Death, Failure And The Truth
First off, didn’t hear this firsthand but apparently John Reese is pulling the plug on Blog Rush.
Yes, Blog Rush is Dead.
Ryan Deiss posted a plea on his blog to not knock John for trying -
And, although I like Ryan’s material and respect the fact he’s about as die hard loyal to his friends as anyone I’ve met in a long time, sometimes I think he’s missing the big picture.
One commenter, Larry, who I’d almost swear is me - but isn’t (must be one of my customers though) left a comment I have to agree with:
http://drivingtraffic.com/death-of-blogrush/#comment-1890
There’s a long list of reasons John Reese isn’t in my Fab Five . . .
He attacked me on a forum once for saying digital products have as much value as physical - FACT IS, I’ve seen people come FROM Amazon.com and buy a digital ebook, the exact same material, for twice as much. Still John felt the need to tell me what an idiot I was - that I didn’t know what I was talking about. No John, you don’t know what the hell you’re talking about -
He didn’t like me taking the QUOTE, verbatim, from his newsletter that says “Go ahead and try to sell an ebook for $147 or $197. You can’t do it. It’s very, very difficult to do.” Of course, right after he published that I sold 500 copies of the Adwords Black Book for $197 in 19 days. And since then Frank Kern and Russell Brunson have both successfully sold all-digital products for $2000.
Then we have the Blog Rush deal - he and his staff didn’t find this blog to be up to Blog Rush standards and I was booted out.
I’ve tried with the guy - I removed his quote from my sales letter. I sent him a copy of the Black Book DVDs - he didn’t acknowledge them. And I even pasted the Blog Rush code here on this blog.
I have no problem saying this publicly, quote me if you like: I’ve never personally met John Reese, but my experience with him is “Worldclass Dick”. He says one thing, does another, and if you disagree with him he throws a temper tantrum.
I don’t feel sorry at all for his failure - I think “Larry” summed up my feelings about John Reese well enough. And I know I’m not alone.
Not that I want to see anyone fail, but A) it happens to all of us and I have my own list, for sure and B) sometimes a kick in the nuts is exactly what you’ve got coming. Deal with it. Learn from it. Do better. Grow.
So you guys get to vote here . . . should I remove my version of the Blog Rush banner now that it’s dead? Or should we keep it around as a reminder that you don’t mess with the underground?
Loading ...Now, my latest failure . . . I REALLY wanted to launch the Affiliate Black Book today, Halloween, and it’s just not happening. I don’t care about a big “flood everyone’s inboxes with hype” launch - in fact, I want this to be like the Adwords Black Book which sold itself out on word of mouth. People bought the book, loved it, and promoted it to their friends. There were no affiliates (out of the gate - every affiliate was a paying customer), JVs, sale incentives, pre-written sales letters - nothing. It was cool. It was worth talking about.
The Affiliate Black Book as it stands this moment isn’t what I want it to be - yet. Rather than putting out a product that is less than I think should be, I’m going to take a little more time on it.
How much is “a little more time”?
I hope not more than a week. Maybe less. I don’t feel great about missing my deadline - it doesn’t say much for my word. But like I said, I’m most concerned about delivering the best product I can - a product that justifies paying $197 (which actually sounds cheap compared to the work in this thing).
Anyway, that’s that. If you’re waiting around to promote the product I’ll post affiliate information here on the blog next week.
All the best to you - X
Mac Versus Pc
Because marketing IS a process of argumentation, I think this is a great article:
http://www.grokdotcom.com/2008/10/24/microsofts-ad-vs-apples-three-move-set/
Aside from the point that Microsoft has taken way too long to respond to Apple’s ads implying that the PC (powered by Windows) is nerdy and uncool, I think the article does an excellent job of pointing out that Microsoft did not carefully consider what Apple’s counter-move will be.
Additionally, Microsoft responded by playing INTO Apple’s frame, instead of creating their own.
If nothing else, this is a great exercise for any marketer to engage in: If you were Marketing Director for Microsoft, how would you respond to Apple?
If you’re a basketball fan, this reminds me of the Dallas Mavericks of 2 years ago entering their first-round series with the Golden State Warriors. Dallas entered the series with the best record in basketball. Yet, for some reason their coach abandoned the winning formula proven by the regular season and instead changed his lineup and game approach to respond to the Warriors. In other words, he gave up his team’s position of strength and conceded to the strengths of the Warriors, the LESSOR team.
The result? One of the biggest first-round upsets ever by the Warriors, who looked like the better team throughout the series.
Or how about Coke abandoning their winning formula to compete with second-fiddle Pepsi?
Both moves, monumentally bonehead.
There are reasons most of the world still use a PC - me, for one, is because I don’t have to worry about software compatibility.
Now I know Mac users with counter with the fact that the Mac can now run Windows apps just fine . . . but I know I still get plenty of complaints from Mac users who can’t run a particular file or application.
My approach, if I were Microsoft would be to paint Mac as an oddball outcast. Alternative, hip and cool? Yeah, like the radical goth kid with the spiked blue hair and a chain running from his nose to the safety pin piercing his scalp. He might “think” he’s cool, but he just doesn’t fit in with the REAL WORLD of business.
Picture this radical kid sitting in a board meeting with a bunch of suits. The suits don’t take him seriously and throughout the meeting he has to keep saying “that won’t run on my Mac”.
Yes Microsoft, you’d be smarter to position the Mac as a cute (and expensive) toy that doesn’t have any place in the world of business. It doesn’t matter if that’s the complete truth or not . . .
Marketing is not an exercise in REALITY; marketing is an exercise in perception management. It really doesn’t matter if the Mac is a superior system or not. The Beta was clearly superior to the VHS - but Beta died because VHS was smart enough to open itself up to the mainstream. People went to VHS because it was simply more available - more compatible and therefore more “user friendly”.
What do you think? And more importantly, how do you take this lesson and apply it to your own business?
X
Desperate Buyers
I’m probably infringing someone’s copyright here . . . I’ll rewrite later.
Here’s a good list of niches to look at for “Desperate Buyers” taken from one of my favorite forums.
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I hope this goes without saying: If you’re going to target “desperate” people then you damn well better offer them a solution that REALLY WORKS. To take advantage of desperate people and sell them crap is a douche bag move.
X
The Dell Pitch From The Affiliate Black Book
This sneak peak excerpt is from the Affiliate Black Book to be released Halloween Day, 2008.
I think you’re gonna like this one . . . 
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Remember subscribers - I’m sharing this info with you because I need your comments. Critiques, testimonials, etc.
Also, the script will be made available once I get the password protection in place on my site.
This is rough draft, but nit-picking is cool.
Be A Man - Grow That Beard
As the X man celebrates one year of bearded growth (today is Aric’s first birthday and that’s when this began), he sayeth unto you: Women should be clean shaven; men should not.
And he shareth unto you the following story, behold . . .
A razor company once invited George Bernard Shaw to shave his famous beard. He responded with a postcard:
Gentlemen:
I shall never shave, for the same reason that I started a beard, and for the reason my father started his. I remember standing at his side, when I was five, while he was shaving for the last time. “Father,” I asked, “Why do you shave?” He stood there for a full minute and finally looked down at me. “Why the hell do I?” he said.
What? You’re still not convinced?
The beard is also a blatant and almost primal expression of masculinity. For a study published in the Journal of Psychology in 1973, eight young men were photographed in four progressive states of beardedness. The photographs were shown to a panel, who were asked to rate the men on a variety of attributes. The responses linked longer beards with masculinity, dominance, self-confidence, nonconformity and liberalism.
Huh. Who knew?
And I’m telling you - chicks dig it.
X
The Wordpress Project: I Stole This
Keith Baxter is one of my good friends online and I like this email so much, for a variety of reasons, that I'm swiping it to post here. Generally, it's just good advice on "keyword research" which I also find to be a waste of time (generally). I think Keith also does a real nice job of giving good information that segues into an offer. ---------------- If you've studied any marketing teachers online, then you most likely heard 50 different market research theories. Each one is valid, but what I'm about to tell you just makes sense. You ready? Just go where the money is. Pretty simple, right? Well, it is. For example, I want to make money from the 'Health' industry. First, I go to webmd.com and see where the conversation is. As I write this, it appears that there may be an opportunity in creating a special report on 'Vestibular Migraines'. Why? Because it's the topic of the latest headline in the news section and it appears that Janet Jackson is suffering from it. If it makes the news, other who have this affliction begin to rally, hypochondriacs begin to wonder if they have it, doctors are more aware of it when diagnosing patients, drug companies will begin adding marketing dollars to their drugs, and the list goes on. Do you see how this works? Go where the money is, find a hot topic, and begin working it. Notice I said nothing about 'finding long tail keywords' or even keyword research with a tool at all? It's because the strategy revealed in The Wordpress Project makes the conversation within that topic important and keywords naturally flow as a result. So, are you curious how to do this... exactly? Just pick up The Wordpress Project at no obligation for 30 days to find out. http://www.thewordpressproject.com/
Affiliate Black Book: Subscriber Peak 2
The donkey puncher’s got me revvin’ up.
He says “Screw PPC Classroom . . . I want the Affiliate Black Book”.
So, not to take away from PPC Classroom, but we ARE talking about another beast entirely here.
Paid subscribers . . . read on. Unpaid subscribers, the Affiliate Black Book will launch on HALLOWEEN.
Yeah - it’s THAT scary.
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Are You Making These Ppc Mistakes?
Which of these 3 mistakes are you making?
Go here, sign up and read the report:
Then identify which of these mistakes
you’re making (or not) -
Mistake #1
Are you committing this keyword research
kiss of death?
This is a critical to your success. A
slightly different perspective is presented
than how I’d give it to you, but I know
almost every novice PPC is making this
mistake and that’s why they can’t make PPC
work (when the rest of us know how lucrative
it really is).
This was really stressed in the Adwords Black Book and the Black Book DVDs. I could probably look at any keyword list you give me and tell you EXACTLY which phrases will make money for you, which will break even and which are guaranteed losers.
Over the last three years many more people have caught on and this has been written about far and wide, but that doesn’t make it any less critical.
Mistake #2 Are you unknowingly demolishing a
winning campaign?
Again, critical to your success. I don’t
completely agree with some of the ad
placement suggestions but I do know this is
the difference between winning and losing for
a lot of people - and they have ZERO clue.
Ad placement is important for a variety of reasons. Same ad with bad placement performs terrible, while if you improve placement it can become a winner. “Going cheap” on ad bid prices is almost always a mistake. If you can’t afford more, then scale back your keyword list to only the terms MOST LIKELY to make you money.
Mistake #3: Are you missing the “magic
ingredient”?
My first inclination was to write “this isn’t
a magic ingredient” - come on, where’s the
meat?
But, you know what? I wouldn’t call this
“magic” but I do call it critical. It’s
something every successful marketer has built
into their psyche.
Back in the day when building Adsense websites seemed like a wise time investment (it’s not) I build a half dozen sites and made about $2000 per month. For some reason that money was sweeter than putting the same time and effort into building affiliate sites. It was a painful lesson to learn that was a short-term gain - and I kicked myself for not doing what others did, which was to build HUNDREDS of these sites.
When you find something that works, you have to beat it to death. Do it over and over and over - make as much as you can while it still works. Put together the system and keep with it for as long as it works.
Now, I’m not on the fad thing and that’s the good news. What I taught in the Adwords Black Book still works just as well today as it did then. Most of the high quality PPC systems do work and because Adwords is always adding new avenues you can continue to expand as competition comes into the market.
If you haven’t read this report, then go here, sign up and read the report:
http://imxfiles.com/ppc-2b
X
Loading ...Affiliate Black Book : Mindset Wins
This post is for paid members only (if you only see a couple sentences, that means you’re not a paid member). Paid members, this is the first excerpt from the Affiliate Black Book that will launch on Halloween, 2008. Your brutal feedback (or testimonial) is appreciated.
X
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More Details On The Gmail Thing
For paid subscribers only . . .
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