Major BiiG.COM Marketing Change

When I started marketing biig.com last week, nothing was free. Everything on the directory was paid for one way or another.

This week I made a major change.  Now all the BiiG Page can be made for free.  However, linking the pages in the BiiG Directory is paid for as a function of how many KEY WORDS are used in the listing.

For example, if the listing to a website uses 4 key words starting from the first page, it will cost just $9.95 per year.  Take that same listing and “move it to the” area that links right from the first page, it will cost $39.95 per month.  Obviously, the latter is for businesses that want to get users attention immediately.

The rest of the pricing works the same –the longer it takes to get to a directory listing within the “tree” of links, the lower it costs.

This is actually not a bad way for smaller businesses to list their links because the “deeper” a visitor goes down the tree of links, the more precise the accuracy of the key words that lead to a listing.

At the end of the week, a lot of progress.  I’ll return tomorrow with a wrap up and how the month progressed.

Rich Sage.

BiiG Directory Launched

After several months of configuring, software testing and getting the bugs out, I got biig.com “out the door” today.

The objective of biig.com is to make ‘trees’ of key words that lead to listings of businesses.  Those businesses can also link a BiiG Page to the listing.

The primary difference between this and many other directories is that:

BiiG.COM display offers by listing companies, allows the publishing of articles, images, etc. and all the “limbs of the tree” are managed by the Affiliates who also keep about 50% of the revenues from the site.

I should add that there are a lot of SEO benefits to the network.  Of course, the site is around 10 years old, and that greatly ads to the SEO benefit that is created when websites are linked from here –especially, by the right key words.

For the Affiliate helping manage things, the benefit are:

• Direct sales proceeds from listings, using a PayPal account.
• Sharing 2-tier commissions from the Affiliate network.
• Affiliate can put their own listings and get free traffic and benefits.
• Lastly, the system I’ve setup protects each Affiliates “turf”, which is unheard of in the business.

Now the challenge is to find the few thousand Affiliates who will ‘run the site’ leading to more and more products and services to help everyone monetize the network.

I’ll spend the most of my time helping them get the results that the Affiliates are looking for in the coming months and years. I’ll keep updating the progress.

Rich Sage

A New Category is born…

I’ve spent sometime discussing what I am doing, how I am doing it, as well as a few plans.  Today I took a long step –adding a new category called “JOURNEY” of places that I’d “like to visit” for various reasons, as well as some of my thoughts of the mental ‘journey’ that I also need to focus on. 

One of the places I’d like to visit is New Hampshire, to rekindle a few memories from a camping trip via RV a few years ago.  I drove a 1,000 miles through the New England States (plus an accidental foray into New York), but the highlight must have been a few days in New Hampshire.  If you don’t know anything about the state, you’ll find a few details here.  http://www.visitnh.gov/.

Interesting enough, the state motto is “Live Free or Die” –fortunately, the metallity is more about “Live Free” that the other.  Anyway, this is an organization that grows that philosophy: http://www.freestateproject.org/.

I suppose I’ll post many updates about places like this, as I travel to them. As I experience “life” and the journey ahead.

Speaking of the journey ahead, most of my work at biig.com is done –to get things started.  I now have to test things for a day and then I can “roll out” my idea and see what happens.

I’ll report here after that.

Rich Sage.

For the past two months I’ve worked on a new campaign. It first started here.  Then I found out rather rudely that I said too much and people didn’t get it.

So, I dumped the entire affiliate setup and started over. 

Part of that effort was to:

1. Revise biig.com
2. Revise the affiliate program
3. Revise the sales page, which I’ve done here –http://www.therichsage.com/free.html 
4. Revise the lessons, which is left to do.

I’ve got one item left, which I hope to get done by Saturday and then focus on finding the Affiliates that I need to work with.

A lot of work, but well worth it. Once again that calls for rest!

Rich Sage

BiiG Directory Nearly Setup to Go!

Day two in my discussion about biig.com.  I spent much of the day making a few pages, and keeping in mind to keep things VERY SHORT and to the point. I think I got that and some other things done.

Here is an example of how some of the listing will “terminate” — a page like this:

http://www.biig.com/wiki/index.php/Password_Tools

With that thought, I’ll get some badly needed rest.

Rich Sage.

Getting BiiG.COM Ready

The Rich Sage has been busy. Very Busy!

Just one thing –redeploying biig.com, which I will release tomorrow.

Once again, I’ll rest as the days have been long on this setup.

Rich Sage

I’ve just gotten tired of sales pages… Just very tired of it.

I think the purpose of marketing is to inform the reader to make an educated decision.  However, my pages that I’ve created for the Rich Sage are just endless and all that got me down for several days.

I am now going back and making the text very simple, and lessons with video.  It just has to be short and to the point.

With my lessons, I need to heed the first –KISS –Keep It Short & Sweet.

I’ll get to that now…

Rich Sage.

Business Information Gateway Directory — BiiG Directory

I put this post in the TECH category because my challenge in the setup of biig.com is the management of the rights given to the Affiliates.  The tech part of the ’right management’  is now getting programmed, and the sooner that I have it, the easier will be the management of 3,000 to 4,000 Affiliates.

Of course, the real challenge then is to be able to manage the content of 3 million or 4 million ‘clients’ content.  That too can be done in a *real* business model.  Many of the business model on the Net, which I don’t know how they exist, are built heavily in the favor the the platform holder –the content site, Web 2.0 site that is using the content made by the users to create value. My plan is to share it nearly 50/50.

To accomplish this, I posted a few informative letters and didn’t get a lot of responses. So, a few additions, some modifications and a shorter explanation is the “way forward”…

Of course, when a lot of people make the first mistake of BEING SOLD when they approach a business model.  Apply reason and logic and not too many people jump on the ‘band wagon’.

The BiiG.COM Directory Compensations Plan:

100% of sales on the directory listings are going to the Affiliates, who also manage it.

My goal is to intro sales to the corporate, medium business and lastly to help small business save money with the listings.

Most Web2.0 and social networking sites don’t share much at all with Affiliates.  In my case, 100% directly, 50% on membership sales and lastly, the internal Affiliate program will pay commissions via it’s two-tier commission plan.

BiiG.COM and all my brands will be updated to build around the network and synergies that result when Affiliates achieve larger revenues and longer, more stable results.

I came up with this chart to show commissions:

 I think the biggest advantage for the Affiliate is that payments are sent directly to their Paypal Address, while memberships which handle advertising, are done by the company.

I’ll make some modifications to the text in the coming days to address the software installation and then “I’ll be off to the races” with this product.

The explation to the Affiliates will go here:
http://www.biig.com/wiki/index.php/Affiliate_network

Of course, biig.com is at:
http://www.biig.com

Now I need to rest…

Rich Sage

How does someone online remember you? Have you developed a Unique Business Angle?

From Lessons #6 of 131 Continued…

In my case I picked the ‘Sage’–One who delivers wise information (wisdom) that helps everyone block the noise and get the clear directions they need to make money online. That would make me the Rich Sage. 

I pointed out in my workbook for the ad and apps network how important it was to have a way for people to remember you.  The brand that you can build is like a ‘foot print’–it is the online version of being at the corner store.

I know many places where brands are being built constantly.  Even in the forums that I frequent, there are a handful of people who consistantly get a lot of recognition just for their names.

In my writing I pointed out to a local ‘brand’ made by this guy, the Great Zucchini, who entertains kids in the Washington D.C. area.  He’s made a great ‘brand’ that he uses for people to remember him.  I read about him back in 2003 ot 04 and din’t put down the Washington Post Sunday article until I looked up his website.  When a kids birthday comes around, I remember the ‘Zucchini’ and how he entertains kids — http://www.thegreatzucchini.com/.

My idea behind the Rich Sage was the same.  How will people remember you?  How will they come back to check on progress of a site, a project –often they will remember ME by the image of the Sage.

That’s just one of the elements that many of you are missing.  Often I see online people aimlessly searching for that magic bullet, but what people forget it that if you want to build a business, a LOCAL BRAND is much easier to build than an online one or even one that spans many states or even countries.

I am sure many of your with kids attend the local ball games and notice the advertisers at the basketball games or baseball fields. Remember any of them? You may not.  However, can you remember a Realtor that advertises at those games?  How about a Realtor that follows up again at your door with a flyer of houses sold in the neighborhood?

My point is that we all need to make not one lone connection to build a brand, but we need to make them over and over –Perhaps, those underlying sales that may come from such an exercise will not come right after the work, but the progress takes months, if not years to finally get the momentum going.

We all need to be remembered –online and in life –it’s the same ballgame.

TAKING a DIFFERENT PATH:

So, many of you are thinking ‘what’s new here?’–I’ve heard this before.  I think many of you are missing the point that working with a brand can be just as powerful as trying to establish your own online presence.  For example, this is the sole reason that franchises, which command huge prices just to get started with them, succeed at very high percentages.  Around 15 or 20 years ago that was in the 98% area.  In fact, a bank would lend money to setup one.  I am sure that has diluted since then.  However, the premise is still valid and often this is overlooked by the many that are building things online.

I think many of you have the capacity to work on your own brand, your own angle or ‘flavor’ which you can use to build online success.  Perhaps, it is using your own wisdom to teach online, in your niche.  Perhaps, it’s a character you come up with.  Perhaps, it is a type of video that you keep posting, with memorable content.

The ideas are really endless, and the examples of it being done are endless.  Getting back to the Saturday market over the weekend, I noticed the stall selling onion rings and fries had the same RED, WHITE and BLUE color all over the place. Their cooks had blue caps, the staff had red t-shirts. The trailer was the same color wise –it was ALL an EXERCISE in branding.  In the sole look that they had all summer long.  Once glance at the trailer said ONE THING — My kids know exactly what they sell there and there is NO ‘M’ type logo in sight.

I’ve have 125 more lessons to go and I’ll cover several angles of the above argument, as I look at my notes.  One of the points that I make in many of my lessons that are open to everyone is that many of us are forgetting the basics while building success.

Rich Sage

New Affiliate Information Page

I spent most of the week re-writing the affiliate page that I had setup at the http://www.therichsage.com/free.html>> link.  I setup the page several months ago.  I think it was back in June.  However, it just didn’t “feel 100% to me”, so I revised it a while back.

Then this week I revised it on Monday. Then again I revised it yesterday.  I am happy with what I’ve done, with the informative story, but not 100% on the writing.

At this point, my objective is to work on finding the right people work with, and I hope most of them overlook the less than perfect writing. I’ll have to sit down with a copywriter to get it 100% perfect. 

The objective was of the informative page is:

• Inform the reader about WHAT is DIFFERENT about the RICH SAGE lessons.
• Inform the reader about HOW the lessons are DIFFERENT.
• Lastly, present the philosophy and ideas behind the lessons, and how that is the difference between failure and success.

I think I accomplished that.  However, doing it took about 10 days of work.  Not all day long, but many intervals of 3 hours –around 10 of them to get to where I am now.

Now I’ll put the page to several tests –first with the Warrior forum, where I’ll present it as a special offer to Warriors and see what kind of reception I get.  Secondly, I’ll run about 3 pay per click campaigns to see how those visitors react to what I’ve setup.

Oh, yes, one more place –I think the setup I’ve done is perfect for the many Clickbank Affiliates out there, who are looking for the perfect monetizing effort.  In the setup I’ve done, the ClickBank promoter can make an up-front commission.  Since the commission system is 2-tier, the back end commissions can be just as much or even more.

I have scheduled to use the entire last week of August to make videos.  I’ll use part of that to write two e-books about “Monetizing to the Max” using the Rich Sage brand.

Ok, back to work.

Rich Sage