2009 January

In our fledgling online marketing efforts we are all super busy doing more and more tasks associated with building our blogs and getting traffic to them. Whether it’s following Alex Jeffreys or any of the other individuals successful with internet marketing, these methods work but only if kept up on a regular basis.

The question is, are you keeping up with those tasks that should be done repeatedly on a regular basis. Like visiting other blogs and commenting, writing articles, bookmarking and what ever else you have done. What is important is to schedule in all these kinds of repetitive tasks so that you keep up with them or their effect will diminish.

Connie wrote a nice short article called, “Writing Articles, Blog Posts, and Ebooks – 5 Ways to Set a Schedule For Your Writing That Works” that I think is worth reading. I know, long name, but the article is short and to the point and will help.

The key to building any business is the creation of systems. So as you build up your blog, systematize your needed actions as much as possible. In the beginning you will likely be doing them all yourself, but as revenue comes in, and it will, you will want to look at outsourcing many of these tasks.

The time to start is now, when it is small, so it will be manageable when it is big.

John

OK, I did something cool I think! It should help us research intenet marketing topics such as blog set up, making and using videos, plugins, traffic methods, any sort of ‘how to’ pertaining to building your online business.

I have set up a Custom Search on this blog. What this does is search essentially what I want it to search. My intention is to put the links to all of the Marketing With Alex students blogs in there .

Now everyone can use this to research specific topics to find the answers, tools, videos, tips and such that support what you are trying to do without having to search around manually all the blogs until you find something. So you don’t have to overload your busy mind with trying to remember who has what on their blog.

I will put a few other of my sites and others that I know and work with as well to help round it out. But is should be much more specific than searching the entire web, plus this way we frequent the groups blog more. Why not give traffic to Alex’s students blogs first, and there is a lot of good information coming on within the group all the time. The search is just over in the right side column near the top, have a try . . .

I have loaded a few of the blogs in there already, but getting all of the links take time, and as you can see I have not yet added all of the addresses in my blogroll list yet.

So if you add a comment here with your blog URL I can get it easily and I will add it to both the search and blogroll.

John

Entrepreneur and Simpleology founder Mark Joyner is starting a new mini presentation on a napkin for providing quick bits of useful information in video format. He’s very good at gettig his point across clearly and quickly.

In his first entry he talks about our so-called ‘recession’ and how what we thick we are in the midst of is really the past. You need to see his napkin presentation to get the full understanding of his point. I agree with his point and add that for most, the recession is a reactive state.

Sure some people had some financial problems, housing, etc., but for most, their income had not changed when the fear news all started. But since so many have reacted with fear thinking and changed their behavior based on that fear, more and more people now are getting involved with real financial problems.

Here’s the thing, when you stop or drastically reduce your spending, you are choking off your normal contribution to the ‘cash flow’ economy we all live in. Now, as a result of your altered behavior, many employees are getting laid off due to lack of traffic in their place of employment. I would venture to say that on the high side, for every 100 people that stop going out to eat on a regular basis, one waiter/waitress looses their job.

The whole shame in this is that when the news of some people having financial problems first came out, most people still had the same cash flow they did 6 months prior. But now after months of fear behavior and reduced spending, more and more get laid off which leads to more and more will get laid off, and so on.

There’s only one way to stop this and it takes most of us to contribute. If you can, and most can, get back to the normal spending habits you had before all the ‘bad’ news became rampant. As cash flows. Jobs will grow!

Go take a look at Mark’s “Shocktails” edition on the ‘recession’ as being the past. Perhaps it will help you see this all from a different vantage point.

Seek prosperity,

John

I have been working on building an on-line business for a while now with just a little success and I know there are many that can relate, possibly you. The biggest hurdle seems to be getting it started with internet marketing. There are many aspects to a successful online business certainly but getting traffic in to see what we have is the big one. The successful marketers keep telling us that the profit is in the list. And I agree that it is, but getting the opt email list built was proving difficult until now.

Well, that’s why I joined Alex Jeffreys coaching program, to learn list building, but I had no idea I would get THIS much out of it! It’s way more than just list building, This Alex Jeffreys guy, what’s the big deal? Now before joining I didn’t know much about him. What I did find out that helped me decide to get involved was that he has increased his income very quickly. Why not learn from someone on the move right now as methods change here online. I want to get what is working right now, don’t you?

How Will This Help Me Make Money Online?
Hold on, I know you are perhaps wondering already, why should I read this about this Alex Jeffreys guy and his Marketing With Alex coaching program someone else is taking? I understand, but read on and I think you will understand why soon. Alex truly believes in giving first. Providing high value and the money will follow, it sure has for him. The key is, he’s giving away the farm here. He’s not holding back his precious little secrets as many do. He is open and available, not one to hide behind the curtain, nor is he pretentious or arrogant about his quick success. That’s why his coaching program is called, “Marketing With Alex, We’re Marketing With You And for You. . .” Over a year ago he wrote a book sharing what he is doing, “Gurus Dream” – well worth reading.

The big deal about Alex and his internet marketing business again is that he has gone from zero to $500,000 a year in two years. Yes, two years, and he is now working on the next year, he should hit the one million in 2009. Now this is what I want to follow! So I did it and the price was so low for a coaching program. Actually the low price caused me to be a bit leery at first, by my gut was telling me everything was right about him. And I figured I could get something out of it. Sorry, I better not reveal the price, won’t be like that again, but believe me, it’s already worth thousands – and we are maybe half way through at my writing this.

Relationship Marketing Includes Everyone
It turns out Alex Jeffreys is a great guy but more important, real, open and giving of himself particularly when it comes to how he is becoming quickly successful. The main point to convey about Alex is his philosophy of doing business. He strongly believes in relationship marketing. This is where you build relationships with people first by giving lots of value and helping them with their needs. This style fits in well with all the new social networking that is blossoming all around us.

So you may be thinking, how did this Alex guy move up so quickly? First, he just ‘gets’ internet marketing, but also he has become well connected with many of the very successful marketers. He has mentored under Mike Filsaime and Rich Schefren. He has done joint ventures with many top marketers, being called the “Triple Threat Affiliate” by one of these top marketers. He must be doing things right, he has shown to get much higher percentage results from his email list than those top people.

Get Well Connected Here
He just got back from a private cruise on Andrew Fox’s yacht with 5 multimillionaires. He was the only non-millionaire in the group; this is how much they respect him. These guys know how this internet marketing thing works. Alex has the ear of these successful ‘gurus’ which has helped him immensely with his rapid growth of and online income. And now he is passing it on to others. Through our social networking we are quickly getting integrated into the level of many people who really know what they are doing.

Getting to know many people in the internet marketing industry is how you find those you will want to associate with and do business with, and even make friends with. I never imagined I would be Twittering with certain people so quickly, it’s amazing what happens through association.

A Whole Business Making Money Online
Now, how does this affect you and I with our desires to become successful with our own internet marketing business? As I mentioned earlier, I am in Alex’s “Marketing With Alex” coaching program along with 499 others, and he is definitely giving a lot of himself with this training providing exceptional value. Most of the on-line conference calls in the training have gone for at least five hours each. Yes, you read that right, and there are to be several in total. Not sure how many because he just keeps adding in more and bringing in guest experts to talk to us. He is truly providing us with the latest information, exactly what successful people are doing right now.

There is no question we are getting up to date and even cutting edge information about what is effective today online. Bringing in ‘traditional’ online marketing in with social networking, social bookmarking, article marketing, video marketing, and more. Combining the best online money making ideas develops a strong online presence, which is the foundation of a solid and profitable internet business. Of course list building for opt in email marketing and traffic generation are heavily focused on.

People Helping People Marketing Strategy
OK, here’s the really exciting part. Remember how I said that Alex believed in giving and helping as a key part of his strategy for making money online, well this is how everyone in the group is conducting business. There is this group of 500 participating directly with Alex Jeffreys coaching program, setting up internet marketing blogs as a base of operations and getting active employing various different traffic generating methods to begin filling up their opt email lists.

So, even if you are not currently in Alex’s training you still have a terrific making money online opportunity by following and studying what we are doing. I think that you will find this group to be helpful and supportive, and that they continue to create a vast array of information, videos, audio’s, and how-to’s all to help with what we are working on.

A Central Point Of Connection
Now to make this easier for myself, the group, and anyone following along, I have installed a Google Custom Search Engine right here on my marketing blog. What this will do for you is provide you with an easy way to search a whole group of blogs that are geared towards working the methods that Alex Jeffreys is teaching. Plus I will have many additional resources available through the search to provide a fast way to find effective information, tools, methods, people and resources for building a profitable online money making business. It will make it like a giant making money online forum.

I do have a suggestion for those not in the Marketing With Alex Jeffreys coaching program, get Alex’s free list building report, Mailing List Secrets which gives a description of what we are doing so it will be easier to get some benefit from tagging along. And even better is the video set you will be offered after requesting the free listbuilding report Listbuilding With Alex video program to get an even better picture.

Plus, sign in to my notification list to be kept informed – see top right of page

John

A little bit earlier today the Alex Jeffreys coaching group was privy to a ‘way energetic’ Video Queen. Maria Andros comes off as really energetic, upbeat and positive – as in, ignore the fear based recession talk garbage. (Oh, where have you heard that before)

Alex is a student of hers himself as video marketing is new to him as well, he’s only a couple clicks ahead of the rest of us on this, so we all learn together. Well, I took lots of notes, but will condense a lot here just to give the gist of it.

Maria Andros is known as the Video Queen and for good reason, she has it figured out pretty darn good. Part of her story is this. Because she wanted to do things differently than most she started her marketing with videos. She made about 100 grand in her first year as a stone cold internet marketing newbie selling affiliate products!

She talked about using simple YouTube videos to promote anything. Suggestions such as:

• Be yourself – and you don’t need to dress up,
• Allow your passion out – “Never apologize for your passion”
• Don’t get hung up on getting it perfect – experience will take care of that,
• Describe a problem – provide a solution
• Relate your story to the problem
• Research an pick long tail keywords you can compete in – use these on YouTube
• Recommends using Traffic Geyser to post video on multiple sites quickly
• Right before making video, get you blood pumping with movement such as jumping jacks
• . . . and much more.

Just get going and don’t worry about the quality, that will come as you gain experience.

She said,“Your mess is your message”. Meaning, be passionate and tell your story relating to the solution.

Maria says basically it’s all about “Test, tweak, and track”, create a “Conversion Machine.”

She gave us a set of action steps for getting started.

Actually almost any video camera will do, even a pc camera or even a phone! Don;t let the equipment thing stop you. However, if you are considering buying a camera she highly recommends the new HD Mino Flip camera. They are about $200 and are HD, very good quality and small. You don’t need to do as Alex did, spend $1800 for camera stuff.

Getting to hear Maria today is another example of the relationship power from getting hooked up with a fast up and comer like Alex Jeffreys. Realize it’s not just about the project we are all working on but in the relationships we can develop through this – awesome!

Maria Andros on Twitter

On You Tube

In my quest to learn what works for effective, profitable blogging and share it here, I have come across a couple of sources for useful information on how to set your blog up to encourage more useful comments. Also, one of these sources reveals an effective way to do your blog posting and tie it in with making good comments on other blogs and creating two huge benefits.

You will be benefiting from increasing the socialization on your blog as well as getting more nice links. Now anybody can get links, well trashy links. But this is not what you want, you want nice relevant links that add value to your blog. And if you want to build a good reputation amongst your piers, you want to contribute well to their blogs as well by interacting with a relevant comment, something more than, “hey, nice post man.” (gimme a link!)

Add quality to other related blogs, so anyone new coming into any of the interconnected sites says, “Wow, this is where the good stuff is!” You will get yours . . .profits, when you do this. Because you will be linked favorably with other quality sites.

The WordPress plugin, Commentluv is becoming a powerful tool to help enhance the socialization of your blog by encouraging others to place comments on your blog. Simply, they get more in return for their effort. Jack Humphrey blogged on his Friday Traffic Report about using this plug in and some others where he talks about getting more blog comments with WordPress plugins. He shows how using some plugins create an environment on your blog where people will want to leave comments. This is good, right

It’s just part of the ‘helping’ mentality one needs to be successful in business – that’s helpful to potential customers and your potential associates in business. If you look at other businesses as competition, they always will be. If you look at them as potential business associates, you never know!

Since this is such an important topic I want to show you another source that adds to what you just saw – to complete the package of getting your blog comment friendly and link strong.

Alex Sysoef gives some good information with a clear explanation how to implement it all in his posting on his WordPress Web 2.0 Spot-Er blog. If you want to get real effective with your efforts in blogging I suggest going through his post titled, “CommentLuv Plus DoFollow Equal Link Love”

He shows you how to use Commentluv to get more comments, and incoming links. And how to use the LuciaLinkyLove plugin to share link power with ‘good’ commenters and keeping the robots and spammers out.

Plus, did you know that Feedburner was eating up your ‘link-juice;? Yea, if using Feedburner you are not getting the benefit of those feed links – Feedburner is! There is a simple quick fix to modify your Feedburner account, read Alex’s item 2.

And this is hot, point #4. He gives a nice little system for increasing the links to your best posts even if you are super busy. This is something to set up in your schedule every week – make a key post, then go out and make comments.

And one more recommended plug in from Doug Champigny as he commented on Jack’s post. He uses the HashCash plugin to filter robot spam, he says it works. This one may require inserting a code depending on your blog theme, check the instructions.

Personally I’m going to hold off on the math verification one until I see if all the other plugins handle the spam.

Here are all of the plugins discussed in both mentioned blog posts:

Keywordluv – This allows commenters to leave a keyword in the name line improving their link back.

WP-Twitip-Twitter ID – Commentators can leave their Twitter ID along with comments.

WP Gravatar Plugin – Get a commentators’ Gravetar like pics in their comments.

LuciaLinkyLove – Share Link PR with commenters based on predefined settings.

Akismet – For spam

Did You Pass Math – For spam

HashCash – To filter robot spam.

This is socialization people! You need it, I need it – and everyone successful is doing it. And remember, don’t be greedy, give before you receive and you will receive! I suggest that you set your blog up as suggested in these resources I’ve linked for you here. You want blog become user friendly for all the people you want to be interacting with – right!

Oh, and leave your comment here — see how it all works. . .

Wouldn’t you ask someone who is successful in the field you are working in to find this out.

Through all of my 30 plus years of studying personal growth and development I have found that the most powerful way to succeed at anything is to model people who are already successful. I’m not talking about copying them, but rather taking on behaviors and traits that they have that serve their success. The difference between success and failure can be just a simple change in perspective.

You don’t need to find just one person to emulate, nor do you really want to. It is best to identify traits that several people have that you see as valuable and appealing to support your desires.

Well I found a good one, a successful internet marketer Andrew Fox, who just bought a $1.5 million yacht . . . his starter yacht!

So what can you learn from him, Andrew Fox, take a look at his blog post, “The Five Golden Rules For Getting RICH In 2009”

Oh, and look at what he is offering for the best comment.

http://www.followthefoxy.com/