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The Business of Winning – Think monetizing your life with a hint of laziness

Posts Tagged ‘Online Business’

Quid Pro Quos – Casinos vs Online Business

May 14th, 2009

Games of Chance

Many of us remember the first time we ever heard the phrase “Quid Pro Quo”. We wondered if it was something political no doubt and with some sort of negative connotation attached to it. The basic definition seems harmless…Something given or received for something else. The idea that you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours has been around for a long time and one could say that it got its start when the world’s oldest profession had its inception. I’ve been in the casino business for the last 20 years and we have been marketing to our customers for years with a strange approach that makes little sense to the non-gambler. You give me your money and I’ll give you a chance to win a jackpot. At this basic level, you can begin to see some parallels with the online business promotion opportunities that are prolific on the Internet today. Many people will look at the promised large sums of money as a gambler would dream about hitting a jackpot. As I’ve watched the Internet marketing business over the years I’ve noticed the correlation with my casino business at the core, but casinos have been doing this for a lot longer and online marketers and those in the business could stand to learn a few things about the casino business that may not be so obvious to the untrained eye.

How do you sell a product without a tangible item for someone to hold in their hands? It is simple to see when you have a book to sell…you give me $12.50 and I hand you a book. When you sell a chance at something it gets tricky. What I have found and train my employees over the years are a few basic concepts that work in a casino and I have found that they work well in the online business opportunity business as well. Keep the talk about “winning” (making a lot of money) to a minimum. If you promote and push this part of your business too much the conversation inevitably comes back to losing money as well. When you over-promote this you risk reminding your customer that losing is factored in also.

Gamblers, as well as prospects, are many times motivated by different things. In the casino we always find out what type of jackpot they are looking to win on their visit. Some would love to win $100 while others want a more substantial payout in the $5,000 to $50,000 range. As you might imagine, each of these gamblers require a different slot or table game to play to satisfy their goals. I always make sure that my gambler is playing the right game for what they are looking for. Your Online business should be no different. Make sure you ask each prospect what they would like to make each month and tailor your program to there needs.

Trust is a big part of what you have to offer in the casino business. People don’t mind taking a risk if you honestly admit that you have an advantage. For instance, the phrase, “Vegas was not build with winners,” is commonplace, yet customers continue to flock to this oasis of risk. We never shy away from the fact that we have an advantage over each and every player. As a online marketer you should be proud that you make money and allow yourself to explain how you make money from your prospects and this in turn will create a sense of trust in you as a person and business opportunity. If the fact that my casino makes money by taking a cut of each dollar wagered scares off my customer, then they are never going to buy into the idea that a casino is a good place to spend their money. The same holds true when marketing online. Never try to imply or hide the fact that you make money directly from your prospects. Be proud of what you do and how you make your money.

Gamblers in general don’t like to talk to others about how much money they have wagered. If they have won something on their visit, the amount stated is always void of the amount of money they spent to win the money. To keep this illusion in tack a gambler doesn’t want other customers, spouses or even employees in on how much they have spent. This is why ATM’s and other cash advance machines are always placed in corners and slightly off the front of the cashiers cage…Anonymity. Same holds true to your online business opportunity. Most people don’t want others to know how they are spending their money and they certainly don’t want others to know how much they are spending. In the casino we make it a point not to know or talk about how much money they take out of an ATM or put into a slot machine or table games. (in actuality, we know these amounts to the penny) We make it easy to remain anonymous when getting or spending money and are only attentive when they win jackpots. Make sure you find ways to help your customers keep their business private from others and at the same time make sure you their recognize successes when achieved. The concept will help make each of your new customers more successful because it keeps them happier for a longer period of time and thus creates a longer time of interest in your business which increases the chances of ultimate profitability for your new customer.

Have fun at the Casino

Gambling in casinos and buying into an online business opportunity are different in many ways though. You can make money over the Internet in today’s business environment. I have made money and I help people learn how to make money on the Internet all the time with great success. I have never won money in a casino over time and I have never known a gambler to make money on a consistent bases, its all about entertainment in a casino. The similarities that I represent in this post are just some of my observations that I’ve made when selling over the web and observations while on the casino floor.

Contact me anytime with questions or if you have an idea that you think I might like to promote.

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Tags: Casinos Marketing Online Business Vegas

Why I Sell Big Ticket Items As My Base Income

March 26th, 2009

Sell Big Ticket Items

On the internet there are many different ways to make a living…just do a quick Google search on “make money from home” and you will get over 254 million results. I’ve been making money, in many different ways, since I was young enough to think that thirty was ‘old.’ I’ve always believed in multiple streams of income–in much the same way as many investors believe in diversifying their stock portfolios. My online revenue is certainly based on multiple streams, but I’ve found that if I don’t have some sort of base income or what some call “bread and butter”, then I end up chasing many income streams at the same time with limited success. Multiple streams of income only seem to work if you add income to your current base of operations.

I have been involved in my share of online businesses and have made a great living. I don’t have employees but work with many freelancers and other online entrepreneurs. What you will learn over time is the fact that it takes just as much time to work on a small sale as it does on a big one. I don’t know about you, but working on the internet for yourself is fun and I love spending time making money. If you are going to work hard anyway, why not sell a product that makes your time worthwhile, even if you only make one sale per month? It makes a lot a sense to me, and it also makes sense to a lot of smart internet marketers.

Affiliate programs all have great sales pitches about how much cash you can make each month by selling their products. They may even give you a bonus if you convert 25 or 50 items a month. Great! I’m marketing ‘my’ site and spending my time promoting their products so I can get the crumbs from their table. Thanks, but that is no way to build my internet marketing livelihood. It sounds more like a supplemental approach to income–not a primary base of income.

One night last year I came across a few of my old online friends that started selling products offered by Abunza. It turned out that not only could I sell retail products with my own online shopping center…I could sell to both English and Spanish speaking customers! I started using Abunza every month to keep the money coming in and more and more people started joining me in the effort. In a short amount of time it became clear that Abunza would become my big ticket sales tool for the internet.

Abunza’s pay plan utilizes a two-tier payment system that sends payments from your new customers straight into your checking account. Your new members will first deliver $1,997.00 directly to you when they decide to invest in their own online business. Now I know that $2,000 a month isn’t an amount that would prompt you to write to everyone you know and tell them that you are a big internet guru, but it is an amount that makes your online efforts worth while. With Abunza, you can get everything set up and running in a short time frame and start making money right away. It’s not hard to make 4 or 5 sales a month once you get on a roll.