Internet Marketing

More 777's? Crack the code... Now!

Thu, 12 Jul 2007 23:28 GMT

Hi!

It’s Saturday afternoon, 7-7-07 and all over the world, internet entrepreneurs are checking their stats. How many of Mike Filsaime’s super-hot 2007 figure courses have I sold now, they ask?

Not me.

I’m sitting at a soccer field watching my nephew play in the Provincial soccer championships. Right now it’s zero-zero and my sister has no finger nails left.

But back to Mike…

If you are on any Marketer’s email list, no doubt you have been swamped with emails about the code. If you haven’t heard about it, the short version is this…

In February 2007, Mike Filsaime and Tom Beal hosted the 2007 Figure Business Event in Long Island, NY. They shared everything they knew about building a 7 figure business online.

They did a great job. I know, I was there.

And you know what’s really cool?

Mike and Tom put me on their sales page sharing a little nugget I got from Tom’s talk.

So there I am talking on Mike and Tom’s sales page. Kind of nice.

Check it out at http://www.thesevenfigurecode.com <---- Note: This is NOT an affiliate link. I really believe that Mike and Tom have put together a very important message and I want you to know about it, read about it, and apply it in your business.

The soccer score is one-zero… wait, our team just scored!

After 50 minutes and one goal, three goals scored in 5 minutes. Score 2-2.

Onto other news...

The Podcast Bootcamp went very well. Lots of new Podcasts are hitting the airwaves. Two I am personally involved with…

www.dadprenuer.com is about being a Dad and an Entrepreneur.

www.RealEstateMarketingBlog.com is for Realtors and how to build a successful career in Real Estate.

I co-host both with my good friend, Brian Rodgers. Check them out and let me know what you think of them.

The Real Estate Podcast has exceeded its bandwidth limits twice. And we are expecting big things from it. The Dadprenuer Podcast is the beginning of the movement.

And of course, I want to update you on my popular “Weight Loss and The Mind” Podcast with my co-host Shane James. Shane spoke for about an hour at the Podcast Bootcamp and how he plants “hooks” into the episodes which keep people coming back for more and has people telling their friends about us.

When he finished I went up to think him and see if there were any questions. Well, it seemed everyone wanted to know more. But what was cool to me was the way Shane and I interacted at the front of the room.

I have seen many people try having two people on stage, but most do a very poor job.

The only notable exception in my mind in Mike Filsaime and Tom Beal. There were a few times when they both shared the stage in Long Island and their relationship really shone through. I felt the same way when Shane and I engaged the group - it felt natural, fluid and right.

Shane had previously shared his vision of us doing exactly that and while not saying “no” I admit to some skepticism at the time, but no more.

One day, no doubt, you’ll be hearing me talk of a “Weight Loss and The Mind” boot camp…

My big “Weight Loss and The Mind” news is that we hit 100,300 subscribers!!

Naturally I’ll let you know when we hit 200,000.

Go for the gold!

Scott Paton.

PS. Two top internet marketers are looking for a full time copywriter and guess who’s at the top of their list? I’ll let you know how that works out next time. Plus I have a couple of sales letter about to launch and I’ll share with you what they are and how they did…

Keep reading for the latest news from my blogs and podcasts...

************************************************************

Listen in on my Internet Marketing Podcast:
http://www.AskScottPaton.com for all the latest Internet
Marketing news, strategies and reviews. I have interviewed
some wealthy entrepreneurs over the past month who have made
a fortune online. I have a number of great ones lined up for
the next month...

Add http://scottp.podomatic.com/rss2.xml to your iTunes program
and never miss an exciting, profitable episode.

Latest Blog Posts - subscribe to my blogs to stay up-to-date
on the latest news.
************************************************************

Digitally reduced obscurity | Phillip Adams | The Australian

As managing director Mark Scott said at the weekend, on the occasion of the
ABC's 75th birthday (and it's good to work for an organisation that's slightly
older than I am), the zappy new technology is working wonders for public
broadcasting. Downloaders make contact with the Australian Broadcast Company
almost 2,000,000 times a month

http://podcasting-secrets.blogspot.com/2007/07/digitally-reduced-obscurity-phillip.html
************************************************************

Wizzard Announces 21% Revenue Growth and Other First Quarter Highlights

In March, total downloads for publishers’ podcasts hosted by all three services
in the Wizzard Media Network surpassed 70 million. The audience demand for
podcasts is growing at a substantial pace as is evident by these download numbers,
and the appetite for quality, focused content remains strong.

http://rssblogsecrets.blogspot.com/2007/06/wizzard-announces-21-revenue-growth-and.html
************************************************************

Other podcasts I am working on:

Weight Loss and the Mind: http://www.freeweightlosspodcast.com
eBay Strategies: http://www.ourauctionpodcast.com
Business Trends for Success: http://success.podomatic.com
Golf Reviews: http://golfreviews.podomatic.com
Alternative Health: http://lifeenthusiast.podomatic.com
Realtors: http://www.realestatemarketingblog.com/
Dadpreneur: http://www.dadpreneur.com

Please check them out. There are growing very quickly in
popularity and most are in the top ten for their major
keywords on iTunes.
************************************************************

Ever Have One of Those Days?

Thu, 12 Jul 2007 23:27 GMT

Ever Have One of Those Days?

The sun is setting. I am sitting waiting for my last flight of the day. After five days away, soon I will be home!

My reading is interrupted by the loud speaker system. A woman is reciting some airport regulation about animals. Her tirade ends with “Would the woman with the dog please put it back in its cage?” She almost snarls the last word.

It’s not a normal PA announcement.

I glance up wondering where the rampaging monster dog is.

Ten feet away a woman is petting a very small dog. The dog is in a duffle bag, quietly looking around.

I understand that without rules everyone would be bringing their cats, dogs, snakes and goldfish on board, and that they would all be stampeding through all the airports of the world.

But…

Why not go up to the woman and politely ask her to put the dog away? This was the equivalent of yelling and screaming at her. Everyone in the section knew what was going on.

To her credit, she went up to the airline staff and spoke to them, then got on the “hot line” to their supervisor, with little satisfaction from what I saw.

To the credit of many passengers, they supported the woman with many kind words.

As for me? I walked up and congratulated her. She made the top story on CNN. “Rabid monster dog rampages through Cleveland airport. More at the top of the hour…”

The reason I was on that flight is I was returning from Philadelphia and Ken McArthur’s fun JVAlert. As usual the event was worth every second.

It didn’t start out that way…

I know sometimes life puts obstacles in our way but I have never ever had a day like the day I flew to Phillie.

It started out innocently enough.

I decided to flight out of Seattle. I enjoy the beautiful drive south and don’t go nearly enough. As I approached customs, I noticed the car ahead of me was being searched and soon he was sent to the customs building for more questions.

My first thought was positive. They hit their quota, so I should breeze through. Wrong!

As soon as I arrived I got the third degree. Questions, questions, questions – rapid fire. Good cop, bad cop without the good cop.

Off I went to the customs house. Thirty minutes went by. Not a word. I’m thinking I’m not getting in.

Forty-five minutes had pasted when they started asking me more questions. Then “welcome to the United States.” I couldn’t resist. As I received my passport and orange freedom slip, I asked if there was a problem.

“No problem,” said the burly border guard. “If there was a problem you’d be in handcuffs…”

I looked at my wrist. No handcuffs and a huge wane of relief swept through my body.

Two hours later after filling up with gas, the engine started to make a disturbing noise. “Great,” I thought, “just what I need. My car’s breaking down.” Strangely enough the sound was loud at twenty miles an hour but disappeared at fifty.

I soon arrived in Kirkland. One of my motivations in flying from Seattle was to visit a wonderful friend. We spoke before I left home and he suggested I print out a Google map to his home. I wrote his cell # on the paper and put it away.

I found John’s home no problem. I was a beautiful three story apartment block built on stilts over the water of the lake. Kirkland has that quaint resort feel with artsy looking stores and small intimate cafes.

I buzzed his number. Error. Five tries later. No luck. Fifteen minutes later I found a pay phone, dialed his cell. Wrong number. I wrote it down wrong.

I pulled out my trusty palm one, pushed the power button, only to see a blank screen. All my contact into, my schedule, my life, was gone.

I believe the quality of my life is impacted by the quality of my questions. My first question was “what the #$^@?” Not the best question, but I got it out of my system. My next question was “How can I get to my friend?”

As I walked back I had my solution. Buzz his neighbours until I find one who can go knock on John’s door and tell him I’m there.

With my plan devised, I walked around a corner into John’s parking lot and almost bumped into my friend. Knowing I was late he had come down thinking I might be having trouble finding his place. My timing was perfect as he was about to go back to his place to get a chair to sit on.

After a couple hours of guy stuff (beer and dinner at an Irish pub), John dropped me off at the airport. My only question now is “I wonder where my hotel is?” The name and address is safely stored in my useless broken Palm Pilot.

I Guess I’ll figure it out when I get there.

So ended my travel day from, well, it would’ve been if I took it that way. I was laughing at my “obstacles” – most of the time (I didn’t dare laugh in front of the border guard.)

Next time I’ll tell you some of what happened at JVAlert.

You can get a “sneak peak” by listening to my podcast at www.askscottpaton.com.

Go for the Gold!

Scott Paton

JVAlert

Thu, 12 Jul 2007 23:26 GMT

JVAlert has come and gone. Last time I told you about my trip to Philly. Today I want to share a few insights from the trip.

I usually go to events with specific purposes and goals.

My number one purpose is always to build stronger relationships. There were quite a few people in particular that I wanted to connect with. The first two were clients of mine. One, David Watson, the website wizard, was flying all the way from London, England. The other, Sam Crewley, the everyday is Saturday champion, came in from Cincinnati. I was writing copy for both and in addition I was coaching Sam.

There were a surprising number of Canadians speaking at JVAlert. I had heard Michel Fortin, one of today’s’ top web copy writers at Big Seminar and hoped to speak with him briefly here. He was on my “hit list.”

So was Ben Mack, simply because he scares me. I also saw him at Big Seminar, but couldn’t bring myself to go up to him.

Lastly, Sterling Valentine. I had spoke with Sterling briefly at a couple events and felt I had taken my foot and firmly planted it both times.

Sterling was fast becoming a great friend of my good friend, David Watson, and I knew from my conversations with David and listening to Sterling speak that he has a Heart of Gold.

You probably noticed I picked the three people that challenged me the most, and everything is happening inside my head. My issues. My insecurities. Outside of my comfort zone.

So how did I do?

I saw Michel outside the hotel on a break. So I walked over and stood beside him. No acknowledgement. The circle broke up. He walked off, stopped about three feet away and turned to speak to someone else. I got the feeling he did not want to speak to me.

I left.

At least we were on a panel together.

My experience with Ben was different.

After he spoke, I waited until the crowd around him thinned, introduced myself and made a comment about one of the points he made in his presentation. There was a twinkle behind those yellow glasses and we took the first step to building a friendship.

Later in the closing panel, I said something and he jumped up and gave me a high five. Thanks, Ben!

I ran into Sterling in the hallway speaking with David Watson. He recognized me, shook hands and said a wonderful thing. He said, “I recognize you, but I’m sorry I’m so tired. If I had a couple minutes, I know I’d remember it.” David then mentioned that I probably had some audio and video that would help Sterling with his next project. Looking into Sterling eyes, I knew that the only person who ever thought I had foot in mouth syndrome was me.

How did I do? Three for three. Wait, you say, your experience with Michel does not sound like a success.

Actually it was.

I can be difficult to get to know. Sometimes I can be shy. Really! Michel had a couple of exposures to me. Our paths will cross again. Our relationship could develop in whatever way it is supposed to. As I attend live events I get to know people better and better.

When you first meet someone there is a feeling out period of excited conversations. The next event it is different. You either say “Hey, didn’t I see you at…” or you go “Hey! It’s great to see you again!” In either case you are off and running. Want to build your business fast? Go to events but promise yourself you will go to three before making any judgments.

I mentioned that my client, Sam Crowley, attended. It was hard work to get him there. But he is a dynamic, coachable successful entrepreneur and trusted me.

Before going I finished the sales copy for his “everyday is Saturday” CD. He did not have any bonuses. So I made three, an interview with my friend, Shane James, one with Vic Johnson of “As a Man Thinketh” and one with Tom Beal. Sam emailed me saying he liked the copy, but how were we going to get Vic and Tom to do interviews with him.

I replied that Tom will be at JVAlert and I would introduce them. As for Vic, he was on his own.

At JVAlert, Tom and I were sitting together. I leaned over and told him to go to the web page I built. I wanted to show it off and it’s not live yet. He scrolled down. When he got to his interview he laughed and said he had to get me a better picture.

I got them together and they had a great chat.

Then I said to Tom and Sam, “We just have to connect with Vic.”

Tom turned immediately to the two other people sitting at our table, Michael and Dawn Angier and said they are best friends with Vic.

A couple minutes later after talking with Sam, they agreed to introduce him to Vic. (And a week later, Sam and Vic connected…)

Mission accomplished!

Wait there’s more…

Sam and I had discussed an elite membership site. Each month Sam could discuss motivational topics with top experts. By the end of JVAlert he had six interviews for the membership site set up.

JVAlert made me look good!

As for me?

I met a ton of wonderful entrepreneurs, cemented some deals, wowed everyone with what’s going on in Podcasting, and at the end met Elson Eldridge Jr. Elson runs the world’s largest hypnosis conference with 1700 attendees and 260 presenters. He told me about a hypnotist whose podcast has 60,000 subscribers. This hypnotist decided to start a second one for $5.00 a month by Paypal.

Over 6000 of his 60,000 listeners subscribed.

Want to make an extra $30,000 a month?

Try podcasting.

Go for the Gold!

Scott Paton

25 Free SEO Tips to Help you Gain Triumphant Visibility in Search Rankings

Fri, 01 Jun 2007 11:50 GMT

25 Free SEO Tips to Help you Gain Triumphant Visibility in Search Rankings:

"Create content that deserves to be found within the top ranks.

One of the single most important aspects to managing your time well, is to stay focused on creating high value, original content that is useful and engaging to your visitors. What kind of content should your Web site contain?

Create content that is truly relevant (and honestly deserves to be found at the top.)

Create content that serves your customer's needs FIRST and your own needs second.

Create content that will meet your visitor's exact search query and satisfy it.

Create content your visitor will be GLAD that they found - something of true merit.

Create content that is based on real 'behaviorally based research' rather than guessing at keywords.

Create content that is written for your specific visitor so that it flows smoothly and reads well to them.

Create content that is original and you can feel proud to have created.

Create content that has a solid, well written 'call to action.'

Create content that is based on what a "search engine understands" through artificial intelligence (AI.)

The Use of Muscle Words on Your Web Site - 148 power words designed to draw your customers in

Fri, 01 Jun 2007 11:48 GMT

The Use of Muscle Words on Your Web Site - 148 power words designed to draw your customers in: "Everyone’s product can’t be the “best” or the “greatest.” There may be a time and place for those words, but try to substitute other words for those definitely overused terms.

What about “one of a kind”? Phenomenal?

Another idea:

Go through your Web site copy. Look for the word “very.” Delete it. If you need to come up with a stronger adjective or verb, do so.

Example:

This very old book is in perfect condition and has been kept in a clear plastic bag to protect it.

Change to:

This antique book . . .
This heirloom book . . .
This museum-quality book . . .

“Perfect” is pretty lame too. Change it to:

flawless

Change “clear” to “sheer.”

Our new sentence would read:

This museum-quality book is in flawless condition and has been kept in a sheer plastic bag to protect it.

Quite a difference, wouldn’t you say?"

The Podcast Bootcamp | Learn How to Make Profitable Podcasts

Wed, 30 May 2007 00:03 GMT

The Podcast Bootcamp | Learn How to Make Profitable Podcasts: "My name is Scott Paton, and I'm one of those people. I've been one of the very few people who has understood what podcasting was all about from the beginning. I recognized the opportunity early and have taught people exactly how they can do the same.

I don't really like to toot my own horn, but I've learned and have already taught pretty much everything there is to know about iTunes and how to make money with podcasting... including finding profitable pockets of income in very obscure niche markets.

And if you're one of the people who has a website or a desire to make money in a very specific niche market then you are in a good position to make some good money too ;)

Fortunately I was one of the lucky few who got in early on the podcasting boom and was able to command a large audience for some of my podcasts. As a matter of fact, just one of my current podcasts has attracted over 80,000 listeners worldwide in just a few short months -- I hope you'll agree with me that is a lot of listeners."

JVAlert and Ken McAthur

Tue, 22 May 2007 23:36 GMT

Well, a couple years after the Internet Marketing Center
published "Blogging for Dollars", all the concepts I
outlined there are still going strong.

They recently wrote a press release of blogging. I
have included the important parts below.

Case Study: Internet Marketing Specialist Reveals How
to Get #1 Google Ranking in Six Days:

"Internet marketing specialist Derek Gehl, CEO of The
Internet Marketing Center (IMC), has released a case
study that shows how one client used his blog to achieve
a top ranking in Google -- in record time.

The revealing case study features Peter Cunningham, whose
goal was to increase traffic to his website.

Using a blog to get good search engine rankings quickly
really does work.

Gehl and his expert team members suggested several ways
Cunningham could use his blog to drive more qualified
traffic to his site:

* Make sure his blog was being 'pinged'
* Submit his blog to blog directories
* Comment on other blogs in his niche market
* Give more specific category titles in his sidebar using
keywords
* Include meta tags with his top keyword phrases in them
* Add keyword-rich <> tags with his images
* Create a keyword-rich blog description focusing on the
main benefits of people reading the blog

Less than a week after acting on their advice, Cunningham
achieved a first-page ranking in Google and Yahoo for all
of the keyword phrases he'd been targeting with his blog."

The concepts outlined in 'Blogging for Dollars' featuring
Derek Gehl and Scott Paton still work!Check it out at:
http://www.designerwebsolutions.com/blogging-for-dollars.php

They forgot to mention including keywords in the 'Anchor'
text of outgoing links from the blog to your web site,
and using keywords in the Titles of your Blog and Blog posts.

In other blogging news:
Blue Sky Brothers achieves a Google Page Rank of "3" in
just 90 days in the Internet's Web 2.0 world.

Partners Greg Meares and Jerry Franklin
(http://www.BlueSkyBrothers.com) have adapted and worked
out a method of page rank achievement.

"We are still a work in progress," says Meares. "We have
boiled it down to two, basic fundamentals. The first one is
fresh, quality content. The search engines love that. The
second is lots and lots of posts. We averaged four posts
per day, Monday through Friday."

That answers one of my most asked questions: How often should
I post?

I am off to Philadelphia in June to speak about Podcasting at
JVAlert. If you have never been to an event, I strongly
recommend attending this one.

Ken McArthur hosts JVAlert and he was my guest on Internet
Marketing Unleashed Podcast (http://www.askscottpaton.com).

Ken shared some great information about building your
business online fast. If you can make it to Philadelphia,
June 8th, 9th, and 10th 2007, I want to meet you and
introduce you to some of today's top marketers.

You can get more information at:
http://www.podcasting-unleashed.com/jvalert

The week after JVAlert, I am hosting The Podcast Bootcamp,
http://thepodcastbootcamp.com. Three days of everything you
need to know to to make a fortune with POdcasts.

Once you read all about it, DO NOT click the 'Buy' button.
That's for my JV Partners' prospects. I have a 'secret' url
for you, that will save you $1,000 on the tuition. My way
of saying 'thanks' for being a loyal subscriber. :^)

Go to http://www.thepodcastbootcamp.com/500.htm.

But I recommend going to http://www.thepodcastbootcamp.com
first. It is one of my best sales letters to date, I think.

All the best

Scott Paton
Dean of Blogonomics and Podology

SEOmoz | Google Search Engine Ranking Factors

Sun, 20 May 2007 20:17 GMT

SEOmoz | Google Search Engine Ranking Factors: "Overuse of Targeted Keywords (Stuffing/Spamming)

3.3

High Importance
1

Average Agreement

Scottie Claiborne
I think this has to be pretty extreme, but yes, I believe stuffed sites can be impacted with lower rankings.

Guillaume
Way less important in foreign languages

Lucas Ng (aka shor)
Whatever method the SEs user to target stuffing, once a certain threshold is breached, the page in question gets flagged and some bad things could happen to your SE presence.

Natasha Robinson
Again... those viagra and real estate splogs still seem to do alright."

Case Study: Internet Marketing Specialist Reveals How to Get #1 Google Ranking in Six Days

Sat, 28 Apr 2007 11:24 GMT

Case Study: Internet Marketing Specialist Reveals How to Get #1 Google Ranking in Six Days:

"Internet marketing specialist Derek Gehl, CEO of The Internet Marketing Center (IMC), has released a case study that shows how one client used his blog to achieve a top ranking in Google -- in record time.

The revealing case study features Peter Cunningham, a member of IMC's Internet Entrepreneur Club forum, whose goal was to increase traffic to his website.

Using a blog to get good search engine rankings quickly really does work.

Gehl and his expert team members suggested several ways Cunningham could use his blog to drive more qualified traffic to his site:

* Make sure his blog was being 'pinged'
* Submit his blog to blog directories
* Comment on other blogs in his niche market
* Give more specific category titles in his sidebar using keywords
* Include meta tags with his top keyword phrases in them
* Add keyword-rich <> tags with his images
* Create a keyword-rich blog description focusing on the main benefits of people reading the blog

Less than a week after acting on their advice, Cunningham achieved a first-page ranking in Google and Yahoo for all of the keyword phrases he'd been targeting with his blog. "

The concepts outlined in Blogging for Dollars featuring Derek Gehl and Scott Paton still work!

They forgot to mention including keywords in the 'Anchor' text of outgoing links from the blog to your web site, and using keywords in th eTitles of your Blog and Blog posts.

An Alternative to Mailoop 7.0

Fri, 27 Apr 2007 22:54 GMT

It has been a while since my last message. Hopefully from now
on I will be emailing on a more regular basis.

One of my problems has been email deliverability. I am not the
only one to have that issue. I have used the Internet Marketing
Center's Mailloop since 2000.

Mailloop 4.6 to Mailloop 7.0.

Unfortunately the game changed and Mailloop never kept up.

There are a number of hosted solutions like Aweber and
GetResponse, but having always used my own computer as a mail
server, it was hard to change.

A good friend and I were talking about the situation and he
came up with an interesting solution. It is free, robust and
easy to install and use. Dada Mail at http://mojo.skazat.com.

After testing it for a week, I decided to switch.

The only problem is it does not add personalization. Now I know
when I receive an email that unless it has very specific
information, it is probably bulk. I am going to assume you know
that as well.

If you want to email me personally, my email is
scott@podcasting-unleashed.com. I think that makes for the most
personal messages. But don't hit 'reply' as it will go to
an unmonitored account.

I have two pieces of big news that I am excited about.

First, June 7th to 11th, I am in Philadelphia to talk about
Podcasting at JVAlert. Go to:

http://www.podcasting-unleashed.com/jvalert for more information.

I am excited to spend quality time with Ken MacArthur, Dave Lakhani,
Michel Fortin, Matt Bacak, Sterling Valentine and other amazing
Marketing experts.

I cannot emphasize enough the growth in revenue that occured for me
from attending live events. And this one focuses on creating Joint
Ventures for you. Who could ask for anything more?

If you live near Philadelphia, come out and say, 'Hi'. If you don't
and you make the trip, Let's meet Thursday night before the event
and over the weekend, I will personally introduce you to as many of
my fellow marketing superstars as I can.

Very soon, I will be announcing a Podcast Bootcamp. I guess I am
announcing it right now :^) I am still working out the details,
but it will be near Vancouver, BC, and from June 15th to
17th, 2007.

The sales letter is almost done. Naturally, I will let you know
when it is live.

I am pretty excited about Podcasting. My eBay podcast is now
number two or three on iTunes (It has varied over the past few
days). http://www.ourauctionpodcast.com

Tim Knox and I posted a great episode on Wednesday. Check it out.

I am updating my ebook/video tutorials, Podcasting Unleashed. I am
calling it Podcast and Grow Rich. It is more of a sequel. Email me
any Podcasting questions you have and I will answer them for you
and I may include it in my book.

I expect to launch it in early June, 2007. You will hear about it here
first.

All the best

Scott Paton
Dean of Blogonomics and Podology

Sitemaps and Robot.txt

Fri, 27 Apr 2007 10:20 GMT

Did you know as of April 11th there was no longer a need to manually submit your sitemap to search engines. Last fall, the major search engines agreed on a sitemaps format.

You can now add a simple line to your robots.txt file and let the engines know where your sitemap document resides on your site.

Just include the following line in your robots.txt file and you should be all set: Sitemap: http://www.yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml

NY Event results in huge business increases

Mon, 26 Feb 2007 16:45 GMT

Hi

I am sitting at JFK International Airport as I write this and the past weekend I attended MIke Filsaime's 2007 Figure Business three day (and NIGHT!!) event.

There were 150 or so people in attendance. They ranged from one person who 6 weeks ago first thought about starting an online business -- more on him in a minute -- to multi-millionaire superstars, and everyone in between.

No doubt if you are 'plugged in', you will be reading emails and blog postings about the event. I know I already received a few.

This is the second time in 6 weeks that I have spent time with Mike and Tom Beal. The last time was on a cruise from San Diego to Acapulco. Now I know how stressful these things can be, so my goal was to stay out of their hair -- here's my translation of that: no complaints (not that there was anything to complain about. The whole weekend was a first class affair), keep questions for Mike and Tom short and easy :^), support them as best I could, participate fully, be friendly to EVERYONE, and finally have fun.

Now doing a podcast with Mike I get to talk to him on a more regular basis than most. I had a bunch on questions I wanted to go over with him and Tom, but y'know they could all wait until Tuesday or Wednesday or longer. Have you ever noticed that if you wait long enough most questions sort of answer themselves...?

If I did not have the relationship I have with Mike and Tom I would have made a point to speak with them briefly on whatever I could and do it enough times to make an impression and not so much that I was a 'pest'. FREE TIP: Always make sure you speak to the host(s) of any event you go to and begin the process of building a relationship.

In the past year, I have attended Focus4theFuture in Redmond, Washington, TIMME2 in Baltimore, MD, the Big Seminar in Atlanta, GA, and now 2007 Figure Business in Long Island, NY. Every three months on average I party for three days. Now you know my secret!

I want to be truthful with you here. The purpose of this email is to convince you, twist your arm, yell and scream, do whatever it takes to get you to an event, any event, preferably the next one I am going to as I am also going to be teaching people about Podcasting at it and selfishly I would like some 'friendly faces' in the audience :^) but it doesn't have to be that one, any one will do.

Let me tell you why...

There are two ways to do anything: the easy way and the hard way.

I personally like the hard way. I don't know why. But based on results, and how I get them, the only possible reason I can think of is that I MUST like doing stuff the hard way...

BUt you don't have to do it that way. Honest.

Here's why.

There is an easy way.

Let me share what has happened to me. I think it could happen to you.

But first I have a question:
Are you on my list/reading my blogs because you like reading my writing? Fair enough if you are. My ego likes it.

Are you on my list because you want to grow, move towards your goals, become more 'successful'? I hope so.

I hope you want to do it the easy way.

Look into the mirror and ask yourself: "Am I willing to spend $1 to make $20?" "Am I really willing to do whatever it takes to move to the next level?"

Now I have coached enough people to know that you probably lied to yourself when you answered thse questions. I know you believe it. But look at your results. Are you in the same place emotionally, mentally, financially, physically spiritually that you were last year?

I hope not.

Is the next year going to be any different than last year?

I hope so. Because it can be easy. It will be hard for me because I seem to like 'hard' for some unknown reason...

But you don't have to make my mistake.

Last summer I went to Redmond, Wa, and met Mike Filsaime for the third time. I also met the promoter, Robert Puddy. I met Tim Knox, who is now my co-host on my eBay podcast. I ended up on the Hot Seat panel. I met Keith Wellman for the second time. Keith had done an interview with me as part of his first project, ViralFX.

I wrote copy for about 4 people that I met there, including Robert Puddy.

One of those sales letters sold over $200,000 so far, making Mike and Robert look like geniuses, plus it didn't hurt my reputation :^)

At TIMME2, I again interacted with Mike Filsaime and our relationship continued to grow. I met Tom Beal and our relationship started. I met Jason Diner, who along with Dennis Mecca, had interviewed me for their Accelerated Success Systems project.

I came away from that with the beginning of relationships with Paulie Sabol, Donna Fox, Ken Mcarthur, John Childers, Bob Costas, Stephen Pierce, Rich Schefren, JP and Deborah Micek, Alex Ngheim, Lana Hampton, Barry MaLawhorn, Pervais and his nephew, Karim and many more.

Plus three or four sales copy jobs.

Now before you start thinking, yeah, you can do that, you are this and that, and besides I am too shy. Let me tell you a secret. I am very shy. Hard to believe about someone who has spoken in front of thousands of people all around the world, I know.

But one of the hardest things for me to do is go up to someone and start talking to them. Guess what I work on alot??

Now I admit I had a couple secret weapons in Baltmore. I had Danny and Heidi. Heidi is a wonderful connector. Without her, I would have met a quarter of the people I did. Probably less.

Here is my advice if you are shy like me: find people who are not shy and stand by them. Once the ice breaks you will be fine. Once you have a relationship with them, let them break the ice for you. I tell them, do you know [insert name here]. They say yes and next thing you know they grab you and go introduce you. Trust me on this one, okay?

Before you know it they will be dragging people over to met you and visa versa. I see it over and over.

At Big Seminar in Atlanta, GA, I deepened my relationship with a number of people that I met orginally at TIMME2. I saw Captain Lou, whom I had met a year earlier at an Internet Marketing Center Bootcamp in NY that I was spoke at on Blogging and Podcasting. I met a friend of his, who was very successful in the Real Estate market.

I spent 90 minutes with Alex Mandossian. Pinch me! Never, ever thought that would happen...

And yes I came away with more copywriting jobs.

Before I go on, as you can see, each event brought me more work. You are not likely a copywriter and so if you take the hard way like me, think sure he got work but I could never do that. Well, many people made relationships that resulted in new products, projects, JV's, shared email promotions and such.

Go with a clear goal in mind and watch what happens.

Would you like to meet someone who can send 100,000 eyeballs to your website? ...a day??

That was casually offered to me at 2007 Figure Business.

But I get ahead of myself.

Imagine that every two or three months you get together with the same general group of people. They are excited, enthusiast, successful, caring and sharing.

How long does it take before you begin to feel like old friends? Hint: not long!

Remember those extroverted people I told you about? One of them came up to me, pulled me out of my chair and brought me over to meet Stephen Pierce. Stephen has a great reputation, he was one of the very few guest speakers here, and he wants to talk to me about Podcasting. YES!

I have a list of over 20 people who want to know more about Podcasting or who want me to write their copy.

But that's not the best part...

Mike invited 20 people from the audience to the stage. They took questions from the rest of us about Internet Marketing. I got to ask a great question. I know it was a great question because the guys behind me told me so!

So if Mike comes out with a DVD version of the event, everyone will hear my two domains: http://www.PodcastAndGrowRic.com and http://www.ExtremeCopy.com. That's thousands of people. Plus, I gave them a testimonial. So all the people he drives to any site he puts my tetsimonial on will also hear my two domain names.

Finally, Mike brought up what I do a few times from the front of the stage, pointing over to me. Which resulted in more than a few people stopping me and starting conversations.

But that's not the best part...

Remember Captain Lou? His friend from TIMME2 was here.

He wanted to talk to me about writing copy for him. We kept trying to meet but... Finally he said, Look, Scott, I want you to write the copy for my sites. Let's talk about it more next week.

Yes!

But that's not the best part...

He does an annual event in his industry that over a thousand people attend. One of my goals is to talk about podcasting and get a Podcaster in every business, home and school.

He says, Of course, you can speak at my event. Holy $^*#!

But that's not the best part...

As you know I host Weight Loss and the Mind podcast. We have 58,000 subscribers, and in the past 9 months, there have been 280,000 downloads. I have been planning a membership site.

We spent 10 minutes talking about it. Then it happened. He looked at me. 'This is what you do', he said. We spent the next 30 minutes laughing. His idea was brilliant, pure genius and easy. Did I mention profitable?

But that's not the best part...

The best part was the interactions, friendships and comraderie that comes from being with exceptional people.

Here is the deal:
You can stay in your space. If you are struggling, it will continue. If you have a vision, a mission, a burning desire, it is time to go for it.

That means get out and network. Make relationships. No one who has achieved moderate to massive success did it alone. Imagine a singer... with out a band or music behind her. It just does not work that way.

I am speaking at Focus4the Future in Dallas, TX, March 16th, 17th, and 18th of 2007...

2007 Figure Business was worth between $100,000 and 6 million dollars to me (I TOLD you his idea was brilliant!).

I can't wait to see what this event holds! And I want you to be a part of it with me.

Head over to http://www.podcasting-unleashed.com/dallas

I spent $5,000 to attend 2007 Figure Business. I know I will make an extra $100,000 this year easy (and easily!) because I was here. That is $20 for every dollar I spent.

I don't know how Focus4theFuture or any other event will impact your future. No one knows. But I do know this: You will never hit a Home Run, sitting on the bench.

If you decide to 'get in the game', I will meet you in Dallas. Once there, let's look at the schedule and time permitting head out one evening and brainstorm, mastermind, start taking our relationship to a new level.

I will introduce you to people, who while tremendously successful, are down to earth and a hoot to be around. I think you will like them.

Someone once said, "It's all about the money, until you have the money, then you realize it is not about the money..."

All the best

Scott Paton
Dean of Blogonomics and Podology

PS Remember the fellow who was new to Internet Marketing? Six weeks earlier he first looked at starting an online business. Why was he there? He listened to Mike Filsaime and me, speaking on 'Podcast with Mike': http://butterflymarketing.podomatic.com.

If you haven't tuned in yet, I strongly recommend it.

If you haven't started your own podcast yet, Mike's just made him an extra $5,000. Yours might, too.

Check out: http://www.podcasting-unleashed.com and start podcasting today.

PPS My Internet Marketing podcast is #3 in iTunes last time I looked. http://www.askscottpaton.com. Give it a listen. Today. Right now.

PPPS A huge trend that you shsould be aware of is video -- duh. I think TV is a fad. LOL. Online video is getting ready to explode. MOe details next time, but until then I invite you to go to http://www.PodcastAndGrowRich.com. You may recognize the guy in the video...

Bust or Boon? Calculating Blog ROI

Fri, 09 Feb 2007 17:28 GMT

Bust or Boon? Calculating Blog ROI:

"By now everyone knows that blogs are being used by many e-tailers as a way to capitalize on word-of-mouth marketing by including customers in the shopping experience. One such example would be providing details about product development and showcasing insider information about the company.

But how do you know if blogging is boosting the bottom line? Measuring the return-on-investment for blogs is tricky since the value can't be measured precisely, but Forrester Research analysts tackled this difficult task by issuing two studies, a case study on General Motors and a report outlining how to calculate blog ROI.

In the case study, Forrester looked at General Motors' FastLane blog, launched in January 2005 and cited it as an example of successful business blogging. And while your company is much smaller than GM, there are still some important lessons to take away from the report, namely that it reaped a huge ROI.

'We estimate that the ROI of FastLane for its first year of operation in 2005 was 99 percent, and the estimated ROI for 2006 was lower at 61 percent primarily because of fewer stories about the blog. Our predicted risk-adjusted ROI for 2007 is 39 percent, again because of the continued decline in press coverage,' report Charlene Li and Chloe Stromberg, co-authors of Calculating the ROI of Blogging: A Case Study."

The Goose that Layed the Golden Egg at Coachamatic

Tue, 06 Feb 2007 22:00 GMT

The Goose that Layed the Golden Egg at Coachamatic:

"For some reason, this old fable keeps coming up in my life.

To recap:
There was this farmer and his goose laid Golden Eggs. Things were going pretty well for him. Each day he would take the golden egg to the market and get a very fair exchange for his egg.

But one day, the farmer thought, “why wait for the goose to lay the golden egg one day at a time?”

He pulled out a knife and cut open the goose looking for all the golden eggs that he knew were inside the poor goose.

Of course, he found nothing and there he was — no golden egg and no goose (anymore).

I am sure it wasn’t a pleasant dinner…"

backendcashmanuscript.com » Blog Archive » Delegating and outsourcing…

Sat, 13 Jan 2007 18:25 GMT

Delegating and outsourcing…:

"One of the things that immediately struck me about this cruise was how well it was run with such a minimal staff. I was told that the ship carried over 2,000 passengers and yet, most of the work was done with an amazingly small staff."