Archive for October, 2015
061: Supercharge Your Inner Game: How to Stop, Avoid, Destroy & Overcome the Negative Thinking Patterns in Your Life (and Become Happier Without Losing Your Edge)
I'm going in for surgery on the ankle today (Friday) and it has me thinking a lot about being negative (or rather, avoiding or "fixing" that negativity that creeps up), being honest and owning up to things like procrastinating without labeling and feeling sorry for yourself, so you can actually make progress on yourself -- because no one else will do it for you.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 39:14 — 35.9MB) | Embed
Subscribe: Google Podcasts | RSS
As internet marketers, we need to motivate ourselves. Let's be real... sometimes stuff just happens.
You have to find the good in situations, get some perspective, and be honest without feeling sorry for yourself and labeling your situations or the emotions. Then, you are better able to look at things in a positive light.
Be Honest With Yourself
This is probably the most important thing we're going to talk about today. Just think about how you would answer these questions and we're going to talk about some solutions afterwards.
- Do you find yourself filtering out the positive things that happen to you? Or, do you minimize all the good things while only focusing on one negative circumstance?
- Do you blame yourself for everything that happens, even if it is out of your control?
- Do you always expect the worst in any situation?Do you only see things in terms of black and white?
If any of these 4 things apply to you, then you might have some negativity problems. Let's talk about some ways to combat those.
Approaches, Strategies and Solutions
Do you have a support system that gets you out of that "rut" you sometimes fall into? It's tough to go it alone. Just explaining the problem or the frustration itself can help you get past it.
Are you preventing the problem before it even happens? "Play out" the scenarios of what could happen. A good strategy here is to make a list of the "enemies" you're fighting against and categorize the fears. Out of those, what's the simplest one to take care of?
Let's say your situation is that you're going to be broke and your fears about it are losing your car, your marriage breaking up, and becoming homeless. Which one of these can you work on first and easiest?
A lot of the issues that led you to a problem are by you not getting out of your comfort zone or not having real goals to drive you.
Let's use the money example again. You are basing all of your income hopes on this one product launch and it doesn't go well and you're afraid you're going to lose it all.
Then, it would be time to get out of your comfort zone and do things you might not want to do so you don't lose your shirt. Things like joining Fiverr, freelancing, getting a part-time job, etc. "Always do what you're afraid to do."
Are you aware of simple mindset tools? It's simple. There are simple mindset tools and strategies all over the place-you can just search the internet for "self-help mindset." For Robert, there's no one solution. There's probably 5 or 6 at any given time. it's a matter of identifying which one works for the situation.
A mindset is also called "a state", which is a collection of emotions that can get you thinking and acting in a certain way. Sometimes you just need to "change your state." Maybe you've been in front of the computer for too long working on a problem. Go for a drive. Go to a movie.
It might also mean removing the triggers that put you in that state. If you get in a ‘bad mood' from something that you can remove, then do so.
Think about the words you're using. We tend to describe "positive" feelings in one syllable words, like "good" while we use big words for negative feelings. Start replacing the ‘positive' feelings with big words, like ‘fantastic', ‘fabulous', etc. They're less automatic, meaning we have to think about them more. The more you think about something…you guessed it-the more it becomes your ‘state'.
Think about the words that you're using to describe situations. Turn "negative words" into "challenge" words. Instead of something being a "disaster", call it an "adventure."
7 Quick Exercises To Turn Negativity on its Head
1. What's good about the situation? What could be good about it? Take the negative and make it a positive. If you're a procrastinator, and you're close to a deadline, now you're not a slacker; you are motivated to get the project done.
2. What are 3 things you're grateful for today? The sky is the limit!
3. What small step could you take today to fix your situation? Are you thinking about going back to school? Print out the college brochure. Do you need or want to replace your old car? Get a catalog for the new one you like.
4. Are you predictable? What usually sets you off? And, what can you do to avoid it? Expecting a bad result "off the bat" is a typical coping mechanism for a lot of people. But, negativity is a self-fulfilling prophecy so just don't do it this time. Just tell yourself you're going to expect the best this time. Break that pattern.
5. Do you journal and meditate? Both of these turn your thoughts into words so you can make sense of them and seek out a solution. The plus to journaling is it can help you to identify those triggers that set you off.
6. If you have a negative person in your life, how do you deal with them? It sounds simple, but tell them the thing that's bothering you. If they can't change it, you have to. Call them less. Don't go ‘hang out' with them unless it's necessary to see them for family events, etc.
Remember: Negativity is contagious.
The more you're around it, the more it infects you.
7. Can you identify your own negative thought patterns? Do you find yourself the "victim" in most situations? In life, you can be the hero, the villain, or the victim. It's easiest to see yourself as the victim and hardest to see yourself as the villain. Why? Because if you're the villain, then you might be the problem and you might have to change.
In many situations, it's helpful to take a step back and say "The thing I'm doing right now-maybe it's not working", "Am I really doing the right thing?", "Maybe I need to change".
There 7 "Flavors" of the Negative Mindset
The Echo Chamber: "If you think you can or you can't, you're right."
Negativity leads to a self-fulfilling prophecy. You end up attracting more negativity and then you surround yourself with other miserable people because misery loves company. Pretty soon it's a merry-go-round of negativity.
Your Solution: Anticipate the best. Stay away from other negative people.
The "I Told You So" Syndrome: Many people will root for someone else to fail so that they can be right.
It's easy for someone else to make fun of you and look for you to fail because they hate themselves, they want to be you, or they're threatened by you. It's easier for them, instead of being as good as you, to tear you down and root for you to fail because when you do, they were right all along.
Your solution: Success is the best revenge.
The "Realistic" Fallacy: This sounds like, "I'm not being negative, I'm just being realistic." The problem with being "realistic" is that it causes you to give up too soon.
The other side of the coin, being "unrealistic" is another form of self-sabotage. Sometimes people set huge, huge unattainable goals.
Your Solution: Just look at the situation for what it is. Don't make it huge and don't belittle it. Give it all you've got but don't make it so unattainable that you'll never achieve it.
Social Policing: Setting absolute rules for society. Why don't they play by your rules?
"I never lie, so neither should anyone else, ever.", "It's so unfair that they get away with that and I don't.". This is playing the victim again.
Your Solution: Don't try to apply so many rules to everything and pick your battles.
Mind Reader Pitfall: Many negative people somehow think that they have been granted the ability to read minds. They just know what someone else is thinking and can anticipate everything that person is going to say and do, generally for the worst.
Your Solution: Give people the benefit of the doubt. You don't know what else they're going through.
Overgeneralizing: Be careful about thinking that things "always" seem to happen to you. Most of the things that happen to you are random and happenstance. Fate is not conspiring to give you a bad day. This is victim mode again.
Your Solution: The only time you should even let this enter your mind is if you're going to use it as motivation for you to discover better things.
Playing the Tape: You think about what others might say and their reactions to everything you're doing.
It's a bad place to be when you're letting someone else live in your head rent-free. You're letting them control you.
Your Solution: find a better, more positive, person to ‘talk' in your head, someone who supports you.
Seven Helpful Thoughts
- "I'm not smart." We all think we have more common sense than we have. If we think we've seen it all, there's no point to keep driving. You need to be a little bit naïve. It keeps you learning.
- Negative people are negative about everyone and everything. Don't take it personally.
- It is what it is. Sometimes stuff just happens. Stop worrying because you're bigger than your problems and you can choose to ignore those bad incoming thoughts.
- Control what you can control. You don't have to take responsibility of everything good and bad that happens. If you are little more optimistic and happier to do things for your business you'll probably make more money which will lead into a feedback loop.
- Imagination can work for or against you. Turn the things that you don't want to focus on into tiny, silly little hallucinations and transform the good things into big powerful things.
- Replace what you delete in life. If you decide today to stop talking to everyone negative, you might find yourself with no one to talk to. Instead, replace talking to the bad people with new people. Join a new group or club. Join a different mastermind. Devote the time you used to spend on bad habits to doing something positive.
- You can't compare your inside to someone else's outsides. Robert calls this "The Facebook Projection." Many people put on a "face" of living in paradise, although they have the same ups and downs as you or they might even be a total fake. Don't worry more about someone else than you do about yourself.
Closing Thoughts
When you're faced with feeling negative, narrow it down to one of the "mindsets." Then, you can approach it with a solution.
Understand that for so many people, the worry, stress, and fear of the upcoming situation is almost worse than the event itself. Redirect that negative energy.
If you see someone doing better than you, you don't need to take that personally. There's no point in comparing yourself to others. It's a losing game. Realize that you are on a different path than that person.
Join Time Management on Crack to Claim Your
Productivity and Mindset Training Now
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 39:14 — 35.9MB) | Embed
Subscribe: Google Podcasts | RSS
Making Money in Bed: Ten Quick Pieces of Internet Marketing Advice from a Guy with a Broken Ankle
I broke my ankle in two places this past Saturday evening. I was dancing at a wedding and walked over a wet spot on an already shiny, slippery, coated cement floor. There was water (or maybe wine) spilled in a little spot that I didn't see, and I slipped and landed on it with all my weight.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 21:03 — 19.3MB) | Embed
Subscribe: Google Podcasts | RSS
The technical term is a "fibular and medial malleolar fracture" and they had to reset (or I guess "reconfigure") the bones (very painful) and I'll be hopping around on crutches for a few weeks and keeping it elevated in bed.
What I found interesting is that the orthopedist, emergency room doctor, nurse, etc. kept asking me... what do you do for a living? Is this going to affect your work? Luckily I've "worked" from home for 6 1/2 years and I'm glad I don't have to worry about that kind of thing.
In fact, the last couple of days have been hugely productive in my business. I've been making leaps and bounds in productivity, getting my upcoming "Website Remote" wordpress tool ready for our November 11 launch date, even from bed (currently "My Little Pony" sheets):
I'll give you ten quick reasons why you can run a business, even if you're bedridden and only have a few hours per day:
Lesson 1: The Best Productivity Tool at Home: Camtasia + GoToWebinar + Google Calendar
Many internet marketers consider themselves in "learning mode" which really means they're spending all their time studying (and doing a good job of it) but not implementing, but if they are implementing, they're just dabbling, taking action on the fun or small stuff, and not what's going to make them money. Or they can self-label as a "procrastinator" which is just a fancy way of feeling sorry for yourself.
The best thing I did in my online business (which I delayed for years) was recording video for products instead of writing them. You can whip up an easy $47 or $97 product in 1 to 3 hours -- do it all in one take and don't worry about the "umm's."
Don't nickel and dime yourself looking for "free" or "cheaper" alternatives. You'll end up piecing together lots of things that don't do what you want and wasting money and time on the wrong tools.
Use Camtasia (free trial) and a $30 Logitech ClearChat USB headset. Show whatever you need to show on your screen (PowerPoint, web browser, or software) to teach someone how to do something (edit video, trade in the stock market, soup up your race car).
Then, use GoToWebinar to meet and record each "module" of your course if you want to do it live (using Camtasia to save the video for sale later). Use GoToWebinar for a bonus Q&A session and even to pitch the course later. We give you a free GoToWebinar at WebinarCrusher.com and even if you were a cheapskate, you could knock all this out within 30 days and only have to make one payment.
Also use Google Calendar to show up on whatever webinar Q&A, product creation, pitch sessions, or even meetings. Use them to meet your deadlines, i.e. even just to create one 1-hour module each day for 4 days, whip up a 1-hour sales letter on the 5th day, and so on.
Lesson 2: The Best Productivity Tool Away from Home: iPad + LogMeIn + Evernote
What do you do if you're not at home? What have I been doing while laying in bed and still building my business?
It's simple. You don't need to drag the computer to bed or find a crappy iPad version for the apps you want to use for coding, word processing, and web page editing. Heck, you can get most things accomplished using a web browser...
But for many desktop tasks such as coding and web page editing, I prefer to use LogMeIn, which is a remote desktop program. Install the LogMeIn "control panel" on your desktop, and then you can remotely control it from your iPad. See your screen, click, drag, and type.
I use an iPad Air. You want to get the cellular version so you can connect even if you're not on Wifi (AT&T only costs me $29.99/month for this). A 64GB iPad Air 2 costs $729 and a 32GB iPad AIr 1 costs $579. Either price is more than worth it for the ability to use the internet anywhere without a bulky laptop or a tiny phone.
An important accessory is the Logitech Ultrathin iPad keyboard which is much better than Apple's iPad keyboard, although I don't use it as often as you think. I use it for typing blog posts and reports, but not for coding. The only trick to getting the keyboard is that you have to be very careful to get the right one for your iPad (iPad Pro, iPad Air, etc.) because all iPads are different sizes now.
I prefer remote desktop when I'm using the iPad because I can set something in motion (like processing a video), and then come back to it later. I can start typing a document, or edit a web page, and close the connection, then come back later and all my old windows are still open.
If I don't have the time or the connection to hop onto a remote desktop just to write a quick note, Evernote is good for jotting down "scraps."
Lesson 3: Your Goal is the Minimum Viable Product or "Version 1.0"
There's no point in having the fanciest tools (like iPads) or the best productivity strategies (like Four Daily Tasks, staying off Facebook and email) if it's not actually leading somewhere.
You should actually be excited about your business instead of just "going through the motions." (Imagine that.)
Can you make money from a course where the sales letter has typos and the paid product is 2 hours of video? Will fixing those typos or upping it to 3 hours double or triple your income? Probably not.
What will make you money is sending traffic to that COMPLETE system. Contact joint venture partners, buy some banner ads, mail youir list. You can't make one sale with something that's incomplete. You need a sales letter, download area, and payment button, even if it's "just good enough" to get you by for now.
Lesson 4: Have At Least 20 Buy Buttons or "Things" For Sale
I'm not saying you need to go crazy, but if you don't have 20 "things" you can buy, then you need to setup those 20 things over the next 12 months. I'm not saying you need 20 $997 courses.
But what if you bought from resale rights and setup a $27 package this coming Friday, including the download page, sales letter, and payment button? What if you setup an upsell for someone to buy coaching from you?
What if you whipped up your own $97 video series next week? Created a sales letter with your affiliate link, listing the exclusive bonuses you'll provide if someone buys through that link.
And once you find your "big hit" -- repeat the process and setup more membership sites, build the list bigger.
That way you can focus on helping your buyers and not just the freebie "tire kickers" who never buy and just complain.
We're just talking about setting up something that is complete. That could just be that you buy one, or a few private label rights products, and fiddle around until you're selling a pretty cool "package" that you can call your own.
Lesson 5: Make Consistent Progress Every Day
Have you noticed that I keep listing the same things, those things that actually make money, as opposed to bright shiny objects? List building, product creation, traffic, conversion tweaking, upsell funnels.
You don't need to reinvent the wheel from scratch or think of a new technique every time you want to make money. You also shouldn't be desperate for money at any point.
If you're pressed for time, then even putting in five focused minutes of setting up a web page and writing sales copy is more than most people (who aren't trying).
Lesson 6: Sell Both High and Low Ticket
I'm also tired of hearing of people thinking they need to pigeon-hole themselves into being "just" an affiliate marketer, just a product launcher, just a $7 buyer, just a $997 buyer. What a bunch of crap...
The only way to really know what's going to make you money is to put out (and update, and market) your products. See what sells the best, and repeat that. Usually, those things that you "think" will sell, will be your flops, and you'll be shocked at the products that take off.
For example, our Backup Creator plugin is protecting nearly 100,000 WordPress sites now, and I still don't know why it's such a popular product with us, but I don't need to know why, only that it IS popular, so I'll put more time and energy into it.
Lesson 7: Email Every Day
This is the worst kept secret in internet marketing, it's the technique I use when I want to increase my income, and it's something "timid" marketers are afraid to do.
There's nothing wrong with contacting your subscribers every day or several times per week. You don't need to "bombard" them with a new offer every day. It's actually better to continue a campaign (giving different reasons to click over and check out the same offer throughout the week).
Your subscribers are listening to other marketers, and they're playing on Facebook every day. So what's the difference if you dispense some free advice, send them to blog posts and podcasts, or short videos, and there happens to be a button to click or a link to buy at the bottom of the page?
Keep that list alive. If you don't email that list often enough, it will whittle down to nothing. Either schedule your upcoming email autoresponder messages 5 days at a time or spend 5 minutes every morning knocking it out.
Lesson 8: Have a Content Piggy Bank
Search engines like Google (plus social media neworks too, I guess) reward you for giving away lots and lots of free content. But they're going to punish you if you flood a bunch of stuff quickly and then neglect your blog for months or years.
Most marketers bite off more than they can chew when it comes to blogging. This means they blog daily for 30 days. Then there's nothing for a month. Then one post. Then nothing for two months. Then a single post. Then nothing for 6 months. Not good.
This is exactly why, for years, I only blogged (or podcasted) once per month, because I knew that was within my means. I had a pool of reserve content (some people call it a content piggy bank), that way I could schedule it all out, rearrange it later, and have posts and podcasts coming out even if I didn't know what to talk about that week or I "wasn't in the mood."
Have at least two podcast episodes or blog posts in-the-can. You don't want to be living paycheck-to-paycheck with your content.
Lesson 9: Focus On What Makes Money Sooner, Not Just What's Fastest, Easiest, or the Most "Fun"
It's fun to start and end projects. The first problem with that is that no project of ours is ever really "finished." So all you're left with is coming up with new ideas, registering new domain names, creating new graphics, writing "chapter 1" or making "video 1" of your new course.
You need absolute focus. You know what's the most fun? Making money. You don't need an office or business cards. You don't need to agonize over the perfect logo or color scheme for that next app of yours. Especially if thinking too much will delay you making money even for a few days.
You need better marketing which usually means better strategy, more traffic, making a better use out of your list, talking about the things your subscribers worry about (NOTE: worry about and not necessarily think about).
There's no reason for lazy marketing. Discounts are a "drug" that you'll hit for a big boost of income, but do it too much and you'll notice that without that discount, your sales will drop because you've now trained your customer to wait for the discount and punished them for paying full price. The solution: only use price discounts (even early bird pricing is a price discount) sparingly and use decent marketing (like mailing more often) instead.
Scarcity is a lesser "drug" that hurts your business just the same if you use it too much. You know what I'm talking about. Only 100 copies will be sold. This offer closes this coming Friday for two months. It's okay to use as one of the tricks to pull out of your marketing hat but it shouldn't be your entire business model.
Lesson 10: Beware of the $10,000 Per Month Comfort Zone
You need to treat your business like a real business. That means havng real deadlines. Would you be fired if you couldn't bring the good stuff in your business? Think about it.
Let's say you were hired as an internet company's copywriter. If your copy didn't bring in sales, maybe you'd split test, tweak the copy, or poll your list to figure out what to improve. If you were hired as a company's email marketer, and you went 2-3 weeks without sending a simple email to that list, wouldn't you be fired?
Years ago, I was told to write down my goals and I wrote down that I want a specific house (got it a year later), a specific car (bought it in cash a year later), and that I also wanted a $10,000 per month income, thinking that was all I ever needed.
There are a couple of problems with that. I'm not even going to get into how your expenses match your income unless you have a budget, you get slammed with taxes (even if you structure everything the way you should, you can only minimize them, not avoid them). =
The real problem with ramping your business up to $10k per month (which is really just 3 sales at $97 per day, or 2 coaching clients and 2 sales at $97 per day, or 1 coaching client plus one $97 per day plus your spouse's income, etc) and then stopping, is that you'll get comfortable.
Imagine if you stopped attending events, stopped with the joint ventures, shut off your traffic, didn't create any new products, stopped running webinars, didn't take any new risks...
You might be comfortable for 6, 12, maybe even 18 months. Your income might even "maintain" even if you didn't do anything new or build your list. The problem is when it starts to shrink. It might shrink slowly, you might play mindgames with yourself and try to say this is just a "phase" in your business, or that you're just having a couple of bad months...
But if your income is flat, you should be just as frightened as if it's taking a dip.
It's a slippery slope for your income to dip, then you lose interest in your business, then your income dips more, and you lose more interest... and the next thing you know, you're not interested in re-treading that old trail you went through a decade ago to get "back up to" $10,000 per month or higher.
Instead of going through all that, I would rather do the small things NOW to avoid a huge headache in the future, and that should be too. Like I said, that doesn't mean throwing out your websites for new ones, or becoming a workaholic, or anything like that. It means your #1 goal in your business is to make money, and then you can get excited about making more money, which in turn makes you even more money, so money becomes the "drug" or "high" that continues to move your online business forward.
Don't get comfortable with your income level, even if it's at some level about $10,000 a month. You should always want more, and you can get more just by doing something as simple as staying focused and making daily progress, even if it's just 5 minutes a day.
I'm still having lots of fun with my online business, even with a broken ankle, because it's still making me lots of money every day, and I hope yours does too. I also hope that our "Website Remote" plugin on November 11th (remote WordPress management tool) helps you make a lot of money, which equals lots of fun, which equals even more money in your online business.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 21:03 — 19.3MB) | Embed
Subscribe: Google Podcasts | RSS
060: Graphic Dashboard Case Study: How to Make Money Selling Your Systems, Checklists, Notes, Templates and Tools
Find a new product idea, build a course and implement a repeatable system for a constant revenue stream.When you're creating a product, you need to have WWHW in place.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 55:35 — 50.9MB) | Embed
Subscribe: Google Podcasts | RSS
WWHW is your "system." You need to have a system in place so you stay on point, lay out each point you promised in your sales letter, and know when you've gotten to the finish line.
What-these are the steps you're going to take. For example, you're going to show how to log in to a site, you're going to show how to install a plug-in.
Why-this is why the customer wants to use it. For example, to make money.
How To-this is your media component. For example, a video on how to use WordPress. You will be showing your customers from beginning to end what the process looks like.
What If-this is the challenger at the end.
When you're making your membership site, you want to lay it out in modules.
Four modules are ideal, at about an hour each. Each module is a milestone in the process.
You want to be 100% clear what the end goal is going to be in each module.
Now, let's put these into practice by doing a case study of Robert's Graphic Dashboard (www.graphicdashboard.com)
Graphic Dashboard Case Study
Graphic Dashboard is a course on how to use Pixlr, which is a free software program for graphics creation (www.pixlr.com).
For reference, we are going to point out that some time ago, Robert bought a course on how to create graphics in PhotoShop. It was full of useless and/or very advanced topics such as how to rearrange toolbars and a long explanation on how to do 3D graphics. This product was meant for people who didn't even know how to do 2D yet!
You don't want to do what "PhotoShop Guy" did so that's why Robert and Lance didn't spend oodles of time on how to make 1000 different shapes.
Instead, you want to show your customers something they can actually use today.
Think of it like this: You want to teach them the equivalent of making $1 million in 5 minutes. Okay, that sounds a little far-fetched but the point is, your goal is to tell your customers how they can use your product right now to make money.
That means not playing around (like "Photoshop Guy" and the toolbars), but doing something practical and useful like making a logo or a banner.
If you teach someone how to create a banner, you've given them the heads-up on creating affiliate banners. They can start getting affiliates to make money!
Creating Your Modules
Next, you take that goal (i.e. teaching them something practical that earns money) and use that to create your modules.
Each module is going to have the WWHW elements and each will have a measurable milestone the customer will reach by the end of the module. For Graphic Dashboard, the modules are:
- Module 1 is how to create affiliate banners.
- Module 2 is how to list your graphics-making services on Fiverr to make some money
- Module 3 is how to make digital 3D product covers
- Module 4 is how to make book covers and DVD graphics
The 4 Stages of Figuring out Your "Hook" for your modules are:
The Hobby Mindset
This is playing around and researching to see what will sell.
"Crack the code" to start making money from it
Once you've figured out what will sell, this is how it can be applied to start making money with it.
Systematize It
"Template-ize" your service and your delivery system.
Trim the fat the fat to make it fast, fun and profitable.
Get it down to a 1-2-3 system that can be duplicated time and again for quick, achievable results.
The Sales Letter
Now, you put together your sales letter outlining your 4 modules and how customers can quickly benefit from each thing you're teaching.
Important Point: Why is Robert not using PhotoShop instead of Pixlr?
PhotoShop is a paid product belonging to someone else. The customer would already have to have PhotoShop.
He doesn't want to have to convince someone to use PhotoShop in his sales letter because then they would have to leave his site to go buy it. It gives them time to hesitate.
Tip: If you don't have an alternative, like Pixlr in this case, your best bet would be to bundle that product into your course (and then price accordingly).
What just happened? We went from a boring PhotoShop course with a lot of blathering on about nothing useful to how to use Pixlr to make money with short, to-the-point, easy to follow steps!!
With this repeatable system, you could teach all kinds of stuff, everything from how to become an Uber driver to how to rent your home using AirBNB.
The "Now What" and Going "Evergreen"
"Evergreen" means that your product can be sold perpetually.
Now, with the Internet and how quickly software and sites change, this can be a little tricky.
But, that's okay! It just means you might have to go in now and then to update some of your slides or update some of your features to reflect changes and make new iterations (i.e. version 2.0)
Every time you make a new iteration, you also update your sales letter and pitch and this product can be sold again and again to your list.
When you have a system, like the WWHW, that you apply to producing your courses, it is an easy matter just to make some updates because your approach is reproducible each and every time.
Today's Takeaways and Tips
Have a system. Don't ramble. Don't go off-course. Make something that can be reproduced over and over.
Have a defined Point A and Point B. ‘Show' AND ‘tell your customers how you're going to get them there.
Do video-not just audio, especially if your course involves how to do anything online. Imagine if you were trying to learn MS Excel from a CD!! Your customer won't be able to use it effectively.
Additional Links
Master Resale Rights: www.master-resalerights.com
This is a great resource to pick up additional courses that you can include on your own membership site.
If you love this show, please go give us a review on iTunes at www.robertplankshow.com/itunes
If you have any questions or comments OR you would like to be interviewed on this show, please contact Robert via his email Robert@robertplank.com.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 55:35 — 50.9MB) | Embed
Subscribe: Google Podcasts | RSS
059: A Tale of Two Traffic Sources: Solo Ads vs. Affiliate Networks
The good, the bad and the ugly about solo ads vs. affiliate networking...
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 53:15 — 48.7MB) | Embed
Subscribe: Google Podcasts | RSS
There are many ways to get traffic. Some of the older ones include fads such as:
- Joint Venture Giveaways: someone would sign up and have access to multiple giveaways that they could then send to their list. Everyone in the network would be cross-mailing their own lists, offering these giveaways, to attract traffic to their site.
- Viral Reports: you have a special report (i.e. how to set up a basic WordPress site) and mail it to your list and the link back to your site is included in the report. For each of your subscribers that passes it on and gets a new subscriber to sign up, you could pay them a $1 per new subscriber.
- Traffic Exchanges: this operates similarly to the JVG above where there's multiple people in the network. You would join it and then everyone is rotating through viewing multiple sites and each one you view gets you a credit. With these credits, you could then buy banner ads, etc. to drive people back to your site where they would hopefully buy your product.
- Co-Registration: you would sign up with several other marketers and basically cross-promote. As subscribers signed up for your list, they were signing up for other lists in the same group as well.
- Safe Lists: join an email-based community with several other marketers. It's really just marketers mailing other marketers each day.
- Renting/Buying a List: you can choose parameters and order a list from a site like InfoUSA, to market to and pad your own list. Even if they don't opt-in, you can create retargeting ads that follow them around the internet.
All of the above have either gone "out of style" because they didn't work forever, or because they became illegal under the CAN-SPAM Act. Now, the major forms of driving new traffic are Solo Ads or Affiliate Networking.
Solo Ads
Solo ads are when you pay someone else to mail out your offers to their list. You are paying someone else, who already has an established list, for email leads. It sounds good in theory. What are the pitfalls?
It's a great way for the solo ad seller to make money, not necessarily you and probably not you. They don't have to expend any effort-they are not marketing their own product and they are not having to take the time to research affiliate programs.
Not everyone's lists are created equal. You don't really know where they got the names on their list from. Some are built from questionable traffic sources.
Example: AdFly. The traffic you get from using Ad.Fly is mostly from interstitial ads, the ads that are placed before you can see articles and videos, etc. It's very untargeted traffic because you can't enter keywords. There is nothing that you have that everyone wants to buy. So, in this case you'd be paying someone to send ads to a list where subscribers aren't even interested in your niche.
You could be paying $1 per click if your squeeze page is on target and converts at 50%, which is a good conversion rate. Tip: for a good squeeze page, see our Backup Creator squeeze page.
You Win Some, You Lose Some
Over a 1-year period, Robert purchased $1912 in solo ads. For that $1912, he got 3209 clicks, which resulted in 1059 email opt-ins and $502 in sales. This appears to be a $1500 loss but you can keep marketing to them (until and if they opt-out) and generate additional sales later.
The good news is that 3209 new subscribers quickly builds your list-if you have a big list, you'll be excited to send out those emails for potential sales, which is the name of the game in internet marketing. Sales!
Caveats & Advice
The best solo ad sellers that will bring you success are likely those that don't do it as their only income. They may just be doing it for a time while they are on vacation, have family matters to attend to, or are between projects. Robert's experience with solo ad ‘only'
You need to put back about 20% of your business income into ad spending so solo ads aren't the worst thing and you SHOULD experiment with new types of traffic. It's not going to be the huge payday you're hoping for but you can build a list that will earn you income over time.
Make sure you have a link tracker like AdTrackz where you can create subcampaigns for each solo ad. That way, you can determine exactly how much traffic you actually generated from each solo ad campaign. Ideally, you can and should also create a spreadsheet that keeps track of all of your solo ad spend, your clicks from the sellers, the opt-in rate for each subcampaign, and any sales.
Affiliate Networks
The best way to get loads more traffic is to create a paid product and put it a on paid affiliate site, such as ClickBank or JVZoo. Our Member Genius plugin supports both these platforms.
When you put that product up on one of those sites, anyone can sign up to be one of your affiliates. You can also immediately offer the affiliate program option to all of your buyers after they purchase your product by giving them the link to register.
You position it as, "Thanks for buying my product! Did you know you could have this for free if you become an affiliate and sell it just 1 time?!" When someone signs up to be one of your affiliates, you give them a special link. When one of their friends or subscribers wants to buy the product, it sends the traffic back to your site and your affiliate gets a commission.
You want to make it easy and profitable for your affiliates-give them a reason to market YOU above others. Have your email(s) ready for them, your banner ads, etc., so that they don't have to do any work for you. Give them a really good commission-50% and 100% are good.
Tip: to check out a good affiliate site, go to the Backup Creator affiliate program.
Today's Take-Aways
You need to build a list somehow. Solo ads and affiliate marketing can be part of your strategy in addition to: having a blog to take advantage of SEO, having a podcast, running Facebook ads, running Bing ads.
Tip: to learn to podcast like a pro, go to Podcast Crusher.
Affiliate marketing can also be a great option for you to bring in income if you don't have a product ready, if you're between projects or you need to be away from your business for a period of time.
Don't be afraid of Affiliate Marketing-it's not evil and you won't burn out your list if you deliver some really cool value along with the product that you're selling.
One Last Word of Wisdom
Don't be negative. Just don't. Negativity leads to a self-fulfilling prophecy and confirmation bias (choosing only to hang on to things that reinforce our beliefs). If you're upset and frustrated, turn that into fuel.
Ask yourself, "What's good about this?" even if it means you just learned 10 ways not to do something. Have an "abundance mindset." Know that you'll succeed.
Join Income Machine 2.0 to Claim Your
All-in-One Money Making System Now
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 53:15 — 48.7MB) | Embed
Subscribe: Google Podcasts | RSS
058: The Three-Day Window for Enhanced, Increased, and Amazing Productivity
It's very easy when you first start your internet business, working from home, to fall back into those habits that you have from working for an employer, where you have to fill up 8 hour days one after the other and no "project" really ever has to be done for you to make income.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 29:53 — 27.4MB) | Embed
Subscribe: Google Podcasts | RSS
Or, some of those very things that led you to develop an internet-based business, such as wanting to dream ‘big', form your own partnerships, etc., but all of those ideas will not make any money if you do not implement them.
It's easy to get pulled into "Scope Creep", where you continue to add more and more features or additional webpages, upsells and bonuses, etc., instead of just focusing on ONE thing and pushing it out there.
These are all productivity killers. Instead, you want to think in "Three Day Window" terms.
Principles of the Three-Day Window
What is it? The 3 day window is the time period from "idea" to "implementation." You have 3 days to get it to a stopping point that if you had to sell it right then you could.
It's okay if it's not perfect. You NEED to make some websites that you will look back on later and be embarrassed by. What IS important is getting in the habit of getting your ideas implemented and out there.
What if it's lacking some features? You still put it up for sale in its "basic version" at a discounted rate. Instead of your end goal of $97, you sell the basic at $7.
Don't sell your first version with multiple features. You can't be sure that your customers want all these "bells and whistles." What's exciting to you is quite probably not exciting to them.
It's better to put the product out there and get feedback of the most wanted features and use that to develop your "deluxe" version. As you continue to refine it, you can roll out "iterations" later and charge the higher price(s).
Iterations: these are releases each time the product is enhanced/improved, i.e. Version 1.0, 2.0., etc. When Robert created Backup Creator, it only took him 3 days from start to finish to get his first version out. In that first 3 day version, it did do the basic backups. Then, in future iterations, they added additional backup capabilities (i.e. to Amazon S3), cloning abilities, and other features.
Why Just 3 Days?
If you don't set yourself an "end" date, you will run into issues such as:
You spend too much time working on it and get burnt out or bored. Or, you end up doing a lot of things that are not productive or they're fun but they don't really increase your sales, such as spending 2 hours to make a 2-minute sales video.
You could have spent that same 2 hours doing at least 2 of your 4 Daily Tasks:
A better choice than a video would be to build a bigger list. Examples: contacting affiliates, running ads for traffic to your site, knocking out a great sales letter
For more information on 4 Daily Tasks, you can check out the Four Daily Tasks book and Facebook group.
You need to think in "milestones" and take a scientific approach. The scientific approach will help you create a framework or "Spec" for your project. Within that framework, you can then be creative.
For example, if you make a video: You need to set up how many segments it's going to be and the length of time for each. Then, within those measured segments, you can be creative about what you're going to feature.
Today's Take-Away's
Don't be the guy (or gal) that has a bunch of stuff on their hard drive without taking any action to put it out there. Use the "4 Daily Tasks" Method to be productive. Do something every day that will result in sales.
There's no point in pulling "all-nighters." You're fooling yourself with a lot of empty time. It's more important to have something imperfect that is functioning and earning you money because a lot of work with no income results in boredom and burn out.
Join Robert's "4 Daily Tasks" group
Get his course on time management: Time Management on Crack
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 29:53 — 27.4MB) | Embed
Subscribe: Google Podcasts | RSS
