Don't forget, if you are interested in Firepow, I have arranged for a $300 Firepow Discount for Masonworld.com readers.

This first video is an overview of the Firepow home page, and describes what major features are available in the Firepow system.

Enjoy, and don't forget to leave me some feedback.

Thanks,
Mark

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It's Wednesday, and you know what that means. It's time for another weekly Internet Business Fortune Cookie. Monday I went to a "real" Chinese restaurant in a primarily Asian section of greater Dallas. I've been eating in that particular restaurant for more than 10 years. The place is really neat - there are traditionally prepared roasted ducks hanging in the front window.   The place has a "Chinatown Market" feel to it.

When I first started eating there in the mid-nineties the there were no English menus. I would go there with a Mandarin-speaking friend and he would do the talking.  This sometimes resulted in weird stuff like "chicken feet" being brought to the table, but in general the food was fantastic. The only thing that has changed since that time is that there is an English menu available now, but the daily specials are still written on the board in Chinese characters, and I still can't read them.

The Cookie Speaks The Truth

As you know, everything you need to know about running an internet business can be learned from fortune cookies. This week The Cookie has come out on the side of building your business around a loyal community of followers.

Hear The Cookie:

"An hour with one friend is worth more than ten with strangers."

Of course, the fortune cookie is obviously referring to the fact the most successful Internet businesses these days are built around a loyal community of followers.

A Life-Long Business or A Quick Buck?

Are you trying to build a sustainable life-long business, or are you just out to make a quick buck?  No offense, but if you are just trying to make a quick buck, you are reading the wrong blog.  If you are trying to build a life-long business, get to know your customers and invest in them.  The cookie is telling you that you need to give freely to your customers so that they value the trust and expertise that you are offering them.   As the cookie knows, one customer who knows and trusts you is worth ten (or a hundred) that don't.

Get out there.  Interact with your community of followers.  Give them value.  When it comes time to ask for the sale (and you will ask for the sale), you'll be glad you invested in them.

So, listen to the cookie. Build your business by creating a community. For more on this concept, check out the guys at Internet Business Mastery today (I have written about the Internet Business Mastery guys before).  To learn from them, you don't need to spend a dime.  Their podcast is awesome.  You can start with their tremendous free materials on their podcast website and learn a lot about how to think about building a life-long Internet business.

Have a great day.
Mark

Photo credit: Uploaded on July 17, 2006 by headcase

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Sure enough, I got this thoughtful comment from a loyal reader ( Alex The Big Blogger):

I’m not a fan of Popups, I consider them a little bit spammy, although I’ve tested them out on my own blog and I too have seen good results. I’ve made them with Aweber and set a delay to the apparence. On this way the visitor fisrt starts reading the post and then he gets the popup. Getting a popup as the first thing when i come to a site sets me up and makes me walk away.

That is exactly what I am worried about -- but I like the idea of a delay.

Then it occurred to me that I could just put some php code around the JavaScript based on the referrer to determine if the lightbox appeared.  For my initial experiment, I am only showing the opt-in box to users from StumbleUpon, Google search, Yahoo search and MSN search.  That way, I should not be offending my regular readers. (I know I am not the first person to have this idea, by the way).

In addition to that, I have the popup set to display once per browser session. That should allow for minimum annoyance.

I will let you know how it goes. I have added some Google Analytics code to the popup box html, so I should be able to get some decent stats on the performance.

One issue -- not all browsers are configured to report the referring website. For our current experiment, those visitors will not see the box. I may change this behavior later.

In case you are interested, here is the trivial php code to manage who sees the popup:


<?php
$referer = strtolower($_SERVER["HTTP_REFERER"]);
if ( strstr($referer,"google")||strstr($referer,"yahoo")||
strstr($referer,".live.")||strstr($referer, "stumbleupon"))
{
?>

<?php } ?>


(Special thanks to Josh Spaulding for help with troubleshooting)

Have a great day!
Mark

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It's Free Stuff Friday again, and time for the Friday Freebie.

I been doing some research with my Internet Marketing Guru buddy Josh Spaulding this week on pop-ups (pop-under, pop-over, light boxes, etc.).  I was motivated to do this based on results pop-up optin results published by  Caroline Middlebrook.  She published the graph below on Twitter to show the dramatic impact of the lightbox on he opt-ins:

So, I went looking for the best pop-up script.  Aweber has something simple available, but you cannot completely customize it (e.g you cannot completely control the graphics.).

I found "You Can't Block This" -- it is one of those "unblockable" JavaScript popups with lightbox effects.  It also does peelaway ads.  Since I knew that Free Stuff Friday was coming up, I grabbed the resale rights copy, and am offering a private use copy to you at no charge.  If you want to buy the resale rights or even the master resale rights, you can check out the You Can't Block This home page.  Once you have resale rights, you can sell this product yourself and keep the profits (or give this product away to your list).

I have this up and running on a test page here if you want to see it.  I have it set to only show once -- so if you want to see it again, clear your cookies.

As always, opt in to my list to get access to all the free stuff (opt-in box in the right hand sidebar).  As soon as you opt-in and confirm you subscription, you'll receive instructions on how to log into the members area.

Thanks,
Mark

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It's Wednesday, and you know what that means. It's time for another weekly Internet Business Fortune Cookie. Last night I had Jalapeno Chicken and fried rice. Basically, I call this "Texas Chinese Food." It was really spicy hot, and that explains this week's cookie that talks about a hot new blog from Garry Conn.

The Cookie Speaks The Truth

As you know, everything you need to know about running an internet business can be learned from fortune cookies. This week The Cookie has obviously been surfing the Internet.

Hear The Cookie:
"Big things come in small packages."

Of course, the fortune cookie is obviously referring to the fact that I got a small little email from Niche Blog and AdSense Guru Garry Conn last weekend announcing his Next Big Thing -- a new blog!

Garry has launched BloggingQuestions.com, a blog where you can go to get your questions about blogging answered by the blogging community.  Here's how it works (in Garrys' words):

How the blog works is very simple:

People can follow or subscribe to the blog and read newly asked questions or even archived ones. Because these questions have been asked by readers such as yourself, it is very likely that you will have a personal interest in the questions being asked and the answers that go with them.

The part that makes BloggingQuestions.com "one of a kind" and totally unique is the fact your questions are welcomed! There is no such thing as a stupid question on BloggingQuestions.com. You are invited to ask your own questions! Simply create a free account and post your question LIVE on the blog. From there people who read the blog (including myself) can provide you with answers by using the comment form.

Besides being the coolest domain name that I have seen in a long time, this promises to be a great resource for bloggers.  Truly, a big thing in a small package.

The Cookie Speaks About Value -- Follow The Cookie

One of the things that I like about Garry is that he really tries to help people.  Sometimes, he does this to a fault, and people take advantage of him (you know who you are).

When I was just starting out working on MasonWorld.com, Garry took tons of his own time to help me.  This new BloggingQuestions.com blog is another great example of Garry's willingness to lend a hand.  Pay attention -- Garry builds trust and gives people something in exchange for their participation in his business.

As a side note -- I think Garry has a cousin or someone like that who works at GoDaddy.  That is the only way I can explain how he gets these killer domain names.

So, listen to the cookie.   Watch out for the small packages.  There may be something big in there.  Check out BloggingQuestions.com today.

Have a great day.
Mark

Photo credit: Uploaded on July 17, 2006 by headcase

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