Millions of Americans were glued to their TVs like painted macaroni to a paper plate lat week. The harrowing (non-)journey of a six-year-old boy, and the reality show family that set him up, was probably the highest-rated program on television.  This is a great example of what passes these days for high drama in the US.

So what did we learn as Internet Marketers?

I’m not going to belabor the obvious point of NOT putting your children at risk or under stress to promote your product/site/show.

What I am going to belabor is the need to avoid hoaxes and hucksters…

There have been a lot of changes in the IM world in the past year. Criminal charges, corporate infighting, rumors of affiliates not getting paid for sales, and many other tales of caution have popped up.

You HAVE been paying attention haven’t you?

Especially important is knowing with whom you are partnering on a project. Keep in mind that success can sometimes be fatal. History is littered with those who have fallen prey to the greed of their most trusted companions.

As Ronald Reagan used to say… “Trust, but verify”

My business has been growing, but slowly…

This is partly by design. Would I take over-night success? Sure… I’d give it a shot.

But I am not, by nature, one who trusts easily. I’m that guy who, once he has decided to buy a big-ticket item, then waits for a few months before actually making the purchase… just in case he’s wrong about something.

I have used the same method when deciding what paths to take concerning promotion, and which marketers to work with.

I have only endorsed one product… and it was one that I had actually seen all the way through. Many marketers want affiliates to review and promote a product, but never give enough information to do so ethically.

I know, I know… I can always buy the product.

But money is still, unfortunately, an issue right now. Besides… what if I buy a $997 product that isn’t worth $97? I file for, and hopefully get, a refund. Then I try a $497 course… and once again… amateur nite at the Apollo. So I get another refund. And again, and again, until I find just the right product.

I develop a reputation for being a “serial refunder” and no one will want to work with me. Hardly an effective strategy for building a business.

What do I do instead?

I look for JV opportunities with:

1. Marketers who already have a good reputation
2. Marketers who are willing to show their product, at least in large part, before the pre-launch
3. Marketers who use accepted payment channels (Clickbank, Commission Junction)
4. Products that deliver what they promise

The first two are an either/or, but preferably both, proposition. If I know the track record of an established marketer, and it’s positive, I am more comfortable dealing with them. If I don’t really know their past history, I need to see the product before I know whether I’m willing to get involved.

The third one is NON-negotiable. I don’t care who you are, I want an impartial go-between. If I promote a Clickbank product, I know that after CB gets their cut, I’m getting mine. By doing so, I avoid the potential of a marketer who “screws the pooch” on his promotion and has no money left over to pay affiliates.

The fourth item, is also non-negotiable. If it seems to good to be true… well… you know the rest.

I once tested a product that promised to help me master affiliate marketing with CB. Three weeks into the program, all they had done was show the very basics of signing up for CB, and then promoted a product they wanted me to buy so they could make commissions. Needless to say… I got a refund on it!

So thank you Balloon Boy and the Heene family for reminding us that no one, no matter how compelling a story they tell, can be trusted for very long. I will sleep better tonight knowing that my vigilance will not go unrewarded, and that while growing slowly, at least my business is being built ethically.

Science of the Sale Update

The second video in my Science of the Sale series is finished. Clocking in at just under 25 minutes it is substantially shorter than the first video.

I have also decided to make it the first video to be submitted using Traffic Geyser, so I’ll let you know how that works out. If it goes well… THEN I’ll put up an affiliate link… but I can’t promote what I haven’t tested.

The video is being posted as “Pique Technique – Science of the Sale” or just “Pique Technique” in case you’d like to do Google searches to see my results.

Talk soon!

Peace,

Finally I have something up and available! It’s only the first video… and it’s quite raw… but it’s done and open to the public!

I have already started the second video… this time the video is about the pique technique since the new FTC regulations are having a huge impact on this persuasion method.

If you haven’t already signed up on my SOTS JV list, then jump over to http://www.ScienceOfTheSale.com and get on it. For a limited time, all signups through the website will get full access to the videos as they are done.

Once about half of the videos are complete, I will be changing the rules… since the closer I am to having a saleable product, the less I’m going to want to give away. Simple math!

So pop over to http://www.ScienceOfTheSale.com and check out the first video… it’s longer than the average video will be, but it covers 3 related propaganda techniques.

When you’ve watched it… come back here and let me know what you think!

Peace,

Bear with me… this will be a long one!

On Sunday I am watching football (of the American variety) and am scanning the program guide for all the channels that give me information and updates about games I can’t watch (like my beloved 49ers) and I notice that Sports Soup is on.

If you’re not familiar with Sports Soup, it’s part of a larger collection of “Soup” shows that take humorous clips and then make comments about them. The flagship show, The Soup (formerly Talk Soup), is usually very funny although I don’t watch any of the programs they make fun of.

Sports Soup then is based around sports clips. Unfortunately there usually aren’t that many humorous things that happen in sport on a weekly basis… plus the host, Matt Iseman, just isn’t that funny…

But what’s my point?

My point is… Who would watch a show loosely based on sports when there are actual sports being broadcast live?

In other words, why talk about something when you can actually be doing it?

And that brought me to what I’ve been learning from Alex Jeffreys and Rich Schefren, which is how to organize a successful business. I’ve been on calls with them, reading their reports, and thinking a lot about getting organized. But I wasn’t actually doing it.

So I’ve now spent the past few days really putting down on paper…

• my company’s mission statement (which still needs work)
• the breakdown of what needs to be done and what can be done by others
• what it is that I want to do each day
• where I want to go with my business, and
• how I plan to get there

Which brings me to the Game Reset:

I spent most of the month of September feeling quite ill. I had whatever virus was going around. It all started with chills, and was then followed by chest congestion which lasted weeks. During that time, I had little ability to control random fits of coughing. Needless to say, I couldn’t very well record videos or voiceovers with such fits. This has left me very far behind on my Science of the Sale video series.

Two months ago I declared that SOTS would go live on October 13th… RESET!

One of the things Alex Jeffreys keeps drilling into my head is the need to be public with your goals in order to keep yourself honest (which originally prompted the October 13th declaration). He even has his students posting our 90-Day Goals in the private forum.

So what does all of this mean to you?

It means that I am going to put myself on the line again, and give away the very product I planned to sell…

And here’s how…

If you are familiar with Russell Brunson and his “micro-continuity” concept then you know that in the Micro-C plan is to provide a product over time (12 weeks, 16 weeks, 12 months) while collecting a monthly subscription fee.

Well I’m going to do that one better…

Presenting… Science of the Sale Micro-C for Free!!

Yep! I need to get this product done and you are going to help me!

By signing up to receive my report Secret Selling: Psychology and the Art of the Sale I am going to enroll you in my free micro-continuity program.

The first video (though it may lack some polish) will be sent out to all subscribers on October 13th. Then every Tuesday I’ll send a video until the whole thing is done! (There will be 16-20 videos in all.)

Once the whole program is complete I’ll add some bells and whistles, get a professionally written sales page, hopefully get some testimonials from you guys, and sell that puppy! Of course, you then will know whether or not you wish to promote the product to your list, because you will have seen it ALL!

I know, I know… I’m probably crazy… but I already knew that!

OK… you know what? This post is long enough… I had more I wanted to share with you, but I’ll save that for another day.

I do want to mention one thing quickly that I’ll be delving into later in the week. The Federal Trade Commission just handed down a ruling this week that requires bloggers to disclose any payments or other remuneration they receive for reviewing a product or service.

In other words… review sites MUST have full disclosure… so if you have a review site set up to promote affiliate products either take it down or add the disclosures (which will no doubt limit the effectiveness of many reviews).

Talk to you VERY soon!

Peace,

That title is waaaaay to long for good SEO I’d guess… but oh well…

On Tuesday I went to see my counselor and figured that it would even help me get my head together for a very productive day. When I came out of the office I noticed that I had a flat tire. Now this tire has had a slow leak for some time… so I brought out my handy plug-in air compressor and re-inflated the tire.

I thought it might give me enough air to get to my repair shop… no such luck!

I made it about three-quarters of a mile before the tire was completely flat again.

So I wheeled into the nearest gas station to change the tire.

Now I have a lot of camping supplies in my trunk at all times… cuz ya never know when a campout or festival may be just around the corner… so I had to pull all of this stuff out to get to my spare.

I get the car jacked up… and go to get my lug wrench… and it’s gone!

See… back in January some stupid kids broke into my car… they attempted to steal my stereo, but when the last screw turned out to be cross-threaded and not removable… they attempt to pry the radio out and destroyed the dashboard.

The spent a bunch of time rummaging through the car… even popping the trunk…

Then left having taken only my raggedy old iPod and the face to me stereo… leaving behind unopened DVDs and a short-wave radio…

Or so I thought…

Apparently they took my lug wrench… it was one of those big 4-way jobbies… so I didn’t just overlook it.

So I ask the station owner for a lug wrench…. no luck

So I call my dear friend, Christine to come help me… of course she has to bring two toddlers with her… Yay for me! Not so much for her!

By now the station owner is threatening to call the police because I am “trespassing” – Awesome!

So Christine arrives… and her lug wrench is a half-assed piece of junk that only fits her Neon… Struck out again!

So I jump in her car and go to the next gas station and leave a $40 deposit to borrow his breaker bar and socket.

I get the lugs off and the tire is jammed tight! I’m wearing Crocs… not work boots… so kicking the tire isn’t really helpful!

I finally get mad and start smashing the tire with a iron bracket I had in my trunk (they make unshakable tent stakes) and the tire finally popped loose… I got the “donut” on and headed to the repair shop.

Now the repair shop is about a mile from my house so I walked home to wait and then back to get my car. Now I’m not in the best shape… so that really wore me out… When all was said and done… I could barely keep my eyes open in front of the computer… so I gave up and vegged out…

Then yesterday… all I’ll say is that everything I touched turned to lead… I couldn’t do anything right… and I became so frustrated that I gave up again, getting very little done… except playing with the babies! Which is always a good time!

Then this morning I woke up and hopped over to Rich Schefren’s Founders Club which I joined last week. I’ve seen some of Todd Brown’s work there, but today I noticed that Rich’s Instant Expert webinar was up! I had REALLY wanted to check in for that one, but couldn’t figure out how… so having access to it was a thrill!

In the intro he says that it is the first webinar he has done entirely on his own… usually he’s a guest for someone else… like a few weeks ago when he did the call for Alex Jeffreys students… (which was awesome and timely in it’s own right!)

And man… this is good stuff… once again Rich Schefren finds a way to give me the information I’m looking for, and he does it right when my thinking has already turned that way.

Somehow… every time I hit a sticking point in my thinking and start trying to identify, quantify, clarify, and ultimately fix my concerns, either Alex Jeffreys or Rich Schefren comes out with 3 or 4 hours of high quality answers to all of my concerns!

So this is my personal thank you to Rich… and to Alex, without whom I may not have even known about Founders Club… you guys ROCK!

Keep it up!

Peace,

I have been very busy lately with the new product… as well as learning from Alex Jeffreys, Andrew Fox, and Rich Schefren and installing new profit pulling platforms. In fact I just finished installing my latest site: http://www.PostLaunchProfitsExposed.com and this time I integrated AWeber with PayPal so when someone purchases the full product, they will automatically be added to a “buyers” list with no effort on my part. Sweet!

As far as my JV Giveways are concerned, the first one was a lovely success, and continues to trickle in some new subscribers. The second one, although I put more effort into it, is not doing nearly as well. But it IS a learning experience!

I am starting a third one… it’s a 5 day only giveaway, and I purchased the premium membership to up my standings. It goes live next Tuesday. Here’s the contributor link if you wanna get in on this one: http://www.5dayjv.com/contributor.php?id=424

I’m hoping for a nice pop from this one!

On a less light note… today is my Mother’s birthday. As you may know, she passed away last year in August, just 6 days after her 40th wedding anniversary. So today I need to head over to the cemetary and visit with her and pay my respects again. Somehow she is motivating me to make my business successful, as she always wanted her life to be hers and not under anyone else’s control. Success in this buisness will bring me to that point in my life, and by proxy, bring her along with me.

Anyway… love ya Mom and I miss you!

To the rest of you… we’ll talk soon!

Peace,

Well I have two full days under my belt in my first ever JV Giveaway. I gotta tell ya… Alex knew what he was talking about. Finally I have noticeable increase in the size of my mailing list!

Here are two screenshots from the first two days so you can see my vast improvement…

Now I actually have a list that I can build relationships with… and FINALLY start my business in earnest! Man, this is fun… and I’ve already signed up for another giveaway starting September 1st… so keep in touch… bigger things are coming.

Well… now I’m off to start the relationship-building with my new list…

I’ll keep you updated on my successes and failures in that department as well!

Until next time…

Peace,

So I tweaked up my report Secret Selling: Psychology and the Art of the Sale and am finally ready to enter it into JV giveaway programs. If you don’t know what a JV Giveaway is… go visit my good friends JT Martin and David Walker… they know much more about them, and have good information of their sites.

That being said… let me do a little shameless self-promotion. My standing in the giveaway will improve the more folks I send over to grab the freebies. And there are a LOT of freebies to be had!

So if you would like to help me, and help yourself to great PLR products, then jump over to:

==> http://www.PLR-Giveaway.com/321

And sign up for all the great free stuff!

I’ll be blogging about my success or failure in these list-building adventures in the next few days. So check back and see how I’m doing… and wish me luck!

Until next time…

Peace,

PS – I am completely stoked about the call with Andew Fox tonight! If it’s half as amazing as the Rich Schefren call last week, my head may just explode from the great insider information. Thanks again Alex Jeffreys!

Well… it took a loooooong time and definitely shows that I am NOT a video expert, but my video is finally finished.

If I had a few more days I would polish it a bit more… but the deadline is fast approaching and I have to start work on Science of the Sale videos… so this is going to have to do.

So without any further ado… here is my video entry! I hope you enjoy it half as much as I enjoy making it!

Please leave a comment to tell me what you think of my masterpiece. And then you should go over to Alex Jeffreys’ blog and tell him how much you liked my video as well… that may help me win!

Until next time…

Peace,

So I’ve spent the past few days working VERY hard on my video entry for Alex Jeffreys’ $1000 contest. Alex has offered a cool grand for the most creative and content-filled video posted by August 19th.

This was inspired by the special call with video-marketing genius Maria Andros that MWA students were privy to.

While the video is not 100% complete… I do have 5 scenes “in the can.”

Here are a few screenshots to whet your appetitite.

So I keep hearing how easy, and how important, it is to build Squidoo lenses. But before today I had only seen one Squidoo lens, and did not have an account. So I thought I’d try my hand at building one from scratch.

Of course, there was no point learning without bringing you guys along with me. So I did.

Check out the screen capture video I recorded while learning from Step One…

It did take a little more than ten minutes for me to get the first lens done… so I had to cut the video in two for YouTube happiness. But then again… I had a lens up in a little over ten minutes.

Just for fun I created the lens Is Alex Jeffreys just a hack? Of course the answer to that question is a resounding, NO… but I thought the title may attract viewers of all types. A little sneaky… but not much.

So check out the videos… there is actually a third video. I didn’t want to waste time figuring out whether I could insert HTML in the text… or maybe it was BBcode or something else… so I recorded a second video showing what I learned while editing my text boxes and adding my blog posts.

Leave me some comments to let me know what you think… I did learn not to scroll my screen so much when my personal information is up… had to blur a big chunk of screen there for a bit. Another learning experience… now you don’t have to make THAT mistake.

Without any further ado…

Peace,