Secrets of the Big Dogs

"Why Should I PAY for AN Upgraded Membership...
...when I Can Join Most Traffic Generation Programs for FREE!?"

That's a very good question!

And it's true. The overwhelming majority of traffic generation sites CAN be joined for free. However, remember what we've stated previously: "Free memberships are there mainly to fulfill the 'letter of the law' - that law being the U.S. Federal Trade Commission statute which states that it is not legal to require payment simply to join a business opportunity."

Thus, Free Memberships are there mainly for "show" and are specifically DESIGNED to offer an absolute minimum of benefits.

You can't expect to get much benefit out of joining any program solely as a Free Member. If you think that, you can never be a successful Internet marketer; you are merely fooling yourself.

After all, as the 'ol Stan-meister preaches...

"If FREE worked, why would PAID even exist!?
There IS no such thing as a free lunch!"

To illustrate, we've designed a little chart which shows the major components of the typical traffic generation program. (Understand that no two traffic generation programs are identical; our chart is an illustration of a hypothetical, very simplified program.)

The chart below shows a program that has just three membership levels, and lists five components. Generally speaking, however, traffic programs have more than just three membership levels, and many more than just five components. However, our simplified program is sufficient to explain our points.

Let's now take a close look at each of these five main components...

          ...and pay very, VERY close attention! It's important you understand this!

3 MEMBERSHIP LEVELS

THE 5 COMPONENTS FREE
MEMBER SILVER
MEMBER GOLD
MEMBER

Component # 1
Monthly Membership Cost Free $15.00 $30.00

Component # 2
How OFTEN you can contact prospects Every 7 days Every 3 days Every day

Componrnt # 3
How MANY Prospects You Can Contact
0 withOUT credits
1000 WITH credits
2000 without credits

4000 without credits

Component # 4
WHICH Membership Levels You Can Contact
Free only Free and Silver Free, Silver, and Gold
(All Membership Levels)

Component # 5
Commission You Earn On Membership Upgrades 10% 25% 50%

COMPONENT # 1
How MUCH Is A Traffic Generation Program Gonna Cost Me?

The first component we want to look at is the cost; what is the monthly cost (if any) to belong to the program. In our example chart below take a look at Row 1 (now highlighted in red)...

3 MEMBERSHIP LEVELS

5 COMPONENTS
FREE
MEMBER SILVER
MEMBER GOLD
MEMBER

1. Monthly Cost Free $15.00 $30.00

2. How OFTEN you can contact prospects Every 7 days Every 3 days Every day

3. How MANY Prospects You Can Contact
0 withOUT credits
1000 WITH credits
2000 without credits

4000 without credits

4. WHICH Membership Levels
You Can Contact
Free only Free and Silver Free, Silver, and Gold
(All Membership Levels)

5. Commission You Earn On Membership Upgrades 10% 25% 50%

Obviously, by definition, the Free Membership is "free;" one can join the program at no cost. In addition to the Free level, our example program also has a Silver Membership for $15.00 per month, and a Gold Membership for $30.00 per month.

Thus far, no surprises; naturally one expects to pay more for a higher level membership.

But the really BIG question is:

"Just what do I GET for my money???"

COMPONENT # 2:
How OFTEN Can I Contact Prospects?

One of the statistics regarding sales that holds true both in the online as well as in the offline world, and whether you’re selling luxury cars, ball point pens, or computer software, is that a prospect very seldom makes a purchase the first time they see your ad.

Statistically speaking, a prospect must see an advertisement a minimum of seven times before they make a “buy decision.”

Common sense tells us that the more often a prospect sees an ad, the more apt they are to make a purchase.

Now let’s look at Row 2 (now highlighted in red) of our comparison chart..

3 MEMBERSHIP LEVELS

5 COMPONENTS
FREE
MEMBER SILVER
MEMBER GOLD
MEMBER

1. Monthly Membership Cost Free $15.00 $30.00

2. How OFTEN you can contact prospects Every 7 days Every 3 days Every day!

3. How MANY Prospects You Can Contact
NONE! withOUT credits
1000 WITH credits
2000 without credits

4000 without credits

4. WHICH Membership Levels
You Can Contact
Free only Free and Silver Free, Silver, and Gold
(All Membership Levels)

5. Commission You Earn On Membership Upgrades 10% 25% 50%

Generally speaking, if you are a Free Member, you can send your sales message to prospects just once a week, while mid-level (Silver) Members can contact prospects twice each week, and top-level (Gold) Members can contact prospects with their sales message every day.

Thus, right from the get-go, upgraded members are able to contact prospects three to seven times more often.

And there is a second factor that must be taken into account:

Statistically speaking, only a very small percentage (generally about 2%) of your prospect pool will even see and read your sales message. They may be too busy on a particular day, or they may simply overlook your ad. Regardless of the reason, the point is that the more often you can place an ad in front of a group of prospects (even if it is the identical group of prospects), the greater is the chance that any one individual will see and respond to it.

Thus, using our example, with the top-level (Gold) membership it is seven times more likely that a prospect will "trip" over your ad.

COMPONENT # 3:
How MANY Prospects Can I Contact?

In addition to introducing your ad to your prospects as OFTEN as possible, you will also want to contact as MANY prospects as possible.

Obviously you want to advertise to as many prospects as possible; that’s just common sense. You can see in Row 3 (highlighted in red) in our example chart below that Free Members cannot contact ANY prospects unless they have "credits," and even if they DO have credits they are permitted to contact a maximum of 1,000 prospects.

3 MEMBERSHIP LEVELS

5 COMPONENTS
FREE
MEMBER SILVER
MEMBER GOLD
MEMBER

1. Monthly Membership Cost Free $15.00 $30.00

2. How OFTEN you can contact prospects Every 7 days Every 3 days Every day

3. How MANY Prospects You Can Contact
"NONE" withOUT credits
1000 WITH credits
2000 without credits

4000 without credits

4. WHICH Membership Levels
You Can Contact
Free only Free and Silver Free, Silver, and Gold
(All Membership Levels)

5. Commission You Earn On Membership Upgrades 10% 25% 50%

What are credits?

One "credit" allows you to place your ad in front of one prospect. And how does one obtain these "credits?" They are obtained by a process referred to as "clicking for credits." You view another member's ad and the website they are promoting for a certain timed period, and when the timer runs out, you click a button and earn "x" number of credits. Assuming you have at some time experienced this tedious task of "clicking for credits," you know what mind-numbing, monotonous drudgery it is. And it is an EXTREMELY time-intensive, life-draining activity. It is not uncommon for such "click-for-credits" marketers to spend four, five, six, or more hours a day mindlessly "clicking for credits.".

But it's important to note that, no matter how many credits you manage to accumulate, as a Free Member, you are still limited to contacting just 1,000 prospects each week.

On the other hand, you can see from our chart that Silver Members can contact 2,000 members (without the need for credits!), and Gold Members can contact 4,000 prospects (again, without the need for credits!).

If you were to calculate the amount of time you need to spend clicking for credits (as a Free Member), versus the fact that (as a Silver or Gold Member) you don't have to click for ANY credits, you will find that you are making far, far less than minimum wage. Simply put, it's incredibly more cost effective to simply purchase an upgraded membership, and then go watch a video with the kids!

DON'T BELIEVE ME? Well, let's just crunch some numbers...

Let's say that, even with "multi-tab browsing" (that means opening four or five browser windows simultaneously so you can "view" four or five email ads at a time) you are able to collect 400 mailing credits a minute (I'm bein' REALLY generous!). Now if you wanted to generate 5 million credits (the number of credits needed to mail to ALL the CHIP programs), it would take you...

5,000,000 / 400 = 12,500 minutes per month

Now divide those 12,500 minutes by the number of minutes in an hour...

12,500 / 60 = 208 hours per month

That's 208 hours A MONTH to generate the number of credits to send your ad to 5,000,000 prospects! Divide that 208 hours a month by four weeks...

208 / 4 = 52 hours per week

And we find that we would have to spend 52 hours a week (and that's without stopping to eat, rest, relax, or to take bath room breaks!), even under the best circumstances, to generate 5,000,000 mailing credits!

Or, look at it THIS way...

The US Federal Minimum Wage is slightly less than $8.00 per hour. If you got a part-time job for just 26 hours a week (HALF of those 52!), you would earn approximately $900.00 per month. You could pay the entire cost of the CHIP, AND... put $400.00 cash in your pocket!!!

It's obvious that, from a time/cost perspective, upgraded members are at a HUGE advantage!

And if we combine "How Often" with "How Many" we see that, over the course of just one week, a top-level upgraded member can expose his site to 28,000 prospects (7 days a week times 4,000 prospects), while a Free Member can expose his site to just... 1,000 prospects (1 day a week times 1,000 prospects)!!!

That is a HUGE difference! No comparison, is there!?

COMPONENT # 4:
What Is the QUALITY of my Prospects?

Ahhhh. There's the question! What is the quality - the ability or desire - of my prospects to purchase my offer?

Let me ask you this simple question: To whom would you rather try to sell your offer: a prospect who doesn't have a credit card and has never made an online purchase, or a group of prospects who have proven their ability and desire to buy?

Keep in mind that a majority of Free Members are what are referred to in the industry as "lookie-loos" or "tire-kickers" - these are folks who will seldom buy anything. They occupy their time looking at offer after offer, looking for that "next shiny thing," but seldom buying anything.

On the other hand, upgraded members - BY DEFINITION - have proven their desire and ability to make a purchase, right? After all, they have spent money to BE upgraded members!

3 MEMBERSHIP LEVELS

5 COMPONENTS
FREE
MEMBER SILVER
MEMBER GOLD
MEMBER

1. Monthly Membership Cost Free $15.00 $30.00

2. How OFTEN you can contact prospects Every 7 days Every 3 days Every day

3. How MANY Prospects You Can Contact
0 withOUT credits
1000 WITH credits
2000 without credits

4000 without credits

4. WHICH Membership Levels You Can Contact
Free only Free and Silver Free, Silver, and Gold
(All Membership Levels!)

5. Commission You Earn On Membership Upgrades 10% 25% 50%

But if you look at Row 4 of our chart (highlighted in red, above). you will see that Free Members are only able to put their offer in front of other Free Members. On the other hand, Silver Members can market to Free Members as well as other Silver Members. Then there are the Gold Members who can put their offer in front of ALL Membership levels - Gold Members, Silver Members, AND Free Members.

Understand that you can, and WILL, obtain sales from among Free Members; they are certainly not a total write-off.    Many folks join a program as a Free Member temporarily to "look around the site" before they upgrade.

Nevertheless, what does your common sense say? Would you rather advertise JUST to folks who joined the program for free, or would you rather promote to free members AND those more qualified prospects who have proven heir ability to make a decision and spend money?

COMPONENT # 5:
How Much MONEY Can I Make?

Thinking about promoting our "example" traffic generation program to earn a commission? If you look at Row Five in our chart below, you'll see that Free Members make a minimal commission of just 10%, while the Gold Members earn a 50% commission, five times more than Free Members.

Naturally, some programs pay free members more than that 10% minimum, and many programs pay their top-level upgraded members substantially more than 50% - 60, 70, 80%, and in some cases, 100%!

In addition, you will find it far easier to sell an item to a prospect if you, yourself, have purchased it.

3 MEMBERSHIP LEVELS

5 COMPONENTS
FREE
MEMBER SILVER
MEMBER GOLD
MEMBER

1. Monthly Membership Cost Free $15.00 $30.00

2. How OFTEN you can contact prospects Every 7 days Every 3 days Every day

3. How MANY Prospects You Can Contact
0 withOUT credits
1000 WITH credits
2000 without credits

4000 without credits

4. WHICH Membership Levels
You Can Contact
Free only Free and Silver Free, Silver, and Gold
(All Membership Levels)

5.Commission You Earn On Membership Upgrades 10% 25% 50%!

The Bottom Line!

I'm a "bottom line kinda guy," and the "bottom line," then, is pretty simple to see, isn't it...

Upgraded Members...
Make substantially more money!

Upgraded Members...
Are able to contact several times more prospects, several time more often!

Upgraded Members...
Are able to contact a potentially better quality of prospects!

Upgraded Members...
are able to decrease their "marketing time" from hours to minutes because they don't need to "click for credits"

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