The 60-Day Experiment

Knowing What You Don't Know Is Very Important Knowledge!

As you're reading this, I'm on my way to Indiana to meet my newest grandson.

Cole Perdew is the latest edition in the Perdew series, but he lives in Anchorage, AK. - very  far away from Alabama. He's three months old, and I'm really excited to see him and his beautiful sister, Matalyn.

(I'm happy to see their parents too, but you know... Grandkids? Doesn't get much better than that.)

We're also visiting my hometown...

No Such Thing as a Problem? Come On...

Yesterday, one of my favorite readers gently chastised me because he thought I was looking for sympathy about a problem I mentioned in a recent e-mail.

It kind of shocked me because that wasn't my intent at all. Here's my basic belief:

I've never had a problem! I never need sympathy.

Now, that sounds like hooey to a lot of folks I'm sure because...

How Much Friction Is In Your Business?

Today, I sent my friends (readers) a note about Willie Crawford's most productive report ever...and it's only $5.

In this quick report, he outlines how to create really fast money in 24 hours, revealing a virtual blueprint for fast cash.

I loved it and you will too.

But in my haste to get the word out, I forgot to tell folks about the case study from one of Willie's readers who immediately took action and created more than $1000 in cash to his PayPal account in 24 hours.

It was so easy and such a great model to follow. Once again, it all comes down to taking action.

Willie's report about creating really fast cash in 24 hours introduced me to the "Seller Beware" report that a ton of you have downloaded - for free - too.

Why was I so excited about that great report?

Two reasons:

1) It's loaded with excellent information - good, actionable content as my friend Mark Hendricks says.

2) The paid version of the report is customizable with 14 different streams of income. It can be given away and prized because of the value. But it can also pay me for years to come because every time someone clicks on a link, I can make money.

That's the epitome of win-win business opportunity. I love that.

It's brilliant!

So, get your reports now.

Seller Beware!

Really Fast Money in 24 Hours...

The Really Fast Money Case Study

Absorb the content, but also look at the business engine embedded in each report.

This is called "frictionless" business in the corporate world - so smooth, there's no drag between the seller and the buyer. Study these and evaluate how much friction is in your business.

I've got some changes to make in mine...

Peace and Prosperity!

A Story with a Very Happy Ending...

I love it when things happen the way they're supposed to, don't you?

For example, in my last post about 1ShoppingCart.com, I told you how the company had gone through a bunch of changes because it had been purchased by a WebSite Pros - WSPI on the NASDAQ.

Frankly, I was a little nervous. My entire business is embedded in the all-in-one eCommerce solution. I've got more than 50 products, 90 autoresponders, thousands of clients and nearly 500 adtrackers.

The thought of changing the links on the adtrackers alone is enough to make me run screaming into the night.

So, I've been watching the company closely.

But the evidence of serious improvement is very exciting.

In the past two months,

What I Learned in London From Jack the Ripper...

London was awesome...

...and Jack the Ripper taught me a lesson in marketing.

My lovely and talented wife, Charlsa, led a group of 12 people on an educational tour of London. She planned this event during the previous two years. The 25 participants who signed up nearly two years ago dwindled over time to only a dozen of us -- six high school students and six adults.

In just four days on English soil we visited:

A Marketing Lesson after 12:01 A.M

You know it's Christmas time when two things happen...

1) People stand in line for 48 hours camped outside Best Buy for 48 hours waiting for the latest PlayStation release, (more about this in a minute) or...

2) Mark Hendricks' 12 Days of Christmas buzz really gets heated up.

This Playstation mania is an incredible marketing lesson. But I missed the importance of what was going on until it hit home this morning...

Dumb Like a Fox...

My wife's friend reported this morning that he had just come back from Wal-Mart where he'd been camped out for 48 hours to get one of 4 available PlayStations when they went on sale...

What? I said. I thought he was insane when he told us this. Who wants a PlayStation bad enough to stand in line 48 hours? Well...

He said with a smile, "We got two!"

So! It was still 48 hours in front of a store, right? Do your kids really need these THAT badly?

"Oh, they're not for the kids! We listed them on eBay within an hour," he said, still smiling. "And they're averaging 5 to 7 thousand dollars. Some have sold for close to $14,000."

Now, I was stunned. Not because of the price, but because I had totally missed the entire marketing lesson laid out in front of me.

Robert Cialdini's six persuaders were in full effect!

• Authority -- Wal-Mart. Love 'em or hate 'em, they are the big kahuna in mega store retailing. If they advertise that they have 4 PlayStation in stock...they've got 4 in stock.
• Liking -- People live at Wal-Mart. Convenience and service have meant that customers have an undying loyalty to them.
• Commitment with Consistency -- Let's see. Stand outside in November in the rain for 48 hours to be the first in line for the release of a new product. That's serious commitment!
• Reciprocation -- Wal-Mart provides a free (and massive) PS3 buyer's guide on their site that gives you all the information you need to make a decision between the $500 and $600 units with all the accessories required. Giving such complete information not only sets up the authority persuader but also makes you value the content and feel indebted to an extent.
• Social Proof -- The press has been lapping up Sony's press releases about the PlayStation launch date.
• Scarcity -- Sony is really smart. They do this every year. Release only enough of the product to create an insatiable demand for it. They may have warehouses full of PlayStations, but they won't come out until the market begs for more.

How did I miss this!

So, my wife's friend knew before he invested the time to stand in line that the market was clamoring for the product. He had no intention of keeping them himself. His research on eBay confirmed that PS3 fans were rabid and would pay any price!

As a Mark Hendricks' student, I should have seen it too. This is exactly what Mark teaches in his seminars, courses and products. And it's exactly the process he's following with The 12 Days of Christmas. And why he's so successful.

It's also why I'm trying to drive as much traffic as possible from my blog to his site during the pre-launch.

There's another big reason and it has to do with leverage. I'll talk about that a little tomorrow.

You gotta ask yourself...WHY?

Why in the world would you help me promote Mark Hendricks' 12 Days of Christmas?

Several reasons:

1) I'm assuming you are not an affiliate of Mark's yet. You may be. I've sent you to the contributor's page in earlier messages. But if you're not, you will definitely want to promote The 12 Days of Christmas to your subscriber list because it's such a great giveaway program.

If you're sending them there anyway, please send them through my link. Good things come back around, remember...Remember the rule of reciprocity.

I'm trying to give back a little something that Mark has given me. A very little bit...

2) This program is set up like many giveaway programs: Those who drive the most traffic are rewarded with the best position. If I drive the most traffic before Dec. 1, my gift would be the only gift promoted on Day 1. And that's for the duration of the entire giveaway period. Imagine how much traffic that could generate.

3) Take a look at yesterday's reward matrix in the post below. Folks, these are real dollars to be used on your account. And the Grand Prize winner doesn't pay for any of my products for an entire year. That's pretty cool.

Yesterday, I got several questions about how to use the affiliate system to get the link. So I created a quick video to demonstrate it. Click here, or on the image below, to view the video.

Thanks again for all your help. Got a question or comment? Be sure to leave it below.

Making The Most of Public Domain and Private Label Content

There's so much public domain content available all over the
internet, with Master Resale Rights available and sites
springing up left and right with Private Label articles you
can use to create your own products, but what do you need to
bear in mind, what is the best way to use all this content
and what can you create with it?

What to Look Out For:

Copyright - you absolutely must check on this - violating
someone's copyright is not clever and can be a really
expensive mistake not to mention seriously damaging your
reputation. Is it really public domain? All those lawyers
fees can really mount up when checking into all this but
believe me, you really don't want to end up in court over
it.

Public Domain Content - If you have the money to have a
lawyer look at copyright for you then fine, go ahead and get
started. Where can you find this type of content? It can be
difficult to find content that is free to use but here are a
few links to get you started:

http://www.gutenberg.org/

http://www.wikimedia.org/

http://www.gpoaccess.gov/index.html

Master Resale Rights - If you can't afford expensive lawyers
what else can you do? One rather less pricey way is to buy
Master Resale Rights to a product - this gives you the
opportunity to name yourself as the author, use the content
in another product, rewrite the whole thing - the
possibilities are endless. Just be aware with this that you
will need to look at the terms and conditions of what you
are allowed to do with the product before you buy.

On a budget? - not to worry, there are still many ways you
can find great content without spending a fortune or
worrying about whether you can legally use it. Sites such as
Infogoround and The Lost Files
provide guaranteed public domain or private label content
for a monthly fee.

You could also sign up to some of the
well known internet marketer's newsletters. Why? Well if
you're serious about internet marketing you should be
checking out all the latest happenings anyway, but a lot of
newsletter owners will have free ebooks, giveaways and
articles to download - some of which you will be able to use
as your own.

So you've got your content ready to go and you've checked
your rights and permissions but there is one more thing to
think about - sites such as CopyScape can
check for duplicate content on the internet and of course so
can the search engines.

This could mean anything from the
search engines deciding they won't rate your site as highly
because the exact same content is available elsewhere to
some smarty pants asking you if you really did write that
incredibly good article because they've seen someone else
claiming that they wrote it too, so you do need to be aware
of this when looking to use content you haven't personally
created, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't go ahead and
make the most of all that wonderful information.

What Can You Do?

You could just read the information to learn from it
yourself; you could read it to get ideas for businesses,
more articles, content, the list is limited only by your
imagination.

How about:

• Ebooks
• Print Books
• Presentations
• Membership Sites
• Face to face courses
• Mini courses
• Teleclass content
• Webcast content
• Podcast content
• Blog content
• Content for your Autoresponder
• Ezine content Articles for your site to build AdSense income
• pages
• Viral Reports
• Tips Lists

When it comes to using all the content you have gathered,
you need to look through it all and decide what you want to
produce. If you plan to use content from more than one
source, such as 2 or 3 articles by different authors to be
combined into a report, you will need to go through and
change the content into a similar style, check that it is
all written in the same tense, make sure the formatting is
the same throughout, check for spelling and grammar (for
example - spelling for some words is different in the US
than the UK) and look through all the articles to see if any
of the points made are duplicated.

Once you've done this, make a list of points you want to
make in your report, read the articles through again and
start combining them together to fit what you want to say -
cut and paste to copy sections into the right place.

Next, look at the way your draft reads now and see if it
fits your style of writing, your personality and your
business. Reword it to fit with this - there's no point in
producing a very formally written, stiff sounding report for
a hobby site.

At this point you could just tweak it, proof read it, and
then go ahead and publish it but to take it a step further
and make it really unique, why not look at how you might
rewrite it so that all of the content is yours - now you've
got the basic idea down and laid out, it shouldn't take you
long to reword things, add in some of your own ideas and
keywords that fit your site, and maybe a few quotes and
suddenly you're looking at something that no-one else has
got, that the search engines will love and that no-one can
claim you copied.

Lastly, for a really good, informative and free resource, check out Yanik Silver's Public Domain Riches site. You'll get access to a rolodex of information, an mp3 and a transcript of interviews with people using Public Domain information profitably.

Time to start creating!

Some people say that advertising is everything!

Regardless if you have a product, a service, a hobby website
or just want to share pictures of your wedding, you have to
advertise somehow to get the traffic to your site or blog.

But not all traffic is equal. There are services that can
help you drive tons and tons of traffic to your site and it
won't do you any good at all because it's not targeted
traffic.

Take for example all of the many different 'surf for
traffic' or 'traffic clicking' programs that are out there.
If you have a website that is about your hobby, say model
airplanes, then what good is this traffic really going to do
you?

Who's using these services?

Webmasters and marketers that want traffic on their own
site.

So they most likely won't spend any more time on your page
than is required by the little timer these services use and
then they are gone again. Even if your site is about these
traffic services (this is about the only time you will see
very much benefit from using such a tool) you will still
have to spend a ton of time just surfing and clicking around
to get a real benefit from these programs. Once marketers
realized this they switched gears. They started promoting
all the different programs to a lot of other marketers to
get them in their downlines, so they could get some traffic
as a bonus. This became their new focus. The problem is that
everyone else did exactly the same thing, so not a lot of
people were surfing the internet anymore.

Bottom-line is this. You need targeted traffic. So here are
some tips on how you can generate exactly the traffic you
need and bring the visitors you want to your website without
having to chase after them.

1. Content
What is your website about? Do you just have a
page with a lot of links and not much else? If this is the
case, think about adding some content to your website that
will be of value to any potential visitors. You could write
articles or find articles at one of the many directories
that you can reprint on your site.

2. Talk about your experiences in your subject matter
You don't have to put up some kind of resume (although that can
work too), but rather try writing about what you are doing,
as it relates to your topic of choice. Let's look at the
model airplanes again briefly, you could talk or write about
the latest plane type you built, how the last time flying
your plane went, what challenges you run into or perhaps
even post some pictures of your plane or of you flying it.

3. Forums and bulletin boards
You could add a forum or bulletin board to your website where your visitors can
interact with each other.

There are a lot of free services available out there that
you can use to either remotely host a forum for you, or even
software you can install on your website's server. To find
some of these, just head over to your favorite search engine
and you will definitely find plenty to choose from.

And while you are visiting the search engine, why not run a
search for any bulletin boards and forums that are already
out there for your chosen topic? You could visit those and
interact with the visitors there and since many allow you to
post a signature or a profile, you could add a little line
about your own site with a link (just check the rules of the
forum first so you don't violate any of them).

4. Start a blog
Blogs are very popular and search engines
love them because they provide constantly new and fresh
content. Your blog would be a great place to talk about what
you are up to that day.

So if you spent some time today buying new parts for your
plane you could write about where you found them, how much
they cost you, why you chose those parts, anything really
goes.

The really great part about this is that you can point links
from your blog back to your website, so when the search
engine stops by to grab and index your latest content, it
will also stop by your website and you will start seeing
very targeted traffic heading your way.

5. Write articles
Writing articles isn't hard and can be a
great source of fresh, new traffic to your website. There
are a lot of ezines on any topic out there and there are
also a lot of directories where you can share your article.

Anyone can write an article. Jim Edwards will show you how in his excellent ebook: Turn Words into Traffic. You can also get his free traffic-building report here.

Basically, what you do is write an article and then add a
small resource box that links back to your website (just
like a signature) and then let other ezine publishers know
that you are allowing them to print your article in their
ezine. And many publishers go to the article directories to
find new content for their newsletter and even their
websites.

And since there are websites and ezine newsletters
on any imaginable topic out there, you can't lose. Write an
article every couple of days and post it in the directories
(even one a week or every two weeks will start getting you
traffic). Very soon you will find new traffic coming from
search engines, newsletters and websites.

Best of all, these 5 simple tips will bring targeted
traffic, meaning the visitors are coming to you because they
are interested in what you wrote.

So there you have it, 5 easy and simple ways to advertise
and drive traffic to your website at absolutely no cost.

Marketing Know-How

While surfing the other day, I came across this article on Joe Garcia's site. I don't know Joe or Maria Garcia, but I'd like to. This is one of the clearest explanations of the marketing processes I've ever read.

I especially liked the definition of a prospector!

Enjoy,

David

10 Tips for Growing Your Business
the Organized Way

 Guest Article by Maria Gracia
Growing a business is similar to tending a vegetable garden. Knowledge, careful planning, organized systems, use of proper tools, continuous care, and dedication give you the very best chance of producing a beautiful and abundant garden that brings forth fresh veggies for years to come.

The same is true when it comes to growing your business. By following a specific sequence of steps, just like growing a garden, you can succeed. Neither can be accomplished with a haphazard approach.

Discovering how other businesses are growing, thinking through your marketing strategy, taking an organized approach, using the proper tools to get the word out and focusing on achievement will help you reach your business goals and set you on the right path towards accomplishing your greatest success.

1. PROSPECTING. For most services and products, it is imperative to first generate qualified prospects. Only then do you work on converting those prospects into first-time buyers, repeat customers, and finally, life-time customers. If you’re trying to generate an immediate sale, chances are, you’re going to be disappointed with the results. You will make most of your sales by following up with your prospects repeatedly.
   
   
2. WHAT IS A PROSPECT? A person is a prospect only if they:
   a) have a genuine interest in the particular service or product you provide
   AND
   b) have responded to one of your offers
   AND
   c) they have provided you with contact information (name, e-mail, etc.)
   AND
   d) they have the authority to buy your service/product and can afford it.
   
   Everyone else is a stranger. Not a prospect.
   
   
3. TARGET. You can’t try to market to everybody. When you do, you’re marketing to nobody. Pick a niche market and focus on your main audience. Target them in all of your marketing materials.
   
   
4. OFFERS. To get people to respond to your marketing, develop an enticing offer and get it in front of as many people in your target market as you can. Perhaps, a free tips report, free e-zine, or free sample. The best offers are generally the FREE offers.
   
   
5. GETTING THE WORD OUT. There are a multitude of ways to get the word out about your offer. You can try traditional marketing, such as direct mail, press releases, networking, ads, etc. Or, you can use the Internet, such as online networking, joining in discussion forums, submitting to search engines, link exchanges, affiliate programs and so on.
   
   Whatever you choose, schedule time each day to market your business. Write it on your calendar. When it’s written down, it is more concrete, and there is a better chance that you will do it.
   
   
6. FOLLOW-UP. Once you begin to generate prospects, it is imperative that you get their contact information (i.e., name, e-mail address, and any other pertinent information) into an organized database. Why all the work? Because follow-up is the key to successful marketing. Once you have contact information, you can continue to make enticing offers for your product and/or service (discounts, gift certificates, 2 for 1 deals, etc.)
   
   
7. ONE SERVICE/PRODUCT. Choose ONE product or service to market at a time, or you’re liable to confuse your prospects. You can have more than one product listed on your website. However, when you contact your prospects, it’s best to focus on one product at a time.
   
   
8. GUARANTEE. Guarantee your products or services. Offer, at minimum, a 100% Money-Back Guarantee. When it is clear that you stand behind your services/products, you will have accomplished a trust-factor. This is called risk-reversal.
   
   
9. PROACTIVE. Don’t use the Passive Marketing technique. That’s when you distribute general information, verbal and written, about your company, and then just sit around waiting for the phone to ring, or for your e-mail inbox to fill up with orders. In the real world, it doesn’t work that way. You have to be proactive.
   
   
10. TRACK. Track. Track. I can’t say this enough. Keeping accurate numbers will help you make good marketing decisions. If you don’t know what’s working, you’re going to waste a lot of time and money. However, if you do know exactly what’s working for you, you’re practically guaranteed to reach your goals.
    
    

These tips will certainly help you get on the right track for growing your business, but if you are serious and ready to start attracting customers like a magnet, then take just 5 minutes to learn about The Give to Get Marketing Solution course designed especially for small businesses like yours.

Get all the details at the following URL:

Click here to learn more about our Give to Get Marketing Solution.

Until next time, we wish you the very best marketing success!

Joe Gracia
Give to Get Marketing
611 Arlington Way
Watertown, WI 53094

givetoget@charter.net

(c) Copyright 2002 - Maria Gracia - Give to Get Marketing
Get a free Marketing Idea-Kit plus hundreds of marketing tips, articles and real world case studies at Joe Gracia's Give to Get Marketing Web site. http://www.givetogetmarketing.com