So I was at a bar.

Not too unusual. It happens with frightening regularity actually…in a good way of course.

I stood with two other blokes, clutching my pint and listening in fear to the techy conversation that was going on round me.

I was at a Mastermind group session in a hotel near Wakefield. In fact the same mastermind meeting still happens and it’s great fun but that’s another story.

The two other blokes (and I’m sure they won’t mind me naming names) were John Sikora from GuruDaq and David Allen who now owns SimpleMemberPro and a bunch of other stuff.

This was quite a few years ago now…..

The subject was FTP – something with which I’d only recently come to mess around with, and I was interested in the subject with the fervour felt by a cross dressing rugby player who learns that a new range of Jimmy Choos is now available in size 13.

Except I was CRAP at it (not cross dressing, although I’m not good at that either)

I didn’t know how to create a subdirectory. I knew that if you put an index.html file in the main folder it showed up as a webpage. But how the Hell did you do the same thing for a subdirectory?

I’d Googled, Yahood and even Dogpiled but I couldn’t find an answer. It was so simple (as I now know) but I spent literally a couple of weeks trying to work it out.

Of course I was too proud to ask.

I wasn’t doing too bad – I’d just made around $30,000 from a single ebook if memory serves (One Month Magnate) and was considered to be quite ‘on the ball’ at the mastermind meeting.

Which is why I couldn’t bring myself to ask a simple FTP question. In case you’re wondering I’d been building ALL my sites with a dreadful sitebuilder package that cost me around $100 a year per domain. That was the only way I could create subdirectories, which I needed for opt-in pages, download pages etc.

So at the bar, fortified by beer and the knowledge that I NEEDED to have this info, I asked the lads quietly…

‘So when you’re FTPing, how do you make a subdirectory?’

They turned and the whole room went quiet.

I was sweating like a fat girl in a pie shop.

‘You just make a new folder, call it whatever name you want and stick an index.htm file in it’ they chimed and carried on with the conversation.

I honestly couldn’t believe I hadn’t worked it out for myself. I was incredibly relieved and that one piece of information has been directly responsible for thousands upon thousands of dollars in profit for me.

Why did it take me so long to get help?

I reckon it’s the same reason that men find it impossible to ask for directions when they’re lost.

PRIDE.

But it’s changed me. Now I can stick my hand up in a room of experts and newbies alike and say ‘I didn’t understand that can you please tell me again’

Anyone who knows me will tell you that one of my favourite phrases is ‘Tell me that again’

And I’ll tell YOU right now that my business wouldn’t be anywhere near as successful if I hadn’t learned to ask for help years ago. And more importantly to KNOW when I needed it.

And this is why I’m holding out my hand to take money off some of you right now.

I’ve just opened the doors on www.121mentoring.com

I’m offering my team of techies to work with you and mentor you in all things ‘complicated and technical’

In short, I want to help you cut through the crap that’s been holding you back. If your site doesn’t sell because it ‘looks wrong’ and it’s sapping your motivation then you need to do something about it. That’s what 121mentoring can do for you.

Likewise if you’ve got a half installed blog or a membership script that doesn’t work then you’re in danger of never getting to the REAL heart of your business, which is about making MONEY. The silly, complex, stupid little things that hold you back aren;t silly at all – the’re DANGEROUS because they can stop you FOREVER from establishing an online business.

A month or two using the team at 121mentoring and you can move forward more than you’ve done in the past year.

Over half of the slots have sold out in less than 24 hours…..and I’m NOT speaking to most of you here.

But the ones out there who have read this blog post twice and checked out the website. You’re the guys I’m looking at. Use my team correctly and you’ll make far more money than the subscription costs, and what’s more, you’ll finally be able to dig yourself out and get your business FLYING.

I have two great skills. One is the ability to make dogs bark by just looking at them, and the other (the one that means I’ll never work for anyone else again as long as I live) is the ability to realise when I need help and to ask for it.

What about you?

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Internet Marketers are Magpies – we beg borrow and steal!
Thanks to Ian for giving me the idea for this post.

If you haven’t yet checked out my Perpetual Motion Marketing System you can do so here. – it’s free.

These simple ‘tweaks’ to my sales funnel brought me over $20,000 while I was just testing it out!

Actually the figure was more like $27,000 but like a prat I didn’t screenshot the figures at the time so could only give proof of around $20k.

Not complaining though 🙂

So – why the reference to Magpies?

Well the idea for Perpetual Motion Marketing System came from a few different sources and I want to show you why you should never stop learning, why in my opinion, the most profitable thing you can ever do online is develop the skill to extract the golden nuggets from any information you come across.

The main ‘nudge’ I had for this system was from Lee Mcintyre.

He allowed me behind the scenes of his setup quite a while ago follwing an interview I did with him.

I laughed during the interview and told him I was ‘taking notes’ of the info he was giving out.

I wasn’t joking! Lee is a very clever, very generous marketer and he’s been kind enough in the past to mention my name as someone whol helped him to get started.

Well now I’m equally happy to say a big thanks to Lee for showing me how his ‘engine’ worked.

So Lee’s system was a big influence in me testing this system and incorporating it into my own funnel.

 There’s a fair bit of my own experience and ideas in there too, such as the automatic recruitment of affiliates (the main aspect for automating the traffic process) and found that sending new subscribers to an OTO BEFORE they confirm their email address results in a slightly lower opt-in rate but a significantly higher conversion rate for the OTO.

Russell Brunson was also an influence on where to use short and clever’pre-sells’ in the process (you’ll see this in the Perpetual Motion funnel rather than the 90 days one) and this made an impact on conversion rates too.

There are also influences from Mike Filsaime, Paul Myers, Frank Kern, a ‘gem’ from Tahir Shah after a skype chat, and a verbal kick in the ass from Soren Jordenson who told me how I was leaving a ‘pile of money’ on the table by not doing one particular thing.

Oh….. and a SHEDLOAD from the feedback I got from KickStart Course members.

And a dash of ‘influence’ from a nice case of Red my wife’s uncle brought us back from France.

So thanks guys.

Extremely apprecaited, I hope this gives an insight into why being a bit of a beachcomber when it comes to finding and using the ‘gold’ in other people’s methods is possibly the most important skill you can develop online.

Except for …. putting your own stamp on everything you do.

There’s more to come on this next year………………

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Last month I was interviewed a couple of time by marketer John Tan for his excellent http://marketinglunchbreak.com site.

This one is about Upsells.

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So – this is what I do best – wander off somewhere to chill out with my family for a few days or weeks…

I’m currently running my business from an old cottage that overlooks the bay. It’s a cracking view – very peaceful and the sort of place that slows your heart rate the moment you uncork a bottle of red and walk into the small courtyard.

In fact I’m typing this from the cottage kitchen – all wooden beams and the sound of the waves crashing on the shore through the open window.

My internet connection, which runs through my iphone is INCREDIBLY slow, but who cares?

In August we were in Scotland, then back home for a short while. Next I went to a marketing seminar in Manchester, then the day after we set off for the cottage up here.

We’ll be at home for Christmas then we’re off to France in the New Year for a while.

And all the time I’ll be keeping an eye on the business just using my laptop and mobile internet connection.

The stuff dreams are made of eh?

Yes – But this is the important part….

It’s entirely – ONE HUNDRED PERCENT POSSIBLE for every single person reading this to live the same way as I do……

…..Or have Ferraris and to travel and stay in the best hotels in the world if that’s what you want.

You just need two things:

1. Good wesbites that you can build FAST and that look good,
2. The ability to drive traffic to them pretty much at will.

Hold that thought for a sec…

Here’s a picture of my daughter at 7.15am this morning spotting rabbits in the field opposite

And here’s a picture of me checking my emails on a deserted beach (and getting told off by my wife for doing it) using my iphone 🙂

 

This is PRECISELY WHY I’ve sent you a couple of emails about John Thornhill and Dave Nicholson’s ‘Multi Profit Websites’ and I’ve been raving about the UNIQUE bonus I’m offering if you buy through my link – My 8 Week Traffic Generation Course…

It’s because the above package – MPW and my bonus – in my opinion brings together these two KEY things that are basically the bedrock of a successful IM business.

So here’s the lowdown.

If you buy Multi Profit Websites through my link I WILL make a commission.

But in return I’m offering you a place on my Traffic Generation Masterclass where I’ll show you EXACTLY how I drive traffic to my websites, and keep up with the big boys in the game, despite only working a couple of days a week…sometimes from a beach 🙂

I guarantee you won’t have come across some of these methods before.

In short – I’m telling you about this because I think it could have a MEGA impact on your business.

The only downside is timing – because as I write 31 out of the 50 places on my MasterClass have sold out.

Check it out here

http://www.laycockpublishing.com/mpw/bonuses

and give it some serious thought,  it won’t be available for much longer.

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Well we’re (me and family) at the cottage – about 4 miles north of Whitby on the North East coast of England.

Walked five miles along a windswept beach yesterday and woke up this morning with a face like a slapped arse.

…that means red and sore if you’re non-Yorkshire 🙂

But I might have something that’ll cheer you up.

It involves investing (ie spending) money in your business but some products are worth it and some are REALLY worth it!

This is the latter.

John Thornhill and Dave Nicholson spent $100,000 developing Multi Profit Websites, and it shows.

It allows anyone – any experience level – any technical ability – to produce websites that look as professional as the big boys produce.They can be built in minutes too!

Best of all you monetize them in just a few clicks.

I’m going to be using MPW myself. It really is that good.

Which is why I put together a VERY special bonus for anyone who buys Multi Profit Websites through my affiliate link.

But there are only 50 bonus places available and they’ve already started selling…

I’ve never offered anything like this before – it’s pretty special – so check it out if you were going to grab MPW.

http://www.laycockpublishing.com/mpw/bonuses/

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John Tan has launched a cracking new site based round a great idea.

http://marketinglunchbreak.com is a series of 5 minutes (more or less) interviews with internet marketing experts about various subjects they know inside and out.

John’s idea is that you can listen to one of the interviews in your lunchbreak or when you’re driving the car or taking a break from posting crap in the forums (guilty yesterday) get an insight into how other marketers run their business.

You can join marketinglunchbreak.com for free (opt in required) and hear experts such as Terry Dean, Dylan Loh, Mike Long, Dan Nickerson, and a handful of others including me.

I’ve been listening to them as they arrive via an autoresponder sequence, and I’ve been really enjoying them.

Here’s a sneak preview – one of two interviews I did with John.

Go and sign up – it’s good value for (no) money!

http://marketinglunchbreak.com

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I asked a week or so ago if you’d send in some pics and vids of where you worked, and a little about your internet marketing business, whatever stage you’re at – full time or just a few hours a week.

You sent in so many that I built a new blog around them – http://www.financialselfsufficiency.net

It’s going to take a while to get it all up and running but suggestions about what you’d like to see on there are welcome – a blog maybe or some sort of JV forum.

…and I’ll do my best to sort it out.

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My wife gave me the idea for this post.

7.30am (no 10am starts for me with two small kids who wake at 6am!) in the kitchen. I’m still half asleep and can only focus with one eye but it’s enough to get me to the coffee maker.

Then my wife took this, and suggested (laughing) I should ‘stick in on my blog’ and show my subcribers the ugly truth of what internet marketing from home is really about!

Actually I thought it was a great idea – so I went upstairs to take a pic of my workspace.

I resisted the idea to tidy up my desk. After all I wanted to show you what my desk looks like most of the time and not just when it’s posing for photos so here it is – this is where I work most of the time.

My office is also the guest room and the room where I ocassionally sleep if I’m working very late or on an early morning call with someone from another time zone, so I don’t disturb the family in the middle of the night.

You can see my desk lamp is still switched on – that’s because in Yorkshire at this time of year it’s pretty dark at half past seven in the morning.

It’s quite a sparse set up, with a laptop and a netbook being the only computers I’m currently using. The silver laptop that’s folded up and acting as a platform for my netbook in the picture is slowly packing up – the keys are sticking and I think it’s time to get a new one.

The other reason it’s such a laptop-based setup is that it’s portable. The netbook, a notebook and my mobile broadband connection (iphone plus cable) can be grabbed and stuffed into a bag in under a minute and they provide me with a mobile office whenever I’m off on my travels. This will be coming with us when we go to the cottage on the coast in two weeks or so for an Autumn break.

So I’ve shown you mine – can I see yours now?

I’m inviting anyone and everyone who reads this to send in pictures and/or video, and a brief write-up of where they work.

You can be at any stage in your marketing career – working full time from home or just doing a few hours in the evenings to try to generate a little extra cash. Even if you’ve not made a penny yet, tell me about it.

I want to show other marketers out there that you don’t need a huge, custom made office complex to be an internet marketer, and that the reality is, most of us get by with, or even enjoy working from a small corner at home.

I want to know how your marketing fits in with your lifestyle – adds to your lifestyle  – and in a way that real marketers work, not the usual laptop on the beach in a hammock (unless that IS your reality)

Anyway – ever tried typing in a hammock? – it’s bloody hard let me tell you.

In return I’ll publish your pics and/or video and writeup on my blog along with a link to your blog, site or whatever. Just send that in with your write up.

There are NO rules unless I make them up at a later date, so you can send in anything – there’s no right or wrong way to do this, and you’ll get your link seen by thousands of people.

Send your stuff – doesn’t matter about format, we can sort that out – to tonyshepherddirect@googlemail.com

You can send links to your youtube vids, or web based pics or attach them and send them through. NO pre-existing promo vids or pics though – this is about your lifestyle and where you work NOT a blatent plug for your biz, and in return we’ll put your blog or site link in with your write up. Just jot down whatever comes to mind.

If you’ve never published your picture (and it would be great if we had a pic of you as well as your workspace) or done a short video (no more than about 3 mins please) about your lifestyle and how it’s been affected by internet marketing, then this is a great excuse to do it AND get seen my a LOT of people.

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I’ve got a new unrestricted PLR package available for you. All you CAN’T do is sell on the PLR license.

The rest is down to your imagination!

SOLD OUT!

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I’m currently on the stunningly gorgeous west coast of Scotland with my family, exploring by car and boat, and very nearly by seaplane, which would have been a first for me.

It’s never great looking at someone else’s holiday pics, let alone when the main feature is a big hairy bugger so I thought I’d try to sneak them in by letting you know how I’m running the business from Scotland.

Before we went I set up ‘internet tethering’ on my iphone, which has worked fairly well, even in some bloody remote spots, and means I can plug my iphone into my laptop to access the internet. The tethering facility costs £30 (about $50) a month on top of my iphone usual bill so it’s a bit steep but it’s been well worth it for me.

We’re staying around Oban mostly, because it’s a good place to get out on the water and to explore the islands around the west cost, and because it’s one of the few Scottish names I can pronounce and spell.

We’d heard about a Seal colony on a tiny little outcrop of rock between the mainland and the island of Mull that we could sail very close to and not risk running aground, so we set off to find it a few days ago – here’s what happened.

As we left Oban – maybe a half mile or so from the port, and still very close to the surrounding land – in fact there were people in canoes around (glad I wasn;t one of them as you’re about to find out) my daughter said, with a very casual tone…

‘Oh Daddy look, there’s a big shark’

I smiled gently and started to explain that it’s very rare to see sharks in this part of ……..

Then stopped dead as a bloody big shark swam past us, about 20 feet off the starboard side.

My missus – always the professional – grabbed her camera and took this picture.

We thought that would be the last we saw of it, but it then went under the boat and came up very close on the other side.

I knew, and was also told that it was a Basking Shark and completely harmless.

But I’ve never been as close to one before and fifteen feet is quite long I reckon.

I know they’re vegetarian but I personally KNOW a few vegetarians and let me tell you, when they’re bugged about something the last thing they are is harmless!

If you’ve ever been whacked with a Peruvian lentil spoon you’ll know exactly what I mean.

We continued on to the seal colony and it was well worth it – we managed to get up really close and they seemed very interested in us, although not frightened.

There were also a lot of sea birds on the same ‘island’, and while I’m not expert I now know the difference between a cormorant and a shag.

Ahem!

My internet tethering – would I recommend it? Well it  worked very well and the signal from some places was better than I got at home in Yorkshire when I tested it before we set off.

It did throw up some funny things though. For almost a whole week I couldn’t access my Aweber account which meant that a promo I was going to do for another marketer didn’t come off.

Apart from that everything works OK and I watch money come into the accounts and subscribers join the lists as I travel round the Highlands.

I’d recommend it if you’re going to make your money back from using it – and probably as usual with the ‘technology rip off’ industry, if you wait for 12 months it won’t be so expensive. Personally it does the trick for me.

I brought my laptop with me because my new SAMSUNG NC10 (name and shame) netbook decided to crash, and despite mucking about with it for almost a day before we came up here, couldn’t get the damn thing to connect to any sort of internet connection, although I did manage to install the Windows XP System it came with.

Despite this I didn’t trust it to work and so I left it at home. I’ll have another go when I’m back in the real world.

The first thing I did when I got here was to find the nearest internet cafe (yes there’s one everywhere these days) so if anything goes wrong I can still keep in touch. Although I only seem to log on now and again, usually in the evenings, and once the booze had been opened.

Speaking of such things…….

………I bought some 12 year old malt this afternoon so it’s time to sample a wee dram, so I’m off to sample it.

Best wishes.

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