Entries in " business "  

You (Yes You!) DO Have Urgency Issues

Ok, I admit it. I'm absolutely horrible at keeping my priorities in proper order. I'm willing to guess that you are too. Why? Because most humans are. It's sort of our nature.

You might not be as bad as I am or you might be much worse. Either way, we all have issues keeping our priorities in check in the face of a new "urgent" issue.

This morning my buddy Marcel Chastain pointed me to a blog that I've never read before. It's called Rock Your Day and it's written by a guy named Dave Navarro (no, not the musician.)

It's a very well written blog and has a lot of good motivational and entrepreneurial content. The very first article I read was his latest post titled: How To Keep Urgency From Ruining Your Life

I'll give you the real short version quickly, but I really recommend you read his post!

The article talks about ways to keep your goals and priorities in order even when a new "urgent" issue pops up. Yes, sometimes a seriously urgent issue does come out of now where. Maybe your dog got hit by a car or your kid is sick at school and you have to run and pick them up. Those are understandable.

A lot of times a new urgency is really just an excuse to avoid doing work that makes us uncomfortable. Humans are naturally afraid of rejection and look at failure as a form of rejection. So say something as easy as writing an email trying to sell something to your list, you'll put it off forever because you're afraid to fail.

That's a basic example but honestly it could be anything. Maybe you think it will be too hard or you'd rather browse YouTube for a while. There are a million reasons to move your days priorities around and trust me, I've used nearly all million of them.

In the article Dave talks about writing down your days goals EVERY morning on an index card on your desk. It's not so much having the card sitting there staring at you that helps, but it's the act of performing the exercise EVERY SINGLE DAY.

This is something I've recently started doing (even before reading this article) in my own life. I actually have been doing this daily on a white board next to my desk in big red letters.

What brought it on was me trying to juggle way to many tasks at once. When I start a project that shouldn't take me longer than 1 week to complete and it's taking me almost 3 weeks to really finish, it's a huge problem!

So far the daily exercise has been working well for me. I'm still trying to get myself back into a normal routine. Especially when it comes to working out (you know, physical exercise.) I've been spending so much time in front of my laptop that I haven't been working out the way I used to even as recent as 3 months ago.

I'm working on it though! Don't worry — I'll get there, that's for sure.

What About You?

How do you procrastinate and avoid doing the days truly important work? How do you get past the procrastination and actually get your shit done? Leave some tips in the comments of this post.

Grab What's Between Your Legs!

Crude title for this post but I think it's necessary.

I subscribe to many different mailing lists because I like to see what people are writing, teaching, promoting, etc. More importantly, I like to see the style in which they do it.

It's a great way to learn about marketing, copywriting, and salesmanship. One of my favorites is Frank Kern, which isn't really a surprise because he's huge in the internet marketing world.

Today I was going through my many, many mailing list emails and ran across an email from Frank about a new blog post he had just submitted. It's a great story about the very first female self-made millionaire. I highly suggest you read it.

(click here to read the blog post)

Basically the moral of the story is that this woman was able to pull herself from the most miserable conditions and conquer the odds, and the world, during a time where every possible chip was stacked against her.

I won't go too far into it but she was an African American daughter of slaves, widowed mother, had a skin condition and lived in the extremely racist deep south during the 1860's.

She built her empire by selling her own products door to door!

Grab Your Nuts!

When I was in the ARMY we were always told to "grab our nuts" and just "knock it out!" Basically means to stop being scared and just get it done.

We all could use a jolt of motivation at times. I know I could use it daily! In fact I've been pretty down on myself today because I was supposed to be done with a project I'm working on last night, but I'm only about 40% done. Other things have popped up and really screwed my plans for the week.

Now after reading that article I've decided to put my damn nose to the grind stone and just get it done. It gave me the little jolt I needed to get out of the funk and take care of business!

So if you're in a funk and are not sure what to do about it, just grab your nuts (even if they're metaphorical — for the ladies reading this) and take care of your self and your business. Don't let fear of stop you!

Click here to grab your nuts and get started!

"Checking In" Is Hot - But Not New!

Back in 2007 I started working at a startup named Groovr (which appears to not be in operation anymore.)

The idea behind Groovr was sort of an enhanced Twitter, only without the message limitation. It natively supported image and movie messages being sent to the service. A lot of people loved these features but my favorite was something completely different.

We had been using an idea back then that is all the rage today. "Check Ins" - that is, checking into a location so you're friends can see where you currently are. It was as easy as sending a quick message to Groovr to find which of your friends are checked in nearby or who has previously checked into the place you were currently checked into.

We even had iJustine fly out for a few days and we all were part of her live life cast that she was doing at the time.

Services like FourSquare, GoWalla, and Loopt offer this now and have it nailed down pretty well. Even turned it into a social game type of system that makes it super addicting to use and keeps the users coming back for more.

Granted we had a lot of problems with the system and it was very "cavemanish" compared to the services today that offer a similar experience. Remember though, at that time no one else was doing this (as far as I knew anyways.) Still, Groovr had a very hip feel and our user base, though small, loved the service and the community within it.

Not sure why I decided to write this post but I tried to go to the Groovr website for the first time in a year and it seems to not be running anymore. Sort of sad and sent me down memory lane. Oh well, on to the next one... RIP Groovr.

Anyway, Check In's may be going the way of the Dodo if Mark Cuban has his way.

This Blog Post WILL Make You More Money! (Easy 1 Click Upsales)

Well, if you're into selling products over the internet anyways...

Check out this video that shows how quick and easy it is to setup "One Click Upsales" to your existing website using the CartFreak shopping cart.

By now I know you're just dying to see more (right?!?) so follow the links below:

Full CartFreak Demo Here.

If you don't have any web hosting, I recommend HostGator.

Click Here To Visit HostGator.

Yeah... I've Been Hiding Out...

Yea, I sort of quit blogging the last few months. Not because I don't have anything to write about or that I think it's a waste of time. Even if it was a waste of time, the real issue is I haven't had much of just that... uh, time that is. No time.

I have a list of blog post ideas in my iPhone that I just haven't had time to write them up. I also have a list of like 4 or 5 products that I think would sell really well but just no time to put them together.

Plus, I have some other business needs that are taking up most of my time right now. One of them is CartFreak, which is a "super-human" shopping cart aimed at direct response internet marketers. Check it out if you're in the market for a cart to help automate your business. You'll see the feature list compares (even beats?) most of the major carts out there.

I've also been spending a lot of time consulting with clients on marketing their websites, improving their customer retention, etc. While I love helping small businesses out, I am starting to see that it's cutting way to much into my time and it's effecting my real business goals.

So that said, here are my plans for 2010:

Restructure My Entire Business Around CartFreak

As it stands right now, CartFreak is my main focus and I want to turn it into a huge success. My partner on this project is Joe Lavery, who is an amazing marketer. This guy lives and breaths marketing. The "crazy" ideas he comes up with never stop blowing my mind... Not because their crazy, but because they WORK!

Ok, enough stroking Joe ;) We are both working really hard to help turn CartFreak into a real competitor to the larger "old" cart companies out there. We have quite a few people paying us to use the software already, and it's only in beta release. We've also had such positive feedback from big name marketers on the cart and that has been very motivating and helping us keep our focus.

Stop Consulting With Small Businesses

As much as I love helping small businesses improve their internet marketing, it's time for me to ween myself away from doing so. The reason being is that it's way to time consuming. With clients all over southern California, I find myself traveling to meet with them several times a month and each time I lose a few days in the process.

I'm still going to help out my clients, and other small businesses, just in a different fashion. I have a product in the works that will be very useful to these type of businesses and much more affordable than paying me to personally come out and meet with them so often.

Helping the "Little Guy"

Even though I, myself, am a little guy, I still have a lot to offer people new to internet marketing and process automation. I have a small, but very loyal, following and I appreciate them very much. I want to spend more of my time giving back to them - my customers!

I've got some awesome stuff in the works for them and hope to be able to start with that really soon. Note, if you want to be kept up to date on this, click here and enter your email address.

Focus on Business Automation

As a software developer, I thrive on automation. The lifeblood of my business is getting a computer to do the things that I would normally have to do. In the last year I've sort of lost track of this and honestly, been completely neglecting it. Not because of laziness, but I come back to the lack of spare time.

So I will definitely be focusing more on automating (or outsourcing) as much of my business as possible.

Do Some Software Contracting

I love writing software using Python and Django. The "geek" in me won't let it go, so assuming I can find the time I'd love to pickup some short term contracts writing software on a cool project. This wouldn't even be for the money, but more for the "fun." As odd as it sounds, writing code is almost therapeutic for me.

Write More Open Source Software

I love open source software. A lot of people don't realize this but the vast majority of internet services run on open source (FREE) software. Everything from web servers to mail servers to name servers. The very services that are the backbone of the internet, all come from people to write software and literally give it to the world.

I recently released the Zerigo DNS Python module to the open source world. I've also been submitting patches and code changes to other projects I am interested in. I want to do more of this, when I have some spare time or am in the "zone" and just want to "code"

Try To Improve My Personal Life

This is hands down the most important part of my plans for the future...

Things in my personal life have been sort of out of whack lately and I have a lot of changes coming in the very near future. Some of them are very hard for me to deal with, but like always, I will have to suck it up and move forward. Like my ARMY drill sergeants used to say - FIDO - which stands for "Fuck It, Drive On." So that's exactly what I plan on doing.

At the same time, I need to create some sort of balance. I work way to much and everything else in my life has suffered a little bit because of it. Especially my relationship with my 2 daughters. When my 10 year old tells me she doesn't get enough "quality time" with me, then something is wrong and MUST change immediately. So that's exactly what I'm doing. Making changes in the right direction.

Wrap Up

This turned into a way longer post than I planned on. Guess I had a lot of writing in me to get out ;)

Even though I will never shut down this blog, and I do want to write more here, I know I won't get to write as often as I like. Just stay subscribed (either via RSS or email) and I'll update you as things progress.

If you really wanna know what I'm up to during the day, then follow me on twitter. I update throughout the day, usually every day, there.

Here's to a great 2010!

How To Improve Your Google PPC Campaign Quality Score

Shot this quick video that goes over a trick I picked up a few months back. It shows yet another way to improve your Quality Score for your websites that you're marketing with Google AdWords. That can only mean one thing... More money!

Check it out:

Quickly and Easily Harvest Google Search Result URL's

Harvesting URL's is very useful when doing PPC marking on Google AdWords Content Network (placements) or Cost Per View marketing. Basically you provide the advertising networks what pages you specifically want your ad to appear on.

Obviously placing your ads on the pages (especially the first few pages) of organic search results will result in your ads being displayed to highly targeted traffic. So I put together this quick video that shows you how to do it.

Here are some pages from the video:

Get Grease Monkey Here

Get Google URL Harvester here

Watch video on Cost Per View advertising here

3 Hours of PPC Training Here

Targeted Web Traffic For Only 2 Cents Per Visitor

Mass Control Anyone?

Hey everyone. I know I've been quiet for a bit (did anyone even notice???)

I've been super busy working on an awesome project thats in the works. Looking forward to sharing that with you very soon.

With all the work I've been doing I am in need of a much needed break. I'm heading over to the Mass Control 2 seminar/event in San Diego tomorrow. Knowing me, I'll still end up working way to much down there, but still it should be a chance for me to unwind and get to know some new faces from the marketing community.

Anyways, if you're heading into SD for the event shoot me an email and let's have a beer (on me!). See you there..

Cash 4 Gold Is A SCAM???

Shocking right? As silly as their commercials are unfortunately there are a ton of people who fall for the gimmick and send in their jewelry, only to be totally disappointed when their check finally arrives.

I found this article today on ShoeMoney.com where someone claiming to be an ex-employee talks about the entire operation.

It didn't surprise me at all that they were burning people on the value of their jewelry, but what did surprise me is by how much. Pretty ballsy operation (assuming of course that the claims made are true).

I still find it strange that these sort of companies are able to continue doing business. I guess they aren't breaking any laws and if their agreement is strong enough, there is no real action that can be taken against them.

So on second thought, maybe you should hold on to that class ring for a while...

How To Trade "Customers For Cash"

I put together a quick report and video that involves what I call "Trading Customers For Cash." Essentially it goes over a form of lead generation for small businesses.

With the economy being what it is this business model is doing very well. Business is slow so it's tougher for small companies to keep their advertising budget what it once was.

Instead they can spend less by paying someone like me (and you!) to help generate new customers for them. This is pretty easy once you know what you're doing. Also, if you're doing this right, you will be giving them highly targeted customers which should mean a higher conversion for the small business. Of course the new customer is getting what they wanted to begin with and you're getting a nice payday for your trouble.

It's a true win-win-win...

I'll let you watch the video & read the report. It's absolutely free.

Click here to get the report and watch the video.

The Perfect Business... Does It Exist?

What is the perfect business? I suppose there is no general rule for a perfect business because each person has their own idea of what that business may be. Richard Russell wrote 12 rules to what he thinks make up the perfect business.

I discovered this letter last year and have kept it for reference and motivation. Here are just 3 of the 12 rules that I think are huge facets of the "perfect" business...

1. The ideal business sells the world, rather than a single neighborhood or even a single city or state. In other words, it has an unlimited global market (and today this is more important than ever, since world markets have now opened up to an extent unparalleled in my lifetime).

9. The ideal business is portable or easily moveable. This means that you can take your business (and yourself) anywhere you want -- Nevada, Florida, Texas, Washington, S. Dakota (none have state income taxes) or hey, maybe even Monte Carlo or Switzerland or the south of France.

12. Super-important: the ideal business is one in which your income is not limited by your personal output (lawyers and doctors have this problem). No, in the ideal business you can sell 10,000 customers as easily as you sell one (publishing is an example).

If there was ever a time to build a perfect business, especially related to those 3 rules I just pasted, now would be the time. I've spent the last few years devouring everything I can find related to marketing (on & offline), copywriting, sales funnels, etc.

Outside of building cool software I can't think of anything that I find as enjoyable as marketing & sales to earn a living. I am slowly working towards my goal of combining my two "loves" into my own perfect business.

What are some of your ideas for a perfect business? (Yes, we'd all love to be a playboy photographer but that's not a very scalable business model)

Oh yea, you can read the entire perfect business letter by clicking here...

What NOT To Do When Learning PPC

Like all good marketing junkies I make it a point to subscribe to the mailing list of many other marketers that I admire. I like to read their emails, study their pitches, subject lines, etc.

While reading an email from Ryan Deiss promoting his latest product (Get Money From Google, which is an excellent product btw), I stumbled on this ad...

Naturally I was curious and so I clicked the add just to see what loaded. I found this.

Now I'm not trying to knock the poor sap who is obviously trying to learn Google AdWords but there is a good lesson to learn here...

Pause your campaigns until you are ready to go live with them!

So You Want To Write A Sales Letter Huh?

I have been re-reading one of my favorite books titled "The Ultimate Sales Letter" by Dan Kennedy. This is probably the 3rd time I've read it in the last 18 months and like most of the books Dan has written, I can't read it enough.

All of us, everyone of us on this planet, does some sort of selling every day. Think about it. We sell our products, skills, and services but it doesn't end there. Ever ask a woman (or man) out on a date? Been on a job interview? Bug your spouse for your favorite dinner? Practically everything we ask for requires us to sell ourselves just a little bit.

Since I fell in love with the world of marketing a few years ago I have become totally obsessed with writing good sales letters. I don't claim to be very good at it, but I am improving every day. (In fact, I just re-wrote the sales letter for Mom and Pop Money - head over there and see if you can resist that letter.. yes, that was a shameless plug)

I figured I would give a few tips from what I've learned and what has helped me improve and get past my serious problem with writers block and constant distractions... ooh.. look at those shiny lights outside... Sorry - another distraction. Back to the tips!

Tips For Writing Your Next Sales Letter

OK, here we go. Some of these may seem silly and until I tried them out myself, I would have agreed. Now these are rules I "write by," even for things like this blog post.

Write Something! - Seriously. Just start writing something. Anything. Get your creative juices flowing. Once you get going, you'll find it hard to stop.

Write in the Dark - This one will help the first tip above. And I don't mean sit in a black room and write. Get one of those software programs that turn your screen black except for your "sheet of paper" in the center. It gets rid of all the distractions your computer offers.

Do NOT Edit - Don't worry about grammar, perfect punctuation, or sentence structure. You can edit the draft later. For now just write until you can't write no more. Editing during this initial stage does much more damage than it does good.

Write as Yourself - I'm sure you're a pretty cool person. Your writing should show your uniqueness. Your reader should be able to feel your personality through the text.

Write for 6th Graders - If you write your letters in a language that a 6th grader understands perfectly, you've done a great job! Nobody likes to be made to feel stupid... especially the people you are trying to sell to!

Write How You Speak - Your sales message should come across as if you are speaking to your reader. This is an extension of the 6th grader rule above. Make the letters feel personal as if you are speaking to your prospect face to face. (Perry Belcher is an expert at this... I'm sort of stalking him & his work at this point)

Must Haves For Any Sales Letter

Sales letters can be fun to write, but don't forget the whole reason you are writing it. To sell something! These are absolute requirements for any sales letter...

Strong and/or Shocking Headline - There are many different headline formats and some work better than others in some markets and not so well in others. Your headline should grab your readers attention and practically force them to continue reading.

Pre and Sub Headlines - Sometimes a little teaser line before your main headline (called a pre headline) can help convey the message of your main headline better. Same applies for a sub headline directly under the main headline.

Greeting - Greet your reader in a friendly and personable way. "Dear Friend" is common, but almost too common in my opinion. Of course, it's probably so common because it works! Still, if you can switch it up and make it a little more specific it can help results. For example, "Dear Internet Entrepreneur", "Dear Neighbor", or "Dear Frustrated Musician". You get the idea.

Compelling Opening Paragraph - This may be the most important part of your sales letter after your headline. The idea is to really peak your readers interest to encourage them to keep reading.

Sub Headlines - Use a sub headline every few paragraphs. Make sure they are large, bold, and bright. Basically they should stand out. These are very important because they keep the reader engaged. Another purpose of sub headlines is to "sum up" your offer for those readers who will simply scan your letter. A good chunk of your readers will simply scroll through your letter and read the sub headlines as they go. So make sure your sub headlines are powerful.

Testimonials / Social Proof - People love to know that other people before them were satisfied with your product or service. Gives them the feeling that "they're not alone." The more authentic the testimonial is the better. That means include a name and website of the person leaving the testimonial. Use video testimonials if you can.

The Irresistible Offer - You need to offer your reader so much perceived value that the cost of your product wouldn't be a problem. You can offer bonuses of some sort to help boost the package value. If you can build up the perceived value high enough that the cost of your product is 10% or less than that number, you will really improve your sales rate. I've written in the past about perceived value and that post goes into greater detail.

Call To Action - You've spent all this time writing an awesome sales letter... don't forget this step! Ask the reader... scratch that, Tell the reader what you want them to do next. If that means actually saying "Take out your credit card, click on the order button, and fill out the order form" then do it! I've actually read sales letters that say that. You may want to be a little less aggressive but you have to tell your reader to make a purchase.

A Guarantee - People need to know that they are protected when they buy from you. Offering a money back guarantee is very important. Give at least 30 days but you'd be surprised that your refund rate can actually decrease by offering longer return periods. It's becoming common to see a full year money back guarantee.

Signature - Adding your digital signature to a sales letter will generally increase your sale conversion, even if it's just a little. They help your letter look more "official" and your reader will trust it more. Don't have one? Go get one from My Live Signature.

PostScript, aka P.S. - If I had to pick just 3 things to include in a sales letter a PS would definitely be one of those 3. This is a very important part of your letter. Readers will naturally shoot to the bottom of a letter and you need a strong PS to catch them. Your PS should re-enforce your offer & guarantee. Use 2 or more PS's if you need to.

How To Edit Your New Sales Letter

Writing your first rough draft is the fun part. Now you're going to have to do some things that a lot of people, including myself, find very difficult. Editing.

Forget High School - What I mean is, forget everything you ever learned about proper writing in school. Sales letters are rare in the sense that it is actually better to use improper writing methods. When you speak to your neighbor are you speaking perfect and proper English? I sure hope not :) Your letters should read like a conversation (remember?) so it's OK to "write wrong" in your sales letters.

Be Ruthless - You have to take your emotional attachment to your letter at this point. You want to have the best possible sales letter so be ruthless when editing your drafts.

Ditch The First Paragraph - Joe Vitale recommends removing the entire first paragraph (or even first page!) right off the bat and see if your letter still stands up without it. This is the hardest thing for me to do but just try it. You can always put the paragraph back if you really think you need it.

Easy on the Eyes - Your letter should be visually appealing and appear to be a very easy read. Use proper and consistent colors and stick with the same color scheme throughout the letter. For example, White background, black text and red headlines.

Short Paragraphs - Keep your paragraphs short. No more than 4 sentences per paragraph. 4 is the absolute max! I would say keep your paragraphs to 3 sentences but never more than 4.

Short Sentences - Remember what I said about forgetting everything you learned about proper sentence structure, etc. I meant it. Don't be afraid to use 3, 2 or 1 word sentences. They are easy to read and easier to follow.

Replace These 5 words - There are certain words that should never be used in your letters. Sure they may actually be used here and there but try not to. Never use them in your headline or sub headline. The words are: Buy (use Claim instead), Learn (use Discover instead), Tell (use Reveal instead), Things (use Techniques instead), Stuff (use Secrets instead).

Accent Your Text - Use bold, underlines and italics to add emphasis to certain sentences or words. This helps you get your point across in a strong or leading way.

Graphical Elements - Add graphics to your letter. Use a eCover if you are selling an eBook. Use check mark images, a guarantee seal, etc. Anything to add some life to your sales letter. These can be used to make your letter more appealing or to add to his authenticity.

Take a Break - Yes, take a break. Put away your letter for a day or two. Come back with fresh eyes & rested mind. Re-read your letter and change what needs changing.

That 6th grader again - Remember that 6th grader rule from earlier? Well, if you have access to a 6th grader ask them to read it out loud to you. You'll be able to tell where they are having trouble and fix it in your copy.

Get a Proof Reader - Can't find a 6th grader or already passed the 6th grader test? Ask a friend or colleague to read the letter and listen to their suggestions.

There is so much more that I can go into but this is plenty already. Use the above info to help you write your next great sales letter.

Want To Learn More About Writing Sales Letters?

Here are some books or resources I recommend.

The Ultimate Sales Letter - Dan Kennedy

Hypnotic Writing - Joe Vitale

Scientific Advertising - Claude C. Hopkins

The Robert Collier Letter Book - Robert Collier

The Gary Halbert Letter - Gary Halbert Newsletter Archive. Might be the best FREE resource online for copywriting & advertising.

Copyblogger - Awesome blog started by Brian Clark

A good sales letter can be the most effective form of marketing and selling. It's also the least expensive and it's something that anyone can learn to do... and do well!

So if it's something you're interested in but have been waiting to get started, stop putting it off and start writing!

How To Use Routines To Increase Your Productivity

Stuck in the same old routine and dying to break out? Hold on there slugger. You might want to rethink your strategy.

Many of the worlds top entrepreneurs use daily routines to keep on track and make sure you continue to make progress. The idea is so simple but it is difficult to get settled into a new routine.

Let's look at an example. 2009 is right around the corner and when that comes a whole list of new year resolutions will be right behind it. A good chunk of those resolutions will be involved with getting in shape, losing weight, etc.

It happens every year without fail. Jan 2nd I'll see a whole new group of people in the gym every morning. Two weeks later about 75% of those new people are still showing up. Another two weeks later were down to about 25% of them left. After six weeks I'd guess that around 10% of those people are still at it. It's those 10% that will continue on and likely meet their goals.

Why? Because they got "set" in their routine. The first 6 weeks are the hardest but after that it's so routine that it's done without thinking about it. As a result you hit your goal of getting in shape.

Running your business or managing your tasks is no different. Try to give yourself a routine to follow and watch your productivity rise.

Set aside a time to do your writing, handle your email, take and make phone calls, work on your marketing, write your code, whatever.

This is an example of of a routine for "How To Write Better Copy, Faster!" from the The Gary Halbert Letter website. Perfect example for setting a routine for your tasks to get better results in less time.

I'd be lying if I said I was on a daily routine like this... But it is on my resolution list for next year :)

How To Find Profitable Keywords With Virtually No Competition

It's no secret that internet marketers make heavy use of PPC marketing. With the steady rise of online advertising the PPC competition has really heated up. Making your campaigns more expensive and tougher to get visitors to your website.

A few weeks ago I found an awesome report called Digging For Gold that discusses a few techniques to find profitable "natural language" keywords. Because these are long tail and phrased in a natural way, the competition for these phrases is very low — or doesn't exist at all.

The report costs $7 but I would of happily paid triple that and walked away happy. It details a few tricks and also has a pretty clever way to use Google Analytics to see the exact phrases searched for when your ads were triggered and the user clicked your ad.

Remember, google only sends the "keyword" match but not the actual phrase that was searched. There is a huge difference there. Using Google Analytics to track patterns will let you know what long tail phrases to bid on and chances are you will get extremely cheap rates on those ads.

I don't want to give away how to execute the trick so go get the report. Definitely good stuff.

Check out Digging For Gold Here

MyCorporation Offers Free Incorporation This Week

Just a quick note here... Looks like My Corporation is offering FREE document processing this week. This means that if you want to form an LLC or Corporation you can get this done for free. You just have to pay the state filing fees so you can save $149+ on the cost of the processing.

Of course, you can always do that yourself for free and some states even offer it online so you may have no need for this. I'm lazy so I used LegalZoom for the services I needed. I've been thinking of restructuring a bit so maybe this would be a good time for me to test out My Corporation.

If you're planning on setting up an LLC or Corp next year, now may be the time to have it done.

Technorati Tags: business, free, llc, corporation, savings

Everyone's Talking About Making Money OFFLINE

Yea, I said it. I said OFFLINE.

There is a lot of buzz these days about ways to use the internet as leverage to build a large and steady income offline. When I started selling my latest product Mom and Pop Money to the "offline" crowd I honestly didn't see the buzz that was already building for these sort of systems. While MAPM does require use of internet marketing, there are many ways to make money offline with the help of the internet that don't necessarily require any internet marketing skills.

A great example was given away for free by David Preston on the Warrior Forum a week or so ago. The thread is now 17 pages long and has so much information on it that you can literally build a small consulting business from it. Check it out if you have any interest in this sort of thing.

The reason I brought up this thread is because David also wrote a report called Offline Goldmine that goes into how he has turned himself from a "marketing" consultant to an "internet marketing" consultant in less than a year. That's right, David has only been marketing and doing business online since May of this year (2008).

He's built up quite a name for himself. Well, David and I were speaking recently and we thought it would be cool to "trade" our products. I got a copy of Offline Goldmine and he got a copy of Mom and Pop Money (MAPM). Fair enough.

As someone who is fairly new to the whole "IM" scene I feel like I've picked up a ton of knowledge, especially in the last year or so and am pretty comfortable with my ability to market a product online. I've never done a thing in the "offline" world of marketing so reading Offline Goldmine was sort of an awakening for me.

David has a lot of ideas and strategies that really make it easy to pickup some offline clients who write nice fat checks. He also shows how the majority of this work can be outsourced. It's pretty clever, I have to admit.

If you're looking to get into some offline consulting then I really recommend Offline Goldmine. Even if you're an "old hat" guy, you will pick up some very unique strategies in this report.

Check out Offline Goldmine Here.

Technorati Tags: business, consulting, internet marketing, make money offline, marketing

Python / Django Goodies For eCommerce

I should preface this post by noting that this is not for the "average" internet marketer. This is more designed for Python programmers with a love for the Django framework. Real geek stuff. If you got the stomach for it, then read on...

Serving Secure Signed Files With Expiration Times

I wrote a simple class this morning to handle secure signed Amazon S3 links with expiration times. This is very useful when you want to serve files from Amazon S3 that are part of a membership site or a digital goods purchase.

I have been serving files from my digital purchases through a custom Django view. This isn't a very strong method because for every file served (purchased) my server has to load that file into memory. I would much rather give that task to S3 since it's more reliable, very fast and so cheap that it's a no brainer.

Of course I haven't migrated this class into my payment and delivery system yet but I'll do that some time this weekend.

Django DateField To Handle Credit Card Expiration Dates

I've now built several systems for taking payment via credit card. One of the problems that consistently comes up is when a user wants to update their credit card information in the database.

Providing the interface for that is easy, but the default display for a Django DateField will display their expiration date like this:

YYYY-MM-DD

Now on your credit, or debit, cards the expiration date looks like: MM/YY. So I created a custom field to display and accept input in the MM/YY format.

Totally got rid of the customer problems when updating their account with new credit card information.

Get the code...

You can snag both snippets at my account on DjangoSnippets. They are free to use however you want. You can also see example usage of them on their individual snippet page.

Go here to download the snippets.

Technorati Tags: django, ecommerce, internet-marketing, python, snippets

Mark Cuban is a Freakin' Genius

The internet is full of so many sources of quality information. One of my favorite sources are blogs. One of my favorite blogs is Mark Cubans - Blog Maverick. The man has a true passion for business and the entrepreneurial "spirit" and his writing screams that at you.. but in a subtle way (if that makes any sense).

Yesterday he wrote an awesome post about the state of our economy and how to "cure" it. Here is a small snippet from the article.

"The cure for what ails is us the Entrepreneurial Spirit of this country. We are a nation of people who encourage , support and invest in those of any and all age, race and gender who will use their ingenuity and come up with a new idea.


Its always the new idea that re energizes this country. Industry, manufacturing, transportation, technology, digital communications, etc, each changed how we lived and ignited our economy and standard of living. Tax policy has never done that. The American People have."

It's no secret that Mark is known to speak with his heart on sleeve. He's a truly passionate person and he's not afraid to let you know exactly what he's thinking. Like him or not, you can't argue with his results.

His post is not only motivating and inspiring, but it's also an eye opener. He's right! NOW is the time to start planning and executing your dreams of being you're own boss. Having your own business. Calling your own shots. You get the idea.

There are several ways to get started in your own business. Leverage the internet to get started. The costs are low and the rewards are high! Check out Mom and Pop Money (shameless plug) for an idea of how to get started. There are countless other ideas that can earn you a ton of cash if you think outside the box, plan, and execute.

Thanks again Mark. Your post has inspired a lot of people and you have done more for your readership than I think you realize.

Technorati Tags: business, economy, entrepreneur, mark cuban, taxes