What You Want to Know About Using PLR:

A while back Alan Petersen and I decided to team up to create a course on how to use PLR.  We both have our strengths:

- Alan with video and audio skills, plus knowing how to milk PLR in the usual as well as seldom-seen-but-still-lucrative ways.

- Me with my PLR and report writing skills, and whatever else it is I can do that Alan doesn’t like to do.

- We both like to help others and teach what we know.

So we sent out a survey because we wanted to create what people most wanted.  We got some real interesting results and great feedback.  You think you’ve got it figured out beforehand, but I was really glad we asked because we got some requests we hadn’t considered.  Here is what we learned:

 

 

Armed with these requests, we set to making a product that includes all this and more.  Ever heard of “project creep”? We so wanted to give people everything they asked for that the product kept getting bigger and bigger.  So time-consuming for us, so good for you!

It’s almost ready to go. We’re running it through some beta-testing right now. It’s called MaximizePLR.com (and no, the real sales page isn’t showing quite yet.)

Skiing or Internet Marketing-Are you Afraid to Take Risks?

Yesterday I severed my connection with my computer and headed up skiing.  It was a beautiful, sunny, warm day and it had snowed a bunch recently.  “Perfect!” I says, so off I went.

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.

Using Google Alerts

I mentioned in a previous post that I found out why I was suddenly getting a slew of opt-in subscribers to one of my niche lists through a Google Alerts notification.  Well, this prompted a reader to ask me what Google Alerts was and how to sign up for it.

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.

Internet Marketing Superstars Conference 2010

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.

Weird Gym Analogy

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!

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