This post is actually an excerpt from an email I sent out recently to members of TopTierIncome.com as well as anyone else who has been on my Internet marketing team in the last 3 years.
It contains some comments that will agitate many people, especially a small but powerful cluster of folks out there who have a strong vested interest in not disrupting the status quo around the online home business industry.
For my part here’s my commitment… I will approve ANY non-spam comment that is left on this post. If I’ve said something in error PLEASE let the world know it (just don’t attach your affiliate link within the comment or it will be auto-flagged as spam).
It has been suggested by a few members of what I half-jokingly refer to as the “Internet Illuminati” that comments on my last post were being censored, given that of the 24 comments received at last count 100% of them trended in support of my comments.
Hard to believe that the truth resonates with people, huh? 
Anyway if any of this strikes your fancy and you want to take the next step of turning it into action (and profits) you can do so here (long version/sales letter) or here (quick sign-up/homepage).
So here’s the email excerpt (I’ve omitted the portions of the email that are only relevant to system members):
I am sending this email to all current TopTierIncome.com members as well as all current and previous members of my marketing team over the last 3 years.
This is mainly an update for TTI members however for the rest of my team present and past it will serve as an update as to what’s been going on and where we are headed from here.
Even for current TTI members I encourage you to read all the way to the end. The logic behind what we are doing here, and the history behind it, is important to understand for shaping your brand (and conversations) going forward.
I have had numerous inquiries over the last few weeks from people along the lines of:
“So Jeff, rumor is you’ve fixed what’s broken with the whole ‘make money on the Internet’ thing… Is that true? If so, how?”
Well it’s a more involved question than I can tackle in one email but the short answer is yes, we have assembled what I believe is the most complete system for creating that fabled “rising tide” that we hear so much talk about (but haven’t seen anywhere online for the last 2 years).
The reasons for this come down to understanding a few fundamental changes that have happened online in the last year or two and being willing to meaningfully adapt the way a marketing system works tot he new paradigms. This unfortunately is not something many marketing systems were willing to do since these companies had sunk so much money and brand equity into technology that worked in certain ways and instructional content that taught these ways.
A few examples:
- Reliance on replicated sites – I discuss this more later in this email but basically while there is still some merit to an individual using a “replicated site” to promote an offer to their own list or through some privately-known alternative traffic source, as a general principle for building a marketing system that supposedly offers widespread promise the replicated site is dead.
Period.
When a quick Alexa search of the 100 largest websites on the Internet reveals 90+ sites that do not accept advertising that points to replicated site you know the Internet tide has turned against “carbon copy” style marketing and any system that makes this the core of their marketing approach is in denial.
TopTierIncome.com takes a completely different approach… one that dovetails into the next paradigm shift in online marketing:
- To become a truly self-sufficient entrepreneur (and really tap into the massive ’7 figure’ promise that the Internet holds) marketers will have to learn how to create their own sales funnels. This reality has actually been known for a while but nobody wanted to really admit it due to the widely-held viewpoint that teaching “newbies” to deal with things like web hosting, website design/management, offer creation, copywriting, etc. was a recipe for having a bunch of pissed off people claiming “this is waaay more complicated than I signed up for!”
And frankly, given the resources most marketing systems are dealing with there was and is a lot of truth to that concern. Building your own sales funnel is a fairly involved process and given how much the “make money online” industry is built around promising “easy” “duplicatable” “carbon copy” methods it would have been undermining to start telling people that this is what they would need to do.
Unfortunately though for the last two years it has also been dishonest to pretend otherwise… Whether we’ve all been in willfully misleading or simply in denial is splitting hairs… the point is I’m calling BS on the whole “our members are not capable of doing the things we actually do, so let’s teach them to do things that don’t work because they make our business sound easier.”
(Anyone tried generating home business leads with social media lately? How’d that work out? Exactly. So why is every guru and system out there teaching it as a viable method for lead generation?)
*Note I’m not saying social media doesn’t have a place in an online funnel, but that place is not at the front end lead generation for affiliate or network marketing offers.
And there are a myriad of other ways that things have changed… in a perfect world I’d take a year off and write a book but with the way the Internet is going by the time the book was done we would need another book. Suffice for now to say that TopTierIncome.com not only acknowledges the ways in which the online home business industry looks nothing like it did a year or two ago but we actually have built a new approach that works (instead of sweating bullets of denial as we row upstream and wonder why conversions are down and nobody’s getting results).
We have things like:
- A Traffic co-op. We work together to get better leads at better prices instead of teaching our members to go compete with each other in the marketplace and drive prices up.
- A closing system. We don’t try to convince you that we’re gonna turn you into a ‘prospecting’ or ‘closing’ machine. The bottom line is that some people are cut out for phone sales and some people aren’t but rather than sell solutions promising to turn you into the next Tom Hopkins we make you an offer… we’ll close all your high-end sales for you for in exchange for 25% of the commissions. it’s a win-win, especially when you consider that you are currently giving up 100% commission on every sale you’re not making!
- An easy way for people to build their own funnels. This one’s a biggie. Remember what we said above… for over a year now nobody has wanted to confront the necessity of teaching people to build their own funnels since using widely-available tools to do so (like WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, Squarespace, Blogspot, and other online platforms) was next to impossible. All the systems out there are built for either blogging or content sites, but there was nothing that made it easy to build the range of page and site classes needed to create an online funnel (capture pages, one-time-offer pages, exit pop ups, sales letters, shopping cart pages with upsells, hubsites, jump pages spread through a funnel,multiple domains, etc.) Until now. With the HubOpus website builder system (included with your TTI membership) all these things and more become as easy as checking boxes and clicking buttons. HubOpus is the ONLY content management system (CMS) website platform out there that is built do to the things marketers need to do, without requiring custom programming.
- Training that is linear and not confusing. With the Internet changing as much as it does other systems seem to have taken the approach that to keep up they need to put out a new training each week on “What’s Working Now”. What’s ironic about this is that it’s a self-perpetuating problem that goes like this:
- Current methods aren’t working (or more precisely current methods have gotten too expensive or complex to teach to beginners)
- Let’s find something new we can teach
- Okay found it, let’s have a training on it
- Okay we just showed it to 500 marketers on a webinar
- Okay the cost to do what we were doing just quadrupled because 500 people are now competing with us (and each other)
- Okay the owner of whatever marketing method just banned us from their platform b/c our members flooded their support with inquiries, half of which were complaining about the wait time or price increases brought on by the recent flood of our members.
- Okay find new method
- Repeat cycle
Get it? it’s ridiculous. And it all stems from one main problem we alluded to earlier… the traffic sources that DO have enough capacity to accommodate thousands of marketers (like Google, Facebook, YouTube, etc.) require sophisticated, unique, standalone funnels to advertise on and are primarily interested in advertisers who can spend $10K a month or more. So new marketers are left fighting over the scraps of advertising that are still available to them, and whenever some little untapped pocket is identified that does produce steady quality leads it had best be protected or else it will be destroyed as soon as word gets out.
The only question I have is: Why do other “leaders” in this industry not see the value in facing up to the way things are???
Since myself and our team got out of denial and started dealing with things as they are we have seen exponential growth, both in team size and also in sales per team member. We have launched our own system, TopTierIncome.com, which is now seen by those in the know as the best (and perhaps only) way to make real money online for the average person getting started now.
Between the co-op, closing support, website system, and revamped training approach TopTierIncome.com now contains all the pieces needed to deliver on the much heralded “turnkey marketing system” we have all been hearing about for years. And all it took to create it was a willingness to see things as they are and challenge the status quo a bit.
Reminds me of the song by Muse called Knights of Cydonia.
The opening lyrics go:
Come ride with me
through the veins of history.
I’ll show you how God
falls asleep on the job.
And how can we win
when fools can be kings?
Don’t waste your time or
time will waste you.
Translation: The Internet marketing Gods (gurus) have been asleep on the job, appointing fools for kings (trainers) and wasting new marketers’ time learning methods that don’t work or won’t work soon.
Okay, cool. I think I’ve said my peace about all that…
So like I said, if my ideas here strike a chord and you’d like to be a part of the next wave of Internet home business success stories then come join us!
Jeff,
While I totally agree with you on your assessment of what’s lacking and why people aren’t making the money they’ve been led to believe they can make, in the spirit of being candid and uncensored…
I have to take issue with one point. While HubOpus is a terrific product, there is still a learning curve…and the learning curve is no less than WordPress.org. Google has a major crush on WordPress, and rumor has it…it’s love.
It is very easy to teach anyone to put up a fully functioning, seo’d site using a ready made theme on WordPress. So I’m not knocking what you’re offering, but we’ve found in coaching our students that there’s more way to skin a cat…Wordpress and HubOpus…both great! Both work.
Cheryl;,
Yup I hear ya regarding the ability to create a fully-functioning, seo’d site with either WP or HubOpus however, I’m not just talking about creating content sites…
Try creating a page within a WordPress site that is a simple, single-column linear capture page (something like this). It’s next to impossible without a ton of custom code. You have to override all the theme elements (headers, backgrounds, etc.) as well as the page formatting, which requires detailed knowledge of html, css, and WP architecture and will take even an experienced programmer an hour or more to do. With HubOpus you simply check a few boxes that disable the theme on a per page basis and another box that changes the page layout to single column. Boom takes even a novice less than a minute to do.
Then we get into loading up the capture form… Even using the Aweber WP plugin requires well, installing a plugin, which is it’s own hassle for people who are brand new. With HubOpus it’s as simple as selecting one of the capture form templates and clicking a button.
Okay how about this one? Your WordPress site is http://www.myhomebizrules.com. You decide that you want to send paid traffic to a different domain so you don’t interfere with SEO or analytics (ex. myhomebizrules.net). But you’d like your new .net domain to have some of the same content as the old .com domain. With WP you’re faced with creating a whole new WP installation, with separate hosting, and having to maintain content now in two places. Whereas with a HubOpus Legion system both sites can share content from within one CMS.
Oh yeah speaking of hosting… DNS records, name servers, server data plans, etc. HubOpus is self-hosted so no installing files or dealing with hosting companies.
Different navigation bars for different pages, a gazillion built-in widgets, capture page templates, easy shopping cart integration, one-time offer and upsell features native, and so forth…
For the things marketers do (not just blah blah blogging or content sites) I don’t see HubOpus having any competition…
It’s a fantastic product…no arguments here, Jeff.
Now get it fully and easily integrated with Infusionsoft’s web forms, and I’ll be super impressed
At the moment, the only membership sites that work with Infusionsoft are InfusionWP and Customer Hub.
To quote Dumb and Dumber… “That sounds like a dare Harry”.
Our TopTierIncome.com system is actually a merger of HubOpus and InfusionSoft and is fully leveraging IS through web forms, eCommerce, and their API. We haven’t seen enough demand from customers to deploy it into HubOpus at large but now that your comment here has laid down the gauntlet…
I know Steve quite well (the mad scientist behind HubOpus). He does not take challenges lightly.
Thanks for the great input Cheryl!
Thanks for doing all you’re doing, Jeff.
We’re certified Infusionsoft consultants and hadn’t heard anything about a merger. Is just acquired Customer Hub. I knew Steve was working on making HubOpus able to integrate with IS, but with my forms in Landing Pages, I had to hard code them to make them work with Infusionsoft. Steve helped me some, but I’m glad I know html.
Cool beans if you and Steve can pull it off. We’ve got a lot of clients that would appreciate it besides us.
Yeouchh !! Seems like I ought to scare up a few grand and get with you on this. Almost all of the above discussion is Greek to me, which is why I DO appreciate the comments about the how and why. The what is really quite beyond me at present, yet the how and why leads me to believe in your Who. For someone as “newbie” as me the trust factor is HUGE and seeing the above leaves me the feeling I’m being led by someone who knows, rather than pushed by those who forgot to know better. Thanks !
To: Mr. Bruce Hinson,
I just wanted to say cuddos to you! That was my sentiment EXACTLY! I loved your comment and I too, am a newbie who’s deeply considering joining Jeff’s program. About two years ago, I’ve accidently signed up for (and am STILL paying $10.00/mth for) a program which has a lot of training, but seems almost impossible for anyone dumber than I to implement. I just found out recently in their members’ section that it says in fine print that their program will NOT provide its members with a whopping six figure income, and should only be used as a SUPPLIMENT to their primary income source: I’ve done nothing with this program so far, because I know that if I DON’T come up with a primary business to attach itself to it, then ALL the produce of my recruiting effort will in fact, roll up to the originators of the program, and my leads will have been underutilized; as well as my profits!
Anyways…Thank you Mr. Hinson…and Mr. Lerner, you’re probably already aware of the fact that you’re slowly but surely making me a believer that I CAN be like you some day!
Love the post. The truth needs to be told. We had to go outside of these marketing systems and learn from various coaches on how to build a proper funnel. When we did, we made more sales from our own products than we ever made in any marketing system. It cost us private 1 on 1 coaching, time and money…but the learning curve was well worth it.
Funny, that we always knew that major pieces where missing from these ‘marketing systems.’ Your gut will tell you. (Our gut told us that if they taught us how to market properly, then we would be direct competition). People will need to learn to market properly, and I’m glad that you were able to peak behind the curtain and learn how the business truly works. I’m really happy to know that you will teach people the correct way to do this. We wish you a fruitful and fulfilling journey with your business venture.
Tami and hubby
Fascinating information and insights. Thanks for your honesty about the Internet.
Jeff,
I have, since and before I met you months ago, tired of the hype, the ‘gurus’, and the noise of this ‘internet marketing space’ without real hope, products, or services that can help the real peeps!
I love the authenticity of where you and Steve, and TTI is coming from. In OUR case, a rising tide can float lots more boats than in almost anything I have seen, tried, drank, drunk, spent $ on, etc!
Breaking out some of the truths of what works for the new person online, and what is happening really for the ‘gurus’ online, and how REAL peeps can make $ online is S-W-E-E-T!
Love the context of this post JL.
Thanks,
Joel Drake
I agree with both of you…on some points. There are “newbie” marketers who aren’t newbies when it comes to Information Technology and building what marketers need with WP or other similar systems (myself). However, as much as it excites me on some level to learn even more about site building using WP (which Google does seem to love) for the purposes of being a marketer…I just don’t have time. My time is better spent making money, not websites. I’m so looking forward to using HubOpus, I can’t tell you. Maybe after I can pick and choose the days or weeks I “work”, I will revisit my interest in learning really cool WP tricks etc just for the sake of doing it. For now, I’ll leverage the sh^t out of something that does exactly what I need it to do without investing valuable time that could be better spent on IPA.
IPA… India Pale Ale or Income Producing Activities?
Either way I agree… good to spend time on both!
Love ya bro.
Great stuff Jeff, keep it up. Excellent webinar this morning as well. Very best wishes to you and Steve.
Jeff,
I am calling this your “Jerry Maguire” moment — only difference is – the other marketers are more than willing to follow you in your new venture.
I really like the way you are approaching this project in both “mission” and “execution”!
All the best
Derek
I’m sure many of us would love to be a bug on the wall to hear what the MPs are saying now about PROElite. Funny how when I checked the stats on the PRO website today I noticed that in the past few days they have removed the actual numbers. Now you just get a listing of who has sold the most BB’s etc. and the most increase in the last 30 days but with NO NUMBERS. They remind me of some of the large corps I have worked for. They think people are so stupid they won’t notice that the numbers are suddenly missing. Could it possibly be because people like myself began comparing numbers, averages, medians etc. and could see the trend and where that was headed? When that happens…you’d better start asking the hard questions like Jeff did because something isn’t right in Oz, LOL.
One more comment you all may find very funny. I posted a question on PRO’s FB wall about why weren’t the actual numbers listed anymore…very innocent. They replaced my question in about 10 minutes with this quote…”"If A equals success, then the formula is A = X + Y + Z. X is work. Y is play. Z is keep your mouth shut.” – Albert Einstein
As you have noted, Jeff, numbers can be a bitch. Any any institution afraid of the truth is usually trying to hide something.
Your direction and strategy are very sound. Any and all businesses need to alter their strategies to address the constant changes in the market. You’ve provided some very innovative ideas and taken the appropriate actions to prove everybody else wrong. Onwards and upwards.
PS – I love Derek’s analogy – this is your Jerry Macguire moment. Passion and Vision equals Success.
Been there done that. When I first started on this journey as an internet marketer I was overwhelmed realizing that there was so much to learn. I looked in many directions, joined several different companies waded through the hype and exited when I felt what they were offering was not going to get me where I wanted to go. I was also learning whose who in the online community and began following the leaders. Got on their mailing lists and watched them until I got sick of them. I continued trudging through the training materials wondering when it was going to prove itself of value, wondering if what they were teaching was still valid. I was never looking at things from a single vantage point but listening and reading from several vantage points all at once. I knew things were not measuring up to what they were being billed as. As my understanding increased of how the internet works and my websites were coming together with the easy to use and easy to learn system by Steve Nyhoff I began to notice how the traffic to my own organic sites was doing much better than the best “high converting company duplicated capture page” ever did. I knew what was going on with Google and was scratching my head thinking so why are they still using duplicated capture pages? I became a skeptic of the number one internet marketing company wondering if anything they were teaching was even valid any longer. I could see how marketers were following every trend like a pool of fish in dried up waters when someone would come up with a new exciting idea. It seemed funny to me that their websites would crash with all that sudden traffic. I saw the same people following these trends. Then when I heard what Jeff was doing and why he was doing it, I saw the truth and knew he was being open, honest and transparent, a breath of fresh air. Thanks Jeff for being a man of integrity, and braving to be honest in a dishonest world.
This has been a real ‘ JJ wake up’ call for me Jeff .Having joined Pro at the time of the Google slap & the move from WMI to Automatic Millionaire at the end of 2010 I guess my timing wasn’t exactly great . Here I was a newbie marketer just getting started, I was full of hope & hungry to learn how to create an income online, but all I faced for the next year was frustration in trying to make sales. I too started looking at the numbers on the leader board & could see the sales figures were looking bad for even the top earners. Interesting comment from Scott that the numbers are no longer shown, maybe that’s why the Forum got shut down in 2010, probably too many negative comments from members even back then?? On a positive note although I only made a few sales I did learn a lot from the education at Pro & I have also taught myself how to build a WP blog & have since written many posts & articles so all is not lost & I’m sure I will one day profit from my year of study with Pro. I wish you well with TTI, I really like the concept & your honesty, I will be giving it some consideration over the next couple of weeks. All the best Rob
I have been the person “chasing” the dream through a number of MLM’s. I have been told, and have bought into the fact that, I will not be able to effectively and successfully build a business of this sort without the mastery and use of the internet. Herein lies the problem!! I have ordered or opted into SOOOO many bogus sites and companies that my TRUST meter has almost disentigrated!!! I bumped onto a site for Jeff last week and have been watching and contemplating ever since. There is “something” that is separating you from everyone else and I am wanting to trust and say, okay this is what and where and WHO I need to follow to ULTIMATELY land the opportunity to build something viable for my family and myself. I’m still approaching with caution but this last write-up you submitted does speak volumes for you in my estimation.
I continue to be interested in what Jeff has to saw and I appreciate his bravery and honesty for “telling like it is” when others would prefer to stay under the veil.
Keep it up Jeff!
What are the differences in tti and the millionaireOS? Why two different companies?
I want to sell organic health food products on the internet. Don’t know anything about the internet. I think I trust what you’re doing here. how could I get started? How do you create a “funnel”?