Monthly Archives: July 2010

No Change

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In my post from a few days ago, I shared about a blog post by Lynn Terry that was more about lifestyle changes than the hard currency we carry around in our pocket. This is about the hard currency stuff — pennies, in particular.

In a blog post about a recent speaking engagement, Internet Marketing guru Joel Comm wrote about his experience in trying to exchange $75 in paper money for $75 in pennies at Wells Fargo Bank in Henderson, NV.  It seems that this particular Wells Fargo bank would make the exchange without the person (Joel’s VP of Sales) having an account at the bank. So he went across the street to a US Bank branch and got the pennies he needed without any hassle.  In fact, the US Bank teller seemed to go out of her way to accommodate Joel’s VP of Sales.

Policies vs People

In addition to being rude and pissing off a potential customer (and the wrong person to piss off, this time, for sure), the Wells Fargo employee cited “policy” as the reason she wouldn’t hand over pennies for paper money.  It wasn’t the lack of product.  The pennies were there.  It was “policy”.

One of the hallmarks of a great business, small or large, online or off, is the ability to empower employees to make decisions that will enhance the company’s goodwill and standing in the eyes of customers and potential customers. Sure. Policies are important guidelines and some policies should certainly be set in concrete (I’m thinking about anti-discrimination policies, off the top of my head).  However, some policies can be more flexible to meet the overriding mission any company — create happy customers.

It’s important to remember we’re all in this thing together. We’re all human.  Just trying to get along from one day to the next.  Some days better than the others.  There is no reason to make it a bad day for someone else.  Hand over the pennies.

Read the blog post — Wells Fargo Bank Doesn’t Want My Business.  It’s a good read and an excellent case study.

Ch-ch-ch-changes

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Change.  Not the stuff jangling around in your pocket.  The stuff that happens when things get different.

Yeah.  We all live with change.  The weather changes.  We change what we wear everyday. We eat different things or, at least, we try to mix it up a little. It’s the more deep rooted change that really gets us in a lather.

For me, changing would be really getting serious about my eating and exercise habits.  Other people it’s about smoking. Or getting their anger under control. Or really following through with a plan to make some money online or offline.  It might be looking for that perfect job or deciding to chuck it and go on a road trip.

When we change a habit or make a life altering decision, it’s tough.

Getting Real

I just finished reading one of the best blog posts on this subject that I’ve come across in ages.  The reason it’s so good is because it’s both moving and real.  We hear and read all the time about how important it is to be “authentic” (whatever that is) so that our readers will “relate” to us.  Yet, most of the time the “authenticity” I read comes across as manufactured or something the writer really had to dig for since they are really so perfect otherwise.

At other times, it’s hard to pull back the curtain on our human foibles when we hold ourselves out to be an expert in this field or that.  After all, at some level, if we reveal we’re human and can make mistakes including errors in judgement it would take us off our “expert” pedestal.

Effortless Change

The other part of this is the amount of messages we get about how effortless change can be.

Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP) is supposed to be one panacea to help us make the changes in our life and lifestyle without so much as breaking a sweat.

If you cruise the Internet enough (and I hope you’re cruising it now) you’ll see all sorts of offers on techniques to lose weight, stop smoking, attract thousands of Twitter followers and make so much money you’ll be able to retire to Fiji or Bali or someplace like that within the next couple of months.  And it’s all as simple as filling out the form and watching the DVDs.  Yeah.  Right.

The Real Deal

It’s refreshing to find someone who makes a living from the Internet to admit that, hey, life isn’t quite perfect enough.

This blog post – Getting Focused on What Really Matters – came from the ClickNewz blog of Lynn Terry who, herself, is somewhat of an expert on Internet Marketing.

It’s well worth the 10 minutes it’ll take you to read it.

Bread and Buttery Spread

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If there is one thing I like almost as much as sweet things (and I’m talkin’ food, not my wife), I like breads and pastas and rice almost as much.

Rice in any variation is almost irresistible. Add some artificial flavor to it or let me butter it up with some buttery spread like I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter or Smart Balance and I’m lovin’ life.  Of course, it’s not really good for you but who cares?

Hey, at least I’m not using “real” butter. I’m trying to cut down on the sodium and pump up the Omega 3s by going the buttery spread route.  Heck, I remember when butter substitute used to be called margarine.  I guess there’s still some of that stuff around but it’s can’t be as healthy as buttery spread.  Otherwise, why would they make buttery spread.

But, I digress.

It’s the nice soft, squishy bread, the French bread, the rolls, the macaroni, penne pasta, potatoes of every variety and anything else that has a carb in it that I just love to munch on.

The White Stuff

I have heard, from more than one source, that a good way to lose weight is to totally eliminate “anything white” from you diet — sugar, breads and other carbs and dairy. None of it digests very quickly. It mostly turns into fat since you can’t burn it off fast enough.  The stuff id just b-a-d.

But it tastes soooo good. And it is in plentiful supply and it’s cheap.

It’s a commie plot.

Sugar Fix

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Try as I might, I have not been able to rid myself of these damn sugar cravings.  If it were socially acceptable, I’d probably sit down with a bowl of sugar and wolf it down like some people eat butter.

Thank God, I don’t have a butter craving.  Don’t get me wrong.  I love butter on lots of stuff.  I just can’t eat it straight.

But, back to sugar.  I get up from my reading, from watching TV, from going to the movies, at work, at play and I cruise around looking for the stray donut, muffin, cookie, candy bar, chocolate.  Anything.  It’s crazy.

Yeah.  I’ve tried hypnosis and just about everything else.  The sad part is that sugar, in one form or another, is in everything.  Ketchup, bread, potato chips. Even fruit, for God’s sake, which is supposed to be good for you!  So, even if I wanted to quit, I couldn’t.

It’s a commie plot.

Fear and The Challenge

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After having muddled through a week of The Challenge — Ed Dale’s free course on Internet Marketing — I find myself gripped with fear.

It’s not that Ed hasn’t supplied good tools and even greater videos detailing the work that needs to be done.  It’s the work that needs to be done.  The keyword search for relevancy and competition.  Finding a niche that a gazillion other people haven’t already claimed and dominated. Working through new and somewhat daunting tools to help with this niche search.  It’s just crazy, crazy stuff.

I’m beginning to realize that I need to check in with my own commitment and dedication as well as my ability to work like a dog to find something that has a snowballs chance of making a few bucks.

Sure, there’s The Challenge Forum that has all kinds of postings that are very similar to this and lots of encouragement to soldier on.  It’s not as easy as it looks.

Brain Block

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You know I had all these great ideas about what to do with this blog and what to write about.  And now they’ve just gone . pfffft! right out of my head.

Part of it, I think is that it took so long to get the blog up and running.  The guru I asked to help out insisted that I contemplate my navel and determine what my passion was so I could blog about it.

Don’t you love it.  Follow your passion.  Your bliss.  What you love to do.

Well, I’m here to tell you that I don’t have a huge, freakin’ blinkin’ neon light in my head that is telling what to do or what to blog about.  Sure.  There is part of me that likes to write and even like to write about specific topics.  But, there is a whole other part of me that doesn’t know what the fuck to write about, how to attract readers, commenters, subscribers, etc.

To think that the whole blogging thing is supposed to be so Web 2.0 — the social freakin’ web. The place where you engage.

Yeah. Right.

Stay tuned.

Expectations and The Challenge

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A few days ago, Ed Dale released his video about creating expectations for The Challenge.

The video was a great idea.

First, it laid out the fact that The Challenge is really designed to be training for Internet Marketing beginners.  Newbies that may not have a blog, a website or a niche in which to market. To be sure,  many training systems such as The Challenge attract a wide range of people into IM which I have come to understand as Internet Marketers and not Instant Messengers.  In fact, it has been my experience that there are many veteran Internet Marketers that have been through “the basics” and are eager to move on to the more advanced stuff in order to learn how to increase their cash flow… and fast.

It is exactly this kind of “fast track” training that has turned me off about other Internet Marketing training.  It is easy to get left behind, become discouraged and drop out.

The other part of the expectations video was about my expectations for The Challenge.  It’s important to me to understand that Internet Marketing isn’t about taking a few steps or implementing a blog or website and then taking a nap while the thousands and millions roll in.  A good thing to remember.  I can’t count the number of offers available on Twitter from any number of hucksters that promise the moon and the stars, all on auto-pilot.  Set it, forget it and smile all the way to the back.

Ed promises no such thing.

In fact, the very next video Ed Dale put out during this Pre-Challenge week was his Disclaimer.  Yes, there were some products that were going to be suggested (like Market Samurai) and, if I bought them, he would receive a little piece of the pie.  However, I wouldn’t be under any obligation to purchase them and they would be in the ‘free trial” mode for the duration of The Challenge. He also disclaimed any responsibility for anyone making any money which, as he explained, was because he had no way of knowing if we would take action on any of the training he was providing…for free.

Fair enough.

So now I’ve had my expectations framed and disclaimed.  Now, it’ll be interesting to see how it pans out.

Adding Google Chrome to the Challenge

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As I progress through the “pre-Challenge” training, I was asked to download Google Chrome as a browser since that’s what The Challenge is going to use throughout it’s almost 14 weeks of training on how to become an Internet Marketing Machine.

In addition, there were a number of Google Chrome extensions that are being  highly recommenced meaning it’s probably best to get them downloaded because they’re going to be referred to many times during the course of The Challenge.  Most of the extensions look pretty interesting and have a lot of information about the web pages we’ll be looking at and researching and there’s even a Twitter extension that allows you to tweet and read tweets without ever leaving the comfort of what ever you’re doing.  Chromed Bird, though, is not my absolute favortie extension.  For my money, Tweetdeck works better and it more fully featured.  I’ll be interested to see if there is something there I’m missing.

All in all, Google Chrome looks to be a pretty nifty browser.  It is fast  which is one of the reasons it is recommended for The Challenge and once I got the hang of where to find certain functions, I kinda like it.

I’m still feeling my way around and I’ll be interested in seeing how it’s integrated into The Challenge.  It’s free so I won’t attribute any ulterior financial motives to Ed Dale quite yet.  I’ll wait until later one for that!

The Challenge – The Experience of Learning How To Begin an Online Business

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I had never heard of Ed Dale.  The one day while I was frittering on Twitter I saw a tweet come across from Chris Brogan.  In case, you’ve never heard of Chris Brogan, well, he’s just one of the most revered and subscribed to and followed Social Media Mavens on the planet.  All facetiousness aside, he writes some pretty good stuff, produces some insightful videos and is generally helpful.

So, when Chris Brogan tweeted about something called the 30 Day Challenge complete with a link to a YouTube video, I took a look.

I turns out that Ed Dale has been offering up the 30 Day Challenge since 2005 and the premise was this:

Don’t charge for the instructional part and keep it to 30 days.  Create videos so anyone can watch and follow along from anywhere in the world and assign some tasks to help people make their first dollar on the Internet.

Sounds pretty simple, huh?  Certainly anyone can do anything for 30 days.

Not So Simple

It turns out that the 30 Day Challenge was not so simple after all.  Life gets in the way. The products and services that Ed Dale would suggest to help get people started cost money (although the instruction was free).  People get distracted and, honestly, it’s one thing to watch a video.  It’s another to take the time to do the “tasks” like research niches, keywords, etc.

So, Ed Dale killed the 30 Day Challenge and created The Challenge.  Same idea.  Different format.  This one is seven days of videos that promise that watching the video and performing the task will only take 30 minutes a day.  That’s it. 30 Minutes.  Then you get seven days “off” to tend to life or do other things or watch Challenge TV, write in the Challenge Forum, etc. etc.

There Is No Such Thing As A Free Lunch

As appealing as The Challenge is with it’s tag line of “There is no charge for awesomeness”, the truth of the matter is that there is a cost involved and that includes a number of products and services that everyone who wants to being an online business needs.  The real key with The Challenge is not necessarily the cost of these products and services but how well they work.  Obviously, there is the element of “what you put in is what you get out”  meaning that you really have to work with the products and services in order for them to work for you.  I’ll be interested to see how complex or simple they might be.

I also want to acknowledge that these products and services such as Market Samurai from Nobel Samurai are affiliates of Ed Dale’s and he is certainly going to get his cut of the loot.  That’s OK.  If the stuff works and it’s not hugely expensive, I don’t mind shoving some money Ed’s way.  He deserves it.

The Adventure Begins

So, beginning July 1st ( a few days ago) the “pre-season” primers started to show up.  Very basic stuff.

That’s fine with me.  I’m a very basic guy.  I need to have my hand held and told what’s what and what it’s for and why I should do it or even care.  I’m in no hurry to make a gazillion dollars on the Internet.  I realize that instant riches is a fantasy.  I’ve been through a couple of other “follow my system and get rich” courses and realize that it’s easy for someone to take your money and throw a couple of videos together.

I’m hoping that the slower format (7 days on 7 days off) and the half hour a day schedule really works.  I’ll keep you posted.