Entries Tagged 'Progress Updates' ↓

You can get your own online business set up automatically, and have it hosted:

www.GoldVaultMembership.com

But that’s only the start!

Your site is updated monthly with new original products, including videos – and with professional sales pages.

Each month there are new original MRR and PLR  products to download and sell. This is includes videos.

www.GoldVaultMembership.com

Have a look for $1 for 7 days.

Amazingly, there’s a very low price after that – though I’m thinking of when to increase it.

Did I mention your hosted website also delivers products for download to your customers automatically. That is, you’ve nothing to set up. Just get a  free Paypal(TM) account to collect the money!

www.GoldVaultMembership.com

Enjoy!

I’ve recently completed a 100+ page ebook on internet marketing. Not for sale yet, but I’ll be looking at various options as to what to do with it.

At the moment I’m focusing on article marketing as a traffic driver. I’ll let you know how that goes at a later date.

Join GoldVaultZine for your free ecourse and the ezine that’s (almost) a continuous ecourse itself! You’ll think I should be charging for this! Click the link or sign-up on the right! Thanks!

How many times have you heard the comparison that internet marketing is like a jigsaw?

You’re given some of the pieces, most of the time, and left to make the connections yourself – so the argument goes.

Or, there’s a big picture somewhere. And if you could just see it (a mindmap?) you could fit the pieces together, and realise what you’re missing, not understanding.

Or, you’re given all the pieces of a process, like a mindmap, but the biggest area of all – the how – isn’t supplied.

I don’t think it’s like a jigsaw! Why not?

First, a jigsaw is flat – it’s one-dimensional. This is as if there’s one and only one method or system. Like all the pieces fit the one jigsaw. When we all know that there are different methods, systems, processes. Yes, there are some basics but after that there’s massive variety.

Second, similar to above, if you get the big picture of internet marketing, you can fit everything together. As if there’s only one internet marketing. And it has all these different parts to it. And if everybody did the same pattern, picture, of marketing, we’d all be on a home run. Strange that never happens!

So, third, this image lacks flexibility. You can’t twist it into a spiral, make a square – or whatever image fits the way you work.

Well, a better image?

I think it’s more like a Rubik Cube(TM).

One, it’s not just that you start with a pile of pieces, they’re all out of place! There’s no pattern to be seen! And there’s the wonderment of how you get them into a pattern when pieces are in such awkward places?

Two, it’s not that you’re short of pieces (at least, not after a while). They’re all there but there’s no way of seeing a connection between them – until you start twisting and turning them around. Lots of mistakes to be made here!

Three, it isn’t one-dimensional but three – even four, if you count changes through time.

And, four, this is the other (apparent?) problem: that things keep changing, including you as you grow in awareness, knowledge, etc.

I say apparent because aren’t there some parts that remain necessary, for example, communication with customers, list building, making an offer, providing value?

It’s the old problem that it’s what’s right in front of people’s faces that gets the attention: the kaleidoscope of changing methods, such as the developments of Web 2.0.

Maybe that’s what internet marketing is in the end: those basic strategies, tactics, systems and processes, like the Rubik Cube, put into lots of different possible patterns, apparently ad infinitum.

Of course, in the Rubik Cube there’s one “answer” you’re aiming for. In internet marketing you make up the “answer”.

I’ve noticed a bias, if you like to call it that, in information you get on internet marketing.

The usual emphasis when this sort of stuff is being covered is on, basically, planning. That is, having goals, strategy, tactics and so on. Personally, I’m not too sure about the use of goals, at least the way they’re taught.(Can there be a specific way teaching about goals – do A then B then C ? I’m not too sure.)

Anyway, leaving the rest aside, you’re told to have a strategy (people interpret this as a plan of action or actions) and specific tactics to use as part of that strategy.

OK. All seems fine and dandy as far as it goes – especially the logic.

But then, what about the how?

This is where you need systems and processes. I’m not sure I’ve ever come across the first pair linked with this pair, in terms of internet marketing.

And, of course, it can be vice versa: there’s talk of setting up systems, but nothing on strategy. In fact, often they fall between. Here’s a mindmap, you’re told. Great! You look at it – is this a strategy or systems you need to set up?

Without being able to set up the systems and processes (“physically”, if you like), you have nothing. It’s useless.

On the other hand, if the claim is that this is “a system”, what’s the (larger) strategy it’s part of?

In either case, people are left in the dark! It looks good and can be useful but you’re still left having to fit things together.

So, when anyone sets out a strategy for their online business, it’s needs underpinning with the systems and processes that will bring that strategy alive. The questions are:

- What’s the system or systems that will operate?

- What processes will go on in those systems?

- What tools are needed to make the processes work?

- How will the tools fit together so you have a complete system in operation?

How often do you find any of these things explained? Not much, I fear.

I’ve just added a page telling visitors about my free ecourse they get when the sign-up for my GoldVaultZine, at Want An Ezine That Won’t Waste Your Time?

This is going to be the main squeeze-type page and opt-in place for the ezine. That is, I’ll be sending traffic specifically to this page.

I’ve considered split-testing with, for example, System7Gold, but I want as much long-term traffic as possible to this blog. In any case, I could change the page on here after a certain number of sign-ups, such as change the headline, and compare results.

If you haven’t subscribed yet, you get more information than I can put on the blog and regular freebies I’ve created that you can sell or give away. That is, no ad hoc  ”offers” thrown at you day after day with which you get nowhere. I look forward to talking with you in there.

Thanks for reading!

I’ve been working on a list of “myths” in internet marketing.

Quite long so far – over 50! I may leave it there as I could go on in some detail into all the different aspects, like article marketing, product creation, SEO etc. The list covers some of these anyway.

Why do it? Well, especially if someone’s just starting,  it might get over the utter confusion that can develop. The list goes from positive but over-hyped myths to (depressingly?) negative ones.

It is amazing what we have to negotiate just to keep focussed!

Coming soon.

Yes, you read that right!

If you’re rushing to join my GoldVaultZine – I can’t be more ironical than that since I’ve no sign-ups yet – please hang fire.

I’m changing the autoresponder content , and may change the freebie gift for signing up to a much more valuable one in the reader’s eyes. Though the free ecourse I’m offering is valuable and tells stuff very few even mention – so if you want it you can still sign-up while it’s there.

I want the AR series to be more cohesively informative than it is at the moment. The plan is still for members of  the ezine to receive free original MRR reports every month which I’m writing myself. I just can’t get absolutely everything on this blog.

I’ll probably be putting a page about GoldVaultZine here, too.

Thanks for reading!

How many videos can a person watch… and learn what?!

Yes, there are some great videos and sets of videos on internet marketing topics.

But why do so many:

- take so long to get to the point. There’s still so much of the old psychological “trick” : “But before I tell you about that…”

- start by telling the marketer’s life-story – for about 10 minutes

- take an age to make the simplest point, e.g you’ll need hosting. I know many people may still not realise the significance of hosting (I certainly didn’t used to when I first came across the fact). But usually really nothing is said about it, except you need it – another several minutes filled

- go on and on, trying to explain something in garbled language: “like…er..well”, and usually ending with something like: “I can’t think of a real good example at the moment but…er…you know…you get what I mean”.

OK, I could go on. And, no , I haven’t made one – so you could shoot me down on that one! But, in my experience as watcher, the points remain valid.

Of course, there are some excellent video makers and explainers, e.g. Frank Kern is clear and entertaining in most of his work. There are plenty of others I’ve come across in short bursts.

My biggest problem with them is they take up too much time, mainly because I have to sit through them – unlike a text, where I can easily flip back and forth. Indeed, the presenter will often say you have to sit through to the end to get the real value. 30 minutes later you’re still waiting. Of course, it was extremely interesting, enlightening and useful to my business to know he (usually he) started off as an ice-cream salesman… and then…:) You get the idea.

I know videos are massive in marketing at the moment – but I’m not sure everyone is cut out for them, nor that watchers like me are really getting much useful information from them.

Complaint over!

One is I’ve bought thousands of sites I can put backlinks on - at a very reasonable price. I’ve not yet used any. I’m avoiding putting what might look like ad links at the moment. If you want to know where I got them, just contact me.

Two is that the Google dance with that article plus backlinks is still in operation – or, of course, it’ll never return. However, apparently it can take months to do its dance!

Third is  that I’ve installed the Google Analytics (TM) plugin which, over time, should allow me to adjust contents to fit what visitors are wanting, rather than what only I guess they do. Of course, that doesn’t stop me writing what I think needs to be or should be written.

I’ve not posted here for a short while. Here’s why.

This blog is obviously a central focus for me and my business. I’m still wondering to ever have any ads (even any more link ads) on here.  That is, to keep it clean for pure content.

Also:

1 Been thinking about how I can now begin to develop out from the blog, or rather the best way for me to do it. I’ve always had a plan. As ever, with actual practice your perspective changes, as you learn new things. I think this is a problem everyone meets and meets at various points in business development. In effect, not only what’s the next step, but what’s the best next step, and for me and my business specifically. This is all very briefly put.

2 I’ll just say, then that part of the above is that I’m considering setting up an internet marketing membership (free as a start) or an internet marketing portal-type site or content/information site, which could still be monetized if it’s all valuable enough. I know this is vague stated in this way. I have more detailed ideas. I’d be really interested in any responses to this.

Also, I did say originally I would have a new product out this month  – obviously things have changed. Firstly, because I’m not satisfied with the resources I could provide as useful to people in a one-off stand-alone product. Secondly, because I’ve grown more ambitious (over-eager?) to get to at least my stage one I was aiming at, that is, a membership site, which would in fact have originally been the end point of a Stage One for me.

3 The vexed question of article marketing. I still need to pursue this particularly, so I need more time on it.

Lots of people have always claimed that article marketing  done by itself (bum-type marketing) will get you lots of targeted traffic. You write lots of articles and send either to lots of directories or to a few key directories.

I will only ask: is this actually, as it stands, true? Or partly true? Is it the case, which might seem a bit daft to say, it depends on your interpretation of the various factors, including the results! I won’t say anymore about this because I want to make the next point about article marketing – which I think is the real emphasis.

Article marketing is best done, perhaps needs to be done, contextually, in the context of other methods. Put simply, article marketing needs links back and forth in a mesh of links, sites, and texts. For example, rather than be stuck in a directory and left, which seems to be the general advice with slight variations, there needs to be a context of Web 2.0 sites, blog(s), ezine(s), other articles, RSS and whatever.

In other words, there needs to be a pattern of formation and interaction in the total context.

I think this is where people get confused who are trying to work out traffic methods. For, what is the best pattern? Perhaps there isn’t a “best”. There are hints and some maps here and there.

I’ve mentioned in a comment about my interest in the relationship between ezine, blog and articles. Having already questioned the role, in some sense, of articles, I think these 3 are also best in a larger pattern of relationships and links.

No wonder people get mixed up, and find traffic-getting in this way difficult.

Try mapping some patterns out yourself and you’ll see;)

Oh…and I haven’t even mentioned backlinking in all this!

Let me know your thoughts. I’d love to read them!