No Nonsense Marketing From Doug Prentice

I guess at this time of year it always seems appropriate to make a list of resolutions and a business plan for the coming year. While both are very important it’s so easy to get carried away with promises and plans that we’ll never meet.

I know that many gurus will preach that you have to make big plans to make big achievements but looking back at my (lack of) achievements in 2010 I’m planning for modest success in 2011.  How am I going to go about achieving this modest success – why, by making modest plans.

My plan for 2011 is built on both what I did achieve in 2010 and also what I didn’t achieve that year. For example I did learn a lot last year about how to make ebooks to sell on eBay. Did I actually do anything with that info – NO! What am I planning this year? Well from the amount of good quality PLR material that I have I have no excuse for not making products. So far I have three ready to roll with the autorun CDs already made, sales pages created, eBay listings created, all materials, graphics etc in place. My target is to have at least 100 ebooks running by the end of 2011. Seems a lot but it’s only 2 per week.

My major thrust for 2011 is to build my list and most of my efforts will be dedicated towards that end:

Ebooks on eBay – 2 per week

Giveaway Sites – 2 per month (budget $15 per month)

Article Marketing – 2 articles per week

Blog Carnivals – 1 per month

Blog – at least every 2 weeks

Now none of those on their own are money earners  but hopefully spin off promotions, affiliate links and upgrades will bring something in.

Most of all for 2011 I will try, try, try and try not to be distracted by new magic buttons.

What I already have is more than enough to start to make things happen. I have made a list of the stupid things I did last year (not to made public) and I will look at this every time I feel the urge to click the BUY NOW button.

Similarly I’m reviewing all my current paid memberships and any I have not used regularly are being cancelled. If it’s not been used it probably won’t be used in the future. Good intentions never put any dosh in the bank!

Well that’s all for now. As and when I find fresh new free stuuf that looks that it might be of help I’ll post the details here.

Until then, wishing you all the best for a productive and profitable 2011.

Last Sunday was a smashing day here in middle England. The sun was splitting the trees and suitably fortified by some strong coffee and a couple of slices of toast and marmalade, I put down the Sunday papers and decided it was a day for doing the “outdoor jobs”.

First on the long list of jobs to be done was shed and fence painting. I am the proud possessor of three garden sheds (please don’t ask we ended up with three – probably the same way we ended up with FIVE Yorkshire terriers at one time) and I thought I’ll start off with the smallest shed.  It seemed quite a straightforward task – medium brush to remove all cobwebs and c**p and a wire brush for the green gungy stuff at the bottom.

However when I got round to the far away side of the shed I discovered to my surprise that the roofing felt had been worn away – possibly by the adjacent holly tree.  So half my day ended up as a roofing project than a painting one.  However once I got back to painting with one of my favourite Grateful Dead bootlegs in the background (yes, old hippies never die – they tie-dye, sorry) I got to thinking how I had frequently been in and out of that shed for months but had never looked at the bit that was usually out of sight.

Then I started to ponder all the  other things that I looked at the front of but seldom checked the bits that weren’t obvious to view.  And so the list began:

Bank Accounts – I know I should check my bank statement but how often do we all look at the bottom line and say that looks OK. I know I really should be going through each entry and reconciling it with expenditure and payments made.

Credit Cards – Same thing again but I did find a small monthly recurring payment that I’ll now have to investigate.

eBay Listings – I we sell the same thing time after time on eBay as many of us do, how often do we check through the listing and compare it with other similar listings just to make sure that we’re still up to date and competitive.

Utilities Bills – How often do I check the readings on my utilities bills – not very often. Fortunately that will change as I’ve now moved on to self billing where I send in the quarterly readings.

Monthly Outgoings – This was one where I  was ahead of the game. Some months ago I came across a monthly expenditure log on Martin Lewis website. Since then we’ve keeping a record of all our household expenditure and it’s absolutely fascinating to see where all the money goes – and soooo much of it. We never realised just how much we parted with every month. It’s something I’d recommend anyone to do. Even if it doesn’t make you change your habits it will make you think.

I’m sure that when I get on to my next shed I’ll think of even more areas whose hidden sides need my attention. If there  are readers of the is blog perhaps you have ideas of areas that we all need to check.

Meanwhile, there’s a hot cup of coffee and a biscuit with my name on it nearby…..

The Internet must be one the remaining few places where you can start a business for nothing. yes that’s right nothing, zilch, frei, libre what ever language you want to use. All you need is any idea or a few ideas. Even if you don’t have ideas of your own you can pick up some free ebooks with full PLR rights that will allow you mix up 2 or 3 products and claim it as your own.

1) Once you’ve got your idea or free ebooks you’ll need something to create your product. Download the excellent Open Office . This is a free open source suite of programs giving you word processor, spreadsheets, graphics, presentations and databases. It’s available in a host of languages and is able to read documents from most other popular office software packages. One Item I particularly like about is the pdf button which will immediately turn your word document into a pdf file. Very handy when you’ve completed your project and want to turn it into a product fro sale or giveaway.

2) If you want to create an audio book or similar download Audacity. This is another opensource program which is great for sound recording and editing. It works for Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, GNU/Linux. The program allows you to record live sound, edit Ogg Vorbis, MP3, WAV or AIFF sound files, splice, cut, copy or mix sounds together and has many other features.

3) Video is another increasingly popular means of product creation. have a look at Cam Studio. This a great piece of screen capture software which will record all screen and audio activity on your computer. It has loads of accessories such a cursor highlighter. This lets you talk about and show on the screen what you’re doing.  this is another example of open source software and completely free.

4) So you want to build your website. When you look at the cost of some web building software it’s enough to bring tears to your eyes. What I believe to be the best free alternative is NVU which is a great WYSIWYG  (what you see is what you get) editor. This allows you to input as if you were using a word processor (no HTML expertise required). It’s a fairly straightforward piece of software. But if you have any problems there are user forums where you’ll be able to gat answers to all your questions.

5) When you’re building your site you’ll want to include the most effective keywords that will be search engine friendly and help your site climb up the search engine rankings. SEO Book is a fantastic resource that provides enormous help with improving the optimisation of your site plus an incredible useful keyword tool that you’ll find extremely helpful in getting the most effective keywords for you. Plus it’s free – all you have to do is register. In addition there’s a host of tutorial type material to assist you.

6) The next issue you’ll come across is hosting for your website. This is usually an annual or monthly fee for a company to put your website on the the Internet. I know it may be hard to believe but there are people who will do this for you for nothing. Spend some time on Free Web Hosting where you will find lists of providers for this with ratings etc. I’d advise caution in choosing your provider as this is perhaps the most important part of your business i.e. if your host goes down so does your business. But have a look at what’s available and read the reviews. See how long the service has been in operation etc. A tip is to also try and get a web host with Fantastico feature.

7) How do you get your files and folders up on to the internet. Now that you have you your hosting sorted out you need an FTP client service. A great open source amenity is Filezilla which lets you upload you files. It’s pretty easy to use but again if you have any issues it has a great user forum.

A common method of list building and attracting traffic to your site is by adding a blog to your site where you can impart information, tell people about yourself and promote products etc. WordPress is one the world’s most popular blooging platforms and is completely free!  It also offers a wide range of themes and plug ins. In the web hosting paragraph I mentioned that you should try and choose a hosting company with Fantastico as this provides a really easy way to add a WordPress blog to your web site.

9) Once your site is up and running you’ll need a method of measuring the visitors to your site and other useful statistics such as how many pages the average visitor looks at and so on.  Google Analytics will allow you to do this and so much more. It’s free and all you have to do is sign up for it. Do this right away and it will prove to be an invaluable tool allowing you to measure the effect of your traffic driving strategies.

10) If you’re trying to build your list or awareness of your brand by blogging you might like to try Comment Sniper. This another free download that will alert you whenever a new posting is published on your favourite blogs. Simply register and then add the blogs that you want it to keep an eye on for you. You’ll be alerted by either an on screen desktop notification or an SMS alert via your cell phone.

There are many other free products and pieces of software available and if you enquire on the relevant forums people will be happy to share.

Compared with the branded chargeable products on the market the above list would save you a conservative $1000. Now that’s either $1000 you just don’t have or $1000 you can spend on something else. Maybe on a good Mentor?

One of the most frequently quoted ways of exploding your sales on the Internet is by using  Joint Ventures.

So, you’re just starting out and you ask “What is a joint venture”. It’s pretty much what it says in the tin. It’s a sales venture involving two or more people. They normally fall into one of two categories: you either own a product or you have a list to promote to.

The next problem that faces you is finding a partner to do a joint venture with.

If you are a newbie starting out you most probably won’t have a list but may have a product and that’s what I’ll deal with in this posting.

Let’s set a scenario where you’ve laboured over your new product and you want to expose it to as many people as possible but don’t have a list of subscribers to contact. The joint venture you have in mind is therefore to find someone who has a list to whom he/she will promote your product.

As you’re new you may have to adopt a “round the houses approach”.

Method 1 – The Clickbank Way

Go to Clickbank and then click on marketplace. It costs nothing to sign up as a clickbank affiliate and this will give you access to the useful information on products listed such as commission payable and gravity (the number of sales made via affiliates). Find 5 products that are related to your niche and could sit well alongside your product.

Contact the webmaster of each site and explain that you are considering promoting their product. Introduce yourself, tell them about your product, show them you blog and ask for a review copy of their product. You will normally get either everything you ask for or nothing at all.

Review all the products you get but if you think a product is poor quality or value don’t proceed any further with it. For the good products, post a review on you blog and add an email on to your autoresponder series leading to your blog.

Once this all done contact the webmaster again with a copy of your review and say that you are promoting his/her product to your list. It doesn’t matter how small your list is. You can then ask if he/she will return the favour and promote your product to his/her list.

Keep plugging away with this method and you will get some joint venture promotions. Don’t give up because you don’t get instant success.

Method 2 – The eBay Way

eBay can be a powerful tool for you to use in getting your product in front of a mass market. It can also be an equally powerful tool to find JV partners. Go to eBay and look under the category Every Thing Else and then into Information Products. Once there start to look for products that are similar to yours. Products ideally that would be complimentary to yours. Once you have assembled a list begin to thin it down by looking sellers who are PowerSellers. People who are PowerSellers will generally tend to have significant lists. Check their feedback next as it will give you a good idea of how they treat their customers and whether they would be suitable to do a JV with.  If this is your first venture into JVs it will be best to find an eBay seller who is familiar with doing JVs as this will make it much easier for you.  Contact them with a simple email saying you’ve seen their products  and asking if they would be interested in joining you in a joint venture which would take a couple of hours work and split the profits 50/50.

Keep trying until you find someone who is interested and off you go.

Follow either of these courses of action with a bit of persistence and you should end up getting your first JV up and running. Then build on that success and do a few more.

If you’d like a full step by step guide of how to set up eBay Joint Ventures please try “John Thornhill’s JV Auction Profits”

After several months of other activities, a few problems and general stuff getting in the way I’ve really got down to following the  John Thornhill Coaching Program I bought about 18 months ago.

Once I’d written the ebook and ordered the graphics I got on to building the sales page. Freshly armed with the great graphics supplied by Dave Nicholson (I know these are shameless affiliate links but do these guys give great value for money) I downloaded my trial (free) version of Microsoft Expression Web 4.

Fired up the program and guess what – everything ground to a halt. Not the fault of  Microsoft, it’s just that these big programs use up so much RAM that my poor old PC couldn’t cope. It was so bad it reminded me of the old computer days when I’d input a pile of info and make a cup of coffee while it churned through. Memories come flooding back of green print on black screens and where even a small company with 20 screens needed a separate big air conditioned computer room…….

Anyway this was a not an acceptable state of affairs. So I Googled “make my computer go faster” and immediately got the usual pile of c**p software offers that would transform my 5 door hatchback into a Ferrari for $30. Pressing on, I came across www.crucial.com who explained to me that the problem might lie in not having sufficient RAM in my computer.

Their simple procedure allows you to input your computer details and tells you the maximum RAM that you can have in you computer. By clicking on my computer/properties I quickly discovered that the RAM installed my computer was 1024Mb and I could install up t0 2048Mb.

The Crucial site also advises you of the different upgrades that are compatible with your machine and of course the price. Thus emboldened and putting aside my gut gripping fear of opening the box that is my PC, I placed my order. The bits arrived within a couple of days and that was when the terror really set in. Was I, the techy dunce, really going to tackle this seemingly impossible task?

Back to the Crucial site where I found a great little video that took me step by step through the process. The only bit I had to figure out for myself was how to open the box (told you I was the techy dunce).

Tip: You’ll first have to disconnect your computer and then disconnect all the leads etc. Make a note or take a pic of where everything plugs in so that you can join it all back up again the same way.

Once this was done it was dead easy to follow the steps and replace the old modules with the new ones.

Tip: there’s an off centre slot in each module that stops you putting it in the wrong wrong way round.

I then put the box back together again, joined up all the cables and and then hovered fearfully for a couple of minutes building up courage to press the button. There was nothing to worry about as when I pushed the button it booted up OK. The next test was to see if it was any faster. Boy! You bet it is. I wish I done it months ago.

So if you’re suffering the same problem as I was don’t be afraid to have a go. It probably saved me at least £50+ from calling in my local PC repair man.

Not only did I learn something of value and save myself some money but I felt damn good about it!

What’s the biggest problem that we face as individuals working on our own? Motivation, procrastination, boredom, lack of focus? Yes, these are problems that we all face at times but I believe that the biggest problem that we suffer is lack of stimulation form our working environment.

Take me for instance. Every morning sometime between 8.30am and 10.00am, depending on other chores that have to be done first, I sit down in the same office (a very nice office) in front of the same computer trying to solve the same problems or improve the same products I was working on yesterday. And what do I get – yes, you guessed it – the same answers and I had yesterday.

Last week I agreed to look after my friend’s framing shop/picture gallery for a few days while he was enjoying a well earned break. It’s not particularly busy – customers tend to be few but do spend a bit when they come in. Knowing this I came armed with lots of Internet Marketing stuff to keep my self occupied – products I’d bought and never really spent time on, free reports etc.

What I also brought with me to my surprise was an open mind. Just sitting in a different environment with peace and quiet gave me degree of focus that I had not had for quite some time. Recently I completed my first product Free Traffic Torrents and knew that I had to start driving traffic to the site. Despite having all the tools to do this I’d messed about and hadn’t really got beyond stage one.

By the end of day one in my new environment I’d mapped out a strategy and listed all the actions I need to carry out to get things moving. Did this occur because of a moment of blinding inspiration? No, it did not. It happened largely because I’d taken myself out of my normal environment and was surrounded by fresh stimuli.

This reminded of my days in corporate where we used to have “away days”. Now don’t get me wrong, these were not the jollies you read about in the tabloids with paintball competitions, outdoor events or visits to theme parks. These were hire a hotel room and sit down with the team days. Everyone brought their projects and their problems and all the same old problems were addressed in different surroundings. The results? Well, issues were resolved, new directions were found and we all left with a feeling of purpose and direction.

How can you apply this to your situation? How many times do you sit in front of your computer and end up the day feeling that you’ve meandered through the day? Why not give yourself an away day. You don’t have to go to the extremes of hiring a hotel room. I remember Lee McIntyre telling me that he used to often head down to Weatherspoons with his laptop just for the stimulation of a fresh environment.

So go to the park, hotel lobbies are also good and free, your local library – anywhere that gets you out of the mental rut you may have settled into in your home office.

Go on – give it a try. The results will surprise you.

You know I can’t believe that after all these weeks of blogging I haven’t mentioned the four occupants of this house around whom the whole thing revolves – the pets. Yes, that’s right, nothing but nothing happens in this house that doesn’t in some way involve the gang of four.

Our gang of four comprises 2 wonderful poodles Kiki and Petra and 2 boy cats (formerly abandoned farm kittens) Big Boy and Baby Boy. Kiki and Petra are both former breeding dogs although Kiki’s breeding career was very short – one batch followed by a hysterectomy whereas Petra’s breeding career was more successful until her retirment about 5 years ago. Poodles, a much maligned breed due to their toy like appearance, are amongst the smartest and most obedient dogs I’ve come across.

Petra is now 14 and we’re mentally preparing ourselves for the day when she won’t be with us any more. No matter how many pets you have over the years it never gets any easier to watch them get old and slow down. Slow down that is until a collar is brandished in front of her, when she’s up like a year old pup running round in circles, desparate to get out.

Kiki is nine very loving and a right little madam when she wants to be! In Kiki’s world there is only Kiki. If attention is shown to any of the other pets guess who’s pushing her nose in – yes that’s right Kiki. She is also very very attached to Mrs P. It’s as if there’s an invisible string attaching Kiki to her “mum”. Where one goes the other is never far behind.

That’s all for today. next time I’ll tell you the story of how our boy cats arrived in a big paper bag!

Earlier this year I waxed lyrical about the free music service WE7, which I still believe is a really useful source of free music. Recently however I have been seduced by the charms of Spotify which I mentioned in another posting.

While there some things I can’t find (Pink Floyd/Led Zeppelin) on Spotify it does have the following advantages over WE7:

Firstly there are fewer adverts – in fact many fewer that you’d get with commercial radio. WE7 on the other hand has an ad after every track. I suppose the real benefit of this is if, like me you want to listem to an album which is a collection of linked pieces where one segues into another – for example Caravanserai by Santana. While you don’t get through the whole album with out an ad you at least get a better feel for the flow of the music.

Secondly, once you’ve chosen the artist you want to listen to and are then presented with a big list of tracks/artist/album, click on the artist and you then have a list of the artist by album. Set this rolling and Spotify will work its way forward from you chosen starting point going on album by album. So you can listen to hours of your favourite band/artist without having to click another button.

Now if they would only get all Dick’s Picks of the Greatful Dead on there I’d never need to click another button again!

Isn’t  it lovely now that the light night nights are starting again. The sun is shining, the sky is blue and blow me the garden is starting to sprout again. As the redoubtable Mrs P will tell you , gardening is not my strong point. The dearly beloved used to do most of the gardening but when she broke her leg a few years ago and I was working away from home a lot we were lucky enough to find “our Gerry” who is a wizz at gardening/handyman stuff. And for the next few years all went well with Gerry keeping the garden ship shape and Bristol fashion.

However he’s not getting any younger and has been laid up for the last few months. This was OK in the winter but now that spring is blooming the garden and surrounds are getting a bit messy. So this weekend it’s all hands to the pump to pull it back in order, with lots of grass cutting and general tidying up to be done.

Also noted that all the fencing and sheds could do with a lick of preservative. So off to Aldi this morning and picked up one of their special offer electric Spray Guns (£9.99) and 15 litres of preservative (£6.99 per 5 litre). So we’ll see how it goes over the next couple of weekends and I’ll report back.

So pray (if you’re allowed to say that nowadays) for good weather as I begin my gardening marathon – yes next weekend’s Easter so the gardening could go on for some time!

As part of John Thornhill’s Coaching Programme we’re encouraged to post to our blogs on a regular basis. I’m not quite sure why – but knowing John’s approach and reputation I’m sure it will all become clear.

I’ve not posted for about a week as one thinks “Oh  I must have something IMPORTANT to say” but what the hell, today may just be bit a ramble. But I suppose even a good ramble helps both sentence construction and typing skills!

Last night I went with my mate Brian to see Watchmen. I’m one of the many who has never read the comic (graphic novel) and was prepared to be bamboozled by the story (according to some of the cinema reviewers). However the plot was fairly easy to follow, except a couple of instances that left questions hanging, and strangely moral. The book, I believe is being used as a study text in some schools due to the moral conundrums it poses.

Another thing I’d read was that the violence was quite extreme in places. Well, yes – but when I asked my friend Max, who had already seen the movie, she related it to the Japanese manga style which is adult comic book. If you ever read this Max, yes I did laugh at the arm sawing off scene.

And it’s also quite long at 2 hours 45 minutes but there again I’ve spent what seems like much longer in the cinema at much shorter films.

Would I recommend it? Yes I would but not if you don’t like violent films and it helps if you’re a fan of dark comic book stories. Cracking soundtrack. If I took nothing else away from the movie it would be Desolation Row by My Chemical Romance. I’d heard of them before but had never heard any of their music.

Back soon with more ramblings.