This is probably one of the WORST videos I have recorded…but not because of Dean, but because of some software called “Call Recorder for Skype”. It totally distorted my face and I look like some pixelated character from Atari. Not to mention it completely screwed up the audio too. Anyone know of any better “call recorders” for Mac?

Outside of the video quality, the actual interview was AWESOME. Some great Gem’s in here.

Not only is Dean Graziosi a GREAT marketer (you have to be to be on TV for 15 years) but has a GREAT mindset. He knows what he wants and he knows what he wants to deliver to the world!

Click Here To Check Out Dean’s Rock Bottom BluePrint

I suggest you just check out what Dean has to say in his videos in the above link. Oh ya, his video’s are awesome. I think they are the future of all kinds of video from marketing to education…good work!

Oh ya – be sure to leave me a comment below! Anything about a Skype Call Recorder or this video!

Are you scared about making your next decision?

Do you HATE making decisions?

Have you ever considered hiring a coach for your business?

Have you ever thought about having a mentor for your personal life?

What about someone to help guide you in the decisions you make?

Someone you can TRUST…but not as a friend or a loved one.

Someone you can TRUST…a person who is outside your circle and someone who has no vested interest in your money, your life, your business or your time.

Someone who is just willing to give you there opinion on what you do solely because they are good at looking at things from the OUTSIDE.

If you have never thought about this or felt like you needed it, then you should definitely consider it.

Why?

Because I always thought that coaches and mentoring was a complete crock of shit. Especially because, who better to guide me in my life and business than myself…right?

I mean who can tell me what to do in my business? Who can tell me what actions to take and how to make my life better? Why would I ever put those things into other people’s hands?

I once thought that I could never take anyone’s advice and I had to just “do me” and forget the noise.

Don’t get me wrong, that’s a GREAT thing to do as an entrepreneur. But not if you are an unhappy entrepreneur, or someone who is lost in their business, or has a fuzzy picture of where they want to be headed.

Everybody knows what they FEEL is right and the right decisions to make. Everyone relies on their intuition to guide them in their life. But why do we go against that sometimes? Why do not not listen to our inner voice?

It’s because we get SCARED. And that fear is something we do not want to face so we just take the “easy” route”.

Sometimes we don’t listen to our inner voice and do what we feel because we let our ego’s get in the way of what we REALLY want in life. We always think about me, me, me. Or I need this or I need that or I need to do that for this reason.

And then AFTER we feel this way, we get stuck.

It’s like we “know” what we want but at the same time we “don’t know” what we want.

What do you do if you fear your next decision, or you know, and you don’t know? That’s a lot of stuff your brain, your body, and your emotions have to deal with to figure out.  How are you going to ever figure out what your heart wants, what your brain needs, all at the same time thinking about the future?

You have to reach out to a mentor or a coach. And this is CRUCIAL to you as a human being. Personally, spiritually, and in business.

Why?

Sometimes you get so lost in your own thought that you confuse yourself! You keep thinking about the same thing over and over again that your decision is actually NOT RIGHT. And that’s because you get something like musicians get…which is called”musicians block”. Or writers sometimes complain they have “writer’s block”. This is because they keep listening to the same music or keep writing the same story for so long that their brain literally just stops giving positive input. Because it all starts sounding and feeling the same.

We as humans have this thing inside us that if we think too much about something it actually puts us in a trance where we can’t even make a decision.

So when you reach the point that you are “unsure” or “scared” of your own decisions, that’s when you HAVE to make a decision in your life. Because making decisions is what life is all about. If you don’t make decisions, then there is a very high chance you are making excuses. And if you are making excuses then you are NOT moving forward. And if you are not moving forward and progressing on your path, then you are staying stagnant and nothing will ever be accomplished.

Pretty simple right?

After being wildly successful yet unsatisfied in my business over the last two years, I slowly started to realize the truth of what I wanted to do in my life. (I talk briefly about this in my two posts called Mass Scale Impact and Before You’re Rich.)

I was an internet marketer. I was a “guru”. I was an affiliate marketer. I was a traffic genius. I was a conversion expert. I was a technical geek that loved building software. I was a philosopher. I was a philanthropic person.  I was SO much that I didn’t know what I was.

But three things ALWAYS stuck in the back of my mind…

I knew I wanted to:

1) Make Money
2) Give Back
3) Create Happiness

And I knew that I wanted to become someone different. I wanted to shed my old skin and grow into a higher version of myself. But I was SCARED and I was completely UNSURE if that was the right decision.

But I KNEW what I wanted to do was right. I just needed something to tell me it was right. And that’s when I “let the universe answer my calls”. I meditated on what I wanted to do and how I wanted to change. I simply ASKED for an answer on how I should proceed in my life.

Like I said, I knew what I wanted to do. I had a clear path and mission…but I just didn’t know how to proceed. Something was just holding me back! WEIRD!

And that’s when I met Max Simon.

Max Simon is an utterly unique conscious entrepreneur who masterfully blends his extensive background in personal transformation, consciousness and wellness with his cutting- edge knowledge and training in real world business, marketing and success.

As the former Director of Consumer Products & Lead Educator for Deepak Chopra’s wellness center, Max produced over 200 live events and built a multi-million dollar empire for this global icon.

In his own business, Max has become a world-renowned authority at six-figure internet launches, putting on Sold-Out Seminars that generate six-figures in a single weekend, and he’s now the founder of a new program devoted to teaching entrepreneurs how to use partnerships and coloration’s to reach more people and make more money together.

Max has been instrumental in helping hundreds of entrepreneurs build thriving businesses that make amazing money and have a powerfully positive difference in the world. For making such a grand contribution at such a young age, Martha Stewart awarded Max to be the Next Big Idea in Body & Soul Magazine.

I met him at an event here in San Diego and we instantly clicked. I told him about my story and where I was in my current state and I decided to hire him as a coach and mentor. In exchange, he hired me to teach him about building some new sales funnels and traffic strategies for his business. There’s nothing really like value exchange!

It was probably the BEST decision I had made in years.

I got on the phone with him and explained about my whole situation and what I was feeling. Since he was on the outside and listening to my story, he knew exactly what I wanted and knew exactly what my plan should be.

Max is simply GOOD at that. He knows how to FEEL what you have become numb to and give you the right advice. He knows how to guide people who are passionate about what they do to be happy AND successful.

Just recently, Max launched some cool free videos that are on his website that I think you should check out. This guy’s AWESOME.

Click Here to some of his kick ass content.

Now I’m not saying that everyone has to go out and hire Max as a coach/mentor, but check out his content and see what he has to offer, he’s an amazing person. He along with my meditation practices single handily brought clarity to the noise in my head and has set me on my new path.

I’ve also made a whole plan for him on how he should get new traffic and how he should structure his upcoming sales funnels for maximum conversions. So the value-exchange here is tremendous!

And I couldn’t be happier!

There are a couple things to keep in mind when choosing a coach/mentor:

• Strive for mutual benefits. The relationship should be defined from the beginning as mutually beneficial. Each participant has committed to the relationship by choice. Each should openly share his or her goals for the relationship and work collaboratively to help achieve them.
• Agree on confidentiality. Maintaining an environment of confidentiality is a critical component in building trust between the participants. Without a mutually understood ability to speak freely as the situation warrants, the relationship is unlikely to reach its full potential.
• Commit to honesty. The participants should be willing to candidly share what they expect to gain from the relationship and their vision for getting there. They should be prepared to offer frank feedback as appropriate, even if the feedback is critical.
• Listen and learn. Mutual benefit and honesty can only be achieved when both members feel their viewpoints are heard and respected. Mentors, especially, need to remember that the relationship is not primarily about them. Co-mentors should not be intimidated or made to feel their views are not valued.
• Build a working partnership. Consider structuring a working partnership that includes project consultation or active collaborations rooted in the common ground of shared professional goals. These collaborations can lead to discoveries about each participant’s preferred working style, daily obligations, and professional aspirations.
• Lead by example. Actions create the most lasting impression.
• Be flexible. It might help for a mentoring relationship to have defined goals, but the process may be as important—or more so—than the goals.

That’s all for now! I hope you enjoyed this post and I hope you start making decisions on what you want to do.

If you are confused on where to go, seek out a coach where you can do a value exchange with eachother and follow the guidelines above. You’ll be AMAZED at to the clarity that comes up.

Take action TODAY!

Here’s some questions for you:

Do you have a coach? Have you tried? What are you scared of? 

As always, leave your comments below and facebook it and tweet it!

Brendon Burchard, founder of Experts Academy, is giving away copies of his new book “The Millionaire Messenger.”

https://burchardgroup.infusionsoft.com/go/mm/amish/

The book doesn’t come out until March, but Brendon is giving away review copies to amp up the market.

I HIGHLY recommend reading his stuff!

He only has 1000 to give, so go grab your copy today. I am!

You probably know Brendon from his $5000 seminars and multimillion dollar launches like Experts Academy.

But he started out as a simple guy with a great message. He turned his advice and life experience into a brand that changes millions of people’s lives.

“The Millionaire Messenger” is about how we can all make a difference and a fortune with our advice, expertise and how-to information.
As Brendon says, it turns out our life story and experience are our greatest asset in the new economy, and our greatest legacy.

Learn more and hear Brendon talk about the book here:

https://burchardgroup.infusionsoft.com/go/mm/amish/
Oh, and be sure to get your complimentary copy today before they’re all gone.

PS. Here’s what people are saying about the book:

“We all have a life story and a message that can inspire others to live a better life or run a better business. Brendon Burchard’s book proves it and shows how you can share your message to make a difference and also make an income. This book will help you change a lot of lives.”

—MARCI SHIMOFF, New York Times best-selling author of Happy for No Reason and Chicken Soup for the Woman’s Soul

“The expert industry has been shrouded in myth and mystery for far too long. Now Brendon Burchard, one of our most innovative and powerful leaders, reveals exactly how we—authors, speakers, coaches, consultants, seminar leaders and online information marketers—make a difference and earn an income with our advice and expertise. This is an industry defined by how much value we add to others’ lives, and this book delivers and shows exactly why Brendon is one of the best.”

—JACK CANFIELD, New York Times best-selling author of The Success Principles and originator of the Chicken Soup for the Soul® series

“I love making a difference in the lives of millions of people worldwide. It gives my life a deep sense of meaning and purpose. I wish I had read Brendon Burchard’s new book, The Millionaire Messenger, twenty years ago, because it has many of the lessons that would have dramatically boosted my career, both in terms of impact and finances. Lessons I had to learn the hard way. No matter what your age, now is the time to make the biggest difference in the world. Brendon will show you how.”

—DANIEL G. AMEN, MD, New York Times best-selling author of Change Your Brain, Change Your Life and Magnificent Mind at Any Age

“This is a must-read for any author, speaker, coach, seminar leader, consultant, or online information marketer. Brendon Burchard shows you how to get your message to the public in a bigger way (and get paid for it, too).”

—JOHN GRAY, New York Times best-selling author of Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus

“You were born to make a difference, to contribute and to share your gifts with the world. Brendon Bruchard shows you how to make a living (maybe a fortune!) by making a positive difference in people’s lives.”

—DARREN HARDY, Publisher of SUCCESS magazine, best-selling author of The Compound Effect and Living Your Best Year Ever

“If you’ve ever dreamed of building a career and business around your advice, expertise and knowledge, then you’ll love this book.”

—DAVID BACH, #1 New York Times best-selling author of The Automatic Millionaire and founder of FinishRich.com

John Reese is a old school domainer, internet strategist/technologist, and a really SMART dude. He owns a ton of domains and businesses, including income.com.

With this ONE email, he truly opened my eyes to things I forgot, things I needed to remember, and ways to run an efficient business.

This email REALLY put stuff back into perspective. WOW. Thanks John.

I hope all of you find this email just as helpful as I did so I am copying and pasting his email directly below.

=============================

In light of my upcoming 40th birthday, I want
to share 12 valuable mini-lessons that I’ve
learned so far as an entrepreneur…

These range from mistakes to avoid, to
making strategic decisions, of how to get
cash flow to come in the fastest, etc.

They are in no particular order…

1. ALWAYS DO MORE THAN IS EXPECTED OF YOU

I learned this at an early age from my Dad.
He had a very successful career as a business
executive and engineer, and this the core
principle that created his success.

You can apply this to your business in many
ways… over-delivering to your customers,
giving unexpected bonuses to your employees
or outsourced workers, and more.

Most people do just the bare minimum. Do
more than is expected of you and it will do
amazing things for your business.

2. STOP DREAMING AND START DOING

Too many entrepreneurs get caught up in the
big dreams of how they will one day be rich
and how their life will be amazing…

…but they never end up doing anything.

They buy courses, read all they can, jot
down little notes and ideas in a notebook,
but nothing ever actually gets created.

A web site doesn’t get made. Advertising
isn’t run. Markets aren’t tested. Nothing.

If you want to make a lot of money the only
way that happens is getting stuff done. Period.

3. DON’T LET LEARNING DELAY ACTIVITY

Most people that have studied Internet Marketing
much already have the basic skills that are
needed to build a million-dollar business.

That’s worth REPEATING…

Most people that have studied IM much ALREADY
HAVE the basic skills that are needed to build
a million-dollar business.

You can get stuck learning new stuff FOREVER.
There will always be new methods and techniques
that get discovered. The Internet changes on
a DAILY BASIS. This is a given.

Don’t get caught in the trap of “I’m going to start
building my business right after I go through this
next course…”

You can start building your business TODAY while
you are studying and learning new things that you
can easily apply TOMORROW.

Things will NEVER perfectly align for you and
your business. There’s no such thing. So don’t
wait. Get started NOW and take action. Get some
stuff going and go from there.

4. MULTIPLE IDEAS CAN BE THE KISS OF DEATH

It’s okay to work on multiple projects and ideas.
It’s almost impossible to stop entrepreneurs
from having tons of new ideas at the same time.

BUT…

No new money comes in the door until you get
ONE project launched and making money.

Something has to be launched FIRST.

5. MAKE JUST ONE DOLLAR FIRST

No one has ever made a million dollars in sales
without generating $1 first.

ALL successful businesses start with that first
sale and then grow from there.

It doesn’t matter what your income goals are.
The faster you make your first dollar, the faster
you will reach your goals. PERIOD.

6. DO THE IMMEDIATE CASH PROJECT FIRST

What should you work on next? Whatever will
bring in cash the fastest for your business — and
of course, I mean that in a moral/legal/ethical way.

If you analyze all the great ideas you are probably
sitting on, I bet you can realistically prioritize them
in the order of which ones would actually make
money come in the fastest (if it succeeds.)

THAT is the project you need to focus on.

Cash is the lifeblood of your business (and your life.)

Save some of those “big” ideas for the future. Focus
on the ones that stand the best chance of getting
new money to come in right away. Once you have
some stable ongoing cash flow in your business, then
you can take a chance on that project that may take
longer to pay off.

7. EMAIL MARKETING KICKS THE CRAP OUT OF
EVERYTHING ELSE

When it comes to growing a business online, nothing
generates long-term cash flow like an email list of
engaged subscribers & customers.

Email marketing is the best way to generate traffic.
It’s the best way to ‘recycle’ the same visitors again
and again to any of your projects. It’s also the best
way to convert prospects into buyers.

RSS, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, BLAH BLAH BLAH

Yes, those methods can generate leads. Yes, those
methods can generate some sales. But time and time
again little old email marketing kicks their butts — by
a long shot.

So make building a list, and a solid relationship with
it, a top priority in your business.

8. RUN A LEAN OVERHEAD MACHINE

I can’t stress this one enough.

When you start growing a successful business
it’s really easy for your overhead to get out of hand.
It’s easy to start hiring a bunch of people and
committing to a bunch of expenses.

Take it from me, when you have months where
your fixed expenses (doesn’t include advertising, etc.)
are well over $100,000/MONTH (and growing) it can put
you in a tough position to make healthy profits.

I used to have fixed overhead that high but never again.
I realized there were smarter ways to do things.

What you need to realize is that REVENUE doesn’t
mean jack squat. It’s your profit (income) that
matters.

So while running a $10,000,000/year business (sales)
is impressive, I know people running a $1,000,000/year
business that nets MORE than the person that owns
the $10MM/year business.

It all comes down to your expenses.

Sometimes it certainly DOES take heavy expenses
in order to make a lot of money. But that’s not my point…

My point is, your overhead can really get away
from you. If your sales experience some dips,
and it’s almost guaranteed they will at some point,
then you can LOSE YOUR BUTT very quickly.

So add to your overhead as a last resort.

9. MAKE ACCOUNTING A PRIORITY

This is a big mistake that most entrepreneurs
make — and I’ve been guilty of it as well.

Keeping the books and doing accounting work
is the LAST thing that most entrepreneurs want
to mess with. We have more fun by coming up
with new ideas and trying to make them grow –
not spending hours of our time inputting receipts
and figures into QuickBooks.

If you don’t like accounting, immediately pay
someone a few bucks to handle it for you. Just
make sure your accounting is always up to date.
It’s very important.

As an extension of this, make paying your taxes
a priority — even if you pay them in advance.

I have paid a small fortune in tax penalties because
of being lazy and filing late. And it’s too easy to
let one delay turn into another and for the problem
to get worse. So make it a priority.

Don’t “rob Peter to pay Paul.” This is a trap
most entrepreneurs fall into — again,
I’ve been guilty of it in the past myself.

It’s easy to start making a bunch of money
and think “I’ll just use this money to make
more money instead of paying my taxes
on it now and I’ll just pay the taxes later
after I’ve made even more money.”

Or the same thinking is applied towards
delaying payments to a vendor, or some other
expense that needs to get paid.

This is probably the #1 mistake entrepreneurs
make that can create problems and a lot of
wasted money in paying penalties and interest.
So make sure your accounting is taken care
of and your taxes get paid on-time for you.

10. DON’T LEASE OFFICE SPACE

(If possible.)

As tempting as this might become if your
business starts to grow, avoid it at all costs.

If you’re like me, what will happen is that you
will eventually stop going to the office and just
work from home where you always were
more comfortable anyway. And/or you will
end up realizing you really didn’t need it.

Having an “office” is not required to have
a successful business. We live in a
Digital World now and it’s just not important
anymore.

Even if your business grows and you need
employees, you still don’t necessarily need
an office. There are people out there running
$20MM+/year businesses with no office; the
employees all just work virtually. This is
becoming more and more common.

* There certainly are exceptions to this. My
team in the Philippines works out of an office
I leased. But they are collaborating on software
projects and NEED to work in the same location.
And, of course, it’s also very inexpensive.

Most office leases are thousands of dollars
per month and usually don’t turn out to be
a good use of cash.

11. ALMOST EVERYTHING TAKES LONGER

When creating new projects, or having some software
made for you, or having an ebook ghostwritten, or
anything else, know that things almost always
take more time than originally expected.

This is the #1 reason why you need to act TODAY
to start putting things in motion to grow your
business. The longer you wait, the more into
the future you push your potential of getting
money to come in the door.

12. THE MONEY IS IN THE MARKETING

Don’t get caught up in trying to make Web pages and learn
HTML, or studying how to create javascript, or learning to
master Linux so you can administer your own server, or
how to use Photoshop to create little logos, etc.

You can certainly do that stuff if you want, but know that
it will most likely just be a HOBBY.

It’s no surprise that some of the most successful entrepreneurs
I know are also some of the LEAST TECHNICAL people I know.
The main thing they do right is to simply pay others to do all
the “nuts & bolts” stuff that makes online business work.

It allows them to spend all their time on the marketing — which
is where the money comes from.

*** BONUS LESSON ***

* See how I’m over-delivering as mentioned in the first lesson?

SPENDING TIME ONLINE ISN’T NECESSARILY WORKING
ON YOUR BUSINESS

Just because you spend hours a day online doesn’t mean
you’re working on your business.

You can do ‘research’ forever and never make a cent.

You need to be spending most of your time on:

- Generating Traffic
- Communicating With Your Customers (i.e. blog, list, etc.)
- Creating Content

Don’t fall into the trap of reading blogs & forums, chatting
on Facebook or Twitter, checking stats, reading news,
etc. for hours upon hours.

Just know that almost all of that stuff (with rare exception)
is LOSING YOU MONEY more than making you money.

—

I hope you enjoyed these mini-lessons. Hopefully, you
can apply them to your business and be a lot more
successful!

Yours For Online Profits,

John Reese

Frank has done it again. This guys is ALL about
giving, isn’t he?

He is releasing a piece of software that will HELP
you get a list in no time.

https://smithkern.infusionsoft.com/go/karma/a794

I know this thing works, because I was a guinea pig
that decided to test it out and see if it works. (after all
i’m a tech geek)

In a matter of 24 hours I had over 100 people join
Frank’s mailing list from just posting ONE link on my
Facebook and Twitter pages.

As a matter of fact, since Frank started testing it,
it’s been bringing in 476 new DOUBLE OPT IN
subscribers per DAY …free.

The traffic just went VIRAL!

He spent almost $12,000 having it developed and it actually
builds your list FOR YOU.

(No kidding.)

This is literally the type of software that other
people would charge between $297 and $497
for …but you can just HAVE it.

Download it and use it! It kicks ass.

https://smithkern.infusionsoft.com/go/karma/a794

Talk soon,
Amish

p.s. – This is something you DEFINITELY want
to use. you can even put it on your landing
pages for CPA promos, launches, CPV list building,
and SO much more…(the possibilities are endless)

https://smithkern.infusionsoft.com/go/karma/a794

p.p.s. – already going to buy list control? check out
our bonus page at http://www.bonusforlistcontrol.com.
we’ll teach ya how to use this software to get thousands
of optins.

Frank Kern has done it again!

A brand new course called List Control designed with you in mind. He recently surveyed his whole email list and over 75% wanted a course on list building.

I don’t doubt it. After all – the money is in the list. List Control is going to revolutionize the way you do business forever.

Watch this blog during the launch. We’ll be giving away some cool list building techniques AND giving away a KILLER bonus.

Our List Control Bonus will include:

1) Find 100% targeted optins for any market you want. Did we mention with this method you can literally find red heads that live in Africa that work at Starbucks? (I’m serious! This method is SUPER targeted.)

2) How to get a FLOOD of TARGETED optins for LESS than 1 cent a piece. You can use this method in any market and just build a business based on this. It’s INCREDIBLE.

3) Learn the difference between a Throw Away optin list vs a Nest Egg optin list

4) Our INTERNAL autoresponder series that was making us $2k a DAY in a particular market.

5) Live Case Studies

6) Ton’s more – just stay tuned to http://www.bonusforlistcontrol.com

Anyway, I’ve made all kinds of music before – hip hop, rap, r&b, house, electro, ambient, just to name a few.  I got some 400 beats in the vault…insane! But mostly hip hop and rap beats.

I started this back in 1997 just as a hobby and it just vibed with me so I stuck with it and met some interesting people along the way. My mom and dad both have a passion for music and always used to play Indian instruments and sing in the house.

Back in the day, I remember recording tracks through my sound blaster pro with a microphone and some beats I used to make in ModPlug and Fruity Loops.

And then eventually to Reason, Cubase & Logic. That was the birth of my first company, DigiSpace Records, my record label.

Along the way, I’ve upgraded my equipment too – Tascam FW 1884, Presonus PreAmp, Baby Blue Microphone, Alesis Monitors, and a Roland Fantom X6.  Just recently got a AKAI beat machine too, so been playing with that a lot!

My original record labels website is actually still up and located @ DigiSpace Records. Probably doesn’t work the way it used to, but it used to be ALL working back in the day.  It was SICK. We dropped an album in 2005 and put it up on iTunes, Amazon, and everywhere we could. I used all types of internet marketing tactics to get rankings – post on others blog comments, forum posts, and email marketing with the 3K list I had from this site.  I hired people from Craigslist to be “free interns” who would work for a record label and fill out a spreadsheet on which forums they joined, what they posted, and then told them to post about our album in their posts. LOL.  It was great back in the day just thinking of random ways to promote the album.  I did a ton of other things as well, some of it worked and some of it didn’t.  This was back in the beginning of my internet marketing days.

The album was produced by me, with beats by some of my producer crew back then, and the first hip hop “artist” I ever worked with was Danse Daimons from Brooklyn. The problem with our first album, “Take it How You Want It”, was the guy who mastered the album ended up screwing it up before it went into production and it sounded like shit when it came out on CD (not horrible, but not clean).  Anyway, Danse Daimons new website is BklynStickup.com.  Keep in mind kids, the content at BklynStickup.com is explicit. So be CAREFUL. haha! I met him out in Long Island one day at Adelphi University. Since then we’ve become good friends and don’t really work on music much anymore, but we still share mad ideas and shit with each other.  I always try to help out old friends become successful with their businesses and I realize he’s been doing this for more than 10 years now.  He’s hungry and has moved up a LOT in the industry and is literally about to BLOW UP.  (watch for him!) Danse Daimons is hands down the BEST rapper out right now in my opinion.

Recently Danse (Kevin) and I were talking and I was telling him how the whole world is changing and the music industry seems to be following this model, but going too slow. Local businesses are starting to see success, small communities and groups are starting to form around them, and even on the internet – new communities are formed around great music.  It’s about building that brand and having that following online.  The music industry is just fake, you hear the same top 100 songs all day long on the radio and that’s it.  Almost every where else in the WORLD, the top 10 changes every two weeks.

So as we were talking, I mentioned to him that he has to build a following online. He has to build a REAL business with what he’s got.  Register a real LLC, get an assistant to book shows and meetings (perception is reality), and make sure all his shows and expenses are put on the books.  They got a pretty good t-shirt line going for them and they can throw all this on the books now.

Like I said before – it’s not about being “hood” and being “ghetto” anymore.  It’s about these record labels seeing that you can carry your own weight, have a rabid following and can be successful even without the music labels.  They  go around looking for the best “MySpace Rapper” or “YouTube Rapper”.   When they do find someone, they exploit that person and turn them into “ringtone rappers”.

So I told Kevin to take a different approach.  I told him he has to build a huge following first and go independent. Make the labels want YOU.  If his marketing on BklynStickup.com was better he could destroy the industry. The music is solid, the lyrics are gold, and the movement is huge. It’s something that not a lot of these guys are doing.  Anyone can have a label, have good music, and get heard.  But to build a real business and a following, you have to do it the right way.

So here it goes – Danse, Busy, Chicago, and the whole BklynStickup squad. I see you. TAKE THIS AND IMPLEMENT IT!

Everyone else – the review and tactics I reveal below can be used for anyone’s website/blog or industry.  What I am trying to do here is combine some direct response marketing with new and fresh rap music.  Interesting & Different approach, but I guarantee it will work.

ON THE HOME PAGE:

1. Put an email optin form on the main page next to the video. It should say something like “enter your name and email address and we’ll give you more free music”. You can even make a story out of it.  Show half the video, then cut it with a needle on record sound, and then have Danse saying, “You know what man? You can’t even watch this whole video right now. Why? Put in your name and email address to the right and find out. I’ll tell you what the record execs don’t want you to know.” On the inside, he can mention that the record execs don’t want us out for blah blah reason. Playing along the lines of the “anti-guru” style marketing.  The classic “Us vs. Them” plotline. People love that conflict and gossip angle.
2. Get rid of the MySpace, YouTube links on the main page. Why are you taking people away from the site? You want them to take one of two actions – get them to your blog or get their email address and then take them to the blog.
3. Get rid of the “Freshtillian Agenda” banner on the front page.  (I know you want it up there Busy, but take that shit off)
4. Keep the “Click Here to Enter” button.
5. I would consider changing the video on the home page.  I mean “This is for my Ni@@az” is a DOPE track, but you are not attracting all crowds.  You have to pick a song that ALL demographics would like.  Maybe a hood club joint.

ON THE BLOG:

1. Make the header smaller.  I know y’all wanna show your pretty faces, but it takes up almost the whole damn screen.
2. Enable Permalinks and install SEO plugins. (I can show ya how to do this)
3. Put posts into proper categories – half of them are in “Uncategorized”
4. Use tags for ALL your posts! This is HUGE for SEO.
5. Put an Optin Form in the sidebar and tell them they can download more tracks this way. You can even use the “plotline” for this optin form.
6. Get your tracks off ZShare! WHY??? Host them yourself. Again, never let people LEAVE your site. Again, you can make them put in their email address and then let them download your tracks. AND put it “above the fold”.
7. In the Music section, your songs aren’t linked to the actual song!  This makes it extremely hard for people to download anything.
8. In the Merchandise section, have pictures of just the shirts by themselves. I mean it’s cool to show all your pretty mugs, but seriously, no one wants to see you look all hard with your shirts on.  Especially you Busy – look at your grill man. Take pictures of the shirts against white backgrounds, and have them paypal you money immediately.  This CAN be the biggest part of your business and your website, so make it look professional. I would get more girls and some guys to model the shirts.  But not ALL people just modeling.
9. Use a better picture for the Bio section.
10. Over all, make the text bigger on all these pages.  Use size 14.
11. All your categories and sections on top seem to be going to static pages with no Page Titles, meta tags or anything.  Why not just use what WordPress gives you.  This is hurting your rankings REAL bad and making it hard to follow on your site.
12. Put links to your YouTube, Twitter, MySpace, and all Web 2.0 stuff on the sidebar.
13. The Sidebar disappears on the other sections of the website.
14. Use the Socialize plugin so that all our readers can share your content.
15. Get Feedburner and use it with Aweber.

Overall, I would think all of the above will help Bklyn Stickup get started on their online journey.  There was an an old website we started www.dabreakfastklub.com – see how the first thing I wanted on the sidebar was their email address?! It makes sense!

The old saying goes “The money is in the list.” Which is absolutely true. So make sure you are collecting email addresses and following up with your fans ALL THE TIME.

I wrote this up pretty quickly, and there are more changes that can be made to this site to make it even better. But this is a GREAT start for you all to get going.

Watch for Part 2 of this case study on how we’re doing.

Leave some comments on this one…I think we can provide some valuable feedback to these dudes!

Check out my best customer “testimonial”…lol

Anyway, before I continue, this post is going to be a blatant pitch for four different products. But for good reasons – they are all VERY good products. You know I don’t promote crappy products!

1) Google Cash Detective – The original Google Cash system was not some $1 free trial scam that you see all over the internet. Chris Carpenter is the ORIGINAL creator of Google Cash.  It was an eBook that was created back in 2003-2004.  This was the FIRST eBook I never bought to start making money online. No joke. That eBook was single handily the book that got me into the whole PPC game. Incredible, right?  Well anyway, now Chris has released a DVD training course with new material and some killer content.  Not to mention he also has some pretty great tools you should use to do your market research. He has a pretty interesting story on how the “fake” Google Cash people are attacking him and the FTC has over 250K complaints on him and it wasn’t even him who created these products!

Check out Chris’s report – http://www.amish-shah.com/chris/

2) PPC Loophole – With so many products out on the market to improve your PPC swag, PPC Loophole hands down gives you exactly what you need.  To make things easier for users, they have gone and included a wealth of information along with the SpeedPPC tool. PPC Loophole understands that you can easily go and find PPC basics anywhere online, so their goal isn’t to get you up to the speed of fundamental, but to take it to the next level of profit maximizing. I’ve gone through various tools and from my experience it is important to look through the user’s perspective. These guys have done just that with the creation of a site that brings forth ease of use and simple navigation.  Literally, as you take yourself through each tab, you will find in a matter of no time that you have learned everything from theory, practice, and most importantly how to use the tools.

PPC Loophole – http://www.amish-shah.com/loophole/

3) Google Slapper – Jay Deiboldt is a great friend of mine and came out to San Diego to work with me for a while.  He asked me one day why I pay for traffic and I said because free traffic takes too long and is too much work. When he showed me his $1000 days without any PPC or spending any money at all, I was pretty floored. His content kicks ass and he shows you exactly what he does to generate free traffic to get massive affiliate and CPA commissions.

Free Traffic – Slap Back Google – http://www.amish-shah.com/jay/

4) Commission Payload – Alex Goad and Saj P are releasing a killer CPA course next week and they’ve just put up this weird video that talks about a couple of mind-blowing tactics. First of all, the Borneo Monster Tactic, which shows how to cash in on very cheap traffic that nobody else knows what to do with. You need to see this!

Commission Payload – http://www.amish-shah.com/saj

All of these guys are on top of their game so listen to what they got to say!

In one of my previous posts titled “Affiliate Marketing vs Internet Marketing vs Brand Marketing“

Most affiliate marketers know about traffic and know how to make a buck driving traffic to offers via different traffic means. Most internet marketers have products but have no idea how to drive traffic to their sites (which is pretty much useless)!

Take a look at the graphic below (it’s clickable – don’t be shy):

Now this is where you see that most marketers are just BROKERS. Nothing but flippers. They flip things to make a bigger profit. Don’t get me wrong, brokers can make a TON of money and already are. But what happens when all the components above start becoming a single broker?

Like Google?

Google has PPC and Search on lock down. They also have their own affiliate network, a ton of affiliates, & media through their contextual network. They OWN the whole space for being the “middle man”.

Look at AOL! They just started the same thing by creating their own affiliate networks.

So now these big guys are nothing but one big broker that handle the whole middle section of the diagram above. Essentially taking us affiliate marketers out of the picture.

Why wouldn’t they just run their own traffic through their own affiliate network and just make money for themselves? It’s bound to happen.

So where is the REAL power on the ‘net?

The people who CREATE products and the people who OWN sites. Plain and Simple.

You can get paid on products you create if you MAKE THEM RIGHT. Which brings me to a product that I recently came across called “CPA Tsunami“.

When Mike Hill (the owner of CPA Tsunami) launched his product about 2 months ago, I was so impressed with his pre-launch material that I bought the course. AND I DON’T BUY ANYONE’S COURSE!!!! It was definitely worth it, because I could tell this guy knew what he was talking about.

I’ve never met Mike Hill before, but we chat on Skype pretty often and have had a couple phone conversations. This dude is ON POINT. He charges $25,000 per DAY for companies to consult with him on creating their products. Not only that, but he’s pretty similar to me. We are similar in the spiritual, self help, business mentality and much more. Weird…but true.

Anyway for a limited time, Mike is giving away some free tactics on product and offer creation. His value trojan and micro payments concepts are absolutely brilliant.

Make sure you soak this all up and implement it. Mike’s giving away $25k worth of training for free. Check it out here.

When I was speaking to him this morning, he told me that this is the FIRST AND LAST time he will ever create a product and honestly enjoys making products and managing traffic much more. (So don’t expect this to stick around too long.)

As far as the diagram I created above, I am going to elaborate a bit more on CREATING your own sites and BEING the whole diagram in a different post.

I hope you guys get where I’m coming from and where the future is headed!

Do you know how to set up a micro-payment option?
Do you know how to use “Network Style” pages?
Do you use Micro-Commitments in your sales pages?
Can you make a short copy sales page?
Have you pulled max value from Upsells in your path?

If not, you have to see Mike’s material! Watch some videos here…