Help For Work At Home Procrastinators

You wanted to work from home so you’d have a flexible schedule?

Work when you want, play when you want… but now you’re doing too much playing and not enough work?

I may have found the answer.

clockingit.com is billed as a time management application that helps you organize your time and projects.

But its features can be equally good at giving you a prod when you need it.

For example, Clocking It lets you organize your projects how you want, by tag or due dates.

When you get up in the morning, before you even open your email, take a look at your timeline to see what you have accomplished and what still needs to be done.

A visual representation of where you are in a project vs. where you need to be is a marvelous kick in the motivational pants.

And Clocking It will send you notifications when the deadline for specific projects is coming up.

Tick tick tick…

Oh yes, and it’s free, easy to use, and an asset to anyone with a busy schedule and projects to complete.

Have you noticed the PRICE TAGS on some of the recent Internet marketing launches?

Like:

John Reese’s - $2,495 webinar @ income.com
Frank Kern’s - $1,997 Mass Control product?

A ‘webinar’ for $2,495?

Absoluletly! They been doing that in other markets (Stock Trading, for example) for a long time, why not Internet marketing?

So, what’s behind this price trend?

Here’s my take:

1) The guru’s KNOW that there is a HUGE demand for Internet marketing information.

2) The higher price points will attract the highest quality customers.

3) The fewer customers the fewer customer service issues.

4) The customers paying the highest prices feel as if they are in an exclusive club and they like it that way.

What does this mean for the average guy or gal in Internet marketing?

The very first PRINCIPLE of HOW TO MAKE MONEY ONLINE WHEN YOU’RE A TOTAL NEWBIE states:

“Do not do as they say, DO as they DO.”

Watch the people who are making big money online and get on their email lists, read their blogs and watch them like a hawk.

“WATCHING WHAT THEY DO” is how you will learn how to transform your online business by just paying attention!

You might be surprised.

Testimonials are great for boosting sales.

But what about celebrity endorsements?

Obviously they work, or you wouldn’t see them on late-night infomercials, book jackets and advertisements.

So how do YOU get one?

Warning, this is going to cost you
….
….
….
….

.. One dollar.

Go to contactanycelebrity.com/join  

Get a one dollar trial membership, and prepare to be amazed.

Contact Any Celebrity has the current contact info of over 54,000 actors, musicians and sports stars.

If you find outdated info on a celebrity, let Contact Any Celebrity know and they’ll research the current info, usually within 48 hours.

Not only can you contact these celebrities and their representatives, as a member you’ll also learn HOW best to contact them, how to get endorsements, and how to choose and hire one as your spokesperson.

You can get all of the celebrity contact info you want during your 7 day trial, or continue your membership for $29.97 per month.

If this makes sense for you business, it’s a cheap price to pay.

Your web visitors and customers are more than faceless names with credit card numbers… they’re real people.

Imagine what you could learn if you actually chatted with them! You could find out what their questions are, why they’re buying or not buying, what they would like to see on your site, what products they want to purchase, etc.

In traditional Internet marketing, we’re all about putting up a salespage and driving traffic to it.

But how much better would our conversion rate be if our customers could actually chat with a real live breathing human being?

I think it might be interesting to find out.

Mind you, I’m not ready to have operators manning my sites 24/7.

But once in awhile, when I’m rolling out a new campaign, it might be highly educational to speak with some of my visitors.

Imagine their surprise when they hit the chat button and actually get the creator of the product they’re thinking of buying.

If you’re interested, you can chat with website visitors for free by using chat4support.com.

Chat4Support offers both a free and paid (starting at $19/mo) chat service that enables you to… -live chat with website visitors, -monitor site traffic, -analyze website visitors’ activities, including their search engine and keyword usage.

You can download Live Chat right from the website. The free edition has no spyware, no adwares, and no malware.

Go ahead, chat with your customers and see what happens!

I have been buying lots of info-products on ‘how to monetize’ your blog in the last week or so and I think I’m ready to jump into the game…

Here’s how to liven up your blog or website, and it’s actually easier than writing that article you’re planning - just add video.

With yourwebwidget.com, you can add a widget to your site that will show YouTube and Flicker videos.

To use it, you need either a Flickr or Youtube ID. Enter your ID and choose the size of display you want. Then select the videos, click create, and YourWebWidget will create the code to paste into your blog or website.

It’s that easy, and it’s free.

Remember when blogs didn’t have spam? No more. Now bloggers can spend as much time deleting spam as they do creating content.

That’s where www.akismet.com comes in.

First, you download the Akismet API.

Then, according to the site, here’s what happens next: When a new comment, trackback, or pingback comes to your blog, it’s submitted to the Akismet web service. Akismet runs hundreds of tests on the comment and returns a thumbs up or thumbs down.

This means no more need to maintain a blacklist, because you’re always protected up-to-the-second from the latest dirty tricks of spammers.

And there’s no maintenance, no upgrading, and no hassle.

When the plugin catches something as spam, it saves it in the database for 15 days in case you want to check it out manually. After 15 days it’s deleted.

And Akismet gets smarter with time.

If you find something was incorrectly identified as spam, you can correct it. Akismet uses these “false positives” to refine its system. If a spam comment happens to get through and you mark it as spam within WordPress, it does the same thing.

Do I hear bloggers breathing a collective sigh of relief?

One last thing… Akismet is free for personal use. If you make more than $500 per month with your blog, they ask that you pay $5 per month.

Well worth the money, I’d say.

Here’s a neat little site that makes picking out and using a new font a breeze.

It’s www.fawnt.com

The fonts are easy to view, easy to scroll through, and easy to use.

When you find a font you like, you simply click on its name and a new window opens where you can download that character set.

They even provide a link to step-by-step instructions on how to download and use a new font. Follow the steps and you’ll have your new font to play with in about two minutes.

Oh yes, and the site is free to use. Check the fine print on the fonts you choose, some may have restrictions, most do not.

My friend just sent me the link to some comics and they cracked me up.

What's this have to do with marketing and business?

They are Marketing Comics.

One of my favorite Internet Marketing "gurus", Jimmy D. Brown, created 15 Marketing Comics and you can see all of them here.

Stop by and check them out. It'll only take a minute.

You'll laugh and groan as you go through them.

Take a break from working on your newest InfoProduct and check out these Marketing Comics.

Nothing for sale here. Just some Marketing Comics!

AL MENDOZA
MarketingThinkbox.com

How ‘common’ is common sense? Not very… here’s a story (true) that illustrates what I mean.

A local new business, “Have A Sushi Bar” (name changed to protect the innocent was scheduled to open in a few weeks. It was positioning itself as an upscale shushi restaurant/bar and it had created a bit of a ‘buzz’ in our city.

To get the marketing campaign rolling the owner decided to give 50 people a special invitation package that allowed them to invite one other person, of their choice, to the restaurant on a special night to sample the menu and have some drinks. It wasn’t free, you had to pay for your meal and drinks (I think they said something about some ‘free’ champagne) but still, it would be kind of a fun thing to do.

I liked the idea… thought it was a pretty smart way to get people excited and involved in the opening. But like all good ideas, if it isn’t carefully planned and all contingencies accounted for, it ends up backfiring.

First off, who do you choose to give the invitation packets to? At first I thought they would hold a drawing… they could have gotten some free publicity with one of the local radio stations and offered everyone who called a special number to be entered to get one of the “Invitation Only Day” packets.

The owners could collect the names and addresses of the callers…that would have had the dual purpose of building a mailing list as well as getting a ton of people who hadn’t heard of the opening a chance to discover it.

Out of the hundreds of people who would call in to the get the special “Invitation Only Day” packet they would have randomly picked 50 lucky winners!

I mean what a great idea!

Everybody wins! The owners get people excited about the opening, they get at least 100 people to come to the restaurant on this special day to have fun and try it out and they get a ton of free publicity from the station!

And, if this was my restaurant, I would have contacted every person who called in to get the packets. I would have told them that even though they didn’t get chosen for *this* night, that we are scheduling a second night and they would still be able to get special “Invitation Only Day” packets but for another night!

In fact, if there were enough people who called in, I would have immediately scheduled 3 or 4 or 5 “Invitation Only” days and stretched it into a “Invitation Only Month!” so that my restaurant was filled any day I wanted it filled!

And you know what really happened instead?

What did the owner do instead? He hand picked 50 of his closest friends, relatives and business partners to get the invitation packets. They in turn could invite only one person to attend this ’special’ opening day with them.

That still would have been ok… but what happened is that the word got around that some people received the Invitation ‘packets’ and, not knowing beforehand that the person who received the packet was limited to inviting just ONE person, people started asking if they could go with them. When the person said, “no", that they could only invite ‘one’ person, people started to get offended.

The owner was notified that there were a lot of people who wanted to come, but were turned down. He didn’t seem to care. He just told everyone they could only bring “one” person and that was that.

At that point he still could have ‘rescued’ the situation by getting the names and addresses of everyone who wanted to come and offer them something else, but he didn’t … instead, a lot of people were really offended, and they had the impression that this restaurant (and owner) was not very friendly (a snob).

I know one person who told me that they didn’t care if they had the best sushi in New York State, they would drive 60 miles to a larger neighboring city than ever step foot in this restaurant.

I think the restaurant was open about 14 months before it closed.

The owner was not using common sense, or any kind of sense.

Is ‘common sense’ that common? I don’t think so…

AL MENDOZA
MarketingThinkbox.com

TALK about cool...

GeoDirection is a free service that dynamically redirects internet surfers based on their geographic location.

This JavaScript redirection tool is ideal for internet users that wish to redirect browsers based on their City, Region or Country, using Geobytes’ IP Address map technology. Further, it can also be used via the provided Geobytes’ JavaScript Variables to insert localized geographic content into a web page or JavaScript.

Note: There is no need to install any special software on your web server.

geobytes.com/GeoDirection.htm

Uses: Local search directories, language translations, compensate for cultural differences, and much more…

I know you are sick of all the promotions that you get everyday… you sign up for a newsletter from that guru or this guru and you think, “What the %^&* all I get is sales pitch after sales pitch!”

Time for straight shootin’:

Real students of marketing love to get sales pitches.

I know I do.

Why?

Because you can ‘learn’ from them… see what other marketers are doing, offers used, sales angles, phrases, closings, intros… etc

A great sales pitch gets me excited…

If the idea of getting another sales pitch turns you off, then think of it as a learning experience.

If you still hate it… then you have a choice to make.

AL MENDOZA
MarketingThinkbox.com

This is one of the best free resources for marketers on the Internet, bar none!

If you don’t know about Anne Holland and her site www.MarketingSherpa.com then shame on you. (Just kidding)

But seriously, you should.

Anne’s site is one of the very, very few we monitor on a regular basis. It is filled with real-world metrics, wisdom, results data and practical advice about online marketing.

Do you lack focus?

It’s apparent from subscribers emails, asking for assistance with their Internet business, that they are hyper-active and un-focused…

Does that describe you?

If it does, take solace in this fact: I was extremely un-focused too until I learned the secret of Selective Criteria Filtering.

Here’s the problem.

There are 100’s of ways of making money on the Internet and 100’s more ways of marketing your products and services on the Internet and 100’s of more product types you could be developing and 100’s of more things to do with your time.

The good news is you have more options now than any time in the history of the world.

The bad news is you have more options now than any time in the history of the world.

More options = more thought required
More options = more confusion
More options = un-focused direction

The solution to this is what I call Selective Criteria Filtering. Selective Criteria Filtering is being single-minded in your pursuit of success… ignoring, or glancing only a few seconds at those things that could be an opportunity, but in most cases ignoring them all together and focusing exclusively on those one or two things that generate real cash profits in your bsuiness (like marketing).

Selective Criteria Filtering is a fancy way of saying that, since you can’t be all things to all people, you have to Select the ONE THING that you know works and stick to it.

But, before you can get to that point, you have to TRY different things to see what works and what doesn’t work.

Yes, you can TRY a 100 different things and you SHOULD… if you know the ‘fast fail’ rule!

Many marketers and entrepreneurs prefer the ‘fast fail’ method of success.

The idea is that, the faster you fail the faster you know what works and what doesn’t work. Of course, it also means you have to take action to try things. Once you knwo they don’t work you get that much closer to success.

The faster you fail, the faster you know what works and what doesn’t. Then you STICK to the one or 2 business models that generate the income and future potential income that will meet your goals.

But don’t try things hapazardly… make your tests scientific- measure the results. Pick the one’s that work, throw out the rest.

After you testing reveals a winner, then use Selective Criteria Filtering to determine what you should pursue, according to the business model you’re operating in, and which one’s to avoid, even if they look attractive on the surface.

FREE REPORT

Making money in a business of your own is not easy, but it is simple -once you know how. You see, I think you need to learn about 'failure' and what to avoid, before you can be successful. Does that make sense?

I believe THE KEY to success in business: "Fail as fast as you can, so you know FINALLY what REALLY works."

But here's the key that opens the door to this powerful technique: Fail with as little money and time wasted as possible. Then when you do find something that works you have both the time and money to pursue it to make you rich.

You see this is a HUGE secret. What happens when most people fail… at anything?

They STOP. They don't go forward anymore. They just stop taking action because the failure hurts so bad. That is why success is so rare!

Download Your Free Report Now!

Are You Creating “Value"?

I received this question from a subscriber recently. I thought it would be helpful if I re-printed it here along with my answer since some of you may have had the same question.

“I am regular reader of your newsletter. It’s really educative and eye opener.

I am also trying to learn how to swim in the ocean of Internet Marketing.

I agree that being different is the requisite and creativity is the absolute requirement.

But, can everyone be different and creative? Well! The answer may be “NO".

So how to be creative and different? I am taking the liberty of asking you this question because I have experienced that you are the type of person who does what he says. There are very few people of this kind in this world I suppose.

That’s great really,

Kind regards, - J”

My response:

The way to be creative and different is by being ‘yourself’…really be yourself… talk like you would talk to a friend in your emails and let ‘you’ come through in everything you do.

Most people are afraid to be ‘themselves’ because they might be rejected… you have to get over that.. not everyone will like you. Not everyone will be your friend either. That’s life!

But…there will be enough people who will like you and those are the ones that will stay with you over the years and be good customers.

I get emails once in a while saying I ’suck’ or worse… but I also get emails from people who like what I say and what I teach.

Now, let me ask you: Should I be disappointed that some people don’t like me? No. That’s literally their problem, not mine.

And, should I be feeding my ego every time someone says they like what I do and congratulate me on a great newsletter or info-product or whatever - again the answer is ‘no’.

The bottom line is: You have to do what you feel is the most benefit, the most help to your customers and subscribers and listen to honest feedback, but ignore everything else.

That’s the blunt truth. You have to be strong. You can’t let a little praise go to your head and you can’t let a little blame or dislike of what you’re doing discourage you in anyway.

You have to be yourself and whenever negative or positive forces try altering your path, you must ignore them and keep building value and usefulness into everything you’re doing.

Learn how to create VALUE… I’m talking about tangible, functionable products and services that are REALLY USEFUL to your prospects and customers. You create “value” by being yourself and building a little piece of “YOU” into everything you do.

How to “create value” is a lesson in itself …which I’ll save for another day.


AL MENDOZA
MarketingThinkbox.com

Imagine a million or so blogs, all linked together in one big informational platform. Now imagine that every blog represents ONE keyword, and no two blogs can share the same word.

That’s MillionBlogs.org, a (somewhat) new concept that allows users to create their own fully functional website based on the word/phrase you’ve snagged for yourself.

If you’re first to apply for your word, odds are it’s yours (all applications are reviewed by hand.)

According to the FAQ, it’s free.

Once you’ve got your keyword, you can create your own fully functional WordPress website based on the word/phrase you purchased.

You’re free to promote, advertise, sell your products or services and also sell/rent advertising space for other interested webmasters. So it’s more of a website than a blog.

And the assumption is you’ll be getting at least some of your traffic from the sheer numbers Millionblogs.org is hoping to attract. We’ll see.

According to the website, this is an experiment aiming to become one of the biggest informational platforms on the Internet.

Notice the term EXPERIMENT. If this turns out to be huge, you’ll be forever thankful you grabbed your term while it was still available.

If not, you haven’t lost anything. Check it out,

http://millionblogs.org

AL MENDOZA

Here’s an interesting way to monetize your blog or website… accept tips and give a link in return.

Scratchback.com provides an online tipping system which allows you to accept tips from your readers.

In exchange, you provide the person tipping you with a link to their site. And it’s hands off, just set it up and let it run.

Here’s how it works: You create a free ScratchBack widget, place it on your site, and then readers can tip you. When they do, they get a link of their choice.

So unlike a “Donate Here” button, the person doing the tipping is getting an advertisement in return. And you determine how much the minimum tip is.

It only takes a few minutes to set up, looks good on the site, and Google won’t penalize you for these ads.

Also, with ScratchBack the ads only appear for either a certain length of time, or until they’re bumped off by other ads (your choice.) So if someone wants to keep their link on your site, they’ll need to keep tipping you.

One thing I take issue with is their claim that this idea is brand new. It’s not.

While they’ve updated the look, they’re not the first to create this concept. Some time ago John Delavera created a script called “Buy me a Drink” which basically does the same thing.

With John’s script there is no custom ‘message on mouseover’ like there is with Scratchback.com, but you also get to keep 100% of the tips you receive. ScratchBack keeps 10%.

www.Scratchback.com

Here’s how to liven up your blog or website, and it’s actually easier than writing that article you’re planning - just add video.

With www.yourwebwidget.com , you can add a widget to your site that will show YouTube and Flicker videos.

To use it, you need either a Flickr or Youtube ID. Enter your ID and choose the size of display you want. Then select the videos, click create, and YourWebWidget will create the code to paste into your blog or website.

It’s that easy, and it’s free.

AL MENDOZA
MarketingThinkbox.com

Somebody asked Chris Boggett this question:

“I saw this in another blog that discusses the idea that eNewsletters are losing their hold on the market and instead will be replaced by RSS. What are your thoughts on this?”

Chris Baggott’s blog is one of the best around when it comes to email marketing online. Read what he has to say about RSS vs Email here,

http://www.visiturl.com/rssvsemail/

My take?

Email marketing IS ‘direct marketing’ online.

RSS, on the other hand, is a like having a magazine that people read when they get around to it unless you *push* them to it with an email announcement.

RSS will NEVER replace email marketing. Something *else* may replace email marketing someday, but it will NOT be RSS.

Because there is so much email marketing going on people can’t really *see* HOW much money is actually made because you can’t see the money ‘changing hands’.

You have to imagine this (it’s real): Money flowing through computers from one destination (the buyer’s bank account) to the other end (the seller’s bank account).

It flows and flows. If you’re a seller, you will experience this ‘flow’…. it’s amazing sometimes.

THINK: Millions change hands online DAILY. How much of that are you getting?? Probaby not enough, right?

In order to experience a ‘flow’ like this you need a top quality information or software product.

I know, starting from scratch it can look like a huge hurdle… it’s a mountain!

But you need to climb it… you must have a product of your own to make the big money online.

With the RAGING BULL MARKET in ‘make money online’ information it is very important to make sure that your product is also of the highest quality.

There are hard ways and there are easy ways to create your own high-quality, info-product… and then sell it online with email marketing, ebay, and ClickBank.

The 60 Second Tip...

If you spend countless hours staring at a blank page trying to come up with compelling ad copy for that "killer" sales letter (you know, the one that's going to make you rich beyond your wildest dreams?)... then STOP!

Why drive yourself nuts and give yourself a major headache trying to train yourself to be a professional copy writer overnight? Do what the gurus do... start a "swipe file."

A swipe file is probably a little misleading as it sounds unethical. Please understand, I am NOT condoning plagiarism. But every so-called "internet marketing guru" openly admits to having a swipe file that they use when they need a little inspiration.

So what is a swipe file and how do you use it legally and ethically?

Basically, whenever you come across an ad or sales letter that makes you want to run and grab your wallet... stop and print out or save that copy! Highlight or circle the parts of the ad that have you excited and eager to make a purchase. Then put it away in a folder or notebook. This is your swipe file.

Eventually, you'll accumulate quite a stack of great professional quality ads. Then, when you're staring at that blank page trying to compose your next ad campaign or sales letter, you can refer to your swipe file and you can use these as a basis to create your OWN ads or sales copy.

DO NOT copy from your swipe file word for word. Substitute your own words and put your own stamp on them. Mix and match different approaches from different ads.

Remember, this is meant to be inspirational, not criminal. NEVER copy these ads. Just analyze how the ad is structured, what types of words are used, and then create your own UNIQUE sales copy by emulating the successful advertising techniques from your swipe file.

The idea is to study copy writing techniques as you go. Eventually, you'll find you won't need to refer to your swipe file as often. Your blank pages won't stay blank for long because you'll have learned how to write killer ad copy of your own.

AL MENDOZA
MarketingThinkbox.com

Here’s an idea that seems to have great potential:

Combine the best of what YouTube does (deliver videos) and offer an opportunity for affiliate marketing or publishing (like Clickbank).

The idea is the brainchild of Brad Fallon… Brad is a pretty creative guy and has a number of winning Internet projects under his belt already so I’m sure he’s thought this one through.

It’s free to join, so you can check it out. It also is free for you post your own content on the site and they accept ebooks, audios and videos. So it could be a very powerful viral system…

FreeIQ / aka a “PowerViralSystem” 

The 60 Second Tip...

If you're an affiliate marketer, I assume you have set-up an affiliate "landing page" so that you can capture the contact details of your visitors before you send them to the site you are promoting.

Once you've done this you virtually get a "second chance" to pre-sell your visitors. To do this you need to write your autoresponder message as if you were having a one-to-one conversation.

Pretend you're sitting down to talk to a friend. Allow your message be friendly, animated and informal. You can even use some slang if it's appropriate. And be sure to emphasize the benefits of the program you're promoting.

Ask yourself...

... "What does the customer get out of this product?"

The answer should be something like "more time," "more money," "more enjoyment," "an easier life," "better health," etc"

Then include a "call to action."

You need to explain exactly what it is you want your readers to do after reading your message. Whether you want them to reply to your email, ask questions or to visit a website - you need to tell them what you want them to do in a compelling, urgent, benefits-oriented way.

If your goal is to get them to visit a website, a good strategy that works extremely well is to highlight a problem your readers may be facing, and then give them half the solution to this problem to wet the appetite. Then ask them to visit the website to get the rest of the solution.

You'll be surprised how this one tactic will improve your results.

Good luck :)

AL MENDOZA
MarketingThinkbox.com