The turtles share my work space and that has caused them to pay attention once in a while about what I do.

They have a vested interest in my success because they like to eat. When I have money they get more food and even treats like some feeder fish for a snack.

Now most of the time it is their very basic behavior that gets related here. Animals and people always act in their own self interest and understanding that can be very educational for any marketer.

Once you have taken that into account for your offer the next step is traffic. More targeted traffic = More sales or as the turtles look at More Traffic = More Fish.

So even the turtles got excited when they heard I was attending a free teleseminar tomorrow night at 9 pm. It is being held by two six figure earners, Willie Crawford and Doug Champigny. The topic will be traffic. They will cover 14 ways you can get targeted traffic.

The teleseminar will be free but you need to sign up for it. The replay will be available later but only as a paid product so go sign up, block out tomorrow night at 9pm and bring your notebook. You will need it.

Traffic Tips Teleseminar

The turtles are looking forward to me applying the tips and getting them more fish but concerned because they understand that Willie started his career selling cook books and just may have a turtle soup recipe.

I like to keep them on their toes.

Mike Paetzold

Technorati Tags: Doug Champigny, teleseminar, traffic, Traffic tips, Willie Crawford

Did not last an hour before the castle was knocked down and things started getting moved to suit them. An ongoing battle between us.

The question is are you doing the same thing with your customers?

Now I have the control (at least I think I do with the turtles) because they don’t have a choice of where to live. We have our ongoing battle over the arrangement of the tank but the turtles don’t have another option for a place to live.

They can start moving things back but they can’t stop me from changing it back.

Your customers or potential customers do have a choice. Don’t give them what they want and you don’t get their business. There are 10 others willing to supply what they are looking for in the format they are looking for around trying to get their business right now and more coming each day.

This is where testing and tracking are so important. If you are not testing and tracking your results you will have no idea which changes your customers liked and which ones drive them to your competitors.

It really is that important and that is why I revised and released my free report “Tracking Your Way To Profits” this week.

Until I started testing and tracking as many things as I could it was all guess work. Even knowing what the turtles like would be impossible if I did not watch how they reacted. So go grab your copy of “Tracking Your Way To Profits” and start applying the tips to your business.

The Turtle Dad

Technorati Tags: testing, tracking, tracking your way to profits

I have come to understand that turtles are not the smartest creatures I have ever had as pets. Not really a big surprise there to most of you.

Here is Gizzie trying to get through the space between the ramp and the wall of the tank. Now the turtles keep growing and the big ones have not been able to get through there for months.

They either go under the ramp or back up and go around the ramp. Despite that each time I add food and one of them is in that area they try to shortcut their way though that space. Now they can be stubborn enough that they could work their way through it. It would involve pushing the whole dock over but in time they would succeed.

They are smart enough to realize that the others will have long eaten the food that I added if they do that. (Not counting how pissed it would make me if they break it but I am sure that is not a factor for them.)

So usually after just a minute or two they drop down to the bottom and go under the ramp. Next time, however, they go through the same routine and waste the same time and effort.

So the question is do you keep doing the same thing and eventually adapting?

In various conferences working with new people I see them acting just the way that Gizzie was. They come in with a problem but have no idea what is working and what is not. They are not tracking anything so they are working blind.

They get some ideas and go make some changes but again they don’t track anything and back they come. You ask for the stats and the answer is again that they don’t know.

See last time I talked about how Gizmo eventually bulled through behind the intake pipe. That can be admirable and a great way to break down obstacles. When the food is on the water though even the turtles despite initially trying to bull their way through know that if they want to eat they don’t have the time to push the dock.

They want to eat so they go under or around.

Your business is the same as I am sure you want to eat (make money) and that you are smarter than a turtle. Grab my new free report Tracking Your Way To Profits and start tracking so you don’t have to make the same mistakes again and again. You can make new ones

Eventually though you discover what works and keep improving your business. Then you can “eat” all that you want.

You are smarter than a turtle? Aren’t you?

Go grab and apply Tracking Your Way To Profits right now and prove it.

The Turtle Dad

Technorati Tags: improve results, tracking, tracking your way to profits

I have absolutely no idea why he had to go through there but that was his goal and he decided he would. Now when I saw him start I was laughing because he is twice the width of the space between the glass and the spout and it would be impossible for him to fit.

Because turtles are not the smartest creatures I have ever seen he didn’t know that and didn’t care. 25 minutes later the impossible was done to my surprise.

Now I wasn’t really happy about it because the intake almost came out of the tank but he kept trying one thing after another until he finished what he started. Now I still don’t know why he wanted to go through there and have no idea what the payoff was for him but he wanted to and he did.

How much better would your business be if you had the same single minded purpose in accomplishing what you needed in your business.

Focusing on a single task to completion is one of the takeaways I got from Time Management On Crack. All too often we start 10 things and do a bit of all of them but complete none.

While the turtles are not the smartest animals I have ever had they do have a focus when they are going after what they want. Nothing gets in the way and once they have achieved it then they go sun themselves. No half done things all go or all rest.

Think doing this in your business might help?

The Turtle Dad

Technorati Tags: business, focus, time management, time management on crack

I used to think that Baby was the smartest of the turtles but she is proving me wrong.Here is a picture of her waiting for the scrap rocks to come out of Gizmo’s mouth. Now why they love to eat the rocks I have no idea but it used to be that Baby would go off into her own corner to sort out the rocks she wanted. As she gets bigger she seems to be content with the scraps.

Not smart on her part. Are you doing the same with your business?

Now don’t get me wrong I love affiliate marketing but I love affiliates selling my products better. It is part of the reason I created the Niche Affiliate System.

Affiliate marketing is a great way to enter new niches. Find out what is selling to the crowd so you know exactly how…

• They consume information
• The type of information that is selling
• The amount people will spend for information
• Who the list owners are in the niche

The key is that ultimately you want your product and your affiliates selling it. Marlon Sanders calls it trading products for dollars rather than time for dollars which we are all used to if you have a JOB.

Use your affiliate marketing to better understand your niche, build the relationships and find the holes that can be filled just like I show you in the Niche Affiliate System but then you need to get your product out.

This way you can leverage the relationships you have built. If you are filling a missing spot in the market don’t you think that most of the product owners you have supported in the niche would be interested in making some extra affiliate cash recommending your product to their customers?

Do you think the list you have built to promote those other people’s products would be interested in that hole stuffer too?

See once you are comfortable in the niche it is easy to find the spot where you don’t compete but complement others. I know you can so what is stopping you?

I can hear it now. I can’t create a product, I don’t know how. So if that is your excuse start by following the plan in Niche Affiliate System. Take some of your profits and invest in Marlon’s Info Product Dashboard and get it done.

No reason for you to settle for scraps is there?

The turtle Dad

Technorati Tags: affiliate marketing, Info Product Dashboard, niche affiliate system, niche marketing

Every so often one of the turtles will start trying to swim against the glass. Here is a perfect example.

Gizmo kept trying to swim through the glass. He was really going at it and not accomplishing anything at all except to push his face against the glass harder.

The lack of results did not stop him and he probably tried this for 10 minutes without stopping.

Ever feel like that is your normal day in trying to build your business. You paddle like hell but seem to just be pushing your face against the glass and accomplishing nada?

I know the feeling. Been there, done that, even got the t-shirt.

There are so many things to learn when you are starting out and it seems like each project has so many pieces.

Add in the latest bright shiny object that catches your attention and you start off down a new rabbit trail. All these new things to learn to grab this new shiny object.

So what ends up happening is that you have 14 different partially done things.

The problem in this business is that unlike a job you don’t get paid for partial completion. If I am creating a blog I don’t make anything until there is content that is drawing traffic who are clicking through and buying what I recommended. Then I get paid.

This is why it is important to focus on one thing and finish it so it will either succeed or fail. (Oh yes didn’t you know some things will fail. All the time you invested you won’t get paid for.)

That is one of the reasons I have become a proponent of Robert Plank’s Time Management On Crack. He shows you how to focus on one item, get it done and launched. Now you find out if it works.

If it does you can expand it, make it better, but better to know right away if you are going the wrong way and people don’t want what you are creating. Spend 6 months on a project and be wrong and it is a killer.

Spend a couple days and it does not work not a major hit.

So the turtles and I both say stop hitting your head against the glass, use your time wisely and effectively. Go get Time Management On Crack and apply the lessons to your business.

The Turtle Dad

Technorati Tags: Robert Plank, time management, time management on crack

Needless to say the turtles are high on my s-list today and they are smart enough to know that is not a good place as I control the food supply and tank maintenance.

They have watched over this past week as I put together my latest product Twitter Time Saver and decided that I should tell you about it here. That way if you buy it they can move off the s-list. Not really but it does make a good story . You should only buy it because it can help you and provide a positive return on your investment which it will I guarantee it.

Twitter has become more and more a big part of my business. The problem with Twitter when I started was three fold.

Finding targeted followers and not spending forever on Twitter were the first two. Doug Champigny has covered that part quite well in his Advanced Twitter Marketing. It gets a strong recommendation from the turtles and myself.

The third problem was a bit harder. Using Twitter is like email marketing – lots of competition in the inbox to get your message heard and Twitter is no different. Like my inbox there are certain people who by offering me quality information and recommendations that will always get my attention no matter how many emails they compete with in the inbox.

They have built that authority and you need to do the same on Twitter.

Even more important on Twitter is to be a sharer of quality information on what ever the topic is that you have built your followers on. Finding that information can take a lot of time but there are tools that can help you.

Twitter Time Saver will show you exactly how to accumulate and sort through information so that in 5 to 10 minutes a couple times a day you can keep your followers up to date with the latest cutting edge information. Do this consistently and people that follow you start looking for you. You get moved into the special column on their tweet deck and they Retweet what you send helping to grow you following.

Check out Twitter Time Saver and become the authority in your niche to your followers. The turtles will thank you

The Turtle Dad

Technorati Tags: advanced twitter marketing, build authority, twitter, twitter time saver

Get your twitter mosaic here.

The turtles and I were doing our daily check through Twitter when we saw this post from Nicole Dean – Twitter Followers: Wear them on a t-shirt?. It is where we found the site to create our Twitter mosaic above. Check the site out, create your mosaic and look to the left side. It will become clear shortly.

The point of the post though is what really interested me. (The turtles don’t have any curiosity for anything other than what is under the next rock so you are stuck with what attracts my attention.)

She was talking about taking advantage of your own creativity and combining that with what is hot. The people that created Twitter Mosaic got it. They will sell me a t-shirt, a mug or other items where I can get all of my followers added to it.

How many things do you see every day that you could come up with a twist like that?

That is one of the keys to finding profitable niches and ultimately creating your own product for that niche. See the Niche Affiliate System will show you a step by step way to test for profitability and start to build the relationships in any niche. The key though is to add your own creativity and take advantage of your unique perspective to create a truly profitable product.

Hope you are enjoying the holiday week end. I am off to finish the desserts for tomorrow’s picnic while the turtles are just basking on the ramp. (Hmm maybe I should have been a turtle )

The Turtle Dad

Technorati Tags: niche authority system, niche sites, Nicole Dean, twitter, twitter mosaic

Why I Love Affiliate Marketing – Part 2
By Jimmy D. Brown of “Affiliate Payraise“

Pop quiz time. What does “HTML” stand for? Don’t know that one? How about this – what does “FTP” stand for? OK, one more chance. Do you know how to work with either?

That brings me to the second reason why I love affiliate marketing…

** You don’t need to build a website **

What scares people more than creating a product is building a website!

* What in the world is HTML? Or FTP?
* How much does the software cost? And hosting?
* How do I upload files?
* Why isn’t it formatted correctly?
* Why don’t my graphics look like the ones the pros have?

If you are a complete beginner, it can be very difficult (even using templates) to get an attractive website in place. And hiring a professional to do it for you is out of the budget for most people.

But, with affiliate marketing, you don’t need to build a website. You simply send visitors to someone else’s professionally designed site through your affiliate link.

SIDEBAR: Just in case you’re interested, HTML stands for “hypertext markup language” and is the coding used to build webpages. FTP stands for “file transfer protocol” and is the process used for moving files from your computer to a website, or vice versa.

Really, in a manner of looking at it, you get to take advantage of the time and money invested by someone else to develop the site. Think about it: when you promote an affiliate link, it reflects firstly upon YOU. You are the one who is advertising the link, recommending the product, sending people who have interacted with YOU to the website.

The professional site of someone else really represents you as the promoter, in the eye of those who have clicked through your link.

You get the benefits without the bother.

That’s why I love affiliate marketing.

You don’t need to build a website.

…………………….

Jimmy D. Brown is the author of “Affiliate Payraise“, teaching you a whopping 27 ways to increase your affiliate commissions! Tired of “tiny” commission checks? Grab your copy today at Affiliate Payraise

…………………….

Hope you have enjoyed our guest.

The Turtle Dad

Technorati Tags: affiliate marketing, Jimmy D Brown

Why I Love Affiliate Marketing – Part 1
By Jimmy D. Brown of “Affiliate Payraise“

Do you find yourself “starting” to create your own product to sell online, but never “finishing” it?

One of the things I love about affiliate marketing is –

** You don’t need to create your own products **

Many people find the idea of creating their own products to be an overwhelming and even paralyzing task.

* I don’t have any good ideas!
* I’m not a writer!
* There’s too much competition!
* I don’t know how to set everything up!
* I can’t figure out where to start!
* It’s too hard!

These are just a few of the valid reasons many people give when it comes to not creating their own products to sell. I’m sure with a few minutes of brain storming, we could come up with a list of many more.

With affiliate marketing, you don’t need your own products. You simply promote someone else’s already proven successful offer for a commission.

And, truth be told, even if you ARE a writer and you DO have lots of ideas and you CAN figure it all out…

** Nobody wants to create new products all the time **

As good as you may be, you don’t know everything! Why try to create a product on every topic imaginable in your market when you can earn just as much money by simply promoting someone else’s really good offer as one of your profit streams?

That’s why I love affiliate marketing.

You don’t need to create your own products.

…………………….

Jimmy D. Brown is the author of “Affiliate Payraise“, teaching you a whopping 27 ways to increase your affiliate commissions! Tired of “tiny” commission checks? Grab your copy today at Affiliate Payraise

Look for part 2 tomorrow.

The Turtle Dad

Technorati Tags: affiliate marketing, Affiliate Payraise, Jimmy D Brown