just websites that are earning but an actual business model and I was thinking that might be interesting. It would be a higher-priced item so we put more price on it because of some of the info that goes along with it but it would also be consulting it and also be actual earning sites. So please let us know on the show notes if that’s something you’re interested in.

Joe:
I have to say I’m not convinced I want to stay away from any sort of selling that information but we would give some hardcore consulting in this and we probably give some sort of service or other product to add value to the package. So we would like to hear feedback from you guys but don’t worry. We’re not getting into the ebook business.

Justin:
Yes.

Joe:
Promise.

Justin:
Promise that’s not going to happen but it’s also a business problem of ours where our sites are growing so quickly. If we can slow that down but add more value and get a higher price tag on our stuff, that seems to be a smart move. So anyway, something to think about.

Joe:
So last thing we have to mention here, Justin, is we got a new auction going out this week. Thirteen sites, unlucky 13. I don’t like that number but a good group of sites. We did a lot of research, took us few hours to put the package together and I think just like the 20 sites we offered last week, good starter package or good package for someone that wants diversification, that kind of thing.

Justin:
Yeah. A lot of them are well-ranked. So anyone who has some SEO skills or the ability to get them on the first page can make a ton of money but they’re earning as is. They’re earning where they’re ranked and with a long tail key phrases and everything. So definitely check that out. We don’t have a Buy It Now on it now but we will probably add one here in the near future. So you will be able to snatch that up. Anyway, let’s get right into the heart of this week’s episode.

**** The AdSense Flippers Podcast. ****

Justin:
So the heart of this week’s episode is all about an interesting post we saw on Tropical MBAand it talked about the three waves of internet marketing and how we may be moving into the fourth wave. It gave us a lot of love actually on the post about AdSense Flippers and some of the stuff we’re doing. And so we want to talk briefly about kind of what it covered and we will link to it in the show notes so you can check it out for yourself but then we also want to talk about kind of what we’re doing and where we see it going.

Joe:
Yeah. Thanks, Dan for mentioning us as usual and we’re just going to expand on your theory and talk about it here.

Justin:
Yeah. So it’s interesting. I mean basically the whole idea is it changed from selling the dream to actually selling a business. Now I would say where we’re at right now is definitely selling to mini businesses but we will get more into that, I think, in the fifth part so we basically have five parts we want to cover here.

The first part is just kind of explaining the idea. So there are four waves in internet marketing and the first wave is basically about business opportunity gurus.

Joe:
Yeah, business opportunity gurus. They’re heavily scripted, highly tuned sales letters and pay walls. These guys are out there selling the dream, right?

Justin:
Yeah, they’re selling the dream at mass markets. So these are guys that would come out with a huge product launch and do a million dollars in 24 hours. That was the first wave of internet marketing. It kind of moved though into like the social media sales masters. They have like the motivational tips and kind of like broad concepts. Their big thing in how they make money is selling seminars or coaching sessions, right? So they would charge a pretty high dollar amount for the coaching but give out some pretty good information for you to get from and learn from.

Joe:
Yes, and then there’s the third wave of transparent business, completely open with success, failure and income associated, everything. And they make their money usually throughout affiliate offers and duplicating their success.

Justin: Yeah, I like the third wave. I mean that’s really something that we learned a lot from, guys like Niche Pursuits and Pat Flynn from Smart Passive Income. They’ve done a fantastic job of like just really laying it out there and being open about their success, open about what’s working, what’s not and very, very helpful for those of us that are trying to make it, trying to get our blogs up and running, trying to get our sites up and running. So it has been really fantastic.

The fourth wave is talking about basically creating positive cash flow and mini businesses and in selling those businesses to investors, business owners or other aspiring entrepreneurs. And I didn’t really think of what we were doing that way. I just thought of it as selling sites and Dan has kind of impressed that upon us which I thought was pretty interesting and we will get into more about like how this can be expanded in the future but that’s the basic idea of the post. That’s what the fourth wave of internet marketing is all about, selling these businesses and taking potentially equity stake from entering or investments in these businesses.

Joe:
Yeah, it allows people to take the first step in making money online by having a successful business already. Not by trying to buy the dream or buy the instructions to the dream or read about the dream but you can actually have the dream for a price.

Justin:
So for the second part – let’s specifically talk about the trends from phase one to phase four.

Joe:
OK. So the first thing I’m talking about is going from general to specialized, right? And we’re no longer talking about the mass market approach nor do we want to. This jack-of-all-trades type of do-everything kind of well is not what the fourth wave is about. It’s about being specialized and being an expert at what you do.

Justin:
Yeah, the be-everything-to-everyone-approach has to be like highly scripted, has to be playing both sides and the specialization part of it doesn’t have to be that way. You can talk to your audience specifically, the same people. They’re doing the same things as you. You have the same interests and it makes it a lot easier actually, I think, than it does a mass market approach.

The second term to talk about is mystery versus transparency. There has been a move in the internet marketing to be more open. It’s like it’s the new sales letter. It’s like here it is. I’m opening the kimono. I’m pulling it back and I’m showing you everything and I think people like that. It’s definitely more authentic. It’s definitely more approachable. It’s definitely more – something that you could relate to.

I think that’s why it’s really important but we’re not trying to convince people to pay to get to our real content. I think that was one of the problems before is that it’s like, look, I will give you a little bit. I will give you a tidbit but then I’m going to make you pay to get to the really good stuff.  One of the problems with that is that some of the people will pay you to get to the good stuff and then take that content, steal it from you and offer it away for free anyway.

Joe:
Yeah. And then also you don’t really know if the good stuff is worth the payment, right? I mean if you give away that stuff for free, then obviously you can judge it on its own merits.

Justin:
Yeah, and you can judge one person to another because you know exactly what’s going on. Now one of the worst things is when people are taking advantage of that by claiming to be out there and open hearts but it’s really hard to tell, right? It’s really hard to tell online who is and who isn’t. I think the best way to get past that is to not only look at their income claims or reports but look at the actionable information they put out. Does it make sense? Does it work in my market? Does it help me grow my business? If it does, then it’s probably legitimate.

The third point is it used to be difficult to get followers and it’s much easier to get followers in the fourth wave. The reason for that is previously people would have to pay to get users, pay to get followers. But when you’re specialized, when you’re niched, right? You’re talking about the same stuff that people really want to know about, right? You have a connection and you’re able to build tribes that way by really focusing in on what is important to you and being specific to your niche.

Joe:
Yeah, and I would say the next thing you think about is most content was behind a pay wall before, like we were talking about, and now that content is free. So this is not because it’s a Kumbaya, oh let’s, you know, be goody-goody and give everything away. We’re actually probably going to make more money that way.

Justin:
Yeah, it’s not a Boy Scout approach. It’s not the, “Oh, I just want to give the world our content for free, give everything away.” We’re doing it strategically because we know that ultimately, it’s a better approach. Ultimately we know we can make more money out of it and I think other people are starting to realize that as well. That’s really exciting for me because I would hate to be the man behind the curtain, right? The guy who says, “OK, here’s some stuff. Here’s the money we make. If you just buy my $15 ebook, I will show you the secrets too.”

Joe:
Yeah, and then it makes your ideas more flexible too. I mean if you put something out there on the site, you better be able to back it up or you better be able to change your mind and go with something that’s better should evidence point to contradictory evidence.

The next thing we will talk about is value is going from intangible to measurable and this is very important when selling sites, right? If you’re selling the dream, if you’re selling some ebook, if you’re selling just instructions on how to do stuff, it’s hard to put a price on that. Is that worth $47, $9, $247, $2000? You don’t know but if I sell you a site that makes money, it’s very easy for us to put an amount on that.

Justin:
And now we can debate the price, right? And between the buyer and seller but it’s worth something for sure because it earns.

Joe:
Yes, there is some yardstick to measure that buy.

Justin:
And I think that’s one of the problems. Like lifestyle design bloggers is they talk about, “Oh, you can live this life. You can live it your way. You can travel and go do this, that and the other,” but they’re not actually delivering anything for them that makes that happen. All right? They tell them how amazing it is and how many nice things you could do and they’re kind of selling their – what they would like to be able to do in selling the dream but there’s nothing behind it that actually makes anyone money and I think that’s one of the differences between lifestyle design bloggers and people that sell products or people that sell services.

So that pretty much sums up what the Tropical MBA post was all about. In this next part, we want to talk specifically about where it’s at now, where the fourth wave is and how we’re a part of it. This is really new territory and it’s a less traveled path. There are a lot of people out there that are selling profitable income earners to others and showing them exactly how to do it. It’s really interesting and it’s fun to be a part of.

Joe:
Right. You know, there are not many competitors out there but there are plenty of industries that are right to focus this type of model on.

Justin:
Yes, I mean here’s something to consider too is that we’re doing it specifically with AdSense and niche sites but it doesn’t have to be.

Joe:
Yeah. We will cover that in the next part but yeah, there are definitely other things that you could do and it’s a similar type of model to what we do with AdSense Flippers.

Justin:
Yeah. I think this is particularly useful in the internet marketing industry because there are a lot of frustrated and dejected internet marketers, right? I mean there’s a lot of hocus pocus and there’s a lot of crap out there to where you’re just like, “Oh my god. I’m so done. I’ve tried this. I’ve done that. I’m sick of it. I’m sick of the jokers.”

Joe:
Yeah. We were reading a forum out there and they were really beating up some of the “make money online” people.

Justin:
Yeah, that’s worth checking out. If you’re looking to buy or sell sites, it’s worth checking out. It’s Experienced-People.net. Definitely something to check out. We just started looking at it ourselves but it has got some really good information in there.

Joe:
Yeah. I like some of the threads over there but yes, they are definitely not high on the “make money online” crowd.

Justin:
But a lot of people are. I think a lot of internet marketers are and a lot of people that actually make money get frustrated with it as well, right? It’s kind of this unspoken thing where we’re all that way and I think we should speak up a bit more. We should say, “Look, this isn’t good for our industry. We should stop. I mean we should move past that so that we can be a legitimate niche. We can be a legitimate industry in it of ourselves.” I mean there are millions of people doing this. There are billions of dollars. We should legitimize it a bit, I think.

Joe:
Yeah. I mean in the fourth wave, this allows you to follow the same marketing model with something you know really, really well. But there are going to be limitations, right? It has to be something that earns. It has to be something that’s transferable.

Justin:
Yeah, it can’t be information. It can’t be an idea. It can’t be a particular roadmap or something. It has to be something that’s making money.

Joe:
Right. So it can’t be something like juggling.

Justin:
Yeah. Juggling is not transferable. I can’t sell you my juggling skill. I can sell you an ebook on how to juggle. Hopefully you will follow it and figure it out but my actual skill can’t do that. I wish we had that ability. Just zap something from my head to yours. Boom! You can juggle five balls. That would be cool but …

Joe:
Right. So in the fourth wave, if I’m selling some sort of online business in the fourth wave, it can’t be a book about juggling. It has to be more like an app development site where you already had the designers, the programmers and all that staff and all you did was you made little app development businesses and you sold those businesses off. That would be an example.

Justin:
Well that takes us right into where we think the fourth wave is going, Joe. I think this is important that there are a bunch of industries that are right for this type of model, right? I mean you mentioned app development but you can also do the same thing, the exact same model with something like affiliate sites.

Joe:
Right. Yeah. Affiliate sites, I think, would be a very repeatable, a very transferable and obviously an earning type of business that you could sell.

Justin:
Yeah. Do you know how to do that? Do you know how to make affiliate sites? Give the exact information away for free. Show people that you know how to do it. Tell them how much you’re making and then sell those affiliate sites and help them so they can do it too.

Joe:
Right. And the same thing we said about content generation sites, private blog networks, physical product sites. I mean the list goes on and on and on and we should put a couple of these in the show notes. But yes, any of those kind of earnings, the transferable sites that you can create in a matter of months and bringing up to actual revenue-generating potential is something you can sell online.

Justin:
Yeah, the two ones we really talked about a bit privately off the podcast were private blog networks. I mean there are a ton of people out there looking to get into private blog networks. I mean BuildMyRank right now was shut off. They’re not taking new members because they’re building out their blogs, right?

So there’s a bunch of people that under-serve there right now. Physical product sites, I mean some people are not the IMers. They’re not info product stuff either but they love to sell something like cat furniture or some other random niche that they’re interested in, right? It’s something – maybe they have cats, something that they like to do and they could sell product sites.

So if you could sell them these product sites that are real businesses, help them continue growing them. I mean selling websites isn’t new but actually laying out the model for free in exactly how to build them, sell them and replicate that is new.

Joe:
Yeah. And currently the market here is very simple, right? I mean simple AdSense sites, simple affiliate sites. Why couldn’t it be more?

Justin:
Yeah. Couldn’t we go into like – for example, like a major local search site. Why can’t you show away for free to build those types of sites, get some traffic, get some interest there and then sell those often, flip them, help other people build this like small community sites, like geo-targeted sites?

Joe:
Yeah. I think the cycle would be a lot longer, Justin, and you would have to manage cash flow and the business a lot better but it’s absolutely doable and I think the marketing approach, the same approach we’ve done here with AdSense Flippers, works very well with that.

Justin:
For example, let’s say I live in Sacramento, right? And I happen to work at a furniture store, right? I’m familiar with furniture. I can build a site all around furniture for Sacramento. I know it best. I can get into that and then I can start repeating it for other cities and then show other people how to do that. Then maybe break into things other than furniture, right? I mean that’s a way you could do it locally.

Joe:
Right. And you could sell those sites that you’ve created for each city as a local furniture store to people as a revenue-earning business, online business.

Justin:
Well, another thing. You do like outsourcing companies, right? I mean we have an outsourcing company. We absolutely know how to build outsourcing companies. We know how to set up businesses in the Philippines. We know how to sign up everyone for all the services that are needed. We could do that over and over again, talk about it and sell those off to other people. I mean that’s something we could do right now but we’re pretty focused on what we’re doing. So I mean there are lots of open opportunities out there right now for people to take advantage of.

So what I think is really cool about this is that it would be interesting to see if it goes from like fringe to mainstream.

Joe:
Yeah. I’m a little concerned about this because it is a bit more complicated than the normal build it, sell it, ship it kind of model.

Justin:
Yes. But it’s so much more, I think, profitable and cool especially for the internet marketing community where I think a lot of people are yearning for something that’s legit, right? Just straight up legit. This is good business.

Joe:
And it’s powerful too. It’s hard to break that down. It’s hard to copy that if you become an authority in that particular niche. I mean someone just can’t steal your business.

Justin:
And honestly there’s enough business to go around, right? There’s plenty of business. So we’re not even worried about that. We have other people that are making AdSense revenue, that are selling their sites. Good for them. We link to them. We chat with them. We’re going to have them on the podcast and we think it’s a good thing and there’s plenty of room for growth there.

All right, Joe. So this is all well and good for us. But how does this apply to anyone that’s listening, right? I mean how can they actually take this information and make it actionable for them?

Joe:
Well, OK. So if the AdSense Flippers model appeals to you, then you’re in the fourth wave, right? You’re wanting to build a business around it. You need to find something transferable and something earning in your life experience, so some skill that you have that fits those two characteristics.

Justin:
Yes, I think that’s really important. I mean it has–you have to make something that’s earning. It’s something that’s transferable and we’ve mentioned a few that we’re kind of familiar with. It might be a good fit for us but it may not necessarily be a good fit for our listeners, our readers, that type of thing and you guys are going to know best about that, what’s good for you.

The second thing I would say is to build your content around intermediates or advanced users in that industry, not the beginners, right? I will be completely honest with you. Most of our content, we try to go for the intermediates. We try to tell people things that are – you know, they’ve been doing internet marketing for a while. They’ve done AdSense sites before and they want a new process to try out but they’ve been around the block a bit.

Joe:
Yeah. My mom listens to the podcast and she goes, “Oh, it’s so cute but I have no idea what you guys are talking about.”

Justin:
Yeah. What do you mean AdSense? Honestly, I don’t want to answer those questions. I don’t want to deal with like really basic questions and what’s cool is a lot of the emails or a lot of the questions we get on our blog, the comments, are kind of cool. I mean they’re interesting. They’re a little more advanced. You don’t have to go basic. You don’t have to go beginner. I can’t imagine – can you imagine if we have like five times the traffic and we’re getting all basic questions from beginners?

Joe:
It would be so boring and then the other thing about advanced questions though too that I really like is you learn something from it as well. Sometimes you have to look stuff up. Sometimes you have to research an answer and you have to back up your answers with intelligible data.

Justin:
Yeah. I want to work with business people, right? I want to work with the advanced people. I want to work with people that have some investment income.

Joe:
Right.

Justin:
Right? I mean a beginner may – I’ve got, you know, 100 bucks to spend. I wan to get into this internet game thing. I don’t know what’s going on. Well, we don’t really – that’s not our gig, right? And I don’t think it should be yours either. If we focus on those people, you might be able to get a little bit of  money out of a lot of people but a lot of those people are going to end up bailing out and they’re going to feel bad because it didn’t work out for them and they’re going to blame themselves or you or whatever. I mean you’re focusing on the intermediates and helping them achieve success. I mean these people are actually going for it. They’ve committed to getting it done.

Joe:
Right. And one thing to not – don’t make this mistake. Do not put your information behind a pay wall. If you’re going to be part of this fourth wave, you’re going to try to make an AdSense Flippers style business. Don’t put all this critical information behind some paid membership site.

Justin:
It’s painful too, right man? It’s hard not to do because we’re like, oh god, we got this or we could put this out. What if we came up with this and we could charge for it? But no, I think we get so much more value out of making it free. Anytime we can make it free, we want to.

We’ve been having discussions with some of our future projects on whether we should charge for it because it’s going to cost us some money. Some of these projects cost us $2000, $5000, $10,000, $15,000 in development but we always keep coming back to how can we give this away to people. How can we make this real valuable stuff for people? And you should do the same thing. Be OK spending money. Be OK investing in your business because the trust and the stuff you get out of that is completely valuable and worthwhile.

Joe:
Yeah. You need to think about other ways to monetize these items and it doesn’t have to be direct monetization, right Justin? I mean sometimes you build a brand. Sometimes you build value by putting these things out there.

Justin:
So, Yeah, if I’ve got a job, right? And I’m working my job but I’ve got some extra hours. Why not build something that people really want, that’s a real need out there for? You see people talking about it on forums, whatever. Build it and give it away for free, right? If you want to get your name out there, put up a blog. Put up a few blog posts out there. Really good actionable information and then give it away for free and people will start coming to you to get that piece and they go, “God, someone is so cool. They gave this away for free. That’s awesome. They’ve got to have more stuff up their sleeve. I’m checking them out.”

You know, another thing I think is really important is talk about your successes and your failures. I mean it’s nice for internet marketers to talk about how much money they make and how they’re living the dream but anyone who’s honest with you is going to tell you, “Well, we screw up too and we’ve learned from those screw-ups and we make mistakes,” and so that’s the big ones. But at least be honest about it because the worst thing you can do in an industry that already has kind of a scammy feel to it is be scammy, right? That’s the worse and you can never get that trust back.

Joe:
Yes, that’s the most important thing is you can’t get it back. Once you lose that, unfortunately no one will ever trust you again. Not no one but most people will never come back to you again.

Justin:
I’ve seen people that have done that and tried to turn it around and it kind of works but for the rest of us, yes, not happening.

Joe:
One other thing here that I like a lot is sometimes the painful subjects can turn out to be the best content for your readers, your listeners so you shouldn’t shy away from that. And, you know, we’ve had discussions about what to talk about and what not to and it has always been the ones that we’re kind of a little, “Ah! Should we talk about that?” Those have been the most popular posts and the most popular podcasts.

Justin:
It’s scary though, man, when you put those ideas. Like oh god, I don’t know. I really kind of docked this up and now I’m going to tell everyone about it? That’s embarrassing but those are the ones that people really learn from, really appreciate, I think and it’s kind of a joke now between us. We’re like, “Should we really put that out? Should we say that?” And we’re like, “Yeah. Yup, we should. We absolutely should,” and I think you should too because people are going to really appreciate that and know that you’re being sincere and kind of relate to you because they’re screwing up too. Right? They’re making mistakes as well.

It’s also important to be a real person, right? I mean a lot of people try to hide behind a username or try to hide behind their brand. Don’t hide behind your brand. Be a person. Get on the phone. Talk to people. People like to connect with other people, right? They don’t want to buy from a brand. You’re not Nike, right? You’re not Adidas. We’re not Adidas. We understand that. It’s Justin and Joe. Now we have AdSense Flippers and our brand is doing well but it’s us that’s really driving it and it should be you driving your brand, not the other way around.

Joe:
Yeah, you should be looking for a connection and the only way to do that when you’re so small is that people have to know that it’s a real person. So don’t – I wouldn’t use pseudonyms. I wouldn’t try to like – Justin said use a big brand name or something like that. Make it honest. Make it true. Make it you.

Justin:
Yeah. You see a lot of people talking about internet marketing. Make it you. I love that, buddy. But I see a lot of people talking about internet marketing. Maybe I should have a fake name. Can I have a fake name? Should I use something different? I absolutely don’t think so because if you have a fake name, I think it’s even more tempting to do something you wouldn’t stand behind. It’s even more tempting to do something sleazy and that’s just not what our industry needs and you’re not going to – it’s not good. You’re not going to be doing good business if you do it that way.

So that’s it for the heart of this week’s episode. Let’s get right into our ninja marketing tips, tricks and our plans for the future.

**** The AdSense Flippers Podcast continues. ****

Justin:
All right, buddy. So you’re up with our first ninja marketing tip. What you got, Joe?

Joe:
The AdSense Dashboard is an Android app for phones and tablets. It lets you track your AdSense earnings and other statistics that are vital. It makes little – cool little graphs and it has widgets and all that kind of stuff. It’s from a guy named Gregory Block who I worked on with the games and feature requests, bug reports, when the product was in its initial phases and I really love it and I think you should check it out and it’s free.

Justin:
It’s cool, man. I like it but I am one of those guys that like obsesses about stats and checking and rechecking. So it’s one of those things where it’s cool. I’ll look at it and then I got to put it away for a little while.

Joe:
Yeah. Well, the good thing is you could put this up on your little Android tablet, have it there on your desk and you can kind of see your stats rolling in on a minute-by-minute basis, if you like, without having to browse away on your computer.

Justin:
Second tip I want to talk about was TED Talks. A lot of you are probably familiar with this but TED is an invite-only conference where the best and the brightest in the worlds come to speak, to listen and to network basically. It’s an amazing conference, definitely one of my life goals to go to one of those. I would love to be there. Most amazingly though is that the videos are free. They’re uploaded for free. So you can watch all these amazing people talk about really cool things on their website.

I’ve gotten some great business ideas from there. I’ve learned about some great things that are going on in the world and it helps you think about kind of where things are going, where business might be going, where different niches are going and it helps you like come up with ideas that may help you in your business.

So we’re excited to have some interviews coming up over the next few weeks that we are going to be putting up on the site, on the podcast, that type of thing. One of them is going to be a follow-up with Chris Guthrie’s interview with Pat where he talked about how to buy websites, how not to get scammed, how to make sure you do your due diligence, that type of thing; and we thought we could do a great follow-up podcast interview with him about once you’ve bought those sites, how do you expand them. I think for our listeners and our readers, I think that would be a fantastic value-add, don’t you?

Joe:
Yeah, absolutely. I love talking about buying and selling websites because that’s half of what we do here, right? We are the AdSense Flippers. So if we know the good selling techniques, obviously we can teach you as a buyer the techniques to look out for.

Justin:
Yeah and if we can go to the experts to get that done for you and give you the information you need, that would be helpful. Also, we want to build out some other sites, right? I would love to make them bigger earners. I would love to turn a $40 site into a $200 a month site so hopefully we can pick up some tips and use those as we continue to grow.

Joe:
Yeah. So talking about interviews here, we are looking for some less known marketers, anybody with interesting stories out there or anyone that you, the listener, would like to hear us talk to. Leave that in the comments section and we would love to know about it so that we can get them on the show.

Justin:
Yeah. I’ve been looking a lot lately. There’s a ton of people that aren’t very well-known, aren’t really out there but are making money, that are crushing it, that are traveling around. They’re living their lives, that are selling websites on Flippa, that are creating affiliate sites and we would love to get them on the show and kind of hear their perspective. From the people that aren’t the IMers, aren’t pushing the affiliate stuff. You know what I mean? These guys are just kind of sitting behind the scenes and knocking it out, making everyone money including themselves. So we would love to have them on the show. We will get back to you in the future about that and let you know how it’s working out.

Well that is it for Episode 12 of the AdSense Flippers Podcast. Thanks for hanging with us. I really appreciate it. I think we had a great episode this week. We got another great one lined up next week. Make sure to check us out on Twitter, at AdSense Flippers or Facebook.com/AdSenseFlippers. We’re on there as well. We will be putting out some great links and great information for you to check out that we’ve been interested in and we think you will be interested in as well. So until next time, we will see you next week.

Joe:
Bye-bye everybody.


Download your free report


Topics Discussed This Week Include:

  • Mentioning our new end-to-end guide about using our process to create niche sites.  Out in a few weeksfor free!
  • In-depth discussion about each of the 4 Waves of internet marketing and how they’ve led us to where we are today.
  • Discussion regarding the changing trends and themes in the Internet Marketing Industry
  • Requirements for selling profitable mini-businesses you need to know before picking a niche
  • Why transparency and “Free” make you more money in the 4th Wave
  • Examples of industries that are ripe for creating, monetizing, and selling profitable mini-businesses and ideas for sharing useful content in that niche.
Mentions:
  • Our latest Flippa auction – Currently LIVE, check it out!
  • Kindle Fire – Fun stuff…like an iPad “lite”…limiting on content, though…forces you to go through Amazon often.
  • Blog post on TropicalMBA – This is the original article we discuss and extend in this episode.
  • AdSense Dashboard – Great tool to review relevant AdSense data in an app
  • TED Talks – Amazingly high-quality and high-level content from some of the thought leaders around the world…free!
Have something you want to add?  Please let us know in the comments below…we’d love to hear from you!

Discussion

  • Kay Earls says:

    I am really excited to know more information regarding about the fourth wave in Internet Marketing. I know that I would be able to get a lot of interesting information about Internet Marketing from it. I think that it would be a great opportunity to do this amazing chance.

    • JustinWCooke says:

      Thanks, Kay…what do you think you could do to get involved? How do you think you could apply these strategies to your business?

  • Thomas Hoi says:

    Just finished listening to the podcast and I believe that the 4th wave is going to shake the IM industry. I love the idea of selling websites as assets to an investor so they can reap the benefits off other people’s hard work!

    I’m also currently giving out some free video content on getting instant traffic and converting them to cash without backlinks at buy-expired-domains.com, hope you can your readers will enjoy them.

    • JustinWCooke says:

      It will definitely be interesting, Thomas!

      I have to tell you…we did purchased expired domains from a broker at one point. It’s a scary proposal, though…if you don’t know what you’re doing you can end up purchasing a host of “tainted” domains that end up being worthless to you. We regularly get contacted by people asking us to buy their AdSense-banned sites…ugh…there might be money to be made there but whatever they had going on with those sites makes them less interesting to us, for sure!

      • Thomas Hoi says:

        Hey, I will feel cheated to buy adsense-banned sites. Fortunately for me, the expired domains I bought are all “virgin” adsense sites…. most of them are content and E-commerce sites previously…. hopefully I can turn some of them into an authority site and flip for a lump sum! Looking forward to more podcasts from you guys!

  • Thomas Hoi says:

    Hi Justin, just finish listening to your podcast and I must say I like your business model where you guys are transparent to your customers and readers. I guess that’s how your site got much readers in a short time.

    I’m currently giving out Free Video Course teaching internet marketers how to get instant traffic and convert them into cash by investing in expired domains at http://buy-expired-domains.com hope you and your readers will find them useful.

  • aldo says:

    You guys are twisting the business of IM

    • JustinWCooke says:

      We definitely hope so, Aldo! I wish we could reach out to MORE of those that have been burned, bought ebooks that didn’t work or were rehashed garbage, etc. NOT because our process is “guaranteed” to work for them (It most definitely is not) but to show them there’s another way…and if they smell something fishy with the IM or MMO crowd they’re probably right.

  • Andre Garde says:

    I’m definitely loving the ride on the crest of the 4th wave. By giving stuff away for free you end up building a stronger brand, in my opinion, and it becomes easier to sell your products (your niche sites on Flippa). You guys are basically at the point where you can sell ice to Eskimos there!

    BTW check out LinkAuthority.com. It’s a competitor to BMR that popped up late last year. Given that BMR has closed its doors for the time being, LinkAuthority might be a suitable alternative. I did a writeup on my blog about it.

    • JustinWCooke says:

      Hey, Andre…thanks man! I agree that free USEFUL information is key. It definitely helps us with sales, which is not a strong point for both Joe and I. If we can give more away and avoid a tougher sales process we’re all for it! heh

      I checked out your post on LinkAuthority…seems pretty interesting. It was smart of them to use the “credit” system and offer you more by adding your own PR blogs to the network. Still…if we wanted to add 5 posts to, let’s just say…150 sites per month, that’s 750 posts. That would be 25 credits we’d need, right…a bit expensive…ouch! hehe. Comparable to BMR, though…

      • Andre Garde says:

        Yes, likely not cost-effective if it’s your primary strategy. I use it more as a push from top 3-5 to rank 1. I think that’s a more efficient use of the service.

        They’ve definitely put a muzzle on the capacity so that they don’t grow as fast. But, it looks like it’ll be a high quality network.

  • The 4th Wave is so refreshing after dealing with so many people selling things that you couldn’t see until you bought it. Thanks for setting a great example of how giving away free content can still be profitable.

    • JustinWCooke says:

      Thanks, Mike! To be honest, we’re hoping we can encourage others to take a similar approach in various niches. There’s a selfish reason…I’d really LIKE for someone to open the books and show how to build, monetize, and sell dropshipping sites, for example! hehe

  • Steve Wyman says:

    Hi guys

    the 4th wave is a great movement. Its type to drown the rip of coures taught by people that have yet to do what they teach.

    Heres an idea for you to spread the news (one i have but not the time to create the content)

    Give you Free “new end-to-end guide” (needs a snappy title like Millions in 3 days :-)) and put it up as a free WSO? if they will let you?

    the coverage would be amazing for you and brilliant for all teh WSO buyers!!

    Steve

    • JustinWCooke says:

      Hey Steve,

      I’ve TOTALLY been waiting for us to have something together that I could offer as a WSO for free…this definitely sounds like it will be it! Will probably have email opt-in as the only requirement…but we’re not too salesy in our emails either so don’t think it would turn anyone off.

      You know…we actually believe in selling information as a viable business model…especially if you put it together in a really concise/clear format that’s easy for people to follow…it’s just not for us. Free’s the future, we think…

      • Steve Wyman says:

        Hey Justin

        Sure Im not againstthe paid membership model. But I think the 4th wave is where the bigger profit could be long term. Build trust and a tribe i say.

        For me a mentoring program with the “Matery Course” as a freebie makes more sense for people starting out. Ofcourse thats a heavy commitment for the mentor.

        That structure, a few years ago when i started out, (free course + mentoring) would have saved a lot of time, money, reading and testing and got me rock and rolling quicker at a lower total cost.

        Your and Joe’s business model is also veryvery valid to say the least 🙂

        regards

  • Dave Starr says:

    Kind of hate to admit my lack of comprehension in the past, but hey, we all have our blind spots. I have heard basically the same 4th Wave slant in the recent past, but I never got my head around it correctly. Thanks for explaining it so clearly … you guys are definitely on a roll.

  • Escapee 925 says:

    Great podcast. Fast paced, solid information with each episode.

    • JustinWCooke says:

      Glad you appreciated it! Let us know if there’s anything you think we should do an episode on, specifically, and we’ll see what we can do!

  • Adam says:

    Guys… AWESOME podcast. Seriously good stuff, guys.

    • JustinWCooke says:

      Thanks, Adam…appreciate it, man! By the way, will get back to your email this week…have been swamped and took the weekend off, heh.

  • Andre Garde says:

    Hey guys,

    Episode 12 doesn’t show up in iTunes for me. Anyone else having this problem?

    Andre

  • peter jowett says:

    Great podcast Guys

    Solid interesting information again ! … Biggest fan of TED also !

    • JustinWCooke says:

      Thanks, Peter!

      I absolutely love TED…have seen some really amazing videos there…glad to pass them along!

  • Carl says:

    Great podcast,

    I totally agree that giving free information adds so much more value to others and creates real credibility and trust for your self.

    I recently started talking about what I have been doing online and its great to hear how much people genuinely appreciate quality free info and as a result they are happy to buy products you recommend, or services you offer, which makes it win win for everyone.

    I think it is definitely the future.

    I notice a few people in the “Niche Site Industry” still selling info, even though they are not doing much of what they teach (I will mention no names), which is in my opinion is wrong, plus people should know there is so much good FREE info out there like here and people like Spencer over at niche pursuits, which means you don’t need to be paying monthly memberships to do this stuff.

    Great work guys 🙂

    • Thanks Carl! We love the win-win approach as well. Justin as made this a big part of our approach to business.

    • Stevewyman says:

      Hey

      I agree but some of the people putting the info behind a Mastery course (lol) do so for one reeason – Loads andloads of money for little work and secondly because to few people whi are new to niche sites know about Jo/Justin and Spncer Haws :-9 if they did they woul not need any such mastery(lol) course.

      so its down to us all to spread the word.

  • Jonathan Svenson says:

    I saw you site on flippa D google allow us to put 4 ads in 1 page?

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Want New Content Like This
In Your Email Inbox?

Enter your email address below