Productivity
Why Are You Trapped in the Sandbox?
Are you ever middle of helping someone and suddenly it hits you... and you think, "I can't help you anymore?"
That's what happens when I come across someone who is in "demo mode."
Maybe you do this or you've come across someone who does this every now and then. These are people who always setup web sites called "Test Web Site." Or blogs called "Demo Blog." Or membership sites called "Temp Membership Site."
Come on man... tests are for students, demos are for little battery-powered keyboards and temps are for offices. I honestly want you to make an actual product, an actual membership site, and an actual blog.
Lance and I talked about this in one of our private coaching calls but I think a lot of you can benefit from this advice as well... Continue Reading »
Keep it Shippable, Stupid!
This is something I was thinking about presenting at my next live seminar...
But I'll share it with you here anyway!
It's something that most people who teach "productivity" leave out, and I see marketers FORGETTING this over and over again, even though they should know better.
This is "supposed" to be a programming concept but when I worked with other programmers, almost none of them knew about this, let alone implemented it...
It's Keeping Your Stuff SHIPPABLE!
I'll explain. Think about the order you see items (as a buyer) in a "fully optimized" sales letter... Continue Reading »
Four Disturbing But True Facts About Inaction and How to Overcome Them Immediately
I just came back from the 2nd Warrior Event in Raleigh, North Carolina where I was a speaker.
Speaking of webinars and seminars, remember the "Which Test Won" game we played on the webinar a few days ago? I showed you how:
- What converts BETTER than a squeeze page giving a free gift? One of my $7 reports selling almost the exact same thing!
- Removing three words from a headline TRIPLED conversion rates -- an EXTRA $625 from every 500-something clicks
- Adding a small logo to another sales letter boosted conversions from 1.99% to 3.57% -- an EXTRA $846 from every 1000 clicks
When you split test you make those small tweaks. But if you don't even have a product of your own, or a sales letter, then it's impossible to split test those pay raises!
Here's Something Crazy...
When I was on stage at the warrior event, I asked this question...
Create a Product in 55 Seconds For Free
If you still have not launched your own product, and you have not at least tried to get any copywriting gigs, maybe you are cut out for affiliate marketing. When you're somebody's affiliate, you don't need your own product, all you need to do is send traffic to a page, people order and you collect a commission.
But the mistake most affiliate marketers make is: not having a list.
Here is the simplest way I can describe it. You need a list of buyers so you can drive them to your offers.
Even when you freelance, you keep a client list so you can follow up with them later for repeat business.
You need a page to build up that list (for people to subscribe) and a way to drive traffic to that page.
It's simple: Traffic... List... Offers. Continue Reading »
How to Respond to 100 Emails in Under 20 Minutes
Funny quick story to tell you about today. I launched my 16 Copybombs report on autopilot over the weekend... I actually put it together back in early June but my autoresponder was filled with blog posts and e-mails about Product University 2.0 at the time, so I had to schedule it.
Long story short, I messed up the download link and when I checked my e-mail today (Monday -- I never check e-mail on weekends) to find literally over 100 e-mails from my buyers asking where the file was. Some of them e-mailed me 2 or 3 times about it.
Replying to 100 people, sounds like something that might take all day or even all week, right? Wrong... when you're Robert Plank it takes 20 minutes. Continue Reading »
2009 Goals
As soon as I started putting my goals down, I got a lot more productive. I'm not saying you need to plan the rest of your life out or anything, but you need to know where you're headed... so you know what needs to come next.
List last year (2008), this year (2009), 2010, 2011 and 2012. Next to each year, write what you'll have accomplished during that year. Write each thing in the present tense, as if you've already done it.
I'll go first...
2008: I bought my first house. Attended my first few seminars. Co-hosted 2 e-classes. (DONE!)
2009: I quit my day job and visited Orlando, Dallas, Austin, Iowa City, San Diego, Chicago, and Buffalo. Had my first several $30K months, sold a membership site for $32K. (DONE!) Haven't done this part yet: setup 20 recurring membership sites by year-end.
2010: Paid off 50% my mortgage and had my first $50K month. Sold at least ten copies of a $1997 package from the stage.
2011: Paid off my mortgage.
2012: Own at least one million dollars in cash and assets.
Now it's your turn. List each year from 2008 to 2012 and list what you have (or have yet to accomplish) each in the present tense.
I look forward to your comment below...
Automation Checklist
1. Do you have your autoresponder broadcasts every day for the rest of the week already scheduled?
2. Every time you mail out to your list, do you archive it as a followup so new subscribers get it as well?
3. When you broadcast to your list, do you schedule a similar mailing 90 days from now?
4. Is your web hosting, mortgage, autoresponder, and all other bills possible setup on autopay?
5. Do you have at least 10 blog posts scheduled in advance, even if it's only one per month?
6. Do you have autoresponder broadcasts scheduled to send traffic to those blog posts?
7. Does at least one of your autoresponder sublists contain 10 followups or more?
Do me a favor. Answer each of these 7 questions with a yes or no, as a comment below. (Hey that rhymed!) Then tell me which of your "no's" you will correct within the next 24 hours.
I need 10 comments to keep this party going...
Here’s What You Get in a Robert Plank Webinar Series…
Nothing for sale today. If you're on my list you saw the PLR Copywriting 4-week e-course Jason and I are running.
I'm going to give you a peek at what happened inside the member's area at the end of the first class, just so you can see what happens when you combine proven step-by-step solutions with CHALLENGES (instead of homework) with accountability... the productivity level reaches a kind of critical mass:
Question: What was your favorite webinar series and why? What would you want to see on the inside if I offered a HUGE webinar course for you guys? Answer in the form of a blog comment below. I appreciate it.
Time Management on Crack 2.0
I wrote a little bit this past weekend. I got so excited about the talk I'm going to give at the Action Seminar on MAY 29th about balancing your day job with internet marketing and manufacturing your next video product line... that I updated my Time Management on Crack report.
It would be bragging to tell you Jeanette Cates, Marlon Sanders, Mike Paetzold, David Deutsch, David Risley... plus 494 other smart people paid me money to get access to the information in that package. (My high school graduating class was smaller than that!) Did they invest to get access to my four levels of productivity, or to get access to my 13 unique systems for writing articles, making videos, writing sales letters, creating products and getting traffic?
Maybe they joined for the bonuses like the video that showed me writing a sales letter in one hour with no edits, or the bonus video that explained 17 additional "Motivationality" milestones, or even the bonus BONUS 90-minute "Take Massive Action" webinar recording... who knows?
Whatever the reason, I've edited the book to add 10 additional procedures on everything from screen capture video recording, article videos, talking head flip camera videos, webinar production, getting a virtual assistant, building your "brand" including a USP and a blog... the stuff that you not only need to know, but repeat enough so that it's INTUITIVE so that in the future all you really need to do is flip to that page and follow the step-by-step procedure to accomplish that task.
The book was 10,000 words long. I went in and removed about 3,000 words, then wrote 13,000 more words to cover all 23 procedures. Now it's exactly 20,000 words... not 19,997 or 20,003... twenty thousand words, I guess I'm weird like that.
Big Problem: I haven't released it yet. I need 10 honest reviews I can use before I release it to you guys (people who already bought get the update for free since I provide 750 days of updates). And then version 2.0 is yours.
If you haven't bought Time Management on Crack yet, get it. If you have it, please leave a comment below telling me:
- What one thing is taught you about time management that you didn't already know.
- What is reminded you about time management that you knew but forgot.
- What you're going to do in the next 7 days now that you have this information.
- Your name, your URL, and your picture.
Comment below with those 4 items, list it in that numbered format so I know you hit on all four elements, and answer questions 1-3 in complete sentences (you only need one or two sentences). Once I get that from ten of you, everyone who bought will get the updated report.
On your mark, get set, GO!!!
Internet Marketing Time Management
When I was working at a day job, I probably only had 1 to 3 hours to put into my business each day, so I crammed in whatever I could every day.
Now that I have a lot more time to put into this, I categorize each day of the week to PRIMARILY complete a certain task... I picked up this tip years ago from a report written by Willie Crawford.
Here is what I do during the week. I'm always improving my systems so you won't always see this formula but here is what I plan for...
Monday: Writing Day. Write all e-mails to be sent out the rest of the week. I tend to launch (or relaunch) one new product a week, so all I need to do is think about four things to mention about what I'm launching (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action) and write those as four quick e-mails.
E-mail marketing is always quantity over quality anyway, so why not send short and to-the-point e-mails that blend content and sales (which makes it okay to end each daily tip with a pitch). If I'm feeling nice, I might hit them four days of the week with regular e-mails and then a blog post on the fifth day.
But the point is, I get all my e-mails queued up one day so I don't have to worry about sending e-mails the rest of the week.
Tuesday: Customer Service Day. Here is where I knock out all the refund requests, lost download links, and so on. I answer customer service a little bit each day but I get so much, if I answered customer service first thing every day, I wouldn't get anything done.
Right now, the majority of my support requests come from Action PopUp, which is silly because if people read the instructions and tried things like disabling other plugins temporarily, making sure all files were uploaded, and testing the plugin on the default theme, it would eliminate 90% of all problems.
But people still need my help and I'm happy to help them. Tuesday is where I clear out customer support so that I'm about 24 hours behind instead of my usual average of 3 days.
Wednesday: Webinar with Jason. Without webinars, Jason and I could not have had several back to back $30K months. I'll be honest, our latest webinar didn't sell out as well as I thought as it would and I fell to $21,000 in April. But I've still made roughly $110K in the first four months of 2009.
We run the rolling four week webinar model. We have a big launch and create a four week e-class on a topic... anything from video selling to product creation... have a 90-minute webinar once a week and fill in stuff in a private blog in between. At the end of week number four, we sell them on the NEXT four week webinar.
It's a great model and I can actually get customers to do things they wouldn't do if they bought a stupid e-book from me. During the day I add content to that blog for the week, then at night I co-host the webinar. Right now we're smack dab in the middle of Webinar Crusher.
Thursday: Webinar with Lance. Since the April dip I decided to get a second e-class going to target a whole other crowd of buyers... Lance's new-school low ticket buyers who appreciate a good funnel. Same rolling four-week model. Right now we're hosting the Blog Invasion System.
Friday: Product Creation Day. I keep pushing so that if I want to create a product, I do it in a day... or at least a weekend. On Friday I'll either write a report, or knock out a bunch of PHP scripts or WordPress plugins. If I'm on a roll this will usually carry over into the weekend.
The weekend is usually a mix, but I definitely ignore most e-mails until the weekend is over. I definitely spend a lot of time away from the compuer on the weekends but I make sure to put at least 5-10 minutes in.
There you have it, my day-to-day system...
- Monday: Writing Day
- Tuesday: Customer Service Day
- Wednesday: Jason Webinar
- Thursday: Lance Webinar
- Friday: Product Creation Day
What's your daily system? Do you even have one? If not, post a comment below and make one up. I need 11 comments and 11 tweets to this post if you want me to keep adding to this blog...
Are You Doing Something Every Day?
It can be tough to stay motivated and on-task day in and day out, especially if you're self employed. In addition to that, if you're self employed and you work from home, you have to battle the urge to stay away from the TV, play with the kids, and so on. Luckily, there is hope. There are three tactics I use every day to stay motivated, even though I work a day job and have very little free time.
First of all, make sure you do something every day. This sounds like a "no brainer", but it's so easy to work for 5 hours on a project one day, then forget about it for a few days. If you let something go for more than 24 hours, you will have difficulty getting that inertia built back up. Personally, I work every evening when I get home from work and I work weekends -- including Sunday -- even if it's only for 5 to 10 minutes. Chances are, if you force yourself to build your business, even for five minutes, you might have fun and end up working for 30 to 60 hours.
You also need to hate your present situation. Let me explain. You should not be miserable and hate your life, but you need to have some reason to do what you're doing. Do you want a bigger house in 5 years? Do you want to go to Spain for vacation this year instead of Disney Land?
A really good and weird tactic is to set slightly unrealistic goals. If you always make $3,000 a month, tell yourself you want to make $5,000 this month. You'll work harder and might hit $4,000 or $4,500... which you will view as a failure, so you'll try harder next month. You started working for yourself because you wanted more of something... more money, more freedom, whatever. If somebody paid all your bills and did all your work for you, what would be the point of living?
Finally, you need to keep your work shippable. This is a practice I began using with software development and carried it with me to article production and info product creation. If you create your products and write your reports with the assumption that it HAS to go out tomorrow, then you'll be able to launch it if you suddenly get bored. Instead of having your project in a million pieces, have the bare minimum ready to go NOW, and add to it as needed.
Those are my three best motivational tools: doing something every day, hating your present situation, and keeping products shippable.
Explode Your Productivity in 3 Simple Steps
It does not matter what profession you have, if you are self employed or employed by someone else, you need some way to stay motivated. On the other hand, if you really are self employed you probably have a difficult time every now and then to keep performing tasks that make you money, day in and day out.
If you want to stay productive for as long as possible, keep in mind the 24-48 Hour Rule. Also make that extra effort to improve your typing speed, and do everything you can to put yourself in the right mindset.
The 24-48 Hour Rule came about when I realized that whenever I work on an article writing campaign, create a video product, or write a report or e-book, 80% of the work is completed within a 24 to 48 hour period. If I take any longer, my productivity declines considerably. Even if it takes me 3 to 7 days to write a book, I tend to drag my feet or focus on other tasks during that time.
You need to work inside a 24 to 48 hour box where you are not distracted by anything else. Stay up all night, wake up early, decline an invitation to hang out with friends, do whatever it takes during that time to finish. I say 24 to 48 hour box because I tell myself I am going to finish in exactly 24 hours, and end up going to 48. You need to set that 24 hour goal, and end up finishing within 48 hours.
Another bottleneck you are going to run across is your typing speed. You need to learn how to touch type using programs such as "Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing." You might type a little slower the first few weeks, but if you can bring your typing speed up to 50 to 120 words per minute... any programming, copywriting, e-mail marketing, forum posting, or article writing you do will take a lot less time.
Finally there is the mindset factor. You need to be in the right mindset and train your brain to hate being poor or not having products completed. You also need to reward yourself after you have finished a job, so your brain associates your success with happiness.
Those are the three easy steps to exploding your productivity and getting a lot more accomplished.
Work: My Most Hated Word!
You guys had a ton of good guesses about my most hated word... but the word I'm trying to get rid of is: WORK!
No one wants to do work. My girlfriend always says, "I have to go back to work after lunch" or "I got to work at 10 o'clock." I keep correcting her... you aren't going to work, you're going back to the rehab center to help old people and make a difference.
- When Jason and I hold e-classes, he always gives out "homework" and I get him to rename it to that week's "challenge."
- Jason never says he is "sick" ... instead, he has the flu or has a virus he needs to get rid of.
- When I get off the phone with business partners, I've stopped saying, "Get back to work." Instead, I say things like, "Get back to having fun building your business."
Finally, when I get an angry customer, his e-mail usually says a PHP script didn't "work" ... what a waste of time, because I always have to reply and say, "How did it not 'work?' Was there an error message, did you try anything?"
Even when something "works" in a positive way, it's still not specific enough... it needs to be benefit-oriented. (The script didn't just "work" ... it showed up on the page and gathered opt-ins!)
Look at how many of you took time of your day to answer the previous post... you were escaping your "work!" (Ironically enough, the very FIRST answer within 10 seconds was the correct guess.) You need to find a way to make your so-called "work" enjoyable... turn it into a game:
- Friendly competition: Get an accountability partner and try to earn more money than him.
- More output: If you wrote 10 articles last week, write 12 articles this week.
- Less time: If you spent 20 hours building your business last week, do those same tasks this week in 15 hours and take Friday off.
Many people ask me and Jason how we get more done in a week than most people do in a year, how we can work for long stretches of time without burnout and always stay motivated... it's because we don't WORK! We have fun writing copy and creating video products.
For the rest of the day today, count the number of times you say the word "work." If you said it 10 times today, then make it a goal to say it 9 times or less tomorrow. After that, only say it 8 times in a day... until you stop using the word "work" altogether.
80% of getting things accomplished and making money is just having the right mindstate, not necessarily the best skills... that's why so many people went ga-ga- over Time Management on Crack.
At the very least, catch yourself whenever you say this bad word. That's a step in the right direction.
Guess the Word I Hate the Most?
There's one word that most people use that KILLS you every day. The sooner you realize HOW often you use this word, the sooner you can stop saying it. You'll also notice how often you hear it from other people, so you can tune this word out.
Once you've done both those things, you'll have a better mindstate about everything you do, and you'll be more productive... and therefore make more money.
So what is the word? Comment below with your guess and in a few days, I'll total up your guesses. Here are a few hints.
- It's a FOUR letter word.
- It can be used as a verb (an action word, like "run" or "jump")
- I heard it 10 times in 10 minutes today (5 times in 2 minutes)
- It's not a curse word -- although it might as well be in my book.
- My angriest and most frustrated customers who flip out at the smallest inconveniences (they are a minority) use this word in most e-mails.
- Copywriters will tell you to remove this word from your sales copy.
- It is not the word "wait" or "stop" or "can't."
What do you think this word is? Comment below with your best guess!
How to Get a Lot Accomplished Even If You Don’t Have Time
For years I told myself that if I only had enough free time, I would get a lot more accomplished. If I quit my job and finished school, I would have all the time in the world to work on my internet business, launch one new product every day and write 10 articles per day. Unfortunately, that kind of assumption could not be further from the truth.
If you are working on a hobby or trying to sustain a business while you still have a day job or go to school, you can do it if you budget your time. The best thing you can do is take your lack of time and turn it into a positive thing: tell yourself, I only have an hour to work on my business before I have to do this assignment. I only have an hour for my lunch break.
You can also turn this around and say: I need to finish my homework in the next 30 minutes so I can start working on my business.
As soon as you learn how to work smarter instead of longer or harder, you will experience a big productivity boost. Can you go to sleep a couple hours early, so that you can wake up a couple hours early and work free from distraction? Are you willing to give up television, at least during the week? Can you limit your social life to one night a week?
I began working on my internet business when I was 15, began doing a lot of freelance work at 16 and made my first product at 17. I finished high school and college while working full time, so it is possible.
During school I finished assignments the same day they were assigned, if possible, even if they were due weeks later. I worked on homework on the bus, during lunch, and after school, because I knew it meant more time to work for myself. I noticed a big boost when I left my work at school... meaning I would finish all my work in the school library and not even think about school after I got home.
Today, I still work at a day job full-time and find time to create products, write articles and blog posts, even market to my list... during my lunch break, 15 minute breaks, before and after work, and on weekends.
You might want "more time" to get your work done, but if you had more free time and your entire life was dedicated to your business, you would be unhappy and unmotivated. Instead, use that time crunch to stay super-focused on finishing your tasks so you can make room for new ones. My time management report can help you with that.
How to Write One Article Every Day for The Rest of Your Life
You need to write one article every single day. This might be an article you post on your blog, submit to article sites, post on a forum, mail to your list, or add to a book. If you write just one article per day, you will be able to express yourself with crystal clarity and never run out of ideas or content.
If you have any piece of information that you can share, even if it's something off the wall like a new way to build a birdhouse or a type of bread you discovered at the grocery store, you should write an article about it. This trains your brain to shape your thoughts as articles, and if you adopt this practice, you can easily share information on these subjects in the future. Even if you forget and need to re-acquaint yourself with information or a specific procedure, you only need to read one of your own articles on the subject.
Many courses about creating products will give you their "systems" and their "secrets" for writing articles but the only thing you need to do is: sit down and start writing. If you stick to this daily writing schedule every single day, you'll have to STOP yourself from writing.
Just open up a web browser and type your article in the submission box. If you're submitting an article to Ezine Articles, type the article directly in the article submission form. If you're adding to a blog, type the article in the blog post box... the same for forums and so on.
I am very much against writing articles in a form that allows you to save and put up later, such as Notepad or Microsoft Word. When you put yourself on the spot, and force yourself to finish that article before you close the web browser, click on other links or even get up from the computer, you'll finish ALL the articles you start and clear those ideas out of your head... so you'll have room for new articles!
Challenges
A big part of why I can get so much accomplished is from challenges. I consider a challenge to be something somebody dares you to do that is totally ridiculous.
Remember the Daily Video Challenge? I dared you guys to record one video a day for 30 days to get the hang of it. Most people didn't get through all 30 days but they still recorded a handful of videos they otherwise wouldn't have made.
I attempted a challenge this last weekend. The challenge was to record 100 videos in one work day. I "failed" and only made it to 50. Now I have a handful of videos I can market on YouTube as video responses, I can insert a few in my sales letter and I have a ton of very easy to implement pre-sale and post-sale follow-ups for a couple of my products.
Most of the stuff I did this month was the result of a challenge... the 30K Month challenge... and I'm close to $20,000 for the month so far... I might even break over it today when our PHP Copywriting class fills up -- there are still a couple of slots for people eager to learn how to write sales copy the easy way, and add a few conversion-boosting PHP scripts without any real work.
Heck, on the phone last night, I challenged my business partner Jason to speak at an internet marketing event within 30 days. He kept talking all kinds of NLP tricks he could use onstage, so I finally said, "Just DO it!" I don't care if he presents at a super crazy big Armand Morin style seminar if a speaker backs out or if it's at a tiny little Terry Crim event where no one attends. If he has to give 100% of the commission to the seminar host, or donate whatever percentage of his backend sales to a charity, even PAY to speak there... it's got to be possible.
Even if he doesn't do it, even if it takes 60 days to speak at an event, that's still an accomplishment!
You have to have unrealistic goals to get a lot of stuff accomplished... you just have to.
Okay, your turn. Can you try something for me... choose one of the 7 choices below, and DO that thing by this time tomorrow. Knock TRY to knock out just one of the tasks below... it doesn't matter if you can't go all the way. If you choose to write 10 articles, and only write 3, that's probably 3 more than you would have made... if you didn't have that pressure.
- Write 10 articles and have them published by this time tomorrow.
- Write a quick report (and launch it) by this time tomorrow.
- Write and schedule the next 5 e-mails you're going to send to your list.
- Record 10 quick videos by this time tomorrow and upload them all to YouTube.
- Host a webinar or teleseminar by this time tomorrow, even if it's a freebie call-in gift to your list.
- Interview someone (or be interviewed) for 20 minutes before this time tomorrow.
- Take a product that's been lying around on your hard drive collecting dust... and freaking launch it!
Are you going to try out my challenge? Which item did you pick?
Learn Some Self Control!
Keep reading for a 10 second exercise that will boost your productivity...
I bought a laptop before the Hawaii trip, because I've been on planes before to go to seminars and hate the waiting on the plane, where you're not able to move around much. I'd have so many ideas for articles, but all I could do was write down the chapter titles on a piece of paper. I definitely wasn't going to write out articles by hand and retype them... total waste of time and easy way to get bored.
So, I bought a laptop for the flight.
If you've met me at seminars you've probably never seen me with a laptop. That's because for me, seminars were my only downtime from computer. I don't take nights and weekends off, I sure as heck wasn't going to do MORE marketing during my only vacation. I'd queue up lots autoresponders and e-mails before the trip so my business wouldn't take a hit.
I like to sit down at my computer, get my marketing work done, then get off the computer.
So why did I buy a laptop? Wouldn't that wreck that system?
Nope... because I'm making an effort to exert some self control. I set a simple rule in my head that I'm only going to use the laptop in 14 minute spurts, to either write articles or whip up PowerPoint presentations for videos. No browsing forums or checking e-mails.
How do YOU get self control?
It's simple. Pick a task that takes up most of your time and kills your productivity:
- Checking e-mails, MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, etc.
- Reading forums.
- Watching TV or playing computer games.
- Leaving the computer too much.
- Incoming phone calls.
Then choose one thing you wish you did more every day:
- Write one blog post or article.
- Write one chapter of an e-book.
- Write one sales letter.
- Write autoresponder e-mails.
- Send a joint venture proposal.
Now you're not allowed to do that one habitual productivity-killing task at ALL (the number you chose), until you do the thing on your wishlist (the letter you chose).
If you chose "1" and "A" then your 1A productivity task is to write one blog post before you even check e-mails. You turn your compulsion into an advantage... uh oh, someone might have e-mailed me something important. There might be a pressing customer service issue waiting... better write up a blog post and PUBLISH or SCHEDULE IT (important... finish what you start) before you can check that e-mail.
Sure, you tell yourself you're only going to check for new e-mails, but you'll start deleting and archiving some, replying to others, and the next thing you know it, 30 minutes have been wasted and you still don't have that article.
Or if your big habit is checking the forums, and you have a sales letter to write, then you need to be on a 2C schedule today. Finish that sales letter and have it live on the page with the order button, or submitted to your client (whichever applies) before you check the forums.
Multi-tasking is a productivity killer. Switching gears is a productivity killer. Be aware of this, like I was when I bought my first ever laptop.
Google Alerts
Do you happen to use Google Alerts to track what people are saying about you and your products?
I have been using it for several months. I wish I'd used it sooner. In the past I have used a combination of Awstats (to see what other sites link to me, including search engines) and WordPress Psychic Search to see what search phrases bring people to my sites -- and what they search for when they get there.
(I once joined a $60/month membership site just because their private message board was sending traffic to one of my products and I wanted to see what people were saying.)
It's saved me a ton of time. I don't need to hop on Google to check and see if any new affiliates have popped up or if anyone has reviewed my products, I just get an "as-it-happens" e-mail... usually within the first few hours.
Just today I got an e-mail alert when someone mentioned my new Action Optin script, and I was the first person to leave a comment on his blog post.
Now that the Warrior Forum is search engine friendly I know right away if someone mentions me.
(This is BIG as it keeps me out of forums... which are huge timewasters for me.)
What's even more powerful: entering the names of all your products as Google Alerts... and your competitors' products... and the names of your competitors!
I have also found discussions about my products and new affiliate sites when my name was not even mentioned.
I got that idea when some people were badmouthing an internet marketer on a message board, and they were very careful about misspelling his name and product names on purpose... just in case he had a Google alert set.
As luck would have it, one of the forum commenters spelled his product name correctly just ONCE, and the product creator found his way onto that board.
Google Alerts have been around for 4 years, but almost no one uses them... do you? Do you use it to spy on your competitors, track your products, stop plagiarism, jump on blog conversations, or something I haven't thought of?
