We’re underway with the marketing campaign for Traffic Secrets 2.0.

You can go right now and view a couple great videos:
http://www.trafficsecrets.com

UPDATE: JULY 3, 2008. The initial free videos for the marketing campaign will be released in a few more hours. We’re just making some last minute changes.

Here’s a little teaser video:

Get the Flash Player to see this player.

Finally.

It now looks like there’s a 90% chance that we will begin the pre-launch campaign for Traffic Secrets 2.0 starting this coming Thursday, July 3rd. We’ll be releasing several great free videos — valuable stuff even if you have no interest in the course.

If all goes according to schedule we’ll officially launch the course on Tuesday, July 15th.

Right now I say 90% because there are some last-minute minor details that need to be taken care of and I want to be very careful not to promise a date and then have to postpone it — everyone has waited long enough (over a year!) for this course to get released. So after some unexpected delays and mastering issues during the past 6 weeks, we’re so close to the finish line. More news as soon as something is 100%.

I want to thank everyone for their patience. And I promise, it will be well worth the wait.

Make sure to ‘follow’ me on Twitter for more LIVE updates: http://twitter.com/johnreese

IMPORTANT UPDATE:

Special Discount For Owners Of TS1.0:
When we ran the “blow-out” sale last year to take TS1 off the market I stated that all owners of TS1 would get a huge discount on TS2. TS2 is going to have a special release price of only $397. ALL of our TS1 customers (including the blow-out sale buyers) will be able to buy TS2 at the discounted price of $297. The exception to this is for anyone that bought TS1 at full price ($997) in the beginning of 2007 (right before the final sale) — those customers will receive TS2 for FREE since they purchased the course at full price so close to the sale.

Affiliate Program:
We’re getting a lot of emails and calls asking about an affiliate program for the launch. We will be using some affiliates to get the word out for the launch but we don’t have an ‘open’ affiliate program at this time. If you feel that you would be a valuable partner for the launch please contact Andy Hussong at andy@income.com. Tell him you’re interested in being a launch partner and explain (in detail please) why you think you’re a good fit for this promotion.

Our dev team made a slight mod to the story layout on TrafficJam.com today.

We decided to kill the little thumbnail snapshots of each blog. They looked cool but took up too much room.

The new ‘cleaner’ designs now shows more stories before someone has to scroll — a much easier way to scan for interesting news.

Our little algorithm has been extremely impressive so far.

It’s far from perfect and occasionally some lower quality stories slip through, but overall it’s been amazing. Some great stories, sorted by category, all ranked live by the algorithm of what’s getting the most interest and engagement across the BlogRush network.

Not too shabby considering social news sites like Digg, Reddit, Propeller, and others rely on HUMANS to be submitting and voting on stories to determine relevance. TrafficJam.com is fully automated and managed by an algorithm.

Just a quick update.

I want to thank everyone for their patience. We sincerely appreciate it.

We’re getting very close.

We ran into a few issues with some of the content and I had to go and rerecord quite a bit. Nothing more fun than REDOING work a second time.

We also had a minor hiccup with the database setup that manages the learning platform but we have solved that issue.

At this time an actually ’shipping’ and full release date looks like either the last week of June or the first few days of July. We’ve got to wait and see how fast our duplicator is going to crank out the new masters and have it all ready to ship.

So we’re getting there. I’ll post more news when I have some to share.

Shocked to see this blog actually load? YOU SHOULD BE!

It has been offline for nearly 5 DAYS.

Our primary server host experienced a major fire that knocked out connectivity to *9,000* servers. I would bet that over 250,000 web sites were affected by this outage.

Not all the servers are back online, but they should be any minute. I’m glad our blog is back up.

A quick “Income.com” related news update for you…

Status Of Traffic Secrets 2.0

We, unfortunately, ran into a minor problem with the CD-Rom format for Traffic Secrets 2.0 and now I have to go and re-record some of the content.

It’s not a major issue but it’s going to delay the course release by a few weeks. We had planned to release it by the end of May but that’s not going to happen now.

I want to apologize to everyone that’s been patiently waiting for the course. We’re doing our best to get it out ASAP and it will be available before you know it. (So thanks.)

The Main Income.com Site

We’re still very busy with the development of our core site as well as the great video content we’re creating for it.

I had really hoped to open up the site early in the year, but it’s just not going to happen. We’re adding more features and doing a lot of testing on the initial phases of it all.

UGH. Why is it that everything always takes A LOT longer than you think it will!?

A lot of our valued customers have been contacting us and are anxious to know when TS2 will be out as well as the main site. So I just wanted to send out this update to let everyone know that we’re hard at work on both of them. They will both be well worth the wait. I know I keep saying that, but it’s true, I promise.

I am dying to share some more information about what we’re developing (which would make people realize what’s taking so long) but I cannot release this information just yet for competitive reasons.

You’ll fully understand once you see it all come together.

So in the meantime, keep working hard on your business!

QUICK TIP:

Here’s how to make more money in your business right away…

Analyze your current results. See where most of your traffic is coming from and what’s creating most of your revenue.

You’ll find that only 1-3 things are most likely driving most of the activity in your business. Spend more time growing those things and very little time trying other things that are unproven. It’s the 80/20 rule on steroids. It really applies to Internet Marketing.

Also, there’s ONE thing that will probably make you more money than anything else - A NEW PRODUCT.

It’s a proven fact that one of the best ways to create an infusion of cash into your online business is to release a new product.

Yes, product creation is time consuming and sometimes is no fun. But regardless of your market, releasing a new product is almost guaranteed to make you more money as fast as possible.

A great book I highly recommend you go out and buy TODAY is “Ready, Fire, Aim: From Zero To $100 Million In No Time Flat” by Michael Masterson.

This book talks a lot about building an information publishing business and a lot of it can be applied to building this business online. After reading this book you’ll understand why creating new products quickly is one of the most powerful ways to build wealth in your business.

Here’s a link to it on Amazon.com. It’s currently selling for only $18.45 which is an absolute bargain.

More news soon.

There’s a fantastic event happening in Orlando, Florida on September 11-13, 2008. It’s called IZEAFest.

IZEAFest is a 3-day event all about BLOGGING. Many of the top bloggers in the world will be in attendance. My good buddy, Jeremy Schoemaker, is giving the keynote address.

Unless you’ve been living in a cave, by now you realize that blogging is the current and future of publishing. Most “old school” newspapers and magazines now have digital editions of their publications (i.e. blogs) and many are transitioning to a BLOG-ONLY model and will no longer continue to print their newspaper, magazine, or trade journal — because it’s a lot more profitable as a blog-only model.

Thousands of bloggers are now making a part-time or full-time income from blogging — and this trend is only going to continue to explode. Never before has it been easier to ‘instantly’ have your own publication like a magazine or a newspaper to let your voice be heard.

EVERY COMPANY marketing themselves online needs a blog.

Want to learn more about how to make money from blogs? Want to network with some of the most successful bloggers in the world? You know, the ones that can dramatically increase your rankings with a single link pointing to one of your posts.

Then you need to attend IZEAFest.

Here’s The Best Part…

It’s DIRT CHEAP.

If you register for IZEAFest before May 14th, it’s a whopping $50. Yes, fifty bucks. If you register after May 14th, your ticket will cost $65.

Even if you pay $65 for your ticket this is an absolutely NO BRAINER. The networking opportunities alone are probably worth 1,000X+ that amount.

And since this event is taking place right down the road from my super-secret batcave headquarters, I am 90% sure that I will be able to attend so I’ll see you there! There’s a small chance I might be out of town that week but I’m trying to adjust my schedule.

Get all the info and register here.

Scheduled for launch in May(see the news update post) here’s the first sneak peek at the special case for Traffic Secrets 2.0.

The first version of this best-selling course shocked the Internet Marketing industry when it was released on August 17, 2004 and sold over $1,000,000 worth in less than 18 hours. It became known in the industry as the first “Million Dollar Day” by an infoproduct entrepreneur and the course went on to become one of the most popular “must have” training courses ever published.

After listening to what our customers really wanted, we designed a custom case for this course that will hold all of the components. No more ‘loose’ disc cases that can get lost. No more packaging you open with ’stuff’ that just flies everywhere. Now it can all stay in one nice container that can go on a bookshelf for easy reference.

The 2.0 version of the course is ALL NEW and contains 12 special interactive CD-Roms (our brand new learning platform; super cool stuff!) that will set a new standard for the industry and how people consume infoproducts. This new interactive learning platform was designed to help our customers consume the information faster so they can immediately put strategies into action and start seeing results right away.

The course also includes a Training Manual, Workbook, Blueprints, and some other goodies I can’t reveal just yet.

Stay tuned to the blog for more info.

By now you’ve probably heard of “transparency” and how it relates to a company’s marketing.  It can mean many things — from the open disclosure of certain policies to a public explanation of ‘why’ a company is taking a certain approach or utilizing a certain strategy.

But one area of transparency, more than any other, is what I believe is the future of all business.  It’s when a company provides a “behind the scenes” look at its culture, work environment, special events, lives of its employees and more.  It’s all about doing things that can build a lifetime BOND.

Let’s face it, we’re bombarded with marketing today.  It’s coming at us from all directions.  And TRUST is a major issue.  How can we trust one company over another?  Transparency is going to help solve this problem - at least for the companies that embrace it.

Gone are the days of marketing behind impersonal advertisements, generic campaigns, or fancy product design.  ”Customer” is a dead label.  The future of business is all about creating FANS and also FRIENDS.

As the commercial Web took off in the mid-1990s, single man or woman operations had a major advantage over ‘big’ companies — they had an easier time building relationships with their prospects and customers.  They wrote email newsletters and shared stories about their personal lives.  They shared photos of their cats.  They talked about lessons they learned from their kids.

And their businesses THRIVED because of this “better business relationship.”  People were drawn to it.  And it’s no surprise.  Would you rather give your hard-earned money to some cold, distant corporation or to someone that at least appeared to care about you enough that they took the time to tell you stories and share things with you?

As “social media” and the Internet continues to evolve, it’s getting easier and easier to share photos, videos, and stories with others.  I think it’s only a matter of time before businesses (and individuals) are going to be in deep trouble if they aren’t sharing ‘more’ like their competitors.

One way for YOU to practically guarantee that you make more money in your business is to improve the relationship with your site visitors/blog readers.  And being more transparent about your business and your own life is one way to do it.

You may have some PRIVACY concerns and it’s definitely something to think about before you start sharing anything.  I’ve been pretty much a paranoid freak during the past 10+ years of marketing online.  I rarely posted any photos of myself or anything to do with “my life” because I had privacy concerns.

But I’m slowly but surely getting over it.  I know that in order for my business to thrive I’m going to have to become more transparent.  Business today practically demands it.  (Or will very soon.)

Here’s a quick example of a young company that’s got this transparency thing down…  IZEA.  They post videos of company parties, have employee “confessionals” and tons of other ‘fun’ stuff that I’m sure their customers love to see.  Do you think this is helping build the relationship with their customers?

You better believe it.

Ted Murphy, IZEA’s Founder & CEO, is a friend of mine and he’s done an amazing job creating his company’s culture.  Check out the IZEA Blog to see some of the crazy stuff they are doing.

Now not all companies are going to go to such extremes as IZEA but they better start doing ’some’ of this transparency stuff (i.e. sharing) or they will be in trouble.  And you definitely need to consider doing more of this in your own business.

Personality Is Becoming More And More Of A Marketing Weapon In A World Of Over-Hyped, Outdated, Boring Strategy.

In my own effort to be more transparent, I’m going start sharing more “behind the scenes” stuff about my personal life and the life of my business.

If you haven’t already done so, make sure to follow me on Twitter.

I’m also starting to post more photos on my Flickr photostream.

Here are just a few of the photos I’ve just added… (you can click them to see larger versions).

From the time I sent out the first email to my newsletter list (inviting them to add me as a “Friend” on Facebook) it only took about 5 1/2 days to go from zero to hit the max friend limit of 5,000 friends. I’m not sure if that has ever happened before in the history of Facebook for one person’s account.

Keep in mind that I personally had to go and approve every request by hand — and I, personally, did all of them myself.

I plan on doing a lot of teaching from within Facebook itself (as it’s an incredibly valuable marketing tool) but as of now I can no longer add any new friends.

BUT…

I was able to set up a “Fan Page” within Facebook that is separate from my main profile. This Fan Page can have an UNLIMITED number of people connected to it. (Or so I’m told.) While the Fan Page does not have ALL the same functionality as being linked as a ‘friend’ to my main profile, it will have about 90% of it. I am going to be listing all my teachings and any videos I’m going to release via Facebook also on this Fan Page.

I have also set up a “Free Advertising” section within this Fan Page so anyone can go and promote their site; as well as they follow the rules I have listed.

If you missed out on becoming one of my 5,000 “friends” on Facebook, or even if you are one of the 5K, visit this page and click the “Become a Fan” link in the upper right area:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/John-Reese/12918602084

Then look under the NOTES section for the note that says, “Click Here To Promote Your Products & Services!”

* I’m going to encourage all of my 5K “friends” to also join this Fan Page area, and I hope to continue the “momentum” I created by making that Fan Page area HUGE. This will have tremendous networking benefits for everyone involved. So please go and join that page.

More news soon!