World Internet Summit - Day Three

January 13th, 2008

This is how the day three agenda looked:

  • 08.00-08:30 Challenge Update. A short update from Shaune Clarke on how the World Internet Challenge is going.
  • 08:30-10:00 Mike Stewart - Audio Video in Wordpress and New Media markeitn with Video Landing Pages
  • 10:30-12:00 Brett McFall - Quick and Easy Marketing Secrets For The Internet
  • 13:00-14:00 Shaune Clarke - Intimate Interviews, the Number One skill any internet entrepreneur can acquire
  • 15:00-16:30 Ewen Chia - Autopilot Internet Income
  • 17:00-18:30 Armand Morin - Internet Marketing Explained
  • Evening - a bonus offer, a number of speakers were heading down to a local pub after the event with an open invitation to go and buy them a drink in return for some chat time! (Or as Armand put it “I drink Budwiser, this is a hint”.)

We’ll follow up with posts about each of the sessions…

Paul

Paul Quirk is a director at Know It Use It Ltd
http://www.ValuedClientSystem.com - From Prospects to Customers to Valued Clients
http://www.VCSHosts.co.uk – Create Your Online Business In A Box

Web 3.0, GotAccess and Marketing

January 12th, 2008

Our next speaker on day two was Sean Roach. I’ve never come across Sean before but he impressed me greatly. He told us that he spent part of his working life consulting with large corporations, explaining the latest web marketing trends to them and the other half in the SME space (i.e. with people like us) seeing what’s going on and introducing changes of his own.

He first of all listed the enemies of success:

  • Acting Lazy e.g. sitting in front of the TV
  • Being negative or having negative people around you
  • Thinking you are ignorant and so not taking action

Sean said we should choose markets which were an inch wide and a mile deep, i.e. a niche. Once we have mastered on niche, do another. And so forth.

Sean then asked us what our SKOPOS was - this it seems is a greek word which means target or mark or goal. If we have a hobby or a business interest then we should get it online and share our passion with others, making money on the way.

When looking for fresh niches he advised paying attention to magazines (particularly womens magazines) and news periodicals. He told us to stop thinking locally and start thinking globally.

Sean then talked about “where the real hidden money is”. Google is the world’s largest advertising company and keyword marketing is just getting the right ad created. The internet is virtual real estate and a keyword unlocks the search engines and defines a niche. With keywords and niches you cannot get too specific.

To find a lucrative niche he suggests tapping into peoples hobbies. Direct human interaction is decreasing and so social networks are becoming more popular to provide the social interaction people need. People spend a fortune on their passions; feed a passion and you’ll never go hungry.

The key to profiting from all this is automation. We all need proven systems to use. Sean’s system is called Rip2it. It has a high entry point and then a monthly fee.

Sean then spent time talking about his latest project - GotAccess. This is a social networking site which has huge amounts of security built into it and is based on the idea that web sites should be able to earn income. Sean described this system as web 3.0 because of the way it handled the various interactions. He gave examples of some big businesses buying into the product but as it’s not yet live it’s hard to judge how it will really turn out. One thing he did do was tell us some of the issues arising for users of MySpace and Facebook, sufficient to put me off both!

For final advice Sean gave us the following:

  • Don’t look for the ultimae product, look for an easily targetable niche market and find a product they want.
  • Solve a problem
  • Hottest and safest way to sell on the internet is via e-books with embedded affiliate links.
  • Don’t ever put music on your website because it puts people off who don’t like your music and causes issues for office workers surfing the net!
  • If have an e-book product, remember to re-work it for different niches. E.g a Weightloss book becomes Weightloss for brides, Weightloss for men seeking women, Weightloss for women seeking men and so on.

All in all I really enjoyed Sean’s presentation - he is a good communicator with a good sense of fun and some interesting observations to make.

-Paul

Paul Quirk is a director at Know It Use It Ltd
http://www.ValuedClientSystem.com - From Prospects to Customers to Valued Clients
http://www.VCSHosts.co.uk – Create Your Online Business In A Box

Simpleology blogging course - for free…

December 21st, 2007

I’m evaluating a multi-media course on blogging from the folks at Simpleology. For a while, they’re letting you snag it for free if you post about it on your blog.

It covers:

  • The best blogging techniques.
  • How to get traffic to your blog.
  • How to turn your blog into money.

I’ll let you know what I think once I’ve had a chance to check it out. Meanwhile, go grab yours while it’s still free.

In fact, its this post that you need to post on your blog in order to get your own free copy (very clever). I love the other Simpleolgy stuff I’ve used so I’m happy to evaluate this new course.

WIS - Success on autopilot

November 26th, 2007

- sub-title ‘The tools that automate your Internet income’

Still on day two, Rick Raddatz is one of the speakers I was looking forward to seeing.  I assumed we’d hear about Marketing Makeover Generator, Instant Video Generator and Rick’s other products… but no.

Interestingly, and to the confusion of some in the audience, Rick didn’t really talk much about ‘the tools that automate your internet income.’

What what did he talk about?  Two opening statements about business that Rick made, should give you the angle:

  • The value is in the strategy, not the tactics
  • The value is in the model, not the marketing

With the supporting statement that he know’s that his core strength is in creating businesses - businesses that can start small and grow and business that can exist without the owner having to be there.

This idea of creating a business that is independent of its owner certainly isn’t a new one (have you listened to Michael Gerbers The E-Myth Seminar, or heard Rich Schefren?) - don’t ‘be’ the business, ‘create’ a business that gives you freedom and that you can choose to sell or pass on to your children.

There were lots of pieces of Rick’s session that I enjoyed and here’s two gems:

In hiring

  • Hire visionaries as consultants
  • Hire implementers as employees

Business requires vision to give it direction and longevity and often the business founder is the main visionary.  But you should be aware of the kind of people you’re hiring.

It’s tempting to employ people who have great vision, but unless you can provide them a role that really needs a visionary (like, your role) it probably won’t work out in the long run - they will just get bored!

If you need a visionary, hire them as a consultant and hire implementers as employees.

Some common strategic errors

I think they stand-alone as thought provoking statements:

  1. Not respecting the truth
  2. Not respecting focus
  3. Not respecting small steps
  4. Not respecting self
  5. Not respecting strategy

Enjoy…
-Mark

Mark Quirk is a director at Know It Use It Ltd
http://www.ValuedClientSystem.com - From Prospects to Customers to Valued Clients
http://www.VCSHosts.co.uk – Create Your Online Business In A Box

WIS - Succeeding wildly on eBay

November 24th, 2007

Adam Ginsberg put on quite a show in his eBay session.  For those who’ve not seen Adam speak… it’s an experience.  All of the speakers showed confidence, but Adam just oozes it.

Adam’s session started with Mark Anthony Bates introducing him.  Now, Mark Anthony describes himself as ‘the coaches coach’ and what he seems to do it coach speakers on how to sell effectively from the platform (i.e. exactly what Adam was about to do)… and he certainly did a great job of lending credibility to Adam.

Adam’s job was to sell his training/coaching program on ‘being wildly successful on eBay’… and before he was half way through his pitch there were people signing up (without even hearing how much he was going to charge) - he was good.

So, what did we learn from the session?  Well, of course the best stuff is kept for the course, but a few anecdotes about mistakes people make on eBay:

Terrible pictures

A picture says a lot and a small or unflattering picture isn’t going to help your position.  The picture of a shiny kettle which reflected the naked man taking the photo, probably isn’t the best way to start a bidding frenzy - and yes, this was real.

Bad descriptions

When you create an auction you include a title - that title contains keywords that are used as a part of the search… so, its kind of important to at the least say what your product is.  Adam showed some examples of property on eBayRealestate.com where advertisers had missed out key worlds like ‘house’, one example read something like ‘family of four’ (presumably meaning ‘a house suitable for a family of four’) - ooops.

This kind of description means that far fewer people find the listing… and so are ideal for bargain hunter in the know.

Incorrect spelling

Again, the title is key.  Misspelling your keywords is both good and bad.

Firstly, someone may misspell the keyword when running a search.  So including common miss-spellings is smart.  But, leaving out the correct spelling isn’t.

Adam cited a new computer described as a ‘Laptoob’ instead of a ‘laptop’ - that one was a bargain!

Bad layout

Adam showed before and after examples of layout.  Where a property with an uncompelling layout was bought cheap and then re-listed using the same pictures and content, but a professional layout, re-sold for a health profit.

In absolute summary, because eBay is so huge ($21,000m in sales, 247+ million registered members, 1,371m listings in 37 countries) there is huge scope for buying cheap from badly listed products and reselling for a profit.

The crux of Adam’s promise for this event, seemed to be:

  1. I can teach you how to build your your list through eBay - and so build your Internet business
  2. You can make a good income part-time

Though I’d have to say that the overall effect of this session was probably too much for me.  There were a few common sales techniques employed that were surprisingly crude (like increasing the number of spaces available from 27 to 37 as they were about sell out, because of ‘pressure from the organisers’, hmmm), that spoilt the rapport for me… but my impression is still that Adam certainly knows eBay!

Enjoy…
-Mark

Mark Quirk is a director at Know It Use It Ltd
http://www.ValuedClientSystem.com - From Prospects to Customers to Valued Clients
http://www.VCSHosts.co.uk – Create Your Online Business In A Box

WIS - 7 Critical Building Blocks

November 23rd, 2007

The first ‘content’ session on day two of World Internet Summit was a relative Internet marketing newcomer - Tracy Repchuk.

Certainly Tracy isn’t new to business or marketing - in fact she has always been ’self employed’ and seems to have made a name as a direct response copywriter.

Tracy has also written a couple of books, one of which is 31 Days to Millionaire Marketing Miracles.  So, an interesting background, what did she have to say - what are the seven critical building blocks?

1. Find your niche

As well as the usual - use keywords tools, search etc (see previous post), Tracy briefly mentioned ‘Survey Monkey‘ which has a ‘free’ to get going option for building online surveys.  If you can ask your target audience questions like ‘what are your 3 burning questions about <the niche>’ and other such intelligence gathering questions, you’ll have a much better chance of creating a new product that people will actually want..

2. Deadly website combo

A website on its own, is often not enough you want to use as many channel to reach your audience as possible (and leverage the cross links between them for SEO).

So a sensible combo would be:

  1. a regular website (for branding), plus…
  2. a landing page for capturing interested parties email addresses (yes, a squeeze page), plus…
  3. a sales page (the one that comes after the opt-in at the landing page) , plus…
  4. a blog

3. List building and autoresponder

There’s an ‘old’ adage the money is in the list, and Tracy agrees. Use a great sequential autoresponder service to store leads, build relationships and make more sales.

4. Rapid product creation

A few sensible ideas: Interview experts and sell the recordings (see previous post), find interesting content to package at gutenberg.org, record and sell a tele-seminar, blog and include affiliate links, buy master resale rights to existing good products…

Essentially, you don’t have to slave for years to build a product.  Find out what people want and be creative in finding a way to provide it.

5. Affiliate programs

If you have a product, increase your marketing/sales force by offering an affiliate program (get a free report from here about running your own affiliate program)!

Or use affiliate programs instead creating your own product… take a look at what’s available at ClickBank.com to fit your niche!

6. Creating a traffic hurricane

Essentially the same as point 5 in this post.

7. Maximise your marketing funnel

Map a route that matches the growing confidence in you - ie start with a free or very low cost product and work up to your most expensive (take a look at video 2 in our demonstration list, after two minutes I talk about the sales funnel for a ‘raw food’ business).

Enjoy…
-Mark

Mark Quirk is a director at Know It Use It Ltd
http://www.ValuedClientSystem.com - From Prospects to Customers to Valued Clients
http://www.VCSHosts.co.uk – Create Your Online Business In A Box

World Internet Summit - day two

November 22nd, 2007

This is how the day two agenda looked:

  • 08.30-09.30 Parade of speakers - this is where most (some like Armand Morin were yet to arrive) of the speakers get 5 minutes or so to introduce themselves.  And of course take the opportunity sell their session.  This is a bit like the ’subject’ of an email, its only purpose is to get you to open the email - or in this case, to be at that speakers session!
  • 0930-11.00 Tracy Repchuk - 7 critical building blocks to your internet marketing empire.  Tracy describes herself as the ‘Marketing Makeover Maestro’ and in this session she’s offers to be your coach. (see separate post)
  • 11.30-13.00 Adam Ginsberg - How to succeed wildly on eBay.  Gosh, Adam really is a force to be reckoned and he pulled out all the stops in this one. (see separate post)
  • 14.00-15.30 Rick Raddatz - Success on Autopilot: The tools that automate your internet income.  Actually, Rick didn’t talk very much about ‘tools’ as you might think of them (and especially if you know Rick provides online marketing tools).  (see separate post)
  • 16.00-17.30 Sean Roach - Google Information & Web 3.0 … where is it all going? How YOU can make money from it, with absolutely no experience whatsoever.  Now, that’s a title for you.  But did Sean’s session deliver on the promise?  (see separate post)
  • 18.00-18.45 Internet networking

We’ll follow up with posts about each of the sessions…

Enjoy…
Mark

Mark Quirk is a director at Know It Use It Ltd
http://www.ValuedClientSystem.com - From Prospects to Customers to Valued Clients
http://www.VCSHosts.co.uk – Create Your Online Business In A Box

WIS - Building your list with Viral Marketing

November 21st, 2007

The final session of day one of World Internet Summit was delivered by Tim Brocklehurst, which was a combination of the importance of building your list (the old ‘the money is in the list’ adage) and doing it using Viral Marketing (in fact, more specifically, doing it using Tim’s “My Viral Spiral” product).

Firstly, Tim is Brit and has an absolutely super English accent - which sounded quite unusual in the setting we were in.  (I know, we were in London, and I’m a Brit too, but until this point we’d heard from Brett McFall an Aussie, Tom Hua from China and Shaune Clarke from Canada).

Tim’s goal was to show how you could build a list of 5000 people - a size that can help you earn a considerable income (if you look after and value your subscribers of course).

Tim shared his simple rule of thumb that you should be able to earn $1 per month in affiliate commission per list subscriber.  With a list size of 5000 that’s $5000 *(£2500) per month, based on

  • Email open rate 20% (that’s 1000 people)
  • Click on affiliate link in email rate: 25% (250 people)
  • Buy rate (sale conversation): 5% (13 people)
  • Earnings 13 x an average $50 commission/sale = $650 (£325) per offer, then you need 7+ offers per month

Now, its quite possible that my notes aren’t quite right, because 7 sounds like a lot now I come to write it out.  But that number assume a $50 commission.

BUT… you have to have the list before you can create the relationship with the people on your list, before you can make offers to them… so, Tim’s point… how do you build the list?  Viral marketing.

“If you’re online and you’re not doing viral marketing, you may as well be offline” was Tim’s favourite quote.  He did have some interesting information, but not a great deal on how to do viral marketing.. and I guess that’s because Tim has a product, My Viral Spiral, which automates the whole thing for you!

From what we saw it looked pretty well thought out and set-up to completely automate the viral process, making things as easy as possible.

It is based on a piece of software that you can choose to install yourself on your own web server, or they will host it for you.

The product does look interesting, but we don’t have current plans to use it - so I can’t tell you if it really is a good as Tim say’s it is.  You can of course read more about it on Tim’s My Viral Spiral site!

One final thing I thought was interesting was that at a previous World Internet Summit, Tim met a small number of people that setup their own Mastermind group (al la Napoleon Hill)… something I’d had on my list for a couple of years.  And yes, I did make this suggestion to a small number of people I met at the event and am in the process of setting that up right now.

Enjoy…
-Mark

Mark Quirk is a director at Know It Use It Ltd http://www.ValuedClientSystem.com - From Prospects to Customers to Valued Clients http://www.VCSHosts.co.uk – Create Your Online Business In A Box