Have you ever felt like you’re being drawn and quartered and just haven’t come apart yet?

Yeah, I’m feelin’ kinda stressed around here. Trying to go in too many directions and not reaching any of the destinations.

That’s what happens if you try to do too many things that aren’t related to each other.

Having become addicted to downloading all the neat free offers and free trials, I’ve been going in too many directions for a while now.

It’s hard to resist email headlines like these:

“Last chance to download this free PDF report”
“Here’s your free report”
“Here’s your ready made income stream…”
“You can’t win without this…”
“Download this free video package”
“Did you pick up your free software?”
“This powerful report is just for you”
“This report / video/ course/ software/ ebook/ audio/ is just what you need”
“Open now if you like money”
“Download these products instantly”
“Get 2000 guaranteed visitors to your website today!”
“Have you tried this yet?”
“Grab this while you still can” or, “before it’s too late”
“Great freebie for you today”

And then there are the nifty catch words like, secret, incredible, sneaky, alarming, fun, deadline, before it’s too late, and
yes, even nifty is a great catch word.

I’m saving the headlines that make me click, for a “swipe file” of good subject lines, but I’m not the best test subject for this. I tend to be curious anyway, and it doesn’t take much to pique my interest.

And I’m not complaining about these email subject lines. They’re good. They got me to click on them. And they pretty much all have some great products. But are they related to what I’m doing? Or even to each other?

Mostly, not. And therein lies my dilemma.

It’s a funny thing about goals… you have to define them really well if you want one.

It’s time to read Alex’s modules again and get down to business… yet again.

How do you stay on track? How does anyone focus on only one subject when everything is so interesting?

I’d love to hear what you think!

If anyone still thinks Social Media marketing is a fad, they will find out soon enough things have gone far past that idea.

I’ve certainly found a great niche on Twitter and am reveling in the fine friendships I’ve made over there. We’ve also accomplished quite a lot, as well, as we share information and recommendations to help others. It’s amazing how much information you can dispense in 140 characters or less.

Others prefer Facebook, or LinkedIn, or any of the many others now on the scene. It’s not going away and as this video demonstrates, it’s a paradigm shift akin to that of the Industrial Revolution.

Enjoy:

This just in: Now it looks like we’re going to have to learn some new rules of the game due to changes in credit card order processing. Apparently, MasterCard and Visa have changed things without any warning.

This very likely will affect most of us in varying ways. For some, it will be completely debilitating, and for others, just a bump in the road. In either case, it will be a learning experience and will ruin some and strengthen others.

What is this change?

Remember “try before you buy?” Or “free plus shipping?” Or, “$1 now, then $37 (47, 67, etc.) per month?” It’s known as “continuity.”

Well, it seems those selling tactics have just been shut down. Suddenly, and without warning, you may not be able to do those anymore. Not with those credit card companies, anyway.

It’s probably a reaction to unscrupulous marketing, but it has the potential to ruin honest and straight forward marketers, too.

Boy, if you’re not being slapped around by Google, or fined by the FTC, now you can get in line with your fanny bared for a MasterCard/Visa spanking.

Where will this end? It’s getting harder and harder to make a living in any world, offline AND online.

So what can we do to survive, or preferably, thrive?

According to some of the experts out there, it looks like your LIST will still be your best asset to date. Focus on list-building and forging relationships with people and you should be OK. The high-flying, happy-go-lucky days of the wild frontier online are over.

Good. It’s not hard to put videos in here. Now it’s time to post the second video from Patric Chan, which I just got from him. It’s the second 5 tips, completing the Top Ten that he promised in Part One.

Enjoy:

Gotta love him… Patric knows his stuff, and he loves sharing it!

This is going to be an experiment for me, as well as an attempt to share something of value with everyone.

First, this will be my first attempt at posting a video in here! If nothing shows up, I’ll cry, but if you see something, then you’ll know I lucked out.

Second, I thought this video was pretty helpful. It’s by my friend, Patric Chan, who coached me a couple years ago.

So, if I’ve embedded this video right, you’ll see as you watch it that it only shows the first five tips. Patric said he’s making another video with the last five tips, which I’ll put in here next time.

OK, here we go:

Watch for the next video! You can also visit his website at www.successtrace.com.

Oh, it’s a jungle out there, all right. Just when you think you’ve learned enough to protect yourself, someone comes up with a new way to ruin your day… or your website, or your reputation, or…

We all know better than to click on a link in an email from Nigeria by now, but did you know it could happen in your Twitter account too?

Typically, it will show up as a DM (you Tweeters know what that is…. “Direct Message” if you don’t) from someone you know or recognize. It will be something to pique your curiosity… a link to a funny video or a way to make 10 million bucks in 5 minutes… and you want to click on it. You can’t help clicking on it. So… you click on it.

As a rule, you’ll get a login screen that looks very official. You might even think it has something to do with Twitter. After all, there are quite a few useful and innocent apps available for us Tweeps to make our time there more fun and profitable. If you’re used to allowing apps to have access to your account, you will probably allow this one, too.

But don’t do it!

Why? Because the next thing that happens is that YOUR Twitter ID starts sending spam to everyone. You could get banned or
flamed or something.

What should you do? First, don’t click on these. If you get hooked anyway and start seeing the nasty results of this scam, immediately change your password. Then, go here: http://twitter.com/account/connections and see who has access to your account. If you don’t like what you see there, click on Revoke Access.

I just checked, and I don’t have anyone using my account but me. Whew!

But don’t panic if you have several in there. Just examine them and be sure they are there because you really did want their services or whatever.

Also realize that if you can be tricked, so can your friends and followers. Don’t flame them. Just realize they probably don’t know what happened. Send them a DM and advise them what to do to clear things up! Be a friend.

Oh boy, be careful what you wish for. And be careful how you visualize and focus on things…

I’ve been thinking strongly about how to make a few bucks this year, just to help me hold on while I create my ultimate success online.
I guess I’ve been thinking of that end result as too big to conquer first, and that I should do something “in the meantime” to survive while I put the elements together that will bring huge success.

This week I actually came into possession of a “buck.” A dog named Buck.

OK, you can laugh if you want to. I think it’s kinda funny myself. Maybe Buck the dog will be the push I needed, to get past the notion that the ultimate goal has to be secondary. It should be primary!

So, how did I actually end up with Buck the dog?

As part of my animal rescue work, it came to my attention that a swell dog was about to be put down because he had nowhere to go, and the shelter he was in needed the space. As is typical of shelters all over the U.S. (and probably in other countries as well), certain animals have the lowest chances of survival as they are usually the first to be killed. No one adopts them, and they can languish in a cage forever. So why bother?

Buck typifies that situation in every way: He’s black; not too big, but not small; he has no identification on him; he’s older; no owner can be found (meaning he was dumped to wander and make it on his own); to survive he was raiding trash cans; he looked sickly (thin from lack of food and care, matted hair, covered in ticks). Poor Buck was a sure candidate for the needle, all right. Who would want such a sorry looking old dog?

Well, I did. I knew he was a good dog inside but that his luck was almost completely run out, so I spoke up. After veterinary care and some recuperation time in a foster home, he became ready for his new home…. mine!

So now that I have my interim “buck” along the way to internet success, I can focus fully on that goal! (Did the universe just teach me a lesson? I prayed for “bucks” and got one!)

These may irritate readers but if marketers are still making a pile, maybe I should copy them.

1. The Hidden Price

Have you ever had to do a search for the dollar sign on a sales page just to find the price of the product in a hurry? What if the price is “hidden” in an image? The search won’t find it.

It’s usually near the bottom, but crafty site owners know their visitors know this, so they’ve taken to burying the price deep inside the text further up the page, if at all. This means you have to keep reading to find it. Or so the web site owner thinks.

That leads me to my last resort… to simply click on the Buy Now button and go to the order page. And there it sits… as clear as an entry in a ledger. The price. If I don’t like it, I abandon the cart. This may contribute to their cart abandonment stats.

Hiding the price does not make me read the whole sales page.

2. Insulting the reader (did they forget this is a prospect?)

Let’s say I’ve clicked the No Thanks button on a sales page and an alternate offer pops up. This offer is usually a lower price option for the same product, but perhaps with fewer bonuses.

I’m OK with that, but what really makes me boil is the nasty little comment at the bottom, where it says “No Thanks,” followed by a snide remark, like, “I’m not interested in being successful,” or, “I don’t want this product because I already know it all,” or, something equally insulting.

It’s not nice to berate your prospective customer for not buying your product. I don’t buy anything from anyone who criticizes my decision.

3. The deflating price tag.

I detest buying something, only to find it at half the price next week, then free a month later. I’ve learned to wait for a product because I figure it will be on sale soon. I’m one of the early customers who bought the Peel Ads for $27. Within a month, you could get that script for $7. Recently I saw it free somewhere. Lucky me, huh?

4. Forced Continuity

I particularly dislike these schemes. “Buy this for $1 today, totally risk free.” Translation: Pay a dollar now, then just try to cancel being on the list you just promised to pay $97 a month. A friend of mine fell for one of these and then discovered it didn’t meet her needs after all. She ended up paying a very well known marketer $291 before she could get it canceled, then also had to pay her bank another $50 for an insufficient funds charge during the third month of efforts to get unsubbed. This is “risk free?”

5. The Impossible Signup

I want to sign up for something, but I can’t. Why? Because I get a message that says, “Error. Our records show that you are already subscribed to this list.” OK, fine. Thanks for offering to send me something I can’t have. If I’m already on that list, why can’t they just give it to me with a download link in a regular email? Why must I sign up yet again? Especially when the repeat signup fails. This results in three possibilities:

1. Forget it, it doesn’t work.
2. I end up on a list more than once, if they accept duplicate subs. If not, then….
3. I have to subscribe with one of my other email accounts if I really want the offer. Either way, I get too many emails and end up having to spend some “housekeeping” time unsubscribing from duplicate emails.

Game over…. please?

One of the things I appreciate about being in Alex’s coaching program is that he isn’t teaching us how to use sneaky tactics to get ahead. There’s no substitute for honesty and sincerity when building relationships with your customers. If you want to build a list of devoted fans who will sustain you in your business, you just cannot take advantage of their good intentions. If you burn them, they will go away. Of course, if you just want a quick surge of interest for a fast buck, it could work, but that usually isn’t sustainable.

There is no lack of dirty tricks online and I see them in my email every day. For example, the following email subject lines are a bit less than honest. At least the ones that tell you they’re being sneaky are upfront about it.

Many of the following subject lines have grabbed my attention, but as soon as I read the email and realized I’d been tricked, I instantly lost trust in that marketer. It’s so unlikely that I’d ever buy anything from them that I generally unsubscribe from their list. I don’t do it right away, as I tend to give people second and third chances (or more), but I might only download their freebies once they’ve zinged me. Maybe.

Here are some of the annoying and dishonest subject lines I’ve seen very recently, even today:

Hi {firstname}, I need your help… seriously.

Your user name and password…

I need your shipping address…

{firstname}, you made a sale!

Confirmation required…

Your commission check is ready…

Your order has been processed…

Notification of a cleared eCheck payment…

Not one of these currently popular subject lines has been true. I did not get a commission check, I did not order anything, I did not make a sale, no one gave me a username or password, and that guy asking for help only wanted me to buy something. Yeah, I could use that kind of “help,” too.

The “confirmation required” subject is particularly tricky, because when you click on that link, you are suddenly subscribed to a list you didn’t ask to be on. But as far as the autoresponder can tell, it’s a legal optin. Gotta watch those. I’m still trying to extricate myself from a few of them. And three of those are with very high profile marketers that most people trust. I usually recognize a scam when I see one, but sometimes not until I’ve been lured into the path of the oncoming train. And then it’s too late.

Of course, all of the above lines can be explained away inside the email, supposedly mitigating the white lie, but you have to open and read them to see it. A real time waster, if you ask me. For example, “your commission check” usually leads to an opening line that says, “got your attention, eh?” Or, “I’ll bet that’s an email you’d like to see more often.”

I’m afraid the days are long gone of quickly scanning my emails to see which ones I’d like to open. Now I have to examine them to see if they are true, and I just don’t have time for that anymore.

Still, we learn. In this case, I’ve learned to ignore emails that make promises or play on my helpful nature, just to get me to read the email. Sadly, that sometimes means I miss something I did request.

Sometimes it’s more about the package than the content. And sometimes a presentation sells a product more effectively than describing it, no matter how great it might be.

Here’s what I mean:

I’ve been lucky to experience some extraordinary things in my life, and you can read about it by exploring the About tab at the top of this page. But if you want to be exhilarated, just run over to
Gil’s page. You’ll be wowed out of your socks — not because he’s 39 and he’d rather go to the beach than a pool, but because of the way he tells it.

Gil’s “25 things about me” entry is nothing less than a great example of a natural talent to tell a story in a way that propels the ordinary to “wow.”

He makes you want to know more, without leaving you exhausted (or bored or revealing too much about himself) by just reading about his exploits.

I’m not psychic, but I could get away with claiming it, because my prediction for his future is going to be right: His future is going to be bright!