More Important Than The Royal Wedding? Hmmm…

Like the rest of you, I'm glued to the TV today watching the royal wedding. I thought it was beautiful and I loved all the pomp and ceremony. And the hats. I can't get enough of the hats.

But my husband doesn't get it. Right now, there is something waaay more important going on. The NFL draft. And it's not getting the coverage it deserves because it's overshadowed by the royal wedding and those of us who are comandeering the remote controls.

So here's a thing I'd like us all to do (and I blatantly stole this idea from a local radio station but added my own twist) – in honor of the NFL draft, I'd like you to pick your IM offense and defense players you'd most like on your team.

Pick 4 players for offense and 4 for defense. 2 of each can be "celebrities".

Your offense should be those, if on your team, would and could lead you to victory. They'll help you get on the right track, make more money, accomplish your IM dreams.

Your defense should be the players who will defend you, whether you're getting flamed on a forum or got into an IM seminar bar fight.

Here are mine, in no particular order and without much time to deliberate… I reserve the right to change them later.

Offense
1. Richard Branson
2. Oprah
3. Yanik Silver
4. Felix Kelly (since he's turned over his new leaf)

Defense
1. Alan Petersen – He's always been there for me.
2. Tristan Higbee – His words – "I've got your back".
3. Tiffany Dow – She thinks I'm sweet. Mwahaha! She defends what she believes in.
4. Gary Busey – because he's just crazy enough to scare off anyone!

NOW It's Your Turn!

Duh! After All… I AM An Internet Marketer

 

 

photo credit: card karma

Maybe because it's Monday, or maybe because it's Monday after too much Easter candy… but my hackles are a little up right now. It has to do with being an Internet marketer - the honest and transparent type who is tired of what some people think of us decent folk. Okay, here goes:

"Some of your tweets are for products you're selling"
Yes, this is true. You got me. It's part of my evil plot to make money. I do like Twitter. It's fun to get on there and be witty and charming within 140 characters, and I love retweeting other great posts from people I respect who give enormous value.

But I also see Twitter as a huge marketing tool that is an easy peasy (yes, I just said easy peasy) way to let the world, or at least interested parties, know when I've created a new product. When people tell me they're not on my list but bought a PLR article pack  from me when they saw the tweet, then I know it's working! I work hard creating quality products and I like to be compensated for them. See… honest and transparent here .

"You write your headlines just to make me come read your blog post."
This one is courtesy of Tristan Higbee at BloggingBookShelf  and inspired this post. Yes! That is why we try to write eye-catching headlines – we want you to visit our sites and read our stuff. Why is that a problem if the post is as promised in the title? That's why bloggers luv it when your site uses CommentLuv. It's why ComLuv was invented and is such a popular plugin.

When I put a lot of time, sweat and tears into my posts and I think what I say might be helpful or entertaining to others in some way, I want to let them know I wrote the blog post. So I try to write interesting titles that will match the interesting content .

There's naturally a good amount of Look At Me! when you're a blogger. Look at what I discovered and it might help you too, look at this resource I found that's made my marketing life easier, look at my mistakes so you don't make them too.

"Your emails are sometimes promotional in nature."
 Again, this is true. What you'll find when you're part of my list is that I usually send emails that are NOT promotional. In fact, I usually let you know I've talked about something on my blog and invite you to add your wisdom to the discussion. I like it when people on my list email me and we get to know each other.

For me, lists ar e about building beneficial relationships first, but they're also about having highly targeted customers. So I do occasionally send out emails that sell something because at the end of the day, I'm not independantly wealthy and I do need to earn a living with my Internet endeavors. I make no apologies for liking to eat.

"You've included an affiliate link in your blog post."
Yep. I'm not very sneaky about it either. I might be telling you about something I've used and gotten great results with, like TrafficSponge. I'm kinda pushy that way and get a little excited… but if I liked it, found it easy to use and got great results then you must hear about it and at least check it out!

Or sometimes I'm talking about a big picture thing and since I'm telling you about something and I'm going to give you a link to it anyway, why shouldn't I make it an affiliate link? I mean, if you're going to buy anyway??

For example, if I'm talking about how to quickly get a blog up and running, of course I'm going to put in a link to hosting – my favorite website hosting [<= Insert affiliate link there].

There you have it, 4 things that were stuck in my craw, whatever that really means. I'm aware there are some who spoil it for the rest of us by sending promo after promo, among other things. 

I am an Internet marketer who likes to give value (free and not free) and help out others. I also like the relationships I have in the online world and enjoy learning from smart marketers like Steve Scott, Marcus the Sales Lion, and Robert Dempsey. I like to be successful and I like being compensated.

And lastly, I like lots of blog comments!

• Do you think I'm blowing smoke? Should I apologize for being a marketer?
• Anything you want to add to this list? What's stuck in your craw?

My Mentor is Better Than Your Mentor

How did you like that title? You think Tristan Higbee would be proud? Or Sheila Atwood?

What I want to talk about is mentors, or more specifically, about being mentored.

I think a mentor should be hand-selected as one-size-fits-all only works with those womens cotton nightgown tshirt thingies.

Here are the qualifications I look for in a mentor:

1. They are honest and transparent.

2. They walk the walk, not just talk the talk.

3. Their business model has to be one I'm interested in following. I won a coaching spot one time and the guy "coached" on how to do nothing but free ad swaps. Not my thing at all.

4. They have to be making more money than me.

5. They need to be interested in ME and my success.

The good news is there are good mentors out there and you don't necessarily have to have a formal arrangement!

When I first jumped aboard the Internet marketing train, I was probably like you… wide-eyed with excitement and practically drooling with the possibilities. I felt like I was from the Exorcist with my heading spinning around and around with each idea and promise.

Then I found Nicole Dean.

I gathered up my courage and emailed her asking if she would answer 3 questions for my new ebook and not only did she say yes, she answered them immediately. When I sent her the completed ebook, she talked in detail about how I should market it.

Every time I asked her a question, she gave me looong answers. Even when I told her I was going to start a PLR store (like hers but not copying hers) she offered tips. Wow! I'm still amazed she took the time to help me.

When I asked her if she wouldn't mind sending out a promo for my PLR store via an affiliate link, she suggested some tweaks for my sales page and then promoted it. When I asked if she would consider promoting Become a PLR Writer, she mailed out and put a promo on her site as well.

I can't tell you how much I've learned from this smart marketer – not just about marketing but how to have fun with it and pay it forward.

When I learned Nicole was going to start a monthly "tell all" of what goes on behind the scenes, called IncomeCPR, I knew it was going to be good. She was going to tell me what makes her the most money and how she goes about it? How she grew her list so fast? How to take those products you've created and market them so you make bank. I'm in!

So I dove in and here's what I found after I came up for air: $10 for what you get is not a fair price at all. It's not fair to her anyway. I personally love it, the cheapskate I am.

This first month she explained how she structured her recent contest for affiliates and also included 5 case studies. These were about what some of her affiliates did on their end of the contest. I thought it was funny because they all took different routes yet they all made lots of sales.

As a marketer with an affiliate program, this lesson was gold.
As an affiliate of other marketers, this lesson was gold.

Nicole is a down-to-earth real person and I noticed she even told about a mistake she made with her contest. How often do you see that?

In this first issue, which she also calls Information Products: Unleashed, I got some tips I can start using immediately, and had one big lightbulb moment that I'm really eager to try.

I'm looking forward to stepping it up and I can't wait for next month.

Here's a quote:

After a lot of sleepless nights, here’s what I finally discovered and what I’m going to share with you: To make money with your information products, you have to do the RIGHT things – and at the RIGHT times. And I’m going to show you what those “right things” are. ~Nicole Dean

Sorry, I do believe I'm gushing about Nicole and IncomeCPR. But when I found out my favorite teacher was going to reveal her secrets (real secrets not slimy marketer fake/blackhat secrets) and it was as good as I thought it would be, I admit I'm excited.

Off to drink a martini in a relaxing bubble bath now…

 

• Do you have a mentor, unofficial or official? If not, what's stopping you?
• Do you know Nicole Dean?

 

 

 

My Forum Commenting Challenge – Pass or Fail?

Yay! The Warrior Forum optin-gathering forum-commenting list-building challenge is over ! 

I've got to tell you what a relief that is. You might have noticed I was MIA and not commenting on your blog last week? That's because I was up to my eyeballs in the WF. It took a lot of time! 

Sure, some days were great and I could find a lot to add my two cents to, but other times I was coming up on a post that already had perfect answers. I felt like typing "Yeah, what he said!"  

I did make some changes to my sig line Wednesday afternoon after re-analyzing it and decided some of the links weren't going where I wanted them to. Why I didn't look at it more carefully first… I don't know. I did keep the ad for the free PLR in my sig, which is the big thing I wanted to target.

I'll tell you my results at the end of the post because I want to let you know what some of the others involved in the challenge had to say about their experience first! I'm really glad they joined me because that made it a lot more fun.

Sue Fleckenstein

 In total I posted 50 comments last week, 10 per day. It was definitely much easier to find posts to comment on at the beginning of the week.  By Friday it was tougher to find relevant posts.

At the same time I was really attempting to make helpful and useful comments. So I was looking for people requiring help with article writing and posting and finding content for their websites. As this is where my PLR site would be most helpful.  

I found that some of my replies were quoted by others so that gave me a nice confidence boost.  Along the way I found some useful information for myself in regards to copywriting and creating sales pages.

My results for the week were that I saw an increase in traffic from the WF to my PLR Store and to a lesser degree to my blog.  I made some sales, one was a multiple sale and the other was from a previous WSO that I have a link to in my signature file.

So overall it was a good experience and helped with traffic. It is something that I will continue to do, but for lesser posts each day, maybe 3 – 5 posts. As it is time consuming and you have to be careful not to get side tracked.

I did a test with a new PLR site that I created and put a link to that in my sig file for three of the five days. I ended up with 50 page views to that site before I removed it. Don’t want visitors there until the site is ready to go.

In one of my posts I recommended a backlinking site and I got a couple of people signed up to this list where they can build links for free. So that was an added bonus.

I would recommend doing this type of posting in a forum related to your niche as it does work.  Just by being helping you will see an increase in traffic.

Sue Fleckenstein
buyplrtoday.com

  R. Matt Lashley

I cried "Uncle!" pretty early.  I participated for about a day and a half.  During that time I posted 13 times.  Those posts generated 25 unique visitors to the website linked in my signature.  There was no offer or opt-in.

This was the first time I went to a forum with a specific plan (campaign) to generate traffic and the first time I posted with a link in my signature.  

What I learned through participation in the Warrior Forum Posting Challenge:

1.  Forums generate near real-time traffic.  Most of the Warrior Forum referral activity for my website occurred within 5 – 6 hours of posting a reply.

2.  I saw just under a 2:1 visitor to reply ratio.  Next time, I'll track which threads the referrals came from for some post campaign analysis.

3.  From a marketing perspective, I hadn't considered just how much demographic information forums provide. Targeting the right market segment for my services and products was simply a matter of finding the right threads.

4.   Time management is a must.  On the day I participated, I spent the better part of four hours reading and posting.

5.  If I had two more hours in a day, I could be a forum posting monster.

6.  Forums are repositories of collective intelligence driven by the knowledge and opinions of the experienced and novice alike.  I spent about 4 hours getting up to date on the latest news and topics in a niche of a particular industry that I'd always wanted to get into.

7.  The amount of material for blog posts is virtually endless.  This is reason enough to make a trip to a forum part of my daily routine.

Participating in this challenge was great fun. Had I the fortitude and time management skills of some others, my stats would undoubtedly have been more impressive. Going in with the specific goals of the challenge in mind cast forum posting in a different light and I saw things for which I hadn't thought to look.

R. Matt Lashley
 writeandreview.com 

  Lisa Stoops

This was definitely a challenge! I tried so hard to post 10 comments per day. Monday I did 10, but for the rest of the week I only averaged about 5 each day except Friday I think I only posted 2 or so. I was really struggling with finding posts that I could add value to. I thought about starting a thread but I just didn't take the time to do it…which was dumb because that could have really increased my traffic.

In my signature link, I was promoting my PLR WSO, Free PLR, and my services (which are on my blog). I just realized as I was looking at results that my link to my free PLR was going to my PLR WSO lol. So I might have had more sign ups for my free PLR if the link had been correct.

I haven't promoted my blog too much, but two weeks ago I only saw 1 visitor from the Warrior Forum, the next week I saw 8 visitors, and this past week I saw 29 visitors. So I would say posting helped for sure. 

For my PLR site, I saw 27 visitors coming from various posts I had responded to. Not much of a difference from the previous week.

As far as sign ups go, I got about 10 and I also got several sales too (but I'm not sure if those were directly from the WF).

Bottom line – I usually post several times a week in the warrior forum on a regular basis because it does drive traffic to my sites. The more you post, the more visitors you will get…especially if you have something to offer that this market wants. I also noticed that my pages visited and time spent on site are really high for visits from the WF. Also, the bounce rate is really low, which is great. Overall, posting to the WF on a regular basis is a great way to drive traffic to your site. I will be posting more.

Lisa Stoops
 plralacarte.com 

Peggy here again. Here are my results from my 50 comments on the Warrior Forum:

Number of "thanks" – 15  J (An important stat to me as it's a way to measure my degree of helpfulness to others.)

Opt-ins – 29

Traffic – AllstarPLR's traffic is up an average of 64% comparing it to the same week the month before. Note – This is not a totally accurate picture as I'd sent an email to my list on Wednesday and that caused a spike. The WF was my #4 referring source of traffic for the week.

Traffic – For my Peggy Baron blog, traffic was up 107%, but this was only from Wednesday through the rest of the week as that's when I changed my sig line and added a link directly to my blog.

I also saw a slight rise in traffic to 2 of my sites that are offsprings of AllstarPLR.

My Takeaways -

I did strictly comments and no posts. Some days I gave more valuable answers than others. I love to give attaboys to the posters who just made their first sale online and I counted these, but they didn't really provide much value to the conversation.  

It would have been good to start my own thread, but I just didn't have the time or energy necessary to come up with an awesome thread. If I had and it was witty and wise, I'm sure it would have gotten me lots more opt-ins.

This challenge was certainly a challenge to stay on task! There are a lot of interesting threads there. I only got sucked into one big one – a 5 page thread – so I feel pretty good about that. Still, finding threads to leave good comments on takes a lot more time than I thought it would. 

If your Internet marketing has to do with Internet marketing, the Warrior Forum is a place where you can go to divert traffic to your house. Depending on how good a job you do with creating valuable posts and comments, you can, as a traffic cop, direct that traffic to your site(s) without a lot of loud whistle-blowing and wild hand-waving.

I feel like I know the forum well now – I have the current pulse. I also know what a lot of the problems are that new marketers face. Not only can I help answer questions, I can turn my knowledge into info products like Alan does.

IMO, it's better to drop in once a day or so, use the search function to find posts on my topic of interest, and comment on those. For example, I will do searches on "PLR", "Private label rights", "niche sites", "niche marketing", "writing" and "content". I also search my name so I can thank someone who has mentioned me. J

I wish I'd kept track of the amount of time it took me to post 10 comments x 5 days, to really get a measure of my time spent.

I can honestly say I would have gotten more optins if I had posted a Warrior Forum WSO giving away free PLR content in exchange for their email address.  Sure, it costs $40 to list a WSO, but it would have been worth it based on the time it took me to comment 50 times and only get 29 optins.

I am happy with my traffic growth and I can definitely see that forum commenting can help in that respect, especially if you don't want to use paid ways to get traffic.

Of course I can't quantify what my presence this last week on the WF has done for my image and my brand, and on future business opportunities that may come my way.

• Were you surprised at the results?
• What would you have done differently in this challenge to grow your list via forum commenting?