Perks of the Trade Volume 1, Issue 3 June, 2004 =========================================================== Contents =========================================================== Quote Of The Month Editorial Feature Article Additional Articles Humor Veriuni Product Updates New Veriuni Products Guest Article Internet Marketing News Tips Q & A Advertisements General & Unsubscribe Info =========================================================== Quote of the Month =========================================================== "There's really no such thing as 'thinking outside the box.' But we can select a different box to think in. Your box is your business model, your world-view, your paradigm. It is the framework of the metaphor that you use to make sense of the world around you." -- Roy Williams =========================================================== Editorial =========================================================== Selecting a different box to think in is what this issue is all about. This month's feature article suggests alternatives to sharing a duplicatable system with affiliates, and sheds light on who to look for in place of a "guru". The guest article by Willie Crawford tosses us into an entirely different box, one where we don't even need a website...I love having ideas and then doing a 180 with a "what if we bagged that idea and tried this?" approach. Hope you enjoy this as much as I am! Glenn PS. My apologies for not including the article by Barbara Leski in the last issue. Somehow in the midst of changing operating systems that article just disappeared...I really did think I had included it in the newsletter...I wonder what box THAT thought is in... =========================================================== Feature Article =========================================================== 887 words Thinking In a New Box: Finding a Mentor by Glenn Beach One of the main tenets of internet affiliate marketing is the belief that all you have to do is offer your downline an easily duplicated system, and they too can be successful. I'm asking you to climb out of that box and offering you another one to think in for a while. What's wrong with the easily duplicated system? First of all, the word "easy". My experience with using the words easy, computer, and internet in the same sentence is that whatever the sentence expresses will be true until it isn't. In other words, your statement will sooner or later prove false. Case in point: I went to my bank yesterday, to make a "simple" deposit. It's always very simple because all I have to do is approach the teller, tell her what I want to do, give her my bank card and the cash, and she does the rest. Easy. Enter the computer and the computer system. Turns out that yesterday the computer system was down. Not only that, but it was nationwide. Not only that, but it wasn't just my bank, other banks were experiencing the same problem. Can you spell "hacker"?...what was easy the day before was still easy, but the big unknown was when the system would "know" that my money was there and send it where I wanted it to go. Easy to deposit, not so easy to pay the rent. A few days before that, it was a hacker into my website's server...no website for a couple days...you get the idea here. No guarantees. Now for "easily duplicated system". The word easy is subjective, what's easy for you may not be easy for me. I can't argue with a system being duplicated...but the ease and success rate cannot be guaranteed. Not only that, but the element of serendipity is in there also, which is basically being in the right place at the right time, and that quality is immeasurable. It can change at any time. There is absolutely no way of knowing until you aim and fire whether you will hit that target or not. There are so many variables that it boggles the mind. So basically what you are left with is Russian roulette: the system will work, until it doesn't. The new box I'm offering you is empty. First we're going to fill it with a few babies. Babies?? you say. What the...?? You've heard the term "don't throw the baby out with the bathwater". Babies and bathwater is what I call all the advice you get from the experts, the mentors, those who have gone before and accomplished wondrous things. I'm asking you to think of what they offer not as The Gospel According to Joe Blow, but as babies and bathwater. You have to sort out the keepers from the disposables. If you read the advice of many many many "gurus" you will hear a few things said over and over...the value of developing and marketing your own (often information) product; developing an opt-in list; marketing via autoresponder to this list; identifying a niche market; aligning yourself with one, then another, ultimately a few good affiliate programs that fill the needs of your niche market; building a website that offers information and affiliate links to this market...and then the big unknown...staying on top of trends, learning to identify what the next big trend or product or service or tool will be and getting in on the ground floor...maybe creating that floor. A big part of the serendipity is actually sensing where you want to be in the near future and getting there before the crowd arrives. Following your intuition, based on knowledge from studying, asking, listening, evaluating and making an educated guess, may be your most important business tools, and this is not easily duplicated. Once you receive a message from your intuition, you set yourself a goal, decide on a series of objectives that will culminate in reaching your goal, develop action plans to reach each objective, and then get started. Once you reach your goal, you say aha! Success! (if you're lucky) Now I have a duplicatable system I can market to wannabees. Only problem is, there are no guarantees. The crowd can get there faster than a speeding bullet. Someone can move the target. Duplicatable systems have their uses. They help newbies get their feet wet, provide the guidance needed until there is a sense of "how things work." It's this "sense", intuition based on knowledge, that is really what an affiliate marketer wants to develop. No one can give this to you, but a good teacher can give you a baby or two to put in your box. My elderly father talks of life before refrigerators; as a boy he watched ice blocks being delivered by horse-drawn wagons. His older brother was born the same year (1903)that the Wright Brothers flew the first airplane (the longest flight was 59 seconds.) My mind is boggled by the changes my father has seen in his lifetime. "Progress" has progressed at an incredible rate of speed. What will we see before we are elderly? Obviously the key here is imagination... The mark of a true mentor is being able to nurture the apprentice's ability to study, ask, listen, evaluate, interpret, and hear and listen to his OWN inner voice. A true mentor builds courage and stimulates imagination and creativity. A true mentor walks his talk...he just keeps going and growing. A pretty interesting box we've created for ourselves, eh? ------------------------------------------------------------ Glenn Beach is a self-employed sub contractor in Nova Scotia Canada, and also runs an online business where he shares the products he trusts. Details and more information at: http://www.work-at-home-business-opportunity-canada.com =========================================================== Instead of an Additional Article: Creative Thinking and Lateral Thinking Techniques =========================================================== Here's a link to some nifty tools for helping you find another box to think in. Let's say you have a problem. You are trying to think of a creative new way to sell your information product. My favorite tool on this page is the random word generator, yours may be another: http://www.isixsigma.com/offsite.asp?A=Fr&Url= http://www.brainstorming.co.uk/tutorials/creativethinkingcon tents.html I tried the random word generator and the word I got was: Dinosaur The idea is to use this word to stimulate new ideas. In your mind look at the principles and concepts and features of the word and reapply them to create a potential solution to your problem. My brainstorm went like this: dinosaurs are extinct; alligators were alive at the same time and aren't extinct yet; adaption is the key to survival; dinosaurs are skeletons and fossils in museums; Spielberg made dinosaur movies, so he made them not extinct; wow, Spielberg revised history. Some people say email may be extinct soon, thanks to spammers. Maybe it's time to look into a new technology or method of advertising. Looking back at my last newsletter and also scrolling down to Marketing News... maybe I should try a blog on my website; visiting other blogs; visiting chatrooms and forums; learning more about RSS services...and maybe a site update by Spielberg? I'm sure he's not too busy! =========================================================== Humor =========================================================== There are three engineers in a car; an electrical engineer, a chemical engineer and a Microsoft engineer. Suddenly the car just stops by the side of the road, and the three engineers look at each other wondering what could be wrong. The electrical engineer suggests stripping down the electronics of the car and trying to trace where a fault might have occurred. The chemical engineeer, not knowing much about cars, suggests that maybe the fuel is becoming emulsified and getting blocked somewhere. Then, the Microsoft engineer, not knowing much about anything, comes up with a suggestion, "Why don`t we close all the windows, get out, get back in, open the windows again, and maybe it`ll work !?" =========================================================== Veriuni Product Updates =========================================================== About Veriuni Products VERIUNI, a product line comprised of nutritional, cleaning, personal care, pet care, telecommunication products, and more, is the consumer product division of Carson Services, Inc., headquartered in Lincoln, Nebraska, USA. Founded in 1985, Carson Services, Inc. is a long-time member of the Better Business Bureau serving Southern Nebraska, as well as a member of the Lincoln Chamber of Commerce. The exclusive marketing arm of VERIUNI is the SFI Marketing Group (also a division of Carson Services, Inc.). Today, with millions of registered affiliates in over 190 countries, The SFI Marketing Group is believed to be the largest affiliate program in the world. =========================================================== New Veriuni Products =========================================================== * Canine Buffered Aspirin Chewables If your companion has suffered an injury, has had surgery or some other illness that requires an aspirin product reach for our buffered chewables. * Canine Super Potency Megavites & Colostrum Chewables Megavites chewables contains the equivalent of 2+ Pet-Tab Brand Multi-vitamin tablets in only one daily dosage. Ideal for any dog that lives an active life style or who appears to have a lack of energy. Great immune booster (with colostrum), highly recommended for dogs that have undergone surgery or are geriatric (over the age of 7). * Canine Synoviflex Joint Health Chewables Contains 3 of the best selling joint health nutraceuticals for dogs in the world today: Glucosamine HCl, Methylsulfonylmethane (MSM), and Creatine Monohydrate, plus 4 other essential antioxidants. http://www.work-at-home-business-opportunity-canada.com/endorsements.html =========================================================== Guest Article: Another New Box: And You Thought You Needed a Website... =========================================================== Starting An Internet Business Without A Website Revised 2002 by Willie Crawford One of the questions I received this week asked about starting an internet-based business without a website. This individual was very new and just wanted to know if it was possible. He wanted to know how to go about getting started. How to choose a product, etc. He wasn't ready to build a website yet. It is possible to operate an internet-based business without a website. However, the two tend to compliment each other. Your email and advertising compaign work together with your website. The website lets your prospects get to know you better. It sort of reflects your personality. However, it is not necessary to rush out and throw together a website in order to start your own business. If you really wanted to start an internet-based business without a website - here is how you could do it. First of all you need a product. You can create your own, or you can sign up for an affiliate program. To create your own product you need to have specialized knowledge or expertise on some subject. Then you can create your own product. It can even be an information product - a book. If you do not have any expertise, then you are better off going with an affiliate program. The product has already been created, proven, and everything except finding the customer is done for you. In choosing an affiliate program, try to choose something for which there is a proven demand. For example, you could offer merchant accounts to other internet marketers. Every one of the thousands of small businesses springing up every week will eventually need a merchant account.Customer convenience demands it. You could service this market without having a big website at first. You can get into this business as an affiliate with virtually no investment. How would you reach your customers without a website? Through ezine ads, through ads posted at free classifeds sites, and through reports you send out via autoresponders. Let's look at each of these. First of all let's look at the free report. People come to the internet looking for needed information. If you can put together a report offering valuable information, people will request it. Post it to an autoresponder and you can send this report out 24 hours per day,7 days per week automatically. The report in this case should be on how any homebased or internet-based business can easily get a merchant account. You can write this report or you can have someone else write it for you. After you have the free report you advertise it in ezines. This type of ad should be very effective if well written. It is offering something people need, and for FREE. It's much easier to get people to respond to this type of ad than it is to get them to buy something directly from an ezine ad. When they request you free report you send it to them. Hopefully, you free report told them how to learn more or order your product - a merchant account in this case. You can also place these same ads offering a free report on the thousands of free classifieds sites scattered around the internet. You will need to place a lot of these ads though to make many sales. You also want to mention this free report in all of your other correspondences. For example, mention it in your signature file. Also mention it in postings you make to discussion groups and discussion boards. Never pass up a chance to mention this free report at every opportunity. This is how you get qualified prospect. You will need lots of prospects to make many sales. Once you have these qualified prospects you need to followup. After that first contact you need to send them another letter a few days later seeing if they have any questions. Explain your product again, and tell them how to order again. You need to send out at least 6 or 7 followups before you assume the customer has lost interest. Remember, the customer requested your report on this topic. This shows his interest in your product. Now it is your job to convert this prospect to a customer. This is just a quick example of how you can operate an internet-based business without a website. However, you will eventually need to have a website. If you would like to try the very plan layed out here, you can find a good merchant account affiliate program at http://www.williecrawford.com/card.html This firm pays $50 for each merchant account you sell.They also pay you $20 for each merchant account sold through an affiliate you sign up. There is no cost to become an affiliate. A beginner would still need to learn a lot more about selling over the internet. Your ad copy is perhaps the most important aspect. Your ads and salesletters must make the prospect really want your product and respond emotionally to your ads. This takes practice. You can learn how to do this from good books and good courses. For specific books and courses I haveread and can recommend send me a personal email at mailto:willie@williecrawford.com?subject=lm14feb Read all that you can get your hands on about running a business over the internet. Question everything you read too. Ask yourself if it makes sense. Take it slowly and learn the ropes first. You will soon find yourself making a little money, then gradually more. ------------------------------------------------------------ Willie Crawford has taught thousands the secrets of operating a successful on-line business through his free Internet Business Success Course. It's more extensive than many $197 courses. Sign up today and start building your *successful* online business: http://williecrawford.com/ =========================================================== Internet Marketing News =========================================================== Microsoft's Gates Touts Blogging as Business Tool Thu May 20, 2004 06:52 PM ET REDMOND, Wash. (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp. (MSFT.O: Quote, Profile, Research) Chairman Bill Gates often takes the stage to talk about the future of software technology, but on Thursday he also told top corporate executives that Weblogs and the way they are distributed can be used as business communication tools. "What blogging and these notifications are about is that you make it very easy to communicate," Gates told executives gathered at Microsoft's headquarters for its annual CEO Summit. Blogs, short for Weblogs, have been around for several years, serving as online journals for Web-savvy disseminators of information ranging from personal ramblings, product reviews, to social commentary. Blogging has driven the adoption of yet another technology, called Real Simple Syndication (RSS), which allows blog readers to track freshly posted information without having to browse through a long list of home pages. Instead, many subscribe to RSS feeds on blogs so that they can read them on desktops as they come in. =========================================================== Tips =========================================================== To give more weight to a website's link back to you, try this: when you create reciprocal links with external sites, request they link to your home AND to your links page and you do the same for them. Example of such a link on your website: USED CARS FOR SALE - Domestic and imported pre-owned cars by George Smith & Co. LINK BACK Get the idea? The "Used Cars" points to your partner's index page and the "Link back" points to the links page on his site that contains the link back to your website. This boosts the popularity of that site's link page, and, in turn, gives more weight to the link back to you. Think what would happen if everyone did this...linkers would be flocking to link pages with higher ratings. --from WebProNews http://www.webpronews.com =========================================================== Q & A =========================================================== Q:Which type of incoming link is better for search engine PR, a text link or a banner link? A:PageRank is an indicator of the 'value' (in Google's eyes) of a specific website based upon inbound links, and the value (PageRank) of the site that links to you. Search engines are blind to pictures. They "see" only text. With a text link you get an added ranking boost for whatever keywords are contained within the anchor text (the highlighted, or hyperlink, text that you click on to go to a webpage). The best text links give no-hype information that includes your website's keywords. =========================================================== Classified Ads =========================================================== =========================================================== General & Unsubscribe Info =========================================================== Perks of the Trade © Copyright 2004 Glenn Beach, except where indicated otherwise. All rights reserved worldwide. Reprint only with permission from copyright holder(s). All trademarks are property of their respective owners. All contents provided as is. No express or implied income claims made herein. Your business success is dependent on many factors, including your own abilities. Advertisers are solely responsible for ad content. To contact us with feedback, questions or praise, email mailto:begle@work-at-home-business-opportunity-canada.com To subscribe, please email with "subscribe" in the subject mailto:begle@work-at-home-business-opportunity-canada.com To unsubscribe, please email with "unsubscribe" in the subject mailto:begle@work-at-home-business-opportunity-canada.com Please feel free to share this newsletter in its entirety including the link to our website: http://www.work-at-home-business-opportunity-canada.com Back issues available upon request. I bet you can guess the email address... =========================================================== Sincerely, Glenn Beach SFI Sponsor Perks of the Trade is an opt-in ezine available by subscription only. We neither use nor endorse the use of spam. Thank you!