Riffs and Rants

They don’t have any Customers!

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.

Continued

I did something that I’ve needed to do for a long time… I unsubscribed from over one hundred (yep, over a 100) lists I had subscribed to over the last few years.

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.

Continued

Clipmarks Unleashed

I’m trying to think back… did I owe $5500 or was it $7500 on my Amazon Chase credit card before I finally paid it off — okay, I’ll come clean; it was $7500… damn!!

That’s a chunk of cash.

I know that $7500 is not a lot to some people… but it was huge to me at the time… but when I finally maxed that card out and could not use it any more — it was the best thing that could have happened for my business (I did not think so at that time though). Continued

Where are the Jobs?

Last Wednesday my wife was having some pain in her lower abdomen… wrenching pain that brought her to her knees.

The short of it… we called the Doctor… went to her office — she did a CT scan on my wife… gave my wife a few prescriptions, and sent her home.

Doc thought she had diverticulitis.

On the drive home the Doc called… said the CT scan was in and it’s not good… told us to head to the emergency room as my wifes appendix had ruptured — OOPs!, no diverticulitis.

Continued

100 Ways To Motivate Yourself ~ Steve Chandler

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.

Continued

 

 100 Ways to Motivate Yourself Excerpt [2:50m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Just a short little blip of a post on Blogging.

This Blogging Video by the folks at Commoncraft is as simplistic and to the point as you can get.

That’s what makes it so good in my opinion.

They do a really good job of entertaining us — while at the same time teaching us a thing or two.

Great example on keeping things simple - clean and to the point. No filler or fluff… just meat.

Now that I think about it… about the only time I find any "filler" is when I buy an information product.

It is rare that I find any filler with Free information products.

Continued

I could have named this post "Being busy does not pay the Bills"… "Don’t confuse activity with productivity" or anything along those lines.

Bottom line — be productive, not active.

But it’s not easy.

It’s 6:20AM Tuesday morning - like I do every morning I walk upstairs to my home office — boot up my computer — check my email and begin my day (first mistake).

Continued

Well, it was bound to happen.

You did not really think this could go on forever, right?

Some of the largest companies on the planet have either gone bust, or they were purchased simply for the assets they still owned and split up.

But this is not the case with Google. Surely you did not think Google was one of those companies (or were you just hoping so). In fact, from everything I have read it is just a matter of time until they become “Masters of the Universe“.

Years back, I thought it would be Microsoft that became the Master of the Universe - but it appears it will in fact be Google.

So no, Google is not bankrupt - but they have caused a few bankruptcies on their quest for domination of the universe.

With the stronghold they have on the Internet, it would not surprise me if in a few short years that we will be saying jump on “The Google” and see what you can find - instead of saying “The Internet or Web”.

Continued

In a previous post I listed some of the "Good, Bad and Ugly" parts of Affiliate Marketing. But I left this one out. I did not purposely leave it out - I had forgot about it really, as it has not happened to me in over 6 years.

What is this "Ugly"?…

Not getting paid your Affiliate Commission.

I’m not going to say I will not get paid eventually - but no need to worry. If I do not, I will post more about it and who it is on my blog. I’ll even use pay per click and "Bending the Web" methods to spread the companies name and products to expose them to everyone on the web. It will become my new mission in life.

This is not a threat to the people who owe me the money - just a statement of fact. Chances are they will never know about this post since I’m not going to name them, yet.

I have learned yet another important lesson though.

Regardless of how much I like the product I’m promoting - I’ll not promote it unless there is a third party involved paying out the commissions (i.e. clickbank, cj, etc).

The story goes something like this…

A couple weeks back I emailed the "Perp" asking them when I could expect to receive my commissions? I did not hear back from them so I shot off another email. Again, heard nothing back.

Out of the blue, I finally received an email saying something along the lines that we have to wait and see if there are any charge backs, cancellations, etc.

That is all fine and dandy - but it has been over 30 days since the sale date so the chances of them doing a charge back is not likely - one of them even made their 2nd payment - doubt he would be making his second payment if he was going to do a chargeback or cancel.

So here I sit - wondering if and when they will ever pay me. All they have to do is reply back. I gave them the benefit of doubt for the first 2 weeks - just thought maybe they were busy. Plus, do I really want to piss off someone who owes me money? It’s about to get to that point.

I should also mention that I replied to their response to me. In the email I basically stated what I posted above. They replied back basically agreeing with me and said they would look into it and see about getting me paid.

Okay… things are starting to look up - so I thought.

Here I am - 5 days later and not a single response to my last 3 emails.

Since they left it where I was on the "verge" of getting paid - I wanted to know a status. So I have sent them three emails asking for the status. I’ve not emailed them 3 times in a day - I’ve emailed them every other day for 5 days. The last email basically said that yall must not be receiving my emails, as I’m sure you would be answering them if you had (yea - right).

This is yet another "Ugly" of Affiliate Marketing.

Not only did I "finance" the sale of their product - I am now having to hound them to pay me my commissions. I should not have to do this.

I spent money (adwords ads) and time upfront promoting their product. They were my best friends when I was doing this. Now that it is time to pay me - well, you get the picture.

So once again - I learn yet another lesson.

One thing for sure - I will keep you posted on how this unfolds.

That is something you CAN take to the bank.

Google Assassin…. another launch by the infamous Chris of Day Job Killer fame.

You will notice that many who were promoting Google Payload are also JV Partners and Affiliates of Google Assassin. I guess they have a little JV Club going on. Nothing wrong with that… at least Chris shares the wealth with those that "brought him to the dance."

I’m writing about Google Assassin as somewhat of a Rant on the Affiliates promoting it.

Since Kabita made the page public on her blog - I’ll give a direct link here to the Google Payload JV Page. When you begin receiving glowing and positive "Reviews" from any of the people listed on this page - keep in mind most of them are being paid. My previous post on "The Ugly" of Affiliate Marketing covered this issue.

In fact… I received emails from most of the people on the JV list (not all of them) hyping up Google Payload and I am now starting to receive them on Google Assassin doing the same.

Google Assassin launches on Tuesday according to the sales page - which is just a video right now. It looks like Google Assassin will be a great product or service just from watching the video. From everything I’ve heard - Chris is a stand up guy and has previously created some killer products. So there is no reason to believe that this one will be any different than the others.

In closing this post (I’ll do a couple more for sure), be sure to watch closely how this all unfolds. You can do a search on Google now for  google assassin  and you will see many sites, reviews and blogs already in place promoting the product. Keep in mind - all of these are JV Partners as they had a heads up and head start on the rest of the world promoting Google Assassin.

So when these same people start bragging and blowing how they are listed number one for  the google assassin phrase, or how many sales they have already made - keep in mind they have been aware of the launch for quite awhile and putting everything in place for the launch.

Like I said earlier - I’m sure Google Assassin will be a great product - but as always, be weary of anyone who is "Recommending" something when they are getting paid to do so (uhh - duh).

Be sure to do a search for google assassin  and see all the sites already in place… it may surprise you since the product is not launching until Tuesday. While you are there - be sure to check the dates of the post, etc.

Maybe I’ll "Bend the Web" a bit and get this page listed high for Google Assassin just to get involved with the conversation.