Ahhh, Summer. As many of you have probably already guessed, I took a lot of time off this Summer to spend some quality time with my children while they're home from school. We had an awesome time! In fact, I think it was the best Summer break yet.

Unfortunately, all that time off also means that I've seriously neglected Internet Marketing Tutor and Marketing Watch... a fact that I'm working to remedy with this first issue after the holiday.

Now that I'm back, I have one big rant to get off my chest -- I'm soooo sick of marketing email! I try to keep up with all the latest internet business trends, newest products, great new ideas, etc., so I'm subscribed to a lot of newsletters and announcement lists.

Over the last several months, I'm seeing a very big trend in sending out a lot of salesletters and advertisements instead of real content in ezines and newsletters -- and this is from some of the better people in online business and marketing!

Each marketing message claims that this is a "must have" and that I should really click on their link. Some even tell me not to buy so that they can get me to their pre-selling page and then tell me that I should buy. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad to get a few of these messages now and then, but I'm getting 10-12 messages about the exact same product at the same time!

It's completely ridiculous and a complete waste of time!

Here's the "behind the scenes" reason for the whole fiasco...

1. Someone creates a new product and they announce it to all their affiliates, other marketing friends, etc. with a specific launch date. The launch date is usually at least a few days away.

2. All the affiliates go to work trying to create a compelling email message to send to their lists. (Sometimes the product creator will even give the affiliates the email message to send.)

3. Each affiliate puts their "unique" message into their autoresponders to await the launch date.

4. When the product is officially launched, all those affiliates send out all those messages to all their subscribers at the same time.

And that's why we get multiple messages from different sources about the same product.

So, here's what I have to ask myself... who's really making the money here?

When the market gets flooded with information about a new product like this, the product creator is really the only one making a killing. The affiliates, by and large, only pick up a sale or two using this type of approach because they're competing with all those other affiliates.

There is one exception, however. Those affiliates who:

1. Develop a completely new approach with their lists and create such a compelling offer that their subscribers wouldn't even consider clicking elsewhere.

2. Have such a strong relationship with their subscribers that the subscribers would buy anything they recommend.

And that brings me to the tip below:

Tutor's Quick Tip

Work hard to earn your subscribers' trust and loyalty to maximize the profitablity of your subscriber list.

Send your subscribers real content, tools, and information that they can use. People are so overwhelmed with email salesletters and product advertisments that you can really set yourself apart by sending them only quality information that they want to read.

Once they've been with you for awhile, then you can occasionally send them carefully crafted, pre-selling articles and messages related to specific products and you'll have a much higher conversion rate.

Featured Articles

• Writing the Pre-Selling Article - This is an article I wrote for "How to Pre-Sell Your Way to High Profits," but I think it's really relavant to the discussion above. Hopefully it will give you a little more information on how you can separate yourself from the pack when you're marketing a new product. If you want to subscribe to the entire course, click here.

• The Delegation Dilemma: 8 Keys to Know If It’s Time to Build a Virtual Team - For the entrepreneur, cash flow is the make or break point. Interestingly enough, many of us will throw thousands of dollars at programs and products that suggest they will make us money but you will hold back from investing in the ONE KEY STRATEGY that is proven to help you achieve a six to seven figure income.

• Links: How Many? And Where? - Email readers, like web surfers, are ruthless in their decision making. They aren't going to search around in our email for something to click on, nor are they going to sit and make a drawn out decision on whether or not to click when they see one. Have you ever thought specifically about whether your links are optimized in your messages?

On The Watch

• Jason Dolman Releases '7 Traffic Myths' Free Report - August 22, 2007 - Jason Dolman has released a 33-page free report entitled "7 Traffic Myths". I was really surprised by this report... I expected it to by another over-hyped report filled with affiliate links and pushing a product, but I was completely wrong (Did lightening just strike?) This report is carefully written and provides a lot of great information. Don't miss out on this one!

• Affiliate Classroom Magazine - The August edition of Affiliate Classroom is out and well worth the read... especially since it's absolutely free! This month's them is "forgotten traffic tactics." Although I don't agree that all the tactics they discuss in the magazine are "forgotten," I do think that there's some pretty good information regarding offline and ezine advertising. I also found the section dedicated to classified ads pretty good because it kind of puts a twist on the old online classified ads. The only article in this month's issue that I was disappointed in was the short and useless article on thank you pages, but other than that, it's well worth your time!

• 10 Ways to Increase Your Affiliate Sales - Michael Rasmussen posted his newest issue of his Internet Marketing Success Newsletter, where he talks about 10 of his favorite tactics for making money as an affiliate marketer. These are not the same old techniques that you see everywhere else. In fact, some of them are brand new (including three new ways to make money using video). Trust me, you don't want to miss this one.

• "Back to Work" $100 Promotion - A lot of people, including myself, take time off during the summer months. Apparently Sitesell thought that was a good enough reason for a new promotion. Until August 28th, you can get a second SBI website for a mere $100. It's a great opportunity to get your SBI website at a lower price, even if you aren't quite ready to start your online business yet. I'll even throw in some free website consulting by email for anyone who decides to give it a try through the link above. I love helping out people just getting started!