I mentioned in another post that there are very few idea’s that are totally new.

Consider the story of jello (we call it Jelly in the UK).

I can remember as a kid making Jelly shaped rabbits and the like for birthday parties.  A kids party is not a party without a jelly shaped animal of some sort. Making it with Mum was even better that eating it. I even used to eat it in its undiluted form

(Yuck I couldn’t face it now diluted or otherwise) Perhaps that’s why most of it ended up on the floor.

The story behind this product is relevant to us as marketers and its eventual success was a milestone in marketing practice.

Its made from gelatin extracted from the intestines, connective tissues, and boiled bones of animals….

How on earth did they get anyone, let alone kids,….to eat that.

Jelly( I’m in the UK) was popular in the Victorian era but was a hassle to make and only really available to the better off.

In 1845 the builder of the first American steam locomotive  Peter Cooper filed a patent for powdered Gelatin.   He didn’t do much with it and 40 years later it was sold to  Pearle B Wait from new york

His wife added fruit flavoring and called it Jello, but once again the product did not catch on.

In 1899 the Waits sold their business to their neighbour…. a guy called Orator Francis Woodward, who owned the ” Genesee Pure Food Company” for $450.

Incidentally through a series of mergers and acquisitions in 1927….

Clarence Birdseye’s Frozen Food Company was added to the group to form  the General Foods Corporation.

In 1902 a few adverts were placed in various US Ladies magazines but the Jell-o  was no kind of success….

Here’s the Rub….

In 1904 Genesee Pure food sent out it’s sales reps (big style) with a….. FREE….. Jello recipe  booklet .

This was pioneering stuff at the time…

the tag line was

” America’s Most Famous Dessert”

Not sure they would get away with that now too many are on the bandwagon. The concept, however,  is as valid now as it was then.

What does it tell us….

The most popular….Free….. etc etc??,

Yes we are all sick and tired of being told this…..

But there are a few interesting things we can learn from Jell-O.

Despite the fact that the product is made from all sorts of unmentionable leftovers,

It gives value for money, and it’s marketing has established it as an accepted brand and foodstuff, all from a….

FREE….. giveaway

The marketing and its integration into our lives has even led to a multitude of uses,  from kids party’s to jello wrestling.

So whats the point….

well… we may be a species that has certain buttons that need to be pressed before we react, but ONCE  PUSHED!!…the skies the limit….

In this ever more sophisticated world the word Free…

has less meaning as we become increasingly aware of the marketing behind the word.

Giving something of real value for nothing is viewed with suspicion, and rightly so.

I suppose there is no such thing as a free lunch

So how can we overcome our natural suspicion to marketing hype.

Well..

.” give you best information first”.. not all of it naturally…

Look at Rich Sheffren, David Cavanagh, or any successful internet marketer they give value and substance for free….

If that kind of information and knowledge is for nothing…. how much are you prepared to pay for the rest?.

Human instinct , desire, aspiration, remain the same even in our ever more sophisticated world.

Marketing is the same in principal now as it always has been, look back and it will help you look forward

I am a big fan of All Along The Watchtower a tune by Bob Dylan … and Jimi Hendrix’s cover. The words are just great (thanks Bob) and the tune was taken to another level by Hendrix(thanks Jimi) but of course it comes’s from more than that and I would be grateful if one of you guys or Gal ‘s will tell me from where?

So what has this got to do with Internet marketing.

Well have you ever found yourself singing along (mentally or verbally) to a tune you like only to realise that some of the words you are singing are not actually the same as the original .

I have

I have been doing this with this tune without knowing it for years. So what has that told me?…. I don’t listen… I hear what I want to hear… Or I sing  what I   like to hear………… it is the same thing…..

. for sure no one wants to hear me sing... not even me…

Do you think we all do  the same thing sometimes

We tend to do the things we always do.

Thus we also tend to dislike what we have always disliked or like what we have always liked.

What can we do to break that mould and open up another world …

Well we can start to LISTEN….

Anyone seriously interested in making a living from IM  will probably have been through the treadmill of free offers last chance hotel type of stuff that we are all sick of reading and likely this applies to any other niche also

So where do we go from here? yes it is fair to say that it is a big world and you never know who  or how any reader will end up reading  this or your blog. ( naturally we have influence)

But That is not the way to go…. throw out enough bait and sooner or later you will get a catch… Not good fishing!!!

every person that reads this will read and construe  it in their own way… it could be your dad or mum brother or sister son or daughter or a complete stranger.. they know you for different reasons   and they know what you are talking about (most times) thus the best way to look at making any kind of post is to write it as though conversing with  just one person. yes I mean you

We as human beings are a social species if we weren’t then we would not have survived and prospered this long.

Generally every successful person has an ability to connect to people as individuals.

Obvious really but….

FDR the american president up to and during WW 11 for example…remembered every one’s name from the chamber maid to Winston Churchill(maybe he had someone to prompt him) it made him a person and personable. This has to be from the heart…. I have had some replies to my posts and the person got my my name wrong

so what you say… as do I

You decide

The gist of this is…

As this world gets smaller and our ability to communicate gets easier we have a chance to truly communicate, if you are selling rotten fish some will buy them….just once or even  twice… But if you want to make a living from selling fish then they have to be fresh and you have  to know  they are fresh

This is a guest post By Andy Brown.

Today I would like to talk about one of the biggest wake up calls any information marketer will ever hear. Unfortunately there is one piece of advice regarding how to sell your first product online that is just plain wrong.

People just starting out and experienced marketers alike are led to believe that having created their own product they must move onto writing their sales letter to complete the project. At first glance this may seem a sensible thing to do but the reality is this will severely hinder your chances of ever making a sale online.

The goal should always be to write the sales letter first before you have even created the product, only by writing the letter will you ever know exactly what will go into it. Too many times marketers will spend a huge amount of time on product creation only to find it lacks key components essential to solve the “pain” their prospect needs solving. Only by taking the time to truly understand their potential customer, by writing a first class sales letter, can they be in a position to produce a product that meets all of their requirements.

The truth is we all like to put off the things we least like to do until the very end. In fact in the internet marketing world most marketers feel immense relief when they believe they don’t have to even think about writing any of their copy until they have finished the product creation.

So how does one address this issue?

I would recommend every marketer has an A4 lever arch file full of their favourite sales letters, typically known as a swipe file. This should contain photocopies of some of the old classics by David Ogilvy, Gary Halbert, Gary Bencivenga and Claude Hopkins. It should also include good direct marketing pieces you have received through the post and online copy that has persuaded you read through in its entirety. I would also recommend you start to print out all of your competitors’ sales letters, making note of which ones really stir your emotions where you feel they really understand your problems.

The next step is to physically hand write out chunks of copy you rate highly and have proven to convert in their own niches. This practice over time ingrains the persuasive traits all of them will have and as a result you will pick up on the phrases that convince you read on and also purchase.

Critically there is one thing all of the great marketing pieces will have above everything else.

All of the best converting sales letters will have strong elements of proof. In fact never start writing your copywriting if you haven’t got a number of case studies, stories, testimonials, or videos to back up your persuasive proposition that states you have a way to solve your prospect’s problem. Understanding this can be a tough nut to swallow and I see far too many marketers jump on the bandwagon of writing an ebook  without a thought as to why anyone should buy it. At the very least they should be using their own story as a way of creating proof, illustrating how their product reveals the breakthrough to achieving a given successful result. This is one of the key reasons I use to back up my argument for writing the copy first. It can be a hard slog to create the product and then hope it will do everything you promise it will if you know you have missed out key parts. In my own niche of golf I will only create a new product if I know students have already improved their games by using the information I’m going to put in it.

Again if we take golf I make a habit of buying as many magazines as possible to help improve my copywriting, in particular headlines. If you have chosen to market to a large group of rabid buyers it is almost a certainty that you will be able to buy magazines on that subject, in fact if you can’t find a magazine that could well be another wake up call – perhaps the market you’re considering isn’t as large as you thought.

Magazine editors will be acutely aware of what headlines make people pick their product off the rack, browse through it and buy. If you can’t buy every magazine in your niche at least take the time to read as many headlines, sub heads, and bullets and jot them down as possible as soon. By standing at one end of the magazine shelf and walking the length you will quickly pick up on words that commonly appear across niches. This will allow you pick up on ideas for your own writing.

I have golf magazines as far as the nineteen forties, and one thing is an absolute given when comparing to one bought today and that is people buy on emotion and then justify it afterwards. This will never change and the very reason why we can all go back decades and still find great copy that will be as effective today as it was in the past. I am forever looking for phrases that pull my emotional strings rather than my logical ones, because these are the diamonds that will sparkle in your copy and make the all important sales.

As a student I studied architecture and would spend many nights at university trying to design buildings that evoke emotions, uplift and inspire the visitor. This was never an easy task and the creative process would often result in many dead ends before I was pleased with the final design. Likewise I find successful marketers have to go through the same process and in doing so create many drafts. Imagine perfecting your sales letter over a number of weeks before eventually being happy with a draft you can run with. In this situation I can absolutely guarantee completing the product will seem like a breeze!

I make no excuses, every person that makes money online will have studied and worked hard at copywriting. It can be time consuming, but fortunately many life skills are learnt along the way. Techniques in how to create traffic and build websites will come and go, but the core skills of copywriting will be same for the next hundred years.

Many will kid themselves into thinking they can wing the headline and also cut and paste a sales letter right at the end of the product creation.  As already stated I strongly beg to differ. It isn’t uncommon for me to spend 2 – 4 hours working on variations of a headline for a new squeeze page. Often this is best done in a coffee shop, away from computers and with just a pen and paper – nothing else.

In fact I will most the majority of this time with my mind away from the stacks of headlines I have memorised over the years but instead I will importantly try to get right into the mind of my target reader. As I take my first sip of coffee I begin to picture my typical prospect – how old are they, where do they work, what currently frustrates them, what does a typical day look like for them and so on. They call this process creating your customer avatar and this becomes a very powerful technique to helping you tighten your copy to the point your prospect truly believe you are speaking directly at them.

I will go on record and say if you can’t write 300 words about your typical customer, you will struggle to create your sales letter. The easier you can picture them the easier it will be to write copy that really ticks all the emotional boxes.

The reality is that good sales copy will separate the winners from the losers and it continually amazes me when I hear so many confess to doing lip service to improving their copywriting skills.

As an affiliate manager at http://www.NewPowerAffiliate.com
for two of the most successful internet marketers in the UK, Neil Stafford and Neil Travers, I fully appreciate the avalanche of information and advice everyone is exposed to when they decide they would like to work towards creating an income online. Often the vital skills of writing effective copy are overlooked in the stampede to glean as much knowledge about the latest traffic techniques and hottest ways to game Google.

All too often the game plan to launch a product gets lost in the noise and never takes off, so my advice would always be to write your sales letter first and have a more profitable and easier life.

The measurement of time is taken for granted in this atomic clock age,

But it was not always so.

In fact an accurate and robust method of time measurement was vital to enable shipping to navigate at sea with confidence.

Whilst Latitude is simple to measure Longitude is less so and this problem resulted in substantial loss of life and assets through shipwreck.

Even experienced Ships Masters could find themselves hundreds of miles off course.

In 1714, the British Government offered, by Act of Parliament,….

” £20,000 for a solution which could….

provide longitude to within half-a-degree (2 minutes of time). The methods would be tested…..

on a ship, sailing

…over the ocean, from Great Britain to any such Port in the West Indies as those Commissioners Choose… without losing their Longitude beyond the limits before mentioned

and should prove to be

…tried and found Practicable and Useful at Sea.”

This was the mandate laid down by the British Admiralties board of longitude to try and solve the problem of  sailors and ships being lost at sea.

Incidentally £20,000 in today’s money is around 4.5 million ……that’s how serious the problem was.

There were two main contestants and schools of thought as to how to solve it.

The Lunar method championed by ……( I am not going to mention his name because he does not deserve it)

And the chronological method…. ultimately solved by John Harrison.

The fact that the Luna proponent also happened to chair the Admiralties board of commissioners added an interesting twist to the story and may in this case show that it  is…

What you know and not who you know that counts.

Although  it took a lifetime, and the intervention of King George 111 to prove it…. so I suppose….

What you know AND who you know is is the rub.

The Luna method by definition involved finding longitude by using the moons cycles ….and was impracticable …unreliable …and too complex to mention.

The only realistic answer was to build a clock that was (in those days)

fantasticlly accurate,

and able to funtion without fail during the rigours of a sea voyage.

No mean feat with the tools, materials and expertise of the age.

John Harrison started making clocks from wood and although brilliant in conception and construction the material was totally unsuitable for the purpose.

His first serious attempts to make a ships clock were made in metal and are in…

the British Maritime museum ….

known as H1, H2 , and H3, they are works of art as well as mechanical wonders, and still work to this day

These three clocks were developed over  a lifetime …

All were rejected by the Admiralty.…

who’s chairman was still advocating his own Luna method (surprise, surprise!)

Finally Harrison submitted his masterpiece…            H4  …. in 1759

Although this timepiece fulfilled the original Admiralty mandate it was still rejected…

and through subterfuge and downright deceit the commissioners connived to withhold Harrison’s prize money.

Only in 1773 when The king himself ordered the money to be paid did Harrison receive his just reward, he was 80 years old and only lived another 3 years to enjoy it. in fact he was never paid in full…. ( no one ever was) …..

There is no doubt that John Harrison was a genius, who had some of the characteristics of a great man

Tenacity

Perseverance

Self Belief

Intelligence

Vision

But he also had flaws that made his journey harder

Stubbornness

An inability to work with others

Poor social skills

Single Mindedness

Some of these traits are two sides of the same coin.

In fact several members of the Admiralty were pro Harrison’s H4 timepiece, they knew the Luna method could not work and recognised the answer lay with Harrison.

Harrison’s faults however, ostracised him, and left him with few allies.

Had Harrison understood the power of partnerships he may have enjoyed his prize money for longer and benefited from a less stressful life. His stubbornness was a two edged sword.

I sometimes think of John Harrison and the lessons that can be learned from his life…

And don’t get me wrong here…. he did collaborate … it is a question of with whom….

Having an idea and belief is all important but it is not always enough….

the right mentors and partnerships…. should not be overlooked lightly.

Recently I received an e-mail from Andy Brown a highly experienced and successful marketer who works with Neil Stafford…. and Neil Travers… (known as the two Neils … you may have received an e-mail from Daniel Wagner regarding them. During a later skype conversation Andy gave me some valuable insights into IM (they will be the subject of a later post).

He also suggested I look at

https://stafford.infusionsoft.com/go/nplb/vincea

It’s Free…..

It’s up to you if you want to  make more of it….

All mechanical clocks are governed by friction…. Consider the dates quoted above… 1759….1773 for example 14 years by any reckoning and just a small part of this story…. but a  significant  part of a lifetime by any timepiece.

There is no doubt that music is a basic and essential part of our humanity… but have you ever considered exactly how  that statement works.

I have just been listening to a virtuoso guitarist called John Renbourn

this piece is seriously difficult to play…..  WELL…..

I have tried…

There is an underlying base and an over tune, PLAYED BY ONE PERSON… all deliberate …. but at the same time played with FEELING

It is amazing that an artiste can achieve such a diverse and beautiful sound with just one instrument.

What does that tell you

In terms of Internet Marketing..

The same tune can be copied by many … it is the way it is played that counts…. very few actually compose the tune … many try and replicate…

So long as you understand and feel the music then…. you can play… with practice… first with other’s compositions… then develop your own.

Music is a progressive thing.. now and then a genius moves thing on on leaps and bounds

Very few things in life are truly original

We as Internet  Marketers can learn that things are a progression and we can play the tune in our own way

To paraphrase the words of Bob Dylan (Hard rain)

Know your song well before you start singing.

Then you have something to say… the world is becoming smaller because of the www and social media and thus more personal.

It doesn’t matter if your song is not understood initially

Understanding and having control of the instrument and knowing  your song….. will sooner or later attract others who know or feel  the same.

Music is like our business

There is an overture but within it there are a multitude of sub theams that our listeners can hear… at times we listen to the whole at others we hear just one sub-beat. There is a base line  and flourishes all carefully played and blended to achieve the desired result.

But the overriding tune and how it is played… is the thing that attracts or otherwise. Once the artiste has our ears then we  will listen to the rest of the tune.

Before you listen to the piece below I think you should know the name of it  … hec

Don’t listen to this if you are stressed or on a blogging mission

You MUST not listen to this if you are surrounded by the usual things in life

Listen to it on your own….

get a cup of whatever you drink relax

…then… imagine….

The Hermit

I have been reading a book called “the Kings of Finance”

You may have heard of a banking institution and family JP Morgan. The founder is generally accepted as a financial wizard and his exploits are legendary (more later).

Up until the turn of the 1900 century(and after) the gold standard was the way many governments operated their economic systems .

At least those that were members of the international financial club. Those governments that were not in the club certainly wanted to be because that gave them access to cheaper finance ,among other things , and  so called status as a nation.

Naturally as governments they  flouted the rules...

at one point or another, particullarly during and just after  WWI

The gold standard was a system whereby no government in the club agreed to issue paper currency that exceeded the equivalent value of reserves it had in gold.

Simply put if you or I went to the bank we could swap our paper note for an equivalent in gold coin. The value of each govenments paper was fixed.

This was put in place to stop inflation among other things..I have opinions on gold that I will address at another time.

But for now … Warren Buffet’s  opinion of it is pertinent…

“it gets dug out of the ground in Africa or someplace then we melt it down, dig another hole, bury it again.and pay people to stand round guarding it.

The problem with gold is that it is finite or at least slow to produce…..

And thus restrictive

Naturally there were exceptions to the gold standard rule we are humans after all,

I only mention the above to paint a picture for the  purpose of this post.

JP Morgan was a massively influential  banker who at one point bailed out the economy’s of some of the wealthiest nations in the world .

when he died in 1913 he left an inheritance of 80 million dollars cash  the equivalent now of around…. 671,600,000

BUT GET THIS

His contemporary Rockallfeller who was worth (at least financially) 1 billion( the historic calculator coudn’t handle it)…..  said

“well he wasn’t a rich man after all.

So what do you conclude from that?

How much money do you want?…

Surely there has to be a limit to our quest for money. If so then you have to ask the question…

How much do I want…

when you ask that question…

seriously…

then you can start to focus on your TRUE goals and to how to achieve them

There is no point in saying I want this or that until you truly know what you really want.

Money is not your goal it is just one method of achieving your goal.

Most of us work to earn money,…..

Getting in the flow of money is the way to accumulate it.

Once we understand this then our place and purpose become attainable , and our goals will reflect our desires in life.

Simply saying to yourself I want a shed load of money so I can do what I like is not specific enough.

Think and really think about what you want …

you may surprise yourself…

Most of the things we desire in life have nothing to do with money…

They often revolve around

things we cannot buy…

you cannot buy friends

Health

peace of mind

Human closeness… love

Queen Elizabeth 1st (1533-1603)said on her deathbed said….

” all my possessions for a moment of time”

You may well say that money makes things easier to cope with and poverty is not acceptable and…

I agree wholeheartly

” The Richest Man in Babylon“… or..” Rich Dad Poor Dad“.. or…” Scrooge“,  all advocate TRUE charity as well as the pursuit of wealth.

We must think beyond our pursuit of money only by so doing  will we achieve real wealth…

money is attracted  to people with this karma.

Life is a Journey…..not a destination… our ultimate end is inevitable

TIME is our most important asset, you can always make  money…. Listen to the free Easy Cash Webnar by Alex Jeffreys for some valuable advice on how to make better use of   your time

Open sesame,

Do you ever consider how  these “fairy tails, stories and legends “  were conceived. What was in the mind of the authors? Perhaps they were based on our basic Human emotions.

When we were children we believed them… we were enthralled by them

They are as true now as when we first heard them , at least the fabric of the stories are…

Poverty to riches … the tinderbox

Good prevails over evil…. Cinderella

Love over adversity…..Shrek

Brains over brawn…… David and Goliath

I am sure(and hope) you will add others…. there are a few that are less reassuring Pandora’s box springs to mind, those fables and stories that offer a warning…

Be good or else… Santa won’t come tonight

Don’t lie….Pinocchio

Keep your word…. the pied piper

And other’s we all take for granted but rarely truly listen to…

The Hare and the tortoise … arrogance

The golden goose…. greed

This is the core and bones of our business as Internet marketers. These “stories” were written over the ages for a reason. They are our inheritance … remember them and apply them …These principals connect us with our consumers

We are as human now as we were 50,000 years ago….

I still believe the essence of these stories are true

They are a chronicle of us … they survive in our  cultures  in different formats  but they have an underlying purpose.

To pass on our knowledge and experience.

So where does that fit into our goal to be successful Internet entrepreneurs.

Well it must be obvious….

Be honest… The shoe maker and the elves

Give first then you shall receive.. Scrooge

think before you speak… the three wishes ….. Tom Thumb

Be consistent…. The Richest man in Babylon   ( this is a great book that I understand is required reading by the top business mentors)

Believe in yourself and others.... the Wizard of OZ

Be loving…..Loving Laili

don’t be stupid stupid… thanks Alex

It is condescending and pointless to try and hammer home our opinions no matter how much we truly believe in them. Each of us will take our own path. But we can  learn from our mistakes and from others… then we have something to give…

I have been visiting a blog that has these qualities sallyneil.com. Sally has some practical and essential insights into our journey as Internet marketers and at the same time has an ability to write from the heart.

why not listen to our mentors?

I would love to hear your  favorite fables  fairy stories and legends… They have true meaning… we only need to remember…  Einstein said that “imagination is more important than Knowledge”

I have been reading a book ( Yeah I mean a real book) about The RAF (Royal Air Force). To find time to read a real book of any description on any subject is becoming harder each week as I become more wrapped up and engrossed in the Internet marketing niche.

Spending hour after hour reading my PC screen either researching for answers to technical issues , or just keeping up with new posts from the blogs I regularly visit leaves little time or inclination to read “real” books.

There is something unbeatable about holding and reading a “real” book that to me can never be replaced by my PC. Apart from anything else when reading from the screen it is so easy to click a link and before long you can be transported to a completely different and unrelated topic.

I have been reading another great post from one of  the blogs I regularly visit  virginbloggernotes

A newbees guide to guest posting.

What has that got to do with a book about the RAF?.  Well I think it is an interesting concept that even though we are all individuals  finding your favorite blogs and guest posting (either  way) could be similar to the selection process for manning the Lancaster’s in WWII the RAF called it “crewing up” .

Even though the RAF had a very rigid and formalized selection procedure, and volunteers were assigned the various jobs within the aircraft by a strict and standardised system, (typical military I would imagine )… the magic of Human Chemistry was employed when selecting the actual seven man crew for each airplane.

How did it work?…. each plane had six different “Trades” employed in order to make it fly

The pilot,the flight engineer, the navigator, the bomb aimer, the wireless operator, and two gunners

During the initial enlistment procedure the volunteers were sorted by a series of tests into the various “trades ” to which they were best suited. Then they were separated by trade and sent to their specialized training camps, for up to a year or more.

At the end of their training instead of trying to use any kind of scientific approach to  match suitable crew members together the RAF did something that required a leap of faith not normally expected from a military organization.

They let the crews select themselves

Yeah the were just shoved in a big room and told  to team up. Jack Currie a pilot said this…

” I’d imagined that the process would be just as impersonal as most other’s that we went through in the RAF. I thought I would just see an order on the noticeboard detailing who was crewed with whom, but what happened was quite different. When we had all paraded in the hanger and the roll had been called, the chief ground instructor got up on a dais. He wished us good morning… and said “right Chaps , sort yourself’s out”.

Naturally each trade clustered together initially….. Jack Currie…. as a sergeant pilot his  first priority, was to find a navigator and he saw a group of them standing together…. But which one to pick?

This is how how he describes it

” I noticed that a wiry little  Australian was looking at me anxiously. He took a few steps forward. eyes puckered in a diffident smile and spoke….”looking for a good navigator?” I walked to meet him. He was an officer. I looked into his eyes, and received an impression of honesty, intelligence, and nervousness.

He said

” you needn’t worry I did all right on the course!” I held out my hand… Jack Currie.

I’m Jim Cassidy have you got a bomb aimer? I know a real good one. He comes from Brisbane, like me. I’ll fetch him over.

The bomb aimer had a gunner in tow and while we were sizing each other up we were joined by a tall wireless operator, who introduced himself  in a gentle Northumbrian accent and suggested it was time for a cup a tea. As we walked to the canteen I realised

I hadn’t made a single conscious choice“…….

The interesting thing is that it was very very rare for a crew to ask to be split up once they had selected themselves and their friendships and bond lasted a lifetime.

Perhaps it is far harder to create the Magic of human chemistry with the written word. The first impression that a physical meeting can subconsciously engender is subliminal and hard to replicate in words, at least for most of us. ….. and good job. We as writers of blogs  may sometimes have to much time to think.

Thank you to Patrick Bishop for his insights in his book Bomber Boys( Harper Press)

Image Credit

Hi All

Those of you who have been here before will know that this is my first month or so into Internet marketing. I have mentioned (as if it were not glaringly obvious) that my technical skills and basic computer knowledge are almost zilch.

But I have just taken some time to review things.

I have been very lucky to have started with one of the best mentors in the business and am a  member of  the Marketing with Alex Forum.

From day one Alex advocated taking action… something I can relate to as I have  run my own business offline for some time.

So I did just that and produced a blog after much trauma.

The blog had the default theme on it for the first week and had to be restarted by hostgator ( they wiped the slate clean as it were) twice!! as I fumbled about deleting files in filezilla .

Meanwhile I watched with increasing despair as my fellow students were forging ahead with blogs containing all the bells and whistles, affiliate links…. videos… special headers etc etc

I think it is fair to say that a number of visitors to this page have felt the same way in the early days of their online experience. Others have been very kind in their comments, all have been there

BUT…..I have just realised how far I have come in just a few short weeks….. Just by taking stock of where I am now.

Every day I inch slowly towards understanding how the system works what things are…. where they go and how to install them,  at least to some degree.

You could look at this like driving a motor car …. A few weeks ago I had no idea how to drive, never had a lesson, didn’t know what  the gearbox was or where it could be found , and was clueless as to what it is for anyway… my ignorance of my virtual Internet motor car was almost complete

Now I have had my first driving lesson and I have changed gears turned a few corners. Without doubt  I am one of those really annoying learner drivers blocking up traffic (to myself in this case).

I am looking at other drivers ( I am grateful to them for being so helpful and patient) most are so confident.

Some are downright superb formula one types raking in a fortune…… other’s are professional lorry drivers, earning a living…… the vast majority are just everyday commuters, with varying degrees of competence.

But I have taken one small step for me….. unfortunately I will need to take a zillion more to make it any kind of giant leap.

The point is each small step counts …..listen to this

Hopefully in a few short months …. who knows.…

Right now though I think it is time to celebrate with a tune from Human Evolution called

One Small Step For Man….

I’ll just have to work out how to sort out the sexy bookmark plugin WHOOPS

Just read a great blog by Scott Barron who asked the question what kind of boss are you?

I have never worked for anyone else, even when I worked for someone else….

don’t get me wrong here… when I did find myself temporarily working in someone else’s business I always gave 100% to them.

but I never thought that I would make a career of it… and there were times when I was told I could go far in X Y or Z business.

So the question is..

Are you a Boss or an employee

I remember at age 9  picking apples from the trees in my parents garden and selling them to the neighbours.

You may have seen the film “the battle of Britain” filmed in  1968 I was 10 years old then and was selling the surplus webbing from the film as marble holders in the playground (marbles were the” in game” at the time). They filmed it very near to where I lived and for one reason and another I got hold of the surplus webbing belts…..another story…

Did that make me a boss or a salesman?

I was money orientated and realised that there were two ways I could make  it

1 with my hands

2 with my head

More on that later

I have spent 32 years employing people and I am the first to hold my hand up and say that NO ONE is a perfect boss, I believe we learn on the job. Learning faster than others is the key…

I have learnt something over the years, one  thing is…. am I my own boss??… people look to the boss for direction and leadership…. but if you are not focused and sincere in yourself then what chance does your staff have? .

That is to say if you want to be a boss then you have to be in charge of yourself FIRST…

But think on…. who works for who… Do you work for your business and staff and  for the government via your tax liability and their welfare.. etc etc,

of course you always work for you that is what makes you the boss, if you don’t like to accept that fact then join a commune

On the other hand I think it is important to always remember that running a dictatorship will only stifle productive and talented members of your business, including you.

I suppose one of the most important lessons I have learned is that people don’t work for you as the boss ….they work for themselves… and if you as a boss create the right circumstances…. they will work willingly for the company…. Money is not necessarily their only motivation… I have lost some good people over the years by not recognising this simple fact.

All sounds very ra ra ra… like people aren’t called employees anymore they are called associates… well that depends on the boss…