How,Made,000,Budget.,Mostly... marketing How I Made $4,000,000 on a $0 Ad Budget. Mostly...

Automation technologies represent a fundamental aspect of any modern industry. The major types of industrial automation solutions, such as DCS, PLC, SCADA, and MES, are used on a large-scale in process and discrete industries.DCS technologie Awhile ago, I got an email from one of the "gurus" I follow and it shocked me. The gist of it was this person wanted to trade services for a household item.To say it floored me would be an understatement.What was worse was a few days later t

Dead Rule Of Internet Marketing #1 - Make EverythingSound Bigger Than It Really IsI'm as guilty of this as anyone. I'm guilty of it inthe very title of this article.Here's the deal - we sold a high traffic website for$4,000,000. The advertising and marketing budget forthe site was $0. That's the reality. I'll show youhow I did this in a moment. In the meantime, let'stake a sober look at the harsh reality of this deal."$0 Ad Budget"? Yes. "No Cost"? No Way!While we paid $0 for advertising per se, what we had topay in terms of time and effort was great. You, too,should be prepared to sacrifice. You *can* generategreat business without an ad budget, but, let's getreal - it takes effort.Marketing on a $0 budget is like North Viet Namfighting the United States: The U.S. had big guns - TheViet Cong had speed and ingenuity. When you're upagainst companies that have big budgets, you have toout-think them and use your smaller size and agility toyour advantage. The problem is, this fast movementtakes energy - lots of energy.I could list the thousands of ways this endeavor triedto sap my energy day in and day out. Rather than boreyou with the minutia, I'll pass on the wisdom thatallowed me to succeed:If someone tells you that you are crazy or that youwill never succeed, this is the big voice in the skytelling you that you're on to something big. Sometimesit will seem that you have suffered an irreparablesetback. If you're alive enough to think about it, youhaven't. "$4,000,000?" Yes. "$4,000,000 in MarkJoyner's Pocket?" Ha. Ha. You Kill Me.The sale of SearchHound was for $3,000,000 in cash and$1,000,000 in strike warrants. The warrants could endup being worth much more than the cash amount - or theycould mean nothing at all. I'm focusing in on thecash. The company that purchased SearchHound is a fastmover for sure, and if I were an investor, I'd jump inon their IPO the moment it hits - but I don't play themarket. I'm a marketer, pure and simple.Now, after I pay off our broker, give 1/2 of theremaining proceeds to my founding partner (who designedthe technical back-end), pay the tax man, and give asizeable bonus to my staff (I go to sleep thankfulevery night that I have them), I'll end up with justover $1,000,000 in my pocket. And then there are thosewarrants.So, having a cool million in my pocket after taxes andall is not bad. It's not $4M, though. If you think Ishould have received more, send me an email and I'llsend a reply from my yacht. (I'm kidding about theyacht - most of the money will go into the expansion ofmy primary business. If you're a competitor, theanswer is: "yes, you should be afraid - very afraid".)How I Did It on a $0 Ad BudgetThe actual marketing plan itself was very simple. Idid not create a standard marketing plan like theyteach you in school. Some people swear by them, but Ijust don't find it necessary (if you think I'm crazyfor not using a standard marketing plan, send me anemail and I'll send a reply - from my yacht! - OK. OK.I'll stop with the yacht jokes).What I did was create an Internet Marketing BattlePlan. If you've read my course then you already knowwhat I'm talking about. The Internet Marketing BattlePlan is a system I created which can be applied to anywebsite for any purpose, consisting of a series of"Killer Tactics" tailored to your particular situation.An Internet Marketing Battle Plan consists of 5 tacticsfor:1. Getting People to a Website2. Keeping People at the Website3. Getting People Back to the Website Once They've Left4. Closing the Deal5. Working the "Back-End"Then you just execute your plan. That's all there isto it. OK, I'm simplifying things greatly here. Thereis more to it than that, of course, but you get thegeneral idea. You'll probably develop several BattlePlans and refine them before you find one that reallysticks. Any good marketer will tell you that testingis the foundation of all this. A combination oftesting with this clear methodical approach is yourblueprint for success. I don't care if you're sellinga product, selling advertising, generating leads - itdoesn't matter.People have offered me obscene amounts of money toteach them my methods. When I tell them that there isnothing I do that is not covered in my course (I justdon't do consulting or lectures any more), they say:"come on, you're holding back on me". The truth is,there really isn't anything I do that I didn't revealin my course.I wish I could tell you otherwise. Really. I seem toregret publishing the course every day. That is, italways comes back to bite me. I now must face an armyof competitors using my own tactics against me. Liveand learn.Well, the genie is out of the bottle, so to speak, so Imay as well let you in on it as well. Here's where youcan find it in case you don't already have a copy:http://www.roibot.com/kt.cgi?R22577_artSome Final AdviceAs a final note of encouragement, here's a littlestory. When I was a young enlisted soldier in theArmy, I decided that I would like to attend OfficerCandidate School (OCS) and earn a commission. Therewere hundreds of annoying little hoops I had to jumpthrough before I could even submit my application.Most of them consisted of going from one administrativeoffice or another to get some paper work signed or someform approved.I kept a running count of all the times I heard some"desk-jockey" tell me "you can't go to OCS". I stoppedcounting when I heard my 29th "no". I'll tell you whatthese "no's" amounted to in a minute.A similar story can be told about the sale ofSearchHound. I get really angry when I think about allof the negativity and "nay saying" I had to overcome tomake this happen. A personal friend even sent me anemail that said, "dream on" when I sent him a copy ofthe press release for the sale. Even after I showedhim all of the independent news sources covering thestory - he still couldn't believe it.Some people are programmed for failure. Allow thefollowing information to program you for success:I went to OCS and graduated with one of the top tenacademic averages of my class - that was the result of29 "no's". And, as you know, I sold SearchHound for atidy profit despite all the nay saying and disbelief.>From time to time during both of these endeavors I wasinspired by the words of one of my heroes: Sir CaptainRichard Francis Burton (the explorer and scholar - notthe actor). On his quest for the source of the Nile,he became violently ill and could barely stand - thoughhe continued on. One of his partners asked him"Richard, if you continue, you will surely die. Shallwe turn back?" He replied:"The devil drives!" Article Tags: Internet Marketing, Marketing Plan