Fishbowling - The Art of Internet Marketing

Back again : )

Here is a personal lesson from my life –

*Things I Know To Do But Fail To Do or Procrastination Leads To Realization*

My last post dealt with having to repair my toilet.  This is a follow up to the toilet post. 

Last week around Wednesday, my wife mentioned to me that one of our toilets was running and wouldn’t stop.

It just so happens that when this one toilet of ours doesn’t shut off, it will overflow from the water tank.

Having been a contractor in another life, I just “jimmy rigged” it and put it off to do on the weekend (typical contractor attitude - work on everyone else’s house but neglect your own).

Well the weekend came – Father’s Day weekend.  I was busy at a Saturday Evening Seminar and then Sunday was Father’s Day (my excuses to procrastinate).

Needless to say, the toilet didn’t get fixed.

And…you already know what is coming next.

That’s right.  On Wednesday evening at around 8:30 PM, the toilet wouldn’t stop running.

What’s the big deal?  Just shut off the water valve to the toilet and wait to call the plumber the next morning right?

Well, the valve was old and I was very concerned.

I don’t know when was the last time you got under the sink or behind the toilet and checked to see if the valve worked or not, I know I don’t.

Of course, when I went to shut off the water valve, it was stuck to the point where I needed to put a wrench on it to turn the handle.

I cranked it as far as I could — fearing I might break off the handle — then where would I be?  Now it was around 9 PM!

The water didn’t shut off.

By this time, my wife was reminding me how I was going to fix the toilet over the last weekend, and I didn’t.  I was now in “hot water” (with my wife).

Okay, one last try with the wrench, more torque this time…and I got the water off without breaking the valve…phew!

******************

Thursday AM –

I go to work on the toilet, which is now an emergency.  So I am fixing the toilet instead of making money like I should be.

Why not call a plumber?

Well I told my wife I was going to fix it and didn’t –  so I was already in “hot water” (appropriate for a plumbing story don’t you think?).

I wasn’t going to spend a couple of hundred dollars to pay someone to fix it now that it was an issue (”good old fashioned male stubborness and pride” — my wife might say “stupidity”).

So I did it myself.  The video post I made shows what a pain it was.

I spent too many hours and didn’t get some high priority items accomplished because of it.

The lesson — I realize if I just did the toilet when I said I would and not put it off, I wouldn’t have had my wife upset and I could have been making money instead of spending my time being frustrated, sweating and getting dirty.

I hope this is the last time I have to review this lesson plan — my life will better if I learn it this time and not have to repeat it agian.

******************* 

How does this apply to business?

I don’t really have to answer that do I?

If I do — here it is:

Do the most important things first so you won’t spend your precious time putting out fires and attending to emergencies in your business because you put off to tommorrow things you should have done today.

I am not going to go into time management, but I have a list of things you can do to manage your time better.

If you want this list, email me at chuck (at) chuckyockey (dot) com put in the subject line ”Time Management Tips” and I will send it to you.

Good luck!

To living your dreams,

Chuck Yockey

P.S. If you haven’t signed up for my FREE !
The Fishbowl - Internet Marketing Tips Newsletter yet, you
are really missing out on some awesome marketing tips.

Sign up today!

Hi there!

This is just an exericse in trying to determine if I should even mess around with doing the household repairs myself anymore.

I am sort of handy — I don’t think my wife believes that because I never fix anything anymore.

But I got busy today because one of the toilets quit working last night and it had to be fixed right away this morning.

Just to make it little more fun, I recorded some of the event.

Here you go…

Chuck

News on the SEO Bootcamp –

Hi everyone!

To those of you who are Fathers — I hope all of you enjoyed a wonderful Father’s Day.   I spent the day with my wife and family and loved it.

To topic –

The weekend before last, June 5 - June 8,  John Limbocker, my good friend and business associate, and I attended Adam Ginsberg’s “Secrets Of An Internet Millionaire” seminar.

It was a 4 day seminar designed to take the IM newbie and help them establish a live and operating IM business online by the end of the semiar. 

While John and I are well beyond the “newbie” phase, some might say we are experts, we we there because John had won the entry at another seminar and we didn’t know what to expect until we showed up.

Taking my own advice, using seminars to network, we deicided to hang out a little and meet some new people.

Adam Ginsberg, the host and speaker, knows John and scheduled John to speak about our newest product, SEO Bootcamp, to the seminar audience on the last day.

As a lead in to build credibility, John and I followed the steps Adam was teaching everyone to develop their business website.  We drew our topic out of a bowl, everyone got a niche market to develop, and we got to work.

We put together our website on “The Ultimate Parenting Guide”, our topic, Thursday evening in about 2 hours — complete with article RSS feed, Adsense, Amazon widget and Clickbank products. 

Did I mention we weren’t newbies? 

On Friday morning, John loaded our website and the SEO “stuff” for our topic at around 8 AM and by 9 AM we had already claimed the top three spots on Google for our primary keyword, ultimate parenting guide.

Did I mention that John is an SEO Guru?

As I am writing this, I checked the current Google results for our primary keyword, ultimate parenting guide,  and we have 8 of the top ten results right now, June 16, 2008 at 10:50 AM. 

That’s right 8 of the top ten results! 

We’re not talking about Search Engine Optimization, we’re talking about Search Engine Domination!

John’s personal best is 7 minutes to a #1 listing on Google.

Did I mention that John is an SEO Guru?

When everyone heard that we already had captured the top three spots on Google in one hour, they couldn’t stop asking questions.

Well, needless to say, Adam was also very impressed with the results.

Sunday came around and John and I discussed who would do the presentation, him or I, he wound up doing it.  After all he is the genius behind the SEO magic he uses.

When John finished the presentation of SEO Bootcamp, our study course on how anyone can take John’s SEO secrets and dominate the first page of Google, like we did — remember 8 of the top ten results, all everyone wanted to know, was how to get into the SEO Bootcamp right away!

Adam decided to buy everyone of his seminar attendees a spot in the SEO Bootcamp.

This means we had a 100% conversion rate!

I mean WOW!

We are currently in the middle of the SEO Bootcamp right now with 40 people taking the course.

We will be bringing the next SEO Bootcamp to everyone soon and you’ll be able to dominate the first page on Google also for your keywords also. 

Stay tuned…

To get on the mailing list when the Bootcamp will be open again, please sign up for my email blasts and I will be sending everyone an email on a week or so when we have the next schedule put together.

Good luck!

To living your dreams,

Chuck Yockey

P.S. If you haven’t signed up for my FREE !
The Fishbowl - Internet Marketing Tips Newsletter yet, you
are really missing out on some awesome marketing tips.

Sign up today!

I only have couple of minutes to blast this out.  Busy like everyone else, you know! But this topic today should be very helpful.  I just wanted to throw out a quick and easy tip for all of you out there that are new to or really just getting started with article writing and copywriting. 

I remember that I was always collecting magazine, newspaper and other types of advertisements to keep in a folder so I could reference them when I needed an idea.  I went to my folder when my “idea well” had run dry  — the times when I couldn’t get started on something and I needed a little help.

In today’s digital world we call this a swipe file.  The best way to describe a swipe file is that it’s a word doc or any file that you can store information in.  Inside this file you put all the cool stuff you have seen that you might use later.   Swipe files can have a list of websites of a certain genre like “dog training”, “SEO techniques”, “video submission sites”, or a list of really great IM promotional emails you have received, etc.

For an example, I going to describe making a swipe file for article and copywriting. 

You receive an email promoting a product and you go to the sales letter and you find that the opening headline or the sub-headlines are very compelling.  You then copy and paste them into a word doc for later reference and ideas.

Maybe the copy or the bullet points are concise and well written.  If so, copy and paste them into your doc.  Much of the sales copy today can be rewritten and used for many different products, because benefits are pretty universal.  You know, the benefits are some form of “help you make gobs of money”, “live your dreams”, “save you money”, “save you time”, etc.

When I am researching to write an article or report, I might do a search and find a bunch of websites in the genre I am writing on.  I go and check them out.  I find a very informative article or post on a niche subject I am working on or planning to work on. 

What I do is cut and paste the entire article or post with the title directly into a word doc. Next I name the doc something like “copy writing articles”, or “SEO headlines” etc.  Then I put all these into a folder for later reference.

With all this information available at my fingertips, I can easily find a headline or article headline or title to get some ideas from.  Also, I am easily able to find content for article and for copywriting from all the stuff I have put together.

This is a tremendous time saver.  It isn’t always the solution — sometimes I still can’t get going even with the extra help, but I have benefited many times from using a swipe file.

Good luck!

To living your dreams,

Chuck Yockey

P.S. If you haven’t signed up for my FREE !
The Fishbowl - Internet Marketing Tips Newsletter yet, you
are really missing out on some awesome marketing tips.

Sign up today!

Today is going to be a very busy day.

We are putting the finishing touch on our product launch that officially goes public tomorrow.

To topic:

Many people in the IM world, and there are many people in the IM world, are building a list of opt-in email subscribers (opt-ins).  The truth here is that they are “trying” without much success to build their list.  I know because I have been there, one of those “trying” to build my list.

Things are different now.  I learned one of the most important things in list building — WIIFM ==> what’s in it for me? 

The exact question every visitor to your website is asking either consciously or unconsciously is, “what will I get in exchange for giving up my contact information?”

Sometimes, in the eyes of the visitor, the report, the eBook, or what ever the offer that is being given away lacks enough value to get your visitor to opt-in.

The visitor is measuring value to decide whether or not they will give up their email and first name, not too much we IMs believe, but to any semi-cautious person, it’s a lot to give up!

So what can you do to prompt them to opt-in?  You can give them more value to the point where they can’t refuse to opt-in .  Just look at all the bonuses the IMs line up for you to buy a package or program from them that they are promoting. 

I recently saw from a good size IM whose bounses for buying the package he was promoting included a free ticket for two to the seminar he is conducting that he is selling for $997 per person to buy a package that only costs $997.00.  It’s like buying the same seminar you are going to go to and getting the program for nothing.

It starts to make sense when you realize that people are “premium” incentivised.  What I mean is that people make decisions on what to buy or from whom based on how much extra value they can get.  An example is a customer who bases their decision to buy on a “buy one- get one free” coupon, or a “free gift when you buy this product” offer.  This is a psychological trigger that has been pounded into every consumer by all the advertising they have seen over their lifetime.

Well, here is a product that works that uses the same “premium trigger”.  It adds value so every visitor will want to give you their email address and opt-in to get the premium.

Go here to check it out:

http://www.incentiviser.com

Use any advantage to build your list that you can.  Having a big list will lead you to making big money.

And isn’t that why you are in an online business?

Good luck!

To living your dreams,

Chuck Yockey

P.S. If you haven’t signed up for my FREE !
The Fishbowl - Internet Marketing Tips Newsletter yet, you
are really missing out on some awesome marketing tips.

Sign up today!

Back again!  More tips for Facebook.  I hope this helps! 

The update:  If I hadn’t been so busy with the product launch, I would have spent more time studying how Facebook (FB) works and how to leverage the networking power of FB.

Like many people who didn’t or still don’t understand the power of FB, I let my account sit idle for a few months.  During this time, insightful marketers, who instantly appreciated the networking power of FB, were actively using the platform for their Internet Marketing (IM) business.

One of the things I’ve learned by using FB is that there are so many ways you can use it to help you grow your IM business.  One of the highly sought after goals in IM is to have a targeted list to market products and services.  The only better list is to have one that buys all the time!  : )

FB makes it very easy to get together a list in a target group.

Here are a couple of steps to take to get one for yourself:

• search for a keyword term.  I put in “baby boomers” and found over 300 groups associated with that keyword
• join groups associated with the genre you are interested in
• make friend requests to the membership of the group
• segregate the people you invited into their own category list
• build the relationship
• take the relationship off FB

Now you have a targeted list to market to.

Good luck!

To living your dreams,

Chuck Yockey

P.S. If you haven’t signed up for my FREE !
The Fishbowl - Internet Marketing Tips Newsletter yet, you
are really missing out on some awesome marketing tips.

Sign up today!

Can you believe it?  Three posts in a week!  I must really be slacking off on the other things I’m supposed to be doing.

The title gives you the setup for tonight’s post.

Let’s get to it.

The other day I mentioned to make sure you thank everyone for adding you as a friend after they have approved your friend request (I’m talking about Facebook - FB for short). 

I neglected to tell you to also introduce yourself when making the friend request.

In the race to add as many names as possible on FB, many people find it easy enough to just hit the friend request button without taking the time to send a nice message to introduce themselves.

I did it at first, being the total ignorant charging bull I can be at times : ). 

But I realized I wasn’t following my own rules of developing relationships to develop business.  So I decided to test if it was worth spending the time to send along a nice message with my friend request.

To test, I send out friend requests without introductions and friend request with introductions. 

Results are in and, I’m sure you all know the answer, it is worth it.

I sent out a couple hundred requests without introduction messages and while I received many friend confirmations back, I received very few messages back to me.

However, when I sent the friend requests out with introductions, not only did I receive the friend confirmations back, I also received a flood of messages back with them.

It should be obvious why this is important.  FB is “supposed” to be a “social networking” website not a platform for Internet Marketers to add a bunch of “friends” just to make money off them, however, that’s exactly where FB is headed.

Back to my point — if you treat everyone in a manner that lets them know you don’t see them as just another name on FB when you do a friend request, you’re bound to get the same treatment back.  They know you took time to send them an introduction message and this singled you out from the hundred of other requests they have received that did not.

You treated them as “special”.  Everyone want to be treated as special.  At some point, you are going to want to market to your FB friends list and you want them to remember you as a “good” person.

I have received about a hundred or so friend requests from people and of that number I can only recall getting about 4 or so messages.  And of the four, none of them were personalized with my name.  OK, maybe I’m being picky, but hey, how long does it take to type “Chuck”, I don’t know, 3 seconds or so = ) 

Here is an example of the introduction I use, it’s not going to win any writing awards but it works –

** start example **

Hi <name>

I’m looking for new people to network with for friendship and for business.

Please accept my friend invite,

Thank you,

Chuck Yockey

** end example **

You can see it is short and to the point, but it totally works and does what it is supposed to do and that is to create some trust and friendship, two cornerstones of a business relationship.

Here are some of the replies I have received back from my “new friends” (names have been changed to initials for identity protection):

********** 

Me to Chuck. Thanks for asking and I look forward to the connection.

Peace
J. 

********** 

Hi Chuck,
Thank you for adding me to your Facebook circle of friends. I look forward to connecting with you.

To your fabulous success,
D.

********** 

Hello Chuck,
I am looking forward to working with you on a project. So don’t be a stranger and let’s start making some money together.

j. 

********** 

Hi Chuck,
Nice to hear from you as well. I only get on here about once a week, but not everyone always sends a “hello”, so I figured I would return the courtesy.
Cheers!
T. 

********** 

Hi Chuck,

Thanks for the message. I get lots of friend requests but most people don’t even take the time to write a message when they request it, let alone send a message after I approve it.

Even if it is a simple “Thanks!” it speaks volumes. Social networking is all about personal relationships with people. If someone can’t take the time to be polite they have no business being on social sites. <grin>

Best wishes in all your ventures!

- R.

**********

As you can see by these messages, they are far from the required, “Thanks” type of message.

Anyway, I’ve gone on too long on this post so I will finish this off by reminding you to make sure you send along an introduction with your friend request and it will definitely be worth it to you in the long run when it comes to marketing all the people you have made friends with on Facebook.

To living your dreams,

Chuck Yockey

P.S. If you haven’t signed up for my FREE !
The Fishbowl - Internet Marketing Tips Newsletter yet, you
are really missing out on some awesome marketing tips.

Sign up today!

Revised — May 25, 2008 

A quick post about replying on Facebook.

There are a couple of ways to reply when you want to send a “friend” a message on Facebook.

One of the ways is through the message system.  If you send a friend a message this way it is private one-on-one only and not available for public viewing.

This method is most commonly used.

However, if you want your message to be seen by the public — your “friend’s” friends, you need to post it on your friend’s wall.

Why would you want a message to be public? There are a number of resaons, but here is one I think you will like.

We all want more traffic to our web pages..Right?!

Well if you post on someone’s wall you can promote a website, a blog, etc where all your “friend’s” friends can see it when they visit your friend’s Facebook page.

Here is an example of what I mean.

You requested someone to be your friend (as I mentioned in my previous post) and they accepted.

Now you can send them a thank you for accepting, but post it on their wall instead of sending it throught the message system.

Like this:

** start example **

Hello <Name>,

Thank you for accepting me as your Facebook friend.

I look forward to getting to know you better and learning more about you.

To learn more about me please visit my website

http://www.chuckyockey.com/blog

Take care,

Chuck Yockey

** end example **

This way anyone can see your URL when they visit your “new friend’s” page.

Try it — you’ll like it! 

!!! Added May 25, 2008 !!!

A friend of mine Robert Agar-Hutton from the UK, brought to my attention something he is doing on FB when writing on walls.  It is a modification of what I suggested.  Here is Robert’s example:

** start example ** 

Hello XXXXX

Thank you for having me as your Facebook friend.

YYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

If you would like to know more about me:
http://www.protectics.co.uk/content/pages/inform.html
and http://www.p-k-j.org/content/robert.html

If you are interested in your personal safety and health
then please join my mailing list for “Your Safety Matters”
at: http://www.protectics.co.uk/ma

All the best.

Robert.

Where obviously the XXX is their name and the YYYYYY is something about them or their Facebook profile that aids starting a dialogue

** end example **

Awesome suggestion Robert!

!!! end added !!!

To living your dreams,

Chuck Yockey

P.S. If you haven’t signed up for my FREE !
The Fishbowl - Internet Marketing Tips Newsletter yet, you
are really missing out on some awesome marketing tips.

Sign up today!

Hi everyone!

It’s been a while since my last post.  I hope I have been sorely missed

OK maybe you were happy not having to read my constant banter about marketing.  But… I am back again.

Here’s a quick update on what’s been going on –

I have been in the middle of a product launch that is reaching the actual launch date.  So I have been buried with getting all the marketing materials ready for this product.   A sales page, a squeeze page, a JV partner opportunity report had to be put together and JV emails still need to be done, but I actually have a little time now to make this post.

During all of this frantic work, I still have been working on another project using a soical website, Facebook, to market products and services.  Facebook marketing is not the secret it once was, however, there is another social website I am using now that I think most people aren’t aware how easy it is to market people on it.  I’m holding back on that one just a little while longer until I have all my facts straight and I will post on it soon!

If you can’t wait that long, just sign up for my Fishbowl Newsletter blasts and I will tell you the secret in advance of posting it here — one of the many benefits to signing up for the Fishbowl.

So, I will concern myself with Facebook.  Here are a couple of pointers when it comes to marketing on Facebook.

• Use a nice photograph in your profile to display to the public.  It’s ok to have many other candid photographs on your page, but use one that will promote a level of business competence.  You don’t need to be in a suit, I am in mine, but you shouldn’t look like you just came from the beach either.  Some Internet people will disagree with me on this, however, many IMs who professionally speak at seminars usually are dressed business casual or better — at least a button up shirt with collar and trousers.  When people you ask to be your friend see your profile, they will see you have a professional presence and generally respect you for that.
• Add as many friends as you can. You can currently add up to 5000 after that you have to have a “fan” site on Facebook.  If you add them too fast or you have too many requests open, Facebook threatens to penalize your account which can include the freezing of it for several hours to several days or shutting your account down.  They have a warning message box that pops up when you add friends too fast or you have too many requests.  At that point, you should slow down and give it a rest for a few hours or a few days until you have enough confirmations from your invited friends to start invitng some more.
• Always send a message to thank someone for accepting your friend request.  I think that I have ony recieved 2 messages from people who asked me to be their friend. But, I send a thank you to everyone who accepts.  I have received comments back to me that I am the only one or one of a couple of people that has ever thanked them for becoming my friend on Facebook.  Good vibes is the start of trust and friendship — two cornerstones of a strong and profitable business relationship.  Thanking them will pay big dividends later when you want them to join a Facebook group or do something else.
• Lastly, there are many more but, I have only limited time tonight, take the relationship off the standard messaging system that Facebook uses.  You can only message up to 20 people at a time from your list of friends and it shows in the message all of the 20 people you sent this “bulk” message to.  Not very warm and friendly, but your only choice right now.  However, you can ask each person to join a Facebook group you put together and then you can message everyone at the same time instead of 20 at a time.  A much better way than the standard messaging system on Facebook.  But, the best way is to take your “Facebook Friendship” off Facebook.  Send a message just like you would asking them to join a Facebook group but instead direct them to your web page you have set up to capture their information.  Remember, when I mentioned to thank them, now you are asking them to do something for you.  Who are they most likely feel good about when they are flooded with many requests to join this, join that, go see this web page, etc.?  I know it will be yours they choose!

I hope you got something out of that.  If you did, leave me a comment so I can get some feedback on this post.  If you liked it, I will continue giving out tips for marketing on social websites.

To living your dreams,

Chuck Yockey

P.S. If you haven’t signed up for my FREE !
The Fishbowl - Internet Marketing Tips Newsletter yet, you
are really missing out on some awesome marketing tips.

Sign up today!

During my career in business, I have had to wear many hats.  One of the hats I wear regularly is the salesman hat.  I am still involved in the sales process for my businesses and I have found as many of you know that prospecting is the lifeblood of a business.

Every business needs an infusion of new business and a good salesperson is worth their weight in gold.  To be good in sales, one must develop good face to face techniques and excellent phone skills.  Not just anyone can pick up the telephone and make a sales call to set up an appointment or to qualify a prospect.  It takes training.

A very good friend of mine, Wendy Weiss, is a premier sales trainer who specializes in helping salespeople develop the most important skill to be successful in sales and that is prospecting with the telephone.

Wendy is known as ”The Queen of Cold Calling”, a moniker she has earned because she is the best.  As an accomplished author and highly sought after sales trainer, Wendy has successfully helped many sales people double their income using her cold calling techniques to develop new prospects and close more sales.

And on April 24, 2008, you can join Wendy Weiss, The Queen of Cold Calling, as she discusses how she helps entrepreneurs, business owners and sales professionals, just like you and me, prospect fearlessly and schedule more new business and appointments in less time.  See details here of her Preview Call  http://wendyweiss.com/previewcall.html

What if…? 

Wendy asks,

What would happen to your business if you were able to double the number of qualified, prospects you are able to reach?

How would it affect your bottom line if you met with and/or had comprehensive telephone conversations with twice the number of qualified, decision-makers?

How would it feel to have qualified, decision-makers eager, willing and delighted to meet with you?

Prospecting is the most important skill that entrepreneurs, business owners and sales professionals must master to be truly successful.  Without prospects you have no customers, and without customers, you have no sales,  and without sales you have no business, and without … well you get the point.

But what if you are struggling with prospecting on the phone?  Many sales professionals see prospecting as difficult, but it doesn’t need to be.  Cold calling is a communication skill and like all communication skills, it can be learned.

The Struggle Is Over

Because so many people struggle with cold calling, appointment-setting and new business development, Wendy’s top priority is to help you get your business to where you want it to be - to increase your income - possibly double your income! 

Join Wendy as she hosts a teleconference call where she will be giving away for free many of her cold calling and prospecting techniques that have catapulted the income of many sales professionals who used her tips.

Here’s what people are saying about Wendy’s “Cold Calling College”:

‘I recently called six companies and was able to get four solid introductory appointments on my calendar with minimal effort! If I can keep up this pace I can make more money in less time.’ - Tracy M. Brodd, Account Executive, American Identity

Why make money slow?  Accelerate your earnings through the power of prospecting.  Make more money in less time!  You can have the same success as Tracy.

Don’t wait, the Preview Call is scheduled for April 24, 2008 see details here:

http://wendyweiss.com/previewcall.html

This call is guaranteed to help you, right now, regardless of your sales experience or background.  So go and register for the Preview Call and make the money you deserve.

http://wendyweiss.com/previewcall.html

To living your dreams,

Chuck Yockey

P.S. If you haven’t signed up for my FREE !
The Fishbowl - Internet Marketing Tips Newsletter yet, you
are really missing out on some awesome marketing tips.

Sign up today!