Perhaps, if you’re following this discussion, you’d like to read what he’s going to be writing over the next few days.

Act on your dream!

JD

Sires last blog post..Wassup Blog’s Mean Woman Blues

I agree. That’s a good question.

If we don’t define who we are and what we’re doing, how do we expect anyone to find us in the first place, or think about us later?

I see a gazillion sites where someone is promoting everything. There’s no reason I would bookmark them, try to become their friend, or remember them later. There’s no distinction, no specialty, no personality.

I didn’t know that when I started a few years ago. I generally like to spread a wide net and then narrow my focus as I learn what works and what doesn’t. I have a lot of narrowing to do!

I learned who I liked, what I enjoyed talking about, what I could recommend with enthusiasm, and what I hated doing. It took awhile, but it’s been worth the effort.

It’s also going to get easier as I do more in smaller niches. I’ve picked some difficult niches, but they work for me.

Unique and value are certainly two of the keys to succeeding. Thanks for your thoughts.

Act on your dream!

JD

My ultimate goal!

Dennis Edells last blog post..$100 First Prize! The *Best Blog Review Contest* Is In Full Effect!

Are you promoting the top 10 books in a wide topic (that everybody else is also promoting) or are you promoting the top 10 books in a small hidden niche few people have written about yet?

I think the main point is that to make money long term, you need to become a destination for traffic short term. Be unique in what you do, and offer real value.

katinka - spirituals last blog post..Activity & passivity - the value of ‘meditation’

JD

As for blogging, originally it was an SEO strategy for my website and then it took over my spare time. Perhaps I should not finish Sqidoo, especially after that evil laugh.
Sires last blog post..Does My Bum Look Big In This?

I didn’t know that blogging was a part-time way for you to relax. With all you’re doing, I thought it was your full-time business. I can see how visiting other blogs and communities and participating in the discussions is an important way for you to promote your business.

As far as Squidoo lenses go, I started three of them about the time we were discussing it, and all of them are sitting there, stubbed-out and partially completed at this point, but nowhere near ready to publish. I would delete them, but I got the perfect address for them, so I’ll hang on until I have the time to finish and publish them.

All things in their own time.

We will serve no lens before its time.

Etc.

You’ll get it done when you’re ready. Then you’ll be hooked. Bwaa haa haa!

Be sure to keep your carrot just out of reach of that donkey’s teeth.

Act on your dream!

JD

I You may remember I started a Squidoo lense awhile back? Well I still haven’t completed it yet. Pretty slack huh?

As for the question about chasing my tail, nope I’m more like the carrot on the stick in front of the donkey.
Sires last blog post..Wassup Blog’s Mean Woman Blues

You make some good points. As you learn more, you can do more, if you manage your time. Partly, this is due to becoming more effective because of additional experience. Partly, it’s because your efforts are leveraged more because of additional contacts and readers.

Managing multiple blogs, learning and updating your affiliate marketing efforts, participating in social networking, and promoting your platforms is a lot of work, but it can produce very good results.

Of course, work is relative.

It’s a lot easier doing all of these things than it is to pour curbs, gutters and sidewalks all day in the winter cold and summer heat.

It’s definitely a lot easier than climbing power poles in thunderstorms or ice storms and restoring electricity for the rest of us.

All those things need to be done, of course.

I did the concrete pouring and finishing about 40 years ago when I was young and strong. These days, I prefer sitting here in a comfortable cabin in the mountains and talking to people around the world - sharing what we learn and helping each other do better.

At this stage of my life, I much prefer being warm and dry. I know I prefer being my own boss!

I think you’ll also find that promoting three blogs isn’t a whole lot more work than just one. There is a synergy between multiple sites and it won’t be three times as much work. At least, that’s been my experience.

Act on your dream!

JD

I didn’t really mean those questions as real questions with right and wrong answers. That was just a way of putting a lot of different approaches up to make myself and my friends think about what they’re doing.

You see, I’ve been thinking a lot about all the things that I’ve done that were complete wastes of time versus what I’ve done that has really helped grow my business and increase my income.

More and more, I’m seeing us get caught up in things that make a lot of money for a very few people, but which leave the rest of us chasing our tails.

I don’t know exactly when most of this started, but I’m thinking it got worse when people started using firesales, following launch formulas, and trying butterfly marketing approaches.

I’m not going to link to actual people and products, because I don’t want to promote them and increase the problem.

Then, over the last year, it seems like there was a new traffic exchange opening every week or two and all the other traffic exchange owners and many of their members would launch into a flurry of recommendations and promotions before the exchange even opened.

How can you truthfully and ethically promote a new site before it even starts producing results?

Yes, I know that an exchange needs lots of members to make it work, and this launch strategy generally creates a flood of new members, but how many exchanges can we join and work effectively?

I’m a member of dozens, at least fifty or more, and I finally said, “That’s it. No more.” a few months ago.

Then, I started paring down the number of exchanges where I was active until I got down to less than a dozen. I can comfortably handle that many, especially since they produce results for me month after month.

For the last two months, I’ve been mostly away from the exchanges as real life became more important, but I’ll get back next month and renew my promotions.

So, part of my thinking was that we’re not only chasing our own tails, we’re chasing everyone else’s tails, too. How long will it be before we all fall over exhausted. Some will be exhausted with larger incomes, and some will be exhausted with little income or even losses.

I just don’t see it as a sustainable approach to business, except for a very few.

The people who do well on the traffic exchanges are the ones who have built a funnel. They look for people to download free reports, sign up for their lists, and then promote to them over and over.

I don’t have any problem with that. They’re using the exchanges as lead sources and then they use automation to follow up with their leads and move them down the funnel from prospects to customers to repeat customers.

If they’re offering good advice and information, we’ll buy their products and subscribe to their services.

Unfortunately, the people who suffer are the ones who join a traffic exchange in the hopes of getting more visitors to their sites to read and buy their offers. This may have worked several years ago, but no longer. View times have decreased from 30 seconds to sub-10 second times. Most sites and blogs won’t load in that much time.

So, what to do?

Switch to splash pages and squeeze pages.

You need a billboard, not an article, on the traffic exchanges.

It has to load fast, cover one point, offer several short benefits, and a call to action.

Most call to actions - the ones that are more successful - offer something in exchange for you to subscribe to their mailing list. Why is this more successful? Because it is much more likely that you’ll make a sale with multiple email contacts over time than with a 10-second view on a traffic exchange.

The losers are the ones who don’t study the vehicle and spend the time to learn what works and what doesn’t.

This applies to lots of other things, too.

If a group of people get together in a joint venture and provide all kinds of free software, ebooks, and memberships, it isn’t because they just want to give you something. It’s because each of the participants wants to get you to sign up for their mailing list and then give you the freebie or loss-leader. After that, you’re in their marketing funnels and you’ll continue to receive emails from them indefinitely.

Now, lots of folks, especially newbies, don’t understand how this works. They want the freebies, but complain about the follow-ups.

Always remember, there ain’t no such thing as a free lunch. Somewhere, somehow, you have to pay for your freebies.

I don’t think it’s unethical, but it can certainly be misleading.

Now, I have to admit that I’ve learned a lot from participating in some of this and examining how it works.

It’s going to make a big difference in how I approach marketing in the coming months. I’m definitely going to be more systematic in my approach, but I don’t plan to join in any of these joint-ventures.

I think blogs can be effective, but it does take more work than a website. One of the beauties of a blog is that you can start a conversation - such as we’re doing here - and we can learn from each other.

Plus, it’s all out here in the open and many others can come and read what they want and leave when they’re ready. They can learn from our conversations, even if they don’t participate.

And, by the way, all visitors and lurkers are welcome and encouraged to participate!

So, all of this is leading to wondering why we would spend 100 hours chasing our tail when we can spend 50 hours producing something of value and then promote it over and over and over.

One of the great values of the traffic exchanges is learning who is successful and watching what they do to market their products, services, and sites. It has been a valuable education for me and has been worth every hour and every dollar I’ve invested over the last couple of years.

Okay, I guess that’s enough ranting in one comment!

Sorry, Mitch, I hope my long-winded replies don’t continue to rub off on you!

Act on your dream!

JD

Thoughts? You’re kidding right? LOL PLENTY of them!

1st is stepping up promotion on what is now 3 blogs, since I know a lot more of what I’m doing. More focus on the 2 new ones though (starting with the contest you see below), since DSWM is running pretty smoothly.

Next is getting closer to full swing on both affiliate marketing and social networking. I know that sounds big, but if i find a schedule of some sort it should be ok.

Dennis Edells last blog post..It’s Contest Time! The *Best Blog Review Contest* Is In Full Effect!