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.