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Editor:
Today we’re joined by a marketer and entrepreneur with a rich background stretching back to a keen interest in direct marketing that goes back to the 1980s. Over the years, Mark Bishop has spearheaded successful launches, including Niche Synergy. With his latest endeavor BLOX, he’s set to guide aspiring entrepreneurs through the intricacies of affiliate marketing. And from his home base in Bristol Mark balances family and a thriving online career. So let’s dive into the journey and insights of Mark Bishop. Welcome, Mark. It’s great to meet you.
Mark Bishop:
Thanks for having me.
Editor:
Well, as I mentioned, your interest in marketing goes maybe all the way back to the 1980s.
Mark Bishop:
Yeah, shows my age. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, back then it was direct mail, it was mail order. I was just fascinated by the whole concept really.
Editor:
And what made you get an interest in that? Was it just like letters you’d received through the door?
Mark Bishop:
Yeah, well, everything really, I mean, it was a lot of people would call it junk mail. I used to term it as being gold. I collect it, I still collect it, now I have sales letters going back maybe 10, 20 years. I just find it fascinating that the written words, a sales page could inspire you to buy something.
Editor:
Yeah, absolutely.
Mark Bishop:
Yeah, it does go all the way back to the 80s and yeah, it was just fascinating stuff really.
Editor:
Do you use that, all the letters you’ve received over the years, do you use that as inspiration now for your own product launches?
Mark Bishop:
I do, yes. Like I say, I did collect a lot of it and I still refer to it. You can find a lot of it online now. But yeah, I still refer to it. It’s just fascinating stuff.
Editor:
Really, and who would you say has influenced you the most from the letters that you received? Any names stand out?
Mark Bishop:
There were some, I mean, I don’t really fixate on particular copywriters, but I can remember signing up to a newsletter, and it was a company called Streetwise Marketing. I think they’re still going, actually. And some of their sales letters were just great. I even bought some of their products.
Editor:
So they actually encouraged you to actually put your hand in your pocket as well. You know it’s a success when that happens.
Mark Bishop:
Yeah, absolutely.
Editor:
So we mentioned that this interest goes all the way back to the 1980s, but when did you start online? When did you start your own business?
Mark Bishop:
Well, I kind of fell into it. I mean, I was interested, like we’ve already discussed in direct marketing, but for most of my working life, I worked in the construction industry. So I’ve been a painter, a decorator, I’ve been a plumber. And I’m not an academic, in fact, I’m dyslexic. But as the internet took off, and I guess I was just starting off late to the internet, really, I didn’t really get into it until around 2010.
And I can remember being interested in it being on the Warrior forum, and forums like that. And just seeing what other people were doing and just thinking to myself, well, this looks very much like the direct marketing of the 80s. And I bought products, like a lot of people probably listening. I bought products, I tried them and I didn’t get anywhere, made lots of mistakes. But then I bought a couple of products by, let’s see, I think one of the vendors was Mark Ling, another was Roy Carter.
Mark Bishop:
Both of these were products about niche marketing. Now, what appealed to me about niche marketing was the fact that you didn’t have to do the kind of stuff that we’re doing here. You didn’t have to be on video, you didn’t even have to use your own name and pictures and that, you could just use a different persona. So I had a go with that, and at the time, I had a skin condition and I’d learn to manage it with natural products. And what I did was I documented that, how I coped with that skin condition, and I put together, it was about 40 page PDF and managed to get it onto ClickBank. And I’ve got no technical skills at all, so that was a bit of a tall order in itself, but I managed to get it onto ClickBank.
And I didn’t know how to drive traffic so I used Google Ads at the time, and I was just amazed. It was just a crazy thing. But I made $120 the first night. So I was sat there watching TV, I checked my laptop, $120 at night, and I didn’t really know what I was doing. But from that point onwards, I just scaled the niche marketing. I did that while I was still working as a plumber. I did that part-time, and it was crazy. I got to a point where I had that site and I built another one in a different niche, sorry. And I sold the two. I sold one for $37,000 and I sold another for $77,000. And that was really my gateway into the internet marketing space.
Editor:
That must have been a bit of a game changer for you as well.
Mark Bishop:
Yeah, it allowed me to give up the day job, as it were, and concentrate on the internet marketing space full time.
Editor:
Nice. And when was this? Which year?
Mark Bishop:
This would’ve been, I think I sold both of the sites… It’s funny, I was looking at Flipper the other day, actually. I think I sold both of the sites in 2013.
Editor:
Okay, so you started in 2010, effectively just dabbling with-
Mark Bishop:
Yes, doing the niche marketing part-time.
Editor:
And then three years later you’ve got like a $100,000 payday from two of the products that you’ve put together, and that’s where you are selling the website and the product to somebody else. You’re not obviously-
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