NAMS6 Affiliate Marketing Instructors Rocked!

In case you’ve missed my tweets, I’ve been at NAMS6.

NAMS stands for Niche Affiliate Marketing System and it was certainly that and much more!  I’ve been wracking my brain all day trying to figure out how to put the whole experience into words for a post and I just can’t. Probably because my brain is so full of some really valuable information that’s going to make a real difference in my affiliate marketing. That paired with Steve Scott’s Affiliate Marketing Without The BS, and I am good to go!

So I thought I’d talk about little gems, little but big takeaways I got from each NAMS teacher I heard. Then in my next post I’ll talk about the defining moments outside, in, and around the seminar.

Disclaimer – I didn’t hear all the teachers because there were actually 4 different tracks going on at once. Beginner level 1 up to  experienced level 4. I’m looking forward to listening to what I missed via the audio recordings.

 

Connie Green - She’s a constant winner of affiliate contests from  her small, dedicated list. I can’t wait to read her book, Huge Profits With Affiliate Marketing.  What I learned was not so much what she said, since unfortunately I didn’t get to hear that much from her, but in how she won the teacher NAMS affiliate contest, plus how she is so gracious and loved by her subscribers.

Nicole Dean - Nicole showed us how she builds assets. She is amazing at branding, having systems, outsourcing, asset building, and selling on the backend. She showed us just how to utilize Kindle in 2 ways – we can earn money from Amazon while they also build our list!

Bob the Teacher - Bob talks about monetizing everything. My biggest takeaway was to set myself up as several different affiliates for a product so I can use these links in various spots on my blog or emails to track where affiliate product placement does best.

Susanne Myers - Quiet and very smart about affiliate promotions. Go ahead and promote your competitor. Your customers will buy from them anyway so you might as well profit from it.

Kathleen Gage - Kathleen had several great stories to illustrate how you can turn bad times into marketing successes. Tell your story!  If life gives you a “situation”, figure out how to make money from it.

Felicia Slattery - Felicia is a bundle of energetic personality on the outside with some serious networking and speaking abilities on the inside. I was happy to finally hear her speak and I wasn’t disappointed.

Paul Evans - Very entertaining and smart guy! Why not hold a “techinar”? Many people need extra hand-holding to get through the technical aspects of something. Show them how to easily upload a tool and they’re more likely to buy the tool from you.

Terry Dean - Terry is wicked smart, and was hands-down the most informative workshop I attended. You know it’s good when the other instructors are sitting with mouths open thinking about some of the gems Terry layed on us. It wasn’t just me with my mouth hanging open as I pondered the huge possibilites of what he was telling us. One thing he showed was how to have Amazon write our sales letters for us. So simple, so powerful.

Just think how much information these instructors gave, both  in speaking and with questions before, afterwards, in the elevators, at meals, and probably when trying to go to the bathroom! It blows me away when I think how much they charge for coaching, yet they’re giving so freely at the seminar. Even if you didn’t go, you can still benefit from NAMS6. David Perdew is now offering the audio recordings of the whole thing at a big discount until the end of this week. This is 3 days worth, from 8:30 to 6:00 ish minus lunch time, all 4 tracks. It’s a whole lot cheaper than having to buy a plane ticket and pay for 4 nights of hotel.

Here are the deets:
It’s $77 for the entire NAMS6 workshop audio recordings.
Use the coupon code IWASTHERE
The sale ends Friday the 26th at 5:00 pm ET

•  Have you ever been to an Internet marketing conference? If so, what did you get out of it?  This is my second one and I’m happy it wasn’t a pitch-fest.
• Which IM conference would you want to attend? If you don’t want to attend any, why not?

 

 

 

 

Raising My Hand For a Thesis Theme!

As you can surely tell, this blog is in huge need of a new theme. I like my header and colors, but my current theme framework is outdated and there is so much wrong with it behind the scenes. It can’t handle comment nesting, which really annoys me, and I’m sure I’m losing traffic because the SEO is no where near optimized.

What’s stopping me?

So many good themes to chose from that I’ve been afraid to pick the wrong one. I also worry about not being able to customize it as me and CSS know each other on a formal acquaintance basis only, and we’re nowhere near BFFs.

But I’ve been listening to Ana Hoffman and Pat Flynn sing the praises of Thesis themes and I want me one!

Well guess what?!

There is a great giveaway going on at the Traffic Generation Cafe Blog where you can win your own copy of Thesis Theme, as well as a 30-minute consultation with Ana Hoffman. Participating is very easy! Visit Thesis Theme giveaway page for more information.

5 Things I Learned From Walt Disney

Dream, Believe, Dare, Do — that was Walt Disney’s motto. We all know where that motto took him… to create the Happiest Place(s) On Earth.

There is an excellent book about The Disney Way by Capodogli and Jackson that discusses Mr. Disney’s philosophies and how many companies have followed in his footsteps and achieved great success. But what I wondered was, how can a solopreneur apply these principles to their small operation of ONE?

Here are a few ways I’m incorporating this great man’s words and actions into my own business:

1.  Excellent customer service is number one. Each person is a guest, not a customer or xx dollars per unit. Bend over backwards to treat each guest as the special person they are.

For me this means checking my email often so I can answer questions or address issues in a very timely manner. If I’m away from my office, I still answer them promptly letting them know I’ll take care of their problem or answer them in more depth in a few hours when I return. People are important to my business, plus they’re interesting and I can learn a lot from them.

This also means not taking on too much so I can always offer quality service. My thought is to not come to a halt trying to be perfect, but aim to give an excellent customer experience.

 

2.  Walt said “Your front line is your bottom line”.  He was talking about not trying to cut costs to make more if it meant giving the guest a less than excellent experience. If you work on what you offer people, your bottom line will take care of itself.

To look at it from my one-man operation, it means creating stellar products and making sure I over-deliver. I should worry less about all the time it takes me to create the products, or figuring out how much I should charge as I’ve put so much time into the process. My products are created to help people and when I put them out there I should have faith that they’ll get in the right hands and give them a positive experience. Then my bottom line will be more than “just fine”.

 

3.   If the product is not right, fix it, even if you’re almost ready to release it. Mr. Disney was never afraid to have his people start over on a project if he wasn’t happy with how it was turning out. He was willing to spend more money and more time to get it right.

Have you ever worked on a big hairy project and realized after you’d spent quite a few hours on it that it wasn’t going the direction you wanted it to go? Me too and I hate it. I’m faced with 3 choices – proceed and pretend nothing is wrong, go back and fix it, or scrap it altogether. I’ve tried all 3 and find that it’s better to fix it even though I may whine the whole time. Since I don’t like to waste time or money, now I try to stop the creation process more often and take a fresh look at it’s direction and if it’s getting my Disney approval checkmark.

 

4.  Listen to others. Really listen and incorporate their advice. This great man used to ask all employees to ride the rides and give their feedback. One empoyee, originally from the Bayou, thought the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction wasn’t quite authentic enough because something was missing. Turns out there were no fireflies. So fireflies were added and the man gave the attraction his seal of approval.

It’s not enough to put my products out in a vacuum, I send them out to other marketers whose opinions I value and I make some changes based on their feedback. I also listen to my customers. Perhaps I need to take steps to listen to even more people. Got any ideas on how to take listening to the next level?

 

5.  Always have your eyes and ears (your mouse ears if you will) open. How else can you discover and learn? Walt was always full of new ideas and encouraged his staff to think creatively too.

Keeping our senses on alert allows us to come up with ideas. They don’t always have to be super-duper incredible ideas like a brand new, never-been-done-before ride, it can be a small idea like changing one thing that makes a product better.

I always have more to learn from people I respect like Walt Disney, but these are 5 gems I’m going to personally polish until they shine.

 

• How would you apply (or already are applying) any of these 5 things to your own business?
• Who are your favorites in business, the people you’ve learned the most from?
• Which business books do you recommend?  

It’s My Birthday and I’ll Blog What I Want To

Following in others’ footsteps, like BloggingBookshelf and Adrienne Smith, I decided to do a birthday post mentioning odd tidbits about me you probably don’t know.  These are random and only snippets.

*  I graduated from the University of Washington in Seattle. How many dorms do you know that have mountain and lake views?

*  I was a life insurance underwriter after college and worked for the insurance company, in 3 different states, for 9 1/2 years.

*  I used to be a petsitter before I went fulltime with Internet marketing. Writing an ebook about petsitting is on my To Do list.

*  I like to quilt, although I haven’t done much since IM took over my life.

*  I like to watch South Park. It’s totally irreverant, politically incorrect, and clever. Plus I like the local Colorado references that only Coloradans get.

*  I’ve lived in Santa Maria and Bakersfield,California,  Seattle,Washington,  Austin, Texas,  Portland, Oregon, and Denver,Colorado.

*  Two of my favorite movies are Inn of the 6th Happiness and The Gift. And I love chick flicks, even though they’re predictable.

*  I’ve been married 21 consecutive years to the same guy.

*  I still love to ski and do just about anything outdoors.

*  I am a lover of books. I’d rather hang out at a bookstore than go clothes shopping.

Sooo…. can you relate to any of these?