Get Smarter - Play Video Games!

Guy Kawasaki quoted Dr. Richard Restak on ten tips for improving your brain. See http://adjix.com/35yg. I like the first one, myself:

Take up video-gaming. Action video games improve eye-hand coordination, improve spatial visualization skills, and increase the number of things that you can visually attend to simultaneously.

In my view, video games, especially the immersive MMORPGs like World of Warcraft, should be standard in every seniors facility. Not only do they provide the brain stimulation as mentioned by Restak above, but they are opportunities for social interaction, personal challenge and achievement, and provide a rich virtual environment in which to play and learn.

Players in WoW and other similar games interact with others of all ages, cultures and nationalities through the course of the game. They are continually given problems to solve (quests) and confronted with situations that require collaboration (dungeons) or research (what gear should I choose?). These activities tie into #2 and #8 in the article quoted above.

We didn't really need excuses to play video games, but it's good to have expert support for this fun activity. And if you can't visit great-grandma as often as you like, at least make sure her subscription to WoW is up to date.

Heroic Effort

Here's something I wrote to help a young man get a job at a very prominent gaming company:

HERO CLASS: Customer Service Rep

• Increased strength, stamina, agility and intellect
• Arsenal of powers and spells including inspired trouble-shooting, with greater effect against undead technologies such as unliving CPUs, routers and modems
• Equipped with unique weapons of mitigation, designed to cleave through service issues, pacify targets, and deal high levels of satisfaction per second (SPS)
• Skilled in dual-wielding monitors for greater visibility of issues
• Core ability to summon and control electrical energy over wireless and land-based lines
• Innate ability to communicate effectively with all factions, races, classes and levels
• Intuitive Presence: invoked whenever the CSR encounters mind-numbing issues or immobilizing hardware/software effects – grants the ability to quickly discern solutions and bring swift resolution.

Yeah, it was successful in getting him some attention. He's been working there for a few weeks now. Without his own abilities, he never would have landed this dream job. This blurb simply helped float his resume to the top of the pile of thousands of competitors.

And I wouldn't be surprised if the company copied it and passed it around, or hung it on the wall.

Memorial Day

This is Memorial Day for the US. A similar day for us in Canada is November 11, Remembrance Day, always a hard day for me. Because many of the people I've been talking to in the last few weeks, both for social and business, have been in the US, Memorial Day is at the front of my mind. So today I choose to remember all those I care about who are currently serving in the military. I'm reaching out to each of them to remind them of my love and support.

Perhaps no one knows better what military life is like than someone who has gone through it. While the public sees a portion of it, and our families -- if they want to -- see a little more, only those on the inside know what it's really all about. I have to say that the time I served was one of the best experiences of my life. That's a net gain, because there were parts of it that were simply horrible. But overall, taken as a body of experience and knowledge increase, it was a period of time that I would not trade for anything. I learned lessons about people, organizations, leadership, other countries, cultures, and the world that I could never have learned in any other way. Mostly, I learned a lot about myself, and that was an education that money just can't buy.

I excelled in certain areas of the military, and was abysmally poor at others, but it was a defining period in my life where I learned my limits, and how far I could go in wildly surpassing those limits. I learned that I could take just about anything, and survive just about anything -- and what was needed from within myself to do that. I learned that I had more strength inside me than anyone would have believed -- even me. I learned that there is always a solution to every problem -- sometimes not the solution we would like, but there is one. I learned not to sweat the small stuff, and how to look at big things to realize that they really are just small stuff. I learned that people matter more than anything else, and how we treat other people is the only real goal of our existence.

Sometimes I forget those lessons. I get caught up in day to day life among people whose depth of character resembles a toddler's plastic wading pool, one that is only half full at that. I get distracted by the minutiae that others use to structure their time and their lives, and I get roped into trying to help those who don't want to be helped. I get sidetracked believing that most of the people I encounter day to day have the same level of experience as I do, and when I finally realize that they barely know what life is all about, I feel a sense of loss on their behalf. There is so much more that they don't know!! And still I hope, I believe, and I try -- as futile as that sometimes is. Because that's what we learn in the military -- we learn to deal with all kinds of people to get the job done. We learn to care about our comrades. And we learn to never, NEVER give up.

Thinking of never giving up, my thoughts turn to my serving friends, and I admire them for their courage, their compassion, their persistence in the face of crass stupidity, overwhelming selfishness, and sometimes even collective insanity. I think of my friends in the military and I am grateful to know them, because they are pieces of this crazy quilt that is my life -- integral pieces that remind me that I do have a purpose, and that purpose is to touch the lives of others and to give them whatever I can give. Because, like in the military, we are all in this together, and no one can do it alone.

I think about my friends in uniform, and I send up a prayer to whatever force in the universe handles such things, and I ask for protection and love to always be with those I care about.
To my many friends in the military, wherever you are, be well on this Memorial Day and always. You have a place in my heart where you are always safe, and very much loved.

Where did the Time Go?

I cannot believe it has been almost two years since I updated this blog! Life certainly has a way of derailing you when you had planned to do other things. A lot has happened in those two years, some of which I'll speak about as I catch up.

Some good. Some bad. Some great! Some utterly devastating.

So my life is a lot like yours then.

Beyond just the passage of time in those two years has been the immense personal growth I've experienced. I'd like to share some of that with you as we go along. Remember, this blog is not just so you can see what I'm up to (as long as I reveal it here!) but what I'm thinking and feeling about it as it unfolds. Never at a loss for an opinion, and freely willing to share it even if no one asks for it, I may occasionally have something valuable for you to take away.

They say that it is worthwhile to learn from your own experience; it is even more worthwhile to learn from the experiences of others. Let's continue to do both.

And to summarize the past two years -- truly, there were multiple projects, always a new idea, and never a dull moment!

Day 31 30DC - Now What?

Whew! It's over! Or it will be very shortly. Making sure that all participants get every possible in order to qualify for the grand prize trip to Australia, Ed and Co. have determined that the official deadline is midnight Hawaii time.

I think it's so the goddess Kummonayewantmymunni can bless the last efforts of everyone who has been diligently working the plan, mining their niches, and promoting their sites.

My grand total, as of this writing, is $46.45 which I think is pretty fair for what constitutes only a few days of my sites being in operation. Of course, there's a whole MONTH of work behind all that.

The question is, now what? I have tons of work to do for the upcoming semester and a few things happening in my life as well. I want to keep going, using the new skills I've learned. And I know the value of momentum, that forward motion that helps you continue moving in the right direction. It's a lot harder to get started again after a stop. The next few days will dictate how I proceed. Here's hoping that I will have the time and energy to add this to my routine and keep working on my sites. The promise of additional $$ is there; I just have to keep them up to date or at least fresh enough for a respectable showing in the search engines.

In the meantime, I'm taking a bit of a break! Blogging about the challenge has been fun, but I don't want to succumb to the tyranny of the daily blog. When it becomes a grind, and a job, it's no longer fun.

Stay tuned. I am committed to "always a new idea, never a dull moment", and will report back on that shortly.

Day 30 30DC - SO Tempting!

I am REALLY tempted to haul out one of the other niches I've discovered and put up Site #3. I've got the process down pat -- I think -- and things are working. Neither of the niches so far are the oil wells I thought they could be, but it is early yet. Some continued drilling is obviously necessary.

Knowing that, however, it is still tempting to throw a few more irons into the fire. After all, the gospel according to my friend Robert Allen is to have multiple streams of income. If one or two sites are starting to bear fruit, then why not have a few more?

In practical terms, I cannot maintain that many sites. Not at the moment. And they're not generating enough income yet that I can justify hiring someone to help with the maintenance.

But it is a great idea, and I'll let it incubate a little longer...

Day 29 30DC - Site #2 Rings In!

I am more than thrilled to report that I have now made some money from the second niche, the one that was put on the back burner when I made the choice of which one to launch first. With a few spare moments, I managed to get Site #2 up and running, posted and ranked.

It has now reciprocated with a small sale that nets me some profit. (Although not a lot if you consider the amount of time I've spent on it, but still...)

So that reinforces for me that the process does indeed work, and more importantly, that **I** can work it. That makes all the difference.

It's fine watching someone else do these activities and make their $$ on the internet, but until you master the process yourself, you don't really become converted to it. Nice to know that what I did with Site #1 has been replicated with Site #2 and it too can generate income for me.

Day 28 30DC - Winding Down in a Way

With a new semester starting shortly, and the Challenge coming to an end, I definitely need to look at my workload and perhaps start to wind down. I don't want to. Now that I've built up some momentum and started a successful site (or 2) I want to keep going.

But reality is quickly descending. I have more responsibilities this semester, with new courses and plenty of challenges in the academic sector not just on the internet. So I'm going to have to look at how I can keep working on my sites while not neglecting any of my students. In fact, the students are the priority so it will be the other way around -- how to best serve my students while still being able to dabble in the internet marketing.

Now THAT's a challenge!

Day 27 30DC - Not Just a Fluke

There have been two more sales on my site, so this new niche is working out nicely. As with most internet marketers, I'm being close-mouthed about the niches and key phrases I am using. This is a competitive business and the waters are full of sharks. Especially the kind of sharks who prefer to get something easy than do the work themselves.

As I said yesterday, it IS work. I have been swamped this weekend but still managed to update my content a little. That daily attention is what is necessary to keep the sites lively and interesting.

But at this point, four days days from the end of the Challenge, I am pleased that I've been able to make those first few dollars.

Now, it's just "rinse and repeat".

Day 26 30DC - No Blips Today

Can't realistically expect every day to be a money maker, but that is the ultimate goal. There were no $$ drops today. :-(

As long as I keep up the momentum, though, I am sure that there will be additional sales. The key is to maintain the work on the sites and the niches, and keep the content fresh. That will keep them being crawled and ranked by the search engines and therefore easily accessible to people who want to buy.

Remember, it's easy to sell someone something if it provides a solution to their problem. They will only know it's their solution when they come across your site. That's why having a top ranking gives you a greater chance in snagging the buyers.

Of course it's work! Like most money-making activities.

Day 25 30DC - Eureka!

I no sooner posted my new site, completed my social media postings, and checked my rankings in Google and voila! My first $10.00!! So now my name goes into the draw for the trip to Australia. Yay!

To be specific, it was a $24.95 item sale price of which I get 60%, which is $14.97. So I've hit the goal and can now relax. Whew! Did I say "relax"? Not a chance! The point is to keep doing what I've been doing, and keep following the instructions until the challenge ends. Sort of like taking all of the antibiotics your doctor prescribes. When there is a specific route to follow, don't go off track unless you are absolutely sure where you are going. Good advice any time, but especially useful when the goal is to achieve something that very few people have managed to do.

You might think that there are scores of people making money on the internet, thanks to all the spam of which you are aware. Unfortunately, those are just people TRYING, often unsuccessfully, to make money. Most of them are spending much more than they are making, and annoying people in the process.

That's why Ed & Co.'s 30 Day Challenge is so valuable. Not only does it teach correct principles that avoid spam, but it is possible for anyone who follows the instructions to achieve a successful result.

I've just proved it! Thanks, Ed!

Day 24 30DC - Conversion and a New Challenge!

Here we are, a week from the end of the challenge, and by Gosh, we are starting again! We are now concentrating on conversion, making sure that we have a product that converts visitors into sales. That's really minor compared to the gauntlet Ed just threw down.

Offering a prize of a flight to Australia to attend the next Immediate Edge conference, the challenge is to start from zero on Friday and make that first $10.00 by 9 am. Monday morning. If you succeed, your name goes into a draw for the free flight. (I believe it is a return flight.)

So, what better time to launch another niche than that? I began from a standing start at 6:29 p.m. today, Friday. As of writing this at about 10 pm. I have secured a brand new niche and keyphrase, obtained a platform, created the first few posts, installed my tracking codes, and begun the social posting process. Whew!

I rather wish I didn't have such a busy weekend coming up with other things that have nothing to do with the Thirty Day Challenge.

Day 23 30DC - The Waiting Game

Well, no, I'm not sitting around waiting. I'm actually working on a second niche and spending quite a bit of time doing the social media thing, generally and for some of my team members. I haven't seen any movement yet on my first site. I have seen competition -- it turns out that key phrase was a little more popular than I thought.

Personally, I think my rendition of the pages about the niche are far better than those of my competitors, but perhaps they are more aggressive at getting the rankings and social bookmarking. I prefer to have it happen a little more naturally, as Ed has suggested.

I think you can also tell who can write, and who cannot. And who knows anything about their subject matter, and who does not. I think readers can tell as well.

So I have every expectation that my site(s) will rise to the top of the quality ladder, but perhaps not in time for completing this challenge within the 30 days.

Still, it is an amazing learning experience. Ed has let us know that it is indeed the largest, by far, online Internet Marketing training ever given. There are some interesting stats as well. In previous years' Thirty Day Challenges, there was an initial boost in traffic as people signed up, but over the course of the month, the number of users dropped off, making a distinct downhill line on the graph.

With this year's Thirty Day Challenge, it has been the opposite. As word spreads about the training and the results we are having, more people are showing up to see what's going on.

In the world of Web 2.0, you can expect people to gather wherever something interesting is occurring. That's a good marketing message any time.

End of Semester

After the pressure of exams (on both students and professors) it is nice to have a chance to conclude the semester's business and look forward to the next semester, which is imminent. It's enough of a break to allow for some catching of breath, and to take care of some housekeeping to prepare for the new school year.

I just got this from one of my students:

I would like to thank you for what was easily one of the most thought-provoking classes that I've had throughout both college programs that I have been in. I really hope to apply a lot of the ideologies in my future projects.

It's always nice to know that students get something out of the courses I teach. It's even better when they apply what they've learned in their future endeavours and it makes their lives richer for the educational experience they have received.

That's why I do what I do, in the way that I do it. FIGJAM!

Day 22 30DC - Playing in Traffic

Part two of Ed's magnificent symphony in four parts is all about traffic -- getting it, keeping it, watching what it does. To that end, the folks at Thirty Day Challenge have provided us with a statistics tracker. We know the now-old business adage that you can't manage what you don't measure. Tracking statistics with any business venture, whether online or offline, is vitally important.

The other aspect to tracking -- which is really testing and observing results -- is to make changes only under controlled conditions. Think of it in the same way as doing a laboratory experiment. In order to know for certain which factors affect the outcome of the experiment, you must set up your test design (your experiment design) in such a way that you can control as many of the variables as possible.

Then as you run your test or conduct the experiment, you observe and record -- record -- results. If the outcome is not what you expected (or hypothesized), or to explore the results further, you then make a change in one (only one, if you please) variable and run the experiment again. Observing and recording once more. In this way you build up a body of empirical data that informs your decision-making about what has been going on in your test or experiment, and why these results might be occurring. This is the nature of scientific inquiry.

Remember, too, that you must run the test over a statistically-significant sample, over a reasonable time frame to obtain accurate data, and continually be vigilant for other factors or variables you hadn't accounted for which may be affecting the outcome.

Many marketers skimp on the market research phase of their projects, and suffer the consequences. Even more marketers do not conduct adequate testing of their campaigns and therefore make poorly-informed decisions (guesses, really) and also cannot prove to their clients what works and why, and what doesn't. Many marketers would be flat out of business if they billed based on results.

Once you know how and why you are getting the results you are getting, you can duplicate the test -- it's repeatable. More than that, it's predictable. That is the key for experiments as well, and the crux of the scientific method. Given the same controlled situation and variables, any other researcher should be able to replicate the experiment and get the same results. In business, it means that you can achieve the same successes over and over again, and even predict the outcomes. It doesn't get much better than that.

Day 21 30DC - Regaining Momentum

Now that we're over Tumblrgate and have regrouped enough to put up our niche pages once again, we can begin to move forward in earnest. Due to end of term and some other concurrent projects needing my attention, I have chosen to focus on just the one niche to get it up and running before working on the second one.

As Ed reminds us, all of this is still market testing. We are testing to see if the visitors to our pages will like what they see enough to convert to sales. Hence the emphasis on quality content.

And just an aside, if you are doing ANYTHING on the internet that does not involve quality content, what are you thinking? Don't we have enough dreck out there without you adding to it? That's not what I taught you at Seneca!!!

I get to say that because it's my job at college to turn out skilled content providers. So they had all better uphold the values I teach about that. And remember, light and fluffy content intended for fun can still be quality content -- and had better be, in a Web 2.0 world.

So, to get back on track, the rules of the game are the same. The venue may have changed, but the core players have not. The goal is still the same -- to generate at least $10.00 from one or more of our niche webpages. Some people are already claiming victory. Good for them. Early success is indeed wonderful -- but so is longevity. I want not only that first $10.00, I want it to be followed by many, many, many of its friends.

Day 20 30DC - Regroup and Go Again

Okay, the Tumblr thing was unfortunate, but that's life on the Internet. Time to regroup and go again. I have already secured another platform and begun to publish quality content (as I always do) on my niche topic. Let's see how this one fares.

I believe that it will have the same spectacular results if I use the same techniques to get it ranked in the search engines and drawing traffic. We are getting the opportunity to refine the process, and of course, as with anything else, repetition is a good way to ensure you learn what is being taught.

I'll keep you posted.

Day 19 30DC - Tumbled!!

I suppose it had to happen. When you have thousands of people doing the same thing at the same time, it is going to get someone's attention, even on the Internet. Tumblr has shut down any page created on August 18. This is a knee-jerk reaction to the mass creation of pages on their site. Frankly, it could also be a server problem, and I think all the action scared them.

They may have a legitimate reason from a content standpoint. As we know, the internet marketing field is glutted with scum-sucking bottom-feeding spammers who, instead of following ethical teachings such as in the Thirty Day Challenge, voraciously grasp onto any new technique and pervert it for their own selfish purposes. There were quite a few Tumblr pages that were blatant hard sells instead of providing good quality content. The Tumblr folks didn't want their platform abased and their credibility ruined by hosting illegitimate content. It would very quickly turn off their audience, and drive away their visitors. They have every right to run their shop the way they see fit, since they are footing the bill.

Unfortunately, a fair number of good pages with high quality content, including mine, were axed in the mass suspensions.

The bottom-feeders have always given internet marketing a bad name, and it looks like they are continuing to do so. This is why you must be SO CAREFUL when trying to do business on the Internet.

What is good, however, is that in a Web 2.0 world, social pressure has huge clout. It is the only defence against these kinds of people. If you come across a site that is a blatant sales-only selfish attempt to grab money, Stumble it with a thumbs down, give it a bad review, and if necessary, report it to the hosting provider. Speak loudly and clearly that we don't want this crap on the internet. Google, Squidoo, and other major entities already slap down any offenders, and most platforms have Terms of Service agreements that contain clauses allowing them to do the same.

If you provide quality content, your gentle and organic sales message will be accepted and even welcomed. Bottom line: Give before you get.

Day 18 30DC - Ranked and Glad of it

I probably wouldn't have believed it possible if I hadn't seen it. Within a day of launching my page, I am ranked position #6 in Google search results for that keyword phrase! Here's the proof:








That's pretty amazing, and proof that the strategies and techniques that we are learning on the Thirty Day Challenge work a treat, as my friends from Oz would say.

Now it just remains to be seen how the traffic shakes out. I have Google Analytics embedded to capture those results.

Day 17 30DC - Time for Launch

I have been disciplined enough to keep pace with the training rather than running ahead, thinking I knew where I was going. For a go-getter like me, that is difficult. But it's just as well -- learning to follow a process or workflow is one way to ensure you learn exactly what is required. Wish my students realized this sometimes.

Today we've received the go ahead to launch our pages. The intent is to put some quality content on a page, utilize our keyword phrase, and include our affiliate link in case anyone wants to buy product. The key is to have a good site that will attract attention, and gratify the visitors who discover it.

Since mine is about a reasonably popular topic, and I have my own spin on it, this should work very well. The platform we are using for the pages is Tumblr, though any page would do. It will be interesting to see how this actually works.

Day 16 30DC - Start Your Engines!

Now it's time to rev up the engines that will propel us toward that first $10.00 made online, and perhaps much more. In addition to making sure we have a good niche -- low competition, adequate number of searches per day, a market that pays for product -- we find an affiliate program with a ready-made product to promote on our website as a test.

You might think that we should sell our own products on our sites. Well, yes. But that will come. Right now, before a product is even developed, it's important to crank up the traffic engine and ensure that people with an interest in the topic are finding the web page all right. The gauge of this is in the number of visitors you get, and whether any of them are interested enough in the topic to open their wallets and pay for a product in that niche.

Remember, we still haven't laid out one single penny on any of this so far. And we're not investing development time yet, either. We're taking something that is already successfully selling elsewhere, and offering it on our page as well. In effect, using a proven product, that already converts visitors into buyers. Through affiliate programs, you can begin to make money with other peoples' products before you have any of your own.

It's akin to selling on consignment. You showcase someone's product, and if it's bought, you get a percentage of that sale. You don't have to do anything other than display it and promote it. Since we are using free display and promotion mechanisms, it's a no-risk, no-cost option. My favorite kind.

Day 15 30DC - Playing in Traffic

Halfway through the Thirty Day Challenge, we have finally reached movement 2 of what Ed calls "A Magnificent Symphony in Four Parts". This part deals with traffic. The first, of course, was market research. If you think that 15 days preparation in a 30-day challenge is somewhat lopsided, you would be wrong. As previously mentioned, there is no skimping on the research and analysis phase if you want to maximize your efforts during development to have an error-free launch.

So maybe there's no such thing as "error-free" launches, but you can certainly reduce the risk. And that's what the Thirty Day Challenge is all about. Minimizing risk means ensuring that you have sufficient traffic to get enough potential buyers to your site that a reasonable percentage of them can be converted, and thus bring you the all important sale. Conversion and Product being the remaining parts of the symphony.

Having done the market research, I know that my niche choices meet or exceed the minimum criteria for number of searches per day. So I can be confident that if I have a top-ranking position in the search engines, I will be getting a certain number of people looking at my web page every day. The trick, of course, is to get to that high ranking position in a search.

Enter Web 2.0 and its social networking tools. By having other people notice, comment, tag, and refer your site, you get additional clout with Google and your page rank goes up. The more attention your site gets, the more searches it gets, and the higher it shows up on the hit list.

If you can get parts I and II right, III and IV are not going to be that difficult. As I tell my students, do what is hard, life is easy; do what is easy, life is hard. Let's make this as easy as possible.

Think About It

What would Google do?

All online business, e-commerce, and internet marketing is very much influenced by Google. Why? If you don't behave when you put up a website, Google will slap you. Really! Underhanded marketing techniques, inept SEO (search engine optimization) and ignorance of the way the web works all will get you ignored by Google, or at worst, banned.

So perhaps it's wise to remember who carries the big stick, and make them your friend.

Blogging for Business

Susan Payton of Egg Marketing recently invited me to participate in the week-long online forum for business blogging. All this week we will be talking about why blogs are an important tool for businesses today.

There are some businesses for which a blog is becoming a necessity, and it is an inexpensive way to promote your business on a daily basis. While it does not replace press releases and other forms of PR, it is an important Web 2.0 addition to these traditional ways of getting the word out about your products and services.

From a marketing standpoint, however, check out what Susan is doing with this online forum. It is an updated, online version of the old standby article type called a Roundup Article that we used to do for magazines and newspapers (and still do!).

Instead of physically getting the panel participants together, which would cost a fair bit if you had to gather people from all parts of the globe and put them up in a hotel, you pose the same questions to each person individually and then amalgamate the responses. The writing links each answer to the others in a way that sounds as if there is a true discussion going on.

This is the same technique you see (but don't notice) on the evening news, when the anchor is "interviewing" the foreign correspondent, who replied to a list of questions earlier. The video is sent back to the network and intercut with clips of the anchor asking the questions. "That's a good question, Lloyd, the people here are extremely concerned about their water quality."

This technique allows for "timeshifting" -- capturing information at one point in time and replaying it for effect at another point in time.

Gathering a panel of experts is always impressive, and adds an interesting dimension to your blog or article.

Day 14 30DC - Idol Rambling

The key to making money online is exactly the same as the key to making money offline (I know that's such a revelation). And that is knowing ahead of time what has the greatest chance of making money. Ed Dale (and others) have called this the American Idol approach. It's a great way to minimize risk and create a hungry market.

All of the Idol shows are superb at building up a following for the artist(s) and creating a pre-sold market for their CD releases. They know the winning artist will be successful at product sales because millions of people are voting for them. It's only a short hop from there to voting with their wallets by buying the winners' music.

Meanwhile, there's promotion and marketing going on in the background -- product licensing, images, blogs, and so on. Quite an amazing marketing machine that funds itself as it goes along. "Juggernaut" is the word for it.

In previous years' Thirty Day Challenges we've used a technique called "fly catching" which is to post a web page that is as compelling (sweet) as you can make it, and then open the windows (promote it with Pay Per Click advertising). The objective was to see how many flies (customers) would land on it and stick, meaning they'd like what they see and enter their e-mail contact info to get on your mailing list for future marketing.

Since people are a lot more discriminating than flies, it was very much a hit-and-miss approach.

This year, we are looking for those raving fans who are already consuming something as proven by our market research into our various niches. This is akin to having a very large group of people asking, "When's the next American Idol tryout?" The audience craves more, so it only makes sense to give it to them.

Makes marketing a whole lot more interesting, don't you think?

Day 13 30DC - Data Mining for Gold

Marketing guru and all around exceptional human being Gary Halbert used to talk about the Golden Nugget method. This is a way of being an expert at any subject in about 48 hours of work.

The technique, which you can use in analog or digital form, is to survey as many other publications or information sources as you can that are about your topic. Scan these sources for information that is unusual, interesting, or that somehow snags your attention. In other words, you are looking for anything noteworthy.

When you find such snippets or factoids, jot them down, either on a 3.5" file card as Halbert suggests, in a pocket paper notebook, or in a digital notebook, such as WordPad, Google Notebook, EasyNoter (love this, thanks Marlon!), or any text editor.

When you capture this information, be sure to note the source as well, so you can find it again or give proper credit later.

My own recommendation is to make some additional notes to yourself about the context or the interest factor of the information. Why did you think it was interesting? What made you say "Wow!"? Why is it particularly relevant to your topic?

Maybe your note is something like this: "Speed Reading [topic]: The Guardian Newspaper had a champion speed reader read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
so they could print an early review. She read the entire book in 47 minutes." http://books.guardian.co.uk/ [include source URL]

While that is fascinating, what made you write it down in relation to your topic? Those extra bits of info you attach to your note help your brain organize this material, and make it easier for you to use the snippet later when you need something to add to an article, blog or essay.

It aids the brain in correlating the information with what you already know, and helps your memory as well. In the parlance of accelerated learning, it's related to cognitive correlation, and emotional integration.

It's easy to become an expert at anything when you know how to take good notes.

Day 12 30DC - Painless Research

Market research is a huge, time-consuming effort for anyone who is doing it right. You need to be thorough, and you need to be focused. The Internet provides a huge repository of information, as well as a fast and easy way to gather data for your specific purposes.

A couple of caveats, however:

• Some information on the Internet is notoriously flawed.
  
• There are spoof sites masquerading as legitimate sites, usually in the political arena.
  
• When people post answers to questions in forums or elsewhere on the web, they sometimes post incorrect answers.
  
• Your results are only as good as your search paradigm.
  
• Information without context is suspect and needs to be cross-checked.
• Always validate your sources!

As long as you are aware of these limitations (and there are more, there isn't space for an exhaustive list), and adopt good research habits, you can get a lot of good information from the Internet faster than browsing the reference section of a physical library.

The Internet makes doing market research painless and quick. There are no more excuses for short-changing your research effort.

Day 11 30DC - Relax, It's Only a Test

As more of my niches crash and burn during the analysis process I am reminded that this is extremely valuable work and ultimately it is saving me untold dollars as well as considerable heartache down the road.

Testing, testing, and more testing, has to be integrated into every part of your business. If you are not testing, you don't really know what's going on.

And it should be a joyous thing to see your work fail the test. Better it fails now, when you can fix it inexpensively, than in front of the customer, or after you have laid out plenty of money to launch.

While it is disappointing to see potentially interesting and fun niches splat against the wall, it is heartening to know that those that survive will be more likely to generate revenue.

And that's the name of the game.

Day 10 30 DC - The Power of Saying NO

I'm finding it hard to let go of some of my favorite niches. I chose them in the first place because they are topics I am passionate about, or that I believe others would find compelling. They are, for the most part, highly marketable niches, and I do have some experience and reasonable success in getting things to the right market.

I also liked many of them because I could quite clearly see the related products and services that would generate revenue, and I felt I knew how to attract the target market.

But the numbers just don't hold up. Even though I have run the analysis on my top eliminated favorites a few times (silly girl, the results aren't going to change in a day!), hoping to see potential I missed, they are still "no go".

That's not to say they must be abandoned, only that acting upon them would take certain resources that are beyond the scope of this challenge.

There is a great deal of power in saying "NO". I wish more of my clients would realize that. NO, we're not releasing the product before it has been thoroughly tested. NO, we are not skimping on the manual. NO, we are not spending money on a marketing campaign that doesn't have a specific objective. And so on.

Sometimes, you say NO to gather more data, and that is good. Your decisions will likely be better if based on thorough research. Sometimes, you say NO in order to wait for a more opportune time, thus increasing chances for success. And sometimes, you say NO to a good idea so that you can take advantage of a better idea that is just about to come along.

"NO" creates boundaries. It draws a line that you state you will not cross. And if you cross it you had better know the potential consequences. "NO" clearly establishes your position, without any vacillation or weakness. But you have to mean it.

"NO" is very empowering, in business, in relationships, in life. Try it sometime. Trot it out and give it a go. Let me know how that works for you.

Day 9 30 DC - Coming to Terms

Ed and Dan weren't kidding when they said that Days 7, 8 and 9 were the most important of the entire Thirty Day Challenge training. Their techniques have revolutionized how Internet Marketers approach their businesses.

I have already mentioned that having benchmarks, or proven criteria against which to evaluate our ideas in the research and analysis stage, is an innovation in this field that previously was a hit or miss game. The fallout, however, is that all the niche ideas that were developed out of interest and enthusiasm have, one after another, been eliminated because they don't hold up in analysis. You might think that's discouraging, and perhaps it is to a point.

But the real value in these techniques is that we are saving untold hours and dollars by NOT going down the wrong path. Information like we're getting at the on-paper stage is

Much of the work I do in the technical communication field, working with software companies and other product development organizations, is to help them solve user issues BEFORE they become coded or manufactured into being and passed to the customer. When you can eliminate most customer support issues by finessing the design (and the other part is rigorous user testing at the earliest stages possible), you save countless dollars and resources, plus your customers are happier with a product that works well. Unfortunately, the bottom line value of these improvements are hard to quantify, except in the omission. We know full well what bad software costs in terms of customer opinion and loyalty. You might see some feedback on tech support forums and in user communities, and customer support staff can certainly attest to how well the product is going over with the users.

When something works like clockwork, however, who notices? Very few people will stop and think, "Wow, that was easy!". Their expectation is always simply that things will work the way they are supposed to. Without a basis for comparison, one doesn't notice the performance difference. That's one of the reasons these Thirty Day Challenge techniques are turning most of us on our heads. We know what it's like to do things the hard way, the trial and error way. Being able to reliably assess each individual niche for its potential for success is HUGE.

So how did my terms fair in the analysis? Out of 103 potential niches that I had listed, so far 2 (TWO!) have survived all of the tests. I have five others which are borderline and are on the "keep watching" list. I am not disappointed by this. Now when I put effort into these two niches I will know that I have a better-than-average chance of succeeding with them. The stats are there to indicate precisely this.

Do I feel chagrined at my niche-picking skill? Not at all. The niches that didn't make the cut are still potentially good, I would just have to use different techniques to make them profitable. The point about this year's Thirty Day Challenge is that it is intended to cost us $0.00, zero, zip, nada, zilch, you know the rest. If that in itself is not a revolution in Internet Marketing, I don't know what is.

Day 8 30DC - X Marks the Spot

We've all seen those adventure movies where the hero(ine) has a treasure map but the part containing the X is missing, or they have a complete map without any labels so they don't know where to start. It is only by luck that they'll have any chance of finding what they seek.

This is exactly the thing that the Thirty Day Challenge team addressed in today's training. You can't find the treasure if you don't have any indication of where the gold is.


The million-dollar technique demonstrated today gives us all the landmarks we need to zero in on the gold in Internet Marketing. They shared with us a way of comparing the various statistics we've been looking at up to this point, so that we can correctly evaluate the traffic potential for any keyword phrase. More importantly, they showed how to use a baseline or benchmark to validate those statistics.

Baselines and benchmarks represent known, quantifiable, and tested points against which all other results can be compared. These consistent measurements give you a concrete way to prove the worth of your work and research.

In business, medicine, and project management, a baseline is a snapshot of your current situation. Before making any changes, you want to have a baseline against which to compare future results. The baseline is the known, that allows you to venture into the unknown.

Similarly a benchmark is a known, fixed point that gives you confidence in all of your results. Benchmarks are achieved through known and repeatable processes, the key being "repeatable". If you do the same things, you are going to get the same results, consistently and reliably.

In business, this is a valuable lesson. In Internet Marketing, it's revolutionary. Internet marketing has often been trial and error, hit and miss. It seemed that a good deal of range-finding was involved -- taking a shot, seeing where it hit, and readjusting if it missed the target. As Ed has told us, it took 38 tries before his first website was successful at generating revenue. He didn't have these techniques way back then.

That he and his team are sharing them now is a tribute to their generosity and character. They have given us a treasure map, complete with legend and starting point. The only thing left to do is follow it.

Day 7 30DC - Tools of the Trade

The podcast and videos today in the Thirty Day Challenge demonstrated how to begin to evaluate the niche ideas we have accumulated over the initial days of training. We are beginning the winnowing process, continuing to obtain statistical information about the niches from the various research tools Ed introduced. Our niches will either make it through the gate to the next round of evaluation, or they will prove to be unreliable risks that do not deserve any further effort.

There may be a few that are borderline -- some of the stats don't quite add up to form a perfect picture, but there may be other characteristics that give us reason to keep them in play for the time being. They would certainly involve further market research, and the application of some wisdom gained through our experience with this process.

For now, however, it is more important to focus on the niches that meet all of the stated criteria.

In addition to these techniques, Ed brought up an important point that is relevant to every field of endeavour. If you are planning to make your fortune (and my NAT132 students will know that one's fortune includes not only wealth and prosperity, but destiny and development of character) in any trade or profession, it is vitally important to have the best quality tools for the practice of that trade or profession.

He reminded us that top chefs have sets of knives worth thousands of dollars. If you are going to be making your living (and making a life, too) online, then you deserve and have an imperative for getting the fastest broadband connection you can get as well as the most powerful computer you can afford.

Precision tools allow your genius and your skill to be realized in the things that you create, fashion, repair, or reshape. They allow you to spend your time on the things that matter instead of wrestling with the tools. In the time/money equation (NAT132!) the time you save when you work efficiently goes toward growing your business and building your wealth, instead of cleaning up messes or finding workarounds for inadequate tools. How effective is a carpenter who has a substandard drill and is relegated to turning every screw by hand?

Beyond that are the limitations poor tools place upon your performance in other ways. If a carpenter only has a hammer, then every problem becomes a nail. You've heard that before, I'm sure. What it means is that creative thinking or innovation is not possible; the potential outcomes of all problems are constrained by the tools available for their resolution. This is a death knell for business, because you cannot react adequately to the issues that arise.

It may seem simplistic to state that tradesmen are only as good as their tools. What about knowledge workers? When the product of your brain is more important than the product of your hands, your tools need to be fast and sophisticated to process information effectively. Data gathering and data manipulation are increasingly the way to building one's wealth in the 21st century. Do that faster and better than your competitors and your success is assured.

The Tao of Ed, Take II

You know I'm a scamp, right? Ed happened to mention that we needed black T-shirts in support of the Tao of Ed movement. So here's what I did:

Ed is too modest to have his face on a T-shirt, so we went to additional iterations, including one with Tao or Yin/Yang symbol, one with the symbols for Knowledge and Prosperity, and one with a guitar, sort of. Consensus is that the guitar is something we all associate with Ed, so it deserves a place in the Tao of Ed graphical reality.

Since the guitar is so representative of Ed, I want to render it better than you see here. Y'all know I'm graphically challenged and that I have zero artistic skills -- but I am a copy/paste mashup maven! And this soon-to-be-a-collector's-item T-shirt deserves a much better image.

I have also been asked for a pic of a combat hamster -- I'm workin' on it!

Day 6 30DC - Don't Judge, Just Notice

Even with 2 days of rest and catchup, the clock is still ticking, counting down the magical 30 days of the Challenge. In today's training Ed continued his riff on market research and gave us a couple of new ways to go about it. His emphasis continued to be on noticing, not judging.

It's hard not to employ one's critical thinking skills when looking at niche markets. Immediately the brain tries to edit and evaluate what we're seeing, but at this stage of market research, like brainstorming, it is important only to notice what we're seeing. Essentially, it's a data-gathering phase.

By the way, that is one of the first phases of project management, for any project, the research and analysis phase. Note that the word Research comes before Analysis. You need data in order to have something to analyze. The quality of your analysis will only be as good as the quality and thoroughness of your data.

The term "noticing" also implies that you are paying close attention to what you are seeing. Your market research is not just a factoid grab, but an intelligent observation of the data you are gathering. This means taking in the information on the periphery as well as what is directly in front of your face. What else is on the web page you are looking at? Where do links take you from that page? How many people have been looking for that keyword? What related keywords do they search for?

If you only gather the superficial data, i.e., the low-hanging fruit, your market research will be inadequate, and if you later base business decisions on that market research, you put yourself at risk for losing money.

There is no substitute for the research and analysis phase in project management. (And if you've taken any of my classes you know that project management, product management, document development, software development, event planning, and pretty much every other human activity follows the same Development Life Cycle.) You cannot take shortcuts with this. While it's attractive to rush this stage to get into the sexy and fun part of developing a product or project, neglecting the research and analysis phase creates time bombs and traps that you will have to deal with in the latter stages of your project, and then they will be very costly indeed.

So in phase 1, Research -- noticing everything, judging nothing. Then analyze. No doubt we'll be talking about that tomorrow.