Trend Marketing explained- How to Profit from the Recently Deceased

Last Friday, a buddy that I met at the last Pub Con called me (I won’t name names) to brag about how he made $14,092 in roughly a day and a half. He does it through CPA ads that target curiousity seekers of the recently deceased. He does trend marketing. And last week, he got a 2 for 1 when Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson died on the same day.

IF YOU DON’T READ ANYTHING ELSE, LOOK AT THE LAST PORTION OF THIS ARTICLE AND CHECK OUT THE COPY….YOU MAY LEARN SOMETHING…

Now, I am not going to get into an ethics debate on whether this is right or not. What I do understand is that people have this morbid fascination with dead celebrities. Just to use an example, the day Michael died, one of the last standing music stores in my city sold out of his stuff within 1 hour of the announcement.

Trend Marketers typically have a pretty good grounding on the techniques and strategies of niche marketing as going after trends and targeting non-competitive keywords go hand in hand…

I should mention that if you are planning on doing trend marketing through organic search and don’t already a high pulling authority site that can garner artificial elevated numbers simply by posting OR the black hat muscle (aka automated link building tools) that can bully a spot very quickly for a couple days, then you should look to do something else. PPC is the vehicle and it becomes a numbers game where you ride the razor’s edge of margin and cost vs. ROI. It ain’t cheap. While my buddy didn’t give me the approximate cost for the ads, he did give a round about figure of $5,000.

There is also a science to trend marketing. It is get-in, get-out. In other words, you can make a ton of money BUT if you stay in too long, it will start dipping into your profits. My friend actually has a 1 day rule where he won’t stay with an ad campaign longer than a day. The reason is simple. As the trend gets recognized, you wind up with a bunch of amateurs trying to profit as well, which will drive up costs.

How long does a trend last?

A trend normally lasts as long as it is getting publicity. However, for a trend marketer, the key is to not only be on the heels of a trend going viral but also to vamonos BEFORE the trend reaches its apex. In the case of Michael Jackson, you can imagine that this would be a huge trend to ride.

I am going to show you a few models that I ran across through random ad search that trend marketers are using. They are all, in my opinion, all good models.

The Continuity/loss leader model

Here is the first model that I ran into. For those of you who don’t know what continuity is, it is basically when someone bills you more than once, normally because you signed up with a credit card and agreed to be billed. This is nothing new for the marketing crowd. If you have jumped onto the “free” offers by Mike Filsaime, Frank Kern, or Russell Brunson, then chances are you have also been billed the following month. From a non marketing viewpoint, I get billed every month for my rhapsody music subscription.

I actually found a continuity model when I was perusing search for Michael Jackson. To the right is the actual Google ad. The actual website is below….

This particular company makes a swipe at our “I want it now emotions” by promising the latest updates (in this case, it is Michael Jackson BUT I imagine you will find a latest updates page for nearly all trend setters…ie- Farrah Fawcett). ?What makes this work for this company is that there is no running to your wallet for credit card information…..They make it as easy as they can…all you have to do is input your cell phone number, which they will send you the breaking news of whomever it is you are interested in straight to your cell phone. ?Oh…and by the way, you will also be billed $10 per month for this on your cell phone bill.

…..and it ain’t so easy to cancel it either….

The site itself is probably nothing more than scraped content that auto updates. Once again, while we, as marketers, understand this and give a collective yawn, most people in the real world don’t. And what about those SMS alerts? Can we say Google alerts?

So, let’s do the math….no overhead once it is done other than possibly a server and fully automated – pay per click advertising = a true cash cow turn key business.

And even if you lost on the first month, the chances of getting it on the backend would be high. I imagine that unlike the cancel rates of Internet marketing memberships, $10 on a cell phone is hardly missed. Plus, once again, they make you jump through hoops to unsubscribe.

Moving right along…

The CPA/email Submit Model

The next model is the typical CPA model that most of you are familiar with….the question followed by an opportunity to vote AND win a prize model. Once again, the general public don’t see ads the same way we do so you will need to take off you marketing glasses.

One thing that you will notice is that most CPA ads are fairly low paying. Usually, you can expect an email submit to pay out roughly $1.00-2.00 with most ad management systems paying $1.25. This can be leveraged if you already have a relationship with your ad manager with a clean track record and a history of being a heavy hitter.

Because the payout is so low, it makes PPC a bit tricky. What you will find is that most email submit offers will be found on the content network where it is less focused YET also costs much less. The secret comes in the ad’s call to action. If you can create a compelling reason for someone to click through, then you after that it becomes a number’s game.

This is the most typical ad format you will see. This particular marketer simply uploaded an HTML page, created a compelling offer that is targeted toward Michael Jackson fans. If they decide to participate, they will win a “$1,000 {fill-in-the-blank} card or something else that has a strong WIIFM factor. There are some issues with this though (at least according to my friend) with the biggie being the abandonment rate once they hit the REAL landing page after they vote. He has been able to curb abandonment by reiterating to the viewer that in order to recieve their free whatever, they will need to add their email on the other side (which is done immediately after they vote).

Ringtones ARE Dead…OR are they?

Here is another ad that is being circulated that is interesting as well….This time rather than the typical email submit, the model is Michael Jackson Ringtones. The payouts for this is a little higher as I believe that ringtone companies pay more because they use a forced continuity model. Interestingly enough, this particular marketer has quizzes for literally hundreds of musicians….all with the same offer: Take the quiz, win a ringtone…. Here is the page including the series of pages afterwards to get to the offer-

I know, I know…the ringtone market is old news, yada yada yada…well, that may be the case but there still are people buying ringtones…the secret isn’t what you are selling….it is how you are selling it (it’s the offer stupid)….

The NON-AD CPA Ad Model

And speaking of offers, I am saving the best for last. I ran into this ad just recently and absolutely loved it. What separates this ad from other ads that you are used to seeing is the fact that it doesn’t look like one in the first place.

Before I show it to you, I want you to notice several things:

• When you get to the page, you will notice that it looks like an online newspaper. In fact, the website is The Daily News Gazette.
• The headline is compelling, albeit in a sales-y kind of way. But this is diminished because it looks like a newspaper thus dropping your “I am about to get sold to” guard.
• The actual information is nothing more than a story written in the third person (reporter style) about how this person(Andrew Qualls) went from being homeless to earning a 6 figure income…oh yeah..I almost forgot….he is also Michael Jackson’s biggest fan….
• The site uses social proofing web 2.0 style…rather than the social proof coming from testimonials typical in a sales ad, he instead creates comments at the very bottom of the page from ficticious people proclaiming this as the best system since the invention of the T Ford Model.
• Finally, EVERY link points to his final offer. It is linked throughout the article body, in the “ads” on the side as well as in the social proof, covering all the bases thoroughly….absolutely brilliantly done….

Take a look for yourself…..(Click the image to see a full page version…)

Alright, that’s it for this week. I hope you find this interesting and can have a few takeaways in your internet marketing endeavors (I believe that the last example should get those wheels turning in your head)…in fact, I have a ton of ideas for the last model. ?After all, couldn’t you just as easily rehone some of your non-converting offers you are selling and change them into a non-ad advertisement? ?Just a thought……

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