Friday November 23rd, 2007: Issue #862
I hope that you had a happy Thanksgiving Day yesterday.
If you are not in America, you may think it is strange that I’d wish you that - especially as I’m not from the US either, but I happen to think that we all could do with a day to say thank you. I rather wish that we in the UK could have a day set aside for the purpose ourselves.
But as we don’t, I have no problem latching onto America’s day of thanksgiving. But not, perhaps, in an Oscar speech kind of way.
One thing I would like to do is to say thank you to YOU.
Thanks for taking the time to read the stuff I write, for buying some of the stuff I recommend, for emailing me with comments and suggestions, for responding so willingly when I ask you questions and for all you do to make Kickstart what it is. Because, have no doubt, without great readers there wouldn’t be a Kickstart. What would be the point?
So thank you.
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Forums are funny places.
I can feel a rant coming on, so hang on while I get a cup of coffee…
That’s better.
Now, as I was saying, forums are funny places.
When they work well they are brilliant places for like-minded people to hang out, gain knowledge, share experiences, exchange ideas and sometimes, even have fun.
Unfortunately, when they start to go wrong they can easily turn into major wastes of time.
When I started out online, there were three major Internet marketing forums: The Warrior forum, the ABlake forum and the How-To forum. Each of them claimed, with varying degrees of justification, to be the largest/most popular/most useful IM forum. Whichever really was the best, all were must-visit places on at the very least a daily basis.
I learned a lot of what I now make my living from on those forums. Questions from newbies and experienced people alike were welcomed (okay, some of the most frequently asked newbie questions did bring howls of frustration, but most were tolerated cheerfully enough) and useful and helpful answers were posted in response. And because of the huge number of people visiting those forums, responses were fast.
For UK marketers the UK Net Marketers forum quickly became another ‘golden bookmark’ that provided a friendly and fun environment which became almost a club in itself.
Sadly, things change.
As forums became more open to ‘the public’ a new breed of forum junkie emerged: one who was interested in following a different agenda. Some very strange people started to become much more active:
* People who are rude.
* People who are aggressive.
* People who take offense at nothing.
* People who love to argue.
* People who pick fights.
* People who pretend to have knowledge and offer advise when in fact they have never done a single thing online in their lives and would know an affiliate program from an artificial limb.
* People who deliberately spam.
* People who spam out of ignorance.
* People who think a forum is a place to post ads.
* People who can’t tell the difference between a forum and an article directory.
* People who get their kicks from causing disruption.
* People who indulge in personal vendettas.
* People who complain.
* People who don’t know the difference between a forum and a customer service help desk.
* People who think that forums are chat rooms and who make endless ‘I agree’ posts with no useful content.
* People who are just weird.
* People who, frankly, shouldn’t be unaccompanied while they are awake.
My good friend William Charlwood used an expression to me this morning that sums these people up really well: they are the noise in the signal-to-noise ratio.
Unfortunately, in many cases their primary effect is to drive the genuine forum population away. The ABlake and How-To forums are barely worth visiting any more as all you’ll find is the quiet hiss of tumbleweed rolling across your screen, punctuated by the occasional argument between people who have no rationality to speak of.
The Warrior forum is little better. It is as busy as ever, but finding anything worth reading is a challenge as the same five or six topics are rephrased and rehashed over and over again. It is like the movie Groundhog Day, but without the opportunity to learn anything new.
The poor old UK Net Marketers’ forum had to close down recently because the ‘people who spam’ became way too much of a problem for the moderators to deal with any more.
There are a few good public forums left for Internet marketers. Harvey Segal and Adrian Ling’s ClickBank Success Forum - http://www.clickbanksuccessforum.com/forum/ - is a shining light.
And I like to think that our own Kickstart Forum - http://kickstarttodayforum.com/ - is a safe haven. It isn’t nearly as busy as I’d like to see it, but that’s down to you.
These days, the best forums are the ones that don’t let the riff-raff in. Forums that charge an entry fee, either directly through a subscription, or indirectly by allowing only people who’ve bought a product to enter.
If you are a member of a forum because you’ve bought something - use it! The product creator has opened up a great resource for you, so don’t waste it.
Meanwhile, if you value your time and sanity, try to limit how long you spend on the big public forums. Like me, you may not be able to stay away completely, but once a day (or less) is quite enough.
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VHRI
By many people’s definitions of the term, I’m a super affiliate. When I decide to promote something in Kickstart or on my websites, I can often find myself in the top ranks of affiliates.
I don’t think of myself that way though. To me, ’super affiliates’ are way above my little online business. They are the guys who make absolute fortunes. I make a great living, but there are no yachts floating around yet.
Perhaps I’m a sub-super-affiliate! 
Yesterday I bought a new ebook (with my own money - which in itself shows I’m not in the very top echelon of super affiliates - those guys never need to spend their own money!) called ‘Confessions of a Lazy Super Affiliate’ by Chris Rempel.
It was quite cheap and something about the title appealed to me. I found myself clicking through to the sales page without even thinking.
I’m very glad I did. The sales page is refreshingly non hypey. I enjoyed reading it and was AMAzed to see that an entire business strategy is laid out there before you even have to buy anything.
See for yourself: http://www.urlnex.us/lazysuperaffiliate/
That’s right - just visiting and reading the sales page can give you a truly workable business plan for free. You don’t see that very often.
I bought the book and was really impressed with what I read.
It didn’t hurt that the opening lines of part one could easily have been written by me - its something I have banged on about for years:
“Without a doubt, one of the most harmful kinds of ‘advice’ that surfaces all over the internet regarding
the best way to start an internet business is this: ‘Do Something You’re Passionate About’”.
Three cheers for some honesty. Passion is a wonderful thing and if you happen to be extraordinarily lucky and have a passion that a huge number of people are willing to pay a lot of money to share with you, that’s great. But most of us aren’t that lucky. Our passions will never make us a bean online.
How many people have I seen who are disenchanted with the Internet because they’ve spent huge amounts of time and money following unprofitable passions? Countless.
But show me someone who sees their ClickBank or PayPal accounts swelling every day with a constant flow of easy income from a niche or product that they had no feelings for one way or another and I’ll show you a passionate soul. It is easy to be passionate over a full bank account.
So I saw right away that Chris Rempel was on my wavelength.
Some books are written in a way that leads you believe that the author is a theorist - someone who knows what ’should’ work and so sets themselves up as an expert without ever bothering to get the practical ‘hands on’ experience.
Right from the word go, you can tell that ‘Confessions of a Lazy Super Affiliate’ is a lot better than that. Chris Rempel clearly knows his stuff and walks his talk. The book is packed with real life advice and workable examples. If it tells you about a concept, it then goes on and shows you that concept in action too.
I’m very excited about this book - can you tell? I already know how to sell products as an affiliate, but after reading it just once, I know a whole lot more.
Maybe that yacht is in reach after all!
‘Confessions of a Lazy Super Affiliate’ by Chris Rempel.
VHRI (Very Highly Recommended Indeed).
http://www.urlnex.us/lazysuperaffiliate/
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An Inspirational Thought
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We reach the end of another week. Where do the days go?
Friday is a wonderful day. It is full of satisfaction for the achievements of one week, and full of hope for the prospects of the next.
It is the perfect day to write your plans and goals and assess your progress.
The perfect day to allow your stress levels to wind down.
The perfect day to start dreaming about the weekend.
The perfect day to reflect on your life.
The perfect day to plan your success.
The perfect day to spend an hour in your favorite bookshop or library.
The perfect day to call up someone you haven’t spoken to in a while.
The perfect day to have a little fun.
Hey, guess what? Today is the perfect day!
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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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Edward Bulwer-Lytton said:
‘He that fancies himself very enlightened, because he sees the deficiencies of others, may be very ignorant, because he has not studied his own.’
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Today’s Power Thought
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You often read my advice to think positively, progressively and actively. All good advice (well I would say that, wouldn’t I?) but they all presuppose that you actually have time to be any kind of a thinker at all!
Thinking for most of us is a pretty passive process. It is what out brains do while our bodies do something else.
Agatha Christie said that the best time to plot a new novel was when she was doing the dishes. For her, the autopilot of daily routine was enough to set her imagination free.
That kind of free-forming thought is vital to our creativity, and should be harnessed for all it is worth (keep those notes!)
But … and here is the heart of turning yourself from being accidentally creative to being permanently, positively and deliberately creative … if you can set aside a period every day as your ‘thinking time’, you will see your powers of thought blossom.
Thirty years ago, one of the most successful advertising agencies in London (JWT) did a survey to find out what it was that set its creative people head and shoulders above other companies.
The secret, it turned out, was the amount of time JWT’s creatives spent gazing out of the window.
In a minute-by-minute analysis of their time, JWT’s people seemed to spend 30% more time apparently doing nothing.
Of course, that was what the time-and-motion people saw. In fact they were simply making more time to actively think.
Thinking will get you everywhere - why not set aside five minutes today to start your journey?
You never know, it might become a habit!
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Fascinating Facts
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The word ‘puppy’ comes from the French ‘poupée’, which means ‘doll’.