How To Build A List – How to Build A Buyers List

Reading time: 3 – 4 minutes

Continued from previous post…

We have seen the one-on-one accountability partner model. We have seen the project by project partner model,the mentor/mentee model, the freelance model. Now let’s look at MY favorite:

4. Sidekick method: In this model, you team up with someone who is not your equal in knowledge but who has the ambition and the drive (and the time) to be an equal and eager contributor.

You watch them for a while, and maybe do small projects together. Once you are clear that a full-blown partnership makes sense (I mean for many bigger projects, not necessarily a partnership for all your businesses)

YOUR interest in this is to be more than committedly involved in your projects, so you can’t procrastinate. His interest is (probably) to be involved in projects that he himself would not be able to do (yet) alone.

Regardless of the seemingly uneven contribution level, you and you alone know that them just being there made a jump in your income, because now you are actually working on what you should be working on, instead of what you use to avoid working on that.

I had a partner like that when I started List Building Mechanics.com

He contributed very little in time and expertise. So eventually we parted ways.

It was mainly, because MY teachers didn’t get why I wanted to stay in this sidekick arrangement, so I lost sight of it too.

The moment we separated, I was lost. I lost my anchor, I lost my conscience, I started to flail, change my mind, miss deadlines, lose sight of what I wanted to do.

He also lost his desire to move forward (interesting.)

So, as you see, this, the sidekick arrangement is the most “adult” way to force yourself to move forward.

Now, is it easy to find “applicants?”

I don’t think so. I haven’t seen anyone suitable since then. (5 months since my last partnership broke up: a real long time!)

Now: how do you the sidekick method, so it really works well for both of you:

1. You should already know what they know. You should also be prepared to teach them things that they need to do to carry their own weight. Without them feeling that they really contribute, theis partnership is doomed to fail.

Why?

Because human beings have a built in sense of having to earn their keep. They call the opposite of that “bread of shame” and it leads to bad blood.

If you chose carefully and you bet on a person whose desire for equal contribution is there (i.e. you eliminate the energy sucking takers, the intitled ones with welfare mentality) then you should have this issue: you need to enable them to make an equal contribution.

It’s a good idea to have different strength than your partner.

If they are good at building lists… then maybe you are good at creating products.
If they are good at writing articles or emails, then maybe you are good at running webinars or writing code.

Go for compatible skills with slight overlap, so there is no competing between the two of you.

Don’t pick someone who needs you. Don’t pick someone who can’t do internet marketing, on some level, on their own. Pick someone who can stand on their two feet, and the joining of forces catapult both of you to a new level.

Reading time: 6 – 9 minutes

Continued from previous post…

So, if it is hard to be motivated by attention, then in big schools where it is hard to believe that you are noticed: it is easy to fail. In small schools where you feel known AND valued, it is much harder. All public education statistics show that this is accurate: more pupils drop out of big schools with big classes, than from small schools. It makes sense, doesn’t it?

In a one-on-one partnership it is even more difficult to stay invisible, get by without trying, or fail.

So, how can you use this principle to help yourself achieve your dreams, to get yourself through rough spots, to urge yourself on? Because you are bright, that isn’t the problem. The problem is avoiding the work… I think.

One method is finding an accountability partner. This structure often works, more often it doesn’t. Why?

In a one-on-one accountability relationship you make a promise to the other person what you will do and by when. Then you report to that person, and if you didn’t do it, you’ll feel bad.

It should work but it falls apart after a short time. Why?

I am famous for my ability to hold people to their promises. I am tough and I care.

I have subscribed, years ago, to the Angelo D’Emilio type of management: Make it harder for the other person to face you when they didn’t do what they promised to do, than actually doing it.

So I expect people to keep their promises to me, and they do. I expect them even after repeated failures, because I don’t carry the past over to the future.

Remember the anecdote about the two monks that encounter a young woman that can’t cross the creek because the water has risen too high for her from the recent rains… The older monk, without saying a word, picks up the young woman and carries her over the creek, and puts her down on the other side.

They walk, they walk, and about 5 hours later the younger monk says: “How could you do that? Our wows prohibit us to touch women!” The older monk quietly answers: “Are you still carrying her? I have put her down five hours ago…”

So, I am like the older monk, whatever happened, stays in the past. But I have yet to find someone who has my discipline, and my commitment to other people’s success.

That’s why most accountability partner relationships devolve into “I won’t call you on it, if you won’t call me on it” type of lame, ordinary, ineffective, inauthentic, damaging relationships.

So what do I recommend instead?

Let me start with a joke, so you understand better, ok?

The chicken and the pig have their children get married and they decide to give a feast to the guests of the wedding.

The chicken suggests: let’s offer ham and eggs, people will love it.

But the pig argues, because he says the chicken is a contributor, while he, the pig needs to give his leg to make the dinner happen. (see this is wikipedia)

You can laugh… that was the joke.

So, what does this have to do with procrastination, and finding an accountability partner? A lot, if you ask me.

If you can find a person with whom you can do projects with, in the success of the project the other person is involved (like the pig in the ham and eggs…), that if it doesn’t succeed, they lose. They lose their work, their time and they lose the potential income.

Who qualifies to be such a partner, and how should you go about recruiting them?

1. The equals model: you find someone who can contribute as much as you can, and with whom you can work together. This is an ideal situation, and this is rare.

Don’t forget that being an internet marketer is a very very very lonely occupation, and most people don’t do well in a vacuum. We are social beings, and without an anchor to the community we can get very lonely. Spouses are ok, but you will still get lonesome.

Read my blog post where I say “It is hard to be silently brilliant… lots of thoughts occur when you open your mouth” applies here. When you can bounce off ideas of another person, you are suddenly sharper, and more creative.

So, if you are lucky enough to find a friend/partner like this: you hit the jackpot. This is the typical case of synergy: the sum of the parts is much less than the total, your one and their one adds up to 3-4 or more, because of the bounce off effect. Because of the accountability effect.

Internet marketers have big egos, and it can get in their way. But if you can do this: you are home free, if you picked carefully.

2. The mentor/mentee model: go find a guru type, someone who is several ranks above you, and you offer your contribution to them.

Though in principle this could work, it rarely does.

What’s ideal, from your point of view, is being supported and supervised to create products, software, websites, etc. for the guru’s projects. What’s in it for you? If you are making these for the guru, you retain the right to use these same products for your own purposes as well, and finally, after a lot of procrastination, you are forced to actually do them.

Some “jobs” are so tedious that you would not do it for yourself, but you will do it for the guru.

Some stuff is so hard, that you need to consider it a gift to ever do it.

I have attempted this, and it’s not as easy as it sounds. Especially because of the EGO of the guru.

But even though my guru relationships didn’t last long, I have learned a lot, and it has moved me forward in my own business.

For example I was teaching a class for a year for a guru. Gratis. I had to learn the material, I had to organize, invent, shoot, write, the material. I spent a lot of time doing the stuff, but I learned how to teach internet marketing, and I didn’t have to get the students, I didn’t have to get the webinar line, I didn’t have to provide a lot of the stuff I was unprepared to provide.

Ultimately this relationship was that started me on the path I am on. Invaluable and counter-intuitive.

3. The freelance model: I have done this too, but I’ll give you a more recent example: One of my students needed to generate more income, so he turned to his local merchants and offered to do what he planned to do for himself, but he gets paid to do the work for them.

He is building lists, websites, products, what have you, and is doing well.

What did he need that most people don’t need and don’t have? He needed personal charisma, and the ability to sell face to face.

Once the service is sold, he needs to deliver, or be delinquent.

In the meantime he is really getting an education.

I am supporting him with critiques and advice and coaching… as part of his participation in List Building Mechanics.

4. Sidekick method: …

Continued next blog post…

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Reading time: 3 – 4 minutes

Product Creation Trick For
The procrastinator,
the “start too many things at once”
but “never have any finished product that is on the market” type…

Product Creation Is A Productivity Issue.

All this time you thought you needed knowledge
You thought you needed some more stuff to buy… or learn…

But ultimately, the area where you are lacking is the area of productivity.

Let’s look what is productivity?

Productivity is the speed with which you get from idea to manifestation.

You have the idea to create a special report… it’s the spark…

When you have the report ready, with a sales page, ready to launch, this is the manifestation of that same idea.

So what’s between you and that manifestation? You have ideas, don’t you?

If you are anything like the rest of the 99% of the internet marketing hopefuls, you are stuck in some mode that doesn’t allow you to focus on one project from beginning to completion.

You say,

• you have ADD
• you don’t know enough
• you get too many emails
• your life is too busy
• you have too many interruptions

But ultimately you procrastinate!

Let me first distinguish procrastination:

Procrastination means: instead of doing something you fret/complain about not doing something while you are doing other things.

So then someone who buys stuff impulsively, but doesn’t even read it or watch it… is that person a procrastinator?

Maybe. But if you look, the distinction “procrastination” doesn’t define what it is that you are doing instead… you could be playing computer games, like I do… lol. Hey, it takes one to know one.

So let’s look at the elements of procrastination, that ARE defined, instead.

When you fret or complain about what you are not doing, we can be sure of one thing: you somehow KNOW what you should be doing, but complaining is easier and less risky than actually doing it.

As you may know, I have an ongoing class, called List Building Mechanics.com

The class was always good, but the participation was terrible until a few weeks ago.

What has changed? Did I get better students? Maybe.
Did the weather/economy/etc. change? Maybe.

I know of one crucial change that happened: suddenly, when someone new signs up to the class, they are not anonymous. I send them a personal email, the moment I get notified that they signed up.

I make a point to welcome them again after they announce themselves to the class.

I have been keeping a tab on every student, and the participation went from 5% to 90% just like that… jumped.

What does this mean, and what does them mean to you?

This means that it is harder to procrastinate (not do) when someone closely watches you and cheers you on.

Is that true for everyone? I would risk saying yes to that. Why? Because we don’t like to let other people down. We seem to have no problem letting ourselves down, but think twice before let another person down.

Is that our desire to look good? Maybe. But whatever it is, ego, maybe, it serves us well. It propels us to achieving.

Continued in next post…

Reading time: 3 – 4 minutes

So you know how to write… Now, how do you make money with it?

A lot of people find themselves in the same boat, they know how to write, they can write easily, but they don’t know how to make money with all that.

After all, writing is important, but if the main ingredients: marketing is missing, you won’t make any money with your writing.

So what can you do if you don’t know much any marketing, but you want to write and you want to make money?

1. Freelancing.

Freelancing, i.e. trading your time/skill for money is the easiest and fastest way to turn your skill of writing into money. But how shold you do it, where should you do it, and how long should you do it. Those are the questions you should be asking of yourself.

After all, your ultimate purpose should be to get off the time for money treadmill, and onto the leveraged ways to make money through skillful marketing.

You want to learn as you earn, so you want to take jobs that allow you to glean ideas and methodologies from successful marketers.

How do you do that? One way to do that is to offer free samples of your writing to marketers that you respect, and consider yourself an apprentice, so charge accordingly.

Other ways are to sign up with the many “lancer” websites, including odesk.com, scriptlance.com, guru.com and and bid on jobs.

Your chances to learn anything useful are dim, unless you are lucky, and the competition is fierce.

2. Article Marketing combined with Affiliate Marketing

There is article marketing and then there is Article Marketing.

I have learned a lot about it, and there is only one method I believe is a good return on the time invested.

Four parts to the method:

a. Have a “template” that makes writing the articles fast
b. Do your search engine optimization taking advantage of the new search engine capabilities that are able to recognize related terms.
c. Distribute and promote your articles by linking to them from many sites.
d. Have a method in setting up your resource box that makes clicking on your links irresistible.

3. Write short 7-20 page reports and start building a buyers list. Sell them more on the back end.

A well researched, well written report that gives people a useful but incomplete picture of your topic is the best entry point for a future customer.

If the information they buy at a low price is useful, they will be interested in filling the gaps and buying the complete information. Your most important asset, your buyers list is your goal here… all your future income will come from them.

These three methods are the fastest way to making money with your writing.

In subsequent blog posts I will write in detail about each of them. Want to be notified when the posts come out?

Please comment below and you’ll be notified so you can start making money with your invaluable skill.

Reading time: 1 – 2 minutes

I have been blogging for a while, but whenever I didn’t promote directly my blog, the blog traffic died.

The past 2 months this all changed for me, due to two wordpress plugins.

One checks your blogposts and gives you individualized suggestions on how to optimize it so the search engines will love it.

The other one is funkier: it adds your blog post to 12 sites and links back to the original post.

It takes a few minutes to set up accounts on those sites, but then the by-the-post work is ONE CLICK.

Result? I have people coming to my blog, reading my posts, commenting, and signing up to my list.

Then I can market to them. These people are higher quality than my other prospects, and they eventually spend money with me.

http://p27.net/plugin and  http://p27.net/seoplugin

Recommendation: if you can’t wing it by yourself, team up with others, and share… It is worth it, and  you’ll have friends that support you.

Want a little bonus? You can get a strategy session with me if you send me the receipt for either. It is that important.

Sophie your supercoach recommending only the best and the must… Blog traffic is a must!