Small Business Growth Club Bad News Good News

October 2nd, 2008

I have raved about Scott Hallman’s on this blog before - see Small Business Growth Club Review - and regard it an amazing resource which was available at an incredible price.

The bad news is that Scott Hallman has decided to put the price up - not by 5 or 10% but potentially by a massive 900% on the platimum membership which is expected to jump from $39 to $397.

The full story is told on my main Business Coaching blog - see Small Business Growth Club

There are three elements of good news but one of these requires you to act very quickly:

  1. The price increases from October 6th 2008 so you can secure your membership at the old price and Scott is promising to maintain this for existing members.
  2. Scott Hallman has committed to improving the Small Business Growth Club by holding regular calls which will be great and he is intending to bring in more resources from his guru friends.
  3. Even after this massive price increase I remain convinced that a one year membership of the Small Business Growth Club is great value when you compare the cost to the benefits you will gain by implementing the ideas.

The big difference about Scott Hallman and the Small Business Growth Club is the focus on implementation.

This isn’t pie in the sky learning and business information as intellectual entertainment.

Scott Hallman gives you the step by step guide to implementing upsells and cross-sells,conditioning your customers to buy more, creating active referrals programs, forming strategic endorsement partnerships and so much more.

I am so committed to the Small Business Growth Club that I even include a recommendation in my email signature!

The website is a mess and will be improved. It is better now that Scott has added audios to guide you through what is available and he tells me that videos should follow soon.

Don’t let that put you off.

You have a small time window to take action at the old “incredible bargain” prices.

Small Business Growth Club

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Scott Hallman Small Business Growth Club

June 9th, 2008

If you are a regular reader you may have noticed that under recommended products, there is the Small Business Growth Club which features Scott Hallman’s business development and growth training.

This is the first of a series of articles in which I will explain just why I recommend the Small Business Growth Club but first let me tell you a little bit about Scott Hallman.

Who Is Scott Hallman?

Scott Hallman is recognised as a leading small business coach and marketing expert, responsible for helping his clients add millions of dollars in annual new profits streams through his business coaching firm Business Growth Dynamics.

Scott has built a reputation as “The Master of Implementation” because he recognises that profits only come through action and this is the big weakness in much of the business training available. It is nice to listen to, intellectually stimulating but often difficult to apply when you get back into your business.

Scott’s companies have twice been named to the prestigious Inc. Magazine’s “Inc. 500″ list of the fastest-growing privately held companies in America (#59 and #106).

Since then he has conducted seminars with leading business growth trainers, Jay Abraham, Chet Holmes, Jay Conrad Levinson, Joe Vitale and shared the stage with, Fran Tarkenton, Brian Tracy, Mike Basch (FedEx Co-founder), and Mark Victor-Hansen.

here are a few tributes to Scott Hallman:

“Scott Hallman is the undisputed master of implementation. I highly recommend his system, if you want to turn great ideas into great profits”. (Jay Abraham)

“Savvy companies know when it is time to focus on time-tested, proven results-based, low risk marketing/sales methods…and nobody is better at implementing these strategies than Scott Hallman.” (Chet Holmes)

“Scott I’ve written 31 books and you have made me feel like a failure because I have not addressed the simply, duplicatable profit strategies that you teach.” (Jay Conrad Levinson)

Private Clients Of Scott Hallman

You could become a personal client of Scott but his success has allowed him to a) raise his fees to a high level and b) become very particular about the opportunities he works with.

But he has done the next best think with the Small Business Growth Club

Small Business Growth Club

This is a membership site which contains many of Scott’s ideas for business development and growth with audio training sessions, downloadable transcripts and workbooks.

You can see the Small Business Growth Club website but before you rush off, I’d like to tell you a little about it.

At the heart of the Small Business Growth Club are a series of 99% standalone modules and instead of just listing them in order, Scott has put them into work streams so a key module will occur in a number of different work streams which take you progressively through a business development course.

The Three Main Work Streams In The Small Business Growth Club

Scott has identified three main work streams through the material

  1. Generate New Business - this is designed to turn your business into a systematic marketing machine and produce a continuous stream of new customers.
  2. Implement / Manage - this work stream teaches you to implement new systems and procedures, overcome barriers to change and improve the control over your business.
  3. Optimise Profits - this works stream contains a series of modules mainly aimed around increasing the profit you make from your existing customers.

It is the last of these three work streams, Optimise Profits which I will be reviewing first.

I believe that many businesses are sitting on a fortune of hidden opportunities and assets, just waiting for someone to turn into profit.

Scott’s structured training program and the emphasis of identifying the individual action steps required to implement the profit building techniques in your business represent exceptional value in my mind.

I will be looking at the Small Business Growth Club in much more detail but if you are a person who will take action, then I don’t know anywhere else you will get such a high return on your investment.

Do yourself a favour and sign up to join the Small Business Growth Club

Webinar With Scott Hallman

I have arranged a webinar with Scott Hallman - January 15th 2009 - 1:00 pm EST, 6:00 pm GMT.

Scott promises to show you how to add at least $5,000 in cash profits to your business without spending a dime.

Plus, he is going to share his inside method for converting high paying clients, and show you how to modify this technique to get more customers, that pay you more money.

Scott will gift you, just for attending the call, his powerful client generation referral audio workshop called, “The 16 Reasons Referral Systems Fail – How to Finally Get, Convert, and Keep Referral Clients ($97 value).

• Learn How to Get A Consistent Flood of Referrals (without embarrassment)
• Learn How to Convert These Referrals to Clients Systematically
• Learn How to Maximize the Value of These Clients Effortlessly

In working with thousands of business owners, Scott has identified 16 common mistakes that keep referral programs from being successful. Scott originally created this only for his $30,000+ retainer clients…and now you get access to the complete workshop FREE…just for attending the Webinar

To register
https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/359225178

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7 Day Business Turnaround Kit - Mark Joyner & Simpleology

May 14th, 2008

I have recently had the pleasure of reviewing the 7 Day Business Turnaround Kit from Mark Joyner and Simpleology.

Objective

The 7 Day Business Turnaround Kit has been put together to provide a low cost, practical training program to help small businesses survive in the short term and then go on to prosper in the longer term.

The Problem

Far too many small businesses fail and while bankruptcy has been a learning experience for many well known entrepreneurs who later became successful, it is a very painful and stressful process and best avoided.

Unfortunately few people receive adequate business training before they start a business so they rely on “learning on the job” hoping that the price paid to the university of life and school of hard knocks won’t be too high.

But the simple fact is that it is a lot easy to spend money than earn it and that is particularly true in the tough times that lie ahead.

If you find yourself in a business which is in serious financial difficulty then you will know that it is a very confusing time.

You probably think you have to work harder, better, faster but what you’ve been doing hasn’t been working or no longer brings the same level of benefits. You need new ideas but you also need to lift the heavy burden which seems to paralyse your mind and body.

I have worked with a number of businesses in severe financial distress and I know the strain when your house is on the line and you can’t see how you can get out of this mess.

The 7 Day Business Turnaround Kit

This is where the 7 Day Business Turnaround Kit comes in and it is designed to perform what will seem like miracles.

Whatever the size of your business, there are four things that you have to do:

  1. Stop the bleeding - both time and money.
  2. Stop the stress - move from uncertainty to clarity.
  3. Inject the business with cash - Mark Joyner’s tip is to aim for 2 months of operating expenses to give you time to breathe.
  4. Refocus the business.

When you read the 7 Day Business Turnaround Kit sales letter you will see that the claims made are bold and I believe it is right that I should give you a few warnings:

  1. The 7 Day Business Turnaround Kit is an excellent program but it is not a magic wand. It relies on you really wanting to rescue your business, turn it around and grow it into the future.
  2. The program is intensive and will push you to your limits. There are a lot of training materials included in the 7 Day Business Turnaround Kit but watching and learning isn’t enough. You have to take action and implement the ideas ruthlessly.
  3. Seven days is a very short time and gives only limited opportunity for even the best ideas to work. I recommend that the 7 Day Business Turnaround Kit is used to help businesses prepare for the tough times or when the early signs of financial difficulty appear. The earlier you start your business turnaround, the more successful it is likely to be.

Check Out The Guarantee

Mark Joyner is an expert marketer but his risk reversal strategy is superb and is a tribute to the man’s ethics.

Mark Joyner knows that your business is in trouble and that you can’t afford to waste cash so he is letting you try out the 7 Day Business Turnaround Kit for up to seven days before the money is charged.

That’s right.

You have the opportunity to work through the entire program before you have to pay and even afterwards you still have a 90 day money back guarantee (as per the turnaround sales letter at the time of writing this article - please confirm this by reading the letter yourself).

What is the 7 Day Business Turnaround Kit?

The 7 Day Business Turnaround program is a day by day lesson in how to turn around your business:

Day 1 - Establishing what the success or failure of your business means to you and gathering the facts about your business.

Day 2 - Taking action to regain control over costs and payments. You will hate this day but feel so much better when it is over and the burden the business has to carry is lightened. Tough times call for tough decisions and tough actions. When you are making money you can afford to be kind and tolerant. When you are bleeding cash, you must put the tourniquet on and tighten it up.

Days 3 to 6 help you to find enough cash injections to cover the next two months worth of operating expenses. The aim is to give you 60 days to make longer term changes to your business.

Day 7 helps you to prepare for the future. After all it would be a mistake to rest on your laurels and find that you waste the next 60 days.

The 7 Day Business Turnaround program basically consists of:

  1. Daily videos from Mark Joyner giving you the overview of the business turnaround actions for the day. These are also available in mp3 form if you want to re-listen to them.
  2. Short quizzes to make sure that you have picked up the essentials to help reinforce your turnaround learning.
  3. A work book detailing what you should do each day for your business turnaround and a Virtuosity book in pdf format.
  4. Supplemental documents and spreadsheets to help you plan and implement your turnaround actions.
  5. Guest turnaround coaching videos from a wide range of different experts although there is a bias towards copywriters and Internet marketers.
  6. Recordings of daily turnaround coaching calls which Mark Joyner held with a few volunteers when the program was first put together plus their own turnaround stories.
  7. A mass of bonus materials including the training programs for Mark Joyner’s best selling books “The Irresistible Offer” and “The Great Formula”.

Copywriting & Internet Marketing

I mentioned earlier that many of the guest advisers were copywriters or Internet marketers which may seem strange and “not what you need” until you stop to think about it.

The challenge Mark Joyner has set is a business turnaround in just 7 days so that means:

  1. Communicating your selling messages for your cash injection actions in as compelling a way as possible. This is the world of the copywriter who is the expert in direct response marketing. Since the assumption is that you are in a cash crunch, you can’t afford to employ a good copywriter (and why bother with a cheap bad one) and marketing has probably been a problem for you during the earlier stages of your business, it makes sense to teach you the rudiments of copywriting.
  2. You need to communicate your marketing messages quickly and what better way than the quick, low cost methods of emails, blogs, forums, your own website (of you have one) and the content sharing sites (like Hubpages and Squidoo which can give you great Google rankings very quickly although you should aim to be informative rather than “selling”.)

The seven day time frame doesn’t give you much chance to use other marketing methods but when you’ve drafted a great email offer, there is no reason why it can’t be used as the basis for a telemarketing script or direct mail letter to create sales and cash in Days 8 to 14.

What’s Missing From The 7 Day Business Turnaround?

Mark Joyner and Simpleology have had to make some choices. The bigger the program, the more it will cost and the longer it will take for you to absorb the ideas but time and money are two luxuries you don’t have in abundance when the focus has to be on action.

  1. There is no legal compliance advice. The 7 Day Business Turnaround Kit is designed to be sold across the world so you will need to make sure that you comply with your local laws.
  2. There is no personal coaching. Everything is pre-recorded on the program and that’s how Simpleology have managed to keep the cost so low.There is a turnaround forum which has been active but with such a short intensive program, I suspect that involvement varies and many people just won’t have the time.Unfortunately the Business Turnaround forum is indexed by Google and public and this has been confirmed by Simpleology support. This is the one black mark I have against the 7 Day Business Turnaround Kit since I believe that a public forum is inappropriate for businesses needing this kind of help. While the forum still may have useful information and can be a source of help, you will have to be cautious when you post to it or disguise your name and issues.

    Any business coaching solutions which give you hand-holding advice and accountability from interaction with a coach will be much more expensive than the 7 Day Business Turnaround Kit, and is not likely to be as focused unless the coach is experienced in turnarounds.

Does The 7 Day Business Turnaround Kit Work?

This is the critical point about any business program and especially a business development targeted at businesses who may not survive if the program isn’t effective.

Fortunately I haven’t had to put the 7 Day Business Turnaround Kit to the test in earnest as I worked through the materials but:

  1. The cost reduction process is very similar to the approach I take periodically myself and I know that works. Costs do have a nasty habit of creeping up and the techniques in the 7 Day Business Turnaround Kit bring your costs back under control.
  2. The stress reduction part of the process works. I have seen from turnaround situations with clients, the relief when the uncertainty lifts, there is a clear plan to deal with the problems and actions are focused on the important few rather than the possible many.
  3. The creditor/accounts payable strategies may work depending on your existing relationships. If you have already destroyed all their goodwill through poor communications and broken promises, whatever you do is fraught with difficulties outside of an official insolvency procedure. Your suppliers/vendors may act opportunistically but if you don’t have the cash, there is little they can do.In the UK when I was a business manager I took non-communicating debtors through the courts, won the cases and have been forced to settle for a very slow payment process. It was only when companies failed to present a settlement proposal that I won judgement for immediate payment and could send in the bailiffs to seize goods for immediate sale and payment of my debt.
  4. The firesale strategies for raising emergency cash are not unusual. Who doesn’t think of selling stock/inventory off cheap to raise emergency cash? However the strategies proposed and the effective copywriting techniques will reduce the discounts required to create action from your buyers and that means more cash.
  5. Some of the cash injection techniques may take longer than the seven days but they are tried and tested revenue generation ideas which you probably won’t think of or consider without the 7 Day Business Turnaround Kit.
  6. The further regeneration and development of your business is outside of the seven days but the materials provided are excellent and give you a solid foundation to generate a sustaining business that doesn’t rely on fire-fighting cash generation techniques.

Recommendation

Without such an incredible risk reversal strategy in the sales letter where you have nothing to lose and everything to gain, I would have rated the 7 Day Business Turnaround Kit as a STRONG BUY.

I don’t know anything like it.

You can buy books on turning around your business and extensive manuals but I haven’t seen a solution as comprehensive as the 7 Day Business Turnaround Kit for small businesses.

With the exceptional risk reversal, I believe you must leap into the 7 Day Business Turnaround Kit straight away at the first signs of financial difficulty.

Prevention is better than cure and if your business is in decline, the two most important factors are working against you:

  1. The longer you leave it without trying to turnaround your business, the fewer resources you will have and while the 7 Day Business Turnaround Kit is excellent, it is nice to give the tactics a boost with some cash.
  2. The longer you leave your business in difficulty, the more problems you are likely to have and the less time left to fix them.

Think of the situation as a set of scales.

You and your business are perched over the water and the available resources to rescue your business are the counter balance.

As each week passes, your resources weigh less but the burden you carry weighs more so each week you are deeper and deeper under water. First to your knees, then your thighs, then your chest …

I know you get the message so just click over to the 7 Day Business Turnaround Kit and sign up. If your business is in financial difficulty and you believe it deserves to be saved, signing up is likely to be the wisest thing you do all year.

The 7 Day Business Turnaround Kit Even Works For Business Start Ups

It wasn’t designed to help start-ups succeed but one of the initial Space Monkey triallists was a new business and it got that business up and running very quickly.

There were no costs to cut or creditors to manage but it does start the business off in the right way with the focus on “lean and mean” cost control and generating quick income.

Find Out More About Mark Joyner & Simpleology

If you would like to know more about Mark Joyner and Simpleology but you don’t believe you need the 7 Day Business Turnaround Kit at the moment, there are two ways for you to sample the Mark Joyner/Simpleology ideas for free.

Simpleology 101 - the simple science of getting what you want. a personal productivity method to help you to gain control.

The Irresistible Offer- Mark Joyner has recently decided to give his best selling book away free as an ebook.

The more contact I have with Mark Joyner and the Simpleology organisation, the more impressed I am.

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StomperNet Re-Opens Going Natural 3

May 10th, 2008

StomperNet have sprung a surprise. When I was expecting them to re-open the StomperNet SMARTS program, they’ve decided to open up the entire StomperNet membership site.

This is a rare event.

I believe that it is only the third time that StomperNet have put out a call for membership and the other two times have closed very quickly.

To mark the launch we have another of those terrific videos from Andy Jenkins but this time it’s Going Natural 3 - catch Going Natural 3 video 1 here.

Once again it’s solid content for the Internet marketer and therefore highly recommended for anyone to watch, even if you don’t have the cash available to join the StomperNet program.

You will learn about how to use Google Adwords as Don Thies teaches you the traingulation method.

But don’t leave it there.

Sign up and get your access to the special “extras video”. StomperNet don’t overwork the lists I’m on.

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StomperNet SMARTS Coaching Program Comes To An End

April 28th, 2008

We have now reached the end of the StomperNet SMARTS coaching program about social media marketing.

Boy was this tough.

There is so much to learn and the Webs 2.0 social media is such a fast developing area and there are so many options and opportunities.

Could I cope with all this on my own?

No.

You don’t have time to find, evaluate and find out the best practices (and just as importantly find out what you must not do) so I am really pleased that I made the snap decision to take the StomperNet SMARTS course.

StomperNet SMARTS Review

How was the teaching?

Excellent. You can see how much Don Crowther delights in explaining the social media marketing concepts and the videos were very clear.

Is StomperNet a fair dealing company?

Very much so. I have talked before about how they extended the bonus and the course so that people had the chance to get the most out of the StomperNet SMARTS course.

They were regularly asking for feedback and we had several catch up weeks because it was so hectic.

Was The SMARTS course fairly priced?

Yes. We got a lot for our money.

Was the SMARTS program difficult?

In terms of the volume of work I wanted to do, there is no doubt that it was very demanding. In terms of the intellectual challenge, Don Crowther built up from the basics very nicely. Perhaps a little too slowly for some but this was a very mixed talent group.

At times I thought the course was too slow, for example on Facebook I already had an account created but in other areas I was very grateful for the methodical approach.

Was the coaching group active?

There was a lot to do but the forums were active which is always a good sign of a program which engages the students. People wanted to be involved and I am sure that there would have been much more involvement if there hadn’t been so much to do.

Was the entire SMARTS course relevant?

At this stage no.

Partly this is because of limited time.

Tapping into all the social media marketing channels could keep a small department of people busy so there were some things that I have accepted I am either not going to do (e.g. MySpace where they won’t let me create an account but they are currently very strict on slapping down marketers) or not ready to do yet (e.g. video where I have been slightly overawed by the issues of video creation and production but Jeff Walker’s approach with the Product Launch Formula is certainly changing my views. There is a charm to the home produced, personality based videos that can be extremely effective with the marketing gloss of a big budget video.)

Do I feel more informed about the Social Media Opportunities?

Yes much more informed.

It is one thing to not do something because you don’t know about it and another entirely to say that you have looked at the issues, had both the opportunities and issues explained and then you’ve decided not to go ahead.

One is inaction from ignorance, the other a considered decision based on knowledge.

Now the big three questions

Did the SMARTS course increase my traffic?

This is the only negative.

Although I have been trying to drive traffic to my main business coaching blog, my traffic growth which was rising sharply from September through to January has stalled over the last three months.

Partly this is a time issue. I haven’t spent as much time creating content for my blogs as I would have done if I hadn’t signed up on the StomperNet SMARTS coaching course.

But it is now much more difficult for me to monitor my overall hits because I have content spread over the web and it all helps to grow my “Your Profit Coach” brand.

As Jay Conrad Levinson of Guerrilla Marketing fame is keen to point out, it takes repeated exposures to move many people to action.

I expect traffic to increase from the actions I have taken from the SMARTS course but it may take a few months for everything to knit together.

Has StomperNet SMARTS made me more money than it cost?

Yes.

Thanks to the SMARTS course I was able to promote one launch in particular much more effectively than I would have done through my blogs alone and I did very nicely from that thank you.

The other thing to consider is that I now have the content in place and this should continue to provide income opportunities.

Some of the success stories from other people were amazing but they may be operating in more social media friendly markets. While SMARTS coaching group is full of people who want to grow their business, I know that they have been too busy to look at other opportunities and ideas.

Knowing What I Now Know, Would I Do The StomperNet SMARTS course again?

Yes without a doubt.

It was hard work. It did take more time to go through the training content each week and to then apply that training than I expected.

But I know that the knowledge stands me in good stead, both to grow my own business coaching business through the social media but also to help clients capitalise on opportunities.

Without the SMARTS coaching, I would not have the confidence to advice clients that they should do A but ignore B based on the time issues and likely profit generation. That would have reduced my effectiveness in helping my clients to develop their businesses.

What Comes After SMARTS?

The main StomperNet program has been closed for some time but it is being re-opened for the SMARTS members who are interested in the full StomperNet service. It costs a lot at nearly $800 per month but you get a lot for your money.

I was tempted but I know that it is more suited to people who are full time Internet marketers.

There is also an ongoing SMARTS club which requires a monthly subscription to keep the social media marketing ideas moving forward. This I have joined because I still believe that the Web 2.0 and social media is very much at the beginning.

Individual sites may be flavour of month, shoot up in popularity and then fade but the social interaction is going to continue. It may become more fragmented with teens popularising one area, students another, small businesses another, each hobby may have its own key social media sites. But I believe social media is here to stay.

As I said, I have seen more than enough in the StomperNet SMARTS course to make signing up for the SMARTS club a no-brainer, even though the price is on the high side to what I expected.

I have confidence that StomperNet will over-delivery.

There is no sign that StomperNet will open its main doors again soon but I do expect SMARTS to open up again and maybe a few other specialised services.

I recommend that you sign up and get your name on the StomperNet mailing list. This is a company going places as their faculty is attracting more heavy hitters who recognise how much they gain from association with StomperNet.

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Nitro Blueprint System Step 6

April 23rd, 2008

Step 6 into the Nitro Blueprint System is “Revising Your Sales Letter, Setting Up Split Testing and Launching Your Website” so this is an action packed stage.

Revising Your Sales Letter

Back in step 4 of the Blueprint System, you are asked to write your sales letter but anyone who has written copy and especially long copy knows that you have to put it to one side and come back to it.

The reason is simple.

You spend a long time working out the logic, drafting it and refining your persuasive prose and the more you polish it, the more you are convinced that buyers will be “snapping your hand off” to get whatever you are selling.

But come back to it after a week and you suddenly notice the typo in the first paragraph and how long-winded or boring some of the sections are. What had felt compelling is tedious.

So now you have to edit it ruthlessly and make sure that you are building in emotion, excitement and urgency.

The Nitro Blueprint Manual takes you through the key elements again so that you can check that you really do have a compelling sales letter which will maximise your chances of conversion.

But here’s the rub.

However good your letter is, you can’t predict what the prospective customers will do and that’s why all great copywriters emphasise the importance of testing.

Setting Up Your Split Testing

Now split testing is not the process of having one headline up for the first week and then the second headline up for the next week and comparing results.

Instead a half of the website visitors will see headline 1 and half headline 2 and you monitor what happens. Is one headline better than the other in the “stay or flee” decision when people first land on your site? Do people stay longer on the site for one or the other? Which is producing the most sales?

This has all sounded very technical to me and I’ve found myself listening to people talk about Taguchi testing but not really understood.

Thanks to the Nitro Blueprint System I know that there is a simple, easy way to introduce split testing but not many people use it.

I am in discussions with a web designer about having my main website re-developed and although the firm had heard of splitting, they hadn’t done it.

Not to worry with the Nitro Blueprint System though. Not only do you have the demonstration videos to show you how it’s done, you also have the “done for you” service to fall back on.

Launching Your Website

We knew it was happening but at the end of step 6 of the Nitro Blueprint System, your website is ready to launch.

Or is it?

The Nitro Blueprint manual takes you through the final checklist, just like an aeroplane about to take off.

Some of the Internet marketing gurus need to read this section as I seem to be quick on the uptake and I’m getting to sites which don’t work as they should.

Now that you have your site published, the next step is traffic and that’s the topic of step 7. In fact it’s split into 7a, 7b and 7c.

Conclusion

I remain extremely impressed with the thoroughness of the Nitro Blueprint System.

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Nitro Blueprint System Step 5

April 18th, 2008

As I continue my review of the Nitro Blueprint System, this is where the Nitro Blueprint System gets technical in step 5 with “Creating your website and sales system.” At this stage you may want to hand over to one of Nitro’s outsourced service providers to at least get your website up and running.

You can then watch the Nitro videos and study your own site so that for your next website you can do it if you really want to.

But first the Nitro Blueprint System forces us to think about money and in particular collecting money. I like this bit as being paid is definitely what your online business is all about.

Before you create your website you have three main decisions:

  1. How is your ordering system going to work and how are you going to collect payments?
  2. How will you capture email addresses of people interested in your free offer but not yet ready to buy?
  3. How will you process affiliate promotions and payments?

Good questions and the Nitro Blueprint System provides the answers.

Internet Payment Processing

First on the payment system you have a very nice “Fors” and “Againsts” for Clickbank, Paypal and your own merchant account.

I know you want the best system for the least money but unfortunately it doesn’t work like that. The best, most flexible system is the one that costs you the most but Nitro very fairly point out the issues and allow you to make an informed decision.

Email Hosting

You want an email solution which automates the creation of the email capture form, stores the email addresses and allows you to send out and track emails. I uses Campaign Monitor which is free to create but costs you to send emails. It works very well but I doesn’t have an auto-responder system beyond the initial sign up process so you can’t use it to deliver a seven email course.

The Nitro Blueprint System makes a specific recommendation which I will have to check out soon.

Affiliate Programs

You may not have considered having an affiliate program where you pay people a share of the sales proceeds in return for promoting your website but it is an essential part of Internet marketing.

Why rely on just your traffic when you can have ten or one hundred affiliates telling their readers about your product or service?

The Nitro Blueprint System again takes you through the options and what you should look for when choosing your affiliate system.

Putting It All Together

The best solution is a complete shopping cart but it does cost.

My Guerrilla Marketing friends recommend Easy Web Automation but Nitro recommend another solution and many of the Internet marketing gurus use Infusion. This is a big decision to make and will depend on how big you intend your Internet business to become.

Designing Your Website

Do you really want to become a web designer or do you want to master Internet marketing? My advice is to pass over to an expert at this stage but if you really want to do it the Nitro Blueprint gives you the step by step videos of formatting your sales letter and FTPing (?) files up to your website.

It then introduces the essential topic of monitoring and adding Google Analytics to your site.

Me, I’m definitely happy to pay someone else to handle what I think of as the techie aspects.

Conclusion

That’s it for step 5 and you now have a functioning website ready to take your customers money.

In the next few steps the Nitro Blueprint System goes into topics like split testing and attracting traffic.

I remain very impressed with the Nitro Blueprint System and regard it as the system to buy for move you from inception of the idea through to having a finished website which makes money. It saves you wasting time looking at what other gurus are offering when you could be taking the actions necessary to build your online business. Get your business up and running, get the most out of the Nitro Blueprint System and then start learning about other people’s ideas for generating extra traffic.

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Product Launch Formula 2.0 Coaching

April 8th, 2008

It’s no surprise but Jeff Walker’s launch for his Product Launch Formula 2.0 was a major success despite the computer programs.

It was a fascinating experience watching the launch process move from stimulating some modest interest through to the decision to buy before the launch was made. Interestingly part of this was based on the fact that Jeff Walker just seemed so nice.

The Product Launch Formula 2.0 coaching is going to be a very intensive program but it is going to be fascinating.

  1. The bonus of the original Product Launch Formula CD rom and workbooks was delivered yesterday so that was great service from Jef Walker’s organisation. This product is currently off the market to create space for the coaching program.
     
  2. The Coaching call videos for week 1 of the five week program were released overnight together with videos from Jeff Walker’s Product launch workshop last year.

I am very excited about this because it is easy to see how these techniques apply to both my business and the business of my personal clients.

Future of the Product Launch Formula

Jeff Walker’s focus is on the coaching program at the moment and Jeff has indicated that he probably won’t repeat it.

But the Product Launch Formula concepts have been too successful so I would expect another home study program to appear. After all it was convenient to people who find themselves thinking about a new launch or trying to re-group after a failed launch.

To make sure that you don’t miss out, sign up to the Product Launch Formula email list.

I will let you know what I think as the next five weeks develops.

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Maven Marketing Jay Abraham & Rich Schefren

April 8th, 2008

The Jay Abraham and Rich Schefren coaching program for Maven Marketing Intensive has now started in earnest.

If you remember, this is the coaching program to help you to be seen as the expert in your market whose opinion really matters.

This is clearly very relevant to what I am trying to do and I had no hesitation in signing up with two of my favourite gurus, Jay Abraham and Rich Schefren.

What I Want To Achieve From Maven Marketing Intensive

I want to be seen as the maven of independent reviews of business books and business development products.

It requires you to start trusting my opinion but I can only earn that trust by giving you my honest opinion although I need the affiliate income to cover the cost of the programs and my time. Of course some programs will cross-subsidise others.

Future of the Maven Marketing Intensive

I understand that this is the Beta version of the Maven Marketing Intensive and that assuming it is a success, will be a bigger product launch at some stage.

If you missed this opportunity but you are intrigued by the concept Rich Schefren and Jay Abraham have written a free report - Maven Matrix Manifesto.

Two Streams Coming Together In Maven Marketing

The Maven Marketing Intensive coaching program is bringing together two streams of people:

  1. The people who attended the Maven workshops tagged on to the end of Rich Schefren’s February 2008 conference.
     
  2. The home study group.

The Maven workshops were recorded for distribution to be sent to both groups but I haven’t received my copy yet so those people who attended the conference have a big heads-up about what Jay Abraham and Rich Schefren have covered so far.

What we do have is a series of reports, interviews and existing audio programs to work through of associated material. Some of these are conceptual while others tell the story of how well known people became established as thought leaders.

The Maven Marketing Coaching calls

The coaching calls have started with an overview of what happened in the workshops and what will be covered in the two calls per month.

Impression So Far

I am very glad that I took this opportunity, not just because of what I want to do with the third party business development reviews but also for my own two projects - The Eight Pillars of Business Prosperity and the Custompreneur Revolution (which is intended to set the benchmark for the development of customer focused entrepreneurs.)

I have checked and it appears that the home study program is still open so follow this link if you want to join the first Maven Marketing Intensive and get ahead of the crowd but I recommend that you download the Maven Matrix Manifesto first.

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StomperNet SMARTS Is Getting Better and Better

April 8th, 2008

In my last update I was concerned just how long the social media marketing strategies and tactics recommended by the StomperNet SMARTS program were taking together with how long it was taking to work through the training materials.

How things change in a few weeks.

Blogging 

First we had the blogging course week and that brought a few very valuable messages home to me.

It is funny how easy it is to be like an ostrich and to effectively have your head in the sand and miss some points that with hindsight are obvious. But they weren’t obvious to me and I was missing some big opportunities to promote my blogs.

I am also starting two new blogs, one to cover business book reviews and the other will pick up more of the Internet Marketing opportunities that are too specialised for many of my readers.

Social Bookmarking

The following week we moved into social bookmarking. I may have seen comments like “please Digg this” or asking for a Stumble. Instead of saving favourite webpages to your own PC, you could save them to one of these social bookmarking sites and you can then gain access where you are or send other people to see your recommendations.

For the blog/website owner, social bookmarking can deliver targeted traffic for people interested in the particular subject. You see, the more people who Stumble an article, the more votes it gets and people like to see the best pages.

Second Week Off

Full marks to StomperNet for taking surveys of members as I wasn’t the only person who was struggling to keep up with the SMARTS program. We had a vote and won an extra week to catch up.

The beauty of this is that it allowed me to put more of these social media marketing strategies into practice.

Bringing It All Together

Week 9 is fantastic as we were shown how all the ideas that have been introduced to us so far all work together, each building on the strengths of what has gone before.

It really does make a lot more sense and I have definitely discovered my enthusiasm for making social media work.

Social Media In The Future

There is little sign of the social media phenomenon slowing down although I have just checked the Alexa traffic and Facebook is opening a gap over MySpace.

Another SMARTS Course?

StomperNet haven’t said that they will open up the SMARTS course again but I think they’d be crazy if they didn’t.

Last week was the StomperNet Conference and some of the stories coming back about social media success are stunning and any program that can generate this kind of result deserves to be repeated.

But with StomperNet you can never be sure. The original StomperNet launch for the web marketing services was a stunning success despite the $800 per month subscription fee but I believe that they only opened it up for a second time for a very brief time. 

But I have just checked out the originally sales letter link and StomperNet do say that they are planning to when the current program is finished so you may want to sign up for receive their next set of StomperNet SMARTS emails.

You can still download Don Crowther’s SMARTS Social Marketing Strategy report.

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