ProfessorIM

In this post, I am addressing people who are learning the mechanics of Internet Marketing. They are called “newbies” by many people meaning that they are just beginning and have not yet made any money. For months, I have carried that label, but recently I have given myself permission to not refer to myself in those terms. Yes, I started Internet Marketing full time in December, but I have logged so many hours building websites, reading ebooks, participating in forums, attending conferences, and watching videos that I finally decided that I was no longer a newbie. Anybody need a coach? Just kidding!

Out of all the methods I have used to become Internet savvy, watching videos always helped me the most. It is true, I realized, that I am a visual learner. I could read instructions in books, but it was always a great day when I could find a video that explained the topic with which I was interested.

I remember how thrilled I was the first time I watched JP Schoeffel’s Visitorsense Videos showing how you could put up a site and drive traffic to it. I couldn’t help but think, “Yes, I can do this.” JP always does an excellent job with all of his projects. He is very detailed oriented and always gives very good instructions.

The second set that delighted me to no end was Michael Rasmussen’s Mini-sites Profits Exposed which he allowed people to use at no cost. They were so well done and again showed me how to do a few mechanical procedures that I needed to learn. He like JP has thought out his videos very well and delivers great instuction.

In a previous post, I have already mentioned that Covert List Building Videos from Melvin Perry really set me on the path to traffic building. Melvin has a very relaxed way of presenting and sounds as if he is talking to you spontaneously. But then, the information he delivers is so informative.

Not too long ago, I joined a membership site that was called “Dave’s Online Videos.com” What I found in his videos section blew me away. Dave Guindon has done a masterful job of presenting videos on so many subjects, both on the mechanics of buildling a website and using software, but strategies as well. I felt like I had fallen into a pot of jam–there must be over 200 videos. I wished that I had found the site sooner when I so desperately needed all the information on mechanics. I would recommend davesonlinevideos.com to everyone who has a lot to learn about how to get started. His membership fee is very reasonable, but worth every penny.

Videos have been my teachers. When you are home alone teaching yourself the mechanics of Internet Marketing, it is so wonderful to hear a friendly voice explain something to you in detail. Not one time have I ever heard Dave, Michael, Melvin, or JP complain about explaining it to me over and over.

In the past week, I have received some wonderful advice from two great gurus who are very interested in helping people achieve success on the internet. Before I share this advice with you, let me tell you a saying that I think comes into play in this situation. It has been attributed to Confuscius–”When a student is ready to learn, a teacher will be provided.” In this case, I am the student. I feel I have probably heard this great advice before, but did not really have meaning for me at the time. I was not ready to apply it until now.

The first instruction that I received was to FOCUS, FOCUS, FOCUS. After spending the last seven months learning, it is time to settle down and apply what I have learned. It is time to select a project or strategy and apply it until it either brings me success in that endeavor or is a method to be abandoned. Stick with it until you have completed that particular project fully, whether it take a week or several.

Then, the next instruction should be used–RINSE and REPEAT. When you find something that works, do it again and again. Ultimately, SUCCESS will be yours.

Have you been guilty of conducting “busyness” instead of “business?” It is so easy to stay busy reading emails, ebooks, and other information that is always available on the internet. These are all distractions; they are the enemy to your SUCCESS.
I know I was guilty of this monkey business.

It is my hope that there are some “ready” listeners reading this and it does not fall on deaf ears. SUCCESS tastes sweet–almost as good as chocolate.

Recently Eric Holmlund announced that he was starting a series of lessons to teach new Internet Marketers the basics of how to achieve success. He was abandoning many of his guru ways and giving back by using the experience he had gained throughout the years to help people who wanted to fulfill their IM dreams. He has completed Lesson 12 on his blog Eric’s Tips.

In Lesson 12, he discussed the most important ingredient to success. You must have a Marketing Mindset. You need to think like a marketer, use marketing techniques, and focus your business on marketing. Strangely enough, prior to watching Eric’s videos, I had concluded that it was time for me to tackle my marketing mindset. For the past six months, I have been in a student mode focusing on learning the business. Now it is time to transition to the marketing side of the business. On my own, I had managed to reach the place about which Eric was talking. It is time to focus on marketing.

Eric makes a point that having offline marketing experience does not guarantee your success, but that it is possible to transfer that knowledge to the internet. Many aspects such as the psychology of selling can be used in developing IM campaigns. I have heard many gurus talk about getting into the heads of your customers in order to choose the appropriate keywords to use. They also use that knowledge to construct their sales letters. Stu McLaren talked about having your affiliates be your sales force to increase your sales. I have a lot of offline marketing knowledge so now I have to transfer that to IM marketing.

O.K. I am in the Marketing Mindset; I am in the Marketing Mindset; I am in the Marketing Mindset, etc. What do I do next? I have read all the ebooks on strategies. Now I have to plan campaigns to sell product. Which strategies will I use? What products will I sell? Do I outsource? Wait a minute, I don’t have any affiliates. There is so much to decide. Are you sure this is the way to succeed? So much to do. Focus, focus, focus. I am in the Marketing Mindset. Wish me lots of luck.

Just a few quick remarks on how much I enjoyed Carl Galletti’s Internet Marketing Superconference that I attended in Las Vegas June 19-22. We stayed at the Mirage and I had an incredible room overlooking the strip. To make it even better, there was a full moon which illuminated everything with a beautiful silver light. Incredible, poetic, and despite my efforts to take a perfect picture of it, you just couldn’t capture it.

I would be remiss if I did not tell you how terrific this conference was. This is the third conference I have attended this year and by far it was the most enjoyable and profitable. What made the difference? It was the people. Everyone was so friendly and interested in each other. There was ample time to get acquainted. The gurus who spoke all took a personal interest in talking to everyone and advising them if requested. A lot of private cell phone numbers were exchanged.

If conferences are suppose to educate, motivate, and inspire you, this one certainly did it for me. I learned many different ways that people are making on the internet. Most are working to make substantial incomes; it is amazing to hear how many different ways have been tried. Not all have been successful and they make great stories. The good thing is that when something works, it usually works big. Many have accepted work offline helping retailers and service providers with their websites. Internet Marketers are a cut above in their knowledge on how to increase traffic.

My new friends include Carl Galletti, Stephanie Mulac, Willie Crawford, John Barker, and Dr. Mike Woo Ming. I also heard Armand Morin and Mike Filsaime talk about new products. The most inspiring were Carlos and Lupe Garcia who have achieved amazing results with traffic tactics that do not involve PPC. They are all super people and so much fun. If you ever have an opportunity to attend this conference, don’t hesitate a minute.

Back in February (?) I saw several emails talking about this great system–Rapid Action Profit. It sounded so good, even though I did not really get quite what it did. I hesitated to purchase, but when I got an opportunity to purchase from a fellow lady internet marketer–Stephanie Mulac–with a discount of $50, I decided it was too good a deal to pass up. So I purchased it. RAP remained in my files as a to do project. I was going to read the long user manual and figure out what it did.

A month or two later, I needed to be able to put up a sales page, thank you page, download page etc. I couldn’t figure out how to do it smoothly. I went to a guru friend and asked him how to do it. He said that I could make my job easier if I had a script to use–like RAP. He was so surprised when I said I had it. I dug it out, studied the user manual and have been using it ever since. It works great and it makes your job go so smoothly.

Now, Sid Hale has upgraded it and it does even more. In the sales letter, he says that it replaces Jonathan Leger’s $7 script. If the upgrade is better than the original version, it truly must be wonderful. I can’t imagine not having it to use. I recommend it highly. Especially, if you like your life made easier.

I am off to the Internet Marketing Conference in Las Vegas taking place June 19-22. It is being held at the Mirage and I am really looking forward to going and hearing what everyone has to say. After attending the first two conferences I attended earlier in the year–Affiliate Summit West and Armand Morin’s Internet Marketing Explained–I was not in a hurry to go again anytime soon. But strangely enough, a few months have passed and I am looking forward to going and mingling with my fellow internet marketers. Randy the Hermit just returned from Kenneth McArthurs’s JV Alert in Philadelphia and he dittoed the fact that it always feels good to mingle with people who speak the same language that you do. He says that he uses it to revive his interest and motivate him and that going always reinvigorates him. I am feeling that same need to replenish and communicate.

For those of you who do not remember, I started my Internet Marketing career in December, 2007. I have been saying that I went from 0 to 60 in six months. I have worked very hard to learn all the ins and outs of Internet Marketing and how to use all of the necessary tools and strategies. And yes, because I am a highly motivated person, I have worked my buns off (excuse the expression).

When I went to the Affiliate Marketing summit in January, so much was new to me. I just basically took it all in. Because I am a University Business Professor, I have spent my career years going to so many conventions and workshops so that was not new to me. Of course, I couldn’t help but compare that conference to the others I had attended. Conferences have energy–some have a lot and some have little. If there is not much energy, sometimes you don’t feel recharged from the experience. I have always said if I get one good idea, then the conference was worthwhile. That is because when you have sat for hours and paid so much money to attend, you do not want to feel it was for nothing. Sometimes all you get from the conference comes from the people you meet there. How well the conference is organized also impacts its success.

Now that I have some experience behind me, I know my impressions of the conference might be different than it was in January and in March when I was so much newer to the business. I am planning on doing some research at the conference. It will give me an opportunity to talk to a lot of people. I hope it goes well. I will fill you in on how it goes when I return.

Melvin Perry did a masterful job when he developed his Covert List Building Videos. He is very generous with his information and is very detailed in his explanations. He provides his own secret list building strategies. In his honesty, he admits that he does not provide 10, not 20, not 50 different strategies, but just a handful of strategies (approximately 6). Their are approximately 25 different topics that he discusses in detail showing you exactly what needs to be done to achieve success.

Those six strategies are so productive that they make up for all the others that he did not include. He emphasizes that the Money is indeed in the list, and you need to fully convince yourself of this so that every marketing strategy you implement adds more and more targeted subscribers to your business.

Melvin told his 3K Coaching Club members the same thing in a set of videos that he created for them. These members paid over $697 last year, just to have access to the same covert list building system that we are discussing and are available to you.

All you have to do within the next 90 days is implement 6 simple, yet hidden list building strategies that will have your email list bulging with 100% double opt in, ready to buy subscribers that are eager to hear from you.

Melvin is also a very nice guy, very conscientious about his internet marketing work and very serious about helping people. He has been known to deliver a personal response of some length to explain and answer questions that he has received from people using his products whether they were purchased or free. Even when he isn’t making one penny…he simply responds as a person who has a deep genuine desire to help others also succeed online!

Since beginning the pursuit of riches through Internet Marketing in December, I have spent most of my time feeling lost. There have been many hours spent trying to figure out what to do next or how to do a particular thing. Because I am a good researcher, I would continue to seek the answer until I finally figured it out or stumbled across it. I kept wishing I had a coach that I could just ask a question and receive an answer. But, there just wasn’t anyone close to me that remotely understood what I was even doing.

Once I started down this path, I certainly learned that it was going to be hard work and it wasn’t going to be easy. My first mentor James Martel who wrote the Affiliate Marketing Handbook (you will find the link on the right sidebar) warned that you had to learn to work in isolation and learn to figure things out for yourself. He tried to provide as much information as he could and he wrote an excellent manual that was very detailed and helpful. He also held great bootcamps that answered a lot of questions. Here comes the second “but”–it only went so far. James is an affiliate marketer and did not deal with listbuilding, sales pages, or thank you pages.

When I visited forums, I did not have to look far to find many newbies sharing the same feelings that I had. Soon, I was fortunate to find my way to the Marketing Beginners Forum and Randy the Hermit. Imagine the fact that Randy our guru reads the posts every day and answers every question that anyone asks about Internet Marketing. The other members are also helpful. I wanted to tell everyone about the forum and share my good fortune.

In addition to this good forum, videos were my next salvation. Words alone do not always provide you with the details that you sometimes need. JP Schoeffel has developed a set of videos entitled Videosense that explains in a great deal of detail how to do niche marketing. If you are still wondering how to make money and what you have to do in each step to make it, these videos contain the answer.

Here is the perfect opportunity to help fellow newbies find their way. You probably have a limited amount of money to spend and are tired of buying videos and ebooks that don’t help. Finding your way to the Marketing Beginners Forum and watching the Videosense videos can be the beginning of a successful career. Just don’t forget to say “hi” to me in the forum. The optin at the top right hand corner will also lead you to Marketing Beginners. Please add your name to my list. I look forward to working with you. In case you are wondering, I am well on my way.

Learning all about Internet Marketing continues to be a challenge. For the most part, strategies that produce the highest levels of traffic involve social networking or as many people put it, Web 2.0. For some time now, I have been downloading and collecting ebooks that shout the praises and benefits that accrue with social bookmarking. When you are not of the mindset to hear what is being said, you notice it but you do not absorb the significance of it. You know it is there, but you do not really absorb the meaning of what is being said. When you are ready mentally, you will receive the message. Well, I have recently come into that awareness. All of a sudden there is understanding and significance. I read and get the message of what is being said. It amazes me that it has taken me this long to comprehend what now seems so obvious.

Recently, I have been working with two very talented young gurus who are doing extremely well in the business of Internet Marketing. They live, eat, and breathe the Web 2.0 strategies and use them in clever ways with complete abandon. They are adventurous and try new methods of generating traffic without fear or trepidation. That is how they got where they are today. If I were to say what I have learned most from my association with them, it is the appreciation for the need to stay openminded to new things and have no fear about trying new methods and strategies. Try new techniques and sit back and watch the money roll in, or not. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Lately, the ordinary for me is just rolling up my sleeves and digging in. All of the Web 2.0 strategies remind me of spiderwebs. When you draw a diagram of all of the developing, tagging, and pinging, it looks like a giant spiderweb. It is complex and yet so interesting and so much fun. Let us just hope that it is also profitable.

Many people have asked me if I enjoyed the Armand Morin Internet Marketing Explained Workshop that I attended on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday of last week. Armand loves the business he has created and it shows. Three days of standing on a stage before an audience speaking from 9:00 a.m to 7:00 p.m is hard work but it did not seem to phase him. As the speaker you do not even get the breaks that you give your audience because everyone seeks you out to have a personal chat. It was a great opportunity to observe someone working the business they had created. Armand has developed a system that works for him in a big way.

Recently, Keith Wellman advertised the Million Man March. He talks about being a success in Internet Marketing by using his tried and true system. There is that word again. Rob Benwell is selling his Niche Annihilation system.

Finally, I think I am beginning to get it. You develop a system that works for your business. You do not flail around trying one thing after the other. You may refine it by tracking and testing, but basically you work a system–one that works for you. Once you prove to yourself that it will do what you want it to–whether it is making big money or little money–whether it takes a large amount of time or a small amount–you stick to your system. Focusing, continuity, consistency, or whatever else you want to call it, is the way you achieve success.

If you do not know what to do initially, you may choose to try to work the system that other people have developed, but eventually you adopt what works best for you. By George! I think I have got it. I do not want to work Armand’s business where he promotes and gives big workshops and seminars. His system may not be one that I want to adopt, but he does serve as a great example of someone who has found what they love to do and it works for them. What do you think?