TCOBaG – kNow ThiNkIng AllOwEd

For all those who still think internet marketing is rocket science, it isn’t.

Back in the middle of October in 2004 I decided to do these 3 things. (I’ve always ‘done’ them, but not as consciously or on as regular a basis.) I had big plans that were stalling, sites that had leveled off, and was feeling a bit overwhelmed. I’m sure lots of people can relate to that, eh?

I’m also not sure exactly what or who made these things come to me. I read a lot, so I’m sure it’s not an original idea, just one that finally hit home with me and I implemented.

(Note: These are things outside of the add content, test headlines, etc types of things, that well, frankly, you just have to be doing on a regular basis.)

Here they are:

1. Do something every day that will make you more money or grow your traffic and business.
Just a few examples:
- add incoming links
- add a few more words to your PPC
- buy an ezine ad
- do a thank you exchange
- raise your daily limits for a campaign that’s successful
- add a new source of revenue to a content site
- from whatever the last resource you purchased, read/listen and implement one strategy

2. Do something every day that will save you time or money.
A few of my own examples:
- automate something
- add a new FAQ and answer to your site
- turn off your email software during your ‘working hours’ or at least for a while
- same for IC software
- set aside a limited time for your general email reading/answering
- unsubscribe from a newsletter that you’re no longer reading or finding helpful
- cancel recurring payments on a program you’ve been promoting unsuccessfully, or that you keep saying “I’m going to have to cancel that . . ”
- get software to do the stuff you’re spending too much time doing, ie link exchanges, AR, formatting etc
- make some ‘template’ emails for answers to your most generally asked questions
- make a notepad or text document containing linking information for your sites so you can quickly cut and paste from that when exchanging or requesting link exchanges with someone not using a script or not using the same script as you
- before you buy something, look at the folder full of ebooks you already have and see if you might not already have something similar, or maybe even the same one that came as a bonus with something else you bought
- pause or delete a PPC campaign that isn’t working

Okay, this could be a book by itself, but maybe you get the picture.

3. Help some one, any one, when there’s nothing in it for you but good karma. (This doesn’t have to be internet related.)
- give a thoughtful reply to a post asking for suggestions or help (leave out your affiliate links, cloaked and uncloaked/redirected whatever)
- answer (kindly) one of the many emails you get asking for information that’s clearly posted on your site, or that anyone with half a brain should know the answer to. Thank them for asking. (Limit one for sanity’s sake)
- help your neighbor fix his garage door
- email a webmaster with a piece of patched script or html code that you found broken on their site
- or a dead link

The key here is to do at least one from each of the three, trying to do them all will just put you right back where you were, overwhelmed, stalled, or worse hiding behind the excuse that you’re busy, you’re working all the time, but your business just isn’t growing.

I start the day with 1 and 2 and ask myself “What can I do today that will/should/could make me more money, increase my traffic, or help my business?” — and — “What can I do today that will save me time or money?”

I like to do these first since it makes the rest of my day Gravy.

Do Number 3 whenever the opportunity arises. It makes you feel good, trust me, and how you feel is directly related to how successful you are, especially in the eyes of the most important person you are dealing with, “you.”

I still have days, sometimes, where I don’t hit all three. But more often than not, I get them all, and the results have been great.

I also end my day by asking which things on the list I did for that day. A great re-enforcement and encouragement for continuing to follow through.

If my examples don’t fit your situation, you shouldn’t have to think too hard to come up with something that does fit.

Be well, live well, die last.

Allen Williams

The author is a professional educator, speaker and writer. You can see some of what he is up to by visiting :
http://www.linksnoop.com Article and Link Directory
or
http://www.PowerMeUp.com Personal and Professional Growth

What’s the fastest way to get where you want to go? Save time? Save money? Make more money, more sales, get more leads for your business?

This is something I deal with on a daily basis. The shortcut. Marketers ask me, customers ask me, my wife asks me, my students ask me: Isn’t there a faster, ie shorter, way to get what I want?

Just what is a shortcut anyway? My quick definition: the fastest way I know to get to the destination I have in mind.

Now, the key here, is the ‘way I know.’

The way that is known is always the ‘shortcut.’ Period. There’s no arguing this point. It’s a fact. Yes, I know that if I turn off two streets earlier there’s a street somewhere there that if I find it, if I turn the right way, it will get me home, or to work, or to my meeting a little faster.

But what if I’m wrong?

I don’t see the road, have to backtrack and end up doing what? Taking more time, spending more money to get to the destination.

So, Allen, are you saying, “Don’t look for or try shortcuts?”

No. I’m saying, that when you have time, or your current path to success isn’t getting you there as fast as you would like, then experiment.

Make time to try a different route, a different way to convert your prospects, to set up your linking campaigns or whatever it is that you are trying to do.

Then if it works. Congratulations! You just found a shortcut.

If it doesn’t, you still have your old path, the one that was working for you, that you can go back to until you’ve had time, asked a few more questions, learned a little more, and can try again.

I was just listening to Gary Halbert who was doing an interview with Michel Fortin. He was talking about something along this line. He defined it as the difference between being effective and being efficient.

My way works. It’s effective. Is it always the most efficient? Probably not.

But for me the way I know, the one that works, that is always the shortest, fastest, most effecient way to go to get where I want to go.

I used to play golf more regularly than now, not any better, but more often

One of my friends was always ‘cutting the dog-legs’ because he could hit a fairly high ball on his drive. He saved a stroke, sometimes 2, on every dog-leg on that golf course.

He knew the course, he knew his swing, and his ability.

It was his golf ‘shortcut.’ It worked for him.

My drives tend to be a little flatter. I ‘knew’ the path, the way to get there was shorter over the trees and across the dog-leg, but I would more often than not just end up with a 2 stroke penalty for landing out of bounds.

My score was the same as before, the same as the times I took my safe drive toward the corner of the dog-leg and then on up the fairway.

Sure, I’d get lucky, yes, only lucky since I never worked on that part of my golf game, and save a stroke now and then.

But for me, the shortcut, the most efficient and effective way to get to the green, was to follow the path I knew, and that my skills allowed.

Now, stop looking for the easy way, the shortcut, and work on making the game you play more efficient, and effective.

Be well,

Allen

Marketing, babies, and a hearing lesson. Every notice how much better your hearing is and continues to get right after your children are born?

What is it? There’s this natural phenomenon that occurs when you become a new parent.

It doesn’t matter if you used to sleep like a stone, could have slept through the building falling down around you, or needed 2 alarm clocks set at two different times and different distances from the bed to rouse you in stages in the morning, but when you become a new parent, you start to hear everything.

Was that a cough? Bam, “I’m up, I’m coming . . ”

So, what does that have to do with marketing and marketers? . . . .

My take on it is as follows, your mileage may vary . . .

A couple of very natural factors are in play here, one is of course, it’s new. Not to be underestimated or overlooked.

1. When something is new, you pay more attention to it.

Simple human nature, nature is simple, don’t know about the human.

The danger is that after the newness, and I’m sure you’ve witnessed this sort of thing, you start to hear even less.

Ever been around someone who was with their kids, and the kids are going wild, but no one seems to notice? Yep, the newness wears off, and you start to relax, and not pay as much attention to what is going on around you.

Sure, when there’s an event, you notice. Same in marketing, a customer buys a big package, asks for a refund, or complains about your product or service, you start to notice again.

Key here is to tune back in at least every once in a while (Kind of the baby-monitor that isn’t on all the time, just now and again).

Honestly, you can’t keep that same level of interest in your customers, or baby for that matter, and I’m not sure it’s really that healthy anyway.

Remembering to tune back in every now and then, or just ask what’s going on is a healthy thing, for both parties.

2. Is you usually make a conscious effort to hear more.

While also very simple, it’s also very powerful.

Telling yourself you ‘will’ do something, even if it is ‘hear the slightest sound in the middle of the night’ has a very powerful effect on you and will increase the likelihood of you accomplishing that algebraically.

Remind yourself to listen in to what your customers and prospects are doing and saying.

Tell yourself you will hear them.

You will.

And you will both benefit, much like the new parent.

I think I just heard the house caving in . . . gotta go

Customers and Clients remain silent. Sometimes, you think, “surely there must be questions” but you can hear your hair grow in the void.

What do you think when there are no questions?

As a professional educator, conference presenter and speaker, I gotta tell you there are times when you are hoping for this, and there are times when you are sooooooo frustrated by a lack of feedback . . . aaaaaaahh

It’s not the questions after all. Why is that?

What we want as professionals, whether its internet marketing or knitting class, is feedback.

Questions are a form of feedback.

They tell us a lot about our market, target, customers or whatever:

Questions tell us first if there is sufficient understanding with which to formulate a question.

Hey, if you don’t get it at all, the best question you’re going to be able to muster is, “Huh?”

This is also useful feedback. It tells us either we’ve missed our market, the material is not clear, or the market for this product isn’t sharp enough to not need velcro on there shoes instead of laces.

But it’s still feedback, and it’s still valuable.

What about silence?

That’s feedback, too. Problem is determining what caused the silence. Again, there are a few possibilites, and a few we’ve not already covered.

1. They got it. (Could happen.)
2. They didn’t get it, at all. (Also possible.)
3. The audience just doesn’t give a hoot. (More likely than we as marketers want to consider)
4. The group is just tired, wants to go home, get the ‘free’ product you offered in return for their attention or whatever.

Now, which is the best reason? Who knows? Who cares?

How do we get some response so that there is a starting point?

Ahha young Grasshopper, you can move ahead in the class for asking the proper question.

Just trying to do too much? Don’t know what to do or when to do it?

Seems like this is something that bugs a lot of folks, me, too at times. But I also know that for me, sometimes, it’s just an

EXCUSE!

“Ouch!” you say?

Me, too

But often enough, it’s the truth.

We bury ourselves behind the ‘I’m just too busy to get it all done’ factor instead of taking charge of our day, our time, our lives, and getting on with the doing.

Here’s a couple of things that work for me, should/could work for you, too . . .

The “Success 6″ system works for that, too. (For more on Success 6 see “TCOBaG: Not enough time in my day”)

Where to start:

List ‘em.

Prioritize them.

Start at number one, work your way down.

Look at your list and see if there’s some stuff that’s just in there, in your way, that maybe just needs to get shelved for now, or even canned.

Also, it sometimes helps to just build a bigger fire!

Flamable fuel could include:

1. Listen to motivational/inspirational speakers and music, cds, mp3s while you work, while you exercise

2. Build up your “Why”. ie focus on the rewards the tasks bring, and not on the tasks

3. Outsource what others can do so you can focus on what you do best. This also improves productivity in even the laziest most unmotivated person, like I can be too often. You need it done, you know it should be done, you’re dragging your feet, checking email, stats, the forums, but if you’ve hired someone reliable to do it, it is still getting done and your business is still growing.

Be well, live well, die last.

Allen