NAMS | Letters From Dan

Notes From #NAMS

Posted By: DanRMorris | Tags: Jeff Herring, Maritz, marketing, Media, NAMS, NAMS conference, Niche Affiliate Marketing System Conference, SMS, YouTube
Posted in Niche Internet Marketing

Friday of NAMS 4 was a great day, perhaps the best first day of a NAMS Conference (Niche Affiliate Marketing System). I believe the bugs that were present during NAMS 1 were not only ironed out, but smoothed over with grace. This year I got a chance to speak in front of the group, but that didn’t prevent me from learning.

As you know, each Friday I send out my “notes” from my various activities during the week. If you don’t get my weekly notes, this is the kind of thing you’re missing:

NOTES FROM NAMS

I didn’t expect to learn much in the Social Media 101 for Beginners that Jeff Herring and Maritz Parra put on, but I attended it because I also don’t doubt their deep expertise. And that doubt proved fruitful – I came away with a page of notes.

Did you know that you can get your tweet feeds via SMS to your cell phone? Yep, Jeff and Maritza said if you send a text to 40404 with the message follow@yourtwittername, you’ll get the tweets to your phone. That is awesome for small businesses. Imagine setting up a twitter account just to send out a weekly coupon, and then telling your customers to send that text so they can get the coupons. Very cool.

I also loved a couple of the cross-marketing strategies that they do with their social marketing profiles. Not only do they put the “follow me on Facebook” button on their profile pages, backgrounds and images, but Jeff even has a video on YouTube with Facebook showing on a computer behind him. Check back soon, that discussion made me realize I need to go back and rebrand all my pages. Good stuff.

Those were just a couple of the nuggets. Make sure you sign up for my Notes, I’ll make sure you get all the good stuff from my NAMS experience.

Learn More About the Niche Affiliate Marketing System Workshop (NAMS)

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Ladder of Value: Moving customers from $7 to $1,500

Posted By: DanRMorris | Tags: Consumer Buying Process, ladder of value, NAMS, Niche Affiliate marketing System, Niche Affiliate Marketing System Workshop, steps of the buying process
Posted in Consumer Buying Process

The Ladder of Value isn’t something you’re going to learn about in school. In fact, this may be the only time you’ll ever hear about it, but I guarantee that it will not only make sense to you – but will likely shift your thought process in your marketing efforts.

The premise is simple. If you want to get hired to be the Keynote speaker at the biggest convention in your niche, you’re going to have to move the people who book the speaker from knowing nothing about you, to getting pat on the back for hiring you. Sending them a resume and a request to speak is not going to cut it.

However, by providing great information, insightful content and helpful, regular postings you can easily move someone from a point of ignorance, to respect, to paying customer. For example a very well thought out free e-book can interest a customer in a webinar, and then perhaps a workshop to hear you speak. That kind of value can beget personal coaching or weekend symposiums.

The ladder of value is a logical, merit based way of proving to your ultimate goal client that you are indeed worth the $200,000 you’re asking to be the convention’s keynote speaker. It also fits hand in hand with the customer’s natural “buying process”. Here’s more:

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NAMS 4 – A website owner workshop

Posted By: DanRMorris | Tags: Internet Marketing: My Ph.D., Marketing and Advertising, NAMS, NAMS 4, Niche Affiliate marketing System, Niche Affiliate Marketing System Workshop, website owner workshop
Posted in Niche Internet Marketing

Hey hey, NAMS 4 is coming up this August. This website owner workshop is a perfect opportunity to learn from experts. If you’ve had questions about Google AdSense, affiliate sales, creating your own products, increasing traffic or even how to use a virtual assistant – this is a great opportunity to grow.

This website owner workshop begins on Friday morning (yes, you have to take the day off) and continues through Sunday afternoon. We’re talking about 200 people who are working toward financial freedom through their on-line business. It doesn’t get better than that.

Crazily, even though the workshop is packed with real “experts” and internet savvy gurus, I guarantee you’ll learn as much from the other participants as you do from them.

I’ve gone to the previous 3 workshops and have propelled my business 100x what I was doing before. From that I’ve even joined a “mastermind” group which has further propelled the learning. And having lunch with people whose actions have brought them 5,000, 10,000 and 20,000 visitors a day has been enormously helpful.

I can’t begin to tell you about all the things you’ll learn that you’ve never even considered before. Typically on Saturday there’s a session everyone attends about creating your own product. And in that 90 minutes, not only do we create an audio product, but we also create a website, sales video and give out affiliate links that pay a 100% commission. Within 90 minutes you’ll see how to go from nothing to making sales. That’s an education all by itself.

Have you ever considered teleseminars? I bet you have and decided it wasn’t for you. But what if you could learn how to turn a teleseminar into 30 other products, how to turn it into a membership site? a book? a real cd people can order (managed by someone else)? a giveaway AND have it increase your traffic and sales. I tell ya! the sky is the limit.

So come to NAMS 4. Prepare to be dazzled with things you can do while you’re there, things you know you’ll do when you get home and ways to make money from your current business that never, ever even crossed your mind.

If you use the coupon code NAMS4MAY – you’ll get a significant discount on the registration price. Go to the NAMS Registration page and see for yourself. I can’t think of a better time investment.

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Fill In The Gaps and Achieve Your Own Success this Year!

Posted By: DanRMorris | Tags: free weekly mastermind, NAMS
Posted in An Internet Marketing Journal

So Darren Crawford and I had an idea after seeing at least one person come away from NAMS without even a blog set-up. We decided we’d start a weekly mastermind group for #NAMS folks. The idea is simple really.

Once per week, we’ll put on a NAMS only, mastermind phone call. If you’re like me, you’re not ready to hire a VA until you’ve got some level of confidence and knowledge about the tasks. And I recall quite well that 1 year ago getting a blog set-up was a major hurdle. In fact, it wasn’t until NAMS that Cathy the WordPressWizard informed me about the difference between a WordPress.com account and a WordPress blog.

So, go to Free Weekly Mastermind.com and get in on the fun. Between the two of us we can get you from A – M, then we’ll make sure to have some guest experts on the calls with us to get us from M – Z.

There are many steps that never get taught at conferences – and for the most part – they shouldn’t be. So if you’ve never heard of nameservers, cron jobs, embed code, article automation, the 10x10x4 traffic strategy, TubeMogul, Onlywire, or the PrettyLinks Plugin – there’s a good chance this Mastermind call is for you.

If you know all that stuff, then join us so you can stretch our learning and we can try to stretch yours.

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Lessons From the Niche Affiliate Marketing System (#NAMS)

Posted By: DanRMorris | Tags: Internet Marketing: My Ph.D., mazes, NAMS, Niche Affiliate marketing System
Posted in Niche Internet Marketing

Ever get in way over your head? Did you come out unscathed? That’s what a lot of people at the Niche Affiliate Marketing System are feeling this weekend.

Hold that thought. . .

Saturday morning Mark Hendricks spoke to the group as a whole. What was probably a bit strange to the attendees is he didn’t talk about internet marketing, he spoke about life. But it slowly became clear that a career in internet marketing is about the juggling of time, family, use of money, use of time and tasks. Without looking at all these things as a whole, how you create a lifestyle that includes a healthy balance of life – not just work.

Mark Hendricks at Niche Affiliate Marketing Sy...

Image by rogercarr via Flickr

One of the illustrations Mark used was the working of a maze. To get your crayon from the Start to the Finish, isn’t if faster if you start from the finish and work backwards? The point he makes is – doesn’t it make sense to create a goal and work backward from the goal to now see how to accomplish it?

For instance if you want to make $48,000/year, don’t you first need to be able to make 4,000 in a month? Doesn’t it make sense then to figure out how to make $1,000/week? And then doesn’t it make sense that you’d have to learn how to make $150/day? (Yes, I know that’s not perfect math, Bob The Teacher) :)

When you work backwards and try to figure out how to make $150/day – you’ll know you’re beginning to achieve your goal.

Back to feeling overwhelmed. . .

So what I know, as a 3 time NAMS attendee, that the “newbies” might be feeling overwhelmed right now, but once they establish their overall goals – all the tools they learned here will be right in their lap. And they’ll know exactly how to use them.

NAMS is finally upon us!

Posted By: DanRMorris | Tags: NAMS, Niche Affiliate Marketing System Workshop
Posted in Niche Internet Marketing

Ever been to an internet marketing conference? Let me guess. . . Session 1. . . chat in the hall with someone you sat near. . . Session 2. . . rinse, repeat.

Most of them are like that. You go in knowing that the speaker’s have a goal in mind. Sure, they’re going to provide you some information that will be useful – but ultimately they’re going to be selling themselves or their product.

Now imagine this. . . you sign up for an internet marketing conference. . . but before you go you meet 90% of the people in an active forum, exchange ideas and even set up dinners to talk about subjects like copywriting and joint ventures.

Imagine creating mastermind groups and find business partners before you even get there. That’s what NAMS has turned into. The Niche Affiliate Marketing System Workshop, put on by David Perdew has become an incubator for success.

So can you still expect the instructors to spend their time selling? You can expect it – but most of the time you have to ask them if they have a product based on the lesson. This is a group centered on educating its peers. This is a group of friends – hell bent on being just that.

And in this crazy world – what better way to spend a weekend than with friends!

Interested in when the next NAMS event will take place? Try Clicking this!

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The NAMS 3 Action Guide is Ready

Posted By: DanRMorris | Tags: Action Guide, NAMS, Niche Affiliate marketing System
Posted in Niche Internet Marketing

The NAMS 4 ACTION GUIDE IS READY HERE: http://lettersfromdan.com/namsactionguide/

I’ve finally finished the NAMS 3 Action Guide. Writing from the perspective of someone who’s been to the first 2 NAMS events, I thought I’d give you some perspective on how to make the best of the event.

Please let me know what you think, and if you went to the first two NAMS events – what did I leave out?

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January NAMS is Right Around the Corner. Are You Ready for 2010?

Posted By: DanRMorris | Tags: 2010, Atlanta, internet marketing conference, January, NAMS, Niche Affiliate Marketing System Workshop
Posted in Niche Internet Marketing

NAMS is right around the corner.

It sure does seem like every year at this time I have grandiose plans for next year. The problem is that it happens every year. Shouldn’t my plans for next year be so big and promising that I would be able to retire by year’s end?

Well, I’ve figured out wherein lies my error. My plans are consistently generic, great hopes. They’re not usually step by step, line by line, playbook plans. Like this year I wanted to get a blog up and going. Well, mission accomplished. Really?

Get Ready for Fun!

What I should have said and am now saying is that I want to have a blog up by x date. I will have generated x traffic by x date. I will have generated x money from x traffic by x date. And finally, I want to have perfected the system to duplicate that by year’s end. Now that’s a little more concrete. Isn’t it?

Well, my first goal is to have my product up for sale, and a membership site up and running by the time NAMS comes around in January. I also plan to have written an action plan for NAMS before Christmas (now that the schedule is on paper) and be distributing that to my NAMS friends by January 1st.

NAMS is where you can get your head on straight. Experts with answers to questions. People good at setting goals all around you. A place to figure out what you don’t know, and learn it. AND the end of January is the perfect time to attend the NAMS event in Atlanta.

Recover from the holidays. Figure out what you want to do in 2010. Put together my yet-to-be-written action plan before NAMS. And then learn as much as a person can learn in 72 hours. Awesome!

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The January NAMS (Niche Affiliate Marketing System Workshop) – The Action Plan!

Posted By: DanRMorris | Tags: NAMS, Niche Affiliate Marketing, Niche Affiliate marketing System, Niche Affiliate Marketing System Workshop
Posted in Niche Internet Marketing

Are you going to the Niche Affiliate Marketing System Workshop in January? If not, then register right now and get the early bird special before the price shoots up. (Here, Right here. . .)

Now that you’re going, let’s talk about how you’re going to get the most of the weekend. How do you get the most of anything? You have a plan in hand, that’s how. So let’s create that plan.

1st of all. . you’re going to meet a bunch of people so let’s put on the plan:

How Should I Leverage the People I Meet?

Niche Affiliate Marketing System

This is important because you’re going to be shoulder to shoulder with people who can help you AND people you can help. Maybe you could interview some of them for your site, maybe you could create a mastermind group with some of them. Some have regular BlogTalkRadio shows. Do you want to be a guest? What about a guest blogger? Is there something you’d like to feature on your site, but you’re not knowledgable enough? Write that down. Don’t just write down “get an interview with a presenter” – that’s not a plan. Figure out why you want to interview a presenter and make sure that’s what you talk about. If you have a garden site, maybe it would be nice to have a short video on landscaping techniques. Write that down and seek out “landscaping niche” people when you get there.

To give you a headstart, find out what the instructors specialize in before coming in January. Sure, keep tabs on the Twitter #NAMS hash tag search for other people attending but here’s a list to get you started:

David Perdew @drperdew

Mark Hendricks @markhendricks

Joe Marsh @joemarsh

Willie Crawford @williecrawford

Aileen Bennett @thatspeaker

Lynn Terry @lynnterry

Jeff Herring @jeffherring

Kathleen Gage @kathleengage

Cindi Dawson @cindidawson

Nicole Dean @nicoledean

Mary Wilhite @marywilhite

(These are the people I believe are slated to be presenters, but there may be more, may be less, may be some different one as well. To see a list of the people who’ve attended NAMS events in the past go to http://sn.im/namsfolks)

Next, you’re going to attend a bunch of educational sessions so let’s add:

Determine What I Need To Learn From Each Session

There will be a schedule. Read the schedule. If traffic building is a topic, write down what you’re doing now and what specific problems are occurring. If “how to create a product” is a topic and you have never even considered that, start thinking about what kind of product would be nice to focus on while you’re at the workshop. Going back to the gardening example, would your customers like “7 tips on planting roses?” If so, make a note of that so come workshop time you don’t spend time trying to figure out what you’re going to do. And so what if you don’t get it done. Once you learn how, you can do it anytime.

Next, there are traditionally two kinds of people that go to the NAMS events. The first kind are the people who have a website (or websites) and want to market them better. The second kind are the people who just want to learn more about internet marketing but don’t have anything yet. Either way the next bullet point is the same:

When I Return from NAMS, what knowledge will have made it all worth it?

That one is important because even if you learn 1,000 things while you’re there, it will bug you if you get back and still don’t know how to do “X”. So unless you write down what you’d like to learn, there’s a possibility you just won’t remember to ask. Seriously think this one through. “It’d be nice to know how to create pages on my blog. . .”It’d be nice to know how to submit an e-book to Amazon”. It doesn’t matter if it has anything to do with Niche Marketing. You’re going to be in the presence of people who’ve probably done what you’re wondering about. Don’t let that thought slip by.

And finally . . .

What physical products do I need?

This is an important one too because you can come home from the Niche Affiliate Marketing System Workshop with actual things. Videos, articles, interviews, business cards, appointments (and even movie making software if you go crazy trying to win it). What would be good to have? A completed e-book? Someone saying “check out mywebsite.com” on video? Someone interviewing you for your site? An article written and published, a picture of you with Willie Crawford wearing a shirt that says “I love thisguyswebsite.com”..

Don’t register for NAMS and wait.

Think.

Create a plan.

And get ready for fun.

———————->NAMS!

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Open Letter to @LynnTerry (on Twitter)

Posted By: DanRMorris | Tags: Bridge Builder poem, Lynn Terry, NAMS, Niche Affiliate marketing System, Niche Affiliate Marketing System Workshop, Will Dromgoole
Posted in Niche Internet Marketing

Dear Lynn,

Having just spent a weekend at the (NAMS) Niche Affiliate Marketing Workshop with you this weekend, I came home with a new appreciation for your 13 years of internet experience. I’m not sure if your open, kind-hearted nature is a result of your 13 years or just who you are, but I am appreciative.

The business world, whether on-line or off-line, is full of successful people who are more than happy to tell you what made them successful. However, what they really tell you are the self-serving things that not only foster their continued success but endear their listeners to become followers, buyers of their books and clients of their services. Most successful people are more than willing to reinforce your opinion of their success.

I have found you to be quite the opposite. I firmly subscribe to your belief that your competition is often your friend, your competition can be your ally and when you reinforce that people who work together will find more pathways to success. You spent an entire weekend of your life (and not the first I might add) helping what many would consider to be your future competition (in some niches). And you spent a weekend helping people who may never be able to help you. That’s true sincerity.

Not only were your experiences real and open and your lessons explained easily, but your actions and efforts continually proved that our success was at the heart of your deeds. You remind me of the Bridge Builder in Will Dromgoole’s poem, and for that I am grateful. While I single you out in this letter, you and the other experts at NAMS, lead by an example that I hope characterizes the world of Internet Marketing going forward.

I am proud to be a NAMS student and look forward to more NAMS events, and every passing encounter.

Best regards,

Dan Morris