Getting it Done! The Work. The Priorities.

Ever come back from a networking event, or a conference or a workshop with tons of stuff on your plate? Did you end up watching videos on YouTube to give yourself a break before you really got to work?

I did that. Last week in fact.

I got back from the Niche Affiliate Marketing System Workshop in Atlanta so full of vim and vigor I almost didn’t know what to do. Almost.

But I figured it out. If you were there and you were listening, Mark Hendricks gave you the answer “start with the end, and work backward”. That’s sorta logical, I guess.

So let’s break it down. Your goal is to profit from your business, and just exactly how are you going to do that?  This is where some people get stumped. So let’s make it easy. Well, you’re going to do that by collecting more money than you spend. Easy?

So my first thought was: I’ve created a product. It’s done, it might need some tweaking but it’s done. So how are people going to pay for this product? They’re going to need PayPal or some sort of order now button. OK. That’s actually done. In order to buy it, they’re going to have to understand what they’re buying. Sales Page. OK – That’s done.

Now, if you’re in the same boat and one of these things isn’t done- well, that’s your action plan right there. Finish that.

The Sales page is done. The checkout is done. The product is done. I even found some ‘bonus’ products to add to the sale. Not Done. I guess I’m doing that.

But when I’m done with that, the only other piece I need is buyers. Hmm. . . I just organized my list of things to do on this project from the back to the front. I know what’s done, which means I know what’s left.

Now I need to work on those traffic generating ideas I learned at NAMS. That means articles, blog  posts, tweets, videos, podcasts, Facebook updates, finding JV’s, backlinks, mini-sites, etc… Does it matter which one you do first?

No. Do the one that sounds fun right now. I mean you might as well be having fun. Suppose writing articles sounds fun today, and tomorrow and the next day, should you get down on yourself that you’re not doing videos and podcasts and backlinks? 

Nope! because if you were doing articles and articles and articles – guess what? You were doing something that’s going to pay off. When you feel like doing a video – do it. When you feel like turning your articles into videos  – do that. If you understand that repurposing is easier than creating new content, and choose to create new content anyway – Good For You! You’ll always have time for more content – just as you’ll always have time for repurposing.

My advice to you. . . Don’t sell tickets to an event that happens once. Don’t spend your time on things that have an expiration date.  Spend everyday doing something that will last, something that will help and something that keeps you smiling.

And remember that every social media account that you open, every site that you build, every hurdle that you jump makes it that much easier tomorrow. Ever meet a successful internet marketer who hasn’t been doing this for 5 or more years? I don’t think so.

Well, guess what they were doing the first 5 years? Yep – creating the systems, the products, the sites, the networks, the tips and the tutorials. This is a long distance haul. Settle in, it’s going to be a good ride.

So tell me your “after conference” secrets to organizing your priorities. Let’s learn a little something (before we meet up on YouTube, watching videos). :)

  • Share/Bookmark

Read all 2 Comments





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

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 10×10x4 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.

Sign up for the Free Weekly Mastermind.com Today!

  • Share/Bookmark

Read Comments





Lessons From the Niche Affiliate Marketing System (#NAMS)

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.

  • Share/Bookmark

Read all 2 Comments





NAMS is finally upon us!

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!

  • Share/Bookmark

Read Comments





The NAMS 3 Action Guide is Ready

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?

  • Share/Bookmark

Read all 2 Comments





The Journey: A Lesson by Nick, Norah and Aileen

Back in August I had a chance to hear Aileen Bennett speak at the NAMS (click here) conference in Atlanta. Her speech, her dialogue with the group was riveting and got eveyone all abuzz. Since then Aileen’s become a better friend and I’ve grown to love her message more. But it wasn’t until I watched “Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist” that part of her message clicked for me.

Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist

Image via

(If you haven’t seen Nick and Norah, don’t worry I won’t ruin it for you. But I would suggest watching it free on demand with Netflix and then coming back to read this.)

On the surface Nick and Norah is a romantic comedy along the lines of “Say Anything”. Some will not want it compared to such a classic but both reside in the “grunge romantic comedy” section of Blockbuster.

The Destination or The Journey

If you delve a bit deeper, you’ll see that Nick and Norah is really a story comparing two things: the destination vs the journey. Throughout the entire movie Nick and Norah flip back and forth between the sheer joy they will have listenting to their favorite band, Fluffy, and the frustration that goes along with finding their drunken friend (to which they must sacrifice said joy). It’s a masterfully written story where both the protagonist and the protagonist are foils of each other.

So I go back to my friend Aileen. During her talk, she conjured the image of a woman walking to the park with her kids. You can picture this woman trying to briskly walk to the park while the kids keep stopping to pick up rocks and look at bugs. All the while she’s telling the kids “hurry up so we can get to the park and you can play”.

Do you see the parallel yet, the reason why months later I recall Aileen’s speech while watching Nick and Norah? Getting to the park might be the quest. Finding Fluffy might be the goal. Getting 10,000 visitors per day to your blog might be the day you plan to take a breather. And finally getting all your kids out of diapers might bring a smile to your face.

But life, and fun, and joy happens on the way to the park – not just when you get there. That’s what Nick, Norah, Aileen and your favorite teacher were trying to tell you all those times. I command you to find joy today. Make your own happiness be today’s goal.

In the end, when Nick and Norah find out they missed part of the Fluffy show, Nick adroitly says “We didn’t miss it. This is it.”

  • Share/Bookmark

Read Comments





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

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?

umair shuaib.

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!

Sign up for NAMS (the best internet marketing conference) today. (NAMS SIGN UP PAGE HERE) Prepare for 2010, tomorrow.

  • Share/Bookmark

Read Comments





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

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?
GS2083802220_146596542_6300_640_480_SD2

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:

(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!

  • Share/Bookmark

Read all 5 Comments





Open Letter to @LynnTerry (on Twitter)

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

  • Share/Bookmark

Read all 11 Comments





Learn How To Create and Sell Products in 90 Minutes

The Niche Affiliate Marketing System Workshop released their newest product “Create and Sell Products in 90 minutes”.  Combining the experience of Lynn Terry, Jeff Herring, Mark Hendricks and Cindi Dawson, the program not only taught how to create and sell products, but was itself a product created in 90 minutes.

Creating and Selling products is not as difficult as it sounds and is as simple as interviewing an expert in a niche.  If you own a garden site and are interested in selling your own products, interview a local gardener on BlogTalkRadio.  While that will help drive traffic and cement your reputation in your industry, it can be downloaded, tweaked and sold as well. You could also easily put the audio form in CD format and sold via the web as well.

Furthermore, you can then have the audio transcribed and then sent to your readers as a free product, used as a giveaway to invite new readers, sold on your site or combined with other products. Then you could create a power point slide show presentation with the transcript and then make a video reading it. That video could be used for site “members”, if you have them, or could be sold on your site in DVD format.

All of these can be product creation ideas can be done in relatively short order. The Niche Affiliate Marketing System Workshop performed a live teleseminar in front of a crowd, downloaded the audio, and put onto a sales page within 90 minutes.

  • Share/Bookmark

Read Comments








If You Liked Your Visit, Share This Blog With Others