Three Turtle Marketing

Reduce the risks and increase the rewards

By admin | March 7, 2010

turtlehide Here is Gizmo in one of his normal positions with his head pulled all the way in. It is a protective position and all of the turtles often do this.

It is safer for them as their neck is not exposed but it has a problem too.

Gizmo can’t eat when he has his head pulled in like that and if he does not take the risk of extending his head he will soon starve. (Well as fat as he is it may take a couple weeks but it would happen.)

Your online business is the same way. You can be very safe and never take a risk but you won’t grow and you will starve. No risk – no reward and isn’t the reward why we all started an online business?

There are 3 ways you can reduce risk without reducing the potential reward.

Focus
Planning
Accountability

Focus

Despite all you hear about not putting all your eggs in one basket you really need to fill just one basket until it is full. It is impossible to do 3 things at once. You really need to focus on one thing until it is working well and only then can you start on a different basket.

Yes multiple sources of income is great but you need to focus on each until they are running well enough to run on autopilot and not waste time bouncing between 2 or 3 things.

Planning

This is probably the point that causes more failure than any other. It is impossible to get somewhere if you do not know where you are going and have a map to get there.

Planning out what you are going to do, where it is going to take you and how you are going to get there is the key to getting it done. Now you can keep the important focus on where you are going.

Accountability

Finally one of the toughest parts of building a home business is that you are the boss. It is easy to get side tracked. That is where interacting with others makes a huge difference.

Having a partner or group of people that know what you are scheduled to do will allow you to get more done. If I have told someone else that I will do something it almost always gets done.

I can lie to myself about what I am going to get done but it would kill me to lie to someone else about what I am going to do. Having accountability to others always keeps me on track and it can help you too.

That is why a coaching program can make a big difference in your business. Take Powerstart 2010 as an example.

It is a high intensity coaching program and forces you to focus on very specific things.

It is already planned out for you and you need only follow the steps by going through the videos and interacting with any questions each week in the webinar.

Finally the interaction of the group gives you the accountability needed to get things done. You lose the excuse of not getting it done.

If you are tired of starving and willing to stick out your neck but want to reduce the risk check out Powerstart 2010 and get your business growing.

The Turtle Dad

Technorati Tags: build business, coaching, Powerstart 2010, reduce risk

Disclaimer: Some of the links mentioned within this post or posts it may lead to are my affiliate links and in such case I will get compensated for recommending those products. However, I will never recommend something that I don’t personally believe in and I welcome your questions and feedback.

Topics: lessons | 2 Comments »

Great article from Marlon

By admin | February 27, 2010

The turtles and I have long been fan’s of Marlon Sanders. I own quite a few of his products and have recommended them strongly. This article was in his weekly newsletter and I wanted to make sure that you saw it so it is reprinted here with permission.

The lesson is very important and will help you avoid information overload.

How to Evaluate ANY Money Getting System — And Save A Small Fortune In Time and Money, Plus Get Better Results Faster

By Marlon Sanders

Every week a new barrage of email promotions likely hit your inbox.

A few are good.

The others I’m not so sure about.

How do YOU see through the hype and get to the truth, so you know WHAT do do, and what NOT to do?

You’re probably on a limited budget with limited time and resources to spend on you Internet marketing activities. How do you be a wise steward of what you DO have?

In other words, how can you get the maximum payoff with limited time?

First, get to the CORE of the model asap

Any “money getting” system, to use Frank Kern’s wonderful term, works on the basis of a few models.

When you GET offers in your email box, you have to ASK yourself, “What’s the core model?” Then you have to apply rational thinking TO that model to think about it.

1. The “Product Launch” Models

You’ll see screen caps of massive numbers that make your head swim.

Sometimes these figures come in fast. Like 5 or 10 MILLION dollars in 30 days, or faster.

Realize that these are extremely complex models based on herding cats. The cats are the joint venture partners who all email the same offer during a 1 day to 2 week time span.

Getting these joint ventures involves highly sophisticated personal relationships for the most part.

Fact is, if people mail for your launch, most will expect a reciprocal mailing. And you’ll be obligated whether or not you believe in the product.

There are also issues with your merchant account getting frozen due to the unusual influx of funds. Refunds can run up to 30%.

This isn’t a method for the shy or timid.

Now, you CAN run a product launch model without those drawbacks. But if you do, your income won’t remotely resemble the gigantic numbers thrown out in the examples.

First, let me say that the way Jeff Walker teaches the Product Launch Model is NOT the way it’s often done, used or taught by others.

I know Jeff and think very highly of him and his methods. I’m talking here about a more general model of product launches that has evolved and isn’t necessarily advocated by any ONE person.

I’m NOT targeting an individual with these comments. I’m just talking about the overall model. Frank Kern? Cool guy. Very talented and funny too. NOT talking about Frank or Mass Control.

I’m JUST talking about a model that is a general consensus or a standard method of operation that has evolved.

Consider these drawbacks:

a. Product launches can absorb 3-6 months of your time.

So what APPEARS to be overnight money actually took 3-6 MONTHS.

b. You’ll lose ANOTHER 3-6 months doing all the reciprocal emails you owe people.

c. Merchant account issues

d. Refund issues

e. Sales issues

You have one shot to get the product to sell. If you screwed up your sales letter, you’re a dead duck.

More people flop at this than succeed. But a number DO succeed. I’m NOT against the model as long as you understand the GAME you’re playing and you aren’t all glossy eyed over the big numbers without knowing what goes into it.

I’ve seen some very good marketers work HARD to get others to promote a launch for them and end up with paltry results. I’ve also seen a few unknowns crush it with the right offer at the right time.

High risk. High potential reward.

2. Affiliate models

In these models, you don’t create a product. You sell OTHER people’s products. Just think:

* No customer service * No product fulfillment * No complaints * No hassles

Sounds awesome right?

A lot of beginners get started as affiliates and that’s as it should be. No problem with that. You’re learning the ropes.

But you DO need to consider the following:

a. Most of the affiliate checks that are sizeable I see are based on getting top Google ranking for the product name about a week before the launch.

This means you need to get good at beating out others for the SAME product names and you need to to do it in a short time span.

Just understand what Game you’re playing.

Still, if you ARE going to play the affiliate Game, this is one of the best ways to play it. You leach off of product launches and your traffic comes from people
searching for the product name.

The downside is a lot of other affiliates play the same Game and you’re competing against others who are really good at this. By the same token, if you promote a product launch that fails to generate buzz, no one searches the product name or the author’s name and you don’t make diddly squat.

b. Some big affiliate success stories are based on the list A lot of times, it comes back to good ol’ basic evergreen marketing, the kind of stuff I teach.

The person created special reports, got people onto their email list, built the list OVER TIME and then just did a big bonus offer for a new product launch.

You’ll see people pull in $30,000 to $50,000 by promoting a big, juicy bonus bundle to their list for a product launch offer. BUT that person usually has their OWN products and a great reputation and relationship with their list.

Otherwise, the bonus products have no value.

What I’m saying is, what APPEARS to be an affiliate marketing model is really NOT. It’s a product creation and promotion model where a list was built THEN used to promote a product launch via a special bonus offer.

Here’s the CRUX of the issue:

Where will the TRAFFIC come from?

If YOU are the affiliate someone else is paying you a commission in exchange for YOUR traffic. So where are you going to get the traffic and how?

Usually the traffic comes from organic seo, which involves a lot of article writing, web 2.0 sites, backlink creation and so forth.

c. You CAN build an evergreen affiliate business

1.) In niches, you can build a list off of a pay-per-click campaign. John Barker from Adwords Blackbook fame is a master of this.

2.) You CAN build a list without your own product via giveaways, ad swaps and other methods.

Then you use the list to promote special offers to.

d. TRICKS of the Game — A LOT of times those giant numbers on screen caps were produced promoting an offer of questionable value like ringtones or an offer with recurring billing that is buried.

If the letter doesn’t say WHAT was promoted, it’s probably because it was an extremely broad product that involved buried recurring billing.

That means you aren’t likely to replicate the success.

3. Paid Advertising Models

Some of the most dramatic success stories are based on paid advertising models.

These often involve a high level of skill NOT duplicable by the novice or even intermediate marketer.

The BEGINNING media buys can be $10,000+. This fact is conveniently left OUT of the sales letter.

4. List Building Models

The model that comes closest to my model is the list building model.

Theses people advocate building big lists or small, responsive ones. It’s hard to argue with that.

My only caution on these is that a lot of the list building methods taught are dubious and don’t work.

Your BEST list building comes from creating your own products and getting people who ALREADY have lists to promote them via email to their lists. And yes, there might be some reciprocity involved.

But you can LIMIT this to products and people you believe in and know are quality.

4. The Evergreen Model

I advocate what I call “The Evergreen Model” because it has been working for 1,000+ years. You create products and sell them via a network of sales people. In this case, affiliates and joint venture partners.

The drawback is getting affiliates isn’t “push button easy” or crap like that. But it IS doable with attention and focus.

a. You don’t have to join a coaching program to figure it out

There ARE details involved, most of which I explain in low cost products.

b. It relies on a dose of creativity

You need to have a bit of an eye for a topic that will sell well.

c. You build a relationship with your list

Since the products you sell are created by you, your customers develop a relationship WITH YOU, not another marketer.

d. You build over time

A lot of advertising-based models don’t build lists that grow over time. So a year from now you’re no better off today.

I like growing an evergreen business where you develop a list.

============ Conclusion ============

a. Stop chasing rabbits

KNOW what marketing model you’re following and don’t chase a new marketing model each week.

b. Get good at ONE model

c. Realize no model is perfect

There IS no perfect model. And if the model sounds perfect, someone is leaving something out. Every model has an aspect that is less than desirable.

If youre eyes are glazing over because you’re so excited about a model, you’ve likely bought into hype and a smooth pitch.

d. Consistency of effort is key

The key is to know your model, focus on it over time and improve it.

=======================================================
Marlon Sanders helps people with hopes and dreams figure
out how to turn those into reality by selling stuff on
the Internet. Check out Marlon’s The Writer’s Secret

Hope you enjoyed this and will apply this to the various items you see this week.

Technorati Tags: advertising, affiliate marketing, business models, evergreen, information overload, internet marketing

Topics: lessons | 3 Comments »

The right path makes it much easier

By admin | February 15, 2010

turtle 048 Watching the turtles occasionally causes a light bulb to go off in my old often befuddled brain. Last night was one of those occasions. Gizzard and Baby showed me the difference in effort needed to get what you want.

The effort you put out is often times not enough because it is not the right effort. Here is what happened.

I added food to the tank and both Baby and Gizzard wanted to go eat it up as quickly as possible. Nothing new there but both of them were behind the ramp in the tank. Baby is still small enough to fit through the gap without backing up so she snuck right out and started eating. It was easy for her.

Gizzard has gotten so big there is no way he can get through the gap. No matter how hard he worked at pushing through the gap it was not going to happen unless he was strong enough to pull the whole ramp off of the wall.

So Baby is eating quite easily and Gizzard is struggling to get through a tiny gap that he just will not fit through. You could almost see the frustration on Gizzard’s face.

Now had he simply backed up and gone to the other side he could have reached the food quite easily. So despite all the effort by not knowing the path Gizzard did not get any of that food. (For that Baby was quite happy.)

Now here is the thin line you need to balance on when building your business. Focused effort is definitely necessary to be successful but if you focus on the wrong thing no matter how hard and focused your effort you just won’t get what you want without a route that you can fit down.

That is one of the reasons I recommend anyone that is not getting the success that they want and is getting frustrated with all of their effort get Doug Champigny’s Powerstart 2010. This will give you the right path to build your business and break down the bottle necks that you are getting stuck in.

Yes it will still take focused effort but the path will be laid out and the obstacles removed so you can get the most for your effort.

Check out Powerstart 2010 today.

The Turtle Dad

Technorati Tags: build business, Doug Champigny, focused effort, overcome obstacles, Powerstart 2010

Topics: lessons | 4 Comments »

Interview with the turtles

By admin | February 12, 2010

lazyturtles

Unlike me the turtles have become quite lazy except when they are begging for food.

With the snow this past week or so I have not made it out to the pet store so they have been stuck with the stick food and have not had any fish for a bit.

When they complained about it I told them they have not been doing there part in keeping the blog up to date. So I told them “no income from content no goodies for the turtles”. That got their attention.

After some discussion (yes I know I am nuts and talk to turtles) they asked what I was reading when I was scribbling furiously last week?

When I said it was The Writers Secret from Marlon Sanders (the turtles like Marlon by the way because his products always give me a good return on investment which leads to more fish for turtles) the next question was why so many notes?

Because as I read through it I kept finding little tweaks that would improve what I was doing. The one little idea increased my normal conversion rate on a product and I will be adding some of these tweaks to all of my products.

Now for a new person this will save them time because instead of struggling like I did they can add these in from the beginning. The one test I did showed how much money I have left on the table because I did not do that tweak.

As always Marlon over delivered on this one and I don’t know but I expect the price will be increasing as the value is there to support it.

Check out The Writers Secret today. The turtles approve it. Now off to the pet store here.

Oh and the title of the post comes just because I have been reading Anne Rice’s “Interview With A Vampire” and I liked the idea

The Turtle Dad

Technorati Tags: increase conversion, marketing, Marlon Sanders, The Writers Secret

Topics: turtle dad tested | 5 Comments »

Avoiding the feast or famine

By admin | January 25, 2010

One of the big things I notice with the turtles is everything is all or nothing.

Here is what I mean.

Add food it goes immediately even if they just ate.

Add in fish and they will keep after them until they are all gone. They love to binge but that means that they are either in feast mode or famine mode.

Lots of affiliate marketers follow the same pattern. They find a product they like, send out an email and make commissions. The problem with that is if you don’t find a new product to promote you don’t make any money.

While I am writing this Gizzard is at the side of the tank splashing like a maniac to get my attention to see if he can get some more food. Is that how your affiliate marketing goes too?

No that isn’t bad but there are two ways to help avoid that feast and famine that comes and goes. Adding these into your marketing system are important.

The first is to promote products with residual income. These are various services and memberships that people pay for monthly and you earn a commission each month.

Now there are a variety of products and services set up on this model but the average stay is usually only about 3 months. Some will stay longer or shorter but that is an average.

The ones that tend to have longer stays are services. Things like web hosting, autoresponders, article submissions, etc.

The reason for this is very simple. If you have an online business these are things you need. That is one of the reasons I consistently recommend The Marketers Hosting which combines web hosting, tracking, autoresponder and an affiliate program in one.

Now if you sign up and start using that the odds of you staying for a long time is quite good.

The other way to avoid the feast and famine is to build a series of free reports. Create a report with a squeeze page and a follow up series for a specific product and drive traffic there.

Add in other related offers and now all you need to do is spend your efforts on driving traffic to it. This can be done in a variety of ways like a blog, article marketing and a variety of paid advertising.

You can find out exactly how to do that step by step with Marlon Sander’s Promo Dashboard.

Adding in both residual products and services along with specific squeeze page systems will allow you to set up regular income and avoid the feast and famine.

That way you won’t be like Gizzard who is still trying to get my attention and get more food.

Technorati Tags: affiliate marketing, residual income, squeeze page, squeeze page systems

Topics: lessons | 6 Comments »

7 Steps to a Spectacular 2010 — My Own Personal

By admin | January 7, 2010

Regular readers know that the Turtles are big fans of Marlon Sanders. With permission here is his latest newsletter that can really help you.

7 Steps to a Spectacular 2010 — My Own Personal Checklist You Can Steal

By Marlon Sanders

Ready or not, 2010 is here.

I want to lay out a checklist you can take to make 2010 a great one.

1. Focus 80% of your time, energy and efforts on getting new customers.

The hardest thing you have to do in business is to get a new customer. This should be the focus of your mental energy and time.

Without a non-stop supply of new customers, you’ll not have the year you want.

In my business, I’m renewing my commitment to my affiliates. And also trying a few new methods.

Focus on getting new customers. Then focus on it some more. Now go get some more. Keep ‘em pouring into your funnel.

2. As a corollary to that, make sure you have all your ducks in a row in whatever method you use to bring in new customers.

If you rely on an affiliate program as I do, make sure your entire systems hums like an engine.

– Double check your affiliate tracking.

Turn your cookies off on your web browser (usually in the privacy settings). Click on an affiliate link and you should see a message pop up asking if you want to allow the cookie.

There should be a way to view it. Inside, you should see an affiliate id. That is how you know the cookies work.

In my system, we can also place fake test orders to verify the tracking works.

– Make sure your affiliates go into your autoresponder and confirm. If you don’t have your affiliates in an autoresponder, find a way to get them in one.

– Make sure you have your commissions set up properly.

– Make sure you communicate weekly with resellers. (This is one I dropped the ball on in 2009 and we’re fixing in 2010. So if you’re one of my affiliates, you can expect more consistent and frequent communications.)

– Make sure that the return email address you use passes all tests. Go to mxtoolbox.com and run your domain through their tools to check for problems.

– Develop frequent new promotions for resellers. The minimum standard here is monthly.

This means new products or promotional tools for your affiliates to use.

– Perform a monthly test to make sure your tracking works as it should.

If you have some other way you bring in new customers, then create your own checklist for it to make sure you have it running on all cylinders.

If you don’t have a way you’re bringing in new customers, then pick ONE and do it. Get it going. Realize that usually any method takes tweaking.

For example, when my friend Joel Peterson runs pay-per-click ads, he often starts at a high cost-per-click and slowly lowers the price until he’s paying 1/4 of what he started with.

My friend Kirt Christensen does the same thing.

The point is, don’t expect it go great guns right out of the gate. Keep tweaking it and making little changes until you hit on the right formula.

I interviewed Sean Mize for the new product about traffic I’m working on. Sean is the king of article writing.

Every month he has outsourcers write hundreds of articles for him. He kept mucking around with that method until he turned it into a well-oiled machine.

Sometimes you have to do things a bit differently. One of my friends is crushing it with his affiliate program. But he came up with a unique offer for a few super affiliates that no one else is making them. You may need to add your own twist to what you’re doing to get the results you want.

3. Sort your results from 2009 from top to bottom, cut out the losing products or activities and plan to expand the ones at the top.

If you have multiple products you promote (whether your own or as an affiliate), create a ranking of products in order of sales.

This gives you a good idea of what to focus on more in 2010.

If you don’t have sales, rank the activities you DID do in order of effectiveness. It’s important to know what things were a good expenditure of your time and what weren’t.

You accomplish more by doing less by tracking what works and what doesn’t. Then cut out the things that work less well and do more of the few that work better.

4. Double check your email capture process

Pretend you’re a customer. Subscribe to your email list. Walk through the process.

Does it distract from your sales process? If it does, try something different.

I’ve always used “fly in” ads for email capture. But right now, I’m testing out an “inline” email form that goes right in the sales letter and is less of an interruption to the sales process.

On one of my sites, I found that after you joined the email list and clicked the submit button, you had to click the back button then X out the pop in order to read the sales letter.

You had to REALLY want our product just to wade through the obstacles to reading the letter. That’s why we’re trying out the “inline” email capture to see how that works.

Your emails and autoresponder broadcasts are your main tool for promoting your back end products. If you don’t know that terminology, just keep reading my ezine and I’ll get you up to speed on all the lingo.

5. Plan-Do-Check-Act

If I could only give you ONE tip for 2010, it’d be plan, do, check, act.

– Come up with a target condition

This is a result you want to achieve.

– Create a simple plan to get CLOSER to your target condition.

You do NOT try to do it all at once. Find something you can do you’re pretty sure will get you CLOSER. Now do that. If it works, find the next thing and do it.

If you have Ockham’s Razor, the principle applies. The simplest solution is usually the best.

What’s the LEAST you could to have a decent chance of meeting your target condition?

– Do your plan.

– Check to see if you got closer to your target condition or if you moved away from it.

This is one place a CHECKLIST comes in real handy. Actually, if you aren’t using checklists in every area of your business, now is the time to start.

– Act or adjust your plan based on that feedback.

I believe it’s absolutely essential to track your main numbers monthly like sales, leads, and affiliate sign ups and sales.

It’s very easy to implement ideas then forget to check to see if they made things better or worse! Not every idea works.

Inch-by-inch anything is a cinch. So just keep taking baby steps towards your target condition and you WILL get their by the end of 2010.

6. Zig When They Zag

It’s easy to get caught up in what everyone else is doing.

For example, everyone I know is focusing all their time and attention into building a continuity program.

I’ve revamped Ateam for 2010 but I don’t plan to make it the main focus of everything I do as some are doing.

Why?

Because of the law of supply and demand. When everyone does it, the supply goes up and the demand goes down.

To get caught up in that vicious cycle doesn’t add up to me.

NLP teaches a thing called “pattern interrupts.” You do what others aren’t.

The single most effective way to break through the noise is with pattern interrupts.

If you saw our S. Mouse emails, you probably experienced that first hand.

I’m also re-launching our Pizza Cast to affiliates:
http://www.promodashboard.com/pizzacast/

It’s definitely not the same old thing you see from marketers.

I’ve practically built my career on pattern interrupts. Do you remember my “Jumbo The Elephant” promotions for Push Button Letters?

If not, maybe I should revive those too.

I think there’s a time to learn from other marketers and do what they do. And there’s also a time to innovate and zig when they zag.

To me, that time is when everyone jumps on the bandwagon. By then, it’s too late.

7. Avoid getting so caught up in the details of running the business and learning new things that you neglect to focus 80% of your time and attention on getting new customers.

Here’s the truth:

Getting new customers isn’t easy. It’s the hard work of business. The “fun” and easy part is making sales to your existing customers.

So it’s EASY to get caught up in doing that.

But typically promotions for new customers never work as good as you want them to. I mean, by all means, if you stumble across something that brings in new customers like crazy, push on the gas pedal and don’t let up!

But short of that, it takes effort to bring in new customers. So it’s easy to neglect it.

However, the engine of your business is new customers. This is something you can’t let slide by the wayside.

———————————————————–
Marlon Sanders
The King of Step-By-Step Internet Marketing

Marlon is the author of “The Amazing Formula That
Sells Products Like Crazy”

Check out all my products here:
http://www.marlonsanders.com

Hope you enjoy it as much as the turtles and I have and check out the Best Of Marlon Sanders for more quality information.

Technorati Tags: check list, Marlon Sanders, planning

Topics: lessons | 6 Comments »

Did you get the Best Of Marlon Sanders?

By admin | December 29, 2009

The turtles have been very lazy of late. The colder weather has slowed them down considerably and accept when they got their Christmas gift of feeder fish they either camp out on te bottom of the tank or lay under the light.

The colder temperatures have really slowed them down and I am too cheap to add a heater to their tank. (It will only cost money to heat it up and then more money for food )

The good point is that it has slowed their growth (they are growing out of this tank quickly) but they will need a new home shortly so they need to actually do some work to start raising the money.

After a long discussion they decided that they should be in the holiday spirit and give you something instead of trying to sell something. They (like me) are big fans of Marlon Sanders so they had an idea.

They want you to get the Best Of Marlon Sanders.

It is some of his best content and definitely worth the time to read it and apply it and you can get it for free.

So the turtles are back up on the dock sunning themselves under the lamp and wishing you a Happy New Year and hoping you go grab the Best Of Marlon Sanders and read and apply it today.

The Turtle Dad

Technorati Tags: Best of Marlon Sanders, free gift, Marlon Sanders

Topics: lessons | 3 Comments »

Watch the video get a chance to win $300

By admin | December 18, 2009

Well the turtles have been quite lazy since the weather got cold. The tank temperature has dropped and at times they seem almost dormant.

About the only time they get revved up is when I add some feeder fish and all of a sudden the idea of live food gets their motors going.

Imagine my surprise when I heard from for the first time in quite a while when I was checking out a new video from Marlon Sanders. All they understood was that signing up to watch the video got me a chance to win $300. After all they can’t do the math but they do understand that more money means more feeder fish. (Really think they are ruled by their stomachs .

What I liked was the actionable information that Marlon presented in the video “How To Promote In 3 Easy Steps”. Definitely worth your time to watch this one and at the cost of your email signup a great bargain. (Personally I feel you should be reading Marlon’s emails if you are a marketer as he provides great content.)

And you get a chance to win the $300 too, but if you do the turtles have asked if you at least forward a couple $$$’s for feeder fish beings they told you about it here.

Go check out Marlon’s video.

Have a great holiday too.

The Turtle Dad

Technorati Tags: free video, Marlon Sanders, promote, promotion, win 300

Topics: lessons | 6 Comments »

Consistent action – not lethargy

By admin | November 13, 2009

The turtles have been quite sluggish lately. The weather has changed and their activity level has been very low. Even their food consumption has been done since the weather changed.

Now that changes immediately if the food I add is feeder fish. Then that gets their attention at least for the short term.

Reminds me of what happens when you grab a new product that really catches your fancy. Your energy level jumps up and you go at it tooth and nail for a while then you gradually ssslllooowww down as you hit a snag or don’t see immediate results.

Article marketing is like that and despite being a very effective way to generate traffic most people fail at it. They do not get enough articles and they do not distribute them to enough places.

The thing is that if you look at the first month you do this you do a lot of work and do not get a lot of return. It isn’t until month 3 that it starts to kick in and it increases exponentially after that.

Last month my clicks from the report on Ezine articles were as much as the 3 months before and each month it has been increasing exponentially.

Now add in the clicks from people that are using those articles on their websites and it explodes. And that is just from Ezine Articles.

Because I want wider distribution I use Content Crooner and they submit them to hundreds of other directories for me. This over a 6 month period has created steady traffic that was a dribble but is now increasing by leaps and bounds each month.

There are a lot of other ways that are similar like blogging where the trickle starts but once you reach a critical mass it can increase exponentially. Consistent efforts in these type of business models is the key.

The big thing is that it has to consistent effort so don’t be like the turtles and go in fits and spurts but apply consistent action to the things that can grow your business.

Mike Paetzold

Technorati Tags: article marketing, blogging, Content Crooner

Topics: lessons | 4 Comments »

Keeping up with change

By admin | November 6, 2009

The turtles no I should say Gizzard reminded me of the need to keep up with change. Now I did not get a picture because what he did caused me to react not think about anything else.

Here is what happened. The bigger turtles no longer use the ramp to get to the top of their perch. They climb up from the water right up to the landing from an inch or so below. Now they have gotten quite good at climbing and built up their strength.

Imagine my alarm when I found him trying to climb out of the tank right by the filter where there is an opening in the lid for the water to come back in. Even though the landing is a couple inches from the top Gizzard had his head and part of his shoulder area out of the tank.

Obviously everything is now rearranged so he can not escape. The changes were made ASAP because it is a long drop out of the tank and I did not want a smushed up turtle. (Not sure why he would want to with some one to feed and clean up after him but that is another tale.)

Now how does it apply to online business. After all there are not any chance of smushed up turtle online. (I like that word and it probably isn’t one “smushed” can’t you tell )

Things change with your business constantly. Google changes an algorithm, a new traffic source comes to light, what people want changes. After all things constantly change and if you are not tracking what is happening change can catch you by surprise.

Time spent tracking and testing keep you on top of what is working and allow you to leverage what is working and cut out the items that do not.

This allows you to keep up with change and adapt as you need to instead of being caught by surprise. Grab your free copy of Tracking Your Way To Profits and start tracking today if you are not already.

Now if there was just a way to track Gizzard

The Turtle Dad

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Topics: lessons | 6 Comments »

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