Promo Dashboard…

You see, no matter what you want to sell, if you don’t promote it, you won’t sell many of it.

But how to promote stuff, in what order, how to keep track of what has been done and what needs to get done when, is way above most people’s head.

Even creating a plan for promotion is beyond me… and I have been in this for a long time. So what do I do? Oh well, the good old fashioned winging it comes useful.

But what is wrong with winging it? Well, in addition to it being ineffective, time and money hogging… it’s a real headache. You know you could do more, or better, but what?

Marlon Sanders to the rescue again, and his new product www.promodashboard.com/. A simple scheduling, a what and a when… for the whole process. I promise, if you have something to promote, you will make your investment back in one week, max.

Click image for a full size image of the dashboard.

I bought the program myself. I have gone to the first of the 36 buttons, and I decided that just that one button is worth the price. I have learned what’s there is a 7 thousand dollar program, that had 5 modules, and this was the topic of one of them, so I paid more than a thousand dollars to gain the same knowledge. I am not kidding you. I am so impressed with this dashboard, that I am going to use it in my own teaching, it is as good as what I can teach, and it is much less money than you would pay me… so it is a good deal for everyone.

If you are interested in internet marketing, you would be crazy not to buy this less than 60 buck product. Go, buy it, it is still www.promodashboard.com/

Mastermind Groups, Brainstorming, Mindmapping

I did an internet marketing webinar that was a whole weekend with Socrates Socratous this past weekend. It asked a usual question differently and — surprise — the answer was different.

Socrates is a great teacher. In addition to the great content, what’s great about his webinars is that he allows the participants to brainstorm, so it is a natural continuation of things to form a mastermind group.

We had our first session, a conference call, and it was very useful to see where everyone is at.

One of the questions came up how can someone send people to another website through a redirect link instead of an affiliate link. The best free solution I have ever seen is at http://www.sophieslist.com/redirectvideo

It’s a site with about 48 videos that include this one, how to redirect without every revealing the affiliate link. I am a member on a lot of sites that offer how-to videos, but this is far the best, and it is free. I use it, refer to it all the time… and I’ve been a member for almost two years… but you forget things, so it is good that it’s there.

Another resource that I find invaluable and would not cancel if I had to eat beans and rice for a week is Jim Edwards’ membership site, at http://www.sophieslist.com/netr

It will be mandatory for anyone in my coaching/apprentice/incubator program to subscribe to that… a lot of what you need to build a successful and very profitable information business is there, in a clear, concise, visual way. Jim Edwards is the special marketing teacher who doesn’t believe in giving useful but incomplete information like most others. That’s why I stick with him, and that’s why I want to use his material to train others with.

His latest webinar was on brainstorming and it was the best in that topic. And it was effective: I have started to use the tools I have, and now I can see that I can launch this incubator program very soon… whereas without using the brainstorming tools I have been quite stuck… :-(

Internet Marketing Kindergarten

I posted a “note” on my facebook profile today… on the universal law, The Law of Process, that is dismissed by millions of wannabees… and that may be the most important insight I have ever had with regards to why people don’t act in spite of their lofty dreams.

And then later today I heard Jim Edwards’ inspired rant about the same thing… using his own going-to-the-gym as an example of how one can actually take action on what they want… in his case, go to the gym and work out, seriously.

And I also heard his resigned “ehh” off camera at the end of the video.

We, coaches, all feel that way. We want you to succeed… we can take you to the water, but we can’t force you to drink.. And, it seems, you don’t, even though, you say, you are thirsty….

So my note, and my planned Internet Kindergarten may be a solution for some… I won’t kid myself that it is for everyone… but for the ones that if you put their snout into the water, they wake up, they say “water” and start drinking it…

Are you one of them?

Send me an email at mavencentral-339076@autocontactor.com
to get yourself on my notification list.

It will be fun.

Internet Marketing Beginnings

I had an inspiration this morning: I woke up early. I made myself a cup of tea, went back to bed, and read a little.

About an hour later I woke up from a dream of writing THIS article. Here it is, just the way it came to me in my dream:

Each great thing that was ever built started with something that had the greatness, as a potential only.

Most didn’t look like the start of something great. Many times it was a comedy of errors and their correction that took someone to something big.

But, you say, we are always told to create with the big picture in mind… Oh yes, that one. I know that well. The misunderstanding of that notion has robbed me of many successes…

The misunderstanding of that principle has rendered me undecisive, unresponsive, tentative, or jumping from one sure thing to another.

Imagine if the tree thought that every seed it is producing must become a big tree… it would be so afraid of living, it would start to shrink and refuse to go to seed. The prospect of so many wasted seeds would kill the tree’s aliveness and creativity.

No, greatness is a potential, dormant in every little seed, and with enough great little seeds produced, one of them may become a big tree…

Let’s look at MY story.

Back in 1988 I found myself unemployed from architecture, and unemployable at the same time… don’t ask me why, I won’t tell.

I was spending quite a few months depressed, going to self help programs, 12-step, Werner Erhard and Associates, etc. … barely having 3-day worth of work a month to live on.

I couldn’t think of anything to do… I was too entrenched in being an architect. At some point, I did an exercise from the “What Color Is Your Parachute” and found that what I wanted to do, that caused me pleasure, is “put ink on paper and communicate.”

I took it literally at the time, and thought advertising or publishing.

I didn’t know much of either.

I went and apprenticed (free) with a small printer for a while, and learned some stuff, bought a letter press with some letters, wrote advertising in mail order magazines… to sell some pyramid schemes… and then when I really needed some money to earn, I wrote a letter to the two throw-away magazines in my area, asking if they had a job opening for publisher’s apprentice.

One of them called and said that such a job didn’t exist but I could start selling advertising. No “draw” (salary), only commission. Does that put me closer to publishing, I asked, and the guy said yes. I took the job.

I was trained by another salesperson. We visited a few stores in my town–typical advertisers in that paper. We sold 5 small ads that day. I say “we”, but I think it was her. That day completed my training. Next day I walked back to the business area of my little town, and found that by the time I got there, the training salesperson had driven there and sold them, or attempted to. I had no wheels, and soon I had no hope.

I called the other magazine, and bragged that I had sold 7 ads my first week for their competitor… they were impressed. They gave me a 200 dollar advance, and a beat up car with a gas card.

I worked my butt off, sold ads, delivered magazines, partook in every office meeting, went to the printer, went to the typesetter, collected monies… two months later, I was put in charge of designing the ads and laying out the magazine. Two more months later I was offered a partnership in the magazine. Still, my best week I made $400… I didn’t have many good weeks.

I worked 20 hours a day 7 days a week… I was bossy, I was certain, I was “dynamic”, I was disrespectful… 5 months later I was offered the choice to resign, or… blackmail. I resigned. No-brainer.

That same evening I called all the advertisers in my care, the typesetting company and the printer with the same question: Would you take a chance on me for one issue? They all said yes, so next day there was a brand new magazine born, printed and delivered.

I made money with the first issue, and with every issue thereafter. More than $400 a week. :-)

That magazine, through the time, became 90-thousand circulation strong, and I published it for 11 years.

Now, there are two lessons in this story: 1. I first looked what it is that I love so much that I would do it for free (putting ink on paper and communicate) and 2. I was willing to fumble through phases that didn’t seem to go anywhere, and I was rewarded through small corrective steps, with a business I loved.

When I watch internet marketing, I see many thousands who never get started. They got attracted to the visions of greatness (millions of dollars) but are unable or unwilling to start where one needs to start in fear of starting at the wrong place.

I have had coaching clients that were so afraid of making the wrong move, that they never got started… that is until I made them do stuff…

I have had coaching clients that wanted to do internet marketing, but hated every aspect of it… and sucked at it too… of course.

I have had coaching clients that thought that without any skills they can make millions and they never actually learned anything…

Remember, childhood was to learn skills, without the significance. At least in most countries… of course, in the US kids must perform early on, sports are not skill builders, but opportunities to be big… which teaches us early on that we were supposed to be born with the skills we need, and if we weren’t, then we are doomed.

The same applies in business. You need to play first in the sandbox, and build some easy structures, without the significance. Write an article here, a blogpost there, a salesletter here, make a video there, copy and rewrite an ebook, just to practice the structure… Just to get a feel what you like to do. What you are good at.

Every guru you meet started that way.

My current favorite, Eben Pagan, wrote an ebook, full of typos, and that’s how he started his now 20 million dollars a year empire, 7 years ago. He wrote about something he knew something about: seduction. Something that he was personally very interested in… he desperately wanted companionship…

He has made it big. With a topic like that. He learned as he went. He had mentors, teachers, mastermind partners every step of the way. It wasn’t a straight path… not in the least.

You can do it too. Just start getting that every tree came from a seed sometimes as tiny as a pinhead, and then grew. It went through the phases… It didn’t come out a tree at once. It was a seedling for a long time.

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If you can afford $97, you can go the the world internet summit in Dallas TX, May 22- 25. The speaker lineup is tremendous, you’ll get products for resale so that you can start a brand new business with the new knowledge you have after the seminar.

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Affiliate Marketing Success and other Stories

Did you miss me? :-)

I haven’t posted on this blog in a while. Not because nothing was going on… au contraire… too much was/is going on.

I don’t know about you, but just like no one is a prophet in their own land… you are never going to be able to see the value of your stuff like other people do.

Even if you think a lot about yourself, familiarity breeds contempt, and your work is going to be “just what you do”, even if it is/would be of tremendous value to others.

This is why I value what has happened in the past 2 weeks.

You may not know, but the bulk of my income comes from marketing affiliate products.

One of the things I have been marketing, ever since I first started to use it some 2 years ago, is the Healing Codes package, a unique energy product where you use your innate energies to heal the cause of disease… I had a cancerous growth fall off my right arm after a few days of using The Codes… so I am a believer.

I signed up to be an affiliate. I made a few sales here and there, but every month I learned a little bit more about marketing, google adwords, etc. and every time I learned something, I immediately put it into practice with the Healing Codes affiliate program. I watched a webinar 5 months ago, and the rest happened:

The past 4 months the commission, grew $400 every month. Why always 400? Beats me. So I have gotten accustomed to the income, they paid directly to my checking account… until the 8th of this month, when, instead or the money, I got an email telling me that my affiliate status was withdrawn and I wasn’t even going to get my last commission.

Why, you would ask. The answer came right in the email: I violated the affiliate agreement: I did not get my ads reviewed by the 3 people assigned to review marketing material… But the email said, my violation was that I used the product name in my advertising… hmmm. How am I supposed to sell something I can’t name?

I made a quick calculation, and saw that I lost $35K just in the first year (calculating the growth trend also). They lost 140K net, for the first year. Interesting. I wonder if they have heard of the expression: “Do you want to be right, or do you want to be rich? Choose!”

Anyway, let’s see what I have learned from this incident that is worth for you to read:

1. Before you invest so much time and energy into marketing a product, check if the company really wants you to market their product, or secretly they hope that you will share with everyone, but they will buy from the company directly, cutting you out of the loop.
2. The processes I employed to go from zero to substantial income could help a lot of people out there… so maybe I should find a way to tell people. If I had had a roadmap like that two years ago, I could have started to make money much sooner, and that would have been worth for me to buy. I forgot to say that I used exclusively PPC advertising, my return on my investments was consistently 10-fold, i.e. with a $3500 a year budget I could turn a 31,300 dollar profit. And some of my keywords ran at $5 a click. Which means: this market is competitive, baby.
3. It will be interesting to watch how the Boomerang Principle will play out.
4. I’d love to train an army of affiliates for the Healing Codes company… if I could do it, anyone can do it.

Another thing that happened since I last wrote, is that I did my first “Craft Your Public Persona” presentation. It needs more work, but I am over the hump. I have worked with a client today, who was praising the knowledge he gleaned from our session, and that felt really good.

I am just wondering how to reach all the people who would be interested in that: coaches, consultants, bloggers, marketers, realtors… anyone, who makes a living selling themselves first, an product second. Everyone, who need repeat clients, repeat sales, etc. Everyone, who needs to influence people. Any ideas? If so, please write a comment. I would appreciate it.

And a 3rd thing: I have built a small video sharing site on blogging but you can put the topic in a search box and it finds videos for you… really great… want to check it out? It is at http://www.mavencentral.com/videos

That’s it for now. Please give me your ideas about how to reach my target audience, and if you have any idea what to do with my lost affiliate position story, so that it can make a difference for others.

So long.

The Role of Info Product Creation in Creating Passive Income

If you make money, you belong to one of these categories of moneymakers:

1. You trade your time for money. You have a job. Your income has a limit, because the amount of hours and the amount of money customarily paid per hour is limited. This is true if you are a cleaning lady, if you are a dentist, or if you are a movie star… (which shows that the limit can be high, but it is a limit nevertheless). You trade your life for money…
2. You are self-employed: see #1. it is still a job…. How do you know it? If you are not working (sick, vacation, work on something else), you don’t earn money.
3. You own a business but it needs you… it may not have a limit, but you still trade your life for money. See #1 and #2
4. You own a business, and you set it up such, that it sporadically, if ever, needs you, or your time, or your expertise. Unlimited income, and your life is yours.
5. You made money earlier, and now your money is working for you. The problem: did you trade your life for that seed capital?

As you see, #4 is the most desirable way to make money: you can have your cake and eat it too.

Now, if you are like most of the readers of this blog, you are a coach, consultant, trainer, or a combination of these.

What is the fastest and most reliable way to be in the position of #4 for you?

Well, if you are like me, you have a lot of knowledge, you have been tested by having clients as a coach, consultant, of speaker. Which, in business terms, means: you have knowledge that other people want.

So for you, the best way to create a business, or a part of a business that makes money even when you sleep, sick, or on vacation, is to create a passive income source: work once, and get paid, over, and over, and over, and over.

Your product should be an information product.

OK, you say, that’s easy… And it may very well be! But creating a product will not automatically mean sales, and therefore passive income. You need a Marketing Machine, that you throw the information product in one end, and money comes out on the other, day in-day out.

This sounds like magic, and in a way it is.

Lots of people teach how to do this, but most people still fail. There is only one product that I have tried that teaches this well, at a modest price, and does an exceptional job at holding your hand while you walk “the yellow brick road” to success, and that is the Info Product Dashboard. See the little video below about one principle no one will teach you quite like this way… but it works, it is true, and if you miss it, you are doomed to fail.

I have bought it, and I recommend it. It’s about 80 bucks, and it can be the missing piece of this puzzle for you. Go and get it!
To your success,
Sophie

PS: go and get the dashboard: Info Product Dashboard

Information Product Creation Made Easy…

I don’t know about you, but information products are both easy and difficult to create.

And for some… it borders the impossible. Even with a close supervision they will go somewhere where the sun doesn’t shine…

For those of us that are willing and able to follow step by step proven processes (I recommend you do that)  there is always the Info Product Dashboard, an online step by step walk you through it, walk with you method…

Check it out. I bought it and I love it. 

More about it after the coaching call that I must interrupt this message for :-)

The Most Important Principle in Marketing (You Miss It… and You Are a Poor Marketer)

In the next post I’ll elaborate on it… Now I have to run, I have a teleconference I am leading in 10 minutes… Back shortly. Watch the video.

How Does Your Personality Effect YOUR Life?

How does your personality effect your life?

Some 44 years ago, when I was in high school, and a celebrity of sorts, I was presented with a lesson that did not land until just today.

Back in 1963, my friend, Pamacs an I, applied to a talent show. She sang, I sang, she could strum the guitar, I was an accomplished guitar player. We opted to sing two Neil Sedaka songs, in English, instead of my native Hungarian. We stayed in the competition for quite a few rounds, and became everyone’s favorite Bambi.

Duo, as we called ourselves. I have seen photos taken from the Television show, and we looked sweet, fresh, and just adorable.

Everyone who watched TV watched that show: that was the only TV station in Hungary, back in the olden days ;-)

Every Saturday, Pamacs showed up at our house, and we went dancing. She danced the whole evening, I danced maybe two

Read the rest of this entry »