Monthly Archives: April 2010

Internet Business, Reviews

He’s Baaaa-ck

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poltergeistJames

From March 12, 2006 to the middle of 2008, James Brausch was among the top bloggers of the internet business arena.

During these two years online, James amassed a huge following because of his no nonsense shoot from the hip style, dishing out a lot of value to the online business community.

His teachings, of course, were always backed with solid statistical evidence based on his own research as he grew.

If I remember correctly, James worked as a statistician at one time, and was a programmer before declaring his freedom from the work force back on September 1, 2003.

By June of 2008, James had migrated his business to a new domain – diegonorte.com, and was living in Costa Rica (and still is as far as I know). He sold his business shortly afterwards and went off into retirement with a one year no compete clause as part of the terms from the sale of his business.

Even though he’s been under the radar, it seems that he has been busy with some new innovations. He has developed an interesting product called IBB, or Internet Business Box. This is a complete blogging system, or more accurately, a business system with built in continuity.

Beyond that, I don’t know too much more about it at this point, but it appears to be structured as a membership oriented blog, with a complete system onboard similar to a traditional offline business franchise.

This looks very interesting indeed, and will warrant further investigation.

Since his retirement, many who really didn’t know much about James, thought that he was in reality many different people on the net. I’ve heard that he was Stephen Dean, Aaron Brandon, Kristi Daniels, and even Michel Fortin!

I’ve always gotten quite the chuckle from these types of ridiculous rumors, so for the heck of it, I decided to try an experiment. I found a photo of Aaron Brandon and used photoshop to superimpose a Hawaiian shirt onto Aaron.

Much to my surprise, with the Hawaiian shirt, Aaron Brandon looked exactly like James! Okay, this was just too weird, so next I took a photo of Frank Kern and again, superimposed a Hawaiian shirt on him… again, he looked exactly like James!

Now surely, this couldn’t happen with Kristi Daniels… but alas, the same result!!! Kristi became the splitten image of James. Now this was just getting downright scary.

“How could this be?!”, I asked myself. Later I consulted a well known professor from Cambridge University who explained to me that this is a simple result of the “Superman effect”.

He went on to explain that Superman was able to render himself completely unrecognizable simply by putting on a pair of eyeglasses. James Brausch has mastered this same technique, only in reverse using a Hawaiian shirt. Without the Hawaiian shirt, James is able to morph into anyone, anytime, at will!

So the shocking truth is, that James is everybody that you see online who has an internet business presence. Don’t believe me? Try the Hawaiian shirt test for yourself… You’ll be shocked, amazed, and maybe even a little terrified.

Once you recover from the shock, jump out to James’ blog and either get to know him, or get back on his list. Whichever the case may be, you can find him here:

http://www.jamesbrausch.com

Oh, and welcome back James!

Internet Business, You Posts

Entrepreneur or Opportunity Seeker?

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make-money

Many people who start out online have pretty limited budgets to work with. It’s kind of a catch 22. At some point, you need to invest some money into building your online business so that you can generate sales, but you need to generate sales to get money so that you can invest in your business.

Most people will jump into marketing online for a couple of reasons.

  1. They hate their J.O.B., and / or
  2. They need / desire more money.

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The barriers to entry for an internet based business is much lower than starting a traditional ‘brick & mortar’ type business offline.

I remember wayyy back in the day when I started my electronics shop. It was a major deal to get set up. There was finding and renting the retail space, getting a business phone, an occupational license, utilities, FAX machine, Cash Register & the Point of Sale stuff to go with it, signs, inventory, equipment, vendors… I could go on for days!

All of this was not cheap, and on top of all that, you don’t even know if the venture’s going to succeed or not. An online business, on the other hand can be started literally the same day for around 20 bucks! Even zero cash if you’re a little creative.

Also, if you need free traffic, you can put in a little ‘sweat equity’ such as article writing, blog carnival submissions, etc and get free traffic right to your virtual doorstep. Yet even with this incredible opportunity of starting out on a shoestring, so many are still slammed by the challenges of actually succeeding in their business.

How is it that starting an internet business can be so darn cheap, give you exposure to a worldwide audience like never before in the history of mankind, yet be so tough for so many to succeed? It’s kind of mind boggling when you think of it.

As mind boggling as it may seem, the real answer is really pretty simple. Lack of focus. 98% start out online with the wrong mindset. The vast majority are not entrepreneurs, they’re opportunity seekers.

An entrepreneur has a plan. An entrepreneur will focus on one specific objective to generate revenue. He / she will create a business system of proven techniques that can be constantly tweaked and improved. They understand that success is arrived at incrementally through consistency. They know how to scale up their successes and shave off the failures.

An opportunity seeker will buy the latest and greatest method to making a million dollars overnight. They will learn all about it, try it, and when it doesn’t work the first time around, dump it and buy the next shiny object that passes their way. The opportunity seeker doesn’t really have any focused plan.

Like a tumble weed, they just drift from one opportunity to the next looking for that golden egg that surely must be out there somewhere. While the opportunity seeker is waiting for their ship to come in, the entrepreneur is building their own ship to sail.

While the opportunity seeker is spending money all the time (and getting little to nothing in return), the entrepreneur is making money. When something doesn’t produce an instant result, the op-seeker dumps it for another opportunity. The entrepreneur does their homework. They will tweak and test their methods for measurable results over time, knowing that some things need to build momentum before showing a positive result.

Do you have a plan of action? Do you follow through? Do you give yourself deadlines and meet them? Do you love improving the lives of your customers by selling them your products? If you can answer yes to these basic questions, you are very likely in the exclusive 2%.

If you find yourself in a constant spiral of info overload, surfing the forums for that elusive magic trick that’s going to make it all “click” one day, then I’m afraid that you are still in op-seek mode. You still have the J.O.B. mentality. Not to worry, there’s hope. You can turn it all around with a simple desire to act.

Here’s your new mantra to get you pointed in the right direction. FOCUS – BUILD – SELL

If you don’t have a website yet, then start one today! Right Now, and follow the mantra above. This will be your first step to success. Oh, and you don’t have to shell out a fortune to have it built either. You can get my complete course on how to build an awesome website using WordPress which is a FREE open source CMS. This blog is built on WordPress.

Creating a professional looking website will be the perfect start to developing your entrepreneurial mindset (focus & build). In the future, you can have others do it of course, but for now you need to build that mindset, grasshopper… FOCUS – BUILD – SELL.

You can get the complete Red Hot Mini-Sites with WordPress, course by clicking below:

http://www.declareyourday.com/redhotminisites/

Internet Business

My Harvest America – Product Paradise or Another multi level marketing Wasteland?

Guest Post by Neil Ashworth

My Harvest America; So what is it then? Let’s take a detailed look inside Harvest America to see if it has legs as a Work at Home affiliate program or does it seem like just one other lame duck? Here is the most definitive overview of My Harvest America that  you’ll ever have to read (bold declaration I do know however go with me on this).

Here goes;
The long-time entrepreneur and well acknowledged Fred Wieh has teamed up with web advertising guru Ronnie Ellis to bring to us My Harvest America. Fred Weih’s reputation is stable enough that Cornell University has truly looked closely at his enterprise fashions for progressive concepts, and Ronnie Ellis is a pioneer of no little repute. Let’s simply see what they’ve given you, shall we?

Developed in 2009, My Harvest America is an internet operated grocery supply depot that gives non-perishable items at a reduced price. How can they provide this low cost? In one phrase: Bulk.  They’ve teamed up with some of the biggest canines within the grocery trade to buy in bulk and pass over the financial savings down the line to the typical consumer.

Reductions have been around for a while and the need for meals will probably be around for oh, let’s just say eternally! Slap the 2 together and you could just have a successful combination. One of the good things right here is the World population isn’t going to start out shrinking anytime soon;  in other words, you will have a customer pool that has an evergreen need. That’s definitely the correct sort of opportunity for a Home Based Business affiliate program of any sort.  If you need to discover more about starting a business take a look at this Xyngular MLM Review

There is nevertheless, a downside to the whole concept. To this point it’s a toss-up as to whether or not it will probably be worth it for the savvy shopper with a fist full of coupons. There’s many ways to save cash should you look long enough, and in this financial system individuals are searching harder. Another subject is shipping. Meals can be pretty bulky so the delivery prices are more increased than I would like to see. My Harvest America as of yet has no good offers on transport however that will change as they get some time behind them.

Now let us take a look at the actual business opportunity. To activate your representative status you want to first maintain the $29. 95 membership fee. It is a price that everybody pays whether or not they’re a distributor or a shopper. Second, you could buy your $69. 95 product package. The whole is more than I wish to see however, in case you have spent any time researching MLM opportunities, you already know you can be paying rather more in regards to a start up cost.

As soon as you’ve taken care of all the enrollment details, you change into the proud owner of your personal My Harvest America Web site to customize as you see fit. The downside to that is you don’t have a management office This isn’t such a big deal if you’re accustomed to Search Engine Optimization, squeeze pages, lead capture pages, mailing lists and the rest. Personally, I would instead throw out the additional dollar.

The commission matrix is a good 3 wide and eight deep with the chance to get deeper. The construction has been around for some time and works well. To begin reaping the benefits of the system it’s essential to do one of two things. You’ll find at the very least one customer you personally introduce otherwise you recruit your first member or, “Retail Subscriber”.

From private gross sales and matrix payments, we transfer on to a different stream of income, the bonuses. My Harvest America has just a few different sources for income. One particularly that struck my fancy is the “Shopper-Matching Bonus”. There’s a payment hook up of $29.95, however as soon as paid, it is best to understand some respectable income. You pull in 50% of the sale from your entire Subscribed Shoppers and an additional 20% from Super Buyers that you just sponsor to the fifth level.

My Harvest America mlm affiliate program seems like an effectively rounded mlm affiliate program or enterprise alternative and has two sturdy names at the helm. The area of interest they have entered additionally has good potentialities; sadly, since the company is a new child in the Home Business affiliate program arena, and seems like a well rounded multilevel marketing business program there isn’t any recorded data as to how they are doing. You might want to wait a little to see if they take off first before you start as a community advertising affiliate for this specific Home Based Business business program.

Neil Ashworth is a successful entrepreneur who shows average men and women how to leave their 9 to 5 misery behind and create financial freedom in less than 30 days with the world’s fastest growing Internet Marketing Business using article marketing and the best Automated SEO Software

Copywriting, Internet Business

Video Sales Pages Gone Wild

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TV-234x300aI’ve seen many debates lately about video sales pages, and whether they’re effective or not. Coincidentally, as I began writing this post, a blog announcement showed up in my inbox from Terry Dean regarding this same subject! D’oh!…

We’ll Terry did a great post, so instead of getting over detailed, I’ll simply elaborate and add to it. One thing that I’ve seen around the net lately are people debating on whether ‘video only’ sales pages vs long / short copy are more effective.

I’ve seen responses that video chases away customers, and that written copy is the only way to go. Others feel that ‘video only’ is the way to go, and to heck with writing copy.

In one of my recent posts, I talked about videos with no control functions, and how some people were irritated by them while others claimed getting great conversions off of them. I also mentioned that ultimately, my own testing has shown that I do best with a combination of both on my sales pages.

Here’s my take on it. In my case, I mostly get new prospects across my sales pages. My testing is based on these types of prospects. I think that new prospects probably are more receptive to having an option whether to view either the video, or to simply skim over the hard copy.

Some of these other marketers who are using video only to promote a product, from my observation, are getting the bulk of their traffic from email lists, including JVs & affiliates. I haven’t actually tested yet using a list / JV against other types of traffic to a video sales page, but at this point, I have a hunch that the best conversions from these ‘video only’ sales pages are coming from people who are already fans of the list owner, or were pre-sold somewhere else before being directed there.

These types of visitors are already “warm” to the idea of checking you out. A visitor who clicked on your PPC ad on the other hand, might see the video and run. Most people who don’t know you want to quickly see who you are, and what you have. If you can’t convince them why they need your product within that first critical minute, you’re toast.

For all my main sales pages, I have moved to the combination of written copy with video. This is what works best for me with my particular traffic. The only real way to know what works for you is to test it. I’ve noticed that many who tout their points of view on the subject are biased either for or against video for various reasons, without ever testing one way or another themselves.

If you want to read more about what Terry Dean has uncovered in his own test results, simply click the link below:

http://mymarketingcoach.com/big-mistake-in-using-video-to-sell

Terry Dean has been successfully marketing online for years, and he is definitely one of the good guys. He is one of the few that I would highly recommend.