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Begin Interview >>

1. Fernando, could you tell us a little bit about your website, and your product(s).

Fernando's Response:

Ok, well, one of my websites is www.salsa-rhythms.com and it's a site dedicated to salsa dancing. Currently I have several products. The first one is known as a "Timing Course"...now that's targeted at dancers that have some experience dancing. In other words if you don't know about salsa dancing, you most likely won't understand what a Timing Course is.

My other products are DVD's that teach how to dance the following Latin dances: Salsa, Merengue, Bachata. The DVD's are designed for beginner dancers with none to little training.

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2. How did the idea for creating and selling salsa videos online, come about?

Fernando's Response:

Actually, it was kind of weird. I had just gotten laid off, I was in high-tech and the dot.com bust hit me very hard.

I had just moved to California from New York and all of a sudden I was out of a job. So it was at that point that I decided to do something and stop being a slave to someone else.

I started to check out business opportunities, and for some reason, I really don't remember now, I came across your site.

I saw the offer to your Make A Living Online book and membership, and at first, I gotta tell you...I wasn't sure if I should spend that kind of money, I mean, I didn't even have a job!! So of course, at two hundred bucks it was pretty hard...not only that, but at that time back in 2003 I didn't even know you! :-)

I had no idea what an autoresponder was so imagine my surprise when I'm getting these personalized messages from you!! LOL After a while, I realized that it was a computer and not actually you typing these up...I was hooked!

But before buying your package, I told myself I had to come up with an idea first, even though I knew that your book contained valuable resources on creating a product.

All of a sudden on a day in June my friend from New York calls me...his name is Carlos.

At that point it clicked!

He's an expert salsa dancer with tons of students and experience...so I tell him about my idea to sell videos online...he liked the idea so that same day I purchased your course...

And that's how I came up with this idea and this particular line of products.

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3. What level of success have you had so far (revenue, etc.)?

Fernando's Response:

At first it was a disaster! I had no idea what it took to create a video...the dancers, the production, the editing, the post- production work...I mean I literally had no idea.

That's why I came up with the Timing Course.

Because the Timing Course is in eBook format, it was very easy for me to create and distribute.

What I did next was simply promote my Timing Course, and from the first day I made sure to build my list...something you emphasized over and over.

Well after over a year of selling the Timing Course I was averaging $1,000.00 a month profit. One day, I'm looking at my bank account and it's getting bigger...not by much but I could tell it was bigger.

It was right then and there that I did something that would have scared most people.

I already knew what it took to create the videos, and I had built a couple of lists, newsletter subscribers, and clients. So I did it.

I sent out an email to my lists explaining my situation.

Basically I wanted money to finance the video production.

Since the videos were not ready yet, if they wanted in, they'd have to agree to wait up to 12 weeks for me to ship out the videos.

You see, I did not want to put the money up myself, I did that before and I figured that this asset I was building (another concept I learned from you) should pay for itself.

Well I sent out the email on a Tuesday.

By Friday of that same week I had $4,190.00 in orders... Within 19 days of me sending out that email, I had made $9,993.00!

With that money I was able to produce the 3 videos, duplicate on DVD, and fulfill my obligations, and it all cost just over $6000.00 in total.

Now of course, you may think that over $3000.00 in profit is not much, but the great thing is this: that first round of orders financed the production AND created a nice profit too.

Now I must say, had it not been for the careful way I was building my relationship with my lists, this would not have happened.

Currently my original site that sells the Timing Course is making about $2200.00 a month. In monthly DVD sales I'm clearing about $4800-$5200 per month...and that's after expenses.

But the coolest thing for me was being featured in a show on TLC (The Learning Channel). That added a ton of credibility to what I'm doing.

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4. What are your best strategies for getting website traffic in your target market?

Fernando's Response:

Well the main source of traffic is from link exchanges with other sites.

I used to really concentrate on SE's but some time ago I lost some good placements and from then I decided not to let any one source hold me hostage (this I also learned from you, but of course I didn't listen at first and had to learn the hard way).

Of course I still concentrate on SE's, but not as much.

Another source of traffic for me is affiliate traffic. From the beginning I made sure to always promote my affiliate program... that was something that you also stressed a great deal. In fact, one of the services you recommend is an ASP that includes an affiliate management module.

Something else that I do is recycle all of my traffic between sites. I use confirmation pages, redirects, and other means to get visitors to land on other sites of mine.

I also rely a lot on repeat visits by keeping in touch with my lists.

I don't know why, but a lot of people don't realize that driving repeat traffic to your sites from your lists is a very smart thing to do...but for some reason a lot of people are hung up on trying to get these great placements on the SE's.

Later on you'll see how absolutely amazing return traffic is.

However, of all of them...

My favorite is the use of ezine articles...there's no way for me to emphasize how important it is to create content for your own site and for other peoples ezines and web sites as well.

In fact, I recently had an article of mine published on another a high-traffic web site!

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5. Do you spend much on advertising? And if so, what avenues have worked best for you?

Fernando's Response:

PPC is the main avenue of paid advertising that I use. I tried the PopUnders, Banners, but for something like this, those strategies really don't work well. For me to spend money on it, it has to be extremely targeted, otherwise, it's just not worth it.

I also purchase some ads in other ezines and high traffic sites, of course all must be specific to my market.

But to be honest with you, overall I really don't do much paid advertising.

A lot of my exposure comes from affiliates, and since I don't pay until a sale is made, it really makes for some efficient marketing.

That to me is the best advertising you can get...aside from word of mouth and that is something I ALWAYS work on. I have no qualms about requesting folks to send their friends to me...trust me, all you have to do is ask and if they like you, people will refer some friends...but they won't go at it alone.

You gotta nudge them just a bit.

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6. When a website visitor arrives, what process do you lead them through to turn them into a customer.

Fernando's Response:

One of the things that I never forget about your book was a term you used... "speed clicker".

That single concept in your book helped me really understand how to lead visitors...you gotta really hook em first!

Of course, I would love for everyone to purchase on their first visit...but that is not likely.

So I've setup a way to gather emails from them.

Now, I have about 16 autoresponders and I've got an average of 18 messages in each, I have 2 with over 50 messages.

That's where the real selling happens.

So by far, for me my emails and my autoresponders are the #1 way to convert visitors.

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7. What kind of conversion rates do you have for your site? (Unique visitors to paying customers)

Fernando's Response:

First time visitor sales are not staggering. Only about 1.54% convert into customers on the very first visit. However, 41.14% of my first time visitors leave me their email address. I'm pretty sure that since I offer them a chance to get a preview of the Timing Course, most take it and then get off my site to go check out their email...

However, the conversion once they are in my email sequence is extremely good. Right now, overall, I get about 22.49%.

Now, that does not include numbers for email campaigns and even specific messages in my autoresponder sequences.

In fact, I've got one particular message that converts a whopping 50.09%.

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8. Does most of your revenue come from initial sales of your video, or from back-end sales (like affiliate programs or related products and services)?

Fernando's Response:

Well, although initial sales are strong, it's the back-end that really makes it for me.

It's not strange for a customer to buy from me up to 3 times in a 2 week period.

Of course, since I have 4 different products, it allows me to market them over and over. But again, the relationship that I build is what matters...otherwise people will simply not buy with this frequency.

This year though, I have been putting together some JV deals to offer related products.

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9. What mistakes have you made along the way that other entrepreneurs should watch out for?

Fernando's Response:

There's been a few.

1. One mistake was not fully implementing what I learned after investing in courses, like yours. Like in my example up above I was concentrating too much on SE's when all along I had the info right in front of me telling me not to spend all my time on that.

2. Taking on too big of a project. If someone's starting out and, like me, they are on limited budgets, it would not be wise to start out with a big project. Initially I tried putting together the videos without really knowing what I was doing. That will never happen again.

3. Information overload/procrastination. You see, I think a lot of people know what they should be doing, it's just that they don't actually do it because there's just so much information out there. My recommendation is to slow down, and just take care of what's in front of you. Learn how to filter the good from the bad.

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10. What advice would you give a business owner who is starting or growing a business online?

Fernando's Response:

Well, the first thing I would say is this:

Be imaginative!!

Listen, I'm no artist and I don't usually think of myself as extremely creative, but when you start to think of things in a different light you come up with some pretty good ideas.

For example, my initial project was a flop! The video came out messed up, dancers did not show up, I rented the wrong equipment and the list goes on...

So of course, at this point I really had no money to spare in starting over.

So what I did was to create something that was within my reach to easily create and distribute. It was not my FIRST choice, but it has and continues to serve its purpose.

From there I was able to finance what I really wanted to do.

Don't go crazy throwing money at a problem, the first thing to do is come up with creative ways to counter whatever the problem is.

Build your relationships with the people on your lists. To be honest, this is so important. Treat people the way you'd like to be treated. And stay on top of everything. Answer emails immediately, do NOT let 24hrs. go by without you responding to an email...NEVER, not even on the weekends.

Another thing I'd say is to really be careful with who you go to for advice. I was lucky that I found you at the very beginning, but I know of people who have not been so lucky.

Finally, the #1 best thing I can say is:

"Be persistent...but know when to quit too..."

You see, it was a while before I saw ANY money at all. And yes, there were many times when I was just going to quit, but I didn't, I kept going.

But to know the difference of when you need to move on, and when you should keep going requires you to educate yourself.

By that I mean, learn the basics of an online business, learn about copy writing, learn about conversion strategies, understand that you can't sell something to someone who, in their mind, has not already bought it.

Once you know these things, you'll know when a project is good or not...in fact, you should know if a project is going to be good even BEFORE you get into it...

That's it for me, but before I go I want to wish you a very happy and prosperous year.

By the way, I gotta say one more thing:

Thank you Jim. I really mean that. Had it not been for your help in the very early stages, I don't know if I would have been able to do it.

Fernando Cruz
salsa-rhythms
408-888-3993
http://www.salsa-rhythms.com

See ya in a few weeks... Jim Daniels
make-a-living-online.com

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