One of the biggest challenges of part time Internet Marketing is finding the time to do some actual internet marketing. Last month I reviewed Yanik Silver's book about how to get started making money on the internet. That book talks about five different internet monetization strategies that you can go after part-time. As I mentioned in my review, Yanik talks about blogging, eBay, affiliate marketing, information marketing, and standard online commerce as ways to make money on the Internet.

It turns out that each one of those business models has hundreds of sub niches. As a new internet marketer trying to figure out how to make money on the internet it can seem overwhelming at times. This enormous amount of information is amplified by the thousands of people trying to make money online teaching people how to make money online. It is simply amazing. Then if you throw in some sleazy dishonest slimeballs for good measure, it becomes almost impossible for a new internet marketer to figure out what to do first. it's also very distracting. Every time I check my e-mail inbox I have some new fantastic marketing offer from some heavy hitter like Mike Filsame or Yanik Silver. These slick video sales pages are hard to ignore and end up taking a lot of time.

The Information Diet -- Focus on the Roadmap

So, I am currently on a strict information diet. If it's not on the MasonWorld roadmap, I'm ignoring it for now.

One of my main goals is to put honest effort into this blog and, after a long time, and up with an A-list quality product that people want to read. The big challenge is that most of my competition is blogging full-time. They are spending their days poring over twitter feeds reading hundreds of tweets about posts on obscure blogs from all over the world in every possible time zone. As soon as something exciting happens they're off to the races with their latest blog post. While all this is happening, I am happily toiling away at my day job (which I love dearly).

So, finding enough time to post a list content to my blog and do the research to support the post is one problem. But the bigger problem is that once I have the post in my mind, I have one heck of a time getting it into WordPress. You see, I am typing challenged. Yes, it's sad but true. I got my first personal computer in 1982. It was an Apple IIe, and I learned to program it using basic. At that time, I was proud to have a 300 baud at half duplex modem that I paid for by mowing lawns in my neighborhood. I've been using a computer almost every day since 1982, and I'm really not a very good typist. Go figure.

Technology to the Rescue

So today I went to my local electronics retailer and purchased a brand-new copy of Dragon Naturally Speaking version 9.5. I am making this blog post without touching the keyboard. How cool is that? I actually experimented with the software some years ago. At that time I remember thinking that there was not enough CPU power and computer memory to enable the application to work well. Boy has that changed. The software just simply works right out of the box. After training the software for only 10 minutes I was able to write this post in scribed fire with only minor edits. Of course once the text is entered, I have to go back and do things like add hyperlinks and special formatting. I think some of those advanced capabilities are available with the software, but I only installed it 20 minutes ago so I haven't figured that out yet.

I'm really hoping that Dragon Naturally Speaking will help with my post frequency. I'm also really excited about the potential to use this device for generating content for article marketing. I can imagine surfing the web, finding a web page with relevant content, and summarizing several pages verbally with my own twist. This would allow me to use Dragon Naturally Speaking as a way to create outstanding content for article marketing. For a guy who cannot type very well this is exciting news.

I'm also thinking that it might be possible to use the advanced version of Dragon Naturally Speaking to transcribe podcasts. I'm very interested in adding a podcast to MasonWorld.com, but to be successful it will need to be a very efficient endeavor.

So stay tuned to this channel.

Thanks and best regards, Mark

Last week was an exciting week. My neighborhood was hit by a tornado that knocked out power and satellite, I celebrated a birthday (I feel old) and I was kidnapped by my wife and taken to an exotic hotel location without my laptop. Working on Internet Marketing without electricity, an internet connection or a laptop is really challenging. Luckily, my BlackBerry was not impacted by this weekends events, so I was able to stay connected.

Over the weekend, I was able to get started in Josh Spaulding's coaching program. Josh is an article marketing and SEO expert (currently ranking on page 1 in Google for make money online), and a really nice guy. When I first got started in Internet Marketing, I became interested in Adsense, and quickly learned that there were guys like Garry Conn that had as many as 100 blogs -- many of which were making money from Adsense. In my research on this topic, I ran across Josh's eBook called Article Marketing Domination and his free eBook Easy SEO. Recently, Josh published another free eBook: $5 Mini-Site Formula. This book was about exactly what I wanted (needed) to know when I started last November.

The MasonWorld Roadmap

Reviewing that eBook has made me rethink the 2008 Roadmap for the MasonWorld Internet Empire. Basically, I have been thinking about what I want to get out of my Internet Marketing hobby. I started this effort in Nov 2007 with some similar goals, but I am continuing to refine them (December seems like an internet lifetime ago).

On this pass of goal setting, I came up with several key overriding concepts:

• Have fun. This is easy, since I am facinated with the internet and technology
• Learn something. This easy. I knew nothing about internet marketing when I started.
• Add some value. Whatever I do, I am not really interested in just "taking" and leaving nothing behind. A good example is this website. At the end of 2008, I would like to be able to point to this site as a valuable resource that people can use.
• Generate revenue. I actually struggled with this. I am not really in this for the money since I have a great day job (as I have mentioned a thousand times). Still, it seems like the measure of success in Internet Marketing is revenue. So, I am making this the lowest priority goal

Of course, there are some constraints:

• Limited time. I am only allowing myself a coupleof hours a day (max) to work at this hobby. My family and my real job come first (in that order).
• Limited funds. I could choose to spend $4700 on an eCourse or something like that. I am sure I could get great results that way. But, I am determined to do this the "hard" way on a limited budget.
• White Hat. I am still not interested in Black Hat techniques. However, I do see that sometimes it is a little hard to tell the Gray stuff from the White stuff.

With this as a framework, that left me with the question of what to try to accomplish in 2008.

Approaches and Goals for 2008

I am currently planning to have the following completed by the end of 2008. Of course, I plan to blog about everything that I learn in the mean time.

• Grow the MasonWorld.com Internet-Based Marketing blog
  • Post 3 times per week about my Internet Marketing experience
  • Grow RSS readership through great content generation
  • Grow email opt-ins through bonus content
  • Add a modest monthly podcast
  • Build a valuable brand with great content that people want to read
• Build three niche information sites
  • Launch 3 new sites with the $5 per day formula
  • Use article marketing to promote the sites
  • Use the Coaching With Josh resources to achieve $5/day in Adsense revenue
  • Work with a great developer to build a killer niche site WP template
  • Consider a plan to grow those sites to something more in 2009
• Build 3 Affiliate Product sites
  • Launch 3 new/existing sites (Elvis will be one of them)
  • Use article marketing to promote the sites
  • Consider a plan to grow those sites to something more in 2009
• Create my very own information product
  • Identify a niche (IM may be the first one)
  • Create an information product (Niche site case study how-to maybe?)
  • Promote and sell the product (or give it away)
• Create and release one report for Butterfly Reports

That's already way too much for 2008, given that I am working on this part time.

So, tonight I am planning on working on article marketing for my new niche sites using Article Post Robot. I bought this tool several weeks ago. I will post about my progress on Wednesday (my next scheduled post).

Best regards,
Mark

Sometimes things just come together.

Just a few hours ago -- earlier today -- I was talking about how I wanted to focus on my niche sites and other key parts of my long term business plan. Then, suddenly, out of nowhere comes the announcement of Josh Spaulding's newly launched private coaching forum. Manna from Heaven.

OK, I admit. It was not out of nowhere. He mentioned it in a blog comment on his blog a few days ago and I have been pestering him about it every day since then. Also, note that manna does not just fall from heaven, but instead it is described as coming with the frost and dew, during the wet seasons. But that is not as exciting for a blog post...where was I?

Oh, yes...

Josh is the author of several important eBooks including Article Marketing Domination (one of my favorite eBooks), has just announced a new private coaching forum. It looks awesome!

I was able to register successfully, but Josh is only taking 100 members initially. The registration is insanely inexpensive (I'd call it cheap), there is no affiliate program, there is no 17 page sales letter, and there are no wild bonuses.

I've known Josh for a while online. He's very helpful and generous in his normal day-to-day dealings with people. I can only imagine what a paid coaching experience will be like with him. I'm pumped.

As an aside, I have met several really cool people in the last few months. (You people know who you are). To those cool people I have yet to meet, know that I am looking forward to it.

Regards,

Mark

Note (added 5/16/08): when this post was written, there was no affiliate program.  On 5/16/08 I added my affiliate link to this post.  I strongly endorse the coaching program as a great value and I continue to get a lot from the program.

A few weeks ago, I wrote about the problem of being a "Jack of All Trades and a Master of None." In that post, I talked about how challenging I found it to work on Internet Marketing (IM) part time. IM can be all-consuming. I complained in that post that I had not actually "finished" anything. That post was written at 32,000 feet over the pacific ocean on the way to Hong Kong and eventually to Singapore. I guess the air in the passenger cabin must have been thin, because in the same post where I was complaing about how busy I was, I also argued that I should buckle down and increase my post frequency. Go figure.

Garry Conn Warns of Blogger's Demise

Last night, Garry Conn brought all of this back into focus for me with his outstanding post entitled "Is Making Money Blogging Killing You?" In his post, Garry argues that blogging for dollars is a cut-throat competiton, and that it can totally consume you. He compares the blogging mindset to six-man chess, and argues that this 24-hour-a-day competitive lifestyle can impact your relationships, your health, and your mental state. I often say "Blogging Ate My Brain." I think that is what Garry is talking about. To make matters worse, I am not making money blogging. I am not trying to build a blogging empire. I have other plans, and the blog (which I love) is just a small part of the revenue strategy. So, why in the world do I want to redouble my blogging efforts? Answer -- I don't.

Really, Garry makes the strongest of two arguments for a reduced post frequency on MasonWorld.com. Garry's argument is that when you are building readership, you need to allow enough time for people to find your post. Based on my experience on this blog, that is at least two days. The other strong argument has to do with my long term business plan for my internet marketing hobby. Long term, I am interested in getting onto the information marketing end of the internet marketing business. Josh Spaulding warned in a post about information products last November that you need to be careful not to spend too much time blogging when your business plan tell you to work on other things.

MasonWorld Business Plan

So, what is my "business plan?" Well, I plan to have this blog as a resource for people coming after me. It is a journal of my experience. It is not intended to be a big profit center. I am experimenting with four "niche super-sites." The public example of these is the "Elvis Site." These niche super-sites are sites that are more than just MFA (made-for-adsense) sites. They are inteded to contain valuable information, market affiliate products, have user formus, etc. I intend to create and market information products (although I have not identified my ultimate niche yet). I can say that I find viral reports interesting, and I have been checking out Butterfly Reports. I am not sure where that will lead. What I really want is a solid product like Article Marketing Domination -- but not necessarily in the IM niche.

Ultimately, Garry Conn is right on the money -- If you are not careful, blogging will kill you and your business plan.

New Post Frequency

So, effective immediately I am changing my post frequency to Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I will try to post in the morning on those days. In the mean time, I am planning on increasing my efforts on other core businesses. That will give me even more to write about -- which will be great. Look for those musings here in the coming weeks.

Best regards,
Mark

If you've been in internet marketing more that twenty minutes, then you've heard of Mike Filsame. He is the famous author of the Butterfly Marketing Effect, which he claims is the most profitable eBook ever sold. Mike is the undisputed King of viral marketing and has been for the past several years. But I believe he just started his own dethroning by letting us all in on it.

Today in my inbox, I got a marketing email from Mike. He is rolling out his latest project -- a viral membership site called Butterfly Reports. Currently he is working with Rod Beckwith who has been around as long as Mike has and is the genius behind this cool new Butterfly Reports site, and many other sites.The idea is very simple. Members will receive new viral reports each month (the number of reports you receive depends on your membership level).

These viral reports, available in different niches, are branded with your name and website, and contain affiliate links. Some of the affiliate links are set to your affiliate ID, and some are set to "Mike and Rod's affiliate ID." The percentage of links in the report that point back to you also depends on your membership level (Silver, Gold or Platinum).

One you get a report, you can use it however you wish. You can give it away, send it to your list, blog about it, whatever. The idea is to get it to as many people as possible.

Here is the cool thing -- the Silver level is free (one report per month). So, I signed up just to have a look. Of course, this is what Mike is counting on. Using a free offer, he is able to move me down the funnel. After I accepted the free offer, there was an upsell opportunity for $1. I took that too. Filsame blows my mind -- and I was really curious. Along with the free monthly report, you also get a free high quality ecover graphic to go with it. How cool is that?

Just a reminder under the heading of full disclosure: if you sign up using my link and end up paying Mike money, I get a referral fee.

Once you log in to the site, you are offered your first viral report that is actually about the site. More genius. It's a perfect first report since it promotes the site itself, which has an affiliate program (I am using affiliate links in this article from that report).

The report itself is very nice. Entitled Turning One Into A Million, it is basically a training document for the site and the viral marketing method itself. You can download the report here. Note that some of the links in the report are branded to my affiliate ID, and some are branded back to Mike. The more you pay Mike, the higher your percentage of links.

In another twist, you can also submit reports to this site to be included in their database.  in that case, you could write a report and have thousands of people promoting it for you.  Like the above example, you would get a percentage of the affiliate links pointing back to your Clickbank and  PayDotCom accounts.

I think this is really cool. Check it out for yourself and decide what you think. The Silver level is free. After you do, please come back here and let me know what you think.

Best regards,

Mark

Almost completely hype-free, the book covers five methods for making money on-line:

• Information Marketing -- Selling digitally delivered information. In this section, Yanik describes why selling digital information is the ultimate way to go. I happen to agree with him, as this is part of my long term plan. He covers the basics about how to get started registering a domain and setting up a shopping cart. The section is only about 100 pages long, and is not a complete guide. However, looking at it from the perspective of a brand-new-to-the-internet person, it is a great beginners guide.
• Selling on eBay. I don't know the first thing about running a real business on eBay, so it was hard for me to evaluate this section. Sydney Johnson covers how to select products, how to do listings, and what makes a successful seller.
• Affiliate Marketing. This sections is nicely done by super-affiliate Rosalind Gardner. I like this section too as it is also part of my longer term strategy. When I started looking at making money on line, I did not even know what affiliate marketing was. It would have been really nice to have seen this section of the Silver book at that early stage. Gardner talks about how to find and work affiliate programs. The advice she gives is very similar to the advice in a recent post about how to make money online by Garry Conn. Good, solid fundamental information about how to get started.
• Yahoo stores and E-Commerce stores. Again, not something that I am highly interested in. The section covers the history of Yahoo stores and how to select a niche, drop-ship, take payments, etc.
• Blogging. I liked this section. It was written by Darren Rowse - lending instant credibility. It covers what a blog is, how to set up a blog, and how to monetize. Again, since it is only 50 pages long, it is just a start and covers the basics. However, if you are just starting out, it is a great overview.

So, why write a real book? At $21.95, this 300 page book sells for less than most eBooks. The answer is that this book (which provides useful information and is a great value for the beginner) is actually a loss leader for the associated website. The book comes with free videos. When you go to the web page, you hit a squeeze page that collects your email. According to the book, they have plans for a membership site.

No matter. If you are a beginner and you are having trouble telling whether or not guys like Jeffrey Lant are on the up and up, this is a great book for you. If you are not brand new, take a pass on this book.

Regards,
Mark