Module 4 is all about taking action to ensure that you get traffic to your blog.  I like the analogy of the Oil Rig platform.  The internet is an ocean and your blog is an oilrig platform with which you need to attract clams who then attract fish who then attract bigger fish = traffic.

We now have the task of creating our own You Tube videos which I am working on the script at the moment.  I’m in 2 minds to team up with 1 or 2 fellow students and do something jointly as well as by myself to try to make the message more interesting.  Anyone out there in the UK and not too far from North Wales, let me know, perhaps we could arrange something.

Tonight I have left comments on 14 of Winning the Web blogs, a time consuming task, but if by leaving vakuable feedback on other peoples blogs is the start of new relationships/traffic/getting known it has to be a worthwhile task.  I think I’ll put aside an hour every couple of days for this task from now on even if it blows by brains taking in all this information.

Anyway thats enough for now, time for zzzzzzzzzzzzz!!!!

Last night I listened to Maria Andros’ recorded tutorial on video marketing which was set up by Alex a few months ago but nevertheless still highly relevant now. The effectiveness of what she said and its simplicity to implement blew me away!

I for one have never, ever recorded an interview on social media to an audience of any kind and until now never ever intended to.  I hate my own voice and seeing myself on camera but this is something I have to do, watch this space.

Maria has built from a nothing an Internet Marketing business purely from Video Marketing on You Tube and other video sites over the last couple of years – very few people in this world can say that they have built a multi thousand $ business over such a short space of time from nothing, enough said.

As someone relatively new to this game, I had never heard of Maria previously, neither as it happens had I heard of Alex Jeffreys, but look her up in the search engines and her name and products are all over the place.

To say that this is another trick I and I expect many others have been missing is an understatement.

The basic steps for producing a video are as follows:

* Provide a welcome message but loosen up to the camera and treat it like you are talking to your best friend

* Establish your credibility as an expert in your chosen field

* Create a hook – meaning bring in something interesting to the conversation that your readership is going to want to know more

* Bring your personal background and story into the conversation – everyone likes a story

* Ensure you come across as friendly and likable – people do business with those they like

* Paint the problem

* Provide a solution

* Call to action – “I’d love to share more information, visit my blog……… etc”

Not rocket science is it?

Again, credit to Alex for having the forethought to bring someone of Maria’s calibre into what he is doing

Well folks its taken me a wee while to do this Blog post, its been a very busy week with business and work to juggle so I have completed AJ’s Course Module 3 a lot later than I intended.  Nevertheless, this module was all about Blogging, information and information products

As has been documented elsewhere my head hit the keyboard at midnight last Monday 3 TIMES WHILST LISTENING TO THE LIVE CALL so I had to give in and the brain had gone to sleep a while before that anyway.

This module emphasizes the need for all students to have their Blogs and Profit Pulling Platforms up and running at a minimum.  Thankfully though I don’t have everything in place at this moment in time, I have the Profit Pulling Platform and the Blog you are reading up and running.

Oh and I have just managed to get Google Analytics up and running so at least I will know where traffic is coming from. BTW if anyone wishes to have google analytics running without the wordpress plugin, let me know and I’ll add a post explaining this, its quite simple.  I failed to get the plugin to work so I added the code to the footer.php and it works well.

Anyway back to the course module the main points I take away from it are as follows:

• Create your own good quality content - basically add a story to everything you do in your Blog.  A Blog is an online journal of real life events so your own style of writing effectively adds your personality to it   What is published must be interesting for other people to read, so you would use this to explain what you have done that has yielded results and he gives Dean Holland as  an example where he explains that he has quit his job after coming back from Vegas and the story is accompanied by social proof, i.e photos, I’m so jealous!

• Use your own name in the domain name if possible, in my case this Blog was set up a week before I had even heard of AJ hence the one I am using – plus my name has already been taken

• Leverage feedback When you are thinking of creating something, be it a course or a product, suggest it in the forum first and encourage feedback.  This then gives you the ability to get a feel for demand and steers you in the direction required – simple but awesome!  In effect I would call this free market research. Leading on from this AJ says that you should always be open about what you are doing, no need to tell whats in it - this then has the advantage of getting help.  So by using this approach you are becoming an authority on a subject at the same time as creating social proof which makes you a credible source.

• Authority on topic You don’t need to be an expert on a topic, you just need to be a few steps ahead of your followers.  in my case I am no expert on Wordpress, indeed until I went on Rentacoder and paid someone $40 to build my Blog a month ago I didn’t even know what Wordpress was but now I know many of the basic functions and plugins despite having never read a single book, so you can bet your bottom dollar that there are potential readers out there who are thinking of starting a blog and have no idea where to start who could learn from me.

• WIIFM – Whats in it for me? I’m sure we all ask this question if not consciously – your readership must be able to answer that question themselves so your blog entries need to reflect what they may be looking for, i.e. You need to be on topic speaking about something that they can use to their own advantage

• Blog Recourses A useful recourse given to us by AJ is Blog Tactics – this site contains a lot of useful plugins for Blogs, many thanks to Matt for sharing this, should come in very useful in future as our Blogs get developed.

• Success by Association You must position yourself with successful people, therefore your website or blog must be associated with someone already respected in that industry.  Garry Parkes does with by association with AJ to great success.  This is his own Blog but everything he does on this blog in the Internet Makreting niche uses the leverage of his association with AJ.

• Create an ideas folder, could be a space in a filing cabinet or even electronic notepads on your computer.  Excellent point – since I did a previous internet marketing course which I kind of fell away from before I started this program, one of the main aims of the  course was to create ones own product – I have been racking my brains since, thinking – what the hell is not out there that I can produce to sell or give away on the INTERNET?  AJ gives some direction to this question as follows:  He says “create an ideas folder and every time you get one write it down and store it away in an appropriate place” further down the line you should be able to pull out these ideas and create something with a story wrapped around it – Simple but genius I say, they say the simplest ideas are the best.

• Create RSS feeds on your blog so readers will be able to receive email updates every time you create a new post – don’t know much about this, luckily there are plenty of clued up people in our online community that should be able to help.  Should any readers wish me to share this in the forum, again let me know and I will produce a post.

After spending all this time on AJs course today, the next Module I believe is tonight and the focuss on traffic, a subject which facinates me, indeed you will see some previous posts prior to this program I have produced on traffic and list building.

If anyone wants a copy of AJs list building methods, please enter your name and email in the optin box, which will also provide you with future information or click on the following: List Building with Alex

Anyway thats all for now folks, I look forward to tonight!

Take Care

Pete

Unfortunately due to work and personal commitments I was unable to stay up to listen to Alex’s live coaching call last Monday but the fact that we can download everything and listen in our own time allows us to catch up, no problem, except that you don’t get to call in with questions – not that I have any at this time as the whole thing seems so straight forward.

Despite this being a well delivered course and something I am very enthusiastic about, my brain tends to stop functioning at midnight so I tend not to take too much in anyway. I have since downloaded the product, uploaded it to my own domain and got it up and running after a bit of hassle of somehow mixing the files with the blog files on Hostgator and having to delete everything and start again……The free product which will be used to build a list can be found at http://www.explodeyourlistwithalexjeffreys.com.

Having had experience in Internet Marketing already, there isn’t too much at the moment that is new to me apart from being more aware of how to put in place the key ingredients being structure, organization and planning from the outset. If this course teaches me nothing else, it has already highlighted that I have been a busy idiot most of my life in a work sense – doing far too much for far too little and being stuck on that escalator many people talk about.

I have yet to go firm on any plans even though the file organization is in place as I await to see what the program brings. Once Module 3 has been delivered I will then hopeully be able to plan the next month in detail at least. I am using a diary as a daily did sheet to record what I did that day in IM tasks.

During this module, the main things that jumped out on me were as follows:

Keep On Top Of Being On Top (KOTOBOT) – A simple but important statement, this is going to be printed off in large letters and pinned to my office wall.

Its the Business behind the website that counts – a reference to the processes that take place in the business as opposed to the website itself – you can have the best looking website in the world but if the business processes behind it cannot cope then it is not worth having – I have come across one of these before which I am not going to mention in this BLOG. He then talks about SYSTEM vs FAD – system being the processes to deliver something and fad being the product.

20% of your time generates 80% of your results – Clearly a valid statement which validates the requirements in Module 1 to create DID lists so you know where to target your efforts and stop doing things that waste your time until you have it to waste.

Build a Relationship with your list

Suspect – this is the point you have to provide a lot of free value for them to opt in

Prospect – they join the mailing list

Customer – for this you have to build the relationship and gain their trust by becoming an expert in your field

Outsourcing – He states that you must outsource to professional people to make your business look professional, good point but there is also the balancing act newbies with limited budgets may have to juggle with

Process behind an IM business

These items are very basic but true:

Build it

Test it

Slowly run traffic to it

Build a list using it

Build relationships using it

Update layout

Expand when you see fit

Leverage other peoples traffic

A footer in one of the slides says “If you want to make good use of your time you need to know whats important then give it all you’ve got” – I can’t tell you how valuable this statement is, another one to be printed and stuck to the office wall!

Watch for the next journal entry coming soon ……………….

Having downloaded Alex Jeffreys recorded Module 1 Forward to Basics and listened to the recordings in 3 blocks I have to say what he says really does make perfect sense. Having some Project Management experience and qualifications there is not a lot that is new to me from a planning point of view, but he presents the facts in a coherent way so that you can apply structure to your business which does not come naturally to me.

Internet Marketing is a business like any other in my mind, I have run various businesses for years, with varying levels of success.  One thing I have never done is written long term plans and broken them down and tracked progress all the way – perhaps that is where I have been going wrong!

From a marketing and leverage point of view, I knew from the outset where you need to be at – in front of the money, for me and most people I guess getting there is the problem.

I have summarized the points that stick out from Module 1 with own take on them as follows:

“You market with people not to them” – you must provide valuable free content to people first and become known liked and trusted – people spend online due to emotions as in any other consumer environment – I envisaged that before the program but not in such a focused and coherent way

“Use leverage” – be associated with successful people

“Don’t get it 100% right, get it working, you can re design afterwards”

“Start small, think big” – I take this as getting all the business fundamentals and personal organization in place so that you can increase a business without getting overwhelmed with workload

“Cash Flow” – step in front of the cash, let the cash flow to you don’t chase money

“there 4 types of person”:

• - unconscious incompetent – someone who cant do it and don’t realize it

• - conscious incompetent – someone who cant do it but does realize – definately me!

• - conscious competent – someone who can do it but do know

• - unconscious competent – someone who can do it but don’t realizeWrite down all bad things – constraints” – things you cant do that need to be outsourced, or lack of time, etc. Spend time on things that you can get done

“Plan – do a roadmap for the whole thing, plan from the end and work backwards, know the end goal to move towards occasionally deviating along the way”

• Business Plan – goals of business, where you want it to go

• Entrepreneur Plan – goals in life, what does the business need to do

• Personal Plan – personal things, new cars, hols, etc

“An idiot with a plan will always beat a genius without a plan” – break plans down into 12 month, 90 days, 3 x 30 days, weekly – plan tomorrow today – break tasks into A, B and C priorities. Work to countdown, take breaks and no interruptions in productive tasks” – if you did an A List task 4 times a day you could do more in a week than others do in a month.

“Do daily did sheets” so you can move the unachieved tasks forward and analyze what distracts you – thats a new one on me, but a very good way of sharpening your focus to do productive things.

“Use Mind Mapping Software” – don’t go down rabbit holes, a few weeks ago I started using a Gantt chart, a project planning tool which does a similar thing and helps you  break down your tasks and assign resources to them which made things a whole lot clearer, though I see the Mind Mapping tool as the start and the Gantt chart to break down the plans into detail in lieu of the weekly/monthly task sheets, and using it as a tool to prepare your daily tasks.

Thats enough for now, keep up the good work Alex and Garry, you’ve knocked the nail on the head by saying what needed to be said!  Lets see what Module 2 brings

I have just set up the Twitter plugin to my blog so all journal updates documenting progress will appear on my Twitter page – awesome!

Alex Jeffreys approach to Internet Marketing really appears to fit the way in which I think it should work – content, positioning yourself and always willing to help others.

He has loads of reviews all over the net, so he must be good.

So the first part he teaches us is to plan, break down your tasks into Daily, weekly, 4 weekly, 90 days then yearly plans.  Seems very thorough but the need to stay focussed is an obvious one, given that there are people and organisations all over the net there to distract you.

Impressed with what I have seen so far, watch out for new posts, I will use this blog as my journal to record my experiences for the whole course