This may seem obvious, but have you ever noticed the increased advertising in print, television and radio whenever there is a holiday? That’s because holidays give people excuses to buy things.  Holidays (no matter how small) are great opportunities to stay connected with your customers.
Are you connecting with your prospects during the holidays? If not you are passing up valuable opportunities. Many online retailers are aware that holidays are big buying times, but I haven’t noticed  many internet direct marketers filling my inbox with targeted promotions during the holidays.
I was …

In the last post I talked a little about how to go about choosing and outtasker. Now, I will discuss some of the uses for outtasked/outsourced services.
Starting and running a successful small business requires much of us. Either we spend time or money or both. We envision, we plan, we create, we source, we network, we market, we sell, we fulfill orders.
When we think about all the factors involved with starting and running a successful business it can seem overwhelming.
For many people, getting started and staying started is the hardest …

When you begin to create your own products you may find it useful to outtask certain tasks. Before we continue though let me make the distinction between outsourcing and outtasking. Outsourcing is a process related function and differs from outtasking which is a project related function. For instance, you may outtask the development of a home-study course or a piece of software but you may outsource support for those products or call center operations.
Outtasking can have many benefits. Outtasking can also be costly and result in unfinished or poorly developed …

Search engine optimization(SEO) and search engine marketing(SEM) can get fairly complicated. That said, you can still be successful with SEO and SEM using simple time tested techniques that are really more about putting in the work than anything else.
Brilliant search engine optimizer and internet marketer the late Ken Giddens summed everything up simply saying something to the effect that what search engines are looking for are sites most related to the topics the claim to be about. In essence, they are looking for the most naturally occuring conditions.
Think about it, …

Momentum can happen whether you are on an upward path or a downward path. I have a friend who’s life appears to be gaining downward momentum. For many years now he has struggled with gambling.  He has developed so much downward momentum in recent years that I am uncertain whether he will ever get back to the happiness and life he had before.
Three years ago now my friend was gainfully employed working as a finish carpenter. He liked the work, but I could tell he wanted more. Instead of formulating …

I have found that many people are confused about what affiliate marketing is and how it works. I am going to attempt to clarify some of the basics here.
Affiliate marketing works like this. Advertisers (with goods or services to sell) connect with publishers (people or companies with websites) through a affiliate network. An affiliate network basically acts as a middleman connecting advertisers to publishers.
Advertisers create advertisements that affiliate networks review and either accept or reject. These can be text ads, banner ads, or email graphics, or combinations of the three. …

Making money online isn’t magic, it isn’t rocket science either.  Here’s the deal, if you want to build a sustainable and profitable business online solve a problem meet a need, or answer a pressing question. You can do this with information, products, or services.
Think about business in terms of relationships with your prospects and think about the long term goals. After my father retired he took a part-time job as  a greeter at Walmart. He stayed there for 15 years. Looking back on that experience he said, ” I liked …

My girlfriend bought a new car this weekend. I went through the process with her and had a great time observing some great salesmanship. Fortunately, I wasn’t the one buying the car so I could just sit back and observe without being emotional.
It’s been years since I have done in person sales for a living. I remember some of my first jobs were door-to-door sales. I was young and dumb, and quite clueless. I sold fairly big ticket items such as Kirby Vacuums and Rainsoft water purifiers. I remember being …

Okay guys, here is the down and dirty giude to non-fiction book writing. But first, let’s talk about a few of the reasons you may want to write a book (or ebook).

Profit from the sale
Help someone solve a problem or achieve something
Books are excellent promotional tools
Instant expert status
Confidence and momentum builder
Opportunity to make money promoting other (affiliate) products

Now that we have touched on some of the reasons to write a book let’s get down to business and describe exactly how to write a book. This isn’t rocket science (even though …

Keep your eye on the prize. In my life I have done a few things I never would have done had I not had goals. I will be perfectly honest, I have sacrificed relationships, fun nights out on the town, and even short term rewards in order to acheive my goals. In doing so however (in retrospect) I have sacrificed nothing. I had goals and I followed them. I completed them and now I am after other goals.
I will admit, I have many shortcomings, but lack of motivation, action, self …

In cyberspace it is sometimes easy to forget that markets are people. They are not just strings of keywords. Yes, of course we need long strings of keywords in most cases to find those people, but really all of this keyword compiling should come after we have identified a suitable group of people that are hungry for whatever good or service we have.
Seriously, this is the single most important factor in the success or  failure of a product. Yes, copywriting is important. But, any copywriter will tell you that if …

Yesterday I watched an excellent video presentation by Tom Beal that was part Mike Filsaime’s 7 Figure Code. Tom is a pretty inspirational guy.
Tom did what all good marketers do. He told a great story.  I didn’t really like the guy at first. He just made a bad first impression on me. All that changed however when he began telling his story.  He told how he had been the child of teenage parents and had moved numerous times and attended a multiple of schools growing up. He talked about how …

There is great truth in the quote which has sometimes been attributed to actress Ilka Chase that “the only people who have never failed are those who have never tried.”
All of us can think back to moments in our lives where we have had to fail at  least once if not several times before we were successful at something.  When we are children (or so it seems) we are more intent on succeeding at things. But as the years pass many of us become habitual comfort seekers afraid to break …

Here in Ventura we have near perfect weather most of the year.  We are a smallish beach town with a cute downtown and a steady supply of tourists. There is a nice river bottom and beautiful hillsides with good amounts of brush covered open space. In short, a good place to be homeless.
We have so many homeless and panhandlers in Ventura that I have had dreams they are lurching towards me like zombies with their hands out, droning “spare some change.”  It can really be annoying sometimes being solicited by …

My friend, colleague, and the CFO of the company where I worked - Glenn- was fired not that long ago. I watched as the whole thing unfolded. The event was unfortunate because his termination had nothing to do with competency and everything to do with personalities. Here are five things I learned that I can relate to buyers or prospects.

Don’t waste your time pitching to prospects who aren’t interested in what you offer. Find those who are.
Get to know who you prospects are and speak their language. If you can’t …

Sometimes it’s just hard to get things done. Especially when there is no one there to poke or prod us into doing them. We know we should do them but we are either too busy, too tired, or too full of excuses to do them.
I know for myself difficulty in getting things done is usually a combination of  busyness, tiredness, and excuse. My day-job as a creative director can be stressful and tiresome mentally. I have employees to deal with, clients to deal with, multiple projects, and tight deadlines to …

Not long after I made the decision to develop my own product, I ran across Tim Ferris’ book “The 4 Hour Workweek (escape the 9-5, live anywhere, and join the new rich).”  Wow, what a great title. Who wouldn’t want to escape the 9-5, live anywhere, and join the new rich? Sounded good so I bought the book.  The 4 hour workweek further initiated me into the world of consumer direct response marketing. Ferris claimed that he had become successful “selling drugs for fun and profit” in the nutritional supplement …

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Let me back up just a bit and start closer to the beginning of this latest business undertaking.  I was working as a creative director for a consumer direct response marketing company and had a side business doing consulting work.
From my earliest memories enjoyed consumer direct response marketing in its various forms. I liked watching late night Tom Vu and Carlton Sheets infomercials or being wowed by an envelope with a 1 dollar bill inside of it followed by a 10 page sales letter telling me about the mindboggling $1,236,487 …