The easy answer to this long and heated debate is both are very important – and I’ll give you that, they both are, but for free content I am in the quantity camp. Go ahead and paste me and leave 1,000 comments telling me I’m wrong – I don’t care, I will read… Read the rest of this entry »

Entrepreneurs-Journey.com by Yaro Starak

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Web Tracking – No More Excuses

• 6 reasons why Web tracking is essential.
• Split-testing 101.
• 10 split-tests for sales pages.
• Getting the most out of Google Analytics

“Showcase Your Reputation” with Joel Williams

• The power of testimonials.
• The best WordPress plugins for showcasing customer testimonials.

“Five Steps to Cash: Step One – Find Your Niche” with Roy Miller

• New five-part article series to get your online business off the ground.
• How to research and select a profitable niche.

“The Hidden Market – Part Two” with David Congreave

• Why you probably know more than most experienced marketing professionals.
• How to use Internet Marketing techniques to attract business-to-business clients.

“Order of Magnitude – Part Two” with Robert Puddy

• The perfect Traffic Exchange strategy.
• How to manage multiple TEs.

“The OTO Formula” with Omar Martin

• Use upsells and downsells to assess your members.
• Use the correct pricing formula to maximize your conversions.

Latest book reviews:

• “Brandwashed: Tricks Companies Use to Manipulate Our Minds and Persuade Us to Buy” by Martin Lindstrom.
• “Free Marketing: 101 Low and No-Cost Ways to Grow Your Business, Online and Off” by Jim Cockrum.

Additional features:

• Internet Marketing News
• Hype-Protector #2 (The Freebie)
• Reader Revolution
• “Free Advice and Worth Every Penny” with Dafydd Manton

Don’t miss the February 2012 edition of MDC Monthly!
You can get a free trial copy shipped to your door by clicking here.

Making Money Online

Technorati Tags: 2012, February, Monthly, Preview

Download the MP3 [ 63 Minutes - 30 MB ]

After ending his marriage, Chris Ducker packed his bags and moved to the Philippines for a fresh start. A few short years later he was married again with a new… Read the rest of this entry »

Entrepreneurs-Journey.com by Yaro Starak

Technorati Tags: Chris, company, Ducker, Employee, Fire, from, Himself, Removed, Reveals, Yourself

Let’s go on a journey together!

Remember when you were a kid and how fun it was to go to the carnival and just well… be a kid. Go on rides, play games, eat junk food, and maybe get into some trouble!

Imagine yourself there NOW! The smell of cotton candy, mini doughnuts, and popcorn fills the air! YUM! The sounds of people laughing and screaming!

But, you’re not here to play kids’ games! No way! Although, you still may feel like a kid, you’re a grown up now and you mean business!

So you head straight for what will help you create optimism for the future!

Not a fortune teller… No… Wayyyyy Cooler…

ZOLTAR the GENIE MACHINE!

You put your 25 cents to have Zoltar the Genie tell your fortune and you ask him,

“Zoltar, what are the Top 12 Predictions in Apps in 2012?”

Well, since Zoltar is a super bad ass. He grants you this information.

Here we gooooo!

Zoltar says…

1) By the end of 2012, people will begin to switch from being App Consumers to App Creators!

2) App stores will intelligently recommend Apps based on Apps’ number of purchases and usage amounts.

3) Apple’s products -ipod/iphone/ipad- will be one of the top video game consoles along with Sony products, Nintendo products, and Microsoft products.

4) Smartphone sales will pass computers!

5) Apps will become the main communication medium between businesses and consumers using cloud technology replacing email, and they will function more like an instant message or text message but with MAJOR enhancements.

6) The technology for the use of Apps will force hardware to “catch up.”

• Like a cutting board in the kitchen with a screen on it showing you how to cut those crazy flowers out of a carrot while you’re using the cutting board to actually do it! Zoltar says that this app would be something like Gourmet Chef Training, much like Disney has done with merging the physical world with Apps.

Zoltar says that, “the advancement and development of Apps will give birth to a major boom and push in the hardware industry.”

AND HE SAYS THAT…

7) Apps will replace traditional media!

• Zoltar says that “it’s already happening so not really a prediction, although it’s going to accelerate VERY rapidly!”

8 ) Amazon will push hard into the app store space and the tablet space at a much quicker pace!

9) The adoption of Android will grow faster than most people estimate because of the flexibility.

And for App Developers out there… Zoltar says…

10) Companies that develop Apps for mobile e-wallet purchases and integration of social coupon sharing will explode and the Adapters that get into the game now will be bought out very quickly for huge sums of money.

• Zoltar stated tag lines like, “Swipe your smart phone instead of your debit card” or “Tap it, Swipe it, and Buy it” … will pop up!

11) And by adding a social plugin, it will take it to the next level.  Zoltar said that “Jim was able to send a 50 cent coupon for product X to 500 of his Facebook or social media friends.” (Hint! Hint!)

• This will be the ‘personal sharing with friend’ and trust factor! Major brands will kill for this because they don’t have the power of trust Jim has with Jane, of course!

12) And finally, as India, and south America continue to get online with less internet restrictions, Zoltar says that we’ll see a boom of hundreds of millions of new people eager to consume on mobile, and advertisers and smart App Developers are licking their chops!

• App Developers who want to focus for these markets are prime to be bought out for enormous sums as well in a very quick time, 14 months tops.  Again the money is in the collection of the data.

You say, “Awesome. Thanks Zoltar! You really are a SUPER bad ass. But what about my fortune for 2012?

Zoltar says, “2012 is YOUR YEAR! So DO IT UP!”

As always like/share this post on FB, Twitter, Google+, etc. AND would love feedback on “Zoltar’s” predictions.

Amish Shah

Technorati Tags: 2012, Apps, Predictions

This can be especially dangerous when you’re a new entrepreneur if you’re not at a place of sustainable… Read the rest of this entry »

Entrepreneurs-Journey.com by Yaro Starak

Technorati Tags: Beginner, Between, Bridge, Entrepreneurs, Fail, Profit, Start, Sustainable

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Just in case you have been living under a rock and don’t know what I’m talking about, the US government recently tried to… Read the rest of this entry »

Entrepreneurs-Journey.com by Yaro Starak

Technorati Tags: Against, it’s, Piracy, SOPA

Technorati Tags: affiliate, Blog, Empire, Magin, Ryan

I was just in one of my high-level mastermind/coaching groups yesterday  (this is a group I pay a lot of money to be in), and we had a real beatdown. You see, there was a guy who was in a “hotseat”….

If you haven’t ever been through something like that, it’s pretty wild – basically one person presents an idea or problem they have in their business… and then the entire group does a big brainstorm about the idea.

If you have the right people in the group, it usually ends up being like a massive shark “feeding frenzy”. You put 20 or 30 really creative entrepreneurs into a room and then you throw a business problem in front of them… well, that’s like putting blood in the water. And don’t accidentally leave any arms dangling over the edge of the boat!

(After all, everyone has more fun solving other people’s problems than working on their own issues.)

In this case, the person was presenting an idea for creating a financial newsletter.

Now if you want to start an information marketing business, well that happens to be a very good market. It’s actually how I started out in this business way back in 1996.

And the person in the hotseat was very smart and very knowledgeable about the topic. He also had a unique perspective on the topic, and a real passion for helping people in this area of their lives.

The only problem with the plan is that, well… there was no plan.

It quickly became apparent that this person in the hotseat had no real knowledge of the information marketing business. He only had a vague idea for getting tens of thousands of followers and then writing a best selling book.

He had no knowledge of the business models in his chosen market. He had no knowledge of exactly who he wanted to sell to, or what they wanted. He had no knowledge of how the business really worked.

(For instance, one of the numbers that you’ll live and die by in that type of business is the renewal rate of your subscribers. And in that market, most of the newsletters are really just lead generation tools for investment advisory services.)

Even worse, this person actually had some capital and was willing to invest a sizable amount of money in this project. So he stands to lose time AND money.

The good news is that he brought this idea to his hotseat… and the idea was not going to survive intact. No freaking way. The other piece of GREAT news is that he was in the hotseat… and he stayed very open to all the coaching. This hotseat literally saved him years of work and tens of thousands of dollars.

Now my behavior in these hotseats is typically to sit back and listen for a while before I weigh in. After all, there were a LOT of really smart people in the room.

But when I finally spoke, this is how I started… with one simple sentence:

“You have to go to school.”

The reality is that information marketing is a profession like any other profession. Just because you have some knowledge, and just because it’s easy to put up a web site… well that doesn’t mean that you don’t need to learn the business.

Now that might sound self-serving since I’m in the business of teaching people about information marketing – but it’s the truth.

And the reality is that I spend a ton of time and money on my own education. I have to. It’s my job.

For example, I’m in the midst of two-weeks of intense learning. Last week I was with my Platinum Mastermind group (30 of my top PLF students) for two days, and then I spent another two days trading coaching days with another high-impact teacher in this market.

That was last week… this week I have two days in a high-level mastermind, and then I’m flying to Austin to attend Ryan Deiss’s conference.

You never stop being a student.

In any case, let’s get back to the mastermind beatdown… the fact is that there are approximately one bazillion other financial newsletters out there. Those folks are ALL more experienced in the business.

That doesn’t mean that you can’t compete… crowded markets are generally crowded because they’re good markets. There’s always room to compete.

But you need to be good and you need to be smart.

You need to study your competition… because at least SOME of them are doing well. And… if you’re doing things right, some of them are going to become your partners.

And the education doesn’t stop with studying your competitors and partners.

You also have to study the business. Back when I started in the dark ages of the mid-90s, there was almost no training available. This business was in its relative infancy.

Nowadays, there is TOO MUCH training available. Much of it sucks or is an outright scam. It’s easy to get blinded by the next pretty butterfly coming along… there is always another system getting promoted.

(Sometimes I’m the person promoting it. )

But that doesn’t change this fact: there is a HUGE amount of really great training available. Whatever you want to do in this business… someone else has figured it out. And there is almost always someone who is willing to teach or train you about it.

It’s an incredible business, but one of the costs for great success is that you have to stay on top of your game.

You have to go to school.

And you’re going to have to keep going back to school.

JeffWalker.com

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