You know when you have an enema?

(I’m not speaking from experience but I don’t rule out the possibility)

I’m told it makes you feel like a new person.

Cleaned out.

Lightened.

…sort of….EMPTIER but in a good way

And I serious need a mental enema at the moment.

I’ve always been really good at focusing on the project in front of me.

I always make sure they’re SHORT projects so I don’t lose interest. One or two days max.

And I can usually shut out any external distraction from the internet marketing world as I focus on what I’m doing.

But not this last month

Bloody Hell my delicate little head is absolutely CHOCKA with ideas, snippets of things I’ve seen from other marketers that I think ‘Ooo that’s a good idea I’ll try that’

…with new sites and products that I really must incorporate into my business at some point

…with new product ideas, new partnerships in development, learning the basics of new technology we’re mucking about with

…with freelancers, JV partners, Aweber playing silly buggers with deliverability rates, and a TON of other things, both large and small that ALL need sorting out

And I’m totally overwhelmed.

Fortunately I know exactly how to deal with this because it happens a couple of times a year, EVERY year since I’ve been involved with internet marketing

I need a huge DUMP.

That’ll unblock the works

I’m talking about a brain dump of course

This is how I’ve always cleared my mind, got my focus back AND created a six-month business plan to follow so I know exactly what I’m doing on a day to day basis

(And it usually brings in a chunk of money too)

It’s simple but it works for me so I thought I’d share it

1. I buy a new notebook. Actually a filofax type thing (can you still say filofax now it’s not the 80’s any more?)

The reason it has to be this sort of note book is that it needs those little rings in it so you can move the pages about without having to rip anything out

Dump the diary section if it comes with one. You just need blank, undated sheets. You might have to buy a refill to get enough.

2. But some coloured divider cards. You usually get some of these with the filofaxy thing, but if not buy some. I usually use around 6 or 7 of them

3. Dump every single one of your ideas down onto one sheet of paper.

It doesn’t matter whether it’s a product idea, an URL for some new software you want to check out, the name of an evergreeen product you want to promote, a book you want to buy and read or a full spec for a new site you want to build, get it all down onto ONE piece of paper per thing.

4. Write down these headings on your dividers:

Priority
Spare Time
Outsourced
Delegated
Research
Future

Now we’re going to fit every one of the items you’ve written down into one of these categories.

I’ll give you an example…

I need to split test a new product I’m working on with two different price points. I just need to create the buttons, dupe the page with the new button on, create a split test in my tracking software and that’s it. Should take me about 20 minutes tops (so it’s not worth outsourcing). However it NEEDS doing before I can go live with this product so this task goes into my ‘Priority’ category.

These ‘Priority’ tasks are the tasks that will make up my ‘to do’ list

What’s next?

I’ve got two books and an MP3 I really want to check out so they go into my ‘spare time’ folder. I’ll read these when I’m waiting in the car to pick the kids up, sitting on the loo, taking a break in the garden or whenever I have a few minutes spare. The MP3 will go into Dropbox so I can access it on my phone on iPad or wherever. Again by chipping at these a few minutes at a time I get through them really quickly

My new salespage can go into the ‘outsourced’ section. I’ll send over the rough copy I’ve written and my freelancer will make a pretty salespage from it

Slightly different is the ‘delegated’ section. These are tasks I can pass onto someone else without outsourcing. So for example if I’m working on a joint product and we need an affiliate page, we’ll agree that my partner creates that. Likewise if I need a list of people who’ve subscribed to my newsletter from the UK then my PA will sort that out for me.

‘Future’ is a bit like my ‘ideas’ book I’ve told you about in the past but I put anything in my ‘Future’ section not just product ideas. So bits of code that might be good to try with some of my pages but aren’t essential, checking out white label supplements for another business idea would go into this, buying some clone software for a site I want to try out would go into this too. It’s all going to happen, but not yet because it’s not urgent.

And finally ‘Research’ is the category I use to include tasks such as checking out new niches, seeing if a certain ‘clone’ software exists for an idea I have, following a certain super-affiliate’s CPA campaign to try to get an angle on how he’s working it, and stuff like that. I like the research category so have to discipline myself to either delegate or outsource most of it, or wait until it’s entirely necessary

I find that doing this in an actual physical book works far better than setting up files on categories on my PC. My guess is that too much computer rots your brain and getting away from it with a pen and paper does you lots of good from time to time.

This has always worked really well for me, and I’m due a session sometime this week to clear the mental clutter out.

After I’ve done this I feel a lot lighter, as though I’ve given myself permission to stop thinking about it all because it’s safely down on paper.

The only time I DO involve the PC is to make a corresponding folder that I use to swipe URL’s, affiliate links, emails and everything that is clickable.

I tried writing these down in the past. Never again. Include everything clickable in a folder on the PC for obvious reasons 🙂

Anyway hope you like this – let me know what you think by commenting below

Try it – have a good dump.

You know it’s a bloody weird thing…

The more things I offer for sale, the more money I
make.

It’s as though there’s some kind of crazy
connection between offering a product via a
salespage with a huge sweaty payment button on
it…

…and me seeing more numbers in my bank account.

Almost like selling things and making money are
somehow RELATED?

YET rumour has it that there ARE some people who
think the green stuff will magically appear in
their accounts if they leave forum posts under
their pillow for the sales fairy

Continue reading →

Get some personal coaching or get a mentor

You need to be able to work with someone on a one
to one basis.

Group coaching, no matter how good or expensive
will NOT give you the same results as working
with a mentor who can look at your individual
business and tell you how to make more money from
it

I’ve worked with mentors and coaches and it’s
made a BIG difference to my business

Sometimes you just need a short sharp kick in the
arse to motivate you…

Continue reading →

This is short and sweet.

As soon as you’ve created your own product or found
a product you’d like to promote…

STOP EVERYTHING ELSE YOU’RE DOING AND THROW SOME
TRAFFIC AT IT TO MAKE SOME MOOLAH

The big guys in the industry don’t mess around with
SEO and fr-ee traffic

That’s for newbies

They’re fine with selling you shedloads of PRODUCTS
about how to drive traffic for fr-ee but they don’t
do it themselves

…because it doesn’t work.

Not in a cost effective way anyhow

Continue reading →

You’re always told to ‘select your target audience’
right?

Doesn’t work.

Oh sure if you’re producing an ebook or product
aimed at a niche market such as the much exampled
‘people with acne’ or ‘tropical fish lovers’ then
that’s definitely possible

What ISN’T possible is to try to create your online
personality to get a certain demographic of people
to follow you

(otherwise I’d be targeting female naturist
volleyball players who send out pictures)

I have a good IM mate who PERFECTLY appeals to the
demographic of 25-35 year old males who like fast
cars and flash lifestyles…

Continue reading →

Well it’s weird…

Most marketers don’t know exactly where their sales come from and if sales are coming in OK they think they don’t really NEED to know

Which is utter balls as I found out to my dismay

See the screenshot below?

It’s just ONE of a load of tracking ‘things’ I do to find out where my sales come from. So for example my newsletter sales…

I know they come in every single day and it would be easy to sit back and be happy about that.

But most payment processors don’t tell you exactly which link a sale has come unless you really know what you’re doing with tracking links.

When a new subscriber comes onto my list they go through an eight or nine follow-up message sequence.

I’s assumed that the first TWO follow-ups were responsible for most of my autoresponder sales for my newsletter

Nope

You can see from the screenshot that it was actually follow-ups FOUR and FIVE that did the best.

What a bugger!

Because I’d been focusing on the first TWO emails and I dumped the ones that were actually working because I wanted a short sequence.

I THREW AWAY the links that were bringing me the most sales in the AR sequence purely because I didn’t know where the sales came from and what was (and wasn’t) converting.

Which is why I wrote ‘The Missing Link’

You can get more details by clicking on the link below or the pic of the hairy bloke at the top of the post (not me), and seeing if it’s something that wiggles your woggle.

Get ‘The Missing Link’ HERE

Comments welcome as always

Tony

(Here’s a post from my newsletter of about a year ago – I was reading it this morning and thought it made a lot of sense so published it here for you…)

We’re internet marketers right?

We’re in it to make money.

Those of use that are in the ‘make money online’ niche actually teach other people how to make money online.

So why the Hell do 95% of all marketers spend 95% of their time doing things that DON’T make them money?

It’s time to get harsh with yourselves people!

The recession is not going to go away for years.

Which means that more people are going to want to make money online to supplement their incomes or go full-time.

Some of those people will be your customers.

But some of them will be your competitors, and guess what?

Some of them will be smarter, more creative and more motivated than you (and me)

And they’re coming into YOUR niche right now!

At the moment you have the advantage of experience and knowledge over them, but that won’t last long.

So this is the time to take a long hard look at your business and DUMP everything that isn’t making you money, and instead focus and expand on the things that ARE.

You no longer have the time to fanny around with that authority site you ‘really want’ to build.

It’s no good bunging an odd post on it every month and a half.

Instead force yourself to make one post every single day for 30 days, and to slap some banner ads, AdSense and other forms of monetization on it right now!

If it’s not making you money, or working toward that goal then it’s just mental masturbation.

(Told you this would be harsh, but what a great phrase though!!)

Ah! You say…

‘But most of my sites ARE working towards making me some money’

What I would say to that is, if you’ve not seen any results from your efforts in a month then dump it.

Unless you’re working on a huge software product or other project that going to take a lot of time, you need to limit yourself to 30 days’ worth of action then you need to see results.
Creating a product and launching it does NOT take more than 30 days unless you’re playing at it.

You can’t make excuses for yourself any longer guys. You need to get established in IM as quickly as you can.

The longer you leave it the harder it gets.

And people who are RIGHT NOW seeing their first IM site will be working hard to establish themselves.

And it could only take a matter of WEEKS before they get to your level then surpass you.

You see yourself in any of the following scenarios? I did.

See if you use any of these excuses (I’ve used them ALL before I started kicking my own arse)

‘It’s taking me forever to create this content’

Outsource it.

‘I’m finding it really difficult to drive traffic to my site’

Buy some

‘I don’t have enough time to work on my IM business because I have a full-time job’

Get up an hour earlier and go to bed an hour later

‘I don’t know which part of internet marketing I want to go into’

Go do some research and decide, or go do something else with your life

I don’t especially like ranting but I’ll be honest, it was a rant that kicked my arse in the early days and prompted me to do the one thing that has kept me going more than any other:

‘Just Find A Way!’

The old example is that you’d ‘find a way’ if someone was pointing a gun at your head.

They’re not now. Not literally of course, but give it another 12 months and the state of the US and Europe might get to the point where you need to rely on your IM income.

And by then it might be too late.

Like I said, I don’t like motivation through fear.

I much prefer help and encouragement. But it was someone ranting like this that actually got me going in the early days.

I hope you take it in the spirit it’s intended and start making the move today 🙂

Comments welcome below – what do you think?

=================================================================

Did you get into Dave Nicholson’s coaching program yet?

This $500 program is currently accepting members for a one-off $27 payment.

Get more details by clicking the link below:

http://www.tonyshepherd.info/limitedcoaching

The price returns to $500 in three days or when it’s full.

I think it’s well worth checking out.

There’s a flashing banner thingy below that you can click to find out more details too:

=================================================================

We had a problem with the business I set up with Tony Newton.

It hit us like a ton of bricks a few months back

(This was the business that we set up to create plugins, themes and apps if you remember)

We got hacked.

Pretty damn badly actually.

What made it worse was because many of our sites
were ‘set and forget’ and we didn’t notice them
until sales stopped dropping in…

…AND they lost their search engine rankings.

All due to the fact that Google noticed the sodding
hack before we did

It took a while to fix and we lost revenue,
rankings and time to get it mended.

I still have little idea what the invaders were
doing on our sites but I have heard horror stories
of innocent site owners getting (real-life) visits
from the authorities…

…because their sites had been used in phishing
scams to collect Paypal and bank details

And just to make your Monday even grimmer than
usual, it seems things are going to get worse
because a major hacking sh*tstorm could be on route

In October just gone, security agencies such as
FBI, CIA & GCHQ have issued warnings of
“unprecedented levels of attack” so if you haven’t
already been hacked there’s a fair old chance you
will be soon

Yes It’s scaremongering, and yes I’m telling you
about this because I’m going to recommend a product
that can help…

…but I can’t tell you enough what an almighty,
stressful and expensive PAIN IN THE ARSE getting
hacked was

Protecting your sites is definitely the BORING side
of internet marketing.

Although trust me if you DO get hacked you will NOT
be bored

I was sweating like a fat girl in a pie shop when I
realised the damage that had been caused and the
time and expense it was going to take to put right

So lock down your sites – especially your WordPress
sites (this is where we got hit) while you still
can

If you want to know from an expert what to do to
protect your sites (and this bloke is the first
person I called when I saw our mangled sites)…

…the check out BlogDefender by Matt Garrett

Click the link below for full details:

http://gojvz.com/c/7617/20094

The guys behind these videos have over a decade of
experience in running HUNDREDS of high traffic
blogs, blogs that are often attacked, but are NO
LONGER HACKED

It’s not rockstar and it’s not sexy…

…but if you don’t put this in place you ARE in
for a shock at some point

Remember I’ve been doing this a long time and we
still got badly hit.

Click on the link below for more details

http://gojvz.com/c/7617/20094