One this I love about internet marketing is that it’s forever in changing.
As one famous band from the 1990s said, “You’ve gotta roll with it!”
Looking ahead, here are my predictions for 2012…
1. Webinars
Seminars on the Web, or webinars as they have become known really took off in 2011.
Personally, I love them!
They are seen as “events” and so create a lot of interest from subscribers. If you choose to sell on a webinar then you’ll often find crazy levels of conversions, much higher than video or traditional sales copy.
Most of my webinars have been there just to provide content (not selling people) and this is a fantastic way to get interactive with your subscribers. They get more value and can ask questions. You can learn more about them and what they really want.
2. Kindle
Kindle is getting more and more popular and is a very low cost way of publishing your material online.
It’s rise will no doubt continue and for experts wishing to stamp their authority there’s nothing like the credibility from having a book published!
But as with all things, marketing is the key. You can create your book, but how will you market it? Makes sense to think about your plan first before you go ahead writing your masterpiece.
3. Less Hype
If you’ve been a subscriber for any length of time, you’ll know I hate the hype of internet marketing.
As the internet matures more and more people are acknowledging that there really aren’t any get rich quick schemes that work. It’s just fantasy.
If you want to be successful, be prepared to invest time in your own understanding and work hard. I’ve yet to meet anyone who has “made it online” without this attitude despite the crazy sales message out there.
Yes, hype still sells (especially in the newbie market) but I can feel the tide shifting to looking at this internet marketing game more as a business.
This has GOT to be a good thing and long may it continue.
4. WSOs
In the internet marketing niche, products being sold in the promotions area of the Warrior Forum (called Warrior Special Offers) are becoming more and more popular.
One reason this is happening is because of the tighter regulation and pressure from bodies like the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) who are clamping down on other affiliate networks.
Whatever niche you’re in, forum marketing is well worth considering as a traffic method. Instead of waiting for the traffic to come to you, go where the traffic already is!
5. Facebook
I’m still sticking with my prediction that Google+ will not take off in the mass market long term.
For now I see more and more people not only joining Facebook but also leveraging its power for their own marketing purposes.
6. Local Business Marketing
It’s no secret that this has been a huge trend in recent years but I can only see this continuing.
For us who have existing knowledge of how the internet works this amounts to a massive opportunity. Don’t underestimate what you know!
There’s a great deal of money to be made helping local businesses set up websites, Facebook pages and gain more leads to their offline businesses using online methods.
Agree, disagree, am I talking nonsense? Please post a comment below and let me know…
Rob, I am not close enough to the market (yet) to agree or disagree, which is a strange place for me to be as I am naturally opinionated and a rantmeister.
However, I hope that you are right. Item 6 is a route for my consultancy to expand into – hence my interest in your work & setting up web sites / blogging.
Less hype – definitely needed. Its great to see people like yourself who are straight and wont promote or recommend things that they arent 100% convinced about. Or if they arent 100% they will explain their reservations.
Its a long-term strategy and I hope that the ultimate result will be that the hypists go out of business!
I am sure you are right about webinars. I cant stand the amount of time they consume but thats an issue for me to manage as a recipient. As a service provider I will have to consider offering them!
Hi Ian,
It sounds like you’re you’ve positioned yourself in the right area to ride some of these trends!
Agreed about webinars, I don’t always have the time either. But who says they have to be 60 minutes or more? You’ve made me think now – perhaps 15 minute or 30 minute “quick fire” webinars would be a winner????
Thanks for your input as always 🙂
Rob
15/20 minute is ideal but it needs strong chair(person)ship. Most webinars lack this probably because its difficult to manage & be concisely polite, but if you emphasise the ground rules & get everyone to agree beforehand, it may be very successful.
Go for it!
Hi Rob
I really enjoyed the webinar on December 7th. (before I became a member) I wasn’t able to interact though – wasn’t sure how to do that – didn’t know which buttons to press or whatever was needed!! I am about to ‘catch up’ on the recent webinar which was given for members before I became one!
I’m new to Kindle and WSOs and need to familiarise myself with Facebook! I agree with the Less Hype section and Section 6 re Local Business Marketing makes good sense!
Peter
Hi Peter,
Yes, there’s plenty of great stuff we’ve put up in the members area recently for your to catch up on. Enjoy 🙂
I also know VERY LITTLE about Kindle (although I have done WSOs) but I have no intention of focusing any time on Kindle anytime soon. I’m busy with other things and whilst this might be a big trend you’ve got to stick with the core thing you’re working on otherwise everything gets very messy indeed.
So keep an eye on the trends but don’t get distracted too much. Stick with the “core” as it’s so easy to spread ourselves too thin!
Hope this makes sense?
Rob 🙂
I think 1 yo may have left out is Mobile Marketing. Seeing that many people have iPhones, iPads, tablet PC’s and other portable devices….this is a market advertisers are looking at.
Yep, good call – mobile is definitely taking off big time in 2012.
How could have I missed that? Doh!
Rob
Hi Rob
A very happy birthday to you. 32 huh? I am less than 6 months away from being 66!
I think we all agree that hype is bad news when coupled with rubbishy products. I hate hype with a vengeance.
Webinars are difficult for me. I am a carer 24/7 so never book in case I can’t make it. They are so popular that I would hate to deprive someone of a place that I didn’t use.
I think Facebook and Twitter have peaked but will remain popular. I also think that Google+ will gain in popularity.
Amazon are cracking down on Kindle publishers and upping the standard which is great news. I think it has had a case of PLRitis. We already suffer with too much PLR being used as is by too many people.
I do think Kindle and WSOs will stay popular.
Local business marketing is definitely on the increase.
I also think Amazon has seen a huge increase in affiliates. I can see more Amazon ‘stores’ as opposed to just monetizing.
Have a great birthday
Dee
36 actually Dee. 32 seems a long time ago to me, but it’s all relative I guess!
By disclosing your age you’ve proven that this business is for anyone of any age. It doesn’t matter where you live and you can fit it around your life.
Cheers, Rob.
P.S. Some good predictions there too, thanks for sharing Dee
Hello Rob.
Happy birthday,
Webinars can be very effective but as has been said 15 to 20 minutes would probably be long enough. I took a look at mobile marketing a couple of years back, I think it will definitely be the way to go.
Remember there are over 5 billion people with mobile phones today.
Have a great day.
Ray
Cheers Ray, good points there!
Rob
Hi Rob
A very happy birthday to you!! I have to say that it seems a VERY LONG time ago since I was that age! I will be 64 on February 8th! I note your comments to Dee and similar comments that you made on video, I think, regarding age and this business. I am simply going to ‘plod on’, persevere and succeed!!
Peter
Thank you Peter! Yep, keep going and let me know if I can assist with anything 🙂
Rob.
Hi Rob,
Happy birthday to both of us! We have the same one!
I like your predictions and I also think mobile is going to be big.
I enjoy your posts and have gotten a lot out of them. Keep up the good work!
Regards,
Marc
Hey Marc,
Happy birthday too then!
Thanks for your kind comments – I hope to deliver more of the same going forward so I hope you enjoy 🙂
All the best, Rob.
Hi Rob, happy – although belated – birthday wishes to you, sir!
Fine post, thanks for sharing, although you did miss out on the mobile marketing stuff, as Skin Deep mentioned. How could you Rob, LOL!
Apologies, as this is a tad off-topic, but it is in essence related to your predictions for 2012.
As you will know Rob, I’m getting more into the information creation side of things than I have previously done, albeit I created my first ebook almost 2 years and the sales for that continue fairly well to this day.
I have a question for you though, if I may.
I know this is a bit broad to perhaps pin point to any degree, but when thinking about creating what could be described as a general IM type product (i.e. making money online), what would you suggest is the best way to make the launch?
Now, I know that you went down the jv route with your own product not long ago, and that does appear to have been a great success for you! So that is certainly something I surely must consider.
What would you say about the WSO route, Rob? I too did this, and it was effective, but mainly because of “that” great long thread I had on the Warriors at the time, which managed to catch a lot of attention. I’m concerned that in this instance, due to the amount of WSO’s offered up every week, will my own WSO stand out enough to make much of an impact. What do you reckon on that?
Clickbank is always an appealing route, but again, even a really good product can get lost in the throng of other offers on there. Thus I feel that Clickbank product launches should be in tandem with at least one other launch, so that the potential sales tally will boot your own product up the sales rankings, and thus grab more attention that way.
Solo ads and stuff like that. I’ve never ventured down this route, and I know you have – what’s your call on that Rob? Perhaps I should join your mentorship program to glean more insight into the variety of ways to product launch successfully. I dare not purchase Jeff Walkers product since its a thoroughly costly piece of kit. Mind you, it may well be a good investment to make.
Thanks for your insights Rob and sorry my comment is so long – possibly even longer than your original blog post 😉
Jo
Hey Jo,
Thanks for your comments and questions, always nice to see you here at GHG!
Happy to chat more about this on Skype if you like Jo, but in brief:-
WSO’s are definitely very powerful and something I’m looking at right now actually. The trick is to use Warrior Plus which not only manages payments but also allows people to sign up for affiliates. You also get the chance of being “WSO Of The Day” which I suppose is a long shot but really encourages others to promote.
To encourage affiliates you basically need 1) High conversion and 2) High Earnings Per Click (EPC or “visitor value” as it’s called inside Warrior Plus).
To achieve 1 and 2 the approach I’m trying is to give 100% commissions on the main product and the One Time Offer (OTO). Obviously you need a great product and compelling sales copy too, which shouldn’t be a problem for you Jo.
The idea is it becomes a massive list building exercise and you can make your money from the list itself (i.e., the backend). Since you want to maximise list growth it makes sense to price the product very cheaply (e.g., $7 on the front end and $7-$12 for the OTO). Hopefully at this level you’ll sell lots of copies but the prices are still high enough to attract affiliates. If that makes sense?
I chose Clickbank for my Membership site and I have to say I love it. Fantastic analytics and pretty easy to set up too. You’ll automatically get affiliates signing up but only smaller ones I think.
Ultimately, the masterplan I think is to launch your product as a WSO, get a feel for numbers (conversion and EPC) then start recruiting affiliates outside. Get your offer placed on their thank you pages and give 100% commission. So again you get qualified buyers onto your list.
With regards to Solo Ads, this has been a great list builder for me and again, happy to chat on Skype, but I know you’re already member of GHG Membership so I’d really encourage you to listen to the Basecamp Mastermind Interview Session called “Supercharged Traffic And Listing Building!”. This will tell you a strategy which built a list of 9,000 subscribers for just $90 invested!
Cheers,
Rob.
Hey Rob, thanks for your reply and also for your email – much appreciated!
Yeah, I used Warrior Plus for my first WSO and it is a very handy bit of kit, although the affiliation part of it must be a new thing as that was not available when I was working with the Plus software, so thanks for mentioning that.
Whoa – an investment of 90 bucks gained you a list of 9,000 subscribers. That’s amazing Rob! I’m all ears when it comes to learning more about that one!
I’ll get back on over to your membership site and take advantage of the interview session, thanks for informing me about that.
Cheers Rob – there’s a lot of thinking and planning to be done!
Jo
WoW, Rob!!
This is the first post I have ever read of yours because I signed up for your webinar with Joe that is coming up on Wednesday. I can’t believe that I have been neglecting the local business marketing aspect of all of this. I guarentee that nobody around me can do what I can do. Thanks for reminding me!
Thanks for your thoughts Brendan – great to see you here on GHG!
Yep, we’re definitely all individual – we should play that as a strong card.
Looking forward to seeing you on the Webinar 🙂
Rob