LET ME SHOW YOU 50 WAYS TO GET TRAFFIC TODAY!
A story about being frozen in time…(and something about marketing)
Can I tell you a story?
It’s a little weird, it’s going to help you, and it starts just…
…like…
…this.
“The last day dawns on the Kingdom of Ascalon…
It arrives with no fanfare, no tolling of alarms.
Those who will remember will speak fondly of the warm morning breeze.
People carry on with their daily lives, unaware that in a short while, everything that they have ever known will come to an end…”
These are the words you hear at the beginning of the old 2005 computer game, Guild Wars. A game I was a little obsessed with.
These introductory words are spoken softly as you are shown a beautiful landscape of trees and grasslands, a middle-age style Castle and a stunning Kingdom called Ascalon.
PAUSE.
You might be thinking right now, “Kam…what does this have to do with making money online?”
I’m getting there. Relax.
But right now we’re going to go on a ride. You need to know about The Time Freezers…
Okay…Back to Ascalon.
So a beautiful place, this Kingdom of Ascalon. And as it happens, the game of Guild Wars starts on the exact day that the entire Kingdom…
…is about to be destroyed by this magic fire rained down from the sky by these ugly, smelly, troublesome beasts called the Charr (think if you took your house cat and crossed her with a minotaur and fed THAT thing a bunch of steroids…thats a Charr.)
So anyways…
This rain of fire is no joke. It’s called THE SEARING, and it’s going to be the equivalent of a nuclear warhead all over the Kingdom, turning the beautiful landscape into a barren, harsh wasteland.
I know…sucks right? You get to enjoy this beautiful place for one day and then it’s completely wiped out and made nasty.
Kind of like my first marriage…but that’s another story lol…anyways…
So the way Guild Wars works is that you have this one day to learn how to play the game. You can do quests, fight monsters, and just generally get a feel for the game.
The cool thing is this day lasts as long as you want.
Once most people get to about level 5 they are ready to move on and take this one special quest that will lead them on a special Charr mission…
…it is THIS mission that starts THE SEARING, and forever changes the Kingdom of Ascalon for the worse, forever.
Now when ArenaNet made this game, Guild Wars, they put pre-searing there as a way to learn how to play the game, before moving on to the REAL game which was POST searing.
Afterall, the world of Guild Wars is vast. Far greater than just the Kingdom of Ascalon. There is a lot to see and do, once you take that quest and make the timeline of events move forward.
Here is where it gets a little strange.
Something funny happened in GuildWars. Something that ArenaNet, the company that made the game, did not expect.
A community was forming. A community that still exists to this very day, 14 years after the game was released. I know this because recently I logged onto my old account to see.
There was a growing number of people that did not want to leave pre-searing. They chose to stay, find ways to level their character, and enjoy the game right there in pre-searing.
They essentially refused to move forward.
When I asked them why they choose to stay in Pre-Searing and not explore the rest of the game the answers all are basically the same.
We like it here. Before the world sucked. It’s nice. Now keep in mind these are REAL people playing a computer game. They refuse to advance in the game.
It was weird. But somehow it made sense to me.
I totally got it. The pre-searing Kingdom of Ascalon is a beautiful place.
They choose to live their own version of Groundhog Day right there in Guild Wars. This is how they chose to enjoy the game.
Now Guild Wars was a great game…IS a great game. It’s past its prime and most gamers have moved on from this old one but still it is widely recognized as being an awesome game, critically acclaimed in fact.
What I realized while playing GuildWars though was that people actually play games for different reasons. It’s not always about leveling up or finishing. Guild Wars was a prime example of this.
Some people played Guild Wars to finish it, this is true. Some play for the comradery, the competition and some played for the strategy. But then there were others who played for different reasons…
…reasons that only made sense if you understand how complex humans can be and why we do strange things sometimes.
Me personally, I was always fascinated with the “Pre-Searing community.” A group of people that refused to let the Kingdom of Ascalon be torched. They chose to live in exile of that one beautiful day.
The Time freezers.
Tom Peters wrote a book called, “Thriving on Chaos: Handbook for a Management Revolution.”
In that book he said, “If you’re not confused, you’re not paying attention.”
It’s a funny quote and it has several different meanings, but one that REALLY stands out to me is that simply…
…humans…are complicated.
We really are.
We like different things at different times. We get emotional. We get logical. We fall in love. We break each other’s hearts. We change our minds early and often.
Humans are complicated and dynamic.
The Time Freezers of Guild Wars are just one example of how a group of people can like a video game for an entirely different reason that nobody could have predicted, not even the people who made the game.
“If you’re not confused, your not paying attention.”
For the past several years I have been promoting my own and other people’s products as a vendor and an affiliate quite successfully by crafting simple messages that I could write quickly and easily.
My original plan was to take this idea of human complexity and just try to hit all the angles of why someone might like something.
Maybe this person likes a product because of the origin story of the vendor.
Maybe that person likes the features and benefits.
Maybe this third person really needs to hear what the whole thing would look like if I was personally going to use it in combination with this other thing over here.
And then maybe there is another group of people that have been sitting back listening to all my different messages about this product, and those messages were stacking.
What were they stacking?
Those messages were stacking legend for that product.
Those messages were stacking “top of mind” awareness for that product.
Those messages were getting those people thinking…
…and eventually it becomes a no brainer to purchase after so many different messages about the same product, all hitting on a different point. All talking about a different aspect of the same thing.
As I write this, I will be launching my new product Email Secrets: 20 Angles to Sell Anything (Even if You Have No List!), in about 7 hours.
It’s a special product because I want to teach you 20 of my personal Email Secrets.
20 of my most profitable, easily crafted messages that you can stack to great result and finally start seeing some results.
It’s not about writing.
It’s not about being some kind of great and clever writer. You don’t need to be a great writer to do this.
This is about strategy.
This is about playing chess and thinking several moves ahead.
Many affiliate marketers go to promote a product and they are like musicians that only learned one song.
Can you imagine if all PInk Floyd ever played was Comfortably Numb? It would be ridiculous after a while…no matter how good the song was.
That’s the problem with most affiliates out there that are struggling.
They are playing the same song over and over again.
What I’m talking about is learning how to play the WHOLE DAMN album.
Give them “The Wall!” They deserve it!
Because nobody gets into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on one great song.
One great song makes you a “One Hit Wonder.”
Is that what you want to be? A one hit wonder?
Like that guy who wrote “Macarena?”
Hell NO!
If you want to promote stuff over and over and be successful…
…it is critical that you learn NOT JUST ONE SONG…
…but instead…learn the WHOLE ALBUM! Multiple Albums.
This is the number one reason why most people trying to do affiliate marketing don’t see much luck.
It’s like they put out that “hard promo/features and benefits” message over and over again.
I mean, that’s like Comfortably Numb right?
It’s a good song but you just made your list “comfortably numb” with the same song and dance about a million times.
Listen…
Don’t be the guy at the party who knows ONE CARD TRICK.
It’s like every time this guy comes around you know exactly whats going to happen…
…you just know that as soon as he has a few beers in him, the deck of cards is coming out, and you are going to have to watch this dumb card trick again…just like the last time.
Don’t be ONE CARD TRICK guy.
So yeah…I’m putting out Email Secrets in about 7 hours and…
…this is about becoming the Harry Houdini of promotions.
I’m talking about the guy who, when he pulls out a deck of cards, everybody gathers around because shit is about to get real.
This is the guy who never goes home alone. Who always gets the girl.
This is the guy who everybody wants to talk to.
This is the guy who is always getting invited back because…
…I mean the cats just the life of the party.
That’s what I’m talking about.
The Harry Houdini of promotions.
So bottom line?
Don’t be ONE CARD TRICK guy. Pick up my Email Secrets and…
…BE THE HARRY HOUDINI OF PROMOTION!
Also…can I get an Amen for turning a video game that I wasted too much of my life on into a promotion for something that could change YOUR life forever?
Have a great weekend! I’ll see you inside Email Secrets!
Everything I Learned About Marketing from Isaac Newton and his 3 Laws (before I fell asleep in Physics class!)
Do you guys know about Isaac Newton? I know…what a silly question right?
Well…I just thought I would start there because, I for one, used to fall asleep in classes like that when I was in school…
…and depending on who you are and when you might have fallen asleep…there is a chance you might not know who the hell I’m talking about (no judgment.)
That being said, to catch up really quick, Isaac Newton came up with these 3 laws of motion. And they are super important because…
…well they tie into almost EVERY physical thing we deal with in life.
But what I figured out as I started my online journey, was that Newton’s laws don’t just apply to physics…
…they kind of apply to…well…almost…everything.
Let me explain…
The First Law of Marketing – Reject Equilibrium
Newton’s First Law of Motion states that if the forces acting upon an object are balanced, then the acceleration of that object will be 0 m/s/s. Objects at equilibrium will not accelerate. According to Newton, an object will only accelerate if there is a net or unbalanced force acting upon it.
Newton is basically saying that if there are equal forces affecting an object, they are going to counter each other and that object is staying right where it is.
If I hit a hockey puck on the ice, eventually it will come to a stop because of the friction from the ice.
I think that applies to making money online as well.
We can never truly move from our current position by holding onto balance or comfort. It is only when we push boundaries and explore new ground that we transcend our “status quo” situation.
Comfort and balance are essentially the ice causing friction that brings change to a stop.
For example, you might be buying new courses all the time to entertain the idea of starting an online business but if you are comfortable in your current job (not necessarily happy, but comfortable) then…
…is it possible that those two forces are causing a sort of equilibrium, countering each other, and keeping you exactly where you are?
Absolutely.
Am I saying that balance and comfort are bad and that you shouldn’t have them in your life?
No. Balance and comfort are great…however…
…I am saying that if you are trying to change your circumstances…they are bad. It’s not just physics…it’s life as well.
The Second Law of Marketing – Keep It Moving and Keep It Simple
Newton’s second law of motion states that the acceleration of an object is dependent upon two variables – the net force acting upon the object and the mass of the object. As the force acting upon an object is increased, the acceleration of the object is increased. As the mass of an object is increased, the acceleration of the object is decreased.
Newton is basically saying that the greater force affecting an object the faster it will go…
…however that is also going to depend on the size of the object. The bigger it is (the more mass it has) the slower it will go.
This applies to making money online as well. The more momentum you have, the more commitment you have, the more “all in” you are when it comes to a project, the faster you are going to move the plan along.
The other part is true too though, If your plan is too big, too complicated, or has too many moving parts, it’s going to slow you down.
It’s easier to push an empty shopping cart than a full one. The empty one has less mass. So…
…You have to ask yourself, if I can make money online in a streamlined simple way AND I can make money online in a way that is harder or more complicated…
I should always be moving in simple and decisive directions. I should always be trying to streamline and simplify my processes because I will move faster.
Money loves speed.
The Third Law of Marketing – Action is King
Newton’s third law famously states that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction that acts with the same momentum and the opposite velocity.
It means that in every interaction, there is a pair of forces acting on the two interacting objects. Forces always come in pairs.
That’s a lot to take in when you think about it and it might not be the easiest thing to understand but an example of what Newton is saying would be letting air out of a balloon.
Let’s say you’re holding a balloon and you let the air out of it. While the air is going to rush downwards, the balloon is going to fly upwards.
Another example would be when you jump onto a diving board. You jump downward onto the board, but that board springs back upwards.
So now that I’ve thoroughly bored you to death with Newton’s Third Law, what the heck does it have to do with marketing and making money online?
Well, Newton’s third law is a keen reminder that Action rules the land of online business and marketing. Action is the real king.
It is only through action that anything happens around here. No matter how uncertain I might be to move in a particular direction, I am always closer to success when I take action.
If I am creating no action, there will be no equal and opposite “reaction.” That’s not just the laws of physics, it’s also the laws of life.
Wrapping up…
So there you have it. The three big laws of marketing, as stated by me, as inspired by Sir Isaac Newton and his laws of motion.
Law 1 – Reject Equilibrium
Law 2 – Keep it Moving, and Keep It Simple
Law 3 – Action is King
I feel it is my duty to add here that all of the above, I have learned from years of experience in the “make money online” space, through trials and tribulations, ups and downs, successes and failures.
But the truth is…I didn’t write this article because I cared what I thought…the truth is I wrote it because I wanted to know what YOU thought.
So be sure to leave me a comment, let me know your alive out there, and tell me…
…does this make sense to you?
5 Things I Learned From My 3 Day Digital Detox…
I have a real problem.
For the last 3 years, I have been online in some capacity every…single…day.
Through all the birthday parties, hospital admissions, family crises, vacations, date nights…
Whether it was checking emails, doing customer support, making youtube videos or facebook live streams, creating courses, workshops, or 1 on 1 mentoring calls…
…I was online doing it. I guess that makes sense since I run a digital publishing business and all but…
On top of that, I noticed that the majority of my entertainment lately was coming in the form of television or tablet. Basically watching shows, movies, or video games.
Whatever happened to reading books? I used to like to just kick back and actually read a book. Whatever happened to family board game night? Why did it always seem like I never had enough time to do anything substantial anymore outside of “online?”
It was time for a change. It was time to disconnect from all this “noise” for a few days.
So I committed to a 3 day digital detox.
I shut down the tablet, flipped off the smart phone and locked them away in a drawer. I powered off my desktop and packed up my chromebook. I unplugged the television…
…and I committed to no screens.
To take this whole thing to another level, I also committed to drinking only juice for these 3 days. Juice, water and herbal tea to be exact. Six 15 ounce juices a day, every 2 hours with water and tea inbetween, if I got hungry. No sugar in the tea.
So what were the results?
Well the first thing is I started this at a weight of 267.7 pounds. When I wrapped up day 3 I weighed 259 lbs. So that’s an 8 pound weight loss. Pretty crazy for only 3 days.
But what about the digital detox. What did I learn from disconnecting from screens for 3 days?
I had 5 big takeaways. Here they are…
ONE) Rotation Reader – All my life I have been a “read one thing at a time” kind of guy. But without thinking over the course of this 3 day period I noticed that I would read 1 book for about an hour, take a break, and when I came back to read again I would select something different.
I literally had 5 books going over the past 3 days. I was aware that I was doing this and I recognized that it was really weird, but it felt natural for whatever reason and just seemed like the way I wanted to do it.
Of the 5 books I started, I finished one of them.
I don’t know if all the internet usage has kind of rewired my brain and how I like to consume information has changed, but that is what it felt like.
TWO) The Slowing of Time – The second big takeaway for me was that time really seemed to slow down. I felt like I had endless amounts of it. These 3 days felt like 3 weeks. It seemed like there was plenty of time to get everything done. It was a good thing.
I don’t know if it’s because of the 24 hour news cycle that we now find ourselves in today, or because we are always connected in this “daily update” kind of society…but I can tell you that the narrative definitely slowed down for me and it was awesome.
THREE) Stream of Thought Stretched – I noticed that I would think about specific ideas and subjects for longer periods of time, which in turn meant that I thought about them on a deeper level. I took those ideas and thoughts further than I normally would have.
Let me explain…
Generally, (and I wasn’t aware of this until these 3 days) I will think about something, and very quickly I will move on to the next thing. I might jot it down if I think that it’s a good idea or something that I don’t want to forget, but I won’t spend a lot of time on it.
During this digital detox, I would carry out lines of thought to more of an internal resolution. Even simple things like “What do I think of the new Lion King remake?” In fact, let’s use that…
I recently learned about this new “live action” Lion King remake.
So as a guy with kids who might like the movie, I watched a video review and that lead me to another video review (recommended by youtube) and then that leads me to a 3rd and 4th review or reaction video about this movie.
Now, my head is full of other people’s opinions on this movie that I haven’t seen and probably don’t really care about but…
…for some now reason I thought that Disney was ruining all these classic movies, there was a hidden agenda, and why can’t people just leave awesome things alone that don’t need fixed.
It was stupid.
A bunch of other people’s opinions, suggested by youtube, consumed by me, and filtered through my mind to form some kind of Frankenstein viewpoint on something that I didn’t really even care bout.
What I realised pretty easily when I stepped away from all the opinions, and what should have been simple was this:
When I was a kid there was a movie that I really enjoyed called The Lion King. It still holds a special place in my heart. Now there is a new Lion King movie for a new generation of kids.
I wasn’t the target audience. It doesn’t matter what I think of the movie. It’s not for me. I wasn’t meant to get it.
That was my simple and true opinion. My judgment had been clouded on this simple little thing by all the noise.
Now imagine if your judgment is being clouded on tons of issues throughout your life?
It’s like a whole bunch of talking heads taking up space in your mind, making things more than they really need to be and in some cases just creating issues that really weren’t even issues to you otherwise.
Example…
I swear for a minute it almost seemed like everyone was transgender and couldn’t find a bathroom to use. Then shortly after, it seemed like the world was being taken over by demonic feminists and SJW warriors.
Nonsense. Just sheer and utter nonsense.
I’m not saying those issues don’t exist…but just to say that they shouldn’t matter to me and really have no place in the narrative that is my life.
Just being able to follow a line of thought a little further and a little less clouded made a big difference when it comes to my outlook on the world.
FOUR) The 2AM Anxiety Paradox – For the last couple of years I have had a problem. I couldn’t sleep.
I would try to go to bed at 11pm or so, only to spring back up in a cold sweat and stay awake until 2 or 3am battling anxiety. What would I do to battle the anxiety? Watch videos on my tablet or work on the computer.
During this 3 day detox this melted away. I was getting to bed at 9:30pm to 10:30 pm every night. A couple of times I started to sit up in bed like I was going to get up…
…but then I just laid back down and went back to sleep. So why is that? Well I trace it back to this blue light problem…do you know about it?
Blue light is a color in the visible light spectrum that can be seen by human eyes. Blue light is a short wavelength, which means it produces higher amounts of energy.
It used to be that the only source of blue light was from the sun.
Now we have brought blue light inside by way of digital screens (found on TVs, Smartphones, computers, laptops, tablets and gaming systems), electronic devices, LED and fluorescent lighting.
I could get really deep into this but I’ll let you do your own research on the topic of blue light. However, the fact of the matter is that blue light has been proven to decrease melatonin secretion and disrupt a person’s circadian rhythm.
Short sleep is linked to many problems including depression, anxiety, obesity and even diabetes.
Based off of my 3 day detox and how my own personal anxiety melted away, I tend to believe it was doing something.
FIVE) The Dreamscape – The fifth thing that I noted as a pretty big deal was my dreaming during these 3 days.
Every single night I was having these extremely intense realistic dreams. Not to say that the things I was dreaming about were realistic in any way. I was dreaming about some really off the wall bizarre stuff that couldn’t possibly exist in real life…
…however, they felt so real and unbelievably intense while dreaming.
That was a big change from my normal dreaming.
I don;t know what that means or why it happened. I can only theorize that perhaps the increased focus and clarity that I experienced during the 3 day digital detox was also transferring over to my dream state at night.
Does that make sense to you? Let me know what you think.
So What Now?
Ultimately, I think that these 5 big takeaways culminate to this…
I control the narrative of my life. The speed of it, what I think about, what I care about, how I feel about and how I react to. Some things just shouldn’t matter while others should and get ignored.
Sometimes, I think you can’t see the forest for the trees.
Have you ever witnessed a really beautiful drone shot? You know the ones where the drone lifts off the ground, and then fairly quickly you see the entire lush landscape open up right before your very eyes?
A digital detox can feel a lot like that really beautiful drone shot. Things that seemed too busy and confusing before, now seem clear and easy to navigate.
All in all, the 3 day experiment was a pretty telling one for me.
I have decided to do one of these every single month just to reconnect with reality a little bit. It’s funny how we can disconnect without even realizing it.
My next digital detox will be on august 28th. Feel free to join me and share your experiences. 3 days really isn’t that long, and the benefits can be pretty profound.
Anyways, I hope you have gotten value out of this article and it has benefited you in some way, my name is Kam and I’ll see you in the next one!
10 Electronics affiliate programs you never hear talked about…
First let me say I don’t talk about these inside Sleeper Money, this is additional value that I want to deliver to you right here right now.
The message I am trying to send is that pretty much no matter what you are interested in, there are opportunities out there for you to make money online…
Check these out:
- Mohu
- Samsung
- P.C. Richard & Son
- 1MORE
- ThinkGeek
- Belkin
- TechRabbit
- Whistle
- UnbeatableSale
- Kove
All these hold amazing opportunity.
The thing is, sometimes you need to get out of your comfort zone to make something happen. Sometimes you need to shake things up.
That’s what Sleeper Money is all about. Shaking things up and giving you the tools and resources to succeed when doing so.
Join me inside Sleeper Money today and let’s make it happen!
Kam
Over 50 Affiliate Programs Hiding Under Your Nose…
Over 50 Affiliate Programs Hiding Under Your Nose…
That’s what Sleeper Money is all about.
It’s the newest edition to the Epic Conversions’ product family and it has a lot to do with “where” to look. Sometimes that is really valuable information too.
For example did you know that Ripley’s Believe It or Not had an affiliate program? Yup sure did. Pretty neat. Can be very lucrative if you know how to promote it.
Sleeper Money is not only going to show you over 50 different little known affiliate programs that pay great commissions (sometimes even in the thousands)…
…but it’s also going to provide Official Sleeper Money training that shows you how to maximize profits with those programs.
I’ll be promoting Sleeper MOney for the next 4 days at a reduced price to celebrate it’s launch.
Be sure to snag your copy of this extremely valuable resource while it’s at it’s sale price!
Kam
P.S. Tomorrow I’ll be talking about bonuses that I will be adding over the course of the next 4 days. See you on the inside!
Turning off the Rothkos (or An Infoprenuer in Alexa’s Court!)
Turning off the Rothkos…
Sometimes information products feel like a faded, worn out Rothko to me…
Do you know about the Harvard Rothkos?
Every afternoon at four o’clock, people gather on the third floor of the Harvard Art Museums to watch them “turn off the Rothkos.”
You see, in 1964 Harvard commissioned famous painter, Mark Rothko, to paint something for them. It ended up being 5 separate canvases of work. Abstract Expressionism in all its glory.
Through the years of hanging on the walls opposite an amazing view of Boston, with curtains on the windows that were hardly ever closed, and being decorations for dinner guests in a working dining hall…
…these paintings grew faded and deteriorated, ripped and torn. This was, of course, a tragedy for a Rothko, being as his work was all about the color.
So they ended up in storage for a while. People assumed they were pretty much “dead.”
Eventually though, Harvard borrowed a solution known as “compensating illumination.”
Basically, they took five digital projectors that had been programmed to light the canvases so that the original colors reappeared.
At four o’clock every day, the projectors are turned off one by one, and the colors revert to muddy blacks and grays.
People gather to watch.
It’s interesting to me, and I wonder why…
They don’t gather to watch them turn the projectors’ on.
They don’t gather throughout the day to watch them in their “compensated illuminated” glory…
…no, they gather in the evening to watch them shut them down.
If I were to guess why, I would say it is because we as a society are still drawn to the truth.
It might not be as beautiful or as shiny, but it is real. We want to see things as they really are.
Now the glaring flipside of that is that as a society we are so fascinated with technology that sometimes it feels like things get lost. Ideas, disciplines, even entire techniques lost to the age of technology.
It has been proven that we are losing our very memories to it.
Scary. All in the name of convenience and ease.
So to swing this back around to marketing and what I had on my mind today though…
I feel like the realm of digital marketing is at a time when software rules the day. And right behind software comes DFY and PLR packages.
People don’t want to learn anymore…they want results.
Fast, cheap, and easy results.
I recently did a study of the platform I frequently launch information products from, WarriorPlus.
I found that 60% of their Deal Of The Day Awards over the last 3 months have been awarded to products that were software or had a large software component to them.
That’s a sign of the times in my opinion. The Deal of the Day Award is a reaction to the market. And although that is just a small microevent in the world of digital marketing, I feel it probably reflects the whole.
So if that is true…
…then where does that leave the solo “infopreneur?”
Where does it leave the guy (or girl) who makes a living off of education…
…when nobody wants to learn anymore?
Lou Holtz once said, “Show me someone who has done something worthwhile, and I’ll show you someone who has overcome adversity.”
I believe in that, and I feel strongly the “infopreneurs” that will survive in this climate will do so because they will find a way to adapt to the adversity of a market that doesn’t really want to learn anymore.
But the whole thing leaves me wondering…
…are Infopreneurs today creating works kind of like those Harvard Rothkos, lighting them with “compensating illumination,” in an effort to appeal to the market? Or…
…are the Infoprenuers today…the Harvard Rothkos themselves, with the market gathering at 4pm waiting for the lights to be turned off?
More ramblings from a solopreneur, still fighting the good fight in a world of robots and self driving autoresponders…
…but none of that really matters.
I didn’t write this because I wanted to know what I thought…I wrote it because I want to know what you think.
Is the era of the “infopreneur” almost over?
Do people really not want to learn anymore?
Will we all lose our ability to remember anything and instead delegate the task to a creepy cylindrical computer spy in our living room named Alexa?
Questions, questions, everywhere…and not an answer in sight.
Let me know what you think!
Kam
How to Get People To Care About What You Have to Say More than Anyone Else…
Want to know how to get people to remember your content way better and far longer than everyone else’s?
Better read this…(and don’t give me that tl:dr crap. Buckle up buttercup…it’s going to get weird.)
If you are a would-be-marketer, you should probably go watch the old television show LOST in its entirety, immediately, and take some notes…
…here’s why.
First, I need to point out that this all comes back to a guy named Jack Shepherd (more on that in a minute.)
But in the effort of not dragging this out…
…let me start here.
Marketing legend, Frank Kern, once said that the most important money making skill that you can learn is bonding with your potential customers. Essentially, he was saying that building rapport with my audience is extremely important for a sustainable business.
So how do you do that?
In a world where every other marketer has an opinion, regularly dishes out amazing content, and people generally have the attention spans of bees (that’s about 2.5 seconds,) it can be challenging. No doubt about that.
And that brings us back to, what I consider to be the greatest show of fiction ever created.
Lost was a television series that originally aired on ABC back in 2004, ran for over six seasons, and ended with 121 mind bending episodes. The show contains both supernatural and science fiction elements, and follows the survivors of a plane that crashes on a mysterious tropical island somewhere in the South Pacific Ocean.
LOST does a lot right as a television show and as a story. But I don’t want to talk about all that today…
…I want to speak about the best thing this show does. The real thing you need to know.
The thing that kept people coming back week after week, the thing that had everyone talking around the water cooler at work, the thing that got the show nominated for over 256 awards.
What is that thing? The fine art of open loops.
That is to say, “a rhetorical device to instill curiosity by creating anticipation for what will come next. The device is sometimes also called a tension loop for the tension and anticipation it creates.”
Example time. Let’s say you’re standing around in a park waiting on your dog to take a leak and directly in front of you a portal opens up… out of it steps…wait for it…
…you.
That’s right. It’s your future self.
So this future version of you tells you that he has come from the future to give you this cheap black casio watch. He can’t tell you what it’s for exactly, but only that it will be important eventually. Then he steps back into the portal and with a flash he is gone.
That is an open loop.
There are more things happening in your story.
Your dog pees, you go home, talk with the wife, watch tv, try to forget that you possibly just had a weird hallucination in the park, other things happen…
…but in the back of your mind, there is still that thing with the black casio watch.
Eventually the story would close that loop and the truth about the watch would be revealed. It would be amazing, I assure you…
…BUT…
Until that happens it will be nagging at everyone who is following the story. A perplexing little mystery that we can’t figure out.
Here’s the thing; Our minds are hardwired to want information. We seek it out. So when you present an open loop, that makes your content more memorable. Why?
The Zeigarnik Effect.
In psychology, the Zeigarnik effect states that people remember uncompleted or interrupted tasks better than completed tasks.
But that’s not all.
On top of the Zeigarnik Effect, as humans we desire something called “Cognitive closure.” That is an individual’s’ desire for a firm answer to a question and an aversion toward ambiguity,” a drive for certainty in the face of a less than certain world.
When faced with heightened ambiguity and a lack of clear-cut answers, we need to know—and as quickly as possible.
An open loop plays on both of those human qualities. It produces a Zeigarnik effect as well as a need for cognitive closure.
Lost, as a show, stacked up open loops. Open loop upon open loop, and with each one it closed it opened 3 more.
Sometimes it was so frustrating and perplexing, but they always revealed just enough to keep you guessing at what was really going on with that damn Island. As a result the show became very memorable, love it or hate it.
So why does this matter for you and building rapport with your target market?
The fact is, if you can master putting open loops in your content, you will inherently make your content more memorable. And in a world full of great to average content being puked on to the market daily…
…more memorable matters.
I want to point out here that open loops are not cliffhangers. Cliffhangers are like the ugly younger sister of the open loop. Much more obvious and clumsy.
With an open loop what you want to do is present something in your content that will tie into the content in a big way, but it is uncertain how.
Now about Jack Shepherd.
He was the main protagonist in Lost. He was the hero. In fact, you could argue that the whole damn thing was a hero’s journey centered around Jack.
As marketers, it’s important for us to remember that the hero of our story is always the customer.
Everything we do, every story we tell, is truly about them, not us. No matter how much it might sound like it’s about us…in truth, it’s always about them. That’s the true magic of marketing. It always comes back to the customer.
So even though I can teach you how to play around with the human psyche and be way more memorable in people’s minds because of it…just remember, at the end of the day…
…Jack needs to be the hero. We are here to help Jack win.
Do that, and you will see your business grow.
Betray Jack and you will probably spend a lot of time at the bottom wondering why everyone else is doing better than you.
Anyways, I hope you found this article helpful and got some value out of it. I’ll see you in the next one!
Welcome to the Launch Game…
Welcome to the Launch Game…
I call it the launch game because it’s competitive, it really is.
It’s a sport.
A blood sport.
It’s the kind of game that will test you to your limits. Make you dig deep for everything you get. Late nights, and early mornings, missing birthday parties and sending your wife to bed alone…
…the launch game. It can put you on top of the world in a day and drag you to hell in a night.
It’s made me arrogant at times and it’s taken me to tears at times (and I am not a man who cries easy or often. In fact…maybe tears was a little strong there.)
I think the launch game is a reflection of life itself.
That’s right, life is like a product launch. Never quite as good or as bad as you think.
I always tell people not to take themselves too seriously, because it’s a marathon. You aren’t going to win them all but…
It’s hard not to take it seriously. Entrepreneurs have to take shots. They have to take chances. They have to let it ride…
…it’s easy to let it ride when you win. It’s hard when you lose.
How many of you out there feel like your product should have done way better but you couldn’t sell 30 copies?
You couldn’t get any support for it but this other guy over here put out trash and pushed 3,000 units? He’s been doing it half as long as you’ve been “trying.”
That’s the funny stuff you think about on day 2 of a failing launch. The kind of stuff that makes you want to pull the plug on the whole thing and give up.
The formula is simple. It should be easy.
Step 1 – Create
Step 2 – Package
Step 3 – Release.
Step 4 – If Low conversions, good traffic, then adjust sales page
Step 5 – If High conversions, low traffic, then double down on jv recruitment.
Simple formula. Easy to master. More difficult to execute…
…like life.
I want to give you some advice for this game.
I’m a guy who can push between 300 and 700 units fairly consistently. Not the best by any means but I have mastered a degree of consistency that I can teach you.
I’m not perfect.
Consistent 5 figure launches still elude me. I’ve done it a couple of times but not regularly.
Perpetual 1,000 unit launches still elude me. I’ve done it a couple of times but not every time.
If I can be consistent with 300 to 700 unit launches though…then I know that being consistent with 1,000 unit launches is also possible for me…
…strike that…for anyone.
Possible for anyone willing to put in the dedication required. Obsession required.
Possible for anyone willing to work hard and be clever enough.
Here are some simple truths for you heading into 2019.
Simple truth 1: What got me to a consistent 100 units pushed was not the same thing that got me to a consistent 300 to 700 units pushed. It required something different. A new way of looking at things.
Simple truth 2: What will get me to a consistent 1,000 units pushed will probably not be the same thing that got me to a consistent 300 to 700 units pushed. It will require something different. Something that I have not allowed myself to see, somehow.
Simple truth 3: When I am positive and try to learn from people doing better than me, instead of hating on people doing better than me, trying to find dumb reasons why they are doing better than me…then great things happen for me. An open mind and a humble attitude can really help you see the entire forest.
Simple truth 4: The launch game is full of peaks and valleys for everyone involved. Yes, you will be down, but if you stick around long enough and keep fighting, you will be up again.
Simple truth 5: There are no friends in affiliate marketing. So stop getting mad at people because they don’t promote for you. It doesn’t matter how much time you spent on relationship building. The affiliate marketer and product vendor relationship is based on leverage, no matter what people might say. That doesn’t mean that those affiliates aren’t your friend outside of your launch BUT it does mean that you cannot count on that friendship to equal affiliate support. If you want to get affiliate support, you need to make your product and your funnel a win for affiliates. An easy sell and a money train (good sales funnel). Affiliates have businesses to run.
Simple truth 6: Above all else the customers are the most important thing. If you launch a product and only 29 people buy it, you better damn sure take care of those 29 people because those are the ones who believed in you and your product when nobody else would. They truly are the light in the darkness. It’s amazing how easy it is to forget that. Ride or die.
And Simple truth 7: None of this will matter in 100 years. Have some fun and don’t take yourself too seriously. Nobody else is. 😉 I have found that when I just focus on moving forward and trying to get better every launch, I do far better. Also…laugh and keep some time for your family. Critical distance is a real thing.
That’s all I got! Hope it helps. Merry Christmas from the depths of Ohio! ANd I truly hope you have a Happy New Year!
Kam
This is the most popular phrase in Internet Marketing…
Here is the most popular phrase in the internet marketing space:
“I can not sell my product please any one help me!!!”
It’s like a bad romance that plagues not just the person asking it but also everyone forced to be around the person asking it. **grins**
Let’s answer this one in 2 parts…
Part 1: A Metaphysical Explanation
When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.
The truth is, the fact that you threw that broad statement out there says more about you than it does about your problem. It says that you do not yet have the insight to know what you are looking for or what you are looking at.
Instead of saying, “I can not sell my product please any one help me!!!” Try this instead…
Why can I not sell my product?
What am I doing wrong?
Where is my process breaking down?
Those 3 small questions will help you a lot more than the broad statement you are posing.
Never forget that when you point a finger (looking for blame or answers) there are 3 fingers pointing back at you.
It’s true. You are in a world full of people who became successful because they figured out a whole bunch of stuff on their own, took the answers that a few other people gave them, and ran with it…
…and then to the best of my recollection you are surrounded by a group of people, in entrepreneurs, who have overcome large amounts of adversity and made scathing sacrifices to get to where they are.
When you say, “I can not sell my product please any one help me!!!” You come across in one of two ways to them. A lazy fool or a potential client. Probably both, most definitely the latter.
So what should you do? Look within for the larger answer you seek. Ask more specific questions to others…
Why can I not sell my product? What am I doing wrong? Where is my process breaking down?
If you are going to seek help…ask specific questions about specific problems. You’ll be far happier with the answers you get.
Part 2: A Practical Explanation
What’s that phrase again?
“I can not sell my product please any one help me!!!”
If you want to sell your product take these steps:
Step 1: Don’t be a coward. Fortune truly favors the brave. Be brave my friend. To make it here you need courage, consistency, and cleverness. But above all courage.
Step 2: Understand the fundamental idea that the more people who care about what you have to say…the more you will sell.
Step 3: Build an audience in a place where people visit regularly and repeatedly (i.e. facebook, youtube, reddit, quora, pinterest, imgur, instagram, ect.). YOu can achieve this by publishing regularly on said platform. Be consistent and always stay focused on your niche.
Step 4: Push that audience onto an email list. This list will represent the core of your audience. 80% of your financial transactions will come from this list.
Step 5: Sell your audience things that will help them.
Step 6: Don’t get confused and misuse your influence. (guess this is more of a rule than a step isn’t it)
Step 7: When things break, ask questions. Don’t feel sorry for yourself. Don’t blame others. IN fact find a way to blame yourself so that you can control the situation.
Step 8: If you, at any point, find yourself lost or in doubt…see Step 1.
I don’t need to hope that answers your question, the truth is I know it does. When you are ready for the answer this will all make sense and you will win. Good luck out there.
-Kam
Lucky me…(or life in the online middle class)
You know, I’ve seen a lot of things in my day.
From ebay to amazon…
…from youtube to membership programs…
…from product launching to paid advertising…
…it’s safe to say I’ve been around the block.
Feels like long enough to go from the hero to the villain (blatant Dark Knight reference). Successes and failures litter my journey like notches on some old gunslinger’s belt.
“Oh great did this prick just relate himself to Batman? This should be a real humdinger…”
You’re Goddamn right I did.
Can you relate?
I admit, I don’t take back the things I say around here very often either…
…if I said it then I meant it. So I’ve burned a lot of bridges along the way.
People like to judge people. Everyone’s got an opinion. My opinion is fuck what you think, I’m too busy.
Sometimes it holds me back. Sometimes it fuels my success.
Can you relate?
Seems like I’ve been chasing that 7 figure dream online for years but I’ll probably never get it.
It appears I have found myself stuck in the “online middle class.” Just like my parents were stuck in the real life lower middle class, before me. Just like their parents were stuck in the lower class before them…
The socioeconomic road is a rocky scenic route with many detours it seems…
The “online middle class” is an okay place and far better than working for someone else, I’ll give you that…but it’s not the laptop lifestyle that sucked us all in.
I’m 42 years old and I’m still on my grind. Dream a little dream.
People say my content has gotten darker and more negative….
People say I should keep it upbeat and light. Be fun, positive and hopeful.
People are always saying something. The opinions collect like rotten leaves in my rain gutters…
…but keep it fun.
I look around and I see new dudes who aren’t new at all…
…but instead have been struggling to make money online for 1 year, 2 years, 3 years…they haven’t made a dime.
People who WISH they could get to the “online middle class.” Like I have anything to complain about. What a joke.
I don’t see anything upbeat about a dude with health issues who is spending every last fucking dime trying to make a few bucks online because he doesn’t think he’s going to be able to work at his normal job much longer…
…Nothing light or fun about that.
But I hear stories like that everyday from people. Their stories haunt me a little bit. I never know if they are telling me the truth or bullshitting me. I trust less people every year around here it seems. Feels like everyone has another angle sometimes.
You know why my content seems more dark and boring? Less pie in the sky?
I’ll tell you. Because I’m not about that bull shit.
I’m about the real shit.
When I win online it’s because I went hard as fuck in the paint (random basketball reference for you) and because I was really, really smart about it…not because I pushed some magic “easy” button.
When I make mistakes, when I get too careless, I fall short like everyone else…
…And I do. Happens all the time. I’m human.
I’m that bastard people come to on the way back down after they lost most their money to some 7 figure “guru” whispering sweet nothings of millions in their ear, cruising around in a Mclaren they bought on the hopes and dreams of every chump that came before the last sucker…
…and there’s one born everyday but…
…Now, the honeymoon is over.
When I get them, they are bitter, about to give up, and jaded as fuck. They are just trying to find SOMETHING that would prove they haven’t wasted the last 5 years of their life.
They always say the same thing about me when they come knocking too. “You just seem down to earth and honest man.”
That’s me.
Mr. Down to Earth and Honest. Mr. Non Flashy Boring Guy. Mr. Help them finally start earning a few bucks online and re-adjust expectations guy.
Not winning any ribbons for excitement that’s for sure.
It’s funny because most people have to go a long way around before they come back to a place where some disheveled dude with bad fashion sense…
…is teaching them how to start a business that will probably take about a year to really get going well.
That’s not sexy at all. Not one fucking bit.
Nobody wants to hear they are going to have to spend the next 12 months learning a bunch of shit they don’t want to learn, just to get a business going…
…spend the next 12 months building something that takes a commitment to consistency and adjustment. That’s not why they came here. Sounds too much like starting a real business. Too much effort.
…so it’s no surprise not many are interested in that. It takes heart to stomach the truth. It takes courage to embrace the work and not run from the work.
Key point in a long diatribe…Don’t run from the work, embrace the work.
Hell, I wouldn’t have been interested in that either when I first got started. I was on that easy shit back then. I wanted the push button dream.
Interesting thing about that dream…
…It’s easy to believe in because that’s the same dream that everybody tells you doesn’t exist…yet in the next sentence on their sales page, tries to sell you.
It’s that double speak you must be used to by now if you have spent at least 15 minutes of your life in the MMO space. That’s “make money online” for those not fully indoctrinated.
If you listen very closely you can hear them now, like hearing the ocean with a conch shell pressed against your ear…
“Push button doesn’t exist…want me to teach you how to make $320 in the next 20 minutes? YOu can scale it bruhhhhh!!!!”
No bruuhhh…I don’t want to scale it bruhhh…because you’re full of shit bruhhh. Your making your money off of me buying your bullshit bruhhhh…
Wake up.
And the game is rigged too. Just like that Browns v Raiders game yesterday. Fucking rigged. From the universe to the platforms…there is always something trying to keep you in your place. It’s going to take a special effort to break the loop. No doubt on that.
Doesn’t mean you can’t do it. That’s why underdogs are special. That’s why we love a good rags to riches story. Because it’s rare. You were never meant to do it. It’s going to take a special effort.
Around here you are going to get a lot of people putting a positive spin on things. Not telling you the whole story. The whole story comes with failure. I’ll tell you the whole story…
…the guy who risks it all, learns fast, and goes hard in the paint all the time probably wins. I say probably because this is life…we don’t always get what we deserve.
Does a guy win if he gets to 25k a month but loses his wife in the process, because she’s sick of being ignored? You tell me, I don’t know anymore. Sounds subjective.
We don’t always get what we deserve.
Actually scratch that…we don’t deserve anything. We get exactly what our actions dictate. And if we are good at analyzing what happened we get better and better at it.
Yeah that’s it man. What we deserve in life is in direct response to the action we take and how we adjust to our mistakes. ANd I feel like that’s important. I feel like this post is important.
But at the end of the day…what am I trying to say?
