Brett McEllhiney
Lonnie Minton
Andre Arnett
Earl NetwalAvoiding 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.
Related posts
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 | 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 MarketingMarlon 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.
Related posts
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 | 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
Related posts
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 | 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.
Have a great holiday too.
The Turtle Dad
Related posts
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 | 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
Related posts
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 | 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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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 | 6 Comments »
Are you growing or declining?
By admin | October 24, 2009
The weather has been changing here in the north east and it has had an effect on the turtles. This year it has been much more noticeable with the turtle tank at the front of the house near the windows..
As the temperature has dropped so has the activity of the turtles. They will spend more and more time just lounging on the bottom and are eating significantly less.
Because of the lesser activity there are still fish in the tank 2 weeks after they joined the environment. Instead of being aggressive and consuming the fish the turtles have become very laid back. Not unexpected as they are cold blooded and as it cools they slow down. The fish are quite happy about it.
This is quite normal for turtles but it can be very dangerous for your business.
So the question becomes, what have you done to keep your business growing this week?
Have you…
- added content to your blog?
- created a new lead capture system?
- submitted any articles to the directories?
- created a new product?
Consistent effort that will grow your business is necessary and if you are working in the internet marketing niche Doug Champigny just released a PLR pack that can help you.
It is on affiliate marketing and includes..
* A copy of this sales page
* 1 ready to go download page
* 7 customizable lessons
* 1 ready to go squeeze page
* 1 ready to go thank you page
* A complete graphic package
* + the editable PSD graphics
So you get a list building system and a new product all for just $7.
Check out Affiliate Marketing PLR
The Turtle Dad
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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: plr | 7 Comments »
A complete package for the golf niche
By admin | October 11, 2009
Now the turtles are all in to water sports but the Turtle Dad loves to chase a white ball around the fields and in and out of the tress. What the Turtle Dad does may not be called golf but he does consume a lot of information and products to where he can make it better.
Despite the recession/correction/ or what ever you want to call it getting a tee time on the week end can be a problem. It is one area where the fanatics like the Turtle Dad are still spending, A perfect niche.
The key to entering a niche is to get a complete system built to take advantage of the niche.
Now to properly attack a niche especially a very profitable and competitive niches you need to…
* find the areas where you can compete easily
* create content to draw traffic
* build a list of interested prospects
* have a way to monetize it
The new Golf Niche Package from Teri Champigny fills out 3 of the 4 and if you grab the package through my link I will provide you the missing part.
The package includes MRR to “The Beginners Guide to Golf” with the sales letter and download pages.
The Golf Secrets Uncovered mp3 with giveaway rights and a squeeze page system
25 PLR articles on golf
3 WordPress themes with private label rights
And I will give you the keyword research to get the targeted traffic you need.
Grab the Golf Niche Package here
Send a copy of your receipt to the support desk
And I will send you the keyword research.
It does not get any easier than this to get a complete package set up and working.
On the PLR Secrets blog I have laid out exactly how to use this package to get your start on the golf niche.
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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: plr | 4 Comments »
What makes them tick?
By admin | October 9, 2009
The turtles have a habit of befuddling me. Now it may be because I am old and bald or they may just like messing with my mind . Either way they do leave me shaking my head at times.
This week as I usually do I bought them some feeder fish. Now sometimes the fish last an hour or less and sometimes they are around for days. I really do not know why but this week there are still 12 fish out of 16 three days after they entered the tank. A very rare occurrence.
What I do know though is that once they do decide it is time to eat fish the fish won’t last more than an hour or two. They will decide and the feeding frenzy will begin.
Well your promotions tend to be the same way. Sometimes you have a feeding frenzy then other times it seems like people could not care less.
The problem is that unlike the turtles and fish which are in the same tank so that the fish are readily available when the frenzy hits the turtles your potential customers are not.
When they hit their frenzy if you are not in front of them someone else will be. Guess who benefits? Yep sure won’t be you.
This is the reason that you need to be building a list and keeping in touch with them regularly. Yes, there will be time when they are like the turtles quite content to sit up and sun themselves but there will also be times when they go on a consuming frenzy.
Building a list and keeping in touch with them is the way to make sure that you are in the game when they do decide to enter the fray.
So everyone has heard this many times but in a survey I saw over 50% of people trying to make money on line did not have a list of even 500 subscribers. The amazing thing is that the number of people who had made absolutely zero from their online efforts was almost exactly the same number. Coincidence? I think not.
If you don’t have a list or you just can’t seem to get your list growing check out the List Profit System and oh yes that recommendation does get me paid after all the turtles need to eat but ti will allow you to get your list going and be in front of your potential customers when they hit their frenzy without locking them in a tank .
The Turtle Dad
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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 | 6 Comments »
What is stopping you?
By admin | September 25, 2009
The turtles often leave me befuddled. (I know that is easy to do as I am old and Bald ) Yesterday was a treat day and they got some feeder fish (That is why they wanted a post up to day to keep the fish coming ). This time the fish lasted about 90 minutes. Last two times the fish lasted a few days. Why the huge difference? What made this batch different?
Near as I can tell the difference was that they had success quite quickly yesterday. When that happens they get more confident and become much more focused on catching the fish.
The last two times they had very little success immediately and frustration set in.
Is this happening with you and your business?
Have you tried something new and become so frustrated that you just walk away even though you know it is a skill you need to acquire?
Sure has happened to me on more than one occasion and I hear it all the time when teaching.
One of the biggest problems you may have is getting the expertise in the wide variety of things it takes to create an internet business. If you have a system to follow it becomes much easier to develop those skills.
Check out Be An Instant Expert and get the easy to use system to develop the expertise and avoid the frustration.
The Turtle Dad
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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 | 7 Comments »