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Niche Gold

A Complete Business Solution

By: Warren Peterson Connect: http://www.WarrenPeterson.com http://facebook.com/OfficialWarrenPeterson http://ThreeMonthBreakthrough.com http://TheHomeTheaterBook.com (what this course is based on)

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Contents
Niche Gold ..................................................................................................................................................... 2 Legal Notice:.......................................................................................................................................... 4 Earnings Disclaimer: .............................................................................................................................. 6 Warrior Forum Notice ........................................................................................................................... 7 About This Document ........................................................................................................................... 8 Introduction: ........................................................................................................................................... 11 The Business of Relationships ................................................................................................................. 15 How I "Found" My Niche......................................................................................................................... 16 Upfront Costs .......................................................................................................................................... 19 Study The Forums ................................................................................................................................... 20 Your Product ....................................................................................................................................... 21 Map Your Outline To Each Forum ....................................................................................................... 23 Identify the Key Players .......................................................................................................................... 25 The Key Posters ................................................................................................................................... 25 Map The Posters ................................................................................................................................. 27 The Forum Owners.............................................................................................................................. 28 The Industry Experts ........................................................................................................................... 32 Contacting Posters .................................................................................................................................. 34 Finish the Book ........................................................................................................................................ 37 Prepare Your Website and Backend ....................................................................................................... 39 Audio Interviews ..................................................................................................................................... 43 The Interview ...................................................................................................................................... 47 The Technology ................................................................................................................................... 50 Time to Make It Live................................................................................................................................ 52 Sticky Threads ..................................................................................................................................... 56 Welcome Messages ............................................................................................................................ 57 First Growth Step .................................................................................................................................... 58 Most Effective Marketing ....................................................................................................................... 61 Bonus: You Become The Authority ......................................................................................................... 63 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................... 64 Appendix: My Websites .......................................................................................................................... 65 Forum Gold | Success Leaders, LLC 3

If you really want to Accelerate Your Success, you need to check out my:

I am offering you an intense bootcamp of private one on one coaching with me, to drive you to success now!
One of the hardest things about working from home, alone, is that you have no one to work with, no one to discuss your concepts and ideas with, and no one with the experience of what you are trying to do.

I will be that person for you. I will coach you. Take my experience and use it to your advantage.
You will have direct access to me (nothing outsourced, it is directly, and only, with me) for three serious coaching calls via my personal Skype account. You will have a regularly scheduled call time with me, and I will expect you to make the call! I will be giving you assignments. You will be sending me your work. Together we will discuss your progress, Ill give you my analysis and insights into how you are progressing and implementing this strategy. You will not be trying alone, you will have me by your side, giving you the results of my own years of using this exact solution. This will be unlike other coaching programs, where you get some videos and a group call. This is actual one on one with me! I am going push you along and I am going to challenge you. I am going to ask you lots of questions. In other words, Real coaching!
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Your Results Are What Matters!

At the end of our sessions, you will:

Have a clear niche, specifically and uniquely based on you. This is awesome, no random shots at what might be hot, this is customized exactly to you! Own intense product research. Because of this, you know that your market will want to buy your product the minute you release it! Know the exact tools and technologies needed to implement this entire strategy. Youll be able to skip all the searching and guessing at what you need, and get right to action!

Think about this: when were done with these very intense sessions, you will have your exact niche, you will know your awesome product, you will know your target audience, and you will know the specific tools to implement.
Imagine having a true business partner, without giving up any equity!

This is your fastest way to success, but it is not for everyone. I only expect the most serious and most committed people to accept this option. If that is you, I cannot wait to get started working towards your success. Sincerely, Warren Peterson

And check out my Insane Coaching Guarantee. You know that personal coaching time is almost never guaranteed, but I am breaking that barrier as well. Im driven to do everything I can to help, and so if you decide, even after our last session, that this coaching is not going to help you make this business a success, let me know and Ill refund you Let Me Take The Risk!

To Join Now, Click Here; Niche Gold Bootcamp

5 Legal Notice:

Forum Gold | Success Leaders, LLC

This publication is protected under the US Copyright Act of 1976 and all other applicable laws at the local, federal, and international level. This entire ebook, and any supplemental content, is the sole opinion of the Author. All examples, ideas, methods, stories, and/or images are used for illustrative purposes only. Before you, as the reader, try anything mentioned, directly or indirectly, in this ebook, it is your sole responsibility to ensure that you are following all laws, restrictions, terms, or other legal and accounting requirements for each jurisdiction. The information provided in this ebook is provided "as is" and the publication owner holds no responsibility for errors and/or omissions in this publication. The ideas and theories in this course are for illustration purposes only and you, as the reader, are responsible for all liability if you decide to implement any strategy, theory, or technique. You are to use the information in this ebook at your own risk. The author of this ebook is not giving any legal, accounting, or professional advice whatsoever. All information is personal opinion of the author. Should you need professional advice, please seek the appropriate professional for the needed services.

This ebook is offered to members of the Warrior Forum, and complies with all the rules defined here.

6 Earnings Disclaimer: Forum Gold | Success Leaders, LLC

Any earnings or income statements shown are for illustrative purposes only, and represent the unique situation presented by the author. There is absolutely no assurance you will do as well. Monetary and income results are based on many different factors, and there is no way of knowing the income level of any reader. Therefore we do not, and cannot, may any guarantee of any income to you. Your success is entirely up to your own results. You, as the reader, agree that our company is not to be held responsible for the success or failure of your business decisions relating to any information presented in this ebook, or to any of our company products or services. The author of this ebook is not giving any legal, accounting, or professional advice whatsoever. All information is personal opinion of the author. Should you need professional advice, please seek the appropriate professional for the needed services.

Warrior Forum Notice

Forum Gold | Success Leaders, LLC

As we get started, you will quickly see that this strategy is designed around a very specific method of how I have used forums (no, this does not depend on getting extra signature clicks). I am selling this here at the Warrior Forum, and ask that you don't implement one part of this exact strategy here. There is a reason for this request. The Warrior Forum is a unique place, and you should be building some excellent relationships here. That is a key piont, and you will read about me discussing respect and relationships quite a bit. In this strategy I mention how you can work with forum owners, and I am asking that you not do this with the Warrior Forum. You will find that this strategy can be used by you in many ways, and the solid business strategies can be applied in many situations. Just please, do not use my ownership strategy here with the owners of the Warrior Forum. Unlike virtually all other forums, of all other niches, this is a unique place, with a unique mission, unique visitor count, and unique set of resources.

About This Document

Forum Gold | Success Leaders, LLC

Before we get into the details, I want to take a moment to discuss the overall document, the flow, format, content, and so on... What I have prepared here is my actual strategy document, so you will see plenty of sentences and paragraphs suggestion what you should do; do this, next do this, then do that, etc My goal here is to provide the actual strategy I have used, the actual steps I have used. You will see there is no fluff and filler. I do talk about my own experience and niche, and do that for illustration to you, not simply to create a longer document. It is my intention that by the time you have finished reading through this a few times, you will have written down your notes and will have a plan that you can fully implement as-is. I have no upsells beyond the single One Time Offer of me coaching through this process; this is the entire strategy of how I have used, and continue to use, forums to make thousands every month, from just one website. I want you to use this, I want you to take this and expand it beyond what I have done. The most important thing is that you act upon this. The information alone is solid, I know exactly how it works, but without you implementing your plan, it will remain only on paper. I want you to succeed, and want to hear about your success - and you need to take the action to implement to make that happen!
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In this strategy, I will introduce points along the way. They all add up to the overall strategy. You will need to combine them all together, that is the best way to make this work. If you choose to take just a few points from a few sections, I'm sure that can benefit you and how you work with forums. However, only if you take all the points and pull them together will you get the main benefit. I have forums where my sales conversion rates (not open rates, actual conversion rates) are in the upper 20 to upper 30 percent ranges. Yes, I had one campaign I ran with a forum where I had a 38% conversion rate! This works because I have combined all these concepts together into the overall strategy. Once you have read through this entire plan, you will see how these concepts all work together in a synergy that is quite unique and will lead you to your success. So please, use all of them, put the whole thing together, and you will shine!

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Introduction:

First and foremost you need to understand I am not someone who considers himself an Internet Marketer. I am a business coach first; I help people to start, plan, and grow their companies. My clients come from a very wide variety of careers, from people opening restaurants, to working online, to cleaning services. I love working with people, and coaching them through the challenges or business. I think the problems our society has will be solved by entrepreneurs. It is the business owner, the risk taker, and the person willing to create their own path who will lead us all out of the chaos we are currently working through. So, you might wonder, how does any of that lead to forums? It's a fun story, so please let me share with you how this all took place. You will notice that, by the end here, I am sharing everything with you here. The actual site I use, my actual niche, my actual URL, everything. This isnt a theoretical case study, these are my inner details. No, I'm not worried you are going to copy me; I own page one on Google for my term (also without spending a penny on any Google ads). I have turned this into a six figure business, I rank number one on Google, I have only organic traffic, no paid advertising anywhere, all using forums - and without me counting on my own forum signatures in any forum! Fun stuff! All right, let's get back to the story
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I love movies. I mean, really love movies. As a recovering work-a-holic, movies are my escape. I don't watch TV; I read books and I watch movies. That means I have a killer home theater. And when I say home theater, I mean REAL home theater. Massive screen 10 feet wide, awesome 3D projector, theater seats on risers, speakers and subwoofers all over, the real deal. Now home theater is not a cheap hobby, projectors are not cheap, screens are not cheap, building the room is not cheap. So I started searching for a way to pay for my hobby without pulling any money out of the 'regular' family budget. I had helped others build home theaters, and so I decided to write a book all about designing and building a dedicated home theater. As I was writing the book grew and grew. It is now massive, over 500 pages, and has over 800 images; the site has audio interviews and even some excellent videos for home theater fans. While writing it, during my research, it was natural for me to go to the home theater forums. There is one where I tend to hang out the most, and so I started there. As I was researching the thought came to my mind that I can find a way to use the forums for much more than simple market research. And, that was the start of my strategy. I have since done something pretty unique, I think, in how I work with forums - and I look forward to discussing everything with you here.
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Over the years, this project has more than paid for my home theater hobby, it has become a great source of income. The site, started in 2006, has now grown into a six figure site for me (and the four figure days are always fun), although it wasn't always that way for me. Years ago, I was running a big 'real' company in the IT/Network security world, I had employees all over the US, and business partners in over 40 countries. That company crashed, due to how I had designed the company and decisions I had made. And that crash cost me almost everything, my house, my income, my wife's income, and more - all gone. I call it my 'Total Crash' and I talk about it lots with my business coaching clients. That crash shaped much of my current success. During that time, the revenue I was generating from my home theater project supported my entire family. Without this home theater project, I would have had to move my family and my children back into the basement of my parents. So this strategy is what carried my family, all six of us, this is the real deal. This is not theory, it is exactly what my entire family counted on for every dollar of income. Fast forward to today, and there is great joy for me in knowing how I put all of this together, and I look forward to sharing all the details of how I made that come true with you here!

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Remember, this is a complete strategy. There are lots of parts, and there is real work for you to follow if you are going to use this strategy. This is not an overnight success plan, this is not some push-button system. This is an actual plan you can follow. To succeed, you will need to act. You will need to follow the strategy, and implement each piece. Together this is very powerful and can provide you with great opportunity. Let's Get Started! - Warren

PS - I know some folks ask, if this works, why are you selling it? Why not keep it a secret? That is a fair question. My career is not IM, teaching others about this will not harm my business in any way, and at the same time is a way I can help others to succeed. My calling in life is that - to help others. I hope that as many people as possible take this method and use it! Also, if you happen to enter the same niche as me, then we can partner and collaborate on projects in the future. The Internet is a big place!

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The Business of Relationships

As you read through this strategy, you will see that I built this around the use of forums. While I love using forums, it is very important that you realize this strategy is not tied to forums. The key to building a solid business today is all about your relationships. You need relationships leaders of whatever niche you are interested in working with. You need relationships with customers. We no longer live in an era where a business can top-down dictate to customers a message and force them to accept it. Today, customers are smart. They want to be respected. They want to be listened to, and they want to be understood. With these relationships in place, you will have a solid and strong business foundation. Your business, if built following this strategy, will not be impacted by the next change Google's algorithm. So when you are reading through this strategy, keep the business of relationships in mind. You can use these ideas and this strategy to build strong and real business relationships in any niche you desire.

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How I "Found" My Niche

In the introduction, I mentioned that I simply wanted to find a way to pay for my home theater hobby. At the very start I needed about $10,000 total for new equipment. That was literally my entire starting purpose, to generate enough money to pay for my toys! Not the most noble, I understand, but it is the truth of where I was starting from for this specific project. Please note: While I am showing you and talking with you about my exact niche and plan, which is all home theater related, this is by no means a limited strategy to that niche. The strategy actually has nothing to do with the niche. I have simply made the decision to reveal the actual inner details to you instead of a vague 'generic' niche, or a totally fictitious niche. For you, as this entire strategy is based on using forums, I would say that when you are looking for your niche, you need the following criteria in the niche: Your target niche must have at least 5 active forums. (the size isn't too critical, but I would suggest at least over 12K members in each forum) The members must be passionate and stay involved. (In other words, not like a forum where people come to ask one or two specific questions and then never return) You must be able to identify the active participants in each forum. (Some forums do not show post counters, rare but does happen) You must be able to identify the owners of the forums. (this might take some work, but is important for each forum)
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Two other parts of a forum that you need to check out are much more subjective. You need to learn what sort of culture the forum has and you need to learn what sort of activity the forum has. The activity side is easier to figure out. Are there people involved and posting? Do the posts look 'real', meaning not just spamming or robots posting random comments to add to post counts and get signature views. You should be looking for an active and real member base. The culture side is subjective, and is based on what you will need out of each forum. I like to look for people who respect one another, people who consider other ideas, people who are actually communicating with one another. I look for people posting real questions and comments and real replies. Essentially you want to figure out which forums are filled with spam, robots, and pointless conversations. You need to avoid those forums, they will not be the right place for this strategy, even if they have high user/member counts. This criteria list may already be the case for your niche, as that isn't a very high bar to work with, but that would be the bare minimum that I would suggest. If you can find a few more forums, even better. If you can find only 3 or 4, it can still work, but you need to really execute this strategy well with those three or four. Lastly, I would avoid the 'corporate' forums, or the forums that are part of a bigger site. For example, I mentioned that my niche is home theater. There are several Home Theater magazines, and on their various websites, they have forums, facebook pages, and other places for home theater discussions.
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Those forums are not ones I have targeted. I know that all decisions are corporate, and anything that does not fit into the existing and known business model for them is not something they will consider. While I am the kind of person who does not say 'don't try', I am hoping you take this strategy and implement it for yourself. That means follow the path of least resistance. I have avoided those forums on purpose, you want forums where you can develop a personal relationship, and that is very hard when it is you on one side and a corporate decision maker on the other. Not impossible, just hard. If you want to target the corporate forums, I would suggest that you do that only after you have implemented this strategy, and have a full understanding of how you can best integrate with the corporate forum.

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Upfront Costs

Most people want to know, "How much will this cost to implement?" For me, this was critical. I had nothing to work with when I started out. I promised my wife that I would not spend any money so I had to figure out how to do this on a true shoestring. My costs when I started were the domain name and hosting (both which were through GoDaddy), and a bit later Aweber for email list management (I didn't even have a list for the first two years!) I started out with basic PayPal for payments, and eventually moved to 1Shoppingcart.com and Authorize.net for payments. Even later, I added on WishListMember and made the site into a membership site, which made things lots easier to manage. I'll mention the technology later on in this document as well. However, I only added those items on (like the shopping cart, WishListMember and a WordPress theme), when the site was already earning money and the costs came from the revenue, not my pocket. So my upfront costs were literally the domain name and hosting. Only over time did I add the other features. If I were starting today, I would start with the membership site as it is a better end product for the customer, but the costs would still be very minimal. I had zero budget for advertising, and I do not spend money on advertising, banners, PPC, or elsewhere. To this day, I still am all over page one of Google for my main search term. I don't plan on ever spending any money advertising.

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Study The Forums

Let's get to the forums, and start to discuss what I did at each forum. This is where you can start making your gold! For me, my specific subject was Designing and Building a Dedicated Home Theater. (That is a very very small niche, and, as mentioned, this will work with any niche, I'm using my own to give you a very real example.) As I was researching and planning my book, I was ready to start creating my outline. (If you already have a book, a product, or a service, you need to map it out to an outline or content.) This outline is the key starting point. For those without a product, this following section is critical for you. This will help you to create your product. Your product must align with the forums - that is a key point. For those who do already have a product, use this section to make sure you have the right product, that you have one that will sell. This means that whatever you have already needs to be one that works with the forums, as described in this overall strategy. There is a very real possibility that if you already have a product, it may not be aligned in any way to your target forums. So be aware of that. If you do have knowledge of your niche, your product will most likely only need some repackaging or editing to align, but you do have to make sure your product aligns with the forums.
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Your Product

The following section is how you can create a product that your future customer base will purchase. I almost never agree with the strategy of making a product first and then finding a market to buy your product. When my coaching clients come to me and start with their product first, I always stop them. Do not start with any product details. It is ok if you have an idea about what the product might be, but don't start filling in any of those details now - that is a mistake. Find the market first, and then make the product the market wants to buy. If you do this, once you 'announce' your product for sale, it will sell, as you are solving a problem the market has told you needs solving. This section alone is something that could be expanded upon into a full training program, however for you I have cut this right to the core concepts. You can take this and create an excellent product, one that will sell on Day One. Take this to heart, this is a key point... You will study the forums for the common problems, the common questions that are asked over and over, and the common answers that are provided by the posters. Those common questions become the sections of your product. This is solid product creation here, just adding the forum twist. Find out what your future customer is struggling with and create the product around those struggles.
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Repeat this at each forum you have targeted. Do not just focus on one forum for the creation of your outline. Forums have a tendency to lean in certain directions, with expertise towards one subject or set of subjects, even if the main focus is the same. So one forum may end up heavy on discussion of one part of your outline, while another has a heavy influence in a different area. For me, one forum had a strong learning towards learning how to measure the acoustics of a room, and that leaning was missing in other forums. But acoustics is important to all who build a home theater. So, you need to study all your identified forums. This difference in subjects between forums is good, ideal even, as you can use the variance between forums to your advantage later. You want to identify the strength of each unique forum. By doing this, when you are done and announce your product, you will have success with it on Day One. People will buy it the moment you list it for sale. This really is a key point. Don't skip it!

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Map Your Outline To Each Forum

For your next step, you will map out your research of each forum to your outline. Specifically, you need to consider each part of your outline and figure out which forum, and then which subsection of which forum, is the best aligned with that topic. Imagine the outline of your book then (I'm just sticking with book as the example, this would work exactly the same with videos, courses, etc) with a specific forum and subforum noted for each part of the outline. You can think of this as if you are back in school making an outline and creating a book reference for each section. You are doing the same thing here only you are making a forum and/or subforum reference for each section of your outline. Before moving on here, it is helpful for this overall strategy for you to join and create an account at all of these forums. It isn't absolutely required, as I have a few forums that earn me money where I don't even have an active account with lots of posts! (So no, this is not based on slipping a link in your signature and hoping folks see that and click - just to get that out of the way) However, it is easier (and the goal here is to make this strategy as straightforward to implement as possible) if you have an account at all the forums, and at least some basic posting. If this is a niche you enjoy, you can at the very least spend a few days joining the conversation at each forum.
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Also note that we will be using Private Messages in a very strategic way later on in this strategy, and there are many forums who have post count requirements before the PM feature is available. You want to become part of these communities, so it is easier and recommended that you become members at the forums you have targeted. So while it is not 100% required, it is helpful if you do join and participate at the forums you have identified. Since it will make this easier, just go ahead and do that!

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Identify the Key Players

This part will take some time, but it is fun! This is where you get to hang out in the forums and learn who people really are. Note: Don't forget you are working here. Be sure to keep track of your time and stay focused on why you are spending time in each forum. It is very easy to get pulled into time-wasting conversations. That is not your role here, you are working! There are three parts to this section. One is to identify the key posters in each forum, two is to identify the owners of each forum, and three is to identify the industry experts who hang out in each forum.

The Key Posters

It will be faster to find the key posters in each forum, so we'll start there. Although post count is helpful, you cannot go simply by post count. Someone who has a high post count might be posting one-word or short "I like it" types of replies. There may be a new member who is actually more influential or more respected than an 'old' member who simply has a high post count. That being said, the post count is likely where you will start. Look for the posters in each forum and subforum (again as they are mapped to your outline), and make a note of them.

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Study the forums and find out which posters are really spending time with solid replies and the posters who are taken seriously when they do reply. Identify the posters who are contributing real information when people ask questions. You might find that there are some very influential posters in the forum with a low post count, but whose replies are taken like gold when they are given. You need to identify who these people are. You do that by reading the threads, posts, and replies. And then see how people react and respond to various replies. You can learn this pretty quickly actually, just look at it from your business viewpoint. Right now you are looking for posters who are respected. You are not looking to analyze the content of their posts, you are not looking to see if you agree or disagree with anything they are discussing. You are looking for the people who get respect when they post. One thing to note with those sorts of posters, if their posts really are very few and the time between them posting is great, they might not end up working out for you. Still note them, just keep in mind if they are at the forum too infrequently, that might not work. And yes, this part is subjective however you need to identify the posters who just seem 'friendly' and seem like they genuinely want to help out others. This is your opinion, there is no exact metric or formula I can give you here. After you have identified who these posters are, write down their forum names, post counts, etc.. Create a small spreadsheet with this information so it is easy for you to reference and to find each poster later with a single click.
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Map The Posters

What you are going to do next is to map the individual posters you have identified to your outline. You need to pick two or three posters for each of your topics in your outline. You will find that posters tend to hang out in areas of forums. Rarely is there a poster who bounces around all over every area of a forum. Posters get comfortable with areas and topics. And it makes sense, you are looking for people who have an area of influence, not general posting everywhere about everything. The goal here is that you have your outline now mapped with each of your main topics to a forum and subforum, and then further mapped to two or three individual posters for that topic. For me, I had a list of who knew about home theater construction, who knew about acoustics, who knew about sound proofing, etc You will do the same for your own niche, whatever it might be. You are not yet contacting these posters, you are only doing your work now to identify who they are and what they post about. And, second, you are mapping the names and topics to your outline.

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The Forum Owners

After you have identified the key posters for each topic of your outline, you need to switch to identifying the owners of the forums. This might take a bit more digging, as sometimes the owners are not very frequent posters, and they might not simply list 'owner' in their forum tag anywhere. Usually you can find the moderators and/or the main administrator of the forum pretty easily, so if you can find that person, you can then use that contact to find the owner. Likewise, most forums will have a contact page visible. Now, that contact page might say that it is for advertising inquiries, to receive ad pricing or a media guide to advertising. That is ok, you can still use that contact to inquire about the owner. If you are using a contact form, email, or asking a moderator/administrator about the owner, I would suggest formatting your question in the form like I did: "Hello, my name is Warren and I am doing some research about a project for people who want to design and build dedicated home theaters. I'm sure the owner here has a very unique perspective on this, and I was wondering if you could please put me in touch with him or her so we could discuss this together." Of course I am sure you can figure out that you swap my name for yours, and my subject with yours.

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Now, before you go hunting for contact forms and use them because it might be easier, please know that I would prefer you not use them, and instead spend time on the forum determining who the owner is. You'll never know for sure if that contact form gets to the owner. It may be that the lead moderator or administrator decides it isn't worth it to forward any message that is not advertising related. (I do not suggest you say you are interested in advertising, and then switch subjects. I would never do that and would not respect someone who did that to me.) So if you can, find the owner through their posts, through others talking about the owner, etc You might even be able to find them from a Google search. "forum name owner". Once you are sure you know who the owner is, then go ahead and make direct contact with the owner. In one of my forums, the owner was Mr.G (I didn't contact him to ask if I can use his name, so will be generic here), so I will show you the exact message I sent him. (This is where the next level of this strategy should start to become clear to you.) "Hi Mr.G , my name is Warren Peterson, and I'm new to your forum here. This is clearly the best home theater forum out there, and I wanted to share with you a project I am working on. I see there is a massive need for people to learn how to properly design and build dedicated home theaters. I'm working on creating that resource right now and was wondering if I could ask you for something related.

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While I am writing the main content, I am looking for someone who is highly respected in this industry to write the Introduction. It would only need to be about a page or two, and about your thoughts on the industry itself, how it has changed and evolved, and what you think the future of home theater has coming. Of course your name and the forum name will be listed prominently. I look forward to your reply and going over the details with you." Now, this email to Mr.G was very strategic. The forum he owned was, and is, the single largest home theater forum online. What I want you to do is determine the owner of the largest forum in your niche. That is the person you are going to work with and ask to write your introduction, so be kind, respectful, and patient. What you are doing is building a real relationship and level of respect to the forum owner. I then repeated that same email to the owner of the second largest forum and asked him if he would write the Forward to the book. For you, do the same. After locating the owner of the second largest forum, ask him or her to write your Forward. If, for any reason, one of them back out or are not interested, then simply move on to the owner of the third largest forum, then fourth, and so on. So I now had the owner of the largest home theater forum and the owner of the second largest home theater forum writing the Introduction and Forward to my book.

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Understand that these folks will almost assuredly never have been contacted for something like this. They are only asked for product, reviews, discounts, advertising, or being asked to advertise. Respect these owners, respect their time, and respect their influence. Let them shine about their industry; it might be the first time in a long time someone (you) just honestly wants to hear their insight, and they will be happy to share this with you.

I mentioned in the open of this project that you please not contact the ownership of Warrior Forum. Please respect that request.

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The Industry Experts

The last group of people you need to identify are the industry experts who hang out in each forum. This may take a bit more time, but is very important to the overall strategy. In almost all forums there are a few people who are considered industry experts by the other posters. That is the key - to identify who the other posters in the forum view as experts. You can identify the experts based on how they reply to posts, the sorts of information they provide, and through their signature lines and profile information. Professionals will have signature lines and profiles that lead back to their companies. If you can, find experts who are Owners/Founders/Presidents of their companies. This will help later in your marketing and provide you with instant credibility. You may or may not personally agree with the people that are called experts by the forum, but that doesn't matter. You need to set aside your own concept of expert, and go with whatever the forum 'thinks'. Ideally, you should identify at least one expert person at every forum. If possible, identify the most at the largest forum, second most at the second largest forum, and so on. After you figure out who the experts are, map them out by their own areas of subject matter expertise. For now it is ok if you have one or two experts who overlap subjects with one another.

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Create this map so that you have the ability to list out the experts by their subjects and associate them with the topics/sections of your outline. At this time, you should not contact anyone in this group, simply pull together the data to use at a later time. This is an important group to the strategy. Can you start to see how some of these pieces are going to come together for you? Pretty fun, huh?!

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Contacting Posters

Your next step, in this process, will be to contact the posters. However, you do have just a bit more work to do before you make the contacts. You do need to spend some time on your content now, on your overall project. When you start contacting posters, you will need to be referencing your work, as you'll see in a moment, so spend some time now on your content and then come back here. What you specifically need to have is a set of questions for each topic and subtopic of your book, however they are defined in your outline. The questions are pretty much the same, so you don't need to worry about creating questions, just word them so that they go along with whatever your topics are. Once you have this set of questions ready, then you go to your spreadsheet that mapped forum posters to topics and prepare to contact the posters. The reason you did not contact the posters earlier was that you are going to name-drop that you are already working with the forum owner. You need that relationship established first, it lends immediate credibility to your project. Of course, make sure you keep track of which forum the poster belongs to, and reference the owner of that forum during your contact. The method of contact is simply Private Messages. Private Messages are read with nearly a 100% open rate. Do not abuse this and do not about the trust implied with Private Messages.
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You are contacting these people specifically to ask them a specific question, do not simply spam. Do not spam out requests asking for reviews, testimonials, etc there is a level of trust assumed with Private Messages, cross that line and you have ruined your reputation and potentially ruined this strategy. Again, use the Private Message functions with trust and respect for the person you are contacting. Do not spam and do not abuse the system. Here is exactly what I sent to a handful of posters (again I didn't ask for permission to use names in this document, so I am using a generic 'Bob' for the actual person): Subject: Requesting Your Advice Content: "Hi Bob, my name is Warren Peterson and I am writing a book about Designing and Building Dedicated Home Theaters. I have spoken to Mr.G and he is going to be writing the Introduction, so I'm obviously happy to have the owner of (forum name here) participating. The specific reason I am sending you this is that I'm still doing some research right now on the area of soundproofing and acoustics. I've noticed from your posts that you obviously have a lot of knowledge in this area and have a respected opinion by the forum. I was wondering if you could answer the following two questions for me (no rush, anytime you can get back would be wonderful): 1) What are the most common problems guys have with soundproofing and acoustics in their home theaters? 2) If there was just one thing that you would wish everyone did in their theaters to get soundproofing and acoustics right, what would that be?
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Thank you for your time in reading this, and I look forward to your reply. Sincerely, Warren PS - Would you like me to list your help here in the Credits Section of the book, or do you prefer to remain anonymous?" As you should be able to tell, this PM is very powerful. First, it associates you with the owner of the forum. Second, it shows the owner is willing to help you out. Third, it acknowledges their expertise on the subject and shows you have paid attention to what they know about. Fourth, it shows respect to them that you are asking them. Fifth, it plays into their ego (in a positive manner) with the PS line about them being in the credits of a book. I simply repeated this exact PM to all the other posters I had in my spreadsheet, making sure that I changed the topic to whatever it was that they are knowledgeable about. I hope that you are paying attention here, as these are the real gold nuggets! Not only are you on your way to forum gold, but you are also getting the information you need to make an incredibly awesome product. You have peer-research on every one of your topics, giving you the answers to the most common questions about each area! This alone can make your product into one that people will want to buy the minute you have it for sale, so I sure hope you realize what is here!
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Now, this is getting real good.

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Finish the Book

OK, now I'm calling this section, "Finish the Book" because again it is based on my own exact strategy. Make it a course, a series, a subscription site, whatever you prefer, the process is the same. This is the part where you finish the product you are going to sell. (Notice that we did not start with a product - that is a major mistake of business owners. Start with the market, not the product.) So use all the data you have been given, the real gold that the key posters of all the forums have given you. Now finish the book! Do not get distracted by anything right now, you simply have to do the work and get this done. If you plan on having something to sell, you better make it a priority to actually have a product to sell! If you are following this strategy as I have provided it, you are using an outline, and you have been given great content from your conversations with the key posters of each forum. Take the information you have been given by each forum, and write that. You will have to do work here, there is no way around that. As mentioned, this is real. There is no actual shortcut. Do your work, and create your product now. You know what each forum wants to learn. You know what the questions are. You have been given great answers from the key people in each section of your outline. Use that information, and make a great product!
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Important! In the front of the book, be sure that you have prominently listed all the people who helped you. List the forum owners, the experts, and absolutely list the key forum posters. Be sure that their forum names (NOT their real names) should be easily visible to all who read your book. OK, so I will now make the assumption that your book (course, series, videos, etc ) is all done and is awesome. Congratulations! So, what next? Great question. Here is what I want you to do now.

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Prepare Your Website and Backend

I have a slightly more complex system in use now, which I will describe in a moment, but I want you to know the same exact strategy I used to start - in addition to what I have in place now. You need a home base, a place where your product is going to be listed for sale, and where you can start to build your own prospect list. Years ago, I started with a basic single-page coded in HTML, so that won't really apply today. Today, I recommend using a basic website with WordPress (my site is currently running WordPress). You can find custom themes to change the WordPress look and feel from lots of places. (The two places I have bought most themes from are Theme Forest and Elegant Themes.) If you have zero ability to work with WordPress or don't want to, then it would be a smart move to outsource that work. You can find people who will install WordPress and customize a theme for you at places like Fiverr. The next step is an email opt-in form. This was a mistake I made early on: I only started selling the book, I was not collecting names of visitors and building my list. I highly recommend you start building your list from day one. I used, and still use, Aweber as my email capture system. I first created a simple report, "Top 10 Mistakes in Setting Up a Home Theater". The 'Top 10' style report still works fine today, so if you have no other ideas, create a Top 10 Special Report.

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I ended up doing some testing with my opt-in and over time changed to giving away the first 50 pages of the book as my opt-in. That massively increased the people signing up. I then changed from having only an opt-in form on the side of the page to using a hover opt-in form that shows up 10 seconds after a visitor hits the page. The hover form has been very successful. I have it setup to only show once per day. I use the phrase "Complimentary Download" on the hover form, and that increased opt-ins as well. Make sure your opt-in is real value, people don't want junk and I suggest using a hover form for the opt-in. For me making all the changes from a static opt-in form on the side of the page to the hover form using the phrase "Complimentary Download" increased my opt-in rate from a few a week to hundreds. Don't forget to setup a sequence for the people who do opt-in. Have a planned sequence of emails to those visitors, so the lead doesn't go cold. Since I am sending the first 50 pages free as my opt-in, I send a follow-up 2 days later thanking them again for the download, have some basic sales info, and links back to my site. I do the same 3 days after that (different actual language, but same point). Pretty standard sequence, just make sure you don't forget to have an actual sequence there. It isn't enough to simply capture the email addresses, you need to them build a relationship and trust. Plan out what you want to say, the order of what you want to say, and the timing of what you want to say and then go ahead and build those emails into the autoresponder.

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After your website is installed and customized, and you have an email opt-in form working, you need to associate the site to a payment solution and delivery means. For me, this was a basic website (it was a single page HTML doc) so payment was a single PayPal button. After someone bought my book, the Thank You page was a disguised URL that had the download link on it. Yes, people can share that link. However, the jerks who are going to steal from you are not your customers, and if you are just wanting to get started, using a disguised URL for the Thank You page is fine. An example would be: www.YourURL.com/Temp13/ae3dasfe/thanks On that page you create some nice thank you language, and you include your download link. You now have the website, email opt-in form, payment solution, and download page setup. This is a simple solution, however it is one that you can use to get started right away. As your site evolves, and as you grow, your systems will evolve and grow. What I am using now has many more parts that where I started out. I now have my site setup as a Membership site. When customers buy, they come back to the site and login to access their various downloads. I've expanded to audio and video downloads to go along with the book. Using a Membership site has many advantages. People can create their own usernames and passwords, if they forget a password, there is an automated recovery system, and most importantly I can create new levels of access at different price points for different content.
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You should plan for an evolution and for growth of your company. Starting with the basics is just fine though, don't worry about adding on anything extra until your business is ready for it. For reference, here is my system in use today: (I have no links listed here, no affiliate links, etc... If you are interested, one Google search for each of these names will bring you right to each resource. This is an information document, not a hidden sales doc!) Domain name and standard hosting at GoDaddy. Website is WordPress using a theme from Theme Forest. Video and Audio interviews are integrated using JW Player. Membership software is Wish List Member. Email opt-in service is Aweber. Payment system is still PayPal. Affiliate program is managed through 1Shoppingcart.com.

For those of you who have been in the IM world for a while, you may see that I have a few too many individual pieces here, and should 'upgrade' to something more efficient and integrated. I agree. I simply have not made that move yet. Note: I realize I listed a lot of 'stuff' in this section here. My intention is to provide you with the exact names of everything I used and to let you know how I started and what I evolved to today. If you have questions about using these technologies, you will need to look outside of this document.
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Audio Interviews

All right, we're getting close to ready to go live, just a few more pieces to put into place. This next part of the strategy is designed to really build the relationship between you and key players in the forums. Recall that earlier I had you create a list of experts at each forum. The time is now to come back to those experts. What you are going to do now is make simple audio interviews with the experts. You will use these audio interviews as part of the 'free' content you are giving away on your website, as traffic generators, and as instant credibility for your entire project. So determine the subject/topic you want to interview each expert about and then send them a Private Message. You can also email them, as they will likely have public information or contact forms, however I have found the PM to work with nearly a 100% response rate. When you send the PM, you need to introduce yourself, very briefly describe your project, mention who else is involved, and ask them if they would like to be interviewed. With the experts, you can expect that you will have a few PMs to exchange all the details, so there is no reason to try to fit everything in the first message. That would be overwhelming for them to receive anyway, so don't try it. Message one is the high-level basics. If they have any interest at all, then in your follow-up you can add more information and details. Message three usually then gets into scheduling the interview time.

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Here are the messages that I have used: "Hi Mr. W. My name is Warren Peterson, and I am writing a book about Designing and Building a Dedicated Home Theater. During my research I have been spending lots of time here on the forum and have notice you are an expert in Acoustics. I'm currently working with a handful of other forum members, even Mr. G (put the forum owner's name here - the expert should know this name), and was hoping I could take a few minutes of your time to interview you about Acoustics. This is a complex subject, as you know well, and I'm positive that the folks who read my book would love to hear what you have to say. I would, of course, be happy to promote your company during the interview and it would be made available to everyone who visits my site. Please let me know if you have some interest in this and I will send you more details about how it would work. Thanks for your time, and I'll be watching for your reply. Sincerely, Warren"

Now I have to tell you that I have used this exact script and have had all messages returned, every single one. Niche experts generally love to talk about their subject, and you are giving them a platform to discuss that which they love!

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When I do get the reply that they are interested and want to learn more, this is what I send to them as the second message. "Hi Mr. W, Thanks for your interest, I'm glad you are wanting to know more. Here is how the interview will work. Overall it will take around 20-30 minutes of time, maybe more if we are having a great time talking. It will be an audio interview, that I will record on my end. I'll ask you some fundamental questions about Acoustics, best practices, tips, suggestions, techniques, things to watch out for, common mistakes you see made, etc nothing that would be difficult. These are the questions that everyone just wanting to learn about Acoustics would want to know. I will introduce you with your title and company information, website, etc and at the end of the interview will again repeat your company information, website, and any other contact information you would like listeners to know. I'll call you at a time that works for you from Skype. If you are on Skype, please let me know your Skype name, mine is XYZABC. If you're not on Skype, I'll call whatever phone number you wish. I can make this work to whatever is best in your schedule. Please get back to me with your ideal time for our call, and best number for me to call (or your Skype name), and we'll get this on the schedule! Thanks again, and I look forward to talking with you soon.
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Sincerely, Warren"

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With this message, I have had two people back out. Once they realized that this was an audio interview, these two didn't want to be involved. They didn't like their voices and didn't want to be recorded. If there is an expert whose 'name' is one you can really use, but is a person who does not want to be recorded, you can always create a transcript and post a document version of the interview. Don't push these folks. They are helping you, in a big way, and you want them to enjoy the overall process. If there is someone who decides they don't want to be involved, respect that and move on.

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The Interview

You might be thinking that you are not able to do an audio interview with an industry expert. Well you are! People will be listening for the expert, not you. Unless you want to brand yourself as part of the process, you should be there only to allow the expert to talk and to keep moving from one point to another. All you need to do is introduce yourself at the start of the interview, mention your own book/site and then introduce the expert. Be sure to get his or her company name up front, who they are (owner or founder always sounds good), and how to reach them. Then, let their expertise carry the interview. You are doing this as a free resource on your website. No one who visits is coming there to expect high-end professionally produced audio products. (Unless, of course, your niche is high-end audio work!) Your visitors are there to learn, to solve a problem. Getting a chance to listen to industry experts is a real benefit to them - keep that in mind. Visitors want to hear the experts!

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For the questions themselves, some experts might want to see the list ahead of time, and that is ok. You want their total cooperation, and you are not trying to 'catch' them on anything. This is a fun interview. I personally always send the question list ahead of time. When I do, I ask the expert this: "Here is the question list I have for our interview. If you see a subject that I missed, or some questions seem out of order, feel free to let me know and we'll adjust based on your feedback. Talk to you Thursday at Noon. This will be fun! Thanks, Warren" My question set is pretty much the same for each expert. Of course this is modified for each specific subject area, but the basic question set is very similar. I ask the expert to introduce themselves and talk about how he or she got involved in the industry. I ask about some definitional topics (there are lots of terms and acronyms in the home theater industry, so I ask them to simply explain what those are). I ask about their common tips, suggestions, techniques, and best practices about the topic. I ask amount some things people should watch for when doing this on their own, and ask about some common mistakes that people make. Obviously that question set is geared towards a more technical and DIY type of audience, so you will need to modify that question set for your own audience. Just take some time and think about what you would like to ask this expert if you were sitting at lunch together.

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The interviews themselves should be free, part of the content drivers to your website. This means you need to have a page/section on your website where the interviews can be easily found. You are going to be promoting these interviews, so they should be prominent on your site. And, now that you have your email opt-in running, whenever you create and add a new interview, be sure to email your list so readers know there is a real reason for them to return.

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The Technology

On the technology side, I use a standard inexpensive setup. I have a basic Logitech headset with microphone bought from Amazon, cost was around $50 total. Not the greatest quality, but works for what I need it to do. I use Skype for all the calls. Many people are on Skype now and you can call directly from Skype to Skype. You can add some calling credits to call cell phone or landline phone numbers as well. The reason I use Skype is because I use a program called Pamela to record the conversations. So my audio recording setup is simple as well, I use the following items: Skype for making the calls. Pamela for recording the calls. Basic Logitech headset with microphone. After I start the call with the expert we chat for a few minutes. I explain what we are going to do (just as a reminder, they should know this from your messages). I ask them exactly how they want me to introduce them, title to use, exact pronunciation of their name, how they want their company to be mentioned, and the contact information they would like me to use. Then, I ask them if they are ready, and when they are, then I hit record and start the interview. I go through my question list and wrap up at the end with the expert's information again. We say our good-byes to each other, and I end the recording.

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Pamela saves the file as an MP3. You could upload that file directly to your website if you wanted. Visitors could click a link to download and play the file on their computer. For me, I am using the JWPlayer plug-in with my Wordpress site. So, when people click the Audio Interviews page, they can play the interviews directly on the website. I have the site setup so that any visitors can click and play any interview, but only those who have bought the book have access to download the actual MP3 files. This way visitors get the benefit of listening to the interviews, and customers get the benefit of having the MP3 to play wherever and whenever they want.

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Time to Make It Live

Well the time has come, you are now ready to go live with everything. Now we need to bring all these various pieces together, and turn your business on. The strategy now comes to life! First, let's review all the various pieces, as there are lots of them and they are all interconnected. 1. You have an awesome product, one that you know your target market will want to buy, as it is based on the market feedback and not your idea of what they will want. 2. You have a relationship with the owners of the leading forums in your chosen niche. 3. You have a relationship with industry experts in your chosen niche. 4. You have a relationship with the key posters in the leading forums of your chosen niche. 5. You have a few audio interviews with the experts of your niche. 6. You have a website that sells your product and hosts your audio interviews. 7. You have a payment system in place for your product's sales. 8. You have an email opt-in system in place to capture email address when visitors come to your website. 9. You have a targeted report to use as a reason for your visitors to give you their email address.
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So, you have all this in place. Now you need to use the power of all those relationships to your advantage. Remember, you have to respect all the people you are working with - if you start to abuse the relationship it will backfire. This part is just like real life in the offline world. Relationships are the real power, everywhere, and if you abuse or show lack of respect you can (and should) expect that you will not have success. It is because of your relationships with all these people that you will not be counting on your own signature lines in your posts to drive traffic and sales.

By the way, this should be obvious, but you need to give everyone who participated a free copy of your book. Give them the book and ask them to recommend others that they think would benefit from it. When you contact that other person, let them know this was a personal recommendation from XYZ and that you would love to get a review/testimonial from them when they are done with the book.

You will start by contacting the forum owners and letting them know your book is live and available. You will ask them if they would enjoy letting their forum readers know about how they wrote the introduction/forward/etc and where they can find more information. Most forums have the ability for the administrators to post an announcement and this would be a great announcement.
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After you contact the owners, you contact the experts. Let them know the book is live and where their interview is located. Ask them to share with their own readers (they may offer - and you can ask - them to send an email about the interview to their own list) about their interview. Let them know it is ok to mention the interview on the forum, and even say to them not to talk about buying the book anywhere, only focus on the interview. Follow this same point with the forum posters. Let them know that the book is live. Let them know that they can mention their involvement. Be sure everyone knows where their name is located in the credits and acknowledgments of your book. People love to see their name, so use that to your advantage. They helped you out lots, pay them back! For the forums that do allow links in signature lines, go ahead and put your link. Also, you can recommend to all the key posters that they do the same. However, the signature links are not what you are counting on - after all those can be turned off. What you are counting on are all the relationships you have created. All these people will have a desire to help out and will naturally suggest to people your book as the solution to problems. Between the owner, experts, and all the key posters, you will start to get a wave of recommendations from everyone who matters in your niche - and they will all be recommending your product! You have created an entire network of all of the people who post, comment, own, and lead, your chosen niche. And that network will recommend your product when people are asking questions on the forums.
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If you have followed the steps outlined in this document, you have the leading and most respected posters at multiple forums who will be recommending your work. You will have the owners of the largest forums in your niche recommending your work. And, you will have multiple experts in your niche recommending your work, both on the forums and to their own lists. You couldn't buy this kind of recommendation network with cash even if you wanted to! The effect here is exponential. It is not overnight. As mentioned back at the start of this, I said this is not an overnight, get rich quick, push button, etc. strategy. This is a real business, and this exponential phase is one of the very fun parts of the business.

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Sticky Threads

On the forums, create a sticky thread (the forum owner or moderator will need to create the thread as a sticky - meaning it will always be at the top of the forum list) where information about your book will be found. This way you can have the actual sales and product information on the forum itself, so you don't have to rely on a click away from the forum (and the lost traffic that comes every time you ask people to click from one site to another). Any ads that run on the forum now lead to the sticky thread on the forum, and not to your website. This is a new way of advertising/linking for the forums, where they are promoting a thread on their own forum instead of sending traffic to another website. When you start discussing marketing and promotion, use this idea to your advantage. Remind the owner that you are adding value, and that by using the sticky thread for information about you are keeping members on their forum.

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Welcome Messages

For virtually all forums, there is a welcome message sent to all new members. You should ask the owner if he or she will be willing to add a small line to the welcome message that all new members receive. What I have done is to have a PS line added to the new members welcome message. That PS line looks like this: PS - While learning all our forum has to offer, we recommend you check out the Sticky Thread here that will help you Design and Build a Dedicated Home Theater. Lots of forum members and industry experts helped with this project, and when you're ready to build your home theater, this should be your go-to resource.

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First Growth Step

You now have an operational business, with organic traffic coming to your site from all your relationships. You should start to generate revenue (please refer to the Earnings Disclaimer at the start of this strategy document for amount of revenue!) immediately without any additional work from you - although I do suggest you keep adding interviews every now and then (keep increasing value). However, you are now ready to make the first growth step beyond the system that you have in place. And that first step is going to be the addition of an affiliate program for your book. You are going to add an affiliate program and this is where you can really start to see your key relationships pay off. (For me, I am using 1ShoppingCart to manage the affiliate program, but there are lots of other choices out there. Find one that fits your budget, has two levels of tracking, and go with that.) You are going to work with each owner to try and sign them up as an affiliate. Yes, your goal is to make each forum itself one of your Super Affiliates. After you setup your affiliate program, go back to the owners of each forum. This is a critical conversation, so I very strongly suggest you have this conversation on the telephone. I don't have a script here for you, I had all these conversations as casual talks on the phone. However, I will give you the main points that you need to cover when you talk to the owners.

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Now you need to know ahead of time that for most forums this is a very foreign concept. They will be familiar with two forms of revenue to their business - banner ads and charging for various areas of their forum (like a private Members Area). Do not be surprised if they are hesitant to discuss anything other than banners. So when you introduce this idea of them becoming an affiliate, you should expect that you will need to explain the process and how they will benefit in working with you this way. Do not call it an affiliate program right away, don't talk percentages, and don't talk about advertising (do not use the word advertising at all that only means banner ads to forum owners), etc instead talk about how this can be a benefit to them and to their readers. Talk about how this book was created through the input from so many of their forum members. Talk about how the experts on their forum provided insight and the audio interviews. Talk about how the members of their forum are likely going to be discussing the book with each other and there is an opportunity to generate revenue together. Talk about how you can set it up in the background so that when someone wants to learn more and clicks on a link, their forum will get credit for that click and when a purchase is made their forum will generate income. If need be, softly remind the owner that the book is going to get discussed by their members, since so many (and name a few - the owner will also know who the key posters are) are well known, and that there will be plenty of opportunity together.

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Let them know that you will setup everything. You will create the account, all you need from them is their preferred PayPal account (or whatever you are going to use) for receiving payments. You create some great looking banner ads (as with the WordPress and technology side, if creating banner ads is something you don't want to do, get someone from Fiverr to make them for you) and send them to the owner. You'll now have the affiliate link and so you send that to the owner as well. Send the owner the banner and affiliate link, do not ask the owner to create anything, you need to do everything you can to make this as painless for the owner as possible. Take your time here, do not rush this growth step. You should be able to see how powerful this is. And, you can see now why you need to respect the relationship you have created with the forum owner. Of course you can still make money without this step, but this can really move you up the ladder fast from a trickle of revenue to a flood of revenue! Repeat this with each of the forum owners. This entire strategy is based on what I have done, and I can tell you that making the forum itself become your Super Affiliate is an incredible moment in the growth of your business.

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Most Effective Marketing

I mentioned at the start of this document that I have some conversions of various campaigns that run in the 20-25% rate and even a 38% conversion. There is a specific strategy to achieve these results. What I have done, and continue to do, is to run very specific promotions with the forums. Forums that are well run will have the ability to email their member base, and so these promotions are sent out via email. Here is exactly what I do to get these rates. I create a coupon code in the shopping cart that is named for the forum. For example, I recently ran a promotion with a forum called CurtPalme.com so I created a coupon code that was named: CURTPALME20 This coupon applies an instant 20 percent discount for orders. Next we send the email out to the forum members. In the email, highlight the names of the forum members, owners, experts, and links to the names of the forum where the book can be found. These associations are powerful for the readers. In the emails, have the clicks point to the previously created sticky thread on the forum, not to your main website. You are creating a 'closed' ecosystem where the forum visitors learn and buy at the forum itself. When running these promotions, I always put a time limit on the coupon code, anywhere from 2 days to 5 days. And, I always stick to the time limit, if someone orders a day late, the coupon code will not work.
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I do not run this kind of promotion all the time at every forum, as I do not want to dilute the strategy. This does mean that traffic and sales peak during the promotions and slow when the promotions are offline. However, I rotate these promotions between the various forums on a rolling basis, so there is one running every month somewhere. I've found this to be the most effective process. The one promotion that I ran that had a sales conversion rate of 38% was fun. One forum owner really liked the idea, and was really on board with generating this new revenue stream. Since he seemed to be on board, I thought I would push an idea and see where it went. I asked him if he would be interested in sending out a Private Message from his forum owner account to all forum members. And, he was! Now, this was clearly a unique situation, and is not something I have repeated with other forum owners, it was a one-off. However, it did work incredibly well. We sent a small PM to all the members of the forum about the book, who was involved in the project, and where to find the sticky thread. I created a new coupon code, again named to the forum itself. That promotion had an incredible 38% conversion rate. The five days that promotion was live was awesome to say the least! We agreed that it would be a unique one-time situation as the owner did not want to abuse his own PM system (and I agree with that).
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Bonus: You Become The Authority

A great part about using this strategy is that as soon as you go live with your product, you will have instant credibility and instant authority. Don't bother trying to position yourself as the expert on the subject, instead position yourself as an authority on the subject. Think about Oprah. People would watch and listen to her, not because she was the expert at whatever the subject was that day. Rather, they would watch and listen because she brought the experts to her audience. She became an authority figure, by bringing the experts to her audience. You are doing the exact same thing. You will find that people will start to seek you out. Experts will come to you, posters will come to you, customers will come to you. What happens then is that you implement this strategy and you become known as one of the go-to people for your niche!

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Conclusion

In this strategy document, I have provided for you the exact sequence and steps I have followed to generate six figures from a very small niche using only forums and no advertising. I have explained you how to identify the correct people, create a great product (that your market will want to buy), and the pieces you need in place on the back end. I spent quite a bit of time on the people, and the key relationships. You can see now why you want as many people as possible helping you, from owners, to experts, to posters in the various forums. Together, they are your marketing, they are peers recommending your product to peers, and there is no stronger system of recommendation. Of course I cannot predict of guarantee your success. Where you take this is entirely up to you. You need to use it, to act upon it, and to create your business. With this strategy, you now have a specific plan you can follow and a specific path you can use to create your success. I look forward to hearing about your success! Sincerely, Warren

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Appendix: My Websites

OK, so you might be wondering, when do I get to see your sites? All right, here you go. Maybe you'll even buy my book! My site is: http://www.TheHomeTheaterBook.com The YouTube channel I have made for this site is: http://www.youtube.com/thehometheaterbook The main forums I have worked with are: http://www.AVSForum.com http://www.HomeTheaterShack.com http://www.CurtPalme.com http://www.HighDefJunkies.com There are more, but those are the main ones I have worked with, and where nearly all of my traffic and sales come from. All without paid advertising at those forums! The term I designed the site to rank in Google is: Home Theater Book (feel free to search it with no quotes) If you search "Home Theater Book" in quotes, you will see my site pretty much covers all of Page One on Google. Without quotes it usually comes up #1, although it sometimes trades the number one position with Amazon. I was able to get that number one ranking over time, with only organic traffic all coming from forums. I did add the YouTube channel listed above in 2012, so there is some traffic from there.
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Lastly, as I mentioned in the introduction here, I am not a full time IM person. My career is as a business coach. I help other entrepreneurs start their businesses - both online and offline. My company is named Success Leaders, because my goal is to help people become Successful and Leaders, both in their business life and in their personal life. While my home theater book project is wonderful, and continues to earn me a great income, my passion is to help others. If you want to follow along what I am doing, you can find my personal sites here: http://www.WarrenPeterson.com And, you can find my Facebook community here: http://Facebook.com/OfficialWarrenPeterson

If you are interested in my business coaching (which is my full time career), and how I help others to design and build their own companies, you can find that on my Facebook page and soon here: http://www.ThreeMonthBreakthrough.com

Now, go get started! -Warren

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If you really want to Accelerate Your Success, you need to check out my:

I am offering you an intense bootcamp of private one on one coaching with me, to drive you to success now!
One of the hardest things about working from home, alone, is that you have no one to work with, no one to discuss your concepts and ideas with, and no one with the experience of what you are trying to do.

I will be that person for you. I will coach you. Take my experience and use it to your advantage.
You will have direct access to me (nothing outsourced, it is directly, and only, with me) for three serious coaching calls via my personal Skype account. You will have a regularly scheduled call time with me, and I will expect you to make the call! I will be giving you assignments. You will be sending me your work. Together we will discuss your progress, Ill give you my analysis and insights into how you are progressing and implementing this strategy. You will not be trying alone, you will have me by your side, giving you the results of my own years of using this exact solution. This will be unlike other coaching programs, where you get some videos and a group call. This is actual one on one with me! I am going push you along and I am going to challenge you. I am going to ask you lots of questions. In other words, Real coaching!
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Your Results Are What Matters!

At the end of our sessions, you will:

Have a clear niche, specifically and uniquely based on you. This is awesome, no random shots at what might be hot, this is customized exactly to you! Own intense product research. Because of this, you know that your market will want to buy your product the minute you release it! Know the exact tools and technologies needed to implement this entire strategy. Youll be able to skip all the searching and guessing at what you need, and get right to action!

Think about this: when were done with these very intense sessions, you will have your exact niche, you will know your awesome product, you will know your target audience, and you will know the specific tools to implement.
Imagine having a true business partner, without giving up any equity!

This is your fastest way to success, but it is not for everyone. I only expect the most serious and most committed people to accept this option. If that is you, I cannot wait to get started working towards your success. Sincerely, Warren Peterson

And check out my Insane Coaching Guarantee. You know that personal coaching time is almost never guaranteed, but I am breaking that barrier as well. Im driven to do everything I can to help, and so if you decide, even after our last session, that this coaching is not going to help you make this business a success, let me know and Ill refund you Let Me Take The Risk!

To Join Now, Click Here; Niche Gold Bootcamp

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