Marketing With Mike

Wasn’t Fast Enough!

mike — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 23:28:49 +0000

I was not fast enough to escape the “Bug”. I was stricken this morning and I have just been laying around with cramps, etc. I can’t concentrate on much, so on with the boob tube. Sorry, Alex, no posts other than this today. Stay healthy everyone!
Later…mike

Module #4

mike — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 22:10:48 +0000

   Another minor setback in the quest for the Holy Grail. Everyone else in the house has the “Bug” . So I will have to maintain a low profile during this outbreak.
   Module #4 Social Media Money has been an eye opener for me . I have thought in the past that blogs, and other social media were something of a gab-fest or BS sites. Now I can see how to utilize them to make relationships to be able to generate trust and therefore when you do promote something in the future you are viewed as a trustworthy individual that has a product worthy of consideration by the people on your list.
   Alex Jeffreys has opened the eyes of this lowly newbie to this concept. Another lesson on the road to my goal.
   Back to the module.
Later…mike

Back to Business!

mike — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 23:06:03 +0000

   Well back to business. Alex Jeffreys put up a $1000 competition for the blog that gets the most traffic between Dec 19th to Jan 1st. Oops this kind of leaves me out as we are supposed to use Google Analytics to track traffic and hits to the site. Being a little slow off the starting line, as usual with all this techie stuff. I am still behind, as I loaded the plugin but it I didn’t add it to the html. I have to figure how to do this now.I know the end result will be worth the labor I put into this. Are you listening ,Alex?
   The other students of Alex are at different levels of expertise , Some like me and others who have not any great problems. But we all have our goal of our Six Figure Income Business’.
   We have to tell how we are driving traffic to our blogs. So: 1) Fellow students can see what we are doing. 2) Adds great content. 3) We will have to take action. and 4) The value of this blog will attract more traffic to it.
   So I will have to kick this into overdrive and get the ball Rolling because I am behind and need to get in the game ASAP.
Later…mike

Back to Normal?

mike — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 17:10:12 +0000

Well my guests left to go back home to Arkansas today. Fortunately it wasn’t snowing that bad for them as the

storm came from the west, just made it here.
I am going to listen to Alex Jeffreys module #4 as I hadn’t been able to grab some free time to listen yet.

So let me go relax and take some notes.
Later…mike

Friends Visiting.

mike — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 02:38:49 +0000

I just had some friends come to visit from Arkansas on Dec. 22 . So things have been a little hopping around here since then and I haven’t had a lot of time to myself to sit down and write for a while. Just this note to you all that this blog has not been lost in space. I am in the process of listening to Alex’s module four.

Later yaall…mike

Playing Catch Up.

mike — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 19:42:05 +0000

I am playing catchup with the rest of Alex’s students as I didn’t get my blog up as soon as I should have, due to the problems getting it to run on my server. But it is all set now.
I am trying to do the last four weeks of my mentoring with Alex Jeffreys in all these posts. It seemed a daunting task to write all these posts in 10 days or so, but as Alex brought out it does get easier the more you write (thank goodness). I will get into the next module very soon.
Later…mike

Module 3 (cont)

mike — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 00:33:33 +0000

When your blog is up, you can use RSS feed to for a more continual readership to the blog You can also use Aweber for readership signup. Remember to get it online now. “You don’t need to get it right, just get it running” After you get it running go to www.google.com/addurl/ .
    What is a blog really good for? It keeps you accountable, and it will motivate you (I need motivation) and it has momentum. Once you start to write on your blog you will find that it gets easier to write. I’m finding that it really does get easier.
   If you have a favorite radio station it has a call sign, my favorite station is W.I.I.F.M. (What’s In It For Me) Alex gave us this acronym and it kind of sticks in my mind. Make sure that your blog gives good value for continued readership.
   Do a story about how you started , your family or, as I am doing here, about my building a six figure business from scratch. Your blog needs to be updated once or twice a week.
   Social sites are a good way to send people to your site. When they come to your site encourage them to visit your squeeze page and build a list.
   If you create value the rest of your business will take shape.
   How are blogs powerful? They are fast to put up- other people send people your way- they provide value to you- build a readership-and they build you a list.
   A good acronym is KISS keep it simple stupid. A blog needs have a basic story,
your story. Tell the readership how you started. I started in a land, far,far away called……..OOPs, lost my head for a moment.
   There are three types of people: People who don’t learn from their mistakes, People who learn from their mistakes, and people who learn form the mistakes of others. So align wourself with someone who has done what you plan to do and learn from their mistakes.
Later…mike

Module 3

mike — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 22:20:17 +0000

Traffic will be discussed in the next module (Module 4) So I can’t wait for that one. So far we are averaging about one module a week. With a brainstorming session (6-7 hours long) Alex was on for the whole time. Whew! And an interactive session. I will write a little about those in another post.
   The old adage: “Quitters never win and Winners never quit!” is the quote of the day. And what a quote it is, no one who ever succeeded in any endeavor did so with out some failure in their quest. My wifes grandfather worked for Thomas Edison when he was perfecting the filament for the light bulb. It took him over 1000 tries over two years to get it right. In fact there are some light bulbs (unlike mine that burn out, it seems in about a month) in service for over a hundred years now: #1 in Livermore, CA (turned on 1901-1905) ,#2 in Forth Worth, TX (turned on 1908) and #3 in Mangum, OK (turned on 1926-1929). Amazing!
   What is a blog? An online weblog in which we write in as if in a journal. This makes us accountable and gives us feedback from the comments.
   Your very first post on a blog gives you instant momentum. And blogging maintains your focus and keeps you honest as your postings are viewed by the world so to speak.
   What needs to be on your blog? First you want your blog to be personalized and not be one of the basic themes. There are a lot of themes out there, find one that appeals to you and use that one. As we learned, not to have a calender on the page because it takes up space unnecessarily. We want to have content that provides value to our readers.
   Oh Oh!The dinner bell has been rung . I will continue with this third module when I am done.
Later…mike

Additional Thoughts

mike — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 00:22:16 +0000

I was going through my notes and thought I need to add on to Module 2 a little more.

So here we go..
   The mailing list is the holy grail of any form of marketing. The people out there are potentially one of four things to you : a suspect- a prospect- a customer- or a client. The main idea is to get them as a client or someone that you can present a product to that they will buy and be able to do this over and over again. But remember to present them a product with real value or you will lose them as a client from your list.
   In order to be able to see how your traffic is doing to your site you need to be able to track this traffic. To do this we are going to use Aweber which keeps track of traffic and any people that optin to your list. And also to reduce the spam complaints as Aweber has a record of them signing up.
   I have had a couple of spam complaints which to my knowledge one of my personal autoresponders was not setup right and was sending out blank e-mails. But I finally found out the reason (it was running in the background) and corrected it, Whew!
   So now we are Aweber neophytes. At least I am that is.
   Outsourcing is something that you might need to do if you are lacking in your marketing or website skills. I am a newbie in all these areas but do not have the funds to hire out these skills at the moment. So in my case I muddle along and study various things to acomplish my goals. Such as getting Wordpress to work on my website.
   But Later on, I will not be able to do everything and then will require the assistance of a professional to perform some other miracle for me. By having someone to do tasks for you will allow you to carry on your marketing skills and become better at that, because that is where the money is.
Until next time…mike

Module 2

mike — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 17:52:44 +0000

The Profit Pulling Platform is Alex’s gift to us. He has given us a business that he has developed to give us a headstart on our paths to success to a 6 figure a year business.
   Module 1 was the beginning to get us organized and the mind set to keep on top of things. Or as Alex puts it as K.O.T.O.B.O.T. Which to us laymen is “Keep On Top Of Being On Top”. I like the way that Alex puts things in context and in an easy to understand format
   A Profit Pulling Platform is the business behind the website. As a group we are all excited to be following Alex on this tantalizing venture into the previously unknown world of internet marketing.
   Watch how the rest of the world markets to you. They all want to deliver to you a fad or something shortlived, our design is to develop a system to deliver a worthwhile product to enable the recipient of out product to acomplish their goals.
   Winning in the marketing business is being un-afraid to lose. As we learn from Alex, he has given us the start of something big, The Profit Pulling Platform and is going to fast track us all on the road to success and is going to explain it to us step by step.
   So the next step was to get a blog up and running. Which I Finally got going( duh as you can already see!).
   With a blog up and running, the next step in the progression is to drive traffic to the “squeeze page” A squeeze page is the website that collects the e-mail address’ of your list. Usually it is a free e-book or program that is something like a brick and mortar store’s “loss leader” to get you in the door and perhaps to get you to buy something else. An e-book is an excellent way to get a list. First it gets a list going by having people sign up to get it and second because of your url, or website address, is inside of the e-book it gets distributed by those who give it to their friends.
   So you can see that the mailing list is the most important part of any marketer. Whether they are on the internet or have a brick and mortar establishment.
   Give away a great value item to get a list going and you will benefit from the list in ways you can not imagine.
   Until next time…mike