How I Made My First Million on the Internet
I was born on June 25, 1973, in Singapore into a middle-class family of four. My
parents worked very hard to provide the best for our family, but their own union
was a troubled one. Sadly they were unable to reconcile their differences and had
decided to separate by the time I was in elementary school.
It was then that I decided to get my first job, and I started working part-time after
school. This helped instill in me a strong work ethic and taught me the value of
money early on. Even though I was a bit of a workaholic—and still am—I realized
that I needed something more. I wanted to be able to enjoy my work and be
wealthy from it at the same time.
When the time came to enroll in college, I chose to attend the Singapore Insti-
tute of Management, where I earned a BS in management, with honors. I figured I’d
work my way up the chain at some big company and that even if I didn’t get rich
right away, I’d still make a good, middle-class income for my family. Little did I
know where life was about to take me ...
RAGS BEFORE RICHES
Flashback to 1997: I was fresh out of college and had just taken on a sales and
marketing job at Sony Music Entertainment (Singapore). I was at the job for about
a year before moving on to MobileOne, which is one of the top telecommu-
nications service providers in Singapore. I’d recently married during this period as
well and was very happy to be supporting my new family. I also found myself
spending a lot more time on my hobbies. I am an avid guitar player and love to
write songs. So I started thinking about marketing some of my compositions.
I figured I’d work my way up the chain at some big company and that even if I didn’t
get rich right away, I’d still make a good, middle-class income for my family. Little did I
know where life was about to take me ...
The Internet was really starting to take off in 1997, and it seemed logical to me
that I could reach a wide audience with my music by putting it online. In other
words, I was interested in Internet marketing but wasn’t actually thinking about
starting an online business at all. It wasn’t until I began visiting different Web sites
in an effort to learn how to market my songs that I came across some information
about potential money-making opportunities.
“Could this be my chance to get rich?” I wondered. Well I don’t do anything half-
way, so I dived right in. From 1997 to 2002 I spent all of my time after work trying
to learn how to make money on the Internet. This meant getting up at 7:00 am to
go to my full-time job, then locking myself away from 11:00 pm to 3:00 am while I
did everything I could to get a business going.
Unfortunately my first few years in business online did not result in the rags-to-
rich- miracle I’d dreamed of so vividly. Not by any stretch of the imagination. The
fact is that I had no idea where to start, nor what kind of business I wanted to run.
For five straight years, I juggled long days and sleepless nights and barely had
any time to spend with my family. The first few “business ventures” I got involved
in scammed me out of several thousand dollars. Still, I refused to give up and con-
tinued pouring more and more money into different ideas. I bought all of the how-
to e-books and courses, hoping someone would finally reveal the secret to making
money online.
“Could this be my chance to get rich?” I wondered. Well I don’t do anything halfway, so
I dived right in.
Do you want to guess just how much money I blew? Make sure you’re sitting
down for this ... I spent close to US$50,000 trying to unearth the key to that door I
was banging my head against in a desperate effort to gain financial freedom ... and
I charged most of that $50,000 to credit cards. My wife was not happy with me, to
say the least. All of those credit-card bills were rapidly gaining interest, and we were
impossibly behind on payments. The situation was truly grim beyond words.
My self-confidence was fading rapidly, and I was desperate to prove to every-
one—but especially to myself—that this “Internet thing” wasn’t just a dream. I
spent many nights alone, often in tears and feeling shut out by everyone around
me. I asked myself over and over, “Why? Why can’t I make this work? What am I
missing?”
THE POWER OF FOCUS
It is often in our darkest moments, though, that we finally see clearly ...
My turning point came one night in 2002. I was up burning the midnight oil
again and asking myself how I could get out of the mess I’d created. A part of me
was ready to throw in the towel, but I’m simply too stubborn to give up—even in
the face of what looked like total disaster. I had to admit that not all of that
$50,000, five-year-long “education” was totally worthless. In fact I’d gained many
valuable skills and learned almost everything there was to know about the main
models of Internet business.
Then it finally hit me: “I’m not missing anything!
I knew, for instance, that I needed to target a viable market. I knew I needed to
deliver solutions to that market. I understood that I needed to drive market traffic
to my offer and that I had to have a lead-capture and follow-up system in place.
Then it finally hit me: “I’m not missing anything!” In a flash, I realized that I
knew what I was supposed to be doing, but I just wasn’t doing it. Instead of putting
in the hard work of applying my knowledge, I was still buying into all the hype
about overnight riches. A part of me still wanted to believe that all I had to do was
put up a Web site, push a few buttons, then wait for the customers to come
flooding in by some invisible, magnetic force. Now the truth is that it can be this
easy when you already have a successful business. Once you’ve put in the hard
work up-front to build an existing customer base, you’ve got it made. But you have
to treat your business as a real business first.
This was my problem. I’d been playing at my business like a hobby. I’d failed to
implement the most fundamental concepts of Internet marketing—like having a
target market, a clear strategy, and, most importantly, following a proven system. It
wasn’t the system that was failing me; it was my failure to follow through.
What I lacked was focus. I realized that all I’d ever needed to do to succeed was
focus and commit to taking action on what I’d already learned. The thousands of
dollars worth of material I’d read over the years had revealed all of the proven busi-
ness models. I just needed to choose one and stick to it. Armed with this insight, I
renewed my commitment to succeed. I decided then and there that failure was not
an option.
I settled on affiliate marketing as the business model to focus on and started
applying myself with concentrated energy and dedication. It wasn’t long before the
tide began turning in my favor. I made my first online sale. Believe me, your first
sale will give you the greatest feeling in the world once it comes, especially if it has
been years in the making! Well, then I made another sale, and another. It was a
slow trickle at first, but I finally had my proof. No one could doubt my ability to
My turning point came one night in 2002. I was up burning the midnight oil again and asking myself how I could get out of the mess I’d created. A part of me was ready to throw in the towel, but I’m simply too stubborn to give up—even in the face of what looked like total disaster. I had to admit that not all of that $50,000, five-year-long education was totally worthless. In fact I’d gained many valuable skills and learned almost everything there was to know about the main models of Internet business.
Then it finally hit me: "I’m not missing anything!
I knew, for instance, that I needed to target a viable market. I knew I needed to deliver solutions to that market. I understood that I needed to drive market traffic to my offer and that I had to have a lead-capture and follow-up system in place.
Then it finally hit me: I’m not missing anything! In a flash, I realized that I knew what I was supposed to be doing, but I just wasn’t doing it. Instead of putting in the hard work of applying my knowledge, I was still buying into all the hype about overnight riches. A part of me still wanted to believe that all I had to do was put up a Web site, push a few buttons, then wait for the customers to come
flooding in by some invisible, magnetic force. Now the truth is that it can be this easy when you already have a successful business. Once you’ve put in the hard work up-front to build an existing customer base, you’ve got it made. But you have to treat your business as a real business first.
This was my problem. I’d been playing at my business like a hobby. I’d failed to implement the most fundamental concepts of Internet marketing—like having a target market, a clear strategy, and, most importantly, following a proven system. It wasn’t the system that was failing me; it was my failure to follow through.
What I lacked was focus. I realized that all I’d ever needed to do to succeed was focus and commit to taking action on what I’d already learned. The thousands of dollars worth of material I’d read over the years had revealed all of the proven business models. I just needed to choose one and stick to it. Armed with this insight, I renewed my commitment to succeed. I decided then and there that failure was not an option.
I settled on affiliate marketing as the business model to focus on and started applying myself with concentrated energy and dedication. It wasn’t long before the tide began turning in my favor. I made my first online sale. Believe me, your first sale will give you the greatest feeling in the world once it comes, especially if it has been years in the making! Well, then I made another sale, and another. It was a slow trickle at first, but I finally had my proof. No one could doubt my ability to
make sales online anymore—not even me.
I decided then and there that failure was not an option.
MY SUCCESS STORY—AND YOURS
After that moment of truth in 2002, I became unstoppable. By focusing and
applying a proven system, my income continued to soar. Just how far have I come
since the days of debt?
First, I’ve been the top-earning affiliate in almost every Internet affiliate program
I’ve promoted. I’ve created dozens of my own information products too and have
seen them sell like crazy. I currently own and run over ten active money-making
Web sites, including the following:
You can also check out these:
• http://www.MyFreeWebsiteBuilder.com
• http://www.AutopilotProfits.com
• http://www.SuperAffiliates.com
• http://www.WorkingFromHome.com
make sales online anymore—not even me.
I decided then and there that failure was not an option.
MY SUCCESS STORY—AND YOURS
After that moment of truth in 2002, I became unstoppable. By focusing and applying a proven system, my income continued to soar. Just how far have I come since the days of debt?
First, I’ve been the top-earning affiliate in almost every Internet affiliate program I’ve promoted. I’ve created dozens of my own information products too and have seen them sell like crazy. I currently own and run over ten active money-making Web sites, including the following:
You can also check out these:
• http://www.MyFreeWebsiteBuilder.com
• http://www.AutopilotProfits.com
• http://www.SuperAffiliates.com
• http://www.WorkingFromHome.com
I’ll let you in on a secret: not a single one of these sites, on its own, could ever generate
the income I have right now. It is the cumulative income generated by of all of these
sites over time that creates a five- to six-figure monthly income.
Each of these Web sites continues to pull in profits for me on autopilot, to the tune
of about five figures per month. None of this happened overnight, either. Each of
these sites represents a point in my learning curve, and each is the result of taking
an idea and seeing it through to completion. Some of these sites sell individual
products, and some of them are membership sites that generate recurring income.
I’ll let you in on a secret: not a single one of these sites, on its own, could ever gen-
erate the income I have right now. It is the cumulative income generated by of all of
these sites over time that creates a five- to six-figure monthly income.
Now let’s look at some of my other credentials. I’ve become an in-demand
speaker on the Internet-marketing seminar circuits, and I regularly travel around
the world giving presentations to newbies and experienced insiders alike.
At the World Internet Marketing Summit held in Singapore in 2006, I netted five-figure
online sales ëliveí in just three days.
I was also presented with the first-ever World Internet Challenge trophy at the
2006 World Internet Marketing Summit held in Singapore, where I set up a busi-
ness without preparation and from scratch in front of a live audience of a thousand
individuals ... and proceeded to generate five-figure sales from it in just seventy-
two hours!
I’ll let you in on a secret: not a single one of these sites, on its own, could ever generate the income I have right now. It is the cumulative income generated by of all of these sites over time that creates a five- to six-figure monthly income.
Each of these Web sites continues to pull in profits for me on autopilot, to the tune of about five figures per month. None of this happened overnight, either. Each of these sites represents a point in my learning curve, and each is the result of taking an idea and seeing it through to completion. Some of these sites sell individual products, and some of them are membership sites that generate recurring income. I’ll let you in on a secret: not a single one of these sites, on its own, could ever generate the income I have right now. It is the cumulative income generated by of all of these sites over time that creates a five- to six-figure monthly income.
Now let’s look at some of my other credentials. I’ve become an in-demand speaker on the Internet-marketing seminar circuits, and I regularly travel around the world giving presentations to newbies and experienced insiders alike.
At the World Internet Marketing Summit held in Singapore in 2006, I netted five-figure online sales ëliveí in just three days.
I was also presented with the first-ever World Internet Challenge trophy at the 2006 World Internet Marketing Summit held in Singapore, where I set up a business without preparation and from scratch in front of a live audience of a thousand individuals ... and proceeded to generate five-figure sales from it in just seventy-two hours!
Subsequently I was invited to be the only local featured speaker at the World
Internet Mega Summit held in Singapore in May 2007. This was the world’s big-
gest Internet business event, attended by over 3,500 participants. Here I was given
a standing ovation and voted best speaker by the audience!
It’s not all business success, either. I am driving—yes—the luxury car.
Me and my BMW 523i
I know I look like a typical Internet marketer showing off here! I was very happy
on the day I purchased that BMW, though, because it symbolized the results of
years of hard work and struggle. I wanted something to remind me just how far I’ve
come, and I am reminded of my journey to success each time I get behind the
wheel.
Another benefit of success is that my wife and I are able to travel almost any-
where in the world. We finally had the chance to visit Universal Studios in
Subsequently I was invited to be the only local featured speaker at the World Internet Mega Summit held in Singapore in May 2007. This was the world’s biggest Internet business event, attended by over 3,500 participants. Here I was given a standing ovation and voted best speaker by the audience!
It’s not all business success, either. I am driving—yes—the luxury car.
Me and my BMW 523i
I know I look like a typical Internet marketer showing off here! I was very happy on the day I purchased that BMW, though, because it symbolized the results of years of hard work and struggle. I wanted something to remind me just how far I’ve come, and I am reminded of my journey to success each time I get behind the wheel.
Another benefit of success is that my wife and I are able to travel almost anywhere in the world. We finally had the chance to visit Universal Studios in
Hollywood last year when I went to California for a marketing seminar. And when-
ever we need to get away from our everyday routine in Singapore, we can vacation
somewhere with a different climate and culture.
With my wife, Irene, on the ski slopes of Lucerne in Switzerland in June, 2005.
Most importantly, though, my family has security, and my wife and I have more
time to spend at home with our kids.
Celebrating my birthday with Irene and our sons, Clayden and Coen, in June 2007.
We’ve achieved wealth beyond our wildest dreams, and we owe it all to the Inter-
net business.
Hollywood last year when I went to California for a marketing seminar. And whenever we need to get away from our everyday routine in Singapore, we can vacation somewhere with a different climate and culture.
With my wife, Irene, on the ski slopes of Lucerne in Switzerland in June, 2005.
Most importantly, though, my family has security, and my wife and I have more time to spend at home with our kids.
Celebrating my birthday with Irene and our sons, Clayden and Coen, in June 2007.
We’ve achieved wealth beyond our wildest dreams, and we owe it all to the Internet business.
The crazy thing is I’ve managed to achieve all of this while marketing to predom-
inantly English-speaking consumers, and English is not even my first language. I’ve
shown you just a fraction of what I’ve been involved in—we haven’t even ad-
dressed how I achieved my first million-dollar product launch yet. We’ll get to that
soon. What I want you to absorb right now is that these same results are possible
for you.
We’ve achieved wealth beyond our wildest dreams, and we owe it all to the Internet
business.
Maybe a car or luxury holidays are not the status symbols you would choose, but
I’m sure there’s something you’ve always wanted. A new house? A fancy, flat-
screen television? A jacuzzi? Or perhaps something less tangible, like a better
education for the kids? Time to pursue a sporting or artistic dream? A comfortable
early-retirement plan? You could have any of these things in due time when you
focus on building a solid business. The unfolding of my story in the next chapter
could well be yours in the making too.
Maybe a car or luxury holidays are not the status symbols you would choose, but I’m
sure there’s something you’ve always wanted.
The crazy thing is I’ve managed to achieve all of this while marketing to predominantly English-speaking consumers, and English is not even my first language. I’ve shown you just a fraction of what I’ve been involved in—we haven’t even addressed how I achieved my first million-dollar product launch yet. We’ll get to that soon. What I want you to absorb right now is that these same results are possible for you.
We’ve achieved wealth beyond our wildest dreams, and we owe it all to the Internet business.
Maybe a car or luxury holidays are not the status symbols you would choose, but I’m sure there’s something you’ve always wanted. A new house? A fancy, flat-screen television? A jacuzzi? Or perhaps something less tangible, like a better education for the kids? Time to pursue a sporting or artistic dream? A comfortable early-retirement plan? You could have any of these things in due time when you focus on building a solid business. The unfolding of my story in the next chapter could well be yours in the making too.
Maybe a car or luxury holidays are not the status symbols you would choose, but I’m sure there’s something you’ve always wanted.
CHAPTER 2
The Million-Dollar Day
During my Internet marketing journey, I saw the depths of despair and carried the
burden of debt. I was ripped off, scammed, and lied to countless times. But I didn’t
give up. Step by step, I climbed closer to seeing my first million from Internet
sales—and I’m about to tell you how it all happened.
FROM AFFILIATE TO SUPER AFFILIATE
When I finally got serious about business, I chose affiliate marketing. The first
year or so, I would say I was an average affiliate. I made a decent income, but I cer-
tainly wasn’t a top performer. I was still getting used to really applying the systems
and strategies to my marketing. I did a lot of tracking and testing of results, seeing
what worked and what didn’t. The better I got at the basics, the more freedom I had
to test new ideas. In fact, the more I understood and applied the basics of mar-
keting, the easier it was to come up with new and creative approaches.
I came to understand that people are looking for solutions not just products.
I started focusing much more on building my opt-in lists and on forging a solid
relationship with my list subscribers. It was through their feedback that I learned
just how important it is to provide value and information. I came to understand
that people are looking for solutions, not just products.
In other words, the more value I could provide up-front, for free, the more refer-
rals I made down the line. Just this one shift in attitude saw my commissions go
way, way up. I was getting really competitive, and I started winning even more in
commissions and gifts for my efforts. I was becoming a super affiliate and often
beat out other affiliates to become the top earner in the programs I was involved in.
FROM SUPER AFFILIATE TO PRODUCT CREATOR
Success always brings people to your door in search of answers. Keep in mind,
CHAPTER 2
The Million-Dollar Day
During my Internet marketing journey, I saw the depths of despair and carried the burden of debt. I was ripped off, scammed, and lied to countless times. But I didn’t give up. Step by step, I climbed closer to seeing my first million from Internet sales—and I’m about to tell you how it all happened.
FROM AFFILIATE TO SUPER AFFILIATE
When I finally got serious about business, I chose affiliate marketing. The first year or so, I would say I was an average affiliate. I made a decent income, but I certainly wasn’t a top performer. I was still getting used to really applying the systems and strategies to my marketing. I did a lot of tracking and testing of results, seeing
what worked and what didn’t. The better I got at the basics, the more freedom I had to test new ideas. In fact, the more I understood and applied the basics of marketing, the easier it was to come up with new and creative approaches.
I came to understand that people are looking for solutions not just products.
I started focusing much more on building my opt-in lists and on forging a solid relationship with my list subscribers. It was through their feedback that I learned just how important it is to provide value and information. I came to understand that people are looking for solutions, not just products.
In other words, the more value I could provide up-front, for free, the more referrals I made down the line. Just this one shift in attitude saw my commissions go way, way up. I was getting really competitive, and I started winning even more in commissions and gifts for my efforts. I was becoming a super affiliate and often beat out other affiliates to become the top earner in the programs I was involved in.
FROM SUPER AFFILIATE TO PRODUCT CREATOR
Success always brings people to your door in search of answers. Keep in mind,
my primary niche has always been Internet marketing. As a super affiliate, I was
selling lots and lots of “How to Succeed on the Internet”-type products. Naturally,
many of my subscribers had questions for me:
“Ewen, should I buy this product?”
“Ewen, this looks great, but I’m a total newbie! How will this help me if I don’t
even know how to build my own list?”
“I enjoy your newsletters, but how can I be sure you aren’t just conning me like
everyone else? You say this is easy, but look—you generate huge amounts of traf-
fic!”
It wasn’t enough just to tell the people who put their trust in me, “Hey, I’ve been
there.” The fact is that I wanted to see my subscribers and customers succeed just
as well as I had. I naturally enjoy teaching and mentoring others, sharing what I
know. I did what I could to address these questions as they came in.
It wasn’t enough just to tell the people who put their trust in me, “Hey, I’ve been there.”
The fact is that I wanted to see my subscribers and customers succeed just as well as I
had.
However, there came a point when the volume of questions was just too over-
whelming. I realized I needed to start teaching others on a larger scale, and the
only way to do this was to become a product creator myself. As luck would have it,
this decision actually brought about another huge leap in income for me.
One of my early smash hits as a product creator was a little e-book called Mini e-
Book Secrets. It was designed to teach people how to become the top affiliate in any
affiliate program. The secret was in first understanding the fundamentals of mar-
keting:
• You must find a target market.
• You must offer a solution to that market.
• You must drive market traffic to your offer.
• You must capture leads onto an opt-in list in order to follow up on your
offer.
The second secret was in understanding the affiliate’s role as a middleman or
information value provider. These short reports, or mini e-books, could be written
on any niche topic for which one had a relevant affiliate program to promote. The
overall system relied on driving targeted traffic to an opt-in page where people
could download the mini e-book, consume the information, and then click-through
my primary niche has always been Internet marketing. As a super affiliate, I was selling lots and lots of How to Succeed on the Internet-type products. Naturally, many of my subscribers had questions for me:
Ewen, should I buy this product?
Ewen, this looks great, but I’m a total newbie! How will this help me if I don’t even know how to build my own list?
I enjoy your newsletters, but how can I be sure you aren’t just conning me like everyone else? You say this is easy, but look—you generate huge amounts of traffic!
It wasn’t enough just to tell the people who put their trust in me, Hey, I’ve been there. The fact is that I wanted to see my subscribers and customers succeed just as well as I had. I naturally enjoy teaching and mentoring others, sharing what I know. I did what I could to address these questions as they came in.
It wasn’t enough just to tell the people who put their trust in me, Hey, I’ve been there. The fact is that I wanted to see my subscribers and customers succeed just as well as I had.
However, there came a point when the volume of questions was just too overwhelming. I realized I needed to start teaching others on a larger scale, and the only way to do this was to become a product creator myself. As luck would have it, this decision actually brought about another huge leap in income for me.
One of my early smash hits as a product creator was a little e-book called Mini e-Book Secrets. It was designed to teach people how to become the top affiliate in any affiliate program. The secret was in first understanding the fundamentals of marketing:
• You must find a target market.
• You must offer a solution to that market.
• You must drive market traffic to your offer.
• You must capture leads onto an opt-in list in order to follow up on your offer.
The second secret was in understanding the affiliate’s role as a middleman or information value provider. These short reports, or mini e-books, could be written on any niche topic for which one had a relevant affiliate program to promote. The overall system relied on driving targeted traffic to an opt-in page where people could download the mini e-book, consume the information, and then click-through
the affiliate links contained within it.
The overall system relied on driving targeted traffic to an opt-in page where people could
download the mini e-book, consume the information, and then click-through the
affiliate links contained within it.
Although this is not the complete picture, it contains the seeds of the system I
now teach to people—and it represents a very good summary of the methods I’ve
continued to build upon through subsequent product launches. Almost every
product I’ve created since then has been a variation on this theme, but the depth of
the material has grown as my knowledge has grown. At the same time, I continue
to add new tactics into my marketing with each new product I create.
I realized there was no need to choose between being an affiliate marketer and
being a product owner. I could have it both ways. And it was really this desire of
mine to have it both ways that led to my first million in online earnings, with the
launch of a product called the Super Affiliate Cloning Program.
THE SUPER AFFILIATE CLONING PROGRAM
On April 29, 2007, Singapore’s national paper, the Sunday Times, ran a feature
story on me in its “Me & My Money” section. The headline proclaimed, “He’s
Made His First Million on the Internet.”
The interview focused a lot on my background and my personal money-
management style but didn’t mention how, exactly, I’d made that first million. The
fact is that my income had steadily progressed into high five figures. I didn’t waste
that money, either. I leveraged it back into all of my businesses and put much of
the affiliate links contained within it.
The overall system relied on driving targeted traffic to an opt-in page where people could download the mini e-book, consume the information, and then click-through the affiliate links contained within it.
Although this is not the complete picture, it contains the seeds of the system I now teach to people—and it represents a very good summary of the methods I’ve continued to build upon through subsequent product launches. Almost every product I’ve created since then has been a variation on this theme, but the depth of the material has grown as my knowledge has grown. At the same time, I continue to add new tactics into my marketing with each new product I create.
I realized there was no need to choose between being an affiliate marketer and being a product owner. I could have it both ways. And it was really this desire of mine to have it both ways that led to my first million in online earnings, with the launch of a product called the Super Affiliate Cloning Program.
THE SUPER AFFILIATE CLONING PROGRAM
On April 29, 2007, Singapore’s national paper, the Sunday Times, ran a feature story on me in its Me & My Money section. The headline proclaimed, He’s Made His First Million on the Internet.
The interview focused a lot on my background and my personal money-management style but didn’t mention how, exactly, I’d made that first million. The fact is that my income had steadily progressed into high five figures. I didn’t waste that money, either. I leveraged it back into all of my businesses and put much of
the rest of it into savings and investments. What pushed my income to the $1 mil-
lion mark was the launch, on August 22, 2006, of a product called the Super Affil-
iate Cloning Program. The Super Affiliate Cloning Program generated $1.497 mil-
lion in sales in thirty-six hours! It was a unique mentoring program that contained
my entire life’s work on affiliate marketing. I put my heart and soul into the prod-
uct, laying out absolutely everything I’d learned about what it takes to succeed in
Internet business.
The Super Affiliate Cloning Program generated $1.497 million in sales in thirty-six
hours!
The sales letter began like this:
To see the letter in full, visit http://www.EwenChia.com/supercloner.
The response was insane. I had so much traffic to this offer that both of my
servers crashed before I’d even officially gone live. It was a time-limited offer, and
people were coming to the site, constantly refreshing the page so they could secure
their spot before the offer disappeared. In just a matter of hours, my Alexa traffic
ranking jumped to 386, meaning I had 2,850 people out of every million Internet
users all trying to get to my site at once. What made people so desperate to grab
this incredible offer?
the rest of it into savings and investments. What pushed my income to the $1 million mark was the launch, on August 22, 2006, of a product called the Super Affiliate Cloning Program. The Super Affiliate Cloning Program generated $1.497 million in sales in thirty-six hours! It was a unique mentoring program that contained my entire life’s work on affiliate marketing. I put my heart and soul into the product, laying out absolutely everything I’d learned about what it takes to succeed in Internet business.
The Super Affiliate Cloning Program generated $1.497 million in sales in thirty-six hours!
The sales letter began like this:
To see the letter in full, visit http://www.EwenChia.com/supercloner.
The response was insane. I had so much traffic to this offer that both of my servers crashed before I’d even officially gone live. It was a time-limited offer, and people were coming to the site, constantly refreshing the page so they could secure their spot before the offer disappeared. In just a matter of hours, my Alexa traffic ranking jumped to 386, meaning I had 2,850 people out of every million Internet users all trying to get to my site at once. What made people so desperate to grab this incredible offer?
What made people so desperate to grab this incredible offer?
Perhaps it was that the Super Affiliate Cloning Program represented my lega-
cy and semiofficial retirement from affiliate marketing.Perhaps it was that, given that this was my legacy, I had over delivered on
value like never before.Perhaps it was due to my reputation and brand.
Or maybe it was my army of thousands of affiliates, all promoting the Super
Affiliate Cloning Program to their lists.Maybe it was the fact that I’d never presented such a comprehensive course
in such a personal format, complete with audios, teleconferences, and per-
sonal mentoring.Or was it all of the above, coupled with the power of the very system I teach
working its magic right then and there?
In my view, the answer is number 6: all of the above. I’ve spent years teaching
others how to become super affiliates. My expertise has helped turn my customers
into super affiliates. Yet none of this would have been possible without having first
mastered the fundamental components of Internet business. This, my friend, is
what you are about to learn.
Whether you want to be an affiliate marketer, a product owner, or both, there are
five core components that undergird every successful Internet business, and you
must master them above all else if you want to make your first million on the Inter-
net. These five components are as follows:
Market
Offer
Traffic
Backend
Duplication
Whether you want to be an affiliate marketer, a product owner, or both, there are five
What made people so desperate to grab this incredible offer?
Perhaps it was that the Super Affiliate Cloning Program represented my legacy and semiofficial retirement from affiliate marketing.
Perhaps it was that, given that this was my legacy, I had over delivered on value like never before.
Perhaps it was due to my reputation and brand.
Or maybe it was my army of thousands of affiliates, all promoting the Super Affiliate Cloning Program to their lists.
Maybe it was the fact that I’d never presented such a comprehensive course in such a personal format, complete with audios, teleconferences, and personal mentoring.
Or was it all of the above, coupled with the power of the very system I teach working its magic right then and there?
In my view, the answer is number 6: all of the above. I’ve spent years teaching others how to become super affiliates. My expertise has helped turn my customers into super affiliates. Yet none of this would have been possible without having first mastered the fundamental components of Internet business. This, my friend, is what you are about to learn.
Whether you want to be an affiliate marketer, a product owner, or both, there are five core components that undergird every successful Internet business, and you must master them above all else if you want to make your first million on the Internet. These five components are as follows:
Market
Offer
Traffic
Backend
Duplication
Whether you want to be an affiliate marketer, a product owner, or both, there are five
core components that undergird every successful Internet business, and you must master
them above all else if you want to make your first million on the Internet.
That’s it. These five deceptively simple concepts built the foundation of all my
success. So, are you ready to learn, focus, and commit to your business? I hope
so, because I’m about to take you through the big picture of how the components
work together, as well as discuss the guiding philosophy behind each component’s
role in creating a solid foundation for your business.
core components that undergird every successful Internet business, and you must master them above all else if you want to make your first million on the Internet.
That’s it. These five deceptively simple concepts built the foundation of all my success. So, are you ready to learn, focus, and commit to your business? I hope so, because I’m about to take you through the big picture of how the components work together, as well as discuss the guiding philosophy behind each component’s role in creating a solid foundation for your business.
CHAPTER 3
The Fab Five
Every successful Internet marketing system comes down to five components:
Market + Offer + Traffic + Backend + Duplication
COMPONENT #1: YOUR MARKET
Every business serves a target market. Your market forms the foundation of your
potential customer base. Therefore it is crucial that you identify your market cor-
rectly before you go into business. What are you looking for, exactly? You want to
choose a market that satisfies the following criteria:
• Hungry for a solution
• Willing to spend disposable income on solutions
• Easy to reach
If you don’t target a strong market from the beginning, you could do everything else
right in your business and still fail.
In other words, a good market consists of a large number of people with a com-
mon need who have enough spending power for you to profit from serving them.
Let me emphasize the point here: if you don’t target a strong market from the
beginning, you could do everything else right in your business and still fail.
Another way of talking about markets is to ask the question, “What niche do I
want to go into?” Do you want to target golfers, home buyers, musicians, fitness
fanatics? These days, the terms “market” and “niche” are nearly interchangeable in
most people’s minds. You’ll hear other business owners talk about being “in the
health and wellness market” or “in the financial market,” and so on. However,
there is an important distinction between the two that you must note: every market
represents a niche, but not every niche represents a viable and profitable market. In
other words, it is not enough to say that you want to target “golfers” or “fitness
fanatics” or “the computer software market.” This is far too broad. There is no
CHAPTER 3
The Fab Five
Every successful Internet marketing system comes down to five components:
Market + Offer + Traffic + Backend + Duplication
COMPONENT #1: YOUR MARKET
Every business serves a target market. Your market forms the foundation of your potential customer base. Therefore it is crucial that you identify your market correctly before you go into business. What are you looking for, exactly? You want to choose a market that satisfies the following criteria:
• Hungry for a solution
• Willing to spend disposable income on solutions
• Easy to reach
If you don’t target a strong market from the beginning, you could do everything else right in your business and still fail.
In other words, a good market consists of a large number of people with a common need who have enough spending power for you to profit from serving them. Let me emphasize the point here: if you don’t target a strong market from the beginning, you could do everything else right in your business and still fail.
Another way of talking about markets is to ask the question, What niche do I want to go into? Do you want to target golfers, home buyers, musicians, fitness fanatics? These days, the terms market and niche are nearly interchangeable in most people’s minds. You’ll hear other business owners talk about being in the health and wellness market or in the financial market, and so on. However, there is an important distinction between the two that you must note: every market represents a niche, but not every niche represents a viable and profitable market. In other words, it is not enough to say that you want to target golfers or fitness fanatics or the computer software market. This is far too broad. There is no
universal golf market or fitness market.
Every market represents a niche, but not every niche represents a viable and profitable
market.
Likewise, you cannot create markets where they don’t exist. “Cold” markets al-
ways result from improper targeting, whether too broad or too narrow. You also
risk running into a nonexistent market if you launch your solution prior to doing
your research. For example, let’s say you are a musician and have also recently
learned some tricks for raising your credit score. One day you think to yourself, “I
could write an e-book on credit repair for musicians!” You may think you’ve come
up with a winning product idea. After all, many musicians are on fixed budgets and
this impacts their ability to obtain credit. There’s also the chance that a fellow
musician would enjoy learning about finances if someone who shares the creative
mindset presents the information. The problem with this type of reasoning is that
you don’t know for sure if the market actually exists. It’s a classic example of
putting the cart before the horse and trying to force the market to fit the product.
Product targeting is really secondary to market targeting. Pay attention to your market
above all, and the rest will follow.
Proper targeting, however, always works in reverse. You must target the market
first, determine its needs, and then either create or locate a product to address
those needs. Product targeting is really secondary to market targeting. Pay attention
to your market above all, and the rest will follow. There is nothing wrong with
brainstorming ideas, but market selection should be governed by real research and
hard data.
COMPONENT #2: YOUR OFFER
People do not buy products—they buy solutions
Many business owners believe that their product is synonymous with their offer.
While this is true on the surface, it is far too simplistic and shortsighted an idea to
universal golf market or fitness market.
Every market represents a niche, but not every niche represents a viable and profitable market.
Likewise, you cannot create markets where they don’t exist. Cold markets always result from improper targeting, whether too broad or too narrow. You also risk running into a nonexistent market if you launch your solution prior to doing your research. For example, let’s say you are a musician and have also recently learned some tricks for raising your credit score. One day you think to yourself, I could write an e-book on credit repair for musicians! You may think you’ve come up with a winning product idea. After all, many musicians are on fixed budgets and this impacts their ability to obtain credit. There’s also the chance that a fellow musician would enjoy learning about finances if someone who shares the creative mindset presents the information. The problem with this type of reasoning is that you don’t know for sure if the market actually exists. It’s a classic example of putting the cart before the horse and trying to force the market to fit the product.
Product targeting is really secondary to market targeting. Pay attention to your market above all, and the rest will follow.
Proper targeting, however, always works in reverse. You must target the market first, determine its needs, and then either create or locate a product to address those needs. Product targeting is really secondary to market targeting. Pay attention to your market above all, and the rest will follow. There is nothing wrong with brainstorming ideas, but market selection should be governed by real research and hard data.
COMPONENT #2: YOUR OFFER
People do not buy products—they buy solutions
Many business owners believe that their product is synonymous with their offer. While this is true on the surface, it is far too simplistic and shortsighted an idea to
hold if you want to generate a serious income from your business. You will be
years ahead if you memorize this one concept: people do not buy products—they
buy solutions. Shift your focus away from the details and features of your product.
Look instead for the problems it can solve. The solution is your offer. This is true
whether you are selling downloadable information or physical goods. Think about
this for a moment: even a pair of roller skates is a solution. A good pair of roller
skates can solve a child’s boredom problem as well as his parents’ frustration
problem. Note within this discussion the underlying idea of multiple solutions
within your offer, or multiple benefits. A strong offer consists of more than just the
primary solution. It also includes intangible benefits and a focus on presenting the
solution to the customer as “the right solution at the right time and the right
price.”
A strong offer consists of more than just the primary solution. It also includes intangible
benefits and a focus on presenting the solution to the customer as “the right solution at
the right time and the right price. ”
For example, let’s say you want to sell a set of videos about dog training. Your
offer goes beyond the content, beyond the information contained in the videos.
Why? First, keep in mind that your customer knows what she is trying to achieve
on a very basic level: she wants to train her dog. Your offer, if it is to be powerful,
must address all of the unspoken criteria hiding in the back of her mind. This
means putting an emphasis on things like the following benefits:
• It will be so much easier to learn how to train her dog by watching live
examples on video.
• Video allows her to rewind, pause, fast-forward, etc., so she can digest the
information at her own pace, and it is always available for her to review.
• This learning format will make it that much easier and quicker to train her
dog, which will get her what she really wants (an improved pet/owner rela-
tionship) much faster.
• She can order right away and download the videos immediately.
• She can opt to have the videos shipped to her for a small extra fee.
• She’s protected by a money-back guarantee.
• This is the lowest price she’ll find anywhere for this level of quality
hold if you want to generate a serious income from your business. You will be years ahead if you memorize this one concept: people do not buy products—they buy solutions. Shift your focus away from the details and features of your product. Look instead for the problems it can solve. The solution is your offer. This is true whether you are selling downloadable information or physical goods. Think about this for a moment: even a pair of roller skates is a solution. A good pair of roller skates can solve a child’s boredom problem as well as his parents’ frustration problem. Note within this discussion the underlying idea of multiple solutions within your offer, or multiple benefits. A strong offer consists of more than just the primary solution. It also includes intangible benefits and a focus on presenting the solution to the customer as the right solution at the right time and the right price.
A strong offer consists of more than just the primary solution. It also includes intangible benefits and a focus on presenting the solution to the customer as the right solution at the right time and the right price.
For example, let’s say you want to sell a set of videos about dog training. Your
offer goes beyond the content, beyond the information contained in the videos. Why? First, keep in mind that your customer knows what she is trying to achieve on a very basic level: she wants to train her dog. Your offer, if it is to be powerful, must address all of the unspoken criteria hiding in the back of her mind. This means putting an emphasis on things like the following benefits:
• It will be so much easier to learn how to train her dog by watching live examples on video.
• Video allows her to rewind, pause, fast-forward, etc., so she can digest the information at her own pace, and it is always available for her to review.
• This learning format will make it that much easier and quicker to train her dog, which will get her what she really wants (an improved pet/owner relationship) much faster.
• She can order right away and download the videos immediately.
• She can opt to have the videos shipped to her for a small extra fee.
• She’s protected by a money-back guarantee.
• This is the lowest price she’ll find anywhere for this level of quality
information, and she’ll save hundreds over hiring a local dog trainer or tak-
ing classes.
• She gets a free, one-on-one consultation with you as a bonus.
• The sooner she takes action the better—because behavioral problems only
worsen with time and become harder to break.
Study the above list carefully. What if, instead of including these points in your
offer, you simply advertised “dog- training videos for $29.95”? There’s a big differ-
ence, isn’t there? Limiting your offer to telling people what your product is and how
much it costs is far less effective than telling them the tangible and intangible
benefits:
• How much better they’ll feel when they have the solution
• How easy it is to implement the solution
• How easy and inexpensive your solution is compared to the customer trying
to solve her problem alone
• How safety, confidence, and satisfaction are built into the solution
• How the purchase of this solution may solve additional problems, as well as
prevent existing ones from worsening or new ones from developing
I hope this makes clear just how much more robust and complex your offer to
your market can (and should) be. No matter which market you go into, you must
position your product as a solution, and you must market it as a solution.
No matter which market you go into, you must position your product as a solution, and
you must market it as a solution
COMPONENT #3: TRAFFIC
Driving traffic to your Web site is much like luring potential customers into a
brick-and-mortar storefront. If no one shops in your store, you go out of business.
If no one visits your Web site, you go out of business.
Let’s extend this metaphor a bit. Everyone who visits your site has an agenda. A
certain percentage of your visitors arrive knowing exactly what they want, and
they’ll purchase right away. A larger percentage will require more time and persua-
sion to make a buying decision. They need the equivalent of a sales associate to as-
sist them. Finally, the remaining percentage of traffic walks back out the door when
information, and she’ll save hundreds over hiring a local dog trainer or taking classes.
• She gets a free, one-on-one consultation with you as a bonus.
• The sooner she takes action the better—because behavioral problems only worsen with time and become harder to break.
Study the above list carefully. What if, instead of including these points in your offer, you simply advertised dog- training videos for $29.95? There’s a big difference, isn’t there? Limiting your offer to telling people what your product is and how much it costs is far less effective than telling them the tangible and intangible benefits:
• How much better they’ll feel when they have the solution
• How easy it is to implement the solution
• How easy and inexpensive your solution is compared to the customer trying to solve her problem alone
• How safety, confidence, and satisfaction are built into the solution
• How the purchase of this solution may solve additional problems, as well as
prevent existing ones from worsening or new ones from developing
I hope this makes clear just how much more robust and complex your offer to your market can (and should) be. No matter which market you go into, you must position your product as a solution, and you must market it as a solution.
No matter which market you go into, you must position your product as a solution, and you must market it as a solution
COMPONENT #3: TRAFFIC
Driving traffic to your Web site is much like luring potential customers into a brick-and-mortar storefront. If no one shops in your store, you go out of business. If no one visits your Web site, you go out of business.
Let’s extend this metaphor a bit. Everyone who visits your site has an agenda. A certain percentage of your visitors arrive knowing exactly what they want, and they’ll purchase right away. A larger percentage will require more time and persuasion to make a buying decision. They need the equivalent of a sales associate to assist them. Finally, the remaining percentage of traffic walks back out the door when
they realize they’re in the wrong place.
Now, while you cannot control your visitors’ ultimate agendas, you can control
the percentage of visitors coming to your site who are open to your efforts at turn-
ing them into customers. In other words, you can improve your sales by generating
targeted traffic so that you minimize the amount of window-shoppers coming to
your site, while boosting the number of immediate customers and prospective cus-
tomers.
You should know before you get involved in Internet business that the majority
of your traffic, no matter how well targeted it is, will consist of prospects—
potential customers. You can celebrate those visitors who purchase from you dur-
ing their first visit, but just keep in mind that this is a rarity. The core of your rev-
enue is going to come from the targeted prospects you’ve collected onto an opt-in
mailing list and converted into repeat customers.
It is just as important to get your offer in front of the right people as it is to make the
right offer to them.
So, what is targeted traffic? A visitor is considered targeted when he can be
identified as a member of your target market. In order to generate and direct tar-
geted traffic from your market to your Web site, then, you must be able to locate
sources of market-specific traffic. Targeted traffic plays just as large a role in the
conversion process as your offer and your sales copy. Why? Because it is just as
important to get your offer in front of the right people as it is to make the right offer
to them. If you are selling tennis rackets, you obviously don’t want any visitors who
are searching for baseball bats. A subtler example would be that if you are selling
an ebook on how to play the electric guitar, you don’t want too much traffic from
people looking for acoustic-guitar lessons. Even visitors within your overall market
can be untargeted. If you were advertising electric-guitar lessons to acoustic-guitar
players, you might get some “general interest” sales, but nothing near like what
you’d get putting your offer for electric-guitar lessons in front of electric-guitar
players. Make sense? There are markets within markets, or niches within niches.
You must identify the specific segment of your market that will be most interested
in your offer, then generate traffic by advertising to that segment of the market.
You must identify the specific segment of your market that will be most interested in
your offer, then generate traffic by advertising to that segment of the market.
they realize they’re in the wrong place.
Now, while you cannot control your visitors’ ultimate agendas, you can control the percentage of visitors coming to your site who are open to your efforts at turning them into customers. In other words, you can improve your sales by generating targeted traffic so that you minimize the amount of window-shoppers coming to your site, while boosting the number of immediate customers and prospective customers.
You should know before you get involved in Internet business that the majority of your traffic, no matter how well targeted it is, will consist of prospects—potential customers. You can celebrate those visitors who purchase from you during their first visit, but just keep in mind that this is a rarity. The core of your revenue is going to come from the targeted prospects you’ve collected onto an opt-in mailing list and converted into repeat customers.
It is just as important to get your offer in front of the right people as it is to make the right offer to them.
So, what is targeted traffic? A visitor is considered targeted when he can be
identified as a member of your target market. In order to generate and direct targeted traffic from your market to your Web site, then, you must be able to locate sources of market-specific traffic. Targeted traffic plays just as large a role in the conversion process as your offer and your sales copy. Why? Because it is just as important to get your offer in front of the right people as it is to make the right offer to them. If you are selling tennis rackets, you obviously don’t want any visitors who are searching for baseball bats. A subtler example would be that if you are selling an ebook on how to play the electric guitar, you don’t want too much traffic from people looking for acoustic-guitar lessons. Even visitors within your overall market can be untargeted. If you were advertising electric-guitar lessons to acoustic-guitar players, you might get some general interest sales, but nothing near like what you’d get putting your offer for electric-guitar lessons in front of electric-guitar players. Make sense? There are markets within markets, or niches within niches. You must identify the specific segment of your market that will be most interested in your offer, then generate traffic by advertising to that segment of the market.
You must identify the specific segment of your market that will be most interested in your offer, then generate traffic by advertising to that segment of the market.
Identifying market-specific traffic sources will be easy once you have learned
how to conduct market research. Your prospects will virtually target themselves for
you via the keywords they use for Web searches, and this information ultimately
leads you to all of your market’s online “hideouts.” In my blueprint, I will teach you
the specific tactics to use for generating this traffic to your site. For now, keep in
mind the following points about targeted traffic:
• Targeting is necessary to convert visitors into customers.
• Targeted traffic is traffic that comes from within your target market.
• Proper market research will reveal to you who to target and where.
COMPONENT #4: BACKEND
“Backend” is a strange term, isn’t it? At least, I always thought so until I learned
what this bit of marketing lingo actually means. The backend refers to the offers
you make as follow-ups after an initial sale. In case you were wondering, marketers
also use the terms “front-end” and “midlevel” when discussing the different points
along a sales funnel (the plan or actual achievement of converting prospects into
sales).
The front-end refers to the lead offer or lead product. Your lead offer is what you
advertise or promote to your market from your Web site—the offer that initially
draws them to your site and onto your opt-in list.
The midlevel is another way of referring to the classic up-sell—trying to per-
suade the customer to buy a more expensive product or a related additional prod-
uct at a discount. Midlevel offers are presented to the customer prior to com-
pleting the front-end sale.
The only levels you need to focus on for now are the front-end and backend. In
fact, you could say that these two types of offers are the sole offers made in any
sales funnel, because the midlevel is really just an optional upgrade to the front-
end offer.
The majority of your income is going to be generated by backend offers.
Now that we are clear on all of the terms, let’s look more closely at the backend
and why it is important. As stated earlier, your lead offer gets your customer
through the door. However, these front-end sales are not where you’ll earn the bulk
of your income. The majority of your income is going to be generated by backend
offers.
Let’s look at an example. Pretend for a moment that you are an affiliate
Identifying market-specific traffic sources will be easy once you have learned how to conduct market research. Your prospects will virtually target themselves for you via the keywords they use for Web searches, and this information ultimately leads you to all of your market’s online hideouts. In my blueprint, I will teach you the specific tactics to use for generating this traffic to your site. For now, keep in mind the following points about targeted traffic:
• Targeting is necessary to convert visitors into customers.
• Targeted traffic is traffic that comes from within your target market.
• Proper market research will reveal to you who to target and where.