Seth Godin pretty much described what it’s like starting and having a Network Marketing business in his book, “The Dip.”

While he was not referring to Network Marketing specifically… he pretty much hit the nail on the head when it comes to the challenges most Network Marketers face.

(Since I’m borrowing Seth’s image to make a point… here’s a link to the book.)

Like every business, Network Marketers begin at the far left… the small blue incline before the big dip.

Not a problem, most of us can climb that tiny hill easily… that’s the ‘getting ready to get ready’ part of our journey and we can’t wait to get started.

We are all juiced up… motivated and off to conquer the world.

We sponsor a few friends and family members… make a few product sales, and start planning of ways to spend our newly found wealth.

Then it happens.

The next hill… right after the dip, it’s huge.

More like a Mountain.

The energy needed to climb out of that dip… most can’t do it.

So we quit.

Maybe we don’t quit and give up right away… we give it our all and try to climb out of the dip a few more times, but like Seth’s ’stick man’… we slide back down the hill, right back to the bottom of the dip.

We are stuck there.

So this time… we do quit.

And we should.

Why would you keep trying to get out of a ‘dip’, only to slide right back to the bottom. You have better things to do with your time.

Makes no sense whatsoever for you to keep on trying.

Those dreams of quitting your job… spending more time with your family… who were you fooling? — they were just crazy dreams!

But the real question is this;

What is it that’s keeping you in the dip?

Are you ready for this? (this should rattle a few folks)… it’s the fault of the Network Marketing company that you are stuck in “The Dip” — and ultimately fail.

The company?

How could it be their fault?

“Nah… couldn’t be their fault — I’m just a network marketing loser who quit.”

You are wrong… quitting does not make you a loser.

Quitting could be what makes you a “Winner.”

You were smart enough to get out before wasting any more time.

You see, most Network Marketing companies don’t get it.

It’s all about the Passion.

Does the company create products people are passionate about, or do they just have ‘knock off‘ me too products every other Network Marketing company offers?

Do you feel like you are a part of a community… and more important, do your customers?

Again, it’s all about the Passion.

Network Marketers will not quit a company where they have a sense of belonging.

And your customers… they will not quit buying products they are passionate about… and they won’t leave a community of ‘like minded’ people who share the same passions… it simply does not happen.

That’s how you get through the Dip.

Like I said though… most companies don’t get it, but a few do.

You don’t have to get stuck ‘in the dip’… instead, find a company where the customers are truly passionate about the products… what the products have done for them… and where there’s a sense of belonging and a community where they can share that passion — that’s a Dip Killer.

The “Big Idea” for the Day…

Find Your Passion!

Og wrote in Scroll V…

I will live this day as if it is my last.

This day is all I have and these hours are now my eternity.  I greet the sunrise with cries of joy as a prisoner who is reprieved from death.

I lift mine arms with thanks for this priceless gift of a new day.  So too, I will beat upon my heart with gratitude as I consider all who greeted yesterday’s sunrise who are no longer with the living today.

I am indeed a fortunate man and today’s hours are but a bonus, undeserved.

Why have I been allowed to live this extra day when others, far better than I, have departed?  Is it that they have accomplished their purpose while mine is yet to be achieved?

Is this another opportunity for me to become the man I know I can be?  Is there a purpose in nature?  Is this my day to excel?

I will live this day as if it is my last.

In Part 1 of this series I gave you a resource of products sold using direct mail.

Let’s take this “Idea Generator” one step further.

What about all of those late night infomercials? How did those products do… and what did those who purchased the product think of it.

The reviews are mixed.

Some loved the product they purchased… some said they were outright scams.

Like “Part 1″ of Product Development and Niche Marketing Ideas — this is an “Idea Generator” post.

Take a look at what sold… if you have the time, do a little cross referencing of these products at NextMark.

One product that jumped out at me was Kevin Trudeau’s “Debt Cures”.

His controversial debt cure book had mixed reviews… but there does seem to be a demand for the product, and possibly one that’s better (hint, hint).

Enough of my rambling… visit “InfomercialRatings” and check out how some of those 3AM products are doing.

Oh yea… get your mindset right.

Look at what’s selling, what people did and didn’t like about the product - and how you could develop something even better.

It’s Copycat time!

I don’t know about you… but sometimes it just seems like my brain freezes up — much the way it does when I inhale a Swirl at Uncle Julio’s through a straw (a swirl is a frozen feast of margarita and sangria).

Doesn’t matter what I do — pull out my cheat sheets… spend an hour at Clickbank, etc, etc… but nuttin — might as well head on over to Uncle Julio’s.

My brain is frozen.

Product Development and Niche Marketing is a tough business.

You first have to learn how to use all the “tools of the trade”… Camtasia, Video Camera, web site or blogging software, Graphics programs, how to create ebooks and pdf’s — then you have to figure out how to get people to your site.

Wears me out just thinking about it — and that’s not even a full list of stuff you need to know.

Sad part?

Even once you’ve learned to use all those tools and drive traffic — you’re not even on the home stretch yet.

What about the Product?

Have you done the research?

Is it one people will buy? — or did you just waste like six months of your life developing and creating a full fledged High Def Video course no one even needs… much less wants!

I know — been there myself… “Sounded like a good idea at the time”.

Let me save you some heartache.

You need to stop guessing what works, and become a Copycat.

Develop and promote products that are proven sellers.

It’s easier to do than you think.

The best way for you to do it — see what’s selling now; and like I said, become a Copycat.

You are not wanting to be a ‘Trailblazer‘… right? — you are wanting to create, develop and promote products that stand a better than average chance of making enough money to pay a few of those bills — or that let you tell the Boss “your fired — I’m gone.”

I’m going to give you a little shortcut on how to do just that.

But, instead of me telling you about it here… I did a quick little video.

Nothing fancy… just a quick screencast.

And it doesn’t get any easier than this.

So, before you create that new ebook or HD Video on “How to Breed Termites for Fun and Profit” — check out the video (trying out Blip.TV this time).

Andrew

Frickin duh!

Then you have to ask, if they are in business — why don’t they have any Customers?

Well, let’s break it down.

First of all… most do not have any kind of a plan at all. I know this for a fact, as I talk to a lot of these ‘failing’ folks — and they confirm it.

Just yesterday, I was speaking with a gentleman about my age who called me about iBuzzPro — he was recently ‘canned’ from his job.

He’d read all the ‘get rich quick’ affiliate web sites… bought a few of the Hypster’s products… built a web site promoting some different products and nothing — not a sale.

He seemed very surprised… I wasn’t — heard it all before.

I asked him to explain a few things to me… like how he was getting traffic… and how was he promoting his web site. We never made it to talking about the product he was promoting.

Basically, all I wanted to know was; how was he going to get Customers?

“From his web site” he said.

I went through my ‘normal’ dissertation on what I think about a web site.

It goes something like this;

Let’s pretend for a minute that you opened up a Dog Grooming shop.

But you are smart… instead of putting your Dog Grooming shop on a busy street — where there is a lot of traffic and the thousands who drive by every hour can see you, you decided to stick it in an old abandoned strip center where five cars a day pass by — because the rent was dirt cheap (smart guy - get what you pay for).

With your shop stuck back on the backside of an abandoned strip center… how is anyone going to find you unless you tell them about your business?

They won’t and can’t find you.

I got bad news.

Your web site… the one you just put up?

Basically the same thing — only worse.

At least a few people will see your Dog Grooming shop and you’ll get the occasional straggler customer.

Your web site, how is anyone going to see it?… much less find it.

They won’t.

Usually, that’s where I get into developing a marketing plan for their business — notice, I did not say a marketing plan for their web site.

Your web site is simply an extension of your business.

You must think of it this way.

Regardless of what you do… you are a “Marketer” first… and you are a business.

If you sell web sites… you ‘market’ web sites — that’s your business and you need a marketing plan.

If you are a Doctor, you provide health based services — you must have a marketing plan.

Dentist… same thing — Affiliate Marketer, ditto.

We are all first and foremost Marketers, and we must have a marketing plan.

That’s it for Part 1.

So stop driving in the dark and work on your Marketing plan… we’ll cover more in Part 2.

Andrew

After that… I decided it was time to delete a few bookmarks of sites I frequent far to much. Over the years, I had bookmarked literally thousands of sites — deleted all but ninety four, and that still sounds like a lot.

For some reason, memories of my aunt came to mind — we called her Sister.

I remember once while snooping around her house (I was like 5 or 6 years old), I discovered a spare bedroom filled with magazines; Redbook… Good House Keeping… Life, cooking magazines… gardening magazines… I mean this room was filled to the max.

She found me plundering in the room — I was just a kid, I was looking to see if I could find any comics or stuff that I liked — I didn’t.

I knew I was in trouble — but I still wanted to know why she had all these magazines, so I asked her, “Sister, what are you going to do with all these magazines?” — she said she was going to read them one day when she retired.

It’s funny how you can remember stuff when you were five or six years old, but yet you cannot remember your blood type (a post for another day).

I do not think she ever got a chance to read all those magazines, as it would have taken 10 or 20 years if she had read them non stop. You would have had to see the collection in this bedroom to believe it… it was cram packed with issues going back 20 years.

That’s kind of the way I felt about the bookmarks I deleted. I’ll get back to the sites one day to read what they are saying… but unlike Sister, I actually did every now and then — far to much.

All those bookmarks made me feel cluttered.

I would not say these sites are not worth visiting — they are, as most of them are relevant to the things I do — marketing, graphics, blogging, seo, product development, link building, social bookmarking and networking, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc.

But honestly, how many different articles, posts and sites do you need to read on how to create link bait or how to optimize your blog?

Most of it is the same old rehashed stuff.

Same thing with the email subscriptions.

Honestly, I found this to be my top time waster of anything I used to do.

I can’t remember who or where I heard it from… but a few years back, I remember someone saying you need to subscribe to all your competitors newsletters (to study what they are doing)… as well as Marketers lists who seem to know what they are doing… to see how they do it.

So I did.

Up until the last year or so… it wasn’t to bad.

In the past, I could skim through the emails in less than an hour a day — I only check my email four times a day as not to distract myself away from my daily tasks — but even this discipline was not helping me make the best use of my time due to the shear volume of email.

I was a Hamster on the treadmill… running as fast as I could, with no apparent end in sight.

Here lately though, it is truly out of control.

If I read every email I receive, I would be like Sister — I’d never finish. In fact, like her — I’d be going backwards as I cannot keep up.

I was truly spending four to five hours a day reading email — that time included a visit to the site in the email (where they were trying to sell me something), if a site to visit was included — there usually is one.

Usually, there was no value to me in reading the email — just value to the sender (if I bought what he/she was promoting).

If there was a video on the site — that’s not even included in the 4 or 5 hours I was wasting. Some of the videos are an hour long.

What a way to spend a day.

It’s no wonder time seems to be going by so fast… I spent most of my day (my life) doing stuff that really adds nothing to my families quality of living, much less any value to helping me build my business — I’m burning time.

So I decided to do a little house cleaning — I only kept sites bookmarked that I felt were a necessity.

The few sites I’m a member of, and those I feel bring value to my business.

This morning… I’m going through a withdrawal.

I sat here awhile staring at my monitor trying to figure out what I should be doing.

No more wandering… no more mindless surfing around… no hundreds of emails to read… what am I going to do with that extra five plus hours a day that I allowed people to steal from me?

Hmmm… guess I could do more meaningful tasks!

Like create a few products… work on some sites and blogs long overdue for updating… and how about I spend some quality time with my family.

What a novel idea.

Do the things that truly matter.

While editing this post (started it a few days days before my “Time Off” post), I received an email from Scott Boulch — a fellow Texan who’s emails I do read.

It’s not often I receive an email from him — but when I do, unlike most I receive — they add value to my business.

This one was no different.

Like he has done a few times in the past, he had written another “expose” of sorts ebook about Internet Marketing.

With my mindset being where it was, I downloaded the ebook and read it.

It was kind of weird really.

I don’t know him personally… I’ve never spoke to him — but the book’s content was along some of the very same lines as this post. It was like we had talked about this stuff.

Keep in mind… I had this post for the most part written before receiving his email.

I only mention his email as an afterthought.

Here’s a link to his free Internet Marketing Cure ebook.

I do not agree with everything Scott wrote… but we are for sure on the same page with our thinking.

The above is an affiliate link… it pays me a whopping fifty cents when you download the ebook — so I don’t think I’ll get rich telling you about it — plus, you really need to read it.

But hey, 50 cents times 2 million people… that would be a cool mil. I can dream a little, right.

That’s it.

If any of this sounds like you — maybe it is time that you too did a little house cleaning and got back to doing the things that bring value to your business, and those things that improves the quality of life for your family.

It’s an ongoing process, it requires focus and disclipine — but I know we can do it — just have to unsubscribe from some of those lists to keep from getting distracted.

So you will know, I define a Mentor as someone you listen to… take guidance from, and basically heed what they say.

They have “Trustmark.”

This is not to say you do not waffle a bit and question what your Mentor(s) say at times — after all, they may be suggesting something you need to do that’s either foreign, or outside of your comfort zone.

Joe has no idea he is mentoring me — we have never spoke… he probably has no idea who I am, even though he is a fellow Texan.

But that’s okay… because it is not important that he knows me. What’s important is I know about him.

I’ll not dive off into everything I have learned from Joe as that is not the purpose of this post.

I wanted to share one of Joe’s latest videos with you; “The AAA Plan to Wealth.”

Have a great weekend,

Andrew

———————————————————

AAA Plan to Wealth ~ Joe “Mr.Fire” Vitale

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book in a digital format for free; “The Robert Collier Letter Book“.

Many a Copywriters career was launched because of this book!

While the letters in the book are a bit dated, what makes them effective
is as true today as it was when it was written. It’s truly a must have
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This is just a quick FYI post on a great resource.

Like you… I only have so much time in a day — and here lately, there is not enough time in the day to get everything done that I need to - so I need to streamline a few of my daily tasks.

If I had about 4 more hours in every day — that would about fix me up.

In order to keep up with trends… whats popular… and what people are talking about, I visit quite a few social networking sites and forums - and this takes a lot of time.

A couple weeks ago I stumbled across Popurls.com — I pretty much forgot about the site.

It is now my home page.

In a glance, I can see what’s popular at 30+ social networking, video, image, news and bookmarking sites.

Popurls does not cover all the social sites on the Internet… but they cover the biggies and for the most part, the ones that matter (for what I use them for anyway).

I want to know “what are people talking about and what’s the buzz right now“?

Here’s an example of what’s popular at Digg right now;

What’s popular at del.icio.us;

Clipmarks….

How about Popular Videos at Youtube and Pictures at Flickr;

(Russ, thought that was a boys name… that’s no boy — 3AM, go to bed)

I guess the obvious question is this; “why should I even care what’s popular or what others are talking about?”

I’m not going to go into why you should care in this post — but I’ll give you an example.

I boot up my computer… open Firefox… Popurls comes up as my home page… I scan through it… visit a few sites on the lists… see what’s popular, and what others are talking about… and I now have a few ideas on what I should write about on my blog.

It’s a brain storming tool.

If one of those popular blogs happens to have an article or post in the same niche as my blog, I can leave a comment on the post (with a link back to this blog)… or better yet, mention the popular article in one my posts and receive a trackback from the article (that’s receiving a lot of buzz apparently).

If something is really buzzing and just picking up speed… I can use a little Bending the Web and Clipmarks Unleashed strategies — write a post on the same topic (if it is in my niche) and get my piece of the traffic being generated by all the interest.

Okay… that’s it.

Wanted this post to be short, so I’ll end it here - but be sure you check out Popurls.com

Utility Poster is going to be a great tool for days like today.

I’m sitting in the hospital room with my wife (see Rant on Jobs post) — my mind is pretty much the same consistency as my primary food staple for the last ten days, Chocolate pudding (I’ve been raiding the hospital frig).

I need to be writing articles… submitting my blogs to the social bookmarking sites… and working on my new blog, Midnight Blogger and Clipmarks Unleashed — but I can’t.

My heart is not in it — I’m fracken (Battlestar) whipped :-((

That’s where Utility Poster comes in handy.

With my mind consumed with the health of my wife… taking care of her, and making sure she has everything she needs — Utility Poster to the rescue.

I had planned on writing a post today on Article Marketing… so here it is — and chances are, it is better than what I would have written on my own.

Article Marketing Posts scavenged from the Internet using Utility Poster;

Article Marketing - Goldmine or Fools Gold?

One of the first things that is positive about article marketing is that it can be done for next to nothing in way of money outlay. In fact, article marketing can be done for free if you have a little time and a gift for writing quickly …

Article Business Marketing - Quality Articles Will Help You Make …

Each time I study the vast world of online affiliate marketing, I often detect that most affiliate marketing websites fall into 2 major categories. The first growing are those parading host of links to other sites selling services and …

The Complete Guide To Getting Started With Article Marketing And …

However, article marketing is still a very reliable method of generating quality traffic to your website. In this article I would like to go over the basics of how you can use this to drive targeted traffic to your site. …

Article Marketing Meets Search Engine Optimization!

But did you know that search engine optimization is also an important part of your article marketing, vis-a-vis the articles that you will distribute and submit to the various article directories too? You must keep seo in mind during …

Build Revenue from Affiliate Programs with Article Marketing

How can you build revenue from affiliate programs? Article marketing is the answer. Your articles represent you across the Internet and serve to establish you as an expert in your field. Your articles are used to create interest to [. …

Article Marketing Is A Major Key

Numerous internet marketers credit article marketing as the single best way to generate traffic, and therefore revenue, for your website. Articles allow you to put your “footprints” literally all over the internet. …

Article Marketing: How To Be an Article Marketer Like No Other!

Article Marketing is a practice that no webmaster, blogger or Internet marketer should go without doing. Even if you’ve never written a single thing in your life, you can benefit from article marketing. Read through this mini “how-to” …

Balancing SEO Against The Needs of Your Article’s Audience

If you can balance the needs of your article’s audience against your need for search optimized content, then you can benefit handsomely from your article marketing campaigns. Hunter Waterhouse is a ghostwriter and editor. …

Is Article Marketing Still A Powerful Weapon?

Article marketing has been used by the large SEO companies ever since people tried getting to the top of the search engines. HOwever, it really became big in 2004 when various internet marketers picked up the technique and released …

How Does Article Marketing Benefit A Business

Article marketing will not work if you publish information with little value. This reflects poorly on you and your products. Article marketing will boost your cash flow, expand visitor counts, and allow you the luxury of reallocating …

Article Marketing and SEO

SEO for article marketing really isn’t any different than for a website. Be smart about it, make it natural and logical. Make the writing appealing to people, and it gains viral power. Fail at that, and you’ve just created more internet …

That’s it for this post on Article Marketing… and I want to thank Jack Humphrey of Social Power Linking for creating Utlity Poster — or this post would not have been written.

I say looks to be as it has not been released yet.

By the time this page is in the top ten at Google for the phrase “Utility Poster“, I would dare to say it will be available.

Why do I think this is it a must have tool?

Because it does something I have told people I work with to do — but it does it semi-automatically.

At times we all have writers block — brain lock, or something where we cannot think of anything to write about on our blog.

When this happens — just write about what others have written on their blog.

This post is an example of just that.

Jack Humphrey (of social power linking fame) just wrote a post on his blog about his new tool, Utility Poster — I am writing about what he wrote.

If I had Utility Poster… it would have been a lot easier to write this post.

Instead of me telling you about it… just watch the Utility Poster video below.

Jack shows how easy it is to write a great, an “on topic” post using Utility Poster in less than ten minutes.

Social Power Linking ~ this is Jacks membership site.

I decided to jump off the cliff and upgrade to Wordpress 2.5 yesterday, as my Buds at social power linking were not having any issues — they really liked 2.5 and the new admin and dashboard features.

As usual, it was not a smooth process (thanks Buds)… had an issue I could not figure out.

Something was going on that would not allow my front page to load. This has happened in the past, so I was somewhat sure it had something to do with a plugin.

I went through all my plugins — made sure they were all up to date — one cool new feature in Wordpress 2.5 is the auto plugin update. You can automatically update the plugin from the plugin page — no more downloading — FTP’ing, etc (so I thought).

Updated all my plugins… no go. Only a part of my page loads.

Now I was beginning to think it was not a plugin issue as they all showed to be up to date. I started to sweat a bit.

So I hit Google looking for specific plugin compatibility issues with Wordpress 2.5.

To make a long story short… I found the problem (and the solution to fix it) on Blogvaria.

I “borrowed” the image below from Blogvaria… but you still need to go there — they give a few more details on the issue.

Be sure you manually edit the line in the code… do not copy and paste (that is why I did an image instead of the actual code). It is a simple fix… and one I cannot believe Alex has not fixed. He is a big time Wordpress guy… maybe he is busy or out of town or something.

Oddly enough… the update feature of Wordpress did not show the Popularity Contest plugin even needed updating.

This is something to keep in mind if you are having issues with your blog. The plugin developer may not have the update feature coded into the plugin… it is not a Wordpress issue, but rather a plugin issue.

That’s it… be sure to visit the Blogaria blog — they for sure saved my butt.

Short little Popularity Contest Plugin video on how to make the changes to fix the problem;

Micro Niche Finder

“Powerful New Software Tool Uncovers Hot Untapped Niche Markets that Have Been Completely Overlooked by the Masses and Allows You To Swoop in and Absolutely Dominate these Niche Markets in Google!”

You can even get a lesson or two about marketing, if you keep your eyes peeled.

Actually, I’m not sure I would call it a lesson — more of a refresher on something I know, but do not implement nearly as much as I should.

This weekend, my wife wanted to find where the Military donation station in Plano was located. She saw an ad in the paper where they were collecting clothing and home furnishings for Military personnel… so we jumped in the Hybrid and off on our adventure we went.

On our quest to find the donation center, we discovered these two ladies grabbing some rays at a petting zoo off of I-75 in Plano;

I’m not to sure they took to kindly to me gawking and making faces at them… matter of fact, she looks a bit peeved now that I have looked at the picture closer.

Here is the marketing lesson… this picture was taken on 15th Street in Plano, east of 75 a bit. 

If you are Spanish challenged — Orlandi Valuta is like a Western Union.

I’ll not share what the lesson was for me — I’ll just leave you on your own.

On a side note (important side note)… for any of you that live in the Plano, Texas or surrounding areas — or anywhere else really, visit Operation Once in a Lifetime.

Operation Once in a Lifetime accepts donations online (and at their store) –  they use this revenue to help military personnel in need.

The store is located at 2540 Ave K, Suite 200 in Plano — they are a non-profit.

Instead of having the Summer garage sale — take all that stuff over to Operation Once in a Lifetime — they need it.

Well, was there a lesson in the Check Cashing and Taco picture?

Micro Niche Finder

"Powerful New Software Tool Uncovers Hot Untapped
Niche Markets that Have Been Completely Overlooked
by the Masses and Allows You To Swoop in and
Absolutely Dominate these Niche Markets in Google!"

This is one tool every serious blogger needs to have in their toolbox.

I don’t give many product reviews on this blog… I do have affiliate links scattered around — over on the right hand side, a few 125 x 125 images that promote what I feel are pretty good products. Some I’ve used — some I have not.

I like the 125’s though — they add a bit of contrast and liven up the blog a bit 

Above the 125’s there is an image promoting Entrecard — a good way to drive some extra traffic to your site. Jack Humphrey has a new “Special Report” at Social Power Linking on using Entrecard — the “ins and outs” if you will on how to maximize your traffic using Entrecard.

I learned a lot of stuff in the special report that I did not know… thanks Jack.

Hang with me for a bit — I’m going to start from the end, and work my way in reverse with the Micro Niche Finder review.

So don’t bail out on me — I promise, I’ll get there.

Micro Niche Finder Video.

I’m getting ready to launch on a new membership site, Big Fish Blogger (posting about it next week).

While doing my “due diligence”… I asked a few Bloggers to share with me (an unofficial survey of sorts), what was the number one problem or top challenge they had with blogging.

I expected to see “getting traffic” as the number one challenge — surprisingly, it wasn’t.

So, what was the number one challenge they face with their blogging?

If you surf the web a bit — read a few blogs, the answer is obvious. Chances are, it is something you struggle with occasionally as well — I know I do at times.

Micro Niche Finder is not a blogging tool.

I’m sure when James developed Micro Niche Finder, blogging never even entered his mind — could have.

He was focused on creating a tool that uncovered little known and untapped niche products and markets — and that it does — plus, it does a lot more.

How to run my car on water.

I’m ranked #4 in Google for that phrase — it is a post on this blog.

It is really a fluke that I even wrote the post. Has nothing to do with marketing — but I was trying out a new tool (Micro Niche Finder), and I wanted to test it out.

Worked like this.

I entered the term “how to” in the Micro Niche Finder search pane.

It returned results at that time (last November)  that looked something like this;

When I did the search in November using Micro Niche Finder, “How to run my car on water” was one of the results Micro Niche Finder returned. The search results obviously change over time, due to the nature of what people are searching for is constantly changing.

So what does all this have to do with the #1 blogging challenge I was talking about?

Everything — stay with me.

But let me ask you a question first.

When you sat down and wrote your last “Hall of Fame” post on your blog… did you just wing it and think to yourself;

If I write it they will come?…

Or, did you do a little research before hand to make sure it was a topic people would find interesting? — or even better, information they were already looking and searching for!

Hey… I’m no Seth Godin. I write about stuff on my blog all the time where I’m the only one who finds it interesting (topic of a post I’ll be doing soon).

Thing is… we don’t have to do this. So lets stop.

After all, a major factor in getting traffic is writing articles and posts that people are interested in and want to read.

We have the tools and resources at our disposal that virtually guarantees every article or post we write is on a topic or on a subject people are wanting to know more about — and looking for right now.

Micro Niche Finder is one of those tools.

When I wrote the Run My Car On Water post… Micro Niche Finder showed it to be a very low (bad) searched for phrase with little competition (good). I believe there was only 50 or 60 searches for the broad phrase (without quotes) a month at the time on Google — I wrote the post anyway because of the low competition and the current situation with gas prices (bought a Hybrid myself).

Using Micro Niche Finder, I found a few more relevant keyword phrases with higher search results, and weaved them throughout the article.

But honestly, the article is not that good — like a ten minute post promoting a Clickbank product (and I sell a few every month).

But the subject matter is in high demand and something people are searching for now.

People are desperately searching for ways to lower their gas bill — I was.

So here’s your answer… the number one challenge we all face — writing content that people are wanting to read.

If you can do this — the traffic will come. Maybe that’s why getting traffic was #2 on the survey.

I know — that is a quadruple Uh Duh!

No big secret there, right.

You have read all the way to this point and my punch line was nothing more than “write what people want to read and what they are searching for?”

Well do ya?

How do you know? Have you done the research — or did you just sit down and decide to write a post because you have not written one lately?

For example, if I had a blog where I catered to the iPhone niche — I might write a post on how to unlock an iphone - based on the data Micro Niche Finder returned (see image above).

You could also take it a step further and create a product or report that shows people how to unlock an iphone — and sell it.

The search volume is not that high — 360 searches a month — but, there’s only 3 sites who’ve highly optimized their site for that phrase.

While I would not do a stand alone blog where I only targeted that specific phrase — search volume is to low — I would write an article or post targeting that phrase if my blog was in the iPhone niche.

Micro Niche Finder is a great tool, and I’ve only shown you one thing it can do.

I did not even hit on the Brainstorming, Hot Trends or other features.

I give Micro Niche Finder a double thumbs up.

And yes — the below link is an affiliate link — check it out if you struggle a bit with what to write about.

Micro Niche Finder video.

I’m a big fan of Steve Chandler.

He gets some flack from some people for reading his own audiobooks (per reviews I’ve read at Audible.com) — he has a bit of a monotone voice… does not sound much like the motivational speakers we have grown accustom to hearing — he is not one of the “rah rah” type of Speakers for sure.

But, the information he gives is truly life changing.

Think of this post as an introduction to Steve Chandler — if you have never heard of him.

Oh yea… a lesson from Arnold.

Something Arnold said about “creating a vision” has stuck with me every since I heard it.

For me, it was one of those Aha Moments.

Steve was interviewing Arnold Schwarzenegger many a moon ago, when Arnold was first starting out as an Actor.

The movie Arnold had just completed was a big flop.

Steve asked Arnold what he was going to do next — now that he had retired from body building.

Arnold said that he was going to become “the number one box office star in Hollywood”.

Arnold gave him the process that he was going to use to do this — he was going to use the same process he had used in body building.

Live as it was already true.

Here is a short 2 minute excerpt from “100 Ways To Motivate Yourself” audiobook.

Arnold gives you his secret.

Additional Articles on Arnold:

I really should not say everyone needs to use it — you only need to use it if you are curious to know what your visitors are doing, in a visual mode.

For example — in my overnight initial evaluation of ClickHeat, I discovered my little 125 x 125 banners — those down just a bit, over on the right, received very few clicks (didn’t receive any last night).

I know they do in fact get clicked on — my tracking software supports this fact, but for the few hours that I tested ClickHeat last night - nada — not a single click.

I could have just as easily checked my stats software, but using ClickHeat is faster and easier.

My text links? 

Well, they did receive a couple clicks in this overnight test of ClickHeat.

Having a visual aid like this will really help — it is a great tool for giving you a quick glance on what your visitors are attracted to and find interesting — and what they don’t.

With me knowing this little bit of information — I can now focus in on and write articles — and provide resources and display ads that’s proven to be of interest to my visitors, by utilizing the data from ClickHeat.

If those little 125 x 125 banners do not begin to carry their weight - BAM!!, they are gone.

While I suspected they did not receive very much interest — ClickHeat confirmed it, with a quick glance.

Real estate on your site or blog is far to valuable to have something "non performing" on it. Ads are like employees — you do not perform, you get fired. Now I can blame ClickHeat for giving them the boot — and hire some more text link ads.

I did a quick little video below.

It looks a bit foggy — that is due to the fact that QuickHeat uses an overlay to show you where people have clicked.

Keep this in mind when watching — a bit blurry.

Here is a link to ClickHeat – oh yea, it is Free.

Hard to believe labsmedia released this at no charge - but I’m glad they did.

ClickHeat Heatmap Overview - The best video clips are here

  
|———–***———– Post Sponsor —————***—————————–|

In the spirit of this post (and data)… this Sponsor is doing a text link.

Set Your Traffic On Fire With Social Power Linking!

and use ClickHeat to see what they are doing when they get there!

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Maybe a better title would have been; "Ready — Fire — Fail?"

This book has been sitting on my shelf for a few months — truthfully, forgot I had it.

Since it was time to use one of my Audible credits — and I really did not see anything else that jumped out at me, I went ahead and downloaded the audio version of Ready, Fire, Aim.

I loaded it up on my iPod, and a listening I went.

Why would I say "Ready, Fire, Fail" may be a better title for the book?

I mean come on — this book has nothing but stellar reviews at Amazon… the people who reviewed and gave it good marks (5 Stars), are well known and respected folks.

In the business world, they have all reached far higher pinnacles of success than I — and most have reached levels that I will never reach in five lifetimes (added that just for emphasis).

So… who do I think I am to speak negative about Ready, Fire, Aim?

I’m just a regular guy.

Let me be clear…I do not take issue with the entire book — only a part that could cause you to fail (or never start).

In fact, I think it is a really good book - one of the best I have read (listened to) lately. I just do not agree with everything in it.

One thing I’ve always felt a bit uncomfortable doing? — disagreeing with super successful people.

Think about it.

Michael Masterson (the author) is a millionaire many times over. He walks the talk. He is the real deal… the real McCoy… he is bonafide!

Disagreeing with people that I would consider somewhat of a "silent" Mentor — and off the chart  successful — here we go, why not?

I’ve received bad advice from people before — and I’m sure I’ve given some as well.

Just because it’s in book form, or in the Sunday Papers — does not mean it’s 100% correct (Joe Jackson reference - Look Sharp).

Tipping Point Products…

In Ready, Fire, Aim — Masterson states that we must create Tipping Point products — hard to argue with this. Wish every product I created was a Tipping Point product.

If you can create Tipping Point products — success, and huge amounts of cash will soon be headed your way.

Ironically, this is the part of the book where I disagree.

If I understand him correctly — your product flow should look like this according to Masterson;

People purchase a Tipping Point product from you — they are now in your funnel, and you continue offering them more products to purchase — your backend products.

Let’s say you sold them an ebook on "How to Create eBooks"… now you offer them additional products on "How to Create Multi Media Products", "How to Create DVD Products", etc.

This is where I disagree, Tipping Point Product.

Masterson says you "first" create Tipping Point products, then you back-end with your "so so" not as great stuff.

This is one of those "DUH" moments for me in the book.

If my "lead in" product is in fact a Tipping Point product (refer to definition link above), then you can rest assured my other products will be of lessor quality.

How many of us create Tipping Point products?

I’m talking products like the iPod… Hush Puppy Shoes… Starbucks, etc.

I never have.

If I create a Tipping Point product — it will be pure luck (can you say pet rock).

Here is a more realistic flow;

 I tossed in a Tipping Point product in the hopes you might create one some day — but don’t wait on that day to start selling other products.

This is a real world flow — one where you create products people want — one where you are not stuck on step number one in an attempt at creating a Tipping Point product.

Maybe Masterson can lead or start off with Tipping Point products… but you and I?

Lets just say I hope you do not wait until you have created a Tipping Point product to begin selling other products you have — if you do, you’ll go broke.

Maybe I’m way off base?

I could have totally misunderstanding what he said.

After all… everything else in the book was really well done and seemed pretty much on target (in my opinion).

But I don’t think I did.

If I did — let me know.

Because after listening to the audio book — referring to the actual printed version — I was left with the thought (or impression) that you have to create Tipping Point products in order to be successful.

This simply is not so — and Masterson gives examples in his book where he proved this point himself.

That’s it… I prefer not to disagree with Michael Masterson any more than I have already (him being who he is — celebrated author and bonafide real deal)…

… and I sure hope you enjoyed reading my "Tipping Point" post 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Added After Original Post ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Short excerpt from the Ready, Fire, Aim audiobook on creating a Tipping Point product.

Other Sites Discussing Ready, Fire, Aim: Zero to $100 Million in No Time Flat;

Ready, Fire, Aim - Or, Get Your Priorities Right! Ready, Fire, Aim Hot List: The BusinessWeek Best Seller List, Feb. 2008 Here’sa Good Idea: Profit From the Next Wave of Info-Publishing

—————————- Post Sponsor —————————————————-

This fits in with my model (and reality) — something most of us can do.

But, if you can create Tipping Point Products… you should do that.

—————————————————————————————————-

I took a break this weekend — I checked my email only ten times, and logged into a forum I help moderate four times.

With all this spare time, I decided to stimulate my brain a bit and read.

One of my favorite all time books on marketing is "Secret Formulas of the Wizard of Ads". Like I have said in the past — don’t own it, get it (both of them).

While checking my email this morning — it reminded me of something I read in the Wizard of Ads this weekend.

"If you are not 100% totally satisfied — we will happily refund your money."

This was the guarantee in the email I received. It went on to say that all I had to do was send them $1999.00 — if I did not have more traffic to my web site, then I could request a refund. They would "happily" give me my money back when I returned the program.

Happily?… yea, I believe that. They may in fact refund my money, but I doubt they will do it "happily."

They went on to state they knew I would not request a refund — in fact, they guaranteed that I would receive server melting traffic if I used their methods so the chances of me requesting a refund was zip.

They were so sure, that a part of the agreement required that I let my hosting company know in advance that my traffic was going to increase a "thousand fold". So I need to advise them of this overwhelming traffic I’d soon be receiving to give them a heads up. A bit gimmicky if you ask me.

This all sounds fine and dandy… except I have never heard of these people before.

I do not know who they are… I’m nobodies fool (at least not today). Why would I, or anyone for that matter give two grand to someone they do not know?

They may in fact be able to deliver on their guarantee, but I’ll never find out.

On page 86 of the Wizard of Ads, there is a paragraph that goes something like this;

"I’m sitting at a conference table when a client lays down a large check in front of me. He covers the check with his hand and says; "If I give you this money, what can you guarantee me?"

It’s a question I’m routinely asked by clients, so I lay my hand on top of his, look into his eyes, and gave him my standard answer;

"I guarantee that you will never see this money again."

"The only fool greater than the one who expects big results from small changes, is the fool who believes big changes can be accomplished without risk".

Risk is something every person deals with on a daily basis (driving to the store is risky)… especially those who own a business.

But, you have to measure if the risk is worth the reward. Two grand to someone I do not know or never heard of?… not worth the risk.

I’ll never see the money again!

I do not even know if they really could deliver on the traffic — or if they would in fact refund my money.

What if they removed the risk?

What if they sent me the program… let me try it out for 30 days and then charged me for the program once I see everything is as they say?

Better yet… what if they sent me the program… I’ll pay ten or twelve bucks for shipping and handling… in 30 days they charge me $333.00 — and the same amount over a six month period — now we are getting somewhere!

My risk is pretty much gone under this scenario.

The risk for the Seller — just went up.

But not for the reason you probably think.

The risk for the Seller of the server melting program is this;

He now has to deliver!

If he delivers though… everything will be fine. If not, I’ll return the non-server melting program and cancel before he can charge me for the program.

But, it could be a big time win for him if he can deliver. If he does it right — he has a customer for life.

During this six month payment plan he has the opportunity to build rapport, communicate with me, and sell me more stuff.

He could start a "server melting traffic" membership site — free during the first six months while I am paying for the program, then charge me for the membership — or let it continue to be free.

If he is the real deal, I’m there.

I have no risk… I can cancel at any time.

He really has no risk — other than the costs of the DVD’s he sent me. What is that… if it was ten DVD disks — it would be at most thirty bucks.

But even if I did not pay… he would more than make it up on the additional sales he would make offering the "no risk" "risk reversal" option.

You can use many variations of this model to remove the purchasers risk.

Once you have removed the risk… your sales will go up. They no longer need to know you… they no longer have to really trust you. They don’t have to if there is no risk.

Take a walk in your potential customers shoes… look at your offer using their eyes and remember, most of them do not know you.

Give them the chance to know you and you will have a customer for life….

… if you can deliver!

Well… it was not really on viral video — it was really on the number of sales a small company made of a DVD as a result of a YouTube video.

In 1998, the Indiana University Capella group "Straight No Chaser"  had a performance of them singing "The Twelve Days of Christmas".

The video found it’s way onto YouTube in 2006 — and like most of the millions of videos posted at YouTube, not much came out of it….

…at least not much until a year later.

In November of last year, 2007 — the video started to receive quite a few views.

The video was receiving over 400,000 views per day!

From what I have read — the video was not placed on YouTube as an advertisement to sell the video. It was placed there for entertainment purposes only.

But people wanted to buy a copy of the performance — it was that good.

Since there was not a link to a site where they could purchase a copy of the video - they resorted to the search engines to find where they could get it (there is a link now).

A small company based in Southwest Harbor, ME — A-cappella.com sold copies of the DVD from their web site.

A-cappella.com has two full time employees and averaged 60 sales a day. That was the average before orders of "Straight No Chaser" started pouring in.

The company quickly sold out of the 30 DVD’s it had on hand… and by the time it was all said and done, they have sold over 5300 copies of the DVD.

This is a great example of viral video.

It is one of those cases where someone watched the video on YouTube… they sent the link to their friends… those friends sent it to other friends and the rest is history.

Here is the YouTube video of the performance;

Here’s a kicker… the YouTube video and DVD almost never happened.

The company that did the video went out of business shortly after filming the performance — no one ever saw the recording at first.

To make a long story short, one of the original members of "Straight No Chaser" contacted the past owner and he still had tapes of the performance… and as they say, the rest is history.

So the obvious question is this.

Can you create a video of something you do?

It does not matter the kind of business you are in — it could be anything - it could even be a hobby as long as it is something people want to watch or learn.

Would the traffic to your site help your business?

I almost forgot… by February of this year, the YouTube video of "Straight No Chaser" — over 7.4 million views!

Problem is, most people think that web video is hard to do — it is not.

They think you need a video camera and all kinds of software… you don’t.

If you are reading this post — you more than likely already have the tools needed to create video suitable for the Internet.

If you are an Affiliate Marketer, you are missing out big time by not incorporating video into your sales or referral pages.

Just to give you an example… here is a little video I did on the Social Power Linking site — it took me about 5 minutes to do this screen capture. Nothing fancy, just a real quick little vid I did for demonstration purposes.

This video below was made using Camtasia — exported to .wmv format so I could upload it to TubeMogul, and I did it in the .flv format so I could put it on my video site.

You can download Camtasia and use it for free for 30 days — or you can use their free version.

It is easy.

In the beginning –  it may take you a little time to learn the software, but after that there is nothing to it. You’ll be cranking out videos like crazy.

If you want to learn how to use and combine video with your affiliate marketing, I am running a little special at the howtovideo.tv web site at the moment.

I’ll not give you a sales pitch here, as you can read all about what you will learn on the site.

Go here: http://www.howtovideo.tv

Copy this code first: 84B1B2EC99

This will give you a ten dollar discount to the HowToVideo.tv membership site.

I’ll keep this discount up for awhile, or until the coupon expires.

If you want to learn about Social Power Linking.