I will soon be offering a Trial Membership of my mentoring program.

This will allow you to experience the program for a week (probably 8 days) before deciding whether or not it's right for you.

You can read about the full mentoring program here.

I'll be offering the trial places first to people who register on this announcement list. If all places fill up, I won't be offering the places anywhere else. If you are interested, I recommend getting on this list now.

This is what you will get:

This may be a once-off offer, so do take advantage of it when it becomes available.

Regards

Alex

This sort of thing gets me annoyed, so this qualifies as a rant.

There seems to be a trend of internet marketing guru's inviting would-be internet marketers to "work with them" in a sort of partnership. It works something like this (there are variations on the theme):

• YOU act as a lead-generator for them. Get the traffic and convert it to a lead. (You are given a website, a back-end system etc.)
  
• You can earn in initial income by selling the entry-level product and keeping 100% of the profit.
• THEY convert the lead who buys a high-ticket product - usually some form of 'coaching'.
• YOU get a good commission on those sales.

In itself that is all fine, and in the "real world" it could be a great business venture. But the internet marketing world is all too often one step removed from the real world.

In the real world, you would be selected to be a partner on the basis of your skills, experience and track record etc. Here, you're selected to be a partner based on your ability to pay for the privilege (e.g. $497).

In the real world, you would expect to be shown something of the product being upsold so that you can be comfortable with and confident about what is being promoted to the lead which YOU generated and with whom you now have a business relationship. In the internet marketing world, you're not expected to be interested in that - or you simply assume the IM guru is above reproach.

Here are some things to think about with this business model.

Firstly - the upsell product costs several thousand dollars (perhaps $3,000-$5,000), which means that the client is going to expect to be coached by an expert in the field and to receive personal attention.

Secondly - because there is no limit on the number of leads which each partner can generate, the whole operation needs to be able to scale up potentially quite significantly. The only way to achieve that on the sales side is to employ hard-pressure telephone sales agencies. And these agencies charge a hefty commission on each sale: which is on TOP of the commission paid to you.

So - where does that leave the client?

Screwed.

For one thing, although you can relatively easily scale up the sales operation (you don't need a lot of training to switch from selling product A to product B), how can you scale up the delivery of the coaching if you are going to use people who are true experts in the field? You wouldn't expect there to be an unlimited supply of people who are true experts in a field that justifies charging $5,000 to learn about?

And for another, how are you going to be able to afford to pay those coaches given the two lots of commissions you've paid out AND make a profit yourself?

It seems to me that the only way this works is to minimise the cost of delivery. On other words, don't use experts for coaches, and minimise the personal interactions.

So the client gets nowhere near $3K - $5K of value.

I know that in the past, high-cost internet marketing coaching - sold through telesales - has been delivered by "coaches" who simply read to the client from a manual. That is certainly a way to keep the costs down and allow indefinite scale-up of delivery. I thought that practice had ended, but perhaps not.

The chess player here is the owner of the whole operation. He/she has two collection of pawns dancing to his/her tune: the lead generators and the clients.

Don't be either of them.

Be your OWN chess player (but play with a different strategy!).

Or, as I would usually put it: work to your OWN Agenda - not to someone else's.

Alex

I logged in to my link/click tracking system the other day and discovered that another new feature has just been added.

And that has inspired me to talk about this earlier than I'd planned.

This is a tool which has been working for me for almost 4 years. If you know about it, it's likely you also use it, because there has been almost zero promotion of it by anyone for about three years.

It is GoTryThis, from John Reel.

There's not much of a sales page there - but don't let the lack of hype fool you. If there's a product that justifies hype, it's this one!

GoTryThis was launched in 2006 with a massive promotion, especially for the more expensive "Black Hat" version that did clever (but slightly naughty) things.

It was such a huge launch that John was not prepared for the impact and the whole thing nearly knocked him out!

After some time, John started talking about GoTryThis-2 - and how great it would be... but the promises of the launch were never fulfilled, and the date kept slipping and slipping. After a while I seriously considered switching tool because for such a critical piece of my business, I needed a system that was being enhanced and properly supported (not that I ever needed any support or had any problems - but still...).

Eventually, my patience paid off and GTT-2 was launched, but only as an alpha version. Then quite some time later, as a beta version. That was months ago - perhaps a year ago (I can't quite recall). And STILL John does not have a fixed date for the official launch: the product is still in beta.

Think about it: this sort of software manages the pathways between your customers and your websites, so it is critically important that it works smoothly and correctly.

So I'm very happy that John is not rushing into anything: unlike far too many marketers, he is putting 95% of his effort into the product and (for now) 5% into the marketing, rather than the other way round.

I've watched as he has:

• Adjusted his business model twice,
• Handled the horrendous task of migrating everyone from GTT-1 to GTT-2 without losing any historical data (he's helped me out with this and I can attest to his professionalism),
• Pioneered new auto-installation technology that can handle all sorts of standard and non-standard hosting accounts (if you understand about hosting accounts, you'll be impressed by that)- and
• Developed a backend server that talks to and coordinates with the software that gets installed on your all your domains,

He's had to do all that just to get to the point where he can start enhancing the product functionality in his new business and technical environment. Impressive thought that is, though, it doesn't do anything to enhance his customers' business.

But he's underway on that as well.

Over the last month or two he's added some cool new features (including a link shortener that mirrors your cloaked links) and he's in the process of adding a "scarecity" link which redirects to a different destination after X clicks or Y period of time.

That is so neat, I'll be using it soon for sure!

For me, the two scripts that form the mainstay of my business are Delavo and GoTryThis. Although there are tools which you might consider as alternatives to Delavo (but not as good in my opinion), I don't know of any tool that stands comparison with GoTryThis-2 in its new incarnation.

I like this so much, I asked John to present it at a future Internet Professionals Webinars event. He has agreed - but only after he gets some more functionality in!

However, I can't wait till then to promote it to you, because I don't want him to run out of half-price subscriptions!

He has 19 slots left for this month (down from 50) at the time of writing, so GoTryThis right away! I know you won't be disappointed.

Oh - and I nearly forgot the whole point (and why using one of the hundreds of free link shortening services is NOT the answer)

Firstly - you can cloak links based on YOUR domain (see the above for an example), and

Secondly - you can use ANY domain that you own, and manage everything from one control panel.

There are stacks of other cool and clever features as well - but THAT is nub of the whole thing.

Alex

The internet marketing world is choc full of guidance and blueprints and advice and step-by-step how-tos.

Ignoring the 90% that is almost content-free search-engine fodder or list-building reports whose purpose is to withhold the valuable information, that still leaves a substantial amount of material that genuinely aims to help the reader in some way.

Nearly all of this material is created by people who (hopefully) are experts in the domain, but who have very little understanding about how best to provide such guidance in a way that properly meets the users' needs. And sadly, it is often the case that such guidance is created in a form that is the most convenient and easy to create; the author decides that his or her convenience is more important than the user's real needs.

But let's start with an optimistic scenario where the author takes care to structure and organize the guidance properly, and to ensure it is complete, consistent, clear and logically organized.

Unfortunately, that is not enough.

To fully address the needs of the user, the guidance need to have the same shape as the user's problem.

The following example will explain what I mean by "shape".

Suppose there are 10 steps to follow in the blueprint or how-to guide. Most likely the careful author will have created a guide with 10 sections - one for each step. The 'shape'  of the guidance is simply "10 steps" and the user is going to assume that all steps are more-or-less equal to each other in complexity and importance.

In reality, however, the 'shape' of the problem is very different. There are concepts to learn and become familiar with; skills to acquire and become proficient at; and probably a lot of simple procedural actions to take where there is very little learning or conceptual understanding needed.

For example, guidance on using PPC for affiliate marketing could be put together as a 10-day course (say): that is the implied 'shape' of the guidance. But actually, the REAL issues, where the REAL guidance is needed, are something like:

• Choosing a niche (a skill that requires judgement - needs practice to get it right)
• Selecting appropriaqte keywords (a skill that requires judgement - needs practice to get it right)
• Crafting an effective ad (a skill that requires judgement - needs practice to get it right)
• Understanding the relationship of all the concepts - Ad Groups, Campaigns, CPC, Ad positioning etc. (a conceptual model - needs to be carefully explained, needs time to absorb it, needs to be seen in practice several times to consolidate it).

Those four issues need to take up most of the time during the course. It needs to be made clear that they need to be practiced; that getting it right will take time; that you should EXPECT to lose money and make mistakes whilst you are developing those skills.

AND - there are ALSO many other steps which are very different in nature. Probably they can be explained simply by giving step-by-step instructions (e.g. opening a Paypal account, setting up an autoresponder account, registering a domain name, getting hosting, creating a squeeze page based on a given template, etc.). Those steps should not be put alongside the others which are of a different order of complexity.

So - the 'shape' of the problem is:

- Three issues that need skill and practice to get right

- One issue of conceptual understanding that needs a diagram, examples and time to be absorbed

- Many small administrative tasks that can be performed by following simple instructions (no learning or skills development needed)

And the 'shape' of the guidance should reflect that.

I know I'm asking for a much higher standard than most people can provide, and authors are going to question the business case for taking that much care about the structure of the material in their guidance.

What do YOU think?

• Am I asking too much? Am I setting too high a standard?
• Do you actually find that most guides DO fulfill their purpose - even without the idea of having the right 'shape'?
• Do have any examples of guidance whose 'shape' clearly fits the shape of the problem?
• ... and examples where there is a serious miss-match?

I know that the route to maximum profits comes from having a better-converting website than better-quality guidance, so that's where most marketers will focus their efforts. So perhaps this idea has to remain a longer-term wish!

Many business advisors talk about the importance of "systems" and how you should use them to reduce the effort you need to achieve your business (and personal) goals.

People who you have probably heard of who talk explicitly about the importance of systems include:

• Rich Schefren (StrategicProfits.com)
• Robert Kiyosaka ("Rich Dad, Poor Dad")
• Tim Ferris ("The 4 Hour Work Week")

But someone who you may be less familiar with is Sam Carpenter.

The term "4 hour work week" has become a by-word for the ultimate in systematizing your business, based on the huge popularity of Tim Ferris's book. But Sam Carpenter claims he works only half as hard as that!

Watch this interview with Sam where he describes how he turned a 100-hour work week into a 2-hour work week....

....then go get the pdf version of his book....

http://www.workthesystem.com/

I think Sam explains the ideas better than most in terms of mind-set and  practical methods to use. I've just finished re-reading his book, and I have made a very good start on following his recommendations for documentation.

I recommend this book to my mentees as background reading and guidance for both the Visioning and Planning stages of the Internet Professionals Master Agenda.

A word of warning, however. Sam's presentation suggests that his ideas can solve just about any problem. But there are no magic bullets in life, and his ideas do have their limits.

BUT that's not a reason to ignore his approach. Personally, I find it very helpful.

Alex

How long is it taking you to get your internet marketing business off the ground?

3 months?

3 years?

More?

Odd, then, that so many "systems" promise us riches after just a few weeks of following "easy step-by-step instructions".

My introduction to IM was a LONG time ago - longer than I care to admit, because it took me YEARS before I settled down to set up a proper business.

But it wasn't for lack of first-class advice from a proven master: I went to conference in the UK, presented by the legendary Corey Rudl. Many of you won't have heard of him because, sadly, he died in a racing car accident in 2005. Google his name, and find out more.

However, great though he was as a marketer, and first-rate though his internet marketing guidance was - he didn't set me on the road to riches in the way I expected.

Corey was no different from other IM guru's then or now in that he (and they - well, some of them anyway) did his best to provide excellent internet marketing advice and guidance.

The problem for so many people trying to make a go of internet marketing, is that the IM gurus are working very hard to solve the WRONG PROBLEM!

The problems they try to help us with are:

• Finding a profitable niche
• Getting more traffic to our site
• Improving conversions
• Figuring out how to use cPanel
• Using the right plugins for our blog
• ... and thousands of other details

But think about it: if it is taking us YEARS to get our business off the ground, is that because we can't use FTP or because we don't know how to convert traffic?

Obviously - NO!

So what IS the problem?

Firstly - you need to look at it from a much higher level than the sorts of issues which most IM gurus talk about. It's a matter of PERSPECTIVE.

Secondly - as with all such problems, there is no single issue, but to figure out what the problem is for YOU - again, you need to have the right PERSPECTIVE.

What I mean by PERSPECTIVE is some "model" of the process of setting up an online business. This is what I use as the basis of my low-cost mentoring program. I call it the Internet Professionals Master Agenda

• Stage 1: Asserting
  Getting rid of distractions and asserting your OWN agenda
• Stage 2: Visioning
  Stating what it is you want to achieve from your online business
• Stage 3: Understanding
  Learning what you need to know about the world IM in order to be able to do the next stage
• Stage 4: Choosing & Defining
  Picking your Business Model and Operating Model, and fully Defining your business, keeping in mind your Vision
• Stage 5: Planning
  Working out and scheduling everything that needs to be done to launch your business
• Stage 6: Implementing
  Carrying out your Plan and Launching your business
• Stage 7: Operating
  Running your business

Of course, all the other issues I mentioned above (finding a niche, getting traffic etc.) are critically important - but with the above Master Agenda, we can put them into context. For example, we know:

• WHEN to even think about each of them
• WHEN to do anything about them - if ever
• WHO should do something about them (based on our Operating Model)
• etc.

What I do with the Master Agenda and the mentoring program around it is provide the sort of help that I know would have signficantly shortened the time it took me to get off the ground in the online world.

When you sign up, the first thing you'll get is a detailed analysis - by me - of your current situation using the Master Agenda framework. This has proved to be hugely effective for my current mentees.

Try it out!

A recent Group Session on my mentoring program coverd the Assert! stage of the Master Agenda for internet marketers.

The point of the Assert stage is to regain control of time and money.

What we focussed on in particular was gaining control of your inbox, since that can be the starting point of so much wasted time. It's not not just the time spent processing emails, but - more importantly - it's the non-relevant and time-wasting paths we get led down as a result of processing those emails.

We also covered some some simple, but very effective time management techniques. You don't need a massively complex time-management system. Having a few different strategies in place to use under different circumstances is quite enough. We covered what those were.

And finally, we covered some simple strategies for managing your purchases. I know that one of my mentees has already put that idea into practice and was totally shocked by the result. His buying patters will change for sure.

Actually, one of the techniques for purchase control is to know very clearly where you are on the Master Agenda, and that will then tell you which purchases are and are not relevent. That idea is the basis for my Laser Focus Shield product.

If you register for my internet marketing mentoring program (if there are places available), you will be able to access all the materials and a recording for this session.

Alex

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Regards

Alex

At this time of year, it's normal to look back over the past year - or even the decade - and also to look forward to what's to come.

Most people do this in a very un-directed way - looking back and just recollecting what happened, and looking forward with some vague hopes or expectations. But you can take advantage of this mood of retrospection and forward-looking, and do the whole thing much more purposefully and consciously. The result can be insightful learning that leads to real changes that make a difference.

The technique I'm going to explain is taken from a broader topic called Action Inquiry - developed by some very insightful management consultants/academics/developmental psychologists.

You can apply this to any activity, on any timescale - but I suggest you do it in relation to your online activities for the last year (or even the last decade if relevant and if you want a very broad picture.)

I did this for myself for 2009, and it helped me identify a critical change in my strategy/approach. It's powerful stuff.

You can either do it quickly, or take a lot of time over it (it can raise many issues). Obviously, the more time you put in, the more you'll get out of it.

So - here it is. Complete these sentences as honestly and completely as you can.

Purpose, Intent

At the beginning of the year/decade (or when you first started), my intention with regard to my online business was .......

Strategy, Plan

As a result, I decided that my approach to building an online business would be....

Actions (observable activities that create outcomes)

What I actually did was.....

Outcomes/Results/Inquiry

The result of taking these actions was ..... (these are changes in the world that result from your actions; describe them in the same terms as your original intent).

Given these results, I feel .... <try to insert only a single word here> because .....

[If you are happy/satisfied with the results, stop this analysis and keep doing what you are doing, otherwise - continue below.]

My learning from this means that I want to make the following changes from now on (complete one, two or three of these):

Changes in the Actions I take.... (single-loop learning)

Changes in my whole approach - my Strategy/Plan ... (double-loop learning - which also means changing your Actions)

Changes in my Purpose/Intent.... (triple-loop learning - which also means changing your Strategy/Plan and Actions)

Be free in your interpretation of words such as Strategy and Purpose. For example, don't limit Strategy to mean Business Strategy. It could/should also include your psychological strategy that influeces how you make decisions about what activities you get involved in.

Take the time to do this properly, and it could learn some very valuable lessons from 2009.

Do add your comments about this technique below.

Alex

What is your agenda?

As an internet marketer it is most important to have a firm agenda, and to be always aware of what it is.

But an agenda for one time-frame is not enough. We need....

• An agenda for today.
• An agenda for this week.
• An agenda for this month.
• An agenda for this quarter.
• An agenda for this year.
• An agenda for five years.

Obviously, this is true for any endeavour, but in the internet marketing world, it is more important that in almost any other environment.

There are various reasons for this, but the most powerful reason is that, in the internet marketing world, there are thieves about! These thieves are not out to steal your money - although getting some of your money is part of their plan. No - these thieves are out to steal your agenda!

Usually they try to steal your short-term agendas.

But don't think that they want them. Obsolutely not! In fact, quite the reverse. They want to give you an agenda! But whilst you have your own, they can't do that. So they go about stealing it, and replacing it with the one they give you.

And that is how they make their money - because once you are following their agenda, they can sell you their systems that help fulfil those agendas.

Don't get me wrong. It could well be that that is exactly what you need at that time.

But also, quite possibly, it is exactly what you don't need.

That is why you need to have a crystal clear agenda at all times - so you can tell the difference!

The nature of your agenda changes depending on where you are in your internet marketing journey, but whether you are just investigating, creating a business or operating a business - you MUST know your agendas. Certainly for the short and medium term.

In my opinion, this is one of the most important  things for internet marketers to get right - which is why I'm making it the subject of the next Group Session for my low-cost Internet Professionals Mentoring Program (2.00pm Eastern on 31st December 2009).

I'll be talking about how people try to steal your agenda, how to defend yourself against it, what sort of agenda you should have (depending on the stage of your business development)... and more.

Here's the top level of a MindMap I created for the basis of the presentation:

If think you'd like to attend the session, there's still time. Find out more about the Mentoring Program by filling in the form below. If you decide to join, I'll send you an invitation to the session.

cforms contact form by delicious:days

Alex.