My all day rant. County fairs, human beings and nothing new, just adjusted.

[Dien Rice]

Originally Posted by GordonJ

So Marlon uses the Carnival Metaphor. A ticket to get in, then the midway and the backends.

He calls his front ends the CANDY STICK. Lower priced information products which get people on his list, or into his midway, where he offers (metaphorically speaking)...cotton candy, popcorn, caramel apples and then a 3 ticket attraction, like the FUN HOUSE, where he gets 500 bux for, and some super rides, where he commands 1k or more.

AN aside...Jim Straw called his candy sticks, peanuts on a bar, where you just keep eating them, and buying more drinks.

I like this Carnival much better than the typical funnel, which to me, sometimes feels like a trap, or being tossed down a muddy hill.

Hi Gordon,

So much great stuff here...! It's a very rich smorgasbord...

I like Marlon's "carnival" metaphor, somehow I'd never come across that... Or maybe I did and I forgot... (Happens more often than I'd like to admit!)

Looking at that, I think maybe the most important thing is getting qualified people on your email list or mailing list... whatever you use, you need a way to contact them!

Getting them to "Like" your Facebook page or something like that isn't exactly the same, because even if you post on your Facebook page, not everyone will see it unless you pay Facebook to promote it to them... (That's part of Facebook's business model.)

You also don't want just anybody, you want qualified people... people who are interested in what it is you're selling.

That, in my opinion, is maybe the most important thing...

Why is it the most important thing?

Once you've got them on your email list, as long as you're keeping them happy and they keep wanting to read your emails, you can sell to them over and over and over in a way that, of course, keeps them happy and they're happy to get your stuff. It's win/win!

I always try to make every single email I send out be valuable to the reader...

(Email is different from direct mail, because with email, people legally have to have the choice to "opt out." That's not the case with direct mail... While you can just send out sales letter after sales letter with direct mail... If you just send continuous pure sales emails, many people will either opt out or block you...)

I know other people have a different model for sending out emails...

For example, I've come across some online marketers who have the model where they'll put out three valuable emails with great information, then they'll put out a pure sales email and then they'll do it again with another three great emails, then another pure sales email.

Jim Straw had a similar way of doing it. He'd send out just pure sales emails, but then he'd have his monthly newsletter where you get a lot of great info and he'd answer people's questions.

So those are a few different ways of doing it.

Great stuff here, Gordon, I'll be writing more soonish!

- Dien