ProfessorIM

I just noticed that I did not post in November. Bad! Bad! What does that tell you? It tells me that I need to get more organized. Actually I thought I was. I set a deadline for myself to complete three products by January 1 and have been working very hard to meet that goal. In other words, I was focused. At least that is progress.

That has started me thinking about all the “F” words that have been popping up on such a regular basis lately. I am constantly reminded that so many people in internet marketing are chasing “Financial Freedom.” They want so badly to become successes so that they can achieve the lifestyle that they know will make them happy. Some want to gain their freedom from working a nine to five job that they do not feel will provide them with the life they want for themselves and their family. They want the freedom to live as they please and go where they want.

Next, I have seen the word “Fear” used several ways. Here is a quote attributed to John D. Rockefeller quoted by Eric Rockefeller–”Don’t be afraid to give up the good to go for the great.” Also, when people do not succeed because they are afraid to take chances, it is often referred to as “Fear of Failure.” Both of these uses of the word can be connected to the desire to achieve success without limiting it in any way. When someone does not know what to do because they are in unfamiliar territory, they do not move forward because they are so afraid of making a big mess instead of achieving the success that they really are after. The end result is that they do nothing at all. Is this better than making a mistake and learning from it?

This leads me to “Follow-through.” I associate this with starting and not finishing. Many beginning internet marketers learn quickly that this is not a push button business. There’s a lot of work that goes into building a successful online company. Many do not learn this lesson until they have chased every flashing firefly down all the possible paths in front of them. The many guides that they buy offer the promise of a turnkey business with the click of a mouse. You will not be able to learn from a strategy until you follow through with each step until you reach a result. Only then can you make a decision whether or not it is a viable and workable plan that is right for you and if you continue to follow through with it will you achieve the success you seek. Chasing fireflies gets you nowhere.

Finally, “Focus” reminds us that constant flip flopping from one idea to another does not utilize time wisely. It still leads to failure and leaves many beginners to wonder why them are not making it. To understand focusing, it helps to begin by studying the way you spend your time when your working. If you find that a good deal of your time is spent in non-productive activities like reading emails or chasing other shiny bright objects that pop up in front of you, then it should become evident to you that you are spending too much of your time in activities that will not make you money. Focusing really begins when you give up those time wasters and focus on the high dollar activities. You must create a structure of focus where most of your time is spent in very productive money earning activities. When you are able to do that then you can say you are focused and on your way to success.

Over the years students have asked me: “Professor, am I failing Accounting–or whatever course they were taking? Well now, I find myself in the same boat asking “Am I failing Affiliate Marketing?”

My first clue is that I am not yet making the kind of money I want to be making. Yes, I am working hard at building sites, getting backlinks, and sending traffic to my sites. I think I am following the best SEO tactics. So, why am I not making more money?

Suddenly, I start reading “Are you selling products that don’t sell?” During the past two days, there is a recurring theme that has jumped out at me–Are you selling products that don’t sell?

Here is a quote from Jason Gazaway’s Bloggers Pitfalls and Solutions: “Whatever the case, picking products that don’t sell are recipes for disaster as if others can’t sell them, what makes your blog so different that it can?”

But then, guess what else he said. “However, it should be noted that while choosing the wrong product is bad… choosing too many products is worse.”

Here is the reason he gives for why choosing too many products is worse: “….. your monetization options are going to be ‘stealing’ traffic from each other, as clicking on an advertisement would mean that a visitor probably won’t come back to buy from your affiliate link!”

Oh my gosh, am I guilty of doing these two things–picking the wrong products and choosing too many products? I hate to say it, but it must be true.

I went seeking more information and this is what I learned from Chris Rempel on his Lazy Marketer blog: “It’s WHAT you sell, folks. Not how “hard” you try…”

For me, this was eye opening. I had listened and read so much about how to pick a niche, how to find the best keywords, and how to follow my passion. There have been so many videos on how to select your products in the Clickbank marketplace? Didn’t this lead me to select the best products to sell?

I remember Greg Cesar saying it so well at one of the conferences I went to that you needed to find out where the demand was and go there. He emphasized how important it was to find out what was hot and go there. As Chris Rempel says, you should stand in front of the stampeding herd.

Chris also said this and it really hit home:

“You wanna know what’s sadly ironic?

What’s sadly ironic is that I (or any other experienced affiliate) could build and promote a site in 3 stinkin’ days that will earn more in affiliate commissions this year than most starry-eyed newbies would make even if they went ”full time” online – putting in 40 hours a week building sites, building links, etc.

Why?

Because I know what actually sells, and what kind of traffic to drive.”

Whoa! For me this was heavy! Of course, Chris talks about paying the price and going through his “ignorant years.” I guess that is what I am still doing–going through my ignorant years. Am I tired of it? Yes. Do I want to complete this phase of my learning? Again, yes. Unfortunately, I am still paying the price.

O.K. My journey through this maze of internet marketing information has been full of twists and turns. Sometimes I admit, I heard “how to” tips that were good, but weren’t relevant to me at the time. When I go back and look at videos again and reread ebooks, I do not always come away with the same information to use. There are times when I really get the significance of what is being said and other times it is wasted on me. This is all a part of the learning process.

In the end, I am making progress but I do not mind telling you that I am getting tired of the “ignorant years.” I do think I will be more cautious of selecting products from now on. How about you?

Maggie, this is for you! Maggie left this earth a little over a month ago and she is missed.

Maggie like so many “newbie” Internet Marketers had a goal to make money in IM. She was going to supplement her social security income by selling products with her blogs. First, she was focusing on internet marketing but eventually had decided to add a few more niches. Going green was one of her favorite new topics.

Let me tell you how I met Maggie. She, Randy, and Wizzer were regulars in a forum at Marketing Beginners, Randy’s membership site. What a trio! It is the kind of matchup you often find in IM. Randy the Guru lives in the Virgin Islands; Wizzer a British financial consultant, and Maggie the IM newbie ex-social worker. When I discovered the forum, I started posting and got acquainted with them. The four of us became regulars. Soon Maggie and I started telephoning. Maggie had a folksy self-deprecating way about her that really made everyone laugh. She had been dabbling in IM for almost 10 years and was still lost more than half of the time. It was because she kept starting and stopping and she was always starting over. Her life kept getting in the way!

Maggie had a remarkable life story. I do not want to say anything that would embarass her or would make her thump me for saying. Maggie was legally blind since birth. She had managed to graduate from college and had worked very hard all of her life. Even though I never met Maggie personally, I believe she had been a very attractive lady in her youth–tall and slender. Of course, she had to wear thick glasses. She said her vision was like looking through a straw. Maggie blew me a way the day that she told me she had been married 7 times. In her folksy fun way, she laughed and said that she was amazed at how easy it was to get men to marry you. In fact she said, they would rather marry than date. What a hoot!

Maggie said she was the reason for the divorces because she was too hard with whom to get along. She liked everything her way. Well, to get back to my story, Maggie worked on her blogs diligently and we shared every achievement. She ended up in Dayton, Ohio where her son Casey lived because she wanted to be with him. Maggie–here is another fact I left out–was always called Peggy by everyone else. On the Internet, she used Maggie. She had two children, a son and a daughter.

Maggie lived at the end in a building overlooking the tree tops. She had an efficiency apartment in low cost housing. It was cozy and it was her den where she worked on her computer. For company, she and I would visit on the phone. Maggie was the person with whom I could discuss my journey into internet marketing because my family was tired of hearing about it. Maggie was always encouraging and we shared so many hopes and dreams. Occasionally, we would have a bag on Google session when Google would make a change that affected internet marketers.

At the end, Maggie wanted her legacy to her son Casey to be money making blogs. She tried to get Casey interested but he was too busy with his own life. Maggie had had problems with her heart before and dreaded the upcoming surgery on her legs to unclog the arteries. She was really afraid of the upcoming surgery, but knew she had to do it to be able to walk as her legs just weren’t working the way they should.

While waiting for the surgery date, she still worked at her computer to keep her mind active and we planned what she would do with her blogs. Randy and Wizzer had started a membership site on blogging and was providing Maggie with information to help her.

When she went into the hospital, she had a horrible time. She sprang a leak and spent days in intensive care. When she finally came home, she was so happy to be there. Maggie called me and she sounded like good old Maggie again. She could not wait to get back to work when she regained her strength. We talked a couple of days in a row and she said she was getting stronger. We made plans. She would not let me come to visit her until she was feeling better and was her old self again.

Thursday we chatted about plans for the future and about building blogs for Casey. That night Maggie went to sleep. Maggie was an internet marketer to the very end. Now she is looking over my shoulder encouraging me to continue my pursuit. She knew I would always be the one to make it. I hope she is right. Love you, Maggie.

P. S. Maggie was 70 years old.

It is funny the different directions your life takes. Until the end of May this year, I did not even know who Howie Schwartz was. When I attended PPC Live in Las Vegas, I had the opportunity to meet Howie there because he was one of the guest speakers. It is always great to meet someone from whom you get emails.

I began to listen to Howie’s story and experience in Internet Marketing and I realized that he was someone that had a lot of information that could benefit me in my business, but because I have buried myself with work lately, I did not feel it was a good time to take him up on his coaching program. But I listened to everything he said very attentively.

He teaches a strategy that was a little more elaborate than the one that I had already adopted as my own. It delighted me that it was basically what I was doing and it was easy for me to add those pieces to what I was doing. The strategy was working well so I knew that it could only get better.

When Howie started promoting IM Remarkable, I was eager to take in every morsel that he was sharing with me. Now I focused in on the way he did his drill downs and how he does his keyword research. I thought I knew keyword research so well, but the way Howie does his drill downs adds a whole other dimension to it. I am sure that if I add his techniques I can only get better.

If I was to write a review of Howie’s IM Remarkable Coaching Program, I would have to say that it will be fantastic. Yes, Howie has a cast of thousands to help him, but the techniques he uses are so sound and well thought out. I do not know how you could help but become highly success following them.

Because I am an honest lady, I will tell you that again I am going to pass on the coaching program. Primarily, it is because I am so focused at working my newly found strategy that I do not want to get diverted by anything –not even that cute Howie Schwartz. Now let me hasten to say, that if it does not bring me the results I seek, I will run screaming to Howie saying “Rescue me! Teach me what I did wrong!” And I would know he could.

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.