We’re changing the site design and structure of this web site.

We’re in the process of migrating some old posts into archives and organizing some others.

I’m disabling comments so we can back up all the data and get things moved.

The new site design will be up soon.

~John

Happy New Year, everyone!

It’s a new decade. And there’s no better time than NOW to work hard and make your goals a reality.

I hope you make 2010 your best year yet.

~John

To give more people a chance to get off to a fast productive start in 2010, I’ve decided to give everyone free access to the first module of my Money Mindset course.

The first module is called “Getting Focused” and it’s incredibly important.

Here’s how to get free access to this module:
http://www.moneymindset.com/demo/

Username: mm
Password: free

* After you login, click the “RESOURCES” button that’s down the left-hand side towards the button. Then you can click to download all the PDF hand-outs that are used for the exercises.

ENJOY!

Some recent comments made on this blog reminded me of two very important lessons that I’ve learned…

1.  Don’t Be Afraid To Fail

2.  Focus On Fundamentals

One commenter reminded me that my recent car business, Samurai Speed, had failed.  I talk about the story in my Internet Marketing 2010 report published in a few posts before this one.

There were actually a few snarky comments in the post with the report about this failed business.  It seems like a few people took pleasure in the fact that I had failed — well in case they didn’t know, I’ve failed A TON OF TIMES.  (I’ll give you more examples of my failures in a moment.)

But to each his own, though.  It really doesn’t bother me for a very simple reason…

I know for a fact that you must fail, and sometimes often, before you can succeed.

There’s a reason some of the most successful people in the history of the world had some of the biggest FLOPS along the way.

No matter how great of a marketer you think you are, or how much you think you have a market figured out, or how great you think your product idea is, nothing is ever guaranteed to succeed.

In fact, once you’ve become a seasoned entrepreneur that has tried all sorts of projects you’ll come to realize that some of the ideas you never thought would turn into much end up being homeruns, and the big ideas you were so certain were going to be a smashing success turn into DUDS.

It’s just the way it goes.  That’s why many entrepreneurs say to learn to FAIL FAST.

I’ve certainly had my fair share of failures…

Just over 2 years ago, I launched BlogRush.  The little blog widget that I really thought was going to change the way bloggers syndicated their posts and generated traffic for their blogs.

The widget was adopted by nearly 50,000 bloggers in the first few months and syndicated several BILLION blog posts across the network.

From a technology standpoint it was an AMAZING creation.  My team did an awesome job at developing it. With all the heavy traffic it rarely failed.  It was a rock solid piece of software and server architecture.

But the service, ultimately, FAILED.  And failed badly.

People started to ‘game’ the system.  Others started burying the widget on their pages.  And the widget itself started to get ‘tuned out’ by visitors after awhile and the click-rates on the syndicated post titles plummeted.

All of this caused major attrition across the network.  Click-rates went down, users got less free traffic, and many users stopped using the widget — which lowered the traffic more and created a ‘reverse snowball’ of sorts.

It got to the point where the service needed to be shutdown.  Our company never even had a chance to monetize it.  It was a tough one to see fail.  It seemed like it had all the promise in the world.

But that is yet one of many failures I’ve had in my life…

As many people know, I created one of the first autoresponder services in the world in 1994.  I was a pioneer of sorts for the permission-based email industry.  And it was fun getting press in major newspapers and magazines.

There was only one problem… the service was before its time.

It became too hard to educate people why they needed to use it.  Some hardcore direct marketing people saw the value in it, but it was a tough sell to small business owners at the time.

So, ultimately, it failed.

But Wait, There’s More!

Actually I could probably write a book about all of my failures.  I have hundreds of them.  From building an instant messaging platform, to a free personals site back in the late 1990s (makes me crazy to see the guy from plentyoffish.com killing it today!  But good for him.) to a B2B supplier directory to a parenting portal to banner ad network and on and on and on.

And those are mainly ONLINE ventures.  I failed a ton offline too.

But again, that’s the nature of business.  I’ve also had my share of winners — MyItem.com (a photo hosting service for eBay users) was once a Top 500 traffic web site in the world.  Yes, IN THE WORLD.

Here’s an old page where someone had listed the Top 500 from 1999 — you’ll see MYITEM.COM on the list.

I was a very successful domain name broker as many people already know.  Even in 2001-2002 (after the dot-com crash) most thought the domain name “gold rush” had ended.  I started a new strategy to isolate lower-tier (i.e. cheaper) resale domains and ended up producing over $1 million in sales (mostly profit) in less than 9 months from that project.  I ended up with nearly 40,000 .COM domains at that time.  Crazy times!

I also did very well selling infoproducts to niche markets - like golf, parenting, karate, etc.

And I was (and still am) a successful affiliate marketer.  I was one of eBay’s top affiliates when they launched their affiliate program, and I was also a top affiliate for several credit card programs like Capital One and Next Card (old school net marketers will remember Next Card.)

But for every infoproduct (or affiliate market) success there were many failures when testing out markets and concepts.

So if you haven’t figured it out yet… business is very hit and miss.  And it has been for many of the world’s BILLIONAIRES.

So you can’t be afraid to fail.    The great book Think And Grow Rich has some amazing passages about failure being a part of success.  I highly recommend you read (or reread) that book.

You can’t get ‘married’ to your ideas.  Throw them against the wall and see if they stick.  If they don’t (after giving it a fair effort) MOVE ON.

There are a gazillion opportunities out there for you to build a success business with.

The 2nd part of this post is about something else…

Someone had posted and said they’d been working at Internet Marketing for years, and had bought many courses, but haven’t had success.  They even asked if they should buy one of my products.

My answer was NO, I don’t think you should buy it.

It has to come to a point when you stop buying more education and instead use what you already have.  If you have a successful business and you’re just looking for a little nugget here and there to plug into your existing business, then I DO recommend you continue to invest in training products.

The beauty of training products is that you get to buy the testing results of the author — you don’t have to invest the time, money, or energy it took to get the results.  You simply get to learn from it and hopefully get instant ideas for how to use it for yourself.

But if you don’t yet have something working, and you have purchased a few courses (or spent many hours online educating yourself) it’s almost 99% certain that you buying more marketing courses is NOT going to help you.

The fact of the matter is the bulk of online business success comes down to some basic FUNDAMENTALS:

1.  Finding a market to serve and provide value to.

2.  Making offers to that market (promoting affiliate products, dropshipped products, your products, etc.)

3.  Driving the highest possible targeted traffic for that market (Google Adwords).

4.  Building an email list so you can follow-up with prospects.

5.  Writing good content related to your market — on a blog, in articles, and when communicating with your list.

THAT’S IT.

There are some ‘tricks’ for maximizing Google AdWords that Google doesn’t tell you, but you can still be very successful with AdWords just using Google’s free training.

But what about SEO?

SEO takes TIME.  And SEO comes AFTER you get AdWords to work.  The biggest mistake people make is trying to optimize the site for a keyword that they’ve yet to prove WILL SELL PRODUCTS TO THEIR MARKET.

So you need to BUY the traffic first to at least prove that it converts — even if you can’t make that specific keyword profitable.  At least then you’ll know what keywords convert so your time isn’t wasted on those SEO efforts.

There are also many strategies for using Social Media.  It’s a great way to syndicate that content and drive traffic.  But as I recently mentioned in my Internet Marketing 2010 report (in a few posts before this one) I also think Social Media can be a BIG WASTE OF TIME because of how most people use it.

Social Media is too easy to get caught up in like a chat room.  I think it’s important to use with an overall strategy but use it for a max of 1 hour per day (in most cases).

BUT…

In the beginning don’t even worry about Social Media.  If you can’t start getting some success from the AdWords traffic then your project is doomed.

Think about it… the AdWords traffic is most ideal prospect… someone actively searching for exactly what you sell (or hopefully sell).  So if those people DON’T BUY from you then you certainly aren’t going to sell to less targeted traffic (like Social Media traffic).

That’s it.

Focus on the fundamentals.  Get busy.  Test, test, test.  And fail fast.

UPDATE:  I had some comments about AdWords… I’m not suggesting you rely solely on AdWords for traffic generation.  But it IS where you should start — even if it’s not profitable.  I teach a “sacrifice early profits” concept where you are simply just after metrics in the beginning.  Even if all the keywords are unprofitable, if you’re making sales you will see which keywords drive the best conversions; then you can consider an SEO campaign for those keywords and actually STOP paying for AdWords.  But AdWords is definitely the place to START (it’s the best targeted traffic) to validate the market and product being offered.

The Money Mindset course is now LIVE!

Get instant access to the course here.

This is the first course to use our new Income.com Learning Platform! We’re excited about this new online platform that will make it quick & easy to consume course materials and to put them into action right away.

Here’s a sneak preview of the Learning Platform interface for the first module of the course:

And as promised, this course is affordably priced at just $97. No upsells, no continuity, nothing else to buy. Just $97 to get access to all (48) lessons and (20) PDF exercise hand-outs.

Visit the Money Mindset web site for more information about this course.

Only 3-feet tall. In a wheel chair. 200 bone fractures before he was an adult.

And oh yeah… wildly successful and happy.

His name is Sean Stephenson. I first met him in the summer of 2004. He’s one of the most remarkable people I’ve ever met.

Sean is the perfect example of living life to the fullest. No matter what you are facing in your own life, or what your ultimate goals are, if you can’t get inspired by Sean’s story and life then you’ve got a real problem.

Sean has a POWERFUL message to share with the world. He’s an incredible inspiration that has had a huge impact on thousands of people (myself included) and now he’s been given an amazing chance to spread his message…

The BIO Channel is producing a TV show for Sean called “The Three Foot Giant.” The first episode airs on Sunday, November 15th at 11PM PST, 10PM EST. Please tune in and watch! It’s going to be a fantastic show.

We need to get over 300,000 people to view this initial episode so they will ‘green light’ the series. Please help spread the word anyway you can! And make sure to watch it.

Click Here To Watch The Trailer For Sean’s Show!

I’m writing this blog post from the airport in the Philippines. I’m in the process of heading home to California.

I’ve been in Asia for the past couple of weeks, and I just finished opening our new Income.com Asia office in the Philippines.

Here’s a photo of me and some of the team from Income.com Asia:

We’re building an exciting software development team here, and we’ll also be looking here for additional expansion for our company.

The Philippines is a wonderful place to hire workers. Whether you’re looking for a virtual assistant, programmer, designer, researcher, or any number of other skills, the Philippines is a great place to outsource to.

The people here are very nice and hard-working. Their school system is taught in English, so they can read, write, and speak English really well. Arguably better than any other country where English is not the first language.

Overall, the Philippines is a pretty poor country. There are not a lot of job opportunities for its citizens, so outsourced (virtual) jobs are an important part of their economy.

You can hire people here to work full-time for as little as US$300/month. More skilled workers, like engineers and developers, cost a lot more than that, but it is possible to hire people to do data entry, research, and writing tasks for that little.

And while $300/month may not seem like a lot of money, it’s a lot of money to many people living here.

Many Fortune 500 companies have offices in the Philippines and employ a lot of people here. It just makes good financial sense for certain types of jobs.

Our Income.com Asia headquarters is going to be working closely with a nearby university. We’re going to be creating internship programs as well as helping the university create specific curriculum to help students have more opportunities, and we hope to hire more and more people from this region.

It’s a sad reality when some of their top engineering and computer science graduates end up working at a call center as their sole job opportunity.

Opening this new office and building out our development team will finally allow us to build and deploy a lot of the plans I have had for Income.com — many of which were delayed due to the nightmares I dealt with in hiring software dev firms that I previously mentioned in my Internet Marketing 2010 report.

I’ll be sharing more news soon about how to find outsourced workers in PH, as well as the pitfalls to avoid.

* For those asking… Money Mindset should be released within 3-4 more days.

I’ve received a TON of great feedback since releasing my free report, “Internet Marketing 2010: The Road Ahead.”  (Thanks, everyone!)

But I want to clarify a few things…

1.  My statement about “remove all testimonials.”

I was referring to RESULTS-BASED TESTIMONIALS.  That’s what the new FTC guidelines affect and the context of when I stated that.

Someone posted on a marketing forum that I was ‘crazy’ for giving such advice.  That as long as testimonials weren’t full of hype and outlandish claims that they are okay to use.

WRONG.

According to the latest guidelines (and again, I’m not an attorney and this isn’t legal advice) marketers cannot use testimonials that contain results from a product that the AVERAGE buyer of the product doesn’t achieve.

In other words, even a ‘tame’ testimonial that just says, “I really liked your book.  I made my first $50 a few days after buying it.”  According to the FTC guidelines, if the average buyer of the book doesn’t make $50 a few days after buying it, such a testimonial is considered MISLEADING and it’s against their new guidelines.

Yes, that’s how LAME these new guidelines are.

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with someone stating how much they liked the product and what they got out of it, etc. but ones that state actual RESULTS (big or small) are the ones now under scrutiny by the FTC.

Will the FTC come after you if you use a testimonial that states someone made $50 a few days after buying your book?  Probably not.  But according to their latest guidelines it sure seems like THEY CAN.

2.  My statement that “Social Media sucks.”

Anyone that read all of my comments in the report about Social Media knows that I recommend everyone use it.  It’s great for building backlinks, syndicating content, and building relationships — and, yes, finding new customers.  I think social bookmarking and doing trackbacks (with great content) is a must.

Most of my ’sucks’ comments were aimed at Twitter and Facebook.  The sites most people think of when thinking of Social Media.  These are the sites that I feel many people are wasting far too much time on.  YES, you should definitely use them.  No doubt about it.

But when compared to other Internet Marketing strategies (PPC, building a list, creating products, making offers, working on copy & conversion, SEO, creating & distributing content) it doesn’t produce as much money.  Therefore, I believe one shouldn’t spend as much time using those sites.

This is exactly why I mention people should use these sites for a max of one hour per day.

Twitter and Facebook have become the new AOL Chatroom.  Even if you feel you’re using them “in the name of your business” it’s too easy to waste hours of time chatting and socializing with people on them.  If you don’t actively limit the amount of time you use them, they WILL hold your business back.

Here’s a Special Report I created for you…  In this report I cover a lot of things.

I talk about some of the things I’ve been up to and changes that are affecting Internet Marketing.

Here’s Some Of What I Cover In This Report:

• How I made a bone-head mistake and lost over $350,000.

• My thoughts on “Social Media” and why some will hate what I have to say.

• Did you know… The FTC just changed the entire game of marketing.

• Why your traffic generation efforts better get ‘smarter.’

• Don’t do ‘this’ or you and your business might be doomed.

• How you need to position your business and why.

Click Here To Download The Special Report

After reading the report make sure to leave your comment below!

And feel free to tell others about this report.

During this past weekend, I was excited to announce the release of a new Web Class I am teaching called “Money Mindset.”

It’s a 4-Week class with assignments and Q&A help. The cost of the class is $497.

The class doesn’t actually start until October 15th, so I have a lot of time left to do follow-ups and get more people to register. In fact, I’m sure many people were going to wait until the last minute to sign up — which is often the case with live events like Webinars, seminars, and conferences.

From a business standpoint, the campaign to sell this class (after only 3 days) was already successful. But to be honest, I didn’t see as many of my regular customers signing up as I thought I would. I’m sure many of them were going to register at the last minute, but it was something that got my attention.

I also paid close attention to the blog comments that were made in the post below this one where I had originally announced the class. While you can see for yourself many people are really excited about the class and even feel the $500 price tag will be a bargain for what they’ll learn.

HOWEVER…

You’ll also notice quite a few people expressing their disappointment over the price. They are really interested in the class but just can’t afford, or justify, paying $497 for it.

Our office received quite a few phone calls and email support tickets expressing concern that they really wanted to attend the “Money Mindset” class but the price was too high. We’ve gotten that feedback on some of our products before, but never like this. This is the ‘loudest’ the volume of feedback has ever been.

The economy is still obviously affecting a lot of people. While many are actually prospering right now in their businesses, many of my other customers are struggling.

Now I’m certainly never one to make excuses for high-dollar marketing products that I sell. As Gary Bencivenga once told me (btw he’s one of the top copywriters in history if you don’t know his name) marketing products are actually UNDERPRICED compared to other products; if they are quality training products that can actually produce results, of course.

I also believe in the matra of “getting rich while enriching the lives of others.” I’m an entrepreneur myself and when it comes to Income.com, my marketing-related business, I focus not only on truly helping people but also on making my company wildly profitable.

With that being said, I’m going to do something I’ve never done before when it comes to pricing products for maximum profitability…

The cheapest marketing product (non-subscription) that I’ve ever sold is Traffic Secrets 2.0 at $397. In fact aside from that product all the others are $997 and up. I, again, make no excuses for charge high prices for products I believe offer 10X+ the value. Many of my customers will vouch for the fact that they are bargains for what they contain. HOWEVER…

Because I’ve noticed the real EXCITEMENT people have about this “Money Mindset” and the disappointment so many have expressed because of the high price…

I have decided to CANCEL THE CLASS completely.

All the customers that ordered will be receiving a full refund this week.

What I’m going to do instead is change the format of the class away from the live multiple week platform with Q&A/coaching help, and instead go into my studio and produce “Money Mindset” as a digital home study course.

And then I am going to release it and make it available for only $97. And, no, I’m not planning any upsells, forced continuity, or anything. Just this course by itself for only $97.

But… but… but… there must be some other sinister scheme, right? After all, I’m a marketer. Or “marketing guru” or whatever you want to call me. And all marketers are bad, capitalist pigs right?

Well, in this case there honestly isn’t some evil scheme.

So Why Would I Do This?

Is this just a scheme to make more profit!? I seriously doubt it. I’d have to sell 5X as many to make the same amount of revenue. In fact, releasing recordings of the original class and being able to offer a $250 commission to affiliates would generate a lot more sales activity than if I did the same with a $97 price and gave a $50 commission.

Now don’t get me wrong… I’d love for it to sell thousands upon thousands of copies at $97 and generate some great revenue for my company - after all, we’ve got some pretty high overhead and payroll that need to get paid every month. But that’s honestly not the sole motivation for doing this…

I believe in this “Money Mindset” method a lot. I know it’s going to help a lot of people. I truly believe entrepreneurs NEED it. And who knows, maybe it will spin off into a real book that I may write. I’ve had plans to write a real book for years and haven’t been able to follow-through because I keep changing my mind as to what I’d want in it.

And from a business perspective, I think if I can help a lot more people with this product (by selling it for far less than any marketing product I’ve ever offered) it will also generate some loyal customers that may go on to buy my other more expensive products when they can afford them.

So I just wanted to share some random thoughts with you about what I decided to do and why.

I’ll keep you posted on the development of the home study version and when it might be ready for release. Thanks to everyone for their visit in “Money Mindset” — I’m really excited about it!

~John