Internet Marketing | I'm Just Sharing

Residual Or Full Time Income?

Posted by Mitch Mitchell on Jan 26, 2010

I was checking out a post by our Buddy Mike CJ talking about blogging and job security, and it sparked a memory in my mind. In his post, he’s talking about a friend of his who’s now sick and worried about his business. Mike talks about how, by making a living blogging and being online, he’s actually in a very good position because his business will not only make residual income, but he could still do blog posting from a hospital bed if he were ever in the position to have to do so.

It reminded me that the reason I actually bought my second domain many years ago was because I wanted to try to set up another source where I might be generating some online income as a just in case measure. As a consultant, there are times when I’m making mad dollars, and other times when my income is drastically deficient. There is more down time than alive time, but it’s certainly not vacation time by any stretch.

Enter internet marketing. The basic idea is to find a way to either create your own or market someone else’s products, create and market the webpage to hopefully get visitors to stop by and buy the product, then repeat the process over and over until you’re making serious bank. I mean, it sounds so easy when you hear about other people who’ve done it, right?

I’m here to tell you something you already know; it’s not so easy at that. It seems there are ideas that either work or don’t work, and products that either sell or don’t sell. There are tactics that may work such as mailing lists, or might not work such as popup ads; I’m not sure either one of these works or doesn’t work, but my friend Kelvin is wont to say (that is a legitimate phrase, Sire lol) that if people keep doing it then it’s working for someone.

Here’s the two biggest questions most of us ask about some of these things. One, if we copy what someone else has done step by step, will it necessarily make us the kind of money they’ve made? Two, if they’re making so much money doing that, why are they telling me how to make money? I’m not at that money making level, but I can answer both of those questions.

Chocolate Assortment

Let’s look at the first one. Do you know the origin of modern day chocolate? Though there’s an interesting history about the stuff, modern day chocolate was pretty much started by Cadbury, whom many of you have heard of. Is there anyone who would say that Cadbury is the number one chocolate maker in the world today? Nope. I could probably pop off 5 other chocolate makers who are more popular and sell better. And most of them at least initially copied the same formula as Cadbury. But there are probably at least 10′s of thousands who have come afterwards that haven’t quite made it to Cadbury’s level, who might have started, floundered, and gone away already. But many of them are making some kind of money, and are surviving by doing it their own way. They’re not the norm, but at least they’re hanging in there. Those other people are us. We could follow the model exactly as the big time marketers do, and we will either win or fail; there are no guarantees. There are lots of dolls out there, but only one Barbie; that’s just how it goes.

Let’s look at the second one. Not on the money front, but on a different front, at one time, when I was still an employee, I was one of the top ranked managers where I worked. I was tied with another guy as the top dogs based on a survey of employees; not bad, eh? This was for a corporation that had around 1,600 employees overall. When I decided it was time to go, I wanted to get into leadership and management because I felt I was pretty good at it, and I wanted to see if I could help others get there as well. That’s what led me to write the book you see there to the left side, Embrace The Lead. Sometimes it’s not enough that others have named you as something good, and it’s not enough that you’ve shown that you can do something well, even mastered it, if you will. You want to see if you can then show others how to do it for themselves, to help spread your legacy, to prove that your theories and practices are correct.

And if you can make a little bit of jack off it. so much the better. However, the second one only works if you’ve actually accomplished something, while the first one is open for everyone. On the first one, though, we all learn that there might be aspects of how someone did something that we don’t like. For instance, Sire and I don’t like mailing lists; if that keeps us from ever truly being successful, so be it. But I remember a presentation I got to see a few years ago from a Rich Jerk representative that troubled me. I don’t want to give out all the details, but in essence the entire sales pitch was based on a lie to consumers. The person who created the video even gloated and laughed, saying his only interest was making money, and at least the people would be getting something out of it, even if it was based on his lie, since he knew absolutely nothing about the product. Man, I just couldn’t live with myself if I did that.

And therein lies the issue. There really are things that hold some of us back from being successful, even though we say we’re trying as hard as we can. I commented on a post earlier this evening where the writer (another buddy of mine) said in one of his financial recommendations that people should work harder to make more money; he wasn’t talking about internet marketing, just to get that out of the way. I wrote back that I didn’t believe it had anything to do with working harder as much as all of us trying to learn how to work smarter. I truly do believe we can all be as successful as we want to be, but our thinking patterns might not be quite in line with where we want to be.

Where does this leave us? Well, it leaves me still scratching and making my little small residual income, and it leaves Mike making his living online. It leaves me with most of y’all, trying to decide when or if I’m going to lay caution to the wind and actually go for it full blast, or keep working on growing incrementally until maybe, one day, I get where I want to be. What about you? How do you see yourself online, if you’re hoping to make money? If you’re not hoping to make money, I guess this question isn’t for you, so just move on to the product. lol

Blogging | 17 Comments

Health, Wealth, And Self Care Online And Off – Guest Post

Posted by Mitch Mitchell on Jan 5, 2010

In my post talking about my online goals for 2010, I got a quick request from one of my readers who has never written a comment as far as I know named Connie Baum. It’s always great to hear from people who enjoy what you have to say, and she asked me if I could write a guest post for her, which I did entitled Watch Out For Internet Marketing Scams. I hope you check it out.

Then I asked Connie to write a guest post for me, since her blog is all about internet marketing, so she’s created this post for us. I hope you enjoy it.

Creating a blog post for someone whose work you admire is akin to being a child, visiting a classroom where the teacher places you at the front of the room to introduce yourself. You think you would rather be having a root canal at that moment. You are embarrassed; you are not sure what to say. You feel certain that the friend who brought you to school is biting his lip and wishing his mother hadn’t MADE him bring you.

Internet marketing is the reason I have been closely following Mitch and ‘I’m Just Sharing.’

There is something endearing about every post he makes. I aspire for my blog posts to call people to action the way Mitch’s do. When Mitch extended the invitation for Guest Bloggers, I raised my hand and ‘Teacher’ called on me. I’m looking forward to reading what other Guest Bloggers have to say, for I fancy I can learn something from every post. The trick of course, will be remembering what I learn and implementing it properly.

The mother in me is compelled to admonish all internet marketers, including Mitch, to do two things and in the proper order. Remember, kids, I’m Just Sharing. Grin

1. Take very good care of yourself
2. Take your marketing work very seriously but don’t take yourself so seriously.

Health and wealth walk hand in hand. If you lose your wealth but have your health, you can recover and resume. But if you lose your health, you also stand to lose your health as well. Doesn’t paint a very pretty picture, now, does it?

With a nod to #1 and taking good care of your body, let’s address how important- no, critical-it is to eat well and wisely; to remember to move away from the desk from time to time to move and play.

If you are fortunate to work at home where there are children-or fun loving adults, for that matter-you can schedule recess time! Go out of doors, jump rope, run, walk, turn cartwheels! Do whatever it takes to get your heart rate up and pop a sweat. Then you will be ready to go back to business and resume the creativity and discipline of work.

Your body needs water to keep all your cells functioning optimally, so keep handsome pitcher of water close by. Drop a wedge of fresh lemon in it to make it more tantalizing. And don’t be fooled into thinking that anything wet counts as water because if there is anything in the water, it isn’t really water any more. Don’t rely on coffee and other caffeine loaded beverages because those will dehydrate you and literally shrivel your brain.

Another facet of self care is to reward yourself for meeting your online goals. For example, when your new blog makes the first page of Google, you are entitled to have lunch at your favorite eatery that day. Or, you might have added 100 new names to your new list of subscribers. This calls for a hot chocolate break with your spouse or significant other! You need to figure out what floats your boat and use those things to motivate you. Some popular rewards include scalp massage, nail care, pizza, fresh flowers; new socks. You probably have your own list of what trips your trigger.

Let’s address item #2, taking your business seriously. If you are new to internet marketing, I would offer that a good coaching program would benefit you. You will learn skills you did not have previously and you will network with others who will enhance your journey.

I would also remind you of the recess idea from item #1. Being completely silly and operating with abandon for brief periods of time will increase your creativity and make you far more productive. “Do use discretion,” she warned.

Read other people’s blogs with sincere interest. Comment intelligently, adding value to their site. Interact with the bloggers; get to know them. Attend every live event you can and take copious notes whenever you are on a conference call, webinar or brainstorming session with others. Partner with others to capitalize on one another’s strengths; offer added value in any way you are able to help others.

It has been an honor to present my ideas through Mitch’s blog. Here’s hoping some value was added to your life, even if it did not shake the earth.

I thank Connie for this wonderful guest post. Here are her blogs for you to check out when you can:

Rapid Cash Review
Mother Connie Sez
The Healthy and Wealthy You
Food Stamps Cooking Club

Internet, Marketing | 3 Comments

Internet Millions – Don’t Do This

Posted by Mitch Mitchell on Oct 14, 2009

If you like late night TV infomercials and girls wearing low cut tight shirts with lots of cleavage, then you’ve probably seen at least one of the commercials for Jeff Paul’s Internet Millions program. It promises to teach you how to make literally thousands of dollars a month with almost no effort so that you can live the life you dream about.

The first thing a buyer will realize is that there are a lot of DVDs to watch, which takes away the ease that’s promised in the commercials. The second thing, once you start checking out the videos, is that the “easy way” of making a lot of money is to spend a lot of money building a lot of websites. This means that most of the people who buy the program are already going to be at a disadvantage because they may not know anything about HTML or coding. They may not have thousands of websites of knowledge to create a bunch of websites. And folks, buying domain names, even if they’re relatively inexpensive, can get pricey if you continue buying a lot of them, and it’s not easy for one person to keep their eye on a lot of websites.

Having said that, one could argue that what Paul teaches in his program does offer people the opportunity to make money online. I don’t disagree with that. What I disagree with are a couple of things. One, the promise of easy millions that get people to pay exorbitant amounts of money on his programs. What, you say it’s only around $50 for his program? That’s just to get you in the door. Once you buy, you’re going to continue getting lots of phone calls with promises of making even more money as long as you’re willing to pony up more money for the right of better education. And it won’t stop until you get tough and get yourself off the list. There’s even one guy who set up a blog just to talk about the things he was getting from them without buying anything except the very first thing, and how often they were calling him to pitch their products; what an idea for a niche blog, eh?

Two, the commercials are so enticing that I’m surprised they’re not happy just raking in the money that those commercials have to be making and leaving people alone later on. And I know something about late night commercials; I used to be kind of a junkie for these things, no matter how good or bad they were. However, these commercials are lying. If you sat down one night and wrote down, then calculated, all the money that these people say they’re making, you’d realize that there wouldn’t be any money problems anywhere around the world because all you’d have to do is tax the few people in the commercial and every country would make a mint.

For instance, one guy said he made $125,000 in 10 days. Others were more “modest,” making that much in a month, or at least $50,000 a month. And, if you’ve paid any attention to the disclaimer, those results aren’t indicative of the kind of money that most people will make.

I’m sorry to say this, but I have to put this one in the category of a scam. There is no easy way to make money on the internet unless someone else is building your website, doing all the work, and it costs you almost nothing to pay for. This one will end up costing you way more money than you’ll ever make back; stay away.

Comodo

Product | 13 Comments

The Gurus Don’t Know It All

Posted by Mitch Mitchell on Nov 10, 2008

Since I got onto Twitter, I’ve had the opportunity to talk to a few of the top internet marketers in the world, and I think that’s a good thing. I’ve learned a few things from some of them, and I hope that some of those lessons I’ve learned will work very well later on.

One will find that even a guru doesn’t always have all the answers. I got lucky one day to have a conversation with one of the gurus, whose name I’m not going to mention here. It started on Twitter, then moved to email. I began by saying that there’s a lot of information out on the internet and a lot of programs that talk about this and that as it relates to internet marketing, but that I had yet to find one that could answer specific questions of mine. He asked me what I meant, so I laid out a few things.

At one point he said he’d have to see the types of things I was doing overall, which was never done as far as I know, but I don’t have a problem with that because people get busy. However, that wasn’t really what I was looking for, and I told him so. I then said that there was one big question that no one has ever answered, and he asked what that was. I told him this; the big question was what the very first thing is that someone should do to build a list.

For instance, everyone says to build a website or a blog, put something on there for people to subscribe to you, and you’re good to go. Well, no you’re not; if you build it, they WON’T necessarily come. If you don’t have a big name already, it’s now time to drive traffic to your site. When you start, you don’t have an email list. You don’t already have a reputation, so people don’t know if they can trust you to buy from you. You can go visit blogs and get traffic that way, but of course that takes time. You can write on forums and maybe some of those people will follow you, but that takes time. Not that taking time is such a bad thing, but when you read all this stuff or listen to audio or watch the videos, almost all of them seem to promise more immediacy than that.

I specifically wrote this:

“So, my point is that there’s probably a lot of good advice, but it doesn’t start low enough for the beginners. It’s easy to say ‘build a list’; it’s much harder for someone to give point by point, realistic advice on how to do it. “Build it and it will come” doesn’t equate well in the marketplace, even if you can get to number one on Google for your specific search terms. In the words of Ramon from Happy Feet, I’ve done everything ‘penguinely possible’ (if you know the movie, this line makes sense) to generate online sales, as far as I know, and haven’t broken even. It’s a good thing I’m a pretty good consultant in my field otherwise”

His response: “I’ll have to think about it.

That’s not a condemnation, by the way, just kind of a reality of it all. Even some of the gurus don’t remember how they started. Or maybe they do; maybe they were in on that early wave of spammers, who weren’t know as spammers at the time because that’s just how everyone else sold their products. I remember in the early 2000′s reading about buying mailing lists, which was a much bigger business than it is today, and I wouldn’t doubt that many folks bought these lists and just started pounding the emails without any remorse whatsoever.

That doesn’t work for me, and I doubt it works for most of you who read this blog. Even today, we get pounded by a ton of emails, sometimes from folks we don’t know, but it’s changed because, what one discovers, is that if you signed up for that free report and gave your email address, it’s given to everyone in that person’s realm sometimes, and you’re an open book. It’s one reason I created a second email address, so that all those things I sign up for go there, unless I know who I’m dealing with specifically. That’s a good tip to use, by the way, because it helps you to segregate what’s what.

The overall point is that sometimes you just have to take your shot at doing what you think may be the right way to go, and not expect someone to be able to tell you point by point how to get there. The best information may not work for everyone, but that doesn’t invalidate what you do learn. Starting is half the battle, learning is half the fun. And the traffic and sales,… well, hopefully that’ll come with whatever passion you’re able to show in your website or blog. We earn what the market will bear; we just have to be willing to take some chances and try a few things, as long as we don’t hurt our comfort zone.

Marketing | 17 Comments

No Pop-Ups From Me

Posted by Mitch Mitchell on May 21, 2008

On Michael Fortin’s blog, he recently wrote a post called Customers Won’t Discount Your Dishonesty, and it’s a very good read, something I agree with wholeheartedly.

Though he’s basically talking about internet tricks such as when you try to leave having a pop up window stop you with a discounted offer, I believe it applies to so many different types of companies, and I for one don’t like it, and, he’s right, you lose respect for them. I remember when my wife and I first moved into this house and we thought we needed new windows. This guy came to the house and was here for 3 hours, first measuring the windows, then supposedly doing all the calculations he had to do so that he could talk to us further. He then dropped the price on us; $36,000. I actually laughed out loud, which is so unlike me, but it was more than 1/3rd of what we’d paid for the house.

He left, but three days later we got a call offering the same package for $16,000; one again we said no. Then four days later we were offered the same package for $9,000. At that point I told the person that I didn’t want their company calling me anymore because I didn’t trust them. A couple years later, my wife contacted one of the big home improvement chains and asked someone to come look at our windows. This guy gave us a quote where most of our windows came to $70 each, with the big bay window coming to $1,000 on its own; I could understand that, as it’s a different style. We didn’t go for that one, but we did replace a lot of the other windows, at a very affordable price.

Some of these guys are obviously making a lot of sales, otherwise they wouldn’t persist in using the tactic. Personally, when I’m ready to leave, that’s that, and if I see a pop up window, it just irritates me to no end. But when I see the pop up window has a discounted price, well, I start worrying even a little bit more about the product, and I wonder about the old bait and switch; why didn’t they just offer it at that price to begin with, right?

Well, no matter. I will guarantee you that I won’t have any of those types of tricks on this blog. Just your average everyday rant, rave, or affiliate marketing link; no tricks.