Interview with Rob Taylor of Megastep International By Mike Merz Sep 7, 2005

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Today's interview subject is Rob Taylor, owner of Megastep International.

Though Mr. Taylor's name isn't as well known as the popular
Marketing Gurus ... they all know *him*. ;)

Rob Taylor has been making a living Online since 1996, and
made over $400,000 selling his very first self published book in e-book and print editions. His Internet Marketing Strategies ezine has become one of the most popular and
responsive Marketing publications, Online ... and Rob's 'super affiliate' status in the world of affiliate marketing has made him very popular to those seeking high level joint venture partners.

With all that said, it's safe to assume that Rob Taylor knows all the ins and outs of autoresponder marketing ... and he won't get out of this interview without revealing a few of his own personal tactics, I assure you. ;)

MM

Rob, thanks for taking time out of your busy schedule to share some of your experience with our DEMC subscribers ...

RT

My pleasure Mike, and thanks for asking me to help out your subscribers.

MM

How important a part have autoresponders played in your
email marketing strategies over the years?

RT

Well if there's one essential piece of kit that EVERY marketer must be using, and more importantly using correctly... it is autoresponders.

They are ABSOLUTELY essential for business success.

The concept of ARs are nothing new. Those of us who were offline direct response marketers before the Net came along always did follow-up mailings, sent out free special reports etc. etc. Autoresponders just made that old-style process faster, easier and cheaper.

MM

... even today? Are they still as essential a tool, now ... as they've been for you in the past?

RT

Most definitely. I always advise my clients to drive, where possible, their traffic sources straight to an optin form rather than a sales page. I've been doing this for over three years.

It's not new, it's the same thing we used to do offline pre-internet. Place an advert and get the lead first, before sending the sales pitch. It's standard direct response marketing.

One of my affiliate programs is built around getting my affiliates to drive their traffic to my optin form, rather than straight to my product's sales page. See CashOcean .

There's a reason for that, and if you run your own affiliate program you might want to consider it, and here's why

After someone has opted in, they are then in my *marketing engine* as I call it. This means an affiliate doesn't have to worry about promoting a variety of different products, because my autoresponder follow-up series does all the marketing for them. But with a big difference!

When I send out a promotional email for one of my products, their unique affiliate link is automatically embedded in the message. No relying on a one-time cookie, especially when according to Jupiter Research, back in March 2005 "... as many as 39% of online users may be deleting cookies from their primary computer monthly".

And because their affiliate link is included in all out going messages for my products, this means they can be assured that I have done everything possible to make sure that they're going to earn their commissions.

I get a ton of JV requests, and when I go look at the sales page I often see an optin form either popping up or as an inline form. I simply won't do a JV unless the person removes the optin. Why? Because they want to cream my list, while (usually) not even having bothered to set-up their optin form correctly to track my traffic so I earn
commissions down the line.

Sure they give some guff about lifetime cookies, but as I have just pointed out cookies are getting deleted more and more frequently, so you have to do it differently now than a year or so ago.

MM

In regards to today's email marketing issues ... getting through the filters, staying out of the SPA.M folders, etc. ... how have you, personally, dealt with these obstacles?

RT

Although some of my autoresponders are still text based messages. I am moving over to sending a brief paragraph or two to entice my subscribers to a webpage with the article on it. I also include Google Adsense within the body of the article on the web page.

I've found that this is a very powerful way to increase my email marketing profits. But your list needs to know you create high quality, useful information. Sending them to crappy articles just won't cut it, because they will wise up pretty quick and just not bother to clickthrough.

Even if a subscriber doesn't actually buy anything I still earn adsense revenue, which increases my *Subscriber Value* quite considerably.

For instance I recently set-up an autoresponder series for a tiny, tiny niche. In the first two weeks and having only generated 500 or so subscribers and before even selling them anything each subscriber was worth $0.54 each just from Adsense revenue. And if you then include the sales that Subscriber Value went up massively.

Naturally if you can only generate 10 subscribers you aren't going to make much money. But when you have lists in the thousands and tens of thousands it all adds up.

So my advice... start building your lists. Yeah I know everyone tells you this, but it's just a reality of doing business on the net. If you aren't doing it, you're just throwing money out of the window.

MM

You're known to your peers as a master at building responsive lists ... care to share a few of your strategies with our readers?

RT

1. The great direct response marketer Ted Nicholas has a saying "There are no unimportant people in life". I agree. Respect every individual, and bend over backwards to GENUINELY help them. Think customer/subscriber/partner first, and you second.

Put your ego aside and truly serve your clients. In a world of mediocrity that pays lip service to... customer service... it's refreshing for a prospect to find someone genuinely there to help them... instead of simply milk them!

2. Offer high quality ORIGINAL content that adds value to your subscribers lives. Try and resist the temptation to buy cookie-cutter autoresponder messages, and create your own instead.

And it's best if you can write the messages yourself, with your own voice. If you do use a ghostwriter, make sure that the quality is superb, and not just mediocre. You'll find your subscribers stick with you longer, respect you more for going the extra mile, and end up putting more money in your bank account. Also don't hit your subscribers straight away with a sales pitch. Read my article: Don't Screw Your Prospects.

3. Make sure you don't over mail and also don't under mail your lists. There's a fine balance that you will need to discover for yourself.

MM

What's the scoop on Rob Taylor, these days? Anything new?
... on the horizon?

RT

As you know I stay pretty much in the background "doing my thing". Becoming a celebrity is not my style. And start calling me a guru and I'm likely to tell you where to get off... in the nicest possible way of course .

I'm just an ordinary guy who tinkers around in his "marketing workshop". I see marketing as an art form. A real craft. So I have a workshop instead of an "office". Maybe that's just the whacky Brit coming out .

Family, friends and an easy lifestyle are the most important things in my life, and work is secondary and simply finances my pleasures and passions.

I spend a percentage of my time creating products catering to the internet marketing community.

I started to produce them simply because I saw so much misinformation being spoken about how to succeed online. So I decided to just share some of the stuff I have learned and tried and tested and that has proven to work for me over the past 9 years I've been online. I call my system Reality-Based Marketing. No theory, just what I have found
actually works for me.

My latest internet marketing product is Directory Profits, which shows folks how I made the $400K you talked about in your introduction with my first information product.

I'm also putting the finishing touches to a new coaching club, where I will show you through audio, video and text my simple easy, foolproof system that can generate five figure sales a month from pretty much any website.

If you are a newbie to the web, or are simply looking for a way to make money through some kind of business opportunity, it won't be for you.

But if you already own a website, and are finding the Web not working for you as well as you thought it would... Get on the announcement list for the coaching club by subscribing to my Internet Marketing Strategies newsletter.

MM

Thanks for stopping by, Rob ... it was a real treat!

RT

Thanks a lot Mike it's been a pleasure, and I hope the little insights I've shared with everyone have been of help?

Best

Rob Taylor
Megastep International

--

I hope you enjoyed this month's exclusive interview.

Stay tuned for next month's installment, featuring an interview with ... ? ;)

Much success,

Mike Merz

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Mike Merz is a well known Internet marketing consultant, JV broker, and owner of Internet Marketing For Newbies LLC.
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