Information publishing and online businesses get a bad rep. Very often it is uncalled for and unfair.

In my opinion, there are a far worse practices going on in other forms of marketing which for some strange reason, seems to be acceptable.

I’m sharing with you this video:

Today we woke up to the news that Russia has invaded Ukraine and was actively bombing its cities.

It’s a little worrying to say the least.

Innocent people are suffering.

They didn’t ask for this.

It was forced upon them.

It’s not good for the people in Ukraine, but for the rest of the world… life carries on pretty much as normal.

I know that it’s not good to make light of such a bad situation.

Nobody knows what could happen next…

But what I do know is this…

If you follow the news and you trade the markets… you could have made a lot of money today.

I am in no way trying to be insensitive or cash in on a seriously bad world event… but people do… it happens… and you could do it too.

Take a look at this picture.

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Imagine that you needed to generate £2,000 each month in sales of a specific product or service.

And that product or service was priced at £250.

To hit your £2,000 monthly target, you would need to sell eight of your £250 priced product/service.

Eight isn’t a lot, but £250 isn’t pocket money to most people so the amount of people willing to buy may be small.

In order to sell your product to people, you will need to spend some money on advertising which not only adds to the cost, but you are reaching out to people who do not know or trust you.

Advertising can be quite a costly affair. Especially if no one is buying your product or service, you are basically paying out for nothing.

But there is another way…

An incredibly simple way which many people say is better than paying out for advertising…

I touched upon it briefly in the previous article where I talked about the six degrees of separation…

And it is…

Paid Referrals

Paid referrals are a great way to find clients and customers because you create a network of sales people who actively promote your products and services for you in exchange for some extra money.

Your referral commission needs to be decent though otherwise people won’t be interested.

So going back to the £250 product or service example where you need to sell eight to hit your target of £2,000 in a month.

If you paid £50 to anyone who passed paying clients and customers your way, it’s possible that you would end up with more clients and customers each month than if you tried to find them yourself.

Yes, you will need to pay out £400 to those who send you the eight new clients and customers meaning that you are £400 short of your £2,000 target, but that should be okay because you actually ended up with more clients or customers.

Let’s say that instead of eight clients or customers you were averaging eleven a month… that would cover your target, the cost of paying for the referrals and give you some extra profit.

Depending on what your product or service was the only concern you’d have would be whether you could handle more than the eight you need each month.

If you can’t, then you might want to consider increasing your price to accommodate.

Even if one month you did only get eight referrals meaning that you paid out £400 in commissions and was left with just £1,600… £400 short of your £2,000 monthly target, that is a lot better than only attracting four paying clients a month through paid advertising.

You’ll still be left with more money and be in a healthier position.

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There is a rule known as the six degrees of separation, also known as the six handshake rule, which basically states that all people are six or fewer social connections away from each other.

This means that in theory, you are six or less introductions away from people who can have a powerful effect on your life.

For example; Andi our techy guy is a big fan of Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. He loved their show Spaced in the 90’s and their films Hot Fuzz, Sean Of The Dead and The World’s End.

Julia Deakin is an actress who starred in Spaced and appeared in at least two of the films alongside Simon Pegg and Nick Frost.

Julia Deakin is also from Andi’s home town and her parents used to own the same corner shop before Andi’s parents owned it.

Julia was invited to be the celebrity president of the local Heritage Centre where Andi did a lot of the renovation work when he previously worked as a Joiner.

The woman who invited Julia was an old school friend who worked at the centre.

Because of his involvement in the renovations, Andi was invited to the pre opening where he met Julia and spent some time talking to her about the fact that they both once lived in the same property.

Andi has also been to a wedding where he was talking to a woman whose son lived with Simon Pegg when they were both at University.

Andi has met people who lived and worked with Simon Pegg. He was just an introduction or two away.

Andi also knows someone whose uncle is a lawyer that once worked for Jamie Oliver while his wife (the aunty) worked as a lawyer for ITV’s Celebrity Juice show starting Keith Lemon.

There are several popular television and film stars who come from Rotherham and Sheffield, between us here in the Streetwise offices; I imagine we know people who know them well enough to make a potential introduction.

That is a degree of separation of only two or three.

In those examples I focused on celebrities, but they are unlikely to help you make a lot of money. I’m not saying they won’t or can’t, but I imagine it is unlikely.

I just wanted to use celebrities as an example to show how close we are to people that we think are untouchable or completely out of our reach.

But it’s not celebrities you need to be focusing on. It’s often the people you don’t know or hear about that can help you to make the biggest changes to your life.

You are closer than you think to the people who can help change your life, circumstances and financial situation.

Sean Bean’s best friend from school may be married to your sister’s best friend, but Sean Bean may not be interested in buying a £2,500 fully automated passive income system from you… but Geoff, your wife’s boss might.

Your cousin may be good friends with the millionaire businessman who wants to spend £5,000 having an email marketing system set up.

Your child’s teacher’s husband may be looking for someone to teach him how to make money trading the financial markets.

Your best friend’s wife’s sister’s best friend may be looking for a way to make money selling on eBay. (Yes, I know, that took some reading!)

You are only a few people away from being introduced to people who will need what you are selling.

This is a good reason why you should be careful how you speak to people and how you treat others because you never know who they can recommend you to.

Personal recommendations and networking with local people are still two of the best ways to find high paying clients and customers. The people you need are just a few introductions away.

With only six degrees of separation, the potential to find a whole range of decent people to work with or sell to is incredibly great, more so now that you can connect with potentially millions of people online.

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I’m not going to name names, but I know a young couple who often complain about not having enough money. Like most people, they want to have a fun and enjoy life and they don’t want to spend all of their time working.

The couple identify more as ‘socialists’ with values where they want to help other people and want a ‘fairer system’… that is until pay day when tax is deducted. Then they are moaning and groaning about the government stealing the money they have worked hard for.

It would appear that the couple are in that special ‘socialists club’ where fairness actually means spending ‘other people’s’ money and believe that those people who have more money than them should be the ones to fund it all.

They are good people, and they work hard at what they do, but they don’t like to put themselves out to earn more money to help alleviate their situation.

They are one of those couples who like to make matters worse for themselves.

When they are short of funds and feeling depressed, they go out to a restaurant, buy a takeaway and/or do a spot of retail therapy spending the money they need for more important stuff.

Lately I heard that they are going to buy a dog. Apparently they have always wanted a dog.

The cost of the dog is £750 but should normally cost anywhere between £1,500 and £2000 which is why they are going to buy it soon. Apparently it’s a great deal, something to do with a close friend knows a professional breeder and it is a case of ‘mates rates’.

Rest assured this is not a case of ‘some guy down the pub knows someone’. It is genuine and all above board.

I have always tried to make it clear that I am all for people enjoying life and doing what they want. Life is to be lived and enjoyed.

The problem I have though is when people who moan that they cannot afford to do the stuff they really want or need to do, constantly make matters worse for themselves.

This is a couple who cannot afford to do a lot – or so they tell me – and they are now going to spend £750 buying a dog which is going to need money spending on it each month with things such as food, toys and veterinary services.

Oh and did I tell you that one of them is allergic to most breeds of dog?

Spending just half an hour at the house of anyone who has a dog will result in sneezing, itchy eyes, and a blocked nose.

How is this going to end well?

If they spend a fair amount of time complaining that the lack of both time and money is preventing them from doing more of the stuff they want to do… isn’t buying a dog just going to compound the situation?

It’s not just with dogs, they are known for getting new tattoos when they can ill afford it. This is a behavioural thing which just perplexes me. It is a complete lack of self-awareness and self-control.

Recently a close family member gave them a bed to put into their spare bedroom. They have been desperate to get a second bed so that they can have friends stay over.

The bed was to be delivered mid-week on the Wednesday. The spare room was crammed full of stuff which needed to be moved to make way for the bed.

They were both working all week and so the only day available to clear the room ready for the bed was the Sunday…so what did they do?

They went to Ikea shopping for more stuff they didn’t need.

The point of this email is not just to moan about this couple but to point out the kind of self-destructive behaviour which some people engage in… then moan when the consequences come calling.

I am not against people having pets and enjoying animals, but surely when times are hard they should not be your main priority, right?

The £750 they intend to spend on the dog could be used a lot smarter.

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I know a woman who owns more cook books than most people… yet she rarely ever cooks anything other than shop bought ready meals which usually need popping into the microwave or oven.

She does very little actual food preparation and cooking.

The amount of mouth watering dishes available to her in those books must number several hundred yet I would put money on the fact that she has not attempted to make more than 10% of them.

And I am being generous there!

Recently her daughter spent a day helping her to clear out the spare room and throw away a lot of the unused stuff she had collected over the years.

This included a couple of boxes full of old cookery books… except that she changed her mind the following day and decided that she wanted to keep them… even though they had been stored in the spare room for many years unused.

It’s bad enough holding on to things that you never use, but it is worse to keep buying things which you know that you have a history of never using.

It’s not just cookery books; she has a habit of buying cooking implements from shopping channels which she uses once or twice at the most.

Her kitchen cupboards are full of pots, pans and equipment which never get used. Her cutlery draw has more knives and forks than a large hotel.

She struggles to throw anything away.

You may be thinking ‘I know someone like that too John, but what’s your point?’

The point of this email is that people:

1. Buy things and never or hardly ever use them… and they know that!

2. Collect stuff and struggle to throw away stuff they never use because… you know… they may use it one day or it could come in useful… but it never does… and they know that!

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I’m going to share with you a powerful tip which will help you get what you want from people… a lot of the time… and have them think it was their idea.

Be warned… this is incredibly powerful.

This really is a case of “Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars”.

To highlight this I am going to share with you a quick true story.

Do you remember the other day when I shared with you the story about Andi and the copper water tank fiasco when he was renovating a house?

As part of the renovations he fitted that same house with all new uPVC windows and doors and it cost him no more than a couple of thousand pounds.

Not long after he spoke to a neighbour who had all new uPVC doors and windows fitted in their house which was basically the same shape and size as Andi’s.

The company who did the work was one of the larger nationwide companies.

While talking to the neighbour, Andi was amazed to hear that the cost to fit all the new windows and doors was somewhere around £12,000 (this was in 2000) … he was more amazed when he was told that the original price quoted was nearer £30,000.

Andi’s first thoughts were that this company were being a little unethical and had screwed his neighbour out of a lot of money… they had obviously over priced so that they could negotiate the price down and still get paid the amount they wanted.

You cannot knock £18,000 off a price and still make a profit unless you over priced by £18,000 in the first place!

What’s really interesting here is that the neighbour felt good that he had negotiated the deal down and was happy with the final price…

That was until Andi told him how much it cost him to fit out his own house and that he thought he had still been overcharged at £12,000!

So what am I getting at here?

When you ask someone for something you want, you should, in most cases, ask for double or more… it is a sure fire way of actually getting what you want.

One of the biggest problems people have is being afraid to ask for what they need or desire (and possibly deserve) let alone asking for more.

When a person is tied to a wage where each month they are just about managing, the idea of asking their boss for a pay rise scares them because they fear ‘rocking the boat’ and running the risk of being ‘sacked’.

When you NEED money, it is hard to confidently ask for more.

When you NEED the sale, it is hard to confidently ask for it.

But when it comes for asking for what you want, asking for double means that you actually have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

Most people, whether they are your boss, a customer or a potential client, likes to get more for their money.

They want to get the best deal possible.

It’s simple human nature.

Many of them like to think that they are great deal negotiators so when you ask for double of what it is you actually need, they will try and haggle you down to get a better deal.

Test it out for yourself…

Go and run a stall at a local car boot sale and price half your items at twice the price you are happy to sell them for and price the other half at the exact price you wish to get for them and watch how bargain hunters will offer you less on all items.

It doesn’t matter if you price something at £5 or £2.50… most car booters will try their best to haggle you down.

If you want £2.50 for an old picture frame but you price it at £5 and someone offers you £3, you have made £0.50 profit as a bonus. You’ve lost nothing but gained £0.50.

If someone offers you £2.50 for another picture frame which you priced at £5 but really you wanted to take no less than £2.50… you have lost nothing because you still got what you wanted.

Ask £2.50 for an item which you want to sell for no less than £2.50… you will spend a lot of your time saying ‘no’ to people when they offer you less.

I remember seeing this in action in an episode of Call the Midwife where Dr Turner asked his superior for equipment and the approval to run a regular lung clinic for the local community.

He asked if he could do it several times each month… his superior eventually agreed to once a month.

Dr Turner later turned to his son who had been studying psychology and said ‘I did what you said and asked for more than I needed’. Where there were no clinics at all, he ended up with one a month.

Had he gone in and asked for the approval and equipment to run just one clinic a month, he might have walked away with none.

Asking double for what you want is a great little psychological trick to ensure that you walk away with what you want… or at least with something instead of nothing.

And it’s not just you that benefits here.

A great bonus for asking double for what you want is that when the other person haggles you down to half of what you asked for and you agree, they feel really great too!

They feel good because they believe that they have just negotiated themselves a 50% on-the-spot discount and still got what they wanted… your product or service.

I’m not saying that this will work 100% of the time or that it’s right to use it in every situation, but it will never work if you don’t try it.

The worst thing that can happen is that people say no, but it does leave room for conversation.

As in the example with Dr Turner in Call the Midwife, his initial request was denied but the subsequent conversation resulted in him getting what he wanted… to run a monthly lung clinic where there had been none.

There are some people who will say ‘no’ and walk away without wanting to talk any further, but you can always ask them ‘make me an offer’ or ‘what would you like to pay?’

Where there is the possibility for further conversation and you have given yourself a 50% wiggle room, there is still the opportunity to get what you really want.

It’s vital that you allow the other person(s) to suggest the lower price and haggle you down.

They need to feel that they ‘broke you down’ otherwise they will become incredible suspicious that you are willing to take a huge drop in price.

If you are the one to suggest a drop in price, do not in any circumstance drop it by 50% right away otherwise you will lose the sale.

The conversation will be dead in the water because you will have made the other person suspicious of you and your initial pricing.

They won’t appreciate the 50% discount you have just miraculously offered them… instead they will be annoyed that you were asking for twice as much in the first place.

They will think that you were trying to scam and rob them.

Remember, if you can make a profit from your agreed price, that means that you were actively trying to charge them over the odds where it was not needed, and people will not like that and they won’t forget it either.

So, as you can see, it is a powerful trick to help you get more of what you want, but you do have to be careful using it.

It can only be used on certain people and in certain situations.

Use it with the wrong people in the wrong situation and it can backfire badly and you could be accused of using unethical practices.

To conclude, I say use it… but use it wisely and only in the right situations.

Kind Regards

John Harrison

PS… If you enjoy these emails and can would like to know how I and many others make money sending simple emails check out:

The Email Secret

PPS… Once your system is in place, it takes very little to write an email a day – or every few days. You do not need to write thousands of words for each email.

Which is best?

Giving something away for free or selling something cheap?

In several previous articles I’ve talked about giving away something for free as a way to attract potential customers and build an email list to which you can sell to.

I’ve also talked about why some people prefer to sell something cheap instead of giving something away for free because it ‘qualifies’ the person who goes onto your email list.

I’ve even talked about combining the two.

That is where you give something away for free and when someone signs up to access your free lead magnet they are instantly met with a cheap follow up offer which complements the free product.

Which is best has been debated by many online marketers for many years. There are pros and cons for all three methods. People prefer different methods for their own reasons.

I am a big fan of the third approach where you give something away for free but you offer up a cheap congruent product as part of the initial email list building process.

Any sales made help pay for any advertising and marketing costs and it gives you a list of buyers which is better to have than a list of non-buyers.

But it also gives you a list of potential buyers who may buy from you later.

Considering how cheap it can be to own an email list and how easy it can be to write an email, I don’t see a reason for not including both buyers and freebie seekers for now… you can always remove non responsive people later.

The reason why some people sell a cheap product first instead of giving away a free lead magnet is that they want to build a list of buyers only instead of a list of freebie seekers.

It makes sense; buyers have already made a financial commitment with you and are far more likely to buy again.

In general, people who have bought from you are always better than those who have claimed something from you for free.

Also, a lot of people who want something for free can be time wasters who don’t have any respect for you or your time.

I was reminded of that this weekend.

A friend of mine was giving away an unused television unit. It was taking up room in his garage and he was fed up of moving it about so he decided to post a picture of it in the local Facebook group saying ‘I’m giving this away, free to anyone who wants it!’

He was immediately contacted by a woman who wanted it. She arranged to pick it up the following Sunday morning at 11. Believing that the unit had found a new home the post was removed from Facebook.

Sunday morning came; the unit was dragged from the garage and placed on the drive ready for collection.

11:15; no one came.

A message was sent asking if they were still coming. It wasn’t read.

After waiting half an hour another message was sent saying that they needed to pop out to go and do what was already arranged for that Sunday and that they would be home at a specific time and that she could pick it up any time after that.

Both messages were read… but there was no reply.

My friend has still not heard anything since that first message arranging to collect the unit on the Sunday morning.

One can only assume that she no longer wants the unit. It would have been nice if she had let my friend know.

It’s not a big problem in the grand scheme of things, you could call it a first world problem… but it is still a problem because time and effort has been wasted getting a unit ready to be collected only for it to be put back again when the person did not bother to collect or contact the unit’s owner.

There is nothing more frustrating than having someone else waste your time and energy, especially when you are doing them a favour and giving them something for free.

At least half an hour of my friend’s time was wasted… and there was no acknowledgment or apology.

That was just from one person.

Giving away multiple items to multiple people could result in a lot of time wasting.

It’s made easier if you have a system.

For example, if you were a publisher or newsagent giving away a free magazine and that the only place people could get it was from your store where you work then it is no extra loss to your time.

Another option could be to send the magazine in the post and only send them out when you go to the post office to send out any paid orders you have.

The other big time wasting issue that you can get from people when giving away something for free is ‘questions’.

Going back to my friend’s television unit; it has a specific height, width and length. People who see large items offered for free on social media want to know whether it will fit in their homes or cars.

Some people can’t get to pick up items themselves and so they ask if the item can be delivered.

Before you know it, you could be spending time answering questions from several people and possibly running around town dropping stuff off.

You may also answer half a dozen questions only to find that at the end of the day, no one wants what you are giving away.

Instead of getting the item and then dealing with it at their end, most people will have you running around like a blue-arsed fly for them… which is very annoying and frustrating when you are giving something away for free.

In the online world, when give something away for free it is set up in a system which you do not need to touch once live.

Receiving emails with questions is probably the worst problem you will get when you give away something for free. Fortunately emails can be managed far easier than having to measure units and drag them out of garages.

Like I say, having a system in place really helps.

Having a document with the answers to anticipated questions can help big time. As soon as a question comes in, simply copy and paste the answer and click send… or even better, add it to the free lead magnet or on the sign-up page.

Unlike giving away items like furniture, clothing or tools on Facebook, when you give something away for free online such as an eBook, report or video, the real purpose is to find a lead and make a sale further down the line.

You are not just getting rid of something to ‘get it out of your way’.

When you remember that, any wasted time is not so bad because it may result in you making money later.

So going back to the question I asked at the beginning.

Which is best?

Giving something away for free or selling something cheap?

For me, currently it’s both together.

Setting up a system where a cheap product is offered right after giving away the free lead magnet is a great idea. It helps recoup any costs and gives you a list of buyers as well as a list of potential buyers.

Unlike giving away free television units on Facebook, anything you give away for free online should be done with future profits in mind.

Any time wasting that happens should be managed with a system and seen as ‘customer service’ which can ultimately turn a potential time waster into a buyer.

To learn the exact process I use to make money online as outlined above, check out:

The Email Secret

Kind Regards

John Harrison

PS… Once your system is in place, it takes very little to write an email a day – or every few days. You do not need to write thousands of words for each email.

Here’s that link again:

The Email Secret