Recent Updates

Homeowner

• 36 Comments

I am now the OWNER of a 2200 square foot, 4 bedroom, 3 bathroom, cute yellow corner house... and I'm 23!

I am no longer going to screw around with the stock market. That $30,000 loss in January still stings a bit. That was supposed to be my financial shortcut to getting a house and it had the opposite effect.

My goal now is to work like crazy and build up exactly 2 years worth of living expenses, then throw more money at that house to cut the payments in half.

Comment below if you feel like congratulating me.

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Thank You Notes

• 24 Comments

My question for you today is in two parts...

First of all, do you collect your customers' physical addresses?

Second, do you send your BEST customers handwritten thank you notes in the mail?

I do both -- as of earlier today.

(If you don't feel like reading the rest of this blog post... just scroll down and leave a comment answering those questions.)

To be honest, I only switched from the "no shipping" option on all my PayPal buttons... to optional shipping last year... and didn't lose any sales. Last month, I switched from "optional shipping" to required shipping on all my buttons, and didn't lose any sales! In fact, May 2008 was my best month to date.

Don't get me wrong. I am very much AGAINST ignorant order forms like JVManager that require customers to fill in their shipping information TWICE (once to get them in the order system, a second time into the payment processor).

There is no excuse for crap like that. Processors like PayPal will capture the address info and then save it in your logs or even pass it back into a script.

If someone is paying with a credit card, they have to type in their billing address anyway... and if they are paying directly out of a PayPal account, their primary shipping address is already PRE-SELECTED!

Every time I go to a seminar, the big boys who make $10,000+ per week always tell you to take your customers offline. They offer postcards, free CDs (where you pay shipping only), and big markup for those $997 packages with 30 DVDs that probably cost under $100 to produce.

You don't have to get all fancy like they do. In fact I just about guarantee you that if you try to set something up with Kinko's online, or some kind of automated postcard mailing service, that you will make everything way too complicated and get yourself confused.

Here is what I did. I downloaded the history of all my PayPal transactions of the past 6 months or so, onto an Excel spreadsheet.

I filtered the spreadsheet to include only those addresses that contained the phrase "United States" and sorted by highest purchase amount first.

After removing duplicates, I ended up with a list of about 50 Americans who bought a $30 or higher product from me in the last six months. There were many many people who paid less than $30, lived outside the United States, or just didn't provide any shipping information.

How pathetic is that? I average 566 sales per month with an average price of $19.06 per sale... I made 2,829 sales from January 1st to June 1st 2008... and I only ended up with about 50 decent physical leads.

Don't make the same mistake I did... require shipping on your PayPal account, even for online orders.

To write my thank you notes: I sat down on my couch to watch a movie and made use of some idle time. During that two hour movie, I wrote 50 personalized thank you notes.

I printed out that list of leads and a little bit of buying history from each person (because I funnel everything into a list, it is VERY rare for someone to only buy one product from me). I mentioned the product they bought, thanked them for being a loyal customer, asked them to take action on that product.

If I saw a trend in the products they bought from me (i.e. ONLY JavaScript how-to products, or ONLY the scripts themselves, or ONLY copywriting products) I would recommend something else they might like.

I wrote each of these in one of those fat little diary books, one thank you note per page, then hand-addressed each envelope, tore out each sheet of paper and stuck it in the envelope, added a stamp... then today, I stuck them all in a mailbox.

I did this all with mailing materials I had in my house. I didn't have to go outside, I didn't have time to talk myself out of it... I just needed a monotonous task to get me through a boring movie.

Watching the movie on its own would have been too boring... stuffing the envelopes would have been too boring... but I was completely happy doing both of those things at the same time.

So go ahead and check your order history (cross reference them with your mailing list to make sure they haven't unsubscribed) and write some thank you notes if you're going on a plane ride or watching a boring movie.

If you're one of those people who needs to add it as a routine to their schedule, just write and mail 4 handwritten thank you notes per day. Do it on a trial basis... you can stop after 30 days.

It has to be handwritten. I can't tell you how many pieces of mail I've thrown away just because they weren't handwritten.

They have to be mailed to your current customers ONLY. No cold mailing. I've thrown away plenty of those envelopes in my mailbox as well.

Even if those thank you notes don't bring in any more sales, it felt good to write them. George Bush Sr. supposedly wrote hundreds of thank you notes per day. He carried a box of thank you cards around with him and wrote thank you letters sometimes minutes after speaking with someone.

This was just a test. If the thank you note thing works out then I might send thank you's out to all my high-ticket customers, maybe throw in some Starbucks gift cards, hire someone to write them, who knows.

The important thing was: I took my customers offline, even if it was just a little bit.

Are you doing the same thing?

Please answer me in the comment form below because I need 10 comments to continue posting.

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WordPress on Crack

• 54 Comments

The weekend before last, I launched WordPress on Crack... a set of video tutorials (5 hours worth) showing you how to write your own WordPress plugins... most of them easier to write than a standalone PHP script because you don't have to deal with most of the install, data storage, and templating issues that you'd normally deal with in PHP.

It also included three bonuses: Techie Howto WordPress by Joel Holtzman, Install SEO WordPress by Pawel Reska, and Advanced WordPress by Quentin Brown... also videos.

Total, the WSO grossed me over $8,000. Yes, $8,000 from one launch... that didn't involve any joint ventures or any advertising aside from a single forum post and a mailing to my list.

Here is a quick video from last Thursday showing the $7,000+ balance in my PayPal account (this is when the sale was still going on):

I sold 33 copies at 13.33 ($439.89), 33 copies at $16.66 ($549.78), 88 copies at $33.33 ($2,933.04) and 88 copies at $44.44 ($3,910.72). The last 12 discounted slots are selling at $66.66, so far 3 are gone ($199.98). That brings our grand total to: $8,033.41.

Take away a couple hundred dollars in PayPal fees, plus the cost of obtaining the resale rights to the bonuses, but you can add those back in when you accounted for "sidetracked" sales... getting my name out there caused people to buy a few more of my products.

"WordPress on Crack" made May 2008 my best month EVER! Even beating out June 2007 where I made $3,000 in a day. In May 2008, I made over $14,000 from PayPal (before fees). For the ENTIRE month, taking into account fees, Clickbank and day job income, I cleared over $16,000... in one month.

How did I do it? Easy. I acted like a marketer. I had something to market so I wrote a sales letter for it that explained everything (so many people post a WSO with nothing but a payment link... or even worse... a "buy me a beer" link... and wonder why it doesn't sell).

I created a product relevant to my e-mail list so I could market to that list. I gave them a unique offer -- the limited quantity -- which was something I actually tried last year with Push Button PHP and you know what? It pissed people off just as much then as it does now.

I had so much traffic going to that offer (opt-in list of 11,500 subscribers -- most of them paid) that the offer closed up quickly and people got angry because they couldn't get in.

Some of my subscribers told me they were unsubscribing for life because they were used to getting everything for $1.00 and could buy in at any time they wanted.

I had people saying I shouldn't resort to gimmicks because the product should sell on its own.

Guess what, most of the people who said that would never have bought anything from me over ten dollars, and have probably never done any serious marketing on the internet.

In 2008 alone, I've posted 31 special offers and earned $62,000. In the past 12 months? Fifty Warrior Special Offers!

I stick to one project at a time, I put myself under time constraints -- like having to get in my car to go to my day job or come off of my break.

I act like a real marketer... I try to over-deliver, and not in that generic cliched way. I added an e-book, scripts, and videos, and went out and bought resale rights to augment my original product.

I followed up with my list every day throughout the launch explaining what the price was that day. I hit them with a different angle every time and saved each mailing so I could use it as an automatic follow-up later. You know what people always say... it takes an average of 7 follow-ups to make a sale? How come almost NO ONE follows that rule?

What's your opinion on this situation? Was I wrong to limit the number of sales? Or was I a smart marketer by taking a WSO that would have normally made me $2,000... and turned it into $8,000?

Please take a moment to comment below.

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Testimonials

• 20 Comments

Like I mention in Fast Food Copywriting, testimonials on a sales letter aren't important. It's the proof that's important (testimonials are a form of social proof.)

When I launch a brand new product, testimonials are the last thing on my mind. Usually my strategy is: I set up a simple dimesale so the price goes up with each sale, the price increases quickly and that's my social proof.

I post my special offer on forums and link to my product via the forum post instead of the actual URL to the sales letter to get people posting on the thread... more social proof.

Once the initial launch has died down I can usually cannibalize these forum posts and use them as testimonials. I look up the person's picture and URL and contact them asking if it's ok to add their comment as a testimonial -- with a link to the sales letter so they can see how it looks. I've almost never been turned down... who doesn't want their URL mentioned on yet another page?

I have mentioned before that 2008 is the year I am doing everything right. I have a blog I update every week or so. Every one of my products has an affiliate program and a plug and play solo ad so affiliates can easily promote it. ALMOST every product also has an upsell to another product -- many have more than one.

May 2008 was the month where I made sure just about every sales letter had a testimonial... with a picture if possible. Check out the sales letter for Head First PHP. I have 10 testimonials on the right sidebar of that page and 5 more at the end of the sales letter.

How did I do it?

Simple: They are all on a mailing list, so I added a timed follow-up to offer a bribe... in exchange for a testimonial.

Notice how I worded that. I sold them on the bribe first, the "what's in it for me" ... and then said, here's what you need to do to get it.

It's no different than a sales letter. You need to SELL them on the benefits of that bribe. You need to have a headline (in an e-mail that's more like a simple sentence), tell a story, and lead in to a call to action.

This time, the call to action is not to buy, but to write up a review for you... much more difficult.

Have you ever thought of how many steps you put your customers through even for the most simplest transactions?

Opting into a newsletter

  1. Type in first name.
  2. Type in e-mail address.
  3. Click submit button and wait.
  4. Read thank you message.
  5. Login to e-mail account.
  6. Find the confirmation message.
  7. Click the confirm link.
  8. Finally get to that download page!

Ordering from you

  1. Click the order button.
  2. Type in their e-mail address.
  3. Type their first and last name.
  4. Reach in wallet and find credit card.
  5. Choose mastercard, visa, etc.
  6. Type in 16-digit credit card number.
  7. Type in expiration date.
  8. Type shipping information (sometimes).
  9. Click Confirm link.
  10. Get to that download page.

Writing a testimonial means: (1) Hitting the reply button. (2) Finding where they saved your product on their hard drive. (3) Reading through the product to refresh their memory. (4) Explain their favorite part and what they did with it. (5) Add a URL and their name at the bottom. (6) Hit the submit button.

No call to action ever takes one single step... they're ALL complicated.

You are asking for a BIG favor from your customers by asking for a testimonial. Think about it... most of those 10 steps in the order process required very little thinking, or work. The only cost really was in money. This time, you are asking for their TIME... something much more valuable than money.

The call to action on a testimonial is a tougher sell than selling a product. No big deal, you'll get lower conversion rates... but you MUST sell them.

Here are my five tips to getting testimonials:

Testimonial Power Tip #1:
Always ask in a timed followup (7 to 30 days after purchase).

Just write your blurb and stick it in a follow-up and forget about it. This way when you get new customers, your autoresponder will automatically ask them for that review. You won't have to keep asking, figuring out who you've asked and who you haven't... it's easy.

Testimonial Power Tip #2:
Offer a bribe.

Head First PHP contained an e-book but also a daily video. My autoresponder sent a link to a new five minute video... every day for about 30 days.

At the end of those 30 days I said, if you want a link to download all the videos in one zip file, send me an honest review and I'll give you that link. That's how I ended up with 15 testimonials in the span of a couple days.

Testimonial Power Tip #3:
Ask multiple times.

Sometimes people won't get your e-mail, they'll get busy or they won't understand the bribe well enough from just one e-mail to do all those steps required to giving a testimonial.

Add multiple followups either a week or a month apart saying: If you've already given me a testimonial... thank you... now take action and actually use it. Also say if you haven't given me a testimonial, now's your chance to get that bribe.

For another product (Black Hat PHP) I bought resale rights to a product and used that as a bribe. I cut up the sales letter into follow-ups.

  • In one follow-up I explained the problem.
  • In another, I said here's the solution and here's what you can do to get it.
  • A week later the follow-up said here's a video demonstrating the bribe, if you still want it, send your review.
  • A week later, a list of benefits... and by the way, here's how you can get the bonus for free.
  • A week later, here's the final summary and call to action... review my product so you can get the bribe.

Testimonial Power Tip #4:
Follow-up if the testimonial isn't good enough.

People will try to do the bare minimum to get that bribe and when that happens, ask more questions. When someone says, "It was good. I liked it." Ask what did you like? Did you use it on any web sites? What did it do for you?

  • Teach you how to build a bird house with half the materials and 1/3rd the cost... if it's a how-to build bird houses product.
  • How to finish your homework faster and get better grades so you have more time to relax and play video games if it's a "how to do homework faster" product.
  • Decreased your blood pressure, gave you more awake time, and enough energy to run a marathon if it's a "raw super foods" infoproduct.

Ask questions and try to get some real answers about what they liked the best, what was the most useful and most importantly how it affected them.

It might take a few back and forth replies but eventually you can get enough from that e-mail interview to put it together into a decent testimonial.

Testimonial Power Tip #5:
Be specific.

It all goes back to what's in it for me. Social proof comes in three steps: First, proof that you (the originator) did it... second, proof that someone ELSE did it (these customers) and third, proof that THEY (the prospect) can do it. Without step #2 you just can't have step #3.

By getting your customers to tell you which chapter they liked the most, you can continue selling within your testimonial by mentioning all these cool benefits.

That's how I get customers to hurl testimonials right at my head, the easy way. If you want to know how to write that sales letter so you have a place to stick those testimonials, my latest project is: Five Minute Copywriting.

Please, comment below and share your tips for getting testimonials and social proof to spice up your existing sales pages and therefore increase your conversion rates and get more sales.

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Is Your Photo on Every Sales Letter?

• 20 Comments

Earlier this week I realized I had been doing something very stupid... leaving my photo OFF of my sales letter!

Seriously, you already go to the trouble of adding your photo to Facebook and MySpace...

Why Aren't You Doing the Same Thing on Your Sales Letter?

I noticed this when I attended my first internet marketing luncheon. It was just a warrior lunchtime get together in New Jersey (I flew down from California to New York City for the weekend just to attend).

Immediately I recognized Mike Ambrosio and said hello to him... because his photo is on all of his sales letters! I also recognized Mike Merz, and of course when Mike Filsaime showed up, he was surrounded by so many groupies, no one could go talk to him. (So many Mikes.)

So... I knew who three people were, but the other 50-ish people were total strangers.

At the Warrior Event in Austin this April: I recognized Willie Crawford (his picture is EVERYWHERE) and Dr. Ron Capps the NicheProf, Marlon Sanders and Jason Fladlien... but again, that was about it!

Even some of the speakers were people I'd heard of... I'd read their sites, responded to them in forums, but didn't recognize them.

For that reason, I went through all of my sales letters this week and added my kisser to them.

On some sales letters I was able to do an "align=right" and place it to the right of the text, but sometimes I just gave up, centered that image, and placed it below my signature line at the bottom of the page.

Can You Please Do the Same on Your Sales Letter?

I'm not saying adding your photo will get you recognized instantly at real-world seminars. At the very least it will remind your potential customers reading that sales letter, that you're a real person.

You don't have to be wearing a suit or a hawaiian shirt... any picture will do.

  • If it's a family photo, crop the image so it only shows you -- that way your kids aren't appearing on your sales letter.
  • If you look like crap, crop the image even more so it only shows your head.
  • If you think you're ugly, resize the photo of you down to 100x100 pixels.
  • If you don't even have a digital camera, find a friend with a camera phone.

You have every reason to post your photo on a sales letter. Stop procrastinating and just do it.

Please comment below and tell me when you finally realized you needed to have your photo on your sales letters.

If you don't have your photo on there yet, add your photo to your sales page and post the URL here for all of us to look at.

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Clickbank Allows You to Sell Physical Products

• 30 Comments

The other day I was on Clickbank requesting a price increase for my account. (So I can charge more for products.) Guess what? I discovered how you can sell physical products with Clickbank!

As you might know, Clickbank is a payment processor that you can use to handle payments. As far as I am concerned, PayPal is #1 and Clickbank #2. With PayPal you get paid instantly, but with Clickbank, you have access to 100,000+ affiliates to promote your stuff.

Clickbank handles all the affiliate payments and everything, and heck -- they even added support for recurring billing this year (membership sites) and an IPN so you can integrate it with a script.

The only problem? Clickbank only wants you to sell digital products. This is because they have a pretty buyer-centric refund policy and don't want to be like PayPal where it is a big issue to get the physical product back.

So with Clickbank you can have a membership site with affiliates, but no physical product delivery -- like Jim Edwards did with The Net Reporter. ($77 per month and in addition to access to the membership site, he mailed you a physical DVD video every month.)

Here's the loophole for selling physical products with Clickbank... I noticed the following in Clickbank's terms of service:

You may also offer shipped delivery of printed media (books, CD's, and DVD's) as a courtesy to qualified customers (e.g., US and Canada only), provided the shipped media is clearly complementary and not essential to the operation of the originally downloaded digital product.

After having a Clickbank account for 6 years, I never noticed that. What you have to do is provide your members with a hybrid delivery. (Coined by John Reese.) When someone buys this physical product from you, provide 100% of the content in downloadable form -- for instant gratification -- then ship the physical materials as bonuses, for added value.

That's what you should be doing with physical products in the first place and that's what I recommended to Steven Schwartzman when he was disappointed about the Five Minute Articles WSO. Sales picked up after he added the hybrid product delivery.

I am really resisting the push into physical products. I am looking at a gigantic map of how my upsells connect to one another (drawn in Visio). There are about 60 products in that map... not all of them are connected.

I showed that map to Steven Schwartzman and this is what he had to say:

In regards to the image...WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have nothing else to say about that except wow. It's amazing to see how many products you have when it's displayed like that. You can create a course on making those maps.

I recently recorded 4.5 hours of Camtasia PowerPoints for Software Secrets Exposed. This means now, not only do I offer the book, I also offer six 45 minute videos and six audio CDs.

The audio CDs are just the audio from the videos but it means you can burn them and listen to them in your car or whatever.

Should I have released this as a physical product?

  • Maybe set the price low at $17 just for the PDF.
  • They click to order, and have the chance to get just the audios at $37.
  • They click to order, and have the chance to get the audios plus the videos for $47.
  • They click to order, and have the chance to get the package for $97 as a set of 3 DVDs plus 6 audio CDs mailed to them.

There are some really good fulfillment services like SwiftCD where all the shipping info is grabbed from PayPal, but yet another drawback is getting my customers on my follow-up list as well for updates.

Could you please comment below and let me know if I should have released this update as a physical product? Have you yourself released a physical product?

Is it even worth the hassle dealing with the shipping problems and refunds... especially since with Clickbank, you can't get those physical items back?

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Behind Schedule

• 13 Comments

I've been so behind schedule ever since I came back from the Warrior Event seminar in Austin. I have a ton of blog posts outlining a bunch of the stuff I learned... just be patient.

I've "only" put together 8 1/2 sales letters and recorded two e-classes. An e-class with me is approximately 30 daily episodes, each episode is about five minutes.

I make it a point to handle a finite number of projects at one time. Absolute maximum is four. The number I want is one. I usually end up working on about two projects at a time.

The problem when you promote stuff as an affiliate: you are the same as everyone else!

Why not add some of your own stuff as a bonus -- check out script number 7 of Top Secret PHP to learn how to modify OTHER people's pages and add your own affiliate bonuses.

I bought Kevin Riley's Recipe for Post Product Launch and was so impressed with it, I put together a PowerPoint presentation and recorded a Camtasia video of me dictating it.

When you buy that product through my affiliate link, I add you to an autoresponder and send you another five minute episode every day for a month.

It appears as if I'm putting 20-30 minutes a day into the class, recording the video, uploading it, sending out the e-mail message... when really, I recorded all the videos in a couple of hours and wrote all the daily follow-up messages in under an hour.

Think about recording PowerPoint videos the next time you promote an affiliate product.

People hate work and like having things laid out for them. It's easier to watch a little bit of video every day then try to crack a book... that's too much like school... yuck, I'm having nightmares already!

Just make a separate slide for each page to keep things simple. Make three bullet points for each slide summarizing the main points. Print out the entire book out on your printer.

Record your video and read the text word for word. When you have something of your own to add, just wing it.

When you're done with each page, pause the recording and see how long you've recorded. If you're close to five minutes, save the video and start a new one.

Why five minutes? Because Camtasia allows you to save to MP3 audio and those will be your CD tracks.

That's right, you just added even MORE value to your own customized affiliate product because you have the daily videos people can watch every day... and you've given them audios so they can burn them to a CD or to their iPod.

I've done this with one affiliate product and one product I bought rights to.

You could produce the video into a DVD as well if you felt like it.

I know many of you are resisting me here. But think about this... don't you want to be considered an expert in your niche? Every time you see someone speak on stage at a seminar... either live or when you watch it on a DVD... do you wish that was you presenting?

There is also that added bonus that after you read an entire book allowed, you become an expert on that subject. You know it backwards and forwards. If someone asks about a subtopic in that book, you could explain EVERYTHING!

This is how you will get to to that point. Not just by creating the video products but by getting lots of practice in, being an instructor.

I know you would rather host a seminar, charge $1000 per seat and get 50 attendees and make $50K in a weekend than launch a lousy $27 e-book and try to make that same amount of money over the course of a few years.

Am I right?

What do you personally do to differentiate yourself as an affiliate? Do you offer personal consultation? Bonus products? Daily videos? Something else I haven't thought of? Please, share with me... I need the usual ten comments.

p.s. If you want those videos, check out:

www.PostProductLaunch.com

DON'T purchase from that site just to see how I roll the videos out. I have no what I'm doing. I really suck.

Only check out that product if you're interested in grabbing new affiliates AFTER your product is initially launched, you want to know how to properly host your own seminars, turn customers into promoters, blah blah blah... 🙂

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How To Break Into Any Niche Part 4: Don’t Burn Up Your Blog Too Fast

• 33 Comments

In the past we've talked about creating an autoresponder sequence to automate relationship building with your prospects or even your existing customers.

If you had 10 autoresponder messages, you wouldn't set them up to use them up in 10 days. You'd space them out to give subscribers a chance to take in the information.

Remember, you aren't only concerned with readers. The bottom line is how much money does your blog make... if it makes nothing then what's the point?

I'm not saying it has to make money directly with ad space or AdSense. If your blog gets you some regular traffic, which leads to more autoresponder signups, which eventually makes you more sales, then your blog is a source of income.

  • You want to keep your readers' interest, but at some point get them a little bit bored so they'll check out one of your other products that sells something.
  • You want to give other blogs and sites a chance to mention a recent article of yours before it's taken off the front page.
  • Don't forget that search engines penalize sites that toss up too many pages too quickly and don't grow at an average rate.

Like I said when I started this blog, I wrote 50 blog entries before I made the blog public. I could post one entry a day and burn it all up in two months, then be left with nothing else to write. Or I could post one entry per week and last a year. I could post 2 entries a week and last 6 months before I had to come up with any new content.

Here are my tips about not burning up a blog too fast, based on my experience with running membership sites and watching other peoples' blogs start out well but eventually fail miserably:

  1. Have a reserve of emergency articles -- at least 6 months to a year's worth -- to continue populating your blog at a regular pace. This doesn't have to be a lot. If you intend on posting a minimum of one article per month, all you need are 6 to 12 articles.
  2. Don't post more than twice a week. Daily is too much even for active subscribers to keep up with.
  3. If your articles are 1000 words in length or longer, break them up into manageable 250-500 word pieces. You can perform a word count using Microsoft Word or any decent text editor.
  4. Post replies to comments for two reasons: to let your readers know that you are reading what they say and encourage them to keep commenting, and keep your entries fresh, even if they are a few days or weeks old.

Comment below and tell me if you have a reserve of emergency articles for your blog or if you just wing it... and if so do you post on a regular basis or whenever you feel like it?

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Automation

• 14 Comments

I've been in Austin at a conference for the past couple of days.

You have NO idea how it's been because I don't have access to a computer... I haven't been on one since last week!

I don't own a laptop... I spend too much time in front of a computer as it is, why would I want to bring one with me? Plus, I travel light... just one bag to avoid baggage claim. And there is all that fuss with airport security where they have to inspect the laptop separately.

How the heck am I talking to you then? Automation. I wrote this blog entry before I even got on a plane. I scheduled it to post sometime during my trip.

I scheduled a timed mailing to my opt-in list. It said to check out this blog post, so it could get traffic, comments, and sales of some of my products.

When I get a product ready for launch, I'll write the sales copy before it's even finished so I can post a WSO and get it approved... then I'll pay when it's ready to launch.

I recently launched a video series called Head First PHP. I bought up rights to an existing product and made it my own by recording daily videos.

Instead of recording long 20 to 30 minute videos, I recorded them 5 minutes of video at a time. This allowed me to space these out into "daily" videos.

The secret is... I'm not actually recording just one of these a day. I recorded them all at once, uploaded them all at once, wrote some quick autoresponder follow-ups for each day saying, "Hey... check out today's video" ... with a link to the video.

I put in an afternoon of work... and the effect is that it APPEARS I'm diligently providing updates every single day. That's pretty cool, right?

This and last month, I've been documenting my work using Camtasia videos and have been able to split up all my work into 10 minute tasks.

I'm ALMOST at the point where I can do all the work I need to do ONE day of the week (after I get home from my day job) and the everything is automated for the rest of the week.

When I first started out, I did a lot of freelance consulting and product launches. I focused very little on list building and automation. The result was that I would make $2000 one month and $200 the next. My income was very unreliable.

Now that I am writing follow-ups and blog posts weeks in advance... now that I'm following up with prospects and customers every single day automatically... I've noticed that I measure my income on a daily basis, not a monthly one. It's reliable enough that I could quit my day job if I wanted to.

Comment below and tell me: Do you have automation in your business? Timed follow-ups? Scheduled mailings? Business systems?

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Coaching: Do You Have Someone to Call?

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For 2008 I told myself I was going to treat my internet business more like a business. As in, put work into it every single day (even if it was just a little bit) instead of putting a ton of work into it every now and then (which is a hobby).

It wasn't a "New Year's Resolution." Those never work. I just kept telling myself every day that I was going to have a business instead of a hobby, and after several weeks, it finally stuck.

Building A Business Requires Personal Coaching.

My friend Steven Schwartzman (I've mentioned him before) is my consultant. I have joint ventured with him on projects for the past five years and flew to New York last summer to meet him and attend a Warrior luncheon.

I make more money than him but that's only because I put out more products. As far as internet marketing experience goes, he and I are equals.

Earlier this year he got back into internet marketing after a break for several months -- he was studying for the LSATs to get into law school. I've made it a point to call him every weekday to ask him what he accomplished that day, then tell him what I accomplished that day.

I've noticed a gigantic boost in productivity by doing this. If I have nothing to report I feel like I'm letting him down, and I think it has the same effect on him. We motivate each other pretty darn well this way.

So far in 2008, I've earned $30,247.38 just from PayPal sales alone. That's not counting my day job, that's not counting my Clickbank income, that's not counting my stock trading income (usually that last one loses me money... I hardly do that nowadays anyway).

That's 1,762 sales in the past 100 days. That's right, doing some simple math in your head will tell you: 17 sales and $302.47 per day.

I've launched 24 products since New Year's.

I'm telling you, you need someone like this. I'm not talking about instant messaging, that is a huge time waster. You need someone to actually call on the phone (not Skype, you should be away from the computer) at the end of the day and talk for 5-10 minutes maximum about what you both accomplished.

It needs to be someone far away, it needs to be someone who does the same things you do (marketing on the internet). It can't be someone you know, it can't be a real friend or a family member.

At one point Steven was very sick, on the couch, watching Jeopardy, but we randomly got the idea to get him to watch some internet marketing videos so at least he can accomplish something until he gets better. In the meantime he assured me he was less than a day away from finishing his special report.

As soon as he was all-better, I'm bugged him on the phone every day until it was finished.

I have been feeling a little bit down from these product re-launches, because I put a lot of work into videos for existing products, but each launch only gets me a few hundred dollars because most of my list already owns these products and I deliver free upgrades. (For brand new products, I am used to bringing in a couple thousand dollars in the first few days.)

However, Steven assured me that, in his words, "A few hundred dollars a day is nothing to shake a stick at." It's consistent income and though I have seen several $100-$150 days lately.

My combined income, taking into account PayPal fees, Clickbank, and day job income, equals $34,000 year to date or $136,000 per year. Profit from the past 12 days equals $275 per day on average... or $100,000 annualized.

I must be doing something right. Considering I made $90,000-ish last year INCLUDING day job income, I could be in for quite a boost if I keep doing what I'm doing all year round.

Sometimes it only takes a simple comment like "it's nothing to shake a stick at" to put everything in perspective.

You don't need to spend $2,000 a month on professional personal coaching unless you are making so much money that you need to get rid of that $2,000 for a nice tax write-off... yeah, I wish I'd thought of that before getting my bigass five-figure tax bill this month.

(For the rest of 2008 I have to pay more money per QUARTER in taxes than I made in INCOME for an entire year just a few years ago!)

You just need someone to talk to on the phone. Someone who won't steal your ideas and won't lead you on the wrong path. They can be your equal, it doesn't matter... you just need someone to TALK to.

Could you comment below and tell me if you have a business mentor? Are they paid or free? How often do you communicate? Has it helped you?

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