Thursday 31 January 2008

So Much to Choose From...

... and so little time!

Hello again,

I'm going to assume, for the sake of argument, that we each have just one lifetime.

I'll also take it as read that you're having as much trouble cramming everything into yours as I am squeezing it all into mine.

And that you'd like your life to be fulfilled and successful, financially secure and interesting. Well, that about sums up my ambitions, anyway.

But there is so much to do, so much to read and listen to and watch, so much to learn and just a finite amount of time. We have to make choices. Specifically, we have to make decisions about what will move us towards our goals and what will just distract us.

So I'm pleased to be able to point you towards a nifty little decision-making tool that could save you hour upon hour of wasted time and effort and speed you towards your goals, whatever they may be. It's free, takes just moments to apply and fills one side of a piece of paper when you print it out.

It's been created by David Congreave (Lucid SEO, The Nettle, Networking Nightmares...), and you'll find it on his website, right here: http://www.thenettle.com/HypeProtector/

Hype Protector, eh? Cool name.

David knows a thing or two about making wise choices. He's made plenty already, although I'm not the only one who's told him he could have chosen to charge for this!

Meanwhile, do you ever get the impression that the Internet has been hijacked? Well now you can take the Internet back, right here.

Roy Everitt, Writing For Results

PS Talking of avoiding hype - if you don't want to be buried under the hype for (whisper it) MI.7, you need to sign up for Roy Everitt dotcom. That way you can get in first, ahead of the rush, and be profiting from the furore that's bond to ensue when (shhh...) MI.7 is opened to the general public. Just visit the sign up box top right on this page and you'll be first to hear.

PPS Did I mention the Hype Protector is free? Well it is. Go here: http://www.thenettle.com/HypeProtector/

Wednesday 30 January 2008

265,000 plus targeted visitors?

Hello again

I'll be back here later today, but meanwhile how does this sound to you?

Could You Use 265,719 Targeted Visitors For FREE?

Worth a look, certainly!

Roy Everitt, Writing For Results

PS Sign up now and be first to hear about the biggest news to hit the Internet this year. It's secret, it's powerful and it's aimed at YOU!

Thursday 24 January 2008

My Other Blog is a Ferrari

Hello again.

Is there an optimum number of blogs, community sites and other assorted 'web 2.0' resources for an Internet marketer?

I only ask because, while it's a good idea to drive traffic to the websites we're selling or promoting from, driving them round in circles from one to another might be an exercise in diminishing returns.

Nonetheless, I'll be interested to see how many people pop in here from Zion5, where a new blog feature has just been introduced and I've just posted for the first time.

I'll also be keen to see how many linger to read some of my previous posts.

Dig in people, and enjoy!

Roy Everitt, Writing For Results

PS And, of course, sign up!

Tuesday 22 January 2008

Talk About Focus!

Phew! Got back late yesterday from a weekend with our daughter and three grandchildren...

Hello again.

Talk about focused effort - and calm under pressure. I thought we could work quite hard, I thought I was pretty good under pressure, but seeing my daughter not just coping but managing superbly makes me realise just how easy my life is most of the time. And it made me appreciate it, too.

If you still have children at home, or you work as a teacher or child carer, or you spend a lot of time with your grandchildren, you will understand. But how quickly we forget!

I've had my two children, and 'inherited' two more almost exactly ten years younger, and wouldn't have missed being a parent - but I wouldn't choose to do it again, either...

And life is about choices. Not every decision we make turns out to be a wise one, but it was still ours to make. Without exception, we make the best choice we can at any given time, given the circumstances, what we believe and how much we know, so it follows that we make better choices when we know more and can think more clearly.

Sometimes that requires a bit of distance, or a crisis or crossroads in our life. Often, it requires more courage than we think we have, but we all have more courage than we know. When the pain of being where we are exceeds the (often exaggerated) pain of making a change, we make the change. And usually find the pain is nothing like we expected.

But to make a real go of a new venture, it does us no harm at all to be reminded just what real focus and calm under pressure is. Find yourself a young mum and prepare to be amazed!

Roy Everitt, Writing For Results

Tuesday 15 January 2008

A 265,719 List - Free

Just a quick article today, to mention an amazing but very real opportunity.

One of the biggest obstacles to many would-be online marketers is building a 'safelist' of opted-in email addresses. Without those, email marketing is dead before it even starts...

And even 24 percent of nothing is still nothing.

Here's the solution: Smart Safelist.com

Roy Everitt, Writing For Smart Results

Friday 11 January 2008

At Least Something Works!

Hello again.

Frustrating isn't quite the word when you've gone to the trouble of directing people to a website, only to find you can't update the content to give them what you've promised.

The mysteries of Internet Explorer and/or Google conspired to prevent me updating this page yesterday, but I'm here now.

And the plan was to tell you how the death of email marketing has been greatly exaggerated. To point out that any other advertising medium that could deliver a twenty-four percent response would be lauded to the hills. And any that subsequently delivered over sixty percent of those responders to the advertised event would be hailed as revolutionary.

It wasn't lauded (except by me) and there's nothing very revolutionary about email marketing. I guess it depends on three things:

  1. How targeted the original list is
  2. How good the offer is
  3. How well we write the emails

So we can probably say we got three out of three for our last campaign. Fifty attendees from a list of about three hundred people (and from just under eighty opt-ins) has to be good.

So when I finished congratulating myself for that success I could only think I should be doing this kind of thing for a living!

Then I remembered I was, decided to tell a few people about it, and hit the brick wall that either Microsoft or Google temporarily threw up in my path.

Still, I'm here now, I've told you about it and I can only ask one question: how would a twenty-four percent response to your next campaign help YOUR business?

Roy Everitt, Writing for Amazing Results

Saturday 5 January 2008

Beware the Joint Venture

Hello again...

but hold on - aren't I the one who's been telling you for months that joint ventures are the fastest way to grow a list, build your business and transform your earning ability?

Yep. So maybe I should plead guilty right now to deceiving you all along?

Yes and no.

Joint ventures are a brilliant way to build your business. That means they're also a brilliant way for everyone else to build their business, too. And there are joint ventures and joint ventures...

Just recently, it seems that every other email I get is promoting the idea of joint ventures. Most of them, not surprisingly perhaps, are promoting the idea of joint ventures with the sender of the email. Of course, they're trying to sell me something and there's nothing wrong with that. But what they suggest is not a joint venture at all. It's an affiliate scheme, pure and simple.

Not that there's anything wrong with afffiliate schemes, either. Ask Ewan Chia. But I do think that promoting one thing as something else is wrong.

In a recent email to David Congreave I used the term 'interested affiliate'. I think that's a more accurate name for the kind of joint venture offer that really amounts to 'sell my product for a commission and I may promote something of yours later'. In other words, the affiliate partners have a vested interest in the success of the whole promotion, since it builds a bigger list they may be able to tap into later. But it's not a joint venture, which entails a far more specific relationship and a more tangible return.

To me, a joint venture is where both (or all) parties bring something roughly equal to the table and share the rewards accordingly.

But if you're suddenly bombarded with 'exclusive' or 'limited' joint venture offers from people whom you know wouldn't know you from Adam or Eve, just ask yourself, as always, 'What's in it for me?'

As for me - I usually just press 'delete'.

Roy Everitt, Writing For Results

Thursday 3 January 2008

Why Rivals Should be Allies

...and that applies to public speaking as much as anything

Hello again.

As a public speaker, especially an inexperienced and nervous one, you're quite likely to feel anxious and defensive about your position or status. Don't worry - that's quite natural and normal. If you had no nerves you'd have no adrenalin and probably no energy to perform.

Still, away from the stage you need to be more clear-headed about things.

One of the great things about business (that I wouldn't have believed before I gave up the 'day job' a year ago) is the level of cooperation you get between people who could just as easily be rivals. It's the quickest way to grow a business, bar an unfeasibly large cash injection, so it makes sense all round. Often, though, people cooperate and help each other despite having little to gain. I suppose that's because most people are, basically, nice.

So it was good to read a newsletter from David Congreave today, celebrating that fact. David created Lucid SEO, The Nettle and Networking Nightmares, so he knows a thing or two about success and cooperation.

As a public speaker you might well feel all alone and pretty vulnerable up there on the stage. Actually, there's no need if you're prepared to share the limelight, the kudos, the profits and the stress with a 'rival' who operates in the same niche as you.

Think about it, and think about the value your audience gets if they get two experts' views and ideas, two voices to make things more varied and two people essentially reinforcing the principles you're trying to espouse. It makes sense to me.

You'll be marketing to two lists, as well. And that never hurts...

Roy Everitt, Writing For Results