Big Boxes of Stuff
By Erin | November 14, 2008
That’s Frank Kern parlance for lots of physical products delivered to your door for only shipping and handling. The two biggest examples of these loss leaders, Mass Control Monthly and Stomping The Search Engines, must have been quite successful both in back-end upsells and the number of folks staying on with the attendant continuity part, as many others are now following suite.
I present for your educational benefit, some that are still currently available. For the cash-strapped beginner, they’re a good way to try out these programs before signing on for a more serious investment.
- Ray Edward’s Internet Marketing Mastermind
- Yanik Silver’s Maverick Business Insider
- Armand Morin’s Marketing Tutorials
- Joel Comm’s Adsense Secrets / Top One Percent
- Rich Schefren’s Cash Maps
I was going to put SureFireWealth’s Instant Video Empire in that list too, but it looks like their deal may have ended. Anyway, I hope you find a gem among these from which you’ll be happy to keep learning and profiting.
A word of warning: While I’m sure they’ve split-tested it, I’m no fan of the ‘ole autoplay video. Most, if not all, these guys use them though, so turn down your speakers until you can be sure the volume’s right.
Topics: marketing, membership sites, reviews | Leave A Comment »
Get More Buyers Review
By Erin | October 28, 2008
Michael Rasmussen’s new Get More Buyers product has launched today, and the email flood has begun. If they learned from him, these marketers will receive plump affiliate checks from their promotional efforts.
Unfortunately, in most cases, those “efforts” are hardly deserving of the appellation; a good 80% (there’s that Pareto Principle again) are just copy-and-paste emails from the product owner. Of course, I’m not speaking only of this launch; it’s standard practice.
Meanwhile, those of us, like myself, who actually take the time to review all the materials and offer honest evaluations in our own words, suffer under the stampede. I sent a single mail yesterday before the frenzy and after viewing all the videos.
The results? Not a single sale. Reminds me of the dating scene as a young(er) adult! That’s what I get for building my list from giveaway events (I kid the frugal people on my list as I was similarly so). Anyway, enough of the sour grapes. What did I think?
Well, if you’re a beginning marketer, the first 13 videos contain a ton of valuable teachings. And, even if you’ve heard all his recommendations for building a list of buyers before, the review and implementation details are worthy of careful study. I’ve watched them through twice as of this writing.
In addition, he’s included three advanced videos that are just that — advanced. Finally, everything’s reiterated in a fairly dense 144-page, step-by-step PDF.
Topics: list building, reviews | Leave A Comment »
Tribal Leadership - Zappos Free Audio Download
By Erin | October 24, 2008
From the customer-centric marketing geniuses at Zappos comes this generous gift. The full audio book of Tribal Leadership for free:
Free Audio Book Download
Topics: audio, books, marketing | Leave A Comment »
How To Shorten and Cloak URLs
By Erin | October 21, 2008
With Twitter all the rage these days, we find ourselves living in a 140-character box (at least those of us who follow the “rules” and refrain from back-to-back tweeting to get a longer message). The way I see it, we’ve all become text contortionists!
While I’m guessing the common abbreviations, like BRB and LOL, began their careers more as lazy shorthand than an enforced length limitation, such is not the case for links. After all, we would normally just copy and paste them from the address bar. Who cares how long? Well, except for when they get chopped up by email clients.
But now, in addition to the disguise factor, we have to shorten them. As you’d expect, this has led to the proliferation of sites providing this service, from the originals (think tinyurl and snipurl) to newcomers, like budurl and MyFavUrls with advanced features such as tracking and expiring links. Then you have the listbuilders, like the annoying ViralUrl.
The problem with these options is it’s hard to tell at a glance where they’re going to take you, and a lot of folks simply won’t click on gobbledygook (wow, the spell checker knows that word!).
I know, I know. I hear you saying, “But, I can choose an alias; I don’t have to accept their randomly generated stuff.” Of course, you’re right, many do offer that option. Thing is, you still lose your branding by having the shortened URLs originate from a site other than yours.
Sure, you can install a MySQL database application on your server and use that instead, or if that freaks you out, you can upload a new folder and/or file for every affiliate promotion. As a software developer, the first doesn’t phase me a bit, but I understand how it’s not for everyone. And the second is a PITA.
It’s for these reasons that I’ve been using a different technique. I seriously haven’t seen this anywhere else. It’s been my little secret. But it wasn’t completely intentional; I’ve been meaning to share it for some time. I just needed to sit my butt down for a few days and spill my guts! Finally, it’s ready and you’ll discover the coveted method in my new “Make It Mine” report.
Inside, you’ll also find a link to the customer-only affiliate program where I split the sales with you. So, you’ll receive the full amount, direct to your paypal account, on every other sale! That means, with only two referred sales, the report is basically free! Everything after that is just icing on the cake (not to mention the improved click-thru rates you’ll enjoy).
Topics: fun, marketing | Leave A Comment »
Flip vs Vado
By Erin | October 15, 2008
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I’ll be getting one of these soon. Which is better? Is the double price of the Flip worth it?
Thanks in advance for your comments!
Topics: gadgets, videos | 2 Comments »
Happy Birthday, Rob Toth!
By Erin | October 5, 2008
Rob “The Genie” Toth, of Your Job Sucks fame, is turning 28!
You may recall the fun way he celebrated the occasion last year. Well, if that massive sale impressed you, this one will floor you! (By the way, it’s quite a bit less than the obvious 28 bucks.)
Not familiar with his story? Check out how the little kid in the picture went from $8.50 an hour to a whopping 8-figures. Wow! Congratulations, Rob.
Topics: fun | Leave A Comment »
Boonex vs Ning
By Erin | October 4, 2008
Now seeking feedback and opinions on using Dolphin vs Ning from both the user and administrator perspective. I like the ease of Ning, though monetization may be more problematic? Also, I’m a little uncomfortable hosting a community on a third party system.
On the other hand, I once thought the same about autoresponders. After a year of managing it on my own server with phpList, my list had outgrown the local option, and I finally switched to the industry standard, Aweber. My advice as far as mailing lists are concerned is to go with them right from the start. You will lose subscribers on any change of systems.
So, I’m still quite open to either. What are your thoughts and experiences? Please comment below.
Topics: list building, membership sites, software | Leave A Comment »
oscommerce, zencart, magento, prestashop
By Erin | September 26, 2008
Got a favorite Open Source e-commerce solution? I’m looking for first-hand experiences — good and bad. Are there any that folks should definitely avoid?
Magento looks really nice, very feature rich, but despite being on the docket, they still don’t have a built-in means of offering an affiliate program. Some of the others at least provide plug-in capabilities for this.
Several use CSS, but the older ones, like osCommerce, still use tables. What else should we consider? Which has the most potential, etc.?
I’m sure many would like to happen upon and engage in this kind of discussion when comparison “shopping” for their first store. So, please comment with your thoughts, opinions, and experiences.
Topics: Uncategorized | 4 Comments »
Rapid Action Profits Coupon Code
By Erin | September 19, 2008
Saturday, September 20th, 2008 marks the one-year anniversary of the original Rapid Action Profits script’s first sale (wonder who it was). I use this software myself and highly recommend it for automating your
- sales process
- split testing
- one-time offers
- affiliate program
- you name it
To commemorate the occasion, Sid Hale, the innovator behind this all-in-one software package that’s taken the internet marketing community by storm, is offering $47 off when you click on this special link.
If you hesitated or procrastinated before, this time it paid off. But, this sale’s only good for one week, so don’t go testing that theory again, OK? 
Click the pretty image and save big. You won’t be sorry.
Topics: automation, software | Leave A Comment »
Kudos to Jeff Herring
By Erin | September 7, 2008
Known as The Article Guy, Jeff Herring gets big “ups” for allowing me to tease him on his moderated blog.
You see, in a recent post on the Three Work Models, he corrects himself toward the end of his video. That’s not why I was teasing him.
Indeed, I liked the original wording more than the “fix”, because it highlighted a particular “marketing-speak” that annoys me a little. Here’s the comment he approved:
Jeff, I got a chuckle when you slipped up and prefaced with the much more natural, “If you…” versus the NLP-laden “When you…” I rather prefer the former, as a recipient of the message, since the latter strikes me as too presumptuous and actually makes me more resistant.
I was looking forward to some discussion of it there. Alas, ’twas not to be. So, I’m dragging it back to my blog to ask how others feel about these commands we’re supposed to use in our copy. Please add yours in the comments.
So, again, thanks Jeff! And, for any of my readers looking to get into article marketing, his templates should help you get past that nasty writer’s block.
You might also want to hop on a teleconference or two with him as well. While, it often sounds like he’s talking to a child when describing these things, I doubt there’s any actual condescension there. He’s just showing how simple it is, and always finishes each call with his motivational slogan, “Go Use This Stuff.”
[p.s. - I thought about titling this post "When When Won't Work," but where's the SEO in that? LOL.]
Topics: NLP, fun, marketing | 1 Comment »
