Welcome! This is the final installment of this week's "Under
the Hood" series, where we've been taking a look at some of the
most potent marketing techniques available to us today.

Now yesterday, we went into e-commerce, but I also want to give
some love to all the info product creators and marketers out
there.

Today, I want to revisit a concept we've talked about before
called "Moving the F'ree Line." Our friend and colleague Eben
Pagan kind of turned Brad and me on to the concept. You
basically take your BEST idea and just GIVE IT AWAY.

There are plenty of reasons why this strategy KILLS in every
marketplace.

- Instant credibility
- Proof of results
- Triggers reciprocity

And on and on. It makes you look like the best thing out
there, and makes people assume that if your fr'ee stuff is that
good, your PAID stuff must be fantastic.

BUT!

Here's the NUMBER ONE question we get asked about "moving the
fr'ee line"…

"If I give away my BEST stuff, what do I have left to sell?"

or

"If I move the f'ree line, what about the PAID line?"

Today, I'm going to talk about 3 different approaches to
solving that particular problem.

First, let's talk about how StomperNet does it.

Obviously, we're very well known for releasing real training
videos fre'e to the public. The stuff we give away is the
exact same quality as the stuff that we sell, but the "paid
line" has to do with QUANTITY.

See, even though we give away 4 or 5 videos every time we do a
launch – we have something like 800 hours of videos for our
members.

In our case, it's not about giving away the farm. We're just
giving away our "best" as in our best presentation of our best
idea that will get results FAST.

The videos in our fre'e line series are always produced
specifically for those launches, too. We're talking about
creating brand new media to give away.

Now, we realize that not everyone can produce video the way we
can, and not everyone has the resources to create brand new
material just to try to move the lines in their specific market.

But here's ANOTHER way to approach this problem.

Last week we conducted and promoted – geez – 4 or 5
teleseminars for Eben Pagan's Guru MasterMind launch.

See what we did there? It wasn't a video that we had to
script, shoot, edit, etc. – but we still created BRAND NEW
f'ree line content to generate interest in Eben.

If you've been with us a while, you may recall that I talked
about "event marketing" in launches.

That's exactly what teleseminars are. They are an EVENT that
occurs once, in real time. Because of that, it's scarce, and
scarcity = value.

So by creating an "event" you are giving away valuable, rare
content for fr'ee and it has the same beneficial effects as
other fr'ee line plays.

If you record those teleseminars, you then have a tangible
"freebie" too. If you kept up with Eben's promotion last week,
you know that we promoted a live phone interview between Brad
Fallon and Eben – then the next day, promoted the downloadable
recording for those who missed it.

That's one way to use "repackaging" to expand your fre'e line
offerings without having to expend a whole lot of effort. See,
without even TOUCHING Eben's product for something to give
away, he easily created BRAND NEW fr'ee line material via the
live teleseminars. He then used the RECORDING as ANOTHER
freebie, essentially doubling the effect of that single effort.

There's another fantastic example of this repackaging concept being promoted right now by Mike Filsaime.

Some time ago, Mike held a pretty expensive live seminar (about
$5000 a seat if I recall). It was called the "Seven Figure
Code" and it was a very successful example of event marketing.

Now, as you could have guessed, Mike filmed the whole seminar,
and then he sold DVDs of it as a Home Study course.

So, here's a little exercise – what could Mike do to create
some fre'e line content here?

… Go on, take a second and actually think about it.

…

I bet 90% of you thought that he should give away clips from
the DVD recordings, right? And sure, he's doing a little bit
of that. But that's more like a SAMPLE. That's just a tiny
TASTE. That's not really PUSHING the f'ree line is it?

I thought Mike came up with something really cool.

He hired a top-secret high-level copywriter to watch every
single second of that DVD set and distill it down into a
manuscript that's right around 80 or so pages.

That's the ENTIRE seminar, shaved of all the fat, leaving only
the meat – and packaged as an easy-to-read, expertly written
document. And he's presenting it as an actual, physically
printed book. He's going to MAIL it to you. Like with a STAMP!

And he's giving THAT away (although you would pay shipping).

That's pretty cool. See, it gives you all the best stuff with
none of the fluff. Plus, it actually puts a REAL THING in your
hands. That's got a really strong psychological affect for a
prospect.

It sort of convinces people to subconsciously accept
ownership. Just like trying on clothes in the store – once
you've decided to try it on, you've already decided to buy it.
Unless it looks bad, it's already "yours" – you've seen
yourself in it.

Make sense?

Yeah, so Mike's giving away this cool little manuscript
booklet, and he's doing it in a unique way by making it a
physical product.

If you like the document, you're bound to want to check out the
rest of the offer, right?
No-brainer there.

So you see, Mike figured out a clever way to get a paid line
AND a f'ree line from the exact same, pre-existing material.

So, that's the end of this article, so I hope I've shown you
some cool, current ways you can copy to balance you own f'ree
and paid lines for your own products and services.

And you don't even have to re-invent the wheel each time or
even spend a ton of time creating new material.

We hope you've enjoyed this series, and we hope you'll put
these ideas to work in your business right away!

Keep Stomping!
~Andy Jenkins

Welcome to part 2 of our "Under the Hood" series, where we're talking
this week about some of the most potent marketing and business strategies
being used in our industry today, and how YOU can use them in YOUR
business, starting today.

Today, we want to talk about e-commerce and how it pertains to that dreaded
word we keep hearing here in the U.S.: Recession.

You may have noticed in our Going Natural series and case study videos,
we're primarily talking about the success people have when applying our
Traffic and Conversion strategies to e-commerce stores.

That's not just our members, but even Brad Fallon and I are primarily
focused on e-commerce businesses. That is, businesses that sell
PHYSICAL products online, which are then shipped to paying customers.

So why do we love e-commerce so much, and what does that have to do
with the impending U.S. economic recession?

Let's look at some numbers. Bad ones first…

Gas prices are at an all time high. So much so, that rather than fill
up when they need to, incidents of people running out of gas WHILE
DRIVING are up 400%.

Food prices are climbing drastically. Restaurants are altering their
menus to stay profitable, and grocery stores are having to scale back
on variety because people aren't buying as much.

The U.S. Department of Labor says that over 80,000 Americans have
lost jobs so far THIS YEAR. And it's not confined to any particular
industry – cutbacks are happening across the board.

Bankruptcy filings are up 50% this year, and of course you've
heard about the skyrocketing foreclosure rate nationwide.

It's nothing you won't see if you watch any major news network for 10
minutes or less.

It's a fact that many real world, brick and mortar businesses are
having to face.

The high gas prices keep people from driving around to spend money. The
higher energy costs mean a lot of families don't have enough in the budget
to spend on much of anything except bills. Less consumer spending
decreases demand, so production of new goods is scaled back. That means
fewer employees are needed, and that leads to layoffs.

Downward spiral, right?

But let's take a look at how VIRTUAL e-commerce stores are doing in this
so-called recession…

MILLIONS of new online business
were started in 2007.

Online shoppers are WEALTHIER than the average consumer. I mean, you
need a thousand dollar piece of equipment (your PC) to even participate,
and that's an indicator that online shoppers are going to have some
disposable income.

And because of that higher income rate, those folks are going to be more
resistant to any downturn in the economy.

So we're already talking about a customer base that ISN'T quite feeling the
huge pains we hear about on the news.

Meaning, even the folks that are LESS affluent are using the web
to shop… Why?

It may seem counter-intuitive, but consider – fuel prices are now so high, it
actually seems like a SAVINGS to have something shipped to your door
than to have to drive around to go get it yourself. And there's so much
"Free Shipping" to be had from Online Merchants….

E-commerce ALREADY had a ton of advantages over retail:

- no crowds
- easy comparison shopping
- lower prices
- home delivery
- shop any time, day or night

The list goes on.

Okay – cool – that's my take on it. So what?

Wait….

The gigantic and well respected Forrester Research says that:

 

"E-Commerce is projected to continue its double-

digit, year over year growth rate in 2008 and beyond."

What are the ACTUAL numbers there? How much are consumers REALLY
going to be spending online in the near future?

2008: $204 Billion
2009: $235 Billion
2010: $267 Billion
2011: $301 Billion
2012: $334 Billion

Add that up. In the next 4 years, over $1 TRILLION dollars are going to be
spent online by consumers – and that's over $130 Billion in GROWTH.

The fact is, if you want to make a lot of money in the next few years, there's
a LOT of cash about to be poured into a DRASTICALLY underdeveloped
marketplace.

That's why we think e-Commerce is the way to go for the SERIOUS online
entrepreneur. Whether you're starting out, or diversifying your businesses,
you need to consider this.

In our own case studies, we've shown it doesn't HAVE to be the big-time
super slick guys in suits who get wealthy off this trend. It CAN be the single
mom working two jobs, it can be the disabled retiree, it can be the struggling
personal trainer.

Forget that – it HAS BEEN those sorts of folks!

The barrier to entry is still extremely low for online business, and that is
good news for me AND you.

BUT… you need to pick the RIGHT kind of products. Even though
spending is going to rise, there are some things people just AREN'T buying
online.

It used to be extremely difficult to find reliable product sources, especially
ones that were flexible on shipping. That's a big concern for a small time
operator. If you're working out of your basement, you don't want to have to
order a cargo container worth of product to warehouse in your garage,
you know?

Before long, company formed to serve that need, and World Wide Brands
became like a catalog of catalogs for product sources. Whether you needed
to buy a ton of products up front or just needed to drop ship one piece at a
time – no matter what the product – if you wanted to sell it, WWB could
hook you up with a SOLID supplier. No factory middle-men, and no 2nd
tier resellers.

The reason I'm telling you about them today is that they've put together a
video series about how people can get started with e-commerce
starting today.

And they've taken a page from our own playbook, and they're giving the
whole video series away for f'ree!

StomperNet LOVES what WWB has done for us and our customers
ALREADY over the years, and we have nothing but the highest hopes for
what they've got in store with these videos.

I've already watched the first one myself – in fact, I may have spoiled a
little bit of it for you so far with my article here…

But at about 3:00 minutes in, Chris Malta (CEO) and Robin Cowie
(President) are going to tell you exactly how you can get in on the
ground floor in the one economic sector that's GROWING while everything
else seems to be shrinking.

Coming up tomorrow in Part 3 of our "Under the Hood" series, we're going to
talk about "Moving the F'ree Line" and we're going to answer some of the
BIGGEST questions we've gotten about the StomperNet launches, and how
you can build a SUCCESSFUL business even though you're giving away
your best stuff for f'ree.

Until then, keep Stomping!
~Andy Jenkins

This week, we have a 3 part series where we're going to
literally go "under the hood" of some of the most potent
marketing techniques you can use in your business right now.

I want to show you how to really dig deeply into the problems
we face as internet marketers, and share how some talented and
successful people are solving those problems and creating great
products along the way.

But first, I want to "tease" you a little and let you know that
next week, we're going to be re-releasing a new and improved
version of our Stomper Scrutinizer website visualization
software. The code is leaner, meaner, faster, and BETTER! If
you missed our first release during the holidays at the end of
last year, you're going to get your chance in just a few days –
so keep your eyes peeled RIGHT HERE! (It's f'ree – DUH!)

Now, back to the topic at hand.

One of the primary problems we face when just starting out and
trying to build an online business is that it takes SO many
seemingly separate disciplines, and SO much study and
application… How many of us become paralyzed by this
overwhelming mass of STUFF we need to know to just get STARTED
already?!

Judging from the frustrations our members voice inside
StomperNet - a LOT of people struggle at this stage.

What we teach in StomperNet is how you need to take things like
traffic generation and conversion and teach your BUSINESS to be
good at those things. This frees us up as business owners to
really focus on building and growing the BUSINESS and ALSO
frees us to enjoy the fruits of our labors.

But when you're first starting out, it can be a struggle,
because there's no one there BUT you. You have NO employees to
delegate to, you have NO funds to outsource your tasks.

So how do you step it up? How do you start to make headway in
the day-to-day busy work required so you can actually get AHEAD?

It's a frustrating question, but it's got a really easy answer.

It's only one word. Automation.

And when you're an army of one working out of your basement
office, the one way you can use automation without any kind of
staff is to use SOFTWARE to automate the tasks that are eating
up your valuable time.

This isn't as daunting as it sounds. Software is already
making our lives easier and more efficient every single day.

Do you set up "rules" in your email client to sort your
emails? That's automation in action.

Do you have a phone number that rings through to voicemail if
you're busy? That's automation too.

See, we all use technology to automate and streamline our
lives. It's so pervasive and ingrained in our culture,
sometimes we never even stop to think about all the little
"shortcuts" we use to make our lives run smoother.

Before the advent of the modern computer age, you would have
had to be a well-off big-shot to have that stuff done, because
you would have had to hire an assistant to sort your mail and
take your calls. Now, it's all done automatically by machine.

What I'm proposing to you is that if you're just starting your
online business, you need to take that same kind of thinking
and apply it to your WORK.

What software is out there to make you WORK easier, faster, and
automatic? How much time could you save yourself if things
like SEO, link building, site building, etc. were all automated.

How much MORE money could you be making online if you could
drastically shrink the amount of time between having a
profitable idea and actually executing the steps it takes to
put it into action?

So now that we've defined a common problem all of us face at
one time or another, let's take a crack at defining a solution.

You want your motto to be "figure something out ONCE and then
never do it yourself again if you don't have to." Let the
computers do what they are good at, so you can focus on what
YOU are good at.

And that's how a LOT of us started out.

But here's something you may not have thought of. When you
AUTOMATE, you also INNOVATE.

When you take a process or procedure and turn into a "system"
that you can execute automatically with software or an
employee, you've CREATED something of value that didn't exist
before.

There are very specific problems and roadblocks that we've all
faced when building our online income. It doesn't take any
kind of genius to realize that these are going to be common
problems to everyone trying to do what we do.

Right?

This is a great example of a fundamental principle of
StomperNet.

If you find a seemingly unsolvable problem and you create a
solution – a tested, repeatable solution – there is REAL VALUE
in that solution.

Not just in the fact that it solves YOUR problem, but in the
fact that it will solve the SAME problem for others. People
don't buy STUFF. They buy SOLUTIONS and BENEFITS.

That's how you make your KNOWLEDGE profitable. Like Faculty
Dave Taylor said at the last StomperNet event – someone asked
what his biggest lesson was in making money online, and he said
"learning to sell my knowledge and not my time".

However, it takes a special kind of mindset to be able to step
outside of yourself and take what YOU'VE learned and turn it
into a product designed to help OTHER people overcome the same
problems.

And we arrive at that mindset through AUTOMATION of repetitive
tasks. That's how you can do what Dave was talking about and
KEEP your time, and sell your KNOWLEDGE instead.

If you want to see some examples of this, look no further than
your inbox. If you've been doing online marketing for any
amount of time, you're probably on several mailing lists.

You DON'T need to un-subscribe from every marketing list you're
on like some people are saying. If you're busy, you can always
IGNORE the flood of emails you might be getting, …but save
them.

It's true that sometimes we can get overwhelmed with all those
kinds of promotions. But the truth is, they're more than just
promotions. They're LESSONS - all you need to do is think of
them that way.

When you need some inspiration, or you want some insight into
how this stuff is done at the HIGHEST level, check out these
offers with a CRITICAL eye.

What problem have they identified? What solution have they
developed? How have they packaged it? How are they promoting
it?

I would say that 99% of the time, when you look at the CORE of
what's being sold, it's going to be someone selling you their
knowledge, or a way to automate the application of their
knowledge.

Everything in this business can be a learning experience if you
approach it the right way - that's what this week's series is
all about.

And that's why I like Jeff Johnson's material as an example of
what I've been talking about.

Jeff's known as an SEO guy to some, as an Affiliate Marketing
guy to others. But what ol' J.J. is REALLY good at in my mind
is the kind of automation we talked about.

He's figured out plenty of stuff that works for his OWN
businesses as far as getting traffic and converting it – he's
acquired VALUABLE knowledge and experience. He's done this
stuff, he's hit the roadblocks we have, too.

But what Jeff is particularly good at is taking that knowledge
of complicated procedures and breaking them down in to tiny
repeatable steps.

Then, rather than doing those steps over and over himself, or
hiring someone to mindlessly push buttons, he designs and
creates software to do the work.

He's developed WORKING solutions. They work so well, and so
automatically, that he's freed up to turn his PERSONAL
solutions into a thriving software and coaching business.

But remember, it's real experience that he's passing on.

He's taken KNOWLEDGE and AUTOMATION and added real value to his
businesses. But he's also clever enough to see that there's
value in the knowledge and automation themselves.

You've probably seen several emails about this by now.
Currently, Jeff's promoting the launch of his Underground
Training Lab membership site. (It opened earlier today.)

Even if you're not interested in purchasing Jeff's stuff at
this point, I'm trying to show you that there's ALWAYS value in
seeing what other recognized, successful marketers are up to.

If you're a small operator, or even a lone operator, you might
be interested to learn how to think like Jeff and automate site
building, link building, and marketing. That's what he teaches.

He's offering some of his top-notch automation software for
f'ree as WELL as some deluxe pricey versions of his software as
bonuses for those who sign up to try his program.

Go check out the Underground Training Lab for yourself and see
if there isn't a thing or two (or seven) that you can learn
from Jeff. It doesn't matter if it's directly, by joining his
program, or indirectly, simply by studying his marketing as an
observer.

More to come this week! Coming up tomorrow, e-commerce and the
recession - how we have an ADVANTAGE over brick and mortar in
tough economic times.

Until next time, keep Stomping!
~Andy Jenkins