ProfessorIM

O.K. I am warning you! This may start off sounding like the beginning of a rant. I am so sick of articles. This comes after two hours of messing with them. I read all the shortcuts but it still takes time to deal with them.

First, let me begin by telling you that I feel they are a necessary evil for several reasons. I am becoming the queen of blogs so I use them for blog posts. It is true that I frequently just sit down and start writing on my blog posts–as I am now–but sometimes it is an article that catches my interest and I use it as a post.

Eventhough I appreciate driving traffic with PPC, article marketing is also a good way to generate traffic. It definitely takes more work to use them. Of course, it takes so many also to be effective. I have also been working with someone so I ask him to read an article about why most people fail with article marketing. It is the lack of consistency of article submission. You might enjoy reading this article about Why Article Marketing Fails.

Everyone says to focus. So I have lately been very focused on a strategy that takes lots of articles. I have recently hired a number of outsourcers to write articles for me. Let me tell you that was a chore. First, there was the selection and hiring process. I had to review the sample articles they sent. Some were so bad. Later, once I had hired the ones I wanted to use then I realized how much and effort it takes time to work with them. I had to come up with a whole system to manage this flood of articles.

O.K. now I have the articles. They are edited and ready to go, now I have to do something with them. Article submission is not one of my favorite things. To top it off the article distribution service I was using has become flaky on me. I may have to get a new one. It is always something isn’t it.

There is an upside to this believe it or not. It makes me a good mentor because I can say “Been there, done that.” I have some tips to make the process easier.

I get the benefit of the articles I have submitted. Great backlinks and traffic. Remember that article marketing has some long term effects that I will enjoy. Eventhough I get all this, I certainly understand why it is a job that gets outsourced frequently, and why people who do not reach that stage give up on it after a while. I certainly admire people like Tim Gorman who has made such a success of himself with article marketing.

All right, I think I feel better now. I can go back to sending more keywords out for more articles. Please comment if you have any suggestions about article marketing for me.

I just read Caroline Middlebrook’s blog and she asks herself some important questions. Apparently she has had some thoughts in the past about giving up on Internet Marketing. Because I have read her blog for quite a while, I know what trials and tribulations she has gone through both personally and in business.

When she wrote her first ebook on blogging, we all followed her progress as she shared it with her readers. As soon as it became available, I got a copy and thoroughly enjoyed and benefitted from her expertise on blogging. Whenever, I would build a new blog, I would refer to some of her instructions in the book on setting up a blog. It was a valuable piece of information for me.

Now in her current post inspired by someone commenting on how helpful that ebook on blogging was for them, she talks about being able to help people. Of course, she isn’t aware of how many times she helped me. If you read this post, Caroline, thank you for helping me learn to build blogs.

As I work on a blog now about helping women get started with their online business, it makes me think about how much opportunity we have in our business to help people. These people are total strangers and yet when and if we help them, we can make a big difference in their lives.

If they happen upon our information and it happens to be exactly what they need to know at the moment, it can have a major impact. If you were thinking about setting up a home-based business because you want to be a work-at-home home, would you like to receive information and assistance in doing so? Especially if you know the person helping you knows about what they are talking.

I know what Caroline Middlebrook means when she says how rewarding it is and how much it can give purpose to your life. It can become a reason for staying in this business. Thank you, Caroline, for sharing your insight.

Actually my title is a bit misleading. I attended PPC Classroom Live in Las Vegas and heard a lot of great ideas and received tons of information. One of my favorite things about going to these events is meeting the people whose webinars I have attended, whose videos I have watched, and whose emails that I received. Sometimes I have been a member of their coaching and membership sites so I felt I knew them and was eager to meet them.

Here are some of the people who were there. First, let me begin with Amit Mehta and Anik Singal who are the brains behind PPC Classroom and the sponsors of the event. They do throw a good conference. It was at the Hilton. The accommodations were cushy and the people there were super friendly and helpful. It was a great event to meet people.

I am getting off track. Greg Cesar, Mark Ling, Howie Schwartz, Simon Leung, Michael Morgan, Shelby Larson and all of the coaches of PPC Classroom were there. Can you believe Mark Ling came all the way from New Zealand? They were so free with the information they shared and it was great. I am an avid notetaker so I took pages and pages of notes.

Now let me share some juicy observations. There are a good number of people who keep buying coaching packages but have not done the work. Unless you read the book you don’t benefit from owning it, if you get my drift? On a positive note, coaches do sell more coaching packages.

There was more gray hair in this group of workshop attendees. My interpretation is that there are more retirees or people headed in that direction that are worried about their retirement income and are looking for ways to supplement. It is a definite demographic to which Internet Marketers need to pay attention.

Here is a jewel I picked up from Greg Cesar. Find the market first, then look for a product. That has all kinds of implication. Sometimes I think we do that without thinking that it is what we are doing. If you know a niche is hot, you decide to go into it. All of the speakers, Greg, Howie, and Mark, really drove home how important market research is.

It is obvious that because of our current economy and its impact on internet marketing sales we have to diversify and by all means think smart. Be on the lookout for new ideas; be open to trying new ways; and be willing to work hard and very focused.

I wish you great success and hope to meet you at a conference in the future.

For a while now I have felt the tasks piling up. I wanted to be sure to post on every blog on a regular basis. Weekly would be ideal. I needed to build backlinks. There were so many articles to write and post. There was so much to do. Every ebook I read and every webinar on success told me that the way to get ahead was to outsource.

Well, I finally did it. I began outsourcing. I made a new friend in a coaching group that was very excited about his outsourcing results. He was eager to share his experience and he was very excited about the results. I listened to everything he said and with his tutelage finally decided to hire people and start outsourcing.

Once I located people that I thought were perfect with whom to work, I had to train them. Actually, it was fun. I do not know what made me so nervous originally. I put together a training program–a long list of instructions where I spelled out every detail of how I wanted things done. I explained in detail. I prepared videos that would give instructions.

It is so great getting the reports of progress every day. A lot is being done and I am not even doing it. Imagine that! We are currently going through the minor tweaking to make the tasks go even smoother. Things are going so well.

Backlinks are being created. Articles are being written and submitted. Traffic is coming and sales are being made. What took me so long?

Yesterday was a tough day. Any day that I decide to build PPC campaigns is a hard day. It requires too much analysis; spreadsheets that are too large, calculations that are unreliable but necessary; the use of too many keyword tools; and too many decisions to be made. At the end of the day, I always have a headache.

I certainly understand why I keep running into people who say that they have made a success of Internet Marketing and yet have managed to avoid reaching a comfort level with PPC. For those of you who read this, I hope I don’t discourage you from building PPC campaigns because I think you should. As in business, it would be like telling a company that they could become a success without advertising. It is possible, but it sure would be doing things the hard way.

It is true that I keep coming across people who want success in Internet Marketing, but do not take the steps to learn the business. A number of months ago, I became a member of PPC Classroom. Anik Singal and Amit Mehta have put together a comprehensive training program with a support system to help you with your campaigns. PPC Classroom is currently closed for new enrollees, but I will encourage you to look for it opening again in the future if you would like to join.

Eventhough I diligently studied their modules and attended their webinars, there is no substitute for experience. You just have to jump in and apply the information offered to you in order to gain the experience that will allow you to make better judgment calls. Believe me that is the only way to reach a comfort level with PPC–and it is painful during the learning process. It also costs you money. Anik and Amit tell you to consider the cost of your mistakes as the cost of your education. It is still hard to swallow.

There are great tools available and I would not want to do it without them. First, I must say that Google has offered a great service in Adwords with their Keyword Research Tool that now includes the number of searches. The use of Adwords Editor is also the most efficient way to build campaigns.

Don’t you love these names?–Keyword Spy, Spyfu, Keyword Elite, and Keycompete. These tools allow you to spy on your competitors to see what keywords that they are using to build their adwords campaigns. Then there are other great tools like SEO Digger that has now become SEM Rush that analyze Google Search results and analyze keywords at domains that ranks in the top 20 search or Adword results.

This story would not be complete without my commenting on Clickbank Commission Blueprint by Steven Clayton and Tim Godfrey. Market Samurai is the bomb. Adding it to my arsenal made such a difference. I also watched their videos so many times observing their techniques and improving my own. My goal is to become quicker. I still take too long to get the campaigns up and running. Again, experience is necessary to make it become automatic and get you away from having to think about everything.

Everything you learn from scratch takes time and effort. I am determined to slay this dragon once and for all. Wish me luck.

Have you ever read anything that made you say “They are talking about me?” Lately, this happens to me often when I read blog posts, special reports, or even emails about growing the business of Internet marketing. After I think about it, I realize that many people have gone or are going through the same experience that I am having as I learn the IM business, build the foundations and implement the various systems of my business.

Here is a quote from Michael Cheney: “Learning the hard way involves working 16 hours a day. Choosing the hard way means feeling totally alone. You think and feel like the whole world is against you and that nobody understands your situation.

Being successful the hard way is a real nightmare – it involves banging your head constantly against the wall and having to wait months and years to notice that you might not even be moving in the right direction.

Being successful the hard way involves doing everything on your own and believing that you have all the answers.

He ends this quote by saying: “The hard way sucks. Big Time.”

Now doesn’t that sound like Michael Cheney’s has been there. Doesn’t he know what it is like to work hard to build a successful business?

Of course, he goes on to tell you how he quit doing business the hard way and started using more successful techniques. He does not treat himself badly. He eats a good breakfast, gets his exercise, and sets and believes in his goals. He also uses time management and does things that makes him focus to eliminate wasted time. He plans his days to continuously give himself the rewards of completing tasks.

Now after you read all of this good advice, what do you do? Of course you have just thought: “I knew that; everyone knows that.” But then, do you go back to doing the same things or do you make changes that incorporate into your routine the new successful techniques. If you took a poll, which one would win–stay the same or adapt new ways?

I can’t resist asking you one more thing. Do you limit the reading of your emails to 10 minutes once a day? I have been told that by so many people. Well, my new schedule of activities is laying on my desk waiting for me. I am going to post once a week without fail. Wish me luck. One day you may be reading my success story.

Twitter is hot! I heard a statistic yesterday that it had grown 30% in one month. Don’t quote me on that statistic. In any case, it is grown a lot! More and more people are joining Twitter. There are more comments about it on television. I have even heard several members of my own family say: “Twitter” what is that?

I joined Twitter several months ago and occasionally I would go on it and add a update. I did not really get what all the excitement was about. Two people who were on a panel at a conference in Las Vegas had said they did not use their emails as much since they had started to use Twitter. I admit I just did not get it. How do you control those incoming Tweets?

Even in all my confusion, I started tweeting and decided that I would just have to figure it out. I was thrilled when I found my first ebook on how to use Twitter and I quickly downloaded it. I also printed out the “Welcome to Twitter Support! The section on Fun Stuff: friends, favorites, and stats taught me the commands to send private messages, mark updates, or even remind someone to update their Twitter page. At least that was a start.

Meanwhile I worked on building my followers. People are really nice. If you follow them, generally they follow you back. I concentrated on people whose names I knew and were primarily internet marketers. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with all of it, but it was and is fun.

Lately, I have found some great resources that teach you how to control and expand your use of Twitter. There was Tweetdeck.com, Twellow, and TweetLater. I now know how to control my daily updates, email to my followers, and all around navigate Twitter. I have come a long way.

Now, I have joined the ranks of those people who rave about how much fun Twitter is. It is great interacting and getting to know other Internet Marketers on a daily basis. Who would have known that I have things in common with Jason Calcanis, Joel Comm, Mike Paetzold, Joel Osborne and others? Love it, Love it, Love it! Come join us and don’t forget to follow me at www.twitter.com/pathomasson

Internet marketers are entrepreneurs for sure. While reading my tweets, I followed this url to a remarkable list of resources. Check this out:

60+ Resources For Entrepreneurs To Step Up and Take Charge at http://is.gd/ir1v

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.