June 13, 2007

Review of Google Cash Detective (GCD), Adwords Tycoons, and AdSpyPro

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"Walk Into Any Niche You Choose
And Dominate Instantly Because
You'll Already Know Where The
Money Is At Every Single Turn…
Before You Ever Even Spend A
Dime Of Your Own" ???

These are the types of claims we have been reading in the recent months from several software, promising that you can literally begin to investigate
a number of keywords and track the advertisers whose advertisements are constantly showing up. This type of monitoring is hugely powerful, especially if it's
able to be done in an automated fashion.

Well — if you've seen any of the recent launches for Google Cash Detective, X-Ray Domination, Uncover Profits or Adwords Tycoons, then you already know that most of those programs are out of reach even for some people that are making good money.

X-Ray Domination = $1500
Undercover Profits = $291 per month
Google Cash Detective = $495 plus $97 per month
Adwords Tycoons = $1500

If you've ever wondered how some of the guys in the past year have been turning up some incredibly enormous checks by using the Pay-Per-Clicks, wouldn't you want to know HOW they are doing it?  I know I do! 

What gets more powerful than letting a little robot loose on the Internet to monitor particular keywords and report back ONLY the campaigns that were shown the most every time they were monitored?  This literally gives you a license to piggyback on other people's success that already have a proven selling process for their affiliate website landing page or just their affiliate link.

I have been testing GCD for a couple of months now and can verify this.

I recently received a great offer from JP Schoeffel at www.adspypro.com/ . This software is the was created in the "Better'n'Cheaper" series, where a number of people pay in advance nominal membership fees to create cheaper and better alternatives to software that has been released and which are only available at much higher prices.  He writes that he has received a lot of criticism for this.  JP Schoeffel has long experience in Internet Marketing and has produced some very good marketing materials and tools, such as Niches-In-A-Box and many social bookmarking books and tools. He has also had  a lot of success as an affiliate marketer.  Now I know why!!!

When I finally got around to reading the sales page on www.adspypro.com/ I was happy to see that it works with several other programs - not just Adwords. The price on the page says $67 for the time being, and will continue to rise after the pre-launch period is over.  Rush to get this software, if you have missed out on the others. Receive $20 back from me after the guarantee period has ended, provided you purchase through my link, of course.  The $20 rebate is valid only until June 30th, 2007 and for 500 licenses.

I received my copy today and I am pleased to say that it looks very good.  More to come in the near future on a review of this software and some effective strategies to use with them.

I received Google Cash Detective, GCD, as a surprise bonus last year when I subscribed to a new Adwords management service, which took me months to learn - not because it  was so hard, but because I am so non-technical. The link to GCD arrived about a couple of months ago.  Being the non-techie person that I am, t took me quite some time to learn to install - but once I finally got over my fear and "got it", I realized it wasn't that  difficult, after all to install software and things like a "cron manager" and to create databases. I've been testing it without any detailed instructions on how to find the profitable campaigns.  I have found campaigns and tested new ones but haven't had the instant success that so many people are claiming would be the results of having this. I suppose if someone were to peek over my shoulder and tell me exactly what, when and how to do things, I would learn much faster and be earning much more money with it. 

I also recently received a copy of Adwords Tycoon, which went on sale yesterday and sold out within a few hours of its launch, even after hours of problems with their servers, and learned just very quickly through their tutorials how they find the profitable campaigns, but the price of that software was very high.  These software are very similar to one another, but to be fair, the Adwords Tycoon software gives more info and is more flexible than GCD, but lacks the extended service of transferring your keywords to your Adwords campaigns, a monthly service priced at $97 per month, as mentioned before.

More to come on a comparison of the functionality of these software and the results I am getting.

Google Cash Detective, Adwords Tycoons, XRayDomination, and UnderCover Profits are ALL SOLD OUT.  But you can get www.adspypro.com/ for a limited time at the pre-lauch price of $67 and $20 back from me after the guarantee period has ended, provided you purchase through my link, of course.  The $20 rebate is valid only until June 30th, 2007 and for 500 licenses.

Stay tuned to this blog for an upcoming video on the results I am getting with these software.
 
Angela Wickenberg

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May 28, 2008

A Guide to Business Development 2.0

Written by Alex Iskold / April 10, 2008

At least once each day I get a call from someone trying to sell me outsourced development services. It's difficult to not be frustrated with these calls and it is increasingly hard to be polite, because they come so frequently. Yet, more than frustrated, I am just puzzled. Does this tactic still work? Who in this day and age would give business based on a cold call? These companies could definitely use a dose of business development 2.0.

Because of these calls, for a while I have been thinking about the impact of the modern age on business development. In the good old days, it all boiled down to the salesmen with the big rolodexes who could close the deal. But clearly, the rules have changed. How does business development work this days? What makes sense and what does not? In this post we take a look.

Cold Calling is Dead

The reason we all hate cold calls so much is because they are very intrusive. A stranger interrupts our flow, and takes precious seconds away from our lives. But maybe even as recently as 10 years ago we did not feel it so acutely. Why? A few reasons. First, the pace of our lives was not as fast, the minutes did not feel as precious. But more importantly, today we have a much less intrusive form of solicitation - email. True we all hate spam, but an unwanted email doesn't feel like as sharp an interruption as an unsolicited phone call.

Besides being annoying, cold calling is no longer effective. People are smarter these days, and have learned to ignore upsells. A targeted email which avoids the spam box has a higher chance of getting a response than a call. With a call, the default allergic reaction is now "no." But with a brief and sincere email it could be, "hmmm, this might be interesting…" However, even cold emails do not work. To have a chance at making a sale, you need to get a warm introduction. It used to be that the business web was hidden inside of people's heads and rolodexes. Today, however, a lot of it is out there in the open - inside a digital business network called LinkedIn.

Warm Calling via LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a business network that has emerged as a substitute to the rolodex. Because it is online and self-managed, LinkedIn offers a much more robust way of maintaining your business connections and seeing what they are up to. But beyond that, LinkedIn has become an indispensable tool for business introductions.

Say you're interested in talking to Acme Co. about your new product. You log into LinkedIn and search for people who work for Acme. Then you see how you might be connected to them. Ideally connection is just one degree away, or in other words, you know someone who knows the person you are looking to connect with directly. And then you ask for an introduction.

An introduction received via LinkedIn is much warmer than a cold call, because it comes with a bit of trust. You are no longer a stranger trying to upsell things that no one needs, instead you come with a recommendation, however light, from a person that the receiver is connected to. And even if you can't find a path to connect to someone, sending a direct message via LinkedIn is better than sending a cold email. The reason is that LinkedIn implies business context, and so the person you're trying to reach likely is not going to be as surprised or angry about the unsolicited ping.

Creative Calling via Social Media

Beyond connecting on LinkedIn there are other modern means of connecting with people. Facebook message, Twitter @response, a comment on a photo or blog post, etc. These are ways of getting someone's attention that are creative, but you need to be careful when employing them because they can be unwelcome. People do not use Twitter to get unsolicited business pings, nor do they post pictures for strangers to comment on. Facebook is probably somewhat acceptable because a lot of people are mixing business contacts with friends there. But the most solid way of connecting with someone outside of LinkedIn is via their blog.

People who blog generally want to have a conversation. If you engage with someone around their blog and participate in a conversation on a topic that they are interested in, you will naturally connect with them. Particularly if your business engagement is relevant to the topic they are discussing, blog comments are likely the best way to engage. However, if you try to push the conversation off topic, the person will perceive you as disingenuous and there will be no business.

Transaction 2.0

Let's suppose you've found the right way to connect and you've got your meeting. Now you're looking at the whole sales cycle. Particularly, if you are small startup aiming to sell your product to a big company, has anything changed? Not really. You still have two fundamental hurdles - the time and the risk. Between startups and big companies expectations of how quickly the deal can get done are completely misaligned. Big companies are scared of the startup speed. Startups are frustrated with big companies' turtle pace.

Beyond the length of the sales cycle the issue that kills most transactions between startups and large firms is risk. Will this 5 person company be around tomorrow? That's a question that large companies are likely to answer with a "no" and that becomes a big problem. For this reason it doesn't make sense to buy from startups - it is too risky. However the mitigating factor is often cost - startup products are often cheaper or even free. Yet even if the technology is free and easy to remove if things don't work out, big companies are wary. They do not understand free, it scares them and perhaps rightly so.

The worst part about having a startup that sells to big firms is actually scale. The famous crossing of the chasm necessary to get big is really complicated. In the enterprise world, it means signing up many clients, keeping the pipes open, and sending out more and more products. This model is so costly and risky that venture capitalists are reluctant to shell out the money to fund it. Because of the complexity of building the enterprise business that knocks on doors a new model is emerging - web services and APIs.

Door Knocking 2.0: Web Services and APIs

How can a small start up that has no capacity to knock on doors sell to big companies? A possible answer can be via a web service or an API. The model is applicable to a whole range of services - from data plays like del.icio.us to messaging systems like Twitter to infrastructure like Amazon Web Services and semantic web services like Open Calais from Reuters. The basic model is to have a web service which is accessible via API (application programming interface). Clients sign up to use the service and have to agree to the terms in order to obtain a key. Using those keys, clients can use the service programmatically to send and get data from it.

Some examples: the del.icio.us API, allows clients to access information about specific users (if the user permits that). The Twitter API allows sending and receiving messages without using the Twitter web site. The Calais API is an example of a web service which encapsulates an algorithm. In this particular case, the algorithm takes a document and extracts semantic information from it. Unlike del.icio.us, which offers an interface to consumer data, Calais is a one shot deal algorithm. And perhaps the most important example of a web service play comes from Amazon. Taken collectively, the offered Amazon services is powerful infrastructure for building web-scale applications.

What is common between all these web services is the simple monetization strategy - pay per API call. For each call into the web service, the callee has to pay based on the amount of the resources consumed by the call. For example, Amazon has been charging for bandwidth, storage, and CPU time. The exact model does not matter as long as a fraction of a cent is charged for each call. Remarkably, this is a business that has a huge potential to scale. Each individual client is paying an affordable price, because each call into the web service is very cheap. However, collectively clients might amount to big revenue for the service provider.

What is the most attractive about this business model is that it is completely forecastable. By estimating the cost of scaling the business (mostly hardware, support and maintenance) and setting the price per web service call and the number of clients, you can determine if the business will work or not. Of course to be fair, we need to mention that just like in traditional sales, there is number of clients hidden in every equation. Two fundamental risks exist in this model - clients will not want to use the service and clients might not be able to figure out how to use it.

Still, the risks and costs of a web services based business are much less than the traditional enterprise approach. There is no need for an expensive sales force and an army of consultants to implement the solution. We are yet to see this model succeed in a major way, but because of their simplicity and straight revenue model the API based businesses are looking attractive.

Conclusion

Nothing stays constant in this world. The technology, the web and the society always evolve. Business development evolves along with everything else and lead generation has been changing along with methods of communication. Business networks like LinkedIn have replaced old rolodexes and email have made cold calling look ridiculous. Yet, there are no fundamental changes in the sales cycles and risks for startups that choose to go the traditional route of knocking on the doors of large companies.

The markets are iterating to come up with a new form of business development called web services. This new form is both cheaper and simpler - no enterprise sales force is needed to scale the business. However the question, "If we build it, will they come?" still remains unanswered. If any company can make this model work really well it is likely to be replicated and become widespread. Will web services succeed? Time will tell.

For now, please share your favorite examples and stories of business development 2.0 in the comments.

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January 17, 2008

Building A Successful Online Business Takes Only 4 Essential Keys

The 4 ESSENTIAL Keys to Building an Internet Business:


1. You need to build a list

2. You need to have a backend and multiple front-ends

3. You need to be working with at least one other individual (partner), or in a team

4. You need to build a business with continuity income.


You need to begin with the end in mind and build your business based on the basic principles of marketing that have been around for hundreds of years.

So, how are the gurus making big, big money online. How are they constantly entering new markets and extracting huge profits from them?

They're using a very consistent, tried and true model.

It's actually a very simple model that they use over and over again, and it's easy to copy.

There are no secrets when you know the model. You only think there are secrets now because you haven't been able to piece the model together yet.

So, here it is:

This model (the KEY to online wealth), consists of multiple front-ends leading to a backend, which is either a high-ticket item or a continuity program (something where someone is billed automatically each month).

This is the foundation.  Every major online success has been a result of implementing this model properly.

Look at the most successful companies in the world, and you'll see the continuity model in action:

- Credit card companies

- The phone companies (cell phone and regular)

- Gas

- The grocery store (you HAVE to eat!!!)

- Cable TV

Even certain retail stores, like Costco are member-based. Costco charges an annual memembership fee to even allow you to shop at their store!

Of course, they can do this because of the way they've presented their product offering: buy in bulk and save.

It's no accident that these companies lock you into a subscription, and sometimes even a contract where you HAVE to pay them for a certain length of time.

Successful marketers often use a technique called forced continuity. This is where in order to buy something, someone absolutely MUST join the continuity program. The brilliant part is that the continuity program is positioned as a bonus, and on top of that the first month is free.

So, conversions on this are very, very high. And, once you have someone in your continuity program, there is a good chance they'll stay for awhile — possibly for years.

Watch the progression:

1. Customer comes in though a $30 front-end (ebook, cd, etc)

2. Customer is funneled into an email list where they are hit multiple times over the next few weeks (or even months) with autoresponders.

3. Customer is upsold into a $49/month continuity program.

4. From within the continuity program, customer is upsold to a $1000 home-training course.

5. From there, customers are upsold into a $7000 mentoring program including personal coach and teleseminars, plus other tools and bonuses.

If you didn't catch what I just wrote, read it again.

This is how the big names are making BIG BUCKS online. There are also many, many people who you've never heard of who are making insane amounts of money using this model.

Ever heard of Agora Publishing? Their model is based on continuity - they are one of the largest newsletter publishers in the world. At this point, they're bringing in $1,000,000+ per day using the model I described to you above.

With that said, let's take each of the bullet points I listed further up the page and break them down.

I want to tell you exactly what you need to do starting today.

- List Building

Building a list (with either email addresses and/or snail mail), is CRUCIAL if you want to succeed online.

If you don't do it, you will probably never reach your income goals, much less your income potential.

Start building a list now, in whatever niche is most appealing to you.

Now, once you have that list, keep in touch with your subscribers. Send them free content — build a relationship.

- You need to have a backend and multiple front-ends

This is one of the golden rules of Internet marketing.

Do you think guys are Armand Morin are making their money selling their little software scripts and eBooks? Heck no! These products are front-ends.

Armand's big backend is his BIG SEMINAR, which he holds annually. He not only charges people to be there, but he also takes a cut of whatever commerce takes place between people there. It's his seminar, so he can do it!

Remember, a backend can be a high-ticket item or a continuity program.

In this case, Armand's seminar is a high-ticket backend.

If you don't have a backend, you are seriously limiting your income. You're not following the model I've laid out for you!

Just remember, a backend is useless if you don't build your customer relationships. So, I urge you to go back again and read the 4 bullet points I've listed above.

You need to have ALL of them to make this work.

Here's a suggestion. In your everyday life — shopping at the store, taking the kids to school, etc — just pay attention to the businesses around you and ask yourself how they are utilizing the continuity model.

You're going to start seeing examples EVERYWHERE because this is a model that the rich have been using for many years. It's so freaking obvious, yet so many people miss it.

As you're observing the businesses around you, you're also going to see examples of businesses that have no backend whatsoever and you're going to wonder what the heck they are thinking.

As a final note, I want to stress that you don't need your own product to do what is described here.  Some people make it online with one affiliate site.

The model is dead simple — it's the model described above. The only difference is to use other people's products as front-ends. A successful marketer gathers email addresses, and upsells his customers to teleseminars, personal coaching, and his community subscription site.

- You need to be working with at least one other individual (partner), or in a team

I'm not going to devote too much time to this bullet point.

I just want to stress that if you're working alone right now, you're going to move much more slowly than if you find a partner who understands this model.

As entrepreneurs, we have a psychological condition where we think we know everything and can do everything better than anyone else.

This is perhaps our greatest downfall, because it is serious self-delusion.

You are going to be severely limited until you find a partner. This is a universal rule.

- You need to build a business with continuity income.

I think we've pretty much drilled this point into the ground, so I won't talk about it anymore here.

I hope that at the very least this letter has made you think.

I hope it's jolted you and caused to take a step back and really think about how you're spending your time online.

For some of you, what you're reading here will seem like nothing new.

In fact, a lot of people will say: " I already knew all that stuff…"

But the astute marketer, Frank Kern, does not seem

to think that everybody knows this.  Frank Kern wrote in his email to his list

"Listen - some idiots out there will say you don't

need a list …and if you're like me you're sick of their

B.S.  HERE'S PROOF THEY ARE LYING.

Think about this.

How many gurus do you know who don't have a list? None!!

How many big launches have you ever seen where email

marketing wasn't the NUMBER ONE method of promotion?

How many super affiliates do you know without lists?"

Please leave your comments and questions below.

Thanks, 

Angela Wickenberg

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June 23, 2007

Will You Buy The Competition, Or Be Put Out Of Business?

As Web 2.0 becomes less of just a buzzword and more of a
reality, the types of sites webmasters need to publish will
increasingly become more important. In other words,
mini-sites are slowly dying and cookie-cutter article sites
are on the way out as well. Web surfers will become more
value-focused and web companies will become larger.

Over the next few years expect larger conglomerates to be
buying up profitable websites in their chosen markets.
Expect smaller sites to either be bought or driven out of
business. My intention is not to scare you, but this
outcome is inevitable.

Large businesses have always taken two approaches to their
desired markets. They either buy their competition or they
push them out of business. You want to be prepared when
this trend begins on the Internet.

Being a webmaster and online marketer, you should be
preparing for one of two scenarios. To position yourself
for a buyout to a larger company or to become the larger
company that dominates your chosen market.

Whichever route you choose is entirely up to you, but I
would suggest that it would be in your best interest to
begin focusing on authority sites. You can either start
building them or turning your current sites into them.
Whatever your approach may be, I assure you it will help
you sleep better at night.

What Is the Definition of an Authority Site?

A fairly comprehensible authority site definition was put
forward by Jason Dowdell of Global Promoter. Jason defined
it this way: …quot;Authority sites are sites that have
been linked to and referenced on other web sites covering
the same subject matter and they also will have hundreds if
not thousands of pages covering that subject matter and
nearly every facet of it….quot;

That definition is one man’s opinion, albeit a good one,
but let us go directly to the source. Many search engine
optimization and search engine marketing experts believe
Google has derived their primary algorithm from a document
titled, "Hilltop: A Search Engine based on Expert
Documents."

The PageRank formula as we know it today was derived from
this paper, and the authors, Bharat and Mihaila, define an
authority site in the text below:

"We believe a page is an authority on the query topic if
and only if some of the best experts on the query topic
point to it. Of course in practice some expert pages may be
experts on a broader or related topic. If so, only a subset
of the hyperlinks on the expert page may be relevant."

"In such cases the links being considered have to be
carefully chosen to ensure that their qualifying text
matches the query. By combining relevant out-links from
many experts on the query topic we can find the pages that
are most highly regarded by the community of pages related
to the query topic. This is the basis of the high relevance
that our algorithm delivers."

What we have reprinted above is the foundation of the
PageRank system and the determination for deciding which
sites will be authorities. I highly recommend you read and
re-read the full document until you understand every aspect
of it.

What Are the Components of an Authority Site?

Allow me to present you with a diagram at:
http://www.contentdesk.com/authoritymap that dissects your
typical authority site. As you can tell from the diagram, a
considerable number of components and systems must be in
place for the authority site to function profitably and
reap the benefits of the "Authority Site Formula."

The Authority Site Formula = Visitor Optimization (VO) +
Content Optimization (CO) * Creative Marketing (CM)

A simple question must be asked. What do 99.9% of authority
sites provide? In a sentence, an incredible amount of
original content and a superb visitor experience. The
search engines want you to succeed and they want you to
make money, but you have to play by their rules. In the
future, focus your efforts on visitor optimization and
content optimization instead of search engine optimization.

What Is the Anatomy of an Authority Site?

About.com is the definition and was the original authority
site. Their site has a generic domain name and hundreds of
subdomains on different topics.

Your authority site should take the same approach, but not
on such a general level. If you launch an authority site,
it should be geared towards a well-defined and large
market. After you launch the site and generate some
traffic, you should create subdomains that cover specific
areas inside that larger market.

For example, Diabetic-Resources.Com is not an active site;
but if it were, then a typical authority site setup would
be something like:

* http://supplies.diabetic-resoures.com *
http://diet.diabetic-resources.com *
http://insurance.diabetic-resources.com *
http://symptoms.diabetic-resources.com *
http://treatment.diabetic-resources.com

Using this approach, you are able to target your general
market while generating more targeted traffic pertaining to
related sub-markets.

As a rule of thumb, the index pages on your domains and
subdomains should be more focused on content, but the
article and commentary pages should be more focused on
advertising. Just do not ever lose sight of the most
important aspect of your site, which is visitor experience
otherwise known as visitor optimization.

What Does It Take to Create an Authority Site?

You want to create a site that generates thousands of
visitors a day mainly through the major search engines, and
would ultimately be the one-stop source for information in
that particular market.

Your site must employ three traits to become an authority
site. Let’s discuss all three necessary aspects:

Dynamic: You should have as many RSS feeds as you can
muster to incorporate throughout your site. Your visitors
need to be able to receive RSS feeds for any keyword,
category or archive as well as create their own. One feed
is no longer enough to satisfy your visitors.

Interactive: You should be engaging the minds of your
visitors at all times using surveys, commenting and
feedback. Make these features easy for your visitors and
your site will grow exponentially. Why? Because they feel
like you actually care about them. Interaction is a
powerful tool and creates a sense of community on your site.

Consistent: You should post to your blog often, and you
should always provide quality and original content. That
doesn't mean you need to produce 800-word articles three
times a week. Your goal should be to become a news master.
You need to be an …quot;authority…quot; on the news
happening in your niche.

If you follow the steps and guidelines listed above, then
you will be on your way to being the owner of an authority
site.

This blog and site will be transferred to the Authority Site Center within the next few days.
After that, I will be able to write about the developments in traffic and unique visitors.
I expect to make a great deal of changes to this site during that time.  More to come on that later.

In the meantime, here is the link to check out what the Authority Site Center has to offer:

Click here to download the Authority Black Book, a $97 value.  In fact, it has more value
than many courses that cost a lot more than this, but it's free:

contentdesk.com/cmd.php

And here is the link to the Authority Site Center:

http://contentdesk.com/cmd.php?af=615874

Best,

Angela

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February 2, 2008

Guide To Using StumbleUpon for Your Business

When people speak about driving traffic through social networks, the first site that comes to mind is usually Digg. Digg’s popularity is obvious: as the numbers increase above the “digg it” button, the likelihood for increased traffic goes up as well. There is a plefora of information on the Internet on how an extremely popular link on Digg can bring you traffic and links.

A lot of people want to get their page on the Digg main page, but in terms of popularity of other online social mediums, it stops there. There are other means of getting good — perhaps better, when considering that it’s targeted — traffic, such as StumbleUpon.

StumbleUpon is highly personalized traffic based on your interests that is served to you when you are actively looking for new sites to discover. The service requires a download of a very easily-integrated toolbar that sits right under the Address bar on your browser. To begin using the service, you click on the “Stumble!” button on your toolbar, and you can rate a site with a thumbs-up or a thumbs-down sign. As sites are continually rated with a “thumbs up,” the page is served to more and more SU users.

The toolbar, which was recently updated with more eye-grabbing icons due to StumbleUpon’s continuous desire to improve the user experience, is shown below:

StumbleUpon Toolbar v3.0

StumbleUpon also allows you to “discover” new sites. In your regular browsing experience, you might find a site that you think would interest other people. The “thumbs up” icon works for all sites, and that is how new sites get into the database of StumbleUpon pages that are served to the end user during their stumbling session. When you “thumbs up” your site and it hasn’t yet been submitted, you’ll see this window:

Submit Your Site to StumbleUpon

The URL is inherited by default, but you can personalize your initial submission with a title and the brief description of the page. You can then categorize this into any one of the categories listed and you can tag it with whatever appropriate tags would benefit your visitors. Once the site is in the system, people will begin stumbling and learning more about the site you submitted.

How can you leverage your StumbleUpon influence to get your submissions noticed?

  • Personalize your page. Upload an avatar, tell people who you are (fill out the “General” section), and share with the community what you like (the “Interests” section). If people are browsing the user community, they’ll get a truer sense of who you are.
  • Join the communities relating to your interests and your business. To make sure that you are served pages that truly interest you, you’ll want to join targeted communities so that the traffic is desirable. You’ll also be able to contribute similar pages to the StumbleUpon engine so that they are added. If your page relates to these groups, they will be served to the group members. You can join up to 63 groups in the following main categories, which should cover just about everything:

StumbleUpon Groups

  • Befriend people who have similar interests. Adding friends whose pages interest you means that they will likely appreciate the pages that you’re submitting as well. It grows into a mutual relationship. People who like the pages you submit will befriend you and you will be serving them content based on the relationship. With the StumbleUpon network, you can have up to 200 friends.
  • Stumble often. Just submitting and stumbling upon a single page doesn’t bode well for your reputation, and keen users will take notice of this. Stumble frequently. If people like the pages you’ve stumbled upon or submitted, you’ll likely also be rated highly in the community.
  • Label and tag your submitted pages appropriately. When you tag your new submissions, be relevant. Pertinent tags will bring you the most targeted traffic from the users who specifically have expressed an interest in the topic you are serving content for. If you cover all the keywords (and tags) that you could possibly think of that don’t relate to your site, your popularity (if any) will be short lived when the thumbs-down button is pressed. Bear in mind that once the page is submitted, tags can be added and removed by the community members (which is a definite indication that they’re visiting the site!)

Why should you look at into directing StumbleUpon traffic to your site? Beyond the obvious benefits of extremely targeted traffic, the traffic doesn’t come all at once compared to a site like Digg. There’s the inherent benefit of having that “15 minutes of fame” on Digg until it crashes your server. StumbleUpon traffic is generally much more gradual. In one particular example, Neil Patel explains that StumbleUpon drove 17,209 visitors to his site in 25 days. Traffic coming directly from Digg is much less memorable, and most Digg users don’t venture farther than the front page.

An alternative is to consider sponsoring your site on StumbleUpon. Compared to the most obvious rival, Google Adwords, StumbleUpon traffic is sought and is the only page being served to the user at the time. It’s also incredibly cheap at $0.05 per visitor (with a maximum of 2,000 visitors per day). The results have been pretty amazing and provides “qualified traffic instantly” compared to Adwords, as indicated by a recent user’s experience.

So if you’re not interested in advertising, go social. The StumbleUpon community is a great way to find some pretty neat pages that you’d have never previously heard of.

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April 18, 2008

"Deliberate practice": what separates the merely good from the great

"He's just a natural." How many times have you heard someone say that in order to explain somebody else's greatness? This "explanation" derives from the commonplace belief that certain individuals have an innate gift that the rest of us didn't get and never will.  There's just a slight problem with this belief: it's wrong!

A recent article in the Harvard Business Review by some noted researchers totally debunks the myth of "the natural."* Studies by more than 100 scientists consistently and overwhelmingly proved this astonishing truth: experts are always made, not born.

Moreover, the studies show that the greats in any field do something that the average ones don't: they achieve their greatness through hours, days, and years of always practicing deliberately. Golfing great Ben Hogan once said, "While I am practicing I am also trying to develop my powers of concentration. I never just walk up and hit the ball."**

These researchers say that when most people practice, they just focus on the things they already know how to do. That's why, for example, an average salesperson makes the same easy calls over and over—and still calls it "selling." But a great salesperson, on the other hand, deliberately works at what he or she currently can't do well. And the research shows that this continual, deliberate effort is the distinguishing factor between the good and the great.

So, what does it take to become adept at deliberate practice? We think it's not only having the right tools or techniques, it's also having the right mindset in the first place. You have to have your mind focused in order to apply the techniques you've learned.

If you find that you are:

1. Not practicing your skills regularly (like you tell yourself you are going to do)

2. Not able to perform "live" as you do when you are practicing.

3. Fearful (not your full self while prospecting).

4. Not stretching and constantly improving.

Then it is likely that you are experiencing subconscious blocks.   These subconscious blocks can fight your conscious efforts every step of the way.

This is common, and probably the main reason why most beginning sales professionals and network marketers fail.  However, there are things you can do.

Through extensive experience, we have found that the safest, fastest, and most effective way to overcome these blocks is through hypnosis. Now, we're not talking about that fakery you've seen in B-movies. Clinical hypnosis is a proven technique that has been approved by both the American Medical Association and the British Medical Association since the 1950s.

Hypnosis helps you uninstall those blocks and install a mindset that facilitates—not blocks—your desire to become the performer you know you can be.  When you achieve this type of alignment, you find that deliberate practice becomes just something that you do, and you get better and better every day.

This of course means a direct and tangible benefit to your income, your financial freedom, and your options in life.

Finding a qualified psychologist who understands how to use hypnosis to help you in your sales or network marketing career can be difficult and extremely expensive.  A great option is use a home study audio hypnosis program created by a known commodity.  

We believe the cream of the crop is a program created by Dr. Peter Lambrou, one of the country's best-known sales psychologists (and a former successful salesperson himself).  Dr. Lambrou is also the Chair of Psychology at Scripps Memorial Hospital (a major research facility).

 The program is published by The Hypnosis Network, a company that works only with licensed mental-health professionals like Dr. Lambrou.  And this company is so sure of the effectiveness of its programs that it gives you a one-year money-back guarantee. Check it out at http://www.hypnosisnetwork.com/hypnosis/sales_prospecting.php

* The Making of an Expert, Harvard Business Review, July—August 2007, authors K. Anders Ericsson, Michael J. Prietula, and Edward T. Cokely.

**Golf Digest, November 2006.

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