I ended up at the resort I always ski at, and had a couple of good runs.  But… I was feeling a little, well… bored.  I mean, the runs were fairly easy and I could ski them very comfortably, but I was getting tired of doing the same old thing and getting the same old results.  I mean, I’ve been skiing at this place off and on for 5 years, the same old runs, and maybe if I tried something new I might get some incredibly exciting results.

So even though it was completely scary for me… I decided it was time to go where I’d never gone before; try some new slopes, try riding up the poma thingie which was necessary if I was going to get to the back bowls.

So I rode the poma thingie up without incident.  Whew!

I looked around.  It was breathtaking - I was on top of the world!  Seriously!

But now what?  I didn’t have a map!  Crap, what was I thinking?  The back bowls were on the other side of the mountain, and I’d never even seen this area before let alone tried to ski it.

So now what? Which way do I go?  Do I follow everyone else and do what they do?  Sounds good, but maybe I shouldn’t.  Not all the runs are going to end up where I want to end up.  Some of them might require me to hike or hitchhike back to the lodge.

Here were my choices -

#1  Ski (or fall most of the way down) a double black diamond to immediately get back to where I was.  Was = comfortable, yet not having the experience I wanted.

#2  Follow everyone else, do what everyone else is doing, not knowing if it’s going to be a good or bad experience.  The big question is - am I at the same place in my skiing abilities as they are?

#3  Not make any decision at all; keep taking pictures, eat my squished sandwich from my pocket, hang out enjoying the sun, and finally be forced into less-than-optimal emergency action because the lift shuts down at 3:00.

#4  ASK someone to explain my options and map out a plan of action for me, so I can have a kick-a$$ experience and try some new, yet challenging runs.

I won’t lie to you… I seriously considered each one and started in on #3, but after a stern internal lecture I opted for #4.

But I found me a mentor, asked a bunch of questions and formulated a new plan.  I now knew which way was the right way for me (given my abilities, desires, and envisioned outcome) to go.  And I had the BEST time!  Now it was no longer scary, unfamiliar, too steep, too high up, or only for those with more knowledge.  It was a good experience because it allowed me to try something new, challenge myself with some steeper slopes, and I felt good because I did it and it didn’t kill me.

All this time… I could have been having fun on the back slopes. 

For 5 years I let myself be comfortable and even a little bored because I was afraid to see what was on the other side of that mountain, what else there was out there.

There are similarities between my skiing story from yesterday and being an internet marketer.

Do you finally get up the nerve to try something new only to get freaked out and hurl yourself back to your comfort zone as soon as possible?

Do you follow what everyone else does, despite your level of knowledge and experience, and desired outcome?

Or do you not make any decisions at all and spend your precious internet marketing time surfing the web, playing video games, and watching funny videos until your rent is due and you have to quickly scramble to try to earn some money?

#4, asking for help from a reliable source, someone who knows what they’re talking about can make all the difference.  Do you have a coach or a mentor, someone you can trust to show you the rope-tows, er ropes?

Alan Petersen and I are putting the finishing touches on a product which I’ll tell you more about soon, but one thing we are going to offer beyond the product is private coaching.  I just wanted to get you thinking about it now before it’s offered because we’re going to limit it to only a handful of people to keep it real.

Google Alerts is a Google email system where they automatically send you an email when there are new results for your search terms.  To sign up, simply go to www.google.com/alerts. 

You’ll see a page that looks like this:

 You will fill out this form for each keyword phrase you want to keep up with.  For “Type” I put comprehensive, which is the same thing as saying “all of the above”.

For “How Often” I usually click on once a day, unless it’s a hot trending topic and I want more up-to-date information.

 I add my email address I want the alerts to come to, and click on “Create Alert”.

 Here is an example of what one of the emails looks like.  My keyword phrase is one of my niche websites:

It’s very easy to change your search terms or delete a term you no longer care about by clicking on the links at the bottom of the email.

Why would you want to use Google Alerts?

You can:

• See who is publishing your articles. (You can then establish a relationship with them, if you’d like, and let them know directly when you’ve written new articles.)
• Spy on your competitors.
• Find out what others are saying about you.

Tip:  If you want to use your name as a search term, and I highly recommend you do… then put quotes around your name, such as “Peggy Baron”.  I didn’t do this at first and would get anything and everything that simply had both words in the content.  This also applies if you’re searching any term that is more than one word.

• Get information for your current research.
• See what your affiliates or resellers are doing with your product.
• Be reminded that you’ve commented on a blog post so you can follow up and see what others have said.
• On a personal level, keep up with your sports team.

When you get a Google Alerts email, you can glance at it fairly quickly to see if there is anything there you want to click through to and investigate further.  I think my favorite alert was a link to where someone tweeted a quote by me.  Cool, I’ve been quoted!  I felt so important.  Naturally I retweeted it.

Joe Marsh

Willie Crawford

Terry Dean

Jeanette Cates

Yvonne Lyon, Peggy Baron, Doug Champigny, Micheal Savoie

I’ve been trying to think how to sum up the Internet Marketing Superstars Conference in Orlando last weekend.  At least I think it was Orlando, it seems I never went outside except to go to dinner and even then my head was so full of ideas and conversations I didn’t really notice my surroundings.  Do you know what I mean?

I liked the format - speaker speaks, then conducts a workshop where we try out one of the things he or she talked about.  My only complaint was the workshops were a bit rushed.  I’m sure that’s because the speakers ran over trying to tell us everything they could. 

I guess I have a second complaint… the conference room was freezing!  I can handle cold, but this was frigid.

The speakers gave a lot of information, but I’m just going to list a little gem I got from each of them.  To me, a gem is one thing, probably just a sentence uttered, that hits me smack up side the head:

Jeanette Cates - The time it takes you to create a product does not equal the value.  Don’t put a lower price tag on something, like an audio interview, that didn’t take you very long to do.  The value is in the content, not your time.

Mark Hendricks - Don’t try to change everything about yourself all at once, take one habit and concentrate on it for a week.  This is the Ben Franklin Self-Improvement Matrix.

Joe Marsh - Even introverts can become trained extroverts.  There’s hope for me yet.

Elsom Eldridge, JR and Mark Eldridge - Do a report each month on a problem in your niche and put them all together to make a book.  Easy!

Chris Lockwood - There’s an easy way to market your membership; give basic level free, and offer an upgrade to paid level.  I never thought of this approach from a marketing point of view.

Joey Smith - Regarding social media/Twitter - If it bleeds, it leads.  People notice and respond to painful tweets.

Cindi Dawson - Most membership sites are nouns, they should be verbs.  Meaning, make your membership site live and breathe and allow for human interaction and heart.

Doug Champigny - There were many, but I particularly liked “The most expensive thing a man can own is a closed mind.

Willie Crawford - Ask JV partners when exactly they’re going to mail to their list so you can monitor which emails are working best (this is a good way to get them to actually do the mailing they promised.)

Terry Dean - Make a checklist of every activity in your business and create a checklist for each one.

Gina Gaudio-Graves -Starting a blog is like going on a blind date with your readers. They need to get to know you better before they’ll commit.

I enjoyed the networking immensely and was agog (<- cool word) at the collective knowledge of everyone in the room; speakers and participants.  I was surprised how helpful everyone was, giving free information to anyone who asked.  None of the “Buy my product and you’ll find the answer there.”

Mark is selling the recordings and pdfs of the whole ISSC conference .  If you do get it, please take the time to do the workshops in order to get the maximum benefit. 

Special thanks to my roommate Cyndee Haydon for her great SEO tips!

This post includes one affiliate link which means if you buy through it, I will be compensated.

Here’s something I sent to my list over a year ago.  I think the message is timeless…

Looking around the gym the other day I made a weird analogy. Yes… I was working out, honest, but I’m a people watcher so that’s what I was doing between sets.

I noticed there were two types of people at the gym. There were the people who knew what they were doing - they followed a circuit - 3 reps with these weights, 3 reps with those weights, etc. They went with purpose to each machine or set of weights, knowing what they were doing and how to do it.

Oh yeah, they did stop to joke around with their buddies who were also following a plan, maybe a different plan, but all were getting excellent results.

Their challenge was not to change the plan, but to increase the amount of weight. They have goals in mind and are going after and achieving them.

If their method is getting them results (apparently it is, just by looking at them) why should they deviate from their plan? If their method is getting them results, could their plan work for you too? Probably, although you would have to start with lighter weights. Same plan, smaller amounts. You’d have to work up to where they are now, but it is definitely possible.

The other type of people I observed at the gym? Newbies. They looked unsure and covertly glanced at others to see how a machine was used or how the weights were lifted. They’d rather not look “new” and ask questions but they’d tentatively try something out, often doing it too fast or incorrectly.

These newbies only did a machine or a weight one time instead of incorporating the repetitions that will get
them results. Then they moved on to another machine without giving the last one a chance to really work.

Do you think they saw results? Nope. So they quit after a week or two and move on to yoga or martial arts or a fad diet or the next promise.

1. Did they do their research and learn?
2. Did they ask for guidance or help? Did they find a mentor?
3. Did they really give it their all, again and again?
4. Did they have a clear cut plan to follow?
5. www.im-focused.com

One time does not get results. Repetition of something done correctly does.

Of course you know that I’m comparing successful marketers to struggling new marketers here. If you’re in the latter category, you know what you need to do. Find a good solid plan, stick to it until you see results, then add more weight to get even better results.

www.im-focused.com

Take care!

Anyway, I’ve written 2 new bundles of PLR for you and listed them as a WSO to give you a discount.

The first one is 10 articles for the travel or vacation niche.  Ths niche is just about to go into overdrive with all the spring traveling coming up.  Think spring break and retirees!  Jump on it now so you can be ahead of the game.

The 2nd bundle of PLR is 6 articles regarding the home.  These work well for a lot of different niches…. home sites, real estate sites, housing sites, mom sites, family sites, baby boomer sites, and many more.

Oh man, I almost forgot to add the link!  Get either one here.

Take care.

You might have had your fill of blog posts about 2009 and goal setting for 2010, but I’m going to do it anyway. It’s therapeutic and gives me lots of optimism about the upcoming year.  Hopefully you’ll get something out of it as well.

So bear with me and feel free to add comments as you feel the urge. I haven’t really hashed out what I’m going to say here, so I’ll probably wander around a little bit. I do apologize.

I’m trying to remember everything I did in 2009, and this is what I’ve recalled at this moment:

• Started 3 membership sites.
• Wrote at least 313 PLR articles for said membership sites and for other PLR sales.
• Got on Twitter.
• Wrote 3 ebooks (maybe more?)
• Wrote quite a few reports/PDFs.
• Networked with other marketers and built relationships with many people on my lists.
• Guest blogged x 2.
• Started podcasting.
• Did some audio interviews.
• Signed up for a seminar in January 2010.
• Started work on a big JV project.
• Helped people who asked questions.
• Learned a lot, by researching and taking hands-on help-me-if-I-screw-up action.
• Outsourced items I’ve not outsourced in the past.
• Got set up with my own JAM (JV manager) affiliate program.
• Did my first big PLR package with graphics and sales page.
• Planned 2 other JV projects for 2010.
• Blogged 30 times on this blog.
• Blogged numerous times on my other blogs (but I”m too lazy to count them.)
• Grown my lists.
• Other stuff which I’ve forgotten about.

Have I failed because I didn’t make 6 figures in 2009? Well, yes, because technically I didn’t make 6 figures in 2009. Did I fail because I didn’t do enough or spent too much time learning how to do something? No.

The way I look at failure is… everything I’ve learned this past year will help me next year. Everything. Each year builds on the next. There is no failure.

So what’s up for next year?

I haven’t planned everything out yet, but I will. So these are fuzzy ideas that have yet to take concrete shape.

• Blog a lot more on this here blog.
• Outsource more of the little but time-consuming stuff.
• Do more guest-blogging.
• Finish up the big JV project I’m working on.
• Get the next 2 projects up and running.
• Write and sell more of the complete PLR packages.
• Continue to grow my lists (and convert them to buyers.)
• Attend the January Internet Superstars Conference and take action on what I learn with who I meet.

To me, things can only get better and better, and I’m excited for the new year. Bring it on!

I would love to hear what you have planned for 2010.

~~~
P.S. There are 2 affiliate links in this post and I intend to profit if you buy from those links.
~~~

It costs money.  I’ve got enough money.
My kids need me.  They’re 17 and 15, who am I kidding?
I can’t be away for 4 days.  Yes I can.  I’ve been away several times this year and my business didn’t fall to the ground while I was gone.
I don’t want to spend money on me.  Okay, this is tough since I’m such a cheap a$$ and we have a kid starting college in the fall.  But I know the money I can make as the result of the information I learn and people I meet will be more than the money I spend on the conference.
I don’t have anything to wear.  This is true. Maybe Santa will bring me some new threads for Christmas.

I do believe I forgot to mention the first TOTAL PLR package I’ve put together - Christmas PLR! Of course, I should have mentioned it earlier, but really, since it’s a complete package, there’s not too much for you to do if you want to turn around and sell it on your site.

Here’s what you get:
ebook
sales page, professionally done by someone else.
download page
all graphics - header, ecover, bullets, etc.
5 PLR articles
2 bonuses to go with the ebook

 For more details, look here!

Since this Christmas PLR package has been pretty successful, I’ll be producing more of them.  Well, not more holiday PLR right now, but on other subjects. Do you have a preference? Go ahead and sound off here.

P.S. Lucky for you ( and me, whew), I’ve asked my wizard techy friend to team up with me to do the graphics and he said yes.

I have a little story to share with you regarding one of these articles.

Last week I was wondering why I was suddenly getting more than the usual number of opt-ins to one of my newsletters when Google Alerts told me why.  One of the first articles I wrote, in April 2007, was picked up and published on a website that has a page rank of 4.   Here is the fallout from that article getting published this time…

• 79 new opt-ins to my newsletter, and more still coming in
• 2 immediate sales
• 10 nice comments posted about the article (warm fuzzies for me :))
• extra $ in AdSense income

This isn’t the first time this article has been republished, but these are the best results I could track.  The article is 2 1/2 years old and it blows my mind that it’s still out there and kicking!  I’m probably more excited about the opt-ins than anything because they are warm, targeted subscribers, not just people fishing at a Giveaway event.

So, if I was inclined to add a moral to this story, it might be “Write quality articles because you never know who might read them, how long they will circulate with your name on them, and how much money you might make from them.”

From a reader’s standpoint it was informative, educational, and had some value, right?  It was the kind of post fitting for a blog about internet marketing, wasn’t it?

That post was PLR.

I took a PLR article and posted it on my blog.  But I didn’t just throw it up there, I did a few things to it first.

1.  I renamed the article and added my keyword phrase to the title, the first and last paragraphs and somewhere in-between. 

2.  I rewrote the first paragraph. You know how when you search for something in Google and you see the same first paragraph in your search choices?  Don’t be one of those. Change your first paragraph for sure so people will be interested in reading what you have to say.

3. I beefed up the main section by adding to it and explaining some of the points further.  I rewrote some sentences too, but this was a well-written piece of PLR so it didn’t require lots of editing.  In these cases I’m happy to just add to it rather than spend my time fixing sentences that are horrible.

4.  I rewrote the last paragraph to point to an affiliate product I wanted to promote.  I also linked it to a post I’d written 10 months ago about this product to show people how much I believe in it. 

5.  I added a visual, a screenshot of the promotional product.

I chose this particular PLR article because I was able to tie it in nicely with a promotion.  Sometimes it works well, sometimes you have to rearrange the article more, and sometimes you’ll just post the article without affiliate links because it’s such an informative article.

Using well-written PLR can make all the difference.  As you know, I write PLR, but maybe you didn’t know I also use PLR - mostly for my non-im niches.

Do you use PLR on your blogs?