Friday Jun 1st, 2007: Issue #807
I spent a delightful afternoon yesterday with William Charlwood, author of the excellent $7 book on how to sell $7 books! http://www.urlnex.us/7dollarselling/
It started out as lunch, but as is so often the way with these things, we sat there chatting, putting the world to rights until our backsides were numb!
We both concluded that the biggest problem that face us in Internet marketing is the sheer volume of idea that flood us every single day. I carry a pocket notebook to jot ideas down in - and often never have time to go back and read them - and William carries a big spiral-bound 11″x8″ notebook that he does exactly the same with!
We joked about starting a membership site where we shared our ideas. But then, that’s just another business idea to add to the list, isn’t it!
Seriously though, one of the biggest complaints I hear from people is that they’d love to start a business but can’t think what to do. My problem, and William’s, is what to do first!
Ideas are like rays of light. They are bouncing around everywhere that you look. But many people seem to go through their lives with thick dark glasses on that block all those exciting rays. I’ve written about this in Kickstart before: in order to ’see’ you first have to open your mind. And the only way to do that is by asking questions. Like a child.
Why is it done like that? How could it be made better? What caused that to happen? Who is already doing it?
I met a man at the weekend who holds six patents for new scientific discoveries that he has made. Of course he has great scientific knowledge, but so do a lot of people and they don’t hold six patents!
One of his patents concerns a new type of wax that blocks UV light. The idea hit him while he was skiing. He saw some trees high up the mountain and wondered why and how they could survive the elevated UV light levels. His natural curiosity led to a breakthrough discovery that nobody else had thought of before.
That’s what ideas are - the children of open, curious minds.
But ideas and discoveries aside, it is so much more fun to go through life in open-eyed wonderment than to just accept that everything is what it is.
I wonder why that should be?
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Earlier this week I received an email from a guy who’s name I know but who I’ve never had any dealings with before. His name is Wes Blaylock. Wes is a very successful online marketer, but our paths haven’t crossed.
The email said that he was about to launch a new book and would love it if I’d consider recommending it. He went on to give me a link to download a pre-release review copy of the book and to say that he hoped that I would like it enough to tell my readers (you).
Now that’s the way to seek JV partners. Straightforward, unassuming and with no obligation expected.
There was more in the email that whetted my appetite for what the book was about, so I downloaded it and started reading.
The book is called ‘Here is What Works’ and it is 93 pages of plain-English about what really works in Internet marketing.
After being hooked in by one of the few JV proposals I’ve seen that really worked, I figured that Wes probably had some good thoughts to share.
I wasn’t wrong!
As you probably gather. I like ebooks that are well written, easy to understand and based on step-by-step processes. I don’t like to be left wondering about the bits that have been left out. Well, I’m delighted to say that ‘Here is What Works’ ticked the boxes for me.
After a lengthy, but interesting preamble, the book breaks down into 4 main sections:
What Works in Conversion
What Works in Email Marketing
What Works in Visitor Generation
What Else Works
There is no fluff. ‘Here is What Works’ gets right down to it with idea after workable idea that you can use. I’d say that it is aimed at the beginner to intermediate end of the Internet marketing niche, but even if you consider yourself to be more experienced, don’t write it off. I learned plenty and would have considered it money well spent if I’d paid for it.
There are some excellent bonuses that come with ‘Here is What Works’ - you can read about them on the sales page - but it is enough for me to say that unlike most bonuses that come with ebooks, these ones are worth having.
I probably recommend less than one in ten of all the ebooks that I’m asked to review.
I’m delighted that Wes Blaylock’s ‘Here is What Works’ is in that select number!
There is a special launch price - you’ll see it on the sales page - but that offer will end soon. But even if you read this after the offer is over, ‘Here is What Works’ will still be good value.
http://www.urlnex.us/HereIsWhatWorks/
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In the offline world, bookstores are falling over themselves to offer special promotions to help them sell more books. Yesterday I was in one store that offered ‘buy one get another for half price’ on all stickered books. There was one book that I wanted, but after ten minutes of searching I couldn’t find another one that wanted that had a sticker on it.
So I left without buying.
I went to another book store along the road. This one had ‘buy two get a third for free’ promotion. Again on books with the promotional sticker.
And again, I found one book I wanted, managed to find a second that I was lukewarm about and failed completely to find a stickered third choice.
So again, I left without buying anything.
I do buy an awful lot of books, so maybe I’m not typical, but if my experience is in any way being repeated by other people, then all these promotions are having a negative effect!
No, it must be just me!
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Our washing machine broke down.
No problem, we thought, we have an extended guarantee. So we called the engineer and he came yesterday.
The machine is unfixable. The motor has blown.
No problem, we thought, the guarantee says that if they can’t fix the machine, they’ll replace it with a new one.
Ah. That’s where the problems are starting.
Apparently they won’t.
They will give us vouchers towards a new machine, the value of which they will decide in about two weeks time. But, the engineer warned us, it is unlikely to be anything like what we paid for the machine.
So there is a lot of handwashing going on in our house at the moment and apparently the Avis Laundry will be operating for quite some time to come!
Don’t you just love insurances and extended warranties!
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An Inspirational Thought
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I can’t remember the exact quotation, but there is a saying that goes something like this:
The man in the poor house and the man who owns the warehouse both started out with the potential to be failures. The difference between them is that one of them had a go.
Isn’t that so true?
Unless you ‘have a go’, unless you pull your finger out, unless you get off your backside and TRY you will never be successful.
Richard Nixon said that a man is not finished when he is defeated, he is finished when he quits.
Far too many people quit before they even start.
But not Kickstarters, eh?
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Who do you know who would love Kickstart Today?
Don’t keep it to yourself - send them to
http://www.kickstartdaily.com today!
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The Quote of the Day
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John Ashcroft said,
“The worst mistake a boss can make is not to say ‘Well done’.”
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Today’s Power Thought
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‘Active listening’ became a buzzword in coaching and personal development circles a few years ago. It means that when you have a conversation with someone else you consciously try to listen to what they are saying rather than to the little voice in your head that is telling you what you want to say next.
And you actively involve yourself in their conversation with you by repeating back key phrases that they’ve used.
(Try it, incidentally, and you’ll find you get a lot more out of your interactions with other people.)
But active listening may not go far enough.
To be a really effective listener, you have to WANT to listen too.
Remember those days back in school when the teacher droned on and on? You might have been trying to actively listen, but since you really didn’t want to be there in the first place her voice just turned into a kind of white noise that sent you to sleep.
If the subject matter doesn’t grab you, you can actively listen as hard as you like, but it still won’t sink in.
That’s where another little trick comes in.
It’s called ‘Let’s Pretend.’
You tell the voice in your head that is nagging you to drift off, to pretend that the subject you are hearing is the most fascinating thing in the world. But just for the next five minutes.
That little voice might be irritating, but it isn’t stupid!
When you start to pretend that you are hearing something totally fascinating, two things happen:
* First you find that your brain changes mode from passive to active thinking. In active mode, it asks questions. Let those questions come out and you will automatically switch from passive to active listening as well.
* Second, an amazing thing happens. When your mind makes that flip into active thinking, the subject that was dull and boring just seconds ago suddenly changes perspective. It may not make it all the way to ‘fascinating’ but it will be a whole lot more interesting that it was before.
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Fascinating Facts
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Imagine the drip … drip … drip of a leaky tap.
Annoying, isn’t it!
Now add up all those wasted drips.
At one drip per second, that leaky tap will waste 900 gallons (3,407 litres) of water in year.