Hi

I’m finishing work now for Christmas guys so I just wanted to say a big thanks for continuing to read my emails and blog posts throughout 2010.

Whatever your religion or country just remember that Winter festivals, from the Roman Saturnalia right through to the consumerist Western Christmas of today ALL have a long tradition of over-eating, fornication and indulgence as well as religious significance….

So whatever floats your boat, GET STUCK IN and have a thoroughly enjoyable time finding pleasure spots you never knew existed.

Doesn’t matter whether it’s quiet prayer, eating three bags of salted cashew nuts at once or spending Christmas day in bed with a stripper,  a watermelon and a bottle of Glendronach 31 Year Old Grandeur…

Enjoy it 🙂

‘Tis the season to be merry.

Next year we’re changing things a little in terms of business…so we can work more closely with you.

Until then I’d like to wish you and your family a very Merry Christmas

See you in the New Year

Best wishes,

Tony

Comments welcome as always…

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Christmas is coming…

It’s time to throw a few emails on the scheduler, decorate the blog with a new banner or two and settle down to enjoy Christmas.

Here’s a pic I took this morning with my iphone after yelling at the kids to get out of the way and wondering why the bloody telly was switched on at five to eight.

I wanted to show you what Christmas looks like in it’s natural state in our house at the moment.

We let the kids put up most of the decorations or at least suggest where they should go. They love it.

Personally I think it looks like a gay Gypsy ran wild with the decorations but it’s all good fun 🙂

There’s a touch of the pagan too with pine cones hanging from the beams, a Green Man icon on the wall outside and a Richard Dawkins book under the tree.

Speaking of ‘the dark side’ I got an really genuinely pissed-off sounding email from a subscriber last week, and it’s what I wanted to blog about. Christmas was just a nice introduction.

The email basically asked if it was still worth trying to get into Internet Marketing because from what he could see, each year is just throwing up more crap, more hyped up launches and more ruthless IMers who’ll try pretty much anything to get money from you.

(I’ll come back to whether its worth getting into IM a little later)

Well yes it IS getting worse from that point of view.

Some marketers are definitely getting more desperate.

It must be a right pain trying to fund a big house, flashy car and jetset lifestyle when the ‘punters’ just won’t put their hands in their pockets any more.

My heart bleeds for them.

I’ve seen at least three high profile launches flop this year. The product owners must have lost tens of thousands of dollars.

They give away prizes, cash and other incentives. They pay for sales letters to be written,  extremely fancy sales pages to be built not to mention products to be created and back end systems put into place.

Then they launch and it flops. Well good – it looks to me like ‘the punters’ have spoken.

There’s a real mentality among some marketers that their lists are thick. Stupid.

And yes. some of them are, just like some marketers, some butchers, some vicars and some teachers are thick.

But some of the promises that went up on sales pages last year were in the realm of fantasy. Total bloody lies if we’re being honest. And that’s without getting into the ‘only 300 copies left’ crap.

The really insulting part (and remember I’m a customer too) is that they think I’m more likely to buy when they tell me what the product is NOT rather than what the damn thing does.

Now I know that blind sales pages work, but they result in refund rates you wouldn’t believe. I know one launch that topped 50% refund rate earlier this year. That’s crazy.

Which is what my REAL problem is with some of these marketers – they’ve lost sight of the art of selling!

It become a numbers game – get loads in through a blind sales page and hope that less people refund than buy.

I miss the well crafted sales letter, the various tips (yes even tricks) and techniques used to persuade someone to buy your product.

These launches just seem a bit……’in yer face’ for me.

That said I’m not stupid. I get to see the inside of most of these launches to watch what happens (or I did until I wrote this post lol)

I study the sale pages, the emails, the upsells, the videos, the pricepoints and obviously the results,  to see what works and what doesn’t.

And I’ve come to a couple of conclusions

1. Only about 50% of the wannabe ‘inner circle” make any decent money from their launches after paying for sales pages, affiliate fees, web site creation and the rest. The others either just about break even or lose money. The very top guys lose too, just nowhere near as much.

Of course that also means that over 50% are making quite a killing, which is why these kinds of product launches keep going.

There’s a launch coming up next year that is DOOMED to failure. The marketer is already at least $20,000 in the hole with his prizes and site prep. I hope it succeeds (if the product is good – not seen it yet) but I’d bet a grand here and now he’ll end up in the red.

2. It’s bloody hard work. Seriously – you’ve got to admire the time and effort these guys put into their launches. It must take months to put them together. Shame the smallest amount of effort goes into creating the actual product in a lot of cases.

3. It’s not all bad. I have promoted a couple of these ‘hyped up’ launches because I’ve seen the product and it’s great. I’ve taken some flak for doing so but in the end the product has been a good one so I’m happy with that, and more importantly so are most of my readers who bought. I try to only recommend products that I know will help you.

So what’s the answer?

IS it worth getting into IM when there’s do doubt that hypey launches are getting worse?

DEFINITELY – because I don’t think marketing IS getting worse – I think it’s just changing.

Here’s what I think is happening. I think that there will always be people who want to make fast easy money.

I’m one 🙂 I just have enough experience to know it doesn’t quite work that way. Not quite.

And these sort of customers will continue to buy into hyped up launches. After a while they’ll either go broke or become disillusioned with the hype and go do something else instead.

But they’ll be replaced by new fast-cash seekers. And the circle will go round again.

Listen carefully chaps – the hyped up launches are here to stay.

They really made their mark in 2010 and they are NOT going away. Not ever (or at least until some censorship mad bureaucrat decides to legislate against freedom on the internet)

So let’s not cry about it.

Let’s learn from it.

Let’s incorporate SOME of the techniques that the hype merchants use into our own marketing.

I’ve done some small tests and a video and a small payment button above the fold works.

…and have you seen that technique where they show you a graphic that says ‘SORRY! SOLD OUT!’, and the text above it say ‘don’t come back too late and find THIS’

Great technique. I LOVE it. I’m having that one!

Let’s get over this ‘us and them’ mentality that some ‘ethical’ marketers are pushing and just see hyped up launches as another part of IM – one you may or may not want to get involved with. Ethical marketers are marketing too, just in a different way.

I’m an ethical marketer! I’m just also capable of realising when someone’s trying to push me into making a choice about which ‘camp’ I’m in. Do I choose team ‘A’ the ethical marketers? Or team ‘B’ – the hype marketers?

Actually I choose team ‘F’, in which I tell you what to do with your ‘choices’

There’s no need to get angry, defensive or whimper about what other people do . Let’s face it, having a major rant about hyped up launches and prancing like an extra from Mama Mia is great fun, but it doesn’t increase your bank balance a jot.

LEARN FROM IT.

Accept that change is part of life and then decide on a personal level if you want to get involved with high-hype marketing or you don’t.

Personally I’m on the shelf. Yes you heard me correctly. I’m NEVER going to get involved with the shady crappy promises that some of these marketers use, but some of the real (and very clever) techniques they use – watch out for them on my sites.

They’ll be marketing techniques though NOT lies or scams.

And have you noticed the number of marketers who are using the ‘I’m sick of it all’ angle to promote their own products?

Wooo that’s a good selling technique don’t you think?  ‘I’m not a hype merchant so BUY MY STUFF!’ At least the hypsters are what they are.

We’re ALL marketers. We’re all using techniques. We’re all coming from an ‘angle’.

The ones you believe are just better at it that’s all. That makes you think eh?

But I’m always happy to see that the marketers I personally like, read and follow are around for yet another Christmas.

And my Christmas motto is the same as usual – It’s not good to take anything in life too seriously, let alone internet sodding marketing 🙂

Except Christmas of course. And that should be SERIOUSLY enjoyed 🙂

A very Happy Christmas and New Year To You And Your Family,

And a heartfelt thanks for continuing to read my witterings.

All the best

Tony

PS Comments appreciated as usual…

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If you want to monetize your blogs quickly and easily check out the latest WordPress Plugin I’ve developed with pro blogger Tony Newton.

It’s called the ‘CB Learn Plugin’. I’m no techy (but I’m learning fast) and this is how I like to explain it…

One of the main reasons we developed it was because it’s pretty bloody disappointing spending time and effort building a blog only to find that the pay-per-click ads you’ve put on have earned you 2 or 3 cents in the past 24 hours.

Now I know that any income adds up but 2 or 3 cents is taking the whotsit in my book.

So we started to develop a plugin that could earn TEN or TWENTY times this amount, but also be subtle, effective and simple to use. It had to WORK too (too  many plugins just DON’T)

We knew that many people now have ‘ad blindness’ and simply don’t ‘see’ traditional text ads any more because they’re so used to them. This means they don’t get clicked as much if ever.

So what CBLearn Plugin does is to place a ‘call to action’ button at the bottom of your posts that invites the reader to click it for more information on the subject matter you’ve just blogged about.

It doesn’t seem like an ad or a hard sell so it’s MUCH more likely to get clicked.

Of course YOU choose the subject matter and assign a keyword or phrase to the plugin.

The plugin then automatically inserts your affiliate link and ‘hoplink’s the ‘call to action’ to a related Clickbank product.

So if you’ve blogged about Forex trading, parrot keeping, horse riding or piles, you simply complete a few boxes in the plugin – your ClickBank unsername, the product gravity, and the keyword you want, and CB Learn does the rest. You get a commission on the sale.

Best of all is that you’re no longer looking at 2 and 3 cent commissions, you’re getting up to 75% commissions on $27, $47 and up products!

You can try it for FREE at CBLearnplugin.com

BUT STOP!

But here’s why you SHOULD buy the pro version

1. Because we’ve got a special deal for my blog readers, and you can get the pro version at a discounted $17 (normal price $27) for a limited time.(One sale could make your investment back)

2. Because the pro version has some great extras such as a choice of call to action buttons and you get commissions 100% of the time.

To view the video about what CBLearn does Click HERE

and HERE’S the special discount link.

We wanted to create for you an affordable, effective way to monetize your blog. We reckon this is it. See what you think. Comments welcome!

Tony

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You can grab your FREE personal use license from http://www.eazytheme.com

This is a seriously powerful WordPress theme aimed at Internet Marketers, Bloggers, Flippers and Affiliate Marketers.

After a slightly rocky start due to unreliable coders we’re now back with an even more powerful, fully-featured Eazytheme. It looks better, it’s got better functionality and it was designed by myself and Tony Newton because we simply couldn’t find a theme that fitted all our marketing needs. Until now that is.

Why pay $47 for a license to use a premium theme on just one blog when you can have unlimited personal use for free? The terms and conditions and other small print are available once you’ve downloaded the free version from http://www.eazytheme.com but you know me by now – there’s nothing hidden, no catch or any sort of dodgy continuity involved.

Grab EazyTheme right now and check it out for yourself. Try it out on your sites. Once you see you can make money from using it, come back and buy the developer’s license from us (priced so anyone can afford it at $47)

It’s been great fun to launch and you can see what I reckon is the actual moment I gave the go ahead to launch in this picture.

Actually the pic was taken by ‘accident’ by my wife who was set on gathering evidence that I check my email FAR too much when we’re taking a break, and snapped this of me sending an email when I was supposed to be beach walking.

Two miles down this pretty but breezy Welsh beach and  I checked in again to see literally hundreds of people were getting themselves a copy of EazyTheme. I’ve got one myself of course – I’ve got a big new site planned and it’s based round the features you’ll see in the video at http://www.eazytheme.com

I’m a big fan of ‘mobile marketing’ and we travel quite a lot, running things from a laptop and smartphone.  In fact I’m writing this blog post while I watch my kids playing in the holiday cottage and the horses in the field outside.

The truth is I’m really proud that we’ve been able to bring you a piece of kit – a premium, customizable wordpress theme, for FREE – for absolutely nothing when it seems that other marketers charge you at every turn.

I’m no saint, I know that we’ll easily make a profit on the time and expense we spent developing this theme, but I also believe in helping people who need it most. And that’s usually the guys who don’t even have ten or twenty dollars to spend on their marketing business, or are using their budgets for unavoidable expenses such as list software  or getting good web graphics made.

If that’s you EazyTheme is for you. The personal user license is both unlimited and free, yet we think it’s better than the top paid themes out there.

Best wishes & let me know what you think of it!

Tony Shepherd

PS Once you see the features in EazyTheme, check out our affiliate page and find out how you can make easy commissions by just telling your contacts about how great (and free) EazyTheme is!

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The picture was taken last year in Manchester. It’s Matt Garrett, Jit Uppal, Tahir Shah, Me, Dean Holland and Dan Briffa having a beer at an IM workshop. I think Lee Mcintyre took the pic with my iphone – the workshop was his event.

My best guess is that there’s also a total income of several million dollars  from that group too.

Yet while I’m not prepared to comment on how much the other guys work I can tell you for a fact that the amount I work has definitely decreased over the past few years.

I realised the other day that I earn MUCH more money than I did when I first started out in inetrnet marketing, for working less than ten percent of the time.

It’s actually true of quite of lot of professions – the expert surgeon who gets paid huge sums for doing a 15 minute operation that’s she’s expert at or has pioneered.

The movie star who gets paid a million dollars for a 15 minute cameo role in a blockbusting movie (silly if you ask me but a good example)

Or the talented lawyer who gets a fortune for spending just two or three days defending a client in court after his legal team spend six months preparing the case.

It’s because they’re getting paid for their skill not their time of course. If you’re paid for your time you’re probably not earning too much above minimum wage.

Lawyers are paid for their knowledge NOT their time even though they bill by the hour (or 10 minutes in some cases)

But as Seth Godin comments, ‘factory workers get paid for showing up, and moving things from pile A to pile B’

It’s the truth (although a bit snotty)

That said, in my mis-spent youth I’ve thoroughly enjoyed low-paid, time not skill based jobs like being a delivery driver. I could work all day, radio on, nobody watching over me, and at the end of the week collect my pay packet and have a few beers leaving any work stress (and there wasn’t much) behind.

But if you want more earning power you need to develop knowledge and skills that others will pay you for. You need to develop insight and creativity that others don’t have. That can be as complex as developing ground-breaking software, or as simple as having a nice writing style and a different ‘angle’ on your blog.

The reason I earn lots more than when I first started online, and by working less than the average hobo, owes a great deal to me learning shortcuts and fast-tracks.

These took me sometimes YEARS to learn. But once you’ve got them you can’t UN-learn them, ever.

It’s the difference between how I earned $1400 from a single affiliate technique two weeks ago and you might still have to crack the $100 income level despite writing and submitting 50 articles a week. (I’ve been in your shoes too remember)

What I do might seem like the stuff of dream to some of you reading this (it certainly did to me when I read emails like this a decade ago) but it’s not. Really.

I’m no smarter than you. I might be a bit taller than many of you but I’ll bet my IQ doesn’t measure up to a fair old percentage of my readers’ brainpower.

I could choose the smartest person in the country and tell them that there’s a million quid waiting for them in the safe in my office.

Without the combination they’re still broke.

Then I could take some bloke who can’t read or write and struggles tying his shoelaces and give him a piece of paper with just 4 digits written on.

Two minutes later the safe is open and he’s rich.

This is a clumsy analogy for what I want to say, but consider this. Acquiring knowledge on your own takes time and money. If you’re in your forties and fifties you might have to spend 10 years getting all this experience together. That’s a long time.

Which is why (here comes the ‘sell’ but stick with it until I give you my reasons) I’m so passionate about my Affordable Mentoring Newsletter.

I KNOW it provides you with shortcuts.

Each month I tell you about a couple of methods that have made money for me in the past month.

Not theory or ‘might’

DID.

For example this month I tell you about the instance above where I used a simple affiliate technique that most people ignore, to pull in $1400 profit . ($2800 in sales before commission)

I also tell you about a quick turnaround PLR method that brought in $2500 – that was less than a week ago.

REAL methods of how I make money, each and every month. No BS, and no holds barred. I’m very proud of this newsletter and can already see it helping people.

I also (this is unadvertised) bring you various packages that I use myself to increase my knowedge and income in my ‘Tony’s Masterclass’ series. These are all free in the memebrs area when you subscribe to my Affordable Mentoring Newsletter’

For example a few weeks back I bought a cracking video course to teach myself how to sell physical products on Amazon as an affiliate. Well the money has started to come in from my affiliate blogs, and so I grabbed the rights to show YOU the course too.

Here’s what subscriber Steven Dailly said about these videos:

“I’ve just been watching your Amazon Affiliate Free Videos. Unbelievable value, the best free offer I have seen”.

The videos, along with the brand new October newsletter (with the two money making methods I mention above and much more) are waiting for Affordable Mentoring Newsletter members now:

Just login using your username and password at this link:

http://hippymarketing.com/newsmember/

And if you’re not yet a member you can get instant access to what makes ME money each and every month for just $7 at the link below

http://hippymarketing.com/newsletter/

See you on the inside.

Best wishes, and comments welcome as always…

Tony

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Well I’ve not had a great 24 hours that’s for sure.

You know how I’m always rattling on about taking responsibility for things that go wrong?

Well the ultimate responsibility lies with me, so settle down while I tell you the story of The EazyTheme Fiasco.

Basically I know how powerful customizable themes are (I’m using one for this blog) and for a long time I’d wanted to offer one to my readers and subscribers that was both FREE and top quality.

So for the past few months we’ve been working on doing exactly that with EazyTheme.

We knew what we wanted it to do, what we wanted YOU to be able to do with it, and we wanted the personal user license (on unlimited sites) to be absolutely free so the people who needed it most could get it.

So what went wrong?

Well our decision of which coder to hire did.

We hired someone who basically STOLE the sourcecode from a well established and very good WordPress Theme and passed it off as his own work.

We took this coder at his word and because of his good feeback on various freelancing sites.  Big mistake.

I got an email on my iphone last night – unfortunately while I was in bed or I could have acted sooner) from the owner of the theme that our coder had stolen.

(Incidentally the original job spec was totally specific about it being 100% unique and original)

Luckily the marketer who owns the theme is a total professional and could see immediately what had happened.

We’ve sent emails back and forth most of today and not only has he been understanding but he’s offered advice and help.

So the outcome is that we’ve lost a fair chunk of money, a lot of time but worse, the respect and trust of you guys who downloaded the theme.

So here’s my apology.  I’m really sorry for the hassle this has caused you and the inconvenience you’ve been through. I know you’ve invested your time and effort and I really regret we coudln’t follow up with our promises this time.

We are pursuing this ‘coder’ and will continue to do so to prevent him doing this again.

For you it means that you can’t use the theme at all. Sorry.

I can only guess at what a mess this leaves some of you in. If there’s anything I can do, get in touch.

I’ve sent an email out with a free WordPress gift as a poor apology but we also promise to get it right next time and deliver.

So that’s what happened.  It’s been an experience for me. A bad one and an enlightening one.

We start work tomorrow on bringing you something you can actually use. This time we’ll deliver.

Best wishes, and another big ‘sorry’.

Comments welcome as always,

Tony

EDIT: Some of the comments below liked the theme and wanted to know where to get the ‘original’ one from.

Well it’s the Socrates Theme (not an affiliate link). It’s a truly great theme and the man in question who’s been so helpful throughout today is Joel Comm (he even left a comment below)

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Here’s a picture of me checking my email and typing this blog, my netbook on my lap.

We’re taking a break up at the coast again, so I’m running things from the table in the garden, and through the bottom of a wine glass (evenings only of course, and the occasional lunchtime)

I’m still in touch with business partners and my priceless assistant is running the business for me so all is in safe hands.

We have a grab bag that contains all the requirements for ‘mobile business’ such as various leads, headsets, adapters, pen drives, passwords, spare power supplies, notebooks, access codes and other stuff that we need to run the biz.

It just gets chucked in the car whenever we wander off, along with my netbook and iphone and suddenly everything it totally portable.

We could (and have) run things like this for weeks and even months at a time.

It’s not all plain sailing though. Aweber has a weird glitch that wouldn’t let me access my account for 5 days. It let me in OK, but when I tried to write a broadcast message and save it, it just told me my login had expired and chucked me out.

Luckily I pre-scheduled all the important stuff before I left home and that’s all gone out fine.

So I feel like a gypsy in a way I never did when I was working at a 9-5.

A vacation was something that was ‘fixed’. You knew when you were setting off and when you had to be back at work.

There seemed to be a very definite start and finish to the whole thing.

It was like being at the starting line for a race…

‘BANG! then gun goes off and you have to get into ‘holiday mode’ as quickly as possible, and get up to ‘maximum enjoyment’ (always seemed a bit forced to me)

And for me there was always the thought in the back of my brain that ‘in another 9 days I’ll be back at work with no vacation for another 8 months!’

It might be my weirdness but I always felt the same on Sundays too – I couldn’t really enjoy the day any more after Sunday lunchtime because the big sweaty spectre of going back to the grind on MOnday morning always really pissed me off.

Now it all merges into one. No definite plans for when we come and go, and I enjoy working from a different location.

The pace of life is just as slow as it is when we’re at home.

And you know the best bit?

You don’t have to earn thousands per month to live like this.

You basically only need the same as your current salary, or that you currently live on.

All you need is enough to quit your job.

If you go into the whole IM thing giving yourself a hard time and trying to match marketers who’ve been doing it for years and are earning $10k, $30k, $100k a month you’re buggered before you start.

You’re pushing the bar too high. You’ll never make the leap.

Jeez, when you experience the freedom of having your salary equivalent go into the bank each month but WITHOUT you having to go into a place of work 40 hours a week or more…

Well you just might decide that you don’t WANT to earn $30k a month and you’re more than happy with free time for you and your family and just enjoy the couple of grand that means you don’t need to work for an employer.

If you’re reading this and thinking ‘It’s OK for you -you’ve done the hard work already’ then you’re dead right, I have.

So now it’s your turn.

And if you feel all fired up and think ‘YES I CAN do this’, then you’re feeling the exact same emotion that me, and most other successful marketers felt at some point in their lives.

You’ve just got to put one foot in front of the other and move forward a step at a time.

The first one’s the worst of course 🙂 but after that they get easier.

Here’s what  my ‘desk’ looked like earlier as we prepared dinner.  Fresh local seafood done in garlic and white wine, and lotsa wine to drink too.

I’m off to relax now, but allow me to leave you with this thought…

Before I got into marketing I had various jobs and didn’t care too much for any of them.

Also I never earned much above average income before I got into internet marketing. usually below.

I was just some bloke struggling with finances, hating my time being sapped by my employer and dreading the thought of getting up, day after day, to go into work until I retired on a crappy pension.

The pictures in this post might look like the ultimate boring experience to many peopke reading this. But it’s how I (we, as a family) choose to live.

The key word of course is ‘choose’.

You can substitute the above pics for Las Vegas, St Tropez or Kilimanjaro when it’s your life. You can ‘choose’ what you want.

But if it’s putting you off even trying because you think I’m some super intelligent, born to it marketer than think again. 
I’m just some bloke who wanted a bit more. So I started messing about on the internet because I was more scared of what would happen if I didn’t change my life than the possibility of failure.

Start messing now guys. It can change your life but only if you switch off the telly and get on with it.

The kids are in bed, and I’m off for some (more)  wine and a chat with my wife as we watch the sun go down over the bay.

See you when I get home.

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The photo on the right is the first thing I see in the morning. It’e the view directly above my side of the bed. This morning when I heard the kids wake I up I grabbed my iphone and took this picture. Read on to find out why…

I keep getting asked about what I do on a ‘typical’ day. Well to tell the truth there is no typical day. I sort of make them up as I go along. I have a diary and certain things need doing by a certain time, but I’m not a good example of a dedicated marketer.

I do my Homer Simpson noise (Doh!) when I read about marketers who make a big deal of escaping the 9-5 then put in more hours than they ever did as employees. I’m not trying to tell you there’s no work involved when you’re a pro marketer, there IS.

But for me the whole point of having this sort of freedom isn’t to waste it – it’s to enjoy it while it happens. ‘But Tony why don’t you work your arse off and make $5million dollars this year, then relax? Well two reasons really, until my children start going to school full time I want to spend the time with them that I’ll never ever have again.

And secondly – to me the evidence all points towards internet marketers earning 5 million in a year and then continuing to work just as hard.  It’s not for me I’m afraid. I could drop dead tomorrow while uncorking a bottle of wine, so I like to get my fun in while I can, not at some distant point in the future.

So with that in mind, I thought I’d tell you about my day.

First thing in the morning – 6.30am and it’s my turn to get up with the kids. We might not have a daily schedule but they certainly do -get up, bounce around and then off to various school and pre-school groups. So today they wake me at 6.30am and I herd them downstairs, without even enough time to nip into my office and check my emails.

It’s a glorious sunny day and warm already so we decide to eat breakfast outside. (Plenty of pulling funny faces for the camera) but these hazy, warm mornings are great. Especially as we now have a trampoline in the garden and the kids can eat then go bounce around for half an hour while I drink a pint of coffee and wait for them to throw up their Rice Krispies.

My wife joins us at 8am and after a morning chat I sneak off for a shower leaving her to clear away the breakfast things and dress the kids. Sexual equality my arse – if Germaine Greer came to my house she’d soon be making us all a cup of tea, bless  ‘er.  She’d go home thinking Feminism was a body spray.

(Ladies – before you email me complaining I will point out that although I wear the trousers in our house, I’m usually told what colour to buy and when I can put ’em on. In reality I’m the least sexist person you’re ever likely to meet.)

I take 10 minutes to check my email and stuff, in my workroom. I put a WSO on the Warrior Forum last night, purely as a list builder (although there is a back end to pay for the cost of posting). As it happens the one I ran 2 nights ago brought in a little less than $1,000 (that was a PLR offer) and the one last night has brought in 65 new subscribers and almost $100 in revenue. (Screenshot below) I keep saying that a WSO is the most under-rated, most targeted ad you can possibly place in my particular niche, and if you haven’t yet tried it you should. Just keep away from the whinging Nellies who call it home.

 

I open a new list in Aweber for each new WSO or squeeze page that I do. The reason for this is that I then stack up a series of three or four follow up messages and gently sell related products over the next few days while the new subscriber is still ‘warm’. It’s a bit like doing a minlaunch but it’s all automated.

Likewise I do a quick check on payments that have come into the Paypal and Clickbank  accounts overnight. I’m always yattering on about ‘getting more payment buttons out there!’ but this is the reason why. Subscription payments, orders, and various other chunks of money have been dropping into the accounts over night and continue to do so. All these are the cumulative effect of continuously putting websites up, month after month.

The kids have been packed off to their various activites by now and my wife returns and starts work in the workshop / studio she made when she stole the dining room. Actually being able to work at home together is one of the things we decided we wanted to do years back, and it’s still good to be able to stop for a coffee and 10 minutes chat whenever we feel like it.

I follow up on a few things I need to do. I chat to a business partner, Tony Newton on Skype txt. We’ve got a few projects on the go and a few more in the pipeline so it’s pretty much a status report. He works from home like me. In fact last week we met up for lunch and a brainstorm and moved our projects forwards more than could ever be possible over the telephone and or Skype. So the long, relaxing meal was totally essential (that was for my accountant). After we came away from the country pub with bulging notebooks Tony tells me the exhaust fell of his car on the way home. Shouldn’t have crammed down that extra onion ring mate!

In my email I also find one from a member of the mastermind group I’m part of, about a launch we intend to support in August. Seems like a long time away perhaps? Actually by planning this one well in advance we hope to make a killing financially. We shall see. Also I find that a little planning in advance usually removes the horrible feeling of knowing you’ve got a sh*tload of work to do and only 36 hours to do it in!

Having cleared the ticket desk, my support person (hello J!) emails me asking if I’ll pick up something for her from the village shop, that she can’t get where she lives, and drop it off when we have our monthly meeting on Saturday. Who works for who eh?? It’s no trouble of course – she’s saved me from several disasters in the past, and is now used to the way I work, which is unusual to say the least.

Another email from another techy who’s jumped on board to help with the change over to another affiliate system. He’s completed the request I emailed him last night and everything is now a step closer. Good stuff.

I realise it’s far too nice to stay in the house so I grab my netbook and head into the garden, and plonk myself down at the picnic bench, taking a quick snap with my iphone to show you.

Within minutes I realise it’s too bright to see the screen (which I usually can) and go for a bounce on the trampoline instead. Once I manage to push the prolapsed vertabrae back into it’s rightful place and the nausea passes, I sit back down on the bench, but this time with a pen and my ‘ideas’ book, to see if anything flows.

After jotting down a few ideas and generally chilling out for half an hour I decide to go back upstairs to my main computer to write up this blog post.

Upstairs I find something that I was going to mention in a blog last week but forgot so I go back into the garden and bug my missus to take a picture of me holding a certificate that Clickbank sent to me last week.

It’s to celebrate my status as  ‘One of Clickbank’s top vendors” . I’ve been part of various Clickbank things over the years but I don’t remember getting a certificate before. Over time I decided the years the best apsect of being a ‘top vendor’ is that they give you a dedicated number to phone with your own account manager at the end of a phone line. The first time they told me about this I phoned it, not expecting it to be an actual person. but bugger me it was! I don’t know who was more surprised – me or him.

We ended up chatting about the weather in our respective countries. On a slightly less positive note, a few years back I wouldn’t have had a hope in Hell of getting into the top vendor ‘club’ (which I’m told is the top 1% of all sellers) because BIG gurus were making BIG sales through Clickbank.

These days, although my sales are in the six figure bracket, it seems that they’ve lowered the bar quite a bit, and now it’s easier to become a top vendor. To paraphrase Groucho Marx (I think) It’s not as much fun being in an exclusive club, when they’ll have someone like me in it!

I also thought this photo would show the truth about what a total scruffy sod I am while I’m working. So yes, I do work in jeans, t shirts and whatever else I decide to fling on in the morning. That said, as I’ve said before, I’ve worn £1,000 suits and still make them look like someone’s thrown a homeless person at me. What can you do eh?

A little more ‘pottering’ and a bit of time at my PC somehow brings the day to 4pm, which is the time I’m writing this. It doesn’t seem like I’ve got a lot done, but I’ve left instructions for people I work with, been brought up to speed with various projects and consulted with partners about the next steps. It has been a lazy-ish day, but I’ve been truthful about it, and I’ve got some ideas in my book along with a to do list for tomorrow.

Much of being an internet marketer is about thinking, not sitting at your computer endlessly doing the rounds of Facebook, your Paypal account, your email and the Warrior Forum. That is NOT work, it’s fannying about on a computer. There’s a big difference.

I’ve also sent some stats downstairs to the other computer (I don’t even currently have a printer in my room!) so that later I can read some stats to do with sales, conversions, opt-in’s, unsubscribe rates etc and make any changes in my biz based on those. I do this regularly, although certainly not once a day as some of my more anal colleagues do.

Would I be able to judge my actions more precisely if I did check my stats once a day? Absolutely, but it would bore the tits off me and I’d have missed the trampoline part of the day.  Which is more important? Ahhh – now that’s YOUR decision, for YOUR business.

This evening, judging by the weather my wife and I wil be eating outside once the kids have gone to bed. A few nights ago we were out until 10pm as dusk came, chatting, drinking wine, watching the sunset, and watching the bats swoop over our heads. As I said in a chat with Martin Avis when I was telling him about it the other day…..

‘They’re supposed to have radar or sonar or something but you should have heard the bloody clang when one of them came into the house and flew into the radiator’

The day I’ve just described has been real. It’s the closest I can get to a ‘typical’ day. Some days I work harder, some not at all. ALL of them I enjoy. Sometimes I enjoy working through the night when everyone else is alseep and the house is quiet and still.

Whatever your own personal view on my lifestyle, and how you’d do it very differently or in the same sort of way, the message you’ll get from me is the same. Start setting up a few simple systems now. Start building a few blocks. I live a blessed life for all sorts of reasons, but it didn’t appear in a flash of smoke and involve a magic wand.

But if you start building your business right now, in a few weeks you’ll be able to see how far you’ve come, and in a few more weeks, well your life could seriously start to change.

Here’s my deal. If you want to check out the systems I’ve put in place, the business I’ve built and how you can do exactly the same, then why not check out my Kickstart Course. It comes with email support and a full satisfaction guarantee, which means plenty of time to check out the first couple of lessons. The if you like it, stick with me and we’ll build a business together. If not, just leave. It’s as simple as that.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE DETAILS

So what will tomorrow bring?

It depends on the weather, my inbox, my mood, the kids, my diary…………

Comments welcome as always 🙂

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I launched Bloginuity a few weeks back, in partnership with blogging expert Tony Newton. We closed it after a few days because the demand far outstripped the number of places.

We’ve done some restructuring, and brought a few new ideas on board so we’re now opening the site again to new members.

You can read the full details at Bloginuity.com but here are a few details you might want to know.

Firstly you’re not going to find anything like this for the crazy price we’re offering. To tie in with my passionate belief that starting an Internet Marketing business should be affordable to all, we’ve kept the monthly fee at a level where many people won’t even notice it. And you should be more than covering your membership fee pretty quickly soon.

Bloginuity basically supplies you with a plug-in-and-profit Clickbank review blog each month. You just plug in your ClickBank ID, make a few tweaks to make your review blog unique and upload it.

The totally unique blogs we provide each have 5 ClickBank product reviews. Since your CB ID is embedded in all the product reviews, you profit regardless of which product your visitor buys.

Check out Bloginuity.com for more details.

Remember you couldn’t even get five review articles written for the crazy price of a Bloginuity membership let alone get five top qaulity reviews, a unique Clickbank review blog, graphics, and everything else!

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It’s a freaky thing, internet marketing.

The successful ones are all completely different.

Unique.

I’ve read SHEDLOADS of blog posts, articles, and
opinions  about how why certain marketers become
successful and others don’t.

Most people reckon successful internet marketers
share certain characteristics.

I think that’s crap.

I think internet marketing FAILURES share certain
characteristics.

Let’s look at IM gurus.

They have more DIFFERENCES that similarities.

They’re pretty unique thinkers, have different
styles and ways of communicating with their
followers.

Some have suits, some have shorts.

Some work hard, others find shortcuts.

Some are young, others not so young.

Some are great writers, others great speakers.

Some are techies others not so.

There are a LOT of differences.

The reason (in my humble opinion) that most
successful internet marketers end up that way is
because they’re unique, NOT because they share
characteristics.

‘All successful people set goals’ (no they don’t)

‘All succesful people are creative’ (nope)

‘All successful people live in the moment while
planning for the future’ (pleeeease)

‘All successful people are world class problem
solvers’ (I once watched a multi millionaire
struggle to find his way out of a lift)

This is just my opinion, and I’m fully prepared to
get shouted at because of it…

But I don’t think you can ‘bottle’ success.

Nor do I think you can ‘learn’ to be succesful.

You either are or you’re not.

I think these ‘success habits’ have been
artifically manufactured so that people can sell
you products about goal setting, or motivational
strategies.
Here’s my take on why some people are succesful
and some people just aren’t.

1. Some people just aren’t up to it mentally.

If you’ve ever seen X factor or ‘Britain’s got
talent’ you’ll realise that a significant number
of people who want to become successful have very
real mental issues.

And likewise some people just don’t have the
required grasp of reality to become successful
internet marketers.

I’ve spoken to people at IM seminars who are just
bloody scary. Trying to enjoy a beer while some
space invader stares into your eyes from a
distance of three inches asking for a JV and
showing you iphone pictures of the ‘hamster hotel’
he built for his pets is not my idea of a good
night.

On the other hand speaking to up and coming
marketers like Andy Michaels, David Chamberlain
and Sean Beardmore who I met in Bristol were great
to have a pint and a chat with, without any sort
of deep IM conversation at all.

Yeah I’m name dropping because these lads could
have easily been full on, asking me and the other
established marketers for JV’s and promos but they
didn’t. They just had a pint and a laugh and when
the conversation naturally turned to marketing,
eveyone there was happy to chat.

 

2. Rule breakers

I LOVE ’em. I can’t stand anyone who shoves their
opinion on me because as far as I’m concerned it’s
live and let live.

This is something that is lacking in those people
who fail online.

A paralysing fear of some vague authority is one
of the major reasons I think that nips success in
the bud.

It’s good to take note of what established
marketers do (as well as what they say) but don’t
suddenly forget you’ve got the ability to reason
just because someone’s been in IM a few years
longer than you.

This next bit is tough.

I think a sign of someone who’s going to struggle
to get much success online is when they ask a
question that starts with ‘Am I allowed to….?’

or ‘Can I do this….?’

I don’t know the answer. And anyone who says they
do is bullsh*tting.

I know what I’M allowed to do – but you?

How the Hell do I know what you’re allowed to do?

If you don’t understand what I’m saying here then
seriously consider taking a different direction in
life.

You make your own rules in life. YOU – nobody
else.

Marketers who are usually going to find success
ask questions that begin

‘How do I…..?’

See the difference?

They’re asking for advice NOT permission.

They’re finding a way.

I read a thread a bit ago on the Worrier Forum
(intentional typo)

There were over 30 replies to this particular
post.

Of those 30, more than HALF were laying down
RULES.

‘You should never….’

‘Always make sure you…’

‘NEVER start your …..’

It’d bug me even if the people posting their rules
were multi-millionaire marketers.

But they were pretty much unsuccesful marketers
who were wafting their opinions round like eggy farts.

Yet other new marketers – people who were
genuinley trying to learn were leaving ‘thankyou’
comments.

Successful marketers break, bend or find a way
around rules. Sometimes legally, sometimes not.

Before you judge ask yourself this

‘Is something wrong because it’s against the law?’

Now look – we probably shouldn’t break the law.
But successful marketers are open to the
consequences of doing so, and don’t react like a
frightened rabbit at the thought.

You ever park illegally for a few minutes? Or lie
about your income on a credit card application?

I think it’s important to be aware of of rules, but
then make your own mind up whether you’ll follow
them or not AND take the consequences.

If this frightens, upsets you or makes you
angry then you’re probably better off closing this
page now.

You’re not likely to become successful online
by being a sheep.

But by all means buy products,
join membership sites and find yourself an
expensive mentor.

Because doing this works.

BUT ONLY if you extract the bits that ‘fit’
you and understand that rest might not be for you.

I get refund requests from people who say
‘this product wasn’t for me’

They’ll be saying that as they retire in poverty.

(Sorry – I TOLD you this was going to rattle cages)

I’ve bought thousand dollar products that were
crap, except for one golden nugget of wisdom.

It’s that nugget I paid a grand for, and that
ultimately made me a lot of money.

And yes, in my early days online I’ve bought
thousand dollar products then had to pay my mortgage
payment with a credit card.

In Bristol I got into a great conversation with a
marketer who really made me sing for my
supper (or the beer he bought me)

He challenged me about why I did something in a
particular way. He really wanted to know why I
ran my business in a certain way while another
marketer he followed did things quite differently.

I explained fully why I do the things I do.

There was almost a bliding flash as he realised
that, as physics is now exploring, there are
MULTIPLE REALITIES when it comes to internet marketing.

By that I mean there is no wrong and right.

No ‘shining path’ or ‘road less travelled’

No answers, enlightenment or Nirvana.

There’s just YOU.

On your own.

Making decisions about your business.

No governing body.

No safety net.

I’ve said it before but nobody is going to
phone you and give you a bollocking for doing
something differently.

There is no ‘boss’ in IM.

You can read a thousand posts like this, a million
forum posts and a gazillion products and you’ll
be no nearer to ‘getting it’

Because there’s no ‘it’ to get.

There’s only YOU.

THere are two states of being for a professional
internet marketer like me:

1. Well I made a proper arse of that.
2. Wow, that worked well.

At the end of the day you have to put a smile
on your face and press the ‘send’ button.

Just get on with it.

And then see what happens.

It’s no answer. Because there isn’t one, except
for this…

At some point you’ve got to either sh*t or
get off the pot.

You’ll know when this happens, because two things
happen.

The talking stops and the action starts.

So the up and coming marketing dude that I met
in Bristol..

the one who’s quit his job and is working round
the clock to give his young family a fabulous
life

(you know who you are – your face lit up like
a Christmas tree when I asked how your young
‘un was doing)

he’s actually getting on with it. Kudos.

And that’s the nearest thing to a secret that
I can give you.

It’s true when gurus tell you not to try to re-invent
the wheel.

But for God’s sake roll the bloody thing in a different
direction to everyone else 🙂

If you want to be totally overloaded with a year’s worth of my methods, techniques, philosophies and ideas CLICK HERE NOW

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