My Thirty Day Challenge Notes

Blog Mastermind is fantastic! I’m up to speed on lessons, I’m writing content each day for a short period of time, and I market my posts at least 4 days a week for 20 minutes each day.

The discipline of writing daily and marketing daily is great. It reminds me that the journey of 1000 miles begins with a single step. Taking a step or two each day leads to completing at least one post per day, and sometimes more. I now hold multiple posts and publish them during the week and not all at once. This gives my blogs regular posts and keeps from overwhelming my subscribers.

I started writing down any ideas I have for future posts so I don’t forget them. They won’t all turn into articles, but many will. Having a list of post ideas to choose from for all my blogs allows me to focus on researching and writing articles instead of wonder what I’m going to write about. The list grows faster than I can produce content and that’s good. If I sit down to write and don’t have a specific idea, I can use one from the list. I may not finish an article in one sitting, but I can usually get it outlined and some content produced in 30 minutes to an hour. If I don’t finish, I’ll work on it the next day.

I feel like I’m back in my college writing groove. I took an honors class my freshman year that combined English Composition and Western Civilization. It was a very tough class because we had to produce a two-page, typed, double-spaced (Courier 12 pt) paper every week the whole semester. We used typewriters back then, but they were electric with backspace erase. We were graded on content, structure, and grammar.

At first, I was completely overwhelmed by the whole idea of writing so much with so little time to prepare. Papers were due every Monday morning. But once I got in the habit of thinking in terms of how I would compare, contrast and compose a paper every day as I read my assignments, it got easy to write a paper that often. That class taught me how to write by demanding that I write. It taught me to think critically as I read information.

Blog Mastermind is demanding this kind of writing and thinking discipline of me again, but now I get to choose the topics. It’s also a lot easier to write on a computer than by hand and with a typewriter.

I enjoy writing so much. I hope I can turn an hour or two of daily writing with passion into a profession I love. If I could afford to do it, I’d write full-time. In the meantime, I’ll continue to pass my love of learning onto my tutoring students and helping them to not only master a subject, but learn to love learning as well. Those who love learning seem happier and more prosperous.

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written by joubess \\ tags: Blog Mastermind, discipline, writing

You find great sites that you can join to train you to do something specific on making money on the internet. There are sites to teach you about affiliate programs and marketing, blogging for income, blogging just because you love it, developing niche websites and making sales from them, or flipping virtual real estate (much safer than real real estate).

I don’t know about you, but I’ve been able to separate the wheat from the chaff pretty easily. The sites that are worth the money are talked about all over the blogs of the big internet marketers. The ones that aren’t talked about probably aren’t worth your hard-earned cash. That’s not always true, however. Sometimes someone comes up with a new program that’s really great, but it just doesn’t have much of a membership because it’s growing. Those will usually be very inexpensive to join, and being a charter member usually keeps your subscription price at the original level for as long as you remain a member.

Research every program you might consider joining before you join it. Ask around on forums within that niche or on general forums. Read the blogs of the gurus in your niche. Don’t put out your money without knowing what you’re buying.

Start for Free then Choose Paid Programs

You should start out doing as much as you can for free, such as the Thirty Day Challenge, and then you start looking at where you want to go from that point. I do recommend starting out with free training. All it costs is your spare time. If it doesn’t work out you’re not out any money.

The Thirty Day Challenge is free, ongoing and loaded with solid information. You learn so much it’s mind-boggling. You learn how to do all the research to pick “phrases that pay”, marketing for free, setting up free websites, etc. “Free” is the keyword. When you finish the challenge or whatever free stuff you’re doing, you start exploring where you want to go next on your own.

I signed up for the Immediate Edge and Wealthy Affiliate right away. I thought the Edge would be great because it was run by the guys who did the Thirty Day Challenge. I signed up for Wealthy Affiliate because it came highly recommended on big marketers’ blogs and I know I’m not going to produce my own product very soon, if ever.

I also signed up with Yaro Starak and Blog Mastermind. I know it’s the program for me because I carve out time in my very busy schedule to do the lessons on time and complete the weekly tasks before the next lesson arrives.

Dropping Subscriptions

It’s easy to see what you should keep and what you should drop by your level of commitment to each program, measured by the amount of time you’re willing to spend on it and what you’re willing to give up to find that time. If you have tons of time, you can keep more programs. If you have a busy schedule you have to cut out things that aren’t helping you. If you make time for one program and not another, keep the program(s) you make time for and drop the others.

I dropped my membership to the Immediate Edge. I didn’t want to because I can see the long-term value of what the Edge offers. It’s not because the Edge isn’t fantastic. It’s the bomb!

I dropped it for the following reasons:

• I haven’t made time to learn all the great stuff on the site or participate in the projects, which is how you learn and earn.
• It’s above my head.
• I needed to cut expenses, and the Immediate Edge is $97/mo.
• I’m not making enough money from it to justify keeping it.
• Every member takes up a space as a shareholder, and if I’m not participating I may be keeping someone else who will participate on the site from joining.

There is so much content to read, absorb and learn, it’s totally overwhelming. I’m too much of a novice at internet marketing to benefit from this great site. I may go back to the Edge later on when I’m ready and able to work on the projects and participate. Right now, I’m not leaning in that direction. I’m seriously leaning toward writing and blogging.

Continuing Subscriptions

Dropping that membership pays for my Blog Mastermind subscription, monthly web hosting, and part of my Wealthy Affiliate subscription.

I am also evaluating Wealthy Affiliate. It costs $29.99/mo. I’ve spent some time working on learning what they have to offer. It’s on my level and I’ve benefited from what I’ve learned so far. I just haven’t made time to work on it that much lately.

I feel I need to make some time to work on WA and complete the 8 week course. Once I do that I’ll be able to see if it’s a subscription I think I need to keep.

I encourage you to keep evaluating your subscriptions and make sure they are still benefiting you. No programs should be off the chopping block completely. I’m not saying you must start chopping, but when something isn’t helping you, you need to decide if it’s still worth your money.

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written by joubess \\ tags: Blog Mastermind, Immediate Edge, subscriptions, Wealthy Affiliate

Those of you who have visited this site before today know that the theme was quite different. Themes are page designs that provide the number of columns, fonts, colors, headers, footers, and various other page elements.

I had already decided to change the theme because the old one was giving me some widget trouble. I couldn’t easily set up an “Articles” page because that widget just wouldn’t work on the old theme.

I’ve been experimenting with themes because WordPress.org has so many to choose from, and I haven’t really settled on any except on my Debt Free or Bust theme.

I’m on the StomperNet newsletter email list and the list that sends the “Going Natural 2.0″ free video series. Video #3 is a gold mine!

I’m so glad I watched it before I changed any of my themes.

How the human eye works

Our eyes are magnificent structures highly evolved in protecting us from harm and directing us quickly to what we seek.

I’m not going to talk about rods and cones and all that stuff you had in 10th grade biology. I am going to tell how the way our eyes work contributes greatly to what our brains pay attention to.

Our eyes don’t just collect information for the brain to sort out. They actually filter information before it gets to our brains. Our eyes like pictures and maps to guide them along the correct path to what we need quickly and easily.

Our eyes can see two main things:

• fovea - which is the focused zone we see clear, colorful details in and takes up about 2% of our visual field
• periphery - the rest of our visual range, it’s blurred but sees contrast and movement extremely well

Here’s the kicker, what we see in the periphery is important to what our brains pick up as information worth processing. If the periphery is all the same and inanimate, we don’t give it much attention. If it has a lot of contrast and/or movement we pay much more attention to it. The military has known this for ages. That’s why they have camoflagge uniforms and special training to avoid being seen.

Something else about our eyes is they move constantly, even when we’re concentrating on reading or watching something. They are constantly scanning for things we need and want, and for danger that we need to run from or at least stay away from. They are constantly looking for visual cues and maps to guide us.

When we read our eyes are still moving more than we realize, and they become tired from all the movement.

One way to decrease the strain on our eyes is if the writer or designer breaks up information into packets our eyes can collect rapidly and send on to our brains for processing.

Scientists at the StomperNet labs determined that 5200 pixels = 1 eye mile on a computer screen. Reducing the number of pixels we see reduces eye strain and fatigue.

Why theme designs are important

Pages on websites or in books and other reading materials are easier for us to read if they have information set up in packets our eyes can quickly scan.

When information is broken up into bunches with contrasting headings and surrounded by white space, it’s much easier for our eyes to scan and find the information we want more quickly.

We tend to move our eyes about half as much as when pages are too busy with small print, no headings and little contrast. When our eyes are less tired and can locate what we want rapidly we are happy campers. We tend to pay more attention to pages that appeal to the way our eyes work.

More importantly, we tend to ignore what doesn’t appeal to the way our eyes work. Given the immediate choice of reading something that is busy and hard, or something in bunches and easy, we’ll opt for the easy stuff even if it isn’t better because it doesn’t make us so tired.

I also started using more subheadings, white space and indentations when I write posts. I hope it will make it easier for you to scan. Let’s face it, if I can’t get you to scan what I write I don’t have a prayer of getting you to read what I write.

I chose the new theme for this blog based more on contrast and bunching of information than on artwork and other features that appealed more to me in other ways. In the past, I really didn’t look at themes with so much contrast, but now I see how important contrast is. You will see all my sites change to higher contrast and easier reading formats.

I hope you’ll look at the new page and leave me comments about whether you think it’s easier to scan and more readable.

Here’s to being easier on your eyes!

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written by joubess

This lesson is a tutorial on using the aweber.com autoresponder website.

Aweber.com isn’t a free service, but there are no free autoresponder services available that allow you to have a good-sized email list (more than 100) or more than one or two autoresponse messages.

What does an autoresponder service do for you? It provides an automatic email response to anyone who signs up on one of your email lists or email lists you already have loaded. People may sign up to receive updates or your quarterly e-newsletter, for example.

The first autoresponse sent would probably be a “thank you” note and perhaps a free report or some other free content just for signing up. Then you can add more autoresponder messages to mail to your list offering more information, the actual newsletter or reports, updates, and offers for products and services the requester opted in to receive. It’s also handy if you are out of the office and need to let anyone trying to contact you know you’re away.

This makes dealing with an email list feasible by automating a lot of the emailings you will need to do to keep your list active and your subscribers satisfied.

It’s also a key ingredient to increasing your profits once you find something that pays. It often takes 7 or more follow-up contacts (check moves) with each list member to result in a purchase from them.

Using aweber.com

aweber.com gives you unlimited autoresponses, list mailings, newsletters, free email design templates (or you can use text), and an easy way to create opt-in forms on your websites. You can host up to 10,000 addresses free, and the cost is $9.95 per 10,000 addresses thereafter.

Account costs are structured by how many months you pre-pay for service: $19.95 for one month at a time down to $14.95 a month if you sign up for a whole year. In my opinion, if you’re going to use aweber, you’re probably going to use it for more than a month, so signing up for one month at a time wastes $5/month ($60/year). Aweber comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee, so you can try it risk-free for 30 days.

First, sign up for an account, put in your credit card information, and you’re set to start using aweber.

After you sign up, the first thing you’ll want to do is click on list settings and create a new list. (In the global fields box, you must provide a physical postal address).

After you create a list, you’ll want to add a message.

• Click on messages > create message
• Select HTML or plain text
• Choose “immediate message” for a sign-up autoresponder
• Add the website address to enable tracking links
• Personalize your message

There are several tools you can use to automatically put a registrant’s name or other personalized touches in the subject and body of your email message.

After your thank you message, you’ll need to create 7 more autoresponder messages to send emails to your list every so many days apart; 1, 2, 3, etc. days after each message.

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written by joubess

Before you implement this lesson, you must be getting good traffic to your sites and making money. If not, make sure you’ve implemented all the strategies for driving traffic to your sites and improving your Google PR.

Selling is easy when you don’t sell. In the past, and many internet marketers in the present try to make you a pro football player when you don’t even know what the ball looks like. That’s nuts!

Writing sales letters is difficult and requires experience, so the answer is don’t write sales letters. There is no need to do so in web 2.0. Look at it this way:

Selling = No
Conversations = YES!

Conversations work.

Success = amount of communication with customers

The more communication, the more sales.

What is in your control?

• Not a customer’s decision
• Not a decision to opt-in
• Not a customer’s decision to buy
• You control the number of people you contact
• You control how often you contact them

See Michael Hewitt-Gleeson’s site at NewSellingCoach.com about influencing people. He offers a free newsletter and a free course.

Once you’re making money, it will become time to start using stuff that costs money to take you to the next level of your business.

Rules:

more contact = more money

A check move is any contact where the person contacted has the OPPORTUNITY to say yes or no.

more check moves = more money

The T/T System
Day Today (Actual) Tomorrow (Goal)
M 1 3
Tu 2 1
Wed 4 4
Th 3 3
F 5 5

This is a simple chart that you write down how many check moves you plan to make on a given day (tomorrow column) and write down how many check moves you actually made that day (today column). You must commit to it by writing it down and keep track.

C.A.N.I. - Start today with just one check move.

Constant
And
Never-ending
Improvement

Example of a 100k/month T/T Chart:

Day Today Tomorrow
M 747,000 733,000
Tu 712,000 715,000
W 727,000 820,000
Th 0 820,000
Fr 820,000 750,000

Check moves we can make right now:

• Twitter post
• Facebook post to our group(s)
• Comment on a blog
• YouTube video
• Email to one of your lists

Next lesson - we will start building our castle:

• Autoresponders
• List building - Collecting email addresses

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written by joubess

New lesson on using Twitter to great advantage.

Google likes Twitter and it is indexed by Google.

Remember:
more contact = more sales

Twitter is a mini-blog platform that allows the reader to be a fly on the wall of your life. It’s a side-by-side communication strategy.

Face-to-face communication by nature is adversarial. We work beside those who are our colleagues and customers to build relationships with them. Twitter allows your followers, or blog or Facebook readers, to be beside you and be a fly on the wall just listening and watching you in snippets.

Rules of Twitter:

• Don’t use it to instant message. It’s rude.
• Don’t use it to sell. It will lose it’s power for you. You’ll be ignored.
• Use it to answer the question “What are you doing now?”
• Answer that question whenever you get the urge to share something, whether you’re off to an off-line destination or browsing a page you find interesting. Twitter will insert a tiny url for any sites you are browsing.
• Pay attention to how Dan and Ed use Twitter

Next lesson: How to sell without selling; the check move.

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written by joubess