July 13, 2011 By 1 Comment

Just Because You Haven’t Done It

One of the things about having an incurable disease or two is that you learn a valuable lesson that many people who live a “normal” life do not; you CAN and WILL accommodate whatever you need to, to survive.

This motivation to writing this post came from listening to Dan Benjamin and Merlin Mann speaking yesterday on the Back To Work podcast about whether it is possible to give something 100% attention, say to a new enterprise, while working in a job.  At around the 50 minute mark Dan is talking about how he believes he succeeded in creating 5by5 is because of the timing. How if he had started even “a month before” he may have failed….and as he turns back to Merlin for his opinion you can hear that Merlin is thinking long and hard about what Dan just said, you can hear the gears grinding in his head; and I think that Merlin disagrees. I certainly do.

As I just wrote in a response to Ed Dale on Google+

No! timing is just when it happens.. There isn’t some magical “time and place” where it will happen no matter what- “time and place” is just where you happen to be after you have been putting the work in to make it happen.

Dragging this back to the post title, if you haven’t actually done these things then it’s hard to imagine that they can actually be done. Just like living with an incurable disease. If you haven’t REALLY had to work two jobs, moonlighting your passion so to speak, then it must seem impossible that you could improve, progress and get to the jumping off point.  On behalf of those of us that did work a job and work on the “enterprise” in the time left over (and I consider that i did it for years and years) I say to you Dan Benjamin, you are wrong.  The only thing you don’t put in 100% is 24 hours a day, but if you are using all the time you have then that’s still 100% effort!

I am not going to claim that working your passion 50 or 100% of the time will guarantee success. Nothing guarantees success. But don’t tell people they might as well not even START because they will be doing a half arsed job and that’s not good enough – so NOT true.

If you want to do this crazy stuff, then do it, for how ever many hours you have.

 

p.s. Ed was talking about an article about the advice John Mayer had given the kids at Berklee and it iis really worth reading if you are one of the ones that want to make it for your art or enterprise . Basically feel the SUCK but do it anyway

 

timing is nothing

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January 1, 2011 By 1 Comment

Ed Dale Adores It, But What Does It Mean To Your Business?

Ed Dale (internet superstar ) linked to Dan Watrous’s blog post Don’t Waste Your Time With Goals in 2011 and declared he adores the post. Read it now if you haven’t.  If you have read it let me point out something that may not be apparent in the first read.  If you have a business (internet or not) then what Dan is speaking about is Strategic Goal, Process and Procedures.

If you are a real business owner, or want to be a real business owner, then you will need to start doing the things that real businesses do.  Just because you can set up something that makes money on the internet, does not mean you are in business.

Let’s imagine that you have an online business that sells a single eBook on a specific niche topic. What is your Strategic Goal (or as Dan names is – your Object of Desire)? Let’s say it is “To Be The Biggest Selling eBook on the internet for this subject “.  It’s a big call, but is measurable and so is achievable.

In the corporate world the CEO and partners get together to name these strategic goals on a yearly basis. They always revolve around reducing costs, improving quality, improving customer satisfaction.  For the small business person trying to sell the most amount of ebooks on a particular subject it might look like

- pay per click advertising

- Facebook advertising

- Joint venture with Bob

Next comes the procedures (also known as work instructions, actions, activities) that need for each of these steps.  The documentation of these steps are essential if you have staff (freelance or payroll) so you can

  1. know what you are currently doing
  2. measure and compare results
  3. implement process improvement
  4. get the same result every time, no matter who is performing the task

Your procedures will have step-by-step instructions on how to set up a PPC advertising campaign, how to set up a Facebook advertising campaign, what steps you need to take to enter into a JV with Bob.

These procedures  are what Dan calls commitments in his post, and they really are the “harder” tasks. Harder as in they cannot be deviated from unless testing for process improvement, both you as a business owner, and your staff must commit to performing these tasks as written.

So hats off to Dan Watrous for making a dry business fundamental come alive for people as they plan their 2011 business goals.

local search procedure

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September 23, 2009 By 5 Comments

Annual Immediate Edge Review

I just noticed something over at the Immediate Edge sales page that prompted me to write a new and fresh Immediate Edge review.  Go to the page by clicking HERE then hit your back button…instead of signing up at the usual amount you can take a good look round for only $1. It’s worth it just for the latest newsletter, let alone the hundreds of pages of content and applications.  Go sign up  now while I finish writing this review….I will have it complete when you get back.

So let’s review what there is behind the doors of the Immediate Edge.

Longevity

There are a lot, and I mean a LOT, of fly-by-night continuity programs out there. Continuity started becoming really popular as a business model around late 2008 and the catch cry now is micro-continuity, yet the Immediate Edge (IE) predates all of that and has been going strong ever since. Yep Ed Dale and Dan Raine launched IE in 2007 aiming it squarely at the self motivated advanced internet marketer.

Evolution

You can read my very first Immediate Edge Review here, and my second Immediate Edge Review here.  This third one is different again. That’s the great thing about IE, it’s not something that is frozen in time. The site has evolved, the information is new and exciting (and usually before its time), and things are a lot more organised and easy to find.

Ground Breaking

A lot of what you will discover in the Immediate Edge you will see suddenly become vogue with “mainstream” internet marketers about 6 months after it is taught in IE. Kind of like the techniques in the Thirty Day Challenge. Dan teaches what he uses to make a living and keeps very much “ahead of the game”. Sure makes it easy for the members to cherry-pick his ideas and processes and use them in our businesses. Or set up from  scratch from one of his instructive newsletters.

Value

Since my last review the Thirty Day Challenge Plus (30DC+) was created and sits neatly into that intermediate level of internet marketers that I mentioned was missing before.  The information that is only available for a month at 30DC+ is available year-round in the IE (bargain hunters like me will pounce on that little fact).

Listed in no particular order and I am sure to have missed out heaps are other benefits of membership

  • Ed Dale’s Buying and Selling Websites Course – Dominiche
  • Over The Edge – Beechworth – where most of what EVERYONE is doing now, was taught back then
  • Software, PLR resources,
  • Interviews and Newsletters
  • Training Modules
  • Project Diary
  • Hundreds of pages of “stuff” (get the trial to see what I mean!)

IE is an Aladin’s cave of gold class information.

This is starting to sound like a sales letter :/

Some things still stand from my very first review of IE. Dan still has trouble with his pre-announcing stuff (though he is MUCH better than he used to be). Keep a pinch of salt handy for whenever you see Dan mention something is coming up. Yet his newsletters are packed full of amazing information and instruction, and it is obvious he is quite brilliant at what he does.

To really benefit from IE you need to be a self starter and motivated to move forward under your own steam. This is not a place to get your hand held, it’s a shove in the back into the deep end and if you keep moving your arms and legs and keep your eyes open, you will be fine. This is actually a plus because the people you meet within the IE are all swimming, not sitting at the bottom of the pool bitching about how deep the water is.

It’s worth the $1 to see if you are a swimmer or a sinker.

Immediate Edge

Continuity Program

Dan Raine – Ed Dale

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December 13, 2008 By 4 Comments

Immediate Edge – New Improved Review

Name: The Immediate Edge

Media: Membership Site

Cost: US$97 p/m

There have been so many changes over at the Immediate Edge that the review I wrote some time ago is very much out-of-date.

For those looking for information about what the Immediate Edge is, let’s start with the basics.

The Immediate Edge is a continuity learning program. Month on month new information in the form of lengthy newsletters, project updates, and educational videos, are made available to the membership.

The information is still aimed at the intermediate-to-advanced internet business owner. While there has been an influx of beginner types after the 30 Day Challenge seeing if the IE is for them, the information is still aimed squarely at those that are passionate and driven about making a living online.

Bonus modules have been added recently to the Immediate Edge such as the online version of Ed Dale’s Buying and Selling of Website Course – Dominiche,  access to the new 30DC plus learning materials and the mysterious (but exciting!) $10k project.These modules have added extra value to membership, and help cover the times when there are gaps in new content.

The IE has cleaned up its user interface to be more user friendly in finding things which was the biggest bug-bear new members had when coming into the program.

The addition of “project manager” Jon, to the already tireless work that Asbjorn does in the back office, should help keep the head rascal Dan Raine under some form of control.

While there is more structure in the current layout, learning is not in a linear form. This has been part of the philosophy of the IE from day one, learning is up to YOU the student.  Self motivated and passionate students please apply.

There is one small issue with the IE that you as a member will need to accept, and that is Dan Raine’s enthusiasm in announcing things that aren’t quite ready for publishing. Often there will be an announcement of something exciting that will be here next Tuesday and then a short-to-long gap before it actually eventuates. This is one of Dan Raine’s charming quirks, and one I am sure his business partners would love to remedy with gaffer tape and a good flogging with a paddle. I don’t think he is going to change though….

I do recommend the IE. It is not your usual learning program, it stretches everyone that becomes a member as well as providing great cutting edge content.

The Immediate Edge

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August 30, 2008 By 16 Comments

Thirty Day Challenge FAIL!

Heh yeah I did not make my $1 this year within the 31 days. Not going to beat myself up about it, the last week has been disrupted and the wind went out of my sails.

The highlights for me this year have been the awesome tools. Those tools changed some of the atmosphere of the challenge itself.  Not a bad thing as I love the new and improved tactics we learned and used in 2008.

In years past it has been a real pioneering feeling of cobbling together various techniques, being resourceful in how they were applied and pushing on through the “unknown” using only real desire and a wing and a prayer you were going in the right direction.

This year it was as professional as it gets. Incredible labor saving tools with state of the art video teaching and interaction. Brilliant stuff and really inspiring as examples of how to run a training course in anything on the internet.  If I wore a hat I would be taking it off to Ed Dale, Gurubob, Dan Raine and the rest of the team who put together a fabulous learning experience.

The cons of the challenge were the people who did not know how spoiled they really were, and made demands that were just incredible. Demanding free services, one on one tutoring from Ed and others, immediate response to their inquiries (which 99% of the time were user error) and refused to lift a finger to help themselves. It is a double-edged sword when teaching people for free that it attracts people from all walks and all parts of the human spectrum (and some of those really are unattractive and ungrateful).

I am not going to dwell on the negatives though, if I run something similar in a niche I will be setting the ground rules very early in the piece, if you don’t like how it is done then here is your refund and see you later. Life really is too short to put up with ingratitude and rudeness.

Team Afterparty is kicking on. I am going to approach the gals with a proposition about a female mastermind group that I have in mind. All of us have shown we have strengths in different areas and I think we would meld together well.

All in all a fabulous year and the one that really drove home to me that I am in teh right place doing the right thing to get to where i want to go.

I can’t thank the 30DC enough for the opportunity to be a part of such an amazing event!

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August 2, 2008 By 5 Comments

I Don’t Know How Ed Dale Does It.

Warning you may see a more direct side of me in this post you might not have wanted to see.

My goodness me, how on earth does he survive this part of the challenge every year? After spending a metric shitload of time (and I bet money as well) getting the whole event up running and with absolutely no hitches (well apart from kicking the power out on the first live video presentation) some people feel it is absolutely fine to get on the forums and bitch about the most petty of things.

I really do not understand people who choose to be like this (probably my very polite English upbringing). What does it benefit them to be seen as whiny complainers?

Talk about pearls before swine. The Market Samurai tool is a fabulous piece of work that will save people hours of drudgery. Last year we were measuring lines on our screen with bits of paper we had drawn on; this year we have an awesome project tool that looks great and works even better. I cannot sing its praises high enough.

Last year I could not believe that Wordtracker GTrends was released for free and said so, this year it seems that a group of people think that although they are getting better for FREE that they have the right to make demands about it. I would like to see them say the same to anyone else who offers a free sample of a product.

Really in the end, all the complaining is a smoke screen to cover the utterer’s own insecurity. The old “I knew it wouldn’t work because blah blah blah” …sheesh where is taking personal ownership and making the best of whatever is offered? I am compassionate, but not very forgiving when adults act like this.

Congratulations to Ed Dale and the team, to bring another great teaching event for free for those who want to take the opportunity. If only everyone was as grateful!

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August 1, 2008 By Leave a Comment

Thirty Days Of Focus

So you have seen me banging on for the last month (?) or so about the Thirty Day Challenge. Well it has kicked off and all my focus will be on getting the tasks done and completing the challenge. Fear not! i will be including my progress here as part of the projects space of the blog because in the end it is the long and short of how to start making money online.

I can’t guarantee that the posts will be daily because I still have the job-kids-partner-cat-World of Warcraft to fit into the day.  I do hope though to blog most days with my stuff…with pictures!

If you haven’t signed up for the thirty day challenge it is not too late to start.

So day 1. Getting Ideas

Getting ideas is my favourite part and even though I have done this many times before, I am doing it JUST as I am being shown by Ed.

So I have popped into Amazon and checked out the magazine section and DELIBERATELY looked at things that I enjoy.  Some great ideas there! Magazine.com is another online magazine listing.

Magazines are a great way of seeing what people will pay money for to get information. If there is no money in that market there wont be a magazine there (for long!).

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July 24, 2008 By 1 Comment

Ed Dale Mankini New Update

Developments in the Ed Dale Mankini saga need reporting on. Sure this blog post is just another way to keep my authority up on the subject, but I hey let’s be ridiculously transparent on this subject because there is absolutely nothing to lose (if only I had a sweet deal with an underwear retailer or something)

So the  Ed Dale Mankini Terapad blog has done what i thought it would do. Which is knock this blog off the #1 spot for the search term Ed Dale Mankini. There are a few reason why it would do that and I will probably talk about them as filler posts as we go through the month of August with the 30DC (after that i am SO not continuing this naughty naughty distraction which sucks up precious time).

I am keeping my eye on the specific Squidoo lens though. That is having another period of Google disappearing and it could make a Lazarus-like come back. Meanwhile this blog should sink in the rankings through time as it really isn’t focussed on the term and I need to stop posting mankini stuff here (as all this is doing is earning me a reputation of being slightly crazy!).

Time to knuckle down… only one week till the Thirty Day Challenge and I am getting pretty excited!

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July 3, 2008 By 8 Comments

How I Came To Love The Immediate Edge

If you have read my review of Dan Raine and Ed Dale’s Immediate Edge in the reviews section you will know that I was somewhat bemused that the presentation of information within the Edge was missing something. Don’t get me wrong, I have never thought anything taught by the Edge wasn’t valuable, but it just wasn’t grabbing me by the throat and shaking me. Things have changed!

In the last two-three months the amount of information, interaction from Dan Raine and Ed Dale, and top notch presentation has stepped up. This in part has been because of the addition of some very talented people to the Immediate Edge team, and they bring their expertise and extra output.

On top of the increased quantity, the quality (which has always been fabulous) is going places that are amazing. Brilliant stuff! The time-gap between what Dan Raine is doing for his own businesses and what is being taught, has come down considerably. As has the opacity, by that I mean I feel that we are seeing more of what Dan does in real life. The wall is not as thick as it once was.

The other factor, I think, has been within me. I am absolutely committed to leaving my corporate job on (or before) December 1st 2010 and what is being taught on the Immediate Edge is proving to be a magic key in unlocking the way forward. My skills and knowledge are maturing and I am making more practical use of what has been taught in the past.

Because of that last point I still will discourage anyone who has not at least intermediate skills and understanding of internet marketing to keep their money in their pocket. But for everyone else I want you to sign up under my affiliate link and spend at least 2 months gorging on the information that is already there before making a decision whether it is for you.

This teaser sent out by Ed Dale makes me think that now is a really good time to get signed up!
Marketing Samurai - Kicking the shit out of your searches

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May 26, 2008 By 4 Comments

You Are NOT Your Khakis (Or Your Own Customer)

There is something mischievously satisfying about mixing a Fight Club quote about consumerism with a statement about your own market. Now I have finished congratulating myself on how clever I am, let’s consider what the implications are about not being your own customer.

I hate sales letters, absolutely, with a passion, abhor them. It is a constant surprise to me that they work. Why would anyone get sucked in to parting with cash by a wall of text in a bad font? Because I am not the average user of the internet.

This also goes for Facebook, I used to truly love it. Clean open spaces, Google-like in the pristine landscape of the monitor, like fresh snow untrodden. Then came the march of the applications, the millions of pokes and requests and demands for my time that I just DO NOT WANT

Keeping in mind that I am not my customer, I asked my sister a few questions about her Facebook usage. I would class her a complete n00b when it comes to the internet, PCs or anything remotely geeky. She has 2 children, is studying to become a Steiner teacher and works a couple of part-time jobs to pay the bills. She discovered Facebook about 8 months ago and has been using it ever since. I asked her 10 questions about her usage (via Facebook naturally) and asked her to respond.

1. how often do you use Facebook a day
3 – 4 times

2. Do you have a favourite application
Yes…chat

3. Do all the application requests affect you in any way
Yes…get tedious after a while. Sick of same shit from new people.

4 . Does Facebook help you in any way
Yes…expand my social circle, locate old friends/classmates, find love, keep in touch with friends and family.

5. Do you notice the ads in facebook?
I notice ads but not sure if I notice them all.

6. what do you dislike about facebook
Forced requests, poor spelling….everywhere!

7. do you use any other social networking sites on the internet (like myspace or twitter etc)
No

8. Do you like Facebook any more or less since you started using it
Like it more

9. How would you rate your PC and internet expertise
Out of 10?….5. (AR: pfft she is SO a 2, maybe a 3)

10. How would you improve Facebook if you could
Easier control over News Feed items.

Ok so she puts up with the application requests, even though they clearly irritate her, she uses it as a tool for social contact (as it is designed to be used), and she likes it more now then when she started. Contrast that to me who stopped using it regularly because the social contact I got was not satisfying, the application requests were annoying, and the barrage of groups demanding time and attention for dire social issues, and crappy marketing efforts used up my sympathy quota very quickly. Yep we are definitely not alike in our opinion of Facebook!

So this week when Stompernet opened its doors and Ed Dale video responded to the Open Letter To Stompernet I was thinking along different lines. I have always applied the “quality product” tag to Stompernet due to what I have heard from people who run Stompernet. To me this is a premium learning experience that is expensive but also valuable, like a good certification or university course. I also thought it was not for beginners.

Yet the launch of the open door seemed….aimed at a lower common denominator than I though the market would be. The lead up had been great, the free content awesome but the same old, same old on opening day was a let down. This confused me, these guys are marketing geniuses and yet they are pitching way lower than their product deserves. Aren’t they going for people like me that kind of sorta understands some stuff and wants to take the next step up?

Then it hit me, I am not their customer (even though I thought I might have been) , just like I am not my own.

Kind of like quantum physics, my observation of something will affect the outcome. In this case my “marketing” brain and my “customer” brain collided. I had expectations that I was going to get X but I got Y. A valuable lesson for me, and one I will keep with me as I go forward.

I am not my customer, I am not my customer…..

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