Steve and Tim LIVE – Day 2

Day 1 can be found here:  Steve and Tim LIVE – Day 1

Wednesday 6/23

9:00 – Introduction to Day 2

Another announcement of Dinner with Steve!  :)

9:15 – Information Products

Steve talked about creating your own products, why you want to, why you should use ClickBank.  Some comments about the upcoming Info Prodigy product.  (woohoo!)

Steve talked about writing your products based on your passions, and what you know and like.

A good question came up… Should I stick to a niche that has an existing market?  Steve’s response was… Yes.  But unless you are really weird in your interests, there will be other people out there who have the same interest as you.  You can write something that interests you, that will likely sell.

Of course… you do have to have a  good product… but that’s where Info Prodigy comes in, right?

Another good point (fits the Paralysis by Analysis concept). 

Your product has to be Market Ready.  NOT Perfect!

Landing Page Cash Machine – good site for doing sales/landing pages and split testing.

JV Notify Pro – Place to push out your IM related product to JV opportunities .(not recommended that you get into the IM realm though)

Affiliate Announcement – Another place to announce your info product.  Doesn’t have to be IM related.

Here is one of my personal choices for split testing…  ABingo – it is a manual tool you have to install and configure… but it’s free, and works well.

 

10:00 – Cash Flow and Budgeting

Grandma Claytons Budgeting and Cash Flow Lessons ;)

Basics of how to handle your cash flow… make sure you have the money to pay the bills when they are do.  My personal recommendation, is to go get some of the books or courses from Dave Ramsey.  It goes into MUCH more detail than what Steve is showing here.

Steve basically breaks down your yearly amounts owed (monthly mortgage x 12, car insurance, property taxes, etc) and divides that out by 12 (for each month).  This is now your “Must Pay” balance.  After you pay that, any money left is to be used for other expenditures.

Consult a tax person.  Personally I’ve had good luck with June Walker.  She also has a good book for doing taxes as an “Indie”.  Someone who is independently employed – Self-employed Tax Solutions 

Steve highly recommends becoming an LLC.  Easier in many aspects.

 

10:15 – Traffic – AdWords

Some good discussions on using AdWords.  Google appears to wholesale dislike certain niches.  Regardless of your content or methods.

If you get your domain slapped via AdWords, that domain is no longer viable.  Don’t use it for AdWords anymore… even if it’s a new niche, new content, etc. 

 

11:30 – Traffic – Facebook, MySpace

Facebook is NOT the new internet.  Facebook is interrupt driven market.    You put up ads and try to interrupt the user to get them to buy.

One thing to note, is that visitors don’t go posting on FB walls asking “where is the best place to buy a Nikon D 40”.  They go to google to do that.  So Facebook and MySpace aren’t going to replace google.  But there are some great demographics opportunities in FB that you can then target with an ad.

You may not want to try to sell directly on Facebook… you want to try to build a relationship (opt-in, free info, etc).  After you have the relationship… then you can sell to them.

Facebook Tips:

• Use pictures for your ads.
• Split test
• Watch your CTR.
• Change the pictures every other week.

12:00 – Lunch!

Pretty good… roasted chicken, vegetables, rice, salmon, salad.

And a phenomenal chocolate mousse!  *sigh*

1:00 – Traffic – Other Sources

Yahoo answers, Link Juice machines, forum signatures, ezine articles, BizRate, PriceGrabber, etc.  I can’t go into a lot of details here…   But just lots of other methods to pick up traffic… when combined, they add up.

Some more: twitter (one account per niche, build followers).  Facebook (not paid ads, but fan pages, etc).

More:  Radio ads, GoogleTV, newspaper, local ads, direct mail, postcards etc.

 

1:45 – Traffic – SEO

Discussing the case study for a realtor that was used. 

3 types of links to get…

1. Automated (UAW, AB)
2. Manual (forum posts, profile links, blog comments, social bookmarks, BB, LB)
3. High PR links (link juice machines, LB)

Basically use the link building plan from IMA, and the backlink database.

The “Double Indent”.  Build backlinks with identical anchor text for 2 pages.  You’ll get one page in the #1 position, and the 2nd page gets to #1, it shows up indented under the first.

 

2:45 – Traffic – Managing the Link Building

Setup a spreadsheet for each month.  This spreadsheet has all the links that month you need to build.  Use one spreadsheet per month.  This can track each of the links you build.

Remember… don’t fret if you miss a day.  Build links.  If you aren’t sure what type of link to build… just build some.  If you are in doubt of what to do next… build links.

 

3:20 – Outsourcing LinkBuilding with Pragmites – Guarav

Background on Guarav.  He got his first paycheck from affiliate marketing at age 12.  He decided he wanted to drop out of school, but his father said no.

Pragmites – 30 full time employees. 3 offices… India, Australia and Delaware US.

Very nice presentation… horse racing themed. 

Guarav (and Steve) both recommend The 4-Hour Workweek.

Guarav talked about Why you should outsource (the 4-Hour Workweek explains the “why” very well).  He also talked about What to outsource.  He also covered the 4 items to look for when outsourcing

1. Cost
2. Consistency
3. Competency
4. Culture

Guarav had Brett come up and talk for a few minutes on Task Outsourcing vs. Outcome Outsourcing.  Don’t outsource the task.  Outsource the outcome.  What do you want to happen…

Very Informative!  I am definitely going to be outsourcing to Pragmites once I get home, and can get things sorted.

Pragmites does have some capacity to take on new clients… but they currently are not unlimited capacity.  So if you want to use their service, you might want to contact them soon.  Tell them Eric sent you.  :)

 

3:55 – Putting it all together

Take the plans outlined at the LIVE event… and build one for you.  It may be identical to what Steve outlined… it may be completely different.  But you have to take on a plan.

4 things to consider – consider your needs

1. financial
2. time
3. risk
4. rewards

There is no right or wrong way to get there.  Develop your plan (and if you are in doubt, go build links :D).

What financial resources you can commit will determine what options you can use to meet your goals.

Some items will do better than the projections.  Some will do worse.  But with the diversity of the original plan… you are covered.

 

Many of the tools and courses necessary for the Business Plan options can be found in The IM Advantage program from Steve and Tim.