Conquer The Net Blog

 

I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but along with all the standard internet marketing products – courses, ebooks and softwares – there is a subset of all these how-to, informational offerings.

This subset of products revolves around the "mindset" and "productivity" genre.

If you’ve bought any comprehensive course, whether a high-ticket, full-on multimedia extravaganza or merely a single $47 dollar ebook about how to make a living online, you would have certainly noticed a chapter or two about the entrepreneurial mindset as well as instruction on various productivity habits.

Maybe you’re even tired of all that stuff by now, since you’ve been subjected to it in the first chapter or two of virtually every "make money online" product you’ve bought.

But you probably also realize why that material is present in almost every product, though the tilt on it is somewhat different with each author.

The reason is simple – unless you develop both the mindset of a business person AND develop solid productivity habits, chances are very good you will fail in your efforts.

Perhaps this is why the statistics consistently say that 95% of all new businesses fail within the first two years?…

Hundreds of successful marketers have surveyed hundreds of thousands of not-yet-successful marketers and there is always one recurring theme:

Lack of focus, lack of a strategy, lack of discipline.

Thus, lack of success, profits, and all the other fruits of their "labor".

The average "newbie" marketer takes from 3 to 5 years to finally settle down and focus on one thing at a time and dedicate themselves to just that.

At that point, they finally start to see things begin to happen for them.

Before that, they were blown this direction and that, by every new product offering and every shiny new tool that would make them rich with a single click.

In other words, they finally wake up and face the reality that there is NO Easy Button, Magic Pill or other panacea that will change their lives overnight.

Ok, so now there are several productivity courses on the market, designed by internet marketers for internet marketers.

Mark Joyner has had Simpleology, Profit Praxes, Desktop Cockpit and other productivity tools online for several years now.

Eben Pagan has his 12-week, $297 "Wake Up Productive" course.

And recently an unknown guy (at least to me) named Jeff Vacek came out with his "Go Be Productive" course (also pretty pricey).

Then Joe Vitale released an audio course on his secret to his prolific writing and productivity.

And there are many more, from a $17 e-report to a full tilt Nightingale Conant physical product.

So, clearly there’s a need to offset all the noise that the average sole proprietor, work-at-home type is bombarded with on a daily basis.

But maybe the average guy or gal doesn’t need a full course on productivity.

Maybe they already understand the whole mindset thing after reading about it in 50 different ebooks and courses.

So finally, someone builds a TOOL to help make all that "book learning" a reality.

Enter The Action Machine.

Here’s a light-weight, configurable tool that allows the work-at-home folks – or really anyone who spends most of their productive time on a computer – to get the maximum bang for their buck.

In short, it’s a superb piece of software that acts as your daily accountability partner.

You input tasks, times for completion and other details and then run the timer for that action.

It helps to keep you focused on what you should be doing and alerts you when the time for that action has elapsed.

It allows you to track your productivity and print out reports, so you can track your progress.

In short, it’s The One Tool Every Internet Marketer Needs!

I grabbed it when it first came out and was quite pleased with it.

But there were some features it didn’t have, so I (and a bunch of other folks) wrote to the author and asked for some additional features to be added.

Within two weeks he had released Version 2 – with all the additional features I had asked for!

I now use it every day and have definitely noticed how I focus on ONE THING AT A TIME now, instead of being constantly distracted.

One example is how I’ve trimmed 15 minutes per day off of my email time.

That’s almost 2 hours per week saved on just one recurring task.

I could go on and on, but this post is too long already.

But Derek, the product creator, has a very nice video on his site showing how The Action Machine works.

I suggest you check it out.

That is, unless you already get everything done you want to get done on a daily basis…

To better productivity and higher profits!

 

I just had to spread the word about this.

Two UNBELIEVEABLE (yeah, I know that word is beaten to death these days) deals from one of the most respected and successful internet marketers.

I’m not going to make this a long post or embellish on the value, because frankly, I don’t have to.

Either you will immediately see the huge opportunity here or you won’t…

ITEM ONE:

111,107 articles with "Unlimited Use" rights, plus a bonus 300 more articles with full Private Label Rights.

So, aside from NOT being permitted to either sell the articles outright or give them away, you are limited only by your imagination.

Here are a few suggestions for their use:

1. Compile several of them into a free report (or multiple reports for various niches) to attract subscribers and build your list.

2. Create content sites for passive Adsense, banner ad or CPA revenue.

3. Load up your autoresponder with articles and drip-feed them to your subscribers.

4. Load up your blog(s) with articles and schedule them to post over the space of weeks or months.

5. Etc., etc.

Ok, here’s the BIG DEAL – they are for sale for ONE DOLLAR!

Now, please believe me when I say that I don’t post any crap on this blog.

And believe me further when I say that I have personally bought these articles and am EXTREMELY SATISFIED with them.

They are well written and in a wide range of topics – and there are one hundred and eleven THOUSAND of them!

So, there’s little chance of anyone using the same article twice – especially if you take just a couple of minutes to re-word some of each article before you post or submit it.

Listen, for a measly buck you really can’t go wrong.  Plus there’s a 30-day guarantee, so no risk to you whatsoever.

So, if you’ve been needing some content and didn’t want to write it yourself, there’s enough here for several hundred blogs, ebooks, reports, autoresponder series, and on and on…

Get your 111,407 articles HERE

ITEM TWO:

List Building Explosion video series.

This is a 23 video series that covers the nuts and bolts of listbuilding. It also comes with a 20-page guide to compliment the videos.

Maybe the best part is it ALSO comes with transferable Master Resale Rights, plus the salespage and stuff.

So you can quickly set up shop and sell it yourself for 100% of the profits.

This series is also for sale for ONE DOLLAR!

And it also comes with a 30-day guarantee.

Get your List Building Explosion video course HERE

Like I said, there’s no need for me to go on and on about these two fabulous deals.

I have and recommend them. That’s all I can do. The rest is up to you…

Go forth and prosper!

 

In part one of this series I talked about how to serve your customers better through the proper use of the web’s fastest-growing medium – video.

In this final part, I want to talk about the most prevalent form of downloadable media online – PDFs.

At the end of part one, I mentioned I had only seen two marketers do what I’m about to tell you.

And frankly, I’m amazed that more haven’t taken their lead on what is undoubtedly a great benefit to all who read ebooks, reports, whitepapers or whatever else in PDF format on their computer screens.

Ok, I’ll cut to the chase…

I’m talking about publishing your PDFs in two formats – one for the web and one for being printed out in "hard copy".

In other words, one in "portrait" layout and one in "landscape" layout.

If you’re like me, you have downloaded hundreds, if not thousands of PDFs during your time online.

Some you read on-screen. And others you prefer to print out and read offline.

There’s just something about being able to hold it in your hands and flip through it (or punch holes in it and put it in a binder) while lazing on the couch (or wherever) that seems so right.

Not to mention that too much computer reading can lead to screen blindness (sort of (<;).  Maybe it’s pixilated eyeballs?  At any rate, it’s impossible to take notes and highlight stuff onscreen…

The first marketer I saw do this was Armand Morin. He did it with his "An Obvious Truth" report, released last year.

There’s a screenshot of it below that is linked to the site where the report is still available (and relevant).

No, it’s not an affiliate link…

Now, Armand is no slouch in IM circles. The man is a class act, in my opinion.

And when I got this report, the first thing I thought was "Wow, this is the way ALL marketers should offer their PDFs", or something like that.

My estimation of Armand was immediately increased – not only because of the beauty (nice graphics template) and functionality (fully linked throughout) of the report, but even more so because of the easy-to-read layout.

Who wants to scroll down each time they want to read the rest of a page? Not me!

Why not make the entire page visible with each mouse scroll or page-down button pushed? It’s drop-dead simple to do.

The next and only other guy I’ve seen do this is Leo Babauta, author of the short ebook "Zen To Done".

It’s a refined take on the famous book "Getting Things Done" by David Allen, but with a Zen touch to it.

I enjoyed it a lot, even though I hadn’t read Getting Things Done. It’s available here for a mere $9.50.

Or, if you prefer, you can read it in its entirety without downloading it, on Leo’s blog.

The point of all this is: You can make things easier for your readers (or viewers – see part 1) with a minimum of effort on your part.

But the improved experience that results for the consumers of your material will be a very nice feather in your marketing cap for future sales to those satisfied folks.

While I’m on the subject, let me tell you about columns.

As far as I’m concerned, columns only belong in dictionaries, encyclopedias and maybe the occasional newsletter.

Again, the goal should be to allow your reader to smoothly proceed through the material – from left to right – just as we learned how to read.

If you make them read one column and then have to look up, or worse yet, scroll up to read the rest of the page, you’ve done them a disservice.

So, write your stuff in standard book layout and leave the columns to reference manuals.

Finally, avoid Serif type fonts.

Serif fonts tend to cause eye strain because of all the extra ornamental stuff our minds have to process when reading – whether we know/realize it or not (now you do).

The easiest types of font to read are Sans Serif.

I’m talking about Helvetica, Arial, Tahoma, Verdana, etc.

So there you have it. To summarize:

1. Publish your PDFs in both layouts for maximum readability. Use Landscape layout for on-screen reading and Portrait layout for off-screen reading.

2. Avoid using columns in your writing.

3. Use only Sans Serif fonts to help avoid eyestrain for your readers.

If you do these simple things, I believe they will create increased and measurable appreciation on the part of your readers and pay major dividends to you in your marketing.

Oh yeah, one more thing. 

Like I said in part one – tell your potential leads, subscribers and customers about what you’ve done to make their lives easier – i.e. benefits to them.

Since so few are doing this, it’s an easy way to not only separate yourself from the masses of other marketers, but to gain the followership of greater numbers of people who appreciate you really thinking about how to better serve them.

Now go forth and prosper!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Let’s face it, these days the so-called attention age deficit is in full swing.

In fact, with each passing day, I’m presented with more and more – not to mention longer – videos to watch (and to distract me).

I’m sure you are too.

And that’s not a bad thing, necessarily.

Problem is, the more time we spend watching, the less time we spend doing, right?

The old saying "Knowledge is power" is flat-out wrong!

The correct statement is: "Applied knowledge is power."  With the obvious emphasis on "applied".

But there’s a Catch 22 to the process of acquiring and then applying such knowledge – TIME.

Watching multiple, increasingly longer videos every day, even on super-important, business-building topics, is a major time-sucker.

And often, after watching one or more of such videos, we find ourselves NOT going out of "passive mode" and into "active mode".

Clearly, that’s counterproductive to our growth.

But there is a way that we, as marketers and product creators, can mitigate that effect – at least the time-sucking aspect – for our customers.

It’s actually quite simple.

When we create videos, create them in a format (or formats) that allow the viewer to adjust the speed of playback.

Kind of a no-brainer, isn’t it?

Most of us know from previous instruction we’ve received or even from personal experience and observation, that we as humans are able to "process" verbal information at a rate two to three times as fast as the average speaker can deliver it.

In other words, our uptake is far greater than the average speaker’s output.

I have little doubt that if you’re reading this, you’ve been subjected to viewing a video that just seemed to drag on and on.   If you’re like me, it actually demotivated and de-energized you, so that by the end, you were considering taking a nap!

So why not allow our customers and viewers the option of mentally uploading the information at their own pace?   I mean, heck, they can always rewind or replay it if they missed or want to review anything.

My preferred player for viewing online videos is the native Windows Media Player, that plays videos in the WMV format.

As you can see in the lower left (sort of), it has some handy playback speed adjustment controls.

Here’s a close-up of the actual playback speed controls.

So, when I play back a video, especially a long one, I increase the speed to between 1.4 and 2.0 of normal playback.

I’m sure the time savings to me adds up to several hours each month.  Hours that I can spend doing, rather than viewing…

Yes, it’s true that some videos sound a bit "chipmunky" when they are played faster than normal.  But most are still quite discernible and it’s easy to get accustomed to the faster pace.

So, aside from telling you to limit the length of your videos by editing unscrupulously, I also recommend you produce your videos in a format (there are others besides WMV) that gives your customers the option of faster playback.

And when you produce a video product (even free stuff) with such a built-in option, tell your potential customers about it in your salesletter!  You may be quite surprised about the reaction you receive…and quite likely the increase in conversions you experience.

In part two of this short series, I’ll cover another simple adjustment to "business as usual" that I’ve only seen two people do.

Will you join them to serve your customers better?…