Traffic Secrets by Russell Brunson The Underground Playbook for Filling Your Websites and Funnels with Your Dream Customers (Russell Brunson)

BOOK LINK:

The passage promotes an online method and software called Empire that claims to generate up to $128 per day with free traffic in just 30 minutes per day.
It highlights that the method does not require Google, Facebook or Bing ads, creating videos, or having any special skills. It is described as newbie-friendly and works for anyone.
The method relies on an unlimited free traffic system and comes with a 60-day money back guarantee.
It features praise and endorsements for something called Traffic Secrets, calling it “the online formula to create the attention every product needs to thrive.”
It promotes scanning a QR code to access a free traffic system that can flood websites with free traffic.
The overall pitch is that Empire offers an easy, newbie-friendly way to generate a substantial income of over $100 per day using only free traffic in a short amount of time each day, with no special skills or paid advertising required. It is presented as a surefire method that anyone can do.
The book introduction draws a parallel between Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War and social media/tech giants like Facebook and Google. It suggests they have the power to wipe out many online entrepreneurs at once if they change their policies or algorithms.
The author recalls how in 2003, he was successfully driving traffic to his website through Google ads at $0.25 per click. However, Google suddenly increased ad prices 10x overnight, leading many small entrepreneurs to lose their businesses. This became known as the “Google slap.”
The author saved his business by learning to build sales funnels that converted visitors into customers and made him more money than what he paid Google per click. However, many others did not recover from the “Google slap.”
This led entrepreneurs to seek other traffic sources like email marketing or ads on blogs/websites. Many also started optimizing to rank organically in Google search, which seemed too good to be true but worked for a time.
The anecdote sets up the premise that consistent, predictable traffic is critical for online business success but can be taken away at any time by platforms, necessitating alternative strategies covered in the book.
For years, Google frequently changed their search algorithm in ways that significantly impacted businesses that relied on organic search traffic. This disrupted many entrepreneurs who would lose traffic and customers overnight due to these “slaps”.
In 2007, Facebook launched their ads platform, making it easy and affordable for businesses to buy ads. This resembled the early days of Google ads and allowed entrepreneurs to quickly grow their businesses with Facebook ads.
However, over time Facebook, like Google before it, began raising ad prices and making algorithm changes that negatively impacted some advertisers. The author warns that a “Zanos snap” is coming from Facebook that will similarly disrupt many businesses.
The author and his company have survived past disruptions from Google and other platforms due to understanding digital marketing funnels and mastering traffic strategies, not just tactics. This allowed them to adapt to changes and take advantage of new opportunities.
The book aims to teach these evergreen strategies, not just temporary tactics, so readers can build sustainable businesses that can withstand disruptions to online traffic sources. Learning strategies is more important than any individual tactic.
The key is identifying your dream customer through creating a customer avatar - a fictional persona that represents your ideal customer.
The story describes a pitch meeting where executives at Sally Beauty Supply kept referring to their customer avatar “Alexis” when assessing new products, but the presenter had no idea who Alexis was.
It turns out Alexis isn’t a real person, but rather their fictional customer avatar that embodies who their dream customer is through pictures, bio details, and insights into things like wants, needs and lifestyle.
Having a clear understanding of the customer avatar allows businesses to make better decisions aligned with what their ideal customer would want, rather than vague assumptions. It’s important to deeply understand one’s dream customer.

Unfortunately there are no details provided about any kids, home, money, or type of home for the person referred to in the passage. The passage discusses coming up with a hypothetical “customer avatar” named Alexis to represent their ideal customer and make business decisions based on what she would want. But it does not provide any biographical information about Alexis.

The author writes down thoughts and phrases customers would say as they try to solve problems or move away from pain. This helps understand the customer’s mindset and conversations.
They also write down what customers would say as they try to move towards pleasure - achieving goals out of desire rather than necessity.
An exercise is given to write down a dozen things customers may be thinking in both scenarios - moving away from pain and moving towards pleasure.
Historically, customers searched for solutions when in pain (the searcher). Advertising then interrupted people to create desire (the scroller).
Early TV ads interrupted viewers watching games to promote products. This let companies create desire rather than just filling needs.
Search traffic comes ready to buy but also compares options. Interruption grabs attention briefly to promote value over competitors.
Both approaches have pros (searchers ready to buy, interrupting warm audiences) and cons (comparing options, having less time with interruptions).

The key is for marketers to understand customer mindsets in both pain and pleasure scenarios to effectively reach them through search or interruption channels. Writing down customer thoughts helps achieve this understanding.

The chapter discusses finding where your “dream customers” congregate online in order to target them effectively with marketing.
Before the internet, customer groups were limited in size based on local geography. It was too expensive to target small, niche groups individually.
The internet changed this by allowing all people with similar interests to congregate together online regardless of location. This creates large crowds of potential customers in one place.
If wrestlers are the dream customer for a wrestling product, the key is not to try creating traffic but to find where wrestlers already spend time online - sites like TheMat.com, forums, Facebook groups, podcasts, blogs, etc.
Knowing where a dream customer congregates makes marketing easier, as promotions can be directly targeted to places the right people will see them, rather than hoping for random exposure.
The concept of the “Dream 100” is introduced - focusing marketing efforts on the 100 best potential customers that spend the most, rather than spreading efforts too thin among thousands.
Chet Holmes developed a strategy called the Dream 100, where he would identify the top 100 potential customers/buyers for his company and make a list.
He would then send each of them a package every two weeks with information about his company and follow up with a phone call every two weeks.
After 4 months of doing this with zero responses, he continued with what he called “Pig-Headed Discipline” and refused to give up.
In the 6th month, he had landed 28 of the 167 advertisers on his list and doubled the previous year’s sales, making his company number 1 in the industry.
By the end of year 3, he had successfully brought in all 167 Dream 100 advertisers.
Chet also used this strategy when trying to sell a screenplay in Hollywood. He identified the top 100 most powerful people in Hollywood and was able to sell the screenplay.
The Dream 100 strategy works for identifying top influencers, communities, websites, etc. that your ideal customers engage with and finding ways to partner with them to promote your products/services. Many successful companies have used this strategy without realizing it.
The podcast host began by leveraging their existing audience on platforms like email lists, Facebook, Instagram, etc. to get initial subscribers to their new podcast. This provided an influx of loyal listeners but growth stalled quickly.
After brainstorming with their team, they realized the problem - they were trying to get people from other platforms like Instagram to listen on Apple, but people prefer consuming content where they already spend time (Instagram users on Instagram, blog readers on blogs, etc.)
The big “aha moment” was that they should focus on reaching people who already listen to podcasts, by getting their show in front of the audiences of other popular podcasts.
This led them to create “Dream 100 lists” of influencers/audiences for each platform, rather than just one collective list. The lists would help them target their ideal listeners more effectively on each specific platform.
For brick-and-mortar businesses, the local influencers and customer “congregation points” should be the focus, like gyms, health stores, etc. in the example of a local juice bar.
The two core types of congregations are interest-based (people following certain topics on social media) and search-based (keyword searches on Google, YouTube, etc.)
The passage discusses the Hook, Story, Offer framework for effective marketing. It uses an example story to illustrate how this works.
In the story, a woman named Jessica sees a Facebook post with an image of a woman who had an embarrassing experience of peeing her pants during a workout. This catches Jessica’s attention, acting as the “hook”.
Jessica clicks on the post to see the story. She learns the woman, Natalie, had a similar experience and met a doctor who helped her. Natalie then created an online program to help other women based on what she learned.
Natalie’s story builds rapport with Jessica and sells her on the perceived value of the offered program - an e-book and bonuses to strengthen core muscles and prevent leaks. Jessica purchases it right away.
Over 120,000 women have purchased Natalie’s program using this Hook, Story, Offer framework effectively. The passage suggests this is an effective marketing approach to get people’s attention and sell them on an offer.

Here is a summary of the provided text:

The text discusses the “Hook, Story, Offer” framework that is commonly used to sell products and services online through ads and funnels.

The hook is something that grabs a person’s attention, like a headline, image, or video. Its purpose is to get the person to stop scrolling so you can tell them a story.

The story increases the perceived value of the offer and builds a connection with the brand or seller. It allows you to share your personality to form a relationship with customers.

The offer is what is being proposed in exchange for the person taking an action, like clicking an ad, subscribing to a list, or purchasing a product. Offers should be optimized to be as irresistible as possible to entice the desired action.

This Hook, Story, Offer framework applies to every ad, post, video, landing page, webinar, email, etc. If any of these aren’t working effectively, it is likely due to issues with the hook, story or offer components. Optimizing these elements can solve problems with traffic, conversions, attendance rates, email opens, etc.

Identify a “Dream 100” list of influencers, experts, leaders you want to connect with. These will be people who can potentially promote your products/services.
Do research on your Dream 100 - subscribe to their content, newsletters, social media to understand what they create and care about.
Become knowledgeable about each person so you can have useful and relevant conversations when you do connect.
Consider purchasing and using their products to become a customer and leave positive feedback.
Look for ways to provide value and help your Dream 100, such as sharing and promoting their content with your networks.
The goal of this initial research phase is to build familiarity and rapport before directly pitching yourself or your products. Serve them first through helpful engagement.
Once you’ve gained some knowledge and connection, reach out respectfully through personalized messages to start a dialogue. Do not pitch yourself or ask for anything at this stage.
Consider giving your Dream 100 free access to your products so they become loyal fans and advocates before potentially promoting you.
The end goal is to “work your way in” by earning promotions from your well-researched influencers, or “buy your way in” by paying for sponsored placements. Both can help get your message in front of their sizable audiences.
Hollywood uses a strategy of promoting movies by having actors/actresses appear on TV shows like talk shows one week before a movie premiere. This gets publicity and generates interest and ticket sales.
Authors and other entrepreneurs can use a similar strategy by appearing on shows hosted by their “Dream 100” - the influential people, podcasters, bloggers, etc. who have audiences of their target customers.
When launching books, Russell Brunson sent advance copies to his Dream 100 and asked them to promote the books on their platforms. This generated a lot of free publicity and sales.
For Expert Secrets, Brunson coordinated a “virtual book tour” where he did interviews on his Dream 100’s platforms and paid to promote the interviews through their social media profiles, reaching huge audiences.
Developing relationships with one’s Dream 100 over time makes them more likely to help promote future projects. This earned traffic can be very effective at driving conversions compared to paid traffic.
While building earned traffic, entrepreneurs can also supplement with paid ads until the earned traffic reaches critical mass on its own. Both earned and paid traffic strategies are important.
While some influencers may promote a product for free due to genuine belief in it, most will not do real promotion without being paid in some way. They may be too busy, see you as a competitor, or simply dislike you.
However, with paid social media ads it is now possible to target the audiences of influencers, promoters, or “Dream 100” regardless of whether they directly promote or endorse a product. This allows testing messages and getting products in front of those audiences even if the influencer refuses direct promotion.
Paid ads allow quicker feedback through immediate sales and ability to rapidly test different messages. Before asking an influencer for direct promotion, paid ads to their audience can reveal what hooks and messages resonate best.
Only about 10% of influencers will actively promote a product themselves, so paid ads are necessary to reach the other 90%‘s audiences as the second best option to direct endorsement.
Paid ads are also necessary to scale a business fast by driving large traffic volumes. The key is developing a “break-even” funnel where ad costs are equal to or less than revenue generated, allowing unlimited scaling without taking on debt.
The narrator stumbled upon a forum post explaining how making money online through email marketing works through leverage and building an email list. This piqued his interest.
He researched how to send mass emails and purchased software. He then bought a CD claiming to contain over 1 million “spam-free” email addresses.
Excited by the potential to make $500k from just 1% of people buying a $50 product from one email, he wrote and sent an email to the list. However, the email delivery was much slower than expected.
The next morning he checked but only 6k emails had been sent so far, throwing off his calculations. He was then interrupted by a phone call - it was an angry man from his internet provider complaining about spam complaints from his IP address.
Realizing he was in trouble for spam, he felt frustrated but went to check his PayPal account anyway. To his surprise, he saw he had made $70 from 7 sales, showing the basic concept had worked, even if he went about it the wrong way.

So in summary, the narrator enthusiastically tries email marketing but learns spamming is illegal the hard way, yet still sees some initial success that leaves him intrigued to keep learning more.

The narrator had tried multiple unsuccessful ways to build an email list, but knew there had to be a legitimate way to do it without being labeled a spammer.
They noticed how other legitimate list owners grew their lists and tested different email strategies.
The narrator learned about Mark Joyner, an internet marketing pioneer, who was retiring and selling off all his assets and knowledge through an online course.
They felt this course held the key to successfully building an email list. After much deliberation, the narrator convinced their wife to let them spend $1000 of their limited funds on the course, despite previous failures.
The main lesson from the course was that the email list is the most important asset, as it allows ongoing free marketing.
The narrator then searched for ways to convert website traffic, either earned through promotions or controlled through paid ads, into subscribers on their email list.
They utilized lead magnets, free plus shipping book offers, and webinars to drive people into opt-in “break even” funnels designed to build the email list.
Growing the email list is the key to ongoing marketing and business success.
To make $100k per year, focus on getting 10,000 people on your email list. 10k people x $1 per month x 12 months = $120k revenue.
To make $1M per year, focus on getting 100,000 people on your list. 100k people x $1 per month x 12 months = $1.2M revenue.
Numbers will vary by industry and market. Local businesses may have 500-1k people on their lists but make $50-100 per name. Online lists may only make $0.50 per name.
List building is an investment that can see returns faster than traditional investments like real estate. You can break even on list building costs within months rather than years.
Having an email list provides a safety net if you need quick cash influxes due to business problems. You can drive revenue through the list efficiently.
The key is follow up funnels. Drive leads through a value ladder of offers to increase their lifetime value over time through repeated purchases and upsells. Initial funnels may lose money but profits come through follow up and nurturing leads over time.
Follow-up funnels involve using multiple funnels back-to-back to generate profit from customers over time, not just from the initial sale.
The break-even point, where total revenue from a customer equals the acquisition cost, is often within the follow-up funnel even if it’s not from the initial sale. This allows spending more on customer acquisition.
Follow-up funnels use tools beyond just email, like retargeting ads, Messenger, and text messages to stay engaged with customers across different channels.
The messaging in follow-up funnels and retargeting follows an order of emotion, then logic, then fear/urgency to maximize converting customers through the funnel.
“Soap opera sequences” refer to series of longer-form emails that tell a story to engage customers, while “Daily Seinfeld emails” are short standalone messages to broadcast to the list each day. These communication styles fit into the overall follow-up funnel process.

The key points are how follow-up funnels allow generating profit over time from customers rather than just the first sale, using different communication channels for engagement, and tailoring the messaging sequence to maximize conversions through the emotion-logic-fear framework.

Soap opera sequences (SOS) are used to guide people through follow-up funnels after they join a mailing list. The SOS tells stories to build rapport and introduce different products/funnels.
Daily Seinfeld emails are sent after someone has gone through all the SOS funnels. This is used to promote new front-end offers, webinars, blog posts, etc.
Having your own show/platform gives you leverage and value when trying to reach out to influential people (Dream 100). When Arsenio Hall had his talk show, important people would take his calls. But without the show, people avoided him.
Your platform/audience is more valuable than money for reaching Dream 100 people, as it provides exposure they want. This helps work your way in.
Key channels today to create your own “show” include Facebook, podcasts, YouTube, Instagram and blogs. The goal is to earn traffic on those channels and also build your own list.
Leverage the list you’ve built by emailing people to consume new content, as that is the best way to get audience attention right away after releasing something.

The passage discusses how building an email list is the modern equivalent of direct mail marketing, as email is the one channel that is fully owned and controlled by the content creator. It emphasizes focusing efforts on growing an owned email list rather than relying on third-party platforms like Facebook or YouTube, whose algorithms can change at any time.

Once an email list is established, the focus turns to creating a primary “show” or content channel. The best options mentioned are blogs (like newspapers), video channels like YouTube (like sitcoms/talk shows), and podcasts (like radio). It’s recommended to focus on one format initially.

Specific tips are then provided for starting a show, including finding your voice through consistent publishing, such as daily episodes for at least a year. Publishing regularly allows an audience to build over time as the creator improves. Maintaining a consistent publishing schedule is key to getting noticed and building a sustainable audience and business.

The speaker had everyone at an event commit to starting to publish that day, though few took it seriously. One person, Steve J Larsen, decided to fully commit and started a podcast.
Over the next two years while working at ClickFunnels, Steve continued publishing his podcast. It grew a following over time. When he decided to become an entrepreneur, he had a large existing audience from his podcast. This provided a launch pad for his new offers and career. He became an “overnight success.”
The speakers advocates for documenting your journey rather than trying to create the perfect piece of content. Just record and share your process openly. This is more practical than fabricating an influential persona.
People listen to learn from the speakers’ experiences. He is openly sharing his search for marketing solutions as he discovers them, not because he knows all the answers.
You can use your podcast or show to test out material, hooks, and concepts in real-time with your audience as part of your journey. Famous comedians perfected their material over years of testing jokes in small venues before big performances.

The author started testing business concepts by teaching small seminars and workshops. He would explain ideas and see which ones made sense to people and which were confusing. Over time and through many iterations, he refined the ideas by tweaking stories and frameworks. Important frameworks like the value ladder and secret formula emerged from this testing process over a decade.

The same process happened with his book Expert Secrets. He spent two years discussing the concepts on his own and other podcasts. He developed ideas on platforms like Periscope and Facebook Live. He ran workshops and coaching programs testing the ideas, both for others’ businesses and his own. The extensive testing process resulted in the book.

Even now while writing a new book in an RV, he is nervous to publish but knows the material has been thoroughly tested over two years on various platforms. Regular publishing allowed testing messages and content to see what connects with people and what doesn’t. This refinement process helps find the right voice and message to attract customers.

The section discusses strategies for converting traffic that you earn or control through advertising into traffic that you own through building your own email list.
It identifies four major advertising platforms to focus on: Instagram, Facebook, Google, and YouTube. The goal is to learn patterns and frameworks that can be applied across different platforms.
The “Fill Your Funnel” framework has six steps: 1) Understand the platform’s history and goals, 2) Identify your Dream 100 influencers in that space, 3) Develop a publishing strategy, 4) Test different types of content, 5) Optimize content based on metrics, and 6) Retarget traffic to build your list.
It’s important to follow your Dream 100 influencers to see what content and ads are working, engage with their content, and “funnel hack” or model successful patterns rather than directly copying. The goal is to test pattern interrupts that might become new successful trends.
Staying connected to your Dream 100 can help you quickly adapt as algorithms and strategies change over time. The focus is on aligning with platform goals to receive traffic long-term rather than exploiting short-term loopholes.
Create a publishing plan for each social media platform to understand all the ways you can publish content and engage with your audience. Determine your focus and schedule.
Work your way in organically by engaging with influencers’ audiences and followers of your “Dream 100”. Look for opportunities to get exposure to these audiences through valuable, non-promotional content.
Buy your way in through targeted advertising to reach the followers of your Dream 100 and convert them into your own subscribers/customers.
As you publish, engage organically and through ads, your goal is to fill your sales funnel. Convert traffic and attention into leads who provide their contact details and progress through your sales process.
Treat social media like a party - make friends, engage in conversations, entertain and ask questions. Don’t directly promote yourself. Invite new connections to learn more through your online “home” or profile.
Provide value and engage organically first to build an audience. Then direct them from your profile into your sales funnels where promotion is appropriate. The goal is to work your way in and own the traffic long-term.
Social media influencers who only focus on short-term results from their posts will find that their approach doesn’t work in the long run. Those who take a longer-term approach of consistently engaging with followers and planting seeds will see continual traffic to their business pages/funnels.
When using social media, the key is to be a producer rather than a consumer. Spending too much time consuming other people’s content is a waste. You need to clean up your social feeds and only follow people you want to learn from. Then focus on engaging with and serving large groups/pages in your industry to promote your content.
Paid social media ads can accelerate results when combined with organic social media strategies. Ads fall into two categories: prospecting ads to reach new, cold audiences, and retargeting ads to re-engage past viewers/engagers. The goal is to use prospecting ads to hook new leads, then retarget those engaged leads with follow-up ads to warm them up and move them through a sales funnel. As long as funnels are profitable, the budget for ads is unlimited since each dollar spent generates a return.
The majority of people who see prospecting ads won’t buy right away. These people who engaged with the ad but didn’t purchase are good targets for retargeting ads.
Retargeting ads involve putting these engaged prospects into targeted buckets so they can be warmed up and retargeted with different ads, stories, reminders, and offers to try to persuade them to click through and enter the sales funnel.
The key is to create lots of initial prospecting ads to “hook” potential customers with different messages and images. Being prolific at creating ads means more prospects can be captured and put into retargeting buckets.
Effective targeting for prospecting ads includes targeting the dream 100 list, ideal customer avatar traits, and layering audiences to target the overlapping sections where criteria intersect for the best prospects.
Algorithms can help with targeting by identifying similar audiences to those already engaged based on data from initial prospects.
Prospecting is important because it identifies responding audiences and fills retargeting buckets, but it is also the most expensive phase since audiences are colder. Results and costs will be higher initially under the 80/20 rule until audiences are warmed up.
Retargeting ads are used to follow up with people who engaged with your initial ads or landing page but did not convert (buy or provide their contact details).
There are three main audiences for retargeting: Engaged (interacted with content), Landed (visited landing page), Owned (provided details like email or made a purchase).
80% of results may come from retargeting campaigns that only use 20% of the advertising budget. This is more effective than initial prospecting ads alone.
Pixels must be placed on websites to track people’s engagement and categorize them into the different audiences.
The goal for each audience is:
- Engaged: Sell the click to landing page
- Landed: Sell the opt-in or purchase
- Owned: Sell the next product or upsell
People move between audiences like conveyor belts - the ads try to “hook” them to progress further each time.
Retargeting existing contacts like email lists can also be highly effective through retargeting ads.
Having the right audiences, messaging and goals structured this way makes retargeting campaigns powerful for generating sales.
Mark Zuckerberg acquired Instagram to find new places to leverage user attention and place ads, like in the Instagram feed, as people explore content and watch stories.
On Instagram, you can attract followers by creating engaging content that keeps them coming back, and use that attention to drive organic traffic to your business funnels. You can also “buy your way in” by running ads to your target audience and funneling them into your offerings.
The author recommends following your “Dream 100” influencers who already reach your target customers. Study their content to identify successful patterns.
On Instagram, you can publish content through your profile grid, Instagram TV, Stories, and Live videos. The profile grid is for creating “content hooks” to attract followers, while Stories and Live allow monetization through swipe ups and ads.
The author recommends following Jenna Kutcher’s “JK5 method” - rotating your grid posts across 5 categories that represent your passions and brand, to engage followers beyond just promotions. Studying your influencers can help identify content strategies for each publishing format.
Instagram allows posting photos and videos under 60 seconds on your profile. Save relevant photos and videos to albums on your phone to easily post them.
Use the “ABCDQ Test” to determine if a photo/video fits your brand identity before posting. This evaluates Aesthetics, Brand alignment, Consistency, Diversity, Quality.
For photos, decide the goal (Inspire, Educate, Entertain), type of caption (Tell a story, Ask a question, Make a list), hashtags to use, and a call-to-action for engagement.
Longer videos (over 60 seconds) can be posted to Instagram TV (IGTV). The first 60 seconds must hook viewers to watch the full video. Analyze what followers respond to and create produced IGTV episodes on those topics.
Instagram Stories allow sharing short disappearing content like Snapchat. Test different content on both to see what platform drives more engagement. Regular Stories sharing gives followers a behind-the-scenes look at your life.

So in summary, the strategies cover evaluating and optimizing photo/video posts on the profile and longer produced content on IGTV, as well as using Stories to engage followers and test what content resonates. Hashtags, captions and calls-to-action are used to increase reach and engagement.

The influencers tested posting content on both Instagram stories and Snapchat to see which platform generated more engagement.
Despite having a smaller audience on Instagram, they found they received significantly more views on their Instagram stories than Snapchat stories.
Over subsequent weeks, they started posting more on Instagram stories and less on Snapchat, until eventually deleting the Snapchat app altogether.
Instagram stories allow users to post short 15-second videos that disappear after 24 hours, giving a behind-the-scenes look at the influencer’s life.
The author uses Instagram stories to document their daily routine and projects, building anticipation among followers for upcoming work.
Instagram stories can also be used to directly promote products and services with “swipe up” calls-to-action for links once an account reaches 10k followers.
Story highlights allow stories to remain viewable longer by saving them under profile categories. This is used as a “mini webinar” sales tactic by the author.
Instagram live can be used similarly to Facebook live but content only remains for 24 hours on Instagram. The author recommends focusing live efforts on Facebook.
A consistent publishing plan is recommended to effectively utilize Instagram features like stories, highlights and live video.

Here is a summary of the key points from the publishing plan section:

The plan outlines six steps to effectively use Instagram to see growth and focus efforts.
Step 1 is establishing a consistent publishing schedule to regularly post quality content and hashtags to reach new audiences.
Step 2 is identifying your “Dream 100” influencers and followers who align with your target audience.
Step 3 continues building your following through consistent posting of content hooks.
Step 4 is engaging your Dream 100 through question and answer collaborations on Instagram TV to cross-promote to each other’s followers.
Step 5 involves paying influencers from your Dream 100 to give you a shoutout mention to quickly grow your follower base.
Step 6 is using the increased exposure and engagement on Instagram to convert followers into subscribers and funnel them into your online offerings like webinars or product sales.

The overall plan focuses on consistently publishing content, identifying aligned influencers, collaborating with them, promoting to their followers, and directing traffic into online marketing funnels.

Facebook’s algorithm for determining which posts and videos get the most exposure has changed over time as the platform evolves.
Initially, highly shareable viral videos would get millions of views overnight. Agencies learned how to game this algorithm to produce viral videos.
After going public, Facebook changed the algorithm to prioritize content that drives more ad revenue and engagement. Viral videos declined as users now had to boost posts with ads to get broad reach.
Facebook entered the live video space to compete with Twitter and others. It rewarded users greatly for going live, driving adoption of Facebook Live over other platforms. But then it reduced organic reach of live videos over time.
The key strategy is to identify what content and tactics the platform is currently rewarding through its algorithm (paid vs. organic reach), and create content that meets those goals in order to reach one’s target audience. The specific tactics and formats are always changing.
One must constantly identify new influencers, groups, discussions on the platform to stay plugged into their target market and understand what’s trending.

Here is a summary of using Facebook in the future according to the passage:

Your personal profile can help you build free, earned traffic through engaging posts and conversations. This is like “working your way in”.
Your Facebook Fan Page is where you can buy paid traffic through boosted posts and ads. This is like “buying your way in”.
Treat your Fan Page like a brand page/website. Only post highly curated, high quality content that you would be willing to boost with ads.
Post different types of content on your Fan Page:
- “Produced value videos” with no overt calls to action to encourage sharing
- “Live value videos” which Facebook favors over pre-recorded videos
- “Live perfect webinars” which provide value but also directly sell products/services
The goal is to first provide value through various content (“jabbing”) to build your audience, before directly selling (“right hook”). This increases engagement and trust.
Tools exist to live stream pre-recorded videos, making them appear live to users. Live content generally performs better on Facebook.

Here are the key points from the provided text:

Kaelin started using a script called “ck” on her Facebook Lives to drive people into her front-end funnels. Jaime Cross modified this script into the “Five-Minute Perfect Webinar” which is a simple yet powerful script for Facebook Lives.
The author will repurpose content that performs well on other social platforms by reposting it natively on their Facebook page without linking out. This is compared to TV reruns - familiar content people may re-engage with as they wait for new episodes.
They always boost newly posted content, spending $10-20 per post. They aim to break even on ad spend for Lives promoting funnels. Sometimes Live video ads remain profitable for months.
Groups are an important strategy as Facebook promotes them. The author’s group has over 200,000 members added organically. They hold weekly “hangouts” in the group to connect with members.
Messenger is another key distribution channel. The author recommends using it in an engaging way like quizzes rather than annoying subscribers. They grow their list through opt-ins on pages/forms and by offering lead magnets on Live videos for people to comment to receive.
They publish to Messenger lists about once a week, aiming for a conversational style over direct messages. The goal is to increase engagement to continue sending future messages.
Google allows users to set up automatic conversations within Messenger to reach followers on Facebook. However, the author prefers to use bots to guide people to content on Facebook (like a Live video) and conduct any selling off the Messenger platform.
The publishing plan provides an at-a-glance overview of where to focus efforts on Facebook - the personal page, Fan page, groups, and Messenger lists. It includes what content to share in each area and a breakdown of daily and weekly activities.
The steps guide users through setting up their profile, joining relevant groups to reach over 1 million people, providing value in groups without directly promoting, boosting content on the Fan page to target followers of interests, and directing traffic to online funnels.
While some focus only on paid ads, the author recommends also building a content foundation for long-term stability as platforms transition to paid models over time. Paid ads can amplify created content, videos and promote them to prospect pools.
The framework’s goal is to earn and buy traffic, then own it by moving people through front-end funnels and building stronger relationships on the personal profile and in private groups.
Google’s original search algorithm ranked pages higher based primarily on the number of backlinks from other websites. Getting more backlinks than competitors would push a site to the top of search results.
Many people started spamming the algorithm by mass-posting links everywhere to get more backlinks. This clogged search results with low-quality spam pages.
Google responded with “PageRank,” which assigned quality scores to websites based on their own links/authority. Backlinks from more authoritative sites carried more weight.
However, spammers then focused on buying links from higher PageRank sites. Google began examining on-page content/structure more closely.
Marketers evolved techniques to optimize pages in ways that pleased Google’s algorithm. Software was created to automate optimization.
Google is in an ongoing battle with marketers trying to “hack” or reverse engineer its algorithm for commercial gain. The algorithm constantly changes to prioritize user experience over manipulation.
Understanding an algorithm’s history helps anticipate future changes, rather than trying to exploit the current one. The key is adapting quickly to changes in what Google and other platforms prioritize.
In the early 2010s, Google launched several algorithm updates dubbed “Panda”, “Penguin” and “Hummingbird” to crack down on content farms, link spamming and better understand search intent. This cleaned up the search results.
“Panda” in 2011 penalized sites that scraped or copied content from other sites without adding value. “Penguin” in 2012 penalized sites buying or exchanging links to boost rankings.
“Hummingbird” in 2013 was a major update that analyzed the intent behind searches, not just keywords, using artificial intelligence to better match queries to results.
“Mobilegeddon” in 2015 prioritized mobile-friendly sites as mobile searches surpassed desktop. This forced many sites to optimize for mobile.
“Fred” in 2017 penalized sites that prioritized monetization over user experience, having low engagement, thin content or heavy advertising.
The updates show Google’s priority is providing the best user experience. Sites need to align with this goal to get ongoing traffic from organic search rankings. Figuring out how to best serve users is the secret to success.
The passage discusses using Brian Dean’s “skyscraper technique” to rank highly for competitive keywords on Google.
The skyscraper technique involves finding content already ranking well for a target keyword, then creating new content that improves upon it by being longer, more up-to-date, better designed, and more thorough.
After creating the new “skyscraper” content, the goal is to get links pointing to it from the same sites that are already linking to the similar, existing content. This helps the new content outrank the original.
Methods outlined for getting links include emailing sites that link to similar/competing content, as well as websites linking to other highly ranked pages for the target keyword.
Other link building techniques mentioned include guest posting on relevant blogs and becoming a contributor to authority sites in the niche.
In addition to organic link building, the passage notes some may choose to “buy their way in” through advertising or paid links to more quickly rank for very competitive keywords.
A content publishing plan template is provided to help systematize the ranking process through various SEO techniques over time.
The person contacted several SEO experts and learned that most were good at ranking pages but not at creating products. So they would rank pages and sell ads or be affiliates to monetize the traffic.
This gave the person the idea to negotiate deals with these top-ranked pages to put ads for their funnels/products, rather than trying to outrank them. This turned on a faucet of qualified traffic immediately.
Traffic from pages that are already ranked highly for certain keywords is more valuable than traffic directly from Google, as those people have done more ‘clicks’ to find the product and are more serious/likely to convert.
The three-step process of searching on Google, clicking a result, then clicking an ad/link on that page sends warmer, higher-intent traffic than a direct click from Google.
The goal is to get ads, links, articles etc. on already top-ranked pages to access their qualified traffic flows while also working to rank their own pages over time. This fills the funnel quickly.
YouTube is highlighted as a unique platform where videos can continue growing in views over long periods, unlike other social platforms where content expires. Getting videos ranked on YouTube is a good traffic strategy.
The speaker saw a powerful YouTube marketing tactic demonstrated by Joe involving buying ads that play before videos on influential YouTube channels. This allows leveraging their credibility to drive people into one’s funnels.
Two Dream 100 lists were recommended - people/brands to target, and keyword phrases to create videos around.
When setting up a YouTube channel, focus the name, about page, images etc. on branding/value rather than keywords alone.
To rank for keywords, identify a “root” keyword and record videos around variations by appending words (e.g. “how to shave” videos on shaving different body parts).
The process of creating discoverable videos was outlined, with a recommended 5-step script structure: hook, trailer, intro, story/content, offer. This is designed to grab attention, pull people into the channel and convert viewers into subscribers and leads.

Here is a 15-second concise introduction for a video on creating engaging YouTube videos:

Want to attract more views and subscribers on YouTube? I’ll show you my simple five-step formula for crafting videos that keep people watching. You’ll learn how to hook viewers from the start, tell an engaging story, and give them a compelling reason to subscribe. Stick around to learn my proven strategies for YouTube success.

Trailer: [Optional 4-5 second branded intro or graphics]

Intro: Hey everyone, my name is [Your Name] and I create videos about [Your Niche]. I’ve seen a lot of success using YouTube to grow my business, and I want to help you do the same. Whether you’re brand new or a seasoned YouTuber, in this video I’m sharing my formula for crafting videos that viewers actually want to watch all the way through.

Story/Content: [Spend 7-12 minutes covering the following:]

Step 1: Coming up with a keyword-optimized title and hooking thumbnail
Step 2: Starting with a compelling 15-second hook at the beginning
Step 3: Telling your story or sharing your information in an engaging way
Step 4: Giving the video structure with sections and transitions
Step 5: Adding a strong call to action at the end to subscribe

Offer: If you found this video helpful, be sure to like, comment and subscribe so you don’t miss any future videos. My goal is to help as many people as possible succeed on YouTube, so let me know if you have any other questions!

Collaborations or “collabs” involve making a video with another influencer and having them post it on their channel with links back to your channel. This provides exposure to their audience.
Sometimes it’s a one-for-one swap, where you each post a video linking to the other. But it doesn’t always need to be directly reciprocal.
Alternative options include having someone post a video for you in exchange for featuring them on your podcast. This gives them exposure through your main show.
There are creative ways to structure collabs to benefit both parties, such as playlists or video series on someone else’s channel. The goal is to find win-win collaborations.

The author discusses challenges with promoting and growing a podcast organically, as most podcast listeners only subscribe to around 6 shows. They typically find new shows through recommendations from friends or other podcasts they listen to.

The author’s strategy was to build a “Dream 100” list of relevant podcasts their target audience listens to. They then reached out and got interviewed on as many of those podcasts as possible. When asked how listeners can learn more about them, they promoted their own podcast. This brought in new subscribers organically.

Jordan Harbinger, a famous podcaster, lost his original show but was then able to grow a new one quickly using the same strategy - getting interviewed on other shows to promote his new podcast.

The author realized podcast ads are also an effective way to promote a podcast on other shows. They began buying ads and full episodes on relevant shows.

Podcasts can also be leveraged to promote other projects and funnels, like new books or webinars. The author promotes these when interviewed on other shows. Purchasing podcast ads is another way to drive traffic to other projects and funnels.

The key is to focus on one primary platform initially, like the platform your podcast is on, build your audience there before expanding to additional platforms. Trying to do everything at once spreads efforts too thin.

If you’ve developed your own AI assistant for conversations, or integrated with Siri or Alexa, using those virtual assistants to promote your content is a way to reach more people who may never see your push or email promotions otherwise.

Affiliate Outreach: If you’ve built relationships with affiliates, they can help amplify your message to their lists as well to further expand the reach.

So in summary, when you release a new primary show or secondary content, the order of operations I recommend is:

Promote to your email list FIRST
Promote on Messenger
Promote with desktop push
Promote through any virtual assistants
Ask affiliates to share with their lists
Promote to followers on primary platform
Promote to followers on secondary platforms

By using your owned distribution channels like email and messenger before going to owned networks, you get the immediate spike you need from loyal fans to signal to algorithms that this content deserves more distribution. It has also gone through fewer filters, so the selling message will be stronger. After that initial launch period, you can rely more on your organic reach across networks to distribute the content further.

Early internet marketers faced a choice between branding and direct response approaches. The author initially focused on direct response and conversion optimization.
When Google search changed, the author tried many traffic acquisition techniques, including writing press releases. However, press outlets rejected the releases because the end links were just funnels/squeeze pages rather than full websites.
The author realized they needed a “brand hub” website to satisfy press outlets and link to, while still funneling visitors into conversion optimized funnels.
They created a basic brand hub site with more content that looked like a traditional site. This allowed resubmitted press releases to get accepted. Hundreds of accepted releases drove links and traffic to the hub site, which then funneled visitors into the core funnels.
The brand hub approach allowed the author to continue optimizing funnels for conversion while also accessing new traffic sources by satisfying expectations of a more fully developed website presence. It blended direct response and branding approaches.
The author created a brand hub website early on, which helped increase his SEO ranking and traffic. It also gave him more credibility with traditional media outlets, allowing him to get more press coverage.
However, he did not fully leverage the potential of the brand hub site over the past 15 years.
Recently, two members of his inner circle, Mike Schmidt and AJ Rivera, pitched him on an idea they called the “Funnel Hub.” This evolved the concept of the original brand hub site by better organizing all of an entrepreneur’s funnels, offers, media, and more in one centralized location.
A funnel hub captures all the “shadow traffic” and searches that come from paid and organic sources, rather than leaving this potential undiscovered. It helps guide visitors through an entrepreneur’s value ladder.
The author was convinced and had Mike and AJ build him a funnel hub, which he continues to use successfully today. He shares how to create a basic funnel hub layout and functions.
Leveraging a funnel hub can maximize the benefits from all sources of traffic and earned media exposure over time as a brand grows.

Here is a summary of the key points about distribution channels from the passage:

The sharks/investors on Shark Tank look for businesses they can plug into their existing distribution channels, which allows them to quickly generate sales and profits.
Each shark has built up their own specific distribution channel like TV (Lori), influencer marketing (Mark), retail partnerships (Daymond), etc.
The passage discusses some common distribution channels like email lists, Facebook ads, and buying ads in other people’s email newsletters.
Other potential distribution channels mentioned include Facebook Messenger lists, desktop push notifications, direct mail campaigns, text message lists, Facebook groups, LinkedIn groups, forums, blog ads, website exit popups.
The key is to identify people in your industry or niche who have built up their own audiences and channels, and find ways to buy ads or promote through those channels to access new customers. This allows scaling traffic and sales without building everything from scratch.

Here is a summary of the key points about building an affiliate network from the passage:

An affiliate network allows you to leverage other people’s audiences and marketing efforts to promote your products, without having to do all the work yourself. Affiliates are motivated by commission-based compensation.
If you’ve followed the Dream 100 process of identifying and building relationships with influencers in your industry, those people are your potential army of affiliates.
The first step is to formally recruit them by asking them to become affiliates. Leverage your existing relationships when making the ask.
Affiliates need incentive to promote. You provide this by having a good commission structure and high-quality affiliate products/services they can feel good about recommending.
Train your affiliates so they can become “super affiliates” who drive a high volume of sales. Provide them educational resources and best practices.
Compensate affiliates well through commissions for successful referrals. Payments motivate affiliates to continue promoting on an ongoing basis.

So in summary, the key is to identify and nurture relationships with potential affiliates in advance, then formally recruit, incentivize, train and reward that affiliate network to leverage their promotional efforts on your behalf.

The author recruits affiliates to promote new product launches. Getting affiliates on board helps spread the word and can boost sales significantly.
Affiliates are asked to block out launch dates on their calendar in advance so they can dedicate time to promoting. Not all affiliates will participate though.
Special packages are sent to top “Dream 100” affiliates to get their attention and interest them in promoting upcoming launches and products.
It’s important to understand different affiliate motivations like commission levels or product fit, and cater to their needs. The goal is to serve customers and bring in more sales.
Affiliates are officially onboarded through an affiliate program platform like Backpack to track sales and pay commissions.
Affiliates are given reasons to promote like new product launches, individual launch turns in a rolling launch, or special offers tailored to them.
Training and resources are provided to affiliates, including copy-paste materials, to help both new and experienced affiliates be successful in promoting.
High commission rates and bonuses are offered to compete for top affiliates and properly compensate them as the sales team. The goal is to structure payments so affiliates prioritize and heavily promote the product.
There are two main ways to pay affiliates - a percentage of sales or a flat commission per sale (CPA).
The author’s rule is to typically pay affiliates 50% of the profit on each sale. So if costs are 20% of the sale price, affiliates get 50% of the remaining 80%.
For physical products with higher costs, affiliates may get 50% of the lower profit percentage (e.g. 50% of 40% profit).
For low-cost front-end offers, affiliates may get 100% or more commission to really incentivize promotion.
Paying $80 CPA or more on a free offer can work if the customer lifetime value is higher than the upfront cost.
Start at or below 100% commissions on front-end offers until you understand customer values and can float the upfront costs.
Building a successful affiliate program through treating affiliates well and helping them make money has brought in more traffic and sales than any other marketing technique for the author.

So in summary, the key points are understanding costs, paying affiliates a fair percentage of profits, and incentivizing promotion of front-end offers to acquire new customers. Treating affiliates well builds a powerful marketing force.

When first learning about making money from classified ads, the author was intrigued and tried to save up money to buy classified ads.
He saw a magazine with many “submarkets” or ways to make money, like selling gold chains or painting stars on ceilings. He requested information kits on all the opportunities.
He received hundreds of letters pitching different business opportunities. Some he ignored, others kept him up at night dreaming of how to get money to try them. He did chores to earn money for some kits.
As an adult, the author uses his 12-year-old self “Rusty” as an avatar to view marketing approaches. He analyzes whether something would grab Rusty’s attention or get thrown away.
The main point is that marketing must create a “bridge” from what people want to the solution being offered. The “warmer” the audience, the shorter the bridge can be. But cold audiences require a longer, step-by-step process to warm them up through stories and content before exposing them to offers.
The author offers to help convert cold traffic into warmer traffic sources by buying ads in less targeted locations like email lists and banner ads.
They recommend initially focusing on warm traffic from your existing contacts/customers rather than trying to chase bigger audiences with cold traffic. Grab the “big pile of cash” from your warm traffic first.
Cold traffic can be useful for scaling past $9 figures in revenue, but it requires mastering cold traffic acquisition.
Other growth hacks mentioned include modeling techniques used by successful companies like Dropbox, Facebook, and Hotmail to promote viral/referral traffic. For example:
Giving users incentives to share on social media (Dropbox)
Importing contact lists and inviting friends (Facebook)
Signature lines in emails promoting the service (Hotmail)
The author discusses implementing similar hacks in ClickFunnels like giving rewards for referrals and including affiliate links in page footers. These tiny changes produced major traffic and revenue growth over time.

The passage discusses using Russell Brunson’s books DotCom Secrets, Expert Secrets, and this book together to build a holistic digital marketing strategy. It recommends deciding on target customers, choosing an initial platform, building a Dream 100 list of influencers on that platform, engaging with them, learning platform tactics, and focusing energy until hitting $1 million in revenue. As revenue grows, the strategy is to layer on additional platforms while continually reinvesting profits into advertising. The goal is consistent traffic growth through ongoing outreach, promoting, and finding new influencers. Reading the books together provides tested principles for success. In summary, the approach focuses on strong customer understanding, starting small on one platform, engaging influencers, scaling across platforms, and never stopping traffic-building efforts.

Here is a summary of the key points in the document:

The document outlines 20 secrets for generating traffic and sales online. It discusses strategies for email marketing, affiliate marketing, social media marketing, viral launches, and more.
It acknowledges many pioneering marketers who helped develop these strategies, including John Reese, Mark Joyner, Chet Holmes, Dan Kennedy and Jay Abraham.
Russell Brunson’s own journey in online marketing began after discovering one of John Reese’s launches that made over $1 million in a single day. This inspired Brunson to learn traffic generation secrets.
Brunson co-founded the software company ClickFunnels to help other entrepreneurs implement sales funnels and traffic strategies.
The document presents proven frameworks and tactics for driving targeted traffic at scale online through various paid, earned and owned media channels. It aims to arm entrepreneurs with the full set of secrets needed for long-term success.
Brunson credits the many partners and mentors who helped him develop, test and scale these approaches over 15+ years, and acknowledges John Reese for allowing him to continue sharing the “Traffic Secrets” legacy.

#book-summary